Merry Christmas Gigs!

My full report on Christmas will come later tonight, but before it gets any later, I wanted to post gigs_83's Christmas fic! I know you wanted something featuring Lizzie and Bonejangles, and I am happy to provide:

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“I still think it’s a shame we never got a chance to meet while we were both alive.”

Bonejangles swiveled his skull around to get a better look at his beau. “Thought we went over this already, Liz,” he commented, tilting his head. “You were what, five, six, when I kacked it? I met you back then, I would have thought you were a cute little girl, nothin’ more.”

“Yes, I know, but – I can’t stop myself wondering what would have happened if you’d survived your accident and ended up in Oxford before the whole Bumby business had a chance to kick off for me,” Lizzie said, dragging her toes through the murky water of the stream. (Which was so shallow it was really just a mobile puddle, but still.) “Would have been nice to know you while we were both still breathing. Yes, fine, there would have been an age difference, but – I can’t see you changing that much over time. You told me once that you’d intended to keep on as a traveling musician as long as you could.”

“Yeah, true. . .but if I’d survived getting trampled by my own spooked horse, I might not have been doin’ so much travelin’,” Bonejangles pointed out, digging his own feet into the mud. “He smashed up my legs pretty good – only reason I can walk down here is ‘cause you don’t need all your bits to be mobile. Back up there, I might have needed a chair to get around. Or at least a cane. Which kinda puts the kibosh on wanderin’ around makin’ a living performing at pubs.”

“I suppose it does. . .and unfortunately, I can’t think of a reason why my parents would have ever taken us to Burtonsville,” Lizzie admitted, frowning. “Not when neither the Van Dorts nor the Everglots were donors. . .can’t imagine why I would have gone on my own, either. . .” She shook her head. “Well, we’re in the realm of hypotheticals anyway – let’s talk about a world where you didn’t ride through that storm at all. And you came to Oxford one day looking for more coin to support your sisters, and we just – ran into each other. What do you think might have happened?”

“Honestly? I see it goin’ mostly like our first meeting down here went,” Bonejangles admitted, scratching his skull under his hat. “You being polite but not exactly friendly, me just trying to be nice and maybe get ya to open up a bit.”

“That’s fair – if we’d met at the time I’m thinking about, I would have had quite enough of supposedly-nice young me making eyes at me,” Lizzie allowed, pulling a face. Then she smiled. “But I think you would have still won me over, simply by being so different from the undergraduates. At least convinced me to attend one of your performances.” She grinned teasingly. “And, if you were as good alive as you are dead, I definitely would have sought you out afterward to offer up my compliments.”

“And I’m sure I would have still offered my thanks and a drink to the pretty lady,” Bonejangles said, smiling back (as he always did, but you got good at telling skeletal expressions after a while dead). “Pulled ya into another conversation, seen where things went.” He gazed thoughtfully up at the earthy sky. “You think your family would have approved of living me? I mean, I know they do now, but. . .”

“They would have,” Lizzie assured him. “Alice might have watched you closely for a little while – she’d heard too many of my complaints about the other men to do otherwise – but you would have won her over quickly. And my parents – they just wanted me to be happy. They would have liked you for that alone.” She took his hand. “I would have loved to run away with you. Traveling around Britain, seeing the sights, learning your music. . .having a life where I wasn’t afraid of having to squash myself down to fit my husband’s mold. It would have been fun.”

“Yeah.” Bonejangles pressed his forehead against hers. “Still could be, you know.”

“Mmm.” Lizzie kissed his teeth. “Maybe after Halloween this year. Just to let Victor and Alice know in person.”

“Sounds good,” Bonejangles agreed, pulling her in close. “Got all the time in the world, after all.”

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Just a bit of fluff with them hanging out in the Underworld, thinking about what might have been if they hadn't died when they had. I like occasionally wondering how living!Bonejangles and living!Lizzie would have worked out, and I decided they would too. And it's just nice to write my secondary OTP some more too -- they're cute together. :) Hope you like, Gigs! :)

It Christmas, Merry Christmas

So, it was half a white Christmas! Meaning that the snow was still mostly there when I woke up, but a morning of rain melted pretty much all of it by the time it got dark. *shrug* Considering I was not expecting, nor wanting, snow at all, this suits me fine. :p

Anyway, it’s been a pretty nice Christmas overall – started out with a nice parfait for breakfast, then opened presents! Here’s my haul from the day itself:

-->1 big bottle of moisturizer from my mom (same brand as hers)

-->4 headbands of the stiff kind with teeth to hold them in your hair (black, gray, blue, beige – I’ve been trying to use cloth ones to keep my hair out of my face at work, but they keep sliding up and off my head)

-->1 set of two Burt’s Bees chapsticks

-->1 set of three new socks (for work)

-->1 big bag of Ghiradelli hot chocolate mix (with scoop)

-->1 box of Ferrero Collection chocolates (Ferrero Rocher, the regular kind; Ferrero Rondnoir, the dark chocolate ones; and Raffaello, the white chocolate ones)

-->1 set of two thick slipper socks (for bed)

-->1 BTTF “Back In Time” cooperative board game

-->3 shirts from Auntie Anne (one black one with the old Clan Malkavian symbol from Vampire: The Masquerade on it; one purple one with a fancy design and the newer Clan Malkavian symbol; and one blue BTTF shirt for the “Hill Valley Preservation Society” to “Save the Clocktower”)

-->1 new desk!

Yeah, as you might imagine, that one was the big one – literally. Getting me a new desk was something my parents and I had discussed this summer, but nothing ever came of it (partially because I never found a new desk I liked, partially because my parents put in a new ceiling fan around the same time and that was such a pain in the ass it put me off having them do anything in my room). The one they got me is a large corner desk – it literally fits into the corner of my room, as opposed to my old desk which was set on an angle. Lots more desktop space too. I’m still getting used to it – I’m used to facing my monitor and keyboard on an angle, so I’ve currently got all that set up in the corner, but now I’m feeling hemmed in by my own desk. O.o But everything fits, and I even have a little storage shelf to hold the books I write my gaming notes in and all that. So I certainly can’t complain there!

As for the rest of my day. . .

-->Once my computer was all set up again and running, I did indeed play some Sims 4! Went into the Chill Save again and got through two days with them, which was nice. :) In-game Sunday was the start of their Winter season, and also New Skill Day! I set Alice to completing her homework and Victor to working on his term paper while trying to figure out what skills I wanted them to improve. . .

When the pop-up for the Flea Market caught my eye. I’d had Alice pin her whim to “paint a mural” a while ago just for funsies, and I remembered that there was a mural just outside the Flea Market’s little festival area. So I had her and Victor head out and paint a nice colorful tree out there. :D My intent was then for them to actually BUY something there, but while they finishing up their spray-painting, I saw ANOTHER pop-up in the corner for the “Creativity Celebration” at the U-Brite Quad! Curious, once they’d finished their mural and Alice had had a chance to pee, I sent them over to Darby’s Den to check it out!

. . .it was mostly people painting murals. *facepalm* Welp – Alice was able to get herself a chicken wrap, at least, and she and Victor took the opportunity to do some homework to the dragon mascot’s cheering. Once it started getting late, I sent the pair home, and Victor finished up his first term paper draft before they both headed to bed.

And then, since I was so close to them graduating and just wanted to get them through their final day of classes, I went ahead and played through Monday too! They both got up early, had nice breakfasts, then did their final presentations as soon as they could give them to get them out of the way. Alice finished up her homework and completed her first final while Victor finished editing and submitting his term paper, then he went to his first final while she worked on her painting, and then they both had their second finals at the same time. Final results as of 6 PM? A+s in all their classes, and A+ GPAs for them both! I had them celebrate with some new romantic interactions – I downloaded a “lie on lap” interaction which is very cute, and then used the “Bed Makeout” interaction from “Cute Romance,” which – is a bit “Wicked Whims”-ish, I have to admit! XD But I like it nonetheless. And Alice has maxed her painting skill, which is awesome. :D Next time, they both graduate – and then it’s time for a quick vacation, then the move to Henford-On-Bagley! :D

-->As for YouTube – uh, Call Me Kevin’s upload for Christmas was his own personal CallMeKevin Rewind video for 2021, and it’s TWO HOURS AND THIRTY-SEVEN MINUTES. I love you, Kevin, but I will need to watch that later. XD And there was no GrayStillPlays, so I kind of had free reign over the Tubes for the day! Well, the portion of the day that wasn’t “setting up my desk” or “playing Sims 4.” XD I ended up watching:

A) More Home Alone and Home Alone 2 clips, because Nostalgia~

B) An “audience reaction” video to Spider-Man: No Way Home as per the advice of gigs_83 – which was TOTALLY worth because omg I CRACKED UP LAUGHING at the interactions of the three Spider-Men. XD Tobey Maguire’s goofy little smile as he came through the portal! Andrew Garfield crawling along the ceiling to take care of a cobweb! Andrew cracking Tobey’s back when it started bothering him! Andrew and Tom asking if Tobey’s organic webbing came out of – other places! ANDREW THINKING “THE AVENGERS” WAS A BAND TOM WAS IN! XD Fantastic, amazing, love it.

C) Jon from Many A True Nerd’s Christmas Special – Tracks – The Train Set Game! Because what is more Christmas than watching a guy build a virtual train set in a virtual living room? XD Well, in Jon’s case, nothing COULD be more Christmas, because it takes him right back to when he was a kid, building toy cities in his room and setting up train sets as transportation. So he got right back into that mode by happily setting up a long train track with spirals and slopes and all that, picking up marbles at one end and delivering them at another; going through a Christmas village (with Santa stranded on a speaker nearby because the reindeer are in hiding/on strike); passing by a campsite with some campers and their dog; going over the cushion “ocean” with a few people tooling around on boats; then going through the second Christmas village, where the people are all visiting the Christmas Side Tables Carnival; before getting the train to play a song on some bells (“Jingle Bells,” of course) and set off some fireworks before arriving back at the start. Best part? He actually RODE THE TRAIN through the track, sounding the whistle – and the train had a super-cute gingerbread skin! :D It was genuinely so sweet and he was clearly having a great time. :D Love it.

D) OXtra’s “Show of the Weekend,” with Luke and Ellen just doing a cute little gift trade for Christmas. :) Luke got Ellen a cute tiger statue blind box – the tiger she got was “Pangu Angry,” which was hilariously adorable. XD And Ellen got Luke a Donald Duck apron with pockets in his feet, which Luke was perhaps overly-thrilled by. XD Absolutely delightful stuff with just the perfect amount of Christmas spirit! :D

And now I'm just talking with some tumblr friends and keeping an eye on potential RP stuff. Nothing too major! Good, quiet way to end Christmas, really. :)

And now it's time to set up some to-dos for Boxing Day -- though not many, as my mom wants to try out the BTTF game tomorrow morning before lunch (it's surprisingly complex!), and who knows what else might come up:

1. Do some writing (private project, "Learn To Love Again," "Londerland Bloodlines", etc.)

2. Watch the OXBox Christmas Tiebreak and Jon's F:NV Utter Chaos video; decide between Sunday Subs videos and Watch Later, or Kevin's Rewind video

3. Play some more Fallout 4 and meet the Abernathys

4. Get in a workout

Yeah, I think that'll do the trick. :) Night all! Hope you had a wonderful Saturday!