- ↬ catvent day: four
↬ username & id: LiLi041 925966
↬ clan archive: eNUF
↬ word count: 546 words
↬ prompt: Santa sipped her catmint tea calmly as she sat next to the fire. "Oh, it wasn't anything much," she meowed slyly, licking her paw and dragging it down her face intermittently. She was clearly feeling proud of herself tonight. "I'm just a great lover of games, and when any-cat is such a large fan of games, they will naturally be inclined to come up with such clever set-ups as myself."
Several sets of shiny eyes landed on her as she basked under the glory of so much admiration being heaped upon her fluffy self.
"Well, I guess I can tell you all about the true splendor of my games," she said when the time was right, continuing her monologue of self-praise. "I have no equal, but I did have underlings. Pinocchio, and the like. A lot of them were rotten and corrupt, and naturally, a clever being such as myself would have safeguards against dishonesty and pure viciousness, just waiting for those rotten tomatoes to step into them and trap themselves.
"One game I am immensely proud of was my Christmas Honest Card Game. I was so busy delivering my gifts to everyone in the world, that I had no choice but to let Pinocchio, that liar, run it. He renamed my game into Pinocchio's Honest Card Game, did you know that?" Santa sneered dismissively, and a titter ran through her rapt audience, showing their disapproval of Pinocchio.
"A real villain, that one," she sighed. "He made the players scheme and fight against each other, pitting the teams against each other in what should've been a sweet game where honest children worked together to win. The king, minister, knight, and slave, all four cards from each team should be played in order and no one would fight. They would meet each other with trust and a willingness to forge alliances together, and become friends. But instead, Pinocchio claimed that only one team could win, and even claimed that he would give my King's Gold Coins out as prizes! Such nonsense." One of the cats in the audience gasped. Everyone knew how much Santa prized regular golden coins, not to mention the special ones from the King! Even now, Santa was hoarding gold coins like a dragon in her home.
"I had a rule in place, so that Pinocchio could be... removed from his post, should he peek and know what cards the players were going to play," Santa continued. "With my foresight, I just knew Pinocchio's faults were his lies and his curiosity, to know all the things he shouldn't. Curiosity killed the cat, after all, though Pinocchio was certainly no cat." She examined her claws, spreading them out to reflect the glow of the fire. "And look he did. He just couldn't resist, thinking that maybe the players had found a way to outsmart him after all. And so, he could get kicked out, and I stepped in to wrap up the game with the holiday cheer Christmas should come with."
Applause rang out for Santa's story, as she smugly finished off her tea and bowed. Then, she reached over, hooking a claw into a plump, white marshmallow, and without toasting it, popped it into her mouth.
"Now, who wants to hear about another game?"