#Finally!Our boy's here

[writingdevil]

Tongues and Teeth PT.8 (STP)

The next day,everyone woke up with one mission in mind-Find Hero.

Skeptic and Smitten had been quiet that morning as they extinguished the fire and prepared to set off,but as the day went on,they grew more confident,until they were almost like their outspoken selves again,and Paranoid found them to be leading the search for Hero,which he didn't object to.

"You really think Hero will want to see us?"Broken asked,preening the feathers on his arms for comfort,and Smitten threw the smaller bird a bright smile as he said,"Of course he will!He's our beloved Knight!He's always looked out for us."

But then Skeptic gave them all a more-realistic reply."But we also think something's up with him,so don't be surprised if he's acting weird."

Smitten shot the other a glare for dampening the mood,but Skeptic just shrugged,and looked ahead again.

Paranoid looked over at Oppy from the other end of their group,to find him already looking over at him, and Oppy just gave him a wide and self-assured smile while straightening up,before he subtley shifted the smile to a soft one,which only lasted a second,lifting the mask for a single moment,just for Paranoid.

It shouldn't of calmed him as much as it did.

They kept walking for about a half an hour without any luck,when Contrarian slid up next to him, nudging him lightly as he said,"Hey."

Paranoid looked down at him in confusion."Hey?"

Contrarian smiled,but it looked nervous,and he kept his eyes on the ground as he asked,"So,uh,just wanted to ask-let's say we do find Hero,and it's all 'yay the gang's back together!'and-um-"

"What is it?"

"Well,I was just wondering...what do we do after that?"

Paranoid bit his lip to stop a burst of anxious laughter from escaping,because that was the exact question that he had been avoiding like the plague.

There's nothing Paranoid feared more than the unknown,because it was so easy for something to surprise them,and that was where Paranoid came in-to worry about everything and not trust anybody.It was his job to keep them alert and worried,because nothing made sense in that cabin, and that meant that they were in danger of everything.

Right now,it was just a different predicament with the same worries.How do they stay safe?Who can they trust?What's really going on here?Just because there wasn't an Echo looming over their heads anymore,doesn't mean that there couldn't be another being pulling the strings.

His chant was always in the back of his throat,ready to keep everyone from falling apart and succumbing to the numbness of death.But after they found Hero-would they need to be that scared anymore?

There wasn't a cabin.There wasn't a princess.There wasn't an Echo.

There were still monsters,and there was still the woods with paths to walk,but that didn't answer Contrarian's question,because the truth was-Paranoid didn't know.

He didn't know what to do after they've found Hero, and that terrified him.

It had been easy to ignore at first,when they were busy with finding the others,but now that the flock was almost complete,that dreaded question was rearing its ugly head again,and Paranoid wanted to just run away from it forever.

Contrarian could clearly sense Paranoid's floundering,and just as he was about to speak,Cold came up on Paranoid's other side,silent,but Paranoid's learned to sense his presence.

"Does it matter?"Cold asked,looking over Paranoid's head and down at Contrarian,who was surprised at his words."What?"

"Does it matter what happens afterwards?"Cold asked,"Asking questions like that just seem pointless to me.Agonising over the future takes all the fun out of it if you ask me.Besides,"then Cold looked ahead again and shrugged,"it can't be that awful if we're all still together.We won't find out alone."

Contrarian gazed up at Cold with a blank look on his face,before a bright grin split his face.He giggled as he said,"Yeah,I can get behind that!"

Surprisingly,Paranoid found that he could too.The unknown suddenly seemed less scary when he thought about going into it with his flock as well. Paranoid wasn't used to positivity,but for once,he found that things might not be that bad going forward.

But then he soon realised that positivity was a load of bullshit.

Skeptic and Smitten stopped at a particularly thick wall of bushes.Skeptic turned around and gave Stubborn a look,cocking his head towards the green wall."You're up,big guy."

Paranoid only managed to catch a flash of Stubborn and his manic smile,before he rushed forward,ripping the bushes to shreds with overjoyed laughter.

Skeptic only stopped him when Stubborn began to stomp on the torn leaves,and he had to physically pull him away from the mess.

Skeptic turned back around-and froze-and Paranoid could swear that Smitten was shaking with a look of horror in his eyes.

"What's the hold up?"Cheated asked,as they were blocking the sight in front of them.A nagging fear whispered in the back of Paranoid's mind,as neither Skeptic nor Smitten answered them.

Cheated sighed in annoyance,then pushed himself to the front,until he was shoving the two birds away as he angrily said,"What the hell is wrong with you-"

Until they all saw it.

There was a hill.A tall hill where the sun shone down invitingly on the soft looking grass,practically begging for them to stop and rest.But at the top of that hill-was a cabin.

A cabin.

A cabin.

No.

No no no no no no no!

"Why is there a cabin?"Contrarian asked,pure fear in his voice,despite the frozen smile on his face. Skeptic stammered,for once offering no logical explanation or helpful questions to the conversation.

Paranoid clutched the feathers on his chest, shoulders rising up in tension as he couldn't stop staring at that fucking cabin.

Nobody moved.

Nobody spoke.

Paranoid believed that they were waiting for someone to narrate their next steps.

But then there was a flash of movement from farther away,a blur of black that had Paranoid momentarily come out of his petrified state.

"Hero?"he whispered,and then he saw Hunted's wings twitch as he turned to look at Paranoid,and nodded once.

It was him.

"Hero!"Paranoid yelled,pushing past everyone and effectively shaking them out of whatever blind terror that had come over them.As soon as he passed Skeptic,any and all fear was being mixed with determination to reach their leader,and suddenly there was no cabin,no path,no woods-only Hero.

He ran out onto the field,yelling,"Hero!"and saw the way Hero froze,then looked over at him,only for Paranoid to feel a wave of grief hit him,and tears welled up in his eyes.

God-he looked so much like the Long Quiet that it hurt.

Paranoid pushed past the grief,instead waving his arms out and going,"Hero!We're all here,Hero!"He motioned back towards the others,who had started to excitedly run up to him,all smiling and calling Hero over.

But then Paranoid studied Hero's face,and all he saw was despair.

Their eyes locked,and then Hero sprinted for the cabin.

"What's he doing?"Oppy yelled,but Paranoid couldn't figure it out.All he knew was that he had to reach the cabin first.

So he ran."Heart,lungs,liver,nerves.Heart,lungs, liver,nerves."He said his chant with a biting tone,as if it was a curse instead of a life-saving mantra.

Behind him,he heard flapping and the others screaming Hero's name,pleading for Hero to stop, but he didn't even turn to look back at them.

They had gotten halfway up the hill,with Hero a little ahead of them,when Hunted suddenly screamed,"More danger to the right!"

Paranoid stopped in his tracks,just as a monster burst from the trees,its body a cylindrical shape with arms for legs,but it seemed much better at moving than the first monster they encountered. But the worst thing about this monster,in Paranoid's opinion,were the eyes that covered its entire body.

Immediately,there was that horrible itching sensation of needing to scratch and claw at every inch of his body that those eyes were looking at.He didn't want that creature looking at him.He didn't want people watching him!

He whimpered,running a hand down his face aggressively,when he heard a roar cry be let out, and he made himself to look,as the monster came barrelling towards their group,and Stubborn and Cheated ran to meet it,a fire in their eyes,ready to fight and protect.

Everything erupted into chaos immediately.Skeptic and Cold were quick to shoot into the sky and join the battle,while Broken clutched Hunted's hand, who didn't look like he was going to leave the smaller bird's side anytime soon.Contrarian was in the sky as well,but with a mischievous grin on his face that had Smitten holding him back from the fight,and likely stopping him from making it worse.

Paranoid made the mistake of glancing at the monster again,and he felt his whole body shudder as the sight of all those eyes,and he felt like his body needed to run away and stay completely still at the same time.He didn't know what to do.He didn't know what would keep him from losing his mind.

Thankfully,someone made the choice for him.

"Come on,Jitters!Let's go!"

Paranoid yelped in surprise as Oppy grabbed him and hauled him into the sky,flying straight for the cabin-the same place that Hero was aiming for.

He wanted to turn back around and see his flock, but one sound of that hideous monster attacking kept his head fixed straight ahead.

He felt Oppy squeeze his arms once,then lowered his head to whisper in his ear,"Bring him back to us, Jitters."before letting go.

He grunted as his knees hit the ground,but he just gritted his teeth and made himself keep moving, bolting over to the cabin,which Hero was also making a beeline for.

This close,Paranoid could hear Hero's frantic panting,and see the utter desperation in his eyes. He wouldn't look at Paranoid.

They both ran,closer and closer to the door,until they both shot their arms out.

Hero's fingers curled around the handle-

-but Paranoid gripped Hero's wrist tighter,almost tearing skin with his claws,forbidding him from turning the handle.

They both crashed to their knees in front of the door,practically slamming into the wood,and all there was,was the sound of their panting,and the fight behind them.

He felt Hero wriggle in his grip.

"Do not fucking move!"he snarled,twisting his head to glare at Hero,who was leaning his forhead against the door,a defeated look in his eyes.

They sat like that for a few seconds,catching their breath,until the anger slowly left Paranoid's body, and all that was left was concern.

"Hero,"he whispered,"what's wrong?What are you doing?"

Hero closed his eyes,his face scrunching up in confliction.Then,he said,"I need to get in there."

"No,we can't-"

"I need to see Him again."

Paranoid froze,and when Hero opened his eyes, there were tears threatening to spill.

"What do you mean?"Paranoid softly asked,and it suddenly felt like it was just them in the world now, like how it had been when they faced the Nightmare together.

Hero tried to breathe,but it came out as more of a gasp as he said,"I just need to go into the cabin and find Him again.Then everything will be alright."

"How do you know that?How do you know that everything will be okay?"

Hero's silence gave him his answer.

He felt Hero try to break free,but Paranoid kept an iron hold on his wrist,and he scooted closer and leaned his head down to say,"Hero,we can't risk whatever it is you're trying to do.It's not worth it."

He saw Hero's eyes flash with pain at his words,and he just stared at the door almost longingly for a minute or two,and Paranoid could tell that Hero's mind was somewhere far away,probably somewhere with a path of death and repetition and change.

Hero kept staring at the cabin door,until there were tears falling down his face,and he started to quietly sob,his body trembling in grief.

Paranoid just stared at him as Hero whispered,"I didn't know."

Paranoid opened his mouth to reply,but once he started,Hero didn't stop.

"I-I didn't know.I didn't know He would leave us.I thought-I thought that we'd get to go with Him."

He paused as another sob escaped from him, squeezing his eyes shut as his grip on the handle tightened before going slack,then tightening again.

The tears ran down his cheeks and dripped onto his feathers,letting them sparkle in the light.

"S-So I thought that if I found a cabin,then maybe-maybe I could see Him again.Maybe everything could go back to the way it was before,and we'd be in His head again."

Paranoid's heart broke at the fleeting hope in his voice,until it was drowned out by his crying,and he closed his eyes to press his forehead against the door.

"I just want to see Him again,"he wept,before surrendering to his grief then and there.

Paranoid was at a loss for words.

It broke his heart to watch their kind leader fall apart like this.

Hero was trying to bring the Long Quiet back to them?Even going so far as to bring back the whole cycle?He knew that Hero had been there in His final moments in the cabin-did he believe that he would get to go with them?

How did he feel when he woke up in a completely new body,and not as a voice anymore?Did he feel devastated?Abandoned?Did he think that the Long Quiet no longer cared about him?

After all,what good was a hero without someone to protect?

His thoughts were broken by the sound of the fight behind them,and all of their flock keeping the monster at bay.Every single one of them had taken to their newfound freedom differently.But no matter if they were devastated or ecstatic at the situation-they all found their way back to each other.

Paranoid had been terrified at the start,but the one thing he knew was that he had to find his flock, because he knew that he felt safer-no,happier, walking this path with them by his side.

"Hero,"he whispered,gazing at the other's empty look,but he still slightly moved his head towards him to say that he was listening.

"He is gone...but we're still here."

Paranoid tilted his head up and blinked back tears, his breath coming out shaky before he continued, "He made the decision to leave the cabin with the Shifting Mound.He made that choice of His own true,free will-and you want to take that away from Him?I know you miss Him-we all miss Him so much.But He's free now,and He can finally make His own choices without dying over and over again."

He felt the salt of his tears in his mouth,and he was aware that Hero was weeping again."All we can do is be happy for Him,that He can finally live the life He wants to live,and I know that He would want the same for you,for all of us."

Hero lifted his head properly,and despite the tears, Paranoid could see some light returning to his eyes. Paranoid smiled as he said,"We're not just voices anymore.We can make our own choices now-just like Him."

Hero let go of the handle.

He sat up straight,cheeks still damp,and he finally looked behind him."You all-"he began,voice rough and raw from crying,"-you all came for me?" Paranoid nodded,then took his hand."Of course we came for you.You're our Hero,and you're part of the flock."

Tears once again shone in his eyes,but Paranoid could tell that they were happy tears this time.Hero gave him a small smile and said,"I missed you all too."

Paranoid squeezed his hand in reassurance,and Hero's smile grew bigger.Everything was going to be okay-

"WATCH OUT!"

Paranoid had no time to act,as the monster came rushing towards them,upper half of its body swinging wildly for them.There was no time to move,no time to escape.Its shadow was already drenching them in darkness.

All he could do was let Hero pull him to his chest, angling his body so that he would take the brunt of the blow.

But neither of them ended up getting hurt.

"PARANOID!"

He turned,just in time to see Oppy dive in front of them,instantly getting thrown and slamming into a huge boulder in the distance.

He didn't get up.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The boy patting tournament has taken a competitive turn

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[steddiehyperfixation]

don't you forget about me (part seven)

(part one)(part two)(part three)(part four)(part five)(part six)

Eddie takes back everything he’d thought before; sex dreams are so much worse actually, especially when you wake up to the subject of them holding your hand. His face turns bright red the second his eyes open and land on Steve. He sits upright immediately, bunching up the blankets over his lap. 

The pounding of his heart - aka the rapid beeping of the heart monitor - alerts Steve who snaps awake instantly and tightens his grip on Eddie’s hand as he asks with urgent concern, “Are you alright? Did you have another nightmare?”

“No, no, definitely not a nightmare.” Eddie’s cheeks burn, feels the flush reach his ears and down his neck too. He clears his throat. “Just, uh- just a weird dream, that’s all. Not bad, just…weird, yeah. I’m fine.”

Steve relaxes. “Okay.” He hesitates, then adds hopefully, “Was it, uh- Do you think it was a memory?” 

Eddie shakes his head. “Definitely not.” 

“What makes you so sure?” Steve asks. 

“It was fantasy.” Eddie’s eyes rake over Steve, and he tries not to wonder just how accurate his dream was. 

Steve raises a skeptical eyebrow. “Fantasy?” 

“Yeah, fantasy. So unless you have some truly awesome news to give me about the existence of dragons,” Eddie lies (better to have Steve think he’d dreamt of riding on a dragon rather than that he’d dreamt of Steve riding him), “I’m pretty sure it was just a regular old dream.”

“Oh.” Steve's face falls; and Eddie almost wants to take it all back and tell a different lie, that it had been a memory, but he doesn't. “Yeah, no, I've yet to run into any dragons yet, I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Eddie says, running his thumb over Steve's hand. “I wish it was a memory. I mean- I wish I had more memories, and I'm sorry that I don't. I'm sorry that makes you so sad.” 

The apology only makes Steve look sadder. “Oh, Eddie, no, it's okay.” He shakes his head, squeezes Eddie's hand. “Don't apologize for that. It's not like you chose to forget.”

“I know. I’m still sorry though,” Eddie responds quietly. His dream-sparked lust has since curbed into something softer, inevitably. He looks into those downturned and devastating brown puppy dog eyes. “I didn't choose to forget, but I’m still the reason you're sad - I know that, so I'm sorry.” 

It's Steve this time who mutters “You don't have to worry about me so much, Eds, I'm alright,” and it's Steve this time who clasps Eddie’s hand in both of his and brushes a kiss over his knuckles. 

It sends a rush through Eddie's whole body to feel Steve's lips against his skin - in real life, that is. Heat rises in his cheeks again, heart rate kicking up for the millionth time. “Uh- yeah, uh, o-okay,” he stutters, can’t seem to form a coherent thought or sentence right now. He pulls his hand away and runs his fingers through his hair instead, changing the subject, “Um. Are you, uh- are you sticking around today?” 

“Yeah.” Though there’s still a trace of sadness behind his eyes, there’s something like flirtation there too as Steve smirks and says, “I’m all yours today.” 

God. Eddie really is done for, isn’t he.

It’s no wonder, then, that after spending another full day with Steve, another full day of being subjected to Steve’s bittersweet smiles and friendly banter and (that is, if Eddie’s not just being delusional, which is a very real and probable possibility) the occasional flirty comment, Eddie’s dreams soon turn sappy again:

They were sitting in some restaurant, in a corner booth, holding hands behind a propped up menu. Steve was looking gorgeous in a tastefully tight polo and perfectly styled hair streaked with gold, and he looked at Eddie with that warm little smile that always made his heart glow. It overflowed; Eddie almost couldn't take it. 

He said, “I know you said you wanted to do things right, so after how many dates can I ask you to be my boyfriend?” 

Steve's smile grew, eyes wide with a sort of wonder and disbelief and anticipation that was vaguely reminiscent of a child on christmas morning. “I, uh- I think the third date is just fine.” 

“Okay, good.” Eddie grinned. He caught Steve's other hand and held it right there out in the open without a care who saw or heard. “Because I like you so so much; you’re the best person I know, Stevie, and I wanna lock this down before someone else comes along and snatches you up. I want to be your boyfriend more than anything, and I want you to be mine, if you want that too. So, what do you say?” 

Steve must not’ve cared who saw or heard either because he immediately lunged across the table to kiss him, holding Eddie's hands tight as he pressed their lips together fervently. 

Eddie certainly wasn't about to complain. He indulged the kiss for a good long few moments before he pulled back to double check, “So that was a yes, right?” 

“Yeah, dumbass,” Steve laughed, fond and bright and beautiful. “That was absolutely a yes.” 

That ache is back when Eddie wakes up, the wanting, the wishing. 

He thinks this dream falls somewhere in between the events of the last two, like his brain is turning this fantasy into a whole connected narrative now, building and fleshing out this wishful story of him and Steve. Unless… No. Eddie can't let himself think like that. If these dreams have been memories, if that had really been the type of relationship they'd had, surely Steve would've said something. It's not unusual for Eddie's daydreams to become so involved and become entire worlds. This is, as he tells himself for the third time now, just another case of his overactive imagination. 

Steve doesn't ask about his dreams again, and he soon leaves for work and isn't around much that day, but that still doesn't stop Eddie's mind from continuing the fiction when he falls asleep holding Steve's hand, as always now, that night: 

Eddie sat on Steve's couch, his arm slung casually around Steve's shoulders as Steve leaned against him and idly played with the rings on Eddie's other hand while a movie played on the TV in front of them. It was Steve's turn to pick the movie, and there was a time when Eddie would've rolled his eyes and scoffed at the suggestion of watching The Breakfast Club, but it had just come out on VHS and Steve was so excited about it and Eddie was more than happy now to sit just there and watch Steve watch it. Because Steve was smiling and humming along to the songs on the soundtrack, and Eddie felt, suddenly, with such simple certainty that this is where he was meant to be, that this is who he was going to spend the rest of his life with. 

Something must've changed in his expression, in his stare, because Steve soon rolled his head to the side to look at Eddie and asked with an amused (and vaguely confused) smile, “What?” 

“Nothing, I just-” Eddie shook his head, pressed a kiss to Steve's temple and then said like it was the easiest thing in the world, “I think I've fallen in love with you.” 

Steve laughed as if this great big relief just bubbled free from his chest. “Oh thank god,” he said. “I’m in love with you too.” 

Eddie believed him, knew it with the same certainty as before. They shared gentle smiles and a sweet, chaste kiss. Steve slipped an arm around Eddie's waist and curled closer against his side. He went right back to watching the movie and Eddie went right back to watching Steve. And that was all there was to it. 

Clear, effortless, uncomplicated. Because how could they be anything else but in love with each other? 

~ 

Eddie sighs when he blinks awake. His eyes slowly shift to the side and he looks at Steve strangely for a few silent moments. 

Steve asks, “What?” 

Eddie's cheeks tinge pink, and Steve wonders, not for the first time, what Eddie had been dreaming about. He gets a devastating sense of deja vu when Eddie shakes his head and says, “Nothing.” But it stops there where Steve's memory doesn't. 

Although, Eddie is still considering him in that weird, just short of familiar way, and Steve wonders - again, not for the first time - if maybe Eddie just might remember too. But surely he'd say something if he did. 

Eddie taps his fingers against Steve's hand and asks after a long minute. “Are you gonna be around tomorrow?”

“I can be.” Steve is scheduled to work tomorrow, but he'd call out sick in an instant if Eddie asked him to.

“Okay, because, uh, that's when the doctor’s gonna have me try to walk and when they're gonna teach me and Wayne how to take care of my wounds at home for when I’m discharged, and I, um, I want you to be there for that too,” Eddie says. 

Steve finds himself a little surprised by this. “You really want me there?” 

“Yeah, I mean, If you don't mind,” Eddie starts, rambling like he's suddenly scared Steve might refuse, “I know it's not the most fun thing to be here for, but I just figured whatever the doctor tells us tomorrow you should know too, just in case, you know, like I might need you one day and Wayne can't be around all the time and-” 

“I’ll be there, Eddie,” Steve assures him, squeezing his hand. “Of course I’ll be there.”

And so he is. He calls out of work the next day, much to Keith’s annoyance, and stands there as the room fills with doctors and nurses and Eddie's uncle Wayne. 

Eddie's mobility is tested first. He makes a soft grunt of pain as he's instructed to swing his legs over the side of the bed, and then another when the doctor taps his knee and his injured leg kicks with the assessment of his reflexes. Satisfied with that response, the doctor moves on to pressing various pressure points on Eddie’s leg to measure how much he can feel (and Steve tries very hard not to feel so weirdly irrationally jealous at watching the doctor feel up Eddie's leg). After a few more soft painful hisses that let the doctor know Eddie's nerve endings are intact - or whatever it was she was testing - he's told to try and stand. He's understandably apprehensive, hesitant. The doctor and his uncle help coax him off the bed; the competent and the familiar. Steve hangs back still, sure he's not needed for this. 

But the second Eddie attempts to put pressure on his injured limb and he stumbles, his hand shoots out and it's Steve’s name he calls, as if on instinct. And, on instinct, Steve is there in a second to grab his hand and assist in steadying him. “I've got you,” he murmurs, guiding Eddie to the walker that's been set out for him. Eddie limps a few more feet with the help of the walker and the encouragement of Steve’s (hopefully) comforting hand on his shoulder until the doctor calls it and tells Eddie he can rest again. 

Once Eddie makes it back onto the bed, collapsing back into the pillows with a haggard sigh, the doctor and nurses immediately crowd him again, try to go straight into the next step of redressing his wounds. 

“Give him a second,” Steve snaps, protectively holding onto Eddie's hand and leaning over him. “Can't you see he's exhausted?” 

The doctor shoots the only other proper adult in the room a weary look. 

“They know what they're doing, kid.” Wayne's heavy hand lands on Steve's shoulder, both a reassurance and an alert for him to back off. 

“I’m okay, Stevie,” Eddie adds. He gives Steve a tired smile and squeezes his hand before prying it out of Steve's hold. “It's alright.” 

Steve reluctantly relents and steps back to give the medical professionals space to continue. 

Eddie's shirt is pushed up so the bandages on his chest and stomach are accessible as the nurses begin to explain and demonstrate the process of taking care of the injuries. Steve watches, listens intently, wants to absorb every ounce of information so he can best tend to Eddie if need be. Then his eyes flick up and he accidentally makes dead eye contact with Eddie who seems to realize then just how vulnerable and exposed he is right now because his cheeks burn red and his heart rate suddenly increases. 

The nurses don't seem to be too worried about this - if anything, they exchange knowing glances with everyone else in the room except Eddie and Steve before they continue their demonstration. Steve isn't worried either anymore - if anything, he finally resigns himself fully to the fact, the irrefutable proof, that Robin was right and Eddie really does have a schoolboy crush on him again. 

Steve does his best to keep paying attention, but in the background his mind is spinning and his heart aching. 

On the one hand it’s kind of sweet to know Eddie's feelings are not gone completely, that some level of attraction still swirls to the surface even through the empty space in his memory. And Steve has been indulging that crush the past couple days, little comments of flirtation just to feel like he still has Eddie in some way, just to see the reaction and have some evidence that Eddie still feels something at all for him. (Stupid, selfish.)

But on the other hand it is just a crush. Eddie used to love him, but now that's halved; and that's a very specific kind of agony. 

Steve’s not sure how much longer he can handle this. 

~

Something passed between them when they made eye contact; something sweet and sad flitted across Steve's expression, as it often does, but he looked away when Eddie blushed and has been avoiding his eyes again since. 

When the nurses are done showing them how to wrap him up, Steve retreats, saying kindly, though still not quite looking at him, “I'm gonna go get you some water, alright?” 

“Oh, yeah, thanks.” Eddie smiles gratefully after him. 

“Your boyfriend seems sweet,” Nurse Katie comments, carefully, as she secures the last of the fresh bandages. 

“Excuse me?” Eddie coughs, chokes on his own spit, spluttering, “I’m- he's not- we’re- it’s- um. He’s not my boyfriend.” 

“Oh, sorry,” the nurse is quick to apologize. “I didn't mean to assume, I just thought since he's always in here holding your hand, even before you woke up-” 

“We're friends,” Eddie says shortly. He feels a little dizzy at what she's suggesting and would really rather her stop talking. 

“Alright, my mistake.” Katie backs off the subject. 

Steve returns then anyways, further killing that topic of conversation. He hands a cup of water to Eddie, who takes it with another muttered “thanks” and starts gulping it down while the doctor goes off on some spiel about the process of having him discharged and more tests they’ll have to do tomorrow. Eddie’s not paying attention. He’s too tired. 

Not long after that, the doctor and nurses file out of the room, and Wayne stands to leave too. “I’m glad the two of you are getting close again,” he mentions to Steve and Eddie on his way out. “You were good for each other.” 

Whatever that means. 

Eddie doesn’t have the brainpower left to contemplate that. Being poked and prodded and trying to walk took a lot out of him. He’s exhausted, achy all over. It’s barely even late enough to be dinner time yet, but he could honestly just pass out right now. He sets his finished water cup on the bedside table and his now free hand reaches, once again, for Steve. 

“Tired?” Steve asks as he catches Eddie’s hand. 

“Mhmm.” Eddie settles against his pillows, closing his eyes. He adds in a sleepy mumble, “’M glad you were here today.”

“Me too.”

He feels Steve’s lips slide gently across the back of his hand, and then Eddie slides gently into sleep. 

Immediately, though, his dreams are not gentle; for the first time since he’s been falling asleep with Steve’s hand in his, Eddie dreams of the bats: 

Eddie was in that hell dimension, the scene all black and red and dotted with bats. But he wasn’t alone. Nancy Wheeler and Robin Buckley were there too, the three of them fending off the creatures with boat oars, and Steve- Steve was on the ground; two bats gnawed on his sides, another had its tail wrapped around his neck. Eddie’s heart was in his throat, roaring in his ears and pumping pure fear and adrenaline through his veins. He couldn’t save him; all he could do was try his best to keep more bats from joining in on the feast. 

Steve, however, seemed perfectly capable of saving himself. He managed to sink his teeth into the bat tail around his neck, getting it to let go. Eddie couldn’t see everything, too busy whacking away more incoming bats, but when the last of this fleet of creatures was fought off, Eddie turned back around to find Steve on his feet now, holding a bat by the tail and slamming it against the ground far more times than necessary. He watched as Steve stomped down on the bat’s neck and tore its head from its body. Blood from the bat’s tail hung from Steve’s lips in a thick, dark drip before he spat it into the dirt.

Eddie stared, jaw dropped, pounding heart pumping an entirely different sensation through his veins now. “That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” 

Steve gave him a bloodstained grin and Eddie’s knees felt weak. He would’ve dropped to the ground in front of him right then and there if- 

“Keep it in your pants, Munson.” Robin shoulder-checked him as she walked past. “At least until we get the hell out of hell.” 

Eddie settled instead for sidling up to Steve and, after taking a second to make sure he was alright, whispering low and close to Steve’s ear, “If we were anywhere else and you weren’t injured right now…” The muttered end of that sentence was something so filthy it made Steve’s face burn red, and he laughed. 

“Freak,” Steve said affectionately as he smacked a kiss to Eddie’s cheek. 

Eddie was quick to turn his head and catch Steve’s lips, locking them together in something searing and intense. 

“Boys!” Nancy snapped impatiently from a few feet ahead, which startled them apart. “Seriously? Time and place, come on.” 

Both Eddie and Steve laughed as they followed after the girls. 

Eddie wakes up a little bit disoriented from that dream. He doesn’t know what to call it: Was it a nightmare or not? Was it a memory or another fantasy? The lines are blurred and Eddie finds himself confused. 

Steve must’ve seen this on his face because he asks, “Everything alright?” 

“Yeah…” Eddie answers slowly. “I had a dream about the Upside Down…but it wasn’t quite a nightmare, I don’t think. I’m just- I’m not sure if it was a memory or not.” He hesitates, then decides screw it, he might as well try to get some sort of clarification on the reality of some details of his dream. “Did you…rip a bat in half with your bare hands?”

“I did, yeah,” Steve confirms. His expression shifts, sparking with something like hope. 

“And, uh, did I tell you that was the hottest thing I’d ever seen?”

“You did, yeah.” 

“Okay, cool,” Eddie says, reeling. “Just checking.”  

Steve is watching him almost expectantly, but when Eddie doesn’t say anything more on the subject, his face falls into something more like disappointment.

(final part is here!) taglist (CLOSED): @romanticdestruction @daydreamsandcrashingwaves @paintsplatteredandimperfect @hallucinatedjosten @mugloversonly @estrellami-1 @alongcomesaspider @thatonebadideapanda @tell-me-a-secret-a-nice-one @dragonmama76 @wxrmland @nuggies4life @sirsnacksalot @myguiltyartpleasure @lolawonsstuff @marklee-blackmore @vinteraltus @sebastiansstanswhore @0happyeverafter0 @scarlet-malfoy @hotluncheddie @xxfiction-is-my-realityxx @emsgoodthinkin @alyelf @warlordess @stevesbipanic @lil-gremlin-things @rockandrolodex @badcaseofcasey @bat-outta-hel @fandomcartographer @manda-panda-monium @littlewildflowerkitten @giopandaonice @mightbeasleep @queenie-ofthe-void @krazyperson @worldofshea @marvel-ous-m @tartarusknight @a-little-unsteddie @xenon-demon @goodolefashionedloverboi @xxsky-shockxx @mc-i-r @bookbinderbitch @aspenshade88 @slowandsteddie @thedragonsaunt @daydreaming-mood @space-invading-pigeon @irregular-child @a-lovely-craziness (taglist continued in replies; please lmk if you'd like to be removed from this list. if you didn't make the taglist but still wanna follow along, you can follow the tag #dyfamsteddiefic to keep up with new updates!)

[zu-is-here]

<– • –>

[naffeclipse]

I've been musing over a few thoughts inspired by this ask about a mafia-ish style of Apex Polarity without it being too close to Pearl Eye, and after watching a few videos of Orcas hunting their prey (which included dolphins), landed on a sort of Mafia inspired Apex Polarity AU

Also not to add another Y/N to Orclipse's growing collection but this Y/N is a white-beaked dolphin. Look! They're so beautiful!

Sirens are cunning, brutal, and take everything with teeth and claws. The strongest kill and maim at a whim. As a siren who's not particularly strong, though incredibly agile, with a tail streamlined and dark gray with white patches, fins curved and mostly black, you're somewhere at the bottom. You're doing your best to survive and avoid trouble. You pick your battles and you pick your escapes, and most importantly, you stay alive.

But then you do something really stupid: you venture where you shouldn't have.

You don't usually swim so far up north but you're hungry, and the thought of a few tasty squids distracts you from the silent waters and vast, blue emptiness. You realize a bit too late that you're not the only one hunting.

You catch the first orca siren in the distance as a dark figure, and then another. Two who immediately cut through the water, charging straight for you like shadows. Though you turn tail and bolt, you quickly spot them in the corner of your vision. They easily keep pace, their size and strength overwhelming as they flank you on both sides, wide grins flashing their deadly teeth. You can hardly look at the mismatched color of their eyes as you dodge and weave, diving down only to be cut off by one with midnight blue colors at the tip of his flukes, and shooting off to the left just to almost be snatched by the black-bone claws of a siren with bright yellow fins framing his head.

They're toying with you. You know that for a fact in how they just barely keep back, corraling you onwards, draining your already spent energy, and picking at your panicking pulse. You have no choice but to avoid the edges of their jaws and the tips of their talons, and swim in the direction they want.

You near a field of ice floes floating on the water, and though you cut into the jagged structures dipping into the sea, the orca sirens never lose you. A desperate need for air pushes you onward. One small drop of hope still burns in your chest. Despite the aching of your muscles, you steal a gulp of oxygen and dip back down once more, charging away—

Only to run smack into a third orca siren.

This one grabs you, his burning red and orange colors filling your vision. The other two orcas join to help their kin keep you in place long enough for you to truly regret ever venturing here. Between the three of what you can only assume are brothers, hands hooked over you shoulders, claws clutching your wrists, and palms pressing into your hips, you're a fish caught in a net.

You brace for a voilent end. It never arrives. Instead of digging into your sweet meat, the sirens offer you a deal. The tips of sharp fingertips trace your jawline and the soft inside of your arms and down your slick tail while they explain.

You keep watch for human ships and report back when they're getting close, and in exchange, you get the best food you can imagine, the entire Arctic Ocean to swim, and anything else you'd like. The best benefit? You're under their protection. Of course, they expect utter loyalty from you. You are no one else's. Failure to devote yourself to this work and the brothers would mean a grisly fate, but hey, you're nothing if not eager to not be torn apart. So you agree.

You have a few questions about this whole arrangement, struggling to understand why they, powerful orca sirens, bother with a smaller fish like you when they could rip you limb from limb and be done. What's with the human ships? Why task you to this? Are you just fodder so they can keep their fins nice and unscabbed? They reassure you that they'll explain in due time (the sunny one booping your nose, much to your chagrin), but for now, all you know to know is that the human ships are a problem, and you are their solution for it. You've never really encountered humans before, but they've never really encountered sirens, or so you thought.

The burning red one lets you go, but you don't slip away too far before he tugs on your flukes and tells you to follow him. It's not a request. The darker blue one leaves for a moment, jetting away as the other two guide you to a nice resting place on an icy shore. They introduce themselves, and then their brother reappears with a squid in hand, half dead, and an insistence that you eat—they could tell during the chase that you didn't have all your energy.

And that's how you unwittingly join a very powerful pod of orca brothers who may or may not be teasing and taunting you simultaneously.

[heistheghostking]

Behind closed doors

[luck-of-the-drawings]

so REVENGE, HUH? or justice, if that makes you feel better. it tastes the same when cooked just right. 'I REALLY WANTED A BROTHER.' such a shame to burn a bridge you so desperately wanted to keep, especially when it wasnt even you who started the fire. especially when you hope that not a single fragment of that bridge ever washes ashore.[MAY IT ROT FAR FROM MY SIGHTS] an unfortunate loss! atleast he has his friends.

[exilepurify]

“You know a lot of big words.” — Determining Shigeo’s Kanji Literacy

An analysis in four parts:

Jouyou kanji and Japan’s compulsory education system, explained.

An introduction to the analysis—what I did and why I did it.

A presentation of data, evidence, and counterarguments.

The truth revealed: can Shigeo write a reasonable amount of kanji for his age group?

Jouyou kanji and Japan’s compulsory education system, explained

Let us begin this analysis by establishing a basic understanding of how Japan’s education system is structured.

As you may already know, only elementary school and middle school are compulsory in Japan, meaning that high school and college are completely optional. Therefore, compulsory education in Japan consists of grades 1-9, with grades 1-6 being 小学校 (primary school) and grades 7-9 being 中学校 (middle school).

The term 「常用漢字」(jouyou kanji, “Daily-Use Kanji”) refers to a list of 2136 kanji that the Japanese Ministry of Education requires be taught throughout education grades in Japan due to their importance and frequency of use in Japanese daily life. Knowing all 2136 is defined by the Japanese government as the baseline for basic, functional literacy in Japanese. The jouyou kanji list is further divided into two sub-categories: 「教育漢字」(kyouiku kanji, “Education Kanji”) and 「中学・高校漢字」(chuugaku • koukou kanji, “Secondary School Kanji”).

教育漢字 (kyouiku kanji, “Education Kanji”) (A.K.A. 学年別漢字配当表 [gakunenbetsu kanji haitouhyou, “list of kanji by school year”]) is the Japanese term for the 1006 kanji that are taught over the 6 years of primary school in Japan, grouped into different grade levels by difficulty and complexity.

「中学・高校漢字」(chuugaku • koukou kanji, “Secondary School Kanji”) is the term for the 1130 kanji that students are expected to learn throughout middle school and high school. This list of kanji is not strictly divided by grade level, though a general grade level is often provided, because students in secondary school—whether it be middle or high—are expected to learn kanji more independently. Though the responsibility of learning these kanji is shifted from the classroom to the individual, the importance of knowing these kanji by the end of one’s education, if that be middle school or high school, cannot be overstated. Once again, these 2136 kanji are considered the basics of Japanese kanji fluency.

According to the “Kanji Frequency Number Survey/漢字頻度数調査” conducted by the National Cultural Affairs Division in 2000, in 385 books published by a major publishing company, 8474 different kanji were used (not including duplicates). However, speakers are able to understand 99% of them if they know the top 2457 kanji, and 99.9% of them if they know the top 4208 kanji. And as is true for speakers of every other language, people can generally read more words than they can write.

I determined the “grade level” of each kanji in this analysis according to the grade level provided in my Japanese-English dictionaries, but consideration will be made for Secondary School Kanji due to the lack of official grade divisions and the less organized circumstances involved with learning them.

An introduction to the analysis—what I did and why I did it

In this analysis, I focused specifically on Shigeo’s ability to write kanji, not to read them. This is most obviously because it’s much harder to determine whether or not someone can actually read something, especially in anime, without it being explicitly mentioned. However, it is also because the meaning of kanji can be inferred from knowing the meaning of radicals, and as mentioned above, it is common for people to be able to read more words than they can write. The true mark of knowing a kanji is being able to write it.

To determine Shigeo’s kanji-writing ability, I studied screenshots from a few scenes from the anime, specifically a couple of scenes from the Reigen OVA where Shigeo is writing a LOT, and a couple scenes from the regular anime where Shigeo is explicitly seen writing stuff down and the audience is shown the writing.

The data has been organized into two different excel charts—one for kanji he uses correctly, and one for kanji he doesn’t know or messes up. The kanji in each of these charts have been color-coded and organized by grade level, with readings, translations, and explanations provided. There is only one kanji in the entire analysis that is not considered a part of the jouyou kanji, and this kanji has been marked by “N/A” in the grade level section.

I will provide each chart alongside a percentage likelihood that Mob will know any given kanji from each grade level based on the information gathered from the anime. Please note that the sample size is obviously limited, but I’m working with what I have. If there is a kanji with some sort of detail worth consideration, I’ve marked it with a (**) in the chart and will explain below.

Lastly, I included kanji used in names in the chart here after some deliberation. Name kanji are tricky in general, because multiple kanji share the same pronunciation and people usually don’t know what kanji are used in someone’s name unless they are shown by that person (unless it’s some crazy common name like 高田 or 森 or 田中).

A presentation of data, evidence, and counterarguments.

Shigeo’s known kanji:

Shigeo’s unknown kanji:

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are one or two instances of Shigeo NOT using a kanji at all that I’ve decided not to include on the chart. This is because it is common for Japanese speakers to omit kanji for super common verbs and write them in kana instead, either for personal style reasons or for convenience. Since the verbs are so fundamental and commonly-used, it’s unlikely that they will be misunderstood or mistaken for another word if written in kana. So, if Shigeo wrote the verb for “to read” or “to eat” without using kanji, I didn’t include it, as I highly highly highly doubt he doesn’t know those kanji and I felt like it would unfairly skew the results against him.

米** = I don’t blame Shigeo for not knowing this kanji. It’s fair to assume that Mob might not have seen Mezato’s name written out and therefore wouldn’t know which kanji to use. On TOP of that, “me” for 米 is a special nanori (used for names only) reading and is super obscure and uncommon. I couldn’t even find it in my name dictionary by searching “Mezato”, I had to find her name written in kanji in S1E3 and go from there. I wouldn’t expect this kanji to be in anyone’s top ten possible kanji guesses for the “me” in “mezato”. I included it because rules are rules, but wanted to mention this to make it fairer on the boy.

世** = I want to make it known that Shigeo does successfully write this kanji in the image shown here, when he writes 「世紀」(century):

HOWEVER. However. He messed it up SO BAD before that I think it actually overpowers him using it correctly and brings it back around to a “not properly known” kanji, especially because it’s a kanji taught in second grade that he shouldn’t be messing up at all:

The subtitles intersect it but I’ve rewritten what Shigeo wrote there at the bottom. He tried to write 「世の中には」”In the world…”, but tried to write the kanji, messed up, crossed it out, and then rewrote it in kana. Didn’t even try to write it a second time. This is egregious and, in my juror’s power, cancels out his later usage. This would be like misspelling “world” in English. I’m willing to entertain arguments that he just wanted to write it in kana for some reason, but as it is now, I don’t think that excuse is compelling enough against such damning evidence, so in “missed kanji” it goes. (It’s partly cut off but what gets me is that it doesn’t even look wrong in the first place lol but if he crossed it out, it means he didn’t know it well enough, which allowed him to doubt, which is still damning enough.)

造** = Just like above, Shigeo actually does successfully use this kanji once in the show when he’s filling out his paperwork for the Body Improvement Club in S1E2 (forgive my awful kanji, it’s hard to draw on the phone lol): 

However, that was not only on an official school document, it was also in the presence of a student council member and Saruta (#2 in the grade lol) so I have to assume he either asked someone for help or got corrected. Either way, the instance where he doesn’t use the kanji is when he’s in his bedroom alone, writing in his personal notebook—a much more casual environment, and one that takes place AFTER s1e2 (can’t argue he learned it):

This leads me to believe that Shigeo does not naturally know the kanji, as he can’t reproduce it in casual day-to-day or when alone.

焉** = This kanji is not only not included in the jouyou kanji, but it is also used in an obscure word. In fact, it took me a minute to locate it in my Japanese-English dictionary app. It is absolutely not reasonable to expect Shigeo to know this kanji off the top of his head, and he probably wouldn’t know it even if he were a kanji ace. It is included and working against him, however, because the kanji he initially tried to write in its place was 「円」, a.k.a. the kanji for YEN/¥:

Sure, 「えん」is a reading for「円」, that part makes sense. But 「終焉」means “the finals years in one’s life”, so I’m really struggling to understand why Mob would think the yen money kanji would be a part of that word and why he would try to write it with that kanji instead of just writing it in kana first, like the majority of the kanji he didn’t know. It’s truly an enigma to me. I’m bewildered he even tried that, and for that, I’m holding it against him.

BASIC STATS:

GRADE 1 KANJI:

- Total known: 17

- Total unknown: 0

- Grand total: 17

- Shigeo knows: 17 out of 17

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 1 kanji: 100%

GRADE 2 KANJI:

- Total known: 16

- Total unknown: 3

- Grand total: 19

- Shigeo knows: 16 out of 19

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 2 kanji: 84.2%

GRADE 3 KANJI:

- Total known: 13

- Total unknown: 6

- Grand total: 19

- Shigeo knows: 13 out of 19

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 3 kanji: 68.4%

GRADE 4 KANJI:

- Total known: 11

- Total unknown: 0

- Grand total: 11

- Shigeo knows: 11 out of 11

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 4 kanji: 100%

(Baby apparently had a great year in fourth grade.)

GRADE 5 KANJI:

- Total known: 3

- Total unknown: 4

- Grand total: 7

- Shigeo knows: 3 out of 7

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 5 kanji: 43.9%

GRADE 6 KANJI:

- Total known: 0

- Total unknown: 2

- Grand total: 2

- Shigeo knows: 0 out of 2

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 6 kanji: 0%

😭

GRADE 7 KANJI:

(No known or unknown 7th grade kanji found)

GRADE 8 KANJI

- Total known: 5

- Total unknown: 6

- Grand total: 11

- Shigeo knows: 5 out of 11

- Percentage likelihood of Shigeo knowing a grade 8 kanji: 45.5%

^ To Shigeo’s credit, this isn’t bad at all considering he’s only halfway through his eight grade year at this point in the story.

% OF JOUYOU KANJI SHIGEO KNOWS:

% known from observed data:

65/86

75.6%

# of jouyou kanji: 2136

75.6% of 2136 = 1615 jouyou kanji

Here’s a graph for your visualizing pleasure:

Finally:

(All values are rounded up)

There are 1006 kyouiku kanji. There are 1130 secondary school kanji. Because high school in Japan is not compulsory, we’ll assume that the secondary kanji are to be learned over the three years of middle school. That means about 377 words per middle school grade. If Shigeo is halfway through eighth grade, let’s say he should generally know 1006 + 377 + (377/2) kanji, which comes out to 1,572.

There are 80 kyouiku kanji assigned to first grade, which Shigeo should know 100% of—80 total.

There are 160 kyouiku kanji assigned to second grade, which Shigeo should know 84.2% of—135 total.

There are 200 kanji assigned to third grade, which Shigeo should know 68.4% of—137 total.

There are 200 kanji assigned to fourth grade, which Shigeo should know 100% of—200 total.

There are 185 kanji assigned to fifth grade, which Shigeo should know 43.9% of—81 total.

There are 181 kanji assigned to sixth grade, which Shigeo should know… 0% of��. 0 total.

This all totals out to:

80 + 135 + 137 + 200 + 81 + 0 = 633/1006 elementary school-level kanji. That’s 63% of the kanji required for elementary school.

(Didn’t include a calculation for middle school kanji due to having 0 data on seventh-grade kanji and also him being halfway through eighth.)

The truth revealed: can Shigeo write a reasonable amount of kanji for his age group?

Uh… no. Maybe? Well… probably not, no.

I mean, of course there are flaws with my methods. I had a super small sample group and applied the stats there to all of the jouyou kanji, which is almost guaranteed to be lower than reality. I just didn’t really have another choice. Also, I’m very certain that Shigeo MUST know some 6th grade kanji, even if in the results here I considered the probability to be 0%. That’s assuredly not accurate. There were just, by chance, only two instances of sixth-grade kanji in all of the sample writing and he happened not to know either of them. This is just for fun, anyway. I can say with confidence, though, that he certainly isn’t a writer, and he definitely knows less kanji than the average eighth grader, but I wouldn’t take my numbers for anything more than entertainment.

But yeah. Shigeo is…. a little kanji-impaired. Which explains why he struggled with Emi’s writing and is only ever seen reading Shounen Jump volumes lmao. I believe in him though. He makes it work. My illiterate king. Who needs the other half of your elementary sight-words anyway?

All jokes aside though, he really started to scare me with the 世 and 円 things 😭😭😭😭😭

[doublxpresso]

Face-off

Part 1 - Lu Guang & Qiao Ling

page 23 - 24

page 21 - 22 < . >

main post

[crownedwille]

Wilhelm’s outfits in season 2 ep 3 + 4

part one

[dribs-and-drabbles]

The Thai Communal Wardrobe item #8

The Thai 🤝🏽 Taiwanese Communal Wardrobe Item #5

Our skyy 2 x The Eclipse ep 6:

Step by Step ep 7:

Dangerous Romance ep 10:

Only Friends ep 12:

Wandee Goodday ep 4:

Wandee Goodday ep 4:

Knock Knock, Boys! ep 11:

The On1y One ep 6:

Sunset x Vibes special ep:

Peaceful Property ep 9:

for @akkrosu and @lurkingshan 💙

[tulisydan]

Hey remember when Joker Out sneaked into the Nordic Party during the Eurovision week and Bojan just… hang out with the Finnish eurovision commentator (xx)

[moiraimyths]

Before we call anon rude because let’s see it from their perspective, imagine getting an entire feast to eat. That can be pretty hard to start with so much that’s going on, but if they start with one thing they know they’ll like (aka one character they like) that can be the start for them leaping to other characters to finish the story and the bigger story. I struggle the same way to start book series if I don’t have at least one character that drives me to read it, it’s all about what can be the hook to push them through. Sounds like the anon is neurodivergent (just a guess) so they might genuinely not see it as rude and see it as a solution to even play the game to start with.

Btw absolutely adore the game, the complex and rich characters making them all so unique is amazing. The art is so pleasing to the eyes I love it!! I’m waiting for it all to get out at once so I don’t get too impatient. Shae however interests me the most, which routes will have the most lore for them? Will there be routes that give more lore in general based on decisions you make or do they all share the same amount? (I mean general lore not just Shae lore)

Apologies; we are not trying to accuse any asker of being rude! We are simply explaining our perspective as the developers / are trying to broadly encourage folks to dip their toes into other areas of the story outside of the main route(s) they're interested in, especially considering some routes will be made available sooner than others, and these other routes will likely contain additional scenes/lore of everyone's fave(s) regardless! We want to give each main cast member an equal amount of love (and lore) regardless of their overall popularity, so our goal is not to tut-tut anyone for having strong preferences for one character over the others, but rather to explain that you may be surprised by how much *more* you learn about your preferred characters in the other routes. That's all!

For Shae... Well, they were a foot soldier for one of the worst periods of the War. Lore wise, any other story that touches on the War will likely have content relevant to them and their experiences. ^^

[bvidzsoo]

Would you all like…hate me if I said I’ll put all my current works on on-hold because I really want to write Hunger Games!au oneshots for Mingi and San??😃😬✌🏻

[phoenixtakaramono]

THE SEVEN WEDDING SPECIAL

“The Vought family grows by one as our distinguished captain, The Homelander, ties the knot with reformed supervillain William Butcher! Tune into VNN+ and Vought Entertainment for the most anticipated A-list superhero wedding of the century! Join us as we set the stage for the extravaganza and wish them a hopeful happily ever after.”

TY for 800+ followers on Twitter! I'd think it'd be neat if Homelander and Butcher kiss and have a Superhero Wedding Ceremony Special atop Vought Tower's helipad 🕊

[thecrimsonvalley-creates]

~ Under the shadows of the curtains ~ Remember how I dropped this banger illustration a while ago. The fic to accompany it is finally here!