Guest: A new comer? Goodness, I feel bad that you joined right before I went on hiatus for so long, welcome! I'm glad you liked it, I know heartwarming isn't really baked into how the main series presents itself, but it's big part of my style of story telling, so it always makes me happy when somebody enjoys it. (^.^) Also I've heard people have been having trouble with logging in lately.
Scarecrow345: And I always look forward to hearing from you. (^.^) My grandmother is doing alright, she's actually bounced back faster than my mom did after my dad died.
And your review touched on a lot of my favourite parts: Zim's a lot of fun to write, especially when he's getting carried away like this, I really love writing his dynamic with Skoodge too; he's just a really good anchor for Zim with enough patience to handle him (And he's going to get a nice moment to shine in one of the later chapters that I'm really excited for). Also I have been sitting on this version of the previous Tallests since more or less the beginning (and I finally have both versions of Tallest Miyuki out there, I remember a few people guessing who she was in the early days).
I really loved getting to bring all of these guys back too; I'd been looking forward to having Bob & Derek hang out since I decided to have them both in the story, hopefully I'll get to write them having fun together again. The same for the Resisty, besides just having them be a bunch of tween aged protestors that's part after school club, Lard Nar & Shloontaplooxis's friendship would be a lot of fun to explore; if you're familiar with Friendship is Magic, I can picture them having a Twilight & Pinkie sort of dynamic.
And yes, Gir was the one that figured out what was happening in the original episode, so I wanted to have him play a part in the solution to this one too. The same with having Skoodge find out, after everything he's done in the story, it just felt right to let him officially be let in the proverbial loop.
FFN specific announcement: Over the past few months I've seen posts warning that the website might be winding down, advising people to back up stories they've made or just really liked, and that there have been issues with password retrieval along with the previous ones that have sometimes happened with private messages over the past two years. Officially my plan is to keep updating here as long as possible, worst case scenario you can still read it on archive, but as I said, hopefully it won't be an issue and I can keep going here too until the story is complete.
Hello Everyone! It's been a really long time, much longer than I planned.
When last I left you, my grandfather had just died a few days before, I'm alright now and so is the rest of my family, including my grandmother who's business is picking up again, though we did spend about a month staying with her while she adjusted to everything. After that I was supposed to be doing a video project in March but the event ended up being a huge mess and the group hosting the event tried to rip us off (and we nearly got attacked by cayotes once because they had us staying in cabins that weren't really good for anything but sleeping in, so we had to walk back from the main building every night...fun)
Besides that, we've had to help a family friend move twice and prepare for an art show which is still in progress since he ended up wasting a lot of time, and we've had to make several trips to the province the gallery is in, which is several hours away. I did get a lot of reading done though, as for writing...It's complicated. I just finished this chapter a few days ago and have had trouble getting the gears moving again for the ones after this, I only started to make real progress the other day, but I've ended up making a surprising amount of headway on a couple later ones (including roughly 7 pages of a chapter that's really close to the end and probably won't be posted for a year). I also had my birthday a few weeks ago, which was nice.
Onto the actual story, we have Christmas in (very late) July with a bit of "Future Dib" thrown in, the longest chapter and the one with the longest production time, with the first bit of writing having been done around Christmas 2019, granted I wasn't constantly working on it all that time, but this chapter does tap into some personal feelings, so I had written some parts around those two Christmases when I was in the right mindset.
On a lighter note, we have a fun little reference in the title; the title of this series is actually derived from a pair of specials that were made in 1989 (though their art styles looks more like 1960s Hanna-Barbera) that would occasionally air on TV, the first was called "The Aliens Next Door" and looks like it was the pilot for a series about a family of humans who are the first to move to an alien planet, but only the first episode and a Christmas special were ever made, so it only seemed right that the Christmas chapter would be named after the other episode.
And on that note let's begin, hopefully this chapter was worth the wait. (^.^)
Zim was curled up on his bed, with the door barricaded, and squeezing his plush moose as close to his chest as possible. He hated this time of year.
Every year, the Christmas season came and with it an unpleasant mix of…feelings, ones he hated in every way imaginable: he hated feeling them, he hated being able to feel them, and he hated the way they would gradually creep into his consciousness without him realising it, growing stronger and harder to ignore each day until the last few days leading up to the holiday he would end up….like this.
He looked up at the clock by his bed and discontentedly noted that he had been there for two hours now, the Christmas movie marathon would keep Gir busy for another hour or so, but still, he was….concerned. Each year it got progressively worse, taking a little longer to disperse the overwhelming cocktail of emotions and push it back where it belonged. He took a deep breath as he buried his face in the purple fabric and was surprised by the slight shuddering that came with it.
Ugh! This was stupid! His family had never treated Christmas as a big deal, so why did the season taunt him so?
Zim turned to face the wall, as if he could simply turn his back to the thoughts and they would just disappear; unfortunately they were all inside his head, and there was nowhere he could escape them. This wasn't a real solution anyway, the feelings would just return to bother him again eventually. No, if he wanted to solve the problem, he'd have to address the source.
...Somehow.
"Dib, what is that?" Gaz asked flatly, gesturing to the huge tree filling the corner of the living room.
"Well, according to the website it's ecologically sustainable" Dib said with an awkward smile as his attempt at humour failed to land. "It's an Earth thing, part of celebrating Christmas is to decorate a pine tree; the tradition is to cut one down, but some people have started digging one up and replanting it after their done with it because trees take a long time to grow and killing one to display for a few weeks is kind of wasteful"
"Dib, I didn't ask you about your stance on it, I asked why it's here at all"
"Well, there are a lot of holidays for the winter solstice, even the equatorial countries have them now. So we need to celebrate something if we want to pass as human" Dib explained "Christmas is the most common one in this country, and the only one I could find that isn't tied to a specific culture besides the solstice itself, and celebrations of that are pretty rare now" Dib held out an ornament to Gaz "Besides, it's kind of fun"
"If I hang one up, will you leave me alone?"
"If you really want me to" Dib answered with a sigh "I think you'd like it if you gave it a chance though. It's kind of a new start; a new holiday we can enjoy and celebrate, without everything from Vort's holidays hanging over- '' He was cut off as Gaz's hand shot up and covered his mouth.
"If I agree to decorate the tree with you, will you curb your speeches until the holiday is over?"
Dib smiled as he handed the ornament off to Gaz "Deal"
"You've been staring at your work bench for an hour" The computer informed.
"I'm thinking" Zim argued back, tilting his head up to frown at the ceiling and crossing his arms before slumping back in his chair. Working on a project always helped to take his mind off... things, but currently he had spent the past hour stuck in a limbo of wanting to work on something but having no idea what he actually wanted to do. At this point, all he had accomplished was a session of, essentially, glorified sulking.
Glorified sulking that was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.
He glanced over at the front door's screen and saw a young man holding a large box; that must be one of his online orders. The timing was bad, but maybe something in the package would give him a little inspiration.
"I'm coming" Zim grumbled in irritation before storming up to the front door and throwing it open. He was greeted by the in-person visage of the young man, looking stunned for a moment before sighing in relief.
"Oh thank goodness! A person! I've heard stories about the robots" The delivery guy exclaimed with a slight laugh in his voice before regaining his composure "I've got a package here for Zim and Gir, are you either of them?"
"Me and Gir?" Zim replied with confusion as he took the box; his orders never had Gir's name on them, for good reason mind you, considering many of the things he bought would be considered dangerous in the hands of a child his own age, let alone Gir's. The only way it would be for both of them was-
He glanced down, saw the lack of postmark on it, and felt everything drop out from under him: it was official, the rest of the year was ruined.
"Hey, are you alright, kid?" The delivery guy asked, concerned by the look of utter deviation that suddenly crossed the child's face; he was supposed to be delivering a Christmas present, and this kid looked like he'd just been told he was an orphan.
"I'm fine!" Zim snapped.
"Are you sure? You look pretty upset" The guy asked as he knelt down to eye level "I don't think I've ever seen a kid get that upset about getting a present from their-"
"I said I'm fine! You've done your job, now be gone with you!" Zim cut him off before slamming the door in his face and storming off to his room.
Over the past few years he'd noticed a pattern with how Christmas went with his parents. Every year they would call him and Gir, and have a package with their presents driven over, the problem was one of the two was always late; if they called him on Christmas Day, the box would usually arrive a few days later, and vice versa.
This year the box had arrived before Christmas, which meant he could expect the call from them around new years. This would be frustrating at the best of times, but this year the season had been especially rough so far, and he had really been counting on having that call. At this point he didn't even want to look at what was in the box and just shoved it in his closet where he wouldn't have to look at it.
An uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a moment after as no one knew what to do next, Zim was in an even worse state now, and overhead the Computer silently lamented how far out of his programmed purpose this was.
Originally he'd been programmed into the house when Jane & Gilbert had it built, both to help keep it running smoothly and to act as a sounding board when they were working from home. Then one day they'd brought home a baby. Granted it wasn't a big surprise, they'd been working on the project for ages, he'd even helped run the numbers for how big the tank needed to be.
The problem was that he had been programmed for a family that consisted of two adults, and Zim had been added to his realm of responsibility very far away from adulthood, no matter what he claimed. This had left Computer in the position of a young man who suddenly found himself the older brother to a child too young to be his peer, but with too small an age gap to be his own.
The first few years weren't too bad, Zim's parents handled most of his needs when he was at home, and had set up a mostly safe environment for him to explore, he just needed the occasional nudge out of harm's way when he found a way around the safety measures. Computer didn't even think Zim knew he was there until an incident when the child was about two where he'd tried to use the voice commands on a store and couldn't understand why the intercom wasn't responding to him.
Even the increasing absence of the boy's parents didn't present much of a problem, at least in terms of basic care. Recklessness aside, the little disaster magnet wasn't that hard to keep alive, especially since his parents had needed many of the same reminders to take care of themselves as their eldest. But over the years Zim had started to develop more complex emotional needs, ones Computer had only the vaguest idea how to fill.
"Is- Is there anything you need me to do?" The Computer asked hesitantly, the usual sarcastic tone was completely absent and was replaced with one of genuine sympathy.
Zim prepared to give an answer, only to find he didn't really have one; at this point he was still firmly in emotional free fall, wanting to do something but having no idea what.
Taking his anger out on the package might feel good in the moment, but at the same time it was the best he was getting for the next two weeks, he couldn't destroy it. His other main standby was to vent to someone, or rather scream a frustrated monologue with someone nearby, but was caught in a vexing limbo of wanting to vent, while also wanting to be alone. Not to mention he dreaded the pandora's box that talking it through with someone would open.
Above all he felt both sad and angry, even if he desperately wanted to ignore the sadness he felt, and deny it was ever there to begin with. Perhaps he could do something completely unrelated to distract himself, running away from the problem was enough of a solution, right? But at the same time he couldn't really pinpoint anything he felt like doing. He couldn't even use the process of elimination as talking about everything was the only option he could eliminate with any degree of certainty.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. There was one other possibility that tugged at the back of his mind which he had no intention of acting on: to just call his parents himself. But his stubborn pride filed that firmly as something he absolutely refused to do. He couldn't quite explain it, but calling them himself felt like he was giving up and letting something else win, even if he couldn't be sure who or what he would be losing to.
"I…I don't know" he finally said, quietly, letting himself slowly slide down the closet door he was still leaning against and onto the floor. Those three words seemed to sum up everything; he didn't know what to do, he didn't really know how he felt, he didn't even know why he was so bothered by all this when Christmas had never been that big a deal for his family in the first place.
Sure, his family would spend the day together and there were some of the usual festive trappings, like presents and decorations, but nothing most would call a real tradition. There was the lab's Christmas party, but they didn't do any private gatherings, and if Zim had an extended family he'd never met any of them.
They exchanged gifts, but there was none of the usual Santa mythos attached to it, his gifts came from his parents and he'd make something for them. They'd get a seasonal cake as well, but it was difficult to coordinate everyone's allergies and personal tastes into a special dinner, so they would usually just have a mostly normal one with the cake for dessert. It wasn't as if the season was completely devoid of celebration, but it wasn't treated as some wondrous, magical time, more like a collective second birthday for the whole family.
Zim couldn't be sure how long he had been there when he heard Gir come home from playing with his friends and switch the TV on, likely to another accursed special. Still, now that Gir was back he'd need some degree of supervision, and he'd certainly be distracting. Thus Zim dragged himself out of his room and down the stairs to where the TV set was. When he got there he spotted something on the screen that gave him an idea, a potentially questionable idea, but one that pulled him out of the mood he'd been stuck in.
He knew exactly what he could do.
Holiday specials were by no means an Earth exclusive phenomenon, but the sheer amount of content out there for Christmas far eclipsed anything Dib had seen for Vortian holidays, space holidays, or any of the Earth holidays he'd experienced so far.
Not only the quantity, but the sheer variety of said content was absolutely mind boggling, with genres running the range from standard family friendly movies, to romance, comedy, and even a few horror features. Similarly the tones of the movies and specials included everything from sweet and charming, to snarky, to…weird. Even more so when you watched the really obscure ones, which were often made on a shoestring budget or as a tie-in to a show or product that had gone out of production years before the children watching now we're born.
The movie he was currently watching was meant to be a romantic story about a business man coming to a small town to buy out a young widow's snow globe refilling business and open an oil resort, whatever that was, after a childhood tragedy had left him hating the holiday. But eventually the magic of love & small town Christmas win him over, so he has a change of heart and marries the widow on Christmas day.
Apparently Christmas was also supposed to be romantic.
Unfortunately, writing and directorial choices had resulted in the film being an unintentional parody of the genre, with odd dialogue and the businessman constantly holding a briefcase, even when gesturing, as if his hands were permanently fused to them. By the time plot point b was introduced, where the widow realised her first husband had really been Santa Claus, and the commercial break started assuring the audience that 'The Christmas on Christmas' would return shortly, Dib was more than ready for some time away to process the madness he'd just watched.
Switching to the next channel over, a local station, he was greeted with an advertisement for the annual tree lighting event around the outskirts of town.
According to the ad, every year there was a winter carnival that lasted for a two week period leading up to Christmas, with a massive pine tree at the center decorated with giant baubles and strings of electric lights that would be switched on at sunset each night. First they had a countdown to the tree lighting, then the crowd of onlookers would sing Christmas songs for the better part of half an hour once the tree was illuminated.
He'd have to see if Zim & Gir wanted to go, Gir would definitely love it, and Zim would at least enjoy the fireworks that they did on Christmas eve & Christmas day, the last two days of the fair, and the ones with the most extravagant celebration. And with that he sent a message inviting them before returning to his unintentionally surreal film.
It turned out that finding the right project was just what Zim needed, or at least he was starting to feel a bit better after getting out of the house to pick up supplies.
Perhaps because he had found a suitable place to direct his emotional energies, or perhaps because he just enjoyed the ambient chaotic charge of the mall. It was a bit ironic; crowds with their half-distinguishable chatter, and all of the annoying habits people individually had being multiplied by the number of people present, tended to grate on his nerves. But there was something about hoards of people fighting each other in a frenzied panic, engaging in gladiatorial combat for the last novelty shampoo holder he simply…enjoyed.
While some decided the discounts simply weren't worth the madness that consumed retail venues during black Friday sales, Zim enjoyed the combative atmosphere and would go even if he didn't have anything he planned to buy. Perching himself on top of a large shelving unit and enjoying the action the way someone else might watch a sporting event. If it weren't for the holiday season as a whole being soured, he would probably be doing the same on Christmas Eve.
As it was, he was starting to feel a bit more like his usual self as he checked the purchases off his list, when Gir spotted something that derailed the outing.
"It's a mall Santa!" Gir squealed "Can I go? Pleeeaaaase!?"
"Sure, Fine, whatever" Zim replied, distracted.
"Yaaay! Thank you!" Gir squealed further, hugging his brother before towing him to the mercifully short line.
Zim quickly glanced over his shoulder at a nearby store selling crystal dishware, and noted a few pieces in the display window seemed to be sporting minor cracks that he wouldn't be surprised if Gir had caused. As he looked ahead, he noticed that he and Gir were in the minority; most of the children in line were accompanied by at least one parent and the few that weren't were waving at ones that had tasked them with keeping their younger sibling occupied while the adults shopped for presents.
He shot the growing line a look of utter disdain before turning back to his list to distract himself.
This too, was difficult to explain, it wasn't that he envied the other children for believing in Santa Claus, or for having been lied to by their parents. Especially not after witnessing the madness that had ensued as his peers realised the truth one by one; he still remembered the handful of Christmas seasons full of screaming and crying over whether Santa existed or not. Those who had realised attempted to show off how grown up they were for knowing, while those who still believed panicked that they'd all end up on the naughty list if they so much as listened to the anti-santa crowd.
Zim had chosen to overlook that he had similar outbursts himself, albeit for other reasons, in favour smugly regarding his peers from his lofty perch of having never believed in the first place, nor been manipulated by his parents into behaving as they wanted under the threat of not getting presents. For all the mistakes his parents had made, at least they had never intentionally broken his trust.
So why was it now that, as he surveyed the line, he was plagued by the feeling that something was missing?
He quickly pushed the thought aside as Gir's turn came and the child began prattling off a list of all the things he wanted for Christmas, many of which made no sense: furniture made out of cheese would go mouldy long before Gir could eat it all, especially since it wouldn't fit in the fridge, and going dancing in his underwear wasn't even a deliverable.
"How about a nice football instead?" The mall Santa offered several minutes later, with a clear tone of stress in his voice as he struggled to avoid breaking character.
"Okay!" Gir chirped, folding his hands on his lap as he posed for the following photo, as if the last few minutes never happened.
"And what about you? Do you have anything you want?" The mall Santa asked Zim who was taken aback by the question.
Besides simply not expecting to be mistaken for a child young enough to believe, he genuinely didn't know how to respond to being asked, and flusteredly sputtered as he searched for an answer. Part of him wanted to make an outrageous request that the mall Santa wouldn't know how to respond to, like a laser cannon, uranium, or something else he couldn't possibly deliver.
There was one thing he genuinely wanted that fit those parameters, but he wouldn't admit wanting it to himself, let alone in front of an entire crowd of strangers.
Beyond that was a particularly venomous impulse to disillusion the rest of the line by proclaiming the entire booth to be built on a lie and unmasking the mall santa as a fraud; his Christmas was going to be miserable, so why should he be the only one to suffer? However, all that came out was a shouted "Just take the picture so I can go shopping!"
As soon as the polaroid was taken, he snatched it and stuffed it in his backpack along with all of the candy canes in a basket marked 'take one'. Candy canes weren't a particular favourite of his, but he felt a certain satisfaction in hoarding them all as he stormed off to finish his errands. When Gir caught up to him, he used a candy cane to buy himself a few minutes of silence until he could bring himself back to a state that could field the questions he suspected were coming.
It only took a couple more stores for things to settle back down; fortunate as Zim had more or less tracked down everything he needed to, and Gir had finished his candy cane. He had just finished going over his list and was storing it in his backpack when a familiar voice caught his attention.
"Zim! Gir!" Dib called, waving as he made his way through the crowd to where the boys were. "I was just getting some more decorations, I set the tree up earlier, but I found some other stuff I liked" he added, opening the bag slightly to show off his purchases. "What about you two? It looks like you've been busy Chrstmas shopping"
Zim's eyes darted to the bags in his hands, then back to Dib.
Technically what he'd bought was 'For Christmas' but the items themselves and their intended use were decidedly not christmassy and would likely result in, at best, a lecture and at worst a conversation he'd rather not have any time within the next century.
"In a manner of speaking, yes!" Zim answered with an awkward, overly broad smile "Yes, I'm just doing some perfectly normal shopping, like all the other inferior children in the mall"
Dib was not remotely convinced and sighed as he pinched his brow. "You really aren't good at hiding when you're up to something" He heard Gir giggling in response. "I'll set it aside for now, but did you get the message I sent you? The one about the carnival?"
"The carnival?"
"Yeah, they're holding it in the park, there's a tree lighting and everything" Dib explained "There's going to be a fireworks show on Christmas eve & day, I thought if you didn't have anything planned for one of those days, the two of you might want to go"
At this Gir's face lit up, while Zim's took on the sort of expression of somebody who had just ignored advice against eating something fresh out of the microwave without letting it cool first, and was now trying to pretend he wasn't wrong and hadn't just burnt his mouth.
"We are not spending Christmas day there and neither are you!" he finally said, looking as serious as a pre-teen could "Under no circumstances should you go there on the last day"
"Al-Alright" Dib replied, more than a little startled by Zim's sudden outburst, before shaking his head to refocus "Wait, why don't you want me going there? Just what are you up to, Zim?"
"I'll never tell!" Zim yelled before taking Gir's hand and rushing off, ironically having confirmed Dib's suspicions that something was amiss.
Once back home, Zim brought his purchases straight to the workshop before going to the filing cabinet and impatiently flicking through the folders inside, he was certain there was a copy in here…There it was! He plucked out the set of blueprints he had been searching for and spread them over the workbench.
Years ago his parents had designed a new clean energy generator, with a miniature version having been commissioned by the city to use for powering seasonal displays following public outcry about such things being wasteful. This was one of the projects they'd worked on at home, and a copy of the blueprints were still in the house's filing cabinet. He just needed to check it to confirm his suspicions.
It only took a couple of minutes of scanning the pages to find what he was looking for.
What made this generator clean was that it did not create energy by burning fuel, nothing was used to power it, and no emissions were left behind. This was great for the cities that had already adopted it, but came with a fatal flaw in the smaller model; compressing the technology increased the internal pressure and made the machine more volatile. There were fail safes in place, of course, but if enough of those were tampered with…
Well, he'd only be fiddling with a few of them. The generator would put out too much energy for the light bulbs to handle, the bulbs would explode, the awnings would catch fire, possibly some of the wooden tables, the bacon soap booth definitely wouldn't survive. But that was fine, it was winter, there would be solid water all over the place, it wasn't as if the fire would spread that far.
All it would do was ruin the festival, and by extension the Christmases of everyone in attendance, no big deal. And for once he wouldn't have to put up with everyone else having their stupid celebrations while he…wasn't.
Sure, there was a chance that the generator would overload and send out a horrible wave of doom, leveling everything in its wake, but it was a very small chance. Besides, that park was at the far end of town; everything important was well out of the potential blast radius, and with everyone that mattered either staying indoors away from there or on vacation in another area altogether, he was willing to take the risk.
And so Zim set to work. For the following week he spent every spare moment away from school immersed in his preparations, whether he was familiarising himself with the schematics of the generator, creating a model to practice on, or doing test runs until the adjustments he needed to make became second nature.
He wasn't alone in his work either, he'd appointed Gir as his official scout and tasked him with keeping an eye on the local channels for any mention of the winter carnival, while the computer was told to record anything helpful. When Zim needed a break from the more hands-on portion of his project he would go over the recorded footage, which mostly consisted of the same handful of commercials and the odd news piece that weren't as helpful as he would have liked.
Still, the sparse information they supplied was better than nothing, it at least gave him some idea of the layout of the fair grounds, enough to create a rough map, and provided occasional glimpses behind the scenes. Perhaps more importantly, it allowed him to step away from the more hands-on aspects of the project without the frustration of halting his progress. Already there was a sense of urgency to the way he worked, whether he was doing another practice run or pouring over his recordings, as if he couldn't afford to stop unless absolutely necessary.
At least in his own eyes, this was true, as long as he remained focused on the task at hand, he could keep any unwanted thoughts and feelings at bay, and if he stopped he risked everything catching up to him and leaving him as drained and listless as he had been before.
Elsewhere, Dib's research had been yielding almost overwhelming results.
In the time he'd spent on Earth, the Vortian had figured out a good system for researching holidays, one that started weeks in advance when the first decorations would spring up in stores. One advantage of seasonal creep was that this gave him a buffer of a few weeks to conduct his research on the new holiday before anyone at school would actually begin talking about it. He could ask his classmates about a few particulars without attracting suspicion, but he'd found at least some familiarity was needed to start with.
Doubly so since maintaining his cover story of being a foreign transfer student had added an extra layer of complexity, at least at first, when he'd prepared to field questions about the holidays of his supposed home country. To his surprise, he'd found nobody really dug that deep, even when they were from said country they'd mostly just ask if he did something unusual.
Apart from the slight trial by fire he'd had when he wasn't sure if he was supposed to be familiar with Cinco de Mayo or not, his system had served him well, and he had been fairly confident that he'd worked all the bugs out by this point.
Or at least he had until the winter solstice came along.
Christmas alone had started out as a religious holiday, been renamed as it changed hands to another religion, actually celebrating it was outlawed for a time in some countries, and eventually it had been secularised, adopting elements and being adapted as it spread across the world.
A number of specials were about learning the true meaning of Christmas, but it seemed to mean different things depending on who you asked, assuming a true meaning even existed in the first place. And he had asked a lot. That was just Christmas too, then there were all the other holidays that took place around this time of year as every culture that experienced seasonal variances, no matter how slight, seemed to have one.
Still, the abundance of material gave Dib no shortage of sources of inspiration, and he had slowly expanded his home decorating beyond the initial tree to include a few more decorations, including a handful of outdoor pieces, some dolls, and a small Christmas village. He knew what the typical celebration looked like and how it could go wrong, for some reason a lot of films were made about holiday disaster scenarios, and had planned a small home celebration of his own.
But the deeper he dug, the more he noticed something troubling.
One constant among the things he'd seen was that there was a lot of emphasis on togetherness tied to this holiday, especially with family. Some had friendship or romance, depending on the audience and country, but they all had the same message 'No one should be alone on Christmas'.
Intellectually, he knew better than to assume fictional media was a fully accurate reflection of reality, and that liberties were often taken in the name of the message, and of entertainment value, but there were two stories in particular that nagged at the back of his mind.
The first was over a century old and had been adapted to film many times, it told the story of a cranky old man who became even more abrasive and antisocial around Christmas. He claimed it was because he resented having to give his employees a paid vacation, but that night a group of spirits try to convince him to change his ways, and it's revealed the real problem was that the holiday had long since been tainted by marking the anniversary of nearly every major loss he'd suffered in his life.
Obviously the particulars were different, but Dib couldn't help but notice the parallels between the man's behavior and Zim's own standoffishness whenever he suggested doing something for Christmas, or really, if any related celebration was mentioned.
Dib could certainly empathise with it, even if he didn't have the same exact experience to draw from; Vort had holidays that emphasised togetherness, ones that had been deeply soured after his mother's death. While Zim's reaction was closer to how Gaz would withdraw and become irritable as those days approached, bristling at any attempt to draw her into a celebration, Dib was equally affected. He just expressed his grief in the expected way for once, feeling emotionally drained, even as he pushed himself to decorate and make preparations to hold onto some sense of normalcy.
That was why he was so eager to adopt Earth holidays; they were a fresh start for him and Gaz, new holidays they could discover and enjoy without the same troubled history, or the disconnect of being expected to have a good time when neither were really able to muster up very much enthusiasm.
The other story to raise a red flag had been a children's story about a fuzzy green creature that despised Christmas and the amount of noise the Christmas loving town at the foot of his mountain home made celebrating it. One year the creature decided to prevent it by stealing everything used to celebrate the holiday, only to find none of it mattered and the townspeople celebrated together anyway. In the end he warmed up to it all and joined them, but Dib couldn't ignore the similarities in behavior: Zim was definitely up to something, something reckless.
Naturally, Dib had tried to get to the bottom of things, or at least steer Zim away from acting on what was in all likelihood a terrible idea. He'd asked a few questions where he could, always being careful to avoid coming across as too intrusive, and with Zim's cadets group on break until the new year, he gained a free afternoon to spend time with friends. Unfortunately, neither appealing to his ego with requests for his expertise, nor suggesting something unrelated to the season seemed to work.
Even the class Christmas party had been skipped in favour of going home early to work on a suspiciously secret project. Thus the week progressed, with Dib researching & setting up his first Christmas, all while trying to reach out to Zim, who remained immersed in his own preparations.
It was on Christmas Eve that things started coming to a head.
Going over blueprints & maps, and doing test runs was all very well, but didn't cover everything; Zim knew how the generator ran, and could narrow down where it was likely being stored, but he still wasn't completely sure, or knew how tight security was around it. He'd have to bite the proverbial bullet and go investigate.
Once the realisation had sunk in, Zim took a minute to sulk at having to take part in the very event he was planning to ruin, even worse that it was Christmas Eve and the park would be crowded. He glared at his partial map, as if he could will it to complete itself, however it remained unfinished, and there was no convincing himself that it wouldn't continue to be so without outside help, thus he begrudgingly left the room and trudged into the living room.
It did not look the way he had left it.
Gir had not let his brother's sour mood dampen his own enjoyment of the season and had set to work in 'decorating' during his ample free time. Of course, he had no idea where the real decorations were stored, and even if he did, they were well out of his reach, so he'd had to improvise.
The result was a mixture of crafts he had made at school, in some cases making more copies at home, and attempts at make shifting what he had seen on TV; Pompoms were glued onto paper in the shape of snowmen, there were long chains of paper rings taped onto the wall around Zim's shoulder height, and any plush gir owned of an animal that lived in cold weather had been scattered around the living room. As were a number of pine branches, creating a forest of 'Charlie Brown' Christmas trees.
Topping one attempt at a Christmas tree was a foam ball-headed angel with hair of uneven paper fringe wore a tattered dress of tissues over a paper cup body, her pipe-cleaner halo was askew, as were her wings, and Gir's attempt at replicating the singing expression on his teacher's example made it look as if she had just stepped in a cloud full of lightning and been zapped. Most of the trees, however, were bowed under the weight of a single 'ornament', consisting of a crudely painted piece of fruit tied to the top.
Zim silently noted many were already over-ripe and would likely dent under the pressure of his fingers when he eventually went to throw them away.
Those were just the intentional 'decorations', the floor was also littered with a light dusting of shredded tissue 'snow', and so much glitter it looked like a herd of unicorns with severe dandruff had held a rave in the living room. Not to mention the empty boxes of craft supplies, both intended and improvised….Gir would be in college and they'd probably still be finding remnants of this Christmas that the vacuum cleaner had missed.
No. This wasn't the time to worry about that. Priorities. First ruin Christmas, then you can deal with this; there was no way Gir would let him get rid of any of this horror show until the holiday was over anyway.
"Gir! Go to the bathroom and put your snow suit on, we're going to the winter carnival!"
This was met with excited squealing, which in turn was followed by the sound of dogs barking in the distance as Gir's voice reached pitches only they could hear. Zim was fairly nonplussed by it all; this reaction was par for the course with Gir, at least until the subsequent hug resulted in Gir inadvertently head butting Zim in the solar plexus and knocking the wind out of him.
"Yes, yes, I'm the best big brother ever" Zim's usual 'tired caregiver' tone came out as more of a wheeze "Go get ready"
Gir released him from the hug and scampered off to get himself ready, Zim took a few deep breaths before going to do the same, packing the items he'd need to complete his notes and map and doing a quick inventory of his backpack. The only thing he really needed was to bring a snack with him, while he had no doubt that there would be a number of food vendors, there was no guarantee that they would have anything edible, and the cold weather meant he could bring something from the fridge without worrying about the heat affecting it the way it would in other seasons.
As he opened the door, the shape of something comparatively large caught his eye, he pulled it fully open and was greeted by a small, lopsided snowman staring back at him.
"Why are you in our fridge!?" His voice pinched at the snowman who, of course, remained silent. Zim sighed before pulling his snack out and closing the door; he wasn't particularly annoyed by this one, he just wondered why Gir had decided to bring it inside when it wouldn't be in danger of melting for months. Ultimately he filed it under 'It's Gir, don't ask questions you don't want answered' before Gir joined him and the two departed for the festival.
The fairgrounds were located on the other side of town, too far from the house to walk the entire way, even in more temperate weather, and Zim still refused to so much as touch the city bus, especially during cold and flu season. Normally this would have left a few options still, taxis were a little more private and fewer people would spring for one over the cheaper buses, but Zim's paranoia made that option an unacceptable one; if there was an investigation, the cab company would know where he lived and the driver may be able to identify him if they caught him on any surveillance cameras.
True he was still too young to be charged, but that was beside the point, there were other problems that could be created if strangers started poking around in his personal life.
Taking his own ship was another option, one that he would normally choose under the circumstances, but the area would likely be too crowded to hide it properly and he still couldn't get it to look like a car when he needed it to be inconspicuous. Thus he had chosen to 'suddenly' accept Dib's invitation and was currently passing the short drive time downtown in terse silence as Gir monologued about his attempts at decorating.
"So, what do you want to do first?" Dib asked as they entered the fairgrounds, the question was aimed at both children, but Gir was the only one to answer.
"I wanna ride the merry-go-round!" Gir squealed, starting towards a carousel sporting dilapidated reindeer that looked more like malicious spirits of the deep winter, before getting distracted. "No, wait! I wanna play the ring toss" again his attention shifted "Fried stuff on a stick!" Gir gasped as he pointed to a booth labeled just that with another sign in front advertising it was 'Now 20% more questionable!', prompting his two minders to look at the booth in disgust and fervently hope something else would draw his attention.
"Oooh! I know! I wanna ride the bumper cars!" The bumper cars in question were stuck in the snow that had fallen on the driving arena over the day, with several children already using child sized shovels to try and dig their cars out and waving their fists at the sky as they finally realised why their parents often did so on winter mornings. "They look like they're having fun" Gir smiled, evidently he was seeing something entirely different from what everyone else was.
The next couple of hours passed by pleasantly enough as Gir towed them from one attraction to another, clearly having the time of his life as he browsed tables full of knick knacks, enjoyed cheap carnival food, won poorly made stuffed toys and rode both rides several times each. Zim, however, was another story.
He didn't look as if he were having fun, but didn't give the impression that he was slogging through the trip solely to humour his brother, and Zim made no secret of it when he didn't want to be somewhere. No, to an outsider he'd seem to be looking around at the festival like any other child, but closer observation showed that he wasn't looking at the attractions, so much as he seemed to be looking through them.
In a way, it reminded Dib of a family vacation back when Gaz wasn't much older than Gir's stage. They had gone to an amusement park, but the first time they went on any ride she wasn't looking where she was expected to, she would look at the staged scenes they rode by, but her attention always seemed to be somewhere beyond the performing animatronic characters. It wasn't until they had revisited a few attractions later on that he realised what was happening: she was looking at the mechanisms. How the rides worked was the first thing to grab her interest, and she only watched the finished show once she had satisfied her curiosity.
It wasn't a perfect comparison, but looking at Zim as Gir once again rode the carousel, Dib could see the gears turning as the boy silently observed and dissected his surroundings.
"Is there anything you want to do?" Dib offered, attempting in equal parts to both gain some insight into what Zim was doing and nudge him into letting himself have fun "I know getting food's a little dicey, but there's got to be something you want to-"
"I'm already doing what I wanted to" Zim replied without betraying a hint of any deeper meaning.
"Are you sure you're alright? You've seemed…off this past week" Dib asked without realising "Is it anything I did?" he added, quickly backpedaling to avoid coming off as intrusive.
"It isn't. This is normal" Zim said, not angry, but with a tone of finality.
"Ok" Dib replied, biting his lower lip awkwardly as he mentally fished for a safer topic to steer the conversation to "Hey, it's almost time for the tree lighting! We'd better get going as soon as Gir finishes his ride if we want to get a good spot"
Shortly afterwards, they had found their spot by the tree and the lighting was in progress, and once again Zim seemed to be looking somewhere different from where everyone else was; his face was angled towards the tree, but almost as if it was in the way. The three of them were standing in a spot that gave them an unobstructed view of the tree itself, yet Zim kept shifting in place the way you would when somebody near your height was in the way.
Zim was pulled from his fidgeting reverie by the sound of the music for the sing along starting, he glanced left and right in a panic as he realised he was expected to hold hands with Gir & some stranger and join in singing the selection of Christmas songs. He quickly ducked down to avoid the offered hand and darted for the space under the tree, and in doing so he managed to gain everything he needed: an unobstructed view of where the generator was stored, conveniently unguarded, and a place where he could transpose his findings in privacy.
He suspected Dib would not approve of his plan, but also doubted he'd understand the emotional need that drove it, so it was really for the best if he simply didn't find out at all. Or at least not until the resulting fire made the news.
His luck held as the singing ended almost the exact moment he finished writing and when he rejoined Dib & Gir nobody questioned his leaving, likely assuming that he had left to avoid being dragged into the festive 'sing-along'. They wouldn't be entirely wrong, but it was mostly that he wanted to finish his notes, it hadn't just been a happy coincidence, really, it was his plan the whole time. That train of thought was quickly cut off as the fireworks show started and pulled his attention to the sky, a broad grin spread across his face as he watched the pyrotechnics display, watching things explode never failed to improve his mood.
Just a few feet away Dib was giving him a warm, big brotherly smile as, for the first time in over a week, Zim seemed to be enjoying himself. In the back of his mind Dib still felt slightly conflicted; whether it was instinct or just several months of being Zim's friend, he suspected things weren't completely settled yet and Zim still fully intended to go through with whatever he was planning, but as he turned to look at the sky, he liked to consider it a small victory.
Today was the day.
Zim had gotten up before sunrise, something made slightly easier by the shorter daylight hours delaying it, and gotten ready the night before so all he'd have to do was get dressed and leave. He'd even brought his clothes for the day downstairs so he wouldn't risk waking Gir up, especially after all the effort he'd put into preparing enough activities to tire the younger child out last night and prevent him from waking up before he got back.
Once his winter boots and coat were on, he flipped the hood up, both for insulation and to keep his face hidden, and headed out the door.
Even with the number of layers he wore, there was a moment of shock as he left his climate controlled house for the cold of the outdoors, both from the change in temperature and otherworldly tranquility of the pristine blanket of fresh snow & all consuming silence of the pre-dawn hours of the morning. Zim tensed as he took his first step into the snow and heard it crunch beneath his feet; he would have expected it to muffle any sounds, but in this case they stood out in the silence and were carried by the cold air, made even colder by the dark.
He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding before taking the next step as he silently assured himself that the entire planet couldn't hear him sneaking out of the house and was not about to converge on his front lawn. But of course they couldn't, who would even suspect his brilliant plan-
His mental gloating was cut short as he realised his third step seemed to be missing the ground entirely and Zim crossed his arms as he was pulled into the air.
Oh. That was who.
"Ah, Dib, I was planning to take my ship, but your's works just as well. Onward!"
Dib did not look like he had any intention of going onward.
"Zim, I know you're up to something, and we both know I'm not taking you anywhere until I find out what you're doing sneaking out of the house at this hour" Dib said like an admonishing parent before adopting a softer tone "Something's been bothering you, and you've been avoiding telling me what"
"Nothing's bothering me!" Zim interjected a bit too defensively "And I'm going out so I can adjust the generator!"
"What generator? If you want me to take to a generator, you'll have to be specific about which one" To be honest, Dib already had his suspicions, but this was as much about getting the ball rolling as having his theory confirmed
"For the tree lighting!" Zim replied "My parents designed that thing, and I've made a copy of the blueprints to take with me while I work on it"
"Alright, you want to adjust it" Dib said patiently "And what will it do differently after?"
"Start a small electrical fire that'll engulf the entirety of the winter carnival" Zim answered in a matter of fact tone, as if he genuinely had no idea why anyone would object to this.
"And you honestly think I'd give you a lift so you could do this?"
"Yes"
Dib pinched the bridge of his nose "You really don't see a problem with this?"
"No, I'm doing this on the last day, and there's only a very small chance the generator will send out a horrible wave of doom that will devastate the entire park and hotdog sector. We're well outside the blast radius, so is the lab, and everyone else is on vacation"
Dib buried his face in his hand, gods give him strength. "Zim" he sighed "Do you remember that talk we had right before summer about how being supportive didn't mean I'd let you do something I think you'll regret later?"
"I wouldn't"
"What do you think setting the fair on fire is going to accomplish?"
"Why should I tell you?"
"Because we're both stubborn as heck, and I'm not letting you go and tamper with the generator unless you give me a good reason. If you can give me one, I'll drive you"
"Fairness" Zim stated, having been coaxed by the promise of getting his way "My Christmas is ruined, why shouldn't everyone else's be?"
Ruin Christmas? Did…Did Zim not comprehend that either scenario could result in everyone in attendance being killed, or at the very least seriously injured? Or did he just not care as long as the handful of people he was emotionally invested in weren't affected?
"And what is that going to solve, Zim? You said your Christmas was ruined, how is ruining somebody else's going to fix it?" Dib asked, choosing his words carefully. Zim fidgeted in frustration before crossing his arms and turning away to sulk. "Obviously something is bothering you, why else would you say Christmas was ruined before it's even started?" Dib said sympathetically "You can talk to me, it's ok"
"No it's not!" Zim screamed "It took hours to-, and the box arrived on time! I didn't want it to be the stupid box this year! I don't care about the box!"
"Zim, calm down" Dib soothed.
"I don't want to calm down! I- I want my-" Zim's voice lost its force as he caught himself before he went silent for a moment. "I was supposed to get the phone call this year" he finally said.
"Phone call?" Dib asked, inviting Zim to elaborate, while already suspecting where this was going.
"My parents always forget Christmas and end up in the middle of a project then" Zim explained, though his voice sounded like he hadn't decided how much he wanted to share "But they always send a present for me & Gir, and call us before the break ends, and one always ends up being late; this year I was supposed to get a call today, but then the stupid box with our presents arrived the other day and ruined everything!"
He went quiet again as he let what he'd just said sink in, too distracted to notice that he had been set down on the floor of the ship as he steered himself back to a more comfortable state of irritation. "Rrrgghhh! This is stupid! Everything's felt wrong all week for no reason! Christmas was never important, so why-" he cut himself off before he could continue, and likely to stop the tears of frustration he was barely managing to hold back.
It was certainly something Dib could empathise with; Vort had holidays and traditions of its own, each with an accompanying mix of feelings and memories. Growing up, the usual sting of their mother's death and father's absenteeism was felt all the more keenly at times that focused on togetherness. While their peers would excitedly discuss their plans, the Membrane siblings already knew the day would be spent in a mixture of brooding silence and half-hearted attempts at going through the motions of a celebration that ultimately felt meaningless and empty.
It wasn't any sort of malicious intent on the professor's part, either. Like Zim's parents, he tended to get caught up in the task at hand and lose track of time for days on end, often holidays would simply pass by without him realising until days later, not that this made things easier for his children. Even worse were the memories they had from before, which had since turned into bittersweet reminders of what they'd lost and what a trainwreck their family had become. It was hard feeling sad while everyone else was celebrating, doubly so when you kept that sadness bottled up, Dib knew this better than most.
"It's okay, Zim" Dib reassured, setting a hand on the boy's shoulder "Just let it out"
Zim paused for a moment, looking from Dib's hand to his face, giving him a similar look of care and concern as during parent teacher night, and many other occasions since. He returned it with one of hesitation; old habits were hard to break, Zim still struggled to admit to himself that he could be emotionally vulnerable, let alone accepting comfort from another person. It wasn't a matter of trust so much as pride, and Zim was prouder and more stubborn than most, still, there was one thing he was open to voicing.
"I hate Christmas" Zim said, quietly at first, then more firmly "I hate Christmas! This past week has been horrible and it's all stupid Christmas' fault!" It really wasn't, but angry rants were more in his comfort zone than a proper heart to heart, and let him find his footing again. "Stupid skool holiday party! And stinky mall Santas that smell like sweat and cheap gingerbread air freshener!"
This really wasn't what Dib had been prepared for, but he decided to roll with it regardless. "And some of the specials can be really weird" he offered, hopefully joining in was the right thing to do.
The way Zim's face lit up certainly suggested it was.
"Aren't they?" Zim replied, mostly back to his normal tone "And why have they started having penguins in the north pole? They don't even live in the northern hemisphere!"
"They don't? But yeah, the really old obscure ones are even worse" Dib added "There was one with a song about getting a Christmas tree with trees skipping around holding hands the looked like a hallucination"
They went on like this for several minutes, roasting bad TV specials and nearly anything else they found weird, or bothersome about the holiday, until the sunlight streaming through the window caught Zim's attention.
"You tricked me!" Zim exclaimed "There's no way I could do everything and come back before Gir wakes up now! You planned this, didn't you!? Betrayal!"
"Actually, my plan was to try and talk you out of committing arson; all this just sort of happened"
"Oh. Well alright then" Zim said without any trace of his previous outburst.
Another minute passed in silence before Dib spoke "So, why did you think setting the Christmas tree lighting on fire would ruin the holiday, anyway?"
Zim shrugged, "It's a popular event, half the town goes to it, so if that's ruined…"
"Really Zim?" Dib sighed, discouraged, "Destroying stuff isn't going to accomplish anything. Haven't you ever seen How the Grinch stole Christmas?"
Zim scoffed, "Do you really think the average person in this town has as much emotional depth as the Whos?"
Dib opened his mouth to make some sort of defense of the town's citizens, but after taking a moment to think about it realised "No, I guess not"
"Precisely! I would have successfully ruined Christmas if you hadn't distracted me" he paused for a moment "You can let me out of the ship now, Gir wakes up even earlier on Christmas and the house is already enough of a mess"
"Oh right"
With a few quick button presses the ship was parked and the door opened. As they were leaving, a thought crossed Dib's mind "Hey, Zim!" he called to the boy, struggling to find the right words when he turned to face him "Do you, uh…have grandparents?"
"Theoretically" Zim replied flatly "My parents had to have come from somewhere"
"That wasn't what I meant, but I guess it answers my question" Dib noted awkwardly before his expression shifted into a warm smile "Come on, I have someone I want you to meet"
"And then it turned out he was just building a pool heater!"
The scarlet flush of embarrassment spreading across Dib's face was bright enough to show through his coat, as he attempted to hide it behind his hands, but they were much smaller than his face and did little to cover it. His plan to introduce his father to Zim & Gir seemed to have backfired somewhat as the professor took his role as stand-in grandfather a bit too seriously, and had begun regaling the children with tales of Dib's own childhood escapades. Much to Zim's amusement and Dib's chagrin.
"Alright, alright, it's not that funny" Dib objected, not angry, but a little put out that he was the only one being needled like this. Why couldn't Gaz have any embarrassing stories, too?
"Yes it is!" Zim replied between fits of laughter. Fine, maybe it was a little funny; certainly the mirthful tears gathering in the corners of Zim's eyes were preferable to the frustrated ones he had been trying to hold back before.
"Just be glad we didn't meet back then! With the hero complex I had growing up we'd have been fighting non-stop" Dib retorted in an effort to patch up his bruised dignity.
He was cut off by Gir tugging on his coat.
"Don't feel too bad, I used to not be potty trained" the smaller child offered, completely straight faced, as if he didn't realise that was a normal part of babyhood.
"Thank you for sharing, Gir'' Dib sighed, as he half heartedly patted Gir on the shoulder, it was a nice thought anyway.
"You're welcome" Gir chirped before turning back to the screen as another story was about to start.
"I know! How about the time he turned the local park into an amateur dig-site?"
"How about we open presents instead?" Dib suggested in an effort to bring this particular part of the day to a close.
"Presents!" Gir squealed as he ran over to the pile of wrapped gifts, which were a mix of ones brought over from Zim & Gir's house and ones that had already been at Dib's, and began looking for one with his name on it. Mission successful.
The gift exchange went much more smoothly, Gir was happy with the toys Zim had bought him from the Plookesians, and Dib was pleasantly surprised to find that part of the lot had been for him as well; the handful of figures in his box were from a show he'd mentioned was a childhood favourite.
Steadily, everyone worked their way through the stack of presents, which ranged from books, to the likenesses Gir had made of everyone out of styrofoam and pipe cleaners, to holographic simulation software. Even the Professor, who had been caught off guard by the holiday, had been sent a package earlier to open with everyone else, and quickly selected a few digital gifts to send to everyone.
However, throughout all of this, one gift had gone pointedly untouched.
"You have to open it eventually" Dib smiled gently as he and Zim watched Gir being helped through building the 'duplus' submarine and coral reef he'd gotten from his part of the package.
"No I don't" Zim retorted, despite already going to retrieve the box. Instead of returning to his spot, he seated himself in a small corner between the Christmas tree and the wall, with his back turned to the already distracted crowd to give himself further privacy and Dib took his cue to give him some space.
Zim joylessly unwrapped the source of the past week's misery, whatever was inside had better be good.
What greeted him was an envelope sitting on a bed of flat packing foam, evidently whatever was inside was considered sensitive enough to require extra protection….or volatile enough, either one was certainly promising. Unlike the other gifts, instead of going straight to the item itself, he slowly and carefully opened up the envelope and started reading the card inside.
Hello Sweetie
How have you been doing?
We've been doing some work in robotics lately and thought you'd like some of the new developments we've made.
Let us know what you do with them, we're sure it will be great.
Maybe we could work on it together when we visit around new years.
Merry Christmas, Zim
Love, Mom & Dad
Oh.
He carefully closed the box up and placed it back under the tree for safekeeping until he could take it home before taking a seat back with everyone else and letting the letter sink in. His parents were going to visit, he attempted to push any other thoughts and feelings about it aside in favour of starting to make a mental list of things he needed to do to show how capable he was-
"Did you get what you wanted?" Dib asked, interrupting his train of thought.
Zim startled for a second before the question registered, then a second later he answered "Yes"
"I'm glad, Merry Christmas Zim" he smiled before his attention was caught and he jumped to his feet and ran over to the others "Gaz, no! Don't talk about the newest installment of 'Nightmare Horror World' in front of the preschooler! You're going to traumatise him!"
"No I won't, he helped me write it" Gaz replied flatly.
"It's based on the pigeon dream!" Gir chimed in, leaving Dib to realise that part of why his sister seemed to click with a child who seemed so wildly different from herself was that they both had spectacularly messed up imaginations.
The rest of the day and evening went by pleasantly as everyone talked, enjoyed their gifts, and watched specials on TV. Even if during dinner Dib was slightly annoyed that after all the trouble he went through to find a safe alternative to the usual turkey, the children didn't want it after all the cookies they'd had before. Or rather, that the same apparently wasn't true of the cake he brought out after.
Soon it was late in the evening, Gaz had just taken her leave to have some time alone before bed, and Dib was gathering up Zim and Gir's presents for them to take home when he noticed the two of them were already fast asleep on the sofa. They were using the cushions on the armrest as pillows, Zim had an arm wrapped protectively around Gir to keep him from falling off, both exhausted from their early morning, happily stuffed with sweets, and looking uncommonly peaceful.
"Aww"
Dib smiled at the pair as he got a spare blanket and pulled it around the children.
"Just like when you and your sister were little" Professor Membrane said fondly "Whenever I made it home you two had usually fallen asleep already"
Dib looked surprised as he turned to face his father before his expression melted back into a warm smile.
"Hairy Clicks Mass, son" The professor said, earning himself a soft chuckle as he got the greeting wrong.
"Merry Christmas, dad"
Te-he, congratulations on making it to the end, this is one I struggled a bit figuring out what goes next, so hopefully the parts I've had trouble with turned out alright (^.^')
A few of the "festive oddities" were based off of things I've actually encountered, the weird Christmas special Dib's watching in particular some of you might recognise from a post that went around a few years ago where a machine was supposed to have generated the script for its own Halmark Special, to me it felt a little like the sort of thing that you'd see as a special in the show's universe, so I just had to slip it in.
But yes, this one was actually a bit personal for me; about 11 years ago my paternal grandmother died on Christmas day, she'd had Alzheimer's, so it didn't exactly come out of nowhere, but we got a call during the afternoon saying her condition was worsening, paused the celebration we were having at home to drive over to the place she had been staying in after my grandfather stopped being able to care for her alone, and shortly after we got back we received the call that she had died. It ended up souring Christmas for years after, which was a bit surreal since we only spent Christmas with that side of the family once or twice since my paternal grandparents always went to Florida for the winter and never brought the grandchildren there (even though they could have afforded it), and we only started really spending time with them after her diagnosis.
Despite what you might expect, I ended up reacting by withdrawing and being really bothered by people trying to pulling me into doing anything for the holiday itself for years after, which my mom only fully understood after my dad died. So most years we've gone to the movies since there isn't really anything else to do; everyone outside of our family was busy with their own celebrations, and last year's was particularly dreaded since we couldn't even go out, so working on this was a bit cathartic in a way.
Any way, I hope you enjoyed it. The next month is still going to be busy since I have several more videos to do for the new school year that had to take a backseat to the art show I was helping with, but hopefully the next chapter won't take too long, for certain it shouldn't take as long as this one (for one thing, it'll be shorter). If you could comment letting me know what you think, I'd really appreciate it, I know it's need a long time, so I've been worrying that interest has dropped off a little.
Hopefully I'll see you guys soon, take care (^.^)/