#and maybe it's just because this is the first year they're doing stuff christmas day instead of christmas eve

[sga-owns-my-soul]

i keep telling myself i don't care that my family isn't talking to me anymore bc i don't like my family

but it's christmas and my mom hasn't even texted me

and now i'm crying on a bus about it

[thoughtvoid]

Now that my work schedule is drying up faster than a puddle in a desert, I have to say. Holiday retail is getting really weird now.

It might just be for the store I work for, because management is making some really weird decisions, but some part of it feels like the shoppers are just. Not doing things at the right time, too.

Like. My work has slashed hours to nothing, to the point that I wouldn't even say we have a skeleton crew 90% of the time. Unless we're a skeleton with a couple of missing limbs. But during holiday, we of course have seasonal workers. Possibly not as many as usual, but also enough to make things noticeably better for the months leading into the Big Sale time. And for the Big Sale time, we had all hands on deck on Friday and Sunday/Monday.

But, while we did have a lot of orders to deal with, the amount of people we had scheduled to work them were actually struggling to have a good consistent workload. There weren't enough orders to keep us all busy, and most of our work was from taking care of the orders made during the holiday when we were closed. But as far as dealing with what came in all day, it was just us juggling with taking whatever had come in during the past ten minutes. Orders started to build up a bit over the weekend, but nothing like what I've experienced in the past and came to expect. The 'peak' days were fine and manageable.

...The days after the Big Sale days were hell, though. Employees to process things slashed immediately back to one person per shift a day, two shifts total. The company advertised a pretty good coupon the day after the biggest online sale day of the year. One day use, so anyone interested would have to order that day. I wasn't originally scheduled for orders, we had freight coming in that I was scheduled to help with instead, but I wasn't at all surprised to get pulled off that to chip away at orders instead. We didn't get the numbers under control for a couple of weeks.

I blame most of the insane workload on our company. Us backroom people weren't given a single break, not one single day without a sale to let us catch up with the orders that the Sales left behind. And our hours for backroom were divvied out to other areas of the store. (Which, granted, the floor upkeep people are basically treated as so low of priority that most of the year we might have one person scheduled to keep up with the entire store. And during the holiday time, they might have been given a couple of extra people who were more expected to back up registers.)

However. The customers were also just making the most inane choices. There were so, so many orders coming in like crazy after the Big Sale days, up until a week before Christmas.

I get that the "Big Sales" are overhyped at this point and not always the real lowest price they ever get to. But I've been at this store long enough that the price they get to is pretty much the lowest things will be through the rest of the year. The sales can be lower, or the coupons higher, but they usually aren't as good or are only just as good as the Big Sale day price. During the year, the sales and coupons might match up to more savings, but during holiday season? Everything's getting roughly the same deals throughout the last month and a half. There's no real need to hold off during the days when stores are prepared for high workload. With all the cost cutting, the store only bolsters its workforce for those specific days. And immediately afterward, they leave all the workers to deal with the floods that came afterward, be it with pushing people to work harder, asking them to stay more hours, pulling people from other shifts, or ultimately calling in people who managed to get a day off.

When it's a one day 40% off one purchase, I get it. That's a company screwing us over problem, and they don't even tell us at the store level when they give those limited time deals. That's something we would prepare for, if the company gave a damn about us being prepared for it. But the one week 25% during subpar sales? I'm sorry, I will be calling everyone who ordered during that kind of sale stupid. There was no need to wait compared to the better sales and coupons earlier. There was no need to have the two people scheduled per day struggling to keep the order numbers under control. And the people ordering the week before Christmas to have things shipped to them? 1) I hope they weren't seriously ordering for Christmas, and were just ordering something for themselves because 2) I hope none of those packages got there in time. In previous years, the website used to have a countdown for when something ordered online would be guaranteed to arrive. They stopped doing that at some point, but the deadline used to be 14 or so days before Christmas. (And they may have stopped giving that countdown because they wanted people who don't plan things well to place more orders even if it might not arrive in time.) My patience is thin during holiday season, and I have no good vibes to send to people who didn't jump on the sales they should have and wait until functionally the last possible moment.

TLDR: Retail holiday season has gotten weird because the Sale days aren't a problem, but for various reasons, the time between those days up until Christmas were horrid.

[astonmartinii]

day seven: (christmas) star power | charles leclerc social media au

pairing: charles leclerc x fem primary school!teacher

oh how one lie can spiral

MASTERLIST | TIP JAR

yourusername

liked by yourbff, yourbrother and 204 others

yourusername: so ummmmmmm i pulled the short straw and am in charge of the school's nativity ??? AND THEN made a comment about my 'boyfriend' charles leclerc and now the whole school and WHOLE village think he is coming to the show ...

view all comments

yourbff: are you fucking dumb ???

yourusername: YES

yourbff: you told the headmaster that your boyfriend is CHARLES LECLERC ????

yourusername: i said it in JEST

yourusername: like ooohhhh my boyf charles

yourusername: and i guess that my framed picture of him on my desk definitely didn't help ...

yourbff: you have a framed picture of him on your desk...

yourusername: it was a christmas present from my cousin 😭

yourbff: oh but why would you have it on your desk - you're a primary school teacher all those kids do is ask questions

yourusername: why are you VICTIM BLAMING SO MUCH

yourbff: because you're DUMB

yourbrother: oh they're gonna stone you when they figure out it's not true

yourusername: they should know it's not true ITS CHARLES LECLERC

yourbrother: so you're saying you couldn't just go to monaco right now and pull him? disappointing

yourusername: 1. i'm broke as fuck 2. i am me and he is he

yourbrother: ugh such a skill issue

yourbff: bro it's hit f1twt

yourusername: WHAT

yourusername: who the fuck is on f1twt from our village

yourbff: maybe it was me...

yourusername: REALLY?

yourbff: no you actual dumbass

yourusername: no but for real these people are insane detectives they're going to figure out it's me and i'm going to be CANCELLED

yourbff: lol

yourusername: fuck you.

charles_leclerc

liked by landonorris, pierregasly and 1,034,289 others

tagged: arthurleclerc & lorenzotl

charles_leclerc: just a quiet christmas for the leclercs this year

view all comments

user4: because we're going to somerset right?

user5: does he know he's meant to be in somerset?

user6: does he know what a nativity is?

user7: girl he may be an f1 driver who didn't finish school but he's not THAT dumb

landonorris: why am i seeing that you're coming to my ends for christmas?

charles_leclerc: am i??? why would i want to spend even more time with you?

landonorris: first of all - rude. second of all i have literally seen posters about you coming to the village?

charles_leclerc: what is a village?

landonorris: okay mr monte carlo some of use aren't from a tax haven

charles_leclerc: also when you're this beautiful, people tend to paste your face everywhere, you can't relate

landonorris: even RUDER

landonorris: my young cousin goes to the school and is completely convinced that you're coming to the show and dating his teacher

charles_leclerc: WHAT

yourusername: oh my jesus christ

user8: and if that one girl on f1twt made it all up...

user9: would be the only good thing to come out of that place

pierregasly: what is this i'm hearing of you having a girlfriend? charles i am HURT

charles_leclerc: where are you all hearing all of this stuff?

pierregasly: twitter!

charles_leclerc: oh jesus christ

pierregasly: you've got yourself in a right mess

charles_leclerc: ME?

charles_leclerc: this is clearly the work of a downright lunatic or a lonely cat woman with FAR too much time on her hands

yourusername: oh he gagged me there

yourbff: heyyy you have a dog not a cat!

charles_leclerc: who are you people?

yourusername: NO ONE

user10: what on earth is going on

user11: and WHO is @yourusername

yourusername: NO ONE

landonorris

liked by pierregasly, oscarpiastri and 1,034,277 others

tagged: charles_leclerc

landonorris: look who came to see me :)

view all comments

user13: holy....

user14: oh charles at the nativity is still so on

user15: my hopes are simply too high now good lord

user16: lowkey hoping this is all one big lie from f1twt that has managed to convince ACTUAL drivers to go to a random village

oscarpiastri: how did he get an invite to the norris house before i did ?

oscarpiastri: do my 'heart eyes' mean nothing to you?

landonorris: no babe i can explain it's for the bit

charles_leclerc: babe?

oscarpiastri: stay out of this old man

charles_leclerc: that's no way to talk to your father

oscarpiastri: my father wouldn't do such things for 'the bit" WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN

landonorris: it's a joke osc

oscarpiastri: so i'm a joke to you? i see how it is

landonorris: NO THE TWITTER JOKE

landonorris: has he just put his phone on do not disturb?

charles_leclerc: he said he's going to bed (it is actually quite late in australia dude)

landonorris: how do you know that?

charles_leclerc: he replied to my text :)

landonorris: WHAT

charles_leclerc: family comes before whatever pathetic crush he has

user17: how have we gotten to this point?

user18: just smile and wave boys this is mental illness on show

charles_leclerc: you're right, having a crush on lando is mental illness

landonorris: then it's time to get your son sectioned!

alexalbon: well this has all gotten a bit serious now - can we get back to the actual reason charles is at your house?

yourusername: @yourbff oh brother this is getting TOO REAL

yourbff: to put it quite kindly you are royally FUCKED

yourusername: i might have to move to another country, change my name and get bangs :(

yourbff: NOT BANGS

landonorris: who are you people and why are you always camping out in our comment sections

yourusername: WE'RE NO ONe

landonorris: WAIT I HAVE MUTUALS WITH YOU?

landonorris: NOOOOOOOOO

landonorris: she blocked me?

yourbff

liked by yourusername, landonorris and 304 others

tagged: yourusername

yourbff: take a good look at her folks because i have reason to believe that if a certain someone turns up at the show she will KILL HERSELF. love you queen, rest in divadom

view all comments

yourusername: this sounds very dramatic

yourusername: but you are correct

yourusername: my life will come to a short and all round inconsequential end tonight

yourbff: it is dramatic

yourbff: but i understand queen

yourbff: your celebrity crush who you have had a parasocial relationship with for years is coming with the express purpose of embarrasing you because he believes you are a sad, sad woman who has created an elaborate lie that you're in a relationship

yourusername: well yeah that sums it up pretty well - you think you could put that on my head stone?

yourbff: i don't think we can afford that

landonorris: i can pay!

yourusername: AHHHHHHH

yourbff: AHHHHHH

landonorris: oh forgot to say but found you! we have a lot of mutual friends lol

landonorris: actually i think my mum and your mum are in the same book club!

yourusername: you're aware this is creepy?

landonorris: you're aware that pretending to be my friend's girlfriend is creepy

yourusername: THERE WAS A GROSS MISUNDERSTANDING OVER MY DESK DECOR

landonorris: sureeeeeee

yourusername: also charles isn't even the only man i have framed on my desk, i have my dog, justin from wizards of waverely place, jason kelce and marc marquez, he's just the one the old lady picked out

yourbrother: now we have actual f1 drivers in the comments, how can we get free tickets from them?

yourusername: so my impending suicide means nothing?

yourbrother: not really. i might take your car if you die

charles_leclerc: so this was all one big scheme to get tickets? there's no show ???

yourbrother: that's what you're focusing on? not that she has a whole town under the impression that you're dating some irrelevant primary school teacher?

yourusername: rude?

charles_leclerc: a primary school teacher? that's cute

yourusername: wait did you think i was just doing the nativity for the love of the game?

yourbrother: who gives a fuck he called you CUTE

yourusername: oh!

yourbrother: she passed out :/

charles_leclerc: i didn't know i had that kind of effect on people

landonorris: oh fuck off of course you do

charles_leclerc

liked by landonorris, maxverstappen1 and 1,539,056 others

tagged: yourusername

charles_leclerc: met my long lost girlfriend (and most importantly her dog)

view all comments

user20: omg i do not know how to feel

user21: WHO WAS GOING TO TELL ME SHE'S THAT BEAUTIFUL

user22: i 100% thought the gal was gonna at least be in her 40s

landonorris: i guess she puts on a pretty good nativity

charles_leclerc: which kid is your cousin?

landonorris: the lobster!

pierregasly: LOBSTER?

charles_leclerc: @yourusername why was there a lobster?

yourusername: ummmm there's a lot of kids in the class and i was running out of roles? all animals are gods creations?

charles_leclerc: seems sacrilegious but it was cute <3

charles_leclerc: just like you

pierregasly: that was awful

yourusername: SHUT UP

yourusername: thank you charles :)

charles_leclerc: no worries princess x

user23: i am losing my mind ?????

user24: bro got tricked into going to SOMERSET and has actually fallen for her

user25: i mean ... look at her

yourusername: i do also have a cracking personality if i do say so myself

yourbff: oh girl you needed it after i held your hair back three times in the lead up to meeting charles

yourusername: and i will repay you somehow ???

yourbff: well.... now you've charmed a certain someone can we inquire about his pool of friends

landonorris: hi!

charles_leclerc: no not that one he's not cute enough

landonorris: you're really mean

charles_leclerc: @yourbff may i introduce my good buddy joris

landonorris: JORIS ???

charles_leclerc: well i regularly want to throttle you so i think it would be better to go on double dates with someone i actually like ?

user26: charles leclerc is the origin of the sassy man apocalypse

user27: i think the paddock was the start of it all

yourusername: i can't believe this actually happened :')

charles_leclerc: and i can't wait to see where it goes

yourusername: see you for new years pretty boy

charles_leclerc: i think i already know who my new years kiss might be

yourusername: i'm already waiting :3

fin.

note: i hope you all had a fun christmas! i had a great day with my family and am workin hard to get the rest of this series out!

[wileys-russo]

summer christmas II a.russo

third little christmas fic installment! summer christmas II a.russo

"less, you're being a little bit dramatic." you chuckled, laid on the bed watching your girlfriend rifle through her suitcase grumbling and mumbling under her breath. "i am not! this is just wrong, its all wrong." the english woman shook her head with a huff as you merely smiled in amusement.

"baby you're just hot and bothered, you'll adjust in a few days! you've barely been here twenty four hours." you assured, pulling yourself to sit against your headboard and crossing your legs underneath you.

"exactly, and in that twenty four hours i've slept for about two of them!" the normally soft spoken blonde snapped, yanking a red bikini out of her bag and tossing it into the ever growing piles of clothes on the floor beside her.

"that's just the jetlag babe. it was the same when you came here last time, unfortunately the flight and the time differences don't change lessi, i tried speaking to someone about it but apparently mere mortals can't change geographical lines and locations." you teased gently with a grin, perfectly manicured eyebrows furrowing together in a scowl sent your way shortly after.

"it wasn't anywhere near this hot when we were here in august, i'm going to melt!" the girl groaned, kicking her case closed and flopping down backwards on the end of the bed, face buried in her hands.

"thats because again its summer right now less. i also spoke with mother nature but she won't drop the temperature, turns out she's nearly as stubborn as you." you sighed sarcastically, laying down so your head was near hers as she rolled onto her side.

"you are not cute." the blonde warned as you winked, poking her nose as she smacked your hands away and rolled onto her back again.

"this is like opposite day on repeat! its supposed to be freezing cold and you wear hundreds of layers and drink hot chocolate and get cosy and have a fire and chop down a tree an-" your british girlfriend rattled off her regular traditions, ticking them off with her fingers.

"we can still do that stuff! well maybe not all of it, but we can watch christmas movies and go look at lights and have iced chocolates! we can take my nieces to the carols in the park, we can also go to the beach everyday and out on my brothers boat and we can stay out later because the sun doesn't set till after nine, and my mum got us all matching pyjamas! they're just...summer ones." you tried to assure, moving onto your stomach and looking down at her with a few encouraging nods.

"but its not the same! i've never had a hot christmas, all of its just wrong." alessia moaned, arms covering her face as you deflated a little and wriggled back to sit up, fiddling with your fingers in your lap for a second as doubts began to swirl around in your head at her words.

the two of you played at arsenal together and quickly clicked when alessia transferred, having met at a few social events the last couple of years you'd been in england and gotten close with some of your english teammates who'd gone above and beyond to make you feel welcome.

it helped having steph and caitlin around, and then now kyra, plus the rest of your matildas teammates scattered throughout london whom you regularly made efforts to catch up.

you and alessia had only been seeing one another for about a year and a half now but if you asked anyone who'd spent time with you during that period they'd tease you acted as if it had been much much longer.

last year you'd spent your first christmas in england with the russo family, finally having a reason not to go home which as much as it broke your mums heart she was overjoyed you'd met someone, bonus being it someone as kind and thoughtful as alessia was.

but this year you'd promised to come home for christmas, not having much of a chance to see your family all season between the olympics, international games, league games and champions leagues matches that had kept you more than busy the last twelve months.

you'd not expected your girlfriend to come with you, the two of you more than accustomed now to having to spend time apart playing for different countries. but when alessia teasingly floated the idea over dinner, feigning offence you hadn't asked her, it had all blossomed from there and now here she was.

you were much more used to the long haul flight home than the blonde was though, having done it dozens of times over the years for international commitments among the league games in england.

you'd come home pretty much the very day your break started, just under a week earlier than alessia to allow her to spend a little bit of the december break with her own family before she flew herself to australia.

but ever since you'd picked her up from the airport yesterday you could tell she was rather miserable.

there'd been turbulence and two screaming babies on the flight despite the fact the striker had flown business, which meant she'd not slept anywhere near as much as planned, and adjusting to the time difference hadn't been kind.

so slowly those doubts that you'd made a wrong choice asking her here grew louder and louder, until you just had to say something or else it felt as it you might burst.

"do you wish you'd stayed in england?" you asked quietly, attempts to mask the insecurity in your voice null and void as your girlfriend shot up, guilt written clear all over her face which sank as it caught the obvious nerves in your features that she regretted her choice to come home with you for the holidays during break.

"what? baby no of course not. i'm so excited to finally meet your whole family and spend time with them and with you, i'm so sorry for being so negative. i'm just tired and grumpy but that is not at all fair to take out on you." the blondes hands moved to settle either side of your face, bright blue eyes scanning yours as you gave a small nod, clearly not believing her.

"oh my love, really i am excited! we're going to do all that stuff you just said and i want to learn about your traditions and what you like doing for christmas. a summer christmas is just new for me thats all! but new things aren't bad things." alessia pushed, thumbs stroking your jawline and feeling the obvious tension in your body drop just a little at her words.

"less are you sure? it wouldn't be easy but we can find a flight back for you before christmas eve." you questioned, the taller girl nodding enthusiastically and leaning in to press her lips sweetly against yours a few times.

"more than sure, there's no need for that at all. this is no different to when you stayed in england with me and had a winter christmas last year, and you were nothing but cheerful and sweet and lovely the entire time." the blonde promised with another nod, stealing a few more kisses as the corners of your mouth upturned a little.

"mm theres that smile, welcome back." the striker grinned happily, a laugh finally leaving you as she practically tackled you back to the bed, moving on top of you as her hair fell around the pair of you like a curtain.

"i wasn't the one with the smiling problem russo." you poked her as she winced sheepishly. "i know. but from now on, i will embrace these new experiences with open arms!" the english woman announced, laying down on top of you and kissing all over your face.

"i'm happy to hear that." "yeah? i'm happy to say it." "good, because its thirty two degrees outside right now and the air cons only in the living room." you scrunched your nose up as the blonde faltered, taking a deep breath and exhaling.

"thats fine! i'm fine. lets just go to the beach!"

~

it turns out you and your girlfriend clearly had different expectations of what open arms and a beach day meant, as alessia lay on the beach recharging herself in the sun and you'd spent the entire time begging she get in the water with you.

"lessi come on! what happened to being open to new experiences?" you groaned, stealing her sunglasses and slipping them over your nose as she squinted up at you, sheltering her eyes with her hand.

"give!" the blonde demanded, making grabby hands as you shook your head and shuffled back on your knees. "swim!" you countered, smacking her thigh gently as she sighed heavily.

"swimming in december feels illegal." "not going in the water when you're at the beach is illegal." "babe the waves are huge, i'll get...what did you call it again?" "mm, dumped? we're not going surfing alessia!" you laughed, pushing her hand away where she reached for her sunglasses back again.

"but tanning feels so nice!" the blonde whined, arms covering her face. "you'll have plenty of time to get sunburnt like a little lobster baby, i promise." you cooed sarcastically, your girlfriend shoving you and finally sitting up on her towel.

"that was one time." "lessi its every time, you refuse to wear sunscreen!" "sun cream, and because it feels...sticky." "well does crying about how much it hurts to shower and peeling off your burnt skin feel better?" you countered quickly, the striker opening and closing her mouth.

"come on!" you hopped up to your feet, holding out your hand toward her and wiggling your fingers impatiently. "you know your persistence is incredibly irritating." alessia gave in, grabbing your hand as you pulled her up to stand.

"and here you used to find it endearing." you teased, the blondes hand smacking against your ass as you blushed and pushed her. "theres families here!" you warned as the girl smiled, simply shrugging and interlocking her fingers with yours as you tossed her sunglasses onto her towel and lead her down to the waters edge.

"how do you get in without being smashed by the waves?" her grip on you tightened as another set came rolling in. "timing. you see how the waves all crash here? thats the breaking point, once the last wave crashed you move past that, and then you just duck dive under the big ones until you get out the back!" you explained, the english woman staring on clueless as you laughed.

"come on, on three we run into the water. one, two..." again her grip on your hand tightened but she nodded none the less. "go!" you raced off but felt her hand slip out of yours, glancing back as alessia shook her head and remained rooted in position.

"how is it thirty five degrees and the water is freezing cold?" the striker scoffed having stepped one foot in and recoiled immediately as you grinned at her from the shallows.

"i swear babe if you say something about mother nature when i get out there i'll drown you!" the blonde warned seriously as you held up your hands, glancing over your shoulder.

"okay now, go baby!" you encouraged, waving for her to run to you, a moments hesitation passing before she gingerly waded in, wincing every few steps until finally she'd made it past the break point, the water barely up to her hips.

"jesus christ i'm going to get hypothermia!" the older girl wrapped her arms around herself with a shiver making you roll your eyes. "but i'm the dramatic one?" you questioned in disbelief. "no not dramatic baby, sensitive." the girl patted your cheek condescendingly with a pout as you narrowed your eyes at her.

"dickhead." you poked her with a shake of your head. "do you want to know a secret to adjusting to the water faster?" you asked as your girlfriend nodded eagerly.

"well its quite simple, you just get your head wet!" you grinned and before the taller girl could blink you'd barreled into her, sending her toppling over into the water as she surfaced with a gasp.

"oh you're dead." you squealed as you were tugged down into the water with her, plunged in head first before you popped back up with a cough, having swallowed a lungful of water in the purpose.

"hey you said snowball fights was a big thing in england?" you questioned, the two of you moving into water a little deeper as alessia nodded. "well we can do that too." you promised as the girl looked at you clearly confused.

"how? theres no snow." "no, but there is sand!" you grinned, smacking a handful of wet sand from the ocean floor into her hair as she gasped.

"are you fucking kidding-" "wave! duck!" you interrupted, grabbing her by the arm and pulling the pair of you under, tugging her out to swim even deeper past where the waves started and you could relax a little more.

"it was a joke!" you laughed as your girlfriend launched at you once you did, latching onto you and forcing your head back underwater with a grunt, the two of you wrestling in the water before you yelled for a truce.

"maybe this isn't so bad." the blonde admitted, swimming up behind you, arms circling your waist and her chin making a home on your shoulder as the pair of you stared back toward the beach, the water now calm and bright turquoise, sparkling where it was hit with the sun.

"thank you for agreeing to come." you turned your head, capturing her lips in hers with a soft smile. "thank you for asking me to come." alessia squeezed you appreciatively before you both turned back to your people watching.

"are they playing...cricket?" your girlfriend asked in bewilderment watching a young family race back and forth across the sand. "yeah! beach cricket, an aussie classic. but not surpassed by backyard cricket, which you'll get to experience on christmas day." you explained as the blonde hummed curiously.

"really?" "yeah! we have a tournament every year with the whole family even my nan and pop, between lunch and presents." "so we do christmas lunch, not dinner, right?"

you nodded, answering a few more questions about what the next few days had lined up for the pair of you, stopping your explanation of why santa was left a beer and not milk when familiar lips started to trail across your neck.

"you're going to get us in trouble if you leave a mark russo." you chuckled in warning, relaxing in her hold as the striker merely hummed, your eyes closing as your face was bathed in sunshine and soft kisses were peppered down your jaw.

"well your mums already made it very clear that i have permission." you groaned at that, pushing her away and pulling a face. "well you've ruined the mood with that haven't you." you huffed, starting to wander back in until fingers hooked into the sides of your bikini bottoms and tugged you backwards.

"i'm sorry! i've just never met a woman who took such healthy interest in her daughters sex life." alessia teased, your response swallowed with her mouth pressing to yours with a cheeky grin.

"its not funny! its humiliating she has no boundaries and we're stuck with her for the next week." you groaned, head resting against her shoulder as the girls thumbs traced circles against your hips, the two of you staying in your childhood home where everyone would be gathering for the holidays.

"baby its not that bad. she's just very...progressive! and supportive." "you know i think if you were a boy she'd have left condoms on the side table and the book of karma sutra on the bed."

~

"santa came get up get up get up!" you groggily lifted your head feeling three little bodies jump up and down on top of you, alessia stirring next to you with a tired exhale.

"are you awake yet? wake up!" one of your nieces shouted in your ear as you tiredly lifted a hand and made a thumbs up, the three young girls belonging to your older brother taking that as a yes and jumping down, racing off to wake up the rest of the family.

you exhaled tiredly, dragging your hands down your face and jolting as your door swung open again. "hope no ones naked! merry christmas girls, up we get!" your mum sung out, flinging open your blinds as you groaned.

"jesus christ mum come on!" your cheeks flushed red at her brash words feeling alessias body vibrate with a small chuckle beside you as the woman shrugged, flicking on your light and striding on out again.

"i think i'm adopted." you grumbled, rolling over and burying your face in your girlfriends shoulder. "well thats quite the wake up." the brit rasped out with another chuckle, hand rubbing up and down your back soothingly.

"merry christmas less." you pulled back and rested your head on your pillow again, bright blue eyes and a tired smile staring back at you. "merry christmas love." she repeated, pecking your lips quickly given neither of you had brushed your teeth yet.

"get up!" you both winced as a hand smacked against the wood of your door, your brother flipping you off in the doorway as you rolled your eyes and forced yourself up into a sitting position, alessia rubbing her eyes and exhaling, face still puffy with sleep.

"how is it already hot?" the english woman groaned in disbelief, the two of you sleeping under a thin sheet and even then barely able to touch one another bar a bit of hand holding when you were dozing off due to the thick humidity of your childhood bedroom.

"welcome to your first summer christmas." you laughed, running a hand through her hair as she hummed, the two of you gradually getting out of bed and already hearing the commotion of your family downstairs.

"mum no photos! its seven in the fucking morning." you groaned, wincing at the obvious click of her phone camera shoved in your face as you and alessia stumbled into the kitchen.

"oi you watch your fucking mouth!" your dad chimed in with a point making your girlfriend laugh and your eyes roll as the pair of you followed everyone into the living room.

"look look! this ones for me!" your eldest niece gasped, all three of them already riffling through the mountain of presents as you sent her an encouraging smile and collapsed onto the corner of the sofa.

alessia took a seat beside you as you slung one of your legs over hers, the pair of you exhaling in relief at the air con blasting right above you and wishing a merry christmas the rest of your family who were lounging around the room, your dad taking charge to handing out presents.

"oh thank you!" your girlfriend smiled appreciatively as he handed the pair of you one each, labeled from santa which you knew meant they were from your mum which was what you whispered in the blondes ear who chuckled and squeezed your knee.

though as you began to unwrap yours you realized very quickly you may have been a little too quick with your excitement, catching the word 'dental dams' on the side of the box and stuffing it down the side of the sofa before anyone else could see.

"oh my god mum!" "what? santa just wants you to be safe darling!"

[snickerdoodlles]

one of my most formative fandom experiences was a comment i had gotten on a fic i wrote for a halloween themed fandom event.

this was for a manga/anime, so the fic was a general ghost story obviously set in Japan. the beginning of it involved a pizza delivery and while writing it, i had spent like 30 minutes just double checking tipping customs and the types of pizza they serve and even fell down a wikipedia rabbit hole looking up the history of pizza in Japan.

now, i just like the research part of writing, i do stuff like this because i have fun doing it. and while i was writing this particular fic, i had laughed at myself for my 30 minutes of googling that amounted to 2.5 offhand lines in a 3500 word fic. i didn't think anyone would care about or even notice those particular details except for me, especially since none of them were relevant to the ghost part of this ghost story.

except, when i had sent this fic to a Japanese friend, the first thing she said to me about it was "OH MY GOD YOU GOT THE PIZZA RIGHT"

and that was the moment when it had really clicked for me. what had just been 30 minutes of effort on my part had become a moment of relief for her. my friend was far more used to reading ethnocentric fic that ranged from unintentional ignorance to outright superiority against part of her culture (the original story's culture no less). and even with the "innocent" ignorance (heavy quotes on that) far outstripping any outright maliciousness, that's still so many people saying her culture was not worth learning about. the pizza in my story was a small detail, but i had cared enough to put in some effort to check it. and for her, coming from a fic experience where her norm was bracing for hundreds of inaccuracies born of ignorance, especially at that time after a flood of stories centered around "Halloween as a cultural holiday in the US" premises instead of the "Halloween is a commercial gimmick in Japan" reality, seeing someone put in some effort even for minor story details meant something to her.

this also throws me back to the discourse that arose in a french show fandom a few years ago because there were a lot of fic authors that wrote 'dollars' instead of 'euros'-- but when people brought this up as a prevalent issue across the fandom but an easy one to fic/watch out for, many of these writers instead pushed back to complain that they were posting stories for free and it wasn't that big of a deal. which really upset a lot of people, but then this upset was met with a new wave of indignation that people needed to 'get over it' because they're writing fic ~just as a hobby~. but, even if 'dollars' instead of 'euros' wasn't a big deal, by digging in their heels about the issue, they were saying "your culture isn't worth even five minutes of my time or effort."

I've been thinking about these things lately because the ethnocentrism in Thai drama fandoms is...staggering. just over the turn of the year, there were waves of Christmas fic for Buddhist characters. and just. Christmas in Thailand is a tourist thing at best. sometimes a pop culture gimmick for international audiences or maybe an offhand high school thing to blow off steam between midterms. it's not a cultural thing. and even if a character is a part of the Christian minority, a Christian Thai's holiday customs and culture are going to be vastly different than a Christian's customs in the Americas or Europe. and while the Christmas fic is at least finished for now, I'm already bracing myself for the Easter fic wave that also seems to pop up for Thai dramas. it's so frustrating to see this sort of cultural overwrite all the time, especially since most Thai drama holiday works aren't about Thai holidays.

but the thing that really got me bristling about all of this again was i saw a post the other day where op said that they weren't going to write [thai drama] fic because they don't know much about thailand.

what an absolutely appalling statement to make.

google is right there. wikipedia is free. you don't even have to leave tumblr or AO3 to learn more because there are Thai natives in fandom who write essays to explain common elements of their culture. hell, even just watching these Thai stories and considering the values and messages imparted by the narrative framework and story lens tells you something about that culture. the audacity to look at a culture different from your own and say "this is not worth my effort or time to learn anything more about," are you kidding me?!?

the messages and values of a story tell you about the writer's values, which are going to carry their cultural values, beliefs, and biases. Thai culture is going to be heavily relevant to any Thai story, even the ones that aren't explicitly about Thai culture/customs/etc. (hell, Thai bl/gl as a genre alone-- just the fact that queer Thai writers are making these stories in Thailand's current political climate is highly political, even the "fluffy" ones that don't seem to make outright political statements.) to approach any story like it was made in a vacuum is to remove the writer(s)' culture and values and to overwrite them with your own.

especially because this is fandom. these are the lowest stakes to learn! it sucks to see people say things like "but i'm scared i'll get something wrong" and hold up that fear as a shield to justify their ignorance. no one's expecting anyone to get every detail right, especially not for a culture that isn't theirs, just make an effort to learn something new about it. pick out something that caught your eye as different to learn more about and see where it leads you.

and for the record--making a mistake trying to broaden your horizons is a far, far better thing to do than to superimpose your culture on everyone else's because you're scared to confront your ignorance.

edit: check out this reblog thanks

[0alix0]

Can't get rid of a thought about how utterly USELESS the 10 year time jump really was.

I didn't like the idea first, it's a DECADE we're talking about. Like for this time alone you can get a child and raise them to a 4th grade, you can get a full medical degree, you can grow a Christmas tree from sprout. A DECADE GUYS. And I'm not even talking about logical missteps. What was Inquisitor doing this whole time? What the fuck was Solas doing this whole time?? I don't remember any new of his shenanigans being mentioned in the game. Why didn't his agents push him further into action because, you know, they're not getting any younger? Why's Varric still chasing after Solas??? Why's Lavellan still chasing after him??? It's a decade, any normal healthy person would reasonably calm down and maybe give up at all. and if they aren't normal healthy people, then you should probably show them being unhealthily attached to solas, give the reasons for it and consequences!

STILL there was potential for drama. Seeing some older versions of companions moving on with their life, changing so much since the last time we saw them. Inquisitor being a bit too old to deal with all that, maybe having a family, kids. Lavellan becoming one of the primary reasons for Solas to destroy the veil, because she's right there dying slowly because of the it, because of him.

Good stuff.

But no. It literally doesn't matter! It's never used for anything even remotely emotional. The only reason it exists is to justify the lack of character choices from previous games, and even THAT feels like a bullshit when you look back at the Inquisition. A game that takes place 10 YEARS AFTER ORIGINS yet still respects at least SOME of the player's choices beyond "who did you fuck?"

And now everybody just ignores it! Fans, writers, even the developers who created npcs. Isabella looks about the same she did in DAI multiplayer. Harding's just changed her hair a bit. Morrigan has the same face as she had in Inquisition. The only one who kinda changed is Varric, but.... come the fuck on, take inquisition!Varric, put him into vagrant's clothes, grow some hair, dye it, and make him alcoholic. One month of work. That's it.

Shit's hilarious 🚬

[sargeantposting]

A Logan Sargeant Primer: Part I (2000 - 2015)

Logan grows up in a ritzy suburb of Fort Lauderdale called Lighthouse Point with his parents and his older brother, Dalton.

The Sargeants don't have a deep motorsport history. Dalton and Logan get their first go-karts for Christmas in 2006, a gift from their father after their mother refuses to let her children ride dirt bikes anymore. Logan tells the NYT that:

“No one in the family was really even that much into racing. We just picked it up as a hobby, something to do on the weekend.”

The two brothers get more serious as the years go by-- within a few years, they're racing competitively. They both do well. Logan finishes in third place in only his first year of racing, and wins two titles in his second. 

Unfortunately, they figure out fairly quickly that there isn’t much more room to advance in American karting:

My older brother, Dalton, and I had been racing for a few years, and it had gotten to the point where we were asking around about where the next best level of competition was, and everybody was saying the same thing…. It was always Europe, Europe, Europe, Europe. To the point where my parents really started to think about it. At first it was just this idea, like Maybe we’ll move to Europe, who knows. I was just a kid overhearing stuff, so I didn’t know how serious the conversation must have been until this day I’ll never forget.

The conversation gets serious in 2012, when Logan’s dad, Daniel, asks the two if they want to move to Switzerland:

It was summer, and we were out to lunch. It was me, my dad, and Dalton. [...] So we’re at this restaurant, right? Chowing down on burgers (my favorite), and my dad gets to asking us about racing. Finally, he’s like, “What do you guys think? Do you really want to race in Europe? Are you 100% sure about this?” Me being 11 and naive, I was like, “Yeah sure.”  Looking back on it, I think I was lucky I was that young and that I didn’t really know what I was signing up for. All the different ways it could change my life, the level of sacrifice it would require from my whole family. Because if I had known, I don’t know if I would’ve made the same decision so easily. It all happened fast, like in the movies. One minute, it’s Christmas, I’m six, and me and Dalton are yelling at the top of our lungs, excited about the two karts sitting in the driveway, pointed diagonally at each other like in a magazine. Next minute, I’m 11 and Dalton’s 14. We’re sitting at the table eating lunch with my dad, and it’s decided — our family’s moving to Europe.

When Logan tells the same story in GQ in 2023, he says:

I was always just going with the flow. For me it was just: sure.

The Sergeant family leaves for Switzerland just as Logan finishes up fifth grade. While Logan always talks about the family move to Switzerland in the context of his parents making sacrifices for his career, it's a little more complicated than that.

 GQ’s profile steps around the subject, briefly mentioning that “in addition to the racing opportunities, [Logan’s] Dad had business there.” Unfortunately, business would be an understatement. 

At the time, Logan’s dad, Daniel, worked for the family business– an asphalt trading and shipping company named Sergeant Marine. One of the driving forces behind Sergeant Marine’s success would be Daniel’s older brother, Harry. 

When Logan’s detractors mention his family’s connections to Trump, they’re usually referencing Harry. The NYT describes his billionaire uncle as “a former [Top Gun] fighter pilot and onetime finance chair of Florida’s Republican Party who has been sued by the brother-in-law of King Abdullah II of Jordan and whose name turned up, tangentially, in the 2020 impeachment of former President Donald J. Trump. (Harry was not accused of any wrongdoing.)” 

Harry would leave the company around the time Daniel moved his family to Switzerland. According to The Florida Phoenix, “The entire family was embroiled in a long-running bitter series of lawsuits that ended with a 2015 bankruptcy settlement. Harry III walked away with a cool $56-million. In return he gave up any claim to ownership of Sargeant Marine and other family companies. There were 14 different lawsuits in several states in addition to the bankruptcy. The lawsuits produced salacious testimony that could only arise in a vicious dispute between millionaires. Harry III accused his brother Daniel of spending millions on his sons’ pursuits of race car driving and other ventures. Meanwhile, Daniel accused Sargeant III of being a spendthrift on things such as a $7.5-million mansion, private jets and exotic cars.”

Logan with his dad.

It would, somehow, get worse:

Oil and asphalt mogul Harry Sargeant III claims that industrial design plans along with recordings of "private consensual relations" were purloined from his private email account and traded off to a corporate intelligence agent as part of a years-long smear campaign against him spearheaded by his brother. Reigniting a long-running saga of brother-against-brother litigation, Harry Sargeant III claims that hundreds of pages of business records, personal discussions and "extremely sensitive videos and photographs" were illegally obtained from his email account. The material was used as currency for information-bartering between his brother Daniel Sargeant and a corporate intelligence chief at the nonparty legal service firm Burford, the lawsuit alleges. Harry is demanding damages for alleged invasion of privacy on the part of Daniel. The brothers had in years past worked together on managing the Sargeant family's global oil and asphalt empire, before intra-family disputes began to tear them apart. [...] The lawsuit claims the Burford investigator, a former corporate attorney, knows Harry well. According to the court documents, the investigator for years worked as an enforcement agent on a $28 million judgment secured against Harry by the king of Jordan's brother-in-law Mohammad Al-Saleh, who accused Harry of cutting him out of a deal to distribute oil to troops in the Iraq War. [...] Harry claims brother Daniel gave the corporate intelligence agent the treasure trove of Harry's emails  in exchange for inside information that would help the Sargeant family's asphalt company Latin American Investments in a separate multimillion-dollar legal dispute. Harry's underlying email account ran on a server of the family company Sargeant Marine. When he was ousted from the Sargeant empire, Harry had been told that the account was cut off at the root and all information in it had been destroyed, the lawsuit says. The lifted emails were instead provided to an "untold number of people" inside and outside of the family businesses in 2016, the lawsuit claims.

The information that Daniel traded his brother’s sex tape for would end up being useless. Daniel is currently out a $5 million bond and awaiting sentencing for the foreign bribery and money laundering charges he pled guilty to back in 2019. After bribing officials in three South American countries to secure asphalt contracts, the Department of Justice ended up making an example of the company– and Daniel– for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 

While Logan cites his career as a big reason for the family move, it appears that Sargeant Marine had conveniently made shell companies in Switzerland to aid in their illegal business dealings that same year.

Logan, blissfully unaware of any drama, tries to make the most of the big move. They move to Lugano, Switzerland– Dalton and Logan go to the American School on weekdays and race on the weekends in the European junior circuit, bouncing them between Italy, Switzerland and Britain. In GQ, Logan says:

“I definitely felt like school was a lot more challenging than in Florida,” he recalled. “And we were missing a lot of school, for sure, but that’s part of it with racing. It is what it is.”

Logan loves Switzerland. In his Players’ Tribune article, he says:

We moved into a three-bedroom apartment. It was me, my parents, Dalton, and our dog Roxy, the world traveler. Big difference from Florida. We had a whole new life. I loved Switzerland. I had a lot of good friends at my school there. I can’t explain it, but I just felt more a part of things. Me and my friends were big Chelsea fans, and we’d be hanging out, playing soccer all the time. We played Call of Duty like every other kid in the world.

However… Logan is the only one. Daniel is out doing shady asphalt deals around the world and suing his brother. Dalton moves back to Florida after a year-and-a-half. Their mother follows soon after that. Logan ends up living alone at the school: 

Dalton was my older brother, so for as far back as I can remember, I was chasing him. Man, we fought all the time. Every race, we were up against all these other kids, but he was always the one I was really trying to beat. But the thing is, when you’re a kid you miss things. You just can’t see everything so clearly. Like, for instance, being a bit older than me, I think he felt the shift more strongly when we moved, but I didn’t know it. He stayed in Switzerland for a year and a half, did some European karting, and started testing Formula cars. Then one day he just decided he wanted to go home and race in America. I won’t lie, that was a shock at the time. But I get it more now. Making that big life change was hard on my mom, too. Just think, you’re living in this brand new place, don’t have many friends. Me and Dalton were at school all day. My dad was traveling all over the place with work, so he was hardly there. The reality is, she was on her own a lot. So she ended up going back to Florida, too. For about a year and a half after that, it was just me. I was living at the school during that time.

When talking about how his mom moved back to Florida while Logan was living alone in Europe as a teenager, he told the Players’ Tribune that:

Looking back on everything, I just see all the sacrifices they made, and it means so much. No matter what they were going through, my family always pushed me to keep going. I feel like that was probably the hardest for my mom, especially. She means the world to me. She’s a bit of a worrier too, and overthinks. I think I get that from her. She’s always been the person I could go to when I was doubting myself. So I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for her to encourage me to keep going, when I know she probably wanted our family to be together. I’m really grateful, not only that they believed in me that much, to move our entire family, but that they took my passion for driving seriously enough not to let me give it all up.

While Logan’s personal life may be troubled, his karting career is doing exceptionally well. In 2014, he wins the prestigious SuperNats18 in Vegas:

Infinity Sports Management, Facebook - SARGEANT DOMINATES IN LAS VEGAS. Logan Sargeant produced a stunning display last weekend in the TAG Junior category at the Supernationals race in Las Vegas. After finishing runner up in the race in 2013 Logan was eager to go one better this year and bring home the winners trophy. Although Logan got pipped in qualifying he still managed to win every heat ensuring he would start from pole position for the final on Sunday. From there he kept the lead and came home 5.6 seconds clear of the second driver. With this win in TAG Junior Logan become the first driver ever to win the TAG Cadet and TAG Junior categories at the Supernationals race.

2015 manages to be even more exceptional. Logan starts the season by being the first North American driver to win a WSK event by winning the WSK Champions Cup in La Conca, Italy.

Logan with his mother after winning the WSK Champions Cup.

The season reaches its peak with Logan becomes the first American to win an FIA Karting World Championship, the top junior series, since Lake Speed in 1978.

He gets to go to the FIA Awards:

Logan: And I couldn’t thank my mechanic enough. And also my parents, uh, they really helped me to be able to win the world championship and it’s just an amazing feeling. Interviewer: I mean, did you, did you, what did you do when you found out you won? Did you call your friends at home? Did you phone your grandpa? What did you get up to? Logan: Uh, no, I just gave my mom and dad a really big hug. Interviewer: Is it still sinking in now? Logan: Yeah, it’s, it’s a really emotional thing. [...] Interviewer: Tell me about when you were a little bit younger than you are now. You’re only 14 now. But why racing, why, why is this so important to you? Logan: Um, well, my dad bought me a, a racing kart when I was five years old and we started from there. We thought it would just be like a little hobby and, uh, it ended up becoming like a professional thing we did. So. Interviewer: So, so was there a moment when you, when you or your dad just thought ‘Wow, I’m quick. I can do this’? Logan: Um, well, not really. We just kept progressing and then, um, when we, when we decided to come to Europe to race, um, we moved to Switzerland and from then on we were just, uh, going to school, I started going to school in Switzerland. And, yeah, and then we just kept going and then ended up like this. Interviewer: Do you have any other hobbies? Can you fit anything else in? Logan: Um, well, other than school it’s really hard. But when I get my breaks and I go back to Florida for, um, I like to go fishing a lot and, yeah, that’s what I do. Mostly. 

When interviewed after his win, Logan tells kart360 that:

Moving away from home is a very hard thing in your own personal life. You lose all of your best friends. You don’t have your "home" and you have to adapt to a different culture. It is hard to move to a country that speaks a different language than what you know, but racing is so important to me that I stuck through it and kept on going.

Logan clearly struggles on a personal level. He discusses his feelings in his Players’ Tribune article, saying: 

Coming up racing as a kid isn’t easy. That’s the most honest way I can put it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said to myself, I’m done. I’m ready to come home. I’m glad I didn’t, but there were plenty of times when I wanted to. I remember one big time was the summer right after Dalton went back. We took this trip to the Bahamas with some of our extended family and friends. We were on the water, and everything was feeling like old times. And I think I just had this pit in the bottom of my stomach, like dreading going back. There was a night when I went to my mom, and I was like, “I’m just ready to come home.” I remember her asking me more questions about what I was feeling. I don’t even remember what I said, to be honest. I just remember that she didn’t tell me what to do. She left it completely up to me. My dad used to always say, “If you put in the work now, it’ll pay off eventually — it’ll be worth it.” And he kind of reminded me of that on that trip too. It’ll be worth it. Those four little words … that’s what kept me going. After that I sucked it up, went back to Switzerland, put my head down, and I went for it."

When Logan makes the jump to single seaters the next year, his parents rent him an apartment to live in by himself in London. The only time he’ll spend more than a few weeks in the US since he was a 12-year old would be during COVID.

But Logan’s time in single seaters will be for the next installment.

Logan through the years.

[systemadministratorclu]

Y'all, I just HAD to share this, because holy shit.

A little background first:

I run the drive-thru cash register window at a fast food joint. One of the shittiest jobs there is because some of the rudest/stupidest people on the planet come through the drive-thru, and one must have near superhuman patience to deal with it. That said, there are customers who come regularly and are not hard to deal with at all. And then there are some-very few and far between-that restore your faith in humanity a little every time they come.

This is about one such customer.

This guy comes every day at about the same time with his grandson (6 years old when this started, recently turned 7) and gets the exact same thing every time. To the point where now either I see their car or I hear the guy say his name (whichever happens first) and I'm already ringing them up. Because of this, the kid now thinks I have weirdly specific psychic powers, and has said he prefers coming to the place when I'm there. He's also decided I'm the best employee this place has. The granddad talks to me like I'm a human, they're always smiling and happy to see me (which means a lot in this line of work, let me tell you) and even on my shittiest days, they've managed to make me smile. I genuinely look forward to seeing these people every day.

Recently, grandson was hella excited to tell me he had a birthday coming up. Reminded me every day "my birthday's coming!" as most 6yo kids do.

Maybe I was feeling a little holiday spirit or something, but one day after work, I went to the Dollar Tree near the restaurant. I picked out a kid's birthday card and a Christmas card. I wrote a message in the Christmas one about what I just explained above, thanking them for bringing some joy to my days, because y'know what? People need to hear that shit. Especially in today's world. And I wanted them to know how much this meant to me. I wrote a little joke in the birthday card about not forgetting the day. Then I looked in my wallet, saw I had a $10 and a $1, and stuck the $10 in the birthday card. Addressed the birthday card to the kid and the Christmas one to kid and grandpa. I give the cards to them on their normal drive-thru visit. They are of course surprised (kid starts yelling "thank you" even though he hasn't gotten to open it yet) but thankful. Then the line moves on.

Fast forward to today.

I see the car come in but I don't start ringing the order up, because it's WAY early for them. I give my usual greeting, then I hear a woman's voice, so I think it's someone in the same kind of car. But when she asks "is this Hal?" I then realize it's the kid's mother, whom he has told all about me and who has come through with him before.

I say yes, and she tells me she's not here to order anything, just to see me, since kid and granddad are sick. I tell her to come on to the window, she does, and hands me a card and a nicely wrapped gift. I asked her to tell them hi for me, she said she would and then the line moved.

I got off on lunch break and opened card and gift.

I was not prepared. At all.

This is the gift...

...the card (no writing on the front).....

.....and the typed note inside the card that actually brought tears to my eyes.

......I'm still not over this. I will be thinking about how this went on for OVER HALF A FUCKING YEAR and I had no idea.

This is the kind of stuff that makes this shitty job worth it. People like this....We need more of in this world. I'm going to hold onto that note so when I feel like shit or I don't matter, I can look at it and know there's a kid out there who I am so important to that he got his dad to write a whole-ass letter, to some random stranger he only knows through his son, inviting me to their fucking house. I'm tearing up again as I write this, just thinking about it.

If that doesn't say "you matter", idk what does.

(And yes, I will go at some point, because how can I not? I'm not gonna dash this kid's hopes and make myself look like an enormous asshole. This is the RL version of being handed a toy phone and told it's ringing)

[blue-jisungs]

Helloo first of all merry christmas and happy early new year (or whatever holidays you celebrate)!!!! I don't know if your OPLA requests are still open, but i would absolutely LOVE a stabilished relationship sanji x (gn) reader where reader is kind of an ambivert who tends to be embarassed to speak their mind when they're uncomfy or when they need something, so sanji always keeps an eye on them to check if they're okay. Sort of like a couple who has their own language that no one else understands, just reallyyyy fluffy stuff

If you don't feel like writing it it's totally okay!!! Have a nice day<3

code

author's note. hi anonnie!! sorry for such a late reply <\3 i don’t celebrate but thank u hehe i hope u had a nice time too ^^ to be honest i’m not really happy with how this turned out but i couldn’t think of anything else :( either way, i hope you enjoy it even a little bit :D

it was no secret that you have the tendency to get shy, especially when asking for something. it’s been always a struggle of yours, more often than not ending up in a position you didn’t want to find yourself in simply because you failed to ask for something… or deny.

which you were fine with, technically. sure, no one enjoys being in uncomfortable situations but you got used to it.

however, dating sanji was a turning point in your life. previously, your family and strangers would ignore your needs or just assume that if you didn’t deny anything, you were fine with it. this bad habit of yours took sanji a while to crack.

just like when you turned in the baratie for the first time with a friend of yours.

“anything else, pretty?” the handsome (your future to be boyfriend, not like you knew) blonde man asked with a charming smile. your friend shook jer head while you blinked. sanji used this opportunity to persuade you into ordering more “may i offer something?”

you were absolutely full, no more space in your stomach whatsoever. it was sure you wouldn’t fit more but–

“maybe dessert? such a sweet person deserves a tiramisu to end their day” sanji’s pearly whites glinted in a warm smile. and you nodded shyly, almost awkwardly.

he didn’t pay attention to it then but at the end of the day, laying down before sleep… his memory recalled the resistance in your eyes but a fake smile of acceptance.

since you dined at baratie quite often (yes, he was one of the reasons) sanji started to recognize your habits. that you ordered even if you were full or didn’t like a certain dish… and how you sometimes even forced yourself to eat it because you didn’t want him or the cooks to feel bad.

which made his heart clench – both with worry and because of how cute you are.

with him being your boyfriend and lots of free time on the going merry, which you joined because you two couldn’t stand the possibility of being far away from each other and luffy not minding at all (“the more the merrier”, he said), sanji promised himself to work on it. for your own good because he hated the fact that some people could get advantage of you.

like usopp.

“hiyaaaa y/n! would you mind cleaning the crow’s nest for me?” usopp asked, the usual wide grin adorning his face. you blinked, embarrassed to deny yet…

“wh… um…” you started and the great captain put the broom in your hands, patting your arm

“thanks! i’m sooo tired, you know?” he stretched dramatically, eyes closing. you had plans – you were supposed to help sanji in making dinner… but now…

“they’re not cleaning anything, usppp”

the boy’s eyes shot open and he jolted upon hearing sanji’s voice. the cook didn’t look so friendly – arms crossed, cold look in his ocean eyes.

“oh yeah, right! no problem… it was a joke you see!” usopp chuckled nervously and took the broom back.

“joke my ass. do not use them like that or next time the broom is getting shoved–”

“woah, woah, woah… i got the message” usopp squeaked and ran away to the crow’s nest. you pouted.

“sorry…” a sigh escaped your lips and sanji stepped closer, tucking a stray strand of your hair behind your ear.

“no, no. don’t apologize, there’s no need. but we need to work on that, darling” he smiled tenderly and pecked your forehead.

one day after telling sanji that you’re just too embarrassed to say no or speak your mind, he came up with an idea – that you have a secret code. obviously if you were too shy, you’d just tap him or wink twice. at first, you thought it was silly. but sooner than you imagined, you came to a conclusion that it’s a pretty brilliant idea.

additionally, even if you didn’t know about that, your boyfriend always kept his eye on you. scanning your face and reactions so he could barge in anytime; as creepy as it sounded because of that sanji knew you like the back of your hand and sometimes even without using words, he knew that you were uncomfortable.

“so, so, so! we should head out! there’s no time to lose!” luffy announced on a random monday morning, almost jumping off the walls “we’re going to y/n’s family island!”

your eyes widened as you watched the captain terrified, sanji instantly tensing.

“w… what? why?” you stuttered and luffy stopped in his tracks.

“it’s famous for its sewing arts, right? we need new clothes… and it’s gonna be fun! we’ll meet your family!” luffy grinned.

you felt sanji’s hand on yours, tapping your thumb twice. “are you okay?”, that’s what the gesture meant. you looked at him, hesitantly shaking your head.

“d-…” you didn’t even manage to choke out, puffing your cheeks.

“do we have to? we can get clothes everywhere” the blonde asked, moving his thumb in a soothing motion. sanji asked exactly what you wanted to. maintaining eye contact, he nodded. “i’ve got this”

“but y/n’s family…” luffy whined, pouting.

“y/n should speak for herself on this matter, luffy. maybe she doesn’t want to see them?” sanji hummed.

luffy has a golden heart and pure soul but sometimes could get a bit too much… and doesn’t understand some human reactions. and it’s not like you hated your family – you just left in a hurry, a tense atmosphere in the household. and you just weren’t ready to return.

“so?” luffy asked, rising his eyebrows. sanji squeezed your hand, encouraging you.

“i don’t really want to… see them. right now.” you mumbled shyly “sorr–”

“no, no. don’t say sorry, i just… wanted to surprise you” luffy smiled, his eyes twinkling. he came up to you and patted your head “we’ll go there once you’re ready. just tell me!”

nodding shyly, you watched luffy leave. sanji grinned and cupped your face.

“what? was it bad?” you asked, blinking.

“no, darling. you were very brave” he cooed and placed a soft kiss on your lips “i’m proud”

then sanji moved his hand to your back and drummed a melody, signalling that usopp is coming. you snickered and pecked his cheek, being met with a loud whine coming from the boy who just entered the room.

masterlist <3

taglist. @eternalgyu ,, @haecien

[thezombieprostitute]

The Arrangement - Part 13

Summary: Jake's done a lot of things to keep his sister, and then his niece, safe from his parent's influence and manipulation. If he wants to keep them safe, he has to marry you.

Warnings: Anxiety, Bad parents and siblings, Talking about abuse. Let me know if I missed any!

A/N: Writing this part for @the-slumberparty's December Daze Challenge. The prompt is: experiencing a new festive tradition

Part 12 -- Part 14

Series Masterlist

The Christmas Season was never a big deal for you. Your family would do a few themed charity events. Travis would get spoiled more than usual. For you it was always just another day. With the exception of Travis being in the hospital, you really didn't think this year would be any different.

Travis had finally woken up and your parents were pushing the narrative of a Christmas Miracle while covering up the fact that they were still working on correcting his paralysis. What little you were able to pick up on your expected visits showed that Travis took a heavy hit to his lower back, likely due to the car's smaller crumple zone. Still no one has been able to figure out how he managed to get his keys.

It was Christmas Eve and the only thing different about the day was that Jake informed you that Clay would be visiting in the evening.

One of the things you really appreciated about Jake is that he gave you a notice when Clay was supposed to visit. He kept you up-to-date on his comings and goings so you wouldn't be caught off guard and would know how many people to cook for and the like. After Jake's first week on the job your father invited himself and a few friends over for dinner. Jake didn't think twice about texting you as soon as he figured out Montgomery's plan. It saved you both a lot of embarrassment and chiding.

As you're cooking you hear Jake welcome Clay. You figure it'll just be another meeting for you to not be invited to and you're genuinely okay with that. It's just another day, after all. Besides, you get the feeling there are things going on that you don't want to know about.

You exit the kitchen to set the table but are interrupted by Jake.

"Hey, I um...I was hoping you'd be...I mean you said you don't normally do anything for Christmas, right?"

"That's right," you nod. You've picked up on how nervous he gets talking to you so you've learned to give him some time.

"Well, because I can't be with my family and do the usual Christmas routine stuff, I was kinda wondering if you'd be willing to join me?"

"Oh, um, sure. I mean, technically we are family, right? And you're supposed to do things with family on Christmas?"

"I promise it isn't much. You don't have to dress fancy or anything. It's just going for a drive and admiring all the Christmas lights."

You snort a little, "we're not going to be able to really see the Christmas lights here in the city."

"That's why we're taking Clay's pinto and going to a more rural area."

You gasp, "we're sneaking out?"

"Just for a few hours," Jake promises. "And Clay promises to stay behind here in case any of the parents show up. I just...I'm feeling homesick and...and would like to...to share some traditions. Especially since I know you don't really have any. It, maybe, it can be a new tradition for you?"

"Going against my parents as a tradition?"

"No! No, no, no, just...going to see the lights? I know the contracts say we have to stay within city limits, but I've got everything covered so that we don't get caught."

"You mean your contract says you're not allowed to leave. I don't have one."

"What?"

"I don't have a contract, an agreement or whatever."

"Your parents just said, 'get married' and you did?"

Your face drops as heat rushes to your cheeks. "I never thought...they're my parents. You're not supposed to have contracts. I'm supposed to just obey."

"Give me a minute," Jake says before rushing to go talk to Clay. It takes a few minutes but when they come back Clay's got a confused look on his face.

"Jake tells me you don't have a contract? You don't get anything out of this arrangement?"

You shake your head, "I was just supposed to be a good daughter. To help the family."

"Did you actually want to marry Jake?"

"No, I...I didn't want to get married." You feel terrible saying that in front of Jake but he doesn't seem to take offense.

"Well young lady, I think you've given me and some lawyer friends some food for thought," Clay muses. "And you've given yourself and Jake some good loopholes in the meantime."

"I...I don't want to hurt anyone," you plead.

"You're not," Jake jumps in. "If anything, this might keep my family safe without anyone getting hurt!"

Clay mutters something under his breath that you can't make out. "With y'all's permission I'd like to spend the night makin' some phone calls to look more into this."

Jake looks at you, "please come with me? Christmas lights just aren't as much fun seeing them by yourself."

"Okay," you nod. "Let me just get my coat?"

The pinto was a lot less comfortable than you were used to but you had to admit, it had its charms. And not just the bright yellow color. Though you do miss the heated seats of your usual car, you don't blame Jake for wanting a car that can't be tracked.

"I did a little research on who's got the best light displays this year," he tells you. You hear an excitement in his voice you've never heard before. It's kinda infectious as you find yourself genuinely smiling.

"Good idea," you tell him. "We probably don't have a lot of time for this outing so we should focus on getting the most of our short trip, right?"

His smile widens, "yes! Exactly! Thank you for understanding! My niece would tell me I was overthinking and we should just drive around until we were done." He chuckles at the memory. "When I first started taking her out on these trips she was so small. Had to sit in a car-seat the whole time and she fell asleep after maybe an hour." You coo at the adorable image. "As she got older I was scared she'd no longer want to do these outings with her dorky uncle but she'd always insist on it. Especially when I was home for the holiday."

"And your sister? Did you used to take her out on these outings before...before you got out?"

"No, but I wish we had," Jake admits. "Christmas was always a weird time, as I'm sure you can understand. But I always tried to do something for her for Christmas. Even if our parents made sure we never believed in Santa or Christmas magic, I always wanted it to feel like a special day. For her sake at least."

"What kinds of things did you do?"

"I'd hide a little gift here or there. Somewhere I was sure she'd be the first person to see it. Even as we got older, it was 'our thing'. Even when we got caught, I just learned to be more sneaky about it. To this day, when I'm able, I hide a little gift here or there around her house."

"That's so incredibly sweet of you, Jake."

He blushes, "I dunno. I just...I just wanted to be a good brother."

You go quiet at that. Growing up with Travis, and your parents always doting on him, you just figured that's how it was for every family. Sure there were all those stories about siblings taking care of each other, but they were fictionalized. At the very least you truly believed they never told the full truth. Siblings don't actually take care of each other. It's what you believed. What you had to believe for so many years.

As the pinto gets further away from the city, the Christmas decorations start standing out more and more. Plenty of simple ones, just a few strands around the doorway. But there are others that are so intricate, so thought out they make your jaw drop.

The two of you start excitedly pointing out your favorites. Laughing at little jokes or references in the decorations. After a bit you no longer even notice the cold.

Back at the penthouse, Clay is on the phone with one of his lawyer friends.

"Yeah, as long as she was a legal adult at the time of wedding, especially if you can prove abuse, then she's definitely got a case."

"And what does that mean for Jake's contract?"

"The contract was written with the implication that she was a willing participant. If you can get her to testify that she was forced into this, Jake can nullify the contract. Not only that, but if you can find evidence Jake's parents knew about her not wanting this, he can sue for fraud."

"That is good to know," Clay drawls.

Part 12 -- Part 14

Series Masterlist

Tagging: @alicedopey; @ashdoctor; @delicatebarness; @ellethespaceunicorn; @embarrasingmf;

@irishhappiness; @jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory; @icefrozendeadlyqueen; @lokislady82; @missaprilt23;

@ronearoundblindly; @thiquefunlover63; @watermelonslut

[ikamigami]

"Earth doesn't have to forgive Lunar"

Blah blah blah

Then just screw laes maybe? Huh?

I liked the episode where Lunar and Earth cleared things between each other ^^

Lunar seems so much more mature than at the beginning of the show..

He was able to look within himself and he also was able to realize why exactly he did wrong..

I was angry at Earth at first because she shouldn't be so upset at Lunar for not telling her anything.. like Earth he probably didn't talk to you or anyone because of his issues and he didn't even realize that it was that bad.. like he even said so..

Sometimes people won't take our helping hand.. but you don't have to make it look like they're such an issue for even not realizing that they need help..

Earth annoys me with how she's apparently the only one who tries in this family.. apparently.. and how she can't even comprehend that others don't have to want help that's one.. and two that maybe like Lunar they don't even realize it's that bad.. that they're issues are that bad.. and also what annoys me about Earth is that she expects others to be flawless.. like yeah she knows no one is perfect.. but how she acts says otherwise..

But it's understandable because she was Creator's golden child so she was raised spoiled..

My anger was short though cause it went away when Earth started talking about how she misses playing with kids.. this is something that Earth has every right to be angry at Lunar.. and not that Lunar doesn't have an insight about how bad his issues are..

I feel for Earth.. I know how much it sucks to be not able to do things that you could do before.. for me it's been over a decade.. but for Earth it was not so long ago so it hurts more..

I hope that eventually things will get better between Earth and Lunar..

I enjoy laes and while Kat is no longer writing for it I still don't want to see it end so soon..

And by that I mean that I don't want any changes.. I don't want Earth and Monty show or Lunar and idk who show..

I want Lunar and Earth show..

Hopefully things between the two won't be too akward or forced like during Christmas party..

I'm glad that Lunar was there.. because while Earth's feelings matter so does Lunar's..

He's still a part of family..

And tbh this situation is bizarre.. wish Lunar could start working on himself to be less self-centered but in different way.. a way that doesn't include hurting your own sister for life..

I think that's not fair to Lunar.. especially cause he wasn't making his depression and star power stuff everyone's problem..

He just kept things to himself.. he wasn't even lashing out like Eclipse or Moon on most of occacions.. he was rightfully upset at Nexus for babying him and hiding things from him..

It the Lunar lashed out at Earth yes.. but if it wasn't for NSP things wouldn't be that bad.. cause at the end of the day who has never lashed out in their life?

I really wish that Earth realize that everyone have their struggles and shortcomings.. and it doesn't make anyone bad..

I want Earth to forgive Lunar because he doesn't deserve that.. he tries his best.. he very quickly started working on himself because he loves his family.. he doesn't want to lose it..

I understand Earth's conflicted feelings though.. I also feel bad whenever someone will hurt me and I feel angry at them.. like I want to be angry but at the same time I feel bad about it.. even now I'm trying to move on from what happened last year..

Earth is allowed to not forgive Lunar.. but personally, like yeah it's probably because of my personal beliefs and worldview, I can't imagine Earth and Lunar's relationship to be okay if Earth won't forgive Lunar..

I think that forgivness is important.. even if at least to one's healing..

But that's how I view life.. and I know that others view it differently..

Maybe it's all a part of the big plot where Earth realizes how she's affected by how Creator raised her..

I'm trying to be positive ^^

I like these shows ^^ They're well written most of the time or at least to me 👉👈

I find some decisions to be frustrating but mostly at first because then I often like how things go later..

And I realized that I'm mostly frustrated at fans takes xbxbbxbxbxbxnbxbbxbx

I have to work on ignoring it cause this isn't healthy and also fandoms are always the most annoying part in anything xD

[cr33pz-mck3nna]

hello hello! it is i, the newly named 🤡anon! since christmas is coming up, i was wondering if you could maybe do carnival trio x reader spending christmas together? :) lmk if you're getting annoyed of the same three guys lol

Christmas with the Carnival Trio

Ft: My versions of Jason the Toymaker, Laughing Jack and Candy Pop with some references to their human disguises/human forms

Warnings: None! It's Christmas so pure fluff!

Jason the Toymaker

• Ah December...the one month of the year that his shop is always sold out and all the humans just seem to decide to pretend world peace exists. It both comforted and disgusted him.

• If you don't celebrate or like/enjoy Christmas then absolutely nothing is different between you two, he won't even mention the wretched holiday and gladly so as he hates the moments of self loathing after acting all sweet and nice and jolly and all that other disgusting stuff you humans do during this time.

• If you do celebrate then oh boy you have one uncomfortable boyfriend, nobody really knows what Jason is but he's close to a human atleast in the sense he has SOME emotions but they're very much repressed and uncomfortable for him. That warm fuzzy feeling he gets when you're covered in frosting and sobbing as the gingerbread house keeps falling apart. How he can't help but find you absolutely adorable in your santa hat and ugly sweater. That childish feeling he gets when you drag him outside to build a snowman together. The wonder when you two turn on the lights for the first time. He hates it...

• He has to admit, his favorite part of this human holiday is the food, especially the gingerbread, so make sure to make it a tradition to bake gingerbread men and make gingerbread houses! As previously mentioned, if you have OCD or sum and need to make sure the house is perfect then he will have a genuinely good time just watching you act like a fool trying to put it together, his little fool.

• You forced him. Into this horrifying sweater. It's itchy. More proof something is wrong with you humans. Why is it so itchy? And warm... It is kinda warm. Still itchy tho. He hates it. Too tight. Too itchy. Get it off. GET IT OFF!-

• The music isn't half bad but why does everyone find the need to go to church? It makes no sense to him! Y'all couldn't give a shit 11 months out of the year but when it comes to this holiday you apparently all decide to act like you aren't horrible people. No sense he swears.

• You want him to build a WHAT? Like hell is he stepping foot in that cold shit, he will gladly stay inside! You dragged him outside. Best thing you've ever done because he loves it, your snowman is named Earl, he will cry when Earl melts.

• When it was time to open the presents you gave him a small little box containing a handmade doll made to look like him and said his name was "Little Jason". He cried. Big time. You spent the rest of the day cuddling from that point on, no he will not let you open the rest of your presents, no he will not let you eat-

"I can never understand this tradition but I have to admit..today was perfect."

Laughing Jack

• His understanding of the holiday season was even worse than Jason's, he's low-key terrified of how sickly nice you humans get.

• If you don't celebrate or like Christmas then Jack is genuinely happy, he absolutely hates it because of how uncomfortable it is for him so if you don't like it then he'll pretend he was looking forward to it or something to make you feel a little bad. Wait you're changing your mind because of what he said? ABORT MISSION, WRONG OUTCOME-

• If you do celebrate then he's reluctant to say the least, and oh LORD is he uncomfortable, he shows it less than Jason tho surprisingly. The lights are definitely his favorite part. Sitting cross legged on the floor with a cup of hot cocoa (EXTRA MARSHMALLOWS OFC) watching you wrap the tree in strands of lights and garland, putting on some ornaments before plugging it all in, you let him place the star on top and he's curious why you humans even do this stuff until you finally plug it in and boy do his eyes light up in wonder. The lights remind him of the carnival, they make him somehow feel more at home.

• He's absolutely terrified of the snow. Without a doubt. Will cling to you like a sloth and considering he's mainly all fabric(skinny minnie) he can do this with ease. No he will not step down! Do you know what is in that stuff!? Lowkey germaphobe action going on. When you eventually detach him from your body he will initially scream like a banshee until he realizes the fact HE'S MAINLY ALL FABRIC and cannot feel the cold and then he's ROLLING around. And then you have to drag him inside as he's so filled with water he can't stand because would you look at that HE'S MAINLY ALL FABRIC. Will deny his childish behavior at a later point in time. Every year he swears he will never step foot in the snow, goes in the snow, loves the snow, remembers why he can't go in the snow as you have him hanging from a clothes hanger in front of the fireplace, swears he will remember why he doesn't go in the snow this time, forgets, rinse and repeat-

• He pretends as if he couldn't care less about gift giving but is secretly stressing over what to get you and obsessing over what you might've gotten him. It is nothing but panic attack after panic attack so PLEASE GIVE THIS BBY A HUG.

• Yes he has a human disguise and you will very rarely see it if ever as he has a personal hatred for It, yes he may be ugly but to him his human form is horrendous. You might only see him like this if you're both shopping in the same place for gifts and he will immediately hide.

• It's time to open the presents, he gave you something so thought over and preplanned and oh you can't imagine what he spent on it but...you gave him a little hand made plushie of him....it's all tears from that point on. He will not stop crying. I mean that. He will never talk about it after the fact but in the moments he doesn't act like a little asshole he's sobbing and holding on to you as if you were the last good thing in his life. Which you are.

"Why...me...you're too perfect...thank you. Ugh fuck you and your shitty holiday for being so sweet and making me cry! Asshole....mine.."

Candy Pop

• They have been around for quite a long time, he is technically the eldest of the three as nobody really knows when Candy and Caney(Candy Cane/his sister/twin/other half thingy-) were created nor who created them, so they are well aware of the holidays and boy does he enjoy it!

• If you don't celebrate then nothing will be affected, he's happy when you're happy, he still will try and make it an amazing winter for the both of you, planning activities for every day so you're never bored and making sure that you NEVER feel bad about your decision to not celebrate Christmas and that you know he's very happy either way.

• If you do celebrate then it's time for DECK THE HALLS WITH EVERYTHING-YOU-CAN-FUCKING-FIND FALALALALA LALALALA! Your house/apartment/cardboard box will look like Santa fucking exploded and the elves threw up at the sight. This man has had YEARS of experience with this holiday so you betcha they're bringing it out all at once. He will be the one dragging you around hun, face it.

• If Candy was obsessive over your safety before then let's just say it's worse now, bundles upon bundles of clothing so you don't get sick but it's kinda hard to move- And you are not leaving his side. At all. Possibly ever-

• Oh boy is this man a GOD at the Christmas festivities, you have no idea how the gingerbread house is so easy for him, and they somehow can make igloos, LIKE HOW!?

• Ugly sweaters. Ugly sweaters. Ugly sweaters. Ugly sweaters. Ugly sweaters. U G L Y S W E A T E R S.

• He loves walking around in their human form, it's almost as flashy as his regular self, and they loveeeeee doing winter activities like skiing and riding in a sleigh. He is a daredevil and thrill seeker at heart and is SHOWS during Christmas time.

• Present time! Boy did they get you a literal TON of presents, so much it was overwhelming, and honestly he was having more fun while you opened them then you were! He opened his present and found the small plush doll made in their image, by you..yeah he's never leaving it anywhere, it goes with them anywhere and everywhere and if it ever gets destroyed or lost you will have to deal with depresso espresso.

"Awww you're too sweet sugar bell! I'll cherish this just like I cherish you, forever."

POLY Special

Christmas eve.

Most stores are closed, especially since it's later in the day, you're driving home from one having had to get last minute presents. You left the guys home to bake and decorate, you don't even want to think of the chaos that's going on back at home right now. You drive through the empty streets, no more traffic as everyone has reached their holiday destinations already. You sigh, taking in a deep breath and enjoying the smell of the snow as you drive through the Christmas eve serenity. Not even the children are out getting into trouble as none of them want to miss their presents in the morning.

You pull into your driveway and you can immediately see your boys in their human forms fighting in the kitchen window, flour and colored sugar flying everywhere, Candy annoying Jack and getting food thrown at him, Jack just about ready to throw the island at him if he doesn't shut up and Jason on his god-only-knows-what-number cup of coffee. You can't help but break out laughing, yes Christmas may be that peace you had on the drive home but Christmas is also this mess you call a family and sorry not sorry you'll take your idiots any day over stupid peace.

You head inside and can hear the blasting Christmas music, your house looks like Christmas exploded and you don't mind one bit. You hang up your coat and glance into the living room, the tree glistening as four stockings hang by the fireplace, each one very much a display of their owner, Jason's is classy and elegant, yours is old fashioned and classic, Jack's is simple and basic and Candy's looks like an ugly sweater- You smile, turning to walk into the kitchen, the second you step in the room you're off your feet, Candy behind you with his arms around your waist.

"GUMDROP YOU'RE HOME!! How was your day out? Did you get everything you needed? Were you safe? Was anyone mean to you!?" he rambles on as Jason clears his throat "One thing at a time Candy. You're rambling again." Candy FINALLY puts you down "Oopsie! Sorry!" he chuckles as he suddenly sees Jack doing something incorrectly and starts yelling directions "I'M NOT FUCKING DEAF YOU NEON BASTARD!!" as they start fighting again and Jason sighs and leans back on the counter you laugh again and lean against Jason.

This. This is Christmas right here.

OMG THIS LEGIT TOOK ME LIKE A WEEK- I've had this request since earlier into December but on top of not seeing it at first I am going through MAJOR writers block so tagging the current time I'm writing this it's actually 8:30am on Christmas eve but for you guys this should release at midnight or around it. Please let me know if you enjoy this by supporting and feel free to let me know if you would like to be on the Carnival trio taglist. THANK YOU SO MUCH 🤡ANON FOR RETURNING WITH ANOTHER BANGER REQUEST!! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS, KEEP IT CREEPY MY GREMLINS, HOHOHO! -Creepz

@sketchist-art

@organs-web

[thedevilsoftruth]

Hey!, I just finished rewatching moon knight and now scrolling through the moon knight tags when I came across a post about how Mr knight is actually Marc Spector and Steven Grant is a playboy billionaire in the comics and I was shook. Then I came across your post of you ranting about the differences from the show to the comics, which blew my mind!, and now I’m so intrigued and curious about the true lore of moon knight, every time I try to search about it on google I just get references from the shows (so frustrating) I can’t afford to buy the comics, so if you can/want could you please tell me all the important and interesting facts/lore that’s in the moon knight comics?

Sorry for the long message, just came across your page and pressed follow, love your content!. ❤️

AAAAAAGGGGHHHH HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT. GIIGLING AND KICKING MY FEET IN THE AIR. HEY, LOOK MA, I MADE IT!! I GET TO EXPLAIN THE MOON KNIGHT COMICS LORE TO SOME GUY ON THE INTERNET!!

in all seriousness, this made my day. I'm so glad you enjoy my content, and I will happily explain to you the MK lore!

I completely get you on the not wanting to but the comics thing. Comics are expensive. Honey, imma be real with you, readcomiconline.li is where it's at. It's where I read all of the comics I didn't have.

So before I go on a tangent and explain things, and this goes for anyone wanting to start reading the comics, heres a little list of all the comics I've read so far in what I understand to be chronological order.

It's a little bit cheesy and a VERY long run, but Marc Spector: Moon Knight from 1989-94 is maaayybbeee where you want to start off, but maybe not. I didn't start off with this run, but even as bad as the old comics are, they're a bit important.

But, I HIGHLY suggest you start out with the Lemire and Smallwood run from 2016. It was the first run I completed, and it's an amazing run and VERY important to read. Many people say it's the best run. It's certainly a run, I'll tell you that. ( Also I didn't read that one online, I received it last year as a Christmas gift. Also readcomic doesn't have all of the issues, so be warned on that. )

Next I read From The Dead. And I moved on to Vengeance of The Moon Knight from 2009. And after I'd suggest reading Age of Khonshu, Devils Reign and then The Midnight Mission. You can read all of these for free on readcomiconline.li ( don't type in comics plural because it will direct you to the wrong site ) be warned though because there are a lot of ads and you will get jumpscared by anime boobies.

~~

Now moving onto what you asked me for. The important stuff, right.

I'm new to this whole comic reading stuff as well, and for anyone else reading this who knows more than I do, please add additional information I missed down in the reply section. It would mean a lot. So now I'm going to give a you a quick run down on Marc's origin story. ( And for a quick disclaimer, I will come off as not taking myself seriously in some parts of this post because I don't take myself seriously lol. )

Marc Spector was born on March 9th, 1987 in Chicago Illinois into a Jewish family. His father was Elias Spector and his mother was Wendy Spector ( his younger brother being Randall Spector )Elias was a rabbi who manged to escape Nazi prosecution during the days of Hitler and all that jazz. Because Elias was a rabbi, Randall would get picked on at school a lot, and Marc would be there to stand up for him. Even at a young age Marc was exposed to a lot of violence. That could come from growing up yk... Kinda poor and having to stand up for your lil bro.

Marc's violent nature was really born when a close family friend of his, Yitz Perlmen was discovered to be a secret serial killer who targeted Jews. From what I understand, Perlmen tried to Kill Marc ( mind you Marc was like 11 or 12 ) but Marc had escaped but his traumatic experiences led him to form D.I.D

As seen in the Lemire run, the first time Marc had encountered Khonshu was when he was 12 and was getting diagnosed for his D.I.D Marc wasn't told to his face from the doctor about his disorder and was told to step outside the office. Marc tried to evesdrop on the conversation, and from outside of the doctor's office, he meets Khonshu. Khonshu tells him, " That man in there is not your true father. I am. " Mind you, Marc is 12!!! 12!!!! Khonshu began manipulating Marc since he was twelve because he was, obviously really fucking young, and traumatized. Khonshus tactics were to strip Marc away from his religion and culture and make him submit to him.

So anyways, Marc was sent to Putnam Psychiatric Hospital and would stay there until he was 18 when his father funeral came along and he was let go for a week to go visit his family. This is where we learn Marc's relationship with his father was complex. Marc tells his mother, Wendy, that his father must have been happy to send him away because he was embarrassed by him. Wendy and Marc have an argument, which ends in Marc saying he's going to the bathroom, when he actually leaves to his childhood bedroom and escapes out the window when he hears Khonshus voice.

Marc later enlisted into the U.S marines Corps and served as a private for a couple years. But on Marc's second tour to Iraq, superiors started to report his odd behavior and they found out that Marc had lied about his disorder, leaving him to be discharged. Marc joined the CIA and served with his brother Randall. Randall was jealous of Marcs talents and killed Marc's girlfriend, Lisa, because she was going to expose a gun scheme. Marc then like... Threw bombs at Randall and shit and then assumed he was dead...but he wasn't.

Marc left the CIA after that and started doing illegal boxing, where he met his soon to be best friend, Jean-Paul Duchamp ( usually refered to as Frenchie ) and they became mercenaries together and started killing a bunch of people, in Marc's case, for mooonnneeyyy!!! Get that bag, girlie. And then Marc got put on trial for war crimes!! His crime being yk...assistanting the president of this south African country called Bosqueverde as one does.

And then he started to do missions under this group call the Karnak Cowboys and fell in love with one of his groupmates, Layla El-faouly, as seen in later issues of The Midnight Mission. Then she fucking died when an escape went wrong.

So anyways Marc meets this funny lil guy named Raoul Bushman ( he is not funny lil guy, he's killed hundred of people, probably) So Marc works for him with Frenchie and they, together, set to north Sudan to raid a dig site. ( This should start to sound familiar, as it was briefly touched on in the show when Arthur's guys captured Steven and put cuffs on him and slammed him in the back of their car ) Looks like raid shadow legends went down again, and things started to get not so epic when Raoul killed the lead Archeologist of the dig site, Peter Alraune in front of his daughter Marlene. This pissed the ever loving shit out of Marc because even though Marc likes violence, he doesn't enjoy violence against innocent people, and so he punches the fucker but uh oh! The Raoul Bushman Strikes Back, and he fucking KILLS MARC IN RETURN AND EVERYONE ELSE EXPECT FOR FRENCHIE AND MARLENE AND THIS ONE MF WHO TOLD HIM HE WOULD TELL HIM WHERE THE DIG SITE WAS. ( really Raoul left Marc mortally wounded, but he was on the brick of death, basically)

Marc was able to regain conscious and drag himself halfway to Khonshus tomb ( which is what Raoul was looking for ) Marlene and a bunch of other citizens find Marc and they carry him to Khonshus tomb. Marc hears Khonshus voice for yet another time, and Marc is revived and becomes the Moon Knight we all know and love. Then he basically killed Raoul's guys and then fell in love with Marlene.

So that's his origin story. Now onto the stuff I know as fact but it won't be explained in chronological order because I haven't read a ton of comics to explain it in chronological order.

He used Steven as a a way to handle money and build wealth so they could have recourses like vehicles, weapons and a ton of other random bullshit ( go!! ) that they don't need. Jake was used as a new York taxi driver so that he had his eye in the streets and knew when shit was goin down. They're both kind of horny. Jake literally spends some of his free time in a strip clubs drinking rum. ( As seen in the midnight mission and implied on in the Lemire run. )

His relationship with Marlene was long, but didn't last because, if I'm recalling correctly, Marc had a mental breakdown and decided to basically stop working for Khonshu so he could be with Marlene. But soon after he started hearing Khonshus voice again and Marlene couldn't take anymore of it, so she left him.

And then there's that bullshit with The Midnight Man. All I know is that he passed away from cancer and had a son named Jeff Wilde. Jeff aspired to Marc and wanted to be his sidekick, kind of like Robin and Batman in the Lego Batman movie with a little less adoption, but Marc kept on refusing as a way to protect Jeff. The Jeff had this whole thing where he turned evil or some shit idk and I guess Marc killed him? I'm not sure. Please, moon knight gang, let me know what happened in the reply section because I'm ignorant.

Marc had his independence from Khonshu after banishing Khonshu to Asgardian Prison ( seen in Age of Khonshu and discussed in The Midnight Mission) and decided " fuck you, I don't need need you anymore. Imma do my own thing and you can't do nothing about it " and then he became Mr. Knight. Mr. Knight is kind of a detective and he consults with policemen ( as seen in From The Dead ) Moon Knight is the one who does all the fighting.

From where Marc's development is at right now, Marc was running a thing called the Midnight Mission, which was a place where citizens would go to to report strange things happening in the city.

Additional, fun information:

Marc has a daughter named Diatrice. He only knows about it because Jake had a secret relationship with Marlene on the side after Marc and Marlene broke up.

He sleeps all day in the tomb of Khonshu and fights crime at night. He's like a bat!!

His ringtone ( as seen in the midnight mission) is The Killing Moon by Echo and The Bunnymen. ( Y'all should listen to it, if you haven't. it's really good. ).

He drives a red convertible car ( as seen in the Brain Micheal Bendis run, don't read it it's REALLY bad and insufficient. ) and also a motorcycle ( as see in Vengeance of The Moon Knight)

He was originally supposed to fight mainly just werewolf's and um... Writers at Marvel had different ideas.

His favorite drink is an ice cold vodka ( as seen in the Midnight Mission)

He had a mansion and then his money went bye bye and now he lives in a haunted house ( as seen, once again, in the Midnight Mission)

Frenchie is also gay! Hes married to a man named Rob! ( And this is only from what I've heard, by he apparently had a secret crush on Marc at some point.)

And yeah. That's all I have for ya today. Thank you if you made it this far, and I hope I was able to satisfy your curiosity a little bit!

Goodknight everyone!!!

[ficoandleo]

For both: What do you like to do for the holidays?

"Which holidays? Like, all of them?"

"They mean Christmas and New Years."

". . .Oooh, you're some kind of. Westerner or whatever where you still think everyone in the world celebrates Christmas because you do. Wow. Okay, brace yourself, may wanna sit down for this one?" Leo pauses a bit for dramatic effect. "This is Japan. We're not a Christiancountry. We don't really celebrate Christmas here."

"He's right. It's not even a public holiday here. Nobody gets the day off unless you need it for religious reasons and winter break usually starts the day after for students. Most Japanese people don't celebrate Christmas in a major way unless they're some kind of Christian or they've got foreign family."

"Well Christmas is like a 'hang out with your friends or your lover "holiday"' so I always spend it with Sho-chan?" Of course, Leo spent most days with Sho before coming to Darkwick. Even after coming, they spend a lot of time together. "And I like doing streams for it--I've done a gift opening stream, I've made videos showing off and rating what's in the year's KFC Christmas menu with Sho-chan and our friends, I've done little walks around Christmas markets and showing off lights and displays, I'll show off whatever Christmassy food Sho-chan made if it looks like it'll trend. . . . I mostly just use it as a vaguely 'special stream' day. If people don't have friends to spend the day with, they can hang out with me and Sho--before we spend time with our friends, obviously♥

"Christmas Eve though is like a romantic day because. . .capitalism and the economy or something. It's actually cooled down in recent years but there's always stuff going on then to capitalize on couples, like really nice light displays and promotions in stores and restaurants. It's kind of like Valentine's Day for Japan. So I like to stream then too--for the singles. It's like going on a little 'date' with me. . .♥ I let the audience decide what we should check out for a while at a market or what light displays we should go see. But I've hung out with Sho-chan on Christmas Eve streams too--adds a little fuel to the 'oh my god they must be dating!!' fire and gets some buzz and rumors going~ Once the stream's done I'll do something with Sho if he wants--like we'll take advantage of couples gifts and promotions and stuff in shops or walk around and see if there're any cool decorations and displays to look at and take pics or whatever. We don't do a ton because restaurants are usually booked or super busy and Sho wants to cook for the impending Christmas party with our friends anyways, and he makes a ton of food so he gets started the day before when he can.

"After that I basically don't eat until like New Years because I had way too much food even when I'm not eating that much of it and I have to make up for it. But then it's New Years and I go see my parents--or, they came over last year--and we spend time together doing whatever they want. They still like to give me otoshidama even though I'm a grown man, but some of my fans do it too, digitally, so whatever. Aside from that we watch the first sunset and we do a shrine visit to get our fortunes and make wishes--trad stuff. But sometimes they wanna do stuff we didn't really get to do when I was young--so we'll fly kites or play games or just whatever they're in the mood for during the four day new years period.

"I don't normally stream at all with them, but they said they'd like to be on stream with me at least once so. . .maybe if I can't do anything cool for Christmas this year since Darkwick's shaping out to not have much to see, I can get a permit and do a New Years stream with them. It won't get many views but people might go for it since I don't really talk a ton about my family on stream? I might save it for after graduation."

". . .since coming to Japan the traditions are very different. Like Kurossa said, Christmas Eve is a sort of romance-focused day, so. . .ugh." Romeo scowls, glaring off to the side for a moment. Finally, he decided to open up, closing his eyes, pale cheeks dusting with pink. "The Boss doesn't really go for things like that. Highly romantic displays. But he would do things for me anyway, even after we got to Darkwick. We would go out, or he would give me gifts with more. Amorous intentions. And I enjoyed that, even if it wasn't traditional for me. . .I'm not expecting anything to happen this year, though. Christmas was more lowkey but he still let me enjoy Japanese Christmas traditions despite not being very interested in anything but food and presents anyway.

"Back home in Italy we had an elaborate nativity scene we would put together on the 8th--probably my favorite part of the Christmas season aside from gifts. It had moving mechanisms, even pumps for water for a moving river, and it wasn't just the manger in the barn, but essentially a whole town surrounding! We put up a tree too, of course, but that was far less interesting!! We would visit Christmas markets and so on too, and on Christmas Eve we would have fish for dinner--an old Catholic tradition where you abstain from meat for that day--and gifts were exchanged, and then we'd go to midnight Mass, of course. On Christmas we ate meat. They always made sure I ate far more than I ever wanted to. . . . The entire atmosphere is very different from Japan's, aside from the abundant decorations and lights. . . .

"New Years is even more different. Still he indulged me with things like shrine visits and fortunes, despite being able to guess what my fortune would say. Let me experience Japan's most important holiday. We even bought kimono for it. It's quite a bit. . .fancier, or maybe more solemn than Italian celebrations of the new year, where we have fireworks and parties in the streets. Ah, I still wear red underwear though."

"Yeah? Does your fancy, special new years underwear stay on your ass by the time the new year rolls around?"

". . .he keeps it on as long as he can bear it, and we've always made it to midnight before they end up somewhere else or ripped apart."

"Wow, proud of him!"

"Of course, since coming to Darkwick things are a little different. If we're still in probation I'm sure they'll have some sort of fortune slip giving and shrine set up in Hotarubi like they did last year, and I'll still go for my New Years Wish. I suppose watching the first sunrise from the deck of the ship will be nice too. We'd have a Christmas party with the rest of Sinostra, or drop by other Houses to see our friends. We'll exchange gifts. . .but the way I've been spending Christmas since I got here was trying to catch that fucking Reindeer. . . ."

"Oh yeah, you did mention there's some kind of rein--"

"The present-giving Reindeer! I'm going to catch it this year!! This will probably be my last chance, so it has to be this year!! Of course it manipulates time, so I always still have time for the party itself even after failing to catch it the previous years. . .but this year, I have to catch it. . . ."

"You're so fucking loud sometimes, I swear. . . . Anyways I think that covers everything? TL;DR: I stream and hang out with my friends on Christmas and spend time with my fam on New Years, and Romi-sama has a party and tries to catch some Christmas anomaly on Christmas, and then just does Japanese traditional stuff on New Years with Tai since he's here."

[gingerjolover]

i just came up with the cutest lil christmas request for julien!! ok so i’ve been watching love actually and gilmore girls all day while crying and i was thinking abt the scene where lorelei sang “i will always love you” at karaoke night to luke SO i was thinking what if soft!gf was doing karaoke at a christmas party with the boys+muna and other friends and she was singing “lover” by taylor swift☺️☺️

“ we can leave the christmas lights up til january”

“have i known you 20 seconds, or 20 years”

“with every guitar string scar on my hand, i take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover”

like i can see her being so shy at first but went she focuses on julien she’s just all blushy and happy and julien is tearing up bc she loves her baby so much 😣😣

i need a gf so bad someone help me😔😔😔

THIS IS SO STINKIN CUTE

(also no one hate me i havent seen gilmore girls yet 😭)

okay i feel like phoebe would be the reason for the karaoke machine at all, like phoebe definitely bought the machine and gifted it to jb and soft!gf as a housewarming present. i like to think that their house becomes "the house" for get-togethers and stuff like its a very entertainment-forward house but it's just so cozy and centralized to everyone's locations.

everyone is doing karaoke and its all fun and silly and then maybe katie does a slower song, and then phoebe, and then lucy and a mutual friend do a duet and kelli finally convinces soft!gf to sing something with her.

"do a taylor song baby!" julien is encouraging soft!gf from where she stands on the wall next to jo and some other friends.

i feel like kelli is looking for slower songs and soft!gf picks lover. (i just feel like maybe soft!gf wouldn't do a song on her own?? maybe if it was just the boys in the house)

“we can leave the christmas lights up til january” and julien can tell soft!gf is nervous but her voice is so small and sweet, juliens heart just melts.

“have i known you 20 seconds, or 20 years?” soft!gf canonically giggles at inappropriate times but especially when she's nervous or anxious so she and kelli are giggling between lines.

but somewhere before the bridge soft!gf makes eye contact with julien and it's like they're the only two in the room and soft!gf loves how soft and tender julien looks underneath Christmas decorations, wearing a cute christmas tie.

and julien's cheeks are pink, eyes slightly teary as she watches soft!gf on the makeshift stage in their living room, loving the way her hips subtly move with the beat, her arm wrapped around kelli's waist as they both sing.

“with every guitar string scar on my hand, i take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover” soft!gf sings finally getting into it as she lifts her hand to show a small scar, maybe from helping julien hang the guitars in her office or something, giggling as she sings it because julien is the one with scars and calluses underneath her tattooed fingers.

and once soft!gf hands the mic to someone else, maybe jo and a mutual friend, she all but skips to julien, jb wrapping her up, kissing her firmly as they sway back and forth, juliens hands splayed on the back of her neck and sliding down to her butt.

"ya did so good gorgeous," julien's murmuring against her lips, hand running through the ends of her hair, readjusting the Christmas tree head band on her head (she wears this bc i wore this on Christmas teehee).

[avatarrecom]

What they give you for Valentine's day

Pairing: Poly!recoms x Recom!reader

Word count: 1.1k

A/N: Omg I completely forgot to post this! Thank you all for the happy birthday wishes! Ignore my rambling through the headcanons lol.

Any thoughts?

🌍 Recom Miles Quaritch

He knows that it’s valentine's day, but it never occurred to him to get you a gift. Not until Walker and Z-dog give him an earful telling him to get you a gift asap. So Miles ditches his duties and frantically searches the entire base for a gift (because 1: Walker and Z-dog are hella protective of you and want their baby to be happy (and they're both scary as fuck when they want to, not that he will ever admit that) and 2: he doesn’t know if you’re expecting something and he doesn’t want to disappoint you). Eventually all he can find is a box of chocolates. Walker and Z-dog make him swear to go all out for your birthday to make up for the ‘pathetic’ gift. Even though you absolutely love it, I mean, chocolate is everyone's guilty pleasure right? (I will (try and fail to) fight you if you say no)

😈 Recom Lyle Wainfleet

Himself. That’s it, that’s the gift. You walk into your room to find him blue butt naked on your bed. Maybe the others have managed to convince him that just glorious nakedness isn’t enough, so maybe, he’ll tie a pretty bow around his cock, maybe not. I mean it’s Lyle, who knows what’s going through that bald head of his (probably not much but who am I to judge).

🍬 Recom Z-dog & 🥽 Recom Walker

THEY GO ALL OUT!!!! Like h-o-l-y shit. They force Miles to give the three of you the day off from work and you have a girls day (they may be though marines, but they still love them some self care). This girls day may or may not include certain spicy gifts and many, many, like I cannot empathize enough that there were many orgasms.

😎 Recom Mansk My boy may not be overly present, but he is there, he is always watching, always listening. He is always waiting… waiting for the perfect moment to… give you everything you could ever want. If you mentioned wanting to read a specific book, he’s buying it the  second he can. He buys literally everything you ever mentioned you wanted. He’s the type of guy to do that thing (I saw it on tiktok) where he goes to your amazon account (or whatever webshop you use) and buys everything you have in your cart and/or wishing list. There are four moments in a year when he goes all out spoiling you. The first is your birthday (obviously), second is your anniversary, third is Christmas and last is Valentine’s day.

(My grandpa used to do this for everyone in the family to the point it became annoying. There was this movie (or series? Idk)(in the Netherlands) about a knight named Floris and I remember watching it when I was with my grandparents and that at some point there were these people with plague masks and I was completely and utterly terrified. I literally couldn’t sleep that night and in the morning (I slept at their place) my grandpa gave me a copy of the movie and when I was packing my stuff I accidentally, on purpose ‘forgot’ it. I had nightmares for weeks lol. I never had the heart to tell him, and he never brought it up, bless his soul.)

🧯 Recom Prager I see him as the type to give you one of those jars with hundreds of sweet messages. He probably goes all out and gives you multiple jars with notes depending on how you feel. Do you feel sad? Just take a note out of the sad jar and it says how much he loves and appreciates you. Do you feel insecure? There are a hundred notes telling you how beautiful you are. And the way he describes it?! Like omg, he’ll write a note (because yes, of course they’re all hand written) that says “You are beautiful like the morning dew in the fields” or “You are the most beautiful star in the entire galaxy”.

(Omg I need a Prager to write me sweet notes 😩. I mean I’m extremely lonely. It’s a recent development by the way, my bf broke up with me through text (on my birthday, I swear, it is the most interesting birthday gift I've ever gotten, and also the only one I've gotten on my b-day👍🏻) and then I found out through a mutual friend that he’s been cheating on me with my bff for 6 months… Who wants help to egg his house? So my self esteem is extremely low right now. Not that it’s normally particularly high, matter of fact, it's shit and has been shit since got bullied first year of high school, but anywayy)

��️ Recom Ja He gives you a promise ring. I don’t think that the RDA would allow the Recoms to marry, especially within the squad, so a promise ring is the next best option. Getting the ring wasn’t much of an issue, but getting it in Recom size was. There were a lot of favors called in and when that didn’t work he resorted to threats or blackmail. If he wasn’t allowed to marry you, they could at least allow him this.

🧢 Recom Brown He gives you one of those cringy hoodies. Yours says “His Queen” and his says “Her King”. If he walks in the room and sees you wear your hoodie, he drops everything and changes into his own. The other Recoms make fun of you two for wearing them (mostly him, they would never make fun of you), but they’re secretly really jealous. Also, I’m like 99,99% sure that Z-dog, Walker and Prager had to persuade him to not give you something similar but with a sex joke on it.

📿 Recom Lopez You know that meme: A: “Love is a weakness and an evolutionary mistake.” B: “You are literally making a Valentine’s day card for them right now.” A: *pointing their hot glue gun threateningly* You’re on thin fucking ice.”

Lopez is person A. That’s it. (He’s definitely scrubbing glitter from his hair for days after, it’s definitely not because Lyle dumps Lopez’ entire glitter supply on his head, Lopez does the same to Lyle, but with obviously little effect)

⛓️ Recom Fike Baby boy’s love cannot be measured in gifts. He just showers you in hugs and kisses all day long. If people are giving him (and you) strange/disgusting looks, don’t worry, Brown is right behind Fike glaring at everyone who dares looking at you two. Fike ends up giving you something you’ve been wanting later on, cuz he’s unsure if you’re disappointed, you’re not and you end up making that very clear to him.