♦ Autumn in Alaska ♦

Fancy dads watching Jake set him himself on fire in the background for like the seventh time today T.T poor guys are just trying to edit Rick's manuscripts but Jake's talent at self-destruction doesn't have an off switch unfortunately

(I've been working all day on the new vid backgrounds so for anyone waiting for my DM responses, I'll be there with ya as soon as I finish those! <3)

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I rarely mention it since it's hardly plot relevant, but Rick had a little cottage by the lake in Alaska! It's pretty much the only thing he has left from his grandparents as that's where his uncle Viktor evacuated them just before World War II broke out. It was actually a house he bought for the entire Kapralov family, hoping he'd also get Rostya and his family (including baby Rick at the time) to leave USSR as well. Viktor knew things aren't going to go down well early on, and he's already been far too traumatized by WWI to risk losing his family, but Rostya refused to leave, forcing Donna and Rick to stay back in Krasnogorod throughout the entire conflict, mostly because he didn't want to appease his brother, whom he saw as the "golden child" with a savior complex. He refused to give him another "win" in life, another reason why their parents would view Viktor as the better of the two bothers and, thus, he put his family through poverty and just incredible amounts of fear, forcing Rick to spend his earliest years in a war area.

Years later when Rick already moved to Grimport, he managed to locate the house, long after his grandparents were long gone. It was his by inheritance as Viktor had no children of his own, and Rick ended up as the last living member of the Kapralov family. Ever since, this cottage was his favorite place in the world <3 That's mostly where Kostrovs spent their summers, their winters, basically any time they had free, they usually spent there. The kids loved going to Alaska as well and there was always some random catastrophe coming their way each and every time T.T

Another fun fact was that they ALWAYS drove from Grimport to Stiga (the little fictional town by the lake in Alaska) by car, which took like about three full days :,D dudes never once took a plane because Rick is terrified of getting transported by something he can't operate (planes, boats, etc haha). He'd never admit it but he simply hates flying, so they always had a fun field trip back and forth (during which their combined feistyness proved quite difficult to survive in a small, confined space :,)