all year round, the ancient giving tree stands bare in the south, a tall and foreboding sight, branches bereft of the evergreen needles the rest of its kind boasts. but on the coldest day of winter, 25 DECEMBER, the giving tree unfurls its leaves and blooms for this single day, blessing faes all across the barrier with a gift from mother magic. unlike the large red ribbons that typically adorn one’s presents, the giving tree’s gift is held within a tiny sprout, blooming in the path of all faes it chooses to bless on this day. faes have learnt to keep a keen eye out on this sacred day, for the sprout is easy to miss due to its small stature. in honour of the giving tree, it’s become tradition to give to your loved ones in the hopes that the ancient giving tree will give to you, too. so come one, come all, on this GIVING DAY, to celebrate the season of giving! and remember, should you find the sprout that is meant for you, care for it so that it may bloom and unveil your wondrous gift.
OUT OF CHARACTER DETAILS happy holidays, everyone! to celebrate, the admod team has put together a little optional gift-giving season for everyone! below is a list of locations where a sprout can be found as well as some clues as to what the gift may be! to participate in this task, please REPLY to this post and specify which sprout you wish to appear in your muse’s path. once it’s been indicated that your sprout has been reserved, you will need to write a solo regarding how your muse found the sprout and what they’ve done to help it bloom. a hint to help the sprout bloom: the giving tree rewards compassion and kindness! once you’ve written the solo, we’ll unveil your present in your SUBMIT box, so make sure it’s open ♡
in addition to this task, please feel free to send other muses little presents through the ASK box! have a lovely holiday season, everyone!
hiding between the shelves in the CENTRAL DOME’S LIBRARY, an unremarkable pale white bud seems to, almost eerily, flicker in and out of existence. / @wxkahi
along the SHORELINE OF THE YELLOW SEA, a cerulean blue bud peeks, dotted with white that’s reminiscent of frothy waves glinting along the sea.
twined around the gates of the PARLIAMENT HOUSE, a cardinal vermillion bud lets off steam in the cold winter air, petals streaked with a sunshine hue. / @wxkinam
two vibrant yellow buds appear on either side of FOREST OF FLOWERS’ entrance. it appears to be the perfect mirror to each other, its budding leaves swaying identically to the left or right as the wind blows. / @wxseulki
an evergreen bud pokes its head out at the base of MARUHAN’S STATUE in the south, pleased to rest at the foot of the great fairy. / @wxyiseul
growing vertically through the hairline crack in SEOHAE MALL’s concrete floor is a ruby bud fading into the orange of a lion’s mane.
along the path to MARUHAN’S SHRINE, an unremarkable sprout with fluffy white fractals stands firm against the wind. oddly, its budding leaves sway the opposite direction to which the wind blows. / @haksuwx
an electric yellow bud rapidly grows into a sleek ellipse, scattered along the pavement to the BUSINESS DISTRICT.
a large indigo bud surrounded by freckles of seeds soon to sprout. the bud peeks through the windowsill of one of the academy’s CLASSROOMS on a co-ed floor. / @wxjunho
a deep navy bud with petals dotted a glimmering yellow, blossoming at the heart of the academy’s NORTHWEST COURTYARD. / @wxjihyun
high up on the roof of a house in the EAST RESIDENTIAL AREA, a powder blue bud sways on the top corner. as you approach, the bud disappears in a blink of an eye, then appears to your right. / @wxbeomseok
an emerald green bud with a comforting, yellow glow surrounding its leaves. its long stem coils protectively around a withered fern in the academy’s GREENHOUSE. / @wxnabi
right below the signboard of LOVE&PET lies a cheery peach bud, spotted with calico colours. one of the pets give an approving squeak to the bud, pleased to see the sprout.
on MARIPOSA BOUTIQUE’s cashier counter, a singular sprout with extensive branches of multi-coloured buds, ranging from the palest pinks to the richest indigos. / @wxbitna
a soft cream bud that sways even in the absence of wind, tucked in the corner of the CUPCAKE CAFE’s window. as you approach the bud, you hear an inviting whisper greeting you. / @wxhaeun
a miniature bud grows in the top corner of the MUSEUM OF MAGIC’s fashion exhibit. it has three blooming petals, each with a different pattern. the first is of tiger stripes, the second akin to a red fabric with white spots, and the third is a sparkling aquamarine. / @yeongsukwx
a brilliant crimson bud curls its elongated stem around DALKOMMCHA’s bubble tea display. upon closer inspection, the petals seem to have the appearance of scales. / @sooyunwx
a miniature technicolour bud grows around the handrail of the ACADEMY’S STAIRCASE, its roots completely exposed. the edges of the bud is lined with black, as though sketched. / @wxjeongmin
on the edge of the WEST’S BOUNDARIES, a bud perseveres against the cracked soil. its large petals alternate in colour, with midnight blue and firetruck red overlapping throughout the bud.
a plain white bud greets passersby at the entrance of a NORTH RESIDENTIAL APARTMENT BUILDING, tinged a sunny yellow as someone whistles cheerily past it, and fades to blue when another hangs their head down as they leave.
ADDITIONAL INFO please note that this task, in character, occurs five days before the ongoing event. the sprout will unveil your gift rapidly and within seconds once your muses have helped the sprout bloom!
TAGS please remember to tag the task thread related to this event with wx:givingtree!
DURATION IC WISE, your fairy will receive the sprout on 25 DECEMBER. OOC WISE, this task will run from 24 DECEMBER to 14 JANUARY, 10PM KST. you are free to write the solo any time during this period to obtain the gift! regardless, you may incorporate the gift into your threads at any time you wish, even after this task is over.
POINTS if you’d like to participate in this task, please go ahead and claim an additional +4 PTS with your self para! do remember to note this in your points log! you may find more information on how our points system works here.
seona— it’d been mama, then— wraps jihyun up in a scarf she plucks from her own neck, and jiyeon, only 5 and a mere 2 years older than jihyun, demands to know if she’s cold, trying to take her own coat off for her younger sister. winters find them all huddled around seona, because seohae winters are vicious, and there’s no need for a big, bulky heater that might set the house on fire when dependable mama is around.
they come to the giving tree every year, and buy a sprout from one of the vendors situated around the base of the tree. that year, the ribbon tied around the pot is a bright red, which jihyun wears around her head the entirety of the drive back. they keep the ribbons every year, and tie them around the little plant that never quite seems to grow quite right.
that year, she wishes, hands clasped together, for everyone to be happy like today.
the last time she comes to the tree is when jiho’s 3, and she’s 16. old enough to not be a complete asshole and ruin the magic for jiho, but still enough of a pissy teenager it dampens the mood. an awful extended family dinner, plus her suspension doesn’t help much, either, and there’s a frosty silence between her and her mother that even an alight science lab can’t thaw.
it’s a year of change— her siblings have moved out, both having gotten into university, and she’s stressed and sensitive studying for entrance exams.
still, they buy the sprout like they do every year. jiho pulls the ribbon off before jihyun’s even done making the bow, and she gets so annoyed she leaves first and walks until she can get a cab home. she’s not proud of it now, but anything goes when you’re 16 and feel like the entire world’s against you.
she returns the next day, after she unwraps the 5 presents under the tree with her name on it, and wishes they’ll all be together.
(maybe it’s because she makes the wish after giving day, but it doesn’t come true.)
the first giving day without her siblings, she visits the giving tree. in the morning, so she doesn’t run into her family.
as always, it stands tall and proud, and jihyun really wants to take an axe to its trunk and hack to her heart’s content, because what amount of wishes will bring her siblings back? how many mythical sprouts will she have to cultivate to have them all be together again?
she doesn’t, because 1) she doesn’t want to go to jail, and 2) she’s sure the giving tree’s magic is stronger than hers.
(maybe when she’s an enchantix….)
she buys a sprout for her own room; maybe this time, with the help of some of her handy nature fairy friends, it won’t wilt within a month!
it proves to be an awful decision, because jihyun forgets her bag is full of gifts she’s yet to hand out, so she’s lumped with a pot spilling soil, all the way from beomseok’s dorm room, where she leaves a pair of gloves, to the other end of the campus. there’s a little jihyun trail, and she wonders if there’ll be enough soil for the plant by the time she’s finished flitting around the entirety of sma. no matter if not— just a small matter of soil theft, to help plantie thrive!
she doesn’t so much as find the sprout as much as kicks it over. after jihyun’s finished a string of curses that’d make maruhan herself roll over in her grave, she moves plantie to find… plantie #2.
a friend!
a friend she cannot carry, because she’s already struggling enough with plantie #1.
the mythical sprout’s the furthest thing from her mind— excuse her for being occupied! — but she does feel bad a plant’s just out in the cold like that, and resolves to come back for it if no one’s grabbed it before then. she gets 3 meters, before she’s doubling back and hefting it on her other hip.
after the trials and tribulations of hefting 2 plants and an oversized bag full of presents she’s yet to hand out to the girls’ dorm back to her place, jihyun sets them down on the coffee table.
hopefully bitna won’t throw a fit over these…
it’s a rather handsome sprout— a deep navy bud with petals dotted a glimmering yellow, blossoming at the heart of the academy’s NORTHWEST COURTYARD, and plantie #1 pales in comparison to it, even if it’d been the cutest sprout available. jihyun resolves to give #1 more fertiliser, but she’ll have to make a trip to central for that. now, though, she can definitely do this for #2.
with a little wave of her hand (and a sigh of relief nothing else got set on fire), she heats some water up and pours it into the soil, humming an old song about the giving tree.
oh, shit.
the giving tree! was this her sprout?
oh, shit.
was she fucking cooking her giving tree sprout?
“SORRY, MARUHAN.” jihyun wails, covering the soil in ice.
HAPPY GIVING DAY, JUNHO! the giving tree acknowledges the kindness you’ve shown and coaxes its little sprout to blossom into a magical flower! if you look it up during your potionology class, you’ll find that it’s actually a flower of ELEMENTAL SUMMONING. consuming it will grant you the ability to summon ten miniature entities of your maternal element to do your bidding for 2 hours. it can only be consumed once. isn’t that something special for winter! or, you could display it in your dorm room until you need it—a gift from the giving tree won’t wilt, of course. have a lovely giving day with your new plant, JUNHO!
OUT OF CHARACTER DETAILS please feel free to use your new gift in any way you’d like, whether it be a plot point for threads, a solo for character development, or anything you’d like! whether your muse chooses to use it or not, please post this on the dash so others can see what gift you got!
HAPPY GIVING DAY, BEOMSEOK! the giving tree acknowledges the kindness you’ve shown and coaxes its little sprout to blossom into a magical flower! if you look it up during your potionology class, you’ll find that it’s actually a flower of TELEPORTATION. consuming it will grant you the ability to teleport to any location within the barrier for six instances. it can only be consumed once. isn’t that something special for winter! or, you could display it in your dorm room until you need it—a gift from the giving tree won’t wilt, of course. have a lovely giving day with your new plant, BEOMSEOK!
OUT OF CHARACTER DETAILS please feel free to use your new gift in any way you’d like, whether it be a plot point for threads, a solo for character development, or anything you’d like! whether your muse chooses to use it or not, please post this on the dash so others can see what gift you got!
HAPPY GIVING DAY, BITNA! the giving tree acknowledges the kindness you’ve shown and coaxes its little sprout to blossom into a magical flower! if you look it up during your potionology class, you’ll find that it’s actually a flower of FAIRY MORPHING. consuming it will grant you the ability to morph into three other fairies for a maximum of 1 hour each. it can only be consumed once. isn’t that something special for winter! or, you could display it in your dorm room until you need it—a gift from the giving tree won’t wilt, of course. have a lovely giving day with your new plant, BITNA!
OUT OF CHARACTER DETAILS please feel free to use your new gift in any way you’d like, whether it be a plot point for threads, a solo for character development, or anything you’d like! whether your muse chooses to use it or not, please post this on the dash so others can see what gift you got!
prompt: on MARIPOSA BOUTIQUE’s cashier counter, a singular sprout with extensive branches of multi-coloured buds, ranging from the palest pinks to the richest indigos
🦢 w. @winxrp
she learns, at a young age, to give up on the dying thing. it mattered not how gently she cupped the plant, unearthed it from the parching ground to rest in the warmth of her hands, for perhaps it is written in the central vein of its largest leaf that the bud was fated to die, anyway. and it mattered not how delicately she approached the bumblebee with the broken off wing, for it simply twirled along the life line of her palm, twice over, before it succumbed to its demise, anyway. this is to say, it mattered not what she did, for there was nothing song bitna could offer as salvation, no green thumb or healing touch sparking from her digits, no matter how supple and attractive they may appear.
but there is something about this plant. she is hardly a botanist, far too bewitched by blinding jewels and exuberant outfits—manufactured things, of course—to care about that which is natural, that which is in nature. and perhaps it is precisely for this reason that she is drawn to it, its pretty pastel gradient of pink to indigo colouring its velvet petals. and it must be dying, because its roots are hardly buried in soil, instead gripping desperately atop the edge of the cashier, yet it turns its head and smiles at her. indeed, bitna learns to give up on dying things, but there is strength yet in the bud’s peering stem, and she so loves pretty things.
“are you for me?” the whisper falls like a drop of spring water, and she swears she catches the bud perking up. the cashier hands bitna her newly purchased dresses packed neatly in a bag, and perhaps it is a testament to her fleeting attention span, that she pays it little mind when she had, only moments before, been unable to take her eyes off of them. instead, her gaze is now fixed on her new bud, wrapped cozily around her finger as she leaves the boutique. the bag with her new dresses, she lets dangle haphazardly along the hook of her forearm.
it’s giving day!
pity park beomseok doesn’t have a lot to give.
…nope. he’s most definitely a taker, yet people still mistake the way his palms curl into fists as petty violence. tsk. violence, with this pretty face? they’ll certainly have to try better that that.
but it’s giving day, and though beomseok most definitely takes, he’s all for playing along with the spirit of festivities, and he boasts an act like no other. so ho ho ho, giftbag in tow, he sleds his way up the driveway of his residence in the east.
“come one, come all!” the merry call booms, threatens to set off a mini avalanche from the snow caught in the rain gutter of his roof. his prance is a hop, skip, and a jump, and suppose it’s this posture he adopts that gets him looking naturally up, because he swears he catches a smear of blue in the left corner of his very obviously white rooftop, courtesy of the snow. beomseok slows in his prance, angles his head further to the left for a better view, but it’s gone. huh. perhaps it’s all those unchecked concussions he’s received from his training in the academy.
“hyung!” the greeting pulls him from his daze, sets ease to the furrow in his brow, and he grins. spreads his arms as he awaits the brotherly embrace. “thanks for keeping my driveway clean, you dog,” the sarcastic comment falls like a whisper in kitae’s ear, and there’s a certain redness powdering his cheeks, but for the sake of kitae’s dignity, he’ll pretend it’s from the cold. as he pulls away from the hug, he catches it again, that smear of blue this time on the right corner of his rooftop, and it coaxes the chuckle to fall like a sigh. looks like everyone’s lining up to give to the great park kitae, aren’t they?
( beomseok, of course, comes first. see, it’s fairer this way, giving tree, for nothing your hunk of wood can provide is going to be greater than anything beomseok’s given to kitae. no, giving tree, you wait. )
“your gift, from me,” and this gift comes wrapped with a pretty red bow. never mind that it’s stolen—for what it’s worth, beomseok wasn’t even sure it was on sale. a piece of ice dragon horn he’s plucked off some shelf at the academy, perfect for kitae’s beastly collection and his—frankly—obsession of the beasts in the wild. what do you think was the other reason that got him so heartbroken about failing to pass the pre-enrolment assessment? yes, this gift will do nicely.
“and…” beomseok wraps his palms around kitae’s shoulders and pivots him, points a finger towards the blue bud swaying in the wind, “…from the giving tree.” kitae turns to look at his brother, eyes widened with excitement, and beomseok grins back in content.
“hyung, that’s yours!”—wait, what?—“that’s your gift!”
kitae scuttles through the main door, takes only a second then reappears, an item in each hand. on the left, a ladder balanced between torso and arm, and on the right, a little plant, bright red and already bloomed.
( fuck. always need to win, don’t you, giving tree? )
kitae’s too quick, or maybe beomseok’s just a little slow. either way, he somehow ends up here, dumbfounded with a since-bloomed red flower balanced carefully in both palms while kitae’s setting the ladder up so close to the blue bud, it’s foolproof. “come on, hyung! you’re gonna miss your flower again, then try to steal mine?”
what was it? beomseok boasts an act like no other? he grunts. “fine.” and he plods towards the ladder.
haksu brushes grass from his knees. the surrounding wildflowers have closed their petals to slumber underneath the moon, and he yawns into his scarf, finding himself a bit too close to doing the same. giving day is approaching its end, and he’s all full on home cooking and buttery pastries from his surprise trip back home, and very warm inside bundles of fleece.
here, at maruhan’s shrine, he closes out his final stop for the day.
ginkgo blinks an amber eye in his direction as he rises, stretching out a cracking back; she doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to follow suit. so haksu takes his time laying out a parting offering of colorful jay feathers next to the still-smoking incense, weighed down with a nice stone picked up on the walk over. he rubs over it to make it a little more shiny, before settling back, satisfied.
“time t’go,” he says. ginkgo gives a little snuffle before she picks herself up, following him down the mossy steps. it’s her who finds the gift first, about five minutes into their walk, and she pauses in the middle of the path to sniff at the ground.
catching freshly-fallen snow into its soft fractals, the sprout from the giving tree is a patch of white against white. but ginkgo’s nose cleans off a good bit of the snowflakes before he crouches down to give it a closer glance. it sways gently, and looks ordinary, not much different from the wildflowers at the temple, but haksu likes it a lot, and with a burst of giddiness he gives ginkgo a few fierce head rubs.
“hello,” he greets it. fondness rounds the edges of his voice as he nudges a finger against its leaf, brushing off a clinging flurry. if he breathes slow, and listens close, he can almost hear the soft tingling of magical bells. are you mine? he wonders to himself, watching the way it seeks out the wind, leaning into it like an embrace.
ginkgo sits and waits patiently, her big tail swishing back and forth, as he digs his gloved fingers carefully underneath the sprout and lifts it out of the earth. it fits snug in his palms, and he holds it up to the moonlight to get a clearer look.
there aren’t many hours left in the day to help it bloom, but haksu isn’t in a hurry. there has been plenty of running and rushing in this year already. so he cups the plant near his chest and continues on his walk, scrunching up his shoulders to shake off the snow.
