#and wants to watch a horror movie but the ones we showed him the trailers for he didnt think looked scary enough

[lunarsapphism]

my little brother needs to be severely humbled i swear to god he is the most cocky and egotistical little kid ever and has recently developed this "tough guy" persona and it makes me want to fucking punch him ❤️ i fucking hate it here he did not used to be like this

[ashwhowrites]

Eddie Munson x cheerleader! reader, Eds and Reader don't know each other, but Max and Dustin know both Eddie and Reader, and they both think that they would be a great couple so they try to get them to know each other but it never works. But what if Reader goes to the trailer park to take care of Max, or help her with homework but on her way to Max's trailer, Reader falls and Eddie sees it and helps her, after some time, Eddie and Reader start dating and it made Max and Dustin happy but they argue about who made that it happened? (I hope this make sense! I just imagine Max and Dustin seeing how similar Reader and Eddie are in some aspects so they're like, yeah, they would be a great couple, but for some reason, they can't make them like meet each other or even see each other! you can change some things if you think it'll be better!)

I love writing Max as a bestie. This idea is adorable. I hope this is what you wanted and you enjoy it! Thank you for requesting♥︎

Wingman vs Wingwoman

Max was surprised to find herself being friends with a cheerleader, granted it was forced in the beginning. Max's mom has been on an insane level since everything happened with Billy, so she refuses to let Max be alone. Y/N became Max's babysitter, Max wasn't warmed to the idea at first but now it was more of friends hanging out compared to babysitting.

Y/N was way more chill and interesting than the other cheerleaders, shocking Max. They talked, watched horror movies, shared comic books, and went to skate parks. With all of Y/N's badass interests, Max realized she might not be the only one who would adore her. Max knew she had to get Y/N to meet Eddie.

Dustin fell in love with Y/N the second she walked into the student council. Dustin's mom wanted him to engage in more school activities ( apparently hellfire wasn't real enough. ) But the student council wasn't horrible when Y/N was the president. Dustin was a love-sick puppy when it came to her and he practically was her vice president with how much he did for the club. Or for her. With her leading confidence and how high she held her head, Dustin couldn't help but see a bit of Eddie in her. That's when it snapped in Dustin's head that Eddie would love to meet this girl.

~~~

Max was rushing Y/N to Hellfire with a purpose in mind.

"I'm gonna be late for the student council!" Y/N groaned as Max dragged her arm down the opposite hallway.

"I know! I just need to show you something." Max said, a tiny smirk on her face. Her blue eyes lit up with mischief.

Max cheered as they reached the door, Y/N looked at her confused for two reasons. One, Max was excited about something, and two it was about a door with hellfire written on cardboard.

"What the hell is this?" Y/N asked, Max didn't answer, so she yanked open the door.

Max's smile and mood fell when she didn't see Eddie. Just the same losers she always saw.

"Where is he?" Max demanded, her foot stomped against the glossy floor.

~

"Dustin, dude, we can't be late for this campaign. The rest of the sheep are already set up." Eddie scolded but Dustin didn't listen. Just yanking Eddie down the hall.

"Just one minute!" Dustin groaned. He sighed at the lack of patience Eddie had.

"Where are we even going?" Eddie huffed.

"Tada!" Dustin cheered as he yanked open the wooden door. Eddie peeked in over Dustin's head and felt confused.

"Tada? It's a group of nerds talking about the school."

"It's called the student council, and she's not here!" Dustin growled. Where the hell was she?

~~~

Max and Dustin had no idea they were trying to get Y/N and Eddie to see each other. And they had no idea they were backfiring each other's plans.

"No! I need Eddie, I've been trying to get him to meet this girl for weeks!" Max snapped at Dustin, her icy blue eyes glaring straight at him.

Dustin felt himself shivering in fear but tried to stay confident.

"I don't care. I've got a way better girl for Eddie to meet."

"Mine's better, just watch." Max scoffed as she raced off on her skateboard.

"What did red want?" Eddie asked as he walked to his van.

"No clue. But look, I need you to drop me off at school early tomorrow, student council meeting." Dustin lied, Eddie huffed but agreed as he started the engine.

~

"Max, what's up? Dustin said he needed me this morning." Y/N asked as Max kept looking up and down the hallways.

"I just need to see something!" Max said as she looked into the parking lot. She saw Eddie's van but she couldn't find him at all. She checked all the rooms she knew Eddie knew but nothing.

~

"Dude, we've been here for ten minutes, when does this meeting start? We are the only ones here." Eddie sighed. He could have gotten another hour of sleep but this damn kid.

Dustin checked his watch with a pit of anxiety in his stomach. Y/N said she'd be here and she is nowhere to be seen.

"Whatever. I'm going to have a smoke." Eddie said as he walked out the door.

Not even two minutes later Y/N walked in with a grumpy Max.

"Of fucking course," Dustin said as he shook his head.

~~~

Max and Dustin were slowly wanting to give up. Every plan they had was backfired. Somehow Eddie and Y/N were always at the wrong place at the right time.

Y/N groaned as she walked through the muddy trailer park. She regretted wearing her nice shoes. A huge van came speeding down the road, frightening her into slipping in the mud.

She groaned as she landed on her ass. Now her clothes were as muddy as her shoes.

The van slammed on their breaks and a boy came running out.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry." The boy apologized, he kneeled next to her as he softly helped her stand up.

She went to scream in his face but once she took in his face, she was silent. He was the most gorgeous boy she's ever seen. His soft skin, bone structure, nice jaw, and flowing brown curls rested on his shoulders.

"Oh, that's alright." She shrugged off with a smile. She was sure she'd have fallen for him the same way if he still wasn't holding her up by the waist.

Eddie didn't hear a word she said. Too amazed at how beautiful the girl was. He didn't even realize he was still touching her until she shifted.

"Shit sorry." He apologized again as he removed his hands. He took in her muddy clothes.

"This will sound so creepy, but can I drive you to my trailer to get you new clothes? I feel awful." Eddie smiled as she laughed.

"It is super creepy, but I also don't want to babysit in these clothes." So she agreed and they rode off to his trailer. Only to connect the dots that Max was right across the way.

"Here! It's just an old shirt and some sweatpants." Eddie said as he handed Y/N the clothes.

"Do you want me to drive you to the trailer you need?" Eddie asked as they stood at his front door.

"It's actually just right there so I can walk. Thank you, what was your name?" She asked.

"Eddie Munson, and you?" He asked as he held out his hand.

~

Max eyed Y/N as she walked in covered in mud and clothes in her hand.

"What happened to you?" Max asked as she got off the couch.

"Slipped in mud, but I got new clothes so gonna change!" Y/N said she walked into the bathroom, with a smile on her face.

~~~

A month passed and Max was preparing to give up. No matter what she did, she never got Eddie and Y/N in the same room.

"Why can't you come tonight again?" Max asked, Y/N walked beside her down the hallway.

"I've got a date, but your mom is staying home," Y/N explained.

"Where is the date? I've got a guy for you and I bet he's way better than whatever loser you picked yourself."

"Rude, he is not a loser. I appreciate in a weird way that you want to set me up, but I'm fine. We are going to the movies."

~

"Dustin, I can't! I'm going to the movies for a date." Eddie sighed as he searched for an outfit to wear.

"Waste of time, bro. I've got the perfect girl for you. Just cancel, then come be my wingman at the diner then I'll set you guys up!" Dustin argued.

"First, I am way too old to be your wingman. It's creepy. And second, this girl is hot, I'm not ditching."

"Come on dude! You are my only ride and my mom said I needed a babysitter. Steve is working so please?"

~

"She's here, see ya," Dustin said as he ran to an empty booth with his date.

Eddie picked a seat where he could see the back of Dustin's head.

He smiled when Y/N took the seat across from him, blocking Dustin.

They dived into a conversation and the time flew by in seconds.

~

Dustin said goodbye to his date and walked over to Eddie, he noticed Eddie was alone.

"Stood up?" Dustin mocked as he pointed to the empty seat.

"Bathroom, now beat it," Eddie said, but Dustin sat down instead.

"I've got nowhere to go, you are my ride." Dustin shrugged, grabbing a fry from the plate in the middle of the table. "Plus, my girl would be so much better for you."

~

Max walked into the diner, and her mom drove her to pick up dinner. She waited near the counter as she waited. She gasped when Y/N walked out of the bathroom.

"What are you doing here? I thought you had a date?" Max asked, her arms crossed.

"I do! We changed it to her because he had to babysit." Y/N explained.

"Babysit? Can't get a real job?" Max mocked and rolled her eyes.

"Watch it. I'm a babysitter." Y/N declared as she glared at the younger girl.

"Is he still here? I want to meet him so I can prove my guy is better."

Y/N sighed but agreed, walking Max to the table.

"Dustin?"

"Y/N?"

Eddie looked between them confused, "you two know each other?"

"How the hell do you know her?" Dustin spazzed as he looked at Eddie with huge eyes.

"EDDIE IS THE GUY!" Max squealed, and Y/N was confused about her showing a positive emotion.

"What is going on?" Eddie and Y/N asked at the same time.

~

After Dustin and Max explained their sides, they left the couple alone. Dustin walked Max out to her car, killing time until Eddie was ready to leave.

"I so did that." Dustin bragged, he nodded in improvement as Eddie slid his arm around Y/N as they walked out.

"They didn't even know you were trying to set them up, plus she met him because of me!" Max argued

"No, she did not!" Dustin fought back.

"Yes huh!"

"No huh!"

~

"It's kinda cute they wanted us together so much," Y/N said, walking out of the diner.

"I'm surprised Dustin thought I was in your league." Eddie chuckled, his arm still over her shoulder.

"I'm surprised you'd even like a cheerleader," Y/N replied.

"When they look like you? Yeah, I like the cheerleader." Eddie teased, but his heart raced as she laughed and swatted at his chest.

He might have to give Dustin a praise for this.

tags!

@bmunson86 @mxcheese @ladymunson @michaelfuckinglangdon @z0mbie-blah @biittersweet @mirrorsstuff @somethingvicked @micheledawn1975 @ago-godance @magnificantmermaid @tlclick73 @hargrovesswifee @cityofidek @silky-luxe @lokiofasgard616 @loving-and-dreaming @eddiemunsonsbitch69 @thegemaqua @ashlynnkennedy @strangerthingsstories5255 @harringt8ns @pleasinghellfire @whoscamila @stusdollface93 @gretavankleep37 @bellaisswagger

[startwelve]

💌romantic scene

Eddie Munson x shyfem!reader

Synopsis: You and Eddie are having a movie night and without knowing it, you chose an adult romance movie.

Warning: Only mention of moaning and suggestion of what the protagonists of the movie you and Eddie watch are doing.

Eddie was waiting for you outside his trailer, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. You were taking longer than expected for your movie night. Then you showed up, walking tiredly and somewhat breathless.

"Hey, why did you take so long?" Eddie asked.

"I'm sorry," you apologized quickly.

"I'm sorry won't cut it this time, princess. I was really worried, what if you had an accident? What if some psycho stalker was looking for you?" he said semi-jokingly, crossing his arms with a raised eyebrow.

"My lip balm ran out, so I had to go to the pharmacy to buy another one," you confessed.

Your confession puzzled him; he couldn't believe you had been delayed because of lip balm. And he wouldn't understand why you needed to have that lip balm with you.

"An emergency with lip balm? Are you kidding, princess?" he asked, obviously not believing a word.

"I'm sorry…"

"I've been waiting for hours, and you were late because of your stupid lip balm?" he said, rolling his eyes before stepping aside and opening the door to let you in. "Anyway, come on, it's movie night."

"It's not a stupid lip balm, it's what helps me stay alive every day," you commented as you entered his trailer.

Eddie rolled his eyes and sat on the couch next to you. He remembered your little obsession with lip balms. He chuckled with a smile.

"Alright, maybe your lipstick helps you feel pretty, but saying it gives you life is a bit dramatic."

You frowned, remembering that he loved something as much as you loved your lip balms.

"What would happen to you if your guitar broke right now?"

Eddie raised his eyebrows, and his smile faded slightly. He crossed his arms and looked away. His guitar was very important to him.

"Don't joke about my guitar. It's not the same at all."

"If you say so…"

"It's not the same at all. You can live without your precious lip balm."

Now you crossed your arms.

"No! Because if I don't use my lip balm anymore, my lips will end up as dry and ugly as my grandma's."

Eddie couldn't believe you were arguing over lip balm.

"Anyway, let's watch the movie. What do you want to watch? Horror, action, or romance?"

"Romance…"

Eddie preferred a horror movie. Romance movies made him sick, especially the ones you chose. Eddie's eyebrow raised, and a smile appeared on his lips. He knew what you were doing.

"You want to watch romance? A silly chick flick?"

"Yes, I brought one," you said eagerly and searched your bag for the cassette; the movie was very sugary and sweet.

Eddie groaned.

"Can we watch horror or action? I don't want to watch a cheesy romantic movie."

"You didn't want to watch a horror movie last time; you couldn't sleep well for two weeks," you reminded him. "Fine, fine. We'll watch your little cheesy romantic movie. Are you happy?" he said in an exaggerated tone and raised his hands in a gesture of submission.

"Yes," you replied triumphantly.

Eddie groaned.

"Whatever you say, princess," he said and shook his head. "So, what kind of romantic movie are we watching?" It was the typical cliché of a love triangle between a good girl, a popular guy, and a lonely, marginalized guy. "Oh, so a typical romantic story?"

"I think so."

Eddie rolled his eyes and walked to the TV. He grabbed the remote and turned it on before turning to you.

"So, who do you think she'll choose in the end?"

"Mmm, she always chooses the one who treats her best…"

The movie started, and you watched it. The movie was absolutely sweet, and Eddie was getting bored watching it, almost falling asleep. But you were fascinated by the movie. Until you were horrified when, in the middle of the movie, the popular guy took the protagonist to his dressing room to kiss her, and Eddie started laughing at your expression. He sat down and watched, his lips curving into a smile.

"That's it! We've reached the kissing scene. I bet the loner will swoop in and give her the best kiss, and she'll realize who the real man for her is."

Eddie covered his mouth to suppress a laugh.

"But, Eddie, there's more going on than…" you couldn't finish speaking because of a moan from the protagonist.

Your eyes widened when you heard the sound of the moan; it was unexpected. He looked at you and saw that you were as surprised as he was.

"Well, that's surprising, a scene of true love in a romantic movie? I never would have imagined it."

You grabbed the cassette cover to read it better; you had bought it because you found the cover romantic, and the guy at the counter had told you it was a very good movie. Now you understood why… Down on the left in small letters, it said "+18".

Eddie was laughing out loud at this point. This is quite amusing. No wonder he had no idea a romantic movie could be so explicit. Eddie couldn't stop laughing. He looked at her and noticed how uncomfortable she was.

"Wow, it's even affecting me. I can't believe they put this scene in a romantic movie. Are you okay, princess?"

"Take out the movie, Eddie, I don't want to watch it anymore."

Eddie smiled and got up.

"Okay, princess. I guess the movie was too hot for you to handle."

He walked to the VCR and took out the cassette.

"Why do you say that?"

Eddie laughed again.

"Well, it was pretty obvious that you felt uncomfortable with the love scene. I guess you've never seen anything like it before."

"Never," you confessed with embarrassment.

He raised an eyebrow. It was good to know she was a little inexperienced. It made her even more adorable and cute.

"Really? The way you blushed made me think you had quite a rude awakening with that scene."

"I, umm, yeah," you lied.

Eddie laughed.

"Your cheeks are still a bit red. It's

very cute…"

He still couldn't believe you blushed so much because of a scene like that. "What a protected princess," Eddie thought.

"You?," you asked in a timid whisper.

Eddie arched an eyebrow and gave you a mischievous smile.

"What about me?"

"For you, for you, for you, I mean, umm, did the scene affect you?"

He laughed, finding you adorable.

"Well, I was a bit surprised too. I didn't expect a romantic movie to be so, let's say, realistic. But I didn't blush or anything."

"No?"

Eddie laughed again.

"No."

Of course, your reaction was more adorable than he could ever be. Especially when you're so nervous. He likes this side of you. The innocent side. It's more fitting. He thought it would be fun to start teasing you more for being a protected princess.

"Oh, really?"

Eddie smiled. You were even more flushed now. This was starting to seem more like flirting than just a joke.

"Yes, I didn't blush like you."

You looked at your hands, which were nervously playing with your skirt, then at the TV, and then at Eddie, searching for the words to ask him a question.

"You, you, you know, not, umm…"

"Do I know what?" Eddie asked, with a slightly raised eyebrow.

He found it cute how you kept looking down or away every time you asked something.

You took a deep breath and asked quickly.

"Have you ever done it?"

Eddie froze for a second. "Did she just ask what I think she asked? Why is she blushing even more?" Eddie thought.

"Done what?"

"What they did in the movie," you whispered.

Eddie laughed again and shook his head.

"Oh, do you mean something like this?" His lips quickly approached your face, causing his breath to caress your small, soft lips. You jumped in surprise, and a small scream escaped your lips. Eddie immediately jumped back, startled by your reaction.

"Are you okay? I didn't mean to scare you."

You covered your mouth with your hand in surprise; you just didn't expect him to do that.

"I didn't expect it."

"Oh, I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable. You're being so cute right now," Eddie said with a mischievous smile.

You had only been kissed once in high school, by a guy in the courtyard. You didn't like it. His breath smelled like fish, he used too much saliva, and his tongue almost choked you. And when you confessed to Eddie that you had only been kissed once, he couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe you were so inexperienced and hadn't kissed someone more than once. So he decided to keep teasing you.

"Only once? Well, then I guess I should show you the real deal. Would you like that, princess?"

Your cheeks flushed; you wanted to.

Eddie laughed. The teasing was working. Eddie got up and knelt beside you. He extended a hand and tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. He got very close to your face. Your breath caught in your throat, and you opened your eyes in surprise. Eddie's lips were only inches away from yours, and you could feel his warm breath brushing against your lips. The scent of his cologne filled your nose; it was a perfect blend of citrus and lavender. He brushed your cheek with his other hand. It sent a shiver down your spine.

"Are you okay there, princess?" he joked. "Is it okay if I continue? Or do you prefer we wait?"

You couldn't speak; the words wouldn't come out. "Oh, this is adorable. I think I should do it," Eddie thought to himself. His hand still tucked a strand of your hair behind your ear. His thumb gently stroked your cheek. His lips were so close that you could feel his breath against your lips. With one hand, he cradled your face. You sighed nervously.

"I like that you're so quiet, princess. It makes me want to kiss you more than before." He leaned in slowly, moving his lips very slowly towards yours.

Eddie's lips brushed gently against yours, and you felt his breath filling your lungs. It was soft and warm. He pulled away and looked into your eyes. He had just given you your first real kiss. Eddie's hand was under your chin as he held your face, looking into your eyes, waiting for your response.

"You kissed me," you whispered.

Eddie smiled.

"Yes, I kissed you."

You didn't know what to say; you just wanted him to kiss you again. Eddie leaned in a little more, and then his lips met yours again. This time it was more intense, with more passion than before. You didn't want to break the kiss and waited for you to pull away first. Eddie noticed that you had no idea what you were doing with your lips, so he took the lead. He moved his hands to the back of your head and pulled you a little closer to the kiss. His tongue gently met yours, and his lips moved in sync with yours. Eddie's thumb stroked your cheek, and he felt excited thinking to himself. He continued kissing you intensely. His lips pressed harder against yours, and you could feel his breath in your throat. His tongue explored your mouth, making it a more intimate and passionate moment. Slowly, you pulled away from him, feeling overwhelmed by the kiss.

Eddie let go of your face and sat back down. He hoped you weren't too upset now that he had stopped. Eddie watched you breathe and saw that your face was flushed. You were acting very shy now. And he wondered how you felt about how he kissed you.

"So, princess, did you like my kiss?"

"Yes," you whispered.

"So, is that a yes for me to kiss you again?" He leaned in very slowly, moving his lips closer to yours.

You nodded your head. Eddie leaned in again, this time seeking a less intense kiss. It was softer than a passionate kiss. His hands held you by the cheeks. His tongue touched yours gently. He continued to smile to himself as he kissed her.

[str4ngergirlw0rld]

eddies never considered himself lucky, not with anything, not with girls not with guys not with his family not with anything.

not when his dad beat him and his mom to a pulp and walked out only to come back 2 years later with bloodshot eyes , red nostrils and a baby on his hip.

not when harley jones asked him on a date only to take his virginity in the back of his van and never talk to him again.

not when billy hargrove asked him to do his homework and he purposely wrote an essay on his behalf about how much he hated mrs. o’donell.

not when you showed up on his doorstep , asking him out on a date and he declined thinking he was some butt of a joke , making you walk home in the rain after walking an hour as a grand gesture for him in your cheer uniform carrying droopy flowers you had picked for him.

eddie wasn’t lucky not at all.

the clock on eddies side table reads 7:00 am in bright blaring numbers. eddies rubs his eyes to rid himself of sleepies and sits up , throwing on his favorite garfield boxers and an old ratted metallica shirt.

the knocking on his trailer grows rapid hence why hes up so early.

“i’m comin , i’m comin fuck hold on” he yells

throwing the door open eddies jaw drops , you’re the last person he expected at the door , if he knew it was you he would have made himself presentable.

you look so pretty , clad in your cheer uniform, rain droplets dripping off your eyelashes , knee high socks he can only assume are doing nothing to keep you warm. a pony tail holding your curled hair and flowers he can only assume you just picked from the side of the road , he can tell because he picks those for his mommas grave , purples amongst yellows amongst pinks and oranges, shining brightly in contrast to the gray sky.

“he-heyy what the fuck are you doing here?”

is the first thing that slips out of his mouth , your eyes blow wide.

“no no i didnt mean it like that i’m just shocked you’re here , did you walk here ? at 7 in the morning? in the rain?” he rambles “yeah i did , is that okay?” you ask , hesitance heavy in your voice “more than okay sweetheart, why are you here?” his voice filled with sweetness , making you hopeful of his answer to your question.

“i just wanted to know if you’d wanna go on a date with me , we can watch a movie , i know they’re showing some horror movies , i planned it out, i’ll pay for your ticket , i uh also thought we could get burgers and shakes at bennys , hes my uncle i’ll convince him to give the meal to us for free , he usually does he has a soft spot for me, i see you around alot , i think you’re handsome , i know my brother loves you and i know theres gotta be lots of reasons why” your head starts bopping , excitement laced in your voice. awaiting his answer.

eddies heart plummets to his feet , he wanted to believe this , to be hopeful that this wasn’t some cruel joke but he can’t not after holly. he cant help but roll his eyes.

you catch it , smile and arms dropping , your nails pressing into your hand where you’re holding the flowers you picked for him.

“why the fuck are you here y/n ?” the sweetness from his voice long gone , replaced with bitterness and venom “i-i just told you why eddie what do you mean” your voice trembles “no the real fucking reason , i don’t want you to stand there and lie to me what the fuck y/n i thought you were different but you’re just like them , you will not make a joke out of me , thats a dick move, go home. my answer is no , tell your friends that this didn’t work and maybe go prank someone else” he slams the door shut , palms opening and closing , sweating, he wants to look out, see the angry look on your face when you realize your plan didn’t work, instead hes faced with something much worse.

the flowers that once stood high we’re drooping in your hand , your back shaking hard with despair and a distraught look on your face as rock your head in a back and forth no motion tears dripping down your face , one hand pressed to your chest he can assume for comfort and the other holding waynes wrist where hes cupping your face lightly, cooing at you as you recount what just aspired to him, his heart burns with pain when he sees waynes eyes tearing up aswell. both of you soaked with rainwater.

he watches as you calm down , watches as wayne grabs a jacket from his car and covers your shaking frame with it , watches as wayne drops a kiss on your forehead and lets you walk away. watches as you walk further down the road disappearing from his sight. watches as wayne stomps to the door. but hes too afraid to go out and speak to you , too afraid to apologize because he already fucked up.

“what is wrong with you boy? i know i raised you , why you actin like ya father ? making a girl cry and having her walk home in the rain, you find out a way to apologize, i don’t care that ya think she pranked ya , she and her brother been coming here every morning asking for you , she built up the courage to ask you out and you turn her down so easily, fix this, don’t make me tell you again.” wayne tells eddie , wiping the tears on his face “fix this”

eddie doesn’t waste a second throwing his shoes on and grabbing two jackets. he’ll do whatever it takes.

[anxiousgaypanicking]

Oreo

Synopsis:  As a joke, Roman's forced to ask Virgil out after losing an oreo. Flustered, and somewhat embarrassed and humiliated by the connotation that dating him would be such a bad thing, he says yes out of impulse, and must now deal with what being Roman's "boyfriend" entails. Taglist: @renys @falsemood

Part Eight: Movie Theatre Mayhem Masterlist

“He’s running late,” Virgil hisses as he sits on Logan’s porch. Janus sits next to him on his phone, and Logan sits next to Janus with a book out. 

“He’s not running late,” Logan objects, flipping to a new page. “The movie doesn’t start until six. It’s only 5:30.” 

“That doesn’t even factor in the previews,” Janus adds, nudging Virgil playfully in the side. “The trailers and advertisements start at six; the movie itself probably won’t even play until a quarter past.” 

Virgil’s leg jumps as he sits. “I’d still prefer we leave early.” 

Janus gives him a smirk. “Why? Excited to meet up with your boyfriend? It was very kind of him to offer to pick us all up; you might want to consider thanking him somehow. Like with a kiss, perhaps-?” 

Virgil shoves Janus away, scooting away from both him and Logan. Janus snickers openly at his groan of disgust, while Logan presses the back of his hand to his mouth in order to hide his amusement (though, in Virgil’s opinion, he’s doing a terrible job). 

“What movie are we seeing anyway?” Logan asks, though he doesn’t really sound like he cares - more like he’s just trying to move on. “I believe we decided against the horror one?”

“Roman said it’s called ���The Misadventures Of Ms. Marjorie,’ or something,” Virgil answers, pulling his knees to his chest. “I think it’s some stupid kids movie, but there isn’t really anything else playing.” 

“It’s a musical,” Janus further explains, turning to Logan. He shows Logan his phone, which has a synopsis of the film pulled up. Logan sets his book down on his legs in order to properly read through it, and seems to glance back up at Janus, before nodding in appreciation. 

Virgil meanwhile pushes his head into his hands with a groan. “Is it?” he responds, sounding more aggravated by the minute. “I can’t believe that’s what you and Roman decided on.” 

“It’s less stupid than plotless gore,” Logan replies. “It would have been dull watching poorly-achieved special effects splatter around what’s supposed to be a bloody scene. That, or outright bad computer-generated imagery used to create what could otherwise be done ten times better with props. At least a kids movie will have a story to follow along.” 

Grumbling under his breath, Virgil really has no counter and so just makes a few angry noises to just his discontent, though he’s mostly ignored by the other two. 

His phone sits right beside him, and he subconsciously keeps his hand rested on it, waiting absentmindedly for any vibrations. And when it does vibrate, he has it up within seconds, unlocking it and pulling down his notification bar in hopes Roman has some explanation for why he’s still not here… twenty till. 

Instead, there’s a message from Virgil’s father. 

‘I’m sending you grocery money. Extending my vacation by another week or two. Love you,’ followed by Virgil getting another notification of money being sent to his account. It’s enough to cover groceries - enough to cover a month’s worth of groceries in Virgil’s case - and it makes Virgil click his phone off and drop it back onto the porch, pulling his legs tighter to his body as he tucks his face into his knees and stares barely over them out towards the road. 

Janus and Logan are talking quietly beside him, as they’ve both set down their entertainment in favor of each other’s company, but Virgil can’t find the energy to join them. 

At 5:50 is when Logan starts to look a little antsy, and leans forward a bit to direct his words to Virgil as he asks “any word from Roman? At this point we’re set to miss the trailers, and I’m not too thrilled with that notion.” 

Virgil gives a half hearted shrug. “I don’t know.” 

Logan raises an eyebrow. “Can you check?” 

Staring at him, Virgil feels the brash impulse to chuck his phone at Logan and make him check, or ask why they can’t communicate with Roman considering they had no qualms regarding tagging along, but instead he just bites his tongue and lifts his phone briefly. Seeing no new notifications, he curtly responds “he hasn’t said a thing.” 

Reaching towards Virgil, Janus sets a comforting hand on his upper arm, which encourages Virgil to take in a deep breath. 

Focusing on breathing for just a moment, Virgil immediately finds himself feeling a little better, and so adds quietly “I’ll… I’ll send him a text, and ask what’s taking him so long.”

“You did remember to give him Logan’s address, right?” Janus jokes, which has Virgil frowning at him, but relaxing nonetheless. 

But as he pulls up Roman’s contact in preparation to text, a familiar white car comes rolling slowly into view, with it parking on the curb shortly after. As it stops, Logan and Janus look towards Virgil for affirmation that this is in fact Roman, and the flush on Virgil’s cheeks says everything they need to know. 

“¡Mi vida!” Roman calls, waving towards Virgil, and hurries towards the porch. “I’m sorry I took so long.” 

Virgil stands immediately, and avoids Roman’s affectionate hands, making a beeline towards the car instead. “It’s fine,” he sharply replies, in a way that lets Roman know it’s in fact not fine. “Let’s just hurry and get there before we end up missing the movie.” 

He gets into the passenger seat and watches Roman through the window as he talks a moment more to Logan and Janus, before they follow suit to the car as well. Janus and Logan slide in the back, while Roman gets into the driver’s seat, buckling up and checking around to make sure everyone’s done the same. He then flashes Virgil a sweet smile that Virgil responds to with a piercing glare.

“I am really sorry I’m late,” Roman begins again, as he starts the car. He speeds a bit down the block in an attempt to make up for lost time, though it just makes Virgil feel carsick as they hit a few turns too fast. “Remus’s tutor ended up having to cancel, and there was a whole issue between our mom and dad involving… custody stuff.” Roman looks uncomfortable, even while walking through the rather vague explanation. It has Virgil actually turning to him with a bit more curiosity, but Roman stares straight ahead at the road, lips pressed shut. Displaying visible discomfort, Roman didn’t look as though he was going to elaborate any further. 

And so Virgil shifts away again and musters up a meager “okay.” 

The car ride is silent past that point, with not even Janus and Logan making conversation in the back. The air is thick, and Virgil’s fingers run along the window’s buttons, debating whether or not he should roll them down to try and make things feel less hot and cramped. 

However, he doesn’t get the opportunity to before they’re pulling into the movie theatre parking lot. 

“Ha!” Roman exclaims, as he shifts the car into park. “We’re here! And with five minutes to spare! That’s plenty of time to get concessions and get settled!” 

“I’ll pass on the concessions,” Logan says, as he steps out and onto the asphalt. “I’d rather get into our auditorium as soon as possible.” 

Circling around the car, Janus stands a bit too close to Logan as he nods and says “I’m with Logan on this one. I’m not necessarily hungry for oversalted popcorn anyway.” 

Roman smiles at them as he moves towards Virgil, bringing out his wallet and pulling out two twenty dollar bills. Passing them to Janus and Logan, he explains “I assume we’re all going to sit together, but because I’d like food you guys can just buy your tickets separately. That way you won’t have to wait up.” 

Janus immediately plucks the money from Roman’s hands, as Logan can’t help smiling and thanking him for his consideration. Virgil frowns. 

With Logan and Janus walking ahead of them, Roman keeps at Virgil’s sluggish pace, and links their fingers together without hesitation. The action causes Virgil to whip his head towards Roman, hissing out an embarrassed “what the hell do you think you’re doing?” which just has Roman giving him a shy smile. 

“Well,” Roman answers, cheeks pink, “this is like a date.” 

“We’ve already been on a ‘date’ asshole; I don’t understand why you’re smiling like a dope.” 

Roman shrugs. “That was like… a trial date. This is like a date date.” 

“There’s no difference.” 

Cheesing from ear to ear, Roman responds “there totally is.” 

By the time the two of them step inside, Logan and Janus are already making their way down the hallway in line to their theatre, though Virgil watches Janus glance back and smirk at them as he sees their hands intertwined. Virgil is almost tempted to rip free of Roman’s hold, but doesnt, and instead lets Roman lead him to the concession counter. 

Virgil pulls out his phone while Roman strikes up a short but friendly conversation with the worker, before he tells Roman what seats Logan and Janus got so they can sit by them. Getting a good look at the concession screen, Virgil can see the theatre is completely empty, which does make him feel a little better. Then Roman’s ordering a large popcorn and two drinks, before nodding towards the candy racks. 

“Hungry for chocolate or anything?” he asks, though he seems more like he’s encouraging Virgil to grab something as opposed to just merely asking. 

Virgil doesn’t answer him verbally, but reaches over to grab sour Airhead bites, which he tosses onto the counter with a grunt. 

Seemingly pleased, Roman hands Virgil the two empty cups. “Could you please get me cherry coke? And then you can get whatever you’d like,” which has Virgil walking off immediately to go do as he’s told, giving them both a little ice and a lot of soda as Roman finishes up his transaction. He comes over while Virgil’s pressing the lids on and then trades Virgil the drinks for the popcorn. 

“I’m not sure how you like your popcorn, so butter and salt how you’d like!” 

“I don’t care how it’s done.” 

Roman seems to soften a bit, and his smile falls as he places the drinks on the counter. He sets a hand on Virgil’s upper arm. “If you don’t want to be here, we don’t have to be. We can go home if that'll make you happier.” 

Virgil feels guilt swell in his gut as his head falls away from Roman’s gaze. Wordlessly, he pushes the tub under the butter machine, and moves it around so that the entire top layer is coated. He then gives it a little shake in an attempt to mix it around, before adding a few dashes of salt and setting it before Roman, as if presenting it to him. 

“The stuff underneath won’t be as good, but whatever,” he says, which again has Roman frowning. 

“Virgil, I’m serious. We don’t have to stay.” 

Uncomfortably shifting his weight back and forth on his feet, Virgil wraps his arms around himself. “Are you wanting to leave? Because I never said I wanted to.” 

“You just…” Roman trails off, and then also looks away with a sigh. “You just look miserable. If you stay here while upset, you're just going to end up associating this place with feeling upset. Or… or me with being upset. I don’t want to be the first thing you think of when you feel bad, and I never want to keep you somewhere that’s making you feel that way.” 

Roman’s phone vibrates in his pocket, which briefly throws him off, but he ends up shrugging it off and pushing Virgil’s drink towards him. 

“Please… do you actually want to stay?” 

Virgil stares at the drink, and then takes it. Though it’s difficult, he ends up giving Roman a small smile. “Yeah. I want to stay. There’s just… a lot going on.” 

Groaning playfully - seemingly relieved by the tonal shift - Roman goes “tell me about it,” and then chuckles to himself. His ease regarding the situation does help alleviate some of Virgil’s own tension, and he watches as Roman grabs three straws. He gives Virgil one, and takes one for himself of course, before winking at Virgil as he slides the third into the popcorn. Then, he very carefully positions it under the butter dispenser and pushes the button, causing the butter to spill down and into the straw, where it’s efficiently and cleanly transported to the popcorn at the bottom of the tub. And Roman lifts the straw slightly until he’s sure the middle is coated too, and then gives the tub a few more shakes. 

He then proudly lifts the tub up. “There! Now it should all be just as delicious as the top!” 

Virgil can’t help but snicker at his dramatics. He grabs his coke and candy, and walks with Roman to their theatre. “Where’d you learn to do that?” 

Roman doesn’t answer for a moment, his smile seeming a bit more forced now, before blinking twice and responding “my mom. She was a stickler for making sure the popcorn was all properly coated. Before the butter machines were moved to the self-serve counter, she used to terrorize the concessionists to make sure they did it right. Everyone was relieved when it became a do-it-yourself thing.” 

Virgil bumps lightly against Roman’s side as they walk, and neither of them say anything more. 

Once they get to their seats, the lights have already dimmed and the trailers are playing. Janus and Logan are talking between each other, but both greet the duo when they arrive. Virgil sits between Janus and Roman, with Roman and Logan sitting on the outsides. They’re in the middle of this otherwise completely barren auditorium, making it feel a lot more vast than it actually is. 

All of the previews that play are brightly-coloured, animated PG films that Virgil really has no interest in, but Roman sets the popcorn in his lap and then whispers in his ear a variety of praises, ranging from “the animation in that one is extremely experimental, and I really like it,” to “the CG there looks kind of average, but I’ve heard the story’s going to be really good,” which encourages Virgil to pay more attention to the preshow. He starts to notice the nuances in character movements he wouldn’t have picked up on otherwise, or certain words that the characters say that apparently allude to earlier movies, and when the previews end, Virgil almost wishes they weren’t late getting here so he could have seen more of them. 

The lights in the theatre darken completely as the movie starts, with all four of them reclining their seats back to get comfortable. Janus reaches over to take a handful of popcorn. And then the studio’s logos flash across the screen, leading into a live-action film with a very bubbly undertone, similar to Mary Poppins but somehow even more whimsical. 

“What’s the plot of this movie again?” Virgil quietly inquires as the main character - presumably Marjorie - starts singing. 

“Marjorie falls into another world and has to adjust to the crazy rules implemented there,” Roman explains, as he takes a sip of his coke. “Think about like… Where the Wild Things Are but with less of a ‘home is where the heart is’ moral. This is more so about how being curious is a good thing, with a dash of learning to question authority.” 

Virgil raises an eyebrow. “That feels like a rather complex message for a musical.” 

Roman smiles wide. “I know, right?! People think kids are a lot dumber than they actually are. A lot of them internalize the actions of those they look up to, including figures in media! If they see Marjorie questioning ‘well, why do we do this?’ then they’ll mimic it, which’ll help them learn more about the world! It’s actually really thoughtful…” 

Sensing there’s more to that sentence, Virgil goes to ask Roman to elaborate, but he hears Roman’s phone vibrate against the seat before he can. 

Roman’s cheeks go red in embarrassment as everyone turns to look at him, and he apologizes as he quickly fumbles to pull it out. He doesn’t silence his phone as he clicks it on, instead checking a notification. Virgil doesn’t mean to snoop, but can’t help noticing a message that says ‘You have to come over. You’re a kid, Roman, you have no choice in the matter.’ 

Roman’s Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows the spit in his mouth before he shuts his screen off and slides it between his thighs, so that he can feel it if it goes off again, but so it won’t make a noise. He then turns back to Virgil with a weak smile. 

“Sorry,” he says, “what was I saying?” 

“Kids will echo what they see in movies?” 

“Right! Yes, well… not every child has a good role model to look up to, which is why some kids grow up acting… bad.” Roman sounds like he has someone in mind. “Of course, you’re responsible for the things you choose to do, but not everyone knows better, if that makes sense. Sometimes it’s all they’ve seen. And that’s why people like Marjorie-” Roman waves his hand towards the screen, where Marjorie is in the middle of skipping through her daily routine, smiling at the people she walks past and buying a hot dog for a kid who lost his money, “ -are more important than people realize.” 

Staring, Virgil just watches the way Roman’s eyebrows crease. He’s still smiling, but he doesn’t look happy. 

“... Do you wish there were more people in the theatre?” Virgil then asks. 

Seemingly surprised at the question, Roman doesn’t have an immediate answer, but after a moment nods his head. “I do. Though, this movie has been out for a while. There was a chance it was popular when it first came out, and the lines slowly dwindled as more and more people came to see it.” 

“That makes sense.” 

Roman seems pleased at Virgil’s understanding, and then turns back to the movie. He takes some popcorn into his hand - letting Virgil keep the tub even when Virgil attempts to give it back - and tries to stay focused on the screen. 

But as Virgil watches Roman in his peripheral - weirdly focused on him instead of the film - he watches as Roman checks his phone again. And then again twenty minutes later. And the third time it happens, and Roman unlocks his phone, Virgil can’t help but read over his shoulder. 

He can’t see well in his current position, but he does see ‘...if you don’t, I’ll take David back to court’ followed by ‘do you not love me? Is that why you won’t come?’ and then ‘it’s that failure of a brother of yours poisoning your mind. You know I love you, Roman, I just want what’s best.’ 

Roman starts typing, but his thumbs quickly still. When Virgil looks up from his phone and to Roman’s face, he sees tears welling up in Roman’s eyes. 

Hearing the faint vibration in Roman’s hands, he turns his attention back to the screen to see ‘I’m your mother, Roman.’ 

Phone screen shaking slightly, Virgil can see that Roman’s trembling. His other hand is pressed over his mouth, and he’s fighting back tears - a feat that is only impressive for a few seconds until inevitably they fall past his cheeks and onto his laps with every blink of his eyelids. He’s silent, but that doesn’t mean he’s any less… terrified. His chest rapidly rises and falls, as if he’s struggling to breathe. If Virgil could hear him, he’s sure Roman would sound like he was gasping for air. 

Before he realizes what he’s doing, Virgil reaches over and sets his hand atop Roman’s, subsequently covering up the screen. 

Roman immediately turns to him with wide eyes, and is quick to turn away again to wipe his face. He smiles at Virgil - a smile that’d be rather convincing under different circumstances - and opens his mouth to apologize, but Virgil is shoving the half-empty popcorn tub into Roman’s hands before he gets the chance. 

“Let’s go get a refill,” he whispers, and Roman shuts his mouth and nods. 

Virgil grabs both of their drinks as Roman carries the tub out, and they convene at the self-serve counter. Roman’s quiet, and Virgil is at first as well, until he’s done filling their drinks up. 

“Are you… going to take the popcorn up for a refill?” Virgil asks, which has Roman - who was just staring at the tub - nodding absentmindedly. His thoughts are clearly elsewhere, and Virgil can imagine why, so he walks beside Roman as they pass their popcorn to the concessionist. It’s filled and handed back, but instead of going back to the movie, Virgil guides Roman to sit on a bench right outside their auditorium. 

He then passes Roman his coke. “Drink,” he instructs, and Roman does. Then, he picks up a few pieces of popcorn and brings it to his own mouth, before motioning for Roman to do the same with the simple encouragement of “eat.” 

That has Roman shaking his head. “I’m not hungry right now,” he replies, sympathetically. 

“Eat,” Virgil further pushes. “Trust me… just for right now. At least a handful. And then you won’t have to eat anymore if you don’t want to.” 

Roman looks unsure of Virgil’s words, but he doesn’t seem to have the energy to argue, and so does as Virgil wants and eats a handful of popcorn. He chews slowly, and wipes the excess salt on his pants, but after he’s swallowed he looks back towards Virgil. 

“Why’d you want me to eat?” he asks, and Virgil can see that though Roman’s eyes still shimmer with noticeable wetness, they’re at least not filled with full-on tears. 

Sighing, Virgil scoots a bit closer to him on the bench, letting their shoulders touch. “It’s… it’s like…” Virgil struggles for a moment, as he places his own drink between his thighs, resting his hands on the sides of it and rubbing over the condensation that drips slowly down the sides. “It’s like… a grounding mechanism? Typically when people get anxious or panicked it triggers a primal fight or flight response, even if there’s no one to fight and nothing to flee from. And because it’s a response that we had hundreds of years ago to protect us from danger, there are sometimes really simple ways to calm down following it. So your brain thinks ‘hey, if we’re running from something, we don’t have the time or safety to stop and eat,’ so if you sit down and eat something, it can help calm you down because your brain will realize that if you’re safe enough to eat, then you’re safe overall…” Virgil folds his hands around his cup, and weakly adds “does that make sense? Logan could probably explain it a lot better than I could… but it typically helps me, so I thought maybe it’d help you.”

Roman’s quiet, but after a moment eats another few pieces of popcorn, and then gives Virgil a closed-mouth smile. “Yeah. It helped.” 

Virgil glances towards him, away, and then towards him again. 

“We can… we can go back into the theatre if you want. Or we can stay out here. It’s up to you.” 

Roman smiles wider, more embarrassed this time. “It’s up to you, actually. I’ve seen this movie before.” 

“You have?” 

Roman nods. “I didn’t want to just tell you outright because I didn’t want you to think I’d be bored by the film or anything, but I came to see it when it first came out. I love animation of course, but I also love musicals, and this movie was getting high reviews from critics so I thought I’d come and see it myself.” 

Virgil reaches for some popcorn. “And you liked it enough to come see it a second time?” 

“Yes.” 

When Virgil doesn’t respond to that immediately, Roman awkwardly laughs and ends up further insisting “but really it’s only because there was nothing else playing. If you and Janus and Logan didn’t come to the movies, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with it.” 

“If you like it, then there’s no problem with you coming to see it again.” Virgil squeezes his coke, and ends up playing with the straw with his fingers. “When I was little, I used to have a stack of burnt DVDs. Apparently they belonged to my mom, but a lot of the movies were kid films, so they were entertaining enough to keep child me occupied. Well, one of the DVDs was The Nightmare Before Christmas. I don’t know if you can tell, but that’s exactly the kind of movie I would like.” 

Roman chuckles at Virgil’s words, and so Virgil relaxes further against him. 

“I watched it over and over again on loop. Of course, there were skips caused by scratches on the back of the disc - I was a child after all, and was left with a DVD that had no case to go with it - but it was watchable for a good long while. So believe me when I say I get wanting to watch a movie you like a few times over. Sometimes multiple watches help you appreciate nuances you didn’t see before.”

Roman’s hand creeps into Virgil’s lap, slowly guiding Virgil’s fingers away from his cup and entwining their digits together. 

“I think you’re very smart,” Roman says, quietly. “Thank you for sitting out here with me. Even though I totally would have generously gone and got us refills myself if you’d have let me.”

Virgil snickers, and pushes Roman away, saying “well, in that case, I’m sure you won’t mind properly buttering the popcorn then.” 

Huffing, Roman stands with the tub. “You just want to get me off the bench.” 

“Oh? Are you not feeling so ‘generous’ anymore?” 

“You’re lucky I-” 

Roman cuts himself off abruptly, cheeks going dark red, and gives Virgil a proper, cheeky smile as he scoots off without another word. Virgil watches him from afar as he heads down the hallway, and leans a bit to try and catch bits of Roman’s body peek into view as he moves about the self-serve counter. 

He’s so caught up with watching, in fact, that he doesn’t notice Janus and Logan leaving the theatre until Janus taps him on the shoulder, startling him and causing him to nearly crush his drink between his thighs. 

“You missed the end of the movie,” Janus says, as he grins at Virgil’s embarrassed display. 

“Got too caught up talking,” Virgil admits in reply, grumbling under his breath. “Didn’t realize how long it’d been.” 

“Shame,” Janus says, “Mary’s growth throughout the movie was truly spectacular.” 

“Marjorie,” Logan corrects, “but I’m inclined to agree nonetheless. I really admire her inquisitive attitude. I think it’s very realistic to question rules in a new environment, especially considering how odd some of them were.” 

“What about the music?” 

“For an original soundtrack, not too bad,” Janus answers. “I think jukebox musicals are guaranteed to sound great if proper music is picked out, so I’m always a little skeptical when a movie makes its own songs, but these ones weren’t horrid. Maybe a bit too cheesy, but nobody’s perfect.” 

Logan reaches for Virgil’s drink, which Virgil hands to him. “I personally didn’t care much for the music. I never understood why characters will randomly burst into song and everyone will treat it like it’s normal… it’s absurd!”

“It’s fiction,” Janus says with a laugh, as Roman comes back to them. 

“Oh…” he breathes, as he sees everyone convening around the bench. “Is the movie over already?” 

“It seems that way,” Virgil responds, as he pushes himself to his feet. 

Roman frowns, but it’s a very overdramatic pout as opposed to any real disappointment. “Well that sucks! Though, I guess now we have popcorn for the road…” he hums in thought as they begin walking towards the exit. Janus and Logan - having stolen Virgil’s cup - fill it with what they want before they leave, and then they all get to Roman’s car. 

It’s only once the car’s turned on that Roman suddenly lights up, and turns in his seat so that he’s facing everybody. 

Motioning wildly to the popcorn tub he’d set on Virgil’s lap, he excitedly proposes “what if we all came back to my house for a movie night?! My dads and I can hook up a sheet in the guest room, and I’m confident we have a bluetooth projector somewhere! And that way we can play whatever we want!” 

He looks between each of their faces with cute anticipation, which has Virgil brushing his bangs out of his face as he’s the first to answer “sure. I don’t have anything else going on tonight.” 

With Virgil’s confirmation, both Logan and Janus answer with affirmative “sure, why not?” and “that sounds pleasant” respectively, which has Roman happily patting his hands against the steering wheel in a rapid battering pattern. He’s nearly shaking with sheer delight, which Virgil can’t help but smile at as he relaxes in the passenger seat and pops a few pieces of popcorn into his mouth. 

Roman opens his phone to put on some music for the ride home, connecting it to the speakers and setting his phone carelessly in his cup holder. It’s unlocked, and the screen is on. 

Halfway through the first song, Virgil barely hears the phone vibrate over Roman’s belting to some cheery love-song, and instinctively glances towards it. When he does, he sees the words ‘I’ll see you next weekend’ followed by a singular period - sent separately from the prior sentence - only for the message notification to disappear up into Roman’s notification bar, reduced to just a little text icon. And suddenly Virgil’s prior pleased mood melts away, because something about that message has his hands clamming up. 

It makes him feel uncomfortable. It makes him feel sick. It makes him feel dread.

[kayfabe-is-king]

I have thoughts from last night's Dynamite and this is all within kayfabe. It's disjointed and patchy but that's because my mind has been going a mile a minute for the past week. So once again, welcome to my Ted Talk!

It was very fitting that Mox and Co. (are we still calling them the Blackpool Combat Club because that doesn't seem extreme enough at this point) attacked during the match between The Elite and The Conglomeration. That match showed in stark detail the very best and the very worst of what AEW has become. The Elite concerned more with glory and money (literal money raining down on Okada as he walks down to the ring) than about what is best for the company as a whole. And truthfully, they're coming off like a joke now in comparison to Moxley's Death Squad. Meanwhile, The Conglomeration was born of betrayal and people coming together because they a) love this sport and b) still believe in All Elite Wrestling. I lost track of the number of times Excalibur, Nigel or Tony alluded to Orange Cassidy being a leader.

“Why aren’t they coming to help?” Schiavone asked. 

Because The Elite now represent exactly what Moxley is railing against - egos and fat paychecks. This new era is a direct response to The Elite's frankly laughable "take over" of AEW. Moxley watched them, said "hold my (non-alcoholic) beer" and then showed how you really take over a wrestling promotion.

During that horror movie trailer masquerading as a wrestling promo, Moxley mentioned all the wrestlers in the back not being given a chance while overblown egos are sitting atop the AEW food chain. This, to him, is a purpose... a cause. And if he has to hurt people to achieve said goal?

"It's the cost of doing business."

Thing is - Moxley's done this song and dance before. Remember this:

(credit to @softambrollins for the two gifs above)

Once again (much like with The Shield) in Moxley's mind, something he believed in has been corrupted. The difference is that now he has the power and the muscle behind him to do something about it. He feels like it's his moral obligation to stamp out the "corruption" that has infested AEW. Something he couldn't really do when The Shield fell apart. This is Moxley exorcising those ghosts... and you know, beating the shit out of people.

If you look at the people coming to The Conglomeration's aide last night, you'll see they have something in common. These are people in the back that haven't really been used properly in a while. Private Party, who really should have had a title run by now. The Dark Order, consistently being tossed around creative with no real direction since the death of Brodie Lee. Top Flight hasn't found it's groove even though they put on consistently great matches time and again (I did laugh my ass off when Action Andretti did that springboard from the ropes and Moxley was like "nah, bro" and clocked him in the back of the head).

And while Daniel Garcia has been given pushes lately, I don't think he's been properly and consistently booked until this angle (and if they don't take the belt off of Jack and give it to Danny, there's no justice in this world). I believe these choices were intentional. A way to pull people into a long running storyline that were floundering.

Even on the BCC's side, you have Marina Shafir - an excellent technical wrestler who AEW has batted around with no real direction. Moxley has said time and again how much he admires her, so of course he wanted her as a part of this angle. She is the perfect soldier - brutal, efficient and loyal. The look of devastation on her face when she was ejected from ringside at Wrestledream? That's the look of a dedicated soldier who has (in her mind) let down her commanding officer. She will go toe to toe against anyone who stands in Moxley's way. And am I the only one wondering about that key around her neck?

Here's something else to think about. Tony Schiavone has seen the attempted hostile takeover of a wrestling promotion before. He was ringside as the New World Order was born and watched their path of destruction in WCW. Imagine seeing history repeating itself and not being able to do anything about it. Even worse, imagine seeing history repeat itself... but worse. This is the nWo dialed to 11 and unencumbered by silly little things like laws against attempted murder. 

Someone at commentary also asked where the belt was. It was never about the belt and Moxley purposely handed it off to Claudio for that very reason. He doesn’t care about the glory. He genuinely believes what he’s doing is what is necessary. And there is nothing more frightening than someone so fine with committing acts of brutality because they truly believe that is the only way. 

Now we come to our most conflicted Moxley disciple. And if you don't think he's still very much conflicted, you haven't been paying attention. Wheeler using the Busaiku Knee on Orange Cassidy while dressed like Bryan was intentional. Sure, he may have drunk the new BCC’s kool aid, but he still very much respects Bryan. He saw what he did to Bryan at Wrestldream as mercy (whether or not you agree, it's still how he saw his actions). To him, he finally put Bryan to "rest" and now feels it is his responsibility to continue Bryan’s legacy.

And that is where him and Daniel Garcia will clash in glorious battle. They are the ying and yang to each other - both love this sport and both see Bryan as their hero. One is just following the darker path that William Regal himself has laid for the likes of Moxley. While the other one believes in Bryan's way. They are the next generation of the power struggle between Bryan and Moxley - their proxies if you will. This is the most elaborate game of Risk come to life.

I have seen some people say this new storyline is "going too far". I get it - it's hardcore and some people didn't grow up watching ECW. They may not know that Terry Funk did the plastic bag spot long before they were even born. But I vividly remember those days (I was ringside for some of them - Terry Funk is hands down one of the nicest wrestlers I've ever met). And I for one, love where all of this is going. I watched the nWo from its rise to its demise and this new paradigm shift blows it out of the water. This is the evolution of that iconic angle and they picked the perfect people to do it. 

Side note - shout out to Renee for consistently doing her job with a high level of professionalism. And also pretending like her husband isn't committing attempted murder every week. Imagine how awkward it's been for her around the water cooler lately.

[docholligay]

I Saw the TV Glow

I’m essentially always up for a weird horror movie, so when I saw the ads for I Saw the TV Glow, I knew I was in. I don’t generally look up anything about a movie before I go, and in truth, prefer when a trailer doesn’t tell me all that much about what’s going to happen in a movie. This fit the bill!

Non-spoilery: Go in as blind as possible to this movie. There were a lot of things I thought this movie was going to be about, and it was not any of them. What it ended up being about was fantastic. This movie is really really going to resonate with some people my age and the ages around it. I don’t know if it will be as effective for younger people for a variety of reasons. 

Bear in mind I saw this once several months ago, with spoilers below the cut. 

OKAY. We’re in spoiler zone now, so let’s get into this: This movie is about the experience of being gay or trans, specifically in the late 90s to early aughts. We’ll get more into that later, but I want to put it on the table right now. This movie is horror in a Twilight Zone sense. That is in fact my favorite kind of horror! But if you’re seeing it billed as a horror movie, you may not get out of it what you are expecting. 

The Pink Opaque is absolutely Buffy. So much so that Jetty felt called out multiple times: They use the Buffy font, there’s a cameo from a Buffy actress, etc. The movie is not trying to hide this very well. And the Pink Opaque is not a great show! It’s more of a carriage device for these two teenagers that have something in common, something that sparks a realization between them of who they actually are. 

Throughout the show, as Owen gets more and more involved in wanting to watch the show with Maddy, we start seeing quotes in the background that could absolutely be on a high school board, but also…are very much about what is needed inm order to decide to unbury yourself, and live in the Pink Opaque. The one I remember the most, is because it’s one of my favorite quotes. “Without courage, all other virtues are meaningless.” I think about this quote all the time, because I think it is true. You can be kind, you can be intelligent, you can be loyal, but if you are a coward, those virtues mean nothing at the close of business. 

It’s impossible for me to explain to people even 7 to 10 years younger tha  me how different the world was then. I made the choice Maddy made and decided to live in The Pink Opaque as myself, but I love that it isn’t shown as consequence-free either. There are a lot of entanglements and difficulties and fights that came with that decision. You choose to live that way, in 2004, and you get to be the hero, but the hero has to constantly be on guard for the monsters around every corner. And this isn’t even me going, ‘poor pitiful me’--my life was leaps and bounds easier than 10 years before me--but it is a very very different landscape. Fucking no one bats an eye at me being gay now, realistically. 

When Maddy comes back as Tara, and says this is who she always has been, and she had to dig herself out of a fucking grave to be that, I was there, baby! I am not going to get too much into my personal life, but the process of becoming Doc was not a bloodless one. Her coming back and telling him he can have it all, he just has to be willing to die for it--fucking loved that. I have so many memories of having the same conversations with people. We couldn’t have everything. My peers had to decide between having college paid for, having a place to live, and being out, and not everyone had the brass ones to go my way. I made an impulsive, insane decision, and I have never ever regretted it. My parents couldn’t have paid for college anyhow, so fuck it. But it was a choice other people had same as I did, and again, sitting in that dark school ‘planetarium” telling Owen he can live a harder but more real life, fuck. Again, without courage, ALL OTHER VIRTUES ARE MEANINGLESS. I do genuinely feel like this movie might be a miss for a generation whose parents and social circles were simply awkward about it at worst. 

Not scary in the usual sense, but I think a great psychological horror about the costs of doing business, in this life. 

You’re poisoned, you’re buried alive, and that line about, “And you’ll never even know you’re dying.” I mean, sometimes I feel like I was a near miss from living my entire life closeted, as bizarre as that sounds for someone who left home over the matter. I am a person who just makes decisions, and what if I had made the decision to shut that part of myself off, as Owen did? 

My favorite part of this movie is when Owen shuts that part of himself off, and we see him living his life, and he has a family but we NEVER SEE THEM. Because they aren’t a real part of him either, they are all a part of the set dressing of the life he has convinced himself he wants. He is going to be a man, he is going to live as a man and tell himself that’s what he really wants. And then to end up in the bathroom, to end up vomiting all that moon juice and knowing that he has been dying inside the whole time? I thought it was such a beautifully sad ending. 

IF I had a criticism of this movie, there would be a couple handfuls: 

It can be a little on the nose, now and again. I think Maddy-as-Tara’s monologue goes on a little long and loses some of its punch. 

It doesn’t lean quite as hard into the unreliable narrator that is Owen as it could, and so I could see people going, “Oh, Tara was completely right, and Owen made the wrong choice” when even within the narrative, it is telling us that to live in the Pink Opaque is to kill who you are now. That is…not nothing. Owen has, for example, a real relationship with his mother. That’s something that can be lost. Because both me and the author made the same choice, its easy for us to write it as ‘correct’, and honestly it was only on stepping back for a bit that I’m like, “Hm, while this does a better job than 90% of the movies about this I’ve seen, i wish it would have outlaid the cost a little more” but I would want to rewatch it before I made that a HARD criticism instead of a soft one. I was still figuring out everything about the movie, and so didn’t have a chance to really analyze it in this lens. 

I had another criticism, but I actually do want to watch it again before I commit to it, upon reflection. 

[yullalightk]

WOTFI IS HERE!!!!!!! WHOOO!!!!!!

I'M SO SORRY I'M LATE! But! I watched it after the livestream countdown, and, BOI! Do I have a lot to say!! and I'll make a part 2 of the WOTFI review cause, I don't think I'll be able to fit everything in one post. And with a lot of school projects on the line. So, I'll work on pt 2! and post it tomorrow!

!Also, spoiler warning!

So... we good? Okay! strap in!!

First off the thumbnail looks AMAZING!!!!! It really got me excited as soon as I woke up at 1 in the morning lmao😂

As soon as I watched it I was actually surprised they decided not to go with the horror route like in the trailer.. But personally, I'm not gonna complain I mean that should've been expected imo.

Also, the poster is soo fricking cool!!!! Like, I can't get enough of this art style and THE WAY IT WAS ANIMATED WAS LIKE A MOVIE INTRO!!!! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!✨

The intro/Puzzles' backstory

So, I'm glad that Mr Puzzles gave us a more clearer explanation to his backstory. Even though it was something a lot of us knew already. None the less it was nice! I'm curious about the mother though, like, what was she like to Puzzles? Was she someone who didn't believe in her son's dreams as well? Or maybe someone who encouraged him to keep trying? Idk honestly, but maybe we'll get that answer in next year's WOTFI!

I also don't think he just sat in his room all day to adulthood, maybe he left his home to chase his dream but failed on multiple occasions. (Kinda like in the series where he tries to kill the crew but fails all the time) or, he watched TV all day as a coping mechanism. Trying to escape the cruelty of the world he lived in.

Also, wdhm when he said "The rest is history" like, we need more. Like how you got godlike powers? maybe that'll be explored more in WOTFI 2025!

Side note: Leggy's face when she dropped little Puzzles was funny for some reason help! IT HAD NO REASON TO BE THIS FUNNY!!😂😂

HE SWORE!!!!! YESS!!!!!!!! I swear he needs to let his anger out more, You gotta give kudos to him for enduring Mario's chaos😂

The casts!

I really LOVED the character designs! I can see how they are freaks now!

My all time favorites are SMG3, Bob, and Karen! They're designs stick out the most in the cast and I do like how they are all under Puzzles' control, like the PV movie!

Wish Saiko had more screen time though, I'm just a little disappointed at that. They could've done something interesting for her. Heck, they even gave the rest of the main cast more screen time than her.

But, maybe we'll see that in the next WOTFI? Hold up- wait a sec, I'm seeing a pattern of sorts... are, the stuff that felt lackluster in the 2024 WOTFI coming back as something better in WOTFI 2025?? That could be a possibility. I might make a theory on that, but hopefully when I'm not busy.

Side note: I swear this episode made me ship Mario and Puzzles so much!!😂😂 I mean- It's just hilarious to me!

Like when he said "Dear Mario" I know he hates him but like the way he says it made it feel like he likes him, or just toying with him!! Marware fans are eatin' good today! And he also complimated Mario on his performances on the fire perfomance!!! I know... he was doing what a judge does, try say something nice to the performers. But! That won't stop me from shipping them! And don't forget! Mario also still wanted to stay despite the hell Mr Puzzles put them through, in the rap Mario still wanted to have some fun in the amusment park! But, also glad he attacks him when Puzzles harms Mario's friend. And can be scared of him sometimes.

Now listen, I know he was trying to get Mario back so he won't ruin his show again but to me it also looks like he wants Mario to pay attention to him! kinda like a yandere😂😂 I'm just letting Marware infect my brain at this point haha.. it's becoming a curse.

Anyway that's part 1 for now. Part 2 will hopefully come out tomorrow as well, and I also have some projects to do so I know I said I will post every Saturday but that may be a little difficult, I'll get part 2 out tomorrow and I really hope that'll be the end of my review of this year's WOTFI!

Thanks for reading! hope ya'll enjoyed my WOTFI 2024 review pt 1.

[mrsaltieri-real]

Alright! Request time! Lemme get a request with Mickey, natch, but hear me out. You and he, catching a mid-afternoon movie for a date, starts off sweet, and the theater is empty except for you both. He cannot keep his hands off you when twenty minutes after the trailers happen he realizes no one else is showing up. He teases and touches till you give in and let him fuck you in the theater. Some risky, public, try to keep it down, don't get caught sex in the theater. Passionate, needy, messy, some begging, make it so, so good just like I know you will.

When Boredom Strikes (Mickey Altieri x Fem!AFAB!Reader)

You and Mickey have an afternoon date at the movies, but boredom quickly consumes him, forcing him to find alternate ways to entertain himself.

Word Count: 3k

Warning/s: language, smut, p in v, slight degradation, fingering, public/semi public sex, praise, begging, almost caught fucking, teasing, thirsty Mickey, riding, ect.

Bex Bex BEX. You know damn well what this request has done to me these last couple of days. I’m happy to oblige. Here we go!

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Mickey stood with his arm casually slung around your shoulder as he eyed the movie options up on the board, pulling a face at every single one of them. “Fuck, there’s really no halfway decent movies.”

You rolled your eyes at your boyfriend, looking up at his dramatically disgusted face. “Well, whose bright idea was it to ditch class to come watch a movie in the middle of the afternoon, Mick?”

He glanced down at you, his pretty brown eyes playfully amused and a smile lit up his face as he lifted your chin with his finger, ducking his head down to peck you lightly on the lips, in which you eagerly reciprocated. “We missed our last date because I had to edit my short film and you’ve got a packed schedule for the rest of this week so I didn’t really have much of a choice now, did I?” He pointed out, reluctantly moving his face away from yours.

You nodded your head a little as you looked up at the board yourself, eyes scanning the cheesy rom com movies, every single one of them containing the exact same main plot point of a girl who didn’t realise love was right there all along. You knew Mickey hated these sort of movies with a passion, claiming they had no depth and no entertainment value whatsoever.

Being with a film geek like Mickey meant you were subjected to listen to his intensely angry ramblings about how cinema was quote “going down fucking hill,” and how there’s “nothing like the classics anymore.” You’d listen to him with a cocked eyebrow and watch him as he would rifle through his seemingly never ending cases of illegally pirated films that varied from action to mystery then to his personal favourite, horror.

As much as you loved him, you never quite understood his affliction with horror movies. Sure, you enjoyed them, but you’d see the intense excitement in his eyes as he watched some blonde girl with big tits get brutally butchered and ripped apart and you’d listen to him rant about the “authenticity” of the production value with blank but affectionate eyes. Nobody could say that he wasn’t passionate.

The theatre attendant sighed, her nails drumming impatiently on the counter as she stared unseeingly past the two of you with a bored expression. Mickey glanced at her, unable to stop the small roll of his eyes at her attitude.

“Just pick one and we’ll watch it. And choose fast because this one’s about to fall asleep.” Mickey said to you under his breath, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet. You knew better than to offer to pay, knowing you’d be met with a disgusted look of horror at the very idea of you wanting to pay for absolutely anything.

You loosely gestured to the least sappy looking movie for his benefit, secretly relieved you didn’t have to sit through yet another bloody mess of a film and Mickey paid the attendant and took the tickets as she mumbled, “enjoy your movie,” He nodded his head at her politely and picked up the popcorn and drinks, begrudgingly making his way into the theatre with a grimace on his face at the thought of having to sit in the freezing theatre for two hours and watch this god awful movie. But as he walked toward the theatre doors, popcorn under one arm and you under the other, he noticed how deserted the place was. Just you, himself and 3 attendants in the entire place. He smiled a little to himself, knowing full well he could have a lot of fun with this little benefit when the boredom would truly take over.

As you both settled down in your assigned seats beside each other Mickey placed the popcorn by next to his feet, leaning back on the chair with his eyes scanning the room. Just as he’d hoped, it was completely deserted apart from the two of you. He glanced at your face, the smile still on his lips as you looked back at him, asking him in a suspicious tone, “what?”

“Nothing, nothing.” He said, diverting his eyes from you and to the large screen as the trailers began to play.

“Give me my popcorn.” You said, holding out your hand expectantly.

“No, no, absolutely not.” Mickey shook his head as he spoke, pushing your hand away gently.

“What? Why?”

“Baby, you always finish your popcorn before the movie even starts and what happens? Oh, Mickey.” He mocked your voice in an absolutely terrible impression, twirling imaginary hair around his finger as he spoke. “I finished all my popcorn, give me yours.” He looked at you with knowing eyes and a playful smile on his lips as he dropped his hand back down onto the arm rest. “Just wait for the opening titles at least.” He said in his normal voice.

“You think you know me so well. I don’t fucking sound like that. Ass.” You grumbled under your breath, slumping back in your seat with a pout. He laughed at you affectionately, reaching for your hand and bringing it up to his lips, kissing it gently.

“Huh, guess it’s just us.” You mused as you watched one of the attendants close the theatre doors, leaving just you and Mickey in the large dark room with nothing but the glowing light of the screen shining down on the two of you.

“Guess it is.” Mickey said lightly, shifting in his seat and dropping your hand in favour of resting his palm on the smooth bare skin of your thigh, his fingers lightly tracing shapes and leaving goosebumps in their wake.

This wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Mickey was big on casual physical contact, especially whilst watching movies. The cheerful opening of the movie caught your attention and your eyes set on the screen, deciding to make the most of your date together by actually enjoying the movie, even if he didn’t.

Twenty minutes into the film and Mickey was bored out of his mind. You seemed engrossed with the movie, shushing Mickey every couple of minutes when he tried to talk to you or complain about the “god awful” film.

“This is so fucking sh-“

You swatted at his arm lightly, shushing him once again and he groaned, slumping back in his seat and letting his head fall backward against the soft material of the chair. The two dimensional characters seemed to mock him through the screen as the actors paraded around with an awful performance. He physically recoiled as he heard the cheesy lines being spoken.

Nobody fucking talks like that. He thought to himself with a grimace.

He began to think of what he could do to make this date a little more interesting. He quickly scanned the theatre double checking the room once again to make sure it was empty before his fingers slowly danced across your thigh, casually moving in between your legs.

He chuckled a little as you slapped his hand, pinning your legs together as you sent him a small glare. “No, Mickey.” You said as sternly as you could muster. He looked at you completely unphased and raised an eyebrow, but said absolutely nothing.

One of Mickey’s favourite pastimes is fooling around with you in semi-public places. Semi-public was okay, semi-public was fun and exciting. It was even encouraged. There was only a risk of being caught. You knew exactly what he was thinking at the moment, what he wanted to do. But doing it here, in the middle of a movie theatre? That was a little too risky for your liking. You felt his hand move back to your thigh after a couple of seconds, still tracing small shapes onto your skin with a feather light touch. You clenched your teeth, staring at the screen to try and focus on the movie again, but now that felt almost impossible.

How the fuck did he always manage to do this to you? Completely divert your attention and make you focus explicitly on him and what you wanted him to do to you? The fact he didn’t even need to speak in order for you to waver on your insistence not to fuck him in a movie theatre was almost making you angry with yourself and your lack of ability to stand by your decisions.

He waited until you relaxed your rigid stance and your legs unstiffened, his fingers still grazing your skin gently before he made another much slower move. His fingers hardly even touched you as he lightly brushed your inner thigh. He smiled to himself a little when he heard your breath hitch a little and felt you look up at him with imploring eyes. He made sure his eyes were still set on the screen as if he was completely sucked into the crappy movie. You looked down at his hand, tugging at your bottom lip with your teeth as it moved upward underneath your skirt, feeling his fingertips glide up your inner thigh, your legs opening for him as though they had a mind of their own before feeling him very lightly grazing your clit through the soft cotton material of your already damp panties.

You shifted a little, fingers digging into the dark red upholstery of the arm of the chair, your legs instinctively inching even wider for him and you heard him let out a small, satisfied laugh as he felt the damp patch.

Fuck.

“Look who's changed her mind.” He murmured softly under his breath. You ignored him, eyes fluttering closed as you felt him move your panties to the side, his index finger slowly sliding up the length of your slit to collect moisture before torturously circling your clit with a pace that was so slow, so light, that it was almost painful. He let out another chuckle as he felt the heat on his fingers and heard the small whimper fall out from between your lips, his eyes still not moving from the screen.

Your head fell back against your seat as his fingers gradually increased speed, circling over your clit in the way he knew drove you crazy, but not quite applying enough pleasure for you to genuinely enjoy it. Mickey shifted a little in his seat so he was leaning toward you, eyes finally dragging away from the screen and to your face, watching you with dark and almost amused eyes as your chest heaved and your grip on the armrest tightened so hard your knuckles turned white. His fingers suddenly abandoned your clit in favour of plunging two of them knuckle deep into your pussy and causing you to let out a loud, unfiltered moan.

“Shh.” He whispered to you, his free hand covering your mouth as he continued to move his long fingers inside of you, hooking and curling them to graze the spot inside of you that was bound to make you cum sooner rather than later if he carried on.

Your eyes nervously flickered around the room again, terrified you’d missed a spectator in one of the chairs that would turn around and find some girl getting fingered by her boyfriend in the middle of a movie theatre. Of course there was no one, but his free hand remained on your mouth as he leaned forward, pressing a gentle kiss to your cheek and before resting his forehead on your temple.

“You gotta be quiet, okay?“ he said in your ear, another twist of his fingers inside of you causing you to moan against his hand in response. His fingers abruptly stopped moving, frozen inside of you and you looked at him in desperate confusion as his other hand moved from your mouth to slide down behind your head, gripping your hair firmly by the roots and forcing you to look into his eyes. “Do you promise you’ll be quiet?” He whispered, hand dropping from your mouth so you could respond.

“Mmm- mm yes.” You gasped out, your voice pleading and almost whiny as you bucked your hips against his hand, desperate to feel friction again. “Please, Mickey.”

“Look at you.” He said tauntingly. “Twenty minutes ago you were slapping my hand away and now here you are, dripping down my arm and begging for me to get you off in the middle of a movie theatre.”

He suddenly pulled his fingers out of you, bringing them up and pressing them against your lips. You eagerly took his fingers into your mouth, sucking your own arousal off of them eagerly. He let out somewhat of a growl as he felt your tongue swirl around his fingers as you greedily tasted yourself and he quickly glanced behind him at the door before he slid his fingers out of your mouth slowly to unbuckle his belt. As he did, you were almost too eager to drop to your knees so you could blow him but he stopped you with his hand, shaking his head once whilst saying, “No, no,” and pulling his jeans and briefs down so his cock was just about out, already hard and pressed against his toned stomach. “Panties off, leave the skirt on.”

Your eyes widened a little as you hesitated, glancing up at the theatre doors. Mickey followed your gaze and rolled his eyes a little at you. “What, so you’re fine letting me finger your pussy here but you don’t want to fuck? Come on now, baby.”

You could hear the sarcasm in his voice and you scowled at him, but obediently removed your panties, discarding them on the floor by your feet.

“Good girl.” Mickey grinned at you, looking victorious as he grabbed your arm as soon as they were off, practically yanking you onto his lap. You straddled him with your knees either side of him, just about hovering over him as you felt the flushed head of his cock lightly graze your swollen clit, the sensation so slight yet so intense it sent a small shiver throughout your entire body. Mickey felt it too, sighing a little as he felt you just barely touching him.

The light of the huge screen dully illuminated the two of you as Mickey hitched your skirt around your waist before sliding his hands around to grip your ass, spreading you open for him as he angled his hips up, groaning quietly as he slowly began filling you. You let out a gasp that was a little too loud at the satisfying stretch, causing Mickey to stop abruptly, gripping your hips so you couldn’t move.

“What did I say?”

“I- I’m sorry, please don’t stop.” You begged him as quietly as you could. He could feel your body trembling with need and he couldn’t help but oblige you.

His eyes remained on your face, though you were hardly visible in the dim light of the screen and he smiled at your desperate expression before continuing to push up into you, sighing in satisfaction at the familiar feeling of your pussy clenching around him as he did. You angled your hips downward, impatient at his slow pace so you could envelop him completely and almost too eagerly. The thrill of fucking him in a public place where a stranger could walk in at any given moment and see the two of you was more exciting than you had anticipated, your earlier anxiety and concerns becoming nothing more than a distant and irrelevant memory. It made you more eager and hungry for him, more than you could have even begun to imagine. It took Mickey by surprise as he let out a small, breathless laugh as your hips rolled against him, thoroughly enjoying the reluctantly quiet moans you were panting in his ear.

“Such a whore.” He whispered into your hair, sliding one of his hands up your back and gripping the back of your neck under your hair. The sound of his voice in your ear as you rode him sent tingles through your body, spurring you on. “Look at you, riding me like a slut in the middle of a movie theatre, fucking acting like you didn’t want this the whole time. Bad fucking girl.” You groaned at his words, throwing your head back and moving your hands to rest behind you on his thighs, feeling the familiar need for him to take control. He obliged you once again, his hands resting your waist and holding you still as he began to grind his hips upwards and fuck deep into you, treating you as if you were his very own sex doll.

You almost cried out, turning your head and biting into the soft skin of your shoulder as you felt him thrust up into you, feeling his cock hitting all of the right places. You felt the slight stubble of his trimmed hair prick and grind over your clit, stimulating you perfectly as your nails dug into his thighs, making him let out a small hiss and grind up into you even faster, watching intently as your tits bounced from behind your thin tank top.

Your body was held still in his firm grip with your only movements being a reaction from him as he fucked you to his own accord as you tried hard not to make too loud of a sound. One of his hands moved from your waist to slide between the two of you, his thumb applying pressure to your clit and moving in small, calculated circles. His head fell forward to watch himself sliding in and out of your convulsing pussy, groaning as he felt you clench and tighten around him. He knew you were close to cumming when he felt your legs start to shake beside him and he knew he was close too. Just watching you with your mouth biting into your own shoulder to stop yourself from screaming as he fucked up into you in the middle of the day in a movie theatre was driving him insane, and he didn’t feel the need to prevent your impending orgasm or his own, the need to tease you disappeared in favour of feeling you cum on his dick.

Your head lifted from your shoulder and you looked at him, panting desperately with wide eyes. “I- I’m gonna- p- please can I-“

Mickey suddenly let out a sharp gasp and quickly grabbed you by your arms that were still propping you up by your hands on his thighs and hastily pulled you toward him, gently but quickly turning you around so you were sitting on his lap and he tugged at the end of your skirt so it covered the sight of his dick still stuffed inside of you. You frowned a little in surprise at the sudden unwelcome change, his heart hammering against your back and his panting breath on the back of your neck. You went to glance back at him in confusion only to see the theatre doors wide open and an attendant stroll in.

You looked at Mickey’s face in alarm but his eyes were set on the screen, refusing to meet you. You turned your head back around and looked at the screen, seeing nothing. You weren’t even sure what the movie was about anymore but you stared at the characters desperately. Mickey’s hand rested on your hip as the theatre clerk stood by the door, eyes scanning the room. It was just dark enough that the man wouldn’t be able to spot your panties bunched up on the floor, let alone you sat with your boyfriends still rigid cock up inside of you. To him, it probably looked as though you were sat on his lap cuddling him.

You shifted anxiously, feeling Mickey’s breathing change as you did so and you realised that at this angle, he could really feel you. Your eyes flickered to the utterly bored looking attendant who seemed to have his attention grabbed by the movie as an idea started ringing in your head. You slightly adjusted yourself, rising up a little and angling your hips back down. You heard him take in a sharp breath, his fingers bruising your hips as you moved very calculated and slow, unable to wipe the satisfied smile off your face as you felt his cock twitch almost pathetically inside of you.

“Filthy bitch wants to get caught.” You heard him mutter between his teeth.

You shrugged every so slightly, responding to him in a hushed whisper, “you started it. I’m finishing it.”

[disasterarea-podcast]

Okay, I know I probably don’t need to explain this to all of you, but also I want to talk to *somebody* about how I wish I had the sort of pull that would let me see “Society of the Snow” before it ends up on @netflix on January 4th.

“Alive” came out when I was in high school. I was a sophomore, I think? I just know I watched it a bunch for historical reasons (disaster! Survival! Struggle!) and superficial reasons (I was sixteen and Ethan Hawke was in danger!). It was on HBO a lot back then. Or it felt that way, because I watched it every time it came on.

As per usual, I watched the movie, so I went and got the book. (I have an Audible credit, so I’m preordering the audiobook of “Society of the Snow” for work. It comes out in a couple of days, FYI.) The movie is … sanitized, to say the least. They can’t avoid the eating of the dead, or showing it on occasion. But in real life, the situation was more blatant, because … well, who are you going to hide it from? They ate everything else, or at least tried to, before resorting to the dead. And then when they did resort to the dead, they ate it ALL.

The thing is, Uruguayan culture was heavy on beef. “Alive” (the book) describes it the way the Irish depended on potatoes. Eating the dead was difficult, but as Catholics they were able to talk it out and tie it into the rosary and taking the body and blood of Christ into their own. I’m not even a Catholic anymore, but I think even my latent Catholic training might kick in just a tad to help reassure me in a situation like that if I had doubts. (Note: I have been doing this podcast for WAY too long. Survival cannibalism wouldn’t even make me bat an eye at this point.)

My point is that in the real situation, the survivors used everything. And I mean everything. There were only three or four parts of the body they couldn’t eat - I think the genitals were on that list, but don’t quote me on it - but the rest? They picked the bodies clean. They needed to. There’s a photo of the survivors sitting outside the plane, hanging out, smiling for the camera. It’s usually edited. Everything else is kept, but what is usually clipped or blurred is a very clear shot of a human spine, not a spot of meat left on it, just … lying there. It might as well be an airplane seat, or a discarded jacket, or any of the other items scattered about.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for every single one of the people who went through that ordeal. The details are traumatizing enough without having lived through it. Every time somebody makes a “rugby players eat their dead” joke, I cringe.

So here I am sitting watching “Alive” again, because fuck it. The thing is, I have a fondness for this movie based a lot on high school and watching it lots and it introducing me to a survival story I’d never heard of. But I would always be the first to point out I’d love a redo. It’s not as accurate as it could be, it’s in English, it misses out on things like Carlitos Paez’s father searching for him and the others the whole damn time and the reception after they came back.

I’m hoping “Society of the Snow” has all of the things the first movie lacked. I want to see the reception when they came back. I can’t wait to see Carlitos playing his dad, and I hope we get that moment where he reads the list of survivors over the radio and his voice breaks when he gets to his son’s name. I hope we get the reality of survival cannibalism — that it’s not murder, that it’s not pretty, that you might get a little blinded to the horror of the reality.

The trailers for “Society of the Snow” gives me hope it does the story the justice it deserves. There are so many disaster stories that, while they may have gotten TV movies, I would love to see done for the big screen. Hillsborough. The Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. The Galveston Hurricane. The Johnstown flood. But honestly, the trailers for “Society of the Snow” look gorgeous and respectful. Let’s do more movies like this for more disasters.

[qilingxiong]

i'm intrigued by how, along with li xiangyi and di feisheng's interactions speaking for themselves in depicting a much more familiar bond than one might initially think, mysterious lotus casebook is also actively highlighting the importance and nature of that relationship— to di feisheng at least— by comparing/contrasting it to his dynamic with jiao liqiao in multiple ways.

on a couple different occasions (up to episode 31 as that's as far as i've watched scenes from at this point), these two relationships are framed in dialogue as being equal and therefore vying for attention. in episode 16, you have jiao liqiao giving a speech about how di feisheng ignores her, rejects her romantic/sexual advances, actively seems to despise her, and the reason she finds for all this is li xiangyi. she views however di feisheng sees li xiangyi as being rival to her feelings, something to compete against. it's brought up again in episode 27, where she complains about how di feisheng was obsessed with duelling li xiangyi to the point that he cared about nothing else, and that obsession with him apparently hasn't changed in the present.

jiao liqiao is thoroughly obsessed with di feisheng herself, deeply possessive/defensive of him, which extends to her declaring to the as-yet-unnamed man in the hood (again in episode 27) that di feisheng is hers and no one else is allowed to touch or hurt him. later in episode 31, going off of the preview trailer, di feisheng tells his henchman to tell the wansheng clan that li lianhua/xiangyi's life is his. the wording of both lines is similar and gets across the same message, phrased as a threat: this person belongs to me, and everyone else is hands off. the two relationships involved are being understood by the script here as being similar in sentiment.

aside from dialogue, there's some other events that come up where these dynamics interact in comparable settings, but the details mark them with vastly different emotions. take the meal between di feisheng and jiao liqiao in episode 19. in my opinion it's a very smart scene that's absolutely horrible to watch, because di feisheng and jiao liqiao's relationship is so off— neither of them trust each other and never will! their conversation and interactions are poking at the power dynamics of status and knowledge and it's a very, very uneasy back and forth. there's horror movie-esque violin sawing in the background throughout. the scene ends with di feisheng telling jiao liqiao she doesn't belong at his side, but under his sword with the other traitors he's killed. no one comes out of this scene feeling good, including the viewer.

a singular episode later and we have another meal, this time centered on fang duobing, li xiangyi, and a-fei, newly woken up without his memories. despite the natural wariness a-fei currently carries, this entire sequence is far more lighthearted and easy-going for him. he's squabbling over food with fang duobing before the latter storms off, and then it's just a-fei and li xiangyi. their conversation, too, is far more honest and earnest than any exchange di feisheng has had with jiao liqiao, and rather than his part ending with threatening to kill someone, the most significant thing a-fei says is that although he doesn't believe everything li xiangyi has told him, he believes his past self wanted li xiangyi to live. it's the only thing he believes for certain.

another contrasting component of these two scenes is eating behaviour. throughout the show di feisheng treats food in a very deliberate way, and he does not eat around other people. or when he does, such as in episode 8 while sitting with fang duobing, it's very hurriedly (i know it's played for laughs, but where/why do you think di feisheng learned to eat like someone was going to take his food away from him?). even without recalling past experiences, a-fei tends to separate himself from others during meals; he walks by and takes fang duobing's rice before eating by himself outside lianhualou in episode 20, and in the girls' mansion, while li xiangyi, fang duobing, and qing'er/zhaoling discuss the case around a meal, a-fei sits by himself at another table. as late as shishou village in episode 26 he still prefers to stand guard by the door, instead of being seated at dinner with li xiangyi, fang duobing, and the village elder.

this is a pattern that endures during di feisheng and jiao liqiao's meal. i don't know that they actually got to the food given the weight of their conversation, and the scene cuts before we see the end. given how unhappy di feisheng looks at the sight of the laid-out table (and her), and how close she presses to him when they sit down, i'm inclined to think he wouldn't have been comfortable enough to eat. we only see them both drink wine. as far as i can recall, there are only two occasions in the show so far where we see di feisheng eat with both contentment and while taking his time, and the earlier one is this first meal he has as a-fei. he's bantering and smiling and seems genuinely happy where he is, sitting with li xiangyi. (the second instance is in shishou village when he's alone with fang duobing and they swap bread and water. but that's for a different time.) within the environments of these two meals there's a massive contrast in how trusting di feisheng is around the other person he's with, shown in both dialogue and uncommented-on behaviour. with li xiangyi he seems to feel far more safe.

in all these different moments throughout the show, there are parallels between di feisheng's relationships with jiao liqiao and li xiangyi. although the feisheng/xiangyi relationship cannot be said to be explicitly romantic, this pattern compares it to a dynamic that does have romance involved (albeit in one-sidedly). in relation to that dynamic, feisheng and xiangyi's interactions are seen as either equal to it in intensity, or even stronger in trust. this all works as a way of indirectly coding these two as having a romantic relationship, or at least you can read it as such. at the very least, it shows that di feisheng holds his relationship with li xiangyi as more meaningful or significant to him than any other prospect of romance presented to him in the show. good job, lotus casebook. i'm blowing the writing team a kiss

[fromasgardandback]

Cold Rainy Days Headcanon

Eddie Munson x Reader

masterlist | oneshots

Eddie hated when it would rain. he craved the sunlight and his mood showed it

some days he would be up for the rain if it meant that he could stay inside and read his books or learn a new Metallica song

he especially loved when his girlfriend would come over to spend the day with him

they baked brownies together and while they were in the oven, cuddles were a must on the couch

he would read to her his Lord Of The Rings book and she would read him one of her Agatha Christie novels

“Baby, can we chill with a movie and cuddle? It’s freezing outside and I need you to warm me up.” Eddie whined a little.

yeah, Eddie was also a big baby when it was cold outside. the months of December to March were cuddle season more than the other months

rainy days were often during the fall weather living in Indiana, but cold months were reserved for snow days

“I’m coming, baby boy.” She chuckled bringing over the fluffiest blanket they had and laid upright on the couch in a position to hold him.

he laid his lead on her chest, wrapping his arms around her middle, and nuzzling into her

he protested any time she needed to move for comfort or to use the bathroom

movie marathon ensued after a well-needed nap. they normally watched horror movies for Eddie’s enjoyment, but when he was extra cuddly, he became a big softy for romantic comedy films

“I love you, but if you tell any of the guys that I watched Dirty Dancing and liked it, I will not be afraid to run over you with the van.” Eddie mumbled munching on popcorn and other sweets they made.

She laughed hard, holding onto his arm for support, “I promise, tough guy. I won’t say anything about you liking how Swayze moves.” She held in her second fit of giggles.

living in the trailer, there was no fireplace, so when his girlfriend would come over, she brought candles with her. some scented and some unscented, which were mainly saved for the bedroom on anniversaries or special occasions

“I have a question for you?” Eddie looked up from his notebook. He took the opportunity to write out some more campaign ideas.

“Yes, handsome?” She looked up.

“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Eddie pondered, reaching across the small table to hold her hand.

“I don’t really know yet. I know that I want a job in musical journalism. Hopefully, I could write for a magazine or record company. I want to travel with you and possibly document you're touring the country after Corroded Coffin gets signed of course.” She smiled wide.

“Wait, I’m in your future plans?” He was taken aback by her bold comments about their shared future together.

“Eddie Munson, you are my future.” She smiled even wider, if that was possible, and walked around to sit on his lap, holding his face while giving him a passionate kiss.

[bowie-starss]

mungrove prompt. eddie and billy cuddling on a rainy night in the munson trailer watching a horror movie <3 🥺

Billy is just a wet cat of a man. A cat left in the rain and Eddie has the towels for him

Lately, Eddie found himself staying up later and later into the night with no sign of sleep. His record was 5 am before promptly passing out for an hour until his alarm went off.

It seemed Eddie wasn’t the only one struggling this way. 

The rain had started early that evening and only got worse as the night went on. It was pouring, drowning out the sound of a car pulling up to the Munson trailer. Eddie was startled out of his half-asleep daze on the couch by rapid knocking on the front door. Apparently, he was taking too long to answer because the knocking just would not let up.

Eddie clicked off the TV- he hadn’t been watching it anyway- and peaked out of the blinds for a hint at whoever could be at the door at this hour. 

A deep blue Chevy Camaro sat just in front of Eddie’s trailer, and there was only one person in Hawkins who owned a Camaro that color. There was only one person who owned a Camaro at all. 

Oh, Billy. 

Billy was no stranger to showing up at Eddie’s unannounced as they didn’t have a good way to communicate yet, but he typically didn’t do it at- what was it now? 2 a.m? Whatever it was, Billy was not the type to show up then.

Eddie opened the front door to exactly what he expected at this point: Billy drenched in rain water. How long had he been standing there while Eddie fought for sleep on the couch?

“You look ridiculous,” Eddie blurted as he pulled Billy inside. The blonde stayed uncharacteristically quiet. “Stay here.” As if Billy had any plans of moving. “I’ll get some towels. And clothes.” Eddie was gone for a blink, returning with an excessive amount of towels and a set of pajamas he knew Billy liked.

All of the items were set aside except for one towel Eddie wrapped around Billy. “Bad day, huh?” Eddie asked, smiling sadly. Billy didn’t need to respond verbally. He sighed and buried his face into the towel, and that was enough to describe his day. Eddie nodded. “Yeah, me too,” he said.

After being aggressively rubbed dry and changing in the living room, leaving him looking more or less like a stray cat, Billy was left to sort through Eddie’s movie collection while Eddie hung up the wet clothes in the bathroom. “Cool stuff, huh?” Eddie said as he returned to join Billy on the floor.

Billy wordlessly held up a tape. The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! Point taken. Billy set it aside. “Where do you even find these?”

Eddie shrugged. “When Family Video decides to clean out their shelves they sell all the old and weird stuff no one’s rented for dirt cheap. The other half of the collection is stuff my uncle picked up.” As Billy popped in a horror movie, Eddie asked, “I thought we were trying to sleep?”

“You can.” Billy backed off to the couch. “I’m not.”

That bad of a day that just going to bed was off the table.

Eddie decided not to argue with it. He found himself falling asleep to the weirdest things, so a slasher on screen didn’t matter. He joined Billy on the couch and opened his arms, letting Billy crawl into his spot in them. He dropped his full weight onto Eddie, making the other squeak, before tucking his head in just under Eddie’s chin. Eddie didn’t think the blonde could actually see the screen, but maybe that’s not what he wanted. Maybe he wanted the background noise. Weird choice, but Eddie couldn’t really judge, when he understood it.

Eddie’s hands combed through Billy’s still damp hair and tugged gently at the drier curls. “I guess you’re staying the whole night then, huh?” There was only a ‘mpfh’ from Eddie’s chest, and Eddie chuckled as if it meant something. It did, of course. “Alright, then. You know you’re welcome.”

[morganski-19]

Steddie Week Day 2: Angst

@steddie-week

apparently, I can never leave things as a one-shot so today's submission is a continuation of yesterday's. tomorrow's will also be a continuation of this idea so I will properly link it all once it is done.

part 1, part 3

Steve walks up to Eddie’s trailer, muttering small encouragements under his breath. It’s no big deal, just him and Eddie alone. No one to take his focus away or distract him before he says something stupid. No, just him and Eddie in an empty trailer, alone. 

He knows exactly what’s going to happen. Eddie’s going to say something nice like he always does, and Steve is going to flush. Struggle to find something to say in return and instead, just make a total fool of himself and say something too far. Eddie will laugh it off like he does and it returns back to the comfortable silence between two good friends. 

Because it totally wasn’t awkward to just sit in silence with someone while skirting off touches and trying too hard not to stare that you just end up doing it anyway. Totally not awkward. 

All Steve hopes is that he can get through one night without spiraling. Being around Eddie was enough, he can’t let his mind wander to places he knows he’ll never come back from. If he leans into the touch that Eddie loves to give or the smile that seems to form whenever Steve is around, there will be no coming back from that. He’ll tell Eddie how he feels and how he wants this to be more. But it can’t. 

Eddie didn’t like Steve like that. Hell, Steve didn’t even know if he liked guys. Under the assumption that he did, Steve couldn’t help but think that he was so not what Eddie’s type would be. He couldn’t imagine a metalhead dating a preppy ex-jock like him. No, he’d go for someone a bit more rough around the edges. Someone who liked the same music and movies, who didn’t have to stop and ask a million questions every time he talked about something Steve didn’t understand. Someone who didn’t have bad days where his head just couldn’t stop spinning and any small noise made him want to throw up. 

Someone who wasn’t Steve. Because Steve seemed to mess up every relationship he’s ever been in, and he didn’t want to mess up whatever he had with Eddie. 

He knocks on the trailer door, taking a deep breath before putting on a smile he knows is fake. There is stumbling around coming from inside the trailer before the door whips open, Eddie greeting Steve with his big smile. “Stevie, glad to see you actually showed up.”

“I said I would, didn’t I,” he says, trying to be playful but just coming off annoyed. 

Eddie rolls his eyes. “With the way you’ve been avoiding me the past few weeks, I was waiting for a phone call with an excuse.” He leads Steve into the house, shutting the door behind them. “But here you are, and as promised. The late tapes.”

He holds out a stack of two tapes. “There’s supposed to be three,” Steve comments as he takes the tapes out of Eddie’s hands. 

“I am well aware of that. I thought we could watch that one since I know you’re not a fan of horror. Don’t want to have to hold you’re hand when you get too scared.”

The lump returns in Steve’s throat. “Thanks,” he squeaks out, unable to find a response that would make him look better. He really does hate horror movies. 

Eddie brushes him off. “What are friends for, right? Go on, settle in. I’m getting a beer, want one?”

Steve gives him a small nod and focuses on the couch, sitting in his normal spot. Eddie wanders off to the kitchen, muttering something Steve can’t make out under his breath. 

Friends. Steve and Eddie were friends, nothing more. He knew that, forced himself to recognize it on a daily basis. It used to bring him some happiness, knowing that he at least had Eddie in his life. But as they got close, the affection he had for the other man only grew. Now being around him hurt. 

Because Eddie would throw around words not knowing how they would affect Steve. Calling him nicknames that bordered on the line of romantic. Calling him sweetheart or princess just to crawl under his skin, but them having the opposite effect, only making Steve flush instead of getting annoyed. Saying “It’s a date” when they both knew it wasn’t. It was just a regular hangout, but Eddie would call it that just to tease him. 

And Steve couldn’t stop his reactions. His face would betray him as blood rushed to it, painting his face red. His throat would close up with a lump so big that he could barely get a word out. Insides tying up in a knot only to remind him that he was so out of his comfort zone. 

He doesn’t really know why he acts like this, usually acting so smooth and confident around the people he likes. Maybe because there was always the knowledge in the back of his head that if he struck out with the next girl, there would probably be one that wanted him. Even when he was constantly striking out, he never was short on finding words, instead, they just flew out of his mouth in the most awkward way possible. But he was Steve Harrington then, that at least got him something. 

That something didn’t work with Eddie. His ‘Harrington Charm’ was put on the sidelines when the other man was around. Because when Steve was around Eddie, he wasn’t ‘Steve Harrington the old king of Hawkins High’. He was just Steve, plain old Steve who was traumatized and hurt beyond what any other person his age has been. Steve who was fragile and gentle in all the right ways. Steve who was insecure about his appearance and wondered who could see through the cracks of his mask enough to see that he’s not who he claims to be. 

Eddie never saw that though, even though the mask tends to slip whenever Steve was around him. Because out of all the things Eddie did, he never pitied Steve for his pain, never made him feel less than for having a bad day. Never expected anything more from Steve that he couldn’t give, only wanted what he could. He just wanted to be around Steve for Steve. 

It was so easy to fall for Eddie because of that. How could he not? It sometimes felt that there were only two people in the world who knew who Steve really was, Robin and Eddie. The two people he could be himself around and would never get any judgment from. And Robin was his platonic soulmate, it only made sense that the other person would take the other side of his heart. 

“Alright, Stevie,” Eddie plops down on the couch and hands Steve a beer, clanking their bottle together. “Let’s watch this thing.”

Eddie tosses his arm across the back of the couch, hand ghosting over Steve’s shoulder. He shifts, pulling away from the touch he so wants to sink into. “Yeah,” he mumbles. “Let’s watch it.”

[saltmannequin]

New Girl (Pt. 2)

Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

wc: 3.7k

warnings: discussions of drug addiction (cocaine), allusions to abuse, angst, marijuana use, reader's mom clearly has some issues she needs to work through

a/n: thank you for all the support on the first part of this fic! i hope you love this part and i will be posting part three soon <3

------

Your first week in Hawkins had passed quickly and it was fair to say that it didn’t prove as disappointing as you had thought it would. Most of your week you spent with your newfound friends: Eddie, Robin, Steve and Nancy. You had met up four times that week, all listening to music, watching movies and swapping stories. Somehow Robin always ended up on the floor. It was fun, and you were surprisingly happy to be in Hawkins.

It was now Wednesday evening and you were sunk into your favourite neighbor's couch, joint hanging from your lips. Eddie paced around somewhat too nervously for your liking.

“Dude, mellow out. They’re only thirty minutes late. ’M sure they’re fine. Steve probably just can’t get his hair to sit right or something. They’re just running late.” You spoke out suddenly, drowning out the incessant thud thud thud from Eddie’s socked feet on the floorboards of the trailer.

“But what if they just bail?” Your heart ached a little, wondering why he didn’t want to be alone with you. Were you too annoying? Did he only talk to you ‘cause the others liked you? It was that moment that you realised that you had developed a small crush on the fluffy-haired metalhead moving in front of you.

Sure, you thought Eddie was cute the moment you first saw him, but being someone who rarely ever dated, you never viewed him in a romantic way. Until of course, Robin started pointing out little things when you sat together with Nancy at lunch. Things you had never noticed before; the way he would make the younger members of Hellfire laugh, how often he held doors open for people, and how he bounced slightly when he walked, it never clicked until that moment, that uneasy feeling of anticipation you’d get around him, the way your heart pounded in your chest when he sat a little too close to you. Everything became apparent.

You scoffed lightly, before composing yourself. Eddie couldn’t know you liked him, you didn’t want to embarrass yourself by liking someone that clearly wasn’t interested in you. You turned your slight frown into a playful smile. “Can't handle hanging with me alone, Munson?”

He froze slightly and straightened his back before resuming his pacing, which had now slowed into a tired walk across both sides of his small living space. “No..s’just I like when we hang as a group..that’s all.” He darted his eyes to you for a split second that you could have sworn it almost didn’t happen. 

You tried not to be disappointed with his answer, but you were.“ ‘M sure they’ll turn up.” You shot him a smile before placing the joint back between your lips.

-

Another twenty minutes passed, Eddie now sat next to you on the couch with glassy eyes. You had convinced him to at least sit down and smoke some of the joint he had rolled before you smoked all of it, assuring him that one of them would call. You were right.

The shrill ring of the Munson residence’s telephone echoed through the small trailer from the kitchen to the living room. Eddie jumped to attention and scrambled to the phone. Exasperated, he spoke into the receiver.

“Hello?”

“Eddie, hey it’s Steve.”

Eddie’s eyes widened in relief. He turned to look at you for a moment, eyes heavy lidded and focused on the television playing his VHS copy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He whispered into the receiver aggressively. “Steve what the fuck man! Where are you guys?”

“Sorry dude, but my car broke down about twenty seconds after we started to head over to your place. We can’t make it, Robin and Nance had to walk home.”

Eddie sighed and pinched the gap between his brows. “Okay, man, whatever.”

“What, my absence got your panties in a twist?” Eddie heard Steve chuckle lightly, followed by what sounded like Robin talking in the background before the line went quiet again. Eddie thought nothing of it, too focused on the fact that it would just be you and him tonight.

“Nah, man ‘s just…” He cupped his hand over the transmitter, eyeing you one more time before continuing on, even quieter than normal. “I don’t know how ’m gonna hang with her, I mean.. I can’t just kick her out, that would suck, but I get so nervous around her and I don’t know if ‘m gonna be able to handle hanging out with her without you guys.”

“Why do you get nervous around her, I mean, she’s just a friend, right?.”

“Yeah, ‘course. She’s a great friend! I mean, she’s easy to talk to, and she’s funny to the point where I start crying, she has awesome taste in music compared to you guys, she’s probably the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen and her stories are the best.”

“Munson, wake up. You like her. Maybe even love her, but we all see the way she looks at you, too. You shouldn’t be so worried.” Eddie’s eyes widened as Steve spoke. He heard some shuffling on the other line and what sounded like angry whispering before Steve abruptly spoke again. “I gotta go, just be cool and treat her as if we’re all in the room.”

“Yeah see ya, Harrington.” Eddie hung up the phone with a sigh. ‘We all see the way she looks at you’ rang through his mind over and over and over-

“Everything okay?” You broke his train of thought, eyes peering over at him from the couch. You had put your hair in a messy bun with your left foot raised to rest on the arm of the couch, the other placed on the floor. He stared a little, and you quirked an eyebrow slightly before a small smile spread across your face. “What?”

“N-nothing uh..they’re not coming, something ‘bout Steve’s car broke down so they couldn’t make it.” Eddie shuffled anxiously in his spot, part of him hoping you would leave so that he didn’t have to feel this nervous anymore, the other hoping you’d stay so he could spend more time with you.

“Aw that’s too bad.” You pouted slightly before shrugging your shoulders. “Oh well! More pot for us, right?” You smiled sweetly at him and patted the empty space next to you on the couch. You stiffened as he stayed stuck in place in the kitchen. You figured you were coming on too strong, maybe he wanted you to leave. “Unless you want me to go? I’d totally get it, I mean, I know you’re used to hanging as a group and-”

“No! No, uh, no it’s okay. Stay, you’re right, more pot for us.” He moved quickly, plopping himself down next to you before reaching to roll another joint.

-

A few hours had passed before you left Eddie’s to go back home, ready to fall onto your bed and pass out immediately. You opened the front door quietly, so as to not wake your mother, but that plan was void once you saw the living room lights snap on instantly.

“Oh my god! Mom!” You screamed, clearly startled.

“Where have you been?” She sat on the couch with a book in her hands, her face hard and stern. You knew immediately however you played this, it would end in a fight. She did this when you used to live together, finding any reason to scream at you. Your mother loved you and you knew that, but sometimes if you caught her on a bad day, it wouldn’t feel like love at all. This seemed to be a bad day. 

“ ‘Was just over at Eddie’s place for a while.” You shrugged, standing awkwardly in the doorway.

“Hm. Okay. Well, I was doing some cleaning earlier and wanted to put your laundry in your room but, when I went in there, I found this.” She reached behind her back, pulling out the one object that would make any child with drug fearing parents feel instantly sick. It was an altoids tin that your father had given to you for your eighteenth birthday. It was painted white and he had drawn illustrations of Clementines on it. You knew exactly what was in that tin. Your stash. It was Eddie’s turn to bring the weed that night, so you had left your tin underneath your bed where you kept it.

Your mouth went dry and for a moment you went dizzy. This was going to be a big one.

“Care to explain to me what this is Y/N?” Your mother tapped her index finger against the tin twice. You decided to be honest, hoping that she would appreciate that at the least.

“It’s the tin that I keep my weed in.” You looked at the floor beneath you, hoping it would swallow you whole.

She scoffed audibly and rolled her eyes. “So unashamed about it, too. Disgusting, Y/N.” You didn’t know what to say. You weren’t sorry, you were eighteen now, you paid for it and you never smoked in her home. You knew she was against drugs, and for good reason, but it was just a small amount of pot. You didn’t see the big deal. She spoke again.

“You know, when you came back last week I didn’t expect you to look or act how you do. I was shocked, but I didn’t want to say anything because I know what it’s like to be young and to want to express yourself. I held my tongue when I saw all those piercings and the crazy hair, but I will not be silent about this. You should know how I feel about drugs, especially after what happened with your father.”

You slouched a little as she spoke, feeling deflated after your mother implying that she hated everything about you now. 

“You’re turning into him.” Her words set a fire in your stomach and your nostrils flared. Maybe she wouldn’t be the one to turn this into a fight after all.

“How am I turning into him, mom? It’s not as if you know anything about him now. You’re the one who decided to leave! ” You choked out, looking at her now.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me! How dare you say that to me? We both went through shit ‘cause of dad, but he was in a bad place, and you never helped. All you did was scream at both of us and make us feel miserable!”

“You’re an addict!”

“It’s pot! How am I an addict?”

“I’m really disappointed in you.”

You exhaled shortly. This was absurd. You knew it was, but she was getting to you, you were close to snapping. 

“You’re not the little girl I raised.” She sighed dejectedly, looking away from you.

You snapped.

“You barely fucking raised me! You haven’t seen me since I was fourteen years old, mom! You left. Sure, you’d call, but how was that ever enough? You missed out on so much. You rarely talk about dad and when you do it’s always something shitty. I only called you to come stay here ‘cause I had nowhere else to go. I don’t care if you think I’m turning into dad ‘cause I’d rather turn into him than you.” Her face fell and she stood up suddenly, lunging at you. Your heart jumped out of your chest and you blindly grabbed the door handle behind you, opening it and slipping out into the night, away from your mother. 

You sighed, grabbing your hair frustratedly before considering your options of places to stay for the night. You knew that you would not be going home tonight. You mulled your options over in your head before stepping off your front porch over to Eddie’s trailer for the second time that night. You felt horrible, asking him if you could stay at his place, but Steve, Nancy and Robin all lived a few minutes drive from the park, and your car was constantly a heatbox in the summer. Eddie was your closest option.

You straightened your back slightly and knocked sheepishly on the door to his trailer. A couple of seconds passed before Eddie swung the door open. He was shirtless and had his hair tied in a loose bun, sweatpants hanging low on his hips. Ink covered parts of his chest and travelled from his arms down past his grey sweatpants. You could have died on the spot.

“Y/N? You forget something?” He looked at you, confused, having only seen you ten minutes prior.

“No, uh…can I stay here tonight? Sorry to put you on the spot, 's just I had a fight with my mom and uh I don’t really wanna be there right now.” You put your hands behind your back and gave him a tight lipped smile with pleading eyes.

He stared at you blankly for a moment before responding. “Sure, no problem.” You sighed in relief as he opened the door further to let you in. “I’d give you the couch but, uh, Wayne sleeps there when he gets home from the plant so you’ll have to sleep in my room if that’s okay with you.” His cheeks flushed slightly as he looked over at you, leaning on the wall next to his front door.

“ ‘S fine. Thank you, I really appreciate it Eddie.”

“No problem.” He coughed lightly before walking to his bedroom, motioning for you to follow. You made sure to leave enough space when you both walked down his cramped hallway, already feeling uncomfortable and guilty that you had barged into his home. 

You stood awkwardly in the middle of his room while taking in the space surrounding you. You had only seen glimpses of Eddie’s bedroom throughout the week, but had never actually entered it. Posters were taped haphazardly to his wall and his bed was made neatly. Books were scattered across the room, some you noticed and some you didn’t. He sifted through his dresser frantically before turning to you, holding two folded items of clothing.

“Here, you can sleep in these, I don’t wear ‘em that often. I’ll uh, give you some privacy while I go get some blankets.” He avoided eye contact with you while handing you a pair of sweatpants that had been cut into shorts and a faded Garfield t-shirt.

You scoffed lightheartedly at the shirt. “Thanks, Eddie.” He nodded at you curtly before walking out of his bedroom and shutting the door behind him. 

-

It had been about 30 minutes since Eddie came back with a shirt on and blankets in his arms to turn into a makeshift bed on the floor. He had insisted that you take his real bed and that he slept on the floor-bed, but after a few minutes of trying to drift off into sleep, your brain kept going back to the fight with your mom. You had invited him to come sit with you and you both got into easy conversation. He had rolled a joint, and you were now passing it between you both, sharing stories and giggling like schoolchildren.

Eddie tapped the joint against the empty mug you were both using as an ashtray before bringing it to his lips and inhaling. “So..” He exhaled. “What’s the deal with your mom..I mean, for as long as I’ve known her she’s been awesome.” 

You sighed before thinking where to begin. “This might be a pretty long story.” You warned. He only stared at you and motioned for you to continue, his glassy eyes watching your expression change as you thought. 

“So.. I used to live with my mom and dad in California. We were super close, but when I was fourteen, my mom left me and my dad and moved here to Hawkins. My dad, I always got along better with him, he was the person that taught me to be myself, he was funny and never got onto me for any choice I made. He supported me, and he was the strongest person I knew. He used to get really sad sometimes, wouldn’t leave his and my mom’s room for days and so his bright idea of dealing with that was to start doing doing drugs. He ended up getting addicted to cocaine and he and my mom started fighting a lot. My mom eventually started taking her stress and anger out on me, it never got physical, but she used to break stuff and scream at me, it really sucked. When she left, my dad tried so hard and ended up getting clean. ‘Guess he figured that if he got better he'd get my mom back, but she never came home. Me and my mom didn’t talk again until she called on my sixteenth birthday, she sounded way happier and that was when I accepted they were both better off without each other.” You sighed, not knowing where to go next.

Eddie stayed as he was, eyes on you and waiting for you to continue. He handed you the joint, and you took it a little too hastily, inhaling deeply. You had never told anyone about this before, but something about him just made you feel safe, like you could speak to him about anything. You exhaled.

“My dad eventually started smoking weed. It helped a lot with his bad days and made him able to function as a person again but didn’t fuck up his moods and body like cocaine did, so it was a win. I had been smoking weed since my mom left, and decided to tell him. He was fine with it, and let me smoke in the house. We used to smoke together and watch his endless collection of Looney Tunes VHS tapes. For my eighteenth birthday he got me a tin to keep my weed in, and after he kicked me out I took it with me. My mom found it and she totally flipped. She had always been against drugs, but since my dad’s addiction I guess she came to despise ‘em. We started fighting, she said some hurtful shit, I said some hurtful shit and then she uh..lunged for me. She’s never done anything like that before and it scared me, so I left.” You took in a sharp breath, tears forming on your waterline before you forced them not to fall. You let out a breath with a tight smile. “Pretty stupid shit, huh?” 

Eddie noticed the way you fixed your posture after talking about the subject, smiling only with your mouth, your eyes not making those little crescent moon shapes they did when you were doubled over with laughter. He knew exactly how you felt.

“I’m so sorry Y/N..parents can be…really shitty.” He reached out and grabbed your hand for a moment. Your heart jumped out of your chest at the sudden touch, and you tried your best not to look too affected by the warmth of his hand radiating into yours. He let go after a while and you handed the joint to him.

“So.. what’s the deal with your parents, huh?” You tilted your head slightly as he chuckled lightly before inhaling deeply and exhaling.

“Well uh..my mom died when I was about three, so I don’t really remember her all that much, but from what Wayne told me, she was awesome. Real cool sense of style, headstrong and kind, real funny, too. My dad was around, but he was always pretty shitty, started taking me to drug deals when I turned nine, even when I didn’t wanna go. He was always drunk, or high and then when I was eleven he got arrested for aggravated assault. Second-degree felony, fifteen years. ‘Lived with Wayne ever since, I was always close with him, ‘used to look after me when my dad was too drunk to, and he’s more of a father than my actual father could ever be.” He avoided eye contact with you. Despite the similarities of your situations, he was still nervous you would eventually see him like everyone else in Hawkins did. 

“Well, shit. I guess that settles my study.” You responded. 

He furrowed his eyebrows. “What study?”

“Kids with shitty parents are always cooler than kids with normal parents.” You peered over at him as he chuckled, his smile wide. He felt relief course through his veins at your lighthearted attempt to regain the playful conversation you once had and blushed slightly at you referring to him as ‘cool’. He felt like an idiot for getting flustered at such a platonic compliment, but he didn’t care. He was totally gone, enamoured by you.

-

Sunlight poured into Eddie’s bedroom, illuminating your sleeping figures. Your face was squished against the warmest pillow you had ever slept on. You yawned, snuggling your face further into Eddie’s pillow until suddenly you felt something on your back. Your eyes widened as you realised that the pillow was, in fact, not a pillow at all but was Eddie’s chest. You were practically laying on him while he had his arm draped around your lower back, the other hanging off the side of the bed. You raised your head slowly, trying to figure out if you should move.

Before you could make your decision, Eddie stirred in his sleep before opening his eyes slightly, feeling the loss of whatever warmth was on his chest moments ago. He peered around his room before noticing your body on top of his and your wide eyes staring out in panic. 

“Well this is really fucking awkward.” You said bluntly. He burst out laughing as you rolled off of him onto your back. You instantly felt dread hit you as you realised you would have to go home to your mother. Covering your face with your hands, you groaned and rolled onto your side. 

As if Eddie knew what you were thinking, he poked you in the back before speaking. “It’s gonna be okay today, I swear. And, hey, if worst comes to worst you can always stay here again. Wayne likes you good enough and I think you’re pretty okay-” you had rolled over at this point and kicked him in the shin. “Ow! Fine, you’re honestly one of the best people I’ve met.” Your heart melted but you didn’t have time to process it as he continued speaking. “As I was saying before you kicked my poor shin, you’re always welcome ‘round here. I’m sure it’s gonna go great.”

“Thank you, Eddie.” Your smile reached your eyes this time.

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TAGLIST

@pinkdaiisies @tayhar811

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[xmimiteh]

Get to know me

Tagged by: @airis-ray - thank you so much for tagging me!

Tag (9) people you'd like to know better!

Last song

I hear the following song often, so it is no surprise it is the last song I now heard. With this I do not only like the music, but also the video: "This is War" by Thirty Seconds to Mars with "Rebels" footage - >VIDEO<. Music and cutting just fits so amazingly well and I enjoyed "Rebels" sooo much. I think this show is criminally underrated. It is that kind of show which starts "okay", but then gets better and better with each season - becoming one of the best SW pieces for me out there. It just gave me so much "original" Episode 4-6 vibes and also my "Firefly" thirst was stilled by it. Loved every character in "Rebels" so much, though the best for me was Hera - ressourceful, clever, active, strong-willed and finally a Twi'lek not being sexualized! She made the show for me. Really looking forward seeing Hera and Sabine again in the upcoming "Ahsoka" show. But okay, this was "Last Song" and now I was rambling on about a show... sorry for that!

Currently reading

I am a super slow reader. Always have been even at university - and this was a bit challenging as I studied American and English literature. I love reading, but I rarely am in the mindscape for it anymore and have gotten too restless. It only works during vacations or trips for me. So it takes me a long time to finish stuff and sometimes I start something else at the side as well. That is why I am reading three different books at the moment, because I am not always in the mood a certain one.

The first being "Fool on the Hill" by Matt Ruff - I promised my spouse to read it finally as it is their favorite book. The beginning was a bit drawn-out, but I enjoyed the middle a lot. I get why so many people love that book, but I've got a bit of a hard time with some things. Especially the ending now is sadly overstaying its welcome a bit too much.

The second book being "It" by Stephen King - I love horror literature and had always a weird love-hate relationship with King. I love his take on writing, I love his general stances, love his ideas, enjoyed most of the movies based on him, but his endings suck and sometimes he is a bit too vulgar for my taste. But if it is only the last 10% that's not good? Well, time well spent, I'd say!

And the last one is "Skulduggery Pleasant - The Faceless Ones" by Derek Landy. Hm, yes, as I said I simply LOVE horror literature. And as pulpy and trashy the characters are - I love those dialogues and the pacing! Skulduggery Pleasant is just such a fun time to read and sooo relaxing. But it is really, really overpowered. I mean, you would call out each of those characters if they were roleplaying something like that in FF14. And yet somehow it does not bother me when reading it. I do not even understand why. Usually I would complain about such characters for hours.

Currently watching

How much time do you have and how much do you want to read? Because I watch so much stuff. It is simply easier for me with my busy RL life to consume at the side and more relaxing. My spouse and I have our little ritual of watching one tv show after dinner and one (different) tv show before going to bed. Our "after dinner show" is at the moment the tv show "Sleepy Hollow" (>Trailer<) - and I expected it to be entertaining, but I did not expect it to be that good. Don't get me wrong, it is not outstanding, but I enjoy it very much. Probably also, because it covers a period in American history and literature I had as one of my study focusses. And I loved Washington Irving. Also, yes, it is horror. Again. I know, I know. Don't hold it against me! But it is really entertaining. Give it a try.

Our "before bedtime show" is at the moment a little "blast of the past" with "Case Closed (Detective Conan)" (>Trailer<) - yes, that slightly older anime show with way too many episodes. We recently thought we need something light and it is just a nice way to chill out at the end of the day.

When I am watching on my own, I recently started a rerun of "The X Files" (>Trailer<), because I loved that show when it aired on tv for the first time, but never finished watching it. Still want to complete a whole run of it, because I never got further than season 3. Or was it 4? I do not really know anymore.

And the last movie we saw was "Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse" (>Trailer<), which was simply amazing. But you all probably know that anyway, so... I will just give another bonus fact about me: Spider-Man is my favorite superhero. I always loved how personal the stories are and how authentic his struggles are. That was something I could relate to a lot - responsibilities piling up and feeling the need to be responsible. Because with great power, yadda, yadda, yadda... Spider-Man was always the most relatable and human superhero to me. Each incarnation was an authentic human being struggling with doing the right thing, but stepping up to try it - even when failing. That always inspired me and still inspires me. And this movie was the first we went to the cinema again since the pandemic. So, yay!

Current obsession

This one I will keep shorter. Or I will try to do so at least! But my current obsession is an obsession I have been having for quite some time and it is: Hunt: Showdown (>Trailer<) - don't confuse it with "Hunt". That game! It is a PvPvE (Player versus Player versus Environment) extraction shooter so probably not to everyone's taste. Setting is Weird Wild West with Zombies and Demons, has the best sound design in the whole gaming industry. No, really, there is no better one. You can pinpoint the location of sounds by listening so perfectly and it is really important with all the stealthing and scouting. And the gunplay is so much fun. Those shootouts with other players are so intense and really feel sooo Wild West. I love it and I am simply addicted to that game. So, if you see me afking in FF14, I might be playing one or two rounds of Hunt at the side. And yes, it is again... horror. I know. It's a surprise there are not too many horror themes when roleplaying Mimi! I really should rectify it. Because I live for that. So I probably should get those Sagolii ruins rolling for plotting points, right?

Tagging: Okay, this time I can only tag 9 people. That is hard! So let's just cheat the system, but don't tell anyone. I'll just tag 9 people and you can do it anyway and tag me, so I can read it. So, the "officially" tagged are: @ysandrethedreamer, @kich-rp @zhauric @miqojak @miqoquest @archaiclumina @luck-and-larceny @cactusxwren @tsupertsundere. But we all know, I also tagged YOU as well, right?