#i think that on some level. even after things got REALLY bad with the band...... he just wanted his brother back | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

xmasterofmunsonx · 5 months ago

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Got Your Number

Summary: You’re Steve Harrington’s older sister and after a rough and tumultuous breakup, you’re back in Hawkins, Indiana. 🌶️

Pairing: Harrington!reader x Eddie Munson

Author’s notes: hi hello!!! long time no update. been sitting on the first half of this for months and wrote the second half over the last two days. I love this story and honestly at this point I’m writing it for myself and everyone else enjoying it is just a plus. If you’re still hanging in there with me, thanks 🩷

Warnings: 18+ (Minors DNI!!), language, drinking, weed, mentions of past abusive relationship, body image issues, shitty parent relationship, smut

Word count: 8K

VII.

Two weeks had gone by in a flash while working full time at your dads office. It really wasn’t all that bad, and everyone that worked there had either known you your whole life, or they knew your dad well enough to not give you a hard time- whether it’s because they figured he gave you a hard enough time anyway, or they were afraid of him, you weren’t too sure.

Eddie and the guys seemed to have moved on from the record deal and decided to not sign it, and you were thankful because you were afraid they’d be making a huge mistake in doing so, but you didn’t miss the lack of spark that your boyfriend had shown the last two weeks- he’d canceled Hellfire one night, and was threatening to cancel it now at 4 pm, a few hours before it was supposed to start.

“C’mon, what else are you going to do?” You asked him, the work phone between your shoulder and ear as you were busy with some paperwork.

“Practice, and maybe practice some more. We’re having a really hard time nailing down Maiden’s ‘Wasted Years’ for our show.” You heard him sigh, and tapping his fingers on something at his work through the other end of the phone line.

“Babe, the song just came out a little while ago. I don’t think anyone expects perfection, and you don’t have to play it until you’re ready to.”

He was quiet for a moment before speaking, “I just can’t stop thinking about what if another scout is out there at the next show and we don’t blow them away? We could’ve just missed our chance to make it big.”

“Eddie, you didn’t. I promise.” You twirled the phone cord, “Steve said Dustin is driving him insane because he’s been bugging him since all you’ve been doing is practicing with the band or seeing me- you need to spend some time with them.”

“I don’t need the guilt from you too.” He said quickly.

“I’m not guilting you- I’m just trying to help you keep things normal as you… your brain adjusts to the meds.” Eddie had taken the doctors orders and actually complied with taking the medication he needed for two weeks straight. The first week was the worst- the mood swings were a little more unpredictable, and the anxiety was heightened but you could tell he was starting to level out a little now by the end of the second week. He was even getting better sleep already, and he hadn’t woken up from a nightmare since the third night.

“I’m doing better already. Do you want me to take you on a date or something instead?”

“Eddie, why don’t you want to have Hellfire tonight? You do every single Friday night.”

“I just… I don’t wanna feel different for that. I don’t wanna lose my spunk with it.”

“Do you really feel like you’ve lost it in other ways?” This was the first he’d mentioned any of this, and you really wish you weren’t having this conversation over the phone, but you knew it was probably easier for him to tell you these things without being face to face.

“I mean, kinda, I can’t get the riffs right on that goddamn song to save my life.”

You laughed, “Eddie. That song is a completely different sound from almost any other Maiden song, I heard you playing it the other morning before I walked out of your bedroom. You’ve got it. If anything, I think you’re focusing and you’re trying harder than you ever have before. Plus, this is Hellfire we’re talking about here- you are the most dramatic person I know, including right now, you could never lose your flair for dramatics. Do you want me to DM tonight, or something? I can pull out one of my old campaigns if you haven’t already stolen them all.”

“Would you?” He sounded sheepish as he asked the question.

“I may need some assistance in refreshing on actually how to properly be a dungeon master but I think I can swing that for once. If everyone’s okay with it.” You scribbled down some ideas you’d had as you listened to Eddie go on about how the guys usually played out the campaigns and you knew exactly which one you wanted to try out on them tonight.

“Never thought a Harrington would grace the table of Hellfire Club. Welcome.” Dustin spoke to you as you sipped on a glass of whiskey over ice.

“Henderson, who do you think Eddie got some of those twisted campaign ideas from? His little pea brain?” Gareth quipped at Dustin immediately.

“Hey!” Eddie said from the corner of the room, as you blew a kiss at him.

“I told you, we started Hellfire together back in middle school. Were you even born then?”

“What?! I’m not that young.” He shrugged.

You rolled your eyes, “Good luck. You’re gonna need it.”

“She’s not joking.” Gareth nudged Dustin- who’d looked all too confident when he learned you’d be the dungeon master tonight. “I almost cried once.”

You had to turn away to keep from laughing and avoid spitting out the alcohol in your mouth. You were feeling warmed up, but nervous as you waited for everyone to get to Eddie’s music store where he hosted the games in the back room. You loved the cozy feeling of it versus using a room at your school that you had to beg and plead for, and Eddie had told you it had been a fight to keep it going during high school without you being in the club to be the representative for it. He claimed they would’ve let you have any room in the schpracticeool if you asked for it, while they were begrudgingly given the drama room and even then sometimes they had to move a campaign night because of play practice running over. The back room was decked out with band posters, show flyers- new and old, and some odds and ends mounted on the wall.

“Ready, my love?” Your heart swooned at Eddie who’d also been sipping whiskey all night, his ringed hand was clutching a glass similar to yours, except his was a little more empty than yours. You loved how into character he always got, and you felt butterflies as he wrapped his other arm around your waist and kissed your temple. “Thanks for being willing to step up tonight.”

“I can’t say that it’ll happen often, but you owe me big time, Munson.” You locked eyes with his crazy wide brown ones.

“Oh believe me, I know how I’m paying you back tonight.”

“Then you better stop drinking now before you get whiskey dick, babe.” You whispered in his ear, and kissed his earlobe, your teeth lightly biting it- thankful his curtain of hair could hide your actions. Okay, maybe you were two glasses of whiskey deep now. But you didn’t have the energy you used to and you needed everything you could to pull tonight off.

Everyone had taken a seat at the table, Eddie had lent you his seat at the head of the table, and he scooted a chair up beside yours to help you if you needed it. You were excited, nervous, but mostly you were just happy that Eddie had decided to not cancel tonight. You could tell that he was really in his element here, and this normalcy was what he really needed.

“Alright everyone. Get nice and cozy, because we’re gonna be here all night long.” You sat down and rifled through your notes, smiling at a few of the add ons Eddie had scribbled down, god only knows when, as you started the campaign. You took a sip of your half refilled glass, then cleared your throat and started speaking. “Tonight, we’re in the kingdom of Evercrest.” You heard Gareth groan across the table and you shot him a look, he knew that you had many campaigns written for this kingdom. You remember that some of these used to take two or three sessions to finish, but they were some of your best work, honestly.

“Never heard of that one.” Mike quipped as he crunched on a Pringle.

“Shush.” Eddie snapped beside you, and you held back some giggles.

“Tonight we’ll be playing the Shadows of Evercrest. One of the darkest and most mysterious kingdoms of all- it’s a kingdom on the brink of being completely engulfed by darkness brought on by dark magic and ancient curses. Most recently, there have been many disappearances in the kingdom. Each disappearance has brought the kingdom closer and closer to being overthrown.”

Everyone was dead silent as they looked at you in shock as you felt yourself returning back to your old ways of being a dungeon master. You had the entire attention of the whole table, and you started to get sweaty hands. Eddie placed a gentle hand on your leg and squeezed it, you looked at him- his eyes were full of admiration as he encouraged you to continue on.

An hour into gameplay, you had another drink and you were feeling bold enough to reveal the first twist of the night.

“Elara’s influence in the kingdom is growing stronger, but how? When you’ve all been so successful so far.” You sipped and placed your glass down to your left. “There is a traitor among the allies.” Gasps were heard from all around.

“No! Absolutely not!” Dustin exclaimed, slamming his fist down, “that’s-”

“That’s how it goes, my friend. Elara has enchanted an ally, with her dark magic.” You waved your hand over them as if you were a witch yourself, pretending to cast a spell over them. “The illness that swept over Evercrest took her sister, and now she has plagued the kingdom with these disappearances seeking revenge in the name of her sister. The ally has been enchanted by her.” You kept on, “Will you confront your former ally and try to redeem them, or will you cut ties and focus on stopping Elara’s plans?” You sat back in the chair and watched as the group was talking amongst themselves and deciding what to do.

“Can we break?” Will asked as he raised his hand, almost afraid of what you were going to say.

“Absolutely.” Eddie answered for you, grabbing your notebook from the table so no one could peek, then clutching your hand and dragging you out the side exit door of the breakroom into the dark alleyway. “You. Have. No. Idea. What. You’re. Doing. To. Me.” He pinned you against the brick wall kissing your neck between words, the coldness was a harsh contrast to the warmth from his mouth. “Fuck, you’re such a goddamn nerd too, driving me crazy when you’re like this.” He nipped at your neck and worked his free hand over your body as you bit back moans.

“Never knew I did this to you, Eddie.” You chuckled as you entwined a hand of yours into his curls, letting him continue to scatter kisses over your exposed neck and chest. “Don’t leave a mark, they’ll know.”

“As if my raging boner isn’t enough of a hint, fuck.” He was out of breath as he pressed his forehead against yours. “That, t-that’s my girl back there. Not that bullshit cheerleader who was a fucking bully in high school.” You kissed him on the lips and he pulled you close by your neck. “I don’t wanna go back in there, ‘wanna take you right here.” His hand slid down to your lower back, then to your ass where he squeezed it and pulled it to meet his groin where he was very obviously hard.

“Eddie, we can’t. I promise as soon as we get back to your place we can, we’ve still got another few hours left.”

He quickly shook his head as he smothered you with more kisses, “can’t wait that long.”

“You’re gonna have to.” You pushed him off of you gently, grabbed the book from him and opened the door, walking back into the room, grabbing water and sitting back down in your chair. The rest of the room were gathered in separate groups, probably discussing game plans, and your absence didn’t seem to have been a problem for anyone to bring up thankfully. A few minutes later, a more calm (and obviously now high) Eddie returned to his seat beside you and winked at you, giving you a sinking feeling in your stomach that felt like butterflies mixed with a bit more of a tornado feeling.

“Alright, everyone ready to keep on?” You interrupted their quiet discussions.

“Question is, can you two kids keep it in your pants till we’re through?” Dustin joked as he sat down.

“Ask her, she’s the one who-” you lightly slapped Eddie on the chest to shut him up.

“Excuse you.” You fussed at him and everyone groaned. “It was all him, I swear.”

They all settled down and got ready, and the next two hours flew by. Finally you were getting to the end, and you were really proud of how everyone had handled your twists and turns to the campaign. You stood up to announce the next twist, “As you’ve now successfully uncovered all of Elara’s tragic past, you’ve all ended your quest at her lair, of all places. Hundreds of undead minions are waiting for you to cross her. Will you turn around now, after all of this? Or will you fight?”

“We’re going to fight.” Dustin answered for the group.

“Your death.” Erica chimed in and you held in a little laugh.

You went to sit back down, only to be met with the lap of your boyfriend instead of the chair, and he wrapped his arms around your waist. No one let out a groan of grossness at this show of affection, so you leaned into it.

The game continued, “Elara summons even more undead creatures to attack you in her lair.” Everyone fought on, played their hardest that they could to defeat Elara, and you could feel Eddie beaming proudly behind you. “In a moment of redemption, Elara hesitates, a flicker of doubt crossing her face as she gazes upon those who have fought so bravely to stop her. In a final act of sacrifice, she uses her remaining power to banish the darkness that has consumed her and restore peace to the kingdom, her spirit finally finding peace as she fades into the shadows. Thanks to all of you heroes for bravely planning along tonight, and saving the kingdom from an eternity of darkness.” You raised your last sip of your glass at everyone as they cheered triumphantly at their win, and you felt Eddie place a sloppy kiss on your cheek. You could feel his hips slowly moving underneath your ass as you wrapped an arm around his shoulder and sat sideways. “Munson, calm down.”

“Can’t, gotta get some relief. I had to use you to hide it.” He pulled you in for a kiss and you heard a few of the younger “kids” groan out their ewws at your sign of affection, to which you both held up your middle fingers as you continued to kiss each other.

“Alright, we’ll meet again next week.” Eddie pulled back from the kiss abruptly, and loudly announced to the group. You furrowed your eyebrows at him, “I forgot to close out a few things for the store tonight because I was too excited about having a guest DM so we’ve gotta stay back and do that anyway. You all can go.” He pushed you off of his lap, quickly, and everyone left the room in groups or pairs, the same ones they arrived in. You were browsing the dark music store that only had a few neon lights and lamps on as everyone seemed to have disappeared.

“Could you have been any more obvious, Munson?” You asked as you felt a pair of arms wrap around you from behind.

“I reaaaaally don’t give a fuck what they know, or think.” He pushed your hair to the side and started kissing behind your ear and you leaned back into him. His hot breath tickled and you shivered, “I also reaaaaally don’t think I can wait till we get home.” His hand was traveling down your stomach and you felt his fingers playing with the hem of your mini skirt. You didn’t stop him as he danced it up higher on your thighs, your body weight leaning more and more into his chest. Your arms were hanging onto his neck as your skirt was now bunched up at your waist, and he was playing with the waistband of your panties.

“Here? S’dark in here but what if someone sees?”

“Don’t give a damn baby, it’s my store, my rules. Now bend over.” He smirked into your neck and pulled your ass against his hard dick, you could feel how thick he was through his jeans already. One of his hands was pulling your lace panties to the side, while his other was skillfully undoing his belt buckle. “You wore these tonight, were you expecting something?”

Honestly, you weren’t. You just hadn’t done laundry to have any other of your more normal underwear clean. “No, promise.”

His hand grabbed at your bare ass cheek and he pulled back and slapped it, “anyone could’ve seen these, you know that, right?” You smirked at his possessiveness, it felt different than when your ex had been possessive. You knew Eddie was proud of you, and you also knew how talkative he was when he was this turned on, so you just let him keep going. You nodded to go along and felt his fingers tease your entrance. “Oh fuck, you’re so wet. I’m surprised you didn’t leave a mark on my jeans.” He lazily rubbed his fingers between the lips of your pussy, and you arched your back to beg for more than what he was giving you, pressing your hands into the wooden record display for support.

“Fuck, stop teasing me.” You looked back and saw him smirking, as he unzipped his jeans and let them slide down his thighs. He started lazily stroking up and down his dick, matching the pace of his slow fingers that were touching you earlier.

“You should know all about teasing, shouldn’t you? Grinding your ass on me, leaning over that fucking table tonight so I could just almost see what I wanted. Wanted to shove that skirt up and lick you clean tonight.” He stroked himself quicker and quicker, “You ready for me, babe?” He asked as he teased your entrance with his hard length, and you whimpered as he teased you with an inch or so, then pulled back out. He kept on a few times until you’d had enough and you thrust your hips back to take his whole length, making him grab onto your hips. “Fuck yeah,” Eddie grunted as he fucked into you and steadied your hips. The store was quiet except the low humming of the neon lights, and your quiet, low moans.

He pulled your hair in a makeshift ponytail with his hands and yanked your head up to his. “You drive me crazy, baby, do you know that? Can’t believe you’re mine after all these years.” He was relentless as he pounded into you, a skilled hand snaking around your front and circling your clit to bring you to your height of pleasure.

You felt yourself clenching around him as he kept a steady pace, and you came quickly before he followed suit, and allowing himself to collapse onto you.

“Goddamn, I can’t last more than a few minutes with you ever, can I?” You could feel his cheeks warm against your back as he chuckled and twitched inside.

“It’s fine, really. You’ve made up for it plenty of other times.” He let out a sharp sigh as he pulled out of you, and helped you fix your outfit and then his own. You both were smirking at each other as you wandered around the store.

“Ready to go?” He asked as he swung the keys around his pointer finger.

“I thought you had to- you’re such a bullshitter, Munson.” You realized he’d lied to everyone about needing to do something at the shop to get everyone to leave earlier.

“Maybe so, Harrington, maybe so.” He opened the door for you and you followed out after he finished locking the doors to the music store.

“They trust you with this?” You eyed your brother as you helped him scoot the grill out onto the patio around the pool.

“Mom and dad barely use it, so I taught myself how to a while ago.”

“Shocked that you haven’t burned the house down yet.” You muttered to him and he rolled his eyes back in return. It was an oddly warm fall Sunday, so you (Steve) had decided to have everyone over for a pool party, which you were sure would turn into a night party too. Absent parents were a plus sometimes, and you had Monday off of work because your dad had decided to close for the day.

You were both busy setting up the food and drinks in the kitchen when someone rang the doorbell, so you jogged to the front door to let them in.

In a line, all of the “kids” walked in, Dustin being last and giving you a high five as if you were Steve. You could tell they felt comfortable here as they piled in and made themselves comfortable before heading out back.

“We just… let them party?” You asked, coming around the kitchen corner to your brother.

“Nah, maybe a beer or two but they know the rules. I’m still the babysitter a little bit. Where’s Eddie?”

You shrugged, he was supposed to be here early to help you two get ready but he was either early, or late- never on time, but it was unusual that you hadn’t heard from him. “Must be running late.”

Steve raised an eyebrow at you as he sliced tomatoes. “What?” He asked as you eyed him.

“Just, not like him, that’s all.” You watched as he arranged the tomatoes and lettuce on a plate for burgers. “Alright, what do you know? You’ve never been so precise about where toppings for a burger go on a plate. I really don’t see anyone who’s coming even putting a vegetable on their burger.” You crossed your arms and leaned your hip against the counter.

“Nothing.” He moved on to cutting up an onion, and you snatched the knife from his hand.

“Steve.” He said your name back to you in the same sassy tone. “What do you know?”

He sighed, “He didn’t wanna come because it’s a pool party, and he’s nervous about everyone seeing his scars. So he said he was gonna say something came up with the store so he didn’t have to come, then come later tonight.”

You frowned, you felt bad for Eddie because he was so sensitive about his appearance. Everyone knew what they were from, but you guessed that no one had seen him since the wounds had healed, he didn’t strike you as the shirtless guy at a pool type even before, but especially now.

“I’m gonna go call him really quick, can you handle everything for a minute?” You asked Steve as you handed him his knife back, and he seemed to be finishing up any prep work that needed to be done.

The phone line rang three times as you sat on your bed waiting for someone to pick up.

“Hello?” It was Wayne, which took you by surprise.

“Hey uncle Wayne, it’s me. Is Eddie there?”

“Yeah, he’s practicin’ right now. Want me to get him for you?”

“Please.” You chewed on your lip, debating telling him it’s an emergency to hopefully have a better chance at getting him on the phone but you didn’t want to add to any anxiety he already has. You heard multiple footsteps before you heard the phone cord clinking against the plastic phone.

“Hey baby.” He sounded sweet and… oblivious?

“Hey, are you coming over? Steve’s about to get the grill going I think, and I’m kinda worried that he’s going to set something on fire, or give us all food poisoning.”

“I’m uh, I’m gonna come over later. Still practicing some today, and not really feeling like I wanna swim. Wayne’s home too and-”

“Steve told me you’re worried about everyone seeing your scars.” You blurted it out, immediately regretting it.

“I-I… yeah.” He sighed. You couldn’t see him, but you were willing to bet he was running his hand over his face and through his hair right now. “I know everyone’s got them, and they saw me all fucked up but, you know how I am.”

“Eddie, they’re your friends. And you don’t have to even swim, just come hang out with everybody. No ones gonna pressure you to swim.” You paced your room and looked out the back window of your room that overlooked the pool. Robin had arrived and was wearing a button up top, unbuttoned over her swimsuit. Steve was of course shirtless already with his swim trunks on, and all the younger kids were in the pool swimming. Nancy was in a cute striped one piece, and Jonathan had on shorts and a t-shirt. “Not everyone is swimming, and no ones gonna care if you don’t.”

“You really don’t think they’ll care?”

“No, Eddie. Come on over.”

He sighed, “Alright, give me a few minutes and I’ll leave. If I get pushed in, I’m blaming you.”

“Okay, you can fully blame me if someone else pushes you into the pool.” You laughed at him.

“Don’t wanna mess this hair up either, I’m actually having a really good hair day today.”

You giggled again at the thought of his mop of a mane getting wet from the pool, “I’m sure you are, every day is a good hair day for you.”

“Alright, Harrington.” He said, emphasizing the “hair”, “I’ll see you soon.” You hung up and ran down the stairs, and headed straight for the backyard.

“He’s coming but he’s not gonna swim, and please don’t push him in.” You said to your brother as he was crouched down getting the grill going, or at least attempting to.

“Thank god because I have no idea how to start this stupid thing.” He stood up and you were seeing his scars for the first time, too. The one on his face was obviously there and you were used to it, but it was so much smaller. You guys had been night swimming a few times since you had been home, but you hadn’t paid much attention or seen them like you could right now. He had one on the left of his abdomen that still looked pretty gnarly.

“I didn't realize how bad-”

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad, I know. Well, it was. I think just pretending they’re not there is the only way I can act like things are back to normal now.” He spoke softly as he pushed his sunglasses back up on his nose. “Gonna go grab a drink, you want one?”

“Just a water is fine for now.” You said as he walked away, the scars on his back just as pink as the ones on his front. You found Robin settled in on a pool chair and sat at the foot of her chair. She had already found a beer and was watching the kids play a game of chicken. Max and Lucas were very clearly about to win against Mike and Will.

“Your lover not gonna make it?”

“He’s on his way, he was a little hesitant to come over to swim.” You said, and Robin nodded, thankfully understanding what you were meaning without saying anything.

“I think he has the hardest time with it all because he thinks he should’ve died.” She said very bluntly, sitting back in the lounger. Steve walked over and tossed you a water, then returned back to the grill. “Like, he actually did. And the scars are just another reminder- as if any of us need one, and I don’t think he wants to be a burden and make anyone remember it anymore than we already do, you know?” You nodded, realizing again how little you had understood about what everyone had been through while you were gone, despite hearing so much about it all from them. “He had it the worst of us, but you know that. Steve was pretty fucked up too. He waited until Eddie was even somewhat stable before he got himself looked at, they could have patched him up way better but he wouldn’t leave his side.”

“What?”

“Oh yeah. Days. He spent days after we’d all been evaluated, cleaned up, stitches or whatever we needed before he said that he needed any medical attention other than what we could see on his face. Nancy finally told him he smelled like blood and sweat and needed to go before he ended up with an infection. I'm still not convinced he didn’t get rabies from those bats... She had to pry him away from Eddie’s bedside. Steve said he felt responsible for him dying, because Eddie sacrificed himself to save him for you.” She was staring out at the pool still, talking about all of this as if it were some lighthearted conversation, and you were left speechless. “When the doctors got their hands on Steve they couldn’t believe how much pain he was in for that many days and didn’t even flinch because he was so good at hiding it, but when they asked him to lie back on the hospital bed to get looked at, he was crying in pain. It was pitiful.”

You still didn’t know what to say as you fumbled with your water bottle. “I hate that I wasn’t here.”

“No, don’t say that. I mean, I hate that you were where you were, but you didn’t want to be here. In Hawkins, or the upside down.”

“I just wish I could’ve been there for them more. Anyone. You guys are so close and I feel like I’m just invading on this, and adding more to it all.”

“No, you’re good for everyone. You being back has helped Steve, and obviously Eddie too. That idiot is crazy about you. When he woke up and found out what had happened to the town, the first thing he asked about was some book in his trailer that none of us knew what he was talking about until Wayne got there after Steve called him to tell him his vitals were improving drastically.”

“What book was it?” You asked, not sure what he could’ve been talking about.

“We all thought he meant his copy of The Hobbit but he was talking about some dungeons and dragons notebook.” Your heart stopped as Robin rambled on longer, for minutes before you realized you weren’t listening at all.

You two settled into a normal conversation, but you kept thinking about the notebook that Eddie was worried in the back of your head until he arrived, he made a quiet entrance versus his usual display of dramatics. He was dressed in a ripped up, sleeveless Slayer tshirt and a very holey pair of black jeans, and a pair of black converse that you rarely saw him in. His hair was tied back loosely and he had a black bandana around his head too. You stopped mid sentence with Robin as you watched him gravitate towards Steve as if he automatically knew he needed help.

“Man, you’ve got it bad for Munson, don’t you?”

“Shut it, Robin.” You slapped her ankle playfully and she laughed at you.

“Have you guys said the l word yet?”

You looked at him again before looking over to her, “No, it hasn’t been that long yet.” You knew Robin was such a romantic at heart- she thought your story of two best friends torn apart, then reunited as “lovers” was the best plot for a romantic story.

“Hasn’t been that long?! You guys were friends for how long before this? And you both knew you had something for each other this whole time?! Come on!” She threw her hands up in the air. “Just say it and see what he says.”

Except, you knew how Eddie felt about the word. There were some things some people- most people actually, didn’t know about his life before he was living with Wayne full time. The only time he heard the word love and it actually meant something was his mom, and he didn’t hear it but a few times from her. And if his dad ever said it, it was when he was quite literally beating love into him. It was a subject you weren’t really ready to introduce into your relationship yet, and you didn’t want to be the one to push it on him either. You were following the cracks of the concrete around the pool until a pair of unlaced shoes caught your attention.

Eddie squatted down to your level of the pool chair and lifted your chin up with his two fingers before placing the most gentle kiss on your lips. “Hi.” He said, his cheeks rosy, and his eyes were a little bit bloodshot to match.

“Hi.” You giggled back, “You okay?”

“Smoked on the way over here, never been better.”

“I’ll leave you two alone, have at it.” Robin got up, abandoning her chair. Eddie replaced her at the top of the chair and motioned for you to scoot up between his legs. You settled with your back on his chest, as his arms wrapped around your body.

“Glad you decided to come. I missed you.” You said as you traced the faint scars on his forearms that were showing.

“Just saw me last night at the show, Harrington. But thanks for making me come here, I think it’ll be good.”

“I didn’t make you come here,” you defended, “I was just trying to get you out of the house and that head of yours for a bit.”

“I know.” He kissed the side of your head, “and I’m thanking you for it.” You’d half expected him to retort back with some type of a half argument comment like he was actually trying to say that you did force him to come here, but you could tell he genuinely was glad to be there. You snuggled in closer to him.

“I think your meds are working, you normally would have said something a little smarter than that back to me.” You said out loud.

“Yeah, I feel less on edge all the time now. ‘S kinda nice.” He hummed.

“Should you be smoking weed while you’re taking it?” You feel him shrug against you. “Guess we’ll find out.”

“Guess we will.” He said.

“I need to run upstairs and change, keep an eye on Steve to make sure he doesn’t burn anything, please.”

“You sure you don’t need any assistance?” He wiggled his eyebrows at you and you rolled your eyes as you made your way back inside to change into your swimsuit.

The first one you grabbed was an older black one that was a two piece bikini, you were a bit less curvy back in high school but you figured it would still fit. You slipped the bottoms and the top on and stared at yourself in the mirror. Your shape had changed so much, not necessarily for the worse by any matter, but you could hear the comments from your mom or Charlie in your head as you took yourself in from every angle in the mirror.

A soft knock rapped on the door, then it slowly opened and you weren’t one bit surprised to see Eddie there. His jaw was slack as he stuttered out a compliment. “Y-you look great.”

You blushed and tucked your arms in front of your tummy, attempting to hide your few pounds, suddenly feeling ashamed.

“I mean it. You look healthy. I know what you’re thinking. I haven’t forgotten what your mom used to say to you. I haven’t either.” He closed the door quietly behind him, then walked over towards you.

“How come I have to be the one confident about my body, but you get to hide yours?” You asked him as he enveloped you in a warm hug and rubbed your soft back.

“That’s a conversation I’m willing to have another day, sweetheart. You don’t have to swim either.”

“But I want to. All I have are bikinis though.”

“And you look fine in it.” He hugged you tighter, but then his arms dropped, “what’s that?”

“What’s what?” You pulled back to look at him and he was focused on your closet. “Oh, that’s just some old high school crap. C’mon, let’s go down to the pool so they don’t think we’re up to something.”

Eddie shook his head as he made his way over to your closet. He didn’t have to stand on his tiptoes to grab the shoebox from the top shelf of your closet. “I know exactly what this is.” He made himself comfortable on the floor of your room, and opened the lid. The laugh that escaped his lips almost sounded like a bit of a cry as he started to pick through the papers and pictures.

“C’mon, Eddie. I’m not in the mood for reliving the past right now.”

“Oh I am. Look at how cute we were.” He showed you a photo of the two of you, and some of your old friends from middle school. “God, I was such a nerd.”

“Was?” You asked as you sat down beside him and watched him carefully dig through your possessions. You watched as he pulled out each picture, most of them had a tiny hole in the corner from a push pin where they’d been displayed in your room. “Had to take all these down in 9th grade when I had my first sleepover with Grace. I didn’t want her to make fun of me. I don't think I’ve looked at any of them since.”

Your slightly shaky hand started to sift through the box too, finding a picture from your birthday party in 8th grade- the year your parents had the pool put in. Eddie was beside you, his arm loosely around your shoulder, and you were both grinning from ear to ear, everyone else at the party had smiles too, but none as bright as the two of yours. There was a picture stuck to the back of that one, and it was of you blowing out your birthday candles. Eddie was staring- yes, staring at you with nothing but admiration in his eyes. You realized then that Robin really was right about the two of you. Eddie had found a letter that you both would pass back and forth between classes and was smiling behind his hand as he read it, his eyes seemed to be shrink wrapped with tears ready to fall.

“Man, we were fucking clueless, weren’t we?” He said out loud.

You took a deep breath, “clueless to what?”

“Each other. I’m pretty sure I was in love with you back then.” He continued on, not realizing what he’d said.

“Back then?” You asked, picking at the corner of the picture in your hands.

“Yeah, back then. Look at this,” he pointed to a part of the letter and read it aloud to you as you giggled along. You didn’t want to ruin the moment so you went along with him as you continued pulling out old pictures and letters, some DnD notes, and random little trinkets.

Your heart was aching to say something to him but you didn’t want to press it, so you abruptly stood up and grabbed the box from him, putting the lid back in it.

“That’s enough for right now.” You stood on your tippy toes to place the box back in the top of your closet, where dust had settled around the edges of it for sitting in the same spot for so long.

“I can’t believe you kept all those. Even after the years you were so mean to me.” Eddie came up behind you and took the box from your hands and effortlessly returned it to its place.

“You know me, I keep everything.” You were a little nervous now, not sure where the conversation was going.

“What about pictures of him?” Eddie asked, his voice laced with disgust.

“Eddie, come on. You really think I’d keep any of him? I threw all the ones I had out in Chicago, and Steve got all of the ones out of the house before I made it home.”

“I’m shocked he didn’t make you burn your pictures with me.” He scoffed, pacing around your room.

“He didn’t know I had those.” You watched him scratch at his neck as he kept pacing. “Hey, Eddie?”

“Yeah?”

“While we’re on the subject of keeping things… Robin told me that my DnD notebook was one of the first things you asked about after you woke up.”

“Yeah, I was worried that you would kill me if we ever talked again and I’d lost it.”

“Lost it? Eddie, I didn’t even know that thing still existed until you showed it to me.”

“Well. It’s the one thing that I had of you, of yours that was still… you. You know? You just switched in freshman year to this completely different girl desperate to fit in. I tried calling you, but your mom always made up whatever excuse you told her. Cheerleading practice, or at Grace’s house, or whatever it was. Finally I just gave up after you started looking at me with disgust at school if we saw each other. Then your sophomore year I knew I was never going to get you back, you were long gone.”

“But I’m back now.” You said quietly.

“Yeah, but at what cost?” He let out a disparaging smile, “You were with that abusive piece of shit for all of those years, and I was here rotting in Hawkins, being the freak of the town and then almost dying. Now you’re back, and you’re just… you’re back in my life again. But nothing is the same.” He sounded defeated.

You looked at him with tears in your eyes, and you felt your heart crumpling down.

“Eddie, I’m sorry.”

“Everyone is. Everyone is so sorry about what happened, aren’t they?”

“Eddie, please.” You grabbed his arm as he tried to walk out. He pulled it away from you, then turned to face you.

“I loved you, but you didn’t see it. You didn’t care, you just wanted to be the popular girl, you wanted everyone to love you. Sweetheart, none of those people did, except me.”

“I never told my mom to make up lies about where I was. I didn’t know you ever tried to call me. I thought you hated me for joining the cheerleading team.”

“Hate you? I could never hate you. Fuck- all of that bullshit you said to me in high school and look where we’re at now.” His chest was heaving, and you were feeling woozy from the emotional whiplash of the conversation.

“Where are we now?” You asked, afraid of the answer. Eddie’s hands slowly reached up to your face, and he didn’t miss the tiny flinch you made as you realized he was about to touch you.

“I think you know where I’m at.” His hands were resting on either side of your jaw, and his thumbs were slowly moving in circles as he looked you in the eyes, searching for something. “I said I could never hate you, didn’t I?” You nodded slowly at him, “it’s because I never stopped loving you.”

He leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on your lips before pulling back and resting his forehead against yours.

“Eddie, I love you too.” You said, placing your hands over his and squeezing them. You watched as his eyes squeezed so hard that tears started falling.

“Don’t say it just because I said it. Don’t say it if you don’t mean it, you know-” he started getting himself riled up the more he spoke.

“I do know, and that’s why I’m saying it. I love you.” His eyes were still shut and he was breathing through his nose. “Look at me.” You grabbed his face to move it to yours and watched as his eyes opened up. “I can’t say it enough, I love you, Eddie.” He leaned in after he accepted your confession and kissed you again, still a quick kiss, but so much feeling behind it. “And I promise you, all of those people out there love you too. But not… not as much as I do.”

He smiled at you before grabbing your hand and leading you downstairs, and back out to the pool. To your surprise, no one made any comments about the two of you being gone together, and not as much time must have passed as you thought because Steve was just putting burgers and some chicken on the grill. Eddie kissed the side of your head before he went to the cooler for a beer and resumed his stand beside your brother.

Alright, you confessed your love to him, so why do you feel like you could hurl up the last 3 days worth of food as you stared at him?

“Grabbing a beer, you want one?” Nancy placed a hand on your shoulder and asked as she walked by you standing on the hot concrete, and you nodded a quick yes to her.

“Thanks.” You said as she handed one back to you.

“You alright? You look a little bit sick to your stomach.”

“Yeah, just hanging in there. We had another one of those big conversations and I feel a little off.”

“C’mon, walk it off and come sit over here with us and forget about it for a minute.” You followed her over to where Jonathan and Robin both were talking in depth about some movie ending and why it should’ve ended differently.

“Hey guys.” You sat down, sharing a chair with Robin again. You started drinking your beer quickly as they changed the conversation and you joined in as you heard laughter and splashing in the background. Minutes later, it all stopped. Everything. The laughing, the splashing, and any noise other than the few birds that were still around.

You four looked to the pool. Everyone’s head was accounted for, and then you looked over at the grill where Steve was laughing as he flipped a burger. Steve, just Steve. Where was Eddie? Suddenly you were being lifted up by a very cold, wet body and were getting thrown into the pool, beer in hand and all.

“What the fuck?!” You said as you came up from the water. Eddie was also… in the pool with you. Shirtless, but his jeans on.

“Dustin made a bet and I had to follow up on my end.” He swooped an arm around your waist and pulled you into him. “Love you.” He kissed you on the lips before he let go of you and swam to the side of the pool. He pushed himself out of the water, making a show of his wet hair, then pulled his jeans off to be left just in his boxers.

“Hey man, put some trunks on.” Steve yelled at him before putting the lid down on the grill and running inside. He jogged back out with a pair of his red ones and tossed them at Eddie’s chest, “for your decency.” He said with a smirk, and Eddie put them on and hopped in the pool with everyone else, and a fresh beer for you.

#eddie munson #stranger things #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x harrington!reader #eddie munson smut #eddie munson x you #eddie munson stranger things #stranger things fanfic #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things season 4

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amazingmsme · 4 months ago

Note

Do you have any Penelope Headcanons?

OUR BEAUTIFUL QUEEN! Yes I do!

I think she has a very sweet & bubbly personality & that’s what sealed the deal for Odysseus. They are silly4silly. Her looks are what caught his eye, but it’s the personality that has him down so bad

You think that Odysseus was the one who fell in love first, but no. She noticed the way he was staring at her & blew a kiss at him & watched as he walked straight into a tree & that sealed the deal

She’s taller than Odysseus by a few inches & would tease him by catching him off guard & bending down to kiss him & tease him about how red he is

One time he knew it was coming so he waited til she was about to kiss his cheek & turned his head so they’d actually be kissing. She was so flustered she could barely speak & then Odysseus literally swept her off her feet & carried her to their room

Speaking of tall Penelope tho, she would love nothing more than to hold things out of his reach & every single time Odysseus would have to tickle her to make her give it back. It’s a well practiced song & dance & he knows that she’s just doing it to provoke him & be silly & he goes along with it & only calls her out when he’s feeling mean

She & Ody are the sweetest, lovey dovey couple ever & it’s honestly borderline disgusting for everyone else. Just hanging all over each other, nuzzling into necks, kissing, & touching foreheads & cooing the stupidest pet names for each other I’m talkin’ high school band couple levels of pda

I’m so sick & fucking tired of how this community constantly makes girl characters barely ticklish or not ticklish at all so she is absolutely the more ticklish one in the relationship, but she just has fun with it & doesn’t fight back very much so you just assume it’s Odysseus

She has a very high pitched & bubbly laugh that can light up a room. It’s just such a beautifully happy sound, you can’t help but smile when you hear it

It’s literally Odysseus’s favorite sound in the whole wide world

She’s so silly & goofy, especially with Telemachus. She wants to keep her son happy & entertained & she doesn’t care if she has to act a fucking fool & embarrass him to do it

Now that he’s older & more moody, she reserves tickling as a last ditch effort to cheer him up, but when he was younger, she used to do it all the time, & he’d even ask for it

He’d ask her to “play tickle monster” & she just sighs like “I’m not as good as your father, but I’ll try” just so that he can know a lil more about Odysseus & how he would’ve loved to play games like this with him

She’s barely been tickled since Odysseus left, & she really misses it. She’s played around with some friends, but it just isn’t the same. It used to be their thing, & now even their son has “grown out of it” (not really, he just thinks he’s too old for such “childish games”)

Once Ody came back, she had to be patient for him to be comfortable & more like himself. She didn’t push him & waited for him to make the first move, or grant her permission. She can tell he’s changed almost completely, & she knows he just needs time to heal

But she’d still try to subtly provoke him by stretching right next to him, reaching for things on tall shelves, & laying on in increasingly vulnerable positions. She was over the moon when about a month after he got home, he gave a shy squeeze to her side, & that was all she needed to know that her Ody is still in there

As a ler, she loves to tease about how fun they are to tickle or how cute their laugh is. & Odysseus taught her to master the art of fake nonchalance, & paired with her long nails, it makes for a killer combo

She was so excited once her sweet husband came home because now they can finally be a family together, & she absolutely goads Ody into going after Telemachus cause she can sense the distance between them & wants them to be closer

Like out of nowhere she just brings up the whole tickle monster game & Telemachus is blushing so much like MOM WTF?! But Odysseus is nervous about overstepping, he’s basically a stranger to his own son & doesn’t wanna make him uncomfortable, but he’s dying to have some fun with him & goof off. He missed the most vital years of playing & getting close with Telemachus, & now he worries that it’s “too late” so they’re both sitting awkwardly far apart & not really making eye contact

& Penelope’s like oh no did I just make it worse? I have to fix this! So she just huffs like “well if you won’t, I will” & then starts tickling their son & calling Odysseus for help because Telemachus is “too strong now” & she needs back up, but once Odysseus joined the fray, she slowly backed out so that she could watch her boys roughhouse & laugh freely

Her worst spots are her neck/ears, tummy, thighs, feet & arms (I’m a SUCKER for ticklish biceps & forearms, so she has both)

I JUST LOVE HER SO MUCH I NEED THEM ALL TO BE A BIG HAPPY FAMILY

#asks #anon ask #epic headcanons #penelope #odysseus #telemachus #odypen #epic #epic musical

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oasiswithmyg · 10 months ago

Text

Aranahe

So’lek x Sarentu!Reader

Summary for this part: Etuwa, the tsahik of the Aranahe clan has invited you to her Hometree. You are determined to convince her father, the olo’eyktan, Ka’nat, to join the Resistance to fight against the RDA. But it seems to be a tough hill to climb. No worries, it seems you have gained a teacher for hunting.

Word count: 5K

A/N: I'm really sorry it took so long to post this part, I was sick for a week and half where I couldn't even get out of bed and go to work. Then when I finally got back to working, I got a big project to handle. I thought of posting this over the weekend. But I'll need to rest for a bit as my doctor told me, so I'll try my best to work on the next part as well!

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Although you were excited that Etuwa asked you to come by her Hometree, you felt the need to recharge yourself and head out with proper equipment and restock on your supplies. You decide the best thing to do is to head back to the base for now and possibly leave in a day or two for the Aranahe clan.

You also want to check up on the rest of the team and see how they're doing and reassure Priya, who has been contacting you through your radio, that you are indeed fine, albeit with a few bruises here and there, nothing much to worry about compared to the Resistance members that were hurt during the attack at the research field lab.

You can finally see the familiar sight of the base in the distance as you travel back, a sigh of relief escaping you, although the base is a bit cramped for Na’vis, it has become a safe haven to you throughout these times. However, you do not want to think about the other reason or Na’vi in this case of why you find the base calming. You sigh again, these thoughts about So’lek consuming you out of nowhere. You wonder if these thoughts about him are because he is a new member to your band of Na’vi, those who you have known your whole life or is this feeling and thoughts something more that you cannot describe.

You’re brought out of your thoughts when you hear the airlock door open with a hiss and head inside the base after waiting for the second door to open as well. Your head turns to look around for the bubbly human you have come to adore. You notice that a certain Na’vi is missing. So’lek must be finishing up some loose ends and is probably the reason why he’s not back yet.

You finally hear her voice near the comms as she seems to be explaining something excitedly to Anqa again, who looks to be back from her mission out in the field labs. Her hands move animatedly as she explains and she must see you in the corner of her eyes because the next thing you hear from her is, “Y/N!”.

You grin as you head over to Priya, smiling at Anqa as well, who smiles back at you and claims she has some work and heads out. You turn to look at Priya who seems to have a suspicious wide grin, as if she’s being mischievous and hiding something. You look at her curiously before deciding to ignore it for now. “Hi Priya, I got rid of the bad guys just like I said I would”. You state proudly.

“Thank you so much Y/N! Honestly I was worried that we wouldn’t get there in time but you really did save them, Alma and So’lek told me you fought really hard and amazingly!” priya tells you as you bend down to speak to her at equal eye level. You smile, feeling happy that Alma and especially So’lek were praising you for the job you did. However, before you could get any word in, Priya gasps, “Wait! I wanted to ask, are you hurt anywhere ? Do you need me anything to help you ? I see you have bruises, Oh god I’m gonna tell the medic team, you should really rest up !”

You stare at her in surprise, not sure what to say about all that but you know that you have to stop her from worrying again. You place a hand on her shoulder smiling gently, explaining to her in a calm manner, “I’m alright Priya, I promise. I made sure to take a Dapophet plant after the fight and don’t worry I will rest up.” You giggle at the relief in her face and continue, your heart warm from a human caring about you. You were always treated like freaks at TAP, “Thank you for worrying about me Priya, you are a really good friend”.

Priya grins at that, however it seems to be that mischievous grin again and lets out a secret that was supposed to be kept a secret, but Priya decided that playing matchmaker might be fun, “So’lek sounded really worried about you know? He radioed me and basically asked me to check up on you which I was already gonna do because we’re friends and that’s what friends do, but that’s like the first time he’s asked something like that, like ever! I also tried to ask him what’s going on-”. You don’t seem to hear the last of her sentence because you feel like your heart wants to jump out of your chest with how much it’s beating, your cheeks heat up again for honestly the nth time, So’lek being the main cause of all this.

To hear that he was worried for you and asked about you to Priya, who says that this kind of thing is a first for him? Your thoughts about him were already jumbled and yet here he does again with him not even being present! So’lek’s words were repeating in your head and even Priya can notice for the first time that you’re not listening to her and she just giggles feeling like she completed an important mission. If she thinks this is going the way it’s going, then she hopes that she can be the first one to say to So’lek something like I told you so.

“I think I will rest Priya, I will head out to the Aranhe clan in a day or two. Irayo (Thanks) for checking on me”, You say to her before you head out of the base, Priya waves a bye at you in response with a knowing smile and goes back to her work. You decide to head to the campfire under one of the base tunnels, where you figure that it would be a good place to rest up and you were also hoping to avoid So’lek as well, just so that you can clear your head for a bit.

As you rush out of the base to head to the campfire underneath it, your mind is swirling with thoughts on what Priya said again, sighing, you decide to remove your gear and eat a Rich Meat Roast. After all the fighting you definitely feel famished and exhausted. Maybe tomorrow you can talk with Nor again and see how he feels. You also feel like you need to talk to Teylan, you haven’t spoken to him much once you reached the base, maybe you can ask him some questions on tech the humans use, he usually gets so excited about them even though you much prefer the NA’vi way. Though some of the human contraptions do have their benefits

Although Teylan is not your brother by blood, you worry so much over him, not only with his fascination with human tech but also over the radio that Mercer gave to him. It seems that no matter what, Mercer would have some control over that boy, your little brother. You wish you could purge his mind about any fears of Pandora, of being a Na’vi. Maybe one day you and So’lek can talk with him

There you go again thinking about him, you sigh and just lay down, forcing your mind to just empty and sleep. You try to remember your sister humming the song of your people and it seems sleep comes to you at that moment, with one thought left before you do.

‘You would have loved Pandora Aha’ri’

It’s been two days, you have finally rested and restocked all the materials you would need on your journey to the Aranahe clan. You feel nervous, you are so used to the Humans and So’lek at the resistance, that meeting Na’vi out in Pandora was something else. But it also lit a fire of excitement and determination in you, you hope to get them on your side in fighting the RDA for Pandora.

You gave farewell to your friends at the base and set out. It took you awhile to get there on foot, but you managed to get there without encountering much predators. As you were passing by you noticed, 3 Na’vi crouched and talking to each other, they looked at you in shock and started whispering furiously

“Is that…That looks like a Sarentu?”

“A Sarentu? The lost clan?”

“Look at the mark!”

“It must be something else. The Sarentu are long gone.”

“Ka’nat will want to know about this’

“Let them pass. Hometree’s scouts will see them soon enough.”

You hurry along, not sure what to feel from the encounter. It seems the shock of meeting a Sarentu might be the highlight of many of the Na’vi people. You can only hope that it is with Joy that your clan has been back to the people. You finally reach what seems like the entrance to the Aranhe Hometree, there are three important looking Na’vi who look to be in a deep discussion. As you approach them closer, someone shouts from above.

“You! Stranger!” A Na’vi male comes flying down from an Ikra and lands while holding a bow aimed at you, he’s agitated as he continues talking, “I’ve not seen your kind before. What clan are you?”. One of the other female Na’vi who was having a discussion also aimed a bow at you, seeming to reply to the cautious Na’vi, “They look odd”.

Well that’s just rude.

You decide to calm them by raising your hands in a surrender manner and explain the situation as the other two who were in the back walked closer to you, “Etuwa invited me here…to see her father.” The very important and regal Na’vi comes even closer to you, his features seeming similar to Etuwa. “What’s that on your face?” one of the Na’vi aiming an arrow at your face asked you. The Na'vi, who you think might be Etuwa’s father, makes the Na’vis point their bow at you to lower their guard with a shout, “It’s the mark of a Sarentu!”

He comes even closer, slowly circling your body, his gaze looking up and down at your form with slight disdain, “and yet, the Sarentu we once knew did not defy Eywa with scraps from the Sky people”.

Ok you get his hate but this is just plain rude, It was honestly most of what you had during your time a tap and it helped you in battles. “It’s all I know.”. You wish that it was different, that you grew up with more of the Sarentu Na’vi in you, “They stole us when we were children.”

The Na’vi seem to agree with your statement with his own, “They have stolen many things. You were gone a long time. And you are young. Has your spirit been molded by the Sky people? Or do you remember the ways of your clan?” You are thankful that Nor isn’t there to hear this, because it made even you, feel doubtful of your connection to your people. Why did it hurt so much to hear such questions you did not know?

The other older female Na’vi, who has a yellow chest guard around her shoulders, looks like she’s had enough with the conversation, making hand motions of lowering and making a dismissing face to the guarded Na’vi, “Shoo, put that away”

She comes closer to you holding you by the shoulders, curiously gazing deep into your eyes, “Hmm. Sharp eyes. A Sarentu’s gaze. But yours is heavy” Her voice is gentle as she notices. She must see the pain in your eyes from the years stolen. She points to the Hometree as she holds you gently, “I am Nefika, let Hometree be a refuge from your burdens. We will put some color in your cheeks. Or clothes, at the very least.” she jokes in her last statement, making you feel lighter, you definitely like her a lot already. You can see through the corner of your eye that Ka’nat who you have determined, is still circling you.

Nefika continues as she holds your hands gently, “You will pick up the threads of your people here. Oh,How I miss their stories.” As if struck by some nostalgia, she places her hand on Ka’nat, looking at him, remembering her past with the Sarentu, She looks back at you, “They loved our Silk Harvest. The sweet smell of dye, ma’ yawntu! (loved one)”

She goes quiet for a moment, thinking something over before deciding on it, she addresses the other Na’vi, “Ka’nat, let me take the Sarentu. The poor child knows nothing of our ways”.

Ka’nat looks you over again, as if deciding whether or not you are a threat to the Aranahe clan. He makes up his mind, “Go. we will speak more when you are settled.”

Nefika, The kind older Na’vi who was speaking gently to you, beckons you over to the Hometree with a smile, while the Na’vi that were cautious, lower their guards with a smile and let you in.

“I really must speak more with Etuwa’s father. About the Resistance.” you rush to get the words out, already feeling restless, like you should be doing something more about the situation at hand.

“Later, ma’yawntu. He is our olo’eyktan, our clan’s leader. Let us clean up a bit first. You would frighten the hide off an Angtsik looking like that.” She speaks and laughs in a jovial manner. You like her nature a lot, her words making your body relax as you both walk through the Hometree. She continues, “Besides, I would not mention those Sky people if I were you. They are nothing but trouble, and Ka’nat does not like trouble.” You finally reach the main gathering area of the Hometree, making you look at it in awe, curiously looking over the intricate weaving done in the interior and the Na’vi gathered in the area.

You focus back to the conversation with Nefika as she addresses you while guiding you through, “Let me show you off a bit instead, hmm? Will you allow me that? It has been an age since we had a Sarentu around here. Your people certainly made life more interesting”. Her voice then lowers in wonder as she recalls an old tale, “One time, they told us a tale about the rare mating rituals of the giant Zakru. Apparently, it can take days!” her tone joking as she laughs which makes you laugh as well, the tales of your people are not only informative but hilarious as well.

As she leads you through the area many Na’vi stand up in wonder looking at you, You smile shyly and nod at them in acknowledgement, not used to the wonder and awe in anyone’s gazes. You also look over at the beautiful colors that fill their home, maybe one day you can fill your own home with it too. Maybe with Na’vi at the Resistance base. You stopped and shocked your head, ridding of the thoughts making sure they do not fill your brain, before continuing on with Nefika.

“There will be more time to listen to their tales later. Our great tree has many stories, lived many lives, hosted your ancestors as our guests before you. And there was not one Sarentu who could not resist how our dyes dance.” she laughs, beckoning you over to a younger female Na’vi, “Come, see my weavers.”

There she introduces you to Koranu, who showcases you the latest silk, though Nefika informs you that it was not strongest as it once was due to the Kinglor’s flowers being closed, but that it was still stronger than Zakeru wool even with the Zeswa clan loving to brag. It seems Koranu will be the Na’vi you go to for any weavings that need to be done.

Koranu felt relieved to have something to do other than the thing she was working on, it seemed that it was causing her a bit of stress. She was nice, you felt that she would provide the things you needed.

Nefika is delighted by the talks of the beauty of weaving, her tone appreciative, calling it a work of art. She leads you to a place that looks like the cooking area, she calls out to her friend Relun excitedly. They both seem to have a friendly banter with each other, with Nefika having her heart set on the ways of the silk and dye, while Relun says that the heart of Aranahe is taste. You giggle at their back and forth of teasing. You let Relun know that you’ll visit more to try his cooking, Relun seems happy about that.

Nefika takes you to meet one more Na’vi, who looks stern but her gaze kind, just hardened from the war perhaps, Kitangi. Nefika, talks about the grace that the Sarentu had possessed as they definitely knew how to dress. She wanted you to wear the weavings of the Aranahe, as they are strengthened with Sturmbeasts hide, that even if you are caught, she said jokingly that you would be hard to swallow.

Kitangi looks at you as if you were a baby that did not know anything, asking if you could even track and whatnot, not liking the answer you had given, asking if your ‘okay’ was enough for you. Nefika looks at Kitangi, bringing up a Na’vi’s name you do not know. “Eetu is on a hunt. I’m sure he will make a fine guide”.

Kitangi laughs at that, looking at you as if giving you a challenge, It makes you wanna prove yourself, “Indeed, if you can find him. There is a hunting camp near the water. Eetu will be there. But do not upset his hunt! He will not thank you for that”.

Nefika looks at you, her gaze gentle and teasing, shooing you on, “Go on, ma’yawntu. A respectful hunt will show Ka’nat you remember the ways of The People.” You nod at her and head back to the gathering area of the Hometree to get your thoughts in order. There was so much you learned by just meeting so many Na’vi, you can only hope to learn much more. Maybe this Eetu could be a great friend and teacher.

You decide to radio So’lek about the situation, feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything, knowing that his voice could soothe you, “So’lek, I made it to the Aranahe. You…weren’t wrong about them. But one of them took me in. Nefika. She thinks I can impress Ka’nat if I show him I can hunt properly”.

So’lek felt a bit annoyed that they were making you go on a hunt as the first thing, was it not enough that even though the Sarentu clan had been gone for so long, the fact that you have persevered through difficulties, especially being taken as a child by the RDA, to them ? He wished he was there to guide you. You could tell he was annoyed by the tone of his voice, “They sent you on a hunt? I should have shown you how myself”

“It’s okay. Nefika said one of their hunters might show me how. Eetu”. You replied quickly, not wanting him to feel bad. Although you would have loved to learn from So’lek itself, maybe making some friends might help you along the way on your journey.

Eetu. Eetu? The fearless, reckless and cocky hunter, Eetu, will be the one to teach you? So’lek was already annoyed, now hearing this tidbit of information just made him more frustrated. He really should have been the one to teach you how to hunt. A storm raged in his heart, a feeling he was not so quite used to ever. He felt jealous. Usually he would be able to calm down and think with a clear head, but it seems jealousy fueled his next words, “Hmm. Be careful Sarentu. You do not need to prove yourself to them. You are Sarentu, and Ka’nat should honor that. I have seen you as well Sarentu, you are nothing like those demons, you have a bleeding heart that cares and you are strong-willed. You do not need Eetu to teach you this. Do not ever think less of yourself. Come back to the HQ any time you like, all right? You are not alone. And there is much to do here”.

You think your heart might have stopped and suddenly start back out of nowhere hearing So’lek’s words. “Is this what he thought of me?”, you think to yourself, your body heating up at his tone, it sounded deep and tense. You don’t want to get ahead of yourself, but So’lek sounded jealous. He was jealous of this Eetu teaching you. You liked it.

“Irayo (Thanks) So’lek…I…I will remember that. I will come back to the HQ soon after the hunt, see you there”, you could not contain the shakiness in your voice, you wish you could see his face right now, what did he look like when he heard someone else teaching you. You cut the radio off and decide to find a corner within the Aranahe Hometree, where there were not too many Na’vi to cool down. Your body is too heated from the conversation. You sigh and wonder if this is a sign of some sort from Eywa. You pray to Eywa that maybe you could get through this and figure out what is going on inside your heart.

So’lek on the other end, felt heated for two reasons, his tail for the first time after so long started twitching fast, feeling agitated by what he heard. He had been out of the base, just scouting nearby the area.

One, how could Eetu be the one to teach you? He should have just told you to come back to the base and that he would have taught you himself, after all he has seen you fight. He has seen you.

Two, you voice at the end. It sounded shaky, but it felt like it was filled with something. Longing. He leans forward and rests his head against the tree and lets out a shuddering breath. Eywa was testing him. How could the great mother not, when the only thing he could ever think nowadays was of you, your curious mind and your loveable heart.

The only thing he can do for now, while waiting for you to come back to the base, is go over plans with Alma and finish off some of the RDA. He will decide what to do with you later.

You decide to leave around time the sun starts to set, wanting to grab some of the flora that are pristine during the night to collect as your resources. You have decided to block your mind of So’lek for now. Otherwise, he would be the only occupant of your mind and you had to focus for now.

As you travel through the woods, it seems many of the Aranahe are spread out, living in groups. You reach the hunting camp at last, looking around you can hear an Ikran roar, your feet decide to head towards the sound, using your Na’vi senses, you can sense an Ikran and her rider, with a successful hunt, nearby . You wonder if the rider could be Eetu. You wander over to them, your eyes gazing at the Ikran up close. Even though you saw Etuwa’s, you did not get enough time to study her Ikran during the fight with the RDA.

The Na’vi, who could be Eetu, twitches his ears as he hears you come closer and stands up to greet you. You could not see it, but Eetu definitely felt shocked to see a Sarentu, having heard his family talk about the clan and their distinctive mark. He decides to hear you out. Not expecting the next words to come out of your mouth.

“Your Ikran is beautiful”, You are in awe of the rider’s ikran, she truly was beautiful. Eetu felt happy and proud hearing such words, as his Ikan is a part of him, just as he is a part of her, he decides he can boast a bit, “My Zomey. For her, no wind is too strong, no challenge too great. We hunt with heart, in harmony”. He smirks as he bows a bit, as his voice turns flirty and cocky as he continues, “Are you here to admire us? I would not fault you for that”.

You blush at that, more so surprised at his boldness than feeling shy. Not so used to anyone being this forward with you, you just laugh nervously and decide to let the Na’vi know that you are searching for someone, “No, I…I-I’m looking for Eetu.”

Eetu’s eyes brighten even more if possible as he grins, “My name has reached other clans! Even lost ones” his gaze on you mark as he utters the last line. Eetu’s voice turns teasing, chuckling as he rolls his eyes and asks, “Let me guess, Nefika sent you to me? She wants me to teach. Boring, I say! To be safe at Hometree telling the little ones of hunts, of adventure?” his voice turns slightly serious as he continues, “They would not understand. What does danger mean to those who have only known safety? Zomey and I tear through the skies together, our hearts pounding. Our senses on fire. That rush makes us strong. Fearless! The best hunters”.

You are moved by Eetu’s words, to have such a bond with someone must be the greatest thing on Pandora. You could only imagine what it must feel like. Though he sounds reckless, you could tell his heart was in the right place. He would definitely make a great friend. “Nefika did say you were hunting sturmbeast. Can I join?” You ask him, hoping he would say yes.

Eetu hums, “Is that what you are after? Are you a good hunter?”, his eyes roam over you, judging whether you are a good hunter or not. His own senses tell him what he needs to know. You had the strength and heart, just not the technique.

You falter, hearing Eetu ask. Feeling a bit ashamed at never learning how, you then remember something, “Do not ever think less of yourself”. So’lek’s words give you the strength you need. You straighten up and reply, “I was never taught how, but I’m willing to learn no matter what”.

Eetu looks at you in disbelief, what do you mean you were never taught how? “Never taught how? What have your people been doing all these years? Did you find a land without hunting? A place where creatures lay down to die willingly?”, his words may seem rude, but you could tell he was just teasing you, you roll your eyes and smile, you could already tell he will be a fun and troublesome friend. His demeanor turns serious and gentle as he points to what seems like some sort of practice area, “See there? Young hunters practice on targets first. Practice. Or it will be the sturmbeast hunting you!”

Eetu gives you a bow, however this bow seems different compared to the bow that So’lek had given you. He tells you that it is a Heavy bow, meant to aim for far targets and their weak spots. You position yourself as you lift the bow and aim at the target, your body tense as you focus only on the target. Eetu sees you tensing and comes close, using his hands to place your hands where they need to be, he was quite close while doing so. Once he finds your stance satisfactory, he steps back. You let the arrow fly, your aim hitting true.

Eetu hums and jokingly says, “You can hit a static target at least. Come”, He takes you back to where you were before. “Not bad. At least your thanks will have meaning” he praises you, sensing the potential within you.

You are confused. What did he mean by that? You gaze at him in question, “My thanks?”.

Eetu chuckles thinking you are joking, but then he sees that you really are confused, his voice cannot hide the disbelief as he questions you, “Are you serious? What have your people been doing? What kind of life have you lived?”

“A terrible one”, you reply in your thoughts, while you reply something else to him, “It’s…a long story”.

“If I wanted to hear a long story I would be at home”. Eetu looks at you, making sure that you listen to his advice carefully, “Each time you hunt, you must take a life. And so you must thank your sister or brother for their gifts as they return to the Great Mother.” He decides to demonstrate how to do it, his body bending down at his hunt, moving a hand over it, while saying the words, “I See you. Your spirit goes to Eywa and your body stays to become part of the people. Thank you for these gifts”

Eetu gets up and looks at you, his gaze and words trying to convey how important this was, “This way, you let her ascend to the ancestors. Remember that. And do not waste the gifts you receive”.

You try to imprint the words bestowed by Eetu in your mind. If you want to be a true Na’vi, this is the way. But you were confused what gifts meant. “The gifts. Right.” You try to say it convincingly. Eetu just shakes his head at you exasperatedly, “The hide, the meat. Ah! Nefika will show you. Go on. You do not need me to hold your hand.” Eetu shoos you away.

You grin and decide to head out, feeling like heading back to the base first to meet a certain Na’vi then testing out your skills to hunt. “Thanks Eetu, you are a good teacher I suppose, but time will tell” you joke a bit with him. Eetu laughs, “and you might make a good friend and student, Eylanay (acquaintance)”

You nod at him as you turn to leave, your pace turning quick at the thought of heading back to the base. It wasn’t because of him, you were probably just tired. Well whatever it was you could deal with it when the time comes.

You hope to make lots of friends as time goes on.

∘ tsahik - Matriarch/Interpreter of Eywa.

∘ olo’eyktan - Clan leader.

∘ Eywa - Great mother, world spirit, Gaia.

∘ Ma - Generally means to refer to someone or address them.

∘ Yawntu - Loved one

∘ Eylanay - acquaintance

Thank you for reading! Let me know if you liked it! If you want to be tagged for the series, please give a comment or send me an ask !

Taglist : @daydreamer246

#so'lek x reader #so'lek #sarentu #so'lek fluff #so'lek x na'vi!reader #avatar frontiers of pandora #afop #avatar #eetu

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ilyasorokinn · 1 year ago

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thank the donkey , ross macdonald

note, okay, originally, there was going to be a big halloween series, but i couldn't think of anything that really spoke to me and i wasn't inspired, but i was inspired to write for ross. so, this is my contribution to the holiday. this is my new personality trait, get used to it. also, lmk if you like this little family because i do and would like to write more if you'd want to see it :) another note, i tried to find photos of the costumes but couldn't so please just use your imagination :) last note, dedicating this to vee (@abiiors)! i was inspired by your dad!ross, so in my world, ross is also a girl dad and names his daughters after flowers lol love ya <3 pair, ross macdonald x reader summary, poppy macdonald is upset her dad is working on halloween. her dad is even more upset he has to work. so, he does the best he can to make the night special for her. warnings, kids/children word count, 1240 words (a little short, i know. but i promise it's sweet!)

(gif not mine)

Halloween, no matter how old you were, was your favorite holiday. When you were growing up, most of the other kid's favorite holiday was Christmas, not you. Maybe it was that your parents went all out, or maybe it was that they let you eat all the candy you wanted, but it left a lasting mark on you.

So, when you had your first daughter, her second Halloween (the first you really celebrated with her), you went all out. You and Ross dressed up as poppies and Poppy was a gardener. She had no idea what was going on but she found it hilarious that her parents were wearing weird big flower things on their heads.

Now, Poppy was four, and her little sister, Willow, was 10 months old. Poppy had inherited your love for Halloween and by August had her Halloween costume planned. She wanted to match with you and Ross which made you a little sad, knowing that Ross would have to work on Halloween.

When you did tell her he was working, she was sad but her mood brightened a little when you told her she could still dress up for the show.

She was very adamant about being Donkey from Shrek, so you did your best to make that happen. The band loved the idea of Shrek, so they each decided to follow in your daughter's footsteps and dress up as a different character and assigned themself different characters.

Poppy was Donkey, Willow would be Puss in Boots, Gabbriette would be the Fiona to your Shrek, Matty would be Lord Farquaad while George, Adam, and Ross would be the Three Blind Mice. John would be the Dragon, Jamie would be Pinocchio, Polly would be the Big Bad Wolf and Gabrielle would be the Fairy Godmother.

Poppy was completely oblivious to everyone's costumes and was just excited to get to dress up and eat candy all night.

On the day, you walked around Detroit and got her some candy from a couple of stores that were handing it out before you headed over to the arena for soundcheck, one of Poppy's favorite parts of the concerts. She got to go on stage and dance around with her uncle and dad.

Before the show, after Ross helped you dress the girls, and after he'd left to get himself ready, Gabbriette came in and watched the girls briefly while you got ready, and took pictures of you and the girls before Willow started to cry. You soothed her then slipped headphones onto both her and Poppy. Poppy's headphones had a pair of donkey ears glued on and Willow's had a pair of cat ears.

You heard the intro to the opening song and held Poppy's hand as you walked to the side of the stage where you watched the show. Willow sat in the baby Bjorn comfortably and watched from the stage with wide eyes.

"Mommy." Poppy gasped when she saw the band dressed up as the characters from her favorite movie.

"I know." You gasped with the same enthusiasm as you bent down to her level, "Look at Uncle Matty." You giggled with her when she saw what he was wearing.

Ross looked over to the side of the stage and waved at Poppy, who giggled and waved back shyly. Poppy couldn't stop smiling as she looked at the band's costumes.

Somewhere in the middle of the set, Matty finally addressed the crowd and addressed their crazy costumes, "Now, I know we look a little crazy right because we're missing our main characters, but I'll have you know this idea was formed because of my little goddaughter. She loves Shrek, and I mean, who doesn't?" The crowd cheered at that.

"So, the littlest MacDonald is Donkey and her mom is Shrek. Strange, I don't know how we got there, but here we are." He shrugged, keeping everything about your daughter vague because he knew you and Ross didn't want people knowing too much about Poppy or Willow, "So, anyways, everyone thank Donkey for this genius idea." Matty and Ross looked over to the side of the stage where Poppy was beaming at the sound of the cheers.

The rest of the show went on as normal and right before Ross turned off the lights, Poppy ran onto the stage and over to her dad, which sent the crowd into a frenzy because Little MacDonald, Donkey herself, was on stage. The lights were strobing so there wasn't a clear image of her face which was why she was on the stage in the first place.

Ross picked her up and carried her over to the giant light switch that would turn off the lights on the stage. He waited a few seconds before he gave her a nod and she pulled the lever, shutting the lights off on the stage.

He carried her offstage and once she was in the safety wings, she was off and running to greet her uncles and godfather. Ross removed Willow from the Bjorn, surprised that she was still awake because it was way past her bedtime.

Now baby-free, you gladly accepted the drink Gabbriette was handing you, "She's gonna be up a while, isn't she?" Ross asked.

"I'm hoping for a sugar crash," You smiled, watching George pick up Poppy and run around with her like an airplane, "You did amazing tonight, by the way." You nudged him.

"Yeah, I had a donkey and an ogre to impress." He teased.

"I'm gonna save the smack in the head for later because you're holding my baby." You narrowed your eyes at him.

"I love you, too." He wrapped an arm around your shoulder as you followed everyone else into whichever room would be used as the afterparty room.

You rolled your eyes, "I love you, too, even if you're mean to me sometimes." In response, he placed a kiss on your head.

When you made it to the room, Matty was standing outside with Poppy, who was pouting, "Why can't I go in?" She whined.

"It'll ruin the surprise, Pop." He explained, tapping her on the head, "You like surprises, don't you?" She nodded her head enthusiastically, "Then just wait a second." Poppy turned to you and frowned.

"Listen to your uncle, flower," Ross told her. She frowned and crossed her arms, "Just wait a second." He laughed.

A few seconds later, Matty opened the door and nodded over to Poppy, "Cmere." She skipped over to him, gasping when she saw what was in the room.

The best part of Halloween, in any kid's eyes, was trick-or-treating, and everyone knew that Poppy was a little upset she was missing it, so in the biggest room in the arena, everyone spread out with little bags of candy, creating a makeshift version trick-or-treating.

"Here's your bag." Matty handed her a big bag before tapping her on the head once more. She didn't need to be told twice before she was running into the room from person to person, gathering candy.

You looked over at Ross, who was smiling with pride, "You planned this, didn't you?"

"Halloween's her favorite." He shrugged, before producing your favorite candy bar from his pocket, "Like her mother's." He kissed your head again, smiling as Poppy giggled.

"You're amazing, Ross MacDonald, you know that?" You smiled up at him.

"Says you." He nudged you, smiling equally as big and squeezing your shoulder.

my taglist: @romanticingheroin @sadqn1 @befrwime @mattymybeloved @zzzhealy @fanaticalfantasist @thefrontofmymind @scooby-doodoo @because-she-goes @imogennjordan

add yourself to my taglist!

#taylor writes #taylor writes: 1975 #ross macdonald imagine #ross macdonald imagines #the 1975 imagine #the 1975 imagines #ross macdonald #the 1975 #ross macdonald fic #ross macdonald blurbs #ross macdonald x reader #ross macdonald fanfic #ross macdonald fanfiction #the 1975 fic #the 1975 blurbs #the 1975 fanfiction #the 1975 fanfic

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wfagamerants · 5 months ago

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Mario & Luigi as a series, loves its villains. I really can’t think of any other Mario series that gives its bad guys this level of attention and spotlight, as well as recurring appearances for several villains exclusive to the series.

While Fawful is an obvious example in regards to this, I’d actually say it’s none other than Bowser himself who really embodies all of this and manages to effectively be the third main character of the series, with a genuine arc to his name.

Bowser’s role in the series already starts out very uniquely. While he does start off wanting to kidnap Peach, as per usual, her now explosive voice makes her less than desirable to have around in his castle, so he promptly teams up with the Mario Bros, starting off Superstar Saga.

At this point in time, Bowser is a genuine ally, giving the Bros a ride to the Beanbean Kingdom and even giving them tutorial hints during their battle with Fawful, but things go downhill fast for the big guy.

From that point forward Bowser:

Ends up stuck in a cannon and held at ransom

Gets shot out of said cannon and suffers amnesia.

While amnesiac, becomes the rookie lackey of Popple, suffering two defeats at the hand of the Bros.

Takes another fall and lands back heavily injured in Stardust Fields, where Fawful and Cackletta find him, leading to the latter possessing his body. From this point, Bowser himself vanishes from the plot, aside from his body being rented out by Cackletta as a vessel.

Even once freed, he falls with the exploding Bowser Castle and when delivered back home, is just dropped off there.

Not much goes right for Bowser in SS, despite not taking an antagonistic role he ultimately ends up on the brunt of a ton of punishment and really is the one in need of saving from the big bad, once his body is taken over.

The Minion Quest side-mode in the 3DS remake does a little to expand on Bowser’s role in the game. We do get to see how he actually got his amnesia (Captain Goomba fell on him) and he gets a moment to fight back by knocking Fawful away, during an attempt to abduct him while unconscious.

That stuff is nice, but more than anything this game emphasizes an aspect of Bowser that will become important later on. The loyalty his minions have for him.

Putting the player into the viewpoint of a common Goomba does a lot to show how much Bowser’s minions think of him and how much they will band together to get their beloved ruler back. When Rookie Bowser fails to recognize Captain Goomba it really does make for a sad moment, that adds a sense of drama to Bowser’s role, which is otherwise largely played for laughs. Very fitting, given the change in viewpoint.

Partners in Time puts Bowser into a role that’s both unique and closer to what we expect from him, at the same time.

While his child self is a recurring nuisance that actively takes part in the plot at numerous points, adult Bowser is absolutely clueless about the greater plot going on. He shows up to kidnap Peach, who is actually Princess Shroob in disguise and lands in a time hole, never even realizing he’s time traveling.

Despite being locked out of the loop, Bowser does manage to make the most out of his role. He decides to turn the volcano in the past he fell into, into a new hide-out, teams up with his younger self, after some arguing and is able to emulate the team-work the Bros have with their younger selves, really well.

Following his boss fight, Bowser is kicked out of the past and by extension, the plot. He does reappear for a for a post-final boss encounter, but that one is not only over quickly, but also just pretty strange and doesn’t add anything to the story, though Bowser eating things he really shouldn’t, in this case, the mushroom-fied Elder Princess Shroob, will become important next game.

Bowser’s Inside Story just straight up is Bowser’s game. He may share the spotlight with the Bros, but on the whole, this is in very, very large amounts, his story. It also marks what I consider to be the big turning point in Bowser’s story in the series.

While Bowser falls victim to Fawful’s scheme, having his minions captured, his castle taken over and being given the Vacuum Mushroom to mindlessly inhale Peach and the Bros. That said, unlike Superstar Saga in particular, this time, Bowser fights back.

Bowser does need the help of the Bros, starting out without even his fire breath, but with that extra push, Bowser ends up recovering his lost abilities, gains new ones altogether and even learns to weaponize the new vacuum ability he got from Fawful’s mushroom.

We get to see Bowser be a brutish meathead, but he does manage to get himself out of problematic moments, if often with unknowing help from the Bros. Through this, Bowser reclaims his castle, fights through Fawful’s forces, survives what would otherwise be fatal moments and in the end, finishes off Dark Bowser with style.

I am not going too deeply into individual moments, because it is more the greater picture. Bowser went from an unlucky victim of the antics around him, to being out of the loop on what was going on, to one of the main stars, showing what he is capable of through his raw strength, ability to overcome whatever is thrown his way and the loyalty of his minions who upon rescue, assist him for his special moves.

The Jr’s Journey side-mode reinforces Bowser’s care for his minions we already got hints of, by showing that several Goombas of his kingdom suffer from the Blorbs and that him coming to the meeting at the beginning really was him wanting to take part in it.

Outside of that, the story is very disconnected from what Bowser is doing, being way more about Jr’s story and development. That said, what role he does have, along with how Jr and his troops refer to him, truly show Bowser to be the big good of his kingdom, building on what Minion Quest established.

We also do get the occasional check-in on when the stories take place relative to each other and those really do feel like getting a look at how Bowser’s antics look to minions and allies of his that aren’t directly involved in any given game.

Dream Team gives Bowser another entirely new role to play, this time teaming up with the new big bad of the day, Antasma.

I am going to say something maybe a bit contentious, but to me, Bowser in Dream Team is the best example of continuity anything in Mario has ever pulled off.

A lot of this is communicated really effectively through gameplay. In his first battle, Bowser’s moves include:

A sliding punch.

Him rolling up in a spikeball.

His usual fire breath.

And then much later in the game, we get a giant Bowser battle.

All of these are techniques that he learned through help of the Bros (Sliding Punch, Spikeball), recovered (Fire Breath) or was previously only able to pull off with their help (Giant Bowser) in BiS.

The Bros and by extension the player, has helped Bowser that whole time and powered him up. Now he’s a villain again and makes use of those new abilities to be YOUR problem to deal with. You helped create this monster.

And on top of gameplay examples, Bowser really shows how much he has learned on the story side of things too. He goes along with what Antasma does and gets a cool new castle out of it, which to me read like Antasma buttering Bowser up for an eventual betrayal.

Then one did indeed happen and it was Bowser betraying Antasma instead, having gotten everything he wanted out of him and thusly taking off with the Dream Stone to take charge all by himself.

I understand some didn’t vibe with this, because the RPGs are a rare time we get new villains. For me though, as someone who played all the RPGs, it was a really cool thing to see Bowser defy expectations and be the one overthrowing the new villain, without needing to be on the hero's side to do it. It’s a nice reminder he is the main villain of the franchise for a reason.

All this comes to a close with a boss battle against Dreamy Bowser. Bowser powered up to be able to summon whatever he wants and power up his usual abilities to a never before seen extreme.

The battle also gives some nice thematic pathos to both sides. Mario and Luigi for many of the attacks, are seen protecting each other or working together, while Bowser shows he thinks highly enough of his minions to summon dream versions of them to aid him. It genuinely really does feel like a true finale.

That sentiment also goes for another aspect of Bowser’s character in this series: Bowser’s dynamic with Luigi. Back in SS, Bowser barely even remembered him and even as the series went on, he’d always view him far more dismissively, never even calling him by name.

Dream Team gives Bowser and Luigi their most direct 1 on 1 confrontation (Yeah, Mario’s there, but he’s largely support) via their giant battle and through that and the final Dreamy Bowser battle, Bowser finally gains enough respect for Luigi as an enemy to recall his name.

Following all of this is Paper Jam. There are many things that can be discussed on how many aspects of it were handled, but strictly speaking Bowser, I think it’s a fitting conclusion to his arc in the Alphadream era.

After being kicked around, unaware of the plot around him, fighting the big bad and teaming up with the big bad, before backstabbing him, Bowser and his paper counterpart are just the villains outright, from start to finish.

While conceptually, much of what we see is fairly standard Bowser stuff, the context we see it in makes a big difference. Many call the new Neo Bowser Castle a lazy name and concept, but to me it again, stands as a good example of continuity. Unlike Dream Team, Bowser doesn’t need Antasma to get his sweet new castle, he just makes it himself through planning and ruthlessly capturing and enslaving Toads in mines to gather materials to fuel it.

Similarly, all it takes for Bowser to launch an attack on the kingdom following the Jr duo's defeat, is his own resources and the new final boss form of the day also doesn’t require a McGuffin of any sort. It just takes Paper Bowser going along with it.

Bowser pulls off all the stuff you’d expect from the Mario RPG villains with very little extra help. All he needs is the cooperation of another Bowser and together they stand tall as the main threat. I understand the circumstances around Paper Jam can muddle things, but to me, this is a really fitting and satisfying way to close out Bowser’s arc across all these games.

Time will tell what Brothership does with him. Given everything that happened I wouldn’t blame them if the game is seen as a bit of a relaunch and I have full confidence it will be a good role.

Mario games do whatever they want and I think Bowser’s progression has already concluded very well, so I am more than game to see them do more things with it.

This write-up is a companion piece to this video by my dear friend Mod Mamono, all about M&L villains, check it out here:

youtube

#mario & luigi #bowser #Youtube

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kingscourthouse · 5 months ago

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YOU'RE ALSO DOING AN EPIC THE MUSICAL HERMIT AU?? :O

TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT /nf ofc I'm just really curious as to how our ideas compare and contrast :D

I'll be honest it's not really set in stone. It started as a joke concept of Boat Boys since I was talking to my friend about how they're obsessed but infatuated like how Odysseus is with Penelope in the Odessey.

It's very loosely based on Epic since there's some things in epic that would be hard to work around and also I feel bad putting some people in certain roles. Since it's loosely based on it, everything I post about it won't always be following the story because I had this really stupid idea of Grian following Scar to the underworld after he died bc he's in love. /silly

Over all its a very stupid au.

Mainly its Joel fighting in the war for years so he can return to Etho. Unlike Odysseus though, Joel carries an oar given to him from Etho everywhere he goes. The end is sharpened into a spear and is enchanted with fire aspect. The bands wrapped around his arms are from Scar who believes they will bring him safety. Throughout the journey, Joel will cycle through a lot of looks as he grows in age and changes. Near the end of the war and beginning of the story, he's inspired by his Stratos outfit. As he's in the underworld his hair grows out and covers more, he looks more like (my design) of Bad Boy Joel from Limited Life. Only difference is that instead of his hair being wild, it's long braids that he's never touched. And then when he finally returns home he'll look more like his skins in the early Life Series with long hair, long beard and obviously out for blood. He's a man with a trail of bodies and isn't afraid to leave more.

Beef takes the place of Eurlylocus, as Joel's second in command and a brother in arms. Beef is the one of the people always by his side and knows what Joel is fighting for. He makes the most level headed decisions but won't hesitate when he thinks it's time to kill or leave. While Joel wants a peaceful way out, Beef will do what it takes to make sure their men survive. When perishing in the storm, Beef is found with Scar in the underworld. Speaking of llamas-

Scar takes the place of Polites. Throughout the story the amount of scars he has grows from his working on the ship. Most on his face and chest are from the war, but a good portion of the ones on his arms are from working on the galley. He uses a bow and his sharp aim had gained him a title in the war, but he's actually fairly strong, tying ropes around his arms and fallen men to drag them across the battlefield. He'll tie the rope to multiple oars on the ship so people can have breaks. A lot of his scars are barely seen as scars now and more as his stories. A walking display of honour and comradery. Some say he was blessed by one of the gods for his silliness and bravery. Sometimes being near him you can hear faint laughter. Some think it's the messenger god. Others believe it's the vex that haunt the lotus eaters. Scar is a mystery to a lot of them.

Now that we got the boring ones out of the way (/that's a joke, I love them)

THE GODS

From what ones I've posted so far there's a few that I think I've finally settled on.

Skizz takes the place of Posiden. And yeah yeah I hear you, Xb would've made a great Posiden he's literally known for guardian stuff. But while I agree, I think Skizz would make a better fit to match the energy and motives from the musical.

Instead of Skizz having a son and that's what sends him into drowning Joel's ship, Skizz made a friend. Which is odd for the gods seeing as they're above everything. Skizz found a cyclops one day on the shores with his sheep. He would spend his days around it til eventually the cyclops just told him he knew he was there. Weirdly enough, he ended up becoming really attached to this cyclops. They became close friends and something that Skizz really cared about, even if he couldn't see him that often without being caught or seen. When Skizz returns one day to see that his friend is blinded and suffering, he goes into a rage and follows Joel to make him pay.

The cyclops is Impulse. He's kind, but if you wrong him then it's over. His sheep were a gift from Skizz and to have them slaughtered is a crime that won't go unpunished.

Gem is Athena. I actually struggled with who to make Athena because so many of them would make a great Athena. Honestly all the female hermits I've struggled with. Gem is Athena, the god of wisdom and war. She helps Joel until she realises the mistake she's made and leaves him to suffer his own consequences. Gem can take the disguise of a deer and sometimes owl. She was gifted her two fish, Aylin and Lucien, by whoever will be Circe. One of the moon and one of light. They are disguised under her cloak as a part of the patterns she wears but are used as messangers and omens for those who look. Her fish are actually how she found out that Skizz had gotten attached to Impulse. She promised she wouldn't tell and mostly teases him about it.

GRIAN. Ough sorry but I LOVE how Hermes is depicted in Epic. There's no way I couldn't make him Grian. He has a habit of watching everything that's happening. Especially with Scar. He'd whiz through the battlefield unseen by the gods just to grant him small blessings at a time to aid his fight. When he returned eventually to the ship and found that a bunch of men had died, including Scar, he started taking longer trips to the underworld. It's not often he stops to sightsee. Always places to go, places to be, orders to be carried out and messages to be sent. But for once he doesn't take the quickest route. Will take detours. He won't get close, he never has and never will. But he'll spot Scar's spirit mindlessly singing and spreading hope throughout the underworld, and will enjoy it for only a moment before leaving. When helping Joel, he wants nothing more than to see him escape safely. Though he does mess with him a bit. Pulling a few pranks here and there until he reveals himself. After the underworld saga, Grian is seen carrying Scar's old bow that had been blessed by him. If anyone asks he'd just say that he was taking back what was rightfully his. He has no use for it, but it is his none the less.

Circe and Aeolus are still in the works because as I said before, I keep switching the female hermits to and fro and can't decide. Though I've got an idea of who I want them to be.

Idk man this whole au was supposed to be a joke to teach my friend about the Odessey through Epic and it somehow became serious and I really like it and like designing it and oh my god I cannot wait for Thunder saga because then we get to see more of the full pantheon and I already have ideas of who's gonna be who.

But yeah. That's ehhh.... That's all I can think of off the top of my head. What's hard is not confusing this with my Hades au which is a whole 'nother can of worms I do NOT wanna touch rn XD

#etm au #geminitay #skizzleman #impulsesv #grian #goodtimeswithscar #joel smallishbeans #vintagebeef #There's so many more details but I'm busy today so maybe I'll talk more about it #Who knows #brambles of rambles

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no1sharkenthusaist · 1 year ago

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! hsr headcannons for several characters ! [modern au]

♪ In-ter-net-o ya-me-ro ♪!

Y u m i - c h a n i s n o w o n l i n e !

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊

Characters : Dan Heng, Serval, Blade, Gepard, March

Plot : no real plot, just headcannons about honkai Characters in a modern au setting

Tags : modern au, headcannons, fluff, slight crack, wrote this at 11pm while heading home from a road trip

authors note : omg got a steam deck for my birthday (may 30th) and I. AM. IN. LOVE !!! I could talk abt it for hours and hours but i have my discord for that ehe. Anyways, ive been having fun rediscovering my old childhood games and thats when i had an epiphany. Hsr or genshin boys in a ddlc type scenario!!! Feeling so swag abt the idea. Also i got out of school so more uploads yaya. Thank u all for the support on my intro page yippee. I promise not to let you all down

╭( ･ㅂ･)و ̑̑ enjoy !

DANHENG

Now playing : Scrawny - The Wallows

He definitely dresses like with collared shirts and kinda has that accidental soft boy look

English major frfr

definitely listens to lovejoy/wilbursoot and bo burnham

Water drinker enthusiast (even tho he forgets to drink half the time-)

burnt out gifted kid

messed up sleeping schedules

Hes that quiet guy everyone has a crush on to some extent

He looks cold and serious during lectures, but hes actually just daydreaming and has his head in the clouds

Probably stays with the same group of kids he met in middle school because he cant socialize

I think said kids would be march, stelle/caleus, himeko And on ocasion blade, kafka, and silverwolf

Welt would be a chill english teacher that would let Dan Heng sit in his classroom during lunch

he likes going to concerts a lot

Learned to play guitar in middle school but doesnt like playing in front of people

Consider yourself lucky if he plays in front of you

Extremely oblivious to romance

Girls will try to flirt with him but he will just have a blank and confused look

Spends his free time in book stores shopping for records

Ps5 gamer frfr

Theater kid (had a hamilton phase)

SERVAL

Now playing : Shut Me Up - Mindless Self Indulgence

Shut me up by mindless self indulgence on loop

Like its probably to an unhealthy level

Always has headphones in(that gepard gave her for her birthday)(And so loud to the point you can hear the music standing next to her)

(went deaf at the ripe age of 13, after that it was all "huh?" /j)

Shirts from old bands, baggy jeans, fishnets, etc

Had an alt phase

Bad habit of smashing guitars

Dropped out of college after first semester

Had a band in highschool with Blade and Dan Heng that received noise complaints on a regular Basis

Really extroverted and easy to get along with

Loves going to concerts (especially the ones that get crazy like halfway through )

Probably gets in fights during black friday

Addicted to coffee (gepards needs to step in and help her drink something else)

Likes bitter stuff more than sweet stuff

Cares very deeply for her friends

The type of gal to go on road trips with friends and go Camping

Goes to protests every other tuesday

Probably banned from several places

very passionate about things she loves

Loves scary movies and Rollercoasters

The six flags employees have memorized her name

(shes just so cool i wanna be like her fr)

BLADE

Now playing : Consequences - Lovejoy

Theater kid (would never admit it tho)

Kafka teases him about it so much

met kafka and silverwolf in detention

The teachers hate the three of them

Alt kid and never got out of his emo phase

Besties with serval, change my mind

Kafka probably pushed him to join boxing to get his anger out in a less…destructive way

Loves the sleepovers he has with kafka and silverwolf

Broke silverwolf's tv while playing wii sports

Goes to college, no clue what he wants to do so hes just doing liberal studies

Adopted a small stray cat he saw on the ground during a storm

he tries to be tough and mean, but hes a big Softy

Loves the Beetlejuice musical(and mean girls but we dont talk about that)

has probably been on probation on multiple occasions

Probably vandalized the car of someone he didnt like

Kafka has to sweet talk everyone out of getting blade in serious trouble

Hes really good at basketball, he just doesnt like it so he never pushed it further

Doesnt really like or understands sports

probably listens to videogame osts 24/7

GEPARD

Now Playing : Pretty Face - PUBLIC

Getting serval out of trouble isnt a choice, its a lifestyle

Which is ironic, as he is a criminal justice major

But he still will always be her biggest supporter

Dresses (like a costco dad) soft boy by pure accident

Completely oblivious to anything and everything

Enjoys gardening and has a lemon Tree

Cave Town enthusiast

Lemonade Enthusiast

Sends people those "reminder to drink water and be happy" messages

Straight 4.0 GPA student. The teachers loved Him

Was really shy so he didnt have many friends growing up (Serval had to help him out)

Hates rollercoasters, serval drags him around six flags and he screams his head off

Poor guy :<

Still loves it since he loves hanging out with his sister

Student council secretary

No clue how the internet and technology works

Strong sense of justice

That has gotten him involved in several issues

Which ironically, serval got him out of

Wholesome cinnamon roll, pls protecc

MARCH 7TH

Now playing : Cupid - FIFTY FIFTY

That one girl in class that no one could hate

Class representative and student council public relations officer

Photography major (duh)

Social butterfly and very easy to talk to

Want to go out to go eat something sweet while having fun? March has you covered !

March Makes friendship braclets and sells them so she can go shopping

has a secret stash of candy hidden in her dorm

March has a babysitting gig and comes to peoples houses with candy

Shes a little kid magnet, they all love her so much

had a club penguin phase with Dan Heng and they both shudder just thinking about it

learned all her profanity from watching Dan Heng play Call Of Duty

sucks at english, fries her brain like a hashbrown

k-pop girlie

dresses really cute with cardigans and pastel pinks

(watched aphmau, Her favorite one was a mermaid tales and mystreet) [submitted by someone on my discord who wants to stay anon]

plays overwatch and says things like "Hey, thats not nice!"

lowkey kind of a teachers pet-

Loves webtoons and collects the physical releases

! Thats a wrap !

! Join my discord HERE !

! Likes, reblogs, comments are greatly appreciated !

and thank you for reading ^^

♪ Overdose 君とふたりやるせない日々♪

! y u m i - c h a n i s n o w o f f l i n e !

t h a n k y o u f o r c o m i n g ~

#hsr headcanons #march 7th #dan heng #serval #star rail #hsr blade #blade hc #march 7th hc #hsr x reader #Yumi's shark blog that isnt quite about sharks #hsr x you #hsr x y/n #hsr x gender neutral reader #hsr drabbles

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worstvideogamesong-poll · 1 year ago

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Worst Video Game Song Tournament - Round 2 Match 5

Know What I Mean? - Mario Party 2

youtube

VERSUS

The Yoshi Clan - Yoshi's New Island

youtube

FIGHT!

I would recommend listening to as much as you can of each song before voting, but how you choose is up to you! Remember to be civil in the tags and replies!

Propaganda under cut:

Know What I Mean?:

"#i'm going with the mario party #it's SO off-tune and off-beat constantly #which i think is intentional but #i hate it"

(in reference to its previous match) "#this literally isn't even a fight. coughing baby vs nuclear bomb level matchup. what the fuck was that mario song. who thought that was a #good idea. i want to have words with them."

"#kwim is overstimulation in its purest form #it's the musical equivalent of getting nonstop discord notifications while looking for something i dropped while someone is talking to me"

"#know what i mean absolutely ROCKS. horrible. rocks so hard. they did the same thing that yoshi clan did. im guffawing"

The Yoshi Clan:

"the ass band will play a song of farts to celebrate your failure"

"#FUCK YOU YOSHI"

"#yoshi sounds like suck"

"#YOOOOOOOOSHI CLAAAAN!!!!!!!! #ok im gonna complete my santa review before getting to my ten page essay on why i love yoshi clan. yea that shit bad #i accidentally started it playing in two tabs at different points of the video which was honestly really fun. i recommend tryin that esp wi #bad songs really adds smthn to the exprience. it was awesoeme #it also just sounds the exact type of awful that that video image implies which is cool. its so perfect. it sounds ass #but. what it can not beat. is my favorite of all time. my darling love. it is time to begin my sermon #ok so yoshi clan is just so beautifully terrible. and truly the whole soundtrack is an orchestra of bad design. and its so fun to look at #that really nice professional looking art for the game and get BLASTED with kazoo #and like. i understand the thought process. kazoo does seem silly goofy yoshi. and it also sounds like a chorus of pain #now this song specifically has some really great awkward pauses. at 0:16 theres like a full 3 seconds of silence. which is SO cool #then the hot cross bun bit that ends at 0:27 gets so sad and deflated at the end of it. like it starts off in time but then clearly the #soloist got kinda embarrassed alone and so rushed and got really quiet. and its just so sad and lonely. its so cool #also some of these pauses have a couple lone far away kazoo squeaks for no reason before the 'melody' comes back in? awesome #but what i really really love about this. what really draws my eye. is the ending. because we go through this entire rigamarole with the #worst secondhand embarrassment of my life. then. 0:43. the kazoos move out. and in. the most genuinely awesome groovy drum beat in the worl #like its SO good. and those last few seconds are like you're in a different world. like you just survived horrors and you are brought to an #angelic chorus. and it lasts what 5 seconds? 5 seconds of beauty after a full 40 seconds of purgatory. in what world do horrors live foreve #while an angel can last for only a flash #its cruelty. its injustice. its completely ingenious. incredible music making. i am in such awe. #anyways thats my manifesto. please feel free to put any of this in the propaganda section op. im passioante"

Feel free to add more propaganda in the tags and replies, or send it to me in the ask box and I'll try to share it as soon as I can!

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luv-applejuice · 7 months ago

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The reason why I started cutting again after being clean for ten years

(Forewarning: Long Personal Post)

Hi there. If you decide to read this, thank you, and I hope my story is interesting to you, or perhaps even makes you think. If I put in as many details as I want to, it will be unfathomably long, so I’ll try to just summarize the key points, but I’m perfectly happy to share more details with anyone who may be curious.

I like to go by Eve, and (like many of us) I intentionally cut myself for the first time when I was around thirteen years old. The reason why I cut for the first time back then is a story for another day (but a story I will share on request nonetheless). In other words, it isn’t imperatively relevant to this one. The most important information to be gleaned from it is that at the time, I was in an abusive relationship, and I was involved in a widespread school scandal that caused my autonomy and privacy to be publicly violated by the staff and the students alike. It was a horrible ordeal where I was shamed, ridiculed, harassed, and belittled. My only choice back then was to transfer over to an entirely different school district.

At the time, I was terrified that my reputation would follow me, and I wanted a fresh start, so I forced myself to stop cutting. Though, now, as I look back at that time through the eyes of an adult, I had always continued to self-harm in other ways (such as having lots of risky sex and similar such things). I desperately hid my scars from discerning eyes, and miraculously, no one, including my parents, ever found out. I was by no means living a normal life, as I still dealt with lots of bullying and harassment, but my situation, at least, wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been at my previous school.

Little by little, my situation began to shift. I went from surviving a suicide attempt to being recognized for my performances. Eventually, I was accepted into college on scholarship and was able to leave my hometown behind. Along with some painful memories, the times I had cut had begun to fade into obscurity and feel more and more distant. The scars too, began to fade almost as if they really were just a bad dream.

I think it’s important to clarify, however, that just because I wasn’t cutting anymore doesn’t mean I was automatically happy. Though I wasn’t actively indulging in it, I always retained a fascination for it that I had consciously repressed. It was something I hid, just like the marks themselves. At some point, I became someone who prided themselves in being someone in “impeccable control of themselves” but also simultaneously someone who suppressed my genuine emotions by default.

Ten years passed.

I was clean for a decade.

It should have, but it didn’t really garner me much of a sense of accomplishment. I guess I really didn’t put much thought in to it. Maybe it’s because no one ever found out in the first place, so no one was ever there to tell me “good job.”

I had recently graduated college after more rocky years that continued to be chock full of elaborate bullying campaigns, and I was lined up for a job I had always wanted and that made a decent amount of money. I got hired, moved to an apartment close by, and quickly bonded with some of my new coworkers. I did great work and was well-liked by my supervisors. For what might have been the first time in my whole life, I felt like I belonged someplace.

Amongst this new group of friends was a very beautiful girl who was also quite an internet celebrity. Really, beautiful is a bit of an understatement- she’s the kind of supermodel-level stunning that teens everywhere try to emulate. She’s so pretty that she can get whoever and whatever she wants. She’s so strikingly hot that a group of people on the internet genuinely banded together to celebrate her eighteenth birthday. That’s the kind of person this girl is. She’s also completely covered in self-harm scars.

I was shocked, and maybe even a little scandalized the first time I saw her. She was very clearly openly cutting in front of her friends, coworkers and bosses. To be completely honest, I developed a bit of a shitty attitude about it. I decided that it wasn’t appropriate to make me look at these semi-fresh cuts every single day when I was trying to work. I decided that it wasn’t fair to shove it in my face after I had struggled for so long. Before you judge me too harshly, please remember that these actions would have been inconceivable for me based on my life experience up until that point. In reality, I think I was just secretly burning with jealousy.

“Why did I have to go to such lengths to hide myself but she gets no consequences for flaunting it all? How is it fair that she can get so much special treatment just because she’s tall and rich and pretty? If people are so nice to her, why weren’t they ever nice to me? Is there really such a big difference between her and I?”

I hated her. I wanted desperately to have sex with her. I wanted us to be friends.

These were the kinds of selfish feelings I experienced at the time.

She and I became something in between friends and enemies. (Rivals?) It really wasn’t anyone’s fault- unfortunately, the two of us got compared to each other in the workplace quite often and became forcefully tied into an inconvenient little packaged duo. It was only natural- we’re both openly neurodivergent, we have the same style and the same interests, and we even got hired on the same day. We even LOOK very similar– only, her features all seem like slightly more polished versions of mine. It’s justified that we felt an unfortunate instinct to try to one-up each other.

That said, however… I felt as if I was living in her shadow. Not one single day would pass without customers falling over themselves to get her number, whereas the stacks of harassment reports I had to file just kept piling and piling up. I started getting treated as a discount version of her by regular customers and coworkers alike. One of the only things I was able to claim for myself was that at least I behaved more “appropriately” by concealing my old marks.

I think….. she had everything I never ever even knew I wanted.

Unfortunately, that time I spent at the job I loved was cut short.

One of the oldest members of the company with a fondness for hazing all of the new female hires thought it would be fun to make up some rumors about me…. maybe it’s because I had already become such a hot topic at work lately, but the gossip spread like wildfire and I think grew thrice the size of what she had intended. It mutated and morphed the way that gossip does and eventually made its way to the supervisors. With my job in peril, I quickly tried to file a claim with HR and contact the owners, but for anyone who’s ever worked in an American company…. Yeah. You know how it is. The heads saw an image-ruining scandal brewing and terminated me without doing so much as an investigation. The only good thing that came of it is that my termination was so unfair and uncalled for that the company ended up unionizing immediately after… but it was too late for me. Everything I worked so hard for burnt up in an instant and I was left with nothing but embers. I found myself shamed, ridiculed, harassed, and belittled. I found myself right back where I started. The girl with all the pretty scars, of course, continues to excel there to this day.

I was faced with a cruel reality. “Where did all that self-righteousness ever get me? How did I ever benefit from that false sense of superiority? Did I ever once gain anything from lying to myself? Did concealing everything let me keep my job or my friends? Did anything I do ever really matter?”

Thus… I finally relapsed and my ten year celibacy was broken. It’s been only six months and it’s an interesting feeling to do it again. I’m sort of learning how to do it in a way that feels good for me all over again. I feel like I got my virginity back. It’s scary, it’s liberating, it’s exciting, it’s pleasureful, and it’s difficult all at the same time. For now, it feels like it’s what’s good for me here in this moment. I’m happy that I’ve chosen to do what empowers me. And if I ever do decide to stop someday…. It will be because I myself want to do it, not out of fear and shame.

Maybe I’ll be brave enough to wear my scars proudly someday like her.

I’m a little better now than I was six months ago. Now you’re caught up and you know all about me, dear stranger.

This isn’t a post telling anyone that they need to recover, and it’s also not a post telling anyone they shouldn’t or that it’s pointless to. It a post telling you that cutting doesn’t automatically fix 100% of your problems, and being clean doesn’t automatically make you happy either. I think I’d like to live in a world someday where it isn’t completely demonized or completely worshipped. Until then…hang in there and practice good aftercare. And thanks for reading this far.

…….Let me know if you want me to change out your bandages for you. Maybe you can do the same for me?

－Eve

#cvtt!ng #self h@rm #sh #tw self h@rm #tw s3lf harm #mental illness #mental health #personal #tw abuse mention

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johnwickb1tsch · 10 months ago

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The Night Nurse - Ch 9

A John Wick x Helen Fic

When nurse Helen Morgan is caught in the crossfire of a shootout and aids the injured John Wick, she’s faced with two options: serve the High Table, or be executed as a Witness. She tells herself her choice to work at the Continental has everything to do with survival, and excellent pay, and *not* her growing feelings for the Tall, Dark, and Handsome Assassin™ who got her into this mess in the first place, thank you very much. │ Masterlist / Chapter Map │

IX.

Helen made her way back to the guest bedroom, where John had placed her things. She had not mentioned it yet, but the sight of a massive bouquet of cheerful white Shasta daisies upon a side table swelled her heart to bursting. How had he managed it? She reasoned that he must have a house keeper to execute such things. The thought of him running after a house this size, vacuuming and dusting in between fulfilling contracts definitely made her grin.

She noticed his thoughtfulness had struck again in the bathroom, with artisan made soaps and bodywash that smelled like honey, rosemary, and looked like they had been extremely expensive. As she washed the grime of their lessons away she may have lingered a little extra long just to luxuriate a bit.

Not too long, though.

She was eager to get back to John, missing his company already.

She had it bad.

Maybe she should have kissed him earlier, when his arm had been wrapped around her waist like a band of steel. And yet, the older woman in her savored the slowly burning fuse between them, even if it was driving her a little mad. She knew from experience this was the sweetest part. The longing. The desire. The heavy looks and lingering touches. The honeymoon, as it were, when it seemed like the object of your devotion could do no wrong. She’d never been with anyone with whom that did not fade.

Maybe John would be the exception.

Maybe she really was losing her damn mind.

Fresh from the shower, she made her way to her bag. Maybe she’d exaggerated a little about the size of the first aid kit. There was a little something for everything within its confines; she liked to be prepared, and she felt like she’d packed just the right outfit for the moment. Maybe John would be so overcome by her beauty he would finally grab her up and kiss her—she snorted at the absurdity of the thought, even if, in the back of her mind, she kindled the hope.

John took a quick shower, careful of his new dressing, not wanting to displease Nurse Helen, although the thought of getting a rise out of her made the blood rush from his brain to a decidedly less helpful area. When she leveled him with that certain look…god. It made him want to grab her up and throw her down.

***

No, no, no, he scolded himself, looking down. Such thoughts were not helpful at all.

Maybe he would get a reward for being a good boy, and not wrecking the dressing.

The thought of that didn’t help either.

Exasperated with himself and his increasingly unhinged thoughts, he made his way to the kitchen, getting to work. He liked to cook. He found it relaxing, perhaps because he didn’t actually get the chance to do it all that often. Nights at home were a luxury in his business, and he intended to enjoy this one to the fullest.

He was prepping some asparagus crowns when Helen padded around the corner in a wide-necked ivory sweater dress that nearly cost him a finger. He paused in his chopping, his eyes all for her as she slid onto the stool across from him at the island.

“Can I do anything to help?” she asked with a sparkle in her eye that suggested she had an idea of what he was thinking as he looked at her. Little did he know, she was experiencing similar heart palpitations at the sight of him in his simple black button down, the open throat accenting the muscles of his chest to an utterly unfair advantage. Does he even know? she wondered. Somehow, she doubted it. Though he dressed well, he didn’t actually seem vain. Or if he was, he hid it better than any good-looking man she’d ever known.

“No,” John refused. “You’ve had a long day thanks to me. I insist you sit there, and look beautiful, and have a glass of wine if you would like one.”

She giggled at hearing that, propping her chin on her hand. “You’ve had a long day too, putting up with me.”

He started back on trimming the ends off of the asparagus, feeling that tell-tale heat blooming at his collar.

“I’ve had…a wonderful day, with you.” He looked up through his hair after he said it, dark-eyed and a little vulnerable. Helen felt her heart melt a little more for it.

“Me too,” she agreed quietly. “There’s never a dull moment with you, John.”

The corner of his mouth ticked. “I wouldn’t mind a few more dull moments. Or at least, quiet ones.”

“Are you...” She bit her lip. “Maybe I shouldn't ask you that.”

“You can ask me anything,” he told her, and meant it.

“Ok. Are you getting burnt out on your job?”

He tilted his head, really thinking about it. It was all he'd ever known. He'd never even considered quitting, until meeting this woman, and daring to dream about what a life could be like outside the Underworld.

“I've never actually liked my job,” he admitted. “But I never really had a choice either. Excelling at what I do was the only path to some semblance of freedom for me.”

“And do you have to keep doing it? Just, indefinitely, forever?”

He sighed. He was so in demand, for Viggo, and those the Bratva boss lent him out to, for the right price. He couldn't imagine them ever letting him retire, even to a quieter post like Charon or Winston enjoyed.

“I don't know,” he answered truthfully. The Impossible Task was a thing of legend among their kind. He'd never known of anyone who had come out from one alive. He'd considered it before, abstractly. Like something he might pursue when he finally needed one last challenge to cut the boredom.

That was before he had something to lose.

Pouring her a glass of red wine, he asked, “What about you? Is nursing what you've always wanted to do?”

Helen accepted the glass of wine with a grateful smile. “I've been a caretaker for as long as I can remember. It seemed like a natural step, and it was a life line for my sister and I. We left Boston as soon as we could. We lived in the shittiest little apartment in the Bronx while I went to school, and waited tables, and Eve worked in a coffee house and sold her art. God...those days. I can't say I miss them. I was so grateful for my first shift after graduation. It was the first time since my father passed that I felt some sense of stability in my life. I felt, almost, safe.”

“Almost?”

“Almost.”

John found he despised the thought of Helen not feeling secure. It made him want to do something insane, like offer to take care of her forever.

“Hmm. I am going to start the grill, and then you are going to tell me what you like to do when you're not taking care of everyone else around you.”

With a soft smile she watched him exit out the sliding glass doors to the patio beyond. She found that watching him doing the smallest things moved her. The poetry of his long-fingered hands, even when just chopping vegetables. Walking out a door. More preferably, walking towards her.

It felt alarmingly warm, and cozy.

It felt like... Oh no. Not yet. Leave that bastard of a four-letter word out for now. It only complicated things, unbearably so, in most cases. She just wanted to enjoy this, without jumping out of her skin, or thinking too much about the future.

It had always been her job to think about the future, and it was something that was hard to turn off.

When John returned, sliding the door closed behind him, he offered Helen a small smile that warmed her to her toes.

This man.

It really wasn’t fair.

She watched as he poured himself a glass of wine, inhaling deeply before taking a sip. “Is it alright?”

“It's wonderful,” she complimented. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure. Shouldn't be long on the grill. Are you hungry?”

“Starving.”

As she looked at him across the island, she knew she wasn't just talking about food. She just couldn't stop herself from looking at him like something she wanted to eat. She couldn't tell if he knew it, too, but those soulful dark eyes staring into hers warmed her from her heart to her toes, and everything in between.

***

Helen sat at the head of the huge dining table, at John’s insistence. Rather than have a ridiculously removed meal with a league between them from opposite ends of the table, he set a place for himself to her right. She watched as he lit two taper candles in modern wrought iron sconces, smiling softly. “I’ve never had occasion to actually use these,” he confesses, and she wonders if that means he’d never had company here before?

John was a private man, and she supposed that just maybe it was possible.

The light outside the wall of windows was fading as night fell, and the candlelight lent a warm intimacy to the cavernous space around them. Half through her first glass of wine on an empty stomach, Helen was definitely feeling the glow.

Dinner was simple but delicious, the steaks grilled to perfection. She knew that she was perhaps reading into it more than she should, in her state of slight inebriation, but there was something rather primal about a man cooking a meal for a woman. It probably called back to vestigial memories of the hunter laying the kill of the day by the fire. I feed you. Maybe it was silly, but Helen couldn’t help but feel utterly cared for. It was refreshing, to say the least. She wasn’t sure she dared finish the rest of that archaic thought, but maybe in the back of her mind a little voice whispered the rest:

I feed you, because you are mine.

John’s foot bumped hers under the table. Sitting so close, it was inevitable their mutually long limbs would become tangled. “Sorry,” he apologized, and she simply smiled into her wine glass, pointedly placing her foot over his.

“It’s alright,” she answered, and the warmth in his eyes from across the table sent a thrill through her bones.

“So,” said John, clearing his throat. “You were going to tell me what you like to do in your free time, when you’re not keeping everyone around you from falling to pieces.”

She laughed softly, and the sparkle in her molten-sugar eyes was utterly melting. Wine, John thought. They were definitely going to need more wine.

With a shrug she answered, “I’m not…really that interesting, John. You already know I like to read. I draw a little. I like walking in the woods, and on the beach. Maybe visit the occasional museum. Sometimes I like movies, but usually they’re just too dumb to invest the time these days.” She’s quiet for a moment. “Honestly, most of my life, I’ve been too busy taking care of someone else to have serious hobbies.”

He frowned, thinking he would give her all the free time in the world, if she would let him. He wanted to think that was just the wine talking, but…it wasn’t. He absolutely knew it wasn’t.

“If you had all the time you wanted, what would you do?”

She pursed her lip, thinking about that, like it had never occurred to her that it could ever be a possibility. “You know, I took a printmaking class in college that I really liked. I always wished I could do that more, but…it takes room, and equipment, and it makes a big mess. But there was just something about the snap of pulling that first print after spending all the time on the prep work, drawing the design and carving the plate. No matter how well you tried to plan, there would always be some kind of surprise on the paper. Something unexpected and out of your control, but usually something beautiful. Like a happy cosmic mistake. I loved that.”

John stared at her as she described this, and for the umpteenth time that day, he thought she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. The subject of making art brought a light to her eyes that he found utterly addicting, and he wondered what it would take to outfit the other half of his binding workshop into a printmaking studio.

“When you make your first series of prints, I’ll bind them for you,” he offered, and she veritably glowed with the suggestion.

“That sounds amazing, John.” She leaned back in her chair, smiling across at him, seeming utterly content. “So how did you get into bookbinding?”

He shrugged a little. “I’ve always loved books. I didn’t get to have any formal schooling, really. They were my window to the outside world. I used to have to hide them, at the—” He almost said Theatre, but caught himself just barely. “At the place where I was trained.”

“Oh, John.” Helen reached across the table to him, sliding her fingers in his. He squeezed her hand appreciatively, grazing her knuckles with his thumb.

“It’s alright. When I was young I found this dogeared copy of Russian Fairy Tales by Afanasyev. It was old. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was actually rather valuable. I took it everywhere with me, all across the world, and over time the binding broke, the pages started falling out. After finishing a job and finally having a little money of my own, I took it to this bookshop to have it restored. The old man who owned it had this wonderful workshop. It smelled like leather and old parchment and glue, and for the first time since my mother was alive, I felt a sense of peace? I knew I wanted to learn how to save old books. To actually…create something, rather than just destroying all the time.”

He didn’t realize that his grip on Helen’s fingers had tightened, almost painfully so, until he’d finished speaking. He let up with a shaky sigh. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Do you…”

“Go on.”

They had come too far, not to ask anything, now.

“Do you remember your mother?”

“A little,” he admitted. “Though more…a feeling, of being with her? I was very small. She would sing to me, and I remember being in her lap, and feeling like nothing could hurt me.” A bitter laugh escaped him. “How wrong I was.”

“She must have been an amazing woman, for your father to risk running away with her.”

John nodded pensively. The similarities in his own current situation had not escaped him. “Yes, I’m sure she was. But did he have the right, knowing the risk? Knowing the danger he put her in?” He could not mask the feeling behind these words; he knew they spoke in double meanings and of their parallel circumstances, and in a way he was asking her permission, and it was all so heady and terrifying he could hardly stand it.

How do people live like this, he marveled? Feeling so much, all the time?

“That’s a fair question,” agreed Helen, nodding. “But maybe more importantly, I think if you could ask her if he’d been worth the risk…if you had been worth the risk…I think I know what she would have said. I am certain she would have said yes.”

Her eyes met his, the candlelight reflecting in those caramel orbs almost rendering them gold, and it took every iota of self-control John possessed not to drag her into his lap. Instead he settled for pressing his lips to her knuckles, so grateful for this woman who brought such light into his life.

“I don’t deserve you.”

“Yes, you do,” she answered quietly. “And it’s not about who deserves what, anyway.” It was about two people who like each other, who understand the risks, and who make a decision to be together—or not. She didn’t say that part aloud. She hoped she didn’t need to.

A few moments more, and John managed to regain his composure, though he didn’t let go of Helen’s hand. When he found his voice again, it came rough with emotion.

“Would you like to see my books?”

She smiled, and it was like the sun from behind a cloud.

“Yes.”

#john wick #helen wick #john wick x helen #john wick fic #keanu reeves #john wick the night nurse

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