#season 1. beginning

[spooky-things-au]

WELCOME!

Welcome everyone to my yet another AU! And a new fandoms as well... This new AU is a crossover between Spooky Month and Stranger Things. Feel free to ask how I got here if you're curious-

I literally have... NO IDEA how it'll work/if I'll ever get to write it, but at least I can do pictures of it... so... yeah-

For now, I'll focus on first season and then will work my way through the rest, if I get there.

Trigger warnings!

Kidnapping, cursing, horror elements, child abuse, child experimentation, manipulation, character deaths, drug use. (If there's more, let me know!)

Characters!

Kids | Teens (but actually Young Adults) | Adults

Seasons!

Season 1. Beginning

@crossover-enthusiast @catsockpuppet @spookuzm @things-arent-what-they-seem66

[spooky-things-au]

I have a few! (Mainly for ST AU and on paper, that I need tomake digital right now... but I have some!)

(I apologize for low quality-)

Does anyone has any roy pics or drawings I am in a moment/neg /nf

[libraryofgage]

so i wrote this yesterday and now it's become a whole thing

basically: Steve is actually smart but nobody realized it until he just fixes their various STEM related problems

anyway this is Eddie's very first experience with how smart Steve Harrington actually is

also please don't call me out if my physics explanations are wrong. just suspend your disbelief, i'm begging you lmao

also also, if you see any typos, no you didn't

---

"You're going to fail my class, Munson."

"Gee, no need to sugarcoat it," Eddie mutters, shoving his hands into his pockets and avoiding Miss Chester's gaze. His eyes land on one of the posters behind her desk, a cat hanging off a tree branch. Maybe it would like to trade places.

Miss Chester sighs, looking pointedly at the desk closest to hers. She waits until Eddie sits on it, legs hanging over the edge. "I'm serious," she says. "You're going to fail, Eddie. I don't want you to, but there's just some...disconnect happening here."

He appreciates that she's not totally blaming him. Most of Eddie's other teachers would've been berating him for his laziness by now. This, among other things, is why Eddie likes her class even if he can't wrap his head around physics at all. "I don't know, Miss. It just doesn't make sense."

"So I'm noticing." Miss Chester leans back in her chair, her finger tapping against her desk. Eddie immediately recognizes it as the drum beat from a KISS song. "You know you'll probably be held back if you fail, right?"

"Not the first time."

Miss Chester waves off his words, looking deep in thought. "What do you think about tutoring? I think you'll do better in a one-on-one setting. If you understand the concepts better, I can start grading you based on the work you do with the tutor."

"It wouldn't be you?" Eddie asks, frowning slightly. He's not sure he wants some random geek tutoring him. Not that he has anything against geeks, of course, but he's never known one to talk in a way he can understand. They get all...technical and Eddie's eyes glaze over whenever he overhears their conversations.

"No, I don't have the time. But don't worry," Miss Chester says, smiling reassuringly before pulling her roster close and looking down the list. "The student I have in mind probably knows more than me, if I'm being honest. He should be able to answer any question you have."

"What student?"

"His name is Steve."

Of course, Eddie immediately thinks of that Steve. King Steve. Steve "The Hair" Harrington with his blinding smile that's always looked a little strained in Eddie's opinion.

He then dismisses Steve Harrington as a possibility and reviews the other kids named Steve at Hawkins High. There's Steve Paulson, Steve Meyers, and Steve Barns. Maybe it's Barns? He's the only one that Eddie could imagine being somewhat good at physics.

"Are you open to tutoring?" Miss Chester asks. "For one session, at least?"

"Yeah, sure, one session. Won't help, though."

Miss Chester smiles like she knows something Eddie doesn't. Which, to be fair, she does. She knows a lot more than Eddie in terms of physics, at least. "I'll set it up. Just come by tomorrow after school."

--------

On his first day at Hawkins High, Steve realized two things.

One, his parents weren't kidding when they'd said public school would be vastly different from the private group tutoring he'd received up to that point.

Two, if he wanted to have a good high school experience, he needed to be cool. And being cool, it seemed, meant not being smart. He didn't need to be dumb, but he couldn't breeze through his classes, either.

He's done a good job of it so far. He's bored beyond reason in most of his classes, sure, but he's also popular. Nobody bothers him or tries to copy off of him, and it's great. He can even swallow down the weird surge of frustration and annoyance and guilt whenever his classmates assume he's too dumb to be a good project partner, or when his parents ask why he isn't enrolled in AP classes, or when his teachers give him confused looks after he aces tests for a unit he seemingly didn't pay attention to.

Anyway, he almost rejected Miss Chester's request to tutor a student from a different class period. He was just about to say he didn't have the time when she leveled him with a look so profoundly hopeful that he just couldn't. So, Steve said yes and now he's hesitating outside the physics classroom.

What if the student inside uses this against him? Steve thinks he could play it off, maybe convince his friends that the kid is lying, but he's not sure. Nothing dire would happen, but Steve would have to reorient himself to a new place on the social ladder, and that sounds exhausting.

"Just get it over with," he mumbles. Then, before he can chicken out and just leave the other student hanging, he opens the door and steps into the classroom.

Miss Chester isn't there. Steve knew she wouldn't be. She'd said something about a department meeting that would take her time but leave them with the classroom to themselves.

The only other person in the room is Eddie Munson, bent over a notebook and furiously scribbling on the page. He looks up when the door opens and freezes at the sight of Steve. They stare at each other for a few seconds before Eddie breaks the silence by asking, "What, get lost on your way to the locker room, Harrington?"

Steve blinks, frowns slightly, and takes a deep breath. Okay. Fine. Eddie Munson it is. "Nope. Miss Chester asked me to tutor you," he says, because that's the only reason another student would be in this room after school has let out.

Eddie laughs. He nearly falls out of his chair with how hard he laughs. He's wheezing and clutching the edges of the desk by the time Steve moves another desk to face him and sits down across from him. "Are you done, Munson?" he asks.

"Holy shit, you're serious," Eddie says, his voice slightly strained and his face red from laughing. "No fucking way Steve Harrington is here to tutor me in physics. You probably don't even know what two plus two is!"

"It's four. Do you know what 12 times 40 is?" Steve asks, watching as Eddie blinks.

"I'm not a fucking calculator, man."

"No, you're not. It's 480, by the way."

"You could've just memorized that."

Steve sighs and reaches into his bag, digging around some before pulling a calculator out. He places it on Eddie's desk and says, "Ask me something."

Eddie looks at him like he's grown a second head but still pulls the calculator closer. "1,239 plus 378."

"1,617."

He watches Eddie use the calculator, feeling smug when his face twists into confused disbelief. He then puts the calculator down and frowns at Steve. "So you can add, big whoop. Doesn't mean you can teach me shit about physics."

"Won't know until we try," Steve says, resting his elbow on the desk and propping his chin in his palm. "So, what don't you get?"

"...All of it. Just assume I don't know shit."

"You don't know Newton's laws?"

Eddie snorts, looking back down at his notebook. "There's that motion one and the reaction one," he says.

"Right. Newton's first law and his third. What about the second?"

"It's just...some equation or some shit."

Okay, Steve is starting to get an idea of where things stand. He thinks for a moment before asking, "What kind of stuff do you like?"

"What?"

"What do you like?"

Eddie looks so shocked by the question that he doesn't really think before answering, "Heavy metal. And, uh, D&D, too."

Steve knows heavy metal is music, and he could work with that but the D&D Eddie mentioned might be better. "What does it involve? The D&D?"

"It's a fantasy role playing game. Like, using your imagination to go on adventures with friends and stuff. Needs dice to work."

Oh. Perfect. "Do you have dice with you?" Steve asks. After another brief pause, Eddie nods and pulls one out of his pocket. He passes it over and watches as Steve turns it between his fingers. "Oh, an icosahedron. Cool."

"A what?"

"Icosahedron," Steve says, looking at Eddie. "It just means a twenty-sided polyhedron."

Eddie still looks confused, and Steve is about to explain it again when Eddie says, "Just call it a D20, dude."

"Oh. Sure. Anyway, let's use this," Steve says, rolling it between his fingers before letting it clatter to the desk. It bounces a few times before settling, a 17 facing up. "Do you know what made it stop moving?"

"The desk. I'm not an idiot, Harrington."

"I didn't say you were, Munson," Steve replies, leaning back slightly. "Just...yes, the desk stopped it. This is Newton's first law. If the desk wasn't there, it would have kept falling until it hit the floor. It stopped bouncing because it lost power each time it hit the desk. An object, the D20, will stay in motion, falling, unless acted upon by another force, the desk."

"That...kinda made sense," Eddie says, blinking a few times.

"Great!" Steve says, unable to help the bright smile at knowing Eddie understood him. "Okay, for the second law, the equation is mass times acceleration equals force. Basically, the movement of an object depends on how much it weighs and how much force you apply."

"Aaaand ya lost me," Eddie says.

"Okay, uh, you fight things in that game, right?"

"Yeah, kind of the whole point."

"Right, yeah, and the stuff you fight comes in different sizes, right?"

"Well, an orc isn't gonna be as big as a dragon, is it?"

Steve isn't really sure what an orc is, but he nods anyway. "Right. So if you want to move a dragon, you need to land a stronger hit than you would need for an orc."

"Duh. You're not gonna fell a dragon with a basic cantrip."

"Not sure what that is, but yeah. For this example, moving, or defeating, an object, or a dragon that weighs more than an orc, relies on how much force you apply, which is the strength you use."

"Oh. So, because an orc weighs less, I don't need as much force to defeat it," Eddie says, grinning as he fidgets with his pencil. "This doesn't really sound like math, though."

Steve shrugs. "We'll get to the math part later. Right now is basics. You need to understand those to do more complicated stuff. So, the third law, this is the action-reaction law. Music might be better for it. What happens when you strum a guitar?"

"It...makes a sound. Because it's an instrument."

"Well, yeah, but do you understand how the sound is being made."

"By...strumming it?"

"Yeah, that's part of it. Sounds are vibrations in the air that we can understand. If you touch your throat while talking, you'll feel your voice box, your larynx, vibrate to make the sound of you talking."

He waits as Eddie does exactly that. While holding his fingers to his throat, Eddie says, "Didn't know it was called a larynx. Oh, fuck, yeah, there are vibrations."

Steve nods, waiting patiently as Eddie hums for a few minutes before looking back at him. "So, vibrations. Instruments make sound because playing them causes vibrations. When you strum a guitar, the strings rapidly move back and forth, and that movement is translated into notes."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but yeah, I'm following you."

"So, the action of strumming a guitar creates the reaction of the strings vibrating. That action of the strings vibrating creates the reaction of air rippling, and those ripples create the reaction of audible noise. Did that make sense?"

"Yeah. It did," Eddie says, his voice soft as he stares at Steve like he's really seeing him for the first time.

Steve shifts uncomfortably, unused to this aspect of himself being known so well by someone at school. He's almost tempted to end things now and apologize to Miss Chester for walking out halfway through a tutoring session. Steve is practicing the apology in his head when Eddie says, "Hey, by the way, sorry for earlier."

"What?" Steve asks, trying to blink away his confusion and failing.

"You know, earlier, when I laughed at you? Pretty shitty of me to do. So, yeah, I'm sorry."

"Oh." Steve stares at Eddie for a few seconds before his shoulders relax. "It's fine. I'm not exactly known for being smart."

"Why not?"

"It's just...easier to let people think I'm dumb. Most of our classmates look at me and think I'm just, you know, a typical jock. They don't expect more from me than that, and I don't expect them to look any deeper."

"Does anyone else know, though?"

"My parents and the teachers. And you."

"Well, don't worry, big boy. Your secret's safe with me."

"Big boy?"

"Don't like it? Would you prefer Stevie?" Eddie asks, grinning as he leans in and exaggeratedly waggles his eyebrows at Steve.

Steve can't help snorting at the sight. "Whatever. Just call me what you want, Eddie," he says.

He tries to ignore the weird swooping in his stomach when Eddie's smile gets wider and he says, "You better not regret it, Stevie."

[lnfours]

mclaren | 2024 constructors’ champions

papaya on top 🧡

[katherinehoughtoncastle47]

1.01 - PILOT

[jackwhiteprophetic]

Omg hear me out, we get an Eddie begins but through the lens of Chris. So Chris is staying in Eddie's childhood home, and goes into Eddie's childhood room or goes through old boxes and photos. And we see flashbacks based on these, and through learning all these things Chris starts to understand his dad more. And at the end, Chris finally calls his dad and says he wants to come home.

[BUT- during this episode we also see Eddie in therapy and processing his life as a whole, but then on a call there's a building collapse and he's buried under the rubble. He's in an air pocket, and as he teaches for his phone to call Chris, he sees Chris is calling. He doesn't tell Chris he's hurt, he just says that he loves him and he'll see him soon. The episode ends with him losing consciousness]

[masterwords]

morgan taking care of hotch (because who else will do it?) (1/?)

[tommykinard6]

See, I’ve always loved the incident with Maurice and seeing Tommy flail around is so funny. The idea of him having a perpetual fear of fowl after that is amazing but let me raise you this.

The first time Evan goes over to Tommy’s, the day after an energetic night together, he goes downstairs and looks into the backyard for the first time and sees a chicken coop, his boyfriend feeding the old and hobbling rooster inside. And this is how Evan meets Maurice, old and blind in one eye but already alive longer than the projected lifespan of roosters at nearly 9. Evan watches as Maurice rests on Tommy’s lap as his boyfriend tells the story.

Tommy has always been an animal person, but never got to keep pets as a kid. When they broke up the cockfighting ring, Tommy had gone to see the skittish rooster at the animal sanctuary. And maybe it was silly to other people but something about the rooster spoke to him. Maurice was an innocent, trapped in a bad situation and manipulated into something he wasn’t by nature. And now he was uprooted from his home and didn’t understand what was happening around him.

Tommy knew the feeling.

Maurice never quite left his mind. The day after Sal left, Tommy finally went back and adopted him.

Because Tommy might have felt ridiculous for it, but things were shifting at the 118 and he was starting to find that he was restless. He needed a change. And he thought that just maybe, he and Maurice could have better together.

So Maurice took to the lawn in Tommy’s backyard and Tommy took to the skies.

Together, they were free.

At the end of the tale, Tommy watches as Evan smoothes a finger over the top of Maurice’s head and tells him, “He’s bitten everyone I’ve ever dated. But he likes you.”

And the acceptance of an aging rooster makes something settle pleasantly in Evan’s chest and he leans forward to kiss Tommy, careful not to disturb Maurice too much.

[starburnedandunkissed]

back when this was all we had… timebomb nation we’ve come so far

[caleb-is-existing]

Lance seemingly to dissappear every break only to be known to still be alive by his friends posting him on their Instagram stories like he's a missing person having very few sightings never gets old

[spooky-things-au]

Character sheet. 1/3. Kids.

Designs + some facts about them.

Season 1.

Susie (half of Mike)

In first season, 11 (almost 12) years old.

The brains of team + the only girl.

Will's older sister.

Their family moved into Frightville when she was 5 and before Will was born.

Best friends with Ross (went to same kindergarten).

The dungeon master of their DnD companies.

Pump (other part of Mike)

Everyone use his real name, Wilbert, but mainly goes by Will.

7 years old.

Susie's younger brother.

Despite being youngest, can turn situation in his advantage, using his age.

Halloween is still favorite holiday, but isn't as obsessed as OG!Pump.

Was the one to find Skid.

Really close with Lila.

Skid (Eleven)

8 years old.

Was raised in his father's cult.

Code name is Eleven.

Was still severely mistreated and experimented throughout the years.

Never been outside before his escape.

Nobody (but his father) knows it, his real name is Sunny.

Will introduced him to Halloween and helped him make his "Skid" nickname, so they don't call him by a number.

In this part, very quiet and soft-spoken.

Doesn't talk much at all, honestly.

Robert (Lucas)

Month away from turning 13, the oldest of the group.

Often puts himself to watch the rest, even if nobody asked him to.

Was the first one to question Ross' disappearance.

Has deadbeat parents.

His older siblings basically raise him and his little sister, Rebecca (they all call her Becky).

Anxiety(tm)

Despite that, actually a very upbeat boy.

Roy (Dustin)

12 years old.

The "comic relief with dark secret" type.

Starts off as a bully, but gets better throughout the season.

Basically imagine Amity. Yeah, like that.

Might be gay, but denies it.

Fists first, brain later.

Constantly headbutts with Susie.

Ross (Will)

Almost 12 years old.

Susie's best friend, childhood friends. (Might have a crush on her? He's not sure.)

The only child, his parents had him when they were 19.

Went missing in this season.

The quiet type, but will break if stuff piles up.

Dyes his hair, it's not naturally black.

Kids (You're here!) | Teens (but actually Young Adults) | Adults

@crossover-enthusiast @catsockpuppet @spookuzm @ferfbish

[skitskatdacat63]

2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Sebastian Vettel(ft. Mark Webber & Jenson Button)

[isthatacalzone]

me: *seeing people yell about how they did Glintshore & Percy's death in the show*

also me: ..................anyway

[izzysink]

𝐰𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬

𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒙 𝒇𝒆𝒎! 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓

𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡: 𝟷𝟽𝟺𝟿 ✎ 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑠: 𝑢𝑛𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 ✎ 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 ✎ 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝟷 ✎ 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝟸 ✎ 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝟹

𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑝𝑜 = @lanalosty0uu - you should totally check out their steve x reader time travel fic here on Tumblr!

I'm currently undecided on who to pair the reader with atm lol 🌝 but that means that it's kinda up to you 🫵 :0 if you have a character you'd like for the pairing, drop a comment and if I like them or feel it fits with the story I'll use them!! but!!! I won't write poly so you've gotta pick one 😔 ik ik it's a hard choice babes I know you can do it!! can you tell I like exclamation points

“I’m heading out! I’ll be back after my comp-sci class!” you call to your friend Hannah from the door of your dorm at Hawkins Community College, waiting a moment for a sleepy response from the pile of blankets at the end of your roommate’s bed. You shut the door, not bothering to lock it because you knew Hannah had a class pretty soon anyway. You whistle down the small corridor of the singular dormitory for HCC, checking your bag for the essentials; laptop, phone, charger, wallet, keys. 

You’d never expected to end up in Hawkins. Your parents had envisioned you going to an ivy league since you were little, enrolling you in extracurriculars and tutoring as soon as you could read and write; but you didn’t really want that for yourself, you weren’t the best at school - not the worst, but you weren’t yale level, like your parents wanted. After your parents insisted you only apply for places like Harvard and MIT, it didn’t surprise you that by the end of senior year you had no college to drive off to like so many of your friends. You had scrambled to find a place at any college that would take you, scraping the barrel for empty spaces, until a college from the middle-of-nowhere-Indiana, Hawkins, accepted you and your average test scores for a computer science course.

Walking to the campus, you check your phone, giggling at the bickering of your friends on the group chat and the tiktoks Hannah sent you last night. Hawkins Community College has its own campus, but it uses the old high school building as well (a new building was made for Hawkins High in the 2000s, and the old one went out of use until the community college picked it up and refurbished it for the Arts building).

You didn’t have any arts classes, but there was a little known shortcut through the old high school building to the main college campus, and you had made the route your little ritual of the week. It calmed you to walk through the old halls and be saturated in that old school smell and oil paints, getting to see unfinished paintings hung on the walls to dry or works in progress sat against the wall. There was a corridor on the way to the shortcut that was lined with shelving units, all stuffed full with bowles and sculptures and mugs. Your favourite little ritual was to see which ceramics had been kilned, picked up, or painted each week you had your comp-sci 101 class. 

This week, the swirling set of green plates you’d been eyeing for yourself had disappeared, whisked away by their creator. In their place sat an array of little figurines, you guessed they were for a board game of some sort with their angry poses and weapons, axes and magic wands held delicately in their hands. You were entranced in the precision and detail of the mini figures, quiet admiration floating in your mind as you continued on to your class.

The shortcut was just through a door on the left, it led into a small, little used drama room that had a back entrance door to the yard of the lecture building of Hawkins College. Checking your bun in the glass of the old classroom door, you made sure your claw clip was still in place as you opened the door and–

A chorus of sound burst from the dimly lit room, a small group of high school boys sat around a table in matching black and white shirts, a boy your age with a mop of curly hair sat at the head of the table on a plush armchair. The table was filled with dice and figurines and pens and paper, you guessed it was DnD, you had a couple of friends back home who played, and you’d even sat in on a couple of sessions with them before deciding it wasn’t for you.

As soon as you were noticed, all sound stopped, their faces turning to you in surprise. “Oh my god I’m so sorry,” you said, inching past the table towards the back door, “I didn’t realise this room was being used, I’ll be out in a moment don’t worry,” you flash a sheepish grin to the hoard of teenage boys gaping at you. Insecurity bubbled in your stomach a bit, they’re like 12, you thought, snap out of it, you’re in college now! 

Nobody replied, which you thought was a bit rude, but oh well, you had a degree to earn, and you probably wouldn’t see them again anyway. You opened the back door to head to the IT building, but when you stepped outside, it felt like you were sucked into an 80s time capsule, neons and shoulder pads and straight leg jeans assaulted your eyes from every corner. Also, why were there so many teenagers? The high school was a 20 minute walk away from the college. You got a couple of odd looks from some seniors, all decked out with massive hair and even bigger earrings, you could tell some cheerleaders were judging your outfit, which, rude, you thought you looked pretty cute today. You were wearing some baggy low waist jeans with the mini Ugg boots you’d gotten for Christmas a few months earlier, as well as a baby tee with a cute cat graphic on the front. To top it all off, you’d worn your favorite jacket and some little hoop earrings.

Walking backwards, you went back into the minor safety of the inside, at least the drama room had less kids having an 80s phase. You paused once the door shut with a click, looking around confusedly at the room you hadn’t noticed when you walked through seconds prior. You were pretty sure that whiteboard wasn’t there before, the same with that rack of costumes and those desks piled in the corner. The thing that caught you off guard the most was the writing on the whiteboard. There, marked in neat red pen, was the date 10/03/1986.

The hell? 

You tried to ignore the boys sitting around the table who were obviously staring at you as you fished your phone out of your bag, checking the date, yeah, 10/03/2025. You looked up and down from your phone to the whiteboard a couple times before awkwardly walking back to the other door. You’d take the long way then. 

You opened the door before immediately closing it again. 

Hell. No. 

“You okay there, princess?” your head snapped up to meet the eyes of the guy at the head of the table. Looking at him more closely, he looked like a total 80s metal head, crazy hair and rings on each finger. You mouthed a response, not really knowing what to say, I’m stuck in an 80s revival high school, surrounded by teenagers with big hair and all of the dates on the walls say it's 1986 when last time I checked it was 2025 and I’m late to my comp-sci class and-, you get the point.

Since you figured you didn’t have anything else to lose you asked, “sorry, um- where am I?” A younger boy, you guessed a freshman, with baby fat and a mess of curls made a face at your response, “Hawkins High?” he answered with a lisp blinking at you confusedly as you panicked over the new information. How could you have gotten from your college to a building 20 minutes away?

Scratch that, what the hell was going on?

“Okay, thanks,” you say distractedly as you think of what to do next, you look back to the eldest boy, you really needed to catch his name, “Do–” you were cut off by the bell, a lethargic pickup of footsteps outside the door telling you that it was lesson time next, not the end of school.

A chorus of groans rang out in the room as the boys got up dejectedly to get to their next class. You were swept up in the wave of kids exiting the room before you could get another word in edgewise and you found yourself back in the middle of an 80s tornado as the boys dispersed to their respective classes.

The one who had sat at the head of the table leant against the wall as you stood in the middle of the corridor, marveling at the disappearance of your favorite pottery shelves, instead replaced by school lockers and wall decals with various Hawkins High memorabilia. Students swerved around you, giving you odd looks and confused faces, you were clearly in the wrong place.

When the corridor emptied and the halls quietened, the boy spoke up, “I take it you’re not from around here? I’m Eddie,” you spared him a glance before introducing yourself. Don’t get you wrong, he seemed sweet and all, but your mind was a little preoccupied to engage in small-talk.

You decided to at least leave the school, it would be really awkward if a teacher found a college student just wandering the halls, but then again, looks like we’re in the 80s now, and from what your parents had told you about growing up in the 80s, most people wouldn’t care that much about some rando in the school.

You thought it better not to test your luck. “I’m… gonna go,” you tell Eddie, not waiting for a response before beelining it back the way you came. Navigating the hallways, you couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder at how different everything looked, how there was still art on the walls, but done by different people, there were club posters smattered around the school, basketball tryouts were next week apparently, and the walls were almost pristine compared to the paint and grime smudged college block it had become almost 40 years in the future.

You sped-walked through the front office, trying to make it seem like you weren’t not supposed to be there, and burst into the midday sun, tension melting out of your muscles immediately once you escaped the high school.

You stood there for a few minutes, wondering what to do. You didn’t want to even think the utterly stupid idea that kept prodding at your mind. Worried that if you allow yourself to question it that you’d go insane. Not that this situation wasn’t already insane.

You heard your stomach rumble. Well, food didn’t seem like such a bad start.

[saltpepperbeard]

ALSO LOVE STEDE STILL SAYING “you nut…” BECAUSE THATS ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS TO SEE IN FANFIC AND HE JUST WKDNWNDNS

[girl4music]

I honestly find it so interesting how much of an idealistic romantic Gabrielle is in the first season and how her attraction seems to only be to warriors except that one guy that likes to tell stories like she does. Talus. It seemed to be less about attraction and more about recognition. She recognized in Talus a kindred spirit. He was kind and caring and sensitive and empathetic... Just like herself...

But with the warriors - Gabrielle’s interest in them was more obvious and she wasn’t drawing parallels to herself in them, but rather to Xena. And that’s how you knew that she was just substituting her unrealized attraction to Xena with these warriors. Even later on with the female warriors that had interest in her, she was still constantly rooted on her idealisation of Xena. Of being a warrior or with one.

And that would always be unhealthy for her - unless it was Xena.

But yeah, the other romantic interests that weren’t warriors… She was just drawing parallels to herself even though she wasn’t that way either. At least she was very quickly moving away and separating herself from that. Again - just an idealised version of the real person. And look - Perdicus only ever became interesting to Gabrielle when he was no longer just a villager too. When he was also a warrior with a tortured soul. Someone she could save. Someone she could fix...

But she already had that person in her life and she was already doing that job and playing that role for that person. She already had exactly what she was looking for in a romantic partner in Xena. She just never realized it because she mistook her attraction to and affection for Xena as just hero worship and the fantasy of being an adventuress.

Season 1 just lays it on really thick that the Perfect Match for either one of them is clearly each other. They said they weren’t doing this intentionally and you can see that but they understood the romantic interest characters were just paralleling both their lead characters in that the traits in them are the reason they were attractive to them.

It’s much more obvious with Gabrielle than with Xena but even Xena had romantic interests that were just an idealised male version of what she loved in Gabrielle. What she found attractive and desirable.

So really they HAD TO come to the conclusion that they do in Season 2 that it’s EACH OTHER because otherwise you’d just get this paralleling happening constantly and not really a progression. And only Xena’s bad boy attraction ever makes sense because that’s Ares. That’s what Ares does for and to her. He isn’t an idealisation. He isn’t ever a fantasy for her. She genuinely is attracted to him and desires him. That’s the only romantic interest character that doesn’t feel like a poor attempt to cover up the fact that it’s Gabrielle she wants to be with. But then what happens is every "bad boy" romantic interest character she has ends up just being a parallel to Ares instead. So it’s always either just one or the other. Ares or Gabrielle. Dark or Light.

There never seems to be a point where Xena’s paired with a romantic interest to recognize herself like Gabrielle is because it’s never about realizing her identity or sexuality. It’s about balancing her nature.

But even so,... it’s obvious the Perfect Match for her is Gabrielle. And this goes on for 2 entire seasons until the half-way point of Season 2 raises the stakes and they have to acknowledge the truth of what’s going on with the narrative when it comes to the romantic aspect.

The real romance is, always was and always will be EACH OTHER.

It’s like Xena had to be bashed in the head, die and come back life for them to get to the point of “Oh, it’s you. You’re my true love. You’re my Perfect Match. You’re my soulmate. You're the one for me!"

Even then it takes them half the fucking length of the TV show to even commit to anything actually solid within their relationship. They know their feelings, they know each other’s feelings by that point but they are still so absolutely clueless. 🤦‍♀️ They have to be told. They have to get this information hand fed to them via reincarnation and AU crazy shenanigans before they can be like “Okay, we can’t deny it now. We’re clearly meant to be together for eternity… so should we perhaps go for an actual romance? Should we be an official couple?"

And it’s so meta how they do this because it’s both an in-show and out-of-show thing. It’s like the moment they decide both in-Universe and in real life that this is where they’re going with their progression.

It just works. It works so well for it to happen like this - for them to progress like this - and it is so interesting to delve into and explore the slow burnish-ness to their character dynamic because these characters discover each other in such a way that you rarely ever see in TV. And when you do see it, it’s never two lead female characters.

I’m just so grateful. I am so fucking grateful for XENA and for a team of creators/cast/crew that AGREED! I mean the way they set it up not even intending for anything like this to occur but it just... does.

Steven L. Sears is right. Is it really a surprise that these incredibly dynamic female lead characters would end up as a WLW love story?

No,... because how else could they have progressed individually? This was the natural trajectory because it made the most sense for both characters to evolve in this way AND to be their Perfect Match. And it is a queer narrative all the way through from episode 1 to the last because... at the end of the day THEY were the heart of all of it. Everything that happens, every narrative choice, every theme, every plot arc twist - it all wraps extremely tightly around their love story. It doesn't matter whether it was initially intended or not. It was THE WAY the story was heading naturally because it's a queer narrative and they let these lead characters evolve the way it felt most right and I feel they really took this relationship seriously as a romantic one precisely because they didn't just make it about a romance. That their "have their cake and eat it too" made this show phenomenal and I don't care what anyone says. It's THE BEST WLW representation.

But only because the creators/cast/crew went there. Only because they agreed. Only because they allowed it. Deep fucking RESPECT!