#jonathan sure is in a lot of stuff..........

[wojtekaneko]

That's how it went

[vickyvicarious]

I looked out over the beautiful expanse, bathed in soft yellow moonlight till it was almost as light as day. In the soft light the distant hills became melted, and the shadows in the valleys and gorges of velvety blackness. The mere beauty seemed to cheer me; there was peace and comfort in every breath I drew.

Jonathan Harker: "Yes I am a prisoner. Yes, my legal services are complete now. Yes, I just wrote a letter that I am fine and staying over, and therefore can I be disposed of any day now. Yes, my sleep schedule is screwed because I stay up all night with my captor and play nice.

But this shan't stop me from waxing poetic about the velvet darkness over nature and the soft moonlight!"

Jonathan: I Am Going To Seize This Moment Of Peace And Beauty And You Can't Stop Me

Dracula: wanna bet? *lizards*

[hallowsden]

DC x DP idea thing #1

Uncle Scarecrow Au

Essentially, in this AU thing, Maddie, and Jonathan Crane are cousins (their moms were sisters) that often see eachother when Maddie's family visits Georgia before contact was cut due to Grandma Marion and Great-Grandma Keeny

Jonathan and Maddie managed to reconnect for a year or two through letters when Maddie started college and Jonny boy is in the middle of getting his doctorate but lost contact after Maddie got busier with studies and Jonathan went to Gotham. They're on good terms with each other and once in a while in recent years, they'd give each other updates (and gifts. Danny and Jazz grew up hearing a bit from/about Jonathan when they were younger but stopped hearing about him around the time when he became the Scarecrow. So, let's just say when Danny's... 6? Ngl, DC timeline is messy and confusing at times)

Maddie and Jack only recently learned that Danny's a halfa, the ghost king at that, and accepts it. They start helping him wrangle up some of the rogue ghosts and throw them back to the GZ when not even a week later, the GIW started swarming Amity Park immediately.

This causes the Fenton Family to escape (though not unscathed) and end up going to Gotham, not just cause Jazz is studying there, or the fact that there's enough ambient ectoplasm energy there to cover up Danny's signature, but because Jack's apparently from there, has connections too, while Maddie knows that Jonathan could help. She's his favorite cousin after all and adores Danny and Jazz from the bits and pieces she sent him about them.

"Madeline," The man in the burlap mask nodded to her.

"Jonathan," she nodded back.

Danny can't help but feel tense and wary as he stares down at the tall figure in front of him. This was Uncle Jonathan? Don't tell him he's as big of a fruitloop as Vlad.

Maddie stares at him before raising an eyebrow, "I see you still aren't taking care of yourself as you should, huh, Jonny?"

He scoffs, southern accent becoming a bit more prominent as he spoke, "like you're anyone to talk about habits, Maddie. Intellect may run in our blood but having normal, sane habits aren't. Don't you remember Great-Grandma Mary?"

The two burst out into some chuckles.

"Glad you're still alive and well, then, cousin," Maddie says, taking the hood of her jumpsuit off along with her goggles.

"Likewise," Jonathan replies, taking his ratty hat and burlap mask off revealing a sharp, gaunt face with a long, hook nose, pale blue eyes, and rusty auburn-colored, bordering brown, hair, "Now, what's this about a government branch coming for little Danny, and how... Sensitive are you to gore and other graphic imagery of sorts?"

"I mean, I already died and have to fight ghosts-..." Danny piped up immediately, only to shut his mouth up just as quickly.

"... Remind me to set up a proper therapy session for you later, child."

[hairmetal666]

Steve has done interviews before. Like, a lot of interviews. YouTube, podcasts, print, TV stuff. Not as a brag, or anything, just. He's been an influencer for a long time, for better or worse, and it's part of the deal.

Usually, he's comfortable in front of the camera. Usually, he's poised and well-spoken. But today, this time, sweat pools under his arms and beads along his hairline, the lights beating down on him in a harsh glare.

"Steve Harrington," Murray Bauman crosses his legs, smiles big for the cameras. "It's been a while."

He smiles too, tries to seem like he's not about to have a panic attack. "I've been a little busy."

Murray laughs and it's then that Steve understands how screwed he really is. Murray's show, it's all glitz and glamour on the surface; mixed drinks and hijinks until the celebrity guests lose their inhibitions, admitting things they probably wanted to keep secret.

It's just that, before, Steve didn't have any salacious rumors to worry about, and now--

"You've had a rough year, Steve, yeah?"

"Not my best, for sure." He leans back, tries to seem calm, unbothered.

"I was sorry to hear about your divorce. I think that announcement really took a lot of people by surprise."

His hands clench, but he manages not to shift or bounce his leg. "Thanks for, uh. Yeah. We were also sorry it didn't work out."

Murray nods, face full of sympathy. "You and Nancy, you'd been together since high school? That's almost--what? 15 years?"

"It's--" he clears his throat. "About that long." Steve takes a sip of the drink next to him, an apple martini that's both too sweet and too strong.

"Am I right to assume that you didn't see it coming?"

And isn't that a question? Sure, now in hindsight, he can see the fractures that lead to the end, but six months ago did he--it's all so--what if all along--

"All marriages have rough patches," is what he says. "We just couldn't come out of ours as a couple."

"Do you know what I've found really remarkable about this phase of your life? The content and tone of your videos in the midst of the maelstrom of rumors and gossip didn't change at all. 'Your kids' as you call them, are still as bright and vibrant as ever. You're laughing, dancing, cooking, having a great time."

"I needed that--that normalcy you know? And the kids, they're such an important part of my life, having them around helped."

"Including Nancy's brother, Mike?"

Steve laughs and it's not fake. "Totally including Mike. My relationship with Nancy has nothing to do with my relationship with him."

"He's kind of an antagonist--would you say?--in your videos, though."

"We have conflict sometimes, but it's never serious. We know how to play it up for laughs."

"So, nothing's changed between you?"

"Not at all."

"The cheating rumors." Murray's smile is soft, but all the air still leaves the room.

"What about them?" It's more combative than he means, but--

"Did Nancy cheat on you with Jonathan Byers?"

He swallows and it hurts. She did cheat, is the thing. It's not public information, still only speculation, but--

"You can't believe everything you read, Murray."

"So, she didn't cheat?" There's a glow to Murray's eyes that tells Steve he already knows the answer.

"Like, I said before, marriages are hard. We spent a lot of time apart because of our jobs. It took a toll."

"And she was traveling with Jonathan, yes? He's been her photographer for the past decade, from what I understand."

"They were co-workers, but we're all close. And those rumors didn't help our relationship, for sure. It's--not easy to hear that a bunch of people think your wife and close friend may be having an affair, that people 'ship' them. Even when it's not true, it creates--"

"Tension? Distrust?"

"Both, probably." He takes another drink as he nods. "After a while you do start to wonder if there's truth to it, and you're too ignorant or too--too trusting to see it."

"And it eroded the relationship."

"It certainly didn't help." He takes another drink.

"And how about your relationship with Jonathan's brother, Will. Has that been impacted?"

"Of course not. Never. Whatever happens between Nancy, Jonathan, and I, it has nothing to do with the kids. They know that.

"You talked about it."

"Yes. Extensively."

"I know there's often speculation on the relationship you have with them; if you're really close or it's all for the cameras."

"Murray." He leans forward. "We've talked about this before. I met Dustin through Mike, and the whole group followed. I've known them all since they were 8 years old. They're--I mean, not to be cliche, but they're my family." He sips the last bit of martini.

"And where does Eddie Munson fit into that family?"

The question shouldn't be a surprise, but he almost does a spit take, has to fight to keep it together.

"Eddie?"

"Yes." Murray's smile is chilling. "Your close friend Eddie Munson. Musician. Plays Dungeons and Dragons on YouTube. You made out with him in a music video. Ringing any bells?"

"I'm familiar with Eddie," his grin is rigid. "I don't know what that has to do with my marriage ending."

"Well, the rumors weren't all about Nancy, were they?"

"Eddie and I have--we became mutuals online years and years ago. I used one of his songs in a video and the kids are obsessed with his dnd stuff, so. We've become close."

"Friends?"

"Isn't that implied?"

"After that music video, I don't think so."

Steve rolls his eyes, lets the irritation show for the first time. "He asked me to be in his video. There's nothing scandalous about it."

"What's your relationship with Eddie right now?"

"Like I said, friends."

"Do you want it to be more than that?"

"Eddie's really important to me."

"Is that all?"

"Not really sure what you want me to say here, Murray."

"You were married to a woman for years, but now there are questions about your sexuality."

He grits his teeth. "My sexuality isn't anyone's business aside my own. People can say shit on Twitter all they want, that doesn't mean they know me. But--the end of my marriage--it definitely gave me the space for self-discovery, I guess? In a way I hadn't had before."

"And is Eddie a part of that self-discovery?"

"Yeah, as one of my closest friends, he is."

"Do you have feelings for him?"

"That's--that's not--I'm going through a divorce. My focus isn't on starting another relationship right now."

"You, famously, tattooed your initials on the inside of his thigh during an Instagram live. That's pretty intimate."

"We were just having a little fun."

"Huh. That seems like more than 'a little fun' to me. So, how's Eddie doing with the increased attention?"

It takes Steve a second to track the change of subject, mind still stuck on the tattoo, on how the ink had looked on Eddie's pale skin.

"It's hard." Steve eventually answers. "Of course he enjoys bringing his music and dnd to a wider audience, but the focus on his personal life is--it's a lot."

"Well, he should have thought about before letting you tattoo him for your 850,000 followers. Does he want a relationship with you?"

His throat is dry, burning, he wishes he had more martini. He wishes he'd never taken a sip. "You'd have to ask him. I'm just taking it day by day, you know? That's what I need right now."

"We're getting to the end of our time, but you know I have to ask. Your best friend, Robin Buckley, she very famously unfollowed both Nancy and Jonathan on all social media when news broke about your divorce. Can you tell us why she unfollowed them?"

"I have no control over Robin's accounts. I didn't even know she followed Jonathan ever, and she and Nancy have a relationship outside of me, you know? I can't say what happened between them."

"She's been in your videos with Eddie. She like him?"

"Very much. It's kind of annoying actually. They keep ganging up on me."

"Much to everyone's delight, I'm sure. So, what can we expect from the newly single Steve Harrington?"

"There are a couple things in the works, but only time will tell."

---

He walks through his front door an hour later, and Eddie's sitting on the couch, playing a soft melody on an acoustic guitar. He stops when he sees Steve, setting the guitar aside, and standing.

"How'd it go, baby?" He asks. His soft smile is so beautiful, Steve gets a lump in his throat.

"As expected." He crosses the space between them, lets Eddie pull him close.

"He ask about us?" Eddie's breath tickles his ear.

"Of course."

"And you--"

"I want--it should be just for us. We should be able to announce when we're ready. Not when Murray-fucking-Bauman asks."

Eddie kisses him, then, sweet and slow, making him lose his breath.

"Whenever you're ready, I'll be right by your side."

"You sure? All my mess--"

"Is mine too. Afraid you're stuck with me for the long haul, Steve Harrington."

[tanadrin]

Can you explain in what what you think eugenics doesn't work? Does this basically boil down to skepticism about the accuracy of GWAS studies? My understanding is that academic consensus is "G probably exists, disentangling direct genetic inheritance vs genetic cultural inheritance is complicated but possible, we can identify a number of alleles which we're reasonably confident are directly causally involved in having a higher G factor"

when it comes to intelligence, its heritability, and its variation at the population level, my understanding of the science is:

highly adaptive traits don't, in fact, vary much at the genetic level between populations of a species because they are strongly selected for. in an environment where a trait is being strongly selected for, a population that failed to express that trait strongly will be rapidly outcompeted.

intelligence is probably the quintessential such trait for humans. we have sacrificed a great deal of other kinds of specialization in favor of our big brains. we spend an enormous amount of calories supporting those brains. tool use, the ability to plan for the future, the ability to navigate complex social situations and hierarchies in order to secure status, the ability to model the minds of others for the purposes of cooperation and deception means that we should expect intelligence to be strongly selected for for as long as our lineage has been social and tool-using, which is at least the last three million years or so.

so, at least as a matter of a priori assumptions, we should expect human populations not to vary greatly in their genetic predisposition to intelligence. it may nonetheless, but we'd need pretty strong evidence. i think i read this argument on PZ Myers' blog a million years ago, so credit where that's due.

complicating the picture is that we just don't have good evidence for how IQ does vary across populations, even before we get into the question of "how much of this variation is genetic and how much of it is not." the cross-national data on which a lot of IQ arguments have been based is really bad. and that would be assuming IQ tests are in fact good at capturing a notion of IQ that is independent of cultural context, which historically they're pretty bad at

this screed by nassim nicholas taleb (not a diss; AFAICT the guy only writes in screeds) makes a number of arguments, but one argument I find persuasive is that IQ is really only predictive of achievement in the sense that it does usefully discriminate between people with obvious intellectual disabilities and those without--but you do not actually need an IQ test for that sort of thing, any more than you need to use a height chart to figure out who is missing both their legs. in that sense, sure, IQ is predictive of a lot of things. but once you remove this group, the much-vaunted correlations between IQ and stuff like wealth just straight-up vanishes

heritability studies are a useful tool, but a tool which must be wielded carefully; they were developed for studying traits which were relatively easy to isolate in very specific populations, like a crop under study at an agricultural research site, and are more precarious when applied to, e.g., human populations

my understanding based on jonathan kaplan articles like this one is that twin studies are not actually that good at distinguishing heritable factors from environmental ones--they have serious limitations compared to heritability studies where you actually can rigorously control for environmental effects, like you can with plants or livestock.

as this post also points out, heritability studies also only examine heritability within groups, and are not really suited to examining large-scale population differences, *especially* in the realm of intelligence where there is a huge raft of confounding factors, and a lack of a really robust measurement tool.

(if we are worried about intelligence at the population level, it seems to me there are interventions we know are going to be effective and do not rely on deeply dubious scientific speculation, e.g., around nutrition and healthcare and serious wealth inequality and ofc education; and if what people actually want is to raise the average intelligence of the population rather than justify discrimination against minorities, then they might focus on those much more empirically grounded interventions. even if population differences in IQ are real and significant and point to big differences in intelligence, we know those things are worth a fair few IQ points. but most people who are or historically have been the biggest advocates for eugenics are, in my estimation, mostly interested in justifying discrimination.)

i think the claims/application of eugenics extend well beyond just intelligence, ftr. eugenics as an ideology is complex and historically pretty interesting, and many eugenicists have made much broader claims than just "population-level differences in intelligence exist due to genetic factors, and we should try to influence them with policy," but that is a useful point for them to fall back onto when pressed on those other claims. but i don't think even that claim is at all well-supported.

[stevesbipanic]

@steddieangstyaugust Day 27: "I thought we agreed it was over."

Eddie saw Steve's beemer pull up outside the trailer before he heard the knock at the door. The words were already leaving his lips as he opened it, "I thought we agreed it was over."

It had hurt, the break up, but Eddie had been expecting it. He knew Steve would never be his forever no matter how much he wanted him to be. It was all too easy for him to push back the tears and agreed when Steve said things like it was for the best and that they'd never work.

He had tried not to think about all the times Steve had said how much he loved how they were different, that it meant they got to share things with the other person. How Steve whispered love confessions when he thought Eddie was asleep weeks before he was brave enough to voice them in the daylight.

It was over, and that was that, so why was Steve here?

The sentence fizzled out though when he took in Steve's features. A quickly blackening swollen eye, a split lip, knuckles bruised and bleeding. Steve was trying to hold his side while also tightly gripping the backpack on his other shoulder.

"I'm sorry."

Eddie hadn't heard from Steve in months besides the occasional update from the kids or a glance at him from hellfire pick ups. The sound of those words made him realise how much he had missed Steve's voice despite how broken it now sounded.

All the hurt he'd felt melted away, stored for a later time when Steve wasn't swaying so much, when his face wasn't so pale. Eddie gently guided him inside, taking the backpack and placing it on the couch before leading Steve to the bathroom.

He methodically cleaned up his cuts and checked his ribs and tried not to think about the fact that the doctor said Steve shouldn't risk another concussion. He got Steve a change of clothes and sat him upright on the bed.

"Can't sleep yet, sweetheart, got to make sure your heads ok for awhile, alright?"

Steve's eyes became misty again, "Didn't think I'd ever hear you call me that again, Eds. I'm so sorry."

Eddie took Steve's less injured hand in his, gently stroking the back of it, "What happened, Steve?"

The question didn't help the tears that now seemed to flow freely down Steve's cheeks, "I thought if I broke up with you I could keep you safe, keep the both of us safe."

Eddie's grip tightened slightly, "Stevie."

"I was stupid I should've given the box of stuff from you to Robin or someone but I wanted to keep a piece of you close, and he, he found a picture of the two of us, the one Jonathan took at your birthday party."

Eddie knew the picture, it was his favourite, he still kept it tacked to his wall, didn't have the heart to take it down and put it with every other part of Steve that now sat in a box under his bed. Jonathan had caught the exact moment Steve kissed him while he cut his cake, they looked so happy, they were happy.

Eddie could infer the rest, "Your dad did this then?"

Steve nodded, "Kicked me out too, I'm sorry I would've gone to Dustin's but he's at his grandparents and Robin is at college and I just." Eddie pulls Steve closer, "I'm glad you came here, baby, you're safe here." Steve seems to finally relax at those words, like he'd been holding his breath since the day they'd parted.

"I didn't mean anything I said, Eddie," Steve cried.

Eddie gave Steve a sad smile. "I know, let's talk about all that later, just rest now I'll wake you up in a little bit to check your head again," Eddie said pushing Steve softly down onto the bed. They had a lot to discuss, a lot of hearts to mend but for now Eddie just needed Steve to be ok.

"Will you stay?"

"As long as you need me."

[bleedingoptimism]

As Steve walks into the grocery store he pulls his sunglasses off, only to put them back on again immediately. The lights of the store make the back of his eyes sting. Hungover from a bad headache, not that people here would care why. Whatever, is not like everyone already doesn’t think he’s an asshole. He doesn’t need to perform for anyone anymore.

A guy, singing to himself down one of the aisles peaks his attention, he’s tall and has long black hair and Steve belatedly remembers that he’s Jon’s friend from California.

“Argyle?” he asks, more to himself than to him, but Argyle turns and smiles at him as if they are old friends. He approaches and grabs his shoulder, shaking him a little.

“Oh! Hi Stevie!�� 

The confidence and attitude he carries himself with make Steve smile for some reason. It’s like he’s very sure of himself but in a nice way, not in a douchey way, like his high school buddies were. Although hearing someone call him “Stevie” reminds him of Tommy and a very different time and he can’t help but shrink inwards a little, “Oh no please, just Steve,” he says with an apologetic smile, pulling his sunglasses off again and placing them on his head. And because he doesn’t want Argyle to think he’s the douchebag, he explains further, “‘Stevie’ brings back bad memories,”

Argyle leans his head to the side with a pout but then smiles and squeezes Steve’s shoulder, “Dude, it’s fine, we can just make new ones, man! Better ones.”

Steve’s first reaction is to scoff. As if it were that easy… but then he thinks, hell, maybe it is.  Maybe it is and it makes him smile. Argyle is way too outgoing for it to be comfortable for other people, it’s kind of ridiculous. For a second, he wonders if Jonathan found it jarring when he first met him. But Steve finds it refreshing. He shakes his head and smiles,

“So what were you looking for? Maybe I can help?” he offers.

Argyle turns in a circle, letting go of Steve’s shoulder and opening his arms wide, like he’s presenting the store to Steve, “See man, I'm mentally preparing myself for the munchies. I kind of wanted to make a pizza but like sweet? You get me?”

“Like a pie?” Steve chuckles.

“That! Sounds delicious, dude! But I don’t know how to make a pie,” Argyle laments, and Steve has no idea what possesses him to say,

“I do. You want help?” 

Argyle stills his whole body and then shakes it before he starts snapping his fingers rapidly, startling Steve.

“Ok! Ok ok ok ok ok! Are you busy right now, man?”

“Just need to buy my groceries…” Steve says unable to keep the bewilderment off his expression.

“I’ll help you with that, we’ll buy things for the pie and then you invite me over, how’s that my dude?” Argyle says, no preambles, “I have a doobie and a lot of questions about all the shit that went down” he adds moving his eyebrows up and down quickly.

“What about Jon?” Steve can’t help but ask.

“Ah man, Jonny is with Nancy right now. Those two love birds had a lot to talk about, so I figured I’d make myself scarce.” Argyle answers, nodding apprehensively at his own statement.

Steve finds himself nodding along before saying, “Yeah, okay. Let’s do it!”

“Hell yeah, Stevie!” Argyle exclaims throwing his arms up and this time, Steve doesn’t cringe at the nickname.

After that, Argyle follows Steve through the store, helping him put things in the cart, making a few comments about differences in products or prices from California, but mostly staying out of the way and humming to himself. Steve asks him what he wants the pie to be (strawberries and chocolate) so he gets the ingredients for that too and then they are off.

When they get to his place, Steve tells him to get comfortable while he puts stuff away but Argyle helps him out before sitting on a tall stool in the kitchen and watching as Steve gets all the ingredients for the pie laid out.

“You know dude, you’re kind of exactly how I imagined you’d be,” Argyle tells him, gifting him another one of his smiles. 

“Really?” Steve asks surprised.

“Jon told me all about you, man,” he answers nodding. 

Steve raises an eyebrow at that, “And you still want to hang out with me?” he asks, half judgy, half defensive.

“Of course! Because you know what I got from it, dog?” Argyle asks and Steve just stares at him, afraid to know the answer.

“That you are a good person, Stevie! So you got off to a rocky start dude, so what? I think that makes you all the more interesting.”

Steve purses his lips in an attempt not to smile and raises an eyebrow.

“You went to hell and beyond for someone you didn’t even like! You’ve paid your dues and a half for whatever shit you did when you were younger and it could’ve made you bitter or closed off, man! But it didn’t. Not even the tiniest little bit. You barely know me and you invited me over and offered to bake pie for me, dude!” 

Steve chuckles and shakes his head, “You got all that from what Jon told you? Also you invited yourself over,” he jokes. 

Argyle laughs and then just shrugs, choosing to ignore Steve’s question about Jon.

He lets it go, and Argyle lights up the joint while he starts making the pie. After they both get a few hits, Argyle starts asking him about everything. ‘Start from the beginning’ he says.

Steve starts off a little stiff but gets looser with the weed and Argyle's presence and ends up telling him practically everything. Argyle asks a few questions every once in a while, sometimes about the process of making the pie. Sometimes some really intense shit like ‘and how did that make you feel?’, ‘did you think you were going to die?’ ‘were you scared?’.

Steve answers everything honestly, and it feels incredibly cathartic. His favorite questions are the ones about the pie though, and he smiles the biggest when Argyle says next time he’ll make one for him.

In turn, Steve asks him how he met Jon and chuckles when Argyle confirms his thoughts and tells him Jon didn’t like Argyle one bit at first.

“He said I was too happy. He didn’t trust it. Dude couldn’t trust anyone that hadn’t gone through some kind of shit in their lives” Argyle laughs, “But I can thaw even the coldest of hearts, man! As we got to know each other, he realized that I did have my own shit going on, but that happiness was a choice for me. Is who I had chosen to be.”

They talk about that too, how it wasn’t an easy choice. How some days it’s harder than others, to keep at it. How all the Upside Down shit affected him too.

By the time the pie is done and the joint is gone, Steve feels incredibly close to Argyle. Like they’ve been friends forever. 

“So that’s pretty much it,” he says with a sigh after finishing a rant about why he doesn’t keep in touch with his high school buddies because Argyle had asked about them.

“Dude, you’ve been through so much,” he says solemnly.

“Yeah, you know that’s…. Life…” Steve says, shrugging. He doesn't know exactly what to say, suddenly feeling very awkward at being seen.

“Nah, Stevie. Me being kicked out of my house as soon as I was old enough to get a job ‘cause my parents couldn’t afford to keep feeding me and my younger siblings…. That’s life.” Argyle says seriously and quickly dismisses Steve's worried face adding, “It’s ok dude, they were great parents, they raised me well and I still go visit every other weekend” And then sighs and looks sternly at Steve again,

“Like I said, that’s life. What you’ve been through? Was hell”

“The kids had it worse- Ell-” Steve starts but Argyle interrupts him.

“That doesn’t erase what you've been through, Steve. It doesn’t make it less of a nightmare, man.” Steve just looks at Argyle as what he’s saying sinks in. 

“And you got through it, dude. You came out the other side even a better person than when it started and like- you saved lives! You saved my best friend's life and like- like- you should be proud of yourself Stevie. I’m proud of you, man” he finishes with a carefree smile. As if he hadn’t just rocked the ground Steve was standing on. And he doesn't know if it’s the weed, or Argyle’s words, or both but Steve closes the distance between them and hugs him.

“Oh, hey! Hugs! I love hugs!” Argyle laughs, and hugs him back, taking it all in stride.

“Sorry,” Steve sniffles embarrassed, “I didn’t know I needed to hear that till you said it,” he croaks.

“Nah, it’s good. I got you” Argyle responds, patting his back lightly.

The hug is wonderful, friendly, warm, and just the right length but when he’s stepping away from Argyle, he hears a wary sound from the kitchen door.

“Uhm…hi” 

It’s Eddie. Pocker-faced and cautious and Steve knows him well enough to know he’s freaking out inside.

“Oh, hi! Eddie! Good to see you, dude!” Argyle says good naturally and completely out of the loop. Steve smiles at him too and rubs his eyes with the back of his hand to dry them off a bit.

Whatever Eddie was thinking goes out the window when he looks closely at Steve and walks towards him, leaning closer to look him in the eye, “You okay?” he asks concerned.

Steve nods and Argyle clears his throat, “I’m going to… set the table for three,” he says, so maybe, not as out of the loop as Steve first thought.

Eddie completely ignores Argyle and grabs Steve’s face, his thumb caressing the underside of his eye, “You really ok?” he asks again and Steve chuckles,

“Yeah,” he answers with a smile.

Eddie hums and then looks back towards where Argyle is opening and closing cabinets in the dining room, looking for plates, “So… Should I be jealous?” he asks and Steve snorts amused, 

“Of course not,” he says.

“You sure? ‘Cause maybe your type wasn’t curls and big eyes, maybe it was long hair and weed all along,” Eddie presses and Steve can tell he’s trying to make a joke out of it but is actually asking for real and Steve gets frankly, really annoyed.

“You know what? Maybe you should be jealous. Argy would never accuse me like that,” Inwardly he cringes at the nickname but it gets the point across. Eddie’s face falls and he looks devastated and terrified for a second before Steve smirks bitchily at him and then Eddie is frowning.

“Asshole” he murmurs, despite still holding Steve’s face as if it were precious and fragile.

Steve steps closer, placing his hands on Eddie’s waist, “You started it” he says as an apology. Kind of.

Eddie huffs and moves his hands to Steve shoulder’s, one thumb pressed to his pulse, “I regret it” 

Steve hums, “Just for the record? A little possessiveness is kind of hot,” he says and pecks the tip of Eddie’s nose, “You questioning my feelings for you? Is not.” and then flicks it.

“Dully noted,” Eddie nods.

Steve looks him in the eye as he leans closer, kisses him fully in the mouth firmly, eyes open the whole time, and then whispers “Good boy,” before he steps away.

He smirks again seeing the full-body effect his little stunt has on Eddie. The way his eyelids fall, his mouth opens, the goosebumps on his arm hair, and the shiver that runs through his spine. He takes a moment to take it all in before he smiles, less predatory and more friendly. Eddie smiles back, and shakes his head amused, like he can't believe Steve is real. He does that a lot.

Steve then takes Eddie’s hand on his own and kisses his knuckles before moving past him and dragging him to the dining room with him, 

“Now c’mon. Let’s go eat pie with my new friend”

e͟n͟d͟

a coffee? a doobie? ☕🥐💕

[ahsokaismyqueen]

Disappointed Revelations

Pairing - Steve Harrington x HendersonSister!Reader

Summary - After working on a school project together, you had actually started to believe that there was more to Steve Harrington than meets the eye. All of that changes after an interaction with Jonathan Byers.

Word Count - 1.7k

Warnings - Language, season 1 Steve, they come a long way from this friends.

Steve Harrington x Henderson!Sister Reader Masterlist

You could tell that something was wrong. Well, a lot of things were wrong at the moment, but this was even more so. Jonathan and you were not close. Acquaintances, not much more than that, but you knew how close he was with his brother. He had to be taking this hard. The frown on your lips deepened as you watched him get approached by Steve Harrington and his little lackeys. 

“Hey! Earth to Henderson!” You were snapped back to reality by Eddie who was waving his hand in your face. “You know, if I wasn’t so secure in our undying friendship, I might be offended by you ignoring me.” 

Shoving his hand away, you gave him a grin. “I apologize my dear dungeon master. My attention was captivated by the douchebag crew over there.” You said, gesturing towards them. 

Eddie turned to where you were looking, his eyes widening with interest as he leaned against the car next to you. “Well, that is intriguing isn’t it? What do you think it’s about?” 

There was no telling. All you could think about though was that the last thing you would want to deal with if Dustin was missing was them. Sure, Steve had been . . . Nice to you earlier when it had been just the two of you working on the project together, but he always got worse whenever he was around Tommy. “I don’t know.” You admitted, and watched as Jonathan tried to brush past them but Tommy grabbed his bag off his shoulder, “but I don’t like it. He’s got enough to deal with right now.” 

He picked up something in your tone, and you felt his gaze on the side of your face. “His brother was friends with yours wasn’t he?” 

“Is,” you corrected, without looking at him. 

Eddie cleared his throat awkwardly. “Right.” 

Letting out a sigh, you watched as they continued to antagonize Jonathan. “I taught him how to play DND, you know? With the rest of Dustin’s friends. Pretty good little player.” You bumped your shoulder into Eddie’s. “Might give you a run for your money some day.” 

He let out a scoff at your words. “You know, I’m taking back the undying friendship -”

“What the hell!” You leapt off the back of the car as you watched Steve drop Jonathan’s camera on the ground. 

“Henderson, what are you -”

You hadn’t even realized you had started moving. Eddie was calling out to you, followed by a couple murmurs of shit, shit, shit,  but you didn’t care. All you felt was anger. Jonathan didn't deserve that. You knew what his home life was like. He had probably had to work hard to save up enough for that camera, and it must have been like rubbing salt in the wound of Will’s disappearance to have another thing taken away from him, even as small as that. It reminded you of - 

“You’re such a fucking dick, Harrington!” The words left your mouth before you even thought about them, shoving his back and causing him to stumble forward. 

Steve turned around, looking even more startled when he realized it was you. “Henderson, what the hell was that for?!” 

But you didn’t stop, you kept coming for him with an anger that was buried deep inside of you, reaching out to shove him again. “His brother is fucking missing, and you can’t have sympathy for two minutes -”

Steve grabbed a hold of your arms, keeping them at your sides even as you tried to shove him off. “He was taking pictures of -”

“I don’t give a shit what he was taking pictures of.” You hissed in his face. “Not everyone can get their daddy to buy them new stuff when it breaks. Sometimes you can’t ever get things back.” Against your will, you felt tears of anger forming in your eyes. You could also feel Steve’s chest heaving against yours, the tension in the air thick, and for a moment, you thought you saw an ounce of regret in his eyes. 

“God, the freak has finally lost her mind.” Carol Perkins said with a laugh. 

“Stay out of this.” Steve snapped at her.

“Shut the hell up you pathetic bitch.” 

Steve and you spoke at the same time, and there was a moment of silence at your words. You heard footsteps step closer to the two of you, but you didn’t take your eyes off Steve, your face still flooded with simmering anger. 

“What did you call me?” You heard Carol say. 

You felt Steve’s hands tighten for the briefest moment on your wrists, almost like a warning, but you still didn’t care enough to even glance her way. “A. Pathetic. Bitch. All together it’s only five syllables. Didn’t realize that was above your comprehension level.” You said,  “But I’m not surprised.” 

“How dare you -”

“I told you to stay the hell out of it!” Steve yelled at her, breaking your gaze for a moment to glare at her, and you used his distraction to yank your arms out of his grip. 

You took a step back from him, not even realizing until that moment how close the two of you had been. “I can’t believe I thought for one second you might not be such a bad person.” You admitted. “But you really are a dick.” 

Steve looked hurt. It shocked you, but he looked upset by your words. Why? You didn’t know. It wasn’t like he gave a single shit what your opinion of him was anyway. 

“Henderson!” You finally tore your gaze away from Steve at the sound of Eddie’s voice. “Let’s get out of here.” You didn’t know when it had happened, but Eddie had joined the circle, glancing between Steve and you with an expression that was a cross between concern and confusion. 

Tommy stepped forward then, clapping Steve on the shoulder and looking at you with a smirk. “You know, she’s not wrong, Harrington. You are a dick.” 

“She’s got an eye for that. You know with all her experience with them.” Carol said, and you turned away from her, taking a few steps towards Eddie as he slung an arm around your shoulder. “Though normally it’s just freak dick.” 

Your hands tightened into fists for a brief moment, but you didn’t respond, knowing it wouldn’t be worth it. 

“Bet she wouldn’t know what to do with a real one.” You heard Tommy said, and a round of laughter at what that implied made you snap once more. 

“I hope you’re not implying that you have a real one! I’d need a damn telescope to find yours -!” You yelled, turning around to see Steve hold Tommy back. 

“Bitch!” 

“Asshole!” You yelled back. 

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie said, sliding his arm down to grab a hold of your waist and literally tug you away from them. “What the hell has gotten into you?!” He pulled you to a stop beside Jonathan while Nancy went to answer Steve’s call for her. 

You ignored his question, frankly because you weren’t sure how to answer it, and bent down to look at the damaged camera. “Can it be fixed?” You asked him. 

He shook his head, carefully picking up the bigger pieces. “You didn’t have to do that.” 

You knew you didn’t, but something inside of you hadn’t let you stop. You gave Jonathan a sad smile. “If there’s anything Dustin and I can do to help find Will . . . We want to help.” You thought about how many times he must have heard that, because it was what you were expected to say, right? “I’m serious.” You added, wanting him to know you were. “He’s a good kid.” You told him, handing him one of the bigger pieces. 

Jonathan looked at you for a second, then nodded. “Thanks for not saying ‘was’.” He grabbed what he could of his things, and with another nod to the two of you, headed to his car. 

“Are you going to tell me what the hell all that was about?” Eddie said once it was only the two of you again. 

You ran a frustrated hand through your hair. “I don’t know. He just . . . he pissed me off.” 

“He’s done shit like that before. They all have. You didn't shove him then.” Eddie said. 

Eddie was right. You’d witnessed them all being terrible for years now, and it had never bothered you that much. You wanted to say that you didn’t know why, but the truth was, you did. After working on that project together, you actually had started to believe that maybe Steve wasn’t all bad. That maybe there was something more to him than a mindless, womanizing jock. 

You hated that he proved you wrong. 

But you couldn’t admit that to Eddie. He’d say he told you so, and you didn’t think you could stand to hear that right now. “I know.” You said. “I think I’m just worried about Will and Dustin and it’s making me a little crazy.” You told him. It wasn’t a complete lie. It wasn’t the whole truth either, but it was all you were willing to admit. 

Of course, Eddie was your best friend. He had been since middle school, and he probably knew you as well as Dustin did. He could sense you weren’t being honest with him. “You sure about that?” 

You didn’t want to answer. You let out a sigh, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder. “You were right. I need to get out of here. Maybe take a nap or something.” You said, holding out your hand for the keys to his van. 

Eddie dropped them into your palm without protest, going to hold the door open for you. “Whatever you say.” He said, but he didn’t sound convinced. The two of you sat in silence for a moment while you both got situated in your seats, and you started the car up before he spoke again. “I will say that was one of your more badass moments though.” 

You shook your head, sending him a small smile. He was right after all. It wasn’t often that you spoke up like that. The problem was, after a moment like that, you should feel proud of yourself right? 

Then why did you feel so disappointed?

[welcometohellfilm]

Congrats to everyone who has been working on W2H2! 🎉 If it's alright, I'd like to ask to ask 2 questions:

Is there by chance an official ref of colors for Debbie, or is it still up to interpretation at the moment?

Would you say that your personal, real life experiences within the 10 years moving from W2H to W2H2 shifted the tone/story of the series in some way? Something that I've always been fascinated with when I started looking more into W2H was the shift in Sock's character from the original comic -> first film -> second film, and Jonathan's character from the first film -> second film.

Thank you! ✨

I actually just made some 'official'-ish colors for Debbie! Her voice actor Kaitlyn wanted something to use on a banner for conventions haha... so here you go!

2. I'm not really sure how to answer this one, haha. I mean I've definitely changed as a person over the course of making each iteration of W2H. I started the comic while I was at community college, before I went to art school. I adapted it into an animation for my graduation project. And I started W2H2 a couple years after I graduated college. So there's a good 2-3 years between each attempt at W2H I've done, haha. I think a lot of my original ideas from the comic had to change because it needed to be condensed into a short film. I didn't even GET to Jonathan yet in the comic! Some things just didn't make sense to me anymore, like the idea of Sock already having a human body count. It'd just be absurd for him to be able to hide it for so long! Plus, if I made it so that Sock has only ever entertained the idea of murder, it makes his new job that much more appealing-- it's a chance for him to really lean in to this thing he's always had to hide. Between the first and second films though, I mean... I think there's been some tonal shift, for sure (I don't know about a character shift? We'll get to that haha) But basically, when I was first thinking about W2H2, my idea was "Sock and Jonathan hang out and attempt to figure out touch physics, also there's some drama about a journal Jonathan keeps." All of the hell stuff is something that came from bouncing ideas around with my friends, Michael and Neil. I was worried that sending Jonathan to hell would be too bonkers for a "2nd episode", but we all kinda agreed that enough time had passed that the fans would probably enjoy something higher stakes, so it would be fine. (I'll give everyone a moment to realize this conversation would've been happening in 2015-16... ha.)

We also kind of thought, y'know... I have no idea how many more of these there's even gonna' be, so why not go a little bigger with this one? W2H2 is a higher stakes story than what I set out to make in the beginning, that's for sure. It is interesting to compare all of them.. the employee handbook was actually from the comic and I cut that because it wasn't helpful for W2H... but then it became helpful for W2H2, so it came back! Haha. I'm curious to know in what ways people think the characters have changed though. (And is that a good thing or a bad thing?) Especially a character like Jonathan, no one's really even seen that much of him yet, I think most of the characterization comes from fandom, or like... art I've drawn, I guess? Haha... I'm not sure! I guess Sock's a little more confident and antagonistic in this one (though he'll have his moments of hesitation... we're only at Part 1 right now!), and Jonathan has had to become a more vocal/active character, just by nature of the kind of story it is, I suppose. But yeah, I'm not sure! Happy to hear your guys' thoughts though!

[jonnywaistcoat]

Hi Jonny, if you don't mind I have a question about the TMA TTRPG! So I noticed that on the player's guide there's this guy, who my friends and I assumed is probably Jon. If it is him, is this a canon design, or more like some of the non-canon stuff that's in the merch?

So, I hope you don't mind if i use this ask to go a bit off on one. I'm not specifically dragging you (I'm actualy glad you asked, as I've thinking about posting on the topic), but all the discussion around the RPG art and how "official" or "canon" it might be is, to my mind, slightly silly.

First up, is it "official" art? I mean, yeah, its art for the officially licenced Magnus Archives RPG. This means Monte Cook Games have commissioned someone to do a beatiful illustration broadly based on some aspect, episode or character from the podcast and it goes in the book. But that's kinda all it means. "Official" is a legal distinction, not an artistic one. The fact that it's in an official product doesn't make it any less one artist's cool interpretation of a character that has only been vaguely described in audio.

Second, is it Jonathan Sims the Archivist? I mean, it's probably based on the idea of him, but it's certainly not set in stone. When we were first discussing art with MCG, we advised that character pictures be more vibes-based and not explicitly tied to specific people (ie. a portrait inspired by Tim wouldn't be captioned "This is Tim" and wouldn't be placed opposite a profile for Tim Stoker, archival assistant.) This was mainly because we wanted the artists to have plenty of freedom to interpret and not feel too tied down by the need to know everything about the podcast. But, to be frank, it was also because we know that there are a few fans out there that are kinda Not Chill about what they've personally decided these characters look like and can get a bit defensive over depictions that differ.

It strikes me as particularly strange to be having this discussion about art that's for a roleplying game book. Something that's explicitly and solely designed to give you the ability to play in your version of the Magnus universe. The idea that this is the thing where we'd for some reason try to immutably establish unchangable appearances for these characters would be pretty funny if some folks weren't taking it so seriously. Similarly ridiculous is the idea we could reasonably have said to MCG "We'd love for you to make a huge beautiful RPG book of our setting... Just make sure you don't depict any of the iconic characters or events from it!"

But... is it "canon"? Now, to my mind, this highlights a real weakness in a lot of fandom thinking around "canon", which is that it generally has no idea what to do with adaptations. All adaptation is interpretation, and relies on taking a work and letting new creatives (and sometimes the same ones) have a different take on it. Are the appearances of the Fellowship of the Ring in the LOTR movies "canon"? How much, if at all, does that matter? Neil Gaiman's book Neverwhere was originaly a 90s BBC series made with a budget of 50 pence; is anyone who makes fanart of Mr Croup that doesn't look like the actor Hywel Bennet breaking canon? What about the novel that describes the character differently? Or the officially licenced Neverwhere comic where he looks like neither of them? Which is his "canon appearance"?

Canon is an inherently messy concept, and while it is useful for a creative team trying to keep continuity and consistency within a creative work, for thinking about anything beyond that it tends to be more hinderance than help.

Anyway, all this is to say that the above picture and all the others in the RPG are exactly as canon as every other picture you've ever seen of the Archivist.

[moosesarecute]

December 17th

December Masterlist

Masterlist

Her day had gone to exploring her home. She had been all over trying to find something that might restart her memory, but she couldn’t.

The toys she played with as a child, the kitchen she and her mother baked in and the library where she spent most of her time. None of them gave her any clues of her life before.

It gave Annette an uneasy feeling.

She felt alone and scared. The people who called themselves her family were nice enough, but she couldn’t trust them completely yet.

She and Cathrine, her mother, had been talking the entire day. She had been stroking Annette’s hair and told them about their life. She spoke about how Annette was adopted. That while it was usual for fae to struggle getting children, Cathrine and Bru just couldn’t live without a child.

When she was first born and sent to an orphanage, it didn’t take long before they found her and knew she was the one. Cathrine cried talking about it.

Her mother at least cared about her, Annette concluded with. Nothing to be worried about with her. The rest of her family had kept a bigger distance. Cathrine said it was to not overwhelm her.

When night arrived, Cathrine tucked Annette into bed. She told her to make sure she stayed worm and gave her some of her medicine. It tasted just as bad as before, but she got it down.

However, when Cathrine left, Annette didn’t feel like sleeping.

She quietly stood up from the bed and started to explore her room a little more. She looked at the books and toys and yarn, but she felt no connection to it. She found more of her stuff in boxes stored under her bed. She went through each and every one-off them, but didn’t find anything particularly interesting until the last box.

It had a backpack in it. It looked well made and sturdy. But it also looked like it had been used a lot. Maybe this was the backpack she used when she last was out on her adventures? She knew it was hers. She didn’t know why, but she just knew it.

She opened the backpack and found many bottles of red liquid and a pile of paper. She picked of the papers first. One piece of paper was folded around the others. She read it first:

Winterberry juice for memory loss. Drink as much as you can every day.

And some reading for the journey. Hope you find what you need in these letters.

Good luck,

Nick

Annette decided to drink the juice. It tasted amazing. Both sweet and tangy from the berry. She drank some of it and then picked up the rest of the pile of papers. She picked up the first one. It was covered in tearstains, but other than that it was beautiful. The handwriting was precise and carefully done. Annette started reading.

My dearest Y/N,

It’s been over three years. This is the third December without you, and it haven’t become easier.

Rhys and Cass are forcing me to go to therapy. My therapist, Jonathan, suggested I write you letters, so that’s what I’m doing.

You have missed so much, my light. Both Rhys and Cass have found their mates. Their names are Feyre and Nesta. They are sisters and used to be human, but that’s a story too long for letters. I promise I’ll explain all to you when if you come back to me. Feyre was the girl that saved all of Prythian from Amarantha. Rhys made her his High Lady and they even have a son, Nyx. And Nesta and some of her friends have become Valkyries. She and Cassian are always at each other’s throats, but they love each other. You would have loved them too, I’m sure of it.

Mor and Amren have also found their loves. Which means I’m constantly surrounded by couples.

I’m happy for them, I truly am, but I can’t help but feel like it’s a little unfair. Why do we have to be apart?

I miss you, my love. I honestly feel lost in this world without you. I’ve been counting days since you disappeared, and each day feels heavier on my heart.

The shadows also miss you. They have never been as poorly behaved as now. Some days I wake up from them screaming to get you back, other days they refuse to listen or talk to me.

All our memories together are what keeps me going, but I’m not sure how much longer I’ll last in this life without you. I need your soft smiles and warm embrace to get me through this. I know I won’t, but deep down I still have hope that I’ll be able to hold you once again. Hold you, and never let go.

I love you, Y/N. I have loved you all my life and I will keep loving you till the day my soul no longer exists.

x Your Shadow

The first thing Annette noticed was that she really wanted to know what happened to Y/N and who her shadow was. The second thing was that she felt sort of connected to the names. Rhys, Cassian, Mor and Amren felt like names she knew. Feyre and Nesta, she didn’t feel connected to, but from the way they were written about in the letters, she knew that they were kind.

Annette wasted no time picking up the next letter It was also covered in tearstains. It seemed like most of them were.

My dearest Y/N,

Jo asked me today to write about what our life would be like.

And even though I did like he asked, it only brought out painful emotions. I hate having to imagine this. I want it to be true. To be our real life.

I wanted us to buy a house. A house where we can make our own home. So that we can choose everything ourselves.

I wanted us to have a family. We never spoke about kids. Both of us knew that a war was coming and that we would need to go through a lifetime of terror before we could bring babes into this world.

I want us to fly together. Fly to work, fly to family dinner, fly as exercise, fly as fun. Flying have always been when I’ve felt the freest and I know you feel similar, but without you beside me, it feels wrong. So wrong. I have multiple times thrown up from flying without you.

I want us to be happy.

I want us to fight, and argue, and laugh, and cry, and smile. I want it all.

Please come back to me.

x Your Shadow

My dearest Y/N

I think therapy is helping a little.

I thought about you yesterday without crying. Do you remember our first dance? Not our first as a couple, but our first one ever?

Sneaking around in the woods behind Windhaven and dancing to the song from the shadows swirling around us. Our feet making the snow crunch beneath us.

If only the bond had snapped earlier or if I was just a little braver. I would have danced with you every moment I could. You deserve to be danced with you too. I’m glad we’re not longer in Windhaven. You deserved so much better than that camp.

You’re my princess. You should dance around in the ballgowns you make, but no, you always sold away the most beautiful ones.

I still dream about the blue gown you wore on your first Starfall as a couple. I wish I could see you in it again some time.

x Your Shadow

My dearest Y/N

I think the time has come. I’ve finally gone crazy. I felt you. I’m sure I did. But I couldn’t get to you. Please tell me where you are so that I can get you home. Please tell me.

Are you out there?

x Your Shadow

My dearest Y/N

Family dinner is hard without you. I always imagine you sitting besides me and it gets a little better.

Cassian spilled soup all over the floor yesterday. That’s nothing unusual, but it was all over a new carpet Feyre just bought. Feyre was about to become very angry when Nyx started laughing louder than ever before. Cassian is now Nyx’s favourite person.

I’m convinced that if Nyx knew you, you would outrank Cassian very quickly. I don’t know how much he knows about his auntie Y/N, but I know you would be the best aunt he could ever wish for. I’ll start telling him more about you when I can talk about you without crying.

x Your Shadow

My dearest Y/N

The shadows miss you too. They’ve been trying to braid my hair lately. It’s like they miss helping you with yours. I don’t think they understand that you’re gone forever. It’s like they’re in denial. It’s not that different from what I’m doing, but still, they shouldn’t have these complex feelings. I wish I would tell them that you’ll be back soon.

Sometimes the only thing they do is to scream in my head. I think they believe too that you’re out there, but I just can’t get my hopes up. Please give me or the shadows a sign and we’ll be there. I promise.

x Your Shadow

Annette was crying now. The letters were so full of grief she just wanted to hug this Shadow and tell him that everything would be alright.

She drank a little more of the winterberry juice. As she gulped it down, she felt her head grow lighter.

My dearest Y/N

It’s snowing. A lot. It’s like the sky is falling down in white. I can almost image you running around with your snow-zoomies. It’s like my entire body just expects you to sneak up behind me and dump way too much snow on me. The shadows have tried to do it, but it just isn’t the same.

Nyx spoke about the Winter Lights today. He told us that a friend from his kindergarten had painted them. I left the room before anyone continued speaking. I haven’t seen the lights since you left. It used to be such a good memory, but now it only brings pain. Our first kiss, my love. Under the Winter Lights after everyone else had gone inside. You always insisted to watch them until they had danced finished.

Maybe I’ll try to do that this year. I’ll do my best.

x Your Shadow

Imagine having your first kiss together under the Winter Lights. Annette’s heart melted at the thought. It felt right. She would love to experience that.

Annette picked up the last letter. It was filled with even more tearstains than the others. She drank the rest of the winterberry juice before she started to read.  

My dearest Y/N,

I have understood now that I must let you go.

Madja and Jonathan believe you might me out there, but I won’t survive if I get my hopes up now only for them to be crushed once more. I want to, but I just can’t. It’s too much.

My sweet, beautiful, amazing, wonderful, thoughtful mate. I love you so much and it hurts so much to have to do this, but it’s what you would have wanted.

I’m going to try to make this a good Winter Solstice. I’m going to keep our traditions alive. I’m going to make a snowfae, I’m going to have the snowball fight and I’m going to make cookies and hot chocolate to stay on the counter every second of every day. I’m going to try my absolute best to be happy. Even if you aren’t here to see it.

I don’t think I can go to see Jonathan any longer. Even though therapy has helped, I think Jonathan is wrong for me. I’ll se if I can find anyone else after Winter Solstice, but right now I need a break.

I’m also going to take a break from these letters. I might start with them again soon, but for right now, I need to put you behind me. I hope this is the best decision, but I have no idea what I’m doing.

My dearest Y/N. I will forever long for the life he had planned. I will forever sit with the feeling that half of my heart is yet to come home.

x Azriel, I’ll always be your shadow

It was his name that did it. His beautiful and kind name. The name you had grown that fond of throughout your life.

It was the name that made you smile, cry and feel safe all at once. It was a name that brought you so many emotions that you didn’t know how to act.

It was the name of your person.

Because you knew now that you aren’t Annette, 254 years old from the continent.

You are Y/N, 540 years old from Windhaven, and last but definitely not least. You are Y/N the proud mate of Azriel Shadowsinger.

Taglist: @prettylittlewrites @hailqueenconquer @onebadassunicorn @mich0731 @tele86 @mellowmusings @anarchiii @anainkandpaper @donnadiddadog @atomictyphoonkitten @annablack @graciepies @salvatoresister1 @nastylicious @plants-w0rld @stqrgirlies-blog @scoliobean

Let me know if you want to be added!

Dividers by: @issysh3ll

[louloulemons-posts]

Metal Head Cuddles

Eddie Munson X Fem!Reader

Word Count : 1.7k

Warnings : not proofread, swears, shitty parents(reader), vecna stuff did happen, petnames, it’s just a load of fluff.

~ / / / * \ \ \ ~

Meeting-hug :

Being Robins Buckleys cousin was great, moving in with her and her dad was also great. Your family wasn’t fantastic, but Robin and your uncle were.

“Are you sure it was okay for me to tag along? I could always go back and chill with Uncle Rich.”

“Come on Y/N, i know you wanna get out of it, but everyone will love you”.

“Only if you’re sure.”

“I’m 100% sure, now come on let’s go in.” You were at Robins friends, Steve, house, apparently they’d become best friends a couple years back.

Working at an ice cream shop together, you’d had a job of your own when you lived in Chicago, it had allowed you to move to Hawkins and not look back. An old music shop that was getting more and more popular by the day.

Harringtons house was nice, Robin said his parents had a good job, but weren’t around a lot. There was music and laughter as you walked into the house.

“Don’t be nervous, they’ll love you.” Robin linked your arms and you walked into the garden. “Buckley!” A voice called out as you left the house. “Harrington.”

A boy jogged up to you, floppy hair bouncing as he came. “Ah you must be Y/N, Robins said a lot about you. I’m Steve.”

“Hey, it’s nice to meet you.” He gave you a welcoming hug.

“I’ll get you guys a drink, beer?” he asked.

“Y/Ns driving,” Robin spoke.

“Lemonade?”

“Lemonades great thanks.”

“Come on let’s meet the others.” Your cousin waved over at some younger people. “Y/N, this is Dustin, Will, Mike, El, Lucas and Max.”

“It’s nice to meet you all.”

“Ahh so you’re Robins mystery cousin,” the curly haired boy said.

“The one and only,” you shrugged.

“It’s good to meet you anyways,” A red haired girl spoke, her eyes were glazed and you spotted a white cane, along with the hold she had on the boys arm beside her.

“And you guys.”

“Come on let’s meet the lovebirds.” Robin led you away to two teens who looked your age. “This is Nancy and Jonathan, guys this is my cousin Y/N.”

“Hey it’s great to meet you,” the girl spoke, standing to give you a squeeze.

“And you.”

“Where’s Munson?” Robin asked.

“Late as always,” Jonathan joked. On that note loud metal music was heard. “Speak of the devil,” Jonathan chuckled.

A few moments later a man with unruly hair came wandering in, his footsteps heavy and loud. He wore a large grin, dancing across his mouth as he took the younger curly haired boy hugged him.

The hug of a brother, Steve walked past, handing him a beer like it was a breath. He made his way over to us, handing me a cup full of lemonade and Robin her own bottle of booze.

“You been introduced to everyone?” Steve asked. “Pretty much, just not,” I motioned over to the man who was not letting out a cackle.

“Oh, hang on,” Steve paused for a second, because calling out the man’s name, “Eddie, come here man.” You heard him mutter something like, ‘Oh no already in trouble,’ to the younger kids, making them laugh.

He jogged over to us, taking a swig of his drink. “Hey guys,” he smiled, taking in everyone’s face when he finally landed on mine. His chocolate eyes met my gaze.

“Eddie this is Y/N, Robins cousin from Chicago,” Steve explained.

“Oh cool, nice to meet you,” he said, pulling you into a half hug.

You hand landed on his lower back in greeting as his kept his, respectfully on the middle of yours. “And you, Robins told me all about you guys,” I said to the group.

“Oh no, what’s she said?” Steve groaned.

“Nothing that isn’t true Dingus.”

~ / / / * \ \ \ ~

Random-Encounter Hug :

Pushing the cart through the aisle, I grabbed a couple veggies here and there, planning on making, yet another, thank you meal for Robin and my uncle.

After placing the tomato’s and peppers in the cart I looked back up, spotting a newly familiar figure. Grabbing the last few things I needed from this section I sped up, “Hey Eddie.”

The boy whirled round to look at me, “Y/N, hey, how are you?” He asked, instantly pulling me into a large hug, giving me a gentle squeeze.

“I’m good, just getting bits and pieces.”

“Same here, I’m want to make my uncle a nice meal for his birthday, but don’t tell anyone,” he leant down so he was closer to your ear, “I can’t really cook.”

Letting out a laugh, I smiled at the boy, “If you want I can help you?”

“You cook?”

“I do indeed, give me your number and we can figure out a recipe, go through everything step by step.”

“Really?”

“Sure, what does he like to eat?”

“Anything we eat out of cans a lot.”

“Does he like steak?”

“Sure.”

I motioned for him to follow me, pushing the cart and coming to a halt by the steaks and other various meat. Getting a small, cheap, but still a beautiful cut, I handed it to Eddie.

“Does he like mash potatoes?”

“Yeah.” I quickly grabbed some of them, and then some green beans. Eddie pulled a face at that, “Does he not like them?

“Oh he loves them, I do not,” his face scrunched.

“They’re not that bad I promise, cook them

in butter and seasoning.” The boy hummed, instantly trusting your words.

He stayed to help you with your own shopping, helping you take the bags to your car, holding his own. “Thank you for the help,” he said, “It was nice to see you again.”

“And you. Remember call me when you’re cooking, I’ll talk you through it all.” The boy gave you a smile, and pulled you into a sweet hug. Arms enclosing around your body, holding you close.

~ / / / * \ \ \ ~

Exhaustion Hug :

You’d gone out for the day with Robin, Nancy, Steve, Jonathan and Eddie. Not sleeping well the night before after a screaming phone call from your mother, you were so tired.

“You okay?” Robin whispered.

“Oh yeah, just a bit sleepy. I’ll be fine.” You’d be on a long walk, wondering around shops, just having fun doing what people would consider mundane.

Eddie walked in front chatting away with Steve, Robin jumped into conversation with them, whilst Jonathan and Nancy led the group hand in hand.

Staying a few steps behind, you rubbed your eyes again. Not realising the group had stopped you bumped into Eddies back. “Shit sorry Eds.”

Turning to look at you, he smiled softly at your sleepy state. “It’s okay, you good?”

“Yeah just tired.” He nodded, humming, “Well we can’t have that can we.”

He turned back around and got low, “Hop on,” he said simply.

“What?”

“Get on my back.”

“Eddie no-“

“Y/N,” he said turning his face to you, “Please.” Well you couldn’t say no to that.

Wrapping your legs around his waist and your arms around his neck, Eddie stood, holding underneath your thighs. “Comfy?”

“Mhm.” My face rested on his shoulder.

“Come on then, let go,” he walked with ease, as if he wasn’t carrying an extra weight. I felt so comfortable there, with him holding me, that my face nuzzled into his neck, breathing him in.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Anything for you.”

…

“Oh he’s so into her,” Steve said, watching the boy carry the sleepy girl. “Him into her? You don’t understand how much she talks about him. I swear Eddie coming today is the only reason she’s here,” Robin laughed.

~ / / / * \ \ \ ~

Recharging Cuddles :

You don’t really know how it happened, but it was natural as anything. You and Eddie started dating, much to his Uncle Wayne’s joy.

Stood in the small kitchen in their new trailer, you were cooking a breakfast for Eddie and yourself, Wayne had already headed out for the day.

Feeling arms come around your waist and a face nuzzle into your neck, his curls tickled in their sleepy state. “Where did you go?” He said, voice laced with sleep.

“Making us breakfast Eds.”

“You weren’t there when I woke up.”

“Sorry baby, I just wanted to make you something.”

“You’re too sweet,” he spoke, placing a sweet kiss under your ear. “It’s almost ready, why don’t you sit at the table?”

He whined, “Wanna stay with you.”

“Okay sleepy boy,” With a free hand you rubbed his own that connected around your waist.

“Thank you.”

“Never have to thank me baby.” The boy remained attached to you the rest of the time you cooked, sliding you onto his lap as you ate.

~ / / / * \ \ \ ~

Reunion hugs :

It had been two whole weeks since you’d seen Eddie, yourself, Robin and your uncle had been on vacation. Not even thinking about unpacking you jumped in your car and drove over to Eddies.

The trailer park was hit with sun, bright days becoming more common, the people of Hawkins soaking in the rays.

That was including your favourite boy, of course wearing jeans, black and ripped and a tank top. Some of his scars were on display but the large ones that covered his torso were hidden by the material.

Parking up, you climbed out of the car with ease. “Hey you,” you called as you walked over to him. “Oh my god”, he laughed, pushing off the stairs of the trailer and running to you.

Without a second thought your feet were off the ground, arms around his neck, he lifted you up and held you close. “I missed you so fucking much.” Hands going to his hair, you giggled, “I missed you too baby.”

“Never go away again,” he mumbled into your neck.

“Where’s my hug miss?” you heard another voice speak. “Wayne,” I smiled Eddie let me hop down from his hold and walk over to the older man. He took he in his arms and gave me a squeeze.

“Thank goodness you’re back, I couldn’t deal with anymore moping from this boy,” he motioned to Eddie. “Wayne,” he whined, wrapping his arm around your shoulder, pulling your back to his chest.

“But seriously never leave me again.”

“Don’t plan on it.” He kissed the top of your head, holding you tighter.

~ / / / * \ \ \ ~

A/N : well hello it’s been a while, life’s been kinda crazy lately, so writings been the last thing on my mind. Hopefully I’ll be back to it soon, but I’m not gonna push myself, hope you guys understand.

All the love 🤍

- Lou

[hippiegoth97]

Thriller: Eddie Munson x Reader

Collage by me :)

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Description: You and the entire gang are having a horror movie marathon on Halloween night at Steve's house. You cuddle up in a blanket with your close friend Eddie, and he holds you close whenever you get scared. There's tension building between the two of you, but you’ve always assumed that your feelings aren't reciprocated. But once everyone else has passed out, you two can't seem to get to sleep. You go outside to talk, which leads to an interesting interaction...

Content Warning 18+ Only, Minors DNI: smut, female reader, swearing, smoking, crying, mentions of death/violence/blood/scars/coma, fluff, fingering, unprotected sex, shame/embarrassment, friends to lovers

Word Count: 8.1k

Divider by @strangergraphics

Thriller

It's Halloween night, and you've got plans to attend a scary movie marathon at your friend Steve Harrington's house. He still lives with his parents, despite the fact he graduated a couple years ago. You'd graduated yourself just a few months back along with Nancy, Robin, Jonathan, Argyle, and Eddie, who just barely squeaked by thanks to you tutoring him. You've all been very close for a while now, and tonight is sure to be a blast.

The younger kids of the group are also attending, they’re getting a little long in the tooth for trick-or-treating. Plus, they love hanging out with you and the others. You’re like one giant family, you all know basically everything there is to know about one another. You'd been through a lot these last few years in Hawkins. From Will going missing, to evil Russians, to Vecna trying to take over the world. It’s a miracle you've all managed to survive, but there were many close calls.

Luckily though, with everyone working together, you successfully destroyed Vecna before he could take that fourth and final life he needed to bring the upside down into the real world. Eddie was in a rough spot, accused of killing all those kids. You stayed with him in hiding, comforting him when he had nightmares about Chrissy dying before his eyes. You two in particular became extremely close, you did everything in your power to make him feel better. You played games with him, brought over a Walkman for him to listen to metal music to calm him down. And in return he would talk to you about anything and everything, and you were more than happy to listen.

You'd gone into the upside down with Eddie and Dustin during that final fight, and when you saw him play his guitar to distract the demobats, it was like a fire had been ignited inside of you. He looked so badass, and you realized all that time spent together was making you fall hard for him. You never said so, even when he almost bled to death after being swarmed by the bats. But you helped Dustin pull him out of the upside down, rushing him to a hospital. He was temporarily arrested, cuffed to his hospital bed as he lay unconscious. You found it a bit ridiculous to restrain a man in a coma like that, but you understood the cops had to complete their investigation.

You read The Hobbit to Eddie as he slept, waiting for the day he would finally wake up. You wore his bandana around your arm, wanting to hold a part of him close to you at all times. It had a few drops of blood on it, but you didn't care. The others had come to visit a few times, especially Dustin and Eddie’s uncle Wayne. They'd tried many times to get you to go home or to school, but you couldn't bring yourself to leave Eddie's bedside. Robin brought you your homework assignments, and your mom was gracious enough to bring you changes of clothes as you refused to leave the hospital. You could barely force yourself to go to the bathroom or get some food, you wanted to be there 24/7 on the off chance Eddie woke up. You didn't want him to be alone, you wanted him to know you were there for him no matter what.

During Eddie's slumber, Jason had been found raving mad about Lucas trying to sacrifice Max, screaming about cults and devils. The police had determined Jason had a psychotic break, spurred on by jealousy of catching Chrissy buying drugs from Eddie. They assumed this led to a full-on rampage, and he killed Chrissy, Fred, and Patrick, and attempted to kill Max. The lot of you corroborated the story, since Jason most definitely meant to kill Lucas, and you had to do what you could to save Eddie. There was no way the police would believe stories of alternate dimensions and telekinesis, so you fed them what they wanted to hear. 

One day, an officer came to take the cuffs off while you were at Eddie's bedside, and the strangest thing happened. As soon as his name was cleared, Eddie's eyes fluttered open. After a week of no words or movement, he finally opened his eyes and croaked out a single word. "Y/N?" He said as he looked at you. You'd been busy working on your homework for the evening, only acknowledging the cop coming to let him free for a moment. But the second you heard his voice say your name, your head shot up to look at him. "Where am I?" He asked, blinking hard at the harsh lights.

"Oh my god! Eddie, you're awake!" You rushed to his side, taking his hand. "I can't believe it, you're actually awake!" You started crying tears of joy, you'd been told by the doctors there was a chance he'd never come back to you. But he did, and you couldn't be happier.

"I was having the strangest dream-" He kept trying to talk, but it seemed to be hurting him. You put a finger over his lips to still them.

"Don't talk, Eds. Let me go make a call." You ran out of the room, getting the doctor and locating the phone. You dialed Wayne at his hotel, and he said he'd be right over. You went back to the room, picking up the walkie-talkie Dustin had left for you to use in this exact scenario. "Code red, guys. Eddie's awake, code red. Get over here now." You said over the walkie, hoping someone was in range of you.

"Holy shit, what?" It was Dustin, sounding utterly shocked.

"Eddie's awake! Get the others, bring them here!" You shouted, utterly ecstatic. You set it down on a chair, forgetting to switch it off. You heard multiple members of your group chattering to each other, audibly excited to rush over to the hospital. You sat back at his bedside, smiling at him. "Everyone's on their way, okay? Wayne, and all the kids. I'm so glad you're back with us, Eds." You couldn't stop the tears streaming down your cheeks, you really hoped you weren't dreaming. The doctor came into the room, adjusting Eddie's treatment now that he was conscious. He checked his vitals, asking some basic questions to check for brain damage. When Eddie was in the clear, the doctor told you he could go home the next day. They wanted to keep him another night just in case something else came up.

"How'd I end up here, Y/N?" Eddie asked once the doctor left. He seemed to remember everything up until you and Dustin dragged him through the gate. You explained what he'd missed, holding his pale hand in yours as you spoke. He listened intently, oddly taking the news of him being comatose for a week rather well. "They're not still looking for me, are they?" He looked so scared when he asked you that, eyes wide and voice trembling.

"No, Eds. You're clear now, they've taken Jason instead. They think he went crazy with jealousy after catching you with Chrissy." He cringed at hearing her name, and you quickly apologized. "Sorry, I'm just trying to let you know now before someone else bombards you later. He nodded in understanding, squeezing your hand.

"Did you stay here with me this whole time? I swear I could hear you reading to me. The Hobbit, right? Or did I dream that?" His line of questions was eerie to you. Sure, you'd heard somewhere that coma patients can feel and hear people in the room with them, but you always thought that was made up to comfort their loved ones. He noticed your face turning into one of shock, sitting up in bed to look at you sincerely. "Thank you, Y/N. You've been so kind to me through all this, I don't know how I'll ever repay you for that." He spoke quietly, keeping intense eye contact with you. He leaned forward, kissing your forehead.

"Don't sweat it, Eddie. It's what friends do." You replied awkwardly, in absolute amazement as his plush lips sent a wave of heat through your body. You figured he meant it platonically, but you wished it meant so much more. You wanted him to love you, to be with you. But you figured he didn't feel that way, and there was nothing you could do about it.

Little did you know, Eddie had developed some deep feelings of his own. From the moment you agreed to keep him company as he hid from the authorities, he knew you were something special. You made him smile, and comforted him when Chrissy's corpse came to haunt him in his dreams. You brought him his tapes, and played silly games. And above all else, you listened to him. Hardly anyone ever did that, even his closest friends didn't really listen. You'd never been super close before this crazy Vecna bullshit kicked off, but you didn't hesitate to volunteer your safety to look after him so he wouldn't be alone.

You also happily marched into danger with him and Dustin to help distract Vecna's mindless drones so the others could vanquish the veiny bastard. He picked up on how mesmerized you were as he played “Master of Puppets” with all his might, your eyes almost twinkled as you observed him. He could sense you wanted to confess your liking for him, even as he lay limp in yours and Dustin's arms after getting attacked by the bats. He wished you would've, but he supposed at that moment he was on death's door. So what would the point have been? But you, staying there at the hospital the entire time until he woke up, while reading one of his favorite books? Now that was a confession of love if he'd ever seen (or in this case heard) one.

He could hear your beautiful voice calling to him through the prose he knew so well, it was like you were providing a gateway for him to return to the land of the living. He could feel your delicate fingers holding his hand, or stroking his hair while you kept him company. Your efforts were so comforting to him, gradually lulling him out of the deep, dark pit of despair he was stuck in. And it meant everything to him that you were the first thing he saw when he woke up. He also noticed you wearing his bandana, which he ended up letting you keep as a token of his appreciation.

A while later, Wayne and the others piled into the room to see Eddie. He gave everyone hugs, wincing at the pain in his abdomen from all the bites. He didn't care though, he was just so glad to have everybody there. He got the chance to meet El, which was an interesting interaction to say the least. He also got reacquainted with Will, telling him he heard many good things from the others. Argyle made an appearance as well, offering Eddie some Purple Palm Tree Delight to manage the pain of his injuries. He happily accepted, letting you hold onto it for the time being.

Hopper, Joyce, and Murray let Wayne in on all your secrets, they figured hearing the truth from well-established adults would help the news go down easier. He wasn't too pleased with finding out Eddie stupidly tried to sacrifice himself. But after a while, he realized what the alternative would've been. The next day, Eddie went to stay at the hotel with his uncle, but you checked in on him twice a day until his wounds were mild enough to return to school. You'd brought him snacks and assisted him with his bandages during these visits. You'd tried your best to not stare at his bare chest as you cleaned him up, though it proved very difficult to resist.

Eddie never said anything to you about it, but he found it extremely attractive that you were so keen on nursing him back to health. He also highly appreciated you helping him with his late assignments, ensuring he could actually graduate like he was so desperate to do this year. After you'd leave, Wayne always asked Eddie if you were his girlfriend or something, but he repeatedly denied it. Wayne would reply with 'you sure about that, kiddo?', which made Eddie blush like a fool every time.

When Eddie was healed up enough to go back to school, you were overjoyed to see him in the halls again. His wounds were beginning to scar over, one of which was forming a large mark on the left side of his jaw. He was insecure about it, thinking he really was a freak now because of it. People teased him, but you reassured him that if anything, it made him look metal as fuck. That always cheered him up, and it also made him fall harder for you every time you said it. You continued to help him during the sliver of senior year you still had to suffer through, tutoring him to ensure he could walk that stage and flip off the principal just like he wanted. And all thanks to you, he actually did it.

And now here you are, ringing the doorbell to Steve's house to hang out with your awesome band of misfits for the millionth time. "Hey, look who it is!" Steve exclaims, taking you into a tight bear hug. Everyone else has already arrived, taking their places in the living room as they await your presence. Everyone cheers as you walk into the room, slipping off your shoes and jacket.

"I saved you a spot, Y/N. Come get cozy with me." Eddie says with a grin, patting a spot next to him on the loveseat. It’s the perfect size for you two to get real close, one or both of you always call dibs on it whenever the group hangs out at the Harrington household.

"Laying it on thick today, aren't we, Munson?" Robin pipes up, ushering in a roar of laughter from everyone except you and Eddie. Instead, you just look at each other as your cheeks burn red.

"Shut it, Buckley." Eddie grumbles, and you awkwardly plop down beside him.

"Oh, come on! You two are so ridiculously into each other, it's nauseating. It's a shame you refuse to do anything about it, though." Robin retorts, having no qualms about yanking your feelings out in the open.

You scoff, trying to play it cool. "We're just friends, Robin. Lay off, will ya." You curse yourself for the tremble in your voice, it does nothing to help your case.

"Yeah, we'll believe that when pigs fly." Erica chimes in, the others quickly murmuring in agreement.

"Whatever." You roll your eyes, crossing your arms in defiance.

"Alright, alright. Reel it in, everyone. Clearly the lovebirds don't wanna be the focus of the evening. We've got much more interesting entertainment planned anyway, right?" Steve interjects, nodding knowingly at you and Eddie. He tries to divert attention to the movies he'd brought from Family Video, holding up three VHS tapes. "So, what first? I got Halloween, The Exorcist, and Friday the 13th Part 3."

"Friday the 13th Part 3? Why not the first one?" Dustin asks, confused at that particular choice.

Steve huffs, rolling his eyes. "Cuz it's the best one, duh! And you know what? Just for that, we're watching it first."

"No complaints here, getting the boring one out of the way is fine by me." Dustin says, settling in with his bowl of popcorn.

"Zip it, Henderson." Steve says as he pops the tape into the VCR. He jogs over to flick off the lights, before joining Robin on the couch. The movie starts to play, and you feel Eddie nudge your shoulder.

"Popcorn, sweetheart?" He asks, giving you an inviting look while shaking a bowl of hot popcorn in your direction. You scoop out a small handful, popping the puffed pieces into your mouth. The two of you always share a big bowl together, and it makes your skin tingle when his fingers inevitably brush against yours. You laugh it off innocently whenever it happens, but you secretly long for it to lead to something more. Eddie pulls a large blanket over your laps, warming you up just the way you like. You lift your legs up onto your seat, turning slightly to sit a little closer to him.

Over the course of the evening, you sense unbelievable tension building between you and the handsome metalhead seated beside you. You're extremely amped from the scary movies, your heart pounding inside your chest as you anticipate the next scare. You love horror movies, but you've always gotten startled by them so easily. Even when it wasn't meant to be scary, random moments set you off, which earn you a laugh from everyone else. You always cling to Eddie when you get frightened, shoving yourself into his chest. He never hesitates to bring you in closer to comfort you, and tonight is no different. His arm is wrapped around you, his fingers lightly stroking your skin to let you know it's okay.

He can't get enough of your little screams and whimpers, appreciating every little move you make to get closer to him. He wishes you wanted to be close in other ways, and he's been dreaming of making you whimper and scream for entirely different reasons. Eddie's ashamed of it, but you plague his mind to a point where he can't go a single night without jerking off to the thought of you.

Before you know it, the final film's credits are rolling, and everyone around you is either asleep or failing to fight off a yawn. Steve gets up to flick off the tv, heading up to his bedroom after saying goodnight. You and Eddie are still awake, you really don't know how you're supposed to sleep after seeing all the killers on screen, or the sizzling touches Eddie has been giving you all night. "Goodnight, guys. Happy Halloween." Nancy whispers, nuzzling against Jonathan's shoulder as she drifts off to sleep.

"Goodnight, Eddie. Happy Halloween." You whisper to him, getting into position for sleep. You both lay your heads on opposite ends of the loveseat, cuddling would just be too tempting for either of you.

"Happy Halloween, Y/N." He whispers back, laying on the outside to keep you tucked safely against the back of the little couch. You close your eyes, trying to calm your frayed nerves. You can hear others around you snoring, Argyle is particularly loud in that regard. You're finding it difficult to fall asleep, and you try everything. Counting sheep, doing math problems in your head, anything boring you can think of to knock yourself out. But as long as Eddie is lying right next to you, you can't do it. You sigh, trying not to be too loud. "Can't sleep either, huh?" Eddie says quietly, almost startling you in the silence.

"Nope, wanna sneak out back for a smoke?" You ask, sitting upright again. He mirrors you, his dark brown eyes almost glowing as the moonlight hits them through the window just right.

"Fuck it, sure." He replies, and the two of you slink off the loveseat, doing everything you can to not wake anybody up. You gather your jackets and shoes as it's pretty chilly at night, before tiptoeing your way through the sliding door to the pool deck. The heated pool gives the backyard an eerie aqua tinge, but you're not put off by it. It's the perfect ambience for such a spooky night. The moon is full as can be, with no clouds to be found in the sky. You push two of the lounge chairs flush against one another, before laying down together.

The chairs squeak a little from the cold air tightening the metal hinges, but you can't be bothered to care. You pull your smokes out of your pocket, taking two from the pack. You light them both in your mouth, before handing one off to Eddie. "Here ya go, lovebird." You joke, quoting Steve from earlier.

"Thanks." He replies with a chuckle, hastily taking a long drag as soon as he has the cig in his possession. You don't say anything for a minute, letting the term float in the air. Lovebird. "What do you think about all that, anyway?" Eddie breaks the silence, blowing out a large cloud of smoke into the stillness of the night. He looks over at you, genuinely curious as to what you'll say.

"I dunno, it's a little annoying I guess." His face falls, but you continue. "You want honesty?" You ask, biting your lip.

"Always, princess." He says lowly, resting his head on his hand as he turns to face you fully. You've got his undivided attention now, and it scares the hell outta you way more than any stupid movie could.

"W-well...if I'm being honest..." Your eyes desperately want to break away from his, but something in his expression tells you to keep going. "I wouldn't say I'm totally opposed to the idea." You manage to choke the words out, practically holding your breath as you await his reaction.

"Hm." Is all he says, taking another drag. You inhale one of your own, dreading him potentially stomping on your heart. Eddie thinks on it for a moment, drawing it out just to tease you. His eyes flick to yours again, a mischievous glint flashing inside them. "You want honesty?" He asks with a sly smirk.

"Yes." That one word is all you can force from your lips. This is it, now or never. He'll either say he likes you back, or it'll all be over. He leans in real close, catching you off guard.

"I wouldn't say I'm totally opposed to the idea." He says, and for a second you think he's mocking you. That is, until he closes that unbearable gap between you and gently presses his lips onto yours. You hum into the kiss, bringing your free hand to tangle in his unruly curls. He bites your bottom lip, causing you to gasp and let his tongue in your mouth. Moans transfer from your throat to his as he battles you for dominance. You both toss your cigarettes away, and Eddie's hands roughly pull you over to straddle his lap. He breaks away for a moment, looking up at you to see if you want to keep going. "Is this okay, Y/N?" He asks, suddenly unsure of himself. He knows for sure now that you've developed feelings for him, as he has for you. But Eddie doesn't know how fast or slow you want to take things.

"More than okay. Can I be honest again?" You say in a coy tone, batting your eyes at him flirtatiously.

"Lay it on me, darling." You've noticed he's dropping pet names like nobody's business, some he's called you before in friendly passing, and others he's never dared utter before. His hands rest at your hips respectfully, waiting for you to confess to him again.

"I've been dreaming about this for a very long time, Eddie. I like you, a lot. I might even be in love with you. But if you don't feel the same, I'm gonna stop this right now. I don't want it to be a one-time thing. I want to have you, and keep you. I want to be yours." You speak seriously, resisting the urge to grind yourself on his lap as you talk. You want to make it clear what your intentions are, and if he doesn't agree, then you can cut it short before it goes any further.

"Okay, my turn." Eddie smiles at you again, very amused at how forthcoming you are with your emotions. "I can't get you outta my head, angel. I think about you every second of every day. You've been so good to me, from hiding from the cops with me, to reading to my comatose ass in the hospital, to helping me graduate. You've been the one thing in my life that makes sense, and I wouldn't do anything to ruin that. I want exactly what you want, this is far from a one-night stand, Y/N." He squeezes your waist to emphasize his point, and you instinctively roll your hips against him.

You both groan at the simple motion, eyes fluttering closed for a moment. "Fuck." You breathe out, looking down at the amazing man beneath you. His pupils are blown out with lust, you shiver at the sight. You can feel his cock hardening under your clothed heat, and you begin to grind against him at a steady pace. Arousal gathers in your panties, you're slowly heating up despite the bite of the air outside. Eddie's hands migrate to your ass, massaging the flesh roughly. "Eddie." You moan out, lowering yourself to kiss his lips again. They're so warm and soft, like fleshy pillows.

He feverishly leads your hips to roll harder against him, pecking and tonguing your mouth with reckless abandon. Your hands travel beneath his shirt, running up his bare chest. He shivers at the touch of your cold hands, suddenly remembering all the ugly scars he's got under there. He stops moving, about to remove your hands from his body. He fucking hates these scars, they make him feel like a monster. "Stop." He says quietly, pulling you out of his shirt.

You're surprised at this, unsure what you've done to upset him. "What's wrong, baby?" You ask, worried you've hurt him or something. His eyes glisten with tears, threatening to spill down his cheeks.

"I don't like them, Y/N. They're so ugly." Eddie's voice trembles as he tries to stop himself from crying. You realize what he's referring to, and it breaks your heart to see him so distressed about it.

"Eddie, it's okay. They're not ugly, I promise. They show that you're a survivor, that you beat all the bullshit you've had to face. Okay?" You hold both sides of his face, trying to get him to understand. You stroke the scar on his jaw, he winces and tries to wriggle away. "Just let me show you. Can I do that?" You speak gently, hoping he'll let you do what you're planning to. Eddie nods, sniffling as he wipes his eyes. He's shaking now, and it's definitely not from the cold. "You're beautiful." You say simply, lowering your head again to kiss the patch on his jaw.

Eddie melts into your touch, your act of love radiating over him. You lead him to sit up, and you slip off his jackets. You pull at his shirt, and he lifts his arms for you to remove it. Once it's tossed away, you gently press his chest to push him back down. You kiss the scar on his neck, drawing a moan from him. "Y/N."

"You're handsome." You pay him another compliment, scooting yourself down a bit to kiss the next scar. "You're sexy." You go to another on the side of his ribs. "You're amazing." You kiss another on his upper chest. "You're brave." You kiss a final one on his stomach, though there are more, especially on his arms and legs. But you're hoping you've made your point by now. "You're a hero." You bring yourself level with him again, lowering one last time to kiss his lips. But before you do, you make sure to look into his eyes as you tell him the truest statement of them all. "You're my hero."

Eddie's hips buck into you, making you whine into his mouth. His arms wrap firmly around your back, holding you as close to him as he possibly can. He finds you absolutely unbelievable, you've made him feel like a whole new man with such a simple act. You accept him as he is, bat-bites and all. His tremors have disappeared, all that remains is a deep passion burning within his chest. You break away to breathe, panting heavily against each other's faces. "God, I want you so bad. I wanna make you moan, and scream, and call my name." Eddie speaks fervently, his thoughts moving too fast for his lips to keep up. His eyes stare deeply up at yours, desperation tinging their chocolate brown hue.

"I know, baby. I want that too. Just relax, we've got all night." You sit up, slipping off your jacket. You would shiver if you weren't set ablaze by this whole situation. You can't believe it, Eddie's finally reciprocating your feelings after all this time. You've waited months for this moment, unsure it would ever come at all. You tug your shirt over your head, tossing it onto the ground. Eddie's eyes stare at your tits inside your bra, his large hands snaking up from your ass to feel the swells of your chest. He presses them together, watching how pretty they look in the pale pool lighting. You reach behind your back to undo the clasp, letting your bra fall loosely from your shoulders. He gasps as your nipples harden in the cold air, taken aback by your beauty. He's always wanted to see you like this, though he wasn't sure you'd ever let him.

"You're beautiful, Y/N." He grasps your tits again, and your head falls backwards as you moan at his touch. He's so gentle with you, caressing you like he's a sculptor and you're his masterpiece. He sits upright, holding your bare back with one hand while massaging your breast with the other. His mouth trails fiery kisses from your neck, to the valley between your tits, before swirling his tongue around your nipple.

"Fuck, Eddie." You wrap your arms over his shoulders, holding him close as he works you over. You continue rocking your hips against him, getting just barely enough friction as his erection rubs your moistening folds through your tight jeans. He takes your sensitive bud into his mouth, carefully biting down to make you whine for him. Eddie switches sides, giving your other breast an equal amount of attention. He wants to take his time, worship you like the goddess he thinks you are. "C'mere baby." You pant, pulling his head up to kiss him again. You love kissing him, he's very good at it. And the taste of tobacco and popcorn on his tongue is highly addictive. While your mouths move languidly against one another, you start fiddling with his belt to undo it. He lets you struggle for a moment, before moving your hands to take over. He opens it with ease, allowing you access again. You reach for him, unzipping his jeans. You slip your hand inside to feel his stiff cock under his boxers, causing him to groan against your lips.

You pump his length in your palm gently, going real slow to draw more noises from Eddie's mouth. You break away from the kiss, resting your forehead against his. Eddie takes this as his cue to reach down to the button of your pants, unzipping them with ease. He reaches in, feeling your slick folds with his fingers. You moan at his touch, breath hitching at how cold his hand is. "You're so wet, sweetheart." He speaks softly, trying to be careful with you. He rubs his fingers around your clit, and your free hand clutches his shoulder to stay upright. The two of you sit here like this, tenderly preparing each other for the one thing you've both wanted for so long.

Usually you prefer sex to be rough and fast and dirty, but with Eddie you want it to be slow and sensual. You love him, and you want to show him just how much. He appears to be on the same page, gently pushing his digits into your soaked pussy. Every touch is amplified by the deep feelings you share, revving you up at a contented pace. "I want you to make love to me, Eddie. Please?" You look deep into his eyes as you speak, breath fanning over his face. You almost feel silly for how desperate you potentially sound, but he doesn't acknowledge it if you do.

"Of course, angel. Can you lay down for me?" He replies, eager to give you anything you want. You move off of his lap, back into your own chair. You kick off your shoes, pulling your pants off too. You're on full display for him, and it distracts him for a moment as he takes off the rest of his own clothes. "You're so beautiful, Y/N." You blush at his compliment, tempted to cover yourself up. But his eyes tell you everything is okay, that you're safe with him. He sheds his final layers, and you take your turn to admire his naked form. He's the most handsome man you've ever seen, scars and all. You can still see remnants of his tattoos, and you love how perfectly his curly hair lays at his shoulders. "What?" He asks, thinking something's wrong as you stare at him.

"You're gorgeous, Eddie." He smiles at your words, hiding behind his hair as he blushes like mad. He may not fully believe it himself, but hearing you say how attractive he is makes his heart flutter. Your eyes travel down, landing on his dick. You don't mean to gawk, but you've always wanted to see it, to touch it, feel it inside you. You break your trance when he chuckles at you, he's never seen a girl be so hypnotized by him before. You lie all the way down in the lounger, shivering at the cold plastic. He positions himself over you, gingerly spreading your legs and propping up your knees.

He admires your cunt, looking at the arousal glistening on it in the moonlight. He peers down at you, caressing your face with his large hand. "You have no idea how long I've wanted this, princess." His expression changes for a moment, like he's realized something important. "Shit, I don't have a condom, baby." He says, annoyed with himself for being so unprepared. He doubts you'll want to sleep with him now. But you just smile up at him, stroking his arm.

"It's okay, Eddie. I'm on the pill." You say simply, and his frown quickly turns into a grin. He lowers his head to kiss your lips, thanking you for saving the day, so to speak. He grips his cock in his hand, teasingly rubbing the head against your clit. You both moan at the sensation, more turned on than ever. You're simmering inside, feeling a familiar knot slowly tangling itself in your belly.

He breaks away, looking down at you to ask one more question. "Are you ready, baby?" He stutters through his words, savoring the sensation of your warm juices lubing him up.

You place your arms on his shoulders, preparing yourself for him to enter you. "Yes, I'm ready." You nod at him, and you both look between your bodies to observe as he slowly pushes himself into you. "Oh, god." You moan as he fills you up, he's the perfect size for you. He hisses at how tightly your walls are hugging him, taking his time before bottoming out. He kisses you again, keeping himself occupied until you're ready for him to start thrusting. Once you're fully relaxed, you wrap your legs around his torso to signal him to move.

He slowly pulls out, before slipping back in. "You're so perfect, darling." He groans, repeating his actions. He loves the little noises he's drawing from you, watching your mouth fall open helplessly.

"Go faster, baby. I need you." You whine, digging your nails into his back. He does as you ask, increasing the pace to hit your g spot just right with every stroke. "Fuck, you feel so good." You confess to him, pleasure thrumming through you as he moves. His hands grip your hips firmly, trying his best not to bruise you.

"So do you, sweetheart." He replies, maintaining his current speed as he wants to enjoy every last second of this with you. He begins kissing your neck, worrying the flesh between his teeth to give you a hickey. He wants everyone to know you've chosen him, just as he's picked you. The combined sensation of him pumping inside you and his amazing mouth makes your head spin, pushing you closer and closer to release. His own orgasm is building up rather quickly as well, the pleasant sting of your nails scratching his skin is driving him mad. It's taking everything in him to not hammer into you mercilessly, though he'd happily do it if you asked him to. It's the ultimate exercise in self-control, holding back for the purpose of showing you just how much he loves you.

The knot winds tighter with every stroke of his cock against your sweet spot, an endless stream of whimpers and moans leaving your lips. "I'm getting close, Eds. Please, go faster, harder. Make me scream your name." You beg him, wanting to lose control underneath him so badly.

"Anything for you, sweetheart." He says darkly, biting your earlobe between his teeth. He grabs your legs, bending them over your torso. He lets them hook at the knees over his shoulders, looking in your eyes with a different energy now. It's carnal, animalistic. "Is this alright?" He asks, waiting for you to give the go ahead.

"Yes, please just fuck me. I know you want to." You plead with him, wanting him to unleash himself onto you. Pure lust flashes across your face, signaling to him just how much you want this. Without another moment's hesitation, he pulls out almost all the way before ramming into you. "Fuck!" You cry out, moaning even louder as he hammers himself into your pussy. He grasps your thighs roughly, not holding back anymore so he can make you cum.

The sound of skin slapping and your vulgar noises fill the autumn air, hopefully not loud enough for someone to hear you from inside the house. Your hands grip the sides of the lounge chair to the point where your knuckles have turned white, the knot is threatening to snap any second now. Your walls flutter around Eddie's dick, he can feel you nearing the end. He's not far behind you, you've been so perfectly snug around him. "I'm right there with you, baby. Come on, scream for me. Let everyone know how much you love me." His words push you closer, and he seals your fate when he starts rubbing your clit with the perfect amount of pressure.

"Oh, fuck. Oh, God! EDDIE!" You scream so loud, you're sure someone will call the cops or something. Your legs shake violently, the knot bursting into splintering threads that shoot through your insides. Your cunt clamps down onto Eddie's dick, pulsating as the waves of pleasure wash over you.

"Fuck, Y/N." He moans, though much quieter than you. You feel his load empty into you, so warm and sticky. His hips buck uncontrollably a few times, stringing your orgasm along a little longer. Eddie's eyes screw shut as his bliss rides through him, waiting for it to subside before stilling inside you. He collapses onto you, his skin sticking to yours as sweat blooms over your bodies. You're both breathing heavily, hearts pounding in the aftershocks.

You're getting a little uncomfortable with your legs still bent over yourself, you tap Eddie on the shoulder. "Hey, Eds? Can you maybe pull out and put my legs back?" You ask, not wanting to rush him.

"Oh, shit. Yeah, sorry." He chuckles, slowly slipping himself out of you. He helps you put your legs back down, noticing you wincing as your joints are a bit sore. He gathers your clothes, putting them next to you on your chair before dressing himself. You stand up, legs feeling like jelly. You walk over to the pool, dipping a hand into the heated water. "Whatcha doin' over there? It's a bit cold for a swim." You're not very steady on your feet, and he hopes you don't fall in.

"I'm just trying to wipe our cum off of me. It's not exactly comfortable to sleep in, ya know." You reply with a giggle, and he nods in understanding. He watches as you awkwardly position yourself to crouch at the end of the pool, carefully cleaning up the mess between your legs. He chuckles at the sight, you look like a crab in your position. You turn your head to scowl at him, though you know you probably look ridiculous.

"Sorry, love. You just look really cute like that." He says as he meets your gaze, zipping up his jeans. You finish cleaning yourself, going back over to your chair to cover up. It's fucking freezing now, especially with your sweat turning cold. Eddie sees you shiver, pulling his shirt over his head. He walks over to help you out, dressing you quickly so you can both go inside and warm up. You don't bother to put your jackets back on, holding them in your arms along with your shoes so you can sneak back into the house.

"Shit it's cold out there, I hope we don't get sick." You whisper to him, maneuvering carefully around everyone's sleeping bodies.

"I'm sure we'll live, we've been through much worse." He replies, squeezing your hand. You return your things to the area by the front door, tiptoeing over to the loveseat. You're still feeling very cold, but Eddie's quick to lie down and take you into his arms to cuddle. His flesh feels like ice, but you two quickly generate heat once you're flush against each other and he pulls the blanket over you.

You're nice and warm again in no time, and you feel safe in Eddie's embrace. You sigh blissfully, pushing yourself backwards into him to get even closer. You can't believe how amazing this night has been, you stretch your head down to kiss his hand. "I love you, Eddie. I'm so happy that I finally get to be yours." You speak softly, wanting him to hear you without waking anyone up.

"I love you too, Y/N. Tonight was perfect. I can't wait to show you how much you mean to me, every single day." He plants a gentle kiss on the back of your neck, keeping you firmly in his grasp. You close your eyes, shuffling one last time to get as comfortable as possible. And before you can say another word, you're lost in a deep, dreamless slumber.

The next morning, you're abruptly woken up by someone yanking the blanket off of you. You think at first it may be Eddie messing with you, but he's still pressed against the back of the couch, arms wrapped around you just like last night. You groan, refusing to open your eyes. Instead, you roll over to lay your leg on top of Eddie's, snuggling your head against his chest. He senses your movements, adjusting to hold you better in this position. He kisses your forehead out of instinct, still half-asleep. "I knew it!" You hear Robin shout, and the others let out various sounds of feigned shock.

You grumble again, dreading the oncoming interrogation. Eddie chuckles lowly, nudging you with his head. "I think we've been found out, angel." He says, opening his eyes to look at you. You sense his gaze, doing the same. He smiles kindly, stroking your face. "Hey there, beautiful. Let's get this over with, hm? They're just our dumbass friends." His words comfort you, the annoyance melting away. You nod, and the two of you sit up together to face the onslaught.

"So, what did you crazy kids get up to last night?" Nancy asks, curious as ever. She's visibly happy for you two, she'd talked to you multiple times about how you should've been making moves on Eddie.

"I know exactly what they were doing." Steve calls, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he walks down the stairs. "I could hear the whole thing, my bedroom window has quite the view of the pool deck. That, and the glass is ridiculously thin. I won't give away all the details. I'd much rather bleach my eyeballs than relive that. But I will say, Y/N  is quite a screamer." He joins the group as he finishes talking, your late-night activities had disturbed his sleep. It’s only fair he calls you out on it.

"Oh my god, Steve!" You screech at him, covering your reddening face in embarrassment. Everyone except the man sitting at your side laughs at you, furthering your humiliation. Eddie rubs your shoulder with his hand, whispering in your ear that it's okay and they're just giving you shit.

"You're cleaning those lounge chairs, by the way." Steve continues, scrunching his nose at the thought of what you two used them for.

"Oh, please. You don't even clean those, Harrington. And we all know damn well that you have used them way more than anyone else." Jonathan retorts, feeling a little bad that everyone has ganged up on you and Eddie.

"I fail to see what the problem is here, my dudes. All I see is two radical people in love, and that's beautiful, man!" Argyle chimes in, trying to go to bat for your honor. Him and Eddie have bonded over their shared love for weed, and they've also shown each other the ways of their particular musical tastes.

"Thank you, Gyle." Eddie says, using the sweet nickname he came up with for his favorite stoner.

"No worries, my man." Argyle replies with a laugh, coming over to give him a high five. "And I gotta say, you couldn't have picked a more bodacious babe to love, buddy. You talked her up at every occasion possible, I figured it was only a matter of time." He laughs again, walking out back to enjoy his daily wake 'n bake.

"Okay, okay. In all seriousness, though? We're all so fucking happy for you guys! We've been waiting for you to finally admit your feelings, it was getting a little painful to watch. But, congratulations to you on your relationship. We love you guys, much as we like to fuck around." Robin says, her little speech brightening the overall mood of the room. Everyone murmurs and nods in agreement, smiling bigger than you've ever seen. Your heart swells, it's just insane to have this much love and adoration pouring out at once. You look to Eddie again, his face dangerously close to yours. "Well, go on and kiss already!" Robin shouts, managing to get everyone to chant.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" They say in unison, eager to see you seal the deal on your new love.

"Well, let's give 'em what they want, Eds." You say, leaning in to press your lips onto his. Everyone cheers, whooping and hollering at an obscene volume. You break apart a moment later, taking hold of each other's hands as the noise dies down. Thankfully, everyone moves on to other various activities, leaving you and Eddie alone in the living room as most of the others have gone to rustle up some food in the kitchen.

"Good morning, darling. I didn't have a chance to say that earlier." He smirks, kissing your cheek.

"Good morning. That was certainly a unique way to wake up, but I guess we've got it over with now. I was a little worried that last night was just a dream, to be honest." You giggle, reciprocating his affection by kissing his nose. You exchange a couple more kisses, quickly heating up inside again. Without realizing it, you're straddling Eddie's lap just like last night. You're not sure how you got here, but you can't stop kissing him. His tongue battles with yours, quickly winning dominance. You lightly grind against him, not wanting to go too far right now as there's so many others in the house. "I think Halloween has become my favorite holiday." You say, panting as your lips migrate to his neck to give him a hickey of his own.

"Me too, love. Me too." He replies, hands squeezing your ass as you bite his neck.

"Jesus christ! My eyes! I really do not need a repeat performance of last night, guys!" Steve yells, startling you out of your lustful lapse in judgment.

"Sorry, Harrington." You and Eddie say at the same time, bursting into uncontrollable laughter.

The end.

[yuugen-benni]

''What was the best thing someone ever said to you ?''

gn!writing

'You're amazing.' ''That was the line, it seems so simple, right?…Y/n said that to me several times when we were stupid kids in love. They were afraid to say 'I love you' so, instead, saying 'You're amazing' was actually a way of saying 'I'm surprised at how much I love you'….How did I know it was that ? You cannot hide love, it is almost impossible, unfortunately. Our whole being say it for us.'' - Josuke Higashikata, Bruno Bucciarati, Oda Sakunosuke, Bram Stoker

'I knew you would come back.' ''At first I was like 'Am I so predictable? or do they just know me really well?', and then I realized it was a stupid statement; of course I would come back, I have no doubts, no reason to run away and I hope I never will…[Raise an eyebrow] If my insecurities went away after these thoughts ? Oh, Does it really matter? I'm fine....a lot better'' - Abbacchio, Rohan Kishibe, Jouno Saigiku, Ayatsuji Yukito,

''Why is this even on the questionnaire? [Sighs]… Someone once said 'You should smile more, you really make me feel carefree when you do', honestly if they had just said the first sentence I wouldn't feel a thing but they added their own feelings and it was not just a ''kindness'' you do to a random person...Who was the person ? I'm sure there's no such question on the paper'' - Jotaro, Pannacota Fugo, Fukuzawa Yukichi, Lucy Montgomery

''You are recording? Oh, Okay...Y/n one day told me I looked like a character from a fantasy movie! It was oddly endearing, but I didn't question them, although I can assume they see something they admire in me…What exactly? That's a question for them'' - Young!Joseph, Noriaki Kakyoin, Giorno Giovanna, Atsushi Nakajima, Nikolai Gogol

'You're beautiful' "Yeah, yeah, I get it. People always say stuff like this, but you feel me ? It's the little things that can totally brighten someone's day and It seriously made my day! And, not gonna lie, I know I'm good looking, but hey, a little reminder never hurts, right ?" - Guido Mista, Jean P. Polnareff, Edogawa Ranpo, Osamu Dazai

''I remember one night when Y/n called me, out of the blue, saying they wanted me to wish them a 'good night' because my voice was 'the peace they could find to sleep in'. They seemed sad, tired, so I didn't refuse the request…and also why would I refuse ? They are sweet people...What ? If I cried ?...[Looks away with an embarrassed sigh] shut up...'' - Avdol, Koichi Hirose, Jonathan Joestar, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Chuuya Nakahara, Tetchou Suehiro

[livwritesstuff]

Tommy POV, wc: 2890, full version on ao3

Tommy Hagan is not jealous of Eddie Munson.

He’s not.

There’s nothing to be jealous of, in his opinion, and Tommy probably wouldn’t be thinking about him at all if Eddie wasn’t the most publicly well known member of his graduating class – well, he hadn’t actually been in his graduating class, Tommy supposes.

They had been seniors at the same time, though.

If Tommy happened to be jealous of anything – and that’s a big if – it would probably have something to do with the famous thing. Everyone has a small part of them that wants to be famous at least in some capacity, he’s pretty sure, even if Eddie isn’t really, truly famous – not like the red carpet celebrities. He’s a writer. Even the most well known writers never get all that much attention, but Munson has his own Wikipedia page, and that’s more than anybody else from Hawkins, Indiana can say. Hawkins itself barely even has a Wikipedia page, and it’s only because of all the atrocities that happened in town in the mid-eighties.

Tommy hadn’t been around for the end of it all – the earthquake-slash-serial killer situation that never made any sense to him. He remembers his mom calling him at his college dorm when the deaths first started. He remembers her asking, “You went to school with that Munson boy, right? Do you think he could do something like this?”

And Tommy had been twenty and a total moron, so he’d said some dumb shit like, “Yeah, he’s into freaky stuff like that. Somebody should’ve put him on a list ages ago,” even though four years of experience told him that Eddie was all bark, no bite. Tommy hadn’t been surprised at all by the statements that later came out clearing Eddie's name, and by then his parents had already high-tailed it out of Hawkins so it all sort of became irrelevant to him.

Tommy never even returned to Hawkins one single time after he left for college (barring his high school reunion, obviously), and twenty years after graduation, he doesn’t really think about those years all that much.

He doesn’t love the person he’d been in high school. He was whiny and immature and had his priorities all messed up. Most of the memories he has of his teenage years, he looks back at and cringes, feels a whole lot of shame and embarrassment, but also some pride at how much he’s grown over the last twenty years. He also knows he’d been kind of a dick in high school, but that he’s less ashamed of. It’s normal, he knows, for kids to be mean, that it’s a standard response to being untreated kindly in other ways. Like, his dad had been an asshole to him as a kid, always on him about his grades and his smart mouth and how he’d no longer been a standout on any of his sports teams after starting high school, and Tommy had coped with that by poking kids beneath him at school. 

It’s just the pecking order of high school. It’s normal.

Even now, when Tommy’s son had dealt with some pricks in the year above him shoving him around, he had come home from school and tormented his little sister for a while – it’s normal, no matter how much his wife had tried to convince him it was something that needed addressing. It’s just kids being kids. They grow out of it eventually, just like Tommy had.

Occasionally he wonders where the kids he’d spent all those years with in the Hawkins public school system had ended up, but these days the internet makes that pretty damn easy to figure out.

He’s learned Tina got married and had kids real young. She still lives in Indiana. Carol, who he’d split up with before heading off to college, lives in Alabama now and she’s got kids and a husband too. Jonathan Byers is a photographer in California – Tommy isn’t into all that art-y crap, so he has no clue if he’s any good, but he definitely recognizes some of the organizations he’s worked for and if that’s any indication, Tommy would wager he’s not too shabby. No wife, though, he noted, so he’d either been right about Byer’s being a queer, or women just found him repulsive (admittedly, Tommy leans more towards the former – he’s a photographer). Tammy Thompson still lives in Tennessee, though it doesn’t seem like she does music anymore (husband, kids, blah blah blah). 

If he’s honest, the only person Tommy is actually interested in tracking down is Steve Harrington, and he’s the one person Tommy can’t find a single trace of online. No MySpace, no Facebook, no weird blog thing, nothing.

Vaguely, he wonders if Steve might be dead. A truly massive proportion of Hawkins had died over just a few short years in the mid-eighties. Maybe Harrington was one of them.

Tommy doubts it. 

He would have known. 

Steve’s parents would have made sure everyone knew if their son had died. Funnily enough, Steve’s mom is actually on Facebook, and pretty actively too, but there’s no sign of Steve anywhere on her page. 

He hadn’t even shown up for their high school reunion in the winter of ‘04, which is odd because Tommy had been certain he would.

He doesn’t obsess over it – he really doesn’t. It’s just a thought that pops into his mind every now and then – where the hell is Steve Harrington?

In the late spring of 2007, he gets his answer.

“Tom,” his wife says, “That guy from your high school is on the cover of this magazine.”

He knows without asking for clarity that it’s Munson – no other person makes sense – and when he eventually gets his hands on the magazine, he finds that he’s correct.

Eddie Munson is on the cover of a magazine because, apparently, he published another book. 

Truthfully, Tommy already knew that. 

It’s his fourth book (which, for the record, Tommy hadn’t known until he knew it because it’s not like he’s keeping tabs on this guy or whatever), and it’s been getting a whole bunch of mainstream attention after a controversial landing on the top of all those book charts Tommy doesn’t follow despite featuring a gay love store amidst all his normal fantasy crap. It sparked a whole debate about banning books and everything (dumb, Tommy knows, because if he learned anything in business school it’s that if you really don’t want something to exist, the best thing you can do is not funnel money and attention into it). 

Tommy does, in fact, watch the news so he’d already caught wind of all this – it’s part of the reason he can’t shake the guy – and it’s why Eddie Munson is on the cover of this magazine (because, seriously, nobody gives a shit about writers until it hits the news).

He allows himself a moment to look at the cover, to look at Eddie, who apparently goes by Ed now. Tommy is loath to admit it, but he looks good. His hair is normal and he’s grown into his frame, not all long and lanky and gangly limbs like Tommy remembers from school. He looks well-fed, confident, happy.

He looks good.

Tommy thumbs through the first few pages of the magazine until he reaches Eddie’s interview, and, again, he allows himself to look over the photo of him that takes up nearly three-quarters of the first page even if he has no intention of actually reading the article itself because, again, Eddie looks good (and maybe there’s something about the scruff of facial hair along his jaw that Tommy's eye gets stuck on). Tommy’s allowed to say that men look good when it’s true – it’s 2007, as his wife likes to remind him whenever it’s convenient for her, and if she’s allowed to say that Angelina Jolie looked good in that CIA movie, then Tommy is allowed to say that Eddie Munson looks good here.

When Tommy flips to the next page, he’s met with a photo that stops him in his tracks, has his feet frozen to the floor because –

Jesus Christ, that’s Steve Harrington.

Fuck, okay, so he’s reading this fucking article.

It takes Tommy a long time to get through it, honestly. Eddie comes out in the article, which might be a big deal, might not (and he doesn't care to be enlightened, thanks). He keeps getting distracted by the pictures scattered throughout it.

The pictures of Steve, mostly.

Because, well, if Eddie Munson looks good, Steve…

Steve looks alive.

Tommy didn’t realize it until this exact moment, but Steve had existed in his head for the last two decades as the eighteen-year-old he’d been the last time they were in the same room together. It hadn’t exactly occurred to him that Steve’s been aging this whole time too, just like Tommy has.

It’s undeniable that Steve is older. 

His hair is starting to go gray at his temples (it’s the only thing that’s changed about his hair since he’s still styling it the same as he did in high school – because why mess with a good thing, Tommy supposes) and he’s got just the hint of crow's feet around his eyes when he smiles. He’s smiling in all the photos – every damn one – and it has Tommy struck by how unbelievably happy Steve seems. It’s an effect that somehow both takes years off the age Tommy knows he is and shines a light on just how good those years must have been for him. 

There’s no solo shots of him like there are for Munson – though according to the article, it's actually Harrington now – and only half the photos are in color. The rest of them – the more candid ones – are smaller and left in black-and-white. 

The one that caught Tommy’s eye first – because it was meant to, he’s pretty sure; it takes up half the page – is right in that sweet spot between staged and candid where Steve and Eddie both know that they’re being photographed even though neither of them are actually posing. Eddie is grinning at Steve in a wicked way that still feels familiar to Tommy even two decades since he’d last seen it on him (probably swaggering around the cafeteria like a total jackass – not that Tommy would know anything about that). Steve is grinning right back at him with a smile Tommy doesn’t think he’s ever seen before.

Or maybe he has, but not on this version of his face, not since Steve was as young as his oldest daughter.

Just as the author of the article said, the photos don’t show the faces of Steve’s children, either leaving them artfully out-of-focus or choosing shots where they’re turned away from the camera, but they’re still present, and it makes the whole spread almost feel like a photo album in a way, like it should be private but instead was published for the whole world to see.

Steve has three of them – kids, Tommy means. He didn’t know that Steve was a family kind of guy. It makes sense though, when he thinks about it. Steve’s parents were kind of a nightmare — present in the worst ways, and absent in the worst ways too (though it hadn’t seemed that way when Tommy was a teenager looking for a failsafe party house). He'd always felt kind of bad for the guy. Like, Tommy's dad had been a total piece of work, but they'd at least been around, and he'd stuck around long enough for them to sort out their issues at least most of the way, and these days he's a pretty kickass grandpa to Tommy's children.

Tommy wonders about Steve's parents now, wonders if they maybe came around like his own parents had, but then he remembers Mrs. Harrington's Facebook page and how there's not a damn trace of her son on there, never mind three grandchildren.

Tommy isn't sure he wants to touch that.

Steve is probably a really good dad, Tommy decides. He’d been kind of that way when they were friends — Steve used to say he wasn’t all that bright, but he always had a freaky sixth sense for reading people, for caring about them in exactly the way they needed.

There's one photo where Steve is managing to holding his youngest daughter — a tiny little baby still — and her bottle in one arm (that's a level-three dad hold, Tommy knows). The bottle is angled in a way that obscures her face, and Steve's other hand is being tugged on by another daughter, this one with a mop of curly brown hair remarkably similar to Eddie's when it was still long.

That's another thing Tommy won't let himself think about, (because he knows if did he'd start wondering if any of those kids were half-Steve).

Anyways, Tommy doesn't need glance to see that Steve wears fatherhood like a favorite sweater.

There’s something about this, about seeing these pictures, about the way Tommy is getting an answer to that question he’s had for years about where his childhood best friend has been all these years, that is making him feel like his ribcage is being split open, bones splintering and shattering as everything vulnerable inside his chest in suddenly out for display.

He probably should feel uncomfortable, right? Like, a guy he’d been seriously close to growing up — sleepovers and gym locker rooms and all that shit — had turned out to be gay. If his own son came home from school saying that his best friend came out or whatever as gay…well, again, it’s 2007, and Tommy doesn’t think his wife would allow him to denounce the friendship entirely, but there certainly wouldn’t be any sleepovers anymore. He thinks that’s pretty reasonable.  

What was the likelihood that Steve had been, like, into Tommy?

And that should be an uncomfortable notion too, and in a sense, it kind of is, but not necessarily in the way he would expect. 

He just doesn’t understand why all this feels so much like a loss because he knows that he hasn’t really lost anything – not since he got his hands on the magazine, anyways. Steve Harrington hasn’t played any sort of role in Tommy’s life since their final falling out in 1984, and as far as he’s aware, having a falling out with a close friend is pretty much a guaranteed part of growing up. His wife even experienced something similar when her own grade school best friend suddenly stopped answering calls and stopped reaching out after they’d started college – and his wife is basically the nicest person Tommy has ever known, so…it happens to even the best.

It’s just…Steve had always continued to exist in Tommy’s life in a way, even if he wasn't physically present, and maybe Tommy had figured it could be the same for Steve too, that maybe he sometimes wonders where Tommy is, wonders what he’s up to.

This article and these photos makes it pretty fucking clear that Tommy doesn’t even exist in the same galaxy as the life Steve is living.

And that’s not to mention the Eddie fucking Munson of it all.

Tommy had been kind of ignoring the Eddie of it all until he couldn’t ignore it anymore, because he doesn't care about Eddie Munson.

He'd never cared, but he'd spent years seeing the guy's face and his name everywhere, and now it feels like a sick joke, like he's the piece of Steve left in Tommy's life.

If the article is accurate (and he has no reason to believe it isn’t), Steve and Eddie have been together for longer than Tommy has even known his wife. Steve has been with Eddie for longer than Steve was ever friends with Tommy – not by a lot, but still more. That’s a long fucking time, and it’s clear as day on both of their faces that they’re just as in love with each other fourteen years in as they were on day one.

It’s not just Steve, and it’s not just Eddie, and it’s not one more than the other. It’s both of them.

There’s one photo in particular – a small black-and-white one that keeps pulling Tommy’s attention.

It’s another candid shot, taken from a bit of a distance. In it, Steve has Eddie boxed in against the counter in what has to be their kitchen. Eddie is leaning back against the edge of the granite countertop and looking at Steve with something sappy and fond on his face, and Steve’s hands are this close to grabbing Eddie’s waist as he looks at him the exact same way.

It’s shit out of a fairy tale or something, and sure, maybe someone could argue that they’re laying it on thick just for the sake of the magazine or whatever, but Tommy knows Steve Harrington and that look on his face is more real than Tommy had ever seen in all the years he'd known him.

So maybe Tommy has a reason or two (or three or four) to be jealous of Eddie Munson.

[youngstarfishphilosopher]

PLATONIC! J-SQUAD X CHILD READER (HEADCANNONS)

Warnings ⚠️: IMPLIED CHILD ABUSE, METIONS OF MURDER, ACTUAL MURDER, HYPNOTISM, THREATS, KIDNAPPING, POSSESIVE BEHAVIOR, IMPLIED USE OF FEAR TOXIN

JEROME VALESKA:

Welp, good luck, my friend

- You would be one of his hostages who he was planning to kill. Patiently waiting your turn for your fun death. You had an abusive / less than kind family member with you at the time who had forced you to go there.

- When realizing that you two two were a little family unit, he decides to amuse himself a little.

- " Hey, hey you!" He would yell at one of his goons. " Tye them up to that uhhhh. . . That spinning wheel thing. And bring the kid over to me."

- Tying your family member up, Jerome places one of three throwing daggers in your hand( crowching down if you're small) while kind of just coaching you on how to throw them.

- What a surprise for him when not only do you do it without hesitation, but with a small smile on your face.

- That's when he goes, " Alright, change of plans, I like this kid." And immediately takes you under his wing

- There is never a dull moment with this man. There are plenty of bloody and horrific ones, sure. But never dull.

- Will make you kill the rest of your family members or do it himself if you can't. You're his now, and he doesn't need anyone trying to get in the way of that or distracting you.

- Sees himself as more of a mentor figure to you rather than an actual parent. But if you do end up calling him dad, he's not complaining.

- Takes you along with him for many of his usual, murderous antics. No matter how old you are, even if you are on the much younger side. "Best to teach them young," He would say.

- Praises you a lot whenever you decided to join in on the fun and always makes either his goons or his hostages cheer for you.

-If you're more on the socially anxious side, he'll try to put you in the spotlight less often and leave your killings as just some private family bonding time.

- This man CANNOT cook. He would burn whatever place he was staying out down to the ground if he tried.

- Gives you a lot of freedom to have fun and do whatever, but don't think that means you're allowed to leave or disobey him. You're still his protégé and need to listen to what he says.

- If you are on the younger side, that list of freedoms would be much shorter.

- He would want you around his vicinity or next to him and would make some of his goons keep an eye on you if he was busy with something.

- Lots of physical affection and inside jokes from this guy.

- All in all: Getting a child wasn't something Jerome had on his bucket list. But he's not really complaining.

JERVIS TETCH:

- To say this man is obsessive is the understatement of the century

- Spots you in the crowd at one of his performances and chooses you as his willing participant

- You might as well forget your parents now, because he'll have already hypnotized them to walk into traffic or jump off a building.

- Unlike the other two, Jervis will expect for you to see him as your dad.

- Will plan extravagant teaparties with all your favorite teas and sweets. And if you're not a sweets kind of person, then he'll put out more savory stuff like sandwiches as soupes.

- Hope you like fancy outfits, because you'll be wearing a lot of them. But don't worry, he'll try to find some that you're comfortable in.

- Doesn't give you a whole lot of freedom. Especially if you're on the much younger side.

- He'll also just randomly picks you up and carry you around with him if you're small enough for him to do so.

- Will not hesitate to hypnotize you and tie you up if he feels it is necessary. So you nest behave

- Usually reads bedtime stories to you, no matter how old you are.

- In conclusion, this man is obsessive and delusional. So just sit back, relax, and let your new papa take care of you.

JONATHAN CRANE:

-Well, this is rather unexpected. He never really saw himself taking care of a child

- He met you at Arkham: His cell next to yours. And you two would talk through the walls whenever a day was especially boring.

- After a while, he warmed up rather well to you. He starts to see you more as family in a way and immediately gets you out of your cell when a breakout in the asylum starts.

- Keeps you far away from your previous family members if you have any. He wouldn't kill them the first time per-say, just . . . Scare them away.

- The second time, he would be much less merciful. They had their chance and should have listened.

- He doesn't let you get too close to him when he's working on his projects in fear of you accidently getting hurt. But if you're an older teenager, he would ask if you would like to try and face your fears.

- He wouldn't force anything, though.

- You see him more as an older brother type figure rather than a parental one.

- Agian, if you are older, he doesn't really let you participate in his antics and usually lets you stay home if he trusts you. But will just bring you along to watch if you're much younger.

- A decent cook all things considered. Not the best by any means, but at least it's not a burt piece of charcoal.

- Will sit and talk with you whenever you need it. He's a pretty good listener.

- He can also get really protective a times, no matter what age you are, and will not hesitate to fear gas somebody.

- Not the best when it comes to physical affection. But will give you some if you want it.

- Although you entering his life was unexpected. Jonathan has found himself enjoying your company a lot more than he ever thought he would. It's probably the only thing good that ever came from being trapped in arkham.