#this is more new years than christmas

[larissa-the-scribe]

Mission: Fallen Star (Pt 1)

For Christmas/New Years, and the @inklings-challenge Christmas 2023.

The night outside Home was dark and warm, and, from what Ashley could see through the second floor's infoscope, clear. The perfect night to catch a falling star. 

She shook Peter awake--he had fallen asleep almost immediately after Daddy had put them to bed--and hovered over him, his glasses in hand, as he groaned himself awake. 

"Home was right," she thought to him. "It's a good night."

"It's only midnight," he thought back, the groaning carrying over to his thoughts. "Shouldn't we go a little later?"

She shook her head. Some kids just didn't have a sense of the important. "We don't know how long this will take, so we gotta take all the time we can. Besides, Mommy and Daddy both went to bed hours ago." Well, one hour ago, but it all amounted to the same fact: Mommy and Daddy were asleep.

Peter was still mumbling incoherent and disgruntled sounds to himself as he sat up and accepted the glasses, sniffling a bit from sleepiness as he put them on. 

"Your hair is a mess."

He stuck his tongue out at her.

Luckily, Ashley was too mature to respond to such behavior. Instead, she shoved his (new) backpack towards him. Hers was already on, and her hair was in good order. She had a sense of the important. She had used her new hair ties, too, and the beads on them made such satisfying clicking sounds when she shook her head at him.

"Remember, this is for Mommy and Daddy," she thought. 

He looked at her a tad resentfully as he pushed his way to his feet and slung the backpack on. "I know."

"We can sleep when we get back."

"I know."

Satisfied that he was properly on track again, she set her mind to the next phase: sneaking out of the house.

As far as Ashley could guess, it wouldn't be difficult. The front door wouldn't be locked--no one who wasn't supposed to be there could be there--and Home was slow and sleepy at this time of night. She could tell. Home sounded sleepy. The lights were all off. There were only the sounds of Home's little settlings to punctuate the darkness. And while Home worked as well as ever, Home didn't respond very quickly to Ashley when she said good morning to it. 

Home's stairs creaked ever so slightly as the two children stole their way down the stairs, a vague stirring of curiosity. But not enough to arouse it much. 

Ashley and Peter had already had an extensive argument about whether or not he could just run downstairs and wait for her outside. True, he'd be out in an instant, but Ashley insisted that it would be more suspicious if Mommy was still awake, and Mommy had really good senses. She would hear all the sounds even if they were over right away. And it might wake Home up.

Peter had finally relented, but, as they crept carefully down each bronze-and-wood step, she could hear him thinking about how long this sneaking was taking.

Despite his mental complaints, they were soon at the bottom of the stairs. From there, they just had the living room, then the Doorway, then the hall, and then the Door itself. 

Ashley stopped Peter at the foot of the stairs, poking her head around the stairwell wall to look into the living room and kitchen. 

For a brief second, she saw what looked like a shadow in the kitchen, and in her mind she could feel the distinct, almost painfully bright, warmth of Mommy.

Ashley tensed and clutched Peter's arm--he made a slight strangled noise--and pulled back behind the wall.

The moment passed. 

Poking her head back out, she found the place empty. Even though she couldn't hear much over her own blood rushing in her head, she couldn't detect anyone's presence in either room.

Ashley swallowed. Of course she could feel Mommy. Her and Daddy's room wasn't far from the kitchen. Maybe... maybe Mommy had just had a dream or something. More importantly, it was gone now. 

"Everything okay?" Peter asked, rubbing his arm where she'd pinched him.

Ashley nodded. "All clear."

Peter squinted at her, which was odd, since he saw better than her in the dark. Unless he was being sassy, but that was less important right now than their mission.

Carefully, carefully, she edged out, toe-tip by toe-tip, into the open, empty, open space of the living room--it felt like the shadows were staring at her from over the backs of the couches and chairs.

It didn't feel comfortable.

Peter rolled his eyes at her, but he followed suit when she dropped to her hands and knees and started shuffling across the tile. 

They got to the Doorway without further incident.

Ashley scooped up her new, beautifully orange shoes from their spot on the shelf and continued scooting along awkwardly, trying to carry the shoes in one hand and manage transportation on three limbs. She was half-tempted to put the strings in her mouth and carry them that way, but that was gross, so she wasn't going to.

Home rumbled slightly as they made it to the Door, and the hinges had an inquiring squeak about them as Peter, standing again, pulled the door open--narrowly avoiding bonking her on the head with the doorknob now that she was standing behind him. But, other than the small noises, Home didn't do anything else. That was good. Ashley had been worried about that, that they'd wake it up too much and that it would either ask too many questions or else not let them out.

Peter disappeared, reappearing a short distance away outside.

They had made it.

Ashley carefully closed the Door, making sure it clicked shut properly. She took a moment, pushing her hand against the Door, at the moment a façade of wood and bark. 

With the whistlings of crickets and frogs seranding her from the surround forest, it occurred to her. She had never been outside Home without Mommy or Daddy. She looked at the door again, a sudden worry springing up in her. What if they couldn't get the door open again, and were wrong about how it worked? They had forgot to test it beforehand. They'd be trapped outside. What if Mommy and Daddy went to a different world without them, by accident? Would they even realize that her and Peter were gone until it was too late to turn back? They hadn't told, so--

"I know the knock," Peter said, speaking normally now that they were outside and didn't need silence. "I thought you did, too."

"I do," Ashley replied imperiously, turning away and marching after him. "I was just. Saying goodbye." She was leading this mission. She couldn't admit to Peter that she was nervous. He'd make fun of her.

He looked at her but didn't say anything.

They started off through the trees. Peter let Ashley take the lead, trudging behind and readjusting his pack. He looked more awake now.

"Also," he added after a minute. "You could just phase through the door."

"I... knew that," Ashley said, her cheeks frosting. It didn't sound convincing, even to herself.

She dug her hands into her trouser pockets and kept walking. 

A slight breath of a chuckle-like sound echoed from beside the Door, but, if either of them noticed, they thought nothing of it.

[bixels]

Jesus man, relax.

[satans-knitwear]

It's the most wonderful time of the year..... To unsubscribe from so many email lists.

[sleepygil]

driftrod for christmas and new year

[elitadream]

Goodness, what a week. =_= Coming up with a concept on the spot and assuming that I could remotely finish it on time was wishful thinking. Looks like I won't have a chance to draw the Christmas themed idea I had in mind, unfortunately. 🥲😮‍💨

[softpine]

Did you hear about the pregnant bed bug?

I KNOW THIS ONE I KNOW THIS ONE

she's having a baby in the spring :D

[spooky-spextre-arts]

REPOST (12/31/2023)

🌨️ Cozy Mirabel + Happy New Year 🎆

[sincerely-sofie]

Made up my bulletin board all pretty with art and goals for the upcoming New Year! Hopefully staring at Twig cheering me on will get me through writing the last chapter for The Present is a Gift. It’s a real doozy, that one…

Making the art for this was a real treat. I almost like the two mock-ups I made for possible bulletin board layouts more than the finished product!

On the topic of The Present is a Gift’s completion status: I have one chapter left to write, and then the full first draft is done! Once it’s finished I’ll let the manuscript sit for a couple weeks or so and then come back to edit it with fresh eyes. The chapter is giving me a lot of trouble though, because it’s an extended flashback that dives into Darkrai’s backstory from an outside POV, and I am struggling to get into the narrating character’s head enough to write it very well. Nevertheless, I persist, and I’m hoping I can get the pre-edit break period mostly over before the end of December!

Thanks for reading my goofy lil post on my bulletin board. Enjoy this meme.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

and so begins the making of christmas presents

[askblueandviolet]

what did you do on Christmas? Do you have plans for the new year? Because you know, you're Chinese, so you haven't celebrated New Year's yet. (Maybe, i don't actually know how it works)

MASTER POST

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[opens-up-4-nobody]

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[lightblueminecraftorchid]

I love learning ASL it’s so good. Makes me happy to learn it. I’m so glad my university has classes for it with professors actually steeped in Deaf culture.

[onlytenstarsinthesky]

pi day followed by the ides of march is the most satisfying progression of celebratory days ever

[jorvikzelda]

I started reading Lord of the Rings (bought Fellowship of the Ring like… last spring but never got around to starting) and I’d just like to say. Holy fuck what a slow book. You mean to tell me I’m over a hundred pages in and this man is only just leaving the Shire? Sign me up for MORE I love this shit. Tolkien said “I will take exactly as much time as I want to describe things and you will like it”. AND I DO

[lpsgirl109]

I would absolutely love for at least one of my friend groups to completely go all out for me for my birthday. The way girls at school get huge sashes and gift baskets from their friends. I've never really had that. I've never really had a group of friends band together to do something super special for my birthday aside from getting on call with my two best besties to play roblox. Which i guess is a bit disheartening because I've organized stuff like this for several people. I've put together calls so we could all sing happy birthday to someone and celebrate with them. Hell, not even a birthday celebration, but i once organized a going away party with my entire friend group for one of our friends who was moving to another state, because i loved them i wanted to them to know they'd be loved and missed by us. It would be nice to be on the receiving end of that but also it feels really silly to just Ask my friends to plan something special for me cause 1. Those are supposed to be surprises 2. I know it is My birthday and I have every right want to be treated like the center of the universe but I still feel very selfish asking people Hey can you make this day all about me and put effort into it please. Also it feels less genuine when people have to be Asked to celebrate me yknow. Idk maybe the realization that I'm turning 18 years old is finally fully kicking and that's what's got me down lately but man. For my birthday I really just want to know that I'm loved and wanted and not a nuisance that pisses people off every time I open my mouth

[steampoweredskeleton]

Ignore