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 Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2023 10:08 pm
Quote: Prompt 6 (Snowy Sneezes): Small custom shops and stalls always seem to open up this time of year, and Destiny City has no shortage this year. Several seasonal themed shops have already received raving reviews, and among them is a small cafe. Outside it looks like a cute vintage cafe, but inside, the shop has been decorated so convincingly that you feel like you've just stepped into a snowy northern forest. They have an array of delicious, cold drinks, and the trip would be worthwhile for that alone--except, shortly after the first sip, anyone who has ingested the drink will find that they sneeze a flurry of tiny snowflakes. The more drinks consumed, the longer you will find you are sneezing little snowflakes. It feels like there is a tickle up your nose for an hour or longer, depending on player choice; drinking more can also lead to longer effects. There are no negative impacts--just the need to sneeze often, and a little burst of cold snowflakes along with each one. Surprisingly, the shop still doesn't have any bad reviews.
There were a thousand places–more–that Elliot would have liked to visit with Atticus. Destiny City was always bustling and changing, so they had to take advantage of every opportunity they had while they had it. Especially because they only had so much time over Winter Break.
Elliot had always been proud of Atticus, and he carried on pridefully whenever they went anywhere. He wasn’t afraid to hold his hand, and he wasn’t ashamed to boast about his wonderful boyfriend regardless of the situation. He might have spent too much time around Devyn, but Elliot had grown up with two very loving fathers and was always keen to bring kindness and compassion in the world. He was a sociable creature and he made friends everywhere he went.
Today, he wasn’t looking to make friends. He was looking to have a nice date with his boyfriend.
They’d passed by this cafe several times, so it wasn’t a surprise when Elliot decided now was as good a time as any to order something. The cafe usually seemed so busy, but there was a lull in traffic and it meant they could take their time inside.
He’d decided he wanted hot chocolate even before he stepped in, but he wanted Atticus to have enough time to go over the menu. He was ready to help him if it was too much pressure to make a fast decision, but they had plenty of time to make their selection. They decided to share, which was fairly common for them, so they got one drink each and three snacks–a ham and cheese croissant with some fancy herbs, a puff pastry with a sweet cream filling, and an eggnog flavored bun.
Elliot had gotten some fancy gourmet hot chocolate–because it was too chilly not to, and carried their bag of treats on his arm. He had a backpack, too–full of a few basic necessities, but mostly only there to carry anything they wanted to buy while they were out shopping–but they were going to take a seat soon. They’d been walking a bit and he suspected Atticus’ feet could use a break, even if he hadn’t complained.
They wore matching outfits out today, though Elliot was far less accessorized. He was a supportive boyfriend at least, and he thought Atticus looked very nice so he knew he had to keep up, too. There was a table in the cafe, where it was nice and warm already, and there were tables outside next to some artificial fire pits. Those were warm enough if you could scoot close to the flame.
“Inside or out?” he asked, just before taking the first sip of his drink. Oh, it was good. And warm.
He held his cup out to Atticus to taste, too.
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Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2023 5:26 pm
“Out,” Atticus said before he could think twice. And then he felt his face flush a little as he took the drink from Elliot to sip. “You know… I was just thinking we could sit close,” he explained, hoping he wasn’t being too silly about their date.
They were absolutely wearing matching outfits. Not just matching, but festively matching with red and green. His shirt had little Christmas trees patterned all along the white, and the collar was fastened with a loose chain and little snowflake clips at the corners.
He was practical though! He wore jeans and a warm peacoat over top, but he was willing to take it off if it meant sitting closer to Elliot.
“Oh, this is really good. Here, you should try mine too,” he offered. He’d also gotten a fancy hot chocolate. This one had hazelnut in it.
Atticus was absolutely looking forward to sharing their snacks, and he waited until Elliot verified it was okay to sit outside before moving towards an unsurprisingly empty table. Now if only his nose would stop feeling so tickly.
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Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2023 6:08 pm
Elliot couldn’t have imagined sitting anywhere but close. “Well, we’ll have to. For warmth,” he explained with a snicker. No, it was so he could play footsies with him, or hold his hand, or maybe even sneak a kiss. He was respectful when it came to public displays of affection, but manners could only carry him so far.
As they were seating themselves, he leaned over to take a sip of Atticus’ drink and nodded approvingly. “I could drink that all year, wow.”
The seats weren’t as cold as he’d expected, no doubt thanks to the decorative fire pits, but he sat close to Atticus and wrapped an arm around him to share warmth anyway.
It was the best of all worlds; he got to be close to Atticus, he got to enjoy the warmth, he got to enjoy delicious treats, and they got to be outside and people watch. Not that he anticipated anyone having his attention more than Atticus, but still.
His nose wiggled, like he was a few seconds away from a sneeze, but the urge receded and he laid the bag on the table to fish out the ham and cheese croissant before it could get too cold. He unwrapped it and held it up for Atticus to take the first bite.
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Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2023 6:31 pm
For warmth was exactly why they would need to be close! And it wasn’t as though they were so affectionate that it made others uncomfortable (he hoped), but he absolutely was going to be as close to Elliot as possible. Could anyone blame him? It was so cold outside!
Atticus sat with his seat up against Elliot’s so they could be as close as possible. He even tucked his arm under the back of Elliot’s jacket so he could be a little closer to his body warmth.
But it didn’t impede his ability to eat! When he was offered a bite of the croissant, he leaned forward to take a respectable bite. He didn’t want Elliot thinking he didn’t appreciate his offer! Besides, if they were still hungry after this, they could always get another.
“Oh, that’s really good,” he sighed with contentment as he placed a hand over his mouth so he wasn’t gross and talking with his mouth full, but it was so good that he couldn’t not say anything.
He picked up his drink for another little sip, and once again found that his nose tickled like he was going to sneeze. He barely had time to place his drink back down and cover his mouth and nose when he did!
And while he was pretty certain he hadn’t seen snowflakes falling from the sky, he was a little surprised, but not alarmed when a few seemed to fall around him.
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Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2023 6:48 pm
Everything Elliot had gotten was with the express intent to share, and if Atticus was hungry, he’d feed him all of it! They could always get more later. He had money, from chores and whatnot, but he also knew that Michael never let Atticus leave without everything he’d need.
So, he never worried while they were out.
Elliot had just taken his first bite of the croissant to taste when Atticus sneezed. He was ready to say ‘bless you’ but paused at the sudden explosion of snowflakes.
Logically, there had to be some source of them. He glanced above them, but there were no snowflakes sprinkling from above. No festive decorations blowing them on the wind.
Just Atticus.
Elliot swallowed his mouthful of food slowly. “...Did you just sneeze snowflakes?”
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Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2023 7:46 pm
“Did I?” he squeaked. Atticus looked horrified. Was that normal? No, of course that wasn’t normal to just sneeze snowflakes.
He looked down at his hand, and then up above him just in case there was something-- or maybe someone was playing a trick on them?
Whatever it was, hopefully it was just… their imagination or something, but he definitely saw some snowflakes too.
“That’s… pretty silly, huh? Maybe it’s some new Knight magic,” he tried to joke, keeping his voice low enough so no one could possibly hear them. He would have to ask his dads about it. Maybe Lucien would know.
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Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2023 8:49 pm
“Maybe,” Elliot said slowly, but he was watching Atticus closely. He lowered the croissant. He felt the urge to sneeze, but he wondered if that was just psychosomatic, like yawning. Ordinarily, he would have tucked his face into his elbow to block the sneeze, but instead he turned away and sneezed into the empty space next to him. His eyes were closed so he didn’t see the flurry of snowflakes shoot from his mouth.
The cold he felt was easy enough to attribute to the chilly winter air, but he turned back to Atticus to continue his investigation.
“Are you sure you aren’t playing a trick on me? Do you feel okay? Are you too cold?”
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Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2023 8:30 pm
“You did too!” Atticus gasped in surprise, sitting up a little straighter in his chair so he could look at the space beside Elliot where the little snowflakes had appeared and fluttered around after he’d sneezed.
“That was so weird. Yeah, I feel okay. Do you?” he blinked curiously at Elliot, and then at the table with their food and drinks, as if that was going to answer something, but it didn’t.
“I don’t know why, but when you sneezed, there were definitely snowflakes. And me too…”
He had no idea what was going on, but it wasn’t as though snowflakes were hurting anyone. It was kind of funny, really.
Atticus picked up his drink for another sip. This time, his nose tickled almost immediately and this time he was barely able to cover his mouth as he sneezed. Sure enough, more snowflakes appeared, which prompted him to laugh at how silly it was.
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Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2023 11:32 am
Elliot wanted to protest that he hadn’t, but he snorted and laughed when Atticus sneezed again. “No, stop! Don’t drink that if it’s making you sneeze!”
He was laughing again though, it made him think of hiccupping bubbles or something. He’d done tag once on accident, he was pretty sure there were pictures somewhere. He felt the tickle of another sneeze but nothing came of it, so he sipped at his drink and—
Nothing!
He reached for Atticus’ and took a sip and—
There they were. Only a few seconds after he swallowed, he sneezed. He held his hand up to cover his mouth but snowflakes still hit his hand and splashed over. A few more sprinkled out when he laughed.
“That’s your drink doing that, I don’t think it’s mine. It’s not even that frozen! It tickles. My mouth is cold now.” He took a bite of the warm croissant and then passed it over to Atticus too.
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Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2023 7:21 pm
Atticus gasped when snowflakes burst forth when Elliot sneezed, but it was immediately followed by a trill of laughter.
It was absolutely ridiculous to think that a drink could make someone sneeze snowflakes of all things!
He graciously took a bite of the croissant when it was offered to him, but once he was done chewing and swallowing, he had to wash it down with something! It was too funny not to do it again, so even though Elliot told him not to, he absolutely took a quick sip of his drink and --
Another sneeze and flurry of snowflakes and lots of giggling.
“Okay, okay! I’ll stop!” he promised as he placed his drink down and pushed it away. He needed to drink something though, so he picked up Elliot’s to take a sip, and let out a small sigh of relief when he didn’t sneeze.
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Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 3:36 pm
Atticus’ laugh was so pure, it warmed Elliot’s heart again. He forgot how cold his mouth was. “Do you think we should ask for a refund?” He teased. “…or one to take home for our parents?”
Elliot had always been a bit of a prankster, he couldn’t help but think it would have been very enjoyable to watch any number of their dads try to deal with sneezing snowflakes.
He made sure his drink was between the both of them so they could share and withdrew the rest of the treats they’d gotten to snack on. “We should test all of them and see if they do anything. For science.” And because they looked and smelled good and sometimes he felt like he still needed to find a creative way to insist that Atticus eat.
He was good for that long, and then he couldn’t help himself. He snaked his hand out for another quick sip of Atticus’ drink.
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Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 7:42 pm
“Hey!” Atticus laughed as Elliot took another sip from the snowflake drink, ready and waiting for the inevitable sneeze and shower of snowflakes. He didn’t mind if Elliot wanted to sneeze snowflakes! He was so cute when he did!
“We should definitely bring some home to our parents. I can’t imagine what your dad’s expression will be when he starts sneezing. Oh, I feel kind of bad, but it’ll be okay!” Poor Oliver would probably be so alarmed, but they would just have to reassure him that it was fine.
The offered food was tempting, and if they were sharing then he appreciated Elliot letting him try whatever he wanted. He didn’t often have that big of an appetite, but he also wasn’t running around like Elliot did.
“Oh, these are good too. I don’t think I’m sneezing,” he said behind his hand, too excited to talk to Elliot to wait until he was done swallowing.
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Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 8:01 pm
The sneeze came, predictably, and more snowflakes followed. It felt like a tickle in the back of his throat but nothing more. How could something so fun be dangerous? The worst part about all of it was that it felt like he had cold water in his ears, and even that discomfort was negligible. Atticus’ laughter would have healed any discomfort he’d had, anyway.
He laughed the whole time, and that only made more snowflakes shoot out.
“No, I think it’s just that one,” Elliot said, pointing at Atticus’ drink. “It’s so weird, I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
Poison wouldn’t have been such a good time, was it magic? …Well, if anyone was going to be able to tell, it would be Devyn or Michael, probably. Even if they didn’t bring back a drink, they’d have to tell them about this place so they could make sure everything was okay.
“My dad’s still sniffling, so I bet if he started sneezing snowflakes, everyone would worry. But I actually feel better after all of that. They say laughter’s the best medicine, maybe there’s something to these snowflakes.” Elliot didn’t sound like he believed that, this was probably just some cute marketing tactic and they just didn’t have the science skills to understand what was going on. He wasn’t complaining–and he’d seen plenty of people with the same drink Atticus’ had gotten. There were no bad reviews, no warnings. Maybe it was just some clever promo?
…Especially because they were seriously considering buying another one just to take home to their parents.
Elliot had to force himself to push the drink away, otherwise he was just going to make himself sneeze again and try to figure out how they were doing it. “If this was anything bad, someone definitely would have shut them down by now. So it’s gotta be some gimmick. Probably totally safe. I don’t want our parents to miss out, I feel like they could all use something to laugh about.”
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Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 8:11 pm
“I feel so bad for both of them,” Atticus took a moment to pause from laughing and giggling about the snowflakes that appeared from nothing as they sneezed so he could worry a little over Elliot’s dads. He didn’t like that Asher was still sniffling and sick, and Oliver was obviously worried about him. Atticus knew he’d be worried if Elliot or his dads got sick.
Oh, but the idea that adding some snowflakes to the sniffles was pretty funny, so his worrying eased relatively quickly. And Elliot was right. Laughter was the best medicine, or so they said.
“Is it bad that I want to set up a camera to watch your dad’s reaction to the snowflakes? I think daddy might just pass it off as a normal Earth thing that he’d just never heard of before, and papa would just sigh at first, but I think he’d think it was funny once he decided it wasn’t dangerous. Oh… do you think that would be weird? Calling him papa? Haven’t asked him. I should. I thought it would be easier than having three dads, you know?”
Atticus felt his cheeks flush a little, but he was still smiling. He was a year and a half into being their son, so he hoped it wasn’t too strange that he was still testing the waters with what to call them.
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Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 8:22 pm
“I think he’d like it,” Elliot said, scooting a little closer. He smiled softly and had a far off look as he imagined it, but he finally nodded firmly. “I think he’d be embarrassed at first, because he’s kind of like–well, you know him. He’s really cool, until it comes to emotions, because then he kind of clams up sometimes like he’s worried he’s going to mess things up?” He absolutely was not talking poorly about Michael; he never had anything bad to say about him.
He was fond of Michael and had been for a long time. He looked up to him. And now that he had a family? Of course Elliot was elated. Even if he teased him, it was only out of love, and he’d never push any buttons that seemed like they’d be too much for him to deal with.
“You should try it. I bet it would make him really happy.” Michael seemed very careful with Atticus, probably because he was just trying to make sure that he didn’t do the wrong thing. He knew Devyn and Atticus were closer–or, at least, better at showing their fondness for one another.
“We can let them know about the snowflakes before we give it to them, just to make sure they’re okay with it. I guess. But it would still be funny,” he laughed, because even if they decided not to risk it, he could still imagine it. “I mean, you know what I call both of my parents.”
Just ‘dad’, and it was often indistinguishable to know which one he was talking about unless you knew them.
“Father is too formal. Padre just doesn’t have the right ring to it. I just cannot imagine you calling him ‘Pops’. Maybe I should try that on him.” He hummed and then nodded firmly but he was barely able to hide his laughter. “Yeah, after we get married. Definitely ‘pops’.”
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