#phoenixpanics

at his words, though potentially meant to just be teasing, the smile on poppy’s face faltered before a moment later falling away completely. “you weren’t happy?” she questions, voice smaller than normal as she tries to deal with the potential idea of randall having not been happy at any point during the half-year they dated. it shouldn’t really matter, they had ended on okay terms and were still friends - and poppy was in a relationship with someone else, someone she’s fairly certain is happy with her right now. but it still wasn’t something she expected to hear from him. maybe if she didn’t have so much baggage from creek, so many doubts about what had or hadn’t been real during their seven years together, then she might have been able just accept this... but the thought of having been in a relationship twice where she had misread any and all signs and thought things were fine only to later learn they weren’t... that hit hard. “i’m sorry...” why she was apologizing she didn’t really know. logically poppy was aware she hadn’t done anything wrong - had given her all to the relationship - but that didn’t stop the feeling of like somewhere she must have done something wrong. must have made some kind of misstep or just been too much. @randallbxggs

“what sorry optimist gave you that advice?” meg mused, raising an eyebrow. “it is just that...garbage advice. being yourself? do that and someone will be sure to drop you right away.” meg knew from experience. putting your heart on your sleeve and being yourself does nothing but hurt you in the end. makes you vulnerable. “sometimes, maybe a one in a million chance really...people stick by you. but the odds are against you, so better start forming a better personality now, right?” @phoenixpanics

“magic,” she answers simply, shooting a wild grin over his way as she waved her hands around to guide all of the floating objects to their correct homes around the pawn store. a large donation has come in of leftovers from an estate sale and eda was far too lazy to put everything away by hand. the scale of this spell was already starting to tire her out, but a few sips of her elixir would fix that right up. “unless you wanted to spend your entire shift unloading all of this?” @randallbxggs

lifting their shoulders in a shrug, riley reached forward to grab the remote and go back to the home screen as the credits kept rolling and the movie officially ended. “cause that would be boring or sad?” they offer as an answer, though it sounds more like a follow-up question considering riley’s far from confident in it. “what do they even do after the big kiss? what plot is left?” @dounerdebby

“we’re twins though,” he points out, as if that should be all the argument that he needs. because in phil’s mind being twins meant that if one of them was basic then obviously the other one had to be as well. because they’re twins... right? that’s just basic math of how being a twin works. @devillelil

rolling her eyes, tink leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest before looking back over at the other boy, clearly unimpressed. “this was hardly a grave mistake,” she points out - for what felt like the hundredth time at this point. it almost made her wonder why she even sought him out in the first place, realizing now she should have known this was how the conversation was going to end up going. “vanellope is fine - we talked about it. it’s good. i told you, it’s not that big of a deal. we probably shouldn’t do it again - but it’s fine. you can stop stressing so much.”

back at the apartment with a giant plate of christmas cookies on the counter in front of them, phil had to physically sit on his hands to stop himself from just continuously reaching out to eat one after another before the movie even fully got going. “are we going to watch the other home alones too? or just the first and second?” he wasn’t opposed to the fourth and fifth ones - but also didn’t mind skipping out on them either in exchange for something better. really though he’d leave it all up to lil. @devillelil

it’s no surprise to poppy that randall wouldn’t be a fan of eggnog, or maybe even the holidays in general, but that didn’t mean it was going to stop her from trying to get him to enjoy it anyway. “that’s just because you’ve never had my eggnog,” she counters with a grin, holding out the thermos to him once more. it was part of his gift along with the tin of cookies and wrapped up book she’d bought him, so poppy felt determined that he had to at least give it a chance. “you gotta try it - come on. you’re gonna like it, i promise. it’s just like a slightly alcoholic milkshake!” @randallbxggs