#Book Of Dragons page 60

[strangersteddierthings]

Writing prompt from this list, requested by @luciana-rowan. #60. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to seduce me." with Steve seducing Eddie with dnd.

This was supposed to be like 1.2k tops however you activated my secret trap card, which is DnD.

-

“Okay, that’s gotta be all there is, right?” Robin asks as she flips through the book again, pausing to flip back and forth between two pages, eyes narrowed like these pages have offended her personally. She’s leaning against the customer side of the counter at Family Video, and Steve is on the other so they can be facing each other.

Steve is double checking all the notes they’ve written out on notebook paper, Robin’s neat print mixed with Steve’s quick scratchy penmanship. They’ve finally condensed the contents (pages and pages of contents) into easier to look through notes and once they close Family Video, Nancy and Jonathan are going to join them at Steve’s and help him and Robin organize the notes in a way that will flow and be easier to follow.

Nancy because she’s good at the organization part, and Jonathan because he’s the only one of them that’s ever even played Dungeons and Dragons, even if it was only twice (he’s a good older brother, after all).

“Jesus Christ, I hope that’s all,” Steve slides the notebook across the counter and offers up a hand for the Dungeons and Dragons book. They swap, to double check that neither has overlooked anything.

“You know,” Robin says, “this is a lot of effort for one game. Do those kids really have all this memorized?”

“Seems like it,” Steve groans, running a hand through his hair. “That’s why I need the cheat sheet. I can’t be holding up their game for twenty minutes just to look up if something is allowed or not.”

Robin looks across the counter and grins at him. “I think it’s so sweet that you’re finally gonna agree to play. Going to this much effort for it, though... You might make Dustin cry.”

“Well, that’s the goal now,” Steve laughs. “Dustin cries or I’m flipping the table.”

“Well, now I want to be there. Either would be great to witness!”

“It’s not too late to make you a character,” Steve says, aiming for nonchalance and knowing that he might have hit the mark for anyone else, but this is Robin, and she’s always seen right through him. She was the one he ranted to this last time Dustin had asked (read: begged) Steve to join a game, the time that worked because Steve could no longer think of reasons to say no. He had said no, though, to Dustin’s face, but once he got home, he scooped up Eddie’s damn Dungeons and Dragons player handbook. Then called and recruited Robin to help.

Robin’s smile softens into something less teasing. “I can join, if it’ll make this less awkward for you.”

Steve’s surprised by her answer. “Oh. You’d- really?”

Robin shrugs. “Yeah, dingus. You might have had a long-standing weird vendetta about being asked to play but. Well, no one’s ever asked me before, so I guess I never had to think about if I would or not. It’s like you said on the phone ‘it might be nice to just to fight imaginary monsters for once’.”

“Our characters could be twins.”

Robin grins but before she can respond the ding of the door chimes. Steve swipes his hands across the counter, causing the book, notebook, and pencils to clatter behind the counter out of view. Back to work.

-

It all started when Dustin asked him to stay for a game months ago. It was the third Dungeons and Dragons game he’d dropped him off at after they’d survived Hell for the fourth (hopefully final) time.

“We play the game, but it’s also a time to like, catch up and chat,” Dustin said, all but pouting at Steve.

Steve had put his car in park and shut off the engine. “If Wheeler’s basement still smells, I’m leaving.”

“Yes!” Dustin cheered.

So, Steve followed Dustin into the Wheelers’ house, called a hello to Karen Wheeler, and made his way to the basement. There had been several startled looks in Steve’s direction, but he’d just walked past the table and plopped onto the end couch beside El, like it was something he did every day. Eddie, Will, Lucas, Erica, and Mike were already sitting at the table, using whatever they could find as chairs. Dustin and he were the last ones to arrive it seems.

El smiled up at him. “Hi Steve. It is nice to have company. I have been watching by myself, since Max can’t get down the stairs yet.”

Well, fuck. Now he’s got to walk Dustin in every time in case El’s in the basement, all lonely on the couch, watching her boyfriend play make believe. “Happy to keep you company, El. You have any idea what’s happening here?”

“I have an understanding of the story, yes,” El nodded and slid across the couch to be close enough to whisper to Steve. She filled him in on what she knew, which is not much because it was a new campaign, but she had sat with Mike and Will when they made their new characters and had been to the two previous games.

When the game got going, Steve watched as El leaned forward on the couch, elbows on her knees and chin in her hands. She had seemed raptured with the story, so Steve started to listen in, too. Dustin must have done a shit job at explaining how this game was played these last years, because as he had watched it progress it seemed more enjoyable than it had sounded when described.

More than that, Steve watched as the stress of real life melted away from the kids and Eddie. They were no longer a group of outcasts who had gone through Hell and barely survived. They were a group of friends having fun in a way Steve couldn’t remember experiencing since he had been in elementary school.

It was two more games and one pool party at his own house later before Steve got the idea to offer his dining room up for the game. Specifically, because at the pool party he saw Max sitting in his living room and did a double take at her, the pieces slotting together in his mind. Max couldn’t manage the steep stairs at the Wheelers house, but everything she needed to get to at Steve’s house was ground level – kitchen, bathroom, living room, dining table.

Next session before everyone scattered to the wind, Steve had said, “Hey, what do you say about moving this game to my house?”

Everyone sitting at the table whipped around to stare at him, mouths open and everything.

“What? My house doesn’t smell like armpit and, uhh, Max could come hang out again,” Steve shrugged and was almost mowed over by how quickly El threw herself on him, wrapping his waist in a hug.

“Yes! Yes!” She answered for everyone.

The next game was moved to Steve’s house. He’d rotated the couch so it would face the dining room table so Max, El, and he could sit comfortably and had even bought a bunch of snacks and soda.

Eddie had been the first person to show up. It had taken him four trips back and forth from his van to the dining room to unload everything he’d brought.

Steve eyes it all critically. “I haven’t seen you use half this shit when you play at Wheelers, yet to lug it back and forth. Do you really need it?”

Eddie shrugged, “Who knows? Better to have it and not need it or whatever.”

 “You load and unload all this shit every game?”

“Yeah. Wheeler helps usually but he isn’t here so….”

“If you had asked, I’d of helped,” Steve said. “I didn’t know you would need it, or if you’d want it.”

“Oh.”

Steve’s not sure what to think of Eddie sometimes. They’re friends now, or at least friend-adjacent. Well, it didn’t used to feel like ‘friend-adjacent’ until Steve started to sit in on the Dungeons and Dragons games. He got to see a freer side of Eddie, then. One that smiled and laughed a bit more than Steve ever saw. It’s fine. Steve’s fine. He’s not- he is not hurt that Eddie hides this part of himself from Steve.

Besides, Steve knows he’s the problem. Because Eddie doesn’t have this problem with Robin, or Nancy, or Jonathan. He’s seen Eddie relaxed and chill when they hang out, so long as Steve keeps his distance. And even if he hadn’t been sure that he was the issue before, he was after the first time they made eye contact during a game (accidentally) and he watched Eddie reigning himself in. Made himself smaller right before his eyes. Steve doesn’t understand why but he does his best to give Eddie space.

He thinks, maybe, that he makes Eddie uncomfortable on some level. He doesn’t know how, or why, or if he can change it.

Anyway, the next few games after that Steve helped Eddie unload and reload his van until he finally offered for Eddie to just keep the things he didn’t need at his house.

“If you don’t, y’know, use all of this to actually plan each session, you can just keep it here,” Steve said as they cleaned up, Max, Lucas, Erica, and Dustin helping, since Eddie had offered to pick them up and drop them off this time.

Eddie paused in his gathering of papers to study Steve before saying, “You sure?”

“Yeah. It’s not like I use the dining table unless you guys are here. So, just take what you use and leave the rest.”

Eddie took the Dungeon Master book but left his copy of the players handbook.

-

And those series of events have led to this Thursday night, with Robin, Nancy, Jonathan, and himself sitting at his dining room table, making a character sheet for Robin, and polishing up the one Steve had already made, because Steve isn’t embarrassed about asking for help these days. Jonathan even brought him the set of dice Will had given him when he’d played.

Robin’s not going to join until the next game, but she is going to come watch. Jonathan had explained that adding one extra character would be easy to accommodate but adding two was harder.

“So, if you like the game and want to continue, talk to Eddie about finding a good way for Robin to join,” Jonathan says, pushing the finalized ‘cheat’ sheet and character back to Steve. “If you don’t like playing, she can just replace you next game.”

“Dustin’s going to lose his mind tomorrow,” Steve laughs, having found that the papers look good, and he should be ready to go.

“I think we’re all sticking around to see it,” Nancy says. She’s volunteered to bring Mike, Lucas, Erica, and Dustin tomorrow night, and Jonathan is bringing Max and Robin when he brings El and Will.

“Hey guys, thanks for this,” Steve says when they clean up and everyone gathers to head out.

“Anytime, man,” Jonathan nods to him as Nancy gives him a quick side hug. Robin gives him a hug that lasts far longer before following them out the door. Steve had asked if she wanted to stay over but her parents are expecting her home tonight.

Once Steve is alone, he heads to the phone and dials Eddie’s number.

Three rings and, “Wayne speaking.”

“Hi Wayne, it’s Steve. Uh, Steve Harrington,” Steve says.

Wayne doesn’t chuckle into the phone, because Steve’s not certain he can chuckle, but he’s definitely amused when he says, “well, Steve Harrington, Eddie’s not home. I can leave a note for him to call you back. I don’t know when he’ll be here.”

“Oh, a note’s fine. I’m usually up late anyway.”

-

It’s a little past eleven when his phone rings. Steve is half asleep on the couch, but the ringing wakes him right up. And if he trips over his own feet on the way to the phone, there’s no witnesses so it didn’t really happen, did it? “Eddie?”

A soft laugh on the other end of the line, “it’s like you were expecting me, Harrington.”

“I was. Or, uh, I was hoping you’d call any way, not expecting because that feels like… loaded somehow.”

Silence, then, “so what can I do for you?”

“Could you, um, come over early tomorrow? Like thirty minutes sooner could work. An hour would be better, though,” Steve looks down and realizes he’s twirly the phone cord around his finger. He stills his hand and yanks it away from the cord, tucking his fist to his chest to keep it in check.

“Oh, I know what you want,” Eddie’s voice says, suggestive in a way Steve can’t decipher, “Yeah, I can come over an hour sooner.”

He’s been caught before he can even surprise anyone, he realizes. That’s the suggestive tone. Eddie knows. And if Eddie knows what he wants, there’s no way Dustin doesn’t already suspect. Ah well. Surprise ruined but it’ll still be fun for the kids. He hopes. Steve puts a smile on his face so he won’t sound upset with himself when he says, “thanks man. I appreciate it. See ya tomorrow.”

-

Eddie arrives a little more than an hour early but Steve’s not going to complain. He’d been pacing in the kitchen near the front window, so he watched as Eddie pulled up. He has the front door open before Eddie is halfway to the door.

“Someone’s excited,” Eddie wiggles his eyebrows at him as he passes, moving to the dining room to deposit his armful of stuff on the table.

“Nervous, actually,” Steve says, shutting the door and turning to follow. He almost runs into Eddie when he gets to the turn that leads into the kitchen, and dining room beyond it. “Oh, hi. Thought you were at the table.”

Eddie looks confused. “I gotta go grab the lunchbox. Wait- did you say nervous?”

“What do you need your lunchbox for?”

They stand in the kitchen entrance, just kinda blinking at each other for a moment before Eddie says, in a very confused, slow voice, “maaaaybe I don’t know why I’m here early. What did you want?”

Steve heads to the dining room, motioning for Eddie to follow. He pulls out two chairs next to each other, sliding into one and waiting for Eddie to sit in his. Steve reached across the table, to the player’s handbook and the notebook under it, dragging them closer. He turns to be facing Eddie, sitting sideways in his chair now. “I wanted to see if it was okay for another person to join the game. Today.”

Eddie’s eyebrows get lost behind his bangs with how high he raises them. “What? Who do you know that wants to play?”

“Uh, me,” Steve says, pulling the notebook out from under the handbook, taking out his character sheet and flipping the notebook open to the end of his notes, where he’d taken the time to write out some bullet points with ideas for his character backstory. Then he fishes out the dice from his pocket and deposits them on the table.

Eddie is deathly still and absolutely silent. The only movement is his eyes, which flick between the dice, the pages, and Steve’s face. He’s quiet so long that Steve is worried he made a mistake.

“Or, uh, if you’d rather I not- sorry, I just- Dustin tries to invite me all the time so I thought it would be okay,” Steve says, moving to close the notebook. That’s when Eddie comes back to life, his hand flying out to catch Steve’s, halting his hand.

“No! No, of course it’s fine. I’m just- surprised,” Eddie says, slowly, “you’ve been so against it, very vocally, so I’m just surprised.”

“Yeah. I was kind of an asshole about it all, wasn’t I? But when I think about it, like really think about it, I don’t know why I was against even trying it, y’know? Leftover shit from high school, I think. But I’m not that person anymore, so…” Steve shrugs with one shoulder, not sure why he’s telling Eddie these things. They don’t talk like this, usually. Steve finds he wants to, though. “Plus, watching the games, it looks like you guys have fun. Like, real, forget about your day kinda fun. Besides, Erica enjoys it, and she’s the coolest out of all of us. If Erica likes it, it can’t be just a nerd game.”

Eddie laughs and Steve gets to see that carefree smile Eddie seems to reserve for the kids. “Can’t argue with that. Erica is the coolest of this lot.”

“So, here’s what I was thinking,” Steve says, pulling the notebook between them to discuss the ideas Robin and he had come up with. He was going to play a fighter, so he didn’t have to worry about memorizing spells. If Eddie’ll let Robin join, he’d like for them to be twins, or siblings of some sort at least. Eddie nods, jumps on that instantly. Offers for them to have been separated on accident, so they could work on adding Robin more naturally later, with their two characters having been looking for each other this whole time.

Before Steve even realizes it, he’s been word vomiting for far too long about his character’s backstory and why he’d want to join the Party and Eddie has been silent the entire time, just listening to him, a soft smile on his face. “So, that’s what I got for now.”

Eddie let’s out a whistle and says, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to seduce me.”

Steve’s brain skips, or freezes, or something, because it just replays that whistle and those words for a few second in his mind before it helpfully supplies the thoughts ‘yes’ and ‘I didn’t know I could seduce you’. He’s just had an epiphany. Unfortunately, his mouth is still working while his brain does this, so it says, “are you feeling seduced, Eds?”

“AHAHA!” Eddie lets out a laugh that is more a bark before he stands up quickly, the chair falling backwards because he hadn’t bothered to scoot the chair back to give him room to stand. “Funny. Dustin’s right, you’re hilarious. I need a cigarette,” and then he all but runs out the front door.

Steve just watches him go before picking up the fallen chair. He can’t wait for Robin to get here. He needs to talk to her.

-

When Eddie comes back in, it’s with Robin, Jonathan, Max, El, and Will. Steve slaps his notebook shut quickly and hopes that Will didn’t notice it. Eddie is talking animatedly with Will upon entry, though, so he seems safe. Robin fast walks to the table and scoops Steve’s dice and shoves them in her pocket, because Will will recognize them if they stay out.

Steve stands, notebook in hand, and grabs Robin’s wrist with his free hand and drags her out back. He makes sure the slide-glass door is closed firmly and leads her around to the other side of the pool. He doesn’t want any eavesdroppers.

“Robin. Ok, so you remember by sexuality crisis last year?”

“Of course, Michael J Fox in Teen Wolf got you hot under the collar,” Robin says, “how could I forget? You cried about it.”

“You cried about yours, too! I just wasn’t there for it.”

“Not mocking!” Robin holds up her hands in defense, “just saying.”

“Robin. I think I like Eddie.”

“Oh!” her eyes go wide, and her mouth stays in a little ‘o’ shape for a moment. Steve stands there, letting her process. “Oh. Ooohhhhhh. That- that makes sense in my mind in a way I cannot put into words. Of course, it’d be Eddie Munson -the exact opposite of Michael J Fox, by the way- to also get you bothered. Why didn’t I pick up on that? How did I not notice this?”

“Because, despite our best efforts, we have yet to successfully combine,” Steve says, linking his fingers the way Robin had that day in Family Video before unlinking them to flip a hand back and forth between them. “We do not have time for you to have a crisis about it because I am having a crisis about it, and one of us needs to be level-headed.”

“Right,” she sobers instantly. “Right. We cannot spiral together. You first, I’ll wait my turn. So, you like Eddie. Enough to…. Want to do something about it?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, that was a quick answer. You… you really like him. Give me the details. What am I working with here.”

Steve thinks about it. “When he held a broken bottle to my neck, I was terrified. And a little aroused.” Robin says ew. “I’ve thought he was hot since then. But… when he came to at the hospital, all high on the medicine. He’d smiled softly at me and the first thing he said to me was glad you’re here, big boy. I think the actual crush started then.”

“Make sense, tracks, what with your hero complex and praise kink,” Robin nods and paces before turning back to him. “And the realization?”

He can’t argue the hero complex and praise kink thing, because they both know that would be a lie, so he answers, “When I was done rambling about my character idea, he whistled and said If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to seduce me and my first thought was yes.”

Robin’s eyes light up before she starts marching in a small circle around him as she thinks out loud. “Fuck, Steve, you really don’t do anything halfway. Alright. So, you want to do something about this, but you have to decide what you want to do. Because you are my soulmate and I want you happy, but like Eddie is also my friend and if you are experimenting… Just. You have to be sure.”

“I’m sure.”

She stops her circling to squint at him and read his mind, he supposes, because her face lights up in delight. “Oh shit! It’s not sexy thoughts! You want to like, hold his hand and cuddle on the couch, and like, cook dinner together and serve him breakfast in bed and bicker about whose turn it is to pick up Dustin from school!”

“Jesus Robin, can you not shout that! We are out here, so they,” he flings his hand in the direction of the house, “don’t hear. But, yeah. I… I like him. A lot.”

“I can see that. Like, really see that. You like him so much that just his company would be enough. Disgusting. Let me think,” she waves him off, like he has been dismissed but instead she’s the one walking away, walking figure eights around area in front of him for a couple minutes before whirling around to say, “You have to make your character a flirt. An outright slut, even. For information gathering purposes of course.”

“What?”

“He plays all the other characters, Stephan,” she says, dragging out his name to make it sound like ‘Steff-fawn’, “and you know he’s good at this… being in character thing! So, like, if you can trip him up by being all flirty, then that’s like, got to be a sign that he likes you, too, right? If he doesn’t like you, he can take it in stride. But! If he’s crushing on you, too, this will be like, too good to be true to him, yeah? That’ll fluster anyone, especially if he plays on our team and probably hasn’t had many guys openly hitting on him. Plus, you can always tell when someone likes you. You haven’t been checking for signs that Eddie might like you because you weren’t even aware it might be possible. And I’m not going to get your hopes up, Eddie could be, like, a totally straight dude, but when will it ever be safer to test this?”

Steve nods. “Yeah… yeah. Eddie is good at this character thing. And I do know when people are interested. And this is safe. If I flirt and he doesn’t react, or if he recoils in disgust, I can write what I’ve done off as it’s the game and I’m just trying to be a good player. Oh God, Robin, what if he’s like not okay with gay people.”

“Then we bodily throw Eddie out your front door, never speak to him again, and tell Will he’s the new Dungeon Master.”

“That seems extreme.”

“It’d be fitting. Eddie didn’t bat an eyelash when I came out to everyone after my date with Vicki. He actually congratulated me. So, if he only hates gay men then he’d be a disgusting lesbian fetishist and he’ll have to go ASAP. I doubt that’s the case, though.”

Steve barks a laugh and jerks his head towards the house, an offer to return inside. They turn towards the house and are greeted by everyone lined up along the glass door and windows that lead to the pool. A few of them (Nancy, Max, Will) have the decency to try and pretend they weren’t watching by turning away quickly but otherwise everyone just stares at each other until Dustin hauls open the glass door and shouts, “Are you two fighting?”

“No, we aren’t fighting,” Steve says as he shoves his way past Dustin and back into the house. “Let me grab the snacks and the game can begin.”

Steve moves to the kitchen, with Robin and Eddie following behind to help gather all chips, dips, candy, and soda and deposit them on any nearby surface in the dining room. Steve then slides into the chair to Eddie’s left, where Dustin usually sits before anyone else can take that seat.

Dustin slides into the chair next to him instead of arguing about it, saying, “Captivated, aren’t you? Guess I’ll let you have my spot so you can pay attention better. Told you this game was great.”

“I’ll be paying plenty of attention, don’t you worry,” Steve says to Dustin before turning to Eddie, who has taken his place at the head of the table, and winking at him, “right, Eds?”

Eddie stops moving for barely any time at all, and honestly, if the whole point of where he sat wasn’t to be close enough to catch and catalogue all of Eddie’s reactions, he would have missed the freeze. “Oh yeah. Steve’s been following the story closely.”

Steve looks around the table and watches the kids exchange glances and shrugs before Eddie begins to recall what happened last game and where the Party is headed now. Steve waits for his cue. Eddie’s got several ways to introduce Steve’s character, just in case the kids don’t grasp onto the plot hooks. But they’re good players, who know when an adventure hook is being dangled in their face. When their characters read the notice board, looking for quests, and come across the one of a man looking to hire help in searching for his lost sister, they buy into it quickly.

“You find yourselves at the tavern where the help wanted poster said to meet. There are three other people inside this early in the day, not including the barkeep.”

“Can I go and ask the barkeep if he knows who put the poster up?” Will asks. Will speaks in the first person who it comes to his character far more often than anyone else, Steve’s noticed.

“Of course. The barkeep is a surly looking dwarf who keeps rearranging the glasses behind the counter. He sees you approaching and listens to your question before saying,” Eddie says in his normal tone, before dropping into a deeper, Scottish accent. “Aye. You passed him on the way in. He’s sitting there, close to the door.”

“Do we approach as a group?” Lucas asks, and after a quick discussion and confirmation that the table their quest giver is sat as has enough seating for them all, they agree to approach together.

Eddie nods and says, “You all approach the table and the figure sitting there looks up as you do. Steve, please describe what they see as they approach you.”

Steve opens his mouth to answer but the table explodes. Dustin shrieks and throws out his hands to grip Steve’s arm and just shake him. “Oh my God. Oh my God. OH MY GOD. STEVE!” Dustin is yelling basically in his ear. Everyone is exclaiming something in excitement, and it gets loud, fast. With no end to the onslaught of screaming in sight, Steve resigns himself to this fate.

It takes far longer than it should for everyone to quiet down, and Steve’s a little red after all of it. Because he hadn’t expected this reaction. He thought Dustin might be a little hyped, sure, but this level of love he feels from all these kids, and for them, and how doing something so small, like joining their game, brings them this much joy… He regrets not joining sooner, honestly.

Finally, they quiet and Steve gets to describe his character, Sir Gregor of House Buckington (Robin’s idea of a last name, he’s not afraid to throw her under the bus for that) and the game progresses. When Steve’s asked to make his first roll of the night, everyone jumps to offer their dice, but he just calls out to Robin. She still has his in her pocket. He shoots a look at Will, who he can see recognizes the dice, and smiles at him as he rolls his first D20.

It's almost two hours into the session before Steve sees his chance to flirt. The Party is trying to negotiate a discount for some healing potions, and they’ve failed their check. They can’t afford the potions and Erica, playing the rogue, offers to try and steal them.

“Can I give Erica advantage by distracting the shop keep?” Steve asks.

Eddie looks intrigued by these. “… Maybe. How would you distract him?”

“Sir Gregor will lean against the counter and say ‘Sorry about my companion’s awkward attempts to swindle you of your goods for a fair price. I should have stepped in sooner, but I was a bit… captivated watching you shut them down’ and try and fluster this guy by flirting with him.”

It’s a mixed bag of reactions from the kids that Steve barely hears because he’s focused on Eddie. Eddie, whose face looks a bit redder than it usually does.

“You wanna… flirt with the shop keep?” Eddie’s voice is a bit higher than normal too. Interesting.

“If that’s allowed.”

“Umm, uh, y-yeah,” Eddie stumbled over his words and Steve can feel himself grinning like the cat that got the cream. Eddie is flustered. Steve has flustered him. Oh. This is going to be a good game. “Roll a persuasion check.” Steve gets a 17. “Lady Applejack, if you would, roll sleight of hand with advantage as Sir Gregor seems to have successfully taken the attention of the shopkeep.”

“I am going to enjoy having Steve play,” Erica says as she picks up her dice. “No one else helps me steal things.”

-

They play for almost four hours, an hour longer than normal, but Steve is surprised by how quickly it slips by and finds that he’s a little disappointed that it has to end, especially since they’ve stopped one round into combat. It’s a terrible place to stop, but if the kids are any later getting home there might be a reckoning done by some parents. The only reason there isn’t one now is because Nancy, ever practical about things, called all the parents about an hour and a half ago to let them know the kids might be an hour or two late getting home.

“We’ll pick up next week,” Eddie says, standing to get a good look at the battle map to copy it into his notebook.

“You can just leave it out so you don’t have to recreate it,” Steve says, like he does every week. “I won’t mess with it.”

And like every week before, Eddie just pulls out his graph paper and starts to track how many squares apart everyone is as the kids pack up their own things and head out. Steve walks them all to the door and Robin hangs back to talk, waiting on the front step. Steve walks out and shuts the door behind him.

“He’s absolutely into you,” Robin whispers. “Do you know that this means? We can go on double dates! I’ll be Eddie’s fake date, because I’m not sure Vicki and Eddie should be left alone to conspire against us but-“

“I think it’s a bit too soon to be planning double dates, Buckley,” Steve cuts her off. “Yeah, Eddie’s into me. But like… into me? Does he even know he’s into me?”

“Right. Could also be in the denial phase, still,” she says, then deepens her voice in a poor imitation of Eddie’s and adds, “I think Steve is hot but in a purely platonic friend-like fashion.”

He laughs, shoving Robin towards Jonathan’s car, where everyone else is loaded and waiting, “go home.”

She leaves laughing and Steve waves them off before going back inside. He finds Eddie at the table, placing the minis carefully back into the tacklebox he keeps them in.

“Seriously, you don’t have to put everything away,” Steve says and Eddie jumps.

“Jesus! Don’t sneak up on me,” Eddie clutches at his heart dramatically.

“I didn’t sneak! You’re lost in your own head if you didn’t hear the door slam or my footsteps,” Steve leans back against the wall, watching Eddie. The other man nods to himself, hands still fiddling with a mini in his hand. The one he’d used for Steve’s character. Steve watches and wishes he could read Eddie’s mind as easily as Robin reads his.

“Thank for playing tonight,” Eddie finally says, placing the mini back onto the table instead of in the tacklebox before turning to Steve. “You did real good.”

Steve gives him a smile he hopes Eddie can see if soft and fond, “yeah? I put a lot of effort into this. Robin, Nancy, and Jonathan helped me.”

“You recruited all three?”

“Yeah. I wanted to put in the effort. I’ve watched several games now; I see how much time you all put into this. It’d be an asshole move to agree to join and not, like, at least read the rules.”

Eddie hums an agreement, “would be kinda asshole-ish, but you’re certainly not an asshole anymore.”

Steve fakes wounded, “you thought I was an asshole?”

“Well, it would be a pretty dick move on my part to think you’re an asshole after everything,” Eddie takes a step towards Steve, then seems startled at himself, like he can’t believe he moved. “Anyway, you willing to play again next week?”

“Yeah, man. Looking forward to it.”

“Cool. Cool,” Eddie nods before turning to gather up the stuff he brought with him. “I’ll see you next week, then.”

“Totally.”

Steve watches Eddie head towards the door and feels something like regret in his stomach. Logically he knows he doesn’t have to rush this. Doesn’t have to fling himself at Eddie immediately now that he knows he wants to, knows that Eddie is at least enough into him to get flustered with his ‘fake’ flirting.

But.

But Steve has lived through four apocalypses and Eddie almost didn’t survive one and life is worth taking a chance on doing things he never thought he’d do (like playing and enjoying a game of Dungeons and Dragons), so- He picks up his D20 from the table and gives it a roll, leaves it up to chance if he should do this now or wait.

It rolls around the table, bounces off the books still left on the table before rolling to a stop.

Eh, 8 is good enough.

“Eddie, wait!” Steve flings open his front door and shouts. Eddie, in the process of backing out of the driveway, brakes. Steve runs across his yard and Eddie, window already cracked, rolls it the rest of the way down.

“Yeah?”

“Wanna go on a date with me,” Steve says, then winces. He used to be better at this. “Please. I mean, go on a date with me. Oh, that sounds worse, like I’m expecting you to. Which I’m not-I don’t expect you to like me just because I like you. Fuck, I’m ruining this. Would you like to go on a date with me, please?”

Eddie just lets him shove his foot in his mouth, but he looks fond more than annoyed. Still, he says, “I, uhh, didn’t know you were… into guys.”

“Guys in general, sure. You, specifically? Ridiculously into you.”

That brings a smile to Eddie’s face. “Yeah?”

“So, uh date tomorrow? After I get off work?”

“Tomorrow,” Eddie agrees easily.

Steve watches Eddie drive away and suddenly he can’t wait for work tomorrow. Robin’s going to implode when he tells her.

-

-

Eddie, after getting off the phone with Steve the night before the game: Oh, he wants to do drugs before having to suffer through watching us play dnd again. Better bring my druglunchbox

[demvalhaken]

Yar~

I got bored and drew Cricket and Blue cus I’m reading The Lost Continent (Arc Three) I think Cricket is really silly and Blue is also really silly. The book is so good, I’ve literally read 60 pages in one day which is a lot in a school day. My dragon drawing skills are a little rusty and need some W-40 if you know what I mean.

“Merry Christmas! I want drugs. Happy Birthday! I want drugs. Happy Kwanzaa! I want drugs. Every Thursday, I-I-I want drugs >:(“ Thank you Ayesha Erotica for this masterpiece

Here’s some extra art of Snow and Bevel. I would say this is them younger but younger Wasps in teenage years are lighter in colour. Lol, I love my silly ocs even if they’re not of priority. I’m kinda getting BORED of just drawing one topic so I’m drawing insects again. Also is it weird that I imagine Bevel’s voice like Heather Chandler from the Heather’s Musical? Bevel is the ULTIMATE Heather lmao. I also imagine her voice as Veronica Sawyer from the musical. I recently listened to the musical but I haven’t watched the actual Heather’s movie in like a year. Mhm, what great info and totally not me yapping. Also, I’m probably going to that party Friday! I just need to really muster up the courage to ask my parents for permission cus I’m a scaredy grub that literally can’t talk to his parents.

Okay love you guys!!! Don’t be a menace to society and go lick a pole or something idk

Edit: Guys I’m actually going to the birthday party wtf!!! I can’t wait to see my platonic wife!!! Me and her are not dating fyi or maybe? I mean it’s platonic but we’re still pretty “Friends with benefits”

[felassan]

Just saw that a Dragon Age Cook Book is set to release end of next year and wanted to share that, haven’t read about it anywhere yet- maybe it wasn’t announced? The new releases sure are increasing 👀 Dragon Age: The Official Cookbook Publisher: Insight Editions (December 31, 2023), Length: 176 pages, ISBN13: 9798886630060 source. Simon and Schuster

hello! OOH, great find!! tysm for stopping by to share it, it's much appreciated. and they sure are 👀 let's take a look!!

The Official Dragon Age Cookbook

List Price $34.99, release date December 31, 2023

Travel to the far culinary corners of Thedas inside the thrilling Dragon Age universe with the only officially licensed Dragon Age cookbook! Featuring over 60 recipes that are accessible at any skill level, this cookbook is the perfect way to bring the culinary traditions of Thedas into your kitchen.

Take a culinary journey through the rich and diverse landscape of Dragon Age, where you can prepare and enjoy delicious and accessible recipes that bring iconic locales and fan-favorite characters to life. This officially licensed cookbook features over 60 recipes for every occasion, whether you’re dining with friends at the Hanged Man, stopping for sustenance on the road with the Grey Wardens, or planning an elaborate banquet in the Orlesian Empire.

Dragon Age: The Official Cookbook includes step-by-step instructions and beautiful full-color photography that will transport you from the Anderfels to Ferelden and back again. Prepare recipes inspired by beloved companions such as Fenris, Cassandra, and Morrigan, and set your table with canonical cuisine found throughout the games! As diverse and flavorful as the continent of Thedas itself, this cookbook is an essential addition to every fan’s bookshelf and kitchen.

60+ RECIPES FOR EVERY OCCASION: From enticing, easy-to-make appetizers to hearty spreads that could feed the entire Inquisition, you’ll have incredible recipes to share with companions and celebrate any victory.

EXPERIENCE DRAGON AGE LIKE NEVER BEFORE: Relive favorite characters, quests, locations, and scenes from the Dragon Age franchise, brought to life through enticing food and drinks tied to the franchise’s sprawling and diverse world.

AN IMMERSIVE FANTASY EXPERIENCE MADE REAL: Full-color photography and flavorful lore will bring the Dragon Age world into your home and help ensure success in the kitchen.

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR FANS: Created in partnership with BioWare, this treasure trove of Dragon Age lore and recipes is a must-have collectible for die-hard fans and newcomers alike.

omgggg

[source]

[callsign-blue]

On this day 4/21/24 at 11:18 am- I have finished Iron Flame and we have to wait till fucking January of 2025 for book 3….

Holy fucking shit there’s so much action and it’s literally insane. Also y’all have been too harsh on Mama Sorrengail… like I get it like she’s harsh but look how her kids turned out they are hardheaded stubborn so 10 toes down on what they think is right. She completed her goal and now she’s going back to the love of her life, a scribe..♥️ don’t care. I am 100% backing their mom.

Also Andarna being left behind like they could be more out there we just don’t know and if the dragons don’t know, the elders might know maybe they don’t even know. Because there is so much of the map that we have not even been to that could maybe be where they could be at her breed. Like they could be in the barren even though there’s not really any mountains like literally anywhere they’re hiding. Or maybe her family fled to give her a chance to live? I’m just just throwing these out here.

I’m going to have to read the last chapter over and over again, but you know I thought it was gonna be more intense honestly. From chapter 60 and on all, it is fucking intense but I thought it would be different. I don’t know like they get her, violet, surrounded still on the fighting field. They do the same thing for Xadan. And then you know either one gets tortured then it forces that one has to turn to save the other (lol hint hint)

I think Onyx Storm to do with both Xaden and Andarna. Not one or the other.

I think nothing really prepared me for Lilith Sorrengail end..like at all….

Also, I am so happy that Sawyer made it. Like there’s just so much going on in the last six chapters. I think the Venin, from what I have gathered do you want Violet, but to take her signet from her and then kill her. And I say that because The guys on page 593 the dark Wilder says “ I’m under orders not to kill, so let’s not make this difficult” also says “ you’ll be so much fun for him to wield” and obviously throughout the last few parts of the first book at Resson they were trying to at least harm violet or try to kidnap her. Her signet is legitimate power. She’s also the first Lightning user in they said decades or hundreds of years( I don’t quite remember, but it was a long time) You can see why they would want her specifically.

I find it very fucking interesting that they both have the same nightmares. They just never told each other about it like he turned for love and she will turn to save the one she loves.what the fuck

Also, it’s been coincide with that “ I have waited 650 years to hatch. Waited until your 18th summer, when I heard our elders talk of the week link daughter of their general, the girl forecasted to become the head of the scribes, and I knew. You would have the mind of a scribe and the heart of a rider you would be mine.”- Andarna. Her breed has to be the breed that wiped out the venin all those years ago because those numbers don’t just correlate for randomness. It just doesn’t make sense like for the love of fucking God it doesn’t make sense.(also I’m not religious that I’m just making a point.)

I also understand the reason why Violet is acting how she is with her now trust issue and being left in the dark is such a big thing for her. I think it’s just because she found her chosen family and finding out that there things being withhold from you, that are important, but not significant to the moment. Xaden is so patient and he definitely gets brownie points from me. He also has trust issues and not saying hes innocent in all this but they both have their reasons and they are taking healthy steps and moving forwards. Violet tends to be centered with knowledge and having that helps her make decided what to do next and move forward.

The conversations/arguments do get tedious, but considering a lot of her knowledge of The Continent and what happens and basically being lied to about their whole society will do that to a person because they think whatever they thought they knew they now have to rethink it. And it does suck being kept in the dark about stuff nobody wants to be kept in the dark, but in the end, she still loves him, she still chooses him.

[atopvisenyashill]

That whole era of the Second Quarrel onwards is so obscure when it comes to the succession and the tensions surrounding it. No reactions. No massive events or much about dynamics. I want to know about Viserys's coronation. I want to know what he felt about his own succession before the GC. And before that, I want to know if Baelon ever tried to mend fences. If Jaehaerys ever mentioned it again, and how. How Rhaenys made her life, now all but an exile, on Driftmark. What motivated Aemma and Viserys's marriage. WHEN DID JOCELYN DIE?!

LITERALLY OMG. Number one frustrating thing about F&B is we get pages and pages of stuff no one in the world gives a shit about - Maiden's Day, that stupid story about Jaehaerys fucking the writer - and nothing on the subjects that actually got most people into the damn series like the POLITICS or the MAGIC. all of THAT is completly glossed over or Gyldane (and Yandel for that matter) just go "Well Barth did say this thing but that's nonsense" and then no elaboration. drives me up a WALL because yeah sure maybe the long, pages upon pages of battles and fighting are not my cup of tea but a) they're perfectly well written and b) THEY MAKE UP FOR IT BY GIVING ME SEVERAL CHAPTERS IN A ROW OF CERSEI AND SANSA JUST CHILLING AND POLITICKING IN DETAIL. He makes up for that in F&B by giving me MORE Jaehaerys as if that's what I want!!!

There's a few eras in F&B I think are likely to come up in the main series or in dunk and egg which is why I think F&B is so frustratingly vague (and if they were kept vague for no reason….george what. george WHY). And I do get he wanted to give us more of what he was writing without spoiling later books but good lord i would actually rather wait longer for material that isn't 60% george going "well i can't tell them ALL of that, let's just wink at the audience." The Second Quarrel is one of those times that might be relevant later imo largely because there's just. NOTHING. NO INFO. NO EVENTS. Like you said, there are NO major events in this time period. the ONLY thing happening is politics and court intrigue but F&B isn’t interested in court intrigue unless it involves grooming a 12 year old girl and unfortunately there is only poor Aemma being groomed at this time so F&B says “too many old people they’re not sexy” and just gives us sparse details about marriage dates, birth dates, and death dates. We don’t even see how rhaenys and viserys feel about THEE QUEEN ALYSANNE dying!!!!!!!! She just. Passes. oh so sad. george i’m in your walls!

Unlike every other Targaryen child (Aemma, Viserys, Daemon, herself, even Aerea and Rhaelle to an extent) who is allowed to grow up at court surrounded by other Valyrians and members of the royal family, Rhaenys kids are denied this. With this move, as you say, Jaehaerys all but tells Rhaenys "get you and your fuckin kids the hell out of my city." Can you imagine being Rhaenys, newly pregnant, having been told for years by your father and grandmother that you will be Queen one day just to be suddenly and unceremoniously exiled from court and kicked completely out of the line of succession? Can't even begin to get into how deranged it is to do this to your pregnant granddaughter when she's mourning the loss of her father

WHEN DOES JOCELYN BARATHEON DIE. HOW DOES SHE FEEL ABOUT HER DAUGHTER AND GRANDKIDS BEING PASSED OVER?????? She is only a year or two older than Aemon, she could easily have still been alive and making a fuss during Viserys' reign especially after he names Rhaenyra his heir SO HOW DID SHE FEEL ABOUT ALL OF THIS.

Baelon and Viserys' coronations/weddings/big We Are The Royal Line Now Shenangians during this era are crazyyy right, because THE QUEEN OF WESTEROS is refusing to talk to the iron throne, can’t ride her dragon anymore, is losing her hearing and memory, and goes everywhere with Gael to the point that no one even attempts to marry Gael bc they know Alysanne will never let her go. THATS INSANE. They are LIVING SEPARATELY like practically pseudo divorced the way Doran and Mellario are, so is Alysanne just purposefully snubbing these celebrations and using “i’m old” as an excuse or is she passive aggressively riding a carriage all the way back to KL just to show up wearing velaryon colors to viserys’ wedding and then left again without saying goodbye before the banquet even started???

AMD BAELON. part of why i’m so turned off by him is bc we have no indication he felt even a little had but to be fair it has been pointed out to me that we ALSO have no indication he didn’t feel bad; we have no indication of his feelings whatsoever!!! for all we know HE could have felt this was unfair & had been in the middle of either brokering a marriage between his grandkids and her kids, or figured “hey we had this exact same issue with Auntie Rhaena, maybe I should build House Targaryen a second and third seat or even given Dragonstone to The First Born Girl as tradition from now on” like he really could have been trying OR he could have been cackling and rubbing his hands together and encouraging viserys to bed 13 year old aemma soon and often to ensure their line, and calling rhaenys a stupid bitch at court, like we just don’t know!!!!!

We get several “they never agreed on the succession” comments but how does that translate to ACTION. stop telling me dates and tell me WHAT HAPPENED.

[crackshipoftheweek]

Crack Ship of the Week back again with another post! (After nearly an entire month) Lately I've been working a lot of 10+ hour shifts at my current job, along with helping out at my family's restaurant, updating my résumé, and searching for other jobs to advance my culinary career, so I've been really busy, sorry for not posting in quite a while. On the plus side, I've managed to network with some industry professionals higher up the ladder, and I was recently contracted by a personal chef agency!

Without further ado, let's bring out

This Week's Crackship:

Party Poison (Danger Days) × Johnny Silverhand (Cyberpunk)

Ship Name(s):

Poison Hand, Dim Mak (see notes below for explanation), Rockerboys, Ronin (see notes below for explanation)

Why It's Crack:

No interactions (separate canons)

Why It's Cracked:

Canons share many similarities. Both are cyberpunk series set in an alternate universe California in the near future (now partially set in the near past, as well), following a war or series of wars that negatively impacted the United States' geopolitical power, costing it territory that would be filled in by an independent city-state (Battery City in Danger Days, and Night City in Cyberpunk) and the resultant power vacuum being filled in by megacorporations (Better Living Industries in Danger Days and Arasaka in Cyberpunk. Like Arasaka, Better Living also seems to be a multinational corporation with at least some notable amount of presence in Japan, hence Better Living having had a .jp domain during the Danger Days album's promotional period, as well as using both English and Japanese writing in much of its content). Crossover potential abounds

Both fill very similar niches in their respective stories (renegade rockers who rebel against corporate overreach with the power of punk rock, and occasionally this gun they found. They both became the exemplar of their respective series' spin on the "rebel with a cause" archetype [Killjoys in Danger Days, and Rockerboys in Cyberpunk])

Both lived and operated in similar timeframes, not taking into account Johnny's engram whom stars in Cyberpunk 2077. Party was active in the 2010s up until his death in 2019, and Johnny was active throughout the 2000s up until his death in 2023)

Both may also be war veterans (Johnny is a confirmed war veteran who deserted the US Military in protest of the government's corruption and purposeful destabilization of Central and South America. Party Poison may have been one of the many Killjoys to take part in the Analog Wars, though this isn't confirmed iirc)

Both died a similar death, to somewhat similar people, for similar reasons. Both raided the main HQ of their respective antagonistic megacorps in order to rescue an abducted loved one (surrogate little sister "The Girl" in Party's case, and former lover Alt Cunningham in Johnny's case), during which they were brutally gunned down by their corporate foes' bald and sociopathic enforcer (Korse and Adam Smasher, respectively)

Both dye their hair. Party Poison's hair is dyed red (natural color unknown afaik), and Johnny Silverhand dyes his hair black, with it being naturally blond.

Notes

"Dim Mak", also known as "Poison Hand" or "Touch of Death" is a purported system of acupressure-based martial arts said to have originated in ancient China and been culturally imported to Japan. Count Juan Raphael Dante, an eccentric martial arts practitioner who taught karate in the 60s and 70s, also claimed to be able to teach Dim Mak to prospective students, infamously advertising this alleged service in the back page ad spaces in Marvel comic books of the time. This likely was seen at times by Gerard Way, an avid comic fan, as he titled one of the songs in the wider Danger Days multimedia project as Black Dragon Fighting Society, which shares an identical name with the martial arts organization founded by Count Dante. "Dim Mak" is also the name of a record label founded by Steve Aoki, who made a remix of the famous My Chemical Romance song "Welcome to the Black Parade". This fact is also relevant to the ship as Dim Mak distributes punk rock music, with punk rock being the primary genre performed by both Party Poison and Johnny Silverhand.

"Ronin" was chosen a ship name due to their shared status as outlaw warriors, similar to (but generally less shitty towards bystanders than) the ronin of Sengoku and early Edo-period Japan. Party is an outlaw vigilante who fights against BLI, whereas Johnny is a former US soldier who deserted and fled prosecution by moving to Night City. In addition, this name was chosen in reference to Johnny's band, Samurai. Keanu Reeves, who portrays Johnny in Cyberpunk 2077, also starred in the 2013 American remake of The 47 Ronin (unfortunately)

[skytsunrose]

🐶Heya, Welcome to my Geeky/Shipping page!🐶

🌹I'm Nami, Sky, Amy Rose, or Sora ( Nami and Sky are probably my most used ones ♥️)🌹

⭐️My Interests⭐️

Zelda

KH

Pokemon

Sonic

Yakuza/Like a Dragon/Judgment

Fire Emblem

Mario

Final Fantasy

Other Games

Animals

Shipping

Writing

Marvel

Disney

Books

Anime

Artsy stuff

Fandom Merch

Multifandom

💕My fave ships💕

Zerith/Cloti

Sonamy

Rokunami

Zelink

MistyxAsh

Overall Multishippers who likes other ppls ships for most part though and ships a lot 💓

🔥Feel free to join my Kingdom Hearts and Zelda Servers if ya want too🔥

🐬Feel free to check out my other socials too🐬

[dragonagitator]

"Dragon Age Studies" draft syllabus

I think it would be fun if a bunch of us (re)played, (re)read, (re)watched, and discussed the Dragon Age games, books, graphic novels, and shows as a cohort leading up to the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, like how Dracula Daily created a Tumblr-wide book club.

Below is my proposed order and estimates for how long it should take the average person to complete each installment. My estimates assume 325 words/page for novels, 250 words/minute for reading speed, 1 page/minute for graphic novels, and the upper end of playtime ranges per Google (because anyone dedicated enough to join the cohort is likely to be a completionist).

Dates to be announced once we get a firm release date for DA4. The schedule will spread the content out proportionally so there's a relatively consistent time commitment per week. The final version of the syllabus will break the games up into specific main quests or DLCs for each week, since each game takes most people more than a week to complete. There will also be links to YouTube "movies" of the games and to short summaries of the novels for people who fall behind or who can't invest enough time to replay and reread everything.

Please review and let me know if you think anything should be adjusted and why, thanks!

Novel: The Stolen Throne ~8 hours to complete (364 pages, estimated 116k words)

Novel: The Calling ~10 hours to complete (447 pages, estimated 145k words)

Game: Dragon Age: Origins & all DLC ~90 hours to complete

Web short stories: Dragon Age II companions prequels <1 hour to complete (7 short stories, ~7k words total)

Game: Dragon Age II & all DLC ~60 hours to complete

Web series: Redemption <1 hour to complete (total runtime 51 minutes)

Novel: Hard in Hightown ~2 hours to complete (72 pages, estimated 23k words)

Graphic novel: The Silent Grove 1-2 hours to complete (80 pages)

Graphic novel: Those Who Speak 1-2 hours to complete (72 pages)

Graphic novel: Until We Sleep 1-2 hours to complete (72 pages)

Novel: Asunder ~8 hours to complete (374 pages, estimated 122k words)

Novel: The Masked Empire ~8 hours to complete (382 pages, estimated 124k words)

Novel: The Last Flight ~7 hours to complete (304 pages, estimated 99k words)

Film: Dawn of the Seeker 1.5 hours to complete (runtime 90 minutes)

Book: The World of Thedas Vol. 1 ~3 hours to complete (185 pages with lots of illustrations)

Web short stories: Dragon Age Inquisition prequels ~1 hour to complete (3 short stories, ~13.5k words total)

Game: Dragon Age Inquisition & all DLC ~150 hours to complete

Book: The World of Thedas Vol. 2 ~5 hours to complete (314 pages with lots of illustrations)

Book: The Art of Dragon Age Inquisition ~3 hours to complete (184 pages, mostly illustrations)

Graphic novel: Magekiller ~2 hours to complete (120 pages)

Graphic novel: Knight Errant ~2 hours to complete (112 pages)

Graphic novel: Deception 1-2 hours to complete (72 pages)

TV Series: Absolution 3 hours to complete (total runtime 180 minutes)

Graphic novel: Blue Wraith 1-2 hours to complete (72 pages)

Short story collection: Tevinter Nights ~11 hours to complete (490 pages, estimated 159k words)

Graphic novel: The Missing 1-2 hours to complete (84 pages)

Web short stories: Dragon Age: The Veilguard prequels <1 hour to complete (7 short stories, ~5k words)

Deliberately excluded due to being out-of-print/offline/etc:

Dragon Age comics by IDW / Orson Scott Card

Dragon Age Journeys

Dragon Age Legends

Dragon Age Inquisition Multiplayer

Dragon Age: The Last Court

[inthe-afterglows]

24hrs since i read Iron Flame and I'm still thinking about it!! so much happened in this book that I feel like I read three books in one and I loved it so much even if the ending had me screaming and wishing I had the next book already!!

Spoilers (and my thoughts) under the cut!

Xaden and Violet in this one were perfect in their flaws and I love how hard they worked on their relationship! If they are not endgame by the end of this series I will find my own dragon just to set the whole series on fire. The fact that they had such limited time together and usually had to choose whether to fight/argue over their issues or just be together was so sad and frustrating so I was glad when Xaden finally made them have the tough conversations. Their protectiveness of each other is so sweet and don't even get me started on Xaden coming to rescue Violet from Basgiath because I was deceased reading it. Also the scene with the throne *smirky face* "my house. my chair. my woman." Damn straight Xaden, say it louder for the people in the back. I will not let the ending deter me. They will find a cure of Xaden. They just have to. Like they can speak in each other's minds, that is soulmate stuff right there. They have to be end game. Also the reveal about Xaden's second signet had me screaming.

Tairn and Andarna were hilarious and the reveal about Andarna at the end also has me eagerly waiting for the next book. Their bond with Violet is so cute (and funny). They really are just Grumpy Dad, Eldest Daughter, Baby Sister energy.

Violet and her squad, particularly, Rhiannon, Ridoc, and Sawyer are the definition of found family and I love how loyal they are to each other. I also loved the addition of the new characters, Sloane and Aaric and adored more page time for Jesinia.

I'm meh about Dain's redemption arc. I don't hate it but I'd be fine if it wasn't there. I am glad he chose Violet's side in the end and that he accepted her and Xaden instead of trying to become between them. I'd say this book made me hate Dain 60% less but I still wouldn't care if he died.

Love that the Sorrengail siblings are back together!! i do think more could've been done with their mum but I did like her ending, sacrificing herself for her children and country. I do think it also could have been interesting material for the next book for her to have gone against Melgren's orders or something and have to seek shelter in Aretia where she would've had to confront her decisions and the pain they caused - not to mention deal with the anger Brennan has towards her. I think it would've been more impactful if the relationship between her and her children was explored a little more before killing her off as her death didn't really hit me as hard as it should've. The only scenes we ever really got of the Sorrengail siblings and their mum were all relatively negative, always arguing or disagreeing about something so it felt slightly realistic how devastated Violet and Mira were at her death.

All in all loved this book but literally so much happened in it that I'm glad I don't have the next one at my fingertips just to give me time to process and reread before the next one does come out. I'm really excited to see where the story goes and I loved the little hints of things that are obviously going to be addressed in the next one!!

[ofliterarynature]

DECEMBER 2023 WRAP UP

[loved liked ok no thanks (reread) book club*]

Mixed Magics • Chalice • To Shape a Dragon's Breath • The Haunting Season • Hither Page • The Henchmen of Zenda • System Collapse • The Phantom of the Opera • An Unexpected Peril • A Minor Chorus* • The September House • (The Dream Thieves) • The Fragile Threads of Power • The Pinhoe Egg • (Network Effect) • Some Desperate Glory

total: 16 (audiobook: 12 / ebook: 4)

Happy New Year booklr! Here's to actually getting my last monthly wrap-up post of 2023 out in decent time for once.

Some Desperate Glory - I'm getting myself off to a bad start here because I don't actually remember much from the book and I didn't write a review at the time. oops. But I do remember that once things got going I was hooked, and I couldn't wait to pick the audiobook back up. Definitely some content warnings to look out for, but an incredible read. I definitely need to go back and check out the author's other work.

Network Effect - the last book of my Murderbot reread, still great, glad to have finally read this in a text format! Also better suited to be read *after* Fugitive Telemetry, I wish I'd known to read them in chronological order the first time.

The Pinhoe Egg - a nice wrap up to the main Chrestomanci series! Though if anyone can tell me why on eARTH the 'recommended' reading order is like *that*, please explain it to me. I'd forgotten so many things by the time we got back to Cat, if I ever reread I'm going chronologically.

The Fragile Threads of Power - lord help me, I could do a whole rant. A quick summary of my relationship to this series: loved Shades of Magic when it first came out, did not love/was very annoyed by most of it when I reread them in 2023. Also have not really liked any of Schwab's other work. BUT. I was under the impression that this spinoff would have new main characters, and the old ones would be present but not in the center. If I didn't just make this up, it was LIES. The original MC's still dominate probably at least 60% of the book, and you'd think 7 years in-book and more experience on behalf of the writer would mature them, but a) no, and b) so many goddamn flashbacks. And Kel's assasin-sona was so cringe I wanted to cry. I did actually like the new main character which really is the biggest shame of all. If you see me contemplating the next book please stop me.

The Dream Thieves - I don't know that I have much to add yet to my thoughts about TRB in my Nov post, but I've been having a very strange experience where when I'm actively reading these, I'm having an incredibly good time; when I'm not I completely forget I was reading it. lol?

The September House - this is possibly the closest to my ideal horror book that I've ever found??!!? I have a weird relationship with horror, wherein I am not uninterested, but I almost never enjoy the ones I read (I think it has to do with my irl anxiety, idk). But THIS one. It's such an INCREDIBLE blend of like, mundane horrors and dark humor? I loved it. The "you can live with the horrors if you just follow the rules" is very much my vibe, and the way the author chose to have it integrate with the main character's experiences of domestic abuse was very smart. Deeply enjoyed, but probably won't be a favorite.

A Minor Chorus - this month's book club pick! I really really wish I'd liked this, and I'm torn between "thank god it was short," and "oh I wish this was longer." It's about a queer Indigenous doctoral student in Canada who's somewhat lost his way on his dissertation and is instead writing a novel (maybe), inspired by the stories of people in his community. On one hand, the writing was sometimes very beautiful and the different stories were interesting! On the other, my academic-speak abilities are limited, and the narrator did not hold back. He even explicitly states at one point, oh I can't describe my book this way to [character] because he won't understand my academic language. And...yeah. My brain got a little overwhelmed and I skimmed a lot of those parts. The hopeful part of me thinks if that if the book had been longer maybe I would have had time to "get it," but idk.

An Unexpected Peril - Veronica Speedwell is as Veronica Speedwell does. Had a good time with this even though it's proving to not be the most memorable. Mostly I remember intensely panicking over whether or not V had practiced forging the princess's signature, lol.

The Phantom of the Opera - this was a last minute sub for my classics challenge; I've never seen any of the adaptations, but I happened to see the book on tumblr when I was scrambling for a replacement and thought it might be fun. And it was! Quite ridiculous and dramatic, and I had a good time reading it. I was surprised by the outsider POV on the story, but it was good, just a shame that it didn't allow Christine to tell her own story. If anyone has a Christine-centered retelling I should read, let me know! And are there any adaptations I should watch?

System Collapse - new Murderbot! I was so excited for this, I'm irritated that my brain and work schedule didn't want to cooperate and let me read my nice pretty hardcover; I ended up getting the audiobook from the library instead. I had an incredible time, because it's Murderbot, how could I not? But it's also interesting, because Network Effect felt quite cohesive and contained on its own, but this feels very much like an in-between story (almost like Fugitive Telemetry), rather than a continuation of the same thread. I'll be interested to see where Martha takes us from here.

The Henchmen of Zenda - my last KJ Charles of the year! I did mean to get through all of her books, but things slipped by me these last few months so I still have a couple, but managed to fit this standalone in! It's not the only time she's pulled characters from works of classic fiction, and I admit, I'm now very curious and kind of want to read the original Prisoner of Zenda? Definitely this version had an exciting plot that was fun to read, though I don't think it'll be my favorite of her works (yay for a non-traditional relationship structure tho :)

Hither, Page - I don't think I've read Cat Sebastian before, but I've had this one recommended and it sounds right up my ally - historical/cozy myster/spy shenanigans/gay romance! And it was an incredibly pleasant read, would recommend, but I do think it could have been better as both a mystery and a romance.

The Haunting Season - I almost picked this up in October for spooky season, but put if off for Dec since it's meant to be wintery ghost stories - and only just remembered it in time! I almost wish I hadn't. The first two stories were so meh for me that I almost DNF'd it, I just didn't want the fuss of having to find a new audiobook for work the last day before Christmas break. Luckily Natasha Pulley showed up next with a good story (I really ought to read her books) and there was a good run of 4 stories with another 2 meh to round things out. It wasn't a total loss, but I wouldn't really recommend.

To Shape a Dragon's Breath - If you've seen people singing the praises of this book, they're not wrong! It's a very good if sometimes heavy read, and this is definitely the closest I've gotten to liking a boarding school story since Protector of the Small (I got burned out on them very quickly, lol). It does sometimes read like the debut it is, it's not perfect (lots of infodump speeches, lord save me from the technicalities of alchemy/chemistry, and I would have liked to see more done in her relationship with her dragon), but it's also doing some incredible and unique things that really make me want to see more books in this series and whatever else the author writes.

Chalice - I've read Robin Mckinley before and I've found her work ok, but this one has been repeatedly recommended in the HOTE discord server - I figured it would be a good one to wrap up the year with! And surprise surprise, the fealty-coded discord loves a book about... fealty XD and good stewardship, and magic bees, etc. It's incredibly on brand, and I had a lovely time with this fairy-tale of a book.

Mixed Magics - a collection of Chrestomanci short stories; I actually read one of the stories a few months ago due to the recommended reading order (bleh), and thought it would be fairly simple to finish it off before the end of the year, now that I'd finished the rest of the series. All fun, if not equally interesting, and a nice end to the year. Now I just need to find a new Diana Wynne Jones series to try (not on audiobook, alas, my library is all out of those).

(I did almost consider then binging the Hither, Page sequel on new year's eve, just so I wouldn't split the series, but decided against it :D)

[strangesmallbard]

okay i’m about 60 pages away from finishing fire & blood and once again i understand the ire of book fans (almost wrote “wroth.” grrm i’m in your walls.) hotd girlbossified rhaenyra within an inch of her life, made baela and rhaena wildly irrelevant despite their extremely important roles in the next 200 pages, and just like. took the teeth out of the entire dance conflict. the council set everyone down a path of fuck with the law of primogeniture, the targs continuously get crushed by their own dragons, and no one is winning this thing! that’s the point.

if hotd wanted to make either rhaenyra or alicent more likable, they were already doomed bc general audiences hate women characters for doing literally anything. like i still love the complexity they gave alicent, but what if they were both a little cuntier. what if they took a page from succession and trusted their audience to realize a person can be both vile and sympathetic, loving and cruel in different contexts—and sometimes, the same contexts. the dagger scene was GREAT. but it’s not enough i think!

[lumarisart]

I'm almost there! SGC 6 is taking longer than I wanted to get done, but it's mostly executive dysfunction kicking my ass lol. This is why I don't do preorders for this series - but also it's a thing for fun, I'm trying to keep it fun to work on.

A little TLDR, because the amazon descriptions suck & I never properly introduced my writing or this series lol (I should hire someone when I have the money, to write a better blurb lol) but SGC is, in a nutshell, about a group running a cafe in the day, and doing some ghoul hunting at night for extra cash. When they stumble on something seemingly big, they think they can leverage whatever info they find into a possible job - whether just selling the information or doing something in return for a big payout - either way, they stick their noses into something that ends up being bigger than they expected.

At one point they'll have to decide whether to continue a "normal" life, or if they should seize the chance to try and do something about it. That's the plot, but at its core it's a very obvious love story about two guys who were very good friends, but became something more.

I rate it 18+ for vulgar language, some explicit scenes (both s*x and gore and drug use) and there's a lot....lot of F-bombs.

Setting: Think of a high fantasy world. A few thousand years later, they merge magic and technology. An industrial revolution begins! Then, a couple more thousand years, and new magic is discovered, and space exploration is unlocked! Now we have mega-metropolis cities, space ports, council of dragon shifters splitting the city into districts, and intergalactic government that tries to keep them in line.

The characters never set foot offworld (not in this season anyway) but there's plenty of mention of it.

Serial: This is a serial, not a big book - each episode is 20-60 pages, sometimes less, sometimes more. But it's why it's $1 an episode to read (although I may restructure this if I can get my own website redone) via Amazon (for now.) Once the whole season is done (10 episodes) I'll lump them together in a big single volume and offer a special edition paperback and hardcover (which I hope to fully illustrate!)

Background:

I started SGC in 2020, though festered the idea of it in October of 2019. 2020 needed a change of pace from my usual high/steampunk fantasy stories and characters, and thus SGC was born. In 2021, after hiring my editor (who isn't on here sadly) we worked together to get the first 5 launched. It's been over a year since releasing SGC5, but I'm happy to finally get back into it.

If you read all that, thank you! If not, totally understand. Thank you for your time ^_^

[stormears]

Ever thought of writing an original story? If so what genre and what it be about?

I started a LOT of original stories when I was tween and teen. A couple long enough to be called "novels," only ever finished 1 of them. But oddly enough as I progressed through high school age, I cared less about original novels and more about fanfiction lol. It's the creative transformation of existing characters/stories that engages me. Creating my own 100% from scratch interests me less. I haven't been seriously "writing an original story" since I was 18-19?

The tweenage stories stole 60-90% of their plots from media I liked at the time like Zelda, Princess Mononoke and Inuyasha. All were fantasy stories about dangerous adventures, lands and creatures and fighting through all those things. Either talking animal protags or humans who bonded with and/or tamed lots of cool animals along the way haha.

The most prominent story was about a group of dragon friends who had to go on a quest to find several magic jewels (one jewel per book of course). There was 1) main girl dragon who was cold and aloof and stoic and badass and 2) a main boy dragon who was brave and good and nicey-nice and totally crushing on the girl one 3) a short and fat and smart boy dragon, 4) a hyperactive dumb girl one, who walked on two legs like a velociraptor. And none had wings. Because I was also obsessed with the cartoon Dragon Booster at the time, which was about racing dragons, but DB dragons never had wings and some were bipedal like raptors. I drew a lot of "fanart" of this series and moments from future books I never wrote, still have some of it.

I wrote 'book 1" of that dragon friends quest series from ages 12 to 14 (maybe 15?) and actually finished it. It was around 120 pages on MS Word, not sure of word count. I'm sure it's 97% garbage but it's finished, somewhere. The cold bitch dragon was probably more self-insert than I wanted to admit. I even gave her a mysterious older brother dragon who occasionally appeared to save or help the group. Because my brother had recently moved out for college and I missed him.

Later in high school I started a more typical YA novel about a nation of floating cities in the sky populated by people with feathery angel wings. They never went below the clouds to see what was below. They had a tradition of jumping off a city to start learning to fly, and the MC guy's little brother fails and falls to the Earth. He and MC Girl decide to fly down and see if they can recover his body. They find Earth is a desert wasteland, and all sentient creatures left on it want to attack and take over the cities because there's nothing but hopeless starvation down here.

There's still wingless dragons in that story lmao. The main dragon they meet is an aggressive grouch who carries his completely paralyzed little sister around on his back. There was going to be some insane moment late in the story where the sister somehow lifts herself up and crawls to retrieve something or attack someone. Never got that far. Oh they did find the little brother, though, he was fine. I wrote about 50 pages of that story, haven't touched it since 2013 probably. Don't remember how I even wanted it to end.

[acbrainrot]

🩷 get to know me! 🩷

i saw other ppl have been doing this and i thought, why not?

marijn (pronounced MAA - R - EYE - N) /mɑrɛin/

dutch

they/them/theirs

agender & trans

25 yrs old

autistic (including all of its perks)

do not interact

zionists, antisemites, alt rights, islamophobes

homophobes, transphobes or exclusionists of ANY kind (terfs/farts, transmeds, etc)

maps, nomaps, supporters/enablers

special interests, past and ongoing

(in my head there isn't a distinction between hyperfixation and special interest, i just can't like stuff in a chill way and will not ever be chill)

assassin's creed

the legend of zelda

art history

birds!! i love them so much!!!! p much my whole life

ghibli movies

cinema! horror, bollywood and old hollywood in particular

jewelry

dinosaurs and dragons :)

egyptian gods and hieroglyphs (devoured so many books about them as a kid)

music (will list below)

music i listen to a LOT

i can't like music in a chill way and will try to find out everything there is to find about an artist if i like them enough

olivia newton-john!!!!!!!!

grimes (used to be in the trenches when it came to her, had a successful fan page and everything)

zheani!!!!!

deftones

lesley gore

abba

warda al-jaizaira (classical egyptian arabic music)

ros serey sothea (cambodian 60/70s pop)

i used to love banshee until she started posting zionist bullshit, still very heartbroken over it :(

[queenvreads]

REVIEW: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

*Contains Spoilers *

I am going to be VERY generous—no, EXTREMELY generous (because I waited on a waitlist for this book and paid $31 for it)—and give this book 2.75 stars/5. The premise of the book is actually good, but the execution falls short. AND I must emphasize that if this book hadn't been so hyped up, I might have enjoyed it more. But because of all the hype, I had high expectations, and unfortunately, it didn't meet them.

Let's begin my rant.

Violet studied her whole life to be a scribe, but her mom decides that she should become a dragon rider instead. The majority of the cadets at this brutal academy are conscripted, meaning they don't have enough soldiers in the military and need to draft these kids. However, these kids are just left for dead during the trials, and tragically, every moment and every day someone dies. They can even kill each other, with a few exceptions based on the Codex rules.

In the beginning of the book, 60-something kids died on the parapet. What is the point of that? It would have made more sense if the losers of the trials were assigned different roles like scribes, cooks, or healers instead of being killed.

Furthermore, all the kids of the separatists are conscripted into the military. Why would you give kids of traitors with strong vendettas access to secrets and military information? But even worse, they are given dragons. Doesn't anyone see a problem with this? It's not a very smart military strategy. (But what do I know!)

The world-building and dialogue in the book were very corny and cringe-worthy. There were instances of strange dialogue early on that stood out. For example, on page 9, Violet & Mira are talking about Violet's situation. It's bad—she's literally going to a death academy. They have this super weird conversation about a rider who can make small things very big. "I roll my eyes." "I mean how much bigger?" I don't know... like... that's what comes to mind when you're panicked for your life in this high-stress situation? Soooo cringe. Then they go on to talk about sex lives... like, seriously? I think Violet needs to focus on a different topic today 🤣

Another example is on page 14 when Mira warns Violet about Xaden. Instead of a natural conversation, Violet starts info-dumping facts about Xaden's father. "That Xaden Riorson?" and then Violet starts saying the facts about who Xaden's father is. "His father was the Great Betrayer. He led the rebellion." Who talks like that? Imagine you're talking to someone about your friend ABC, and then that person says, "Oh ABC, they grew up in a small town and have 4 dogs." Yes, that's the one.

This pattern of cringe dialogue continues throughout the book. While I understand the appeal of providing details to the reader, the descriptions were too literal and lacked subtlety.

Another example when Xaden and Violet meet, they say "Sorengail?" "You're General Sorrengail's youngest!" "You're Fen Riorson's son!" DUH 😵😵 Oh my God, pull my teeth out.

Let's move on to Violet. (O.M.G. I could not stand this nickname.)

She is tiny, frail, and weakly built. YOU CANNOT FORGET THIS, BECAUSE IT'S REPEATED THROUGHOUT THE BOOK. My main issue with her is that she knowingly puts herself in a dangerous situation where death is almost guaranteed, yet she acts SO STUPID. 🤯🤠😵

I fail to understand why Xaden keeps praising her intelligence when her actions don't reflect it. WHAT'S SO SMART ABOUT HER? If she were smart, she would have let Dain take her away.

For example, the moment she shares one of her good boots with Rhiannon, who, at that moment, could have been a Jack 2.0, I knew she was dumb. She consistently comes across as lacking common sense.

Another moment... when she protected Andarna before they bonded. I'd want to protect an innocent creature as well from being killed, but the fact that she puts herself in harm's way, to protect a DRAGON when she's outnumbered like that, is insane.

And how on earth does she get 2 dragons? Of course, her dragon is mated with Xaden's. At least it's not mated faes...

There was a part when Jack challenged her. She didn't want Liam to tell Xaden, yet during the fight, she has a thought about how she needs to survive for Xaden's safety. IT MAKES NO SENSE. She could have told him, and he would have stopped it!

Next up, I had no connection to her and Xaden romantically. Of course, he's this misunderstood villain who actually has morals. Violet is scared for her life, and Xaden has a reason to kill her, yet she fantasizes about how good-looking he is. SCORCHING HOT. OH MY GOSH. PLEASE. NO. What is this vocabulary they use in this book?? The constant reminder that her body is reacting to him, he's so.fucking.hot, that her self-preservation is out the door. AND LET'S NOT EVEN TALK ABOUT THE SEX SCENES. Oh, my goodness, the dirty talk was so CRINGE. Ok, let's move on, I can't talk about it.

Moving on.... There is a point that Violet, VIOLET.. finds out about Xaden's secret gatherings. (When she is in the tree) she then promises him secrecy. Why? It makes no sense. She thinks he's going to murder her. She overhears him talk, and she's like, "Oh, he's not so bad, that's good advice he's telling his potential rebellion gang." Like what? Then the escalation from "ok, I'll keep your secret" to "ok, are you going to kill me or what?" Does she have A.D.D.??

Everything about her interactions is useless. ANOTHER EXAMPLE. She bonds with 2 dragons, they are deliberating about the laws, and when they announce her as "girl," in her mind she corrects them with "woman!" And it's like.. ok so people are trying to kill you, you are injured, you are experiencing trauma, and that's where the line in your mind is crossed? Everything about her makes me want to bang my head against the wall.

Dain starts as being sweet and quickly becomes overbearing. He's condescending and whiny. They keep saying they are each other's best friends, but are they? REALLY? He puts policy before her. ALTHOUGH, he is the only one smart enough to attempt to get her out of the academy. It's like Tamlin and Rhys all over again, only much much worse.

Lastly, as much as I love dragons, them being telepathic with their riders ruined the grandeur and mystique of them for me. Big, great, ominous, strong dragons having sarcastic banter with an insecure Violet didn't work. It still doesn't make sense how she was thrown into this situation and is just accepting it. And actually choosing to stay.

The ending was good, the last line definitely something I will think about. Do I care to know what happens next? It really depends on whether this author will clean up her writing style and mature these characters.

I am never falling for TIKTOK hype ever again. 🤯... maybe thats a lie, but I will be WEARY!

✍️Befriend me on Goodreads: ⭐HERE⭐

[fierceawakening]

I think, with that Le Guin article/quotes is that everyone is currently talking at cross purposes. I don't think anyone is disagreeing that Le Guin is coming across as a snob (which if I want to be generous is probably based in the fact that she's old and was writing sci-fi/fantasy before they even separated them as genres [Earthsea is from the 60's!] She's spent the majority of her career probably fighting to be taken seriously and is now bitter and crotchety about it, but being honest I never got into her as an author i dislike her style immensely so I've never paid much attention to her) but while in that article you are getting focused on the potential joy of creation and how that should welcome people into the community. Others are getting hung up on the disrespect *of the audience*, and probably thinking of how they've been burned by authors before who disrepect them and the genre(s). Nothing is more heartbreaking as a reader than to get excited about a book and then feel the author's disdain of the reader. I am fully with you that joy should be celebrated as well as people shouldn't be afraid to try a new thing. My caveat is that if they've discovered joy in writing the genre they didn't respect before, that by the end of the process if they still don't respect the genre or the audience they probably won't have a market. It doesn't matter that they enjoyed creation, a community isn't going to welcome with open arms someone proclaiming "here you go idiots who enjoy 'x' genre, you have no depth so you'll love this". If they do find a respect at least for the audience then Le Guin gets proven wrong, you can feel the joy pour off the page and it doesn't matter that they're reinventing the wheel, it's an awesome addition to the collective world.

Anyway that's my take, not trying to necessarily restart the discussion it's just been percolating in my head since yesterday.

Thanks! I think you’re right that people disdaining sf/f was a huge thing before we all got into HP and Marvel and nerd stopped being a coherent social category. I was a kid in the 80’s and I remember being told I was expected to outgrow it, including a very memorable interaction where someone noticed me reading Dragonlance novels and said, “you’re in SIXTH GRADE now,” as if something about aging made dragons less cool. (I am 44. Dragons are still cool.)

It’s BECAUSE of this that her snobbery bugs me (and it’s a minor annoyance, but people harping on it is making it seem huge.) Becoming bitter about the hated of nerds when it’s no longer even a thing is the kind of obsession with the past that helps no one.

We won, Urs. It’s okay. You can exhale.

HP helped, too. That’s also okay. I know you disliked it, Urs, when we were all still loving it. But it’s okay that someone who doesn’t meet your standards made us cool.

I know you’re dead. But I promise. You can let go. We’ve got you from here.