CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE #6
WHATâS THE MOST NAUGHTY THING YOUâVE EVER DONE?
âWell...â Oliver smiled at the question only to have his lips pressed together, holding back a laugh of which a small giggle managed to escape. âHmm.. kinda.. depends what you mean by.. naughty.., â his eyes betraying his amusement and also a tinge of something like embarrassment, maybe, â..and what you mean by.. âwith or without someoneâs watchingâ, I guess..â Heâs unable to completely stifle his laughter and a sound comes out, a snort. âYou know what? Why am I even answering these?!â
WHATâS THE NICEST THING YOUâVE EVER DONE?Â
âAnswering these questionsâ Oliver is quick to quip. âUgh, I donât know.. I donât do nice things, so.. I mean.. I think answering these questions maybe itâs the right answer.â A shrug.Â
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              CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE #5
HOW DID THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING GO FOR YOU THIS YEAR?
The Kempten family has a saying that goes, âthe best gift is to be together.â Cheesy, and Oliver would be the first to roll his eyes and call it that, but true. Growing up, gifts at Christmas were always something that all of them could use. A new tv, a new (used) car, and maybe a tree to decorate or a trip to their favorite pastry store.
And while things have changed, they still keep this tradition up. Everyone pitches in only for the necessary, even if turns out to be enough food to feed three football teams. The only exceptions are for Andrèâs two years old daughter and Michealâs five years old son, they always get one gift just for them.
DID YOU BRING A FRIEND OR GO ALONE? OR DIDNâT YOU NEED TO BUY PRESENTS?
While Oliver had no need to buy presents, he still accompany friends that did and ended up buying a few things.
WHO DID YOU BE-GIFT?Â
Buckbeak, his pet cockatiel which he was given as a task from The Volière. Oliver couldnât resist pick a toy and new stuff for the little birdâs cage.
DID YOU JOIN SECRET SANTA ORGANISED BY WHITEBRIDGE U.?
No. Oliver made sure to not sign up for any of it, and he was quite direct with anyone trying to make him join up.
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               CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE #4
CAN YOUR MUSE PLAY ANY INSTRUMENTS?Â
No, not really. While Oliver is a good singer and enjoys music and singing, he never learned to play an instrumentâany instrumentâor even music sheets.
He has a good ear and a good memory when it comes to songs, but he has never trained for the theory aspect of music.
DO THEY WANT TO LEARN THEM?
Yes and no. There is certainly an interest in music and in possibly playing an instrument, but it's not an idea that is presently in his mind. It would be more likely something to either come out of a joke or as a way to know someone else better.
WHICH OTHER BIRD WOULD BE SUITED AS A TEACHER?
HAWK.
Hawk's perceiving nature would be best to be able to look right through Oliver's defence mechanism. Their sharp-tongue could keep up with his mocking, and their relentless and unforgiving nature would serve best to push him to actually commit to the task.
psd credit
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                CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE #3
Mittens, scarves, hats.
A WINTER OUTFIT
One of his roommates, Brian OâMalley, who he nicknamed Percy Weasley because of his ginger hair, gifted him the Ron Weasley sweater for Christmas. Oliver has yet to wear anything else this holiday season. He wears it with dark jeans, red boots, and his favorite jacket: a pink parka.
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                CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE #2
Which other bird/skeleton would your muse call before an exam, a job interview, or really any nerve-wrecking situation? Who would they ask to drive them, or to drink a tea with afterwards to calm down? Is there someone who has the opposite effect? Or is that the same person? Is distraction the best medicine for anxiety? To sum it up:
 WHO AFFECTS THE PACE OF YOUR MUSEâS HEART?Â
DOVE.
There is nothing like letting Doveâs naivety to distracting him from the stress of a heavy day. Itâs almost like fighting fire with fire. Itâs easy to push whatever is troubling him in the back of his mind when all his energy are spent over not rolling his eyes too hard or trying catch Doveâs hand to show them what they can do with that peace sign of theirs.
The truth is, Dove seems like the kind of person to care enough about others to pick up the phone and offer you a ride, but they are also easy to rouse up and get them to talk about whatever hot topic itâs on their mind instead of having them asking questions about you, and thatâs exactly how Oliver likes this strange partnership. Or so he believes.
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                CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE #1
HOW DEEP INTO CHRISTMAS ARE YOU?
âBold of you to assume Iâm into Christmas at all. Iâm not. Not into the religious stuff. And before you say thatâs not what you meant, I get not everyone subscribes to that. Consumerism as turned it into an economic holiday just to push people into spending money and all that crap, while Sentimentalism tries to salvage it with saying itâs about giving yourself some time for friends and family and all that other crap. Iâm sure youâve heard the classic anti-Christmas speech before,â Oliver replied with a lopsided smirk. âAnd, look, Iâm not gonna complain about the food.. but, yeah, Iâm not into the lights, the cheesy decorations, the gifts.... And, hey, if you are asking me this to get me into the Westbridge Secret Santa program thatâs a hard no, thanks.â
ARE YOU EXCITED?
Oliver huffed. âNo. Whatâs there to be excited about?â But it was not completely the truth, it had been months since he had last seen all his family and he couldnât help missing them and looking forward to seeing them all again. Excited, but also scared. âAside for you to go bother someone else.â
WILL YOU CARE?
âDo you care? And, anyway, about what? Christmas? ...In that case, no,â Oliver shrugged, in that way of his when the answer in truth was âI donât knowâ. âI mean.. I care about my family and spending time with them. It just so happen that itâd be around Christmas.â
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hanacagedswallowâ:
the smile that twitched at the corner of her lips was probably hidden in the dark butâŚthe butterfly still existed. âlittle flutters is surviving.â she muses, glancing over at oliver. âdoes he have a name? she? they?â at least it had managed to avoid the washing. âiâll make you a better one, one day, but then iâd feel like the first would lose his sentiment.â hana looked ahead to their starting line, reaching for a little tiny electronic box under her side of the dash to turn on the radio scanner, static and then the sound of police dispatchers. she didnât need voices just that small light that was green right now. it would turn yellow and red upon a cop car being in the area. she was signaled ahead and as always she took to her usual left lane. right-side would be an easy out in avoiding being shoved into any oncoming cars, should there be any. but sheâd take the oncoming traffic. hana trusted herself more than she trusted strangers, obviously, with innocent oncoming passersby. âofficial navigator. me at your bed-sideâŚ.maybe not bad so long as being fussed over doesnât bother you.âÂ
she smiled, looking again at the wicked pink glow in her mirror. âreally need to use that color more.â such a good choice. rolling up slowly into her spot she glanced to the blue of the shelby mustang at her right, and the nismo was right behind the shelby, aâŚhonda civic on steroids behind her. her engine purred now, humming idly in waiting. âbasicallyâŚitâs just shitty. they tried to ban the guy for bumping someone off into the water canal. you know the dry ones that slope down, but itâs such a âat your own riskâ and âdonât narkâ type hobby that the ban on him didnât stick.â unfortunately and fortunately because part of her wanted to do some damage, part of her was too human for that, and knew sheâd done enough damage in her life to be where she was within a golden cage. âavoiding it is better if it can be helped.âÂ
obi-wan. hanaâs eyes darted over to him as the horn was blown for the line in front of them and a smile twitched at her lips. oliver was in charge of the song and hana rolled forward, one beside her, four behind them. her hand covered the gear stick, and her pulse slowed, calmed. âand make sure youâre relaxed back.â leaning forward would only throw him back into his seat. the horn sounded and hanaâs hand threw the car in first as her boot pressed the gas, two seconds and she was throwing it into second and as quicklyâŚinto third.Â
âThey do,â Oliver confirmed, and he took his wallet to show it to Hana before sheâd need to keep her attention solely on the road. âLuna. Corny, but sheâs all shiny silver and couldnât resist.â Plus, it reminded him of one of his favorite characters from Harry Potter. âI know what you mean,â he nodded, securing Luna in the pocket of his shirt. For good luck, even if he wasnât a superstitious person. âBut I think Luna will always be special in their own way.â And he believed that.Â
His gaze went to her, following her movements as she turned the police dispatch on. It gave the moment an added layer of realism. This was happening, and that familiar itching that came with his curiosity was back. He wanted this experience.Â
A smile and a chuckle followed her words. âOh, well, damn.. I tend to say I donât like being fussed over, but Iâve been told Iâm only slightly grumpy about it and I mellow out in the end.â His lips turning into a little pout.Â
A pout that disappear as soon as Hana commented on the pink glow again, turning into a grin instead. âItâs wicked, isnât it?â but then he was biased, he loved the color pink. âYeah, well, I imagine itâs not really much they can do to keep him away. Guy shows up, they certainly canât cause that big of a scene to get him to leave.â It was the trick with things like these, he supposed. âAlternative would be what? Refuse to race if he shows up? That wouldnât last long and only piss people off.â So, he nodded in agreement with her. The best option did seem to stay clear of the Nismo during the race. Though, itâd be grand to also give it a little of its same medicine, too, if only heâd worth ruining the carâs paint.
The horn was blown, and he hit the play button. The song started: drums that would go into a crescendo, pumping your heart to work faster and steadier. His shoulders responded to her words before his own could, they relaxed back against the seat, âAye, Captain.â
burning roads
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Text @ open
Pearl: can you please pick up some bird seed if you go by the store??
Pearl: the kind with the tiny seeds if you can!! bert hates sunflower seeds :(
Oliver: if you have some of that one with the sunflower seeds left & u don't want it to go to waste buckbeak loves them
Oliver: i'm going now. is any brand okay as long as it has tiny seeds?
Oliver: btw do u need some cage liner too?
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bisithehummingbirdâ:
Oliver didnât react to what heâd said, but for many reasons, Bisi thought it was the most elegant way to let this conversation run out. There was nothing to say to all this, not really. It wasnât something you said for an argument, or for an exploration of the topic. It was something you said because you knew it would settle into the other personâs mind, into their skin. It would resurface when time would come, Bisi knew that, just like he knew that Oliver was well aware enough of it too.
âThey do,â he chuckled. âAnd it can be quite useful. You never know when you run out of net or bat or something.â It surely wasnât a scenario Bisi was a stranger to. But it was just like Oliver said. In the worst case, theyâd get lost in Maryland. Or ⌠whatever state Oliver was driving them to. In silence but not in indifference, Bisi watched. The chai was soon finished, so was the sandwich and cupcake, and their wrappers and the infamous paper cup were tossed to the back seats to the rest of the wrapper-and-cup cemetery there. He didnât stop Oliver from continuing. If he was honest, he was glad Oliver was aiming for somewhere farther away than the ââsuburbsââ of Whitebridge, and something more unusual than DC. Actually, he was also almost relieved. It meant theyâd be on the road for longer, didnât it? His smile was soft and very private.Â
And then the topic resurfaced. âDefine dream?â he asked, before answering anyway with: âMy excuse,â and a nod. He nodded because yes, some called it a dream, even it didnât quite fit his own definition of a dream. But he knew what Oliver meant, and he didnât want to be complicated. He appreciated the gentle curiosity too much. Especially after all this silence.
Oliver shook his head. Not that he had never found himself with a dead battery, or with no data, but he had never strayed away from familiar roads and the idea of getting lost was never a scary one. âTrue,â he said, though, because it simply was. âYou know that your car is a mess, right?â he said, when more was added to the wrappers-and-cups in the back. âDo you ever clean it?â Right there, he almost sounded like Letisha.
âI suppose âdreamâ doesnât quite make it,â not for what he had in mind. Mostly, he wasnât sure what a dream was, and more than not dreams to him were unobtainable things. âGoal. Mission. Purpose, I think might fight better. Excuse, though?â he thought over the word, and it sparked a question that he wasnât sure he wanted to voice. But his skin itched, curiosity poking at him. âExcuse for what?â
how do you feel about...
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parrotingmackâ:
âif it is all seven of them, weâll just have to make sure that we meet one on one.â she says, chuckling softly. âand of course there is an ulterior motive here. i got to know all my friendâs dirty secrets.â she says with a smirk upon her face. âdo you all get together often?â she asks as they got to the door, her eyes looking to oliver. a blush appeared on her own face, before she was chuckling nervously. âweâre dating.â she tells him honestly. he was the first person she told and it had her heart hammering in her chest because. she didnât speak about it often of them, but it was nice really. âshe is pretty cool and awesome too. pretty laid back.â which she loved about hana. how laid back she was, how things just roll off her shoulders and she continued on with what she was doing.
ânot today, satan. iâm very senseless today.â she tells him, before they were both pulling the door open. what she saw inside was not what she was expecting. she was quite a little disappointed in what they saw really. âare they rehearsing for that 70â˛s show?â she murmurs to oliver eyes still looking around. they hadnât even noticed them standing at the door looking in. âiâm highly disappointed in what iâm seeing right now.â she murmurs to oliver a deep breath leaving her lips as she moved away from the door, her heels still in her hand. ânow what?â
âEight, actually,â Oliver corrected himself. Itâs not that there was one sibling he forgot about, but by the time the youngest had been born, the oldest was already living on his own. âAndrĂŠ, Michael, Latisha, Joshua, Jonelle, Lisa, Daniel and Ruth,â he listed, counting on his fingers. Eight. âOh, well, as much as we can. Usually itâs around holidays, big occasions when we can all cut some time out of work or school.â
Dating. He smiled at the news. âThatâs great,â he said, sincerely glad to hear about this. He found both of them cool people in their own merit, and they would make a nice couple. âAnd I can tell the dating is going good. Iâm happy for you two.â
He stifled a laugh at her response. Not today, Satan. Taking in the sight in front of them, he was more surprised than disappointed. Mostly because he didnât understand why they were passing the damn cowboy hat around since they just put it on their heads. âI mean.. probably? Though, where is Mila Kunis? This is not a correct rehearse of that showâ even if he had never properly watched it. He glanced at Mack. âWhat if... we take the hat?â
trick or (re)treat
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ashercanaryâ:
He couldnât help laughing a little. âOh, thank you. I could teach you how if you want.â That would be fun. Go to a thrift store, buy things to spruce up a jacketâŚ
He gasped. âYour jacket! I still have it, you know, from the partyâŚâ And that was a good warm jacket too, Oliver would probably want it back. Unfortunately. He blushed. âI would love to dance, though.â
âReally? Because that would be great,â Oliver replied, genuinely interested. He could already see how to use that learned skill for his future Halloweenâs costumes or to help out his siblings.
âMy jacket?â For a moment, he had thought Asher meant the one he was wearing and so had looked down to check that nothing was catching fire. âOh! The one with the Champagne fountain and the fancy waiters. Right. Donât worry about it tonight.â He offered his gloved hand to Asher, âthen letâs go,â he said.
Wayward Souls
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bisithehummingbirdâ:
Bisi laughed, heartily but not mockingly, at the confusion. âBumblebees. Dumbledoreâs the Old English word for bumblebee.â The decaf suggestion wasnât stupid, and it wasnât like Bisi had never thought about it, but somehow he just thought it a hassle to buy decaf coffee. Because this was a stupid reason, though, he just shrugged and nodded, taking another buy of the pizza. âBetrayal-free.â
A grin passed Bisiâs face, broad and genuine, at the reference. Did this happen to everyone? Feeling proud of oneâs family? Was this normal? Bisi surely didnât mind. âYou do?â he asked instead of commenting. âSo will you finally wish for something real?âÂ
âAre you pulling my leg, now? Because that would explain so much.â Oliver almost had the temptation to check on his phone, even just to give the moment a bit of dramatic flavor. âItâs the new thing. After gluten-free. Wait a couple of moments and every brand will advertise it,â he joked.
He shrugged, which was Oliverâs way to answer with a âmaybeâ and a âweâll seeâ, or anything else, really. âBelieving in gifts made without the desire or expectation of receiving anything back is one thing,â he pointed out. âPlus, thatâs kinda.. ruining a gift. A gift should be oneâs thought for another. If I wanted something, Iâd just.. get it.âÂ
Pizza Offerings
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shhrikeâ:
âNo problem,â replied Gia as Oliver managed to catch himself before wiping out on the floor - thankfully. âIâve been working up there all afternoon,â she indicated towards the tables on the overhanging balcony above them, âAnd I can heavily verify. That you are not the only person to have wiped out today. At least theyâve been spread out incidents, and not like bowling pins or dominoes. Itâs the little miracles.âÂ
âDid it work? The rice?â She closed the wet book and stacked it along with the other sheâd picked up off the ground. âThere are occasional advantages to doing it old school,â she conceded, handing him the tiny pile of damp hardbacks. âNo, no harm done.â Gia would have told him off if heâd really hurt her, but all was well. She nodded towards his many bags. âNeed help carrying all that back to your room? Iâm done studying anyway.â Â
âAre you saying my disaster is not even original?â Oliver asked, faking a shocked, almost alarmed, expression. Hand over his heart, mouth shaped into a giant O. Then he chuckled, âoh, though, you have to admit that wouldâve been worth filming. The bowling pins effect.â
He nodded, âoh, it worked beautifully. The phone still worked after that.â The birdâ food was secured back into the bag, and he accepted the stack of damp hardbacks from Gia. âThanks. And.. if you donât mind? I can offer you this cake one of my roommates baked yesterday. Itâs so good we had to hide it from the entire floor.â
Itâs Raining Math
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cagedhawkâ:
The fact that Oliver wasnât doing anything physical to him almost brought a vocalized sigh from behind the mask. He was too tired, too much in pain and became far too aware that there was at least 5 others after him. Oliver seemed volatile verbally, but it didnât seem to resonate with him in situations such as thisâ where someone was vulnerable and glory was soaked in the wine of revenge.
But he chose the phone.
He chose the phone and didnât even pry for information. He simply called to serve a statement to the general Cage, as if his simple question was worth the taunting, tasks, and general invasion of privacy. Maybe it meant Oliver didnât need informationâ he was perfectly fine with going with the current, trying his best to adjust to what they needed without being as bitter as Charlotte, as desperate as Emily or as pragmatic as James.Â
Once the timer stopped, Jamie finally stood up. He made two strides towards Oliver, stopped in front of it, and eyed the Freshman across the table. One hand reached out, lowered, then gently tapped the bell.Â
Oliver was free to go.
Now that he had rang the bell, Oliver knew it was his turn to be vulnerable to whatever Hawk decided to do now. Despite his relaxed posture, there was still this little tension in his shoulders. Any moment, this whole Process could end before he made it in. At least, he had no regrets and could tell himself there was nothing he wouldâve done differently.
His eyes stayed on Hawk as they stood, walked towards him and then.. the bell was tapped with nothing else happening. There was no rush in his movements and no hesitation, either. A nod to Hawk, and then Oliver walked his way back and out of there.
âŽâłâ´â ĂâŚÉ;; âĽĂâľâĹâŚâ˛ŕ¸żĹ⹤Ä
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