#some kinda rule against using it in league fights

[soni-dragon]

my bug leader that i finally made a ref sheet for :P

[lou-struck]

Dodge This!

Mirio Togata x reader (ft. Tamaki Amajiki)

~ Mirio has a new hobby and he just had to bring you along to cheer him on.

W.C. 2.6k

a/n: this was a sleep-deprived idea but I really am happy at how this turned out. I really had to incorporate some non-canon pop culture references for narrative sake. 

The dimly lit pathways do little to conceal the drying puddles of rainwater on the street around you as you and your boyfriend, Mirio Togata, pass rows of darkened buildings in the city's warehouse district. 

"Are you sure we're heading to the right place, Mirio?" You whisper, looking around for any sign of another person. "It seems awfully quiet around here."

He gives you a smile and drapes one of his strong arms around you, pulling you close. "There's nothing to worry about, y/n; we'll get to the gym soon. I just can't wait for you to see me play."

The game in question, dodgeball…

It's no secret pro heroes have some of the hardest jobs out there. Over time, pros have found ways to unwind after work just like everyone else, joining book clubs, poker groups, and adult sports teams.

The latter of which has been gaining more traction in recent years.

After hearing about a quirk-friendly recreational dodgeball league, Mirio jumped at the chance to sign up for a chance to use his quirk for something other than work. The first few times he had gone out, he returned sweaty, slightly bruised from ducking and diving against the gym floor, but more happy than you have seen him in a while. 

This is saying something because he is literally a big ball of Sunshine, hope, and optimism. All wrapped in a thick coating of good humor and affection.

At first, you did not want to go. Not because you weren't interested in watching a bunch of Pro Heroes throw rubber balls at one another but because it seemed like this was his thing. This little league has been so therapeutic for him you didn't want to inject yourself into the experience. But after weeks of pleading from him, you finally relented, knowing that in your heart, he wants to share this new and exciting part of his life with you, the person he loves most in the world. 

"Oh, watch your step there," he says suddenly. His large forearm shoots out in front of your stomach to stop you from stepping into a massive pothole full of rainwater. 

"Thank you." Looking down into the deep hole in the ground, you shudder, imagining the uncomfortable sensation of walking around all night with a sock drenched in rainwater. "You really saved me there, Lemillion." your smile is soft as you meet his twinkling gaze. 

His smiling cheeks flush a light pink color at the soft way you said his Hero name. "Anything for you," he beams, taking your hand and guiding you over the obnoxiously large puddle. His hand stays comfortably on your own as you continue walking down the paved street. He happily hums the Mission Impossible theme song, his current hyper-fixation, until he comes to a stop in front of a large warehouse. The white fluorescent light on the outside flickers as it is circled by big white moths.

"And here we are," he declares, turning his attention to you. His features turn serious as he places both of his hands on your shoulder. "Now, do you remember the first rule of underground dodgeball?"

"Ummm, don't talk about underground dodgeball?" you reply as his poker face shatters into his usual joyful features.

"That's it,” he laughs, his body practically buzzing with excitement. 

"I should've never made you watch Fight Club, "you mutter under your breath as he takes some sort of access card out of his jacket pocket and slides it into the electronic lock. It beeps in response and the little red light on the side of the sensor turns from red to green as the metal doors open for the both of you. 

You are flabbergasted at the complexity of the private facility. "All this for dodgeball?" this is kinda high tech, and you wonder which one of the country's extremely wealthy, retired Pro Heroes decided to fund this operation. 

"Yeah, isn't it the best?" he asks, practically bounding down the short hallway toward the ever-growing sound of chatter. His mannerisms remind you of a golden retriever on its way to the dog park. The mental image brings a smile to your lips as you step into a massive gymnasium, its warm overhead lights illuminating the whole room. 

A massive indoor sports court lies in the center of the room, surrounded by a few rows of bleachers. 

There are already a multitude of heroes and sidekicks standing around the room, some tossing red rubber balls into the padded walls with a scary strength behind them. The impact sends shivers down your spine as you worriedly look to Mirio. But he doesn't seem nervous in the slightest at the possibility of decapitation by rubber ball. Instead, his blue eyes are alight with the fires of competitive determination. 

"This is…" The word frightening lingers on the tip of your tongue, but he beats you to the punch. 

"Incredible isn't it? In here we get to let loose a bit and have fun without worrying about our rankings or the media."

You nod, noticing the carefree smiles of the other Heroes in the room. This league is a good thing for them to have fun and just act like they are normal people whilst throwing rubber balls at each other.

He looks at the clock counting down on the switchboard above the gym and shoots you an embarrassed grin. "It looks like we are cutting it a bit close today. My game starts in five minutes, so I'll have to warm up a bit so I can really impress you."

"I'm already impressed with you Mirio," you smile fondly. "I'll go up to the bleachers and get all settled in."

You turn to leave him to his own devices, and you feel a gentle pull on your wrist before you can step away. "Wait," he says firmly, the look on his face dead serious. "You're forgetting something."

"You cock your head to the side and try to remember what he could be talking about. When he sees that furrow in your brow, his serious face melts away, revealing that mischievous boyish grin that never fails to make your heart skip a beat. "You forgot my good luck kiss."

"Oh my," you mock gasp, "how could I forget such an important thing?"

He shakes his head, "It's a crime for sure; you'll have to pay double for this infraction."

"I think that can be arranged," you chuckle, closing the short distance between your two bodies and pressing two gentle pecks to his lips. The kiss is brief, but you can still taste the berry-flavored chapstick he put on earlier lingering on his lips. 

You pull away and playfully tug down on the hem of his shirt. "Good luck, Mirio," you murmur, nudging him off toward the court where his other teammates are waiting for him.

It's a short walk up a lightweight metal staircase to the raised bleachers. Since these leagues are pretty low profile, there aren't many spectators. You see a few groups of people waiting to play in the next round, but near the back of the bleachers, you spot a familiar-looking head of indigo hair sitting all by themselves. 

"Hello, Tamaki," you say, coming over to sit next to your friend. "I didn't know you were on one of the dodgeball teams."

"I'm not," he replies, popping a piece of popcorn into his mouth. The heavenly aroma of butter fills your nostrils as you pull your gaze away from the bag he must've gotten from one of the little concession areas in the warehouse. "But someone at my agency wanted to make plans tonight, and I told them I was busy, so I decided to come here so I wasn't lying to them."

"Oh, I get it," you say sympathetically. "But I'm glad you're here. I don't really know anyone else, so it will be nice to have someone to talk to."

He gives you a small smile and tilts his popcorn bag towards you. "Thanks y/n. Here, take some. I saw you were looking at it earlier."

"Thank you," you smile embarrassedly at the realization you are just as sneaky as Mirio. "Was it that obvious?"

"Just a little bit," he says. 

Suddenly, you are interrupted by the sound of a rubber ball hitting the wall with a terrifying force. It barrels back at the player who threw it like a boomerang. "Wow, do these balls just not pop?"

"Not usually," Tamaki says. "Since these games are for Pro Heros, the equipment was designed by support specialists to be extra durable. Occasionally, things will break, but it's way less common than with normal equipment."

"I see," you say quietly. Instinctually, your eyes dart over to Mirio in concern, but he looks so genuinely happy stretching and talking with his teammates it gives you a sense of security. If he isn't worried, you shouldn't be either.

A short man in a referee uniform steps up to the side of the court and blows the silver whistle from around his neck. The clear, high-pitched sound echoes off the walls, signaling to the teams of six to take the court.

A line of red rubber balls sit motionless in the center of the court. The players are touching the back walls with just the tips of their fingers as they stare the balls down hungrily as they try to decide which one to go for first.

There is a competitive intensity in the air that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, but when you finally zero in on your boyfriend on the court, he doesn't seem to be at all intimidated. 

Instead of the balls or his opponents or anything else game-related, you see that he is looking up in the bleachers right at you. A big, goofy grin rests on his face as he waves up at you enthusiastically. 

You laugh and give him a small wave back just as the starting whistle blows, and both teams are off. Mario doesn't run toward the line of ammunition at all; he hangs back and paces across the floor with an open, unassuming posture that basically invites his opponents to chuck a ball at his chest. 

It doesn't take long until the first player takes the bait. A woman with plum-colored skin and a long silver ponytail steps up and throws the ball his way with a wicked speed. It has a slight backspin as it barrels toward his face. 

It gets closer and closer until he activates his quirk, and it passes harmlessly through his body and hits the wall behind him. If it weren't for the special workout clothes he was wearing, you would worry about him sinking through the ground and popping up completely naked.

"Nice throw," he smiles, crouching slightly to pick up the now harmless ball. "If that had hit me, I would definitely feel that tomorrow." He winds up his throw and slings it across the court with a curve. 

The woman dodged just barely, but the man behind her wasn't so lucky. The ball hits one of his spring-loaded knees as he tries to leap out of the way and is sent off by the referee. 

"Way to go Mirio." you cheer happily. When the sound of your voice reaches his ear, he can't help but puff out his chest with pride. 

'Watch me,' he mouths, stepping into the middle of the court. 

"Looks like someone is getting overconfident," Tamaki mutters next to you. 

"What do you mean?" you ask as Mirio sneaks a smile your way just as his opponents throw three balls at him at once. Thanks to his quirk, he is basically untouchable. If this whole 'hero thing' doesn't work out, you are sure he will have a promising career in the underground dodgeball circuit.

Because that is totally a real thing. 

"Wow, he's incredible," you murmur to Tamaki. 

"He is," the hero replies, "but Mirio has a weakness."

"Really?" you ask, struggling to think of how he can lose at this game, "how so?"

"Just watch, you'll see what I mean," he replies, taking a long sip from his water bottle.

And watch you do. 

As the game rages on, Mirio's teammates are picked off one by one until Mirio finds himself staring down his opponents. The woman with the silver ponytail and the man with the strength quirk you saw earlier warming up. 2 vs. 1 may not be a fair fight, but you have full faith in your boyfriend. 

 His evasive maneuvers are professional and practiced. He is so good at dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging some more until all of the balls on the playing field end up on his side, safely out of his opponent's reach.

With a bright red ball in his hand, you see him wind up his throw, rush to the top of the court, and send it flying through the air with all his might.

But the man from before, smiling in his black leather singlet (which cannot be comfortable), catches the ball with one of his giant hands as if it were a balloon. 

Mirio is out. 

The ref blows the final whistle, and the match ends. 

After shaking hands with each one of his opponents, his smile falls, and he sulks over to you with his head hung low. "Ahhh, I was so close," he groans, plopping down next to you and leaning his sweat-dusted brow on your shoulder. 

"But you played so well," you say gently, consoling him. "This is so much fun to watch. Thank you for inviting me."

He perks up and puts his chin on your shoulder. "You had fun?"

You nod and press your lips to his forehead. "So much fun."

Tamaki clears his throat. "You player well, fo you play again?"

"Tamaki, thank you for coming." Mirio smiles, looking over to his best friend. "Yeah, I think we play again after this game. Do you want to play? I think we can add in an extra player."

The indigo-haired man's eyes go wide as he starts to shake his head. "N-no, I can't."

"Why not?" Mirio asks cocking his head to the side."

You watch as Tamaki tries to come up with an excuse. “Because… because…”

"That doesn't sound like a reason to me." you hum thoughtfully. 

Mirio claps his hands together. "Perfect, then you'll be playing on my team in the next round."

"We could get ice cream afterward." you offer as the shy hero accepts his fate.

He narrows his eyes. "Fine, I'll play. But you're paying."

"Done," you agree, as your boyfriend looks like he is about to burst from happiness at the idea of playing dodgeball with his best friend. 

"This is great!" he exclaims, patting Tamaki on the back. "There's extra clothes in the locker room in the back, go get changed."

"You sound too excited about this," Suneater mumbles as he heads off toward where the locker room must be, with the slightest hint of pep in his step.

Your boyfriend looks at you warmly, his sapphire eyes filled with love as he takes your hand. "Thank you for helping me convince him to play. I think this will be good for him to let loose a bit."

"I think you guys will have fun." you say earnestly, "I can't wait to watch."

Mirio gently pokes your cheeks. 

"Hey y/n?"

"Babe?"

"The love of my life?" 

You scoff as his enthusiasm brings a smile to your lips. "Yes?"

"If we win the next game can I get two scoops?" he leans in close to you and peppers your face with bribing kisses, your favorite form of currency."

"Mirio, if you win. I'll get you three scoops."

Tagging: @enchantedforest-network

[ilk-insolence]

Raph and Leo Analysis: Hot Potato BrainCell

Thinking about it, Bug Busters and Jupiter Jim Ahoy! were parallel situations for Leo and Raph. They were the only brother that voiced concerns about following a charming but suspicious stranger into their headquarters, were both ignored, and ultimately proven correct for their wariness and had to go rescue their family. What’s even more ironic was that their concerns were blown off specifically by each other in those episodes.

Obviously, this was a result of Raph and Leo being well-written complex characters with amazing contradictions (and the differing variables), but I wanted to understand the specific mechanics and rules behind their game of hot potato with the brain cell.

(long post!)

A pattern that I’ve come to see looking at different moments of “common sense” for Leo is that they’re all instances of him being worried for the safety of his loved ones. The most well known examples, found in this post that the majority of the fandom has seen (therefore I can avoid rehashing them all), are all Leo just trying to keep his family safe. Some additional moments are when Leo asks if sticking Splinter in a plastic ball is cruel or not in Down With the Sickness [15:51], him being the only one worried about the by Albeartos in Al Be Back [16:11], and when Leo remarked that it’s kind of messed up to use Donnie’s game addiction against him in The Purple Game [18:00]. Occasionally, Leo’s concerns even spread to people he didn’t know, like with Bullhop in Bug Busters, and when he asked April if she still had the orb holding the people of New York in Finale Part 3: Anatawa Hitorijinai [6:35]. Outside of that, Leo has the exact same batshit, reckless decision making skills as the rest of his brothers. (Should I even list examples--?) Air Turtle (bought the obviously demonic bridge), Clothes Don’t Make The Turtle (he pushed all his brothers into a pit without a plan because he was so excited), Bad Hair Day (agreed to grow hair to get into a discriminatory retreat instead of, I don’t know--getting a wig), The Evil League of Mutants (willingly went to New Jersey), Flushed But Never Forgotten (tried to replace his brothers with googly eyed rocks), and so forth. Leo being reasonable is Leo being worried, displaying a level of understanding and tact that the rest of his brothers kinda skip over. His common sense is from his protectiveness and care.

However, there are times where Leo’s common sense/worry gets pushed to the side when Leo pursues an agenda. Pizza Puffs, Minotaur Maze, and The Gumbus are some examples. It’s also what happened in Jupiter Jim Ahoy!, where Leo dismissed Raph’s desire to leave Moncrief’s house because he wanted to hang out with one of his favorite movie star heroes (and avoid Splinter). Even though Leo is shown to have a healthy sense of stranger danger, his worry was overridden by the allure of a real life Jupiter Jim.

Raph’s general good sense is similarly powered by his love and worry for his family. However it’s also powered by responsibility; not only as the oldest brother, but as a hero to New York City. Out of the rest of his brothers, it’s clear Raph is the most dedicated to the duty of protecting people. It’s why situations like Pizza Puffs (the mission chart), and The Longest Fight occur. It’s also why he’s the one that repeatedly gets his brothers to focus on the fight, like in the hypnosis in Clothes Don’t Make a Turtle [15:32]. However, being responsible and worried isn’t exactly the same thing as making reasonable decisions. Raph’s dedication to hero work can sometimes turn on him, make him too excitable to make sensible choices. It’s why he was chill with going after the spine-breaking/mangling bad guys for the Mad Dogs’ first mission, or create the whole FAB situation in Stuck On You, or immediately begin fighting the Foot Clan in Mystic Library [6:32], or why his solution to The Mutant Menace problem was to go outside and “‘smack people in the face with good deeds!’” [12:22]. Raph’s eagerness to being a hero can occasionally push him to behave rashly. (Kind of like his anger.) This is what happened in Bug Busters, where Raph got so swept up with the concept of catching the oozequitoes, of Big Mama’s help assisting him to do better hero work, that he completely dismissed Leo’s concerns surrounding Big Mama’s motives [7:45]. Admittedly, Leo’s suspicions is also due to him just being better at reading people, but Raph’s complete dismissal of his concerns shows that he was being stubborn around the subject too. Conversely, in Jupiter Jim Ahoy! Raph’s protectiveness over his brothers was greater than his love for Jupiter Jim, which fell in line with his responsible nature as the big brother, making him be the reasonable brother for that episode.

And that’s how A-team played hot potato with the brain cell.

oh god I didn't even touch on the movie at all wow.

[baronfulmen]

Holy shit Pathfinder 2e is even better than I was expecting you guys

Look I don't want to dump a long post on everyone but please click to read more. Come on. It's actually interesting.

Okay so I know Tumblr, here to get you interested is a fun fact: There's a specific god that will help you trans your gender.

The rest is more about rules and gameplay but click anyway.

Having three totally interchangeable actions per turn is SO GOOD, and having actions worth doing means you don't end up just doing the same thing every turn like in 5e.

Anyone, regardless of class, can choose to use their turn to:

Move, move, and move again.

Attack, attack, and attack again (not actually a good strategy but it's nice to have the option).

Roll intimidation to make the enemy frightened, trip them (which is more likely to succeed now that they're frightened), and then hit them (which is more likely to work now that they're on the ground).

Move, shoot someone, then duck behind cover.

Cast multiple spells if you know spells (most often good spells cost two actions to cast, but some cost one so you could cast 2-3 spells in a single turn sometimes).

Cast a spell (if you know spells) that is the equivalent of a concentration spell in 5e, and then use an action to keep the one you cast last turn going too (then next turn you can use an action to sustain BOTH of them and also do a third thing).

Hit someone, step back out of their range without provoking an attack of opportunity (though wonderfully most people can't do those anyway which means people actually move around in combat thank god) and then raise a shield to get an AC boost.

Roll to recall what the thing you're fighting is weak against, attack it, and then (because that first action told you it has a gaze attack) avert your eyes.

Etc.

That's without any feats or class features (I mean as noted above not everyone knows spells and stuff but you get what I mean) and there are other actions I didn't even mention. PLUS, it means spells can do different things for different numbers of actions!

(Those little diamond shapes are actions, so you can see that this one spell can be cast for one, two, or three actions with different effects)

2. Degrees of success mean that things don't fail outright as much and you can get bonus effects from tons of things. Also it means that every little bit helps which encourages strategic gameplay (like the tripping and intimidating stuff mentioned above).

Rolling ten or more higher than your target is a critical success, and missing it by ten or more is a critical failure. Also, getting a nat 1 or nat 20 changes the degree of success by one level. So you can get a nat 20 on something way out of your league and have it bumped from a failure to a success, or you can roll so well that you crit succeed just because you got a 31 on a DC 20 save or something (numbers are bigger in Pathfinder because you add your level to almost everything, but it's all balanced out and is fine I promise).

Like, look at what tripping does:

Or spells!

See, it's not purely save-or-suck!

3. There are so many cool ways to customize your character!

Pathfinder 2e is built on feats, but unlike 5e they're actually balanced. You get skill feats! You get class feats! You get ancestry feats! A lot of them are minor by themselves but FUN and you get SO MANY that no two characters will ever be alike. You can also (optionally) take an Archetype that lets you kinda sorta multiclass into not only other classes or a medic or a special kind of whatever but also random shit like "guess you're a ghost now".

Right now there are 3,983 feats. Yes really. This isn't as intimidating as it might sound; a lot are for specific classes, specific archetypes, specific ancestries, or for skills your particular character doesn't care about. Some are also restricted to higher levels, or have other requirements like having a certain skill at X rank or having some other earlier feat. Also at any given time you're looking for a particular type of feat, so your list will be smaller and totally manageable. It's 100% fine and easy to pick one. Like, when I was picking a level 2 class feat for my summoner these were my options:

Not so many that it's overwhelming or anything, but because you (over time) select so many different kinds of feats it really lets you fine tune your character to be whatever you imagine.

4. There are specific rules for things you can do while wandering through a dungeon or the wilderness or whatever!

Yes, sure, in 5e you can say "uh, I'm gonna keep casting Guidance over and over as we walk" or something, but a lot of the things people ask to do are hard to rule on. Can they really be constantly ready in case combat breaks out? How do you give them an advantage for that sort of thing without it just being a free buff?

But in PF2e there's rules for that! If you think there's gonna be combat, you can take actions such as:

Scout! This means if a fight breaks out everyone gets a +1 to initiative!

Avoid Notice! This means if a fight breaks out you roll your stealth for initiative rather than perception (everyone is trained in perception and it's the default thing you roll for initiative, but theoretically the GM could have you roll anything, like if you were trying to act friendly and then surprise attack maybe you'd roll deception) and if you roll well you can start combat hidden!

Defend! This means if a fight breaks out you start with your shield already up, raising your AC!

And then there's non-combat focused stuff too, like searching and keeping detect magic up and all sorts of stuff. There's a whole page of activities.

5. Some of the magic items are really funny.

[hollowshadow2]

Reverse robins AU

Damian-phantom/claw

Damian is first OFC, he was conceived back when Bruce was training with the league from age 0-10 he was raised by the LOA and then when he was 10 Talia sent him to Gotham, and then he became phantom Bruce didn’t know how to raise a child, and definitely not an ex-assassin, at the time so fighting between the two were common when he was 19 he stopped working with Bruce and then went to work alongside cat woman, she was in a on-off relationship with Bruce while he was raising Damian so she helped raised him some and that’s why he went to her, he becomes known as claw.

Cassandra-swan

Cass is the first batgirl(kinda) her parents sent her to kill an important political figure but then her and Damian meet again having already met before at the LOA, for awhile she wasn’t a vigilante for 5 months just getting settled into her new life, she was adopted by Bruce and watches over Damian, she went into ballet her vigilante name being swan, she and Damian got into fights as well but not as much as Bruce and Damian, Damian being more lose about the no killing rule at first (he later follows it more strictly) and cass being fully against killing

Stephanie-phantom/banshee

Steph is the second phantom to haunt Gotham, her father being a villain trying to compete with the riddler, her mother a drug addict, one day she follows her father planing to take him down and Bruce finds her, he trains her with permission from her mother wanting her to have a better chance at life, she later was ordered to fake her death, moving out of Gotham to continue training while undercover, she later comes back as banshee

Timothy-phantom/wisp

Tim the 3rd phantom, he was close friends with Steph, she never told him her identity but he knew, after figuring out her identity he found out the others and began to stalk the bats to make sure steph was safe but he believed he failed, in order to make sure Steph’s dreams don’t go forgotten he forced Bruce to take him as phantom later he became wisp. when Jason comes around he’s not all that friendly

Jason-Phantom/wrath

Jason, the 4th phantom and now wrath, he was caught stealing from a store by cass who drops him off with Bruce, he becomes phantom after a while before running off to save his mother, just to be tortured and killed by the joker when he was 12, he later comes back with use of the pit, he returns to Gotham at 14 as wrath, his actions ruled over by rage.

Barbra-watcher

Babs stared helping Bruce and the phantoms out when she was 8 she would have her father bring her to the job and then she would help them with case files and sometimes they taught her different moves, she dreamed of being a great vigilante like them, but the joker shot her and so she couldn’t, but she later sets up the technology so that she could continue to help, she works part time at the library she becomes known as watcher

Richard-robin

Dick, the first robin, he is currently in training and the youngest Bruce wanting to bound with Tim drags him to a circus where they watch a kid lose his parents, Bruce has Tim watch over dick while he gets legal things handled.

[yuurei20]

Malleus Info Compilation part 16: Malleus, Silver and family

Silver finds himself wondering if he could ever “turn (his) blade against” Malleus and Lilia if they one day chose to fight him of their own volition, during the Halloween event.

Silver says that “Lilia and Malleus have been looking out for me for as long as I can remember. I’d train with Sebek, and sometimes Malleus would sneak out and visit us”, insinuating that Malleus' visits to the cottage where Silver lived with Lilia had to be conducted in secret.

In Silver’s ceremonial robes vignette we learn that he, Lilia and Sebek patrol the grounds before Spelldrive tournaments, in case of spies. Idia says that Malleus is “game-creakingly OP”, making their efforts “kinda overboard”, and Silver explains that “Before coming to this school, (Malleus) was so well-protected that he never set one foot outside the castle without a whole cadre of guards”. When Idia asks if Malleus rules Diasomnia “with an iron fist” and everyone is scared to defy him, Silver insists that, “Malleus doesn’t need fear to lead anyone….I will do anything for the man I have pledged my loyalty to. Without Malleus and Lilia, I wouldn’t be standing here today. I simply want to repay my debt to them.”

Silver argues with Sebek over how strictly they should be staying close to Malleus, insisting that “Malleus deserves some time to himself”, but he questions this conviction after Sebek says “to leave him alone for even a second would be an act of supreme negligence”.

After learning the extent to which Kalim depends upon Jamil, however, Silver decides that “being overprotective must be avoided at all costs”.

Jamil uses Silver’s devotion to Malleus to manipulate him into fighting ghosts during Spectral Soiree.

During Firelit Sky, Malleus purchases coffee for Silver as “it might help him stay awake”, and Malleus has a voice line where he says, “Silver trains hard every morning. There’s something to be said for that level of perseverance.”

In his birthday vignette Malleus explains that he receives a birthday card from his Grandmother, the queen of Briar Valley, despite how she is kept extremely busy by overseeing the country alone in his absence. In addition to the card, she also sends him rose seeds.

Malleus says that he would plant roses at the castle in Briar Valley every year on his birthday and, as a result, there is now a large rose garden there. In his second birthday vignette, she sends him cufflinks.

Malleus also mentions that his grandmother used to tell him tales about the Scalding Sands. Malleus has no siblings, and he insists to Jamil that “one should treat their family with respect” when Jamil tries to send Najma away during the Firelit Sky event.

We do not hear much else about Malleus’ grandmother, though in a chat he says that his magic “can’t even league a candle to” that of his grandmother yet, and that “the queen is leagues beyond me”.

In a vignette we get what might be the one and only reference to his parents thus far: he says "this land's forebears toiled in the hopes of giving their descendants a happy, peaceful life. I wonder if it was the same for my grandmother and Lilia...and for my mother and father."

[gingernut1314]

Welcome back to Gingernut's After-Show Debrief

This is the show where this gingerbread girly completes another series that completely WRECKS her mental stability and she'll never recover

Before I crash out I'm gonna throw a spoiler warning up here real quick because the show I'm about to talk about is...

Arcane: Season 2 Act 3

I actually.....I just feel like....this was....😭😭

So 😭

And 😭

I am actually stunned that this show is over.

I didn't know figure out that is was ending for real for real until the last ep of Act 2 so I'm kinda new to this just distraught feeling and then...then.....

😭

I really enjoyed ep. 7 it was the cutest fucking thing to come out of this whole show. To know that there is a universe out there where they get to be happy, even if it means Vi is dead, is nice.

And Himerdinger's little song was too cute (and he's not dead. I saw someone on tiktok say he wasn't because he's a yordle and you know what I'm gonna believe it because if I don't?? its not gonna be a good time. Also I really thought he turned invisible then because I SWEAR I heard his little footsteps walk away som maybe I'll go with that)

Clogger and Milo being back!!!

SILCO WITH THE GOLD EYE EHEHEHEHEEHEHEHEEHEHEHEHE

If I were to get my hands on that man omgggggggg ✋😩 the fanservice was fantastic this season I was very well feed.

BENZO 😭 I sobbed when Ekko just attacked him in a hug like yesss he gets to have his goodbye moment and I'm happy for him

But I am UPSET for Ekko because what do you mean he's all alone sitting on the same ledge he was sitting on with Powder??? Why isn't he with friends??? WHY IS HE ALL ALONE SOMEONE GO CHECK ON HIM PLEASEEEEEE

The French song when Ekko and Powder were dancing was wonderful and I love both Stomae and POMME!!

I am upset that Sevika didn't get more screen time then she did, but I am SO happy that she 1) lives and 2) is on the council now!! She deserves it and she IS ZAUN she everything that Zuan stand for and she'd been there since day 1 and just UGHHHH I love that woman let me marry her right here right nowwwww

Piltover and Zuan teaming up to fight against a common enemy was wonderful. I loveee a good war/battle/invasion scene and that whole ep FED ME

Ambessa was badass and I hate her AND love her?? Like I have very mixed feelings on her and that's okay because that's what the writers want.

I'd let her completely annihilate me on the... battlefield....and that's all I'll say on the Ambessa topic.

Well actually that Shadow Black Rose mage was LeBlanc right?? I slowly trying to learn all the League lore and I read a bunch of people saying it was her but I really don't know enough yet to be like oh yeah. That's her.

ALSO MEL YOU BADASS BABE YES GOD YES GOD

Stunning, beautiful, let me sit on your lap as you rule over your kingdom pleaseeeeeeeeee

The creators of Arcane want to do other tv shows right for League? I know they are working on Penelope of Sparta but we've GOT to get some more for Arcane seeing different stories and stuff there are too many characters NOT to do it, Noxus and whatever Mel is gonna do with it being one of them

CaitVi being end game was wonderful. Caitlyn was looking scrumptious these last few eps and unfortunately, I've been a big Cait hater but she's....okay now....i guess....got played HARD by Maddie though like fuck that girly omgggggg Maddie was horrible even those she really didn't get us a reason to dislike her till last ep.

Talking about end games

JAYVIK

WE GOT JAYVIK!!!!!!

I LOVE that that was the victor in the PfP Jayce Wars from tiktok just stunning. 10000/10 right there. Yes, go be little space partners for all eternity love you bothhhh

MACHINE HAROLD WAS AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH SO GOODDD

I like how they changed it to be more in line with the lore for Arcane like the look of those Arcane creatures very nice very good love him would join his cult I don't need free will pffffttttt

And VIKTOR BEING THE GUY WHO SAVED JAYCE WHEN HE WAS A BABY LIKE YESSSSSSAHSGHAGHDGAHGDH they will be together forever and always I love those two

Ekko and Jinx entrance to the battle was perfect and they both were so good and--and--and--

SHES NOT DEAD

NOPE

She just got teleported to a different area in Runeterra like she's with her girlfriend Lux she's okay....😭

I will deny deny denyyyyyy that's dead like I won't even let the thought cross my mind and the ending of the show I think allows me to do so perfectly

The ending, after some thought and not just going off of my instant reaction which was to scream and cry and pull my hair out, was perfect for the show.

I honesty like how it gives you that feeling of I guess unfinished, like you know there should be more because that's what they want us to feel. The arcane world is so big and there are hunters of stories to be tole and even though I'm sad Vi and Jinx's story is done I know it's not really done, done which is in a way comforting.

This show really was beautiful.

I liked the mix between magic and reality. It really has set a high standard for any animated TV shows that I really doubt anyone will be able to replicate.

But I'm pumped for Penelope of Sparta because greek mythology AND stunning animation/storytelling??? Yes please sign me up I will eat it up.

.......now I'm just gonna...sit in my room....in silence for a good while because even though this show was stunning I'm sobbing

[kitakami-kid]

kieran's probably having the weirdest day ever lol

also some notes on how his team did!

- crispin was surprisingly a challenge! politoed and talonflame were pretty much fighting over the weather like that one scene in sleeping beauty where the fairies fight over aurora's dress color (and dragonite kinda relied on the rain so i had no choice lol)

- every other E4 member was pretty easy, including lacey, despite his two dragon types and lack of steel/poison coverage minus gyro ball

- politoed did extremely well! i didn't really expect that since i always two-shot kieran's. however, i did build it with lots of bulk + leftovers since i didn't have a wacan nor a sitrus berry

- hydrapple is SUCH A TANK! who needs a speed stat if you can take so many hits with minimal damage? i know the tera fighting is more of a reflection of his character, but if he used tera steel he would do much better

- the actual battle itself against kieran was pretty even! but i guess that's obvious since we had the exact same lineup (i didn't even do switch outs or sending out pokemon based on type advantage, i just went down the same order as him). however, even though i started the league with the same levels as him, they ended up much higher in the end which was ultimately the reason i won.

- i also had a strict no-healing items rule, just to be fair

my thoughts? kieran's team is pretty solid and he is actually capable of beating the league! with a few tweaks, he'll be golden! and he should also hunt for a shiny grimmsnarl because i can't get over how fucking cool it is... it's in a dream ball too and i really love the pink smoke bomb effect. his name is asmodeus and he's my fav

[meiko3323]

Curses, there's sand in my shoes.

the feeble scholar working hard to collect the ascension mats for his roommate. 🌿

my first time entering a fanart contest, pretty nervous >///< i hope its not against the rules to cross-post it here, though i combed through the rules and i dont think it specified anything.

even before i started posting my art, ive always kind of wanted to participate in a hoyolab fanart contest some time but never had the opportunity or inspiration. then genshin partnered with the discovery channel and used Kaveh as the mascot and i was struck with a vision - Alhaitham exploring the desert, harvesting mourning flowers for his bf. ive worked on this on and off for 3 days i think. this was a challenge in several ways. for one, ive never had much practice drawing a male torso outside of like Itto that one time. then there was the achilles heel of many beginner artists id imagine - the background. which was kind of the main point of this contest, you had to show off the scenery of teyvat. i actually went to the realm of farakhkert and took a screenshot as reference to make this. there was also the limitations of my dollarama coloured pencil palette that forced me to get creative with layering them to get the shades/ tones as close to the way i want them. last but not least, there was the mental demons i had to fight along the way. but im glad i pushed through :<

among my friends, i call this man The Honorary Dendro Waifu, since we dont have a real one yet (hoyo plz) and w his massive pecs he kinda looks the part lol. i hope i did him justice. i also hid a small Kaveh easter egg (ig you could call it that?) in the pic, its literally very small - the fastener thingy on the string of Allies hat is in the shape of Kavehs cat-lion keycharm :3

ive got no delusions abt winning or even making the runner-up spot, i see the caliber of artists in the space and they are leagues above and beyond me. but this was a fun experience nonetheless. wish me luck ig ^^

[batpham-discord-highlights]

2024 April fools and Anniversary Event Prompt List part 6

See what the event was and it's rule here!

Hero! Prompts:

Hero Lisa

Gotham AU has classes at 2 am, because that's when some people can attend. Jazz had no idea and now she is in a class with a very cute girl that glares at everyone and everything, claiming that "her dad put her to it". Anyway, Rose wants to go back doing her own stuff and she wants Slade to leave her alone

Hero Cashmire

Damian likes to draw. It's relaxing and he's good at it. When he ends up with a cast on his dominant arm after a patrol, leaving him temporarily unable to hold a pencil, it hits him harder that he wants to admit.

Every hero has a theme song, even if they don't know it. It's not something that's consciously playing, it's the soundtrack of the universe, unhearable but effecting reality all the same. Unless you're Danny, the ancient of space that is. He can hear everyone's themes because he can hear the fabric of the universe playing for them. Sometimes it's a beautiful symphonic masterpiece. Sometimes it's a JL meeting where everyone's yelling and their themes are in all sorts of keys and it's making Danny's head hurt

Hero Owen

Tim Drake is not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Last he knew, he was at the Batcomputer chugging along on 2 cups of coffee and 6 energy drinks. But now the sky is green and the ground is blue, and a blood red castle towers over him with what is definitely a face for an archway. And what is that black and white blob floating in the doorway?!

Tim should sleep. He really should sleep. He’s been seeing the weird shadow figure out of the corner of his eye for over 24 hours now, and it has evaded all attempts to be looked at directly. Not to mention, he’s tripped over five different things, hit seven corners, and misplaced three cups of various liquids. When his luck hit the fan like this, it was usually a sign he should sleep. It was weird it was happening so quickly though. It’s only been 3 days since his last proper night of sleep, and usually it took at least a week for things to get like this. In other news, Danny was having a great time. Which was suspicious considering it was the anniversary of when he met Johnny and Kitty, and the bastard of bad luck liked to make a holiday out of it and send Shadow to mess up his day.

Villains! Prompts:

Villain Ky

The speedsters tend to vibrate at just the right frequency for danny, and most other realms folk, to interpret as as a soulscream. So, they’re kinda screaming in agony nonstop and nobody knows how to tell them this.

Pushed to the limit, Condiment King finally turns to the one thing known to stain any and everything: ectoplasm.

Villain BreKitten

Tim and Jason were just chilling (they totally weren't fighting, totally) in the Batcave when suddenly, they appeared on a strange purple island, surrounded by a sky of Lazarus green. According to the floating robot, they have to fight - and win against - his champion to escape. His champion? A white-haired, green-eyed teenager that clearly does not want to fight them.

The Justice League is cursed to eat one food and one food only until they find the cure - the last thing they ate before they were cursed.

Villain Gremlin

Bart had been crushing on a person from his past (future) for years, never expecting to see him again, until a new hero pops up in the JL with a wonderful ghostly glow

If anyone wants to use and post with these prompts the Ao3 collection link is here, or post with #April Fools event 2024

[shatteredvioletnuzlocke]

Chapter 5: Mezagoza (Patch)

Not too far away from Arven’s lighthouse, was the tranquil village of Los Platos. Palm trees touched the sky, children ran down the amber, brick-paved roads, and Vivilion fluttered to bushes with fragrant flowers. After the hectic day they’ve been having, Patch and Nemona decided to grab a treat at the local Sugar-N-Ice cart. Patch went with a classic, mint chocolate chip. While the champion fancied a fruity mango cone.

Once the two paid for their food, Patch began to lick their ice cream. The sweet sensation of peppermint cooled them off and sent a tickling chill to their head.

Patch spotted two young children having a Pokémon battle; it was a Scatterbug against a Bountsweet. The silkworm released threads of string shot, but the Bounsweet countered with a rapid spin attack. Yet it proved to be useless as the fruit Pokémon’s twirling only managed to wrap itself in a ball of silk. 

“Use bug bite!” the Scatterbug’s trainer cheered.

As the Scatterbug tore away at the cocoon it made, a memory snuck into Patch’s mind. Violence doesn’t solve anything as much as you think it does, Arven’s voice echoed. Patch began to fear for the Bountsweet. Once the Scatterbug chewed through its silk, would it also gnaw away at the Bountsweet’s flesh? Just thinking about it horrified them, and they felt the need to step in before it got gruesome.

“Wow, I’ve never seen a Scatterbug with that tenacity!” Nemona chimed in, feeling casual about the whole ordeal.

“I don’t get how this can be fun to watch,” Patch passively confessed, “they could get hurt.”

The champion gave them an encouraging look, “I get you're still trying to figure out what you want to do as a trainer, but you have to understand…battling is kinda natural for Pokémon.”

“What do you mean?” Patch asked.

“Pokemon fight with each other all the time in the wild and some Pokemon are bred just to fight. If you deprive them of that, they get wound up and testy,” Nemona explained.

The new trainer found some fair reasoning in the Champion’s knowledge; it did seem somewhat cruel to keep nature from taking its course. Yet there was still a tinge of doubt that they couldn’t shake off.

“I get that…” they nodded, “but would that put them at a greater risk of getting killed?”

Given such a heavy question Nemona took a moment to scarf down their cone. Finally, after that she responded.

“Oh, the league would never allow that… There are special rules to prevent those kinds of things. So a Pokémon can only lose battle unless they get exhausted.”

Patch was surprised, the Pokemon battling was more thought out than they realized. 

“Of course,” she went on, “Pokemon still need to be taken to centers after a fight. And we can’t prevent a Pokemon from dying in the wild, it’s only for general trainer and gym battles.”

Patch felt thrown back into their obsessive thoughts. So gym battles are safer than the wild…crazy. I don’t know if this makes me more comfortable to battle. I’m being more careful when I catch Pokemon. But… What happens if I don’t let them battle at all? Will they hate me? And what about Kapheria? Arven already told me not to make her fight… 

“Yo, earth to Patch?!” Nemona waved her hand in front of the dazed trainer. 

They snapped back into reality “Oh, sorry!” 

“Come with me,” she giggled, “I wanna show you something!” 

They threw away their now melted cone, being too distracted to finish it. They followed Nemona down the path, occasionally licking the peppermint-flavored stickiness off their hand.The two trainers walked to what seemed to be a gas station located in a village with no cars. A bright red sign with a Pokeball symbol spun slowly from a pole. The gas station’s anning had the same color scheme as the sign, underneath stood a woman dressed in a medical outfit and a man dressed in an apron. There were no gas pumps or enough space for a car to drive in.

“What are we doing here?” Patch looked around confused.

“This is the Pokémon center!” The black-haired trainer smiled.

This?! This can’t be! Patch was familiar with Pokemon centers, the one back in Nacrene was at least an entire building. This station was out in the open with only a desk. How would anyone get treatment like this?!

“Do you need a quick fix?” The nurse kindly asked.

They weren’t sure what to say, but they felt curious as to how it worked. “Sure,” they answered.

Patch went into their polyester bag and scooped up Tamarind and Kombucha’s Pokeballs. They handed the Pokeballs to the nurse who locked them into some type of machine. The chattering typing of a keyboard could be heard, as the nurse clacked at a console in front of her. 

“Here you are, all healed up!” The nurse claimed.

In awe Patch took the two Pokeballs, It’s that easy?! 

“Over here!” Nemona called to them, standing near yet another weird machine. It resembled some kind of fancy vending machine. 

“What does it do?” Patch wondered. 

“Put one of your Pokemon here, and find out!” She playfully suggested.

There was a circular slot intended for a Pokeball and a crevasse breath that looked like it would dispense something. Being particularly curious about this high-tech center, Patch inserted Tamarind’s Pokeball. Above the slot, a screen read: Fuecoco. 

“Alright, now what?” The brown-haired trainer turned to find Nemona looking through her bag.

She pulled out three CDs in cases, “Pick one,” she said, holding them out like folded cards.

Patch confoundedly grabbed the case in the middle and found that it had a pink disk inside. So I must have to slide this in? They took out the disc, holding it from the sides to avoid smudging it with fingerprints. Upon sliding the screen went into a loading menu, and then displayed a green check mark. This still doesn’t make sense to me. The confused trainer let Tamarind out of his ball. 

“Tamarind?” Patch knelt to the fire croc, “Do you feel okay?”

The Fuecoco’s cheeks were puffed out and his eyes were pressed closed, he looked constipated. The trainer began to fret, their fire type was about to burst.

“Fuey!” Tamarind wailed in a honeyed pitch. Instead of fire the crocodile produced visual, pink sound waves shaped like hearts.

“Nice,” Nemona said, “That disarming voice will for sure come in handy!” 

Patch recognized that disarming voice was the name of a fairy-type attack. It then began to click, that machine teaches Pokemon different moves! It was all so astounding, Paldean technology was truly unlike anything they had ever seen! 

“Here,” the champion handed them a golden brown colored disc, “Teach this to your Lechonk!”

They inserted Kombucha’s Pokeball into the tutoring machines and slid in the disc, “What’s that one for?”

“Mud slap!” Nemona grinned, “Great for lowering accuracy!” 

Patch hadn’t a clue of what that meant but they trusted her judgment.

“You can have some of my extras,” she offered them some more discs, “then if you want different attacks, the TMM will make you new ones from ingredients.” 

“Really?” Patch asked intrigued.

The champion nodded and pointed to the machine, “I made this one with Wooper slime!”

“Oh cool…” they faked a smile. What the hell?

As soon as the move was learned, Patch placed Kombucha’s ball back into their pocket. But they became fixated on the prairie near the center. It was wide open with plenty of space and small sky blue pools where golden Psyducks waddled to go swim. Two Skovets scampered around the pale green grass, as an Azurill bounded along on it’s tail. The enchanting feeling of nature was seemingly inviting the trainer to visit.

“You can go on and catch something, I’ll just be awhile” Nemona reassured them, “but once your done, then we really have to head out.”

Patch squinted towards the sun, now bending to the east. Damn all that took up a good portion! 

They picked up Tamarind, “I won’t be long!”

With their fire croc in their arms, Patch jogged along the grass scanning the area for their next teammate. Compared to Poco Path, the land had more to offer. A small, pink Happiny totaled about in a bed of mauve pyrenees. Next to her a little, plump Fidough began digging a hole. So cute! 

Patch’s family had a pet Fidough back home named Piper. While tempted into approaching it they didn’t want Piper to feel replaced; there was only one Fidough in their life and that was enough. What else is there? 

All the more curious, the young trainer wandered towards a grove of shady trees. The sun was completely obscured beneath the trees' canopy, giving off a cool temperature. The only light seeping through, was the Fuecoco’s flickering tuft.

“Fuey…” Tamarind yawned.

“Don’t sleep now, buddy. We’re almost to the academy,” Patch whispered.

From the dim glow of the crocodile, they noticed loose strands of silk hanging off the branches. There are bug Pokémon nearby! Hopefully it’s just Scatterbug this time! They held Tamarind tightly in their arms, hoping that his warmth would protect them. 

But then they spotted odd placements of color along the grayish bark; blotches of blue, yellow, and red. Painted bark… Patch recognized with a growing smile, my next catch is here! They followed the pattern trees with eager footsteps. 

“Shoo shroo!” A high voice squeaked. 

Underneath the trunk of a blank tree a small gray rodent with a black face peaked out of the grass. 

“Shroodle!” Patch softly squealed. 

Shroodles were one of Patch’s favorite of the native Paldean Pokemon, because they shared an artistic soul. When studying Paldean fauna, they learned that Shroodles could produce ink-like bile that was used in the most expensive paints.

“Shroo?” The Shroodle gazed its huge cyan eyes at the human.

Oh gosh it sees me! Should I attack it? I don’t wanna hurt the little guy! The shrew padded closer to the human. How can I tell if it’s friendly? The Shroodle stood on its hind legs, sniffing Patch with its bulbous snout. Wittle man, they pouted, what if…

Patch plopped their bag to the ground, keeping Tamarind in one arm to keep him from getting loose. They placed an empty Pokeball beside the Shroodle, as it was bigger than the rodent and Patch was worried they would bonk them. 

“Shroo?” The Shroodle sniffed and nudged the ball, “Shroo!” 

The Pokeball rolled and the Shroodle played with it like a toy. Not my idea, but okay! 

“Shroo, Shroo!” The Shroodle scampered.

When the little Pokemon pressed the button, Pokeball opened and it was instantly sucked in. It bobbed for a moment but then clicked, indicating a capture.

“I CAUGHT A SHROODLE!” Patch hollered.

Their excitement was so loud that Fletchlings began to flutter out of the trees, screeching with distress. 

“Coco!” Tamarind wiggled his feet as he began to slip from his trainer.

Patch put down the croc, as their arms were getting tired from holding him for so long. They ran back to the Pokémon center, they’re hands flapping with giddy. Back at the center, Nemona was busy with the TMM with Fuerte and Pierce beside her. 

“Back already?” Nemona asked. 

Patch stopped to catch their breath, “Look… what I caught!”

They opened the Pokeball and held out their sweaty palm where their new Shroodle materialized. 

“Shroodle!” He peeped.

“You caught… a Shroodle?” She cringed. 

Patch’s purple eyes dilated, “His name is Arturo and I love him!”

Arturo seemed like a handsome name for a handsome lad. Now that they caught him, Patch could use his ink to make all the good paint they want. No more cheap acrylics that would dissolve into a clear solution! 

“Okay… cool,” The black-haired trainer gave a thumbs up, “Now, let’s get going! We’re nearing sunset!”

The two trainers made their way down a dusty path that split the prairie down the middle. Upon the top of the hill a massive cobblestone wall stood taller than the palm trees in Los Platos. It spread far beside the prairie, seemingly never-ending, but Patch knew behind the wall sat the City of Mezagoza; but more importantly the campus of Uva Academy. 

“Why does Mezagoza need those walls anyway?” They speculated, “Is it to keep out stronger Pokémon?”

“Not at all,” Nemona answered, “They were built by the old king centuries ago.”

Patch recalled very little about Paldean history, to their knowledge the region only ever had one king; not that Paldea ever needed one to begin with. A large mahogany wooden door awaited them and what appeared to be two sentry guards at the entrance. Both were wearing the same entire; white helmets with purple stripes and oddly enough Uva Academy uniforms. I guess they're on their way to campus too? Yet the other students sat lazily and ill-mannered in front of the gate as if to guard it

“Oh hear we go…,” Nemona sighed.

 So they know each other, Patch thought. 

The taller of the two students stood up, “Ay, you heading into Meza?” They tapped their boot against the dust impatiently.

“Yes…” Nemona gently pushed Patch aside, “And since when does the city have a toll booth?” 

The other student with dark hair flinched, while the first one faced the champion confidently. Whoever these two people were, Nemona had beef with them.

“You have two options…” the proud student offered, “Either battle us or j-”

“Diego, you idiot!” The shorter student muttered behind her clenched teeth, “That’s Nemona! Champion ranked trainer?!” 

Diego’s brown eyes widened and his smile quickly disappeared upon hearing the word “champion”. “Oh shh! Uh actually I just remembered I have somewhere to be!” His accent fluctuated under pressure.

“No no,” The champion refused, “I wouldn’t mind a battle.” 

By then the dark-haired student had fled the scene, it was just Diego trembling in his combat boots. Nemona’s tangerine eyes were burning not out of rage but with passion, she would never pass up a good fight. 

“Shall we?” She said tossing a pokeball in their hands.

Sweat was streaming down Diego’s quivering face, “Okay” he winced.

Patch gazed up at the sun, the blue sky beginning to turn warm from the east. Battling came first apparently, and who were they to tell Nemona no. A gentle tailwind came through as the battle began, Diego threw a pokeball with green stripes into the frey and out came Grimer. It’s purple sludgy, drippy body flowing to the ground, carrying a putrid musk that nearly made Patch’s eyes water. That smells worse than my Lechonk! Surprisingly, when Nemona sent out her Pokeball it held a tiny orange rodent. 

A Pawmi, they thought puzzled, why not just send in Pierce? It would make things go much faster. Strange choice aside, Nemona was a champion for a reason.

“Punchy, Charge up!” She commanded.

Electricty began to accumulate around the little Pawmi, yet the Grimer remained unharmed. Nemona… what are you doing?

“Gumbo, use mud slap!” Diego called.

“Gruhhh!” The Grimer belched out drops of black sludge from its gaping mouth.

“Dodge with a quick attack!” Nemona pressed forward. 

Her Pawmi suddenly jolted from the incoming mud slap. Although they weren’t  completely unscathed, as the backside of their orange fur was stained with black. 

“Charge once more!” The Champion retorted.

Nemona quit stalling, Patch’s anxiety became restless, Just hit him with something! With each new charge the Pawmi’s fur became a little more golden with electricity. But before both of them knew it, the Grimer took advantage of Nemona’s passive position and engulfed Punchy in it’s oozing body. Oh no! Patch panicked at the Pawmi drowning in sludge, Why are you letting this happen?! 

“Come now,” Nemona reached into her pocket, “Don’t think you’re winning?!”

In her hand, she held some kind of deep black Pokeball with a jewel-encrusted where the button would be. Patch assumed she would be sending in a much stronger Pokemon but the black Pokeball seemed to be gathering particles of light. Did that mean whatever Pokemon was inside was strong, they had never seen anything like it. Mysteriously it emitted a dazzling light, then Nemona threw it at her Pawmi.

It then dawned on Patch that it was something familiar, That’s a Terastlizing Pokeball! I’d never thought I’d see it this soon. As Pokeball opened, odd crystalline rocks pierced out of the Grimer’s body which nearly split it apart. The slimy Pokemon pulled itself away from the cluster which then shattered. In its place, Punchy stood with a shiny coat faceted like a gemstone. He wore a crystal crown resembling a lightbulb, signifying that he was an electric type. 

Patch was dazzled by the beauty of it all, Amazing! I wonder if I could ever do that?!

“Now Thundershock!” Nemona cheered. 

“Paw paw!” Punchy cried, unleashing a dazzling jolt of electricity.

The Grimer’s arms flailed about as it was hit and it let out an agonizing wail, “GRUUUUUHHHHHHH!”  

Diego quickly recalled his Grimer, his brown eyes shaken with fear. 

“Get out of here!” Nemona calmly murmured to her defeated opponent.

Diego ran off almost immediately, leaving the gate to Mezagoza completely unguarded and free to enter through. 

“Mui bein, Punchy!” Nemona congratulated her Pokemon.

A glimmering dust surrounded Punchy, and within a blink of an eye, his crystalline coat was back to normal. The Pawmi was just a bit bigger than Arturo but still able to fit in his trainer’s palm. 

“If you ever see anyone with similar helmets on, don’t talk to them! They’re with Team Star!” The champion informed Patch.

“Team Star?” Patch asked.

The name of it struck accord with a similar group back in Unova; Team Plasma. It gave Patch unpleasant thoughts, Plasma had nearly swayed the people of Unova to join their cause of giving up their Pokemon. During that period Patch was too young to understand what had transpired, but they were now old enough to look back on it in horror. If Plasma had succeeded, would they even be a trainer now?

“Did they want something from us?” Patch swallowed their bad memories.

“Maybe, but they just want new members,” Nemona answered with her Pawmi on her shoulder, “It’s kinda sad though, people who flunk out of the Academy go on to join them. Some of them even play dirty and disregard the League’s rules.”

An alarm was set off in the young trainer’s head, Disregarding the Rules?! Does that mean they’ll kill my Pokemon?! Would they kill me?! No matter what it meant they were thankful for Nemona protecting them from harm’s way. Yet, Patch couldn’t make up a plan if they ran into a Star member in the future. Would they be forced into battling? Could they just say they knew a Champion to get out of it? Maybe… battling another trainer was just as inevitable as losing a Pokemon.

“Anywho…” Nemona looked toward the sun, “If we keep stalling you might not be able to check in to your dorm room.”

The blue sky was now blended with a hue pink, then gold with a splash of amber surrounding the nearly setting sun. Nemona knocked on the mahogany door and it slowly creaked open; revealing the awaited city of Mezagoza. As Patch stepped through the ancient threshold, they felt they were living in the pictures of brochures they read. Just as they imagined, Mezagoza was an artful, grandiose city that couldn’t be contained on a single canvas.

The ground was paved with colorful bits of stone, arranged in a way to make it feel that you were walking on a mosaic. The buildings were painted blue or yellow with white accents to make them feel coordinated. Various shops made up streets, offering various knick-knacks and keepsakes. Nearby restaurants peppered the air with promising aromas that would soothe your nose, widen your eyes, and cause your mouth to water. Upon climbing a flight of stairs, Patch saw that a battlefield made up the center of the city. This time being paved with the finest alabaster marble and the field's borders are surrounded by a different color of tile to represent each type of Pokemon. 

Standing at the highest level of the city was the Uva Academy building. It was structured similar to a castle and its piercing spires couldn’t be missed no matter where you stood in the city. On the left of the building an arched bridge was connected to a separate tower where a tree grew. On the right, a faced dome stood out of place among the medieval structures and it was clear that it was added fairly recently. In the center of the building was a giant glass Pokeball in the belfry. 

“Is there any other way to get up there?” Patch asked, intimidated by the massive staircase leading up to the building. 

Nemona laughed, “You’re not a Uva student without climbing that staircase! Come on!” 

They treaded onward to campus, still dreading the rigorous climb. Well, it’s better than the Skyarrow Bridge, they thought. Patch was already out of breath when they made it up twenty stairs, while Nemona was already at the top waiting for them. Oh, come on! They complained in their head. The day had been long, but if it was going to be over they just needed to make it to their dorm. As they climbed more stairs they let the new possibilities in Paldea fester in their head. First day of being a trainer, in a day or so it’ll be my first day of being an art student. I’ll get to learn Pokemon anatomy. The Pokemon I caught today could model for me! I wonder how I would keep them still? Tamarind would probably be easiest, it’s easy for him to relax. I hope I can catch more Pokemon though. Finally, after all of that, they arrived at Uva Academy,

The campus courtyard was just as big as the city plaza, with plenty of room for grass and cypress trees to grow. Students who had already checked in were scattered about either on their own or forming cliques with others. Fate could only decide who Patch was going to befriend, but they had faith that the art classes would lead to happy connections.

“So now we’re here!” Nemona took a good stretch, “I wish I could have gotten you here sooner.”

“No no, it’s okay! Today was crazy!” Patch shrugged.

“Anyway…” Nemona yawned “This is where we have to part. You need to get settled into your dorm and I have to review my class schedule.”

The young trainer nodded back without a word. Although they had only really known Nemona for a week, they were the closest connection they had in Paldea. In a way, she held a mentor-like role to them and it would only strengthen as Patch would be seeing them around campus.

“Just get your keycard from the front desk,” the champion waved to them as she walked away, “Feel free to stop by my office anytime!”

From there, Patch followed the travertine path to the academy’s front door. Upon entering the building, they found themselves in a glorious hall akin to the inside of a castle. The wooden ceiling felt stories high, yet the hall was not overcrowded with echoes. A set of opposing staircases led to a second floor, which was supported by alabaster pillars. A library made up most of the hall, with every mahogany shelf being chalked to the brim with books. I wonder if they have any Swords of Justice? Patch thought marveling at the assortment of books. A white banner was hung above the front desk that read “Welcome New Students”. A brown-haired student and their Mawile sat behind the front desk, waiting for students to check in.

“Patch Callune?” The stylish student asked whilst applying makeup.

“Umm… that’s me,” Patch nervously adjusted the hat from covering their eyes. 

The upperclassman handed them a keycard, “Room 302. Take the stairs to the left, then go up the elevator to the third floor.”

The student immediately left their post with their Mawile beside them. Am I the last to check in? I hope I didn’t make them sit there all day. Part of them wished they had arrived earlier when Clavell, but the other half was grateful for staying with Nemona. Without her, they wouldn’t have caught two new Pokemon as well as a temporary member.

Up the stairs, they went to the elevator which wouldn’t open unless they scanned their keycard on a sensor. The elevator itself fit the ornate aesthetic of the school with rich wooden walls and a purple carpeted floor. However, Patch could not find any buttons to press and the doors quickly slid shut. Beneath their feet, they felt the elevator moving upward which only made Patch more confused. Soon after the doors slid open into an entirely new corridor lined with doors on each side. Could this be my floor? Patch strolled along the hallway to see that the door closest to the right was labeled 302, their room. 

A little relieved, the exhausted trainer scanned their keycard over the lock and the door opened to a pleasant little room filled with boxes. It wasn’t as big as the guestroom back at Nemona’s but it was still cozy. On the leftside their small kitchen space complete with a sink, countertop, and some cabinets to hold snacks. On the other side where most of Patch’s boxes took up the floor, but once they unpacked it their would become a nice space to sitdown and relax. A desk sat in the corner of the room, perfect for drawing and studying. Across from it was a bed, already made in anticipation for Patch’s arrival. 

This is it, they gleamed with excitement, My humble abode until I graduate! They slid most of their boxes to their desk to open up some open space, and then they reached into their bag and released their Pokeballs. All at once, Tamarind, Kombucha, and Arturo appeared before their trainer; curious as to where they were. Being the smallest, Arturo scampered about into any dark corner he could hide in. Tamarind sniffed the boxes to see if there was any food inside them. Patch made sure to keep Kombucha from rubbing his putrid odor on the fresh sheets of their bed. I should figure out how to give a Lechonk a bath… 

While the other Pokemon were roaming freely, Kapheria was still locked inside her Pokeball. Patch wanted to let her out but worried that she would exacerbate her crack in such a tight space Knowing well that Kapheria deserved some attention, they caved in and preceded to release the metallic dragon. Once out of her ball Kapheria took up a lot of space within the confines of the dorm, but their was still enough room for her to properly raise her head and tail  

“Arg?” Kapheira purred. 

Patch held the dragon by the sides of her jaws, “Have a good rest girl?”

“Arggggh!” she yawned letting out a big roar.

“Aww,” Patch scratched beneath her chin, “This is going to be your new home. You’ll be staying with me until your trainer comes back!”

Patch felt a tug at their sock, and they turned to see Tamarind at their feet. The Fuecoco held out his arms to his trainer, gesturing that he wanted to be held. As the trainer picked him up and felt the warmth of crocodile’s body, they sensed a blissful relief in their overly-shaken heart. Despite knowing their Pokemon for only a day, Patch would happily care for them like their own children. Despite feeling intimidated they would allow their Pokemon to battle if it kept them from going stir crazy. Despite feeling unsure of everything, Patch would always have their Pokemon by their side.

<- Chapter 4- Chapter 6 ->

[quiettime3]

Punch Club

The first rule of Punch Club is please do talk about Punch Club, actually. That’s kinda what a review is for! This game is another strange genre mash up, like many titles I love. One part boxing game, one part management sim, and another part action RPG, it’s a great concept that seems like it would be perfect for me. The retro-inspired aesthetics also speak to my tastes, and you get a lot of control over the direction of the story. Unfortunately, even though I played more than 7 years after the Xbox release, I ran into so many issues that I just couldn’t get through to the good stuff Punch Club should have had to show. Perhaps it should have stayed quiet after all.

When you start the game, there is an almost overwhelming amount to learn. The game seems pretty self-aware on this front - your ingame mentor teaches you to focus on one or two traits, since your statistics are constantly degrading over time, and failure is never too consequential in the beginning. Still, even a few hours in, it was hard to figure out exactly what my stats did to each of the numerous abilities I had to choose from when I would go to spend my points. A few more tooltips or even practical demonstrations could have worked wonders. I eventually settled on an agility focused build, investing into kicks and spending my days skipping rope and punching a speed bag to level up the blue stat above the others.

This generally served me pretty well, and I was able to progress through the rookie league and even an underground ultimate fighting ring over the hours. The game features masses of classic movie references, including an enigmatic stranger named Tyler who invites you to street fights in obvious homage to Fight Club, and battles against a series of mutant crocodiles whilst delivering pizzas in a sewer that all but namedrop the iconic heroes in a half shell from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. These pop culture nods sometimes felt a little out of place to me, but it’s a nice touch for those they appeal to. There’s a little randomness no matter your build thanks to the combat system, where you set the moves you’ll have and then simulate a fight with the CPU making the choices of what to use when, but it’s still satisfying and I did feel like I got a decent amount of influence over the outcome of my brawls.

I had a couple of different crashes and odd interactions during my time with the story, including moments where I would enter a space to do something specific (like entering my home to sleep or eat) but get locked into a side story fight without any option to come back when I was prepared. There’s also a lot of branch points for Punch Club’s story, many of which aren’t particularly well telegraphed. This could be a bonus for some, as many players love to come across quests like this naturally, but I found it kind of frustrating given the stat decay system doesn’t exactly encourage aimless wandering.

My main gripe with Punch Club was a bit more significant. Shortly after entering the game’s second act of sorts, I completed a side quest chain where you become a superhero, defeating the bad guys, and expected to be loaded back into my home. Sadly, the game actually put me in an area I hadn’t been to before, with a character who I was supposed to go and meet. He was now sitting silently, and no matter what I did, wouldn’t introduce himself, locking me out of the main story. Loathe to lose my save, I checked the internet, and found that this issue has been present for over 7 years - since the game’s release on Xbox. It had never been fixed. I hit a game breaking bug, 6 hours into my run.

I did eventually go back to finish a second run, but I used a guide to speed my way through, and still struggled to avoid glitched dialogue and crashes to black every now and then. Punch Club sort of disappointed me - it was a game I really wanted to love, but it kept letting me down. If you want to play this one, pick it up on PC, not Xbox, and especially not mobile - by the sounds of it, the android version doesn’t even get past the first loading screen before bricking itself. It’s a shame, because there really could have been something there, but I can’t recommend this in its current state, and I think hoping for a patch is a lost cause by now.

Pros:

• Movie buffs will love the references, especially to action movies

• Building your skillset feels satisfying and combat is tense to watch

• I love the artstyle of this one

Cons:

• So many crashes and glitches, even when they’ve been known about for years

• Between these major bugs and the frequent minor typos, it just doesn’t feel polished at all

[paladin-blog]

No shade to the OPs but I kinda hate this post. There's a lot more to Waddell's life than some whimsy - baseball was his third love, behind fishing and drinking. His alcoholism was so bad he was kicked off/traded from multiple teams, brutally assaulted his parents, married three times in a decade, and destroyed any and all relationships he had. To ignore this and use the funnier parts of a violent drunk's life to argue with idiots about an already infantilized and stigmatized condition is infuriating and unhelpful. The "idiot savant" trope oozes from the tweet, somehow ignoring the simple truth that an athletically gifted farm boy who grew up throwing rocks at birds and doing hard labor would be a gnarly pitcher in the dead ball era. Sure maybe he was autistic, maybe he had ADHD, maybe he was just dumb, maybe it was all three - but it's wildly speculative and frankly irresponsible. This is where the soapbox gets kicked out from under me, but you can keep reading if you care to learn more about Rube and baseball history.

~~~

Described as a "kid at heart", Waddell was indeed assigned a handler during his tenure on the Philadelphia Athletics (ie. a babysitter), not due to his fleeting attention but due to his drinking. The handler was a trained fighter, and was there to make sure he didn't and couldn't drink, by holding onto his money and fighting disgruntled bar owners trying to collect tabs.

While team owners owned everything including their players until the 70s, early 20th century baseball lacked the whole indentured servitude type beat that the draft and federation brought along. Players, especially pitchers, fucking off between starts or traipsing around New England wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem if it happened today. Waddell was a pitcher, an insanely good pitcher, and considering drinking didn't impact his performance (except passing out on the mound in 1907) it's not impossible to surmise he would've been drunk/hungover on the mound as well.

This isn't to blame everything on his drinking, but to frame any potential postmortem diagnosis. Without context, being easily distracted makes you imagine a batter staring off as a ball whizzes past him into the glove, going down on strikes. Being a pitcher, there is no split second decision making, or plate decisions, to worry about. He could easily look off into the stands, coo at the puppy or whatever, turn back and deal another nasty curve. He was an extremely confident pitcher, known for shooing his team off the field during exhibition games, to prove his dominance on the mound. As I mentioned, this was the dead ball era. Pitchers ruled the game, as new rules, uneven and heavily reused balls, and slightly better fields and fielders put batters in a tough spot.

Anyways, my overarching point is to label Waddell as autistic or ADHD without mentioning his alcoholism is ignoring a very relevant cause and effect. His health suffered immensely because of it, and like many people of that time, he died of pneumonia. He was 37.

Rube Waddell was inducted into the Hall of Fame via special committee in 1947. Rube played against and even rivaled the great Cy Young, but unlike him, would not be revered for his historical feats, due to, surprise surprise, alcoholism massively shortening his career and professional image. Rube was the first pitcher in history to have consecutive 300 strikeout seasons, which is a club now shared by only five other players. Rube led baseball in strikeouts six straight seasons, and earned a Triple Crown during this dominant stretch (led the league in Wins, ERA and Ks). He didn't play during the Athletics' world series run, and like many other great pitchers, never won it all.

[noras-dc-shenanigans]

Half-Ghost Billy Batson

(Inspired by a post that I can’t find😡😤. If you recognize it please let me know! I have searched. Everywhere. I remember it starts off with Billy contemplating how he’s different and his dad didn’t want him, and then Danny shows up.)

Danny Fenton grows up, gets crowned King of the Infinite Realms, and then discovers that time it weird in the Zone if the portal you came through doesn’t stay open. He’s been ruling for over a century, but it’s only been a few years on Earth. Early on he made sure to keep popping in and out to visit family and friends and keep up a human identity, and so was able to age normally too.

By the time he’s 25 (2015), he’s in a serious relationship with a woman named Mary Batson, and has decided to tell her about his other life. Before he can however, he is ‘killed’ in an explosion at his civilian job as an engineer.

He’s fine, but was weakened enough that he reverted to his core, and Clockwork retrieved him and took him to the Realms to heal. He does, goes discreetly looking for Mary, and discovers it been a year and she died in a car accident. Heartbroken, and with no civilian identity anymore, he starts spending all his time in the Zone, only making weekend trips to see family/friends.

Unknown to Danny, Mary was pregnant, gave birth, and little William ‘Billy’ Daniel Batson was saved via emergency C-Section after the accident and placed in foster care, because she had no family and no one looked into the father’s well enough. Mary only survived long enough to name her son and give them Danny’s name.

10 years later, Billy gains the title of Champion of Magic. The influx of so much magic also triggers his… other genes.

As Billy, he is faster and stronger and heals quicker and if he concentrates really hard he can turn invisible and walk through things— at least for a few moments. He also discovers that he’s essentially a cat, since he can hiss and purr and randomly sprout claws.

Billy only uses a mirror if he needs to give himself a haircut, but the next time he looks he notices the tiny little baby fangies. And that his eyes are more teal than blue, his hair has a few white spots in it, and his ears point a little more. No wonder no one’s been bothering him lately.

(He’s basically 75% human and 25% ghost, so unless he gets hosed down with pure ectoplasm and also eats a bunch of the stuff, he’s not going to be able to ‘go ghost’. He’s just hasn’t got enough Phantom in him to manage it.)

As Captain Marvel, the magic of his patrons and the Rock of Eternity kinda work as a counter-measure against the partially-dead thing, as the magic sees it as a threat to the Champion’s health and fights the genes’ effects like it’s a virus. So the magic is basically shutting down all of the actual powers he gets as Billy. But he does get little things that the magic doesn’t care about, like sharp little fangs and pointy ears.

Billy just thinks it’s all side effects of the magic, and uses his new ‘adaptations’ as Billy to survive on the streets.

The Justice League comes knocking about 6 months in, meet this huge chipper dude who can evenly match Superman and uses magic in a way that causes other magic users headaches and rage, and invite him to join.

That’s when they notice that he’s a bit… strange.

Not like, in a bad way! Just, the other day Batman did the ‘appear behind you from nowhere’ thing and when Marvel noticed he full on hissed at him, like a feral cat, before looking sheepish and apologizing.

A few weeks later, they’re rescuing some kidnapped meta kids and they find Marvel sitting cross-legged on the ground, several toddlers draped over him and a very distinct purring noice emanating from his chest.

A week after that, and Superman confides worriedly that sometimes Marvel’s heart will just… stop beating, and/or he’ll stop breathing, and that when his heartbeat is gone there seems to be a strange hum coming from the center of his chest.

Then another 2 weeks later, after a meeting, he and Flash were talking and they both laughed, but when Marvel did he just flashed these very sharp incisors that Flash swears are fangs.

And then one day they call him in to help fight some demons and one growls at him and he freakin growls back, bares his definitely fangs I told you so! And just freakin launches at the thing. They basically roll around like a couple of territorial tomcats, and at first Marvel is throwing punches and lighting but then the demon bites him and Marvel just… bites back.

And then he like… sprouts claws?! And then it really is like a cat fight, with these two just hissing and growling and clawing and biting until Marvel does something and the demon breaks away and flees, whimpering like a kicked dog. Superman has to snag Marvels cape and dodge some claws to keep the guy from chasing after it.

He’s covered in claw marks and scratches and there’s blood like everywhere but once they drag/convince/bully him into going back to the Watchtowers medbay, there’s nothing. The wounds are gone, the blood is fading away, and the suit is repairing itself. Marvel just shrugs and says magic, which, fair enough.

But then they have to have a talk about what the hell that was, and all Marvel can say for his feral-cat behavior is “I just heard him growl and had the uncontrollable urge to bite him. Like, he’s in my territory, and he’s gonna challenge me like that? Heck-no.”

…Territory? Territory?! What does that- does this possibly-immortal being consider all of Earth his territory? Is he secretly a Fae? An eldritch being in less terrifying form? Part demon himself? A cat transformed into a person?

Marvel shrugs.

“I never met my parents, so honestly any of those have a chance of being true.”

Oh No. Oh F*ck. Those were rhetorical!

Meanwhile, Danny is back on Earth and finds out from Tucker that Mary had a kid. They discover this because he was reported missing after he ran away and the cops tried to find out if there was any more family, and do a better job looking this time. Danny is ‘dead’ so they called the Drs Fenton, who told Jazz, who told Tucker, who dug around and realized oh sh*t, Danny has a son.

But they can’t tell Danny this, because some a-hole in a different dimension is trying to invade the Infinite Realms, so Danny has to go kick a**. The time in the other dimension is weird too, so several years pass on Earth by the time he stops the threat, locks away the demon Trigon, and finds a nice home in the Realms for the demon’s half-human orphaned daughter Raven, who fits in very well with the ghosts.

So, Danny’s back and between Tucker and Danny they figure out what city Billy is in, and Danny spends days flying around invisible feeling for any ectoplasm. He finds it, finds Billy facing down some wanna-be teenage gangsters, and watches with growing pride as his son hisses at them with his widdle baby fangs oh my Ancients!

So after the other kids flee from the ‘crazy demon kid’, Danny invisibly follows Billy back to his current hideout in the basement of an abandoned warehouse (only someone Billy-sized or smaller would be able to fit through the window, and then they’d have to do it again to get into his little blocked-off closet. Smart. Very smart. I have such a smart kid, the family will Love him!)

Danny doesn’t want to freak his kid out— strange man+small space=bad no-no— so he just settles himself in front of the exit and starts chirping. Calling.

Billy, who has never heard the sound before, still knows what it means. Can’t resist following it out of his hidey-hole. Sees the man, cross-legged on the ground, sees his blue eyes flash green-green-green and knows.

“Hi, Billy. Is so good to meet you!”

——————————

2015: Danny=25

2016: Billy born

2027: Billy=11, Danny=27

@im-totally-not-an-alien-2

@stealingyourbones

Hope you guys like this!

[teecupangel]

What if Desmond is reborned in Unity as Elise's or Arno's baby brother?

Oh, oh. I can think of 3 main ideas we can play with.

Now, before anything, we’ll set up some rules that all ideas must adhere to (all of which came from the premise of every Yew Branch I’ve written):

Desmond remembers his life as Desmond Miles

Desmond will have his ancestors’ memories and skills but those memories will be vague

With that out of the way, let’s get to how Desmond could screw up AC Unity’s plotline:

1 Desmond is reborn as Arno’s baby brother and he grows up with Arno.

I think that Arno would be a responsible older brother, maybe kinda like how Ezio was with Petruccio.

Considering it’s only them, Charles would have definitely emphasized to Arno that Desmond’s safety is his responsibility.

Arno’s protectiveness would definitely go through the roof once it became clear that Desmond is a bit of a ‘strange child’ while Desmond is half-exasperated and half-delighted because his new family is definitely leagues better than William Miles and his wife.

There’s no way in hell Arno would leave Desmond alone to play with Élise while they’re waiting for Charles.

Not to mention, Desmond would definitely try to act like the big brother and say ‘go, I’ll wait for father’ and that would only make Arno want to stay with Desmond because that’s what a good big brother would do.

In this scenario, I can see Élise joining them instead, playing where the Dorian brothers are waiting and, when Charles comes to pick them up, he would recognize Élise and maybe they’d even escort her back to her father.

Now, this is where things can go either way. Even before Versailles, Desmond would have realized that Charles is an Assassin which meant that he would definitely be paranoid, using his Eagle Vision every so often. In this scenario, either Desmond sees Shay approaching and warns Charles OR he’s too late and he and Arno see Shay kill Charles.

And that’s where we will have two different routes we can take:

1.a Charles Lives and Arno and Desmond become Assassins under his tutelage

In this scenario, Arno and Desmond would have a brotherly relationship similar to Federico and Ezio with Desmond being the ‘Federico’ and Arno being the ‘Ezio’.

Charles’ main task in the Brotherhood is to travel around the world and, now, it’s to protect the precursor box that the Assassins gave to him.

This means that Arno and Desmond would be raised on the road and seas, maybe even on the run and hiding from Shay Cormac who will definitely be looking for them.

And then everything comes to a head when they returned to Paris to help the Brotherhood as the sociopolitical unrest in France starts to boil over.

In this scenario, Arno and Desmond would probably remember Élise but there would be no messy love story between Arno and Élise. They would be one-time playmates turned wary allies as Élise would be trying to find who killed her father and the brothers would have the same goal because Élise’s father had been close to finalizing a truce between the Assassins and his more moderate Templars.

Bellec may or may not betray the Brotherhood. If he does, it would be Charles that would stand against him (with the help of his sons).

Shay would probably make an appearance in Paris later on because he learns Charles is there.

Desmond would be with Arno and Élise when they fight Germain and Élise won’t die. Whether Arno and Élise would actually end up together though… hhhmmm… I’ll leave it to you, nonny.

1.b Charles dies and the de la Serre takes the Dorian brothers in

Desmond would definitely find out that the de la Serres are Templars. It might take a few years, he’d probably spend a year or two grieving Charles’ death and being there for Arno, but he’ll definitely find out.

During that time, Arno would develop a crush on Élise.

Once Desmond is sure that they’re Templars, Desmond would be faced with two choices: stay with the de la Serre who have been nothing but kind to them (although they do tend to be treated like servants at times too but that’s fine) or he gets Arno to run away with him and try to live on their own

If Desmond tells Arno they should run away, Arno would say no because he likes the de la Serre and he doesn’t understand why Desmond would want to leave. At this point, it’s either Arno would tell the de la Serre Desmond’s plan and Desmond would run away alone (leaving Arno) or Desmond finds a way to get Arno to agree to leave with him.

Staying with the de la Serre will also complicate things

1.b.1 Desmond stays with the de la Serre

If he stays with the de la Serre, it would be more of “I wanna see what the Templars are planning” than any gratitude he might feel for the de la Serres.

He won’t stop Arno from getting close to Élise.

The de la Serres would probably not realize Desmond is spying on them and Desmond would know when Élise has started her Templar training. That’s when Desmond would advise Arno to be careful.

Arno would think that Desmond doesn’t approve of Élise and they would start their whole secret relationship.

Either Desmond doesn’t find out because he’s busy trying to spy and not getting caught or he knows about it but doesn’t say he knows because he wants to honor his brother’s choice.

Monsieur de la Serre still dies and the plot of Unity kicks off with Desmond and Arno becoming Assassins.

Arno wants to find out who killed Monsieur de la Serre, Desmond is just there to make sure Arno doesn’t do anything really dumb.

Bellec still betrays the Brotherhood and Desmond is the one to kill him.

Germain still happens but Élise lives in the end.

1.b.2.a Desmond and Arno run away together

If they successfully run away, Desmond would use his Eagle Vision to find the Assassins. Either they find the Parisian HQ first and get taken in by the council (maybe even Mirabeau?) OR Bellec finds them first and he takes them in.

If they grew up with Bellec as their foster father, there’s a high chance that Desmond would be able to stop Bellec from betraying the Brotherhood later (through the power looovvee logic and reasoning).

They get trained as Assassins and when AC Unity kicks off, they’d be part of a 4 member squad and perhaps even in charge of de la Serre’s death (which was given to them because of their history).

Élise and Arno would have a bitter ex kind of vibe in their relationship and Desmond gets caught in it, along the lines of ‘he chose you instead of me’ or ‘I left her for you’ and their squad will tease that it’s like a fucked up loved triangle between Arno, his biological brother, and his foster sister (all said in jest, of course).

1.b.2.b Desmond runs away alone

If Desmond runs away alone, he would be the only one that gets taken in and raised as an Assassin.

He’d always check on Arno but never show his face.

Arno, on the other hand, would feel absolutely guilty for what he’s done. He’ll try to run away too to try and find Desmond but he’d get caught every time.

At this point, either de la Serre gets into contact with Mirabeau to talk about Arno or, and this is the more dramatic route that would definitely make everything messier, Élise gets Arno to be trained as a Templar, maybe even whisper to Arno that they can look for Desmond as Templars.

Élise’s party in AC Unity will now be a party for both Arno and Élise as they are inducted into the Templar Order.

AC Unity plot happens with Arno and Élise working together as Templars while Desmond takes over Arno’s parts in the game.

This would definitely have a kind of ‘Abel-Cain’ setup between Arno and Desmond with Desmond being the ‘Cain’ as he doesn’t trust the Templars and Arno is torn between his loyalty to the de la Serre and his brotherly love for Desmond.

Might even come to blows with “You left me.” “Well… you made it clear who was your real family is back then.”

2. Desmond is Arno’s half-brother, born after their mother left Charles and Arno

In this scenario, I think it would be interesting if Desmond meets Arno when he joins the Parisian Brotherhood (maybe after their mother’s death and she tells Desmond the truth on her deathbed?).

Depending on their age gap, Desmond could join the Brotherhood during AC Unity’s main game plot OR during Dead Kings DLC.

2.a Desmond meets his half-brother during Unity’s main game

Desmond would act more like Arno’s partner during missions. They won’t have any familial bonds so there are a lot of awkward talks and sometimes they just ignore their familial ties and act more like two colleagues trying to get to know one another.

There will be bonding moments of course but things will come to head after Desmond tells Arno that he’s too focused on Élise. The two of them will have their 3rd act break up at this point.

Desmond would be the one to find Arno drunk after Élise ‘dumps’ him. There might be a one-sided fistfight as well because they’re both idiots.

This is the scenario where Élise living has the lowest percentage, not because Desmond would let her die (of course not) but because there’s a possibility that Desmond wouldn’t even know what Arno and Élise were planning until it’s too late.

2.b Desmond meets his half-brother in Dead Kings

In this scenario, Desmond would be a ‘novice’ tasked to retrieve the missing Arno Dorian

Dead Kings still happens although with additional bonding moments between Arno and Desmond

Their relationship will be more: Desmond is the exasperated assistant of a grieving/brooding Arno

They will also bond over the death of loved ones (in this case, Desmond would probably relate because he still feels the pain of Maria’s death)

Léon gets adopted by Desmond. He likes to call Desmond and Arno his brothers.

And finally:

3. Desmond gets reborn as Élise’s younger brother

This is honestly going to messy, might even be messier than Desmond running away without Arno plot (probably).

First of all: Desmond won’t run away from the de la Serre because they love him and he loves them. He also won’t realize that he’s been born into a Templar family until it’s too late and he already loves them too much to betray them.

Depending on the age gap between him and Élise, he could either be there when Charles Dorian dies and plays with Arno too or he meets Arno after Arno becomes a ward of the de la Serre.

Regardless, here is the plot point that I kinda don’t want to do but, at the same time, I kinda want to just for the sheer unnecessary soap opera level drama it would add to the mix: a Love Triangle between Arno, Élise and Desmond.

To be more exact: Arno having a bi-crisis of epic proportions because he develops a crush on both Élise and Desmond growing up.

Desmond is oblivious to it, Élise is not.

At this point, either we go down the love triangle route OR Élise would do an ‘I want my beloved to be happy’ and be Arno’s wing woman.

Either way, Desmond would develop feelings for Arno as well which he would mistake for just ‘fondness’ because Arno reminds Desmond a lot of Ezio.

Desmond learns that their father is hoping to finalize a truce with the Assassins and he supports it because he loves his father and he still remembers how much Connor had wished he and Haytham could have found some common ground (until Haytham fucked that up and Connor was too angry to even try again).

Desmond and Élise get inducted at the same time and their father dies.

This is where AC Unity’s plot starts to get messy because, to Desmond, this isn’t about Assassins and Templars right now.

This is revenge. He’s the calm one to Élise’s hot-headedness and Arno is taken in for the ride because… well… Arno’s a dumbass who fell in love with a Templar(s).

And now Bellec thinks Arno is being corrupted by the two de la Serres

Élise won’t die in this one. There’s no way in hell Desmond would let that happen.

Pairing-wise, it could honestly go with Arno x Élise, Arno x Desmond or Desmond x Arno x Élise XD

Plot points that will happen regardless of which idea we go for:

Desmond’s skills will compare him a lot to his older sibling (Arno or Élise). There’s gonna be feelings of inferiority going on, that’s for sure.

If Bellec raises Desmond and Arno, he would be kind of a hardass but he would be ‘loyal’ to them. Even if he goes through with his plan to betray the Brotherhood, he would probably let either Dorians kill him because he can’t kill them even if he tries.

Desmond is the best recruiter of the Assassins. He will refuse to do any recruiting as a Templar.

Desmond would be super sus of Germain. He might not know what a Sage is but he knows something is giving him the heebie-jeebies whenever he’s near Germain.

Germain would have a hard time hitting Desmond with the Sword of Eden for some reason. (probably related to the device Desmond activated)

Desmond will definitely try to contact Connor one way or another. Whether he is successful in finding Connor though is up in the air.

[yikesharringrove]

Agitation (or disturbance of the mind)

Here is my piece for the Harringrove Big Bang!! I’m so so proud of how this piece turned out and I’m so excited to share it! @harringrovebigbang

Read on Ao3 (highly recommended. It’s over 16k).

Special thanks to my beta readers @thinger-strang @crispysteve without whom this story would’ve been scrapped in many fits of emotions.

Art for this story to be linked soon by @thedogsled

Check out this amazing moodboard by @memes-saved-me !!

Enjoy!

-

Steve Harrington is a liar. 

He always has been. 

Nearly everything about him is a perfectly crafted facade. 

From the story of his family’s move to Hawkins when he was eight, to the smile that slides easily onto his face when he tells Robin I’m fine. 

Steve is a liar. 

But it's all out of necessity. All for the greater of some good he isn’t all that clear on anymore. 

It was always about protection. 

Protecting his friends and everyone in Hawkins from the truth about Hawkins National Laboratory. 

Then it was about protecting himself from his powers. 

From the way his words had a knack of worming their way into someone’s brain. Of setting up shop inside and clanging around until they could do nothing but bow to his suggestion. 

Just because he could get his way with the right inflection and the telltale shiver down his spine, didn’t mean that that was okay. 

It was drilled into him the first night he arrived in Hawkins. 

After his file was stamped with a large red mark that read defective, he was given to one of the scientists and her husband. 

The Harringtons. 

A normal new family from Eastern Oklahoma. 

That’s what they told everyone. 

That’s what they made sure Steve parroted to everyone in his brand new school. 

His new father took a cigar to the tattoo on his wrist, welting the flesh with an ugly burn. He ignored Steve’s screams and tears. 

You have to fit in here, Steven, he had said, the cigar smoldering between his fingers, Steve clutching his wrist, eyes shining with tears. You have to fit in and be normal. 

So Steve lied. 

He smiled and told everyone he came from a normal family from normal Oklahoma. He said that he lived in a normal house, and read normal books, and played normal sports. 

And he tried, and failed, to convince himself the lab was a dream.

-

“We should do something after this.”

Steve was careful to keep his voice casual. He didn’t want to let Robin in on how much he was dreading returning to his empty house tonight. 

Robin didn’t acknowledge him. She was sorting the returned movies, placing them in piles of genre so they could easily be returned to their proper section. 

Steve quietly lifted his leg, and lightly kicked her hip. 

She glared at him. 

“Quit ignorin’ me. Just say yes, or no.” It’s not like if she said no it would crush him or anything. No. It’s fine. 

“I just have a bunch of homework that’s all, like, due tomorrow,” she said it slowly, as though telling him a beloved relative had died. 

Was it that obvious how lonely he is?

“Don’t worry about it, Buck.” Robin took school real serious. She had perfect grades every year and had already applied to sixteen colleges and universities, including four Ivy League options. 

So Steve didn’t blame her for not skulking around with him. 

With college-less, nowhere bound Steve. 

“I’m really sorry,” she began, getting that sad look in her eye like that night in the mall bathroom when Steve spilled his drugged-out guts. Literally, and metaphorically. 

“Nah, I was just lookin’ for something to do. It’s okay, Robin. Really.”

And it was. 

Almost. 

It’s just that, Steve’s not got a lot going for him right now. 

He’s got a big empty house, and a brain that likes to give him excessive nightmares, and one age-appropriate friend in the whole place. 

But he doesn’t wanna talk about all that shit. 

And Robin looked like there was something on the tip of her tongue. Something her teeth were barely holding back. 

So Steve just scooped up the stack of neatly ordered Action films, and made his way over to the far shelf, taking himself out of the situation before it would get to a place that would only make him lie more and more. 

Robin means well. He knows she does. 

It just feels like a lot of her well-meaning chats end up with Steve lying through his fucking teeth and Robin nearly in tears of frustration at his lack of openness with her. 

She feels like being tortured and drugged together gives them a close kind of kinship very few share. 

Steve feels like he’s got just too much fucked-up baggage to dump on her. 

Not when they’re trying to put the Upside Down behind them. 

Not that Steve could ever put it behind him. 

He felt something build in his gut. Something hot and heavy. Something that always meant his powers were scraping at the walls of the neat little cave he had shut them in. Something that meant his skin would burn until he unleashed some of his pent-up energy. 

He took a deep breath, blowing out the air slowly through his nose. 

He had rules to his power. Rules he had given himself, mostly. Things he’d never use his powers for. 

He tried to avoid his powers at all costs, but he had seen what could happen if he tried to tamp them down. It was less dangerous to open the lid of the box just a tiny bit. 

Especially if he did it right. 

He made his way back over to Robin, finding that spot in his brain that made a shudder zip down his spine. The spot that was made of cold and electric heat. 

It was always too simple when he let the power take over. 

Locate her feeling. Let him consume him. 

And then just, twist it as much as he wants. 

“Robin,” he spoke slowly, honing his suggestion. “You don’t have to feel bad about not spending time with me tonight.”

He felt her sadness and guilt about the evening recede about as fast as the tide. 

She really shouldn’t feel bad about ditching him, especially not when her education is the main priority. 

He matched her lazy grin, wiping his nose discreetly, only a small drop of blood smeared against his hand. 

The rest of the shift passed without incident, and the roaring feeling in Steve’s gut had been sated enough for the time being. 

So he pushed it back out of his mind, and returned to his empty house. 

He was saving up to get his own place. He really was. But it was easier this way. He didn’t pay any bills, had lots of space to himself, and a pool in the backyard (that he never used). 

And it’s hard for him to explain, but there’s something tugging him back into this house all the time. 

He doesn’t know if it’s because it’s the only home he ever knew after the pain and fear that was his childhood in the lab, or if it’s something else that makes him feel tethered to the too-big house. 

Sometimes he thought there was a sense of safety in the old place. 

With parents that spent excessive amounts of time doing research for things he didn’t understand but was sure were important, it was largely an emotion-free place. 

Which was good for Steve. 

High emotion situations made his power boil up and spill over the edge like a pot of water on the stove. 

A place like his empty house, he could keep everything in check. Not get his feelings tangled with those around him. Not catch thoughts that were just beginning to be molded into something brand new. 

He clambered into bed, punching his pillows around in a way that was decidedly not petulant. 

There was a steady silence in the old house. A silence that was as depressing as it was easy on his brain. 

And there wasn’t silence. 

Creaks. 

Creaks issuing from downstairs. From the floorboards in the hallway. 

Footsteps. 

Steve was out of bed in a second, bat held aloft in as close to ready position as he could maintain while bolting down the stairs in his socks and faded green gym shorts. 

He knew how to navigate the house without a sound. Practice of tip-toeing around a volatile not-father kinda ended up giving him something useful. 

The creaks were still progressing, moving up the hallway from the back of the house, where his parents’ empty bedroom sat still. 

The person was getting closer, lumbering slowly as if they were trying to be quiet themselves. 

Steve adjusted his grip on the bat, taking proper batting stance, ready for the intruder to round the corner into his section of the hall. 

First sign of a person, and Steve would swing. 

No questions asked. 

The floorboard before the bend in the hall gave a loud sound, and he could’ve sworn he heard someone curse under their breath. 

He closed his eyes, and swung. 

His bat sailed through the air, and connected with, not an intruder. 

And then he was filled with an overwhelming sense of fear. A completely feral state of fight or flight made him nearly bare his teeth in an animalistic growl. He felt fear, and dread, and pure stubborn, stupid resolve. 

It nearly blinded him, the emotions were so thick and clear. 

And then there whooshed out of him, as though being sucked up by a feelings vacuum, leaving him empty and confused. 

His top lip was covered in blood. 

He had a lot of fucking questions as he stared at the bat, hanging by it’s long nails in the hallway wall, the ominous creaking moving past him towards the stairs. 

The footsteps that were caused by no one. 

It’s official. 

Steve’s lost it. 

He’s fucking crazy. 

He’s hearing footsteps and voices swearing quietly, and he’s going mad and completely batshit and should be tucked away in a padded room for the rest of his life. 

He didn’t even bother to wrench the bat out of the wall as he stumbled after the imagined footsteps. 

He clearly needed to get a good night’s sleep, and to forget that anything happened at all tonight. 

-

Billy hates Harrington’s house. 

He doesn’t, really. It’s given him excellent shelter while he pulled himself together, and it’s out of town enough to serve as a good base for the little gang of Lost Boys he had accumulated. 

It’s just that, the old house likes to make a lot of noise. 

It keeps him on edge. 

Every squealing door hinge, and every creaky floorboard sets his teeth on edge and makes him whip around in a frenzy, expecting to see a demogorgon snarling at him from the sitting room. 

He nearly had a heart attack when he heard the thuds coming from upstairs. 

He generally liked to avoid the top floor of the house. 

Harrington’s bedroom was up there, and it wigged him out something fierce. He’d only been in the dilapidated version of it one time, his first night in the house he had claimed for safety. 

He didn’t intend to stay the night in there, he had just stumbled upon it, and curled up in the bed. 

He remembers not sleeping the entire night. He was so scared after coming to in the library, something slimy and disgusting slipping its way out of his throat. 

The whole place had been screaming, as though the Upside Down itself was alive. Alive and being horrifically murdered. 

He didn’t know what it was called then, all he knew was that Harrington’s house was the first one he came across, and that Harrington’s room was depressingly empty and impersonal. 

But, there was a thudding coming from that general area, and if some kinda shitty creature was making its way into the house, he needed to hedge it off before it did any damage. 

He took hold of his ax, never far from his side these days, and slipped out of his cot. 

The floorboards in the hallway were creaky, and he tried to walk slowly, muffling his footsteps as much as he could in his heavy boots, not wanting to warn the monster he was coming for it. 

He cataloged the crew in his head: Hopper had his troop of three in the basement where they were resting up for the supply run tomorrow. Timothy was on nightwatch with his team of five. Billy was in a pack with four others; Heather Holloway, her mother, Janet, and the two boys they found skulking around the library the same night everyone seemed to wake up. One of the boys was called Andrew. The other hadn’t spoken a single word the entire time they’d been trapped. 

Billy liked to call him by different names each time he referred to the kid. Trying to get him to laugh. He couldn’t’ve been more than seven years old, and he was trapped in this fucking hellscape with the rest of them. 

Andrew was thirteen. Billy didn’t like to look at him much. Andrew reminded him of Max. Which made Billy feel empty and achy in a way he didn’t think was very productive for survival.

But Andrew took a shine to Janet Holloway. Probably missing his mother and needing more comfort than his thirteen-year-old self was willing to admit.

The Holloway women were a hell of a lot feistier than Bill originally gave them credit for, saving his ass in a scrap just as often as he had been there for theirs. Heather and Janet were equal parts caring and soft, with the right amounts of clever and bossy to take point on their team. 

Billy let himself be the muscle. 

He let himself be the watchdog and attack dog. He took nightwatches and never let his weapons out of his grasp.

Everyone had a role. 

And that was perfectly okay.

They had to keep together in this world. They wouldn’t survive it otherwise. 

They’d all lost enough people to understand that. 

One of the boards gave a hefty creak under his left foot, and he breathed a quiet fuck through his bandana, listening for more of the thudding. 

It had stopped about forty seconds before, Billy had counted, and he couldn’t hear any other sounds of something forcing its way inside. Plus, the nightwatch hadn’t sounded any alarms. 

He took another step, ax held ready and aloft in case he came face to ugly face with one of the horrible creatures that prowled the night. 

He rounded the corner, and there was a loud bang on the wall next to his head. 

He jumped as paint chipped off the wall and flew all over him. 

He was hit with a feeling of intense fear, and adrenaline rush that caused all the blood in his ears to rush. He looked wildly around, seeing, nothing. 

Billy bared his teeth, ready to go down fucking swinging. 

As long as he took the fucker down with him, that’s all that matters. 

Save the rest. 

And he stood, ready to fight, ready to die. 

And there was nothing.

Nothing in the hallway. He was all alone. 

None of this shit made any sense. He hadn’t dreamed the wall cracked beside his head, and looking back, there were holes in the wall, and a big dent that had splinted the white paint and drywall beneath it. 

There was some fucked up shit going on, and Billy didn’t like it one bit. 

He continued down the hall, creeping to the stairs to check the original source of the noises that had woken him up. 

Harrington’s room was pretty much just as he remembered it from that first night in the house. 

It was sparse and sad-looking. The covers on the bed were all jostled and thrown around, the horrible spindle-like vines covering nearly every surface in the room. 

They had cleared the tendrils in other rooms, cutting them and burning them back, ensuring the vines didn’t start creeping over them when they weren’t looking. 

Billy didn’t fancy being covered and tethered by the slimy black vines. He was pretty much over all this Upside Down shit. 

He took a cursory look around Harrington’s room, not noticing any signs of forced entry from a creature, really nothing was out of place. 

The meager school trophies on the bookshelf next to the closet looked rotted and tarnished, just like everything else in this absolute hell called a parallel universe. There were few pictures in this room, much like the whole house. It had taken Billy a long time to notice the lack of inhabitancy the house had. The way it seemed to feel so cold and empty, it would be that way in the real world too. 

His eyes swept over the dilapidated dresser, cataloging the room quickly for anything that should worry him. 

Billy deemed the whole scene safe, and made sure to close the door tightly as he retreated back downstairs. 

-

Steve’s going fucking crazy. 

He was still in bed, his alarm clock ringing angrily at him as it had for the past six minutes. 

He hadn’t slept at all last night. 

Something just felt. Off. 

The feelings in his chest were scrambled, and they felt foreign to him. Like he had taken in somebody else’s emotions. 

But proximity was the key to his power, and he was alone. Alone alone. 

Like, the closest person was Mrs. Gardfeld in the next house, all the way across their combined, much too big, yards. 

It felt like. It felt like someone was in the house with him. Someone was in the house with him, and they were scared, and stubborn, and tired, and a flurry of things that made Steve feel ill. 

And he couldn’t push them out. 

He couldn’t find the chasm between this slew of someone else’s shit, and his own messy cocktail of feelings. 

The other feelings were like those awful vines in the tunnel. Snaking around under his feet, wiggling up his ankles and keeping him stuck in the mud. Wrapping around his own emotions and squeezing until they just merged into one. 

He’s lost the metaphor. 

Doesn’t matter. 

His feelings are fucked and his brain is fucked and his day is fucked. 

And he has to work a double at Family Fuckin’ Video. 

He found his way out of bed. Not going very far, just standing next to his warm nest of blankets, debating getting back in and hiding for the rest of his life. 

He was going to be late for work. 

He didn’t really give a fuck. 

Keith would be all smug and probably make some remarks about Steve not even being worth the less-than-minimum wage he was making. 

He took a shower, not so much cleaning himself as letting the lukewarm water cascade down on him and hope it got rid of the stench of sweat and anxiety and bad sleep that was clinging angrily to his skin. 

His brain was empty. 

Empty save for the pounding otherness that were these horrible fucking feelings. 

Robin didn’t even have the heart to call him out for being nearly half an hour late.

“You look like shit.”

No, she just called him out for looking like shit. 

“Y’know, it’s really wonderful to have such a caring and thoughtful friend in these trying times.”

She rolled her eyes. He always told her one day she was gonna get stuck like that. With her eyes permanently fixed towards the ceiling in exasperation. 

“Drop the attitude, Steve Harrington. Just because you didn’t sleep doesn’t mean I have to suffer.” 

Sometimes it was hard to tell if she was joking. Steve just clenched his jaw and stared at her blankly. Either she would get mad at him, or sigh and roll her eyes. 

She sighed and rolled her eyes. 

Bingo. 

She wasn’t actually mad at him. 

“You okay?”

“Jus’, some weirdness. Bad vibes.”

He couldn’t give her more than that. Couldn’t say I can feel someone else in my house and I don’t know if someone is hiding in my house or if I’m going crazy, oh and by the way, I was one of those freaky lab kids and I can manipulate and feel people’s thoughts and emotions, by the way.

That’s too much for a slow shift on a Saturday morning. 

That’s too much for really any time of any day.

No, Steve fully plans to take all that shit to the grave. Like a real man, his dad would say. 

“Well, if you could take your bad vibes back to rewind duty, that would leave all the good vibes up here to me.” She shooed him off with her hand, landing a quick slap square on his left asscheck when he groaned and dragged his feet dramatically on his way to the back room. 

Not that Steve would ever actually complain about rewind duty. Steve preferred doing it to anything else in the place. Especially re-shelving. That was just asking for someone to come ask him for a movie recommendation. Steve only watched the same five campy old westerns and when he recommends any of those, people seem to wanna get out of his face right quick. 

No, rewinding was dull and monotonous and solitary, all the shit that Steve really needed on a day like today. 

There was a strict routine and he didn’t have to think or do anything. 

Just sit. New tape. Rewind. Put in case. Put in re-shelve bucket. New tape. Rewind. Put in case. And again and again and again until all the tapes were ready to go. 

Hawkins tended to take out a lot of movies on the weekend. Not much else to do when you aren’t sixteen and ready to hit up any party you could possibly weasel your way into. 

So, Steve had about fifty some odd tapes to rewind from the past few days and he was feeling benignly excited about sitting in the small room for most of his shift. 

It was easy to pass the shift like that. 

Sitting with the quiet whirring of the tapes being tracked back to the beginning. Not having to deal with anyone’s thoughts except his own tedious ones about when he should take his lunch break and reminding himself to check the TV Guide for anything good tonight. 

It was an odd emptiness that took hold of him throughout the day. And he almost felt, well. 

Lonely. 

He almost felt lonely. 

Which is fucking bonkers because that horrible feeling of someone else had well and truly fucked him over last night, and well into this morning, but he kind. Missed. The other presence. 

He’s officially crazy. 

Someone find this boy a padded fucking cell because Steve Harrington has officially gone all kinds of batshit bananas wacky. 

He’s feeling lonely because the horrible not his feelings of fear and anger and betrayal and desperation aren’t clogging up his little brain sink. Even when they were, the brain sink was threatening to burst and leak all over his brain kitchen. 

Or something to that effect. 

He let his eyes unfocus, watching Jaws at double speed and backward for the fourth time that day. 

There was something about the foreign feelings he just couldn’t quite wrap his head around. 

Something twinging in the back of his brain, screaming at him to open his eyes and pay attention. 

But that’s never been Steve’s strong suit. 

-

“Stupid. Fucking. Vines .”

Hopper muttered to himself a lot. 

It was usually too muffled underneath his own bandana face covering and the hefty beard he had been sporting to discern whatever he was thinking, but it’s not like hating the awful black tendrils of gross plant/monster/everything-that-made-up-the-Upside-Down hybrid of vine-ish tentacles was something that just Hopper experienced. 

It was a sentiment they all shared as they hacked away at the new growth in the dilapidated Bradley’s Big Buys. 

They had already ransacked the general store five times over, and took as much as they could salvage from the wreckage of the other-dimensional mall. 

Supplies were needed, and they had to be smart about it. 

Things had been quiet lately. 

Not many beasties out and about since the night they all seemed to come to. 

Hopper had said something about the gate closing and the brain being cut off from the body. 

Billy hadn’t listened. 

He’d been scared off his ass and all that had really registered was clear for now. 

So, they made supply runs. And poked around town for any survivors left to take back to Basecamp Harrington. Only Billy called it that. 

They had the runs down to a system. 

Pry away any vines they could, burning them back as they went, making enough room to slip into the bargain store, gather as much canned food and grimy medical supplies as they could manage, and book it back to the relative safety of the big house on the edge of the forest. 

Nobody talked about what they’d do when they ran out of supplies. When they’d exhausted their resources and were stuck with nothing but the vines on the ground and the spores in the air. 

Billy got it. 

It’s not like he wants to hear he’ll probably die of starvation and/or a gangrenous infection before he’s eighteen. 

They just. Make do. 

Ration food and keep each other safe. 

Always thinking about the minute they’re in and the minute coming up. Not looking too far forward. 

There’s nothing to see too far in the future. 

Billy crashed the blunt end of his ax through the sliding door at the front of the store, clearing away as much as he could. 

Janet and Andrew would slip inside first go, taking as much as they could carry with them. Next round, Heather would take the little one and gather anything left. 

Billy would keep watch. 

He always kept watch. 

Things had been too good for too long. 

After the first wave of those who didn’t make it, the whole broken side of the Earth was too kind to them. Not sending horrible fleshy monsters to nearly suck out their very souls. 

Billy didn’t think this could last for much longer. 

Heather took the little one by the hand, rushing past her mother and Andrew as they returned with their supplies. Billy did a quick scan of them, noting no new injuries. Nothing out of the norm. 

Supply runs were choreographed down to the minute. 

Should the group not return in forty-five minutes, a search team was sent out. 

The small group trudged back to the Harrington safehouse, keeping in the shadows, not a single one of them daring to speak. Billy walked slightly behind the others, never letting himself relax for a single second. 

Things were too quiet.

-

The feeling hit Steve over the head like a sack of bricks being whacked against his skull. 

Walking into his home was like walking into a stinking den of fear and anxiety. The air was clogged with so many emotions Steve felt like he was choking on them, slowly being crushed under their weight. 

Whoever was emitting all these, Steve felt sorry for them. He can’t imagine living with this much bad energy taking up space in someone’s brain. He could barely cope with his own terrible bullshit. He doesn’t know how someone could cope with this. 

He tried to move through his evening to the best of his ability. 

He nearly set the house on fire when he left the tin foil covering on his frozen meal, causing the microwave to spark angrily at him, the potatoes underneath the corner of foil that had nearly caught fire to smolder and blacken. 

Even in the shower, the water as hot and steamy as he could stand, he felt that prickle he couldn’t get rid of. 

Like if he could just close his eyes and reach out far enough, his fingers would brush someone else. Someone nearby. 

He’s felt it before. That there was a person just out of reach. A person he could feel clear as a bell, but couldn’t alter. Couldn’t manipulate. Just had to experience everything that was going on inside and try to hold on for the ride. 

He wore headphones to bed, blasting a mixtape Robin had made for him last month. Something with a lot of heavy guitars and girls wailing about society. 

He doesn’t think it was all that good, but it helped. Helped him feel like maybe the person wasn’t seeping into his own soul. 

And the whining synth of Patti Smith finally let him get some goddamn sleep. 

  “Hello?”

It was his house. 

But it wasn’t his house. 

It was a blank void. It was nothing. It was nowhere. 

But for some reason, his brain kept telling him it was his house. 

“Harrington?”

It was Billy. Hargrove. 

But it wasn’t Billy. 

He was dirty, covered in soot and horrible black sludge that made Steve’s stomach churn. 

“Why are you in my house?”

Billy looked around the blank void all around them. Water sloshed on the floor, lapping at Billy’s black boots. Steve observed his own toes. 

He was barefoot, but he couldn’t feel the water. 

“This is your house?”

Steve didn’t want to explain. 

“You’re dead.”

“Could be soon.”

Nothing Billy said made any sense. But then, Billy never made much sense when he was alive, either. 

He was an enigma to Steve. A big question mark all wrapped up with a gorgeous face and perfect body.

“Where is this to you?”

Why was Steve’s brain so adamant on declaring this place his house?

“Somewhere safe.”

-

So. 

That’s something. 

Dreaming about Harrington. 

Not necessarily something that Billy wanted to have happen to him while he was experiencing the worst possible time in his life. 

Or maybe he did. 

He’d said it in the dream. 

Somewhere safe. 

It’s what he felt in that blackness. 

Safety. Warmth. Hope. 

All the shit he hasn’t felt since he opened his eyes in the rank-ass library. 

That darkness was like a harness, keeping him grounded to something real. Tucking him in gently at night and kissing him on the head. 

It made waking up that much shittier. 

Knowing he’d be on nightwatch with Heather and Janet tonight, he used resting up as an excuse to lay on his cot, hardly moving in the clouded air. 

He needed to process. 

There was something so fucking weird about that dream. 

It felt real in the moment, and he didn’t question anything that had happened. 

Why there was water on the ground at his feet? Why Harrington was there wearing pajamas Billy could only describe as skanky? All of this made perfect fucking sense to dream Billy. 

Awake Billy, had some fuckin’ questions. 

Mostly, those previously listed. As well as: what the fuck?

He blames seeing Steve specifically on being in his house. That makes sense. You tend to think about a guy quite a lot when you’re living in the broken shell of his family home. He blames seeing Steve in those itsy-bitsy shorts and a homemade cropped t-shirt on the well repressed sexual interest he refused to admit he felt towards the guy. 

All that made sense. 

But everything else. 

Steve said he was dead. 

Was he dead?

Was this Hell?

Purgatory?

He’s read The Divine Comedy, and this doesn’t quite match up with any of the shit Dante waxed on about. 

And dream Billy didn’t think that was a weird thing to say to someone. To accuse them of being dead. He just said could be soon and then acted like that was a normal fucking response. 

His head was spinning out of control. 

The only thing that made sense was when Billy said they were somewhere safe. 

Because, they were. 

Even in the void place, he knew they were safe. 

There was a small tapping sound on the wall next to the open door frame. 

The door had long since rotted right through. 

“Miss Janet sent me to see if you’re alright.”

Andrew was always calling Janet Holloway Miss Janet. 

It makes Billy wonder if manners like that were beaten into him by a father like Neil. 

He hopes not. 

He likes Andrew too much for that. 

Andrew hovered around while Billy swung himself out of his cot. 

He changed out the bandana over his mouth and nose. 

Most of them slept fully dressed, even with their shoes and socks still firmly on their feet. 

You had to be ready to go at the slightest sound of Bad in this place. 

Plus, everything was so goddamn dirty, what’s a little mud in the sheets in the grand scheme of things? And the rancid rotting smell of the Upside Down did wonders to cover the smell of body odor.

Billy followed Andrew down the L-shaped hallway, to the sitting room where he found Janet and Heather huddled together on one couch, the little one between them. 

“Apparently something happened on the run last night.” 

Billy’s blood ran cold. He couldn’t make out Janet’s expression under her face covering. The little one got up from his spot on the couch, standing in Billy’s shadow. He liked to do that. Billy figured he felt safe behind someone so much bigger and stronger than him. Someone with a big fuckin’ weapon that was never too far away. 

“Who’d we lose?”

“No one. Everyone’s okay. Hopper just called all of us for a discussion, then went to the basement.”

The basement was Hopper’s domain with his little chunk of the crew. 

He had found some busted up H.A.M. radio from somewhere he refused to explain, and spent all the time he wasn’t watching over his shoulder for threats or gathering supplies from smashed grocery stores, trying to fix it up, tuning it to different crackling stations, and yelling into it. 

El. El, I need you to copy if you can hear me. El!

-

The pillow was a mess of blood the next morning. 

It was congealed and cracked and tacky against his face and made the pillowcase stick to his cheek and his bloody upper lip in a way that kinda made Steve wanna puke a little bit. 

His nose had bled in the night. 

He never got nosebleeds. 

Unless he used his power. 

And that dream. 

That blank void space and that mucky scraggly Billy lookin’ like the hunky star of some apocalypse movie.

Wait.

Blood forgotten, smeared on his face and neck, Steve tossed himself towards the phone on his nightstand, smacking his shoulder against the wooden corner and tumbling to the floor, his legs still tangled in his sheets on the bed. 

He couldn’t deal with anything, snatching the phone up and punching in the only number that was grinding through his head. 

“ Pick up pick up pick up pick up pick up, ” he muttered into the receiver. 

His upper body was still flopped over to the plush carpet, legs twitching and shaking on the bed with his anxiety. 

He’s had some massive fucking realizations and he needs backup. 

“This is the Byers.”

“Put El on the phone.”

-

“Oh. Steve’s covered in blood again. The Upside Down must really be back,” Dustin said in complete monotone as Steve opened the door. 

Steve couldn’t give less of a fuck right now. 

He felt like he was on the verge of a major breakthrough, all coming in the neat package of a major breakdown. 

He felt manic and shaky and so what if he forgot he was covered in the aftermath of a superpower-nosebleed-explosion?

“Shut up. Just get in.”

El had rallied the old troops from St. Paul, calling everyone at the ass-crack o’fuck in the morning and saying something about catching some weird Hawkins vibes all the way from Minnesota. 

It was a fucking weak excuse, but explaining the whole Steve situation was just not really in the cards today. 

He’s got an agenda and they need to stick to it. 

Robin said she’d gather Max on the way to Steve’s place, and Nancy was probably hauling Mike and Lucas over faster than a speeding gun or whatever that expression is, so all Steve had to do was get his story straight. 

“And maybe you should think about putting on a clean shirt? At the very least. I’d say, maybe just start over. Take a shower. Powerwash your face, even.”

“When the fuck did you become sarcastic ?”

“Right after you became friends with the coolest chick on the planet and then decided you’re too good for her.”

“ Chick. Don’t call Robin a chick. And I’ve told you, we’re just friends. I’m not too good for her.”

Really, Steve thought she was too good for him. 

Well, that, and there’s the whole part where she’s super totally not into guys at all. 

“So, what’s this all about, anyway? Mike said on the phone that El called him and left a really cryptic message.”

“Look. She called me to explain and ask if everyone could meet here,” Steve lied. “I’ll give you guys a recap once the rest of the gang shows.”

“But she thinks there’s something going on with the Upside Down? Again ?”

“I think she knows there’s something going on with the Upside Down.”

The more Steve sat with the memory of how Billy looked in that dream, the more he was certain of where he was. 

Billy had been ratty. His normally perfect hair was long and limp, greasy on top and matted around his face. He was sporting a patchy beard, nothing like the fuckin’ pornstache the guy had been rocking all last summer. 

And he was filthy. Covered in grime and dirt, and Steve’s sure if he’d looked harder, he would’ve seen traces of that viscous black goo that only meant bad news. 

There was a squeal of tires, an alarm signaling the arrival of Nancy in her mother’s station wagon, toting her brother and Lucas. 

“I’m in this now, Lucas Sinclair!” came Erica’s voice from the entryway. 

Steve was tapping his foot impatiently.

“Erica, you accidentally found out about all this!”

“So did you!”

The Sinclair siblings’ bickering was only cut by the sound of the Wheeler siblings snapping at one another in turn.

“Am I the only one that thinks it doesn’t make sense to meet up this early? El and Will are like, seven hours away!”

“Mike! It doesn’t matter. We all have to talk and figure out what’s going on.”

The sounds of arguments all quieted abruptly as the four people rounded the corner and caught sight of Steve.

“Oh, Jesus. Who kicked your ass this time?” Mike snipped at Steve. 

Oh, yeah. He keeps forgetting he’s covered in his own nose blood. 

“What? It’s nothing. I kicked my own ass. Just take a seat.”

“I told you to-”

Steve didn’t wanna hear it. 

He loves all these people, but his head kinda felt like it was full of mushy jelly and runny pudding and all the loud talking wasn’t doing much to help. 

He stepped out onto the porch, snagging the pack of cigarettes he kept stowed in the flower box next to the door. 

It took two to finally tame his nerves any. 

Sitting there with all the people in his house waiting for an explanation, he kinda felt like his haphazard plan was shit and going to fall through immediately. 

Just tell them El called. Tell them she saw Billy in the nowhere place and she thinks he’s alive. Easy as pie. 

The tell-tale sound of a skateboard making its way closer and closer announced Max before he saw her. 

Robin was pedaling next to her, helmet lopsided on her head and not buckled underneath her chin. 

They were talking animatedly to one another, their laughter dying as soon as they saw Steve waiting for them.

“Fuck. So this is real.”

“Why does everyone think I got the shit beat outta me?”

“Your ass gets creamed every time some spooky shit goes down in this place, Harrington,” Max informed him. 

She was a little Billy replica, all the way down to the way the corner of her mouth twitched up when she said his name. 

It would’ve been sad. The way she tried to become her brother after losing him so violently last summer. 

But something like relief settled into his bones, strong and real and wait ‘til I tell her Billy’s not dead and he was laughing. Curling in on himself cackling so hard his stomach had already begun to get sore

“Fuck. He’s lost it,” Robin sighed, ditching her bike next to Dustin’s and heaving Steve up, both hands underneath his armpits.

-

Nobody dared speak. 

“And you’re sure? You’re positive you heard one of those things?”

Janet had her arms twisted over her chest, her jaw tight as she watched Hopper’s every move. 

“It’s not really a sound you forget.”

Billy’s hand was shaking, he was gripping the ax so hard. 

“So, we’re fucked,” Angela said harshly. Her cold voice sent ice down Billy’s spine. “If those things are back, we don’t stand a fucking chance.”

Hopper scrubbed his hand over his brow, sighing through the cloth over his mouth and nose.

“It just means I have to try harder. I can get to El, I know I can.”

Hopper said that a lot. But he never explained what getting to El meant. 

Heather had explained she met El once, but she said it was weird and she only saw her like some kind of shadow, a figment in this dark empty place. Somewhere as cold and broken as the Upside Down felt. 

The little one was leaned up against Billy, his left hand balled in the edge of Billy’s leather jacket. He stood like that a lot. It was grounding for Billy. Kinda like holding Max’s hand when she was young and still thought he was the coolest person she’d ever met. 

“But, you only heard something, right? So it very well could be nothing.” Timothy was good at keeping mediator. He always kept a level head and talked slowly and calmly. They needed someone like him in this nightmare.

“They make this noise. This kind of wet chirping. Like this gurgle that just sounds like they’re watching you, ready to pounce out at any time, shrieking and attacking. It’s not a sound you forget.” Hopper had this horrible haunted look on his face, and Billy fucking believed him. 

“Then we up nightwatch. Stick together,” Billy offered. He never usually piped up with strategy, but that’s the best he’s got, and frankly, he thinks it’s the only way they’d all be able to make it through. 

“Exactly. We move in a pack now. Keep track of everyone together, and stay aware of what’s around us. I think we should do a major run and then lock up for a few days to see what goes down.” 

Hopper leaned back in the ratty armchair he was taking up, looking around to see if anyone challenged his ideas. 

Billy had given up his alpha male attitude the second Hopper yanked his upper arm and nearly screamed at him, asking Billy if he was ‘one of the flayed’ all while aggressively checking him over for injuries. 

First time any of Neil’s lessons actually sunk in. 

Respect and responsibility. 

If that fucker could see Billy now, doing nothing but respecting authority and taking responsibility for all these peoples’ lives. 

“We should rest up. Take a run tonight. Get a lay of the land,” Timothy said with an air of finality. Nobody argued. 

Hopper nodded. 

Everyone broke out from the Harringtons’ living room, milling around to get prepared for tonight’s run. Taking stock of what they needed to keep going for the next few days. 

Billy was itching to slide back into his cot and try to seek out that space if he can. The empty space where Harrington and that warm feeling of safe existed. 

The little one stayed clinging to his jacket, and Billy took a loose hold of his wrist, trying to provide some kind of basic comfort to the tiny kid. 

“You wanna go raid the cabinet?” The kid stared up at Billy with big eyes. Billy could never tell what color they were in the gloom. He thinks maybe green. 

The cabinet was a large door, built into the wall of the sitting room, and clearly where the Harringtons kept their games. 

They had these excruciating couple thousand-piece puzzles, the pictures peeling and faded on the pieces. They had Trivial Pursuit and backgammon, and all kindsa shit. 

The little one went and pulled out the checkers board. That was the only game Billy knew how to play anyhow. 

He and Max used to sit for hours, playing with this dinosaur-themed checker game Max’s dad got for her one birthday. 

It helped, playing a game. Helped pass the time. Help bait the anxiety. 

Helped them all feel a little bit closer to human.

-

“I don’t. Get it.”

Apparently, Nancy was not the only one, if the blank stares Steve was receiving from around his living room were anything to go by. 

“Yeah, why did she call you ?” Mike’s snitty tone was really grating on Steve’s fragile nerves.

“She said, she called to make sure everyone could come over here before she told you all to just show up this early on a Sunday morning and then she kinda explained what happened.”

Max was white as a sheet, tracking Steve like he was playing a horrible joke on her. 

“And she saw Billy. Billy Hargrove .” 

Steve nodded at Dustin. 

“Why does she think he’s in the Upside Down?” Robin asked, perched on the coffee table, sitting closest to where he was standing nervously. 

“She just knows .”

It was frustrating, trying to impart the seriousness of the situation without just spilling his guts. 

He rubbed absentmindedly at the cigar burn on his wrist. 

“I just don’t believe this. I talked to her three days ago, and she’s still having trouble with her powers. She can barely move a book, and hasn’t been able to get to the void since July, and you’re saying she accidentally saw Billy Hargrove, who we all saw murder a bunch of people and then get killed -”

“Shut up! He wasn’t himself!” Max shrieked out over Mike, the only time she’d even opened her mouth since Steve had mentioned her stepbrother’s name.

“Even if he is alive, El couldn’t have seen him! It doesn’t make sense!” Mike’s voice rose over Max’s, and Steve has a fucking headache and he’s over it.

“It was me! I had a dream. I went to the void. I saw Billy in the Upside Down. I called El to say she saw him.” 

Everyone went dead silent, staring at him.

“Steve,” Robin began, searching his face.

It was like all the wind that had been filling up his sails, powering his energy ship, had suddenly quit blowing. 

Steve was tired. 

He sank to the floor, crossing his legs where he sat.

“I need you all to shut the fuck up for a moment and let me explain, because I only wanna say all this shit once.” He covered his bloody face with his hands. “I’m like El.”

That statement hung in the air for a moment. 

And then there was a roar of noise.

“How could you keep this a secret?” Dustin shouted.

“Not in a million years !” Lucas decided. Erica yelled something back at him, vaguely defending Steve, which was nice.

“You mean you came from the lab?” Mike had a look on his face like he’d swallowed a particularly bitter lemon. 

“Everybody, shut the fuck up!” Max roared, glowering at each person until they were silent again. 

In all this Robin hadn’t said a word. She was pale, staring at Steve.

“Look, I don’t wanna go into it because it fucking sucks to think about,” Steve still hadn’t uncovered his face. “But yeah. I was in the lab. I got out because they decided I was a failed experiment. My mom worked at the lab and she took me and we pretended like the three of us moved here from Oklahoma and my dad told me never to tell anyone. And I haven’t. Didn’t even tell El. She recognized me from then. Don’t even know how, I left when she was like, three. Doesn’t matter. I’m a freaky lab kid and last night I fell asleep and saw Billy in that-what’d you call it? The void? Yeah, I saw him, and he’s covered in dirt and gross black Upside Down shit, and he’s fucking stuck there, and now we’re here.”

There was another silence. 

Steve didn’t dare to look at any of them.

He didn’t want them to laugh in his face. Tell him he was making all this shit up and leave him alone to deal with Billy trapped somewhere else. 

He wanted them to take his word for it. To quietly believe this crazy fucking shit of a story because the scared other feeling was back and clawing at his spine and making him want to burrow into the ground and find somewhere safe and secure and-

“Okay.”

Of course it was Robin. 

It was always Robin. 

Steve let himself look at her. 

She was pale, but she was smiling at him. 

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

Steve nodded once.

“Okay. Uh, great.”

“Wait, if you’re defective, no offense, then how did you see Billy?” 

Steve stared at Max weighing his answer carefully. 

“Because, well, the defective thing, that was all, I didn’t mean to, that was before I really understood what I could do. Don’t get me wrong, it really worked out, but it was an accident.”

“Spit it out, Sailor Man.”

“ Erica .”

Erica just rolled her eyes at Lucas. 

“Okay. Uh, before I explain, just, just keep in mind that I have rules, and I don’t use my powers if I can avoid them, and I’d never use them to be a creep, but-”

“Steve!”

“Fine!” The words were right there, ready to tumble out of his mouth and ruin his life forever. 

There was no going back after this. 

The second they knew, everything would be different.

“I can feel other peoples’ emotions and, like, change them.”

Another silence.

“I don’t understand.”

Nancy was the last person he’d ever want to have this conversation with. 

He knows what she’s thinking. He knows that the great anger brewing inside her is because she assumes he made her like him. Made her attracted to him. 

Made her want him. 

“I don’t use it like that. I would never, put something there that shouldn’t be there. It’s just, When someone feels something near me, I can tap into it. Let it become my own feelings. And then I just, change it. Just a little.” He cast around for a harmless example because so far, everyone was staring at him like a goddamn creep. “Robin!”

She startled slightly when he yelled at her.

“Okay, so Robin. I’d never, ever make you feel something not true to you. Like, I’d never make it so you were into me when you’re totally not, right?” He cast a glance at Nancy. “But, like, the other day, when you felt really shitty when I invited you over and you were studying, I just, I made it so you wouldn’t feel bad. I felt all this guilt you had for leaving me alone when you thought I was having a shitty day, and I made it so you didn’t feel guilty because you shouldn’t. That’s the kinda level I allow myself to work on.”

The look Robin was giving him was breaking his fucking heart. 

Worse still, was the feeling of betrayal that began eating away at her. 

“So, right now. You can tell what we’re all feeling?” Even Lucas, ever the level-headed one, couldn’t look him in the eye.

“I don’t want to. I don’t try to, but I can’t really avoid it. I just try to ignore it. But sometimes, sometimes if I bottle it all up for a while, it comes crashing out of me, and that’s when bad shit happens. If I don’t use it occasionally, it only wakes things worse, and I-”

“I can’t hear this.”

Robin’s anger crashed through Steve like a wave, nearly knocking him over. She stood, towering over him. 

“When we were in that bathroom, all drugged out of our minds. I-” she sniffed, rage tears pooling in her eyes. Steve likes her eyes. So crystal blue. “Are we even really friends?”

Her last question was nothing more than a whisper. 

And it made Steve wish he was never born.

He gaped at her like a dead fish.

“Rob, of course we are! I would never-”

“Because I hated you. And then one summer. Two whole months where we’re close enough that you can get all up in my brain, and suddenly I’m telling you shit I’ve never told anyone before.”

“It wasn’t, Robin I swear, that whole time, I never once used-”

She held up her hand, cutting him off. 

A sob caught in his throat as she turned on her heel. 

She slammed the door closed behind her. 

Another fucking silence. 

Steve couldn’t look anyone in the eye.

Their feelings were enough for him now, betrayal and anger and disappointment rushing into his lungs, drowning him. Choking him. 

“You’ve used them on all of us.”

It wasn’t a question. 

It was just a statement. The coldest he’s ever heard Dustin sound. 

“I just want everyone to be happy.”

“Jesus, Steve. You realize that’s actually totally fucked up, right? You can’t just make us feel whatever you want,” Dustin bellowed at him, standing up like Robin had done, looking down at Steve where he sat pathetically on the floor. 

And, when it’s put like that. 

Sure. 

It’s kinda fucked up. 

But he’s only ever meddled in a way that’s good. He only ever tries to make his friends feel the positives. Hell, on the night of that stupid Snow Ball, he’d given Dustin enough self-confidence to make Madonna seem insecure. 

All he does is try to help. 

“All I do is try to help.”

More fucking silence. 

Steve was so goddamn sick of silence. All he had was silence. He had the nothing, empty quiet. And he didn’t want it from the people who were supposed to make his life loud. 

“El won’t be here until later tonight. I think we should just meet up then.”

Steve buried his head in his hands, biting back sobs as the small group filtered out of his house. 

This is why he had wanted to take this secret with him to death. 

He told everyone who he really is, and now they all hate him, and he’s completely alone, and wherever Billy is he’s fucking scared and-

“Steve?”

Max’s voice was small, mirroring the way she was curled in on herself in the plush armchair near the wall. 

“Do you really think Billy’s alive?”

Steve nodded at her, desperately begging her to stay. To help him. 

“I know he is.”

“I have an idea.”

-

He doesn’t remember falling asleep. 

Doesn’t remember much of anything in this place. 

He studied the water lapping at his muddy boots, dragging his toes through it to make the water wave and ripple. 

It didn’t make a sound. 

“I want to help.”

Billy knew Steve was there even before he spoke. 

Something about the warmth he brought to the void place. 

The safety. 

“Don’t know if you can.”

Steve’s lips twitched into a ghost of a smile at that. His face was covered in blood, dried and flaking away from his skin, painted all the way down his face and neck, some staining the collar of his shirt.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“That happens when the only interactions you have with a guy are to beat his ass.”

Steve cracked a real smile at that. Something big and bright that made Billy’s gut twist in a way he didn’t quite like. 

“You’re forgetting all those other times we spent together. You’re not very subtle, you know.”

Yeah, Billy knows. 

Mostly because he wasn’t trying to be subtle. 

He had talked to Steve about his bitchy ex while they both had their dicks out in the shower. He was trying to be very much un-subtle. 

“Wasn’t trying to be.”

“I know.”

Oh. 

Steve knows. 

And all he had done was stare blankly at Billy. 

Nice. 

“I need to know where you are.”

“Why?” 

“Because I can help.”

Billy just blinked at Steve. 

“Do you know El?”

Something funny happened to Steve’s face. He kind of gave a little smile that flickered into a frown and landed on something a little pinched and awkward. 

“Yeah. How do you know her?”

“Hopper keeps saying he needs to get to her. None of us know what he’s talking about.”

And with that, Steve’s eyes went huge, and his jaw dropped. The water at Billy’s ankles sloshed quietly. 

“Hopper’s there? Chief Hopper? Jim Hopper is there?”

“Jesus, yeah. Been here since we all woke up.”

Steve acted like Billy had told him that Farrah Fawcett herself was on her way to shave his head. 

Meaning, he looked struck fucking dumb. 

“I’m gonna need you to explain.”

“I don’t know. Don’t remember much. Crashed my car on one of your shitty backwoods roads, and then everything is just, kinda, gone. I woke up in this shithole version of the library and Hopper found me here and we’ve kinda set up camp.”

Billy shrugged lamely. Something was dripping, he could hear the sound of it far behind him.

“There’s more of you? How many?”

“Not as many as there should be.”

Steve’s mouth pinched, and his big droopy eyes went all sweet and sad. 

“Where are you? Where’s the camp?”

Billy was suddenly embarrassed. There was a sound like a stream flowing over rocks.

What’s he supposed to say? The hellscape skeleton of your house oh and by the way all your stuff is here and I slept in your bed once because I was scared and sad.

“Someone’s house. Don’t know whose.”

Steve huffed some air out of his nostrils, his mouth pinching again. 

Billy hadn’t realized someone could make so many different expressions just by pursing their lips in different ways. 

“Find out. We’re coming to get you.”

A crash of a wave, and Billy was back in hell. 

-

Steve sucked in lungfuls of air, tossing the towel that had been covering his eyes to the ground. 

“You saw him.” 

Max was sitting in front of him, the t.v. playing static behind her. 

“Yeah. He’s okay. I mean, he’s really gross. Like, he’s-sorry. He’s okay.”

Max was still staring at him like she didn’t quite know how to proceed. 

“But he’s in the Upside Down?”

“Yeah. And there’s others. He said Hopper’s there, that he’s been trying to contact El.”

“Wait, Hopper? He’s alive?”

“Billy said all of the flayed woke up after the Fourth of July in the Upside Down. He doesn’t know anything that happened in this world, and Hopper was there and they’ve set up, like, some kind of camp, or whatever. He said they’re in someone’s house. He doesn’t know who.”

“ Fuck .”

Yeah, Steve agrees with that sentiment. 

This whole thing was like, kind of a lot. 

And deep inside him, those other feelings had yet to leave him alone all day. 

There was some kind of disappointment knocking about in his brain. 

He knows it’s Billy. 

All of those other feelings, it’s whatever Billy is feeling right that minute wherever he is. 

And it only happens when Steve is-

“Max, he’s here.”

She whipped around behind her, staring at the front door like Billy could waltz through it at any moment. 

“No, no not here, here .” She clearly didn’t understand. He used the towel to wipe the fresh blood from his upper lip, still having yet to clean himself up any. “The camp, the safeplace, it’s here. They’ve set up in my house!”

It felt like a revelation on par with the greatest inventions. Steve felt like the scientist that landed the man on the moon or the very first person to melt cheese onto fries. 

A genius. 

“So, he’s, I mean, he could be, just, here .” She looked over the room wistfully, and Steve knew how she felt. Like she wanted to pierce her hands into thin air, tearing a hole in between the two worlds and ripping Billy straight outta hell. 

(Really, she just filled him with a wave of fierce determination, but Steve likes to take poetic license on other people’s feelings sometimes.)

“And you can feel him.”

“Yeah.”

“Is he, okay?”

And he knows this question. 

Not the okay he assured her of when he first saw Billy. Soothing that he wasn’t missing any internal organs or possessed by any monsters. 

She wants to know if he’s held it together. 

“He’s scared. He’s always scared. But he’s really fucking stubborn, and he- I don’t know why he feels these things, but sometimes he gets kinda sad. Almost like he’s lost something, and sometimes, it feels like he’s caught fire, and his insides are just going up in flame and he gets overwhelmed by them. And sometimes he feels-” He hadn’t meant to continue.

“Tell me.”

He’s pretty sure Max knew what he was going to say next. 

She just wanted it confirmed. 

“Hopeless. Sometimes he feels hopeless.”

She sniffed, her eyes shining as she looked anywhere that wasn’t Steve. 

“But, we know now. He doesn’t have to be hopeless anymore. We’ll find a way in, and we’ll get him out.”

He didn’t want to manipulate her. 

He didn’t want to cross the boundaries everyone clearly thought he already had. 

But he was positive he would find a way to Billy. He was positive he would get him out and get him home. 

He sent a wave of that determination and hope and conviction to her. 

“Yeah. We’ll get him.”

-

“Hopper, man, some funky shit is going down.”

Hopper whirled around quickly, halfway to his feet and asking who's been hurt before Billy raised both hands, acting like he was calming an anxious horse.

“Nah, sorry, shoulda worded that better. I just mean, something’s happened to me. With me, maybe. I don’t know. Just hear me out. This shit’s gonna sound, insane.”

Hopper didn’t say anything as Billy explained, beginning with that night when the wall shattered next to his head, and ending with his most recent trip to the void place. 

Billy shrugged lamely when he finished explaining. 

“So, Harrington, huh? Never woulda guessed he was like her. You sure you didn’t see a little girl anywhere in the blank place?”

“No. It was just us. Both times.”

Hopper leaned back in his chair, scratching a hand through his thick beard. 

“The first time one of the demogorgons showed up on our side was behind Steve’s house. Took Will Byers from his shed. They live some few miles away. Second time was in Harrington’s backyard. Took Barbara Holland.” Hopper sighed, looking in the direction of the busted radio. Billy could more or less see the cogs turning in his head. “If you see him again, tell him where we are. Tell him I think the walls are thinnest here. That maybe he and El could tear through. Better yet, tell him to find me if he can.”

He clapped Billy on the shoulder, looking right at him in that way he did sometimes. It always made Billy feel like a little kid. 

“Thank you, kid. You might’ve just saved us.”

Billy felt awkward and didn’t really know what to do with his face. Thankfully, Hopper turned away from him, cutting the moment short and moving back to fiddling with the old radio. 

Billy ducked his way up and back to the furthest bedroom on the ground floor, taking a seat on his low cot and digging his palms into his eyes. 

He didn’t know how the void happened. If he could only get there in his sleep, or if it was Steve’s doing somehow. 

“C’mon, Steve. Where are you? Come find me, Pretty Boy. We gotta talk.”

When he moved his hands away, he was in that blank place. 

Billy was taken aback a bit, thinking somehow he had created the place around him. 

Until he saw Steve, standing nervously and staring at Billy. 

“I felt you. What’s wrong?”

“Sorry, you felt me? What in the fuck’s that supposed to mean.”

“Don’t worry about it. What happened? Are you guys okay?”

Steve wasn’t covered in blood anymore. 

In fact, he looked freshly showered, his hair slightly damp and soft-looking without product. 

It’s how he always looked right after having a post-practice shower. Clean and warm. Soft and inviting. 

“I talked to Hopper. He told me to give you a message.”

Steve’s eyes lit up, and he took a step towards Billy, the water rippling where his foot disturbed the surface. 

“He said, well. He told me where we are. Apparently, we’re at your place.” Billy tried to smirk a little, act like this was brand new information to him.

“Yeah. I gathered.”

“He thinks the walls are thinnest at your place. Said that maybe you and El could tear through easily. That mean anything to you?”

Steve nodded so hard his bangs flopped right into his eyes. 

He pushed his hair out of his face, tucking some behind his ear. Billy tracked the movement. 

“We’re going to try tonight. Maybe around six. Can you guys be ready by then?”

“We don’t have any way to track time around here. Don’t even know if it’s day or night, really.”

Steve bit his soft bottom lip, looking at Billy like he wanted to cry for him. 

“Then I’ll come and get you before. Warn you when we’re about to start. Make sure everyone stays close. I don’t know how long we’ll be able to keep it sustained, and we want to get everyone out if we can.”

“Steve, man, what in the fuck is going on? I’ve been shut up in this place for, for I don’t even know how long, and all of a sudden, you just start showing up in my head and telling me that you’re gonna take point on this big fuckin’ rescue mission.”

Billy doesn’t want to admit it to anyone, least of all Steve Harrington, but he’s scared, and confused, and he genuinely wishes that he had died in that library instead of waking up. 

“I’ll explain it when you get back.” 

And Steve smiled at him and the corners of his eyes crinkled and Billy didn’t quite feel like he wanted to die anymore. 

-

“Where are they?”

El didn’t even say hello when she pushed Steve’s front door open, just made straight for Max and Steve in the sitting room.

“They’re all being dicks,” was Max’s answer. “Steve told us about how you two know each other, and everyone kinda freaked.”

“I mean, it’s pretty freaky.”

“Yeah, sure, but they didn’t need to be such shitbirds about it.”

Somewhere between feeling harshly angry at Steve and his powers and hearing her brother’s voice crackle through the television speaker, Max had pretty much ensconced Steve as her sidekick. 

Which he didn’t mind in the least. 

It was kinda odd seeing the Byers in his house. 

Jonathan looked. Exactly the same. 

Like literally. His hair had grown out since his mother had taken a pair of scissors and a bowl to it last summer, and he looked just like the Hawkins Jonathan Steve was used to. 

It was kinda nice. 

At least one thing hasn’t changed. 

Especially because Will is pretty much unrecognizable. 

He had shot up, growing until he could nearly look Steve in the eye. And thank God, he must've followed Jonathan’s footsteps and stopped letting Joyce cut his hair. 

It was longer, adn shaggier, but it made him look so grown up. 

Nearly as grownup as El, her hair nearly down to her shoulder blades, the top of her head coming up on Steve’s chin, showing off the signs of her own growth spurt. 

Even Joyce was sporting a new look. Longer hair with bangs that were swept off her face.

She gave Steve a comforting hug, and those were just the same. 

Unease filled the room. 

Nobody knew what they were walking into. El had to have given them the basics, and Steve figures she explained some on the long drive back to town, but there had been even more developments since the last they had spoken this morning. 

Steve sifted through the borderline panic of Max and the Byers, clinging onto the fierce calm that El was radiating. Probably for his benefit more than her own actual experience. 

“I know where Billy is. We talked. I have an idea.” He took a deep breath, bracing himself for the feelings. “Hopper’s alive.”

It took a second. 

El’s carefully maintained calm wavered for a moment. 

And then it crashed down. 

Disbelief, relief, denial, anger, hope, joy. 

Everything a person could possibly feel at once poured out of El and Joyce both, nearly knocking Steve off his feet with the sheer velocity of the emotions. 

“Saw him?”

“No. But Billy mentioned him. He said he’s been trying to get to you.”

El’s eyes filled with tears, and Steve could feel the satisfaction, the pride, welling up in her that Hopper was still thinking of her. That he was trying to reach out. 

“My powers,” she trailed off.

“Yeah. I know. But, he said, well, he told Billy to tell me, he thinks the walls are thinnest here. Maybe in the woods outback. He thinks we can do it.”

Sorry,” Joyce interrupted. She had gathered herself somewhat, but her feelings were still shaky. 

She always felt like she was trembling emotionally. Joyce felt everything nearly as viscerally as Billy did. 

“I think we’re not on the same page. Steve, you spoke to Billy? El said she sensed him.”

“Steve is like me. From Papa.”

“You mean, from the lab?” Jonathan clarified. 

Everyone was staring at Steve again and he felt like burrowing a hole right through the floor and hiding underground forever. 

“Yeah, I got out when I was a kid. My parents were pretty hell-bent on hiding it from everyone. But. You know. Cat’s outta the bag now. But yes, it was me who saw Billy. He’s in the Upside Down. A bunch of people are. Including Hopper. It sounds like they were all taken and the flayed people out here were like, fake. Like evil twin versions.”

Sure, it’s a shitty explanation.

It’s the best he can do, okay? Leave him alone. 

“So, what’s his plan, then?”

That’s the good thing about the Byers, though. They get the whole, priority thing. Now’s not the time to focus on shit like Steve’s fake life. Not when the Upside Down is concerned. 

“Billy didn’t say much. Just that he thinks maybe El and I could like, band together to open it. I don’t really know how, I mean, I haven’t thought about it much, I just spoke to him, but that's the idea. I told him I would meet him in the void or whatever before we go so he can gather everyone and get ready.”

“So, is it just us?” Will asked quietly, biting the inside of his cheek. He was disappointed. His friends not being where they were needed. Not being there to see him for the first time since his family moved away months ago. 

Steve shrugged.

He was battling his own disappointment and hurt at everyone ditching him. 

“No. Let’s start calling. We need to stick together for this one. Billy hasn’t said anything about how bad the Upside Down has been, and we need to be ready to fight off anything that tries to get through.”

“Max is right. They should be here.” Will was already making his way to the phone placed on the side table. “They need to be here.” 

Jonathan caught Steve’s eye, jerking his head slightly to the hallway. 

Steve followed him, already knowing the line of questioning that was about to hit him. 

“I knew you called El. I picked up this morning. Now the story makes a lot more sense, I guess.”

“Yeah. I’ve been getting this weird feeling for a couple months, but I finally put it all together. Probably would’ve happened faster it is was El.”

“I don’t know. She’s been struggling a lot. She practices every day, but,” he sighed” I don’t know if she’s strong enough to make this work.”

He’s worried, adn scared, and has that exact same tremble-feeling that his mother does. 

“I know. I just don’t think we can leave them any longer. Billy said they’ve already lost people. I don’t know what it’s been like for them, but they’ve been stuck for fucking months, and-”

This time, it hit him so hard he really did blackout. 

His vision clouded around him, and his whole body burned with the raging fear inside of him. 

He could hear something, could hear someone screaming, adn something, something that sounded horrible, and so very very like a-

-

“Demogorgon!”

It’s like it had come out of nowhere. 

This towering figure, long and thin in all the wrong fucking ways.

And the sound. Billy realized what Hopper meant about how it’s not something you forget. 

They were in some form of a ready position. 

Billy among the front of the group, holding his ax he had never let go of in the first place. 

His heart was pounding. 

We’ll be out soon. We’ll be out soon. 

He didn’t believe it. 

How could he?

How the fuck is Steve Harrington going to get them out of the worst place ever? No offense to him or anything, but the guy could barely make a goddamn milkshake without spilling something on the sticky tile floor of Scoops Ahoy! and now, Billy’s life is in this guy’s hands while he stares into the jaws of a monster that looks like it stepped right out of H.P. Lovecraft’s wettest dreams.

It’s not like this is the first time he’s had this realization, but he is in way over his fucking head. 

“Steve,” Billy grumbled to himself through gritted teeth. “If you can hear me, get us the fuck outta here.”

The thing ahead of them wasn’t moving. It stood in the line of the trees behind Steve’s house. 

It was staring down the clump of people on the other side of the backyard. 

The air was still. 

Billy’s ears were ringing. 

He stared the thing down. 

Its long fingers twitched. 

Someone screamed. 

And the thing charged. 

It roared like nothing Billy had ever heard before. A shriek that seemed to vibrate Billy’s bones and tremble the earth underneath his feet. 

It charged. 

Sprinting forward on long thin legs, it loped with a grace that turned Billy’s stomach and made his knees wobble and threaten to give out. 

Plant your feet. 

It rang through his head, Steve’s voice from, some time Billy couldn’t remember. Or maybe Steve was just the little voice that commanded his bravery now. 

Either way, he dug the balls of his feet into the cracked ground, and waited. 

Don’t stop fighting.

He swung. 

The ax clocked right into the side of the thing, barely cutting into its thick leathery skin, but it slowed it down. 

Well, actually. 

It made it change course from attacking the group as a whole, to honing in on Billy. 

Which was less than awesome. 

Billy wrenched the ax out of its tough body, thick, sticky black goo connecting the ax with its entry point as he drew it away. 

He swung again, nearly hitting the same place. 

The thing cried out, roaring over the sound of screaming and gunshots. 

Hopper had his rifle trained on the flowered head of the one Billy was furiously chopping into like a tree. 

There were two more, two he hadn’t noticed in his preoccupation with the one in front of him. 

He didn’t know who was who. Which gunshot belonged to which gun, which shriek belonged to which animal. 

He didn’t know if the cries of pain were from the awful beasts or the people in his camp. He was hoping the former. 

He swung again. There was a sickening sound of the metal blade connecting with something solid. Something like bone. 

Hopper shot it, once, twice in the head. 

It was whining, making a high-pitched noise as it staggered about. 

One last blow to the side of the thing, and it was finished. 

The monster flopped onto the ground, dark liquid oozing out of it, its body nearly split in half where Billy had hammered it with his ax. A great gaping wound that showed sticky dark entrails. 

Billy turned. 

His brain was working in slow motion as he charged into the battle still raging. 

He didn’t know how many of the things had arrived. 

All he knew was taking them out.

His arms were sore from the force he was putting into each blow with his ax. His muscles threatened to give out at any moment.

Drive them back. We’re coming. 

The thought was shoved into his head. He didn’t know where it came from but he believed it. 

“Help is on the way!” He shouted to no one and everyone. 

He had taken down two more demogorgons with the help of the others. One was missing its body, a petal head lolling on the ground, getting trampled on in the fight. 

-

Steve had felt the demogorgon before Billy saw it. 

It was an odd feeling, almost like it was a black hole sucking up everything he thought and felt before he could cling onto it. 

It made him feel cold, and empty, and just like the Upside Down felt. 

“We don’t have time!”

El was insisting on contacting the others. She was livid with them for abandoning Steve, but things were taking a turn for the small group trapped in that hellscape. 

“Steve’s right. If there’s a demogorgon there, that means the Mind Flayer has gotten some strength back, wherever he is.”

Steve nodded at Will gratefully.

“But, what’s the idea? You two open the gate. Then what? We wait for those things to come through to our side?” Jonathan asked, kinda harshly, if you ask Steve.

Steve rubbed his eyes, his fists pressing against them so hard he was seeing odd shapes. 

“No. I go through. I get them. I bring them back.” His head was a fucking mess. Billy was all over the place. Fear, desperation, and a horrible calm that only came when things looked like the end. Plant your feet, he thought, trying to get his feelings to Billy through the thin dimensional wall. Don’t stop fighting. “For the past few days, all I’ve been able to feel is somebody else’s fucking fear and this stupid stupid stubbornness and I know it’s Billy, and I know he’s in trouble. Like right now. The demogorgons are coming for them, and he’s so scared. He’s so fucking scared and he thinks he’s gonna die, and he’s trapped .”

He looked at each person individually, glaring at them all in the eye. 

“We don’t have time.”

So it was decided. 

He brought El outside, and stared into the shimmering water of the pool. 

The pool where a demon came out and dragged Barbara to her death. 

It gave him the fucking creeps. Well, it more gave him the severe anxiety, but there was something about it that made it seem like it was the best place to try and rip the fold between himself and Billy. 

Drive them back. We’re coming. 

He wanted Billy to have some hope. Something like a lifeline that would keep him fighting the monsters. 

He had wrenched his nail bat out of the wall it was still planted in from a few nights ago, and stood next to El, ready to try. 

“To be honest, I don’t know how to help you.” It was the only thing that scared him about this plan. “I don’t have the same powers as you. The telekin-the moving stuff around. I don’t know how to open this.”

She looked at him thoughtfully. 

“In Chicago. Kali. When I’m angry my powers are better,” she took his hand. “Make me angry.”

Steve closed his eyes. 

He tried to push Billy to the side, clinging onto the first bit of El he could sense. 

Her anger was like a melted core running through her. Driving her in a lot of ways. 

He grabbed onto it. 

Papa. Everything he did to your mama. Being locked in isolation. Fights with Hopper. Being trapped in the cabin. Feeling alone and not knowing how to fix it. New kids at school being mean. Techs in the lab that treated us like rats. The smell of skin burning. Parents that called you a freak. 

He didn’t know when he had stopped using El’s ready-made rage, and began siphoning his own straight into the beating heart of her fury. 

His gut began to feel white-hot, and he could feel the blood dripping down his lip. 

Lying to everyone. Being abandoned for the truth. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. 

Steve was livid. 

He’s never felt an emotion consume him like this. Felt one feeling take over so completely it’s like there was nothing else in the world. 

He opened his eyes. 

There was blood flowing steadily from El’s nose, and he knew his was doing the same. 

He could feel his heart pounding against his ribs, his body going into overdrive to divert all of his energy to his powers. 

The rift glowed red through the clear pool water, splitting open like a seam on a well-worn shirt. 

The burn on his arm ached, and he pushed into it. 

He remembered being held down on his father’s desk. Remembers the cigar being forced against his skin, bubbling up and disfiguring the tattoo beyond recognition. 

He remembers his father, this is for your own good, Steven. You’ll tell everyone you had an accident. People won’t question a burn like they will a tattoo. 

Like no one would take one look at the quarter-sized mark and know what would make it. 

He remembers getting the tattoo. 

It was nearly the same process. 

He was strapped down in a chair, his screams going ignored as the needle drove into his skin over and over, leaving a neat black number behind. 

001

Number One. 

The first in a series of children bred for something more, and beaten into acceptance. 

His head felt like it could explode. He didn’t know what was going on around him, was barely aware of El’s sweaty hand in his, and the bright red light coming from the cracked bottom of the pool. 

It was open. 

Number One took a deep breath, and dived into the pool. 

-

It was the little one that noticed it. 

Billy had been trying to yell at him to get back inside, to keep himself out of harm’s way. 

They had killed six demogorgons, and more were certainly coming. 

The trees in the forest were rustling in a way they never did on their own. 

The little one was pointing frantically, his eyes wide and scared. 

Billy turned, and his blood ran cold. 

Something was moving in the pool. 

It was making the thick non-water slosh around dangerously, the dark liquid lapping over the sides and staining the concrete. 

There were vines crisscrossing over the surface of the liquid, and Billy approached it carefully, hoping whatever was coming out would be trapped underneath them. 

“This is the last fucking thing we need,” Hopper gritted out, cocking his rifle and aiming at the sludge. 

And then Billy’s head felt like it had been cracked open. 

He was blinded with pain and rage and 

Help me, Hargrove!

He started swinging his ax wildly at the vines. Trying to break them apart enough for a body to fit through. 

His heart thundered in his chest, and he dropped to his knees, ripping at the slimy black tendrils. 

He shoved his left arm in.

It was like dousing his arm in ice. Like the liquid was made from the purest essence of cold. 

He searched frantically with his hand, finding something solid and yanking with all his strength. 

He had to put both arms in, grabbing hold of whatever he could, using his body weight as leverage to extract Steve from the cold. 

He was limp when Billy finally got him out, but breathing heavily. 

He opened his eyes, wiping his face free of the goop and blood covering him, and grinned at Billy. 

“Told’ya we would get you out.”

They shepherd him inside, most of the gang speechless and struck dumb from the events of the past while. 

Steve was given a change of almost clean clothes, and allowed to use some of their bottled water ration to clean the freezing black fluid from himself. 

He wasted little time, and was down in the Upside Down version of his living room with everyone else. 

“We can’t be long. El had to use a lot of strength to open it, but she’ll need her strength to close it, too.” 

Nobody knew what in the fuck Steve was going on about. 

Nobody but Hopper, that is. 

He still had disgusting pool sludge all over his front from when he pulled Steve into a tight hug when he had gotten his bearings back from his journey through the rift. 

“We can’t send people through that shit. It took all of Billy’s muscle to get you outta there.”

“So we drain it,” Steve insisted. “My parents drain it sometimes, I know how to do it.”

“I’ll keep watch. Make sure nothing tries to make itself known.”

Billy had barely wiped himself off. 

He didn’t care anymore about how freezing that shit was, he just wanted to surge forward, and get back the fuck home.

Hopper studied them both.

“Bring weapons. Yell if you need help.”

Billy nodded once, and turned on his heel, following Steve out the back door. 

Steve led him to a wooden shed on the side of the house. Billy had to clear the vines away from it before Steve could pry open the doors. 

It was full of pool equipment, and it didn’t take long for Steve to locate a large grubby pump. He knocked it against the wall of the shed until the filter attachment clattered off, leaving bigger openings for the sludge to, hopefully, run through. 

“Shit. This thing is electric. You got electricity?” 

It was the first time Steve had really gotten a good look at Steve since being in the Upside Down. 

He looked exactly as he had in the void place. His hair had a lot more disgusting black fluid in it, and he overall looked kinda shitty with the flecks of grime and blood on his face, but he looked bright. Alive. Strong. 

“How did you do it? Take me to that place. Figure out we were here.” 

Steve flushed. Billy had become overly aware that his face was completely covered under his bandana. Steve should cover his face. 

He drew another one of his back pocket, and, he didn’t know why, but he tied it around Steve’s face. 

Seriously, he could’ve just handed it to the guy and called it good there. But no. He had to set his ax on the ground, propped against his leg, wrap his arms around Steve’s shoulders, and tie the bandana like this was some intricate ritual. 

All while Steve just stared at him with those fuckin’ eyes of his. 

“It’s a long story.” Billy could barely hear Steve speak through the dirty cloth now covering his mouth and nose. “I’ll tell you when we’re back. When we’re safe.”

“I’m holding you to that, Harrington. Can’t have a guy poking around my dreams and shouting in my head without knowing his intentions.”

It was as close to flirting as Billy dared right now. 

Right before they tried to journey between worlds. 

“Good to know you heard me. I was trying to give you something of a pep talk.”

“Well, it worked. I would’ve just put my arms out and let those things rip me to shreds if I hadn’t have known.”

Billy didn’t know what Steve’s face was doing behind the cloth, but his eyes dropped, and Billy imagined that little cinch of his mouth that he had noticed Steve doing so much in that void place.

-

Billy meant it as a joke. 

He really did. 

And the Billy that was torn to bits in the mall wasn’t this Billy. Wasn’t the real Billy that was made out of real Billy materials and real Billy personality. 

But it still made Steve feel queasy, thinking about his arms spread wide, black goop pouring out of his mouth and nose as the Mind Flayer decimated him. 

“We’ve got a lot to talk about, Billy. Just, not now.” 

And Steve turned off, hauling the pump back to the pool and taking calming breaths. 

The pump sank without much effort, like there was some kind of gravitational pull at the bottom of the pool. 

Steve had connected the thickest hose he could find, adn sent Billy off with the extension cord to find an outlet that didn’t spark and threaten fire. 

Before no time, the pump was humming, and pushing black slime through the hose and onto the dead grass. 

They didn’t need to get it all out, just as much as they could shove everyone through. 

Steve closed his eyes, trying to reach El like he had Billy. 

We had a hold up. Shouldn’t be long. 

He could feel her on the other side. 

She promised she would stay close enough to the rift that Steve could get in touch with her. 

He could feel something slither down his spine, a wordless confirmation from her. 

The liquid in the pool was slowly edging down, leaving a stain on the once-white walls of the pool. 

“Gather everyone up. Tell ‘em to meet out here. Tell ‘em to leave it all behind.”

Billy was still staring at the edge of the forest when he commanded Steve. 

It was odd, being in his house that’s not his house. 

Everything was so. Wrong. 

From the way the house seemed to be crumbling down, reduced to its studs in some areas, to the way it was still clearly his house. Paintings his father had bought. Elegant furniture his mother selected. 

It was all there. Just under a thick layer of dirt and nightmares. 

He thought idly about his bedroom, wondering if it would look like it did on his end. A little messy, the sheets typically rumpled and unmade. 

He resisted the urge to wander upstairs, reminding himself he was on a mission. 

“It’s time. Don’t bring anything. It’ll probably be ruined along the way.”

Everyone looked grave. Steve tried to smile at them, tried to push through some calmness to them all. He had forgotten Billy’s bandana was tied around his face. He sent one last wave of quiet confidence around the room, and led the group through the kitchen. 

They had barely rounded the corner of the kitchen island when they heard a strangled yell from outside. 

Steve put his head down, and sprinted through the shattered glass doors, skidding to a halt in the threshold. 

Billy was staggering backward, his ax forgotten on the ground and his left hand was clinging wildly to his right shoulder. 

His jacket was in tatters, thick blood dripping bright crimson down his arm, standing out like neon against the dark, dirty ground. 

Steve didn’t feel himself moving forward. He didn’t feel his hands raising in front of him. 

He just felt anger. The same anger from before that had ripped through him like a raging forest fire and straight into El. 

The thing shrieked. 

It backed away from Billy, twisting and writhing as its horrible screams filled the air, making the hair on the back of Steve’s neck stand on end. 

Fierce fury was exploding out of him, and he grit his teeth against the pounding in his head. 

“You don’t get to hurt him,” Steve barely barked out. 

All went still, and the demogorgon snapped into pieces. 

Steve felt like he could pass out where he stood. 

He had never felt so wrung dry. 

His vision was waning at the edges, and he felt an arm around his waist, coaxing him toward the red light now barely shining through a thin layer of slime in the pool. 

“Hold your breath, Pretty Boy.”

-

Steve was limp against him, and Billy was doing his best to ignore the searing pain in his right shoulder as he held Steve close to his side. He had fumbled off both of their face coverings, moving clumsily through the pain of his injury. 

He took one last breath, and jumped into the rip between worlds. 

He plunged into the water, the crystal blue of a chlorinated pool. 

It was the best feeling in the world. 

Being covered and surrounded by clean. The heated water doing more to soothe Billy’s frayed nerves than anything in his life. 

He kicked hard, swimming one-armed to the surface, Harrington a dead weight in his injured arm. 

His head broke the water, and he took in deep lungfuls of clean, crisp air. 

Someone was tugging at Steve, and Billy, for the first time in his fucking life, was glad to see those kids Max was constantly hanging around. 

A woman Billy didn’t know was fawning over Steve, feeling for a pulse, and looking relieved when she felt his hot breath against her palm. 

“There’s more coming,” Billy coughed. 

He barely managed to get the words out, dripping muck and grime on the cement by the pool, when it felt as though he was hit from the side by a speeding train. 

He buried his nose in bright orange hair, hugging Max back as tightly as he could manage. 

He was exhausted, and feeling her there, alive and okay, was all that was keeping him standing. 

“I thought, I mean, we all thought you were dead. We saw it. That thing killed you .” Billy realized, with a whole lotta horror, that she was crying. Sobbing outright into his dirty chest. 

“Yeah, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.” How could they have seen when that monster just came at him? 

“Oh, you’re bleeding.”

And if she only just realized he was hurt?

Max frog-marched Billy inside, to a very pale-looking Nancy Wheeler, sitting ready with a first aid kit. 

Billy had to peel his clothes off his body, the fabric stuck to him like a second skin. 

Nobody was speaking, and more of the people locked in the other place came traipsing into the room, fluffy towels wrapped around their shoulders. 

Hopper was the last to come in, holding the woman tight to his side underneath the striped pool towel. 

“Steve and El are closing it back up.”

There was a quiet murmur around the room.

Nancy patched up Billy’s shoulder, Max still stuck to his side like glue, the little boy from camp pasted to his other side. 

He had no idea how much time had past when Steve finally came traipsing into the room with Max’s little friend, both of them sporting matching bloody noses. 

Steve looked like shit. 

His face was covered in blood, old and new, and he still had some of the gross not-liquid in his hair from the Upside Down. 

But Billy doesn’t think he’s ever been happier to see someone in his life. 

“I’m sure everyone has questions,” said the woman tucked against Hop’s side. El, Billy assumes, had taken her place on Hop’s other side, wrapping the towel around her shoulders as well. 

The woman launched into a story that made Billy feel like his brain was oozing out of his ears. 

A monster. One they had all met before. Playing body snatcher in their sleepy little town. 

Apparently, one had been wearing a Billy meat-suit and wreaking havoc around town, which made Billy wanna throw up until he died. 

Which, not-Billy, had died. Fuckin’ brutally. And in front of everyone. Which sure as shit explained why Max wouldn’t let go of his sweaty hand. 

The story made Billy queasy, and he took to studying everyone in the room instead. 

All the kids were there, even the one that had been following Steve around like a little shadow, but they were all glaring in the very much opposite direction of Steve. 

Steve himself was pressed almost against the wall, looking like he’d collapse if the wall weren’t supporting him. 

“What’s up with the cold shoulder?” Billy muttered to Max.

“They’re mad at Steve right now. He’s been lying to us all.”

It was all he got out of her before everyone started moving around. 

The woman, Joyce Byers, he’s learned, had finished her story, and the group from the Upside Down had begun clamoring for rides home, or maybe something to eat. 

Billy just saw Steve manage to slip away before he followed him. 

It took some doing, shaking off the little one, who still wasn’t speaking, and looked ready to burst into tears when Billy told him to stay behind in the living room. 

But Janet Holloway took the kid’s other hand and gently led him back into the living room. 

Billy nodded at her, and sped up the stairs. 

It was weird, being in Harrington’s actual room. 

It was messy, and looked like Steve spent most of his time here tossing clothes on the ground or twisting up in his bed covers like a tornado. 

But it was oddly comforting. 

Being in Steve’s real room, and not some perverse dirty copy. 

Steve was standing, facing the bed, peeling his borrowed jacket from his shoulders and leaving it there on the floor.

“I never said thank you.”

Steve startled at Billy’s voice.

“Yeah. No problem.” Steve’s tone was light and airy, but Billy heard him sniff.

“Max said the little shitbirds are mad at you. Something about you lying.” 

Steve turned around, giving Bily a watery smile.

“It’s a long story.”

“I got time.”

So Steve told him. 

About the lab. 

About the experiments. 

About the torture. 

He explained that he had rules. Never making anyone feel something they already didn’t. Never altering someone’s opinion of, or feelings towards him. 

Billy grit his teeth as he imagined Wheeler giving Steve a hard time about that.

Steve was silent for a moment, not looking at Billy.

“It’s okay if you hate me. I mean, everyone does now.”

“You'd be able to feel if I hated you. You and those powers of yours just saved my life, Pretty Boy. I’m pretty sure I’m feeling the farthest thing from hatred just about now.”

It was as close to a confession as Billy would let himself get. 

But if Steve knows what he’s feeling at any given moment, then that means that he knows, and he didn’t-

“Quit it. Insecurity isn’t a good look on you.”

Steve sounded tired, and he flopped back onto his bed, staring at the ceiling with his arms out. 

At first, it didn’t sit quite right with Billy. 

He had barely even begun to identify what he was feeling when Steve swooped in and just point blank told him what the emotion was. 

Billy spent nearly all of his time being a big fuckin’ facade. 

He tried his very best to hide any emotional tell from anyone around him. 

He prided himself on being a chameleon. That nobody would ever truly know how he felt in any given situation. 

And here’s pretty boy Steve Harrington. Who is feeling just as, if not more, strongly as Billy is. 

But, it takes out all the parts of emotions that Billy hates dealing with. 

Showing them. Talking about them. 

He’d never once had to grapple with the words to explain how he feels to Steve. 

Steve would just. 

He’d know. 

And god, that’s kind of a nice idea. 

Billy sat down gently on the bed. 

“Alright.”

Steve’s head popped up to stare incredulously at Billy. 

Billy just grinned at him.