#Alternate Title: Walkies

[dragonnarrative-writes]

Part 10 - Blind Retrieve (Interlude)

Slasher Handler Masterlist

Read on AO3

Price calls Ghost for a job.

CW: Discussion of wounds, cannon adjacent discussions of terrorism and violence, Soap (the family dog)

Price calls Simon to work exactly four weeks after you puncture his lung. The wound is healed, with nothing but a bright pink line left behind. You’d gone into a bit of a fit when you’d finally seen it, helping him change the bandages. The drain hadn’t bothered you none, but the scar…

Ghost reports to the base at 2200, masked and kitted as usual. A bit of overkill, for a briefing, but he likes the routine of it. There’s a comfort in the distance it gives him. He doesn’t see many people, but the ones he does see avoid his eyes and find somewhere else to be.

He’s surprised, then, to see Soap pacing the length of the conference room when he arrives. More surprised at the warmth that blooms in his chest at the sight of him.

He’s a little skinny, Ghost observes, as blue eyes light up when they find his. Underfed and not as bulky as he usually likes, jeans and a tee sitting not quite loose on his frame. He lost his weight training privileges in prison, most likely. But his hair is shiny and his skin is clear. When he grins it looks like he has all of his teeth.

“There ye are, ye wee bonnie bastard,” Soap cries, dramatic, dancing forward for a clap on the shoulder. He’s away just as fast, laughing at the way Ghost’s knife barely misses him. “Miss me?”

“’Ardly noticed you was gone,” Ghost answers. “Gaz ‘ere?”

“That’s all I get?” Soap ducks close again, bats Ghost’s half-hearted swat away as he tries to shake Ghost by a vest strap. “Ten months away an’ yer done with me already.”

“Not really interested in ‘ow many dicks you sucked in prison,” Ghost says with a shrug. “Can’t imagine there’s much else that’s noteworthy.”

“Six,” Soap cackles.

A sour faced man, a general by insignia, clears his throat from the other end of the conference room. He visibly blanches when Ghost turns to look at him. The analyst next to him stares for a moment, then looks down at the legal pad in front of him like catching Ghost’s eye might kill him.

It might.

Putting a big hand on top of Soaps head, Ghost reels him in for a one armed embrace. It’s easy to tip forward to knock Soap’s skull against the one adorning his face.

“Good to ‘ave you back,” he mutters. “Been quiet.”

Soap nuzzles in and grins. “’Ardly any chips in this one. ‘S it new?”

“Mm. Gift from my new girl.”

Blue eyes go sharply interested. “Ye’ve a new bird?”

“Told you. Things ‘ve been quiet.”

Price arrives then, Gaz a step behind. They’re both dressed conservatively, jeans, tee, a light jacket. They don’t react to Soap’s presence, probably got their greetings out of the way. It doesn’t stop him from making Gaz put up with a full-body hug, though. Price rolls his eyes as he takes a seat, but he’s got a squirt to the side of his mouth that says he’s happy to have his men accounted for again.

Last to walk in are a couple of self-important looking uniforms who frown when they see Ghost standing in his customary corner. The colonels look sharp, for a late night meeting. Pressed and proper. They look slow. Ghost catalogs their lack of weapons as an afterthought. Ghost does not sit.

The briefing is uninteresting. There are terrorists, because there always are. The target is in London, because it always is. Red tape mans bombs have crossed international lines before anyone could do anything effective. There was an engagement in Bulgaria, and another in Czechia. Shipping containers made it to Lowestoft. Kortac was deployed. Kortac was eliminated. Terrorists are in the wind.

Typical.

“So instead of deploying us first, on our own turf,” Gaz says, tapping his pen on his notebook, “you let terrorists in, then threw a second rate team at the problem and made things worse.”

One of the colonels, the tall, fat one, bristled. “Now see here-”

“If you had this handled, you wouldn’t have called us,” Price interrupts. “So unless you’re paying all of this money to jerk yourselves off over a job well done, you need my men in the line of fire.”

“Easier ways to kill me” Soap chuckles.

“Apparently not,” Price mutters. Louder, he says, “Enough of the bullshit. Time for brass tacks. How many of the hostiles do you need alive?”

The sour faced general scowls, but says. “Two. They’re identified in the dossier.”

The little analyst pipes up. “That doesn’t mean you can just kill-”

“A bit too late for that,” Price rumbles. “If you wanted a low body count, you should have contained all of this before calling in the butchers. But if you’re too squeamish for this, perhaps you should leave before we talk civilian casualties.”

It becomes apparent that the rest of the conversation is just going to be a bunch of mewling around the realities of what they were called in to do. Ghost stops listening and half examines the briefing packet in his hands. He’s bored. Even thinking about the ways he would gut the little analyst after stalking him to his car is dull.

He wants to go home to you.

The thought makes him pause, and he pretends to reread the same line again.

He wants to go home to you. He looks forward to going home. He has a home, now, not just a flat. He has you.

The 141 is far from the suicide squad it was supposed to be. They’re too good, and unrestrained by the law and rules of engagement. They all fight to kill first and win second. Price runs a tight ship. Nothing escapes his scrutiny, Gaz’s perfect analysis. Soap is a wildcard. Ghost is the cold destruction extremists only aspire to. But shit happens when bullets fly. No one is immune to a hole in the neck or the brain.

He has a home to return to now.

“Price,” he says, ignoring the way eyes snap to the skull and away. His team looks at him without flinching. “Takin’ the dog on a walk.”

“No pissing on the carpet,” Price says, to the chagrin of the other colonel, who is stubbornly trying to explain unacceptable collateral to a group of men who kill for fun. Must be new to the game of hiring mercenaries. Gaz has a look in his eye that suggests he may not live to regret opening his mouth.

Soap, for his part, jumps out of his seat with palpable relief. The smile doesn’t leave his face when they leave the room, but the energy about him changes. The opportunity to move makes him sharp. From happy hound to a set of teeth with intent. Even so, he looks up with a sparkle to his eye. “Where to, Ghost?”

So goddamn charming. Ghost can’t help but smile under his mask. “Captain and Gaz got to meet the missus. Think you should, too.”

Soap is quiet for a long time, flipping a key card between his fingers that is certainly not his. Ghost can see his eyes flickering with his racing thoughts as they circle the floor. Eventually, he asks, “Ye think we’re ginnae die, then? Not like ye to phone it in.”

“Not fuckin’ likely,” Ghost snorts. “’S a waste of time, bringin’ oll of us in. Mace’d have it done in 48 hours if they’d called him in in Turkey. No, I jus’ want to introduce my pets to each other.”

“Oh aye?” Soap swipes them through a door and into a cubicle farm. He spots something - a candy bowl, apparently - and stalks forward to mess about at someone’s desk. Over his shoulder, he asks, “Gettin’ tired of ‘er?”

“Quite the opposite,” Ghost chuckles. “Wait til you meet her. I think you’ll get along.”

[loveinhawkins]

I never know what to put for these made-up fanfic titles, but! how's "boy that's never been" sound? (or girl, which is the original line, or child, which has its own flavor)

oh boy that’s never been is perfect. Congratulations/commiserations, you’ve let me unleash probably the most tragic thing I’ve ever thought of.

warning: the first section of this will have a major character death. it’ll then be followed up by an alternative take where the character is initially believed to be dead but survives, so feel free to read both or one or neither. ❤️

-

It starts with laughter, with Dustin and Eddie jumping up and down, clinging to each other, riding the high of the most metal concert in the history of the world.

Eddie drapes the guitar pick around Dustin’s neck, like giving a medal to an Olympian. “Souvenir,” he says, grinning, and Dustin’s about to speak, to probably just reiterate just how fucking cool Eddie’s playing was, but then they hear the bats come through the vents, and the words fly out of his head.

They barricade the door, and Eddie is screaming at him to, “—go! Let’s go!”, and Dustin starts to hurry up the rope. He can hear the distant crackle of his walkie, Lucas’s voice shaking with relief, “It worked, it worked, he’s out of her head.”

Dustin looks back instinctively, because by all rights, Eddie should be right behind him.

But he isn’t. He’s just standing there, watching Dustin climb, and he’s got this look on his face, and Dustin suddenly thinks oh, don’t you fucking dare.

“What the hell are you doing?” Eddie says, just as Dustin’s about to ask the very same thing. “Go!”

“Not without you.”

Eddie shakes his head. And then his eyes widen; he looks up, somewhere beyond, and Dustin doesn’t know what it is that he’s seen, but his face goes white. 

“Dustin, hurry!”

The world trembles; Dustin loses his grip on the rope, hears Eddie say, “Shit!” right before he falls, ankle giving way beneath him, and he lands flat on his back, aching and winded—

He opens his eyes. The Gate on the ceiling has knit itself shut.

“Oh, Christ, oh, Christ,” Eddie’s whispering, over and over, and he’s pulling Dustin up, “are you—”

Dustin whacks him on the shoulder. “What the fuck was that? You’re not getting left behind, asshole.”

And while he’s still so angry, Eddie must hear how his voice shakes with fear, teetering into anticipatory grief.

“Okay, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

The swarm of bats are still scratching at the door; the wood’s splintering.

“We’ve gotta get out of…” Eddie trails off, eyes darting in thought. He glances down at Dustin’s foot. “Fuck, you can’t run.”

A chorus of demonic screeching, far too close.

“Okay, c’mon, I’ve got you,” Eddie says, and he’s bearing Dustin’s weight, half-carrying him outside. Dustin hears him curse as he slams his shield against the few bats that still remain, scaling the wired fence. He makes short work of them.

He leaves Dustin on the porch, runs for the bike.

As Dustin waits, he feels a new sharp pain in his ankle—looking down, he sees one of the bats that Eddie thought he’d killed, still weakly crawling on the ground, teeth sunk deep into his skin.

He kicks, stomps on it until it lets go. There’s a trail of blood seeping down from the skin around the fibula, and he’s a little light-headed, but he thinks that’s mostly because he’s looking at it, so he simply doesn’t anymore.

Eddie comes into view, pushing the bike with a frenzied energy. He’s muttering under his breath, “Where do we go, where do we go?”

Maybe it’s down to Eddie being so panicked—suddenly Dustin has no trouble at all focusing on a solution.

“I think it worked,” he says calmly. “They’ve killed him. That’s why…”

Eddie nods, face still so pale. “Are you saying we’re stuck down—god, there’s gotta be something we can—”

“Yeah, it’s sealing up,” Dustin says hurriedly, “but I—maybe not all at once. Maybe it’s in the order of the—”

“So. Chrissy,” Eddie says shakily, “then Fred, th-then Patrick.”

“We’ve gotta go to Lover’s Lake.”

Eddie breathes out, “God, you fucking genius.”

He sits forward on the seat of the bike, so Dustin’s got enough room to sit behind him. Dustin grips onto his jacket, presses the side of his face against his back.

“Hold on tight, Henderson,” Eddie yells, and then he’s off, pedalling for their lives.

Dustin can only pray that Nancy, Steve and Robin have come to the same conclusion—his heart leaps when he sees them running across the rocky bed, to the still open Gate.

They all dive through it as quickly as they can. The only pause comes when Dustin insists Eddie go in front of him, and Eddie looks ready to fight him on it; “No time,” Steve interjects, and he gives Eddie that same kind of nod he’d given before he left the trailer park. “I’ve got him.”

“Deep breath,” Steve instructs, voice deliberately even. “Good, that’s it.” He grabs onto Dustin’s hand. “I won’t let go.”

It’s a vow; Dustin knows it.

The two of them make up the rear. Swimming through the depths of the lake is hardly scary at all, not when Dustin can see Robin and Nancy break through the surface, Eddie right behind them.

Steve’s trying to make him go in front; he can tell from the way Steve’s urging him along—but his strong kicks mean he’s always slightly ahead, no matter how hard he tries.

Dustin’s still bleeding. He can feel it. He’s kind of glad that it’s dark, honestly; he doesn’t know what Steve would do if he could see it.

They emerge up above, gasping, and they’re almost at the boat, almost home, when Dustin feels the vine wrap around his ankle.

The first tug doesn’t pull him under. But Steve’s still holding his hand, so when it happens, he feels it, too.

His head turns in alarm, and his expression is scarily similar to Eddie’s as he watched Dustin climb up the rope; and Dustin knows that Steve will never let go, not even if it kills him.

So he does.

He wrenches out of Steve’s grip. He doesn’t have time to say I’m sorry, I love you, before he’s being dragged down, and just as he’s submerged, he hears Eddie scream his name.

He tries. But he keeps sinking no matter how hard he kicks, and then, even though it’s completely illogical, even though he knows it will kill him, he simply has to breathe in.

He swallows water. It burns.

And then the burning goes away, and it doesn’t hurt at all; he just feels so, so sleepy.

The faintest impression of arms around him. And even though it doesn’t make sense, it shouldn’t be possible, he still feels a final comforting warmth at the touch.

It’s Steve, Dustin thinks for the last time. He’s got me.

-

Steve emerges with Dustin in his arms. He barely registers the screams from the boat, just yells, “Someone grab him,” and lifts him onboard.

Robin gets Dustin by the legs, and Nancy gently lowers his head. As Steve climbs aboard too, he knows he cannot even look in Eddie’s direction for fear of the expression he’ll see on his face.

“Nance, count for me,” he says.

He starts chest compressions. She counts.

Two breaths.

Compressions.

Two breaths.

“C’mon, bud,” he says, “you’ve gotta breathe, you’ve gotta cough it all up, you hear me, Dustin? Come on.”

He keeps going. He keeps going even when Nancy finally stops counting.

“Come on,” he says. His voice breaks. “Come on, kid, come on.”

“Steve,” Robin whispers.

“Don’t,” he says, because there’s something in the shattered way she says it that snaps him out of it—that makes him see Dustin, so small and so still, and his hair is so wet, and he’d usually be so pissy about that, but he’s not, he’s not saying anything.

It’s Eddie who stops him. A shaking hand on his forearm.

“Steve,” Eddie says. He’s crying. “You can—you can stop now. He’s gone. He’s gone.”

“No,” Steve says flatly.

“He’s dead,” Eddie says. His fingers dig into Steve’s skin; he chokes on his words. On a sob. “God. He’s dead, sweetheart.”

A grief-stricken keen. Later, Steve realises that it comes from him: his mouth, his throat, his heart. He pulls Dustin close, in a desperate hug that can’t be returned, as if he could somehow shield him from a fate that’s already been given.

…

Or, in a world that’s perhaps a little bit kinder:

Steve is just a fraction quicker, keeps his grip on Dustin’s hand so they’re both yanked down, down…

Steve tries his hardest; he strains and pulls as they reach the Gate, and his last sight of Dustin is his wide, fearful eyes before he slips out of his grasp. He surges forward instantly, reaches for him, but then, like a sudden tidal wave, is pushed back, back—

The Gate’s closed. Gone.

Steve frantically searches the bed of the lake, cuts his hands on perfectly ordinary rocks until his lungs burn, and he has no choice but to kick for the surface.

Eddie’s in the water too; Steve almost hits his head on his dangling feet as he comes up for air.

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie shouts. He treads water erratically, and for barely a second, he goes absolutely still. “Oh my god. Oh my god, where is he?”

“The Gate—” Steve says, and then can’t go on.

Eddie’s lips tremble, move soundlessly. “This can’t be—this isn’t happening,” he whispers. He dives under not a second later.

For a wild moment, Steve almost follows him, even though he still can’t catch his breath. Nancy pulls him onto the boat before he can try.

Eddie resurfaces, barely draws breath before speaking. “So, what’s the plan? How are we gonna—”

“Eddie,” Robin says, reaching for him. “Get out of the water.”

He acts like he can’t hear her.

“Am I not fucking speaking English or s-something? Tell me what we’re—”

“It’s over, Eddie,” Nancy says quietly. “Vecna’s dead. The Gates are closed. We… we won.”

Eddie’s shaking his head. “No, no, this isn’t—just tell me what to do! I’ll do anything, I’ll—”

“What am I gonna tell his mom?” Steve says helplessly.

He doesn’t mean to say it. But Eddie definitely hears it, because his mouth twists in grief; Robin’s finally able to pull him up onto the boat. He rests his forehead against her arm and shudders.

Nancy waits for a long while before she starts to row them back, like she’s waiting on a miracle. But the water remains eerily still.

When the boat starts to move towards the shore, the awful reality of it all finally seems to sink in for Eddie. He moves out of Robin’s arms and his hand finds Steve’s knee, squeezes tightly.

“I’m sorry,” he breathes. “S-Steve, I’m so fucking sorry, I should’ve—”

“Stop it,” Steve says. “You—you got him through—I was supposed to—”

I trusted you, and I was right; you brought him back to me.

“I let go,” Steve says through a wave of self-hatred. “I—I had him, and I let go.”

“Steve,” Eddie says, but Steve doesn’t deserve to hear the disagreement in his voice; there is nothing Eddie could say to ease this all-consuming guilt.

“I should’ve—he was my—”

Steve’s voice fails him, which is just as well. He doesn’t know how to finish that thought without it destroying him.

“I’m coming with you,” Nancy says, when they’re on dry land.

“What?” Steve says, exhausted.

“His—his mom. You’re not doing it alone.”

-

They might’ve won, but that doesn’t mean the town remained unscathed as each Gate shut. Violent tremors were felt all over; there’s a shortage of beds in the hospital, and there’s yet more people missing.

It helps Claudia accept it, at least. She’s not the only parent waiting in vain for a body to be recovered.

Nancy keeps her word, leading the explanation, but Steve forces himself to speak at the end, underlines that her son cannot come home—because he had seen how hope had destroyed the Hollands.

She nods silently.

You should hate me, Steve thinks. Hate me.

But the only emotion in her eyes is love—love and pain.

“I’m sorry,” Steve says. “I wasn’t quick enough.”

“No,” Eddie says suddenly.

He’s kept quiet up until now, hovering in a corner. Steve had tried to tell him that he didn’t have to come, that it could be dangerous for him to be seen. But even before Nancy started talking, Claudia had never once threatened to call the police.

“It was my fault,” Eddie continues. “I—”

“That’s not true,” Steve says. “Claudia, don’t listen to him, he’s—”

But Claudia is just staring at Eddie.

“You didn’t kill that poor girl,” she says.

“No,” he says, voice hoarse. “No, ma’am.”

“Dustin.” Claudia takes a deep breath. “He was protecting you.”

Eddie’s face crumples. “Yes.”

Claudia smiles sadly. Steve doesn’t know how she’s doing it, how she’s still standing—the strength it must take, for her not to scream.

“You must’ve been worth it,” she tells Eddie.

He has to leave the room, a hand covering his face.

-

There isn’t a funeral.

Claudia insists on putting up missing posters, even though it’s clear from the dullness in her eyes that she understood perfectly well what Nancy meant when she said, we lost him.

“I know it’s—” Claudia breaks off as Steve helps her make more copies. “I just—I just thought. Joyce, she…”

Steve puts up the posters around town. He can’t stand the thought of bystanders pitying the hope of a grieving mother. Not again.

-

Claudia calls, tells him to come over to the house. She says she’s got some of Dustin’s things in a box, not a lot, but just in case—just in case…

“He’d want you to have them,” she says.

Steve has to stand with the phone in his hand long after she’s hung up, breathing heavily. Then he does the round of calls. Nancy, Robin, Eddie.

He needs someone there, he knows it, otherwise he’ll never go back in the house.

He can’t face the kids. Can’t face the fact that he’s failed them.

“I—I can’t, man,” Eddie tells him over the phone, voice brittle. “I can’t go back there. I’m sorry.”

Steve doesn’t blame him.

-

Nancy gets the hint and accompanies Steve as they head into Dustin’s bedroom. Steve tries not to look at the bed, the pillows still rumpled from when Dustin last—

He picks up the small cardboard box left on the floor. He scans the top of it. It’s small things. A book on Morse Code. An almost empty can of Farrah Fawcett spray.

Nancy’s hand’s on his back, not doing anything, just resting there. She reaches into the box and picks up the can.

“You did his hair, right? For the Snow Ball?”

Steve nods. “Yeah.”

She’s smiling. “He looked so—so sweet.” She blinks rapidly, still smiling. Eyes growing wet. “I don’t know if—if he mentioned it, but. I danced with—”

“Are you kidding me?” Steve laughs, and it gets close to dangerous, to the grief spilling out, before he pulls it back at the last second. “Mentioned it? When I picked him up, it’s all he talked about. Nance, you made him feel like the coolest kid in school.”

-

Robin sits in the passenger seat, puts the box in between her knees so the things aren’t rattling about while Steve drives.

And she laughs too, except it fades off into a sob. “I forgot.”

He puts a hand out, and she takes it. “What?”

“He’d taken my library card,” she says. “So he could, um, check—” She clears her throat. “Check out more books.”

Steve’s knuckles turn white as he holds onto her. She never complains.

-

Eddie… drifts.

In some sense, Spring Break feels like a bad dream. The trailer’s back to normal, no gaping hole to another dimension in the ceiling, and the police tape gets removed so quickly that it’s almost laughable. He doesn’t care that the suspicion around him has dropped in the wake of a ‘natural disaster.’

He doesn’t really care about anything.

He keeps in touch just enough to know that Claudia is staying with her sister for a little while, left Steve the keys for watering the houseplants, probably.

And then Steve calls him from the Henderson’s house phone.

“I’m—I’m sorry, no—no-one else was picking up,” he says. “It’s—it’s his cat, I can’t—”

“Missing?” Eddie assumes, because Steve sounds one breath away from a panic attack. “Hurt?”

“No, no, just—please, can you come? Please.”

So Eddie does.

He hates every moment of the drive, but he does it.

He finds Steve in the bedroom, and fuck, it still looks so lived-in, like Dustin’s just stepped out for a moment, the room filled with nerdy teen clutter. Eddie’s sure that if he looked closely, he’d find notes from old campaigns littering the desk, but there’s no way he can remotely handle that, so he doesn’t.

There’s currently a more pressing sight, anyway.

Because Steve’s standing by Dustin’s bed, and he’s not looking at Eddie, because there’s a little Siamese cat blinking up at him.

“He’s gone,” Steve is saying.

The cat mews plaintively.

“He’s gone, okay?” Steve’s words get harsher. “What do you want me to—? He’s gone.”

Eddie steps forward, scoops up the cat—doesn’t flinch when its claws dig into him. “Come on, sweetheart, let’s get you some food.”

He goes to shut the door behind him, but not quick enough.

Steve’s not once cried throughout all of this—not anywhere that Eddie could see, at least.

He’s crying now. Silent, trembling—sinking down to the bed, a fist clenched around the sheets.

Eddie closes the door.

He gently lets the cat go when he’s in the kitchen, finds a can of wet food soon enough, in a cupboard underneath the sink.

That’s where he finds the notepad, too.

And too late, he realises it’s Dustin’s handwriting, that this was a log he’d made of each time he’d fed his cat, making sure to not repeat the same food twice in a row. ‘TUNA’ he’d scrawled in an obvious rush, like he was heading off somewhere, and then Eddie sees the date.

March 22nd.

He doesn’t know that he’s crying until Steve comes up behind him, puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Sorry,” Eddie gasps, “sorry, I’m sorry, I’m…”

Because this isn’t about him. Shouldn’t be about him.

Steve pulls him close.

I’m sorry, Eddie thinks. He was yours. I’m sorry.

“It’s okay,” Steve whispers. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

It sounds like, You loved him, too. It’s okay.

-

Steve spends the night at the trailer.

It’s late when Eddie wakes up to an empty side of the bed. He gets up, walks slowly, slowly until he can just barely squint into the living room.

Steve doesn’t notice him. He’s standing on a chair, arm outstretched. Fingertips brushing the ceiling.

“Are you there?” he murmurs.

Eddie’s heart sinks like a stone.

Steve waits in the silence. His hand shakes.

“I’m here,” he says. “I’m here.”

-

They both know what it means—the nights together, sleeping so closely, skin to skin.

One of them will find the other lying awake, and a chaste kiss will be pressed against a shoulder, shh, shh. They don’t talk about it, don’t initiate anything more.

Their world is too heavy for it.

Steve wants to tell Dustin anyway. Wants him to give them both so much shit for it, let his goddamn horrendous ego run wild.

Tell me again, Eddie whispers at two in the morning.

Steve breathes in, out. Starts the story with a ridiculous kid tugging red roses out of his hand.

-

“Come over,” Steve says. It’s nine o’clock at night. His voice is jagged. “My place.”

Eddie finds him just standing in the hall.

“Nancy called,” he says, too matter-of-fact. “‘Bout an hour ago, Holly’s Lite-Brite lit up, almost burned her. The power went off.”

Eddie tries to temper his voice, but when he says, “Steve,” he almost cringes at the pity in it.

“Don’t,” Steve says. “I know. I know. But.” He jerks his head upstairs. “I need you. I need you to—to tell me what I’m looking at.”

The bedside lamp is on in Steve’s room. There’s a book on translating Morse Code left open on the floor.

The light is blinking.

Steve searches Eddie’s face desperately. “That’s the—that’s what you did, right? SOS?”

Eddie picks up the book. Sits on the bed, knees weak.

“Yes,” he says.

Steve closes his eyes, exhales in a shudder. “Oh my god, you can see it. Okay, okay.”

He opens his eyes, and it looks like he’s fighting with himself, caught between wanting to say more and destroying the fragile hope he has.

So Eddie says it for him.

“Dustin?”

YES.

After Eddie translates, Steve stares at the lamp. His hand reaches out. Fingers curl around thin air.

“How do we know?” he asks. “How do we know it’s—”

DUMBASS.

Steve starts to laugh. A tear falls down his cheek.

“I can hear him,” he says. “Jesus Christ, I can hear him.”

And then Eddie can, too—so, so faintly. The tiniest giggle.

He sounds exhausted.

WATERGATE. TEAR. NOT STRONG ENOUGH.

“The—the tear?” Eddie says.

ME.

“We’re coming,” Steve says. His fingertips graze the lightbulb. “We’re coming, Dustin.”

HURRY.

-

They don’t tell anyone. Steve puts his phone off the hook before they leave, because Nancy is bound to call repeatedly.

They get into the boat and push off into Lover’s Lake without a word. It’s an unspoken agreement: they’ll get him back or die trying.

They dive together. Search the river bed, stones slipping through their fingers until…

A smooth ridge of plastic. Eddie’s guitar pick.

They pull.

The gap is small, but they make it—and when they emerge into The Upside Down, there’s no particles floating around, but the air is thin.

The landscape is disappearing. Dying.

Just next to the Gate lies Dustin. His hand is outstretched, like he’d fallen while reaching towards home.

“He’s not breathing,” Eddie says, hushed and terrified.

“Tilt his head back,” Steve says, already on his knees. They don’t have time to panic. “Lift his chin.”

“Okay, okay.”

“You’re gonna do the breaths, okay? One second, then—”

“I know, I know what to—”

“You got him?”

“Y-yeah.”

Steve starts compressions. Shouts, “Now!” to Eddie when it’s time.

One second. Pause. One second.

Repeat.

“Come on, Dustin, you’ve gotta breathe,” Eddie pleads through Steve’s counting. “We’re here, we’re here, you’ve gotta—”

Steve slams on his chest. Once.

“—breathe, we love you so fucking much, just—”

Twice.

“—breathe!”

Dustin launches upwards, into Steve’s arms, coughing, coughing.

Breathing.

“That’s it,” Eddie sobs, “oh my God, that’s it.”

-

They leave when Dustin communicates through shaky hand gestures that he can hold his breath. It’s far from ideal—Steve doesn’t like it at all, but there’s no way they can linger; the hole they’d made to break through the Gate is already threatening to close.

Besides, with both him and Eddie pulling Dustin up, it’s the quickest swim of their lives.

The Gate shuts behind them, as if it had never been.

-

Up to the surface. Clinging to Dustin, hearing him gasp, splutter.

“You with me? Hey, hey, you with me?”

Dustin nods; Steve pulls him on board, Eddie right behind in case he falls.

Silence. Breathing. Dustin up against his chest, shaking.

Eddie mutters, “Here, here,” passing over the towels that they’d brought with what had felt like foolish optimism.

“You—you d-didn’t bring a ch-change of clothes?” Dustin says, with biting, wonderful sarcasm. His teeth chatter, and Eddie wraps him in another towel. “D-do I do all the th-thinking around here?”

Steve’s answering laugh turns into weeping—he runs a towel over Dustin’s hair, sobs through a smile when Dustin whines out a petulant complaint.

“I’ve got you,” Steve says. He kisses his forehead. “I’ve got you.”

“I know,” Dustin says. He shuffles closer, cuddles further into Steve’s chest even though they’re all soaking wet. “Knew… knew you’d come.” His hand reaches to the side, fumbling for Eddie. “Sorry. Think I broke your… your pick.”

Eddie just shakes his head, tearful, a hand covering his mouth.

“Yeah,” Steve says, “I really don’t think he cares, bud.”

“My mom’s gonna freak,” Dustin mumbles. His head is nodding tiredly as he says it.

“Yeah,” Steve echoes. He swallows. “She—she will.”

Eddie picks up the oar. Dustin sighs, lax with sleep. Steve can feel him breathing.

And he’ll have changed in some ways—they all have, it’s inevitable. It would be naive to think otherwise.

But the glimmer of him is still there, in his voice.

He’s back.

Steve holds Dustin tight—keeps him as warm as he can as Eddie rows, taking them home, home, home.

[the-everqueen]

Lucienne's Day Off? For WIP Tuesday :) I hope today isn’t too long! Or if it is I hope you manage to relax once you get home ❤️

i lived! and then promptly took a nap when i got home lmao. merricat is a little miffed that my idea of "relaxing" isn't "play with the worm toy for hours," but we'll do some activities tonight to make up for me having had a longer than usual work day.

Lucienne's Day Off! alternate working title for this is "Luce Takes Coco For Walkies." here's a beginning snippet:

...

Dream of the Endless does not often ask favors of Lucienne.

Or at least, Morpheus didn’t. Lucienne was his first raven, his first confidante outside his siblings or lovers. She was afforded privileges—one, of course, being her Library, and the other being that her Lord and God rarely commanded her, and even more rarely asked undue favors. If he asked, it was with all the careful consideration of a thousand years of friendship, with no pressure to acquiesce. These instances were something to build toward, a dance with familiar steps.

This Dream, the one who was once Daniel, just asks.

Unfair, maybe, for her to expect otherwise. He is new, and despite the inherited weight of all his predecessor’s memories, he moves like spring. So Lucienne should not be surprised when he comes to her and asks her to accompany the Corinthian on a trip to the Waking.

“I would go myself,” Dream says, as though Lucienne isn’t gaping open-mouthed at him, “but I promised the Leviathans an offering as a gesture of our continued pact.”

“Could it not wait?”

“The Deep Sea moons—"

“No, I meant—the Corinthian. Could he not wait?”

Dream blinks owlishly.

“I only—" Lucienne smooths a hand down the front of her waistcoat. “I thought he would prefer—"

“Would you rather I ask someone else?”

Who else would he ask? Who else could hold the Corinthian’s leash? Perhaps one of the other Major Arcana. For some reason, that leaves a sour taste in Lucienne’s mouth. Ridiculous. As though an approved field trip were the same as abandoning the Dreaming.

“You said dreams and nightmares do not belong in the Waking world,” she says, deflecting while she categorizes her feelings.

“Not to roam freely,” he agrees. “But the Corinthian had a wish to see it, and I would reward him for his recent services.”

“He only performed his function.”

“Even so.”

“Besides, did he not eat his fill while your predecessor was imprisoned? Sir, with all due respect—surely you recognize the dangers of indulging him.”

Dream’s eyes flash with what—for a throat-catching moment—Lucienne thinks is anger and then realizes is hurt. That mouth, so soft and pliable, pulls into a frown. He fiddles with the cuffs on his shirt.

“The Corinthian is also new,” he murmurs at last.

[amplesalty]

Christmas 2024 - Day 2 - Violent Night (2022)

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

...two snifters of brandy!

Much like Red One is getting a lot of attention this year (though apparently not so much at the box office), I recall there being a lot of talk around Violent Night a couple of years ago and, whilst I didn't see it at the time, it was one I tucked away in the back of my mind to cover on here. I probably had it earmarked to watch last year actually but, you know, old twofer over here had to skip out early. With the name and move poster I was initially worried this might be a horror movie that I'd have to put off until next year but this falls into the action genre with some comedy mixed in. Director Tommy Wirkola is someone I have stashed on the horror list in the shape of 2009's Dead Snow but looking at his other work, 'Spermageddon' might have just earned a place on my watchlist as well from the name alone. Violent Night opens with a disgruntled mall Santa taking a quick break on Christmas Eve to knock back a few brewskis and rant to a fellow patron about 'those damn kids' who don't even believe in the spirit of Christmas anymore, they're just take, take, take and only want Santa so he can deliver them some video games. As Alfred once taught us, there's a lot of bad isms floating around this world but one of the worst is commercialism. Erm, actually, I'm pretty sure racism is worse but maybe that's just me. The bar tender thinks she's going to have a job on her hands when he goes to leave but ends up taking a door that leads to the roof. When she goes to find him, she finds the roof empty but up in the sky…could it be?!

It is!

The majesty is lost a little when he promptly throws up seconds later, his chunks landing squarely on her head.

Meanwhile, seperated couple Jason, Linda and their daughter Trudy are visiting Jason's family home for the holiday's and it proves to be an icy affair despite being surrounded by such oppulence. As part of the wealthy Lightstone family, Jason's sister is vying to be the center of attention in their mother's eyes in the hope of being selected as the next in line to run the family business and inherit the power and wealth that comes with that title.

Santa just so happens to be passing back and makes his way down one of the many fireplaces in this grand mansion but, much like John McClane in Die Hard, Santa is in the wrong place at the wrong time as a band of mercanaries siege control of the house, killing the hired help and taking the Lighstone family hostage. At least Santa is still wearing shoes when all this goes down. For this is just one in a long line of 'It's like Die Hard but…' movies that brought us such classics as Die Hard but on a boat (Under Siege), Die Hard but on a train (Under Siege 2: Dark Territory) and Die Hard but in a football stadium (Final Score). This time we have Die Hard but it's a Christmas movie. No, wait, Die Hard but Santa is John McClane.

There's all sorts of little nods to the film along the way, such as Santa's use of a walkie talkie, a character named Al and Santa's 'Naughty or Nice list' serving as a checklist of sort of the baddies that are still alive. Sort of like that list that McClane makes as he's piecing together all of Hans' associates. I'm pretty sure the film even gets name dropped at one point when Santa pulls out 'Die Hard on blu-ray' whilst searching in his magic sack for a weapon.

There's also an extended homage to Home Alone which grated on me a little at first as it felt like a bit of a tonal shift and a bit too on the nose of a reference but they manage to save it by making use of their more adult rating to push the boat out a little on the violence. There's even a kill which Kevin couldn't even manage in 2 when he was lobbing bricks off rooftops, tricking people into dunking their flaming heads into flammable liquids and electrocuting people. Quite frankly, I'm ready to declare this as a new alternate Christmas classic alongside the likes of Die Hard, Home Alone or Lethal Weapon. The thing just oozes charm, the action is great, lots of funny moments, it had me invested in the characters and even got a bit schmoltzy at times which I'm not opposed to in a Christmas movie. That little deaf Dutch girl in Miracle on 34th Street gets me every time…

Santa is a total badass here but is also shown to be mortal and susceptable to injury. The suggestion seems to be that because he's grown so weary of the job, he's lost a little bit of that Christmas magic that is presumably kept him alive all these years. It adds a lot of weight to each fight that he gets involved in and feels like it has an element of that 'war of attrition' thing that McClane goes through where he's really fucked up by the end of the movie. The fights really lean into the thematic elements as well with nearby ornaments and decorations being used as makeshift weapons. Garotting someone with fairy lights, anyone? There's always a Christmas song to soundtrack the occasion too, including a Bryan Adams song I wasn't aware was a thing. Adds an interesting layer of juxtoposition as you've got this cheerful music accompanying brutal violence.

Luigi Mario himself, John Lguizamo, has a great turn as the main villain who starts off playing up to the occasions with all sorts of Christmas referneces, he's essentially doing schtick whilst his guys murder a whole bunch of dudes. But we also learn of Christmas essentially being responsible for his super villain esque origin story. At least he has something of a moustache here unlike Luigi, even if it's just stubble. Seriously, how did they fuck that up? You gave Bob Hoskins a moustache!

I feel like their showdown at the end could have had a better one liner to go out on. I was getting vibes of that 'Call an ambulance' meme: "The last Christmas…" "But not for me!" I totally called that ending as well, Pokemon The First Movie ass motherfuckers. If you haven't seen this one yet, absolutely go watch it. I can easily see this earning a place in people's holiday rotation for years to come alongside the classics. Sure it's a little derivative but I think the fact you're throwing Santa into this situation just adds a ton of novelty value and it's just tons of fun from beginning to end.

[castleofswagliostro]

Part 1 Episode 1 - "Is Lupin... Burning?"

It's me, the Lupin Apologist and thanks for clicking on my episode review for P1E1, "Is Lupin... Burning?" The answer to that question and many other burning issues are beneath the cut. Enjoy!

An alternate title to this episode could have been Vroom Vroom, and I think it still would have worked.

It is difficult to jump into Part 1 without establishing some chronological context first. Even though this is the first episode of part one, it is not the pilot of Lupin the Third. In fact, the pilot was a 1969 short film produced two years after Monkey Punch released the first Lupin the Third manga. I didn't know this when I first started watching the series and I think the pilot film is one of the hidden gems of the franchise. More on the pilot film in my next post (come to think of it)!

Also, you can't talk about part one without talking about the intro. For now, suffice to say that the intro is a BOP and whoever says it isn't is mean.

ok now onto the real shit.

The episode opens with a suspicious character trying to pour some magic shit into Lupin's race car. I WILL be calling it nascar for this whole post. I don't care if it's technically indy cars or whatever, I was raised in Appalachia so everything is nascar to me. Respect my culture!

Lupin then calls Jigen and their plot is then discussed. Fujiko Mine is supposed to be infiltrating the offices of the company who is sponsoring the race, the Miracle Hotel. This is an iconic exchange and one of the more light hearted parts of the episode. Some of my favorite lines are delivered in this exchange, one of them being from Jigen. When Lupin asks him how Fujiko is doing on the mission, he says he doesn't know but is "sure she'll be fine." Spoiler alert, but she is anything but fine!

While Fujiko was attempting to plant a bug in the conference room of the Miracle Hotel, the commissioner captures her and straps her to a table. He then reveals that the entire race was a rouse he created as a death trap for Lupin (Death Cab for Cutie reboot?) and raises some interesting points about human nature. Why are humans unable to resist certain things? What is going on in Lupin's schema that makes him a sucker for a good nascar race? Whatever it is, the commissioner is capitalizing on his racing addiction and hoping that this vice will lead to his demise, and eventually the collapse of the crime empire Lupin is cultivating. Fujiko tries to contact Jigen and tell him what she just learned, but a henchman stomps on her walkie-talkie and she goes no-contact with Jigen.

Meanwhile, Lupin becomes aware of Inspector Zenigata's presence in the race. He is right behind Lupin, hot on his trail but he could never quite catch him. This is a sick metaphor for Zenigata's life and role in the franchise. He is capable, strong, and a victim of his own power. Zenigata goes into an interesting monologue where he states "If he wasn't the grandson of Arsene Lupin... and I wasn't a descendent of Heiji Zenigata..." and he never concludes that thought. If you weren't, then what?! Would you be friends? Would you admire him? Do you already admire Lupin and the whole "gentleman thief" thing is just a monkey wrench, Zenigata? Would he be a colleague, or something more? We may never know the answer to this question, but holy shit isn't speculating fun!?

The middle of the episode explores a few sub plots. Jigen and Lupin switch cars on the race track and Jigen drives the car for a little bit (beep beep). Lupin infiltrates the hotel posing as a plumber (whose hat has a wide ass brim, bro why is your hat so damn big?) and Fujiko gets sexually harassed by the commissioner. Yay! Lupin rescues Fujiko, electrocutes a bunch of guys, switches back with Jigen and returns to win the race. Yay! Fujiko bonks Jigen on the head and ties him up. Yay! Lupin blows up the race track! Yay! Fujiko cuts a deal with Zenigata and turns him in for her arrest warrant. Yay! Lupin fools Zenigata and gets off scot free for killing a ton of people! Yay! Lupin and Fujiko ride off into the sunset. Yay. Episode complete.

Fujiko's portrayal in this episode is really interesting. It's much different than what we will see in parts two-five. She's much more subtle about her intentions. She is calm and collected, and while she will always remain competent, there is an air about her that convinces others to trust her. Part of this is Jigen's behavior towards her. Jigen is very trusting of Fujiko in this episode. He gives her a pet name, he turns his back to her. And she takes advantage of that. I think this is before Fujiko enters into the femme fatale reputation of her own choosing, and a demonstration of how she really does know how to protect herself when she has control. For some reason she let herself be captured earlier in the episode, when I fully believe she would have been able to take him. Why would she let herself get captured?

She knew Lupin would drop everything to come rescue her. He would leave the race he was so enticed to participate in (even plan for that possibility with Jigen) because he loves her so. This episode is a great introduction into the intricacies of Lupin and Fujiko's relationship. At this point in time, I think it is one sided on Lupin's part. But I think as time goes on and we see more of their lives, we can be convicted that Fujiko truly loves him, too, and just faces different barriers to the realization of that love than Lupin ever will.

The final thing I would like to talk about is the title of this episode, and how it comes full circle. The commissioner arrives to the scene of the race and finds that it is in flames and rejoices that it is burning, for despite all of the hassle, his plan has come to fruition. Lupin is burning! He's going to burn in Hell! We win!

That couldn't be further from the truth. Lupin capsizes that plan and burns the entire place to the ground. Lupin isn't burning, but he is burning. He is the catalyst, not the variable. He is the perpetrator, not the victim. Thus continues Lupin's full sprint into the beginning of his legacy, as he has been a fugitive for longer than we've known him.

episode stats

Four stars. It's a good opener but the droning nascar noises will hurt your head after a while and some of the character designs are just... meh, they're still figuring things out. It gets better the more you get into part one.

Trigger/content warnings: sexual assault/harassment, death, electrocution in water, explosions, nascar, tickle torture, nudity

Plot is good and easy to follow! I like how the symbolic title comes into play.

Does Fujiko get sexualized? Yes, and you see her nips.

Kill count: AT LEAST an entire hotel staff and some nascar drivers.

Flash warning for the scene where Lupin electrocutes everyone in the tickle chamber (it'll make sense once you watch it)

Thank you for reading! Please like, comment, and reblog. I would love to know what you've thought of this episode and your thoughts on part one in general. I always have thought that is was underrated and under appreciated, so I am very happy to start my blog by shining a spotlight on it.

I'll see you on this channel! ;)

[quarktrinity]

quark watches star trek season 1 episode 8

oh shit theyre going to an alternate earth??? thats cool as hell

alt earth looks like shit

wow spock estimates that it appears as it did in 1960. what a coincidental year

kirk hands spock a tricycle. spock hands the tricycle to mccoy. mccoy just puts it down. i love this show

rabid earth man angy

hes very upset that his tricycle is broken

um. yeah he just fucking died. ok

they brought red shirts with them. uh oh

are girls immune to the red shirt curse? yeoman rands wearing red. should i be afraid

earth girl is terrified of them, what the hell happened here

so someone just rubbed the dust off a window to see spock through it. except they rubbed the inside of it. and im pretty sure the dust would be on the outside. so.

"grups", dystopia slang for grown-ups

this episode is amazingly tragic

this earth girl, miri, her name is the episode title. interesting

not a huge fan of the camera work when kirk told this kid shes "very pretty." they made it weird. let him be nice.

this is some home alone shit

the way kirk is talking to this kid is uncomfortably close to being flirting. she clearly has a crush on him and he should not be talking to her like this. writers stop it

the remastered cgi is a little jarring sometimes. kinda wish i could see the old shitty stuff, whatever it was

spock is such a dick lmao

ok so the people who used to be here tried to become immortal and fucked up and it made a disease that kills adults which all the human crew members are getting now?

"she likes you, jim" "shes becoming a woman" SHUUUUT UUUUUP

the kids age super slowly apparently and then get The Disease when they enter puberty. horrifying!!!

KIRK DONT HOLD HER HAND. GOD.

do these kids farm. where are they getting their food. surely any preserves have been depleted by now

ive yet to see any fight choreo in this show that i can take seriously

kirk gives this girl busywork sharpening pencils. kind of hilarious ngl

wuh oh the kids stole their walkie talkies

ok so their foods running short and the kids will starve soon? why now? why havent they starved in the 300 years theyve been running around????

miri hates rand bc Jealousy.

miris a spy for the Kid Gang >:T shes conspiring to get kirk killed. girl needs so much therapy

why hasnt anyone on the ship gone down to check on them. its been 5 days

jesus christ this episode is traumatic

they had to move a set piece when the camera moved in. i love the 60s.

ive never read lord of the flies but im certain this is derivative of it

mccoy no dont be an idiot

mccoy noooooooooooooo

it has been 0 episodes since kirks shirt was ripped (it was just his sleeves but still)

this vaccine works extremely fast

mccoy is ok thank god

yaaaayy the vaccine works

"i never get involved with older women, yeoman" -kirk, about miri. SHUT THE FUCK UUUUUUUUP

[gokartkid]

sebastian vettels car radio

playlist of songs that i like that i think sebastian would too :)

[gossamerashes]

>> Hound No Longer A major WIP. I have some plans for this, just not too sure on the method of execution just yet.

[jacobsnicket]

fu:13si alternate titles

1. In Which Lemony Shits on Polka (Inside Job) 2. In Which Lemony and Moxie Argue about Board Games and Oliver is Very Done (Pinched Creature) 3. In Which Daniel Handler Says Enby Rights (Ransom Note) 4. In Which Jake Makes Muffins and Stew Sucks (Walkie-Talkie) 5. In Which Children Start a Gang (Bad Gang) 6. In Which Rich People are Dicks (Silver Spoon) 7. In Which Lemony is More Helpful to an Abused Child than All of the ASOUE Adults Combined (Violent Butcher) 8. In Which Nothing Much Happens but Lemony and Moxie Are Cute (Twelve or Thirteen) 9. In Which Daniel Writes a Scooby Doo Knockoff (Midnight Demon) 10. Seriously, Does Anyone Even Care About This One? (Three Suspects) 11. In Which Cool VFD Shit Happens In the Background (Vanished Message) 12. In Which Daniel Writes a Scooby Doo Knockoff: the Sequel (Troublesome Ghost) 13. In Which Lemony Wanders Around Town and Angsts (Figure in Fog)

[themculibrary]

Spider-Man’s Identity Revealed Masterlist

Links Last Checked: September 6th, 2024

part two

5 Times People Find Out Peter Is Spider-man (fanfiction.net) - Ashfirebolt T, 9k

Summary: and the one time he tells everyone he is.

A Drop In The Ocean (ao3) - veterani steve/tony T, 3k

Summary: Peter Parker never wanted to reveal to anyone that he was Spiderman.

Unfortunately, a guy called Darken decided to change that.

Aye Oh- Let's Go! (ao3) - FrozenHearts minor wanda/vision T, 12k

Summary: Flash knows something is up with Peter.

He sets about to prove it to the Decathalon Team.

Battlefield Medicine (ao3) - Anni Re steve/tony T, 9k

Summary: Instead of the quiet Saturday morning they were hoping for, Steve and Tony wake up to discover that their son, Peter, has been critically injured. In the same instance Iron Man and Captain America discover their son is Spiderman. So much for an uneventful weekend.

Breaking a Promise (ao3) - friendofspiderman G, 3k

Summary: May discovers her nephew is Spider-Man, and makes a promise--if Peter stops keeping secrets from here on out, she won't confront Tony Stark.

But when more details about Peter's past battles begin to surface, will May be able to keep her word?

but what is a hero, really? (ao3) - mjscorner T, 17k

Summary: "Flash," Peter pleaded breathlessly, "you don't want to do this, okay? They're armed. Trust me, you don't understand."

"No, I think I do understand," Flash scoffed, unsurprised. "You've been a loser your whole entire life, but everyone here still adores you. Well, I'm done dealing with that, okay? Time for me to be a hero."

Peter's heart sank as Flash bumped into his shoulder and marched forward.

He stopped before rounding the corner when the faint sound of a gun being cocked echoed throughout the hall, freezing Flash right in his place. Peter turned on his heel in an instant, standing beside Flash protectively.

"But-but what is a hero, really?" Flash croaked with a nervous smile, side-eyeing the weapon suspended beside him as it softly nudged the side of his skull.

Peter slowly raised his hands in surrender, staring at Flash until he did the same, dropping the cans of pepper spray and the walkie talkies.

"We are so, so, so monumentally screwed."

crashing (ao3) - Saturning harley/peter T, 4k

Summary: And only then, years later, did Harley Keener understand what it was like to have a panic attack. And good lord he now realised he hasn’t been helpful to poor Tony at all back in Rose Hill.

Lucky for him, Spider-Man was there to be actually helpful.

Faulty Lines of Communication (ao3) - deancasdracohar N/R, 8k

Summary: Tony runs into a guy in a bar who gives him some interesting information on Spiderman, who he has fought with but whose face he's never seen.

Unfortunately, the guy is Skip Wescott and the information is wrong. And Tony, blinded with anger, doesn't bother to follow up before acting on it.

home is where you rest your bones (ao3) - Chill_with_Penguins T, 10k

Summary: He doesn’t know what to do. The police are coming for him, Peter Parker, and he doesn’t know what to do.

He runs.

---

alternatively titled: peter parker and the series of safe-houses

(a fic which picks up directly in the middle of That Credits Scene and unabashedly takes it straight to a bunch of new yorkers hiding fugitive!peter parker)

Let This Moment Be the First Chapter (ao3) - ephemeralstark T, 4k

Summary: Peter Parker: intern, Spider-Man, has never met Tony Stark in his life.

Tony Stark: has to do a speech at Midtown, knocks a bully down a peg or two, almost gets shot but is saved by...his intern?

Long Way Home (ao3) - kingdomfaraway peter/mj, happy/may T, 23k

Summary: After Spider-man is revealed to be Peter Parker, SHIELD presents the world a new, different Peter Parker and chalks the reveal up to mistaken identity. In order to protect those he loves, Peter is forced to hang up the suit and let someone else be Spider-man for a while.

Feeling like he’s lost his identity, Peter tries to be the high school senior as he should be, without being Spider-man. How does Peter balance what he feels is a potential new threat with his promise to stay away from the suit? Peter’s been without the suit before, but what is he without the name Spider-man?

Losing Control (ao3) - HarleysAStarBoi harley/peter T, 21k

Summary: No matter how hard he tried to pick up his feet to walk over, he just couldn’t. His phone began to ring and Peter really pushed himself to get it. His hands had begun shaking violently and he felt tears in his eyes. Then, he heard a voice in his head not unlike Venoms’. Tell anyone about this and your precious May Parker is dead.

Peter gasped, feeling his heart thundering against his ribcage. After a few more seconds of paralysis, he could move. Tears formulated in his eyes, and he let out a horrified cry. He stumbled back into the wall and slid onto the ground. His breath wavered as he was overcome with horror. He tried to regain his breath, but he broke down sobbing. Tears streamed down his face as he realized how bad of a situation he was really in.

Revealed (ao3) - arrafrost steve/tony M, 31k

Summary: Steve and Tony find out their son is Spider-man the hard way.

Spider-ling, Crime-Fighting Spider, Spider-Boy? (ao3) - theonewhereshewrites G, 10k

Summary: In which Civil War never happens, and Tony Stark and the rest of the Avengers keep running into a blue and red masked vigilante while they're fighting crime in Queens, and Tony Stark takes it upon himself to find out more about this crime-fighting spider-ling.

Spider-Man: Unsolved (ao3) - edibna T, 4k

Summary: Peter was deep in Spider-Man conspiracy theories when he saw it.

BuzzFeed Unsolved had done an episode on his identity.

At first, Peter was excited. Who wouldn’t be? But then Ryan does too good of a job of figuring out his secret identity, and Peter’s got to do some damage control.

The Secrets Out (ao3) - WhereWordsComeToLife steve/tony T, 3k

Summary: Peter is coming back from his duty as Spiderman, but he runs into two angry superheros who just happen to be his parents. RE-UPDATED

turn back the clock (and I'll try again in the morning) (ao3) - madasthesea T, 35k

Summary: Peter gets stuck in a time loop. In it, he lives through some of his worst nightmares, only to wake up that morning and have no one remember. He needs Tony to help him get through.

And if that isn't bad enough, his identity is revealed over and over, every day.

When Peter Forgot What Day It Was (ao3) - goldenambedo T, 7k

Summary: When Ned told Peter about the Stark Industries field trip he was missing out on whilst in recovery, Peter thought he wouldn't have to worry about it. He assumed he'd be asleep for it, as he was most of the time nowadays, and had forgotten about it quickly. He had more important things to worry about, like his damaged arm, his charred face, and everything else that'd happened in consequence of him snapping Thanos out of existence.

But then he went to the cafeteria with Mr Stark, and saw some unexpected familiar faces.

AKA Peter did the snap and is in recovery at SI, Midtown field trip trope sprinkled in, small identity reveal.

[calligraphist-artemisia]

19 | Cemetery

Written for Kidgetober 2020. Week 3 theme: Phantom Phenomena. Day 19: Cemetery.

Summary: Alternate Universe - Modern Day.  One of Pidge's favorite things about being a paranormal investigator was all of the cool tech she was able to work with. Luckily, her boyfriend enjoys listening to her talk about it all.

Also posted on AO3 under the username Kishirokitsune. Titled as “Things that Go Bump in the Night”.

- - - - -

19 | Cemetery

“I can't believe we're doing this,” Pidge muttered as she began to arrange the equipment across the small table in their brand new RV. “A cemetery as our first outdoor location of the year? Whose bright idea was this?”

“Probably Lance's,” Keith responded as he sat down across from her. He raised an eyebrow at some of the things she had chosen for them to use. “What's with the teddy bear? Is it for Hunk to hold when he starts to freak out?”

Pidge grinned at the idea. “Tempting. Maybe I should add that to our list of equipment. But no, it's a type of EMF detector that's meant for child ghosts to interact with. Its belly lights up when it senses something nearby.”

Keith looked at it for a moment longer and then nodded. “Alright, cool. What else are we using tonight?”

“The usual EMF meters and voice recorders; one for each of us,” Pidge said, gesturing to the group of black rectangular boxes sitting off to one side. “Hunk is fixing up the video cameras and making sure our spare batteries are all charged, so I don't have those right now. Not that I really have the space for those on this table. Then there's Shiro's spirit box – which I need to remind him to keep away from Hunk. He gets so jumpy whenever we use it.

“I do have a few other new things. Like, uh...” she lifted up a cylindrical device. “Here's our new REM pod! Allura wants to set it somewhere with a camera and see if we get any hits on it while we're not there.”

“Remind me again what that one does?” Keith asked.

Pidge was happy to explain how it generated its own electromagnetic field which, when disrupted, would indicate that there was something nearby by flashing lights. It was also meant to chime when it detected extreme fluctuations in temperature.

“No laser grids this time, huh?” Keith asked, sounding disappointed.

Pidge shook her head. “There's too much interference when we're outside. It's definitely better for enclosed spaces, preferably ones without bats.”

They both took a moment to chuckle over the memory of one old location they visited and the unexpected company of a group of bats in one of the upper rooms. The memory was less-than-pleasant for Shiro, who was surprisingly petrified of them, but he wasn't there to sulk over their teasing.

“The only other new things are the Ovilus and the SLS camera and I think Hunk has both of those,” Pidge said. “I mean, he definitely has the camera and I'm just assuming we put the Ovilus with that stuff too, since it's not here with me.”

“I had no idea we had so much equipment,” Keith said, picking up one of the recorders to help look it over and check the battery.

“Allura and I may have splurged a bit on our last shopping trip,” Pidge admitted with a short shrug. “But in our defense, Coran did give us permission to get everything we felt like we needed and since things are going so well lately...”

Keith set aside the recorder in order to check another. “Hey, I'm definitely not complaining. If it helps us collect new data, then I'm all for it. You two will give us a crash course on how to use everything tonight, won't you?”

“Of course!” Pidge said. “We're just waiting for Lance and Allura to get back with the pizza and once we eat we're going to run through all of the new stuff. Hunk and I will be in charge of the more delicate new stuff. I think Hunk wants the SLS and I've claimed the Ovilus, so you and I will be working with that tonight.”

“Sounds fun.” Keith was quiet for a moment as he finished checking the second recorder and moved onto the third. “The Ovilus is the one with the word bank, right?”

Pidge nodded. “Yeah, it's programmed with a dictionary for spirits to pick words from and then it shows them on the screen. The audio is a little quiet, but Hunk has a speaker for us to hook up to it so we should be okay. Oh, that reminds me! I need to go get the walkie talkies. Shiro said one of them was sticking the last time we went out and I meant to check them over, but I haven't had time. Will you be good here?”

Keith gave her a thumbs up in response.

Pidge beamed and leaned across the table for a quick kiss before running off to fetch the rest of their equipment.

[lopithecusfanfiction]

Blinded in Chains: Chapter One

Author: Lopithecus Pairing: Evan “Buck” Buckley/Eddie Diaz Rating: Explicit Word Count: 3377 Alternate: AO3 Summary: "There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope." - George Eliot

The118 are called to a factory fire. It all seems pretty routine until Eddie is told by one of the employees that they have canisters of highly explosive materials on site. With no time to get out, Eddie, a few other 118 crew members, and the employees are caught in an explosion with catastrophic consequences which change Eddie's life forever. Luckily, he has Buck there to help him through it.

Warnings: 

Angst

Hurt/Comfort

Injury

Major Character Injury

Burns

Blindness

Blindness Caused by Injury

Blind!Eddie Diaz

Survivor’s Guilt

Depression

Eddie Whump

Hurt Eddie Diaz

Worried Buck

Caring Buck

Injury Recovery

Recovery

Buck takes care of Eddie

Getting together

Eventual Smut

Smut

Slow Burn

Other Additional Warnings to Be Added

Author's Note: Title from the band Avenged Sevenfold. It was either this title or “Blinded by the Light” but I thought the latter sounded too upbeat for this angst fest. Though I know it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, I'm honestly really excited about this fic! Please enjoy! Tag List: (I’m going to tag the people that liked the preview I posted the other day because I’m assuming y’all are interested in it. If you don’t want me to tag you, please let me know! Also, if you want to be tagged in future updates, feel free to let me know and I’ll add you.) @justsmilestuffhappens @tkandbuck @poppy3019 @mysepticheartfan1 @idealuk @irrationalyperfect @claire-nyc

They are called out to a routine factory fire sometime in the afternoon. It’s nothing they haven’t dealt with in the past before. In fact, fires at factories are actually quite normal. Fires either start because of negligence from an employee or, and much more common, from faulty equipment due to the owner cutting corners. So, it’s not surprising when they are called out to one once again. It’s also not shocking to see the fire blazing out of control when they arrive. These factories do tend to go up fast and spread quickly.

Once the situation is assessed, Bobby rounds up the team to give orders. Dispatch had said there were some people trapped inside; five on the West side of the building and another seven on the East side. With how much the building is already engulfed in flames, everyone knows they are going to have to work fast to get those people out. That’s why when Bobby announces their duties, he separates him and Buck. Bobby needs his best firefighters leading the way.

“Buck,” Bobby addresses. “I want you to take point on the West side. Eddie, take the East. Gather a team of three or four.” He then adds more firmly, “No unnecessary risks. If it gets too dangerous, leave immediately. Now go. Be thorough but quick.” It’s the closing line that Bobby always gives them before they, or any of the other 118 members, enter a burning building.

Eddie and Buck exchange quick glances at one another, nodding curtly, before running off to gather their team. Eddie gives a brief rundown of the plan to the four other crew members he picks and then leads the way into the building. He and Buck start at the same entrance but soon separate in order to go in the direction of their intended targets. Unfortunately for them, the door is farther from the East side of the building than it is the West which means Eddie’s team has farther to travel. They carefully pick their way through the fire and debris of the building, putting out as best they can any fire that blocks their way. Soon enough, they reach the door that dispatch had told them the people were hold up in.

Eddie yells out, hoping he can be heard over the fire. “LAFD!” He tries the doorknob and it turns easily in his grasp. Pushing the door open, he sees five people huddled in a corner, all of them holding one another, and two unconscious people lying close by them. He gestures towards the people for his team to gather and then approaches one of the employees that are unconscious, checking their pulse. “Alive!” he yells and then checks the other person. “This one too! Okay, people, let’s get them out.”

Two of the crew members pick up the unconscious people each, throwing them over their shoulders. Eddie briefly registers Buck’s voice over the walkie. “Cap, we’re on our way out. Five people in need of medical attention. All conscious and alert.”

Eddie starts picking his way out of the room, conscious of the men and women following behind him as he reaches for his own walkie. He’s about to report their own situation when he notices the way they came is blocked. “Cap, we’ve got five people who are conscious and alert, two unconscious. All in need of medical attention. Our way has been blocked and will need to find a different way out.”

“Copy that, Diaz,” Bobby’s voice sounds from the walkie. “Keep me updated.”

Eddie turns to one of the employees. “Is there another exit around here?”

A woman, probably in her early thirties, shakes her head. “There’s another one in this wing of the building but on the other side.” She looks like she’s about to panic.

“Okay, everybody, stay calm. We’re going to get you out of here,” Eddie reassures before turning back around and making his way in the direction the woman had told him. They go until their way is blocked again and Eddie has to change directions once more to try and make it past the fallen debris. Slipping carefully through a doorway with its door missing, he enters a room that has minimal fire in it but heavy with smoke that makes it hard to see.

“We can’t be in this room!” one of the employees announces with alarm.

Eddie turns to him. “Why?”

All the employees’ eyes are wide with fear as the man answers him. “We have canister mixtures of chlorate and magnesium chloride in here.”

Eddie’s heart almost stops in horror. “Why do you have that here? Dispatch didn’t disclose this.”

“The company wanted to expand their horizons but are cutting corners to do so,” the same woman who had told him about the door states.

“We need to get out of here now!” Eddie says urgently, ushering the crew and employees back the way they came. They are already pretty far into the room and fire is quickly spreading around them. They don’t have much time.

Grabbing his walkie, Eddie practically yells into it. “Cap, we have chlorate and magnesium chloride mixtures in the building!” He looks behind himself, trying to gauge if any of the fire is by the canisters but the smoke is too thick to see through. “I repeat, there are-”

He sees the light from the explosion first before the impact of the blast. Then he feels it as it pushes him back into one of the employees, shoving them against a wall. His head hits hard and he doesn’t know what happens after that. Everything turns dark, blackness surrounding him.

*~~~*

When he wakes, all he can hear is an incessant ringing in his ears. But that is nothing compared to the physical pain coursing through his body. It feels like his body is on fire, maybe it is, but Eddie can’t open his eyes because they hurt too. He opens his mouth, doesn’t know if he screams out because he can’t hear , but he can’t breathe either. Oh God, it hurts to breathe .

A hand, or what he assumes to be a hand, lands on his shoulder and he tries to get away from it. It causes an intense stinging sensation to go from his shoulder down into his aching hand. He screams again, or at least he thinks he does, and there are more hands and he wants them to stop touching him. Please stop touching him!

“Dee!” Eddie tries to breathe, focus on the voice that just barely reaches his ears. They’re still ringing loudly, annoyingly, and when he tries to reach up to his ears, he realizes he can’t move his arms. “Eddie!”

“Buck?” Eddie mouths, once again not sure if he’s actually said anything. “Buck?” he thinks he must sound frantic but he doesn’t care because everything is on fire . 

“It’s going to be okay!” Buck’s voice, barely reaching him.

“Buck!” Eddie cries and if he could open his eyes he’s sure tears would be spilling from them.

“I’ve got you, Eddie.” A hand runs through his hair. Does he still have hair? “Chimney and I are going to get you out of here.”

He doesn’t end up knowing how they get him out. He passes out just after Buck stops talking. Or maybe he doesn’t stop talking, Eddie doesn’t know, the ringing is still there. He welcomes sleep, though, if only to get away from the searing pain.

*~~~*

The scene is horrific when Buck, Chimney, and a few other 118 firefighters wheel Eddie away to an ambulance. When Buck had heard that the factory had chlorate and magnesium chloride mixtures in the building, he felt his heart drop into his stomach. He had prayed that Eddie and the rest of the team would make it out in time.

They didn’t.

The explosion wasn’t actually that big, it not even taking out half the building, so Buck assumes there weren’t a lot of the canisters in there. It was, however, destructive to the surrounding rooms, the initial blast taking down a supporting wall, which then caused part of the building to collapse. Eddie is extremely lucky it didn’t fall on top of him. Some of the employees and one of the crew members of the 188, weren’t so lucky.

He leaves other crew members to dig through the rubble as he runs along with the stretcher that Eddie has been placed on. Chimney is keeping pace, trying to keep Eddie alive who has just passed out, holding a saline bag high above his head. Buck’s eyes start to sting as he watches the proceedings and tries to blink away the tears that are threatening to fall.

Sniffling, he looks Eddie over. The older man’s helmet had come off at some point. Buck assumes it was from the blast of the explosion. His face also looks pretty badly burned, especially around his eyes, and his turnout gear is… well, it’s completely destroyed. Buck’s mind keeps supplying him with the realization that Eddie is extremely lucky to still be alive and that it could turn around at any moment.

As if on cue, Chimney states, “His BP is dropping! Starting compressions!” Chimney hops onto the stretcher, straddling Eddie’s body, and begins compressions. 

Buck’s vision blurs as tears pool in them and he doesn’t even bother trying to rid them this time. They make it to the ambulance quickly and Buck has no choice but to let go of the stretcher to let the others load Eddie into the vehicle. His heart is beating frantically in his chest and tears are streaming incessantly down his cheeks.

“Buck!” Buck turns to Bobby, not bothering to hide the fact that he’s crying.

“I’m not leaving him!” Buck says immediately.

“I’m not asking you to,” Bobby reassures. “Just… keep me updated.”

Buck nods briefly before climbing into the ambulance. Chimney is sat beside him, having stopped the chest compressions, but according to the heart monitor Buck can see that he is stable again. Once Buck is settled, Chimney raps on the wall of the ambulance, letting the driver know they’re ready to go. The sirens immediately start blaring and before Buck knows it, they are rushing to the nearest hospital.

“Chim, what’s his status?” Buck dares to ask.

Chimney glances up at him before refocusing on Eddie. “It’s not looking good, Buck.”

Buck shuts up then, afraid to ask any more questions. He doesn’t want to hear the answers. Instead, he watches Chimney work as he tries to clean the burns as best he can. Buck is worried about Eddie’s face the most. It looks like it took the brunt of the flames from the explosion. If Eddie survives, he’s going to definitely have some scaring.

Eddie codes again halfway to the hospital. Buck does the compressions this time, jumping in immediately. It gives Chimney the opportunity to try to stabilize Eddie once more, pumping him with medications. As Buck presses hard on Eddie’s chest, tears from his eyes fall onto Eddie’s face. Buck can’t look away from it. Won’t look away from it. What if it’s the last time he sees it?

“Buck,” Chimney gets his attention. “He’s back, you can stop.”

Sniffling and wiping at his eyes with the back of his gloved hand, he sits back heavily. Chimney is eyeing him but doesn’t say anything. Buck is grateful for that. He doesn’t want to talk, doesn’t want to think, doesn’t want to move . He just wants to stare and watch Eddie, praying he’ll be okay.

They eventually make it to the hospital and quickly wheel Eddie out of the ambulance. No one argues with him when he follows the gurney inside and Chimney even comes with him. When he has to finally part from Eddie, the nurses rushing to wheel him into the back, that’s when he finally breaks completely.

His knees give out and he falls back into a chair that Chimney had, unbeknownst to Buck, guided Buck towards. A ragged sob escapes from his throat and out his mouth, tears streaming down his cheeks. Chimney sits down next to him, places a hand on his back, and allows him to cry. He cries so hard that he starts to hiccup and Chimney’s hand begins a path along his back, up and down and in circles. Buck hunches over and buries his face in his hands, trying to get his self-control back. He’s making a scene, he knows he is, and he needs to calm down, but it’s expected to bawl this hard in a hospital, right?

Eventually, he does stop, exhaustion taking over his entire body. He sags in the chair with the trash can situated between his legs. Chimney had handed him it with a box of tissues at some point and Buck had gratefully taken them. Now he feels tired and grief-stricken. They have no idea what is happening to Eddie, how he is, if he’s even still alive. All Buck needs to know is if Eddie is going to live.

“Hey,” Hen’s voice sounds quietly from Chimney’s side. Buck doesn’t know how long she’s been there. It looks like it’s been a little while. “How are you doing, Buckaroo? Do you want me to get you some water?”

He shakes his head. He is feeling pretty thirsty now but that’s not his top priority. Hen had been working on another member of the team when they had wheeled Eddie away. “How’s Garret?”

Hen’s face falls and Buck is suddenly afraid of the answer. She shakes her head in the negative, not bothering to voice what Buck already knows. “Briggs didn’t make it either nor did Sinclair. Hammond has just been brought in. He’s in pretty critical condition like Eddie.”

“The employees?” he asks quietly, almost inaudible.

Hen’s frown deepens and she shakes her head again. “None of them made it.”

Buck’s eyes fill with tears again and he reaches up to wipe them away stubbornly. “Where’s Bobby?”

“Talking to the Chief and then he has to make a statement.”

“They want him to make a statement now?” Buck asks, feeling sick to his stomach. “Three of his men just died and two of them still might and they want him…” Buck stops, choking on his anger. He bites his bottom lip to stop himself from ranting. No one comments on Buck’s outrage and instead sit back in their chairs to await news on both Eddie and Hammond.

An hour and a half later, with no word on Eddie yet, Bobby arrives. “How is he?”

Buck doesn’t bother looking up from his hands that he’s been staring at for the last twenty minutes. Bobby sits down in a chair across from him as Hen answers his question. “We haven’t’ heard anything yet.”

“I just checked on Hammond before coming this way,” Bobby says.

“And?” Chimney asks, sitting up straighter.

“They’re still working on him.” Buck glances up and has to look away from Bobby’s defeated face. “They’re not sure if he’s going to make it. It’s not looking good.”

“Did you call his wife?” Buck asks, speaking quietly. He stares at the floor, feeling helpless.

Bobby sighs and sits further back in his chair. “I did. She’s trying to get out of work early and seeing if the babysitter can watch their daughter for a little longer before a family member can pick her up.”

“What about the others’ families?”

Another sigh escapes Bobby’s lips. “I’ve called Briggs’ husband and informed him of what happened. He was understandably upset.”

“They were thinking about adopting a baby,” Hen announces. “Briggs had asked for my advice just the other day, wanting an LGBTQA friendly place and to know what organization Karen and I went through.” Buck’s heart breaks into a million pieces at that news, a new wave of grief passing through him.

“The Chief called Garret’s wife and Sinclair’s fiance. He wanted me to start the press conference instead,” Bobby continues.

“How’d that go?” Chimney questions.

Bobby hesitates and he has to clear his voice, as if it’s difficult to speak. “Bad.” He leaves it at that, not elaborating. Buck is fine with that. He doesn’t want to know more.

“What am I going to tell Christopher?” All eyes turn to him and he wonders if he hadn’t said it loud enough. He is practically whispering. “If Eddie doesn’t make it, how am I supposed to tell Christopher?”

“That’s my job, Buck,” Bobby says. “You don’t have to do that.”

“No!” Buck looks up, tears rolling down his eyes again. “No, Bobby if it’s Christopher, it has to be me. It has to come from me.”

No one else protests that, all seeming to understand what he’s trying to get at. Hen stretches over across Chimney’s lap and places a hand on his thigh. “Let’s cross that bridge if and when we get there, okay? For now, let’s just hope that both Eddie and Hammond make it.”

Buck bites his bottom lip to stop a whimper from escaping. He’s terrified that Eddie is going to die, that he and Christopher are going to lose him. But also, if he does survive, at what cost is it at? He looked like he had been badly burned and when they had wheeled him away, the nurses had seemed particularly concerned about the burns around Eddie’s eyes.

“I’ve called his grandmother and Carla already. Isabel is on her way and Carla said she can watch Christopher for the night,” Bobby informs him.

“What did she tell him?” Buck asks, worried for the child.

Bobby takes a breath. “She just told him that there was an accident at his Dad’s work and that he is in the hospital, for now, being taken care of.”

Buck frowns. “He must be so scared.”

“Carla will take good care of him,” Hen reassures. Buck nods in agreement and then goes back to staring at the floor. No one else talks after that.

Another hour goes by with no word on either Eddie or Hammond. Eddie’s Abuela is now sitting next to Buck, Chimney having moved to give her the seat, and gone to sit on Hen’s other side. Athena and May come walking into the waiting room, each holding trays with coffee on them. They divvy them up, everyone getting a cup. Buck takes the coffee offered to him and then sets it down on the floor. He doesn’t feel like drinking anything.

Athena goes to sit next to Bobby and May sits next to her. “Any news?” Athena asks.

Bobby shakes his head. “None. Not on either of them.”

She rubs a hand up and down Bobby’s thigh. “Let me see if I can get anything out of one of the nurses.” She stands and leaves, trying to find an available nurse.

May looks around the group, eyes landing on Buck. “How’d it happen?”

Buck’s eyes narrow in anger and he can’t help but snap at her. “That’s what you care about right now? Really?”

“Buck!” Bobby warns.

Buck turns away, tears burning his eyes. When Isabel tries to reach over to grab his hand, he pulls away and stands up, storming away. He makes it all the way outside before he’s collapsing against the brick wall, pulling his legs close to his chest. He shucks off his turnout coat and lays it down beside him before resting his chin on his knees. He’s crying again with all these different scenarios flying through his brain.

Eddie might die.

Eddie might die.

Eddie might die.

Buck doesn’t think he can handle that.

“Buck?” Buck turns his head to look at who said his name. May is standing there, watching him. She approaches cautiously. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that right now. It wasn’t the right time.”

Buck wipes at his eyes with his arm, ridding his face of most of the tears. “I’m sorry for snapping at you.”

She comes closer until eventually, she can sit down next to him. She links their arms together and leans her cheek onto his shoulder. “I’m sorry this is happening,” she mumbles.

She’s going to make him cry again but he can’t bring himself to care anymore. “Me too.”

———————————————————————————————————–

A/N: This is probably not accurate in the slightest but I just spent an hour looking for a chemical to explode so… just take everything with a grain of salt, including Eddie’s injuries. I tried looking things up about burns as well and got confused so… yeah, the tiniest grain.

Thank you for reading!! ❤❤

[mspa-music-analysis]

Beyond Canon - exclusion zone

alright first song in the Beyond Canon album, exclusion zone. lets break it up. 

PERSONAL THOUGHTS/LISTENING EXPERIENCE

I got literal fucking shivers. Holy shit. Holy shit. The first twenty seconds of this song is it’s own fucking experience. When the vocals come in at 00:46 I feel as though I am standing on a craggy cliff face, maybe on a mountain, the sky is grey, there’s mist and magic in the air, and I should be dreading something. I feel like taking a deep breath and preparing to see an army coming up over the adjacent hill. I feel like I’m about to go up against something huge. 

When I first clicked on the new Homestuck album in disbelief, double checking the release date, I wasn’t expecting much. Sure Homestuck music is utterly wonderful, but I’ve never been able to listen to instrumentals very well, they don’t capture my attention without lyrics to focus on. but hearing the first few notes of this song. Holy. Fucking. Shit. I am not the same man. Oh my god. This first minute is what got me to listen to this entire album in one sitting.

At 1:00 you hear a muffled voice and the sound of breaking glass, and it feels like the illusion of nature and magic and dread shatters. A robotic voice chimes in ‘you just made a monster’ and you get it, for just a second. You feel like something terrible has happened and you have no idea how the fuck you’re going to pick up the pieces. This song sets the stage for the album, and it makes anticipation thrum through your bones, especially on the first listen. 

The latter half of the song is letting this feeling sink in, letting your anticipation, your excitement, your dread, grow into a magnificent beast. As the last bit cycles you feel your heartbeat quicken, your breath catch, and you just have to sit there for a second. Holy shit. This song feels like saying ‘holy shit’ in reverence. Over and over again.

The ending feels like you have no idea what the fuck you’re getting into. All you can do is click onto the next song. 

INSTRUMENTAL/VOCAL ANALYSIS

I’m no musical expert, but I’m going to try to explain this as well as I can. Music snobs, sorry, experts, please remember I am but a humble fool who has never taken a music class beyond fifth grade. An amateur if you will. 

I’m going to be using the word synth so fucking much in these, aren’t I. I’m torn between some sort of string, a synth, or an organ playing the opening notes, and I’m fairly sure it’s the synth. Homestuck music wouldn’t be Homestuck music for not the synth. 

The synth, as I am going to call it despite how unsure I am that it is one, immediately gives you an overwhelming cathedral feeling. You get a little while to marinate in this feeling before the vocals chime in. The vocals and the synth meld so beautifully into each other, they feel so natural coming together. There’s a moment where you say ‘yay! vocals in a Homestuck song!’ which will later seem oh so ironic. 

Then, in a change of tone, a muffled, hard to understand, male-sounding voice pops in. It sounds like a frantic report, breaking news, or a call for backup. It could sound to some like officials chasing dangerous dissenters, and to others a discreet warning to fellow rebels that the brass are coming. I tried so fucking hard to get an audio editing program to pick this shit apart, but I have a Chromebook for some godforsaken reason. Sorry, folks, we’ll have to see if anyone replies to my tweet with our answers. For reasons, which are definitely real actual reasons with no attachment to aesthetics, I am going to call this voice ‘the radio’. 

Directly after the infuriating piece of walky-talky Esq vocals, there’s a sound of breaking glass. I think perhaps that is my favorite moment in the entire track, if not the entire album. Not to assign too much meaning to a singular bit of sound, but it feels like every expectation I had for Homestuck music was completely shattered. Like the glass ceiling that prevented Homestuck music from becoming legendary because it was just a shitty web-comic (which was already untrue) is broken through with just the first half of this song. Does that make sense? In short, this album really is on an entire other level of music entirely, and it knows it. This is possibly supported by the album cover, which is Ultimate Dirk sitting in a pile of previous Homestuck album covers. Must I explain this one? (I will if you ask, really. I’m perhaps a bit too eager, in fact.)

Directly after the glass shatters, more instruments join in. I think these are also synths? It sounds techy, it sounds dystopian. You know when people say techno is just beeps and boops? Yeah, there’s a lot of beeps and boops in this, and frankly, I love it. Then, another distorted, techy, mechanical, feminine?, voice pops in saying ‘you just made a monster’. I’m going to call this voice the monster, but not necessarily because I think they are the monster, and I will elaborate on this later. This is my second favorite moment in the track. It’s just. Wow. Breathtaking. The monster repeats for a while, the rest of the song. The third time, an almost more human sounding, but not by much, monster joins in. There’s an air of indignance, of anger, desperation, vengeance. It sounds like there’s another phrase buried under some sounds there, at 1:28? I absolutely can not make it out for the life of me, and it is driving me crazy. 

The monster is chopped up and distributed evenly throughout the rest of the song, quite fucking marvelously. At 1:39 there’s a pause in the instrumental, and for just a second, you’re left with this steady note sung by the monster. It’s haunting. I didn’t notice it my first few listen throughs, but now that I’ve been sitting here looping the track, I can’t help but hear it. It definitely gives me a feeling, but I haven’t decided what that feeling is yet. 

The sound bits that sound like a broken robot, or another voice saying ‘anoyie’ over and over, are quite possibly going to drive me insane. I find myself desperately needing to hear where the fuck these audio bytes came from. I need to hear the originals. I do not care if they are random mouth noises. My curiosity is insatiable. I am fairly sure it is just the monster cut to hell, but there’s just something nagging at me saying otherwise. I don’t know, perhaps I’m finally going insane from looping the robot song for two hours. 

I don’t love the ending? There’s one last monster repeat, a sort of clapping sound (an interesting change of pace), silence for half a second, more of that damned ‘anoyie’ and I am further convinced it is not the monster, and then nothing. It isn’t quite unsatisfying, but it isn’t satisfying either. It is most certainly an ending. I can say for a fact there are instruments in the ending. And that’s all I have to say on that.

HERE’S WHERE SHIT GETS CRAZY

Alright, time to sound like a madman. Here is where I am going to assign arbitrary Homestuck-related, possibly plot-related, meaning. Take all of this with a grain of salt and forgive my overuse of phrases like ‘I feel’ and ‘I think’. 

So, putting the song in the context of the album title ‘Beyond Canon’, and therefore most likely The Epilogues and Homestuck^2, I do indeed have a few theories. Not all make a whole lot of sense, and a few are based quite heavily on ‘feelings’ and ‘vibes’. I hated putting vibes in quotes, never make me do that again. To start with, the beginning, before the radio, reminds me very much of Ultimate Dirk (Ult. Dirk), Terezi, and RoseBot on that new planet. Perhaps because of the air of desolation, not in relation to the note, and foreboding? Perhaps because I have assigned an air of forced serenity to this part, and I very much feel like Ult. Dirk is trying to force serenity onto his section of the narrative, despite what’s coming his way? Hm. Much to think about. 

The radio, I cannot puzzle out exactly. DaveBot, perhaps? Trying to break through from the Candy universe and coming out muffled? I don’t have much to go on, and I am waiting until I have figured out exactly what the radio is actually saying. 

The glass shattering. Oh, the glass shattering. Fenestrated plane, anyone? The fourth wall, anyone? Good god, shattered glass + Homestuck = SHIT IS GOING DOWN. This makes me very excited. It could just be metaphorical, as I was saying before, but I very much have a feeling that things are going to get that particular brand of very Homestuck fucked soon. And I am oh so excited. 

The monster! Oh, how I love the monster. There’s so many things I can see the monster being, as well as referencing. Lets get right the fuck into it. First! The Auto Responder, or Lil’ Hal. You know how every splinter and alternate self combines to create the Ultimate Self? (I have so many theories about this, oh my god, I might make an entire other blog for more Homestuck analysis) Well, what if it isn’t a perfect meld? Dirk is a Prince, after all, a destroyer. There’s no way, however Ultimate he may be, he’s perfect and whole. What if specific splinters find their way to shine through? Like, for instance, Hal accusing Dirk of making a monster out of all his iterations. I know, it’s far fetched, and I took quite a few liberal steps to get there. But just perhaps.

A not so wild theory is an obvious one, I think. The monster is Rosebot. It’s vaguely feminine, robot-y, and references a recent creation. Rose’s consciousness breaking through Dirk’s command? Seems likely to me. 

A third! Perhaps it’s DaveBot? It seems less likely than the RoseBot theory, due simply to the femininity of the voice, but at the same time it seems like DaveBot would be more likely to fight Dirk’s control of his personal narrative, if only because we haven’t seen his robot form be entirely complicit yet. Either way, I doubt this one. I just want it on the record in case I’m right. *wink*. (I refuse to use a winky face in a semi-serious analysis, it just feels wrong.)

And this one isn’t really a theory, but I keep coming back to it. Is anyone else reminded of AradiaBot? Especially that second of the monster just singing with no instrumental. I can give no explanation except for a feeling. I wasn’t going to include this, but, well, trust your gut or something. Maybe she’ll come back and my random thought will be justified. 

Now, do I think this will be used in Homestuck^2 as a flash at some point. Short answer: I don’t know. Long and less shitty answer: I feel as though it could go either way! I can’t really see a song with vocals like this getting a flash, if only because it’s very straightforward and I don’t know if you can jam a whole lot of plot into this song, unlike some of the others. That said, it would be just like Homestuck to completely blow away my expectations and jam the entire ending into it. Hey, Homestuck? Please don’t do that. I love Act 7, I really do, but also just please don’t. Ever again, thank you. 

Maybe Meat Kanaya will liberate RoseBot from Ult. Dirk’s control and this song will play as she beats the shit out of him. I would like that, I think. 

CONCLUSIONS

Personal Rating: Holy Shit 

Objective Musical Rating: Robots Have Never Sounded So Vengeful And I Love It

Plot-Relevance Rating: It’s Possible But The Outlook Isn’t Good, Chief 

Would It Stand On Its Own?: Fuck Yes It Would. I Sang This When I Came Out Of The Womb.

did u nut tho: yuh

[karenninaaa]

Iron Dad Bingo #1

AN: wheew! glad to finally cross out something after staring on that bingo card for days! i love this au so much so i took the liberty to play with this idea. also i love tony stark interacting with kids! there would probably be a lot of plot holes and inconsistencies but whatever.

Unbeta-ed Chapter.

enjoy!

Summary: In which, instead of Mr. Harrington, Mr. Stark was the head of the Decathlon team at Midtown Tech. 

(alternate events of Spider-Man Homecoming and Tony never recruited Spider-Man for Civil war. Though CW still happened (lets just fit everything within the timeline :D)) 

For Irondad Bingo:  Au: Teacher and Student

--

Chalk and Rebel

Peter could feel Mr. Stark’s piercing gaze at him. The science teacher and the head of the school’s Academic Decathlon Team remained quiet when Peter had broken out the news to his teacher that he couldn’t go to Washington for the Decathlon competition. He was sitting adjacent to Peter and arms crossed on his chest.

“Can’t you take one weekend off?” Finally, Mr. Stark asked sitting up straight. This time, he settled his one elbow on the desk. “It’s nationals. We’ve been preparing for this for weeks.”

“I-I’m sorry. I really can’t, Oscorp internship is really strict and-”

“If you were interning for Stark Industries, things like this wouldn’t be a problem.” Mr. Stark said shaking his head.

“W-wait, what’s happening?” Cindy, one of their decathlon teammates, asked. She was sitting behind the desk on the stage.

“Parker is not going to Washington because apparently, the internship was more important to him,” Flash said who was sitting at the far behind with his feet propped on a chair. He was holding their reviewer booklet.

“Flash,” Mr. Stark called in warning not bothering to look at him.

“You can’t really go, Pete?” Abraham asked who was sitting next to Cindy.

“Really? Right before the Nationals?” Liz was standing behind a podium. Dismay was evident in her voice.

“He already quit the marching band and robotics club.” Michelle piped in from the corner of the stage. All heads turned in her direction.

“I’m not obsessed with him, just very observant.” Michelle defended.

“Flash, you’re in for Peter.” Liz glanced back at Flash.

“Oh, I don’t know, I have to check my calendar first. I’ve got a hot date with Black Widow coming up.” Flash answered looking down at his booklet.

Abraham rang his doorbell. “That is false, right Mr. Stark?”

“I’m not quite sure about that, I haven’t seen Widow in a while and why did I tell you about abusing of the bell?” Mr. Stark said then turned to Peter. He relented. “Fine, you may not go but it would be such a shame that you wouldn’t be with us. This kind of competition just happened once in a while you know.”

Peter’s eyes wandered on the stage where his best friend sat. Ned Leeds was looking back at him. Ned was the only one who knew the real reason why Peter couldn’t go to the competition.

Three days ago, Spider-Man discovered a group of robbers stealing in a bank one night. They were using weirdly looking and enhanced weapons. Unfortunately, they got away after Spider-Man chose to save Mr. Delmar’s bodega that had been hit by the said tech. However, they might have gotten away but a piece of tech fell out from that weapon. Ned was holding that tech for safekeeping since his best friend was the only person who knew his gig as Spider-Man. And now, Peter was going to use the weekend to track down those robbers. The whole Oscorp internship was obviously a lie because he quit the internship months ago when he had gotten so busy being Spider-Man.

Peter felt bad for lying to Mr. Stark. After all, Mr. Stark was the coolest teacher he ever had. He remembered freezing in his seat when Mr. Stark casually strolled into the classroom and introduced himself as their new science teacher. He remembered feeling giddy, because the person he had been idolizing his entire life, was standing in front of him and whom he could now see every day.

--

“Can’t you just ask Mr. Stark about the glowy thing? Maybe he can help you out or something?” Ned whispered to Peter as they walked through the hallway full of students milling around.

“I just couldn’t bother him with that,” Peter glanced at Ned. “He’s probably so busy being a teacher, Iron Man, and an Avenger.”

“It’s just that, he’s always feet away from you most of the time. He’s got a lot of resources. You could probably ask him for tips about this whole superhero-ing.”

“But, I got you,” Peter smiled at him. “My guy in the chair?”

“Oh stop that,” Ned waved his hand at him in dismissal, though he was visibly pleased with the title.

“See you later okay? Same time?” Peter said.

“Fine and bring some chips on your way to my house later,” Ned replied.

“You got it.”

--

In all honesty, Peter had a lot of questions.Often times, he would find himself faltering on his way out of the classroom as everybody had dispersed out and he was the only one remaining standing next to the desk. There was one time when Tony Stark was erasing the writings on the whiteboard and Peter was dumbly standing there. He should be leaving but the things that he wanted to ask Mr. Stark left him rooted to his spot, things that he didn’t know how to voice out loud. Tony turned around and paused when he saw Peter was still there.

“Mr. Parker.” Tony put down the eraser on the table. “Is there something wrong? Or do you have questions about our earlier lesson?”

How do you deal with bad guys and still looked cooler?

Where are you getting that huge amount of courage when facing life-threatening situations? Cause I still get scared most of the time.

How do you deal with failure when things had gone wrong in a mission? Have you ever failed? Cause you looked like someone who did things in perfection.

How to be a great superhero like you?

“N-nothing, Mr. Stark, t-the lesson was great, I learned a lot today.”

“Well, that was the goal.” Tony sat on the edge of the table crossing his arms. “And because of that, I expect you to be ready for our quiz tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yes, Mr. Stark.”

Tony nodded. Peter was about to walk away when he paused once again. Instead of asking the questions that had been swimming in his head, he asked a different one.

“Mr. Stark?”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you suddenly become a teacher?”

“I need a change of pace.” That was all his teacher had said. He glanced at the window. Rays of sunlight were seeping through the window making Tony’s brown eyes appeared to be lighter. For one second, Peter could see his teacher’s tired and worn out eyes. There seemed to be more wrinkles on the side of his eyes. He looked sad and resigned. Another question popped in Peter’s head, a question that would probably stay unanswered.

--

“I told you they’re gonna come back!” Spider-Man was swinging through the buildings chasing a gray truck zigzagging on the street.

“Yep, but the cops are moving too slow. Your bad guys are quick and smart. Are you closing in on them?” He heard Ned answered through the Bluetooth earpiece under his mask. His phone was on the pocket of his red hoodie, his improvised costume. Well, not everyone was as reach as Tony Stark to make cool superhero outfit. Meanwhile, Ned had a walkie-talkie that was intercepting the signals of other walkie-talkies used by the cops. That was how they were able to get some news from NYPD.

“I am!” Another web shot out from his webshooter. It hit the wall of a building nearby. Spider-Man made a great swing like a pendulum and landed on the rooftop. He ran and used his web to leap off another building. “And I would never let them get away. They were our only shot on knowing the source of their weapons.”

Spider-Man had been chasing the same robbers who were using enhanced weapons. They successfully robbed another bank. They immediately fled before Spider-Man could even reach the scene. When he was sure that no one got harmed on the scene, he switched to plan B and the chase was on.

As Ned had predicted, the robbers lost the cops. Spider-Man continued to tail them until they reached an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the borough. The truck went into the warehouse as he quietly sneaked in by crawling on the wall. The robbers, seven in total, climbed down the car whooping in joy because of their successful heist.

Spider-Man crawled in closer to them but not close enough that he would be noticed.

“This is awesome!” Robber no.1 guffawed. “I can’t believe those idiot cops fell for our bait.”

“But of course,” Robber no. 2 piped in. “This wouldn’t be possible without our babies.” He patted affectionately the weapon he was holding. It looked like a shotgun but bulkier and instead of bullets, it was shooting off a laser beam that could cut through almost anything. Spider-Man had witnessed how it worked earlier.

Another roar of laughter echoed among them.

“Hey, have you heard that boss is going to Maryland for another heist?” Robber no.3 said to Robber no.4.

“Is that at Crain Highway? I’ve heard some of them talking about it.” Robber no. 4 said. “It would be fun if we could join that heist. It is going to be one of our biggest heists so far!”

“Maryland huh?” Spider-Man mused as he crouched on the steel frame of the ceiling looking down at the robbers.

“That was too far,” Ned said.

“But not too far from Washington,” Peter supplied.

“I think I know what you’re thinking,” Ned replied.

“Yep, we can’t let these bad guys pulled off another heist,” Peter said. “But first off, let’s web these people up.”

And so Spider-Man leaped in action.

Soon, patrol cars surrounded the warehouse. The cops had found the robbers webbed up in different areas of the warehouse. Another cop had found a letter from Spider-Man webbed on the wall, letting them know that they were the robbers from the earlier heist.

--

Peter jogged towards the bus that was parked on the school grounds. Their bus wasn’t your ordinary yellow school bus. It was a private air-conditioned bus owned by Tony Stark. Once Tony had a full look of the bus they’re going to use for their future out of town decathlon competitions, it only took three seconds for him to decide to replace the school’s old and cranky bus with a luxury one, with built-in speakers and fully automated system run by Tony’s very own AI, Friday. His decathlon teammates were lounging next to the bus with their luggage.

Tony Stark climbed down the bus clapping his hands and calling the attention of the students. “Alright guys, it’s time-”

“Hey, it’s Peter!” Abraham cut in and pointed at Peter. Everyone looked in his direction

Tony Stark turned and saw Peter approaching them. He smiled at the teen.

“I-I was hoping I could rejoin to the team. . .” Peter said.

Flash walked up to him. “No way! You can’t just quit on us and strolled up and be welcome back.”

“Actually, he can,” Tony butted in. He patted Peter’s shoulder. “Welcome back, Pete and Flash you’re back on being the first alternate. Come on guys, let’s all get into the bus.”

When they reached their destination, the group walked through the lobby of the hotel where they would stay for the night.

“Wow, this place is huge!” Charles marveled looking around.

“Kids, stick together,” Tony instructed as he talked to the facilitators of the event sitting behind the desk.

Soon, Tony gave them their keys to their designated room. Ned and Peter were roommates and retreated to their room. Later that night, Peter suited up. He wore another hood and jeans to hide his suit.

“Just ring me up if something happens,” Ned said who was sitting on the bed. “Be careful.”

Peter nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do my best to be back before the competition starts.” Then he headed out of the room. “Keep the glowy thing safe. That would be our evidence.”

Ned nodded picking up the purple glowing stone on the table.

Peter closed the door behind. He sneaked through the quiet and dimly lit hallway. He made another turn around the corner. “Shit!” He cursed under his breath. He backtracked immediately and hid behind the wall.

Peter slowly poked his head from his hiding spot. Tony Stark was walking towards his direction. Thankfully, Tony hadn’t seen Peter yet since he was looking down on the phone on his hand. Peter leaned back on the wall and took a deep breath. He looked at the railing on his left. He took a few steps back. Then he ran straight to the railing and jumped off. Web shot out and stuck on the railing. Gravity took over. Peter twisted around and swung towards the floor below. He safely landed on the ground.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark paused and looked up. He blinked on the empty hallway.

--

Peter hitched a ride on a car carrier truck towards his destination. At first, he thought that he had gotten lost along the way. He reached his destination and jumped off the truck a while back and was walking along the darkened road. He stopped at a gas station and crawled towards the roof of an abandoned bodega.

Peter looked around and muttered. “Is this really the place or the Google maps is wrong?”

It was then that three trucks came lined up together. Suddenly out of the sky, something with huge wings came down. Thanks to Peter’s enhanced senses, despite the darkness of the area, he easily figured out that it was a human with mechanical wings harnessed to him.

“Oh, that’s the boss!” Peter straightened up, more alert.

Big Bird anchored himself to the truck that was on the rear. He dropped down and disappeared inside the truck leaving his wings strapped to the roof of it. Peter swung towards the truck to investigate.

He also dropped on the roof and looked closely. The roof had gotten a rectangular hole thanks to the small stones placed on 4 corners.

“Woah cool, this looked like some kind of a matter phase shifter!” Peter said in quiet awe.

When the masked man emerged from the hole, he dropped the bag on the roof to retrieve the stones. That was Peter’s opportunity to web up the bag pulling it towards him.

“Hey, Big bird this doesn’t belong to you!” Spider-Man quipped.

Big bird turned to him with green glowing eyes. He growled at Spider-Man.

“Oh, god,” Spider-Man said, a bit startled by his eyes.

Big bird attached himself to his wings, retracting his strap anchors. He flew towards Spider-Man. Spider-Man ducked down and stepped back. He shot Big Bird with his web but the latter dodged it. He charged at Spider-Man again, taking the bag from him with his feet claws. There was a tug-of-war between them as no one wanted to let go of the bag. Then, Big Bird kicked the bag and letting it go. Spider-Man toppled backward and into the hole. He fell with a thud inside the truck. He immediately stood up and was about to jump off the hole again but ended up banging his head unto the concrete metal roof.

Spider-Man blacked out.

--

Ned Leeds was already dressed and pacing back and forth in his room. It was already morning and Peter was not yet back. He tried calling him but Peter wasn’t answering the phone. He was worried about Peter’s status and also about what alibi he was going to tell the team, especially to Mr. Stark about why Peter was missing.

“Ned? Peter?” Liz knocked on their door. “Come on guys, we’re gonna be late!”

“Y-yeah! Coming,” Ned stuttered. He quickly grabbed his bag and the glowy thing on the bed and headed out.

--

Peter woke up with a dull pain on his head. He guessed that he had a mild concussion from hitting his head earlier.

“Ugh, my head?” He groaned and observed his surroundings. He was surrounded by metal cages containing junk techs. “Wait, where am I?” The gears on his brain started to turn. “Wait, they must have hijacked the truck and had taken it to their evil lair.”

“I must find a way out of this one.” He briefly stared on the wall ahead. He squared his shoulder and ran straight to the wall. With his superhuman strength, the wall broke. Spider-Man rolled on the ground. He stood up in a fighting stance.

Spider-Man blinked. The place didn’t look like an evil lair. It looked like a huge storage warehouse with rows and stacks of huge container boxes in it.

“W-where am I?” He turned around to get some clue as to where he was. He paused. On the wall, there was a huge DODC-VO5 written.

“DODC?” He muttered. Then it dawned on him. “Oh come on, you’ve got to be kidding me. Am I in a Department of Damage Control facility now?”

--

Tony Stark gathered his student in the backstage. Any second from now, his students would be called to be on stage and the competition would start.

“So, guys,” Tony said to them. “No pressure, alright? Just enjoy the competition.”

“Hey, Mr. Stark,” Abraham said. “If we win this one, pizza is on you, yeah?”

“Sure,” Tony said without missing a beat. “We’re gonna have a celebration party if you win.”

That seemed to boost up the team’s morale as they cheered upon hearing the news. He looked at everyone and noticed something.

“Ned,” He called a certain teen. The teen was hiding behind Charles and was quiet the whole time.

“Y-yeah, Mr. Stark?” Ned answered peeking from Charles’ back.

“Where is Peter Parker? You two are roommates.” Tony asked.

All the team’s attention was now on Ned who was fidgeting with his yellow coat.

“I-I don’t know, Mr. Stark. . .” Ned answered.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Tony frowned.

“He sneaked out last night, said that he was going to study in the business center and he didn’t come back.”

“And you’re just telling me this now?!”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark. . .”

“The next team that will participate in this year’s Decathlon competition is from Midtown School of Science and Technology!” They could hear the emcee speaking from the stage.

The team was quiet and seemingly didn’t know what to do about their teammate’s sudden absence.

“Flash, you’re up on Peter’s place.” Tony finally decided.

Flash punched the air in delight.

“Come on guys, Go on stage.” Tony forced an encouraging smile on them. “Go kick some butts!”

He continued to smile at them as the team disappeared on the stage. That was when Tony’s smile slipped off. Peter Parker was many things. He was hella smart for his age that sometimes, Tony couldn’t help but to remember his youth when he was Peter’s age. He was aware that the kid had potentials, potentials that could take him anywhere he wanted. Yet, it was the same potentials that were giving Tony Stark an incoming headache.

--

Peter’s first thought when he reached the 246th sequence trial on overriding the time lock of the storage vault was, he wouldn’t make it to the Decathlon competition. He still didn’t know how he would explain it to Mr. Stark and not get into any trouble. He tried calling Ned earlier but a secured facility like this; he should have known that the signals would be jammed. Though, getting in trouble with his teacher was for later problems to brood over, when there was an even bigger problem before him. He just couldn’t wait for the vault to open up later or for who knows how long, so he took it in his own hands to find a solution.

Somehow, he managed to find a way to navigate through the wirings of the time lock. He used his scientific calculator and wired it to the circuit to control the system. He needed some sort of password to open up the vault so far, he was on 246th combination of the code and probably counting.

“Right, here’s 247th trial. . .” He punched in the codes on the calculator.

To his surprise, the door slid up and opened.

“Oh my god! It worked!”

--

The Midtown tech team cheered as they exited the auditorium hall. They won the national, thanks to their group effort, especially to Michelle Jones who gave the answer on the Sudden Death Round. The group was taking pictures when Ned checked the phone that was given back to him after the competition. There were 5 missed calls from Peter. Then his phone rang. Peter was calling.

“Peter!” Ned hissed walking away from the group. Unknown to him, Tony Stark was looking at him.

“Where were you?” Ned continued when he reached an empty and short hallway. “You completely missed the decathlon, we won! We’re still here at the building.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry, I got locked up at the Damage Control facility-”

“What?”

“Yeah, long story, I’m just gonna tell you afterward. I’m on my way back there. How’s the glowy thing?

“It’s safe, it’s in my pocket-”

“Hey,” A voice came from behind Ned.

Ned turned around putting down his phone. There were two unknown guys standing before him. They were tall and bulkier and had a menacing look on their faces. And when Ned looked down, he could see a gun peeking out underneath the jacket of one of them. Though, Ned was sure that both were armed. How did they get in despite the security, he didn’t know.

“Ned?” Peter was still on the line. Ned dropped the phone on the ground.

“Where’s the gem?” The guy with long hair and cap asked stepping forward.

“W-what gem?” Ned stepped back.

Long hair dude raised a small rectangular machine. There was a red and blue light on it and it was beeping. “This thing is reading high energy signatures from you. You have the gem.”

It must be the glowy thing, they were after. Ned thought. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ned continued to step back.

“Alright, you die or you’re gonna give us the gem.” The other man, the bald man, fished out his gun and pointed it at Ned.

Ned was frozen in his spot in fear.

“Hey!”

Suddenly, there was a deafening shockwave that momentarily paralyzed the two men, even Ned. Then there was a blinding light. Ned got yanked away by someone, away from the men.

When Ned returned to his senses, he looked up and saw Tony Stark was dragging him away.

“M-Mr. Stark!”

“Who are they and why they were after you?”

Before Ned could answer, gunshots echoed. Tony and Ned ducked down. People around them started to scream in panic and ran away.

“Shit.” Tony pushed Ned into the corner, into the safety. “Stay there!”

Tony stood up and tapped his chest twice. Blue light glowed in his chest as the detachable arc reactor underneath his shirt activated. Nanites seeped through the fabric and spread around his body. His nanite mask covered his face, eyes glowing blue.

“Fuck, that was Iron Man!”

“Hell yes, that was me.” Tony flew towards them, his hand repulsor aimed at them. However, to his surprise, the bad guy whipped up his weapon and shot off a purple laser beam. Tony raised both his arms shooting off a similar laser beam. Two laser beams collided. When the energy of collision was too much, it exploded throwing both parties away. Though, Iron Man immediately regained his stance. There was thick smoke everywhere. The fire alarm was blaring. His students were still there and could be in danger. A lot of civilians could get hurt

So Iron Man flew straight to the smoke, using the smoke as a cover. He knocked down the weapon from the bad guy’s hand. Then he grabbed hold of the two of them and went straight to the nearby window. The glass shattered as Iron Man flew out of the window. He dropped the bad men unto the lawn and aimed his repulsor at them again. The two men remained laying on the ground as Iron Man hovered over them.

“So, why you guys are after a kid?”

Friday was doing a facial scan on them but none of them were on FBI’s wanted list, which confused Tony even more.

They remained quiet even though, fright was evident on their faces.

“Oh, so we’re playing bad cop and good cop here? I don’t have all day.” Iron Man fired his repulsor above their heads.

“W-we’re after the gem! The kid has it!” The bald man replied hastily, shaking in fear. “Please don’t kill us!”

“What gem? What is it for?” Iron Man asked.

Before Iron Man could get anything from them, there was an explosion from the building where they had come from. Iron Man glanced back at the building. There was smoke coming out of it and a huge chunk of wall was starting to collapse from the third floor. There were civilians down below right where the wall could drop and crash them.

“Fri, what the hell happened there?”

“An exposed Chitauri core has detonated,” Friday said. “A section of the wall was about to fall off.”

“I’m not done with you.” That was all Iron Man said as he flew away from them and towards the building.

--

As Spider-Man reached the building where his teammates were, all he could think was, his best friend was in danger, because of the glowy thing he entrusted him with. He webbed up his backpack somewhere as he ran towards the auditorium hall. They must somewhere near there. He used the Fire Exit staircase to reach his destination. He was on the second round of stairs when he heard a gunshot.

He froze. Then he started to imagine the worst. He swung his way up faster.

The Fire Exit door burst opened. People ran for the stairs against Spider-Man’s direction. Spider-Man fought his way against the tide. Then there was a sound of an explosion.

“Excuse me, coming through!” Spider-Man shouted dodging people left and right.

But then when he reached the floor, Smoke was everywhere and Iron-Man zipped past him holding two men towards the window and out of it.

“Holy shit, what the-!” Spider-Man was flabbergasted.

“Spider-Man!”

He turned to see Ned running to him.

“Ned! Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine!” Ned answered which was to Peter’s relief. Then Ned fished out the glowy thing from the pocket of his coat. The glowy thing was brighter. Ned continued hastily. “There were two guys who were after this. I don’t know, they were able to track this thing. Then Tony Stark came and saved me.”

“I know,” Peter said. “I’m sorry, you almost got in danger because of that and because of me. Give me that.”

“It’s alright.” Ned gave him the stone. “Wait, is just me or the glowy thing was hotter than usual?”

Peter accepted the stone and Ned was right. It felt like the stone was burning in his hand. His glove was started to blacken. Ned looked at Peter in panic. It mirrored Peter’s expression.

“Get back!” Spider-Man shouted. “All of you get back!”

“W-what are you going to do?” Ned asked stepping back. Some of the people listened to Spider-Man as well and some were even more confused as to what was really happening.

Spider-Man turned around. He threw the stone to the wall next to the shattered window and webbed it up. He coated it with a lot of webs until it looked like a white cocoon.

“This better works,” Spider-Man muttered.

Soon, the cocoon glowed purple. Spider-Man stared at it and so were the civilians and authorities who were on the scene. As if all of them were anticipating on what was going to happen next.

Then, there was a blinding purple light that they all had to cover their eyes. Afterward, there was another sound of an explosion. People screamed.

The light was gone. And when Spider-Man looked up there were cracks on the wall, quickly spreading out like a web. Moments later a huge chunk of the wall started to fall off outwards. Spider-Man webbed up the wall. With all his might, he pulled it in. He couldn’t let it fall back when there were civilians down below.

He pulled harder, his feet sliding on the floor. Suddenly, the chunk of wall moved inward easily without even Spider-Man’s effort.

“What?” Spider-Man let go of the web as the wall fell on the ground with a thud.

Iron-Man was floating right outside the hole. Everyone cheered.

--

Tony Stark had enough as he watched the news of the earlier incident in Washington on the holographic screen in his lab at Avengers Compound. Fortunately, no one had gotten hurt from the incident. Thanks to Iron Man and Spider-Man’s immediate rescue. The news believed that it was rogue shooters who just wanted to wreak havoc in the place. Their faces were now on the wanted list and the authorities were searching for them.

Then he gazed at another holographic screen where the feats of Spider-Man showed. He should have talked to that young vigilante sooner. He should have come to Peter Parker before he got himself killed in one of his adventures.

He knew for a while that Peter Parker was the one under the mask. After all, he was keeping tabs on people with potentials who could be trained as an Avenger.

Peter Parker was the reason why Tony Stark chose Midtown Tech to teach, so he could keep an eye on him and see for himself what the kid was like when he wasn’t playing hero.

Well, what he had discovered about him exceeded all his expectations.

Peter Parker was the kind of kid who refused to pick up a fight with his bullies. Instead, he avoided it when he could have easily won the fight because of his abilities. He was this bright spirited boy who could easily be awed by simple things. There were so much wonder and curiosity dancing in his eyes and who was so eager to know more about the world. He was this kind of kid who would not hesitate to step forward and help when no one would and could. There were just so many things ahead of him and Tony could see all of that.

That was probably why he hesitated to recruit him for Avengers.

There was a future waiting for him and Tony didn’t want to steal it from the kid. So he remained quiet and watched from the distance instead.

But he couldn’t watch now when he discovered, thanks to Ned’s phone he hacked down earlier when the kid was on stage competing, that the kid was actively chasing criminals that used junks from Chitauri’s as weapons. Peter had disappeared last night to do another chase. Tony was also aware of Peter’s lie about Oscorp’s internship, but he initially didn’t know why the kid couldn’t join. And for whatever reason, he came back and Tony learned the reason why later on.

Tony reached for his mug of black coffee on the table and sipped. He was about to put it down when a hand reached for his mug instead.

He looked up to see Pepper smiling down at him.

“Hey, hon.” Tony smiled back.

“You’re watching him again,” Pepper noted as she sat on the armrest of the chair Tony was sitting on. She sipped on the mug and blanched at the bitter taste of it. His fiancée was the type who put lots of cream on her coffee.

“I swear, that kid is gonna kill himself sooner or later.” Tony leaned back on the chair. Pepper leaned on him as she put her arm on the top of the backrest of the chair. She crossed her legs resting the mug on it.

“I told you, you should mentor him so he would know how not to kill himself with his little adventures,” Pepper said.

Tony looked up. “Do you think I’d be a good mentor?”

“You are a teacher now at his school, do you really need to ask me that?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“That was different,” Tony argued.

“Oh, how different?”

“Being a teacher was easier because you’ll gonna spout things that came from a book but mentoring someone to be a hero? I don’t think I have the right qualifications for that. You knew I screwed up far more many times that I could actually count on this superhero business.”

“Oh, Tony,” Pepper put down the mug on the table and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. Tony leaned into her as he rested his head on her stomach.

“Yes, you screwed up a lot of times but you are also the type of hero that always fights for what was right and doing your damn best to protect this vulnerable place. And I think that was the most important thing of all. So get your ass up and just mentor the kid, the kid needs someone who could guide him, that job will suit you.”

Tony closed his eyes and smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”

With that Pepper stood up. “I’ll just be in my office.” Then she paused when she had noticed the papers and notes laid haphazardly on the table. “What are those?”

“That, my love, is my lesson plan for next week and test papers that I haven’t checked yet. But first off, I have to be somewhere.” He stood up.

Soon, Iron Man flew into the night sky.

Iron Man set his course to Peter’s apartment. He wasn’t even nearing his destination when Tony saw something he truly didn’t expect nor imagine happening.

Tony didn’t expect to see Peter Parker on the way, falling from the sky, a hundred feet to the ground and falling at a speed that could totally kill him on impact without something that would slow down his descent.

There was a screeching sound from the sky. Tony looked at the source of the sound. His night vision scan could see a man with mechanical wings. Tony had a lot of questions as usual, like how the kid had gotten himself in the air and been thrown down by a mechanical devil out of nowhere. But questions could wait; he had a spiderling to save first. After all, spiders couldn’t fly.

Tony dived down towards Peter’s direction increasing his thrusters. As he neared him, he could hear Peter screaming.

Iron Man zoomed in and grabbed Peter before he could hit the lagoon. The mechanic teacher made a loop in the sky before changing his flight course towards the Avengers Compound instead.

--

“So, uh, you knew the whole time that I was Spider-Man?” Peter asked in a small voice as he played with his mask. He was sitting on the couch of Tony’s lab.

Tony was looking down at him with arms crossed on his chest. “You know that wasn’t the issue right now, you could have gotten died! What-why are you even up in the air?!” He threw his hands in the air.

The kid, again, was a lot of things and one of them was giving Tony a consistent migraine, vertigo, aneurysm and all other kinds of headache. The mentoring wasn’t even starting and Tony’s hair was starting to turn gray quickly.

“The guy with wings threw me down. I was chasing bad guys then he swooped in and dropped me on a hundred feet.” Peter explained.

Tony took a deep breath. “That’s it! I am going to mentor you if you’re so sure about this career path and please remove that onesies, you’re going to have a new suit.”

And all Peter could say was, “W-what?”

Tony rolled his eyes and turned around. “Friday, unlock 16-A.”

At the far end of the lab, the wall shifted and slid open. A big glass transparent cylinder emerged. Inside the cylinder was a new Spider-Man suit. Tony walked to the cylinder. He glanced at Peter who remained frozen in his seat with wide eyes staring at the suit.

“Your new suit.” Tony knocked on the cylinder for emphasis.

Peter finally stood up as he walked in a daze towards the cylinder, still staring at it.

“T-that’s mine?” Peter asked stopping in front of the cylinder.

“I just said that,”

“Thank you, Mr. Stark!”

What surprised Tony, even more, was when Peter hugged him. He froze on the spot while the kid squeezed the oxygen out of him.

“This is so cool!” Peter exclaimed pulling away. “I have a new suit and Mr. Stark is going to mentor me! You’re not just going to be my science teacher. This is the best moment of my life! I have an awesome mentor and dope suit. Oh my god!”

And with that, Tony had a fleeting thought that maybe mentoring this kid wasn’t going to be that bad after all.

[joaquinwhorres]

Just for Christmas Eve (Steve Harrington x Reader)

Summary: After being put in a tight corner by your family, you find yourself lying about your current relationship status, assuring them that your boyfriend will be making an appearance at the annual Christmas Eve party. After a panicked search for a last minute fake-boyfriend, you have to rely on your younger brother's cute new friend to help you out of your tight spot.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader

Word Count: 4,716

Author’s Note: Wow. I started out just wanting to write something fun and silly and holiday-y, but then I found myself just writing and writing and writing. I hope you love this somewhat cliche but definitely cute story.

Warnings: None!

"So, Y/N," your aunt started. You held your breath, and you already knew where this was going. It was the same every year. The Friday before Christmas, your grandmother and your mom's sisters and their daughters would roll in for the Annual Christmas Cookie Baking Day. When you were younger, you had loved every part of it. Eight women, all bustling around the kitchen, doing different jobs for different cookies. As the second youngest (and you being who you were) you had always been in charge of the thumbprint cookies because it was something you couldn't mess up and therefore couldn’t freak out over. Plus, it kept you out of the older girls’ hair. Now that you were older, you had graduated to being the official cookie finisher, charged with decorating any and all cooled cookies. And while each year you were allowed to help more and more, every year, your family pestered you more and more about what you were doing in life. More specifically, your love life. "Any new boys we should know about?" your Aunt Veronica raised her eyebrows, her hands busy mixing the chocolate chip cookie dough.

Of course there weren't. You had been busy busting your ass day in and day out, working to get a full ride to college. But sure, ask about the least successful aspect of your life.

You opened your mouth to say as much, when your cousin snorted. She, like you, was decorating gingerbread men. "You know she doesn't. Y/N doesn't have time for relationships," she teased.

"No, no," your Aunt Patricia's daughter, Sarah jumped in. "That was two years ago, Rebecca. Y/N doesn't have a boyfriend because she's just focusing on herself. Being independent." The two girls laughed, and you rolled your eyes dramatically.

Aunt Patricia wrapped a sympathetic arm around your shoulder. "You just haven't met the right person yet," she soothed. "You will." She kissed the side of your head and moved across the kitchen to start the next batch of sugar cookies.

To some extent, you understood your family's preoccupation with your relationship status. Your mother had cracked slightly after your father died, and it was the main reason that the Annual Christmas Cookie Baking Day had been founded. It was also the reason why the rest of your extended family trooped over to your little house to have a Christmas Eve party every year. Your aunts just didn't want you to end up lonely like her. They didn't have a lot of faith in Dustin keeping you company for the rest of your life.

So, every year, your family checked in to see if you were still single.

And every year, when you confirmed that you were, they gave you a hard time about it and inevitably ended up giving you a list of eligible men from their various parts of Indiana. Once, your aunt had even dragged along a neighbor boy to the Christmas Eve party and forced you two to spend time together.

It had been uncomfortable as hell.

"You know," Aunt Veronica began. "Jerry's single now. He's smart like you, and very cute."

"My ex-boyfriend, Jerry?" your cousin, Rachel asked her mother with wide eyes. Of course they would try to set you up with your younger cousin's ex-boyfriend. Of course.

"Oh come on, Rach, you weren't that into him," her sister rolled her eyes. "But he's not Y/N's type. David Malkins, though, I should give him your number," she pointed at you. "Or Kyle. His brother. What do you like? Dark or light brown hair?"

"What about Eric Robins, you know the boy who–"

"I have a boyfriend!" you burst out, suddenly. They all turned to face you, looking almost surprised that you were there.

"Really?" Rebecca asked, stopping in the middle of icing a smile on the gingerbread man’s face.

"Yeah. He's coming to the Christmas party. It was supposed to be a surprise," you flushed. They all looked at each other as if they were silently deciding who would call you out on your bullshit. Finally, Sarah turned to look at you.

"I can't wait to meet him."

"I can't believe you told them you had a boyfriend," your brother shook his head at you.

After all of the women had left your house, he'd heard you slam your door and had come to your room to check on you. He was sweet that way when no one was around. It had only taken him a few minutes of pestering you about why you were trying to smother yourself with your pillow before you broke down and told him exactly what had gone down. And Dustin was being very Dustin about the whole situation.

"I panicked!"

He chuckled. "Yeah, you did."

You picked up a throw pillow and threw it at his head. He dodged it easily, still giggling.

You threw yourself back down onto your bed, staring up at the ceiling. You had two and a half days to find a boyfriend. No big deal. It wasn't as if you hadn't been able to find one at all in the past 18 years of your life or anything. Nah, this would be easy. You totally weren't freaking out about it.

You were in such deep shit.

"What am I going to do? I can't tell them he's suddenly sick or staying with his family. Mom was there too. It's a miracle she didn't say anything."

"She probably just doesn't want any more of Aunt Patricia's weird neighbors in her house," your brother shrugged.

You just groaned in response, wishing your house would swallow you up and spit you out in some alternate dimension where you wouldn't have to deal with this.

"I'll help you. It'll be like a shared quest," Dustin offered. You turned your head against the pillow, checking to see if he was messing with you.

"Are you serious?"

"Of course!" he exclaimed. "I also don't want any more weird neighbor boys in our house," he grinned cheekily. You picked up another pillow and threw it at him.

Heavy knocks came from the door which meant it could only be one person. "DUSTIN! HE'S HERE!" you yelled from the living room, moving to answer the front door.

"OK!" Dustin called back down. You pulled the front door open to find Steve Harrington on your doorstep, waiting patiently for someone–usually you–to let him in. You had told him on several occasions that he didn't have to knock anymore and could just come in; he didn't have to wait outside. Besides, he was here often enough that he might as well have a key at this point. You weren't entirely sure what had happened that led to him and Dustin becoming so close, but after you and your mom had returned from your search for Mews, the two boys were constantly hanging out together. It was cute, and after you'd gotten over the strangeness of Steve Harrington being your brother's male role model, you decided it was probably the best thing to ever happen to Dustin.

"Hey, Y/N," Steve greeted as you stepped aside, letting him in the house.

"Hi, Steve. Dustin's on his way down." You closed the door behind him, following Steve further into your house. He sank down on your couch, used to having to wait for Dustin. If your brother wasn't pal-ing around with Steve or playing games in Mike Wheeler's basement, he was talking with his friends on his walkie-talkie and it took him around five minutes to get out of any hushed conversation he was having. During these five minutes, you and Steve would catch up, chat, and wait in non-awkward silence.

"So, what are you two doing today?" you asked, returning back to your seat and pulling your homework towards you. Yes, you were that student.

"He wants me to help him 'train' on Dragon's Lair," Steve shrugged, and you laughed.

"He still hasn't beat Lucas?"

"He did. And then Lucas beat him. And now he's going back to reclaim the title or whatever."

"It's going to be a long day then," you smiled, pushing a lock of hair behind your ear as you looked back up at Steve.

"You want to come?" Steve asked, and you froze. He was staring down at you as if it was a normal thing for him to invite you out on one of his and Dustin's father/son dates. It wasn't. Sure, you would join in on their movie nights at home or the occasional board game, but you never left the house to hang out with them. Even though Steve was your age, he was Dustin's friend, and you respected that boundary.

You realized that you had paused for just a little too long. "I would, but I should really finish up my essay for Lynch, and I still have to wrap the last of my presents. Our family is having our annual Christmas Eve party on Monday and I–"

"Steve!" Dustin called out as he entered the room, and the way he said the name made you whip your head to look at him. Your suspicions were confirmed by the way his eyes were lit up. This was going to be trouble.

"Dustin," Steve repeated back slowly, cautiously. He must have learned Dustin's "trouble signals" as well.

"You can be Y/N's boyfriend!" Dustin exclaimed. Your face grew hot, and you just knew you were bright red. Steve seemed rendered effectively speechless, leaving you alone to get him out of this.

"Dustin, no," you shook your head vigorously.

"Why? It's perfect! He's over here all the time, so mom knows who he is, and you guys are in the same grade, plus, it's Steve!" Dustin explained. You floundered, opening and closing your mouth to try to come up with a good argument as to why this was not the perfect solution.

"Um, what?" Steve asked, calling both of your attentions to him. He looked a bit of a mess–flustered, embarrassed, and absolutely confused.

"Nothing," you assured, turning to Dustin. "Nothing." You repeated. As much as your brother might have had a point, you couldn't get Steve to be your fake boyfriend. He was Steve Harrington. And you were Y/N Henderson. He was popular. And good looking. And athletic. And kind. And an excellent friend to your brother. You were the student who actually did their homework over Christmas break without being forced to by your mom.

"Y/N told our cousins that she had a boyfriend and he was coming to the Christmas Eve party because they were being super shitty–"

"Language!" you interrupted, but he kept going.

"about her not having a boyfriend. But she doesn't actually have anyone who will come, and she needs your help," Dustin explained. He was practically stumbling over his words in his excitement to explain.

"Way to make me sound super desperate, Dustin," you mumbled. You wished you could just run to your room and avoid the inevitable rejection and awkwardness that was to follow.

"So, you need a date?" Your heart stopped. He wasn't seriously considering this was he?

"Uh, yeah," you admitted with a sigh, finally getting the courage to look over at him. He was looking right at you, one eyebrow raised and his lips were turned up in what was almost a smile.

"What time's the party?"

"8:00," Dustin chirped, despite the fact that you and Steve had not broken eye contact and the question was clearly directed at you.

"7:00," you corrected. "It's always 7:00."

"I'll be there," Steve nodded. "If that's cool with you."

"Yeah…yeah. You can be my fake boyfriend. For Christmas Eve," you clarified.

The three of you sat in silence for a minute. Dustin standing between you and Steve, smiling from ear to ear. You still looking at Steve, slightly red. And Steve looking right back at you, still with that almost smile.

"You ready, man?" Steve finally asked, turning to Dustin.

"Yeah, I think I've finally figured out how to kick Lucas' ass!" Dustin cheered.

"Language," you corrected again, and the boys just chuckled and left you alone to freak out over your homework. You had a fake date with Steve Harrington. This couldn't possibly go wrong.

"So, where's your boyfriend?" Rebecca asked, cocking her head slightly as the two of you stood by the egg nog, pouring yourselves glasses.

"He's…coming," you answered, less than convincingly. Your stomach had been in knots all day, but it had gotten even worse when the party started. Steve still hadn't shown up. Which meant you didn't get to review the details of your fake relationship, and you'd spent the last hour getting looks from almost every woman in your extended family. It was surprising that they made it a full hour without questioning your "boyfriend's" noticeable absence.

"Hmmm," your cousin hummed, letting you dig yourself further into your own grave. You gave a tight smile before turning away and drinking your eggnog as fast as possible.

Where was he?

As if on cue, heavy knocks came from the door, and you practically flew across the house to open it.

"Hey." Steve caught your frenzied, panicked look and tilted his head to the side. "Are you ok?"

"Who is it?" Your aunt called, her sing-songy voice hinting that she had a guess.

"Steve!" Dustin called out walking over to the door, as you stood aside to let Steve enter. You'd freak out later.

"Hi, Dustin," Steve said, before freezing and looking around the room as your entire family stopped what they were doing to stare at him. "And everyone."

You closed the door, hoping your heart would calm down. If anything your anxiety skyrocketed when you saw him on your front porch giving you that same half smile he always gave you. You were sure your hands were shaking. You couldn't handle this. "Uh, this is Steve," you introduced, your voice completely betraying you and giving way to all of your nervousness. You hoped that your family wrote it off as you being afraid to show off your new boyfriend to your family for the first time. You doubted it, but you could hope.

"Hi, Steve," Aunt Veronica welcomed, stepping forward and bringing him into a hug. "It's so nice to finally meet you," she smiled.

"It's nice to meet you too," Steve said.

"Do you want to put your coat in the coat room?" you asked, your words almost running together. Steve looked at you, concern crossing his face again.

"Yeah, sure," Steve nodded, following you to your mother's room. He took off his coat and laid it on top of the pile already overtaking the bed. You stood there, tapping your fingers against your leg, looking at him. He was dressed in a dark red sweater and dark jeans, and he looked good. Your were going to have a heart attack. You were going to have a heart attack and die young. "Are you ok?" Steve repeated his question from earlier.

"You're late!" You exclaimed in a hushed voice.

"By like, 5 minutes," Steve said, defensively.

"5 mintues?" you hissed. "You're an hour late, Steve."

"8:00. Dustin said 8:00." Even as he said this, Steve's face began to fall.

"Dustin's an idiot. I told you it was at 7:00." Your nerves were still high strung, but at least Steve hadn’t forgotten about you or worse–was blowing you off.

"I'm sorry," Steve said, calmly. "But, I'm here now. It's ok."

"It's not ok! This was a terrible idea."

Steve stared at you for a second, watching as your fingers continued to fidget by your side. His eyes roved up to yours, which were wide and looking desperately at him.

"Is this–is this the first time you've ever brought a boy home?" Steve guessed.

You let out an exasperated sound and sunk to the bed, covering your face with your hands.

"Hey, hey, hey," Steve soothed, sitting down next to you, so close his leg was touching yours. "It's ok. It makes things easier. Explains why you're freaking out so much." He bumped your shoulder with his.

"They're going to know," you moaned into your hands.

"No way. I'm a pro at lying to parents." You dropped your hands to stare at him. He smiled sheepishly. "Come on, it's fun! It's like a game."

You looked down at the floor and nodded. "Ok. Ok. I can do this."

"You can do this because I'm in it with you," Steve said, standing up from the bed and holding his hand out to you. "So let's go back out there, and be the best fake couple ever."

You looked up at Steve. He seemed so confident. Like nothing could go wrong. You wanted to believe that.

You took his hand and allowed him to pull you up off of the bed. You half expected him to let go once you were up, but instead he adjusted his hand, lacing his fingers with yours. Steve shot you a smile before pulling you out of the room and back to your family.

Your family played it cool as the two of you entered, only Sarah and Rebecca staring at the two of you. And Dustin, who shot you a smile and gave a thumbs up. You rolled your eyes and looked up at Steve who was grinning at everyone around the room. You could do this. As long as Steve was here, you could do this.

Somehow, the two of you had managed to make it around the room and survived introductions with everyone. Steve had bonded with Roy, Andrew, and John over basketball, discussed his post-high school plans with your other uncles, and charmed the heck out of your aunts, which left only the cousins who were conveniently standing around with your mom. The hardest test.

"So, how'd you two meet?" Rebecca asked, tilting her head innocently. You knew better.

"Through Dustin, actually," you answered, and Steve squeezed your hand, reassuringly.

"Dustin?" Rachel repeated, her eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, I babysat him while Y/N and Mrs. Henderson were looking for Mews," Steve explained. Your mother's face faltered, and Steve noticed. "Sorry about, Mews, by the way."

She waved him off. "Everything happens for a reason. We got you out of it. And Tews-y."

"The two of us just clicked, so I started coming over, and then after I met Y/N, I started coming over more. We would always have these short conversations whenever I walked in. They were never really about anything, but she was just so easy to talk to and so kind, and, you know, beautiful. So, one day, I invited her to come to the arcade with me and Dustin, and after she destroyed me at Donkey Kong, I asked her out on a real date. And the rest is history."

You looked up at Steve, slightly dazed. The arcade invite. He hadn't—He couldn't—Your brain worked double time trying to make sense of Steve's story. He smiled down at you and squeezed your hand again. And your thoughts flashed back to the coat room. I'm a pro at lying to parents. Your heart sunk slightly, which didn't make any sense. Because this was just fake. Just a fake relationship to get your family off your back.

"Cute," Rebecca smiled, and she was genuine this time.

"You know, I always wondered why you came over so much," your mother wagged her finger at Steve. "I should have known it was Y/N."

"Mom," you groaned, leaning your forehead onto Steve's arm to hide your face. He leaned down and kissed the top of your head.

Your heart stopped, and it took everything in you to not snap your head up and look at him. You were sure your face would be too flushed. It would be too obvious that he had never done anything like that before.

"Hey Steve!" Dustin called, and Steve turned to face your brother. "Come check out this thing Brian showed me."

"Yeah, sure," Steve said, giving your hand one last squeeze before releasing it and following your brother off.

"Ok, he's adorable," Rachel pronounced, and you looked up at her, your face slightly cooled.

"Yeah, he's pretty great," you smiled.

"I guess your pickiness paid off," Rebecca said. 

You decided to ignore the backhanded compliment and instead look over at Steve who was huddled together with Dustin and Brian.  "Yeah, I guess it did."

The rest of the evening was easy after that. You let Steve handle most of the questions since was so good at it. How long had you been dating? A little under a month. When did he realize he was into you? When he saw you tackle Dustin into the ground and hit him over the head with a slap bracelet that he had unexpectedly slapped you with. (True story). Did he know about your fear of clowns? Yes. Have you gotten into a fight yet? Yes, because you were freaking out over nothing and Steve made the mistake of telling you that. Your family had all gotten a laugh out of that one, and you had smacked Steve a little harder than maybe you should have.

During the traditional exchanging of your special "Christmas Eve presents", you had been surprised when Steve bought you the Footloose album, recounting the time that he had once walked into you singing and dancing around the kitchen to "Let's Hear it for the Boy." After being forced into a reenactment by your cousins that had the rest of your family roaring with laughter, you had managed to pull him back down into the couch next to you. Whispering a gentle thank you which caused Steve to smile down at you, his eyes briefly falling from yours to stare at your lips before meeting your eyes again. You flushed and turned back to presents. 

When it came time for you to give Steve your gift, you bit the inside of your cheeks to keep from smiling too hard. You had hounded Dustin about it, and eventually he'd broken down and given you an idea you couldn't refuse.

Steve ripped open the package and his face fell in shock as he looked into the box.

"What is it?" Sarah asked, attempting to crane her neck to see inside. Steve closed the box lid.

"Nothing."

This understandably raised eyebrows from all of the adults, as their gaze shifted from Steve to you. Catching their meaning, you reached over, to the present. "Come on, show them," you prodded, attempting to grab it. Steve held it away from you.

"No," he protested. Dustin, who was sitting next to Steve, snatched it from the older boy’s grasp taking the packaging off quickly, as you held onto Steve's hands to keep him from taking it back.

Your brother immediately burst out laughing as he held up the Farrah Fawcett Hairspray. The rest of your family attempted to hide their snickers before finally Brian lost it as well, and everyone else, deciding it was ok, followed. Steve snatched it back from Dustin and put it in the box.

"I know you feel uncomfortable buying it, and you were running low," you teased, reaching up a hand to gently play with Steve's hair.

"Thanks," he said flatly, and you smiled.

"You don't like it?" you asked, innocently, feeling for the first time that you were able to relax. This was the relationship you were used to with Steve. Gentle teasing and easy laughter.

"I love it," he said, relenting a little bit. "Especially in front of your family whom I'm meeting for the first time.” Your family immediately jumped in to ease his worries, and you just kept smiling as he side-eyed Dustin. Your brother was going to pay for that one.

After presents, it was time for hot cocoa and the Christmas movie.

You got up to help with the passing out of the cocoa and cookies, but were waved off by your aunts and cousins, told to stay on the couch, huddled together with Steve and Dustin as they managed the rest. The rest of your family was too busy arguing over the Christmas movie to pay attention to your conversation.

"I think we're in the clear," you whispered to Steve and Dustin. "All we have to do is make it through the movie."

"You've been great," Steve nudged you with his shoulder.

"Yeah, you totally weren't freaking out as much as I thought you would," Dustin added, and you glared at him. He smiled, and you mimicked laughter.

"Look what we found," Sarah sing-songed, and you turned to look at her and what was dangling from her outstretched hand. Mistletoe. And that's why they'd been so cool. Because they knew you'd snap the minute you saw it.

"Oh, no," you protested, seeing her walk straight for you and Steve.

"Eww, gross," Dustin chorused. "Don't make them kiss in front of me." You weren't sure if you loved your brother in this moment or if you were slightly annoyed by him.

"Grow up, Dustin," your cousin scoffed, leaning over and hanging the mistletoe over you and Steve. This was a set up, plain and simple. They were calling you out. Were you really going to have your first kiss with a fake boyfriend in front of your family or would you break and tell them it was all a hoax? The eyes of all the women were on you, expectantly.

You looked up at Steve, searching for a cue, and he raised an eyebrow. He lifted his hand, brushing your hair behind your ear before gently cupping your neck, his thumb resting lightly on your cheek. Your felt like you were going to throw up. Steve was going to kiss you. And if he kissed you, you wouldn't be able to stop yourself. The crush that you'd kept so carefully under wraps for the past two months would come out, and you'd kiss him back. Steve leaned in, slowly, giving you plenty of time to call this off, but you couldn't. You were in too deep. You closed your eyes and tried to calm your heart to keep it from beating out of your chest. His lips gently brushed against yours, and wow. 

On the one hand, you still felt odd–you were kissing your brother's friend, your friend. But on the other hand, wow. His kiss was as gentle as his touch, and sweet like the Christmas cookies. You pressed your lips more firmly into his.

"Ugh!" Dustin let out a disgusted noise and moved from the couch. You pulled back, looking a Steve who stroked your hair back behind your ear (even though it was already there) and smiled. You smiled back before turning to your cousin.

"Good enough?" You asked, and you could have laughed at how shocked she looked.

"That's enough," your Uncle Roy decided. "No more kissing."

"Yes, sir," Steve nodded, and your family laughed, resuming their activities. You and Steve accepted your mugs of cocoa from your mom, and picked a few cookies off of the tray your aunt held out. Well, you picked up a few. Steve picked up like seven thumbprint cookies. "They're my favorite," he explained, catching your questioning glance.

"Of course they are, Y/N makes them," your aunt smiled before turning the tray to someone else. Steve inclined his head towards you before taking a bite.

"Delicious," he said.

"Thank you."

The two of you placed your mugs on the coffee table, turning to the movie as the rest of your family quieted down to watch the opening scenes.

Steve leaned over to you, whispering in your ear. "Was that ok?"

The butterflies in your stomach took flight again as you turned to look up at him again. "The kiss?"

He nodded.

"Yeah," you nodded back. "Yeah, I think it really sold them. You were right, you're a great fake boyfriend." Something about the words leaving your mouth hurt. You couldn't say exactly what it was, but Steve seemed to pick up on it as his brow slightly creased and he nodded.

"You know," he started, taking a breath in. "I'm an even better real one."

You stopped breathing.

"What?"

"Shhh," your cousin shushed. "The movie!" he gestured to the screen. You flushed and then turned back to Steve. He was looking nervously down at you, his question still on his face.

"Let me take you out on a real date," Steve whispered even lower.

You smiled up at him, suddenly feeling incredibly shy. "Can I destroy you at Donkey Kong?"

"Anytime you want," Steve shook his head, and he was smiling too as he leaned his head down towards yours again.

"No more kissing!" Dustin hissed from his seat on the floor. Steve looked over at your brother and shot him a grin.

"You brought this on yourself, kid."

But he didn't kiss you. Instead he pulled back and wrapped an arm around your shoulders, pulling you close to him and keeping you there for the remainder of the night.

Tags: @oomylifeiseternalsufferingoo @katethemandrake @coolyoungbouquetdestinylove @stay-wokke @morgandakotaq @panda0192 @dontneedbiologytoadopt 

[aion-rsa]

Sci-Fear Week Crash Lands on Horror Channel This November

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Some science fiction can embolden the human spirit, inviting us to step out into a wider universe to experience the vast and unimaginable wonders it has to offer. Some science fiction shows us how human ingenuity will solve even our greatest problems and improve our lives for the better.

Other science fiction points out that those vast and unimaginable wonders are terrifying and will probably try to eat you, while human ingenuity is better at nothing more than finding really imaginative ways to kill people.

This month, Horror Channel will be showing a week of films that fall into the latter category with its Sci-Fear Week from Saturday the 20th November through to Friday the 26th, at 9pm each night.

Expect a cold, unfeeling universe filled with terrors that will freeze your blood, and technological horrors that will leave you feeling like your dad when asked to send an email with an attachment, as we take a look at films that will make you think, “Retreating from the harsh light of knowledge into the comforting shadows of ignorance and superstition: is it all bad?”

The Last Days On Mars

(Saturday, November 20th, 9pm)

Zombies have a proud history in space, as we’ve covered before, but The Last Days On Mars might just be the purest example of the sub-genre. On the last day of the first manned mission to Mars, the discovery of fossilised bacterial life becomes the source of an extremely un-fossilised zombie outbreak.

In any good zombie movie, the real meat comes not from the zombies but from the friction between disgruntled human survivors who’ve been cooped up together far too long – and nothing says “cooped up” like a long-term space mission. This is the UK premiere of the movie, so there’s never been a better time to watch.

Saturn 3

(Sunday, November 21st, 9pm)

When Kirk Douglas and Harvey Keitel star in a science fiction movie penned by Martin Amis, the result is either going to be a work of timeless genius or a fascinating curio you cannot look away from.

We will leave it up to you to decide which it is. Suffice to say Saturn 3 features a killer robot that runs on brain tissue extracted from human foetuses stalking its prey across the moon of Titan. This film has it all: machine-human brain interfaces, space colonists fleeing an overcrowded Earth, severed heads, a dog – the works. It’s a proper scary funfair ride of a sci-fi movie.

Cell

(Monday, November 22nd, 9pm)

You might know Cell as “the movie based on the Stephen King book where mobile phones turn people into zombies”. That summary is accurate, and yet it doesn’t really capture what makes this film terrifying. The “phone zombies” aren’t your standard lurching Romero fare. You genuinely get the feeling these are humans who have had their software overwritten by… something. They don’t move in hordes, but in herds, or sometimes swarms.

Some people argue that the zombie apocalypse genre is played out, but this is an alternative and deeply unnerving take on the genre.

Also, don’t tell anyone else we said this, but the movie might actually be better than the book.

Scanners

(Tuesday, November 23rd, 9pm) 

If you know nothing else about this film you probably know it as “the David Cronenberg film where telepaths make people’s heads explode”. Beyond that, however, is a gritty, intrigue-filled battle between rebel psychics and the military-industrial complex, dripping with glossy eighties cynicism. If this is a gap in your film knowledge, it’s one you should really fill this week.

Extraterrestrial

(Wednesday, November 24th, 9pm)

Do not confuse “Extraterrestrial” with the other film where the protagonist encounters an alien lifeform while processing their parents’ divorce, even though that film’s title is just an abbreviated version of this one. This film is substantially less family-friendly, and we don’t just mean there are cops pointing walkie talkies at children.

Extraterrestrial takes the classic “teens encounter horrors at a cabin in the woods” premise, and adds a big steaming helping of UFO conspiracy theory paranoia. It’s great fun for all the family (who are 15 or over).

Kill Command

(Thursday, November 25th 9pm)

Kill Command is set in the near future, where robots handle all manual jobs, freeing up the human race to pursue more meaningful, creative and fulfilling goals, heralding a new age of prosperity and happiness.

Just kidding, everyone’s unemployed and riots are a daily occurrence. Even one of the oldest professions, killing people, seems to be on the verge of obsolescence.

It’s against this background that veteran US marine Captain Bukes leads his unit in a training exercise against some state of the art, artificially intelligent autonomous drones. Do the drones get “a bit too into it”? Do they perhaps take things too far, and spoil the fun for everyone?

You will have to watch and find out.

Xtro

(Friday, November 26th, 9pm)

This film begins with a child watching his father be taken into the night sky by a mysterious blinding light.

A lot happens in the film after that. It’s hard to say which of those things we should tell you about, or frankly, which of them you would believe if we did.

So, we will simply conclude that when this film was released on home video in 1983, there was an attempt to prosecute it under British obscenity laws.

Oh, and at one point a toy clown comes to life and it’s probably the least weird thing to happen in the entire film.

It’s not just the scary stuff on Horror Channel – it screens top sci-fi content all year round. Check out what’s showing in the Sci-Fi Zone, weekdays between 6pm-9pm.

Sky 317, Virgin 149, Freeview 68, Freesat 138

Website: https://ift.tt/3qwk0y9

Facebook: https://ift.tt/3c30jpk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/horror_channel

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Sci-Fear Week Crash Lands on Horror Channel This November appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3n7ptcK