#oh yeah there's the hobbit stuff in there as well

[incorrect-lord-of-the-rings]

Alright! It's almost ready! My beta testers are currently helping the finishing touches of Cards Against Hobbits (i think i'll call it that... I'll do a poll I guess) and I'm almost ready to put it out. After I finish reading the Silmarillion I'll put out the expansion pack. Idk when that will be. BUT I'm hoping Cards Against LOTR will be out this week, hopefully so you guys can purchase it with my birthday promo code discount! I'll do a hobbit gift thing (hopefully lol). Anyway, love y'all, and hope this gets on Etsy soon!

[shares-a-vest]

Eddie reaches for Steve's fruity-scented shampoo - the stuff he swears he hasn't been using each and every time he stays over. He pops the cap and then the lights go out.

He screams bloody murder and drops the shampoo bottle. He kicks it and presses his palms against the nearest surfaces. One on the tiled wall, the other on the glass as he does everything to stop himself from moving his feet because, if he trips on that fucking fruity shampoo that makes Steve's hair oh-so-silky, he'll go slipping and sliding straight through the glass and into the goddamn toilet.

And he cannot die like that, buck-naked as the day he was born.

Though, if he absolutely had to die in the nude, he'd want it to be while he's railing someone six ways from Sunday...

Preferably the hunk who is bursting in through the bathroom door and waving a flashlight right in his eyes.

Steve opens the shower and reaches in to shut off the water. Eddie palms around and grips his boyfriend's wrist, impossibly warm despite now being wet.

"Are you... uh..." Steve drops the light enough from him to stop spluttering about. Eddie blinks hard, regaining enough focus to find a sly smile tugging at the corner of Steve's lips as he attempts to be serious, "Um, are you okay?"

Alright, maybe falling head-first into the toilet would have been a little less embarrassing than this: Steve staring back at him and snickering. He cups his junk and grumbles.

"Towel?" he spits, holding out one hand.

"Sorry," Steve says as he hands the brown (seriously, why do the Harrington's enjoy brown so much) towel over, "It's just you looked like you were in the middle of some naked jumping-jacks."

"Stevie, I was terrified," he retorts, drying off his arms and hands first so he can get a better grip on anything so he can safely get out of the damn shower before it becomes a fogged-up glass tomb.

But Steve places the flashlight tight under one arm and spots him, hovering one hand and placing the other on his dripping wet hip.

"I know," he soothes, now completely serious, "I was scared too."

Eddie doesn't care that he is mostly wet and that his hair is completely soaked, he goes right into Steve's strong arms, feeling his navy-blue sweater quickly dampen between them. Steve maneuvers around to stop their bodies from completely blocking their light source and hugs him tight.

"So stupid," Eddie can't help but mutter, "How am I more scared of the fucking dark than I was when I was six? Besides, how do you even lose power out here in Richie Richville?"

"Well, considering this house is surrounded by trees," Steve shrugs, "We lose power quite easily in bad weather," he pulls back enough to give a dangerously-teasing smirk considering Eddie's state of undress, "Thought you'd enjoy some candles and what-not, anyway. Doesn't Bilbo Baggins scurry around his cottage with a candlestick?"

Now it's Eddie's turn to move away as he hurriedly wraps the towel around himself - to protect his modesty. Yeah... that.

"Excuse me?" he exclaims, "He lives in a Hobbit hole, for one. And I'll have you know his home is well-lit."

"Come on!" Steve scoffs, rolling his eyes and taking his hand.

He leads them back into his bedroom, which at least has some moonlight peaking in from the windows. And yeah, now Eddie can really hear the source of the power outage. The wind outside and the trees that shroud Loch Nora sound like a goddamn tornado.

"Though I think Rivendell surely must have had some sort of electricity," he wonders aloud as he attempts to focus on something else.

"We can debate the infrastructure of Middle Earth later," Steve chuckles and promptly shoves a pair of sweatpants into his hands.

Eddie steps forward, smiling bashfully.

"You mean it?" he coos, biting the 't'.

Steve's eyes flick to his lips as he bites his own, "I can think of a few things we could do that don't involve the power being on."

Eddie opens his mouth, readying himself for a lame line about their palpable electricity that will probably make Steve laugh when the damn radio crackles.

If a physical object could be a boner-killer, it's the damn radio Steve currently has attached to his hip.

"Steeeve is the power out at your house, overrr!" Dustin screeches the moment Steve fishes it from his back pocket.

"Yes, over," Steve answers. He holds a finger up, silently asking Eddie to wait as they make no attempt to move an inch from each other's personal space, "I'mfine-okaygoodbye!"

He clicks the radio off completely and tosses it on his dresser, paying no mind to the fact it sends his Little League trophy toppling onto the carpet.

[multifandoms27-blog]

Bucky Barnes Relationship HC's

It was my birthday this past weekend, and this is my birthday gift to myself. Hope y'all enjoy!

Content: (mostly) Post CW Bucky x Fem! Reader

Warnings: Talk about PTSD, (minimal) couple fights, cheesy Bucky lol

Notes: Bucky is working with the Avengers in this

• ───────────────── •

Something everybody seems to agree on, is that Bucky is clingy.

When he's away on missions, he tries to call you every night so he can hear you before bed. When you're away on missions, he can't sleep until you call him. You forget one night? Oh well, he's not sleeping. He's worried about you but he won't mention it to anyone else. He'll silently freak out by himself until you call.

He has nightmares, he likely always will. This makes him kind of a bad bedmate, but he doesn't mean to move so much. I would suggest taking melatonin so you can get some actual sleep.

Speaking of his nightmares, when he wakes up from them, he never wants to wake you. 9/10 times though, you've been awake for a little bit before him. He feels bad, and sometimes he'll run from you, or he'll seek out comfort.

If he runs from you, it's because he can't handle human interaction in that moment. PTSD reactions or waking up from nightmares make people feel very vulnerable, and some don't like feeling that way, and run somewhere they know is safe for them to hide until they calm down. Think of a turtle hiding in it's shell.

If he seeks out comfort, it'll go something like this;

Bucky yells as he shoots up, eyes wide and glossy. His body feels too cold despite being under the blanket with you, like he's overexposed. He looks around the room as he breathes heavily, trying to slow his heart rate. Nobody else is in here. Nobody but him and you. That's right, he...he got away.

His gaze shoots over to you as you stir and look up at him. You two stare at each other for a moment before you speak. "Nightmare?"

Bucky swallows his spit and nods. You adjust a little before lifting up the blanket. "Want some cuddles, Bucky?"

Bucky nods wordlessly, quickly settling next to you. He can feel your warm arms sliding around his body, encasing it with a certain weight that comforts him. He's here, next to you, safe and sound. No injuries. No fighting. No more being cold.

"Wanna talk about it?" You mumble against his skin.

"Don' feel like it right now, doll." Bucky wraps his arms around you, pulling you impossibly closer. "But...thank you."

"Yeah, of course." You nod, yawning. "Love you, Buck."

"Love you too, (Y/n)."

Normally, Bucky is pretty playful with you. He'll be flirty with you, share jokes, tell you anything and everything that's on his mind, and sometimes will just take your hand and start dancing around with you. He'll teach you how to waltz if you don't know how already.

He likes to learn about newer century stuff with you, but be patient with him if he doesn't understand something.

Although sometimes, he likes to learn different pieces of media and surprise you with his knowledge later (like in FATWS when he knows about the Hobbit)

It's also no secret that he's such a romantic. You cannot tell me this man wouldn't keep track of your anniversaries and birthdays every year.

You were making yourself a snack in the kitchen when Bucky walked in with a smirk. You looked up and gave him a smile. "Hey handsome, how you doing today?"

"Very well, now that I've seen you." Bucky strides to you.

"Oh? You weren't doing well before?"

"I'm at my best when my best girl is here." Bucky gently brings your hand to his lips, giving it a kiss.

You feel your face heat up, and Bucky chuckles. He loves when your face gets all rosy. He then turns your body to face him fully, your left hand going on his shoulder and your right hand staying in his own. His free hand goes to your waist, and he opens his mouth to speak again. "FRIDAY, play A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square by Glenn Miller."

FRIDAY made a small beep before answering, "Certainly."

You heard the old 40's crackle in the song as the man sang, and Bucky led the waltz around the kitchen island. No matter how many times you two have waltzed, neither of you can pry your eyes away from each other. As the song ended, Bucky stopped your movement, and just swayed in place. You moved your arms up to his neck, and his other hand went to your waist. Bucky gave you a soft, sweet kiss as the last musical note ended.

"Happy anniversary, doll."

"Oh Buck, you romantic." You grinned. "Happy anniversary, my love."

He'll also write you love letters if he's away on a mission for a while. He's not quite the poet, but he tries, lol. It's one of the only things left of him you have after the snap. That also means on birthday cards and stuff, you'll find his love notes for your eyes only, detailing how you make him feel, his favorite things you did that day, how you illuminate his life, it's all very cheesy. I love him.

Gets you bouquets of flowers because he saw them and thought of you (cause the flowers were pretty).

If you're into LOTR/Hobbit and show him the movies, he'd be ecstatic. He really liked the Hobbit when it came out, and to see it in movie form with you makes it so much better.

He'd want to be into your interests too. He wants to watch your favorite movies, see your favorite shows, know/read your favorite books, etc. He wants to connect with you on every level. He's stuck to you like glue.

Fights with him rarely happen, but it happens if he's already in a bad mood or is tired from a mission. The arguments can turn nasty, and he really doesn't mean to, but the person he loves and trusts the most is angry at him right now - so it's only fair he's the same way, right? Wrong, that's just the PTSD talking.

You two don't tend to stay mad at each other for very long. The most he has managed to stay mad at you was two days, before he was trying to find a way to apologize, unless you apologized first (depending on the situation). He likes being able to talk through the problem with you, it makes him smile the brightest smile after the issue is resolved, no matter how small. Not even Tony could break his stride.

He's not too fond of extreme PDA, but he'll keep his arm around your shoulders and give you a peck on the cheek here and there. Although, to annoy Tony or Sam, he might just grab you and give you a big, wet, passionate kiss on the lips. But what he'll never do is smack your ass or make any sexual remark or gesture in front of the others. He wants to keep your dignity and whatever is left of his.

Also expect random compliments here and there. Even if you're doing the most menial tasks, or on your lazier days.

You were texting Wanda while waiting for your toast to be done, yawning. You were in baggy lounge wear, and you hadn't done your morning routine yet. Bucky walked in, his hair already brushed and clearly ready for the day. He stops and looks you up and down before leaning against the doorframe, letting out a whistle.

The whistle makes you look up and give him a smile. "Morning, Buck."

"Morning sweetheart." Bucky flashed you a grin.

You just chuckled, then turned to grab your toast as it popped out. Bucky came up behind you and put his hands on your hips, leaning down to kiss your shoulder. "Why're you so cute, huh?"

"I'm not a mirror, Buck."

"Oh, you're mistaken. I'm very clearly looking at my wonderful girlfriend." Bucky laid his head on your shoulder, giggling at his own remark.

Your face heats up, even though he's said this to you multiple times before. "Aw, Buck..."

He kisses your shoulder again, moving his arms so they fully wrap around you. You take a bite of your toast, then move it to him to offer a bite. He bites into the toast and hums, satisfied.

When you guys go to bed, he's almost always big spoon. He likes holding you and protecting you. What better way to do that than holding you close while you both sleep? It's also a soothing way to get him to sleep. He feels your body move as you breathe - it's like the calmest sleep asmr for him, haha.

But that means if you get up to go to the bathroom or get a glass of water, he's waking up too. In his dreams he can feel something moving against him, and that causes him to wake up and make sure you're okay. Sometimes he'll wait for you to get back and pretend he was asleep, other times he'll follow cause he doesn't want to be alone.

If he has a nightmare though, he moves in his sleep. So his body will pry himself away from you, but it gives him a better chance to run and recover by himself if he needs to.

Definitely feels like you're the girl he's gonna settle down with. He just hopes you like the ring he picked out.

[captainlunaxmen]

Be My Queen

Chapter 6

Eddie Munson x reader x Steve Harrington

This is a repost since the old blog doesn't work anymore. 🥰

Chapter summary: someone's back

Chapter warnings: none.

The sun lingering through the hospital's windows wakes me up, luckily no unbearable nightmares, not that I remember at least... still luckily.

I slowly open my eyes, getting used to the light and I notice someone talking, or better reading something. Once I focus a little more I recognise Dustin's voice.

" 'this thing all things devours: birds, beasts, trees, flowers; gnats iron, bites steel; grinds hard stones to meal; slays Kings, ruins towns, and high mountain down. What am I?' "

Before he can go on reading I cut him off.

"Time!" I say sitting up slowly.

"Y/n!" He exclaims excited.

"Hey, boy genius. How is it going?"

"It's great. Do you feel better? Steve told me you were still in pain yesterday" he checks.

"Oh yes. Actually, it's more stingy than painful, which is good improvement" I smile at him to reassure him "where are the others?"

"Interviewed by the police..?" He mumbles.

"What for?"

"Well... for Eddie's innocence, your accident... stuff like that" he explains "they already talked to me so... I offered to be here for when you woke up" he sends me a sweet smile.

"I hope everyone realises Eddie is innocent" I chuckle "I mean... take one look at that guy and you realise he couldn't hurt a fly"

"I know right!" He laughs.

"Is that my copy of the Hobbit?" I ask looking down at the book in his hands.

"Yeah, Robin and Nancy brought it here when they arrive to drop me off and take Steve. I didn't wake you, did I?" He suddenly looks guilty and is about to apologise.

"No, no, Dustin, I think you helped getting me out of a nightmare" I reassure him.

He looks a little relieved, but soon his expression turns into a concerning one.

"I'm really sorry, Y/n" He softly says.

"Can we please invoce a council with everyone so I can make it clear that it was no one's fault?" I chuckle "you have nothing to be sorry for, just like Max and just like El. And just like everbody else."

"But..."

"Hush. Nope. I don't wanna hear it. No one's fault" I lift my hand up to stop him "repeat after me: it was no one's fault"

He stays silent, letting out a small chuckle and shaking his head.

"C'mon, Dusty, repeat after me. It was no one's fault"

"It was no one's fault" he says it, way too quietly.

"What? What did you say?" I pretend not to have heard him.

"It was no one's fault" he says a little louder.

"That's right, also next time something like this happens-"

"Hey! No! It won't happen again! And even if it does I don't think any of us will let you be the bait again" he cuts me off, with a stern look.

"Alright, alright... I was just saying-" I try to say.

"Nope"

"But-"

"Aahhh!" He uses his hands to cover his ears.

"Dustin-"

"I said no"

"Alright!" I exclaim with a laugh "alright, there won't be a next time. Got it" I raise my hands up on surrender.

"Exactly" he smiles brightly. "But, I guess you earned the right to choose the movies for the next... uh... 4 movie nights"

"Really? Yes!" I cheer then I stop "Wait... only 4? Man, I almost died! Ten at least!"

"We all almost died." He clarifies.

"Oh now you want to specify I wasn't the only one, uh!?" I scoff chuckling.

"Alright... the next 5 times"

"9"

"What? Nah, 6"

"8"

"Oh c'mon, you chose the last time too though!"

"Alright... 7, but I also get to choose what to eat" I take out my hand for him to shake.

He looks at me and let out a sigh, he grabs my hand and shakes it.

"Deal"

"Always a pleasure dealing with you" I smile at him. "I'll make pasta" I wink.

His face lightens up immediately.

"Your pasta?" He asks.

"Of course" I chuckle at his satisfied expression.

"But don't stress yourself too much" He immediately adds.

"Oh, not you too" I laugh exasperated.

"You didn't exactly went for a walk!" He exclaims.

"I'm fine" I laugh, then I calm down "I'm fine, Dusty" I say softly to him.

Dustin's face changes again, from serene to almost disconsolate.

"Dustin" I try to regain his attention "Dustin, what did we say?"

"It was no one's fault" he says.

"Good, now come here and give a good Dustin-hug" I open my arms waiting for him, letting out a sigh of relief when he finally hugs me.

When he pulls away I notice a little tear on his face, so I quickly wipe it away.

"It's all good now, okay?"

"Yes... yes you are right" he nods.

"We did it again"

We high-five and in that moment there's a knock on the door.

"Can I come in?"

It's Steve.

"Sure!" Dustin yells and I laugh.

Steve opens the door and lingers a little before entering.

"Hey, sweetheart, how do you feel?" He asks.

"I'm feeling better, thanks. Henderson here helped" I say patting Dustin's shoulder.

"Good, that's good" Steve mutters, a small smile crepping up his face, he quickly glances at the door "so... are you in the mood for a visit?"

"I guess..." I say, a little sceptical after seeing his behaviour. "What's going on?"

"Oh nothing, love" he smile and then opens the door and someone walks in.

My blood immediately runs cold, I tense immediately, as soon as Hopper walks in... I thought my hallucinations were getting better... and now he's using Hopper, too.

No no no no no... not this.

"No, no, please..." I start sobbing, and I cover my eyes.

"What's wrong?" I hear Dustin whispering to me.

"I thought the hallucinations were... were getting better... I can't." I sob.

"What are you talking about?"

"I see Hopper standing there... I... he's using Hop to torment me, " I explain. "Please... make it stop, make it stop" I sob into the pillow as I curl up in bed.

"Y/n," Steve's hand gently caresses my back. "Love? He is here."

"What?" I ask, confused.

"Hop is here." He tells me.

"What... how...no... he's..." I stutter.

"I honestly don't know, but he is here. He's alive. Do you trust me? You know I wouldn't mess with you."

I slowly look up to him, seeing how sincere he is, and even more slowly, I look to the door.

I look at Hopper standing there, a visible worried look on his face. He doesn't know what to do. He softly smiles at me, to reassure me everything is fine.

"He's really here?" I ask Steve and Dustin.

"Yes, babe,"

"Yap"

I cautiously stand up and walk to Hopper, I look up at him to check if he's actually here or not.

"Is it you? Like... for real?" I ask.

"It is" he smiles, eyes watering a little.

"Oh my god" I don't waste any more time and hug him. He immediately reciprocates.

"Everything is gonna be fine now. I'm here, kid," he says softly to me once he lets me go.

"I'm sorry... I... I thought.."

"It's okay, they told me everything." Hop reassures me "I'm sorry I wasn't here,"

"Oh don't say that to her. She hates it," Dustin chimes in.

"He's right " I say wiping away the tears "it's not like anyone could've stopped me"

"Of course" he chuckles "too stubborn for your own good."

"I wonder where I took it from" I tease.

"She's right, you know" Joyce appears from behind him, I just realise she's been here the whole time.

"Oh my god, hi" I quickly hug her too.

"Hey, sweetheart" she holds me tight, she then lets me go and cups one of my cheeks "You got us so worried"

"I'm sorry" I chuckle.

"When they told us you ended up here... God... even though you two are not related by blood, you definitely took your stubbornness from him"

"Well... I'm definitely proud of it" Hopper interferes with a big smile. "Oh... and they also let something slip"

"What?" I look from him to Steve, who has a guilty look on his face.

Before he can answer the door opens once again, only to let Eddie walk in, dressed in his own clothes, meaning he's ready to be dismissed.

"We bumped into Eddie on the way here..." Steve explains pointing to Eddie.

"Oh..." I nervously chuckle.

"Oh indeed."

"Yeah... I wanted to apologise" Eddie awkwardly scratches his neck "I knew you were dead and... you kinda spooked me... I'm sorry"

"What..?" I chuckle amused.

"He used me as a shield... and then he pushed me toward your dad.." Steve explains, rather exasperated.

"Aaw, poor baby" I joke.

"And while I was explaining to this dingus he wasn't a ghost-"

"Steve blurted out we are now.. a thing" Eddie finishes awkwardly, still avoiding eye contact with... everyone.

"That he did" Hopper says.

"And...? Do you have a problem with that?" I ask, cautiously.

"As long as they won't hurt you, I'm fine with it" he smiles, almost devilishly, "it will only mean I won't have to cover up a murder... anytime soon at least."

I see Eddie and Steve share a, not very subtle, scared look. They then turn to me asking for help, but I can't help but laugh. I know Hopper is only messing with them.

"Alright!" Joyce claps her hands to change the subject. "How about after you are dismissed we all gather around and have dinner together? Uh?"

"Definitely" I support her saving my boyfriends from Hop.

"C'mon, let's go, Jim. C'mon, you scared them enough" Joyce gently grabs Hop's Armstrong guide him out.

"Eh... not exactly enough. But there's plenty of time" he teases. "Take care, kids. Anything happens you call me, alright?"

"Sure, Hop" I smile at him.

"I'll come check on you tomorrow" he says.

I wave at them as they walk out.

"What a perfect way to say to my father we're in a relationship... Great job" I laugh.

"Yeah, you couldn't have chosen a better way, guys?" Dustin asks, with a amused grin.

"Hey don't look at me, man, he did it all" Eddie defends himself.

"Yeah yeah, it just came out... I'm sorry" he says, coming up to me and gently taking my hand in his.

"Hey, it's fine. I never thought I'd ever have to tell him something like that in the first place... so... it's actually better this way" I smile at them.

"He... he wouldn't actually.. murder us right?" Eddie asks.

"In the most brutal way" I joke and he glares at me.

"Very funny" he sarcastically says.

"I know" I wink at him.

"I came here to tell you they're dismissing me, by the way" he tells me "Wayne's outside to take me home. As a free man, nonetheless"

"Rightfully" I smile" do you feel better, though? Like actually okay?" I ask him.

"Yeah, yeah, I do, don't worry, my beautiful girl" he says getting closer to me and Steve.

"Alright, I'm still here" Dustin announces.

"Not my problem" was Eddie simple answer.

"Okay. My queue to leave. Bye, guys, get better Y/n. Bye" he quickly rushes out of the room.

"There you go... you scared Dustin" I say.

"Thankfully" Steve comments.

"You two are terrible" I laugh.

Eddie smirks before kissing me softly on the lips and then lets Steve do the same.

"About going home..." Steve starts " my parents won't be home for the next... uh... couple of months. Not surprising, I know, but... well... if you guys want to stay over and... maybe start to actually figure our whole situation out... we could"

"That's not a bad idea, Harrington." Eddie's still smirking "what do you say, sweetheart?"

"I say it's a great idea" I say and the kiss each boy on the cheek.

"And once you're out of here, we're taking you to the most amazing date you can ever imagine" Steve declares with a big loving smile.

"Easy there, Stevie... let's not create expectations we can't live up to" Eddie says making me laugh.

"Even a simple pizza and a movie at home would be absolutely perfect" I assure them.

"See?" Steve points at me looking at Eddie "she has no expectations at all. We're safe"

"Yeah... I guess you're right, man" Eddie agrees.

"C'mon, don't let your uncle wait too long." I say to Eddie kissing him.

"Oh fine fine. I'll leave." He sweetly smile down at me "you better get better soon. I can't deal with this guys here alone"

"Yeah, please, don't leave me with him" Steve begs.

"Oh c'mon, you two will be fine"

"Doesn't matter. Get better soon, we want to spoil you" Steve softly says, still playing with my fingers.

"I promise" I smile at them.

"Alright, let's get going. I'll prepare the house for the both of you" Steve says and gives me a kiss.

"Fine, I'll meet Wayne and go home to prepare my things instead" it's Eddie's turn to kiss me.

"See you two tomorrow" I wave at them as they exit.

I go sit on the bed taking everything in.

Hopper is alive... I definitely need him to tell me everything. It's so good to know it wasn't one of my hallucinations.

We're gonna be a family again, with El too. I can't believe it, it's great.

Everything is actually going to be fine.

[munsonkitten]

After his shift, Eddie tells Steve he has a few errands to run before he goes home, and Steve says he’ll be over later. They separate at their cars, parked side by side, and Eddie finds Steve watching him as he climbs into his van. 

He gives a small little wave and a smile in Steve’s direction and then slams his door shut and starts up his loud engine. 

He peels out of the parking lot before Steve’s even in his car. 

“Hey, Ed,” the man at the liquor store says. “Long time no see.”

“Haven’t been drinking much, to be honest, Reggie,” Eddie tells him, bringing up a case of beer. The cheapest stuff he can get because he doesn’t know if Dustin is paying him back or not. “Throwing a little party tonight, though.”

Eddie passes over his cash, and Reggie doesn’t ask for his ID. He never has, and probably never will, not even when Eddie turns twenty one next month. His fake goes to waste in a town like this, only gets him into bars out in Indy, really, and he hasn’t gone out there in almost a year. Stopped when he decided he was serious about graduating, then everything went to shit, and now he doesn’t feel the need. 

Truthfully, Dustin probably could’ve gotten his own beer, but Eddie isn’t going to tell him that. He doesn’t want him getting in trouble on the off chance someone sees him, and he’d have to bike home with it all. Yeah, better not say anything. 

Eddie pulls up to the Hendersons’ house and curses under his breath when he sees Steve’s car in the driveway. He’s standing there, arms crossed as he leans against the back of it. 

He lifts his hand in a little wave when he sees Eddie, but his face says he isn’t happy to see him. 

Eddie can play this cool — he told Steve he was coming over here to bring some books, and while it was implied that they’d be D&D books, Steve won’t know that for sure. So Eddie pulls a battered old copy of The Hobbit out of his glove box, and kills his engine. 

“Hey,” Steve calls out. 

Eddie holds the book up for Steve to see. 

“One thing I forgot to tell you before you clocked out today,” Steve says. “Is that sound carries pretty well in the store.”

“Oh, well,” Eddie says. “Uh. That’s good to know. I just came to bring Dustin the book he asked for.”

“Cut the shit, Eddie,” Steve says. 

They’re standing a few feet apart in Dustin’s driveway, and Eddie sees the curtains in the front of the house move. Open, and then slam shut again. If he concentrates hard enough, he can hear Dustin’s panicked shit shit shit shit, but he knows that’s all in his head. 

His own thoughts are exactly the same.

“Okay,” Eddie says softly. “Okay, yeah. You’re right.”

“What am I right about?” Steve prompts. 

If Eddie weren’t feeling like he’s in trouble, he’d think Steve is really hot right now. All firm voice and no nonsense posture. If Eddie didn’t feel like he’s about to get his ass kicked, he’d be soaking through his boxers. 

“You’re right. I should cut the shit,” Eddie says simply. “I bought Dustin drinks for his party.”

“And do you think that was a good idea, Eddie?” Steve asks, exasperation in his voice. 

“I think I’ve been drinking since I was younger than them,” Eddie says. “And so have you.”

“And you want them to end up like us.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Eddie scoffs. 

“These kids start drinking now and it’s gonna be the way they deal with everything! You, of all people, should know that, Eddie! I had to—” Steve cuts himself off abruptly, clamps his mouth shut again. 

Eddie knows exactly what he was going to say. He knows that he’s going to say something about how he came over one day in July and found Eddie curled up on his side, a puddle of vomit on the floor next to him. How he had to drag Eddie into the bathroom and out of his clothes because Nancy had been worried about him and she thought it would be better if Steve checked in. 

In a way, it was. It meant no one else had to find out about him because Steve already knew, and it also meant that Steve was back in his life. 

But Steve’s mad at him. Steve’s mad, and that means he’ll probably call it quits on what they’ve been doing because he’s finally realized Eddie is just as irresponsible as everyone thinks, that he sells drugs and liquor to kids in town and that the kids they’re friends with aren’t excluded from his customer base. 

Steve’s going to break up with him — not that they’re even actually dating — and Eddie feels a tightness in his chest and throat that makes him want to push. Push the boundaries until something snaps. Make sure he does it himself so he doesn’t have to deal with the pain of Steve doing it instead.

“You had to do what, Steve?” Eddie asks. “You had to find me on a bad day? You had to make sure I didn’t brain myself on the bathroom counter? I’m sorry. Okay? I’m sorry, but the kids aren’t me.” 

“They’ve been through a lot,” Steve mutters. “And they’re too young. We’re supposed to be, like, good role models, and shit. We’re older, they look up to us and we’re not their friends, man. We’re babysitters, we keep them safe.”  

“Let me level with you here, Steve,” Eddie says. “Dustin’s fifteen, right? And you’re twenty. I’ll be twenty-one in three weeks. You know Gareth?”

“I know Gareth,” Steve mutters. 

“Gareth’s sixteen, almost seventeen,” Eddie says. “And he’s my friend. Hell, he’s in my band. I’m not his fucking babysitter. He’s been drinking at Coffin shows since he was, what, like thirteen? What’s the difference?” 

“The difference—”

“No,” Eddie says, cutting him off. “No, there isn’t one because any other time, you’re calling Henderson your friend. It’s just until I make a decision without you that you suddenly have a problem. Fuck off, Harrington.”

Eddie turns to go back to his van. He’s gonna get the beer and march it right up to the front door and then turn and leave. He has to go feed the cat and catch Wayne before he leaves for work. He doesn’t have time for this shit. 

“Excuse me,” Eddie mutters. “I think it’s better if you don’t come over tonight.”

Read more on AO3

[eggcompany]

Legolas- Hobbit Mama

What did you expect when you put four young hobbits, who are far too far from home, with someone who protects them and keeps them safe? Especially one that has a quite warm cloak and quite welcoming arms in the deep of the night.

“Legolas? What’re you- what’re you doing?” Aragorn asked as he stared at the... pile. The elf laid wide awake against a tree with the four little hobbits laying semi around semi on him. The two twins cuddled up on his left and Frodo and Sam lay cuddled on his right. Each of them had an arm or leg thrown over him. Pippin had his head resting on Legolas’s hip and Merry had an arm around the elf’s middle. Frodo had a leg on top of Legolas’s and Sam was laying back on the elf’s side and arm.

“I did not do this! They just- they did this! Crawled over to me in the night! I do not know how to handle the little ones so I fret to move them.” Whispered to the ranger. This caused one of them to move- Pippin- to roll and snuggle into the worn fabric of the elf’s tunic.

By now Gimli had come over too and was stifling a laugh.

“Looks like you have some pups there huh? Mother goose and her ducklings!” The dwarf exclaimed oh so happily. The elf looked exasperated. Aragorn laughed a bit at this too.

“They like you! You should be happy!” Gimli said as the hobbits began to roll and wiggle into a more comfortable position. Meaning Sam now had his arm thrown over the elf’s chest and had snuggled into his arm and Frodo now had Legolas’s leg trapped between his two short ones and Merry laid his head on the elf’s chest.

Aragorn and Gimli both couldn’t help barking out a laughter at the sight. It really was a mother hen and her ducklings now. The white haired man looked down at the little ones with his mouth open in disbelief and eyes full of nurturing love.

“They are... quite light. Perhaps they got chills in the night. Searched out for my cloak for warmth.” Lagolas thought out loud. He wondered what brought the halflings to him in the dark.

“Maybe they searched out a mother’s hand!” Gimli laughed out.

“A mother’s heart!” Add Aragorn.

The two started laughing again and to Legolas’s secret dismay the hobbits started to move and awaken.

“Oh hello Legolas” said Sam as he stretched his arms.

“Hi” said Merry as he sat up and stretched his back.

“‘D mornin” yawned Pippin.

“Good morning Legolas” finally said Frodo as he stood and pulled Sam up.

The hobbits went to their packs and got ready to make breakfast.

The Ranger and Dwarf both bid their good morn to the hobbits as they passed and then looked back at the wrinkled white haired man who was still laying against the tree. His cloak was spread out around him and his tunic and pants were wrinkled from sleep. He looked almost disappointed.

“What’s wrong Elf? I thought you said you didn’t bring them over here. What’s got you glum?” Aragorn picked at him. Gimli was talking to the hobbits.

“What brought you over to the elf in the night?” Asked Gimli to the four little hobbits as they broke out all their supplies for making a hearty breakfast.

Pippin spoke first.

“Well I was homesick and he smells like safety and mother’s cleaning solution! I thought he wouldn’t mind and if he did I always could just come back to Merry.”

Merry spoke next.

“Yeah and when Pippin left I got lonesome so I followed him and well... he’s so gentle when he patted our heads and wrapped his cloak around us.”

Next was Sam.

“Well I came over ‘cause he kinda looks like a lady and well he’s soft and gentle and stuff and I miss my bed. He was so welcoming when I laid next to him. He even kissed my forehead like my mama used to!” Sam was happy and well rested. He was thankful for the elf.

“How about you Frodo?” Gimli prompted. The ring bearer replied quietly.

“He’s warm and gentle and will keep us safe in the night. I came to him because he will protect all of us in the dark. And he shared his cloak and hummed us a song.” Frodo said solemnly but said the last part with a big smile. The rest of the hobbits nodded from where they were busy cooking.

Gimli smiled and nodded. He hid his laugher till he got back to Aragorn who was still picking at the elf. Legolas was now dressed with his quiver on his back.

Aragorn nodded at the dwarf as he walked up to them. Legolas looked even more exasperated now.

“Heard your givin out kisses now Elf. What ‘bout you hum us a song?” Gimli barely got out before him and the Ranger started laughing jovially. They laughed barkishly like dogs and the poor pale elf was redder than a proper apple.

“You two will- will get NOTHING! I was simply... offering some comfort for the little ones. It’s their first time being this far from their home and and I was helping! No thanks to you two! They were scared!” The elf was red and flustered. How dare these two men make fun of him! He was so angry.

The two men giggled a bit and stopped. The poor elf was so angry looking.

“Fine fine sorry. It’s nice though. It’s nice that your uh” Gimli said but couldn’t think of the end.

“Mother henning them. I mean protecting them and looking after them. It’s kind of you.” Aragorn finished.

Before the elf could respond Pippin hopped over with a large bowl of... something that smelled divine.

“Here you go mama, brought you some breakfast! As a thank you for protecting us last night and being so kind!” The small one smiled greatly and when the ranger, dwarf, and of course elf looked over at the other hobbits they all smiled too.

Legolas look down at the bow- did this hobbit call him mama? Did- wh- no. Maybe. Maybe Legolas liked it. Maybe it warmed his heart. Maybe if he doesn’t say anything the other two won’t say anything about it.

Legolas bent down to be eye to eye with the halfling.

“Thank you Pippin. I appreciate this gift immensely.”

The elf stood again to call to the other hobbits.

“Thank you, Merry, Sam, Frodo, for this wonderful meal.” The elf smiled widely showing off his pearly white teeth.

The hobbits nodded and talked among themselves as Pippin returned.

Legolas dig into his food without looking at the Gimli or Aragorn. He heard the two walk away but not without hearing.

“Hobbit Mama huh? At least they’ll find some comfort while we travel. Especially poor Frodo. Mama though..”

“Maybe it’s the lack of facial hair or maybe it’s the long hair and fair skin."

[anghraine]

I caught up with my re-watch of the second episode of Rings of Power! The episodes are long and have a lot going on, but it was fun and enjoyable—more than the first, actually, since it wasn't trying as hard to introduce everything and could breathe more.

I really liked the beginning with Galadriel in the sea, staring up at the stars before she starts swimming. Very apropos.

I thought Nori et al's stuff would be kind of tedious (I've never been super into hobbits or proto-hobbits), but tbh I find everything about it delightful to watch.

Arondir and Bronwyn are maybe the prettiest onscreen pairing I've ever witnessed. Their little theme/motif is also really nice and not overwrought the way the music sometimes got in the first episode. It suits my sense of their story being a bit like marginalia that doesn't exactly fit into the grand sweeping main narrative of Middle-earth, but is getting some spotlight anyway.

And now we've got Celebrimbor for real, with warning bells all over him! (Not literally.) I appreciate that almost the first thing he does is mention Fëanor, and he and Elrond immediately dive into a conversation about the Silmarils and craftsmanship, and Elrond seems deeply ambivalent off the bat. Him saying "So much beauty, and so much pain" about them/Fëanor's craftsmanship while wearing a feathery outfit that is hard not to associate with Elwing is ... yeah. You'd know, Elrond.

Celebrimbor's slightly snarky explanation that he asked for a massive team to build his tower forge thing and Gil-galad "has sent me you, instead" kind of worked for me? Robert Aramayo doesn't look anything like my idea of Elrond but I love his difficult-to-pin-down yet determinedly pleasant performance of Elrond's emotions and mannerisms. I also like Celebrimbor's robes.

And, oh man, seeing Khazad-dûm in its heyday? HELL, YEAH. The music is doing some of the lifting but mostly it's just fucking awesome to see. The show is clearly lingering on it with a lot of love and attention, which it's really nice to see the dwarves getting.

I liked getting references to Aulë from the dwarves (no, it's not what dwarves would ordinarily call him, but it's a reasonable concession to comprehensibility for people who aren't, well, us). During the whole challenge thing, Elrond is referred to as an Elf over and over and over, which I'm kind of :\ about as a firm proponent of Half-Elves Are Not Men or Elves, No Matter What Ultimate Fate They Chose. Elrond seems pretty uncomfortable with it (though that may be more about his relationship with Durin), but also does more or less accept it as a descriptor.

Nori was still trying to figure out the Stranger, which somehow is not boring, and meanwhile her father's ankle breaks or sprains or something as part of festival preparations. The Harfoots collectively treat this as a huge deal and are asking if he'll be able to migrate, which is not exactly framed as super ominous, but definitely seems significant and at least somewhat ominous. Nori is clearly pretty freaked out.

The first part of the episode is sadly a bit sparse on my girl Galadriel (though she got so much attention in the first episode that it's understandable), but we got back to her, still swimming. It'd be a bit unbelievably impressive from other people, but I can believe it for her. She sees the raft of survivors before we do, which I liked as a little detail.

The raft is really spiky, appropriately enough for a raft with Sauron on it. It's kind of hilarious that almost his first line is "Looks can be deceiving." No shit, lmao.

The survivors+"Halbrand" and Galadriel have this brief and slightly weird interchange about Corsairs, which strikes me as an odd reference both geographically and in the time period we're in.

Then there's a SEA WYRM that shows up out of basically nowhere and causes havoc resulting in the deaths of everyone except Sauron Halbrand and Galadriel. A coincidence, I'm sure.

Then we cut back to Elrond and Durin, and finally find out why Durin is so mad at Elrond. It turns out that Elrond basically ignored his existence for 20 years while he was doing ... things, and Elrond didn't even realize it'd been so much time because a couple decades is nbd to him. Angst and other difficulties around different lifespans = one of my most favorite fantasy tropes, so I'm onboard for this particular drama.

It's a little surprising that Elrond of all people would make this mistake, but then again, Elros himself lived so long that 20 years would have been a tiny fraction of his own lifetime, too. (Now I want lifespan angst or anxiety or something with Elros being the one who's "welp, it's really been that long?")

Anyway, I enjoyed how serious and fraught the whole discussion is and then the cut to comedy when Elrond arrives to apologize to Durin's wife, Disa. IDK, I didn't feel it was undercutting Durin as a character or his feelings, even while poking a bit of fun at his sulkiness—e.g., when Disa enthusiastically tells Elrond to make himself comfortable, and Durin is like, "But not too comfortable."

I love Disa's appearance, by and large. The patterning on her outfit is so cool and different. She's generally a delightful character, and I appreciate that while there's an element of calculation to what Elrond is doing, he seems genuinely interested in her and her work. The narrative itself feels really interested in the dwarves and their culture at this point, and I just enjoyed that a lot.

Meanwhile, back to Galadriel and Halbrand/Sauron. It's still really funny to me that there was so much indignation over Eminem Sauron being insufficiently hot, and then actual Sauron turned out to be this currently bedraggled but very conventionally attractive guy.

I like his little head tilt as he's ostensibly figuring out what's going on and his little "You're a deserter, aren't you?" As if he doesn't know who Galadriel is, hah.

When he says "My people have no king," it feels like a pretty blatant call-back to Boromir in Jackson's FOTR, but of course it's inverted, ultimately. Halbrand is a shadow Aragorn, not a shadow Boromir, and is himself (supposedly) the king he's rejecting. I'm not going to go on too much about it because I have a whole post about it here.

Anyway, Galadriel condescending to Sauron is kind of delightful. Sure, she's mistaken in assuming he's mortal. But everyone should condescend to Sauron, actually!

Back to Bronwyn, who is a bit more interesting in this episode, she actually makes it home and tries to convince her village that something is very wrong, but no one believes her. They seem kind of ridiculously stupid, tbh? Maybe not ridiculously—I can believe they would actually respond that way (I lived in the shadow of Mt St Helens for years, I know very well that historically sometimes that's the response to clear warnings of disaster). But come on, people.

Then there's Arondir in the horrifying claustrophobic tunnels with the glimpses of horrific claws. It is very successfully claustrophobic, especially when MICE start running all over him as they're trying to escape. Agh, the special hell. Then he emerges in a pool of water, only the water is super gross also, and he's focusing on the bubbles of something pursuing him only to get grabbed by a different claw monster.

We don't see him again for the entire rest of the episode and that's alarming!

I was taking little notes while I was watching, but at this point that got interrupted and I ended up watching the rest of the episode with other people and didn't take notes. But general thoughts:

Durin's final change of heart wrt Elrond and decision to take Elrond's offer to his father was a bit oddly offscreen, and it's kind of needlessly mysterious about what advantage the dwarves have over the Elves, but the show has already given us enough through both exposition and the behavior of the characters that it's not hard to buy.

Sauron saving Galadriel with Finrod's dagger is like. Hmm. Well. Yeah, that's a lot. I really like the scene of their raft in the storm—not much actually happens apart from it looking cool, but it did look really cool! And I love the imagery of Sauron desperately trying not to be drowned by the wrath of the sea, aka what will actually happen to him! :)))

I love how mysterious the Stranger is and basically everything that Nori and Poppy choose to be. Things like Poppy's "I don't speak firefly!" just work much better for my personal sense of humor than ... like, dwarf-tossing.

Theo's whole deal with the sword is ... menacing in a way where we know enough to know something is Very Wrong and related to Sauron, but not really what's going on with it. And the thing Bronwyn and Theo fought and killed was super freaky. I liked the abrupt cut to Bronwyn showing the decapitated head to the stupid villagers and them being like, "hmm. okay, guess we're moving now."

Aaaand Galadriel and "Halbrand" have been discovered!

[hobbithabits]

New Headcanon/AU? Literally have no clue.

Loving this idea that yeah Bilbo detailed the journey in the Red Book of Westmarch but he is just. Way too observant and smart in my mind that he would write so much more than that. Like what he wrote was literally just The Hobbit, but there’s no way he spent months on a journey with 13 dwarves and didn’t learn so much stuff about them (willing or not).

So he has a secondary personal journal that is page after page, chapter after chapter all stuff all about each member of the company. Them personally, how they treated him, how they treated others, their relationships within the company.

(What I have is based mostly on movie canon details because the movies actually give the dwarves personalities and that’s what’s the most interesting to me)

Stuffed inbetween pages about his companions are loose pages of sketches of them. Most are Ori’s, he was glad to give Bilbo as many as he wanted before he left, but some are his own, drawn from memory, more about the art than the accuracy. He paints a few on thicker papers, giving bright colors where they belong.

Gloin’s fiery red hair and beard, the soft lavenders that Ori wrapped himself in, and gold and silver jewelry on each and every one of them. Shockingly blue eyes, that felt like he was seeing the reflection of a clear sky on ice. Black waves with the lightest touch of gray, flowing over sharp cliffs covered by a deep blue. Durin’s blue.

Anyways I’m rambling and I could write about this forever so maybe I’ll just say whatever and fully commit to writing exactly what I think would be written in it, dwarf by dwarf.

Oh well, this Bilbo kinnie is OUT

[obsidiancreates]

Sid's In Psych Lolz (Existential Horror For The Main Cast Though)

Buzz carefully balances Detective Lassiter’s coffee, a danish for Detective Juliet, and two chocolate croissants in case Shawn and Gus show up today in one hand as he fumbles to put his wallet away with the other. It’s a bright, beautiful day in Santa Barbara, which likely means some kind of murder or major heist is well underway. Sometimes it seems like the more picturesque the day is, the more wild it’ll be.

He gets some good evidence for that theory when he narrowly avoids bumping into a frantic-eyed, shaking young woman. She looks up at him, and her eyes glaze over entirely as her jaw drops.

“Whoa, miss, are you okay?” Buzz is barely done saving his coffee shop goods when he moves his hand to her shoulder, reaching down about as much as he’d have to with Shawn or Gus. She’s young, probably late teens or early twenties, and so pale he assumes she must be a tourist. Her face is stuck as that of shock, but waving a hand in front of her face he’s not sure anyone’s home to reset the breaker.

“Miss, can you hear me? My name is Buzz McNab-”

A shaky, squeak-like laugh escapes her. 

Buzz’s concern worsens when he notices she’s favoring her right side, and her lip is busted open. But given the state of her arm, scrapped up and dotted with rocks, he’s pretty sure she got it all from falling on her side. “Hey, are you in danger? I’m with the SBPD-”

She wavers like she’s about to pass out- and then she does. 

Buzz hopes, as he catches her, that Detective Lassiter won’t mind the lack of coffee when he comes in with a wounded Jane Doe instead.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“This better not be another international thief or forger,” Gus warns as he parks. 

“Gus, it’s not even in the top five possibilities here,” Shawn assures as he gets out. “Chief said the girl is pretty much incoherent.”

“So what’re we supposed to do?”

“Psychically translate her ramblings, that’s what.” Shawn waits for a fistbump that never comes. “Come on! It’ll be easy, I just need you in there checking for signs of drugs while I check for signs of lying or just plain being bananas. Oh, there’s Buzz with her bag!” Shawn jogs over to Buzz, who’s registering the bag for evidence. “Buzz, my good man! Chief called us in for the uh, rambling girl.”

“Oh, good.” Buzz is visibly relieved. “I’m actually the one who found her. She’s in pretty bad shape.”

“How bad?”

“Looks like she fell onto a road or something, and when I spoke to her she went completely blank! When she came to on the ride here she started asking me if she’s really in Santa Barbara and if I’m the real Buzz McNab.”

“Huh.” Shawn shares a look with Gus, both thinking the same thing: possible kidnapping escapee. “Mind if I get a reading on her bag there before I go talk to her? It might help me get a clearer image for whatever she’s saying.”

“Sure.” Buzz hands it over easily. “Just, make sure to hand it over to the evidence guys when you’re done, and don’t take anything.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, man.” Shawn takes the bag over to a bench by the wall and starts rifling through it.

“Careful, Shawn. If she actually got kidnapped, this stuff might be all she’s got left.”

“I know that, Gus, I’m being careful. … Dude, there’s three different books in here. Chief said she’s like, twenty-something, but she’s carrying around The Hobbit? … And a box of safety pins?”

“Safety pins?”

“Yeah, and look at this. What kind of phone even uses a charger like… whoa.” Shawn pulls the phone in question out. “Dude, it’s a smartphone that folds!”

“What?!” Gus snaps to attention at that, sitting next to Shawn and reaching for it. “How is that- it has two camera lenses?!”

“And check out that power button, it’s totally flat against the side of the phone. Maybe she was in the tech industry before she ended up here.” Shawn keeps digging. “Lip glosses, a bunch of surgical masks? Ha, jackpot!”

He pulls out a plain black wallet and opens it up. “ID right in the top, sweet! Looks like our Jane Doe is…”

His brows pinch. He slides the ID out of it’s clear holder and reads it again. “... Definitely not, a real ID.”

“Why not?” Gus leans in to look at it. Shawn faces Gus, and flicks the ID card around.

“Because it says she was born six years ago.”

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, how’s it looking in there?” Shawn asks Jules as he gets his first look at the girl in question. Given the likely fake nature of the ID, he’s not sure he should think of her as the name on it quite yet.

“Not great,” Jules sighs. “She’s saying the same things over and over.”

“No, I’m serious,” the girl in the room insists. Shawn zeros in on two things even through the glass- the girl’s leg won’t stop shaking under the table, and she’s picking at the skin around her fingernails. Could be signs of lying, but given her circumstances it could just as easily be from drug side effects or some kind of mental illness or trauma. 

“I understand you believe what you’re saying,” Lassiter says to her, “But-”

“Please, I’d like to talk to Shawn Spencer, he’ll believe me, he’ll know I’m telling the truth here.”

“Whoa whoa, Chief never mentioned her asking for me by name.”

“She just started a few minutes ago- Shawn, she’s very unwell. She…” Jules takes a deep breath and shrugs. “She’s saying she’s from 2023, in a different world.”

Gus looks in at the girl with new concern. “So she’s delusional? Shouldn’t we be handing her off to a hospital?”

“Not until we’re sure about her identity. Shawn, if you can glean anything about who she actually is-”

“Don’t worry Jules, I’ve got this.” Shawn taps on the window. “LASSIE! I’LL TAKE OVER HERE, BUDDY!”

Lassiter startles a little at the knock and shout, but gets up with surprisingly little of his usual grumbling.

“She’s all yours, Spencer,” he says as they swap places.

The girl visibly relaxes when Shawn and Gus step into the room, though the shaking leg and picking don’t stop. Shawn also notices she’s chewing the inside of her mouth non-stop, and her eyes are darting all around- again, he’s not sure if it’s a sign of lying or of serious mental issues. He and Gus sit down, and the girl smiles at them.

“Hi. My name is Shawn Spencer, Psychic Detective,” Shawn starts, using a more delicate voice than usual- this girl is pale and her face is somewhat gaunt. She’s not starving looking, but she’s thin and has little to no muscle, meaning either a lazy lifestyle and good metabolism, or, given the kidnapping theory, being forced not to move for a long, long time. She’s clean, though, save for the split lip and bits of road dirt smeared on her arm still. Her clothes are nice too- new, or at least seldom worn. Her shirt is for a band he thinks he’s seen on MTV before that weren’t really his preference, My Chemical Romance, and he’d guess she’s worn it less than ten times given how new it looks. She’s got a cheap choker on, fake leather with plastic spikes and a little bedazzled heart in the center. She wants to look edgy, and he respects the effort, but the lack of makeup puts her at odds with the now fading-out trend for the style she’s clearly emulating. 

It’s also a little at odds with the large, practical, and very green backpack, and the contents inside. The lipglosses were clear and a very light brown, and there was no eyeliner or nail polish in sight. The books weren’t what he’d expect from someone dressing like this either- The Hobbit is old and pretty far on the nerd-reading scale for someone not in school, even for Gus, and the other two books were some kind of sci-fi- The Murderbot Diaries, which would’ve worried him if Gus hadn’t read the first few pages while Shawn went through the extra pockets and realized the name was a sort of joke and the robot actually didn’t like to murder.

All of these thoughts and details run through Shawn’s mind in a couple of seconds at most, but the way the girl looks at him is almost like she knows what he’s thinking- or knows how he’s thinking. It’s something expectant, maybe even excited.

Then again, apparently she’s heard of him, so she’s probably just excited to see him ‘having a psychic episode’.“This is my partner, Baggins Screwloose.”

Her smile widens. “You went through my bag.”

“No, nothing like that-”

“You did, you saw my books, which means you saw my ID.” She leans forward. “Don’t call me that though, the name, call me Sid instead. If I have to be Isekai’d into one of my comfort shows, I want to be called by my online name. Just in case.”

“Uh, Shawn?” Gus whispers into Shawn’s ear from such a close proximity that literally anyone other than Gus would get slapped away for it on pure instinct. “I think she’s just crazy.”

Shawn gives a little nod, but doesn’t say anything. He turns back to… Sid. “So the ID isn’t your real one, then?”

“No, it is.”

“... You… realize it says you’re from the future.”

“Not your future, though. Well, maybe. I don’t know, the movies haven’t gone past 2019 yet- I mean the Monk movie did apparently so since it’s the same universe I guess the pandemic is canon to your future too but-”

“Let’s, slow down.” Shown puts his hands up and smiles at her. “Uh, movies? Comfort show? I mean I’m flattered, really, but uh, I’m no movie star.”

“Oh, yeah, getting ahead of myself. Sorry, I’m excited, and I’m a fellow ADHDer, ha.”

Shawn’s smile drops a little. How does she know- no, she probably guessed from some article describing him. He’s not exactly hiding it, after all.

“Okay so basically, I’m from a world where you guys are a TV show!” She says it so brightly, so confidently. Shawn’s almost certain she’s got brain damage now. “Called Psych, ran from 2006 to 2014, with three movies currently out and a fourth waiting to be started and hopefully many more after that!”

“Really?” Shawn looks at the glass, giving the detectives behind it a ‘You couldn’t have warned me about this?’ look before looking back at Sid. “So uh, this show is about me and Gus and our agency?”

“Yes, and Jules and Lassie too, and your dad shows up a lot- no offense but I fucking hate him.”

“M-my dad?” Shawn laughs. He’s not going through something like this again, not just a few months after Yang. “Alright, what’s the game here?”

“None! I can prove that you’re a TV show. I can tell you stuff that no-one, not even Yang or the world’s best detectives, could tell you about your past.” Sid grins like she hasn’t just said the most terrifying sentence in the world. 

“Shawn, we need to leave,” Gus says, already standing up. “Thank you for your time, Miss Delusional Woman, but-”

“The hat game.” Sid’s eyes are locked with Shawn’s. “I know about the hat game, and he wouldn’t let you get the cake unless you succeed at it. I know about the doghouse, the one he made you complete years later and then you gave him your neighbor’s dog just to ruffle his feathers for it. I know that you and Gus got into a fight over Battleship one time because you were cheating by not putting out any of your boats, so your stupid dad made you play with one less piece for a month. These were all cold-open flashbacks at the beginning of the episodes, a formula the show followed for years. A flashback to your childhood, usually involving Gus and always involving your dad and some lesson he wanted to teach you, and then the main plot which was somehow related! Like how in the one where you went to find the missing kid at the ComicCon type thing, the flashback was to how your dad was a total asshole about you wanting to read comic books and put you off them until adulthood-”

Shawn stands up, his chair scraping back, as Gus stares at the girl in unabashed terror. Shawn levels a finger at her. “You’re working with Yang, or-or you talked to my dad or my mom-”

“You totally gaslit George Takai in that episode,” she presses on, “And Jules said she also collects comics and stuff! And-and I know about Jules and Lassie too of course- OH! That bar! For the-the astrologist murder case! You met Lassie at that bar, and he said to you while drunk, and I quote, ‘You astound me.’ And then he denied it afterwards until the very end of the episode, and then you repeated it back to him!”

Shawn hears Lassie yelling for McNab and The Chief in the other room, but his head is spinning too much to care. “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m from another world where you’re the main character of a TV show that I adore, and I don’t know how I got here. I-I’m not even in the right year- I’m guessing this is around 2009? It’s season four for sure, because to be frank that’s your hottest season and you’re smokin’ right now, but also that jacket-”

“Shawn, we need to go.” Gus pulls on his arm. “She’s crazy!”

Sid stands up. She’s as tall as both of them, slightly taller with her boots. “I’m telling the truth! I’m not a stalker, I’m not working with Yang, and I’m not going to hurt anyone! I promise, I’m telling the truth!”

She is, she is, the nervousness has disappeared and her voice is steady and she’s making direct eye contact and nothing about her says she’s lying and even more she’s saying things she’d have no possible way of knowing otherwise.

“Okay.” Shawn purses his mouth, and then looks at the one-way glass. He knows, just intuitively after looking, that Jules and Lassie are gone and no-one replaced them. It’s just him, Gus, and this girl. He puts his hands on the table and leans in close. “Okay. Answer one thing, and I’ll believe you.”

Sid nods. “Shoot. Not literally, though, please, I also know you’re like, literally a perfect shot.”

“... Am I psychic?”

She blinks, and tilts her head like she’s thinking deeply. “Well, no, if we go by spoken canon. You started claiming to be psychic because you called in a tip while hooking up with a girl, and then Lassie brought you in because he said the shop owner had a partner and they suspected you because of how good your information was, quote, ‘So good it could only come from inside,’ end quote. But when you tried to say you call in tips all the time Lassie listed your job history and the car theft, and refused to believe you, and was about to send you to a cell. Then the lady from the front desk walked in to book you, and she was decked out in spiritual stuff so you got the idea and solidified your claim by telling them about the guy with the tail light shards in his boot, which of course you actually met him while waiting to be interrogated and-”

“Oh my god.” Shawn stands up from leaning on the table and wipes his hand down his mouth. “Oh my god, Gus, she’s real.”

“What?!”

“That’s what happened, there’s no way she could know that’s what happened!”

“She could’ve been here when you got arrested!”

“What, in the interrogation room?!”

“He came to see you at work after,” Sid presses on, looking at Gus now. “He caught you playing games on your computer, and told you that you two were starting a private detective agency, and you told him you were never going along with him again, you learned that at the Mexican border- twice!”

Gus’s eyes go half-lidded, and he looks like he might faint. “Oh… my god! Oh my god!”

“When am I in the season, though? What was your last case? I gotta know, there’s stuff I want to make sure I avoid-”

“Uh, I think- our last case was-was Gus had this girlfriend who liked extreme-”

“Ah, the Ruby thing! Okay, so like, mid season four, which means… ah, shit, the outbreak episode. I already live in a gosh-damn global pandemic, I’m keeping my fucking distance when that happens, okay?”

“You live in- what?”

“Mr. Spencer, out of the way,” The Chief says as soon as the door opens, Lassiter and Jules right behind her. “We’re putting this Jane Doe into custody until-”

“No, Chief!” Shawn shakes his head. “No, she’s- well.” He looks at Sid, who smiles so earnestly at him. “She’s telling the truth.”

“Oh, come on, Spencer.” Lassiter walks further in with handcuffs. “You’ve jumped on some wacky trains before, but this is-”

“What do I have to say to convince you, Lassie?” Sid looks at Shawn. “I can say the interrogation thing again, just, you know, his parts.”

“What interroga-”

“When you first met Shawn and he claimed to be psychic, after you booked him for a… I think radio store robbery, that you thought he was involved in. You were chewing gum the whole time, and you futzed with your then romantic and force partner’s ponytail even while interrogating Shawn.”

Lassiter’s face goes from annoyed to enraged in a second. “How the hell do you-”

“You and Chief Vick were on the way to a conference thing when her water broke, and you asked her to move your briefcase because it’s leather and you hadn’t scotchguarded it! And then you put up your siren on your car!”

Chief Vick is dumbstruck for a moment, mouth agape. Sid turns to her unnervingly knowing gaze to Jules. “And-and you have a boyfriend you’re planning on meeting at a train station sometime soon, you guys agreed to meet up on a specific day and time, and he gave you a figurine from a set, and your brother is a secret operative who you had to arrest-”

“Shawn, who is she?” Jules takes a step back. “Is she psychic too?”

“No such thing,” Lassiter growls.

“I’m naming moments from a TV show,” she stresses. “And if you give me my phone I can even show you the show! Not-not the whole thing, because- I mean, well- I’ll show you clip compilations on YouTube! I’ll play the title song! I’ll show you the actor’s IMDB pages, Gus’s actor was on Broadway and drama shows and Lassie’s actor was in this great musical fantasy show called Galavant and Jules was in a Hallmark movie one time-”

“This is utter bull!” Lassie shoves Shawn away and goes to cuff Sid.

“You couldn’t keep up with Henry while the two of you were tracking Shawn after he got shot, and you said ‘It’s steroids, isn’t it? I knew it, you’re juicing aren’t you?’ right before you both came across the gas station-”

“You have the right to remain silent and I highly suggest you embrace it before you say anything even more incriminating-”

“None of you have ever seen Chief Vick’s husband! Shawn keeps a packet of Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo in his wallet! Lassie once brought a Wii over to Jule’s house for her nephew’s to play with and-and he put baby Jesus in a shot glass! Chief Vick has a sister and Shawn and Gus found out because her sister pulled their boat over and the two got into an argument!”

“SHUT-”

“DETECTIVE LASSITER!” 

Everything freezes.

Chief Vick, visibly shaken, holds her hand up. “Uncuff her.”

“Chief, she’s clearly unsta-!”

“Uncuff. Her.”

Lassiter shuts his mouth, and for a second it looks like he might not do it.

And then he looks down, and reluctantly removes the cuffs. 

“Alright, Miss Sid.” Chief Vick has a dangerous look in her eye. “You say you can prove it using your phone, fine. You have one chance to prove it to us. But if you can’t, you are going in the holding cells, and we will have you put in a psychiatric facility if you are lucky.”

Sid nods. “I promise, I won’t spill anymore secrets once everyone believes me.” She makes eye contact with Shawn again. “Especially important ones.”

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Her phone is weird.

They’re all gathered in the interrogation room, Sid’s backpack on the table in front of them and her phone in her hands. She unlocks it using her thumbprint, and the apps on the screen are just… weird-looking. And her YouTube app is even weirder, just flooded with ads and weird video suggestions and truly looking like an app from another world.

She pulls up the searchbar and, quicker than anyone else in the room is capable of typing on a phone, types in Psych.

The very first suggested result is Psych Gus Running Away. She clicks on it.

A whole page of results that are, undeniably, the faces of the group around her come up. She clicks on the very first result, a short video marked as being uploaded 11 years prior, and it shows Gus, on the very first case he and Shawn worked for the SBPD, running out of the cabin they’d been investigating, screaming, as Chief Vick reacts.

“Bam!” Sid looks up, around at the whole group. “I can show more. Oh, like this one!”

She’s already gone back to the initial page, and she clicks on a video uploaded by a channel named Psych Compilations called Psych: Shawn vs Gus Running Compilation. The very first clip is of Shawn running into the Psych office during the Yang case.

“Stop.” Chief Vick puts her hand over the phone. “I don’t think any of us need to see any more.”

She looks a little ill. So does Gus, to a much more intense degree. Jules is completely speechless, and Lassiter looks angry as he realizes what and how much of his life has been viewed as entertainment by strangers in some other world. Shawn… is surprisingly unreadable. Staring at the phone, probably running a thousand different trains of thought all at once.

Sid looks between them all. “... Anyone want to hear the theme song?”

“No,” Gus says at the same time that Shawn says “Yes.”

“I’ll go with Shawn’s answer. Since he’s like, the main guy.”

“Like his ego needs any more inflating,” Lassiter grumbles, but it’s missing it’s usual bite as Sid pulls up a lyric video for what is, apparently, the theme song of their very lives.

In between the lines, there's a lot of obscurity.

I'm not inclined to resign to maturity.

If it's all right, then you're all wrong,

But why bounce around to the same damn song?

You'd rather run when you can’t crawl... 

She pauses the song. “Thoughts so far?”

“I got to admit, it’s pretty good.” Shawn looks at Gus, who still looks like he might pass out, but nods, still bopping a little. 

“Even your theme song says you're immature,” Lassiter notes.

“I’m proud of that, Lassie.”

I know, you know, that I'm not telling the truth.

I know, you know, they just don't have any proof.

Embrace the deception, learn how to bend,

Your worst inhibitions tend to PSYCH you out in the end! 

Sid pauses it again. Shawn laughs a little nervously.

“Not telling the truth that’s- I don’t lie about my investigations, guys, come on.”

“Really, Spencer? Because you were just agreeing with that theme song.”

“Who knows how different the TV show is from our lives, guys. And who says the-the theme song has anything to do with the show anyway? I mean, lots of shows have theme songs that are totally off the mark, like uh-”

“It says embrace the deception, guys,” Sid pipes up. “Embrace. Allow. Trust me, y’all need it.”

“What is that supposed to-”

“You know, Lassie. You know.”

“Chief-”

“Still can’t arrest her, Detective. … Yet.”

Sid shrugs. “This next part isn’t in the show at all, we only know it from live playings of the song- the creator of the show wrote and sang it with his own band!”

     In the realm of compliments, there isn't any higher than

A fabricated misdirection fashioned by a liar.

You think you hate all that you love,

Acting so surprised when it fits you like a glove. 

“Wow. This song is making you out to be a way better liar than you are.” Gus looks at Shawn. “Maybe the show isn’t that accurate.”

“I don’t know, early seasons Shawn was pretty snake-like,” Sid says casually. “I mean, in a good way.”

“A good way?” Jules looks at Shawn. “Shawn, why is this song all about you being a liar and manipulator?”

“I-” Shawn looks down at Sid. “What the hell are you trying to do to me, man? Turn everyone against me?!”

“Shawn isn’t a bad guy,” Sid assures. “He just… exaggerates a lot. You guys know that, I mean, has he ever even introduced Gus as his own name, or given an honest answer to a non-case-related question? No, because he’s eccentric, and a little unhinged. I should show you his reaction to Henry getting shot and almost dying.”

“Sorry to what? You’re-you’re joking, right?”

“Nope, it’s my favorite episode- even though by then you’re a complete idiot.”

“I- wh- I’m not an- you can’t just say things like that and move on-!”

“I can and I will, UNPAUSE!”

You want to find the answers then I offer a solution

Everyone has got a dose of healthy disillusion

If it's a game yeah, they wanna play

You better load the dice cause they'll do it anyway, but...

You'd rather run when you can't crawl... 

“Okay, Chief, this theme song is clearly alluding to Spencer lying about his ‘psychic abilities’, you can’t deny that.”

“No, no, Shawn is definitely psychic,” Sid says. “I can point to a lot of moments in the show that prove it. But he’s also a literal genius detective who will mix his psychic stuff with his actual deductions and pretend it’s just all psychic because it’s more fun that way.”

Vick, Lassiter, and Jules all look at Shawn. He laughs a little.

“She’s- no, trust me, it’s all psychic.”

Sid looks at Jules. “Remembering retracing Shawn’s steps when he got shot? And how he got a hundred percent on the detective’s exam at age fifteen? And the times he forgot to brush off deductions as minor psychic visions? He’s both! Genuinely!”

Jules looks at Shawn, her mouth hanging open a little bit. “Oh my god-”

“I think I hate you,” Shawn says to Sid.

“You hate that you’re smart because Henry tortured you for it. Own it, Shawn, own it now before it all goes away and you become a bumbling idiot who lucks into all your solves! Don’t become seasons six through eight Shawn, I’m begging you! God, you’re so fucking stupid in the later seasons, so stupid… and it’s already begun, the decline…”

“Whoa! Wha- one minute you’re praising me as a genius, the next you’re calling me an idiot?”

“You become an idiot later. God… season eight… I’m shuddering, look at me. The show is still absolutely hilarious and creative and wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but… your brain, it became mush…”

“Hang on, hilarious?” Lassiter glares at her. “Are you telling me… that the show we are in-” he gestures between him, Jules, and Chief Vick, “-is a comedy?”

“Yeah. Psych is a comedic crime show, heavy focus on the comedy.”

“We catch murderers.”

“There’s dramatic episodes and elements, yes. But it’s mostly a comedy.”

“We are serious police officers!”

“Yeah… lots of copaganda, unfortunately, and the 2000’s nature produces some questionable lines and plots, so the show for sure needs to have a critical eye applied to it at times… but mostly it’s fun!”

“Fun?!”

“I’d offer to show you an episode to prove it being a comedy but, well, for certain reasons I can’t do that. I can show clips of funny moments though! I have lots of compilations and specific moments and stuff I can show you, since my phone somehow has data and a connection to all the stuff from my world and time- should I show you Psych fanfic? No, probably not, I think that’d cause a lot of fighting. I can show you the clips though- oh, and cast interviews! And clips from Galavant and from the movies and-”

“Just finish the song!”

“Oh, yeah.”

I know, you know, that I'm not telling the truth.

I know, you know, they just don't have any proof.

Embrace the deception, learn how to bend,

Your worst inhibitions tend to PSYCH you out in the end. 

I know, you know.

I know, you know.

I know, you know.

I know, you know. 

The room is silent for a moment.

“Alright.” Chief Vick is the first to shake off the ordeal. “Well, we… we’ll arrange for somewhere for you to stays, Miss-”

“Obsidian if you’re using Miss, please. Sid otherwise.”

“... Miss Obsidian. Clearly, something… completely beyond us is happening here, and I think it’s in our best interest to keep a close eye on you.”

“Oh, absolutely. That’s usually how this sort of thing works.”

“... Right. I’ll be arranging for a watch at the place of residence we give you, and Mr. Spencer, I want you to find out what you can about this… reality… situation. It seems in your wheelhouse.”

“I uh… I’ll try, Chief.” Shawn is looking at Sid with some confusion. “On that note, could I speak with her alone for a second?”

“If you take her out of my office, absolutely. In fact, take her back to your office until I arrange her accommodations. She’s… well, she’s unsettling to have around the station.”

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shawn waits until they’re in the car to turn to Sid with an undeniable and uncharacteristic scowl. “What the hell was that with the theme song?! You said you wouldn’t get me caught!”

“I didn’t!”

“You told them I’m a genius detective!”

“You are!”

“And telling them you can show them proof he’s psychic was way too far,” Gus snaps. “If your show is real, all it’ll do is get us arrested!”

“I do have real psychic moments to show them! It’s actually a pretty popular fan theory, that Shawn is a real psychic and just unaware of it-”

“Oh my god.” Shawn stops facing her in the backseat, turning back around to look out the front windshield. “Now you’re being absurd.”

“I’ll show you the damn clips too! I’ll show everyone!”

“No! No, I am not learning about other realities and-and being a TV character and then also learning I’m a real psychic in the same day!”

“We can wait until tomorrow.”

“You! Are being completely insensitive and hostile about this whole thing!”

“It spiraled out of my control!”

“So far out of your control you have to call me an idiot?”

“Hey, you have the potential to become one if you aren’t careful! I’ll show you a damn season eight episode so you understand my panic, if I must!”

“No! No episodes, no theme songs, no clipshows! We’re taking you to our office, you’re sitting on our couch, and you’re going to let Gus and I figure out what the hell this all means while you just, sit there!”

“... Alright. That’s fair.”

“Yes, it is.”

“... But if Henry comes by I’m going to punch him without remorse.”

“... Not in his face.”

“Fine. His arm. I’m going to aim to bruise.”

Gus looks at her in the mirror. “How bad does the show portray him?”

“If I didn’t know it would drive Shawn into an unhinged state of revenge and sleepless obsession, I’d kill him with my own two hands.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah it’s not good.”

[cantevenbeachhere]

Okay okay, so. Dragon-Ken, right? Would it be drag-ken or is that too much emphasis on drag? (Maybe it could be a double pun....food for thought). Obviously you'd have a full dragon form, but they are shapeshifters and we need to see the face we know as you, so there'd be a human or semi-human form. I'm thinking like gargoyle vibes, like human-ish body but talons and tail and wings and horns. And like a dusting of scales on the cheeks. My brain says...gold and pink but idk if that is too feminine? I doubt dragons much care for gender roles (oh...there's.the 'drag' part lol)

Trying to figure out the hoard. Live horses? Toy horses? Dolls in general? Faux mink coats? Still thinking that part out.

~gender-kenvy

OH DUDE HI! Hi you’re here! Talking about dragon stuff! That’s so cool, I actually had a dream last night about dragons, sooooo weird but so cool!

Okay so there’s this movie I watched some time ago like right after the whole Kendom thing and Barbie leaving to help like distract myself from all that stuff because I didn’t really wanna fully deal yet, and the movie involved a dragon, which was like super cool, but I’m actually gonna talk about another character because you got me thinking about horses and hordes.

So like what if my human/semi-human form was like a caretaker for horses. Like my own horses because they learned to trust me and I take good care of them and protect them. Despite how I looked if I don’t have a human form but just like that gargoyle-y form. Kinda like that one dude from that second Hobbit movie who could turn into a bear.

By the way do Hobbits exist in the Real World? I think it would be fun to be friends with them.

Anyway, and maybe my dragon form’s horde would be…well, every time I see like horse merchandise I wanna buy it so bad no matter what it is so maybe anything horse related like how I had a lot of that stuff around the Kendom. I mean, I still kinda do have that stuff but it’s more…contained. Just in my room of the Kens’ Mojo Dojo Casa House. *gasp!* Oh my gosh like a HORDE!

As far as the colors go, what if my eyes were gold? That sounds so cool. And I REALLY like the idea of light blue with pink stripes. But not like racing stripes but something sorta like tiger stripes but not. Just like the vibe of tiger stripes, ya know. That just looks more…natural and animal-y. 

And honestly? I kinda think drag-Ken is funny, but the G to K kinda throws me off when reading it out loud. So I went to one of the libraries around Barbie Land, and I learned that one of the ways to say dragon in a different Real World language and probably a Barbie Land language somewhere out there is drakon. 

And then I was like *snaps fingers* dude. Bingo. DraKen. That flows better for me personally, but you’re the one with the WIPs and the ideas so if you want it to be DragKen that’s up to you.

By the way, what are WIPs? I don’t think you mean like whipped cream because you never mentioned cream with the WIPs so I don’t know what those are. Maybe like dole whips? That’s a thing. Still different spelling though.

Anyway, what were we talking abo— oh yeah! Okay so I can I be a flying dragon? And will my wings be on my back or like connected to my arms? I really want wings. I don’t wanna be a wingless dragon; I don’t really know how those count. Except that one tiny, red dragon in that one Disney movie. He counts; I’ll accept that.

Oh dude I kinda went overboard, but I got so excited *chuckles* but hopefully this helps get your creative juices going more! @gender-kenvy

[lunamadhatter99]

Be My Queen

SteveHarringtonXFem!readerXEddieMunson

Part 6

Here we go! This chapter is a lot shorter than usual, I apologise, but 1) I wanted to post something, 2)I want the next chapter more focused on something else.

Hope you're gonna like it anyway and if you want to be tagged in the next chapter let me know and have a great day!!

Chapter summary: someone's back.

Chapter warnings: none... I think. Surprising!

Tag list:

@once-upon-an-imagine

@munsonology

@cutepumpkin4

@summerbrooksblog

@iheartmyguitars

@trickylittlewitch

@eddiesguitarskills

@justheretoreadleavemealone

The sun lingering through the hospital's windows wakes me up, luckily no unbearable nightmares, not that I remember at least... still luckily. 

I slowly open my eyes, getting used to the light and I notice someone talking, or better reading something. Once I focus a little more I recognise Dustin's voice.

" 'this thing all things devours: birds, beasts, trees, flowers; gnats iron, bites steel; grinds hard stones to meal; slays Kings, ruins towns, and high mountain down. What am I?' "

Before he can go on reading I cut him off.

"Time!" I say sitting up slowly. 

"Y/n!" He exclaims excited.

"Hey, boy genius. How is it going?"

"It's great. Do you feel better? Steve told me you were still in pain yesterday" he checks.

"Oh yes. Actually, it's more stingy than painful, which is good improvement" I smile at him to reassure him "where are the others?"

"Interviewed by the police..?" He mumbles.

"What for?"

"Well... for Eddie's innocence, your accident... stuff like that" he explains "they already talked to me so... I offered to be here for when you woke up" he sends me a sweet smile.

"I hope everyone realises Eddie is innocent" I chuckle "I mean... take one look at that guy and you realise he couldn't hurt a fly"

"I know right!" He laughs.

"Is that my copy of the Hobbit?" I ask looking down at the book in his hands.

"Yeah, Robin and Nancy brought it here when they arrive to drop me off and take Steve. I didn't wake you, did I?" He suddenly looks guilty and is about to apologise.

"No, no, Dustin, I think you helped getting me out of a nightmare" I reassure him.

He looks a little relieved, but soon his expression turns into a concerning one.

"I'm really sorry, Y/n" He softly says.

"Can we please invoce a council with everyone so I can make it clear that it was no one's fault?" I chuckle "you have nothing to be sorry for, just like Max and just like El. And just like everbody else."

"But..."

"Hush. Nope. I don't wanna hear it. No one's fault" I lift my hand up to stop him "repeat after me: it was no one's fault"

He stays silent, letting out a small chuckle and shaking his head.

"C'mon, Dusty, repeat after me. It was no one's fault"

"It was no one's fault" he says it, way too quietly. 

"What? What did you say?" I pretend not to have heard him.

"It was no one's fault" he says a little louder.

"That's right, also next time something like this happens-"

"Hey! No! It won't happen again! And even if it does I don't think any of us will let you be the bait again" he cuts me off, with a stern look.

"Alright, alright... I was just saying-" I try to say.

"Nope"

"But-"

"Aahhh!" He uses his hands to cover his ears.

"Dustin-"

"I said no"

"Alright!" I exclaim with a laugh "alright, there won't be a next time. Got it" I raise my hands up on surrender.

"Exactly" he smiles brightly. "But, I guess you earned the right to choose the movies for the next... uh... 4 movie nights"

"Really? Yes!" I cheer then I stop "Wait... only 4? Man, I almost died! Ten at least!"

"We all almost died." He clarifies.

"Oh now you want to specify I wasn't the only one, uh!?" I scoff chuckling.

"Alright... the next 5 times"

"9"

"What? Nah, 6"

"8"

"Oh c'mon, you chose the last time too though!"

"Alright... 7, but I also get to choose what to eat" I take out my hand for him to shake.

He looks at me and let out a sigh, he grabs my hand and shakes it.

"Deal"

"Always a pleasure dealing with you" I smile at him. "I'll make pasta" I wink.

His face lightens up immediately. 

"Your pasta?" He asks.

"Of course" I chuckle at his satisfied expression. 

"But don't stress yourself too much" He immediately adds.

"Oh, not you too" I laugh exasperated. 

"You didn't exactly went for a walk!" He exclaims.

"I'm fine" I laugh, then I calm down "I'm fine, Dusty" I say softly to him.

Dustin's face changes again, from serene to almost disconsolate.

"Dustin" I try to regain his attention "Dustin, what did we say?"

"It was no one's fault" he says.

"Good, now come here and give a good Dustin-hug" I open my arms waiting for him, letting out a sigh of relief when he finally hugs me.

When he pulls away I notice a little tear on his face, so I quickly wipe it away.

"It's all good now, okay?"

"Yes... yes you are right" he nods.

"We did it again"

We high-five and in that moment there's a knock on the door.

"Can I come in?"

It's Steve.

"Sure!" Dustin yells and I laugh. 

Steve opens the door and lingers a little before entering.

"Hey, sweetheart, how do you feel?" He asks.

"I'm feeling better, thanks. Henderson here helped" I say patting Dustin's shoulder.

"Good, that's good" Steve mutters, a small smile crepping up his face, he quickly glances at the door "so... are you in the mood for a visit?"

"I guess..." I say, a little sceptical after seeing his behaviour. "What's going on?"

"Oh nothing, love" he smile and then opens the door and someone walks in.

My blood immediately runs cold, I tense immediately, as soon as Hopper walks in... I thought my hallucinations were getting better... and now he's using Hopper, too.

No no no no no... not this.

"No, no, please..." I start sobbing, and I cover my eyes.

"What's wrong?" I hear Dustin whispering to me.

"I thought the hallucinations were... were getting better... I can't." I sob.

"What are you talking about?"

"I see Hopper standing there... I... he's using Hop to torment me, " I explain. "Please... make it stop, make it stop" I sob into the pillow as I curl up in bed.

"Y/n," Steve's hand gently caresses my back. "Love? He is here."

"What?" I ask, confused.

"Hop is here." He tells me.

"What... how...no... he's..." I stutter.

"I honestly don't know, but he is here. He's alive. Do you trust me? You know I wouldn't mess with you."

I slowly look up to him, seeing how sincere he is, and even more slowly, I look to the door.

I look at Hopper standing there, a visible worried look on his face. He doesn't know what to do. He softly smiles at me, to reassure me everything is fine.

"He's really here?" I ask Steve and Dustin.

"Yes, babe,"

"Yap"

I cautiously stand up and walk to Hopper, I look up at him to check if he's actually here or not.

"Is it you? Like... for real?" I ask.

"It is" he smiles, eyes watering a little.

"Oh my god" I don't waste any more time and hug him. He immediately reciprocates.

"Everything is gonna be fine now. I'm here, kid," he says softly to me once he lets me go.

"I'm sorry... I... I thought.."

"It's okay, they told me everything." Hop reassures me "I'm sorry I wasn't here,"

"Oh don't say that to her. She hates it," Dustin chimes in.

"He's right " I say wiping away the tears "it's not like anyone could've stopped me"

"Of course" he chuckles "too stubborn for your own good."

"I wonder where I took it from" I tease.

"She's right, you know" Joyce appears from behind him, I just realise she's been here the whole time.

"Oh my god, hi" I quickly hug her too.

"Hey, sweetheart" she holds me tight, she then lets me go and cups one of my cheeks "You got us so worried"

"I'm sorry" I chuckle.

"When they told us you ended up here... God... even though you two are not related by blood, you definitely took your stubbornness from him"

"Well... I'm definitely proud of it" Hopper interferes with a big smile. "Oh... and they also let something slip"

"What?" I look from him to Steve, who has a guilty look on his face.

Before he can answer the door opens once again, only to let Eddie walk in, dressed in his own clothes, meaning he's ready to be dismissed.

"We bumped into Eddie on the way here..." Steve explains pointing to Eddie.

"Oh..." I nervously chuckle.

"Oh indeed."

"Yeah... I wanted to apologise" Eddie awkwardly scratches his neck "I knew you were dead and... you kinda spooked me... I'm sorry"

"What..?" I chuckle amused.

"He used me as a shield... and then he pushed me toward your dad.." Steve explains, rather exasperated. 

"Aaw, poor baby" I joke.

"And while I was explaining to this dingus he wasn't a ghost-"

"Steve blurted out we are now.. a thing" Eddie finishes awkwardly, still avoiding eye contact with... everyone.

"That he did" Hopper says.

"And...? Do you have a problem with that?" I ask, cautiously.

"As long as they won't hurt you, I'm fine with it" he smiles, almost devilishly, "it will only mean I won't have to cover up a murder... anytime soon at least."

I see Eddie and Steve share a, not very subtle, scared look. They then turn to me asking for help, but I can't help but laugh. I know Hopper is only messing with them.

"Alright!" Joyce claps her hands to change the subject. "How about after you are dismissed we all gather around and have dinner together? Uh?"

"Definitely" I support her saving my boyfriends from Hop.

"C'mon, let's go, Jim. C'mon, you scared them enough" Joyce gently grabs Hop's Armstrong guide him out.

"Eh... not exactly enough. But there's plenty of time" he teases. "Take care, kids. Anything happens you call me, alright?"

"Sure, Hop" I smile at him.

"I'll come check on you tomorrow" he says.

I wave at them as they walk out.

"What a perfect way to say to my father we're in a relationship... Great job" I laugh.

"Yeah, you couldn't have chosen a better way, guys?" Dustin asks, with a amused grin.

"Hey don't look at me, man, he did it all" Eddie defends himself. 

"Yeah yeah, it just came out... I'm sorry" he says, coming up to me and gently taking my hand in his.

"Hey, it's fine. I never thought I'd ever have to tell him something like that in the first place... so... it's actually better this way" I smile at them.

"He... he wouldn't actually.. murder us right?" Eddie asks.

"In the most brutal way" I joke and he glares at me.

"Very funny" he sarcastically says.

"I know" I wink at him.

"I came here to tell you they're dismissing me, by the way" he tells me "Wayne's outside to take me home. As a free man, nonetheless"

"Rightfully" I smile" do you feel better, though? Like actually okay?" I ask him.

"Yeah, yeah, I do, don't worry, my beautiful girl" he says getting closer to me and Steve.

"Alright, I'm still here" Dustin announces.

"Not my problem" was Eddie simple answer.

"Okay. My queue to leave. Bye, guys, get better Y/n. Bye" he quickly rushes out of the room.

"There you go... you scared Dustin" I say.

"Thankfully" Steve comments.

"You two are terrible" I laugh.

Eddie smirks before kissing me softly on the lips and then lets Steve do the same.

"About going home..." Steve starts " my parents won't be home for the next... uh... couple of months.  Not surprising, I know, but... well... if you guys want to stay over and... maybe start to actually figure our whole situation out... we could"

"That's not a bad idea, Harrington." Eddie's still smirking "what do you say, sweetheart?"

"I say it's a great idea" I say and the kiss each boy on the cheek.

"And once you're out of here, we're taking you to the most amazing date you can ever imagine" Steve declares with a big loving smile.

"Easy there, Stevie... let's not create expectations we can't live up to" Eddie says making me laugh.

"Even a simple pizza and a movie at home would be absolutely perfect" I assure them.

"See?" Steve points at me looking at Eddie "she has no expectations at all. We're safe"

"Yeah... I guess you're right, man" Eddie agrees.

"C'mon, don't let your uncle wait too long." I say to Eddie kissing him.

"Oh fine fine. I'll leave." He sweetly smile down at me "you better get better soon. I can't deal with this guys here alone"

"Yeah, please, don't leave me with him" Steve begs.

"Oh c'mon, you two will be fine"

"Doesn't matter. Get better soon, we want to spoil you" Steve  softly says, still playing with my fingers.

"I promise" I smile at them.

"Alright, let's get going. I'll prepare the house for the both of you" Steve says and gives me a kiss.

"Fine, I'll meet Wayne and go home to prepare my things instead" it's Eddie's turn to kiss me.

"See you two tomorrow" I wave at them as they exit.

I go sit on the bed taking everything in.

Hopper is alive... I definitely need him to tell me everything. It's so good to know it wasn't one of my hallucinations.

We're gonna be a family again, with El too. I can't believe it, it's great.

Everything is actually going to be fine.

[frodo-with-glasses]

More Reading Thoughts: The Grey Havens

Oh wow, another chapter review, haven’t seen one of those in ten thousand years

I’m not ready I’m not ready I’m not ready aaaaahhh

this has been such an incredible year and a half; i don’t want this book to end

but the sooner i finish, the sooner i can start over again!! so let’s go

Fatty Bolger!! 😭 We missed you, friend!

Man how am I gonna draw him skinny and still recognizable?? Guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it

LOBELIA!

Man I remember being so annoyed that she received a welcome like this when I was a kid, but now that I’m older, the display of mercy is overwhelmingly touching

She’s leaning on Frodo’s arm!! FRODO’S! He brought her out himself! And they all cheer for her courage and tenacity!

AND SHE LEFT HER MONEY FOR CHARITY

Y’know what? You’re all right after all, Lobelia. You’re all right.

I love the implication that hobbits will not accept a mayor who is not RotundTM 🤣

Ahhhhh okay so THAT’S where I got my childhood definition of “horny”

I’m sure in this case it means “like horn (the material), hard and rough”, which is an excellent descriptor, and it’s a shame I will never be able to use it in my own writing

THEY FOUND THE HIDDEN FOOD AND HAD IT FOR YULE! HECK YES!

Aww, I love you, Gaffer

“It was a purely Bywater joke to refer to it as Sharkey’s End” PFFFFFFT 🤣🤣

The four hobbits being known as the Travellers is so sweet

Frodo: “Ah yes, your box of dirt, the box of dirt from Galadriel, the box of dirt given specifically to you by Galadriel, Galadriel’s dirt”

I love that Frodo knows every single grain of this stuff is magical

I love even more that Sam is antsy and can hardly keep himself from running around and checking if the dirt is doing anything LOL

MALLORN TREE IN THE PARTY FIELD

I’M GONNA FRICKIN’ CRYYYYY

Year 1420 haha blaze it

“All the children born or begotten in that year, and there were many…” Tolkien knows how baby booms work

“And no one was ill, and everyone was pleased, except those who had to mow the grass” BAHAHAHA 🤣

Ohhhhh oh Frodo, oh bby

Sam was away 😭 And Farmer Cotton was the one who found Frodo in his bed in pain 😭😭 o w

Okay but Frodo just automatically assuming like “of COURSE we’re gonna be roomies” is just *chef’s kiss*

IMAGINE. FRODO WAS PERFECTLY PREPARED TO LIVE WITH JUST SAM WITH HIM IN BAG END. JUST THE TWO OF THEM. IMAGINE

I love these boys so heckin’ much

Frodo: So we’re roomies, yeah? Sam: Er, I…well I’d love to, but…but Rosie. Frodo: MORE ROOMIES 8-D

Tolkien: “And they loved Frodo dearly, and no one in the Shire was better cared for” Me: Thanks, Tolkien 🥹😭💚

Merry and Pippin walking around like the local legends they are

Sam doesn’t even know how well respected he is in the Shire 🥺

Noooo Weathertop

ELANOOOOOOR

“Taking after Rose more than me, luckily” And this solidifies my headcanon that Rosie is drop-dead gorgeous

Frodo hiding his illness from Sam hurts, man. You can feel him trying to stay cheerful. Ow, ow, ow.

“‘You can’t go far or for a long time now, of course,’ he said a little wistfully.” I AM GOING TO EAT THE CARPET

ALL HE WANTS IS TO BE WITH HIS SAM

BUT HE WANTS SAM TO BE HAPPY AND ENJOY HIS FAMILY EVEN MORE

HE LOVES SAM ENOUGH TO LET HIM GO

I’M GONNA BREAK SOMETHING

“The Downfall of: The Lord of the Rings” Rollllll credits! *ding*

Oh. Ohhhh. The Elvish song meeting Frodo and Sam as they sit on their ponies in the forest in late evening. I’m gonna cry.

Bilbo: Well, I’m older than the Old Took now! Bucket list completed. Time to go!

“But I thought you were going to enjoy the Shire, too, for years and years, after all you have done.” Same, Sam…same. 😭😭 (that’s what the Magnolia AU is for)

How. How does Frodo predict the names of Sam’s kids. “And perhaps more I cannot see”—how can he see in the first place?? How does he know? He’s getting Elvish, Frodo is. Very, very elvish.

Just. Frodo’s whole speech. I don’t have anything to say, I’m just soaking it in, and I feel so joyful and so sad all at once. It’s so tender and intimate and yet so distant. Tolkien, you’re so cruel, I love you.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

I JUST TURNED THE PAGE

AND THE RIGHT SIDE PAGE IS HALF-BLANK

I’M NOT READY I’M NOT READY I’M NOT READY

Okay okay be calm, it’s okay, just keep going

MERRY AND PIPPINNNNNNN

THEY CAMEEEEEE

And they’re ending the story the same way they joined it because Frodo is trying to leave and they said “NOT WITHOUT US” I’M GONNA GNAW HOLES IN THE COUCH AND BAWL LIKE A BABY

KISSES!! FOR EVERYONE!!!

WHITE SHORES AND A FAR GREEN COUNTRY UNDER A SWIFT SUNRISE

S H U T U P DON’T TOUCH ME

The three of them riding back home in silence but taking comfort in each other

I joke about these things making me cry but I actually, literally, have mist in my eyes right now holy cow

It’s so melancholy and comforting and it hurts and yet it makes you feel so happy and whole

The story is coming to an end, and there’s so much you want to say, but you can’t find words for any of it, and yet the silence says everything and more

(And Merry and Pippin don’t start singing until they take their leave of Sam, almost as if they were being considerate of his feelings first, but as they go and you hear their voices in the distance you get the sense that everything is going to be okay)

“Well, I’m back.”

…

The end.

.

[secretmellowart]

OH MY GOSH I DID NOT REALIZE YOU ARE ALSO THE GENIUS WHO'S DOING THE HOBBIT ADAPTATION *AS WELL* AS THE LES MIS ART I JUST DISCOVERED!!!!!! MAY YOUR YEARS BE FULL OF BLESSINGS you have given me so much joy!!!!!

AHHHH thank you so much!!!! Sorry it took a bit to respond, this got lost in my askbox!!!!!!! But ahh you're so kind!!! And you have given me a lot of joy with this ask!!! I'm very glad people still stick with The Hobbit Comic even through the Long Winters of the hiatuses, it really means a lot!!! :_; <333333 And thank you again. But yeah if you're a Lord of the Rings and Les Mis fan, you're bound to stumble across me on tumblr in both fandoms at one point XD. When it comes to fandom stuff, I have two lifelong loves, and I'll always be found chilling in one or the other.

[ageless-aislynn]

Back in the day, (around 2006 or so, I'd wager) I decided to try making a Bag End-inspired diorama display thing for my Lord of the Rings (and friends) figures out of plastic canvas and yarn. (No pattern, I was just winging it.) Here are some pics of how it turned out. 😉

The front with the famous round, green door. I also gave them some lattice-work windows and a couple of plant pots with greenery, just 'cause. 😉

Closer up on the door and one of the plants.

This is the wall that was beyond the window and plants, on the left side as looking in that orientation. I couldn't really do a hill without it looking weird so went with a tree motif on both sides.

The wall on the right of the door, this one with a "rope" swing, just for funsies!

Interior on the door.

Everybody needs a free standing closet to store your stuff in, right?

Yes, that's an Ian McKellen Magneto wearing Gandalf's hat and politely levitating his sword into the closet.😜

Behind the door standing open a bit is a coat closet.

I wanted a sort of marble inspired pattern. Plus, I really liked this variegated yarn so...

Everybody needs a table with a vase of roses on it! And yeah, that's a Nazgul wearing a tea ball strainer on his head. It was from a joke at the time. Also, we see our Hobbit guests putting their cloaks away in the closet.

Interior behind the big window. I thought of this as a combo kitchen/dining room area with a decorative rug.

Eomer CANNOT BELIEVE that we don't have his favorite brand of coffee! Storm thinks we should have a dance party. Boromir is heading over to lean on the fireplace mantel. 😉

Clearly Gandalf is HERE for a dance party! Oh and I do believe there might be a Boromir/Eowyn "leaning on the mantel" love connection going on back there? 👀👀👀😂

It's a little known fact that Darth Vader LOVES a nice tree swing! He even brought a droid friend, d'aww. That's my Xena poster on the wall in the background, btw. One of my most favorite Xena pics ever!

I also made Shadowfax, Gandalf's horse!

He can stand on his own. And yes, I made that fishbowl, including the Very Famous Fish Rear End on the side panel, lol! Nothing but UTTER ACCURACY around here, thank you very much. 😜

The chair was made from a kit. The cushion comes off and you can store things in the bottom box part. The mug of hot chocolate has marshmallows on top and also the rim raises up so you can store small things in it.

The flower vase was also from a kit. I famously got my hand stuck in it while doing the bottom stitch to finish attaching it to the base. I thought I might have to unstitch it a bit to get free but thankfully didn't have to. Absolutely no one who saw me with a plastic canvas vase stuck on my hand laughed. 😑🤣

(As well they should have. I laughed, too, once I got my hand out of there, lol!)

My mom loved lighthouses so I made her a day and night version. They're the same size but this was 2 separate pics edited together and the different angles made the night version look smaller.

Anyway, that's a few things I made back in the day. Nothing sophisticated but I just enjoyed playing around with it. The canvas got really hard to find for a while and then got very expensive once I located it again, so I stopped making things. 😢

Oh, almost forgot to add the pic that made me think to post these to begin with: Barbie with one of my ducks from my earthquake post.

I made a bunch of these little ducks for a project I never completed, then found them in a Ziploc bag the other day. Now there are little ducks all over the house, lol! 🦆💖

PS - I may have posted these pics before. I know I did on my Livejournal but couldn't find them on Tumblr. If this is the second time you're seeing them, though, apologies. Ais is old and the memory just ain't what she used to be. 😑😉

[doodle-pops]

Hii mina mae-duh-whores anon here! Hope you are doing good! first of all,i saw that ask mina and if you were to actually write mgime related stuff, please id really go crazy!! i love your writing so much!!

Second of all to that anon, if you actually start writing silmarillion mgime i wanna be the first to read it!! id love to beta read or just brainstorm or plot with you if you're up for that kind of thing!!

Third, I've got a recommendation or two that no one really asked for haha. There aren't many silmarillion mgime fics so I thought I'd share the ones I've read on ao3 that I think you or your followers might like!

The first fic called, stardusts in our souls by Autumn_moonlight. its ecthelion x oc, it was last updated in July or something, but its such a fun read so far! the oc reads ecthellion the harry potter series and his reaction and eagerness to find out what happens next, its so cute!! I love when the modern girl shares technology or stories or songs from her world and seeing the characters' reaction to it is just so!!! Oh, there's also maeglin x oc smut in later chapters so there's that i suppose.

Second fic, it's called the knowing princess by Fantasticoncer. it's kinda long? The author still updates it I think, I haven't really finished it yet tbh lol. anyways main pov is basically female of x maedhros but it has got lots of other ocs x characters too, like fingon and mairon etc. it contains reincarnation and stuff, mc gets reincarnated as an elf in valinor along with her sisters from her own home reality.

Third is the Oialëa series by natelly

It's mcu/tolkien crossover fic, its kinda long I suppose, multiple books and many chapters etc but it's fun read, tbh I haven't this one either. its not exactly silmarillion events set but oc is kinda part of the kidnap fam, glorfindel's sister, and I've read spoilers that maedhros travels to mcu in second book or something so I thought I'd add it to the list? The first book which I've read is hobbit period set, btw its elrond x oc, and the oc is also doctor strange's daughter, and she also has powers and stuff. So yeah, if you love mcu and silmarillion hobbit lotr and mainly elrond, this fic is for you. Honestly I don't even like elrond that much, more into his sons lol, but still,, it was so interesting I ended up reading the first book! The oc is such a fun gen z mgime and i love her so much! The series is so well written too and there's even separate prequels and epilogue and fics written from other characters perspective and stuff too! In one of the books maedhros and oc also goes to therapy, haven't read that part but mae,, im so glad he got therapy, he really really needs that haha

I am doing better as I've resurfaced from my week disappearance 😁. Though, everything feels strange as though I've been gone for longer 😅.

Some recommendations for those who enjoy the Modern girl in Middle Earth troupe and for the anon who's in the process of creating a story for modern day reader. Thank you for assistance 💖

[lonesomedreamer]

The Rings of Power Liveblog: “The Great Wave” and “Partings” (Episodes 4 & 5)

“The Great Wave”

As always, I appreciate this show’s commitment to being gorgeous!

The foreshadowing of Tar-Míriel’s dream is fine as a narrative device, but it feels…deceptive? Númenor was destroyed because they deliberately broke the Valar’s Ban by sailing to Valinor, not because one Elf showed up. (To be fair, they did so due to the influence of [redacted], so…)

Yeah, the whole “the Elves are gonna come take our jobs!” thing is, um…it’s too much.

Love that Al-Pharazôn is using their descent from Elros, the son of two half-Elves who both chose to live as Elves, to pump these people up…bc the Númenóreans had come to resent “the choice of their ancestor” by this time! They don’t fear the Elves. They envy them—resent them. They enjoy life and want to keep on living it. They want to be immortal. That really shouldn’t be a difficult idea to get across on screen!

I initially appreciated the obvious Mediterranean influences in this design, but now it seems over-the-top and doesn’t fit in well with the aesthetics of the rest of the universe.

It’s really dumb—and rude—that the queen keeps calling Galadriel “Elf”

It’s a shame they’ve stripped her of all her wisdom.

Unsure if it’s the fault of the writing or the acting, but Tar-Míriel is not doing it for me at all. Alternating between widening your eyes and smirking does not a compelling performance make.

Cheap comic relief from Elendil—thanks for nothing, writers!

“Isildur” continues to provide this show with unnecessary, meaningless teen angst/drama. No thanks.

More grimdark Orc stuff. At least Arondir’s finally getting out.

Oh, the horror movie nonsense, bad CG, and bad costumes that make up the Southlands subplot…I didn’t miss it.

The actor playing Celebrimbor looks more like someone you’d cast as a Hobbit than an Elf. I’m getting way more “old Bilbo” vibes from him than “master smith of the Noldor”…

WHAT is going on with the timeline? Most of Episode 3 took place over a few days in Númenor. In that time, Bronwyn’s village has run out of food at their watchtower refuge—believable enough—and the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm a) decided to help build forges in Eregion after all and b) already partially completed said forges! Make it make sense.

“Are you suggesting Durin’s got himself a wee girlfriend?” “These wee’uns are turning my mind to much.” I did Shakespeare in high school, and once, after our director asked us to project for the umpteenth time, she shouted, “You do not mic the Bard!” That’s how I feel about these line. I’m so sorry, Professor.

Elrond just wandering around in the mines of Khazad-dûm, alone, like it ain’t no thing, lmao.

Mithril!

Not them making me care about this made-up friendship between Durin and Elrond a tiny bit.

Huh, a Palantír. I didn’t see that coming.

“Palantíri show many visions. Some that will never come to pass.” Cribbing directly from Galadriel’s actual canon dialogue!

“I will not second-guess the gods.” This is so funny to me, bc like…Galadriel lived among the Valar! It’s giving “do not cite the Deep Magic to me…I was there when it was written.”

Arondir saving Theo and then holding his own against like a bazillion Orcs while also trying to defend him…as if!

We just saw the Orcs running around a village in broad daylight, but suddenly they can’t keep chasing Theo and Arondir because the sun’s coming up??

The power of music…now that’s very Tolkien. ♥ This scene also gives the Dwarves, with their exaggerated Scottish accents and bad dialogue, a few all-too-rare moments of dignity.

Which is quickly destroyed by Durin angrily screaming about his “old goat” of a father.

I’m grudgingly going to admit that I kind of like Elrond. Though I still think the actor is wrong for the part, he does have a certain gravitas when a scene calls for it.

“For ever am I with you, my son.” Oh…oh, it’s a good scene. And King Durin also has dignity and gravitas! I didn’t think these writers had it in them.

As surprisingly compelling as the Khazad-dûm stuff is, the Southlands subplot is dull. I’m not interested in Theo at all, and I’m barely interested in Bronwyn—and since they’re not going to bother to develop her character properly (there are just too many characters at this point), it doesn’t matter.

Also: the exchange between Theo and the guy in whose barn he found the Sauron sword about the return of their “king” is really heavy-handed foreshadowing.

Númenor is lowkey a narrative disaster. Aesthetically pleasing, though!

Wait, how did Halbrand get out of prison…? Did I miss that??

“I’ve decided to personally escort the Elf back to Middle-earth to aid our mortal brethren who are now besieged in the Southlands.” Again “the Elf” instead of her name…also, how is Tar-Míriel accompanying her going to make a difference? Sending troops, sure—but having the reigning monarch leave Númenor???

“Brave sons and daughters.” Do we think there were Númenórean shield-maidens? Genuinely asking. Yes or no, an absurd number of women volunteer to serve. I’m genuinely all for gender parity/equality, even in fantasy. However… a) it seems unrealistic in this setting/the style of combat they’d be training for, and b) women can be valuable and valued beyond being soldiers (Tolkien knew this—just look at Éowyn)!

Okay, this one was a doozy!

The Good:

Visually stunning, as anyone who’s gotten this far should now expect. I’m going to say that every time. (Tbh it’s why I’m even still watching.)

It’s nice to return to an Elven location (with the promise of more next time!) They gave a magical, ethereal atmosphere to the first episode that’s been missing ever since, and they feel a lot more escapist than Númenor and the Southlands.

Elendil continues to be hot

Some really touching, well-acted moments in Khazad-dûm*…I even thought Elrond was solid. And mithril!

The stuff with the Palantír was kind of cool.

Tar-Míriel is almost a real character rather than a Cersei Lannister knockoff. The acting’s still meh, but an improvement from the previous episode. And her headpieces/crowns are to die for.

Numerous references to Eärendil, most of them cheesy, but still…the little things.

The Bad:

Everything else.

The entire Southlands plot is spiraling into absurdity. I’m not invested in any of the characters involved, and since this is the halfway point of Season 1, I don’t expect that to change. It’s ridiculous that Theo and Arondir are even still alive after that forest chase scene.

Most of the dialogue is mediocre to Bad. *I think the Dwarves might be the worst offenders…poor Disa, the actress and the character both deserve to do more than spouting stereotypical “Scottish” sounding lines!

Even if the Númenóreans were less sympathetic if they openly yearned for immortality, their perspective and hostility towards Elves would make a lot more sense than “the Elves are gonna take our jobs” or whatever…

Isildur, his OC sister and her OC maybe-love interest are all wasting my time with their personal drama and angst. @ the writers: please stop wasting screentime on this!!!

Time passes differently depending on where you are in Arda, I guess? That, or the Dwarvish craftsmen in Eregion have superpowers.

No Nori at all. :(

I know it’s nitpicky af, but as a history lover, there’s something too historical/not fantastical enough about this Númenor. The design borrows heavily from classical Greece with a helping of Byzantine aesthetics and, confusingly, some generic “medieval” elements thrown in as well…overall, it just doesn’t mesh convincingly with the rest of show. It’s beautiful but imo it feels too grounded real-world motifs.

“Partings”

“I’m peril.” Sadface! Nori and I love you, not-Gandalf.

Listen, I understand exactly why people don’t like the Harfoots. I just do like them, contradictions, clumsy dialogue and all.

Poppy’s song is a real treat! It feels like something Bilbo might have written. No Tolkien adaptation other than the Rankin-Bass films has ever featured enough singing. As anyone who’s read LOTR knows, songs are ubiquitous and inescapable in Middle-earth.

Maps!

Why in the world do the Harfoots migrate THIS far every year? No wonder so many of them keep dying! And the Brandyfoots have definitely become separated from the rest of their village by now…

Overall, a delightful opening five minutes.

Weird “witch” (?) characters, Orc subplot… I’m using the fast-forward option liberally.

Who nominated Bronwyn to be in charge of the Southlanders?

Nitpick alert: We see some other women wearing the same spaghetti-strap style dress that Bronwyn has—good consistency—but why is hers the only one with any color? Some are black, and it’s not like black dye is easier/less expensive to get than blue…

The conniving tavernkeep guy instantly wins over half of the people who were willing to “stand and fight” with Bronwyn thirty seconds earlier. Lol.

I just like to look at him.

Oh no! Mean Daddy Elendil is Disappointed in poor Isildur. It’s a good thing Elendil’s easy on the eyes, because this is dismal. (Maybe it’s supposed to echo Denethor and Faramir, but to me it’s just giving teen drama.)

I don’t buy Halbrand’s Jon Snow “I don’t want it” routine, and neither should Galadriel.

It makes no sense that the Harfoots are willing to leave five or six of their own to die to avoid “making a widow or an orphan” of someone else. Sure, the needs of the many—but there’s no real evidence that the Brandyfoots are endangering anyone.

Not-Gandalf coming to Nori’s rescue…my heart…

Galadriel’s definitely into Elendil. (And who can blame her?)

The swordfighting scene was a little silly. That’s okay, though. I don’t hate fun, and it’s not unreasonable that a millennia-old Elf would be able to show up some overconfident human teenagers.

“When all this is over, the Elves will take orders from us.” How does Al-Pharazôn figure that? Yes, he will eventually take power and lead Númenor to ruin, but someone needs to tell the writers that this is not Game of Thrones.

Too bad the dialogue is leaving something to be desired.

People who haven’t read the Silmarillion are still wondering who tf Aulë is (and now Manwë, too).

How does Durin, a future king, expect to find out what the Elves are “up to” if he can’t be a little more tactful/diplomatic than accusing them of thievery?

“The ore containing the light of the lost Silmaril.” lmfao, WHAT. That’s…ridiculous.

Why and how would mithril—even if it did contain the light of a Silmaril—help heal the blighted tree in Lindon?! Be serious, writers…

More teen drama and hijinks with Isildur…you can go to the bathroom or get a snack without pausing any of this and miss almost nothing.

“This mithril is our only salvation?” It sure fucking isn’t! Why would the Elves even think so? The thing about the Elven-warrior-and-the-Balrog story is that most of these Elves would’ve been alive when it supposedly happened and should therefore know whether or not it’s just mythical nonsense (which it is lol)!

“We believe that if we can secure vast quantities of it quickly, enough to saturate every last Elf in the light of the Valar once more—” Except that doesn’t make any sense. What are they even talking about!!!

I’ve been coming around to this Elrond, but he’s leaning way too hard on the whole “sad puppy eyes brimming with tears” shtick this episode.

Me, currently rereading the Silmarillion: actually, Galadriel had more than one brother (sorry, Orodreth, Angrod, and Aegnor…none of you matter ig).

“They could not longer distinguish me from the evil I was fighting.” ??? ? ? ????? What?

Whether it’s the lighting, the direction, the writing, or Morfydd herself (most likely, a combination of all of them), the delivery and facial acting in this scene…ain’t doing it for me.

“We’re bowing down to the evil bloodthirsty orcs we just fled from because we’re scared and it’s obviously the only way to save ourselves” is a cop out and lazy writing! So is the idea that the Southlanders might somehow be more susceptible to evil by nature.

“Without [mithril], my kind must either abandon these shores by next spring or perish.” This is such utter, arbitrary bullshit. By next spring?!? Five episodes in, I’m coming to a full understanding of why this show pissed people off at last. To me, this is almost worse than the Halbrand subplot.

“Our immortal souls will dwindle into nothing.” And they believe this why? Based on what???

So pretty, and for what?

oh my GOD, they really did everything in their power to make him look like Viggo Mortensen!Aragorn here and I SCREAMED (not in a good way).

Don’t worry, Isildur’s OC sister: your dad and insufferable brother both have impenetrable plot armor.

Speaking of armor, this is truly hideous.

It’s great that the opening five minutes of this episode were so enjoyable, because the rest of it was a HOT MESS.

The Good:

Visuals: some gorgeous landscapes + the beauty of the Lindon set design is still breathtaking. A couple of really good costumes, though fewer standouts than in previous episodes.

Poppy’s walking song ♥

I admit it: the banter between Durin and Elrond is charming.

Not-Gandalf and Nori’s scenes (until the last one) are very sweet. I love that, for her, he’s the hero she sees in him.

I like Elendil and Galadriel’s faces.

The Bad:

Everything else!!!

Al-Pharazôn’s political scheming/machinations and Tar-Míriel second-guessing herself are just pointless filler, as is almost everything that we see in Númenor (though the teen angst plotlines of Elendil’s children are still the worst).

The Southlands subplot(s) are almost unwatchable. They’re boring and depressing—so, the opposite of why I love Tolkien. Frankly, I don’t give a shit what happens to Brownyn, her kid, Arondir, or any of them at this point.

Halbrand. I wish they’d reveal the twist already instead of trying to make him seem like this dangerous but sympathetic dude with amnesia who just wants to start over in Númenor or whatever.

The unexplained three witches/priestesses/whatever they were supposed to be

What the HELL is going on with the Lindon/Khazad-dûm subplot?! Mithril contains the light of a Silmaril and therefore of the Trees and therefore of the Valar? And that residual light will then heal all the Elves, all of whom are suddenly sick/fading??? WHAT were they thinking?! This is not based in any kind of lore or even any internal logic informed by the lore. It’s awful nonsense inspired by the fact that the Elves were indeed fading—at the end of the Third Age, i.e., thousands of years after the events of this series! TROP features not only legacy characters, but also legacy character dynamics (i.e., an odd couple Elf/Dwarf friendship, not-Gandalf and the Harfoots, a disapproving father and the son trying to impress him) and now legacy subplots, because why not?

More bad dialogue, and the acting is leaving a lot to be desired. Good-to-great acting can elevate mediocre writing; the combination of mediocre acting and mediocre writing is a lot less enjoyable.

This was the worst episode so far by a significant margin and the first one to make me actually upset with the changes they’ve made. Unfortunately, I don’t expect it to be the last.