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rocknrollsalad · 10 months

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Steddiemas - questionable christmas movies (day four)

went a bit backward and had the debate over why it's a wonderful life isn't a Christmas movie. mixed in with some stuff about vaguely Christmas movies being holiday classics

🎙️modern day au | podcasters au Steve and Robin host a podcast, Be Kind, Rewind, and it's the Christmas movie episode. The arguments on what makes a Christmas movie...a Christmas movie get a bit ridiculous.

🗣️ content/trigger warnings: none?

🧑‍🎄 word count: 1300

“Alright, everyone. It’s that time of year and Be Kind, Rewind - your favorite podcast about movies of the past - isn’t immune.”

Steve’s opening line was interrupted by Robin so smoothly it seemed planned. “Last week we tried to talk about all the great Hanukkah movies out there but the list is woefully short and painfully modern.”

“We did learn about the Hanukkah horror movie, though, and my life has been greatly improved since then,” Steve cut back in.

Off mic, Eddie can barely be heard throwing in his two cents. “It was a cheap rip-off of Halloween.”

“Exactly!” Robin said.

“In case you couldn’t hear, Eddie called it a rip-off of Halloween. He says rip-off, I say homage. Either way, it’s so much more like the movies we love here and, I don’t know. Eddie better get used to it. I’m watching it every year now.”

There’s no response from the producer that can be heard. The best the audience gets is Robin’s laughter as she leans off the mic.

With a hint of laughter still in her voice, Robin continues with the professionalism Be Kind, Rewind always tries to start with. “It’s gonna be more of that folks. Steve and I have been arguing non-stop all week as we prepared for this episode.”

“That’s becaus–”

“Save it! We haven’t even explained what we’ve been fighting about.”

“If we paused this to explain why every time, we’d never accomplish anything,” Steve’s voice was flat, his annoyance clear.

There’s a beat of silence, one that left the listener believing Eddie took chunks of it out for better listening pleasure. Eventually, Steve started the explanation. Pushed by forces that didn’t make for good “radio” but managed to be entertaining all the same.

“Everyone talks about the same Christmas movies. Home Alone, Vacation, the Polar Express and every time that list gets made, some wise guy who thinks he’s invented cinema brings up Die Hard. Calling it an underrated Christmas classic or pushing his glasses up to ‘well, actually’ us all to death with talk of John McClaine’s adventures.”

Robin continues on the only scripted portion of their podcast. Given it’s already fallen off the rails twice, the episode promises to be a good one. Listening to the diplomatic information is so much easier to bear knowing they’re going to come to blows over something in a few minutes.

“Bringing us to the age-old question: what makes a movie a Christmas movie? Is taking place at Christmas time enough–”

“No,” Steve interjected quietly.

“Or,” Robin hit the word hard. “Does it have to be about the Christmas spirit? Is it enough to have some Santas? A work Christmas party? Or does it have to actually be about Santa?”

“Like The Santa Clause,” Eddie says.

“That is a good movie,” Steve said, fondly.

“If you two don’t stop interrupting me, I won’t let you have opinions on this,” Robin grumbled.

In unison, Eddie's quieter but it’s clear it’s not just Steve, they make sarcastic scared sounds.

“Read your line, loser.”

Steve chuckles but does as he’s told. “So we’re going to embark on a spirited debate about the sanctity of Christmas and settle, once and for all, that Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie.”

“Jes-No! We’re not going to settle anything,” Robin said with a growl. “Eds, I give up. Ring the bell. The official stuff is over and I’m taking the gloves off.”

Though not normally part of their podcast (and obviously added in post) a bell rings twice. Followed by Eddie saying, in a high-pitched voice, “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.”

“Oh, perfect,” Steve crows. “See that right there. It’s a Wonderful Life. A classic Christmas movie. I'm not so sure it’s as loved these days.”

“If you have a problem with George Bailey, you have a problem with me!”

“I don’t, I don’t have a problem with him at all. We’ve talked about my love for Jimmy Stewart so many times I can’t even believe you’d suggest that! HOW-ever. That movie could be set at any time and still work the same. It is not a Christmas movie.”

“What movie are you watching?! The whole thing is pure Christmas.”

“No, the whole thing is about how important we are to each other and how we all have purpose here. You could tell the same story on a random spring day or, I don’t know, Labor Day and it would still be the same story.”

“Absol-no. Nope. You’re so wrong.” Robin’s voice moves around in quality as she stammers to tell Steve how wrong he is.

“Sit down, we can’t hear you,” he laughs. “And I’m not wrong. Besides three ghosts visiting in the night, this is the most spoofed plotline. Possibly of all time. I don’t have the statistics here…because I couldn’t find them…but so many things do a version of here’s what the world would be like if you were never born.”

“At Christmas time!” Robin yells, still away from the mic.

“Not all of them.”

“Name one!”

“Oh, I’m so glad you asked. This is the plot of Shrek Forever After! Not a Christmas movie. I saw your list, it’s nowhere to be seen.”

“It’s Shrek," Robin's response comes dripping with disgust.

“Shut your mouth!” Eddie and Steve’s voices came within seconds of each other. Eddie’s was loud enough to be heard clearly, which was unusual.

There’s a quiet pause. “Okay, I’m sorry. We love the cinematic masterpiece Shrek in this house. Even when they’re used against me. It’s the lesser one, though.”

“We all know that but it’s still good and it’s still It’s a Wonderful Life. Ergo! That’s not a Christmas movie.”

“Who taught you-Eddie, stop teaching him words.”

“He used this one correctly. I’m talking the win, baby!”

“You two are insufferable,” Robin whined. Finally sitting back at her microphone.

“Oh, if you think the take on It’s a Wonderful Life is bad, ask him what is a Christmas movie,” Eddie said with a sinister laugh.

Robin didn’t ask.

“Which one?” Steve whispered.

Again, there was no audible response. However, this pause was quick and followed by sounds of realization from Steve.

“I don’t know if I can take this. We’re only twenty minutes in. We haven't even made it to th-Eddie! If I record the ads later, can you paste them in and we call it done here? I wanna stay friends with you guys. I think I do, at least. I'm scared.”

Eddie didn’t answer, instead, Steve exploded with “Edward Scissorhands!”

“It ends so sad!” Robin says and it’s clear sitting down didn't last long. She’s pacing the room again.

Long-time listeners are used to needing headphones for this podcast. It’s part of the charm, the quirks of it all. An annoyance one is willing to put up with because the content is so entertaining. Though there had been petitions for both more microphones and a YouTube channel.

“Okay, I’ll give you that. Is that a requirement for it to be a Christmas movie?” Steve said, the grin clear in his voice.

“Yeah! You have to feel all warm and fuzzy. They are cozy movies to watch with hot cocoa and fuzzy blankets.”

“By your own admission, you’ve ruled out everything on our lists!! What about Gremlins is warm and cozy? Die Hard? Die Hard Two? Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang?”

‘You know some of those movies are not Christmas movies at all. Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang? C’mon, be reasonable.”

“Christmas is…a focus?”

“See, you can’t even lie about it!”

“It was on some lists and it is a good movie.”

“Okay, look. We clearly gotta discuss some stuff and, I don’t know, maybe it really is time to do some ads. If we have any sponsors left.”

#hey everyone come see what i wrote now #challenge: steddiemas #day four #not the most romantic or shippy fic out there #but trust me they're dating lol

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canmom · 2 years

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Animation Night 125: Peter Chung

[Animation Night archive]

Hiii everyone, it’s Thursday! And it’s a multiple of 5, which means it’s time for something ‘big’. Which is to say... full circle back to the creator whose Aeon Flux started this whole thing, Peter Chung~... one of my favourite directors.

^ me setting up an Animation Night...

But! We’re not here to watch Aeon Flux again this time! [Though if you wanna read about Aeon Flux, go check out Animation Night 52]. We’re here to watch the other works of Peter Chung! Such as Alexander Senki aka Reign: the Conqueror...

You see, Peter Chung is one of the few people to have the experience of directing both anime and western animation. The insights this gave him, related once upon a time on the anipages forums, were one of the seeds of what would become the ‘sakuga fandom’.

But let’s start at the beginning. Here’s a picture of Chung via imdb...

He was born in Seoul in 1961, the son of a guy in the foreign service, which meant his childhood was spent travelling all over the world (Wikipedia lists Seoul, London, Nairobi, Washington, D.C., New York and Tunis). Eventually they settled down to migrate to the USA, in Virginia. I’m not exactly sure when Chung got the animation bug, but it was early enough to send him to CalArts, where he attended their experimental animation program.

At age 18, he graduated CalArts joined the animation industry, working for the Spanish painter Salvador Bru. You can see some of Bru’s abstract paintings here; I haven’t been able to track down any of his work in animation. In any case, within a year Chung landed at Hanna-Barbera, working on character design, and also working with Ralph Bakshi [Animation Night 63] on layouts for his barbarian movie Fire and Ice (1983).

At this point he apparently got scouted by Didney for feature development, although which features he may have developed is not entirely clear. He also has layout and art direction credits for a couple of franchise works from this mid-80s period, such as The Transformers (1984, animation outsourced to Toei) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987, animated at an American studio then called Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, now Fred Wolf Films), and some less well remembered ones such as C.O.P.S., a bizarre animated spinoff of a reality show following cops on the job, and Ring Raiders, a toyline-driven show promoting toy aeroplanes.

Chung’s major break came, so far as I can tell, when he designed the characters for the inaugral Nickoledeon show Rugrats (see Animation Night 31 when we watched the Hanukkah episode), in which a group of children play in elaborate fantasy worlds. The show was a huge hit, although it was still a few years until Chung got the opportunity to create something purely according to his vision in Aeon Flux. In the intervening period he got to work on the post-apocalyptic superhero show Phantom 2040 (1994), once again on character design.

Then came Liquid Television, and Aeon Flux. Aeon Flux stood out amidst Liquid Television because its animation could easily have belonged a mainstream show... if it wasn’t horny philosophical science fiction, heavy on ambiguity. But by the same token, it’s specificity won a lot of die-hard fans (like me).

Since there are a number of interviews out there, let’s get some of Chung’s own words on what went into it...

O: You tend to broadly exaggerate your characters' physical characteristics, especially their height and their musculature—is there any particular symbolic or aesthetic reason?

PC: That's a hard thing for an artist to try to analyze. I could kind of try to pick it apart, but the simple truth is, that's the way I draw. I mean, I can tell you about my influences—my favorite artist is Egon Schiele, the German Expressionist. If you look at his drawings, they're very economical, very expressive. The first time I saw them, I thought they were perfect for animation. So I did make a conscious effort to try and adapt that approach to drawing. The other thing is… I was going for a style, when I was doing Aeon Flux, that was much more dependent on expressive drawing as opposed to lots of surface detail. In Japanese productions, they like to put a lot of highlights and shadows on things, to make things look very rendered. Each drawing has to stand out individually as an illustration. Having been trained in American animation, I wanted to have characters that were very realistic, but not so loaded with detail that they were going to be hard to move.

O: Your characters, both in Aeon Flux and in Reign, tend to dress in a way that's half formalized costume, half fetish gear. They often don't wear much, and what they wear is elaborate and stylized. What are your fashion influences?

PC: Well, I struggled a lot, when I was doing Aeon Flux, with how far to push the costumes, and how realistic to make them. I think a lot of illustrators realize—and you see this a lot in American comics as well—that if you draw costumes realistically, it's very difficult. You end up spending all your time trying to create believable drapery. So the tendency is to draw skin-tight costumes that mold around the body. This allows you to use the body more. You see this with classical sculpture, and dancers. You try to use the expressive qualities of the human body more—that's why sculptors prefer to work with nudes, as opposed to trying to make the clothing look accurate. Otherwise you end up concentrating on the clothing and not the person. The same is true with animation—I think of my animated characters as dancers. I want to be able to use body language as much as possible.

Chung’s comments here are interesting, in that his talk of forgoing highlights reminds me of the kagenashi approach taken by Mamoru Hosoda - in both cases, putting less complexity in the static drawings to allow for more motion, but still strongly influenced by the more solid drawing style of anime instead of the more 2D graphical approach of most American TV animation. Chung’s style of lanky anatomy with exaggerated bumps and details is uinstantly recognisable; only Robert Valley, directly inspired by him, is all that similar within animation.

What about Egon Schiele? Let me show you some of his paintings...

...you can probably see how he influenced Chung! (Expressionism if you’re wondering was a pre-first world war Modernist art movement which responded to naturalism and positivism by emphasising the personal, subjective emotional experience of the world. Thanks, Wikipedia!)

Alongside Schiele the German expressionist, Chung cites a whole lot of influences; lemme pick out some of the ones we’ve talked about on here...

I don't consciously model my style or techniques on any particular body of work. I try as much as possible to draw from personal experience and observation. I'm inspired by the work of other artists, mostly because they show me how good it's possible to be at practicing one's craft. They would include, in no special order:

David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, Alexandro Jodorowsky [Toku Tuesday 27], Michelangelo Antonioni, Alain Resnais, Jean Cocteau, Allain Robbe-Grillet, Seijun Suzuki,

Osamu Dezaki [Animation Night 95], Yoshiaki Kawajiri [Animation Night 25, Animation Night 67], Yoshinori Kanada [Animation Night 62], Moebius [Animation Night 71], Kazuo Umezu [author of The Drifting Classroom, whose adaptation we watched on Toku Tuesday 19],

Egon Schiele, Horst Janssen, Frank Lloyd Wright, among others.

On comics, he’s pretty down on the state of the American industry, describing it as largely divided between heavy-handed narration where the illustrations feel gratuitous, and artistic flexes with weak story. He describes his aspiration to communicate the feelings of the characters visually, without being heavy-handed. So while I’m citing influences, lemme pull up Peter Chung’s favourite comics...

Here is a list of my personal favorite comics stories in no particular order. My choices are based as much on mastery of narrative form, as on originality of conception. Each of them appear to have been impelled by an inner vision; they are not comics inspired by other comics, but rather by dreams, obsessions, yearnings.

1. Baptism, Makoto-chan, Fourteen by Kazuo Umezu 2. Savannah by Sanpei Shirato 3. Mighty Atom, No-man, Phoenix by Osamu Tezuka 4. The New Gods by Jack Kirby 5. The Airtight Garage, Arzach by Moebius 6. The Incal Saga by Moebius and Jodorowsky 7. The Tower, The Hollow Earth Series by Schuiten and Peeters 8. The Jealous God, Envie de Chien by Cadelo 9. Be Free! by Tatsuya Egawa 10. Hard-Boiled by Geof Darrow and Frank Miller

I love Aeon Flux, but I’ve talked at length about it in the past, so let’s not spend too long on it here, since tonight the focus is on what came next!

In 1998-9, four years after Aeon Flux, Chung got his chance to work in anime - and not only work in anime but on a series co-directed by Rintaro (Animation Night 53, AN 62, AN 67).

So. Alexander Senki began life as a series of light novels by Hiroshi Aramata, a prolific and widely talented natural history researcher and novellist known otherwise for the occultist historical fantasy novel Teito Monogatari. Alexander Senki tell the story of Alexander the Great, but projected into a futuristic scifi setting.

For the animated version, Madhouse went for an international approach, and invited Chung to come in and design the characters and settings for a 13-episode TV anime, later compiled into a 90-minute film. Much of the animation was outsourced to the Korean studio DR Movie - one you’ll see frequently in the credits of recent anime, but I believe this was more novel at the time.

Chung commented on the experience in the above interview...

Peter Chung: There are many ways I could answer [what it’s like to put a particular stamp on a work he’s not directing], I suppose. In this particular case, it was different from a lot of other shows I've worked on as a designer. I've done a lot of work in the U.S. as a character designer, but in Japan, it's much more of an auteur role, where they really want your individual style on a project. In the U.S., it's much more collaborative. What was good about Reign was that they really liked the idea of things having an eccentric, personal style. And for me, that was great. A lot of that has to do, usually, in animation, with the ability of the animators to adapt to the drawing style of the designer, and they did a very good job, they tried very hard, to follow my original drawings. Whereas often, in American productions, they will try to simplify or adapt a designer's drawings to what the animators can draw.

O: Do you prefer the auteur method over working collaboratively?

PC: Well, as a designer, I like having the freedom and the license to design the way I want. So for me, working with the Japanese is better, at least from a designer's point of view. Now, working from the point of view of an animator, I think the animators had a lot of difficulty adapting to my style.

Animation-wise, Alexander Senki draws on the familiar techniques of Madhouse’s OVAs: limited animation and multiplane effects with moments of more complex animation. But Chung’s character and environment designs give it a particular flavour that makes it feel very different to most Madhouse works, really underlining the significance of a character designer to a project. The result, which takes a wander through the story of Alexander with a lot of philosophical musing was... polarising, but if you like Chung’s style, very appealing.

Since I cannot find the movie and it’s said to cut too much anyway, tonight my plan is to show 3-4 episodes of Alexander Senki - enough to give a taste. Because then the question is, what did Chung do next? He got a little more anime work, animating the credits to Party 7 - a live action comedy film which also Takeshi Koike on the map for its title sequence. Years later, Koike would make a spectacular tribute to Aeon Flux as an ad for the cancelled computer game...

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And then we get the third entry in the ‘Aeon Fluxlike’ canon: Chung directed a segment of the Animatrix (Animation Night 6, long overdue for a rewrite though!). This was his first time working with significant CG - something he found a much more fluid process than traditional animation - and he was brimming with ideas, many of which ended up cut. Nevertheless, his entry is effective - pretty much just ‘what if Aeon Flux but the Matrix’, featuring a machine in a virtual environment designed to persuade it to defect. Chung says...

I mean, how many variations can you do on the story of someone suspecting that he's living in a simulation, then waking up? I decided to take a radically different approach and view the world from the point of view of the machines. After all, a robot would be more susceptible to delusion than a human. Also, I wanted to show that the human mind is just as capable of creating a rich and seductive dream world as a computer is.

And after these three splendid creations, what did Chung do next? I think most people if asked would draw a blank, since he kind of fell off the radar. Aeon Flux was adapted into a feature-length movie, originally described as more of an art film by director Karyn Kusama, but it was taken out of her hands and heavily re-edited by the studio into a very generic sci-fi action movie. Chung had little involvement, and was heartbroken at the result:

With apologies to both Phil and Matt-- who have publicly been effusive in their praise for the show-- the movie is a travesty. I was unhappy when I read the script four years ago; seeing it projected larger than life in a crowded theatre made me feel helpless, humiliated and sad. (...) I know that the studio made a lot of cuts against the wishes of the writers and director. Most of the cuts concerned further development of the secondary characters. Since my main problems are with the portrayal of Aeon and Trevor, I doubt that I'd have liked the longer version much better. I didn't when I read the script, and there are definitely some things I'm glad WERE cut-- like Catherine's pregnancy. Maybe the makers didn't understand the source material and thought they were being true to it; or they understood it, but didn't think it would appeal to a wide enough audience and altered it to suit their presumed target. They claim to love the original version; yet they do not extend that faith to their audience. No, they will soften it for the public, which isn't hip enough to appreciate the raw, pure, unadulterated source like they do. (...) Presuming to know what an audience wants to see and tailoring the product to fit is a method that sucks all the drive I'd have to ever create anything. It's self-defeating disingenuous. I'm not naive about the realities of making unconventional films in the arena of "mass entertainment". It's possible to make good unconventional films; it's also very hard. In any case, if you're going to risk failure, I say do it boldly, with conviction. The problem with the movie is its failure of nerve.

But Chung never seems to have gotten the chance to direct a wholly original project again. The remainder of his work is adaptations or franchise work, with various big productions reaching out to him to put a stylish auteur’s spin on their IP.

The first of these is a short film bridging the gaps between the two Riddick movies.

Riddick? Riddick is a series of sci-fi action movies featuring Vin Diesel as a space criminal. I admit, I haven’t seen them! They weren’t especially successful at the time, but became cult films, kind of present in nerd culture back in the 2000s... and kind of forgotten since. The first movie, Pitch Black, sees Riddick and co on a pilgrim ship which crash lands on an alien planet, where they have to survive. The second, The Chronicles of Riddick, opens with Riddick in hiding from bounty hunters. However did he get there? Telling us is Chung’s job!

The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury is a 35 minute short animated film, created at Universal Animation Studios, which specialise in direct-to-video films. This was the first time that Chung worked with Robert Valley, who would later become well known for his two films in Love Death and Robots (Animation Night 99); fortunately this being a franchise entry does not overwrite that distinctive Chung/Valley style, as seen in this distinctive fight scene animated along with Jorden Oliwa and Lee Hong. It’s full of cool distorted perspectives in the drawings and distinctive layouts.

Chung next appeared three years later, on another franchise spinoff, titled Revisioned: Tomb Raider, a compilation series bringing on a variety of comics artists and writers to put their own spin on the game. This was supposed to be the first in a whole series of Revisioned projects based on games, but in the end it seems only one was ever made. Chung provided designs and scripts for the first three episodes. They’re all available on Youtube, starting here...

youtube

Videogame spinoff animations have a curious quality: they tend to have exceptionally lavish animation with all the videogame $$$ coming in, but often feel quite limited by being a promotion - more on that when I talk about Trigger’s Cyberpunk anime sometime soon. I’ll be interested to see how Chung handles this one.

Another three year gap later in 2010 and Chung directs his only feature-length film, Firebreather, adapting an Image comic about teenagers battling kaiju in CG. It sounds honestly... pretty plain by Chung’s standards, without much to distinguish it in either animation or the energy of the story. It seems to have disappeared without really making a splash.

In 2012 comes another brief videogame promotion, this time for Diablo.

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In both this and Tomb Raider, Chung seems to have moved away from his earlier unshaded style; this one especially skews much more to ‘Western animation taking after anime’. There is, sadly, very little of that Peter Chung flair to be seen, and honestly I wouldn’t have guessed he was involved: it’s just a string of fight scenes.

The next year, Chung started working as a teacher at USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he remained ever since. It’s not quite the end of his creative output in animation, since he did produce the titles for Victor and Valentino (2019), most likely because the author of the original comic book sees him as a huge influence and asked directly. And that’s it, basically! A complete slice through the creations of the Aeon Flux guy...

What’s the plan tonight? Essentially the cross-section of Peter Chung works presented above: we’ll watch a fair chunk of Alexander Senki, and then have a look at everything since. If people are in the mood we might even rewatch a bit of Aeon Flux!

So! Let’s go! Animation Night 125 will be starting shortly, at https://twitch.tv/canmom - hope to see ya there ^^

#animation night #peter chung #aeon flux #alexander senki #reign the conqueror

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steelblaidd · 2 years

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Shared this evening at my weekly chat with my brothers and parents.

Christians fight over which movies are Christmas movies. If you ever want to purposely start an argument among Gentiles, walk into a room full of Christians and ask, “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?” Oh boy, it will get ugly.

The truth is Die Hard is a Hanukkah movie. Think about it —” Die Hard” is a story about a desperate insurgency against a vastly superior invading force, requiring the near-miraculous marshaling of limited resources. It’s a modern version of the Chanukah story.

#hanukkah #chanukah #hanukah #die hard #oh my ribs #reblog for great truth #wheeze

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babybinxxx · 2 years

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Share your Fexi holiday headcanons (Christmas/Hanukkah/NYE)!!! Or winter headcanons!

Oh god, I'm so sorry it took me this long to answer this; I just saw it. I do not get asks ; - ; we're passed Christmas and Hanukkah, but I will answer regardless. They do a hybrid of both holidays cuz why the fuck not. Lexi isn't religious but she loves both holidays so why not combine them? Fezco does his best to learn more about Hannukkah, and its traditions, and Lexi literally melts like a puddle. They'll have a Christmas tree in the living room, and they'll force Ash to help him decorate. They'll send Holiday cards, and Ash has to be photoshopped into the photo cuz he refuses to be in it. They will also have their cats in holiday sweaters. Fez will spoil his baby Lexi because he gives me that vibe. And Lexi will go above and beyond to make him/buy him the perfect gift cuz he's not had anyone but him gifts since Marie passed. Fezco will cook, Lexi will bake, and Ash will sulk. They eat a hybrid meal for Christnukkah (is that how it's spelled? idk). Half traditional Hanukkah, half traditional Christmas feast. Fezco will have been giving Lexi gifts for all 8 days of Hanukkah but will still continue to give her gifts on Christmas morning. They'll all snuggle on the sofa after opening gifts and watch the only Christmas movie Ash will allow: Die Hard.

Thank you for the ask baby!

#asks #mine #thank you #lexi x fez #fexi #fezco o neill #lexi howard #euphoria

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fernand0 · 1 year

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infonewsmania · 2 years

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Hanukkah celebrations, holiday markets, and events in the Washington, D.C., region

AFI Silver Theatre’s AFI Holiday Classics: Although holiday movies have been overrunning streaming sites for weeks, nothing compares to experiencing the classics in a theatre, including “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “Elf,” and “Die Hard.” The moving 1952 drama “The Holly and the Ivy” and the recently restored director’s cut of “The Muppet Christmas Carol” are two noteworthy…

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#Concerts #Events #Hanukkah celebrations #Holiday #holiday markets #Washington

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dangerousconnoisseurdonut · 2 years

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Here we are with the first day of December and the Farmer's Almanac says my area of the world won't be getting a White Christmas even though we're in the North and it was chilly this morning.

Rather that's true or not, here's a bit of holiday cheer; reblog this to convince the Weather Gods to send us a white Christmas.

To make it more fun, in the tags put your favourite Christmas/holiday movie and add a picture from it in the comments if you like. All are valid candidates, even Gremlins and Die Hard.

Also valid are multiple entries.

Less than 24 days till Christmas folks, only 17 until Hanukkah, and 25 until Kwanzaa!

#The Year Without a Santa Claus #And The Bishop's Wife #And the first two versions of How the Grinch Stole Christmas

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arpmemething2 · 3 years

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Christmas/Winter Holiday starters

Send one for the muse’s response...

“The gift receipt is in the box.”

"The lights of the Hanukkah menorah that we kindle in our homes are a reminder both of the Menorah in the Temple in Jerusalem and the light that shines brightly within each one of us."

"Happy Hanukkah!"

"May we all be blessed with miracles wherever we need them."

"Is this gift for me?"

"There are two ways of spreading light: To be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

"Nothing ever seems too bad, too hard, or too sad when you've got a Christmas tree in the living room."

"On Hanukkah, the first dark night, light yourself a candle bright. I'll you, if you will me, invite to dance within that gentle light."

“I really do wish it would snow.”

"Go ahead and light the candles."

“I always gain so much weight during the holidays.”

"Merry Christmas!"

"Hanukkah is about the spark of the divine in all of us made in God's image."

“You look festive!”

“This year went by so fast!”

“What did Santa bring?”

"Happy New Year!"

“Christmas keeps starting earlier and earlier.”

"The darkess of the whole world cannot swallow the glowing of a candle."

“Kwanzaa is a special time to remember the ancestors, the bridge builders, and the leaders.”

"Christmas is the day that holds all time together."

“So, were you good this year?”

"Happy Holidays!"

"Freshly cut Christmas trees smelling of stars and snow and pine resin—inhale deeply and fill your soul with wintry night."

"The spirit of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is shared by all people who love freedom."

“I need a gift idea from you.”

"Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling."

"Have you put up your Christmas lights yet?"

"The proper response, as Hanukkah teaches, is not to curse the darkness but to light a candle."

“’Die Hard’ is the best Christmas movie.”

"A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle."

"Happy Kwanzaa!"

"A little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness."

"I have a gift for you!"

"Have you reflected on Imani for the holiday?"

“I’m so sick of Christmas music already.”

"Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness."

“Don’t spend too much on me.”

"Don't be a Grinch!"

"Hanukkah is about the freedom to be true to what we believe without denying the freedom of those who believe otherwise."

"This is the season when people of all faiths and cultures are pushing back against the planetary darkness. We string bulbs, ignite bonfires, and light candles. And we sing."

"Christmas gives us an opportunity to pause and reflect on the important things around us."

"Did you put the turkey in the oven?"

“Kwanzaa is a pan-African celebration of heritage and culture and family and community. The principles and the manner of observing the holiday lift up traditional values that are key to our lives.”

"Santa Claus is anyone who loves another and seeks to make them happy; who gives himself by thought or word or deed in every gift that he bestows."

"The seven principles of Kwanzaa—unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith—teach us that when we come together to strengthen our families and communities and honor the lesson of the past, we can face the future with joy and optimism"

"May you never be too grown up to search the skies on Christmas Eve."

"Have you lit the candle for tonight yet?"

"We light candles in testament that faith makes miracles possible."

"Have you purchased gifts for everyone yet?"

"Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most."

"Look at all the snow outside!"

"Some Christmas tree ornaments do more than glitter and glow, they represent a gift of love given a long time ago."

“Christmas has become so commercialized.”

"I think I hear Santa coming down the chimney!"

"We are going to need the dreidel."

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scfrozenover · 3 years

Text

Happy Friday! Have lots of fluff and also smut and friendship and Hanukkah and siblings and GOATS! All the good stuff!

Following along? Don't forget to copy today's fics from the master spreadsheet to your own!

Bon Hiver

[David/Patrick - E - 41,388]

Patrick, fresh off ending his engagement, is desperate to not be around people this Christmas. It seems like a long shot that the owner of this cottage, in a town neither he nor anyone he knows has ever heard of, is also looking for an eleventh-hour escape over the holidays, but ... there's this pull in his gut that he's curious about.

The Holiday AU, part of the Frozen Over festival

Stickers of old men and a thousand yen

[David/Patrick - T - 3,620]

The birthday kiss between David and Patrick didn't happen, and now it's Christmas. What are they going to do when they draw each other in the town Secret Santa gift exchange?

But a couple of weeks later, Twyla pulled the names and now he had to find the perfect gift that said, “I think you’re amazing and sexy and gorgeous and perfect and I’m half in love with you, and would you please kiss me already” but with, like, a spending limit of $25.

Braid the Pieces Together

[David/Patrick, Rachel/OC - T - 3,276]

“I got a text.”

“From who?”

“Rachel.”

“Oh wow. When was the last time you heard from her?” David’s voice was curious, his eyes were still on the TV.

“The barbecue.”

David finally turned to look at Patrick. “What does it say?”

Patrick smiled. “It’s an olive branch.”

you're the only girl i've got on my list

[Rachel/Heather - G - 3,070]

“Where is the —”

“In the hall closet —”

“And the —”

“Also in the hall closet —”

“What about the —”

“Rachel, I love you, but I’m about to burn this quiche.”

A glimpse into Rachel's First Christmas at Warner Farms.

The Perfect Gift

[Alexis & David - G - 2,348]

One or both of them get the other the perfect gift. Because they (not so) secretly love each other a lot. Maybe when they are kids? Or post canon?

Adelina takes David and Alexis to visit Santa Claus at the Mall. David is less than thrilled by the whole experience.

Don't want to give anything away, so just read this short, sweet story for yourself to find out more 😊

Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0, Canada

[David/Patrick - T - 2,172]

This year, in the spirit of keeping things local, Canada Post has set up a little group writing session for all those who wanted to participate in the Letters to Santa program at City Hall in Patrick's new home of Schitt’s Creek. He’s only been here for a few weeks, having left his hometown seeking a fresh start. Finding himself missing all the comforts of home at this time of year, Patrick happily leads the efforts to spread joy and holiday cheer to all the children of the town.

Welcome To The Party, Pal

[Patrick & Stevie - M - 1,626]

"Johnny wanted David and Alexis to stay at the motel tonight.”

“Oh, that sucks, sorry,” Stevie said, stepping out of the way, so Patrick could reach to brush off the snow piled on her roof.

“It’s ok, I get it. It’s nice for them to have this. I’m just going to grab some Chinese take-out, and enjoy the solitude that is a house without Ray.”

“Or.”

“Or?”

Stevie held up her hand and began ticking off items on her fingers. “Wine. Take-out. Die Hard - the greatest Christmas movie of all time. Gremlins. Non-sexy sleepover.” She raised her eyebrow in question.

Patrick grinned back at her. “I’ll meet you at your place in half an hour.”

or Patrick and Stevie spend Christmas Eve together after the Rose's Christmas Party

An Exchange of Love

[David/Patrick, Marcy/Clint - G - 1,591]

David and Marcy bake together for a holiday party. David makes a new friend. Also, there are lots of cookies!

Yule Shoot Your Eye Out

[Stevie & David, David/Patrick, Stevie/Ruth - T - 1,563]

Stevie and David, much like the snow, thaw over time.

sweet delights

[Ted/Alexis - G - 1,512]

Three instances of Ted, Alexis, and wintertime baking.

[podfic] i thought i'd ask you just the same

[Alexis/Twyla - T - 35 minutes]

Does Alexis wish she could sing? Maybe. It's occurred to her once or twice. But then people's expectations would be higher than zero, and she'd have to try to meet them. It's always seemed like an awful lot of work for something that simply has to succeed, and it’s always been easy enough for her to make money off of simply entertaining people.

This holiday album, full of covers of well-known songs and familiar melodies, is different. She’s not contractually obligated to do it, and putting out something serious when her public image is the exact opposite feels like a risk. But she figures: when has she ever turned down a challenge? Never, and she isn't letting twelve songs and the iTunes streaming charts change that any time soon.

Alexis Rose, star of A Little Bit Alexis and sole breadwinner for the entire Rose family, gets more than she initially bargained for when she decides to make a Chrismukkah album with the help of her new music producer, Twyla Sands.

CREATORS: If your works were released today, please don't forget to update your posting date!

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mypoisonedvine · 4 years

Text

I know, I know, the only writing challenge I should be doing right now is finishing my fucking WIPs, but hey, I love the holidays and I’ve been wanting to host a challenge for forever!

here are the basic rules;

the title is probably pretty obvious here, but all the fics should be holiday or winter-themed in some way and feature mcu characters, or their actors (or other roles from the same people)

all ratings accepted! g to x, anything goes.

all genres accepted! platonic, wholesome, dark, it’s all fair game.

all lengths accepted! just use a read more if it’s anything more than 500 words

rpf accepted!

(pls no snuff, underage, or bestiality as always)

tag me when you post and also use the tag #myfestivevine (lol), just so I can find it

deadline is the end of february, but I imagine people will want to post their stuff in time for the holiday they’re covering.

that’s all you really need to know, but below the cut I have some holiday and prompt ideas to get you started if you aren’t immediately sure what you want to do! thanks in advance to anyone who participates :)

some holidays you could potentially cover:

christmas (secular)

christmas (christian)

hanukkah (jewish)

kwanzaa/karamu ya imani (african american)

winter solstice (pagan/secular/astrological)

pancha ganapati (hindu)

festivus (secular/parody)

krampusnacht (european christian)

new year's eve/day (secular)

lunar new year (asian/astrological)

bodhi day (buddhism)

just straight up winter, the season. no holiday necessary.

(quick note: I encourage writers to use this as an opportunity, either to share their own traditions and culture with us, or to explore and learn about one they are less familiar with. if you choose to go with the latter, please be cautious and respectful in your cultural depictions. writers whose cultural background is often underrepresented, and/or whose holiday is rarely written about, are especially encouraged to participate!!)

wintery/holiday themes, dialogue, and plot ideas:

office/work holiday party

secret santa gift exchange

lingerie or a sex toy as a gift 👀

engagement ring as a gift 👀👀👀

sledding, skiing, snowboarding, ice-skating

baking holiday foods together (decorating cookies???)

mistletoe

ugly christmas sweaters

snowed in

shopping for a christmas tree together

taking a vacation somewhere new for the holiday

visiting/meeting the family

favorite christmas songs (this can also apply to any other holiday that has songs!! I just only know one non-christmas winter holiday song and it's 'dreidel dreidel dreidel' aaaand it's already stick in my head just from thinking about it)

favorite holiday movies

exchanging handmade gifts

kissing at the new year's eve countdown

getting your kids dressed/prepared for the christmas/holiday pageant

ordering chinese takeout when all the other restaurants are closed

"being with you is the best gift I could ask for"

"have you been naughty or nice this year?"

"come sit on my lap and tell me what you want"

"don't you dare try to find where I've hidden your presents"

"honestly, I hate the holidays/this holiday."

"is that a christmas cracker in your pocket or are you excited to see me?"

"okay, your present is too big to wrap, so just cover your eyes…"

"oh, so 'dick in a box' isn't an acceptable present?"

"I think I might be drunk on eggnog"

"what are you talking about?! die hard is TOTALLY a christmas movie."

"there's no way that flimsy little jacket will protect you from the cold… here, take my coat"

"are you cold?" "no." "your teeth are chattering… sure you don't want me to warm you up?"

"you ate the gingerbread house?!" "...was I not supposed to?"

"welcome… to my christmas attack zone!"

"I can't go to another family reunion single… be my fake boyfriend/girlfriend/partner for the holiday? please?"

"the ground is so icy, I'm afraid I'll slip!" "here, hold onto me to keep steady."

"I refuse to participate in any merriment this year. I'm an adult and you can't make me."

"christmas is overrated. I officially declare December 25th 'Halloween 2'."

"don't freak out, but I definitely just burnt our big fancy holiday dinner…"

"you mean you don't do (unique personal tradition)?" "literally nobody but you does that."

"it's a christmas movie!" "it's a halloween movie!" "it's a christmas movie!" "it's a halloween m—" "WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP ABOUT THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS?!"

"ugh, is dinner ready yet?!" "sure, if you're willing to risk your life for raw turkey."

"I get that you aren't the most festive person, but this is the most pathetic attempt at decorations I've ever seen."

you don’t have to do one of these to participate and you don’t have to claim anything! as long as it fits the requirements above the cut, you’re good to go. more than one person could end up doing the same prompt, which is fine because everyone’s individual writing will turn out different!

#myfestivevine #mcu writing challenge #bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers x reader #sam wilson x reader #peter parker x reader

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batfam-rewrites · 4 years

Text

Batfam During Quarantine: Happy Holiday’s

December 1

Duke: So, what weird traditions do you have for Christmas.

Stephanie: What makes you think we have weird traditions?

Duke: Please, at this point you all are so predictable, I can tell you all what you’re gunna to do on Christmas Day. Dick text everyone he knows that celebrates Christmas Merry Christmas,

Dick: Why shouldn’t I?

Duke: Jason is gunna bitch about all of his presents or tune us out or both, Tim is gunna sleep through most of it because he’ll be up all night wrapping presents, Steph will spend most of the day on social media, Barbara and Dick will get very cozy on the couch probably reading something, and Damian will wake everyone up by jumping on the bed screaming,

Barbara: Sounds about right!

Cassandra: What about us?

Duke: You guys are just about as new as I am to this family so I’m not to sure.

Harper: So there is some weird tradition?

Dick: Nothing too weird, just an advent calendar.

Tim: But with movies, so for example the first day could be Home Alone, the next day could be Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, then the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, then Home Alone 3...

Cassandra: I’m assuming Home Alone 4 is in there somewhere?

Stephanie: No, fuck that movie!

Cassandra: Damn, just assuming! Don’t get so judgmental.

Jason: The only movie that is consistently.....

Dick: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, don’t ruin the surprise, Jaybird!

Jason: Whatever, you’ll love the movie. It’s funny as hell.

Duke and Cassandra: Coolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcool.

December 6

At a mall in Central City

Dick: *grabs a large stuffed animal unicorn and walks with Wally towards Jason, Victor, Roy, and Donna This is Fred.* He’s coming with us.

Donna: Dick, what is this?

Dick: You didn’t hear it from me but *whispers loudly* Fred is a secret agent. He’s here to save all unicorn kind.

Roy: *stiffles a laugh*

Wally: *laughs loudly*

Victor: Why do you need a unicorn? You’re not a child!

Dick: It’s for Dami. And Fred is a secret agent.

Roy: Uhh no he’s......

Dick: *throws Fred at Roy* Sneak attack!

Roy: Hey!

Donna: You don’t get the unicorn back until we get to the car!

Dick: No fair! *spots the pet store across the way* OOOOO, PUPPIES! *jumps on Jason’s back* Piggy back ride.

Jason: No! *throws Dick off his back*

Victor: Jason, what is up with Dick today?

Jason: No idea.

Dick and Wally: *starts hopping like a frog around the store*

December 10

Damian: HAPPY HANUKKAH, SUCKAS!!!

Bruce: Settle down Damian.

Damian: NEVER!!!!!

Bruce: Okay, we’ll see you guys soon, we’ll be at Kane Manor. Alfred is in charge.

Dick: Why not me! I’m responsible!

Bruce: No you’re not.

Dick: I am too!!!

Barbara: Really? What about last night?

——

Nightwing: Hey, Babs, check this out! *jumps off the roof of a building* YEAH I’M FREEEEEEEE! FREE FAAALLLLLIIIN’! fires his grappling hook across the street

——

Dick: So? That proves nothing!

Selina: *whispers to Damian* Get to the car.

Damian: *starts leaving*

Bruce: Goodbye everyone see you in eight days! *backs away slowly* ALFREDS IN CHARGE!!! *running to the garage*

December 13

Jason: *to Stephanie, Tim, Cassandra, Harper, and Cullen* Okay, everyone hold on!

Barbara: What’s going on?

Jason: We’re sledding down the stairs.

Barbara: Without me! Someone make room! Let’s go!

They sled down the stairs landing outside.

Dick: I’M GOING NEXT!!!!

December 15

Damian: Can I light the candle tonight?

Bruce: I don’t think that would be safe enough. Maybe next year.

Damian: You let me roam the streets of America’s hell hole dressed with a target on my chest, how would lighting a candle be MUCH WORSE THEN THAT?

Bruce: You can’t be trusted with fire! Last time I tried to let you light Dick’s birthday candles you set the table in fire!

Kate: Shit Damian! I thought you were getting better.

Damian: I’M TRYING! NOW GIMME THE LIGHTER OR ELSE I’LL SLIT YOUR THROATS!

December 19

Tim: *walks in the back door* We got the tree!

Jason: *runs down the stairs* Lets see it!

Damian, Cassandra, Dick, and Barbara run down stairs to see the tree and stare at it.

Dick: Ummm.... Tim, Steph, did you guys think of how the tree would fit into our house?

Stephanie: Well you said to get a cheap one and we did! We got it for free!

Damian: And where did you get it? The woods?

Tim: How did you know?

Dick: Okay, we’ll find somewhere to place this one and get a new one to decorate tomorrow.

Tim and Stephanie: Okay.

Three squirrels jumps out of the tree.

Damian: SQUIRREL!!!

Dick: Don’t touch it!

Jason: Let it bite you!

Barbara: *elbows Jason in the side* Jason, shut up!

December 20

Bruce: Can someone hand over the Joker ornament?

Dick: *hands over the ornament*

Jason: That ornament is the bomb!

Everyone: Oh my god!

Jason: Look, I’m just saying I would definitely not break that one with a crowbar!

Dick: Shut up Jason!

Barbara: You’re not the only one to have been traumatized by the Joker, Jason!

Jason: Yeah, but I’m the only one the Joker killed.

Harper: Why do you even have ornaments of your villians, Bruce!

Stephanie: Oh, I got this one! Because the trophies in the Bat-cave aren’t enough!

Jason: *high fives Stephanie*

Bruce: It’s because I like to remember those who are not spending the holidays in the most ideal place.

Jason: So you are capable of emotion! I never knew!

Alfred: *hits Jason on the head*

Dick: Awww, this is a cute one *holds up an ornament of Bruce and Selina kissing in their costumes*

Selina: I’ll hang that one up! *reaches for it and places it on the tree* Do you remember that one Bruce?

Bruce: Yeah, that was when we first started working together. *both of them kiss*

Damian: I CAUGHT THE SQUIRRELS!!!

Dick: No!

Barbara: Put it outside!

Damian: I’m going to adopt it!

Alfred: No your not!

Bruce: Set it free!

Jason: *takes the squirrels and throws them outside*

Harper: Problem solved.

Damian: NOOOO! MY BABIES! *runs to the door*

Dick: *puts a hand on Damian’s shoulder* It’s for the best.

Christmas Eve

Jason: Yippee Ki Yay motherfuckers!

Harper: So we’re watching Die Hard?

Jason: Fuck yeah! And then The Ref!

Duke: Oh! That is a great movie!

Tim: Damn it! You all weren’t supposed to know the movie!

Harper: We still haven’t seen it! Sounds interesting!

Tim: Yeah but now the reaction is going to be underwhelming.

Dick: I don’t know. I’d probably just be whelmed.

Jason: NO! *jumps towards Dick and wrestles him* I...hate...your...use...of....those.....words.

Dick: Get off me!

Bruce: Jason! Get off of your brother!

Jason: Fuck you!

Alfred: *grabs Jason’s ear*

Jason: Ouchie! Alfred!!!

Alfred: I’ve frankly had enough of your swearing today Jason! Go to your room and don’t come down until it is time to grab your wrapping paper for the presents you bought!

Jason: *stomps towards his room* I’m fucking....

Alfred: STOP SWEARING OR ELSE I WILL WASH YOUR MOUTH OUT WITH SOAP! AND STOP STOMPING!! IF YOU’RE GOING TO ACT LIKE A CHILD THEN I’LL TREAT YOU LIKE ONE!!!

Bruce: Thank you, Alfred!

Alfred: Not a problem Master Bruce.

Later that night

Harper: Omg, this movie is hilarious!!!

Cullen: How have we never seen this before?

Damian: HOW DARE YOU SHELTER ME FROM WATCHING THIS! THIS IS THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS MOVIE I’VE SEEN!

Bruce: I am regretting not having Damian wait a year. Am I a bad parent?

Tim and Stephanie: Yes.

Cassandra: Hey Dick, when do we get to open presents?

Dick: I’m not saying it.

Cassandra: Babs?

Barbara: Nope!

Cassandra: Jason?

Jason: WHAT!

Cassandra: When are we going to open presents?

Dick: Jason, don’t do it!

Jason: Presents? Is that what you said? Presents? We'll open them when we get there. No, in fact, I'll save you the trouble. Your present is a giant fucking cannon. And you're gonna crawl in it. Then I'm gonna get 2 pounds of gunpowder and I'm gonna shoot you right out of Jersey! And then I'm gonna drive to Jersey, and pick up all the parts of your body and put them in a plastic bag. Then I'm gonna drive to my house with you in the bag and toss you into the fireplace. I'm gonna get my glass of whiskey and watch the Charlie Brown Special with your ashes burning IN MY FUCKING HOUSE! AGH!

Alfred: *runs in with a bar of soap and shoves it in Jason’s mouth* WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT THAT MOUTH!!!!

Christmas Day

Damian: *jumps out of bed and runs to Bruce’s and Selina’s room* YOU GUYS DRESSED!

Selina: Ehhh....

Damian: *opens the door and jumps on the bed* COME ON IT’S TIME TO OPEN PRESENTS!!!!

Dick: *walking by* Damian, what do you think you’re doing?

Damian: PRESENTS!!!

Dick: *stares at Damian* Presents.

Damian: *locks eyes with Dick*

Dick: Presents! Babs, come here!

Barbara: *walks over* What’s up?

Dick: Presents.

Barbara: Presents!!

Dick: PRESENTS!!!!! *lifts up Damian and they run downstairs to look at their presents*

Jason: Can you basic bitches keep it down? I’m trying to sleep.

Damian: *grabs one of Jason’s presents* this feels like it won’t break! *throws the present at Jason’s door*

Jason: *catches the present and opens it* AWESOME! A BOOK OF H.P. LOVECRAFT’S STORIES!!!

Dick: How is Jason such a nerd?

Barbara: *shrugs her shoulders*

Tim: PRESENTS!!!! *runs down the stairs*

Stephanie: LET’S GO SUCKAS!!!!! *runs down the stairs*

Duke: *to Bruce* Is it always like this?

Bruce: *sipping coffee* I wish I can say no.

Harper: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! *runs into the fray* Where’s my presents ass-hats!

New Years Eve

Everyone: 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...Happy New Year!

Dick: *kisses Barbara*

Stephanie: *kisses Tim*

Bruce: *kisses Selina*

Jason: *turns to look for some one* Oh, that’s right, I have no one.

Harper: *raises his glass of grape juice* Here’s to hopefully a better year!

Everyone: Cheers!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a safe and wonderful holiday! this month. Sorry if there are any errors. Much like the last one this was a bit last minute! Let’s hope that 2021 will be a much better year than 2020!

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birdhaslostit · 4 years

Text

🎁🎄❄️What the Lupin Gang would do for Christmas!❄️🎄🎁

Helloooooooo Lupin fans! You may or may not remember me as that one chick who made that Halloween headcanon post a few months back, as well as the Jigen’s bangs post. I’m back with a Christmas post!!!

Please note: Personally, I really only celebrate Christmas in a non-Jesus-y way. (Which is how I’m also writing this post, because let’s be honest, do you really think Lupin is going to confession and shit? Absolutely not.) It’s purely out of habit because I was raised Catholic, but I practice witchcraft now. My family doesn’t know that though. Because of this, I considered also making posts for other winter holidays, so I could include Lupin fans that don’t celebrate Christmas. But I didn’t want to accidentally mess it up, or write something inaccurate about a holiday that I don’t celebrate. It felt disingenuous to make a Hanukkah post because I’m not Jewish and it doesn’t seem like my place, and I didn’t want to do a Yule one either, because no two people celebrate it the same way. So, I strongly encourage others to add their respective winter festivities to this post if they want to! We’re all about inclusivity here.

Without further ado:

🎁LUPIN:

I don’t feel like it needs saying, but this man goes bonkers for Christmas.

He flip-flops his choice of red or green jacket by the year. But it always comes with an equally garish Christmas-themed tie, just to make explicitly clear that this is The Christmas Jacket for the year, as opposed to the standard red/green jacket.

The hideout(s) are always decorated to the GILLS inside. It’s an odd mix of older classy decorations he’s inherited from his family, and absolutely horrendously tacky ones he’s bought himself.

Picture real branch garlands, wrapped tastefully around gilded candelabras that have been passed down through several generations. And then one of those singing, dancing stuffed animals from Walmart that plays “Jingle Bell Rock” when you squeeze its paw, right next to it.

Christmas-themed heists? You know it, baby. But he won’t steal anything on Christmas Eve or Christmas. It just isn’t in the spirit of the season, in his opinion. But he’ll leave a little something-something with his calling cards during the rest of December. A candy cane, a sprig of mistletoe, a bough of holly, etc.

Lupin despises eggnog. He loves any other Christmas drink, just not eggnog. He’s too grossed out by the idea of drinking eggs with alcohol- some things just shouldn’t be mixed.

Will not allow anyone to mention the truth about Santa Claus in his presence. Yeah, he knows, but that’s not the point. It just feels like bad luck to say it out loud. The harder Jigen tries to debate with him that Santa isn’t real, the harder he digs in his heels that “of course he is you absolute Scrooge, how dare you! If you don’t believe, you don’t receive.”

Favorite Christmas Songs: Anything peppy!

Wonderful Christmastime by Paul McCartney

Step Into Christmas by Elton John

Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee

We Need a Little Christmas by Percy Faith and his Orchestra

A Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives

All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey

Santa Claus’ Party by Les Baxter

Favorite Christmas Drinks: Literally anything except eggnog.

Favorite Christmas Foods: Anything obscenely sugary. Especially gingerbread men and other decorated pastries.

Favorite Christmas Activities: Loves to ice skate and make gingerbread houses! But his houses usually look fairly pathetic, no matter how hard he tries.

Favorite Christmas Movie(s):

The Grinch (Jim Carrey version)

Home Alone

Scrooged

Christmas Gifts: The king of gag gifts, but he also gives surprisingly thoughtful presents too. He’s the kind of guy that would get a person something they mentioned once offhandedly that they really liked, and he’d go back and get it for them.

🎅JIGEN:

Lupin always wants to decorate the hideout(s) the second Halloween ends, but it never happens. With Jigen being the only American in the gang, he always puts a stop to it in order to preserve the quickly-disappearing border between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

What can I say, dude loves his Thanksgiving excuse to eat like shit and do nothing for a day. Even if it is a fucked-up holiday, historically speaking.

But once the Thanksgiving meal is over, he gives Lupin the okay to go crazy. He’s pretty stoked about Christmas too, but too full of turkey to contribute, so he just watches Lupin hang up Christmas lights everywhere while he lays on the couch and digests.

Jigen likes Christmas a lot, but like, in a normal person kind of way. Nowhere near Lupin’s insane level. He’s surprisingly open about his enthusiasm too. The average person would think he doesn’t really care about Christmas much (or anything else really), but to the gang, Christmastime is the most openly excited they’ve ever seen him.

One year’s Christmas-themed heist involved Jigen dressing up as a mall Santa as a part of the plan. The gang powdered his beard, gave him a pillow for his stomach, and sent him on his way. Everything went surprisingly smoothly, and he actually did pretty well with the kids. At first they were a little intimidated, and Jigen was kind of nervous- but he gave them all candy canes and they changed their minds pretty quickly.

Jigen enjoyed it a lot, actually... to the point that he may have potentially started volunteering to be the local mall Santa. Every year during December, he leaves for a day or two on “business.” Nobody in the gang can prove it though, and trust me, they’ve tried.

Favorite Christmas Songs: The classics and the chill ones, with a few rock ones thrown in for a little kick.

Mele Kalikimaka by Bing Crosby

Sleigh Bells by Gene Autry

(There’s No Place Like) Home For The Holidays by Perry Como

Jingle Bells by Frank Sinatra

Caroling, Caroling by Nat King Cole

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow by Dean Martin

Silver Bells by Dean Martin

Happy Holiday by Bing Crosby

Run Rudolph Run by Chuck Berry

Merry Christmas Baby by Bruce Springsteen (Sang this once after too much eggnog and will never live it down)

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by the Barenaked Ladies (He’s not into all the Jesus-y stuff, but it’s pretty catchy.)

Favorite Christmas Drinks: Jigen is ALL. ABOUT. THAT. NOG. He’ll make his cup a little stronger than everyone else’s.

Favorite Christmas Foods: He really likes candy canes, especially the mini ones. He’ll keep a few in his pocket with his cigs, and switch between them depending on his mood. Out of habit, it’ll usually dangle out of his mouth like a cigarette would.

Favorite Christmas Activities: Watching Christmas movies and laughing at Lupin’s shitty gingerbread houses.

Favorite Christmas Movies:

Anything that’s on at the moment, really. He likes to lounge by the TV, and he’s not picky.

He has a soft spot for A Charlie Brown Christmas though.

A Christmas Story, solely because of the BB gun.

Scrooged, because Bill Murray’s hilarious.

Christmas Gifts: Something practical and useful that the person never realized they needed until they opened the box.

☃️GOEMON:

Goemon wasn’t originally a huge fan of Christmas. Shocking, I know.

He now enjoys some aspects of it, and tolerates others. He likes the idea of giving heartfelt gifts and spending time with loved ones as a tradition, but dislikes the cheesy commercial aspect of Christmas.

He already enjoys the snow and walking through the forest, so the gang usually commissions him to pick a tree for them and cut it down with Zantetsuken. (If they’re somewhere where that’s an option.)

Unbeknownst to the rest of the gang, he will always replant the tree he cut down, and he will wrap something cozy around the bottom of the sapling to keep it safe. Yes, this was directly inspired by A Charlie Brown Christmas. No, he will not admit to this.

Favorite Christmas Songs: The instrumentals, and a few he’d rather die than admit to liking.

The Nutcracker March from The Nutcracker

Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker

Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental) by the Vince Guaraldi Trio

Greensleeves by the Vince Guaraldi Trio

Last Christmas by Wham! (He likes the storyline and the romantic aspect of it.)

Do They Know It’s Christmas? by Band Aid (He likes that it was for a good cause, even if it has its flaws.)

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon and Yoko Ono (Again, flawed, but he enjoys the intended message of peace. Also, represents Japan on the side with Yoko Ono.)

White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes

Favorite Christmas Drinks: Surprisingly fond of hot cocoa. Heavy on the whipped cream and marshmallows.

Favorite Christmas Foods: Doesn’t really like eating gingerbread men, but enjoys decorating them. They’re always pristine, like something you’d get in a bakery.

Favorite Christmas Activities: See above. Also enjoys going out in the snow, and making ice sculptures with Zantetsuken.

Favorite Christmas Movies: Refuses to admit he likes any of these.

Any of the classic Rankin Bass claymation specials.

Any other animated ones for kids. Has a soft spot for A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Polar Express.

A few of those cheesy Hallmark ones.

Christmas Gifts: Something small and sentimental he saw while walking by a store that reminded him of the person he’s giving it to. Nothing extravagant, but thoughtful nonetheless.

⛸FUJIKO:

Fujiko decorates the tree. Period. Lupin cannot be trusted to do this on his own. Goemon picks the tree, Lupin and Jigen put it in the stand, and from there, it’s all Fujiko. The ornaments, lights, and tree skirt are all perfectly color/theme coordinated, and arranged like a pristine store display.

She also has a few ornaments that she bought for each specific member of the gang. Lupin’s is a monkey (he was not pleased, but he’s whipped for her, so he let her keep it). Jigen’s is a carved wooden pistol. Goemon’s is porcelain, with hand-painted sakura blossoms on it. She bought one for Zenigata too as a joke one year- a tiny bowl of ramen noodles.

Her ornament? The star on top of the tree, because she’s the star of the show, baby. It’s actually a snowflake, made of the finest crystal she could steal.

Favorite Christmas Songs: Pop music and Motown’s finest.

Underneath The Tree by Kelly Clarkson

All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey

Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande

This Christmas by Donny Hathaway

What Christmas Means To Me by Stevie Wonder

Sleigh Ride by The Ronettes

Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Darlene Love

A Marshmallow World by Darlene Love

I Like A Sleighride (Jingle Bells) by Peggy Lee

Favorite Christmas Drinks: Hot chocolate and mulled wine.

Favorite Christmas Foods: Loves baking and eating gingerbread men. She lets Goemon decorate them with her. Hers have lots of candy and sprinkles on them, while his are just icing.

Favorite Christmas Activities: Along with baking, ice skating! She’s the best at it out of the whole group. None of the guys are particularly good at it, but she makes them go with her at least once regardless.

Favorite Christmas Movies:

Hallmark ones, solely to make fun of them.

Babes In Toyland, but only the 1986 one, because it has Keanu Reeves in it, and “I don’t care if I’m your girlfriend, Lupin. In this house, we support Keanu Reeves.”

Christmas Gifts: Something expensive/extravagant that will make the person think of her every time they use it.

🎄ZENIGATA:

Zenigata is the second biggest Christmas enthusiast, just behind Lupin.

He doesn’t get to settle down and decorate anything really, since he’s always running after the gang, but he does lots of other little things to celebrate instead. Like getting hot chocolate instead of coffee, tuning the squad car radio to the Christmas station, getting an air freshener that smells like gingerbread, and wearing a festive scarf and gloves with his trench coat to keep out the cold.

In years past, Zenigata still had to work on Christmas Eve/Christmas, even if Lupin wasn’t out stealing anything. Lupin found out and thought that was a little harsh of ICPO, so he came up with a plan.

Each year he sends a calling card to the station with the conditions that only Zenigata can come to investigate. Zenigata does some research, shows up to the location on Christmas Eve, and every year, nothing’s there except for a neatly wrapped present from Lupin.

Zenigata keeps the present as “evidence,” goes back to the station, and they give him Christmas off to go investigate on his own, in case Lupin tries anything else. Lupin never does, but the station doesn’t know that. Bada bing, bada boom, Lupin just got Zenigata a vacation.

Zenigata never catches on, bless his heart.

Favorite Christmas Songs: Ones he can sing/hum along to in the squad car.

The Man With All The Toys by The Beach Boys

Celebrate Me Home by Kenny Loggins

Feliz Navidad by José Feliciano (Does Zenigata understand Spanish? Absolutely not. Does he get the point and think it’s festive? Darn right.)

A Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer by Dean Martin

Winter Wonderland by the Eurythmics

Silver Bells by Dean Martin

Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season by Andy Williams

Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town by Gene Autry

December by Earth, Wind, and Fire (Let him have this okay, it’s a good song and he gets made fun of for liking it by the rest of ICPO)

Skating by the Vince Guaraldi Trio

Favorite Christmas Drinks: Hot cocoa and eggnog, but not strong eggnog like Jigen’s.

Favorite Christmas Foods: Anything, really. It’s something besides cup noodles, so he’s grateful. Lupin’s gift always includes lots of various Christmas goodies because of this.

Favorite Christmas Activities: Zenigata enjoys the snow in theory, but doesn’t handle the cold well. So he likes to watch the snow from his window while he listens to Christmas music in his squad car and sips his hot cocoa.

Favorite Christmas Movies: He doesn’t really have a lot of time to sit down a watch a movie, with how hard he works. But he remembers a few from when he was younger, and he really likes those. His favorite is Frosty the Snowman.

Christmas Gifts: Something inexpensive because ICPO vastly underpays this poor man, and he’s always embarrassed because of that, but it’s always something super sweet and heartfelt.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! And for those who don’t celebrate it, HAPPY HOLIDAYS! <3

#lupin #lupin iii #lupin the 3rd #lupin the third #rupan sansei #daisuke jigen #jigen daisuke #fujiko mine #fujiko #mine Fujiko #koichi zenigata #zenigata #goemon #goemon ishikawa xiii #ishikawa goemon xiii #Christmas #Xmas #obligatory Christmas post right after thanksgiving

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sebthesnipe · 4 years

Text

A Very Patton Christmas

Other works by me (AO3)

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To @gilby-the-geek-girl for being the best friend a person could ask for. For without whom my writing would be riddled with errors and inconsistency, and whose gift of friendship has been the greatest thing to happen to me in a very long time. While I know you’ve read this (cuz you beta for me like the boss bitch you are) I still hope that you know that it was written with love for you. (I really don’t have time to write for anyone else XP) One day I hope you’ll have a friend at least half as good as you are (because we both no I ain’t it XP) I hope your Hanukkah wasn’t a miserable one and that you Christmas is the highlight of your 2020 (because we both know there isn’t much competition). Prompt: Explain why Patton’s Sweater this year is so damn ugly.

Patton shifted under the mountainous pile of blankets atop him. It was early, or rather… late? He hadn’t really slept. How could he?! His favorite day of the year was here! Well, it would be.

He shifted again, this time wiggling towards where he thought one of the blankets ended and poked his head out to look at his frog shaped Wisoee alarm clock. Its dim light smiled at him reading 3:37 AM.

He held back a squeal as he ducked back into this warm cave of comforters. He couldn’t watch the clock.

A watched pot never boils,he reminded himself.

He went over the day’s schedule in his head:

Logan would already be awake and emerge at precisely 4:00 AM, as he always did. Today though, was the only day out of the year the Logan broke his (otherwise) usual routine.

Logan would skip his usual jog, replacing his gray sweats for the pajamas Patton had bought him for his birthday (a blue plaid pair of pants and a grey tee with the text ‘Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Vote.’ printed on the front) At which point, he would make his way to the kitchen where he would start a pot of coffee for himself, Virgil, and Janus.

That would be where Patton, came in!

Patton would already be in the kitchen to start his homemade hot chocolate for himself, Roman, and Remus (With Logan’s help of course. He didn’t want another incident like the baking fiasco from a few months ago).

By the time they finished, Roman would be up, no doubt singing everyone into wakefulness. Then it would be time for hot cocoa and presents!

Patton got them all Christmas sweaters just like he did every year! He loved picking them out for each of his friends and watching them all spread out in the living room, all snug and cozy to watch their usual Christmas movie marathon!

They always let Patton pick the first movie, but there were so many good ones he usually couldn’t choose! Logan would probably chime in with the Nutcracker, not because he was a fan but because it was the only Christmas movie Roman and Remus agreed on, making it the popular choice.

Then it would be Logan’s actual turn. He usually chose The Polar Express. Patton was pretty sure he only chose it because there were really only two Christmas movies based on books and Janus always chose A Christmas Carol. That and because Patton really liked it!

Then came Janus and finally Virgil, who was Jewish and didn’t have personal stock in Christmas, but participated for the others (which was another reason he was Patton’s favorite ,not that he’d ever admit it). Virgil always wanted to watch Die Hard, but knew Patton didn’t care for the violence much, so he usually settled for Rudolf, which warmed the fatherly figure’s heart to no end (Which was probably why Patton had bought him the collector’s edition box set of the movie). During the previous year’s viewing of the movie Virgil and Logan ended up in a discussion regarding how the song Rudolf the Rednosed Reindeer was (according to Virgil) one of the only times a big corporation did what was right. Patton usually tried to follow this kind of discussion, but he usually got lost when Logan started in about percentages and underpaid artists. It just really hurt his little heart to know so many talented people out there were struggling.

The movies, as a matter of fact, were why Patton chose the sweaters he did for them this year! Each of his friends would be gifted a sweater to mirror each of their favorite Christmas movies! (Die Hard being the exception of course!)

After all that, the group would settle in for-

The alarm clock croaked loudly, signaling the arrival of 3:45 AM.

Patton’s previous thoughts evaporated into excitement as he attempted scramble from the mass of comforters, reaching to shut off the alarm.

His leg tangled in one of the large downeys and he hit the ground with a heavy thud. He paid no mind to his bruised ribs as he wrestled himself from its grasp, smacking the flashing frog to silence it.

A moment later he threw open his door, intent for the stairs.

He never made it though. At least, not at first…

Something was off.

He paused in the hallway, skin prickling at the coolness of the air.

He had only made it a few feet when he noticed it.

Roman’s door was ajar, the dark shadows of his messy room an indication of his absence…

Remus’ too. Though it was only slightly. Patton noticed the smell more than the sight.

Was everyone up before him?

He moved towards Virgil’s room, giving a soft knock before shouldering open the door.

“Hey, Kiddo. You up?” He whispered softly before noticing the unmade empty bed.

“And what would you know?!” the ‘kiddo’-in-question’s voice came in a harsh snap, drifting up from the living room.

“Keep your voice down!” Janus’ own snapped back, matching Virgil’s volume though the tone was a mock attempt at a whisper in his tone.

Patton inched closer, concern playing on his features as he flattened himself against the wall at the top of the stairs. He certainly didn’t want to intrude on his friends’ conversation, but there was obviously something was wrong.

“Bite me, snake boy!” Virgil snapped in return, though his voice was lowered.

“Don’t tempt me,” Janus hissed.

“Wait! Let me get the camera! Pics or it didn’t happen!” Remus’ voice came in a giddy giggle. “Okay, make sure you draw blood.”

“Gross,” Virgil huffed, heat gone.

“As much as I hate to admit it, Stormcloud, I think Ser Lies-a-lot is right,” Roman sighed softly.

“You can’t be serious!” Virgil grumbled.

“I believe he is,” Logan’s calm voice interrupted. “Statistically speaking, twenty three percent of christmas gifts in America in a given year are unwanted but kept.”

“That’s reassuring,” Virgil growled.

“I wasn’t finished,” Logan retorted. “Given that statistic, along with the fact that individuals are more likely to gift items they like themselves, and factoring in the number of gifts we’ve received over the years. That paired with the fact that it was commissioned from an independent artist, supporting their work directly: I would say that there is a ninety-two point six five present chance that Patton will find the gift quite adequate.”

“Did you really just do all that in your head?” Janus asked curiously.

“Actually, no,” Logan admitted. “I calculated the odds when the idea was brought up months ago, as I do with each of your christmas gifts.”

“Is that why I got socks last year?” Remus chirped.

“Yes, well… I found that the other options would cause unease with the others,” Logan clarified.

“Boring!”

“Don’t worry Remus, he didn’t get you a dissection kit this year to make up for it,” Janus commented sarcastically.

“What?!” Roman spat as Remus gasped excitedly.

“I’m not even sure how you know that,” Logan sighed, probably straightening his glasses like he usually did when something annoyed him. “And I’m not sure I care to know.”

“We’re getting side tracked. He’ll be up any minute,” Virgil interrupted once more. “The fact is, it’s one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen and it’s too late not to give it to him.”

“I like it!” Remus argued.

“See!” Virgil huffed, using Remus’ opinion as evidence to the validity of his statement.

“Ugh, maybe he has a point Teach,” Roman agreed. “I could put together a card for us to sign instead?”

“No, it’s too late for that, beside I am certain this is all an overstated concern.” Logan countered.

“Perhaps, a vote wouldn’t be appropriate?” Janus offered.

“I agree, all in favor of giving Patton the gift we already agreed upon?” Logan asked.

There was silence as Patton assumed a few of the boys raised their hands.

“All opposed?” He continued.

“Remus you can’t vote twice!” Roman snapped.

“You’re no fun!” Remus whined. “I’ll stick with J-anus then!”

“Please, continue to call me that. I just love it,” Janus deadpanned.

“The ayes have it then,” Logan decided.

“What eyes?” Remus chirped excitedly, but no one paid him any mind.

“Roman, if you would be so kind as to finish wrapping the gift, I have a pot of coffee to finish,” Logan dismissed.

“I have some extra ribbon in my room. Want to help, Stormcloud?” Roman asked, making Patton tense as they headed his way.

He didn’t wait for V to answer as Patton hurried back to his room and closed the door softly behind him.

He really shouldn’t have eavesdropped.

Guilt filled him as he leaned against the frame, processing everything that had been said.

The group had never agreed on a gift for Patton. Usually Logan and Roman were the only two to get him anything and they just included the others’ names on the presents (not that Patton ever called them out on it. Why would he?). Patton didn’t mind of course, he knew they had trouble buying for him.

Logan usually got him a new hoodie or something practical like a flamingo pen, or oven mitts (though those usually only lasted about a week before Patton caught them on fire or melted them!). Roman always made him something, like the card he had mentioned, and just had the others sign it. Patton didn’t mind of course, he loved everything they gave him. It was the thought that warmed him! Even the fact that Remus refrained from his usual off the wall habits to try and make Patton more comfortable meant the world to him.

The fact that the group was so torn over his opinion broke his heart. How could they think that? What had he done to put that doubt in their mind? He had to do better! Whatever it was, he would show he loved it more than anything they had ever gotten him before.

His brows furrowed in determination.

This would be their year!

He took a moment to gather himself before plastering on a smile and throwing open the door once more, running straight into a surprised Logan.

Logan gave a small grunt as Patton bumped him, the mug of hot cocoa sloshing over and onto his hand.

“Oh goodness!” Patton gasped in shock, “I’m so sorry Lo’! Are you alright?” The smaller man hurriedly took the mug from his friend’s hand and set it on the small table next to the door, frantically searching for something to clean up the mess.

“I’m fine, Patton,” Logan reassured, producing a blue handkerchief from his pant pocket and wiping the warm liquid off his hand. Leave it to Logan to have his handkerchief with him despite wearing pajamas. “I made sure the liquid was at an acceptable temperature for this exact reason.”

“Oh! I hope I didn’t ruin your new PJs!” Patton cried, already pushing Logan’s arms up to examine the flannel.

There wasn’t a stain to be found. Logan arched a brow as he waited for Patton to satisfy his need for the inspection before sighing.

“Truly, Patton, I’m fine. Are you?” Logan asked, his neutral expression turning to one of concern.

“What?” Patton hummed, glancing up to meet the taller man’s eyes. “Of course! I wasn’t the one holding the cup!”

“I wasn’t referring to the cocoa,” Logan pointed out, lowering his arms. “It’s 4:17. It isn’t like you to be so unpunctual on Christmas day.”

“Oh…” Patton whispered, lowering his gaze in shame. Should he tell him? It wasn’t right to keep secrets. Would he be upset if he found out Patton had been eavesdropping? No… Today was their day… He wouldn’t do anything to upset them. “No. I’m fine!” Patton reassured, suddenly as chipper as ever as he offered out a smile.

Logan eyed him suspiciously, but seemed to wearily accept the answer.

“Well, I thought your traditional cup of cocoa would help if anything were amiss,” Logan nodded towards the cup, bringing Patton’s attention to it once more.

Logan had made it without him?

Patton could feel the mask around his heart start to crack a little as his stomach sank. He supposed it made sense that Logan wouldn’t really need him to make it… Still, that was Patton and Logan’s Christmas tradition… It hurt that he had been left out of it.

“Aw! Thank you Logan!” Patton forced out in his preening voice as if nothing was wrong.

This was their day, not his.

“That’s so sweet!” He added, collecting the mug and taking a small sip. Somehow it didn’t taste as good as it usually did.

“You’re very welcome, Patton,” Logan replied with a small tilt of his lips.

His crooked smile also seemed to soften his features; Patton loved that about him. It made his sudden disappointment worth it.

“I know we usually have a schedule for the holiday, but…” Logan paused as if he were nervous. What an odd look for the scholar. “Well, the others requested a change in plans.”

Patton’s heart sank. What kind of change? Did they not like the way they usually celebrated Christmas? Why hadn’t they told him? Was his idea of Christmas really so one sided? How had he not noticed this before? Was that why Logan was so nervous?

No… It didn’t matter. This was their day, not his.

“What kind of change, kiddo? I’m sure whatever it is will be great! It’s Christmas after all!” Patton responded, despite the way his stomach knotted.

“Well,” Logan began, stepping aside. “Perhaps it would be best if they explained it.”

Patton hesitated before nodding taking the lead as they walked down the hall. What if they didn’t want to do hot cocoa and movies any more? What if they didn’t want to celebrate Christmas at all?! Was that why they came together for a gift? To appease Patton? They were all getting older and it wasn’t as if they had children. Maybe they felt like Christmas wasn’t for adults…

That was ridiculous, Patton knew that. But still…

He headed down the stairs, a smile still glued to his lips as he caught sight of Remus and Janus whispering over a small box.

“I told you, it's for you!” Janus hissed at the mustached man next to him, fending him off the plain white box in his hands.

“I helped pick them out! I should be allowed first dib-” Remus cut himself off as Janus elbowed him in the ribs pulling his attention up to Patton, just as he took the last step on the landing.

“I didn’t lick them, I swear!” Remus called out, smiling broadly in his stained Oscar the Grouch onesie. “Okay maybe a few.”

Janus rolled his eyes, dressed in his usual suit and hat, not bothering with a comment.

“Good Morning, Patton, slept horribly I hope?” Janus asked pleasantly.

“Hey, kiddos. You’re up early,” Patton offered, feeling more uneasy than ever; something that must have shown because at that moment Logan leaned down to whisper in the smaller man’s ear.

“Are you sure you are alright Patton?” he asked softly. “If you’re not feeling well then perhaps you should rest. I’m sure we can put this off unti-”

“Hola, Padre!” Roman’s voice came, cutting off Logan’s words.

Patton glanced up at the two figures standing at the top of the stairs. Roman, straight backed, hands behind him as he stood tall in his prince pajamas; Virgil behind him, using him to practically hide his small form, dressed in his Jack Skeleton onesie.

“Roman, Virgil! You’re up already! This is a surprise!” Patton feigned excitement.

“Definitely a Christmas miracle,” Janus sighed.

No one paid the comment any mind as Roman hurried down the stairs. Grin wide.

“Well this is a special day, Padre!” Roman explained as Virgil followed after, rolling his eyes.

“Bah-Humbug,” the black and white clad man grumbled in response. Though it may have been Patton’s imagination, but Virgil's eyeshadow looked a few shades lighter than usual.

“Feliz Navidad Patton! Merry Christmas!”Roman sang, producing the present from behind his back and offering it out.

Patton’s heart skipped a beat, hesitating as he glanced around the room at each of his friends. They all looked so nervous… Even Janus.

His attention went back to the gift being presented. It was a decent sized package with rainbow wrapping paper, black and white striped ribbon, and a green and blue bow that sat just above a small yellow tag that read ‘To: Janus From: Patton’.

Despite Patton’s dread and apprehension, he couldn’t help but smile at the packaging. They had even come together on the wrapping. It was very sweet.

He glanced up at Roman who nodded eagerly, indicating that Patton was welcome to it.

“You guys! You didn’t have to do all this!” He whispered in awe, voice cracking as tears began filling his eyes.

No matter what happened, Patton was awed by the fact that the boys went to so much trouble for him. They had come together for him. It didn’t matter if they were too old for Christmas!

He tugged at the ribbon, finding it firmly in place, before turning it over and trying again. After flipping it once more he heard Logan give a small chuckle.

“May I?” his soft calm voice came. Patton nodded, handing over the package to Logan and wiping away a tear he felt rolling down his cheek.

Logan’s nimble fingers loosened the bow and the surrounding ribbon, careful not to ruin them (he knew Patton loved to keep them and hang them above his mirror to admire later). Logan set the ribbon aside before handing the package back to the smaller man.

“Thank you,” Patton murmured weakly, gently tearing the wrapping to slide the sleek white box from inside.

“This is worse than waiting for a magnet you swallowed to come out the other end!” Remus chimed in excitedly.

“Ugh! Does he really have to be here?!” Roman whined, causing Patton’s grin to turn genuine.

The momentary distraction had him feeling a bit better as he slid a nail under the lid of the box, breaking the tape there and pulling open the lid.

Wrapped loosely in a thin tissue paper lay a DVD copy of The Shop Around the Corner, a mug that, when you sip it, makes the drinker look like the bottom half of their face belongs to a puppy, and some kind of knitted fabric.

“Ah! You guys!!!” Patton squealed, tears beginning to fall as he collected the mug and movie, setting them aside and pulling out the sweater to get a better look at it.

The light blue knitted midsection was covered in what, he assumed, was supposed to be some kind of icing pattern? Or perhaps whipped cream? Lace? He wasn’t sure. There was also a brown bow tie that was maybe supposed to be chocolate? Down the center was a line of pink chocolate chip cookie buttons. The bright pink sleeves had much of the same design though instead of pink cookies they were light blue.

It may have been the ugliest excuse of a sweater Patton had ever seen.

Silence fell in the rooms everyone waited for Patton’s reaction.

“We know it’s not as good as the ones you get us,” Virgil chimed in nervously. “But we thought that maybe you’d like one of your own?”

“The mug, of course, is so you won’t have to make so many trips for more cocoa,” Logan added with a soft smile. “I thought the others would like to help us make the rest after you change, of course. If you’d like.”

“The rest?” Patton asked, breath hitching as the tears threatened to fall. “You mean… You didn’t make it without me?” He sniffled.

“What?” Logan blinked in surprise. “Of course not, Patton. Making hot chocolate for everyone is a tradition I enjoy spending with you. I would never-”

“Well, it's just… you brought the mug up… So, I thought…” Patton let his voice fade as he watched understanding flash over Logan’s features.

“I was worried there might be something wrong. I thought waking you with your own mug would be a nice surprise.” Logan explained. “I apologize if I gave the wrong impression, Patton. I only made the one mug. I know you find a great deal of happiness in our customary time in the kitchen. I would not want to take that from you.”

“But…” Patton murmured, eyes shifting to the others. “Everyone’s already awake… And you were all together… I don’t want to impose on-”

“¡Espera! ¡Espéra! ¡Espéra!” Roman interrupted, looking both surprised and concerned. “I did not wake up far before my beauty rest was done to hear this slander especially from Mr. Spirit of Christmas, himself! Patton, with you there is no Christmas.”

“Roman is right, Patton,” Virgil shrugged, shrinking a bit lower into his hood. “I certainly wouldn’t be celebrating and we definitely wouldn’t have come together to get you the gifts.

“I know Shop Around the Corner isn’t usually on our Christmas Merry Marathon list, but you never really get to pick a movie and I know it’s your favorite,” Roman pitched in. “At least, that's what Janus claims.”

“I totally didn’t check your browsing history,” Janus shrugged.

“And I edited the email to the artist!” Remus added proudly.

“That… explains a lot,” Logan whispered under his breath softly.

“We also didn’t bring you cookies from that bakery you hate.” Janus stated, setting the box he had been holding down on the small table next to him.

Patton was silent throughout the exchange, burying his face into the soft fabric as he began to shake silently with his sobs.

“I told you he wouldn’t like it!” Virgil cried desperately.

“No!” Patton responded, voice breaking. “I love it! I love all of it!” He dropped his hands just enough to rush forward, wrapping both Virgil and Roman into a great big hug. “Thank you so much! It’s perfect!”

Roman gave a boisterous laugh, returning the hug as Virgil couldn’t help but smile; both grunting as Remus piled atop them.

Logan approached, resting a hand on Patton’s shoulders in reassurance.

“Well, this is certainly a disgusting sight,” Janus sighed, though he was grinning as well.

“I love you guys so much!” Patton laughed, the weight on his heart lifting to the point of forgetfulness. How could he have ever thought these men didn’t need him or wouldn’t want to spend Christmas with him. They were his family!

“Is it just me or is this oddly arousing?” Remus purred.

“Ugh!” Roman and Virgil both scoffed at once, shoving the rank smelling man away from them.

“Why do you have to ruin everything?!” Roman growled, dragging his brother away.

Patton didn’t mind the outburst, however, far too busy hurrying up the stairs to change so they could get their Best Christmas EVER underway…

The End...

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