#ogdenthanksgiving

who: @rhia-falla when: thanksgiving dinner

his hand falls on her shoulder to grab her attention, and link begins to speak to her in a somewhat hushed tone. "rhia, tell me you're not busy with any family shit or whatever right now?" he looks past her to his mother in the distance, too busy flirting with someone's dad or uncle, he assumes. good, she was distracted for a while. his aunt and her wife were somewhere around, probably looking for him. "i could use a break to go outside for a little walk or something. you wanna join me?" frankly, he just wanted an excuse to disappear for a moment.

silja's wardrobe, event: thanksgiving 2023

who: @sassa-fiske where: thanksgiving dinner

link was never one for causing scenes, unless it was directly beneficial to him. he knew how to shut it down if it wasn't, actively avoiding them. but his mother had this tendency to make him lose control of everything, and that itself was enough to add even more rage on top of the anger that she was currently pulling out of him. just before this first argument of many to come with the night, he was sure, turned into an actual screaming match, link musters up enough self control to storm off and walk away from her.

disoriented and trying to keep himself from breaking anything he sees in front of him right now, link accidentally bumps into someone — hard. though they were just about ready to take their anger out on said person, link's eyes and face soften just a little at the sight of sassa in front of them. " — are you okay? i didn't mean to crash into you." this reaction came as a surprise even to him — in a twisted turn of events, sassa might have been the only right person to bump into right now. ever since her visit to the hospital, things had made a drastic change in the way he acknowledged some of the things he felt towards her.

who: @magnolia-rhodes where: thanksgiving dinner

this whole thing was an embarrassment for link. not because of his aunt, but because he hated mixing his life at ogden with his more personal, familial life. but the one time his aunt found out about a college family event that he hadn't invited her and her wife to which resulted in her having a fit, and link had to promise her he'd tell her about every event from now on.

though, he hadn't wanted to hide into a corner more than when he saw that he was about to cross paths with lola. please don't talk to her, please don't talk to her, please don't —

"oh, wow! don't you just look absolutely gorgeous in this, sweetheart." but of course, who was his aunt if not the friendliest person alive? "link, is this a friend of yours?"

but link didn't know how to answer that. instead, he just looked over to lola, letting her lead — and giving her a bit of a pleading look, as well.

the fact that the walsh unit had coordinated outfits was utter, almost embarrassing coincidence. though, perhaps there was a thread of reasoning behind it. instilled by their mother, they loved a set of easy-to-follow rules. neutrals were a classic fail-safe, dress shoes were not optional, and the family heirlooms—various old pendants, rings, and watches—always came out around the holidays.

the group of five—parker, her mother, her father, and her two older brothers—hovered amidst the newly rebuilt commons, in their shades of black, white, and grey. it was... nice. parker knew the members of her family to be fairly predictable, which was a relief. annabeth held an endless string of polite conversations while jeremy lovingly stood at her side and interspersed charming comments. meanwhile, off to the side, finn and andrew required all of the gossip.

parker had been in the middle of quietly explaining the monty situation to her brothers when she took a step back. she'd intended to set her empty glass down on the nearest table, but bumped into someone before she could complete the motion.

"oh—" she turned to face whoever she'd knocked, "sorry, my fault." finn tilted his head in her direction and offered a smile while adding, "she gets a little too into her storytelling." parker tossed a scrunched-nose expression in his direction.