dearest Nari Seo,

[break][break]it is my sincere hope... that this letter reaches you in good hands.

[break][break]as you may know full well, today is friendship day. a holiday in which i had not any hope of ever participating in, since the requirement i lack is already shown in name. "friends"... or people i have no hope of ever acquiring in any stage of my life.

[break][break]but i am currently working on breaking such an odd tradition... for i have found that having no friends is simply not the path i want to take. and when i thought of friends i immediately thought about the day you accompanied me to lunanova mall in order to help me procure a purse. you helped me... even when you could have rejected my request for help and went on with your way.

[break][break]you may not know this, but... it has touched my heart since then. i still am grateful for your assistance, and i wish to repay you someday... but for now, i hope this letter will suffice.

[break][break]may you have a wonderful friendship day, nari.

[break]best regards,
[break]ginny

The letters arrive by hand. The handwriting is neat and swirly. The names of the people are in a different handwriting which is much sloppier and more juvenile looking. It is clear that he had help making these. More than likely another member of the coven wrote out what he said with him writing the names himself.

Dear Dad Admin,

Hi! It’s me. You are the best. Thank you for doing your best and know that ??? (Note: I’m not sure how to spell what he said. He said it means I love you). You work yourself too hard and I miss you. I know you haven’t been feeling well so one of the herbalists said to give you a packet of this (It’s a vitamin C powder) to help you feel better. 

I love you and I’ll see you at home ❤️ (he made the heart with his hands).

Love;


Charani

Dear Big Brother jae lim;

Love you! You’re so nice and so helpful. You listen to me even when you don’t have too. If I had a brother I imagined that it would be someone like you. I have only ever had sisters. I miss them. It’s nice to have you.

I have some sore muscle salve for your hip included. It’s just a little. See if it works I’ve been tinkering with it. 

Love,

Charani

Hey, Sebastian Moretti, you're weird. I don't even know what you're celebrating. (She laughs, but it's a little more awkward than she'd like) Anyways - I'm fine, like, completely fine. I even had my ankle properly fixed by some medi-witch after a sparring incident, it's not a big deal. Had worse. You don't need to chase up after me, just remember that you do in fact owe me those dates.[break][break]

I got some time before I go out back into the wilderness next, there's this place I've wanted to try food at. We could dancing too, if you wanted to I guess. Then again, you kinda seem like the kinda guy who has two left feet. Not that I'm much better mind you, but I hear that the music's really good; swing stuff, you also seem like the person to listen to that sort of stuff.[break][break]

I'm also guessing you want me to thanks back or I'm grateful or whatever... Eh... I mean I'm grateful for the continued offer of repairs! You did a really good job with my rifle, I think it's working better than it did when my dad had it! And I know that you tried your best to help me, even though I can be a bit... of an asshole about it.[break][break]

Whatever - I'll see you on our "date". See you later.

Hei sisko, minulla on yhä ikävä sinua. Pysy turvassa matkoillasi. Tapaamme pian uudelleen.

[attr="class","basil"]Baz counts herself lucky to be known by so many excellent people. For her (and if you know her well enough, her family), Friendship Day is serious business. You have to start preparing weeks beforehand, especially for her, with the postal system as unreliable as it is. Every year, Baz makes a visit specifically to take gifts back home before the day falls, to be received in her absence on the day itself.

Her Ma is the queen of the event back in the Vale, even after all of her children have found their own homes. She traditionally crafts little good luck charms for all of her children -- sweet little tokens that Fades across Delphi hang from their door knocker throughout the cold winters. For each house, the charms contain a long-lasting ambient warming charm that chases away the bitter cold when you arrive at the door. The magic in them couldn't last forever, but they persist throughout the winter. A little slice of home. Baz keeps hers on the door in Delphi, but she knows a lot of her siblings put them in their greenhouses. Even Abi is sure to send a long winding letter home with an update -- it's only then that they even know if Abi will be around for the holidays. Otherwise, most everyone else in the family gets various plants and cuttings from their own private garden -- it's a competition to outdo each other that Kai nearly always wins, and that Baz can't really participate in.

At least this year Cali can prevent them all being murdered within the month, and they even send a message with her to pass on to thank Cali for saving their plant babies.

So she takes after her Ma, charms of her own for all the family households. Baz competes in her own way, to show off, to show that her studies are going well even though she's so far away. This year is her most professional-looking Friendship Day gift yet -- a paperweight, pleasingly heavy and warm in the palm of your hand, shows you the sky above in absorbing details. Perfectly clear if unobserved, when you look at it for three seconds, so long as the sun has set, it fills with stars and the moon above, accurate to your current position, the paperweight levitating to the head height of the person who first observed it with a burst of false shooting stars.

Be safe, the stars watch over you -- Baz

Says the note in the packages for her family but also unobtrusively placed on the doorsteps of the people she's lucky to know -- julius kingston serafim strix Hesperaloe Cartier Kap Az'es Jacqueline Leveilleur ariadne othonos zohal letifer Vega Solares Quynh Le kasimir burovski and her colleagues at Good Thymes. Calliope Moritama gets her own on her bedside table to wake up to.

And especially for Juls and Sef, who note the false shooting stars sending them an encrypted message that forces them to watch the orb for half an hour, inverting it every twenty seconds, to decrypt: Congratulations: It reads. Ponder the orb

Okay, so maybe she's a little irked about her 27-chess game losing streak & Sef betraying her by growing out his roots.

He was never one for sentimentality. Words are so hard to form and Aiden is much more practiced at gift giving or favors. But this year is particularly calm. The flurry of work he would be in dulled down to just lazing by the window watching the sky.

He doesn't have anyone to write to this year. Mckenna lounges on his lap as he indulges in a cup of hot cocoa.

Marjorie had given him a list and he had, of course, signed off on them. Against his wishes, a beautiful thick card stock with gold filigree with a printed, generic message and his signature go out to the circle of heirs he had once tried to be close to. She would upkeep his appearance no matter how hard he tried to destroy it. He only grimaced once as he set aside cards for milo tremerie , Diane Timoria , OLIVIA ABBIATI , vera lindt , James Knox , and even one for Jeremiah Knox.

The ones for his family, he tears up.

Very carefully, at some point, he picks up a pen and some stationary and crafts a small note. It takes a while, with the heir crossing out and crumpling up sheet after sheet.

For Shimizu, Tomomi ,

Thank you for speaking to me.

Aiden

He settles on that with a satisfied snort before pulling another sheet.

For mitra van laar ,

Thank you for hiding me.

Aiden

For Martin Emerson ,

Thanks for checking up on me.

Aiden