#also go vote in my poll

[arcane-vagabond]

Trying to decide if I want to split this chapter of Two Birds up in to two different ones or not...

[ozziyo]

relax bro ain't nobody takin it from u

[wall-eye]

Reblog after voting please!

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

can you see the stars in your dreams (and do they have a lot to say about me) - Part 1

Or: a secret Admirer AU

Less than a month into the school year, and Steve’s already making use of the library. If Mrs. Click could see him now, she’d be proud–until she caught sight of the blank notebook page in front of him and the lack of textbooks on the table. 

He feels stupid; he’s hunched over his notebook, trying to make his thoughts transfer onto the page in any coherent form. But, he’s not like Eddie with his impassioned speeches and clever English papers.

Words flow through Eddie in fully-formed, concrete ideas. For Steve, it’s more of a drip. Each word has to be scaffolded onto the previous one with blood, sweat, and tears. Even then, it’s never quite right. Too abrupt, never what he was actually trying to say.

He’s just never been good with words.

By the time he gives up, there’s more crossed out than left written, so he gets a clean page of paper and transcribes it as best he can. He’s left with:

       Your hair is pretty. Do you use conditioner?

Steve tears it from his notebook and lays it flat atop his table in the library, smoothing out any crinkles in the page. It feels like the start to something, sure, but there’s more blank space on the page than words. By a lot.

He leans back over his work, adds a little wonky heart in his blue pen and signs the whole thing—

       ❤ your secret admirer

—the way all the girls who leave notes in his locker do. Their notes are usually on pretty paper, written in sparkly gel pen that smells like strawberries. The i’s are sometimes dotted with little hearts he’ll never admit to finding cute. And there’s envelopes involved, and usually more than eleven measly words.

His looks like something Eddie’ll toss out before opening, mistaking it for trash.

Steve grimaces. How do girls do this? Do they all take some sort of class on how to write pretty letters on pretty enough paper that boys will fall in love with them? Is that what they teach in Home Ec? He should have never let Tommy mock him into switching to shop class.

Should he ask a girl?

Under no conditions will he ever ask Carol. She’d have far too many uncomfortable questions and tell the whole school all of his embarrassing answers. He’d be run out of town within days, Carol holding the sharpest pitchfork.

Steve leans back in his chair with a groan too loud for the library and fists his hands to rub tired eyes.

“Are you okay?” Steve jerks, sending his pen and paper careening to the ground in his attempt to cover the compromising words upon the page. “Oh, sorry!”

Steve watches, horrified, as Chrissy Cunningham bends down to pick his supplies up off the carpet before he’s had time to scramble out of his chair. She’s in her cheer uniform, white zip-up Hawkins hoodie covering her arms. She looks perfect and preppy and just like all the girls who’ve ever left a note in his locker.

She’d be able to write something that Eddie would want to read.

“Steve?” Chrissy’s hovering over him, lips pursed, eyes big and worried. “Are you okay?”

“Shit, sorry,” he replies. She’s got his note clutched to her chest. He curls his fingers against the urge to reach out for it—that’ll just draw her attention, and that’s the last thing Steve wants right now. “Just got lost in my head.”

“Anything I can help with?”

He knows what she’s going to do before it happens. Chrissy’s sweet—if there’s a way to help, she’ll want to. So, she holds out the paper and begins to read, probably expecting an assignment she can tutor him on, and there they are: Steve’s damning words written in still-wet blue ink.

Her brow furrows as she takes an obscene amount of time mouthing out the words before she looks back up to meet his eyes. “Did someone give this to you?”

Her eyes are still big, but they look sad now, like just the thought of someone receiving the note he’d slaved over is enough to distress her. Unable to help himself, Steve snatches it from her hands and crumples it into a ball, damning words hidden in his fist.

Chrissy gasps at his abrupt movement and takes a halting step away.

“I wrote it,” he mutters, no longer able to meet her eyes.

She’s silent for long enough that he’d think she left, except the library’s quiet, and he hasn’t heard her take a step. He stares at the grains of the wood in the table, empty hand rubbing against the smudged top as he waits for her to do something.

“Are you…” she starts, trailing off for a moment before picking her thought back up, “…picking on someone?”

Steve clenches his fist tighter, note crinkling beyond repair beneath his nails as he mutters, “no.”

Chrissy’s quiet again. Steve doesn’t dare to look up, even as he hears the chair across from him pull out, the sound of her weight settling into the wood. The table’s just so interesting. Nothing has ever been as intriguing as the little chip out of its edge, the ring on the wood where someone had let their drink condensate against all the library’s rules.

“Who’s this for?” Chrissy’s voice is soft now, like he’s some sort of horse, prone to bolting when spooked. “Steve?”

Steve looks up. Her eyes aren’t sad anymore; they’re piercing.

He’s always liked Chrissy. She’s the nicest girl in the school, until someone does something she doesn’t like. Then, it’s all disappointed eyes, and pouty lips. It’s like disappointing his Mom, but worse, because his Mom’s never around to stare balefully at him.

The point is, Chrissy’s nice. She’s not like Carol. If he told her, there would be no lynch mob, or fleeing Hawkins in the dead of the night with nothing but the clothes on his back. Probably. Maybe.

Steve tries to smooth out the page, and scowls down at it when the wrinkles refuse to disappear. It’s even worse now, words made illegible by the deep creases his fingers have pressed into the paper. There’s no way Eddie’d ever want a note like this.

So, he says, “Munson,” looking up to try to watch his meaning land on her face.

It doesn’t. Her foreheads all scrunched up as she looks down at the note. Only then does Steve realize he’s caressing the wonky little heart. He pulls his hand back, curling his fingers in so she can’t see the smudge of blue on his pointer finger.

“And you aren’t making fun of him?”

Steve can feel his shoulders drooping. He wants to disappear into the floor, melt into the carpet and become one with all the other mysterious stains upon it. “No.”

“Oh,” Chrissy replies, drawn out and low as she peers down at the crinkled note with a confused frown. But something must click because she straightens, eyes wide beneath her bangs. “Oh!”

It’s loud enough that they both reflexively flinch. But, when no librarians come skulking around any corners, Chrissy turns back to him, gaze uncomfortably intent. Steve wonders, somewhat horrified by the turn his life has taken, if he’s about to get hate-crimed by a cheerleader half his size.

But Chrissy’s nice—always has been, always will be. So, she bites her lip and looks furtively around like she’s only just realized this is a conversation that shouldn’t have any witnesses. “But you like him?” she whispers.

Steve leans forward, matching her energy and pitch as he replies, “yeah,” quiet enough that it’s barely a breath. Chrissy smiles at him, warm and small, just like her hand as she reaches across the table to put it over his and squeeze comfortingly.

The note sits, damningly soiled beneath their linked hands, wrinkled, and smudged, and barely-legible handwriting. The weight that’d lifted with Chrissy’s smile sinks back into his gut.

“But it doesn’t matter,” Steve says, letting go of her hand so he can pull the note closer to himself. “I’m no good at this stuff.”

Steve crinkles the note back up. It’s unsalvageable—a stupid idea executed badly.

He’s in the middle of stuffing it into the pocket of his jeans to keep his keys company until he can toss it out in the comfort of his home when Chrissy says, “maybe I can help?” voice lilting up, like it’s a question.

Steve meets her eyes, hand still half-shoved in his pocket. She’s all earnest now, the way she usually is when there isn’t a sad boy infecting her with his own ineptitude. Eyes shining with conviction, bangs curling sweetly around her face. She’s no Carol, that’s for sure.

“How?” he asks, and when she smiles, it looks a bit like hope.

***

 “I can help you write a better letter,” Chrissy starts. He perks up like a dog the moment its owner gets home. “If you do something for me.”

She feels like scum when he curls back into himself, gaze forlorn.

When she’d caught sight of the note he’d spent what seemed like a full hour pouring over, this isn’t what she’d been expecting. And when she’d finally made out his chicken scratch scrawl, she’d been sure Steve was picking on someone, no matter how unlike him it would have been. But then his shoulders had curled in, and his ears had turned red, and his voice had gone all soft and squishy when he’d said Eddie Munson’s name.

And she’d just wanted to fix it.

So, even as he asks, “what?” all sad and droopy again, she knows she’s going to help him, no matter what he says.

“Date me,” she asserts. It’s only as Steve blinks stupidly at her that she realizes how that came out of her mouth. “No, wait, not really!”

Her hands are waving around wildly and she can feel the blood rushing to her cheeks. In contrast, Steve seems to come back into himself, shoulders shoring up as he smirks across at her with his signature raised brow. The one he’d used while leaning on Nancy Wheeler’s locker last year, or holding her books as they walked to class, and all the other assortment of stereotypical boyfriend activities.

He’d worn it all the time, like it was part of the uniform. 

“I just meant, we could fake it?” His right eyebrow raises to meet his left, forehead scrunching up with his incredulity. “It’s just, Jason and I broke up? And he won’t leave me alone.”

It takes all her strength to keep meeting his eyes as the seconds tick away. But then Steve nods, swings his letterman jacket off, and tosses it across at her. Unprepared for his sudden movement, it hits her in the face and drops into her lap.

“There you go, sweetheart,” he says with a cheesy wink that somehow manages to feel more genuine than any of his actual flirting techniques. “Gotta sell it somehow.”

“What a romantic,” she replies, deadpan, but she pulls his jacket on anyway, something that feels an awful lot like relief steadying her heart rate as she smooths down the too-long sleeves.

Jason’s going to freak out. But after that, maybe he’ll stop calling her house, and trying to put his arm around her at lunch, and trying to pick her up for school every morning. She’d do almost anything to get it into his thick skull that she’s not interested.

So, here she is, hashing out the details of a secret admirer letter from Steve Harrington to Eddie Munson, of all the unlikely pairings.

“What’s wrong with what I wrote?” Steve whines, running his fingers through his hair until it’s all mussed up and falling into his face.

Chrissy snorts. “It sounds like you’re telling him his hair is frizzy and dry.”

“I said it was pretty!” He throws his hands in the air before crossing them and pouting his lower lip out.

Chrissy can’t help but laugh. She’s always liked Steve. He’s nicer than most of his friends, and he’s easy to talk to. But this is a side she’s never seen of him. She’s not sure anyone has; can’t imagine Carol or Tommy seeing him put his whole heart into something and not tearing it to shreds.

“Do you use conditioner?” she asks, throwing finger quotations around it as she reads it off the crumpled page.

Steve’s blushing again, cheeks all blotchy and red, rather unbecoming for the shoo-in for this year’s prom king. “Well, I thought you said you’d help!” he says, a little too loud for the library.

So, that’s how she ends up spending the next hour painfully turning Steve’s earnest thoughts into words on the pretty baby blue paper she’d carefully removed from the back of her daily planner.

In the end, they’re left with this:

       Eddie –

       I wish I could say this to your face, but I’ve never been good with words, and you’d probably think it was a joke.

       I can’t even get myself to talk to you, you’re so distracting.

       I like how pretty your hair is. How do you get your curls so shiny? I want to run my fingers through them.

       I hope this note brightens up your day. You deserve all the smiles you can get.

       Yours,

       Your Secret Admirer

It’s not what she would write, but still, it’s leagues better than what he’d started with. She slides it across to Steve, and he smiles down at it. He reaches his hand out, fingers almost brushing the page before he pulls his hand back, curling his fingers into a fist.

“What if someone sees me?” he asks, voice so quiet she can barely hear him even in the resounding silence of the library.

They’d managed not to talk about it, the dangers of Steve liking a boy. But it’d been present in the hesitancy by which he shared each of his thoughts, looking up at her like each remark would be the last straw before she recoils in disgust.

If someone finds out that Steve has a crush on a boy, it won’t take long until he’s getting beat up between classes or heckled straight out of school. Heck, even with all the rumors floating around about him, Eddie might be the one to throw the first punch.

“Do you want me to deliver it for you?” she asks.

“You’d do that?” he asks back, because apparently no one ever taught him not to answer a question with a question. “For me?”

“What else are fake girlfriends for?” she asks because they’re all questions now, no answers to be had between the pair of them.

Steve laughs, all tension leaving his shoulders as he throws his head back with amusement, eyes downright twinkling as he beams across at her.

“You’re the best, Chrissy,” Steve says, smiling even brighter as she replies, “I know.”

She leaves school that night after pushing Steve Harrington’s love note through the slats of Eddie’s locker, Steve’s letterman jacket keeping her warm from the cold.

This might be the best relationship she’s ever had, fake or not. Eat your heart out, Jason Carver.

PART 2

Welcome to my new AU! This will be posted in 21 parts. It is complete, so there will be a new update each morning until it's all posted. I've elected not to do a tag list, but it will be added to my pinned post each day as well. If that's not your speed, it will be added to Ao3 once it's all been posted here.

Special shoutout to @queenie-ofthe-void for not only their usual fabulous beta work, but also both the original idea and the writing of some of the secret admirer letters. You not only make me a better writer, but this work literally would not exist without you. <3<3

Title of the fic from the song Eyes in the Sun by Florist

[yukipri]

For curiosity's sake...

[mari-cherri]

my take on what marinette’s doing right now.

come on girlies. this is the last 24 hours. do your duty and vote in the @catgirlgames 🫡

[poetryqueers]

This was very funny to me

[cozylittleartblog]

ok i saw somebody else i follow do this and now im curious because this blog is 10 years old. humor me

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Thank you all for voting in the poll to decide who was going to be the leader of the band! It turned out to be such a close race!

[blinkees]

[benetnvsch]

knkdz animals and Dazai makes little biscuits oh yea

[onesnoopyaday]

I AM AT MY LIMIT

Snoopy #90

30/12/2024

description under the cut

[description: a cartoon-style drawing of Snoopy's head. Snoopy is a white dog with black ears. His eyes are shut and his mouth is a horizontal line. There are two large blue teardrops, one under each eye. The text "I am at my limit" is handwritten across the top of the image.]

[lookninjas]

Pick a rap song from a bad description: Part 2

Part 2 of the rap/hip-hop exploration we've been on, because one playlist just wouldn't have been enough.

Anyway, pick a song from a bad description! You do not have to recognize any of these songs. Go with whichever description strikes you as funniest. Whatever sparks your curiosity. Whatever makes you suddenly keen to listen to Romanian gangsta rap. Whatever works for you.

At the end of the week, I will put all of these songs into a playlist, from the song with the least amount of votes to the song with the most amount of votes. There will also be an extended playlist with more songs on it, because I just listened to too much really good shit trying to make these playlists, but I couldn't always come up with funny descriptions for all of it.

If you want to hear the playlist, either leave a comment or say something when you reblog, and I will tag you when the playlist is done. If you are absolutely desperate to know what a given song is, and you can't wait, shoot me an ask and I'll answer.

And please reblog the poll! Obviously for me, because then I get a lot of responses and it makes the playlist more fun for me, but also that way you and your mutuals can fall down a musical rabbit hole together. Trust me, falling down musical rabbit holes is a lot more fun when you're dragging someone with you.

[bestanimal]

Round 2 Final Stats:

Previously I said any group to earn over 900 points will move on to Round 3, however, I’m going to make it the Top 10 just to make it even. Plus, what’s an extra two species?

For the final stats, I’ve made a little graphic with some doodles to remind y’all what each class is. (Couldn’t use emojis for everyone because, alas, there are not enough unique ones to represent all these animal groups!) The full list is typed out under the read more though, as well as the extra stats for this round!

The top classes (or phylogenetic equivalents) have been ranked thusly, listed here from highest ranking to lowest:

🦈 Chondrichthyes ~ 1,509

🐀 Mammalia ~ 1,437

🐍 Reptilia ~ 1,183

🐙 Cephalopoda ~ 1,175

🐸 Lissamphibia ~ 1,002

🐠 Actinopterygii ~ 983

🦀 Malacostraca ~ 954

🕷 Arachnida ~ 913

🐞 Insecta ~ 908

Actinistia ~ 853

🐌 Gastropoda ~ 796

🫁 Dipnoi ~ 598

🦪 Bivalvia ~ 507

Myxini ~ 492

Chilopoda ~ 479

Branchiopoda ~ 443

Polyplacophora ~ 427

Petromyzontida ~ 412

Pycnogonida ~ 405

Copepoda ~ 308

Ascidiacea ~ 394

Diplopoda ~ 393

Ostracoda ~ 278

Collembola ~ 272

Thecostraca ~ 253

Pauropoda ~ 246

Appendicularia ~ 229

Leptocardii ~ 222

Remipedia ~ 194

Symphyla ~ 166

Solenogastres ~ 164

Tergomya ~ 158

Scaphopoda ~ 142

Tantulocarida ~ 139

Cephalocarida ~ 134

Mystacocarida ~ 115

Caudofoveata ~ 110

Diplura ~ 94

Protura ~ 83

Ichthyostraca ~ 83

Our Top 10 Classes are Chondrichthyes, Mammalia, Reptilia, Cephalopoda, Lissamphibia, Actinopterygii, Malacostraca, Arachnida, Insecta, and Actinistia!

This means Chondrichthyes, Mammalia, Reptilia, Cephalopoda, Lissamphibia, Actinopterygii, Malacostraca, Arachnida, Insecta, and Actinistia will be moving on to Round 3, and broken up by Order (or some other phylogenetic equivalent).

Extra Stats:

Arthropod Class Pycnogonida (“sea spiders”)

~ was the first group of Round 2

~ was the first arthropod group of Round 2

~ had the highest amount of dislikes at 20

~ had the highest amount of hates at 5

Arthropod Class Symphyla (“garden centipedes”)

~ had the highest percentage of likes at 45%

Arthropod Class Ichthyostraca (“fish lice” and “tongue worms”)

~ had the highest percentage of dislikes at 9.1%

~ had the highest percentage of hates at 2.6%

Arthropod Class Mystacocarida (“mustache shrimp”)

~ had the lowest amount of loves at 13

~ had the lowest percentage of loves at 7.9%

~ had 0 hates

~ had the least reblogs at 8

~ had the least notes at 21

Arthropod Class Ostracoda (“seed shrimp”)

~ had 0 hates

~ received exactly 200 votes

Arthropod Class Copepoda (copepods)

~ had 0 hates

Arthropod Class Malacostraca (“crabs”, “lobsters”, “shrimp”, etc)

~ had the third most reblogs at 55

~ had the highest percentage of loves at 52.8%

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

~ was the highest ranked Arthropod class

Arthropod Class Tantulocarida (tantulocarids)

~ had the highest amount of neutral votes at 91, along with Caudofoveata

Arthropod Class Cephalocarida (“horseshoe shrimp”)

~ had 0 hates

Arthropod Class Remipedia (remipedes)

~ had 0 hates

Arthropod Class Collembola (“springtails”)

~ had 0 hates

Arthropod Class/Order Protura (“coneheads”)

~ had the least votes at 125

~ had the lowest amount of favorites at 1

~ had the lowest percentage of favorites at 0.8%

~ had 0 hates

Arthropod Class Insecta (insects)

~ had 0 dislikes

Chordate Class Leptocardii (“lancelets”)

~ was the first Chordate group of Round 2

~ had 0 hates

Chordate Class Ascidiacea/Thaliacea (“sea squirts”, “salps”, “pyrosomes”, etc.)

~ had 0 hates

Chordate Class Appendicularia (“larvaceans”)

~ had 0 hates

Chordate Class Chondrichthyes (“cartilaginous fish”)

~ had the most votes at 415

~ had the highest amount of loves at 181

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

~ had the most reblogs at 105

~ had the most notes at 235

~ was the highest ranked group of chordates

Chordate Class Actinistia (“coelacanths”)

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

~ was the first single genus (Latimeria) to be ranked

Chordate Class Dipnoi (“lungfish”)

~ had the highest amount of likes at 104

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

~ contained the first of my personal favorites (Australian Lungfish) to be eliminated 🥲

Chordate Class Lissamphibia (amphibians)

~ had the lowest amount of neutral votes at 1, along with Reptilia and Gastropoda

~ had the lowest percentage of neutral votes at 0.4%, along with Reptilia and Gastropoda

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

Chordate Class Reptilia (reptiles)

~ had the lowest amount of neutral votes at 1, along with Lissamphibia and Gastropoda

~ had the lowest percentage of neutral votes at 0.4%, along with Lissamphibia and Gastropoda

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

Chordate Class Mammalia (mammals)

~ had the highest amount of favorites at 258

~ had the highest percentage of favorites at 80.6%

~ had the lowest amount of likes at 4

~ had the lowest percentage of likes at 1.2%

Molluscan Class Polyplacophora (“chitons”)

~ was the first Mollusc group of Round 2

~ had 0 hates

Molluscan Class Solenogastres (solenogasters)

~ had 0 hates

Molluscan Class Caudofoveata (caudofoveatans)

~ had the highest amount of neutral votes at 91, along with Tantulocarida

~ had the highest percentage of neutral votes at 58%

Molluscan Subclass Tergomya (tergomyans)

~ had 0 hates

Molluscan Class Cephalopoda (cephalopods)

~ had the second most reblogs at 66

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

~ was the only molluscan class to make it into the Top Ten

Molluscan Class Scaphopoda (“tusk shells”)

~ had 0 hates

Molluscan Class Gastropoda (“snails” and kin)

~ had 0 dislikes and 0 hates

~ had the lowest amount of neutral votes at 1, along with Lissamphibia and Reptilia

~ had the lowest percentage of neutral votes at 0.4%, along with Lissamphibia and Reptilia

Molluscan Class Bivalvia (bivalves)

~ had 0 dislikes

[arcanegifs]

ahem ok my brainrot for caitlyn and vi has subsided its back to posting stuff other than them too lol

[komagoat]

Robyn is really trying to make them friends