#how did he get in the arcade game??? no clue!

[itty-bitty-sunshine]

Immortal au fun fact!

Eclipse (the arcade game one) was supposed to be a thing in the au and act as a pillar of support to Perkeo while everything else was going wrong and falling apart during the virus time (+help Sun and Moon keep an eye on them and their unhealthy habits like overworking). Perkeo would also be a bit more honest with him compared to the dca, because apparently fazbear entertainment doesn't even know about that glitch thing (and therefore if felt less like being observed when talking to it)

The reason he has not been introduced yet is because I have no clue how to add him in a setting that is like a story instead of just straight up daydream that works in my head only (so things have been working themselves without him so far. Plus there's been canon lore added to that arcade thing since then)

[lvnleah]

009. | Five years

word count: 1.8k

find the masterlist here!

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February 14th 2024 | 32 + 6 weeks pregnant.

You stirred as you felt soft kisses being placed on your skin. You stretched and opened your eyes, seeing Leah hover above you.

“Have a good nap, pretty girl?” she asked, her voice a gentle whisper. “Happy Valentine’s Day and anniversary.” She smiled, placing a kiss on your cheek before lying down beside you.

You nodded as you sat up a little bit, “Le, you’ve already told me that about a million times.” You laughed.

Today was your fifth anniversary with Leah, it hadn’t felt like five years with how fast time was going. You’d both changed so much in those five years, you’d gone from being two careless twenty-one-year-olds to being close to welcoming your baby boy together.

This morning Leah left early for training, she’d peppered your face with kisses before giving you your gift. She’d bought you a beautiful necklace that had a matching bracelet and ring. You’d gifted Leah a pair of earrings to add to her never-ending collection as well as a ring too.

"I know, but I can't help it.” Leah laughed, “Today is special, and I want you to feel loved every second of it."

You smiled, "You always make me feel loved, Le."

She glanced at your growing belly, placing her hand gently over it. "And how's our little man doing today? Been kicking up a storm?"

You laughed softly, shaking your head. "Not too much today. He’s been quite calm today.”

"Good, both of you need your rest.” She said, tapping her finger on your bump, “Think you're up for dinner still?"

You nodded, “Course I am, Le. I’m looking forward to it.”

"Great! Then let's get ready, yeah?" Leah said, slipping out of bed and walking round to the other side to help you.

Leah helped you out of bed, her hand gently resting on your lower back as you walked over to your wardrobe.

“I have no clue what I’m going to wear,” you sighed, hand resting on your large bump.

Leah looked through your wardrobe before pulling out a pink silky dress. It was a dress you’d bought a few weeks ago, a slit ran up one side and it made you feel confident.

“My new favourite,” she grinned, “Please wear this, I love this dress on you!”

You giggled, “Okay, okay! I’ll wear this.”

Leah placed a kiss on your temple before pulling out her outfit. She pulled out your favourite cream suit that she owned and a little black top that she always wore.

You got ready and curled your hair before you slipped on the new necklace Leah had given you, its delicate chain catching the light. Leah smiled as she put on the new earrings you'd gifted her.

She gave a playful twirl, "How do I look?"

"Gorgeous, as always," you said before placing a kiss on her lips.

The two of you headed out to your favourite little restaurant, the same one where you had your first date. The restaurant hadn’t changed over the past five years, something you both loved a lot.

Dinner was delicious, filled with reminiscing and laughter. Leah reached across the table to hold your hand, her thumb gently rubbing circles on your skin. "Remember our first date here? You were so nervous."

You laughed, nodding. "I was terrified! You’d been my best friend for years, Le. I was scared of messing things up!”

Leah chuckled, shaking her head. "And thought the same about you."

After dinner, you made your way to the arcade, a place filled with memories of countless dates and playful competitions. Leah insisted on winning you another teddy bear, just like she did years ago. This time, she chose a cute little blue one for your baby boy.

"Look at that, look how amazing your wifey is," Leah said proudly, holding up the teddy. "Our little man’s first arcade prize."

You smiled, taking the teddy and hugging it against you. "He's going to love it."

“Bet you can’t beat me at basketball!” Leah winked.

“Oh yeah? Game on!” You smirked, “I’m pregnant and I’m pretty sure I can beat you, Williamson.”

Leah laughed, “Oh yeah, Williamson?”

The two of you made your way to the basketball game, and Leah handed you a ball. Despite your bump, you took your stance, aimed, and made a perfect shot.

“Whoa! Nice shot, babe," Leah cheered, clapping her hands. “Maybe you should take up basketball.”

You beamed, feeling a surge of confidence. "Beginner's luck," you teased, handing Leah the ball.

Leah took her turn, effortlessly making her shots as well. The game continued in a playful back-and-forth, with both of you laughing and cheering each other on. By the end, the score was close, but Leah edged out a narrow victory.

"Alright, alright, you win this time," you said with a fake pout. "But just wait until next time!"

Leah grinned and pulled you into a gentle hug, "I’ll always be ready for a rematch, love."

After Leah's victory at basketball, you both laughed and decided to try out more of the arcade games, determined to make the most of your night out.

"How about the racing game next?" Leah suggested, pointing to a pair of side-by-side racing simulators.

You nodded enthusiastically, and the two of you settled into the seats, gripping the steering wheels. The countdown began, and soon you were both racing through virtual streets, dodging obstacles and competing fiercely. Leah narrowly won the first race, but you managed to claim victory in the second, earning a high-five and a playful kiss on the cheek.

Next, you headed over to the skeeball machines. Leah handed you a token, and you both started rolling the balls up the ramps, aiming for the highest scores. You found yourself laughing uncontrollably as some of your shots went wild, but by the end, you managed to score a few 100-point targets.

"Not bad for a pregnant lady, huh?" you said with a grin.

"You're amazing," Leah replied, her eyes sparkling with admiration.

The air hockey table caught your attention next. Leah set up the game, and soon you were both engaged in a competitive match. The puck flew back and forth across the table, and you surprised Leah with your quick reflexes, managing to score several points. Leah eventually won by a narrow margin, and you both bursted into laughter, breathless from the excitement.

Finally, you found yourselves at the claw machine, a game that had always been a favourite of yours. Leah manoeuvred the claw, managing to snag a small plush toy on her first try. She handed it to you with a proud smile.

"Another prize for our little man," she said.

You shook your head, laughing, "He’s going to have quite the collection thanks to you."

As you made your way through the arcade, trying out various games and winning tickets. It was a night filled with laughter, love, and memories, the kind of night that made you appreciate the simple, beautiful moments in life.

When you finally decided to call it a night, you exchanged your tickets for a few more small toys and trinkets, adding to the collection for your baby boy. You left the arcade hand in hand with a large collection of stuffed toys.

Back home, the two of you settled into bed, the familiar comfort wrapping around you. Leah curled up beside you, her hand resting on your belly, feeling the gentle movements of your baby.

"So," Leah began her voice soft, "names. We need to think of some.

You nodded in agreement, “We do because at this rate our bubba boy is only going to be known as bubba boy or baby gooner.”

“I quite like Finley, I saw it online the other night.” Leah suggested, “We’re using a family middle name, right?”

You nodded once again, “Yeah, I was thinking something to do with either your brother or dad and Finley’s cute!”

“God, don’t boost Jacob’s ego even more!” Leah laughed, “What’re your favourite names?”

“I quite like the names Noah and Rhys.” You suggested, your hand playing with Leah’s hair.

Leah wrinkled her nose slightly. "Noah's too common, and Rhys... I don't know, it just doesn't feel right."

You smiled, feeling the baby kick against Leah's hand. "Okay, fair enough. What about Elias? It's a bit different but still classic."

Leah tilted her head, considering it. "Elias is better. Still not quite there though."

"Alright," you said, chuckling. "How about Oliver? It's common, but I think it has a nice ring to it."

Leah sighed, shaking her head gently. "I had an Oliver in school who was a bit of a bully. Bad memories."

You reached for your phone on the nightstand, pulling up a list of names you’d collected. "This might take longer than I thought. What about Arlo?”

Leah’s face brightened a bit. "Arlo... Arlo's not bad. I kind of like it. It's unique without being too out there."

"Okay, Arlo's a possibility. What about Mason?" you suggested.

Leah shook her head firmly. "Mason's too trendy right now.”

"Alright, how about Leo?"

"Too close to Leah," she replied with a smirk. "We'd get confused every time we called for him."

"Fair point," you said with a laugh. "What about Rowan?"

Leah frowned. "Rowan makes me think of the old guy who used to live next door to us when we were kids. He was always yelling at us to get off his lawn."

You groaned playfully. "This is harder than I thought. How about Miles?"

Leah considered it for a moment before shaking her head. "Nah, it doesn't feel right either."

You sighed, feeling a bit defeated. "Okay, last one for tonight. What do you think of Cohen?"

Leah’s eyes softened. "Cohen’s nice. I like it."

You smiled, feeling a sense of relief. "Cohen it is then?"

Leah shook her head, “Wait! I don’t know…I really like Finley.

You nodded, “I really like Finley, he feels like a Finley. Finley Williamson, it sounds beautiful.”

Leah nodded, a thoughtful look on her face. "Finley is great. It feels right, doesn’t it?"

"Yeah, it does," you agreed, smiling.

Leah kissed your forehead, her lips lingering. "Finley it is?” Leah asked you before you nodded, “Our little Finley."

Leah shifted down the bed so she was level with your bump before placing a kiss on it.

"Hi, Finley! You’ve finally got a name" Leah whispered to your bump, "We can't wait to meet you, Bubba. Not long now, Finley.”

You watched as she continued to talk to your belly, "You're already so loved, Finn. Your mummy and I love you so much, just like everyone else...your family and all your aunties will be so excited to find out your name!”

Leah looked up at you, "Finley is the perfect name for him."

You nodded, your heart swelling with love. "It really is."

[tomurawr44]

i’d like to see ur hcs for tomura x civilian reader! ^^

TOMURA/CIVILLIAN!READER HCS!

A/N: this is like two parts and stuff, teen to adult tomura :3

WARNINGS: spoilers, ooc tomura maybe, teen tomura, suggestive content, kind of goes Kurogiri centered for awhile.

how'd you two meet? (15-18yr old Tomu)

you two probably met in some sort of store, gamestop, arcade, cafe, computer/gaming cafe, or something along the lines of that.

it'd either start out as small little interactions getting deeper and deeper, or it'd start with you interacting first, I don't think Tomura would willingly interact with someone who isn't a criminal/someone Kurogiri or giran introduced him to.

you would fall first, but he'd fall harder, don't worry, he just scraped his knee, he can still get back up he promises.

he'd probably spiral with his feelings for awhile, he becomes meaner and colder to you because he's not sure how to process and deal with things, and it makes him 'hurt', so in turn he wants to destroy you. but the thought that he'd never see you again pisses him off even more.

he will come back to normal soon enough, just give him some time.

he's confused and a little nervous, but eventually he asks you something he hasn't really thought of asking someone before.

"Do you want to go to the arcade with me? but don't cry when i beat you in everything." is what he would mumble softly to you.

he's picking at his neck with one hand, his hood up and he was looking down because he was so nervous, he hasn't felt this, not in a situation like this and it makes him grit his teeth and want to just turn you to dust right then and there.

he was scared you'd think of him as a gross creep, but he was absolutely adorable, he had his charms. the messy baby blue hair? the lanky build? it made you bite your lip sometimes thinking about him.

his whole body was blushing, down to his collarbones his pale yellow skin was tinted with a very faint pink.

if you say yes, he wants to tear you apart but he gets the same rush and high when he clutches a game from hearing your response. you didn't reject him.

and that's it, no confession or anything, you said yes and now your his partner for eternity. sorry, he makes the rules.

How did Kurogiri/Master find out and react to it?

The first red flag for Kurogiri was when Tomura started going out alot more, even going as far as to sneak out. he'd atleast let Kurogiri know he was leaving and sometimes say where he was headed.

that raised his suspicions and he reported to AFO the moment that it started occurring so frequently. but the old bastard just shrugged it off and assumed Tomura was making connections to other local gangs within the area to try and recruit allies.

Kurogiri thought he's been blowing all his allowance on the arcade again, but why? Tomura would usually tell Kurogiri what he wanted, he has all the games he needs.

the poor butler was stuck thinking for awhile.

the second red flag was when Tomura started cleaning his garbage dump of a room, started taking showers more frequently and Kurogiri even caught him preening in the mirror once.

one time, Kurogiri snuck into Tomura's room and looked for clues, feeling his PC, it was cold. it shouldn't be cold. it should be warm to signal that Tomura has been using it alot.

then he found the gifts you've been giving Tomura, matching keychains, colorful clothing, all sorts of things that you've bought for the crusty munch.

he was starting to connect the dots, a significant other perhaps? he heard the door to the bar open and the familiar steps of Tomura coming up the stairs so he warps into his own room to act like he's been resting.

when Tomura asks for more money and leaves, Kurogiri voices his concern and findings to his master. once AFO catches wind of this, he's a bit upset. so he tells Kurogiri to find more evidence and such, but keep it neutral, as if he wasn't suspecting anything.

Tomura thinks he's sooo slick and good at hiding things.

once Tomura gets comfortable enough with you, he'll actually clean his room, and it scared Kurogiri, Tomura? Vaccuming? changing his sheets? organizing his room? unheard of.

once you come over and introduce yourself, game over. the moment you and Tomura are in his room he immediately contacts AFO and lets him know who you are and what you and Tomura seem to be.

once you go home, AFO immediately tries to get Tomura to break it off with you, he want's to object but he really does, so he picks and points AFO's questions and replies with his own. if his master was supposed to teach him everything, wouldn't it be good he had an ally?

let's say your someone with connections here and there, he'd bring that up to AFO (it's just your friend group..) and try to reason with his master.

AFO does not let it go, instead plants insecurities and doubt into Tomura's head about his partner.

too bad you're just too good at reassurance.

If you want to see dating hcs with Tomura/Civillian reader, please check out this post or ask again for a separate one 🖤

Villain era tomura! (20yrs old)

when he finally gets into his villain era, seeing your boyfriend covered in so many hands attacking children on live television made you feel scared.

scared of him and for him, how come you haven't seen this coming?

okay maybe you did, but you thought he was just a shoplifter or some petty crime like that!

you'd obviously contact him about it and he feels nervous, now that you've seen him for who he truly is.

stick around please, become an ally. an outsider to help with him.

he will introduce you to the league, but again, seeing your boyfriend on live television in the fight of the century spiked something deep within your heart.

you needed to help him, you'd call him as soon as possible.

Wrong move for your finances, now you have a bunch of sad stinky wet cats soaked with trauma in your house. all depending on you and Kurogiri to manage them.

no more sex :(

he will ask you to join him, be a villain too, but it's really up to you and the path you choose.

Sorry if i ended it so abruptly! if you want to see a progression of this or something along the lines of that, please send in an ask! my askbox is always 100% open🖤

—Ake 2024

[ryomens-vixen]

Tomura's Blk Girlfriend

Cw: monster cock shiggy, daddy kink, degrading (slut,) praise (sweetheart, baby), spanking, rough sex, hair pulling, choking, belly bulging, spit swallowing(reader), lowkey god complex shiggy, creampie

Word count: 2.4k 🎉🥳 Yippie you get a wc.

Authors notes: You can read this if you want to this was completely self Indulgence, good luck 💕 and reblogs are welcomed

You were the baddest bitch walking, hard to come by, hard to get with, and especially hard to please. Nobody would have guessed you'd have a loser boyfriend like Tomura Shigaraki. A loser boyfriend that does nothing but stream on twitch, drinks monster energy drinks, literally forgets to bathe unless it's with you, amazing dick game, hates going out but will do just about anything to please his goddess, his player 2, his Queen, the love of his life.

You were like a fantasy in front of him. Tomura didn't really understand fully how on earth he bagged you, even his homeboy Dabi hadn't a clue as to how it happened. One day Dabi and the gang decided to drag Tomura out of his shitty apartment, really it was Toga's idea of everyone hanging out at the mall. They even had an arcade so Tomura HAD to come with them and they didn't give him a choice at all.

It all started when they were hanging out at the arcade Tomura was trying to make up his mind as to what game he wanted to play first while Toga dragged Twice and Dabi around to different stores to look at “cute” stuff, Spinner, Mr.Compress and Big sis Magne had also split off to the food court leaving Tomura to himself where he just so happened to catch a glimpse of you struggling at a stupid claw machine. Those things were a big scam anyways , but you desperately wanted this cute ass hello kitty plushie for your collection and you just had to have it.

Just watching you fail time after time irked his nervous you either didn't know what the fuck you were doing or you just sucked ass at crane games, so he dug into his red trench coat for his wallet. This was your sixth time failing to get this damn plushie before tomura jumped in front of you with some money of his own.

“Hey! I was-”

“Oh Shut up and watch a pro at work.”

And you did exactly that, shut up. Watching him go for the same plushie you wanted. you were lost in thought for a moment thinking about if you couldn't get it, then what made him think he could. That was until she heard the machine's winner alarm go off bringing you back to reality.

“Do you want it or not lady?!” You had such a confused look on your face when you took it from him.

“How did you…”

“Pfft- Come on it was fuckin easy, you just suck at it.”

Looking past his rough, patchy looking skin he was actually fine as hell. But you really liked the look of his sharp piercing red eyes god he was so mean looking… and he had a bit of a mouth on him too. Meanwhile, When Tomura got a good look at you he was silently in awe from your glistening melanin skin, those kinky tight curls, the luscious curves of your body, yeah he was definitely checking you out, but thought to himself how you're way out of his league you'd never date someone like him, a loser.

“Aye... You- kinda cute, what's your name?”

“HUH!?” He was so stunned. A girl? Thinking he was cute? Attractive? Him!? You'd be the death of him. He nervously started scratching at the skin of his neck.

“You're joking right? Did Dabi set you up to this? I'll fuckin kill him-”

“No, no, wait who the fuck is Dabi? Actually, just chill babes I'm talkin to you?”

“I- hmph, why do you want to know my name?”

“Uh, so I can get to know my future boyfriend, but that's cool if your-”

“Tomura! Tomura Shigaraki and uh.. What's yours?”

Hm. Got em. “It's Y/N, but you can call me whatever you want, baby.” God it was like you were seducing him with just your tone, and voice he couldn't stand, but he had to have you whether you were joking with him or not, you were his from the get go.

Damn his heart was pounding out of his chest just from these silly pet names you were already giving him.

Tomura looked around to see if there were cameras anywhere, maybe he was getting punk'd- god he hated that show. Or maybe you were actually dead serious and he just didn't believe it because the only thing he's ever touched was his dick and bottle of some shitty off brand lotion that he never uses.

“So can I get your number, Cutie?”

“My Number?! Cutie?! No really are you for real right now this isn't some joke?! ”

Fast forward you've been with your loser boyfriend for about five years and counting. He's been so good to you despite him coming off mean as hell all the time it was something you had gotten use to, but also slowly learned he means well that's just how Tomura was and He has also learned to be a little more kind and gentle towards you, since you treat him so well after all. Washing and braiding his messy white hair, although his skin was never a problem to you- he couldn't help his skin condition leaving him with those damn wrinkles around his eyes, chapped and uneven lips, dry irritated flaky skin, but you wanted to help him as long as he let you. Oh how he loved the way you took care of him and his skin, buying him all kinds of skin care products for sensitive skin and eczema creams, you loved taking care of your man.

In return he took care of your every single need. You needed more hair products? Makeup? Clothes? Somebody dead? Sex? He'd do anything to please his Queen. Because of you he actually gets out a little more taking you out on dates, buying you whatever you like and he cleans up nicely just for you. he loved spending time with you the most whether you're watching him stream online, playing with him, listening to him argue with his viewers over you, helping you style and wash your hair, fucking like rabbits he loved every bit of it.

But boy did y'all have the best time in bed. Sex with Tomura was so good, you almost didn't believe he was a virgin the first time you two fucked and he was so big he had a damn third leg. It felt like he was splitting you in half on it there was just so much, but he was making you take that dick, everytime you two fucked he'd make you take all of it.

You especially loved it when he and the league of villains got pressed on COD and ended up losing.

“Damn it! Toga I told you to pick me up!”

“You were on the other side of the map I was trying, Twice was supposed to cover me!”

“Don't get your panties in a bunch, we'll get em next time.” Dabi took his headset off immediately.

“They cheated! I got domed by a camper, Toga!” Twice begged.

Big sis magne tried to be the one encouraging the group “Will get em next time boss!”

“I don't want a fucking next time, I want results, Fuck!” You knew he was angry when he threw off his headset. You were drooling from both your mouth and coochie definitely can't wait for the pounding you were going to receive as soon as he came in the room.

“Strip, now.” Instead of scratching at his neck he found a new way to relieve his stress, You.

Hell he really didn't have to tell you twice or at all really, but silly you not stripping before he ever opened his mouth.

“Yes, Sir.” you were trained well, just for him you couldn't wait to take his monster cock, all those delicious 12 inches.

You hoped he'd his sweatshirt on this time, the smell of his gamer boy musk turned you on little did he know.

“That's right, on your knees, I want you ass up, Slut.” And a slut you were after stripping your night clothes, you proceeded to do exactly what daddy said face down ass up just for him.

Tomura made his way over to you, getting a good look at that ass he loved so much, massaging your cheeks with his rough hands. Gripping, spreading your cheeks apart.. slapping. He was doing too much teasing to be this angry, you wanted him right now, but who were you to open your mouth and complain?

“Fuck…look at that. “ he said under his breath.

Tomura was staring at how drenched your pussy was for him already and he hasn't even fucked you yet.

He just couldn't get enough of you, watching you tease him by waving your pussy at him like waving a bone in front of a dog got him going.

He was in a hurry getting his dingy old sweats off not wanting to keep waiting any longer.

Tomura took his cock in one hand, rubbing the head in the slick of your pussy, letting out a satisfied groan once he shoved the head into your tight hole letting out a hiss as he pushed half of his cock in since that's all your pussy could take.

“Mmm, So big daddy..” You groaned and gasped as he started to move.

He groaned at her words, feeling a wave of pleasure wash over him. Her tightness and the way she gasped only heightened his desire for her.

"You feel so good, sweetheart." he said, his voice rough and strained. "So perfect and tight. Fuck I could stay like this forever.”

Tomura's pace started to pick up the more he continued to admire your body, those bumps, and curves, stretch marks, the cellulite, the way your ass jiggled at each thrust he made, god he was drunk off of you. You were his stress relief at the end of the day and he wouldn't have it any other way.

“Don't whine now, you can take some more, come on take this dick.” He was damn near pounding into you, he took a handful of hair and yanked you up onto your knees without your back against his chest. Taking the same hand he put his arm around your throat and his other around your waist.

You loved it when he was this rough, it was so good you couldn't help, but to meet him thrusts, you desperately tried to keep up with his pace.

A smirk spread across Tomura’s face as he whispered in your ear in a rough and ragged tone “ uh huh, yeah throw that ass back on me, baby.” He stopped his thrusts so focus on feeling you use his cock to fuck yourself.

With the same arm around your waist he took his hand, gliding it down your belly to feel the bulge that his cock was leaving in you. “You feel me right here don't you, slut? Fuck, I'm gonna cum all on your insides, you deserve it don't you? Don't you baby? Yeah, Keep fucking yourself on my cock!”

“To- Tomura- Fuuuuck”

Unable to take the boring pace you were going at, Tomura shoved your face back into the mattress, pushed down on the arch of your back and continued at his brutal pace he had from earlier. The room was filled with the sounds of skin smacking against one another, moans and raspy groans coming from the two of you.

By this point you were a crying and moaning mess even a white ring was forming around his cock.

Tomura flipped you into your back he wanted to see that pretty little face you make when your cumming from his cock, he loved the way your eyes rolled to the back of your head to the way you swallowed his spit when he spat in your mouth, he loved the way you begged for air every time he choked grabbing at his wrist as tight as you could.

Once his thrusts started getting a bit sloppy that's when you could tell he was close, and he could definitely tell you were close the way your pussy tightened around his cock.

He could feel himself getting even closer, the orgasm building up inside him like a coiled spring, ready to snap. His moans are getting more ragged by the minute, Your stiletto nails digging small dents in his skin as you could feel yourself getting close to a climax.

“God! Fu��”

“That's right baby I am your fucking God, keep screaming my name while your at it.”

He groaned at the feeling of your nails digging into his skin, the pleasurable pain adding to the intensity of the moment. And the sound of you screaming his name sent him over the edge with one last thrust he came deep inside you and so did you. Tomura pulled his cock out leaving you shaking and quivering while he tried to catch his breath while taking in your expression you had from being so full of him to so empty you could almost pout.

But as much as he would love to give you more he had a stream to get back to so he gave you a quick kiss before whispering “Now you're a good little slut I'll give you some more cock when I'm done, until then you better not let a drop of my cum waste from that sweet pussy of yours, got it?”

All you could do was pout and nod, yeah it was a bit unfair, but he promised to give you more later, right? Knowing him, that'd be 2 hrs from now. But there was no use in complaining he was already back on stream before you could even make a complaint.

“So what you're telling me is that you guys can't do SHIT without me?”

“They called for an airstrike boss, what did you want us to do?!” Twice complained.

“Well as far as I'm concerned Compress and I carried the team.” Big Sis Magne exclaimed.

“And what about Dabi?”

“He kinda rage quit…” Mr.Compress said lightly.

“Wait Boss, before you get upset I did a good job picking up mostly everyone.. By Everyone I mean Dabi.”

“So not only do I hate him, he sucks dick at COD too Great.”

"Tomura you can't hate Dabi forever!"

"See that's where you're wrong Toga, see if you would let me show, I could take this to the next leave."

"But I heard that's not healthy for you." Toga pouted, worried about the health of her boss.

"Toga I have microplastics in my dick- I'll be fine.”

Tags: @littlemochabunni @blkkizzat @arlerts-angel @ramonathinks @nkogneatho @tonycries @connorsui @honeeslust @halosdiary @hoshigaby @screampied @rinhaler @buttercupblu @triangularz @fairy-hub

[loverboy-radio]

arcade date(twst)first years

content-fluff, silliness, gaming, light kissing, slight swearing.

minus ace as i had no clue for him.

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

-SEBEK-

the only reason sebek even thought of this was because of silver, who mentioned that going to an arcade would be something that has lots of things to do with other people, when sebek asked where he was going with his friends.

sebek quite liked the idea of going to an arcade as a lot of the games require skill, which can allow him to gain praise from his lover and show that he can do anything you needed.

so he suggested it to you which you very much agreed to as it seems like a lot of fun.

when he gets there he is very surprised by all the things going on. such as kids screaming at the top of their lungs, lots of flashing lights from the games that was worse due to the very dim lights, as well as the large amount of people everywhere.

as someone that has heightened hearing and sight it was a very overwhelming being there. but even after all this he was more worried about you and if you would be ok staying here more than himself, as he doesn't want you to feel overwhelmed and scared of what's happening around you both.

when you say you will be ok he calmed down a bit, and as time went on he was no longer overwhelmed by everything going on.

after you both have been there for a little while he found a basketball game, that he was surprising you when he was amazingly good at. he managed to beat the game at the highest you could score on it multiple times, racking up lots of tickets for you. even a large crowd came to watch him do this and they were all cheering him on.

his favourite part was when he managed to get you the huge crocodile plush that was bigger than him. what made it better was when you gave him a kiss on the cheek saying he was your amazing knight, which had him blushing all the way up to the tips of his ears.

he was also scarly good at dance dance revolution, to thee point he was beating every song on there on the hardest mode. the best part was when he was near the end of the song and you purposely distracted him and he just stopped dancing to then walk up to you and lift you up in the air which caused you to squeal when you tried to escape.

it ended with the both of you laughing.

when you were walking to find a different game to play a part of the carpet was slippery which caused for the first time ever in his life. sebek swearing. which was really funny considering he landed on his ass and said "ah shit" in front of a pretty young child that then started yell at the top of their lung that very same thing all the way to their parents.

you never let him live that down and even got it on record, to keep as yours(read: for you to show everyone that doesn't believe you)

when you both became hungry you decided to get some ice-cream together at the little restaurant there and when you had a little bit of ice-cream on the corner of your lip he gave you a loving kiss then said you had a bit of ice-cream on you.

by the time you both left you were tired and wanting to go home but you can both confidently say you had a lovely time while dragging the crocodile that is just bigger than sebek himself.

-EPEL-

now epel lived in the countryside his whole life and never got things from you could get from the city or atleast a sorta large town, and despite him loving the countryside and what it has to offer there are somethings that he always wanted to go to, for instance the arcade.

so he choose to ask his lover if you wanted to go on a date there. and with the chance to show off how manly he is, is one he won't miss. that and the fact you two could have a fun time.

when he gets there he felt nothing but excitement from all the noise, games, and prizes to win for you. the fact that this is an overly overwhelming place to be at times did not cross his mind until you hid behind him.

he asked if you were ok and if you just wanted to leave cause it ain't gonna be fun if you ain't havin fun too. when you said you were just startled about all the stuff going on and that your fine now is what started the date.

he decided that the first game would be a shooting one and when i say that this boy could aim then shoot faster than you can talk would be an understatement. it got to the point that he got the game moving so fast he broke it. which got him lots of impressed looks from the people around him.

the part that was his favourite would be when you both made a bet saying whoever got the most tickets in the next hour would get to make the loser wear whatever the winner wants and you absolutely destroyed him. cause turns out he is only good at shooting games which there were only so many.

at one point you two went to the basketball game and he was failing terribly at to the point where you started to giggle at him not because he was failing but because a kid just beat the top score on the other machines twice.

he still to this day has a grudge against that kid.

when you both got a shit ton of tickets you were deciding what to get with them, and ended on way too many lollies to the point even idia would disapprove.

but when he saw a kid didn't have enough tickets for a plush she wanted to get for her dad, and he asked the little girl what she wanted cause he will get it for her which made her smile the cutest smile. when that was over you gave him a peck on the lips saying that was very kind.

when you to started coming back you both went for something to eat at a cafe, and shared a milkshake with each other. but not in the two straw thing he just kept drinking from yours after he said he ain't thirsty.

-JACK-(sorry it's short had a hard time thinking for him)

now he came up with the it after asking his parents for date ideas and them saying how they both use to do it when they were young, and it seems as something you would like.

with him being the gentlemen he is he asks if it is something you want to do as he would like to with you, and of course you said yes. and with the knowledge of how loud they can be you two go to one out in a rural town.

when you two get there he immediately tells that this was a good decision and that you would have a lovely time here even with very few games to play.

one of the games there was a snowboarding simulation game, that he absolutely destroyed with his skills in it and showed you how to play it while he helped you he was very gentle and sweet the whole time when doing it.

he absolutely loved it when you both took a break to just enjoy some ice-cream talking about anything and everything, in fact it's what you both did the majority of the time you two were there.

-DEUCE-

now he was just talking about the stuff in his home town with you and realised there was an arcade that he knew you would love, as it had everything you could ever want, food, games, cool prizes, and a rollerskating rink.

when you two got there he was so excited about showing you all the games in here and having lots of fun with each other. he knew it would be very loud as it was a popular place to go and it was well loved by the community.

he first wanted to show you his favourite game which was a drumming rhythm game, and he showed off how fast he could drum. while you played player 2 on easy as you could only drum so fast. you loved the music it had.

he didn't have much money to spend but you two did roller-skate together which always ended with deuce on his ass which everytime without fail made him swear, and you giggled everytime.

sadly due to the swearing you both got kicked out, and you both decided to go to a diner together and just cuddled when you both went to his place to watch movies you both fell asleep with soft smiles on your faces.

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

thank you for reading

[thatghostinyourbog]

Listen tf up

Chuuya gave Dazai a reason to live

This is what started his journey on finding a reason to live

At 15 Dazai was fully actively trying to die

It was different to the season 1 or just any older version of him

When he was with Mori mixing 2 chemicals together to die and going to drink it that was probably the closest we've seen him to go through with an attempt

Although even at that time even if it was subconsciously Dazai was looking for reasons not to die

Sometimes it just being, I have stuff to do or I haven't found a good method yet

He wants to die but he's been subconsciously looking for excuses on why he's delaying it (excuses for himself)

He didn't drink the chemicals cause Mori had a job for him which was just another reason for him to delay his death for just a little longer

Dazai made it clear he saw no reason in living and lacked a will to live

He joined the mafia to find that will to live through observing others desperate attempts to survive but it hadn't worked at all and he still felt he lacked a will to live and had learnt nothing

SO

Spending a decent amount of time with Chuuya getting to observe another kid his age was probably rlly educational for Dazai, he wanted to learn from Chuuya

Once Dazai found out about Chuuyas curouption it was mind blowing to him

He had never seen anything like it before and the fact Chuuya NEEDED him to use it

Dazai probably found that comforting

Chuuya showed Dazai how strong his will to live was

Chuuya showed him how interesting the world can be and there is sm more for Dazai to explore

In the middle of battle Dazai decided he was going to try to live

It was the experience

Hanging out with Chuuya (a kid his age who understands what it's like to be fucked up) solving a mystery, looking for clues, playing arcade games against someone, solving a riddle and then an intense battle

Dazai had enjoyed this little adventure

Dazai felt that Chuuya was the one who could show him what he didn't even realise he'd been looking for

Reasons to live

Dazai planned for Chuuya to come into the mafia (so did Mori obviously what a scoundrel)

The part where Dazai was angry that Chuuya wouldn't be working under him, he was fucking angry that he wouldn't spend more time with Chuuya like DAZAI COME ON at least make it a little more subtle

Dazai never found a will to live in the mafia (I think he found that when he came into the Ada) ((Oda you wise soul, saving our bbg))

But Chuuya was a huge step for Dazai to continue living

They were partners

Chuuya relied on him

He had to look out for his partner

Chuuya gave Dazai solid reasons to keep living until he was able to find a will to live

Chuuya helped Dazai cope (and I'm pretty sure neither of them fuckin knew about it)

[mrkified]

ONE NIGHT ONLY — 9. life360 doesn’t gatekeep

synopsis — three years since your falling out with lee donghyuck he has suddenly transfered to your college in hopes to make it big with his friends in his band. unfortunately for you, your unresolved friendship started causing problems between you and the people around you, especially since your best friend is his ex. so — why have you found yourself in his room with a raging hangover?

a/n; IM SO SORRY FOR ANOTHER WRITTEN PART

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TAGS; @j2upiters @aerivrs @haesluvr @hyuck-me @tywritesstuff @aek1ra @ourbeautifulaffair @222brainrot @bugcattie @nosungluv @manooffline @amrqxz @haechansbbg @odxrilove

YOU SLOWED DOWN YOUR CAR AS YOU TURNED INTO THE PARKING LOT.

the arcade your friends decided to go to was called ‘pete’s paradise’. it was slightly small but jam packed with different rows filled with a variety of games. your friends always loved to go there after yangyang got off work to play air hockey. anton always complained that karina was too good for the group and never wanted to go against her because he knew he would lose. when you walked up to the entrance to pete’s haechan and jisung were standing by the doors waiting for you to arrive. you said your hello’s to the two of them entered the building.

you immediately spotted your friends by the dance dance revolution machine, jaemin and giselle were both playing while anton was bickering with yangyang and karina.

“well it’s not my fault you were acting like we haven’t seen each other for ten years” anton shrugged.

“it’s called an expression you idiot” karina rolled her eyes. “your brain just too small to figure out context clues” she turned away from anton and noticed you three at the door.

“yn! you’re here!” she ran over and gave you a hug. the rest of the group followed after when they noticed she said your name.

“i see you followed our advice and brought jisung! just a little surprise to see haechan too” giselle spoke up, as it was your turn to give her a hug next.

“um yeah.. we didn’t want to exclude him i hope that’s okay” you were quite nervous about giselle and haechan in the same room but hopefully she would stay true to her word and not be too bothered with you two.

after awhile things tended to get less awkward and everyone was having fun — anton was playing whack-a-mole with jisung, yangyang was with jaemin and giselle and they were playing some racing game, and that left karina with you as haechan went to the bathroom. you took the time spent with her to tell her about how you’ve been feeling so you could finally get advice from a third party.

“haechan has a crush on me. he told me a few days ago and i don’t know how to feel about it. i mean i had a crush on him in high school but it was too late, he was already with giselle. now i feel like i shouldn’t do anything about it because you know how heartbroken he left her and i don’t want to make her upset or uncomfortable” you were fidgeting with your fingers when you looked at her as she was trying to piece together a response.

“well you can’t control someone you like. i know you don’t want to hurt giselle but i think you should go for it. they broke up almost four years ago, plus she has a really nice thing going on with jaemin right now. she did say not to date him and as much as i don’t want secrets in the group, you should date him” she was confirming the only real way you had to go about this — a secret relationship.

“he’s taking me on a date later after we leave”

“what about jake? you didn’t break up that long ago, i know your feelings for haechan are genuine but you still got hurt recently” her voice was filled with concern.

“i am definitely hurt but i think him leaving me for yuna made me feel like there wasn’t even a point for me to even be upset, he was distant even before we broke up there really isn’t any surprises” karina looked at you like she was giving you her approval and that’s all you needed. you would talk to giselle on your own soon but first you had to put your relationship with donghyuck first.

while you were having your talk with karina, giselle was also having a conversation with yangyang.

“i feel a little upset with them being together if i’m being honest, but i know i should probably get over it” she gave a slight smile as she knew that she couldn’t block out what was happening between you two. “i know they’ve been best friends for years and now that they’ve rekindled it i shouldn’t feel this way, but i just feel a lot of the repressed emotions from before i guess”

“and your feelings are valid you know,” yangyang took a slight pause. “he was your first real relationship, your first true love. it would only make sense it hurts to see him”

“i just don’t want to ruin this for yn. she’s my best friend and i don’t want to hurt her because i ‘forbid’ her from associating someone she spent so many years with”

“just give it time — for now just focus on the fashion show and then give it some more thought after” yangyang squeezed her hand as he got up and walked with her back over to where jaemin was playing skee-ball.

for the next 2 hours everyone spent time rotating the games until it was the time to go their separate ways. you said goodbye to everyone until it was time to finally leave with haechan.

“you ready?” haechan took your hand and guided you to your car.

“are you ready to be a passenger princess?”

“i’m always ready to be your passenger princess you don’t even need to ask” he got into the car and showed you where he wanted to take you — a small shopping district not too far away from where you were.

[stardewremixed]

Summer (real world) birthday headcanons and how they would celebrate their special day

Jas - June 4th - picking wildflowers with Penny in the morning, drawing on coloring pages with some new crayons from Vincent (courtesy of Sam's Joja paycheck) in the afternoon and playing at the park together. Gunther organizes a special story time at the library (with the help of Elliott providing all the voices). Marnie doesn't cook so Jodi would bake a pink cake, but Marnie would probably would have bought a new doll for her. Jas finishes the day on Shane's shoulders feeding the chickens on the farm.

Gus - June 8th - this man deserves more love since he feeds the village! I could see the Farmer bringing fresh oranges from their orchard in a basket wrapped with a yellow ribbon. Emily cooks up a big batch of his favorite fish tacos, and drags Haley in to help serve (giving Gus the night off). Haley would drag Alex into it (at least to carry bags of ice and look hot doing it). Elliott might tinker on the piano. Leah would have a pint or two and pitch in also. Willy brings some tropical curry from Ginger Island for his buddy. The SAS trio attempt a song in his honor. Gus is happy to spend the evening in the Saloon with his friends and neighbors.

Maru - June 10th - A big breakfast with her family complete with fresh strawberries. Seb surfaces before 10 just in her honor. Maru is thrilled to spend the day with her dad in the lab and collecting specimens in the forest. Harvey gave her the day off, of course, and a little strawberry birthday card. She gets a rhubarb pie, courtesy of Evelyn or the farmer. She spends the late afternoon chatting on a park bench with her BFF, Penny, who gives her robot drawings from the Valley kiddos. Robin builds a wooden shelf for all of Maru's odds-and-ends gadgets. And stargazing with Sebastian (like they did as kids) is the perfect way to end the day.

Alex - June 13th - Evelyn would make a complete breakfast for her grandson, and a small gift that she knitted (maybe a cover for a water bottle or for his weights to keep them protected). With the help of Farmer, George ordered a gridball card online for his grandson. Tossing the ball down at the beach and a long ocean swim with Farmer, plus a picnic lunch. (I have this cute little headcanon that he would build sandcastles with Vincent and Sam). If Farmer is able to splurge, catching a gridball game together in the evening is his birthday present. And Alex is a very physical guy in my book, so plenty of hand holding, bear hugs, kisses all day long and then a dip at the hot springs in the evening (and maybe a sensual massage).

Sam - July 17th - A platter of maple bars for breakfast and maybe some early morning cloud gazing with his main squeeze (Farmer). And there's no way he wouldn't have a party. Pizza. Joja colas. Plenty of cheery hi-energy rock music. Streamers. Balloons. Arcade games. Party poppers. Confetti. Karaoke. Oh and he would buy something cheesy at Jojamart for party favors like rubber bracelets or silly string. And maybe for a final touch of whimsy, embracing his inner child, a pinata with tons of candy (much to Vincent's delight)! Abigail would play her woodland flute after one too many sugary drinks and candies and cakes. Seb might even step up to the mic for karaoke (but would sneak a smoke first for courage).

Dwarf - July 22 - Dwarf is just happy if someone makes the effort to visit them and remembers to bring a gift (preferably a shiny stone). Oh and they are touched if you speak their language. Fancy a spot of stardrop tea together? Cheers!

Demetrius - August 19 - this man doesn't strike me as someone who really likes celebrating his birthday. A nice quiet unwrapping of gifts at home (a gift card from Seb because he has no clue what to get his stepdad), and a good bean hotpot dinner is probably all he wants. Maybe sharing an ice cream cone with Robin and a private dance under the stars.

Willy - August 24 - Spend the day fishing together and enjoy a simple fish dinner on the beach by a fire and he's happy. Oh and mugs of mead shared while swapping sea stories.

Leo - August 26 - look for bird feathers and shells to decorate his treehouse. I picture playing tag on the beach with Jas and Vincent, probably Sam and Penny too. And some fresh mangos is a delicious treat! He would probably enjoy a tape of bird songs or a picture book about birds. I totally think Emily would do face painting for his birthday.

[six-eyed-samurai]

I quite like the idea of Geto's supposedly dead sibling infiltrating Jujutsu High as Gojo's student, secretly working for Kenjaku after disappearing from Geto's family and biding his time, waiting and faking, until the day Gojo gets sealed for his crimes. And after that? Nothing but to hope Suguru-nii is in hell waiting for him as well.

Gojo wrinkles his nose, looking over his sunglasses like the judgment twit he is. "You have a brother?"

"About 10 this year," Geto nods happily. "It's his birthday soon. I'm taking him out the whole day, so I asked for no missions."

"Hey, why aren't I invited?" Gojo whines. "I wanna meet tiny Suguru! Why didn't I even know about him before? I'm your best friend! Your only friend!"

"Keep telling yourself that. I just don't want him mixed up in...all of this, you know? It'll be too much for him and Jujutsu sorcery isn't something safe. He just thinks I go to regular school."

"Ah, ah, ah, so you're lying to him?"

"Keeping something from him is not the same as lying," Geto sighs, turning off his phone and checking the time. "I've got to go pick him up from school now."

"Waah, such a good, good older brother." Gojo's smirk trails after him, just like his questions. "Wait! I'm not done! What are you guys planning to do?"

Geto's already halfway out. "Head to an arcade, that new sushi restaurant, buy him daifuku, probably hit all the toy stores in the area."

"Since when were you so rich?"

"I always save up for his birthday. And you owe me cash after last night's game."

"I was hoping you'd forget," Gojo groans, like he's the broke one in the room. "Hey! Don't leave yet! What's his name?"

Geto laughs, and he's already out of the room. "You'll find out one day."

***

Gojo never did.

Sometimes he wondered if Geto had imagined up that brother, because when he went rogue, killing his own parents and everything, not once did a mention of a younger brother come up. No corpse, no name, no clue.

Well, he was rifling through some of Geto's old things and if he looked close enough it appeared that someone had been cut out of a lot of photographs very cleanly.

And one room in the house seemed a little odd. As if someone had been there before vanishing suddenly.

But no matter where, how, when Gojo looked, he couldn't find the last trace of the Geto he used to know.

***

The only reason he had gotten away with pretending to be someone completely different all those years was because whatever similarities he had shared with Suguru he had discarded and an almost commendable, flawless acting skill.

But Gojo could see it now. He looked at him, from that imposter's side, the same way Geto looked at him all those years ago.

"Are you the strongest because you're Satoru Gojo? Or are you Satoru Gojo because you're the strongest?"

"If I could kill you for killing my brother and you could kill me to let me see him again...but you can't kill me. And I can't kill you. Sealing you up is the next best thing."

He was right. Gojo couldn't kill Suguru again, no matter what. But that - that thing that had taken over Suguru's body would, but perhaps, he'd been hoping for that all along.

"How did you pretend all this time?"

"It was easy. You didn't want to recognize me."

Gojo had lied - there had been one abandoned photograph, lying in the dirt, forgotten and uncut. He looked different then and now, but recognizable if Gojo looked closer. There had only been two possibilities, both horrible: Geto had killed his own beloved younger brother (dead because Gojo couldn't help his best friend)...or he was still out there, a reason Gojo would always be reminded of what he had done, no matter the intention or what would've happened if he hadn't.

Better to think he had died.

Better to think he wasn't...this.

[bigmakxp]

Monty isn’t jealous, envious or wants to take Freddy’s place nor does he hate him either.

Spoilers for Ruin btw!!

So the popular theory right now that everyone’s claiming to be canon is that Monty was jealous of Bonnie and Freddy and decommissioned Bonnie to be in the band and makes his way up in the band and take Freddy’s place as well. The most popular reason for this theory is because of the Monty Golf ARcade game that shows Monty as the lead while Freddy’s in the trash. At first glance, I can see why people fall for this and think Monty wants Freddy’s place in the band but there’s some evidence that suggests otherwise.

1. The faz watch message Monty mischief makes it clear that Monty has missed main stage performances more than once to stay in Monty Golf, The place where he was once just a one man band in his own attraction (info thanks to ruin). If people are claiming that he was the one who decommissioned Bonnie out of spite or malice or fame why would he bail on his position that he went to such “great lengths” to get? Like I’m genuinely curious how it fits.

2. People never talk about this. Just moments before in the game we heard Vanessa threatening to scrap Freddy if he was involved protecting Gregory and Monty would run the shows. Now I know she said that his casing would be slapped on a new endo and it would be a temporary thing but his endo, Freddy’s true essence and person (or robot) would be scrapped thrown in the trash. Sound familiar? A certain AR game depicting just that? Nope not a clue.. /s

3. So your not convinced still? Fine. One of the endings of security breach has Gregory and Freddy driving off in a van and just who did they put in Freddy’s position as the lead? Yup. Monty. And they created an entirely new animatronic as a 4th member, glamrock mr. hippo. The decisions of fazbear entertainment is… questionable. But this proves that game is not Monty’s true intentions or desires it’s more of the company’s desires if anything. He might just be pushed into situations that he has little control over.

So in Ruin, in the Monty golf ride there’s a scene of cardboard cutouts of Bonnie, chica, Roxanne and Freddy, the original four glamrocks while Monty is looking in admiration and starry eyes. However, Freddy’s is in the shadows so people assume that Monty definitely dislikes Freddy. I think people are reading to into this though as this could have another meaning too. Call this a bit on the nose here but hear me out.

Freddy is the only one who is not present in the pizzaplex or the entirety of the ruin story. Or at least his proper head isn’t and there’s a headless prototype attacking you. Point is every cutout that has lights on them is still in the pizzaplex activated or deactivated and that includes Bonnie.

It’s just astounding that people draw these conclusions about Monty based on sources that probably weren’t even made by him or might not reflect his personality and claim it as canon. The information that we get in ruin still makes most of Monty’s character vague and non-confirming. As much as I try to accept the theories that Monty really does envy Freddy and decommissioned Bonnie on purpose I just can’t. Cause a lot of the contrasting evidence sticks out like a sore thumb.

I’d like some feedback on this whether you agree or disagree I’d like to hear different pov and interpretations on this.

[lsartcorner]

I think it’s time to reveal my Wir/Turbo AU isn’t it?

Yes, yes it is

(Logo, basic character designs & a lil exposition of the au below!)

—————————

You ready? Lets go

Welcome too…

Game explanation

><><><><><><><><><

A Version of TurboTime where instead of racing cars the characters are racing on Jetski’s and to fit the theme the landscape of the game is a summer paradise by the shoreline where the characters can relax and hangout in after the arcade closes.

Not only is there Turbo and the Twins in this game but also two new summer themed racers Sunny and Flora to join them in the competition!

Sunny would be considered the secondary protagonist of the game who has comparable stats to the man himself.

In this version of the game any of the 5 racers can be chosen, not just Turbo like from the base game, this is to ensure people can choose their favourite character and to ensure multiplayer capability.

Each character has their own unique stats and skill sets with Turbo and Sunnys being the best being the protagonists, but it doesn’t mean you can win with anyone else, you’ve just got to try a bit more.

With each character comes with character exclusive skills and abilities which is to encourage players to play the secondary characters, for there to be a reason on why they should be played in the first place.

There are an assortment of maps, upgrades and achievements to unlock playing the game if you are skilled or lucky enough in finding them. This is to ensure that each game is unique from the last, with each player upgrading and choosing to their style so it rarely would get boring for the characters, testing stuff on different maps alongside the player.

Why was developed? (In lore)

><><><><><><><><><><><><><

The developers wanted to create a motorcycle esque racing arcade cabinet with a summer twist and decided to reutilise an old classic ip of theirs into the modern day for the modern audience, so putting them on the beach with new characters and jetskis just worked!

The arcade

><><><><><><

Mr Litwak saw this and decided to give it a go for old times sake and kids like the summer and racing so why not combine them? And who knows maybe it could be as successful as the OG TurboTime?

However the characters in the arcade seeing this are weary and uncertain of this new game, only thinking of the worst and what happened last time, with not only the Roadblasters incident of 1987 but also of what Turbo did in Sugar Rush behind everyone’s noses, especially Vanellope, for 15 years nonetheless.

This would cause most characters to go past it with a 5 metre poll, not wanting to be involved in what would happen if they did. Even when a character or two go inside to have a look and say it’s fine, people are still cautious because “it’s only early days” and continue with their daily routine and spreading rumours about what they see from their cabinets on the game and its characters.

Despite this intermingling, when characters that were in the OG game (Turbo & the Twins) ask what they’re talking about, they act inconspicuous and nonchalant with the twins while being more defensive and hostile with Turbo himself, irritating him to no end especially when he has no clue what is going on having just been plugged in and being seemingly on hated by everyone in the arcade immediately.

With this uncooperative behaviour from many people in the arcade the characters tend to stay in the game itself most of the time and considering they have all the amenities they need in game, this isn’t much of a conundrum. Essentially leaving the game in a world of its own unknown of the main body of the arcade and they intend to keep it that way for the most part, until a certain something happens lore-wise which you will need to stay updated on if you want to find out what!

(Wink wink nudge nudge 😉)

How/what kind of posts will be done?

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

For this au I will post either,

- Non story based artworks/doodles of the characters

- Short comic strips of character interactions which I intend to mostly be unrelated to the main story itself, but no promises here

- The AUs main story comics

- Updates/revamps

- Answering questions on the AU

In a few hours time I will start releasing full character designs & descriptions, so look out for that!

Then once that’s all said and done, expect what is on the list to come after, especially the comics, have had many ideas for them!

Now that’s all I can think of from the top of my head for now, so now I think it’s time you saw the basic character designs for this AU!

(Btw if you got this far well done I kinda wrote more than expected and may or may not have created a text wall, whoops! This AU has been on my mind for days and it needed to be seen sooner or later.)

(Fun fact! The idea of this AU is actually from my first WiR/Turbo fixation around this time last year, and it only came back with a roaring passion after being reminded of it having watched a particular 2 hour video everyone knows of *cough cough*, so if you want to see og sketches let me know!)

I have written so much and definitely need some sleep.

Hope you enjoyed & stay tuned!

- LsArtCorner

[augustjustice]

you wanna feel how it feels (let's exchange the experience) 4/?

Part 3 | AO3

Notes: We're back with more bodyswapping shenaningans, and an added round of basketball this time! This chapter turned into quite a lengthy one, so I hope y'all enjoy.

“So, uh…what exactly are we planning to tell the sheepies here when I fail the strength check and completely destroy my image as Steve Harrington, basketball star?” Eddie asked. 

He was back in the driver’s seat of the Beemer, parked out front at the Sinclair’s place while Lucas and Erica changed into whatever constituted more basketball court appropriate attire inside. Once the kids had finished up at the arcade, they’d headed straight over, Nancy being a total star and agreeing to chauffeur Dustin home before heading back to the Wheelers. …Something that was probably all for the best, really. Eddie was still pretty steamed at those two for the way they’d acted towards Steve–him as Steve, anyway–and he wasn’t quite sure what might have come spilling out of his mouth, if he got half a second with either of them alone. 

“...The strength check?” Steve repeated, face scrunching up with confusion.

“Oh, uh…if I roll a Nat 1 on any athletic feats I’m expected to pull off. Which, let’s face it. I’m probably going to.” When Steve’s expression failed to clear, Eddie explained, “D1 as in, you know…D&D.”

“Ohhh,” Steve breathed out in realization. His brow remained pinched, though, a sliver of tongue flicking out to trace his bottom lip as he clearly processed this new information. “Right, so like. D20 is winning the championship, which makes D1 basically…what, completely blowing the game before you've even made it to half time?”

“...Stevie, man, you know me well enough by now to know I don't have a single fucking clue how to answer that.”

Steve flapped a hand at him, blowing out a dismissive psst through his teeth. 

“You're not gonna blow it, dude. Alright? You've got me here, Hawkins very own former basketball co-captain, to talk you through it. Plus, I mean,” he gave Eddie’s hip what was presumably meant to be an encouraging couple of slaps, “you've also got the added bonus of having my muscle memory on your side. All-star combination, no chance you can miss.”

Eddie shook his head with a sarcastic chuckle. “Oh, ye of way too much faith. Need I remind you, dear Steven, I couldn't even catch the keys you threw at me this morning. Where exactly were all those stellar jock reflexes of yours then?”

“Huh. That’s a good point. But maybe it's like, uh…what do they call it? Mind over matter!” Steve snapped his fingers triumphantly, face lighting up. “All you need to do is just, you know…move the goal post on your expectations a little bit. Because there's no way I couldn't have made that catch. But you didn't think you could do it, and then you didn't. So just…I don’t know, tell the voice in your head that says you can't to knock it off, and then you'll have it in no time.”

He could feel the corner of his mouth twitching upwards, an endeared smile blooming across his face no matter how hard he tried to resist. “Harrington…did you just give me a pep talk?”

“I mean, I'm kinda like your coach now, dude. Hate to break it to you, but pep talks come with the territory.” Then Steve let out a quick sigh, running a hand up and over Eddie’s hair–he was getting a lot better already at remembering to dodge snagging his fingers in the curls. “Look, Eds, you can’t miss this. Alright? It’s…seriously really important to Lucas. I know you hate sports, or whatever, but–just give it a chance, yeah? You never know. Maybe it won’t be as terrible as you think.” 

“I don’t hate them,” Eddie protested defensively.

Steve’s only response was to cock an eyebrow, sending Eddie a single skeptical and devastatingly sardonic look.

And…yeah, okay. That was fair. It’d only been a few hours ago that he’d reacted to Steve using his mouth to spew sports lingo with all the horror of someone being given a wet willy. 

“I don’t!” he insisted more vehemently.

And, evidence to the contrary, it was true. Sure, sports weren’t his thing, but he sure as shit didn’t hate them. How could he, when it was something Steve was so passionate about? 

“I just–fuck, I just really don’t get it, man. It’s kinda like–you with D&D, if that makes sense? You don’t loathe it or anything, sure, but it’s not exactly like you’re rushing out to try it either. I mean, yours truly can’t even talk you into sitting in on one session of our campaign.” 

Shit. Eddie hadn’t quite meant to just–blurt out how he was feeling about the whole situation that way. But he’d always been crap at wearing his emotions anywhere other than right on his sleeve, like they were the latest patch adorned to his battle jacket. 

And the truth was, it really did sting, a little, that maybe Steve just…couldn’t be bothered to care. Not when it came to the things Eddie was interested in. Even more so, he guessed, because that didn’t seem much like the Steve Eddie had gotten to know over the past month or so. 

He saw the lengths Steve was willing to go for his friends–literally to hell and back. A silly D&D session should be nothing, in comparison. 

But then, if that was the case–why wasn’t Steve willing to even drop in and just watch the Hellfire Club play?

Strained silence fell over the car. When Eddie glanced over at him, Steve was shuffling guiltily in his seat. 

“I wasn’t trying to be an ass, man. I just–shit,” he sucked in a breath, feeling off-balance, “you wanna clue me in on exactly what’s going on in your head over there, big boy?”

“...I have tried it,” Steve admitted with an apologetic wince, “with Erica.”

Eddie’s response was automatic–he clutched his chest, as if Steve had delivered a fatal blow. 

…To be fair, the shock of the statement did kinda make him feel like he’d been suddenly mortally wounded. 

“Steven! The sheer…betrayal!” he gasped out. “How could you forsake me in this way?”

“Hey, dude, come on, I didn’t even really know you when I played before!” 

“And yet, you haven’t joined in on a single game since. For shame,” Eddie tsked, falling back on theatrics to cover up any trace of real disappointment he felt. 

“Listen, I’m telling you, I had no choice! According to Erica, she didn’t have enough ‘nerdy’ friends to talk into playing. And, Eddie, it was so obvious she was feeling down about it. You know what Erica’s usually like, she doesn’t let any of us in on what’s eating her. So, me and Robin and Dustin, we all agreed to run like a…like a one shot? Is that what they’re called? With her.”

The hurt from before faded some, melting like snow at the inescapable warmth that bubbled up in Eddie’s chest. Doing it for Lady Erica–that was certainly a cause he could get behind. And of course it had been cheering up the youngest Sinclair that convinced Steve to join–what could be more par for the course, when it came to Hawkins’ babysitter extraordinaire? 

“Yeah, man,” Eddie reassured him. “One shots are what you call it when you plan a game that only lasts for a single session.”

“That’s the one, then,” Steve huffed out a sheepish laugh. “To be honest, I sort of blew at it, dude. There’s just like…a ton of math to keep track of? Which, you might have noticed from all the questions, not exactly great at that. And then there’s so much other little shit to remember on top of it. Erica roasted me to hell and back afterwards. Totally worth it, though, seeing what a blast she had.” 

“Shit, man, I can only fucking imagine. She’s a savage, when she wants to be.” Eddie couldn’t help but ask, “Did you have any fun with it, Harrington?” 

“I mean…yeah, it was a pretty good time. Not my favorite thing in the world, or anything, but not bad. But it wasn’t, like. A serious game, you know? Not like the stuff you do.”

Eddie rocked back and forth in his seat, drumming a mindless rhythm against the steering wheel, taking it in. “And you wouldn’t be into that? Something that felt…more hardcore?”

Steve hummed, noncommittal. ��I mean…I guess not? You, and the other guys, and the little numbskulls…Hellfire is like, your thing, yeah? I don’t want to mess that up for you guys, and I’m pretty sure I’d just slow shit way down for everybody. Besides, after what happened today, I think it’s pretty safe to say–Dustin and Mike don’t really have the patience for that. Not during a ‘real’ game, or whatever. I’ve got a feeling Gareth and Jeff and Frankie wouldn’t exactly love having me there, either.”

…Steve had him there. This morning had definitely opened Eddie’s eyes to at least one clear source of Steve’s reluctance to play. 

“I wouldn’t let any of the guys get away with that shit, the kind of stuff Henderson and Wheeler tried to pull today. You know that, right? The usual sort of good-natured ribbing, sure, but…not acting like total jackasses to you, or anybody,” he scoffed, a low, disparaging sound, at the mere thought. He dared those little shits to even try it. “Hell, it wouldn’t even help them out in the long run, anyway. At the end of the day, D&D is all about working together with your party, not tearing each other down or turning on each other.”

“Yeah, but…how much fun would you really have, dealing with some guy who’s barely got a clue what’s going on gumming up the works?” The thin smile Steve sent him was knowing, a total gotcha!

“For starters, the same logic as your pep talk? Totally applies here. No way in hell you’re gonna ruin things just by joining in, dude. Besides…can’t exactly remember ever having a bad time when you were around, Stevie.” 

Steve softened at that, eyes going warm and fond. And though they weren’t as pretty as the golden-flecked hazel ones Eddie was used to staring into, the lightness in them made them shine just that little bit brighter, looking like Steve’s all the same. 

“Okay, Eds,” he relented. “Do this for Lucas, and I promise I’ll play with you and the Hellfire guys. At least one time.” 

“You’ve got yourself a deal, good sir.” 

Spitting into his palm, Eddie thrust out his hand to shake.

“You’re ridiculous, I hope you know that,” Steve murmured…but then, did the same, sealing the deal with the time-honored binding agent of their mixed saliva.

They shook once, and Eddie didn’t quite manage to bite back his cackle when, as soon as their hands parted, Steve’s face crinkled into a disgusted grimace.  

“Ew,” he intoned flatly.

“It’s your spit,” Eddie pointed out, still snickering.

“Yeah, and? What difference does that make? Still gross, dude.”

With the clear intent to wipe his palm clean, Steve reached for the back pocket of Eddie’s jeans. 

“Not the bandana!” he shouted before Steve managed to free it. “You can’t sully that, man. It completes the whole look.”

With a roll of his eyes, Steve shrugged and then drug his hand down one leg of the black denim he was wearing instead. Then, for good measure, he grabbed Eddie’s wrist and repeated the motion–still on Eddie’s jeans. 

Before Eddie could protest, Steve cut him off with a quick, “Your idea, dude…so. Your clothes are the ones that get to suffer for it.”

“I mean, to be honest? That whole thing was totally for show. I was already planning on joining in on your sports games for Sinclair anyway. Otherwise, why the hell would I even be here? But, since you offered an exchange…” he shot Steve a toothy grin, “the contract is now legally binding.” 

Steve rolled his eyes, looking entirely nonplussed. “Whatever you say, Eds.”

Eddie gave a full-body shimmy at the thought, unable to contain his excitement. “You’re gonna totally fucking love it, Stevie! I promise. Hell, I’ll make a one-shot campaign just for you.”

That got Steve’s face to snap back to him, blinking over with wide, startled eyes. Eddie still didn’t quite see the Bambi comparison his friend sometimes liked to make, but…now with this fresh outsider’s perspective, he could admit that his eyes did look kind of ridiculously, comically large sometimes.

“Seriously? So you’d actually…what, come up with a whole new idea just for me?”

“Of course I would, man! I want you to, you know. Actually enjoy yourself?”

Eddie didn’t quite get the chance to parse it, the complicated series of expressions Steve seemed to cycle through at that–because the kids were already back, Erica’s demanding yank on the door handle shattering the moment. 

As they climbed inside, he made a show of mimicking Steve’s customary scolding with a quiet, Watch it, watch it. If he practiced it enough, surely he’d hone that particular brand of babysitter instinct Steve had until it became reflex. 

Steve’s gaze stayed settled on him all the while, as they began shuffling onward to the next stage of their latest adventure. He could feel it, heavy and lingering, even if Steve’s eyes flitted away quickly every time he tried to catch him at it. 

But he had seen it anyway, in the seconds before Steve twisted away to stare out the car window. That familiar, quiet look of concentration, scrunching up Steve’s nose and drawing one corner of his mouth downwards into a half-frown. 

Eddie’s cheeks heated slightly–damn blush–at the scrutiny, the knowledge that Steve had been studying him. 

Because the look on his face? 

Despite the topsy-turvy nature of their entire situation, it was like Steve was some part of Eddie for the very first time. 

—

“Is he really gonna play basketball with you and Lucas?”

As soon as they had made it through the Harrington’s front door, Steve had chirped out I’ve got it! and headed straight for the laundry room, on a mission to grab them both something to wear. The clear pep in his step made it obvious he was looking forward to hitting the pavement, or whatever the hell it was called, and managed to quell at least a little of the dread Eddie was valiantly trying to tamp down. What could he say? He’d always found Steve’s enthusiasm infectious like that.  

“Don’t know what you want me to say here, La–Erica,” Eddie shrugged, managing to choke off the instinct to call her by her D&D title. “But, uh…yeah. He totally is.”

Clearly, this answer was deemed unsatisfactory, given the way Erica somehow managed to squint even harder up at him. “I thought the nerds were being stupid before, but now I gotta ask…you two lose a bet?”

Holding up his hand in a three-finger salute, Eddie vowed, “I swear on Dustin’s mother’s life that there was no bet.” 

Sure, the gesture was a little empty, given there was no way in hell he would have ever been a Boy Scout. But Eddie was pretty sure Steve had been, and that had to count for something, right? He’d search the house later if he got the chance, try to come up with some photographic proof.

Now that he thought about it, though, maybe he shouldn’t have been arguing so strongly against the possibility of a bet. He wondered if he and Steve should have jumped on that explanation when they first had a chance. Might have helped to dodge some of this suspicion, or at the very least kept him from having to deal with Erica’s stink eye now. 

“But I thought Eddie hated all that ‘stupid jock stuff,’” Lucas said quietly. There were obvious echoes in the phrasing, words Sinclair wouldn’t have used himself. Instead, he was clearly parroting one of Eddie’s many tirades on the subject. “He says it turns people to the dark side. Like…what happened with Jason.”

Shame coursed through Eddie, powerful as a tidal wave. As if it hadn’t already been painfully obvious all day, here it was, staring him right in the face all over again. The reality that he was at least partially to blame for that particular sense of division among the party. 

Eddie had had to sit by and be dismissed by Dustin all day, just because Steve hadn’t taken the same sort of obsessive interest in nerdy stuff as the rest of the group had. And that was from Steve’s own pseudo-little brother, someone Eddie knew deep down loved Steve fiercely, with everything he had. 

There was no question about it–Eddie’s speeches, his dogmatic loyalty to his interests, the chip on his shoulder that he’d carried throughout high school had all helped, in some way, to fan the flames of that. 

And, sure, Eddie had his reasons to hate the Jasons of the world–reasons that had certainly turned out to be well-founded. But he was learning his lesson all over again. While the Munson Doctrine had been put into place for his and his friends’ protection, as he’d already suspected, it was in desperate need of that major overhaul. For certain parts of it in particular. 

Like his blanket view on all high school athletics, for example. The attitude he’d held of total derision was what got him to say shit like Lucas attending his high school basketball championship game was succumbing to the dark side. 

Because, when it came down to it…wasn’t that just Eddie’s way of trying to force Lucas into a box, get him to conform to a set of rules Eddie had already prescribed for guys like him? Which, if it was, would mean what Eddie had done completely violated the heart of the Munson Doctrine. 

A true sign that, despite his best intentions, Eddie had ended up wielding his own personal code like a weapon, and that weapon had collateral damage. With it, he had hurt the Lucases of the world, the Steves–people who didn’t, at heart, deserve it. Who Eddie had never intended to deal damage to. 

“Eddie’s kinda a dumbass,” Eddie couldn’t help but blurt. 

Lucas eyed him warily, while Erica’s eyes flashed dangerously, like she was at the ready to jump to his defense. Though it touched Eddie’s heart, at the moment, he definitely didn’t need her to take up her weapons in his honor. 

Between his pride and his own personal defense mechanisms, he knew he could be plenty slow on the uptake at times. But when it came to his friends and the stuff that actually mattered, Eddie was always willing to concede when he was the one who’d fucked up.

“Specifically about this sort of thing, I mean. Take me, for example,” he gestured to himself, to Steve. “I’m sure as shit not anything like that son of a bitch Carver, am I?”

“But…you used to be,” Lucas said hesitantly, the pain of the statement writ on his face. Evidence plain and simple that he was struggling with the idea of it, and that he didn’t want to have to hurt Steve by saying so out loud.

And…yeah, Eddie would like to have a word with whoever kept feeding that line to the kids. To anybody, really. Even if the culprit turned out to be Steve himself.

“Yeah, well, rumors of my evil reign of terror have been greatly over-exaggerated. King Steve? Was honestly…not so bad. A little bitchy, sure, but trust me, I didn’t hold a candle to some of those other guys. In fact,” he held up a triumphant finger, his own personal aha! as he laid out the evidence and made his case, “Eddie once told me that Hagan and Carver backed down from doing some of their usual heinous shit because they were worried word was gonna get back to me about it, and they knew I wouldn’t stand for it.”

“Really?” Lucas asked, a trace of hope in his voice.

Eddie laid a hand over his heart, sincere. 

“You have my word, Sinclair. Or…Eddie’s word, if you wanna get technical about it. And he’s uh…shit.” As he gnawed at his bottom lip, his eyes darted to Lucas’s like a skittish crow, sheepish but serious. “Look, he’s really sorry, dude. That he made the guys play during your championship game. A man shouldn’t have to face being deserted by his party during the important stuff.”

“You’re damn right, he shouldn’t,” Erica chimed in, her voice a low, furious undertone. Despite her willingness to defend him earlier, her loyalty to her brother clearly took top spot, true and steadfast. He was pretty surprised she hadn’t razed him to the ground over it already. 

“He actually said that to you?” Lucas asked. That hope was still there, but a shadow of skepticism had now bled into his expression. 

It made Eddie feel a little sick, knowing he had put that look there. Had helped make Lucas question himself, potentially come to see something he loved as…tainted. The very same thing people had been doing to Eddie his entire life.

All he could do was try to make up for it now. 

“He totally did, man. And he’s gonna say it to you too, soon enough. I promise you that.”

“Why?” Lucas raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest. There was a grim sort of challenge in his posture. “Are you gonna make him?”

Some part of Eddie wanted to laugh–only because that was so like Steve, and he and the kids both knew it. Sticking up for them. Getting the people around him to follow his lead, to try and right their wrongs and make amends. It was a total Mom move, even if Steve would claim he was just doing his best to keep them from making the same mistakes he had.

Eddie knew, though, that this moment was too serious to make light of.

“Nah. Nah, dude, I’ve just–got a feeling. Eddie and me, we, uh…know each other pretty well by now, so. Call it intuition.”

“Guess you must have rolled a good perception check, if you’re so sure,” Lucas joked, the defensiveness starting to drain out of him. 

The way he said it didn’t chafe, not like Dustin and Mike’s earlier dismissals had. Eddie could feel the difference–Lucas was inviting Steve in on the joke, even if he knew he didn’t totally understand it. Would have been willing to explain it, Eddie bet, if Steve asked. 

Which only made it all the more clear, that trying to balance both, navigate between two different spheres–at the end of the day, that was the way to go about things. Find a happy medium, where no one felt like they had to choose sides, be wholly one way or the other. Eddie’d have to remember to make that a pillar of the new and improved Munson Doctrine. 

After all, he’d much rather break down boxes than just build new ones. 

“I guess, something like that,” Eddie shrugged, trying to adopt that air of easy nonchalance Steve had, about not understanding every little miniscule reference the group made.

“Well, sounds to me like something, or somebody, got through to him.” Cocking her head in the direction Steve had disappeared, Erica eyed Eddie knowingly. “He’s here, isn’t he?”

No sooner had she spoken the words than Steve popped back into the living room, as though he’d been summoned. 

“Think fast,” he called, tossing a balled up pair of shorts and shirt directly at Eddie’s chest. 

Scrambling, Eddie managed to clap one arm against his body, quick enough that he just kept the garments from hitting the floor. 

Realizing what he’d done, he pumped his free hand into the air in a triumphant fist on reflex. Steve grinned, sending him two thumbs up. 

Lucas looked back and forth between them, the smile he wore caught somewhere between amused and puzzled. 

Erica, on the other hand, only rolled her eyes, showing absolutely no signs of confusion. “Okay, enough of all this mushy shit. Can you two hurry the hell up? At this rate, I’ll be as old as you by the time Lucas finally gets to practice.”

Mushy shit? Steve mouthed to Eddie. He shook his head quickly, Steve’s answering shrug saying he was willing to put a pin in it for now. There’d be plenty of time to explain all of that to him later. 

“You heard the lady,” Eddie gestured for Steve to lead the way. 

The sudden smirk that curled over Steve’s lips could only spell trouble. 

“...Race you!” The words were barely out of his mouth before he was off like a shot, headed straight for the Harrington’s staircase. 

“Har–Ha!–Munson, you shameless fucking cheat!” Eddie crowed, sprinting after him. 

Accustomed as he was to being a mess of uncoordinated, gangly limbs, Steve’s broader chest and thick legs still made him feel a bit like he was shambling, propelled forward by his own weight. At least they were basically the same height, so his equilibrium wasn’t completely fucked. He’d have probably ended up sprawled out on the floor, otherwise. 

And even with the cognitive dissonance, there was no doubt that he was faster, in Steve’s body. But, really, it was the sudden boost in upper body strength that actually sealed the deal for him. 

Because once he’d caught up enough to wrap his arms around Steve’s waist and bodily dragged him down a few steps–Steve crying out, Oh, seriously? Fuck you, dude! even as he laughed, bright and unselfconscious–Eddie found himself scrambling the rest of the way up the stairs and, for once in his life, actually finishing a race in first place. 

Maybe he could pull this off after all. 

—

Staring up at the basket on the Hawkins public courts he hadn’t even known existed before today, Eddie swallowed hard, ready to retract any earlier statements he’d made about being confident. 

After their chase up the stairs, they’d changed quickly together in Steve’s room. It was probably a good thing that Steve had been there, in hindsight, a deterrent from Eddie letting his eyes linger on all the bare, golden skin he found himself exposing yet again. 

The problem, of course, was that Steve’s Hawkins High gym uniform left very little to the imagination–the thin gray t-shirt hugging his chest in all the right places, those green athletic shorts impossibly short. Eddie had spent the entire drive out here doing his best not to get distracted by the fact that Steve’s thick, fuzzy thighs were right there, teasing at the periphery of his vision, lest he pop a boner which said tiny shorts would do absolutely nothing to hide. 

Steve was dressed all but identically–though the swim team shirt he’d procured for himself had the sleeves cut off, showcasing every inch of ink sprawled up Eddie’s arms. He kind of couldn’t get over how pale his own legs looked, vulnerable for once to the sizzling, midday sun. 

As soon as they were out of the car, Steve had scooped up the basketball he’d brought along and jogged over to the courts with all the eagerness of a very large, very overenthusiastic golden retriever. By the time Eddie had finally made his way out onto the blacktop, he was already idly–dribbling? fuck, that had to be right, Eddie was almost sure of it–his way down to the nearest basket. 

And even though the borrowed athletic shorts were a bit too baggy, in that moment, Eddie’s body looked uncomfortably natural there, surrounded by balls and hoops on all sides. There was a fluidity in the way Steve moved, a confidence that seemed to override Eddie’s utter lack of athleticism or coordination, more than making up for any of missing skills he’d adamantly refused to help develop over the years. With Steve in control, “Eddie Munson” appeared to the unknowing eye like someone who could actually belong here.

He had no idea how to feel about that. 

When Eddie glanced around, he found Lucas clearly getting ready to join them. But before he had the chance to sprint away from the bleachers where Erica was settling down watch, Steve cupped one hand around his mouth and waved him off with the other, shouting, “Just stand over there for now, Sinclair! That way you’ll have the best view. Steve’s gonna kill two birds with one stone–give you a refresher while, you know, actually teaching me the moves for the first time.”

Ball still clutched in his hands, he then pivoted on his heel, facing the target with his back to Eddie. 

The movement made Eddie freeze in his tracks, the sheer uncertainty about what came next enough to leave him staring, wide-eyed and uncomprehending, at the back of his own head. Steve had had the foresight to pull his hair up and out of the way with one of the seemingly innumerable clips Robin had abandoned at the Harringtons’ place before they’d headed out. Fully caught up in that out of body feeling, Eddie couldn’t help but notice his neck was already starting to go pink from the sun. 

Several long, agonizing beats passed, until finally Steve glanced over his shoulder at him and made a coaxing, come hither motion with his hand. 

“Come on, man. Don’t just leave me hanging. Get your ass in here.”

Despite his hesitance, Eddie shuffled forward, gnawing his bottom lip as reluctance weighed down his every step. 

Once he was within earshot, he hissed out, “Uh, need I remind you…while I may currently be running around in this top-of-the-line athletic bod of yours, Stevie, your knowledge of the arcane rituals of high school sports definitely didn’t stick around. As we’ve established, I don’t know jack shit about basketball.”

Steve scoffed. 

“I know that, Eds. What do you take me for? I’m not an idiot.” Before Eddie had the chance to argue that he would never say that, he was already barrelling on. “Why do you think I told the kid to stay over there? I’ll tell you what to say, step-by-step, while you ‘show’ me how to do it. Then, all you have to do is relay it to Lucas. Easy peasy.” 

Right. Eddie was pretty damn certain things weren't going to be nearly as breezy as Steve made it sound. But, he had already committed, and that was a central part of Eddie’s whole post-brush-with-death pact that he’d made with himself–doing his best not to run out on things. 

“Jesus Christ. Yeah, alright, Harrington. You’ve got me, I’m your eager Padawan. Teach me how to teach you all about those balls and laundry baskets.” 

Pleasure rippled through him when the quip managed to get a snort out of Steve, clearly taking it for the joke it was meant to be. 

“Well, first of all, you’re gonna need to get a lot closer to me than that, dude. How the hell else are you supposed to, you know…actually ‘coach’ me on how to line up a shot?”

While he did as instructed and crossed the distance between them, Eddie still kept a healthy amount of space between them. The look Steve sent him this time was amused, and he shook his head like Eddie was being ridiculous. 

“Seriously, Eds, press up against me. It’s not like I’ve got cooties–not any that aren’t literally yours, at least–and I swear I don’t bite.” The smirk that curled at his lips was all casual, confident Harrington charm, and Eddie found it a little disconcerting his face could even make that expression. “Not too much, anyway, or so I’ve been told.”

Eddie was pretty sure he had a dream like this, once, though without the basketball and with Steve decidedly in his own body at the time. So…nothing like this, not really, but the words were still enough to send a tingle through Eddie from his now perfectly coiffed head to his Nike-clad toe. 

There was probably something decidedly demented about feeling a surge of heat at the sound of his own teasingly suggestive voice. But he had always been weird, proudly so, and there was really no time at present to have a full-blown crisis about it. He could save all that for…later. 

“Shit, man, talk a guy into it, why don’t you,” he muttered. His mouth was running away with him, as always, but in his defense any sense of self-preservation or impulse control he’d had swiftly left the building the moment his chest connected with Steve’s back. 

This close, a few of his own stray flyaways tickled the end of his nose. A mix of cigarette smoke, the off-brand shampoo Wayne got down at Melvald’s, and the Harrington’s expensive laundry detergent wafted through the air, like a perfect blend of him and Steve together. His brain short-circuited a little, not quite sure how to process that particular combination and the hazy feeling it stirred in him. 

“Just watch,” Steve boasted, confident grin still in place. Warmth built between them, seeping beneath the thin gray cotton of their t-shirts, and Eddie was hyperaware of every line and plane of his body against Steve’s as Steve shifted on the balls of his feet. “I’ll convert you into a sports fan in no time.”

What he was doing right now was plenty persuasive, although Eddie didn’t say that. 

“Bold words, big boy, but you can certainly try,” he taunted, though the ways his hands still hovered uncertainly at Steve’s sides undermined any of his brazenness.

“Put your hands on my shoulders for now,” Steve said. So he dutifully laid them in place, marveling, not for the first time, at how big Steve’s hands really were, engulfing Eddie’s own bony frame easily. “I’m gonna get ready to take the shot the wrong way, then I’ll just tell you how to fix it for me. Okay?”

“Totally, man. Don’t leave me in suspense.”

Steve clutched the ball with both his palms, spread about equal distance from the center, and then lifted it over his head as if he was about to shoot. Which looked…completely fine from where Eddie was standing, no different from the dozens of times he’d seen jocks do it when he’d actually managed to make it to gym class. Evidently, though, there was some vital component of a proper battle stance that he was totally eluding him. 

“Dominant hand’s the shooting hand, and then the other’s the one that does all the guiding. You’re a righty, yeah? Which means my right hand should be placed center, fingers spread around the pump, and then my left goes on the side to help line up the shot,” Steve kept his hands in place, though he did squeeze the ball gently, indicating which he meant as he spoke. “You got all that? Lucas should know this, but it doesn’t hurt to get the reminder once in a while, keep him from getting sloppy.”

“Uh…yeah, I think so,” Eddie said, the unsteady waver in his words making Steve’s voice pitch a bit higher than usual. 

Sliding his hands over Steve’s arms, he readjusted his grip accordingly. Steve’s ring-clad knuckles felt cool, engulfed beneath the warm, broad palms he was now sporting, and Eddie couldn’t help but note the way Steve’s fingers spanned out past his former reach. 

“So, uh…dominant hand right down the middle, Munson. Then just put those other magic fingers to the side, and bam! Guide her on home. Got that, champ?” Eddie’s eyes crinkled at the corners, his mouth spreading wide and curling with amusement as he tapped into a facsimile of Steve’s ‘Dad’ voice worthy of Leave It to Beaver, if he did say so himself. 

Even as he kept his body pliant, letting Eddie position him accordingly, Steve craned his neck just enough to make sure Eddie caught his eye roll. 

“I do not sound like that,” he muttered pointedly from the side of his mouth. 

“You keep telling yourself that, Stevie boy.” Eddie gave Steve a clap on the back that would look encouraging from a distance. The touchy part of jock culture, at least, was something he could get behind, the one thing that he felt completely natural imitating. 

Next, apparently, before he could just go ahead and throw that silly ass ball, they needed to work on ‘Eddie’s’ stance. That particular step involved a lot of Eddie getting handsy with Steve’s hips, adjusting and readjusting to make sure his feet were pointed straight at the goal post thingy. 

After that, Steve made him literally curve over his back to allegedly make sure that he was bent correctly. His exact words, and Eddie found himself unbelievably happy Steve was turned away from him, couldn’t catch the way Steve’s apparently hair-trigger blush spread over his face at the images that particular suggestion conjured in Eddie’s mind. He’d always suspected sports could get ridiculously horny–the one real point in their favor, honestly, all those sweaty dudes rubbing up against each other–but he was getting an up close and personal education on just how right he had been now. 

“Have we finally positioned my body to suit you, good sir?” Eddie asked, amused, fingers trailing over the small of Steve’s back as he pulled his hand away. 

The smirk was in place again as Steve sent him a quick, there-and-you’ll-miss-it wink. “Watch this.”

With a bounce and a controlled flick of his wrist, Steve tossed the ball. It arced through the air, circling the top of the basket for one long, breathless moment…and then dropped through the net. 

From the sidelines, both Lucas and Erica went wild, whooping and hollering in celebration. 

“Well, I’ll be goddamned,” Eddie gasped, hand clapping down on the top of his head in complete shock. “Holy shit, man, look at that! Congratu-fucking-lations, you actually did it!”

Steve spun to face him, his grin giddy as he clapped his hands on Eddie’s shoulders and gave him a triumphant little shake. “We did that, dude! That was all you, just–with some training and, you know, a little bit of a helping hand.” 

“Eddie! Dude, you made a three pointer on your first try!” Lucas crowed, voice echoing from the sheer volume of his excitement. 

At Eddie’s questioning look, Steve scuffed his Rebok along the white line painted over the asphalt. “Three point line. What, you think I was gonna miss out on my chance to see what you could actually do with a little time and effort?” Eyes flitting back to the basket, his smile mellowed, turning into something wistful yet pleased. “I may have had a shitty senior year, but–guess I make a pretty damn good coach, after all.” 

Eddie found himself surprisingly chuffed, and he couldn’t quite tell who he felt more pleased for–himself, or Steve. “Damn right you do, Harrington. Best basketball co-captain Hawkins High has ever seen.”

Steve cocked a surprised eyebrow at him. “You actually remembered that I was co-captain?”

Eddie answered with a half-shrug, tossing Steve’s words from earlier in the day back at him with ease. “Hey. I totally do listen when you talk, Harrington.”

Dropping a hand on Eddie’s bicep, Steve gave him a squeeze, a show of what Eddie immediately recognized was brief, silent gratitude. Then, he leaned in to lock eyes with him, tone going serious. “Alrighty, dude. You survived round one. Ready to keep listening to me talk about defense and how to block the other guys on the team from making a perfect shot just like that one?”

“Hell yeah, I am,” he slapped Steve’s hand, completing the high five offered to him. “Let’s do it!” 

—

This time around, Eddie did his best to repeat Steve’s instructions verbatim, goofing around less since this was definitely advice Lucas would need. Steve, for his part, waited until after Eddie had described a maneuver to follow his instructions–putting on the perfect display of cluelessness, like he had had no idea what to do until “Steve” told him.

Unfortunately, blocking was, in Eddie’s opinion, turning out to be way less exciting than shooting practice had been. For one, part of the lesson was learning the right amount of distance to keep between yourself and the other jocks to properly screw up their gameplay…which meant, of course, that Eddie wasn’t getting the same opportunity to drape himself all over Steve as he had before. 

For another, it required way more actual athleticism on Eddie’s part. As the pseudo-coach, he had to try to keep Steve from stealing away the ball–which meant, of course, that he had to have control of that wiley rubber sphere in the first place. That in and of itself proved to be a pretty Herculean task. 

His first few attempts were fumbling at best, complete with heckling from the sidelines about how he must be rusty from not going up against a real competitor lately (Lucas) and getting too rickety for basketball, old man (Erica).

By now, Eddie was well used to the kids and their mouthy ways, and he had certainly never pretended to be anything less than a disaster when it came to feats that required coordination. But–he also actually didn’t want to fuck things up, this time. 

The pressure mounted, and he felt more like an unwieldy seventh grader than the 20–now 19–something he actually was, all knees and elbows after his growth spurt, head ringing after getting pegged with a baseball during a game he definitely wasn’t paying attention to. An entire chorus of doubts started clamoring loudly inside him, making him curse colorfully when he somehow managed to bounce the ball straight into Steve’s hands.

“It’s just like I said before, Eds,” Steve’s voice, quiet and steady, cut through the static of jeering voices that sounded an awful lot like some nightmarish mish-mash of Jason Carver and his dear old dad mixed together. “Don’t overthink it, okay? You’ve got this.” 

With a nod and a deep breath, he did his best to push everything to the back burner and get out of his own head. 

Which, shockingly enough…turned out to work pretty well. It helped, of course, that he’d just had to “teach” Steve to dribble the ball, so he’d gotten a crash course on what to do only minutes before. Between that and Steve’s coaxing, Eddie finally found something like a rhythm, muscle memory making up for what he no doubt lacked in anything resembling good form.

Once that hurdle was behind them, their practice run started going along pretty swimmingly. That was, of course, until…their eagle-eyed audience decided to interject again.

“What the hell are you two talking about over there?” Erica called out, clearly having cottoned on to the fact that, between lessons, they were exchanging way more than just Eddie’s shouted instructions. 

Eddie had to hand it to her, the girl was consistent in her dogged need to understand anything and everything around her–and about as subtle as a mallet to the face when it came to her methods of finding out. 

But, Steve stayed quick on his feet, same as he’d been since the moment they got out here. 

“Hey, I gotta keep Harrington on his toes, right? I mean, what’s any good game without, like…a little smack talk.” 

That, at least, was one thing Eddie could admit that basketball and D&D totally had in common. The physical stuff might have eluded him, but verbal sparring? Now, that he could get behind. 

“Besides,” one corner of Steve’s mouth quirked upward into a confident smirk, “wouldn’t want him getting too comfortable.”

As if to demonstrate his point, Steve perfectly executed the block they had just gone over and stole the ball from Eddie, letting out a breathless laugh as he swiveled around him and headed straight for the basket. 

Eddie released an extremely undignified squawk as he went after Steve, comforting himself with the knowledge that the kids would only hear Steve making such a ridiculous sound. He had to get his revenge where he could take it–especially when his attempt to repeat the action was to no avail, their shoulders jostling together but Steve ultimately sinking the ball into the goal with a triumphant woo-hoo!

“I’m onto you, Harrington,” Eddie pointed at him in accusation, though the gesture was somewhat undermined when he had to bend over and clasp one knee, panting, “you’re having way too much fun with this, aren’t you? Turning me into some kind of basketball prodigy.”

Steve’s answering smile was so wide, it put Eddie’s dimples on full display. 

“Look, dude–don’t be mad just because I’ve figured out how to use this body in ways you haven’t. It’s not my fault you’ve got all this hidden potential, and I’m just tapping into it.” Subtle though it might have been, Eddie didn’t miss the way Steve’s hand ran over the inside of his–Eddie’s–bicep, flexing his arm and then squeezing the muscle there. “You know, I think you totally could have had a shot at making the team if you’d wanted to.”

“Yeah, uh…let’s not get delusional here, Harrington.”

“I’m serious,” Steve cocked an eyebrow, lifting his chin in what might have been an invitation, or a challenge. “What? You mean you wouldn’t want to play for my team?”

Even though Eddie was pretty sure Steve couldn’t possibly realize the implications such a question carried, he still felt a sizzle of heat run through him, and one that had absolutely nothing to do with the scorching sun. 

“Right now I’m pretty sure I’m gunning to join Sinclair’s team. At least he hasn’t been using my body for nefarious purposes.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Don’t act like you don’t love to show off. But when I do it, just with a different set of skills, suddenly I’m the bad guy.”

“That you are,” Catching Steve around the neck, Eddie pulled him into a headlock, ruffling his own shaggy mane. Steve’s instinctive Not the hair, man! had Eddie letting him go with a laugh. “Whaddya say?” he nodded to the benches. “Have we taught the young grasshopper all we know?”

Steve wrinkled his nose. “Not sure what bugs have got to do with it, but…yeah, I’d say that should do it. Ready as we’re gonna be, all things considered.” Sliding the ball into the crook of his elbow, he clapped his hands together. “Come on, Sinclair, get a move on! You’re up, man.”

“Go on. Show them you mean business, Lucas!” Erica chanted as she lightly shoved her brother’s shoulder, encouraging and cajoling all at once. 

With a quick cheer, Lucas trotted out onto the court to finally join them.

“Alright, buddy,” Steve clapped a hand on the younger teen’s back. “You ready to help me show Harrington how it’s done?”

“Absolutely!” Lucas beamed, clearly pleased by “Eddie’s” sudden show of enthusiasm. “You know, you’re…kinda a lot better than I thought you’d be? No offense.”

“None taken. I mean, what can I say?” he shrugged, faux-modest, though the megawatt grin on his face said otherwise. “Turns out…I’m a total natural.”

“Hey, wait a minute, guys. That is seriously so not fair. How come you two get to gang up on me, huh?” Eddie whined, giving his best approximation of the fatal Harrington pout. 

Steve, apparently, was immune. 

“Sorry, Stevie, you know how it is,” he slung an arm around Lucas’s shoulders in a show of camaraderie. “Us underdogs gotta stick together. Right, Sinclair?”

Eddie huffed, imitating Steve’s signature pfft. “What are you talking about, man? Sinclair’s a total jock, plays for the Tigers and everything. If anything, that means he should be on my team.”

“Aww, guys, knock it off,” Lucas chided, though he was clearly enjoying having them bicker over him, grinning from ear-to-ear. Then, his eyes took on a particularly mischievous glint. “You know how us kids hate it when Mom and Dad fight.” 

“Oh my God, dude! Leave the smart ass comments to Henderson, yeah?” 

“For that alone, I should rescind your invitation to fight at my side, Sinclair!”

Lucas snickered. “Anyway, I’m a nerd and a jock, remember? That means I should get to decide, right? And I gotta side with Eddie on this one.” Turning to Eddie, he gave him an apologetic shrug. “Nothing personal. It just…wouldn’t be right, making him go up against the both of us when he just learned how to play today. You know?” 

“Good man, good man,” Steve chirped. “Right you are, Sinclair. That wouldn’t be cool to do to a newbie like me.” 

Cheater, Eddie mouthed as Lucas trotted ahead of them towards the basket, ready to start the game. 

Steve only laughed, taunting him with one of those infuriatingly teasing little waves. Then he was jogging off, too, easily tapping into that speed Eddie usually reserved for running from mean-spirited meatheads and cops. 

“First to ten wins!” he shouted, smoothly passing the ball to Lucas. 

“Shit, shit, shit,” Eddie muttered, struggling to catch up to them. Too slow, he watched in horror as the younger teen sank the ball in an easy slam dunk, Steve flinging his arms into the air with a triumphant Great going, Sinclair!

This was high school PE all over again. One second into his first basketball game, and somehow Eddie was already falling behind. 

—

It was not, for all his initial concerns, quite as dire as PE. 

He did have cause for alarm–but only at first. Steve and Lucas had been out here together for months now, and even if Lucas wasn’t aware of the reason for it, it became pretty obvious that Steve knew all his tells. The pair of them worked together seamlessly, egging each other on, and Steve’s almost sixth sense for when Lucas was open meant they stacked up three points collectively in what felt like the bat of an eye. 

But, as Eddie quickly learned, forming two entirely distinct ‘teams’ wasn’t all that practical, at least not when there were a grand total of three people in play. Because while Lucas and Steve might have started out the game in a loosely-defined team up against him, the boundaries of that quickly dissolved…right around the time that Lucas passed the ball straight to Eddie. 

Distracted by the certainty he was moment’s away from falling another point behind, at the time Eddie had barely had a chance to register that the sound of Sinclair’s voice shouting Steve! Steve! was directed at him. Not before that flash of orange came hurtling towards him, at least. 

But when the ball hit him square in the chest, he actually caught it, the same miracle from the laundry incident somehow managing to play out twice in one day. The only thing that saved him in the aftermath from a determined Steve Harrington barrelling straight for him was the fact that he’d already spent a lifetime running away.

“Sinclair!” Steve cried out in disbelief, slinging one hand emphatically through the air as Eddie’s toss whooshed into the net. The other, of course, came to rest petulantly on his hip. “Come on, dude, what the hell was that?!” 

“Sorry, man.” Out of all the kids–short of El or Will, at least–Lucas’s guileless smile and innocent shrug always managed to look the most convincing, and now was no exception. “What did you want me to do? Just up and betray my coach completely? No way I could ever do that.”

“Well, whaddya know? Jock solidarity saves the day!” Even though that was a string of words he’d also never thought that he would say out loud, Eddie couldn’t help but cackle, grin wide and toothy enough to do the Cheshire Cat proud. “You snooze you lose, Munson!”

He watched as Steve’s jaw clenched, the determined smirk that settled onto his face suggesting that they were all in big trouble. 

“Oh, it is so on!”

After that, allegiances shifted at the drop of a hat, the causes varying from perceived slights like a foul or a fake out, or simply when one of their merry band of players spotted a weakness and saw an opening to take advantage of. Mostly, they each just kept track of their own individual scores, cheering each other on or booing wildly depending entirely upon whose side they happened to be on in that particular moment. 

And while Steve and Lucas might have started out at an advantage, Eddie was quick to catch up. His aim was undeniably kinda shoddy, but scoring came to him pretty much the exact same way that dribbling had–the less he thought about it, the better he was. It was a little disconcerting, that going into autopilot seemed to activate some of Steve’s body’s latent athletic abilities, like a sleeper agent that had been triggered by the right code phrase. The whole thing felt very sci-fi, as if Eddie had gone to sleep and been transformed overnight into the bionic man, with new robotic implementations that could do all sorts of things he never dreamed of before. 

…Which really wasn’t too far off the genre mark, considering conscious-swapping or whatever the hell it was that had happened to them read like a story straight from the stack of pulpy Weird Tales comics Eddie kept stashed under his bed. 

The clear and very deliberate performance Steve was giving didn’t exactly hinder Eddie’s gains, either. While he kept up the appearance of some of the skills he had already cultivated for Eddie, maintaining that image of being surprisingly-good-at-this-for-his-first-time, Eddie noticed Steve fudging things a bit more than he had during their practice. 

Like letting Lucas easily steal the ball away from him before sending a quick wink Eddie’s way. 

Or missing a shot that was practically guaranteed because he tripped over his own feet at the last second, in keeping with Eddie’s trademark klutziness. 

(Although in that last example, Eddie’s body might have actually been to blame. It was kind of hard to tell, from the outside looking in.) 

Whenever Steve–or Lucas, for that matter–did something right, however, Eddie was quick with his praise. Staying in-character, he knew, meant tapping into that same air of confident yet peppy and supportive co-captain Steve had shown himself to be all afternoon.

So when Steve managed what looked like a particularly complicated shot from the three point line, Eddie instantly crowed, “Holy shit, Eds. With moves like that, you’re gonna make me jealous!”

The redness already spilling across Eddie’s pale skin had crept all the way up to his exposed ears, then, and he honestly couldn’t tell if Steve was flushing from the heat or the way Eddie was laying it on so thick. Given Steve’s only answer was to duck his head and knock his shoulder gently against Eddie’s with a quiet Shut up! all he really knew was that he’d say whatever it took to get that kind of reaction out of Steve again.  

Soon after, Lucas had pulled off basically the same move, mimicking Steve exactly–clearly, the kid had been paying attention. 

“Nice one, Sinclair! No way in hell that coach of yours won’t have you off the bench for good in no time.” 

That had earned him a subtle ‘ok’ sign from Steve, clearly pleased that Eddie had managed to use some of their whispered, crash course basketball terminology correctly in a sentence. 

Eddie scored a couple more points himself, and so by the time Steve successfully went in for his next one, he couldn’t resist getting a little cocky and teasing. 

“You can thank my excellent coaching skills for that.” And, because he wasn’t above playing dirty, he punctuated the statement by giving Steve a quick swat on the ass, morbidly curious to see if the color on his ears would deepen. 

…It did, as it turned out, though Steve was quick to recover.

“Uh–yeah, yeah. Clearly you were born to teach, Harrington.” Though he tacked on an eye roll and a put-upon tone, Eddie hadn’t miss the way Steve preened a little after he had said it. 

“Fuck yeah I was!” Snapping his fingers, Eddie shot one of Steve’s dorky finger guns in his direction. “And don’t you forget it.”

The game stayed fast flowing, the points ever changing. One moment, Steve was at 7, Lucas 6, and Eddie trailed behind at 5. But soon Eddie found himself tied for first after two lucky shots in a row. He couldn’t sit easy for long, though, what with Lucas making a sudden comeback to pull ahead of them both. On and on they went, steadily climbing their way towards that winning score, neck and neck all the time. 

Sure, it wasn’t exactly Hellfire, but looking at it as one-to-one combat, its very own system of HP and Ability Scores included and all, he could admit that he was starting to see the appeal. 

…In more ways than one. 

Because unfortunately for Eddie, his little problem from earlier, the one he’d promised himself he’d put a pin in, hadn’t just evaporated once the real game started. Sure, there wasn’t quite as much skin-to-skin contact as there had been in the practice run, but, as it turned out, basketball wasn’t exactly an at-an-arms-length kind of sport. Which meant that Steve was there, more often than not, hovering at Eddie’s back to–usually successfully–block his shots. 

And Eddie was probably a very, very sick man. 

Because the sight of his jock best friend, all sweaty and grinning and glowing with it as he, Jesus H. Christ, pressed right up against him–well. That was enough to leave Eddie riled up and breathless, excited in a not at all sports-appropriate way…despite the fact that Steve was currently running around in his body. 

And, sure, okay, so he regularly popped boners when he saw Steve in this state. But that was different, because that was Steve–lovely, Adonis-like Steve, with his swooping perfect hair and gorgeous hazel eyes and stupidly muscled calves. 

…But, then again, so was this. 

Eddie saw it, in the competitive gleam in Steve’s eyes, the way he kept licking his lips in concentration each and every time he and Eddie squared off. It was there every time Lucas scored a basket, and Steve’s face instantly lit up with naked delight. In every whoop and shout and excited clap of his hands as he cheered them all on, or chant of hustle, hustle, hustle when he felt one of them was lagging behind. Hell, even when he was doing a dorky little victory dance and Eddie had to literally tackle Steve to stop him from embarrassing him and sullying his reputation even further, it was still all he could see. 

He might be hidden behind Eddie's pale skin, disheveled hair, and too wide eyes–but every tic, every word, every silly little gesture made it all too obvious that that was still undeniably Steve, shining out underneath. 

Great, Eddie was probably going to give his own heart a boner next.

So it was really no wonder when it gave a flip, the next time Steve decided to direct some of that earnest, positive attention his way.

“Alright, let’s go, let’s go,” Steve chanted.

He was doing a masterful job of playing keep away between Eddie and the goal. Despite their difference in stature, his chest felt as firm as a wall every time Eddie’s shoulder knocked against it, trying and failing to dodge him. And the sparkle in Steve’s eye, which Eddie caught when he turned to shield the ball from being stolen away like a bounty in the night, made it clear that he wasn’t the only one having fun with their roughhousing. 

“That’s it,” Steve said, half-goading, half-encouraging. “Show me what you got, Harrington.”

“Oh, just you wait. You ain’t seen nothing yet, Munson.”

At the last second, Eddie feinted to the left, swiveling around him and just managing to toss the ball through the net. He wasn’t even going to give Steve’s superhuman physique credit for that one–the fake out was all him, years of evading schoolyard bullies and learning to lean into his own natural noodle-like motions taking over. 

“Check me out!” he hollered, resisting the urge to tack on a Take that, you silly orange sphere!

And despite the fact that Eddie had just outpaced him, Steve was all smiles. “Yeah, you know, you’re looking pretty good out there, champ.” 

Though the last word was tacked on mockingly, clearly a jab at Eddie’s imitation from earlier, the rest of the statement came out in a low, warm tone. That, coupled with the private, pleased look he was sending him, was enough to make a flash of heat run through Eddie, his blood pumping in all the wrong ways. 

Grasping for hair that wasn’t there to chew on, he stuttered out, “I’m, uh–gonna take five real quick.”

Then, with a final jab of his thumb, Eddie scampered off the court, suddenly glad for the bright, mid-afternoon sun to explain away his flush. 

Besides, it wasn’t as if it wasn’t partially to blame. Even in Steve’s body, which was certainly more equipped than Eddie’s would have been to handle all the running and jumping and throwing even practice basketball apparently required, he still found himself winded and panting. So much so he was a tiny bit grateful for the excuse for a water break, as he guzzled from the bottle Erica handed to him.

When he flopped down onto the bench beside her, wiping away the sweat that had gathered at his hairline with the back of his hand, Erica sent him a smug, knowing look. 

“I’m onto you, you know.”

Eddie froze mid-sip, like a deer in the headlights. The soothing cold liquid–which he’d been gulping down like it was the Elixir of Life–now betrayed him, nearly choking him to death. 

“You’re, uh…” he managed to squeak out, hoping the coughing fit would serve as explanation enough for his change in tone. He had to bite his tongue to prevent the shit shit shit that threatened to spill from his lips. “What is it you’re onto now, exactly?”

There, that sounded suitably baffled and low-key exasperated, Steve-like on all fronts. Not suspicious at all. 

If someone could just let his frantic, speeding pulse know that, then he’d be really cooking with gas.

Leaning into him conspiratorially, the perfect posture for sharing secrets, Erica said in a low undertone, “Don’t tell anybody I said this, but it was kinda cute, what you did back there.”

Now, Eddie was totally lost. “Pray tell, what was cute, Baby Sinclair?”

Her face screwed up in an over-the-top display of disgust. “Ew, nevermind, I take it back. You two have been spending way too much time together. Don't ever call me that again.”

Grinning at her dramatics despite himself, Eddie pointed out, “That still doesn't answer my question…Erica.”

Rolling her eyes, letting her exasperation be known, she exclaimed, “I meant the way you memorized all that stuff about Gauntlet to impress Eddie!”

She hadn’t tacked an actual duh onto the end, but he could read between the lines well enough to know it was heavily implied. 

The good news was–one crisis, and the big one at that, had been truly and firmly averted. Clearly, Erica still thought she was talking to Steve. 

The bad news, of course, came from the fact that she wasn’t…and that it definitely had not been Steve, rambling away back at the arcade. No, that had all been Eddie’s own screw up, his inability to keep his mouth shut when it came to his passions getting in the way and threatening to blow their cover. 

So, whatever point Erica was trying to make now–and already, Eddie suspected he might have a sinking suspicion just what that point was–the evidence was stacked against her, even though she didn’t know it.

“But you don't have to try so damn hard, you know. Look.”

Eddie followed Erica's nod to where Steve was currently playing keep away with Lucas, his smile bright and carefree. He was in his element, happy. When he looked like that, Eddie couldn't even remotely pretend to be annoyed at Steve for using his body for jock purposes. 

“Clearly, he likes you.” Her tone was matter-of-fact, like she accepted the truth of it as easily as the sky being blue and Hawkins being overrun by monsters on an annual basis.  

An overwhelming surge of affection swelled in him for the tiny, badass girl beside him. He was touched by the nonchalance of it, the way she was discussing her babysitters, two guys, possibly having crushes on each other without so much as batting an eye. 

Enough so that, just for a second, he let himself get lost in the moment. “That so? I mean…you really think he does?”

“Damn straight. You think Eddie would play sports for just anybody?” she cocked a disbelieving eyebrow at him. 

And well…what the hell could Eddie say to that, other than to agree? He knew firsthand just how true it was, that he wouldn’t be out here for just anybody, especially before today. 

“Nah. No way in hell he would. But it's…kinda a tad more complicated than that.”

Because, stepping back to reality, those were all the signs that Eddie liked Steve, scrambled and distorted by their current situation. How Steve felt about him–he honestly still had no firm idea on that. 

Plus, at present, there were far too many confusing layers to try and unpack it all. Least of all here, with Erica Sinclair–no matter how uncannily insightful she might be for her age.

“Look, we’re just, uh…” Eddie searched for the phrasing Robin was always throwing around, whenever people questioned why she and Steve weren’t dating despite being practically psychically linked, “capital P platonic friends. Nothing more than that, okay? Pinkie swear.”

He extended a little finger to her, ready to seal the deal, but Erica ignored it with a dismissive psst.

“Yeah, right,” she said flatly, “Tell that to the sickening moon eyes you get every time he's around.”

“What the hell, man? There are no moon eyes!” Eddie protested, sounding suitably Steve-levels of scandalized, mostly because…well. He was sure as all hell that he would have noticed them if there had been!

“Boys,” Erica shook her head, sounding both resigned and disappointed, “so stupid.”

“Shit, no one's arguing with that,” he agreed readily. “But, uh…you think we can keep this little chat between us? I mean–it’s not exactly the sorta thing you wanna go around spouting off here, in Hawkins. You know what I’m saying?”

Because as much as it touched him that Erica clearly didn’t care one way or the other, and he certainly wasn’t looking to discourage that–he still wanted to make sure she exercised some caution. For them, for the party, for herself. Eddie knew from experience…not everyone took as kindly to that sort of talk as he did. 

“I know that. Think I’d just go blabbing your business all over town to anybody but you two? No,” she mimed locking her lips shut and throwing away the key. “I’m like Fort Knox, and don’t you forget it.”

“Yeah, no, I know. I didn’t think you would, it’s just–maybe, uh. Don't even mention it to me later on. ‘Kay?”

“You are so weird,” Erica informed him, blunt as ever.

“Oh, trust me, you don’t even know the half of it.” He bit his bottom lip, not quite able to tamp down on his wry half-smile. She was talking to the Freak of Hawkins High after all. He’d heard way worse. 

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, I'll keep your little secret. But I reserve the right to say I told you so. And,” she jabbed a finger in his direction, “don't say I never did anything for you.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Eddie gave her a mock salute, which earned him her exhausted, withering side eye. “Wouldn't dream of it.”

“Hey, Steve!” He looked up to find Steve doing his best to block Lucas’s next shot, moving around the court with all the grace and swiftness of a dancer. “You wanna help me out here, dude, or what?”

Eddie popped up, bouncing down from the bleachers in a single, smooth jump. “Duty calls!”

Trotting back out towards the court, he watched the two of them face off, Lucas dribbling closer and closer to his target. 

“Get him, Lucas!” Erica heckled, loud enough the sound of her voice reverberated in his wake. 

And it seemed Lucas was about to do just that–until Steve twisted, clearly going for the same maneuver he’d used to sneak away the ball from Eddie earlier. Eddie’s breath caught, anticipation thrumming through him as he waited for Steve’s inevitable victory. 

…Except then Steve let out a pained shout, crumbling in on himself and just barely managing not to hit the pavement. 

“Oh, Jesus Christ!” Eddie’s heart was in his throat. He had never been so happy to have an added burst of speed in his life, all but flinging himself across the court to get to Steve. “Jesus Christ, Jesus H. Christ!”

With Lucas so close, he was already stooped over and speaking in a soft voice by the time Eddie skidded to a halt beside them. “Eddie? Hey, man, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Steve hissed, waving them both off on instinct–the Harrington hero complex, back at it again. “Or, okay…maybe fine’s being a little bit generous here.”

He caught Eddie’s eyes, then, sending him a look of concern mixed with the slightest hint of accusation. Which was pretty rich, considering how willing Steve had been to brush it all off just a minute ago, until it caught up with him just whose pain he was actually currently dealing with.  

“Uh, yeah, you’re–not looking so hot there, buddy.” There was a joke in there somewhere, about how Steve wasn’t exactly his usual handsome self, but he was clearly hurting too much to catch it. …Not that Eddie was sure he would have taken it too kindly if he had. “Here, Eddie, man, let me help you out.”

He rushed to catch Steve on the opposite side from the one he was favoring, helping to support his weight. 

“Anything I can do?” Lucas asked, hovering nervously, the corners of his mouth tugged down into a concerned frown. 

“No, I’m alright. I’m alright,” Steve repeated, a variation on his refrain from before, like saying it enough times would make it so. “Harrington’s got me.”

He didn’t quite tack on the flirtatious Don’t ya, big boy? from the RV, but the memory of it echoed between them nonetheless. 

“That I do.” Eddie gave Lucas a nod. “Go on ahead, Sinclair. We’ll be right behind you.”

While Lucas hesitantly led the way, Steve sent Eddie a feeble smile, his teeth still gritted in pain as he leaned into him heavily. “...Thanks.”

Guilt raged inside him, both at the simple fact that Steve was now having to deal with his body’s bullshit, and that he hadn’t thought to tell him to be on the lookout for the warning signs that things were about to go sideways. 

“Yeah, don’t mention it.” Then he added in a low undertone. “Least I can do…especially since it’s my fault in the first place.” 

“Come on, dude, don’t do that,” Steve chided automatically. Shooting a look in Lucas’s direction, his next words came out hushed. “...But we’re totally gonna talk about the fact that you’ve been hiding this from all of us later.” 

“‘Hiding’ is such a strong word.”

Steve’s expression went completely deadpan.

“Hey, don’t give me that look. Like you wouldn’t have done the exact same thing if you were in my shoes? No way, man. I know you too damn well for that, Mr. Knight-in-Shining-Armor.” 

“Yeah, well, I’m in them now.” He inclined his head towards where he was slowly shuffling Eddie’s Reeboks over the blacktop. “And from where I’m standing, I feel pretty confident saying you definitely should have told us.”

“Funny, that didn’t exactly sound like a denial of your own tendency towards knightly stoicism, good sir.” 

“In English, please, Eds. You can’t seriously expect me to translate your nerdy talk when my side hurts like hell.”

Eddie winced, the guilt back in full force. “Shit, sorry. What I’m saying is…nowhere in there did I hear you say you’d tell me, or Robin, or the kids if you got in a bad way. In fact, all evidence points to the contrary.”

“...That’s not the point.” 

“Kinda is, sweetheart.”

The endearment was one Eddie usually reserved for when he was feeling bold enough to indulge in a little playful flirtation, but in that moment it had just sort of…slipped out. 

Steve didn’t seem to mind it, though, given he didn’t so much as stiffen, instead staying firmly burrowed into Eddie’s side. Then again, the pain was probably acting as a powerful distraction. 

Once they finally made their way to the bleachers and back within earshot of the kids, Steve murmured, “We’re so not done with this.” A promise and a threat, all rolled up into one.

“Rest now, man. There’ll be plenty of time to scold me later.”

Somewhat reluctantly, Steve did as instructed. He winced while Eddie helped ease him down into a sitting position, and Eddie couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath alongside him, as if the pang had shot through them both. 

“What happened?” Erica demanded. She was standing up fully in the bleachers now, the annoyance radiating off of her betraying just how worried she really was. 

“A taste of karma, probably,” Eddie joked, trying to inject a bit of levity into the tenseness that had settled all around them. “After years of badmouthing, isn’t it only natural basketball would turn the tables and try to eliminate him, finally seek its long-awaited revenge?” 

Lucas and Steve both sent him wide-eyed looks, a mixture of horror and guilt on their faces, but Erica only snorted. 

“See? She thought it was funny.”

“Yeah, ‘cause she’s a psycho,” Lucas accused glibly. Erica stuck out her tongue in reply, the pair of them momentarily diverted, just like he’d hoped they would be. 

“It’s not a big deal. I just–went a little too hard, too fast. That’s all,” Steve assured them, before adding pointedly, “After everything, it’s pretty clear I’ve still got some healing to do. Which…duh. Plus it wouldn’t, like, kill me to take it a little easier on myself.”

Lucas cringed in sympathy nonetheless. “Sorry your first game didn’t exactly go like we planned.”

Eddie was intimately familiar with Steve’s blank, hiding-the-pain expression, so he recognized it easily on his own face. Still, Steve managed to muster up a stiff smile for the kid. 

“Hey, don’t sweat it, Sinclair. Chin up. Comes with the territory, right? It’s not like it was your fault…or anybody’s, really.” His eyes deliberately darted to meet Eddie’s. “It’s just…one of those things, you know?”

“Does this mean you’re not gonna wanna play with us anymore?” The words came out of Lucas in a rush, his eyes flitting guiltily between Steve and Eddie, then back again. 

In spite of Steve’s reassurances, it was clear he was still trying to shoulder some of the burden. Alongside that, though, Eddie thought he heard just a touch of disappointment. 

Steve turned to gaze up at Eddie, chewing on his bottom lip. He could see that same sense of hesitancy reflected in wide brown eyes. 

“Aww, you can’t run out on us now, Eds. You promised you were trying to turn over a new leaf here,” Eddie wheedled, batting his eyelashes. 

It was a move straight out of the “Harrington Charm” handbook, one Steve had jokingly pulled plenty of times before, whenever he wanted to twist Eddie’s arm on something. 

(And so what if Eddie caved to it basically each and every time? He was only human.) 

“Once you’re back at full fighting shape…you gotta come back. Right? After all, can’t let all those hidden talents go to waste, now can we?”

Matching expressions of giddy relief bloomed over both Lucas and Steve’s faces, bright enough to warm even the deepest cockles of Eddie’s once sports-hating heart. 

“Of course I can’t,” Steve snapped a finger in Lucas’s direction. “So you better keep up the practice, Sinclair. I want you in tip-top shape for our rematch.”

Lucas nodded eagerly. “You got it!”

In the past couple of hours, Steve had probably done more to convince Lucas of Eddie’s sincerity when it came to that future apology than he had managed on his own in months. For that, he’d be eternally grateful.

“Can’t believe the two of you managed to turn Eddie Munson of all people into a sports fan,” Erica said drily, though Eddie caught the knowing twinkle in her eye. 

“I mean, it was only a matter of time before I turned to the, uh,” Steve’s brow wrinkled briefly before his face lit up, finally landing on the reference he was searching for, “the light side of the force.”

Star Wars, that was the one area of nerd culture where he could–usually–be counted on. 

“Think that near fall might have rattled you more than we thought,” Eddie ribbed good-naturedly. “Next thing you know, you’ll be denouncing your life of delinquency and D&D and joining up with one of those sports club thingies down at the YMCA.” 

Steve’s grin was wicked. “Hey, I already know I look good in these shorts. Maybe I could pull off a jersey, too.”

Eddie flushed as Steve’s fingers pinched the edge of said tiny basketball shorts, skirting so close to dark leg hair and pale skin he could almost feel it, like the phantom of a touch. 

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just hurry up and get you home, basketball star.”

With a nod, Steve sucked in a sharp breath, body tensing while he prepared to stand. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold your horses there, Munson.” Eddie dropped a hand on each of his shoulders, effectively pinning him in place. He gave Steve a quick, assessing look. 

Then he nodded once, resolved. 

“What?” Steve asked, glancing around himself in confusion. “What is it? Knock it off, dude, you’re starting to freak me o–” 

Unceremoniously, Eddie scooped him up and into his arms. 

Steve let out a yelp in protest as he rose into the air, arms coming up to wrap instinctively around Eddie’s neck and cling onto him tightly. “Oh my God, oh my God! If you drop me, man, I swear to God–”

Careful of Steve’s now sensitive side, Eddie gave his arms a subtle flex, “With these muscles? Fat chance, dude. Besides, you’re precious cargo. I swear not to harm so much as a single shaggy hair on your head.” 

Up close, the redness on the tips of his ears really was something. Eddie would have to remember that for later, make sure to drag his wild mane over more than just his face whenever he got embarrassed. 

Lucas groaned, faking a gag. “Seriously, guys? Not in front of the children.” 

Beside him, however, Erica looked positively gleeful. 

It was Eddie’s turn to feel that tell-tale flame of heat creeping over his face, for being quite that obvious. At least the eldest Sinclair was just playing it off as more of the ‘Mom and Dad’ routine he’d accused them of earlier. 

Determined not to appear more flustered than he already did, he gave the pair of them a quick jerk of his head. “Move out, troops.”

Fortunately, they started heading towards the car with little fanfare, the peanut gallery for once falling blissfully silent. 

As Eddie fell into step behind them, he couldn’t help but marvel at how easy it was to keep an even pace, even with Steve in tow. He knew he was a bit gangly, sure, but he wasn’t exactly a small guy. So, honestly, it came as a shock, just how light his body felt in Steve’s strong arms. 

“Okay, but seriously,” Steve started, tone furtive, “you know you really don’t have to do this.”

“Ah-ah-ah,” Eddie clucked his tongue. “Au contraire, my good man. Lest we forget, post-bat attack, you were the one who literally held my guts in.” 

The pale skin of the face Steve was currently wearing went even paler, and not because Eddie had done anything as thoughtless as accidentally jostle him. “Jesus, Eds, don’t remind me.”

“All I’m saying is, I’m pretty sure I’m allowed to return the favor, after something like that. So, shush, Harrington. Sit back, relax, and…I don’t know. Maybe try to enjoy the ride?”

And though Steve did grumble out a few more half-hearted protests, he also seemed to melt more solidly into Eddie’s hold after that. For all his insistence that Eddie should be doing a better job looking after himself, Eddie couldn’t help but wonder how long it had been since Steve let someone take care of him like this. 

So when Steve finally let go enough to rest his head against Eddie’s chest, a warm weight above the steady beat of Eddie’s borrowed heart, he quietly resolved to take on that mantle for himself, always be at the ready to catch Steve if he fell. 

If I accidentally missed anybody on the taglist, or you’d like to be added, please let me know!

Taglist: @tinytalkingtina @sidekick-hero @thefreakandthehair @lingeringmirth @eriquin

@grimweathers @too-efn-old-to-be-here @stevesworldxx @themellowyellowmomma @xxfiction-is-my-realityxx

@anne-bennett-cosplayer @ellietheasexylibrarian @sharingisntkaren @a-lovely-craziness @highkingpenny

[zodiacs-web]

Hi! I saw that you said that requests were open and I read through the rules as well.

I would like to request Ayatsuji Yukito from bsd gaiden with fem reader.

Reader and Ayatsuji are kind of like partners on the case and after reader and Ayatsuji finished solving a case, both of them were on break and so reader asks if Ayatsuji would like to go to the arcade and play games with her, preferably fighting games.

Reader is polite and straight to the point when asking, once Ayatsuji accepted the offer she felt elated and immediately dragged him to a nearby arcade and started teaching him about the controls and etc, after the gaming session they both ate at a reasonably priced food court because reader likes to save money. (Inflation 😭)

Anyways, I hope you have a good day! Btw don't push yourself too hard with requests and etc. I don't mind waiting longer as long as you take your time!

Respite

╰₊✧ Ayatsuji Yukito x Fem! Reader

╰₊✧ Synopsis: Ayatsuji gets assigned to help with your case and after completing it you take a break.

╰₊✧ What's in the web: Fluff, partially edited, possible OOC!Ayatsuji

╰₊✧ A/n: it did take long lmao

“What am I going to do?!”

Oh, how he enjoyed Tsujimura's screeching in the morning. A collective of grumbles and moans from behind the door before opening to reveal her oh so wonderful presence. She looks over to Ayatsuji, who's reading his paper in silence, standing there hoping for him to say anything.

He stops reading for a moment, his gaze shifting over to her before returning to his paper. She stomps her feet over to him and slams a case file down onto his desk.

“Good morning, Tsujimura,” He says dejected, his eyes never leaving the paper.

“Listen here Ayatsuji,” She's pointing at him with a snarl on her face. “You will obey every command I tell you, and you won't run off this time.”

“Don't you tell me this with almost every case?”

“Yes! Though today is very different,”

“I have a partner with me this time, right?”

“You have a part-Wait! How did you know?”

Ayatsuji holds the file in his hands, reading a few prominent lines before looking back over to her.

“I guessed,”

Tsujimura looks impressed for a second before she's frowning.

“Don't embarrass me, I'm an agent with every right to shoot you dead on the spot!”

“How scary~”

She pouts before huffing and puffing all to herself in a corner. He reads your file carefully. Everything about you felt normal except one thing. Your ability. It was deadly, yet you weren't in the same predicament as him. You weren't locked away in a building, they let you roam the streets of Japan.

He lifts his head and asks, “Have you personally met my partner?”

“Of course I have. She has all the details to this case,” Tsujimura crosses her arms with a confident look on her face.

“I can't have information she has?”

“Nope. You ask her when we get there.”

He sighs as he stands from his seat. His fingers tapped against his desk, watching as Tsujimura leave the room.

Ayatsuji hadn't thought much of you, just a simple person to him in the most flattering way possible. You lacked the same energy as Tsujimura, and he silently approved that of you.

“There is one thing I'd like to say about this overall case,” you inquire.

“Well, go ahead,” Ayatsuji responds.

You say with a smile, “It's annoying,”

Tsujimura looks shocked, while Ayatsuji is already thinking. You informed them of the target and his annoying ability in which made him difficult to catch. You were placed under this case by him thinking you could possibly outmatch him, that is, if you could catch him.

“The thing is they hadn't known what his ability was at the time, so...”

“So they chose you? Yet they kept you on the case.”

You nodded. Ayatsuji understood now, your ability despite its prowess was no match for a teleportation ability. There were still some clues that needed to be connected, hence Ayatsuji was called on.

“I see. I'll help with your case,”

“It's not like you had a choice, and plus I'll help you every step of the way.” Tsujimura interrupts.

In the end, you and Ayatsuji left behind Tsujimura. She couldn't keep up with the both of you and was left behind at a train station two hours away. The case was finished as agents flocked to your area to clean up the remains of the perpetrator. You settled on staying put to let her catch up to you.

“I suppose we are on break then, huh?” Your head falls to the side to get a better look at him. He only looks towards you, nodding.

Unfortunately, waiting in silence for two hours is not ideal. So it must be broken.

“Do you want to go to an arcade and play fighting games?!” You ask, your hands grip the edge of the bench in anticipation. Ayatsuji is somewhat perplexed. Though he notices your movement and the twinkle in your eyes, yet he doesn't indulge in the collective boredom growing throughout the bench.

He says, “Sure,” before hearing you squeal in excitement while being dragged to a hole in the side of a building.

“Since we got here, I've been eyeing this place for a while,” You admit while your arm is hooked around his. When you stop in front of a purple and blue machine, a galaxy appears on the screen and the text moves up and down.

“This is Galaxy Fighters. It's moves and controls are easy to learn,” You start pulling coins out your purse and inserting them into the slot, all while Ayatsuji takes note of the glimmer in your eye. It was as if the galaxy reflected onto your eyes instead.

“You can sift through the characters through the joystick and the big red button can lock in your character,”

He was paying close attention to your instructions, listening and giving input when needed. To be quite honest with you, he enjoyed playing with you. A small smile crept up onto his face during this time, and you briefly felt a pang in your heart upon seeing it.

You turned your head back to the fight only to see yourself losing to him by a margin. You jolt as you start to desperately smash the buttons in an attempt to win again, no thought whatsoever. He chuckles at your desperation, cursing him as you see the K.O. appear on-screen.

"I can't believe I lost," You pout.

"You'd have won if you didn't stare at me," He says as he glances over at you. You're baffled, body shaking with vigor as you can only stare at him.

"Pffff,"

"What, you're going to say you weren't staring at me?"

"I..." He's making a face at you, it was one that had a certain smugness about it, and you pout. "...no, I was not."

In an attempt to change the subject, you look away as you open up your purse, "Oh! That's good. We have enough money to eat."

"We're eating?"

"You aren't hungry?"

He stares at you.

"I am."

Admittedly, you eyed the restaurants near you, recognizing which names were expensive and ones that were cheap. During these times, any waste of more than you've saved might lead to death. That was an exaggeration.

Ayatsuji could tell on the expression on your face as you eyed another menu. I mean, you had your every right to be so stingy with your money, the economy was in shambles. You finally settled for a little shop, cheap yet invigorating on all levels.

You had a gorgeous bowl of shrimp fried rice, the shrimp shone a golden brown while the rice inherited the color. Ayatsuji had a bowl of udon noodles, unfortunately, you didn't get to see his dish. Your stomach watering at the many possibilities in his own bowl.

Suddenly a little song played, ah, your ringtone. You saw the name Tsujimura appear on-screen, your lips pursing as you take the call. That was it, it had been two hours and your journey has ended. She has reached the both of you.

"Well, we should go now," You twiddle your thumbs as you stand before the restaurant.

"Yes, we should," He says as he starts looking over at the street signs.

"Here you go,"

He looks down to see a thin strip of paper and a number on it.

"This is my phone number. Well, not really, it's the buildings I live at,"

He grabs it and shoves it into his pocket.

"The phone's tapped, isn't it?"

You sheepishly nod, giving him an uneasy smile while he wears none.

"Well then goodbye,"

"Goodbye,"

"Maybe we'll work together again,"

"Maybe..."

[writingwithciara]

The Munson Factor ~Eddie Munson & Steve Harrington~

summary: when the girl he’s loved for years goes missing, steve enlists the help of her best friend to find her. But were they really only friends or was there something more that always stood in the way of steve’s happiness?

word count:

pairings: eddie munson x reader, steve harrington x reader

notes: angst, heartbreak (a little), steve giving love but not receiving in the way he wants, 1 or 2 (possibly more) swears. this was a little sad for me to write because I’m so used to writing fics where steve gets the girl. But I genuinely love eddie so he’s gonna be getting some love on this blog now too

masterlist

“How many times are you going to rent this movie, y/n?” Steve questioned his friend as he handed over Family Video’s copy of Halloween.

“As long as you guys let me rent it.” She sent back a smile and shoved the tape in her backpack. “So, we still up for movie night?”

“Are we going to be watching Halloween for the billionth time?” he rolled his eyes and went back to shelving the new releases.

“’Course not. You’re in charge of the movies tonight and I am in charge of getting the best snacks, as per Dustin’s request, since you really messed it up last week.”

“Hey, in my defense, that little twerp told me to buy that candy.”

“Yeah but he didn’t tell you to get expired candy, did he?” she joked and looked at the posters around the store. “So, what movies are we going to watch?”

“I’ll decide by the end of my shift.” Steve set up a new cutout and stood back to admire his work. “You sticking around ‘til then?”

“I’m gonna head over to the arcade. Dustin is teaching me his tips for Pac-Man.”

“Alright, sounds great. I’ll meet you back here at 6pm.”

“Aye aye captain.” y/n saluted him and headed next door to the arcade. When she walked in, Dustin cheered.

“Finally, the queen has arrived.”

“Oh, you flatter me, Henderson.” She set her backpack down on the floor and watched as he started the game. His tips and tricks on how to get the high score really helped her when she took her turn. Her score was only slightly higher than Dustin’s, but he didn’t let it bother him. Instead, he patted her on the back and smiled.

“Congratulations, young padawan.” He bowed as if she was a student of his.

“You do know that I’m older than you, right?”

“Yes, but ‘tis I who taught you all that you know. The student has become the master.”

“Whatever you say, kid.” She ruffled his hair and stood up.

“Hey, do you know what movies Steve is bringing to movie night?”

“Not a clue. But he said he would have his mind made up by 6 tonight.”

“It better be good. Steve almost never has good choices.”

“Let’s see what kind of influences I can have on him.” y/n grabbed her bag and headed for the door. “Follow me, Henderson.”

The two of them walked rather quickly over to the video store and when they entered, Steve rolled his eyes.

“I saw that, and might I say, that was rude of you.”

“It is what it is.” Steve shrugged and looked over at y/n. “What brings you back here?”

“Oh, I see how it is. Your favorite person ever walks in here and you’re rude to him, but the second you see a pretty girl, you’re the nicest person ever.” It was Dustin’s turn to roll his eyes.

“Shut up, Henderson.” Steve hit his arm and put his attention back on y/n. “So?”

“I wanted to suggest some ideas for movie night.”

“I am not getting another scary movie, especially after last time. Dustin wouldn’t stop waking me up that night with his nightmares.”

“I wasn’t going to suggest a scary movie. In fact, I was actually going to suggest Raiders of the Lost Ark & The Outsiders.”

“Those are pretty good suggestions.” Steve smiled and grabbed them off the shelves. “And even though I know your main intention was to suggest a horror movie & only said these 2 because they’re right here, I’ll check these out for tonight.”

“Awesome. Can’t wait.” y/n smiled and turned to Dustin while Steve went back to the counter. “See how it’s done?”

“Wow. You’ve gotta teach me how to do that.”

“Sorry, kid. But unless you suddenly become a pretty girl, you’ll never be able to manipulate men like Steve into doing what you want.” y/n winked and began looking at more movies to pass the time.

“Man, you are so whipped for y/n.” Dustin chuckled and looked up at Steve, who was staring across the room at said girl.

“What? No I’m not!” he tried to defend himself but the more he thought about it, the redder his cheeks became. “Shut up, Henderson.”

“Okay, that’s the second time in 10 minutes that you’ve told me to shut up and, frankly, I’m not a fan of it.”

“I’ll stop telling you to shut up when you stop saying ridiculous things.” Steve went back to rewinding the tape in the VCR.

“Why do you keep denying your feelings every time I bring them up? We all know how you feel about her so why don’t you just confirm it for us?”

“What am I supposed to say? That I’m in love with the girl who’s been like a sister to me for 12 years? That every time I close my eyes, I see her face? How about that every time I hear her name, I think back to the first time I heard her voice? Or maybe that whenever she’s around me, I do anything she asks me to because she has this power over me? Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“Actually, yes it is. Now, here’s what I’m gonna do for you, my friend.” Dustin put a hand on Steve’s shoulder, earning another eye roll from him. “I’m gonna back out of our plans tonight by making up some lame excuse. That way you can spend 4 glorious hours alone with y/n & maybe you’ll tell her everything you just told me. Okay?”

“You’re insane, Henderson.”

Later that night, as y/n arrived at Steve’s house for movie night, she was informed that Dustin would not be coming. That left her alone with Steve, as the other kids also had plans already.

“I have the 2 movies you suggested earlier and um, I also have Sleepaway Camp because I know you really wanted to watch something with a scary vibe to it.”

“You really didn’t have to do that, Steve.” y/n sat down and waited for him to put the first tape in. He joined her on his couch and grabbed the bowl of popcorn. Y/n grabbed a handful and focused on the screen. He had chosen Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first movie of the night. “So, why did Henderson have to cancel?”

“Not quite sure, actually. He just called 2 minutes before you got here and told me he wouldn’t be attending tonight due to a prior commitment.” Steve shrugged and looked at the screen, knowing that he just lied to his friend. He didn’t like the feeling, but he was happy to finally be alone with her.

After the first movie, they both agreed that The Outsiders would be a better film to watch. About halfway through the feature, Steve turned to face y/n. She turned her head and smiled.

“What’s with the face, Harrington?”

“Can we talk?”

“Of course we can. What about?”

“Well, for starters, I do know the real reason Dustin had to cancel.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Earlier today, at the video store, while you were looking at the movies, he and I had a talk. He offered to ‘cancel’ so I could be alone with you for a few hours, since we never get that opportunity anymore.”

“So, why did you want to get alone time with me?” y/n suddenly felt awkward and began to play with the strings on her hoodie. Well, it wasn’t technically her hoodie, but that didn’t bother her.

“I’ve kinda been keeping this secret from you for quite some time & our groups mantra is that friends don’t lie so I really need to tell you.”

“Steve, you’re scaring me now.” She shifted in her seat, so her full attention was on the boy in front of her. “What’s going on?”

“I love you. And not just because you’re my best friend. But because you’re the best person I know. You’re so sweet and caring and whenever I’m around you, I fall under your spell and will do anything you ask me to. It’s kind of cheesy, but whenever I hear your name, I think back to the first time I ever heard your voice and whenever I close my eyes, I see your face. You’re the most beautiful human being, both inside and out. And I’m honestly so in love with you.” Steve chanced looking at her but when they made eye contact, he wanted to take it all back.

When their eyes met, y/n quickly looked down and stood up. “I’m sorry, Steve. I-I just remembered my mom wanted me to keep an eye on my siblings tonight. I gotta go.”

Before he could offer her a ride home to make sure she was safe, she was already out the door. Steve threw his head back and groaned, making a mental note to blame Dustin for the sudden confidence.

Y/n was on her way to Dustin’s house when the sky got darker. She stopped in her tracks and was ready to defend herself from whatever decided to come out of the shadows and attack her.

The next few days were hard on Steve. He hadn’t seen or spoken to y/n since he poured his heart out to her, only for her to basically reject him. When he mentioned it to Dustin 2 days later, the kid got lost in thought.

“I don’t see why she would reject you like that. I could’ve sworn she felt the same as you did.”

“Yeah, well she doesn’t. And I’m not surprised. I haven’t exactly been the best guy in the world lately. Or even a hero really.”

“Steve, you helped save the world three times. You’ve kept all of us safe multiple times and you always put yourself first when it comes to danger. And it’s all to protect us. That literally screams hero. IF she can’t see that, then it’s her loss.”

Dustin was currently waiting for Eddie to arrive to the D&D game. He was starting to get worried when it came to him being 30 minutes late. Eddie was never late. So when he finally arrived, Dustin made sure to give him a lecture.

“Eddie, what the hell? I was so worried about you. I haven’t heard from my best friend for 4 days and then I didn’t hear from you. I was scared something happened to you and I don’t feel like losing 2 friends in a week.”

“Sorry, man. My girlfriend has been missing for a few days and I went by her house to check on her. Her parents said they haven’t seen her in a few days either.”

“Your girlfriend? Since when do you have a girlfriend?”

“For a few months.” Eddie chuckled. “Her name’s y/n. You’ll love her,” he sighed. “if we ever find her.”

“Wait, y/n? As in y/n l/n?”

“Yeah, why?”

“That’s the best friend I was talking about. I haven’t seen her since movie night on Friday. I had to cancel and left her alone with Steve.” Dustin looked at Eddie with wide eyes. “That’s why she rejected him. Because she’s seeing you, not because she doesn’t like him. That makes total sense.”

“Hold up. Can you back up a bit? So Steve is the last person to see her?”

“As far as I know, yes. But he hasn’t seen her since she left his place that night. Nobody has heard from her since.”

“We have to find her, Henderson. I can’t lose her.” Eddie looked at the kid with hope in his eyes.

“Lucky for you, my friends and I have experienced something similar to this before. I know exactly what to do.”

Steve was sitting on the hood of his car in Dustin’s driveway when he got out of Eddie’s van. He walked up to Steve and Eddie followed behind him.

“You’ve known y/n the longest. What do you know about her?” Dustin asked Steve, who was focused more on Eddie than the kid.

“Not much more than you, I assume.”

“Does she have a favorite spot to go when she’s sad? Somewhere that she loves to be?”

“The arcade or the video store are her two most frequented spots in town. Other than that, I know she tends to go hang out at lover’s lake whenever her parents make her upset.” Steve nodded his head towards Eddie. “What’s he doing here?”

“We’ll have time for that later. Right now, we need to focus on finding y/n.” Dustin ushered his friends into his bedroom and sat on the edge of his bed with Eddie while Steve paced.

“Let’s check the video store first. The arcade is right next door. Plus, Robin is working and I gotta return Sleepaway Camp so we can kill two birds with one stone I guess.” Steve looked at the boys. “Or you two can check lover’s lake and I can check the arcade and video store. I assume you’ll end up going in his van anyway, Dustin.”

“Yeah, sounds like a solid plan. What happens if we find her?” Eddie questioned. Dustin grabbed his walkie talkies and handed each of them one.

“If anyone finds her, this is how we’ll communicate. Got it?”

“Yes, captain.” Eddie responded and Steve just nodded. “Let’s go then. We might not have a lot of time.”

The 3 boys rushed out of the house and got into the vehicles, with Steve driving towards the video store and Eddie taking off towards lover’s lake. When Steve arrived at the video store, Robin looked at him with a puzzled look.

“You don’t work today. Plus you look like shit. What’s up?”

“Friday night, I told y/n how I felt about her and she, uh, got up and left my place. Haven’t heard from her since. Has she been by?”

“No. Haven’t seen her since Friday afternoon.”

“Nobody has.” Steve sighed and leaned against the counter. “Dustin and Eddie are out searching at lover’s lake.”

“Eddie Munson is involved in your search? That’s odd.”

“Right? I thought the same thing when he got out of his van earlier at Dustin’s.”

“Maybe he’s concerned about Dustin. I mean, he does spend a lot of time with him, and he must know about the sibling-like bond that he and y/n share.”

“Yeah maybe. Or he’s the reason she basically rejected me.”

“Steve, let’s just focus on finding y/n first. I’ll keep an eye out here in case anyone has seen her. You go check the arcade.”

Steve ran out and headed to the arcade next door. His eyes scanned the crowded room, but he didn’t see y/n. He spotted the manager and headed over.

“Hey, Steve. What brings you by?”

“I’m on a mission. Have you seen y/n lately?”

“Not since Friday. Why? She okay?”

“No. She left my house Friday night, and nobody’s seen her since. Will you keep an eye out here just in case she comes by? I’ll check back in a few hours if we don’t find her.”

“Of course. Good luck. I hope you find her.”

Steve left another building without any results and slowly climbed into his car. He rested his head against the steering wheel and was about to give up when the walkie started buzzing.

“Steve, we found her.” Dustin’s voice rang through the speaker. “Well, sorta. You gotta come down here. Bring Robin. We may need her.”

“Copy that. On my way.” He clicked the button off and walked back into Family Video. “Robin, they found her. Dustin told me to bring you because we may need you.”

“Alright. Let me just close up. Been kind of a slow day.” She hopped over the counter and made sure everyone was out before locking up and following Steve to his car. “Think she’s okay?”

“Oh god, I hope so.” He sighed and headed towards lover’s lake. When he got there, Dustin ran out to meet them. “Alright, Henderson. What’s going on?”

“We don’t know. It’s like she’s in a sort of trance. I can’t pull her out so I was hoping that you or Robin could do it.”

“Where’s Eddie?” Robin asked as the three of them walked around the boathouse

“He’s with her right now. We’ve tried everything we could think of.” the trio approached Eddie, who was currently pacing back and forth.

“Have you guys tried breaking this ‘spell’ with a kiss?” Steve asked. Both Dustin and Eddie turned their heads quickly then looked at each other.

“It crossed my mind for sure, but what if it doesn’t work? What if it’s not the right way to break it and we never get her back?” Eddie sat on the ground and pulled his knees towards his chest. “I can’t keep losing people, especially not her, okay? We need to come up with a way to break this and get her back.”

“We will, Eddie. I promise.” Dustin tried his best to reassure his friend that everything would be okay.

“But what if we don’t? Man, I may never get to tell her that I love her...and I really, really love her.”

“Take it from me, dude. Telling her exactly how you feel may not be the best thing to do. It’s only going to scare her off.” Steve sighed and looked at y/n’s tranced body. Her eyes were wide open and everything about her was normal. The only problem was that she was unresponsive.

“You got a problem with me, Harrington? If so, just come out and say it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Why are you trying to tell me what to say to my own girlfriend, man?”

“Girlfriend? What?”

“Y/n has been my girlfriend for 5 months and the last time anyone was with her, was Friday when she was with you. Why didn’t you make sure she was safe? Why didn’t you let her….why didn’t you let her stay the night?”

“I may have said some things that scared her off. But in my defense, she was not exactly shutting me down whenever I flirted with her. She’s my best friend and she didn’t even mention you two were together. Are you sure you were even that serious?”

“Steve, stop. We’re not here to pick fights, okay? What we need to focus on is figuring out how to break her out of this trance-like state that she’s in. We don’t even know how long she’s been stuck like this, alright? So that last thing we need is you two dumbasses fighting over who loves her more or who deserves to be with her.” Robin pushed herself off the tree she was leaning against and walked in front of y/n.

“Maybe you should try the kiss. It could possibly break her but we won’t know unless we try.” Dustin sighed.

“Were you talking to me or him?”

“Me, obviously. I am her boyfriend.”

“But what if you’re not her true love?”

“Steve, just shut up about it. You kiss her first and if she doesn’t wake up, then we know it wasn’t meant to be and then Eddie can do it.”

Steve looked at Eddie silently, waiting for permission. Eddie just sighed and nodded slowly, looking away when Steve kissed y/n. When she didn’t make any moves, Steve sat down and sighed heavily.

“So it’s not me then. God, I wish it was.”

“Hey, we don’t know that exactly. Sometimes it takes a minute or two.” Eddie looked at the guy in front of him and patted his shoulder. After a few minutes of no response, it was Eddie’s turn. He gently cupped his girlfriends face and kissed her softly. When her hands found their way around his neck, Dustin cheered behind them.

“I honestly can’t believe that worked.” Robin rolled her eyes but smiled anyway. She walked over to Steve and gave him a pat on the back. “You tried your best, man. It’s not like she rejected you because she didn’t like you. She’s just really into Eddie.”

“I know. And I’m glad she found someone who makes her happy. She deserves it. But I just wish I could’ve had a chance at least. Maybe one date or something.”

“You’re going to find someone who makes you feel the way y/n does. You just gotta give it some time, and before you know it, you’ll be over her and everyone will live happily ever after.” Robin glanced over at the couple and sighed contently when she noticed the smile adorning y/n’s face.

“I can’t believe you came looking for me.” she grinned up at Eddie who had an equally wide smile on his face.

“Of course I did, sweetheart.” Eddie kissed her head and pulled her into a bone crushing hug. “I love you.”

“What?”

“I said I love you. And I know that it’s a little late for me to tell you, knowing how you like to live your life in the fast lane, but it’s true. I’ve never loved anyone in my life, so I really wasn’t sure what it was supposed to feel like. But now I know that it’s late night talks and shared laughs over something as ridiculous as a phallically shaped leaf or vegetable. It’s being able to call someone your home and being able to feel warm in their embrace. It feels like no time has passed when you’re with the one you love, when in reality, hours have passed by. Being with you feels like all of that and honestly, I’m glad I know how it feels to love someone this much.”

“Eddie, I love you too.” y/n pulled him in for a kiss and when they pulled apart, she looked at Steve. “Hi.”

“Hi.” He responded softly. Eddie let her walk to him while he joined Robin and Dustin on the sidelines.

“Listen, about what you said on Friday…”

“No, it’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. I get why you reacted the way you did.”

“Listen, Steve. I do love you, truly I do. But it’s just not in the same way you love me. I know this is going to hurt for you to hear, but you’ve always been like a brother to me and I never ever want that to change.”

“I think I might actually be okay with being just friends.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You seem to be really happy with Eddie and that’s good. He’s a pretty decent guy and I’m really glad you found someone who treats you right.” Steve smiled.

“Thank you, Harrington.” Eddie walked over to him and held out his hand. They shook, making Eddie smile. “Also, thank you for all your help with finding y/n. I owe you one, man.”

“All I ask is that you keep making y/n happy. Keep treating her right and we won’t have a problem.” Steve offered Eddie a smile and y/n beamed when she saw her two favorite guys getting along.

“I promise you that nothing bad will come from this relationship. Scouts honor.”

“Hey, maybe now that you guys are friends, Steve could play D&D with us sometime.” Dustin suggested, causing the four adults to quickly respond…

“No!”

-----

@taglist: @worldlxvlys

[remimibanana]

A bit about Scales that Burn Flame!

I wrote a story about Sol Badguy!

It takes place during Revelator, around the time when That Man and his servants come to talk to Sol, Ky, Leo and Dr Paradigm. It focuses on what might have happened after Ky threw Sol out the door.

Mostly, it’s just Sol going through it and Ky trying to help alongside Jack-O�� but it’s kind of questionable if they actually did help at all in all honesty.

If you’d like to read it, please click here!

I wanted to talk about my thoughts in more detail, thinking that maybe you’d be interested to hear my thoughts as well! It's just me blabbing about how much I love Guilty Gear, mind you.

All under the cut!

Conception

It all started when I watched all of Sign, Revelator, REV 2 and Strive’s story and arcade modes after reading the digest mangas because I wanted to learn about Guilty Gear lore.

Is it a little crazy? Maybe.

I love Guilty Gear so much, you have no damn idea how it tickles my brain in the good way. All the characters have such depth to them, I have no clue how Daisuke does it but I bow down to his power.

The music is AMAZING as well. You don’t even have to be into the games to enjoy the sheer bangers that come from them. My favourite song is Freesia, the amount of emotion in it always takes me aback when I listen to it.

FREESIAAAAAAAAA HERE I AMMMMMMM—

My favourite story is the one that whole Xrd line of games tells! I think it’s one of the better ones in terms of how it’s told over the course of (technically) three games.

I also like Overture’s story for Valentine and the ending where Sol has to kill her but then learns that she was a clone of Aria…I think it has a great one. The game isn’t that bad to play either, I’ve done about half of the missions!

And Strive’s one too because it ends off Sol’s story and he gets to actually be with Jack-O’ by the end! Axl and Megumi too!

Fun fact, I’ve cried at the end of Sign, Revelator and Strive after watching their stories. They were all so good in many ways!

One of my gripes with the story in general is that we don’t get to see much of the in-between before major events, which is really apparent in Strive. Sometimes characters just appear out of nowhere and it’s a little jarring.

I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but I wished we got to see more of certain characters and how they got to the major events happening. I wanted to learn more about their thoughts and feelings that would give everyone so much more than they already had and make the overall story even better!

This is especially the case with Sol and Jack-O. I really think that they should have had more interaction during Revelator and Strive since their relationship is so important to both their characters.

For example, we get nothing from when Sol was thrown out the door to when they’re on Johnny’s ship on the way to where Elphelt is. You’re telling me that they did not interact once in between all that and that Sol was somehow okay with the whole idea of who Jack-O’ was just like that?

They deserve better and so I decided to take it all into my own two hands. I would write it out myself since I realised that I can cook my own meals and so I cooked (hopefully well)!

Why Sol’s point of view?

I chose to write in Sol’s point of view since he’s one of my favourite characters. I didn’t think I would like him so much when I first got into Guilty Gear, but once I learnt about his backstory….

THIS POOR GUY.

YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT HE KILLED ARIA MULTIPLE TIMES AND IS A SCIENTIST WHO IS SMART AS HELL????

MAN, I LOVE HIM. HE IS PERFECT TO ME.

I’ve never written someone like him before, so it was a fun challenge. I don’t know how well I managed to portray him in all honesty, I wanted a good mix between his whole asshole personality and the humanity that’s underneath it all.

I tried my best!

There’s a whole bunch of swearing everywhere as you can tell, I think Sol’s one of those people who swears more internally than he does externally. It was fun dropping a bunch of bullshits and fucks all around, but I hope I didn’t overdo it.

I’m sorry to whoever clicks on it without reading the tags and is just bombarded by swears. Sol swears and there’s nothing I can do about it. It wouldn’t sound like him otherwise.

The story was originally was going to have a different plot where I alternated between Jack-O’ and Sol’s point of views while focusing on their pasts but I scrapped it since couldn’t work out how to bring Jack-O’ and Frederick into it without making the flow of the story weird.

It also wasn’t meant to be this long but my stories always tend to be long as hell. I think this one is borderline close to my magnum opus, Paradox which is impressive!

I remember at around the 15k point, I thought I would be done and then subsequently kept on writing and writing….

I hope you all still enjoyed it none of the less!

Beginning

We see that the story starts off with a bit about Sol himself for the readers. We learn right away about his stances on various things and how he hates Asuka and how much he loved Aria.

It was the perfect place to start the story, providing the right amount of information I could work with for the rest of it! I thought it would also work for someone who didn't know too much Guilty Gear and wanted to still read it.

I liked writing the whole section where Sol just calls the whole thing bullshit. I think it’s a fun word, bullshit. Ah, bullshit.

The most important thing to this part is that it builds up to one of the main major scenes that features a wonderful person named Ky Kiske and his long wonderful hair who tries to help.

Why did you cut it in Strive????

Sol and Ky

This part here could be read as Sol/Ky in my opinion, because you can’t tell me that there isn’t something between the two of them. I didn’t really intend it to be but you really can’t miss the possibility of such things in the way I wrote it.

Anyway!

As we know, Ky threw Sol out the door and Sol let out his huge scream we see in the main story.

I think it’s strange that no one ever mentions it happening at all. There’s no way in hell that they didn’t hear from behind the door and yet it’s as if it never happened.

Once again, since we never got to see the in between…we wouldn’t ever know. I had a lot of creative control over here, but I tried to make it realistic so it could sound like something you’d see in the actual story if we got it!

Sol breaks down, consumed by his own damming thoughts that only told him how it was all his fault at the end for killing her. It’s the only logical conclusion after learning what he learnt from the person he hates the most and the girl who was technically Aria.

You can tell that Ky is pretty worried about Sol, because he’s never seen him like this. Sol’s not one to show much emotion aside from grumpy and royally pissed off.

Unfortunately for Sol, he keeps telling him to breathe over and over. I think that Ky’s trying his best to comfort his rival but it’s not working out since Sol’s not even listening.

Sol hears the words from Jack-O’ and Asuka behind the door, and well…all hell breaks loose. I don’t know how accurate his reaction would be, but I tried my best based on how he acts!

In After Story A, we find out that Sol was actually scared of Ky back in the days of the Crusades. I had to bring that into the story here, using that gaze as a way to snap Sol out of his state at times.

My favourite part I wrote was when Sol yelled at Ky that he killed Aria. I think it’s something that takes even you aback, because you don’t expect him to say it to anyone, let alone Ky.

I think I cooked here.

You can tell that I keep bringing up the concept of the headaches. We see them mostly in Overture when Sol is near Valentine (and when he sees Jack-O’ for the first time in Revelator and it’s mentioned in his win quote for Ram in Sign). I feel like we never see them again after that and I think it’s important!

I imagine his head hurts because of the fact that it is Aria in a way and he’s reacting to it (amplified thanks to the Flame of Corruption + the probable instincts that came with becoming a Gear).

How could I not use it?

Sol’s intermission by the fountain—

He breaks. Again. I’m sorry Sol, I swear I do love you, it’s just that it’s for the plot.

This is probably the most emotional part of the story, one where Sol is quite literally going through it.

You can tell that the style of writing is different here. It's more faster, more messy, almost chaotic. That's what I wanted, to reflect how Sol was feeling throughout all this.

I chose the Royal Court for this! I was thinking about where Sol could go after storming off from everyone, and all I could think about was a fountain. I had some ideas of using his reflection, but I wasn’t sure if there was a place in Illyria Castle that had it.

I searched it up and boom! I even played Xrd and checked out the stage, and there was definitely a fountain and a walkway that lead to it, so I went straight to writing!

During the part with Ky, I mentioned how Sol’s hand started to smoke twice. That was foreshadowing for him losing control of his powers. I think his power is linked with his emotions, flaring up when he’s more angry as an example.

I think he would simply transform into his Dragon Install if he’s overwhelmed, as you can see that happening at the end of this part.

I used quotes from the original game, Overture and Sign for the flashback scenes. I remember I was searching up for the script for Sign, but found this website instead where it had some of the messed up things that happen in the series.

I never played the original game, but seeing “Sol, the Guilty Gear, stared at his bloodstained hands and prayed. Prayed for the soul of the grotesque sacrifice laying before his feet.” made my heart drop in a good way.

IT’S SO GOOD.

I had to use it. I thought it would be painful if I mentioned every single time he killed Aria or she’s mentioned explicitly in the story, just to hammer it all in ehe

You can see that Sol punches himself at the end to knock himself out before he can fully transform. I think he ultimately does care about his actions and how he can affect everyone, and he didn’t want to become that monster he kept calling himself.

Poor guy….

Sol and Jack-O!

I wanted the two of them to interact one to one. We only got that at the end before Jack-O’ merged with Justice and that was only for like 30 seconds tops, which is so unfair!

I needed an excuse for her to come back to see him after she left.

I feel like Asuka would be monitoring Sol from the shadows like some creepy person. He probably has something that can tell him about Sol and the state of the Flame of Corruption inside of him.

The whole breakdown surely would have raised some alarm bells and so, he sends his remaining two servants out to see if Sol was okay. Asuka had an inkling that it was related to what Jack-O’ probably told him before she came back.

He’s probably like that.

This whole section jumps from one thing to another, which suits Jack-O’ perfectly. Poor Sol’s emotions are going from one end to another thanks to her antics and wonderful words.

I really like Jack-O’ Valentine, if you can’t tell. I wanted to show that more philosophical side we see in Jam’s story mode that we barely get to see otherwise in Revelator. Strive gives us a lot more of it, at least.

“Don’t be pushed around by fate, don’t be swept along by the time, don’t be fearful by parting, don’t run away from death, and go towards the future you believe in…Frederick.”

“As long as you remember me, my story will never vanish.”

These lines here are from Honkai Impact 3rd! It’s a game I absolutely love and I was playing through some more of Part 1 and these lines that Mei says when she talks about the Elysian Realm were perfect and I stole them.

I always keep stealing things from the game, don’t look at me lol

It sounded like something Aria would say. She would tell Frederick this if she had the chance to, giving him the hope he needs to continue on.

Sol (kinda) cries! I don't think we ever see him crying in any of the games but I thought that hearing such words would make him cry in some way. I made it up that it was the Flame of Corruption's fault that he can't have actual tears, since it would make sense!

High temperature + Tears = Evaporation after all!

You can see that Sol was thinking about kissing Jack-O’, just for a second. Look, you can’t tell me that he doesn’t see his lover (technically) and he doesn’t want to kiss her again as he used to?

Of course he doesn’t, he would never do anything to her without her permission. I think Sol would be a stickler about that, as seen when he asked her about if she wanted to go on a vacation or do work in Strive at the beginning.

I don't know how in character this is, but it's there.

The end makes me laugh because of how quickly Sol shifts from being (somewhat) happy to pissed off in a split second (LOL).

Candy, Candy!!!

We have Sol and Jack-O’ looking for the kitchen for candy, how fun!

This part wasn’t meant to be as long as I made it, but I got heavily invested into the plot I made up and it kept flowing out of me….

I think I overdid it, so much crazy shit happens in this part but I think it’s funny so…it’s okay? I hope you all liked it!

I like how Ky and Jack-O' have a little fun friendship here. I think they would good friends at the end if they had the chance to communicate, like so!

I think Sol would be jealous of them. I mean, they act like goodie goodie friends out of nowhere? I like how they mostly gang up on him and he gets all mad.

We have Alyssa in the story! You know, that one girl from After Story C that made that giant pudding. I just wanted to make Sol have beef for no reason and she sounded like the person for the job. He absolutely hates her for no reason.

We have a chocolate fight too. Uh...this idea just came up in my brain and I had to write it. I thought it was so damn funny that Jack-O' is attacking him a whole block of chocolate for no reason. The worst part was that Sol would actually get into it.

I think it was at this point that it started getting a little crazy but I think you could plausibly see this in game. I mean, after all the crazy stuff that happens in After Story C, anything is possible lol

Raven here is a little shit of course. I think he would shoot Sol with one of his needles for fun, and of course no one cares. Ky is sort of just there but he gets his parts too!

I had fun writing this part!

Leo.

Leo.

I mentioned how Sol was going to get a mouthful from him since he kept destroying public property and I couldn’t help myself from writing it out.

I just wanted to make Leo freak out and faint. I hope it made you laugh!

That’s a wrap!

Thank you for reading all this if you do!

I had a lot of fun writing this story while being very Guilty Gear brainrotted about literally everything and anything with this series.

These characters make me very happy. I could go on day about Sol and Jack-O', and it's not funny.

-Miku

[kimaratomoya]

Would you mind doing a character analysis of Toby? This guy has so many layers and it’s driving me crazy-

Toby Billings analysis for the anon!! Also you don't have to anon!!!

Please I want to know who the Toby fan is, of the few people I know of who know him, a lot of people misinterpret him...

Thanks for asking about him!!! He's my favourite little guy!

THIS IS USING THE ORIGINAL BOOKS! NOT THE GRAPHIC NOVELS! THEY CHANGED HIS PERSONALITY AND PARTS OF THE STORY IN THE GRAPHIC NOVELS! PLEASE READ THE CANON STORY, NOT JUST THE GRAPHIC NOVELS!!!

⚠️TW: Mentions of SH and Suic!de (Canon to the story)⚠️

Basic info:

- Youngest of two

- Competitive (For a reason)

- Loves Arcade Games

- Constantly second to his older brother

- Friends with Reggie (we love Reggie on this blog)

- Occasionally has something in his mouth (toothpick)

- Nickname "Tobes" from Connor

- Bullied by his brother, blatantly

- Short fuse (also for a reason)

- Ignored by is dad unless he does something wrong.

- Not super good at school

- Basically ignored by teachers because he never lived up to his brother's shadow (kinda ironic)

- Tabitha? Was she meant to be a love interest? Not done well.

- Does not want therapy

- High School

- No friends anymore

- Nightmares :(

Ok so I clearly have a favourite because I analysed him a lot more in depth but also he's such a character. Just his basic stuff is pretty bad tbh. Lots of isolation and bullying in his own home. Doesn't seem to want help, or know how to ask for it. Does allow Tabitha to help but clearly dislikes it. The short fuse definitely comes from him watching his brother throw tantrums when he didn't win, and growing up in that household, he probably picked that up. There's a lot of issues there.

- Self image issues

- Low self esteem

- Basically abused/neglected

- Barely hesitates to harm himself to get rid of the rabbit

- Seems to go into a bit of a depressive state after Shadow Bonnie is sewn into him

- (⚠️TW⚠️)Is completely willing to scratch off his skin, and almost drown himself to get rid of the shadow

- Literally makes a list of how to get rid of it and the only thing he refused to do is to burn it off

- Cannot eat because of Shadow Bonnie

- Refuses to let Connor win, even when he tries to call off the competition

- Cracks his knuckles when he's nervous

- Doesn't trust people

- He isolated himself (which is his opinion, from other clues in the book, I feel like it was mutual)

- (⚠️TW⚠️) Literally kills himself to win

Oh boy. So a few little personality quirks, cute. But also omg the poor kid. He's very much hurt at home, no one cares. Isolates himself, but it is also probably a self preservation technique because he was definitely in some type of abuse/neglect situation. His willingness to hurt and kill himself shows a lot of underlying issues he most likely was already going through and Shadow Bonnie just brought it to a head. He suffers a lot of physical and mental trauma throughout the book and relates it back to previous trauma from before the incident.

- Mother left when he was around 5

Woo mother issues. We actually get a heck in on her in The Breaking Wheel where she is Reed and Julius's robotics teacher. She seems like she may have some mental health issues herself, with how she acts and treats them, which may explain why Toby had some underlying issues.

- Honorable mention that Reggie likes Tabitha

Toby is just a little guy and I want him to have a happy home life and I want him to be happy. He's such a guy. Scott really did him dirty tbh. But he's also a well developed character with a lot of layers and mental illness.

Tried to keep any AU and fanfiction stuff out of this.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.