#i might not know much about star trek but my dad knows everything so it balances out

[fluffmonster31513]

my dad, explaining star trek episodes to me: so the concept for this episode is really stupid, but then again, so is racism

[ginnyweatherby]

I'm a bit rusty, but I wrote a story inspired by a line in Young Sheldon that bothered me more than it probably should have. I'm not sure how old Leonard Cooper was meant to be, but figure he's about eleven here, so I guess his sister could be around nine. Her name is Marie in this, since the writers apparently couldn't be bothered to give her one.

Word count: 2450. More or less.

***

“Eight… nine… ten!” Marie Cooper removed her hands from her eyes. “Ready or not, here I come!”

Sheldon smiled and shook his head as he watched his daughter run off and try to find her brother. Now that they were getting older, they didn't play together as much as they used to, but a particularly stormy day had knocked their Wi-Fi out of commission and (after 45 minutes of whining) seemed to leave them little choice but to entertain each other with a good old fashioned game of Hide-and-Seek.

He turned the page of his book, still keeping an ear out for the sound of his daughter's feet as she bounded up the stairs.  One might have thought she was a herd of wildebeest by the amount of noise she was making.

“I'm gonna get you, Leonard!" She called as she made it to the landing at the top of the stairs.

Sheldon heard the door to Leonard's bedroom open (that infernal hinge wouldn't stop squeaking no matter what they did with it), followed by Marie letting out a high-pitched squeal, and Leonard saying a word he should have been glad his mother wasn't around to hear.

“Alright, my turn,” Marie said, as Leonard started to count.

Sheldon settled back more comfortably in his seat, satisfied that the kids were staying out of trouble, and turned his attention back to his reading.

-

Just as Sheldon was about to finish his chapter and get a head start on dinner before Amy got home, Leonard raced into the living room, skidding a bit on the rug.

“Dad, Dad!” He said hurriedly, bouncing on the balls of his feet. His natural athleticism seemed to often manifest itself in the boy's inability to stand still at any given moment. “We’re eight rounds in and I'm running out of good hiding places, where should I go?”

“That closet in your room hasn't been cleaned in ages,” Sheldon said pointedly, standing from the couch and turning toward the kitchen. “I bet you could hide in there so long we'd forget what you looked like.”

Leonard scowled.

Sheldon patted his son on the head as he walked past him, making his way out of the room.

Marie's voice came into earshot. “Nine… ten!”

Leonard raced back up the stairs, apparently to take his father up on the suggestion.

-

Letting out a pained grunt as he shifted in the back of the closet, Leonard attempted to make himself somewhat comfortable in the limited space.

“Dad was right,” he muttered. “This place is a mess.”

... Not that he'd ever admit that out loud to said dad, of course.

Another shift in position, and an old Star Trek action figure started to speak its catchphrase as he accidentally sat on it. “Oh, shut up, Wesley,” he hissed, trying to stifle the sound with an old blanket.

It was unfortunately too little, too late, as he heard Marie's footsteps getting closer, before the closet door flung open. Leonard squinted as the light from his bedroom momentarily blinded him.

“There you are,” Marie said, as an avalanche of Leonard's belongings fell out of the closet, pooling at her feet. She kicked an old toy that had landed on her shoe aside. “You know, Mom tells you to clean your room all the time.”

“Don't be ridiculous,” Leonard grunted, attempting to extricate his long limbs from his cramped position. “Everyone knows cleaning your room doesn't include the closet.  If anything, it’s where you throw everything so your mom thinks you cleaned your room.”

Finally managing to get to his feet, Leonard took a step forward, only to bump his head on a shelf and cause a box to fall on him in the process.

“Dammit, ow -” Leonard rubbed the back of his head where the box had hit him. “What was that?”

Marie shrugged, pulling the box aside and taking a closer look. “No organizational keywords written on it, so Dad didn't put it here.”

“Why would Dad put something in my closet?” Leonard asked, kicking whatever had fallen out back into the closet, leaning into the door to get it to latch shut.

“Why does Dad do anything he does?” Marie asked, with a roll of her eyes.

“Well, I didn't put it there,” Leonard said. “Open it.”

Marie did as instructed, eyes wide with excitement, only for her face to fall once she viewed its contents.

“It’s just a bunch of old t-shirts,” she said disappointedly. “Probably for you to grow into or something.”

“Me?” Leonard pulled a shirt off the top, holding it out at arms length. “I wouldn’t wear this, I hate Green Lantern.”

“Who knows, maybe they’re hand-me-downs,” Marie rooted through the box, looking hopeful there might be something more exciting underneath the clothes. “Lame,” she said, falling back as she came up empty.

“Dinner’s almost ready, go wash up -” Sheldon appeared in the hallway, peeking his head into the room. “Where did you get that?” He asked, eyes locking in on the shirt Leonard still held in his hands.

“Uh, it was in my closet,” Leonard said, pointing at the box. “It fell on my head.”

Sheldon stepped into the room, rifling through the box and grumbling to himself. Leonard couldn't help but notice the tips of his ears were turning pink.

“Dad, what is it?"

Sheldon lifted the box into his arms, an odd expression on his face. “These are all my old shirts. Your mother seems to have hidden them in the one place nobody ever goes… your closet.”

“Yours?” Leonard took a closer look at the shirt, feeling it between his fingers.  It was clearly an older shirt, soft and well-cared for as all his father's clothes were, but the decal on the front faded from countless washes.

“She said I needed to start dressing like a -” Air quote. “Grown up’ once you two were born, and I knew there was no way all my clothes got lost in the move.”

“Mom hid all your shirts?” Marie asked.

“Taking pointers from your Aunt Penny, no doubt,” Sheldon muttered, taking the Green Lantern shirt from Leonard. “This was always one of my favorites, too.”

Marie seemed to have a renewed interest in the box, and stood on her tiptoes to peer back in while Sheldon still held it. “What about this one?” She pulled out a blue Batman one, and Sheldon looked at it with a nostalgic sort of smile.

“I wore that the day I asked your mother to be my girlfriend.” He placed the box on Leonard's desk, and dug through the box a bit more. “I wore this one the day we met.”

“How about this?” Marie pulled out a red shirt with The Flash logo on it.

“I wore that the first time your mother kissed me.”

“Ew,” Marie said, dropping it back into the box as if she'd been burned, her nose crinkled in disgust.

“Oh, she's never going to hear the end of this,” Sheldon said under his breath, just as the oven timer went off. “Hmm, it sounds like dinner is ready.”

He carefully folded the shirts and placed them back into the box, closing the lid and patting it fondly, as the three of them made their way back to the kitchen.

-

Amy had called earlier, claiming she was working late that night, and Sheldon knew that probably meant she was just meeting Penny after work, but he didn't mind.  He was having a nice time eating dinner with the kids, they were some of the only people whose fondness for spaghetti and hot dogs rivaled his own. It almost reminded him of the family dinners he'd had growing up, although he had to admit his children made for much more stimulating conversation than his siblings ever did.

Just as Marie was telling them about her upcoming spelling bee and how if she won (which of course she would), she'd be going to the state championship next, Leonard let out a groan.

Sheldon looked over and saw that his son had dropped a fork full of spaghetti on the front of his shirt.

“Aw man, I liked this shirt,” Leonard moaned, dabbing at the sauce stain with a napkin.

“Go change,” Sheldon instructed, pointing toward Leonard’s room. “I'll pre-treat it after dinner.”

“Dad, you don't have to-”

“Leonard, please,” Sheldon said. “I can get stains out of almost anything.  It's like a gift.”

Leonard rolled his eyes, but obeyed and stood from the table to change.

“Anyway, you were saying something about your spelling bee?” Sheldon turned his attention back to Marie.

“Leonard really can be exasperating sometimes, can't he, Dad?” Marie said sagely, shaking her head in a manner far beyond her years. “E-X-A-S-P-E-R-A-T-I-N-G.”

-

By the time Leonard returned, Sheldon and Marie had finished eating, and Sheldon was clearing their plates from the table.

“I made pie for dessert, but I was going to wait until your mother gets home,” Sheldon said, as Leonard sat back down to finish his dinner. “Although I'm not sure when she - what are you wearing?”

“What?” Leonard looked up from his plate.

“You're wearing my shirt,” Sheldon said, the dirty dishes momentarily forgotten.

“It's a nice shirt,” Leonard shrugged. “Since Mom doesn't want you to wear it anymore, I figured I could.”

“That is not at all what that means,” Sheldon argued.

“It was in my closet.”

“But it's mine,” Sheldon loved his son dearly, but there were some things a man just didn't share with his children.  T-shirts purchased at an old comic book store with Stuart's friends-and-family discount was one of them. “Plus, it's too big for you.”

“It's not that big,” Leonard said with another shrug. “Another growth spurt or two, and I'll be as tall as you.”

“A terrifying concept, really,” Sheldon muttered. “But very well.  I'll allow it.  The color does suit you.”

Leonard shook his head, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, before turning back to his - likely now-cold - spaghetti.

-

With an exhausted sigh, Amy turned the key to the front door.  It had been a long, long day. While she knew Sheldon probably figured she had met Penny for drinks after work, she really had been just that busy at the lab today. She was very much looking forward to grabbing a bite to eat, taking a scalding hot bath, and falling immediately into bed.

Pushing the door open, she expected the kids to already be in bed, and Sheldon to be watching one of his strictly after-the-kids-go-to-sleep television programs, but was surprised to see the three of them sitting around the coffee table, playing one of those complicated board games her husband (and now in turn her children) loved so much.

“Hi, Mommy!” Marie chirped, before letting out a groan as Leonard surpassed her on the board.

“Hi you,” Amy planted a kiss on the girl's head as she passed by, dropping her purse into a nearby chair. “I thought you'd be asleep already.”

“I wanted to stay up to say goodnight to you,” Marie said, sweetly.

“Yeah, right,” Leonard scoffed. “You just didn't want to go to bed."

“It's Friday,” was all Sheldon could say to defend himself against Amy's look.

“Fair enough,” she relented, and turned away to head toward the kitchen, when she stopped in her tracks.

“Where did you find that shirt?” She asked.

“Oh, this?” Sheldon said, innocently, his hand sitting gracefully on his chest, over the decal of one of his favorite The Flash shirts.  The black one.

“And that,” Amy said, pointing at the one Leonard was wearing. “And that.” She looked over and saw Marie was also wearing one - an orange one.

“Lost in the move’,” Sheldon clicked his tongue. “Really, Amy.”

“I told you I didn't get rid of them,” Amy said.

“You just hid them in my closet,” Leonard said, seeming to enjoy his parents' bickering.

“It's not as if you can ever find anything in there,” Amy crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at her son. “If you’d cleaned it once in awhile, you might have found that box ages ago.”

Leonard's smile disappeared.

“For your information,” Amy said, falling onto the couch beside Sheldon, poking the graphic on the aforementioned shirt. “I only hid your things away when Leonard was born because you wouldn't stop freaking out and running to do laundry every time he spit up on you. It was very inconvenient to not only have to bring spare baby clothes in the diaper bag, but to bring spare husband clothes as well.”

“Leonard has been capable of controlling his intestinal distress for a number of years now,” Sheldon pointed out.

“Well, just about the time he'd figured that out, Marie was born,” Amy said with a shrug.

“And when she got older?”

“Oh, by then I just forgot,” Amy said casually, taking a handful of pretzels from the bowl they'd been snacking on while they played the board game. “And you looked so cute in your grown-up clothes, I guess it never occurred to me to look for them."

“Gross,” Leonard scoffed.

“Yeah, gross,” Marie echoed. She moved her piece on the board to avoid looking at her parents. “I win, I win!”

“Aw man,” Leonard moaned, pushing away from the table. “No fair.”

“Alright, both of you brush your teeth and up to bed,” Sheldon said.

“I'll be up in a little bit to say goodnight,” Amy added, as the kids relented and trotted up the stairs, one after the other.

Once they were out of earshot, Amy turned to her husband and danced her fingers up his arm, before fiddling with his collar. “You know… as much as I love you in your new clothes, there is something sentimental about seeing you in this one again.”

Sheldon placed his hand over hers. “I could wear both, you know.”

Amy thought for a moment. “You don't mean just wear these over your newer ones, do you?”

Sheldon didn't reply right away, confirming her suspicions that that was precisely what he'd had in mind.

“I could wear them on alternate days.”

Amy smiled. “I suppose I'd be okay with that.” She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss. “On one condition.”

“What's that?” Sheldon eyed her warily.

“Our Christmas card this year has all three of you in those matching shirts,” Amy said. “That was so cute, especially the way it came down past Marie's knees.”

Sheldon rolled his eyes, and Amy knew his mind was swimming with comments about how much he hated Christmas, and cards, and Christmas cards, but after a moment he said, “You run a hard bargain, Amy Farrah Fowler.” He stuck his hand out for her to shake. “You've got yourself a deal.”

[mirimiramiri]

Be ready for the countless possibilities of the multiverse

The first time I stumbled across the idea of the multiverse was when my dad took me to the movie theatre almost 20 years ago. The title was “What the bleep do we know?”. It explained the basics of quantum physics and how every decision might result in the birth of a new parallel universe.

I loved it immediately.

The concept was used a lot in Star Trek and those were by far my favourite episodes! Come on, Spock with a beard! An evil Kira! And of course a universe in which Starfleet is the most sinister thing! Best Enterprise episodes!

But also when Worf accidentally jumped from universe to universe, every time it’s a bit different (he is married, part of the command staff or one of the few survivors of the Borg reign). Awesome!

I also enjoyed the tour through the Family guy universes with Brian and Stewie (especially… ah no spoilers!) And futurama of course! And Rick and Morty for sure, they took it to a whole new level.

Lately I think multiverses have experienced a renaissance in cinema. With the Spider-Man movies (three peters? I loved it!) and Doctor Strange 2 (I hated that movie so much…) Everything everywhere all at once also took us on one hell of a countless possibilities ride for sure!

I think there is something beautiful, comforting and terrifying about the multiverse idea.

My own take on multiverses in my story is a bit different than Be Ready. I have written, am still writing and will be writing around 7 different universes. At some point they will collide. Looking forward to a bunch of Vans (or is Vani the plural) fighting over who will take the wheel and try to squeeze into a single small Guymilef cockpit. Guess they will have to rock scissor paper that one out.

About the picture: it is my most ambitious yet and took about a month or so? In hindsight I wished a had made the canvas bigger for more Vani and Hitomis. It was inspired by “The black barn”, an excellent graphic novel about parallel universes and time travel I can only recommend. It’s like a Wimmelbild with scenes from the show, the movie and other possibilities. It was so much fun! Thanks for letting me do this @bluetreeleaves

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME, lest i get behind again. friday we watched voy's "dark frontier" and last night we watched voy's "the disease" and ds9's "inter arna enim silent leges." what a mouthful, and sadly not even the fun sexy kind

dark frontier:

SEVEN OF NINE MY BELOVEDDDDDD

ok, let's get it out of the way: conceptually, the borg queen doesn't make any sense. the borgs aren't individuals. that is half the point of them. (the other half of the point is brainwashed cyborgs. don't worry about it.) if the queen has goals, even something so base as "assimilate everything," that negates the point. if she plays mind games and flirts with seven of nine that is not the action of a collective but of One Borg. however, i am willing to forget about it because, and this is crucial, borg queen hot. mind games and flirting with seven hot. using janeway's words hot. 10/10

also 10/10: how freaked out seven is listening to all these people get assimilated. NEVER FORGET SHE IS FULL OF GHOSTS

not 10/10: flashing in this ep. there was so much flashing i ran out of room to write the flashing lights timestamps on my fucking gum wrapper. good lord

also, i feel like seven's parents were bad parents? they followed the borg cube's slipstream KNOWING there was little to no chance they'd ever make their way back to earth, and they were doing something totally unheard of and dangerous, and yet...they took their child with them? could they not have left her with a relative or something?? this seems like negligent parenting

also, i note that whenever little annika is like scared or having trouble sleeping her dad will only stop and comfort her if he notices it/if it interferes with his work. like, we know what his first priority is and it's not his kid. her mom was a LITTLE better, but she still was out here doing this with a baby on board

like, as adults, mom and dad can consent to being in that dangerous situation in the pursuit of science if they really believe it's worth risking their lives for. no matter if we think it's a dumb idea or a brave idea, it's their right. she didn't have a choice at all, and then the borg took even more choices from her

hence i believe her dad did kind of deserve to stay assimilated forever. on the fence about her mom. but it's fucked up that they couldn't save him - that they didn't even have time for seven to consider saying "wait take dad too" or "where's mom" or anything - and then also that she's just not gonna mention to anyone ever that she knows her parents are consigned to a near-eternity as borg (who do not die as easily as people do).

also, kind of a bad look for janeway to be like...damn who knew going through all your parents things would retraumatize you? that said, i DID like the moment where neelix gently expressed his envy over how much seven had left of her parents, because quite literally all he has left is one image of one family member. i don't think either of them are wrong for the way they feel, especially considering seven's parents let her get assimilated/failed to protect her, and the episode didn't try to push us to think one of them was.

finally, let's not forget chakotay pointing out one of janeway's tells (fiddling with her combade). she literally has two love interests.

overall, fantastic fucking time. i LOVE seven of nine

the disease (voy):

god this one sucked so bad

why are harry kim's episodes always something to do with a girl? i feel like the time travel episode is the only one who skipped this convention, and even then, they still gave a random girl to chakotay, so you have to wonder if she was originally harry's gf instead

anyway, they totally made up this "don't fuck the aliens" rule for this episode, right? riker fucks aliens all the time. you COULD say known aliens like in the alpha quadrant might have more lax rules and it's just for a first contact sitch, but...riker has fucked an alien on first contact too (albeit in a situation that was highly dubiously consensual), and of course was out here doing that right and left, though that could be excused as tos weirdness.

like you have to ask your captain AND your doctor before you fuck?? what??? what if it's just like second base???

anyway it made janeway look like a huge asshole. again.

and sorry, if the point of this episode was "love can be like a disease and people stay in relationships for bad reasons" why did seven come in in the end like "love is good thank you for showing em the truth harry kim" like what the fuck was that?

i think the point of this episode should have been "harry kim has grown up and gets to have depth now" except no he hasn't and no he doesn't and so that conversation was just a little afterthought because they'd had that exact conversation as an afterthought in harry kim episodes before. sigh.

inter arna enim silent leges (ds9):

i kinda liked the first section 31 episode, so idk why i hated this one so much

like i was all damn what are people complaining about yes this goes againstt he spirit of tos but it's good tv

maybe the difference is this wasn't good tv. it feels like a worse and more boring version of in the pale moonlight - romulans, secret dealings, assassination plots. this one just has less garak, less sisko, and more sloan

something about sloan REALLY annoys me. he's very unlikable. in the first episode this was fine because he was the bad guy but in this episode when we're kind of working with him, even if he's still the bad guy, he's on our team, and that's too much sloan. small doses, please

the twist also felt very dumb. like, they got him with a transporter before the phaser could kill him? i saw right through that one even while it was happening. the only real surprise was that that romulan was working for starfleet

it also sucks that the second most interesting character, the romulan senator or whoever, didn't have more to say or do and basically only existed to prove how shady sloan is

i liked julian yelling at him, alexander siddig CAN act, but that was one of the only interest parts of the episode. that and like the genetically enhanced mentions. the rest was saaaaur boring

TONIGHT: voy's "course: oblivion" and "the fight."

[empressofthelibrary]

Tell me about Jamie and Rachel

......Okay, I've been trying to keep my mouth shut about them because I'm worried I'll lose the motivation to write if I spill the beans, but... When I look at the pace I'm actually writing at, I might not get there until I literally retire. So... Here we go. Spoilers ahead, obviously.

Long story short, they're Bailey and Dick's daughters. I'm not sure how obvious that was, but I'd be shocked if nobody had put that together yet, honestly. And they might be from another dimension. They hatched from eggs that grew from a plant Bailey got as a wedding gift from the girls' fairy godmother.

...I'm gonna explain everything, but it's a helluva ride, so buckle up. Time travel is heavily involved, so be warned. It gets confusing.

The earliest seeds of this start not in Bailey's relationship with Dick, exactly, but with a cryptic warning from a random blonde girl with a very strong grip and intense orange eyes. She tells Bailey to "stay away from the peacock man" and... Vanishes back into the crowd.

Bailey brushes it off as a prank from some weird kid.

Fast forward a little bit, and Bailey gets called in to body-double for Princess Lydia of Valdania. The country is in political turmoil, Lyd is announcing a marriage of state, the risk of assassination attempts is high. There's a masquerade ball involved, because what's the point of fanfic if not self-indulgence, and Bailey encounters a man dressed as a peacock. She has completely forgotten the warning from the weird kid, but her "bodyguard" steps in before she can accept this wierdo's request for a dance. That becomes important later, I promise.

At some point, through some kind of Star Trek Bullshit, I'm sending Bailey into the 30th century. Someone else needs to be with her; it can't be Wally, for obvious reasons. She gets back with the help of Cary Wren, the GL of the time, but... Cary misses the target by about a decade. Bailey lands about ten-to-fifteen years ahead of when she left, practically in the lap of a twenty-something Lian. (Lian is growing up normal, fuck canon, this whole "Shoes" thing is stupid.) Bailey panics once she realizes she's not when she's supposed to be, and who she's looking at. She's familiar enough with the scifi genre to know that finding out your own future is bad. Lian is trying to do damage control, making sure Bailey learns as little as possible, while still getting her home. But she can't keep a perfect lid on things, and Bailey comes face to face with a very curious child -- One with red-gold curls framing her freckled face, a gaptoothed grin, and giant, almond-shaped eyes, blue as cornflowers.

Everyone freezes. Chris -- now also an adult -- scoops the child away as fast as he can. Bailey does not understand the tension in the room. She has a niece, clearly. That kid looked exactly like her nephew Aiden did at her age. Obviously Phoebe had another kid. Why a civilian child is here is a mystery, but she's trying really hard not to think about that.

The other person on the adventure with her points out the obvious. Bailey laughs it off -- It's pretty much physically impossible for her to have kids. And who would the dad even be? She'd be an awful mother besides. Nah, no way. That cycle ends here. (The thought had crossed her mind, but it scared the shit out of her, so she shoved it down deep.)

Fast forward a bit. Bailey freaks out and runs away from an actual relationship beginning with Dick, because change is hard and scary and good things never stay and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah commitment. I've talked about this a little.

To be more specific, she runs away to space with Kyle. While in space with Kyle, the party runs afoul of a Black Mercy. Bailey gets sucked into a dream. She's married to Dick, and has been for fourteen years. They're both going gray, getting old. Together. They have a little yellow house with a porch swing and a picket fence. There's a shelter cat, a cranky old-as-hell ginger tabby with one good eye. The sidewalk is covered in chalk drawings.

And they have two fantastic, adorable, smartmouthed daughters. Jamie's older, eleven, and already almost as tall as her father. Rachel is six, and steals the chocolate chips from the pancakes Dick makes on Sundays. They're both bright, compassionate, opinionated girls, so full of light and life and joy. Jamie has Bailey's righteous anger and outspoken nature. Rachel has Dick's quick mind and mischievous tendencies. Bailey loves them, loves this life, so much. It's everything she's ever wanted. Everything she didn't realize she wanted. Everything she was afraid to let herself want.

But she does. She wants it so, so much.

And then Zyzzanyx, the imp she'd... encountered... previously (that's another post) pops in. Explains that she's gonna die if she doesn't make herself wake up -- that Kyle and Laney and the others are gonna get hurt if she doesn't help them. And Bailey has to let it all go.

(The Man Who Has Everything did not do enough exploration of the long-term psychological ramifications of this concept to suit me, okay?)

Bailey is deeply shaken by this dream. She starts to realize that she does want to be a parent, but the idea of stability and putting down roots still scares the hell out of her. It takes someone else pointing out that she's already basically adopted Lanos, the amnesiac navcom AI who is from another Earth, for her to really start to come around to the idea.

...This is what leads to her freakout that has her knocking on Ollie's door at four in the morning, unleashing a wall of text, and recounting the whole tale so far over several bowls of chili.

Unfortunately, Laney leaves. Bailey doesn't really have a stable place to share with a teenager, and... Lanos has a big sister to get to know, and a whole new universe to explore. They stay in contact, but it's a bit like sending your kid off to boarding school.

Shortly after that, she leaves for Los Angeles. She doesn't really have anywhere to stay, having lost her apartment while in space, and she's been couch surfing. Bette offers her a proper room in her penthouse apartment in LA, and a chance to rebuild the Titans West. Bailey takes her up on it. Staying in the Gotham/Metropolis/NYC area was too close to Bludhaven and Dick anyway; the further away she could get from him, the better.

From there, the next big chapter we get in this saga is what I refer to as the Little Mercies Arc. And this one I need to do a lot of research before I write, I know. But essentially, someone is making designer drugs derived from a Black Mercy they got ahold of and embiggified to a truly dangerous degree. You know those century-old rhododendron bushes that are the size of a small car? It's like that. But Bailey and Jason take this person down, and burn the stash.

...Or. Most of the stash, anyway. Bailey picks up a single sleeve of the Little Mercies. She tells herself it's for research. Study. Finding out how it was made. But it's not. She knows it's not.

She misses her daughters. She misses the life she could have lived, if she hadn't fucked things up with Dick. She's only human, after all.

You can see where that's going.

Bailey stabilizes, gets some help, starts getting better. She gets more involved with the local community, doing volunteer work and stuff; that was Ollie's idea, and it's a good one. She forms connections with people, even starting a new relationship with an old acquaintance, Jonah Pavoni -- a nurse, formerly from Central, who helped her decide to take up being a superhero.

...Cut ahead about... Twentyish years or so. Metropolis. Four teenagers in spandex are in hot pursuit of a man in a peacock-themed outfit. They are:

A speedster in green -- Kickstart, also known as Trenton Swift; currently the second-youngest ward of the West-Allen clan, until his parents can be found.

An acrobat in blue-and-black -- Madcap, Blythe Phillips; daughter of forcibly-retired minor-league supervillains Punch and Jewlee, seeking to redeem her family name through vigilantism.

A blonde Kryptonian girl with orange eyes -- Liora of Kandor, once Liora Tyr-Van; an escapee of the bottled city, hoping to find a way to unshrink her people before their resources run out. I'm leaning towards Spitfire for a name.

And at the front of this quartet, a young archer, black-haired, blue-eyed, and both enraged and terrified. Rachel Marion Grayson-Adler, Fledgling, third-generation superhero. She's eager to prove herself, and desperate to stop the man ahead of them.

He's headed for the Jules Verne Museum, after the time-bubble Clark donated, the one he used to visit the 30th Century growing up. If he gets ahold of it, if he jumps back to when he wants... It could literally wipe her family out of existence.

Unfortunately, they don't make it. The guy gets away with the time-bubble. So what do a bunch of 15-17yos do to solve this problem?

Steal the other time-bubble from the Flash Museum, obviously.

They leap into the timestream after him, but none of them know how to pilot the dang thing. Ray and Liora are trying to shoot the other bubble down. Blythe is hitting random buttons because one of these things has to help, right? Trent is just trying to steer while the three girls move around the tiny, cramped ship.

...Both bubbles crash. All five time-travellers are now scattered along the timeline. And this is where it gets confusing, so stay with me.

Blythe lands on a random rooftop in Gotham, just before the whole thing with the dragon-wizard from another dimension. That is also its own post. But that happens after Bailey gets back from space but before Laney heads out.

Liora tumbles into the middle of Bailey's team-up with Kara, Bette, and Shayera. She helps, but she also has to gtfo because the giant robot dinosaur they're fighting is kryptonite-powered.

Trent... Actually snaps back to the time they left, and goes for help in the form of the Team's Designated Older Siblings, Jamie and Wade.

Rachel crashes into the middle of the West-Park dining table, appearing out of thin air, at roughly the same time Bailey is getting her head back on straight.

And the other guy, the one they were chasing? His bubble lands in the wrong time, but not too far off the mark. He's outside a small volunteer clinic in Keystone City. It doesn't take much use of his touch-telepathy to steal the knowledge, training, and clothes of an unlucky nurse, a witness to the crash, and he slides in seamlessly. He's now Jonah Pavoni, RN.

Jonah's plan all along was to steal the time-bubble and go back to before the love of his life -- the woman who saved him, the brilliant, shining angel, the ethereal wonder he's loved since childhood -- before she married some asshole who didn't deserve her. When he crashed in the wrong place and time, he didn't know if he'd ever find her again. But three days later, the Pied Piper drags her in. She's injured, but the wounds are more mental than physical. Of course -- his goddess couldn't be brought down so easily. She just needs... A little encouragement. A nudge or two. He can help with that.

It's like fate brought him exactly when and where he needed to be, placed him in an even better position to convince Bailey of his devotion. Now nothing could keep them apart -- not the misalignment of their ages, not distance, not that stupid neglectful jackass. No, now he could be here for Bailey, from the very beginning, building her up, adoring her, showing her the worship she deserves. Finally, he could be hers, and she could be his. As it was always meant to be.

...Man's a little bit not right in the head.

Blythe and Liora are trying to find their friends, and worrying about Jonah later. Liora crosses paths with Bailey once, and in the interest of still having her best friend to find, tries to warn Bailey to be careful. It doesn't work that well.

Rachel, however, needs to find Jonah right now immediately. While also keeping her identity secret from her extended family and avoiding the hell out of anyone who might recognize her, so she doesn't Marty McFly herself out of existence. She's a walking ball of anxiety, my poor lanky dorito girl.

Wally would like to help, but she keeps saying she isn't allowed to talk to him about it and there are time-travel rules and he has no fucking clue who this sassy lost child is but she called him Uncle Wally so clearly she's family of some kind. But his family is really damn big, and he doesn't know who he's supposed to help her avoid. She's an archer with super strength, she might be Roy and Donna's kid? Somehow? But she also used the phrase "Uncle Clark," and her eyes are really blue, and she has that dorky little forehead curl -- Kon has weird time-travelling clone daughters, right? And... He and Bart are close...?

While all that is going on, Trent, Jamie, and Wade arrive in the present day. They're in Gotham. It's a full moon. On Friday night. Naturally, things are going sideways all over the city. The addition of two speedsters and an acrobat are easy enough to hide. ... For a bit. Eventually they get spotted by the local nosy busybodies. Wade is completely unfazed by the arrival of the bat, Trent is mildly shocked to see Mr. Wayne still in the suit, and Jamie is dying because that's her grandpa how could this go any wronger.

More bats show up, that's how. Including Dick.

They eventually nab Blythe -- who has been having fun stopping criminals, harassing the local vigilantes, and bonding with Steph in the few months she's been stranded -- and as they're trying to leave, Dick puts it all together. He has a daughter. From a future that, after Bailey literally left the planet to avoid putting a name on whatever was happening between them, seems unreachable.

Things get emotional, obviously, and moreso when they part. Jamie can't stick around, she has to find the others. No, Dick can't help, he's already figured out too much and putting the fabric of spacetime at risk. Or something.

Dick, reluctantly, lets them leave to go find Liora. I'm not totally sure where she's been during all this, but I'm batting a few ideas around. They grab her and set to finding Rachel.

While all this is happening, Jonah reveals the full truth to Bailey. He's the kid she saved in her latest adventure. He's been in love with her for two decades, since that fateful moment. He's crossed time and space and warped the laws of reality just to be with her. He'd planned to just come back to this point, but what he'd gotten -- this chance to get to know her, to watch her become the hero he always admired -- it was more than he ever could have dreamed.

And now, now they could be together. He's finally repaired the time bubble. They can sweep away to the time he left, have a life together. He's waited for her for so long, can't she see how much he adores her? Won't she be his?

...Bailey, on her end, has had a series of bombs dropped on her. By a guy she's not even sure she can call her boyfriend yet. Ending in what sure as hell sounds like a proposal? And he... Might be a kid?? She says no, like any sane person would, with a few expletives thrown in.

Jonah does not like this answer. He didn't want it to go like this, but... He reaches for Bailey. If she won't love him willingly, he'll just make it happen.

THWIP!

Suddenly there's an arrow sticking through Jonah's palm.

"STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM HER," Rachel screams, barely clinging to her vantage point.

A fight naturally ensues. I don't have it choreographed well, but we wind up with all three parties -- Bailey and Jonah; Rachel and Wally; Jamie, Wade, Trent, Liora, and Blythe -- all in the same space. During the chaos, Rachel falls from some great height, while injured. Bailey dives after her.

It's too great a fall for her to survive, if she can't recover. And with her wounded -- maybe Jonah has, like, feather-shaped daggers and he stuck one in her side? -- she can't do much. Bailey is trying, but she can't quite reach --

-- and then two feathered wings, shining a brilliant gold, like flame and sunrise, unfurl from Rachel's back.

Ray scrambles to pull up, flapping awkwardly, moving on instinct alone. She pulls up, rising into the air, crowing and laughing and on one hell of an adrenaline high. Bailey helps her get back to the others. Ray gets patched up. There's celebration and relief and joy. Someone makes a "Literal Flying Grayson" joke. Wally still wants an explanation, please and thank you?

Once all that gets shook out, Bailey turns to Jonah. He tried to kill her daughter. He is a threat to her girls, and he won't stop until he's stopped permanently. Clearly, there's only one thing to do.

Wally steps in, trying to plead for mercy. Bailey laughs, and agrees. She'll show him mercy, alright.

...Remember that giant mega Black Mercy? It went into the care of one Dr. Pamela Isley, retired since her wedding to Harley, and considered mostly rehabilitated. Her indoor garden has a real nice skylight.

So yeah. Bailey can show him a little mercy, alright.

There's a whole lotta crying as the time-travellers make their goodbyes. Bailey tries to put on a brave face, because you gotta for your kids, but she doubts she'll ever see their future. But she's so, so proud of them, and she loves them so much.

Fast-forward a bit again. Throughout Bailey and Dick patching things up and figuring out a relationship for real, there's a whole lot of dramatic tension as they both try to keep their mouths shut about the possible future they've both seen, but don't know the other one knows about. Bailey is scared to death that Dick would be with her for that future -- only a possibility she doesn't even know how to reach -- and not for anything inherent to her, and Dick doesn't want to put any pressure on Bailey and make her run away again. It's a whole thing! But they do work it out, and... Well, wedding bells do ring.

And Bailey gets a very unusual wedding gift from Zyzzanyx, her old ally. A small chest, containing what sure looks like two tulip bulbs. Zazz explains that these'll grow into the girls, so... She and Dick can plant 'em when they're ready. It's old magic, and it'll take a drop of blood from each parent, but, well. She's fond of the little rugrats too, she guesses. And watching Bailey be miserable about not having them is, y'know, depressing or whatever.

Bailey thanks Zazz for this, and releases the imp from her life-debt. (Like I said, that's it's own post; this is already a mile long.)

The girls eventually happen. Jamie is roughly of an age with Wade, less than a year younger. Ray is born about five years after that, I think. They grow up safe and happy and loved, with a phenomenally huge number of aunts and uncles and grandparents.

There are many arguments and discussions regarding youthful vigilantism and sidekickery, but once again, Bailey cannot stop the future. It's allowed, but under very strict conditions regarding school and social lives. Jamie begins training at age fifteen, taking on the name Dawnbird, and patrolling with her dad.

Rachel learns archery from Aunt Cissie, and then from Uncle Roy and Grandpa Ollie, when she won't be deterred from masking up once she turns fifteen. She uses Fledgeling as her moniker, one of her mother's nicknames for her, as something of an olive branch. Bailey relents and lets Ray be her partner.

I could go on, but I think this post is long enough as is. Most of the rest of what I have is bits and pieces and fun facts anyway. If there's anything anyone's curious about or wants me to elaborate on -- or if you need a diagram, 'cause I got a little Charlie Day here -- my askbox is open!

[vmures]

Thinking about a post I reblogged earlier and you know what I'd love to see more head-canons of? Favorite middle-aged characters who also spend a good bit of time online, who are gamers, who have tumblrs, who write and read fanfiction.

Depending on what age you go with for Peter Hale (cause lord knows JD didn't give us anything that makes sense when it comes to ages for the Teen Wolf characters), if you put him at roughly the same age as the actor who plays him, he's basically just a few years older than I am. Which means we'd have been in high school and college in the same era. I could totally see Peter getting into Buffy fanfic focused on Spike. I could just as easily see him rediscovering his love for fandom after everything settles down. I can also see him being an epic shitposter on reddit and tumblr.

Coach Finstock probably has an obsession with cute animal memes and funny videos. He also probably gets into arguments with people on twitter over the most ridiculous things.

There is so much of a character's life that we don't see onscreen, and I get so tired of the idea those of us who are middle aged and older who happen to be active in online spaces are an aberration and that there is no way that Character X could ever know certain things or do certain things because their "old." There are a lot more of us online you might think.

My dad, who would have been 71 this year, would have been delighted about a new Witcher game. He was an active gamer my whole life and got me into that. He was also the one that got me into scifi/fantasy stuff. There are still OG Star Trek fanfic writers that are around and active on tumblr and in fandom spaces.

Sometimes I wonder if part of the problem is that some people assume that since they aren't super interested in learning about the past, that older folks are not super interested in learning about the present. But some of us have learned that the best way to live life is to keep learning. Learn things you didn't know about the past. Learn fun and interesting things about the present. Ponder about what we might learn in the future. Life is a rich tapestry of knowledge and experiences, and the words "always" and "never" very rarely actually apply. We do ourselves a disserve when we deem anything outside of our own experience or knowledge base impossible.

[fourthreee]

Saw a post a while back about favourite and least favourite bits of star trek and I wanted to join in. So here's my two cents :

Original Star Trek

Favourite: Spock. Bones. Scotty. Uhura. Kirk. Chapel. Sulu. Chekov. EVERYONE. The sets. The lighting. The camp. The blatant homoeroticism. The do or die for each other crew. That time they found an alien that was just a pomeranian wearing fancy headgear. The fact that every episode is self contained and ends with a little bit where everyone stands around the conn and chats. Leonard Nimoy. Sulu with a sword. Sulu the rest of the time.EVERYONE. This is my favourite trek, and the one I return to over and over again. First trek is best trek.The bell bottom trousers and cuban heel knee high boots. More kinky boots, modern trek, d'ya hear me? More kinky boots.

Least favourite: When the show reveals how terribly it can abandon everything that makes it good. Of all the episodes, there's about a third I just cannot watch. Times where they fill it full of weird christian metaphor.

TNG

Favourite: Geordie and Data. And Spot. I keep trying to watch this but I've only ever seen A Fistful of Datas. IT was great. And horribly horribly slow. (oh. And one where Picard chases bandits through the ship armed only with a saddle and while dodging a laser car wash. That one was great. Except for when I rewatched this as an adult. When it was horrifying.)

Least favourite: Invented the holodeck which gets used too much later and which always confuses me. Can't watch holodeck episodes without obsessing over how it works. Everything is carpeted and it panics me. Why are there wall to wall carpets in the future. In high traffic areas. Also it was genrerally too slow and difficult to watch. And whil I love Hornblower I have neither a headmaster nor a Naval Captain fetish, so Picard never does it for me.

DS9

Favourites: Everyone. Everyone together. I want Sisko to be my dad. Or my friend. Or my Captain. All of the above. Julian Bashir trans icon. Jadzia Dax trans icon. Everyone is poly and queer. Ferengi episodes. Kira Nerys lesbian energy. Every 36 hours I turn into a liquid. I can swim. The whole Odo marrying Lwxwna episode. Our Man Bashir. He was more than a hero. He was a Union Man. It's written all over his back.

Least favourite : When they switched to serialised I do struggle to keep watching. Taking away Kira's butch haircut and stompy boots. Show never recovered from that. Any time they give Kira a beard. I've never finished the series bc I couldnt face the Julian/parents arc or the Jadzia death/Julian and Ezri thing. When they stopped Andrew Robinson from being on screen with Siddig El Fadil. Any time Dukat got more than a minute airtime. Any executive decision Rick Berman made.

Voyager:

Favourites: Seven of 9. Harry Kim. Janeway. B'elanna. The time they all opereated the French Resistance out of a bar. Stand alone episodes. The time Janeway definitely slept with Amerlia Earhart. The time Janeway ran around in a dirty singlet with a big gun. That episode where they hide the telepaths in the buffers of the transporters to sneak past a moustache twirling villain while Janeway flirts with him like they're both opponent pirate captains with insane homoerotic tension. Ther's coffee in that nebula.

Least favourites: The Doctor. Seven not getting a uniform. Tom Paris any time he's not just Harry Kim's boyfriend. Janeway's inconsistent characterisation. The fact that phages might be a real world last line defence against antibiotic resistance but thanks to voyager it will always terrify me. I've never made it to the end because Tom/B'elanna was too hard to watch and I didn't know how to deal with them actually getting home. Ithink they never should have. Any executiev decision Rick Berman made.

Enterprise:

Favourites: I have seen two episodes and Hoshi Sato has my heart forever. Phlox is great. Tight-wound angry queer british guy can stay too. Travis is great. Theme song is terrible and I love it. It's so incongruent. Sounds like the sort of country song you listen to while committing suicide in the bathtub. Can't stop singing it. The fact that it killed Rick Berman's career.

Least favourite: Everything else. The dog in particular. Why is it there. Why is it soulless. Poor Jolene Blalock. Why are their uniforms so bad. I love a jumpsuit but they didn't colour code them properly! Every executive decision Rick Berman made.

JJ Abrams:

Favourites: Nothing. This is terrible.. If you can't make up you own characters why are you butchering my boys. Go away.

Least Favorites: Trying to remake wrath of Khan (the worst movie with the original cast imo) without even bothering to buiild the relationship that makes us care. Why is he still white? Why are they in a brewery? Why is Pike a hot dad now? He's a wreck of the american masculine heroic ideal who exists as a counterpoint to Kirk. If tumblr wants to make his doomed ass a poor little meow meow fine. JJ Abrams shouldnt put him in his movie. Every exectuive decision they made about women in this movie. Making Sulu gay in massive disrespect to Takei's depiction of him and Takei's own acting skills. Making everyone else straight in the worst possible way. Pretending miniskirts in 2009 meant the same thing as in 1969. Also I stoppped after the first couple because it was starting to feel like i was just doing to make myself mad. Blue orbs. The fact their chracterisation feels like if you'd never seen star trek but a cabbie had explained it you once badly, and the fact that literally WAS WHAT HAPPENED

Oh wait. Leonard Nimoy cameo. only good thing.

Discovery.

Favourites: Wanted to love it. Couldn't see what was going on because it was too dark. Everytime I tried in spite of that I fell in love with many parts of it, then they immediately fucked it over. Michael Burnham? In jail for unfair reasons. Cap. Georgiou? Dead. Burnham should be Captain, and I think she still isn't. I don't know I couldnt see. Etc etc. Apparently it gets better but It's too serialised to start in the middle.

Least Favourites: Too dark. Bad uniforms (Why would you bring back the ENTERPRISE uniforms of all things?) The fact that klingons are now middle eastern coded so that they still align with the zeitgeist of who we're being xenophobic again right now. (OOHscary FIGHTYculture is Russian. No WAIT black. NO middle eastern. yeah) Jason Isaacs. I liike my villains NOT on the crew. Personal preference but it's just not my kind of star trek when it's this dark. Thematically and visually. Why does EVERYONE have to be related to Spock (ok this one dates back to tos and it's annoying if funny there too)

Lower Decks: I don't do this format of cartoons.

Prodigy: Favourite: its a kids show and has those priorities but I had a surprising amount of fun. Usually I don't do animation but this is relatively watchable.Despite feeling like it's also star wars and Indiana Jones and a ton of other types of story all at once, they also captured Star Trek better than any of the other modern ones. Janeway. Og murph. Wesley Crusher cameo. REFERENCE TO OPERATION ANNIHILATE MY BELOVED!

Least Favourites: Janeway being given physiology of a Barbie doll. Murph being turned from a intelligent adult slug with dog energy into a pointless toddler. It would have been kinder to kill him. Desynchronization of voice and face in a way that makes it tiring to watch (I'm just fussy about animation). Janeway in a singlet revival ruined by aforementioned Barbie physique. Give me older fatter buffer Janeway!

SNW:

Too dark to see. Also stop just redoing the original characters. Make your own. For years now I get excited about new Star Trek and it ALWAYS either too dark to see or too animated to see or just about tos characters done badly. At which point I'll just go watch tos. Also remember when Star Trek uniforms actually looked futuristic? Yeah, me too. I know everyone likes this one there's probably a lot of good in it but I can't get into it.

Turn the lights back on and maybe we can talk. And at least Rick Berman isn't involved.

[evelynndecipio-blog]

June 29th, 2020.

Dear Nightingale, 

I’m sorry for taking so long to reply. For the entirety of June, I’ve been keeping my head in the books. I’m not exactly a good student – not currently, at least – but I really wanted to do well in the final exams. Call it an epiphany or whatever. While I was fine failing homework and such, I just couldn’t bring myself to flunk the finals. Ever since our exams have ended, I’ve been busy freaking out about the fact that I could possibly fail. I think I’m over it now, though. Maybe. I just have to do better next year. If there is a next year. Can we be held back at Hogwarts? I’m thinking that might be a possibility for me.

I love it all. The coast, the mountains, the city. I’m not overly picky about where I stay. But you’re right. There’s really something about the coast that’s just special. I don’t know if it’s because I’m biased or not, but there’s no way I could choose anywhere over the sight of the ocean. Your old home sounds like a quiet place, but I think you’d enjoy Brighton. During the off-season, the beaches are calmer than usual, and you’d definitely get your fix of salty air. I’d also recommend Southwold or Shanklin if you’re itching for a road trip. It’s nothing compared to Brighton, I’ve heard, but the vibe is the same.

Cassiopeia is a pretty name. I think I heard it mentioned in Astronomy, but I’m not sure. Even after I decided to study up, I struggled with that subject. Gosh, it would be amazing to ride across this landscape, wouldn’t it? I’m usually looking at it from the Astronomy Tower windows, but I can imagine how amazing it would be to take your horse out for a spin. You could head to Hogsmeade on your own, ahah! I thought it would feel like freedom to come here, but it’s not like that at all. I guess it makes sense. We’re only kids, after all. But the feeling of just trekking across the highlands – unbeatable.

I wish I could bring a dog. It would be just like having a best friend. A cat would do nicely, but I think I wouldn’t like their reserved nature. Too much like me. I get the owl struggle, even though I don’t really send letters home. But if I did, relying on the school owls wouldn’t make me feel good. I bet they’re pretty overworked. Owls are pretty, though. I think it would suit you well.

Your mother sent you to boarding school for the summer? Or was this before Hogwarts? I’m sorry that your relationship is strained. I think we’re in pretty similar positions, though. When my family and I found out that I was a witch, it unearthed some long-kept secrets of my mother’s past. Now I think my family’s bond is beyond repair. I haven’t heard from my father in months and while I’ll probably see my mother everyday over the summer, I doubt I’ll pluck up the courage to speak with her. I don’t want to speak with her. I can’t help but think that she ruined everything. But I think its good that both our mothers can still take care of us at the end of the day. A lot of people aren’t that lucky.

My mother was never my confident. She was amazing and I loved watching movies with her, but I could always talk to my father. It sounds like your mother and my father are pretty similar. He’s big into fantasy too and yes, D&D is our favourite game. We used to make up our own Star Trek games before they released an official one. But once my father found out about me, he bolted. I blame him, but I don’t. It’s confusing. I think he would have liked all this magic stuff if he stuck around, but I guess I’ll never know. If this question is too personal, please ignore it. Have you ever felt like your life was better or worse growing up without a father? I don’t think I’ll ever see mine again. He was a big part of my life and now he’s just gone. I don’t know how to deal with it.

I wish I could have stayed and fought at the ball, though. Maybe it’s the fantasy nerd in me speaking, but to leave so quickly felt cowardly. I felt like I was being my dad and I don’t like that one bit. Still, I know it’s better for me to have escaped. It’s probably insensitive to those who were injured to want to fight. I bet there are others who don’t feel like they belong here, but they’re just hiding under their happy guises. I don’t blame them for keeping it hidden, but I do wish I didn’t feel so alone in my thinking and it’s nice to know that I’m not actually alone.

I get what you’re saying about the overlapping planes of existence. It’s crazy to see people suffering from the ball go straight into exam mode. It’s sad to admit that I’m one of those people. I guess it might be a coping mechanism to them, but during finals week it felt like the ball had never happened. If this is what the magical world supposed to be like, maybe I get your mother’s apprehension, just a little bit.

I’m not sure if “acting fake” is the best way to go about making friends, but it’s definitely better than moping around like I do. You’re trying and I really admire that. And hey, you’re bound to meet those few people you can just be yourself with. They’ll come along sooner or later. In fact, I really enjoy writing to you. It feels like I’m letting out all my frustrations into the void, but I know there’s another living, breathing person at the other end which makes me feel a lot less alone. It’s okay that you don’t want to meet, and I get that you have a lot to lose. I’m not sure I’m ready for that either because you’re the first person I’ve told any of these things to. Not even my family knows how I feel. I’m just glad to be able to talk to you in some capacity.

You’re not assuming too much. Write to me any time you want over the summer. Whether things get worse with your mum or better, I’ll be here to listen.

Set phasers to send us home, Captain Kirk.

[skiagraphe0]

I know exactly where it comes from: the idea all adults are evil predators who can only be in fandom spaces because they want to prey on kids. For years, people have been freaking out about adults being in the same Discord as a minor (gasp!) even though the server's topic is Animal Crossing, or been freaked out teenagers are on Reddit where adults are even though the only subreddits they have in common is r/watercolor. "Be afraid!" people scream, eyes wide in fear, "I heard a grown-up might be there and they'll unalive you or grap3 you!"

It used to be - and definitely was when I was growing up - that an adult speaking to a minor was not considered a massive risk. Adults were not seen as suspicious in hobby spaces, because it was understood that adulthood didn't mean giving up everything you'd ever liked. As the moral panic got worse, however, a sinister motive was assigned to pretty much everything. You're an adult, but you read books? Uh, books are sold at stores, and minors go to stores! You're an adult, but you play video games? Uh, minors also play games! You write fic and post it to the internet? Uh, don't you know minors are online? You're so scary!

There's also this idea a lot of Gen Z kids have that adulthood = the death of joy. When I got my master's degree, I was in classes with 18-24 year olds who were absolutely stunned that I still watch anime, play video games, read books, sew, draw, write fanfic, listen to pop music, etc. It was very odd, explaining to them that I just never thought of not doing things I like. I could tell this explanation was both confusing to them and made perfect sense. They had been told you become a husk at 30 and simply work, poop, sleep, and then one day die. They could also piece together that it wasn't logical for me to stop listening to music and drawing because I'd hit an age.

"But you're not weird about it, right?" was a question I got, often said with genuine anxiety. I would furrow my brow, confused, and ask, "I'm not sure what a 'weird' way to listen to music is? Or how to be weird about playing a game? I guess I don't, like, make room for Jesus when I make my Animal Crossing island or anything."

My dad is 84 and reads Star Trek fanfic/keeps up with the new shows.

My neighbor is 54 and loves Disney and is helping sew cosplays for her granddaughter/teaching her granddaughter how to sew.

The manager at my local Joann Fabrics is 60 and she just did her first cosplay.

Animator/artist/illustrator Tyrus Wong was still drawing and working on concept art for an idea to pitch when he died at 105.

The notion that adulthood means being miserable and sobbing in corner somewhere (if male) or tending to children (if female) and nothing else until you die is extremely recent. It's not supported by basically anything other than their own anxiety about anyone older than then being nearby. But the thing they don't seem to grasp is that their fear about someone posting someone or reading something isn't what anyone else is going to base their lives on.

If it scares you that someone has a hobby past the age you think that should be allowed, I'm sorry for you. That genuinely sounds like a lot of anxiety. Your life sounds really hard and really miserable.

But you're not my patient and I'm not a therapist. I can't help you. I can pray you get better, but that's it.

I'm not going anywhere. Neither are most people - if anything, fandom going more mainstream means we're going to see an increasingly higher number of adults getting into it, at the same time as kids into it age into being an adult.

If adults scare you, fandom isn't the hobby for you.

Fandom Problem #7211:

As someone who's almost 30, I legitimately do not understand why people on this site treat you like you're totally geriatric and incapable of having hobbies or interests. It's always "lol this person is THIRTY, they must have no life!!". I find age is weaponized most of all with censorship advocates who go, "imagine being 30 and still shipping characters on TUMBLR 💀".

[ellowynthenotking]

Feb 28

Dear Dad,

OH MY GOD!!!

APPARENTLY! TELEPORTING IS A THING!

They teleported us! We are safely teleported to a new location! 

Teleportation! 

We got teleported here! 

It was so weird. It felt so very, very weird. 

Like getting pins and needles over your entire body, even on the inside, but only for like 2 seconds. And then it was gone, but phantom tingles remained. 

Also, I didn’t think anything happened at first cause it looked like the room was the same. 

Which, for the record, the teleportation room looked exactly like a low tech transportation room from Star Trek. 

It was a large, round space with pillars around it. And there was stuff in the walls that actually glowed. 

It was cool, and I wish I had more time to look at it all.

But then there were pins and needles, which was weird, and then they were shooing us out of the room. And I didn’t even realize it wasn’t the people who’d brought us into the first room until they took us to the high priestess’... office, I guess? And it was completely different. 

She welcomed us and said that we were safely in a different temple. They’d sent us here because it was nearby but far enough away that the group after us likely wouldn’t be able to find us.

We asked questions, a lot of questions, and even got some answers to them all. 

We’re not really closer to where we wanted to go, more parallel than anything else. They understood it was frustrating that they couldn’t just send us to that city. But they think it necessary that we don’t go straight there because the cult know we’re headed there. 

They think the cult-Real cult, BTW-won’t know about the teleportation cause it’s usually a closely guarded secret, but they can’t be sure. 

They said they’re going to deal with the group, at least keep them distracted so we can get there safely. But if we go right there, they know we want to and might have sent people to meet us there. And we wouldn’t know. The temple there wouldn’t know to help us or to keep an eye out. 

We shared our concerns, but the temple didn’t know and didn’t have answers.

No one knows why they want us or for what. But everyone seems to agree that it’s bad that they want us. That it’s best to keep us out of their hands.

The people at this temple think that it might be better for us to try to find another way home. The group that we’re looking for to get home isn’t the only one who might be able to help us, but they are the closest. 

Riley argued with the people because we’d already spent so much time coming this way. We’d already been here for months. They didn’t have any good options, though, just sending us further away with little to no help. 

We had to leave our horses behind, too, so we’re out of our slightly faster mode of transport. 

They can’t and won’t help us with it, though. They said that it’s just not something they can do, that it’s going to have its place, but that we can always turn back to the temple.

As irritating as it is, there’s not much that we can do. We’re going to have to keep going. We don’t really have another choice. 

The group that we’re looking for is so close. 

I mean, I think they are. From our terrible directions, and terrible maps, and terrible everything. This terrible world. 

We’re closer to them than anyone else than any of the supposed options that the acolytes and priests were able to give us. So, if we don’t want to be here forever, then we gotta go this way.

We don’t have a choice. 

That’s a lie. 

We do have a choice, but there aren't any good options for us. 

We’re going to have to keep going in the direction that might be dangerous. If we go in another direction, it might be safer, but who knows how long it’ll take? 

We’ve been here for months, and we’ve been trying to get home the whole time. And it seems we haven’t even gotten closer. So the others, I think, agree fully with my choice of “hell no” because it’s already been months, and we’re not going to tack on even more time when we can avoid it. 

So, toward danger, we go, now without horses and with even less of a plan. 

Wish us luck!

Love, Jack

Read the rest of the series here: 

Or read more by this author here: 

[legaciestold]

@ensnchekov gets a reply to this a year late because i suck

this is insane. it's insane. it well and truly is. and the thing is, georgie myers knows insanity. she knows impossibility and dimension traveling and all the crazy shit that's in-between. but this? this is something next-level bizarre and despite the fact her mind's already cycled through this train of thought at least three times since this man has appeared before her, she's still reeling from it. demons georgie could deal with. a troll, another day at the troll market. tooth fairies? the stuff of nightmares and something she really doesn't want to encounter again. but a fictional character showing up through magic from some parallel universe? that was.. she didn't know what to call it. further, if this man literally existed in the multiverse... did that mean that all those fictional characters from the million shows, books, and movies out there, all did too? if this was a cartoon, a mushroom cloud would be forming above her head. she takes a breath, then another as her dark hues continue to wash over him, little patters of rain still following around them. the temptation to poke him still lingers. maybe she's finally broken, completely lost her mind. yet she knows she hasn't. this is as real as the cool air dancing around them.

she can see him thinking, not needing to be a telepath to have something of an idea of where his mind might be going. (though, she knows a telepath or two if their needed.) "but it can't be the same thing or inspiration for the other. you'd know if it was. because you'd know about the show and the same people like kirk and you and sulu and spock and spock's sister michael and everyone else wouldn't exist in a tv show and then again centuries later..." this is making her brain hurt. "holy crap, you know how warp drives work! i don't know if aliens exist in this universe or not but... do you realize you could literally single-handedly give us wrap power if you wanted to? but.. i suppose that'd be a violation of the prime directive, wouldn't it? even if starfleet doesn't exist in this world.. and we haven't even made it passed the moon with manned flight yet.." she trails off, her mind jumping in a million directions at once. which, considering everything she's had to deal with in the last few years, this feeling was.. a nice change in pace from where her mind usually fell into when she'd ventured out away from people.

"but vampires, magic, demons, angels, baba yaga. all that's real. i've got powers too, except i'm human. some humans have powers. don't really know why. my little brother can heal people but he's a warlock so he's got all the cool magic too." she pauses a moment, looking back toward the book and then at chekov. "uh, not super far into looking through it really. the director isn't going to be thrilled i took it out of hq but i also think i might at least not get grounded for you popping up since he's my dad. then again, i'm almost twenty and have been going on missions since i was like fifteen, i don't think he can ground me anymore." she extends her hand out, back toward her jacket and the book, making them move into the air and float toward her and into her arms.

"i'm sure the bprd can try to help you find a way home. i just-- magic can be unpredictable and sometimes.. well, if anyone's able to try to find a way to help you, be happy i found you and some random that doesn't know about this stuff didn't. people know about magic now, that secret came out when i was younger but the government still tries to keep a lot of what people know about it limited so they don't go opening doors they can't close." she reveals. then, she circles back, his previous question that she hadn't answered finally registering.

"oh yeah, to answer your question. i can show you star trek, if it doesn't weird you out too much. i was watching the latest movie last night. it kills me every time i see the enterprise crash into a million pieces on the planet but you were cool in the movie. should have gotten to help rescue sulu instead of say on the ship though..." she pauses suddenly, realization drawing upon her features about how her words might sound. it was one thing to rattle off facts about him but now she was bringing up actual full on events that would likely bring up unpleasant memories for him. oh god, what if that hadn't happened yet for him? "oh, no. please tell me the krall stuff already happened for you and i didn't just screw up your timeline further than it's already been screwed with?"

[sickviking-fr]

You guys wanna hear a funny story?

Below cut because I can't summerize

So a week or two ago, some work friends and I were sitting at a table eating lunch when we were joined by a likable old man who stealthily guided the conversation from dinosaurs into Star Trek, for which no one minded, Star Trek fucks severely.

I forget how the conversation evolved but at some point he goes "and you know what's funny? I could decide right now that I'm a woman, and go tell [the boss] that I'm a woman and want to use the women's restroom, and he has no choice but to let me! I could do that right now and be peeing in the women's bathroom in 20 minutes."

Let me tell you. We are his five favorite people, right? He talks to us every chance he gets. We joke together, all share drinking stories and random recipes and tiktoks. And clearly, He Does Not Know.

He did not realize any of us were trans, much less the entire fucking room. Of the six people currently in the room, one is a pre-everything openly trans man, one is his NB wife. One is a 100% passing but fully open trans woman, one is a fully stealth trans man and one is I, a passing-most-of-the-time-only-out-when-it's-funny trans man. And then theres Mark: 50-60 something cishet male.

And so he says this and we all just look at him with this fully synchronized hive mind level of head turn, with varying degrees of added head tilt, and in near unison say "That's not how it works".

He looked like he was about to shit himself. And we all just dissolve into tales of how hard it is, how long it took in our various transitions before we could safely use our respective genders restrooms, tales of how often Val got beat up by boyfriends and dad's of women in the restrooms when all she wanted was to pee. How A, being pre-everything, had just twenty minutes previously been grabbed by a customer and "politely" guided out of the men's room and into the women's room. And after the first story or two it was mostly talking to each other sharing experiences and giving advice to A.

Every single one of us had multiple horror stories to tell, and marks mouth just slowly fell further and further open as he suddenly realized that we might not be as "cool" with that comment as he thought.

But to his credit, he didn't argue, didn't make excuses, didn't interrupt. He listened. Seemed shocked the whole time. And when I got up to get new food (my salad was rotten and I'd been putting off going to buy something else) the conversation seemed to be slowly making it's way back to star trek and dinosaurs. When I returned, he was still sitting there, but now everyone was on their phones watching Netflix or I think G was playing DND over discord.

But yeah. Marks been a little awkward and a bit more avoidant ever since, but not like. In a bad way, I guess. Like he's more embarrassed than hating us or anything like that. But bruh learned a few things that day. Primarily that the Ankylosaurus is the best dinosaur. That had to be embarrassing for him.

[skiagraphe0]

I'm about to break out my psychology minor: I sincerely believe Hans has alexithymia.

Alexithymia is an inability to identify what you're feeling. It's more common in men than women statistically, and it is most prevalent in people whose upbringing involved role models that modeled ignoring or pushing down your feelings instead of acknowledging them. Your brain will adapt to survive abusive conditions by learning what results in negative outcomes and what results in positive outcomes. Your mind also learns, as a child, via modeling itself after those around you - if everyone around you is emotionally illiterate, you're not going to learn something they can't teach you.

Nothing in Hans' life ever taught him how to know what he felt, let alone how to process those feelings.

An alexithymic person still feels, and can feel very intensely, but they have absolutely no idea what it is that they're feeling. I know that if I feel a spike of adrenaline and a heated sensation in the back of my neck, that's anxiety. Someone with alexithymia only knows they have a more acute awareness of what's going on, not that they're anxious and being hypervigilant. We see Hans feel, but we see him calculate a lot more than he feels, and we see he's much more visibly expressive in private. He can express what he's feeling. But if he could identify it, if he was able - not willing, able at all - to identify how charmed he was by Anna or how concerned he was for Elsa, we'd have seen that.

Self-hate is usually identifiable to someone with alexithymia. You've seen hate modeled growing up, so identifying that is actually not that hard. It's everything else that gets hard to wrap your mind around. Hans might not realize he cares about Elsa because a lot of people with severe alexithymia think they are genuinely incapable of loving anyone or caring about anyone. They mistake their inability to identify what they're feeling as an inability to feel, and I can 100% see Hans' family being the kind of people to tell him he can't love anyone.

Hans doesn't recognize that he loves Elsa. He doesn't know if he can even feel love at all.

But the audience can see it. Love isn't just a feeling, it's something you express, something you do. The audience can tell a character loves another when that character does what he can to help, when he apologizes, when he's ride-or-die for her. That includes kids. I watched Star Trek Voyager alongside my dad when I was 7 to 10 and I still picked up on that as a precursor to characters getting together. When someone is there for someone else in a way they aren't for anyone else, it's easy to see something romantic there, even as a kid, because love is patient, love is kind.

Disney could have Hans be obviously in love with Elsa without even Hans realizing it. We'd notice. Kids would notice. And it would be really good to show that you can love someone without the payoff of kissing them/marrying them right away. Sometimes you love someone and that in and of itself is really good for you.

Highkey need this for helsa in frozen3/4

[mzminola]

Community

Straight and cisgender people being part of the broader queer community is good in a variety of ways, and the example from my own life is growing up queer in a small town with parents who were supportive before either they or I knew I was queer.

My mom and dad grew up in Berkeley CA and were involved through their youths in a variety of extremely nerdy things like the Society of Creative Anachronism, Dungeons & Dragons (and a Star Trek inspired sci-fi variation), theater, etc. Within those groups, and other parts of their lives, they had a lot of queer friends.

They moved around a lot as adults, and this was the pre-internet era so staying in touch was harder, and even when they stayed in touch they didn’t necessarily see people in person much. I wound up growing up in a small liberal town in western WA. Statistically, due to the small population, I just did not know any out queer adults in my hometown when I was growing up. There was no GSA at the school, either.

But for years I had stories of queer adults, long before I ever knew I needed them. I never once worried my parents wouldn’t accept my bisexuality, because I was so very used to my parents talking about queer friends of theirs who were giant nerds, with the exact same fondness and nostalgia as all their other friends. Stories of queer-specific shenanigans were told alongside all the other shenanigans.

We had semaphore flags in the costume playtime box because Dad’s a nautical history nerd, and we had big motorcycle goggles designed to fit over chunky glasses because Mom used to catch rides around the Bay Area with lesbian biker friends. That blend and casualness was just a normal part of my childhood.

~

I learned from stories of my parents’ friends that you could take stereotypes and turn them into in-jokes; gay friends playing backyard baseball or catch or other sports totally flubbing a throw, and heckling each other with “What’s the matter honey, your wrists too limp?”

~

I learned about the AIDS epidemic, of the loss, the grief, the stigma, and of the ways people fought back. Supported each other. I learned a lot more when I was older from queer adult survivors of the epidemic online, but I learned first from my parents, who were still grieving friends they lost.

This was not distant history, this was not something that happened to “other people” this was something that happened to their community.

~

My father’s mother’s brother is gay. My great uncle. He raises tropical birds. When he was a much younger man than he is now, the signaling style of wearing a diamond earring in one ear was starting. Now, at the time, most men to wear a diamond earring as a signal of their sexuality wore very small, discreet flecks. Just this little flash of light that might catch your eye, that might make you look again.

Great Uncle inherited his mother’s engagement ring, took that honking big “look at me and admire how I got engaged! Look at me, look at me!” diamond to the jeweler, and got that sucker turned into an earring. You could not fucking miss it.

And you know what? That’s how I learned about queer signaling as a thing people could do, it was presented as a fun family story, and I wouldn’t have heard it if not for my parents, because Great Uncle lives in a completely different part of the country from us and doesn’t travel much, so I’ve only met him twice, during which everyone was catching up on current life, not stories of his youth.

~

When my mom, dad, and their friends were all young adults who’d recently left home and were living in a different state from their families, one of their friends was a butch gay man who’d recently come out to his parents. And his mom wanted to be supportive, and she was a person who sewed clothes herself. So she made him shirts. She had his measurements, and she’d regularly mail him care packages with beautifully hand-made button up shirts in pink and purple fabrics. Because those were the gay colors at the time, and she wanted to make sure he knew she supported everything about him, that she would never want him to change himself to fit in society’s mold.

Now the thing was, pink and purple were not actually to his taste. They were not colors he’d normally pick out for himself. But he and his parents didn't live in the same state anymore, this was pre-Internet, if you wanted to share photos you had to take them, develop the film, and mail them. So she wasn’t seeing his style regularly, she was seeing the style of the out gay men back in the Bay Area, and doing her best.

He wore the shirts. He was running around the Oregon countryside as a butch gay man in the early 1980’s in pink and purple button ups, because his mom made them for him with love, he loved her too.

So I heard this story growing up, and I learned from it. I learned parents could love and wholly support their queer children long before I ever heard about parents who rejected theirs. I learned love is in the actions we take. That it’s going to be imperfect, but what matters is we’re trying our best, and accepting that from each other.

~

I’m bisexual, and I’ve got some weird gender stuff going on. I did not know any out queer adults in my hometown growing up. I did not find any writings until the early 2000’s when the Internet became more accessible. My school did not have a GSA.

But I knew I wasn’t alone. I knew pieces of west coast queer culture and history. I knew queer people could be giant nerds, could be outdoorsy, could be silly and serious and fully rounded people with rich, wonderful lives. That their friends and family could accept them wholly without hesitation. Because what was there to hesitate over?

I’ve said before my hometown is liberal, and it is, but it still had enough prejudice to keep me semi-closeted as a teen. I had peers insist to me that “a child needs a mother and a father”, had adults insist civil unions were fine but marriage equality would violate religious freedoms, heard peers use “gay” as an insult from late elementary school onwards (and the teachers just ignoring it).

I needed all those stories from my childhood. I needed them. And I had them. Without ever having to ask.

And my brother had them too. He’s straight and cisgender, and he has never been anything but 100% supportive of me. He was arguing for equal rights and refusing to use the derogatory language peers were before I ever came out to him.

When I see people trying to gatekeep the queer community, this is what I think of. I think of being a kid in a small town, without knowing any local out queer adults, hearing people around me say bigoted things, but having all these stories burning in the hearth of my heart, and I think…

You want to douse that flame?

You want to reach back in time and wrench those stories from the child I was?

You’d rather I grow up isolated, confused, lonely, and scared, than have my straight, cisgender parents in the queer community? You want me to be isolated now, you want my brother to abandon me?

Really?

Identity and community are intertwined, but they are not rigid, nor should they be.

Community being broader is good.

[mooncherrv]

In Your Dreams - Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia

Character(s): Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia x Doctor!Reader Genre: Fluff Summary: Mickey keeps seeing the same person over and over in his dreams but he knows for a fact he has never seen them before. He starts to wonder if it has more meaning than a simple dream. Author's Note: Fanboy my lil meow meow Masterlist

"Hey Bob, can I ask you something?" Fanboy said as he sat down next to Bob in the Hard Deck. "If this is going to be about a Star Wars debate again, then, no. If it's not then maybe." Bob said as he set his drink down. "It's not a Star Wars debate, I promise. I wanted to ask you if you think dreams can mean something." Fanboy laughs remembering going to Bob to settle the debate he had with Coyote over which Skywalker was the best. "Well, I think it depends on what kind of dream it is. Like, those dreams we have where everyone's skin is neon colours? No. Those are just dreams. Why? What kind of dreams are you having?" Bob questioned. "Don't laugh at this, but, I keep seeing this girl in my dreams. I've never seen her in my life but she keeps showing up in my dreams and I'm starting to think it might mean something but I don't know what it could be." Fanboy told the aviator. Bob smiled at him while Fanboy's face showed no other emotions but confusion. "That happened to my mom. She told me the only reason she agreed to date my dad was because she had seen him constantly in her dreams while she was growing up. They never met until college but once he asked her out she knew those dreams happened for a reason. Perhaps this dream girl is your soul mate and you'll meet her soon." Bob explained.

The dream conversation happened a few months ago yet it never left Fanboy's mind, and the girl continued to show up in his dreams. He was still very confused by everything and after about 6 months of the dreams occurring he convinced himself it meant nothing at all and Bob's story about his parents was merely a coincidence. That was until he ended up in the hospital and having her standing right in front of him. "How do you feel Mr. Garcia?" she asked as she looked up from her clipboard. "You can just call me Mickey but I feel fine. Nothing really feels out of the usual." he responded. "That's good to hear. Nothing looked concerning on your tests so you should be ok to go back to work tomorrow. Just try to take it easy, Mickey. If anything changes though come back and we'll see if we missed anything."

The following day Fanboy remained distracted, so much so that the rest of the crew began to notice how out of it he was. Normally he'd walk into work and strike up a conversation with Bob about some sci-fi show the two watched or he's once again try to convince Hangman that he should watch Star Trek (Which Hangman did in fact watch in his free time but would never let Fanboy have the pleasure of knowing.) Instead he simply sat at his desk filling out paperwork in silence. The entire day he barely spoke, constantly lost in his own thoughts. The other passed it off as him being tired considering he had an incident during training which landed him in the hospital the other day. The first person he spoke to that day was Bob, who was pleased to see his younger friend talk as he began to worry something had gone wrong. "Remember those dreams I told you about?" The younger boy asked. Bob's head tilted as he thought about the many conversations the two had. "The weird goo monsters dream or the recurring dreams about a girl?" He asked. "Bob, this is not the time for jokes. Yes, the dreams about a girl. I saw her yesterday. Like, saw her in person. I spoke to her and I know her name and she spoke back." Fanboy said, worry showing in his voice. "Shouldn't that be a good thing? You know she is real and now you can hopefully see her again." Bob smiled. "She was the doctor that assessed me. I doubt I would see her unless I was back at the hospital. Even then, it looked like she doesn't usually work in the ER, she had a teddy bear nametag and bright rainbow sneakers on." he responded it defeat. "Well obviously you just need to get a kid then and take them in for a checkup with your dream girl." Bob joked, earning a glare from Fanboy. "Jokes aside, if you keep seeing her in dreams and she really is supposed to be in your life you will see her again. Just wait for things to work themself out on their own." Bob told him. The issue with Bob's advice was that Mickey felt like he couldn't wait to see her again. So, despite all his morals he was raised with and how stupid it seemed, he faked injuries and specifically requested one specific doctor to see him.

"Mickey, this is the 5th time I have seen you this month." she said as she walked into the room. He had to admit this felt like a really low point in his life, faking injuries just to see a girl. "I fell and hit my arm on a crate at work. I think I might have dislocated my arm." Mickey says as he gives her a small smile. Rather than checking his arm she just sat in the chair in front of him and looked at him. "The last 4 times you showed up the alleged injuries you suffered were not there at all. I figured maybe it was just phantom pains from your incident the first time you came in but after the 4th visit it began to seen like you just enjoy hanging around in the emergency room. So, Michael Garcia, why do you keep coming into the ER and specifically requesting to be seen by a doctor that works in the pediatrics ward?" she asked. Mickey sighed in defeat before he spoke. "This might sound stupid, but, I kept seeing you in my dreams months before I had my first ER visit. After the first visit I could not stop thinking about you and I didn't know another way to see you again." The two sat in silence for a moment after he admitted that to her. The silence was broken when she let out a soft laugh and looked up and smiled at him. "I've also seen you in my dreams. I was surprised when I saw you the first time but I figured it happened for a reason since I usually don't work in the ER but I was covering a friend's shift since she was sick." she said. Mickey looked at her with a shocked expression. "I must admit though, you could have just came back to talk to me regularly. I admire your efforts though, it's sweet." she spoke once again. "So what does that mean now? Am I allowed to ask you out on a date then, doctor?" Mickey asked. "Technically, no. I think it might break patient and doctor rules, but, if you just so happened to run into me at the Hard Deck at" she paused to look down at her watch "maybe 8pm today I would no longer be on the clock." she smiled before standing up. "It was nice seeing you again, Mickey. Hopefully next time I see you it won't be for an alleged injury."

[boldlyvoid]

Freezer Burns | Chapter 8

Chapter Eight (last chapter) | Masterlist

Summary: Coming Home.

Warnings: Fluff, implied Smut, flirting/suggestive content, implied/referenced past sexual assault, apologies, Wayne/Claudia POV, happy ending for everyone

Word Count: 5.5k

He really didn’t have a lot of things to pack up. He places an empty cardboard box on his bed and looks around the room… “there’s nothing I even really want…” 

“Your clothes,” Eddie reminds him, pointing at the closet. “And even pack some things that don’t fit, you can hand-me-down them to your little brother.” 

“True,” he smiles. “I can’t wait for him to come home tomorrow.” 

“What’s the plan look like, again?” Eddie asks, he wasn’t as into the planning as Steve was. He met with Claudia after Grandma Beth to apologize to her and they personally created the whole itinerary to keep Dustin safe and aware. 

He knocked on her door softly, hearing a few meows before it eventually opened. Claudia smiled at him, she has gotten to know him really well in the last year, and this wasn’t much different… he just knew the truth now.

She makes little cakes and a pot of tea and they sit together in the living room, her cat in her lap as she pets her for support. The conversation mostly 'how are you' and 'what have you been up to' before he gets into mentioning the elephant in the room. 

“I’m really sorry,” he announces. “I hate being related to my father, I hated him even before I knew all this happened… I really don’t want Dustin to look into him or try and build any relationship because my dad has something wrong with him. I don’t think he can love anyone and I don’t want Dustin to suffer feeling unloved like I do.” 

She nods along, letting him get it all out before her lips curl up in a smile. “Do you want to hear a story?” 

He nods, unsure but willing to go with it. 

“Last year after Halloween there was a change in Dusty, I couldn’t quite place it and then he told me. We were having a movie night, watching Star Trek the Wrath of Khan like we do once a month together, and he noticed Spock and his brother Sybok don’t get along and his dad is a complete asshole and he asked me, ‘mom, can I have a chosen family like Spock has on the enterprise even though I have you?’ And I was a little shocked by it, but he went on to explain that his friends all come from difficult homes, be it Mikes parents hating each other, Will’s mom being all alone to raise him and his brother, Lucas’s parents are working 10 times as hard as any family in Hawkins and don’t have as much time for them and your parents are just down right neglectful.” 

“Yeah,” Steve agrees.

“Then there’s Max whose mom is stuck in an abusive marriage, his favourite teacher Mr. Clarke doesn’t even have a family… he said ‘I’ve kinda made my own family with everyone around me.’ Steve, he has considered you a big brother from the moment you entered his life, and I’m not sure how it happened or if I even want to know, but seeing him happy, seeing him loved, it means the world to me. You’re made up for your father's actions tenfold in the last year alone. You’re everything he needs.”

He tears up, “thank you.” 

“I’m going to tell him the truth on the ride home from camp,” she explains. “His friends want to come over to have a little surprise party for him, but I have a feeling he’s going to want to see you right away.” 

“I’ll be at work on the first,” he explains. “From 12 till close, so if you want to bring him to the Mall to talk that’s okay, he might need some ice cream.” 

She laughs, “it’s a good way to cope with big news.” 

“Are we going to let my dad know that he knows?” 

She shakes her head, “I don’t want to, I’m going to tell him why… but ultimately it’s his choice to reach out, I don’t think he’ll want to given how much he hates your parents for mistreating you.” 

“He’s said that?” 

She nods, “he got very upset telling me about it. He said you went out for lunch during Christmas break last year and bonded over being single kids with bad dads… he said it was like he finally got to sign up for the big brothers and sisters program. He loves you, he even asked me if you could move in with us so you’d be better-taken care of.” 

“Oh,” his heart swells as a tear rolls down his cheek. “I just wanted him to know he could always talk to me… he got shunned by the girls at the dance and it made me think about how I didn’t have any advice from my dad about how to be nice to girls and he needed someone to teach him that respect and kindness is more important than the number of girls can you get with.” 

“See,” she beams with joy. “You’re a wonderful role model.” 

“I’ve been really trying,” he can’t help but cry. Other than Eddie, no one in his life has really looked at him and said what he was doing was good. He was good. 

“Uh, yeah… She’s going to tell him on the drive home tomorrow and possibly drop him off at work with me… I’ll probably spend the rest of the day with him if that’s okay?” 

He nods, “yeah, I don’t mind, baby.” 

“I’ll still come to bed though,” he makes that very clear, walking over to Eddie and wrapping his arms around his shoulders. 

Eddie rests his hands on Steve's hips, “I thought lesbians moved fast and here we are living together after a few weeks.” 

“We’ve been living together the whole time,” he teases. “Grandma Beth adopted us months ago with a plan, I think she gave us a love potion.” 

“Hm, like an old fairytale,” Eddie agrees. “Less murder-y than Hansel and Gretel but just as sweet as the poor old granny that got got by the big bad wolf.” 

Playing with Eddie’s hair, he smiles, “that would be a fun Halloween costume for the two of you…” 

“You’re getting a red cape,” Eddie smirks. 

“You want me to be little red riding hood?” 

He nods, “I mean, I’d love for you to be riding me…” 

“Funny,” Steve tries to stay normal about that, but he too would love to try that. He can’t stop staring at Eddie’s lips, his breathing getting heavier, “I don’t even know how we’d do it…” 

“That’s okay,” he whispers, smoothing his hands over Steve’s sides. “I know… I can show you?” 

He nods, “please?” 

“Fuck,” Eddie releases a shaky breath and pulls Steve in closer to his chest. “You’re so hot I can't believe you’re mine sometimes.” 

Steve cups his cheek, pulling him closer so their noses touch, “make me yours again, then…”

—

He runs into Robin in the hallway outside of the bathroom, “hi,” he smiles and points at his hairy chest, littered with bruises, “what’s that?”

“Huh?” He looks down. “Oh, he’s a biter.” 

Robin hums, “I figured he’s a freak in the sheets too.” 

He nods, not really one to kiss and tell with her… mainly because he hasn’t slept with any women as long as he’s known her. “Why are you waiting for the bathroom?” 

“Oh uh,” she doesn't know how to say it… and then the door opens. 

“Oh, hey Steve,” Nancy smiles at him. She’s in her little silk PJs that he got her for Christmas years ago, unbuttoned with her bra on under it, hickies also visible. 

“Damn,” he stares at her, and she stares at him, both realizing the other had gotten laid that night in the exact same house… 

Robin covers her face, “can we not do this… yet?” 

“I see nothing,” Steve teases, letting Nancy pass and stealing the next spot in the bathroom. “You better be ready to leave in 20 minutes, though!” He calls through the wooden door to Robin. 

“You little shit,” she bangs on the door. “I have to wash my hair, don’t take forever!” 

“I’ll take you in,” Nancy says, kissing robins cheek softly but Steve still hears it through the door, followed by giggles and the sound of them making their way back to her room.

He doesn’t take long, he’s out relatively quick and backs down in the basement with Eddie before he has to go. He already had something to eat, he just had to slip into his uniform and go… but he really didn’t want to. 

Eddie is still laying under the covers, arm over his face so the light doesn’t bother him, his chest uncovered and one leg was also out from under the blanket. Steve just stood there with his shirt in his hands, staring at him, shaking his head with a smile. 

He lays the blue shorts on the end of the bed and crawls in, carefully kissing Eddie’s chest and his neck, disrupting his peace for a cuddle… who was he to complain? Eddie wraps his arms around him and kisses his cheek. “Hi.” 

“Hi,” Steve replies before kissing him on the lips again and again until he smiles too hard. “God, I love you.” 

“Don’t say that when you have to leave,” he groans. “I just wanna show you how much every time.” 

He just chuckles to himself, “thank you… honestly.” 

“For what?” 

“Nancy is upstairs with Robin… for like point 5 seconds I was upset to see her and now I’m like astounded I ever thought the feelings I had for her were true love.” 

Eddie wraps him up and flips them over so he’s on top, “what did I say? I love you so fucking much I don’t want to ever let you leave this bed. You’re mine, Stevie. Mine.” 

“I’m not going to apologize for saying I love you,” he teases, having fun with that sentence for once in his life. Finally, fuckin finally, someone loved him back the same, if not more than he loved them. And it felt fucking fantastic. 

“I would ask you to call out… but you’ve got a big day,” Eddie reminds him. “You think he knows yet?” 

He nods, Dustin was probably sitting in his mom's car right now, “she picked him up at 10… they’re probably almost back in Hawkins.” 

“It’s gonna be a good day,” he assures Steve, brushing his hair back with a sweet smile. “I’ll come to see you at some point too.”

“You wanna tell Dustin together?” He asks, not knowing if he was out to him already or not.

“Whatever feels right to you,” he assures Steve, like always. “I’m just happy to see you happy.” 

He pinches Eddie a few times, “how are you real?” 

“Ow! I’m also sensitive!” He complains, reaching between them to dig his fingers into Steve’s sides and tickle him. 

“Don’t! No!” He starts laughing uncontrollably and can’t escape Eddie’s grasp. The laughing fills the basement, and the two of them play fighting in bed when he should be getting ready for work. 

“Steve!” Nancy yells from upstairs, “get your ass in gear, I can’t leave till you move your car.” 

“Hold on,” he calls back, still breathing heavily from laughing, smiling wide at Eddie. “I love you.” 

“Was that Wheeler?” Eddie looks at him all confused. 

He nods, “yeah, I think Robins dating her?” 

Eddie balls his hands into fists and lifts his arms up to celebrate, “yes, I knew it would work out.” 

“She’s got just as many hickies as me,” Steve says as he slips out of bed and reaches for his things. 

“So Buckley’s a freak too,” he smiles to himself. “I always knew we were similar.” 

“Shut up,” Steve can’t help but laugh, 'cause yeah, they are…

Once Steve is all dressed he leans down and kisses Eddie one last time, “I love you, too, by the way,” Eddie reminds him, he didn’t say it back just before. 

“I know,” Steve steals another kiss, and a third and a fourth before pulling away. “I’ve really gotta go, I’ll see you later?” 

“You know it,” he reaches out and smacks Steve’s ass as he starts to move away. “Have a good day!” 

He grabs his keys and shoes and runs up the stairs, through the kitchen and into the foyer, “sorry, sorry,” he apologizes as Nancy gives him a glare. 

“You want to come with us?” Robin asks, letting him know she would indeed be going with Nancy. 

He shakes his head, “I’ve got Dustin to drive home later.” 

“He’s going to be at work with us all day?” Robin didn’t know that was part of the plan. 

He shrugs, “I don’t know when he’s coming, but yeah I’ll be driving him home for Claudia.” 

“I’ll come back and get you,” Nancy offers, “you can come over to my place for once?” 

“Yeah,” she gets all soft and leans in, pressing a sweet kiss to Nancy’s lips. 

Steve almost trips putting his shoes on while staring at them in amazement and playful disgust, 'cause it's his ex and his best friend... “ew?” 

“Grow up,” Nancy waves him off and kisses Robin again. 

Steve hasn’t seen her look like that before, she’s so enamoured with Robin that you’d think it would make him jealous… just a few weeks ago he was still hung up on how things ended, now he’s overjoyed that she’s found what he has with Eddie… they’re both happy now. That’s all he could hope for. 

—

When he sees the Hawkins sign his stomach drops. He’s been sitting with his mother and the new information about how own life for about 2 hours now and it still didn’t feel right. His mom was assaulted resulting in a pregnancy that later became him. And that meant He, Dustin Henderson was of Harrington blood… no fuckin’ wonder he loved Steve so much. 

“Can you drop me off at the mall?” He asks as they enter downtown. 

She nods, knowing that this was going to be his destination so she was already on her way to the mall. “You okay?” 

“Yeah,” he tries to believe it himself. “Are you?” 

“I think so,” she half smiles, faces still puffy from all the tears. 

“Thank you for sharing that with me, I’m sure it was really hard,” he sympathizes, remembering that it’s important to validate other people's heavy emotions, it’s something Mr. Clarke taught him. 

When she pulls up in front of the mall he takes off his seatbelt and throws himself into her embrace, “I love you, mom.” 

“Oh dusty,” she almost cries. “I love you, too."

With a kiss on the cheek and a pat on the back, she pulls away and sends him off to see his brother. It felt healing now that he knew the truth. There was just one last person she had to talk to, one last person to make things right with. 

Claudia ends up parking her car outside Wayne's trailer with a deep sigh. She gets out and slowly, but surely, makes her way to his door, she knocks a few times, waits… and then she sees him through the screen door. 

“Dede?” Wayne stares at her through the screen, “what are you doing here?” 

“I told Dustin everything,” it just starts falling out. “Everything, Wayne.” He throws the door open and pulls her into his embrace as she starts to cry, “I’m so sorry.” 

“I’m sorry-er,” Wayne whispers, rubbing her back gently. “I wish I went with ya, I wish I could’ve been there to protect you… I wish he was mine.” 

“I’m sorry,” she says it again, unable to find any other words. Feeling like she took the chance at being a father away from him. “Especially for Eddie.” 

“What about him?” He pulls away, “he hurt?” 

She nods, “devastated. Steve came to me wanting to no more, said you kicked him out all because he wouldn’t keep Steve from his brother for you.” 

He nods, “I did do that… but it’s only cause—

“‘Cause he said you were being irrational like Dick,” she knows everything. “You’ve gotta know when you’re in love there are not many people who can tear you apart.” 

“Yeah,” he sighs. “I fucked up big time… twice, didn’t I?” 

She nods, “you could’ve come with us to Chicago.” 

“I know,” he pauses like there’s more. She knows his face too well. 

“What?” 

“I was gonna pack up and come see you and then my sister got sick,” he admits. “I had to raise my nephew, but I was gonna help you raise Dustin.” 

“You still can. You can mend things with Eddie, get to know Steve and… and you can come around whenever you want to meet Dustin,” she doesn’t know how to say she wants him back. 

“Can I take you out as well? Or am I just allowed to come over?” He teases, wanting to pick up where they left off so desperately. 

“If you patch things up with Eddie tonight, we’re having family dinner at my place tomorrow, it’s a potluck cause there’s a boatload of kids to feed,” she can’t help but smile. “The woman Eddie’s staying with is a saint, she’s taken in a few kids.” 

“I figured he was with Beth,” he sighs in relief knowing he was safe. 

With a hand on her cheek, he brushes her hair back and smiles at her softly, taking in the moment. He always wondered when he’d get to see her this close again, the love he had for her never faltered, it never left, it's all still there as he stares at her.

“I still love ya, Dede.” 

“I know,” she smiles, basking in his embrace. “But you’ve got a kid to talk to before work… I can’t show you how much I’ve missed you just yet.” 

“I still get off work at 4:30 in the mornin',” he reminds her. 

“I still live on Piney Wood,” she says in the hopes he knows he can come n see her after. “I’ve got a key under the matt, you can slip into bed with me after your shift, like old times.” 

He pulls her into a gentle kiss, breathing her in deeply, he’s missed everything about her on a level he couldn’t ever understand. He’s yearned for her for so many years… who knew it would be Dick Harrington’s son that brought her back to him? 

—

Dustin runs to Scoops Ahoy like his life depends on it, losing his breath on the way, he drips his chest and takes heaving breaths as he reaches the counter. “Is he here?” 

“Is who here?” Robin smiles, pretending she doesn’t know exactly who he’s talking about. 

Before he can even answer the storage room door busts open with the sound of rubber soles screeching on the linoleum. “HENDERSON!” Steve jumps, overjoyed to see him. “Henderson! He’s back, he’s back!” 

Robin shakes her head with a loving smile, she’s heard a lot about Steve’s love for Dustin, long before he knew they were related, it’s cute to see them meet again now knowing the truth. 

“You got the job!” Dustin cheers him on, pointing at everything. 

“I did! I got it,” he reaches forward, initiating the first sequence in their long best-friend handshake. 

Grab hands, lock fingers, and pull away enough to come back in with a fist bump which then becomes lightsabers crashing twice before Dustin stabs Steve in the stomach and he pretends to bleed out… They spend a long time creating it and memorizing it through hours of rigorous practice. It was perfect now. Weird, but perfect. 

After their handshake, Steve pulls him into a hug and kisses the top of his hat-covered head. “I missed you, buddy.” 

“I missed you, too,” Dustin holds him back, arms wrapped around his middle with his face pressed to Steve’s chest. 

“I uh, I’ve been working on something for you,” Steve explains as he pulls away. “Wait here.” 

He runs back into the back room and takes a special ice cream boat out of the walk-in freezer. It was 3 scoops of ice cream, each with different toppings, candy rings along the side of the bowl as port holes and Waffle cone pieces as sails. He brings it right out to him with a smile, “pick a table, she’s all yours.” 

“Holy shit!” He giggles with excitement, smiling with no teeth. 

They pick a booth away from other people and sit together, catching up on Dustin's camp experience without even touching on the new truth they were both aware of. 

“Girlfriend?” Steve stops him mid-retelling. “You asked a girl out?” 

He nods, “we were spending so much time together… she was in all my groups at the start and she wanted me to be her partner for our final project and I just couldn’t imagine never talking to her again.” 

“That’s so cute,” Steve holds his chest, right over his heart, feeling so overjoyed for him. 

“I didn’t even need any of your tricks,” he teases. 

“Yeah well, I’m learning that none of my tricks were good anyway…” 

“Suze likes me for me,” he swoons. “And she’s so hot, like so far out of my league. Phoebe Cates level of hot.” 

“No way? Hotter than Phoebe Cates? No,” Steve A) thinks he’s exaggerating 'cause it's his first love and B) doesn’t want to believe a 13-year-old girl is that hot… he shouldn’t ever think that.

“Yes way,” Dustin can’t help but smile back. “Brilliant too. And she doesn’t even care that my pearls aren’t real, she says kissing is way better without teeth.” 

Steve opens his mouth to reply but all he can do is blink, “huh… wow man. Yeah, no that’s great. I’m so happy for you.” 

“Thanks,” he says with a mouthful of ice cream. “Do you really get to eat as much of this as you want?” 

He nods, “I mean, yeah, but I’ve gotta watch my figure… you know, for the ladies.” 

“and hows that working out for you, huh, Harrington?” Robin teases, overhearing them from where she was cleaning off a newly vacant table. 

“Shut up,” he gives her a death glare. 

“What’s that about?” Dustin knows something's up. 

“Huh?” 

“Do you have a new girlfriend?” Dustin lights right up. “Oh that’s so cool, maybe when Susie comes to visit one day we can—

“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Steve cuts him off and moves in closer, bringing his voice down. “I am seeing someone though… a guy, someone.” 

Dustin leans in too, mouth agape and eyes wide, “who?” 

“Do not freak out and cause a scene or so help me, Henderson I will never give you free ice cream again,” he prefaces, watching Dustin nod frantically. “It’s Eddie.” 

“What!?” He almost screams and then shrinks down in size to stay quiet again. “I mean, what?” 

He nods, a sweet smile on his face. “I’ve been spending a lot of time with Robin at her Grandma’s house and He’s good friends with her cousin.” 

“Gareth,” Dustin knows them well already. “Holy shit, that’s so cool, Steve?” 

“You think?” He beams, cheeks filling up with a beautiful pink colour. 

“Yeah! I’m just glad you’re happy,” Destin scoots over in the seat and wraps his brother up in another big hug. “I was so excited to come home and see you and now… now you’re my brother?” 

“I know,” he rubs his back, wondering at what point he’d bring it up. It was all up to him how much Steve acknowledged it. He just holds him back a little tighter and whispers, “I’ve always known about my brother, I always wanted to go out and find him and meet him. I can’t believe it gets to be you.” 

Steve just holds him there, rubbing his back gently. “You’re okay, right? You know you can talk to me about what your mom said? She’s already told me everything.” 

He nods against him, “I know, I just don’t want to.” 

“Alright,” he lets it go. “I love you, man.” 

“I love you, too,” Dustin holds him tighter, impossibly tight at that. Steve almost can’t breathe. “Thank you.” 

A stray tear falls down Steve’s cheek, and he rushes to wipe it off before patting Dustin on the back. He gets the memo and pulls away then, looking at Steve with similarly glossy eyes. 

“Are you busy tonight?” He asks. 

He shakes his head, “nope, I told Eddie I’d be hanging out with you… unless you want him to come too? Or you can come over to our place?” 

“You’ve moved in together already?” 

“Had to,” he presses his lips together in a sad smile. “Eddie got kicked out, I can’t see my dad ever again knowing the truth… we moved into Robin's basement.”

“I’m sorry,” he feels bad, almost as if it’s his fault that Steve had to move out… and knowing Eddie’s uncle dated his mom, he feels like Eddie’s issue was somehow on him too. 

“No,” Steve points at him. “Don’t worry about it, we’re just staying there till we save up for our own place… I’m actually thinking about applying to school again.” 

“Really? For what?” 

“Well… I was thinking I’m good with CPR from the lifeguard training and,” he drops his voice and moves in, “fire kills things from the upside down, so I should know how to work with it…” 

“You’d be a good firefighter,” Dustin can’t believe he didn’t think of that for Steve himself. “You are very strong, like both in the sense you could carry someone out of a burning building but I think you could cope with it too?” 

“You think?” His soul lightens then, he’s always wanted his family to be proud of him… and now he had that. 

“I know!” He cheers, “you’d get to stay here, too.” 

“Exactly,” he finally settles against the red leather bench seat. Every weight has been lifted off him, Dustin knew everything and he was supportive of it too. 

—

“Sir, I don’t think it’s best that you be in here.” 

Eddie’s head pops up at the sound of his boss's stern voice only to see him keeping Wayne from coming in. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Eddie rushes over, “what’s wrong?” 

Wayne wasn’t a confrontational person, so either someone was dead or hurt if he was coming in to see him in a middle of a fight. They haven’t talked in a few days, Wayne’s also never been one to say sorry. So it makes him worry more.

“Can we talk?” 

His boss turns to him, making sure he feels safe to do so, he knew all the gossip about Eddie’s boyfriend and how his uncle didn’t like him. His boss loved him, he was the only good employee he had, so he felt a little protective of him. 

“I’m okay,” Eddie assures him. “Can I take 5?”

He nods, “holler if you need me.” 

“Will do,” he gives him a smile and then follows Wayne out into the mall and to a bench where they can sit. 

He’s nervous as hell when he sits beside him, he carefully stares at him, observing his body language and his face. He looked sad. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m a fucking idiot,” he admits, pressing his lips together as he shakes his head, he looks like he might cry. “Claudia came over and told me everything, they told Dustin today, which I’m sure ya knew about—

“Yeah, I did,” he cuts him off. “So you know Steve left his parents?” 

He nods, “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you when you said he’s a good kid.” 

That hits him right in the chest. “You’re sorry?” 

He nods, “I know I don’t say it often, but I am. I was wrong, I didn’t listen, I need to find a way to stop.” 

“I get it though,” he sympathizes. “Mom told me all about your dad, he was barely there after the war. I don’t blame you for standing your ground and not budging on much.” 

“But you’re my kid now,” he whispers. “I promised your mom I wouldn’t ever treat you like our dad did us and then I did. I was just as bad a dick, as bad as my dad and yours… you have never deserved that.” 

He nods, tears bubbling behind his eyes. He swallows sharply, “you’re a good dad…” 

Wayne wraps him up in a big hug. “I love you, kid. I’m so fuckin’ sorry I did that to you.” 

“It’s okay,” he holds him back so tight. “We’re okay.” 

He pulls away but cups Eddie’s cheek with his hand so he keeps looking at him, “when are you coming home?” 

He shakes his head, “I don’t think I am…” 

“Why?” 

“We’re all moved into Beth's basement and Steve’s saving up for a trailer, so I’ll be back in the park eventually and I’ll come to see you all the time, but I think I’m happy where I’m at,” he explains softly, not wanting to hurt him by saying no. 

“So I get my room back for good?” He tries to see it as a win. 

Eddie nods with a chuckle, “I guess you do.”

—

Eddie gets him first, parking in the driveway behind Gareth’s van, Nancy would park beside him when she got there, leaving Steve to park on the street later when he got home. 

Home.

He walks in with a smile, kicks his shoes off by the door and heads right to the kitchen. He gives Grandma Beth a hug and a kiss on the cheek and takes a seat on one of the bar stools. 

“How was work?” 

“Good,” he sighs, letting the stress of the day out with it. “Wayne came in and talked to me.” 

“Oh?” She had no idea, genuinely. 

He nods, “mhm, he apologized, I guess Claudia talked to him and made him realize he was in the wrong.” 

“Are you okay?” She looks at him so softly.

“Yeah,” he shrugs. “I really think so… I cried it all out, it got fixed, I’m happy with Steve, I like living here… so yeah I think I’m okay. I’m fantastic.” 

She beams a beautiful smile back at him, “I’m happy for you, sweetheart.”

“Thank you,” he reaches out his hand across the counter to hold hers. 

She gives his hand a squeeze before she lets him go, moving on to making him a plate of dinner after a long day at work. 

Nancy and Robin join shortly after, Steve apparently took Dustin to set up some HAM radio he made so he can talk to his girlfriend from here… there was a lot he needed to catch up on when Steve got home. 

There it was again. It was so easy for him to call this place home. Being in bed with Steve was home. Being in his arms is home. Steve is home. 

He heads down to his room to sit in his feelings, too in love to even think straight, he feels like he could go crazy thinking about how happy Steve made him feel. It was a little crazy to think back on how scared being around Steve made him, how big of a crush he had on him… now Steve loves him back and they sleep in the same bed and share a room and they’re together. They’re happy. 

He cleans up their room a bit, he makes it cozy again and slips into bed with a copy of lord of the rings: the return of the king, not knowing when Steve would be home. He was almost done with this read-through, only 50 pages left in the book, the perfect place to get caught up in while he waited for hours to go by without his lover. 

“Shh, he might be asleep,” he hears Steve’s voice as the basement door cracks open and then two sets of feet stomp down the steps. 

“Hey,” Steve lights right up when he sees Eddie still awake in bed. “Dustin wanted to sleep over…” 

“Thats cool,” he doesn’t mind at all. 

Dustin runs over to Eddie and gives him a big hug, almost knocking the wind out of him as he jumps up on top of him. “oof— what’s this for?” 

“I’m glad you’re part of my family now,” he’s so sweet it could make Eddie cry. 

He shoves him off playfully, “gross, why are you so sappy?” 

“Harrington genes,” he teases. 

“Hey?” Steve stares at them like they’ve both insulted him somehow. “I’m not that emotional?” 

“Okay,” they both say at the same time, turning to each other to giggle. 

“You guys suck,” he walks away from the bed to the dresser he shares with Eddie and takes out some new comfy sleep clothes for the night. 

Steve changes in the bathroom first, then he gives Dustin some stuff to change into and soon all 3 of them are cuddled into the same bed with Dustin in the middle. Eddie keeps reading, only this time they ask him to read it out loud. 

“How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold,” Eddie reads softly. 

Perfectly content with where the threads of his own life have fallen into place. 

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