#like. jatp being human au works so well and it’s been living in my head for 2 years

[tangledstarlight]

apparently it gets to the last week of october and all i want to think about is being human uk and how i can turn it into an au for whoever is living in my head rn

[kissmejusttokissme]

I posted 115 times in 2022

That's 115 more posts than 2021!

86 posts created (75%)

29 posts reblogged (25%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@kissmejusttokissme

@palmviolet

@monstrousfemale

@panicsam

@grandmastattoo

I tagged 110 of my posts in 2022

Only 4% of my posts had no tags

#steddie - 32 posts

#steddie fic - 21 posts

#steddie twilight au - 20 posts

#waiting room - 18 posts

#my fics - 16 posts

#steddie ao3 - 16 posts

#eddie munson - 15 posts

#ronance - 9 posts

#anon answered - 9 posts

#steve harrington - 8 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#lads let’s just imagine robin buckley going with steve to watch one of eddie’s shows and seeing the girl that she’s had a crush on for years

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Stranger Things AUs that I keep thinking about:

Ronance High School Musical Au

Steddie Camp Rock Au

Steddie Stardew Valley Au

Scooby Squad zombie apocalypse Au

Ronance Bly Manor Au

Steddie Howls Moving Castle Au

Ronance Pride & Prejudice

Steddie JATP Au

52 notes - Posted August 20, 2022

#4

Steddie Buzzfeed Unsolved Au PT2 (PT1 Here)

Kind of obsessed with looking at it from Eddie’s point of view. The man is an age-old demon hiding in plain sight at a fucking digital entertainment company. Before joining Steve's show, his job was to make internet quizzes and low-effort viral videos along with other boring stuff behind the scenes. (I imagine him as the demon equivalent to the trio from wwdits. Like, most other demons are out there possessing little kids and ruining people’s lives and Eddie is writing quizzes to purposely give people the worse answers in their 'Which Character Am I?' quiz.) He doesn’t even try too hard to hide his demon nature. People just always write it off as something else.

Then he meets Steve Harrington and, for the first time in decades, he starts having fun. And, sure, it feels a little disingenuous to be wandering around these haunted houses acting like the ghosts aren’t real (because, you know, he can literally see every ghost they encounter) but it gets a rise out of Steve and isn’t that what demons are supposed to do? Get rises out of people. (Plus, being friends with a human gets a rise out of the other demons so it’s a win-win situation.)

So, he starts enjoying the job and seeing how far he can take it. (Which, apparently, is very far.) Suddenly, he is the co-owner of Goatman’s bridge and he’s laying on the pentagram belonging to the demon at Sallie House (which he’s pretty sure gives him some sort of claim but, then again, what does he know? Demon law is exactly as boring as it sounds and he refuses to learn anything beyond what he needs). Not to mention that he keeps getting invited into Holy Spaces and speaking to priests and it’s all starting to get him a reputation as something a lot more powerful than he actually is.

(Somewhere among the way he might start falling in love with his co-host. Though he doesn’t admit it. Even he knows that a demon-human relationship is something that only works out in CW shows and bad romance novels.)

But then Steve finds out that he’s a demon. God knows how but he starts flicking Holy Water at Eddie and reciting scripture that he’s definitely reading off of his phone. It hurts but what had Eddie expected? The guy is a paranormal investigator after all. (And that puts a horrifying thought in Eddie’s head. Does that make him a paranormal investigator as well?)

After that initial moment of panic, Steve calms down and, much to Eddie's surprise, he doesn't start looking at Eddie like he’s a monster. He’s just mad that Eddie has been skewing the results. (“It’s not a win for the sceptics IF A DEMON IS SCARING THE GHOSTS AWAY!!!”) (And yes, Eddie finally admits to himself that he’s in love with the guy because how the hell can he not be.)

They spend the next couple of hours talking about every case they’ve investigated. Eddie refuses to tell Steve which locations were actually haunted but does tell him which demons were real. After four seasons, it’s the least he can do. But then Steve starts asking about how old long Eddie's been around and they find out that him being a demon bleeds into their true crime stuff as well. Because Eddie is older than fucking dirt and he's been around for most of them. Not that he knows anything useful. (“Jack the Ripper? Oh yeah, I was in London for that whole thing. No idea who he was but the beer was good.”) Which drives Steve up the fucking walls.

Even though he'd never admit it, Eddie is scared that the revelation means that they’re going to end the show but Steve just takes it as a challenge. (And maybe Eddie lets him get some evidence now and then. Just never through the spirit box. He hates that fucking thing.)

65 notes - Posted August 25, 2022

#3

do you have any steddie fic recs?

Do I ever!!! Thank you for asking me this because there are so many fantastic fics that I need everyone to read :) (These are not listed in any particular way, I love them all equally and couldn't pick my favourite if I tried.)

The Babysitters Club by salemofficialbb [completed] I don't actually know if I read this or Sub Culture first but I know that I consider both of them my introductory fics when it comes to Steddie. This fic is a chat-based fic that focuses on the older kids and their efforts to get Steve & Eddie together. It's cute and it's fun and it's one I reread when I need to smile. It's got Ronance, it's got Jonathan/Argyle and a ship I really like but don't see a lot of, which is Vickie/Chrissy. I laughed out loud while reading this, I squealed at times, I felt lighter after finishing it. (Also, something I did not notice the first time around because I'm v dumb is that most of the time when the characters send photos in the chats, the author links to a Tumblr with the photos so you can see them. It's immersive and I love it and yeah, please read this fic if you want to smile.

sub-culture by palmviolet [completed] I know this one gets recommended all the time but there's a reason for that. This fic is just mind-blowing in every way. It's beautifully written and the author has such a grip on the characters that they might as well just start writing for the show. It had me hooked from the first chapter where Steve helps Eddie through a panic attack and I read the whole thing in one sitting and my life is better for it, I think. The author takes such care in writing the story in a way that's respectful not only to the time period (make sure you read the author's notes because I have learnt so much about 80s gay culture from this author) but also with the characters. I really feel like I'm not doing it justice but I don't want to spoil anything about it because it's just amazing. If you haven't read it, please do. It's well worth your time. [Also, while I'm here, please consider reading palmviolet's other works such as the lathe (a time loop fic that's taken years off of my life) and their who says it was simple series (I am a simp for Eddie & Max interactions and would like to see more of them.)

Camp Folktale, Summer of ‘86 by cairparavels [WIP] I'm pretty sure I rec'd this in a Waiting Room author's note because I am obsessed with it. It's a fluffy little camp councillor's au and every update has me kicking my legs and losing my mind. All the ingredients for a good soup are in this fic: Steve being uselessly in love with Eddie, Eddie being uselessly in love with Steve, the kids being little shits and trying to get them together, the kids having fleshed out little stories alongside Steve and Eddie, Ronance, Chrissy and Fred (which I didn't expect but love) and Mews II playing a pivotal role in not only Steddie's story but my happiness. The author updates incredibly regularly and every update is great so don't let the fact it's a WIP put you off. It's worth your time and a nice cheerful story if you want a break from reading a lot of angsty fics.

all my ghosts (are with me) by steve_the_hair_harrington (peter_parkerson) [completed] This is a series of three fics that focus on Steve's reaction to sleeping with Eddie for the first time. The first two don't feature Eddie as a character but rather they focus on Steve & Robin as she tries to help him through his realisation that he likes Eddie. All of the parts are very well written and the friendship between Steve & Robin is spot on. (Not to go on a tangent but I also really appreciate the way that this author writes both Robin & Eddie as autistic characters. I felt it was handled really respectfully and also showed that two people can be autistic and have different ways of presenting it, which is always really nice to see.)

I Wake Up When Everyone's Gone by beetlesandstars [completed] This one is angsty as hell and I love it. This one-shot focuses on how Steve and, to a lesser extent, Dustin deal with Eddie's death. It's not a very long read but manages to do a lot in a little amount of time and I love when stories really focus on grief. It's one of my favourite things to read about/consume. Especially when they tackle the idea that grief isn't uniform and one person's grief isn't going to be the same as another even if they're grieving the same person. And this author does that beautifully.

Who the fuck reads to you in hell? by lichtbringer (percyinpanties) [completed] Another one-shot. This fic is about Steve reading Lord of the Rings to Eddie while he's in the hospital recovering from the events of volume two. I love the snapshots of his friends while he's in the process of waking up. I love the characterisation of Steve. I love that Eddie is alive and being taken care of. I just love this fic.

Keep it Steady, Eddie by outofmygourd [completed] Another classic when it comes to Steddie fics but one that I've only recently got around to reading. This fic features Eddie working at Family Video with Robin & Steve and the slow-burn but incredibly sweet story of them falling in love. It also features Robin/Vickie and I smiled every time they were mentioned because they're so cute and I love them. Like with Sub-Culture I don't want to mention specific scenes and ruin them but there are so many amazing scenes in this fic. I really loved how the author incorporated the kids in a way that felt really natural as well as Wayne. It felt like the world was alive outside of Steve/Eddie and I just loved it. Definitely recommend this fic and also Not so Bad by the same author.

Some Cupids Kill With Dice by horrormoviebarbie [WIP] I bookmarked this fic with Lady Gaga's speech from that meme because I truly felt like it encapsulated the way I felt about it. In this fic, Steve Harrington is a single father to Dustin & Max who falls in love with his kid's English teacher, Eddie Munson. There are four chapters out right now and each of them felt like a gift from the universe. This author not only understands Steve on a cellular level but manages to create a story so amazing separate from the events of Stranger Things (I believe this is an AU in which there are no monsters) that I would not only buy it as a published book but I also want to see it made into either a TV Show or Movie.

the most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it’s you by greatunironic [completed] So I read the entirety of this fic in one sitting last night and it has changed me as a person. The characterisation of the kids as adults is perfect. The fear of rejection and the sunken cost mentality that if you leave something for too long then it's not worth touching? Killed me. The depiction of death (especially from a long-term illness) and the different types of grief that follow it took me out and put me back together again. I want to own Ed Levy's discography. I want to pin his interviews up on my wall. I want Madchen and Robin to be my best friends. I want this fic tattoed onto the back of my eyelids.

I don't know how many you wanted so I'm going to leave it there in case I've maybe gone a bit overboard. I do have more so if you'd like more, please let me know because I love talking about the amazing fics that I've read. Also, if you're reading any of these for the first time and you're enjoying them, please make sure to leave a kudos and a comment telling the author just how much you've loved them!

74 notes - Posted August 3, 2022

#2

Steddie Twilight AU ideas cause it's giving me brainrot:

Steve's parents are divorced. He spends most of the year living with his dad in Hawkins but spends summers and holidays with his mum across the country. He doesn't get on with either parent but it's easier to be around his mum because she's kind of just self-absorbed whereas his dad is overly-critical and just unpleasant to be around.

Steve misses his first go at senior year because he's roped into going travelling with his mum for a year after her latest divorce. It's not something he really wanted to do but he's nothing if he isn't a people pleaser and the chance to get away from his dad for a year was too good to pass up.

Except when he gets back to Hawkins things are... weird.

People keep going missing and turning up dead. Like, brutally dead. (Most of them drained of blood as well.) The police keep talking about animal attacks but Steve's never seen an animal pop someone's eyeballs from the inside out.

Also there's a new guy in town.

A ridiculously good-looking guy who works the night shift at the gas station but still turns up to school in the morning fresh-faced and rearing to go. A guy who, despite being a complete social outcast, is somehow joined at the hip with Steve's ex.

And Steve doesn't care about this new guy. He's just some guy. He's just... concerned about Nancy. (Especially after Robin tells him that Nancy ran away for almost a month while he was gone and then came back different.) So, yeah, he keeps bumping into Eddie and trying to get information out of him. (Like why his insanely gorgeous eyes keep. changing. colour... or how he's never tired even though Steve knows he doesn't get off work till like 6am.)

Except they just keep hanging out and Steve's concern shifts into a full-on gay crisis when he realises that 1) thinking about Eddie's eyes and rings and long soft hair isn't bro behaviour, and 2) Eddie is a vampire and he might actually be the one committing the murders

123 notes - Posted July 15, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Steddie AU: Buzzfeed Unsolved Edition (PT2 here)

Steve Harrington, a life-long believer in all things spooky, starts a silly little web series with his friend, Robin. The first season is relatively tame. Just Steve and Robin sitting in the front seat of his car, driving around Hawkins and talking about urban legends and unsolved mysteries. It's cheap to make and, hey, he's getting paid to hang out with his best friend so Steve isn't about to start complaining. But in the gap between Season 1 and Season 2, the show goes viral. Suddenly his bosses want him to go to haunted locations and try and capture evidence of the supernatural. Robin, rightly, backs the fuck out at that. Real or not, she doesn't want to mess with that sort of stuff. Not when the consequence is potentially being haunted for the rest of her life.

Enter Eddie Munson, a co-worker of Steve and Robin, who is so utterly unbothered by the supernatural that they have to put him on the project. The dynamic is perfect: the true believer and the absolute sceptic. And, as much as it surprises Steve, he actually kind of likes hanging around with Eddie. Office rumours be damned. Together they work their way through all the most haunted locations in America, collecting evidence (or as Eddie calls it *bullshit*) and not solving a single damn thing.

That is until the fourth season of the show when Steve suggests they try and perform an exorcism as the big season finale. He's bought a cursed doll on eBay and has all the equipment ready for the shoot. It's the first idea that Eddie ever shoots down and Steve can't work out why until one day he reads a fan theory that Eddie is a demon. It's an inside joke of the fandom and the accepted explanation as to why they never get any concrete evidence. And, sure, it's dumb but so is Steve sometimes, so he splashes Eddie with Holy Water the next time they're working late on set. And, well, that's the story of the first supernatural mystery that Steve Harrington ever solves.

238 notes - Posted August 23, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[edelwoodsouls]

calling out for one more try (to feel alive) - ch. 1

Adam hasn't been able to sing since he found out what his parents do for a living. Until he stumbles across the ghosts of a band who died twenty-five years ago, and the world begins to look a little brighter. But how did they die? What did they leave behind? (and why is the front man so freaking cute??)

(ghost band au, or the jatp au that possessed me last night and wouldn’t let go)

Shoutout to @exhaustedwerewolf for putting up with my yelling and giving me some brillianty angsty thoughts for later plot

Word Count: 3,071 | Also on Ao3

chapter one: wake up, wake up (if it's all you do)

Adam

It's quiet in the music room.

Just outside the door he can sense the seething mass of teenagers and noise and colour, the pantomine of a clockwork life ticking onwards. But in here it's quiet, and the world stretches out in a haze of blue and grey.

His fingers rest on the piano in front of him, slotting perfectly against the keys. A heartbeat away from making sound, falling short.

He could spend a life in this moment. Let the whole world slip away into silence. He stares at his splayed fingers, stark against the pale keys. Just play, he thinks. Shatter this moment into fragments, break free from the weights around his ankles dragging him slowly to the bottom of the blue.

Just play.

"Adam."

He looks up. He hadn't even noticed her open or close the door, but there stands Chloe, hands on her hips, blond hair so frizzy it looks like its about to make a break for the sky. There's paint on her nose and splattered all over her overalls in messy, natural way aesthetic influencers could only dream of.

"Oh, hey, Chloe. What's up?"

She gives him a frown, hands on her hips. "I could hear your thoughts from the art studio." She raises an eyebrow. "That's on the other side of school, Adam."

"Oh, uh. Sorry."

"Don't you dare apologise!" She comes to sit beside him at the piano, leaning against his shoulder. "You know you don't have to apologise to me, of all people. I know what you're going through."

"Whether I want you to or not."

"Pros and cons of having a mind reader for a best friend," she shrugs, a smile playing on her lips.

They've been friends ever since they started high school, the quiet creative kids who spent more time in their own heads than the world around them. Silent lunches together had become awkward murmured conversations had become a tentative friendship.

That was before Chloe started hearing voices in her head, and Adam found out what his parents do for a living.

Sophomore year had been pretty intense, and their friendship had been forged in fire.

It's certainly strange having a mind reader for a best friend, but it comes with perks. Like not having to name the endless blue sea in his chest for her to understand what it is.

"You nervous?" she asks.

"Do you even need to ask?"

"I like to hear it from the source, sometimes."

"Isn't my brain the real source, technically? So you're always going direct, unless you listen to someone speaking instead of thinking?"

She narrows her eyes in mock annoyance. "You're deflecting. But it's okay, I'll let you. I know you're stressed out."

How could he not be stressed out? There's an unscaleable wall inside his mind, behind which he's trapped everything he cares about. Music. Feelings. Sunshine.

He hasn't played the piano, hasn't sung, since Chloe stumbled across a homeless man with thoughts of Adam's parents burned into his brain. Can't bring himself to even press into the keys resting under his fingers.

And now he's about to get kicked out of the music programme, if he can't perform today.

"I've got this," he says, and from Chloe's expression he's not fooling anyone.

"Even if you can't play, Adam, you know that doesn't make you a terrible person, right? People want you to play for  you, because it used to mean so much to you, not because they think you're only worth what you create."

"Mm," he shrugs noncommittally, as if she hasn't hammered right to home. As if he hasn't always judge his own worth by what he can do.

This is his thing.  What is he without it?

"I'm gonna get to class early," he says, pushing away towards the door before Chloe can stop him and confront him on his so-called unhealthy coping mechanisms (aka - none). "I'll see you later."

"I'm rooting for you!" she calls after him.

His phone buzzes in his pocket as he weavs through the halls. He doesn't dare to check it; knows that it's his parents wishing him luck.

The absolute last thing he needs. The one thing, in fact, more likely to throw him off performing than anything else.

He isn't the first to arrive to class, as much as he'd hoped. He could never be that lucky -  of course Caitlin is already there, surrounded by her entourage.

"Oh hey, Adam," she smiles, more viper than girl, as he spills into the doorway. She's dressed stunningly as always, pale purples and creams.

The jacket Adam bought her for her birthday last year, before everything.

If she rememebers, she doesn't say anything, looking down at him with the look of someone regarding an insect.

He knows he deserves it. They'd been close, before last year, but how could he possibly explain everything to her? How could he explain the rainclouds that gathered above his head and made a home? How could he explain what his parents did, the whole world of the atypical, without being thought completely crazy?

It had been easier to let her go, and she had taken it personally. Friendly rivalry had become enemies.

He can't feel enough today to even be sad.

"Hey, Cait," he shrugs into his seat.

"I'm surprised you came today. Wasn't yesterday your last chance?"

She knows that's not true, is trying to get a rise out of him. He busies himself with leafing, unseeing, through the sheet music he's half-heartedly prepared for today.

He already knows he's not going to be using it.

Caitlin sighs dramatically and turns back to her group, the conversation quickly drifting away from him. Frankie is staring at Adam, trying to catch his eye, to ask if he's okay, but he ignores that, too. As he much as he appreciates him - the only other atypical in school apart from Chloe, who knows a little of everything that went to shit last year but has also very clearly thrown his lot in with Caitlin - he doesn't want to give Caitlin reason to pause.

Better to fade into obscurity.

He doesn't notice the rest of the class file in. Doesn't notice the teacher begin the lesson, or the other performances that come and go.

"Your turn, Adam," Mr Beck says gently, and the world snaps back into focus.

Every eye in the room is on him.

He makes it to the piano without breathing. Chest constricting, world contracting to a single, narrowed point. There's cotton wool in his ears, spots dancing in the corners of his vision.

His fingers rest on the keys.

Just play.

Just play just play just play just play just play just-

"I'm sorry." He stands up suddenly and, without looking back, flees the room.

It feels like freedom.

It feels like the cell door slamming shut behind him.

~/~/~/~

When he gets home, he heads straight around the back, avoiding the risk of his parents being home.

Tears burn in his eyes but he refuses to blink them away. He can’t bear to see the sadness on his parents’ faces, the confusion, when they find out he’s been kicked out of the music programme.

Because they know they’re the reason he stopped. They just don’t understand, or refuse to try to, why he’s still not over it.

As if his horror at human experimentation should have a shelf life.

Behind their house is the old garage slash studio his parents had soundproofed, back when Adam first got into the music programme. They’d been so proud, and the world had been so full, back them.

He hasn't been back inside his studio since he found out what his parents do for a living. His mom had been the one to first bring music into his life, and now he can’t trust anything she's ever given him. This studio is built on blood money and half-truths.

The air is thick with dust when he slips inside. Sunlight filters through the garage door window, catching the dust motes in beams, spinning dizzily like planets.

His piano sits in the centre of the room, untouched, surrounded by boxes of half-packed things - relics of Adam’s childhood, old memories and things that might be useful someday, left over objects the last owners of this house forgot to take with them.

He has the sudden urge to smash everything in this room apart.

Instead, he takes a steadying breath. It’s not like he needs a studio anymore - may as well start packing his things away along with the rest of these forgotten memories.

He grabs a half-full box at random and begins shoving things into it haphazardly. The first notebook he wrote songs in. The headphones his aunt gave him that only work through one ear now. The metronome perched on top of the piano, its slider in the shape of a smiley face.

The sellotape at the bottom of the box gives out just as he’s shoving a second notebook in, and everything clatters onto the floor. Of course. This is on par with the rest of his day, really.

He stoops to begin picking things back up when he sees it: a CD box, dusty with age. The front cover is watercolour, blue blending with yellow to create a sea of green in the middle. The band name -  Atypical!  - is emblazoned in black across it.

He doesn't recognise it, though it's in a box of his old things. One of his parents’, maybe? Or left over by the last owners? Curiosity guides his hands, and before he knows it he's clicking play on the old CD player his mom gave him for his twelfth birthday.

Music bursts into the room for the first time in a year, swells to fill the space. This room has felt hollow and empty, a black hole pulling at light, this whole time- until now.

It's good music, too. Rhythm sinks into his bones, sparking something inside him he hadn't thought was still alive.

He's so caught in the music, it takes him a minute to notice the air is beginning to shake. Not with the soundwaves- he's not playing it that loud - but the space in front of the speaker is shivering and shimmering, like a heatwave.

He can't say when it happens, can't pinpoint the moment his life pitches off a ledge. Between one blink and the next- they just appear.

Adam blinks. He blinks again. Rubs at his eyes until they're swimming.

They're still there.

There are three people in his studio. Strangers, teenagers about his own age, two guys and a girl.

The first guy is dark haired, dressed in an over-sized pink hoodie, so many leather bracelets peeking out from his pushed-up sleeves he looks more straps than skin. The girl wears her black hair in space buns that are trying their hardest to escape her head. A slashed denim jacket covered in patches, black pleated skirt, neon green and black striped leg warmers.

It's the second guy that stops Adam's heart in his chest. Bright green eyes, styled golden curls spilling over one side of his face. He's dressed in a red high school lettermans jacket, except the sleeves have been cut off, showing off muscles that are frankly unfair given the current situation. He's staring around the studio in surprised confusion, eyes darting over the room in a remarkably familiar way.

His eyes land on Adam, and it's like lightning has struck. Adam's breath vanishes from his chest.

"Who the fuck are you?" he manages.

"What do you mean who the fuck are you?" the guy narrows his eyes. His voice is low and hypnotic. "Who the fuck are you? What are you doing in our studio?"

Frustrated anger crushes any confusion momentarily. "Your studio? Dude, this is my studio."

"Uh, no, it isn't. Look-" the guy all but lunges across the room, as if he knows exactly where to go. He digs through a pile of discarded objects and emerges seconds later with a guitar clutched triumphantly in his hands. "See! This is my guitar."

"That guitar's been there since my parents moved in. Seventeen years ago."

The guy deflates suddenly, and Adam feels immediately guilty, finds himself wanting to find any way to reignite his enthusiasm.

"We're dead," the guy in the pink hoodie says, in a nonchalant way, as if this is a perfectly normal thing to say. He waves an awkward hello, a bashful grin. "Hey, sorry about him. He's a total jock sometimes."

"Hey-"

"You are, Caleb. Embrace your brand."

The cute guy - Caleb? - pouts, still clinging to his guitar. It’s ridiculously adorable.

"I'm sorry, I'm confused," Adam says slowly, mind racing along with his heart. "You're dead?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, this is a lot, huh? I'm Mark." He sticks his hand out to shake and Adam, instinctively, reaches out to take it.

Their hands pass right through each other.

Welp. Not much more proof he needs.

"Ghosts," he breathes, staring at the place where their hands should have met.

"Oh my god, it wasn't a dream," the girl says, voice high and taut with anxiety. She's twirling drumsticks in her hands - where did she get those? - so fast they blur into panic-inducing windmills at her side. "I really thought- that maybe- but no-  but how long have we been- I mean, maybe we just- but that means-"

Her gasped sentences are triggering a tightening in Adam's own chest.

"Hey," Mark says softly, reaching over and putting a hand on her shoulder. The twirling freezes immediately, their eyes locking. "Sam, it's okay. We're okay. We're safe."

"We're dead," Caleb deadpans. How is he holding that guitar if he's incorporeal? None of this makes sense.

"Well nothing can hurt you when you're dead," Adam says before he can think better of it. Three pairs of eyes fix on him, unblinking.

"Oh my god," Caleb laughs suddenly, snapping the silence instantly. "I love this kid."

"I'm not a kid - you look the same age as me!"

"Sure, kid," Mark says, turning back to the girl - Sam. "Look, I know this sucks. But for now, we're okay. We've got each other, yeah?"

Sam nods shakily, tapping the drumsticks in a nervous but manageable rhythm against each other.

Caleb practically bounces across the room to Adam. "Hey. Sorry for the freak out. We, uh, we've been through a lot."

"Not surprised, considering you're dead."

Caleb cracks a grin that makes Adam's insides swoop. "What's your name?"

What's my name. His brain short circuits. "Uh, I'm Adam."

"Adam! Cool. That's really cool. How're you so cool with all this?"

"What?"

"You're, like, super chill about this. We just showed up in your studio and told you we're dead. Wouldn't most people freak out about that?"

Why isn't he freaking out? He supposes there isn't much left that can surprise him, after everything. Superpowers? Evil scientists for parents? Ghosts seems like a logical progression.

"You're not the weirdest thing I've seen. Wait, hang on- how did you know I was so chill?"

Caleb's face plummets like he's been caught in a lie, face cycling through too many emotions to translate.

It clicks like a spark to a fuse, understanding crashing through him so fast he's almost knocked over. How the hell did he not put two and two together?

"Oh my god, you're atypicals!"

It's as if he dropped a bomb in the centre of the room. The three ghosts freeze, not in the surprise of before, but palpable, chilling fear.

Sam vanishes.

"Fuck," Mark hisses. Takes a slow breath to gather himself. "It's okay. She'll be back soon. No need to worry."

He sounds very worried.

Caleb is so close to Adam he towers above him. If it wasn't for the open, imploring eyes, Adam would have his own fear thrumming through his chest. "How do you know that?"

"I mean, I played a CD for a band called Atypical! and you appeared. I’m guessing that’s your band? And you said you knew how I was feeling, I'm guessing you're an empath?"

“You listened to our CD?” Mark asks, bright-eyed. “What did you think?”

"More important,” Caleb shoots Mark a look, “how do you  know  about atypicals?"

"Caleb, he can see ghosts!" Mark throws his hands up in exasperation. "He's obviously atypical, too."

"Uh, no- I'm not- at least, I don't think-"

Adam's brain grinds to a halt. Is he atypical? He's never had reason to consider it. He's always been at the periphery, a totally average human looking in through a window at the miracles and atrocities on the other side.

Wouldn't Chloe know if he was atypical? Not if he didn't, he supposes.

Do his parents know? They can't, can they?

The pit in Adam's stomach becomes a sickening, plummeting vacuum.

"My best friend is atypical," he says quietly, carefully boxing away those dizzying thoughts and burying them beneath the sea of blue in his mind. For future consideration.

Or never.

"Oh, cool." Caleb says, no doubt feeling the hurricane going on just beneath his surface. "What can they do?"

"She’s a mind reader. Great in class, not so much fun at parties. Ha." The words fall flat. He's in shock, he thinks. The world is distant, slipping back beneath the grey fog of the rest of the day.

Mark grimaces. "Okay, kid- Adam - I know this is a lot, but you need to chill."

"Chill?"

"Your emotions are all over the place. We haven't been around people in a long while, aren't used to other people's emotions."

"You're an empath too?"

"Mirror. I take on other people's powers when they're around."

“That’s cool.” His parents would have a field day if they knew about this guy.

“Most of the time,” Mark says, something odd and hitching in his voice. “Not right now, though.”

“I can go,” Caleb frowns. “If it’s getting too much-”

“No, no,” Adam interrupts, guilt rising up to churn alongside his apathy. He feels bad enough when he inflicts his depressive thoughts on Chloe - he can’t imagine how awful the emotions themselves must feel. “I’ll go. It’s, uh, it’s been a long day. I’m sorry. I just-”

He flees the room, for the second time that day.

He really does ruin everything.