#like 4.6k

[flowercrowngods]

why must i think of prisoners Ranger!Steve and Bard!Eddie so constantly and why must they be so tender and why hhhh

Steve’s whole body is made of pain, and has been for the past few days. His feet are aching and raw from trying to keep up as they were bound to horses and dragged along. His skin is chafed and bleeding where the unforgiving rocks have managed to destroy his clothes after one too many falls, and every smallest of cuts feels like his body is nothing more than a pulsating mess. 

Worst of all, though, is the dizziness. He doesn’t know if his head is still bleeding or if the wetness he can feel running down his temple is his body’s testament to the unfamiliar heat, but it wouldn’t make a difference anyway. 

There’s only pain. And nausea. His eyes are open but he needs a second to understand what he’s seeing — and what he’s seeing is a ceiling made of sand coloured stone. Distantly, he hears a door clanging shut, but that might just as well be a memory. 

He’s going to throw up. Tough luck when you don’t even know where up is. 

A groan leaves his mouth as he tries to take a deep breath and fails miserably. Instead, he can add two broken ribs to the list of misery. 

Gods above — whichever of them are listening — he’s tired. But he fears that if he closes his eyes, he might not open them anymore for the sheer release that would bring. He can’t sleep, can’t rest, not when— 

“Easy now,” a gentle voice interrupts his less than coherent thoughts and just moments later, a tender hand is combing through his blood-crusted hair. “You shouldn’t move, my friend. There’s nowhere to move to anymore.” 

Steve frowns, his brain trying and failing to provide any information at this point. The hits to his head must have been worse than he thought if his short term memory refuses to work with him anymore. 

“We have reached Capital City,” the voice continues and Steve has to blink the fog away to make out its owner. When he does, it must show in his eyes, for the worry in Theodore Munson’s eyes makes way to the briefest of smiles before returning even stronger than before. “Do you not recall?”

Steve just stares up at him. That’s all his wrecked body and mind allow him to do right now. That’s all they want to do when gentle hands comb through his hair and chase away some of the pain. 

It is then that reality slowly comes back to him and he realises where he is. Where they are. What is at stake if they fail any more, if they decide to torture information on Elanor and William out of them — out of him. He’s not sure how much he can take. They have been held prisoner for weeks. Steve has been hurting for even longer.

Shame rises in him and he has the urge to apologise to Jim, to explain, but moving his head to the side, he sees that his old master isn’t any better off. He appears to be sleeping, his face bruised, and a teary-eyed Maxine is wiping blood away from his face with a piece of her cloak. 

Steve blinks once, twice, and takes in the man who practically raised him, watches the steady rise and fall of his chest and listens, beyond the pulsing rush of his own blood, that his lungs are not rattling. Shame makes way to satisfaction when he sees that none of their party has taken as many hits, kicks and punches as himself. His distractions have worked, then. 

That’s good. Now if only they didn’t make him so nauseous. So tired. So…

“Don’t fall asleep, Steven,” Eddie demands, and the world tilts slightly, which makes everything worse until… soft. It’s softer now. 

Eddie has moved him so his head is resting in his lap now. 

“You don’t look too good, Ranger. Sleep is dangerous in your state, no matter how badly you might need it. Give it a few hours, please.” 

A beat passes where Steve tries to process the words that are just too many. Since when does Eddie talk with him so much? 

“Lies,” he says after a while and with greater effort than should be necessary.

“Lies?” 

“I look very good. You just can’t see it under all the blood and the bruises.” He tries to crack a smile, but even the huffed breath jolts his head too much. 

Eddie does him the favour of a brief chuckle, and Steve feels better for it. Lighter. Light is good, he finds. Maybe all he has to focus on is Eddie and his hands working out the clumps of dirt and blood from his hair, maybe all he has to to is make him smile and the world will be a bit less painful. 

His world narrows down to all the ways Eddie is close to him and it does keep him occupied, but it also gets his mind wandering, the adrenaline of the past days wearing off. 

“Keep doing that and I will fall asleep,” he says after another beat of silence. Fall asleep and dream. Dream of what this could mean. Dream of smiles that make me feel lighter. 

“Keep doing what?” Eddie asks, and Steve senses a trick to just keep him talking, no matter how slurred his speech is. He needs a moment to remember what he said.

“This,” he says eventually, and Eddie only hums. Finding words is hard. He tries. And tries again. “Being gentle.” 

Another smile, and Steve wants to close his eyes to keep it there to hold on to. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, my friend.” 

“Can’t not be gentle?” He’s losing force on the consonants. The pain is getting stronger, his nerve endings more frayed and his vision blurry. This is familiar. He gives himself another quarter of an hour at most before he will lose his consciousness, no matter how hard he tries to stay here. With Eddie and his wavering smile. 

“Not with my friends, no.” 

This time it’s Steve who smiles at the word friends. He likes to be Eddie’s friend. The man, as it turns out, is admirable, he’s strong, he’s wise when he wants to be and gentle with young Maxine. He’s kind, he’s quick-witted and patient, and his hands are impossibly soft. 

“I know you said not to sleep, and I’m not normally one to deny a well-respected bard’s command, but…” He swallows. Words are hard. He’s not sure they come out as planned, but he perseveres. “I’m afraid I have to prove to you now just how stubborn the Queen’s Rangers can be.” 

Another hum from above him and Steve opens his eyes he hadn’t even noticed closing. The world is fading, but still Eddie is at its centre. 

“I’ll be here when you wake up, then, stubborn Ranger.” 

Will you smile at me still? Steve wonders. 

“Always,” Eddie says, but before Steve has time to wonder if someone else has said something, darkness has swallowed him whole.

[genderjester]

Pspsps i wrote another stsg fic

https://archiveofourown.org/works/59912908

[lalunanymph]

🤭🤭

[blasphemlm]

On Sight chapter five (NOT THE END) Cheap tricks

Just two dudes being guys in a back alley with zero consequences

[konstantya]

You (this pulp group I joined on FB) are utterly useless.

[slylock-syl]

Second 5k Poll?

So I've recently been throttled by the bot purge on Tumblr (or at least I hope it's bots, though I'm convinced it's both bots AND inactive accounts because I refuse to believe that in less than a week over a hundred people suddenly decided to leave in droves; and that I had a hundred bots following me XD)

So I'm going to see this as an opportunity to allow for a second 5k milestone poll with a different list of options should I ever reach it again! We are currently at:

Here we go again folks-

[risingsunresistance]

"why dont you ever watch twitch streams?" well last night i tried to tune into harvey's stream and it wouldnt even load an ad. so

[loudmound]

working on art therapy ch4 again (dead on the ground)

[fern-pajamabrain]

I finally cleaned up my spotify likes (lots of duplicates and stuff), and now I have only 4.2k liked songs

[invasive]

Got hit with the hardest sense of "I am known by strangers" and got so weirded out by it I tearedup WHAT THE FUCK

[waywardsalt]

general question would it be fine or stupid to post a stupid long (possible 10k words plus) fic all in one chapter

[the-dangerous-mute-lunatic]

Years of Science chapter 19 gonna be long as heck yall

[alexcabotgf]

this is such a random thought to be posting on here but it's hella sus when grown adults talk about how stranger danger isn't real and we shouldn't be teaching kids not to talk to strangers

[taketheringtolohac]

heyyyyyy so to all of my mutuals/followers. are there any of you who would be willing to look over an essay that i'm submitting to an anthology? you wouldn't have to do any editing or anything just a general answering of "how was it" and "did it make sense" and maybe a few follow up questions about the content itself. it does have to get done in the next two days but if ur willing to read and have a little chat with me i would GREATLY appreciate it. the essay is on rocky horror and the cultural and physical barriers to access if that helps/you are interested! pls dm me 😭

[katbrando]

i finished the car sex fic.. fucking finally fhdsuiofhdgjklfd it was brewing for FIVE MONTHS.. maybe now i can finally write the proposal one

[orcelito]

I finally finished scene 1 and 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 emotions

AND WITH THIS. I am finally OFFICIALLY finished with writing chapter 41. Current count is 17.5k words (lmfaoooo), so editing will take some time lol. I'm gonna take a break to eat & recharge, and then start working on tackling getting this beast finished >:))))