[Isalynne]

Joseph shouldn't have paid any attention to that damn flier.

He'd known no good could come of it the second he'd seen it. Some cryptic shit about treasure hunters - it sounded like a death trap, or a murderer's call for victims, but he'd mentioned it in passing to Hermey anyway and gotten the response he should have anticipated. Let's go, Joseph! It sounds fun! It's the holidays! Wowza, imagine if we won..

Why couldn't he damn well say no to that vexing ray of blond sunshine? His boyfriend was a glowing turd and he was going to make sure he knew it, when he got there.

Where was he, anyway? Standing alone at the gate to a clearly abandoned old farm was doing nothing to calm his irritation. It had to be something straight out of a horror novel. Plus, if they did get chased by a serial killer, he'd have to sacrifice himself for Hermey, which was plain inconvenient. What if he wanted to live? Didn't matter, Hermey was instantly more important to him. How revoltingly sentimental.

"He's got five minutes.."

Plumes of white ghosted from his lips as he murmured to himself. Cold as balls, too. What a day.

[Section 1 - 1 (202 words)]

[zapdragon555]

Work really did get in the way of fun things like arriving at cool places together, at the same time. As it was, Hermey was running a little bit late--and boy, was he running! For some reason the taxi he'd flagged down wouldn't go much further than where the city ended, and Hermey was sure it didn't have anything to do with the fact that he'd been blabbering about his destination to the cab driver on the way. The wary look in the driver's eyes was probably from a hard day of taxi-ing people around the city. Yep.

The cold stung his lungs a bit as he slowed to a trot, spying something strange in the distance. It looked well enough like a farm, though there was no sign of a working tractor or bushhogger running about. No animals, either, from the looks of things, though from where he was standing, most animals would like like tiny black dots on the snow.

...snow? Hermey blinked, and looked around. All around was dead grass and grey skies, yes, but no snow to be seen. Even so, the distant farm looked like it was blanketed in white. Some really dedicated Christmas decorating? Hermey couldn't be sure. All he knew was that he'd forgotten his gloves in his locker at work, and he tucked them beneath his armpits as he trounced down the grassy hill, arms akimbo and puffing little clouds of steam into the air.

"Joseph!" he called over his gulps for air, as he neared the front gate. "Hey! I--guh," he swallowed around his chilly throat, then stopped in front of the other man with a sunny, dazed smile, his lips chapped from cold. "I found it! Sorry, have you been waiting here awhile? My taxi kinda... well, anyway, anyway," he asked, looking Joseph over. At least he looked equipped enough for the cold, moreso than Hermey was. He glanced up at the farm, his brows raising at the huge gate. "Whaddya suppose this is...?"

[Section 1 - 1 (334 words)]

[Isalynne]

Joseph was not surprised that Hermey didn't look prepared for the cold weather. With a tut, he shoved his gloved hand into his pocket, and tugged out a pair of mittens - they were tossed in his boyfriend's direction.

"Lucky I had an extra pair," He murmured. Hermey didn't need to know that he'd started carrying around doubles of everything just in case. "Put them on, you'll freeze."

What was it? Nothing had become clearer to him in the time he'd been waiting. It looked out of place; an old movie set? The real deal, an actual farm long since abandoned? Whatever it was, it didn't make a whole lot of sense. The blanket of snow was the most baffling, simply because it didn't look false. Stretches of untouched, sparkling white were difficult to imitate with accuracy.

"Haven't been here long. I can't work it out.. better not be some murderer, Hermey, or I'll fuckin' kill you."

If he didn't say that so often, it would have sounded like a genuine threat. As it was, it was empty and soft around the edges.

"Should we, uh.. try going in?"

[Section 1 - 2 (189 words)]

[zapdragon555]

Hermey caught the tossed gloves with a small noise of surprise, juggling them a little in shivery hands before taking proper hold of them and thumbing over the soft fabric. He grinned and tugged them on, his eyes shining softly with a kind of gentle love in them. As Joseph spoke, though, he blinked back to attention, looking up at the farm gate with a furrowed brow. "It's a little odd, ain't it?" he mused aloud, huffing hot air at his now-gloved hands in attempts to warm the numb out of them. The gloves themselves were warm from Joseph's jacket pockets. He had to smile at that. He blinked at Joseph's threat and let out a small laugh, reaching over to wrap an arm around Joseph's shoulders, friendly and reassuring. "I bet we could take 'em. I've been working on a mean right hook, at the gym. That sandbag won't stand a chance, give it a couple years!"

It was true, though, that this could turn out dangerous. Hermey was hard-pressed to look on the pessimistic side of things, but he acknowledged the oddity of the whole situation. Abandoned farm, mysterious letter, middle of nowhere... the taxi driver's apprehension dawned on him, and he dug his teeth at his lip in thought. "Well, like I said. We can take 'em. And we could just run, if anything fishy happens. Here, one second, there's an app on my phone that can make a map out of your movements so we don't get lost!"

Hermey took out a phone and pulled off one of his gloves with his teeth, holding it there as he typed pink-tipped fingers on the screen. His toothy grin fell, speaking around the glove. "No thignal," he mumbled, then replaced the glove on his hand with a renewed smile. "Well, that's no biggie. We'll just follow our footprints back if we have to. Whaddya say?"

As he spoke, he took Joseph's hand and gently started to tug him in the direction of the gate. It was an adventure! How bad could it be?

[Section 1 - 2 (345 words)]

[Isalynne]

Joseph was glad that Hermey believed that they could hold their own against villains, because he definitely didn't. Hermey was too sweet to hurt a fly, and would blow away in a strong breeze, to boot. Add that to a rage-riddled shortass, and it equalled nothing promising. The arm flung around him made him grunt, but he leaned into his boyfriend's touch, as nonplussed as his expression was.

No GPS signal wasn't encouraging either. It really was starting to sound like a straight-to-DVD sequel of an already horrendous thriller.

"Yeah, fine," Joseph waved his free hand in a gesture of flippancy. "Sure. If we die, though, it's your fault. I'll find you in the afterlife and beat your ass. Even if there is no afterlife."

The gates were stiff and foreboding before them. He didn't waste any time - he kicked out and slammed the sole of his boot into the iron. With a horrendous crack, then a squeal, they opened, enough for them to squeeze through one at a time.

"Sick."

[Section 1 - 3 (172 words)]

[zapdragon555]

Hermey giggled an elongated 'hee!' noise at Joseph's threat, wiggling his fingers playfully against Joseph's gloved palm where their hands locked. "There's always the void. A voidy ass-kicking," he mused aloud, chipper, trotting alongside Joseph as they reached the gate. He jolted slightly at the metal clang of the gate, when whistled appreciatively. "See, if you aim that kick at the serial killer's head, we'll be a hundred percent safe!"

As they squeezed through the gate, Hermey was surprised by the thick, green trees that engulfed them on their way, sniffling and sneezing at them. No wonder he was used to fake trees more than real ones--the real ones activated his allergies something fierce. "Hmm. Seems peaceful enough," he mused, his voice a little muted by the wrist he used to rub at his nose. He sniffed hard and squinted ahead. Strangely enough, he could see colors--different ones than the greens and whites of the place. "Hey--looks like something neat's up ahead," he murmured, gripping Joseph's hand a little tighter and upping his pace to a trot, sniffly nose be damned.

As they'd near, it would be apparent that the colorful things were frozen flowers--still vibrant, almost alive, if not for the coating of ice that held them in place. His brows raised as he approached one, letting go of Joseph's hand for just a moment to cup his hands gently around a frozen dahlia. "Oh, poor thing," he mumbled, brows knitting together. "That's odd... that's odd, isn't it Joseph?" he looked back over at the boy, looking troubled. "Snatched by winter before they had a chance to go peacefully. Tsk..."

[Section 2 - 1 (271 words)]

[Isalynne]

That was a fair point. Joseph's temper would be enough to fuel a decent attack, should the need arise. Taking it out on a poor, unsuspecting gate wasn't his smartest idea - the hideous noise of it opening would alert anyone lurking that at least one idiot had fallen for their scam. No time to take it back, though. They were through and in the midst of whatever was going on.

Hermey's sniffling brought an amused smirk to his face. Well, at least they knew they were real trees. He'd told his boyfriend more than once that it must've been his fate to work around fake seasonal nonsense, if his body was offended by the real stuff.

"Don't think your body agrees with-- agh!" Joseph stumbled over his own feet with the abrupt change of pace, huffing out a breath through his nose when he managed to correct himself and match Hermey's strides. "Fuck, can you warn me, you know I can't keep up with you--"

The flowers. How strange; they looked beautiful, but trapped, taken by surprise in the height of their bloom. It was a shame to see, even to him.

"Oh, man... how does this shit happen?"

[Section 2 - 1 (200)]

[zapdragon555]

Hermey cradled the flower close, his brows knitted as he studied it, then made a small yelp as it broke off in his hands. He stared at it, then stared at Joseph, and hurriedly attempted to reattach it. No dice. "Ahh, geez," he mumbled, laying it gently on a puff of snow on the ground and backing up. "Clumsy. Maybe we shouldn't touch anyth-- a-anythhhh-- bwACHOO!!" Hermey exploded into a sneeze, causing a few more delicate frosted flowers to go flying when his hands knocked into them. He backed up hurriedly, rubbing his nose and sniffling as he hid behind Joseph, looking pained. "I'm a monster," he mumbled sorrowfully, but there was a growing laugh in his voice that showed he was joking.

"As for that... I don't know," he mumbled, looking around with a more sober look, at all of the frozen vegetation. "It's like... it's almost like a museum, you know? How things are all frozen and behind glass. Only now it's ice, and the containers aren't square, they're flower shaped. And mighty claustrophobic, I'd bet. No room for little flower noses to breathe." He rubbed his nose more furiously, feeling a sneeze coming on. He was able to quell it well enough. He looked back at Joseph, and offered his hand (blessedly, the one he hadn't used to wipe his nose), a kinder smile on his face. "Let's see what's up ahead. Might have some answers, yeah? I promise I won't run without warning you again, hah." He flexed his fingers, clearly just wanting to hold hands. He knew well enough they could just walk side by side without any sort of tether between them, but there was something very good about the idea of adventuring while holding hands with someone you love.

Hermey grinned at the mere thought of it. "Besides, what kind of serial killer likes pretty flowers? Probably one I'd wanna meet and say hi to," he chuckled, joking around.

[Section 2 - 2 (326 words)]