This one is for Trey. I am his secret santa. I wrote him a story featuring some of his characters, all characters I actually like alot. I seem to remember his character LeAnn being a reporter in Trey's Axis of Evil fic so here she is in the procedure of making amateur TV together with my character, Flux.”All right.. is it running?”
”uhh, Yup. It’s saying ‘rec’.”
”Sure it has enough power?”
“Positive!”
“All right! Let’s get started!”
A spotted dog’s paw giving its best rendition of a ‘thumbs up’ is the last thing seen through the lens of the hand held video camera before the focus is occupied by a small female Dalmatian pup. She is clad in a purple collar and smiles with warm brown eyes, her cheeks slightly rosy from the winter cold. Her nearly spotless white fur almost blends in with the snowy scenery surrounding the Dearly farm barn accentuated by the bright winter sun. A quick adjustment of the camera’s focus makes the image of the female Dalmatian sharpen. She clears her throat once and speaks with the voice of someone loving what she does.
“Hello and welcome to the final entry of the Dearly farm Christmas documentary! In this segment we are going hear the thoughts of a few select members of our family. But not just any members, no. In this part we are going to lend our ears to the ones who have stories to tell, much different than our own. This is LeAnn reporting with Flux as my trusted camera-man.”
The female, LeAnn, finishes her sentence giving a friendly wink towards the camera presumably directed at the male holding it. The image zooms out to reveal a female fox kit smiling with sparkly blue eyes, waiting patiently in the snow at LeAnn’s side.
“Many of you have already had the pleasure of getting to know Roxy” LeAnn continues. “She’s known as the cheerful vixen with a passion for classic 80ies pop culture. But how many of you know what it’s like to be a fox, born in the wild nature? Roxy, would you kindly tell us what your first thoughts where upon discovering us dogs, humans and the likes?”
“Oh LeAnn, my impressions were so many!” Roxy began “You dogs were different, but not all that strange to begin with. You smell kind of like foxes but at the same time you have a strong scent of something else and that is your pets, the humans. Humans were very weird the first time I saw them – Walking at their hind paws? Who has heard of anything doing that, right? I immediately grew curious.”
“What were your first thoughts about entering our civilization, so to speak?” LeAnn asks further.
“I was just getting to that!” Roxy smiles and carries on “At first I was very baffled by the houses that humans live in. They smelt of wood, but I had never seen trees grow like that in that shape! It wasn’t until later I learned that humans build them like that on purpose because they liked having lots of space. I got used to it very fast, it all made sense in a way.”
“Very interesting, Roxy! I bet there are many of us who know little of what it means to live in the wild and would love to know more, yours truly included. But now the time has come for another guest to say a few words.”
“Okay, LeAnn” Roxy says and exclaims waving to the camera: “Merry Christmas, everyone!”
“As I was saying, we are going to hear from another guest as well” LeAnn says “This time it will be from someone you all know who is, but I bet do not know much about. He agreed to answer a few questions because of the benefit of educating us farm pups about his culture. Sharing his time with us, here’s Yuri!”
The camera moves to the right zooming out to capture the tall figure of the male Russian Dalmatian Yuri at LeAnn’s other side. The grown muscular pup looks to the camera with stoic eyes, but seems relatively calm. His presence seems intimidating to some, but LeAnn doesn’t look at all affected. Instead she continues on in her cheery tone. “Yuri, hailing from Russia what is your image of Christmas?”
“Funny question little one” Yuri remarks even though he shows no sign of being amused. “Russia is big country so I can only speak for what I have seen myself. First of all, Christmas eve is on January 6th in Russia because of different religious calendar than the one you use here. Other than that, we have tree and gifts as well. We are also visited by the gift-giving Дед Мороз , or ”Grandfather Frost” – who is very much alike the Santa Claus you have here. A lot of this tradition also tie in with new years eve.”
“It really makes me wish I could travel more” LeAnn remarks “depending on where you are in the world there is so much you may discover that you didn’t know of. Now, Yuri here is not the only one who can tell us of his traditions we are also going to be joined by…”
LeAnn suddenly pauses and looks with an uncertain face past the camera angle. Flux wonders what has grabbed her attention and the camera slightly rumbles as it is moved to the side to spot a small black and white figure coming towards them at full speed. Despite the color-scheme this figure is no Dalmatian dog, but a skunk. A male skunk by the name of Orville.
“LeAnn! LeAnn!” Orville calls out. “I just spoke to Sanka and he told me to tell you he wouldn’t be able to show up for your TV-thing. He told me to say he was sorry, but some pups really needed his help with some Christmas preparations.”
“Oh no!” LeAnn says, visibly upset. “Out of a hundred pups they had to ask him? He knew he was busy, why did he say yes?”
“I don’t know, LeAnn. But I do know this; Sanka wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t absolutely necessary, you can be sure of that!” Orville states reassuringly. LeAnn has to smile and even Flux behind the camera is touched by Orville’s devout loyalty to Sanka. The way LeAnn knows Sanka, she is pretty sure Orville is right.
“I guess I can take your word for it, Orville..” LeAnn says. Suddenly a flash seems light up in her eyes. She has an idea! At once she turns her face back to focusing into the camera and with the same upbeat smile LeAnn proceeds to say: “Well, as you can see there has been a slight change of plans. That’s why I want to ask you, Flux, if you can tell us a little about your ideas of Christmas?”
“Me? Are you sure you want to know?” Flux’s voice is heard from behind the camera. LeAnn nods. In the matter of moments the camera is put down at a steady level and Flux joins LeAnn in the camera’s focus. The male looks nervously around before settling down.
“Well.. the Christmas I’m used to is not so different from the one celebrated here.” Flux begins. “Christmas is celebrated on the 24th of December. Some families start the day off with going to church and others do not. A Tree is decorated and large meals of traditional food are prepared. People usually watch TV that sends the same programs each year to get into the mood of the holidays. In the evening the gifts are delivered to the kids by a human dressed up just like Santa Claus. I could always tell who they really were by the smell, but was still really scared the first time I saw him. The Santa Claus is sort tied in with an old mythological creature that was believed to live in farm barns. It’s a tradition for kids to set out food for this creature to please it so it wouldn’t punish them with bad luck. But few does that these days, I’m told.”
“Sounds like a sweet thing to do.” LeAnn remarks kindly. “So, Flux. Is there anything you want for Christmas?”
Flux grins and says “Oh I’m not sure. I already have most things I need here.. Unless of course I could get a date with our very lovely reporter, here hehe”
LeAnn giggles and blushes “Uhm, Flux? I..”
“She doesn’t swing that way, Fluxie!” an off screen voice calls out to the shock of both of them.
Flux is struck silent, blushing, but finally and awkwardly grasps the word: “Aw, I’m sorry.. I was only joking- I mean not that you aren’t lovely, it’s just I.. uhmm”
“It’s okay, Flux.” LeAnn laughs “I’ll just take it as a compliment, but maybe it’s better you get to know the person a little more before making your moves next time, hm?”
“I guess” Flux says visibly ashamed “Still, is there any chance we can edit this out?”
“I’ll see what I can do.” LeAnn said and turned her face back towards the camera. “But now, to wrap this thing up: Thank you all for joining us for this special. I hope you have enjoyed hearing what these pups have told us about their Christmas, and I hope you can do what it takes to enjoy the holidays the way you want it to be! Happy holidays everyone. This has been LeAnn reporting, with Flux helping me with the camera.”
She gives a wink and the camera shuts off.
Characters:
@trey: LeAnn, Roxy, Yuri, Orville and Sanka
@me: Flux
I'm sorry for any details I might have gotten wrong about Russian christmas. I also intended to use Sanka alot more for this story, but I felt I couldn't write his carribian accent right which in turn would mean I wouldn't get the character right so I had to leave him out. As an apology for that I decided to draw him a picture of Roxy. I may not be a good drawer, but at least Trey gets the honor of having his character be the first thing I ever draw for this board. Merry Christmas, buddy! Hope you have a great one!