#I'm a fucking moron k bye)

[truthofherdreams]

Of baseball bats and psychic powers (3)

Steve rents a little flat above the electronics shop, despite his parents’ protests. His mother had wanted him to stay at home for a little while longer and then his father had offered to help with the deposit on a house, which was so fucking ridiculous Steve refused immediately. He likes his bachelor pad, like Nancy calls it, and the fact that he can spend his days off in nothing but his boxers without anybody to see or judge. It’s just enough independence for him who still doesn’t entirely have his shit together.

Kali follows him inside, failing to look bored as her eyes roam every inch of the main room. His cereal bowl is still on the coffee table and he can’t remember the last time he did the dishes, which wasn’t a problem before a hot, deadly girl showed up. Playing host isn’t that good an idea, all of a sudden.

“Pizza okay with you?” He makes his way to the fridge, grabs two cold beers and offers one to her.

She opens it and takes a long gulp, a sigh escaping her mouth when she licks the beer off her upper lip. Steve does a pitiful job of not staring.

“Vegetarian for me,” she answer. Then, when she notices his raised eyebrows, she points to herself. “Hindu.”

Steve stares at her, perplexed. “Isn’t alcohol forbidden?”

Her eye roll is so impressive he’s afraid her eyes will be stuck at the back of her head for a moment, but then she’s back to glaring at him. “That’s Islam, you idiot.”

“Fine, fine.” Can’t really blame him for not knowing those things. Hawkins is mostly white with, like, two black families and a Jewish one. That’s about it.

She’s still glaring by the time he reaches the phone and punches in the pizza parlour’s number. Better not linger on why he knows the number by heart, or how he doesn’t have to give his address. He just asks for two pizzas, one pepperoni, one cheese, and leaves it at that. The phone rings again the moment he hangs up, and he blinks at it before picking it again.

“Hullo?”

“Hey, Steve.” Sometimes, he wonders if his heart will stop doing that weird flip-flop thing every time he hears Nancy’s voice. He’s pretty sure some small part of him will always be in love with her, even if he’s over her now, moved on and everything. It’s kinda hard, completely forgetting your first love. He’s been doing an okay job, but some feelings linger.

“Hey, Nance.” He spares a glance for Kali, who’s now looking at the pictures of the dipshits and him stuck to his fridge, before he takes the phone off its hook on the wall and moves to his bedroom, closing the door behind him. “What’s up?”

“I wanted to check in. Mom says she hasn’t seen Mike today and nobody’s answer at Joyce’s so…” So I’m wondering if the end of the world is near. Steve knows the feeling.

“He’s fine. We’re fine. Everybody gathered at Hopper’s and…” He sighs, loud, as he sits down on his bed, one hand in his hair. “Turns out Dustin and I are the only sibling-less in the gang.”

Only silence answers for a few seconds, before, “What do you mean -- is Joyce -- wait. What?”

Steve lets out a low chuckle, before he fills Nancy in. She’s back on the West Coast with Jonathan, settling in San Francisco a couple of weeks before uni starts again. Steve tries not to feel too jealous of them, because he loves his life and everything, but. Sometimes, he wishes he’d gotten out of Hawkins, too.

Nancy, bless her heart, gasps at all the right places, never interrupting him until he’s done with his tale. Even when he’s done, she stays silent for a little while longer, and he pictures her nibbling on her bottom lip or playing with her hair or something very Nancy-like to do.

When she speaks again, it’s with the kind of mirth in her voice that has Steve wish she didn’t speak at all. “So, she’s hot right?”

He lets himself fall backward in bed, one arm above his eyes, with a loud groan. “Is that all you’re focusing on?”

She laughs. “You’re telling me King Steve would let a girl come to his bachelor pad if he didn’t have the hots for her?”

“Hey! Be nice! I let you come to my place, and El, and Red and…”

“Joyce?” He hears the smirk in her voice, and he hates her for it. Just a little. “I mean, girls you’re actually planning to sleep with, not your almost-sisters and everyone’s mom.”

“And you.”

“And me.”

Steve is the one to let the silence linger this time. He’s so very glad he managed to stay friends with Nancy, after everything. Their friendship was rocky at best, at first, when she told him what happened with Jonathan and he nursed his broken heart but. He has no idea what he would do without her as his best friend, even now that she lives so far away. She understands him in a way nobody else ever did.

“Yeah, she’s pretty.”

“‘Pretty’?” she asks with a laugh. “Wow, even worse than I thought.”

“Okay I’m going to hang up on you now.”

She laughs again. “Come on, Steve!”

“Bye, Nancy!”

She’s still talking to him and laughing when he actually hangs up the phone, a smile on his lips. He needed that, someone who doesn’t hero-worship him like the kids do, or glare at him like Hopper, and now Kali, do, or anything. Nancy doesn’t believe his bullshit, and forces him to face the truth. Not that he was particularly denying having the hots for Kali. He has eyes, after all.

When he goes back to the living room and puts the phone where it belongs, it’s to find Kali lounging in his couch. She’s stripped off a few layers of clothes and is now down to a simple black tank top and her jeans, boots and jackets on the floor. There’s a hole in one sock and another one on her knee, and she’s showing way more skin than Steve was ready for. Also, she has her nose in a book, and doesn’t look up even when she says, “Girlfriend?”

“Ex, actually. Now best friend.”

She raises an eyebrow but still won’t look at him, and Steve wonders when exactly he lost his charms with women. If he ever had them in the first place. Or if Kali is a special case, in more than one way.

He’s stopped in his musings, and in Nancy’s words coming back to haunt him, by a knock on the door. It’s his usual delivery guy, some boy he vaguely remembers from high school, and Steve tips him as he grabs both pizza boxes then slams the door shut with his foot. Kali is still reading when he puts the pizzas on the coffee table and sits in the armchair, but she perks up a little at the greasy smell.

“What are you reading?” he asks, because maybe awkward conversation is better than awkward silence.

She doesn’t look up, and deadpans, “Pride and Prejudice,” even if he can clearly see she’s holding a Margaret Atwood book. It’s going to be a long night.

“What’s this about?”

She sighs, and for a moment he believes she’s not going to answer. But then, “It’s a dystopia where fertile women are the slaves of rich families who want children.”

That’s. Okay. Wow. “I too read to escape the shitty world we live in,” he finds himself replying, like a moron.

She snorts a laugh, looking up at him above the top of her book, before she closes it and puts it aside. She grabs a slice of pizza next, smirking at him with her mouth full of food, head tilt to the side. Steve wonders what she sees, what she’s looking for. He’s but a suburban kid with bad jokes and a history of getting himself into trouble and she -- is so much more than that. Much more trouble, too.

“Where do you fit in all of this?” she asks after a while, around another mouthful of pizza. “Jane never mentioned you.”

“Probably because we only met after she came back from her little Chicago adventure,” he replies. Only in passing, and then he’d been at the hospital for two days because of the concussion Billy gave him, and El had been passed out for a full week, and it was another week before they were formally introduced by Dustin. He still remembers the bags under her too big eyes and the smile at the mention of him saving all of their annoying asses in the tunnels. “Told you, I was the babysitter.”

Kali purses her lips, before she points to the corner of the room. “That to play with the kids?”

He doesn’t have to look to know she noticed the baseball bat in the corner. He used to keep it in the trunk of his car, until Hopper saw it and lectured him about safety issues. Now it stays here, ready to be grabbed if something happens. It hasn’t moved in months, thank god. “Yeah, Mike’s into baseball,” he replies, with a smirk of his own.

“You’re weird.”

In her mouth, it sounds like a compliment.

…

He has to fight her over offering his bed to her, because he’s too chivalrous for his own good and she’s too stubborn and this entire scenario is too fucking stupid. Yeah, his couch is not the least comfortable and she’s small enough that she would fit nicely, but. His mother raised him better, okay? When you have a guest over, the guest gets the bed. That’s, like, the most basic rule of all.

Kali rolls her eyes, but she gives up at some point, and throws one pillow at his face before he grabs a spare blanket. She locks herself in the bathroom too, while she’s at it, and Steve fails not to stare when she comes out with a clean face. It makes her look -- soft. Small. Almost vulnerable. She still has the tattoos, and the crazy hair, but now she doesn’t look so tough anymore.

Looks can be deceiving.

“Good night, then.” She’s standing in the doorframe, one foot on top of the other, like she doesn’t know what to do with her body. Her arms swing a little by her sides, and an awkward smile curls up her lips. Like she doesn’t quite know how to deal with kindness and hospitality, which reminds Steve of Hopper’s stories about Eleven. Makes sense.

Steve decides to put her out of her misery with a smile of his own. “Yeah. ‘Night.”

She lingers for a second longer, before she nods to herself and turns around. The door closes, and then silence settles in. Steve sighs, and rubs his face, before he lies on the couch. It’s too small of him, and he struggles to find a comfortable position for long minutes, tossing and turning until he manages to have all his limbs under the blanket and his back not screaming in agony too much.

It’s going to be a long night. Especially since he pictures her every time he closes his eyes, all soft skin and long hair and mysterious eyes, and he hates himself for how predictable he is. Throw a new girl his way, not some Hawkins chick he’s known his whole life, and he’s a pathetic fool. In his mind, Nancy is laughing loudly and Jonathan is shaking his head. They both have a point.

[lavenderek]

Who was your favorite and least favorite queens of all the seasons? I'm curious :)

ok turns out i had more to say than i thought i did i don’t have a lot of friends to talk about drag race with feel free to ignore

so i have never been able to figure out how to get my grubby hands on season 1, lmk if y'all have a way that isn’t those illegal streaming sites because their links are always broken as shit, but i saw tammie brown on all stars and she’s the most bizarre thing i��ve ever encountered so i’ll go with her for my s1 fav, and my least fav is uhhhhhhh pfuuhhhh hhsghjaak rupaul

s2 my least fav was morgan she just never impressed me and i found her sort of irritating. my fav is a tie between mystique and juju. and listen. listen. juju got fucking SHAFTED. every week she came out beautiful and poised and hilarious and charming, and the judges were all, “eh :/ it’s a little costumey.” and meanwhile raven comes out looking like glam golem like she’s never even heard of a teasing comb or padding and the judges like piss themselves about it like she’s skilled im just perplexed about the judges’ repeated dismissal of jujubee and heart eyes for raven like i didn’t get it then and i don’t get it now. and tati? tati was the only one who stood up for mystique. the only one.

s3 my fav is raja 1000% i am obsessed with her runway walk. i remember when that season was airing i told one of my friends that i had a crush on her and somehow neither of us concluded that i wasn’t straight like where are we even. also love carmen like she knows herself inside and out and i respect the shit outta that. least favs were mimi and shangela like have you tried closing your mouths for four seconds ever. god.

s4, i don’t really like that season? phiphi is trash and madame lequeer was obnoxious. willam was skilled as fuck and was funny a lot, but a lot of the time she said shit that was just confusing and strange. it came across as super scripted. she still comes across as offputting to me. but i saw latrice perform once irl. she was a sweaty angel.

s5 i really liked jinkx and alaska. alyssa is a fucking crackup i love her. i love her. serena is trash. roxxxie is really skilled and polished but she came across as unnecessarily and alienatingly mean. to her credit, she knows that and she orchestrated a successful and endearing redemption arc. coco is boring except for the “i’m not jokin’ bitch!!” scene.

s6 adore was really endearing and i frankly didn’t find her as endearing in all stars lol. least fav was laganja like aside from her irritating overuse of the kiki voice i’m super over anybody who bases their entire persona around weed lmao. also? darienne lake. listen. your looks were consistently basic. i have no idea why they advanced her so far into the competition. like i told lamb this a long time ago, at least mystique didn’t have a dressform and was being bullied by her fellow contestants, what’s your excuse? bianca was fun. trinity k bonet grew so much and i was emo about it. studies show that courtney can literally go away.

s7 is my favorite season in spite of how fuckin white it was lmao. trixie mattel is my real dad. katya is the president. pearl is great violet is great ginger is great but super bitter like SUUUPER bitter. my god girl you’re a grown-ass man. kennedy, i was like what the fuck is your problem lmfao like are you not drinking enough water or something like chill. i liked her in untucked though in the ugly dress challenge she was literally just like lying around lmao. jasmine masters was cool but i hate when half of a group of people get together just to be nasty to the other half it was super mean and unnecessary. in s2 that heathers shit was so benign and the fact that all the moron pageant queens were offended indicates how tone deaf they are. when jasmine went i was like bye. nina’s impression of her in s9 was everything.

s8 was an AMAZINg season. the friendships that formed in that season were genuine and unashamed and oh man - bob? i love bob and i’ll tell you why. bob is hysterical and when she couldn’t bring the look, she sold it hard. but what i love most about her? is that she laughs really hard and genuinely at other people’s jokes lmao. she doesn’t pull any of that too-cool-for-school shit. she’s utterly unthreatened by anyone. the brief drama that came up was ALWAYS because of derrick barry, who is boring and annoying. acid betty is the worst and no amount of cynthia being like “:) she visited me in the hospital” will redeem her stank-ass attitude and ugly drag. sorry.

s9 isn’t even done yet but i love trinity and i love peppermint and i LOVED nina and i love sasha? listen. when sasha walked into the workroom day 1 i was like mkay sweetheart we get it you were inspired by alaska yawn. so it took an episode or two but she won me over hard. god she’s so odd and so talented and versatile like i had no patience for charlie, not because old queens can’t compete! just because i will never understand these queens who just go “oh i don’t do x.” like you KNOW what this show entails! why would you even apply! eureka was pointlessly nasty, aja got on my nerves for reasons i can’t really articulate, and alexis michelle was yawnzo. farrah was lmao let’s admit it she was p basic, but something about her just endears her to me maybe it’s that she’s fishy but i LOVE how much she WHINES. valentina’s stumble came as a huge shock to me she was slaying every week. and in the end that was her downfall, she lulled herself into a false sense of security. if she had learned the lyrics to that ariana song she might have been able to save herself.

uhhhh i guess that’s it . sorry i just remembered that post that said “pleakley’s wig was laid” and i’m laughing again