Lipstick & Wingmirrors

How Sam Wilson fixed everything. 

Bonus:

Ho Ho Ho!

It’s time to conclude the eight edition of the Malec Secret Santa :)

Hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas and that you’ve enjoyed all the amazing gifts that were posted!

The fantastic @vaguelyrotten, @crankyfossil, & @banesapothecary deserve extra love and gratitude for being wonderful Christmas Angels this year in helping me out to create last minute gifts, making sure no one would be left empty handed this year! Thank you darlings, I really appreciate that you wanted to help me out in a pinch! <333

If you’d like, you can still add your works to the AO3 Collection! Just poke me if you do, and I’ll add the link to the Tumblr gift post as well. You can also repost your gift(s) to your own Tumblrs now, of course :)

That’s all from me in terms of service announcements, hope to see you all again next year! 

-x- Leonie (leetje)

*****

Are you all ready to find out who your secret santas were? :D

Most of you should know the drill by now. The list is in alphabetical order. 

@aceon-ice made a gift for another-random-stranger - gift here

@another-random-stranger made a gift for gloriouspomelo - gift here

@banesapothecary made a gift for insomniaccoffeebean - gift here

@banesapothecary made a gift for shipnotised - gift here

@cam-ryt made a gift for moonlight-breeze-44 - gift here

@carelessflower made a gift for banesapothecary - gift here

@cheezieball-blog made a gift for schreiberling2021 - gift here

@cinberella made a gift for thatnerdemryn - gift here

@crankyfossil made a gift for dicaculus - gift here

@crankyfossil made a gift for evadne01 - gift here

@decadentwerewolfstrawberry made a gift for nancyloumm - gift here

@dicaculus made a gift for squiggly-lines-on-a-page - gift here

@em1000 made a gift for cheezieball-blog - gift here

@evadne01 made a gift for sweetpeapod - gift here

@forensicsisabelle made a gift for crankyfossil - gift here

@gospi made a gift for i-have-not-slept - gift here

@greentealycheejelly made a gift for kohdono - gift here

@i-have-not-slept made a gift for aceon-ice - gift here

@insomniaccoffeebean made a gift for gospi - gift here

@jamessxcarstairs made a gift for skylar102 - gift here

@justawanderer made a gift for tarlos_spain - gift here

@kaijuusandkryptids made a gift for la-muerta - gift here

@kasper-tag made a gift for greentealycheejelly - gift here

@kohdono made a gift for kasper-tag - gift here

@la-muerta made a gift for carelessflower - gift here

@livinglifebehindthemask made a gift for forensicsisabelle - gift here

@maddummel made a gift for decadentwerewolfstrawberry - gift here

@magnus-the-maqnificent made a gift for vaguelyrotten - gift here

@nancyloumm made a gift for secretphilosopherwitch - gift here

@nyctophile-shadowhunters made a gift for kaijuusandkryptids - gift here

@schreiberling2021 made a gift for em1000 - gift here

@secretphilosopherwitch made a gift for maddummel - gift here

@shipnotised made a gift for nyctophile-shadowhunters - gift here

@six-of-snakes made a gift for jamessxcarstairs - gift here

@skylar102 made a gift for magnus-the-maqnificent - gift here

@squiggly-lines-on-a-page made a gift for six-of-snakes - gift here

@suchawannabe56 made a gift for cam-ryt - gift here

@tarlos_spain made a gift for suchawannabe56 - gift here

@thatnerdemryn made a gift for livinglifebehindthemask - gift here

@thelightofthebane made a gift for cinberella - gift here

@vaguelyrotten made a gift for justawanderer - gift here

@vaguelyrotten made a gift for thelightofthebane - gift here

Go forth and tacklehug your no-longer-secret santa! They definitely deserve some loving!

Every writer writes the story they want to tell, so don’t be afraid to read what you’re writing and just have fun. Not everything has to be in service of making your manuscript better.

HO HO HO

This upcoming Holiday season there will be a eight edition of the Malec Secret Santa gift exchange, to make Christmas a little extra special for us all, and what better way to spread love and kindness by the act of gift-giving :)

How it works

You MUST have a Tumblr

Sign up with what you want to make ( e.g. fic or fanmix)

Also list what you’d like to receive (e.g. gifsets, drawings)

Sign ups are done via a form

»» Sign Up here! ««

SIGN UP DEADLINE: FRIDAY OCTOBER 20TH (Midnight Pacific Time)

After that assignments will be send out to everyone by email on October 24/25, and then you’ll have seven weeks to make gifts for the person assigned to you :)

Gift Giving Guidelines

Just in case it isn’t clear to anyone, all the gifts have to be MALEC-related! NSFW content is definitely allowed as well.

You can sign up to create & receive one or several of the following options:

Fic/Drabbles

Drawings

Edits/Manips

Gifsets

Fanmixes/Fanvideo

>> Read the full guidelines here (or via Google Doc)

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: SUNDAY DECEMBER 10TH (Midnight Pacific Time)

On Christmas Eve/Day all the gifts will be posted for everyone! On Boxing Day it will be revealed who made gifts for whom, then after that you’re of course free to post the gifts you made to your own Tumblr :)

If you still have questions, don’t hesitate to ask them!

So what are you waiting for? Sign up now! Gift someone a Very Malec-y Christmas this year!

Please help signal boost this post, it would be much appreciated :)

You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don't think you're good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow, we're always doing it wrong?

You have to be thin, but not too thin, and you can never say you wanna be thin. You have to say you wanna be healthy, but also, you have to BE THIN.

You have to have money, but you can't ask for money because that's crass.

You have to be a boss, but you can't be mean.

You have to lead, but you can't squash other people's ideas.

You're supposed to love being a mother, but don't talk about your kids all the damn time.

You have to be a career woman, but also, always be looking out for other people.

You have to answer for men's bad behavior, which is INSANE, but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining!

You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you're supposed to be a part of the sisterhood, but ALWAYS STAND OUT and ALWAYS BE GRATEFUL. But never forget that the system is rigged, so find a way to acknowledge that but ALSO, always be grateful!

You have to never get old. Never be rude. Never show off. Never be selfish. Never fall down. Never fail. Never show fear. Never get OUT OF LINE. It's too hard! It's too contradictory, and nobody gives you a medal or says 'thank you!' And it turns out, in fact, that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also, everything is your fault.

I'm just so tired of watching myself, and every single other woman tie herself into knots, so that people will like us.

And if all of that, is also true for a doll just representing a woman, then I don't even know." -Gloria the barbie movie

I learned something new and horrifying today which is… that… no submarine is ever considered “lost” … there is apparently a tradition in the U.S. Navy that no submarine is ever lost. Those that go to sea and do not return are considered to be “still on patrol.”

?????

There is a monument about this along a canal near here its… the worst thing I have ever seen. it says “STILL ON PATROL” in huge letters and then goes on to specify exactly how many WWII submarine ghosts are STILL OUT THERE, ON PATROL (it is almost 2000 WWII submarine ghosts, ftr). Here is the text from it:

“U.S. Navy Submarines paid heavily for their success in WWII. A total of 374 officers and 3131 men are still on board these 52 U.S. submarines still on patrol.”

THANKS A LOT, U.S. NAVY, FOR HAVING THIS TOTALLY NORMAL AND NOT AT ALL HORRIFYING TRADITION, AND TELLING ALL OF US ABOUT IT. THANKS. THANK YOU

Personal story time: whenever I go to Field Museum’s Egypt exhibit, I stop by the plaque at the entrance to the underground rooms. It has an English translation of a prayer to feed the dead, and a list of all the names they know of the mummies on display there. I always recite the prayer and read aloud the list of names. They wanted to live forever, to always have their souls fed and their names spoken. How would they feel about being behind glass, among strangers? Every little thing you can do to give respect for the dead is warranted.

But something deeper.  Something Other.  Something not natural.

Sailors have always been superstitious.

Not one of them described it right.

You don’t hear about it so much now that we don’t lose ships anymore, really, not like we did at the height of the sea trade when barely an inch of ocean floor didn’t bear some wreck or other.  And better ships and GPS and weather satellites have all played their part in that.

But we have protection now that we didn’t before.  They don’t interfere with war and battle, even on behalf of what used to be their country, or with rocks and weather and human stupidity.  Those are concerns for the living.

But the Other Things, the Things that shouldn’t be there - They can’t get to us now without a fight.  It’s a fight They haven’t won in a very long time.

As long as we remember them, as long as we call out to them - not very often, just once a year will do - they will keep protecting us from the Things that go bump in the deep.

read on ao3!

~20k, shrunkyclunks, strangers to lovers, christmas fic

There’s anxiety gnawing at Bucky's bones, so he tries to make a list of what he knows and has. He has some groceries. He has his gloves, and his lip balm. He has his wallet, and he has his phone. What he doesn't have is his keys, and thus, a way to get into the house. It’s after eight pm on Christmas Eve, and it’s below freezing outside. His mother has his spare key, and ordinarily he would call her, but right now she’s nearly 4000 miles away. There’s no way she would be able to help him.

“Fuck,” he proclaims out loud.

A pigeon on the sidewalk across the street flutters away.

Another voice cuts through the cold. “You okay?”

Bucky looks up to see a silhouette on the balcony two floors above him. Clearly, he had been swearing louder than he intended to. The figure is clearly male, and built like a fucking brick house, but the light behind him makes any other features vague and indistinguishable.

“Uh, yeah,” Bucky says dumbly. “I just- I forgot my keys.”

“I’ll let you in.”

The silhouette disappears from the balcony.

Bucky steps forward to retrieve his groceries from the steps of the building, and has just picked up the last can of cat food when the door opens. He looks up to meet the man who saved him from hypothermia.