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#jatp christmas fic
onlygenxhere · 4 months
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Happy Juke Jeudi! I wanted to list a few juke Christmas themed fics for this Juke Jeudi for anyone that might be interested. I got a little help from @missjoolee and @preoccupied-educator. I’ve read most of these but not all. The following are listed in word count/size order, shortest to longest.
links under the cut
Peppermint and Chocolate   by  sanssssastark  rated T
He’s wanted to kiss Julie since he was thirteen years old and waiting three years to kiss someone leads to expectations of what that kiss might be like. Turns out, it was way better than every fantasy he ever had. Her lips were soft and warm and her hand clutched at his arm, curling around his bicep and he wished he’d worn a shirt without sleeves because he’d have given anything to feel her touch against his skin. The kiss was everything he imagined it would be.
He just never thought it would leave him this confused.
Christmas lodge by darylvdixon not rated but it’s G
Julie and Luke meet when both their families book to spend Christmas in a lodge on the mountains. It's love at first sight and they spend the whole of their holidays together.
Let Your Heart Be Light by MamiRugbee rated T
With Christmas approaching, Julie decides she wants to pay a visit to Emily Patterson. Unfortunately, Luke realizes things aren’t exactly how he remembers them.
call me babe for the weekend by blushandbooks rated M (and locked for ao3 members)
Julie Molina, Grammy-winning popstar and reluctant Seattle native, returns home to her family and old friends for Christmas - and also to escape rumors and drama back in Los Angeles.
Old friends include Luke Patterson: The ex-boyfriend she left behind for LA and the promise of a blossoming music career. Only, the music career is not what she wanted it to be, and Los Angeles has turned from a welcome escape to an unlikely prison, and the only place she wants to run to is the place (and the person) that knows her best.
At the end of the day, she'll just run back to LA and forget about Seattle all over again.
But the city, and Luke, have more of a grip on her than she expected.
Blame It On the Mistletoe by Courty rated T
In the two years since they met, Julie and Luke have been dancing around the connection between them, both too afraid they'll ruin the other's life they've worked so hard to build.
Good thing they have some friends who decide a little Christmas magic is in order.
 
all i want for christmas is you by ruzekhalstead rated T
when julie finds herself in a situation where she needs luke to come home with her to celebrate christmas with her family, he is more than happy to oblige. too bad julie's already in love with him, and not sure when she stopped pretending.
holiday au
"the entire family is getting together for christmas and she just assumed i was bringing my boyfriend and then when i tried to explain, she mentioned you by name and i just kind of blanked and basically, my whole family thinks you're my boyfriend and you're coming to spend christmas with me."
"cool. when do we leave?"
 
Ladder to the Stars: A Juke Christmas Story by SeaStarStories rated T
Julie books a quiet winter retreat, but a typo has her turning up at the wrong cabin. Then a major snowstorm forces her to stay with Luke, whether she likes it or not. The problem is she likes it.
 
'Tis the Damn Season (hear me out) by IMaketheMonsters rated M
There’s nothing like coming home the week of Christmas and discovering you’re still in love with a worm-eater.
OR: the Home for the Holidays!AU that no one asked for
those cold December nights by Labyrinthinee rated M
Sure, Luke's life hadn’t turned out exactly how he wanted it to.
If anybody had told his eighteen-year-old self, that ten years down the road, he’d spent a Friday evening at his friend’s home, not on stage at some shady club, rocking his heart out, Luke would’ve never believed them. But, he couldn’t say that he was unhappy. He had a good job, amazing friends and was invited to dinner at his parents’ place once a week. So, to be frank, he wouldn’t change a thing.
Of course, that's when Julie Molina stumbled back into his life.
 
the lucky one (i think it might be you) by itsagamefortwo rated T
“So you know who I am then,” it’s not really a question but Luke shrugs anyway, turning to glance at her quickly before looking back at the road.
“And you know who I am,” he pauses so long Julie thinks that’s all he’ll say on the matter but then he speaks again, and she can just make out the hints of a smile through the shadows on his face, “Reggie posts a lot on instagram stories. You’re in a lot of them.”
“I recognised your hat. From your christmas card,” she offers and feels her own lips pulling into a smile at his bark of laughter.   aka julie needs to get the hell out of la for a few days and finds herself in a small town with a familiar face just as a snow storm rolls in.
 
While You Were Sleeping by ICanSpellConfusionWithAK rated T
AU of the romcom While You Were Sleeping.
Julie doesn't have a lot going for her other than her fantasies about Nick, the cute guy she sees at work and her dreams of marrying him one day. When she saves his life only for him to end up in a coma with his family thinking she's actually his fiancee things get really complicated really fast. They get even more complicated once she meets his brother Luke and the two start to fall for each other. Julie just needs to wait for Nick to wake up and get back to her normal life only things are never that simple. It's time for Julie to decide what...and who...she really wants.
 
Merry Ex-Mas by Bluefire510 rated T
The one thing Julie Molina hates more than Christmas is Luke Patterson, her former boyfriend and current pain in the ass.
But when her little brother and his best friend embark on a journey to the North Pole for Operation: Save Santa, she's forced to team up with her ex to wrangle them back home in time for Christmas.
It goes as well as expected...
Inspired by the book 'Ex-Mas' written by Kate Brian.
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1mnobodywhoareyou · 3 months
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A little Christmas sparkle
Boggie has taken over my brain again (thanks @legolasghosty <- this is both genuine and sarcastic) and I needed to make them Christmas! This is NOT the fic that's been wisping around my brain...
Bobby walks into their shared living space and stops short. Every single surface in the room is completely covered with crafting supplies. He looks around to see if he can find the responsible party (though he already has a pretty good idea of who it might be).
Sure enough, Reggie’s head pops up from the other end of the table and his face immediately falls. He jumps up and runs to stand in front of Bobby, his arms out as if he can prevent Bobby from seeing the chaos that is this room.
“I told you guys not to come in here!” Reggie exclaims with a pout. 
“What -?” Bobby brushes Reggie’s arm down and pushes past him, eyes wide as he continues trying to take in the space. “Reggie, what-? How-?” He can’t even begin to try sorting through all of the questions he has, let alone figure out how to actually ask them.
“I’m making things! Surprise things…” Reggie’s expression shifts from pouting to beaming to pouting with record speed. It’s almost imperceptible but Bobby notices it. “I asked you guys to stay out…”
“I didn’t… Reggie, I didn’t get anything. And I promise that whatever this…” he gestures toward the room, “is? It’s still a surprise.”
Reggie is back to beaming, “good!” His expression darkens but only slightly, “now get out!”
Bobby holds back a laugh at Reggie’s attempt at being stern and decides that he’s not giving in that easily, instead taking the opportunity to tease him. “But Reggie,” he starts walking around the table, taking in the piles of paper and glue and glitter… wait, GLITTER? “Reggie,” he asks apprehensively, “when did Alex lift his glitter ban?”
Reggie crosses his arms across his chest defensively, “Julie gave it to me. And I’m being careful.”
Bobby turns on the spot, taking in the room in full again when his eyes catch on something. He moves toward it and is suddenly again met with Reggie in his way, arms out. “No, you can’t see that yet!”
The pieces click for Bobby and he grins, “Reggie… Are you making homemade gifts?”
“Maybe,” Reggie returns bashfully but still holding strong in Bobby’s path. 
Bobby’s resolve softens slightly and he moves back toward the table of supplies, “that’s really sweet, Reg.” His cheeky grin returns, “what are you making me?”
“Nothing. You get nothing.”
“Not even a…” Bobby reaches out to grab something and Reggie stops him, grabbing his wrist.
“Don’t!” Reggie warns before both of them notice that he’d dumped over a canister of glitter in the process. His eyes widen, “look what you did!”
“Me? I didn’t do anything! You knocked it over!”
They bicker back and forth for a moment before Reggie grabs the pile of glitter and brings it up between his and Bobby’s faces. 
Bobby’s eyes widen as he catches up with Reggie’s plan, “don’t!”
He barely gets the word out before Reggie blows it into Bobby’s face with a giggle. Bobby sputters, trying to wipe the glitter off of his face. “You gave me craft herpes!” he exclaims once he’s regained his ability to speak and reaches out to grab Reggie. 
Reggie escapes his grasp and runs around the table, continuing to giggle as he does. Bobby immediately chases after him and tag very quickly devolves into a wrestling match.
Bobby winds up pinning Reggie to the ground, straddling his waist with his hands holding Reggie’s wrists to the floor above his head. Their faces are only centimeters apart, both sporting face-splitting grins and panting to regain their breaths.
“Now you have to tell me,” Bobby states. “What’re you making me for Christmas?”
“Already told you. Nothing,” Reggie’s grin morphs into a smirk. “You don’t get anything for Christmas. Just a lump of coal.”
“A lump of coal, eh?”
Reggie nods. 
“And that’s it?”
Reggie nods, smaller this time and the look on his face shifts again. Bobby doesn’t quite know how to read this one but before he’s able to move back to consider it further, Reggie lifts his head and quickly pecks Bobby on the lips.
“And that,” Reggie says meekly, a blush moving from his face up to the tips of his ears and down to the collar of his shirt. Bobby’s eyes widen and he sits up slightly, letting go of Reggie’s wrists.
Reggie props himself up on his elbows, still being held down by Bobby’s weight. “Unless… Unless that’s not ok?”
The hesitation apparently shakes Bobby out of his stupor and he brings his hand to the back of Reggie’s neck and slants their lips together. This time, it’s more and Reggie readily kisses Bobby back, bringing his own hands up to Bobby’s waist as he sits up further.
They get lost in each other and don’t hear the door open.
“What the hell…?” Julie’s voice startles them and they jump apart, looking toward the doorway to see Julie, Luke, and Alex taking in the state of the room which had managed to become an even further disaster due to Bobby and Reggie’s wrestling match. Bobby climbs off of Reggie while their friends take in the room.
Reggie turns bashful again, “I told you guys to stay out of here today!”
“And then there was like half an hour of banging and crashing and then silence and we got worried!”
Alex raises an eyebrow toward the boys on the floor, “guess we didn’t need to be.” His gaze returns to the table and then back to Reggie and Bobby, “is that…? Reggie! What did I say about glitter?!”
“Julie gave it to me!” Reggie vehemently defends himself and Alex turns an unimpressed glare Julie’s way. 
She shrugs unapologetically before gesturing toward the room, “I’m not helping clean this up though. You two are on your own…”
“That’s… fair,” Reggie acquiesces. “Good as new tomorrow! I promise!”
As the trio turn to leave, Luke looks back at the pair with a wink, “nice work, boys!”
Reggie’s blush returns with a vengeance and Bobby speaks up for the both of them, “oh, go suck face with Julie!”
Luke cackles as he follows Julie and Alex out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Bobby stands, pulling Reggie up with him. 
“Was that uh…” Reggie starts and Bobby turns to look at him, questioning, “was that just a one time thing. Because I…”
Bobby rolls his eyes fondly and grabs the back of Reggie’s neck again, much more forcefully this time. “Not unless you want it to be,” he utters out, voice a bit rougher than usual.
Reggie shakes his head vigorously and Bobby leans down to kiss him again.
They manage to clean up the room as promised, though a bit distractedly. Alex’s glitter ban is expanded to include Julie and he enforces it much more strictly than he had been, bearing a smug, albeit exasperated look every time they find bits of glitter throughout the space well into the following year.
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michelangelinden · 1 year
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Colors blooming around us (this will go down in our history)
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Merry Christmas Lea!!!!
I hope you had the best day, had good food, and enjoyed your presents! Ily!!!
You posted that drawing and I immediately knew I had to write a fic about it. I hope you enjoy it!!
(drawing in the middle by @lyxchen, used with permission)
Thanks @sunsetcurbed for beta reading <3
Taglist in the reblog, I'll post this on AO3 in a couple days <3
Alex lets his sticks hit the cymbal one last time before he allows the sound to ring out. Around him his friends have lifted their hands off their instruments, are leaning away from their mics, the last notes echoing through the gigantic hall in front of them.
Alex always says that that gig at the Orpheum has been the most important gig of their career. He’s right of course, it’s what got them the attention of labels, which eventually got them signed.
But this show feels important like that. It’s in the middle of their first Europe tour. They’re playing at their biggest venue yet. They have an entire camera crew filming every angle of them, so they can cut it into a movie of their concert. And they have special bits planned for this show that they’re not doing at others. One of them is going to happen during the next song.
Alex feels like his veins are vibrating. Both from the adrenaline of the show that is going the best it can, but also from nervousness and excitement about what he is about to do. When he looks around at his friends, he sees that they’re not feeling much different. Julie is breathing heavily from having sung her heart out, Luke’s chest is already bare, feeling too hot and constricted in his shirt, and Reggie and Bobby keep shaking and brushing their hair away from their foreheads. Alex is no longer wearing his hat, too scared that it will fall off.
He locks eyes with Luke. Luke is grinning at him, raising his eyebrows in a question. Alex doesn’t hesitate before he nods. Luke’s grin widens and he winks.
Alex lets out a slow breath and chances a look at the audience. He can’t see much further than the first few rows, stage lights are burning bright in his eyes, but he clearly sees how the masses of people—they really are masses tonight—are all cheering, shouting, crying. It’s overwhelming to see so many people being here just for you. Celebrating with you.
Alex manages to catch Willie’s eyes in the crowd. He’s standing at the front, in the very center. Alex wonders if they’ve told the people around them who they are. As soon as their gazes lock, Willie cheers loudly, and Alex likes to think he can hear their voice through the shouts of everyone else. He’s so excited that Willie is here tonight, coming all the way from the US to the UK to support him. Willie has no idea what’s about to happen, but Alex knows that he’s gonna love it.
Julie turns around to look at all of them. They all nod at her to let her know they’re ready. Smiling, she turns and sits down at the piano standing a bit to the side. The crowd goes wild, even though they don’t know what song they’re gonna be playing next.
“This next song is from our first album and it’s special in many ways,” Julie speaks into her mic. “Our beautiful drummer helped write it,” she lifts a hand to show off Alex while the crowd applauds for him, “and we filmed an amazing music video for it, that to this day, is the most clicked video on our channel.” The crowd cheers once again, now that people realize what song she is mentioning. “And for a good reason,” Julie continues, setting her hands on the key, “it’s our queer anthem.”
She doesn’t actually say the name of the song, but she doesn’t have to, just plays the first chord. She holds it until the crowd calms down a little, giving the song the weight it deserves. Then she continues, playing the intro of the song.
Alex adjusts his sticks in his hand. He still has a couple of beats until he starts playing, so he checks his surroundings. Everything is where it’s supposed to be. Or rather nothing is where it’s not supposed to be. There are no stray wires, no boxes, and the little step at his riser is in the correct spot. He’s ready. Now he just has to wait for his turn.
“Hearts on fire, we're no liars, so we say what we wanna say,” Julie begins to sing. People are joining in, knowing the words by heart just like they do on stage.
Alex catches Willie grinning up at him again, and he grins back easily.
“I'm awakened, no more fakin', so we push all our fears away.”
In the studio version Julie does the first verse and the pre-chorus by herself, but to give it more wham on stage, Reggie and Bobby are already tuning in with their instruments once the first verse is over. Julie looks over at them when they join as she begins the pre-chorus, adding depth to her piano playing, and together they lead the band into the chorus.
With a bang, Alex and Luke join the party. Luke and Julie sing together, their voices forming the harmonies that makes their sound so beautiful, and Alex finally adds the rhythm he’s worked so hard on. But the best thing is what happens around them.
As soon as they start playing the chorus, colors bloom around them. Bright, rainbow lighting tints the stage into a giant pride flag and has the crowd screaming. They’ve likely seen photos of it, the Gay Times wrote an article about it when they started touring, but to experience it themselves must be ten times better.
As Julie continues into the second verse, the colors around them shift. First it turns blue, purple, and pink, the bi flag proudly shining around them. Then the colors shift to pink, turquoise, and yellow, the pan flag. Just as Luke joins Julie again for the pre-chorus, someone throws a trans flag on stage, and Luke leaves his mic for a second to grab it. He holds it high in the air as the lights change to match the colors, a powerful sign of trans pride. Alex’s chest glows with admiration.
More flags join the round—ace, nonbinary, lesbian, aro, agender, just to name a few. Alex remembers sitting in the studio, brainstorming for the show, and coming up with this idea. He’d been hesitant at first, unsure if it would be possible or too much effort, but as soon as he told the others about it and they’ve been strongly in favor of it, Flynn promised to insist on it happening. She immediately started talking to their light technician about what was possible, drafted a design and an order for the flags, and made notes to plaster light sensitivity warnings all over the walls and doors of the venue and have the band repeat it on stage too. It was worth it. It all turned out so beautifully.
Julie and Luke lead into the second chorus. Alex’s turn is inching closer, and he almost slips up his rhythm. Reggie shoots him a glance and Alex responds with a nod. Reggie turns to the crowd again, but now with a giddy smile on their face.
The stage lights turn to the classic rainbow again and the chorus ends. That’s Alex’s cue to go.
While Julie and Luke slide into the bridge, Alex stuffs his sticks into his pocket and slips out from behind the drums. Confused sounds, shouts of questions come from the crowd as Alex, who is usually so content with staying behind his drums, moves to the front of the stage. His heart rate has tripled in speed, at least, as he gets to the edge of it. Julie and Luke begin the lyrics of the bridge.
A bodyguard meets Alex as he sits at the edge, helping him hop down to the pit. Just six feet separate him from the crowd, safely behind the barricades, and he sees about a hundred phone cameras facing him, as well as at least two of their camera crew. Only one person is standing still and staring, right in the center of it. Willie.
“And you’re a part of me,” Luke responds to Julie on the stage.
Alex steps up to the barricades, the bodyguard holding a secure arm around his middle.
“What are you doing?” Willie shouts at him over the cheers of the people surrounding them.
“I’m going to kiss you!” Alex shouts back. It’s barely audible over the sound from the stage and the singing of everyone around them.
“Now till eternity,” Luke continues to mirror what Julie is singing.
“Okay!” Willie responds, and Alex’s heart soars. He quickly steps up to them, taking their face in his hands, and Willie grabs a hold of the front of his hoodie.
“Been so long and now we’re finally free,” Julie sings, and right as her voice goes high on the last word, Alex kisses Willie.
The crowd erupts into madness. Alex knows it’s visible on the screens left and right from the stage, they made sure of that. He imagines the phones being pushed right into his face as everyone tries to get a good video. But all he chooses to focus on is Willie in front of him, holding him, kissing him back with as much enthusiasm as Alex is giving. Being surrounded by people screaming and shouting, his friend’s voice ringing from the speakers, all while being kissed by his favorite person, has Alex’s head spinning in the best way possible. He’s kissed Willie many times before, but he knows that this kiss, even though it’s not much more than their lips slotted together, will go down in the history of their relationship.
Alex pulls away when Julie’s note ends. They added a short guitar solo for Bobby to bridge the time for Alex to get back, but he only has a good 30 seconds until he has to sit behind his drums again.
“I love you!” he shouts at Willie before he books it, blindly using the bodyguard as leverage to get up the stage again. He’s not even able to wait for Willie’s response, but he knows that it’s probably a shouted “I love you too!”
He twists around Julie and Luke, ducks around the neck of Reggie’s bass, and slides the last couple feet to his setup. He takes a little more care as he climbs behind his drums, too anxious to kick something over. Grabbing his sticks and pretentiously spinning one, he locks eyes with Julie, and on the correct beat, she and him jump back into the song.
Their last chorus is a party. Bobby and Reggie join him on the riser, nodding their heads to his rhythm, before Reggie will take a leap off it as the song ends. The crowd is dancing with them, shouting the lyrics back at them.
Alex feels like they’re all experiencing the same shift in energy, going from Moment, to Movement. A bisexual Latina and a trans man sharing the center of a huge stage, masses of people coming to see and celebrate with them. A nonbinary person and their queerplatonic partner sharing that stage and actively taking space. A gay man jumping off that stage to go and kiss his boyfriend on camera, screaming “I love you” at them, getting everyone to look at them. That’s the world Alex strives to live in.
And when Julie closes off the song with her gentle words, Luke, Reggie, and Bobby lift the hands off their strings, Alex stands up, raising his sticks into the air, and the crowd doesn’t get a hold of itself for almost five minutes, then he knows that they’ll get there. And their little movement is just one step into that direction.
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wishfulstargazer · 1 month
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"Joy to the World" is now complete!
I uploaded the first chapter of this little fic in December 2021. It is now <checks calender> 2024. This may be some kind of record for a 5 chapter fic. I wanted to retell "A Christmas Carol" by Dickens, featuring Julie as Scrooge and our favorite trio of ghost boys.
In 2024, I'm focusing on finishing projects, and I wanted to do this one first!
Rating: T Words: 15,487 Characters: Julie Molina, Flynn Taylor, Ray Molina, Carlos Molina, Rose Molina, Alex Mercer, Luke Patterson, Reggie Peters, Carrie Wilson, Trevor Wilson, Aunt Victoria, Original Characters Relationships: Gen
Summary: "Christmas in LA is free of snow, but not of spirit. In fact, between the lit up palm trees, the shop displays everywhere, Feliz Navidad playing on every radio station, and a host of Christmas music and decorations all over Los Feliz high school, Christmas is pretty much unavoidable.
It all grates on her nerves. Christmas without Rose Molina is unthinkable. Almost as unthinkable as music without Rose Molina."
Can a well meaning trio of ghost boys bring back Julie's Christmas spirit and help her reclaim her music? The first link will let you read from the beginning, or if you've been reading along (thank you!) scrolldown for the final chapter.
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bananakarenina · 2 years
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You could write a phenomenal fic where Julie, burnt out and desperately trying to enjoy the things she used to, grows weary while she's swimming to shore and starts to drown. She's rescued by an incredibly cute surfer, and she's mortified when she vomits seawater on him after he revived her with CPR (because of course it can't be clean, pretty, and reliable like it is in the movies), but he just gives her a crooked grin and advises her to take it easy for a while.
She's rattled and doesn't want to be alone, so he stays with her for a bit. After that, she starts to reevaluate her life and what changes she would need to make to be happy, trying to push thoughts of him out of her mind because it's just hero worship, right? But she keeps going to the beach where he surfs and they slowly fall in love for real and the pining and slow burn would kill me in the best way. Plus it would be beautifully written and rife with symbolism and I would turn it over in my mind for hours and hours ❤️
dammit ash
I have too many WIPs as it is
I don't have time to write this!!
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daintyduck99 · 4 months
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'tis the damn season (write this down)
For your consideration: some JatP Christmas fics
Summaries included below, check AO3 tags for more information
where the lovelight gleams by @bananakarenina
Julie Molina, one of the biggest popstars on the planet, is spending the month of December in New York City to promote her new Christmas album and a huge Christmas Eve concert at Madison Square Garden. Her team has hired her a personal driver for the whole month--Reggie Peters. Julie's struggling with losing her creativity and passion, while Reggie is struggling with just trying to make rent in the big city; he hasn't been really creative in years. Can the two of them find their way back to music before Christmas comes? What else will they find along the way? (Love. Obviously the answer is love.)
you could call me 'babe' for the weekend by @locketletters
“Look, there's no way my parents are going to buy the fact that you’re my boyfriend.” Luke crosses his arms, brows furrowing, “What’s that supposed to mean?” in which luke goes home with alex for he holidays as a pretend boyfriend, and leaves with him as a real one.
Not Found Under the Tree by @breakaway71
There's only one thing Julie wants for Christmas.
Haunted Holidays by @invisibleraven
JatP Advent ficlets 2023!
Our Luxury (A Love Like Stars) by @psyduckappears, @daintyduck99
“So, I bought a ring,” Luke says, casual in the way that usually Reggie would realize is nowhere near casual and much closer to freaking out, but he’s a little busy choking to death on his lunch.
not the last unknown by @bananakarenina
It's Christmas Eve, and the Molina family goes to church. This year they have a couple tagalongs.
Joy To The World by @wishfulstargazer
"Christmas in LA is free of snow, but not of spirit. In fact, between the lit up palm trees, the shop displays everywhere, Feliz Navidad playing on every radio station, and a host of Christmas music and decorations all over Los Feliz high school, Christmas is pretty much unavoidable. It all grates on her nerves. Christmas without Rose Molina is unthinkable. Almost as unthinkable as music without Rose Molina." Can a well meaning trio of ghost boys bring back Julie's Christmas spirit and help her reclaim her music?
From the Heart by @breakaway71
Reggie gives Julie a gift, but she is not the only one to have some feelings about it.
Hallelujah, Everybody Say Cheese (Merry Christmas From The Family) by @a-tomb-with-a-view
Reggie sighs and turns in Luke’s arms to face him. Luke leans forward to kiss Reggie’s nose, his smile playful even if his eyes are huge and full of concern. God but Reggie loves him. “I’m not going home for Christmas,” he admits eventually. “I don’t know what I’m doing, but… but not that.” Luke frowns, and kisses Reggie’s forehead instead this time, having to lean up on tiptoes to do so. “Why don’t you come over to ours?”
Phantom Carols by @invisibleraven
Fills for the JatP Advent Event 2022!
Kiss Me Under the Missile Toad by @wr0temyway0ut
“Woah, little dude,” Willie says as he lowers Carlos to his feet. “You gotta be careful up there. What were you even doing?” Carlos gives Willie a proud grin and thrusts something into their hands. “I’m hanging the missile toads!”
why do i care how much it may storm (i’ve got my love to keep me warm) by @tillstarscollided
There is something special about nighttime snowfall, how it’s quiet and almost eerie with only the lights from the porch to show it, but how that also means you can watch it collect and sparkle in a controlled section of light instead of being blinded by the sun reflecting off the entire landscape of white. There had been snow on the ground already, slowly melting, but this new batch was evening it out, covering up the mud and sludge with a new blank canvas that Reggie really wanted to just go and mess up with snowmen and snow angels, as the ones he had already made disappeared, but it was 1 am and he should be cuddling in bed with his partners, and he has bad impulse control but not that bad of impulse control. or: Reggie’s partners bring him to New York to see the snow, and he hasn’t stopped staring since.
a lonely boy on christmas by @nuandia
Alex doesn’t really think twice. He takes the tangerines and a wrapped sandwich and a bottle of water out of his shopping bag and offers them to him. The boy looks up, startled. His face guarded, his posture tense before he blinks at Alex and then relaxes. He smiles a tentative smile and slowly reaches for the offered groceries. But his eyes are sparkling, making the breath in Alex’s throat catch.  Or, everybody's lonely on Christmas Eve. Or well, maybe not.
Of Hearts Borrowed And Blue by @daintyduck99
“Some vacation,” Julie mutters, shedding the duvet and reaching for the coffee maker.  She still doesn’t know why everyone was so convinced that a change of scenery would do her good—it’s not like Julie can outrun Christmas. Caleb apparently also forgot to mention that everyone in this town is obsessed with the holiday, which isn’t all that different from the current atmosphere at Molina Family Photography.  If anything, Julie’s even more of a grinch here that she would be back home, because she stuffed all of her grief into a battered suitcase, and she can’t just pull it out for every single stranger trying to get her into the Christmas spirit.
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invisibleraven · 3 months
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Silver-white winters that melt into spring
Written for the Year of the OTP challenge prompt: That’s my favourite thing about you.
On AO3!
Well here we are, at the end of the year, and it seems fitting to end it with the ship that started the year; Rulie! In truth, they are my OTP but it was fun to write this series with a few different pairings and get to challenge myself with the prompts. Happy New Years to all, and I promise to see you back here in 2024 with even more JatP fic!
“I know we both love Christmas,” Reggie said as he eased himself back onto the couch. “But I’m kind of glad it’s over.”
Julie sighed as she swung her feet into his lap. “Still gotta get through New Years.”
“We are having a quiet night in with champagne and Rockin’ New Years Eve on the tv,” Reggie said firmly. “No parties, no obligations, just us to ring in the new year together.”
“That sounds lovely,” she groaned as he rubbed the sore arches of her feet. “How’d you get everyone to agree?”
“The usual threats and bribery,” Reggie replied. “Honestly everyone just wanted a bit of a chill thing anyways, so I begged off for us to do our own thing.”
“My hero,” Julie quipped, offering him a smile. “That’s my favourite thing about you, how you look after me.”
“I could never pick just one thing,” Reggie said, placing a kiss on her ankle. “Everything about you is my favourite.”
“Sap,” Julie replied.
“But I’m your sap,” Reggie countered.
~
On New Year's Eve Julie woke up late, and alone. There was a note on Reggie’s pillow, so she unfolded it.
You’re my favourite person to share a bed with-you give the best cuddles, and your little snores are adorable
“I don’t snore!” She called out, slipping out of bed, and got no response, so she went to the kitchen. There was a tray of food and coffee, still warm. Plus a note.
You’re my favourite meal partner, it’s always fun to eat with you, even when you insist we eat healthy.
Julie snickered as she took in the oatmeal when she knew Reggie would prefer bacon and eggs. But Julie said the odd day of a healthier option wouldn’t kill him. “Might keep you around another decade or two even,” she had teased. “And I want you to be around for them, see what a silver fox you turn into.”
“Yeah, you still gonna be into me when I’m all old and wrinkly?” Reggie had asked.
“And then some,” Julie had promised.
She smiled as she recalled the awed expression he’d given her at that. Julie adored Reggie, but she wished he didn’t doubt her devotion so much, and wanted to throttle his parents for damaging his self esteem so. He had gotten better, but there were days she knew he still doubted, and she vowed to ensure every day that he knew how much he was loved.
~
Finishing her breakfast, she went back up the stairs, wondering idly where Reggie was. He wasn’t exactly a morning person, so it was odd for him to not be here. But given the notes, she figured he had some sort of plan.
On her toothbrush:
Your smile is my favourite (yes even with the gap) it might not be perfect but it always brightens my day.
Then again on her hair brush:
I love your curls, especially when you leave them all wild and free, and the fact that you trust me to help you with them is my highest honour
Julie bit back a grin at that; she had only recently brought Reggie in to help her maintain her curls. He had taken notes, making sure he knew each step, and delighted in helping her wash, condition, and style them. He was surprisingly gentle, and though he could only manage a braid right now Julie had caught him looking up more advanced styles to try.
Julie couldn’t wait to see what he came up with honestly.
Another note was waiting for her on her dresser.
Though my favourite outfit on you is nothing but a smile, I do love your style, no matter what you wear.
Julie blushed at that-Reggie had always been pretty vocal about loving her curves, and worshipped them often-especially on days she chose to flaunt them. But today was just going to be them, so she decided on comfort over fashion-leggings, a crop top and Reggie’s own beloved red flannel over top, almost like a hug from the man himself.
Speaking of which, where was Reggie? She loved the romance of these notes but she wanted the real thing. Calling out receives no reply, and her texts go unanswered. She decides to check the yard, since they tend to enjoy spending time in their garden, and finds another note by her sneakers.
The fact that you’re such a sneakerhead is my favourite thing, even if I don’t get it. But I love to see how you doodle on each pair, making them uniquely yours-your creativity astounds me.
There’s no Reggie in the garden, but she does pay some attention to the plants, trimming weeds and watering them as needed. And of course finds another notes on her watering can.
Before you I would never claim to have a green thumb, but the fact that you nurtured that in me is my favourite thing. You make me bloom Julie.
She shakes her head and tucks the note into her pocket-her man is too cute. She makes a pile of the notes once back in the house, smiling at Reggie’s love for her. Wonders where else he might have them hidden, and takes a slow walk through the house.
On the bookshelf: Your mind is my favourite thing, how smart you are (except at math :P) and how you always strive to learn more
On the piano: You are the music of my life, the counterpoint to my melody, and the fact that you share your music with me is my favourite thing.
On the fiddle that Reggie bought her as a joke one year, and she had faithfully learned in retaliation: The fact that you indulge the country boy in me is my favourite thing, and I can’t wait to make our album that does surprisingly well just like we promised each other all those years ago.
The shelf she had made him to display his comics and action figures: I love that you let me be my nerdy self, even sitting through the prequels with me (what a woman!) and let me display all my geeky stuff proudly-the fact that I can be myself with you is my favourite thing.
On the door to the laundry room: You make even the most dull chores fun, because building a life with you is my favourite thing.
Julie heard the front door open then, and rushed to find Reggie entering, plowing into his arms. “You sweet, silly, ridiculous man.”
“Hey darlin’,” he said, beaming as he swung them around. “You find all my notes?”
“I don’t even know, how many did you write?” Julie asked with a laugh.
Reggie shrugged. “Didn’t really keep track. Told you I could never pick just one favourite thing about you.”
Julie pulled him down for a kiss then, a scorching, fiery one that left them both panting. She barely pulled away, their breaths mingling as she whispered “You’re my favourite thing.”
“Sap.”
“So was there a reason for the romantic paper trail?” Julie asked after they had eaten lunch and done a pile of dishes.
“Just felt like doing something special to end the year on,” Reggie replied. “It’s been a heck of a year, and you’ve been my rock through it all-so you deserve a little romance.”
“What did I ever do to deserve you?” Julie asked.
“Oh trust me, I ask myself that every day,” Reggie replied with a wink.
~
Their afternoon and evening was spent together, loving one another, enjoying one another’s company-nothing spectacular, but to Julie she thought this would always be her favourite way to spend New Years.
They were waiting for the ball to drop in New York, glasses of champagne ready-the neighbours had been setting off fireworks for a few minutes now, and that plus the lights of the tree was all they needed. “Is it weird for us to ring the New Year at eight?” Julie asked.
“You really wanna stay up until midnight?” Reggie countered.
“Fair enough. So did I find all your notes after?” Julie asked, spreading out all the ones she had collected, plus a few Reggie had produced from the oddest places-really when was she supposed to look in the pantry or amongst the DVDs? But she kept each one-she thought about making a scrapbook, something to keep each note safe and treasured as Reggie made her feel.
“I think there’s one last one on the tree,” Reggie said, gesturing to where there was indeed a note stuck in amongst the branches. Julie got up and snatched it, but snuggled right back into his embrace to read it.
Julie, you are my favourite person, and I can’t wait to see what new aspects of you will become my new favourite thing. I want us to spend our lives together so we always keep finding new things to love about one another. So will you be my favourite one and only, and become my wife?
Julie turned to see Reggie there, a hopeful smile on his face, and a gorgeous ring in his hand. “But you always said…”
“Julie, I never thought marriage was something I wanted,” Reggie admitted. “After my parents, I thought it wasn’t for me. But you, you make me want things I never thought I would. Marriage, a family, a happily ever after. But I can only have it with you. You made me believe in love again Julie, and I think that is my favourite thing about you.”
Julie held out her left hand, though it was shaking. “Ask me then, I need to hear the words, to make sure this isn’t a dream.”
Reggie chuckled. “Not a dream darlin’, but you make all my dreams come true. This is just making one of yours real too. So Julie, will you please marry me?”
“Yes!” she exclaimed, watching the ring slide home before pulling him into a hug, almost sobbing as he held her tight, pulling back to kiss her sweetly. They could hear cheers from the television, but they didn’t care, only having eyes for one another.
Later, after drinking champagne and sharing more kisses than she could count, Julie held up her hand, admiring the ring. “You did good,” she commented.
“Your dad helped,” Reggie admitted. “Even offered your grandparents rings for our wedding.”
“I’d love that,” Julie replied, smiling up at him. “So does everyone know?”
“How else do you think I got them to agree to just us on New Years?” Reggie replied. “They’ll be by tomorrow for brunch so you can tell them all then.”
“So we can ring in the New Year as fiancees?” Julie asked. Reggie nodded, smiling into the kiss she offered him. “That’s my new favourite thing.”
“Just wait until I get to call you my wife,” Reggie replied.
Julie shivered at the word, pulling him down for yet another kiss, the sparks from it brighter than the fireworks lighting up the sky, and the ring on her finger. But nothing beat the glow in Reggie’s eyes as they pulled apart or the smile on Julie’s face as she whispered “My husband.”
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jatp-adventevent · 1 year
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JatP Advent Event 2022
🎄 Once Upon a Phantom ⛄  A Christmas Advent
Even if it’s a even later to launch it than last year, here is a JatP Advent Event for 2022! Posting will start 1st December and will end 31th December (or even in january if you want!) ~ But you can post whenever you want, or even use last year’s prompts. You can add last year prompt in either 2012 or 2022 AO3 collections, just use the 2022 tag, so I can still share them here!
How does it work?
This is pretty simple: you have prompts for each day and you can post whatever you feel like creating for this day. You don’t have to do all days, and can post as many things as you want per day. Arts, Fics (Drabbles, One Shot, Long, Multi Chapters, Sonfic, no limit), Graphics/Gifs or even Playlist, Moodboard or whatever you can imagine (even cakes), you can post it. The only rule is it has to be JatP themed.You are also free to not post them on the right day of course.
This year, there is one prompt each 5 days or so. All other days are filled with asks, but once again, feel free to do whatever you want, it’s just for fun, there is no real rule for what you really have to write.
Don’t forget trigger warnings and use proper tagging, so it can be safe and enjoyable for everyone!
AO3 collection: Jatp Advent Event 2022
Please, use the tag #JatPAdvent2022, so we can share your work and you can @ this blog too ~
If you have any question, feel free to contact us!
Day 1 – Ghost in Boots Presents & Wrapping, Make a Wish, Love & Dreams
Day 2 – What’s on their Santa’s Whishlist?
Day 3 – Who is the best at wrapping present?
Day 4 – Any OTP or cute love headcanon for Christmas to share?
Day 5 – The Dorky Duckling Ugly Sweater, Snow & Ice, Fireplace, Snowmen & Yeti
Day 6 – Who has the worst Ugly Sweater?
Day 7 – Who like Christmas the most and the lest?
Day 8 – Who loves the snow and who’d rather be warm?
Day 9 – Do they believed in the Yeti or elves?
Day 10 – The Guitarist of Hamelin Children & Toys, Music & Jingle Bells, Lost
Day 11 – What did they had for Christmas as child?
Day 12 – What’s their favorite Christmas song?
Day 13 – Best and worst Christmas Memories?
Day 14 – Anything they lost on Christmas or any lost Christmas present?
Day 15 – Little Gay Riding Hood Decorating, Into the Wood, Baking Time, Christmas Tree
Day 16 – Who does the Cookies and Gingerbread House?
Day 17 – Queer Day, for any Queer Headcanon!
Day 18 – How would their Christmas tree(s) looks like?
Day 19 – Who is afraid of the Santa Claus?
Day 20 – The Phantom of the Orpheum Insecurities & Fear, Fabulous Outfits, Showtime, Yule Ball
Day 21 – What do they wear on Christmas eve?
Day 22 – Who do they take at the Yule Ball?
Day 23 – What are their worst insecurities (on Christmas or not)?
Day 24 – The Brave Little Skater Courage, Ice skating, Dancing
Day 25 – Bonus: Free Day!
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happylikeasadsong · 4 months
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"About the Blogger" meme
Thank u sm for tag @cruciomione!!
Star Sign(s): Cancer sun, Libra moon and Leo rising (i couldn't explain it i you asked, tho)
Favorite Holidays: Christmas and New Years i love how crazy people go about decorations and seems like there's no end to imagination. Also it's that time of the year i have the most delicious food and share quality time with my family. And New Years's so special bc i get to celebrate with friends and usually the parties are lit.
Last Meal: A strawberry delight crepe as a 'well done' gift from me to me or not dying during my exams and finishing them all, yayyy
Current Favorite Musician: i always find it hard to just mention one, so here goes my top three rn: coco jones, the maine and rbd (latin pop band).
Last Music Listened To: back to life by lawson. this one scratches my brain like no other.
Last Movie Watched: me and one of my closest friends do this list of christmas movies every year bc we love christmas movies, no matter how awful and cringe they are. last night i watched 'exmas' with leighton meester and robbie amell and i was surprised that it wasn't the worst, so it's a win in my book.
Last TV Show Watched: it was this week's episode of fellow travelers. jonathan bailey and matt bomer are breaking my heart in a million little pieces, but i think it worth it?? it's so so so sad and tragic but they do such a great job portraying hawk and skippy's story.
Last Book/Fic Finished: i wanted distract myself from my daily problems so i reread 'remember me, remebering you' by amiera_saphire on ao3 last weekend.
Last Book/Fic Abandoned: i prefer the term 'hiatus'. i have a jatp fic that i never really finished and the thought of it hunts me.
Currently Reading: a very boring article on managerial finance i have to write on by friday (my last assignment of the year, yay!). i hated it, so i came here to get enough endorfins to go back to it.
Last Thing Researched for Art/Writing/Hyperfixation: ships in the 1800's, also dresses of that time period so i can better my shitty description in my period fic. i only had an idea and a dream on that one.
Favorite Online Fandom Memory: uhh i think it was back in the cursed years (2020, eww) and after i watched julie and the phantoms i found some really good people here and on twitter. our day consisted in checking every news outlet about the show and pics, videos about them. also the fics were so incredibly good!! those were fun times.
Favorite Old Fandom You Wish Would Drag You Back In/Have A Resurgence: arrowverse when it was good, maybe? idk but olicity had a choke on me in a concerning way. but then it went bad, so bad, and i suffered through until arrow ended and stopped watching the shows.
Favorite Thing You Enjoy That Never Had an Active or Big "Fandom" but You Wish It Did: felicity. it's mainly bc it's such an old show and bc of that, no one is really talking about it anymore, but it was my shit when i 'discovered' back in college.
Tempting Project You're Trying to Rein In/Don't Have Time For: i'll quote @cruciomione about the multi chapter fics, i feel you! one shots are better for me bc i can just write my idea down.
i've been working on a multi chapter about a second chance/lovers-to-strangers-to-lovers. i love the angst i have panned out in my head lol maybe during the break it could revisit it.
loved doing this!!
tagging some ppl to do this too, only if you want!
@imliterallyjustablackgirl, @ethxocore, @laryssamedeirss, @vacationship, @ruethrills
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catchingpapermoons · 1 year
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top 10 fics by kudos
hi it’s me @drysdaales :) so my top ten kudos’d fics and whether i agree with where they’ve landed? i’m going to play a little differently and bc i have apparently been writing for a long while (am i old?) i’m going to take my top 3 kudos’d fics from from my most recent fandoms and just put those in order of kudos (plus a bonus fic to make ten) so here we go! ty @hard4softthings for the tag i appreciate u ❣️ under a cut (hopefully pls mobile)
10. you’re alive (so alive) (jatp | gen fic)
agree/disagree: i’m choosing disagree only bc this is one of the best things i’ve ever written and it wasn’t appreciated enough. sometimes we all need to explore grief through a children’s show right??
9. too soft for all of it (hrpf | jdtz, slice of life + h/c)
agree/disagree: i have zero complaints about this fic and i’m proud of myself for this being my second foray into hrpf fandom. to all who read and enjoyed, i see u and thank u kindly for giving her love!
8. you’re the only one my heart keeps coming back to (jatp | reggiealex, non-ghost college au)
agree/disagree: i’m gonna disagree on this one but that’s only bc it reads a little too much like a soap opera to me. but i’m glad it found a home where people enjoyed :)
7. wherever you stray, i follow (jatp | phantoms poly, canon compliant)
agree/disagree: yeah i love this one it feels right to be here
6. wanna feel your heart (hrpf | mat/tito, multiple universes)
agree/disagree: i know why it landed and i see the appeal in it and i went back and read comments on it the other day and was just pleased as punch to see how people interpreted it! i wrote this fic in 2018 (!!!) at a time where i was going through something heinous and i was so young and just wanted to be in control of something. i’ve done better work since, but i love her for what she is.
5. so quiet in the world tonight (hrpf | jdtz, idiots taking care of a baby)
agree/disagree: yes. wholeheartedly. tbh i reread this fic sometimes bc i love it. i wrote this shit for me and she unironically slaps
4. here everyone knows you’re the way to my heart (rnm | malex, spec fic, bonus fic bc i love her dearly)
agree/disagree: i do agree with this one though it’s placement as to how many kudos it received is wild to me! i’m immensely proud of this fic and i loved what i wrote here.
3. you remind me of home (oh, baby, merry christmas) (911 | buddie)
agree/disagree: i have no idea what y’all saw in this but good for you! it’s a silly little christmas fic TO ME but for some reason i get kudos and comments at all times of the year. thanks cuties
2. across our great divide (a glorious sunrise) (911 | buddie, therapy as a plot device)
agree/disagree: i love this fic so much. the reaction to it was so cool. i loved the insane amount of comments i got telling me how masterfully i’d written bc i love hearing i did a good job but i also loved people telling me how it made them feel.
1. when i was shipwrecked (i thought of you) (911 | buddie, canon-adjacent)
agree/disagree: i have no idea what made this one hit for you. i am SO happy it did, but it’s insane to me. i love that you love it because its made ME love it more. this is my most kudos’d fic and it’s bonkers bananas to me !!!
extra bonus! a fic that deserves more love is dance for all that we’ve been through because i wrote 61k of an entire ballet au and relived all my old ballet trauma and this girl did NOT get her flowers :/ to date it’s probably my best work and it’s ok that it didn’t get received as well but also… it’s good ok!!!
tagging my bbs @smileymikey @inthekitchenmp3 and uhhhh whoever else wants to lmao
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pearlcaddy · 1 year
Note
77 for your Spotify wrapped xx
77. Waves by Imagine Dragons
💚💚 I’d love to have a fic idea for something you’ve actually seen, but I’m deep in my JatP feels, so may I offer you my out-of-context OTP?
Time doesn't hear if you ask it to wait
So own all your tears and just roll with the waves
An AU fic where Julie and Luke used to be childhood best friends until they had a messy falling out in high school because Julie’s mom got sick at the same time that Luke started fighting a lot with his mom. Julie felt like Luke was taking time with his mom for granted, and Luke felt like Julie wasn’t being empathetic enough with the fact that not all families are functional and healthy, and it turned into a nasty fight that neither of them knew how to take back.
Ten years later, they’re established musicians on the rise who haven’t spoken since high school. Julie’s home for Christmas and normally Luke never visits his family, but that year Emily (Luke’s mom) is in a car crash. So the fic is Luke going back to the city, coming to terms with his complicated feelings about his parents, and making up with Julie with the benefit of time and perspective.
Because obviously the only way I’d write a Christmas romance fic is if it was also a bittersweet reflection on how messy parent-child relationships can be.
Send me a number between 1 and 101 and I'll tell you what Jukebox fic I would write based on the corresponding song from my Spotify Wrapped playlist!
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onlygenxhere · 6 months
Link
Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Reggie Peters/Bobby Shaw | Trevor Wilson Characters: Julie Molina, Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn Taylor, Alex Mercer (Julie and The Phantoms), Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Bobby Shaw | Trevor Wilson, Ray Molina, Carlos Molina, Aunt Victoria (Julie and The Phantoms), Kayla (Julie and The Phantoms), Carrie Wilson, Rose Molina, Dante (Julie and The Phantoms), Original Characters Additional Tags: Fluff and Angst, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Content Summary:
Imagine this. You’re in your favorite bookstore, scanning the shelf where your favorite books reside, and there… nestled between the familiar spines sits a red notebook.
Imagine you’re in New York and it’s Christmas. You’re surrounded by people, by possibility and the hope that somewhere in the city is that one person meant for you.
You just have to find them.
How do you do that?
It all depends on the kind of person you are.
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1mnobodywhoareyou · 3 months
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That's what Christmas means to me
1707 Words | G Rating | Julie and the Phantoms AU
Luke kicks open the door, his keys hanging from his teeth and hands overflowing with bags from the grocery store. “Guys?! A little help?” he calls, words a bit jumbled as they form around his clenched teeth.
Alex appears at the end of the hall and lets out a soft chuckle, “you know you can take multiple trips, right?” He grabs one handful of bags and takes them into the kitchen, leaving Luke to remove his keys from his mouth and redistribute the remaining bags.
“You say that…” Luke replies, trailing after Alex and setting the bags onto the counter.
“How did you even get the door unlocked?”
Luke jazz hands as he answers, “magic!” He’s met with a fond eye roll as they both work on putting the groceries away. “Why’s it so quiet? Where’s Bex.”
“Uhhhh,” Alex hesitates. “You should probably just see for yourself.”
Luke quirks an eyebrow at that but leaves it and finishes up, tying the bags into bows and depositing them in their bag of bags under the sink. 
“Does any of this need to go next door?” Alex asks and Luke shakes his head.
“Nope, not this time. We both know I’ll be here pretty much full time for the next two weeks anyway.” It’s their collective Christmas break and they officially have no responsibilities outside of their strange little family until the new year. “How scared should I be to leave the kitchen?” he wonders.
“I think you’ll be ok. Maybe. It’s everyone else I’m worried about.”
Luke cocks his head with a look of combined confusion and curiosity but opts to simply go into the living room. He’s met with what can only be described as a Christmas explosion and can’t help the laugh that erupts out of his throat. Boxes and totes are open throughout the space, they have a half built tree, decorations trail from box to box and beyond. Reggie and Willie are both wrapped in tinsel and garland, each topped with an elf and santa hat, respectively.
“It looks like you let a two year old loose at the north pole,” he says once he’s regained his composure.
“They kind of did,” Alex chimes in from behind him.
“Where IS Bex?” Luke asks again. 
“Exploding Christmas wiped her out. She fell asleep,” Reggie explains as he works to detangle some beads.
“Ah! Explains the quiet.”
“Mhm,” Alex hums as he moves over to where Willie is, taking the newly fluffed branches and working to add them to the tree. 
“Gonna help or stare?” Willie directs at Luke after a moment.
“Oh, I’m gonna stare. Y’all got yourself into this mess. I’m just here to enjoy it,” he flops onto the couch and props his feet onto the ottoman in front of him, exaggerating his movements obnoxiously. He’s in the middle of reclining back and putting his hands behind his head when he’s hit in the chest with a mass of shimmer.
“You’re going to help,” Reggie tells him, matter of fact. “Detangle those.”
Luke obliges, trying to find the end of the string of baubles that had been thrown at him. “Bex did all of this?!”
“No, they came out of the bin like this. I’m displeased with past me,” Reggie explains.
Luke hums in acknowledgement and continues his task. 
“We’re listening to me when we pack shit up this year,” Alex states.
Willie groans, “ugh, but taking everything down and winding it up to be packed away is so tedious.”
“Future us will thank me,” Alex insists. “And you’re telling me that this,” he waves his arms around the space, “isn’t tedious?”
“Point, Alex,” Luke says and Willie responds by sticking their tongue out at him.
The four of them into their tasks, letting a comfortable silence surround them. Alex and Willie get the tree built and lit while Luke and Reggie successfully untangle everything that had needed it, building neat piles of decorations. They’re just able to start wrapping the tree with garland when they hear a small voice from behind the couch.
“Unca ‘Uke! Unca ‘Uke!”
Luke drops what he had been holding and turns to greet the toddler, crouching down to scoop her into his arms as she runs up to him, “hey, Peanut! You sure made a mess with your dads, didn’t you?”
She squeals as he spins her around. He settles her onto his hip and turns back toward the tree. Bex looks toward it and then back at Luke. “Why don’t we let Daddy, Papa, and Nomy do the boring stuff and then we can help hang the pretty things when they’re done?” He directs a questioning look his friends’ way for confirmation and they nod. 
Bex excitedly agrees, pushing away from Luke so that he sets her down. She leads him to one of the bins that hadn’t already been emptied and digs into it, pulling out some of their other decor. 
Luke offers a small chuckle, taking everything she hands him. “Yeah, we can put these out while we wait.” He trails behind her as she sets out the decorations throughout the apartment: singing animatronic snowmen wind up in the doorway to the kitchen, a dancing snowman is set just outside her bedroom, Luke guides her to place the doormat in the entry hall, and various bells are placed on the first doorknobs she encounters. When they return to the living room lootless, the others are almost done wrapping the tree. 
“You know what we’re missing,” he directs to Bex.
“MUSIC!” she cheers and he laughs.
“Yeah, you know what’s up. Music! You gonna help?”
She nods vigorously, “I help!”
Luke digs through the various boxes until he finds what he’s looking for, their small record collection of Christmas music. He calls Bex over, not that she ever drifts far from his side when she’s around, and her eyes widen in excitement. 
“I pick?”
Luke nods, “yeah, you pick. What should we listen to?”
Bex sifts through the records, as gently as she’s capable of considering her age, pulls out a bright purple album and hands it to Luke who can’t help but laugh.
“When did we get Cee Lo Green’s Christmas album?” 
“Probably Willie,” Alex mutters. 
“Yep! That was me,” Willie readily agrees, “I saw it at a thrift store last year and couldn’t not.”
“Sounds about right,” Luke laughs as he walks over to the record player, letting Bex lead him through the process and stepping in where she needs help. “We’ll get you rocking properly one day,” he tells her softly as he places the record on the turntable.
He was apparently still loud enough to be heard because Reggie coughs out a laugh of his own, “you have her trained on how to properly handle records and operate the record player, what more are you wanting from her?”
“Luke’s in charge of potty training, by the way,” Alex chimes in from the other side of the tree before muttering an addition, “the only person she’ll actually listen to.”
Willie and Reggie utter grunts of agreement, still battling their ongoing bitterness at her very obvious preference for the only one of them who was adamant he was not parent material.
“I’ll laugh my ass off if she grows up refusing to listen to what you like,” Willie directs back toward Luke. 
Luke makes an affronted sound as he scoops Bex into his arms, “she would NEVER!”
She giggles at him as he tries to help form her hand into devil’s horns. “Rock and roll forever! Right, Peanut?”
“Ro’ ‘n roll!” she agrees heartily.
Alex sighs before moving them on, “we’re ready for you.”
“Hear that, Bex? We’re up!”
The five of them work through the various ornaments and candy canes, letting Bex place anything that isn’t fragile where she can reach and the others trying to counter balance her heavy hand through the rest of the tree. They fall into various song and dance breaks as Cee Lo Green plays in the background meaning that their task takes them significantly longer than it might otherwise but none of them mind. Their little family is just happy to have this time together.
When they’ve finally finished with the tree, Reggie crouches down to hand Bex the star. “This is a very important job, Munchkin. Can you handle it?”
Bex nods vigorously, taking the star from Reggie.
“OK, Daddy is gonna lift you up cuz he’s the tallest. You just have to put it on the very tippy top!”
Bex nods again. “Tippy top!” she confirms before running over to Alex who scoops her up and leans her toward the top of the tree. She gives placing the star her best effort but Alex has to help smush the branches together so it settles on nicely. Once they’re satisfied, he props her on his hip as he steps back, letting Willie plug it into the strand of lights.
“You ready? Alex asks Bex and she nods. Luke makes his way over to the switch for the overhead lights and Reggie takes his position at the outlet behind the tree. They are almost in sync as the room goes dark, only to be illuminated by the lights of the tree.
“Ooooohhh!” Bex coos as her eyes widen at the sight.
Willie and Reggie make their way over to where Alex and Bex are, crowding in on either side of them and Luke digs out his phone to take a picture. 
Willie tugs on the hem of Alex’s sweater, pulling harder when they get his attention so that he leans down for a kiss. 
Bex watches them intently, impatiently speaking up when they separate. “Kiss Bex!”
The adults laugh and they each pepper her face with kisses of their own until she’s squealing and pushing them away.
“Merry Christmas, family,” Reggie says wistfully as he takes everyone in.
“Merry Christmas, Reg,” the others echo back.
“Merry Chrismus, Papa!” Bex cheers, reaching out to him. He takes her from Alex and wraps her into a tight hug. It takes less than a moment for three additional pairs of arms to join the hug and they relish in the short moment of peace and togetherness they’ve allowed themselves.
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forabeatofadrum · 1 year
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My fic year in review, 2022
I saw @captain-aralias doing this and I thought “hey, this is fun!”. So cool that you (aralias, you are the you here) do this every year.
Fics I wrote:
Learn to let go (929, T, CrisTales)
A rip in time (68K, T, Doctor Who Universe)
Zimbits April Updates (2.7K; T; Check, Please!)
che col tuo lume mi levasti (63K, T, Simon Snow Series)
At last (801, G, Glee)
e pare stella che tramuti loco (29K, T, Simon Snow Series)
Wielded by the righteous (2K, G, Simon Snow Series)
The Naked Truth (15K, T, Simon Snow Series)
Call Me Maybe (12K, T, Simon Snow Series, with @captain-aralias)
Barking Up The Wrong Bakery (8.7K, T, Glee)
These numbers could be lucky for you (402, G, Glee)
Then maybe time would not erase me (2.7K, G, Julie and the Phantoms)
Thinkin' about us (377, G, Our Flag Means Death)
All I needed for another day (768; G; Love, Victor)
Ebb & Flow (29K, G, Glee)
Dalton 8 Days of Pride (2.8K, G, Dalton)
Dalton 8 Days of Wrath (WIP, T, Dalton)
I can't believe it IS butter (1.111, G, Simon Snow Series)
Time After Time (18K, T, Simon Snow Series)
The Moon fic (49, G, Glee)
Stage Fright (12K, T, Glee, with all the authors of the @gleefrankenfic)
aap noot mies (8K, G, Glee)
A Grimm Christmas (5K, G, Simon Snow Series)
So Much Better (12K, T, Glee)
There's nothing ironic about show choir (14K, T, Simon Snow Series)
Ljubim te (WIP, T, Glee)
Holy moly. This is... more than I thought. I also just found out that you can filter your statistics page by year, so I don’t have to grab my calculator. AO3 tells me I published 319,614 words this year! “Published”, because I have a lot of unfinished WIPs that I wrote for. Meanwhile, Paradiso 2 was written in 2021 and part of Paradiso 3 as well. I’ve been writing A rip in time since 2017 and also I wrote the beginnings of the alien!Blaine fic and Time After Time in 2018 and 2021.
All Glee fics are about Klaine. Almost all Simon Snow fics are about Snowbaz, with Call Me Maybe as the exception. That is a gen fic. Same goes for the Love, Victor one, the JATP one and the CrisTales one. The Dalton ones are multiships. The other two ships I wrote for are Zimbits (OMGCP) and Gentlebeard (OFMD).
Some questions under the cut. Aralias, these questions are really good.
Best/worst title?
The best titles are Time After Time, The Naked Truth and A Grimm Christmas in my opinion, and I cannot take credit for those. Christina @facewithoutheart came with Time After Time (my working title was “damn Baz, you live like this?”), Pati @aristocratic-otter came up with The Naked Truth and Jas @aroace-genderfluid-sheep came up with A Grimm Christmas.
If I gotta pick my own work, it’s I can’t believe it IS butter. Okay, and I kept laughing every time I wrote There’s nothing ironic about show choir, because Rachel’s delivery of that line would play in my head.
The worst is probably Thinkin’ about us. That was definitely a last minute title. I mean, it makes sense to me, but it makes no goddamn sense for this fic. I chose it since it’s the lyrics of Just A Dream (UH UH UH I WAS THINKIN’ ABOUT YOU, THINKIN’ ABOUT ME, THINKIN’ ABOUT US yada yada) which is a huge inside joke in the Dalton Discord, but this fic has absolutely nothing to do with Dalton and its Discord. The fic is about waking up from a dream, hence the shit connection, but yeah... not the best.
Best/worst summary?
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I am not the best at writing summaries, mostly because I tend to forget about them until I am ready to post and I’m like “oh SHIT oh FUCK”, so the best? Hmmmm. @cerriddwenluna really helped me out with the aap noot mies and the Ebb & Flow ones. But alas, if I have to pick my own work, I think it’s Time After Time.
Simon Snow dies in the White Chapel, and Baz has to live an immortal life without him. Or so he thinks. Every twenty years, when the Veil lifts, Simon and Baz are able to reunite. Something is keeping Simon from moving on, and Baz doesn’t know if he wants to find out what that is, because it would mean letting go.
And if there’s one thing Baz can not do, it’s letting Simon go.
Simple and straight to the point. It introduces what the fic is about and it also introduces the main source of tension: Baz doesn’t want to let go of Simon. Drama ensues!
Worst:
And finally, the end.
This is from the Zimbits Update fic and it means absolutely nothing. That’s because these Updates fics are collections of drabbles, so each chapter has a summary of its own. But as a result, I always put my own commentary in the summary of the fic as a whole. It makes some sense if you read the series in one go, which is something a lot of people do (and it always brings me joy when I get an AO3 e-mail with kudos and it’s clear that someone went through it all), but on its own it is terrible.
I just refuse to write “I am bad at summaries” in the summaries. I at least gotta commit to the bit 😔✊.
Best/worst first line?
All my first and last lines are very short. I realised most of the fics start with a short line, then a larger line that really kicks of the story.
There seems to be one exception, which is the Bakery fic. That’s why I think that’s the best first line.
There are many decisions that have led Kurt Hummel to this dog bakery, but the biggest one was his decision to move to Los Angeles to become a dog party planner for influencers.
And worst.... Hmmm. Like I said, most of the first lines are very similar: short and not saying a lot. I don’t think the beginnings of my fics are bad, per sé, because all the opening paragraphs are a decent way to start a fic. I’m going with At Last, since that is a missing scene from Glee, so the fic jumps straight into a scene:
“But... But what?” Kurt asks, desperate to make some sense out of this situation.
Best/worst last line?
The best is probably The Naked Truth, once again because that one is longer than 10 words.
I put my pencil on the paper, I look over to Simon who’s already flexing his upper body, and I start to draw.
But yeah, I don’t think of first and last lines, but I think of beginnings and endings in a larger scale, like a paragraph or a chapter. But this one is nice and it also says something about what the fic’s about, unlike other last lines.
I picked the upcoming worst line since I apparently used it twice.
All is well.
Again, my last lines are very short and again it doesn’t mean they’re bad, but sometimes they are. Sometimes it’s clear I was looking for a quick line that felt fitting for any kind of ending. So this is the end of A rip in time and The Moon fic. (And I won’t be surprised if I have used it more).
Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
Damn, I wrote a lot more than I thought. Over 300.000 words is insane, so yes, definitely more than I thought. I admit I don’t really plan my fics in advance. It’s changed a little bit since I started doing fests (more on that later), but most of the time I just start writing and I see when (or if) it sees the light of day.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?
Well, I couldn’t have written for Gentlebeard since the show didn’t exist last year, but jk jk. More seriously, I did write for three new fandoms: OFMD, JATP and CrisTales. And I got some returning ones (Dalton and Love, Victor).
The genre that completely threw me off was parenting fic or whatever you want to call it. I never even attempted a serious fic with any of my ships as parents. There have been kid OCs before (like, Julie for Klaine in the Myosotis series, or the unnamed twins for Zimbits in one fic that I can’t fucking remember right now), but I never wanted to do that, mostly because I don’t want kids myself so I never think about it.
And then my little Rosemary Snow happened. Maybe this is cheating, cause I did mention that I wrote part of Paradiso 3 in 2021, but oh MAN. OH MAN. How much love I have for this fictional child. If Simon and Baz are the dads, then I am the fairy godmother (who killed her biological parents oop-). She’s not real and yet I’d die for her. And not only is this a fic with a kid, but also it delves deep into adoption, another topic that I swore I’d never delve into. Alas, here we are.
Oh, and I wrote my first Main Character Death with Time After Time, but Simon is still constantly present in the fic as a Visitor.
What’s your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
Paradiso series. And yes, I know, I wrote all of Paradiso 1 and 2 in 2021 and part of Paradiso 3 in 2021 as well, but I loved it. I had so much fucking fun.
I often say that Paradiso 1 is the amazing eldest child, Paradiso 2 is the awkward middle child and Paradiso 3 is the surprise youngest child. What I mean by this is that Paradiso 1 is probably the best and maybe I should’ve ended it there, but I wanted to continue so badly that I wrote Paradiso 2. Could that fic have been better? Definitely. I think it is quite messy. But I love it nevertheless and it still introduced a lot of cool things. Paradiso 3 was even more unplanned and since it took me on a journey, it was a surprise.
Okay, NOW your most popular story.
Everyone say “Thank you AO3!”
I usually don’t pay attention to my stats. I have no clue if something is popular because a) most of the time I do not know how many kudos etc. a fic has and b) even if I do have a vague idea of it, I don’t know what constitutes as “popular” in the grand scheme of things. I do sometimes associate one person with a fic and even if that one person was the only one loving it, I’d be happy.
So thank you AO3 for this goddamn great statistics page. Now, I do peek here maybe once a year, just out of curiosity (I think I may have made annual posts about that) and god this page is a godsend for having all the information in one place.
Here are the hits:
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Note that a lot of people who read A rip in time read it in the beginning of when I started posting (2018). All the others got posted in 2022 only. Oh, well, Paradiso started posting mid-December 2021, but most of it was posted in 2022.
Kudos:
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Same story here. I filtered the results on 2022, but since A rip in time did post in 2022, it is an outlier, like spider georg.
Comments:
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Bookmarks:
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And here again. If we disregard A rip in time, it seems like Time After Time is the most popular. Damn Baz, you live like this?
Story most underappreciated by the universe?
Call Me Maybe. Call Me Maybe! God, @captain-aralias​ already mentioned it, but yes, I totally agree that Call Me Maybe is the most underappreciated. And I know why. It isn’t a shippy fic. It’s a gen fic about Agatha, and Simon and Baz only make a “cameo” in the actual fic.
But I put my heart and soul in this fic. I projected on Agatha like a boss. I even tried to rickroll the fandom!
And this was the only time I was aware of it not being popular. Like I wrote above, I have two reasons that I am usually ignorant of how well my fics are doing. I don’t care. Yes, I’d like people to read my stuff. I always use the cake analogy. If someone spends hours baking a cake and no one eats it, then even when the baking process was fun, it stings. But even then, since I do not actively track my stats and I don’t look at other people’s stats either. I remain blisfully ignorant and I find that very freeing.
But this fic was part of a fest. All the fics of that fest were put together in one AO3 collection. And that made it very easy to see how this fic was not getting the hits that others did. It took a long time before this fic even got 100 hits, while others already had over 400 or so. When it hit 100, I was very emotional. I knew it wasn’t going to be as popular, since this isn’t a Snowbaz fic, but man. There were some huge differences.
Now, honestly, the most important thing to me was that @captain-aralias​ liked it, which she did. I am so happy she liked it. Even her comments in her 2022 review page make me feel warm and fuzzy and happy. But I also wished more people had the chance to like it as well.
I’ve talked about my approach to stats etc. several times with people. There I also said that no matter how true it is that 99% I do not care, there is also the 1%. I think every writer, even “chill” ones like me, is prone to some anxiety or disheartened feelings at one point about stats and Call Me Maybe was my fic for that situation. I just really, really wanted people to read it. I still do. I haven’t checked the stats ever since it hit 100 hits, since that was the milestone I had in mind when I realised Call Me Maybe was falling behind, and it happened, but I wouldn’t mind more people reading it.
Story that could have been better?
Without a doubt, it’s Ebb & Flow. It’s just messy. Even more messy than Paradiso 2. (Not as messy as A rip in time, though, but the whole idea behind A rip in time is that it’s kinda bad anyway, which is why I love it.) (If you love the Doctor Who universe, and mess, A rip in time is the fic for you!).
Or well, at least I think Ebb & Flow is messy. It had a beginning with a lot of info-dumping, a wacky middle where too much was going on, and a good ending that is only that good because I was inspired by another fic. It’s because I had a story to tell, but I also wanted to nerd out about Splatoon 2. Do I regret the nerding out? No, not at all, but it made it a bit messy, especially for people who do not know Splatoon 2 (I did provide a glossary, but still). Besides, the Big Sad of the story is that Burt is dead and I am not sure if I like how I handled the grief. @thnxforknowingme​ told me it’s fine, which was reassuring, but every time I reread Ebb & Flow, I have to stop myself from skipping to the last few chapters cause that’s the good stuff.
Sexiest story?
Gotta pass. Would you believe it when I say T-rated The Naked Truth is the most steamy I ever wrote? All because they were undressing each other! (Well, okay, look, Simon was naked for a lot of the fic but in relation to his relation with Baz, it’s only a scene where they start to take off to undress). I used the word dick for the first time! Wooooh!
Although I think an upcoming chapter of Ljubim te might surpass it. Not too big. I don’t think I’ll ever write E (or M. I gotta see how it goes with Ljubim te.)
Saddest story?
Time After Time. I mean, it’s MCD. I made people cry! Even though Simon is still constantly in the fic, he’s Capital D Dead as in No Amount of Magic Can Bring Simon Back kind of dead.
And on a personal note, Paradiso 3 was incredibly emotional for me, as an adopted person, to write.
Most fun?
Probably I can’t believe it IS butter. I want to write more of the Butter Saga, where Simon marvels over all the forms of butter!
Just... the image of Simon carrying butter packets with him everywhere, so that he can gnaw on them. I love this guy. I kept laughing throughout the entire writing process and I loved that I got to share it with the CO Discord, since the idea came from there.
Oh, and as a Glee fan, I absolutely loved There’s nothing ironic about show choir. I really tried to capture the crazy Glee dramatics for this fic and Simon and Baz’s feud. Ruta and Vitis forever!
Story with single sweetest moment?
Not to toot my own horn, but I am obsessed with this line from The Naked Truth:
Again, there’s so much laughter.
Is this what love is like? Endless exuberant laughter? I revel in the sound of his joy.
I mean, pretty swell for an aroace gal.
And I also got the comment that Time After Time is utterly romantic in its own way, and I have to agree, even though Simon is super dead.
Hardest story to write?
Ebb & Flow. It’s the unfortunate truth that I hated writing this fic. I complained constantly about it here and on The Lima Bean Discord. I don’t want to put it so crassly (”I hated writing that!”), because it was a fest so I wasn’t the only person involved, but it’s just what happened. I loved the prompt. I fucking ADORE the art that was created for it, but the writing.... Oh honey.
I got stuck a lot. Getting stuck isn’t new, but this was my first fest and it was nerve wrecking. I’ll get more into that later. But this led to this extra pressure and that only made the existing bad feelings even worse. Basically, when I ended it, I was so fucking done I couldn’t look at it, since it just made me anxious. I normally write and then polish my work before posting, but here I didn’t want to dwell on this fic. The day before posting day, I finally opened the document after 2 weeks (I think?) to do some final edits and that was it.
This also goes back to the whole “story that could have been better” answer. Is Ebb & Flow truly that messy, or am I just projecting my negative feelings on it? I did talk with some others about how I started to like Ebb & Flow after I got positive feedback, and how that also motivates me to comment more. The comments I got on that fic make my day and I admit I am surprised every time I get a positive one. Not that I expected negative ones, but I don’t know... I just didn’t like it.
I do now. Don’t get me wrong. I like Ebb & Flow since the people in this fandom really lifted me up, but I still think it could’ve been better. But I like it. It’s on my mind a lot, mostly because I am listening to a lot of Splatoon music and of course, Splatoon 3 has been released. Hmmm, maybe I’ll write that sequel one day (*wink wink nudge nudge* @cerriddwenluna​).
Easiest/most fun story to write?
Barking Up The Wrong Bakery. I actually wrote Bakery fic to counter all the bad feelings that arose while writing Ebb & Flow. Instead of polishing up Ebb & Flow, as I should’ve done, I went head first into Bakery fic.
I even made a meme about it:
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It was just so much fun. The whole idea of this fic was letting go of trying too hard and it was so worth it. And I had Cooper as a cartoon villain of sorts. I have more to say about it later, but crack is very relaxing to write.
Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?
Call Me Maybe definitely was a huge thing. I had written an Agatha saga in 2021, but I still think Call Me Maybe was the first time I gave Agatha the love she needs. And, yes, yes, projection on characters. You know how it is.
After Wayward Son, I was really rooting for aroace Agatha. So much that after I first finished AWTWB I was clinging onto the fact that Niamh wasn’t mentioned in the epilogue. As in “yes, yes, they kissed in the book but that doesn’t mean they actually end up together, Agatha can still realise this isn’t what she wants either!”. I came around because I too am obsessed with Niamh. If I weren’t aroace and if Niamh Brody weren’t fictional I’d also ask her hand in marriage. If Agga doesn’t want her, then I want her!
So yeah. Niamh Brody, amirite?
But still, I liked the idea of exploring the big What If. Originally, Call Me Maybe started out as Agatha realising she likes girls since she gets a crush on Penelope. @captain-aralias​ already wrote in the original CO WIP Adoption Fest fic that she was also fine with it being a friendship fic between Agga and Penny. I shifted the crush part from Penny to Ginger. I tried that for a while, which is why the beginning of what I’ve written is more about Agga having Feelings and Thoughts when she’s around Ginger.
But I suppose Ginger isn’t Niamh. I realised I wasn’t vibing with it at all. I already have issues with writing characters who fall in love because my aroace ass has no clue what that is. So I messaged Aralias again to tell her it was going to be an aroace!Agatha fic and I realised that I could use the Feelings and Thoughts from the beginning for that reason as well. Yes, she has Feelings and Thoughts about Ginger, but it’s not romantic and that bothers Agga, because she doesn’t know why she can’t just fall for her. As a result, I had to let go of the more flirty playful Agatha from AWTWB, but I worked out. So maybe it wasn’t a change in perspective, since I already had aroace!Agatha in mind after WS, but more a “coming back to that perspective”, after AWTWB changed it up.
Most overdue story?
A rip in time. I mean, I started writing it in 2017 and I started posting it in 2018. I felt incredibly empty when I finally finished it, but it was time. I knew I wanted to finish it before 13 regenerated, so I did.
God.
What a ride this was, though.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Oh, yes, definitely. There are probably two big risks and one smaller risk.
The smaller one is that I branched out to new fandoms, but honestly, that isn’t super new. I also wrote fic for other fandoms in previous years. It’s just true that Glee/Simon Snow/Check, Please! are my go-to’s, even though I only wrote one Check, Please! fic this year.
The bigger ones are:
1. I participated in collaborative fests and challenges. I have been doing the Klaine Advent since 2015 and I’ve written for some other challenges, but this is the first year I collaborated. Call Me Maybe and Stage Fright are the only ones that I co-wrote, but the other collaborative fests are still collaborative in my eyes, because I wrote other people’s prompts or other people made stuff for the fic. But yeah, I had the 321 Klaine Reverse Bang, and the CO WIP Adoption Fest, and the Glee Frankenfic, and of course the latest Klaine Secret Santa. And oooooh boy, it was nerve wrecking. Not gonna lie there. I usually live by the “I write for me and ME alone” principle, and that obviously does not apply when you’re working with someone else. There have been moments where I was so nervous. I was constantly hoping that the others would like it, especially with So Much Better, because that was a holiday gift! I remember fistbumping the air when I got the news that I could use Legally Blonde for that fic. Sometimes that had negative consequences (yeah, again, Ebb & Flow), but I learnt a lot. I do think I ought to tone it down. I wrote a lot about my girlboss situation, which was basically that I took on too many challenges etc. and that I was girlbossing too close to the sun. I am just genuinely excited and I want to encourage people in the fandom to make more challenges, but woooh, maybe I gotta tone it down.
2. I wrote a surprising amount of cracky fics. Bakery fic, The Moon fic, Thinkin’ about us, Butter fic, aap noot mies, There’s nothing ironic about show choir... Heck, I still have the WIPs Hold on to that feeling and Just Some Guy. I started both this year and those are also cracky. I made Baz a Klainer 12! Check, Please!’s John Johnson is here! I usually write angst and serious stuff, like mental health issues, grief, broken friendships, internalised homophobia, questioning identity etc., so this was a huge departure. Not to say I’ve never written crack. The fic where Jack and Bitty almost adopt a donkey on the Sims 4 is a thing. But I didn’t see it as a genre that I write often enought to say that it’s a genre I write. Man, Bakery fic did me a lot of good, because I had a fucking blast writing all the crack stuff. I kept laughing a lot while writing the stuff and I am happy being also found it cracky. Kissy kissy smooch smooch! BONK!
This year’s theme and the story that demonstrates it most:
Kinda what I wrote above: crack and collabs. I don’t know if there’s one specific story that demonstrates it. None of the collab fics are the cracky fics. Although that being said, I shared a lot about writing the cracky fics, since I obviously didn’t have to keep that a secret until a post date. As a result, I did get fun feedback while writing it. I already made a mushy post a few weeks earlier about how I am so happy that fandom exists and yeah, yeah I am happy it exists.
What are your fic writing goals for next year?
please for the love of god let me finish my fucking zimbits fics oh GOD
This is a long post so if you made it to this spot, hi! Since it’s a long post, I wrote some little drafts for each answer and the sentence above is the draft for this one. Because yes, please, let me finish the two Zimbits fics that I’ve been writing since 2019. They aren’t my oldest WIPs, but I want to write Zimbits again because I miss these characters.
I don’t know when I’ll get to it, though. I currently have one WIP on AO3, which is Ljubim te, my Klaine Advent 2022 fic. I don’t feel rushed to finish it. After all, I finished my 2019 Advent fic in October 2020, but I want to finish it. And I really want to wrap up my CO textfic. I got very far into that fic, but then I put it away to focus on the fests and challenges that did have a deadline.
I‘ve also been thinking about bullet point fics/fic where the author just writes it down as “notes”. There are two big AUs that have been on my mind for a while, namely the Sarah Jane Adventures Extended Universe (SJAE, since 2017) and the Glee/Sense8 crossover (since 2020) and since these two are basically a collection of ideas, maybe it’s possible. I’ve never made a bullet point fic/”notebook fic” (no idea if that is an actual term), but I have read them.
Apart from that, I’ll see.
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wishfulstargazer · 1 month
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Joy to the World
I am finally reaching the end of a story I started uploading 12/25/2021. It's been a strange two and a half years, but if you love Christmas or Dickens or Julie and the Phantoms, you might just like this fic. Final chapter will be posted by 3/1/2024.
Rating: T
Words: 14857
Relationships: Julie Molina & Rose Molina, Ray Molina/Rose Molina, Carlos Molina & Ray Molina & Julie Molina & Aunt Victoria, Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters & Julie Molina
Summary:
"Christmas in LA is free of snow, but not of spirit. In fact, between the lit up palm trees, the shop displays everywhere, Feliz Navidad playing on every radio station, and a host of Christmas music and decorations all over Los Feliz high school, Christmas is pretty much unavoidable.
It all grates on her nerves. Christmas without Rose Molina is unthinkable. Almost as unthinkable as music without Rose Molina."
Can a well meaning trio of ghost boys bring back Julie's Christmas spirit and help her reclaim her music?
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daintyduck99 · 8 months
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My Jatp Fics: Greatest Hits
It's my birthday! It's also roughly the two and a half year anniversary of me joining this Fandom, which feels like a milestone.
As of now, I've written 75 works for Julie and the Phantoms. 75! That's crazy. Sure, I'd say a lot of my strength lies in exploring small ideas, or in condensing a concept into something short, but... 75!
If you're reading this, I love you! There are so many amazing, talented people in this Fandom and to know you even tangentially is a blessing ❤️ I doubt I would've ever written so much if I wasn't surrounded by so many other passionate creatives.
I do have to give a special shout out to the rest of the Rulie canoe crew. ❤️💜 I love y'all and I'm glad we're friends🥰
In celebration of all of the above, I've compiled a top ten list of all of my fics that I'd most recommend, so if you'd like to show my stories some love (and don't want to wade through all 75), here are the hits:
the sunflower series
Reggie/Julie, QPR Reggie & Luke & Julie, Luke & Flynn
This one is about summer love and how it shines. It's about diving headlong into the surf while your friends cheer you on and holding hands with your ghosts. It follows the echoes of those scorching summer feelings, and the sunflowers that sprout in their wake.
Mutual Pining, Fluff, Slice of Life, 33k, Rated T
what if i fall (but what if you fly)
Julie/Kayla
What if Kayla came to talk to Julie during the dance instead of Nick?
Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Canon Divergence, Julie-centric, 2k, Rated T
one more try (to feel alive)
Reggie/Julie, Julie & Rose
"Get a grip, Reginald. There's no such thing as cute ghost girls."
Fluff and Angst, Role Reversal, Ghost Julie, 1.4k, Rated T
Kept On Climbing 'Til Our Stars Collided
Luke/Bobby, Reggie/Julie, pre-Luke/Bobby/Reggie/Julie
Bobby rubs his eyes.
He must be more screwed up from the dopamine than he thought, because—
There’s an angel in the kitchen.
Fluff and Angst, Pining, Friends with Benefits, Morning After, Jealousy, Awkward Conversations, 2k, Rated M
I'll Be Your Tangerine, You Can Peel Me With Your Teeth
Reggie/Julie
"Don't worry, tesoro. I won't bite. Unless you're into that sort of thing."
He’s pale, far too pale for someone who spends much time at sea, and his blush betrays him.
Pirate AU, Smut, Bonus Romantic Fluff, 4k, Rated E
Our Luxury (A Love Like Stars)
Reggie/Luke/Julie, Luke & Emily, Luke & Ray
“So, I bought a ring,” Luke says, casual in the way that usually Reggie would realize is nowhere near casual and much closer to freaking out, but he’s a little busy choking to death on his lunch.
Fluff and Angst, Established Relationship, Misunderstandings, Proposal, Romantic Gestures, Happy Ending, 13k, Rated T
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Feel Alive
Reggie/Julie, Reggie/Luke/Julie, Julie & Rose, Julie & Ray
Julie has several heart-to-hearts as she tries to figure out how to love a ghost (or two).
Fluff, Queer Themes, Love, Grief, Magic, Series, 7k, Rated T
It Was Only A Pick
Luke/Reggie
God, Reggie thinks as Luke smirks up at him, adorned in the fanning halo of his dark brown hair and the amusement that shines from his eyes, amplified blue from the proximity of the pick, he’s beautiful.
Fluff and Angst, Kissing, Misunderstandings, Music, Confession, Happy Ending, 4k, Rated T
Of Hearts Borrowed And Blue
Reggie/Julie
If anything, Julie’s even more of a grinch here that she would be back home, because she stuffed all of her grief into a battered suitcase, and she can’t just pull it out for every single stranger trying to get her into the Christmas spirit.
Hallmark AU, Fluff and Angst, Strangers to Lovers, 18.3k, Rated E
I Don't Want You Like A Best Friend
QPR Reggie & Julie, Luke/Reggie, Julie/Carrie
Everyone thinks Reggie and Julie are dating. It's a problem, because they're both pining over other people...but they also don't know exactly what they are, or how to reconcile their relationship with the romantic ones they want. They try to help each other, though.
Fluff and Humor, Light Angst, Pining, Jealousy, Queerplatonic Relationship, Friendship (Too Many To Tag), Love, Practice Kissing, Kissing, Friends to Lovers, Sexual Tension, Mild Sexual Content (They Are V Much Horny Teenagers), 13.8k, Rated M
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