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kikiyakno · 3 years

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Where: Kian’s Grandparent’s Home. Santa Monica, California ( MAGIC AU ) When: Monday, December 21, 2020

KIAN CHOSE...

It was starting to become all too common for Kian to hear his grandparents' voices creep in from underneath the crack of his door. Their conversations were hushed, the warm voices he knew straining under topics of low profits, slow business, and lessening finances. Kian wasn’t supposed to know any of this, of course. Not that he could miss how their glances frequented that of worry and how they danced around conversations about their work days at their restaurant. Kian was more than aware of the situation. He had snuck in his grandpa’s office to borrow some paperwork.

$32,676.13 Their building was three months behind on rent. Three months and a final notice had just landed in the mail. Kian had added up the math in his head, once, twice, maybe ten thousand times in his head. How much business they would need to meet at least half of it. How much would have to be cut to try to accommodate the workers without watering down service. His grandparents were trying not to cause their grandson any turmoil and Kian knew they meant well. But sadly, while the money was what made up most of the conversations held between them, how to meet that price in a short amount of time reeled through Kian’s head.

However, what wasn’t that common for Kian was waking up to those hushed voices slinking in so early from under the crack of his door. By now his grandparents would have both long been off to the restaurant. Head lifting sleepily while his eyes protested against opening, Kian’s face soon scrunched in confusion as he listened in, a frequent word they were using falling on his ears that just didn’t make sense.

“Nunbola?”

Kian repeated it out loud, still groggy and settled into his confusion as it kept being used frequently in the kitchen. The kitchen of his house — his house located in Santa Monica, California. Snowstorm? Blizzard? Clearly, he had to be hearing the word wrong....although...his room did have a chill to the air that definitely wasn’t the usual one caused by the fan he kept on in his room at night. And now that he was slowly becoming more awake he did vaguely recall opening his window before bed and forgetting to close it. But it had been just a crack... even that wouldn’t cause such a chill. What was going on??

Eyes still protesting, Kian wrapped himself in his blanket to make a move to get out of bed. Suddenly on autopilot, his feet slid into his house slippers and frankensteined him to his window. Outside his room, he could still hear the word blizzard come from his grandmother again, but this time mixed in with a troubling sentence. (Something about how they were already barely able to stay open much longer if things didn’t change soon and now a BLIZZARD was preventing them from a day of work?) He must just be hearing the word wrong, it wasn’t difficult to mishear things said quietly. Or this was just a very surreal nightmare that he hasn’t woken up from yet. Betting on the latter, one blanketed arm rubbed across his face as the other reached out to close the window. The shock of an icy touch finally sprung Kian’s eyes wide open, retracting hand back as he dumbfoundedly blinked at his window. There, dangling in a few spots between the crack he had indeed left open were small icicles. A bewildered sound sprouted from his chest as he bent in to make a closer inspection. His gaze didn’t linger on the sparkling icicles long, drawn to this new bright, white world outside his window. Much like him, it was blanketed. In snow. It wasn’t his first encounter with snow (and not even his first with snow in California after a few snowboarding trips with the boys) but it was certainly his first encounter with it here at home in Santa Monica.

“Wow.” The word broke free in his wonder. His amazing was completely childlike as he leaned more into his window to peered out. He was going to have so much fun with Sunwoo and Jae in the snow later after work! They could have snowball fights with the nephews! Sledding?? Snow angels! Maybe they could pin Jae down long enough to bury him! With a “hehehehe” bouncing from his lips, Kian excitedly turned away from the Winter Wonderland awaiting him. His mental list of activities to do after work was already endless.

Oh. Work.

His excited, bouncing shoulders stalled out as his grandparents' situation slammed back into mind. The scrunched up cheeks from his beaming smile withered into sad, frown lines. They must not have been able to get out and get the restaurant open today because of the snow....that was an entire day of profit lost! Maybe he could see if they could set up shop here and cook things here at home! He’d make deliveries! It wasn’t the season, but a snowboard was always calling his name. Maybe Sunwoo and Jae could even be corralled in to help! They all could be authentic korean cuisine elves, dropping the packages all over town to people who could place orders! Knowing their state of finances wasn’t exactly best currently, Kian was trying to do what he felt was the best and only thing for him to try and do in distressing situations — find a positive mindset and set out to fix the problem.

Pep back in his step, still unaware that all of this snow had them trapped in Kian opened his door and shuffled out into the hallway and toward the kitchen. As he made his way to the room, he noticed his grandparents abandon whatever they had been talking about as soon as they heard his shuffling steps. As he expected, Kian was greeted brightly by them both and in usual routine, he as enthusiastically mirrored the forced hopefulness in their morning pleasantries. It wasn’t long before he was launching into a spiel that outlined his amazement at all the snow and his genius idea on how they could work from home that day. The excited and determined posture Kian held as he explained, once again slumped when his grandparents rejected his plan, fearful of the strange, new conditions. There was nothing he could do today to help. The joy of the snow was for now lost on him as he sat with a miserable slouch at the table.

As promptly as he had slumped down, his grandmother instructed him to cheer up. With the most relaxed smile she goes on about how they all deserve a nice day to rest at home and soon there’s a fond nod from her husband agreeing. Kian tried his best to give them a smile but it didn’t climb too high, still able to see the worry in their eyes despite trying to reassure him. He agreed and went on to another plan about how maybe he could climb free out his window and meet up with the boys for some fun. They better agreed to that plan, Kian hoping the false cheerfulness in his voice would make his grandmother feel some bit of relief.

Upon mentioning the boys, a lightbulb seemed to go off in her mind and Kian’s grandmother shuffled away. Returning, she excitedly places two gift boxes in front of him, smiles true and genuine as she steps away from them. She explains that her and his grandfather also received ones as well but that they were thinking of saving them a few extra days to put underneath the tree. Upon the sight of the presents she reasoned that they all had most likely come from either Sunwoo or Jae or most likely, both of them. All three boys took care of each other like family and that always extended to their respective families as well. Plus, surprise gifts weren’t all that uncommon. Especially since all three of their birthdays were also around the corner. A true smile was back on Kian’s lips, but this time as he looked between the red and the green boxes, wondering which to open first and which had come from who, it fully reached it’s climb.

Things might be getting scarier by the day, a fact he was still hiding from his hyungs, but at least he still had love in his life.

Red? Green? Both at once? Wait?

Spotting a tag on each, he shook his head with a fond smile when he realized the words were typed. Sneaky hyungs, masking who had given what!

Green. Open to discover who you truly are.

That was a bit strange...it was probably some strange self-love book from WuWu. Kian could already imagine how pompous and utterly cringey ( but hilarious ) the title would be.

Red. Open to reveal what you truly want most.

Hm…. curiouser, indeed.

Right now….all he wanted most in life was to save the restaurant from the track it was on currently. Rent was overdue to an extent that there didn’t seem to be a future where they would be open much longer. Kian couldn’t let his grandparents lose their entire lives like that. Not because of the suits and the Pinterest Mom’s who had closed in on Pico like it was some DIY project. But...Jae and Sunwoo had no idea how serious the situation had gotten so there was no way this box really contained what he wanted most.

....Right?

Fingers tracing over a design in the paper, he felt his curiosity pull him more towards the red box to be opened first.

With no hesitation he ripped off the paper excited to see what could possibly be inside. He lifted a corner of the box for a peek in but slammed it down quickly. Kian’s eyes suddenly felt dry, probably because they shot wider than they’d been at even the marvel of the snow outside. Excusing himself from the room, Kian scurried back into his room and shut the door. Easing the box onto his lap, he took a glance around then covertly opened the box.

There, stacked accordingly, looked like more money than he had ever seen in the same moment of time in his entire life. His eyes sparkled in green, but his fingers trembled in disbelief. He started pulling stacks after stack out, counting as he went. The markings on the binding that held each stack aiding his count. Chest tight, he felt a sting in his eyes as he took his time counting, numbers uttering over his lips as his count creeped in close to that magical number that had been keeping him and his grandparents up at night.

“No....” Kian stopped, eyes bleary as he took the last stack from the box. Thirty-two thousand six hundred and seventy six dollars. He gathered the pile in his hands, tipping over the empty box that fell to the floor. A rattle of change rolled from the box. Kian leaned over slowly to find a dime and three pennies .

— thirteen cents.

Thoughts of the other green box vanished from mind — Kian quickly counting again. And again. And again.

Soon he was certain of it. This was the EXACT amount needed to pay off the back rent and then a little more to safely cushion off another month’s worth. EXACT amount. Tears brimming, Kian had no idea how this gift was about to become a curse in more ways than one.

That was until his next thought crashed out loud.

“But...I don’t wanna to give this up. I could....finally get a Nintendo Switch.”

#sm:holiday #[ i'm so late and this is long but game on !!!! ]

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minjoonie-song · 3 years

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Minjoon chose Green.

"Shut the fuck up, it wasn't a waste. You're my best friend. Now, which one are you going to pick?"

Minjoon looked at the knives Brandon had gifted him and pulled the red box closer. "What do you want for Christmas?" The question had Brandon's hands going to the lid to stop him from opening it. "My perfect Christmas gift isn't going to be in any of these boxes and if it was, it would have shown up in mine. Besides, I love the necklace you got me." "How do you know about the necklace?" "Because I snoop around your room whenever I know you've got me a gift to see what you bought me." "Brandon!" "I don't know why I told you that." "Don't you trust me to get good gifts?" "I do. I want to see what you got me so I don't accidentally buy myself the same thing. You'd feel bad and I don't want to be telling you this. Why am I telling you this?" The pair argued with no real malice about it, which ended when Brandon said that he could apologise but he'd keep doing it. With the amount that Brandon kept saying things he usually wouldn’t and followed it with “I didn’t want to say that.” it was easy to make the assumption that the mysterious boxes had something to do with Brandon's uncontrollable honestly. “If you’re willing to believe whatever weird shows you’ve been watching that magic comes with a price, is it one you’re willing to pay?” Joonie simply told him that he had no secrets from him as he opened the green box and took out the vial. He hesitated before drinking the contents and waited. For something. Anything. “I don’t feel any different.” “Do you have to tell the truth?” “I don’t know.” “Tell me the sky is chartreuse.” “Don’t be so fucking pretentious, say yellow or whatever it is.” The reply had Minjoon covering his mouth, eyes wide as Brandon simply laughed at him. “Minjoon! Oh my god!” “Don’t laugh!” Joonie threw the box lid at him but it did nothing the stifle his laughter until Brandon retaliated. It stopped mid air when Minjoon raised his hand to shield his face and small flick of his wrist had the lid launching across the kitchen. “Holy shit.” He covered his mouth again but this only had Brandon laughing again. “Joonie! I don’t.. I don’t think you just have to be honest. Oh my god, my perfect gift was in there after all. You can’t censor yourself at all!” “...fuck.”

#sm:task #sm:holiday

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itsbrandonkelly · 3 years

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Brandon chose Red.

After stumbling out of bed, Brandon hadn’t thought anything of it as he eyed the four boxes set out in front of Joonie until after he’d made himself coffee. He made a comment about it being too early to be opening Christmas gifts but his interest was piqued at the response he’d received that two of them belonged to him. Joonie pointed out the probably serious point of how did the sender know to leave Brandon’s outside of his door but Brandon brushed it off when his best friend had mentioned that there were boxes outside of all the apartment doors. He read the labels out loud before Minjoon spoke up. “Do you ever feel like something is a bad idea?” “Oh, all the time. That’s how I know I’m about to have fun.” Brandon pulled the red box closer before opening it. "Huh. You know, I always say that I don’t really want things because I just buy myself anything I want but I guess this proves it." "What? What is it? What's in there?" Brandon reached into the box to pull out another box and pushed it across the kitchen island to Minjoon. "The knives I really wanted to get you for Christmas. Your weird chef crush has the same ones and it was a huge pain in the ass trying to get the exact ones but then I couldn't and the assholes still haven’t given me a good enough excuse why." "It.. It's real?” “It must be because I never told anyone.” “It’s real.” “Yes, I think so. We just went over this.” “There’s really either something you want or magic?” “Yep.” “It's real and you just wasted it on me." "Shut the fuck up, it wasn't a waste. You're my best friend. Now, which one are you going to pick?"

#sm:task #sm:holiday

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emilialuciasantos · 3 years

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What’s Gotten Into You? || Self-Para || Holiday Task

Where: Valentine/Santos residence, alternate universe Santa Monica, California

When: Monday, December 21, 2020

Featuring: Blaine Valentine

Triggers: N/A

When Emilia woke up, she was freezing cold. She had fallen asleep after doing some cam work and forgot to put her pajamas back on. It wasn’t too cold last night, but the temperature seemed to have dropped to below freezing. She gathered the pajamas she left on her bedroom floor and redressed herself before making her way to the kitchen to make breakfast. When she reached the kitchen, she found Blaine eating pancakes. “Mornin’, Blaine.”

“Good morning. Your mom made pancakes before work,” he stated, taking a sip of juice. “Even in a fucking blizzard, they couldn’t stay home from work.”

“Wait, did you just say blizzard? Like an actual blizzard?!” Emilia asked, shocked at the mere thought of it.

“That is what I said. Oh, by the way, you got some mystery packages. I left them on the coffee table.”

“Mystery packages? Do you know who they’re from?” she asked. She didn’t remember ordering anything, and she and her friends weren’t exchanging Secret Santa gifts until Christmas Eve.

“I said ‘mystery’ for a reason. I don’t fucking know,” Blaine growled.

Emilia took a step back, staring at him in shock. “Jesus Christ, calm your fucking tits, Blaine. What’s gotten into you today?”

“I don’t know!” he groaned. “I opened one of the stupid mystery boxes I got and now I feel weird.”

“You got the mystery packages too? What was in it?” Emilia asked, trying to get to the bottom of her step-brother’s stranger than usual behavior.

“Some bottle of liquid. The gift tag said, ‘Drink this serum if you want powers beyond your wildest dreams...’ It looked like radioactive piss so I didn’t drink it. The other one’s tag said ‘Open this box to get the item you want most in life,’ and I have pretty much everything I want and need material wise, and I didn’t think the stupid box could give me what I really want, so I didn’t even bother opening it.”

“Okay, and what do you really want?”

“I want my fucking mom to be alive!” Blaine stared at Emilia blankly after the outburst. He didn’t know why he said that. He was going to tell her to mind her business. “...Why did I tell you that? Fuck. Why did I fucking say that out loud? What the hell did that thing do to me?”

“I don’t know... But thank you for being honest with me. I think you should go back to bed. Maybe you’ll feel normal when you wake up.”

“I’ve never felt normal a day in my life, but I think I will go back to sleep.” And with that, Blaine ran out of the kitchen and up to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

“Well shit, I guess I’ll clean up,” she sighed. After eating her own breakfast and cleaning up after Blaine’s breakfast, she went into the living room, her eyes falling upon the two mystery boxes in the exact place Blaine said they’d be. She picked up the red box, feeling especially drawn to it for some strange reason, and read the gift tag.

Open this box to get the item you want most in life...

Emilia shook the box. Whatever was in the box felt light and rattled around the box. Could it be her grandmother’s locket? The one that she lost at the beach over the summer? She had to find out for herself. She ripped the box open, tears welling up in her eyes as she saw the item inside. “Someone returned Abuela’s locket!”

#smrp:task #sm:holiday #Blaine Valentine

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jackambrosemodeling · 3 years

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You’ve Got Mail! || Self-Para || Holiday Task

Where: Jack’s apartment, alternate universe Santa Monica, California

When: Monday, December 21, 2020

Featuring: Jack’s neighbor, Maggie

Triggers: Alcoholism

Jack woke up and the first thing they did was check their phone. The first thing they saw was a winter storm warning. “That can’t be right...” they thought out loud, but they unlocked the phone and opened up the weather app and saw that the warning was correct. This was wild. They couldn’t remember the last time they experienced a white Christmas, especially in California of all places. They knew climate change was real and serious, but didn’t think that five feet of snow in Santa Monica could or would ever happen.

The next thing Jack did was check their notifications. They got a text from their neighbor, Maggie, which read, ‘jsyk, you have mail outside your door.’ They sent Maggie a thank you text and put on a bathrobe to go grab the mail just in case a neighbor passed by; Jack didn’t want anyone in the building to see them in their underwear, unless they were being intimate. Instead of letters like they expected, there were two boxes, one green and one red. Jack wasn’t expecting any gifts, especially at this new apartment that very few had the address to. They picked up the boxes and read the gift tags.

Drink this serum if you want powers beyond your wildest dreams... Open this box to get the item you want most in life...

Upon reading the labels, they placed the boxes back on the ground and called Maggie. “Hey, did you leave these boxes here?” Jack asked.

“Nope, wasn’t me. Everyone got ‘em. You’re not special,” she responded. There was a paused, followed by her asking, “Wait, why did I say that?”

Jack didn’t think much of the snarky comment, assuming she was just being silly, and bantered back, “Damn, breaking my heart, Maggs. I’ll talk to you later.” And with that, Jack hung up the phone and proceeded to throw the boxes out in the garbage without opening either one. Whatever was in these mystery boxes, Jack didn’t trust it. They didn’t want to risk ingesting something poisonous or being tracked by a crazy fan. Even if the weird messages on the gift tags had some truth to them, Jack felt as though being a superhero would be too much responsibility, and the only material item they really wanted at the moment was alcohol, and they didn’t want to throw away their two months of sobriety, even if it was Christmas.

#smrp:task #sm:holiday #tl;dr no box for Jackie

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kylamaret · 3 years

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Kyla Chose....

Kyla had gotten off from work quite happy that she had the time off to relax and maybe even video chat with her family over the holidays. On her way home she picked up some hair dye and decided to dye it green just like she had thought about on Halloween. She decided to wait until the next day to do it as she had gotten home late and really just wanted to sleep.

She had just dried her hair, her hair a darkish green and laughed when she realised that she matched her Christmas tree. She hummed to herself as she went to get her mail when she noticed two boxes a green and a red addressed to her, the green one caught her attention right away for a good reason. “Wow this matches my hair, wonder what’s inside.” She said as she picked it up. She undid the bow that was on it and opened it up seeing the bottle inside. “What are you?” She thought, without thinking, she opened the bottle and drank it down making a face at the taste. “Nope, that’s too sour even for me!” She groaned before making her way back inside.

She had planned to finish up her tree that day and was pondering how to get the star on top when she noticed something happening to her. The woman gasped when she realised that she was floating off of the ground, enough to let her put the star on the tree before hitting the ground with a thump. “What was that?” She asked herself before looking over at the green box that was on her couch. She got up to go see it when she began to levitate again, but this time not as high. “Oh this is going to be so helpful!” She exclaimed forgetting about the box and began to see how high she could go.

#sm:holiday #sm:event

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jiantan · 3 years

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All I Ever Wanted || Self-Para || Holiday Task

Where: Jian’s apartment, alternate universe Santa Monica, California

When: Monday, December 21, 2020

Featuring: N/A

Triggers: N/A

When Jian looked outside his window and saw five feet of snow, he was surprised, to say the least. He didn’t think it could snow in California. He wondered if it was snowing in San Diego, where his parents were living. He would have to call them after work. He didn’t get any sort of call telling him to stay home, so he assumed he still had to go in.

Jian got dressed and ate his usual breakfast: red berry Special K. It wasn’t until he was about to leave his apartment that he discovered two mysterious boxes, one green and one red. He picked up the green one first, because green was his favorite color, and he read the gift label.

Drink this serum if you want powers beyond your wildest dreams...

“Powers? Like superpowers?” He thought that was bullshit, so he threw the green box on the livingroom floor and turned his attention to the red box instead. He read the label on that box and was interested.

Open this box to get the item you want most in life...

“The item I want most in life? This better be a PS5,” he said out loud as he opened the box. What he truly wanted in life was for his parents to love him unconditionally, but if he had to pick a material item, it would have to be the Playstation 5. It was sold out everywhere and he didn’t think he was ever going to get his hands on one, but when he opened up the box, there it was. “Shit, it really is a PS5! This is the best day of my life!”

Jian gently placed the PS5 box on his couch and started to take it out of its packaging. Then he realized two things. First, he still had to go to work so he couldn’t stay in his apartment and play video games on his PS5 all day. Second, even if he could stay home from work, he didn’t have any games to play on the new console. He would have to go to GameStop and pray that they still had the new PS5 games in stock.

#smrp:task #sm:holiday #tl;dr Jiji got a ps5 but he doesn't have any games for it

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vito-mendoza · 3 years

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1, 2, 3, Drink! || Self-Para || Holiday Task

Where: Mendoza/Clark residence, alternate universe Santa Monica, California

When: Monday, December 21, 2020

Featuring: Kellen Clark

Triggers: Mention of death

“Dude, wake the fuck up! There’s snow fuckin’ everywhere!” Kellen shouted as he tried to shake Vito awake.

Vito groaned as he sat up, stretching his arms backwards in an attempt to crack his back. “Stop yelling, Kellen,” he whined.

“Vito, you need to come see this shit and tell me that I’m not losing my damn mind!” Having grown up in California, Kellen had never seen snow like this in his life. It felt surreal, almost magical. He wanted, no, needed, Vito to wake up and see what he was seeing to make sure this wasn’t a weird trip.

“Alright! Stop yelling at me!” Vito opened his bedroom curtains and saw nothing but white. “Okay, this is weird...”

Kellen, not sure what to make of all of this, started pacing around the apartment as Vito reluctantly followed him. “Right?! Yesterday it was in the fucking 70's and now there’s fucking snow on the ground! And to top it all off, someone left these weird boxes at our door.” He pointed to the four boxes on the dining room table, two red and two green.

Curios about the box, Vito looked at the tag for the green box closest to him.

Drink this serum if you want powers beyond your wildest dreams...

“Yo, bro, we can have superpowers!” Vito exclaimed, bouncing up and down. Without even thinking about it, Vito opened the box and grabbed the serum out of the box.

Before Vito could chug the mystery drink, Kellen grabbed it from his hand. “Dude, you don’t know what the fuck’s in that shit. That could be poison.”

“Or it could be a magic potion that grants superpowers. Dude, you know I’ve always wanted to be able to teleport. Now’s my chance!”

“First thing, why do you think I would know that? Second thing... eh, fuck it. I wanna be a firebender.” Kellen gave the bottle back to Vito and grabbed the serum out of the other green box. Best case scenario, they both get powers. Worst case scenario, they both die. “Ready? One, two, three... drink!”

Kellen and Vito opened up the bottles and chugged the magic serum. Both shivered as they swallowed the liquid and looked at each other in silence for a solid minute before speaking to each other. Vito was the first to talk, “That tasted like Mountain Dew. So how do I know that it worked?”

“Kellen shrugged. “I dunno. Think of a place you wanna go? Did you hear a lady’s voice by the way?”

“Nope,” Vito answered, shaking his head. “What did she say?”

“She said, ‘Sorry, no can do with the fire powers. Can’t have you melting the snow. But I’ll give you another gift. All you need to do is draw.’ So I’m thinking this might be like the Doodlebob episode of Spongebob?”

“Yo that sounds dope as hell! We need to get you your sketchbook!” And with that, Vito disappeared into thin air and found himself inside Kellen’s room. “Brooooooooooo! I did it!”

Kellen ran into the bedroom and shouted, “You did it! I’m proud of you!” Why did he say that? He was proud of Vito for figuring out how to use his new power, but that wasn’t something he would ever tell him. Kellen wasn’t one for giving out compliments; in fact, he was more of the type to jokingly insult his friends.

“Aww man, really? I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. We gotta find you your sketchbook so you can try out your Doodlebob powers.” He opened up the top drawer of Kellen’s nightstand and grabbed the sketchbook from under a pile of rolling papers. “Dude, I think you smoke too much weed.”

Kellen stared at Vito, taken aback. “Well fuck. You’re right, but you didn’t have to say it... What the hell is going on?”

“I think the magic potion is making us say the truth all the time. Ah well, could be worse. You wanna see if you can draw us some omelettes?”

Kellen nodded, taking the sketchbook from Vito’s hands. He really didn’t like this, and he let Vito know it, but there was nothing he could do except hope that he didn’t run into any annoying clients or ex lovers until he could figure out how to stop himself from blabbing out the truth all the time.

#smrp:task #sm:holiday #Kellen Clark

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