#at least theyre looking cute while going out to terrorize locals

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💕 Love Day Love Story Series 💕

(AN: This is the last installment of the Love Day story series, I wasn’t planning on it being at the end of the year but it just so happened to work out perfectly 😂 Even though there are and will be more couples, we all know that no one knows much about them and they won't be included in the storyline if they haven already [including myself sskksksk] This was an idea that came to me in the middle of the night and it’s been fun to lay out the dynamics of the relationships between the various couples - anyway, onto the post!)

Beckett and Mandy

How did you guys meet?

[B] “I’m the 7th of 13 kids, so right in the middle, and as my older siblings got married and moved out I began trying to determine what it is that I wanted to do. Ever since I was young I would admire my father as he preached a message every week, I’d ‘help’ him by going and grabbing his bible for him whenever I knew he was working on a sermon - he’d even humour me and let me prepare a small bit and let me help him’. That’s probably where my burden to become a preacher came from, and I’ve been led by that burden ever since, I got my degree in Bible & Missions via correspondents course to help me lay the foundations for the dreams I have of doing missions work. I never got to go on international missions like some in my family, but it was great when our parents would take us to go serve the eldery in care homes and assist other churches in their mission field. My father once told me ‘Son, as a preacher you’d be greatly served if you had a godly wife to assist you so that you can both serve together’; so from then on my dad put it on my heart to pray for a Godly wife. It wasn’t in the way that my sisters were and still are encouraged to pray for their spouse, but the main message stays the same. I initially met Mandy when she moved to Newcrest to serve as a mother’s helper to one of the families at our church, at the time I didn’t give her any mind as I wanted to be fully focused on my college courses and my future plans - funny how things turn out. Mandy became friends with my sisters so I ended up seeing her quite a bit, and as we talked more whenever I had free time, I realised there were qualities I admired in her that my dad told me to ‘look out for’ so to speak. We especially bonded over our shared love for missions work, some of her relatives were missionaries for a brief time period and she mentioned how she had dreams of mission work since she was young. When her parents came to visit her from Oasis Springs, I asked her dad if we could begin a courtship and he agreed, as soon as he said yes things moved so fast that it seemed we blinked and suddenly we’re engaged and planning the wedding, then we blinked again and we were married.”

[M] “I’m the oldest of 6, and my parents were very intentional to raise us in the proper way: we were homeschooled and we attended many different conferences and revivals as a way of learning and making new friends. As a little girl I was always mesmerised whenever missionaries would come into our church and speak about their experiences both domestically and abroad, I used to admire how they were so brave and willing to go out into the unknown to tell other people about the Lord - some even went into the jungle! After graduating highschool, my mother encouraged me to use my gifts to serve others and since I was good with children I volunteered with the sunday school program every week at church. One Sunday, a family friend told me that her sister had just had her 8th baby and needed a ‘mothers helper’ around the house and that she suggested me as a possibility! I was flattered by the opportunity and my parents encouraged me to do it, so I moved. Moving to Newcrest was easy I guess, I dove head first into helping around the house and the kids that I didn’t have much else to do. On my first sunday at Newcrest Baptist, Amira, Priscilla, and Annette were so gracious and welcomed me in and made me feel like I’d been there my whole life! I knew they had an older brother, but he was busy with classes quite often that I didn’t see him much, I really got talking to Beckett when he’d have a break from classes and I was given a day off from the family I helped. We really bonded over our shared love of missions work, and I thought to myself ‘this guy is...wow’ he was ticking boxes that I didn’t even know I had written down [laughs] I was so happy when he asked my parents if he could court me, and even happier when we got engaged! I never expected to find my husband because of a babysitting job - but I guess the Lord works in mysterious ways.”

How have you changed since marriage

[b] “After we got married, we got a chance to serve as missionaries out in Selvadorada and we grabbed that chance with both hands. It’s a whole new environment out here and we love it, while it may be hot and it took a few sunburns to get us used to the proper way to be out and about in the hot sun. We’re thankful that we have a great team at home who are willing to fundraise for us anytime we mention it, and it helps us keep our lives here even though we do have to tighten our belts every now and again. We told the Lord that we’d be open to any children that he wanted to give us, and since we’ve not been blessed yet we’re taking our time and being content with what we have now. Looking into the future, it’s exciting to see how this mission field has potential to grow and possibly become something, all in good time of course.”

[m] “Serving as missionaries out in Selvadorada has truly been a wonderful experience for me, it took a while to adjust to the oppressive heat and humidity, the bugs, and the culture - but I’m happy for the progress we’ve made. Whilst we’ve not been blessed with children yet, not everything goes the way you want it, I’m using this as a lesson in contentment; The children in the outer villages are a great distraction and love learning, which I am happy to help them do. While I don’t know what the future holds, I’m happy that I get to do it with my person”

[chickpeatalia]

I heard "working class!Arthur" and I can't think of anything else yes please!!!

Anon, I know you didnt exactly ask for it, but now that you have put the words “working class!Arhur” into my ask box, you have practically opened pandoras box so I’m just gonna go ahead and talk about it anyway. *mwua*  First things first, I shall note that I am not in fact British, so I might not get a few things right. Second, what we’re gonna talk about today is a rather specific human AU that lives in my head.  Third, this ended up being....incredibly long, I’m sorry. The rest is under the cut!

So, why is working class Arthur splendid?

Obviously, there are many different version of how to do a human AU, and oftentimes fandom likes to go down the rich/royal/elite!Arthur route. Which, in fact, is super valid and oftentimes quite fun too. I like these versions too. However, I think oftentimes a working class background is favourable because 1) it makes more sense, to me, on a meta level  and 2) it has a certain charm to it.

Lets consider the meta level first: - despite stereotypes, Great Britain does not consist of aristocracy and royals alone. What are 600 arstocratic families to 60 million of the rest of the population? - the Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain - factory work, steel mills, textile and most prominently, coal mines in the North of England were all operated by the workers. I feel like in Britain, social classes matter way more than on continental Europe, and also to me personally the working class seemed like a particularly important one, historically speaking. Okay, enough history for now, so lets get into the human AU: - Arthur, who grows up in a large family with four brothers (Alasdair & Dylan who are older. And Sean & Peter who are younger) - his parents had Alasdair very early on and you know how it is. With a baby on the way, you got to make the best out of it and take the first stable job you get. (Which was in Glasgow at the time). - but unforntunately high unemployment rates hit the country, especially the working class (thanks Maggie T</3) and what to do if you lose your job and no new work is to be found? Well, you just go and look somewhere else. In the Kirklands’ case, that somewhere else is Cardiff, Wales where Dylan is born. - So they end up sort of moving quite a lot, practically in every part of the UK, in hopes of finding stable jobs for a bit. - Eventually they settle in a suburb of Manchester, England at long last.

- And life goes on

- They recycle so much clothes between the brothers. A good 40% if not more of Arthur’s clothes used to be either Alasdair’s or Dylan’s. - In turn, Sean and Peter also get Arthur’s old school uniforms. Theyre not particularly nice after all these years, but look, they have five kids. They simply don’t have the money for new ones. ( “Says much about the efficiency of a system when it forces you to wear school uniforms in order to avoid social stigmatisation and yet makes you buy the uniforms yourself, as if richer people couldn’t afford the better ones anyway.” Arthur would say darkly) - lots and lots of second hand shopping. (this is where Arthur got is first leather jacket and Doc Martens from, and yes, this is also when his punk phase has started) - thus his outfits tend to look quite ...interesting. A various mix of old jumpers from the 90s, Dylan’s old plaid shirts and some band t-shirt he got for £5. - one year, he and his brothers were looking for a gift for their mum’s birthday. Arthur didn’t have any cash anymore (yes, it was after he bought the Doc Martens, sacrifies had to be made), so he suggested he tried to bake her a cake. Much cheeper than any other gift. Obviously his brothers mocked him for it (until they actually tried the cake and found out that it actually tasted quite good). Since then Arthur took up baking here and there, and his brothers while not encouraging, do not mock him anymore. They do hope he makes the lemon cake again for Ma’s next birthday though

- SCHOOL ho boy... so the thing is, Arthur is rather clever.

- Academically, he was above average. Acing it in subjects like English and History, being quite good in French (no, he does not bring this fact up often...or...at all), and getting decently by in the rest. Except that one time in PE when he got rowdy with the other boys during a football match (no, not our boy’s brightest moment). - He is intelligent, he even understands subject that he doesn’t particular like, like chemistry. He is quick-witted and sharp tongued and has a natural talent for words and writing. Even rather sophisticated articles and topics do not resent a challenge for him. - Naturally, Arthur toys with the thought of going to university and immediately wants to slap himself for that ridiculous idea. - The thing is, nobody in his family has gone to university so far. Like, he has no, absolute no frame of reference what it entails. - Being from a working class family and then going to university is a scary thing, man. - also, being £30,000 in dept by age 18 is a terror of its own kind - Eventually, he contemplates applying maybe perhaps for the local university and that information seeps through to Alasdair who found it to be a rather ridiculous endeavour. - “Look, you’re shitting your pants about this application one way or another, so why not just go immediately for the top universities instead. If you get rejected, well, at least you got rejected by one of the top universities in the world. But if you get accepted....” “Aw, are you saying you think I could get accepted by one of the best universities in the world?” “I’m not saying anything, you wee little shit. Don’t put words in my mouth. But......being the overachieving know-it-all that you are, you might have a chance.” - For as long as he lives, Arthur’s never gonna admit it but this conversation might have really been the most meaningful thing Alasdair has ever said to him. - And yes, he does apply and yes he does get accepted.

FURTHER HEADCANONS:

- he toned it down by now but the punk never died in him. lots of LGBT+ pins on his jackets too. - that being said, he hates it when people think punk is an aesthetic rather than a political stance (”You cannot be bloody punk and right wing. You just cannot!”) - genuinely likes the taste of beer. Or it might be that it was the cheepest alcoholic beverage he could manage to buy. Situation unclear. - is so prone to get into bar fights oh dear lord when he says “fight me”, he genuinely is 100% down to throw hands even if you beat him bloody - obviously, always votes Labour - will call you a cunt if you’re a Tory - unrelated to anything, but I think he’d wear earrings regularly and they’d be cute - also, has a tendency to dye his hair in crazy colours when he is under pressure - one last thing: oftentimes, Arthur strikes people as incredibly cynic or gloomy or ‘overly engaged in politics’, but growing up the way he grew up, facing so many hardships through the years of which many were directly caused by careless conservative politics...its just hard not to be cynic. My final words here are: this is most definitely not what you were looking for when you sent that ask, anon, but I seriously needed to get this out of my system. If anyone wants to ever talk about my favourite boy Arthur, my ask box is always open.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk<3