I know the Once Upon a Time and Captain Swan fandom has dwindled over the years and with that events have begun to disappear. This being one of the last standing.

I don’t wish to see the event go but I don’t know if I have it in me to run this event or even if there is any more willing participants.

If there is interest in this event maybe I can do one last year or if anyone is available to co run it/run it in my stead.

MERRY CHRISTMAS @eastwesthomeisbest from your Secret Santa!!!!

💕💕💕💕💕💕

This is my @cssecretsanta2k19 gift to @eastwesthomeisbest - who said her favorite Christmas movie is 'Love, Actually', and her favorite storyline in it is the Prime Minister /assistant.

Well, darling - most likely this is not exactly what you were expecting, but my muse just heard --- OH! Successful!Emma and Mailroom!Killian - let me run with that! --- and then it went off the rails. 😘😆

i sincerely hope you like it anyway!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  ❤❤❤

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SUMMARY:  Emma is a high-priced lawyer with some questions for her life, and Killian is the mailroom guy who's not afraid to offer an answer or two.

Shameless Christmas fluff with a small dash of Existential Pondering, rolled into the recycled air and neon lighting of an office building.

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Thanks to @ohmightydevviepuu who does amazing beta-acrobatics when @profdanglaisstuff is partaking in the same Secret Santa event.  

And a MASSIVE THANK YOU to @cssecretsanta2k19 for organizing the whole thing.  You’re the best.

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| AO3 |

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Tagging a few people who may be ready for some fluff: @profdanglaisstuff, @kmomof4 @stahlop @mariakov81 @tiganasummertree @capnjay21 @shardminds @snowbellewells @captainsjedi @thejollyroger-writer @karenfrommisthaven @superchocovian @jennjenn615 @spartanguard @carpedzem

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"Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it." - Aubrey de Gray -

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The first time he sees her he says, “Excuse me?” as he knocks on her door frame, and she promptly spills her coffee.  And then lets loose a string of expletives worthy of a sailor.

He pulls out some leftover napkins from lunch and hands them to her, and she actually thanks him.  Thanks him and quietly laughs at herself.

  “Sorry about the language.”  There’s laughter in her voice, as well as strain and exhaustion.  He can tell. He sees lots of people each day, many of them with the same strain and exhaustion all over their features.

None of them with laughter in their voices, though.

  “I don’t mind a bit of language.”  That’s probably the single dumbest thing he has ever said.  Anyone has ever said.

Her eyebrow quirks up when she hears his accent, and she says, “South of England?”

He sputters.  It’s thoroughly undignified.  

She laughs.

“Bournemouth,” he answers.  “How on earth did you guess?”

“I have had the good fortune to be able to travel on occasion,” she answers, and smiles at him, but while genuine, neither the smile nor the friendliness in her voice are inviting.  He knows she is giving him a very gentle hint that this will not be a lengthy conversation. Or any conversation. This was a brief moment of levity, and now it is over.

  She holds out her hand.

He hands her the mail.

It’s odd, though.

“I can give it to your assistant in the future,” he says.  “It’s just -- she wasn’t there. Or he. Do you even have an assistant yet?”

He’s babbling.

Her eyes narrow, and she looks back up at him.  

“No, that’s all right,” she says, after only the briefest hesitation.  “I don’t have an assistant, yet.” She gives him a very small, almost embarrassed smile.  For the briefest of moments it looks like the idea of having an assistant is entirely foreign to her.  “I can take my mail. Myself.”  

She smiles again.  It is genuine, and a little self-deprecating, and there is no condescension in it.  As far as he can tell.

Then she nods and sits back down and picks up her receiver.

He is dismissed.

.

When he gets back down to the mail room, he pulls up the company’s organizational chart, and looks up Emma Swan.  Because she’s new, and he just needs her information to do his job right. No other reason.

With this post, I am asking all the lovely people from last year, if you want to participate again. Spread the word even if you are not interested.

The more the merrier!

what’s this all about?

For those of you who haven’t been part of any secret gift exchange events like the CS Secret Santa (or CS Secret Valentine, Spring Formal, etc.) before and are wondering what’s that all about, here is your answer!

After you sign up you’ll get assigned to someone and you send this person nice anonymous messages to get to know this person better. Then on Christmas Eve, you give them a gift by posting it on your blog and tagging your giftee (the person you are assigned to) and this blog.  It’s a wonderful way of making new friends, especially now with the fandom barely being alive anymore.

what kind of gift can it be?

Your gift can be anything you want and be capable of. Here are a few suggestions but you can also come up with something yourself.

fanfiction

fanart

icons

imageset

gifset


manip

traditional or digital art

video

fic rec list

poem

playlist

self recorded song

etc

There are endless possibilities – get creative! Get to know your giftee, talk to her and find out what she would like to get and think about what you are able to gift. There are no bad presents.

are there any rules?

Unfortunately this event - like any other - won’t work without guidelines. Please read the ones below and if you are comfortable with them, don’t hesitate and sign up.

!!! THIS EVENT SHALL BE FUN. YOU CAN HELP MAKE THIS EVENT WONDERFUL !!!

spread the word, tell your friends, tag your friends and reblog the invitation post

follow this blog so you won’t miss any important information and deadlines

only send anonymous and positive messages to your giftee - don’t reveal yourself until it’s time to gift your present

NO HATE

try to send messages regularly (you don’t have to send one a day, just make sure your giftee doesn’t think you forgot her)

if you change your URL please also tell me asap

enable anonymous asks in your inbox!

find out what your giftee likes or dislikes

tell your giftee if you are uncomfortable using specific characters or explicit content or a specific trope - it shall be fun for both sides!

NO HATE

if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate in contacting me (don’t forget to come off-anon so I know who you are and how I can help)

be fair! don’t drop out without telling me. We all know December is a busy month and real life always comes first. so if you really have to drop out, please let me know asap so I can take appropriate measures

appreciate whatever you receive as a gift. Your Secret Santa spent a whole lot of time creating it for you, so please be fair and take a look at it and thank her for creating it for you!

HAVE FUN!!!

oh, and did I mention: NO HATE!

is there a schedule?

Yes, it can be found here

A warm hello to all new participants. You are now added to the list of participants. If anyone is not on the list by now, but wants to take part, please send me an off-anon-ask, so I can add you too.

(...so i had this really nice long answer here, and tumblr just reloaded the page, because apparently it was hungry and needed to eat some words.  AAAACK.  Let me see what i can remember.  :D)

First of all, darling, please, PLEASE don’t be sorry for being busy during the CHRISTMAS SEASON.  Are you kidding?  It’s “The Season of Goodwill, Cheer, and Not A Moment To Yourself Until You Fall Unconscious After Dinner On December 25th”.  (That’s actually its lesser-known, official title.  It’s in the fine print.  You can check.)

So, please, do NOT apologize for being busy!  And i never had any doubts at all that you’re cruising with the fic.  NONE.  

i’m actually doing great - work is stupid busy, but my gifts are bought, and i’m going to my parents’ tomorrow to trim the tree.  i’m bringing a bottle of real Champagne, from France, and my mom and i are going to tell each other The Story Of Each Ornament, listening to Lake Wobegone monologues, while my dad ‘supervises’.  (Read: lies on the couch, snoring.)   It doesn’t matter how old we get, this is how we roll.

But enough about me.  HOW ARE YOU?  ARE YOU KEEPING WARM?  DO i NEED TO MAIL SOME LAST-MINUTE SWEATERS?  ARE YOU GOOD FOR WHISKY AND TEA AND CRAZY CANDY?

i hope you’re having a lovely time, darling.  <3 <3 <3 

OH!  Christmas movies!

OK - i feel that on a very elemental level, because i do the 12 movies of Christmas every year, and the line-up changes, but there are two absolute constants: i kick it off with the first Lethal Weapon, and i end with Die Hard.  ALWAYS.

Love it.

(Oh, and BTW: i promise, i am working on ‘we kill the flame’ as fast as i can.  Work kind of exploded this week, but i am on it.  i PROMISE.)

OK - regarding the fic plus angst, fluff, and any derivations thereof.  i don’t want to cop out and go, “oh, just write whatever you want“, but i also don’t want to impede your muse, so i’ll say this: i do like a bit of -- <something other than fluff> -- in my stories, but it doesn’t have to be angst.  (i actually wouldn’t call my own stories angsty at all, believe it or not.  There is darkness, but i don’t think it’s angst.  Then again, i don’t really know enough about genres, yet, so i might be wrong.)  

Anyway -- it could be action, or pining, or humor.  i am open to everything.  And honestly - if your muse wants the pure fluff - i will absolutely ADORE it, because you’re writing a gift for me, a gift, and it will be lovely and wonderful and just perfect the way it is.  ESPECIALLY if it gets a massively FluffHappy end.  That is my jam.  😘😘😘

Oh, and one last thing.  Here's a picture of our Christmas tree from last year.  With real candles and the decades of ornaments.  (There are regular Christmas tree lights on it as well, of course, because you can only light the real candles for 2-3 days.  After that, the tree gets too dry.)  

I hope this brings you joy and i am ((((((((HUGGING YOU)))))) from afar!

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Uuuhm, yes, darling, you totally have to write the crazy candy story.  The citizens DEMAND IT.  😘

(And i wish you warm weather, always.  AND WARM SWEATERS.  DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH SWEATERS?  SHOULD i SEND YOU SWEATERS?)

i just laughed out loud, BTW, at this whole cold-conversation, because my favorite episode is 4x02.  Yep.  The One With The Hypothermia.  😂Tied for first place with the CS movie - S3 finale.  (It appears i am a traditionalist.  Huh.)

And my favorite season is S5.  There are so many -- so many -- things wrong with it, but as a concept, as an attempt to explore fascinating ideas, i still like it best.  Yes, it fails a lot of the time, but at least it tries.  (S4 is a close runner-up, though.)

As far as the stories i like - i must admit i go for AU and canon divergence more than i do canon, simply because i like the notion of exploring the characters in circumstances which are not rigidly tied to canon.  i like a little leeway.  BUT.  i have read some amazing canon stories, so that’s not a hard and fast rule at all.  Within that, though, i couldn’t tell you what i like best, because i usually go for the characters more than the circumstance.  There are tropes i love, and ones i don’t like, but honestly -- i have found amazing stories even among tropes i usually stay away from, because the characters were so authentic and the writing was so good.

Wow.  i’m not being helpful at all, am i?  SORRY.  (i repeat my offer of sweaters.  We have amazing sweaters here.  😆)

The tropes i absolutely love - BTW (maybe this helps?) - coffee shop, bedsharing, stuck in the snow /rain /whatever somewhere--- basically anything where my two favorite idiots are forced by circumstance to take a beat and realize that they have a connection.