metalxeddie

[metalxeddie]

trope i don't see enough: the more experienced character having to guide the less experienced character through something very difficult and important. maybe they're behind glass or bars or on the phone. maybe they have to do surgery or stitches or defuse a bomb or repair some machinery. ..

it's about suddenly being thrust into something you're absolutely not prepared for and still doing your best anyway. and also about having to watch as their hands tremble and they're struggling to piece together your instructions. if they make a single wrong move it's over. do you get it?

[metalxeddie]

I want to write a book called “your character dies in the woods” that details all the pitfalls and dangers of being out on the road & in the wild for people without outdoors/wilderness experience bc I cannot keep reading narratives brush over life threatening conditions like nothing is happening.

I just read a book by one of my favorite authors whose plots are essentially airtight, but the MC was walking on a country road on a cold winter night and she was knocked down and fell into a drainage ditch covered in ice, broke through and got covered in icy mud and water.

Then she had a “miserable” 3 more miles to walk to the inn.

Babes she would not MAKE it to that inn.

[metalxeddie]

Fanlore Info Dump | Sentinels & Guides

So thanks to the babe @leschanceux and feral encouragement from folx in the Dev Tea Room, I'm going to info dump about my very specific interest: the Sentinels & Guides Trope!

What Even Is the Sentinel/Guide Trope?

The origin of this trope is from a TV Show in the 90s (literally called The Sentinel) where one main character has latent hyper-enhanced senses triggered by being stranded in an extreme situation, revealing that he is a Sentinel. Through the show's narrative, we learn that Sentinels are an evolutionary role in mankind that has existed throughout all historical societies, manifesting in people who are biologically granted abilities to serve as "Protectors" of a community. This means Sentinels have (at least 3, sometimes all 5) exceptionally enhanced senses, which they can dial up or down as the situation calls for it.

But the thing about Sentinels is that their enhanced sense are a double edged blade. Yes, they're powerful and tend to have the advantage in a fight or encounter, but those senses can also present a significant weakness due to what's called 'Zoning' Or 'Zoning Out.' This is when the Sentinel becomes too hyperfocused on one single sense to the detriment of everything else, and is unable to pull themselves back. Zoning can also happen if they have a sense dialed up (like their hearing in order to track something far away) and an unexpected input overwhelms that sense (such as a loud explosion into a heightened sense of hearing). When a Sentinel zones, they are both incredibly physically vulnerable because they're immobile and unresponsive, and they're at risk of never being able to find their way back from their hyperfocus (which would ultimately lead to their death). This is where Guides come in.

Guides themselves do not have any canon enhanced abilities in the original content. In fact, they're technically fanon as a result of one episode in the TV show. But their presence is widely accepted as adopted canon in the Sentinel/Guide trope, and pretty much everyone writes them as the unique "other half" of a Sentinel -- if not uniformly empowered. Guides are the biological companion to Sentinels, possessing the ability to connect with a Sentinel on an astral or spiritual level. The original show used the concept of a "Sp!rit World" and "Sp!rit Animals" alot when relating the Guide character to the Sentinel character, a detail I don't personally adhere to nor promote because of its typical appropriative 90's TV shaman stereotyping. But the trope itself has moved beyond those origins to instead keep the basic concept of a metaphysical "soul-bond" connection between a Sentinel and a Guide. This means that the Guide has the ability to empower and protect the Sentinel's senses from harm. A bonded Sentinel/Guide pair are meant to be inseparable, and are often considered incredibly powerful because the Guide unlocks the potential of the Sentinel.

(Sidenote: As you can tell from my note above, the show had some good stuff, but overall it was kind of poorly done? Low budget, etc etc. The vast majority of the audience keeping the fandom alive were early era slash fans who saw the two main male characters and immediately built up fanlore around them. When the show was cancelled in 1999, many of those fans kept the concepts introduced in it alive by injecting this trope -- with improvements -- into other fandoms. We salute you, Fandom Elders! )

Tell Me More About the Connection Between a Sentinel & a Guide

The Sentinel/Guide bond can be written in a wide variety of ways, often tailored to suit whatever fandom the Trope is being applied to. But there are some universalities. Such as:

Guides can convene with the Sentinel at a metaphysical/transcendental level (sometimes interpreted as a telepathic connection), guiding the Sentinel to focus on or repress one sense over another and fine tuning their abilities in the process.

Sentinels with Guides have notably more powerful senses and better control over them. They are often consider the most powerful iteration of a Sentinel.

Guides can reel back a Sentinel's senses, even shield a sense from sensory input in order to avoid being overwhelmed.

Guides can also pull a zoning Sentinel out of their zone by giving them a lifeline to follow back to the physical world (note, a Guide does not need to be bonded to a Sentinel to accomplish this)

There are more elements of the Sentinel/Guide Pairing that are considered flexible to the trope, often applied in writing and art but not labeled as requirements. Such concepts include:

Sentinels and Guides are generally believed to have been biologically destined for one another. A Guide's scent will be pleasing to a Sentinel, for example. The sound of their voice is naturally calming and grounding.

Some Sentinels and Guides have full-on telepathic bonds, sometimes they just have a merging of souls and a sense for one another. Almost always, and Guide can sense what a Sentinel is feelings unless the Sentinel closes himself off from his Guide.

In some scenarios, Sentinels can let Guides perceive the world through their own heightened senses, so a Guide can experience those same abilities.

Sentinels can be territorial of their Guides, and sometimes just territorial in general. They occasionally get written with overlap in the A/B/O lore, where Sentinels are Alphas and Guides are Omegas. This means that two Sentinels tend to be written as kind of aggressive towards one another.

Sometimes a Sentinel/Guide Bonding includes the "bond bite' (yet another thing that tends to overlap with the A/B/O Dynamics in the writing). These are bites on the neck that seal the bond between Sentinel and Guide and can trigger the psychic/telepathic connection between the pair.

Guides are sometimes treated like coveted prizes in fictional societies. Sometimes the premise will be that there are more Sentinels born than there are Guides, and so Guides becomes highly sought after and sometimes aren't given much autonomy or rights (this has some similarities with the social dynamics of Witches and Familiars in our other verse)

Guides aren't always depicted as the weaker of the pair, but there is sort of an implication there. The concept is that while Guides are not weak, they are an Sentinel's weak spot. A villain to seek to control a Sentinel by taking the Guide hostage, for example.

Again, none of the above details are necessary to depict the Sentinel/Guide trope. They're just additional features I have observed in the concept as it has evolved over the past 20-odd years.

Let's Talk Power Sets

Sentinel Ability Specifics

Hyper-acute Senses of Smell, Hearing, Sight, Taste, and Feel: This means they can sense things completely indiscernible to regular humans, sometimes miles away in different locations or behind seemingly impenetrable barriers. Examples: They can hear the heartbeats of goons in a underground compound they plan to infiltrate; They can smell the diesel of an incoming military vehicle that hasn't even crossed a border control checkpoint; they can feel the heat of a fire that started hundred of hectacres downwind; They can see a termite crawl on the wooden window sill of a cabin on the opposite side of Lake Michigan.

Detect Physiological Responses: This ties in to a Sentinel's acute awareness to detail, in that they can focus their senses on an individual to determine whether they are lying or having a response to something. Examples: they can focus on the sound of a person's heartbeat to catch heartrate spikes as a sign of lying; They can smell the flopsweat on a person who is suddenly nervous; They will see any tics that betray a person's true intentions.

Accompanying enhanced strength/speed/reflexes: This isn't present in all depictions of Sentinels, but does occasionally come up as another way to make Sentinels seem more like superhuman protectors. In addition to their enhanced senses, they also react more quickly, which gives them the appearance of being faster and more agile. Or by shutting down senses that transfer pain, they can push their bodies beyond normal human limits.

Guide Ability Specifics

Grounding a Sentinel: A Guide's attributes are all meant to be a natural focal point for Sentinels, so Guides use their voice and touch to draw a Sentinel's attention onto them, or will have them focus on their smell or their heartbeat to settle and orient their own senses.

Dialing up/down a Sentinel's Senses: The 'Dials' concept is often used in this trope for visualizing how each set of senses can be scaled up or down with the assistance of a Guide. Guides will often instruct Sentinels to think of each sense as having an accompanying dial that goes from 0 to 10. If they dial a sense down to Zero, it can actually disable that sense for a Sentinel entirely, which is dangerous but sometimes necessary to protect a Sentinel from zoning. Equally, a Guide will rarely have a Sentinel dial any sense up to 10 without first considering the risks of overexposure and zoning out.

Empathic Sensitivity: some Guides are also written as empaths that can sense the feelings of those around them, not just their Sentinel. When this is the case, the empathic connection between Guide and Sentinel is often exponentially stronger than anything they can pick up from regular people around them. This often leads to the telepathic bond with the Sentinel as well.

Tap into a Sentinel's Active Senses: Some Guides can perceive things through the eyes/ears/nose of their Sentinel, an experience passed through the telepathic/psychic bond so that Sentinel and Guide can share information seamlessly. Again, your mileage may vary on this element of the trope.

Ok I'm going to end this lengthy post here, but this is my way of documenting beloved fanlore that has managed to survive nearly thirty years as a community driven idea. It's a creative concept spanning media platforms (from analog to online), fan-driven social circles for diverse storylines and topics, and the everchanging nature of time and memory on our collective consciousness. I hope this trope, like others before it, finds a way to live forever.

[metalxeddie]

The Very Basics of Not Killing Your Computer

AVOID HEAT STRESS

If you have a laptop DO NOT use it on a soft surface like a pillow or on a blanket, it’ll block the vents on your computer and make it get really fucking hot inside.

If you have a desktop you gotta open it up and blow out the dust sometimes.

If you are moving your laptop in a bag turn the laptop off. Don’t put it to sleep, don’t just shut the screen, turn it off, because otherwise it’s in the bag generating heat and there’s nowhere for the heat to go in the bag. OFF. Not sleep. OFF.

DO NOT DROP

Okay I know that should be obvious but drop damage to your hard drive is bad bad news. Be as careful as you can to set your computer gently on flat surfaces; don’t leave it hanging out on a bed where it can get knocked off, don’t set it on the roof of your car. And yes, just dropping it a couple inches can kill your hard drive or totally shatter your screen.

DON’T PUT SHIT ON YOUR KEYBOARD

Look I’ve seen four people ruin their laptops because they had a pen on the keyboard and closed the laptop and it fucked up the screen and the keyboard and it sucks so much and you feel awful after it happens because it’s so avoidable just don’t put things on your keyboard and always check that your laptop is clear before you close it.

PROTECT YOUR PORTS ON YOUR LAPTOP

You’ve only got one power jack and a limited number of other inputs on your computer and if they detach from the motherboard you’re fucked. USB ports get damaged because people use them a lot and eventually it weakens the connection and then they just stop working and it sucks. You can get around this with USB ports by using a USB hub to connect things like your keyboard and mouse.

For your power plug you just gotta be careful. Avoid tripping over the cord at all costs, don’t yank the plug out of the computer. It will SUCK VERY MUCH A LOT if you have to buy a new computer because the power port lost contact with the motherboard.

Don’t move your computer with things plugged into it. Take the power cord off before you put your laptop in the bag, take out the USB mouse dongle, do not travel with little nubby bits sticking out of your computer that can easily get caught or get tweaked or snap off inside of the thing.

(I really can’t emphasize enough that most of the “it will cost more than it’s worth to fix this” laptops I see are because of USB ports and power jacks. People don’t seem to know that this isn’t something that can be fixed easily; a broken power jack is a “remove the motherboard and resoldier components” job, not a “plug a new one in in fifteen minutes” job and most computer repair shops aren’t going to solder things for you and if they DO it’s going to be very expensive)

RESTART YOUR SHIT AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH AND JUST LET THE FUCKING UPDATES RUN

You should probably restart more than once a month but whatever. This is actually something that I consider part of reducing heat stress because when your processor is straining to keep up with all the background bullshit that’s running from a program you opened three weeks ago it’s going to use up resources and get hot and look just restart it once in a while.

Also the updates are almost always okay and safe and generally running updates is a good and secure thing to do (though maybe follow a blog dedicated to the OS you run because if there IS a problem with the updates that blog will probably talk about it before the update gets forced on your computer)

ANTIVIRUS BULLSHIT

Yes you should probably be running an antivirus.

Sophos is free and it’s fine. But don’t pay for it - if you’re using Sophos use the free version.

If you’re looking for something paid and a little more comprehensive I recommend ESET - get the cheap version, renewals cost less than the initial purchase, and feel free to get a multi-year version, the credentials follow your email not the computer so if your computer dies before your license expires you can install the license on a new computer.

DO NOT INSTALL NORTON OR MCAFEE THEY ARE EXPENSIVE BULLSHIT. Kaspersky is whatever. It’s less bullshit than Norton or McAfee but not as good as ESET for about the same cost.

If you think you’ve got a virus run the free version of Malwarebytes and get your shit cleaned.

KEEP LIQUIDS THE FUCK AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER

Again this should be obvious and yet. But seriously, just make a rule for yourself that drinks aren’t allowed on the same table as your computer and you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches.

PLUG YOUR COMPUTER INTO A UPS

Okay I fucking hate amazon but here’s a thing you should be using, just search the rest of the internet for “surge protector/UPS” and you’ll find something that isn’t from amazon - APC is a solid brand for this.

Basically you want a fat surge protector that has a little bit of a battery backup and you want to plug your computer (desktop OR laptop) into that instead of into the wall. The benefit of this is twofold:

1) if there’s a power surge the UPS will prevent your computer’s power supply from getting fried and possibly frying parts of your motherboard

2) if there’s a power outage and you’re *at* your computer you’ll have enough time to save what you’re working on before your computer loses power (like, you’ll maybe only have a minute or two on a small UPS but that’s still time to hit CTRL+S and keep from losing work)

At a bare, bare minimum your computer should be plugged into a surge protector but NOT directly into the wall.

BACK YOUR SHIT UP

[we interrupt this yelling for me to tell you that Western Digital has apparently released their new My Passport line and I’m obligated to inform you that you can get a 2.5″ USB 3.0 backup drive with FIVE FUCKING TERABYTES OF STORAGE for $130. Or you can get 4TB for $93. Or you can get 1TB for $53. basically what I’m saying is that it is not only cheap computer season it is also cheap hard drive season.]

[also if you’re getting a backup drive get western digital not seagate seagate fucking sucks and has a much higher failure rate]

Uh, okay, anyway - Do an image backup of your computer every once in a while so that if you get infected or your hard drive dies or whatever you can just restore from backup and move on like nothing happened.

HERE’S HOW TO DO AN IMAGE BACKUP.

SAVE YOURSELF THE WEAR AND TEAR

You know what is cheap? USB Keyboards and USB mice. You know what is not cheap? Fixing the touchpad on a laptop or replacing a laptop keyboard.

Get yourself a USB hub, a USB Keyboard and a USB Mouse (wired or wireless, doesn’t matter) and if you’re using your laptop at home plug *that* into your computer.

Also if your keyboard on your laptop breaks it’s fine just to use a USB keyboard instead I promise; if the screen breaks it’s also usually cheaper and easier to get a used or inexpensive monitor than it is to replace the screen. Your laptop is basically just a very small version of whatever bullshit is going on inside a desktop, if the peripherals break but the core components are fine you can just use it like a desktop.

Unless it’s a piece of shit that doesn’t have any USB ports or video out in which case you got ripped off, friend, demand functionality in your devices I’m sorry.

/rant

[metalxeddie]

My steddie winter exchange gift for Rio!! (@steddieexchange) In which Steve throws caution to the wind and decides to show exactly how much his bard friend truly means to him. ♡ (inprnt)

[metalxeddie]

[metalxeddie]

x

[metalxeddie]

selkie!steve who's parents took his coat when he was young, told him it was to keep him safe and he believed it - why wouldn't they want to keep him safe?

only with time to have it turn on him as he got older, the coat locked away in a safe he's never known the code to, the very reason he physically can't stay away from home for too long, even if the fights between him and his dad are getting worse and steve longs to be free. he wants his coat. why can't they see it's not keeping him safe to have it away from him all these years? the fights about his coat are short, loud, and violent and steve never wins them.

but besides, they usually make up from their fights when steve caves and apologises, most of the time at least, so when his parents leave for yet another business trip, it starts as it always does; a blessing to be near his coat without having to be near his parents. it's when a month goes by with no word from them, a tinge of worry niggles at steve. two months, he starts trying random codes on safe, half sure they're wouldn't have left him without giving him back his coat, right? right?

it's as he's dragged it out to his car and to the junkyard, desperate and 4 months with no contact from his parents, trying to prepare to try to smash it open, potentially ruining the coat just at the chance to get it free--

--when eddie munson finds him, calms steve down just enough so he can hear eddie say, "i can crack on of those, if you need"

steve can't tell if he's more relieved to be free when the safe door finally wrenches open, or more politely upset when eddie doesn't even try to take his coat

It's years of Steve trying to hint and basically trick Eddie into taking his coat but Eddie just won't

He finally blows up about why Eddie won't just keep him

Eddie wants to but he was waiting for Steve to offer his coat because he would never just take it

[metalxeddie]

They're sitting in Eddie's bedroom, Steve propped up in the bed, flipping through some sports magazine, Eddie curled on the floor using his knee as a table as he scrawls notes for Hellfire's next campaign. Metallica spins on the record player, volume low. They're doing this more and more, being together and doing their own thing, music a soft backdrop to it all.

Eddie's deep into his planning, enough so that he manages to forget that Steve Harrington is in his bed. He keeps hearing something, though. It just manages to catch at the edge of his awareness, but when he fully tunes in the only sounds are Steve flipping a page, Ride the Lightning, the shift of blankets as Harrington taps his fingers. It happens a few more times, but when he tries to catch it, it's gone. Steve hasn't reacted at all, to the point Eddie wonders if it's all in his own head.

The next time, he's interrupted before he even gets back into it, that noise again, but this time, now, he's aware enough to see that it's Steve. And he's not, like, reading the magazine out loud to himself. No. He's singing along.

To Metallica.

And he wasn't idly tapping his fingers before. He was tapping along to the beat.

"You're singing along?" He asks before he can stop himself.

Steve looks up, a faint smile on his handsome face. "It's not too bad."

"Not too--Not too bad." Eddie's nearly screeching. Can't wrap his mind around Steve--"You've been listening to Metallica on your own? You've been--you--" He jumps to his feet, notebook spilling onto the floor. Steve's just looking up at him with big eyes and a gentle grin.

"Sure, Munson. You like it, yeah?"

He nods, mutely, unsure how he so thoroughly lost the plot that Steve's been listening to Metallica just because Eddie likes it.

"Got a taste for any other metal bands I should know about, Harrington?" He flops down on the bed, making Steve bounce a little.

"Well, Dio's pretty okay."

This time Eddie does really, actually shriek.

---

Eddie swans into the kitchen to greet Steve, who's already lounging on the couch with a beer. There's another one on the coffee table, waiting for Eddie.

"Just helped yourself, Harrington?" He teases.

Steve shoots him a look. "Wayne grabbed them before he left. What the hell took you so long?"

He can't say it's because he wanted to look nice with Steve coming over, even if they are just getting high and watching movies. Of course taming his hair took so long that he didn't have time to find a shirt, and Steve's knock at the door had him grabbing the first thing he could and jamming it over his head.

"You want chips?" He asks.

"Wait--Eddie--" Steve stands, pointing at Eddie's chest.

"What?"

"That's my--oh my god, I've been looking for that."

And, well, he had thought it was a little strange that the t-shirt he grabbed was gray. He pulls at the fabric, stares at the upside down Hawkins Tiger with a basketball in its mouth.

"It's my favorite sleep shirt. I thought Robin took it and you--"

Eddie's face heats. Steve's shirt. Of course. Steve stayed over one movie night, forgot the shirt, and Eddie. Well. He was going to give it back, but--

"Here, man, my bad." He goes to pull the hem over his head. "I didn't know it was your favorite."

"Nah," Steve says. He's sitting back on the couch. "You should keep it. You look really--" he pauses and takes a sip of beer. "It's nice on you, Munson."

He's sure his blush is a horrendous thing to witness, has to fight the urge to hide in his hands. "Right. Uh. Chips!" He whirls towards the cabinets, refusing to think about the matching pink stripes across Steve's cheeks.

---

"C'mon, Munson, you're hogging the covers." Steve's sleepy mumble cuts through the dawn quiet.

"Mmph," Eddie groans. Rubs the soles of his feet against Steve's shins.

"You're a dick," Steve grumbles. He shimmies closer, which is what finally does the job at fully waking Eddie.

"Wha--huh?" He blinks.

"You stole the blankets, man. If you're not going to share, the least you can do is cuddle."

"Uhh." Eddie is sure he's dreaming, but Steve's warm, strong arm slips around his waist, pulls them together.

Eddie doesn't know what to do. Where he should put his body. Does he relax into it? What do his arms do? They're not usually this rigid, right? But what do they do when he's sleeping? Somewhere in his gay panic, he has the presence of mind to grab the edge of the blanket and throw it over his friend.

"Better?" He asks. His voice is all wrong but maybe Steve will attribute it to tiredness.

"Mmm." Steve's grip tightens around his waist, his nose nuzzling against the nape of Eddie's neck. His breathing is already slow and deep.

Eddie can't imagine sleep finding him anytime soon. Not when Steve, his crush, his best friend, is holding him like this. Not when he now knows what the real thing would be like. Not when it's so impossibly out of his grasp.

---

Steve and Wayne are watching a Cub's game. Eddie's curled up on the couch between them, trying to work on a sketch, but his brain keeps skipping to a song he's writing. The lyrics have been easy, coming to him like nothing, but the melody...he wants it to be heavy, loud, wanting, but it won't fit.

He glances up at Steve, chatting with Wayne about some baseball thing called a ribee. His hair's not done, flopping softly around his forehead, and he's wearing his result-of-too-many-concussions glasses, the yellow sweater from that horrific boat ride, retrieved by one of the kids and painstakingly washed by Karen Wheeler.

Steve looks sweet, soft, relaxed. He laughs at something Wayne says, and Eddie's a lost cause. He's just fucking smiling at the pretty boy on his couch, hanging out with his uncle, too far gone to be able to fight it.

A melody forms in his head, and it's soft. Not sweet, no, but gentle. Almost tender. Nothing like he imagined.

---

It's early, early enough that Wayne's not home yet, but he got tired of trying to sleep. Didn't want to bother Steve, who still softly snored in Eddie's bedroom. So, he grabs his acoustic and his notebook, goes out to the couch to work on the song. It's coming along, really good, one of his best. He hasn't shared it with the guys yet. It's--he's not ready, lays him too bare.

There's a clatter from the kitchen, Steve's voice, deep and sleep rough, says, "Hey, Munson."

He pushes the guitar and notebook aside. "Did I wake you? I was trying to be quiet, I'll--"

Steve shakes his head, pads into the living room. He's wearing the yellow sweater, a pair of Eddie's sweatpants, bedhead rampant. He curls up next to Eddie, pulling the couch afghan over his feet. "What're you working on?"

Eddie's ears get hot. "Nothing much. New song I've been noodling on."

"Cool." Steve's smile is little and fond. "Play it for me?"

"Ahh," Eddie says. His hand twitches around the neck of the guitar. "Not sure if it's quite ready for that."

"Oh, yeah." Steve nods. His face does something weird and squiggly that Eddie's never seen. "Just never heard you play before. Thought now might be...you know."

Eddie swallows, hard. "Well, maybe we'll get a show up at the Hideout soon."

"Of course. It's just--this is just you."

He blinks at Steve for a few long seconds, can't believe he's about to do this, but--It's not like Steve will know it's about him, anyway. "It's not a full song yet, alright? Just a verse and half of a chorus, so like. Don't judge it too hard."

"I would never." He can sense Steve's smile but can't look directly at it, knows it would kill him.

He situates the guitar, spins the notebook to read the lyrics like they aren't already burned into his brain, starts to play. His fingers are deft and sure, his voice a little rough, a little raspy with nerves.

The song ends and he's afraid to look at Steve, to see the thoughts written plane on his face. The silence extends, though, and he asks. "So, what did you think?"

"It's--that wasn't what I expected." Steve's voice is weird. Wobbly. Eddie chances half a glance at him, but can't make anything definitive out from his expression. "I didn't think--that's not the kind of music I thought you made."

He licks his lips, swallows. Puts his guitar down. "It's not usually."

"It was a love song." Steve says. His eyes burn into Eddie's.

He can't say anything for seconds that seem to span minutes. "Yeah, Steve," he says in a voice cut with gravel. "It's a love song."

"Eddie," Steve whispers. He reaches out then, thumb tracing along Eddie's jaw, the scars that linger there from the bats. "Is this okay?" He can only nod as Steve's hand twines through his curls.

He's shaking, just a little bit, not because he's inexperienced but because this is Steve, because it's happening, because their lips are meeting and a trembling noise falls from his mouth at the sweet way Steve kisses him.

It's gentle and quick, but they don't part when the kiss ends, stay sharing air as their foreheads rest together. Eddie can't stop smiling.

"Please tell me I'm not dreaming, Stevie" he whispers.

"You dream about me?" Steve asks, eyes blazing.

"I wrote a song about you, and you think dreams are a reach?"

Steve laughs, brushes a kiss against the tip of Eddie's nose. "I loved the song."

"Yeah?"

"Can't wait to hear the whole thing."

"Well, stick around for a while."

Steve leans in, kisses him again, longer this time. "Just try to get rid of me, Munson."

[metalxeddie]

[metalxeddie]

Steve "Physical Touch" Harrington

+ bonuses: robin caring about her dingus through physical touch

[metalxeddie]

Ive seen people be like in modern fantasy like "oh the pritagonists can just look up spells on their phone how do you solve that"

Imma be honest most people who go on recipe websites and book every recipe they see don't even use them lmao why would with be different

[metalxeddie]

🦇🏳️‍🌈!?

[metalxeddie]

Ponerle caritas a los lunares la rompe

[metalxeddie]

Olympics Nightcrawler on the Floor and Horizontal Bar events! As @gyodragon mentioned in her recent post, this is a perfect opportunity to get some anatomy practice while drawing the best X-Men hero.

FYI, for those who haven't seen the older Olympics!Nightcrawler posts from years ago, Kurt has to wrap his tail around his leg as it would give him an unfair advantage in balancing elements.

[metalxeddie]

Thinking of Steve throwing Eddie his birthday party and setting up a big surprise in his backyard that gets most of the older Party's eyebrows raised and Robin remarking "Dingus, you know Eddie's turning twenty-one not twelve, right?" But Steve's grinning in pure satisfaction, his eyes on Eddie, whose unhinged scream drowns out most of Robin's comment and even the kids' combined shrieks of excitement.

It was something Eddie only once mentioned, when Steve was talking about his own childhood and birthdays, back when his parents hadn't been so distant yet. Eddie rolled his eyes at Steve's expressed surprise that he'd never been in a bouncy castle, "Never exactly been on the rich kids' guest lists, Stevie." And it was such an off-hand, seemingly indifferent remark, but Steve had gotten to know him enough to see right through to the sadness, and make a note in his little mental heart-shaped notebook that held all things Eddie.

Hence, the big bouncy castle Steve's now rented for the occasion, for the boy who is now officially an adult of legal drinking age, but is racing the young teens with the same childlike glee in his eyes, if not greater. Only to stop halfway, make a U-turn towards Steve to smack an exaggeratedly loud kiss on his cheek, shake him by the shoulders, blurt out "I love you so much" and run away again, kicking his sneakers off on the way, seemingly unaware in his overexcitement of what he just said because they are, of course, not even dating.

(That leaves Steve blushing, lovestruck and hopeful about his plan for later, after everyone leaves, to press Eddie against one of those bouncy walls and finally kiss him.)