#could probably go into more detail but can't think of more rn

[pxison]

Deity verse ft. the sibs

Reiju - going to base her interpretation off of the horseman of death/pestilence out of the 4 apocalypse bearers.

Ichiji - will be based on conquest

Niji - will be based off war

Yonji - will be based off famine.

While those are the themes, I'm probably going to err on the side of loosely using the horsemen lore for the siblings. They won't be put behind a seal but these influences they embody are what they thrive off of/derive power from.

And just like their color brands in canon, their skin will lightly glow with them in an ethereal sense and act as a gauge on how strong they are at the time (faded shade - weak stronger shade - powerful) another indication would be the capacity for size change. Unlike the horsemen the more influence they take hold of boosts how large they want their deity forms to be (when making use of their divine abilities specifically)

They still have steeds (I'm debating still whether to make them giant cats like in canon as opposed to horses) and their respective domain is just as regal as Germa.

As entities capable of leaving the world wrought with apocalypse, mortals rarely call upon them in prayer and instead wish to avoid them at all costs as their presence means nothing good whenever they pierce the veil between realms.

[sharpth1ng]

how do you envision billy and stu’s bedrooms? cause every scene in my head it’s completely different to how it was in the last and i need to have the same thought whenever a scene comes across in one of their bedrooms

^^Alright so I have actually drawn Billy's room! this is the background of a piece that will be on my patreon once i feel like i have enough content to actually launch it. I wouldn't say this is exactly canon, I started working on it before I started writing Debaser and there's some stuff i would switch up, like some of the movie posters. There's also the non-canon Maureen VHS which they obv don't have because they didn't film that. But yeah this is a basic idea of what Billy's room looks like to me.

As best as I can tell this is the bedroom they shot as Stu's room.

^^As you can see it has a ridiculous number of doors, and we know the door to the attic is behind the camera because that's where Sidney goes during the chase. We also know the two doors on the left side lead into the hallway, again because of the chase scene. The door on the right I'm going to guess leads into a bathroom, because another door leading to the hallway or into another room would be sheer insanity. This one bedroom has four fucking doors and none of them seem to lead to a closet.

^^^From the movie we can see more of the right side of the room. There appears to be a fireplace mantel, likely bricked off and not functional. Stu is using it as a shelf, it looks like there's some tapes and maybe a trophy there. We can also see his TV and some posters on the wall- someone has made a post where they identified these posters but I can't find it rn (thank you tumblr's broken search function). If anyone knows the post I'm talking about please feel free to link it!

^^^There's also at least three things that look like they could be one of Billy's flannels in this room. We never see Stu wearing blue or plaid in the movie and imo from his costuming it doesn't seem like his style so this detail is pretty funny to me. Billy is just leaving his repetitive wardrobe all over Stu's room. Gee I wonder why.

So that's basically Stu's room in the movie. The way I see it in Debaser is a little bit different, but in many ways the same. First big difference: a maximum of three doors. One to the hall, one to the bathroom and one to the attic storage space. Two doors to the hallway just feels homophobic. Another difference is that I imagine his TV somewhere at the foot of the bed, just makes for a much more comfortable watching experience.

I also imagine him with a lot more on the walls.

^^^Chip Sutphin's (also a Matthew lillard character) room from Serial Mom is a good example with all the Fangoria posters and stuff. Imo Stu is definitely reading fangoria.

(Unrelated side note can I just say i can’t see Chip's girlfriend Birdie without seeing pre-transition Billy. The Blue plaid, the short brown hair, the horror obsession) ⬇️

Like, this is Chips girlfriend and best friend. This movie came out in 1994. I can't. ⬇️

Ok, side note adjourned, back to Stu's bedroom.

Overall I see it as a lot more packed and messy than Billy's. There's more on the walls and more on the floor. I also think he's got a big ass shelf of tapes and video games, and probably some leftover action figures from when he was a kid. I think he kept more of his childhood stuff like that than Billy did. He doesn't play with his action figures anymore obv, but he hasn't thrown them out.

So yeah, that's sort of an idea what their rooms look like in my mind! I do plan on drawing Stu's room at some point but these kinds of detailed room drawings take me so much time, I'm not sure exactly when that will happen.

Edit: Ps you can read what’s written in the notebook in Billys room, please do

[snapscube]

In Dawntrail did you enjoy a different character playing the main role, or do you prefer when the player character is leading the narrative?

this is definitely a major point of contention in the fanbase rn and i can generally see valid feelings/criticism on both ends of the spectrum. i myself do fall somewhere in between the most extreme takes on this. i won't go into too much detail about actual events but ill tag this as spoilers anyway just in case. ok so my thoughts are:

firstly, i like Wuk Lamat a lot. i don't think she deserves even half of the pure unfiltered ire that she is receiving from a large subset of the community rn. the amount of people who have already turned being a wuk lamat hater into an advertised personality trait really frustrates me. i really enjoyed seeing her personal journey through the story and i was overall very satisfied by her inclusion. however, i do not think the story was perfectly paced or balanced, and i definitely do understand where people are coming from when they say that they could have used a little less of her in the forefront. honestly it did kind of ultimately disappoint me that we missed out on a lot of potential interaction/development with someone like Krile, who in spite of being promised a big breakout role in this expansion still somewhat felt like a SLIGHT (i have to stress slight) afterthought. she did get some notable moments of development and emotion, but i feel like there could have been more.

okay but, your question is about our role as a player in the narrative. i hold the opinion that for THIS EXPANSION SPECIFICALLY, the warrior of light taking somewhat of a narrative backseat actually made a ton of sense and fit the themes of the narrative as well as the promise of a somewhat breezy summer vacation for our heroes. now, i will say this: i really do not agree with the idea that the WoL should be in a mentor role indefinitely because our story is done developing and we need to give the spotlight to "the next generation" of heroes in the world. i appreciate the SENTIMENT of this, but like for me personally.... i don't want Pella's story to be done, yknow? i definitely would be disappointed if this was the DE FACTO role she played in every expansion past this. but i don't even think that is factually what's going to happen. we're currently in a setup phase! and, again, bringing it back to this narrative and the themes within, a lot of Dawntrail about the experience of entering unfamiliar places and learning about the customs and the traditions of people already within it to best help them without unwelcomely trampling on their culture in the process. i think a story like that is the PERFECT time for the WoL to take a bit of a backseat. wuk lamat is also somewhat unfamilar like us yes, but Tural is still her home and she is about to be tasked with leading it. i feel like centering our character in that equation would feel.... really disingenuous? it was kinda frustrating sometimes when it felt like hey.... there's a situation happening right now that can be solved by skilled combat and you have a literally god killer standing right here doing a frown emote, but at a certain point i could chalk it up to growing pains or necessary suspension of disbelief in the interest of the overall emotional hook of the narrative. a lot of those moments could be explained away with enough thought about the character motivations and culture at play, though sometimes it does feel like a stretch. again, far from a perfectly written MSQ. it starts slow and it's messy and it throws a LOT of stuff at you that doesn't always pay off like you expect or want. but i dunno! i think we're gonna see some really interesting stuff come to the forefront in the future, and i think especially now knowing that much of the playerbase thought we took TOO much of a backseat here CS3 will probably adjust their focus accordingly next time. so i can't be too upset really about the stuff i wasn't into. the rest of it was great imo!

[itsthesinbin]

Sins in Stardust (Bill Cipher/Reader)

OKAY SO. I've been thinking of Ideas since I got HORRIFICALLY fixated on Bill/Gravity Falls. I still do like the "bill's hot wife" idea but I gotta think abt how that wld work, logistically. I can't get off if the plot doesn't make sense. BUT I do have. Another reader insert idea.

Post Weirdmageddon and technically post Book of Bill. I couldn't read the full book in detail bc all I had was a kinda blurry pdf to work with so I'm missing some details.

This is the first chapter just 2 kinda gauge interest. I'm only posting it here rn until I write out a couple more :3 Feel free to leave a reply or tag if u reblog to let me know what u think

EDIT: Came up with a title I liked :3 I need to stop crutching on Hozier song titles LMAO

----------------------

You missed camping- you and your parents went at least once every summer, when you were a kid. A good old cross-country camping trip is what you needed, after the multitude of bullshit you’ve gone through. You quit your job, sold whatever shit you didn’t need and used the money you had to get out of your home as fast as you could. You’ll find a new place to settle, a new job in a new city with new neighbors and never have to worry again. All you had to worry about, now, is finding a fun spot to camp for the night.

You could sleep in your car- you have a few times since you started your trip- but it was a gorgeous night. The moon was full, the stars were so bright and clear this far out from a major city… It’d be a waste. You pulled your car off the road and trekked a bit out into the woods nearby. Hopefully your car would still be there in the morning. Please, God, let it be there in the morning.

You entered into a small break in the trees. The late spring breeze made the leaves sway and branches rattle softly. The starlight caught on the toadstools odd triangular spots. Eye-shaped spots on the trees seemed to follow you as you stepped into the small field. Like looking at creepy paintings in a haunted house, you felt like you were being watched. It was a little creepy, but you chalked it up to the full moon. Everyone was on edge during a full moon just because of stories and superstitions they all heard growing up.

The brightest thing in the clearing was a small statue, half buried in the ground. A triangle with a large eye, tophat, and bowtie. A single arm stuck out, as if ready for a handshake. The stone itself seemed to glow, but you chalked that up to the brightness of the moonlight that filtered through the canopy. You stepped a bit closer, noting how… quiet the area was. No birds, no crickets… Nothing. It was a little unsettling, you wouldn’t lie. Quiet woods never led to anything good. You really should go back to your car.

You pulled out your phone, first, though. You had to get a picture of this funky little guy. You were probably overthinking things. The statue was probably just someone’s abandoned art project, or store mascot, you thought as you snapped a few pictures of the lichen-covered statue. You smiled slightly. The little thing was kinda charming.

You decided to put your tent up anyway, despite the eerie silence. It was late, you were tired, and your car was still close enough to this clearing that you’d probably be in “danger” anyway. If you even were actually in trouble. The silence and the eye-spots on the trees were unsettling, sure. Weirdly enough, though, you felt a sense of calm here.

You decided against setting up a fire, opting to eat a can of cold pork’n’beans for dinner as you looked up at the stars. The sky was alight with blues and pinks and purples, seemingly swirling nebulas catching the attention of any being capable of comprehending beauty. You felt yourself smiling to yourself.

“Beautiful night, huh li’l guy?” You joked to the statue. You missed the way the eye-spots on the trees had stopped following you, instead focusing on the night sky. You threw the empty can of beans into a bag to throw away tomorrow, before rolling out your sleeping bag and laying out under the stars. You crossed your arms behind your head, and one foot over the other. Obviously, you were met with the same silence that had been here. Humans would be humans, though. Bonding with anything that even remotely had a face.

“Bet it gets lonely, stuck out here. Sure you got the view, but it sounds like nothing really drops by.” Nothing. The stars above almost seemed to move. You could almost make a shape out, but as soon as you tried it seemed to dissipate. You hummed to yourself, trying to find the shape again.

“I know how it feels to be stuck, buddy,” you offered, sympathetically. You sighed as a heavy feeling settled on your chest. You shook away the bad memories, the stars seeming to move again to keep your attention. It was getting a little weird, now. But you had heard that Gravity Falls was a pocket of weirdness in the middle of nowhere.

“I could use a traveling buddy,” you laughed. “I haven’t had… a friend in a long time…” You trailed off as the stars continued to twinkle and dance. You sat up with a heavy sigh, face to face with the statue again. Unsurprisingly, he stared at you stoically with his hand still poised for a handshake. You put your chin in your hand.

“And it’s driven me so crazy I’m talking to an old ARG piece left in the woods…” You rubbed your face. You stood with a stretch, the light around you seemingly getting a little brighter. You stepped in front of the statue.

“They use us and leave us to rot, don’t they? Hardly fair,” you mumble. You reach a hand out as if to grab its hand, but stop short of actually touching it. The hair on the back of your neck stood as you felt a million eyes on you at once. You look behind you, only to be met with the trees. You look up, and find the stars once again in the vague shape you couldn’t make out before. It felt like the very universe was watching this moment. Your throat felt tight. Strangely, though, you didn’t feel scared. You looked back at the waiting statue. Something prodded at the back of your mind.

“Maybe I will take you with me. Once I get settled somewhere, you can become a piece in my next living room,” you smiled. “I’ll get you cleaned up and see if I can patch some of those chips and cracks.”

You hesitated a moment, before you grasped the statue’s hand. Obviously, the stone limb didn’t actually move.

“I’ll get you out of here, you be my travel partner, and we both get to be free for a while. How’s that sound?” No response. Not that you expected one. You let the little hand go with a yawn. You kicked your shoes off near your sleeping bag and lay back down on it. The stars finally stopped shifting and swirling. They twinkled down at you as you covered yourself up for the night. You didn’t think it’d rain, so sleeping outside should be fine. You’ll deal with whatever happens, if anything.

You dreamt of the stars that night. They swirled above you, forming into a large creature that swam its way to you. You floated among the stars, eyes wide with wonder at the smiling creature. Its tail swept along the empty space beside you, leaving a small… child? It was a triangle with a huge eye, like the statue in the woods, but had giant shoes. It didn’t look at you at first, instead staring at the creature made of starlight and space dust in front of you. You also turned your gaze back to it.

The Axolotl stared down at you two, a peaceful smile on its face. You felt small under its gaze- like a child looking up at their parent. You reached out to pat it on the nose, finding your hand smaller than usual. You heard a squeaking noise and turned to look at the triangular baby.

“You see the stars too?” You didn’t know how he asked without a mouth, but you nodded anyway. Your 5 year old face was reflected in his large eye. He held a hand out for you to hold.

“You wanna watch them together?” You were quiet. You turned back to the Axolotl, only to find it swimming away from you. Back to depths of the universe you could only imagine. With no other option, you looked back at the kid next to you. His eye was turned up to show that he’d be smiling, if he had a mouth. His eye crinkled more as you grabbed his hand.

The stars began to burn.

You woke with a start, finding the sun creeping over the tree canopy and shining down on you. You groaned and covered your eyes with your forearm. You forced yourself to sit up, rubbing your eyes with your hand. Your head was pounding, the strange dream leaving you in a cold sweat. Maybe you shouldn’t have slept here.

A groan from in front of you made you freeze. Your head snapped up, making it throb. A triangular creature was sitting where the statue used to be, stone splintered and sprinkled around him. He massaged his singular eye, muttering under his breath. He looked up, tensing when he saw you. You both sat there in stunned silence for what felt like forever.

Then you both screamed.

[jamisonwritestf2trash]

Hello again! I was chatting with someone and he said "someone should make writing style hcs for the mercs", and I instantly went "I know a guy" so now i'm here. How do you think the mercs would write? (note: he also said "Scout would write like Greg heffley" which is hilarious)

How Do the TF2 Mercs Write?

————————————————————

I'm smiling like an idiot rn. This is so sweet, and the promt is very cool! (Your friend is 100% correct, btw.)

————————————————————

I'm going to headcanon, whay they write about, how they write about those things, and some hand writing pictures of how I think they'd write! So be prepared for a long one 😭 Can you tell I'm an English nerd?

————————————————————

Demo-

You'd think he'd have super messy handwriting, but he's actually a very neat writer. Has an ink and quill pen set, loves gold ink more than traditional black ink.

He writes about his mom and his childhood. He writes very vividly and with lots of detail. I feel like this man is a walking thesaurus.

————————————————————

Engie-

He has very clean writing. I'm day to day life (he has the worst writing when working on his projects). Like he'll leave a note on the door saying that the gangs run out of milk and everyone's shocked. You'd think he'd have atrocious handwriting. Learned cursive in school and never really stopped using it.

When he's writing like this, he's normally sending letters to people he cares for or trying to order parts for his latest projects. He's very formal when he writes to anyone.

————————————————————

Heavy-

Heavy is also blessed with very nice handwriting, but instead of the school system forcing him into writing better it was his mom.

He likes to write about animals and his friends. He keeps a small book by his bed to write little things he learns throughout the day. Not very descriptive, more along the lines of "I heard birds singing this morning, it was pretty." Or "Scout likes brownies more than ice cream." Normally, just mundane things. (Also, he writes mainly in english to improve his ability to understand English words but sometimes defaults to Russian if he can't remember or spell a word properly.)

————————————————————

Medic-

Ugh. This man writes like a doctor nine times put of ten just to fuck with people. He'll give someone a note, and it just has gibberish on it. He likes to watch them try and decipher it. But when he's not being a menace to society. He has genuinely beautiful handwriting. While it can be overly fancy, sometimes it's also easy to read.

He has two journals, he has a leather-bound one where he writes about Germany, his experiences of leaving his country, when he had his medical license, medical school, etc. Loves to write about the past. He uses that journal as a therapist. And then, of course, he has his neon pink Claire's notebook that he uses to write down every single thing that could be used against someone he's ever heard, with matching glitter pens.

When he writes, he never leaves any details out and is pretty clear and concise. He uses German and English interchangeably. Using English mainly out of habit.

————————————————————

Scout-

While I do agree that this man probably writes like Greg Heffley (and honestly, his handwriting probably looks the same too.) I'd be wrong not to mention that he writes out little :), :0, >:), and other little faces on his notes, and have almost graffiti handwriting. He practiced writing to look like that, actually. He used to have decently nice handwriting, but he likes this one better.

He doesn't write much, but when he does, this man writes paragraphs about the most random things. All horribly spelled. This man can't read or write very well. Dyslexic king. He makes sure to get help with spelling, though, so he can write to his mom at least once a month.

————————————————————

Sniper-

Oh, poor, poor man. Can not write clearly to save his life. Not that he's big on writing to begin with. There was never really any pressure for him to have good handwriting, and he mainly only writes to write himself reminders.

Very nondescript and straight to the point. But has a little quirk of using different dots (like • ○ ● □ ■ ☆) for his notes. He has a little dark brown book for all his reminders.

☆eat (is a common note left in the book). He also has written poetry, but he'd rather die than admit that.

————————————————————

Spy-

Pretentious motherfucker handwriting and style. Could just be writing a reminder to wish someone a happy birthday and will go all out. It normally takes him 15 minutes to write a small note. He writes letters frequently, with no reason in particular. I think he just really likes writing. Uses big words but not in the same way Demo does. Like Demo will say, "The food was horrific." But Spy will say some shit like "the meal I partook in was horrifically distasteful and..." So on and so on.

I think he can also switch his handwriting at will. If he needs to pretend to have messy handwriting for some reason, he'll do it. Not without sheding a tear at how awful it looks first though.

Writes exclusively in French. One or two words in English every 10,000 words he writes.

————————————————————

Soldier-

He likes using all capital letters when he writes! He feels like every word he writes is important. It also helps him remember things. I also don't think his vision is the best, so it's hard for him to see any other writing.

He doesn't write often, but he's always listing things, marking things that have changed, and writing down random questions that he'll spend the day trying to answer. Very observation based writing. You catch him writing and it's just a piece of computer paper with a list like,

THE CEREAL WAS MOVED

I SAW A BIRD

WHY DO BIRDS FLY INTO GLASS

ARE BIRDS OKAY AFTER FLYING INTO GLASS.

Very simple writer.

————————————————————

Pyro-

Scarily neat and beautiful writing. Somehow, they can write like this no matter what situation they're in. I definitely think they just rewrite things they overhear, facts that they like, good memories they remember, and just odd things. Has multiple quotes written down from books they've read. They write with glitterpens, too. They have a bunch of construction paper they use to write on.

They don't really write much for necessity. They only really write to make themselves happy. Can be simple or descriptive depending on what their remembering.

————————————————————

AH! I HAD SO MUCH FUN DOING THIS ONE! Thanks again for the ask! I hope your friend likes the answers :D

[themsthenow]

DUDE DUDE DUDE I AM OBSESSED WITH THE STUFF YOU MADE OMFG. the wings and the claws im!!!! im feral rn. holy shit

do you have any advice on where to get started if someone were wanting to make something like that of their own? or just generally propmaking for cosplay stuff, god knows i need to find a way to make wings of Some Form to appease the hyperfixation lol

love this stuff it's so cool holy hell

Wow, hey thank you for the nice words :).

In terms of advice, I'd say just be prepared for random stuff to go wrong.

DOWN SCALE.

Unless you have the wide open space required to house an extra entity, I'd say down scale it and make the wing span smaller, because I literally cannot put these anywhere lol. Me and my friends were measuring them by an estimated version of Tessa's height, assuming she was an adult Australian (160cm) and not a dead child wearing robot. The original wing span ended up being almost three and a half Tessas. Down scaling is definitely recommended.

Then going on to material, I'm going to be honest, I don't really know what any good substitutes for what I've been using. The best thing I can think of would be like cutting up one of those big umbrellas you see in like outdoor seating areas because they are built to be sturdy and light enough to to transport places. The blade part of the wings were made out of cheapo yoga mats, they are not Eva foam(idk if Eva foam is more expensive, but cheapo worked for me), they are some kind of material similar to insulation sheets just slightly thicker, I have the cutting patterns on the blog (the mats are 140x50x1cm) . Springs are something similar to "helical extension springs"(they pull things together, like trampoline springs) the strength of these will vary depending on how and if you downscale the over all project.

The general wing mechanism had to be redone a little bit but the new design is just based off an umbrella. It's good to use when you fold it in that the sections form a square in between the joints as a reference because it makes it easier to translate to the wings when drilling holes. The grey moving bar is on the outside now👇

I'll be reall, this part👆 needs a bit of precision. The two holes at the bottom have to be the exact same distance and stuff as each other so the mechanism works. You could probably find a way to optimise the mechanism but I did not (this was just easier for me at least)

The way all the blade parts go up is kinda cheesing it if you want all individual parts to work perfectly without extra materials. I was tying a string together on the bars and it worked to space the wings as I wanted to.

All in all, I'm going to be making a big ol summary post detailing all the stuff whenever I'm done fully.

Until then, I hope this helps, good luck to you and don't be afraid to make mistakes :).

(it's only a mistake if you give up)

Prop making and cosplay in general are things I probably can't comment on because I have never done cosplay and most of the prop things, I make are made out of random trash I can find that would cost dumb money if you went out to buy it new.

These for example are gutter or house liner plastic that was left over from a building site (gloves were uber cheap) and they were tedious and smelly to cut out and melt over an open flame, but if you want to do this too wear a mask for saftey unless you don't care about your lungs (which you should)

The claws were a lot easier to make. Easy enough that I made two sets (I think I went through the process of making these already)

[silverskye13]

I swear someone could point out a minuscule detail in RnS and you’d respond with ‘yes that’s actually a very important character detail and is very intentional for you see’ insert like three paragraphs /pos

Oh pfff. No not really XD or I guess, not like how you're implying. I won't pretend every little detail people pick up on is planned. I didn't sit down and write a web of character traits for everyone, or something like that. It's just that, when you write a character for awhile, what comes natural to them as far as habits go, starts to come natural while you write them.

I gave Tanguish things like: thief, climber, nervous, codependent, caring, fearful, stubborn. And then when I write him and I need body language to go between dialogue tags, I think of those traits and come to the conclusion that he needs to fidget with his hands (they're important tools as a thief and a climber and are a common nervous fidget for nervous people. Hiding them and he's secretive, pinning them to his sides and he's worried he's going to mess something up, hurting them and he's feeling self destructive, etc.)

I gave Helsknight traits like: knight, formal, proud, resigned, scared of death, withdrawn. So when I write him, and he wants to lie (proud, withdrawn) but he can't (knight) it makes sense that he side steps the truth a lot. If he's vulnerable or uncomfortable (proud, formal, knight, withdrawn) then fidgeting with his armor makes sense.

Then the longer you write those little behaviors, the more messing with them makes sense as the story goes on.

"Oh I established in X chapter that Helsknight wears his armor as a sign of distance. It makes sense it would have a thorns enchantment, and when he's intentionally softening up for Tanguish, he would not add that enchantment back onto his armor."

"I established that Tanguish wasn't blinded when the Warden got close in X chapter, so it makes sense that he's able to see in pitch black places. Maybe I would like to make that symbolic in his character too: he is really good at seeing past the emotional guards of people, and if for some reason he can't, it makes him irrationally nervous."

So! I guess all that to say, yes the details are intentional because I think about them actively while I'm writing. But not in the sense that I sat down and said "okay, what are all the details I wanna put in this story that I want people to pick up on eventually?" The process is a lot closer to "if my character is like this, what is in character for them to do?" And then you remember those little things, and when you have the chance to reinforce them later to keep them in character, you take that chance, because keeping them in character helps the reader believe they're a little more real, and keeps them invested in the story. And if you get good at keeping them in character, they influence how the story goes with those in character moments, and then the story gets more compelling.

Then people go "Hey wait, I just realized Tanguish says 'Welsknight' but Helsknight says 'Wels'." And you go, oh, thank you, I tried very hard to keep them in character I'm glad you agree that was an in character thing for them to do. Here's why I thought it was in character do you agree? And, most of the time, people agree, because they watched you go absolutely insane over these two characters for 135k words. Yes author, you probably are a little weird about them at this point, huh?

[munsonsreputation]

I THINK THERES BEEN A GLITCH

CHAPTER THREE: SITUATION-SHIP

↢ chapter two | series masterlist | chapter four ↣

🎧 soundtrack

steve harrington x fem!baker + artist

word count: [9.5K]

warnings: no use of y/n, talks / mentions of self deprecation, mental spiral (overwhelming thoughts and anxiety), steve being an overthinking mess, overall fluffiness bcs we all need it rn.

summary: when Robin calls you with an impromptu invite to Hawkins you can't turn it down especially when you've been dying for an excuse to see Steve again. but it all comes to a daunting turn as Steve endures a night full of prodding and pestering by his friends. it gets the best of him, taking him down the familiar road of anxiety and fear, but that was before you strayed towards his side, showing him that this situation isn't as complicated as it seems.

“Look into his angel eyes, one look and you’re hypnotized…”

You hummed along softly with your hand on your hip standing in front of the kettle that boiled slowly on the stove. It was nearly midmorning and though you weren’t an early bird yourself, it felt nice to roll out of bed with the hope that today was going to be better…you were going to be better.

And better meant making an effort, one that probably would go nowhere, but at least you tried. It was about time you pulled yourself out of the slump instead of sitting around waiting for yourself to magically get yanked out of it with ease. Instead, you set the mood, turning your living room into its usual workspace that would hopefully help you get into the groove of things.

The curtains had been drawn letting the sunshine cascade the walls and floorboards of your apartment.

Your new ABBA record spinning on the turn table beside a freshly lit candle.

Paint bottles, brushes, and other material had been set on the coffee table, ready to be put to use.

A new canvas on the easel already primed and just waiting for you to step forward and bring your art to life.

“Okay,” You sighed, nodding to yourself as you took a sip of your hot coffee and walked towards your living room.

Setting down the mug after taking another sip, you reached for your sketchbook, flipping through the pages that you had filled over the course of the past few days. It wasn’t anything too out of this world, just scenes in your head that were committed to memory and couldn’t stop thinking about.

Four pages were full of rough sketches:

A piece of half eaten cherry pie on a plate.

A vase of flowers sitting on a window sill.

A pile of quarters sitting next to a jukebox.

And a silhouette of a man who looked way too much like Steve — shirtless and covered in beauty marks where he stood in your living room.

Who were you kidding? It was Steve. All four sketches had to do with him… the muse if you will.

The half eaten pie was a flashback to your first time meeting him and the longing gazes you two would share in his living room. The vase of flowers took you back to the day where he came over with summer arrangements in his hands. The pile of quarters reliving the moment he asked you to dance and gave you all his pocket change just so you could listen to your favorite songs over dinner.

And of course, shirtless Steve, a beautiful reminder that he was living in your head no matter how far apart you were and how blurry the lines between you both were drawn. Friends had a nice title to it, but there was that gnawing feeling of more, a kind of relationship you couldn’t quite place.

Embarrassingly enough, the sketch didn’t take you long. You even mapped out the littlest of details like the three moles he had resting on his stomach and the hair that decorated his chest.

‘It’s ten in the morning and you’re thinking about Steve, that’s so pathetic,’

Sure it was utterly pathetic and honestly downright ridiculous but you couldn’t sit there and pretend like you weren’t affected by him. Even if the sketch didn’t do real life Steve any justice, it was still Steve. The Steve that would send you into a love sick daze if you decided to paint him today so instead you opened for the slice of cake, just as memorable as shirtless Steve.

With the graphite pencil in your dominant hand, you used light strokes against the canvas, roughing out the original sketch and creating a guide that would make it easier for you to paint in sections. The details like the crumbs sitting on the plate and the mush from the cherries didn’t correspond the way you’d like just yet, but you know it’s part of the process and once the paint hits, it’ll come together eventually.

“Not bad,” You whispered under your breath, dropping the pencil down and stepping back to see the composition.

You had drawn the plate sitting against his wooden coffee table, a few crumbs littered across the dish with the fork resting on the edge. It’s a simple scene, something that you shouldn’t have to tilt your head at and begin to pick apart, but you do so without realizing it’s that incessant criticism again.

Even if it’s just a sketch, you’re already imagining the colors clashing together and looking murky if you even think about painting it. The pie itself doesn’t even look half eaten, instead it looks like it had been torn apart from the inside by maggots — disgusting and revolting.

“Nope, c’mon, get it together,” You shut your eyes tightly, shaking your head back and forth as if that would make the gnawing thoughts leave your head.

When you opened your eyes you could picture the slimy larvae creatures moving across the plate and onto the fork, making you groan as you flopped back onto the couch and ran your fingers through your scrap tugging at your roots frustratedly.

All of it felt so fucking impossible and you weren’t sure why. Maybe it was the fact that you weren’t strong enough to combat your own goddamn thoughts and pick yourself up or maybe it was beginning to dawn on you that your spark was gone.

The ideas that you had in your head and even the sketches that filled your book was just the remainder of what was left. Before you knew it, it was all going to be gone eventually and you’d have to settle for the fact that your dreams as an artist were going to be crushed. And not because someone else was telling you that you couldn’t do it, but because at the end of the day it was always you.

Where was the girl who was sitting across from Steve at the diner that she painted all by herself? Where was the girl who looked around that same diner and realized that her potential was not limited by herself? Where was that girl who powered through all that stress and walked away with all the experience that made her better?

Where was she now and how could you find her again?

RING! RING! RING!

The search party was over pretty quickly, you weren’t even sure if you would have been able to find her in the first place. Reaching for the phone from where you were sitting, you picked it up and pressed it to your ear while you relaxed your head back against the cushions.

“Yellow,” You answered with a heavy breath.

A gasp rang from the other line with excitement, “Green! Are we going in order of ROYGBIV?!”

The voice on the other line immediately erased the frown on your face, calming the anxiety that was brewing in your chest as soon as Robin came through when you needed her the most.

“Robs!” You greeted happily this time, “Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” you asked, sitting up somewhat.

She let out a “mhm!”, and you could hear some noise, probably something on the tv that she was playing to pass the time, “I’m calling you from work actually. I hope you aren’t too busy.”

You let out a sarcastic laugh, glaring across the small space at the innocent easel and canvas, “Not busy at all, quite literally just giving my art supplies the nastiest glare in the world right now.”

“Still nothing new?” Robin wondered sadly.

You reached for your coffee mug, taking a sip and humming a reply before speaking, “Yeah, I think I’m throwing in the towel for the day.”

“Well don’t stress it, I’m sure it’ll come to you in no time.” She said encouragingly.

There was a special bond you and Robin had despite not knowing each other for long. For you, it felt like you have known her forever, possibly the bestest friend you’ve ever had because you didn’t have many.

Every thoughtful word came from her heart and you could feel it in the way she spoke to you with sureness even if you weren’t entirely sure of it yourself.

Your stress began to mellow, giving yourself the chance to finally breathe, “Thanks Ro. I miss you.”

“I know, I miss you too, buttttt we won’t miss each other for long because I was wondering if you’d wanna come down to Hawkins tonight!”

Her voice was always filled with excitement but this time around you caught the glint of hopefulness — as if you would ever turn it down even when you clearly had work to do.

You sat up wiggling your shoulders, “What the occasion?”

“Joyce and Hop are hosting a housewarming barbecue and because they’ve been hearing so much about you, they’d really love to meet you if you don’t have anything going on.”

You nibbled on your lip absentmindedly, “Hop and Joyce are the triplets parents’ right?”

You coined El, Will, and Jonathan under the nickname the triplets because of how similar they looked despite not being fully blood related. If Nancy hadn’t explained to you that the El was technically the boys’ step sister, you would have never guessed it.

You could hear the faint ding coming from what you assumed was the customer service bell followed by her saying, “Correct! So are you in?”

Glancing over at the time on the clock, you estimated that you had just enough time to start baking and then a little extra to get ready. From what you had heard, Hop and Joyce were the most laid back and involved out of all the parents. Knowing this you were more so excited than intimidated – if Robin and the rest of the group loved them, then so would you. 

“I’d be crazy to miss out on it, do you have an address?” You reached forward, picking up a ballpoint pen and napkin from your coffee table, ready to jot it down.

She mumbled under her breath, “Uhhh, hold on, I’m trying to remember.”

You were sure that you could picture the scene of her pinching her eyes shut and thinking especially hard with the “uh’s” and “um’s” from the other line. There was another voice in the background, a bit muffled yet closer and you wondered if it was Steve or their weirdo boss, Keith. Either way, you couldn’t hear what was being said, just the other person asking Robin something and her reply in pensive hums.

Then there was a slight shuffle, the phone feeling farther as she spoke. “Shit, here, talk to Steve while I try to get into El’s file.”

Your eyes widened and you sat up a little straighter, clearing your throat as you responded though you were sure she couldn’t hear you.

“O-oh, okay!”

Maybe it was because you spent a good chunk of your morning thinking about him and staring at the sketch of his shirtless body, but for some reason you had felt more skittish than normal. Almost debating on whether or not to hang up and let Robin call you back once she found the address. But it was just because you hadn’t spoken to Steve in five whole days.

It was Friday now and the last time you got to hear his voice is when he called you ‘sweet thing’ and you’d be lying to yourself if you said that you hadn’t been thinking about him saying it on repeat in your head — but that's besides the point.

It only took you five days of not speaking to him for you to realize that you missed him a lot more than you should’ve. That thinking about him the way that you were wasn’t entirely normal and the sketches even spoke for themselves. That night where he showed up to your gallery and spent the evening at yours was the catalyst to something inside of you that felt so foreign yet comforting.

By now it would be futile to try to pretend like you weren’t a plate of mush when it came to him.

“Hey, stranger.” He spoke smoothly.

His voice was cheery and you swore you could picture him leaned up on the counter with his phone pressed to his ear. A sight that you wish you could see with your own eyes instead of in your imagination.

You grunted out a short laugh, knowing there was no malice behind it, simply just trying to contain yourself, “Hiya, Steve.”

“How’s it going?” He asked with a short pause, “Being nicer to yourself?” There was a teasing lift to his voice that you caught making you roll your eyes playfully.

Laying back on the couch you kicked your legs up behind you, “I’m trying, but you know, I gotta say I’m a little annoyed at myself.”

He drew a breath in, voice coming out concerned as he spoke, “Yeah? Why’s that?”

“I’m a total idiot who forgot to ask the guy who bought me a dozen cronuts and my favorite latte for his number so I could thank him sooner,” you giggled, closing your eyes as you heard him laugh and the unease was replaced with humor.

“Well, if it makes you feel better, I’m an idiot for not leaving it. I just thought you wouldn’t want me flooding you with calls if I had your number.” He said it quietly trying not to be heard by Robin, but you ended up stifling your laughter as you heard her chirp in the background

“Oh, I already do that, and she doesn’t mind!” Robin quirked up as you heard him groan, hissing at her to be quiet.

“She really does and I don’t mind. one. bit.” You assured him, hoping he’d take you up on the offer and finally ask for your number. 

He chuckled, humming before he spoke again, “But seriously, how are you?”

You let out an exasperated sigh, prompting an “uh-oh” from Steve who picked up on your underlying mood right away. Even if he hadn’t asked, you probably would have ended up telling him anyway.

“I tried painting today. Didn’t really end up going well, seeing as though I’m sprawled out on my couch right about now.” You grumbled slightly annoyed at yourself for this reason.

He sucked in a harsh breath of air, “Yikes, sorry to hear that, but hey! You’re trying and that's what matters,” he tried his best to be encouraging.

“I guess,” you replied.

“You’re doing it again,” he warned.

You furrowed your brows sitting up, “Doing what?”

“The whole being means to yourself thing,” he said obviously.

“No, I’m not,” you defended yourself though you know that’s exactly the path you were about to go down and it just so happened that Steve caught you.

“But you kinda were.” You could feel the small smile forming on his face because you know he sees right through the facade even through the phone.

You paused, guiltily sighing, “Yeah, I kinda was.”

The two of you shared a short laugh, his coming from his chest while yours came from your throat. The tightening of the muscle loosening with the sound of his laughter easing all of the pent up stress and anxiety within you like an instant cure.

“Well, stop it.” He murmured, “I know whatever you’re working on is gonna be great when it’s finished. For now it’s just gonna take a bit of time.”

That’s what you were hoping for, just a bit of time to get you out of this funk so that you could return back to your regular self that didn’t see creating art as a task. You wanted to get back to enjoying it wholeheartedly instead of being so hard on yourself.

You smiled into the receiver tucking the phone closer to your ear, “That’s really kind of you, Steve, thanks for saying that… and I'm sorry for being—”

He swooped in before you could finish the sentence not knowing what you could possibly be sorry for.

“Nope, no sorries either. No more being mean to yourself and no more apologizing unnecessarily.” His voice was laced with determination like you should know this by now.

You giggled faintly, shaking your head, “Fine, it’s a deal.”

There was a short pause of silence, wondering if you should tell him that he could get back to whatever he was doing instead of keeping you company over the phone, but he spoke first.

“Are you coming tonight?”

You hummed wiggling the pen in your hand, “Yeah, unless Robin can’t find the address.”

“She’s gonna find it, she just sucks at using the computer.” He joked lightly before you could hear Robin in the background.

“Oh shut up, I found it. Give me the phone!”

You giggled, moving yourself to sit up properly with a pen and napkin ready in hand to jot down the address.

“Okay… here’s Robs,” Steve said, getting ready to hand off the phone to Robin.

“See you tonight, Steve,” you said bubbly, excited to see him and the rest of your friends later in the day.

You could hear the phone being passed back to her from the slight shuffling, but it was quickly retracted back to Steve’s hand followed by Robin’s gasp.

“Wait!” He said hurriedly taking you aback, “You’re gonna wanna take Cornwallis instead of Mirkwood,” he began.

“Huh?” You asked confused.

“On the map, Mirkwood is the shorter route to Joyce and Hop’s but it’s a sketchy back road so don’t take it. Cornwallis is the safer route, granted it will take you a little longer but it’s safer so just��please, take Cornwallis.”

You bit your lip, holding back a smile that was borderline self indulgent because he almost sounded distressed. Like the thought of you taking the shortcut would send him into full panic mode and who were you to do that to him? Never would you ever think about worrying him like that.

“Okay, I’ll take Cornwallis. Promise.”  You said firmly followed by a sigh of relief on the other line.

“Okay great, I’ll see you—sorry, I don’t know why, I’m saying that, I literally just said it five seconds ago.” He stumbled over his words apologizing unnecessarily. 

You grinned, biting back laughter. “It’s alright, Stevie. I’ll see you tonight!”

The nickname had slipped without you even realizing it. A sweet sweet nickname that rolled off your tongue innocently while it made Steve’s heart pitter patter a little faster in his chest, almost making him go dizzy because it was you saying it to him.

“Y-yep, gotcha, see ya tonight.” He stuttered, pulling the phone away from him.

“You guys make me sick,” Robin muttered jokingly, flicking Steve’s forehead as she took the phone and began reading you the address on file.

It wasn’t long before you and Robin said your goodbyes, reminding you to take Cornwallis once again after Steve had shouted it out from across the store. She whispered something about him being totally overprotective, but you didn’t mind, if anything you found it endearing as he was looking out for you and you knew Robs was just teasing.

So your productive morning didn’t turn out the way that you had planned it to be. Instead of fulfilling the blank canvas at home, you headed out to pick out some things for the party knowing it would be rude to show up empty handed.

At the farmers market you picked up a bundle of fresh rhubarb and a carton of strawberries — a gift to Joyce who made the best strawberry rhubarb pie according to her children. Then at another stand you picked up two bottles of cider, black currant and apple ginger for Hopper.

The rest of the things you picked up were little gifts like an assortment of freshly made jams that came in cute little reusable glass jars, a bundle of herbs, and a gorgeous bouquet of bright sunflowers.

Once you had arrived back home, you committed most of your time to assembling dessert. A trifle recipe that you had bookmarked in a cookbook yet hadn’t gotten the chance to try to bake until today — though in hindsight you should’ve picked something a lot simpler, but you always like to see how much you could crunch your time.

It wasn’t long before dessert was sitting in the fridge and you were covered in flour and pastry cream as you got to work personalizing gifts for the three siblings: El, Will, and Jonathan. Their gifts were practically free, coming from your collection of office supplies, yet also coming from your heart.

El’s was a baby pink spiral notebook, college ruled with over 200 pages she could write her heart out in. You had decorated the outside cover with silver and gold stars and in cursive letters you had written “El’s Secret Journal” inside of a heart.

Will’s was a tan sketchbook with thick pages where ink and paints couldn’t bleed through. You kept the cover pretty plain, using sticker letters to title it “Will’s Spectacular Sketches'', and adding a smily face in the corner.

Jonathan’s was a photo album that would store his developed film pictures that he had told you were starting to pile up in a random shoe box in his closet. You used newspaper clippings of letters to spell out “Jonathan’s Photography” in order to achieve the vintage sorta look you knew he was into.

All of the goodies were packed into a thrifted wickered basket that the family could repurpose whenever they wanted. And it also meant easy transporting for you considering how many things were stuffed into the basket. Surprisingly enough, everything fit perfectly and you were crossing your fingers that the family loved it just as much as you did.

“Okay, c’mon,” You rubbed your hands together before getting to work on cleaning up your place.

Once you were done you quickly got into the shower, rinsing your body off of the perspiration and baking ingredients that clung to your skin.

It wasn’t long before you were dried and throwing on a simple outfit: a floral cami paired with overalls and strappy sandals to match. You dabbed on a bit of makeup before throwing on your everyday jewelry and rushing out of your bedroom

The time on the clock read a quarter to six and by now you were supposed to leave ten minutes ago — way to go for time management.

Quickly you slung your purse over your shoulder before grabbing everything and hitting the road to what you hoped wouldn’t be too long of a drive.You couldn’t wait to meet Joyce and Hopper and most of all you couldn’t wait to see your friends again… and especially the person whom you saw more than a friend.

Meanwhile the sun was setting over Hawkins and in the Byers-Hopper front yard was a group of kids too busy screaming their heads off playing tag while the others finished setting up to get together.

Nancy and Jonathan were busy setting up the picnic tables, trying to figure out a way for the paper plates not to fly off. Robin was helping Joyce inside the house, getting the veggies cut up and plated, though both of them knew they were really spending more time talking. And Eddie and Steve lingered around the grill helping Hop with the barbecue duties.

El, however, was not participating in tag, tired from chasing around her friends and wanting to catch a break as she stayed close to her fathers’ side and talked his ear off about the girl from Roane who was going to be here any minute now.

“You’re gonna love her, dad.” El bubbled watching as her dad flipped the burger patties and Steve held an aluminum pan out for him.

Hop’s chest puffed out, peering down at her. “From what I heard she sounds like you’re grandma, so I’m a tad bit concerned.”

The young girl frowned sadly, detaching from his arm. “That’s what Mike said.”

Eddie and Steve both held back their laughs watching the way Hop’s face had fallen at the sheer thought of being compared to Mike. It was obvious that the man still had a hard time accepting the fact that his own daughter would ever consider dating such a little twerp — but to each their own.

Hop coughed, shaking his head regretfully. “Well, in that case, I'll take it back. She sounds lovely, all of you can't stop yapping about her so she must be nice,” he rolled his eyes somewhat though El didn’t seem to catch it.

“The nicest!” El gushed happily, clapping her hands together. 

Steve was smiling, not minding that the conversation was centered around you because… it was you. He honestly didn’t blame El for being so excited, after all they only got to see you a few days out of the week and when they did it was always something he looked forward to the most.

Eddie was the one who wiped the smile off his face, nudging him in the ribs with his elbow nearly making him drop the pan of burger patties,“Especially to Steve.”

“Asshole!” Steve shouted, regaining his grip on the pan and glaring at the metal head who shuffled a few inches away.

“Hey!” Hopper clanked the metal tongs together gaining the boy's attention, “Make fun of him all you want but don’t you dare drop the food. Spent way too much on all this crap and the last thing I need is dirt covered burgers.”

“Yeah, c’mon man, get it together.” Eddie chided with a grin as El giggled and shook her head, clearly amused by the grown men’s banter.

The sizzling of meat on the grill accompanied the shouts of the rest of the kids who were calling a timeout wanting to take a water break. The automatic porch light flickered on, giving light to the dim area as the sky turned darker with each passing minute.

“Isn’t she supposed to be here by now?” Eddie raised his brow, taking a look at the time on his watch.

“Probably stuck in traffic or something, Roane gets backed up pretty quickly.” Steve said, holding out the pan closer as Hop placed the cooked meats on top of one another.

Hop glanced around raising an eyebrow, “What’s so special about this girl, anyway? All I’ve been hearing for the past two weeks is Roane, Roane, Roane—”

Eddie snorted, crossing his arms over his chest, “Well for starters, she lives in Roane.”

The older man glared, responding sarcastically, “Wow, no kidding. Thanks Munson."

“Always my pleasure, sir.” Eddie saluted before patting Steve firmly on the back,“You. Why don’t you tell Hop about her since you two are soooo close?”

El giggled, reaching out to poke Steve on the cheek as he chuckled and shrugged away from her and Eddie’s teasing. But he couldn’t hold back his smile, not when it came to this and bragging about all the wonderful things that he had come to memorize about you.

“She’s an artist. Sells her own work at galleries and she gets commissioned for custom pieces from time to time.” He started, leaving out the bit about you painting an elaborate mural, knowing you’d like to tell them that yourself.

“And she bakes.” El chimed in.

Steve nodded with a smile before turning back to Hop, “And she’s kind, like insanely sweet, even to Mike and that’s saying a. lot. But she’s also super generous, gave Will a bunch of art supplies and will probably bring some more tonight—”

Hopper couldn’t help but interrupt the never ending list, pointing at him with the tongs, “Are you and her seeing each other or something?”

Steve blinked, shaking his head vigorously and pursing his lips. “W-what, no, we aren’t—”

“You sure?” Eddie tilted his head.

Steve groaned, narrowing his eyes at the metal head. “You’re literally friends with us, I’d tell you if we were.” he replied with a sigh giving him that knowing look.

The metal head shrugged, a teasing smirk pulling up at his lips, “Yeah, but I didn’t know you spent the night at her place until the next day.”

“You spent the night?” Hopper blurted crossing his arms over his chest.

Steve swallowed, “I wasn’t planning to, but there was a road closure and she offered. And like I’ve been telling everyone, nothing happened. We talked, then went to sleep.”

“And you got her coffee and did laundry before you left!” El added innocently, before slapping a hand over her mouth after Steve had widened his eyes at her.

“How did you know that?” He accused suspiciously as the girl took off shouting a “I don’t know” behind her.

Hopper and Eddie seemed entertained by the information while Steve on the other hand was mortified as to how she would know that unless you had told Robin who then had told Nancy who then told Max who then told her.

Knowing Robin for as long as he did, it was most likely her. You on the other hand had no idea that Robin was a blabber mouth and the world's worst liar — but she was still his best friend so there was not much he could do about it. 

“Husband duties already?” Hop joked, snapping Steve out of his worries.

He snorted, gripping the pan tightly in his hold, “I’m sure Joyce would have appreciated it when you and her started seeing each other.”

Hopper’s chest rumbled with a deep laugh and his face fell with a smirk, “Yeah, kid, I’m sure she did, but the difference is Joyce was my girlfriend but you, my friend, haven’t even asked—”

“You know what… that’s not the point!” Steve pinched his eyes shut, shaking his head to himself before opening them back up to see the smug smirks on Hop and Eddie’s faces, “I’m not a slob, I wasn’t going to leave her place without cleaning up after myself and at least thanking her for letting me stay over.”

The two men looked between each other, letting their shoulders fall with a shrug, “Sure, whatever you say.”

Steve was about to respond, a snarky comment about how Eddie shouldn’t be talking because his dating life was about zero to none and how Hopper should help Joyce with carpooling instead of rushing out of the house to get donuts every morning. But the remarks didn’t get a chance to break free as the front door of the home flung wide open.

“She’s here!” Robin shouted, jogging down the porch steps and whipping past the men at the grill setup.

He watched as she waved her hands up in the air stopping at the end of the driveway where your car had been approaching with the headlights dimming. As the yellow beacon of lights died, the car parked and he could clearly see through the glass beginning to unbuckle your belt as you smiled and waved.

“I’ll be right back,” Steve muttered, hastily thrusting the aluminum pan into Eddie’s hands as he jogged over to your car to greet you.

You should’ve known Robin wasn’t going to let you get out of the car before pulling you into a tight hug within the cramped space of your driver's seat. But you didn’t mind one bit, even if you were straining your neck to fully reach up around her and hug her just as snuggly.

“I’m so happy you came!” Robin squealed against you before letting you go.

“Thanks for inviting me,” you spoke gratefully as you took the hand she extended to help you out of the car.

And again you were met with “hello’s” and “hi’s” this time in rapid fire from the kids who quickly flocked around your car the moment they heard Robin screaming her head off. You honestly didn’t know if you had gotten to say hello to all of them before they ran off to wherever they were headed.

“C’mon, I’ll introduce you to Hop and Joyce!” She singsonged, skipping away before she had heard you say that you were going to grab some things first.

It already felt a lot better being here with your friends than being stuck at your apartment all alone tonight. These days the thought of leaving your sacred space to hang out with your friends in the next town over didn’t feel so overwhelming. If anything it was a tempting every second thought that crossed your mind as you enjoyed their company just as much as they did yours.

For you, nights like this used to be so rare, filled with loneliness and pacing your apartment fighting the urge to cancel plans — if you had any, that is. It felt nicer to be wanted, even in a simple setting like this one on a week night that should’ve been spent at home with work being done.

If you lived closer you were sure nights like this would be more common than not.

“Here, I’ll help.”

You felt him before you heard him and it honestly was the best type of anticipation that you could sense in your bones. Something you had picked up on from the first time that you met him. The way that he was always near whenever you were around and it was safe to say that you liked it.

Turning your head over your shoulder, you screeched excitedly.

“Steve!”

Your arms threw themselves around Steve’s neck, pulling yourself to him as he braced you with his arms wrapped around your back. He could feel you smiling against his collarbone as you tiptoed to try to reach the rest of him before eventually giving up and standing comfortably in his hold.

The only kind of hug that you and Steve ever shared was the fully immersed one where you’re both chest to chest, every inch of exposed skin sweeping against each other as you took one another in. It’s the only kind of hug either of you know when it comes to each other, the one that feels the most comfortable and right.

“Hey, you,” He murmured into your hair, taking in the scent that his memory wouldn’t let him forget.

Though it had already been five days since he used the collection of Body Shop products that littered your bathroom, it felt like he couldn’t wash it away, even overtop his cologne. And even if it was just his mind playing tricks on him, like torture for being away from you for so long — it felt nicer when the smell comes from you.

When your hair danced in the wind and filled the air with vanilla like a cloud that smothered Steve. He didn’t even dare to stop his senses from committing the blossoming jasmine and ripened peaches of a garden that you’re standing in the heart of to memory.

Hugs like this are a sort of delicacy to him that he hoped is the same for you, though he’s not sure if his Old Spice even comes close to the allure that you are — he can only hope.

“How was the drive?” He asked, finally fighting the urge to stop taking your aroma in.

He loosened his arms briefly to pull back and catch a glance at your face that was tucked to his chest. You retract only inches, staring up at him through your lashes with a smile never ceasing.

“Wasn’t too bad! I did almost get lost but I took a u-turn and took Cornwallis like you said.”

You forgot to tell him that you nearly took Mirkwood after having no clue of where you were going and your eyesight is too bad for you to read the street names on the rusty signs. It’s was already buried in the back of your mind, too happy that you made it here safely… his arms and the home, of course.

His arms tighten around you at the admission, squeezing you gently as he gave you an apologetic smile, “Sorry, you know if I wasn’t working today I would’ve come and picked you up.”

It’s not just something he’s said for show, you know he meant it wholeheartedly and if only he wasn’t working you would’ve taken him up on the offer. The passenger seat of his beemer is way more comfortable, not because it was a luxury car, but because he the one sitting beside you getting you where you need to be safely. 

“That’s alright, Steve,” You reassured him before hugging him close again, “thank you though.”

It isn’t long before the hug is interrupted by the shouts from Robin who is clearly amused by the sight yet very hungry and ready to sit down and feast. Steve muttered something unintelligible while you turned your head and flashed her a half smile from where she stood in between the home owners.

Steve knew the pointed look Robin gave him from across the driveway, the one that reads “don’t start with me!” and because of this he knew it’s best to let you go even when all he wanted was five more seconds to hold you like this.

He tapped the small of your back with his fingertips before he released, “Go,” he begins, chuckling as Robin begins counting down out loud like a threat. “I’ll grab the rest of the stuff.”

“Okie dokie,” You laughed, letting your arms drop from around his neck, leaving behind the rest of the stuff for Steve to carry.

Your fingers twiddle on their own accord as you approach the couple, smiling shyly, “Helloooo.”

“Hey, kid.”

“Hi, honey!”

Robin held her arms out wide, motioning to them both, “This is Hop and Joyce. Joyce and Hop, meet my friend from Roane!”

“Thank you for having me,” you beamed, unsure if you should stick your hand out and be formal.

Thankfully, Joyce didn’t hesitate to close the space between you, wrapping her arms around you lovingly and giving your back a rub, “Of course, honey, we’re so glad you were able to make it!”

She reminds you a lot like Dorothea, only less intimidating and shorter. But she’s just as warm and inviting, making you feel comfortable as if you’ve been here a million times before. As she pulled away, she gave your shoulders one last kind squeeze before you looked towards the tall giant beside her.

On the outside he looked scuffy, a thick mustache and a mean scar above his left eyebrow. But you know he’s the father to three wonderful and good hearted kids who praise him for being the best in the entire world, so you know he’s far from that — if anything his Hawaiian print button down would’ve told you anyways.

He was the one who broke the short silence, tapping the metal tongs together as he smirked, “So you’re the girl my kids won’t shut up about, huh?” He said jokingly.

Will and El don’t miss a beat to whine “Dad!” from the picnic tables where they were ready to eat.

You grinned walking into his side as you gave him a small hug, “I suppose so, it’s nice to meet you.”

“You too,” He nodded, patting your back and letting you step away.

The car door slammed shut and Steve was striding over with his hands full, “You can lock it now,” he said with a chuckle. 

You nodded, digging your hands into your purse to find the keys as you clicked the fob and watched the headlights flash twice before hearing the beep.

“Thank you, again,” you said quietly, reaching for the goodie filled basket and taking the weight from him as he hums.

Turning on your heel, you held it out towards them, Robin already long gone and joining the rest of the group of watches from their seats.

“These are for you guys and the family,” You announced, letting Hopper take it from you as he began to inspect the contents.

“Oh, you didn’t have to,” Joyce pouted with gratitude.

You shook your head reassuringly,“It’s really no problem! I didn’t want to show up empty handed anyways,” you insisted.

“There’s a bunch of local stuff from the farmers market in there, but I also customized a few notebooks for the three based on their hobbies and whatnot.” You explained watching as he pulled out one of the bottles of cider and began reading the label.

“Can’t wait to add this one to the bar,” Hop snickered, waving the bottle around in front of Joyce as she scoffed and rolled her eyes playfully.

She looked at you, pretending to conceal her mouth as she muttered, “He added a bar cart to the kitchen and now he thinks he can collect all the alcohol he wants.”

The married couple's banter made you smile, happy to see that even in their middle age they were still finding ways to poke fun at each other without actually hurting the others feelings. 

Hop looked down at her with fake annoyance eyeing around the yard. “Yeah, well, this barbecue was actually supposed to be me giving everyone a grand tour but all everybody wants to do is stay outside.”

Joyce slapped  his arm lightly , “Hop, you’re gonna bore her, please,” she said embarrassingly.

You clutched your hands together behind your back, jutting your chin up with piqued interest, hoping to actually get a tour of the place. From the outside alone it looked cozy yet simple. Rose bushes lined the porch along with rocking chairs on the wooden deck.

“I wouldn’t mind a little tour, the place looks beautiful by the way.” You said cheerfully.

Hopper grunted, passing a smug smirk towards his lady before trading the cold dessert Steve was holding for his grilling tongs.

“You’re on meat duty. Come on, kid.”

The man began leading the way towards the front door before you offered Joyce another grateful smile as you followed along.

“Scream if he starts going on a home improvement tangent.” She called out half jokingly as you turned around and flashed her a thumbs up.

Steve chuckled to himself, flipping open the grill, “She’s too nice to do that. She’ll probably stand there and let him go on and on.”

Reaching for the aluminum pan that sat on the grill’s edge, he began taking off the last pieces of cooked meat hoping to get away before he smelled of smoke.

“She’s real pretty, Steve,” Joyce nudged him lightly with her elbow.

With a kind smile, he replied,“she really is, isn’t she?”

“So how long have you two been seeing each other?” She asked, genuinely curious and unaware of the circumstances around you both.

He furrowed his brows, lips twitching as he tried to hold back a grin, “We aren’t…I haven’t — we’re not dating, just…yeah, just not dating.”

“You haven’t asked her out yet?” She speculated.

He shook his head, shutting off the heat and closing it with a loud metal clang,“yes…well no, no because we’re just friends — friends, that’s it.”

The quietness from the picnic table should have been a red flag considering that everyone was usually talkative, especially the kids. But their silence meant one thing: eavesdropping.

“Now that’s just bullshit,” Mike barked out while Steve and Joyce made their way over with pans.

Steve glared, placing it down directly in front of the little shithead, “You Wheelers just love the word ‘bullshit’ don’t you?”

Truly, Steve put up with a lot when it came to the kids and while he had a soft spot for them, they were on thin ice these days because of their meddling. They stuck their noses where it didn’t belong, barging in on him at work to talk his ear off about dating advice as if they were the experts who could solve his problem.

“I mean he’s not wrong,” Max began shrugging her shoulders, “friends don’t hug or look at each other like that.”

He furrowed his brows, taking a seat in the middle of the open space,“like what?”

“You know what,” The red head retorted with a scoff.

He pursed his lips tightly tapping his knuckles against the grain. “No, please, someone enlighten me.” Steve challenged, looking at the faces around the table that looked away from his hardened gaze.

The last thing he wanted for tonight was to be pestered on by a bunch of fifteen year olds who thought that they had the whole dating thing down the tee. Half of them could barely even stand in the presence of their crush without fainting and the others were on and off again for stupid little things.

Lucas was the brave one, speaking up with his hands thrown dramatically in the air. “Like you guys long for each other! You act like you haven’t seen her in ages but it’s only been like five days.”

“You rushed the car like you hadn’t seen her in months,” Dustin added feeling less intimidated.

Steve’s eyes widened, pointing his finger at his best friend across the table, “So did Robin!”

She held her hands up in defense, letting her shoulders come up cautiously. “Because I’m like her closest friend out of all of us, you dingus! I have car rushing privileges.”

He clenched his eyes shut,“Oh my god,” he breathed heavily when he opened them back up, “what’s the big deal?”

It was a real question — what was the big deal about him being just as happy as everyone else to see you?

“The big deal is you obviously like her but you’re just sitting here not doing anything about it.” Mike gestured, half glaring at the man.

“Look, what we’re saying is you need to just take the chance and ask her out.” Max put it simply, glancing around at everyone else who nodded their heads.

“The worst she could say is no.”

It’s not their fault, the kids are young and don’t have much experience out of their little friend group that they’ve established, but what they don’t understand is that you saying no isn’t the worst case scenario — it actually quite the opposite.

Steve Harrington had been rejected many times before, and he had been to move forward with life, taking their answer for what it was and not trying to push. Sure, him asking you out and you saying no would totally leave him heartbroken for a few weeks, maybe even months, but he was never going to try to force you to feel the same way about him.

But that was the problem… he knows you feel the same.

Feelings are reciprocated between the both of you, something that had been developing and brewing over the course of just two weeks. And Steve’s no genius but he picked up on all the little things you do that affirm what he knows.

It like a looped movie in his mind, a compilation of moments that the two of you had shared:

Glances from across the living rooms when no one else is paying attention.

Lingering touches that feel like electricity sparking up his heart.

Gentle words of solace, like a sacred promise that you’d never break.

Laughter that is so contagious and never ending.

There’s no denying it, especially in the way that you and Steve acted when people were watching. A space or world that you two created and transported to whenever it’s just you and him. Nothing could ever be so easy to see through, it’s not even hidden in plain sight — just evidently clear. 

For once in his life his gut and heart worked in tandem, not trying to fight it off the feelings or fleet away. He shows it in the way he conducts himself around you, not holding back on the longing hugs or the sweet words, totally just letting himself be.

Things, however change when he thinks about moving further, like his brain switching and telling him to not trust his gut or his heart because it’ll only blow up in his face at the end. That this… whatever this was, it was too good to be true.

Steve could never see it in himself to be the man you would ever want to be with, even if you were all in already.

He can imagine that after everything you’ve told him about your past, that it can’t be easy for you to trust again, to give yourself wholeheartedly to another person after all those years yet here you were slowly giving yourself to Steve in the same way he was handing himself over to you.

You’ll hold him, give him the safe space to talk about anything, his awful parents and his stupid boring life, but he doesn’t know if he’s strong enough to hold you. If he has it in himself to give you the kind of love that you deserve… if the love he has inside of him would even suffice.

You’ve been hurt.

He had been the one dishing out the hurt.

But you’ve healed.

And he’s grown.

Yet it still feels like the two of you could be dancing with your hands tied and he can’t live to see himself be the one to hurt you — he can’t.

When Steve lost Nancy, it ate him alive, being so stupid and selfish for pushing her past the point of no return all because he couldn’t put his ego aside. But he’d been long over that, receiving her forgiveness and knowing that Jonathan loved and cherished her more than he ever could.

Losing you would kill him, just the thought of breaking your heart was sending him into a spiral of his thoughts.

He doesn’t even hear Eddie and Jonathan hissing at the kids to shut their traps and stop being so nosey. All of it feels like deafening silence even with the crickets chirping loudly in the grass and the dying charcoal sizzle in the grill a few feet away.

There’s a blank stare across his face, the expression so dull and lifeless, like his soul just got ripped away from him. Like a scene in a movie where the world goes on and on yet he’s still sitting there waiting for something to change.

“Steve, hey,” Robin said panicked, beginning to sit up on her haunches to get closer to him, “Dude, c’mon.” She said again, this time waving her hand in front of his face trying to pull him out of there.

The only thing he sees in front of him is his worst nightmare: you sobbing with your head in your hands, shouting that you never want to see him again as you get up and point him out the door.

No matter how loud Robin called for him to snap out of it and Joyce shaking his arm almost pleading — he couldn’t escape it.

The monster he’d become if he ever hurt you.

“What did I miss?” You piped up with your hand coming down to rest on Steve’s shoulders as you took a seat next to him.

It’s only then that he felt himself coming back down to Earth. Grounded knowing that you were right here in front of him with a smile on your face rather than a frown with tears coating your cheeks. You were happy right here with him, not trying to get away.

But your happy face quickly dropped with concern, hearing as though no one is answering you, not even Steve. He can feel it, the question on the tip of your tongue ready to ask him if everything is alright, and he doesn’t quite know the answer.

“I’m gonna go get a drink inside,” Steve finally spoke, getting up and leaving without saying another word to you.

Your eyes followed him, taking in his quick footing that took him through the front door in a matter of seconds. With your eyebrows furrowed, your voice drawled out, “Is he…okay?”

Looking around the table, the kids don’t dare to meet your eyes, not even innocent Will and El and that’s how you know something is up. Eddie only flashed you an apologetic smile as he shrugged his shoulders and took a swig of his beer. Nancy and Jonathan don’t even meet your eyes, theirs zeroing in on the living room window, trying to see where he went.

It’s Robin who takes a deep breath and lets her shoulders drop, “We don’t know.”

Joyce brings her hand to your arm, rubbing it warmly as she grimaces behind her smile, “I think he just needed some air, honey.”

You swallowed, nodding your head as you brace your hands on the wood and begin pushing yourself up, “I’m gonna go check on him.”

They didn’t try to stop you, insisting that it’s best for Steve to be alone right now because they truly don’t know what to do. The conversation had gone from all in good nature to triggering in a matter of seconds. 

You stepped through the front door making a beeline towards the kitchen where you could hear the ruckus of cans and bottles being shifted around in the fridge.

“Steve?”  You called out faintly, creeping around the wall to peek at him where he was hunched over in front of the appliance.

He turned his head over his shoulder, his face softening with just you in his sights, “Hey. Umm did you want a water or a soda?” He asked, holding up the two beverages in his hands.

You shook your head, watching as he forced a smile and put them back into the refrigerator, shutting it closed.

“Are you ok?” You approached him as he straightened up.

Steve nodded his head as if he was trying to convince himself, “Y-yeah, I’m fine—”

You knew he wasn’t. His easy going aura was replaced with someone that was tense and passive, trying his very best to put up a front. 

“Did the kids say something stupid?”

‘Insanely stupid and it sent me into a mental spiral’,  he thought.

“When don’t they?” He joked, rubbing a hand behind his neck as he tried to advert from your gaze.

You tsked, biting your lip as you watched him closely. “You usually don’t storm off like that, just had me worried, that’s all.”

“You shouldn’t worry about me.” He assured you, as if that would make your concern disappear.

“But I do,” You professed, no hesitation behind your voice, just you and your brutal honesty.

There’s not much to say, not when you both know what’s brewing between the both of you right here all alone. But in all honesty, the pot was boiling over, the point of no return but to just let it all go.

There’s so much Steve wanted to say, like the way he worries about you too. How he thinks about you throughout the day, that you’re taking care of yourself and being kinder like you had promised you would. Or how he wants you to know you can call him whenever you’re feeling alone and need the company — he’d drive to you no matter the hour whenever you called.

“Are you gonna drive all the way home tonight?” He started, looking out the window where the dark sky already clouded over the town.

“What?” You asked, clearly taken aback by the sudden question.

He swallowed, looking back at you, “It’s dark and I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to drive home all alone. I mean you just got here, but by the time you leave it’ll be even darker and the roads are hard to see and—”

“Steve,” You whispered quietly, grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze.

It’s enough for him to shut up, to want to reel in the moment of your touch on his again, even if it’s just for a split second.

“Yeah?”

“Do you want me to spend the night at yours?”

He cursed at himself, realizing that’s what he must have sounded like. A pig who was trying to get into your pants when really that’s not what he was insinuating at in the first place. He just wanted you to be safe. 

“I—I’m sorry… you could ask Robin or Nance to spend the night at theirs if you want, I just really don’t want anything bad happening tonight if you decide to drive—”

“Steve,”  You started again, this time your voice firmer as you weaved your fingers through his and never letting up on your grip.

“Do you want me to spend the night at your place?” Your voice was sure, confident yet soft, letting him know that you’re not trying to make fun of him.

He knows you understand what he means. 

“I do,” he breathed, nodding his head and giving your hand a squeeze, “I really want you to.”

“Then I’ll spend the night at yours.”

Your words were all it took for him to relax, forgetting why he was so wound up and anxious in the first place. 

All of it doesn’t seem to matter when his heart was already in your hands. You have all of him – his deepest fears and his wildest dreams. He’s committed to you like a promise, something he knows he doesn’t have to hold out hope for any longer because he’s strong enough. 

You knew it all along and he finally started to feel it. 

💌 reblogs, tags, comments, + likes are greatly appreciated! leave a comment and let me know if want to be added to my taglist!! 💌

a/n: chapter three is finally here!!!! thank you all for being so patient and sticking around!!! we're finally seeing some momentum picking up when it comes to glitch reader and steve...i wonder what they did at his place ;) HEHEEHHE (yes i am evil cackling bcs i have tricks up my sleeve 'cowboy like me' style) as always, a big big big thank you to my sweetest effie @translatemunson for helping me out with proofreading and guiding me throughout the whole process of writing -- theres no one i'd rather spill my guts to other than you, I LOVE YOUUUUU!!!! happy reading to all!!! 🙈🩷

taglist: @translatemunson @kennedy-brooke @manda-panda-monium @tvserie-s-world @givemeth @steveharringtonswife @astolenkiss @loving-and-dreaming @awkotaco24 @engenelxver @elfiaaaa @pbs-theundeadmaggot @johnricharddeacy @gaysludge @scoopshxrrington @micheledawn1975 @ihatepeanutss @bakugouswh0r3

[chickenkurage]

OH MY GOSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH CHAPTER 3 OF ATG ALAN LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FIRST OF ALL NOT THE LITTLE INTRO OF HOW ALAN'S LIFE WAS PEACEFUL AND CONTENT TO THE POINT HE WOULD WANT TO RELIVE IT A LOT IF HE COULD, UNTIL IT WAS SWITCHED TO HOW HE'S LITERALLY GOING THROUGH THE FIVE STAGES OF GRIEF AFTER HIS FAMILY IS GONE AND DJ WAS PROBABLY ALL HE HAD LEFT BUT STILL SHUTS HIMSELF AWAY FROM HIM, DJ TRYING HIS BEST TO AT LEAST TAKE CARE OF HIM BUT RECEIVES NO RESPONSE IT SEEMS LIKE- OH MY GOSH DJ IS GOING THROUGH IT AS WELL IN HIS OWN WAY TOO OFC

DANG THAT SEEMED LIKE A CHILL CONVERSATION BETWEEN NOOGAI WITH VICTIM AND CHOSEN, AND HE KNOWS AND THOUGHT THAT IF HE CONTROLLED ALEX TO GET THEM AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER BECAUSE HE THOUGHT THEY WERE ENSLAVED??? I EVEN GASPED AT THAT PART NGL BUT I FEEL LIKE THERE ARE SOME OR A FEW MISUNDERSTANDINGS GOING ON RN, AND NOOGAI JUST CAUSALLY WALKS AWAY LIKE HE DIDN'T JUST DROP THE TRUTH ON WHY HE DID IT TO THE BOTH OF THEM

OH GOSH ANGRY KING AFTER FINDING OUT ABOUT THEM FACING NOOGAI AND KEEPING THEM BOTH IN THE HOUSE FOR AWHILE WITH HIM AND PURPLE WATCHING OVER SO THEY WOULDN'T SUDDENLY SNEAK OUT PROBABLY, AND DANG IT REALLY DOES FEEL MORE DIFFERENT TO HOW SPONGEY WRITES VICTIM IN THIS AU, LITERALLY MUCH MORE CHILL THAN HOW THEY WOULD USUALLY WRITE HIM AS, BUT IT'S STILL VERY SILLY TO ME AND I LOVE IT! XDD AND AH YES, THE ELDEST BROTHER BOTHERING THEIR YOUNGER BROTHER, SUCH A CLASSIC LITERALLY!!!

AND NOOOOOOOOOO WHAT- THAT'S WHAT THE ATTEMPTED SEWERSLIDE PART IS? NOOOOOOOOOO.... OH DEAR GOSH NOOOOOOOOOO.... DJ LITERALLY HAVING TO EXPERIENCE ALAN CUTTING HIS WRISTS A LOT IF THAT'S WHAT IT WAS WHILE BEING IN A OVERFILLED BATHTUB WITH A LOT OF HIS OWN BLOOD, THE DETAILS WRITING OF DJ'S PERSPECTIVE OF HAVING TO SEE HIS OWN BEST FRIEN- NO- BEST BROTHER TURN INTO SOMEONE HE NEVER THOUGHT HE WOULD TURN INTO EVER IN HIS LIFE... HIM LOOKING AT THE PORTRAIT OF HOW THEY WERE BEFORE, HE MISSES HIS BROTHER, HE MISSES THE BROTHER HE ACTUALLY KNEW, INSTEAD OF SOMEONE HE NEVER KNEW IN HIS LIFE, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- *INHALES* AND THESE TWO HAVING A BANTER WHEN ALAN PRESENTED DJ THE CURSOR, AT FIRST IT SEEMED LIKE DJ THOUGHT THE ALAN HE KNEW WAS BACK BUT NO... LITERALLY SOMEONE MUCH MORE DIFFERENT THAN HE COULD HAVE EVER IMAGINED IN HIS LIFE, THAT ISN'T HIS ALAN... NOT ANYMORE... NOW I'M TOO CURIOUS ON WHERE DJ CURRENTLY AND ACTUALLY IS, ARE THEY STILL FRIENDS AFTER ALL THIS TIM- WAIT... THAT ONE AUDIO... "BUT I GOT TO KNOW.... ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- THESE TWO HAVE A MUCH MORE DIFFERENT RELATIONSHIP IN THIS AU... NOW ALSO MAKES ME WONDER HOW THE ALAN ASSOCIATION WOULD THINK OF THIS NEW ALAN THAT Y'ALL HAVE CREATED...

ALSO THE LITTLE HAPPY ENDING OF THE CHAPTER OF DARK BEING MISTAKEN AS A CHILD- I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING TO THAT WHAT EVEN IS HIS HEIGHT FROM HOW Y'ALL HC HIM- I'M NOW CURIOUS ABOUT THAT A LOT SINCE I KEPT IMAGINING HIM BEING SHORTER THAN VICTIM AND CHOSEN BUT TALLER THAN SECOND- IJABKJABKJABKJAHKJAHKJAHKJAHKJAHAKJHAKJHAKJHAKAHKJHAHAKJHAHKJAHAKHJAKJHAJLAHALHAALJHALJAHKJAHKJAHAJOH-

ANOTHER YAPPING ABOUT THE ALAN ASSOCIATION

SO YOU'RE TELLING ME OJI AND HIS DJ ARE ACTUALLY BLACK AND RED??? HOW MANY SIMILARITIES DO THEY HAVE WITH CHOSEN AND DARK IN THEIR AU BECAUSE GOSH DANG- HE HONESTLY REALLY DOES LOOK LIKE HE GOT BURNT-

I CAN'T.... MY HEART WITH NOOGAI CARING ABOUT EVERYONE IN THE HOUSE BECAUSE THEY ALL REMIND HIM OF HIS OWN ALAN... IT'S MAKING ME SMILE UNCONTROLLABLY FROM SEEING THESE WHOLESOME MOMENTS, NOOGAI YOU'RE NOW MY FAVORITE!!! BUT 2ND FAVORITE, SNOW IS BASICALLY MY 1ST FAVORITE AU WHILE VEE IS MY THIRD FAVORITE, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THIS HEARTWARMING FANFIC AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- OH MY GOSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH- AND NOW I JUST LEARNED THAT THEY CAN GO BACK TO THEIR OWN REALMS? I MEAN I KNEW THEY WOULD HAVE TO GO BACK SOMEHOW BUT STILL I FIND THAT REALLY COOL!!! AND ALSO NOOGAI'S STRONG BOND WITH HIS DJ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- AND STOP NO- NOT THE FACT THAT SNOW IS LITERALLY THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN'T EVEN CONTACT WITH HIS OWN DJ BECAUSE... OH MY GOSH... I AM TELLING YOU I KEEP MAKING SCENARIOS OF DJ MANAGING TO GET INTO THE OUTERNET AND REUNITE WITH HIS BEST BUDDY OH MY GOSH.... (Also when I finished reading it, that made me thought about something with my Ink!Alan... Everyone caring for each other and having connections.... Huh...)

Let's go! Chapter 3!!! It's time to talk about it ^^

DJ and Alan relationship, few or more chapters are going to be a little bit angsty for DJ xD. There will be a lot of DJ Pov, Pre-Noogai and Post-Noogai here. Might get a little confusing too since the whole narrative is pretty Non-Linear, which I did on purpose LMAO.

Noogai is indeed chill, the talk with Victim and Chosen. He is pretty self-righteous, isn't he? He only believes what he wants to believe, refusing to listen to others. There is a major misunderstanding on Noogai's part since he initially thought Victim and the others were being enslaved by Alex, hence why in the first chapter they were thrown to the Outernet. It's that fact that them being thrown into the Outernet is not really important to Noogai's mission but he thought it was best for them to live in the Outernet than under a human.

We all know he has been using humans as his vessels for many years now, he of course knows how their brain works at this point. And this notion which is the humans being is vessel is me saying that, yes, he can control a human, and walk around in their body :D

We all know Noogai is here "not just potentially" HE IS a morally grey character, it is basically, killing a bunch of people for the better good. So, we know he won't exactly care about Victim and Chosen's mental wellbeing, he already did the "better good" and he'd done his job.

Alan did attempt, and DJ was the one to save him from it. It was mostly the start of Alan's descent to madness, anger and grief that DJ couldn't help him with, and it was sad for DJ to call himself a "bad friend" for not being able to help Alan with his mental health.

And I'm so happy you understood the part where Alan introduced DJ the cursor, DJ initially thought Alan was doing "better" until Alan presented the cursor weapon to him and there he realized, Alan was not getting better, he was turning for the worst...All this time DJ thought he had done something good for Alan, instead this happens.

DJ is officially still alive in the timeline with the Hollow 4's and CG, he is there somewhere. Will be shown in the next or so chapters actually :DD.

You know what, the line "Are we still friends" will soon make sense in a few chapters, I will not spoil, but mind you, DJ is going to turn for the worse (don't worry not the turning into a terrorist type) but he's not going to be having a good time.

ATG in AA, there's already some planned. Initially when i create Alan or DJ AU's i always make sure they can never overshine the others by accident. There are already notes that i had written about how ATG's relationship with the AA, and i believe it's more of an on and off. There are Alan AU's in the AA that will hate ATG if you think about it. So, we will see that the time ATG gets introduced into the AA household.

Noogai does care for the Alans in the AU, as said by the fun facts (I will be dropping those now at every AA AU post so that you guys can get to know them better!)

It's adorable you have favorites XDDD, and they are ranked too lol!

They can come back to their own worlds/realms/universe anytime they wanted actually :)), they aren't required to stay in the household but for the people who loves AA, they stay xP

Noogai and his DJ have a really close bond in the AI AU, though we only had a few comics (?) and one fanfiction, all Alan AU that i had made officially will have their own fanfiction in AO3 and all of them are under works as of the moment.

It is mostly to get to know them better :))

Snow really is the only Alan that cannot talk to his own DJ, and that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. But who said KOM DJ won't appear in the AA household xD (spoilers!!).

And please do share me what you are thinking with your Ink Alan AU!!! :DDD - S

[superbpudding]

Hello again, sorry for today's images being crap i just felt like it. Anyway since there aren't any super mysterious strange yiik youtubers with weird videos that im aware of today's topic of discussion is the legend herself Semy Pak.Also my right arm hurts rn so i will be a little more insane today ok, also since this is just pure YIIK talking and speculation be prepared for just my raw consciousness and what i think about things in YIIK. So uh first of all for anyone who haven't realised it yet ALEX EGGLESTON DIDN'T MEAT SEMI PAK HE GASLIGHTS YOU INTO BELIEVING HE DID HE ACTUALLY SPENT THE WHOLE DAY EAGLING HIS STON TO HIS REFLECTION ON THE MONITOR !!! Sources cited: when Alex comes home he keeps yapping about some other random bullshit that isn't anyhow connected to Sammy and also on the next day he mentions not being able to get "the video" out of the head, not the events. He also seems surprised when Vella mentions her name on the phone in Chapter 2. So now with that cleared up let's start with the very first appearance of Sammy and what comes before that. First of before we get to Sammy we meet another woman, a Blue one, she mentions that Alex is "not supposed to be back here" and disappears.

I want to instantly point out how her outfit, skin color and hair color are exactly the same as one of Spectre Sammy's, personally i think that counting YIIK's cyclical narrative the Blue Woman is the previous missing woman that Alex was obsessing over(possibly even Jae-Hwa Wen herself), with the graves you see in Factory Hotel being graves of previous Sammys and Dalis, the one in park looking area could also be referencing the "The Death of Semi Pak" post.

I also want to point out the tree that Sammy sits on, it has a mirrored Borjgali symbol, that being the symbol of tree of life, the sun and the eternity. With it being placed on a literal tree i think it's safe to assume that the tree in question is the tree of life, with other 2 meanings being the eternal cycle of yiik's narrative and this tree being the symbolical beginning and the end of all Sammys. This same tree also appears in KNN ending.

After that she gets taken by the Mysterious Star Creatures during the elevator ride and while the original is interesting too i want to talk about the I.V version of this cutscene. It ends with this scene of Sammy getting killed in an Iron Maiden which is a really similar to one of Asuka Furutani getting turned into a Digital Soul Vessel in Deviation Perspective 1, while ost "Digital Soul Vessel assembly line" plays on the background, so i think it's fair to assume that in this scene she gets turned into a Digital Soul Vessel, while the literal God takes her body.

Now let's talk about the lore implications of this scene. Personally i think that the Digital Soul Vessel for Sammy is the ONISM1999, the one that Alex specifically downloads on his computer and that is presented to us as a website, with details of who she is manifesting as different posts, tho i can't be sure what are the full implications of it since i think there will be something new going on about Sammy in I.V that the Digital Soul Vessel creation hints to. Anyway let's move on to the next appearance of Sammy.The Librarian, with talking about this character i want to point out something probably obvious but important to understanding Sammy, Sammy is parallel to Alex. The story of her life that she tells is Alex's, the traits that Sammy shows are Alex's, "oh no i've become my mother", her story of wanting to go far away but ending up in the mind dungeon is what's happening to Alex. The fact that she appears in the Mind Dungeon is important too, the Alex's Mind Dungeon is not just a manifestation of his mind, Vella gave Alex a phone number for it, the same Vella who tells Alex about how in her universe you can call the dead, the Krow is the connection between the alive and the dead in Alex's mind she is connecting Alex with shattered pieces of time and matter floating in the Soul Space and Alex sees a parallel of himself as a dead because he Wishes He Could Just Disappear because these ONISM posts are his and by posts i also mean the "Fuck it. I'm done." because Rory is parallel to Sammy and both Rory and Sammy are parallel to Alex because he is internally a deeply traumatized character and i can't not speak about it.

So uh let's i should probably explain in levels what i just said rn so uhhh. First of all, why Sammy is parallel to Alex. If we don't count stuff like Sammy literally telling us about who Alex is from his head as if she's talking about herself there's still plenty of other hints and signs through the game starting literally from the Title Screen:

When you get to the ending 1 of the game you see that the King and Queen are both Alex, they are parallel to each other despite being the opposites, the concept characters of The Digital and The Spiritual in game are parallel and so are characters who fit into them and it just so happens that literally every love interest that Alex has is the Digital to his Spiritual and is parallel to him, including Sammy. Then i want to mention the phone calls at the end of Chapter 5. They may seem very random and don't have any obvious meaning at first but their role in the narrative is to draw parallels between characters.Michael is paralleld to Chondra Alex's mom is paralleled to Alex's dad and then there's Sammy who seemingly makes pretty random statements however they are swapping Sammy and Alex in their roles with Sammy asking Alex to pick up her cat from the dry cleaners, like if it isn't a real cat but a stuffed toy, like a stuffed Panda. She mentions Alex leaving Sammy in the elevator while leaving her alone which is the opposite of what was shown to us in Chapter 1.

And then finally, Spectre Sammy, she appears in both main endings and in both she ends up hugging the Alex model, however while in Ending 1 her monologue more just sets up what's comming but Ending 2 is way more focused on her. So, the thing is, there are 2 Sammys. There is the Semi Pak and there is what i call the Semy Pak(Spectre), Alex himself mentions there being 2 different Sammys multiple times actually, with talking about how Sammy he met and on ONISM video "didn't look exactly the same" or how "his Sammy and Sammy in the newspapers were different", so, why would there be 2 Sammys? This is where "You" come in, "The Player", or actually The Ultimate Alex, the one who wields the sword in Ending 1 and the one who you give your name to at the start of the game, they can exist as their separate concept outside of the player however through you taking role of The Ultimate Alex the concept of it is told, The Ultimate Alex is the impossible goal of Alex to be the Ultimate self in form of a main hero from a video game and his desire to become this goal instead of anything realistic has started to control his life and it created The Dungeon Master who is The Ultimate Alex and the Proto of this concept is deeply hidden in Better Endings but just like Twisted Beings i doubt it's possible to truly defeat them since the fact that we're playing the game still means that The Ultimate Alex exists. Anyway, since "You" the Ultimate Alex is better version of Alex from another reality and he wants to make you as close to himself as possible he gives you a copy of his own friends...and his obsession, another Sammy. Since "You" are just like Alex that means you also parallel to a Sammy, that's why in Ending 2 you work at KNN, "You" are being paralleled to Sammy Pak with all the characters refering not to Alex but to the name you gave to the Ultimate Alex. This is why Alex stands with Spectre Semy and Ultimate Alex stands with Semi.

And now, about how Sammy is paralleled to Rory. First of all i want to talk about the "Do you ever wish you could just disappear?" post, the theme of wanting to escape to "soul space" because of unwell mental health state is very similar to Rory's arc in chapter 2, we can also see bearsnessecity reply to this post which is interesting because bearsnessecity is also the one posting the "Fuck it. I'm done.", which appears at the exact same moment as "The Death of Semi Pak". The only other bearsnessecity appearance is in "GHOST SITING in WIND TOWN - NJ", in which the users S/superbpudding appear and tell Rory that she's a ghost. There's also a water tower with Sammy jumpscare in Windtown and also there's Rory's grave in KNN, right near the Sammy Pak grave.

The Golden Alpaca in KNN's version of Sammy's room quotes Alex's responce to Rory. The date of Sammy disappearing, 4/04, is the date of Rory's birthdy. The gate from Rory's house also allows you to go back to Sammy's room. Now for the last section of this post i want to talk about something even i don't fully understand the implications of. So uh, you know how in Chapter 5 there's a sideguest where an ONISM user makes you place Sammy posters around the state. These posters have a very interesting description:"Last Seen 04/01/1999".You get these posters in the mall and right down from the mall on the overworld map you can see trees that form text saying

4 0 1. April 1th. Personally i see the possible implications of this being that either Sammy really went missing not on April 4th but instead on April 1th and Alex adjusted it for his narrative and to make it fit with Rory's birthday or it comes back again to 2 Sammys, one of wich went missing on April 4th and other on April 1th. Also the obvious implication that it being April 1th could mean that the video was a prank. The posters themselves are interesting too, first of all they are very obviously different from what is described in item's description since they still say 4/04. The e-mail adress is the same one that sent Alex the "link" to onism post, also want to note how she wears different clothing than one on video. I aslo want to say that in post "Elevator Girl" a similar poster is described(tho there is no image attached, despite users acting like there is) and it also seems like the name Semi Pak was found out through this poster(btw the post appears way earlier than when Vella calls Alex and informs him of Sammy's name being found).

Now i want to compare it to different poster, the one that appears in I.V/Nameless Psychosis intro in Claudio's shop.It is very similar to the previous one however there are quite a few important differences, first of all the date on poster being 2016 and nto 1999, the photo is a screenshot of Sammy's 3D model which is the same as in the ONISM video, building behind her looking nothing like any buildings in New Jersey and instead looks like buildings in the intro. However the 2 most important details for this discussion is the lack of name "Semi Pak" on poster and also the height being 5'1 instead of 5'2 as on the mall poster, yet again suggesting multiple Sammys.

I also want to talk about Sammy's age on these posters, on both of the posters and also in ONISM1999 posts it's stated that Sammy is 21, however on her gravestone near Alex's house and as said by Alex himself her age is 23. Which is interesting considering that 23 is Rory's age.

That was pretty muc it, it's still not everything there is to be said about Sammy but i think that's enough for this post. Thanks for reading and all that.

[fatuismooches]

SMOOCHES!!! Hii darling !! ໒꒰ྀི´ ˘ ` ꒱ྀིა

ohmigosh i swear whenever you respond to my asks, my brain exploded with ideas its crazy and i love u sm for it <33 but anyways this kinda tied down to my recent brainrot b4 this, so since fragile!reader was in a coma for hundreds of years, the first time they probably tried getting out of bed and walking on their own two feet was probably an absolute failure 😭 fragile!raedrr probably looked like a baby deer learning how to walk for the first time. to say it was cute but also embarrassing is an understatement. also THATS SO TRUE! reader would literally beg Zandik and every single clone to go outside to see Snezhnaya, but since their health is so fragile it’s such a huge risk that they can’t take :(( so they’re usually just looking out the window to see if they can even catch a glimpse of Snezhnaya’s city. also adding onto Zandik being more mature and different from the Akademiya, reader probs has so so many questions on what happened while they slept, like what do you mean he has power that can match even the gods?! fragile!raeder would probably be so amazed but also scared that their own lover, THE Zandik, the outcast from Sumeru, turned to become the 2nd Harbinger, and have so much strength. ALSOOOO lifting up his mask and seeing the new scars littered on his face </3 reader would probably be so worried and ask “does it still hurt?” AHHHH it’s past 12 AM but this man has had such a grip on me the whole day. Currently sick rn, hopefully I’ll get better. But ANYWAYS I love you so so much smooches make sure you take breaks and stay healthy in college I know it must be really stressful. Just know I’ll be giving you a bunch of chu chus. <33

-from your dear boo boo bear 🎐 anon ౨ৎ

HI 🎐 ANON!! <33 I'm so glad I inspired you wabdbedbdw that's so cute ily more ❤️❤️ And RELATABLE 🎐 ANON i can't go a day without thinking of this crazy doctor man smh,, and omg i hope you feel better 😭 i'm responding a bit late but hopefully you feel better by now!! Make sure to rest a lot and don't push yourself okay? Staying up until 12 AM isn't good for you!! 😤🥺 Thank you luckily I've been coping well in college, it's just that is SO!! hot and walking to class has me sweating hard unfortunately 😅 Anyway- MOVING ON TO DOTTORE!!

I didn't even think about that- poor fragile reader would have to relearn SO many basic things. At first you'd be stubborn about accepting help - because well... obviously you feel embarrassed and upset that you need help doing something that should be easy to you, from a man as powerful as Dottore nonetheless - but... eventually you have to. At least baby Zandy holds your hand the whole time to steady you ❤️

YEAAA the clones and Dot probably can guess what you are about to say with EASE when you come up to them with a pleading "🥺" expression. They really do feel bad about rejecting you, especially when your shoulders droop and you let out that little dejected sigh that they've gotten used to hearing... You just want to know about the world outside, to explore just like how you once used to in the Akademiya... to venture into the unknown with your beloved. At least there are some really pretty picture books of Snezhnaya, and they always bring you souvenirs from their expeditions <33

Reader would be literally bouncing off the walls in excitement when they hear all of the stories Zandik has to tell 🥺 They want EVERY piece of the story down to the most minuscule detail. I mean, how could you not want the whole story when he went from this random guy in the Akademiya to a HARBINGER? In the Fatui? Those same people who used to watch y'all in the desert and forest?? 😨 And now you're saying this whole lab and space belongs to you too? Zandik, we have hundreds of years of catching up to do and you're not letting him go until he recounts everything <33

OH MY GOD THE SCARS😭😭 TEARSSS I didn't think about how he'd get the scars after you fell asleep- you would be wondering why he wears that mask nonstop until he finally relents and lets you take it off... :( your heart would just break as you softly kiss the scarred skin and trace it with your fingers. It probably doesn't hurt anymore but it aches when you touch it so tenderly...

[scribespirare]

Hey Scribespirare, thanks for sharing the cryptid-anatomy! I'd be up for reading that paper if it ever gets written/published.

I hadn't really thought about these differences before, but it's an interesting topic. Though, I guess depending on the 'werewolf type' these elements might still differ? As in depending on the piece of media you're working with and how "wolf-like" these werewolves are in comparison to humans.... I do wonder about your potential categorisations. This got me to think a bit about the different depictions of werewolves (and their abilities) throughout the years, so thanks! All the best

nonnie I need you to know that I've been thinking about this ask all damn day. i'm staying up past my bedtime rn just to indulge in some speculative cryptobiology hearing science so lets fucking go

First, I have in fact come up with a categorization that runs off the same principle as the categorization of pinnae in dogs (pinna is the external portion of the ear). In dogs you have erect, semi-erect, and dropped. For werewolves I'd use the categories of human, pointed, shifted, and wolf, though I might actually prefer to call the categorizes 'stages' since they're often transient and can be moved between, depending on the fictional source. No werewolf lore that I'm familiar with has a stipulation that a were's hearing is only enhanced when they're in full wolf form, so we're working off the assumption here that a difference in pinnae shape is the primary reason for differing hearing abilities between the stages. And that a werewolf's base hearing level is above that of a human due to differences in the inner and middle ears.

With human-shaped pinnae, a werewolf's malleus would be larger than a human's, and their cochlea would have an extra turn. A larger malleus (the ossicle connected to the tympanum) in dogs is speculated to increase leverage in the ossicle chain and thus magnify the energy of sound waves. So even with plain old round human shaped pinnae, a werewolf would be able to pick up nearby sounds more clearly than a human could. Without the added surface area and amplification of larger, more specially shaped pinnae though, they would not be able to hear at greater distances than humans in this form. The extra turn in the cochlea does mean they'd be able to pick up pitches undetectable to human ears though. There's a lot of science I could throw behind an explanation of how the cochlea works but think of it like a piano. Specific sound waves press specific keys as that wave moves through our ear. A dog's cochlea is almost a third longer than a human's, so they have an extra long piano with even more keys that can be triggered, hence they can hear frequencies that we cannot. If that makes sense lmao.

All of that is to say that in a human form, werewolves can hear more sharply and hear a wider variety of pitches, but not at a greater distance.

The other categories or phases are fairly self explanatory from there as the differences between them are only pinnae and ear canal shape. The pointed stage is for a human shaped skull with pointy, elf-like pinnae. Sometimes they're a little furry, sometimes not. The shifted stage is probably the least common as I can't name any media off the top of my head that isn't anime that uses it, but basically full on wolf or dog ears on a human head. Then finally the wolf stage is for a straight up wolf head, either on an actual wolf body, or on a more monstrous Van Helsing type body. As the pinnae get larger and more mobile, a werewolf's ability to hear at greater distances and localize sounds gets stronger and stronger. Additionally, the final wolf stage also has L-shaped ear canals that the other stages lack since the skull is wolf like instead of human. I don't actually know how deeply that would effect the hearing ability though, the research paper I read for most of this didn't touch on it.

Aaaaand that's all I got I think. I'd love to go into more detail about how pinnae shape and size would effect hearing, but according to that research paper (which is from 2020) we apparently don't have any data on that kind of thing in dogs. Can you believe that? We don't know exactly how ear size and shape effects a dog's hearing. Nobody has tested that empirically. fucking wild

[nomsfaultau]

dunmeshi and sbi!fault :DD

I did briefly consider writing a normal sbi crossover cause ohhh my God it would be good. Honestly Laios did bleed into my Techno in Worth far more than your weight in gold cause Techno also gets into that hyperfixation on creature details (although in a lot more 'to kill them better' way). They are ON that grindset. Although polar opposites on Techno 'eating the same potato recipie for 12 months' vs laios 'new dish every meal'. The Blade is such a lazy cook see: cooking headcanons. Laios would openly speculate on how his meat differs from actual pork. And Wilbur would start explaining the flavor profile/texture difference very accurately to everyone's fascination/horror. The Blade also straight up doesn't know Chilchuck is part of the party because he's so tiny he's like 100% in The Blade's blind spot. Like yeah he can smell and hear him but he just keeps forgetting Chilchuck exists. Also confused that the orphan meter isn't pinging but whatever. Marcille constantly bribes him to get access to his long luxurious mane. Senshi is cool with him bc he's familiar with orcs.

I think Senshi and Philza share one brain cell in that regard. Agressively taking care of everyone else. Cause you cannot tell me Philza hasn't seen so so so many people starve to death in famines...not so much worried about cannibalism. Also. Technically Philza isn't in the mental place for more adoption (read: he's mentally stable rn), but it would be soooo funny if he looked at Chilchuck and was like. Another child? Baby? But that's mostly because I love tormenting Chilchuck so very very much. Probably radiating disappointment the second he finds out Chilchuck is not really in his kids life that much currently due to the adventure. Appreciates Marcille's fireballs and black magic. Philza cannot distinguish between Izutsumi and 14 yo Wilbur that's just the same kid.

Wilbur ADORES all the food omg yes this is fantastic. And Marcille is cringing as it eats increasingly inedible dishes and sarcastically teasing her for not eating it. But Wilbur CANNOT handle Laios 'man I wish I was a monster' like he just can't he will punch Laios if he tries that. Him and Izutsumi have the nastiest kvetching sessions it's fantastic. Instant bonding over being distrusting brats that are desperate to be human. Cannot fathom the picky eater thing. Likes how paranoid Chilchuck is, although Chilchuck is convinced a mimic is going to pop out of its head at any time.

Tommy gets even worse dish duty than normal, but these crazy adventurers like. Are really amazed about his power? About how it can be used to sanitize stuff?? Like passionately going on about the health implications and Tommy is just staring at his hands as a wholesome anime monologue is happening in the background while he's having flashbacks to murder. [Marcille and Tommy would be most insufferable duo imaginable. I think they’d constantly butt heads given how bossy yet insecure both of them are. Tommy would eat mud in front of her and Marcille would have an aneurism. And he’d blow a fuse about her thinking he’s essentially a toddler by elf standards. however. Tommy would be extremely encouraging of her explosion magic to a degree that would cause structural damage to the dungeon.] Tries to show off and impress Izutsumi because GIRL!!1! And is very cringefail about it, she and Wilbur team up to bully him. He thinks Senshi is weird and groans about having two Philzas. Constantly riling Chilchuck up about his height.

Tubbo is like thank God normal people who aren't crazy murderers at first. And then decides they're all weirdos but not Problematic to the degree of Fault crew peoples. Thinks Marcille's magic is freaking awesome, and helps her control her meat dragon homunculous guys a lot better. Grand/kid talking with Chilchuck. uhhh ngl having trouble with Tubbo for some reason lol.

Also. On a very big note I think the world building re: monsters could lead to massive angst and tension between the groups. Especially with things like Laios crossing lines on 'humanoid monsters' as food. Like the entire group is constantly talking about eating monsters, and for the Fault crew that's very dehumanizing, racist, offensive, traumatizing, etc. Very high chance they end of fighting each other, however, the funny dynamic trumps all so that's what I went with.

[ca-suffit]

I generally *don't* dislike devils minion as a ship. I like it even...But sometimes I think about blocking it even though there is good content i like to see on it.

But the tag is filled with people who hate loumand, people who try to put shippers down. I don't see that much hate even from loustat fans.

One of the things I repeatedly see that gets on my nerves is the "armand pays more attention to daniel in dubai then he does to louis" take.

I understand they probably will happen in following seasons. But to think that armand was secretly in love with daniel the whole time in dubai is such a weird take to me. Do you think it has any base or is it just the fans trying to push their own narrative? Am I crazy to think that armand looked like he was completely in love with louis in dubai, despite their problems, and didn't really care about daniel outside of louis?

I get that they will get together in the future and i will support them and nod along when that happens. But they clearly didn't happen in season 2. There was just too much resentment on both sides and they both clearly cared more about louis. Am i crazy to think that?

I think first of all that ppl should relax trying to attack each other over which ships they like or not. it's pointless and everyone is with everyone else eventually so there's no reason to be going at each other about any of it. this was way less intense before the show aired bcuz everyone was white. now it's insane bcuz there's a lot of racist motivations fueling the protection or rejection of these ships. we can all just breathe (this is a general statement, not rly aimed at u).

secondly tho. I think the show has made a lot of things intentionally ambiguous. I can't say one way or another what armand is thinking bcuz the way he looks at daniel at times could read either way. he *is* focused on daniel in one sense bcuz daniel is *the enemy.* once armand was no longer rashid, he could more directly confront daniel and he did (not like being rashid stopped him fully anyway but lol). but there's times he's uncharacteristically gentler on daniel than louis is, like during the engagement mind-reading fuckery. I think it's meant to read as both, if u have awareness of DM. I don't think it's meant to be THERE there rn but a detail to notice and think is kind of fun (hard for this fandom to do tho, ik lol).

idk when DM is meant to take place in this universe, but I think there's something to be said about viewing all of them after 2x5. armand has remembered that entire thing the whole time and yet they're back here again. he'd otherwise erased both of their memories so neither one remembered the "fascinating" segment and he prbly figured the risk of louis thinking that again after so much time and in a different mindset was v low. but louis is still talking to the man he said was more fascinating as a stranger than armand had been for decades. and they're talking about lestat again. "ur going to teach me how to be fascinating" is prbly still in there somewhere. armand is always watching both of them bcuz he still wants to know what this means and why it happened.

it kind of mirrors jonah in S1. even tho louis doesn't explicitly tell lestat not to touch him, we learn that he lived to old age too. it makes claudia's death even worse but anyway I'm getting kind of OT.

but he definitely is v invested in louis too and is putting a lot into making the relationship look good. some of my fav parts are from some of those scenes tbh, when he's just smiling and recounting memories with louis in front of daniel. or even when he runs out as rashid to stop louis from attacking daniel again over claudia's diaries in S1, which now has more context knowing their history and louis' desire to not have harm come to daniel.

[hella1975]

Hey, I know you have a ton on your mind rn and honestly I would be grateful for even you seeing this, but I am planning for a BIG project and I can't go forward with it if I don't have some character designs. So I am asking a HUGE favour, could you link some fanarts of the taob characters that you think are more accurate? It would really help me!

P.S. CONGRATULATIONS ON FINISHING YOUR EXAMS🥳🥳🥳

thank you!!!! i saw this ask a couple days ago im so sorry it took so long to respond but i have literally been looking for this fuckass post ever since i saw ur ask I HATE THIS FUCKING BLOGGGGG cant find shit around here everything is falling off the shelves i need to deep clean. ANYWAY THIS IS SO EXCITING! i have a post here with descriptions of the taob characters as well as some linked fanart. it's probably the most thorough post you'll get for this bc i was NAWT good with taob descriptions but there's always the 'taob art' tag. also if u want more detail not explicitely stated on that post then you have full permission to make stuff up or u can ask me about it :)

[im-an-insane-man-lover]

Okay this is really long and absolute yappery just. I NEED to shove this out somewhere besides with my pookie

So I think like a few people know who Alexi is??? Right, my silly until dawn oc. Him and Mack (or Moose) are me and my friends silly ud ocs right

I'm focusing more on these sillies than Alexi IN ud so I'm yapping about them !!! Because they're so silly

To the 3 people (pookie and like. Idk other goobers) who might read this tell me if you want more yapping of them because they're infecting my brain rn and I want me and pookie to yap more

ALSO INCLUDING SOME DOODLES AND DRAWING BY POOKIE!!! @roverthegoober

GOLLY I love these guys..... a LARGE portion is just like angst or the aftermath of the ud events

Two goobers meeting in early middle school only over the fact Alexi was asking him for help on work and after that he kept bothering him. Not even for help, asking random questions, and trying to know him better.

Alexi having Mack over for a movie night, and he's either forcing him to watch some sad rom-com or all of The Thing movies and explaining the comics and lore, pointing out small details and references in or related to The Thing (its his favorite horror series? I think it counts as a series right)

Like after the events of ud (saying everyone lives ending), they're both screwed up, but Mack had suffered from tbi (traumatic brain injury). Alexi is also suffering, obviously. Half his face is still messed up, his arm and hand are, but he doesn't have severe head injury (facial yeah, but erm... not head or brain, yknow)

Alexi isn't making any efforts to talk to anyone else (the group, not REALLY his family except if it's his brother, which is unlikely), but he's talking to Mack. Only talking to Mack, even if they're both struggling and trying to recover, he's literally worried sick about him and not metaphorically (because his anxiety is increased tenfold now)

Depending on how severe the tbi is, Mack COULD have memory issues with recalling what went on that night and everything that happened (long-term memory loss, he'd also struggle to remember how to do this or that and what this is etc). So Alexi is just dumbfounded.

Alexi can remember everything perfectly fine, and he just can't grasp that the person closest to him can't?? He can't go to Mack for any questions on what happened, how he got injured (at least for the injuries he wasn't present for, or Mack already told him after) and he can't go to him for any reassurance and comfort.

He's just in shock because he is ABSOLUTELY NOT going to confide in someone else, like family or a friend, because you have to be so insanely close to this guy for him to trust you to that extent.

So, over the years, he's sticking with Mack since he still remembers him, but not completely. He can't recall facts about him or moments that happened between them, and its not completely Mack.

ANYWAYS, IM GONNA LEAVE THAT THERE BC I DONT WANNA YAP ABOUT SAD SHIT ALL IN THIS POST

Don't come after me for anything that's not super medically accurate. Im not a doctor or anything. im just spit balling to get an idea out. Like Mack would probably have different symptoms and stuff, but this is just for silly fun for our ocs and I just wanna be silly 😞😞 this is literally just for fun so don't come at me with a pitchfork and mob

More art giggles

I love these guys I need them dead

Alexi was almost a theater kid, but he was too scared to because of his anxiety, but he still really wanted to try singing (he wasn't exactly too big on the dancing portion). He only did a few times at his house in his room, but his mom caught on and offered to get him a personal vocal coach (or trainer, idk the exact title).

So he CAN sing somewhat, but it's been a bit since he has, and he definitely isn't telling that to just anyone. Mack only found this out when they jokingly had a karaoke night, and Alexi didn't suck at singing

Also, if anybody is confused about why he has red hair, sometimes it's because his natural hair color is red, but he dyes it black. His older brother has black hair, and he was really close with him, and so around the start of high school, he started to dye it a bit to try it, and eventually he just ended up doing it completely and making it a routine.

Mack helps him dye it sometimes, but that's not often since he isn't the super best at it..... helps with getting Alexi what he needs mainly

OKAY THATS ALLLL !!!!! IM GONNA try to finish drawing Mack and Alexi as Paul and Sam from TGWDLM and sleep...