#Jonathan Blade theme

[thedyf]

[OST] Eternal Champions (MegaDrive) [Track 03] Blade's Theme

[crimescrimson]

Moments in Mortal Kombat 11 that Re-Arranged My Brain Chemistry [Cage Family Edition]

[acquired-stardust]

Game Spotlight #15: Policenauts (1996)

Ash finds herself firmly back in the Kojimaverse as she talks about the 1996 Sega Saturn version of Policenauts for Acquired-Stardust's first spotlight of our second year. Disappointing followup or misunderstood masterpiece? And just what is a "sexy adventure" anyway? Come read along as we answer all these questions and more!

Oh, Hideo Kojima. When last we covered his work in written form on the blog it was almost a year ago in the form of a spotlight on 1994's Sega CD port of Snatcher (which you can read by clicking here). If it wasn't already abundantly clear let me state the obvious: I'm a huge fan of the man and his work. I think he's one of gaming's top creative geniuses alongside the likes of Yasumi Matsuno, Fumito Ueda and Yoko Taro. But you could be forgiven for not sharing that feeling when looking at Policenauts on a surface level or by taking common talking points about it at face value.

Policenauts is something of a black sheep in the Kojima portfolio that is often maligned by people for being 'Snatcher but worse'. It has a similar fish out of water setup taking place in a near-future science fiction world. Its lead character, the womanizing Jonathan Ingram, has a similar relationship with a former lover to Snatcher's Gillian Seed and even looks a bit like him, a point that is alluded to in the game itself as part of a meta cameo (one of several callbacks and references to Snatcher). The sexuality and its use for attempts at comedy can be obnoxious and over the top. Some of the themes of Policenauts are also retreads of themes Snatcher deals with, which can certainly dip into feeling like they were less effective this time around. What's more, the game is far more linear and on-rails than Snatcher, presenting far fewer opportunities to tinker with it and discover much in the way of hidden easter eggs or cleverly placed extras. Some of its later developments feel a little bit like 'a hat on a hat' and not entirely necessary. Its featured romance is very forced and odd (though ultimately executed extremely well). These things are all true.

Be that as it may, make no mistake about it: Policenauts is a fantastic experience that is, like its lead character, a fascinating time capsule from a long gone era. Following a similar blueprint to Snatcher's usage of various sci-fi media (most notably Blade Runner), Policenauts is heavily patterned after the Lethal Weapon franchise, and uses the familiarity one may have with its buddy cop formula to get its foot in the door before subverting your expectations as it deviates into its own original work rather quickly.

Opening after an accident in combination policeman-astronaut (the titular Policenauts) Jonathan Ingram's testing of a high tech mech suit during a spacewalk outside of the space colony Beyond Coast that sends him adrift in space for 25 years while cryogenically frozen, Jonathan picks up where he left off by becoming a private investigator of meager success in Earth's Old LA. Finding himself a stranger in a world he is 25 years removed from and stricken with severe cosmophobia from his ordeal. Jonathan's former wife has moved on and remarried. His four fellow policenauts have settled into comfortable lives on space colony Beyond Coast as something of heroes and celebrities. Forced to overcome his cosmophobia when a very personal case sends him once more to Beyond Coast, Jonathan reunites with his best friend and former fellow policenaut Ed Brown (himself still a cop on the aforementioned space colony) to unravel a conspiracy.

It's often said that Jonathan is a very unlikable character, but I find the opposite to be true. There is a solemness, sadness and resilience to him that comes across very well, being inherently at odds with a time that did not stop and life that moved on without him. Much is also made, as previously noted, of his womanizing, and I'd like to address that talking point by first pointing out that much like Snatcher, the vast majority (in fact all but one or two instances) of the sexuality of the game is entirely optional and serves as a bit of meta humor. Jonathan's inability to control himself is a direct result of his literal inability to control himself as he is at the complete mercy of the player, who can decide to pester multiple female characters to with zero benefit. Just as well, Policenauts lands firmly in the genre of something I like to call 'Sexy Adventure', a term borrowed from a song featured in the iconic Lupin III franchise that contains works you might be familiar with such as Space Dandy, City Hunter, Dirty Pair and indeed Lupin III.

Several tropes of the genre include a strong sense of Japanese sensuality and horniness, action sequences involving guns and cars, romance, large scale conspiracies and characters who are masters of their particular fields to an absurd degree. Jonathan's womanizing, something almost exclusively indulged in as optional behavior by the player, is certainly less than Arsene Lupin III for example, but coming to terms with the horniness of this micro-genre is imperative if you hope to enjoy anything it has to offer. Just as well, Policenauts' original release platform before being ported to the Sega Saturn was the PC98 which (along with the earlier PC88) was known for a frankly overwhelming amount of pornographic hentai games. To a large extent this was very much the norm for games on the platform and the time, and while nothing in Policenauts borders on pornographic, the sexuality of it is to be expected.

Policenauts doubles down on a distinguishing feature of Snatcher in its thorough worldbuilding, and is perhaps the key area that the game shines in most especially when compared to Snatcher. Containing an in-game encyclopedia that is always accessible at the touch of a button, it is dauntingly dense and features countless clickable entries detailing many aspects of life, culture and science in the Policenauts universe, often dipping into heavy doses of hard science with surprisingly detailed explanations behind even mundane parts of everyday life on Beyond Coast, such as biodegradable plastics, a problem which Kojima envisioned solved by 2040. I was a bit taken aback by given the foresight of the plastics issue given our own real-world news cycles being dominated by topics like microplastics in recent years.

The level of real science involved in the encyclopedia is rewarding for those of us who like to devour every bit of information we can get our hands on and can pick out the real from the fictional and it helps make Beyond Coast feel all the more real. The sci-fi Japanifornia that is Beyond Coast is almost a character unto itself to an even further extent than Snatcher's setting of Neo Kobe and remains in my book one of the most fleshed out and believable settings in all of gaming. Furthermore the knowledge Hideo Kojima has in a time before the level of availability and access to information we have in the current internet age is hugely impressive.

Overwhelming density is a recurring aspect of the game which may make or break your enjoyment of it. For a game that is less interactive than Snatcher it is somehow more dense, intimidatingly so if you are willing to indulge in its encyclopedia and really study the universe that Kojima created. The player is also able to examine a shocking number of elements of backgrounds and get multiple optional lines of dialogue about them, although as previously noted Policenauts offers much less in the way of diversion and distraction, and is significantly more linear.

Some of the core themes and strengths of Policenauts are similar to Snatcher, and while not all of them are as well executed this time around, a number of them exceed Snatcher. The importance of family, as well as different utilizations of it, is highlighted through the game. For Jonathan it is a trauma. A source of obligation and a constant reminder of not belonging in the world. Fellow former policenauts Ed Brown and Joseph Sadaoki Tokugawa are also used to explore these themes, with Ed's family keeping him grounded after personal and professional tragedy leaves him similarly traumatized and Tokugawa's lineage is a guiding beacon, instilling in him an ambition that sees his rise to the head of the Tokugawa Corporation, which has become large enough in the 25 years Jonathan spent in cryo sleep that it's said to quite literally own outer space. Ed's scenes with his family are perhaps the emotional core of the game and are shockingly well done for a game that features slapping a woman's breasts in an attempt to swat a mosquito.

Further themes explored are the way that the past becomes the future, and how easily it is manipulated by bad actors with agendas when few people who lived through it are around to contradict those agendas and narratives. Policenauts also plays into real history in its utilization of time as a story theme with its character names, often referencing real Sengoku-era Japanese family clans.

It is a fascinating predictor for some of the subjects explored through some of Kojima's later works. The toll that time takes on individuals is is also a constant fixture of the story. Pioneering heroes become broken down and traumatized. Corruption will slowly trickle in if you allow it to in ways that a past self would've stood against. One's life can always change in the future for both better and worse in ways that the present self could never have foreseen.

Jonathan contrasts Snatcher's Gillian Seed masterfully in this particular regard as a man who is a literal manifestation of the past, confronting his former comrades and the state of the world head-on as a reminder of the bright ideals that guided mankind to space to begin with. Also of particular note, without delving too much into spoiler territory, is the remarkable way that Jonathan trusts the corrupting factor of time to help Ed's son Marc given all the damage Jon has seen it do to those around him as well as the world itself.

Although there is a genuine tension to the game as well as a real feeling of both being and interacting with important in-universe figures, the conclusion of the game is a bit lackluster and sudden. Policenauts' plot is largely intentionally predictable, only containing a few twists you might not expect. The game's romance, previously noted as being a bit inexplicable, is ultimately resolved very satisfyingly and in a way that reinforces some prominent themes of the game.

Just as well the game takes criticism of Snatcher (and adventure games as well as visual novels as a whole) a little unevenly. It is far more linear than Snatcher, but features significantly more combat sections that see the player shoot an ungodly number of bullets and drop a frankly impossibly comedic amount of enemies by the end of the game. They are unnecessary and detract from the experience a bit, but understandable over-correctons to criticism of the traditional Japanese adventure game genre as well as Snatcher in particular.

As an aside, Policenauts features one of the most clever inclusions of a sound test mode that allows you to listen to various tracks from the game including its haunting opening theme "End of the Dark" as well as the fantastic "One Night in Neo Kobe" that was featured in the opening of Snatcher.

Policenauts is an uneven experience that in some ways reflects common trappings of its time while also looking forward to humanity's future. It asks some very pertinent questions about humanity's ability to conquer big issues if we are so unable to conquer the worst aspects of ourselves. Its usage of time and the trauma it can inflict on even the best of us can be rather sobering to see, and Jonathan's hope for Ed's son in the face of that is rather inspiring.

In some ways it reacts too strongly to criticism of adventure games as whole as well as Snatcher in particular by creating a lighter, more predictable and linear experience with more lightgun gameplay segments that detract from the overall package. Its sexuality and hamfisted comedy that comes part and parcel with the sexy adventure micro-genre can be a pain point, and it can be off putting in its density if you allow it to be. In some ways it is inferior to Snatcher, which makes an incredible case for the necessity of actually playing a good adventure game rather than just watching it that Policenauts sadly does not live up to.

But despite it all Policenauts is every bit as clever as Snatcher and in some ways it is just as strong, if not even stronger, a predictor of Hideo Kojima's future runaway success with Metal Gear Solid. Its highs may often not reach the peaks that Snatcher does, but even its valleys remain far higher than most games you could spend your time on and it remains a constant influence on some of the most popular indie game standouts like VA-11 Hall-A, 2064: Read Only Memories and Mullet Mad Jack.

If you have an interest in the works of Hideo Kojima, traditional Japanese style adventure games or the sexy adventure micro-genre, a vacation to Beyond Coast might be just the thing for you.

A gem hidden among the stones, Policenauts is undoubtedly stardust.

-- Ash

[welldonekhushi]

Facts about Anastasia

Website used to create Anastasia's picture!

Anastasia Graham is my VAMPYR OC and I'm interested to share with you a few facts about her to understand her character more!

Anastasia's Theme:

Anastasia has been known to be an important presence for Pembroke Hospital, not because of her skills and management to have things sorted within no time, but acts as a "support" for the patients as her kindness and compassion for the sick and weary gives them a ray of hope, even in the most hopeless and darkest times of the era: The Spanish Flu Epidemic.

On the other hand, Anna too was suffering from exhaustion and feelings of overwhelm because she was witnessing the filling of patients along with seeing them die in front of her eyes. She broke down a couple of times in silence, or in private because she couldn't show her condition to her mentor, Dorothy Crane in the fear of getting scolded again.

Being a nurse, she's also the assistant for Jonathan Reid, a famous surgeon and physician who recently joined the Pembroke after "The Great War", brought in by Dr. Edgar Swansea as she guides the man throughout the premises and leads him to his new office. Surprisingly enough, Anastasia has heard about the doctor before, and always praised him for his commendable work and service for the army.

Anastasia also specializes in treatments for fatigue, pain, and similar ailments, often crafting her own medicines in a private room within the hospital. This personal workspace allows her to prepare remedies tailored to the specific needs of her patients.

The knife in her hand, as seen in the picture, was a gift from her father, a former Guard of Priwen hunter. Its silver-coated blade is a potent weapon against vampires, exploiting one of their greatest weaknesses. Anastasia always keeps this knife close at hand, ready to defend herself if she senses any danger.

Pippa Hawkins is a distant relative of Anastasia’s family, connected as a cousin. Despite the familial distance, Anastasia and Pippa share a close bond, more like sisters than cousins.

In Anastasia's story, she forms a deep bond with Dr. Jonathan Reid. Initially, they work side by side as colleagues, but before long, a profound connection grows between them. Jonathan, however, hides his true nature from her, fearing that she would end their relationship if she discovered what he truly is. Yet, despite this inner struggle, he would do anything to protect his beloved Anastasia—no matter the cost.

Here's a little art I've done on the two! Hope you like it! <3

[strangerquinns]

Deadly Reunion| Chapter 20

Eddie Munson x female!reader // a stranger things apocalypse au

summary: You and Eddie have been best friends since childhood. But when the outbreak happened five years ago, you were torn from one another in the chaos. but now you’re left alone, after your group was killed by another radical crew, leaving you to seek out what was once home. // zombie apocalypse Hawkins set in 1993

warnings: angst + adult themes w/ descriptions of violence, blood, torture + other zombie apocalypse related issues (no use of y/n)

word count: 2.5k+

⪻ previous hapter | next chapter ⪼ | stranger things masterlist | chapter one

You let out a soft hiss as you felt the pop of the shotgun in your hands rock back into your body. But you ignored it as you reloaded and sent another one causing the bullet to rip through the body of a Flayed. With each echo of the shot, it seems that more and more seemed to be coming out of the tree line.

You went with the group to help clear out the pack that had made its way to downtown Hawkins. As the weather got colder there seemed to be more and more Flayed showing up around the Lab. There was a theory that the Flayed preferred the cold. The chill in the air drops each day and only attracts them to the area more and more.

The gurgled moan came from your left and turned in time as a Flayed moved quickly toward you. You watched as its head was knocked back, the shotgun shell splitting through the blackened and softened skull, causing it to exit violently at the back of its head. Your heart was beating rapidly against your chest as you moved from building to building, searching around, and making sure the other’s with you were covered. You rose and took aim as you watched another Flayed stagger rapidly, a limp in its walk, sending off another shot – missing. You cursed lowly and reloaded again before taking another shot, hitting right in the shoulder, and sending it down to the cracked concrete.

You strapped your shotgun across your back and grabbed your knife from your sheath. The heavy metal of the blade in your hand as you walked up to it. You no longer saw Flayed as people, you couldn’t. The disease that ran through their body didn’t allow it. Blackened veins spread beneath the thin, pale skin giving the walking corpse a more gray tone. Their eyes clouded over and vacant as they stared back at you. Some Flayed had missing skin from their forms, the body slowly decomposing the moment the disease entered your body. With your knife in your shaking hands, you knelt down and drove the blade into the skull, causing the animated corpse to stop moving.

There was an eerie silence that fell over the vacant downtown of your hometown as you looked around and saw the pack had been dealt with. You reached down and used the shirt the Flayed was using to wipe the end of the blade, before setting it back into your sheath. You looked over and saw Jonathan move from an alleyway, swiping a hand across his sweaty face, with Lucas following behind him. Hopper thought it would be a good idea for the volunteers and those assigned to help with his plan to come out and clear out the town as training.

You saw the logic behind it, but you were afraid of losing someone to a Flay since they had never dealt with one before.

“Everyone okay?” Jonathan called out, everyone else stepping down from their posts.

“I think so,” You answered with a slight pant to your voice. You looked around and saw a few others walking toward you. “All cleared out, should move quickly before another wave comes.”

Jonathan nodded, turning his gaze to Argyle, Lucas, and a few others. “Gather the bodies, place them in the middle for burning.”

“We burn them?” a girl with short, red curly hair and a freckled face spoke. You’d learned earlier that her name was Vicky.

“Of course. Don’t want the bodies left the rot.” Argyle spoke.

“Also, the burned bodies give the illusion that a group was here but moved on. Don’t want to give any indication of the camp.” You explained.

“Already have one group on our asses, the last thing we need is another,” Argyle spoke again before splitting off with Lucas and the others start to gather the bodies.

A deep sigh passed through your chapped lips as you tried to calm down your heart rate. Your adrenaline was pumping through you nearly to the point of making you nauseous. Reaching into the back pocket of your pants, you reached for the spare bandana that you’d grabbed from Eddie’s and tied it around your nose and mouth. With the others, you began to grab the bodies of the Flayed, before dropping them into a haphazard pile in the middle of the main street.

Over time you’d all gotten them cleaned up before Jonathan lit a match and tossed it onto the file. It didn’t take long for the entire pack to be engulfed in flames causing a dark blackened smoke to start to stretch up toward the sky.

“Let’s get back to camp, the sun is going down soon, and Hopper is going to want a report,” Jonathan spoke, everyone gathering their things, before starting the walk back toward Camp.

“Keep eyes up,” You spoke, pulling down the bandana, and projecting your voice to the group. “See anything odd, speak up, but keep as quiet as possible. Don’t know if this other group is out.”

All of you made your way down the main road, before turning down a residential street and going through the forest line back toward camp. You grabbed your rifle, checked the chamber, and held onto it – just in case. Being out of the camp was making you nervous. There was something about the forest being too quiet that made your stomach flip every once and a while.

“Something’s not right.” You whispered lowly as you walked up beside Jonathan, your eyes scanning around the forest. “It’s too quiet.”

Jonathan pinched his dark brows together for a moment, his steps slowing, as he listened. You watched as the realization came across his face. His footsteps stopped completely causing you and the rest of the group to do the same. You looked back where Argyle was at the back of the group with the new recruits between the three of you. Your eyes took a quick inventory of the four new recruits. Lucas, Vicky, Nick, and Laura all looked between you three with confused looks on your face. But before either of you could mutter a word, the familiar pop of a gun echoed through before the splintering of a tree to your left.

“Get down!” Argyle screamed, placing a hand on Lucas’ back and sending the younger man to the ground.

Your heart leaped in your throat as another shot rang out and you used a thicker tree as cover, cocking your shotgun, before turning and pointing it in the direction of the gunfire. Your eyes sight went down along the barrel of the shotgun where you caught movement between the trees. You didn’t think. Just took a deep breath before pulling the trigger. You watched as the shotgun shell hit against a tree and caused a large crack.

“Two on the left,” Jonathan reports, ducking behind a fallen tree and sending shot after shot in the direction you’d seen the figure moving.

“Lucas,” You turned and looked at him, he was still lying on the ground. “Get the others to camp. Keep low! Tell Hopper!”

His dark eyes stared at you for a moment before nodding his head, grabbing Vicky’s hand, and pulling her from the group. Nick and Laura followed close behind. You stepped out from behind the tree to cover their backs, sending shot after shot toward the direction of the gunfire. A shout from the distance gave you an indication that one of them hit. Argyle and Jonathan moved to get better vantage, but you stayed in place, looking out for the dark figures that moved through the trees like ghosts.

“On the right!” Argyle screamed toward you, his eyes wide with a mix of shock and fear.

Your head whipped to the right, pointing, and shooting as you watched someone move closer to you. The shotgun clipped a tree causing small splinters into the air.

Slinging your shotgun across your back, you moved and ducked to move more toward the left, keeping your eyes on their form. Whoever they were, they were small, roughly the same height as you. Your eyes caught a short curly hair as you moved more behind them.

Keeping your body low, and your steps as quiet as possible, you were soon up on them. Using the force of your body weight, you knocked yourself into them, sending both of you to the group.  A deep knock of air could be heard coming from their chest as the two of you knocked onto the ground.

Straddling their waist, you brought your fist back and brought it down hard against their nose. The sickening snap of their nose breaking could be heard along with their cry of pain. You brought your fist down again, breaking the nose more, and spraying blood against the two of you. When you moved to hit them again, instead, they sent a fist into your stomach – knocking the air from your chest. Your weight was shifted as they moved to straddle over you, but you thought quickly, instead, you brought your boots up and knocked them in the chest.

An angry growl came from deep within your chest as you went in for the attack again. You didn’t have control, instead acted on your rage, and landed your fist over and over again.

You didn’t notice the gunshots had stopped or hear the call of your name. The person beneath you reached and fisted your hair tightly and knocked your forehead against theirs. Stars danced in your sight with spots of black and white. Soon you felt your body hitting the forest floor with the twigs, rocks, and your shotgun digging into your back before another knocked violently into your sides.

“Fuck!” You screamed and rolled onto your side, curving your body in as protection, as another kick came against you.

You felt the air knock from your lungs again as a cough racked through your body. It didn’t take much thought to know you were most likely coughing up blood. Your hand gripped tightly to your knife before swinging back and cutting across their arm. You watched as their eyes widened for a moment, giving you a chance to scramble back to your feet.

And in that moment you fully got a look at who you had been fighting for. The cloud of self-defense lifts for a moment for recognition to hit you. Her hair was shorter, but you knew that face. Even beyond the swollen nose, and bruises starting to form – it was Wendy.

“W-Wendy?” You rasped out with a puff of air escaping your lungs.

Her hand grasped tightly to her bleeding air as she looked at you. A shout of your name drew your attention away, and before you knew it, Wendy was slipping from your sight.

“Wait!” You shouted, moving to chase after her and ignoring the pain that was shooting through your body.

You caught up to her quickly, moving to throw yourself against her and knocking her back down against the forest floor. She screamed out in pain again and fought against you. But your injuries weren’t as bad as hers, giving you the upper hand.

“Wendy! Stop! It’s me! It’s me!” You shouted toward her, grabbing tightly to her arms, and holding them down beside her.

But she was crazed, fighting against you again. Wendy freed her arms and sent her fist into the side of your head before twisting her boy from beneath you. Wendy moved to stand quickly and the last thing you saw was the flash of her boot before everything around you went dark.

Eddie panted heavily as he moved through the forest, his eyes frantically searching from side to side, for any sight of you. When Lucas came running back into came without you, Jonathan, or Argyle – he’d never felt a fear like that before. He was already upset and scared by the fact that Hopper had put him on another detail. Eddie was the first to intercept Lucas the moment he spotted him running through the front yard of the Lab toward the main entrance.

“Where is she!?” Eddie spoke, his eyes frantic as he stared down at the younger man.

 But now here Eddie stood in the middle of the forest with no sight of you. It didn’t take long for him to find Jonathan and Argyle – Steve, Hopper, and Enzo coming with him the moment Lucas spoke of the group falling under attack. But when there wasn’t a sight of you that sickening feeling returned and only worse.

“She went to the left, lost sight of her maybe ten minutes ago,” Jonathan explained. “A small group from the radicals cornered us. But we got one and the others ran off – except for one. That’s the one she went after.”

“And you left her alone without having coverage?” Hopper scolded.

“We were outnumbered, man. I’d say we did pretty good with the little we had!” Argyle argued.

“Span out, find her, now!” Eddie ordered with conviction and walked off in the direction Jonathan had said he last saw you walk off in.

Eddie called out your name over and over for what felt like forever but knew it was only minutes. His heart wouldn’t stop beating erratically against his chest as he swept his eyes looking for you. He took a step and felt something against the bottom of his feet. When his dark eyes looked down, Eddie saw the glint of a blade beneath the heavy sole of his boot. Bending down, Eddie’s fear only worsened when he recognized your knife. The heavy handle of the knife felt like a pound of lead in his palms as he stared down at it.

“Fuck,” Steve whispered as he came up beside Eddie, “Wait…look,”

Steve pointed off to the left where an obvious splatter of blood rested on the bright green leaves of a bush. Eddie was the first to move forward, sliding the knife into his back pocket. He followed the path of blood spatter and drops and stumbled across the sigh of your boots peaking from behind a cluster of bushes.

The way he screamed your name was of nothing but deep fear and pain. Eddie rushed forward and scraped his knees down against the forest floor, ignoring the shooting pain in his knees, as his eyes fell upon your unconscious form.

“Oh, baby,” His voice cracking, with shaking hands reaching out to gently caress your face, a curse leaving his mouth as he saw the blood, and forming bruises, against your skin. “Fuck!”

“Shit” Steve cursed coming up behind him, his fingers moving through his dark curls and gripping them tightly. “Hopper! Over here!”

Eddie felt a small bubble of relief when he saw the small rise and fall of your chest. He moved like he was afraid to touch you, afraid to hurt you more, with his hand caressing against your cheek. He ignored the drops of tears that fell against your cheek and mixed with your blood, instead whispering softly to you. Begging for your eyes to open, and praying to whatever was out there that he wasn’t going to lose you again.

Hope you all enjoyed it! If you did, please like + reblog it really helps and lets me know if people are reading/enjoying/want more. I appreciate all of you for taking the time to read this. I am still unsure how many chapters this will be (I'm shooting for no more than 30) but we're coming to the climax! Also, Wendy never died...huh...

TAG LIST: let me know if you wanna be added!

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[disneytva]

Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur Serves Season 2 Premiere Date And Teaser Trailer.

Ever since ending on one intense cliffhanger this past May, fans of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur have been wondering when they'll get the chance to see more of Lunella Lafayette and Devil Lafayette.

Super Nova beacuse Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur will premiere on Disney Channel and Disney XD on February 2, 2024 at 8:00PM EST, before hitting Disney+ the next day.

Season 2 guest stars will include David Tennant ("DuckTales" franchise), Cynthia Erivo ("RoboGobo", Universal Pictures Wicked), Andy Garcia (Elena Of Avalor), Edward James Olmos (Blade Runner 2049), Robin Thede (20th Television Animation "Central Park"), Jonathan Banks (Pixar Animation Studios "The Incredibles 2"), SungWon Cho (Iron Circus Animation "Lackadaisy"), Giancarlo Esposito (LucasFilm "Star Wars: The Mandalorian"), Arsenio Hall (Warner Bros "Black Dynamite"), Ann Harada ("In To The Woods"), Jackée Harry ("Sister, Sister"), Manny Jacinto ("Hailey's On It"), Carol Kane ("Dog Day Afternoon"), Xolo Maridueña (DC Studios "Blue Beetle", "Primos"), Alex Newell ("Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist"), Parker Posey ("Mr. & Mrs. Smith"), Ephraim Sykes ("Hamilton"), and Peter Weller (DC Legacy "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns")

Aadditionaly a special Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur - Theme Song Takeover starring Devil Lafayette will drop on January, 2024.

[aroaessidhe]

okay I was asked about fey books I’ve read that Do stick to folklore a bit more than certain popular books - and actually looking at what fey books I’ve read  it’s a bit like.... books that stick to folklore closely I sometimes Don’t Love, and there are others that don’t stick to it as much but I like the overall narrative more? or some mix of that. 

so here’s a list of a few - a range of how much they stick to folklore (which of course is an amorphous thing) and how much I like them, but it’s something!

YA

That Self-Same Metal - literally just read this, it’s about a Black girl who’s the stage blade expert for shakespeare’s company and can see fey, and they’re appearing more and more in the city. explores a bit of the midsummer night’s dream fey but also like “shakespeare was wrong” and general folklore. definitely the start of a series and has a lot going on but I thought it has some cool ideas!

all Holly Black’s books deal with them well! the Modern Faerie Tales companion/trilogy has maybe aged a bit by now, and I hate way the romance ended up together in The Folk of the Air (and the way the fandom is about it) but otherwise I do really like how it deals with fey and politics! also enjoyed The Darkest Part of the Forest. these are all intertwined/same world

The Buried And The Bound - a hedgewitch girl keeps fey away from her town, and gets caught up with two boys who are cursed. mostly deals with minor fey and a powerful hag

An Enchantment of Ravens - it’s been quite a few years since I read this, but I do remember enjoying it. It is a bit more of a romance focused story also, an artist stolen into the fey realm for painting a fey prince as if he was human(iirc?)

The Bone Houses - not directly dealing with fey, but like the aftermath of the ancient fey’s curses? welsh myth inspired. which I think is cool.

At The Edge of The Woods - about a girl in a religious/patriarchial village who starts to have strange dreams about a fey boy luring her into the woods. it’s not super focused on them, but they’re very much the classic ‘dangerous fey stealing people away for entertainment’ kind of thing

Adult

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries - I sort of have mixed feelings about this - I really enjoy how it dealt with fey and the creepier folklore creatures side of it! the handling of the changeling was a bit iffy and not sure about the romance

The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt - dark fantasy novella about a wolf-shifter made to join the wild hunt to save his qpr. focused on the unseelie/wild hunt area

Silver in the Wood - gaslamp fantasy novella about the keeper of a magical forest, dryads and dangerous fey

The Wind City - a bit of a mashup of fey folklore and Māori atua in a modern NZ setting

Sinners/Veiled - very classic but also with the element of a modern setting where human pollution is like a drug to fey (and the MC is a drug lord.) (so kind of dark but also not dark in the sexy way bc the MC is aroace)

Under The Pendulum Sun - this is a gothic fantasy that has a bit of a new take on a fey world, but also definitely has some of those creepy folklore vibes.

Siren Queen - this only partly involves fey but I thought the way that it mashed up old hollywood and fey (aka shady deals for fame themes) was interesting!

Sorcerer to the Crown/The True Queen - my memory on this is hazy, but I believe it’s regency fantasy, with its own take on a fey world/magic (moreso the 2nd book)

Malice/Misrule - adult high fantasy lesbian sleeping beauty reimagining, this is kind of doing it’s own thing I guess (I don’t remember if they’re even called fey?) but definitely has a bit of the creepy creature/court vibes in book 2 especially

In The Jaded Grove - I was just looking up books to see if there was anything I missed and found this, which seems interesting to me!

I also haven’t read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (but I watched the show ages ago) and I believe that has the vibe too

[stiles-o-dylan24]

King of My Heart Chapter 24 - The Battle of Starcourt

Author: @stiles-o-dylan24​  Pairing: Steve x Summer Byers Word Count:  10.5k Warnings: canon violence and themes, language, mentions of wounds, blood, descriptions of mind flayer melting people into a monster, mentions of death, bodies, character deaths, fluff A/N: you can blame me or labor day for this being so late, either choice would be acceptable, I love you all SERIES SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

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I kneel next to El and grab her hand while she continues to scream in agony with the pain in her leg.

We can hear a noise coming from her leg and we look over, Erica leaning closer and asking “What is that?”

“There’s definitely something in there” I repeat and we can see something under her skin moving around right below where the initial wound on her shin is.

“Jesus Christ” Dustin says and I scrunch my face up, trying not to gag with how it sounds and looks. I focus on El and I grab her hand more, setting my free hand on her shoulder.

In between El’s continued wails of agony, Jonathan has an idea and he looks at us, ordering “Keep her talking– keep her awake, okay?” before he gets up and runs away from us.

He runs past Scoops and runs across the middle area of the food court, heading to the teriyaki place and hopping over the counter.

“Jesus christ” Dustin mutters again and El grunts, closing her eyes and flinching her head to the side.

“Hey, hey, hey– stay awake, stay awake,“ Mike tells her, looking up at Dustin and I on her other side “Let’s get her on this side, on this side.”

We go to move her while Mike slides to sit behind her, guiding her so she’s laying back on his chest.

“Easy, easy, easy” Steve quickly says, setting his hand on my back as he reaches for her legs and helps us move her.

Steve kneels beside me while Robin starts stammering “It's, uh… you know, it's not actually that bad,” everyone looks over at her and she nods, her eyes not looking away from El’s leg “There was a… the goalie on my soccer team, Beth Wildfire, this other girl slid into her leg, and like the whole bone came out of her knee, six inches or something, it was insane–”

“Robin” Steve says, looking up at her and she finally looks over at us saying “Yeah?” and Steve states simply “You’re not helping.”

“I’m sorry” Robin breathes out genuinely, looking back at El at the same time Jonathan runs back over and slides to a stop at El’s feet.

“Okay– all right, El?” Jonathan says and El looks at him, all of us doing the same and Jonathan nods “This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?”

“Okay” she sobs and I grip onto her hand more, saying “We got you, just squeeze the crap out of my hand okay?”

She looks up at me, just nodding her head as she cries more and my heart is breaking for her that she has to go through this.

“Okay I need you to stay real still” Jonathan instructs, putting on a pair of plastic food service gloves and holding out a wooden spoon to her “And here, you’re gonna want to bite down on this, okay?”

“Jesus christ” Dustin mutters once more while Mike takes the wooden spoon Jonathan is offering and holds it over for El to bite down on. 

Dustin takes her other hand, saying “Holy shit, holy shit” over and over again while Jonathan lifts up the knife and brings it near her leg. He hesitates, looking up at all of us and Mike says “Do it”

“Okay” Jonathan says, taking a moment before he sets the end of the blade against the top area of the wound on her shin. He presses it down and slices the wound open causing El to immediately start screaming even louder. She pushes back into Mike and squeezes my hand even harder while the wound starts oozing blood and something else I’m going to forget I saw from the cut. I try not to look or gag at the noises I’m hearing and Dustin leans further away “Oh, shit.”

Jonathan drops the knife, the blade clattering on the tile floor while El screams and sobs behind the wooden spoon in her teeth. He takes a few seconds before he’s pushing his fingers in through the area he just cut open, causing El to screech in pain even louder.

None of us are able to hold back our reactions and we all gasp or groan in disgust at what we’re seeing happening. El whimpers through a deep guttural scream, her hold on my hand increasing to where I think she could break my hand, however, I ignore it and just set my other hand on hers to let her know we’ve still got her. 

“Jonathan!” Nancy yells over El’s screams and he shouts back “Stop talking!” before he slides his fingers to the side of the wound in El’s leg and she screams even louder.

“Goddamn it!” Jonathan yells and moves to keep trying to find this creature that’s inside her leg, however, El stops him when she shouts “No! Stop it!” She spits out the wooden spoon from her mouth and continues to yell “Stop! Stop!” while Nancy reaches over and hits Jonathan’s shoulder also saying “Stop.”

All that can be heard is all of our collective panting breaths from watching everything happening and El's whimpers as she pushes up from her lean against Mike and croaks heartbreakingly “I can do it– I can do it”

El lets go of mine and Dustin's hands while Mike helps her into a sitting up position with her legs out in front of her. She holds one of her hands above her shin, screaming out in pain when this creature doesn't immediately fly out of her leg. Instead we watch as it seems like the creature that's in her leg is just shaking around even more while it stays latched onto her.

I scrunch my face up in solidarity pain as I watch El continue to scream out while she's trying to force this creature out of her leg, however, all we can see is it moving and shaking under her skin even more while she wails in pain.

With one more echoing scream from El this thing finally breaks the surface of her leg but it's still attached to her. El’s scream increases and her powers raise to an intensity that the front windows of the store we are gathered in front of shatters apart. We all scream and flinch away, Steve covering me as the shattered pieces of the glass fall down around us. 

El’s screaming continues and the creature shrieks as El is finally able to lift it out of her skin. She holds it in the air in front of her screaming even more before she pulls her arm back and launches this creature in the air away from us.

It flops onto the tile floor a few times with a sickening noise and starts to crawl away, however, it doesn’t get far as the next thing we see is a boot covered foot stomp down onto it.

El is panting from the effort that just took from her and we look up, seeing Hop, mom and Murray Bauman standing before us looking worriedly between us all.

Hop's face twists in worry when he takes in El and he doesn't waste a second before he walks quickly over towards us. He bends down to help El stand up and carries her over towards the center area with the benches and a water fountain, sitting with her on the square bench that has tree foliage in the center of it. 

Mom sits down on the bench with them and puts El’s legs in her lap while she wraps her leg with bandages we got from a first aid kit at one of the restaurant's back counters along with a soda for El to drink.

I stand off to the side of them with Max and Steve standing on either side of me while Robin, Will, Lucas and Erica sit down on the side of the fountain facing us and Dustin, Jonathan, Nancy, and Mike stand beside them so we’re in a somewhat circle. 

They all start to tell us about what they’ve been dealing with while we have been underground, starting with Will who explains “The other night at the movie I felt the same feeling on the back of my neck that I felt last year whenever the mind flayer was close and it wasn't until it happened another two times before I told these guys about it. We figured out that even though El closed the gate the part of the mind flayer that was attached to me must have been locked out here with us when the gate was closed.”

“We then figured it must have found a new host which led us to Billy who was acting weird and worked at the pool where Heather had been missing” Max states and I look over at her “Heather Holloway?” I ask and they all nod at me. I cross my arms over my chest and Steve looks at me in his silent question and all I’m able to say is “We went through the lifeguard training together.”

“I’m really glad you quit working at the pool when you did, Summie” Will mutters quietly towards me and Steve steps closer, setting his hand on my back while they continue. Max looks over and explains further “Billy was completely covered while he was sitting in the lifeguard chair like he was trying to stay out of the sun and since we know that the Mind Flayer hates heat we tested Billy in the sauna at the pool."

Mike nods and adds on "We cracked the heat up on that thing when we locked him in the sauna and how he reacted to the heat we saw he was definitely flayed–”

Mom makes a noise and looks around at them all for an explanation “Flayed?”

“That’s what the Mind Flayer does, he flays people– takes over their minds and once they do that, they basically become him” Lucas explains and lifts his hands up “Billy’s veins got all black and he broke out of the sauna, El fought him and he took off.”

“And at the same time I was at the hospital with Mrs. Dricoll who out of no where was reacting the exact same way as Will was last year when we were at the cabin– yelling almost like a roar and she had black veins all over her skin.”

“Mrs. Dricoll?” Hop asks and Nancy reaches up to scratch the side of her head “She's this older woman who called the paper and wanted us to investigate these rabid rats that ate her fertilizer and when we went to her house we found the rat she had captured and it was definitely acting weird. I called around and other farms reported the same thing about rats or something eating their fertilizer or just other chemicals they had. After the paper wasn’t going to take our story seriously without proof we went back to her house to get the rat, however, it was gone and we instead found her eating fertilizer which is how she went to the hospital.”

Nancy points over to the group and continues “Their sauna test happened at the exact same time Mrs. Driscoll was acting like Will last year. So once we figured out she was flayed along with Billy we had to assume there were more people probably flayed–"

"Which is how Heather was brought up–" Max interjects, nodding her head over towards El and explaining "We were just messing around and trying to spy on Billy the other night, but when she went into that void area to find him she saw him leaning over Heather and whispering something to her– and she was scared. Billy felt El in there with him and he made sure she couldn't see where they were. We spent the next day trying to find Heather which we finally did– she was at home having dinner with her parents and Billy."

"Her dad is Tom, who was our boss at the paper," Nancy continues "And the next morning after their dinner he was acting weird when he fired us after we had gone back to Mrs. Driscoll’s house, almost like he was on drugs.”

Jonathan nods his head with her words, lifting his shoulders up as he explains further “We went to the Holloway’s house and they were all gone but we did find their kitchen torn apart and a bunch of cleaning chemicals were spilled open like they had been eating them.”

“What does chemicals and fertilizer have to do with the Mind Flayer? I mean Will didn’t eat chemicals last year” Steve mutters and Nancy shakes her head saying “No, we’re getting to that” before she looks around at all of us “We couldn’t figure out where the Halloways were but the scene around the house and in the garage suggested they were taken somewhere. I remembered that Mrs. Driscoll kept repeating 'she had to go back' so we thought the flaying was happening somewhere else– somewhere that Billy didn’t want El to see in the void when she had found him in there talking to a scared Heather.”

“Next plan was to go back to the hospital and follow Driscoll to where she wanted to go back to so badly” Will explains and Jonathan scratches behind his head, elaborating further “When we got to the hospital Mrs. Dricoll was already gone but Tom and Bruce were there– flayed, with the black veins all over them and after Nancy and I fought them off their bodies kind of dissolved–”

“I’m sorry, dissolved?” I repeat and Jonathan nods, unfortunately continuing “Dissolved into this fleshy mound of bones and their insides and they oozed across the floor towards each other until they formed this large fleshy monster looking thing.”

“Um, when you say fleshy monster…” I trail off and Nancy makes a face, saying “It was every part of their bodies, even the bones which were also used as teeth. It was disgusting.” 

“How could their bodies do that?” Steve asks and I make a noise looking at him and quickly over at the group, stating “The chemicals– if they were ingesting the chemicals they were essentially obliterating their insides and then they'd–” I stop so I don’t throw up and Mike nods at me “Yeah exactly and the amount of people who were flayed had to be dozens because they all melted their bodies the same way Tom and Bruce did at the hospital and it’s now one big monster. The Mind Flayer– it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her and pave a way into our world–”

“And it almost did,” Max says, looking around as she continues and indicates over to where we just were “That was just one tiny piece of it.” 

“How big is this thing?” Hop asks and Jonathan nods “It’s big– thirty feet, at least.”

“Yeah” Lucas chimes in, looking over at Hop as he fills in “It sorta destroyed your cabin… sorry” he whispers the last word and Hop shakes his head.

Steve makes a noise and says “Okay, so, just to be clear, this… this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El, it's some kind of gigantic... weapon?”

“Yes” Nancy answers quickly and Steve continues “But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon… with melted people.”

“Yes, exactly” Nancy shakes her head like it couldn’t have been described better and Steve nods “Yeah, okay. I... yeah, I'm just making sure.”

“Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?” Mom asks and Max nods, explaining “El beat the shit out of it, but, yeah, it's still alive.”

“But if we close the gate again…” Will trails off and Max looks over at him, continuing “We cut the brain off from the body–”

“And kill it–” Lucas states familiarly, adding on “Theoretically.”

“Yoo-hoo!” a shouting voice sounds up behind us and I jump before I turn around with everyone else, all of us seeing Murray walking towards us. He’s got papers in each of his hands and he’s rustling them around while he waves his arms about “Yoo-hoo!”

Murray quickly walks over, continuing to wave his arms around until he leads us over to the table and chairs seating area of the food court. Once we’ve gathered over at the tables mom and Hop walk over to the table where Murray is standing and he slaps down the papers in his hands onto the table. He starts pointing around on the papers while he says “Okay, this is what Alexei called ‘the hub’. Now, the hub takes us to the vault room”

“Okay, where's the gate?” Hop asks and Murray points to a certain area on the paper, answering “Right here. I don't know the scale on this, but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so.”

“More like five hundred” Erica states and walks closer towards him, jabbing “What, you're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?”

“I'm sorry, who are you?” Murray asks and she throws him a sarcastic look, throwing back at him “Erica Sinclair. Who are you?”

“Murray… Bauman” Murray answers and Erica lifts her hand up as well as her brows “Listen, Mr. Bunman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for twenty four hours,” she switches to look around at mom and Hop as she finishes with “And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die.”

Murray stands up from his lean on the table and says “I'm sorry, why is this four year old speaking to me?”

“Um, I'm ten, you bald bastard!” she shouts back at him, causing Lucas to shout “Erica!” and she answers with “Just the facts!”

“She’s right” Dustin chimes in, elaborating “You’re all gonna die, but you don’t have to” he walks up to the table and directs his words to Murray while reaching for the paper on the table “Excuse me– sorry, may I?”

“Please” Murray smiles brightly through his frustration and Dustin sits down at the table, sliding the paper towards him and grabs a pencil from his front vest pocket “Okay, see this room here?” he draws a circle around the room “This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way.”

“You can show us the way?” Hop says slowly and Dustin lifts his hand up, reassuring “Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be your… navigators.”

“No” Hop says simply, shaking his head and adding a little shoulder shrug “Nope.”

With that Hop gets to work checking the dead bodies of the Russian guards, grabbing their guns and their radios. 

Steve, Robin and I head over to one of the restaurants and start scouring for any snacks and drinks we can find. We find some chips and Steve throws Robin a bag while I put the nozzles on the drinking fountain to get sodas for us to drink.

I hop up onto the counter and sit down next to Steve while we finally get something in our stomachs after not eating for like two days.

Robin stands in front of us and eats her chips, moving her eyes between the pair of us "So... what did you guys talk about when you were all drugged?"

I snort and take a drink, swallowing down the bites of chips "We laughed a lot while we were drugged"

"Hmm" she says, smiling knowingly and saying "You seemed pretty close in the bathroom when we walked in" causing me to glare at her and she silently laughs while Steve talks around his chips "We threw up in the bathroom."

"In the same stall?" Robin asks, failing at hiding how disgusted she is at that thought and I roll my eyes dramatically at her "No not the same stall– we interrogated each other to see if the drugs were still in our systems."

"Oh so you of course needed to be in the same stall to do that" Robin agrees, smirking at us "Were the drugs still in your system?" she asks and I nod while Steve clears his throat "Possibly."

I look over at him, however, his full attention is on getting the last of the chips in his bag and Robin nods, muttering "Interesting"

Quickly I switch to looking at her and she just smiles, and I choose to ignore her now. I need to sleep before I can even attempt to understand all of the revelations that have come to light this evening.

“Hey, heads up” Hop yells, getting Dustin’s attention before he tosses him one of the radios and continues “You can navigate, just from someplace safe.”

“It's not that simple” Dustin starts and Erica says “The signal won't reach.”

Dustin nods and holds up the radio while he elaborates “Not with this. You need something with a high enough frequency band to relay with the Russians' radio tower. But for that to work, you need to have someone who has both seen their comms room and has access to a super powered handcrafted radio tower, one preferably already situated at the highest point in Hawkins. Oh, wait. That's me. If you want us to navigate, you got us, but we need a head start– and a car.”

Hop stays silent, nodding along with everything Dustin listed off before he spins around and looks at me “Summer, c’mere kid– bring the other one with you too.”

Steve jerks his head back, pointing at his chest and looking over at me “Me? Does he mean me?”

“Yup, come on” I laugh and hop off the counter, reaching over to grab Robin’s arm “You’re part of this team too, let’s go.”

Hop digs some keys out of his pocket and holds them up to show Dustin as we come to a stop next to them. 

Dustin smiles and nods before we go over our plan for what we’re all going to be doing next and the groups we are splitting up into to do it.

Mom, Nancy, Jonathan, Will, Lucas, Mike, Max and El are going to head to Murray’s in Illinois so both Will and El will be as far away from the Mind Flayer as possible.

Steve, Robin, Dustin, Erica and I will head to Dustin’s radio tower so that we will also be as far away from the Mind Flayer as possible giving Dustin and Erica the safe place to navigate the directions needed for the air vent tunnels.

Which leaves Hop and Murray who are going to be the only ones staying at the mall to follow through with the plan down in the Russian tunnels to destroy the weapon trying to open the gate.

We also go over the group names for each of our groups along with the call signs for when Dustin will be communicating with Hop and Murray so that the Russians don't catch on if they happen to overhear the conversations.

Once the plans are sorted Hop tosses the keys over towards Steve who catches them against his chest. Hop nods his head towards the direction of the front of the mall, instructing “Car's parked out front–” he points at his face “Drive them safely there.”

“Yes sir” Steve says and we move to take off towards the direction of the front of the mall, however, mom stops me when she quickly runs over and grabs my arm. She makes a noise and hugs me to her "You guys be safe"

I return her hug and say "You guys too," grunting a second later when she increases her hold around me "Um, mom... you're crushing me"

"Sorry" she chuckles and loosens her grip, pulling back from me and setting her hands on my shoulders "I love you"

I smile at her, saying "I love you" before I frown at her, catching onto her weird behavior "What are you doing?"

She smiles sadly, admitting "I need to be apart of destroying this thing" and I widen my eyes slightly as I work through what she's saying "You better destroy this thing and not get hurt in the process."

"I'm going to be fine, sweetie... I just need to know that you and your brothers are going to be as far away from here as possible" mom stresses and I hug her again "We will be." I pull back and connect my eyes with hers while I state "I'll see you soon."

"Yup" mom kisses my cheek and sets her hand on Steve's arm, smiling softly at him and he nods, reassuring her "We'll see you soon."

With that we catch up with Robin, Dustin and Erica and we make our way to the front entrance of the mall. Steve pushes open the front doors, laughing softly and saying “Oh, man, now this…” he tosses the keys up and catches them “This is what I'm talkin' about!”

“Toddfather?” I mutter when I read the front license plate of the white convertible with the top down and Steve scoffs “Oh, screw Todd! Steve's her daddy now” he laughs and sets his hands on the top of the car and the closed door to jump up into the car through the open top.

“Did you just talk about yourself in the third person?” Robin asks as we walk around the other side and I snort asking further “Did he just call himself daddy?”

Steve snaps his eyes in my direction, pointing at me like I need to be quiet and I just laugh, shaking my head at him. Dustin hops into the back seat behind Steve while I open the passenger door and hold the seat forward for Erica to climb into the backseat. Robin rushes past me to sit down next to Erica and I make a noise, seeing her smirk at me. I narrow my eyes at her while Steve asks “All right, where are we going?”

“Weathertop” Dustin says and looks over at me when I'm still standing outside of the car “Come on Summer breeze we gotta go”

Robin smiles brightly at me and I drop the seat back, spinning around to sit in the front seat with Steve who asks Dustin “Weather-what?”

“Just drive” Dustin urges and Steve huffs, turning back around to start the engine “Okay, jesus!”

The engine revs and Steve sets his hand on the back of the seat, his fingers brushing my shoulder when he does, so he can turn around and look behind the car as he reverses away from the front of the mall.

He sets the car in drive and takes off across the parking lot, following the directions from Dustin once we get on the road. 

“Jesus, how far is this place, man?” Steve asks after we've been driving for fifteen minutes and Dustin leans closer to the front seat “Relax, we're almost there.”

“Suzie must be pretty special, huh? I mean, if you built this thing and lugged it all the way to the middle of nowhere just to talk to her?” Robin inquires and Dustin smiles, answering “I mean, nobody's scientifically perfect, but Suzie's about as close to being perfect as any human could possibly be”

“She sound made up to me… she sound made up to you?” Erica asks and I look over my shoulder to see she directed her words towards Steve… who doesn’t answer right away.

That fact doesn’t go unnoticed by Dustin who says incredulously “Why are you hesitating, Steve?”

“I'm... I'm... I'm not! I'm not!” Steve tries to argue “I think she sounds real. You know, totally, absolutely real.”

“Left” Dustin says as an answer, stating more urgently “Turn left”

“There's not a road here” Steve states back and Dustin shouts “Turn left now!”

“Jesus! Hang on!” Steve yells and grabs the wheel, turning the car sharply to the left. We crash through a small fence on the side of the road and we're immediately driving through a field. 

Steve keeps a hold of the wheel and keeps driving straight, yelling over his shoulder “Whoa! Henderson, where are we going?!”

“Up!” Dustin yells back and Steve does as instructed by Dustin and keeps driving the car up the hill we’re coming up on.

The car bounces along as we hit the rough terrain of the hill, Steve shouting “Oh, Jesus!” while I shake my head and grip onto the side of the door, yelling “We’re not gonna make it!”

“Yes, we are. Come on, baby– come on, baby!” Steve answers, hitting the side of the wheel.

We continue up the hill, however, the engine noticeably strains as the wheels come to a stop, spinning in the dirt while they can't gain any traction.

“Come on!” Steve yells, slamming his foot onto the gas pedal “Come on, come on!”

The tires continue to spin without traction as Steve pushes harder on the pedal, however, we are clearly not going to move anywhere and I roll my eyes, looking around “Guess the Toddfather has its limitations."

Steve pants, lifting his foot off of the pedal and throwing his hands up off the wheel. He looks over at me and huffs out through his frustration, shoving the gear shift into park and turning off the engine. We open our doors and I hold the seat back for Robin and Erica before we start walking up the rest of the way to the top of the hill where this super long distance radio is at. 

Erica drops her backpack onto the grass at the top of the hill and Dustin kneels down in front of the radio, switching it to the channel he was told by Hop.

“Bald Eagle, do you copy?” Dustin says into the radio, continuing “Bald Eagle, I repeat, this is Scoops Troop, do you copy?”

“Yes, I copy” Murray answers and we all chuckle in our relief that this worked. Dustin clears his throat and clicks the side button of the radio to say “Call sign?”

“Bald Eagle” Murray answers and Dustin doesn't hesitate to say “Please repeat”

“Bad Eagle” Murray stresses with absolutely zero patience in his voice “This is Bald Eagle!”

“Copy that. Good to hear your voice, Bald Eagle. What's your twenty?” Dustin asks and Murray clips out his status “We reached the vent. I'll contact you when I need you. Until then, silence.”

I chuckle and Dustin smiles into the radio answering back “Roger that, Bald Eagle. This is Scoops Troop, going radio silent. Ten ten, over.”

Dustin smiles up at us and Steve reaches over to pat Dustin on the shoulder.

Murray comes back over the radio and asks for directions, which Dustin and Erica guide him through until we're silent again. I set my hands on my hips and slowly walk around the top of the hill, looking up at the night sky and seeing all the stars shining above us.

“Scoops Troop, this is… Hm. Bald Eagle. I've reached another junction.” Murray's voice comes over the radio and Dustin looks down as he tries to remember “This is what?” he asks and Erica fills in “The fourth junction.”

“All right, so if memory serves, this is right after the My Little Pony thesis” Dustin says and I make a face, looking over at Steve who mouths ‘My Little pony’ at the same time that Erica explains “We went left, so he has to go–” 

“Right” they say at the same time and Dustin picks up the radio to direct Murray “Fly right, Bald Eagle– fly right.”

“Roger that, flying right” Murray says, his voice dripping in sarcasm and I laugh, shaking my head as I spin back around and look out over the city in the distance.

“What’s the My Little Pony thesis?” Robin asks and Erica grumbles “Don’t get him started” before Robin continues “Don’t get him started just tell–”

I tune them out, however, as Steve turns around with me and I see a flash of the lights at the mall, causing me to make a noise and point over in that direction “Did you just see–”

“Yeah– yeah I did” Steve says and steps closer towards my side while we watch the city lights around the mall start flashing like the lights do when we encounter anything from the upside down.

“Hey guys–” Steve trails off, causing Dustin, Erica and Robin to run over towards us. We hear an echoing pounding noise as the lights at the mall continue to flash over and over. Dustin looks up at us and we all make the collective decision to take off running back towards the radio. 

Dustin grabs the radio and shouts into it “Griswold Family, this is Scoops Troop! Do you copy? Over!”

“Griswold Family, I repeat, this is Scoops Troop. Do you copy?” Dustin repeats and the only answer over the radio we get is the sound of some kind of monster shrieking.

“Griswold Family, do you copy? Do you copy?!” Dustin yells and the next sound we hear is a bone chilling roar over the radio.

I widen my eyes and look up from the radio in Dustin’s hand, sharing a terrified look with Steve who sets his hand on my back, offering quickly “What if they’re not at the mall?”

“Do you think they would have left their radio?” I ask and Dustin shakes his head “Griswold Family, this is Scoops Troop. Please confirm your safety!”

When we don’t get an answer Dustin just continues to shout into his radio “Griswold Family, this is Scoops Troop! Please confirm your safety! Are you en route to Bald Eagle's nest? Please confirm your safety!”

My heart is pounding and I'm really starting to get scared they were prevented from leaving the mall somehow which means we need to figure out how to get them out of there.

“Someone, please just answer. Is anyone there? Just answer! Anyone, please…” Dustin pauses, switching to just repeating “Griswold Family, do you copy? Griswold Family, do you copy?”

We can hear another snarling sound on the radio and Steve shares a look with me while Dustin shouts again “Griswold Family, do you copy? Do you copy?!”

Steve grabs my hand and has me stand up with him, silently asking me to be on board with his plan and I nod towards him, squeezing his hand. Erica looks up at us when she notices we step away from them and she asks “Where are you going?”

“To get them the hell outta there!” Steve announces and pulls me along with him as he orders “You three stay here, contact the others!”

“Wait, Summer!” Dustin says and I stop my feet, looking back at him as he motions to throw me a radio. I let go of Steve’s hand to catch it and Dustin nods towards me “Stay in touch.”

“Got it” I reply, holding the radio up before I turn back around and Steve and I run back towards the Toddfather.

I set my hands on the top of the door and hop over it, landing in the seat at the same time Steve does. He starts the engine and shifts the car into reverse, luckily the tires getting enough traction that we’re able to go backwards down the hill.

Once we’re driving across the field and heading back towards the fence Steve crashed through, Steve looks over at me “Hang on, okay?”

I nod and grip onto the top of the car and we drive through the fence again, Steve swerving the car to the right as we turn back onto the road. He slams his foot on the gas pedal and the car takes off down the road back towards the mall.

We get to the mall in no time and when we pull into the parking lot we see the Wheeler’s station wagon and Nancy standing in front of the driver’s side door. She's got her arms raised and she's firing shots at this black car that is speeding and heading straight for her.

“Steve” I say and he nods, rushing out “Yeah I see her– hold on!”

Steve slams on the gas pedal again and right as Nancy ducks down I close my eyes and we crash right into the passenger side of the car, sliding across the road in circles until we come to a stop. I’m thrown into Steve’s side and I grunt from the action of the abrupt stop of the car. Steve immediately lets go of the wheel, turning to face me and gently grabbing the sides of my face “Hey, are you okay?”

I make a noise, attempting to nod my head a few times with the hold he’s got on me “How about you ask me that tomorrow?”

Steve chuckles, moving his thumbs over my cheeks “Yeah okay, I can add that to the list of things I will be talking with you tomorrow–”

His words are cut off when we hear the bone chilling snarl of the monster and we look over at the front entrance of the mall. I gasp and we flinch back when we see this massive monster crawling on top of the mall. Steve and I set our hands on the top of the car, lifting ourselves to stand up through the open top of the car as we look on at this monster “Holy shit!”

It looks exactly as they described it and identical to the shadow monster’s spider shape that Will drew last year. It snarls and growls as its six legs walk across the top of the mall towards the front where we’re at.

It roars down at us at the same time the station wagon’s horn blares and the car skids to halt beside us, Nancy leaning out the passenger window to yell at us “Get in!”

Steve sets his hand on my back before I hop over the passenger door of our car and run to the back of the station wagon with Steve quickly following me.

“Go, go, go, go!” Lucas shouts at the same time the monster roars again and I quickly climb into the very back of the station wagon. 

I sit down and Steve climbs in after me, grabbing the handle to close the door behind us, shouting “Go, go, go!” at the same time he sits beside me.

Jonathan slams his foot onto the gas pedal and the tires screech as we take off across the parking lot. Steve and I lean closer towards the back window when we see the monster climb off of the Starcourt Mall front entrance area sign and it starts clamoring after us with loud echoing thuds of its feet pounding into the asphalt.

Jonathan continues to speed down the road, this creature right on our tail while he does, and I try to breathe through the adrenaline coursing through my body. Having to be in the very backseat area with a front row seat to the terror that is chasing us is not helping to keep my breathing from being anything but quick, terrified pants. Steve reaches over and grabs my hand again, his eyes focused on the creature chasing us as well as he threads his fingers in between mine. I squeeze his hand, grateful he's trying to reassure me that I'm not alone right now.

“Dusty-bun, you copy?” I hear over the radio in my other hand and I slowly lift it up between us when we hear “I copy, Suzie-poo– it sounds much better now, thanks.”

I smile over at Steve and we both say in our shocked wonderment “Suzie.” 

“Okay, so, listen, do you know Planck's constant?” Dustin asks and she’s quick with her reply “Do you know the Earth orbits the sun?”

I chuckle with that and Steve shakes his head as he looks down at the radio as Dustin's voice comes back over “Okay, so I know it starts with two sixes, and then a… w–what is it?” he asks and Suzie doesn’t hesitate to counter with “Okay, let me just be clear on this. I haven't heard from you in a week, and now you want a mathematical equation that you should know so you can... save the world?”

Dustin is quick as he tries to reassure “Suzie-poo, I promise, I will make it up to you as soon as possible.”

“You can make it up to me now” she retorts and Dustin replies “What?”

Steve looks over at me when Suzie says “I want to hear it.”

“Not right now” Dustin replies immediately and she urges “Yes, now, Dusty-bun.”

“Suzie-poo, this is urgent” Dustin tries to get her to reconsider, however, she proves she doesn't care “Yes, yes, you're saving the world, I heard you the first time, but Ged is also saving Earthsea and he's about to confront the shadow, so this is Suzie, signing off.”

“Wait, wait, wait! Okay. Okay. Okay” Dustin quickly rushes out and he pauses before his voice comes back over the radio… however, he is singing 

♪ Turn around look at what you see In her face the mirror of your dreams ♪

Dustin continues to sing and Steve and I share a confused look, I scrunch my brows together while he frowns at the radio and turns in his seat so he can look in the back seat at Lucas and Will.

♪ Make believe I'm everywhere given in the light Written on the pages is The answer to a never-ending story ♪

I open my mouth to say something, however, I'm not even sure what to say and my words die in my throat as I watch the monster continue to chase us and they continue to sing together now

♪ Reach the stars fly a fantasy Dream a dream and what you see will be ♪

Steve grabs the radio from me shrugging towards the front when Jonathan and Nancy look back as well, however, the singing continues and Will looks back at us incredulously before he faces forward again as well.  

♪ Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds And there upon a rainbow is the answer to a never-ending story ♪

They harmonize as they stop signing the last ‘story’ until finally Suzie says “Planck's constant is 6.62607004”

“You just saved the world” Dustin replies, the smile evident in his voice and Suzie replies “Gosh, I miss you, Dusty-bun” causing Dustin to say “And I miss you more, Suzie-poo.”

“I miss you more, multiplied by all the stars in our galaxy” Suzie counters and Dustin starts to say “No, I miss you…” before his voice is cut off and the radio is silent again.

“Did that just fucking happen?” Steve asks and I snort, leaning back against the seat “Yeah”

I look over at him and can see he’s trying not to laugh and I shake my head at him, warning him not to start otherwise I will follow him in a laughing attack and now is definitely not the time to let my sleep deprived self do that. 

All humor dies from my face though when I see the monster stop its pursuit of us and it begins to turn around. The monster starts taking off back the way we came and I yell towards the front “It’s turning around!”

“What?” Nancy turns back to face us and Steve repeats “It's turning around!”

“Maybe we wore it out” Lucas offers and Jonathan shakes his head, gripping onto the wheel more “I don’t think so– hold on!” he shouts just before he spins the car to the right. For the second time tonight I’m thrown to the side with the spin, once again landing on Steve and he grips onto me while the car spins to a stop. 

Jonathan gets the car facing the correct direction and he heads back towards the mall. Steve lets go and I’m able to sit beside him comfortably again, leaning my head on his shoulder “Let me know when we get there”

Steve chuckles and lays his head on mine “You got it, Sums.”

Once we get back to the mall Jonathan screeches the tires to a stop and we climb out of the back. Nancy walks around to the back with us and we grab the boxes of fireworks that they apparently picked up from a grocery store earlier when they were trying to treat the wound on El’s leg.

After dividing them up between us we grab our boxes full of fireworks and run back into the mall. We head to the second floor and the six of us split into groups of two and get set up along the railing looking down onto the food court area. We find Billy leaning over El, whispering something to her while the creature finishes climbing down from the ceiling skylights and stops in front of them. The creature opens its mouth and another creature that’s more of a snake like tendril comes out of the monster’s mouth and screeches at El.

Before it's able to attack her Will throws a firework and the creature wails with the explosion against its face. 

“Flay this, you ugly piece of shit!” Lucas shouts before he throws another firework and it lands in the monster's mouth as it roars back at Lucas. The firework explodes and the monster screeches as it flinches back and we all take turns lighting the fireworks and tossing them down at the creature relentlessly. 

We don’t let up as we continue to light the fireworks and toss them down onto the creature who screeches and roars in response to each firework explosion against it.

“Hey, asshole! Over here!” Steve shouts and tosses a firework that I lit the fuse and handed over to him, hitting the creature right in the mouth.

I light another fuse and toss my own firework at it, smiling triumphantly when it explodes against the side of its head.

We all continue to throw fireworks from every direction of the second floor we’re all standing on and the creature continues to wail and screech from the blasts.

“We’re almost out!” Will shouts at Lucas a little way from where Steve and I are standing and I can hear Lucas shout “I know” before Steve reaches down and grabs the walkie from inside our almost empty basket, yelling into it “Dustin! We’re out of time!”

All of us throw the last of the fireworks that we have, and look down over the railing. Now that the fireworks have stopped being thrown at it, the creature roars and moves closer towards El and Billy who is once again leaning over her.

Billy looks up at the monster, standing up and facing it as it snarls and growls at the both of them. It roars even louder before it opens its mouth and the snake like tendril shoots out like it's going to attach itself to El, however, Billy yells and throws his arms up to stop it from coming closer. He screams “No!” and holds the snake like tendril back with his hands, pushing back against it and keeping it away from El.

Billy screams again while the creature screeches even louder and we watch as a handful more of the snake like tendrils grow off of the main creature’s body and glide through the air towards Billy. One of the growing tendrils attaches itself into Billy’s side and he screams in pain, the sound dying in his throat when another claw tendril attaches itself into Billy’s other side.

The other four snake like tendrils all impale themselves into Billy’s torso and he screams in agony with each one, his head falling back.

Billy’s knees give out and he is lowered onto his knees with the creature's tendrils still attached to his torso, bringing it’s face even closer towards Billy’s as it roars in his face.

Billy just bellows one final scream right back in the monster's face, all of us watching in horror as the monster opens its mouth and the inside snake like tendril closes its claw up to form a fist. There’s one final scream before it plunges itself straight into the center of Billy’s chest.

“Billy!” Max shrieks from somewhere below us and Billy grunts as the arm that was plunged into his chest quickly removes itself followed by the other six detaching themselves from his torso . His body crumbles onto the floor and falls onto his back, looking up at the ceiling.

The creature all of a sudden screeches even louder than before, and it starts to flail its body around and smash into everything on the ground floor as well as the second floor railing "They're closing the gate" I say and Steve nods.

It moves closer towards where Steve and I are standing, lifting its arm up to smash into the railing in front of us and I scream as we turn away. Steve grabs me around my middle and pulls me back with him, both of us falling on the floor and taking cover with our arms over our heads.

The creature stumbles around a few more times before it ultimately crashes onto the ground and it's silent around us. 

Steve and I quickly get up and move to look over the railing, seeing the monster not moving anymore from where it crumbled onto the floor. We notice a fire has started around the monster in a somewhat circle and I know we’ve gotta get out of here.

"Come on, we gotta get the others" I say and tap Steve on the chest. He nods and sets his hand on my lower back as we follow the railing and gather Will, Lucas, Nancy and Jonathan.

Mike, El and Max meet us at the escalators and we hurry outside, all of us coughing through the smoke as we do. Once we're outside I notice all of the fire trucks and the military soldiers walking around and making a plan of action to get inside.

Firefighters walk up and wrap each of us in blankets, telling us we need to get checked out and separating us into different ambulances to do so.

The only ones who don't get cleared quickly are El, Mike and Max who each got knocked out by Billy and have their own cuts and bruises that need to be tended to.

I'm standing next to the ambulance that Max is getting checked out in, with Steve and Will standing next to me. We look over and mom appears through the crowd of soldiers as she desperately searches for us. She runs up to us and grabs Will, hugging him tightly before she grabs me and does the same.

"Are you okay?" she asks and we all nod and she breathes out shakily, increasing her hold on us. She pulls back and I notice the tears in her eyes, the look of despair on her face and I make a noise, looking around at the crowd "Where's Hop?" I ask and she presses her lips together, her chin wobbling with my question.

"No" I whisper, tears welling in my own eyes as I'm punched in the gut with the realization he's gone.

✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦⋆⋇⋆⋇⋆✦

It’s been a week since the fourth of July and it’s been an adjustment period not just for us but the whole of Hawkins.

The fire at Starcourt Mall was so destructive that Owens was able to cover up the thirty people who were actually the victims of the Mind Flayer’s flesh monster and say they were victims of the fire instead. Hop’s death was also linked to the fire, stating he died in the line of duty trying to get everyone out, instead of that he was killed by the Russian’s laser machine exploding next to him.

Mom didn’t even hesitate to bring El into our family and move her into our home. We welcomed her with open arms, mom and I taking her shopping for all the essentials she needs and new clothes– you know the works. My college fund took a bit of a hit but that’s fine because in my opinion, El needed it more.

Today Steve, Robin and I are going to scour the newspaper and try to find a new place for us to apply to work and while it’s probably unlikely we’re also hoping we’ll be able to all work together again. Once we’ve put in the research work today then we’re going to have a movie night at Steve’s and I can’t even stress how very much needed it is.

There’s a knock on the front door and I get up from the couch to answer it, smiling when I see who’s on my porch “Hey”

Steve returns with a smile of his own and nervously moves his keys around in his hands “Hey, you ready?”

“Yup” I answer quickly and reach over to grab my bag, throwing the strap over my shoulder and closing the door behind me after I step out onto the porch. 

We get in the car and head into town, picking up a couple of newspapers before we head to Family Video to rent a few movies for tonight. 

We also stop to pick up some snacks and drinks and we head back to Steve’s house. All during our errands I tried to ignore his weird behavior, however, it was getting difficult to keep ignoring it when he was acting completely different. 

He was quiet– the kind of quiet where it was obvious he had something on his mind and he only would seem like he was present with me when I would ask him something about the movies we were picking for tonight or the snacks and drinks we were picking up.

Noticing his weird behavior still hasn’t left when we get back to his house, I figure we’re at the stage where I can just ask– so I do “Stevie?”

“Yeah, Sums?” he asks and spins around to face me, setting his hands on his hips and I smile softly at him that even with whatever is bothering him he still uses my nickname “I was just curious… is there something going on with you today?”

“Um,” he trails off, smiling nervously and reaching up to scratch the back of his head “Well…” he clears his throat and I raise my brows expectantly at him, explaining “Yeah, see… I ask because it seems like you have something on your mind.”

He drops his arm back down and looks at me silently, breathing out a deep breath “I, uh, do you remember what we talked about in the bathroom?”

“Yes– you were supposed to forget all about it though” I grumble and he laughs, shaking his head as he looks down to the floor between us “I wasn’t talking about that which I definitely forgot about.”

“Good” I mutter and he chuckles silently, looking back up at me while he continues “I actually meant about what I told you.”

“Oh” I breathe, slowly nodding my head that I do remember and he nods with me “Right, see what I remember is how I didn’t explain myself well that night and how I definitely need to”

I lick my lips quickly, saying quietly “You think so?”

“Yup” Steve says, taking a step closer towards me as he rushes out “All day I’ve been trying to figure out the best time and way to explain it better, however, I’ve just– well I keep coming up short because none of the ways seem perfect enough.”

“Who’s to say there’s a perfect enough way for you to say what you need to say?” I ask and he snorts, shaking his head as he grumbles to the floor “Because it’s what you deserve, Sum.”

“Okay” I squeak and Steve smiles, raising his brows at me “So you already know what I’m going to say?”

“I have an idea what it might be regarding” I answer and Steve nods, making a hmm noise as he walks closer towards me. He stops in front of me and says “And you’re going to allow it?”

I make a contemplative little face, tilting my head to the side “Perhaps”

Steve smiles with my words, shaking his head softly at me and I shrug while I continue “I told you once that you should know I’m great at fighting for what I want” I say and Steve smiles even more, agreeing “Yes, I remember.”

“And what I want–” I pause, breathing out a calming breath before I admit “What I want is you, so–” I trail off and Steve widens his eyes, repeating “Wait what? You want me?”

“Yes” I breathe through my nerves, continuing “It has shocked me to my core, Harrington, but you have succeeded in becoming my favorite person and I kind of like you, a lot, so if wanting me is something you could possibly want too then you should know I’m prepared to show you how much you’ve made me fallen for you–”

“Shut up” he says and sets his hands on the sides of my face. He smiles like he can’t believe this is actually happening, shaking his head softly until the next thing I know he kisses me.

He presses his soft and warm lips on mine, and already this kiss is a million times better than the one that shall not be mentioned at a time like this. No, a kiss like this deserves to be the only thing that is talked about right now. He holds me to him, cradling my face in his hands and I set my hands on his chest, linking the smell of my strawberry chapstick to this moment that I will remember forever.

Just needing a little more clarification to what this means I try to say something and he makes a noise, breaking the kiss just far enough that his lips still brush against mine while he says “I said shut up, you don’t have to fight for me– I’m already yours, Byers.”

With that he kisses me again, keeping one hand on my face still while he wraps his other arm around my lower back and pulls me against his chest. I slide my hands up his chest and wrap my arms behind his neck, holding him just as close to me as he’s holding me. He moves his lips over mine, pulling me closer like it’s some kind of dance and I’m really glad he’s holding me up because Harrington can kiss.

He presses his lips against mine a little more, breathing in deeply through his nose while he holds me to him for a few more seconds before he pulls back. He rests his forehead on mine while our panting breaths mix together and I slowly open my eyes. Steve is already looking at me when I do and he smiles at me, moving his head against mine as he mutters quietly “So you fell for me huh?”

“I didn’t fall,” I grumble, glaring playfully at him as I reply just as quietly “You fucking tripped me”

He throws me a look, like of course he did, and I try to fight off my smile, looking up at him through my lashes and admitting “But yes I might be completely in love with you.”

Steve closes his eyes with my words, breathing in deeply like he’s trying to savor the words and I finally let the smile spread across my face. I tighten my arms around him and keep talking “You are the love that came without warning, Harrington” I say and he opens his eyes again, smiling even wider while I continue “I didn’t even get the chance to think or process it. I just woke up one morning and you were the first person I wanted to see that day– the only person at school I wanted to talk to. Then you danced with me and you took me to prom and that’s when I knew that I lost my heart to you. You had my heart even before I truly realized it.”

Steve moves his hands to my hips, gripping my sides as he pulls me against him and kisses me again and I could quite literally dreamily sigh with how amazing it actually feels to be held by him like this while he kisses me. 

He offers a series of a few quick kisses before he looks at me and I think the smile could break his face in two with how big it is. He moves his eyes around my face, shaking his head softly “It is you,” he says simply, continuing “It is fucking you, Sums. I tried to describe it to you the other night but I cannot describe it anymore, it’s just you. You are the only one that I will ever want fully,” he shrugs like it’s simple and increases his hold on my sides. I hug him a little more as it’s my turn to smile with his words and he keeps going “You didn’t even have to do anything to make me fall for you– you were unapologetically yourself. I fell for your beautiful soul and your big heart and the way you never let me get away with anything. I fell for you when you wouldn’t let anyone see how upset you were except for me. I fell for you when you wouldn’t open a christmas present and when you tried to save me from a demogorgon. I fell for you when you fought to save Will and when you stood up to me when I tried to hurt Jonathan and Nancy. I knew I was in love with you when you gave Dustin advice and when you taught him how to dance and when you actually agreed to go to prom with me. I am in love with you, Byers, and I have never been more scared to lose you than when I was strapped to you while we were in chairs and laying on the floor of a Russian bunker as you told me I was the King of your heart. Which is fitting since you are the Queen of mine,” Steve licks his lips quickly and rests his forehead against mine again “I am head over heels in love with you, Summer Byers– you walked into my life and made me fall in love with a girl with freckles more beautiful than the stars.”

I am absolutely speechless with everything he said and I move my eyes between his a few times. I slowly move my head against his, whispering “Dammit, Harrington” before I set my hands on the sides of his face and kiss him, feeling him smile against my lips when I do.

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A/N: Thanks so much for reading! As always let me know what you thought– comments & reblogs give me life!

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Posted: 5 September 2023

[paz-45]

EE Lyrics Study: teeth/bones/nails

Hello! This is my first "lyric study" for the band Everything Everything and the topic is: BONES/TEETH/NAILS.

Basically, when listening to their music, I kept noticing words related to this topic and I was curious if the topic actually existed across their discography. I marked every lyric that included key words:

bone, skull, teeth, vertebrae, fossil, etc.

I did a little research to see the cultural significance or any other meaning/symbolism of these words. I didn't want to dive too much into the actual meaning of the lyrics*** or the greater context of the song, but instead looked at the overall patterns of the key words.

I notice that in EE's lyrics, bones/teeth are mostly used to evoke images of graphic things being done to a body or to liken humans to other animals/creatures. There's mentions of bones both inside a living human and in someone/something that's dead.

Personally, I interpret these uses as a more shocking or uncomfortable way to refer to those parts of the body (e.g. teeth instead of smile, clavicle instead of collar, skull instead of head), which is pretty on-brand for EE's provocative lyrics/themes.

And half the street was under my nails -MY KZ, UR BF

Cos even now, there's a bone snapping -Leave the Engine Room

My teeth dazzle like an igloo wall, I inhabit, I inhibit ya'll -Photoshop Handsome

But right above my clavicle, the world becomes so laughably old -Wizard Talk

Teeth and nails your little anatomy -Luddites and Lambs

Past-tense -- what's a trilobite to anyone? -Kemosabe (marked because it only exists in fossil form)

Coiled heart, eye-tooth, feral child -Torso of the Week

And cloudy with potential, muscle mass and vertebrae begin... -Choice Mountain

While Princes fly drones that can see through your bones - Undrowned

The street is a boneyard she glances -Armourland

And now who's the fossil who gets the girl? -The House is Dust

Bic your head and show your teeth to them honey -Don't Try

And sweat runs up his neck and spine -Awe/Arc

You take the poleaxe out of your spine, push your shoulder back in its place -A.D.

Canine, fangs up out my throat -Distant Past

Teeth on a wire -Get to Heaven

Swing the hammer, the fragments, a skull exploding -Spring/Sun/Winter/Dread

Bone, to the blade -The Wheel is Turning Now

Bones in a bowl like a toad-in-the-hole, take the shape out of the mould -No Reptiles

And your spine is a glass spire -President Heartbeat

I can feel my bones screaming out -Yuppie Supper

Yet the concrete burns at the back of your skull -Night of the Long Knives

I'm just a knuckle dragger with a knuckle dragger grin -Desire

If my bones just fall away -Good Shot, Good Soldier

Skeleton boy with the skeleton girl souvenir -Big Climb

As fresh as my bouncing bones -Arch Enemy

The bones snap into place -Black Hyena

Stretching my lips over my teeth -SUPERNORMAL

I want the teeth of the enchanter - I Want A Love Like This

Drinking from a hollow skull -Cut UP!

But the seed inside your skull is now a watermelon -HEX

You can sing you can play my ribcage like piano -My Computer

***I feel like we'll never know exactly what Jonathan means when he writes (lol seems like he doesn't know sometimes either) so I didn't want to get caught up in guessing what he meant. I find it tiring to try to figure out 'why did he say that?' and instead just enjoy and find my own meaning :)

[boltlightning]

So, Pinterest found out my love for Jorrington. However it showed me some other aesthetic scenes of AWE. Which makes me wonder, if he was still alive and survived, or perhaps kept alive by David Jonathan.

What side do YOU think he would be on in the stand off, why, and what would his response be?

Does this differ to you depending on how he would be alive (escapee or enslaved by Dave Johns)

I imagine angles could be: Civil yet sassy, violent either by skill or having more numbers, obedient (to whomever is his leader).

david jonathan..............

i've definitely thought about this an inordinate amount, and my biases are on fully display as i say norrington would be at elizabeth's side, or at least hovering behind her glowering, when dealing at the parlay.

i've gone through a lot of mental turbulence over a version of events where norrington ends up a pirate, because it's so antithetical to what he stands for both as a vessel of themes and a character with feelings, i have a hard time wrapping my head around it. i think he needed to die in the canon narrative. HOWEVER. i think there's a lot of good theme resolution if he metaphorically dies on the dutchman to save elizabeth, survives and escapes with her, and casts out his former self to become a pirate, even if just to kill cutler beckett in revenge. it's more about loyalty to elizabeth and revenge than it is actually believing in what the pirates stand for than anything, but even getting to that point requires a major ego death.

for all that the title is hollow, norrington is an admiral and a lifelong seaman. he could outgambit beckett in a fleet vs armada situation, were the fleet at his disposal not a pirate fleet, and i think he'd have real valuable input at the parlay...just nothing he'd want to reveal out of hand, like everyone else.

(more thoughts below this got out of hand)

furthermore: consider that the pearl and dutchman have their final standoff during a maelstrom. his canonical ego death happened while chasing the pearl into a hurricane; if he follows elizabeth, he can help steer the pearl out of a storm to safety. the bookends! the parallels!!!

in this consideration i do imagine he's somewhere between the snarky-yet-stuffy cotbp and scruffy-and-blunt dmc norringtons, as you say. that's a great read, and a fun little thought experiment about who he is without the blade of duty/expectation hanging over his neck. civil with a sharp tongue and little reason to hold it back, but with renewed purpose and less of a vendetta against the world at large.

tldr: swap out his literal death with a metaphorical one and he'd follow elizabeth anywhere, especially to battle

(not to self-promo on an ask from a friend but i did write a 20k fic about this very subject; i'd change some stuff now but the bulk of my thoughts are in this big ass thesis. thank you for your time now back to the show)

although..........i am thinking very hard about the idea that he, like jones, is still being forced into service here? like maybe beckett keeps swann as a hostage not to keep elizabeth compliant, but to keep norrington compliant, to make sure the dutchman follows orders in the big fight.

(aside: i don't think norrington fears death or would want to live as anyone besides himself, so he'd never accept jones' offer of undeath unless it was to protect someone else from the same fate. hmm hmm much to consider)

either way: beckett brings norrington to the parlay just to flaunt "look how many of your people i have in my charge! haha!" maybe norrington is trying to drop hints to elizabeth that her father is still alive during the parlay, but she's focused on will being there ALSO trying to drop hints, and it gets messy fast.

having received confirmation that everyone ignores the puppet admiral and uses him for leverage, norrington frees both jack AND governor swann and escapes into the narrative. or something. hmm i'll workshop it

this is a very interesting idea!!! thank you so much for the ask

[nightmarefuele]

muse directory.

repression is a huge theme on this blog. smut happens (usually in body horror font), but don't expect it.

Dune, Star Wars, general gritty sci-fi;

Qimir | The Stranger; manny jacinto ; might feature a knight verse in addition to some canon na-Baron Feyd-Rautha ; austin butler ; draws 98% from the '24 film. Verosha Aniseya ; amandla stenberg Ren (of 'the' Ren) ; adam driver ; a heavily divergent/'oc-ified', post(usually)-snoke, visceral horror, gritty lean from star wars' kylo ren. Shin Hati ; ivanna sakhno ; ahsoka. Kylo Ren ; adam driver ; as close to kylo 'canon' as i'm capable of writing, but solely draws from tfa characterization. Mae-ho Aniseya ; amandla stenberg Paul-Muad'Dib Atreides ; timothee chalamet ; leans on the book(+ messiah) from time to time. Lady Margot Fenring ; léa seydoux. Officer KD6-3.7 ; ryan gosling ; blade runner 2049 . Ezra ; pedro pascal ; prospect (2018). Cee ; sophie thatcher ; prospect (2018).

HotD & other fantasy;

Melisande Shahrizai ; oc-ified character lifted from the kushiel's series; testing; fka twigs Astarion Ancunin ; neil newbon ; need i an explanation Aegon II Targaryen ; tom glynn-carney Alicent Hightower ; olivia cooke Aemond Targaryen ; ewan mitchell Rhaena Targaryen ; phoebe campbell Mysaria ; sonoya mizuno Helaena Targaryen ; hunter schafer (slightly different interpretation), phia sabban Oscar Tully ; archie barnes

villains, antiheroes;

John Constantine ; keanu reeves Loki Laufeyson ; tom hiddleston ; selective muse. fuck u i don't consider post-tdw canon. ciao Jonathan Crane ; cillian murphy ; selective muse

bleak, flexible, modern;

Lisa Nova ; rosa salazar ; brand new cherry flavor. Connor, the Android sent by CyberLife ; bryan dechart Elijah Kamski ; d:bh ; neil newbon Hank Anderson ; d:bh ; clancy brown Sofia Falcone ; cristin milioti ; i'm in love with this crazy bitch Elliot Alderson ; rami malek ; mr. robot. Phillip Price ; michael cristofer ; mr. robot. Leon ; joey bada$$ ; mr. robot. Lisbeth Salander ; rooney mara ; the girl with the dragon tattoo (2011) . Berry Rydell ; young josh hartnett ; freelance private security officer from william gibson's virtual light trilogy, based in retrofuturist nocal and socal. just a guy doing his own thing and getting caught up, routinely, somehow, in the national (but very top-secret) dickfight over some expensive glasses. + virtual reality, or whatever. Control (John Rodriguez) ; bob morley ; based on authority by jeff vandermeer, and annihilation, book and film, exploring hypnosis/mind control and consequent distrust, or outright paranoia. operates at the branch-end of a highly bureaucratic and mysterious organization. eventually ends up at Southern Reach, "...a secret agency that manages expeditions into a place known as Area X, an uninhabited and abandoned coastal area of an unnamed country which nature is gradually reclaiming." 'nature', in this context, being a cute/tame word. refers to his guns as 'gramps', 'grandpa', 'grandpap', etc. 6" tall, impassive. Tangerine ; aaron taylor-johnson ; bullet train .

apocalypse;

Joel Miller ; pedro pascal Imperator Furiosa ; anya taylor-joy. (alyla browne.) Dr. Dementus ; chris hemsworth.

aus are fun. hit me with em or forever hold your peace.

ocs, always subject to adapt and update on a thread-to-thread basis;

Oeznik Ambroicz ; cillian murphy ; loosely based on a character from an original script. flexible iterations. director of an institute/facility (sometimes agency, depending on setting and historical values) that focuses on exploring the residual elements that paranormal trauma leaves behind. these elements can be purely psychological, physical, combined, or, sometimes, paranormal themselves. in other iterations, to draw further on lovecraftian or cthulhu mythos elements, oeznik may lean more private investigator, or 'freelance', for his own mysterious and often unexplained purposes. focused and preoccupied when fixed securely inside his element; wary and suspicious when not. Nadya ; sara serraiocco, sara montpetit ; lab experiment turned a) runaway, b) interdimensional spy/assassin, c) something something time shenanigans. or simple modern ones. who the fuck knows. Dorian Yu ; christian yu ; tba. loosely based on christian yu's musical creations. relies either on psychological themes (wherein dorian is bipolar), for stories more grounded in realism, or the supernatural. heavily flexible, works into most (if not all) modern environments. can be taken a vaguely sci-fi or heavily cyberpunk route. (he's fun. smiley ball of energy and sunshine, or depressive and vaguely antagonistic shut-in.) prone to delusions, dissociation, and in severe instances, amnesia. Fifine ; anya taylor-joy ; random modern verse shenanigans. (the) Insomnium ; tbd. ; developed and hatched by a cult of space witches moreso than born. derived from an organically inorganic (or just inexplicable) substance. for tumblr purposes, blends the idea of dune's 'voice'. cult functions similarly on some levels to the b.g., but is entirely an unknown. stems from the same gritty, visceral horror environment and themes as the ren. (especially picky about where i throw this one.) space cultists tba.

[anysin]

Fic: He Rose Victorious

For @ninetimesthepain, a Jon/Michael with an interpretation of the "leaving notes around a house" theme. An AU where Michael kills Jon after Jon walks through his door in Another Twist, but it's not the end of Jon. Creepy, warning for violence.

He Rose Victorious

Michael slays the Archivist within itself, painting its own insides with his pretty red blood. It takes special pleasure in eating his eyes, and once there is nothing left of him, it makes the mistake of believing that's the end.

*

The recorders on their own are already a bad sign, implying the presence of something inside Michael that isn't itself. But when the cassettes themselves start to pop up, when they start to play, that's when Michael becomes livid with rage.

"You think you can survive within me?" it screams ín the corridors, tearing the tape out of one cassette after another. "You are in my place of power, inside me!" You will lose!"

"I'm not for you," the Archivist's voice responds, echoing around Michael. "I'm marked," the Archivist continues, and Michael could swear he sounds smug.

Michael races within itself, destroying every tape and recorder it finds. It has the nastiest, most enraging feeling that the tapes are just the beginning.

*

Tapes, the statements, are on the nose from the start; they are about Michael's essence in the beginning, then about Michael itself, then about Michael Shelley. Both recorders and cassettes sprout faster than Michael can destroy them, meaning there is usually a whole choir of the Archivist's voices speaking within Michael, sometimes precisely at the same time, sometimes at odds with each other, leading to a cacophony. Michael itself is supposed to be madness; it shouldn't be suffering from it.

"You can't hide forever," it snarls down at a recorder. "Your little game is surely very fun for you, but it will have a bitter end. I will see to that."

"He was born," the Archivist replies from the tape, throwing Michael's own words back at it. Somewhere, everywhere, dozens of other tapes play the same words, the Archivist's voice similarly satisfied on all of them. "He was pointless."

"You are pointless!" Fingers sharpening, Michael crushes the recorder in its hands.

But the tapes and recorders keep coming, merciless in their sheer quantities. Michael starts to slow down, without meaning to, and the game changes.

*

The first time Michael spots the Archivist in one of the mirrors inside itself, it loses control.

It rushes the mirror, smashes it to pieces and chasing the Archivist's image on every shard, shattering them into smaller and smaller pieces until it can't see his face anymore. After it's done, its form is bloody and torn, and it doesn't feel any better. It knows he will be back.

"I will find you," it calls out into itself, hating that its voice now lacks confidence.

The tapes keep appearing, gathering up now that Michael isn't trying to destroy them so hard anymore, even though it means it's filling itself up with the Archivist's voice, his words, his cruel pleasure. It destroys the next mirror that shows the Archivist's face, and the one after that, but with the fourth one, it stops to stand before it, staring into the Archivist's dark, empty eyes.

"What do you want?" Michael asks. It feels tired, for the first time in a while.

It's insulted when the Archivist turns his back on it in the mirror, disappearing.

*

The day it goes silent inside Michael is the day of fate.

It runs inside itself, searching every nook and corner and smashing every recorder on its path, until it finally finds Jonathan Sims in the heart of itself. The Archivist looks worn too, just as weak and pathetic as he has always looked, but his eyes are alive when they face each other.

"Michael," the Archivist says.

Michael screams and lunges.

The Archivist doesn't try to fight back when Michael wrestles him to the ground, when Michael turns its hands into blades and raises them high for a strike. He doesn't fight when Michael stabs him full of holes, only stares at him as his blood spurts out of his wounds, his eyes full of strange affection. He's smiling.

"Stop that!" Michael demands. "You're dead, do you hear me? You're dead!"

The Archivist smiles on, even as Michael drives its blades straight into his eyes.

*

Afterwards, Michael flees.

It steps outside the door and it has all intentions to hunt, gorge itself until it can't remember the Archivist's eyes anymore. But instead it ends up wandering around London, driven by agitation and dread, until it can't stand it anymore. It returns to the door and goes through it, to face what it knows will be there waiting.

The Archivist is indeed there, standing among his tapes and recorders, running his fingertips over them. He smiles at Michael as Michael enters, and now it's Michael's turn not to resist when the Archivist approaches it. Even as it longs to kill him again.

"What do you want?" it asks him once he's close enough, when he raises his arm around Michael's neck.

The Archivist utters a little laugh.

"I don't know. This is pretty new to me too, I've got to think about it. But now that I'm here-" He tightens his hold on Michael, pulling it downward so he can kiss its mouth. "I might as well try to know you."

[crimescrimson]

Johnny Cage & Lieutenant Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat 11

[sam4samina-blog]

Alternate History: This subgenre of fantasy offers a fictional account set within a real historical period, often with actual historical events included although rewritten to include some element of magic or fantasy. There are often "what if" scenarios that occur at important points in history and present outcomes that are different than what's on the historical record. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell His Majesty's Dragon

Arcanepunk Fantasy: Magic and science exist in the world simultaneously—they are two separate fields, but complement each other and are used together. Unlike Steampunk, Arcanepunk is not limited to Victorian-era London. Some people use the term Arcanepunk interchangeably with Dungeon Punk and even Magepunk. Arcanepunk is a more useful term, however, as the 'arcane' refers to magic that is not divine. Shadowrun Perdido Street Station

Arthurian Fantasy: Fantasy that incorporates the tale of King Arthur in some way or set in the same period (Celtic or period English history) and the courtly romantic elements. The Once and Future King The Mists of Avalon

Assassin Fantasy: The name of this sub-genre says it all—these are stories about assassins set within a fantasy world. The grey morality of an assassin is incredibly useful in these worlds. Jhereg Graceling

Comic Fantasy: These stories are humorous and often set in fantasy worlds, and might include parodies of other more serious works. Discworld The Princess Bride

Court Intrigue: With a high level of complexity, Court Intrigue Fantasy is about power, relationships, secrets, and the conniving characters who make up the high court of the land. The royal castle is filled with important people, traditions, and rituals—a difficult place to navigate surely, but that is what makes this sub-genre interesting. A Song of Ice and Fire The Goblin Emperor

Dark Fantasy: A fantasy subgenre that combines elements of fantasy with horror. Dark fantasy is often used to refer to horror fantasy and include stories about demonic creatures, mummies, vampires, and the like. The Blade Itself The Sandman

Fantasy of manners: This subgenre contains stories that rely heavily on the Comedy of Manners, which focuses on social commentary. Often taking place in an urban setting, this type of story will contain very little magic or fantastical creatures. Rather, it will focus on morality and social structures, particularly for women, sacrificing an elaborate plot in some cases to do so. Swordspoint The Tropic of Serpents

Flintlock Fantasy: Flintlock Fantasy is set in an era where flintlock technology is used, but steam power is not—specifically, it may be Steampunk's cousin, but it is not Steampunk. What makes this sub-genre different from Gunpowder fantasy is the specificity of the gunpowder technology and that it tends to be influenced by history. Flintlock Fantasy is considered by some to be a sub-sub-genre of Gunpowder Fantasy, and others see the terms as interchangeable. The only real pitfall of using the terms interchangeably is that gunpowder was in use long before and long after flintlock technology, which creates a somewhat murky definition. Powder Mage Lightbringer

Gaslamp fantasy: Gaslamp Fantasy is a genre bending sub-genre that belongs to both Fantasy and Historical Fiction and borrows tropes, themes, and even characters from Gothic fiction—the supernatural features heavily in sub-genre. Gaslamp was coined in order to separate works from the ever-growing Steampunk sub-genre because Gaslamp works are not 'punk.' Infernal Devices A Great and Terrible Beauty

Grimdark: Grimdark is a subgenre of speculative fiction with a tone, style, or setting that is particularly dystopian, amoral, or violent. The term is inspired by the tagline of the tabletop strategy game Warhammer 40,000: "In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war." The Poppy War Prince of Thorns

[hannahhook7744]

Stranger things ocs part 4;

Name:

Hayden Damon Brock

Born:

December 19th, 1966-1967

Age:

17/18 (season two)

18/19 (seasons three and four)

Aliases:

Nineteen

Den

Hadie

The Assassin

The Tiefling

The Tiefling assassin

Scotus

Scotus the Tiefling assassin

Scotus the menacing

H.B

H

The Shadow Demon

Hellspawn

Residence:

Hawkins National Laboratory (1966/1967-1979)

Forest Hills Trailer Park at Hawkins, Indiana (in Tiffany's cellar)(1984-)

Family:

Samson Brock (Adoptive Brother/fellow test subject)

Kali Prasad (Adoptive Sister/fellow test subject)

Jane Hopper (Adoptive Sister/fellow test subject)

Steve Harrington (Adoptive Cousin)

Friends:

Tiffany Hammond

Eden Bingham

Neptune Bingham

Sprightly Casanova

Yelena Franco

Argyle Franco

Carol Perkins

Tommy Hagan

Other:

Eddie Munson (rival)

Corrided Coffins (rivals)

Joyce Byers (acquaintance)

Jim Hopper (acquaintance)

The Party (acquaintances)

Nancy Wheeler (acquaintance)

Jonathan's Byers (acquaintance)

Ms. And Mr Harrington (false aunt and uncle)

Affiliation:

Hopper Family

Byers Family

The Party

Kali's Gang

Harrington Family

Hammond Family

The Hawkins High Musketeers

Hawkins National Labatory (formerly)

Benny's Burgers

The Reckless Dragons

Occupation:

Test subject at Hawkins National Laboratory (1966/1967-1979)

Bust Boy at Benny's Burgers (1984-)

Harmonica Player of The Reckless Dragons (1984-)

Gender:

Male

Height:

5"10

Weapon:

Blades taped to playing cards

Telekinesis

Umbrakinesis

Dreamkinesis

Hobbies:

Stealing

Making weapons

Setting off fire works

Playing with fire

Learning how to use different weapon

Pranking

Sparring

Learning different forms of martial arts

Sleeping

Jump Scarring people

Listening to music

Playing video games

Parkour

Wall/ceiling crawling

Vandalism

Graffiti

Playing card games

Playing board games

Playing/cheating at DND

Playing darts

Playing the harmonica

Reading

Purposely annoying people

Personality:

Playful

Spiteful

Sneaky

Street Smart

Multi-talented

Lazy when he wants to be

Protective

Secretly caring

Stoic

Takes no shit

Is a little shit

Button pusher

Fears:

Pupaphobia

Theme Song:

Thriller by Michael Jackson

Relationship status:

Dating but won't tell who

Story:

Stranger us

Name:

Neptune Lagoon Bingham

Born:

July 4th, 1968-1969

Age:

16/17 (season four)

Aliases:

Nep

Tune

N.B

Pizza Boy

Stoner Boy

Water Boy

Bingham

Sticky fingers Lagoon

Lagoon

The Dwarf

The Dwarfen thief

N.L.B

Residence:

Bingham House, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Family:

Mr. Bingham (Father)

Mrs. Bingham (Mother)

Eden Bingham

Suzie Bingham (Sister)

Tabitha Bingham (Sister)

Cornelius Bingham (Brother)

Sterling Bingham (Brother)

Tanner Bingham (Brother)

Tatum Bingham (Sister)

Peter Bingham (Brother)

Friends:

Yelena Franco

Argyle Franco

Jonathan Byers

Sprightly Casanova

Tiffany Hammond

Hayden Brock

Samson Brock

Steve Harrington

Tommy Hagan

Carol Perkins

Eddie Munson

Corrided Coffins

Other:

Nancy Wheeler (acquaintance)

The Party (acquaintances)

Jim Hopper (acquaintance)

Joyce Byers (acquaintance)

Affiliation:

The Hawkins High Musketeers

Hammond Family

Byers Family

Hopper Family

Surfer Boy Pizza

Lenora Hills Country Club

Lenora Hills High School (formerly)

Occupation:

Lenora Hills Country Club (1986-)

Surfer Boy Pizza (1986-)

Gender:

Male

Height:

5"4 ½

Weapon:

Golf club

Lighter

Cricket bat

Hobbies:

Swimming

Rolling skating

Playing video games

Reading comic books

Reading Manga books

Go-karting

Listening to music

Hanging out with his friends

Playing board games

Playing card games

Playing DND

Playing Party games

Going to parties

Pulling pranks

Personality:

Kind

Sweet

Spacey

Chill

Moody

Funny

Playful

Cool

Street smart

Anxious

Fears:

Trypanophobia

Claustrophobia

Algophobia

Anginophobia:

Theme Song:

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

Relationship status:

Dating

Story:

Stranger us

[the-most-lamentable]

oh baby it's askin' time. 58, 66, 73, 90, and 21 for funs :)

Good evening, got booted out of my account for a moment but I am back and presently avoiding working on my writing projects ( will be working after this because my project list is ever expanding and I Still need do get done the ch3 illustration aaaaaa)

What's the last thing a fic made you Google when you were writing it?

Uhh the last thing was the bus system in the Tampa Bay area to Plant city for the immortal blade story. He starts off as a college student before having the worst night of his life brought to you by maybe a few too many Jaegerbombs.

In other research I tried an energy drink to see how it would feel as I have a scene in that Eugenia is an incredibly passive aggressive ghost wherein Keith absolutely crashes right before a show so Mickey gives him a monster thinking what's the worst that could happen? It goes poorly.

When have you felt the most confident in your writing?

Occasionally when I'm working on a project I'll have one of those moments where I realise Hey I just set up and paid off some very nice bits of theme and motif Ohoho it's all coming together, I've connected the dots. It's usually then.

Otherwise, my best writing? This line I wrote at 4 am.

"“Well- jokes on you! Both of my parents are dead!” Kevin sputtered.

Jeremy paused for a moment. Someone nearby shouted, “Her ghost is disappointed!” The crowd murmured in agreement."

How do you visualize scenes? Do you see it like a movie in your head, or do the words just flow?

So when I first start drafting a story I will be sitting there staring at a wall and there's a tiny film projector in my head playing out key beats, very visual but also vibe driven. The Great Imposter was very one to one in the scene beats and imagery I came up with initially like the imagery of the study sequence where he's stuck watching the action unable to act, or the whirring ambulance lights in sprinkling rain for Shock Blanket.

When I actually start writing it's a bit of both, my brain is multitasking to high hell. Those central images serve as a guide which is supported by insane amounts of character research and story structure. Most of the chapter illustrations are those initial clear images translated to drawing. I figure if the iconography is so effective to me, it should hopefully work on my audience too as a supplement to the vibes.

Do you notice your own voice in your writing?

Exceedingly so, yes. While I do make an effort to write within character logic and voice, it is still my writing. I have been told my usual voice is resemblant of a late 1800s British satirist, which seems fair (irony is the death of sincerity, my deepest struggle writing) however other inspirations include: Terry Pratchett, Lemony Snickett, Clue 1985, Tj Klune, David Sedaris, etc. All this to say always very dry humor, fast rhythm, and exceedingly long metaphors that are just a bit too specific.

Pick a writer to co-write a book and tell us what you'd write about.

Uhhhh I don't know but if you ever want to write a story together here's my pitches that I am coming up with on the spot (absolutely no pressure, i just dont know how else to answer this):

An AU of Homeward, Boumd where the Beans are all human, but still just as fucked up. Like Chris mentions offhand that his brother once threw him into a hole in their basement and left him for dead and everyone is just !!!??????

Celia Bean had an affair (outside of her one with Robert of course) which after an ancestry test brings James's number of suprise siblings up to 3. I just feel like him and Chris have similar vibes. Plus the chaos of introducing these two groups, particularly Cornley being perhaps a little too snooping over this (Jonathan and Dennis trying to casually hide behind a newspaper in a café only to be immediately clocked by Chris)

I've got an urban fantasy noir sorta story where magic is real and the whole thing kicks off with a spell backfiring and James's dad disappearing. Features things such as Keith and Mickey Co running a psychic shop (Keith runs the shop, Mickey is his glorified landlord, roommate, and self nominated HR department), Kevin getting up to shenanigans as a ghost, human glowsticks being abused for said glowing, werebear the ultimate bear, group sleepover (See: James and Mickey fall asleep and nobody has the heart to wake them). I believe I've mentioned this one before.

Anyways thanks for the ask, forgive me if it's A bit incomprehensible I am extremely sleep deprived from an absolute eager with my friend last night wherein we reorganized her bedroom and then discussed theology till 4 am. Best wishes, Jon, I don't know why I'm signing off like an email but it's there now