decor contest!!

"Welcome! Welcome!" A candle noodle beamed at Duskie. "Are you here for the decor contest?"

"There's a decor contest?" Duskie asked.

"Of course! It's a very important part of Faian tradition, don't you know?" He asked. "Faians from all over compete in decor contests to celebrate the Bloom Festival and the coming of spring!"

"How can I join?"

"Duskie, please tell me you're not gonna go paint everything to look like a rock."

WHAT? Why would I do that!? I want to paint everything orange.

"... You hate oranges but not the color orange?"

The color orange was orange first before oranges were oranges.

"You don't know that."

I know it in my heart and soul.

After Duskie signed up for the contest, he got to work, picking a random house and-

"WAIT A SECOND you can't just PAINT PEOPLE'S HOUSES DUSKIE it has to belong to you!!!"

Duskie paused... Knight had a point. They might get disqualified if they painted a random house that didn't belong to them...

So... what else was Duskie to do? Quickly, he looked around! Maybe he could paint a random-

There! There was a tree there, large enough to decorate. Quickly, Duskie ran over to the tree and started painting, grabbing three different colored bottles of paint from his pockets. He popped the cap off of one of them- a ruby red bottle- and splashed it onto the tree, before tossing it up into the leaves, leaving a mess of red spots everywhere on the brown bark.

 "... It's a good thing we have a spare one." Knight said as Duskie looked up to see the paint spilling from the branches.

Duskie blinked then snorted. It looks cool! I'm sure we'll win it for sure!

Just then, the bottle ran out, causing the paint to stop falling. Farewell, cool stream of red paint!

"... Maybe that was for the better."

"Knight. That was not for the better. In fact... We have yet another red paint bottle, do we not? Duskfall, allow me."

Duskie came to, and looked up to see a tree that looked like someone had gone wild with ruby red paint on it, alongside tossing some black cloths on there for extra edge.

He blinked.

"Odio, this is not artistic genius. This is you being stupid."

"I have claimed this tree as my own throne-"

"No you have not, Odio, no you have not."

"Who are you to claim-"

"Excuse me!" The same candle noodle from eariler gracefully strode over to them. "Is this your entry in the decor contest?" He asked.

"Yeah!" Duskie grinned a bit too wide.

"Amazing work. It really looks like something a younger ruptour would make in their younger days, say the ages of 6 or 7. I assume that's from you calling upon the earlier days of your youth, where-"

"Younger ruptour are edgy!??! These things act like that in the single digits?! Duskie, we're never blending in at this rate-"

We don't need to blend in! With that, Duskie opened his mouth to speak. "Actually, my brother I'm sharing a body with made it. I only helped inspired him by tossing a paint bottle up there-" Just then, that same bottle fell out and hit Duskie on the head. "ow."

"Interesting! Regardless- nice work! Here's your prize!" The candle noodle handed Duskie a tiny green chest, then walked off to view the next entry.

... Is whatever's in there edible?

"... Maybe it's pet toys?"

It was figurines. Duskie pocketed those and went off to wander around some more, taking in the sights and smells.

Faia was nice, huh?