#i honestly have stickers of this because i was not able to hand them out during their concert

[sweetheartsaku]

—HAIKYU!! various ; better in the dark

a/n ; [gn!reader] how deep is your love pt 2???!?!! AND YES!! the title is a tv girl reference :3c please dont let this flop!! praying that all the ppl who found pt 1 found this 🥹🩷 tysm for all the notes everyone!! <3

— characters : akaashi, kenma, kita, semi, kageyama, suna

part 1 ! ♡ oikawa, osamu, tsukishima, hinata, sakusa, kuroo

tea roses !

keiji akaashi ; tip toe - HYBS

THIS MAN. he will take you out on absolutely BEAUTIFUL dates. they are scheduled and well thought out, all without you knowing. knows what you like, can predict what you order, where you will sit or do, and KNOWS how to fluster you effortlessly. UNSPOKEN RIZZ AT ITS FINEST YOUR HONOUR!!

at one point he had to resort to the notes app to write what you're like but had realised he had subconsciously memorised all of it by heart. deleted it and still knows you like the back of his hand!!

weirdly knows how to pick the best candles.

the warm, nostalgic smelling ones. candles that are the perfect dash of nostalgia, that feel comforting and warm. i wonder if its in the brain or an instinct thing

for anniversaries or literally just whenever, he makes paper flower bouquets. they are so intricate and every little detail, colour and fold makes it so perfect. in-between classes or when he finishes work early, he'll be nonchalantly folding another smaller flower for the arrangement. he does it so effortlessly too 😭!!

sometimes likes to fiddle with your fingers especially if you wear rings. one of the only and very sweet moments of PDA!! gently rubs his fingertips over your knuckles and tracing all the lines. i need an akaashi keiji in my life

will send you the most beautiful, heart-wrenching and mesmerising poems at an insane hour. you'll wake up with a couple paragraphs about how important healing or taking one step at a time is, making sure you fall in love with yourself everyday too. (please do)

kozume kenma ; cherry wine - grentperez

facinated by painted nails. on holidays he might paint them black, or maybe get a little cat sticker on his index!! pick the colour he'll love it either way

cherishes your little trinkets so much 😞 polaroid of you two and stickers on the back of his phonecase, keeps some of the random stuff you give him in his pocket. you could find a rock you gave him like 3 months ago but he kept it because you said it reminded you of him??

perfectly able and capable to order things by himself, but you know he isn't the type of guy to actually seem to WANT to do it. he is too lazy to actually get up but not lazy enOUGH when it comes to you. he might hide behind you. "HE SAID NO PICKLES!!"

CRAZY beef with your plushies. or anything you hold dear honestly. he can and will get pouty. BEWARE!! you must give him a lil' kiss to earn his attention back. (loves the forehead ones)

sometimes he forgets or just doesn't want to eat. it will get to the extent where you have to spoon feed him,,please remind and encourage him to ! eating, sleeping... just can't do it without a little push.

does this thing with his hands when you cross the road. i don't wanna say grabby hands because its pretty cringe, but it is definitely grabby hands. has no idea why he does it but its such a sweet and small gesture╰(*´︶`*)╯♡ !

cat parents but not exactly cat parents? 🤔 you found this stray cat once, and started visiting it everyday on the way to school. you cared for it, and when kenma picked that up he was also instantly fond of it too. now you both kinda feed it your leftover lunch when you visit the cat after school.. he's so precious with the little cat ueue.. take pictures before the moment fleets!

has the date you two met written on his controller... (he was so hesistant at first though LMAO)

shinsuke kita ; old love - yuji, putri dahlia

uses your initial for math variables. he'll use x or y sometimes, but his first option is ALWAYS your initial. you found this out on a study date once, math talk blablabla and he uses to what seems to you a 'random letter' NO. it is your initial!! 😞 when you ask he seems unfazed, but his ears are pretty red... idk guys i think he wants you

one of the people that make you stiffen up when they get physical. when he lays his head on your shoulder you instantly freeze up, trying not to move a BONE so you won't disturb him. it's like muscle memory to you LMAO.

really pretty, long lashes... if you've read part one, oikawa and tsuki are very similar :0!! loves when you graze his lashes with the back of your index finger

like akaashi, learnt how to make flowers but they're crochet 🥹 i think growing up his grandma had taught him how to crochet and all the little patterns. overtime, dedicated himself to making an arrangement every anniversary... they come with little heartfelt letters too!! (kita boyfie material COME HOME!!)

very routinal as well!! like kuroo (he is the full package) he never misses a morning or night to say good morning or good night. AND he places sticky notes around your desk or places he knows you'll be in reminding you to smile or something along those lines !!

what took the cake for me was when he left a little bag filled with goodies once he realised atsumu was sick 😣 definitely does the same for you... sends bag with a bowl of hot soup his grandma made at your front door

eita semi ; i wish you roses - kali uchis

weirdly immersed in the painting of nails as well. sometimes he'll ask you to paint his in black but he got dress-coded a week later 😓 SIKE gives NO shat and kept them on anyway. they are way too valuable to him to just erase. nails done in a simple colour he likes?? by his s/o?? wiped off?? very funny shiratorizawa

i think + the neighborhood, he likes tv girl, kendrick lamar, childish gambino but has a duality of laufey and beabadoobee's bedroom pop and fuzzy rock??

sick of people making arctic monkeys his personality 😞 musicians arise!! apart from the VBC, hes probably in a band too. small gigs here and there for school, and a few fun sessions with his friends just to play whatever. come to his gigs! (sometimes he'll magically play 10x better when you're around, he says)

share earphones with him PLEASE. on rainy bus rides or walks home, he'll play something you like hehe c:

takes you out to the mall closest to shiratorizawa to go pick up some fast food or a drink. it usually gets really crowded from all the surrounding schools so he keeps you close by the waist

and obviously the basic, will sit with you and teach you the basics of bass or electric guitar. i think he'd play a bit of percussion too (о´∀`о) sometimes he'll take you into his lap, but thats when he feels pretty clingy but very discreetly!!

tobio kageyama ; what would i do? - strawberry guy

please don't try to flirt with him he WON'T UNDERSTAND!!!! *gunshots*

if you say literally anything that isn't directly stating your point, he will not get it. using metaphors or just figurative language in general he is STRUGGLING. you need to say, "you're pretty." because things like "i fall in love with you every day" or "i'll find you in every universe" he will actually look at you BAFFLED. please help this man

thinks about what YOU would do. like when he is in doubt or feels like he's about to lash out, he will take a moment and literally ask himself what you'd do or say. even in tests or something completely unrelated to you he will literally ask himself what you would put in the answer box !!

face scrunch when he gets jealous ! he kinda has a lil' pout but can't bring himself to say anything. when you finally notice him he'll have this lil' (๑ˋ^ˊ ๑) face... please kiss his eyelid or the corner of lips cuz HE HAS TOO MANY PRETTY BOY PRIVILEGES!! (and he'll get flustered it's the cutest) revoke them THIS instant!!

his favourite type of kisses are the ones where you'll push his hair back and give him a forehead kiss. he'll take you in by the waist and keep you close, he likes to listen to your heart because you have his. when he feels clingy, he'll nuzzle his head into your shoulder. what a dork

will attempt to find you at his games pre and post timeskip. before the game he will try to make it not look frantic but one of his members eventually catch on 😞

rintarou suna ; SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK - joji

camera roll is either 0.5's of the most jaw dropping, majestical sunsets and sunrises that he's experienced with you or literally anytime the sky is feeling a little different (if he's not with you at the time he WILL send them to you at either 5am or 7pm saying it reminded him of you) or the CRAZIEST 0.5's of you losing sanity or of you off guard. its wild blackmail material but he chooses not to LMAO. (because of the love in his heart, he says)

has a little photo album for you and anything you related!! he also takes the best candid photos of you and post them on close friends!! (´∀｀)

no. #1 victim of couple tiktok trends. pretends and looks like he doesn't like it, but doesn't want it to end. once you press post he will stare you down with his beautiful ahh olive hazel eyes (he wants more)

last one on the social med side, he mentions you in posts with your initials all the FLIPPIN' TIME!! his dedication is quite endearing

on days where everything becomes overstimulating, he will notice. will eye you for a while, but once he knows when it gets to a certain extent he will hand you an earphone.

anyone who says suna is an arctic monkey's listener is a LIAR I SAID IT I SAID IT!!!!! *more gunshots* JOKES he probably has a couple of their songs in his playlist, but i personally think he's more tyler the creator coded. people who get it get it (avril lavigne sk8r boi? keshi beside you? definitely)

hot adams apple

[intimidating-fettuccine]

Can you do LJ, Jason and EJ with a s/o that is lighter than air and connected to the galaxy, that has to use lead shoes to stay put. But sometimes likes to take off said shoes to float up to their s/o's height and boop them which causes mini stars to pop out.

s/o may also not be able to uh get down when they have done that :') has to get their s/o or other mansion members to get them back lol.

Hope you have a lovely day <3

I had a lot of fun with this one and found it very cute, thank you for sending it in :)

Laughing Jack:

I'm gonna start this off with a cute thing that popped into my head while brainstorming, he definitely puts star stickers all over your lead shoes because he thinks it's adorable. I think Jack would find you to be extremely adorable, all the time, and he tells you as such on a very constant basis. He definitely teases you and makes jokes about your need for lead shoes though, and when you take them off to float up to his height (being a very tall man at 7'5") he can't help but giggle and remind you how cute it is. Boop his nose and make those little stars appear and he's pulling you into a nice, tight hug with a blush all over his face because it's the cutest thing in the entire world and he never gets tired of it, he genuinely loves it so much and it's something that never fails to make him happy. Although, sometimes he does let you float up to the ceiling just so he can tease you for needing help getting down, although he always extends his arms out for you so he can reach you no matter the height and pull you back to him so he can give you a bunch of kisses and hold you close to him. I think Jack honestly likes carrying you around without your shoes, letting you get a break from them so he has an excuse to hold you in his arms and keep you close to him, and during these times he never lets you float away, he always keeps a nice, comfortable hold on you, and he's constantly snuggling into you because it's so nice to be around you.

Jason:

Like LJ, I think he would also like to decorate your lead shoes, and he probably ends up getting you multiple pairs in different styles, even if he has to hand-make them himself, just so he can decorate them all differently and give you a wide variety to wear and have, stating you need a different pair for every mood, and every season, and probably every mood in every season. He just likes making things for you and being useful. I think he's also likely to make you a bunch of different clothes, designed with star themes in mind, and he always gets so excited when you wear them. I think he also designs a few that are very light in fabric, with the thought that when you're floating about, your clothes float about around you. He's shy to admit it, but when you float up a little bit to boop his nose, surrounding him in those little stars, it's so incredibly cute and it brings him so much joy, and it flusters him so much, although, you argue in your mind that he doesn't have to admit it out loud, considering how red his face turns and the look of pure, absolute adoration he always gives you when you do it. He finds you to be so wonderous, and he's constantly captivated by you and your abilities. I can see him trying to come up with some star or galaxy-themed nicknames for you as well. I think he always tells you he must have been blessed by the galaxy itself to have such a bright, shining star residing in his life, and he always refers to you as his light.

Eyeless Jack:

I haven't gotten to talk about this in so long, but my EJ LOVES the galaxy and solar system and the stars and is obsessed with astronomy, and so dating you is definitely something that he enjoys. Also side note, in my canon instead of just black, empty eyes, EJ has black eyes with constellations in them, so please compliment him on those, perhaps tell him that it's as though the two of you are connected, it'll make him SO happy. I think the two of you have a lot of dates where you both go star viewing together, and I think you both would talk about the stars and the galaxy a lot, and he'd always be asking you questions about it in excitement, and it would bring him so much genuine joy if you'd indulge him in those discussions. Whenever you float up to boop his nose he always gets so giddy, his tail swishing back in forth in excitement as he clings to you and purrs, burying his face into your chest as he catches you in the air. With his sense of hearing, Jack can always hear you coming from several floors away because of your shoes, and even when you aren't heading in his direction it makes him happy to just hear you wandering about the mansion, happy to know that you're nearby. I think he finds it adorable when you do things like taking off your shoes and just clinging onto him while he's working, your body just floating about. If you let go, though, and float to the ceiling, he would quite literally climb anything to get you back down, his concern for you taking over, even if you find the situation humorous. 

[renecdote]

In case you want mORE :’)

cuddling in the first morning light + buddie anniversary? ❤️

hi amy ily I hope you enjoy these sappy boys (ft party dog socks as requested) mwah 💛 [Read on AO3]

It’s a miracle, really, that they make it out of the ER before five a.m. A miracle that they make it out of the ER without an admittance at all, Buck thinks privately, but that’s more to do with his shitty luck with ending up in the hospital than any feeling that he actually needs to be there right now. If it had been up to him, they wouldn’t have come at all.

“Which is why it’s not up to you,” is all Eddie had said to that on the drive in, his hands tight around the wheel and his foot a little heavier than normal through the yellow lights. The real miracle, honestly, is that Buck managed to talk his way out of an ambulance trip. He only fainted, like, one and half times, he’s fine, but you have one little history of cardiac arrest after being struck by lightning and suddenly everyone is more worried than they need to be.

No. That’s not fair. He’s just—he’s tired. He wants to be home already.

Eddie’s hand guides him back to the car and Buck tries not to lean into it too much, more unsteady than he is willing to admit but not wanting to keep worrying Eddie. He focuses on putting one foot in front of the other, thinking dreamily about getting home and sinking into their very comfortable bed with his very snuggle-able husband.

He slumps against the window, eyes closing as he lets out a shaky breath, and he only remembers to put on his seatbelt when Eddie gets in the driver’s seat and clicks his own belt into place. The snap is loud in the quiet bubble of the car. Buck winces at the pulse of pain through his head. The fluids the hospital gave him did something, he’s pretty sure, but the headache is clinging tight.

Eddie fiddles with the radio, searching for a traffic report, and Buck winces again when a host far too cheery for the early hour informs them that there has been an accident so they’ll have to take a detour.

“Sorry,” Buck sighs. He has said it too many times already, he knows, but he can’t help it. It doesn’t make sense that traffic would be his fault but it feels like one more thing he needs to apologise for anyway.

“You don’t need to apologise, Buck,” Eddie tells him, and somehow there’s still none of the exasperation Buck keeps expecting to hear there. He sounds more tired than he did at the start of the night, exhaustion dripping from his consonants and his shoulders as he glances in the rearview mirror before pulling out of the carpark, but his voice is just as patient as it was the first and second and tenth time Buck said he was sorry.

“It’s just.” Buck bites his lip, working through the frustrating press of tears behind his eyes. He’s just tired. He’s tired, and feeling more like crap than he wants Eddie to know, and, “It’s our anniversary.”

Eddie glances at him then. His hand twitches towards the gear stick like he wants to shift it into reverse and back up down the road until they’re back in front of the hospital.

“You said you didn’t hit your head when you fell.”

Buck groans. “Please don’t turn the car around.”

“Our anniversary is in March,” Eddie reminds him, as if Buck doesn’t know that. He was the one who wanted a spring wedding and then he spent the whole day sneezing because of hay fever. It would have been miserable if it wasn’t the best day of his life.

“I know it’s not March,” Buck insists, fully aware that he’s being too insist-y about it. He’s just so tired. “I didn’t mean that anniversary.”

Eddie frowns. He opens his mouth, then closes it, and in the flash of orange streetlights, Buck can see him flipping through a calendar in his mind, Chris’ school events and work shifts and all the important days in their lives marked on it with colourful pens and stickers. Buck can see him coming up blank on anything that matches today’s date.

It’s stupid, really. Extra stupid because Buck didn’t even know about it, not consciously, and then he accidentally caught a glimpse of Eddie’s personnel file in Bobby’s office on Monday and—

“It’s the day we met,” he says, playing with the plastic band around his wrist. “The day you joined the 118.”

The day their lives changed forever, even though they didn’t know it at the time.

“It’s stupid,” Buck adds, mumbling.

They’re at a stop light now, and the cross street is clear, but instead of accelerating forward, Eddie puts the handbrake on and leans across the console to pull Buck into a kiss. A sound of surprise catches in the back of Buck’s throat, but then he curls his fingers into the front of Eddie’s hoodie and kisses back.

“I love you,” Eddie says when they pull apart, his eyes crinkling with his smile. Buck can hardly see it in the dim interior of the car, but he can hear it in Eddie’s voice, the kind of warmth and fondness that is so sticky Buck will find traces of it clinging to him for the rest of the day.

“I love you too,” he replies, a little breathless. He hopes Eddie thinks it’s just from the kissing.

“I’m gonna take you home,” Eddie says, thumb a caress at the edge of Buck’s jaw. “And we’re gonna sleep for at least five hours. Probably more.” Buck smiles. “And then we can celebrate our anniversary, okay?”

“It’s not even a real anniversary,” Buck tries, not even really sure why he’s arguing. A more sensible person would just agree, and maybe remind their husband that they’re stopped in the middle of the road, so maybe they should put the car back in gear and hurry up with the getting home part of the plan? Any minute now some early morning commuter is probably going to come along and beep at them.

Eddie kisses him again, quicker and chaster than before, his lips gone before Buck can even try to chase them.

“It can be an anniversary if we want it to be,” he says, shrugging the kind of one-shouldered shrug that means he’s trying to seem unbothered when he’s actually feeling a lot of things, probably very deeply. Then he puts the car back in gear and checks both directions are clear before continuing to drive. It’s not fair, really, because it means Buck can’t work through the many, very deep feelings in his own chest by kissing Eddie stupid.

When we get home, he tells himself. But by the time they pull into the driveway, Buck is flagging.

They shower together—“it’ll be faster,” Eddie says, as if Buck doesn’t know it’s just so he can make sure Buck doesn’t pass out and crack open his skull on the tiles—and with the smell of the hospital gone and the bone-deep exhaustion amplified by the heat, Buck is half-asleep before he makes it into bed. He seriously considers not getting dressed at all, maybe not even drying off, just rolling under the covers and passing out (metaphorically, this time). But then Eddie is in front of him with a t-shirt and sleep shorts, a pair of party-themed dog socks tucked under his arm, and it’s just as easy to let him help.

“Bet you didn’t think we’d end up here,” Buck finds himself saying, watching Eddie roll the socks onto his feet. He could do it himself, but.

“No,” Eddie agrees, looking up at him. His smile is teasing when he adds, “Especially not those first few days.”

The embarrassment Buck used to feel looking back at that has been tempered by time and the life they have built together.

“I was a dick,” he says easily.

Eddie snorts. “You thought you were so tough.”

“Hey,” Buck protests, unable to fully bite back his own smile. “I am tough.”

“My tough firefighter husband.”

Only half teasing.

"Don’t worry, Eds," Buck tells him, “you’re my tough firefighter husband too.”

Eddie’s knees crack when he stands and they both laugh.

Eddie holds out a hand and Buck takes it, bracing himself before Eddie pulls him to his feet. He sways there a second, takes another second to figure out it’s because Eddie is pulling him in, not because of head rush, then he’s ducking his head down to Eddie’s shoulder while they hug. He likes hugging Eddie. He likes pretty much everything about Eddie, likes doing pretty much everything with him, but even before they started dating, Buck always liked the way Eddie hugged him. Liked the way it made him feel held.

“Good?” Eddie checks.

He’s not really asking anything, but he’s also asking everything, so Buck takes the time to squeeze him a little tighter before he answers, “Yeah, ‘m good.”

They separate just long enough to climb into bed, then Eddie wraps an arm around his waist and Buck melts back against him. Behind the blinds, the sky is probably just starting to lighten, alarm clocks starting to go off around the city, birds chirping, a thousand days starting while theirs finally ends. Buck closes his eyes, breathing slow and deep with the rise and fall of Eddie’s chest against his back.

“Wake me if you need me, okay?”

Buck wants to say that he won’t need him—he’s fine, really, the doctor said so and everything—but he just yawns and agrees with a half-garbled, “Uh huh.”

Eddie presses a kiss behind his ear. Or maybe Buck just imagines that he does. He can’t be sure whether he really hears the whispered, “love you,” either. It doesn’t really matter; they’re just words. He can feel all the branching, overlapping layers of Eddie’s love even without I love you.

It’s nice, though, hearing the words anyway.

Buck falls asleep wondering whether Bobby knew just how much he would change their lives when he asked Eddie to join the 118.

[fiveraccoonsinatrenchcoat]

Quiet My Fears (With The Touch Of Your Hand) Ch. 3

Steve Harrington x f!reader

Description: Dramatic reveals are revealed, dramatically (or, you and Steve tell the gang about Baby Harrington and it does not go well).

Warnings: language, food mentions, everyone is angry all of the time

Word Count: 7965

Previous Chapter! - Next Chapter!

My Masterlist! - Series Masterlist!

Notes: I'm so sorry this took as long as it did! I've been going through it lately but through the power of boygenius I was actually able to finish this bit the other day! Please enjoy and also no one is allowed to be mad at me lol

Steve Harrington was going to be a dad.

The funny thing that came along with that was that Steve was actually going to have to tell people.

He imagined that there were many couples who would be very excited about this prospect. There were lots of young men out there who had mothers begging them for grandchildren. His hadn’t quite gotten there yet.

You had told him that you wanted to put off telling people for as long as you could. He entirely understood why; times had changed quite a bit since his mother’s day, but still, being an unwed mother in Smalltown, USA was relatively frowned upon. Honestly, considering just how gossipy the population of Hawkins tended to be, Steve was surprised the front desk ladies at your doctor’s office hadn’t already spread the news like wildfire, HIPAA be damned; golden boy Steve Harrington and his childhood best friend, having a baby out of wedlock? That was some front page stuff, right there. 

Married or not, though, it was going to have to happen sooner rather than later. In a few weeks time, it was going to start getting very difficult to hide. You were going to begin showing any moment now, and as Spring started to settle in, it brought its warmer temperatures with it. You could only hide behind your winter coat and thick sweaters for so long. 

And not just your bump; your friends were beginning to pick up on the fact that there was something going on.

“Steve!” Robin barked before tossing a wadded up ball of old receipts at him. It hit him square between the eyebrows. “Stop moping and do your job, please?”

“I’m not moping,” Steve defended (he absolutely was), before turning back to the pile of returns he was supposed to be sorting through.

“Fuck off, yeah you are,” Eddie very helpfully added.

“See, this is why I don’t like it when you hang around here,” Steve said, pointing a pen toward Eddie. “You two always gang up on me!”

“Why do you think I’m here at all?” Eddie quipped back with a smirk. 

“Because you don’t have anywhere better to go?” Robin supplied.

“That, too.”

“Either way, I’m not moping,” Steve assured. “I’m fine.”

“That’s a fucking lie if I’ve ever heard one,” Eddie said over the click of the markdown gun, as he emptied its bright orange stickers down that back of his arm. Steve couldn’t help but notice that he had set the price to ‘WAS $4.20, NOW $0.69’.

“Stop that,” Robin huffed as she whipped the tool out of Eddie’s hands. “Steve, I can practically see the rain cloud floating over your head.”

“Oh, my god!” Steve didn’t really want to snap at his friends, but he did it anyway. “Nothing is wrong! I am fine, everything is fine!”

Eddie and Robin just stared at Steve like a pair of deer in headlights from across the counter. They both knew how easily frustrated Steve could become, and they’d be the first to admit that sometimes they can poke at him a bit too hard, but an outburst this quickly had been unexpected. Neither said anything, and Steve just sighed.

After a moment of awkward silence, Eddie spoke up once again. 

“Lady problems?”

“Get out!” both Steve and Robin exclaimed, in unison.

“I thought you guys liked me.” Eddie feigned offense.

“You do not work here!” Robin said as she grabbed onto his shoulders and shoved him toward the door. “And Keith’ll get pissed if he finds out you were here and didn’t spend any money, so go home.”

“Fine,” Eddie relented from the entryway. “Hey, I’ll see you guys on Saturday, right?”

“Of course!”

“Probably not.”

“You claim nothing is wrong,” Eddie said, pointing to Steve. “And yet, in the same breath, turn down free beer?”

“Leave!”

“I love you both!”

The bell above the door rang as Eddie walked out, and Steve was left in Robin’s concerned gaze. 

“Y’know, Eddie does kind of have a point,” Robin said after a moment. Nine times out of ten, Robin was able to coax Steve out of his quiet and get him to talk about whatever it was that was eating at him, a fact that Steve was highly aware of. 

“No, he doesn’t,” Steve barked back. If this conversation didn’t end in the next two minutes, he would jump off the roof. 

“You haven’t hung out with any of us in weeks!” Robin exclaimed “Weeks, Steve!”

“I’ve been busy,” Steve lied.

“Busy with what?” she inquired. “Do you have another job I don’t know about, or something?”

“I’m allowed to do things without you around. You know that, right?” It was meaner than he needed to be.

“Oh, god, this isn’t about your lover, is it?” Robin drawled with a scowl.

“You know her name, and you don’t have to say it like that,” Steve responded.

“You two got back together, didn’t you?”

She hadn’t quite gotten it head on, but it was probably as close as she was going to get.

“I knew it!” Robin looked like she was going to explode. “I fucking knew it!”

“Please don’t turn this into a thing,” Steve pleaded.

“Me turn it into a thing?!” She was mad now. “You two are the ones turning it into a thing! You cannot keep sneaking around like this, it cannot possibly be healthy!”

“We’re-” Steve huffed out a breath. This tightrope he was walking across seemed to be growing more and more thin. “Working on it.”

“Can you work on it a little bit faster, please?” Robin asked as she punched out. “You two are so fucking weird about each other. Split, or make it official, just do something, because I hate having to keep this secret for you, it’s exhausting!”

“We sort of already did. I think,” Steve confided. Partial truth is better than no truth, right?

“Split?”

“Make it official.”

“Oh, thank god,” Robin sighed, tossing herself across the counter, all dramatics. “I can finally quit having to cover for you.”

“Don’t say anything yet.” Steve was quick with his damage control. “We, uh, we wanna do it. Ourselves. Figure it’ll probably go over a little bit smoother that way, y’know?”

“Fine, but if you don’t tell everyone soon, I’m going to,” Robin said. “Don’t think I’m the only one who’s noticed something off with you lately.”

“What? What does that mean?”

“Everyone is worried about you, Steve,  it’s not just me,” she explained. “Dustin was about two seconds away from showing up at your house after you bailed on us last week.”

Steve didn’t know that. It sent a lightning bolt of regret through his chest.

“The faster you two can get your shit together, the better. I’ve been happily cleaning up this mess for you, but I’m starting to get fucking tired of it, Steve.” Robin looked at her watch. “I was off ten minutes ago.”

She was out the door before Steve could even think up an apology.

Steve and Robin didn’t get into fights often, but he absolutely hated it every time they did. Even silly little arguments left him wracked with guilt sometimes, but proper, go-for-the-throat type fights made feel sick. 

Pair that with the fact that he was making Dustin worry, and Steve felt about ready to hurl. 

God, this was difficult. Stupidly difficult. Maybe, if he asked nicely, you’d agree to just run away with him so he didn’t have to deal with any of it. 

If he could just pluck up the courage to tell his parents, that would at least be a start. They were the difficult ones, the conversation he was dreading more than any of them, and the wild anxiety ate away at him for the rest of his shift. By the time seven o’clock rolled around and he was finally able to go home, it was entirely all-encompassing.

Fuck it. It had to get done either way, right?

The drive from Family Video to his parents house, no longer than ten minutes, felt as though it stretched across half an eternity. The vicious anxiety ate away at his stomach as he drove, and with each turn, each mile crossed, it only increased. Maybe he should just turn around. Maybe he should go home to you, and his parents could just figure it out on their own. He was sure his dad would love that.

Steve pulled into the driveway and was very close to losing what little nerve he had. He turned off the ignition, this is a bad idea. He got out of the car, this is a bad idea. He walked up to the front door and let himself in, this is a bad idea.  

He could hear the commotion of his mother making dinner in the kitchen. Something was sizzling; popping and crackling with the smell of onions and garlic, of bell peppers and roasting meat. 

Steve had lots of reasons to be jealous of other peoples’ parents, but at least his knew how to cook.

“Steve!” his mother exclaimed once he walked into her view. One hand was occupied by a wooden spoon stirring a pan of vegetables, the other holding a frosty glass of white wine. “I didn’t know whether or not to expect you.”

“You barely even live here anymore,” his father chided from where he was sitting at the counter. His suit coat was off and he had a matching wine glass sitting on the table in front of him. Nine times out of ten, Steve’s parents were able to be amicable with one another. At this point, they acted more like roommates than husband and wife, but at least they were roommates that were able to stand being in the same room as one another. Usually. “Didn’t think I’d get to see you before I left.”

“Sit down! Have a drink,” his mother insisted. She pulled another wine glass out of the cabinet and the bottle out of the fridge. 

“Oh, no, I’m alright,” Steve said as he sat down. His mother poured him the glass anyway.

He was about to ruin a perfectly good dinner, Steve thought to himself. His mother probably poured over it all day. The roast that just got pulled out of the oven was probably expensive. 

“So, what’s been going on with Steve these days?” his father asked him. 

Now or never.

“I actually wanted to, uh,” Steve stuttered out. “I wanted to talk to you guys.”

“You didn’t crash your car, did you?” his father said, only half joking.

“No, the car’s fine.”

“Is this about that girl?” his mother asked as she turned the stove down to low, mischief painting her voice.

“Girl? What girl?” His father pointed his gaze over to Meredith. 

“He met a girl,” she responded. She seemed almost giddy with excitement.

“Finally,” his father said. He said it like it was a joke, though it didn’t feel all that well meaning to Steve. 

“Oh, tell me it’s Giada’s daughter from down the street,” his mother said. “Have you seen their kitchen? I’d never have to host another Thanksgiving ever again.”

“No, it’s not- no.” Steve wasn’t even sure he knew who Giada was, let alone her daughter. 

“Well, at least give us a name, Steve,” his mother said. “Is she cute?”

When Steve said your name, he felt almost like he was condemning you. Like just uttering it strapped you to him, so now you’d both be falling from grace. 

“The one who grew up across the street?” his father asked, as if you hadn’t known him your whole life.

“Oh, that’s just too sweet!,” his mother exclaimed. “It’s like a movie, ugh! I’ll have to give her mother a call, she’s going to be thrilled!”

Good luck with that, Steve thought to himself. She won’t even answer the calls from her own daughter.  

“Took you long enough,” his father said, leaning back in his barstool, lackadaisical. 

“What?” Steve responded. He was wildly unimpressed by his father’s haughty attitude.

“You two have been making googly eyes at each other since you were eight,” he explained. “Frankly, I didn’t think you had the balls to do anything about it.”

“Ron,” his mother chastised at the choice of words.

“What? Obviously, I was wrong.” Ron pointed his gaze back to his son. “Y’know, I think she could be a good influence on you. Steady job, good work ethic. She’s a bit of an oddball, though, but I guess with a father like her’s, could you really blame her?”

Leave it to Ronald Harrington to judge other peoples’ parenting skills while simultaneously insulting his son’s girlfriend. 

“Don’t be rude,” Meredith said. Her back was now turned to the two men, arms elbow deep in the sink. “Such a shame her parents moved away, though. I couldn’t imagine going that far without bringing your daughter with you. Is she still living on the south side?”

“Yep.”

“That’s not the safest area in town,” she commented. “Did you hear about that house fire down that way? The woman on the news said that it might have been arson. Arson!” 

“It’s alright,” he placated. “Not as bad as it used to be, at least.” 

“I still don’t know if I like the idea of a girl like her living all by herself in an area like that,” she said. 

“You’ll have to invite her over for dinner once I get back,” his father said, entirely oblivious to the topic of conversation between his wife and son.

There was a moment of silence between the three of them. His mom took a sip of her wine and stuck the meat with a cooking thermometer, his dad refilled his own glass, and Steve felt his stomach do a backflip. This was going poorly.

“If there’s something else you have to tell us, you might as well just rip the bandaid off quick.” His father hit the nail on the head, that was for sure. He paused for a moment before making the kind of poorly timed, borderline insulting joke only someone like his father could. 

“God, she’s not pregnant, is she?”

Steve went rigid, and he kept his gaze trained on the swirls in the marble countertop. He didn’t say anything, he couldn’t bring himself to, so he just left his parents to piece his silence together on their own.

“Steve,” his mother demanded. She had a carving fork gripped tight in her white knuckled fist, planted hard against the edge of the countertop. Steve was pretty sure she was about to stab him with it. He couldn’t look either of them in the eye.

“I’m sorry,” he managed to squeak out. He could feel tears beginning to well up in his eyes. 

“Goddamn it, Steven!” his father exclaimed, slamming his hand onto the counter. It made the glasses rattle. “This has to be some kind of joke!”

“I’m sorry!” Steve said, louder this time. “Fuck, I didn’t-”

“Didn’t what?” his father asked. “You didn’t mean to? You didn’t think it would actually happen?”

“I don’t know,” Steve responded. He suddenly felt very small, confronted by his father’s booming voice.

His mother stood silent in her spot on the opposite side of the kitchen island, but there were definitely tears running down her cheeks, and anger radiating off of her in horrible waves that Steve wasn’t used to. 

“No, you don’t, because you weren’t thinking at all, were you?” His father fumed. He was standing now, towering over Steve despite the fact that the two of them were almost the same in height. “For Christ’s sake, Steven!”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’ll have to marry her-”

“We already talked about that. She said she wants to wait,” Steve explained quickly.

“No. No, this is not a question of want, Steven. I don’t care about what you want, you’ve forfeited that right! You both have!” his father spat back. 

“I’m not gonna force her to marry me against her will, dad, I’m not evil!” He shouldn’t have said it that way, he knew that. But god, he was mad, and a low blow like that was just as satisfying as he thought it would be. 

At least this hadn’t happened when he was 16. He would have been well and truly fucked if this had happened when he was 16. 

“You know what? Maybe this is just the thing you need,” his father snapped.

“What?” Steve asked, confused.

“A big mistake for you to finally learn a thing or two.”

Steve wasn’t particularly fond of his father’s use of the word ‘mistake’.

“I leave for Santa Monica tomorrow morning. I’ll be back in a week,” his father stated. “I want you out of my house before then.”

“Ronald,” Meredith broke her silence, exclaiming from behind the tears. Steve knew she wouldn’t explode the way his father was doing, but she really looked like she wanted to.

“No! We have been defending him and making excuses for years, Meredith. Years! If he wants to go play house with his little girlfriend, that’s fine by me, but he’s not gonna do it under my roof.” He doubled down and turned his gaze back to where Steve was sitting. “I think it's a damn good time for him to learn that his actions come with consequences.”

The older man turned away at that and pulled his keys off of the hook on the wall.

“Where are you going?” Meredith called after him. He didn’t bother with an answer, only walked out and slammed the door behind him. 

Steve was left alone with his mother, which was simultaneously much better and far worse. 

“We were already planning for me to move in with her,” Steve said. If his father had stuck around for a minute longer, he would have been able to explain that to him, too. “She needed a roommate anyway.”

His mother scoffed and shook her head.

“Look, I know that-”

“You make it incredibly difficult for me to be on your side sometimes, Steven,” his mother interrupted.

“I know,” Steve agreed. He did know. 

“I wish I could say that I thought your father was being irrational, but I don’t know if I can,” she sighed. “For once, I think he and I might be on the same page.”

“You are?” Steve asked. His father’s vitriolic anger hadn’t come as a surprise, he’d been expecting it, but he thought his mother would be at least a little bit understanding. She always had been before. Steve guessed that this was different, though. 

“You’re not going to be able to live in that apartment forever, Steven,” she said.

“I know that.”

“And you’ll definitely need a better job. I highly doubt your father’s previous offer still stands, by the way.”

“I know.”

“Do you?” she asked him. Her voice had a bite to it that he had never been on the receiving end of before. “You’ve been saying ‘I know’ for years now, Steve. You know you need to grow up, you know you’ll have to move out someday, you know you have to do something with your life, yet you have never made any actual effort to do anything about it!”

“Mom, that’s not true-”

“If you want to start making big, adult choices like this, you’re going to have to start acting like one. Clearly, you’re not a child anymore.” 

His mother untied her apron and tossed it onto the counter before leaving the kitchen, heels clicking on the tile.

Steve’s whole family had been waiting for that thing; that final, fatal event that would break the Hawkins Harringtons for good. Aunts, uncles, cousins, all piecing together whatever bits of gossip they could, knew that the string that tied Steve to his parents was being pulled thinner and thinner and thinner. His mother could only do so much mending for him, and everyone had spent the last few years waiting with bated breath for that string to snap, for Steve to lose his footing. Once it did, he would plummet.

Steve was now standing alone in his childhood home, scissors in hand. 

Steve didn’t know what to do, so he stood up and turned off the stove. He pulled out a tupperware container and boxed up the vegetables. He wrapped the meat in foil and left it out on the counter, because it needed to cool before it could be put away, or else it would screw with the temperature inside the refrigerator. He found a stopper and closed the bottle of wine, placing it in the fridge before gathering the three glasses. His was still full, and he wanted to chug it, but thought better of it and poured it down the drain. He cleaned all of the dishes, dried them, and put them away. He turned off the oven, and wiped down all of the countertops, and neatly hung the towel to dry. He turned off the lights, making sure to leave the one above the stove on as a nightlight. 

Truly, there wasn’t much left of his personal belongings that he really cared about that he hadn’t already taken to your apartment. Most of what he needed was already there. He could grab the rest of it when his mother wasn’t home; the rest of his clothes, important documents, that kind of thing. What all do you even need to bring with you when you're being forced out of your childhood home, anyway? 

Later. This was something he could deal with later.

So he left. Unsurprisingly, his father’s car was nowhere to be seen. He wanted to keep talking to his mom, to explain himself, to apologize, to say anything, but he knew it would just make it worse than it already was, so he just got into his car and pulled away instead.

He did need a better job. He’d been needing a better job for a while now, actually, but he definitely needed a better job now. And his mother was right, there was no way he would be able to work for his dad after that. 

He wished he was able to explain to his parents that hey, funny story, due to atrocities he won’t be explaining right now, the government actually gave him a frankly absurd amount of money a few years ago, and he’d be alright for a while. It wouldn’t last forever, but it was enough to keep the pair of you afloat, especially with yours, too. You had used a bit of it on rent right after your parents had left, but Steve’s money sat mostly untouched in a bank account his family didn’t know he had. 

See, the thing about government hush money is that you can’t just go out and spend it on something wild, because then people are going to ask where it came from. Believe him, if he had been able to go out and buy some fancy sports car or a bunch of designer clothes, he would have. His father would have told him to buy a nice watch and invest the rest of it (Steve wasn’t entirely sure what that actually meant, or how to even go about doing it). He was just grateful to have it right now.

He could put a down payment on a house for you and him. That seemed like something a responsible adult would do with it, right?

Steve pulled up to your building and was shocked with how well he’d held it together up until this point, because he felt like he was going to explode. When he got to your floor and walked into your apartment, you were sitting on the floor between the sofa and the coffee table, textbooks and paper spread before you. The sound of him walking in pulled you away from your schoolwork and when you turned to look at Steve, you were clearly upset.

“You told me you were off more than an hour ago!” you said as you wiggled out from behind the table and stood up. “I was starting to get really worried, Steve, where were you?”

“I, uhm,” Steve started. He felt his voice crack, the sting of tears beginning to well in his eyes. He had to keep his shit together, for your sake.

“Did something happen?” you asked him. You brought your hands up to the sides of his face, and there went any chance of him keeping it together. 

“I told my parents,” he confessed. He was not going to cry in front of you. He wasn’t.

“What?” you questioned. You sounded a little bit hurt that he did it without asking you, but mostly just horribly concerned. “I thought we agreed to wait.”

“We did, but it was eating away at me, and I just couldn’t sit on it anymore, and-” The floodgates broke and Steve’s words were cut off by a strained sob. 

“Oh, Stevie.” You pulled him into a hug and Steve wanted nothing more than for these stupid tears to just dry up, but it felt like weeks and weeks of pent up worry and fear were being pulled to the surface, and he didn’t have it in him to try and stop any of it. He was supposed to be the strong one for you, but Jesus Christ, that was difficult. “It was bad?”

“Well, they kicked me out,” Steve said.

“What?”

“Which, I mean, my dad’s right. I barely even live there anymore, so I guess it doesn’t really even matter,” he rambled out, wiping his nose on his sleeve like a child.

“Yes, it does,” you assured him.

“And I’m pretty sure that this is my mother's worst nightmare, so I don’t know why I didn’t expect her to be pissed.”

“I’m sorry,” you said. You pulled Steve towards the couch and carefully lowered onto the cushions, your grasp on his wrists bringing him down to your side. 

“And Robin and I got into a fight, too.”

“You didn’t tell her, did you?” you questioned.

“No, but I think if I don’t do it soon, she might disown me,” he admits. 

“She’s not going to disown you,” you protested. “She’d never do that.”

“My parents just did,” Steve lamented. “My mother just did. Who’s to say Robin isn’t next, huh?”

Steve would never, ever be able to make his father proud, because his father would never, ever let him even get close. He had known that for a long time, and maybe there was a part of him that was relieved by that. He knew that it was an entirely unattainable goal, so he never really bothered to reach for it. His mother, oh so cruelly, always made sure Steve knew that he could do great things. Why did she have to go and do that? Steve knew his mother held him to a high bar, he just hadn’t ever considered the possibility that he wouldn’t be able to jump high enough.

So maybe that’s why it hurt so badly when you curled into him that night when he finally crawled into bed. Maybe that’s why he called into work the next day, even though he knew it would probably make Robin totally freak out. Maybe that’s why he waited until he saw his mother’s car leave the driveway before going into his - what used to be his- house to box up the last of his things.

Maybe that’s why he missed the Hawkins Police Department truck parked outside of your apartment building when he was bringing groceries inside a handful of days later. 

“I’m back!” he called into your apartment after releasing the wildly heavy grocery bags onto the kitchen counter. Making more than one trip is for suckers. “They didn’t have any pineapple juice, so I just got a pineapple, figured it can’t be too hard to just-”

Steve cut himself off when he looked up from the paper bags to see more than just you sitting in the living room; Joyce was sitting on your left with an arm wrapped protectively over your shoulders, Robin on your right with her legs pulled up underneath her and a tissue box in her lap, and Hopper was propped up on the arm of the couch. You were in the middle of the array, in tears. 

“Hello,” Steve nervously greeted, eyes wide as frisbees and blood running cold.

There was absolutely no universe in which this went well.

Robin’s expression, which had clearly been soft and sympathetic before Steve had interrupted them, quickly changed into anger. She shot up from the couch, earning her a disapproving tut from Joyce and making you wince away from her. It took her three wide stomps to cross the small space and grab onto Steve’s wrist with more strength than he knew she had in her.

“Ow, Robin!” Steve complained as she dragged him out into the hallway. She slammed the door hard behind her and it made Steve jump.

“What the fuck, Steve!” she demanded.

“Robin-”

“I mean, seriously, what the fuck!” Steve could already hear the noise complaints from the neighbors as she chastised him. “You lied to me!”

“I-” didn’t, is what he wanted to say, but he knew better than that. “I’m sorry.”

“How long have you two been back together then?” she questioned. Steve really didn’t want to admit it. “How long?”

“Six months,” he replied, sheepishly.

“Six months?!” Robin shrieked in disbelief. “Jesus Christ, you really did lie to me!”

“Robin,” Steve said, hushed and ashamed and really fucking mad at himself.

“For half a year! You lied to me for half a year!”

“I’m sorry!”

“She had to turn down her job offer from the school,” Robin barked. 

“I know that.”

“The job that she’s been talking about for, oh I don’t know, six months? Probably more than that, actually!”

“I know, Robin, alright?” Steve assured her and crossed his arms across his chest. “You think I don’t? I am highly aware of that!”

“And, I’m sorry, but you’re far from the King of Responsibility!” Robin said. 

“What does that mean?!” Steve questioned, a tint of frustration layered over his words. 

“I’m just saying, you aren’t exactly known for your maturity,” she spat.

“You think we wouldn’t be able to take care of-”

“She can. I know she can.  She’s more than capable of doing whatever the hell she puts her mind to, but you?” Anger and resentment dripped from her mouth with each word. “You, I’m honestly not sure. If you were more willing to lie to my face for six months than you were to just tell me the fucking truth, I’m sorry, but that’s really winning you any responsible adult points, is it?”

Tears pricked behind Steve’s eyes. He wanted to yell, to scream at the top of his lungs that, no, Robin, you’re wrong, I can do this!, but he really wasn’t sure if it was true. If his closest friend, one of the people he trusted most in the whole world, really thought that he wouldn’t be able to do this, then maybe she’s right, right?

The apartment door next to Steve slowly creeped open.

“Everything alright out here?” Hopper asked, carefully planting himself just slightly between Steve and Robin. 

Robin lost her vitriol like a tea kettle after the burner got turned off, leaving her with no more steam to fuel what she needed to say. 

“I’m waiting out in the car,” she muttered as she whizzed past Steve and turned down the stairwell. The two men in the hall listened to her descending footsteps. Once they heard the front door open and slam back shut, Jim broke through the quiet.

“Robin wanted me to check up on you after you called out,” Jim explained. “She was worried you were mad at her, after your fight.”

“Right,” Steve said.

“So, imagine my surprise when your mom answers the door, only to tell me that you don’t live there anymore,” the older man said. “She wouldn’t tell me why, just gave me an address and shut the door.”

“Look, if you’re here to give me another angry dad talk, then you don’t have to bother. Mine did a pretty damn good job all on his own,” Steve asserted. 

“I’m not here to be angry.” Steve could tell that Hopper was choosing his words very, very carefully.

“Oh, that’s unlike you,” Steve commented, arms still crossed and eyes on the floor.

“Don’t be shitty!” Jim snapped. Steve withered.

“Sorry,” he muttered, still not able to look the man in the eyes. Jim just sighed.

“Do you have a plan, Steve?” he asked. 

“Yes. No,” Steve replied. “I don’t know. She seems to have one.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“I’m just not sure if I fit in it,” Steve confessed.

“Oh, Jesus Christ,” Jim huffed. “Maybe you do need another angry dad talk!”

“What do you want me to say?” Steve interrogated. “That everything is under control and totally normal? I have no idea what’s going to happen! None! And, honestly? I’m fucking terrified, Hopper!” 

“Steve-”

“I have to be good at this. I have to! Because I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I’m not, but I am so terrified that I won’t be able to, and I’m going to let her down, and I can’t do that!” It all came out as some sort of paranoia fueled stream of consciousness. “I’d rather die than be anything like my dad, but what if it’s just in my blood? Like, I’m just predestined to turn out just as shitty as him!”

“You definitely won’t,” Jim said, as if it were just a simple fact. “I can assure you, there are very few people on this earth as shitty as your father, and you are not one of them.”

Jim wasn’t overly fond of Ronald Harrington; he was an all-around asshole to most people he met.

“Look, as much as I hate to admit it, you two aren’t kids anymore,” Hop said. “You’re grownups, you two are smart. You can make your own choices. If this is the choice you two wanna make, then make it.”

“You’re making it sound so simple,” Steve snarked.  

“It kind of is,” the chief replied. 

“Really? Because this feels like the least simple thing that’s ever happened to me,” Steve said. “You’re really not mad?”

“Well, I’m not thrilled,” Hopper grumbled. “But, like I said. You two are grownups. You can do whatever the hell you want.”

The pair stood in silence for a moment. Steve knew that Hop was more than likely lying about how mad he was, though he had been preparing himself for Jim to completely lose it on him. He probably would have deserved it. 

“Does it ever get less terrifying?” Steve asked, genuinely wanting to know.

“Nope.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“And it’s not just the fun parts,” Jim added.

“I know,” Steve responded.

“It’s more than just tiny socks and decorating the nursery.”

“I know that.” 

“Just makin’ sure.” Jim was far from happy, but he gave Steve a nod and a pat on the back, which was as close to congratulations as he was going to get. “I know the kids give you a hard time, but you’re smart, and so is she. You two know what you’re doing.”

“Thank you.”

“She’s really, really scared, Steve,” Hopper said. There was something in his voice; a silent question of  ‘do you really know what it is you’re getting yourself into?’

“I know,” Steve replied.

“You don’t get to panic now, alright?” Jim told him. “And you don’t get to change your mind.”

“I won’t. I promise,” Steve said; ‘I do know, and I want all of it.’ “I would never do that to her. Never.”

The pair went back inside, and you seemed to be in slightly better spirits now, even if you still had a sea of tears in your eyes. Both you and Joyce turned to face the two men with questions in your eyes, and Jim’s small nod seemed to be enough of an answer for Joyce to shoot off of the couch to envelop Steve in a tight hug. 

“I have lots of baby things I can bring by for you two,” she gushed after pulling away.

“You don’t have to do that,” you said to her, but she was having none of it.

“Don’t worry about it,” Joyce assured. “It’s all just collecting dust anyway.”

Which left Dustin, who in a lot of ways, Steve was the most worried about. He could take the anger from the grownups. Hell, he could take it from Robin, but Dustin, he was less sure about. 

In true Henderson fashion, he found out about Baby Harrington a few days later, entirely by mistake.

“I still don’t understand why they kicked you out in the first place,” Dustin stated from his spot on the living room floor of your (Steve’s!) apartment. He was digging through a pile of old clothes Steve decided he no longer needed. He had a lot of things, he’d realized while moving in, and he really only wanted a few of them, needed even less. He would donate whatever went unclaimed, but Dustin wanted first dibs for himself. 

“Because they’re assholes,” Steve responded. 

“Okay, yeah, fair, but hasn’t Robin been begging you to get a place with her for, like, a year?” 

“It’s not like I was able to really take my time apartment hunting.”

“I still feel like crashing on Robin’s couch for a while would’ve made more sense than moving in here,” Dustin supplied. Steve rolled his eyes.

“I needed an apartment, she needed a roommate, that’s it. Alright?” Steve loved Dustin like a little brother, but good lord, he could be obnoxious sometimes. “Now pick out what you want so I can clean this shit up.”

Dustin finished his haul, though he grumbled about how Steve was rushing him the whole time, and gathered the previously neatly folded clothes into a messy pile.

“I didn’t think of how I was gonna get any of this stuff out to the car.” Dustin, at not- quite- eighteen years old, had finally gotten his drivers license. ‘Thank god,’ Steve had remarked, ‘that I don’t have to be your fucking chauffeur anymore.’ That sentiment only lasted a little while, though, as it quickly became clear that a drivers license meant that Dustin could come and bother Steve whenever he wanted to. And he wanted to all the time. “Will you help me carry it all out?”

“No, I won’t, because there are more trash bags in the cabinet under the sink.” Steve pointed towards the small kitchen. Dustin got up off the floor, going into the kitchen and checking in seemingly every cupboard you had.

“I said under the sink, dude!” Steve heard the squeaky cabinet hinges open and shut, the rustle of the plastic trash bag.

“Steve?” Dustin called after a moment. The apartment was small, and the only real thing separating the kitchen and living room was a few feet of counter and the floor switching from tile to carpet.

“What?” Steve responded, not bothering to look up from the clothes he was shoveling back into their own trash bag. 

“What’s this?” Dustin asked him. When Steve finally looked up at him, he was pointing towards something on the fridge, and it took Steve a second to realize that what Dustin was referring to was the ultrasound pictures that he’d forgotten to take down.

Well, shit.

Steve rocketed towards the fridge to put them away, but Dustin was faster and grabbed them before he could. The damage was already done.

“Dustin, please give me that,” Steve asked. 

“This has her last name on it,” the younger boy observed. 

“Put it down, alright? You weren’t supposed to see it in the first place, so just-”

“Is she fucking pregnant?” Dustin demanded. 

“Dustin, please.” 

“I didn’t think she was dating anyone, though?” the boy thought out loud. “Oh, my god, I wonder if it’s someone we know!”

Oh, it definitely is.

“Dude, c’mon, please just give me the picture.” Remember what Steve said about Dustin being obnoxious?

“Wait, why are you moving in with her if she’s pregnant?” Dustin inquired. “I’m pretty sure that extra bedroom is gonna be pretty occupied in nine months.”

“It’s closer to six, actually,” Steve clarified, and Dustin’s eyes widened. “But that isn’t the point, can you please just-”

“Steve?” the boy asked, tone shifting away from curiosity into something Steve found much more concerning.

“Yeah?” Steve sighed.

“Why did you move in with her?” he asked again, although the way he spoke the words made Steve think Dustin probably already had it figured out. 

“Why do you think?” was all Steve could come up with to say.

“Oh, my god.”

“Dustin-”

“Oh, my god!”

“You cannot tell anyone, okay? This is totally top secret,” Steve begged.

“Did you-? You two-!” Dustin stuttered out. “Oh, my god!”

Dustin was about to start hyperventilating and Steve was doing his best to keep that from happening, pulling the glossy image out of Dustin’s hand as if it were made of precious porcelain, when the sound of keys jingling in the door distracted them. Both boys fell into bitter silence as you opened the door and took in the sight in front of you; a very frazzled Steve and a very distressed Dustin.

“Hi?” you greeted. “What’s going-”

“You’re fucking pregant?” Dustin exclaimed.

“What?” you spat out in response. Steve could tell that your mind was working a mile a minute to come up with a way to cover for yourself. “I-I don’t, uhm-”

“I left the sonogram on the fridge by mistake,” Steve confessed. He felt awful. “I’m sorry, it didn’t even cross my mind.”

“Oh,” you replied. You hadn’t moved from your spot in the entryway, hadn’t put down your bag or taken off your coat. You just stayed frozen.

“Oh, I have so many feelings!” Dustin wheezed, leaning forward. “Oh, my god!”

“Yeah, you’ve mentioned him.”

“You’re having a fucking baby?” Dustin asked you.

“Yes,” you timidly responded, slowly placing your work bag onto the side of the couch.

“With Steve?!”

“Yes,” you said again.

“That Steve?” Dustin pointed a thumb over his shoulder to where Steve was hovering behind him. “Steve Harrington? Our Steve?”

You nodded. “That Steve.”

“Holy shit,” the boy breathed out.

“Please don’t be mad,” Steve requested.

“What? Mad, why would I be mad?” he asked. “Who’s mad?”

“Well, so far, everyone,” Steve explained.

“Wait, is this why Robin’s not talking to you?” Dustin asked.

“Robin’s not talking to you?” you piped up, concern dripping from your words. 

Steve hadn’t mentioned that part to you yet. 

Robin had been giving Steve total radio silence ever since she had found out. Even at work, she was refusing to say a single word to him. She went and hid in the bathroom anytime Steve tried to say anything at all, and she had even recruited Keith to be her disinterested, detached middle man and relay VHS-related messages if she really needed to. 

To say the least, she really hadn’t taken it all that well.

“Later?” he said to you, silently begging you to table this conversation for a time when you didn’t have a very upset teenager in your kitchen.

Sticky silence fell over the three of you, sealing to Steve’s skin and filling his lungs up in a way he hated. Dustin was the one who peeled through it first. 

“Are you actually having a baby?” The question was directed to Steve this time. Dustin was wildly expressive, he always had been, and he looked very, very overwhelmed. Steve felt about the same. He just nodded, and it took a second for Dustin to properly process the news.

“Gimme the picture again!” Dustin insisted. 

“No, dude! We only have a few and-”

“Excuse me, it’s my nephew, I think I get to see the picture if I want to!”

The tension dissolved as soon as the words came out of Dustin’s mouth. Steve had been so, so worried that he’d be mad, madder than Robin was. 

“Hah! See, Dustin thinks it’s a boy, too!” Steve exclaimed to you. Reservation made way for excitement. Like Dustin said, it’s his nephew.

“Oh, god, please don’t start with this again,” you said, smiling despite the faux exasperation in your voice.

“You think it’s a girl?” Dustin asked.

“I think,” you say as you shuck off your coat and lean against the counter, across from the boys, “that Steve is going to get his hopes up about it being a boy, and then be disappointed if it isn’t.”

“Not possible,” Steve clarified with a smile. “Besides, you don’t have to worry about it because I’m right, and it’s gonna be a boy.”

Dustin didn’t end up leaving until a good few hours later, when Steve noticed how your eyes kept fluttering shut as you leaned against his shoulder. He had to manhandle the boy out the door; he had a seemingly unending vault of questions (“you guys have been sleeping together this whole time?!”), but you were totally wiped. 

You really just wanted to just go to bed, but Steve insisted you ate something first, and a mug of soup later, you were practically dead on your feet. He cleaned up any dinner mess (canned soup doesn’t really result in any mess, but he’d be damned if you had to put your own dishes into the dishwasher), and sent you off to get ready for an early turn in. 

He’d just put the pot away when you summoned him into the bathroom.

“You alright?” Steve asked, leaning against the doorframe. You were standing in front of the sink in your pajamas. He could smell your mouthwash.

“Come look.”

Steve took a step into the bathroom to sidle up next to you as you pulled the bottom edge of your too-big t-shirt up. Your fingers ever so gently ghosted over your stomach.

“That wasn’t there before,” you asked, tilting your head back against the crook of Steve’s arm to look up at him. “Was it?”

Steve was entranced by your reflection in the mirror, by the way the swell of your tummy absolutely gave you away. 

“I don’t know.” Steve spoke just barely above a whisper, the way he would have if he was standing in a church. You felt like an angel beneath his arm. “I don’t think so.”

“I feel like I would have noticed it if it was,” you said, eyes glued to the mirror just as Steve’s were. 

“Definitely would’ve noticed,” Steve quietly gushed. “You officially have a baby bump.”

Realistically, you still had a couple more weeks before anyone else would actually be able to see it. Still small enough to hide behind your clothes, but absolutely, undoubtedly there. 

You hummed, and Steve noticed the way you were trying to hide your smile.

“You’re allowed to be happy about it, you know,” Steve reminded you. Your eyes caught his again, and your small, shy smile grew just a little bit bigger as you pulled his hand away from your hip and placed it firmly against the slope of your tummy. He felt his breath hitch, like the action of touching you was breaking some sort of cardinal law, but he stroked his thumb up and down, up and down across your skin, and you flattened yourself as deeply into his chest as you possibly could. He pressed a kiss to your temple, lingering in the scent of you for as long as he could allow himself to.

His hand stayed glued to you for the remainder of the evening.

Tiny Little Taglist: @sheisjoeschateau @hazydespair @damon-loves-pie @pariahsparadise @anislabonis-love @e509 @alexa4040 @starsforviolet @hoesbloated @luvlexi-darling

[polyamorouspunk]

what’s it like going to a punk/metal show? I’ve always wanted to go to one but i live way too rural for there to be any nearby

Hmm, okay.

For me, personally, I always feel like I don’t belong there. But at the same time it feels like home.

And that goes for almost any show no matter the size.

There are exceptions! I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way at an INK show, and I didn’t feel that way going to see them with Metallica. There were people of all ages and race etc. at Metallica, from downright conservatives to queer as fuck folks.

Looking around at Beartooth I had a hard time not comparing myself to others. I wasn’t traditionally pretty like the skinny white sorority looking girls. I didn’t feel like I looked “hardcore” enough. I didn’t feel like I looked queer enough. But at the end of the day you’re in a stadium full of other people who get you in some way or another.

I’ve never been to a show where I didn’t end up talking to someone. I’ve always been able to make conversation with those around me with ease. It’s an ease that is different than talking to people in public. Maybe more similar to if you went to a convention and there are a ton of people in costumes and you’re able to just walk up to them and tell them you like their cosplay. Or you’re standing at a booth and a group of friends is fawning over a button pin or a sticker the artist is selling and you chime in and agree it’s super cute and you were thinking of getting it yourself. Small talk like that.

Smaller scene shows can be hard to break into and feel comfortable talking to people like that if everyone knows each other and you don’t know any of them. It’s a lot easier if THEY come to you.

Going to a show, by the time the opening acts are through, your hearing is fucked up, and you’re hearing everything as if you’re underwater. If you know the songs you can pick them out and sing along, but if you don’t, you’re not picking up on much because it all just sounds like noise soup.

Every once in a while you have to stop what you’re doing (filming, vibing, drinking, smoking, etc.) to help crowd surf someone. Sometimes you’re helping the same person crowd surf like 8 times.

I’ve never seen anyone say that someone was too big to crowd surf. Big tiddy goth girls? They crowd surfing.

You have to be okay with other people touching you. You have to be okay with getting grabbed, getting pushed, getting shoved, getting hands laid on you, etc. and you have to not freak out about it.

It becomes VERY easy to get separated from people you’re with, but everyone around you is cool, so it’s fine.

I saw a fight break out at Beartooth RIGHT inbetween my best friend and I, and we were on opposite sides, and it was enough Caleb stopped the show, and they cussed each other out, and then made up and hugged it out after. You have to learn to not be afraid of these people, even if they are people you would never associate with otherwise.

Of course shit happens. People get drunk, people get high, etc. and a lot of times if something happens you hear about it after the fact, but I haven’t had that happen honestly.

You get this sort of anxiety beforehand, waiting in line. No matter what I feel like I always have anxiety at shows. It goes away and gets replaced by this euphoric high though that a few days later leaves you deprived of that chemical and you FEEL a depression. Post-concert blues is a REAL fucking thing. It’s very hard to go back to your “normal” life after an amazing night. Truly “I shouldn’t be here, I should be at a concert right now”.

Trash everywhere.

Smaller shows are personal enough you can just hang out and talk to artists. A lot of them are just people with regular day jobs who do this on the side. Slightly larger bands might do music as a full time gig but work their own merch table and stuff so you can go talk to them. You can pretty easily find them outside the venue and just sit down and hang out with them. I ran into Remington Leith of Palaye Royale the first Warped tour I ever went to and I walked around with him a bit. I found Tallah outside the venue when I went the other week and just sat with them while I scrolled through tumblr and listened to them talk to each other and occasionally chimed in and talked to them. Alex said she liked my homemade Tallah shirt. They were looking at a weird bug. I asked about it. Shit like that.

When I went to see Beartooth I could see Caleb side stage and I excitedly pointed him out to my best friend and she was like idk who that is and I said he was the lead singer of Beartooth and I had to mime that I had a crush on him. Embarrassing shit.

The singers will talk to the audience on stage. Sometimes they ramble on, sometimes they perform bits, like comedy. Caleb was talking about how he’d played the venue we saw them in more times than any other venue.

Moshing starts off strong and then dies down quickly a lot. A singer will fire up the crowd and it does not last. People are tired.

Costumes? A lot of costumes. Both the bands and the fans.

Sometimes the merch line is worth it, sometimes it is not.

I personally never get food or drink at concerts. I also don’t wear hearing protection. I really, really should. But I don’t. There is nothing unsexy about hearing protection.

Someone’s head is always in the way and when it’a not it’s truly a magical moment blessed from the gods.

You may get stuff thrown at or dumped on you. It happens. Once again you just gotta be cool with it.

If you don’t want to be in the pit everyone just kind of shuffles away and if you do you gotta push through and be like “LET ME IN”. 90% of people there do not want to be in the mosh pit. We are old and decrepit. Also that much attention on me would make me anxious.

Every band is just a group of Some Guys™️ truly. Just some fucking dudes. Sometimes there are girls and they are hot. Hi Alex from Tallah.

Lead singers love to climb things. Guitarists love to spin in circles. Drummers like to go hard for drum solos and they’re right and they should s(pl)ay it.

Local shows you’ll probably end up knowing some people by sight at least if not by name if you go more than once. So far people have come up to me and introduced themselves so I know some faces. It’s hard to not have imposter syndrome about it, at least for me. It’s hard not to feel transient or like you don’t belong when everyone knows each other and has history and talks about “hey were you there when-” “YEAH I WAS” and you don’t see any of these people ever. They’ll include you as best as they can but it can still be kind of isolating.

I’m sure if you’re already a pillar in your scene, then it’s truly a life style. Drinking, smoking, hosting shows in your bedroom, going to other shows in other people’s bedrooms and living rooms, house parties ever weekend or shows at the local venue where you know everyone that works there. Shit like that.

This has been a mix of my experiences the last few shows I’ve been to, which in order, has been Tallah, Beartooth, Metallica, and then just a house party with DJs.

[tending-the-hearth]

Turtle angst au thoughts today besties!!!

So, I’ve mentioned briefly a few times that all four groups find that their favorite dimension to visit is the mutant mayhem dimension, because it’s the dimension where (1) the lair is the biggest and therefore can accommodate everyone easily and (2) it’s the dimension where all the humans in New York know about the turtles, so hanging out together is VERY easy, because they don’t have to wait until nightfall.

I’ve been thinking about how, once everyone meets, the 2012 turtles would probably love having other places to disappear off to, where they could safely spend time with people who actually care about them. And because the mutant mayhem group is the one they connect with the quickest (mainly due to raph and splinter’s first interaction), they end up spending the most time there, like to the point where Splinter and the boys set up a room for the 2012 turtles.

there’s a point where the MM boys pretty much BEG their Splinter to let the 2012 boys go to school with them, and although they’re hesitant, it’s also like… this is an experience they’ll NEVER get to have anywhere else, where they can actually interact with humans their age, and get out of the lair, so they agree. Casey and April end up going with them, and it’s the most terrifying and exciting experience the 2012 boys have ever had. They tell the principal before anything happens, and they’re immediately on board, not just because the turtles have a fantastic reputation, but having other people from other dimensions is just very cool.

keeping in mind that, while the MM boys are around 13-14, the 2012 boys are about 18, so they walk in and immediately have the “cool older brother” vibes, and the MM boys CANNOT stop telling everyone about them. The 2012 boys are overwhelmed and honestly a little emotional, because no one is screaming, no one is looking at them with horror, everyone’s just excited, and going up to them to talk to them, and going to classes is surprisingly fun, and April and Casey are acting like excited toddlers because they get to hang out with their best friends at school, something they NEVER thought would happen. They sit together at lunch, and end up being able to make friends with other humans their age, they get to goof around and be kids, something they never got because they were always fighting and having to grow up far too fast.

it’s only for like a week or two, but it turns out that the teachers and other students end up adoring the 2012 boys just as much as the MM boys, so it becomes a thing every time they visit for an extended period of time, they accompany the MM boys and April to school, or go to RJ’s wrestling meets, or attend Tello’s science shows, sitting in the audience cheering their heads off (and ofc the parents see these boys who are just SO elated for their little brothers, so they end up absolutely endearing themselves to the parents in the school. Just… everyone loves the 2012 boys)

And i have a little image in my brain of Casey hanging off of Raph, joking around with him and RJ in the hallway (because RJ looks up to Casey and Raph SO much, they’re his favorite people every besides his own brothers), and out of the corner of his eye, Casey sees a kid around the freshman age, with hockey stickers all over his bag, and a hockey puck being tossed between hands as he walks over to his locker, and both Casey and Raph exchange a Look and not-so-subtly nudge RJ over to the kid, and they absolutely do NOT get emotional seeing their counterparts introducing themselves to each other and being able to watch their friendship being created right in front of their eyes.

[feyspeaker]

Picked up two prints! (And a sticker!)

Just so you know, I would legit pay for, like, a collection of your prints in a size somewhere between the mini and 11x14.

Like, I just want to put a *bunch* of them in a binder and just look at it sometimes lol

thank you so so much!!!! ;A; I have considered other sizes, but I live in a tiny place and my printing room is already full of too many sizes of paper/mailers/tubes/etc for what I do offer. I will keep it in mind but the sizes I have now are probably going to be pretty set for now.

About to go off on a tangent, so apologies for hijacking your sweet ask.

honestly this is still so crazy to me, thank you. I have been illustrating for years and years now, but really only found proper footing this year after taking a huge break from commissions and just hammering in what I really want to do with my life.

I've always preferred rendered painting but I felt like the market was so saturated and that I'd never be able to make a living doing it. Many of my older followers will know that for a couple of years I was really on this digital watercolor kick, doing more stylized work. It was extremely grueling despite being faster, bc I forced myself to work entirely on 1 layer with no eraser. It was faster for me to do and felt more "lucrative" as far as timeliness, but I was not very happy doing it, and did a lot of rendered painting studies in my free time, it was basically my "fun time" where I was doing one style for work and a totally different one for private pieces. Literally, I would be painting realistic block of cheese as my downtime.

I was so convinced that stylized stuff was what people wanted, and I have had boxes and boxes of prints I've bought and thrown away because they didn't sell.

Now that I am doing the kind of art my heart wants to do, I am so much happier and completely overwhelmed by how there are actually people who want to art I make for myself on their walls.

This is probably coming off so random but I've been thinking about it a lot, it really is true that you HAVE to paint what makes you happy. If you try to box yourself in to what seems the more "marketable" I promise you are going to be miserable. (Never stop challenging yourself, though. seriously.)

I have never been happier about the art I have created in the last 6 or so years of doing this professionally than I am now that I just said "fuck it, I am tired of painting anime-ish stylized stuff because that's what's in." It's like I've been forcing myself to jam a square block into a circle shaped hole for years. Not to mention that doing line art on literally over a thousand pieces (yes, I've counted, absolutely insane; comic artists please take care of yourselves) for years has well and truly fucked my hand up permanently, I fear.

Other artists, please listen to that little creature in your brain that's telling you it doesn't like painting anime girls or cats or thick chunky line art because that's what you think is popular. If painting nothing but hyperrealistic swords is where you heart is happiest, just do it and stop forcing yourself because I promise there are thousands of people out there who want to see your swords. Just make sure to throw in some jewels or filigree or whatever every once in a while to keep yourself challenged.

Sorry again for hijacking your message, I just am regularly blown away that somehow people actually like my art now that I like it. (Not that my older pieces are regrets btw, I think every single thing you paint no matter the style is worth its figurative weight in gold)

[argumentalist]

Building a big, red robot this week!

This is the HGGTO MS-06S Zaku II (Red Comet Ver.) - basically a very fancy version of Char's Zaku II.

I was genuinely disappointed with the head. There's absolutely no molded detail of any kind for the mono-eye. It's just a sticker on a smooth bit of plastic.

I debated trying to improve it a bit... Maybe freehanding a bit of that pink Gundam Marker I like so much. Or trying to scribe around the sticker to get a nice circle? Or gluing on a bit of pla-plate to add detail?

But, ultimately, I decided to just go with the sticker. I'm not thrilled with it - but I can easily peel it off and do something different at a later date. I didn't want to risk doing anything irreparable right now.

There's some really neat articulation in the chest. The two sides of the chest can fold inward on their own, giving you some additional flex before you even get to the shoulder joints.

The monopose/fixed-pose hands are so much better than the articulated hands in the RG kit. I mean, sure, being able to pose the fingers is cool and all... But they're just so finnicky and fragile. Give me a good, solid, fixed-pose hand any day.

The legs are maybe the one part of this kit I didn't love. Those hoses/pipes/cables are just so bad after building the RG. They're solid lumps of plastic. They don't bend at all. They just look so stiff and awkward.

There's a lot of accessories in this kit.

You get the usual Zaku II machine-gun, as well as a belt-fed version. There's a heat hawk and a collapsed/stowed version. Then there's a bazooka, and an anti-ship rifle, and some extra ammo.

Seriously - there's a couple runners dedicated just to the accessories. It's kind of amazing.

Unfortunately the weapons are all set up to be held in the right hand, so you can't dual-wield them without making some modifications. And there's no way to stow the anti-ship rifle on the kit when it isn't in use. So you can't actually put all the weapons on the model at the same time.

I don't normally use the sticker-style decals on a kit. I'd normally just throw that sticker sheet away. But I already had to use one for the mono-eye just because there's no other option... And then I didn't want the lenses on the weapons to look dramatically better/different... And then I just kept going.

Honestly, I think these were even more annoying to apply than waterslide decals.

I seemed to have some kind of static attraction going with these stickers. Once I got close to the model they'd just kind of suck onto it, which made precise positioning difficult. You can see some uneven lines around the waist skirts, which bug the hell out of me.

Still - the added markings really do make the kit pop. Maybe I'll grab some waterslides and do it right...

The articulation and posability of this kit is really something else. Very solid joints all around. Nothing that felt loose or in need of tightening. Holds a pose very well. Doesn't feel nearly as fragile as that RG I built.

Really, I don't have many complaints.

I would've liked a couple more hand options... Give me an open/expressive right hand, and a usable holding hand on the left. But that's about it. This is an absolutely fantastic kit.

I liked the build process for the RG... I really enjoy that level of detail and complexity... But this HG is absolutely superior as a finished model. I'm not afraid to touch it like the RG.

[bodynblood666]

Bonded Together. Ch 2: The First Practice

parring: Phantom and Aurora (platonic)

Content: Swiss being Swiss, slight panic attack, angry Dew but Copia and Aeth scold him.

word count: 2,076

summary: the first practice didn't go quite as Phantom had hoped. Sunshine reveals she is looking for someone to replace her but the search isn't going well. But she believe Aurora will be able to take over for her. Is Aurora up for it?

Chapter 2: The First Practice 

The early morning sun shone through the flimsy curtains of the room. Casting precious light onto the ghouls still lying in bed, and onto the plain boring walls. Phantom starts to stir awake when a particular ray of sunlight hits him right in the eye. The tear marks from last night still sit on his cheeks, like an old uncomfortable sticker. Phantom full opens his eyes and blinks at the sleepiness from them. He moves to get up and out of bed, but a body behind him prevents him from moving. Aurora. How could he forget she was still in bed. He honestly thought that sometime in the middle of the night she would leave and gone back to her room. Phantom rolls over to cast his gaze upon Aurora’s sleeping face. The only emotion it carried was that of contentment. Maybe staying in bed for a little bit longer wouldn’t be so bad. Just as Phantom was starting to lay down and get comfortable again, heavy footsteps can be heard almost sprinting to his door. Then suddenly, his bedroom door flew open, almost breaking the wall when it slammed against it. In the doorway stood a small, structured figure. Smoke slowly started to fill the room and the figure standing in the doorway kept smoking a cigarette. 

“Hurry up you two! I’m not letting the reason be that breakfast is late be because of you two!” the voice yelled at the two, now frightened, ghouls in bed. As quickly as the figure came, it disappeared.  

“Dew! Don’t yell at them. They had a big day yesterday; they can sleep in if they want to.” Rain’s calm, monotone voice echoed in the near distance.  

“But you know Mountain’s rule! ‘No one is allowed to eat unless everyone is present at the table.’ He follows it to a T Rain, and I want my bacon.” Dew barks back to his pack mate, clearly distressed over his bacon. 

Phantom and Aurora scramble out of bed, with Aurora bringing Phantom’s comfort along with her to protect her delicate skin from the icy cold morning air. They race down to the main dining hall, almost getting lost in the almost endless corridor of the Ministry. But soon enough, they make it to the dining room, although slightly out of breath. There, at the same table from dinner last night, the rest of their new pack mates sat chatting amongst themselves. Someone of them looked like they had been up for hours, and someone these looked like they had just woken up.  

“Aurora, there you are!” Cumulus exclaims as she walks over to them. “We were looking for you this morning. Thought you had ran away for a second.” 

Aurora gives Cumulus a warm smiles and replies, “Sorry, I probably should have told you where I went.” 

“Ah no that’s ok. You don’t have to tell us where you went. It was just strange you disappeared.” Cumulus says before taking Aurora’s hand and leading her to the table. Aurora in turn, grabbing Phantom’s hand. “Now let's eat before Dew gets even more pissy.” 

As Aurora was sitting down, she felt warm strong hands start caressing her shoulders, and a head lower down to one of her ears. A hot breathy voice whispers in her ear. “This isn’t allowed at the table, little miss princess.” 

And in a quick movement the comforter that was protecting her from the cold, was ripped away from her body in one quick motion. Heat rises to her face and an almost cartoony blush fills her cheeks. When she turned to see who ripped away her comforter from around her, she saw a tall ghoul with a curly mop of a head of hair smiling down at her.  

“Swiss, leave her alone.” Cirrus says from the other side of the table, crossing her arms. “She as just summoned, give it a bit before you try seducing her, ok.” 

“Sorry, Rus but whenever I see a pretty new ghoul, I got to get really close to them.” Swiss says crouching down to Aurora’s height, looking her dead in the eye. Aurora stares back at the fellow multi ghoul, with big doe eyes. The bright pink blush spreading across her whole face and neck now.  

Before Aurora can say anything to the multi ghoul, Mountain finally brings in breakfast, to Dew’s delight. Swiss stands from his crouching position and wonders over to his seat across the table and next to Sunshine. Aurora watches Swiss closely as he walks away. A million thoughts ran through her head in an instance. Two of them being, ‘what was that all about’, and ‘is it bad I want him to do it again.’ 

Aurora quickly tries to compose herself before anyone notices her flustered appearance. Unfortunately for her, someone did notice. When she lifts her head up from looking over herself, she is met with hungry golden eyes staring into her own mixed matched eyes. She couldn’t believe Swiss was sitting directly in front of her. She could have sworn he was sitting at the other end of the table yesterday at dinner. Aurora felt her face starting to flush yet again. She tried looking anywhere else in the room besides Swiss’ hungry gaze. 

“S-So uh,” Aurora says, trying to strike up conversation. “The first practice is today, right? What am I supposed to be doing while you guys are all at practice?” 

“I guess you can sit in on practices. At least until we find you something to do around the Ministry,” Aether replies, downing his morning coffee as Dew steals a few slices of his bacon.  

Dread sets in on Phantom as he realizes that soon enough, he will be on tour with the band and Aurora will stay here in the Ministry. His hands start to shake as he dives deeper into his thoughts. What if during their tour she forgets about him? What if he forgets about her?  

Breakfast wizzes by in a haze. It is only when Dew starts the first guitar riff of Kaisarion, Phantom snaps back into reality. When did he get in the practice room? Better yet, when did practice start? Standing in front of the ghouls on stage is Coipa, Aether and Aurora. Phantom guesses this isn’t a full practice since Copia isn’t off stage awaiting his queue. Phantom follows as many queues as he can remember, but he does forget many and plays many wrong notes. He looks over to the other side of the stage and sees Dew glaring at him as Rain plays his bass line at the start of Con Clavi Con Dio. Phantom whips his head to face the front of the stage as quickly as he could. He tries to remember all his guitar riffs for the rest of the songs, hoping not to meet Dew's wrath. But when it comes to his turn to play, he blanks.  

“I can’t take this anymore!” Dew shouts, throwing one of his picks on the ground. In that moment, everybody stops playing and turns to start at him. “He keeps messing up Copia. He’s not working out!” 

“It’s his first real practice Dew!” Aether yells back at him from his spot in the audience.  

“Aether is right Dewdrop. Don’t be mad at him, he only had a 30-minute practice session yesterday. He's learning. I’m not expecting him to be perfect after 30 minutes of practice. In fact, he’s doing a good job so far,” Copia says sternly, crossing his arms over his chest. At that, Dew shags his shoulders a little bit as an embarrassed looks appears on his face. Copia pinches the skin between his eyebrows and sighs. “That’s enough for right now. We will continue later.” 

Phantom was the first one to leave the practice room. Speedwalking out of the practice room after placing his guitar on its stand. Aurora is next to follow out of the practice room, following after Phantom. Soon enough, the practice room is cleared out, except for two ghouls, Aether and Sunshine. Sunshine finally steps off her platform and walks to the center of the stage and stands next to Aether. 

“I take it you haven’t talked to Copia yet?” Aether asks.  

Sunshine shakes her head with a no. “No not yet. I was hoping I could find somebody to replace me before I told him. But the search hasn’t been great. The other multi ghouls don’t have what I’m looking for.” 

“We need a lot of help here Sunny. Ifrit and Omega are struggling as it is. Mist is doing everything she can as well. We really need your help.” Aether begs. Sunshine smiles up at him and places her hand on his cheek and caresses it.  

“I know Aeth. I’m trying to find someone, it’s just hard,” Sunshine slowing removes her hand from his cheek as she gets an idea. “I could see if Rora is able to replace me! It would be good for not only the band but for Phantom too. They have a special relationship, and they probably don’t want to be separated! Thanks for the idea Aeth!” Sunshine exclaiming jumping off the stage and running out of the room in search of Aurora. 

Aether is left behind in the practice room, standing there completely clueless. “But... I didn’t say anything...”  

After running through the endless corridors, Sunshine finally reaches the ghoul den. She bursts through the big iron door and roams her eyes upon the ghouls on the sagging couch. No Aurora. She progresses further into the ghoul den and opens every door she can. Still no Aurora. Sunshine searches the ghoul den for close to 10 minutes and she can’t seem to find Aurora. She walks about to the living room, trying to think of where Aurora could be. 

“Whatcha looking for, baby?” Cirrus asks wrapping her hands around Sunshine’s neck from behind. Sunshine turns her head to look at Cirrus. 

“I’m looking for Rora, Rus,” Sunshine replies. “You know where she is?” 

“Yeah, she’s in the garden with Phantom and Mount. Phantom was having a hard time with what Dew said and Rora was trying to console him. Mountain saw and took both outside, hoping to help them in any way,” Cirrus tightens her hold on Sunshine. “Why?” 

“I gotta ask her something,” Sunshine taps Cirrus’ arm, signaling for her to let go, which she does. “Thanks honey.” Cirrus smiles and watches Sunshine disappear behind the iron door, but not before telling her to visit later with a flirtatious tone to her voice. 

It doesn’t take long for Sunshine to reach the garden as the den is close to the exit of the Ministry. She wanders around the grounds of the Ministry for a bit. She starts to wonder if Cirrus lied to her about the three of them being out here. But soon enough, she sees the large antlers, she’s grown to love, peaking over some flower bushes in the near distance. She smiles and slowly starts making her way over to Mountain, getting a little insight into the conversation he was having with Phantom and Aurora. 

“And these are Ghost Orchids also known as Dendrophylax Lindenii,” Sunshine hears Mountain say. “They are native to Florida, the Bahamas and Cuba. Now we’re not really supposed to have them, but the Ministry was able to pull some string, when Primo was papa, to be able to get these. Primo was very into plants when he was here.” 

The joyful sounds of Phantom and Aurora’s oohs and awes ring through Sunshine’s ears as she approaches. Then she hears Phantom innocently asks, “What happened to Primo?” 

Mountain sighs, then replies, “Unfortunately, Primo is no longer with us. He has passed on to his next life,” As Sunshine rounds the corner of bushes of the garden, she hears sorrowful ohs from the two newer ghouls. Mountain turns his head when he notices another presence in his garden. “Hi Sunny, whatcha doing here?” 

“I was looking Aurora. Rus said she was out here with you.” Sunshine replies smiling at them. 

“Oh uh, ok,” Aurora says standing up following Sunshine to the gazebo in the middle of the garden. “What is it, Sunshine?” 

“How would you like to replace me and be a part of the band alongside Phantom?” Sunshine asks with a smile on her face.  

“Huh? Are you serious, Sunshine?” Aurora asks in awe.  

[languajix]

There’s a knock-knock-knock! at your cabin door. Luckily, whomever knocked waits for you to answer, so the cabin’s automated defenses don’t get him. Outside, you see a very familiar box turtle, shuffling nervously with something hidden behind his back. He brightens when you open the door.

“Mike! Nibbles! Hi!” Smokey greets, smiling up at you. He pulls one hand out to wave at the nibbles, then returns his attention to you. “I’m glad you’re here! I have something for you. Oh! And the nibbles, if they’re allowed.”

From behind his back, he pulls out a plate from the mess hall. On it lies 4 little cupcakes, each topped with colorful buttercream and sprinkles. “I don’t know if they’re allowed to have sugar,” Smokey admits. He pauses, then adds on, “Or if Angie is even old enough to eat cake.” He shrugs. “Honestly I figured if they can’t have them, you’ll be able to. Oh! And you have your own present too, one sec-” Holding the plate with one hand, Smokey carefully pulls something out of his shell. He shifts on his feet nervously, but smiles as he offers it up to you.

It’s a very carefully constructed arts and craft. On a laminated piece of paper is a colorful drawing depicting you, the nibbles, and Smokey in your cabin’s bathroom. The nibbles are all in a full tub, splashing happily and sending water everywhere. Bright pink bubbles adorn the page, highlighted with glitter as a nod to the incident that led to the bath time, and Mike’s mask is crafted with a little carefully cut piece of bright craft paper. Smokey’s mask is similar, but where Mike’s is crisp, clean cuts, Smokey’s is a little jagged with holes with his tails and singed just like it is in real life. Around the artwork is a frame of colorful popsicle sticks - some of which still have jokes visibly printed on them - held together with hot glue and decorated with fun stickers.

“It’s been really fun hanging out with you. It’s been fun hanging out with everyone, but you’re one of the first people I met and you always kept a really cool head when I probably didn’t deserve it-” Yeah, his brothers definitely would’ve killed him for the glitter bomb. Well. Specifically Donnie. And April. April definitely would’ve killed Smokey. “-and when things got kinda scary-” The crystals appearing. The bugs. The flooding. The flooding had been particularly scary for Smokey, even though it had turned out to be harmless. “-and hard.” The homesickness had been…rough.

Ugh, this was harder than he anticipated. He cleared his throat before starting again. “Anyways, uh, I know everyone is going home soon and I dunno what’ll happen, but I made this to remember me by. And as a thank you? It was kinda terrifying showing up here, not gonna lie, but you made it a lot less scary.” Try as he might, the thirteen year old on your doorstep sniffled, eyes shining. He’d rub them, to get rid of the gathering tears, but both of his hands were currently occupied with presents. He was happy to go home, he missed his family, but… “I’m gonna miss you a lot, Mike.”

@tmnt-fandom-family-reunion

"Thanks, Smokey. This art? A masterpiece. Gonna be fist-fighting the Louvre for it, and I'll win, because I love it the most." The present was incredibly thoughtful. In fact, it was one of the most thoughtful and personal things Mike had been gifted throughout the Reunion, and he took it gently. He'd have to keep it out of prying nephew hands, stow it away in his duffel before they could cover it with drool or accidentally crease it. He'd hang it up on the wall next to his bunk, but. Well.

He'd hang it up on the wall in his bedroom, at least.

At home.

Where he was going.

And he'd never see Smokey again.

"Actually," Mike said, "I had something for you, too." He rummaged around in his duffel and pulled out a very large bandana, something loose and breathable that Smokey could wear around his neck, as a skirt, over his shoulders, whatever. He'd tie dyed it orange and yellow, like Smokey's markings, like Smokey's shell. If Smokey wanted to hang it up on his wall, or throw it over the back of a chair or something, that would be fine with Mike. He wasn't the fabric police.

He took the cupcakes, then, too, and tried to muster up a smile. "I think Angie might be a little young, but I'm sure the others are gonna love these." He went to go set them down on the end of his bed, but little heads started popping up from the bedside nest with little grabby hands, and before he could blink Lee was trying to crawl out towards them, eyes on his prize. He swiped the nibbles, blanket nest and all, into his arm and heaved them up, walking back over towards Smokey. "No you don't, kiddos, we're saying goodbye first."

He blinked back tears. His voice got soft, no matter how much he tried to keep it steady. "You were one of my first friends, too, Smokey. When I was looking for Dee, you dropped everything to help me look for him, and for that I can't thank you enough. You're a great kid, with a great heart. I'm gonna miss you too. You and Sparky; being at camp, hanging with the both of you, has been more fun than I've had in a long time."

El and Angie picked up on the melancholy they were both feeling; Angie pat Mike clumsily on the wrist, while El leaned forward, looking for a hug from Smokey.

Dee, seeing a familiar face, poked his head out of the blanket scrunch that Mike was holding and blinked slowly, which Mike was going to interpret as a good thing. A greeting, maybe. Lee chirped and wiggled his own hello.

"Say goodbye, guys," Mike tells them softly, smiling at Smokey in a way that he hoped was comforting.

@tmnt-fandom-family-reunion

[sunhowler-art]

What is Gordie and Benrey's love languages? (Physical Touch, Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, ect)

i'm not the biggest fan of the love languages for reasons this video explains well, that being said it is a cute little character thought exercise anyway so i still wanna answer ^_^

gordie is canonically always touching people. always putting her hands on peoples shoulders, grabbing their arms, stuff like that. she's super handsy! she loves showing physical affection. always wants to hold hands or have her arm around benrey's shoulder or give him quick little kisses. she loves words of affirmation too, she's a mom after all. she's used to dishing out "good job"s and "i love you"s. actions speak louder than words for her but that doesn't mean she won't give out a million words on the side as a bonus.

benrey, on the other hand, is very bad with physical touch. it's not that he doesn't like it when gordie touches him (he really really loves it), it's just super overwhelming for him. he's not used to touch that isn't malicious. gordie has to learn when and how to give him space when he needs it, but she's more than willing to accommodate him.

benrey shows affection in a myriad of strange ways. i guess the best way to describe it is quality time, honestly. he loves following gordie around like a lost puppy. sitting next to her on the couch not doing much of anything. listening to her talk about whatever and staring at her face. he just likes being in proximity of her and being able to chip in with whatever bullshit he's got going on in his head and making her laugh. i do think he likes giving gifts also, but in a cat-giving-you-a-dead-mouse kind of way. like i've said in another ask, he loves getting gordie treats from his gas station. he likes finding new awful games to make her play with him. he also loves finding cool rocks and plants and trash to give her.

i've never mentioned this on tumblr before actually, which is kinda surprising because i think about it a lot, but i think benrey would get into the arts post-canon. like, all of them. he wouldn't be good at any of them in the traditional understanding of what makes art "good," but he's insanely creative and has a unique perspective and a complete disregard for norms and principles. he could make really interesting shit. incomprehensible collages made of absolutely any shit he could scrounge up, pottery comprised of impossible geometry, shitty songs he writes and performs with his guitar covered in miscellaneous stickers and stains, photographs of things that shouldn't exist, etc. he makes all this shit and more for gordie and she loves it. she doesn't understand any of it really, whether any of the things he makes even have a deeper meaning, but she's enamored by how fucked up it all is, and how it's all for her. she's never been an art person, and if you had asked her when she was younger what she thought about modern art she would've laughed and said it was stupid or pointless or something. but she kinda gets it now. it's like sweet voice: it's a language she may not ever fully understand but it's beautiful and meaningful to her all the same, because she gets to experience it when not many others can. she's special enough to be able to see it, and benrey trusts her with it. that's enough for her.

[saucymincks]

GIFT-GIVING TIPS AND REMINDERS NO ONE ASKED FOR

Hello, my name is Caro and I fuckin' love giving people gifts. This year, we're all doing the "shit shit money is tight oh no" thing, a lot of us have to buy things for people we don't know super well, etc. so here are a few ways to make cheap/generic/last-minute gifts a little more special!

WRAP THE GIFT I know this might seem obvious, but you'd be surprised. Get some cheap wrapping paper and scotch tape and wrap it up! Or, if you're like me and hate wrapping gifts, grab a gift bag AND TISSUE PAPER. Don't just throw the thing in the bag and call it a day, a little puff of tissue paper makes it look like you gave a shit. Plus, the gift wrap is a great way to add a personal touch - you can use someone's favorite color, it can be cute or pretty or funny, whatever you want it to be. There are all sorts of creative ways to wrap gifts, too - I've seen part of the gift itself used as the wrapper, like when I received a book wrapped in a scarf and tied with a hair wrap!

REMOVE THE PRICE TAG Either cut the price tag off or, if it's printed directly onto the gift in any way, scratch it out with a pen or sharpie. It's not entirely about hiding what something costs (though there are reasons to do that) so much as it's about making it seem like you put any effort whatsoever into this. I've received $5 bargain bin gifts that were thoughtful and wonderful! But when you receive a $5 bargain bin gift that has the big red sticker on it and is unwrapped, it kinda feels like a "fuck you". I've also received expensive gifts and felt guilty/inadequate when I saw the price tag. That's not the energy you want when you're giving a gift. PERSONALIZE IT Even if you're giving something generic, you can personalize it at least a little most of the time. I'll use bath stuff as an example - we often think of that as a general "buy this for whoever" kind of thing, and it totally can be, but it's also easy to make bath stuff thoughtful! If I'm buying for my mom vs. my best friend, the vibes will be very different. My mom is more of a sunshiney organicy type, so she'd get light floral/herbal/citrus scents in colors like pink, light green, cream, etc. My best friend is basically if Morticia Addams and Tia Dalma had a baby, so she's getting things in purple, black, gold, forest green, with heavier scents like you'd associate with incense and the woods. They're both getting a candle, a bar of soap, and a sheet mask, but those items are personalized to their tastes and vibes.

IT'S OKAY TO ASK If you honestly don't know what to get someone, you can ask! And you don't have to phrase it like "what do you want me to buy for you" because that might make them feel weird! A more tactful way to ask what someone might want as a gift that doesn't make them feel as pressured to have the "right" answer is to ask them "is there anything you've had your eye on that you haven't been able to justify getting for yourself", or "is there anything I can help you replenish that you might need", or "what sort of things are you trying to keep on hand these days", or something along those lines. Ask them what they're watching or listening to these days, ask them what they're enjoying as hobbies, ask them where they like eating, etc. All of these questions can spark a ton of ideas!

IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU Some people really struggle when the person they're shopping for just wants practical or "boring" stuff, but remember: giving a gift is about giving a gift, not about receiving points. If someone says all they want is socks and a grocery store gift card, give them those things. If someone is overloaded with stuff, consider gifting them an experience or a subscription (I'm giving both my parents the gift of "pick a night, pick a theme, I'm your personal chef, you get to hang out and watch movies while I continue to hand you food until you say stop" this year). Don't buy loud stuff for little kids unless the parents are okay with it. Consider the person you're shopping for rather than how the gift will make you appear. If you're really hung up on the whole "paying your electricity bill for a month isn't a gift", "cleaning supplies aren't a gift", "underwear isn't a gift" thing, get them something indulgent in addition to the thing they're asking for.

GO ONE STEP FURTHER I have a friend who is BIG into Pokemon. I don't know a dingdang thing about Pokemon. I could very easily give him a Pikachu plushie and call it a day, and he'd be delighted by it, but you know what's a little more creative and fun? Doing some research and finding something a little more out of the box and unexpected. Which is how I stumbled across a bunch of Pokemon-themed cocktail recipes, and how I stumbled across the idea of making little cocktail kits in small mason jars with dried fruit and sugar cubes and stuff like that and pairing them with airplane bottles of liquor, which is how I gave that friend a gift that made him go "BITCH THIS IS SO CUTE, I'M GONNA MAKE THESE JIGGLYPUFF JELLO SHOTS TONIGHT" at the top of his lungs one year. Plus, he still has and still uses those jars after about a decade! It didn't cost me a ton of money, I was able to DIY most of it, and it was cute and personal. There are a lot of ways to do something a little unexpected and create a gift that's not going to set you back a ton but that has a ton of heart and love put into it.

CONSIDER A BUNCH OF TINY THINGS I...love tiny things. I love knickknacks. I love stuff and tchotchkes. I love opening a box or a bag and finding SO MANY LITTLE THINGS IN THERE. If you know someone like that, oh my god, shop for them like that, trust me, it's so much fun. Sometimes it's hard to come up with one big concrete item to give someone, so maybe...don't! One of the nicest gifts I ever got was literally a box of a bunch of little things that reflected me as a person. There was a mini bottle of a bourbon, a couple of jars of spices, a pair of fingerless gloves, some stickers, a box of shabbos candles (I am forever forgetting to replenish my supply and having to light random candles on Fridays), all sorts of random but personal stuff. Each item on its own was inexpensive and simple, but when it was all put together, it added up to an incredibly thoughtful mixture of practical, indulgent, and just plain fun!

YOU CAN REGIFT BUT YOU GOTTA BE CAREFUL ABOUT IT, BUDDY Look...it happens. We receive a thing we can't use/don't like/already own. Someone else might like it. We give it away. But please, please, please be strategic about regifting. I've regifted things plenty of times, but the trick is to keep it outside the circle so the person who originally gave it to you doesn't see you blatantly passing it along. There's honestly nothing inherently bad or wrong about regifting, in my opinion, but there can be hurt feelings attached to it for many people, so it's a good idea to try and avoid that. Also, if the item is personalized in any way...most of the time, regifting is not gonna work. Use your head here!

This is all I can think of at the moment but if y'all have other advice please feel free to add. Gifts don't have to be a "feed the capitalist machine" thing - they can be (and should be) an opportunity to give a loved one a tangible reminder that they are cared for, a chance to give someone a little treat to make their day and by extension their life better and happier. Gifts also should not be something that causes you stress and shame and frustration! Gifts should be JOYFUL for everyone involved. Now go out there and don't forget to buy tissue paper.

[therapy-ghost]

hey there! I’m sending info for the match exchange :0

* pronouns: she/her

* interested in being shipped with the boys

* hobbies: singing in a band, reading fantasy novels, taking long naps, collecting things like stickers/journals/postcards, drawing, crocheting

* i'm an INFJ Ravenclaw (super slay)

* personality time! (oh gosh)

* i'm the type of person that people regard as being very well adjusted but honestly i'm having a mental breakdown most of the time.

* i'm a deeply empathetic person, i care a lot about others and sometimes i forget to care for myself because of it. if someone i care about is in trouble, or needing my help, i will drop everything i'm doing to assist them. i also love sending care packages and letters to people.

* i have taken in many of my friends throughout my life because they needed a place to stay. unfortunately, this aspect of my personality has also led to me being scorned many times (i see the good in people and tend to overlook the bad).

* BECAUSE of that scorn though, i have developed some trust issues.

* on the flip side of my sensitive/kind nature, i can be very feisty. when i'm frustrated i just want to beat up something, and i become very passionate towards injustice. my friends say i'm like a kitten with a knife.

* additionally, i would consider myself a brave person. I don't struggle to have hard conversations with people (i don't like them but I'll do it), I've stood up to every bully I've ever had, and I've asked out every crush. unfortunately, this has led to me being rejected multiple times (contributing to my sense of no one ever being able to love me)

* due to my trust issues and rejections, i tend to feel like an outsider in most of my friend groups. it can be very lonely.

* TO FINISH IT OFF (this has become too long), i would consider myself a wise/intelligent person (i give good advice), resilient, but also easy going.

* i'm a words of affirmation girlie, so i would love in a relationship to feel supported and welcome when i often don't feel accepted in a space.

* i also would love someone who doesn't mind me going on about my hyperfixations for hours (which i will do when i get comfortable).

* i'm also very touch starved but i will never initiate it (i like when my friends hug me but i will never go to hug them first).

hope that information was helpful! i realize i sound crazy

hey! Thanks for the patience and here’s you match ups!!!

For Avatar; the last airbender, I match you up with Zuko!

trust issues; am I right?

but no, he needs someone, like now.

he is also very touched starved but is to much of a dork to take your hand on his own so you will need to do it for him(we all know he is thinking it)

he will tell you horrible jokes and misses the punch line most of the time, but he wants to make you laugh.

very protective, wants to always be with you (especially if you are part of team avatar/boomerang)

for Harry Potter, I match you up with Draco Malfoy!

….what can I say… it works

you are definitely to good of an influence on him that his father hates you… but I don’t think his mom will mind to much.

you definitely make him think about his choices and the death eaters and you make him question if he wants that life or a different with you.

thinks ‘Pottah!’ Is trying to steal you… and every other guy at hogwarts if they talk to you so he is a bit jealous.

will show off his magic skills to you

and for Marvel, I match you up with Steve Rogers!

He is 100% gonna make you feel safe, and loved, and like he is the man to trust.

he is the definition of the perfect man if I say so

likes watching you sing and if you are just singing to him he will try and join you

keeps you as far away from his hero work as he can(if you don’t want to be a hero)

100% used to collect post cards as well so this can be your shared hobbie.

thanks for your patience and I hope you liked it!

[laineystein]

What to expect at 🇮🇱Ben Gurion🇮🇱 Airport:

✈️ ARRIVING

When you get off the plane you will need to stop at the passport kiosks. They are not labeled. They’re the silver machines with screens to scan your passport. No one will tell you to use them but I highly suggest you stop and scan your passport. It will give you an entry pass. This will come in handy later.

Go down the ramp. I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this you do not hold Israeli citizenship, so you’ll want to stick to the right. It’s actually very well labeled. I say “actually” because things in Israel rarely are. This line will be much longer than the line for Israeli passport holders. Wait in it and deal with the merge/bottleneck situation that occurs before passport control.

At passport control you’re going to hand over your passport and your entry pass. If you don’t have an entry pass they’ll give you a dirty look so get the entry pass (at those inconspicuous scanners I mentioned earlier). Go up to the window with everyone in your party - if you don’t, they’ll ask you who you’re arriving with and then you’ll need to call those people up. They may then ask for some people in the party to step back as they ask one or only some people questions. Just answer their questions. Usually it’s brief, they give you your card and you’re on your way.

Out of passport control you’re immediately at more scanners that look like the passport kiosks I mentioned before (that I hope you stopped at!). You’ll scan the card passport control gives you, the gate will open, and you’re in baggage claim.

It’s the Wild West now. Grab your bags (can’t miss baggage claim or the screens assigning flights to belts). Declare things at customs if you need to (can’t miss the sign - it’ll be on your left as you’re heading out into the main area of the airport). Genuinely, once you’re through passport control things get much easier and it’s very easy to figure out. (Signage isn’t great in Israel but the signage we do have is in Hebrew, Arabic, and English so I have the utmost faith that you’ll be able to figure it out.)

Getting out of the airport - call a Gett or take the train to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem or wherever you’re staying. The airport train is decent but I don’t recommend it if you have a ton of luggage. If you’re taking a taxi, sometimes they’ll charge you extra for putting your luggage in the trunk so hold it on your lap, if possible.

Shalom! You’re in Israel.

✈️ DEPARTING

If you are not checking bags -> proceed to the line straight ahead. It will be shorter and no one will have big luggage. This is the line for people that are not checking luggage. [Skip to 3]

Assuming you are checking bags -> When you arrive to the airport to leave, look to where your airline is. There will be two long lines on either the left or the right. Go to the line that is nearest to your airline’s ticket counter.

Wait in the line. Sometimes it takes ten minutes, sometimes it takes an hour. This line is not for your airline — this line is interrogation 1/♾️. Do what you did in passport control: approach with whoever you’re traveling with and answer the questions they ask honestly. They may tell some of the party to step back so they can speak to specific people, just let them do their job. Their questions may feel a bit intrusive (Why did you come to Israel? Where did you stay? What is your relationship with the people you traveled with? Who packed your bags? What’s in your bags? Have you been to Israel before? Do you speak Hebrew? Do you have family in Israel? Do you belong to a temple?) but they exist for a reason. Once they find your answers satisfactory, they’ll put a sticker on the outside of your passport (We’ll come back to the sticker…)

For those who are checking bags -> After they put the sticker on your passport they’ll also put tags on the luggage you plan to check. Proceed to your airline’s ticket counter. Give them your passport. Put your bags on the belt to be weighed…all standard airline ticket counter checking bag business.

Proceed toward security. There will be two security lines. One of the left and one on the right. If you’re reading this, I can almost guarantee you’ll be in the lane on the left. The right is the line for Israel passport holders…the exception being any that have visited high threat countries recently or that the security agent felt needed more vetting. If you’re confused and want to make sure what lane you’re in, show an agent that handy dandy sticker. That number on the sticker will help them determine your lane.

The line on the left, because it’s typically non-Israelis, is always longer and always involves more questions and scanning. Wait in line. You get called up to an agent one at a time. We don’t take off shoes. We do put electronics and anything in pockets in a bin. We also require you to open your bags and let the agent look around. And by look around I mean they’ll shove an explosive trace detector (looks like a microphone) in your bag. If you have a suitcase, you’ll need to open your suitcase. Even though no one is right over your shoulder, you are still very much in view of everyone else so I don’t recommend having anything you don’t want anyone to see at the top of your suitcase. They may also ask you to move items so they can see what’s at the bottom…basically, pack with this in mind. I guarantee they do this with checked luggage as well but at least when it’s checked, the underwear I packed is being viewed in private.

Once they’ve deemed your packing to be sufficient they’ll bring your bin to the scanner and put it through. You push your bag through. Then you walk through the metal detector. The agent will be watching your items as they go through. They are watching while there is also a radar tech watching. If they proceed to ignore you, you’re good to go. I don’t know what to tell you if you get stopped for any reason…

Congrats! You’ve made it! Go to duty free! Daven at Chabad! Stop at what is likely to be your last kosher McDonald’s for awhile! Israel has thoroughly criticized and judged you in a way that only Israel can and you survived. Proud of you. 😏

[toodingo]

Howdy hello I'm dingo!

As promised a dedicated penny/jane post 🙏 a conjunction of a bunch of penny hc with some other choir members sprinkled in

In this little universe I'm imagining all the kids get resurrected from the cyclone accident and after they come back Penny goes to live with Noel, so they got a sibling dynamic going on

Penny collects stuffed animals like currency, any time Noel gets a bonus from his job he buys Penny a new stuffed animal- her favorite is a sheep squishmellow

Penny and Constance have every class together and often do projects together 🤞 they are best friends

Noel and Penny have complete opposite styles so when they go anywhere they are so polarizing- they'll be shopping and it'll be ‘Edgar allan poe enthusiast with a tortured soul’ and ‘Shops at Claires’

Speaking of which she probably does shop at Claires, she most definitely got her ears peirced there, she lives laughs loves Claires

She often will often bring the choir quotes ripped straight from books... she can't read so it's really a gamble (she can read, she's just dyslexic and jokes about not being able to read)

Adding onto the dyslexia, she loves listening to audio books, her and Noel will often listen to them together, they've finished quite a number of books and Noel is really excited to finally find a way to show Penny his favorite pieces of literature

Constance and Penny play those like old flash dress up games, like the Winx club one and the unofficial warrior cat maker that everyone used, that's their jam

Mischa and Penny is an underrated friendship holy moly- I like to imagine that they collaborated on decorating oceans ‘choir picture/memory book palooza’ yes, that is the official title, Penny and Mischa decreed it, spelling it out in fun colorful sticker letters on the front- each page is covered in an obnoxious amount of wacky stickers, some puffy, some glittery, one page just has lps stickers- its great

Ocean and Penny take the most pictures, Ocean because she wants to save the memories of her favorite times with her friends and Penny because she wants to make her friends look like fools, Ocean doesn't like the pictures Penny takes but begrudgingly puts them in the picture/memory book

-- Noel would be on the unofficial picture taking committee but he is only interested in taking shitty ‘aesthetic’ pictures of like alley ways and putting a bunch of shitty filters on them /pos

Penny wants a cat, because they are cute and also because Ricky likes cats and she wants to impress? Him- Noel's mother is allergic to cats- it's a cruel and unfair world for her

Ricky and Penny are so cute, because they both have crushes on each other, neither express it but they just silently understand their affection for each other, they never make it official until Ricky final take her on a ‘date’ and it's not him finally building up enough courage to ask her out it's more like they go bowling and they both kind of agree it was a date

Penny's favorite show is a tie between strawberry shortcake, pretty little liars, and breaking bad. Constance introduced her to strawberry shortcake, Noel and her binge pretty little liars and Ricky and her had many date nights watching breaking bad. She can't choose which one she likes more

I have a headcanon on everyone's favorite movie genre so allow me to share- Penny's is horror oddly enough, she finds it so fun to watch, Mischas is action obviously but he's also a secret fan of romance and will watch any cheesy romance movie Noel suggests, Noel obviously loves the romance genre but like- shitty drama romance, Ocean, on the other hand, prefers romcoms and documentaries, Constance likes any comedy movie but most often watches romcoms with Ocean, quite honestly Constance could just watch a stand up act and be pleased, and Ricky, of course, loves sci-fi, he lives for that shit

Penny and Ricky go as peanut butter and jelly for Halloween one year but, furrified- they got the little jars and put on cat ears in their respective colors- it's was cute, strange but cute

I could come up with these all day but this list is getting a bit too long- maybe I'll make a pt. 2 electric Boogaloo

[sketchyjessieblog]

My Experiences Making Stickers

Machines

In terms of making stickers, you don't inherently need any machine whatsoever. If you can find decent sticker paper to draw on, some kind of laminate or protective adhesive coat, and scissors, you can make stickers just fine. Hell, you don't even really need the laminate/coat, but people tend to use stickers in situations where they'll need that protection to stand up to rain, weather, or condensation.

However, importantly, producing stickers without a machine is slow as fuck. Hand drawing is much slower than printing, and hand cutting is much slower than using a machine like a Cricut. Ultimately, I'd recommend at least a printer, as it will probably be able to print on more material than you can draw on, and it's a fairly cheap way to speed up production. But going without a Cricut is a lot more reasonable, as the Cricut is quite expensive, and you'll likely not need to produce at a large enough scale where hand cutting is impractical initially.

I personally have both: a printer and a Cricut. I like them both, and the Cricut allows much more precise and uniform cutting than I can do myself. But I honestly might have gone without the Cricut if I had better realized it wasn't really necessary to create good die cut style stickers.

Paper

Sticker paper is fairly easy to find online, and I've seen some decent material in stores like Hobby Lobby and Wal-Mart. Generally, you'll get more for your money going with bulk options online, but a smaller order might be more in budget and more practical early on.

In terms of material, I'd personally recommend something along the lines of printable vinyl, or otherwise something with a coating already on it. I have some sticker paper that was effectively uncoated paper, and it doesn't stand up well to weather on its own. And laminate and coating options have been difficult to work with in my personal experience. The spray I tried ended up being scratchy and weird, and laminate sheets are extremely thick, to the point that the Cricut struggles to cut it, even on the highest setting I have (poster board).

Another note, home printers can be quite finicky when it comes to thick material. Try to pick fairly thin, but still durable, material when possible, as thicker materials can get snagged in the average home printer. I effectively couldn't print on some heavy cardstock I got because of this.

On a final note, unless you need very uniform, standard shapes, like circles, rectangles, etc., I don't recommend getting pre-cut label sheets. Die cuts tend to look much more interesting and work with much more designs, and it's fairly easy to make them even without a Cricut if you make the outline simple enough.

Designs

In terms of design, you can get away with a lot as long as you're working with a printable material. I'd recommend making the files fairly bright and saturated, as this tends to come out looking better. If you're working with an incredibly dark piece, make it slightly brighter than you would think it should be. In my experience, a lot of detail can get lost with darker works, as the print looks darker than what's on screen. I'd recommend going more saturated with very light, pastel works. I've had issues with the material coming out near white, with the color barely showing through. Ultimately, it may be best to simply test things out with your own machines, but these are my experiences.

With hand drawn stickers, something I haven't personally tried, you'll have to consider your own personal limitations and tools. Again, this is something you can probably experiment with, but be mindful of your body. You don't want to treat yourself like a printing machine and develop medical problems like carpal tunnel because of it. We already risk that enough as artists.

Selling

If you'd like to sell your stickers, I recommend ensuring they're fairly weatherproof, as the average person is going to want to stick them in places where that's at least somewhat important. Laptops, tumblers, their car, etc.

I won't get too much into places to sell items, because that could probably be its own post, but in terms of pricing, I'd base that on the effort, material, and size. For me, I tend to price tiny stickers (roughly 1-2 inches) at 50 cents and larger stickers (2-4 inches) at $1. I don't usually make much larger stickers, so I don't have personal pricing there. Beyond my anecdote, I'd recommend looking around at local events, sites like etsy, and possibly even calculating sheer cost to yourself plus the profit you want to make. Analyzing general “market trends” plus your own costs will probably be the best route to get a decent price tag.

Shipping is something I have limited experience with, but I'd recommend going with a fairly protective shipping container, such as a bubble mailer. Even with decent weatherproofing, stickers can be fragile. In addition, you may want to charge your customers for shipping. I've personally paid upwards of $5-6 to ship individual bubble mailers with artwork and stickers in it, but I was also paying for tracking. The prices without tracking were more around $1-2, and obviously this will vary massively depending on the size of your mailer and the weight of your items. You may also be able to talk to your local post office or research business shipping. I don't know much about how to keep shipping costs low, but I've seen options for savings on things such as bulk shipping.

Products

Cricut Explore Air 2 - Pretty useful, but I had some issues with calibration initially. Also glossy materials have some issues with the scanner: I've used scotch tape over the lines the scanner looks for to help that. You can also use some cloth to gently clean the scanner if it's having issues. You definitely need the software that works with it, the Cricut Design Space, and use the Print Then Cut feature for printed sticker designs. I personally print from the Design Space as PDF, then print out the PDF, because the Design Space doesn't have proper paper type settings from what I can see.

Cricut Machine Mat - I found some decent off brand ones at Hobby Lobby. The machine comes with one, but I damaged my first mat and had to buy more. Good to have at least one extra on hand just in case.

Cricut Weeder - This makes removing stickers from the mat very simple. You can get a lot of the big parts off by hand, but the weeder is good for getting little details off without damaging the sticker.

EPSON EcoTank ET-2803 - Pretty decent printer. I haven't had to change ink since I got it a couple months ago, and I use it pretty regularly. It can be finicky with paper and get jammed easily, but otherwise it's fairly reliable to me.

Cricut Printable Vinyl - I just started using this properly, but I ran tap water over it, and the damage was pretty minimal from what I could tell. It was still usable after the fact, and the art was undisturbed. Prints fine, though it likes to fold on the edges a bit and get ink on the very tips, which doesn't impact much in my process.

Pen+Gear Self Adhesive Laminate Sheets - Too thick for the Cricut, but useful for other applications. Would work amazing for hand cut stickers. I personally use this for bookmarks atm, and the stickers I got using this are incredibly well protected.

Scissors - Any brand works. Good to have even with a Cricut. Useful for less precise cutting.