Lia was just minding her own business, writing a little poem about fingers being bit off when she found the Christmas party. Being a curious little Lia, she poked her nose into it and sniffed around for cookies. She had formerly been of the Dark Tower (which still cast an dark shadow on the residents of Ditto Town) and knew of the Evul Overlord and his buffet of every food imaginable, and wondered if there was something of that sort at the party.

So she entered the Mansion bearing gifts (some of which exploded in the face of the receiver) and joined the festivities.

"Lia! How nice to see you again," Bookwyrm said, his voice emerging from the air near Lia's ear. "Do tell that charming breakdancer that the potion wears off in roughly ten more minutes. I'll try not to mangle you too terribly in my next trick."

Lia jumped when she heard Bookwyrm's voice in her ear. She turned her attention to the breakdancing Lady Z, who's dance moves rivaled those of her younger sister while playing Just Dance on the video game system. "Oh dear," she said as she set her pile of gifts under the Christmas tree. "That's embarrassing."

She was not one to leave someone alone on the dance floor, so Lia shuffled herself over to Lady Z, shouted, "Ten minutes left!" in her ear, and removed her person from the vicinity of the dancing as quickly as possible.

Returning to her previous spot beside the door, Lia whispered, "So Bookwyrm. You mentioned tricks. Need a hand with anything?"

Bokwyrm was rather pleased to have a partner in crime in this business of making merry holiday memories. He whispered back," There are some firecrackers hidden underneath the table the eggnog is sitting on. You may do with them as you please. Also? Don't eat the cookies in that bright red package. I've been doing my best to keep people from eating them. The results might be unpleasant. You'll find out why in a bit."

"Unpleasant," echoed Lia quietly. She tended to stay away from unpleasant things such as multicolored ponies that flew (and sang songs about about smiling) and cookies that had questionable side effects, so she made a mental note to maintain a goodly distance between herself and red-packaged cookies.

Lia considered the firecrackers. She already had her exploding Christmas presents and did not know what to do with her new explosives short of dropping them into people's glasses when they weren't looking. After several moments of careful consideration, Lia decided to embrace her inner minion and bury the firecrackers in some sort of cake.

"Which way to the kitchen?" she asked before heading off to retrieve her new firecrackers.

"Through that door at the back with the very poorly drawn picture of a cooked turkey on it," came the whispered reply.

Bookwyrm glanced at his watch which of course was visible to him despite his invisibility to everyone else. Shortly after the Random Potion wore off of those still suffering from it, his next ploy would spring into motion. Literally.

— Lady Z —
"Oh dear, that's embarrassing," I hear the newcomer say as she puts her parcels under the tree.

I scowl. "Tell me about it."

Just then I'm distracted by my feet, which suddenly drag me a few feet away, faster than the rest of my body can follow. Then they dart back. And forth. And back. And forth. I am not amused.

Just then, the newcomer steps onto the dance floor: a brave act, if I do say so myself. She shouts "Ten minutes left!" in my ear. My brain processes this. Ten minutes more of... of... this?!?

"Wait, how did you kno—" I start to say, but the newcomer hustles off the dancefloor as fast as she came. "Well then! Why do people always leave when I'm talking to them? Do I just have the kind of face that no one listens to?"

Ten more minutes. My muscles are starting to ache. I grit my teeth. I. Can. Do. This.

My body drops onto the ground with a huge thump, causing a fair amount of pain to radiate through my back. "Ow," I mutter.

I can do this? I let out a bitter laugh. Yeah, right.

Lia scampered across the room, dodging the swinging arms of the still dancing Lady Z, and paused in front of the door. Hopefully she had not been seen. The turkey was indeed very poorly drawn and Lia decided it needed something. She fished in her pocket for her handy dandy permanent marker and drew a face, mustache, and furry eyebrows onto the picture.

Once she was satisfied with her efforts, Lia pushed open the door and entered the kitchens. She nearly dropped her packet of firecrackers in her excitement. Everywhere she looked there were cookies and cakes and pies and every sort of Christmas treat imaginable. She was in food heaven. She hopped from tray to tray and tasted a little of everything (excluding the cookies in the red package, of course. She wasn't about to have some unknown plague take her and drop dead before the cake exploded.).

As she went around the kitchen, skipping happily and feeling the beginnings of a sugar high coming on, Lia found It. The mother of all cakes and the one that she was going to blow up.

It was ginormous and had three massive tiers. It was decorated to look like a Christmas tree and Lia knew that it was just meant to be destroyed. Perhaps, she thought to herself, she had embraced her miniony side just a little too much.

But, as she sprinkled the firecrackers liberally over the cake, she dismissed that idea. One can never been miniony enough.

"Well, well, well," a hand reached out and firmly grasped the back of Lia's collar. "What do we have here? A wayward One, I see."

Lady A was not amused, no matter how much Molly giggled at the twisting and turning Lia, who couldn't quite twist enough to see her Overlady.

Lia froze and then started to struggle against the hand that held her collar. She couldn't quite recognize the voice of her captor and didn't intend to stick around long enough to find out just who had caught her in the act of destroying a cake.

"Erm," she grunted as she twisted and turned, but could not get free. "Would you mind letting go? I'm trying to escape."

Lady A laughed.

"My dear Lia," she smiled. "That's exactly why I'm not letting you go. And let's not struggle too hard, there, because you'll only wear yourself out. Now, clean up the cake, like a good little minion, and I might not banish you from the rest of the party, or drive your puny little Overlord from his invisible perch, which I happen to be able to see, because I have my contact lenses on, and they're special. Did I mention--I'm not in a very patient mood tonight, and I have a headache?"

Lia stopped struggling and sulkily began to pick firecrackers off the cake. She thought about dropping one or two into her pocket when her Overlady wasn't looking, but decided against it. She had heard about what gargoyles do when they're upset and didn't want to risk making Molly mad.

So Lia settled for the easier way that would not get her into much trouble. She asked. "Can I at least keep a few of my firecrackers? They were a present." She did her best puppy eyes and smiled innocently. "I won't hurt anyone with them. Intentionally at least."

Lady A frowned down at Lia, then finally relented.

"Very well. However. You use them for anything other than celebrating New Years OUTSIDE...." Lady A looked Lia square in the eye. "Bad things. Very bad things. Like GfoDs nesting in your closet and all their duplicates crawling out at night and surrounding your bed and...just use them outside, ok?"

"Spoilsport," Bookwyrm grumbled and twitched a finger. The cake slowly began to topple over toward the floor.

It was nearly time for his real plan to begin. Lia was just the diversion.

Anne's eyes fluttered open. She found she was lying on her back and staring at the ceiling. For a moment, she couldn't recall how she'd gotten there and was afraid she might have drunk too much esspresso again. Rolling on her side and supporting herself with one arm, she was slightly embarrassed to find herself in the middle of the Christmas party she had so looked forward to, her new red sateen skirt splayed over the sofa cushions without the least regard for wrinkles.

Oh, right, she thought more calmly. French-talk. Probably something to do with that punch.

Anne sat up and cautiously opened her mouth. "Testing, testing," she whispered. A broad grin spread across her face as her mouth formed words of English. "Yes! I'm normal!"

She seemed to recall someone calling himself a doctor had helped her - doctor who? she wondered. She would have to thank him. But for now, she intended to merely enjoy herself. She began making her way towards the group singing carols. Being an alchemist, she had brought a special elixir to make her voice reach even higher than her usual soprano.