#at least yesterday wasn't a total bust

[grahamdollton]

[thatcharmingjerk]

Well that was a sad wee trip 😭

[syddsatyrn]

Chapter 1⛤Chapter 2 ⛤ Chapter 3 ⛤ Chapter 4 ⛤ Chapter 5

Masterlist

⛤Pairing: - Eddie Munson x FemReader

⛤Warnings: Swearing, drinking smoking, fluff, friends to lovers

⛤Words: 1.6k

⛤Song: "Photograph" By Def Leppard

⛤Summary: Moving away from Hawkins was the biggest mistake of your life. You left your best friends and forgot to stay in touch. Years later, you decide to hit up your good friend Steve. Its time to make a plan and make amends. The one thing you didn't expect was feelings to resurface when you saw your old highschool crush.

⛤Notes: This series is 18+ Minors scram. Special thanks to @hellfiremunsonn for being my sound board and fanfic support. You are an absolute unit! I have returned from the dead with a fluffy fanfic with a Sydd Satyrn twist. Enjoy!

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⛤Chapter One: Phone Call

It had to be the worst day you’ve had in a while. You were late to work and your boss scolded you. The cafe was so busy today, you had to skip lunch and your feet are killing you from all the rushing around and taking orders. You broke a plate in the cafe kitchen and accidentally cut your finger. You tripped trying to get to your car and scraped your knee, everything spilled out of your purse and you had to go through the embarrassing motions of picking everything up in public. Today was a total bust.

When you walked through the front door of your apartment, you breathed a sigh of sweet relief. You were not scheduled for tomorrow so at least you’ll get some time to relax. You notice your mom has already come over and dropped off a few boxes of your old high school stuff. She’s attempting to clean out the garage and says everything must go. It wasn't much but you still had to find the energy to go through it all.

After a much needed shower, you poured yourself a glass of wine and called in some Chinese takeout. It didn’t take long for you to devour half of the food in front of you. A reality show is playing on the television, you lean back and finish your glass of wine. The sun is starting to set, things are finally feeling peaceful.

That's when you notice the reflection on the TV screen. Those dusty old boxes staring at you piqued your curiosity once more. Despite your lack of energy, you really wanted to know what was in those boxes. After getting yourself another glass of wine and a pair of scissors, you grab the first box and set it on the coffee table. You opened the box and to your surprise, it was a bunch of your old Polaroid photos from high school.

You looked through each one, remembering each face like it was yesterday. There’s a photo of Steve and Robin at Starcourt mall. Oh and this one was from Prom when no one asked you out, you went with Nancy Wheeler, one of your close friends. You guys had the best night goofing off and dancing. Each photo was something special you left back in Hawkins.

After senior year, your parents got divorced and your mother ended up with everything. This meant saying goodbye to Hawkins and hello to Shelbyville. Has it really been that long? Since you saw your friends. At first, you visited and called but life just got in the way. Long hours at work, finishing school, and just surviving in general kind of took over. Maybe a dash of depression thrown in.

You pick up another one, it is a Polaroid of Eddie Munson passed out in your bed. You had such a huge crush on him in high school. He was so hot in a bad-boy kind of way. Eddie was kind of like your best friend though, there were many late movie nights at his trailer, and sleepovers while your parents were out of town.

You chuckled to yourself when you remembered that one time Eddie climbed through your window. Your parents heard something and came to check on you, you had to stuff him in the closet before you got caught. All these memories flood your mind and you start to tear up, feeling a little too nostalgic. You notice the phone number scrawled on the bottom of the Polaroid of Steve and Robin.

You know that number, you're pretty sure it's Steve's house phone number. You had to wonder what that man was up to these days. Is he still obsessed with his car and his hair? Did he finish high school like he wanted? You wondered if he and Nancy ever got back together. You sure miss your old hometown and all the trouble you and your crew got into.

You finish another glass of wine and look through some yearbooks, you giggle at old goofy messages written on the inside covers.

“You better visit or we will kidnap you! Miss you already” -Robin

“Don't change a bit, sweetheart.” -Eddie

“Keep your head up and Don't do anything stupid!” - Steve

“Love you so much! Call me!” -Nancy

You glance at the pile of photos on the coffee table, the Polaroid with the phone number is eating away at your ability to focus. The nostalgia clouded your brain or maybe it was the wine. Would they even want a phone call from you? Have they forgotten all about you? You brushed off all the self sabotaging thoughts and picked up the phone. You had no idea who would pick up but at least you had enough liquid courage to try.

"Hello, Harrington residence." Said the lady on the phone.

"Hey there Mrs. H, it's Y/N."

"Well oh my stars! We haven't seen you in ages! How are you, hun?" She asks politely, she's always been really nice to you.

"I'm good! I'm making good money, everything is rather ordinary in Shelbyville." You try not to sound depressed when you mention the last part.

"Good! And how is your mother? You tell her hello for me okay?"

"She's great! She's lost weight and her new boyfriend is pretty cool. I will tell her you said hello." You weren't one for small talk, but you humored her anyway.

"Oh goodness, I'm sure you're calling for Steve? He got a new apartment just a few months ago. I can give you the number."

"Oh, that would be great! Thank you!" You reply.

Mrs. Harrington gives you the number and you write it down on the back of some junk mail. You say your goodbyes and hang up. After a couple of deep breaths, you dialed the new number.

"Hello?"

"Steve?"

"....Y/N?" He sounds like he just got a phone call from a ghost.

"Yeah, it's me." You said, a little nervous.

"How the hell are you?! I haven't heard from you in what feels like forever." Steve's over excitement made you grin.

"I'm good! My mom brought over some boxes with my high school pictures in them. I was feeling nostalgic so I thought I'd call. How are you?" You ask, a lot of your worries fade away as you keep talking to him.

"I'm doing alright! I got an apartment with Eddie downtown. He does a lot of shows now so he's often out trying to live the rockstar life. I bought an old Camaro and fixed it up so it's all mine. Things are good."

"How is the rest of the gang?" You ask.

"Nancy went to college in Indianapolis, Robin works at the record store now. She lives just down the road. Eddie has been a little reclusive lately but I think overall he is fine." Steve sounded a little bummed about the Nancy part.

"Wow, sounds like you guys are staying busy. I wasn't sure if you'd still–" Steve cuts you off.

"You should totally come visit! You can stay here, and we can invite everyone. It will be like old times. What do you think?"

"I uhm…do you think everyone wants to see me?" You ask, unsure of your place in their lives since it's been so long. You honestly thought they would all be irritated with you.

"Are you kidding?? Dustin and I still talk about you all the time, Robin does too. But you know who I think misses you the most?" He says in a playful tone.

"Who?"

"Eddie." Steve chuckles.

"Why do you say that?"

"He still keeps one of your senior photos in his wallet." He has to be gossiping as usual.

"Still?!" You were genuinely shocked. There's no way, he has to be kidding.

"Yeah, he was pretty bummed when you moved. Poor guy. He was down bad."

"Shut uuuuup. He doesn't like me like that. Haha, we were just close friends." You try to brush off his words as nothing but nonsense. Steve is just implanting ideas in your brain.

"Close friends don't sleep in the same bed together." Steve snorts.

"Whatever Harrington." Your face gets a little red as you remember the many times you shared a bed with the brown haired misfit.

"So will you come stay? For a week?" He asks again, this time a little more desperate.

"Well…I do have some vacation days saved up…" You admit it would be fun. It sounds like they miss you and want to reconnect despite the time and distance.

"YES! This is gonna be so rad!" Steve is stoked.

You make a game plan with Steve, figuring out when would be a good week. You had to give your job enough notice to cover your shifts. Steve offered once again to give you a place to crash and you accepted. The final decision you both made was to keep this a secret from the others. It will be a surprise and everyone will "totally flip out" he says. You agree to stay silent and you say your goodbyes and hang up.

Then it dawned on you. You'll be staying at not just Steve's apartment, it's also Eddie's. You are bound to run into each other. You both are going to need some time to talk. It's no secret you miss him and can't wait to see him, but is he going to feel the same way about you? Does he still have feelings for you? Do You have feelings for him? Does he really still keep a picture of you in his wallet?

[ivoryminitower]

Echoes of Home: 7 - Steve ("gathering")

Echoes of Home: FFXIV AU OC – WoLs on Earth

When we first arrived in Wyatt, we sat down and checked out our journals.  In Eorzea they would dynamically update as we gained knowledge and experience, with maps of areas and lists of locations for gathering plant and mineral materials.  Here, all that was blank.  The crafting recipes were still there, as well as information about ourselves, but all the maps and the botany and mining info were gone.

At first I was afraid it meant Eorzean resource gathering wouldn't be possible here, which would make crafting and repairs difficult.  But while I was typing yesterday, Tsu'na went out to explore.  I thought at the time she meant she'd explore the town, but it seems she went out into the woods near where we arrived and tried her botany skills.  She came back and showed me her journal, and now there's an entry for maple logs with a GPS location, and a partial map of Wyatt and the surrounding area.

This is good for lots of reasons.  Eorzean harvesting is noninvasive: get logs from a tree without cutting down the tree; get minerals from the ground without making a hole.  As long as that's true here, we've got a source of income.  We can sell materials and make things to sell.  If we find gold somewhere we'll be totally set.

And it's good that I didn't tell Tsu'na that that sort of harvesting wasn't possible on Earth.  My doubts made me hesitant to try; her certainty meant she simply walked out and harvested as she'd always done.

This gets back to the gestalt reality in Mage.  Magic in Mage works based on the belief of the practitioner: however the practitioner believes things should work, that's how they work for him.  The collection of beliefs and ideas that make magic work for a person is called the "paradigm".  An effective mage doesn't think in terms of what his paradigm is, though...he simply knows it's true and operates accordingly.

Yes, Mage is a tabletop roleplaying game.  But it's also a convenient set of terms and ideas I can use to frame things.  So in that sense, Tsu'na's paradigm is that Eorzean skills work the same way here as they did back home, and my paradigm is that this is unusual but I can work with it.

But if what we do with our Eorzean skills is paradigm-based magic, it may be that we're not "harvesting" things as much as creating them.  It would actually explain how things in Eorzea worked.  The belief in Eorzea is that everything is made of aether, that this is the stuff of creation or existence.  When we harvested, say, maple logs at a particular place, we also had the chance to instead harvest crystallized aether, which we use to fuel our crafting.  But what if all harvesting was in fact gathering aether, just manifested in different forms?  Yes, we used an axe on a tree, but the tree remained undamaged.  It makes sense if we were actually getting aether at the tree in wood form, rather than taking from the tree itself.

This is exciting because it busts through what I think of as possible.  We've got two paradigms here...three if you count the mundane human paradigm that magic isn't possible at all.  So other things might be possible that we haven't even thought of yet.

But I don't know how much of this I can tell Tsu'na.  I need her belief system free and uninhibited by my doubts, at least until we've affirmed that all our Eorzean abilities work here.  And I think she already suspects there's stuff I haven't told her.

In the meantime, I've got wood to gather.

[mariaurore]

Hello and G'morning o/

(OOC) I ended off yesterday with my restaurant post, so let's pick back up today with another restaurant post 😄

As suggested via a tutorial I watched, I opened my restaurant from home a couple minutes prior to travelling to it first. When I got there, it already had a couple tables seated.

Keep in mind this is Day #1. Numero Uno. Shonichi. (You get the point)

I'm sorry this will get to me every time- I love seeing my friend's Senju clan in my game 🥰 and it's even more amazing now that Mari has a restaurant because it's more opportunity to interact with all of the sim households I've specifically placed into my worlds/game. Imo, if you're looking to get your sim out and meet people- to be extroverted at least a little bit- this is a good way to go.

I believe it was after I "welcome"d her table that this bubble popped up over her head. There's another type as well:

And that'd be this one here 👆🏻. Pops up after they place an order, or sit at a table? I forget which, but I think it's placing an order.

I had all intents and purposes to be home before Takashi got home from school but there was this one couple where things kind of went wrong and I'm starting to wonder if that's why people don't like this DLC much.

So what happened was 1 of 3 things:

They ordered food, ate, and continued to stay till the restaurant closed.

The restaurant bugged out and they just sat there indefinitely and I thought they never got their food. (Or maybe they did and it didn't register? because it bugged?)

They never ordered anything to begin with, and I thought they did, so I waited indefinitely until their order came out- until I finally gave up waiting.

This being my first day, I wasn't sure what would happen if I "close"d the restaurant with people inside. But time was escaping me quick. Takashi was home from school, Hitsu was home from work... my chef and host were starting to get insanely bored... (he just busts out with a Rubik's cube 😂)

I said screw it and hit the button. Consequences be damned at this point, lol. Mari- me, I, have a son and husband at home. Need to leave~

The people remaining in the restaurant simply left. No harm, no foul. I don't know if anything negative would have come from it if they had placed an order or were midway eating though.

At the end of the work day, you get a "report" of sorts. My first day wasn't a total train wreck. If I were to look at my Business Funds as a whole, yeah I lost Simoleons. But if I were to look at the day on its own, we made a narrow Net Profit. It came down to that one problematic couple I couldn't make heads or tails of. This was a learning curve and I will be more mindful of that in the future.

In comes Day #2, and sure enough...

Just keep welcoming tables... checking on tables. If things get overwhelming, disallow customers at the host stand. I've been helping out my waiter with dishes here and there because if I don't- Mari goes straight to the bar and it's like Woman! 💢 You don't need to be making drinks and dipping into the restaurant funds *sigh*

I also make her "view" pieces of art everywhere that I can but I swear she has ADHD like I do- and that doesn't preoccupy her long.

Oh look! Another special guest! 😄

It was around this point that she goes home and gets a Want Bubble to research recipes on the computer to make the menu better 🤔

I had her complete the Want, but I never went back and checked the menu.

I'm curious if anything did change to the menu. That's something I should check *nod*

Day #3:

These stars went much faster! I got 2 food critics in one-day. Pay them extra attention if possible. It was on this day I was also able to afford the Patient Patrons Perk. That helps a lot~

I know I have a lot more Perk Points to buy something else. Like Increased Quality or an Additional Waiter but I'm undecided which to grab first. Probably the quality 🤷🏻‍♀️

From here it's just- keep doing what I do, slowly tack on Perks and more staff. I need to train my staff, give them promotions. Upgrade my menu items when my chefs are more skilled. But I think I have the general gist of it *nod* 😄

Oh, and I'm noticing my restaurant can handle a "morning rush" of customers before Takashi gets home from school, almost perfectly. I get a wave of 3-6 tables and then I disallow new customers. (That's where it's been the first 3 days at 1-3 stars, it may increase now that I'm at 4 stars 🙃)

Guess that makes my restaurant kind of like a breakfast and lunch bistro (aka Brunch), 8am-3pm.

[catboyklug]

Maguro Gets Lost in a Fucking Forest the Movie: the Videogame: the Novel

Summary: Maguro gets lost in a forest, thinks too hard, then meets up with Ecolo and thinks even too harder

Characters: Maguro Sasaki [he/they], Ringo Ando [she/they], Ecolo [they/it]

Warnings: mentions some gross stuff & warrior cats also; maguro is attacked and later gets really injured, also he swears; i am not getting paid for this and i don't have a beta reader; this isn't romantic and if you think it is then that's on you

Total word count: 3316

One step, then another. Today was probably the slowest day in a while, Maguro thought. Nothing to do, nobody around to battle, and not a single ripple in the fabric of space time.

Yep, today was about as boring as a day could get.

As there was quite literally nothing else to do, being fully fed and watered and bored of most single-player games, Maguro decided to simply walk and see where his legs would take him.

After a while of simply walking (mostly with his eyes closed unless he was near water or trees) he found himself in a forest he knew was called Nahe, at least by those living locally. Again not having anything better to do, he entered it and began to explore, taking great care to avoid things like the many openings to Schezo Wegey's cave-home and the mysterious and highly dangerous ruins.

Walking through the forest, Maguro began to feel a bit on edge as the place began to get much darker than he was used to.

Despite him having lived in Primp for almost a year, he had never really found any time to explore deeper within the forest than just past the ruins. Even knowing that, and having seen the forest's thickness from the outside, he still found himself surprised at how dark it got.

Although he could hardly see, he was more than used to it, his bangs usually preventing him from seeing much at all, and that along with the almost complete lack of other animals in this forest made it quite easy for him to simply feel around as he continued walking.

The more he walked, however, the more the forest seemed to stretch on infinitely, and after over an hour of walking in a line slightly less than straight he had to admit that he was starting to grow tired. Deciding that rest would be the next best course of action, he laid down on the short grass that covered the forest floor, taking great care not to lay on anything bad or squish any bugs while doing so.

Staring at the trees above him, he wondered if he should've asked someone to come with him. It would've been less lonely, definitely, but sometimes it's nice to be alone.

Alone, not lonely, he internally admitted. But regardless, who could he have brought anyway?

Not Ringo, she was busy studying for some really big test.

Not Tee, he was a king and therefore pretty busy with... king stuff. Probably.

Not Sig, the two had just made their friendship official yesterday, and you don't ask a guy you made friends with yesterday to go into some creepy forest with you just because there's nothing else to do - at least, you don't ask Sig that.

Ess was probably about as busy as Tee, Ris was still studying abroad, and he didn't really know anyone else...

Except for this nagging thought at the back of his head. Someone he *should* remember, but just... doesn't.

Why would he not remember them? It wasn't like he was that forgetful, and he had actually been sleeping pretty well lately...

As he wondered this and other things, time went on, and eventually he became aware of the fact that he had been laying down in the mostly-dirt for quite some time.

He decided that going or at least heading home would be the best course of action and, slowly got up, brushing the dirt off of himself and stretching

Once he was done stretching, he quickly looked around for anything he recognized from his long walk. After not finding anything familiar, fished in his pocket for his last resort - the admittedly terrible phone that he had gotten from his father.

The thing had several cracks on it; both camera and flashlight were busted, and it tended to die pretty quickly if you kept the brightness too high. After opening the phone, he was grateful to find it connected to some sort of data yet equally as concerned about the fact that it only had twelve percent of its battery left.

He decided to waste no time opening the call app on it, quickly finding Ringo's name and giving her a call.

After after a few seconds, she picked up, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey, Ringo, ★" He said, keeping his voice light despite everything.

"Hey, Maguro! I haven't seen you all day, where've you been?" She replied, voice clearly hers despite a large amount of static interference.

"Yeah, about that..." He began, trailing off at a sudden lack of static. He took the phone away from his ear and looked at it, finding that it had suddenly died during the call.

He internally cursed the manufacturers that made the phone and began pacing, trying to think of what he could do next. After several minutes of pacing, he decided to just go into a straight line to see where he ended up, hoping and praying that he'd find somewhere he recognized soon.

He ended up walking for around three hours before he actually found something, that something being a small makeshift camp of sorts. The "camp" was comprised of a pile of sticks and stones that may have been meant to become a campfire, a bed made of moss and a weird-looking jacket-onesie-thing, and what appeared to be a makeshift bucket held together with wads of gum.

Before he could even begin to get over his disgust at the "bucket", he heard a noise and turned around to see if he could find the source, promptly getting tackled to the ground from behind. Although he had landed face-first on the forest floor, he could just barely see a lock of long, bright cyan hair draping down past his shoulder and next to his face.

"Wowee, that sure was easy~!" His attacker said with glee, getting up and off of him, not even bothering to dust the dirt off of their clothes.

Once he was free, Maguro immediately got up and turned to run, although his attempt was cut short by his attacker grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling him closer to them.

"Now where do you think you're going, little tunafish?" They said, grinning as if they just figured out all the world's darkest secrets.

Now forced to get a good look at them, Maguro noticed how unusual they looked. Their hair, reached down just a bit past their shoulders and was partially covered by an oddly-shaped hat. Their pants were long and had holes in them, they were wearing a white tank-top, and all of them was fairly muddy.

As Maguro took all of their appearance in, he felt them slowly loosening the grip they had on the back of his shirt, giving him another chance to run away.

"Don't worry, tuna, I won't *eat* ya! I'm allergic to seafood anyway, hehe~" They said, giggling at their own joke.

After some hesitation and deciding against another attempt at running away, Maguro responded.

"How.. how d'you know my name? ★" He asked, figuring that most people wouldn't make so many references to him being a fish if they didn't know his name.

"Oooh, lucky guess?" They shrugged, "And maybe a mutual friend..."

"Mutual.. friend?" Maguro said in disbelief; he knew a lot of weird people, and the people he knew sometimes knew even weirder people, but this was just... too much.

"Indeedy-doo!" They said cheerfully, not caring to elaborate.

Maguro stepped back a bit at that, admittedly more put off by them using the word "indeedy-do" than their refusal to elaborate on how they know him.

"Alright, uh, that's great and all, but I really gotta get goin'-" Maguro started.

"And leave me all alone out here? I don't think so!" The stranger responded, crossing their arms and sticking their tongue out playfully, "I'm comin' with ya!"

Maguro groaned a bit, not being able to find any way to object. This weirdo was clearly stronger than he was, and he didn't really want to fight them anyway.

Shrugging, he let out a small 'Alright' that the person just barely heard. He turned to leave the camp again, only hesitating to give the person some time to grab their coat-onesie thing.

As the two walked, the tension between them seemed to grow much greater than before. Maguro felt as though he might snap because of it.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he turned to the person he was walking with and forced a smile.

"I didn't catch your name, ★" He said with a false lightness.

"I didn't throw it!" They responded, grinning.

Maguro felt himself grinning back despite everything. At least this guy has a good sense of humor.

"Guess not," He shrugged in response, "Could ya throw it at me now, though? ★"

"Sure! It's Ecolo," The stranger smiled, an odd smile Maguro couldn't quite describe.

"Ec... Ecoxo?" Maguro stuttered, the name confusing him somehow, "Exolo...?"

"Ecolo!" They said, smile widening, "But don't worry if ya can't remember it, tuna, not many people can!"

"Alright," Maguro said, back to feeling wary. What was with this guy? And why couldn't he remember their name?

Maybe this 'mutual friend' of theirs would know. He guessed it was Ringo; she was the only one he knew that hanged out with weirdos like this. She hung out with him, anyway, although if that was the criteria then technically all his friends hung out with weirdos.

He shook his head a bit, he'd probably ask more once he got back to Primp... if he ever did, anyway.

After a while of walking in silence, Maguro began to let his thoughts wander wildly, keeping himself present just enough so that he wouldn't walk into trees.

During that, he recognized a stray thought that made him chuckle a bit, causing Ecolo to immediately stop walking and stare at him curiously.

"Why are you laughing?" They asked, skirting the line between genuinely curious and genuinely rude.

"Well," Maguro hesitated, "You know about Warriors? ★"

"I know about warriors! Those are the guys who love senseless violence, right?"

"Uh, no," Maguro said, slightly amused, "I mean the book series, Warrior Cats. ★"

"Ooh, I've never heard of that!" It smiled, "Is it funny?"

"Not usually," Maguro admitted, "Just kinda funny seeing our situation - there's a running joke in the fandom - the people who read and like it - about how a lot of the newer books are nothing but walking from place to place, and we're kinda doing that now, so, ★"

"Huh!" Ecolo exclaimed, "That's not funny at all!"

Maguro flushed a bit, a little upset by this sorta-insult.

"I guess? It's funny 'cause it's relatable, y'know? Not funny 'cause it's actually funny. ★" He shrugged.

"That doesn't make any sense," Ecolo said, face blank, "But alright!"

"Things don't need to make sense," Maguro said, then smiled a bit, "Especially Warriors. ★"

"Huh, guess so!" Ecolo hummed, "And maybe I'd like your senseless violence book,"

"It's not-" Maguro began, stopping once he saw Ecolo's grin, "Pff, alright. ★"

And so the two continued walking, smiling along the way.

Eventually, the two came across a few large boulders covered in moss.

Exhausted, Ecolo flopped down next to one, while Maguro simply leaned against another.

The two sat in silence for a moment, simply resting for a while.

Suddenly, Maguro remembered something, and decided that it was better to bring it up now than wait any longer.

"So, how'd you meet Ringo? ★" He asked lightly.

"How'd you guess I knew her?" Ecolo asked in reply.

"Just a hunch, I guess," Maguro shrugged, "Also she's the only person I know who would ever hang out with people like us, ★"

"Hmm? People like us?" Ecolo asked in reply, tilting their head slightly, "Oh, but that doesn't answer your question, oops!"

It hummed, thinking for a few seconds.

"I guess we just kind of met," Ecolo finally said, doing an odd waving motion with their hands.

"Really?" Maguro hummed, invisible eyebrows raised, "She's not really the type to just... Meet people,"

"Maybe you don't know her as well as ya think, Tuna," They responded, crossing their arms.

"I kinda doubt that, me and Ringo are childhood friends, ★" Maguro shrugged in response, noting their annoyance, "Anyhow, when'd you two meet? ★"

"Wouldn't you like to know, pretty boy," They said, their grin returning. Despite himself, Maguro laughed at that.

"Alright, if you really don't wanna tell me, that's fine, ★" He said in a mockingly defeated voice, "I'm sure I could go the rest of the journey without you, anyway,"

"Pfff- definitely not, you'd hardly last two minutes without me!" Ecolo said, stifling a laugh.

"Nah, just watch me, ★"

Maguro stood up and, before Ecolo could protest, walked away.

...Mimed walking away, at least.

Once Ecolo realized that he was just kidding, they burst out laughing, much to Maguro's surprise.

"It's not that funny," He said, suppressing a grin.

"That just makes it better!" They responded gleefully.

After a few seconds, Maguro began to laugh as well.

And then suddenly heard a low rumbling noise.

"...Did you hear that?" He asked hesitantly.

"Hear what-"

Suddenly, and with very little warning, a large monster crashed into the clearing, narrowly missing Maguro and Ecolo.

The monster was giant, surprisingly agile for a creature that size - especially one that seemed to be made out of stone. It was covered in thick, green moss, and had a large gaping maw and thousands of beady, red eyes.

Upon seeing the monster, both Maguro and Ecolo froze up for a few seconds, only unfreezing when the monster roared.

The roar was almost as loud as the stomps it made as it got closer, threatening to squish the both of them. Before it got the chance, however, the two got ahold of themselves and immediately began running.

Going the opposite direction they came - and, to their horror, only just barely outrunning the monster - they ran through the forest, occasionally stumbling on a rock or fallen branch. Luckily for them, the monster had a similar experience with whole trees, getting pushed back a bit when it couldn't destroy the branches as easily.

Soon enough, Maguro and Ecolo ended up finding themselves at the edge of a small cliff, leading to what seemed to be a hilly area obscured by many trees. Although the beast had been pushed back enough that they had a few seconds, the only way they could go was forward... off the cliff.

"We're gonna have to jump!" Maguro yelled in panic.

"We- no! You can, I can't! I can't-" Ecolo stuttered, genuinely horrified for what might've been the first time in their life.

"So you'd rather get eaten by ,that, thing?!" Maguro yelled.

However, Maguro didn't wait for an answer, grabbing Ecolo's arm and jumping off the cliff with them.

Although the ledge wasnt that large, the two still took damage when they landed, falling over and rolling down the hills that were only just visible a few seconds earlier.

The two ended up rolling through an incredibly spikey berry bush before finally ending up in a softly lit clearing.

"That was..." He said quietly, trailing off as he sat up, "Fun, I think,"

"Really, really fun!" Ecolo said, sitting up as well and grinning widely, "But- oh!"

Maguro became incredibly confused at Ecolo's surprise for a few seconds before realizing that his hair had gotten messed up and was no longer covering his eyes.

...Also, his face was currently bleeding profusely.

"Oh, shit," Maguro swore as he tried to cover his face back up again, getting some of his hair into the large wounds he had.

While he tried to cover his face without hurting himself further, Ecolo untied their hoodie-onesie thing from where it was on their waist and tried to gently but quickly wrap it around Maguro's face to stop the bleeding.

After a few moments of panicking, mainly caused by Maguro having no idea why Ecolo was seemingly trying to suffocate him, both of them calmed down and Ecolo managed to wrap Maguro's face up enough to stop him from bleeding out everywhere while still letting him see.

"I-" Maguro said, stopping while Ecolo helped him to stand up fully, "I... Thanks, Ecolo,"

"You're welcome," Ecolo said, most of his usual silliness currently somewhere else.

"Let's go, then.." Maguro said, trying to walk but nearly falling over before Ecolo caught him.

"Maybe you shouldn't walk for a bit," Ecolo suggested.

Maguro said nothing in return, simply nodding gratefully as Ecolo picked him up and carried him on their back.

Ecolo began walking, occasionally stopping for a few seconds to readjust Maguro so that he didn't fall off their back, but otherwise keeping a fairly steady pace.

As they walked on, the two carefully considered how their respective days had gone before they arrived in the forest.

Maguro's day had been so quiet, boring even. Maybe he should've just gone and bought a new videogame...

Ecolo's day had been perfectly, honestly. It definitely should've stuck with perfecting its new body instead of exploring while so low on energy...

After a while of carefully sifting through their memories, the two realized small oddities in their experiences.

After several inquisitive glances, both unsure if they should even think about asking, Maguro spoke up.

"Uh... You, saw my eyes, and didn't really react at all," He almost asked.

"Wasn't that impressive," Ecolo shrugged, "But what is impressive is you remembering my name,"

"It's just five letters, not that complicated, ★" Maguro said, ignoring their slight rudeness. "...You gonna tell me why I couldn't remember before?"

"People don't like remembering! It scares them," It answered cheerfully, grinning once it caught sight of Maguro's incredulous expression.

"Right..." Maguro shook his head, "So I'm not scared of remembering? ★"

"No, you're just stupid." It joked in reply, sticking its tongue out playfully.

Maguro stuck his tongue out in reply, and the two giggled at each other's ridiculousness.

Then Maguro noticed a path.

A real gravel path.

"Ecolo," Maguro said, pointing to the path, "Look! ★"

"Oh, wow!" They responded with a blank smile, "What's that?"

"A path, Ecolo! A real sign of civilization, which means we're almost out of this creepy place. ★" Maguro explained.

"Oh! That's good, I think!" It said, smile no longer as blank.

"Yeah, it is!" Maguro said, shaking his head. "C'mon- follow it!"

Ecolo nodded slightly dramatically before obediently following the path in what it hoped was the way out.

Eventually, it finally managed to walk all the way out of the forest, into the slightly horrible sunlight.

"Finally!" Ecolo sighed, helping Maguro get off their back, "I hate mazes!"

"Huh, really? Wouldn't have guessed." Maguro said, putting his arm around Ecolo's shoulders to keep himself stable.

"It's way easier to just float through them, y'know!" Ecolo said matter-of-factly, "Anyway- who's that?"

With their free arm, Ecolo pointed to a person that was just close enough to the two to see that they had red hair.

"Iunno, but it looks like they're getting closer..."

"Then let's go meet 'em!"

"Wait-!"

But before either could decide to go or stay, the person began running toward them, revealing themself to be...

"Ringo!" Maguro yelled happily.

"Maguro?!" The redhead gasped after finally reaching the two, "And who's that with you...?"

"Ringie! How come you don't recognize me, huh?" Ecolo huffed.

"ECOLO!?" She screamed in reply.

"Where've you two been? Maguro, everyone's been looking all over for you!"

"It's... a long story. Can we get a snack first, maybe? ★" Maguro said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Of course!" Ringo said, seemingly surprised that that wasn't implied. "And then you two gotta tell me what you were up to! I was worried sick!!"

[mistressemmedi]

So... You received an ask on Friday and I just have to say that being grounded because my parents technically knew my brother and I had tickets for Goodwood but forgot it was this weekend and didn't realize that my brother and I have been out of México for ten days and quarantining in the UK was totally worth it, sort of, like the original plan was coming to Goodwood and fuck of as soon as the FIA cars part was over on saturday because this was the last day Guti was driving the W10 and also because Ricciardo and Albon also drove today, go back to Jalisco where our little brother was who was the only one who knew what was happening but didn't say shit because then my parents would realize he was “alone” at our family ranch and then they would either make him go to México city with our dad or to Monterrey city with my mom and older sister and he wouldn't be able to pass time with his horse, also parents are not divorced my dad just doesn't like Monterrey but my mom is from there and he's a workaholic, and that way we would have to endure only two days of hearing people say It's Coming Home, but no, the bank fucking called my dad, dad got mad that littlest brother was alone in the middle of nowhere, he wasn't, the people who work there was taking care of him but acknowledging that takes the drama out of the narrative my dad created in his head, so he decide that he was coming to England to take littlest brother to Silverstone to compensate for this traumatic experience and basically he'll only have to make 5 days of quarantine because apparently if you reserve a Covid test before arriving to the UK you only have to do 5-6 days of quarantine, do the test and now you're free. So I'm grounded, our friends already left to the airport in order to go back to MX and I'm stuck here listening to people say it's coming home, according to my brother's ex who send those questions yesterday my brother has a resemblance to a F1 driver and I refuse to acknowledge the little shit does whoever my friend said he looks like the love child of Russell and Gasly which is bullshit, also I won't say anything if she ignores the fact that my whole Tumblr profile is a reflection of my daddy issues, but hey at least I'm going to Silverstone

This whole ask...

Have fun at Silverstone? Lmaoo I legit don't know what to say.

Sorry to hear your plan got busted by the bank, party poopers lol