Christmas Special
Prologue - The Advent
Without any wind blowing through, the smoke coiled upwards from the cigarette in calm spirals and pooled on the ceiling where it found no escape. The gray haze was already visible below the wooden boards, a sight usually only seen in a room filled with smokers. This time however there was only one.
Debby sighed, and another cloud wafted out to monochrome the world around her a fraction more. Long gone was the comforting smell of paper, Delibird Deliveries reeked of burnt herbs and through the windows, the ethereal beams of moonlight spilled onto the floor. To the mailmon the act felt like a small step towards what she had to do tonight. It wasn't, truthfully speaking. But it felt like it. Easing a fraction closer by doing something she'd never normally do.
Light blue light shone on the smoking Delibird as a robotic replica of her own head came to life on a shelf in the corner of the room. It scanned around for a moment as Debby took another heavy drag of her cigarette. She realized she'd lost count of how many she'd had tonight as she flicked away the ash from the tip. The floor was littered with discarded butts and ash.
"BZZZT - EXCESSIVE SMOKING IS-" The robot head started before Debby raised a wing to silence the unneeded health advice. The Iron Bundles were obedient, but their programming was annoyingly rigid at times. Predictable was perhaps the right word. Debby wouldn't have been able to defeat it at the Goldbird Manor without knowing exactly how they fought.
"Shush. Y'all don't need to get on my case about it tonight. I ain't in the mood." Debby muttered, her words dripping with melancholy and resignation. She hadn't even looked at it since it powered on. It was too hard to face such a strong reminder of what was to come.
"YOU ARE DISTRESSED, MISTRESS - BZZT - EMPATHY PROTOCOLS ENGAGED. WHAT IS ON YOUR MIND?" Debby chuckled at her mechanical counterparts poor attempt at conversing. Some filter had failed after being detached from its body, making it vocalize all the hidden commands it was supposed to run in the background.
"What day is it now?" Debby looked to the shelf in the corner of the room, regarding the head with some mirthless amusement.
"BZZZT - CALCULATING... DECEMBER FIRST." The Iron Bundle replied diligently.
"And what does that mean?" She asked the question more to hear the answer for herself, rather than in any hope of making the little helper understand. They weren't programmed to understand.
"THE PREPERATION HAS BEGUN. 24 DAYS REMAINING UNTIL C-DAY. CLAUS FAMILY MUST GATHER IN 2 DAYS." The LED eyes of the Iron Bundle glitched out as more information was processed. "PREPERATION FOR THE NEXT-"
Debby raised her wing again to cut the head short. She didn't want to hear the rest. It had said enough. Debby took one more long drag of her cigarette and examined the remainder of the tube as she blew the smoke at it, stoking the embers further. "Time to go home..."
The Delibird plodded around the service counter to the employee's side, looking over all the paperwork left unfinished still littering the top. Turning to the other side she saw lockers filled with letters yet to be delivered. Letters that would never be delivered, she corrected herself. Moving towards the backroom, a cork board of notices to her workers, to-do lists and a schedule for the past week's deliveries hung on the wall. She hadn't bothered drafting up a new one. What was the point? On the lower left corner were pinned a few drawings of the Delibird Deliveries family. Debby, Kaz and Delilah all posing together. That was drawn by Ross a few months ago, and Kaz had brought it in laughing that the Smeargle had made it in his sleep.
Debby pulled the drawing off the board, revealing another picture; a daintily image of Debby and Kaz, wing and paw clasped together with a heart around them. Seeing it in the gloom caused Debby to blush and take it off as well. Delilah had made that one after she'd told the Drifblim she had confessed to the Linoone. It was too good not to pin on the board, but too embarrassing to keep in plain sight. Debby took a deep breath to steady herself as she absently shoved the drawings in her tailbag and moved on.
Passing through the small break room, Debby entered the storage room filled with boxes of even more undelivered mail. Sealed letters and bundles of newspapers littered the floor with the occasional wanted poster and mission request. All discarded for one reason or another. Illegitimacy or incomprehensible writing, usually. At the end of the room stood a heavy set wooden door, her destination. That room had fallen into disuse in recent times, though it was opened almost daily when she started her business. Better times, she supposed.
The thick door opened with a screech of dry hinges, revealing a small space lined with shelves. White and red packages of varying sizes were stacked neatly, all coated with a thin layer of dust. Debby ran the tip of her wing across the tops of some of the Presents as she walked to the back of the room, sending motes of dust whirling into the air as the stillness was disturbed. Coming to the back wall of the room, she dug out one more Present from her tailbag to add to the collection. This one was different from the others. A special one, made just for tonight.
After setting the box on the ground, Debby blew on the faint ember left on her cigarette to stoke it one last time, and set it atop the Present. The orange glow slowly spread from the cigarette to the ribbon wrapping the box. In an hour it would burn through and release the payload. In an hour, Delibird Deliveries would be no more. In one hour, she would have left everything behind. Debby tucked her light blue cap over her eyes as a tear rolled down her beak, glistening in the glow of the embers.
"I'm sorry, hun."