#Which it did technically kinda work for the third one?

[ailithnight]

So, it's implied (at least in BtAS and possibly in other runs too) that Jim knows.

So Jim isn't going to have a face at this. His face is going on a journey. A moment of WTF, then processing, trying to figure out if Bruce got another one somehow without Jim knowing, realizing and reorienting his thoughts around how the papers the kid is waving are signed by-not Bruce- Batman, processing some more, realizing he can use thisto mess with Bruce, a flash of wicked glee at this new idea, and finally schooling back into stern police commisioner face.

"Alright kid, let's go call him then to pick you up."

"Oh.. Oh, that's really not necessary. I can make my own way home, Mr..."

"Gordon. And I'm sorry, kid, but you're a minor and who was just caught up in a Scarecrow attack. I cannot just let you leave without a legal guardian. Besides, as many attacks as you've been in lately, I need to have a word with him anyway. Now come on, kid. And don't worry. I got your Dad's number. He always picks up when I call."

By 'I got your Dad's number, let's go call him to pick you up,' what Jim actually means is this:

We're gonna go up to the roof, flick on the Batsignal, and wait for Batman to show up. Then I can pass you off and spend a few minutes scolding him about letting the kid he took in wander Gotham without supervision, getting caught up in all these attacks. Maybe throw in a 'never had this problem with Wayne' just for the kicks.

Jim is gonna have so much fun. So will Danny when he realizes Mr. Gordon is just fucking with Batman.

Feral McGee™

It starts with the Joker. 

His goons picked up Tim Drake. Not specifically because it was Tim Drake, he just so happened to be in the Joker’s neighborhood, and we'll, he can't pass up that opportunity now can he? 

Except Tim Drake is watching, along with the rest of Gotham, at the Batcomputer. He’s nursing a broken foot and has been put on monitor duty until he's cleared for field work again. 

The guy looks enough like him, though. Black hair, blue eyes, and bags under his eyes for days. He's also got the same lean sort of build like he does. 

It happens like this. 

The Joker is doing his monologue thing where he explains whatever twisted game he's come up with this time. He takes up the majority of the screen, so nobody can see Not-Tim behind him, not until the big reveal. Then he covers the screen again, getting up close and personal, before stepping back. In those quick few seconds, Not-Tim is no longer sitting there tied to the chair. 

Someone off camera lets the Joker know, and he whirls around, confused as the rest of Gotham. 

And then Not-Tim comes in with the steel chair. 

Or, well, a crowbar, but the reference holds up. 

He takes out one of Joker’s knees before punching him in the face. The Joker drops like a bag of stones, out cold. 

Then he looks towards the camera. 

“Hey there. I'm not really sure where I am, but also if he was after Tim Drake, he got the wrong guy. I'm not him, I'm just some dude. Anyway, I'll just-yep-” he carefully steps over the unconscious Joker, gives the camera a little wave, and then leaves. 

Batman and Nightwing enter shortly after, with the Joker and his goons out cold and tied up. The knots were complicated enough where, in the end, the police resorted to cutting the ties off of them so they could be properly cuffed and taken to Arkham. 

“A constrictor knot,” Batman tells Nightwing as they watch the villain be taken away. “Often used by sailors to temporarily tie things together to keep something in a bag, or to hold something to glue it back together.”

“Huh,” Nightwing says, scratching the back of his head. “Go figure.”

—

The next time it happens, it’s the Riddler. 

He’s laughing, giving his riddles to the Bats and recording himself to all of Gotham while his victim, one of the Wayne brats, hangs over a vat of something. From a distance, he looks like Tim Drake, or maybe a lankier Dick Grayson. And he’s not the only victim, they’re all scattered across the city, but he thought an important figure such as a Wayne should be under the Riddler’s direct supervision while he enacts his schemes. 

While the Riddler cackles and plots and waves his cane around, in the background all of Gotham can see the figure escape. Several Gothamites recognize him as the kid from before, who clocked the Joker. They all watch with bated breath as he sort of wiggles his way out of the ropes holding him up. Once he’s free, he climbs the rope and gets himself down safely. 

Gotham holds their breath as the kid casually walks up to the Riddler, who’s mid-rant. He politely taps him on the shoulder, and as the Riddler is turning around, the kid clocks him just as brutally as he had the Joker. He’s down with one punch. 

They think he’s going to say another sort of awkward goodbye, but instead he pats the Riddler down until he finds a piece of paper tucked into the inside pocket of his jacket. 

“Right,” the kid says, looking at the list. There’s a lot more static overlay now, and several wonder if it’s damage to the cameras. “Uh, the Clocktower, the Docks, and-” he squints at the page for a moment-”Mama Nacaroni’s? What the fuck is that? Anyway, uh. See you later, I guess. Oh! And we’re at the Gotham Arena. Have fun with him, I guess.”

The kid tosses the paper off to the side before the camera cuts to black. 

Just like last time, everyone is out cold and tied up. The Riddler himself is sporting a pretty bad shiner, but well deserved nonetheless. 

“Stop it,” Red Hood tells him. Batman just looks at him, and though Hood can’t see the top half of his face, he can tell that his eyebrow is raised. “You know exactly what I mean, B. Put the adoption papers away.”

“Hn.”

—

After that, it sorta becomes a game. The rogues of Gotham are no longer after a Wayne, or after anybody who holds any kind of social status like usual. They’re all going after this one kid, all determined to be the one to hold him. And each one is televised. 

Mr. Freeze freezes him in a block of ice, but due to the cameras glitching out, nobody can really see how he got free. They do, however, see the kid suplex Mr. Freeze. It should seem impossible, given his lanky figure, but he evidently has more muscle than he’s originally let on. 

Two-Face gets a hold of him, using chains and some power-dampening cuffs just on the off-chance that he’s a meta. They all watch as the kid leans down, pulls a bobby pin out of his hair, and picks the locks on his cuffs. One punch, and Two-Face is down. 

Gothamites are going wild for the kid. They’ve dubbed him Feral McGee™ (an online poll, of course), because every time he goes in for the punch he gets this feral look in his eyes. Also, just the fact that he casually goes up to these rogues and takes them out with all the casualness of doing something incredibly mundane? Incredible. The Gothamites are eating it up. However, despite the video evidence, nobody has been able to properly identify the kid. They know he has black hair and bright eyes, but any time he gets near a camera, it’s like there’s this weird, sort of warped quality the camera takes on. It doesn’t usually calm down until the fight is done-as one sided as they usually are-before he awkwardly skedaddles away.  

He gets kidnapped by the Penguin, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy (though that was more just a friendly chat than anything), Mad Hatter, and the Riddler again. 

And then the Joker escapes. 

It’s no surprise as to who he’s going to go after. 

Due to one too many careless goons, they manage to find their way to the Joker’s hideout pretty quickly. This time, it’s all Bats on deck, and they all hide away in the rafters as Feral McGee™ is hung over a vat of acid. His whole body is tied up, hardly a single inch of exposed skin to be seen except for the neck up. 

They watch the goons, they watch the Joker, and they watch Feral McGee™. 

The Joker is monologuing, practically begging the bats to come find him before the timer runs out. When it does, the kid gets dumped into the vat of acid. 

Despite these stakes, the kid seems to be only mildly annoyed. 

“Fuck this, I have homework I still need to finish,” they hear him say. 

They all watch, amazed and confused, as the kid starts gnawing through the ropes. Human teeth shouldn’t be able to do that so easily, but one bit after the other, and soon enough the kid’s got himself freed enough to just climb up the rest of the rope. When he’s at the top of the crane holding him up, Batman lets down a rope and pulls the kid up and out of danger. 

“Oh, cool, you’re all here,” the kid says casually, as if meeting the entire Bat Clan is just a normal Tuesday. And then he pulls out a notepad and pen and hands it to Red Hood. 

“Can I get an autograph? You’re dope as fuck, dude.”

Red Hood has to look away and hide his face in his arms for a few moments to not give away their location with his laughter before signing. And then, one by one, the others do as well. They pass along the kid’s notebook with shit-eating grins and barely contained snickers despite the fact that the Joker is still right below them. Even Batman signs it, after his children don’t stop hounding him about it. 

In their distraction, they didn’t see the kid sneak away. He’s far away from them now, nearly right over the Joker. Danny waits, though, until the Joker has turned around as the timer almost runs out. They watch as he snickers at Joker’s flabbergasted look. The Joker comically looks back and forth and under objects the kid obviously isn’t under. However, before he can do or say anything else, the kid drops from the rafters and right on top of the Joker. He crumples to the ground, unconscious. The kid, however, just brushes the dust off of himself. Despite the fall he took, there isn’t a scratch on him. 

When the bats join him, they give his notepad back to him, barely able to contain their laughter at the absurdity of it all. The kid, too, joins in the camaraderie, laughing and joking along with them as Batman secures the Joker. 

“Okay, okay, but I gotta ask, dude,” Red Hood says at one point, looking at the kid. “How do you keep getting kidnapped?”

The kid just shrugs. “I get distracted easily. And I’m sleep deprived, so you know. Social awareness is kind of at an all time low right now.”

“Why are you sleep deprived?” Nightwing asks, barely hidden concern in his voice. 

 “Finals are kinda kicking my ass right now. Especially this dumb English homework I have. You guys wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“Oh, lucky for you,” Red Hood says, wrapping an arm around the kid’s shoulders as he walks them out of the warehouse, “I happen to know a lot about English. So, it is Shakespeare?”

“Yeah, Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

As they walk off, Batman calmly watches, though the rest of the bats can see his jaw twitching. Nightwing comes up behind him, clapping a hand on his shoulder. 

“If you don’t adopt him, I will.”

“Hn.”

[steddieas-shegoes]

falling is easy, catching is hard

rated m | also on ao3 cw: recreational drug use, implied sexual content tags: friends with benefits, secret relationship, shotgunning, mutual pining, getting together, love confessions

HAPPY BIRTHDAY @sidekick-hero!!! Sandy, you deserve the world, but this 3000 word thing will have to do for now 💖

💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

December 19, 1985

Steve Harrington needed sleep.

Eddie Munson had the only thing that would put him to sleep.

But Eddie Munson also held a grudge, a reasonable one, but an annoying one.

“You want me to sell you the last of my good shit? For half price?” Eddie snorted. “You’re out of your damn mind, Harrington.”

“Munson, please. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important,” Steve begged.

“Why would I do you any favors? You never did me any.”

Eddie crossed his arms over his chest, waiting somewhat impatiently for a response from Steve.

Steve didn’t have one.

Eddie was right; He didn’t really deserve a favor from someone who had let his friends make his first senior year absolutely miserable.

But Robin’s voice looped in his head: “Be vulnerable sometimes, Steve. People may surprise you.”

“Listen man, I just really need to sleep, alright? I’ve tried everything else.” Steve sighed. “This is pretty much my last hope.”

Which was a truth and a lie. He’d already tried smoking some weed, knew that it worked.

Eddie’s forehead creased in the middle.

That’s kinda cute, Steve thought to himself before shaking his head. Now wasn’t the time to get distracted by big, brown eyes and shiny lips.

“You been to a doctor?” Eddie asked.

“The sleeping pills make them worse.”

“Make what worse?” Eddie pushed.

“The nightmares.”

Eddie nodded once, understanding flitting across his face as he relaxed his arms by his sides.

“How long you been havin’ them?” Eddie asked as he walked around to the bench at the picnic table, opening his lunchbox.

“I guess…technically years. They’ve been worse since July though.” Steve knew he had to be careful about what he said, couldn’t give away more than what the public knew about what happened at the mall, but Eddie seemed trustworthy enough to handle this part. “Doctors said it’s normal for trauma or whatever.”

Eddie nodded, whispered something under his breath, and shuffled through his box.

“Forgot you worked at the mall over the summer. Kinda crazy what happened,” he said as he pulled a small discolored plastic bag from the box. “I’ll make you a one-time only deal, Stevie.”

Steve ignored the butterflies in his stomach at the nickname, kicked at the dirt under his feet, and gestured for Eddie to continue.

“I’m not giving my product away for half price. I’m a businessman and that’s not a smart financial decision for my business.” Eddie held up a hand when Steve looked like he was going to argue. “But! I will share a joint with you right here, right now, for free.”

“Um. What?”

“I was gonna smoke this one tonight as a celebration for passing all my first semester finals by the skin of my teeth. I don’t mind sharing if you don’t.” Eddie’s smirk made the butterflies even worse.

Steve was going to regret this.

God, he was so stupid.

“Yeah, okay.”

Smoking with Eddie the first time was nice, but the second, and third, and fourth times were even better.

— — — — — — —

January 16, 1986

“You’re late, Stevie. I was starting to worry you’d gotten frostbite.” Eddie’s smile warmed Steve from the inside out, the shiver wracking his body more to do with the growing fondness he had for the curly-haired man in front of him.

Eddie was bundled up like they were in Antarctica, and to be fair, it was below freezing outside right now.

Steve offered to meet somewhere else, but Eddie insisted they come to his usual spot.

And then Steve saw it: Eddie had built them a fire. It was small, he probably didn’t want to draw any attention from the road, but it was throwing heat that Steve craved.

“Come warm up before we get into it,” Eddie waved him over, his gloved hands looking out of place.

Steve was used to seeing shiny rings on his fingers, blisters on his fingertips from playing too much guitar.

Steve stood next to him in front of the fire, holding his own gloved hands out to try to warm his body as much as possible.

“Any reason I couldn’t just come to your house or something?” Steve asked, not quite getting rid of the attitude in his tone.

“My Uncle has tonight off. He’s a pretty chill guy, but I think actively watching me sell drugs to someone would maybe cause a heart attack.” Eddie sighed. “I told him I had a date tonight so I couldn’t really have you show up after that.”

“A date?” Steve grinned, nudging Eddie’s arm. “I didn’t even bring flowers.”

Eddie rolled his eyes, but looked away to cover a blush. “Yeah, well, don’t expect me to put out until there’s a dozen roses in my hand.”

He meant it as a joke surely, but something in Steve’s chest clenched at the thought of spoiling Eddie like that. Maybe not roses, that didn’t quite seem his style.

“I’ll try to remember them next time,” Steve managed to say, nearly choking on his own words.

What was he even doing? Flirting? Eddie didn’t even consider him a real friend, why would he want him to bring him flowers?

“Got a new strain tonight. It’s supposed to be a little stronger, but fades faster, so you should be good to drive back home in a couple hours.” Eddie pulled the baggie out of his pocket, lunchbox long gone after meeting twice a week for the last month.

Steve wasn’t really a customer anymore, no matter how they tried to keep up appearances that he was.

He still tipped Eddie, or tried to, but usually Eddie ignored it and just said it was a favor to help him sleep.

“How strong?” Steve finally asked as Eddie pulled the lighter from his pocket.

“Might make you a little floatier than usual. Not hallucinogenic, though.” Eddie knew he couldn’t handle that kind of trip. That’s why he stayed away from his other offerings. “I tested it out myself earlier this week.”

Steve wasn’t reading into that.

“Okay.” He fought off a shiver, this time from actually being cold. “Guess it’s worth a try.”

“I’ll drive you home if it’s too much.” Eddie’s offer was kind, going above and beyond what a dealer would do for a customer, but Steve wasn’t reading into it. “Or you can nap it off in the van for an hour or so before heading home. Whatever.”

Eddie lit the joint, breathing in long and slow, holding the smoke until Steve was sure he would pass out before slowly letting it out.

He handed the roll to Steve, who didn’t think about what Eddie meant by stronger, and took his normal pull, choking halfway through.

Eddie’s eyes widened as he took the joint from him, his hand grabbing onto Steve’s arm as he coughed.

“Jesus Christ, man, you good?” Eddie asked him.

“Yeah,” he coughed. “Sorry. It is a lot stronger.”

Eddie searched his face, relaxing as Steve’s breathing went back to normal. “Good?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe take it slower?” Eddie teased. “Or- no never mind.”

“Or what?” Steve asked, already feeling the heaviness that came with smoking.

“Ever shotgunned before?”

Steve’s heart stopped. He’d venture to say he was even stone cold sober again after that question.

“Um. No.” He hadn’t. He’d wanted to with Nancy, figured it would be the only way she would be interested in trying weed, but it never worked out. “Would it be easier?”

“Yeah,” Eddie nodded. “Usually. We can give it a try if you want.”

Steve nodded before he really processed what he was being offered.

Eddie’s mouth would be very, very close to his. Possibly even on his.

And he’d be sharing breath with him, probably more than one if it worked.

Eddie pulled the picnic table closer to the fire and sat on the bench. He patted the seat next to him.

“Might as well get comfy, then,” Eddie said.

Steve sat next to him, close enough to feel the warmth coming from his side, close enough to hear Eddie’s hitched breath when they made contact.

Close enough to want to be closer.

“Alright, so I’ll start with a small one, and you just have to breathe in when I breathe out.”

“Is it-” Steve played with a loose thread on his gloves. “Your lips are gonna touch mine?”

Eddie suddenly looked nervous, like he regretted offering this at all, and Steve couldn’t allow that.

“I don’t mind! I mean, I want you to!” Steve panicked. “Like, it’s fine! I know we have to for the whole thing to work.”

“Yeah. Um, it’s not like, weird or anything. It’s just me helping you get high.”

It wasn’t weird, but it definitely was hot.

Eddie took a drag, leaned into Steve’s space, and cupped his jaw, tilting his head back for easier access.

Steve couldn’t breathe.

But he had to, that was the whole fucking point of doing this.

His lips parted and Eddie’s warmth coated him, covered him better than the fire.

He breathed in as Eddie breathed out, his hand seeking contact with anything solid to keep him on this earth.

He found it in Eddie’s hip, his fingers gripping tight as Eddie lingered beyond the point of the smoke clearing from his mouth to Steve’s.

Their lips brushed lightly, an agonizingly soft touch that Steve tried his best not to chase as it drifted away.

He bit back a whine at the loss, opening his eyes to see Eddie still surprisingly close, pupils huge.

It’s just the weed, Steve thought to himself.

It definitely wasn’t their almost-kiss.

Steve breathed out, swallowing once the smoke was gone from his mouth.

“Good?” Eddie asked.

Steve should answer him, should nod and thank him for doing this, maybe ask him for another hit so he could try to blame his fidgeting on being high.

But Steve wanted to kiss him.

Not shotgun, not barely brush lips, not act like this wasn’t something more than what it started as.

Robin told him he deserved nice things, and he deserved to be happy, and he did.

So Steve let himself try to have a nice thing.

“Again?” Steve asked, leaning in before Eddie had a chance to take a drag.

“Woah, big boy.” Eddie’s hands grabbed his shoulders, not pushing him away, but holding him back from making contact that he so desperately wanted. “Think that first hit might have gotten to you already. Let’s take a minute.”

“No, I-”

“Steve. You’re high.”

His tone was final, and something about the way his eyes darted away made Steve think that maybe this wasn’t the first time someone tried to make a move on him because he was giving them something.

He didn’t know Steve was into men, either.

Steve could just tell him, though. Let him know it’s not just the drugs, that he’d already had feelings for him before.

But the high was kicking in and Steve’s tongue felt like an iron weight.

“How about I get you some water?” Eddie asked, pulling away and walking swiftly to his van.

Steve didn’t protest. He did need some water.

Eddie sat on the other side of the table when he came back, handed over a bottle of water with a small smile, and watched as Steve gulped most of it down.

“This is good shit,” Steve admitted, slurring his words a little from the effort of moving his mouth. “Better than usual.”

“Yeah, it’s a nice treat once in a while.”

They sat in silence for another 30 minutes or so, though the time didn’t even feel like it was passing to Steve until Eddie stood up and guided him to the passenger seat of his van.

“Wha-?”

“I’m gonna drop you off at home. You got someone who can help you get your car tomorrow?” Eddie buckled his seatbelt, Steve tried not to be too endeared. “Maybe Buckley? Or Wheeler?”

Steve’s brows furrowed.

Nancy had barely talked to him in months, not since she gave him one awkward hug after Starcourt. Robin couldn’t drive, or at least said she couldn’t. That’s why he drove her to school and all of her work shifts.

“Maybe you could?” Steve suggested.

Eddie sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

— — — — — — —

February 14, 1986

Steve got him flowers.

He hadn’t seen him since the night he drove Steve home.

By the time Steve woke up the next morning, his car was parked in the driveway with a note on his keys that said ‘Promise there’s not a dent on her.’

And then Eddie had ignored his calls. He’d conveniently never been at his spot anytime Steve had ever met up with him before.

He couldn’t even pass a message through Dustin because Dustin was too curious for his own good and would probably figure out that Steve wanted to kiss him.

Which is all Steve thought about for the last month while he figured out what to do next.

Robin was no help at all, said he should just corner him after Hellfire one night and make a move if he wanted him so bad.

As if that could ever be an option.

This was his last chance, though.

He’d confirmed with one of his bandmates – Garrett, maybe? – that he didn’t have plans tonight and refused to sell on Valentine’s Day.

Steve stood in front of Eddie’s trailer, a bouquet of white and pink daisies in his hand, feeling particularly stupid.

The van was here, so Eddie was here, but Steve couldn’t bring himself to walk up the steps and knock on the door. This was maybe the most idiotic thing he’d ever done and he probably should leave before he was seen by someone.

“Steve?” Eddie opened the front door, confusion clear even from a distance. “The hell are you doing here?”

“I said I’d bring you flowers.”

He felt so dumb, standing here holding a bouquet of flowers for a guy who didn’t even want to sell drugs to him anymore. He considered dropping the flowers and making a run for it, but Eddie leaned against the door frame and scrunched his nose up.

Like he was trying not to smile.

Like maybe Steve did something right.

“Better bring them in so they can get water, then,” Eddie said with a hesitant smile.

Steve would take any type of smile, as long as it meant he wasn’t being sent away with his tail between his legs.

He rushed inside, didn’t think about the smell of Irish Spring coming off of Eddie, or the way his arm brushed against his side as he passed him.

Steve stood in Eddie’s trailer, taking in what Eddie called home, holding the flowers in front of him with hope.

Eddie closed the front door and walked over to him, holding his hand out.

“You didn’t have to get me flowers just for me to sell you drugs again, ya know.” Eddie smiled sadly. “I would have let you buy if you really needed it.”

“You won’t return my calls so how would you know if I needed it?” Steve countered.

“Ouch.” Eddie sucked a breath in through his teeth. “You’re right. I, uh, was giving you some space.”

“What made you think I wanted any?” Steve took the flowers back from Eddie’s hand, setting them on the coffee table behind him. “If I wanted space, I wouldn’t have bothered calling at all.”

“That’s what Wayne said, but-”

“Well, maybe you should’ve listened to Wayne.” Steve sighed. “I’m sorry I fucked things up by wanting to kiss you. I’m sorry if the flowers are too much. I’m sorry if I’m too much.”

Steve couldn’t look at Eddie after his confession, or his attempt at one. It may have been more of an apology, but he figured his intentions were clear enough.

“Steve. Stevie. Look at me.” Eddie cupped his cheeks, that familiar warmth covering Steve in safety. “You’re not too much. Don’t ever, ever let anyone tell you that you’re too much. You were so high, I didn’t wanna take advantage. I thought if I just left you to think about it long enough, you’d realize what happened was just from the weed.”

Steve shook his head, reaching his hands up to circle Eddie’s wrists. “It wasn’t just the weed. You’d know that if you let me talk to you before now.”

Eddie rubbed his thumb along his cheekbone, eyes dancing across the freckles that covered Steve’s surprisingly sun-kissed skin. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you explain.”

“You’re forgiven if you listen now,” Steve took a breath, letting his hands run down Eddie’s arms and settle on his hips. “I like you. A lot. Definitely more than a customer should, more than a friend should, maybe more than a regular boyfriend should. It’s okay if that’s too much, but it’s what I have to give.”

“You’re really something, Stevie.” Eddie leaned in, pressing his lips to the corner of Steve’s mouth. “I think I’ll take what you’re giving if that’s alright with you.”

“Please,” Steve breathed out as Eddie’s lips crushed against his fully.

Steve always felt so much, always gave so much, hardly ever had anyone who would take what he had to give.

But Eddie was taking it, forcing it from Steve to his own body, his own heart, like it was the only thing he wanted or needed.

“If you wanna buy tonight, you’re gonna be real disappointed,” Eddie gasped out against his lips when they came up for air minutes, maybe hours, later. “I don’t sell on major holidays.”

“Is Valentine’s Day a major holiday?” Steve asked, brows furrowing.

“It is when I get to have you in my bed.”

Steve’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

“That sound okay to you, big boy?” Eddie was smooth. Who could have possibly guessed?

Steve barely got out a ‘yes’ before Eddie was pulling him down the short hallway to his bedroom and rattling off things he wanted to do to him.

Steve Harrington probably wasn’t getting any sleep tonight.

But Eddie Munson would make it worth his while.

[midnight-pluto]

Hi!! Can I request headcanons about being best friends with Nico and Will (together), kinda having that “couple who adopts their bsf as their child” dynamic reader is a child of Demeter and if it’s no trouble can reader be female? GN will work if not.

SOLANGELO +1 — headcanons

you call it third wheeling, i call it quality time with the parents

CHAR: will solace, nico di angelo, grover, mentioned!percy jackson, mentioned!annabeth chase

PAIRING(S): solangelo + daughter of demeter!reader, mentioned!percabeth

A/N: this is gonna be a nightmare to tag lmao

when new campers meet Will for the first time, they’re almost always introduced to Nico next

what they don’t expect, is for you to pop out of nowhere introducing yourself as well

they jump slightly at your sudden appearance, and reciprocate your greeting with slight confusion in their voice but then Will gladly explains the situation

“This is Y/N, daughter of Demeter.”

“Yeah, and these are my dads.”

“Y/N that’s not—“

it would be so much funnier if you were taller than both of them

that sends some campers in a spiral, especially the younger ones

once the new camper is recovered they then automatically understand the true nature of y’all’s relationship

some are slightly confused on why you seem so glad with the arrangement you three have going but most support it and find it amusing

if the three of you are ever going anywhere you’re usually in the front as the actual couple trail behind you holding hands

all of the friendship accessories you three own are thanks to you!

you made matching bracelets, a custom bead to add to the camp necklace just for the three of you, and the cliché flower crowns your cabin is known for

the flower crown was made of an assortment of flowers — lilies, chrysanthemums, and sunflowers which all not coincidentally mean or have some correlation to friendship

you have most definitely been the first to witness Will playing a love song to Nico in private

not wanting to interrupt the moment you made all the plants in the area grow greener and have flowers sprout around them

it was a miracle on how both of them didn’t notice your antic sooner

as you were making the plants grow around them from the bush, Will had stopped strumming as Nico looked at him with one of his rare smiles when they both leaned into each other

but of course Nico just had to feel the suddenly grown flowers tickling at his ankles and immediately spotted you — watching you run away from your hiding spot

that situation is what led to you to believe was the reason you kept on being invited to their dates

were you complaining? no, of course not

you had the ability to snack on all their food after all and they have no one but themselves to blame

“Where did the cookies even go?”

“…whoops.”

as their honorary child you were not technically counted as a third-wheel

Will had jokingly dubbed it a ‘family bonding time’ whenever you joined in on his Nico’s time together — them not even doing anything special, but you still joined anyways — and the name stuck

in all honesty Will is happy with the arrangement you all have together

don’t get him wrong, he would enjoy the moments he and Nico have together all the same even if you weren’t there, but your presence and witty comments coming from nowhere make it all the more cherished

also, your ability to make scenes more romantic is very highly appreciated; making him choose more woody and grassy areas so it’s easier for you to romanticize them

Nico on the other hand would’ve enjoyed it more if he and Will were alone away from your eyes

but he supposed yours was different — making the moments they both have feel more domestic so he didn’t necessarily consider any of his or Will’s actions PDA when it was you

you never really paid attention anyways

the romanticized scenery caused by you made Nico scoff but he was grateful for the added atmosphere — which was quite a compliment since he normally disliked such clichés

Grover once tried to talk to you about it and relate to the feeling of being the third-wheel like he was with Percy and Annabeth

it didn’t lead to an outcome he expected

“And they’re like: ‘be safe. I love you,’ and then I’m just standing there wondering if they’ll ever tell me that because you know, life-or-death situation going on right? But they never do!”

“Damn bro, that sucks.“

“Does this not happen to you?”

“Nope. We yell at each other to be safe.”

A/N: school is absolute shit

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

Idk if this has been asked but ummmm UF, SF and HT skellies with an infertile S/O? (Who had made it clear from the start)

I did the main boys because the ones you choose are happy with no children anyway ahah.

Undertale Sans - It's fine, but as time passes and you grow closer, that is something that he might regret a little. It's fine, you can still adopt and everything, but bonding with a child inside your womb would have been nice too. He's never saying that to you, however, and especially if it's a touchy subject for you. Sans is always careful to not trigger his S/O and he can perfectly live without children anyway.

Undertale Papyrus - It's ok to not have children of your own (he's not a big fan of making babies anyway) but he would love to adopt some and will try to explain to you with a 520-page PowerPoint why it's a good idea to adopt. He's motivated. Pretty please?

Underswap Sans - That's absolutely not a problem for him. He thinks children kinda hold you back and prevent you from doing fun things together. He likes to take his S/O on adventures and having to renounce to that for a kid would sadden him. He's not exactly a good father figure anyway.

Underswap Papyrus - He's disappointed because Honey really wants children on his own. He doesn't blame you, instead, he tries to find other ways. He knows all monsters can technically bear children so, uh... Why not? That's not something he planned in his life and that's not something a lot of male monsters do so they're not a lot of info on the subject, which is making him anxious. But, uh, luckily, Underswap Undyne is also one of his best friends and the scientist is close enough to a doctor? He knows Alphys would be ecstatic to work on this too. It's just an idea. But you know if you ever want to...

Underfell Sans - He doesn't mind either. Having a baby is scary anyway and he's clearly not ready yet to be a father. Maybe after a few years, you two could talk about adoption, but for now Red is really fine being the only baby in the house. And anyway, if you want to mommy something, there's Edge. He never had a mom so feel free to try. You're not sure about that idea honestly.

Underfell Papyrus - It depends on what you think about this. If you don't mind not having any kids, that's fine for him too. If later in your relationship you feel like adopting or using a third person to make a baby, it's fine too. He can even be convinced to bear the baby, but with a lot of talking because that kinda terrorizes him honestly. Edge is not difficult and adjusts to his S/O.

Horrortale Sans - Well, he is infertile too thanks to what Undyne did to him so... That happened. Oak is fine living like this, but if you even brought up adoption, he would gladly accept too. He loves kids, he's just a little nervous about... You know... His memory problems. He doesn't mind and lets his S/O's choose. He doesn't want to pressure them anyway.

Horrortale Papyrus - He's ok with that. He doesn't know if he's infertile with everything that happened to Underground, and he doesn't trust himself enough to have children for now. He's not sure he will be able to do everything a normal father is supposed to do with his disabilities and it's making him nervous. But after a few years, he's a little more ready to talk about this if you want to adopt. He just needs some reassurance it's going to be fine.

Swapfell Sans - He kinda forgot children were a thing that could happen after a few years of relationship and was very surprised when you said to him you're infertile. Ok? What do you want him to do with this info? Oh. He never thought he could be in love someday, so not having children is absolutely not a problem. If you ever want to adopt, you're going to need to prepare him to the idea for a few months lol.

Swapfell Papyrus - He's not sure what the hell you mean because your soul clearly is, he checked. ... He then realizes you're talking about making a physical baby and feels very stupid. Uh. That's ok though because he can be pregnant sort of? If you want a kid, just ask him and he does it, right? Rus doesn't mind at all carrying a child. He actually already planned to sort of do that for Undyne and Alphys since Alphys is infertile. So, uh, it's just one more baby? Why not? You have to sit. That's a lot of weird info you didn't expect all of the sudden.

Fellswap Gold Sans - He doesn't want children anyway so it's really fine for him. Knowing he doesn't have to expect a surprise baby is actually sort of comforting and he's more relaxed in your relationship. Have you seen him anyway? You think he's a father figure?

Fellswap Gold Papyrus - He's fine with it as well. He's not comfortable having children yet and he's too attached to his S/O to give place yet to other members of his family. Maybe later he would be ok to adopt, even though the thought is terrifying him at the moment.

[bones4thecats]

I love your work so much and saw you have open request can I please request a female douma(from demon slayer ) in record of ragnarok.

( buddha. loki. Aphrodite. Qin shi )

A human turned God because of her cult because of hers beauty and after her becoming a demon somehow still was seen a godly plus she not being able to feel emotions makes her act friendly towards other gods calling them their best friend and doesn't care some hate her

You can do whatever you want with this request the thing I wrote was an idea I came up with.

A/N: Omg, one of my fav demon slayer characters! He may be an asshole, but he’s a funny asshole. I used the Uppermoons here as well, so WARNING, there may be mentions of; gore and murder. Also, this was one of my hardest pieces yet, so it may be kinda meh compared to others. Anyways, enjoy!! P.S: I couldn't come up with anything for Qin, so I didn't write for him, sorry!

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・

🍭 He and you had a love-hate-okayish? relationship

🍭 While he did enjoy watching you tease and anger the other Gods without a care in the world, he didn’t enjoy how you just didn’t seem to show anything for anyone

🍭 You would take humans and break their bones and just letting them bleed on the ground for a while before letting them go free, without any explanation of the brutality

🍭 The Twelve Kizuki Pantheon was one you were not created into, but molded into

🍭 He smirked as you poked and prodded at your fellow pantheon member, Akaza, prompting the man to punch the top of your head off, making everyone else in attendance to the Gods’ Council meeting scream

“ She’ll be fine. Y/N stop fucking around. “

🍭 He glared at Muzan, your head, for being so brutal with his words, couldn’t he see you were basically dead?!

“ Aw~, Akaza-dono, why did you do that? It’s rude to treat your superiors so awfully~ “

🍭 Okay- wtf?!

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・

🐍 Loki and you were basically best friends, despite your constant teases to Akaza

🐍 You smiled as he threw a pie filled with spiders in front of Aphrodite, making her scream and run away, her guards chasing after her

🐍 The Twelve Kizuki did not like him being around you, as it made you even worse of a person to deal with

🐍 Despite being the technical third strongest, behind Muzan and Kokushibo, God in your pantheon, you were by far the second most childish behind the girl whom you named Daki, that you adopted

🐍 Loki strolled in and would go with you in tormenting Akaza and today was no different, but what made him stop in his tracks was seeing you holding Gyokko, Upper Five’s head, staring at it with such dead eyes

🐍 Akaza knocked half your head off, which made him chuckle before standing upside down above you as you regenerated

“ You see how mean he is to me, Loki-dono? “

🐍 You give your ‘families’ such bad headaches to the point where the only person who can really handle you both is Kokushibo because he’s fairly quiet and ignores you both easily

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・

💐 She adored your eyes so damn much!

💐 Aphrodite met you through Daki, as she wanted her new mentor to meet her technical adoptive mother

💐 And when she first saw you? Woo!

💐 You were teasing Akaza severely, causing him to get angry and punch the bottom half of your face off

“ Don’t touch me, you bastard. “

💐 She ran up to you and held your half head up, but it somehow appeared quickly, like it just disappeared and reappeared

💐 After you guys actually met, she had to admit, watching you tease your fellow Gods and everything just made her smile, especially when they tried killing you, which resulted in you hurting them without a care back

💐 She isn’t fond of you not really feelings things, it reminds her to much of Poseidon and that makes her feel gross

💐 Aphrodite also loves messing with your hair, just feeling the long locks that seemingly look knotted but are actually very well-kept just makes her smile

[kaythefloppa]

Wild Kratts - Salmander Streaming - Thoughts

Spoilers!!

I've a good feeling that this isn't actually a clip from a movie, but just something the animators whipped up. The fact that the animals running are in blue and green gives me the impression.

But also, the characters being able to stream movies makes me feel old.

If I had a nickel for every time a red squirrel fucked up high tech structure in this show, I'd have 2 nickels.

Also, how efficient are the tellurium crystals (which we saw earlier in the season premiere) are, if shit like THIS can render the turtle ship's power efficient??

Roll credits!

Also, this is the first of MANY moments in the episode that made me laugh unironically.

Martin, that is a fucking exoskeleton. I don't think I have to explain why that is incredibly gross (although it does make for an efficient boat).

Also, random fact: The largest crayfish on the planet has weighed up to 11 pounds. That's huge!

This is another thing about the episode that regularly comes up (and that many people have noticed). The animation is suprisingly fluid. I mean, not surprisingly, there were new riggers on board for the show, which likely explains why it took nearly 2 years for the new season to drop, but still. Screenshots alone do not do several scenes or shots (this included) justice when talking about how eye-catching or interesting the animation is.

I did not know that some salamander species were cannibalistic! This show always manages to teach me new things every day, even at the age of 18.

Am I the only one who is the tiniest bit miffed when they call it "the human fish" and not "the olm." I get that it's a nickname like "Wolf Hawks" but, it's not the only name. 😭😭

I feel like this is yet another moment where I should needlessly harp into the "lore" of Wild Kratts. Because she describes the suit as "universal" and as we see in the episode, the Salamander Power Suit can be reactivated based on species. So why didn't she do this with the Spider, or Wolf Suit. I'm 100% looking too much into this, but just saying.

Also, I really hope that a Universal Salamander Power Suit implies that we'll be getting an Axolotl episode and a Power Suit. I was kinda hoping we'd see some of them in this episode, but the potential is there!

There is DEFINITELY no way I could've done this joke justice using screenshots. You need to see it in video form to see my point. Because the joke was predictable in every sense of the word. I knew what the punchline was. I knew when the punchline was gonna hit. But because the animation was so fluid throughout the frames, and because of how detailed the shading and lighting were and how overtly obvious the punchline was because of the visuals, it still made me laugh my ass off. I legitimately had to look up if James Baxter (yes THAT James Baxter) worked on this episode because it reminded me of a lot of scenes he did for Steven Universe and Owl House. Was surprised to know that he wasn't, but regardless, whoever animated these episodes, whether veterans or newcomers, deserves their fucking raise.

I know that he's referring to the salamander, and yes, the joke has been made before, but like, if someone told you that there's an episode of Wild Kratts where they [by technicality] said the word "hell" *checks notes* twenty-four times in one episode, would you believe them? Yeah that's what I thought.

Also, indeed hellbenders are the largest salamander in North America, the third largest in the world. Adult healthy hellbenders have very few predators and that's because of how gigantic they are.

I used up my one-video free-card on a previous joke, but once again, it's so silly, you know what the joke/punchline is, yet it's presented in such a way that is still really humorous, either because of how it doesn't bring too much awareness to the fact that it's a joke, embraces said fact of it being a joke, or both. Complete with straight-up fucking Looney Tunes style anticts, it's just really fun.

Also, another thing I find funny is that the hellbender ate the crayfish exoskeleton. Like, would that even be tasty?

Spoilers, but Chris does NOT Activate Tiger Salamander Powers. Yes, I am also miffed.

They're so besties.

Ok but like I'm sensing a pattern where Martin activates a Creature Power Suit with Aviva whenever he's not activating it alone or with Chris. Which at first I didn't think much of, but then I realized. Blue is a component color to make up purple. So this occasional running theme/pattern could be a reference to how similar they are, and how both rely on each other in some fundamental way in their adventures, much like how the colors blue and purple are interconnected in a way. Am I looking too much into this as well? Yeah, but I actually enjoy it!

Ok not gonna lie, I actually liked the fourth-wall break. Mainly because they could've easily fucked it up badly by having it drag on for too long, or making it too meta, but quick cuts and gags like this make it all the more worthwhile. And unlike the Camel Chris gag in the camel episode, it sticks around once and doesn't wear out its welcome.

Also, the Salamander Suits were activated by touching a Hellbender, which we've established, is bigger than every other salamander shown in the episode.... so... why the fuck are they that tiny?? They should at least be way bigger than the rocks they're standing on.

Also, the Salamander Suits genuinely look like Dinosaur Suits. At least... from this angle.

-... because from THIS angle they look so. FUCKING. CUTE. I so badly want to hug them like plushies (now I'm even more disappointed that Chris wasn't in one of these)

How the fuck was this guy able to stuff a huge-ass butternut underneath his vest and shirt.

Also, Chris, you do realize that keeping squirrels from eating the nut is a good way to make them endangered as well? Bro is petty 😭

I think this is the first time we've seen the Tortuga miniaturized by someone on the actual crew, not a villain or an accident.

As someone who didn't know or care that much for salamanders (at least in comparison to frogs and toads), this episode enlightened me a lot. I actually hope I do see a hellbender sometime in my life

CONCLUSION:

PROS:

The humor. Like, every single joke in this episode either got me to crack a grin, or laugh out loud

The animation. Once again, the animators have got their rent due. So many memorable facial expressions and cool color designs that just make it nice to look at.

The salamander species themselves.

CONS:

Chris definitely should've activated the Tiger Salamander Suit. Bro was robbed

No mention of Axolotls? The most well-known salamander in the world? For shame.

Final Ranking: 8/10. A nice slice of life mini-adventure with no huge or real stakes, but overall a pretty fun romp. Before this episode came out, there were a lot of positive reviews of this episode on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, and while I generally take those with heaping grains of salt (because opinions are opinions at the end of the day), I definitely agree that this episode is fun. The very epitome of "camp."

[yannig]

Koisenu Futari’s Kazu-kun: one step further into the amato-normativity discussion

So. What’s up with Kazu-kun. Why does he deserve his own post.

Kazu-kun starts as a background character, and then progressively becomes the third main character of the show.

And I love him. Which is not a small feat because I started out hating him. And all of it was very much on purpose.

Kazu-kun, I believe, exists as a vessel for the allo audience.

He’s there to asks all the questions the allo viewers are asking themselves, and then to learn and grow from the answers, and become both a friend to our protagonists and an ally to aroace people in general.

He exemplifies the arc the allo viewer would ideally go through while watching the show.

The thing about Koisenu Futari is, it’s a show made from the perspective of aroace characters, for aroace viewers. It’s about our fears, our insecurities, our experience with amato- and allo-normativity, our lives.

And it’s good thing! It’s a significant part of why I love it so much!

But it also means that it’s risking loosing it’s allo audience a bit. (I’d be curious to know how many allo people have watched this show at all tbh). Almost all the other allo characters in the show exist so our protagonists can experience being faced with yet another form of amatonormativity. Kazu-kun exist so an allo character can experience being faced with aromanticism and asexuality.

And it impacts his entire character, including and especially the flaws that made me hate him at the beginning.

Part of it is, of course, because a character needs flaws to grow out of, as the most basic way to write a character arc.

For example, he begins as the most Straight Man™ ever. He thinks Sakuko belongs to him because they dated in the past (are kinda technically on a break the situation wasn’t clear the expectations were very different), thinks cooking is easy and a woman’s job and of course doesn’t know how and thinks it’s perfectly normal because he’s a man, absolutely cannot fathom how a man could not be sexually attracted to a woman he’s even somewhat close to.

All those traits are flaws he will overcome as he grows and becomes a better man.

But part of it is also traits he needs to play his role well.

He is, for one, a very nosy character, with a strong sens of entitlement that means he’ll stop at little to get his answers. Which of course makes him absolutely insufferable at the beginning! I spent almost all of episode 4 wanting to slap him! But it’s a necessary character trait for him to actually ask out loud the questions the allo audience is quietly wondering about. If he was a proper and polite Japanese man, he wouldn’t be asking those questions, and therefore wouldn’t be fulfilling his role in the story.

And then he learns. All his questions and indiscretions get him somewhere, which is a much better understanding of aroace people. And with some luck, the allo audience learned with him, without needing to invade actual aroace people’s privacy!

(yes I’m still salty about ep4, why do you ask. just because it was narratively necessary doesn’t make it any less hard to watch)

To be perfectly honest, from a pure character development perspective, I think he changes a bit too quickly. But, well. The show is only 8 episodes. Also that’s my only complaint about this show.

He first learns how to cook, and most importantly, instantly apologizes to Sakuko for asking her to cook like it was nothing. This ability to 1) recognize when he was wrong and 2) apologize for it, is key in his whole development and one of the main reasons I’m ready to accept that he did a 180 so quickly.

Cooking, of course, if a synecdoche for every gendered expectation about couples. He’s not just learning how to cook, he’s learning that the things he was taught to expect from his future wife actually take work and are very much doable and enjoyable as a man.

Most importantly, he learns that romance is not the only register he can use to interact with women; in this case especially Sakuko. In fact, at the end of episode 4, he offers that since she is aroace, they could have a QPR together.

(the show doesn’t call it a QPR, doesn’t use the word at all, but that’s exactly what it is, both the actual arrangement between Sakuko and Takahashi, and what Kazu-kun offers to Sakuko)

So, big points for getting what Minori can’t seem to grasp in ep 6: QPR are not reserved to aromantics! Really important lesson that a lot of allies never learn.

In this specific case, I don’t think it would have worked, and it can very well be interpreted as him refusing to let go. I don’t think a QPR with the woman he’s still very much in love with is a good idea. And while he has learned a lot, he’s still pretty new to the whole thing, and I think he’d still have too many expectations that would end up hurting Sakuko.

And once Sakuko has taken the time to think about it and tells him no, not only does he listen, not only doesn’t he get upset, but he immediately reassure her that they are still friends and will keep being friends.

In that way, this whole journey of his allows Kazu-kun and Sakuko to get back the easy and joyous friendship they seemed to have lost when they broke up. Which is both the biggest and final proof of maturity on his part and the best thing he got from the whole adventure.

Once he understand that Sakuko and Takahashi are aroace and quite happy with it, he also becomes their first defender. He tells Minori off twice when she steps out of line, and is ready to correct one of their colleagues when he assumes that he and Sakuko are a couple. Good example of how to be an ally.

Faced with micro-aggression (or even overt and intentional aggression), minorities:

might get overwhelmed by emotions and are almost certainly more sensitive to it than allies

are less likely to be listened to if they correct the person, because they are a minority

often cannot afford to be angry or aggressive or anything other than incredibly diplomatic about it without being told off, a problem allies face a lot less

Hence why a big part of allies' job is correcting other privileged people. Great ally-ship, take notes everyone.

In conclusion, I said last time that Minori and Haruka exemplify how amatonormativity also harms allo people. I’d argue that, with all this:

Kazu-kun shows what allo people have to gain from getting rid of it.

(his best friend back, at least one new friend, a new vital skill, and a lot less expectations)

[wehaveagathering]

Just curious, what was the skate like irl? Who didn’t even finish/ who did better than the rest??

Oh, I love you for this question. Buckle up.

First of all, I think there are a bunch of misconceptions about what 👹Tort's Rope👹 actually is and how it works. I had not a clue how it worked until today, and literally a week ago I thought Torts was tying ropes to hockey players and having them drag each other around the ice... Not how it works.

So, John Tortorella's bag skate. First, the rope is marked in large sections and tied between two goals, placed a little closer together than usual. The players are split up into 4 groups of approximately 4 players each and sent to the four corners of the rink. When Torts blows his whistle, one player from each group completes 4 laps of the goals and returns to their corner; the next player up is sent off on his own laps, and so on and so forth. Once each player in each group has completed his first four laps, the two goals are widened to a new length marked on the rope and the first player is back up. It's not a test of time or speed; it's a test of endurance.

(Those numbers are rough estimates based off of what I saw today — it could be three laps, and I don't know how many reps they did. The actual schedule says 3x8 Lap which is the technical term for 👹Tort's Rope👹 but I thought I saw four laps. Eight reps sounds about right, too. Whatever! The actual numbers don't matter too much.)

What matters is that the player completes his laps and returns to his origination point, no matter how tired he is. His teammates can give him a pat on the back, or some tips and pointers, or they can stare into the blank void of space and consider a new career path. Whatever it is, he has to finish. So "not finishing" isn't really an option unless someone throws up or passes out or dies. And no one did that — so technically, everyone finished.

Some people certainly had an easier time than others. I noticed that Michkov and Bonk struggled quite a bit, and Jamie didn't look too thrilled either.

Travis Ballinghoff.

Which kinda sucked, because I was really rooting for them. But holy shit, Michkov was struggling. Charlie O Connor actually said in the PHLY podcast today that he noticed Michkov kind of cut his final lap short at one point and that John Tortorella came over to him and was like yo. can't do that. And for the rest of the time he pulled through.

Egor Zamula kept getting yelled at. "Let's go, Z! Keep skating, Z!" He also kept getting lapped by Rasmus Ristolainen. Tyson Foerster had "kill me now" face (see Bonk above) but Foerster does tend to have a pretty expressive face. Sean Couturier kept getting help from TK, who skated right behind him for the most part and kept pushing him forward with his stick. He even admitted it.

It seemed to me that most of the guys from last year, the returning ones, were the ones that did the best. Farabee, Frost, Tippett, Hathaway, Poehling, Laughton — they all had a routine in between their laps that they used to help keep them going, whether it was motivatinal or physiological or psychological. Farabee and Hathaway skated up and down the rope, in the center of the lapping players. Tippett stretched on the boards. (He's flexible. 👀)

It was interesting to watch who was fast, though. Ronnie Attard looked like he was having the time of his fucking life, and he actually did very well! Carter Sotheran has resting happy face, but I can't imagine he was having any fun. Jett Luchanko was certainly winded, but pulled through with minimal painful expressions. (Erik Johnson went on the record to say Luchanko looked like he didn't even have to try.) Zayde Wisdom, Noah Cates and Cam York all paced themselves well. But everyone, no matter who it was, was slowing down by the second or third rep — very visibly. It looked awful.

And then — and then! — they had to do shuttles. This one was in groups of four — started at one end, raced to the other end, tight turn, back to the original spot. Then a group of four at the opposite end, who were waiting, would do the same, and the small groups would switch off. They must have done at least five reps. No one fared well on these. No one. They were all lagging by the second rep.

Anyway, to answer your question, it was loud, and it was cold, and hockey players are big. The tallest ones were like hovering a foot over me (looking at you, Matteo Mann, what the fuck are you so tall for??) and even Michkov at 5'11 looked fucking ginormous. And his group was right near me — him, Frost, Seeler, and Lycksell. Frost was tiring but I could see him grit his teeth and grind out his laps. I assume after the emotional pain of John Tortorella, Frosty can handle the physical pain too. After one of his laps was done he gave Michkov a lil side hug. It was really cute!

Travis Ballinghoff.

Off topic, but stick "taps" — that's bad nomenclature, right there. A stick "tap" at the Vorhees TC sounds like a car backfiring.

At the end of every group's torture, they settled down for a circle stretch. TK went around the first one talking to guys and grinning and laughing. He looked like a leader. The second one Joel was going around making every guy give him a little fistbump. Then the third one was actually led by Spencer Gill, who I thought had done reasonably well, especially for having only just been drafted. He held his own.

Thank you for the ask!

[withacapitalp]

How to Rehabilitate a Jock Part 6

Part 1 Part 5. Ao3 Link Part 7

It was already the second week of December by the time the Hellfire club finally, finally, defeated the Demon Lord Graz’zt. Normally, Eddie loved when a campaign stretched and stretched. It was a devious kind of joy to get to see his friends get stumped and backtrack and do everything they could to defeat whatever he had put in front of them. 

This time, he just wanted them to stab his stupid demon in the chest, light him on fire, and be done with it. 

A thousand times he had thought about just letting them win, and just letting them get through the end of the campaign. But his integrity as a dungeon master and a storyteller stopped him from doing it every single time. 

That, and Eddie was pretty sure they would be able to tell if he was skimping out on an ending just to get to the next campaign. Especially since they all knew why he would be so anxious to get to the next campaign. 

But, last week they had done it. Right at the last second Graz’zt had exploded in a shower of red sparks, the party had gained treasure and XP galore, and Eddie had stayed up every night this week finishing a one shot just for the occasion. 

Usually there was a rest week in between campaigns, or one of the others would rotate in as DM and Eddie would get to play for a while, but he wanted to be the one to run Steve’s first game. He didn’t trust any of the others not to sabotage, or try and kill him off early. 

Besides, he had the perfect beginner game planned. 

Well, he would have the perfect beginner game if their beginner ever decided to show up. 

“Seems like being late is a character trait,” Frank said as the rest of Hellfire sat around the table, clearly bored. Jeff was doodling in his book, and Rocky looked like he was asleep on the far side, face smushed up against the wood. School had ended almost a half hour ago, but there was still no sign of Steve. 

“This does give us time for a JRP update?” Janet suggested, sliding her chair back and walking over to the board. 

“Well, the update is…wow! Nothing has changed,” Gareth said, faking a look of utter shock before sliding back into his usual grumpy scowl, turning to Eddie, “Do you really want to wait three more months just to have to admit that I am right about him?” 

“How could anything have changed so far, Gareth?” Eddie shot back, sick and tired of his best friend’s issues. 

He held up a hand and began to count on his fingers right in front of Gareth’s face. Eddie knew that the other boy hated when he did things like that, but he also knew that he really couldn’t give a flying fuck at this point. Steve was trying, really honestly trying, and Gareth was being a jerk for literally no reason. 

“We just finished our new campaign, Steve isn’t even aware of the band yet because I’m not allowed to invite him to a show, and your third ridiculous checkpoint still has no defining parameters!” Eddie finished with a flourish. 

“Well, technically you can invite Steve to a show,” Kaiden said, grabbing everyone’s attention. He shrugged, pointing to the board, “It doesn’t say that Eddie can never invite him. It just won’t count towards the JRP until Steve goes without an invitation,” 

“Kaiden, what the hell?” Gareth said, spinning around and shooting his glare over to him instead of Eddie. 

“I don’t mind Steve, Gar.” Kaiden said with a shrug, unphased by his mood. By now they were all getting used to working around Gareth’s griping, “He’s pretty chill, he can be kinda funny, and I can’t think of anything he personally did that was that bad. Maybe he really is trying to be someone different now,”

The rest of the club didn’t speak, which Eddie decided to consider an extremely minute amount of progress. Sure, they weren’t sticking up for Steve, but they weren’t actively fighting against him anymore. 

Well, all except for one

“Traitor,” Gareth muttered under his breath. 

“Hey,” Eddie immediately snapped. Gareth could be pissy with him all he wanted, but he couldn’t go after another one of Eddie’s sheep just because he was mad. 

“I agree with Kaiden, I don’t see why Eddie would be forbidden from ever inviting Steve to a show,” Janet said, tapping her chin. 

Either she was unaware of how close the boys were to actually fighting, or she was actively ignoring it in favor of staying logical. Eddie would bet all of his money on the latter. Janet really was too smart for her own good. 

“As for setting parameters for the third point, I’m not sure how we go about that,” She continued, tapping her chalk against the board as she wracked her brain for potential ideas. 

“We don’t. We’ll know it when we see it,” Gareth stubbornly repeated, crossing his arms, “Though I doubt we will. This is just a waste of time.” 

Okay. Enough was enough. 

“What is your problem with him?!” Eddie shouted, starting the rest of the group. Rocky’s head popped off the table with a gasp, and Jeff immediately stiffened up. They were used to Eddie shouting, used to him raising his voice or getting angry, but that was all play, a show. This was actual anger, and that was scary. 

“Where did your problem with him go?” Gareth said, giving as good as he got, “You used to be the first to say that they aren’t us! They’re the enemy! He is literally the face of that enemy! What happened to the Munson Doctrine?!” 

Eddie opened his mouth to tell Gareth exactly where he could stick his Munson Doctrine, but before he could, Jeff stood up. 

His shoulders were up by his ears, and he looked completely uncomfortable, but Jeff was standing up anyway. A silent look from their bassist took the wind out of both boys’ sails, and they sat back down, tense and on edge. 

“Sorry Jeff,” Eddie sighed, pushing down any potential self hatred that wanted to rise up. The two of them knew Jeff’s story, knew why he wasn’t comfortable with angry yelling close to him, and they had done it anyway. Eddie forced himself to take a deep breath, watching as Gareth did the same. 

“Yeah, sorry,” Gareth echoed, looking genuinely remorseful. 

“This isn’t productive,” Frank pointed out, rolling his chair backwards until it collided with the chalkboard next to where Janet was standing, “I think that we should settle for a compromise.  All of the club members agree that Steve can stay. That would at least be enough to be considered a renouncement of some sort, right?,”

“That’s not the same,” Gareth protested. 

“Well, seeing as you don’t have a good argument for your checkpoint,” Frank replied, trailing off and waiting to hear if he had anything else to say. When Gareth remained grumpy and silent the rest nodded. 

“Okay so, I’ll just write our initials here, and when we decide we’re okay with Steve-”

“If” Gareth interrupted. 

“Fine. If we decide that we’re okay with Steve staying, we can cross out our names,” Janet said, miffed at being talked over, but choosing to move past it in favor of keeping the peace. 

She quickly began to jot down everyone’s initials, adding Steve’s right at the top just to keep up appearances. Eddie wasn’t exactly sure how they would explain that one, but hopefully Steve wouldn’t ask. He usually didn’t question things around the room unless they were particularly outlandish. 

“I’m fine with Steve,” Eddie said the second she wrote his initials. 

“We got that one, Eds,” Jeff replied with a good natured eye roll. Now that things were calming down again, he seemed way more relaxed. Janet clicked her tongue anyway, putting a thick white line through the E.M. she had just written. 

“I don’t mind him,” Kaiden tacked on. Janet shot him a quick nod, crossing out Kaiden’s initials, and then, surprisingly, her own.

“Janet?” Frank questioned. She shrugged, pausing for a second to ruffle his hair as she continued to write. She was the only one that didn’t see the way Frank’s face went beet red the moment she touched him. 

“He’s interesting,” She said, as if that was the only explanation she needed, “I’m a scientist. I like to experiment,” 

She finished with Gareth’s ‘G.L-W.’ turning to face the group. 

“Anyone else?” 

The rest of the club shook their heads, but Eddie couldn’t care less. He was already a third of the way there! And, there was no doubt in his mind that at least a few of them were going to be impressed with Steve’s gameplay today. 

After all Steve had been taught by the best. 

“Okay so, slightly modified parameters, but-” 

“Sorry I’m late!” Steve said as he burst into the room, cutting Janet off. 

If she was annoyed at being interrupted a second time, she didn’t let it slip. Instantly, she and Frank were back in their seats, her chalk abandoned, broken in two on the ground. The entire club did their best to look perfectly innocent, a truly terrible job that left them all seeming extremely, extremely, guilty. 

The only reason they got away with it was that Steve was way too caught up in rambling and trying to explain himself. 

“I’m so sorry, I was trying to get the kids set up in the library, because they want to come to my house after school for a sleepover. Winter break, right? But then they kept asking me question after question, and wanting to come watch me shoot hoops. They never want to watch me shoot hoops! Why now?! I swear this is what I get for letting them use my house to take pictures for the Snow Ball.” Steve groaned, getting stuck in his scarf as he tried to unwind it from around his head. 

Eddie laughed softly, getting up and coming around the table, slowly helping Steve get free of his yarn filled prison. 

“Are you going to chaperone this Sunday?” Eddie asked. Instantly his mind was filled with the image of Steve in a handsome black suit, a dark red rose sitting in his lapel and perfectly complimenting his ruby lips. 

Okay. File that under ‘Things Eddie was never allowed to think about again except when alone in his bedroom’. 

“Definitely not. I’m a babysitter, not a chaperone,” Steve said with a smirk, “I’ll let them get ready at my place and have a little after party there, and that should stop them from being arrogant whiny brats for a little while. Hope I didn’t miss anything though,” 

Just the rest of the club talking about using him as a human lab rat. 

“Nope,” Eddie lied smoothly, pulling Steve’s chair out for him and making a huge grand gesture for him to come sit. 

“Welcome to this side of the table,” Kaiden said from his seat across from Steve. Normally Gareth sat on Eddie’s right side, but since the first meeting that Steve had joined, his best friend had regulated himself to the corner as far from Eddie as he could get. 

Whatever. That was better anyway. Eddie didn’t care. 

(He cared so much more than he wanted to admit.) 

“Glad to be here?” Steve said, pulling out the folder Eddie had given him for all of his character sheets and looking around the group nervously. 

He didn’t have anything to worry about. Eddie had helped him to build a totally awesome persona. 

“It’s hell,” Frank sighed solemnly, patting Steve’s shoulder. 

“Hellfire,” Eddie corrected, the rest of the group groaning at his bad pun. He waved off their lack of appreciation for his fantastic word play, perching on his throne and raising a hand. 

“I would like to take a moment to recognize that this is a special occasion. We are here to celebrate the birth of Steve’s very first Dungeons and Dragons character,” Eddie said, pausing so the rest could react appropriately. 

Sure enough there was a round of foot stomping and table slapping. Steve startled at the noise, but quickly recovered, blushing, but still staring directly at Eddie with those big beautiful browns. 

God damn this brave, lovely, completely adorable boy. 

“May I introduce the former Prince of the realm, Level One Human Ranger Stefan of Herringtown. Stefan, Welcome to Hellfire,” Eddie said, pausing to give Steve a secretive wink and loving the way that the blush on the other boy’s cheeks traveled to his ears when he did. 

Stefan was, arguably, a pretty cool first time character. Steve lingered just on the edge of being a paladin, but he had enough chaotic energy that Ranger seemed to fit him better. He was a loyal to a fault kind of guy who had a habit for picking up strays, a smooth quick talking charm that tended to get him in and out of trouble, and a chip on his shoulder from being exiled from his kingdom. 

In short, he was Steve, but dungeons and dragonsified. Perfect for the first play through. 

With that settled, Eddie rolled his shoulders, settling himself into his dungeon master character and taking a long breath in. 

“Your party is starting off trekking across the frozen tundra,” He began, feeling the mood shift to excitement as the rest prepared themselves for his opener, “Your feet are freezing, and your fingers have gone numb, but you continue on anyway. You have heard tale of an abandoned factory at the highest point of the world- a place littered with treasures and everything a being could ever ask for. You want to see the place for yourselves, and maybe even loot some of the booty.” 

Rocky gave a vicious grin at this, chuckling softly to himself. His tiefling rogue was always looking to horde more treasure, and Rocky loved to get into character as quickly as he could. It was fun, it added something to the game. 

“You see a building and hurry closer, eager to get out of the biting frost. It is a dark unnatural place with high smoke stacks and mounds of coal sitting all around the entrance. You enter as one without thinking or stopping to check your surroundings, collapsing on the other side and panting to catch your breath. What is your first move, Goren the Great?” Eddie asked, starting on the far side of the table. 

Even if he and Gareth weren’t on the best of terms right now, Eddie still wouldn’t want to start a campaign with any other player. It just wouldn't feel right. 

“I do a perception check,” Gareth decided. Eddie nodded towards his d8, and Gareth grabbed it, throwing down a seven. 

“As a dwarf, you have spent many years hunting through mines for precious gems, so your ability to see in the dark is unparalleled. You can see strange boot shaped bags all around the room, and boxes that are wrapped with twine bows,” He said, watching as their brains began to spin with possibilities.

This was the best part. Watching his players try to figure out exactly what was going on around them was just so fun. 

“Well, I have a feeling we may have stumbled upon the right place. I can see treasure from corner to corner,” Gareth remarked, throwing his voice into a growling rumble, perfect for his hardened grizzled character. 

“I can’t see anything,” Jeff complained, getting into it. 

"That's because you are a stupid elf, and your stupid elf eyesight only works in the day,” Gareth replied, both of them holding back laughter. 

“How dare you?! You, you…tiny little man!” 

And then they were off, back and forth insults that were cheesy, yet sometimes creative. The club watched in amusement. Even Steve was snickering, and he normally tried to pretend he didn’t exist when it had anything to do with Gareth. Usually Eddie would try and focus the group back in, but he was happy to let them banter for a little while. 

This was the kind of fighting they should be doing. This was the Gareth Eddie knew, and getting to see that that guy was still somewhere in this new person was very comforting. 

“I am through with your impertinent conclusions,” Jeff huffed in mock exasperation, keeping his voice high and flighty as he did, “I am ready to take my turn, master of the game.” 

“Very well,” Eddie said, inclining his head and waiting to hear. 

“I open my bag and get out a torch, but I want to hit Goren with my bag as I do it,” Jeff said, the rest of the group immediately bursting into laughter.

“Roll 2 d8. One for hitting him, and one for how much light the torch is going to give you,” Eddie instructed, biting his lip to hide his smile. Jeff let the dice fly, getting an eight and a two respectively. 

“As you pull out your torch, you smack Goren right in the face with your bag. Goren loses one hit point,” Eddie said, making a note on his paper. 

“Ow!” 

“Oh, I am sooo sorry that was completely unintentional.” Jeff gasped sarcastically, holding a hand against his heart and raising his eyes to the sky. 

“Goren does not believe you, but he will hold his anger for later,” Eddie said, sliding in smoothly before another ‘argument’ could take place, “You light your torch, but the draft coming in through the broken windows makes the flame flicker and shrink. You can just see the edge of an image drawn on the wall,” 

“I want to examine the drawing,” Kaiden jumped in. 

“June Iper it is not your turn,” Eddie replied, referring to Kaiden by his character’s name. If they were doing things their normal way, then it would be Kaiden’s turn, but as it was, it was time for Rocky to go. 

Kaiden grumbled to himself, then sat up straight. He and Rocky made eye contact for a brief second before quickly scrambling to switch seats. 

“Now it is my turn,” Kaiden said, his head held high in victory. Eddie rolled his eyes but allowed it to slide, just happy that the two freshman boys were having a good time. He let Kaiden roll and then continued on, eager to get to the entrance of the main enemy. 

“You snatch the torch out of Boz’s hand, scampering up to the wall and holding it as high as you can, which isn’t very high at all,” Eddie pointed out. Kaiden’s character was a gnome, and Eddie never missed a chance to make a short joke at their expense, “The rest of the party can only see what looks like a chariot being dragged by cloven hoofed beasts.” 

“Wait a second,” Janet said, her face lighting up in realization. She turned to Eddie with her eyes narrowed, and he schooled himself into a completely innocent expression. 

“Yes Miss Ngyet?” He asked innocently, having a feeling she had already guessed where this one shot was going. 

“I take the torch from June so we can see better,” 

“Is there normally this much torch stealing?” Steve asked softly as Janet rolled, quirking his head to the side as he gave Eddie a raised brow. Before Eddie could respond, Frank interrupted. 

“Hey, you’re on our side now,” Frank said, nudging their arms together, “Ask us your questions,”

“Oh, sorry,” Steve apologized, turning towards Frank. 

Behind Steve’s back, Eddie gave Frank a grateful little smile. Sure, he was probably only being nice to Steve right now because Janet had said she was okay with him, but Eddie would take any kind of progress. Frank gave Eddie a short nod, and they settled back into their roles, continuing the game. 

“With Miss Ngyet’s extra height you can all see the full mosaic. Gasping in horror you finally recognize the picture you’re looking at. A man dressed in robes that are bathed in blood, a stampede of reindeer pulling his sledge. All at once the lights turn on in the factory, blinding you. There’s an ominous laughter from behind. Ho. Ho. HO.” Eddie roared. 

More light bulbs around the room as Jeff and Frank both caught on. 

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Jeff sighed, putting his face in his hands to muffle his laughter. Eddie grabbed the mini figure sitting in front of him, standing up and beginning the monologue he had practiced in front of the mirror all week. Wayne had nearly forced him to go outside to do it after the first few days of never ending repetition. 

“Your foe! A man turned God who knows the name of every child in the world, and watches endlessly. This God, who was once a benevolent overlord, loved to shower gifts upon those he deemed good, giving gentle reminders to those he saw being bad. Now he feasts upon the ‘Naughty’ alongside his favorite meal of milk and cookies,” Eddie ominously lowered his voice, coming to stand between Steve and Frank. 

Steve leaned backwards and turned his head. Frank did the same. 

“Is this what I think it is?” Steve whispered behind Eddie. 

“Yes,” Frank whispered back. 

“The demonous, the dastardly, the fat…” 

Eddie thrust the minifigure down onto the table, standing back as he hollered at the top of his lungs. 

“KRIS KRINGLE!” 

Eddie had been absolutely, completely, 100%, right. 

This was an epic one shot. 

After their initial reactions to finding out they were doing battle against Santa of all people, the rest of the club dove into the campaign with glee. Eddie had taken care to create an awesome story filled to the brim with little easter eggs, and they were eating up every bit of it. 

There were hypnotically enslaved elves, blood thirsty reindeer, exploding candy canes, even a section where the party had to sing Christmas songs to escape from a platoon of killer carolers.

Yeah he was biased, but Steve’s giggly rendition of WHAM’s new hit song was the best thing Eddie had ever heard in his life. 

Speaking of, the biggest shock of the game had to be how well Steve was doing. Eddie had honestly expected to have to subtly take it a little easy on him, but the jock was turning out to be one of the trickiest players he had ever gone up against. 

Sure, the math and the writing portion was a bit of a hiccup, but Steve’s strategic thinking was unexpectedly excellent, and he seemed to have a knack for survival. He had quickly made himself an invaluable player, and the rest had accepted him into the fold, if only for now. 

And the best part of it all was how much fun Steve was having. The smile on his face was bright, utterly joyful in a way Eddie had only seen once years ago. He had seen Steve smile plenty since then, but it was always quiet, kind of hidden away, like he was scared to show how much he was enjoying himself. 

But this was just…happy. Pure, clear, happy, with nothing standing in its way, and Eddie was drinking in the sight like a man in a desert who had found an oasis. 

After a grueling four hours, Hellfire had finally managed to kill off the final reindeer (Vixen had gone down in a blaze of glory) and release all of the elves from their mind manacles. 

There was just one foe left. 

“As the not-so-jolly man with a bag gently lays his last beast on the ground, he looks up at you all with complete rage in his eyes,” Eddie said in a hushed tone, letting things get as quiet as possible before exploding into sound.

“Naughty! You are All on my naughty list!” Eddie declared, slapping his hand on the table before standing and reaching over his binder to point, “You! And You! And You! And-” 

“Steve?”

Eddie paused mid monologue, his finger still hovering in the air directed at Janet. All of them turned around as one, facing their new intruder. 

Little Red was in the doorway, staring back at them with big eyes. A mischievous grin quickly overtook her face and she opened the door wide, crossing her arms and smugly jutting her chin out at her babysitter.

“Shooting hoops, huh?” 

“Max? Why are you here? Where are the boys?” Steve asked, quickly getting up from the table and coming to her side. The anxiety coloring his tone was unexpected, and Eddie felt himself wilt a little as all of Steve’s walls seemed to have pulled back up in a snap. 

“Down the hall. We’re fine,” Max said, quickly reassuring him and dropping her act. Steve relaxed for a second, but then stiffened once more as she peeked her head around his side. She waved, and the rest of the group waved back. 

“Shooting hoops,” She repeated, raising a brow, “You know, Steve, I’ve never played basketball, but it looks a lot more like Dungeons and Dragons than I expected it too,”

“How long have you known?” Steve sighed.

“That you were lying?” Max asked for clarification, “The whole time. You’re a bad liar, and Billy just couldn’t shut up about how you were benched from playing, and he was going to be the one leading the team now. I wasn’t expecting you to be doing this though. I thought you were meeting up with a girl.” 

“I’ll pay you real money to not tell the others,” Steve said, completely serious. 

Max tapped on her chin, a move that was so reminiscent of Janet that Eddie had to stifle a laugh. He didn’t want to call any attention to himself right now, too invested in seeing how this would all play out. 

“How much?” She asked, giving him a shrewd eye. 

“Five bucks?” Steve offered, sounding slightly desperate. 

Max hummed, making faces as she pretended to consider it. 

“Not enough,” She finally decided with a cute little shrug, sticking her head into the hallway and shouting for the boys to come. 

A stampede of footsteps and hollering began in the distance and Steve groaned, shooting Max a look of utter betrayal before turning to pout at Eddie. 

“Lord, help me,” Steve sighed. 

“Nay, I shan't. Lord Kringle has deemed you naughty, Stefan, there is no hope for you now,” Eddie replied, shaking his head. Steve did not seem at all amused by this, but the rest of the club was chuckling, exchanging wry little grins. 

“Oh, are we about to meet Harrington’s famous children?” Kaiden wondered aloud, already knowing the answer. 

“Don’t,” Steve warned with zero heat in his voice, seemingly already resigned to what was about to happen. He was rubbing at his temple, his eyes shut with a look of pure exhaustion on his face. 

Max patted him twice on the arm before coming over to look at the board, looking over Steve’s character sheets with glee. 

“Hey Little Red,” Eddie said. 

“Hi, Steve’s friend,” She replied with a smirk, “You guys are gonna have fun watching this,” 

Before anyone could ask what she meant, a veritable horde of boys burst into the room. They were once again all talking over each other, but this seemed to just be the way the boys communicated. Dustin, Lucas, and Mike all stayed crowded around Steve yelling at him, while Will began to look around. 

Max quietly whistled, jerking her head and catching Will’s attention. He obediently trotted over, and she showed him what she had found, both of them exchanging quiet whispers that even Eddie couldn't make out over the other kids shouting. 

“Why are you not in the library?” Steve griped, managing to raise his voice above theirs. 

“We finished our campaign and got bored. You’re taking forever, we’re hungry, and we want to see El,” Mike whined, crossing his arms and glaring at his babysitter. 

“What are you doing anyway?” Dustin asked, trying to look around Steve.

“Nothing,” Steve said quickly, pushing Dustin’s head back in front of him, “Get out. I’ll come get you guys in like an hour, or you can walk back to your own houses,”

“Who are they?” Lucas wondered, ignoring Steve’s minor threat. Everyone in the room already knew how hollow it was, “This is definitely not the gym,” 

Eddie was sure Steve had some sort of excuse, something he had cooked up to explain why he was here, but he was not eager to hear it. Sure, Eddie understood why Steve might have wanted to have something that was ‘just his’ (or, at least, he respected it), but the rest of the club wouldn’t. They would definitely think Steve was trying to hide the fact that he knew them, and that would reinforce everything Gareth was saying. 

No matter what, this was not going to go down well, and would probably erase any progress that had been made. 

Luckily for both of them, Will Byers decided that this was the moment to speak up. 

“Steve?” Will said, catching everyone’s attention, “Are you…playing DnD?”

Tension thick as a thousand page novel blanketed them all. Dustin gasped in an extremely melodramatic fashion, and Mike blew past Steve, storming over and slamming his hands down on the table, making all of the figures tremble. Steve seemed lost for words, turning back to give Eddie a ‘help me’ look of terror. 

So, Eddie did what he did best. 

He caused a little chaos. 

“Why yes, young small one, he is playing Dungeons and Dragons,” Eddie said with a tricky grin, loving the explosion of mayhem that came right after, 

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[bobbydagen24]

comparing the writing in the first film overall with the writing of the Third so people can Hopefully see what my problem is with TBT.

first off lets start with the two films big emotional music numbers that are meant to showcase meaningful character Growth that being "" True Colours ""

and "" Better Place "" now the main Difference between these two is that despite what some negative reviews of the first film said at the time Branch's character Arc wasn't literally just wrapped up in this one song like Bro zone's was in TBT.

True Colours was the climax to Branch's arc but it wasn't literally the only piece of Branch's arc throughout the film we had small hints under his uncaring exterior that he was actually a good guy who just wasn't good at showing it.

like the fact he saved Poppy from those spiders and when he tried to help her come to terms with Creek's supposed death even if his way wasn't 100 percent perfect.

and of course after finally opening up about his grandmother he showed more signs of trying to change for the better helping Bridget by giving her his love poem to say to Gristle Jr.

afterwards attempting to join in on the Snack Pack's happy screaming over Creek still being alive and even pulling a little High five Joke on Poppy showing clear effort of attempts to change beforehand.

he also attempted to comfort Poppy and the others when they opened the locket and Creek was gone and they assumed he was dead and all this leading to True Colours which was the big moment for his Arc.

Bro zone didn't have any of this before hand instead all their moments prior to Better Place are either them being Jerky or its mostly comedic gags with not real flashes of posotive character moments for them that could help with their Arc.

anyway back to True Colours despite technically getting what he said he wanted at the start of the film ( that being for the other pop Trolls to finally stop seeing the world as all cupcakes and Rainbows and finally see the Dark sides of things )

he was actually disheartened to see them all this way and worked to help them get out of this state which he was all too familiar with.

anyway one thing that makes True Colours work better than Better Place imo is

1. Branch still has agency in the choice their all about to die and well his choice to try and lift up the other people's spirits doesn't effect that at all.

I find it very powerful how he still chooses to be happy in that moment and tries to lift the spirits of everyone around him despite the fact that for all he knows his worst fear is about to come true their all about to be eaten by Bergens aka the very thing he's spent most of his life terrified of.

but with Better Place his Bros don't have agency so it isn't a meaningful character moment their literally imprisoned and forced to take part in the Harmony in order to save their own lives its not even just about Floyd anymore.

its sorta like if Branch only sang True Colours to lift everyone's spirits because he needed them to all have access to their longer Hair Powers so they could lift the lid on top of the cooking pot in order for them to escape.

kinda lessens the impact of the scene a bit doesn't it? 🤔🤔🤔🤔

and as I said before True Colours would be a cute scene on its own but if it was literally the only scene that was meant to show Branch's character Arc and growth then yeah it would still fall flat imo but it isn't because the movie made sure to have lots of other little moments.

showing Branch making the effort beforehand so True Colours was just the final result and not literally the only action taken in his Arc.

unlike Better Place where

1. the Bros Agency was taken away so they literally did the Harmony for selfish reasons and

2. it was the only moment meant to show their character Growth which just isn't how character Arcs work.

you don't get to have characters showcase a whole bunch of flaws and frankly crappy behaviour and then have their Arc be wrapped up with a single action that isn't even all that noble no character Arc works that way.

the writing of the first film understood this and did a Fair amount of it Right but TBT didn't understand this at all.

I'm not an Expert writer but this is all fairly Basic stuff.

[trainingdummyrabbit]

which character ya wanna post about? (invitation to go off)

ouuHGUHUGHHG ive been rotating this around for hours bc ive redirected myself like 5 times since u sent it but ithink i got it i got it this time. i wanna talk abt porccubus. ok gimme a minute gimme a minute

so like. i know theyre technically the same thing, across lobcorp/ruina, but i really really wanna dissect the weird contrast it has going on there. (though, isuppose, their "same"ness is kinda up in the air re:abnos, considering there was a librarian snippet abt child of the galaxy being more "vicious", but wwwwwweh [waves hands around])

so like. the thing about lobcorp porccubus is that its just. an odd fucking creature. like yeah obviously, but its about the way its perception seems to weave around it. its core themes, that of pleasure and euphoria, uncontainable and uncontrollable, would imply that its something impulsive, stimulation-seeking, something that is driven wholly by desire and would be difficult to pin down. however, the way that its logs and flavor text are written give off a much more... subdued vibe, for lack of better words to describe it.

it is the source of that elation, yes, but everything in the way it holds itself is so withdrawn. it simply floats there, yes, but there is little to no mention of it making any moves of its own (which, now that i recheck its info log, is also mentioned plaintext!) and its in-work flavor text seems to speak with the tone of someone Studying it, Speaking about it, rather than observations of its movements or descriptions of its mindset. its all very distant. speaking in third person to someone who is listening. ...right?

which is to say: whats wrong with this dog. its story implies direct exploitation yet it just… it Just. its some strange little animal. its not malevolent and trying to kill people for fun. but it also isnt all sad like petals plucked from a daisy. it just Is. it has almost the same sort of feel as some sort of object. and yet it is clearly alive. does it have a will? it must; as abnormalities Do. so what is it? it functions by its own rules and just kinda Goes Here. does it want? does it need?

porccubus itself acts more like a Service or Trade than an actual creature. you walk in and interact with it, and it knows what to do in response. game of trust - it does a little song and dance as is its nature, yet doesnt seem to desire much more.

which also brings me to the shackle-- the little necklace around its neck. it speaks about how it was chained up, for whatever reason, and yet nobody seems to have any idea why. and porccubus... just doesnt seem to mind it. never mentions it. its such a particular type of indifference. (i suppose another good question is what is it shackled to?) and even further still... what does it mean that the ego gift it grants Is that necklace?

lc!porccubus as a creature is laced with restraint. both in a literal sense, And in an internal sense. pleasure and euphoria, yet it is definitively restrained. it cannot reach out first. it does not act on its own, but rather waits for something else to reach out First. even when it breaches, it (according to what im reading,) simply... waits. waits for an approach. (you Must approach it. it has to be a Choice.) theres something very Aimless about it, mechanical almost. i cant really sum it up in any way other than That Is An Animal.

...which brings a very interesting contrast between It and its Ruina counterpart. in the library, its much more Jubilant. it speaks, for one, which is something i straight up didnt know it did for a while. the way that it presents itself outwardly is much more outspoken-- inviting, wanting someone to engage, trying to persuade that first step. it yearns! pet it! it wants to share what it has to give, but it still wants that hand of yours offered to it First. its happy! its happy! come be happy with it!! dance with it, play with it! its demeanor is so much more forward, more present... more conscious.

and crucially... that shackle is no longer tied about its neck. rather, it dangles loose from the end of its tail, almost like an accessory rather than something granted/given to it. does this represent the release of former ties? it certainly acts more free than it did before-- whatever was holding it back, is it gone now? is its shift in demeanor the jubilant frolicking of that which has never been able to soar? is this what allows its nature of wishing to share that elation to shine through? much like a dog chained to a stake, finally being set loose in an open field.

in an unspoken turn of events, porccubus seems to focus on Release. release of ties, release of inhibitions, release of that which had been holding you back. it wants nothing more than to give what it is experiencing to those which are weighed down by things that keep them unhappy. and yet, it does nothing to truly alleviate what those woes are, simply covering them up with a layer of unrelenting sweetness.

..............which of course, brings me to angela. yeah yall thought i could go an essay without her?? lol. lmao.

on the floor realization centered around her staunch desire to live, it almost seems to stick out like a sore thumb. with all of the withdrawn mourning and wishing that the rest of the phases share, pleasure is an odd slap in the face, almost. but... it really does make it hit that much harder-- Especially with that which was expanded upon above. the imagery of unshackling yourself from that which held you down, allowing yourself to feel things you never were able to-- never were Allowed to. is that not what she stands for, here?

its reaching towards an open door, trying to grasp to any amount of Living that you can reach-- you deserve that much, at least. at the Very least. you Have to be allowed something. but not only is it that desire, but its also the Ignorance. the understanding that no matter what you mask it with, all that baggage still remains. chasing those short, intense bursts of happiness-- everything else still continues to eat away at what's underneath. and yet, theres still a consciousness to that. even further than that, a commitment.

who cares what becomes of you because of this? this happiness-- this which you were never allowed to so much as dream of-- is right within your grasp. and to taste it for even the smallest of moments, the briefest amount of time-- that makes it worth it. it was all worth it. nothing matters more than this complete devotion to sensation. it doesnt matter if it tears you apart from the inside, this is what you were always looking for. this is what you deserve. and youll do anything to hold onto it.

in some odd way, it really is about rotting.

in conclusion,

[moodymisty]

☾ 𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕃𝕒𝕜𝕖 ☽

Author's Note: An idea I had floating around in my little brain for awhile, and I did a poll to see which character people were most interested in seeing it acted out with. Hunter won, so here you go. I'll probably do more polls like that in the future if people are interested. (it's finally done sldidsfsjsfsjflsf)

The planet is unnamed, but I mostly had Takodana's very lush landscapes in mind. The lake looking something like this but with some liberties. This is something I love about Star Wars; You can just create a scene and the whole galaxy is your oyster to play with.

Summary: The water laps around your shoulders, ending just below your collarbone. It flows around your every curve, covering your skin with the soft shine of the moons. They reflect on the water's surface, every star looking like glitter sparkling in the lake. "Come on Hunter; Join me? Just for a minute?"

Relationships: Hunter/Fem!Reader

Warnings: NSFW, Pre-established relationship, skinny dipping, Sex in water but also on the shore, Post Order 66, Unprotected sex, Fingering, Oral(female receiving), Technically voyeurism? since it's outside i guess, Porn with mild setup plot, Creampie if you squint, it’s kinda just vanilla not super kinky stuff here today; but there is some on the horizon

Word Count: 6084 (if you just want the smut, scroll down about a third)

“So; Tech,”

Lowering the ship into the planet’s atmosphere he spares you a curious glance before turning back, still listening to what you’re going to say even if he’s no longer looking.

“Give us the details.”

Quite quickly he figures out you’re asking for some information on the planet you’re coming to, and quickly racks his brain for some interesting tidbits. You always enjoy hearing them, and learning about all these civilizations from far beyond where you’d grown up.

“It’s a small mid-rim planet, conveniently along one of the largest trade routes. It’s largest export is agricultural in nature; Fertile soil and temperate climate makes for optimal crop growth. It remained neutrally aligned for most of the war.”

Wrecker, who’s leaning forward to look out the viewport, comments on Tech’s encouraged ramble.

“That explains the forests.” Not being able to resist taking a peak you walk closer, Wrecker moving slightly to the side so you can look out as well.

He certainly wasn’t kidding; While the trees have nothing on a planet like say Kashyyyk, the forests here are still quite thick and cover a vast amount of area. Even into the mountains, though less sparse where crop fields and little towns reside. You’re not here for any signs of modern or at least living civilization, so it’s unlikely you’ll be getting to enjoy any of the local offerings.

Maybe if you and Omega teamed up you could whine until Hunter lets you all, but that’s a power play best used sparingly.

Since Wrecker abandons looking outside you decide to settle down and watch, leaning more against the viewport you see the treetops come closer and closer. Even Omega steps beside you to take a quick look. She seems more than entertained by the view of it all, while you spot something in particular that catches your interest more so than the rest.

It looks like there’s a decent sized lake hidden in all of the trees, you manage to catch a glimpse as you fly overhead. But it passes by before you have a chance to look anymore on it. Tech is landing not moments later, cutting off the engines and speaking up once more while he does.

“The forest makes for good camouflage. We should be able to find the old outpost with not too much trouble, however.”

Right; You aren’t here to sight see or have a picnic. Hopefully this abandoned base will have the gear you’re looking for, and in good working shape. Some of it would in theory be a nice upgrade for the lot of you, as well for being a good paycheck when you turn in the bulk of it for a reward. Provided it's all in working order.

Hunter, grabbing his pack off the ground calls to everyone to ready up, standing by the entrance of the ship.

“Should be an easy in and out. Let’s not make a mess of it.”

Easier said that done with this lot, and that includes yourself. The penchant of you all to get into some sort of trouble is more than a little bit common.

“And after, we get some food?” Wrecker tosses his helmet in his hands a few times, before slipping it on. You quite quickly agree with Wrecker, feeling your stomach rumble. Hunter sighs.

“And after we’ll get some food.”

“I still have some repairs to do, so I will take first watch.”

Tech doesn’t look up from his datapad as he speaks, ushering the lot of you in the direction of the bunks. It’s late; Both the moons hanging high in the sky after a long day. Wrecker and Omega are both eager to get some rest, and Echo can’t deny he feels largely the same. Hunter is a bit more composed, and checks over the area surrounding the ship before he decides to actually lay down. Wrecker has the job of hauling the finds into the back of the ship, the closest spot you'll have to a cargo hold on a ship this small.

The area you've landed in is far away from any sort of civilization, and that fact makes Hunter just the tiniest bit more relaxed about getting some shut eye. The constant bustling of cities makes it harder for him to pick out noises of concern, while quiet places like make it easier for him to rest, but his hearing will still prick up at the sound of someone messing with the hull or some other sort of concern.

When he walks deeper into the ship he sees you sitting on a bunk, pulling off your boots.

“Tech taking the first shift?” You say, looking at at him standing in front of you.

You put both your boots down at the head of the bunk, before throwing your legs up onto it. Hunter doesn’t bother to take off most of his armor when he sleeps, and you don’t even want to think on how uncomfortable it must all feel. Though you imagine he’s become used to it.

“Yep. He’s got some repair work to do, apparently.” His eyes are soft as he looks at you, watching you lay down.

“Well, night. Tell him not to wake us all up with the power tools again.”

Hunter rolls his eyes at the reference of a previous incident as he hauls his body into his own bunk, before laying back as well. He can hear you chuckling however, before it eventually fades off into a comfortable silence.

The ship is more quiet than usual, you think. Which would be perfect for getting some shuteye if you’d been planning on it. But you have a bit of an idea, and your mind is still spinning with it.

You just need to wait a little while.

Which you do, all the way until you slowly lean up and look around, taking a peek at everyone you can see. It's been at least an hour, a quick check on your datapad confirms that suspicion. You take another, longer look around the ship.

Everyone looks asleep; Even Hunter.

Ever so slowly you slide off of your bunk, grabbing your boots and pack off the floor. You’ll slip on your boots outside, to try and be as quiet as possible.

Tech has the gangplank open at the moment, as he’s been shuffling in and out of the ship working on some repairs well into the night.

Multitasking he says; As he can keep watch, as well as work.

The power tools you'd complained about are running, and should cover the sound of you walking at least somewhat. With light footsteps you sneak outside, instantly taking a deep breath of the fresh forest air. The nighttime is significantly cooler than it had been earlier, but it’s still somewhat warm; Enough so that you don’t need any sort of extra layers. You slip on your boots and start walking.

Once you reach the treeline you take a look back, seeing the small amount of light emanating from The Marauder. This planet has multiple moons, and as such the nights along with the stars are quite bright compared to most other planets. You don’t even need a torch to see into the forest, walking through some underbrush and deeper into the forest.

At least this forest isn’t very thick; It’s relatively easy to walk the same paths the wildlife does in order to make your way through, weaving through large trees and the small shrubby underneath them all. There’s the occasional rustling as well, something jumping around in the trees or scurrying away at the sound of you walking on fallen leaves.

You can see what you want through the trees, and just stepping over a few more branches, you finally make it onto the clear area just surrounding the outer edges of the lake.

It’s even better than it had looked overhead from The Marauder.

Lily pads are scattered around the edge of the lake, their roots visible traveling downward and showing from how clear the water is. Beneath them swim unique little fishes that you have no clue their species; Only that they’re cute, colorful little things, and swim in decent sizes schools. But most of all, the way the sky reflects in the water makes it almost seem like the lake is a nebula in and of itself, each individual star sparkling in the water so still it seems like you're looking downward into a portal to the sky.

Putting your bag on the ground beside a tree, you take off your boots first and place them right beside it. Your bottoms go next, stuffing them in the back along with your underwear. Then your top, the final piece of clothing to go.

After that, you take one step forward and hesitantly dip your toe in the water, feeling the temperature. This is such a reckless, silly idea, but the temptation of it is a bit too much.

But what is even more so tempting, is that you know that you won’t be alone for very long out here.

You know Hunter is following you, or will be soon; It won't be long at all that he's awake and notices that you're gone. More than likely, he heard your footsteps the moment they hit the ramp and he's already on your tail.

He'll be here, it's just a waiting game.

Perhaps it’s not going to be totally clean, but it feels nice to have your hair wet and scrubbed away of any dirt and grime that had once been in it, as you shake your head. It will be an absolutely uncontrollable mess when you return to the Marauder and it dries, but at least it’ll be clean.

It all just feels so relaxing. The water is so peaceful not cold or hot, and the air is quiet apart from the sounds of some nocturnal wildlife. This was such a fit of the moment idea but you’re glad you decided to go through it, wiping some waterdrops off your eyelids as you wash your face.

And maybe it was a bit of a reckless idea sure, but what fit of the moment indulgence isn’t? You’ll blame the lack of a proper shower or bath in The Marauder as the reason why, even if the peaceful nature is the thing you’re enjoying most out of all of this.

But gods, is it nice to have a little bit of quiet time once and awhile. That ship can be a stuffed racket. If this is even a fraction of how Hunter feels at time, you can’t even fathom how he hasn’t just exploded at this point-

There’s a rustle in the trees, and you quickly halt everything and stare at where you think it came from. Your eyes dart around, water lapping at your collarbone.

It’s silent again, before there’s suddenly a bit more noises, and your eyes catch a small glimpse of something moving. Instantly you look to the area that shifted.

And from it- Hunter.

The moment he catches you he can’t hide the shocked expression on his face, looking down for a second and seeing where your clothes are piled just in front of his boots.

“What are you doing?!”

Hunter whisper yells, making his way slightly down the incline towards the shore and past your belongings. You watch with a mischievous smile, wading just a bit closer so you can hear him easier. The water laps a little ways above the middle of your sternum now.

“Taking a bath.” Hunter hates the way you sing that response with such a lack of caution towards what insanity you've gotten up to, watching him.

“In the middle of the night? In a forest? Tech barely realized you were gone until I told him I heard you leave! If something had happened we wouldn’t have known until it was-” You roll your eyes, interrupting him.

“Ugh, you always think of the worst possible scenario.” Raising one of your hands out of the water you gesture towards yourself, trying to beckon him in as water splashes off your palm and back where it was taken from.

“Come on in, it’s fine,” The water is nice and warm, and you push away a stray lily pad that floats close to your face. Hunter purses his lips and looks side to side, before pointing at you and then the ground.

“It is not fine. Get out.”

You fake contemplation, but for only a moment.

“No.”

Hunter begins to use his more formal 'Sargent voice', attempting to try and force you out.

“I am not playing around. Get out of the water.”

“Or what?" When that doesn't work, Hunter blows air through his tight lips as he attempts not to get irritated at you.

“I am not going to play this game with you, seriously. Get out. Anyone could see you." Your toes just barely brush against the bottom of the lake, kicking up dirt and scaring away the tiny little fishes that swim somewhat close by, curious at what weird thing is in their home so late at night.

“Ohhhh, so that's why you don't want me to have fun? Cause someone might catch a peek besides you?" His hand tightens around the tree branch he's holding to keep himself steady on the edge of the lake, watching as you slowly drift backwards deeper into the lake.

The water laps around your shoulders, ending just below your collarbone. It flows around your every curve, covering your skin with the soft shine of the moons. They reflect on the water's surface, every star looking like glitter sparkling in the lake.

“Come on Hunter; Join me? Just for a minute?"

Hunter loathes to admit that, it's tempting. Even if the alarm bells in his head are ringing because technically, the ship is largely unguarded- Tech is the only one keep an eye out since he's left, and doesn't have Hunter's keep hearing to cue him in anything out here everyone else can't see.

But he's done his lookouts, perimeter checks, there's nothing around. He hasn't heard so much as a peep from anything other than wildlife.

And you look, ethereal. That's the word he'll choose, even if he knows it isn't of a magnitude to really represent how he feels. Bits of your hair stick to your face, as you just barely tread water.

“You know on my home planet, there's old stories about mystical women tempting men into the lakes." Hunter's boots slide on the dirt slightly, his free hand on his belt as he debates taking it off.

“To do what?" You shrug, and for a moment he can see more of the outline of your chest.

“Depends on who's telling the story."

Looking down he sees where your clothes are all bundled up in your pack, the small one that they'd given you not long ago. He sees the drawn '99' symbol on the front pocket, that you'd shoddily done yourself to match them. He'd left his own pack on the ship, so he reaches his hands up to unbuckle his chest plate, just laying it on the ground so he can put everything else inside of it. You perk up considerably upon the realization that he's actually going to join you, the water splashing with your jump. After you bend at the knees, sinking enough that the water comes up to just barely brush your nose as you watch him.

Slowly, piece by piece he peels his armor away, putting it right beside your own clothing.

Shoulder plates, forearm guards, belt, thigh plates; Kneepads, boots, blasters.

When he's down to only his black body glove, he glances towards you for a moment. He doesn't audibly say anything, before looking back and beginning to peel the last of his clothing away. His arms first, wrapping down to his hips where from the side, you can just barely catch the v-line leading down to his groin at the smattering of dark hair that catches the light.

“I can feel you staring."

The water bubbles and ripples when you attempt to giggle, taking a breath and pushing your legs out from underneath you, falling under the water. By the time you come back up, Hunter is already stepping into the water, up to his hips.

“It’s warm,” He says, his hand brushing across the surface. He makes his way closer to you, the water rising higher and higher.

“Did you know this was out here the whole time?” He’s close enough to you now that it would only take one decent stride to be chest to chest, smiling at him.

“I saw it overhead as we were landing. Decided to take a look when everyone else was looking the other way.” Hunter shouldn’t be surprised, but he’ll always shake his head at your mischievousness. It’s not as if he can complain now however, as at this point, he has technically joined you in it.

He dives his head underneath the water for a moment, before coming up with his hair slopping wet and sticking to his face in chunks of wavy, dark curls.

“I thought you were just trying to fetch me and bring me back?” Realizing that originally yes, that was his goal, Hunter looks away from a moment.

“I… Reconsidered.” He steps a little closer.

“It’s quiet. And we haven’t have much time alone since, everything.” Hunter is also so hilariously enthralled by the way the water shines on your skin, and how he can just barely see the outline of your chest beneath the surface.

He is right; You’ve barely had any time to think since you all became deserters, not even considering trying to have some time alone.

He takes one step closer, hearing all the leaves brushing in the trees close by and fish swimming below the surface. You’re looking up at him with that same mischievous little smile you had when he first found you here, the color of your eyes shining. You feel his hands grip your waist below the water, pulling you against him as he leans in and softly presses his lips to yours, feeling the cooled water on your skin. You move your arms to wrap around his neck, and he takes one tiny step closer so his body is almost completely melded against yours.

Gods, it feels like it’s been ages. You already feel a weight in your gut and your throat getting tight, and it's only just a kiss. You both sneak moments here and there, but to finally be able to hold each other close like this? It’s been too long. The passion you feel in your chest is increasing, and that chaste kiss is turning into one that is making your head feel lighter.

“I missed you,”

You say, listening to him let out an almost confused sounding chuckle.

“We’ve been trapped in the same ship for weeks now, how could you miss me?” You can’t help but roll your eyes a bit, still smiling as your fingers play with his damp hair. You have a pretty good feeling he’s joking with that line, judging by his soft smile and raised eyebrows.

“I missed this; We always have to be so well behaved on The Marauder.” You aren’t wrong, and it seems Hunter understands- and agrees with you. It's good to be on the same page.

“True. But they’re all back there, we have a minute to ourselves.”

You don’t need to respond to him, leaning in to steal another kiss. It’s harder; His tongue brushes against your bottom lip and you can hear him softly breathe, his hands firmly against the small of your back. They keep drifting lower and lower- and while they don’t quite touch your ass just yet, it wouldn’t take much of a movement downward for him to be able to grip tightly.

Your arms wrap tighter around his neck to pull him closer, to press your body harder against his, but he hums against your mouth before pulling back.

“Be patient; We got time.”

You might have time now yes, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t needy; You’ve lost count how many times you’ve had to take matters into your own hands, either by shoving any dirty thoughts deep to the back of your mind, or trying hopelessly to sneak a few minutes alone in the refresher.

He’s hinted before that he’s had to do the same; Especially if he hears you accidentally make a lewd noise, or catches a scent that makes his body run unbelievably hot. The idea of him doing so always sets you off, so it’s just an endless cycle.

One of his hands you can feel slowly slipping down your back, moving across to the side of your hip. You can feel the callused tips of his fingers against your skin, rough from years of wear and tear. It’s part of what makes his touch cause you to unconsciously shiver, even more so as he slowly slips his hand between the both of your bodies. Every motion is so infuriatingly slow, methodical as he moves what feels like only millimeters- intent to take his time. You hate it, more than anything as it makes your cunt ache around nothing and your blood boils, but the build up will make it all the more satisfying. Even if it also feels like torture, as his lips brush over the corner of your mouth. You move your head to just slightly to kiss him, unable to stop yourself from moaning into his mouth.

You can feel his cock gently brush against the front of your thigh, when your legs more just slightly apart to accommodate him. The moment you feel his fingers brush over your lower stomach you can’t help the way your muscles tighten just slightly, in the anticipation of him. They ever so slightly drift lower, until he slips his fingers between your folds underneath the clear water's surface.

You almost rise on the balls of your feet, feeling the way his fingers curl ever so slightly as the prod almost teasingly against your entrance.

“Gods; You smell amazing."

Even through all of the noises and smells of a forest as large and as full of life are overwhelming, Hunter can easily focus on only you; As you take over and occupy all of his senses. He can feel the way you tighten around his fingers, palm pressing down just over your clit. Even if it's dulled by the water, it would be an un-fightable temptation for him to try and not indulge in you.

As much as he would love to just figuratively tear you apart, he has time; There's no looming time limit for when his brothers will come back, or when they need to be off to the next planet.

He can, in theory, fuck you all night if the universe allows him.

You seem certainly willing, as your nails dig into his skin and leave little crescent moon shaped dents all along his shoulder blades.

The water feels so warm now; Maybe it still is from the sun shining on it throughout the day, or maybe your body is just so fucking hot that the temperature of the water is no longer affecting you.

Either way it doesn't matter, all that matters is that Hunter is touching you and will continue to do so, up until you've both made up for the amount of times he's so desperately wanted to bury his cock in you.

Where wouldn't even matter; He's just so absolutely fucking starving for it.

“Lets, let’s go back to the shore.”

He can’t disagree with you, it would be quite hard do anything more standing up, let alone in this deep of water. As fun and easy as it might look in the holofilms. The two of you quickly tread back to shore, Hunter right behind you as you open your pack once you get to it.

Thankfully you’d had the forethought to pack a blanket in your pack; Originally for drying off. But now it gets laid on the ground intended for a completely other use, not that you're complaining.

Once you lay it down and get upon it, Hunter instantly follows, hovering over your as your legs drift apart to accommodate him. He instantly feels the warm skin of your legs against his as they close around him, keeping him tightly to you.

“Hello again,” You dare to joke, feeling the way his lips curl upwards when they press against the sensitive pulse of your neck. You moan, feeling as he leaves kisses and little marks just hard enough to make your skin ache ones he leaves.

“Always joking.” He never minds it.

Lips drifting downward they brush over your collarbone, breast, going lower and lower as his hands lay on your thighs. He feels the way they almost instinctively close when the air of his breath brushes over your skin, but his gentle grip keeps them spread just enough for his liking.

He can easily see how wet you are- smell it more so- the way it shines against your outer lips even with the water droplets from the lake still sliding down your skin. He doesn’t look for long however, as his hands firmly grip your thighs and keep them spread apart.

“Hunter-!"

You would’ve sworn he hadn’t had a taste of any liquid for weeks judging by the way he suddenly pressed his mouth against you, tongue lapping at your cunt like a starving man.

His tongue slips between your folds as his nose occasionally brushes against your clit, Hunter’s large hands grasping each of your thighs and keeping them pressed firmly apart. They grip rougher now that he’s in the midst of it, though you have no complaints.

He had once admitted that he oh so greatly enjoyed doing this to you, but being so close to the heat of you, the smell and the warmth and the sound of him winding you up like a coil until you snap, it can drive him near insane. He always tries to steady himself and keep it slow, but while he’s usually more than eager to take his time, after so long apart he can’t help but be a little bit rushed and desperate.

“Hunter- Holy- Slow down there a bit…”

You don’t entirely mean the sentiment, it’s more so commenting on how his hands are gripping your body so tight and keeping you so close, but he does slow down slightly. You can feel the stubble of his cheeks scratching against your skin like sandpaper, surely it’ll be a little sensitive later. They almost always are, but it's never a serious complaint.

Just something to remember this night by in the morning, so you know for sure it wasn't just the hottest fucking wet dream you've had in your entire life.

Hunter buries is face even deeper when he feels your body arching up slightly, hands grasping at the ground as your cunt soaks him. He dares to let one hand slip away from your thighs and slides two fingers into your cunt, curling inside of you and feeling the way you tighten around them. He can taste you on his lips, even more so as you cum and fill the air with all the sweet noises he loves so much, wants to hear over and over again, moaning his name to as his tongue presses against your clit. He borderline abuses it as your hips twitch, hand reaching for him in an attempt to ground yourself as your thighs shake.

Your face is already hot, eyes blown out looking at him as he pulls away from you. A string of spit follows going from your pussy to his lips, before it quickly snaps.

But gods; The taste of you, the smell right beneath his nose, it always drives him so close to the edge. He teeters right on it, his neck is tight and he finds himself holding his breath accidentally when he moves back up your body.

You brush some of his wet hair away from his forehead, feeling his cock resting against your thigh.

“Was this your plan the whole time?” His says quietly, one hand supporting himself beside your waist while the other drifts between your two bodies.

“The first part was; This is all just a bonus.” His loves that sneaky, satisfied smile you wear sometimes, but he’s always eager to wipe it off- watching as he slowly presses his cock into you and it fades, biting your lip as you struggle not to moan.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

You hope he fulfills that thinly veiled threat of punishment some day in the future.

In any other situation being out of the water still wet it might start to give you a chill, but with how fast your heart is racing it’s not a possibility, feeling Hunter’s own skin touch yours. He's always run hot, it just seem to be in his nature, and you can feel it as his body lays close. You can see the way the muscles of his shoulders tighten and flex as he bottoms out inside of you, hips pressing against the backs of your thighs. Strands of thick, wet hair hang around his face, shadowing it- but still letting you see the way his brow furrows and dark eyes dart over your face.

His thrusts start slow, building upward as his wet hair brushes against your skin. Your thighs press against his hips, one of your hands tangling in his hair. He loves to have it tugged on, tightly woven between your fingers as his bandana lays abandoned on the shoreline surely close by all of his other items. He'd never dare let it get blown away.

His tattoos almost seem even more prominent wet, though maybe it’s just the shine of the night sky on the water that’s making it seem so. They move atop his muscles as he fucks you, the ones on his arms shifting as his biceps flex. You've always loved them- the tattoos, and the way they seem to highlight parts of his body in a way that's made you catch yourself staring multiple times before.

"Kriff," Hunter pants. "You really are a damn tease."

Did it take him that long to figure that out? It had been the goal the whole time.

If there's anything you've learned from being with Hunter particularly in situations different than this where he isn't nearly as gentle, the fun is in the chase.

But neither of you are going to last very long with how pent up you are, how long it’s been; The teasing and the build up over weeks of stolen kisses and soft, subtle gestures.

You let out a gasp as his cock brushes against a particularly sensitive bundle of nerves, a breath nearly getting caught in your throat.

"Gods- Hunter I'm so-" He knows you are, he can feel it as your tight cunt wraps around him like a vice, and even if the water might mask it, Hunter can feel how wet you are, how you leak over his cock as you wrap tight around him. Your lip is caught so firmly in-between your teeth it might bleed, moaning from deep in your throat.

He swears he can almost hear his own teeth grind against each other when he cums, filling you as you grind against him for more. Just that little bit to get pushed over the edge, as you're already teetering so close it's like you're dangling on the edge of a cliff.

But it doesn't take much; All you need is his fingers pushing against your clit trying to pull it from you before your thighs press against his hips like you want to crush them, seeing white behind your closed lids. He feels you cum around him, gripping the shoddy, soaked with lake water blanket so tight as you intake a breath and hold it long enough he almost tells you to breath. Your knuckles strain, seeing stars as he dares to move his hips slowly almost milking you through it all, and listening to the way you mewl desperately for him.

Gods, you missed him. Even in the short time he was gone. Even if you don't think you could handle it, you still want to go again. Until you were even more of a mess than you are now. Hunter gently pulls his softening cock from you and groans, while you feel a pleasant, wonder ache as his cum leaks from you.

But the afterglow is nice. Hunter most of all likes how peaceful it is. Just you and him; It would take someone hours to track you both down if they really wanted to.

Just a moment to yourselves.

His lips are still grazing just over yours as he talks, and you can feel the ever so slight scratch of his stubble. Since Kamino he's sometimes had moments where he hasn't had time to regulation shave it perfect, so he gets this nice bit of scratchy stubble that makes you smile whenever it burns your skin.

“We should get back; Before anyone realizes we’re gone.”

He isn’t wrong, but it’s not to say your pleased about having to finally end this.

"I don't want to." He stares down at you, seeing your mischievous smile hiding some genuine disappointment.

"I said earlier I wasn't going to let you get away with this. And I wont." He pulls away, but not before stealing a quick kiss. "Grab your things."

Always the strict one. But of the squad known to not follow rules; So it's not as if he hates breaking them at times.

Pulling away, you begin to try and find your clothes, Hunter wringing his hair while you shake yourself off enough to put them on and they won't become completely soaked with water by proxy. Hunter is a little bit slower than you as he has to put his armor back on as well, but he’s not much so.

At least the one with the hyper developed senses is the one sneaking back in, as it makes the quiet entrance in The Marauder that much easier once you return.

No one instantly notices you, as Tech is far too distracted in the cockpit working. Wrecker is still sleeping, as is Omega, and presumably Echo is somewhere in the far back of the ship either working, or taking a breather. He often times does so since a full cycle of sleep seems to still be hard for him, which is understandable.

Neither of you are complaining; It makes it easier for the both of you to get inside with being question where you went.

But while Hunter technically had a nap earlier, you hadn’t, so you’re more than a little tuckered out after everything. Quite quickly you move to slip into your bunk after you pull off your boots, before you realize you could sneak a bit of time in Hunter's instead.

So you silently move and swap to his bunk, but before he has a chance to join you...

“Hunter?”

He hears Tech call his name, and leaves you to go see what he needs. Not before sighing at Tech's both terrible and incredible timing. A few minutes earlier for that call, and he might've realized both of you were missing.

The moment Hunter enters the cockpit and asks what he could possibly need Tech doesn’t look up at him, instead continuing to tinker while speaking.

“I didn’t know you’d woken back up; Would you perhaps give me a hand? Unfortunately I need another pair for this.”

Hunter takes a quick glance back towards you and sees you gently wave, smiling at him as you swing your feet back and forth. You can wait a few moments while he does this. Even if he'd rather you didn't have to, as he'd much rather be there than helping with whatever this mess of tangled wires and metal bits is.

Looks kind of dangerous, even by Tech standards.

Just as he begins to take a kneel in order to help Tech looks up, and Hunter’s eyes lock with his for a moment.

Tech squints behind the tempered glass of his googles.

“Why is your hair wet? Me nor Echo hear the refresher shower running.”

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[clumsiestgiantess]

Chapter 24 of The Other-world Universe; at long last we’ve weaponized the tiny! Let’s see what she can do.

all chapters listed here

[Round Three: Rematch]

Thankfully, we moved on from the subject of my old atrocities.  One moment later and we were in the other-world again, at the same spot where I'd practiced with my weapon.  Weirdly enough, the sun was already starting to set there, though it was mid-afternoon when we’d left my world.  "What's going on?" Erica asked, confusedly scanning the sky, "Why is it already getting dark?"  

"There's a slight time difference between my world and yours,” I explained, “They used to be in sync, but I threw them off balance after staying here for so long."  "Huh," Erica mumbled in an impressed tone.  I placed her in the field and knelt down beside her.  "Here it is," I announced, again offering her the piece.  However, since we'd traveled worlds, the plastic piece became a crystalline diamond-shaped stone.  She took it from me, momentarily distracted by its reflective sheen.  "So, I just.. put it in the back of my neck?  Like yours?"  "Actually, I made it so that it sets into the middle of your spine.  I thought that would be easier for your weapon's design."  In a flash, Erica slid the gemstone into place beneath her shirt.  "Wow!  I really can't feel a thing!" she exclaimed, twisting around to feel for it.  "I kinda expected it to be all rough because it's a stone."  I nodded, "That's all part of the design."

Erica excitedly drew both hands behind her back, similar to how I drew one hand behind my neck to grab my gun.  They emerged gripping the handles of two large sword-like devices, connected by thin cords to her back and the gemstone.  Each one was identical — lightweight metal sheets sharpened to a point on one end and a round grooved handle on the other.  The edges were almost impossibly thin and deadly sharp, specially made to be able to cut through anything with ease and precision.  Two-thirds up the weapons’ sheer sharpness was a curved hook that jutted out of the blade to latch onto foes.

I'd upped my game with this new weapon.  Along with the lightweight swords, the gem also gave the wearer superhuman abilities.  While it seemed I couldn’t give myself extra powers besides the ones I arrived with, I could give other-worlders them instead.  Erica could now jump an impressively long distance, and had what was basically super speed.  She could also land a fall from hundreds of feet in the air perfectly balanced and completely unscathed — superhuman durability — which is important when you can jump that high and also not break every bone in your body after coming back down.

At one point I realized that meant I could make Erica my own size instead of trying to shrink myself.  I’d asked her about it while we were weapon planning.  She was originally thrilled by the notion of being a similar height to me, but had later told me in reflective honesty that it was a bad idea.  As much as she wanted to see how it felt to be a giant, Erica told me she would be ‘too tempted to do things she’d regret’.  I wasn’t sure I understood what she meant, but it was her choice, so I scrapped the idea.  Erica seemed perfectly happy with what she had in both weapon and looks.  I had to agree.

In the empty field, I stood up and stepped back a bit, motioning for Erica to try out her new weapon, but she shook her head.  "I saw how badly you screwed up when you were working with yours, and that was after you'd practiced with it for a while.  Can you maybe save me some embarrassment and come back a bit later?  The town's probably worried about you, you know."  I wanted to stay and get her back for laughing at me the first time I'd practiced with my weapon, but Erica was right.  Everyone probably thought I'd run away.  Technically, I did try, but I was back, hopefully with a plan that would work.  

By the time I actually got to the valley, the sky had grown to a vibrant purple, quickly fading to black.  Maybe I should just leave a note or something.  Everyone’s already gone inside by now.  I knew all I had to do was call and someone would come running, but.. I didn’t feel like talking to the founders right then.  Guilt gnawed at me as I briefly vanished into my own world to write my excuse for bailing on everyone earlier.  If I’d had my way, I would’ve been abandoning everyone there to some awful fate.  My explanation devolved into one long apology the longer I wrote it.

Eventually, I stopped myself at a whole page and left the corner of it pinned under a rock near the town.  I did a quick walk-around of the mountains — scouting for trouble.  Surprisingly, there was nothing amiss.  The town was fine, the barrier was intact, and there were no portal people in sight.

Anxious at finding everything normal, I did another sweep.  Still finding nothing wrong, I returned to the spot where I'd left Erica.  However, when I got there she was nowhere to be seen, and all the natural landmarks like rocks and trees were missing.  Well, they were technically there, just in diced pieces.

"Erica?  Where did you go?" I called nervously into the darkening landscape.  Something shot out from the shadows of the forest nearby, zooming directly at my head.  I yelped in a panic and covered my face instinctively, shielding it from an attack.  Nervous laughter filled the space to my right.  "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, Alexis.  I didn't mean to scare you, I promise."  I cautiously lowered my arms and turned in the direction of Erica’s voice, finding her sitting comfortably on my shoulder.  "Did you just super speed jump at me?" I asked.  "Yeah.. I'm sorry."  "No, don't be sorry," I chuckled, making my way back to my living space.  "This is good!  Do that on the battlefield tomorrow and you'll scare those awful people right back through the portal they came from."  

Erica was uncharacteristically silent the rest of the way back, leaving my thoughts to fall to worries.  Is she ready to take on people my size?  Not even I was.  "That is.. if you're ready to fight tomorrow,” I added more seriously.  She scoffed, "Oh, I was born ready.  It's just..  You've never seen me fight anyone before, have you?"  I slowed to a stop, processing her question.  "No, I don't think so.  Why?  Are you any good at it?  Because I'm not.  I don't even want to fight!  I'm tired of beating on other people," I laughed.

This time, there was an even longer pause.  Clearly my jokes weren’t helping the mood any.  Usually Erica loves responding to them with another joke or something snide.  I glanced at my shoulder to try and see her better.  "Are you any good at it," Erica repeated quietly, "Yeah, I am.  I just.. I don't want you to look at me differently when you see me fighting tomorrow.  I did tell you I can protect myself, but you've never seen me kick the shit out of someone before."  "Did you.. do that often?" I questioned, slightly confused.  I was a bit shocked to see her expression darken.

"Erica, you don't have to worry about what I might think of you," I told her as I sat down on my other-world 'bed'.  Reaching up to my shoulder, I carefully pulled her in front of me in cupped hands.  "I'll still love you, regardless of what happens."  She smiled, cheeks warming slightly.  "Did you actually want to sleep right now?" I asked, gesturing at the blanket beneath me, "It's a little early for us.  We haven't even eaten dinner because of the time difference."  "Let's have dinner then," Erica suggested, “Then we should at least try to get some rest.”

The food box was sitting right beside my 'bed' where it always was.  I let Erica off and made us some ribs and mac-and-cheese for dinner — one of Erica’s favorite meals the box could make.  Eating from the food box was actually better than eating at home.  With it, I could make virtually any food I wanted, and perfectly.  

Over the course of my meal, I couldn't help but wonder what Erica meant when she confessed she was scared of letting me see her fight.  I guess I can imagine her being fairly ruthless when it comes to that sort of thing, especially after they kicked me down and hurt me during that last struggle.  Now Erica had a score to settle for both her own kind and for me.  

Admittedly, I was also not really the fighting type.  Before that fight yesterday I’d never actually had to physically defend myself from someone before.  The only reason I gave myself a weapon at all was to have a backup plan.  Its purpose was to protect the town and potential others with barriers.  The gun function was only made with the intention of trying to scare the scientists off.  Now that I knew we were on the brink of war, that would all have to change.

When I'd finished eating, I sat awake for a while, not quite tired, but needing sleep all the same.  I'd need all the rest I could get to heal up before I went back to fighting again.  Just because Erica will be with me doesn't mean I get to take a break. I know she wants to fight, and I really don’t know what she’s capable of, but I can’t imagine she can take on a small army without me there to back her up.  

Late into the night, I finally lay down to get some rest.  I thought Erica was already asleep; she was lying on her side, facing the empty woods, but when I lay down, she sat up.  I shifted sideways so we were facing eachother — my mouth opening and closing a few times before I found what I wanted to say.  

"Erica, I have an important question for you," I stated, inhaling softly.  She stood, looking over at me nervously.  "What is it?"  "Today I gave you something that's highly dangerous — made specifically to kill giants.  I- I inadvertently gave you abilities that can overpower me at any given moment.  So.. I'm just asking.. for peace of mind, really…"  I cleared my throat, anxiously meeting her gaze.  "Can I trust you with them?"

My question lingered in the air for a moment as Erica's eyes widened in shock.  With careful steps, she moved closer, brushing my cheek with her hand.  A small smile spread across her lips as she looked me over lovingly.  "I'd like you to," Erica responded gently.  At once I was back on the cliffside, leaning against it as Erica stood on the mansion's balcony.  After I offered to make up for everything I’d done, she asked me one simple question: Can I trust you?  The memory replayed in my head the moment Erica answered me — a familiar yet previously forgotten echo of the past.  Her answer.. that’s what I replied, isn’t it?

Erica’s hand dwindled on the surface of my cheek for a while.  She stood in front of me, trying to read my questioning expression.  A small kiss lightly pecked the tip of my nose, and I smiled, pulling her close.  Erica giggled as my lips brushed against her body.  “I knew I could trust you,” I whispered, mouth barely an inch from her.  “Just making sure.”  My fingers laced around her tiny form and I held her close to my chest.  I could feel her miniscule hands pull my shirt aside, snuggling into the warmth of my skin.  I fell asleep shortly afterwards, feeling ready for the trials of the next day.

The following morning, we were both up and ready rather early.  I made my way to the Cavern Town with Erica on my shoulder.  Both founders were outside when I arrived, standing by my letter.  It looked like they were arguing.  Another pang of guilt dashed through my chest, but I shoved it down.  I knelt in front of the two as they stepped away from my towering form.

"Finally!" Mr. Stoll cried, "Where the hell have you been!?  The giants are threatening to destroy our town!  They're all coming down from the camp and-"  Ms. Ashford put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back slightly.  She whispered something harshly to him, but I couldn't hear anything.  I glanced at Erica, but she shook her head.  They were too far away for either of us to hear them.  It looked as if they were arguing again.  I waited patiently for them to address me, but their fight had only grown more heated.  "I'm sorry," I interrupted, "but did you say the giants are on their way here?"  "Yes," Ms. Ashford answered me, "But we won't ask you to fight them because you're inexperienced and can't handle the stress of fighting off an army."  Many of her words had pointed edges to them, directed at Mr. Stoll who stood defiantly with his arms crossed.

"She won't fight them!" Erica called, "At least not alone!  I'll fight them off for the safety of the town and for Alexis' safety too!"  I smiled gratefully at Erica, feeling a bit better about my whole awful predicament.  "Ha!  You fight them?" Mr. Stoll scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous!  You're just going to get yourself killed!  I'm surprised your giant friend hasn't talked you out of it yet!"  A wrathful glare distorted Erica's features.  "I will fight them, and I'll win!  You’ll see!  Come on, Alexis, let's get out of here."  

She tugged on my shirt to get me to stand back up.  Knowing this argument would only get worse the longer I stayed, I followed her command and left the valley after giving quick instructions to the founders.  “Keep everyone inside the barrier no matter what.  This scare will hopefully be over soon.”  

Erica growled under her breath the moment I left the exit to the valley.  "That old bastard, I'll show him!  You don't even need to fight, Alexis; I'll deal with them."  "Erica, don't go in over your head on this," I warned.  "What, you don't think I can do this either?" she quipped, voiced edged in malice.  "No..  I do, I do."  My voice tapered off in an almost worried uptone.

We silently waited at the foothills of the valley.  Some time later, the air buzzed with anxious electricity, like the moments before a storm.  Just up ahead, a cloud of dust spread out over the horizon.  The silhouette of a small army marched its way towards the mountains where we stood — about twenty people, maybe a few more.  I reached behind my back and pulled out my gun, anxiously switching it to multi-shot mode.  "Alright, get ready.  Here they come."  Erica grabbed her shining weapons and hunched down on the very edge of my shoulder.

When they got close enough, I unleashed a line of glowing bullets spiraling in the portal-worlders’ direction, and charged.  Closer to the front line, I generated a shield for myself and Erica zoomed away off my shoulder, rocketing through the air towards her first target.  We were both so pumped with stress and adrenaline that we were almost eager to fight.  However, as Erica came within an arm's reach of the first 'giant', they swung their rifle-esqe gun through the air.  It made contact with a sickening crack and swept her out of the way in an instant.  The attack was so sudden and so swift; my throat dropped into my stomach.  "ERICA!"  I skidded to a halt, too shocked to move, and was immediately tackled to the ground.

No no no, please!  It's only her first fight!  She can't be dead!  But from the awful noise and the force of that blow… there really weren't many alternatives.  "ERICA!" I screamed again.  These people came here to collect me.  They could care less about some other-world person like Erica getting in their way.  That woman smacked her out of the air as if she were nothing more than an annoying bug!  I thrashed out of someone's grip, blasting the group backwards with a shot of my gun.  On my hands and knees, I scrambled away from them to collect Erica and dodge back home.  Just let her be alive!

Before I could find her, I was dragged back to the group.  One of the 'giants' had grabbed my ankle.  He pinned my arm down so I couldn't shoot anything, and called the others over to subdue me.  I desperately tried everything I could think of.  Turning invisible helped some — they couldn't quite see where I was to hold me down — but it was pointless with the crowd of people encircling me.  Again and again I tried to lift my arm out of the person's grasp.  I just wasn't strong enough.  Deadpan faces surrounded me; my hands were forced behind my back.  One moment a man stood menacingly over me, weapon raised to strike, the next moment he'd gone slack.  A smiling red line oozed along his neck.

I watched in wide-eyed terror as the people around me fell to the ground.  Blurs of motion zig-zagged around them, followed by wide red gashes and deep bubbling stab wounds.  I sat up warily, watching the chaos unfold around me.  People fired randomly into the air while an inescapable weapon struck their chest and left them with two large gashes that punctured their lungs and heart.  I flinched slightly every time someone cried out in agony and stumbled to the earth, clutching their neck or chest.  One by one, angry red wounds appeared on each of the 'giants', and they began to topple over, gasping for air and coughing up reddened bile before collapsing.

The last few ran for it, and I shakily stood to watch them.  They held up their shields in desperate defense, but it was no use.  I could only stare numbly as they hit the ground.  It happened so fast I could've sworn they'd tripped and fell.  No, they weren't getting up.  Pools of blood seeped into the dirt beneath them, staining the grass a glossy dark red.  Within the span of five minutes, all twenty or so people were lying dead with their vital organs and veins shredded or stabbed through.

My legs buckled and gave out beneath me.  I closed my eyes tightly, breathing heavily as I tried to keep myself from shaking.  The deep breathing only made things worse, however; the strong smell of blood stung my nostrils.  Despite the fact that every one of those people wanted to hurt me and those I cared about, it was mortifying to see them all killed so violently in such quick succession.  

It seemed like I'd been in a trance forever, but in a few moments, I was woken.  "Alexis!"  Something too quick for my brain to comprehend raced through the air in front of me.  I yelped as its blurred form struck towards me, scrambling backwards instinctively.  My pulse thrummed in my neck — eyes widening in fear as I tumbled over the body of someone who’d died.  Blood oozed out of their chest and smeared across my back, sticking my shirt to my skin.

The weapon, which I only then processed was Erica, landed a few feet away, standing openly in the now corpse-littered field.  "...Alexis?"  It took me a moment to come to my senses.  Every time I tried to focus, my head spun dizzily.  When I finally got my emotions in check, I slowly crawled forward.  Erica’s sentiment from the night before dashed through my head — ‘I don't want you to look at me differently when you see me fighting tomorrow.’

When I was close enough to read her expression, my heartstrings tore apart.  Erica stared down at her reflection in the bloodstained blades she held limply at her sides.  Her face and body was spattered with droplets of crimson, and her mouth was open in silent shock, as though she didn't recognize the person staring back at her.  For a moment, I hadn’t either.

Slowly, she lifted her head to look up at me.  “It’s.. it’s not…”  Erica stammered on her words, glancing out over all the people she’d so ruthlessly killed, then back to my face.  My expression must’ve looked horrified.

"I'm not like you," she whispered, "I didn't have the privilege of a family that cares.  I never felt 'safe'.  At home or anywhere else."  I sat stunned, waiting patiently for her to continue.  Erica shuddered, holding up one of her bloody, sword-like weapons.  "If you call yourself a monster for killing people you didn't think were alive to begin with…"  She paused, fighting not to start crying in the middle of her sentence.  Struggling to hold back tears, she changed it again.

"This is why I didn't want you to see me fight.  I- I don't want you to see what kind of person I really am.  I've done so many things you don't know about…  Now you're scared of me!"  She cried out suddenly, gesturing to how I'd pulled away from her, "Alexis, please don't run!  I need you!  I promise I would never hurt you!"  Her voice tapered off into tears, and she fell to the ground, weapons disappearing into the crystal in her back.

Awful doesn't even begin to describe how I felt.  I hadn’t meant to back away from her, but I had to admit, her angered rampage was nothing short of terrifying.  "Erica, I'm right here," I reassured her gently, coming closer.  "You didn't scare me off.  I'm not going anywhere."  "But.. You- You don't even know me!" she sobbed, "I- I realized last night- you don't know who I am!  You don't kn-"  "Then tell me." 

Erica stared up at me from the ground.  She tried to stand, but her legs gave out — dropping her down to the grass below.  It was as if even her own body abandoned her.  I cautiously held out a few fingers for Erica to lean on, and she gripped them fiercely.

"If you're worried I might not want to stay with you, then let me know why.  If you truly believe I don't know you, could you tell me who you are?"  Erica tried to speak, but gritted her teeth tightly as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.  Shakily, she pulled herself into my hand and tucked her knees tightly against her chest.  I gently folded my fingers around her tucked-up form and brought her to a smaller area of rock away from the aftermath of her anger — somewhere where we could see eye to eye.

Erica slowly made her way onto the ledge beside me.  Once she managed to sit herself down, I put my hands around her in a light grasp to keep her still, delicately wiping the tears and blood from her face.  She quieted — breath hitching for a moment as she stared up at me wide-eyed while I did my work.

"There you are," I stated softly, swiping away the last splotches of red.  "It's alright, Erica.  Just take a deep breath; it's ok."  I waited as she took a few long inhales of the crisp air around us, letting out a shuddering sigh after calming down a bit.  She was silent for a while.  Erica sat soaking in the warmth and safety of my hands, eyes closed tightly.

"Are you really sure you want me to tell you?" she finally asked, peering uncertainly up at me.  Nodding, I sat back and let my arms rest beneath my chin as I settled down to listen.  "Go ahead, I won't say a word until you're done."  "Ok..."  Erica settled down too, keeping herself even with my height by sitting on the highest point on the rock.  It was a dangerous spot, but with her new weapon, she was practically immune to getting hurt from a fall.  Apparently that gave her immunity from being struck out of the air, too.

After clearing her throat a few times to stall as she thought, Erica finally ventured into her past.  "I guess I should start with my family…  Mama and my father were both really young when she had me.  I was, as my father always reminded me, an accident.  He never liked me much, and as I grew up, he really started to hate me.  I think he blamed me for everything he didn't like about his life.  Both my parents had hidden from their lives to hide the truth of my.. coming into the world.  We were always struggling for money, and almost every dollar was put towards me.  My mom loved me wholly, no matter what.  But my father only saw me as something that was dragging him down, wasting his time and his money.  No matter what the cause of his anger was, he would take it out on me.  Occasionally Mama, but mostly me.”  

“When I was young, it was just a lot of yelling; I learned not to let words affect me.  I got older, and his 'lectures' started taking less and less effect."  Erica stopped, glanced up at me, then turned away.  "The verbal abuse became physical abuse.  Mama didn't want to make him madder than he already was, so she never bothered to try and get him to stop.  I think she might have tried the first few times it happened, but then she started ending up at the end of his punches instead, so she left me to deal with it."

She gasped in a slight sob, looking to the sky as if asking someone above to help her speak.  After a brief pause, she continued.  "By 15 I was working two jobs in between school — one before and one after.  I told myself it was so I could afford the things I needed, because my parents refused to care about me or my problems, but I just wanted to stay out of the house.”

“For my 16th birthday, I bought myself a pocketknife.  Guys started to prowl after me on the streets.  I knew I needed some way to protect myself.  The first time I used it, it wasn't even on one of those creeps.  It was my father.  He'd lost his job while I was at school.  When I got home, Mama was lying on the ground and I could've sworn he'd killed her.  I tried to run, but he managed to pull me back inside with a hand over my mouth.  I thought he was going to kill me too; I thought he'd finally lost it.  So I stabbed him until he let me go, and ran."

Erica turned back to me now.  My mouth had dropped open in shock, and my hands had already inched forwards to hold her, but she wasn't done.  "I lived in various places for a few weeks.  Mostly an abandoned factory.  It became my new home until the cops found me.  They-  They tried to take me home.. but I thought they were lying.  I thought they were coming for me because I’d killed my father.  I was scared.  I…”  

Her arms drifted around herself as she began shaking.  “I lost it.  I attacked them and tried to run but they just cornered me and pinned me down.  M-My knife caught one of them in the face.  I ended up in jail that night, but eventually I was dragged back to my house where I found Mama wasn't actually dead, she was only unconscious when I saw her.  Unfortunately, neither was my father.  He left once I came back home.  He tried to hurt me one more time — for causing so much trouble with the cops — but I bought a better knife that same day I was brought back home after sneaking out that night.  I nearly did kill him, then.  He didn’t even realize he had it coming.  By then I was really getting sick of feeling scared."

"So he ran, and the day I turned 18, I left too.  Mama was barely around because of work, but she'd told me that she was sorry for everything after my father left.  That she regretted not doing something more to stop him.  We grew slightly closer, but I never forgave her for letting that happen to me.  The moment I could, I left and I never looked back.  That's my childhood," she ended coldly.

Erica purposefully kept her gaze off mine — the same kind of move I'd pull in school so the professor wouldn't call on me for an answer.  "That's..  I don't think there's a word for how horrible that is…” I said quietly.  Gently, I reached towards Erica, but she shifted away from my grasp.  “I’m not done.  There’s still John.”  “If you don’t want to, Erica, you don’t have to tell me anything else-”  "No, no, I'm getting to him," she sighed, wiping away tears.  "That's the part you really should know.  Because you're kinda involved in it."

Erica took a few more shaky breaths, and I moved my hand near her side to show her I was right with her.  She glanced back at me briefly, teary-eyed.  Shakily, Erica reached out and put a hand over my finger.

"So," she continued, "John.  Now that I was out of both home and school, I worked full time and got about five hours of sleep each day between jobs to cover my expenses since I was living entirely on my own.  Despite working constantly, I just couldn't scrounge up enough money to survive.  My problems were drowned away by shots of alcohol.  Another wonderful gift from my father: alcoholism.  I wasn't even old enough to drink, but it helped.  Kind of…  It helped me mentally.  Physically, it got me fired.  And broke.  I was at the club one night — thinking about possibly living out of my car — when I met John, my 'knight in shining armor'."  

Erica glared wrathfully at a rock nearby.  "I wasn't very drunk yet, but we hit it off.  Soon we were in his car slowly casting off layers of clothing until we had nothing left.  Like I said, I wasnt that drunk yet, so soon enough I came to my senses and ran off — scared that I’d lost control of myself like that.  I struggled trying to find a new job and still keep my secondary one, but it was like everything was caving in around me."

"Flash forward to a week and a half later.  I'm completely and utterly wasted in the same club, and John finds me.  I'm too far gone to really know what the hell I'm doing, and the next thing I know, he has me in a back room pinned naked beneath him."  Erica could probably see me tense up at that point, because she paused to glance knowingly at me.  "I only have snippets of what happened the rest of the night, but I met him for the first time completely sober a day later.  It was at the store I worked at.  I don't know how he figured out where I worked, but he also knew I needed money, badly.  I tried to slip out the back door, but he caught up to me and quickly threw out a deal: a paycheck triple what I made working both my jobs.  'All I had to do', he said, 'is earn it.'  I could have the financial security I desperately dreamed of, if I could just come by and.. well.. please him."

I pulled backwards off the rock, appalled.  "I know," Erica agreed, "I felt that way too, and at first I turned him down rather forcefully.  But in the end.. I- I needed that money.  I did what he asked, we went clubbing, got drunk, got laid, then did it all over again.  Same time next week.  Over months of this, he'd forced me into someone else.  He made me depend on him for.. everything.  John brainwashed me to abandon my more aggressive tactics.  He called it 'taming' me.  To cope, I convinced myself we were in some kind of twisted relationship."

"Months blurred together and all of it happened so often it became normal.  For both me, who should’ve ran long ago, and John, who was getting bored.  On one of my off days, I found him with someone else — another poor soul who'd been suckered into his schemes.  In my twisted fantasy, I saw that as cheating.  I dumped his ass in a blind rage, not realizing that I had no other way to make money."  Erica turned back to me and smiled ever so slightly as she gazed into my worried eyes.  "The night you found me was the same night I ‘dumped’ him.  You gave me all that cash because you knew I needed it.  But you never knew why I needed it."

"I- I just thought you'd, like, lost your job or something…" I stammered.  "I mean, technically I quit."  I stared at her, piecing together the jigsaw puzzle of what I'd known about her and what I hadn't.  "Well, at least now I know the truth."  "Not all of it," Erica amended, "Stuff happened during the four years you were gone."  I shuddered, “Oh god, Erica you really don’t have to-!”  “It’s ok.  I think…  I think I want to.  I want you to know.”

She waited as I settled back down.  "Once you left, I had about a year and a half of complete freedom before the invasion of giants.  I was devastated that you actually, permanently, left, but there wasn’t anything I could do; I had no way to reach you.”

“I had everything I needed thanks to the box of never–ending money, but then the giants arrived.  At first I thought you had brought them here — to- to get back at me somehow — but I never felt our connection.  My house, along with thousands of others, was destroyed.  Thankfully, I lived on that cliff.  I hid in the mountains for safety, but a lot of people weren't as lucky, and got abducted.  I waited for you.  I thought you might know something about it because it was your kind that was attacking.”

“After a day or two of hiding, I couldn't keep waiting.  I didn't have any food or water left.  There were plenty of abandoned cars in the wreckage of the neighborhood below, so I took one into the city to see if anyone was there.  I saw John and his gang when I drove in.  They hadn't spotted me, but.. I don't know.. the sight of any familiar face was enough to make me overjoyed.  His men almost shot me, I raced at them so quickly.  He held them back, though.  He said he'd take me in with open arms.  I didn't know what that entailed until it was too late."  Erica had to close her eyes for a moment.  Again I placed a few fingers by her side to reassure her that I was there, and nothing awful would happen.

"I- I was locked up when I got back to their base.  Things had taken an awful turn during the several days of uncontrolled apocalypse, and I learned about what was actually happening.  Each of the men that worked for John had taken girls off him in the years prior.  He'd lure them in, then convince them to go with someone else, and they were never seen again.  I'd been the lucky one.  I was John's 'little girl'.  God, I hated it when they called me that.”

“The young woman I saw him 'cheating' with was another mark.  She was there, too.  There were eight of us, including me.  The gang members did with us what they pleased.  Sometimes we were even traded off for the night.  I got special treatment, though, because I was with John.  I stayed in his room and got the same privileges he had, minus my freedom.”

“One by one, the others started dying off.  Starvation and dehydration took half of them.  It’s the apocalypse; there wasn't much food to go around, and they were already being fed last.  One of them escaped.  I really don't know how she managed that.  The other two committed suicide.  I also don't know how they managed that either.  The men were really strict about not letting either of those things happen.  We were drugged a lot of the time so we couldn't escape or die.  But just like the food, the drugs started running out, and they made their move.  A few months before you showed up, I became the sole survivor.  I tried to escape like that one woman did.  I think her name was Marley, but we rarely got called by our actual names.  They usually had a plethora of pet names for us."

"Anyway.. I tried escaping, but I got caught.  The punishment for escape is torture.  Not death, oh no, we were too valuable to be expendable."  An icy, sarcastic tone crossed through her voice, and I shivered.  "John didn't want them to punish me.  He knew the rest of the men were jealous that I was still there.  If he let them punish me, I wouldn't make it out alive.  John devised a plan; he would make a spectacle of torturing me himself.”

“At that point, I was desperately fighting for my freedom.  I'd been so close to escaping.  I didn't stick to the plan, as I'm fairly sure you saw.  I attacked him when he tried to hurt me, and the moment I did, the other men were absolutely going to kill me for it.  You stepped in before they could do anything — murdering everyone I'd daydreamed about murdering myself in one fell swoop.  I was back on drugs because they didn't want me escaping while I was being ‘punished’, so I wasn't even sure if what I saw was real.  When I woke up back at my destroyed house I hadn't seen in years, I thought I was dreaming.  Then I saw you."  Erica slid off her perch at the edge of the rock and came a bit closer, running a hand down mine as she walked.

"You were older, and you were really pretty.  If I'd seen you on the street under more normal circumstances, I'd have been tempted to make a move."  "But.." I interrupted, "Sorry, it's just…  Weren't you.. you know, into.. guys?"  Erica chuckled slightly, shaking her head.  "What part of my story made you believe that?  The part where a guy payed me to fuck him, or the part where a group of guys kidnapped me and chained me up to do that?"  

I flinched, "I- I just thought.. because of the time you and John.. the first night.. in the car…"  My voice faltered as I tried, and failed, to get my point across.  "Alexis, I never liked guys.  The only times I did were when I was drunk, drugged, or forced to feel that way."  She stepped up to me and took my pointer finger into her hands — hugging it to her chest.  "That's my story," she finished, "You were there for the rest, so now you know my whole life, basically, from start to right now."  I sat there for ages, processing the last of the puzzle pieces.  All the mysterious gaps that hindered my view of her suddenly filled in.  "H- How do you feel?" Erica asked me.  "That…  Explains a lot," I noted.  Sitting back to take everything in.

“See?” she asked me quietly, “I’m an awful person, aren’t I?”  I whipped around to face her in such sudden shock she bolted upright.  “No!  No, you aren’t!  Not at all!  Erica, you are none the worse in my eyes than you were yesterday, or the day before.  If anything, you've gotten better because I finally understand.  You have every right to be as angry and dangerous as you are.”

Erica stared at me for a long time.  I could feel her gaze boring into me as she searched over my expression.  It was silent for a long moment, broken by Erica's voice, softened with uncharacteristic hesitation. "Can you hold me?"  My eyes widened in soft surprise.  Erica stood on the rocks beside me, having just confessed the entirety of the horrible details of her life.  She craned her neck almost all the way back to look at me — tears glistening in her eyes.  "Please?"

"I-  Yes, of course," I nodded, knowing it must've been awfully hard for her to tell me everything.  I suspected something strange was going on since the day I returned — sooner than that, actually — but I never would've guessed anything as wild or as horrible as what she'd confessed.

Erica gasped a quiet whimper as I carefully laced my fingers over her body, bringing her to the edge of the rocks.  Shifting forward, I placed a delicate kiss on her neck and jaw.  She sobbed softly, pressing desperate kisses against my lips over and over again through quiet tears.  I could taste the salt of them against my lips.  “Shhh,” I whispered softly, reaching up to stroke her head.  “You’re ok; it’s all ok, Erica.  I’ve got you.  You’re safe.”  “Do y-  Do you still t-trust me?”  Again, I kissed her — lowering myself to press my lips to her stomach and letting her head rest against me.  “Of course I still trust you.”

Carefully curling my fingers around Erica's torso, I paused to let her raise her arms just slightly so they wouldn't be pinned to her sides.  My heart skipped a beat as I tightened my grip, lifting her off the ground.  I always knew she was small, but holding her this way, I became incredibly aware of how fragile she was.  It had always been at the forefront of my mind whenever we got close.  I’d gotten used to it, but now it was suddenly as if I were holding her for the first time.  At any moment, I could easily hurt her, and that scared me.  Any accidental movement I made could bruise her perfect hazel skin, or even worse, snap the tiny bones in her little body.  

Each of my fingers twitched slightly; stuck battling between tightening my grip so Erica wouldn't fall, or loosening it so she wouldn't be crushed.  Once I decided on an even mixture of the two, I couldn't help but lightly gasp in awe.  I could feel Erica’s miniscule heartbeat pounding away beneath my thumb.  Her lungs expanded just slightly, pressing into the pads of my fingers every time she drew another breath.

With her lifted to my face, I realized Erica seemed to be just as fascinated as I was.  She hung in my grasp, legs dangling below my palm, with her hands placed gently on my thumb in front of her.  I could see her expression shifting slightly in a myriad of ways, staring wide-eyed at the massive digit before her.  As if on its own, my other hand reached for her — flattening out beneath her so she wouldn’t be hanging in the air.  Erica's tiny heartbeat skittered beneath the pad of my thumb while she eased herself into my palm.  

Only after I was certain she’d sat down did I gently release her.  However, Before I could move my hand away, Erica reached out and grabbed it — watching, transfixed, as her whole hand fit nicely onto the pad of my single finger.  With one of her own miniscule digits, she lightly traced the outline of my fingerprint and I fought the instinctive urge to shudder at her feather-light touch.  

Finally, she locked eyes with me.  Erica's loving expression shifted to a muted worry.  "You're just.. so much," she whispered, "And I love it, I really do.  It's just..  Sometimes I wonder why you'd love someone like me."  Erica's gaze flitted away, "Wouldn't you be happier with someone who doesn't fit in the palm of your hand?  Someone who isn't.. three and a half inches tall?"  I smiled slightly at the irony of the situation.  Up until the day Erica kissed me the first time, I'd been asking myself similar questions: Why would she care about someone like me?  Wouldn't she be happier with someone her own size?  It was so obvious now.

I placed my thumb lightly over her hand, still grasping the pad of my pointer finger.  "Erica," I began earnestly, "You mean more to me than everyone from every world.  I would tear down mountains for you — you know I have.  The four years I lived without you were painstakingly, agonizingly, awful.  As long as I searched and as hard as I tried to forget, nothing ever quite filled the hole you left in me."  

I smiled sadly, remembering the endless days filled with yearning as I desperately tried to forget what happened — how I convinced myself it was all some elaborate fantasy just to force myself away.  I was miserable, confused.  I hadn't understood why it hurt so badly to lose her trust.  Multiple failed relationships only further proved what I hadn't recognized.  

"How could I ever be with someone like myself if the love of my life is literally sitting in the palm of my hand?"  Erica blushed furiously, smiling that wonderful smile I'd fallen for, long before I'd realized I'd fallen for her.  "You're beautiful, strong," I continued, "You haven’t given up on me even when I gave up on me.  I love you Erica.  No matter how unlovable you tell yourself you are, I will always love you.  Never doubt that."  

Erica's eyes watered, her gaze one again fixed on mine.  I gently slid her hand out from my fingers and cautiously brushed the pad of my pointer finger across her cheek, swiping away the tears that coasted silently down their plush surface.  Just above the digit, I could see the jagged line of Erica’s scar — a little mark against her that would likely always serve as a reminder of her past.  I just hoped she could see it as I did: the reason I’d stayed to protect her; the reason I stayed long enough to love her.

I curled my fingers around Erica in a smaller version of a hug — bringing her against me.  Her subtle smile brightened as she leaned against my chest, rubbing the rest of the tears from her eyes off against my shirt.  "Thank you," she whispered, her voice choked with emotion.  "I just can't quite get over how lucky I am to have you, Alexis. You mean everything to me.  I honestly don't know where I'd be without you."

My smile stretched to a grin as I stared lovingly down at Erica's tiny form cupped in my hand.  "One day," I stated with unquestionable certainty.  "One day I'll find a way to make myself your size, I promise.  We can live together here, once everything’s over."  She looked up at me, hope gleaming in her glassy green eyes.  "Can you do that?  Can I have you at my own height instead of.. me at yours?"  My hand subconsciously rose to my gemstone weapon, tucked into the back of my neck.  "I've tried many, many times."  I surprised myself at how tired my voice sounded in that last sentence.  I wasn't exactly desperate to find a solution — most of my attempts had happened years ago when we were only friends — but I longed for one.  "So far nothing's worked, but I'll keep trying.  There has to be a way."

"Don't beat yourself up over it," Erica reassured me, "I still love you regardless.  After all, this is what I fell in love with," she added with a smile, gesturing at my height.  I chuckled lightly, but the longing was still there nonetheless.  It certainly wasn't as painful as the years I'd left — she was right there with me.  However, I so badly wanted us, together, the same size.  I wanted to sit by her side, both of us leaning lovingly against one another.  I wanted all the small, intimate things everyone but us could do.  I yearned for the day when Erica could hold me for a change.

I leaned back on the rock Erica had been sitting on.  The frightening scatter of corpses again filled my vision.  "Thank you for saving me, Erica."  I gestured to the pile of soldiers that had been surrounding me earlier.  "I don't want to hurt any more people, but I think I might have to."  She sighed, looking solemnly at her massacre.  "I don't want you to do this either," she confessed, "I feel like such a horrible influence, or a hypocrite."  Erica chuckled half-heartedly, "I've tried to get you to stop hurting my people, only to turn around and kill a bunch of yours."  I grumbled slightly, "Everyone needs to quit calling them 'my people'.  They aren't anything like me; they're not even from my world!  They just happen to be my size."  

A tiny hand patted one of my fingers to calm me.  "Ok, I'm sorry.  Look, if we can just use this fight to scare the rest of the giants away, everything will go back to being kinda normal, right?"  I shrugged, jostling Erica slightly in my cupped hands.  "I have no idea.  If I were them, I'd just move to another area that I know isn't protected by a rogue superpowered person and her tiny killing machine."

At this, Erica laughed nervously.  "Was I really that scary?"  "Well.." I stammered, "Yeah, but it was also pretty badass."  Her laugh grew more genuine before abruptly cutting off with a cry of pain.  My fingers retracted in an instant, and I brought her worriedly to my face.  Erica flinched confusedly, and glanced downward at her side.  Hesitantly, she pulled up her shirt slightly so she could look at herself.  The skin on her left side bloomed with gigantic purple bruises that stretched across her whole body.  "Erica!" I gasped in concern, "That was where I got hit by that gun," she realized quietly.  

"Erica, we need to get you to a hospital right now!  I heard bones crack when that woman hit you!  I- I thought you'd died!"  Immediately, I was on my feet.  Stepping over the bodies of fallen soldiers, I hurried back towards the Cavern Town as quickly as I dared.  "No, it's.. I'm fine!"  However, the moment she spoke, she started coughing violently.  Minuscule red droplets spattered my palm.

Back within the valley, I found a few people waiting just inside the barrier.  Isabel and Marcus were there, as well as Ivan and a few others I didn't recognize.  I rushed over to them and knelt in a hurry.  "Erica's hurt!" I called, "She got hit badly during the fight!  I think something's broken, but I don't know…"  Ivan dashed off down the tunnel, yelling for help, while Marcus glanced fearfully past me.  "What about the giants?  Are they coming, or did you fight them off?"

At first, I was furious that Marcus had ignored Erica's desperate situation, but I soon realized that a hoard of angry giants was something you'd want to be warned about sooner rather than later.  I shook my head, "Erica got rid of them.  No one's following me here; you're all safe."  He gave a sigh of relief just as Ivan returned with a few people and a stretcher in tow.  I held out my hand with Erica in it.  She was still conscious, but had doubled over in pain — face contorted in agony.  All I could do was watch in silent fear as they took her away into the depths of the city.

Marcus tried to ask me more questions, but Isabel dragged him off, scolding him about being more considerate.  I sat devastated, unsure what to do.  I wanted to be with Erica for whatever happened, but I couldn't get inside the city at my height.  

The only person still there, Ivan, glanced back and forth between the other end of the tunnel and mine — torn between following her or staying to calm me down. He stepped hesitantly out of the barrier and put his hand over mine.  "She'll be fine," he reassured me, "The doctors here know what they're doing.  They've dealt with injuries way worse than hers."  "Since when have they ever dealt with battle wounds?" I spat, a bit harsher than I meant to.  Ivan pulled his hand back, but stayed where he was.  "They haven't dealt with battle wounds," he replied calmly, "I said they've dealt with worse.  They’ve had to save people pulled from the wreckage the giants leave in their wake — half-dead people that fall from the giant's grasp and then get left behind.”

My anger sobered slightly at Ivan's descriptions.  Admittedly, they did sound a lot worse than Erica.  I took a shaking breath and stared longingly at the faint glimpse of the Cavern Town, now Cavern City, beneath my protective shield.  There were so many more people now that the other town I’d saved had moved in as well.  "Do you mind staying here with me?" I asked Ivan, "You don't have to, but-"  "Of course." We sat outside for a while.  I got up to get the food box so I could eat, then came right back.  I didn’t even end up eating anything. In the middle of all this, I started tearing up.  Intrusive thoughts bombarded my brain with images of Erica on her deathbed, and I was unable to be there to comfort her.  Again, Ivan stepped up to my hand, but his tiny finger hug wasn't enough to console me.  I shifted away from him and hugged my legs tightly against myself, fighting desperately not to start bawling so that the whole place could hear me. 

Eventually, the sun started to set and I grew even more anxious.  "I need to go see if I can find out anything about Erica," Ivan told me gently, "I'll be back in a little bit, alright?"  I nodded numbly and he left, leaving me alone in the valley as the sky grew darker and darker.  The sun sunk beneath the horizon, taking the light along with it.

[a-tale-of-legends]

Hmmmm. You know I've always been subconsciously knew that Blue ( rival) had different sprites throughout the game, but I never really took the time to like. Analyze them? And truthfully there isn't much to analyze but I do find it interesting on how the sprites differ from the original rbgy games and FRLG.

So let's start with rbgy. Or rather rbg cause yellow has some slight difference despite its overall same pattern.

This is the sprite to represent Blue from the first 3 battles ( as in the one in the lab, the optional one in viridian city and the one in cerulean city right before nugget bridge). This pretty much captures Blue pretty well. This cocky kid who thinks he's better than you,lmao. Got his signature hand gesture too. This was during the early game, I would say. Where he does probably think " yeah there's no way Red would catch up with me, hur hur".

Then we reach the fourth sprite on the S.S. Anne

This sprite is the sprite that's used for the rest of the game until his champion battle. This one gives such a different vibe than the first one. He looks so much more focused compared to his other sprite. Like he's looking directly as the player this time, PokeBall out, in a semi hunched position getting ready. He doesn't even have a smirk on his face, which I find very interesting. There's many ways to interpret this really, one of which is a simple " the game is telling you your getting to the mid game now". For me personally, I think it reflects on how Blue starts seeing the player. I kinda see it where Blue is starting to realize that Red is catching up, so to speak. That he can't treat them entirely like a joke anymore. He's still gonna talk shit ( the best an 11 year old can anyway) but like. It's a thought at the back of his mind. Especially when he keeps losing, like Red is almost a threat to what he wants. It's also interesting to think about this with the context of " Red and Blue where childhood friends turned rivals". I mean. They were always rivals according to professor oak, but you get what I'm trying to say right? I think this is where the " competition" gets real to blue, and he's taking it as seriously as he can, now with the facade of him being this snarky jerk. Again, that's just my interpretation of it, I'm down to hear others!

And finally....

Champion Blue! This sprite technically makes blue the first champion to have a different outfit compared to their usual sprite, which I find cool. Also this is probably what they used for reference for his look on HGSS. Probably, I don't actually know. I do think it's kinda cute that this implies he went into the elite 4 looking his best hgvhvgvgvcg. Anyway, to the actual analysis. He did it! He became champion! Before Red,too. I know I just said it was cute that Blue had an outfit change for this moment but it still shows his very show boaty nature I think. He wants Red to know he won. He wants everyone to know he won. He worked hard to get where he is and by Arceus he is going to show for it. Here's my thing though. I can't tell if he's smirking or not. I don't think he is, to it's still kinda hard to say? To me anyway. But let's go with the fact that he's not smirking. And like yeah. He's champion. This is the ultimate battle that probably means everything to him and Red. He wants to be serious about this. I just find it interesting how ever since that 4th battle he hasn't had a visible smile or smirk. His words have always been very "Blue" but his facial expressions don't fully convey that? Like his body language doesn't exactly show someone who's overly cocky, and someone who thinks he's at the top of the world, even in his champion battle, with all of that swagger. I dunno if I can accurately write my thoughts down on this but. It's weird to have Blue not smirk. Does that make sense? And not to say that Blue shouldn't be seen as serious but to lose that smirk so quickly as of the 4th battle ( third if you just didn't do the optional battle) is so. Weird. Even if he is taking Red seriously, even if he is starting to see Red as a threat rather than a friend, where's his bravado?

Am I looking way too deeply into this? Yes. Am I done. Nope!

.....oh boy. This is gonna be a bit longer than I thought-

Pokemon Yellow pretty much had the same philosophy of rbg in Blue's sprites, showcasing different poses for different parts of the journey. Where it differs is the second sprite

The second sprite for the 4th (or 3rd) battle and onward his pretty much the same as rbg, expect more polished, I think. And! He's still smirking! As much as I loved over analyzing and theorizing the shit out of his previous sprites, this sprite is way better at conveying Blue as Blue I think. The position still makes it clear that Blue is taking Red more seriously, especially with the PokeBall out, but it doesn't feel as intense as the rbg ones did imo. Though that could also be bc of the coloring. Overall it just better shows Blue character. Again, I still like the shit I wrote before, and honestly it kinda makes me appreciate Blue more, but like. Yeah, this one shows his character better. And it makes this:

Less weird to me. Minus taking away his "champion outfit". How dare they honestly. But anyway, having Blue have his usual smirk throughout the game only to drop it once he has his final battle with Red for champion. Cause like to. To him this fight would literally mean everything. He has to keep it serious. I don't have much to really say other than this pose Blue is in looks like he's just about to throw that PokeBall. I think it's neat given how important this battle is to him.

Now we can finally go to the frlg sprites bc they're kinda weird to me.

This is his sprite for the first three battles. It's. So different compared to the rbgy ones. This this sprite looks more like the sprite that he would have had for his fourth fight. And what's more!

This is his sprite that's used for fourth battle onwards. And I was so confused about this when I saw it cause. What was it trying to convey? Yeah we know that Blue is cocky, but this feels. Odd character wise. Though then I realized that this sprite and the sprite before are like. Switched versions of the rbgy ones ( specifically yellow in terms of characterization). Though I don't want to make it seem likes it's an inherently bad thing. Like it's an odd choice to me, but I can kinda see something with it. With the rbgy sprites, to me, Blue goes from not fully taking the player seriously to realizing " oh shit, Red could beat me I can't have that" to the serious battle that makes or breaks everything. This progression in frlg is like. Starting out on equal terms, but as time goes on Blue just gets more and more cocky until the last moment where you take him off his high horse. At least sprite wise, that's what that story conveys. And honestly I think both are totally fine stories to tell with Blue. I personally like the rbgy sprites better. In terms of character telling I mean. Also I can't stress enough this is just my own interpretation of these sprites that honestly don't really impact the story much. I just found it interesting that Blue actually has different sprites at all at specific points in the plot. Oh wait before I forget

This is the sprite that Blue has for his champion battle. I think he's pointing at the player? Again it's such an interesting vibe in comparison to those before it, but overall it still showcases what it needs to in terms of what the player/Red/Green/Leaf should feel at this very moment. All or nothing, winner takes all, you get it.

Aaaaand yeah. The rbg section kinda stole the show but I think it's good context for the rest of it. I hope this was enjoyable to you all and if you have your own interpretations of Blue's sprites and what they mean, I'd like to hear them!

[baenyth]

Bethany's Bizarre Miraculous Reviews Episode 5-14: The Monkey Miraculous: What the Hell, Kim?

Alright, I've heard a lot about this episode. Apparently it explains the reason why Marinette is such a stalker is because she was traumatized last year from a prank by Chloe when she was confessing to Kim, which makes sense for Kim. He was the third member of Team Chloe in season 1 until Dark Cupid. But apparently he regresses back to his season 1 personality because this is Season 5 and the characterization has gone to hell. Kagami's going to date Adrien's evil twin later in this season. No matter. What's important is Girlsquad Lore.

The eepy sleepy

I know PTSD works in irrational ways, but I have to wonder why it's flaring up now and didn't during Mr. Pigeon 72. They had pretty similar scenarios. Did Kim want to confess to Marinette as well?

Sponge

Babe, wake up! New outfit models! Model! Hehehe, Adrien was a model. Or was that used in season 4?

Alright, he's just being a himbo at the moment...

Straight to the Akuma!

Water physics!

Flashback!

Welp, in my canon it's two years in a row and every year except for one. The Marc year. Also I like how Marinette has a different hairstyle because the pigtails are to honor Soqueline!

Wow, why did Chloe stop pranking Marinette like that during the next school year? At most she did a gum prank.

This is too much even for Ms. Mendeleiev.

1. Where's Alix?

2. Accidental roast

3. To be fair, Mylene, your mother isn't a hyper-famous person that could easily become a role model for you and your father isn't rich enough to spoil you because of how fucked-up you most likely were that your mother left you.

Yes! Soqueline!

The spy

Yeah, this feels kinda OOC.

I mean, people will probably just think you're a jackass, Chloe.

Now that isn't even realistic writing. That's just an attempt as an excuse.

And now he's back to pre-Dark Cupid. >:(

Looking at Ondine's body and why is her abdomen so damn thin?

Also in general the animation feels more robotic this episode.

Laugh track

Chat Noir's fucking PISSED

Technically, Ladybug's the one at fault there. By stopping Chat like that he was an easy target for Dark Humor. Good name btw

Terlet shard

Oh. Another scene to show how eeeeeevil Chloe is.

The flashback half of this episode would've been good if it was set up back in season 1. Other than that I was right on all counts, plus Chloe's evil feels OOC as well. Disrespectful. Either way, I can start doing my Girlsquad lore next!

[that-darn-clown]

so, i now have a third Fnaf related thing. until i come up with a proper name for it, i like to call it "This Is The Closest Y'all Are Gonna Get To Me Doing Canon Fnaf"

this is mostly the result of me seeing some Fnaf designs and concepts and realizing "oh i can just. do what i want. with canon at this point."

so have some fun facts!

half because i think it's a cool concept, half because i want to make the designs different between this au and the Rewrite, Mike and Cassidy are both biracial. why is Liz the only completely white kid in the Afton family? well...we'll get there in a bit.

y'know Andrew from the books? Vengeful Spirit of the books? yeah he's here. he was one of Mike's friends prior to Getting Murdered. also close to Cassidy, but y'know.

i'm making Charlie more transmasc. specifically, she figured it out pre-Murder, but didn't get to explore gender stuff as much as he wanted :/ (still transmasc bigender, though. just more transmasc)

MCI kids are a bit different. Fritz is still here, though!

it's basically like a fusion of some of my own ideas and Dual Process Theory's timeline (Mike is (one of) the Vengeful Spirit(s), Cassidy is CC + got springlocked, stuff like that).

Cassidy, mayhaps, witnessed Andrew's murder. maybe. and Mayhaps William did some gaslighting. maybe.

Cassidy knew all of the MCI kids, especially Andrew.

Michael Definitely Took Charlie's Death And Andrew's "Disappearance" Very Well And Didn't Start Lashing Out By Bullying His Brother. Definitely Not.

the other Fnaf 4 bullies were some other kids who were "in the wrong crowd," as some might say.

Liz Gets To Live Because I Said So.

so...Willry happens in this universe. William had a Technically Affair ("technically" because Claire didn't care. if her husband wants to [REDACTED] his business partner, that's none of her business. she just wants to raise her children. similar situation to Anna; she's a lesbian and hadn't figured it out yet so she just went "huh. i'm weirdly more chill with this than i thought i'd be"). one day, William just. shows up with Elizabeth claiming "Oh I found this poor baby abandoned on my way home from work :( Guess I better take her in :(( Please ignore the fact that she's a redhead with freckles like my business partner that's just a coincidence"

then Liz got older...and it was kinda obvious that she inherited some traits from William (Bunny Teeth and the Bunny Ear Hair Things). so now it's a lot harder to just claim that it was a coincidence. the fact that Liz also had Henry's green eyes just made it ten times worse.

William ignored the rumors...and then a woman who worked at the Diner (Tammy Schmidt), who had ginger hair, green eyes, and freckles, claimed that she was the mother of Liz. so...Henry doesn't get outed as transmasc! yippee!

Claire divorced William (in 1981) because she did NOT like him roleplaying Icarus so hard and wasn't going to stick around to watch him inevitably fly too close to the sun. she was going to get her life together before deciding to take the kids (not Liz because. well, Liz isn't her biological daughter. this isn't to say that she doesn't consider Liz as effectively being her own child, but like. y'know. Not Her Kid Biologically Speaking), but uh. she ended up getting into a car accident only a few months later. RIP Claire 😔

William, being the "very reasonable" man he is, got drunk one night (because this man took the divorce Really well (sarcasm)), and because he internally blamed Henry for this mess (like he wasn't the guy who decided an affair was the greatest idea), and murdered Charlie. (which is partially why she's so pissed at him in this au; because he had the gall to take his anger towards Henry out on her. not that she would've liked it any better if he did take it out on Henry, but y'know).

the first four MCI kids (Bea, Fritz Jr., "Gabriel"/Gabi, and Isaac) were a mix of "William's on a minor power trip of sorts," "William unfortunately discovered the fact that he finds murder fun and now everyone's suffering," and "William isn't done hurting Henry. This time he's hurting Henry's business." Andrew's death was due to a minor argument that started between him and William over how Michael was doing that kinda. Escalated. William knocked Andrew out on accident, and then he went "okay guess i'll murder him now." so he springlocked Andrew. and Cassidy kinda witnessed it.

the Fredbear plush was a gift from Charlie and Andrew. Andrew partially possessed the plush to keep an eye on Cass and Mike (and it then led to him witnessing Mike being a dumbass for the next two years).

so...Mike, Andrew, Charlie, and Sammy were all around the same age (12-13) when the Murders happened in '81. so uh. Mike maybe had a crush on Andy that he never got to tell them about. he definitely doesn't have any regrets about that!! no siree!!

by the time Fnaf 2 was going on, Mike was kind of. spiraling. he recognized Jeremy as one of the few people who was nice to him after Things Went To Shit, so they started talking at work, crushes developed...and then almost half a year later, when Jeremy had started healing somewhat, they kinda went "hey we're adults. let's go to Nebraska." and then they did that. Mike had that sort of Mini Crisis that some traumatized young adults have where it's like. he has agency. he can do whatever. so he cut his hair a bit, dyed it bright red, got a tattoo on his chest, all that stuff. didn't call his dad at all during this. sort of started realizing how fucked up his childhood was. also met Tammy again, and she helped the two of them. Mike kinda changed his last name to hers, both because he viewed her as a mother figure and also because he did Not want to risk people finding out who he was.

Phone Guy survives. fuck it. he did kinda get maimed, though. unfortunately.

Mike found out about MCI stuff around the time of Fnaf 1. he was Not happy.

you now get: Charlie fun facts!

decided to give her both "weird girl" and "tomboy, but there's transness there" energy.

style vibes are sort of like. a mix of punk, "this looks like it's vaguely steampunk," and flannels. mostly because that's the kind of clothes he had readily available to him.

feral. extroverted introvert. she's even autistic. does the wildest shit and pulls Mike, Andrew, and Sammy along with him. sometimes even Cassidy (even though Cassidy was like a toddler at this point; three years old).

also just. really fucking petty and sassy. responded to a bully who was being homophobic and transphobic with, what effectively amounted to, the early '80s middle school equivalent of "You wanna kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid. 🙂"

still very protective over people, and a sweetheart. if it isn't obvious, i love this au version of Charlie. my beloved.

one time got some weed from a high schooler and went "hey guys wanna smoke this in the backroom at Freddy's on Friday night?" and then Mike and Andrew went "Fuck Yes." Sammy acted as the guard to the room. Henry and William were busy at Fredbear's, so they left one of the more reliable teen employees in charge for the evening. he walked in on those three smoking weed, was told "please don't tell our dads," shrugged, and just left. didn't say a word to Henry or William about it. Cassidy also walked in on it, but he wasn't going to snitch on them regardless. mostly 'cause he was three and didn't even know what they were doing to begin with. in Charlie's words, "8/10 experience, would do again."

just the most chaotic child imaginable. i've seen enough 80s movies to think that Charlie, a 6th grader, probably would've been believably this chaotic. like. you don't know how many movies where "kid in the age range of middle school to high school discovers weed and then proceeds to smoke some out of curiosity" was like. at least a minor plot point or scene. i also included this because I Can And It's Funny.

this song fits him perfectly. i'll let you listen to it to understand why, but. That's Just Her In This Au.

also, as for who the Vengeful Spirits/Ones William Should Not Have Killed are, here they are from Least Vengeful to Most Vengeful.

Charlie: doesn't hate William; just in UCN to do the ghost equivalent of kicking William in the balls repeatedly before leaving, hopefully with everyone else in tow.

Cassidy: Got Springlocked. also angry on behalf of his friends.

Andrew: also Got Springlocked. just pissed at William in general.

Mike: William killed him in the fire (neither he nor Henry planned for Mike to die this time. he tried to leave, but William didn't let him), William technically got him killed by sending him into the now-abandoned Freddy's, where the spirits (minus Andy, Cass, and Charlie, aka The Spirits Who Would've Recognized Him), confused, basically mauled Michael to death, where he then crawled out onto the streets and died. Charlie found him and brought him back, though. Mike's just pissed in general from where William basically ruined his fucking life. he'll probably be the last soul to leave.

also...if you're curious, i can tell you why the souls would see Mike and think he'd be William, when William would already be dead and springlocked at this point (something that they all witnessed, mind you). :]

Ough... like George I am a curious little monkey. Please tell me more ehehehe