#bath and body works holiday 2000

[y2kbeautyandother2000sstuff]

Bath and Body Works Sugar Plum Mirror Gel

Holiday 2000

Found on worthpoint.com

this is one of my all time favorite products from BBW! Im so glad I found a Sparkling Snowflake for my collection. I would love to find the Sugared Shortbread Mirror Gel as well. The Sugar Plum is beautiful, but I didnt have it

[lady-djarin]

oh captain, my captain - pt.i

dbf!joel miller x f!reader (series of unknown parts)

warnings: legal age gap (joel is early 40's reader is late 20's-ish), no outbreak - circa early 2000’s, talk of readers fem body, reader wears a bathing suit, tension, kissing, mentions of smut, teasing, hints of exhabitionism, still kinda explicit, E 18+

word count: 2.1k

a/n: i can’t stop having daydreams about dbf!joel, he haunts me. so i wanna make at least another part but idk how many yet, i like where this is going so i’ll keep y’all updated ;) <3

joel miller’s instagram

* ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

"That's what you want to wear on the boat?" Sarah scanned the very cute but very thin cover up that was barely hiding your black bathing suit underneath. It was one of many options you were debating to sunbathe on the boat.

You turned around and looked in the mirror at yourself. "Yea why? Does it look weird?" Sarah was your best friend partly because she was so honest, she'd never let you go out looking anything less than 'perfect'. Even if you had very different definitions of perfect.

"No, not weird, but our dads are going to be there." She made a disgusted face like she smelled something rotten.

“Oh please it’s not that bad… my ass is completely covered!”

“Girl… your tits!” She pointed an accusing finger at your chest. It was true, they were ‘out’ but they looked good. The bathing suit made sure of that. “You do you, but if your boob flies out in front of both our dads I’ll be the one laughing.”

You giggled as she went back to flipping through a magazine. The two day boat trip was a summer tradition with your dad, Sarah and her dad, Joel. Joel was also your dads best friend. He was younger than your dad but they had a solid relationship after working together for over 15 years. That’s how you gained Sarah as basically a younger sister as well as best friend. It had been just you and your dad for a long time so it was nice having Joel and Sarah around to do ‘family’ things with. The countless family trips, birthdays and holidays meant you grew up around Joel and as you got older your view of him definitely changed.

Since you matured, so had your taste in men. Your first boyfriend in high school was barely even a boy, he was a small minded child with more interest in his baseball ‘career’ than you. He did lots of things that you now realize are the exact opposite of what you want in someone.

You now find yourself chronically single with a few stories to tell along the way. You also hate to admit that over the last couple of those shared holidays and trips that your eyes had started to linger on a particular man.

A man who you definitely should not be looking at that way. Somehow your brain had latched onto the idea that Joel Miller was the perfect man for you. He was caring and sweet and drop dead gorgeous. He was gorgeous in a rugged way, his brown messy waves and deep amber eyes. His cheeks were always covered in stubble. Stubble you wanted to feel between your thighs.

Only problem is, every time you start to think like that, you're reminded that he’s your dads best friend. You hang out with his daughter. It was wrong on so many levels, which only made you fall deeper.

You had caught yourself looking at him more than you care to admit, and him reciprocating just as much. That’s why you wanted to wear the black bathing suit, you knew he’d look.

—————

The morning of the trip was here and you were starting to get nervous. You were going to be trapped on the same small vessel as your biggest crush and your dad. That would throw anyone off.

You finished packing your bag and headed downstairs to find your dad making coffees for you both. As you swing into the kitchen you see another large form, wide shoulders stretching the canvas jacket. Joel turned around with a mug in one hand and rubbed the top of your head with the other. Your heart almost stopped beating for a second as he pulled you into a side hug.

“Hey kiddo,” his voice rumbled through your body at the contact.

He messed up your hair as you pushed away. “Don’t call me that,” you scowled and pushed down your hair. God, you felt like an idiot.

Your dad handed you a travel mug and you made for the bench by the front door to put your boots on. Before you made it, you felt the weight of your backpack being lifted from your shoulder.

“I got it sweetheart, I’m loading up the car.” You almost thought it was your dad at first but you turned to find those amber eyes next to yours. He squeezed past you in the small hallway, his whole body was practically rubbing against yours as he passed. He never called you anything like sweetheart.

He was gone before you could register and left you to put on your shoes.

You made your way to the driveway and Joel held the car door open for you. You settled into the seat behind the driver and he shut the door after you. Also new. The muffled boom of Joel's voice calling for your dad was the only noise until Sarah hopped in next to you. You were starting to dread the next almost 2 hour drive to the lake, having to sit behind Joel and not go crazy as your eyes connected through the rear view mirror.

—————

The boat they rented this year was a little bigger to your surprise. Your dad always made the overnight trip really special; Joel teaching you guys how to fish, making s'mores on the tiny gas stove and stargazing on the water. This year they really went all out, they got a slightly nicer one with a fancy bathroom and everything.

The whole reason you guys started this tradition was because Joel really liked fishing and knew how to drive a boat. He just rented a different one every year. This year it came with cushy seats, full sized beds and a little seating area on the deck. Most of your morning was spent reading on that deck as Joel and your dad set sail. You were thankful your dark sunglasses covered your lingering gaze that slid over Joel's form. Fuck, how could you not? His shirt was soaked with sweat as he worked the boat, muscles straining as he went about his tasks. You had no idea what he was actually doing, so distracted by his movements.

He seemed to be finished as he wiped his hands on a rag and sat himself next to you, slumping down with a sigh.

“Hey, where’s my kid?” He squinted down at your book. Nosey.

“She’s napping. Complained about waking up early.” You yanked your book away with a frown.

“Geez, that girl.” He put his hand on your knee as he stood up. Your skin was instantly on fire. “I’m gonna make some burgers, want one?”

All you could manage was a nod.

—————

The rest of the afternoon was pretty tame. You guys found a spot on the water you liked and the men started fishing and you and Sarah went to your shared room to change. Once you were ready you went to the small kitchen to grab some lemonade… and maybe add some of that vodka your dad brought. While your dad didn't care that you drank, being of legal age and all, he didn't endorse you letting Sarah drink, since she was a few years younger than you. But what he doesn't know won’t hurt him. Plus you poured Sarah half a shot, she'd be fine.

You two sat out there gossiping and reading books and magazines. You did decide to wear the black suit, the one that made your boobs look great. And boy did it pay off.

Since Joel and your dad were sharing the small deck with you guys, you had a perfect view of him. Even better, he had a perfect one of you. You caught him looking at you more often than not. You were actually kind of surprised that your dad didn't notice, or Sarah. But why question a good thing.

After the sun went down everyone changed and you all stargazed on the deck in the warm summer night until finally heading to bed. You and Sarah were sharing a tiny room and an even smaller bed, and while you never minded before, for some reason you couldn’t find a way to get comfortable. You tried your best to fall asleep, hoping the movement of the water would put you out. Once you saw the small clock glowing ‘2:26am’ you decided to go up and get some water, or maybe just stretch your legs.

You made your way up the narrow staircase into the main area where a small couch sat. The small couch that Joel was sitting on.

“Hey, what are you doin’ up?” He looked like he had been awake for a while too. You didn't know he wore glasses. He looked cute.

Fuck.

“Couldn’t sleep,” you rubbed your tired eyes, trying to focus on his face.

“‘M sorry darlin’, need anything?” He stood up from the couch, which was really just a bench with a blanket. He led you into the kitchenette and you waited as he poured you some water.

“Thanks… why are you still awake?” You sipped your water as he removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

“I’m always worried somethin’s gonna happen to the boat if I fall asleep.” He watched as you finished your glass and put it in the sink. “You havin’ fun at least? I know we haven’t done much yet.”

“Ya I’m having a great time! I like doing nothing,” you admitted with a small giggle. “Plus I like watching you guys struggle with the fish.” That made both of you laugh under your breath.

“I like watching you too, sweetheart.”

Wait.

What?

You kind of just stared at him a little wide eyed while your brain processed his words. He had a sweet smile on his face like he didn’t just drop that bomb. He looked back at you and smiled wider when he saw the look on your face, the absolute shock that made your mouth slack open.

You were unsure of what to do at this point, it’s like your dreams were coming true but you had no idea how to handle it. Thank god he handled it himself by brushing his hand over your cheek, pushing a strand of hair behind your ear. You were pretty sure you malfunctioned because all you could do was stand there, unsure of how to take it.

“You looked so pretty, you always look so pretty.” He was staring at your lips now, clearly past the point of hiding this.

“Joel…” You almost wanted to pull away, this was kind of wrong.

His hand was still cupping your jaw, like he was unwilling to part from touching you. He looked into your eyes as he pulled you closer. Your heart was in your chest, this was wrong, you should pull away but couldn’t bring yourself to care at this point.

Your lips connected and you instantly melted, he was so warm and big, holding you in his strong arms. He held your waist close, pressing you against him.

The kiss was… something else. No one had ever kissed you like that before, maybe that’s the difference between boys and men.

His tongue slid over yours and you were lost, you both were. All semblance of shyness was gone as you devoured each other. His lips were soft as silk and his muscled arms held you close and roamed your curves. Neither of you wanted to part, even for air until you heard a noise coming from below deck. You reluctantly scrambled away from each other, worried your dad or Sarah would be walking up the stairs.

“I– I’m sorry darlin’,” he couldn't bring himself to look at you.

“Joel, I– it’s ok. Don't be sorry.”

There was a charged energy between you, like a spell neither of you wanted to break. He was the one to break first and he squeezed past you without so much as a look your way. You could tell he looked upset, ashamed almost and that hollow pit twisted in your stomach.

————

The rest of the trip went as usual, except for the fact that you and Joel couldn't keep your eyes off each other.

The only good thing was that your dad and Sarah were none the wiser. You weren't sure if Joel regretted the kiss or not, he seemed to have a permanent guilty look in his eyes. The memory of the kiss and the feeling of his lips on yours haunted you, unable to think of almost anything else.

When the boat docked at the end of the second day and as the group was gathering up the belongings to unload into the truck, you found yourself alone below deck with Joel.

Alone.

“Hey kiddo, ready to go home?” It was almost cold the way he regarded you now.

What the hell? What did you do? He can’t act all high and mighty, he kissed you! You only managed a scoff in response. That melted his icy exterior.

“Why ya givin’ me attitude?” His voice was just barely lower than normal volume, his thick brows knitted in the middle.

“Your acting like that was my idea last night.”

The left over desire from the previous night was boiling over into burning rage, but you couldn’t deny you were still soaking between your thighs.

“You kissed me, Joel!”

“Will you quit yellin’!” He backed you up against a section of wall in the small room. His deep rumble of a voice both angered you and turned you on.

“I’m not ye—,” your voice was cut of by his thick fingers covering your lips.

“Shut up. I swear darlin’, you��ve got a fucking mouth on you.” He was practically growling in your ear. You felt kind of filthy like this; pressed between a wall and Joel’s hard body, his hand smothering your sounds.

“You wanna get caught? Hmm?”

Your eyes sparkled back at him, almost begging him to fuck you here and now. Instead of indulging you, he took one last long look at you before turning away without another word.

—————

After he left you speechless below deck, Joel helped you pack the rest of the bags into the car and thus begun the 2 hour drive back. You sat behind Joel again, on purpose this time, knowing you had power over him now.

You spent the whole way home making eye contact with those big brown eyes in front of you. You did your best to convey your wanton need through your gaze, licking your lips and watching his eyes track the movement.

After you all said your final goodbyes, your dad ran inside to go to the bathroom and Sarah was passed out in the backseat, leaving you once again, alone with Joel.

“I had fun Joel, hope we can do it again sometime.” You refrained from hiding any of the sarcasm and giddy in your voice.

“You better watch yourself darlin’.” You could tell he really was worried about getting caught.

This was going to be fun.

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

North To The Future [Chapter 9: A Long December]

The year is 1999. You are just beginning your veterinary practice in Juneau, Alaska. Aegon is a mysterious, troubled newcomer to town. You kind of hate him. You are also kind of obsessed with him. Falling for him might legitimately ruin your life…but can you help it? Oh, and there’s a serial killer on the loose known only as the Ice Fisher.

A/N: While “A Long December” was originally released by Counting Crows in 1996 (and is thus compliant with the 90s theme), the version I listen to most is Girlhouse’s cover from 2022. So maybe check that out. It is a bop!

Chapter warnings: Language, alcoholism, addiction, murder, discussions of sex, a tiny bit of sexual content, Christmas with Momtini and Dadtini, Kimmie making a realization, Aegon making a drink, Appletini making plans, Trent making some killer pool shots, the Ice Fisher getting into the holiday spirit, please enjoy this nice little respite before the events of Chapter 10. :)

Word count: 6.9k.

Link to chapter list (and all my writing): HERE.

Taglist: ​​​​@elsolario​ @ladylannisterxo​ @doingfondue​ @tclegane​ @quartzs-posts​ @liathelioness​ @aemcndtargaryen​ @thelittleswanao3​ @burningcoffeetimetravel​ @hinata7346​ @poohxlove​ @borikenlove​ @myspotofcraziness​ @travelingmypassion​ @graykageyama​ @skythighs​ @lauraneedstochill​ @darlingimafangirl​ @charenlie​ @thewew​ @eddies-bat-tattoos​ @minttea07​ @joliettes​ @trifoliumviridi​ @bornbetter​ @flowerpotmage​ @thewitch-lives​ @courtenbae​ @tempt-ress​ @padfooteyes​ @teenagecriminalmastermind​ @chelsey01​ @anditsmywholeheart​ 

Please let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist! 💜

You descend the staircase gingery, sheepishly. Your socks slip on the hardwood steps like tires on black ice. You’re trying to avoid your parents, but you can’t wait any longer to eat breakfast or you’ll be late for work. They’re bustling around in the kitchen: cracking eggs, chitchatting, banging plates and pans, cooing over Sunfyre, listening to an R.E.M. album that spins on the record player.

When you walk in, your dad is standing by the stove wearing the apron you got him for his 50th birthday. Pizza Slut, it says. He grins and wiggles his eyebrows. “Hey, ladybug.”

“Oh no.”

“I heard you come home pretty late last night. And then you got right into the shower. Hmm.”

“Hmm!” your mom concurs joyfully.

Your dad nods to the pan he’s hovering over, wielding a spatula. “Salmon omelet?”

You sigh, defeated; and yet, you must admit, you love salmon omelets. “Yeah, sure.” You sit down at the table next to your mom. She’s drinking Earl Grey tea smokey with cream and reading a newspaper: Halle Barry is marrying a jazz musician, Puff Daddy’s Notorious.com is looking for a venture capitalist willing to invest $7.5 million in startup funding, a man was arrested in Times Square for threatening President Clinton, the Nasdaq composite index—fueled largely by the dot-com boom—could hit 5,000 by the end of 2000. You wonder what Aegon’s family is doing right now. Do outrageously wealthy people eat omelets and decorate Christmas trees? Do they hop from store to store in some glitzy metropolitan mall hunting for presents—KB Toys, the Disney Store, Hallmark, Bath and Body Works, Hot Topic, RadioShack, Claire’s, Wet Seal, Yankee Candle—before grabbing a late-afternoon snack at Cinnabon or Sbarro, maybe a smoothie from Orange Julius? Or do they just sit in their mansions under vast unsmiling portraits until they grow dusty and turn to stone: gargoyles, angels, lions bearing their fangs? Are they still human at all?

“How’s Trent doing?” your mom asks. “Still trying to get into the Forest Service?”

“As far as I know. But that’s not who I was with last night.”

Your dad sets an omelet down in front of you, along with a glass of orange juice and one of the same Flintstones multivitamins you’ve been taking since you were in preschool. Jesse used to give me those, you think randomly, recalling the reminders he penned in his clandestine journals. When he was around. When he was sober. Your parents exchange a wary glance. “Oh?” your dad ventures in a squeak, trying to sound casual.

You could lie, but you don’t. Juneau is too small for lies. People know each other too well, they bump elbows in grocery stores and bars and parking lots; they make overly-familiar small talk and inadvertently spill secrets. The last thing you need is someone teasing Trent good-naturedly about your supposed night of passion. He might be dumb, but if he ever gets all the pieces in his titan hands he’ll eventually figure out how they click together. “I was, uh, actually, uh…visiting Aegon.”

They watch you, faces frozen in forced, benign smiles. You pet the top of Sunfyre’s shaggy head with your left hand and stab a fork into the salmon omelet with your right. “Well, that’s great!” your dad manages. “He’s a nice boy, that Aegon. So Greek. And plenty sexy, as we’ve previously established.”

“Is he feeling better?” your mom asks politely, slurping her tea.

“Oh yeah. Much better.” It comes out way too enthusiastic, and hot blood floods into your face. Your parents chuckle…and yet their eyes are troubled, distant, though perhaps in different directions. “Just so you know, things aren’t really working out with Trent. I’m trying to let it fizzle so there isn’t any drama that makes things awkward or creates any…uh…bad blood, I guess. So if you see him around, definitely don’t mention Aegon.”

Your dad does a mock salute. “Got it, General Ladybug.”

“What are Aegon’s plans for Christmas?” your mom inquires. Your dad turns to her, but doesn’t say anything. “It must be difficult for him, being so far from home. Especially around the holidays. I would hate for him to be alone.”

Probably drinking himself into unconsciousness while watching Jingle All The Way and Die Hard. “I don’t know, that’s a good question. I should ask him.”

“He can spend Christmas here with us, if he’d like.” Your mom finishes her tea, sets the cup down on the table, fiddles with it. “We’ll have more than enough food. And we could find a few things to wrap for him so he has presents to open.”

“Now if that’s not holiday spirit, I don’t know what is!” your dad says happily; and if he’s bluffing, he’s good at not showing it. He kisses your mom on the cheek, resting his study hands on her shoulders. She smiles up at him.

You wolf down the last few bites of your salmon omelet, chew your vitamin, knock back orange juice like a shot. “Alright, I should get going, or I won’t be back in time to open the vet clinic at 9.”

“I can always hold down the fort for a few hours,” your dad offers.

“No, that’s okay. I appreciate it, but I don’t want to bother you.” I don’t want to disappoint you. I don’t want to let you down. “You’ve earned retirement. Enjoy all the Judge Judy and Buffy The Vampire Slayer you can handle.” You pet Sunfyre and tug playfully on his ears. His tail wags at warp speed. “Are you ready to go home to your favorite person now? Are you excited?”

Your dad lumbers off into the kitchen. “Here, bring Aegon some breakfast too…” He piles a salmon omelet, a mountain of hash browns, and toast slathered with butter and strawberry jelly into a Tupperware container. You take it and glance out the window that faces the driveway.

“Oh, great. Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“The cow moose is out there licking the road salt off my Jeep. Can you get rid of her?”

“Again?! Okay, I’m on it.” He grabs some pots out of the cabinet and heads outside. You can hear him beating the pots together and shouting: “Goodbye, moose! You live in the woods, not the driveway! Goodbye! Au revoir! Adios, mooseachos!”

At the kitchen table, your mom laughs. She’s still tinkering anxiously with her cup. “Only in Alaska.”

“You’re really alright with Aegon coming over for Christmas?”

“Of course. I’d prefer it, actually. I’d rather know he’s safe. Not alone, not in trouble.”

“Even though he might end up passed out under the tree?”

She smiles: faint, tired, melancholic. “I’ve seen worse.”

When you let yourself into Aegon’s apartment, he’s dressed for work and self-medicating with a rum and Coke mixed in a cereal bowl; it’s the only dish he has that’s currently clean. Sunfyre bolts to him, barking wildly and jumping up to prop his paws on Aegon’s chest as you slide the Tupperware onto the kitchen counter.

“Hey, buddy!” Aegon cries, ecstatic. “I missed you! Yes I did! Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy?!”

“Where are you going?” you ask, scrutinizing him.

“Fishing,” he says simply, like this should be obvious.

“I don’t think you should be going back to work this soon. You just got out of the hospital.”

He shrugs. “I need the money.”

“I can give you money.”

“You definitely could, but I don’t want your money, I want my money. Besides, Trent won’t be able to protect my job forever. If I can’t work, Rusty will find someone else who can.”

“Trent,” you echo morosely, staring at nothing in particular.

Aegon downs the rest of his rum and Coke, then puts his bowl in the sink. He walks over to you, his oceanic eyes cautious, his lock of white-blond hair resting on his cheek. “What did he do to you? At dinner, I mean. Before you called me.”

You take his left hand and turn it over, studying the lines on his palm: past, present, future, all in a language you can’t read. You hesitate; you can’t decide what to tell Aegon. You aren’t sure what you want him to know.

“He didn’t hurt you, right? Or try to touch you in a way you didn’t want him to?”

“He kissed me. I pushed him off. That’s all.”

Aegon watches you, eyes severe and glinting. “That’s not all.”

“I tried to break up with him at the restaurant,” you confess. “First he acted like he didn’t understand. Then he got upset, offended. We agreed to slow down, but I’m not sure what he thinks that means. Maybe he’s planning a summer engagement instead of a spring one, I have no idea.”

“You made him angry.” Aegon’s voice is flat, entirely flat, like he’s battling to keep it that way. “I thought we agreed not to make him angry.”

“Well I didn’t do it on purpose, Aegon.”

“No no no, my bad, let me clarify, I’m not mad at you. I just don’t understand why you would be so direct about it. I’ve broken up with a lot of people without actually breaking up with them. You ignore, you deflect, you do the bare minimum, you are intentionally unappealing in every way…and then eventually they move on. That’s the way to go. That’s how you avoid confrontations.”

“I don’t want this thing with Trent to die a slow death.” Oh, perhaps a poor choice of words. “I don’t want to be with him, to even keep up the facade of being with him. I want to be with you. I want to be with you in every way, everywhere, all the time.”

Aegon smiles. He twists his fingers into your hair and touches his forehead to yours and then kisses you, softly and unhurriedly. As he pulls away, he gently bites your lower lip; his fingertips ghost across the front of your throat like a necklace, like a chain. You moan into him, unable to help it. “I won’t go to work if you don’t either,” Aegon murmurs.

“I, an eternally upstanding citizen, definitely have to go to work.”

“Man, fuck capitalism,” he says, and you laugh together.

Something occurs to you. “You didn’t wait for Kimmie to move on. You broke up with her.”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Why?”

“Because I had another candidate in mind for the extremely prestigious position of being my Juneau girl.”

You tuck his hair behind his ear and kiss him again: heat, rum, memories from the night before. Lust stirs up in your blood like ancient silt in seawater. “Please be careful at work.”

“I will, Appletini. I will. Don’t worry. You’re always worrying about things that haven’t happened yet. There’s no point in that.”

“I think I’m just someone who’s doomed to worry a lot in general.”

He grins. “Yes. But I’m your favorite thing to worry about.” He lays his palm against your right cheek and kisses your left: quickly, lightly, like it’s routine, like he’ll be doing it every day for the rest of his life. “Have fun at the vet clinic. Saving all those furry little lives.”

“I’ll see you at Ursa Minor tonight?”

He winks. “I’ll be the one with the electric guitar.”

~~~~~~~~~~

You get stuck late at the clinic spaying Mr. Mark Morehouse’s Flemish Giant rabbit. By the time you rush through the front door of Ursa Minor—bells jangling, a gust of cold wind at your heels, patrons glancing over with vague interest—the band is already performing. Aegon is wearing his cuffed jeans, black combat boots, and, in a radical departure from his usual color scheme, a royal blue turtleneck sweater. He’s braided a section of his hair on the left side of his head and woven a single, small, blue-dyed rose into it. He gives you a subtle nod when he sees you come in, a sly half-smile. He’s singing a punk rock, up-tempo version of Counting Crow’s A Long December.

“I can’t remember the last thing that you said as you were leaving, now the days go by so fast…”

“Heyyy, bitch!” Heather greets you, raising her Sex On The Beach. Joyce and Kimmie are swaying together, brandishing lighters in the air: Joyce smirking and reluctant, Kimmie—a born groupie—shamelessly exuberant. You swing by the bar to get a Bacardi Breezer (blueberry, very good, one of the better flavors) and stand beside Heather. You gaze at Aegon as he strums his battered guitar, and the parallel strikes you for the first time. Aegon too is layered with imperfections: scars, marks, ink, demons with gnashing fangs and needlelike fingers that dangle past their knees. And yet what he gives to the world is so beautiful. And yet he is so goddamn miraculous.

“I can’t remember all the times I tried to tell my myself to hold on to these moments as they pass…”

It takes you a long time to notice that Kimmie is watching you. Something clicks like a dislocated joint popped back into its socket; and that’s the way it’s always been with Kimmie, since she was a child, since she was a five-year-old chasing boys around the playground at recess. The hints pile up—a lot of hints, sometimes years of hints—until eventually there’s an avalanche of realization that hits and drags her under like a rogue wave. She sucks in a breath and her doelike eyes shoot wide open. You try to pretend you didn’t see anything, but that’s not Kimmie’s style. She pushes her way through the audience and grabs your wrist, hauling you away from the crowd. Heather observes this, slurping down her Sex On The Beach, trying to ascertain if you need reinforcements.

“What—?!”

“I didn’t know,” Kimmie says, like it’s an apology. Her eyes are pained and fearful, a deer bathed in headlights.

“You didn’t know what?”

“That you’re in love with him.” Her voice is reedy and trembling. She’s petrified, you realize. She’s afraid that I’ll never be able to be her friend again. Not a true friend, not a pure one. “I swear to God, I didn’t know. I even asked you first. I never would have hooked up with him if I had known, never, never. I’m so sorry. I’m so so so sorry. It didn’t mean anything, it wasn’t like we had real feelings for each other—”

“Kimmie, Kimmie, it’s fine,” you soothe, rubbing her shoulder. She’s wearing a ridiculously fluffy hot pink sweater; it’s like petting a neon sheep. “I’m the one who wasn’t upfront with you. I didn’t think Aegon and I had a chance, so I was purposefully trying to avoid him, to avoid any feelings I had for him. It didn’t work out that way, but…yeah. Anyway. I don’t blame you for anything.”

“Oh my god, so you’re together? Like, together?” Kimmie blinks at you, shocked but not scandalized. You’re not sure it’s possible to scandalize Kimmie.

“We don’t really want everyone to know about it.”

“Oh, because of Trent?”

Now it’s your turn to be shocked. Maybe some of those genius professor genetics made it down the Plinko board after all. “Exactly.”

“Jesus Christ, he’d probably snap Aegon in half if he knew. Like a freaking KitKat bar.”

“That’s a mental image I didn’t need.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Kimmie swears, empowered by this rare, consequential responsibility.

“I really, really appreciate your discretion.”

“You and Aegon, wow…” She mulls it over, baffled. “So you’re pretty kinky too? I wouldn’t have guessed that. You should have told me! We could have gone shopping together!”

Shopping with Kimmie for fuzzy handcuffs and riding crops and, who knows, probably like vibrating butt plugs or something. I don’t think I’m emotionally prepared for that. I will most likely never be emotionally prepared for that. “Boundaries, Kimmie. Honestly, I haven’t seen that side of him. At least not in my albeit limited experience.”

“Huh,” Kimmie says brightly. “I guess he’s in love with you too.” And then she trots off to rejoin the crowd. Boat #27 has concluded their performance and is accepting cheers of acclaim and complimentary drinks from their adoring fans. Joyce hugs Rob, climbing onto her tiptoes and giggling. Joyce!? Giggling!?!? You grab another Bacardi Breezer before heading over, raspberry this time.

“Hey, babe!” Trent booms when he sees you.

Oh god. Oh no. You shrink away when he throws an arm across your shoulders. Aegon watches this as he approaches, sipping a rum and Coke, eyes like blue embers.

“Right,” Trent groans, like it’s some grave inconvenience, like it’s some passing fad he has to endure. “I remember now. We’re taking things slow.”

The clique assembles by the pool table like battle-ready Power Rangers: you, Trent, Joyce, Rob, Heather, Kimmie, Aegon. “Someone should play!” you say, truly a master of redirection.

Trent flips his hair. “Obviously I’m down.” He looks at you expectantly. You ignore him, drinking your Bacardi Breezer and then pretending to drink it once it’s empty.

“Oh, you are going down.” Heather cracks her knuckles and grins, then picks up a cue stick.

“Battle royal!” Rob announces. Joyce sighs and pulls a fantasy novel out of her purse. Kimmie perches on the edge of the pool table: legs crossed, eyes roving, gold hoop earrings glittering under Christmas lights, seeking attention and drawing it to her like Saturn ensnares moons. A gaggle of bashful men appear out of nowhere to worship her. Dale’s stereo pipes out Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You. Dale himself is wearing a red Santa hat and yawning boredly into the back of his hand.

“I need another drink,” you say, and head for the bar. Aegon follows you.

“You don’t want a Bacardi Breezer.”

“I don’t?”

“No. You don’t.” He flags Dale over once you’ve claimed your seats. “Hey Dale, did you get the stuff on the list I gave you?”

“Sure did.” Dale sets an array of items on the bar: apple juice, lemon juice, florescent green apple schnapps, vodka, a single Granny Smith apple, a paring knife, a shaker halfway filled with ice, a small plate covered with sugar, two chilled martini glasses. “You owe me, though. Especially for the schnapps. I had to order a case all the way from Seattle!”

“Add it to my tab.”

“Which you’ll pay when? In 2023?”

“I’ll pay, Dale!” Aegon insists.

Dale rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t seem genuinely annoyed. “Sure you will.” He yawns again and ambles away to take the orders of some locals sitting at the other end of the bar. The thuds of his boots are heavy and slow on the hardwood floor, the same one Aegon almost died on nine days ago.

“What are we doing?” you ask, but you’re already smiling. You have a pretty good guess.

“We’re making appletinis,” Aegon replies.

“You knew how to make appletinis this entire time and never said anything?”

“Oh no, I definitely did not,” he says. “I found the phone number of a friend I met back in San Francisco and figured she might know. She’s a bartender. So I gave her a call and asked very, very nicely and sure enough, she had a recipe.” He pauses, contemplative. “I told her I was in Chicago. Just in case.”

Just in case his ghost manages to track her down. “Have you seen this friend naked?”

“Does it matter?”

“No,” you say, and you find that you mean it. Aegon is here with you now, and that’s all you can ask for. Still, his commitment to relative honestly seems enduring.

“The answer is yes. But it wasn’t like it is with you.”

“Really, it doesn’t matter. I’m not mad or anything.”

“Yeah, you don’t look mad.”

You smile at each other, Christmas-light sparks in your eyes, alone in a crowded room. Well…alone except for Mariah Carey. “Anyway,” you prompt. “Am I getting a real-life appletini or what?”

“Let’s do this. Uh…” He furrows his brow, trying to remember. “Okay. I think I know how it goes.” He adds apple juice and lemon juice to the shaker. He doesn’t measure; he estimates, splashing in a little at a time until he’s content. He caps the container, gives it a few vigorous shakes, then opens it again. He pours in the schnapps and vodka, then shakes again. “Cut a few slices off the apple, vet lady. Nice and thin.”

You do, four transparent crescent-moon slivers. Aegon rubs lemon juice around the rim of each martini glass with his ring finger and then dunks them in the sugar until the rims are covered in fine white crystals like snow. He garnishes the martini glasses with the apple slices, gives the shaker one last whirl, then empties the contents into the glasses: half for you, half for him. He hands you your introductory appletini and toasts his glass against yours.

“On three?” Aegon asks, and you nod, beaming. You count together: one, two, three.

Your first taste isn’t a tentative sip. You take a full, brave swallow of the vivid green brew. It’s jarringly sour, sticky-sweet, crisp and refreshing like springtime. “Oh, I love it!” you trill.

“It’s…uh…” He takes another investigative slurp. “It’s definitely appley.”

“You hate it,” you say, laughing.

“I don’t hate it,” he counters. “I like what it’s doing to you.”

You close your eyes, the sights and sounds of Ursa Minor fading away. You’re somewhere sleek and vibrant and new; you’re in New York City, you’re in Los Angeles, you’re in Las Vegas, you’re in San Diego. When you open your eyes, Aegon is smiling. “Sorry. I was teleporting.”

“Do you want the rest of mine?”

“Yeah,” you admit guiltily, and he slides his appletini over to rest by yours. You drain them both. “I’m like Jack Dawson. I’m the king of the world.”

“You’re very, very cute when you’re tipsy, that’s what you are.”

“My parents think you should spend Christmas with us. I think you should too.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Okay. Don’t buy me anything fancy, though. I won’t be able to return the favor.”

“Sad impoverished homeless man gifts only. You have my word.”

“Hey!” Heather calls from the pool table. She’s waving her cue stick in the air. “I lost! I’m a loser! I got slaughtered by this jumbo-sized motherfucker! And you weren’t even here to witness it!”

“We should go over there,” you tell Aegon, and he steadies you when you wobble as you slide off the barstool. “Oh, god, I’m sorry.”

“It’s cool. Now I have an excuse to touch you.”

“Dale, can I get some Chex Mix or something?” He tosses you a little blue bag from behind the bar. You miss it completely. It sails over your head and smacks into the floor. Aegon cackles hysterically, but fetches the bag. He even opens it before he hands it to you. Then you set off together for the pool table.

“What’s wrong with you?” Heather asks when you arrive, her eyes narrow.

“I like appletinis. I really like appletinis.”

“It’s December 22nd, the commencement of Capricorn season, and you are celebrating this momentous event with an uncharacteristic display of recklessness and frivolity? Inauspicious!”

“What did I miss? Besides your humiliation.”

“Flintstones vitamins,” Rob says, rubbing blue chalk on a cue stick. He and Trent are playing pool now; Trent is showing Kimmie and several of her sycophants, including Matt and Gary, how he can make a shot with his hands behind his back. Aegon circles the pool table, his hands in his jeans pockets, watching Trent reticently. “Childish and stupid or totally acceptable for mid-twenties adults?”

“Totally acceptable,” you declare, munching on Chex Mix. “I just had one this morning.”

“That’s what I said!” Kimmie cries. “They’re delicious. I could eat a whole bottle of them. I used to lie to my mom when I was a kid and insist she hadn’t given one to me yet so I could get extra. My high score was five in a day.”

“That can’t be good for you,” Heather says. “Wait. Maybe it explains some things.”

“A lot of things,” Joyce quips, turning a page in her book.

Kimmie defers to you, the foremost medical authority present. “Vitamins can’t hurt people, right?”

“Well, that depends on the vitamin.”

“Some can,” Aegon says. “The fat-soluble ones, because your body can’t flush them out as easily or something. Too much Vitamin A can really fuck someone up. There are people who’ve died because they ate a polar bear liver, which has, like, millions of units of Vitamin A. So if you ever happen to eat a polar bear, skip the liver.”

“You can overdose on vitamins?” Kimmie asks him, puzzled. “Like, vitamins can kill you?”

“Oh yeah, lots of things can kill you if you take enough of them. Too much Vitamin A can cause seizures and comas, Vitamin D can give you a heart attack, Vitamin E can make you hemorrhage out of your eyeballs and stuff. And it causes strokes.”

“Oh snap!” Kimmie exclaims in horror, thinking that perhaps she barely escaped with her life. Heather is thoroughly amused.

You look at Aegon as he passes by you like a satellite whirling around the Earth, a blinking light in suffocating darkness. He’s right, but he shouldn’t be. He hasn’t studied medicine. He hasn’t studied much of anything. “How do you know all that?”

He replies curtly: “How do you think?” And then he resumes his orbit.

Rob attempts a shot and misses. “Ha!” Trent says, flipping his hair, and then starts lining up his own. As he leans over the pool table, he asks you: “So, where were you last night?”

Your mind, already hazy, goes useless. Cold sweat bubbles up out of your pores. “What? At home.”

“No you weren’t.” His eyes are on you like a wolf’s, like a beast’s. “I called the house. A couple times, actually. I felt weird about how we left things and wanted to apologize. But no one answered.”

“Oh, sorry, I mean I was at home, but then I went to go bowling with my parents.”

“No you didn’t.” Trent’s cue stick hits the striped red ball, number 11, and sends it hurtling into a pocket. “I already asked Dale. He’s in the bowling league, and he said you weren’t there.”

Two lies. And I don’t have a third. You stand there helplessly, surrounded by Christmas lights and tinsel and pine trees, your thoughts churning slowly, slower, dragging to a full stop. The chatter around you dies down. Wide eyes dart between you and Trent. Joyce closes her book. Even Dale is peeking over from the bar. His face is crisscrossed with lines of disapproval, of fascination.

“Where were you, huh?” Trent takes a step closer. He’s huge. He’s so fucking huge. Aegon picks up the black 8 ball off the pool table; no one else notices but you.

“Trent,” Heather scolds her brother, stunned. “Take a chill pill—”

“Where were you?!” Trent demands.

You try to conjure up an excuse, any excuse. All you can think of is how badly you don’t want to end up at the bottom of an ice-covered lake. I can’t die, I haven’t done anything yet. I haven’t been anywhere yet. I haven’t seen San Diego.

Trent begins one final time, still clutching the cue stick, his voice deafening: “Where were—?!”

“She was with me!” Kimmie bursts out, and everyone spins towards her. “I, um, I was upset. Devastated, in fact. Because of, um. Boy problems.”

Heather titters nervously. “What else is new.”

“So I called and I was an absolute blubbering mess on the phone and she offered to come over and hang out. Watch Buffy with me. Do my nails and stuff. It’s really embarrassing.” She smiles at you, a soft glowing smile. “Thanks for trying to keep my secret.”

“No problem, Kimmie,” you reply shakily.

“Oh, babe!” Trent says, his face splitting into a smile, pressing a hand into the small of your back. He even flips his hair in that simpleminded, horselike way. He can’t be the Ice Fisher. He can’t be…right? You flinch when he touches you. On the periphery of your vision, you can see Aegon rolling the black 8 ball back onto the pool table. “That’s all?! You should have told me!”

“It really wasn’t my situation to share.”

“Damn, I’m sorry.” Trent seems to mean it. “I’m really sorry. That was a dick move, I don’t know what came over me.”

“Hulk smash?” Rob says, and there is laughter, quivering with fresh relief.

“I think I have to go,” you say, rubbing your forehead. “I’m really not feeling great.” And that part’s not even a lie. “I shouldn’t have mixed Bacardi Breezers and appletinis, I’m a total lightweight. And I have work in the morning. I’m supposed to vaccinate like ten of Mr. Campbell’s reindeer.”

“You want me to drive you home?” Trent offers.

No! Definitely not! “Thanks, but I couldn’t bear to interrupt your pool game. Especially when you’re winning.” You can tell Aegon is looking at you. You intentionally don’t acknowledge him. And now you realize that you’re a little trapped: you can’t say you’re driving yourself home because you’re not sober, and you can’t say that Aegon is walking you back to his apartment because then Trent might murder you both right here in the middle of Ursa Minor, blood splattering the deer heads mounted on the wall, femurs and vertebrae littering the pool table.

“I’ll do it!” Heather volunteers. “I’m super not-wasted at the moment.”

“Um, well…”

“Come on.” She’s already going to get your parka off the coatrack. “I can’t in good conscience let you vaccinate those reindeer without a full night’s sleep.” You trail after her, powerless to refuse.

Out in the night-draped parking lot, you haul yourself—with some difficulty—into Heather’s Chevy Suburban. And as she turns the key in the ignition and begins defrosting the windshield, you tell her: “When you leave the lot, make a left, not a right.”

“What? Why?”

“Because you’re not taking me home. You’re taking me to Aegon’s apartment.”

“I’m…?” She gapes at you as it sinks in like an anchor through dark surf. “Oh my god. Oh my god…?!”

“Affirmative.”

“Oh. My. GOD.” She puts the Suburban in drive and, as requested, makes a left onto Main Street.

Sunfyre is delighted to see you when you arrive. He leaps, barks, pirouettes in circles, accepts copious scratches and Milk-Bone treats. You collapse onto the threadbare couch, and he stretches out on the floor beside you, his quiet snoring soon the only sound in the apartment. Your eyes blur, flutter, close up shop. Maybe twenty minutes later, you hear a key rattling in the front door.

Aegon walks inside, his boots dripping with snow. He doesn’t seem surprised to see you. “You alright, Appletini?”

“Yeah, I’m kind of woozy but I mostly just wanted to leave.” You consider him, wondering how to ask him the question that won’t leave your mind. It claws at the arched walls of your skull like a trapped animal, leaving streaks of blood where its nails were torn away.

“I don’t want to talk about the vitamin thing,” he says.

“I don’t want to talk about Trent.”

“Deal.”

He throws off his parka and boots, turns on the X-Files, and crawls onto the couch with you. You fold into him and he holds you, not hungrily, not asking for a thing. You freefall into sleep with your head against his chest, his heartbeat a distant roar like thunder.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Ice Fisher has left Juneau a Christmas present: Stephanie Nolan, his fifth victim. She was twenty-five years old, an avid knitter, a Blockbuster employee, mother of several adopted Himalayan cats, one of three sisters born barely a year apart. At least her parents still have some children left, you think. At least the pressure to make their sacrifices worthwhile wasn’t all on her. Your dad sneaks a few minutes of news coverage while your mom is in the shower. They’re replaying the press conference that Chief of Police Eugene Baker gave late last night on Christmas Eve.

“We urge all Juneau residents to remain vigilant. This is the time of year for celebrations and get-togethers, and we don’t want to discourage that in any way, but no one—and I repeat, no one—should be outside alone, especially not after dark. Ms. Nolan left her place of employment to take a ten-minute smoke break, and that was all the opportunity the killer needed. He is still out there, he is still dangerous, and no one is immune from becoming a target. If you have any information relevant to this case, anything at all, please call our anonymous 24/7 hotline at…”

There are camera flashes, uneasy clamoring, flailing hands of reporters begging to be called on. Your dad crosses his arms over his broad chest, his face grim. A reporter asks Chief Baker: “I understand that the Juneau PD has brought in FBI profilers to help them identify possible suspects. Can you share any new theories with the public at this time?”

“Well, there are a couple likely possibilities. The Ice Fisher might be someone who is new to the area, someone who arrived this past summer or early autumn. Residents should therefore be extremely wary of newcomers. However, it might be the case that the killer isn’t new to the area at all, but rather suffered some sort of destabilizing event—loss of employment, for example, or the death of a loved one—that triggered their otherwise dormant violent impulses. The last theory I’m prepared to share today is that the criminal now known as the Ice Fisher might have been active long before this recent string of murders. Some serial killers have been known to…to test the waters, so to speak…with murders that can be camouflaged as accidental or natural deaths. That’s a possibility in this case, and we are combing back through the department archives to see if there are any answers there…”

“I should go pick up Aegon,” you say.

“Ladybug…” Your dad stalls, not wanting you to take it the wrong way. “I’m not saying that I think Aegon is the killer, because I don’t think he is. I know he’s not, actually. He doesn’t have much rage in him. He has a lot of other things, I believe, but not that. I’m just saying…you have to be careful. And he can’t keep an eye out for you if he’s passed out drunk somewhere. Do you get what I mean?”

“I understand, Dad. I’m careful. Really, I am. And I’m never running around town alone. If I’m not with Aegon, I’m with Heather or Kimmie or Joyce.”

“Or Trent,” he adds. He likes this idea; Trent might not be able to snap a murderer in two like a KitKat bar, but he could definitely crack a few ribs. Trent would be a great Mortal Kombat character. He could skewer foes with a cue stick, right through the eye socket. An icy shudder rocks down your spine.

“Or Trent.”

“Okay. Good.” He turns back to the tv, his eyes vacant, his voice low. “Just making sure.”

Aegon is dressed in his Christmas best: dark jeans, black Converses, his hair loose and wavy, a festive red sweater with Gizmo from Gremlins on it. You’ve opted for a more traditional Rudolph turtleneck. Sunfyre has a large red bow tied to his collar. The three of you ride together back to your parents’ house, the radio playing Celine Dion’s O Holy Night, one of the back windows rolled halfway down for Sunfyre.

Dinner is a reindeer roast, rosemary apple stuffing, potato gratin, homemade macaroni and cheese, and creamed spinach; dessert is Christmas cookies eaten under the tree. You open presents as a parade of classics play on the tv: Frosty The Snowman, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Year Without A Santa Claus. Your parents give Aegon cold-weather clothing like hats and mittens, which he accepts with great appreciation. He gives them a bouquet of blue roses and three bottles of red wine, only one of which he drinks himself. You give Aegon a refrigerator magnet from Caribou Crossings, a grizzly bear with a salmon caught between its teeth, something to join the rest of his collection, something to help him remember Juneau once he’s gone. He gives you a handful of seashells from San Diego that he’s been carting around in his luggage for a year. Everyone gives Sunfyre Milk-Bones.

When Aegon takes the golden retriever out to the backyard, your dad goes with them. You can see them talking out there as snow falls and the sun sets and the horizon is inked with violet and gold, the wind whipping fiercely: Aegon’s hands moving in wild, dramatic gestures, your dad nodding along. They’re gone for so long you start to worry, your fingers trembling as you and your mom play chess with the new set you received for Christmas, not black and white but pet-themed: one side dogs, the other cats.

Your dad comes back inside first. He shuts the door and says to you, not accusatory but merely intrigued: “I didn’t know you were serious about wanting to travel, ladybug.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess so. One day. When I’m retired, I guess. Doesn’t everyone want to travel?”

“Huh. Aegon made it sound a bit more urgent than that.”

He watches you defeat your mom in chess, makes her some mollifying Earl Grey tea, and then offers to play Scrabble with her, a proposition she can never resist. When Aegon brings Sunfyre back inside—the sky fully dark now, the stars rising behind the veil of clouds—you lead him upstairs to your room. You sit on your bed together and flip through your travel magazines, scenes of Paris, Cairo, New York City, Rome, Tokyo, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Saint Petersburg, Sydney, Las Vegas, Cusco, Athens, Mexico City, Nairobi, California.

“It’s strange,” Aegon says. “Your parents like me, but they also kind of don’t like me. It’s as if they’re afraid of me. I can’t figure them out.”

You think of the cardboard box under your bed, the one full of Jesse’s journals. “My mom was married before. Vince is her second husband.”

Aegon looks over at you, attentive but not understanding. “Okay.”

“I was five years old when they got together. So Vince is my dad, but he’s not…like…he’s not biologically…well, you get what I’m saying.”

Aegon closes the magazine he’d been skimming, still looking at you.

“My mom’s first husband was named Jesse. And he was…from what I understand…he was a lot like you.” You tap your index finger against the crook of your own elbow so Aegon will understand. He was brilliant, but he was an addict. He was a blessing, he was a curse.

Aegon nods slowly. “I guess that explains a lot.”

“I probably should have told you sooner. But I’ve never really told anyone.”

“What happened to him?”

“He drowned in the channel. Maybe it was an accident, maybe suicide. Maybe it doesn’t matter which one. Maybe there isn’t much of a difference.”

“I’m so sorry,” Aegon says, his voice quiet and gentle.

“I don’t want the same thing to happen to you.”

“It won’t. I told you. I’m not that easy to kill.”

You wonder if Aegon has become a ghost to his family, if he haunts the Targaryens like Jesse haunts you, half-comforting, half-heartbreaking, if after six long silent years his shadow still lurks in corners and doorways. You wonder if a ghost is really so far from what you are. “I want to stop feeling like a potential person, to stop waiting for the life I’ve always dreamed of to drop out of the sky. I want to feel real.”

“You’re real to me.” He dusts his thumbprint across the curve of your cheekbone, flesh and blood that sing to each other. “Listen, we’ll go to San Diego together.”

“Don’t, Aegon.”

“No, I mean it,” he says. “Give me a month to save up, and we’ll go. We’ll take a long weekend and fly down there. It won’t be hot enough to swim, but it’ll be warmer than here. Sixties, sunny, sandy, waves and tacos. We’ll stay somewhere with a waterbed. Those can be a lot of fun.”

“Careful. I might not want to leave the hotel room. What a waste of a trip that would be.”

“I’ll just have to make sure you’re bored of me by then,” he purrs, grinning and mischievous, dragging you into his lap. He smooths your hair back from your face, gazing up at you as you straddle him. He kisses your lips, your jaw, your neck; his teeth skate across your skin without biting down, without leaving indigo bruises of ownership. Slowly, he turns solemn and hushed. Slowly, you begin to worry about him.

“What, Aegon?”

“You’re the best present I ever got. I hope you know that.”

You whisper through his windswept white-blond hair: “Then open me.”

He lays you down on the bed, unearths your needful bare skin and stifles his moans against your throat, unravels you like a blood-red ribbon from a box heavy with secrets.

[rabbitcruiser]

Candle Day

Candles offer more than just light — fill your home with sweet scents and transform any space into a warm oasis.

For those who absolutely love the joy of lighting candles to provide warm, soft light as well as a delightful fragrance to their homes, especially in winter time, Candle Day is a beautiful way to usher in the cooler season.

History of Candle Day

Typically celebrated on the first Saturday of December, Candle Day was founded by the American retail company, Bath & Body Works. Originally owned by the Limited Brands, which also owns brands such as Victoria’s Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch, the first store in the Bath & Body Works chain was opened in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1990.

Selling products for the body, as the name implies, the company grew rapidly and now runs more than 2000 stores all over the world, 1600 of which are in the United States.

Bath & Body Works is a brand that is particularly beloved for its amazing scents that have a wide range of popularity, from fruity scents to flowers and also offering a line for men. Some of the most popular scents have been Sweet Pea, Japanese Cherry Blossom, Cucumber Melon and Country Apple.

Within these popular scent lines, as well as many others, are many products such as body lotions, fragrances, room sprays and, of course, candles. And for many people, Candle Day is one of the best times of the year to celebrate at Bath & Body Works because that’s when they hold some of their best sales.

Because the season for Christmas and other winter holidays often includes gift-giving, and because candles make incredible gifts, Candle Day was started in 2013. Plus, it’s a great time to simply stock up on candles for the cold, winter months.

So get ready for the fun and celebration of Candle Day!

How to Celebrate Candle Day

Candle Day offers a variety of options for just about any personality, whether looking for some time to spend at home or getting out and taking advantage of various sales. Consider celebrating with some of these ideas:

Light a Candle

Candles can bring so much comfort and warmth to a room, especially if they also envelop the room with a cozy and delicious scent. Fragrances such as Champagne Toast, Cinnamon Apple, or Strawberry Pound Cake are a lovely way to enjoy the day.

Buy a Candle (or Several!)

Head to the local Bath & Body Works to get access to their Candle Day sales and discounts, or look them up online and have the products delivered directly. This annual event typically provides customers with the opportunity to get the brand’s most famous 3-wick candles at a deeply discounted price. Other brands, such as Yankee Candle, may also be offering special prices in honor of Candle Day.

Give a Candle for Candle Day

What a great time to delight and surprise someone with a little present in honor of Candle Day! Find out which scents are a friend’s favorite and get them a large winter-themed pillar candle in honor of the season. Or leave a small votive on the desk of a coworker as a little bit of encouragement.

Source

[pocketvenuslux]

Fine Fragrances Are Getting a New Gourmet Twist

Distinct from “gourmand” fragrances that favour food notes of vanilla or almond, “neo-gourmand” fragrances are more sophisticated and sculptural.

As fragrance enjoys a post-pandemic boom, mass retailers and niche brands are hopping on the trend producing new and experimental olfactive takes on milks, fruits, nuts and other pantry staples.

Founders and fragranciers say neo-gourmands are both nostalgic and novel, able to evoke the pleasure of food and the comfort of memory while also having an “addictive” quality.

Read the rest of the article under the cut

Beauty shoppers have never been more ravenous for foodlike fragrances. Generally sweet and historically marketed to young women or adolescents, scents that feature edible notes like vanilla, chocolate or coconut are lately one of the most popular categories in the fragrance industry, where they’re known as “gourmands.” But a new batch of scents, referred to by perfumers and retailers as “neo-gourmands,” are taking the concept into more sophisticated and offbeat territory. Some are built around unexpected notes, like sesame or sea salt, while others add woody, smoky or contrasting notes to produce new and unusual scent cocktails.

Neo-gourmands are “hitting everywhere, from a trickle-up, trickle-down perspective,” said Mary Testa-Gough, associate vice president of product and fragrance development at Bath and Body Works. The mall brand recently launched a new scent for the holidays called Perfect in Pink, with a signature note based on a fictional fruit — the Yum-Yum cherry — created with the Swiss flavour and fragrance corporation Givaudan and nosed by Louise Turner, whose portfolio also includes Carolina Herrera’s Good Girl.

Neo-gourmands are helping to drive the red-hot fragrance market, one of the fastest-growing segments in beauty this year with sales up 14 percent in the third quarter, according to data from Circana, driven in large part by a tilt toward the luxury market. In its most recent earnings report, Bath and Body Works upped its sales expectations for the fourth quarter of 2024, driven in part by holiday demand for its premiumised scents like Perfect in Pink.

The food-focused fragrances also offer a way into a more mainstream category for niche brands like D.S. & Durga and By Kilian. Gourmand scents can be thought of as twee or unsophisticated, and for brands that market themselves to connoisseurs, a super-sweet, cherry-laden perfume might not fit the bill. On the other hand, an accord of red fruit, leather and salt just might.

Upmarket retailer Bluemercury has a dedicated assortment of neo-gourmands centred on “dark vanilla,” combined with leathers or ambers. Best-sellers include BDK Parfums Velvet Tonka ($230) and Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille ($300). While vanilla is far and away the most popular hook, Gatlin Chambers, a merchant assistant with the retailer, has also noticed marked interest in fruits, marshmallows and pistachios.

The resurgence of gourmand fragrances relies on the earthly magic of nostalgia. Just as trends from the 1990s and 2000s like low-rise jeans and pochette It-bags have reappeared in fashion, similar ripples are moving through the beauty industry. Some of the most enduring gourmands, like Thierry Mugler’s Angel, a blend of fruit, chocolate and vanilla, were minted in that era.

For Rosie Johnston, a makeup artist turned perfumer, the current popularity of gourmands reminds her of the Los Angeles she moved to in the ‘90s. “Even though there was that grunge era, and the whole Nirvana movement, all of that, people were wearing vanilla essential oil,” Johnston said. “It was, like, a sweet kind of dirty.”

Johnston founded a clean fine-fragrance label, called By Rosie Jane, in 2012, and released a scent called Dulce in 2022. “I think we were all craving the same thing. We all went through Covid.” She wanted Dulce “to be reminiscent of a time that felt a little easier, a little more close and connected.”

The minimalist label Commodity’s best-seller is called Milk, but made with sesame oil. The result “gives a sense of familiarity without being precisely identifiable,” according to Vicken Arslanian, the founder and chief executive of Europarfums, the US-based fragrance portfolio that acquired Commodity in 2019. Arslanian added that the scent accounts for about 60 percent of the brand’s sales. “You’re getting the clarity of the classic singular gourmand notes with the esoteric experimentation of the artistic fragrances,” Arslanian said.

Tapping into the trend doesn’t necessarily mean entirely new formulations. Legacy brands like Lancôme and Dolce & Gabbana have been reworking their hero scents with a neo-gourmand twist. Lancôme’s Idôle Nectar, introduced in 2022, features notes of vanilla, caramel and popcorn, while Dolce & Gabbana launched an intense version of its Devotion fragrance this year that opens with a hazelnut pop (and is based in vanilla). Mugler recently expanded its decades-old Angel line with Fantasm, which blends the original with dollops of creamy piña colada.

In September, Glossier released the first two extensions of its best-selling scent You, one made with musk and wood and the other with plum and buttercream. The latter, You Rêve, has polarised fans of the original scent. “The warm plum scent is lipsticky — almost plasticky — in a super cool, nostalgic way,” one Fragrantica user wrote. Another likened it to “cherry chapstick.”

“A lot of times we’re using these notes to create something addictive,” said Frank Voelkl, the perfumer at fragrance house DSM-Firmenich responsible for the new You. The term comes up constantly in describing neo-gourmands, which “still want to be sweet and addictive, but also want to be a bit more elevated,” Moda Operandi’s beauty director Jessica Matlin recently told Allure. They want customers coming back for repeat sniffs.

More experiments in foodie scents are coming down the pipeline. In January, Shiseido will officially unveil Le Sel d’Issey, Issey Miyake’s interpretation of a sea-salt fragrance, and the last one the Japanese designer worked on before his passing in 2022. The brand hopes to capture the hearts and noses of young male customers. Also in January, Parfums Christian will introduce Bois Talisman, a vanilla-forward scent inspired by sugar cubes and cedarwood that “invents its own expressive realm, of immediate and universal addiction,” wrote Francis Kurkdjian, Dior’s nose and “Creation Director.”

“I think these flavourful, tasty textures are probably a little bit what you call the ‘new gourmand.’” Voelkl added. “It’s more complex, it’s more faceted. It goes way beyond being just sweet.”

[xoxo-bunnydumpling]

So, none of us are drinking still but Eli is still smoking occasionally and last night was one such occasion. His back hurt and he had plans to come home, smoke a bowl, and fall asleep in the bathtub pretty much all day. Even texted me about it to see if we had any "real" plans but no way I'm gonna harsh dude's mellow.

He advocates for me resting so often, and ends up doing so many things around here that he hasn't had a big relaxation day in a long time so with little else to do until he got home I decided to be super fucking extra about this bath.

I don't know what happened inside Bath and Body Works over the holiday but they were definitely in reset mode. Extremely apologetic about being out of anything and everything peppermint...it was very dead and they followed me around out of boredom rather than trying to talk me into anything.

"Is it for you? We have all your vanilla stuff, no problem."

"Actually, it's for my husband. I'm trying to get him all nice and relaxed so he quits tweaking."

The girl asks me if he's stressed about the baby, if we have any other kids, and we end up talking about a bunch of irrelevant shit until she snaps out of it. "I just realized I haven't suggested anything yet, my bad."

Eli is not hard to buy for, anywhere, at any time. He's a lot like me, he likes everything and just the act of giving him a gift is enough to charm him, it really doesn't matter what it is. I got picked up and mooshed for giving him a pen once, and it wasn't even fancy...just really glidey and I know he loves that.

"So, is he a really manly smell kinda guy? Woods, trees, musk, we have one that smells kinda like a campfire? Dark chocolate? Is this a seduction bath, would you like him to smell sexy and mysterious?"

We end up with a collection of things that, when utilized together, smell like if you had a headshop and a bakery next door to each other. I've spent so much money I'm a little annoyed...then I just have to wait until he tells he's almost home to run the bath.

Extra. Extra as fuck. Housewife shit and I'm extremely into it.

He's not even in the door completely after his lil smoke sesh when he asks me what smells so good. I feel like I'm 2000% winning at spa day already. When we get to the bathroom he immediately picks me up and tells me I'm his favorite wife.

"Spa day, dude!"

He laughs. "I don't think we've ever done this before."

We have, for me, in a valiant attempt by Eli to relax me and get my blood pressure down. I really should be taking better care of him. He fusses a little when I don't get in the bath with him.

"But why?"

"Because we'll bone and that's not relaxing."

"Yes the fuck it is." He accepts me perching on the side of the tub though, sounding downright lascivious as I knead at one of his feet. "Oh so it's...like...okay. Damn. You're such a nice girl, have I ever told you that?"

He ends up fully scrubbed, sudsed up, exfoliated, rubbed down, and so relaxed he looks like he could fall asleep at any moment. It's a workout, that and water management...letting the soapy water out and running new water without leaving him cold. I'm truly a pro at spa day and we should really do this more often.

I'm about to take off to leave him peacefully in his nice clean hot water to hopefully not actually fall asleep, but I ask him if he needs anything else before I do.

"Yeah."

"What?"

"Get in. I'll be good, I promise."

I don't believe him but I get in anyway. Whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

[uniquepayne315]

1034 WEST YORK STREET (PART 2)

April 4, 2000, my mother passed away from a gunshot wound to the head. She was attacked as she made her way home from work is what the papers said. Gang violence was at a high and no other questions were being asked. My mother's funeral was a blur for me. Maybe it was because he requested for her to be cremated, or maybe it was because I just sat there the entire time thinking about how loud that gunshot was. My family showed up for the funeral and disappeared soon after. I had no real contact with anyone after the passing of my mother. Alone and scared with him became my everyday existence from then on.

It was the rain and cold air that woke me up that morning. I had another day off from school for a holiday which was fine with me because I had my books to keep me company. I got up to use the bathroom when his smell hit me hard. I jumped back not knowing he was in the doorway. As I stepped back pain went through my stomach sending me to my knees. Looking up at him for a sign of mercy he turned around and walked away. Not knowing whether this was a good thing I tried to stand as the pain in my stomach got worse. Not sure as to why I was in so much pain I proceeded to the bathroom. As I wiped myself, I noticed that I was bleeding. Not sure as to how I was bleeding or where it came from, I ran water in the tub to take a bath.

After my bath I laid back down in my bed and kept feeling shocks of pain going through my stomach. I guess I made too much noise trying muffle my crying because I smelled him before he hit my doorway. What's wrong with you now! He yelled at me. I told him I was bleeding from my butt and was in pain. He gave me the most disgusting look and told me that he would be back. Scared that he was going to kill me I lay there thinking about my mom and how I would be with her soon. Minutes passed and then I heard a woman talking to him as they headed towards my room. Instead of giving me answers she was annoyed as she threw a plastic bag at me and left. I had never seen this woman before, and I had hoped that she would return but she never did. The bag she threw at me contained pads, chewable Tylenol, chocolate, and a book titled SO YOU'RE BECOMING A WOMAN. Confused I read through the book and educated myself on what was happening to my body. The book contained very visual pictures and guided me on how to use pads properly. I cleaned myself up and cried myself back to sleep with thoughts of my mother on my mind. Welcome to womanhood.

In school the kids were cruel, and I only had one friend. Everyone always had on the latest fashion, and I was stuck wearing what he could find. How I dressed was the last thing on my mind. Everyday away from home was a plus for me even if only for a couple of hours. I would volunteer to help in the school's library which added on to my constant bullying. I didn't care though nothing they did to me compared to what I was used to getting at home. In the library I was able to be myself and do what I love. The librarian was nice and let me take home as many books as I pleased since I read through them so fast. Books became my everything and my way of finding peace that no one could take away from me.

That was until November of 2000 came. It was a rainy night and the electric in the house had gone out just as I was getting to the good part of my goosebumps book. I had a flashlight and just as I turned it on his smell hit me hard. He told me that it wasn't good to read in the dark and that I would strain my eyes. Feeling disappointed I turned off the flashlight and went to put my book under my pillow. Before I could, he grabbed the book out of my hand and ripped it in half. I was so angry and fed up that I accidently spoke and yelled that it wasn't my book. A smack landed hard against my face followed by words of how I thought I was grown and smart because I read all the time. I thought he would leave after his tantrum like always, but this time was different. I spoke up for myself and I guess he decided to teach me a lesson. Grabbing the flashlight out of my hand he made me undress in the moonlight that came through my window. Not understanding why, I was naked he told me to lay across the bed and spread my legs. Panic set in and before I could lay down completely, he put a gun to my head. The same gun that he killed my mother with. I started to cry and piss myself I would have even called for my mom this time, but she was in a better place. It was just me him and his gun. He started yelling about how I was a whore that would never become anything in life and how I deserved everything that was coming to me. Not knowing what to do I started to think about my make-up and how my mom could cover up my bullet wound once he shot me, and I joined her in heaven. He pushed me on my bed snapping me out of my trance and bringing me back to reality. He pulled down his pants with one hand while holding the flashlight with the other. I didn't understand what he was doing and couldn't see much in the moonlight I just remember his smell smothering me from above and how heavy he was in top of me. He was trying to push my legs apart as I tried my best to push him off me. Screaming and crying I didn't know what was happening all I felt was something poke me between my legs that was hard and then something felt like it was cutting inside of me. I peed myself again as I kept trying to push him off me. Crying from the pain of him stroking his body into mine I remember his smell and how pretty the moonlight was from my window before I lost consciousness.

Waking up and looking around I felt like I was dreaming. My legs were very heavy, and my head hurt bad. The smell of pee consumed me as I sat up on the table. Instantly I knew I wasn't home because the smell of that woman filled the air. Looking around I was back in the tiny apartment in the same room as before with the lamp. Only this time the room was a little different it had big red curtains on the windows, and the table wasn't bare there was a towel under me. As the thought to why am I here again came across my mind the woman walked in. She was smaller than I remember from the first time but that familiar smell of sweet candies surrounded her as she came near me. She asked me how I felt, and I told her that my legs hurt and my head. I wanted to know what happened to me and how I got here but all she told me was that I was a very bad girl, and this is what happens when you are bad. Still lost about exactly what happened she told me that I had lost my virginity and seeing the confused look on my face she got quiet. She wanted to know if I started my period and I answered yes. She dug in her pocket and gave me two pills to take. As I swallowed them his smell lingered at the door as he stood in the doorway. Smelling him made me panic and I pissed myself again but this time it burned which led me to scream and grab myself. The burning stopped after a while but when I looked at my hand all I could see was blood. She told me to calm down and that the bleeding will stop as soon as I took a hot bath.

At home the house was still dark which means the lights were still out. Scared I stood at the bottom of the staircase as his smell hit me again. Standing over top of me he put the gun back to my head and almost at a whisper told me that if I ever told anyone what happened he would kill me. Not wanting to say anything that would make him angry I squeezed past him and made my way upstairs in the dark. In my room I searched for my flashlight which was on the floor by my bed and turned it on. What I had seen changed my life forever. There was so much blood on my sheets that I started shaking and crying again. In a panic I changed my sheets and searched for my lipstick. Sitting on the side of my bed putting on my lipstick gave me a sense of peace. Everything will be okay now I told myself because I had put my make-up on.

[amaya-writes]

Hello. I saw that you have reached 2000 followers and I wanted to congratulate you on your milestone. So, congratulations, Amaya. You are a very nice person and I like how you write. :)

If possible, could I perhaps ask for a slot on the event you are hosting?

Pairing: Juuzou Suzuya x Reader

AU of choice: Roomate AU

Genre of preference: fluff

Thank you in advance, I hope you have a great day. I apologise for any mistakes, English is not my first language.

Event Masterlist About The Event

Notes: I went for hcs since I had a couple of ideas for this

Warnings: slight spoilers for season 3 and a certain someone's death

Characters involved: Juuzou Suzuya

Gender-neutral reader, you/yours

Juuzou is surprisingly a nice roommate to be around.

Neither of you really wanted to be roomed with one another but the CCG was a little tight on funding and had to change up the accommodation for the year.

And to this day you swear there was a time near the first couple days of your shift when you woke up in the middle of the night to see Juuzou near the foot of your bed with his Quinque.

He's always cleaning up after himself and there are often days where he only returns to the apartment to crash into his bed without so much as a greeting.

But it is this very fact that brings the two of you together.

It started off with you simply cooking meals for both of you once you realized Juuzou didn't really know how to do much except use the microwave.

But quickly turned into shrink-wrapped plates of food set on the dining table for the days when Juuzou returned home too late and tired to be worried about his appetite.

Your relationship was the unspoken kind; Juuzou never questioned why you were so nice to him and you never asked why a grown man didn't know how to take care of himself yet.

The two of you were like binaural stars that constantly rotated around one another but never quite crossed paths. Up until Juuzou's first week off.

The CCG had given a holiday to almost all of the investigators and without any work to run to the two of you were all but forced to talk to each other.

Your conversations were always casual, neither bothered to talk about sensitive topics like the past or work and chose to instead try and get to know each other.

You found out he liked art, he learned about your desire to buy a bookshelf to store the ever-growing pile of novels on your desk. The two of you fawned over your love for cats for a while and even contemplated adopting one.

Before he knew it Juuzou was comfortable enough to casually drop by your office at work to rant about the new things he was working on or tug you along to the sweet shop across the street.

Saturday nights spent curled up on your own beds had turned into hangout sessions at cat cafes and movie nights where he would dramatically jump onto your side of the couch in a manner that was far scarier than the horror movies he would often put on.

Neither of you ever bothered to acknowledge your relationship or put a label on things, but there was no denying that the two of you were awfully close to one another.

Maybe that was why you felt so awfully helpless for the week after Shinohara's death where Juuzou locked himself in his room and refused to come out.

He had started accepting the plates of food you left outside his door on the fifth day, and by the seventh you were certain you could see a sulking figure stumble between the bathroom and his bedroom.

On the tenth day you woke up to a sobbing Juuzou sitting by the front door with his Quinque dripping blood and body covered in sweat, mud and rainwater.

You knew he had been sent on a mission that day but hadn't bothered to ask which ghoul he had slaughtered in his wrath to avenge his mentor. Your only thought at the sight of his sobbing frame curling in on himself was to help the man before you.

Getting him to take a warm bath was a struggle in itself but after a little bit of consoling you had convinced him to at least scrub away the mud from under his fingernails and change into the white and red pyjama set Shinohara had gifted him for Christmas.

You dashed around the kitchen as he cleaned himself off, whipping up the fastest curry you had ever made in your life just as a small thump had you racing to the other side of the apartment.

He had wordlessly dropped onto his bed, with his ominous silence and wet hair helping paint a picture that brought tears to your own eyes.

Juuzou didn't speak once even as you took a seat beside him and spoon-fed him with delicate whispers about how you knew he hadn't eaten yet.

It was only when you began to take your leave with promises of seeing each other the next morning that he finally spoke.

"Stay."

The word was but a croaked whisper silent enough for you to almost miss it, but there was no mistaking the weight his simple request held.

Juuzou was finally willing to let someone except Shinohara in, to allow himself to show you more than his excitable child-like personality, and you weren't cruel enough to shut him out when he needed you most.

So stay you did. Choosing to abandon the curry bowl on his bedside table as you crawled under the covers and held your shivering roommate close to your side.

Your hand almost automatically shifted to card through his white locks as you slowly detangled them while the other held him close.

Neither of you bothered to talk about the teardrops staining your collarbone as Juuzou silently wept a final time, and you didn't acknowledge the way his hands desperately clung to your night shirt either.

Come morning you repeated the process you had gone through the night before. You forced Juuzou to clean up while you cooked breakfast, and softly carded your fingers through his hair later in the morning.

He didn't say much throughout the day, but you could tell Juuzou appreciated your efforts to put on the new episode of his favourite show and ordered takeout from the place across the street, making sure to get extra fortune cookies because you knew he liked how they tasted.

Juuzou went back to normal the next day, or at least tried to. He all but avoided you at work and kept his distance at the apartment, but come nightfall he quietly tugged you back to his room and once again clung to your form as your fingers carded through his hair.

By the time the weekend rolled around and Juuzou once again became his usual bubbly self, it had become normal for the two of you to sleep together in his room.

Some days you would listen to him ramble about the most random things, others he would quietly play with your fingers while you ranted about how annoying a certain coworker was.

The two of you were always careful to stray away from topics you knew were too sensitive; you never asked and he stopped worrying about the day you would.

You didn't know when you started catching feelings for him.

Maybe it was the first time he let you do his hair or the day the two of you decided to adopt a small black kitten you found outside your apartment complex.

Or maybe you had simply developed the feelings throughout your time together and only realised it recently.

Whatever the reason might have been, there was no denying the fact that you had completely fallen for Juuzou Suzuya.

The thought was as jarring as it was comforting. You were happy that it was Juuzou of all people, but that very fact was what terrified you. For Juuzou had never expressed any interest in romance.

Maybe that was why you started subtly distancing yourself little by little.

Juuzou realised something was wrong and was quick to confront you. He didn't react like what you had expected. He was more indifferent if anything and simply made it clear that while like you in a similar way, he wasn't one for physical intimacy.

Just like always, you didn't bother with labels or explanations for your affection, because you didn't have to.

[y2kbeautyandother2000sstuff]

Bath and Body Works Art Stuff Jingle Bell Blossom Glitter Splash and Glitter Lotion

1996-2004

Found on Ebay, user lindam570

[kayliemusing]

42: top 3s

1: Top 3 ice cream flavors - classic vanilla, birthday cake/birthday batter, bubblegum

2: Top 3 Disney Movies - Mulan, Onward, Soul (but this changes frequently lol)

3: Top 3 vacation destinations - I've never been outside of my home country so I'll say my top 3 DREAM destinations: NYC, Hawaii, a random countryside in either France or the UK

4: Top 3 places to shop - Dynamite, Sephora, Winners/Homesense

5: Top 3 subjects of study/classes to take - English/anything creative writing related, Interior Decorating/Design, Communications?

6: Top 3 make up products - YSL Touche Eclat Foundation, literally any Mac Lipstick but it has to be matte, & Fenty Beauty contour stick

7: Top 3 music artists - Taylor Swift - Of Monsters and Men - The Lumineers

8: Top 3 spices/herbs - Cinnamon - Nutmeg (literally tastes like autumn) - Paprika

9: Top 3 drinks - Diet Coke - Hot Chocolate - Vanilla Bean Frappe

10: Top 3 apps to use - Instagram - Pinterest -iBooks

11: Top 3 months of the year - May, October, December

12: Top 3 clothing items - My black/white turtle neck, high waisted jeans, plaid blazer

13: Top 3 binge perfect tv shows - Bones, Supernatural, Brooklyn Nine Nine

14: Top 3 romantic dates - (I've never been on a date but if I had, it would be this) Evening walk, late night drive, late night coffee date (tbh anything at night feels romantic)

15: Top 3 kinds of flower - Water lilies, cherry blossoms, roses

16: Top 3 christmas movies - A Christmas Carol (2009), Home Alone, The Polar Express

17: Top 3 OTPs - Nesta and Cassian from ACOTAR series by SJM, Manon and Dorian from Throne of Glass series by SJM, Casteel and Poppy from From Blood and Ash series by JLM.

18: Top 3 quotes to describe your life - "I write not to find, but to leave" by Scherezade Siobhan - "I want to be myself again. I want to be six. I want to stop knowing everything I know" by Catherynne M. Valente - "The truth is, I pretend to be a cynic, but I am really a dreamer who is terrified of wanting something she may never get" by Joanna Hoffman.

19: Top 3 characteristics you love about yourself - my kindness bc it's not surface level kindness, but actually something deeply rooted within me - my resilience even tho sometimes it doesn't feel like resilience - my loyalty bc it is a hard as steel kind of loyalty

20: Top 3 kinds of candy - Maltesers, Kit kats, smarties

21: Top 3 ways to exercise/ be active - Walking, dancing, mowing the lawn/shoveling the sidewalk

22: Top 3 spirit animals - wolf, hummingbird, tiger (i googled it bc i didn't know and i was scared it was a joke but)

23: Top 3 petnames - I like 'lovebug', 'love', 'sweetheart'

24: Top 3 books read outside of school - The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas but viewers discretion is advised, Crush by Richard Siken

25: Top 3 most used websites - Youtube, Tumblr, Pinterest

26: Top 3 people you last texted - my mom, my bestie megan, and my sister bc they're the only people i text...

27: Top 3 hashtags you use - the only time i use hashtags is if i'm trying to promote some of my writing so I'll usually use writingcommunity, writersonig, poetryonig lol

28: Top 3 instagram accounts you follow - Trista Mateer, Griefmother, obviously taylor swift

29: Top 3 guilty pleasures - buzzfeed quizzes, early 2000s music, romance novels

30: Top 3 summer activities - Going to the zoo, long evening walks, campfires and s'mores

31: Top 3 things to draw/doodle - hearts, flowers, random swirls bc it's the only thing i can doodle...

32: Top 3 aesthetics - cityscape aesthetic, autumn aesthetic, rustic aesthetic

33: Top 3 things you'd buy if you gained three million dollars - a new car, a condo, another cat

34: Top 3 ways to treat yourself - facial, a large bag of maltesers, buying the makeup i really want but have been putting off

35: Top 3 celebrity crushes - Evan Peters, Matthew Daddario, henry cavill

36: Top 3 books from your childhood - Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, The Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl, and Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmens

37: Top 3 accents to hear - Australian, super poshy british accent, new zealand accent

38: Top 3 scents - Fresh rain, vanilla, sweet cinnamon pumpkin from bath and body works

39: Top 3 "Friends" quotes - "WE WERE ON A BREAK" -Ross, "Guess things were just going too well for me" -also ross, and "it's so exhausting waiting for death" - phoebe

40: Top 3 cupcake flavors - tbh I haven't tried that many cupcakes so your typical vanilla, chocolate, and Pink Lady Cupcake from Babycakes Cupcakery

41: Top 3 fruits - Pomegranates, Strawberries, Raspberries

42: Top 3 places you've had amazing pizza from - Pizzahut, Dominos, Pizza73

43: Top 3 sports teams to watch - i don't

44: Top 3 crayola colors - uh, i guess red, purple, and pink??

45: Top 3 things you hope to accomplish in college - Certificates/Degrees in Copyediting and Creative Writing, and I think simply just deeper critical thinking skills when it comes to writing and books

46: Top 3 fanfictions you've read - I read more books than fanfics, I've read a couple on tumblr but don't remember the names sorry :/

47: Top 3 people you miss right now - my dad, my best friend bc she's in vancouver, taylor swift bc she's not on tumblr anymore rip

48: Top 3 fears - Failure, Loss, not achieving anything in life/not reaching my full potential

49: Top 3 favorite literary devices - Foreshadowing is always god tier, cliffhangers although evil i love those too, symbolism

50: Top 3 pet peeves - People dragging their shoes on the floor when they walk, when you tell someone your fav hobby/music artist/interest and they immediately go 'oh I hate X!', and people who go 'you're so quiet!!!' but in a way that draws in more attention and/or makes me feel more uncomfortable like i would literally rather die

51: Top 3 physical things you find attractive - Hands, nice hair, defined jawlines

52: Top 3 bad habits - Nailbiting, picking at my blemishes oops, lip biting

53: Top 3 pets you've had/wish to have - Cats bc they complete me, I've always wanted a Samoyed, and I've always wanted a turtle

54: Top 3 types of foreign food - Chicken Chow Mein, deep fried shrimp, japanese chicken wings

55: Top 3 things you want to say to someone in your lifetime - 'I quit', 'I love you', 'you changed my life'

56: Top 3 dog breeds - Samoyed, german shepherds, collies

57: Top 3 cheesy romance movies - You've Got Mail, How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days, 10 Things I Hate About You

58: Top 3 languages you speak/wish to speak - French, Sign, and maybe Japanese?

59: Top 3 series (book, movie, television) - The Cruel Prince series by Holly Black, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (but literally only for Cassian and Nesta), From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout

60: Top 3 pizza toppings - Mushrooms, alfredo sauce, pineapple

61: Top 3 youtubers you're subscribed to - Game Grumps, Charlotte Dobre, Megan Batoon

62: Top 3 tattoo / piercing ideas - I want to get a tattoo on my wrist of the last thing my dad ever wrote me, a hummingbird tattoo right next to it, and then a cross on my index finger

63: Top 3 awards you want to win - National Book Awards, Nobel Prize, and maybe even Goodreads Choice Awards lol

64: Top 3 emojis - Laugh/Crying emoji, the please sir emoji that kinda gives off those puss n boots eyes, and the stars emoji

65: Top 3 cars you dream of owning - 1970s Chev Impala, tbh a cute little Hyundai Venue, and maaaaybe the 1964 ferarri 250 gt luso (idk if that name was totally right but i had to do tons of googling to find it. i don't know a lot about cars and i don't really have a top 3 lol)

66: Top 3 authors - Right now I'm really into Sarah J Maas, Sally Thorne, and Holly Black maybe?

67: Top 3 historical figures - Jesus, Anne Frank, Vincent Van Gogh

68: Top 3 baby names - Ryder, Leila, Gracie

69: Top 3 DIYs - Candles, refurnishing old furniture (i.e. my mom and i painted our wooden garbage can), and really just any type of autumn diy

70: Top 3 smoothie combos/flavors - Strawberry/Banana, Mango, Strawberry-Mango

71: Top 3 songs of this month - Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish, Biblical by Calum Scott, and Visiting Hours by Ed Sheeran

72: Top 3 questions of this post you want to be asked - I did them all bc I made it a survey instead of an ask meme ;)

73: Top 3 villains - Regina/The Evil Queen from Once Upon a Time, Cruella De Vil, and Moriarty from Sherlock

74: Top 3 Cities you want to see - Montreal, NYC, Vancouver (honorable mention: LA)

75: Top 3 recipes you want to try - different kind of salad and/or burger bowls, Stuffed bell peppers, and homemade lemon loaf

76: Top 3 dream jobs - Bestselling author, the person who runs a companies social media accounts, youtuber/blogger

77: Top 3 lucky items - tbh don't have one

78: Top 3 traditions you have - Christmas Eve Service and if I don't go to that at least incorporating reading the christmas story on christmas day or eve, idk if this counts as tradition but going to the corn maze every fall, and whenever it's easter/christmas/thanksgiving we always have a big meal w/ family

79: Top 3 things you miss about being a kid - reckless abandon, dreaming about growing up with hopefulness and no dashed hopes, experiencing holidays like halloween and christmas as a kid

80: Top 3 harry potter characters - I've never read or watched Harry Potter rip (ok well i saw the first and second (and maybe third?) movie in the sixth grade I think) but I think I really liked Hermoine, Harry obviously and Dobby

81: Top 3 lies you were told - i don't have 3, but this one has a story but basically when my sister and i were in elementary school my sister got hit by a car and so the insurance thing was that she would recieve 10k when she was 18 and as a child i thought that was unfair so my dad told me that my sister had to split it with me when we were 18 lmao obviously that didn't happen (i think i realized that wasn't true in middle school)

82: Top 3 pictures in your camera roll right now - Pictures of my cat, one of my sister in a hilarious filter, and a picture of my rocking my TS merch

83: Top 3 turn ons - Kindness, defined jawline, easy going

84: Top 3 turn offs - arrogance, unkempt, super loud and obnoxious

85: Top 3 magazines/news papers/ journals to read - I don't read much of those so I'll tell you some sites I love for writing purpose's: there's Wellstoried, justwriterlythings, springhole.net (which is filled with generators if you're stuck and also tons of infomation and advice)

86: Top 3 things you wish you had known earlier - that toad in Mario Party was wearing a mushroom hat and that it is actually not his head, that immaculate means 'clean' before i misused that word like several times over the years, and that the one turn i always take on my way to work where i thought everyone didn't know how to drive was actually bc i didn't have the right of way rip me

87: Top 3 spongebob episodes - the one episode where spongebob and patrick find a ghost ship, that one episode where they form a bikini bottom band and perform it at a football game in a little fish tank, and the one episode where squidward has his first snowball fight

88: Top 3 places to be in the world - I'd love to be in NYC, Montreal, or Hawaii

89: Top 3 things you'd do differently - I would not have applied for RDC, similarly I should have just paid the 500 dollars to the one certificate program I wanted to do instead of overthinking it, and I wish I wouldn't have ended a friendship the way I did

90: Top 3 TV shows from your childhood - Spongebob Squarepants, That's So Raven, and Hannah Montana

91: Top 3 meals you love - Turkey Burgers, Chilli, and Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

92: Top 3 kinds of tea - i don't drink tea

93: Top 3 embarrassing moments - one time in sixth grade I tripped and fell right on my face in front of my crush, this other time like a couple years ago i opened the door to my car and only realized much too late while i was staring at this random family that it was not my car, and when i went to the gas station to get gas and couldn't get my gas lid on my car opened and this guy had to help me which was already embarrassing enough but then the gas pump wouldn't work so i had to go inside to pay just to realize i forgot my wallet and had to shamefully walk back to my car and then run back inside the convenience store and then pay and then walk back to my car and finally fill my tank.

94: Top 3 holidays to celebrate - Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving

95: Top 3 things to do in the rain - have an existential crisis, pretend you're in a music video, walk through puddles like you're six again

96: Top 3 things to do in the snow - Sledding, Build a snowman, shovel it even tho you don't want to

97: Top 3 items you can't leave the house w/o - phone, keys, wallet

98: Top 3 movies you'd like to see - Jurassic World 3, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania bc i'm a child, and the animation of the addams family

99: Top 3 art mediums - Writing fiction/poetry, painting, music

100: Top 3 museums you've been to - Royal Tyrell Museum, Canadian History one in edmonton lol, and heritage park in calgary

101: Top 3 school memories - Middle school dances when the popular kids would grind to the song "Low" which was always an interesting experience, in the twelfth grade at winter formal when we all shouted "SHUT UP AND DANCE!" at the same time when they played Shut Up and Dance, and the day i left

102: Top 3 things you don't/Won't miss - School, my sisters ex, 2016 bc she was a rough year yikes

103: Top 3 pick up lines - "My name is Will. God's Will.", "I'd like to take you to the movies but they don't like you bring your own snacks", "are you from tennessee bc you're the only 10 i see"

104: Top 3 sports to watch - none of them

105: Top 3 taylor swift songs - all too well - exile - coney island

[mcaquila]

Day 11 of the 12 Days of Christmas Art Series: “Connections” – inspired by the “Gingerbread Latte” Bath and Body Works scent, featuring Tifa from FF7.

Phone calls to friends during the holidays are one of my favorite things~ And it is a flip phone as I can’t help but think of earlier 2000′s technology when thinking of FF7.

[rabbitcruiser]

Candle Day

Candles offer more than just light — fill your home with sweet scents and transform any space into a warm oasis.

For those who absolutely love the joy of lighting candles to provide warm, soft light as well as a delightful fragrance to their homes, especially in winter time, Candle Day is a beautiful way to usher in the cooler season.

History of Candle Day

Typically celebrated on the first Saturday of December, Candle Day was founded by the American retail company, Bath & Body Works. Originally owned by the Limited Brands, which also owns brands such as Victoria’s Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch, the first store in the Bath & Body Works chain was opened in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1990.

Selling products for the body, as the name implies, the company grew rapidly and now runs more than 2000 stores all over the world, 1600 of which are in the United States.

Bath & Body Works is a brand that is particularly beloved for its amazing scents that have a wide range of popularity, from fruity scents to flowers and also offering a line for men. Some of the most popular scents have been Sweet Pea, Japanese Cherry Blossom, Cucumber Melon and Country Apple.

Within these popular scent lines, as well as many others, are many products such as body lotions, fragrances, room sprays and, of course, candles. And for many people, Candle Day is one of the best times of the year to celebrate at Bath & Body Works because that’s when they hold some of their best sales.

Because the season for Christmas and other winter holidays often includes gift-giving, and because candles make incredible gifts, Candle Day was started in 2013. Plus, it’s a great time to simply stock up on candles for the cold, winter months.

So get ready for the fun and celebration of Candle Day!

How to Celebrate Candle Day

Candle Day offers a variety of options for just about any personality, whether looking for some time to spend at home or getting out and taking advantage of various sales. Consider celebrating with some of these ideas:

Light a Candle

Candles can bring so much comfort and warmth to a room, especially if they also envelop the room with a cozy and delicious scent. Fragrances such as Champagne Toast, Cinnamon Apple, or Strawberry Pound Cake are a lovely way to enjoy the day.

Buy a Candle (or Several!)

Head to the local Bath & Body Works to get access to their Candle Day sales and discounts, or look them up online and have the products delivered directly. This annual event typically provides customers with the opportunity to get the brand’s most famous 3-wick candles at a deeply discounted price. Other brands, such as Yankee Candle, may also be offering special prices in honor of Candle Day.

Give a Candle for Candle Day

What a great time to delight and surprise someone with a little present in honor of Candle Day! Find out which scents are a friend’s favorite and get them a large winter-themed pillar candle in honor of the season. Or leave a small votive on the desk of a coworker as a little bit of encouragement.

Source

[lovemesomesurveys]

Thought I Couldn't Top It, Huh? OVER 2000 Questions! (Truly the Longest!) Created by distortedcognition

Part 4

.Favorites. Color: Pastels, rose gold, sea foam green, coral, yellow. Number: 8. Store: Boxlunch and Hot Topic. Book: I have way too many. Story: Uhh.

Magazine: None. Television program?: I have several of those, too. Movie: Those as well.

Series: I’ll tell you the authors of the several different book series I’ve been into/read the past couple of years, which are Willow Rose, AJ Rivers, Mary Stone, and Elle Gray. Apart from AJ Rivers, they each have a few different series and from what I’m read so far I’ve enjoyed them all. If you’re into the murder mystery and psychological thriller thing, you should check some of ‘em out. Poem: I don’t have one. Onomatopoeia: I don’t have one. Verb: Sleep.

Paradox: *shrug* Idiom: Noun: The beach. Adjective: Blah. Adverb: Bleh. Work of fantasy: Classic work: Contemporary work: Writer: The authors I listed previously are some of them. Fairy tale: Is Alice in Wonderland one? Dictionary brand: Webster is good. Summer scene: The beach. Winter scene: Snow. Spring scene: Rainy days. Fall scene: Orange, yellow, red, green leaves. Season: Fall and winter. Planet: Earth. Space feature: None. Thing about summer: Being able to go to the beach is like the only thing I like. Thing about winter: The weather and Christmastime! Thing about spring: The rain. Thing about fall: The weather, the smells, and ~spooky~ time. Mammal: Giraffes. Insect: NONE. Arachnid: NONEEEE. Fish: I don’t have one. Reptile: None. Amphibian: None. Science: Psychology. Thing to do during summer: Go to the beach. Type of weather: Fall and winter weather. Bird: I don’t have one. Thing to do during winter: Celebrate Christmas and enjoy the coziness. Thing to do during spring: Enjoy the rainy days. Thing to do during fall: Watch scary movies. Nature sound: Rain. Real location: The beach and Disneyland. City: San Francisco is one. Culture: Hmm. State: Out of the ones I’ve been to (California, Idaho, Arizona, Georgia) I’d choose California. There’s several states I’d like to visit that could possibly take that spot. Island: I don’t have one. Landscape: Beaches, mountains, lakes, streams. Place to go in your neighborhood: I don’t go anywhere in my neighborhood except for my house. Italian food: Pasta. Mexican: Burritos and quesadillas. Indian: None. Chinese: Chow mien, potstickers, egg rolls, chicken in foil. American: Chicken tenders and boneless wings. French: Some pastries. Snack: Chips and dip. Pasta: Pesto and spaghetti. Desert: Milkshakes, ice cream, donuts, muffins, cookies, cupcakes. Ice cream flavor: Strawberry, mint chocolate chip, birthday cake, cookies and cream. Soup: I’m a ramen gal. Salad: Caesar. Pancake: Blueberry. Restaurant: I don’t have one, unless Wingstop counts. Fruit: Bananas. Vegetable: Spinach, potatoes, broccoli, green onions. Dinner: Wingstop, spaghetti and meatballs, other pasta, salisbury steaks, pizza. Lunch: Chicken tenders, sandwiches, pasta salads, pizza. Breakfast: Over-easy eggs, waffles, eggs and country gravy, hash browns. Cereal: All the sugary yummy ones, basically. Pop tart: The frosted strawberry and brown cinnamon sugar. Candy: White chocolate. Artificial flavor: Banana and strawberry. Cookie: Sugar, shortbread, Oreos, peanut butter. Yogurt: None. Clothing store: Boxlunch and Hot Topic. Outfit: I like my graphic tees and leggings. Shoe: Adidas. Shirt design: Hmm. Brand name: Adidas. Top: All my graphic tees. Pants: My leggings. Skirt: None. Pair of socks: My Baby Yoda ones. Color [of clothing]: Black. Subject in school: English. Music: I like variety.

Tree: Pine. Flower: I don’t have one, but so many are pretty. Quote: I have many. Scent: I have a lot of those as well, like the smell of rain, coffee, the ocean/beach-y air, coconut, garlic, fruity scents, sweet scents, vanilla, cinnamon, pine, peppermint, sandalwood, cedar wood, patchouli, my favorite foods, desserts, autumnal scents from Bath & Body Works, that wood/fire smell during the fall... Adage: I couldn’t choose just one. Television channel: My TV is usually either on The Hallmark Channel, CMT, MTV, UPtv, or TV Land. Day of the week: They’re all pretty much the same for me. Perfume: I like ones with patchouli in it and some sweet ones. Radio station: I don’t listen to the radio anymore.

Cologne: Ones with sandalwood and cedar wood. Sound: The ocean waves crashing in and out, rain, fire crackling, various ASMR sounds, music. Feeling: ASMR, that first sip of coffee, that satisfying feeling from a good meal, the beachy air on my face, the feel of fall in the air. Emotion: I mean, feeling happy is a nice emotion. Haven’t truly felt that in a long time. :/ Song: I have a lot. Music artist: I like several. Month: October-December. Religious holiday: Christmas. Fun holiday: I think Christmas and Halloween are fun. Obscure holiday: Hmm. Videogame: Mario Bro games. Computer game: The Sims. Sport: None. Athlete: None. Instrument: Piano. Composer: I don’t have one. Singer: I have several. Website: YouTube and Tumblr. Word: Hmm.

Slogan: *shrug* Commercial: I don’t have one. Shampoo: I’m currently using Dove shampoo. Conditioner: I’m using the Dove conditioner as well. Body wash: I don’t use body wash, I use bar soap. Soap: Caress body soap. Lotion: My current favorite is Into the Night from Bath & Body Works.

[they-callme-ami]

Can we get a part two for Rafael and Tobias hc queen 🙏❤ perhaps some more relationship/domestic stuff? 🥺 👉👈

*ahem*

Domestic/Relationship Headcannons Part 2

Tobias Carrick:

When he finally gets home after a long-ass shift, he will strip the minute he gets in the door down to his boxers--not even in a sexual way, he just plops on the couch with a sigh.

Tobias isn't really ashamed of his body and despite being very confident and cocky, he really just wears boxers for comfort. Except for cooking, then he wears sweats and a tshirt since he's dealing with food.

Speaking of which, Tobias loves to cook for you. Every night it's either something different and exciting or something he can whip up real quick--he doesn't believe in meal prep or leftovers. He likes to surprise you and keep you on your toes unless you specifically request something.

When the place gets dirty, Tobias will put on a very specific playlist of 80's and 90's (even a little 2000's for you specifically) slow jams/R and B and you two will clean together.

Unlike Raf with his official massage training, Tobias just goes with the flow. No oils or anything fancy, just a good shoulder rub for you (with some occasional gropping 😏). Though, after a long day you both take turns and he even massages your feet--which he takes pride in how good he is at it.

Every day when he sees you at some point--he'll kiss you somehow. If he's in a rush? Quick peck to the cheek or lips before heading out. Tired? Soft, slow kisses on your neck. In front of others and feeling himself? He does this thing where he'll gove you a spin and kiss your hand. Why? Cause he's a show-off.

If you call in sick, he'll try to immediantly diagnose you and has a cabinet full of every pharmacy medicine you can think of.

He has a rule where every 2 weeks is date night, every 2 months you guys take a weekend trip somewhere and (long-term) every 6 months you'll take off for a week and spend time together.

Tobias loves spoiling you. Every 2 weeks, a boquet of beautiful flowers. Every 2 months, a new dress/suit for you. Every 6 months, he'll splurge on some jewlery for you (rings, watches, ear rings, necklaces, etc.)

Since you two started off together with a bit of banter and mutual teasing, his calls you his firecracker--especially when teasing you.

He makes sure on every date he dresses to impress, unless it's very obvious it's casual. If not? He will go all out with some nice cologne, a great outfit, and a fresh cut.

His favorite cuddling position is you laying on your lap while kissing your hands. It makes him feel casual and relaxed after a long day, seeing you relaxed helps too.

Rafael Aveiro

When Raf gets home, he'll change into some comfortable clothes and out on some fuzzy socks. Unless it is HOT outside, he wears them because they feel good on his sore feet.

Raf learned most of his cooking from his avó and cooks big meals when he has enough energy, and you'll have delicious leftovers for days. He is super into meal prep, since it saves him time and money.

Like said before--Raf has proffesional massage experience. After a long day at work he will massage every part of you that's sore and achey from the work day. Him on the other hand, he actually has a chiropractor he'll go to for that or someone at the Hospital with actual training. It isn't that he doesn't trust you, it's just that his line of work requires someone who is an expert to help his muscles and bones.

Raf kisses you every morning and night before he goes to work and before ge goes to sleep. Normally, he'll just say 'I love you' when you guys leave for work, are on the phone, etc. But when it's just the two of you or he's feeling really really happy--he'll say "você me completa" which in Portuguese means "you complete me".

If you're feeling sick or under the whether, despite being a trained EMT he has a list he goes down: Soup, ginger ale, hot tea, vapo rub, ibuprofen, and sleep. If you don't get better in a few days, he'll bite and call one of your friends to properly diagnose you.

Raf tries to take you out on a lot of dates when he has the time to--most of them arem't very extravagant unless it's an anniversary. He'll take you star gazing, to the park, out in the city to try new foods or to a local arcade. He even took you to a local Boys and Girls Club he volunteered at for a movie night. Raf knows how to take you on dates, but it's the little things he thinks make the best ones.

Raf believes in actions more than gifts. On holidays, he will certainly buy you a gift of course--but he'll do small things to. When you get home from a long shift, he has dinner and a hot bath for you. When you wake up, he ironed your clothes. At work on your lunch break, he snags you a muffin.

He doesn't really have many nicknames for you but he'll alternate between 'love' and 'hon', very domestic and cutsey to your friends.

The two of you made an agreement to always ask if you were 'mentally stable' enough to hear about each others day, whether it was a patient dying or someone Raf couldn't save...but you never wanted to burden one another.

When the two of you go to work at the same time, he'll always offer you the cleaner seat on the subway ride there and back, despite how tired he may be. If there aren't any, he'll hold you close while you both have a hand on a pole or rail.