#Some Matteo and Fran for you

[double--hh]

Schiavonni looks so cool and attractive I love him already 🖤

Any more headcanons for him?

Omg thank you pookie, and ofc I do <3

Schiavoni was a hitman when he was initially roped into the Mafia, always doing the dirty work. He has numerous bullet wounds and scars all over his body. The only time where he wasn't careful, he lost his eye. Like, bro is 6'4 and built like a tank, he can take a beating like it's nothing.

Also, he had his fingerprints burnt off as to not leave any trace of himself.

He comes off as intimidating or down right creepy, however he's incredibly respectful and gentlemanly to women and children. He always puts on a polite persona towards men, but he never trusts nor befriends them unless he knows that they're not rats. Angus tell him to stop threatening to kill his male neighbors.

On that topic, Roman, Albertsky, and Alf absolutely hate his guts, Roman and Albertsky just don't like Angus in general and were irate when Matteo started to visit. Alf was Matteo's lawyer, Matt thinks they're professional friends, Alf wants to write up a restraining order.

Alternatively, Lois is super friendly to him! She's always offering him some baked goods she makes while he offers to cary her things in :3c

While Angus is a legit businessman who wants absolutely nothing to do with the Mafia anymore, Matteo kinda is a bit of a businessman. He is fr a Mafia man, their job boss is an underboss for a Mafia both Ciprianni and Schiavoni are associated with.

He's always smiling, doesn't matter if hes arguing with Angus or is in a life or death situation, he's just smiling.

Schiavoni's married and has a house outside of the city, but it's more of a facade he's made so most folks don't get to suspicious of him. He never visits though and he wouldn't be shocked if his wife left, he's normally at Angus' apartment because as far as he's concerned, Angus is his wife.

Speaking of which, he legit calls Angus his wife. And he treats him to the nines as well <3

Ooo also, if he were to encounter SK!Franny, he'd 100% gives him advice on how to... put someone to sleep... (and Matteo threatens Fran to keep his filthy fucking paws off of his wife too<3)

Despite his English being good, he very much has a HEAVY New York accent, Angus has to ask him to repeat some words ToT

Erm, yeargh, thats all, thank you for the ask, I love yappin' abt my oc's <3

(not much clean art, im eepy affffff)

[calyxthenerd]

Tales and Secrets

“So” Leon started “You all may be wondering why we brought you all here” Marco continued “the thing is, we wanted all of our friend groups to meet, so we arranged this little reunion, since we all live in BA, but somehow, outside of a few connections” Simón picks up, looking at his girlfriend, who’s sitting with Marco, his arm around her shoulder and her head laying on his, taking a deep breath and averting his gaze to Luna, who didn’t want to be excluded from the little gathering of mexicans, was on León’s back, her chin on her shoulder, then turning to look at Marco’s cousin, who he had just met

“Anyways, we thought, that, so you guys can get to know each other, we’d play a little old school party game” Mara continued, making some eyes roll “called never have I ever” and several people protest “Shut up and let them speak!” Ámbar and Ludmila say at the same time, then stare at each other for a little while, before silently agreeing to never speak of it again

“So, first things first, everyone grab a nametag and pen, stick them in a visible spot on your chest, so everyone knows who’s speaking, and some rules, if you have done the thing, you raise your hand, and if it’s something you do not wish to talk about it, you don’t have to, but telling the story is encouraged” Leon explained, gesturing to two baskets on the table in front of him with one hand, the other still holding Luna up, everyone immediately went over and crowded the table, making him have to take a few steps back, before grabbing the items for himself, once everyone goes back to their seats and tapping Luna’s tigh so she comes down, soon everyone that was presenting this whole thing had one filled up and were sat down

Thiago piped in “So, as the oldest person in the room, I think I should start” when no one objects, he continues “Starting off strong, never have I ever been legally dead” he smirks at Helena, who glares at him, without any real venom behind it, and raises her hand, and sees Luna raise hers too, from the corner of her eye

“Okay, I need both stories, like, right now” Jazmin, the one person who sorta knows both of them, and a serial gossip, demanded, looking between the two of them

“Kidnapped during a fire” Luna said, not giving further context, from her seat between Simón and Matteo, they both wrapped their arms around her after she spoke, glaring at anyone who looked in her direction, even after six years, she didn’t really like talking about those events

“Car accident, lost my memory and didn’t really know who I was for like ten years, then, well, the rest is history” she smiles at the two guys on either side of her, and her younger sister, who decided to sit between her legs, with her boyfriend resting against her chest

“Okay, that was kinda dark, I’m sorry, I guess I’ll go now” Helena continues, looking around and thinking, before an idea sparks in her head “Never have I ever been straight” that gets a few hands up around the room, Gastón, Broduey, Jhon, Bia, Manuel, Alex, but silence, after all, that’s not exactly a story that you can tell, but Bia speaks up “wow, I really am the only non-sapphic around here” making all the girls and Pixie laugh

“My turn then” Victor chuckles, putting a thinking face on, before saying “Never have I ever fallen in love with someone before meeting them face to face” that makes Gastón, Marco and Manuel raise their hands, looking at their respective girlfriends with heart eyes

“So, as the oldest of the trio, I guess I’ll start, I had just gotten to BA, and I was at my apartment, just trying to get acquainted with the local music scene, then I see a site called youmix, that promised to show you the newest rising stars in Argentina, and I clicked on it, scrolled down a bit, and I saw her” he squeezes Fran’s hand “she looked like an angel, I had to click on it, and then I heard her sing, it was the greatest voice I’ve ever heard, and in that moment, I promised myself that I’d find that girl and try my best to get her to go out with me, and well, eleven years later, here we are” he pecks her lips

“It’ll be hard to top that one, but i guess I’ll try, so, I was on my second year of high school, and there was this girl that kept commenting on the YouTube channel of two girls I knew, and her words, her words just lured me in, and then she started her own blog to write her beautiful words, so I dusted up my old account on that platform, and we started chatting, then there was the time she stood me up on a date, that one epic phone call, the whole ordeal with her mom’s girlfriend disguising herself as her, and finally, I saw her for who she really was, the love of my life” he kisses the top of her head

“Well, we were at a party at our usual hang out spot, man I miss that place, anyways, I stepped away from my annoying cousin” he looks pointedly at Alex, who’s a few chairs away from them “to go use the bathroom, and then I heard her, she was singing, I don’t even remember what song it was, I was so distracted by her voice, and when I was playing the piano a few days later and ended up finding out who it was, I was in the clouds, being able to feel what I felt for her freely was the best thing I’ve ever experience, obviously we didn’t get together immediately, we were kids, we made a lot of mistakes, there were some obstacles, but we made it, I mean, look at the position I’m sitting in, it’s our favorite, isn’t it?” He looks up at her, and she just nods, kissing the tip of his nose

“Okay, I’m all for cheesy displays of affection and public declarations of love, I mean, just ask my wife, but we need to keep the game moving, so I’m going next” León declares, thinking for a few seconds before completing with “ never have I ever dressed up in a pink wig to see the guy I was in love with” while grinning at his wife, who glowers back at him, raising her hand, followed by one Nina Simonetti, who’s becoming Perida in a under a year, not that she knows it “mi sueño, you wanna tell the story?” León asks, still grinning

“Fine, so, I was a kid, and pretty stupid, didn’t have much experience with being an actual person back then, so I was broken up with the love of my life, and I realized I couldn’t bare to be away from him, so I was talking to my best friend about it, and we were just digging through her closet, for no apparent reason, so we found these old wigs from when she was a kid, and I had the wonderful idea to dress up as someone else so I could go see him, and well, it worked a little bit, until he fell for me all over again, since I’m irresistible, but then he ended up finding out it was, and we fell out for a while, until we couldn’t take it anymore and got back together, and now here we are, the only married ones in our friend group, your turn now, Nina, was it?”

“Yes, that’s correct, so, my dear boyfriend pretty much told the story already, so, I had this whole other identity only, but then we set up a video chat, so I put on that wig, that my best friend had lying around for some reason, and some clothes that I’d never wear as myself, and so that adventure began, until I was with my disguise, performing onstage, and in a moment of bravery, I revealed myself, and that was the end of that”

“So as not to start a war on who’s older than who, I’m going now” Celeste said from her spot, her girlfriend resting against her legs “Never have I ever done what’s consider an extreme sport” at that, the entire roller team, plus León, raised their hands

“Is freestyle skating actually an extreme sport?” Marco asked Ámbar “It is, but it’s actually pretty chill once you get the hang of it” she answers, before addressing the rest of the room “most of us who raised our hands were in the same roller skating team as teenagers” and León complemented “I did motocross when I was younger”

“Me now” Luna demands “never have I ever publicly dedicated a song to get a girl to forgive me” Matteo and Manuel raised their hands “pretty self explanatory, I screwed up, don’t even remember what I did, but I wanted her back, so I enlisted my best bro’s help to get me onstage to sing a song I wrote for her” Matteo explained, squeezing Luna’s shoulder

“Pretty much the same, but switch the “don’t remember” with “was partly responsible for a private video of her getting leaked”” a few people grimaced “not that kind of video, get your minds out of the gutter, she was just singing, anyways, and switch the “best bro” with “resident tech genius”” he smiled at Pixie “and the “stage” with “streaming platform” and you’ll have my story” he leaned up, kissing Bia’s chin

“Okay, so, this has gone on for quite a while, and since I’m one of the most organized people here, I scheduled it, and our time is almost running out, so we’ll do the last one and then we all part ways to whatever we have to do, because I know we’re all very busy people” Mara concluded

“So, since, as my dear cousin said, we’re closing up this little get-together, I’ll go now” Marco said, with his hand already up “never have I ever been personally victimized by a media-centered company” everyone’s hands went up, except Pietro, Thiago, Helena and Victor

“Youmix” Violetta said, and they all grimaced, since it had some pretty viral scandals

“Vidia” the whole roller team spat out the name, like it tasted sour to them, Simón and Matteo with an extra amount of venom in their voice, no one wanted to give an explanation and stir up those memories

“Laix” Bia said, a frown on her face, and a vague look in her eyes, clearly recalling what they put her and her friends through

“O-kay” León clapped, bringing everyone back to reality “that was quite a trip down memory lane, but I think everyone wants to go home and relax after this emotionally challenging afternoon, but to the people I don’t deal with constantly, I hope I can meet you again, in an environment where we can talk better, bye” and he grabs his wife’s hand, starting to walk to one of the exits, followed by Luna, Simón, Matteo and Ámbar, they’re going to have a cousins and s/o’s dinner

Marco, Francesca and Diego invited Mara to their place, with her boyfriend that was not invited to the function because he’s not relevant enough

The Urquiza girls and their boyfriends are going out dancing

Pedro and Nico have a sound test for a concert in a few days, Simón is doing his separately the next day, Delfi and Jazmin invited themselves to tag along

Pietro is going to make dinner for Daisy, Chiara and Celeste

Pixie is going to eat instant noodles and edit videos all night

Gastón and Nina are going to eat takeout and just enjoy each other’s company

Andrés, Maxi, Broduey, Fede and Cami are going out clubbing, they have a thing where they like to try every drink in the menu and see who gets drunk first

Naty is taking Ludmila shopping

Ramiro, Jim & Yam are going to the movies (it was a date but he invited himself)

And so, one by one, they leave the giant conference room, going to their other scheduled plans,

Right after the last group left, a group of adults very familiar to some of them entered, and a man, also familiar to a more select few, stepped up to the front “This is the support group for parents who’s children have strange occurrences happening in their lives, I am Doctor Dufré and I’m here to listen”

[marciego]

kiss, punch, take a road trip with, and share your deepest secret(/s) with any dcla character (one for each, no repeats, but you can choose from any show)

oooo amazing one this is very fun let's see, but i'll say that at first i assumed it was like a journey with the same character and i was like "damn we're going through it huh", and the only answer to that option was diego

kiss - jade hit me up i'm on my hands and knees begging like if i got a kiss from jade i would genuinely have no problems in my life ever after that

punch - we tragically have a lot of options for this but i'm gonna go with matteo for some variety in the shows <3

take a road trip with - DIEGO like yeah i would do all of the others with him probably but if there's someone i'd DIE for a roadtrip with it has to be diego, i just know in my heart that would be the most fun ever

and share your deepest secret(/s) - i fear there's no one but leon i'd trust with this, like yeah he might judge me but probably not as much as fran and besides these two no one can keep a secret to save their life, and let's be real fran might say it to vilu and cami, but leon? i trust him with my life. i feel like i'd be real comfortable talking about this with marco tho more than leon even but i also think marco is The reason secrets get leaked in that friendgroup, not because he's sharing them on purpose i think he just forgets not everyone knows and mentions it casually and is as shocked as everyone else when he realizes

[countessofravenclaw]

Connections between the Roller Crew and the Studio Gang in my post-canon universe

León and Simón are cousins from their mothers' sides. They saw each other occasionally as kids, but not as often since Leon lived in BA since his mom kind of followed his dad there during the early days of their relationship. They kind of reconnect maybe a year before Simon's wedding and start texting. After Simón and Àmbar get married the Roller band collaborates with All Four You. Violetta and León often come to see Ivory and Esme, and occasionally even babysit the girls

Matteo and Federico are second cousins from Matteo's mom's side. They lose touch once his mother dies and Matteo started moving around. They reconnect in 2022 (more on that lower) and Matteo does do a collaboration with All four you as well.

Matteo tries out for Eurovision 2022 Eurovision for Italy, and befriends a fellow Italian musician during the auditions, Francesca. Fran is the one to make the connection between Matteo and Federico (since they do look alike). Matteo and Fran end up doing multiple collaborations together. She and Fede also perform at Luna and Matteo's wedding in 2025.

Gastón works for German's engineering combany: Castillo Corporation, so he and Nina end up attending a lot of parties and charity events due to that. Violetta and Leon also often attend them, they become quite friendly with each other and often hang out at the events together. Gastón and Nina end up being invited to Violetta and Leon's wedding and if I end up going the route that Gastón becomes the CEO of Castillo Corporations (I am not sure of that headcanon yet, It is either that or full-time professor at a university), it will be due to Violetta's endorsement as the future owner of the company. Leon and Gastón also bond over having their ladies being into wearing wigs and tricking them.

Violetta and Francesca are also huge fans of Nina's books, Fran lets Matteo hear it when she finds out that her favorite author is the wife of his best friend. Both of them become celebrity ambassadors for the books and they commission Nina to write a duet for the in the future

Delfi ends up directing music videos for couple of Studio Gang members

Everyone who does music from the Roller crew counter Broduey at some point for choreo

Jim and Yam courtesy of their careers, end up working some time frames at the studio, so they end up working with Ludmila (if anyone remembers my headcanon about Ludmila being the one ending up working to the studio, after career-ending injury)

[gaybarbiegirl]

Do you have any sexuality headcanons for DCLA characters?

Hi anon! I couldn't reply to you when you sent this because I was busy with uni, but now I figured since I'm probably going on a Violetta s2 rewatch soon this could be a good way to give everyone an updated hc list, since some of them changed quite a bit since the last time I've been really active on this blog

Violetta:

Vilu - ............ straight. I know, I know, 'what about Franletta' and all, but the truth is I've always instinctively seen Vilu as het, it's just the vibe I get from her. When I joined dcla tumblr I saw people shipping Franletta and it seemed like a really fun new way to interact with these characters so I decided to change my hc and give it a go too, and I mean I did have a lot of fun with it but after being away for a while my brain just went back to my first instincts (and I'm having a lot of fun with token het Vilu too)

León - bi icon, pining over his ex gf one day and eye fucking his rival the next, who does it like him

Fran - bi (with a preference for men) queen

Diego - bi (with a preference for men) king

Ludmila - I'm actually not sure? My original hc for her was bi but then as I was watching I think s2 or s3 it changed to lesbian, but the thing is I was thinking about it these days and I can't remember what made me switch (😭), so I don't know if I still agree with my past self's reasoning or not. Right now I'm leaving her as just sapphic because if there's one thing I'm sure of is that this girl kisses girls, and hopefully as I rewatch I can make up my mind

Camila - chaotic lesbian ICON like genuinely hats off to her, all of the other chaotic lesbian girlies wish their antics could come close to the red dot green dot fiasco (myself included)

Naty - THE lesbian ever nobody can compare

Marco - bi boi

Maxi - I think he's pan 

Broduey - he is indeed straight, backing up Vilu in the beloved token het gang

Andrés - he's bi and I think we as a community should talk about it more, between being so happy whe he thought he was getting flowers from Marco that one time and the whole flirting with Cardoso to try to date Emma situation I think it's safe to say he's one of the characters who said bi rights the loudest, put some respect on his name

Federico - I don't know. I don't know I have no clue. Everything related to Federico's sexuality is a whole mystery to me, I have no idea what it is and at this point I'm too afraid to ask

Angie and Jade - bi wives they're kissing as we speak

Gregorio - gay KING

Soy Luna:

Luna - she's a pan babygirl (with very hit or miss taste)

Simón - bi bi bi

Ámbar - THE bisexual icon of the show you guys won so hard with this one

Matteo - I don't wanna say it but sadly we all know the answer............. a loss for bi people everywhere, my heart is with you in these trying times

Nina - painfully straight

Gastón - he's bi but he's SO oblivious about it it actually hurts to watch, this man is full on having gay sex thinking it's just a bro moment someone save him from himself

Jim - the most oblivious lesbian of all times suffering from terminal comphet, all I have to say is get well soon girl please Yam is BEGGING

Yam - a lesbian WARRIOR fighting tooth and nail against the writers to come out, rescue her comphet afflicted gf and kiss her on the lips, I admire her perseverance

Ramiro - he's absolutely gay but tragically he was never told he can have female friends and thinks he has to date his lesbian bestie to hang out

Jazmin - I think lesbian. I flip flop a lot between lesbian and bi for her but right now this is the one I'm leaning towards, and if we just leave canon crushes aside it's also what feels the most right for the character to me. Maybe it’ll switch back to bi later but for now I'm keeping this one

Delfi - I just realised I never actually thought about this one. I mean I do ship Pelfi but I think she can kiss girls too, as a treat

Pedro - honestly I think he might be straight

Nico - yeah he's straight too

Emilia - ok ok this one is a bit of a messy one, and it's mostly because the way I see it s2 and s3 Emilia are pretty much completely different characters. In s2 she's THE goth lesbian icon of this show and I adore her, but in s3 she gets that very annoying and unnecessary crush on Matteo and the way it's done I can't even call it comphet, so that'd make her bi. I don't really acknowledge s3 Emila though since I really hate what the writers did with her character, s2 Emilia is the only one that my brain allows, so she's still THE goth lesbian icon in my heart <3

Juliana - oh she's 100% a lesbian too the energy radiates from every cell of her body and I love her for it, also she definitely had a crush on that singer she listened to as a teenager that she told Yam about

Ana and Mora - lesbian wives who I love with my whole heart

And since I'm not as into Bia as I am into the other two I never really bothered to make sexuality hcs for the characters there, so I'm ending this here. Thank you so much for the ask anon <3

[putonmyfavoriteshow]

Do you have any sexuality headcanons for DCLA characters?

Ooh yeah sure I got some (these are mostly based on just who I ship them with lol).... LGBT+: Vilu/Fran/Cami/Ludmi - bi Naty - lesbian (the Violetta girlies are so fruity to me and have the best non-canon ships imo) Yam - lesbian Jim - bi Ámbar- bi Emilia - lesbian (or bi - but leaning girls) Matteo - bi (he's a menace to all genders romantically lmao) Luna - pan (she just gives me the vibe that she wouldn't care but probably leans guys) Celeste - lesbian Pixie - bi Marcos - gay (you can't tell me that man is straight and he clearly keeps Guillermo around for reason, but Guillermo deserves better so) Guillermo - bi Victor - bi (he and that basketball dude when) - also he's openly gay irl so we stan Helena - bi/pan (similar to Luna, just wouldn't care but probably leans towards guys) Straight allies: Bia Chiara (I did ship her with Celeste for a brief moment in time but yeah probs not but she would go as hard for Celeste/Trish as she does for Binuel bc my girl's a sweet romantic) Thiago Manuel Ramiro Broduey (questionable allyship tho...lol) Everyone else, I'm open to the idea of any sexuality, or don't have a strong opinion about

[anissapierce]

hope this isn't inconvenient but what lgbt in nyc podcasts do you listen to? i feel like the podcasts i listen to always involve people from LA

Ok wow that is v true. Frankly i think i heard so much abt monkeypox partially from guests on podcasts bc literally the biggest nyc comedy scene podcasters i listened to are now la transplants.(my go to was Sydnee washington but she moved to la i think? N her podcast w Marie fausten is Spotify exclusive) (Also i said podcasts but also ... insta stories lol but thats a mouthful) But I found some, didn't do research though :

Inside the Closet: Matteo Lane iirc hangs his hat in nyc i think Emma willmann is in la now

Las culturistas is one that feels like it doesn't need recommendation but hey as long as bowen on snl hell probably stay in nyc

Food for Thot : one of them must still live in NYC im sure (two moved to la though yrtugg ). Jo i think does. N the ones who don't are bicoastal i think

Like a Virgin : is it antisemitism to think that rose dommu lives in nyc? (Im p sure she does? I feel like fran moved to la? Both were recently in the same place though )

Secure the gag: an absolute shot in the dark but i think nathan pearson lives in nyc?

Straighto Lab: an even bigger shot in the dark whoops

(also totally not inconvenient i find it funny to go thru my podcast subscribed to list n this is making me realizing all of the nyc podcasts i listen to are hosted by str8s? I'll update this as more info comes to me from either their instas or new podcast episodes)

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

Ok so like your christmas fics??

- I love how that joke with Emilia and Ámbar either can be implied as a dirty joke or just them trolling people, and it's up to the reader to decide

- ALLEGRA????

- I DID EXPECT MOST KISSES. HOWEVER. I DID NOT EXPECT THE DELFI/JAZMIN KISS

- FEDERICO AND MATTEO BEING CONFUSED OVER MEETING, FRAN TRYING TO CALM THEM DOWN IN ITALIAN, VIOLETTA AND LUNA STANDING ON THE SIDE LIKE "?????"

- Ser Mejor IS really a christmas spirit song

- Love how they cross over between each other. Like, you don't have to read both, but when you read both, you get a bigger picture and some very nice easter eggs, and two different perspectives

- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

<33

[collectorscorner]

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[swithe-ist]

Musketeer Plot Fixing

So I'm thinking of plot-fixes – I've been banging my head on the wall trying to write one where John doesn't kill himself and goes to gaol, but that's such a bandaid fix...

I've decided that for the whole thing to work properly Roxanna & David need to have been introduced a full year earlier. I wouldn't argue with another year of John too, but done this way we get a more even-handed exploration of Henrik's relationships with each of them (without distraction by the other).

Here’s a rambling screed of my thoughts (surprise):

Ideally they'd be brought in instead of the Fucking Caveman and maybe Nina too, but she's not so bad on her own. This way we also get the bonus of no shitty romance between him and Jac, which means more Flac, which is ideal if they're actually serious about them being True Love This Time (honestly they should be).

So S19's major plots are:

Isaac vs Dom

Jac & Matteo bs

Mo leaving w/ Mr T (+ whole Inga thing)

Jasmine dying, Jac vs Fran

Elinor's death & bullying & Bernie's return

Ollie & Zosia

Ric's legal probs

Henrik's parts were basically

depression flare up in Black Dog

Fredrik

Merger with St Francis

And in Neuro, on Darwin, we have:

Guy melting the fuck down

It's a little different with Rox up on Darwin, though this brings about more opportunities for David to be involved.

Ollie seems awed by him, so it would be nice to see a bit of mentorship there, plus expansion on Ollie and Rox's relationship post-Tara. Maybe even dip into his relationship with Zosia – Rox and Zosia have a few superficial similarities so I think they'd get along alright...

Rox and Jac actually being friends! And working together! And bitching about Guy the Terrible together (absolutely this)!

I’d also like more of Rox & Serena being awkwardly standoffish, that was kinda fun.

Obv she can be worked into Henrik’s depression plot. Maybe this can be a prelude to her working on him after the shooting. Give a sense of how she’s dealt with that side of him over the years (I kind of feel based on the flashbacks he’s hidden it from her)

Confronting his past with Maya/Fredrik as he shows up properly, not a five second run-in. (e.g. was this part of what Henrik made John promise not to tell her? Does she know he’s even a granddad? when was she brought up to speed?)

[holding Fran down while Jac kicks her ass]

The only thing I'm really stuck on is the thing that bothers me most about Rox's poor writing – she has no flaws. The worst aspect of her as-is is her doe-eyed naïveté, but that's... I mean in a job interview, being asked your biggest flaw and answering 'well I just try too gosh-dang hard' is eye-rolling.

But I can't think of any others!

There's got to be something awful buried in there somewhere, you can’t hang around Henrik the Icy Coward and John the Smarmy Dick without having some kinda... thing. Maybe she kicks puppies in her spare time?? I’d say you could maybe do s.th with her over-empathy for others, but that’s too near to Essie’s martyr complex and that’s annoying enough.

She can be sort of competitive, I guess? – I think when Hanssen talks about his reason for leaving Neuro (didn't want to compete), it's here he reveals irritation with John & Rox's constant (professional) bickering, which we get a clear pic of in the flashback ep...

She’s also a bit thick sometimes, for a woman who’s a brain surgeon. How can you know these guys 30 years but not know them at all? John, fine, but... she’s got eyes and a brain. How can she be emotionally satisfied by their clamming up all the time? What’s her take on it? What’s David’s take on it? David’s even further on the fringe of their group, he must have a unique outlook and her marriage to him must’ve surely had him influencing her.

(god it cracks me up that she finds it more plausible that by getting between her and Henrik, John must be a moustache twirling bond villian playing a long-con instead of ... ~jealous~.)

And how does David feel about Hexanna? Does he know?

Are he and John even close or did John just walk up to him one day and be all ‘hey there’s this chick that’s got a crush on you, she’ll deny it but she does. Come take her out for a drink’

was there ever any intersection between Cardio & Neuro between these nerds? him and John are research Professors, have they worked together? can we read any closer friendship into this?

maybe he can give some advice to Jac as she blunders into yet another research project (she doesn’t have much luck, does she?), maybe he knows about her fuck-up with the stent and the Germans.

Tell us more about them all (?) in Trinidad................

There’s so many ways you could go.... so much wasted potential...... Mostly they just need to use the time to explore Hexanna away from John so they can go further into Johnrik and then the final Divided Loyalties Issue once he arrives.

Also so the first John ep isn’t full of awkward as fuck exposition dumps about his character.

Anyone got any other ideas?

[calyxthenerd]

Dropping my DCLA post-canon Christmas hcs in the middle of february because I saw a TikTok and got inspired

In the Castillo household, it’s obviously gonna be Germán, Vilu, Ludmila, maybe Fede is there, maybe he went back to Italy, who knows, Angie, Ramallo and Olga cause they’re always there, Fran shows up at some point because she didn’t get a flight to Italy in time, Olga bans anyone from entering the kitchen for the whole day because she takes holiday food very seriously, but Angie goes in anyways, and they keep gossiping about who knows what, secret Santa is as chaotic as your imagination allows, and the food is the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen, until Germán starts serving Vilu, Olga almost cries

Obviously in the Benson mansion there’s the Valentes, Ámbar, not Alfredo because he’s travelling, or dead, and also I don’t like him, depending on what type of scene you’re looking for Sharon got permission to go home for the holiday, since couldn’t afford tickets to Mexico, and refused both Ámbar’s and Luna’s offers to buy them for him, Simón is there too, trying to escape holidays with his extended family and his dad’s overbearing attempts to mend their relationship, Matteo is also there, dinner is obviously on Monica, with Simón, Miguel and Luna taking turns going into the kitchen to try and sneak a bite, she catches them every time, and when she doesn’t, Ámbar does, and they have to wear a santa hat with “Shame” written on the front, Matteo’s puts Luna wearing it and pouting as his lockscreen, Rey and Maggie show up for dinner, having been released from their court mandated community service, Matteo, the idiot, suggests lighting a fire, because that’s what they did back in Italy, the Valentes, Ámbar and Simón glare at him for the rest of the night, and every time he tries being affectionate to Luna, she walks away and goes to Simón instead, leaving Ámbar even more mad at him, as her boyfriend is too busy performing best friend duties to cuddle with her

In my ideal world, Antonio goes to jail (or gets run over by a car, because that would be ironic) and so Paula makes ammends with the Urquizas and they decide to have a joint Christmas party to celebrate that, Victor is still back in Spain because I’m mad at him, so it’s Paula, Alex and Manuel, Alice, Mariano, Helena and Bia, Helena invites Thiago since he doesn’t exactly have a family to celebrate with, Paula all but demands Carmín comes, they also invite Pietro so he doesn’t have to eat alone with his cousin (they wanted him to cook for them), and since it’s already a lot of people, and the residency is pretty empty with the other guys having gone home to the families, Thiago invites everyone to go there instead, Pietro is happy to cook in his own kitchen, the night ends with the Urquiza sisters singing a Christmas song by the piano, everyone joins in, and when the time to say goodbye comes, Thiago forbids anyone from leaving, since it’s very late and they’re all tired from having eaten so much, and we all know what happens when you drive late at night, so everyone who doesn’t live there ends up sleeping in one of the spare bedrooms, and the ones who do, sleep in their own rooms

[countessofravenclaw]

Christmas is the time for joy and unexpected events

When holidays creep up around December, everyone gets ready to celebrate, especially our dear residents of Buenos Aires ... And maybe, just maybe, people you never though would enter each other lives... have more to do with each other than you think.

Merry Christmas Everyone! Well, to me Christmas was yesterday since we celebrate here in Finland on the eve, instead of the day, but the party still goes on ad Holidays are not over until after the New Years.

“Gastón, don’t forget that we are supposed to take Luna to pick up Matteo from the airport at 6 pm today,” Nina reminded her husband as he was about to leave the door in the morning. “So, don’t even think about staying overtime at the office.”

“I would never forget that,” Gastón laughed, “I think I’ll be able to leave early today. There is not that much to work on since everyone is going to be out for Christmas beginning Friday. I’ll have to just submit these last figures about the CO2 emissions and exhausts over the construction in the USA this year to the executive team.”

“Wasn’t the deadline for that after new years?” Nina turned her head confused. She could not really pretend she was up to date on all the projects Gastón had for his work, but she was sure he had not had anything to turn in right before he was off for the holidays. 

“Oh it is, but I got it done now, as I revamped the excel since the system they had been using…”

“...has to be from 20th century.” Nina completed his sentence. “You have been saying that since you started there.” She turned her head and noticed that Gastón’s work ID was still laying on a bureau in the living room. “Don’t forget this. This is probably the second time this month.” She picked it up and walked over to Gastón and put the lanyard around his neck, “Someday you’ll actually forget it.”

“What would I do without you?” Gastón smiled at her.

“I don’t know, be late to work.” Nina got up on her tiptoes and kissed him briefly. “I love you.”

“I love you.”

***

“You are performing at the holiday party this year right?” German asked Violetta after Olga had served the dinner.

“Of course Dad,” Vilu answered and rolled her eyes at Leon. She and Leon had arrived for dinner on Tuesday to her dad’s place. Her father had been asking for confirmations about the party every week, when they had fixed the plan a month ago. “Fran and Diego, and Ludmi and Fede are performing with me and Leon. Like we have every year, so don’t worry. We’ll entertain all of your important engineers.”

“How is it going with the company, German?” Leon asked and Vilu hid her groan. The last thing she wanted was to be talking about her dad’s work, but it was too late. 

“Well, the last construction project got just finished, but one of my engineers is retiring, so that brings it own set of things to settle. This will leave an empty vacancy to the team so I have to find someone to fill it. And recruiting so close to Christmas is not fun. We can’t leave the spot open, since we need all hands on deck as the energy crisis gets worse.”

“Dad, do you know what your problem is?” Vilu piped up. 

“What?”

“I don’t pretend that I know about the engineering or whatever you do, but most of your engineers are your age. No wonder you are getting nowhere.” She continued. 

“Are you calling me old?” German responded, half offended.

“Yes, I am Dad. It is almost like writing a song. If you keep using the same words, the song will never be done. Basically, what I am trying to say is that you need some new blood, someone our age.” Vilu gestured to herself and Leon. She could not really believe that she was giving her dad hiring advice right now, but he was painfully clueless of the modern world. Someone needed to wake him up. 

“Didn’t you have that program to recruit just-graduated college students?” Leon continued to ask German. 

“Yes, it was implemented five years ago.”

“Promote one of them,” Leon continued and Vilu smiled at him proudly. Given that neither of them had any idea what they were talking about, they were doing a very good job at helping her dad. “There must be somebody who has proven themselves. You hired them for a reason after all.”

***

“And if we change this variable, the costs would go way down.” German pointed on the board at the meeting with his executive engineering team. “And I think thats it.” He looked down on his tablet. “Next thing on the docket is the CO2 emissions, but we need to wait for the Energy Preservation to bring in the figures, we will have to leave it until…”

“Haven’t you noticed?” One of his engineers suddenly said, “The numbers came in earlier this week.”

“Really?” German opened the folder on his tablet. “Well, that was fast. They are way ahead of the deadline.”

“Energy Preservation has been surprisingly efficient this whole year,” other one of his engineers noted. “It is after that new member of theirs started. He apparently even improved the algorithms they have been using.”

“Hmmm, this is really excellent work.” German raised his head up, “What is his name?”

“Gastón Perida I think. He is one of those college program recruits, from Oxford—”

For some reason, the last name “Perida” sounded familiar to German. Maybe Ramallo had once mentioned it. 

“—I think the case with him was that he actually declined the job offer the first time around, right after graduation. Something about not wanting to come back to Buenos Aires yet. He worked a year at London, before coming to us.”

The words that Violetta had said about him needing younger people in his team echoed at German’s mind. “What was the firm he worked at in London?”

*

“Ramallo?” German asked as he and Ramallo were sitting in his office later in the day. “Didn’t you used to work with someone called Perida, before you came to work for me?”

“Oh, yes I did. Marco, a really nice person. It was almost twenty years ago, and I understand that he and his wife have done quite well for themselves, she is a real estate agent if I am not mistaken. I think he works for the government right now. Why do you ask?”

“I think I am employing his son,” German answered.

“Really? I do remember them having a son… is he that old already?” Ramallo straightened up in his chair.

“Almost two years out from Oxford.” German said, “He really seems to be an efficient worker.”

“Not surprising, given who his parents are. In this case, he also is the nephew of Tomas Perida.”

“The software engineer?”

“Mr. German!” All a sudden Olga burst into German’s study. 

“Olga, we are in the middle of something.”

“Little I care about your something! I can’t work with these conditions! The tree has not yet arrived so I can’t start decorating for the party!”

***

“Gastón?” Gastón looked up from his computer to see their floor’s front desk secretary in front of his desk.

“What is it Melinda?”

“The boss wants to see you.”

“Okay, uhm,” he quickly looked back at a diagram he had been working on his screen, “Can you let Mr. Gomez know that I’ll be there just in a second. I’ll just upload this.”

“No, it is not him,” Melinda seemed to be twisting her hands nervously, “It is THE boss.”

“Mr. Castillo?”

“Yes.”

“What on earth? I’ll be there at once.”

Gastón got up from his desk and walked through the hallway to the elevator. He had no idea what this could be about. Was this good or bad? He definitely was not a senior enough employee to have the CEO concern himself with him. The only times he had actually heard of Mr. Castillo himself were in the annual company-wide emails and a couple of video conferences. He also was not aware of anything he had done wrong.

Well, whatever this was about, he was about to find out. Whatever happened, he’d have a story to tell Nina at home, and he had good connections with lawyers.

“Mr. Castillo? You asked to see me?” He stepped into a big office on the top floor of the building.  

“Yes, come on in.” Mr. Castillo looked up from his desk. “Gastón, isn’t it? Perida?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, sit down.”

Gastón, who still had absolutely no idea what this was about, took the chair he was offered. Mr. Castillo’s face was quite unreadable, but a couple of business classes all the engineering students had been forced to take at Oxford had taught him that those incidents where someone got fired out of the blue only happened in the movies. 

“So, I understand that you are responsible for the latest data on the carbon dioxide and monoxide emissions.”

“Yes, I was the one who submitted the last figures,” Gastón answered, trying to keep the confusion out of his voice. “If… if this is about the excel, I cleared it with my supervisor. I was under the impression it was fine—”

“It is.” Mr. Castillo interrupted him. “I was actually quite impressed. But this is not about that. You were originally recruited to work for us through our college recruitment program, but started working for us a year later after the initial offer. And you worked in London for a year after you graduated”

“Yes, that is correct.” Gastón answered, still not fully following.

“Well, I’ll just cut to the chase then.” Mr. Castillo turned on a tablet that had been on his table and turned towards Gastón. “I would like to offer you an assistant engineer position in the executive team directly under me.”

“What?” Gastón stared at the contract that was displayed on the tablet. “I’m sorry. I am just surprised, I have barely been here a year.” 

“Your employer at Renishaw spoke very highly of you. Didn’t want to let you go.”

“Yes, they did offer me a full-time place, with a raise, but my timing with the move back to Buenos Aires had nothing to do with a job I had at that time, or would have in the future. It was a personal choice considering the stage of life I was in and my family.” Gastón started explaining.

“I understand that,” Mr. Castillo continued. “We have been more than happy with your work here, and I think these talents are going to be wasted at the Energy Preservation Division. We need young minds to battle the crises we will continue to face. So, you accept the position? You can sign now, since we have a separate contract for the executive team, and start after the new year.”

Gastón looked down at the contract again. “Can I take 24 hours before I sign it?”

“This should not be a hard decision.”

“It is not, I just want to take the time to read it over. I don’t like making fast decisions.”

“That is okay,” Mr. Castillo nodded, “I’ll send all the forms to you and you can sign them on Sunday.”

“Sunday?” Gastón was 100 % certain that everyone was going to get off on FRIDAY for the holidays. 

“I host a holiday party every year for friends and family, my engineers in the executive team are always invited. We’d be honored if you and your wife would attend. You’ll get to know the team before you start.”

Even if he had already been married six months, it still took Gastón off guard how everyone just knew that he was married, until he remembered that he literally wore a ring visible to everyone, signifying that he was as taken man as could be. 

“This is a great honor, all of this, amazing opportunity.”

“It will be good to have you on board.”

As Gastón exited the office, he still was not fully sure what had just happened. 

“What?” He let the words fall out after the elevator doors had closed. Honestly, he did not know how to feel, as this was definitely not how he had expected this day to go. He was half wondering if this was a dream or some kind of holiday joke and if he should ask Ambar to go through the contract, just in case.

***

Nina was erasing a typo on her file of the chapter she was working on at the moment when she heard the door open. 

“Hey! You are back already?” 

“I didn’t interrupt you right?” Gastón said as he hung his keys on the rack and pulled out his ID over his head.

“No, I was just doing proofreading today really. I haven’t made any further leeway.” Nina closed her laptop, “I try to pretend that this isn’t a start of a block.” She got off the sofa and walked up to Gastón. “So, how was work tod—”

She was interrupted because Gastón pulled her into an extremely passionate kiss with no warning. 

“You are in a good mood,” she said after she was able to catch her breath. “I am not complaining.” She slid her arms around his neck as he had not let go of her yet, and seemed like he was not going to. 

“I think I just got a promotion.” He said before leaning down to kiss her again.

“What?” Nina asked in disbelief, but Gastón did not look like he was kidding. “You've barely been there 12 months                .”

“That’s what I said, but they want me to start as an assistant engineer, in the executive team,  after the new years,” Gastón continued. “Apparently they have been impressed by what I have been doing at Energy Preservation.”

“That is amazing!” Nina jumped to hug him and he picked her up twirling her around. “I knew you were good, but not this good.” She said after he put her down.

“Auch, that hurt,” Gastón laughed, “especially coming from my own wife.”

“I was just joking. I am so proud of you.”

“I mean this is nuts, absolutely crazy,” Gastón continued, “I am 25 and barely two years out of university. I would not promote myself. I thought I would be on Energy Preservation for at least five years, it was not a bad placement.”

“Stop right there. That clearly doesn’t matter to them.” Nina interrupted his spiral, “You clearly have proven yourself, otherwise they would have not offered you the spot. You were literally one of the tops of your class at Oxford, that's the reason why you have this job in the first place. You are extremely good at what you do.”

“Oh, one more thing,” Gastón pulled the invitation out of his pocket. “This invitation came with a fancy cocktail party on Sunday.”

“Sunday?” 

“It is pretty much mandatory, given the circumstances.” Gastón continued, “But you don’t need to come, if you don’t want to. I can go alone.”

“No, I am coming.” Nina shot him down. It was true that she still did not exactly feel the most comfortable in a big crowd of people she did not know, but she had gotten much better in the years, that did not happen if you just sat at home. “You always support me, there is no question about me not doing the same.”

***

“I think we are ready!” Violetta squealed after she, Leon, Francesca, Diego, Federico and Ludmila finished rehearsing the last song. “Thank you guys so much for doing this again!”

“Your dad’s parties are always fun,” Diego said as he got off the sofa to put the guitar he had been playing. “It is always nice to do some more low-key intimate performances.”

“Even if that means performing to a bunch of 40-plus engineers.” Vilu laughed. “The party starts at seven.”

“Diego, we really need to get going if we want to be at Art Rebel for five,” Fran jumped up from the couch as well. “We’re giving a dance tutorial there.”

“Wow, Gregorio is letting you do that?” Leon joked. 

“Apparently.” Diego nodded. 

“Wait, before you go,” Ludmila piped up, “Fran, sent me a picture of what you are wearing, Vilu you too, so I can make sure it is appropriate.”

“Oh and Vilu,” Fran stopped as she was about to walk to the door. “did you make to the book store on Monday? I was so mad I got stuck in that production meeting.”

“I did,” Vilu shook her head, “But they were already out of the Si Pudieras Tener un Deseo’s second print. It is not that mainstream yet that they’d have ordered more copies. We have to wait for a restock.”

“Awww, really?” Fran groaned, “I had such high hopes. I just wish we could get them signed… but it is still almost impossible to track her down.”

“Well can’t blame her for being a private person.” Diego noted. 

“Actually, I think I might have an idea why it is so hard to find her,” Vilu suddenly pondered. “I looked at the sample piece at the bookstore, and you know how there is that small info box about the author there. In the second edition, the wording was bit changed and it kind of sounded like she is using a pen name.”

“Nina Simonetti is not her real name?”

***

 “Absolutely not.” Nina crossed her arm as she shut the guys’s idea down. 

Luna and Matteo had come over to their house to help them decorate their Christmas tree. Matteo and Gastón had suggested that in order to place the star on the top of the tree, they’d climb on each other’s shoulders. 

“Why not?”

“Because I doubt that Luna wants to lose her groom, and frankly, I don’t wanna become a widow.”

“Okay, okay,” Gastón raised his hands in surrender, “We’ll go get the step stool.”

Luna burst into laughter as Matteo and Gastón disappeared into the kitchen. “What are we gonna do with them?”

“I don’t know,” Nina shook her head and bent down to pick up another ornament to hang on the tree. 

“Have I already mentioned how happy I am that you are here for Christmas!” Luna jumped up and down excitedly.

“Well, we are back and here to stay.” Nina smiled at Luna. Truth be told, in some way, she would always miss the Christmasses in England, but she was more than happy to be back. “I will feel a bit strange that it is summer and not winter as it is supposed to be, but I know I won’t miss the flat. We can actually have a tree here, in a proper house.”

“I wanted to have a tree at our apartment but Matteo said that we would not be able to get it there,” Luna continued as she almost dropped a gold glitter star she had been trying to hang on the tree. “And I guess he is right. We live on the top floor and there is no elevator.”

“It is going to feel a bit weird to not have any snow. Not that we always had that in London, but when we did, it was one of the most magical things I have ever seen.” Nina said, looking out of the window.

“You know, I have never seen snow in my life, but it seems cold.” Luna noted, “By the way, how are you spending Christmas day? You do remember that you are all invited to the mansion on Boxing day. Mom is making a huge dinner.”

“Of course, I remember that,” Nina laughed, “We’re going to Gastón’s parents in the evening of Christmas day.”

“What about your parents?”

“Dad won’t be able to come here from Miami until little before the New Years. Mom is going to some event with Mora. I can’t believe she managed to convinced her of that, but we’re going to spent the Christmas Eve with them, so Mom won’t have any reason to complain.”

“What about Christmas morning?” Luna asked. 

“You are coming here,” Nina said amused. Luna really had forgotten that? Well, she would have not been surprised. “We fixed that two months ago.”

“Oh, riiiiight,” realization seemed to dawn on Luna, “I forgot.”

“What are you doing for the evening?”

“Matteo’s parents.” Luna explained, “Mom and Dad won’t mind as Ambar and Simon will be with them and everyone will be there on Boxing day. Just wait until you get to taste mom’s Christmas cookies … oh that reminds me, Matteo gave me the go-ahead on making our own gingerbread house. I thought I’d ask Jim and Yam to come over and we could make one together on Sunday.”

“Sunday?” Nina asked. “I am sorry, but I can’t. We are invited to Gastón’s CEO’s Christmas party on that day. It is this whole big fancy cocktail party.”

“Since when does your CEO invite you to fancy parties he is hosting?” Matteo asked as he and Gastón had just arrived with the step stool. 

“Well, since I got a promotion,” Gastón said nonchalantly, but Nina could see the small blink in his eye. He had not yet told Matteo, she realized. 

“WHAT? You got a promotion?” Matteo questioned.

“Yeah, a couple of days ago. One of the engineers in the executive team is retiring so they promoted an assistant engineer and offered that spot to me. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know myself, but it happened.”

“OMG! Gradulations!” Luna ran to hug Gastón and Matteo followed her quickly.

“Well, that is awesome,” Matteo said enthusiastically, “I knew you were overworking. You really are an overachiever.”

“The party was at six, I think. I never actually fully read the invite. Hold on, I’ll go grab that real quick.” Gastón said and walked out to the chest of drawers in the hall. He grabbed the invite that had been in the top drawer. 

Nina saw his face change as he opened it up. 

“No way. Matteo, you won’t believe this.”

“What?”

“It is the Castillo House.”

“What, no way!” Matteo grabbed the invitation from Gastón. “That's him? What did your parents say?”

“What is going on?” Nina questioned.

“Oh, right.” Gastón raised his head. “I guess we should explain. So, my boss, German Castillo’s house is like a couple of blocks away from Mom and Dad.”

“Really? But what about it?”

“Well, this is a bit of a long story. I didn’t realize, that it was him, but Mom and Dad always told me, when I was growing up, that owner of the house was a bit strange and if we saw anything odd happening there, just ignore it and not to get involved.”

“How did Isla and Marco think he was odd?” Nina still did not fully follow all of this, “You work for him. Should I be concerned?”

“Yeah, how did they react?” Matteo questioned too.

“I don’t think they have anything against him as an engineer or anything against him at all.” Gastón sat down on the sofa. “I honestly don’t really remember and I can’t believe I never realized that they were talking about Mr. Castillo. It was so long ago. I guess it was just about the fact that he apparently had lot of engagements after his wife died really long time ago. They went to an engagement party where he ran after his daughter who ran away, and the fiancee went crazy.”

“Oh, I remember that too.” Matteo piped up. “Dad was invited too, but couldn’t go. Sofia went on his behalf.”

“And in the end he never ended up marrying that woman. He jilted her on the altar. Then he had a couple of other engagements and then some celebration of love or something. I don’t really know how accurate this is.  Mom and Dad never told me this directly, I just heard them talking about it, so I could be wrong.” Gastón continued. 

“Hey, remember that weird flashmob we saw in 2014 when we skated past it?”

***

“Honestly, I can’t believe I have walked past this house so many times, and never realized it was my boss’.” Gastón laughed as he parked the car on the side of the street next to Mr. Castillo’s house. “Castillo is not that common of a name, and I have worked for him for a year.”

“Well, it does not matter.” Nina said from next to him, “You are really sure we should not be concerned about him?”

“Mom and Dad never knew him personally,” he reached to take her hand, “They only really met him in some charity functions, so in the same circles, but not friends or anything. Anyways, we should go in, so you can make judgments yourself.”

Gastón got out of the car and opened the door to Nina and they walked inside the house. 

“Welcome. Glad to see you made it!” Mr. Castillo said as he shook Gastón’s hand.

“Again, thank you for the invitation. I don’t think I am in any position to refuse it. This is my wife, Nina.” Gastón kept his hand on the small of her back when Mr. Castillo also shook her hand. “She is an author and lyricist. Works for a couple of musicians.”

“This is not the first time I have heard of an engineer and an artist. My late wife was an opera singer.” Mr. Castillo smiled, “Gastón, would you mind stepping into my office so we can get that paperwork done.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll be right back.” He said to Nina and placed a light kiss to her hair.

“How long have you been together?” Mr. Castillo asked as they got into his office. “We are all in first name basis in the executive team. I like to know my engineers.”

“That is actually a more complicated question than you think.” Gastón was bit taken off by a direct question, but he figured that there was nothing wrong with getting a bit more personal level with his boss, given his promotion. And this was at least better than the usual small talk. “Married for six months. That I can say for sure. But how long we actually have been together is a bit more complicated. I could say a little over five years, and I could say nine years. We went to Blake South College together, but after I graduated I made couple a of really stupid decisions. Broke my own heart, but she is a determined woman. We reconnected back in university and I could not risk ever letting her go again. Fate was really on my side.”

“It is good to hear that.” Mr. Castillo said as he pulled a tablet out. “So, the contract. I take it that you read it.”

“Yes, I did.” Gastón nodded, “One of my friends is a lawyer so she scanned it really quickly too.”

“You really came prepared. So you are ready to sign it?”

“I like to know what I get into sir. This is a big ascension for me, especially this soon.” Gastón responded, “But yes, I am ready to sign it.”

“Lets get to it then.” Mr. Castillo offered him the touch-screen pen.

Gastón took the pen and signed the contract on the tablet. 

“I am looking forward to working with you.” Mr. Castillo shook his hand.

“Me as well, Mr. Cast—”

“Please, call me German.”

***

“Vilu, seriously, if there is one thing I love about your dad’s parties—” Francesca said as she picked up another cupcake from the table, “—it is the food.”

“I know.” Violetta agreed. “Olga is the best. This is the only reason I tolerated them for so many years.”

“I have been trying to teach Diego to cook.” Fran continued, “Do you think Olga could give us lessons. I mean, my family owned a restaurant, but we know what happened to that…” Fran’s gaze travelled across German’s living room. Vilu’s dad’s house was decorated beautifully with all kinds of Christmas lights and decorations. The tree in the middle of the room was huge. 

Suddenly her eyes fixated on a brown haired young woman, who was wearing a red dress. She was standing around and ever so slightly looked like she was not sure where she was supposed to be. 

“Vilu!” Francesca grabbed Violetta’s arm and pulled her closer, “Are you seeing what I am seeing?”

“What am I supposed to see?” 

“There,” Francesca pointed to the woman, “red dress, black heels, black bag. You did not tell me your dad knew Nina Simonetti.”

“He for sure does not know her. Fran, he is over 50.” Vilu hushed, “You are sure that’s her?”

“I mean she does look like her, just with no glasses.”

“Should we go and ask?”

“Vilu, are you crazy?” Francesca shook her head, “We can’t do that. What if it is not her? That would be so embarrassing.”

“Girls, what are you doing?” Ludmila, Federico and Leon came over to them with Pablo. “Pablo was just asking about our performance?”

“We're trying to figure out if that girl is our favorite author,” Vilu hushed the others. 

“Oh, the one you can’t track down?” Ludmila asked. “Is she an engineer, because why else would she be here?”

“We don’t know.”

“Hold up a second,” Pablo suddenly started speaking, “It can’t be…” 

“What is Pablo doing?” Fran asked as Pablo started walking towards the woman.

“Well this is your chance to talk to her,” Ludmila stated and started pushing Vilu and Fran toward where Pablo was walking.

***

“Nina? Is it really you?” Nina had been carefully looking around at the house while waiting for Gastón to finish up with his boss. She turned around as she heard suddenly a familiar, buts still a voice that she had not heard in a long time.

“Pablo?” She turned around and saw one of her dad’s cousins standing in front of her.

“It is you.” Pablo hugged her, “It has been years. I almost didn’t recognise you. You have grown up. Tell me, how is Ricardo?”

“Dad works in Miami these days.” Nina explained, “He got a big job offer there in 2017.”

“Well, I see dear cousin is doing well.” Pablo laughed. “I should talk with him more often.”

Nina saw more people come behind Pablo. Two women with black and light brown hair were pushed by a third with blonde hair. They all seemed slightly older than her.

“Guys,” Pablo turned towards the people since he seemed to know them. “This is the daughter of my cousin Ricardo Simonetti, Nina Simonetti”

“So you really are Nina Simonetti?” The black-haired woman asked excitedly. 

“Yes, I am her…” Nina said, a bit taken aback by the sudden attention on her. “Well, actually it is Nina Perida, like this, in person.”

“These two were nervous to come and say hi to you.” the blonde said behind the others.

“Nervous?”

“We love your book.” The brown-haired one started talking. 

“Hey, you have gathered quite a crowd.” Nina felt a hand being placed on her waist.

“Did you get everything done?” She asked Gastón.

“Yes, the paperwork is all signed. The work stuff is done.”

“Uhm, so this is actually Dad’s cousin, Pablo Galindo.” Nina figured some introductions were in order. “Pablo, this is my husband, Gastón.”

“Gastón Perida, good to meet you.” Gastón shook Pablo’s hand. “I can see the family resemblance.”

“Ricardo and me always got confused as brothers when we were growing up.” Pablo laughed. “I really should talk to Ricardo more often, I didn’t know you had gotten married.”

“Yes, Six months ago. It was a really small wedding.” Nina explained, “Gastón works for Mr. Castillo, thats why we are here.”

“So are you the one Dad promoted?” The brown-haired woman asked of Gastón. 

“Yes, I believe I am.”

“That is great news.” the woman smiled excitedly, “Most of his employees are dinosaurs. They need younger people. German Castillo is my father, I am Violetta Castillo.”

“Oh, how silly of me, I didn’t even introduce myself yet,” the black-haired woman started excitedly while offering her hand for a handshake for Nina, “Francesca Caviglia, my husband Diego Hernandez is somewhere in here, but who cares about him? As I said, I am a huge fan of your work. It is really inspirational how a young artist gets her work published while still being in school.”

“Well, thank you.” Nina shook Francesca’s hand, “I didn’t really think it would actually happen, but you can blame him for that.” Nina said looking at Gastón. 

“I forced her to give it a shot with the publishers,” Gastón smiled at her, “World needed to see her talent. But did you say Francesca Caviglia?”

“Hello, what are you talking about?” Two guys came to join them. Nina and Gastón both stared at the curly-haired man for a second… he looked uncannily like Matteo. 

“Excuse me, but you don’t happen to be Federico Paccini?” Gastón was the first to speak. 

Right, Nina suddenly remembered that Matteo had talked to them about his second cousin who apparently looked a lot like him. They had met through his friend he had made through the Eurovision… right, Francesca Caviglia.

“I am Federico Paccini.” the man responded. “How did you know?”

“Our friend Matteo has told us about you.”

“Matteo, as in Matteo Balsano?” Francesca asked. “You know him?”

“He is my best friend.”

“What?”

“Not to throw my hat in this ring of very strange coincidences, but you two look very familiar to me.” The other guy next to Federico started speaking. “I am Leon Vargas, by to way. This is crazy, but you were not in my cousin’s wedding in Mexico a year ago, were you?”

“Are you talking about Simon Alvarez?” Nina thought it was better to let Gastón do the talking. 

“Yes, I am. He is my cousin from my mother’s side.” Leon continued. 

“Simon and Ambar are old friends of ours. I started at the Castillo corporation a week after the wedding.”

“How is world this small?” Violetta exclaimed.

“Oh my god! How did I never realize?” Francesca suddenly uttered. “Matteo briefly told me during the Eurovision auditions that his friend Nina wrote lyrics with him often. It is you isn’t it?”

“Yes, I work for Matteo as a lyricist.”

“Anyways,” Francesca continued, “Would you mind signing the book? It would mean so much to have it.”

“Of course.”

***

“And then it completely toppled over,” Luna explained animatedly as she, Matteo, Nina and Gastón were sitting on the floor of Gastón and Nina’s living room, next to the Christmas tree on the morning of the 25th of December. “It happened right after we had just finished cleaning the kitchen… so we had to do it again.”

“We saw the pictures Matteo sent to us of that gingerbread house,” Nina laughed, “It looked… impressive…”

“I do have a couple of questions about the stability of that construction,” Gastón laughed as well. “But I promised no work talk for today.”

“By the way,” Matteo asked as he sat back down next to Luna after getting another cup of hot chocolate. That was still absolutely necessary at Christmas, whether it was summer or winter. “How was the fancy holiday party?”

“Nice enough,” Gastón responded. “Got the papers signed and the food was good. But guess who we met there?”

“Uuu! I wanna guess.” Luna was already raising her hand, “The president of United states? The Kind of England?”

“No, Mr. Castillo’s—” Gastón knew that he was supposed to call him German now, but it still sounded so weird, “—daughter is Violetta Castillo.”

“The singer?”

“Yes her. She and her friends performed some songs at the party and those friends just happened to be Francesca Caviglia and Federico Paccini, and their respective spouses.” 

“What? Really?” Matteo asked in disbelief, “How did you figure this out.”

“Well, Federico looks quite like you, like you told us,” Nina explained, “And Francesca seems to be a bit of a fan of my book. She asked me to sign it and everything. Honestly, it was a bit nerve-wracking. I didn’t think I’d have fans.”

“Oh, also Simon’s cousin was also there.” Gastón continued.

“Which one?” Luna tilted her head. 

“Vargas. I think he is dating Violetta Castillo.” Gastón explained taking another sip of his chocolate. “He and Federico are also in the same band. We had a nice discussion with them.”

“Simon’s cousin is in All Four You?” Matteo furrowed his brow and opened his phone, “So Leon Vargas? He is related to Simon?”

“Was at the wedding and everything.”

“Anyways… this gives me an idea,” Matteo pondered to himself “I should ask them if they could take part in the new years concert…”

“Matteo, no work.” Luna said firmly, “It is Christmas! Okay, so I just have to tell you what Matteo got me for Christmas!”

“Tell away.”

“So… I took them with us because I wanted to show you,” Luna started digging in the bag she had brought with her and pulled some cards out of it. “So these are like vouchers I can redeem in…”

“Only valid until our wedding.” Matteo smirked. “So she has a year to use them.”

Luna handed the cards to Nina so she and Gastón could look at them. They read stuff like “Three guitar lessons” and “one date night under the moonlight”. They were extremely corny, and exactly something you could expect from Matteo. Gastón thought it was really brave of Matteo to promise to teach Luna with an instrument.

“Very original,” Gastón remarked to Matteo as Nina handed the cards back “Good job Matteo. So what did she get you?”

“A new notebook to write my songs in,” Matteo answered a smile on his face and opened a picture on his phone of a black notebook decorated with strawberry stickers. 

“I decorated it myself.” Luna declared proudly. “Now, your turn. What did you get each other.”

“Well, he got me five new writing journals,” Nina turned to look at Gastón, “Now I will never run out.”

“Well, I happen to know my wife.”  Gastón smiled and placed a kiss on her temple. 

“And you can explain this one,” Nina continued, pointing to her right hand.

“That is so pretty!” Luna gasped.

“Okay,” Gastón said and took ahold of her right hand. In her right ring finger, she was wearing a golden signet ring that had a carving of a rose on it. “So, there is a bit of a story behind why I gave her this.” He looked up at Luna and Matteo. “So, do you remember how both of my paternal grandparents died of cancer while Mom and Dad were still at university?”

“I thought your granddad died in a car crash?” Luna questioned.

“That was mom’s dad.” Gastón corrected, “Anyways, after they died, Dad and Uncle Tomas, of course, inherited everything that they had, which was not much of course, but when they were going through the stuff, dad found an old signet ring, that had a sun on it, from Granny’s things and he did not tell Mom about it. Instead, he got it cleaned up and kept it hidden. He gave it to Mom on the first Christmas after they had gotten married. So I thought, I’d make it a tradition.”

“Aww, that is so cute,” Luna tilted her head and squealed. 

“She got me a watch,” Gastón continued, “After making me believe that I had enough.”

“You would have bought it on your own, so I had to play a couple of physiological games with you.” Nina defended herself. 

“Well, I can forgive you because of the second gift.”

“Uu, what is that?” Luna was jumping on her knees. Almost like the Christmas gift reveals were the most exciting thing in the world.

“Do you wanna explain or do I?” Gastón asked Nina.

“You can do it.”

“Okay,” Gastón got up and walked to get a card from the top of some drawers. 

He handed it to Luna and Matteo.

“OMG! Really?” Luna shrieked while Matteo just looked shocked.

“Yes,” Gastón said as he sat back down next to Nina and wrapped his arm around her waist. “We’re getting a dog after our first anniversary. I have Nina’s promise on writing, and I will hold her to it.”

“What breeds are you considering?” Matteo asked finally recovering from his shock. 

“We have not really talked about it yet,” Nina said looking at Gastón, “But probably a retriever of some sort.”

“You need to let me help with it!” Luna started full on jumping up and down. “I have always wanted a dog!”

“Now as that is out of the way, we should probably exchange our gifts.” Matteo started speaking after Luna had calmed down, “Isn’t that why we are here?”

“Oh, I thought you were here for our company.” Gastón joked. 

“Anyways…” Matteo laughed and pulled a present from the same bag Luna had pulled the cards from. “This is from me and Luna to you two. It might be a bit cheesy, but it is your first Christmas as a married couple so it should be allowed.”

Matteo handed the present to Nina and she opened the wrapping carefully. The wrapping revealed a picture frame and inside of it was a picture of four of them that Luna had taken on, at the time, her a brand new polaroid camera in Matteo’s mom's hometown on their Europe trip a year ago. The picture was on a white background and there was text surrounding it. The text was the lyrics to the song Luna and Matteo had written for Gastón and Nina’s wedding. To the frame was tied a red ribbon and there was a silver pen drive hanging off it.

“That is the official produced recording of the song.” Matteo explained pointing to the drive, “It is officially called Two Hearts, One Story. Like I said before, it will be coming out on my next album, so you can tell me sometime what you want to be said or not said in the song description.”

“The picture was my idea.” Luna piped up.

“This is beautiful.” Nina said looking at the picture frame.

“You really outdid yourselves,” Gastón agreed with her. 

“We do have to admit that Flor helped with the design of that,” Matteo pointed to the picture frame. “It doesn’t hurt that your cousin has masters in art history and that she is dating a graphic designer.”

“Oh, so you don’t hate Oliver anymore?”

“I have never hated Oliver or Jacob or James.” Matteo countered, “But I am your best friend.”

“And no one is challenging that.”

“I think we can talk about that some other time,” Nina said, moving them away from the topic and pulled a wrapped present from under the tree. “Hopefully this will measure to your gift.” She gave the present to Luna and leaned on Gastón’s shoulder while watching Luna excitedly rip the paper off the present. 

“Uuuu, pretty… What is it?”

“It is a photo album,” Gastón explained while Luna handed it to Matteo. “Those may seem bit old-fashioned, but we thought since you will be getting married in a year, you should have a place to store some memories.”

“You can just print some pictures that you take with your phones or use that polaroid camera,” Nina explained. “Concrete photos are always better than digital ones. We took the liberty to start this for you.”

She took the book from Luna and turned it around opening it up. On its first page was a picture of four of them that had been taken in Gastón and Nina’s wedding. 

“I love it!” Luna screamed taking the album from Nina. “I need to start taking pictures of stuff right now.”

“And that was not all,” Nina continued, “You two never had an engagement shoot.”

“I guess we didn’t, what about it?” Matteo asked confused.

The original plan had been for Luna and Matteo to have a professional photographer to take their engagement pictures, but their busy schedules had gotten in the way and, in the end, they had kind of just forgotten about it.  

“You need something to fill that album,” Gastón continued, “So we are going to take your engagement photos.”

“What?” Matteo looked flabbergasted, “You are serious?”

“Yes,” Nina smiled, “One full day, whatever you want. The sky is the limit on the pictures.”

“As long as no one gets hurt, so no fence climbing.”

“OMG! This is Amazing!” Luna jumped on her feet. “Best Christmas ever!”

Luna’s excitement ended up escalating into a huge group hug.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!”

{}

[only-the-gentle-survived]

1-100 of the Holby asks 😎

okay buckle up kids, it’s gonna be a long ride(would also just like to apologise right now for the fact 90% of these questions will have the same answers… three guesses as to which)

also I tried to do a “read more” so this wouldn’t take up your dashes but it didn’t work, soz

100 Questions about Holby City

1. Favourite present character?The queen of my life Jac Naylor obviously2. Favourite past character?My precious child Jasmine Burrows (although it pains me to call her a past character)3. Least favourite present character?Fredrik Johanssen, I literally just don’t care about him at all4. All time favourite character?Jac Naylor5. All time least favourite character?Isaac Mayfield maybe? 6. Favourite recurring character?Does Emma Naylor count??? Also Lexy the vicar7. Favourite nurse?Present - Essie, all time - Chantelle8. Favourite senior doctor?Always has to be Jac9. Favourite junior doctor?Jasmine10. Favourite ward?Darwin without a doubt11. OTPs?Jac/Jonny (also lowkey Ollie/Tara, Ollie/Zosia, Arthur/Morven, Jas/Morven, Jac/Zosia)12. NOTs?Essie/Raf!!! Also Jonny/Bonnie for obvious reasons, Jac/Matteo13. Favourite friendship?Jac/Mo, Jac/Zosia, Jasmine/Morven, Mo/Jonny14. Favourite family relationship?Do I even need to answer this??? Jac and Jasmine forever until the end of time15. Favourite actor/actress?Rosie Marcel16. Favourite quote?Current fave is still “you got the cheekbones, she got the smile” but the “foetus in scrubs” line will always be iconic, as will most of Jac’s lines 17. Favourite current storyline?Jac grieving over Jasmine even though it’s not properly kicked off yet18. Least favourite current storyline?Fredrik, also Essie/Raf19. All time favourite storyline?Jac and Jonny’s relationship/Jac’s pregnancy20. All time least favourite storyline?In terms of boring??? idk but in terms of painful then Tara’s death/Arthur’s death/Jas’s death (sensing a theme here)21. Favourite series? Of what I’ve seen, 15, 16 or 1922. Least favourite series?Don’t really have one23. Favourite episode(s)?I mean… the list is endless but my most faves are probably S14 E41 From Here To Maternity, S16 E13 Self Control, S19 E26 It’s Only Love If It Hurts, S19 E38 Paper Wishes 24. Least favourite episode(s)?Again, there’s loads of boring ones but in terms of most painful it has to be S15 E27 Great Expectations and S19 E37 (I can’t even bring myself to write the title lol), even though the episode itself is incredible25. Favourite scene?Too many… Jac helping Mo give birth, Jonny asking Jac to move in (almost all of their scenes tbh), every scene from Self Control, Jac comforting Zosia after Arthur’s death, Jac and Zosia in the taxi, Jac protecting Jasmine from Serena, Jac and Jasmine laughing in the locker room, both Jac’s locket scenes… I’ll shut up now26. Saddest scene?Jasmine’s death (see also Tara’s death and Arthur’s death)27. Funniest scene?I genuinely can’t even pinpoint one off the top of my head, there’s so many but the locker room scene is up there 28. Scene you’ve re-watched multiple times?Again, loads but Jac and Jasmine’s locker room scene and Jac helping Mo give birth are probably my most watched 29. Most inspiring moment?Idk??? Not so much inspiring as makes me proud, but Jac realising she can be a good mother springs to mind30. Favourite patient?Maybe the young farmers on Darwin31. Favourite cast photo?The second to last one they released32. Favourite cast member?Rosie Marcel33. Describe Holby City in five words.A truly life ruining show34. Describe your favourite character in five words.Queen of my fucking life35. Character you want to return?Jonny Maconie36. Character you want to be treated by?Jac 37. Character you least want to be treated by?Isaac38. Character you never expected to like as much?Jasmine, Zosia39. Character that deserves more screen time?Morven40. Character with the best bedside manner?Mo41. Character with the worst bedside manner?Fredrik42. Character you’d like to be more like?Jac43. Character you first fell in love with?Jac44. Character that you like/love that everybody else dislikes/hates?Idk I can’t think of one??? 45. Character that you dislike/hate that everybody else likes/loves?Can’t think of one46. Character you used to love but no longer do?Idk47. Character who has the best one-liners?Obviously Jac48. Character with the coolest name?Estelle Ava Harrison49. Hottest character?Jac and Ollie50. Sassiest character?Jac51. Best-dressed character (out of scrubs)?Jac, Zosia52. Most caring character?Mo53. Funniest character?Jac54. Most boring character?Fredrik55. Most intriguing character?Jac56. Most entertaining character?Jac (am boring myself with the repetition here, don’t say I didn’t warn you)56. Most relatable character?Jasmine, Mo, Donna57. Most misunderstood character?Jac, Jasmine58. Character you feel most sorry for?Jac, Morven59. Character that annoys you the most?Fredrik60. Character you’d most like to slap?Fredrik61. Character that you have mixed feelings about?Nina and Matteo62. Character(s) you’d like to see get their own spinoff show? Jac, Jasmine, Jonny and Emma pls63. Characters that you’d like to see interact more?64. Jac and Morven bonding over Jasmine, Jac and Damon, Ollie and Morven 65. Character you would bring back from the dead?…..if you don’t know the answer to this by now you’re in the wrong place (of course it’s Jasmine)66. Which character’s death would you never get over?I’ll never get over Jasmine’s obvs, but I actually don’t think I’d cope at all if it was Jac67. Character(s) you’d like to leave?Fredrik68. Which character’s past would you like to learn more about?Morven, Damon69. Most upsetting exit?Jasmine, Arthur, Tara70. Favourite character rivalry?Jac vs everyone 71. Last character to make you cry?Jac72. Last character to make you laugh?Damon73. Last character to make you angry?Fran fucking Reynolds74. Last character to break your heart?Jac75. Last character to make you proud?Morven76. Character you’d like to see develop more?Morven, Damon 77. Thoughts on last week’s episode?Quite enjoyed it but am in serious need more Jac coming soon 78. Which character’s name do you first look for in the cast list whenever looking at spoilers?Jac79. Earliest memory of the show?Jac and Jasmine meeting for the first time80. How did you get into the show?The Casualty30 crossover81. Which colour scrubs do you think would suit you the most?Probably the Keller burgundy ones, but I’d only wear Darwin blue bc I’m loyal to my squad so x82. If you could choose any one of the current characters to remain on the show forever, which character would it be?Jac83. How long have you been watching the show for?Just over a year84. Have you ever had any Holby-related dreams?Yes, about Jac and Jasmine 85. Things you’d like to see happen in the 20th anniversary episode(s)?Anything as long as it involves Jac taking centre stage (and she has to be okay)86. Five things you’d like to see happen on the show?Jac and Jonny reuinion, Jac and Morven to interact more, a Casualty crossover where Jac meets Sam Nicholls, Mo/Zosia/Cara to return87. Three things you love about the show?How relatable the characters are, how inspiring they are, the fact it’s such a good show to escape from your own issues88. Cast member you’d most like to meet?Rosie 89. Have you ever watched any films/shows/shorts starring any of the cast members (in a different role to their character on Holby)?Some of Rosie’s and Lucy’s90. Three things that you’ve learned from watching the show?Lots of medical stuff, that the best friendships are often the unlikely and unexpected ones, not to put a scalpel in your pocket (thanks for that one Jas x)91. Do you have any predictions about anything that might happen on the show in the future?Not really beyond the spoilers of Jac and Fletch growing closer, I’m still praying for a Jac/Jas grave scene like the one in Casualty tho92. Famous person you’d like to see make a guest appearance as a patient?Can we get Lorraine on??? She’s the biggest stan I swear93. If you had the opportunity to appear on the show, would you?Um YES, in a heartbeat94. Do you sing/hum along to the opening theme tune?No I get palpitations bc this show ruins me x95. Is there anything that you would like to see be made canon on the show which probably never will?Is it too much to ask for Jasmine to rise from the dead??? And for Jac and Jonny to reunite??? And Morven and Jac to be friends???96. What do you think would be an interesting storyline for the show to explore?I wish they’d show Jac having a full scale mental breakdown after everything that’s happened to her, it’s almost inevitable at this point plus time be great to have more mental health rep 97. If there was something that you could change about the show, what would it be?For Jasmine not to be dead x 98. Favourite Holby City fanfiction?As in which pairings or which stories? There’s way too many of the latter, but I read anything Jac-related and occasionally some Zollie tbh99. Favourite Holby-related blog? I have loads100. Favourite thing about the Buckle Fandom? How sweet and respectful everyone seems to be!!! It’s the least problematic fandom I’ve ever been in honestly and I love it

THIS WAS LONG AF IM SORRY but I had so much fun answering all the questions ahhhh, thank you!!!

[theseventeenstairs]

Jasmine Burrows and Jac Naylor for the character meme, please!

Jasmine Burrows

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would banghogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuffbest quality: she is the purest thing everworst quality: what do you mean worst quality?! (Her innocence is her downfall but it is by no means her worst quality)ship them with: Morven, they are just too cute together; Zosia too but Jas spent way too little time in Darwinbrotp them with: Jac obviously but also Hanssen because that selfie scene is goldenneeds to stay away from: Fran, ghost or alive she needs to stay far far away from Fran; Oliver Valentine because that boy does not deserve youmisc. thoughts: SHE DOES NOT DESERVE TO DIE (though I understand why the decision is made in the writer’s room)

Jac Naylor

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang (provided she doesn’t kill me first)hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuffbest quality: Her surgical skills and confidence, honestly if I die on her table it will be my weak heart and everythingworst quality: she immediately thinks the worst of people I guess?? although that definitely includes herself sometimesship them with: primarily Zosia but she is certainly cute with Jonny Maconiebrotp them with: Sacha Levy BBC GIVES ME SOME MORE JACHA SCENESneeds to stay away from: Matteo Rossini - no, just nomisc. thoughts: Jac and Fletch better be friends and STAY THAT WAY

Send me a character(s)!!!!

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 8

8. Wrapping presents

“Okay, let's do this,” Vilu dropped what were probably ten thousand different wrapping papers on top of Leon after they had arrived back at their apartment after a long day of shopping. “You have the list?”

“Yes,” Leon said and pulled up a mile-long list Violetta had made while they had been shopping. “You really think we have time to wrap all of these today?”

“Of course,” Vilu said as she raised the shopping bags onto the table. “I’m a professional gift wrapper. I made the most beautiful gift to dad every year when we were traveling all the time. I didn’t have any friends, so that's what I did every day.”

“This is probably the worse time to mention that I suck at wrapping,” Leon noted. “You still have time to call Fran.”

“Oh, I did ask her, but she had some kind of meeting for a collaboration with that friend of hers she met at those Eurovision auditions.” Violetta explained as she started digging in a drawer, “I think his name was Matteo Balsano.”

“Huh, I think I have heard that name before,” Leon pondered. “He was a bit of a newer musician right?”

“Yeah, he is Fede’s second cousin.”

“Wait that was him?”

“Yeah, Fran was the one who brought them together. And Ludmila said that they looked uncannily alike… Leon? What is this doing here?” Violetta raised her head from the drawer and stared daggers at Leon.

“What?”

Violetta had her arms crossed and she was holding a white card that had gold swirls and pearls on it. 

“What was your cousin’s wedding invitation doing in our junk paper drawer?”

“I didn’t put it there,” Leon defended himself.

“You can just admit that you forget about it.” Vilu scoffed, “We don’t even have a wedding gift for them yet.”

“There is still time.” Leon responded, “I did not forget about it. It hasn’t just been on the top of my mind. Mom and Dad took care of the flights and the hotel already. Ah, now I realize where I remembered Matteo from. I am pretty sure he has made a collab with Simon’s band.”

“They know each other?” Vilu questioned.

“Apparently,” Leon shrugged, “Simon moved here almost eight years ago alone after all.”

“We can go shopping for the wedding present on the weekend,” Vilu put the invitation in a basket on top of the chest of drawers where they kept the important mail, which was sparse, but they needed a place so they could keep it separate from all the fan mail. “Now, we were supposed to wrap some presents.”

“Okay, who do we start with?” Leon was eyeing the pile of gifts very suspiciously.

“Uhmm, let's do Fran and Diego first.” Vilu was scanning the list. For them, she had gotten super cute oven mittens. “Look, they have sunflowers on them. Reminds me of their wedding. I wanted to get Fran a copy of her favorite book signed, but it is impossible to track down the author. I am not even sure what country she is even in, with almost zero social media presence. She should be just graduating from Oxford, so I don’t know if she is staying in England to coming back to Argentina. So oven mittens it is!”

“So, how do you wrap oven mittens?” Leon asked. 

“Okay, so it is actually quite easy,” Violetta pulled the red wrapping paper to the table. “Cut this 20 cm per 20 cm will you.”

While Leon was cutting the paper, Vilu stacked the mittens on top of each other and rolled them into a tight cylinder. She tied that with a red ribbon.

“Give me the paper?”

“Here.” Leon handed her the paper. 

“Okay, so now, we just wrap this around the mitten like this,” Vilu rolled the paper around the cylinder and attached it with a piece to clear tape. “And tie ribbon’s in both ends. That easy.”

“Okay, I think I know how to wrap oven mittens if I ever shall need that skill again,” Leon joked, “You did not get oven mittens to others too, right?”

“You were there shopping with me. How do you not know?”

“I was too focused on carrying your bags.”

“Anyways, the answer is no.” Vilu said while reaching for the next gift from the pile, “No oven mittens for the others.”

“So Ludmi and Fede next?”

“Yep,” Violetta answered. In her hands she was holding a box that held three jars of glitter paints.

“Hold up a second…” Leon piped up, “Why are we getting them to paint again?”

“Because Ludmila said that she really wants to decorate that boring big white wall in their house.” Vilu picked a white paper with stars from the table. “She can paint the wall full of stars with these.”

“And I am sure Fede will be thrilled,” Leon remarked sarcastically. 

“Cut this to 30 by 30 will you?” Vilu ignored his remark. “Since this already is in a box, it is much easier to wrap.”

The time was closer to midnight as Violetta and Leon finished their wrapping session.

“Well I would say that we can make a wrapper if you yet.” Vilu laughed as she trimmed the last bow on the last present. “So, the only thing we have left is writing all the cards.”

“Uhmm… Vilu, how do we determine which gift was for who again.” Leon asked while looking at the sea of presents in front of them.

“That…that is a good question,” Vilu agreed with him. “I guess, we just need to try to remember what kind of paper we wrapped each one, or try to determine them by shape…”

“This will take the whole night.” Leon sighed

If someone has not guessed, the "Fran's favorite author" Vilu is talking about is actually Nina as in my timeline her first book got published when she still was in college. This is mentioned both in MOT and in SI. And Fran is a reader since we have seen her fall asleep with a book on her chest and I feel like both Fran and Vilu would be big fans of a young Argentinian female artist.