#bc his sister is her stepmum

[elysiaslvr]

watching a lull in the sea and I SWEARRRR IF THIS GOES THE WAY I THINK IT IS

[tearfest]

mini life update in the tags bc i need somewhere 2 rant < 3

[mrsarnasdelicious]

The Last Kingdom - Biker AU

Focusses on The Band of Bebbanburg

A minor yet affluent and influential Biker Gang in the London area

Lead by Uhtred Ragnarsen

Second in Command: Finan

Uhtred works as Head of Security for Alfred of Winchester

Finan is a baker with his own bakery

Sihtric is a cagefighter who moonlights as an escort

Leofric works as bodyguard for Alfred

Alfred at one time had an affair with Leofric's sister, whcih resulted in Osferth

Osferth's mother passed away not long ago and Alfred agreed to take the lad in until he's graduated

Osferth is a theology student and two years from graduating

To say Easlwith hates him is an understatement

Leofric can't bear seeing how Alfred's wife mistreats the lad and vent about it to Uhtred

Uhtred has the luminous idea to tell Leofric to take Osferth along for the next meeting

It is at Finan's place, as usual

Osferth at first very shy, especially about Sihtric's flirting with him

And God does his heart flutter whenever he is near Finan!

Finan's house becomes Osferth's save haven

Slowly but surely he moves his stuff in

Finan is not at all complaining And neither is Sihtric, who rents Finan's attic

Osferth spends all his free time at Finan's Mostly just going his homwork, but he'll gladly help Finan in the shop and around the house.

At first he sleeps in the guestroom

He is very good at guilt tripping Sihtric into doing chores, but like in the most angelic innocent way

Sihtric sorta hates it, but can never stay mad at Osferth for it. The guy just wants a neat living space, okay!

He has his first kiss with Finan His very first kiss and he is enxious as well as giddy about it for DAYS

But Sihtric gives him his first BJ

And this messes him up for a good bit

Because he is in love with Finan and buidling things up with the man, but he defo was no reluctant participant in that BJ

He sort of avoids them by not staying over for a week or two

Uhtred spots him over at Alfred's place and gets really worried, bc it is evident Osferth is miserable there

Yeah, Elswith is not nice to him at her best days

So Uhtred goes and talk to Ose and then proceeds to get very angry at Sihtric

Nothing Sihtric says can soothe that rage

But a blowjob sure goes a long way

And post nut clarity makes Uhtred realise that all Sihtric wants is to make people feel comfortable and happy

He is just not going about it in the smartest way

So he makes Osferth sit down with Finan and Sihtric and acts a bit of a mediator

And Osferth just bursts, babbling about how he is in love with Finan and how he never meant to get this deep into his feelings and how Sihtric made him feel confident and comfortable and and and

He's full on ugly crying after a while

Uhtred gets up and drags Sihtric out of Finan's house

Finan and Osferth make up and agree to take it slow, but to try and build something with each other

Osferth moves back into his room in Finan's house

They are cute and domestic

Sihtric does not meddle, he's learned his lesson

Meanwhile, Uhtred is getting hitched

Again...

To Osferth's half sister

Of course Alfred and Aelswith are of the devil

But Aethelflaed loves Uhtred and Uhtred loves her

And she is a great stepmum to his kids

She assimilates well into the gang, too, which is a huge pro

And she is sweet to Osferth

Despite being his half sister

This of course causes an added layer of spite from Aelswith

And thus Osferth does no longer go to his father's place

Officially moves in with Finan

And comes out in the process

Alfred is not pleased with that last part!

Osferth, Finan and Sihtric then sort of roll into a poly thing

Sihtric is SO protective over Osferth

Holy fuck, no one gets to even as much as fart in Osferth's general direction without having beef with Sihtric

Finan loves that about Sihtric

Sihtric teaches Osferth how to please Finan

Sihtric is the only one Finan's ever met to easily take him, be it mouth or arse

Finan is defo a bit too big for Osferth to fully take him

But Osferth does his best

And Sihtric is a good teacher

Though he usually is on the receiving end of any play going on

It gives Osferth practise, at least

For which Osferth is very grateful

Eventually the three become an official throuple

Sihtric quits his escorting

He and Osferth both start also working for Finan

The Bakery gets an upgrade

A lil coffee corner with Sihtric as barrista

And the three of them settle in nicely together

End up adopting first Aethelstan, who is Osferh's nephew, and then Cynlaef

Happy family

Kiddo's get to ride in the sidecar with Osferth when they go touring with the bikes

[bogwitchlesbian]

I know I love like, super heartbreaking secret family reveals (see my Lisette Adler post for Billy’s long lost cousin) but also there’s something insanely funny to me about just. Super casual family reveals.

Like Steve’s having a get together at his house with everyone and some random woman in a Metallica shirt just walks downstairs, says hi, grabs something out of the fridge and then goes back upstairs.

And everyone’s like “who the fuck is that does Steve have a girlfriend” and Steve just goes “ew fuck no that’s my sister.”

And everything just explodes and Steve is super confused as to why they’re freaking out and he just says “yeah my dad only fought for custody of me bc he wanted a son, and he’s rich as hell so he got what he wanted. She lives with our mom”

And that starts a WHOOOLE other thing bc everyone’s met Mrs Harrington at some point or another and no one ever realised she was Steve’s stepmum bc his dad makes Steve call her mom.

Steve is just so confused like “did you guys rlly think I didn’t have any family? Is that why none of you ever asked me anything about myself?”

And they all just realise that no, they haven’t ever asked Steve about his life or family.

His sister comes back downstairs bc she heard the yelling and hands Steve her phone saying that their younger siblings want to talk to him and everything explodes AGAIN bc what the fuck does she mean Steve has more siblings

It’s chaos for a WHILE after lmao

[khodorkovskaya]

06.05.23

two things:

i drank 40 year old coffee and now my family is falling apart

my stepmum called me and said some weird shit

story number 1:

so ive been living at my stepdad's old place for a while now and all his stuff is here. one time i ran out of coffee and was too lazy to go to the grocery store. so i started looking around the house if there was any coffee left by any chance cos when i moved in he had like rice and pasta and things like that and he said i could eat it.

and i found this weird looking red packet of coffee

ive never seen this brand before but since im a cheap ass i just thought that maybe this is some fancy brand id never noticed before. and without giving it much thought i opened it and drank it. it wasn't too bad, i quite liked it although it kinda taste like dust but i thought it was the chicory.

fast forward to yesterday, my stepdad was giving me a ride home and we were talking about coffee like what coffee based we like etc. and he said that the best coffee he's ever had was when he went to america in the 80s and stayed with a host family in louisiana and they had this special coffee there he doesn't remember the name of. he said that he brought back a bag as a souvenir and the packaging was red. and that's when it hit me....

my stepdad was furious! ive never seen him so angry before! turned out this coffee i drank was one of his most prized posessions! so he started shouting and me. my mum was there too and now she is very angry at him for shouting at me. so my stepdad is mad at me for drinking his souvenir, my mum is angry at my stepdad for shouting at me and i feel really bad! no one is talking to each other, everyone is angry and the family is falling apart!!!

i emailed the coffee company too see if they have any old coffee left in stock so that i could make it up to my stepdad. but i don't have hope, the damage has been done. so yeah. any ideas of how i could make it up to him????

story number 2:

my stemum called me a couple of times yesterday and i didn't reply bc i can't stand her, god forgive me :///

at around 11pm she called be again and i was like okay maybe it's something urgent idk, she didn't text me anything before so maybe it was sth serious. so i decided to reply. and big mistake!

she was drunk. i could literally hear her pouring herself one glass of wine after another. and she was blabbering such nonsense. it was unbearable. the reason she called me was ofc because she wanted something from me. she was looking to buy tickets from brussels to tivat for her friends and wanted me to see if the prices on the swiss version of the website were cheaper. which is a weird thing to ask in the first place plus like imagine negotiating with a drunk person. i was telling her that the tickets she's looking for cost around 500 chf. and she was like "look at easy jet" and i was like "i am on the easy jet website" and then the next moment she'd ask me to go on the easy jet website again and id be like womannnn that's the website ive been on this whole time ive told you a million times.

then she stated going on about how she's angry with me bc she gave me this vip person's number and i never contacted them. she never gave me this number! i scrolled up to see all of our messages from this year and she never sent me anyhting!

anyway, i was already regretting having picked up the phone. and then she started going on about my father and how his own family (sister+mum) betrayed him. and like. he's the problem. he's the reason no one in the family likes him. like you can blame it on exterior factors all you want but he's the problem.

ive been getting a lot of bojack horseman clips in my recommended (should i rewatch it? 💀) and there's one clip where todd is telling bojack that it's not the alcohol, not the trauma, it's YOU. and that's literally how it is with my father. he (moreso his wife) loves to bring up how his family wronged him and cut him out of their lives. but why did they do it, huh? it's YOU.

[secondlastk]

utena bullshit under the cut

idk WHY miki and kozue are stuck in my head, but i think its bc there was so much unsaid in their story? so my brain is just trying to figure out where they fit into the puzzle

im almost 100% sure based on utenas themes that kozue was abused. i think it completely explains her relationship with miki, which is such a weird mix of protectiveness and resentment, especially that scene where she sees the music teacher touch miki and then literally tries to kill him. that is not the normal reaction of a jealous sibling! that is an attempt to save her brother from what she went through!

i think the fact that theyre twins also serves to highlight their differences. like u look at miki and its clear that toe to tip, that is a 13 year old child. he looks like a kid compared to the other boys and his actions and intentions tend towards more childlike motivations, even if hes got a Serious Studious personality. but then you meet kozue and she looks older, she treats him more like hes the younger sibling, and her attitudes towards sex and relationships most mirror tougas (who is a. 17 and b. probably also abused as a child) which is absolutely jarring to see from a 13 year old.

i also think them being twins means that she sees miki as both her brother and as herself, like hes how she could have been if she wasnt abused (maybe if she had been a boy?). so she resents that she was hurt and he wasnt, but also wants to protect him from it, as if protecting him is protecting herself. (see: the baby bird scene, where she puts herself in harms way to save a pair of chicks, which miki and her then build a new home for. sidenote but no one seems to meaningfully mature while at ohtori, but i think that in the future they have a chance to rebuild their relationship)

i also think thats part of the reason for that scene where miki is on the phone to their dad (and why she refuses to interact with “That Person” aka her dad) and theres a shot with their “stepmother” who is clearly a rose bride. idk if it was metaphorical or literally anthy posing as their stepmum, but i think it does suggest that the father has married a much young woman (girl?).

u can talk about symbolism and themes in utena for literally forever, like i could say the kozue and anthy have parallels as victims of abuse, how anthy internalises her pain and kozue externalises it, or how miki comparing anthy to his sister may be more accurate that he realises, or i could put more thought into what the glasses of milk were about, but im gonna stop bc this post is too long already

[marlar]

so i went bouldering with my sister yesterday after work. we were there for about five minutes, doing the super easy climbs to warm up when she was trying to climb down but i guess wasnt feeling strong enough to hold on and she fell badly. she landed on her ankle and it rolled and she couldnt move or stand up. had the staff wheelchair her to my car and i drove her to the emergency department, which thankfully was only 3 minutes away. The pain was so bad she was worried she was gonna throw up in my car on the way there or pass out. I stayed as long as I could but had to go home bc I had to work today, turns out she didnt get seen until after midnight anyways. She had broken her ankle in two places :s But the doc said she was okay to drive, at least thats what she said, so she is home now. But I guess that means I’m on my own bouldering now for at least 6 weeks, and I had just booked next week off and was excited to get some climbing in.

Then I wake up this morning to a message from my dad to say my stepmum is at hospital too. She had previously been diagnosed with a blood clot behind her eye, the doctors checked up on her and said that it didn’t look quite so bad on friday. But it doesn’t take someone with a medical degree to realise that a blood clot suddenly reducing in size is not at all a good thing. I’m actually really pissed at the doctors who didnt do anything because she had a stroke last night and is now recovering on the ward. I don’t know all the details other than that she was already feeling very ill, then lost all power in her left arm, I’m and very much hoping that they caught it quickly. Given that they already knew she had a clot I am glad my Dad was there to keep an eye on her, just very upset that the doctors didnt give her any medication for it when they had full knowledge that if it broke up she could have serious complications. 

all in all it’s been a stressful 24 hours. been checking my phone all day hoping for updates. I’m glad my sister is safe and home, still worried for my dad, his wife and family though. I’ve said ill do anything i can to help, ill take my PTO happily, but still, what can you do.

sorry for the long post, just needed to vent somewhere.

[witchdoodle]

here’s some facts about my lad

it’s tradition in kost’s father’s clan (and many rivaini dalish clans) for the youngsters to set out in the world for a year or so to see the wider world and decide whether to fully commit to the clan or not; no one’s in the clan on anything other than their own choice. basically elf rumspringa

so kost’s dad was wandering the coast when he saw this frazzled qunari woman trying really shittily to fish in the ocean with a crappy makeshift spear. like she was super bad at it but obviously desperate and half-starved. he just like. watched bc he wasn’t sure how to approach her, he’d never seen a qunari before and didn’t really know what to do. but when she went to sleep he snuck up and left a bunch of fish outside the cave she was camped in. he tried to do it again a few nights later but she caught him

THERE WAS A RESULTING HUGE MISUNDERSTANDING she spoke little common and he spoke NO qunlat so it took a while for her to realise he wasn’t trying to hurt her or creep on her he just thought she looked like she needed help but was a little socially awkward

she let him hang around for a while. he taught her how to fish and cook, about what plants were safe to eat and which were poisonous, how to clean and mend clothes etc. she had no idea how to take care of herself, was terrified and confused. he eventually got out of her that she was a “dangerous thing” that had spent her life chained and bound, but had escaped the qun because she was scared. looking at the scars on her lips made him sad.

days turned into weeks turned into months and friendship turned into romance and eventually there was a baby. she named him kost, which means peace, because that was her hope for him. to know peace of mind, peace of spirit. they were very happy.

kost was a year old when the ben-hassrath found them. his mother forced his father to escape with the baby, and perished in battle. pursued by strange hostile foreigners, he fled to the safety of his clan, where he stayed to raise his son.

kost was more or less accepted by the clan, but it wasn’t always easy for him, being different; by six he was already a head taller than all the other children, and just kept growing. as a teenager he towered over everyone else, all awkward elbows and huge clumsy hands and feet. but his size, strength, agility, and stamina proved advantageous. he was trained in the way of the sword, taught to fight, to defend. 

his father eventually bonded again, and his stepmum was always really nice to kost. he’s always thought of her as his mum, though he’s never forgotten his biomum, either. he has two half-sisters. 

he earned his vallaslin at the age of sixteen. he was always mature for his age, and the keeper thought he was ready for the responsibility of adulthood. he chose a vallaslin in honour of mythal, for the virtues of justice and protection, of feminine strength, of fair judgment and wisdom. he was thinking about his bio mum, how she risked everything to free herself, and then sacrificed everything to save her child and lover.

kost is 6′ 7″ tall. he is enormous by elf standards, towers over many humans, but is a little shorter than your average qunari. he’s 20 at the start of inquisition. 

he is VERY shy and bashful, and very quiet and introverted. he’s also the Mom Friend, he likes taking care of others. considering he’s half-qunari, he has surprisingly almost no temper to speak of. if you actually make him mad you have really fucked up.

that said, yeah, he’s a very physical person. he likes combat, has a knack for it, but finds killing itself distasteful. he’d rather force his opponent to surrender if he can. he also has a very strange, intense fascination with dragons.

“there are  no half elves because elf genetics are magic�� is silly i agree. my headcanon for kost is that, like most mixed-species people, he’s sterile. he can’t have bio kids, so no quarter-qunari elves running about, but he’s cool with it because adoption is a very normalised thing among the dalish. there’s always orphans who need parents.

[xiaosungs]

92 Qs

Tagged by @photosynthesizingparkhyungsik , giving me a reason to escape from my sister

THE LAST …

1. drink: Latte

2. phone call: the mothership (that’s my mum’s contact name)

3. text message: my friend lili and i were raving about the new fairy tail chapter

4. song you listened to: spring day, bts

5. time you cried: yesterday bc i was at my dad and stepmum’s wedding and they mentioned me in their speeches. i was fine until they started talking about me.

HAVE YOU EVER …

6. dated someone twice: yes, no-one is letting me live it down

7. been cheated on: yep

8. kissed someone and regretted it: yes, thinking about me exes.

9. lost someone special: a few family members but no one friends wise.

10. been depressed: a little when i lost those family members

11. gotten drunk and thrown up: not until ive thrown up... fallen over, yes

LIST THREE FAVOURITE COLOURS (12, 13, 14):

pastel pink

baby blue

pale yellow/golden

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU …

15. made new friends: yeah, so many people on this website have become good friends. ive talked to so many new people and i want to talk to more people

16. fallen out of love: yep, for many different reasons

17. laughed until you cried: yeah just a few days ago, my dad fell over in the sea and his best man and i just laughed

18. found out someone was talking about you: once in a bad way, but that was all a misunderstanding. never in a good way though, but it’d be nice

19. met someone who changed you: my classmates have changed me in different ways, from new movies, to outlooks on the world and different things like that.

20. found out who your true friends are: i don’t think im old enough to have found my true friends as such, but i’ve found my true high school friends.

21. kissed someone on your facebook list: yes

GENERAL STUFF

22. how many of your tumblr friends do you know in real life: just the one, @ollyvide , the absolute twat, is my not-so-girlfriend

23. do you have any pets: a jack russell called pippin

24. do you want to change your name: well i kind of have, Rei isn’t my birthname...

25. what did you do for your last birthday: went to laser tag with a few friends

26. what time did you wake up: 11:30am

27. what were you doing at midnight last night: walking on the beach with some guys

28. name something you cannot wait for: my birthday, its in 24 days

29. when was the last time you saw your mom: a week ago, im on holiday with my dad

30. what is one thing you wish you could change about your life: a few things, but one main thing is that I could support people more

31. what are you listening to right now: my sister and her friends pretend to be topsy & tim (theyre so loud)

32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: yes and i dated one once

33. something that is getting on your nerves: my sunburn

34. most visited website: Tumblr, youtube, twitter and netflix

35. elementary school: all schools seem to go downhill whenever i go into them so it was so bad, the headteacher was an absolute bitch

36. high school: Nearly over for me and i’m not going to miss it, and it follows the same rule as last time, the headteacher is a bitch and the school just fell in the past 4 years

37. college: haven’t been, but im thinking of going to truro college

38. hair color: brown

39. long or short hair: short

40. do you have a crush on someone: wwhooooooooooo boi, yes. and my biases. 

41. what do you like about yourself: I’m not all that happy with my body or my school things, but i have the right friends to help me and i can always do the same back

42. piercings: just simple lobe ones, but i think im getting a forward helix or a normal helix one soon.

43. blood type: AB

44. nickname: Reg, Reggie

45. relationship status: single af but unofficially married to Kim Taehyung

46. zodiac sign: cancer

47. pronouns: she/her

48. favorite tv show: Produce 101 is slowly killing me

49. tattoos: none, but i do want some small ones

50. righty or lefty: Righty

FIRST …

51. surgery: 4 years old, still have the mark on my neck, traumatic experience and i remember some of the whole thing

52. piercing: 10 years old, claires accessories was great, until i had to take a load of antibiotics to calm my massive inflammations 

53. best friend: my dance and cheer bestie Lily, my grandma used to babysit us both. the pictures of us two in the bath and on our snack-mat were amazing

54. sport: 2 years old, dance, still going strong on yearly showcases and exams.

55. vacation: 2 years old, France, no idea where but it was really nice. nearly drowned, dad got some amazing photos of a lightning storm

56. pair of sneakers: 3 years old, dad’s friend is an artist so he got plain white ones and got him to draw on them... they were r2-d2...

right now …

57. eating: nothing but I’ve just eaten a philps pasty

58. drinking: nothing

59. i’m about to: have a shower then put on a face sheet/mask

60. listening to: Red - HyunA, it’s drowning out the kids, im eternally grateful for hyuna

61. waiting for: step-mum to come out the bathroom

62. do you want kids: nope, some more puppies yeah

63. do you want to get married: probably, the atmosphere at the wedding yesterday was so nice and i’d want to experience that again

64: what career do you want: i don’t know, something im happy doing and what i can help others with

WHICH IS BETTER …

65. hugs or kisses: hugs, they’re warmer

66. lips or eyes: eyes, they're prettier and seem more deep and interesting

67. shorter or taller: i prefer taller but im not too picky

68. older or younger: im the oldest child so i’d want o feel like the younger one for once

70. nice arms or nice stomach: to make up for me, a nice stomach

71. sensitive or loud: sensitive, i don’t do well with loads of noise

72. hook up or relationship: relationship, my demisexual ass doesn’t want that.

73. troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant, but im okay with adventures every once in a while

HAVE YOU EVER …

74. kissed a stranger: nope

75. drank hard liquor: is mead classed as hard liquor?

76. lost glasses/lenses: don’t wear them

77. turned someone down: yep, glad i did, he was an asshole

78. had sex on the first date: nope nope nope

79. broken someone’s heart: yep

80. had your heart broken: yes 

81. been arrested: hahahahaha nearly, but that’s a long story. dm me if you want to hear it

82. cried when someone died: yes, bot in real life and movies

83. fallen for a friend: I did, it was a mistake

DO YOU BELIEVE IN …

84. yourself: no. never have done. never will.

85. miracles: ish, bc if monsta x come to uk and i get to see them, then yes

86. love at first sight: other than park chanyeol, not really

87. santa claus: until i was like 5 then saw my parents put all the stuff under the tree

88. kiss on the first date: if you wanna go for it, go ahead, but i’d be a little hesitant

89. angels: I hope so, so that my family members are still out there, but if not then that’s okay

i mean park jimin is an absolute angel but...

OTHER …

90. current best friends name: Zuzanna, she’s a dweeb but we all love her

91. eye color: blue/green, ones more green than the other

92. favorite movie: tied between Train to Busan and Moana... theyre both so good, and uhghhh i want to watch them now

[bogwitchlesbian]

More ramblings about my Steve’s sister oc feel free to ignore

Her name is Aria Juliette Harrington, her and Steve are twins and she was raised in England with their mother and stepfather.

Mr Harrington was only married to their mother for a few years, and Steve was mostly raised in England even after the divorce. He faked an American accent when he moved in with his dad and eventually just sorta, forgot his original accent. Aria teases him for it endlessly.

When Steve’s dad got remarried and decided to start a business, he wanted the perfect family image and that didn’t include being a deadbeat dad and a divorcee, so he fought for custody of Steve (read: bribed several officials and social services) and threatened Steve to pretend his family didn’t exist, and to call his new stepmum mother.

Aria and Steve remained as close as they could, only seeing each other on holidays and communicating through letters.

Aria is, as Steve would put it, batshit insane. She forms judgements of people super quickly and holds grudges like you wouldn’t believe. She does NOT like Nancy or Jonathan after Steve told her what went down and no amount of Steve telling her that they’re cool now will change her mind.

She’s also super sweet and caring and is very maternal to their half siblings, but has a fairly short temper and while she would never turn her temper on her siblings, she has no issue with fighting anyone else.

She’s been to see several therapists and they’ve all mentioned some stuff about a personality disorder and emotional childhood neglect but her mother won’t hear of it, so she just goes untreated which. Isn’t great.

It’s especially not great when she’s 19 and steals her stepdads car and hits a dude and almost kills him. No one knows what happened there apart from the judge and her lawyer, but she gets a reduced sentence and the guy himself goes to jail for a verrrry long time, and everyone just sort of decides it was for a good reason and looks the other way.

Steve is very hurt that aria won’t tell him what went down with her and the guy she hit, but aria doesn’t want to upset Steve by telling him, bc it would absolutely change everything for him. The way he views his childhood, the way he views her, and she can’t have that (yes the guy did what you think he did no I won’t go into detail)

Once aria gets out of jail her mum decides that England isn’t the best place for her and talks to her paternal grandmother about sending her to Hawkin’s. She goes, and is absolutely not what anyone expects Steve’s sister to be like.

She’s funny, sarcastic, and not willing to put up with any disrespect from any of the kids to Steve and openly tells them to get their shit together. She’s not easy to get along with, but she also clearly makes Steve super happy, so they put up with her.

Plus she can cook super well, so that’s a plus.

She always seems to be making something; food, embroidery, crochet, knitting, her own clothing. There’s always something in her hands and she is always happy to explain to el what she’s doing.

She isn’t close to anyone in the party but el, who appreciates not being treated like a secret weapon, and being taught new skills that have nothing to do with her usefulness or her powers.

Aria knows all about her powers and the upside down, though, since Steve tells her everything. She just doesn’t bring it up.

She ends up making super good friends with Eddie who is a fan of her quick wit and unwillingness to let anyone else’s opinion get to her.

She openly rolls her eyes at people trying to call her a freak for having two piercings, and is perfectly happy to sneak off in the night and put Steve’s bag through artie mckinnon’s windscreen after he calls Eddie some interesting words in the family video car park.

She is genuinely a trainwreck of a person, but she also helps Steve let go of his rigid grasp of his old reputation, protects Eddie in a way no one has since his mother died, immediately clocks robin as another queer woman and gives her some much needed solidarity.

Ironically, though she helps Steve let loose and stop being so worried about being looked at as a freak, her own persona seems more and more to Eddie and robin like a shield.

They see the gentle way she interacts with el, how she softens her voice, and gently guides her hands to knead dough, or manoeuvre a crochet hook. They see the way she drops a hand on wills shoulder and steers him into the kitchen when he starts breathing too fast at a stupid horror film that mike and Lucas insisted on.

They talk it out with the party at Steve’s house (he let them use the pool due to the heat) when her and Steve go on a trip to Indianapolis for the day for some twin bonding. The others refuse to believe them that aria might be anything less than a Rottweiler in human form, so Eddie and robin go snooping for old family photos in Steve’s room.

Eventually, they find a video titled “picnic in the meadow, 1981” and play it

It’s grainy, and the footage is wobbly. It’s arias face that fills the screen first, smiling widely with her sandy blonde hair falling around her face in a stark contrast to her usual low bun.

The sound clears and she is laughing at whoever is holding the camera. Her voice is soft and impossibly tender.

“Come here, love, let me hold the camera”

A little boys voice, no older than four, says okay and giggles, and the camera changes hands. The footage changes to a small boy with blonde hair like aria and Steve, and he giggles again and runs off. Aria huffs goodnaturedly behind the camera, and the kids are struck by how genuinely happy she sounds.

The crappy camera pans up and around, showing a picturesque landscape that has the viewers gasping. It’s an actual, literal, meadow. Like something out of a fairytale. Lush grass, wildflowers in almost every colour, and at one point a blue butterfly flutters past the lens, making aria laugh in delight.

Eddie cements this image in his mind, deciding to use it in a future campaign.

The camera moves again, showing the base of what is clearly a huge, ancient tree. Steve is sat there, with a toddler on his lap. It’s a little girl with dark hair, and she’s grasping eagerly at the strawberries Steve is handing her.

Aria moves closer, scooping up the little boy from before as he giggles maniacally, and drops him down next to Steve.

Steve lifts his head and smiles at the camera in a carefree way that none of them have truly seen before. He is wearing a light blue cardigan, clearly handmade, and it’s obvious that it’s arias handiwork. He looks soft, and happy, and the little girl on his lap smacks his hands in frustration as he stops de-heading the strawberries for her. Steve and aria laugh and Steve smacks several kisses in rapid succession on her face, and her mouth opens in high pitched laughter to reveal two missing front teeth that have everyone twisting to look at Dustin.

The little girl rolls out of Steve’s lap and her and the little boy steal a packet of raspberries and run off to sit by a low stone wall not far away.

Steve rolls his eyes at the camera, and asks aria to hand it over.

The footage switches back to aria and she looks so different that it’s hard for the party to recognise her. No haphazard low bun, no loose hoodies and yoga pants.

She looks beautiful. Her hair is down, and crowned with a poorly made daisy chain. Her cheeks are rosy and freckled, and her brown eyes are golden in a ray of late afternoon sun. She is wearing a light green sundress that floats around her in a light breeze and she looks like a completely different person. She looks happy.

Steve stands behind the camera, and turns the camera so it faces both him and aria as they press their cheeks together and smile into the lens, capturing forever a moment that seems all too normal for them. Like they spend every day this happy.

The footage ends, and robin and el have tears in their eyes.

Max is the first to speak. “No wonder she’s so unhappy all the time, if this is what she left behind”

Eddie and robin share a look, not saying it outloud but knowing that max is thinking of billy, and how he changed after being forced away from a life he loved in California.

Robin rewinds the tape and returns it to it’s spot.

Everyone seems a little more inclined to cut aria some slack after seeing the tape. It seems easier to imagine her as something other than the perpetually annoyed, grungy ex con they’ve come to see her as.

Seeing her press a loving hand to her little brother’s face as he tugs on her dress, and a kiss to Steve’s cheek makes her seem more real to the kids. And the little girl with missing teeth that Steve dotes on in the video has Dustin silent for several hours, wondering if that’s why Steve tolerated him in the beginning, because he reminds him of his sister.

When Steve and aria come home, it’s to a quiet living room full of kids, and el rushes forward to wrap her arms around aria’s waist. For the first time, everyone takes notice of how instinctual it seems for aria to place a hand on els back in response, and to stroke her hair.

They don’t tell them what they saw, but they’re nicer after that. They stop making fun of Steve, and start calling before they just barge into the house. Eddie asks her more about her home, and enjoys watching her smile when she starts gushing about the twisted trees in the woods at the end of her road, and the wild beauty of the moors that inspired wuthering heights, did eddie know?

Things get better for aria after that. She stops feeling like living in Hawkin’s is tearing at her heart. Even though she still misses her family, and her life in England, she’s adapting.