[Freezair]

As much as Rosie loved Christmas, she couldn't deny it was a tiring time of year. In addition to the presents, decorations, and trees, Christmas meant candy, and when you worked in a candy shop, it also meant big money. So Daddy's candy shop was open much later than usual and was busy all day through. Although nominally she was a repairwoman, Rosie was often roped into working up front and helping customers this time of year.

When the shop finally closed at its much later hour of eight o'clock, most of her family were going upstairs to their apartment to rest. Not Rosie. She took the opportunity to switch into her Lucain form and take some of the pressure off her aching feet. No, she planned to grab a tram and take a Christmas light tour around the town. She wished her family goodbye, taking special care to tickle her baby brother and sister before she left, and stepped outside, exhaling in the moderately cool air. At least Nabias's winters were usually fairly mild!

[Silver]

Christmas lights! Mimsy was not walking but bounding along, humming the only seasonal song she knew. Her eyes were fixated on all of the cheerful decorations. They were all so colorful and pretty. Occasionally she would stop and stare wide eyed at a particularly beautiful display. This place was great! The decorations sure weren't this nice back at school. She would have to see to that personally when she returned. If she didn't forget by the time she got back, that is.

Very little of Mimsy's attention was on what was actually in front of her. There was too much going on all around her to pay attention to silly things like where she was going. As she approached a corner in her path, her ears perked up. Something felt weird. She stopped humming to look around and see what was going on. Her head tilted one way, then the other as she tried to assess what she was seeing around the corner. Was that a ghost? No, it seemed real. She seemed real.

"Excuse me," she said loudly, bouncing toward the other girl. "Did you know that you look just like me?"

"Or do I look just like you?"

[Freezair]

For a moment, Rosie stopped outside of a hot chocolate stand. She briefly considered turning back to her human form--yes, in the crowded street--just to have the hands to drink a cup of cocoa with. (And darn lucky her whole family was that Lucain could eat chocolate, even though other canines couldn't.) But no, she was too tired. And the trolley for the tours would almost be here...

However, she heard someone talking.

"Huh? What in tarnation--"

Then she stopped.

Was she looking into a mirror? Were her eyes deceiving her?  

"Sweet fancy Moses! Ah'll be plumbed! Aren't ya the spittin' image of... me! Or am Ah the spittin' image o' you...?"

[Silver]

"I like the way you talk!" Mimsy giggled. As they were talking, she bounced all the way around this new girl to get a better look at her. Then she stopped in place, and turned in tight circles trying to look at her own butt. Upon closer inspection, they definitely had their differences, but they were hardly noticeable in the dark. This was too exciting! Eventually she stopped and shook the dizziness out of her head, only to return to staring doe eyed at Rosie.

"I've never met someone who looked so much like me before!" she said, placing her right paw gently on top of Rosie's left one to compare them. It seemed like she had little regard for all of that personal space stuff.

"Have you? Are there more of us out there?" She quickly looked all around them, as if she was going to find a whole pack of others that looked just like them somewhere.

[Freezair]

Rosie grew up in a family of tightly-knit huggers. Having someone she'd never met before paw all over her? She didn't mind at all. In fact, she put up her own paw for comparison. She giggled as Mimsy bounced around her.

"Well ain't you as bouncy as a Cuniflare in March!" Rosie laughed. "Ya even act kinda like me! Why, when Ah was a youngin', Daddy always said he should put padded walls up in the house to keep me from smackin' in ta everything!" She waved her tails at the stranger with a smile.

"Name's Rosie, gal who looks an awful lot like me! Boy, if yer name also has somethin' to do with flowers, then Ah'll know there's some kinda weird Christmas juju goin' on!"

[Silver]

For once in her life, Mimsy found someone who didn't immediately think she was annoying. It truly was magic! This girl was already awesome in her book. Not just because they were such an attractive pair, either. The way she spoke was so cheerful and interesting. Mimsy found it fascinating, but she wasn't quite so rude as to keep bringing it up.

"Hi Rosie!," she said, freezing in place to think about their names. "My name isn't a flower," she frowned, "but it is an 'ee' name!" The cheer returned to her face. "It's from a poem! There's lots of poems about flowers, too!"

"Rosies are green. Mimsies are blue." She pointed at Rosie, then herself as she said the lines. "I'm bad at poetry. What about you?"

Mimsy could not resist laughing at herself. What a terrible poem. Though she had come up with it on the spot. That had to earn her some points, right?

[Freezair]

Rosie laughed a wild, hollering laugh. "That's pretty good! Lemmie try. There's this poem that Ah memorized once that seems pretty fittin'... lessie..."

She cleared her throat.

"Ah'm Rosie-body! Who are you?
Are you a Rosie-body too?
Then there's a pair of us? Don't tell!
They'd advertise, ya know!"

Rosie laughed again. "It's a right pleasure, Mimsy, an' Ah hope the spirit o' poor ol' Emily Dickinson fergives me for what Ah went and did to her poem! Ah ain't much of an artistic type. Never was good at the writin', an' while Ah ain't terrible at drawin', Ah never had ideas fer anythin' other than copyin' what Ah saw. Naaaw, Ah'm whatcha call 'mechanically inclined!' So Ah wouldn't know a good poem from a bad one if it up an' bit me in the patoot!"

[Silver]

Mimsy could not stop giggling. This whole situation was just delightful, if a little absurd. It was obvious that this was going to be weird as soon as they saw each other, but who could have predicted an impromptu poetry share? This was already turning into a story worth sharing. Though she doubted anyone would ever believe her.

"I like yours better!" Mimsy chirped, bouncing up and down in place. It was way less cliche than her own attempt, even if it didn't really rhyme. She was sure that she recognized the meter of the poem, but she couldn't remember where from. Studying wasn't her strong suit.

"Oh, I love art," she explained. While she had stopped bouncing around, her tails were still swishing rhythmically behind her. "I really love making and decorating things. I was looking at all the lights, and I just feel so inspired! You know?"

"I start stuff just fine, but then I think of more stuff I want to start, and the next thing I know, I can't even walk through my dorm because it's full of half finished projects."

"Oh! I almost forgot. It's nice to meet you," Mimsy finished with a bow. It had long since been drilled into her as the polite thing to do, but she often forgot, especially when she was excited.

[Freezair]

Rosie had to agree, this was turning into an interesting night. She knew Daddy's sister, Noel, had a fondness for doing geneology and whatnot. Maybe there was a chance that Mimsy was a distant relative? Of course, she didn't think Feyline was a Peppermint family mark, but maybe there was some connection on her mother's side of things.

"Sounds like my room 'n' spare parts!" Rosie laughed. "Yeah... Ah guess you could call fixin' and buildin' machines a  kind of art! Daddy says that there's somethin' in the way that Ah cain somehow take some duck tape an' scrap metal and turn in a workin' fix for the air conditionin'! Hmm... but Ah never had too many ideas fer inventions o' my own. Ah'm great at solvin' problems with what Ah got to work with, but comin' up with somethin' totally new? Naww, that ain't me."

She gazed around at the pretty streets. Already they were beginning to see beautiful lights along the storefronts. "Ah like to think Ah cain tell good art when Ah sees it! Like these lights, fr'instance!" With a laugh, she noticed Mimsy bow. "Me, my Daddy always taught me to shake! Which is right silly, because my hands're always covered in some kinda oily goop. Bowin' makes a lot more sense for someone with grunge-paws like me!" And she copied Mimsy's bow.

[Silver]

Shake? That was actually not a phrase she had heard before. Bowing was all she had been taught, since it was relevant to her culture. The idea of a 'shake' was foreign to her. Did they shake their butts around or something? That sounded hilarious! Wait, where did the hands come into it? A ton of wild ideas were going through her head, all built upon just the name of the act.

"You know what we should do?" Mimsy asked excitedly. Her tail waving picked up speed. "You're good at making stuff, right? And I'm good a thinkin' up stuff. We should make something together! Wouldn't that be super fun?"

It was an ambitious goal, considering that they had just met. Were they even going to be friends after this? Mimsy didn't see how they could not be. Maybe she was just too optimistic for her own good. Though it did feel like they were getting along. Usually anyone who knew her for this long was already annoyed by her. It was a good sign that Rosie didn't seem at all bothered by her excitability yet.

[Freezair]

Mimsy looked confused momentarily. Rosie raised one fluffy green eyebrow at her and then shrugged. Whatever it was, it wasn't important. Not now, anyway. If it really mattered, she was sure Mimsy would ask later.

Rosie's eyes lit up at Mimsy's suggestion. Despite what she claimed--that she wasn't any good at having ideas--ideas were immediately flitting through her mind. But she had a clear source of inspiration: the holiday light displays all around them. Rigging up all that electrical equipment took a fair amount of technical skill. But planning where to put things? That was an art, it was.

"Ah'm thinkin'," Rosie said. "Ya know what Ah think combines our talents purty well? These fancy-schmancy Christmas light displays! 'Course, there ain't much time left until Christmas, but we cain always call it a New Year's display! Ah'm thinkin' that might be a real hootenanny to whip it up! Whatcha think?"

[Silver]

Though at first they seemed almost too similar, differences between them were already starting to emerge. It was what was the same that brought them together, but perhaps what was different was the key to them becoming friends. If Mimsy had taken the time to think about it, she probably would have found it fascinating. However, she was far too busy being excited to worry about any of that.

"That is the best idea I've ever heard!" Mimsy bounced over to take a look at the nearest display. Her bright eyes twinkled with the reflections of the lights. "I was just thinking about how I wanted to set up a bunch of lights, which I've never done before but it looks super fun, and I wanted to decorate like the whole school, right, but I don't think they'd appreciate that very much, but now that you're on my team I know we can think of something great!"

Mimsy didn't breathe or pause at all while she spoke, so she ended her little rant with a huge inhale. "I really like this one, over here," she said, skipping off around the corner where she came from. She assumed that Rosie would follow her to take a look, but she didn't look back to be sure that she was.

[Sorry about that! I was really busy there for a bit.]

[Freezair]

((No big! I've been SUPER holiday busy too!))

"A school?" Rosie asked, tipping her nose. "Well if that don't sound like the best darn idea Ah ever heard! Ah used to just love these Christmas lights when Ah was little! Just think about how all them kiddies would react if they got back to school after break and saw the whole thing just done up like a jewl'ry box! It'd be right purdy, it would be!"  

Rosie loved kids, and she loved seeing kids happy. She got her fair share of that working a candy store, after all! The thought of doing something so big and fancy almost brought tears to her eyes when she pondered it and how happy it might make all the kids. She stared off into the distance, wondering, for a moment... until she realized that Mimsy was gone, streaked off somewhere.

"Mimsy? Hey, Mimsy? Where'd you git? Ah like yer idea an awful lot! Ah wanna see this school you wanna do up! Mimsy?"

[Silver]

If Rosie was interested in spending time with children, then Mimsy's version of 'school' would probably disappoint her. It was probably very unlike what Rosie was thinking of, but it was all that Mimsy knew. They were undoubtedly taught very different things at their respective schools. Such as whether to bow or shake hands when greeting someone, for instance.

Mimsy had skipped off around the corner and plunked herself down in front of one of her favorite displays. This was one that had particularly caught her interest as she went past earlier. Her tails swished against the sidewalk as she sat and waited for Rosie. It took her far too long to notice that her new friend was not just a step behind her like she thought.

"Rosie?" she responded after hearing her voice. "I'm over here!" she barked loudly and bounced to her feet. She skipped back around the corner until she could see Rosie again. "Come over here, I have something I want to show you! There's some really pretty lights here. They dangle down like raindrops!"

[The busy bug bites again!]

[Freezair]

((Don't it just!))

Rosie laughed. She followed the sound of Mimsy's voice and her swishing tails until they wound up at the lights.

Rosie looked up, and a grin crossed her currently canine face. "Well, ain't those prettier'n a calico cat in 'er Sunday best! Yanno, when you look from far away like this, it don't look like they're just a bunch of lights lightin' up in order, does it?" Rosie shrugged. "Naww, it looks like the magic's plum drippin' off the walls here!" Rosie scratched her chin with a paw. "An' Ah betcha Ah could wire up sumthin' jus' like it!"

She looked to Mimsy. "Ah reckon you want likes just like these'uns iffin we do this display--naw, when!" Rosie was getting excited for the idea. She didn't know that Mimsy's school wasn't the kind of school she thought of, so she was still picturing wide-eyed tots aweing at the glittering raindrop magic lights. "We should git ourselves some coffee or cocoa an' start drawin' up plans!"