#sorry if this was incoherent stop

[zaisamoo]

made another skk comic because the other got way more attention than i though it would uhm?!

this was basically chapter 6 of wan but like more skk because where tf did chuuya even come from im cryingg

[secretagentspydetectiveninja]

can't get over how fucked up and weird nahyuta is... like i don't mean in the surface-level haha "what's crack-a-lackin homie" way, i mean this kid who grew up on the run as essentially a wanted criminal, who got separated from his brother in the middle of his childhood, throwing himself into monk training and religion to find some semblance of peace and meaning to his suffering, only to end up tortured and held hostage by his own aunt and having years worth of blood on his hands from all the people he sent to their deaths... helpless and drowning with his sole hope being that dhurke would save him, then finding out that dhurke was already dead and he'd lost his chance to ever reconcile... and not wanting to lose apollo on top of it too, but not able to bring himself to sacrifice rayfa for it!! watching his mother get shot in front of his eyes!! his family members all being used against each other as chess pieces to control him!!! and there's nothing he can do!!!!

and like even just as a person the way he's so down to just infodump about whatever he's been researching and how his interest in science alongside his deep spirituality complements his partnership with ema, who he is way nicer to than literally any other prosecutor ever treats their detective, he's so weird and curious and genuinely sweet under the cruel façade... he is so much. can't get over how he's a prosecutor AND a monk and even a prince. he's literally the actual prince regent of a country. he's THE androgynous icon. and he's hot!!!

[asexualbuthorny]

you know what i hate?

when bitches wobify Mu Qing and make him into a twink and i especially despise it when they do it for a ship with Feng Xin.

and okay he's not as muscular and more lean (hence being describes as looking scholarly) but do y'all fucking forget the man is a martial god in his own right? by no means is that man a damsel in distress that needs Feng Xin to constantly save him. he's smart, he's cunning and yeah he had a few vulnerable moments but by no means is he a poor wet meow meow he would kick your ass and laugh at you for being a failure. and yeah he's more lithe, especially when he's constantly next to Feng Xin who is kind of hypermasculine in fandom portrayals and impo (general "gigantic masculinity" anyone?) and those two are THE SAME FUCKING HEIGHT so why is Mu Qing always drawn to be much shorter than Feng Xin. and also maybe let's factor in the fact that Mu Qing was poor when growing and likely had to go without food so the lack of proper food while growing probably had an effect on his development(this just a hc btw but still it tracks). also this whole thing kind of smells really bad when people take Mu Qing, who is described as scholarly, and feminise him. it's really giving "EUGH!!! school is for girls!! only boys play sports!! academics=lame, feminine girly, war=cool, MASCULINE, done by REAL MEN URGH!!!"

y'all saw a man who is a war good who doesn't conform to your idea of a "war god" and went "no❤️that one is a femboi catboi twink who gets bent over by that one who DOES conform to my basic, no nuance idea of a war god"

get bent xoxo

[honeycreammilkshake]

"you are me."

i have a lot of thoughts on this whole scene, both shipping and non-shipping ones. the relationship between yuuji and sukuna is honestly the most fascinating and complex one that i have seen in anime, and one of the reasons for that is just how much these two actually understand each other, which i don't think a lot of people realize. yuuji and sukuna see right through each other, more than anyone else does, and i think that's why their bond is far more personal than it seems to be.

yuuji and sukuna are enemies. they hate each other for their opposing ideals and characteristics. yuuji is caring, empathetic, protective, kind, and willing to put his life on the line for both friends and strangers. sukuna is narcissistic, self-absorbed, indifferent to suffering, murderous, unfeeling, and unconcerned with any life other than his own. they seem to be polar opposites in every way, so why would yuuji say something as contradicting as "you are me" to sukuna?

i think it's widely overlooked just how complex yuuji's character is. he's overall a "sweet" person, but he isn't very stable (he has been described by quite a few characters as being a bit "crazy"), he has a high tolerance for disturbing or gory things (he took learning about curses and fighting them very easily), he doesn't question the danger he's been put into (he actually runs headfirst into it), and he can be really violent and vengeful as well.

this is all explored very well in his confrontation with mahito, where he also says "i am to you" to the curse.

why are these scenes so different? mahito and sukuna both killed people yuuji knew and cared about as well as strangers that yuuji would die to protect. shouldn't yuuji be approaching sukuna with the same hate, disgust, and vengeance that he shows to mahito? shouldn't he be lashing out and making sukuna pay for all that he did?

why is he showing his "crazy side" to mahito but not to sukuna?

to give some context to this scene with mahito, the curse wanted yuuji to accept their similarities. and, in the end, yuuji did.

yuuji is acknowledging that he serves as nothing more than a weapon to keep killing the curses of the world, perhaps with no other deeper purpose than that. just like curses only exist to bring misery and prey on humans, yuuji's sole existence at this point is just to act on the orders of sorcerers: to keep eradicating curses and eventually help kill sukuna by dying with him. he doesn't need more meaning or roles than that.

but sukuna doesn't see yuuji as just another cog. he doesn't respect yuuji, true, and he loathes to give the brat any kind of credit. but he knows yuuji is the only one who really, truly cares about sukuna's devastating impact. the death of innocent strangers doesn't affect others quite as much as it does yuuji (even nanami in the vs mahito arc noted how much yuuji cared about the suffering of others).

and many of the other sorcerers are also not as horrified or repulsed by sukuna's actions as yuuji is. in fact, sorcerers and curses alike look up to sukuna. gojo actually seems to respect the king of curse's lifestyle. it feels like yuuji is really the only one to truly despise sukuna for his actions and ideals.

and sukuna knows this. sukuna knows how much the suffering of others gets to yuuji. which is why he gives yuuji such special treatment: he saves a unique brand of torment just for yuuji that he doesn't really give to anyone else.

sukuna intentionally returned control to yuuji's body just for yuuji to witness the massive damage and death that sukuna's domain expansion caused. it killed thousands of people, innocent strangers included.

it led to yuuji breaking down, even wishing for his own death. but yuuji is strong and, deep down, sukuna knows this. yuuji doesn't give up and instead uses his rage to fuel his fight with mahito, where he snaps and shows us his vengeful side. he doesn't need any other reason than mahito being a curse to want to kill him, over and over. that is yuuji's purpose. which seems like an uninteresting and boring one to someone like sukuna.

but for all that sukuna keeps calling yuuji uninteresting and boring, he shows a lot of investment in yuuji's growth and in their fights.

he's even invested enough to show disappointment when yuuji lost to choso. (if he thought yuuji was so weak, why did he seem so bothered by yuuji's loss here?)

and then sukuna looked surprised and curious when choso got hit with some kind of false memory empathetic attack that included yuuji in it. he's having a lot of strong reactions to someone he claims isn't interesting enough for him.

sukuna also loves to aggravate yuuji, somehow knowing how to provoke a strong reaction from him.

there's a lot of interesting things about this scene, one of them being that yuuji refers to sukuna as a "curse" which is technically untrue. sukuna is a sorcerer who used a set of cursed objects to send his soul into the future, but he isn't a curse himself.

but to yuuji, sukuna is nothing more than a curse because he doesn't show any sort of positive traits. sukuna's mindset reflects that of a curse since he only exists to please himself and loves to cultivate the kind of negative emotions curses are born of (fear, hate, jealousy, selfishness, etc).

there's also a clever reference to sukuna being a cannibal through yuuji saying "let's see if you can chew up me and my suffering." yet what we've seen throughout this story is yuuji essentially cannibalizing sukuna by eating his cursed fingers, which he calls the taste really gross. so i wonder... what would yuuji taste like to sukuna?

every human has a unique taste but all of them are fleeting to sukuna. there's no actual meaning or savoring to it. it's just a way for him to pass the time until death.

both yuuji and sukuna are cannibalizing as a form of destruction. but while yuuji is eating the cursed fingers so that he can hold all of sukuna inside of him for them to be exorcised together, sukuna was eating humans simply because he wanted to. he ate whatever he wanted because he was at the top. he is an apex predator with no real rivals or threats. it was for a completely self-absorbed and depraved indulgence while yuuji is giving up his life on this plan to save others.

yuuji and his suffering is the complete antithesis to how sukuna's eating only serves himself. which is very interesting to see when yuuji challenges sukuna to "chew him up." yuuji is proving to be more predator than prey and is far more of a challenge than sukuna wants to admit.

but maybe something about yuuji's resilience does please sukuna? maybe he actually finds worth in yuuji never giving up?

though he still underestimates and discredits yuuji's strength, he actually looks impressed with yuuji and seems even a bit eager to take him on again.

for someone who claims to find yuuji not worth his time, sukuna is showing yuuji far too much special treatment that he doesn't give to anyone else. he even calls yuuji a specific name (kozou) that he doesn't use with anyone else. others are just various offensive terms, but only yuuji seems to have a name just for himself.

sukuna is a really contradicting and complex character, and his relationship with yuuji really shows that.

i've seen a lot of anti-sukuna sentiment after his death, and i understand why a lot of fans hate him and celebrated when he died. however, i think a lot of fans have this somewhat inaccurate view of him being nothing more than a static villain with zero complexities and no chance of any kind of character development.

some of sukuna's most underrated and interesting traits are that he is actually pretty smart (he has an overall plan and is making all the right moves to get there), he's cultured (a poetry snob who hired a chef just to cook him humans instead of eating them raw, and perhaps he even knows more about flowers than he lets on), he shows respect to those he deems worthy and even seeks to learn from them, and he might not actually be the most "evil" person in jjk (which I consider to be kenjaku, but that warrants another post).

overall, sukuna is and has always been more than what he first seems, but a lot of fans don't want to see this or they overlook it.

after sukuna reveals he was an unwanted curse of a child, there was pushback against fans who interpreted this line as sukuna having a tragic backstory that explained his current self.

i understand why these fans don't want sukuna to be a sympathetic villain and i've read posts on how gege writes his villains to be intentionally unsympathetic.

from here (https://x.com/soukatsu_/status/1520796590612566022)

sukuna is the perfect example of a villain that is unsympathetic. he is horrifyingly strong, lives as he pleases, murders people for fun, is a literal cannibal, acts and appears monstrous, and makes our protagonist yuuji suffer over and over again. he represents exactly all the ideals and traits yuuji despises and the two of them are fighting each other because of this.

however, one thing i want to point out is just because sukuna is completely unsympathetic now doesn't mean he couldn't have had an actually tragic past that made him into this.

i believe that sukuna was seen as a curse from his birth on. much like how jogo wanted curses to be the true humans (sukuna calls this jogo essentially wanting to become human) sukuna became purely curse-like to escape being human. whether or not you empathize with him is irrelevant, because after he became the king of curses, sukuna has committed countless irredeemable horrors that even i, as a sukuna fan, don't ever want him to be forgiven or easily justified for doing.

having a tragic past doesn't justify his crimes, it only provides a catalyst for them. it explains why he, who was born human, became more of a curse than some curses are. you don't need to have sympathy for him after that. just like he has no sympathy for those he considers weak and inferior, he has no more reason to be a tragic character.

a lot of people acted like sukuna potentially having a tragic past that turned him into the monster he is now makes him "uncool" or "uncharacteristic" of himself but, to me, it makes his character all the more detailed without changing the fact that he is still purely "evil" and irredeemable.

but does this all make him incapable of character development?

i personally believe that yuuji has been affecting sukuna throughout the whole series, especially in these last few chapters.

i recently came across a post on reddit on why sukuna could never be more than a static villain character. one of the arguments was that gege never intended for sukuna to have any kind of redemption arc.

(https://www.reddit.com/r/Jujutsufolk/comments/16vphxl/sukuna_is_different_from_other_strongest/?rdt=36326)

(now, i couldn't find the original source where this interview came from, and it's not worded very well so i'm thinking it's been quickly translated. and there's always missed meanings and alterations to the original message when translations have been made, especially with japanese. i'm also not sure if the "him" being referred to is mahito or sukuna, but i'm assuming it can apply to both of them.)

this post was made about a year ago, so i assume this interview with gege is also a bit dated now. i think gege is intentionally vague in their interviews because they don't want to reveal too much, but my own interpretation of this post is that gege never intended for sukuna to get any sort of redemption because he is incapable of being redeemed through any kind of love.

and i agree with that. i don't want sukuna to get redemption. what he has done is unforgivable and i don't want him to get off easy for it. but him showing character development is not the same as him getting redemption. and him being affected by love isn't the same as him fully accepting it either.

in these last few chapters, yuuji has offered mercy to sukuna multiple times, despite how even he himself considered it to be a lost cause.

as i wrote earlier, yuuji is the only character who really understands how terrible and curse-like sukuna is. he hates sukuna on this fact alone. yuuji told mahito that his purpose is to kill curses, and sukuna - in the end - is nothing more than just another curse.

so why did yuuji suddenly change all that up and show empathy and genuine concern for sukuna in these last few chapters? why was he trying so hard to convince sukuna that they can co-exist?

one of my sukuita-cult friends (flight-of-death) pointed out that during his fight with yuuji, sukuna explicitly recalled his conversation with kashimo about not needing another person to fulfill him.

while sukuna saying he didn't anyone else to fulfill him was relevant during his discussion with kashimo, it's very interesting that he was remembering his own exact words about it while facing down yuuji, who was making sukuna doubt some of his previous statements.

my friend has convinced me that sukuna and yuuji have found a "reluctant fulfillment" in each other. and i think this is proving to be very much possible.

yuuji was alone most of his life. without wasuke there for him, he could have turned into a ruthless monster like sukuna. yuuji has so much physical and emotional strength, but it was the catalyst of wasuke's death that motivated yuuji to use that strength for good. he might have chosen to be selfish and only concerned with his own wants and needs like sukuna did, but wasuke provided the role yuuji needed to be the selfless person he is now.

i think that yuuji, in all his loneliness, found a kind of closeness to sukuna, even if it was unwanted. and sukuna has definitely been affected by yuuji, too.

as sukuna is dying, megumi finally regains control. he notices how sukuna seems to be scared of death.

sukuna genuinely does look concerned about dying. his mouths are in the shape of a grin but are turned upside down and look more like actual dread. for someone who claimed that eating people was only a way to pass the time until death, sukuna now looks unwilling to die.

i think that this shows that sukuna gained some sort of respect for life, even if it was only in his will to keep living. he does seem to want to keep existing, and it's interesting that it's what yuuji offered him.

yuuji was created by kenjaku to be sukuna's vessel. the sorcerers wanted to use yuuji as a vessel to hunt down all the cursed fingers so that yuuji and sukuna would die together. no matter how you see it, sukuna and yuuji were bound to end up either living or dying together. that is their fate. but now that he has more power in making his own choices, yuuji seems to genuinely want to share the kinder fate with sukuna: to live together. and if you think about it, them coexisting makes a lot of sense.

sukuna has been described as a natural disaster, so how can yuuji have any kind of empathy for something as devastating and unfeeling as an earthquake or a tsunami? in truth, the human race has been coexisting with natural disasters since the beginning - especially japan, which has weathered many terrible calamities. yuuji is a lot like the embodiment of the resilience and strength needed to survive such disasters, so i think he's more than capable of handling a life with sukuna, especially if sukuna is far more subdued.

and sukuna being allowed to live isn't redemption at all. though it would be a form of character development for him, it would still be one of the most selfish things he could do, as it would mean condemning yuuji to an indefinite amount of time with sukuna.

but yuuji seems to want that. he is willingly offering up the rest of his life to sukuna, for them to live together.

personally, i don't consider this to be a form of redemption in any way. he is proving sukuna's mindset wrong, not forgiving him. just accepting his nature and still offering a way to coexist.

i think that by offering this to sukuna, yuuji would essentially become that person that sukuna claims he doesn't need to feel fulfillment. but it's clear to me sukuna wasn't satisfied with his life in the past, since he couldn't offer an explanation to kashimo about why he chose to cross the ages as cursed objects. he is obviously lying or beginning to doubt his own words.

and i think that's why he chose death.

accepting yuuji's mercy, finding that fulfillment sukuna denies needing, would be very un-curselike of him and he can't have that. he would rather be seen as an inhuman monster than something capable of accepting love.

so in the end, sukuna is doing exactly what gege said he would: rejecting love and rejecting anything that makes him less of a curse.

but yuuji isn't easily pushed away. he kept coming back for wasuke and i think that if he really does care that much about sukuna, that if he's wiling to live with him even if no one else accepts it, he won't let sukuna go without more of a fight either.

they can still find fulfilment in each other. they are capable of coexisting. and if sukuna decides to make that change, it doesn't necessarily mean he's completely broken character. and if they don't get to survive together in this lifetime, there's still a good chance for change if they're reincarnated.

[effietrinket1619]

At what point do the viewers start thinking Jess' videos are staged and what do the lanterns do about it

hello! excellent question

it's pretty early on, actually, as the audience becomes increasingly confused and suspicious of the fact that hal never knows what's going on.

this man is so horribly out of date with current affairs that he's genuinely shocked when jess tells him obama is no longer president and hasn't been in years. the theories come in from the viewers: confusion, brain damage, early onset dementia.

or maybe, just maybe, he's faking it.

part of the draw around hal is that he's very out of touch on internet things. this is thought to be because he's older but that's not quite it. hal just doesn't spend enough time on earth to ever bother to know what's going on and even though he's staying on earth a lot more these days, he's not the type to actively research the president.

there's other stuff too. it's entirely unbelievable that jess casually knows two green lanterns and everyone else there is a complete enigma and also really fucking weird. hal also seems a little too clueless at times while doing certain things and trends that are particularly connected to pop culture (he barely knows who taylor swift is, someone help him)

it gets to a point where jess is facing outright accusations of faking everything and things kinda do spiral. she doesn't tell hal (lord knows the pta meets do enough damage to this man's blood pressure already) but she does tell the others.

kyle suggests some kind of qna. jess vetoes that because hal probably wouldn't want to. jo says to maybe do some kind of challenge to distract? jess considers that but it's a fat maybe. simon kinda just grumbles that there's really nothing they can do because anything could be edited on the internet and they'd never have the trust of the masses. no one could ever get how weird hal is in person. jess's eyes light up.

the next dozen videos are all just to showcase how fucking odd this man is. he eats a spoonful of cinnamon with a straight face. hal even turns to jess and asks if she's got more (she doesn't give him any). he does the ice bucket challenge. hal barely flinches. the internet learns that hal jordan cannot do the worm but can toss jess and kyle into the air like a cheerleader effortlessly. his favourite movie is top gun and he doesn't know there's a sequel until jess tells him on camera (he then spends two minutes frantically googling before bolting out of the room to ask john if they have it on streaming). he can fly jets. he watched his dad burn to death (this garners a lot of alarm over the internet and gets zero follow up from jess). he dated a ceo. he has no clue what queer labels are but is 'auntie hal' just as much as he's 'uncle hal'. he's (allegedly) married to a man (no one knows to who and it's driving them nuts).

the point is, hal jordan is a wholeass enigma so who cares if he doesn't know who the damn president is?

the internet drop the entire thing pretty quickly. the lanterns become uber famous shortly afterwards and no one ever gets any answers ever. jess comes out on top as she always will.

[sleepyskeleton-0]

Nooooo bc Time and Wild have such SIMILAR traumas it’s not even funny, like what do you MEAN both are afraid of waking up and having no one remember them?? (Wild post-totk especially).

I’m playing oot and there are so many parallels to botw/totk :(

Waking up and seeing the castle in shambles, waking up from a years long nap, being told immediately that they gotta save the world, the MOON (that’s mm but still), losing loved ones is a trauma they all share but listen -

Wild obviously is a little more insecure about his losses bc he thinks they’re his fault (due to his own incompetence - he doesn’t consider circumstance I imagine).

In Majora’s mask, there’s NO WAY Time would go who knows how long without making connections of some kind, even if they restart after 3 days, so watching the people he cares about be crushed by the moon??? I’d imagine he has nightmares where he just sees them die over and over again.

Wild would probably have nightmares of the champions dying over and over as well (possibly in the context of his 100 year sleep).

Not to mention they both died before.

Damn…

Edit for slight inaccuracies

[imalwaysaslutforthevoid]

The Summer Hikaru Died and onomatopoeia

I've wanted to gush about this topic for a while and i have no organized thoughts but a lot of feelings i need to get out. First and foremost being "Holy shit this manga is so damn loud" which is a weird feeling to have since manga is generally understood to be a silent medium.

And yet the Mangaka MokuMoku Ren has filled their work to the brim with sound. Now comics using onomatopoeia (words that echo a noise ie: crunch) is nothing new the sound of a fist hitting it's target and walls being wrecked is nothing new. But usually onomatopoeia is worked into whatever action is resulting in the noise

adding both a sense of motion as well as sound. Which is what makes The Summer Hikaru Died's use of it so unique and compelling. To utilize onomatopoiea you have to give up on space that could otherwise be going to deatil work in the background or foreground. Now this is fine with smaller unobtrusive effects like Wolverine's claw extending, and there's numerous example's where a sound will take up large portions of the page to show how loud something like a bomb going off is. But i've yet to see another comic western or otherwise so consistently use this facet of the medium to instill such claustrophobia and dread. As a slower paced horror manga The Summer Hikaru Died builds it's suspense mostly through atomosphere, the supernatural happenings weighing on the surrounding evironment until they break the surface

The use of sound is heavy, it's harsh, it's a vehicle to show how wrong things have gotten from the whisper of "it's coming" heard in the ringing bell of a train crossing to the omnipresent call of birds, bugs, and frogs that pushes in on the paneling shrinking the world with their cacophony.

the way sound shrinks the world making reader and character both feel suffocated by the drone is matched by how the manga uses silence as a way to make the characters feel exposed and vulnerable. the page is now empty of distraction the world of the story on full display and it still feels wrong it's agorophobic, at least amidst the din there was some sense of anonymity being just one voice among hundrends.

even the speech bubble feels out of place as it wanders off desperate to fill the space. The manga is full of these moments of sound and silence in some dance with eachother always too much or too little, never comfortable. It adds a lot to the horror of the manga, and is just one part of many that makes The Summer Hikaru Died such an excellent manga, every chapter I can feel my skin crawl as the setting becomes more hostile to the charactres while they uncover more of the truth of their circumstances.

[maybetorbie]

one look at you and I can't disguise

6.9k words (yeah...) | warnings: Dark!Steve, implications of child abuse, implications of grooming, outdated language, yes there is also fluff! | nothing explicit, but I would suggest that you read with the precautions in mind. Set sometime in season 2.

Summary: Billy and Max moved into Hawkins that one summer, not realizing that Steve has made it his personal mission to make Billy his.

Or, 5 times Steve is a jealous, stalking, obsessive creep, and the 1 time Billy is somewhat endorsing it.

For @harringrovewinterbingo prompt fill, Jealous Steve

1

Billy Hargrove and his half-sister Max were the new kids in town three months ago. Hawkins embraced the "cool kids" persona they threw out as a facade into the world, accepting both of them into their ranks easily, without caring what that facade might be hiding.

Unfortunately for the unaware Billy, he attracted the covert attention of the currently-reigning king of high school Steve Harrington, which is good, right? staying on the popular kids' good side means he'll be left alone, just like he wanted, right?

It was a hot, sunny afternoon. Spring break is near, but the heat is suffocating. Billy is surveying the hardware store for a new lock, as his current one is busted down to shrapnels by his good-for-nothing, oftentimes abusive, pathetic excuse of a father, who didn't even need a reasonable excuse to use Billy as a punching bag. This time, he got lucky that it was only his lock that got torn to pieces and not his eye socket. He mindlessly looks through the options, not paying attention to his surroundings.

"A bit hot to be wearing leather, isn't it?" A voice calls out to Billy, surprising him. Luckily, Billy isn't the kind of guy that reacts like a pansy-ass little boy when taken for a surprise!

Instead, he turns around coolly, appraising the source of the voice. "Harrington. What's it to ya?"

Steve smiles at him easily, slowly leaning against the wall, barring Billy from walking past him in a practised, effortless manner that he's probably done thousands of times before. "Wouldn't want you to catch a fever in this weather, y'know? We need you for basketball practice after all,"

Billy raises an eyebrow at the sentiment. 'How fucking magnanimous of you, your majesty,' he thinks to himself.

This has been happening for some time, too, since he first arrived at this shithole of a town. Billy goes to the arcade to look for Max, and then he finds Steve, sitting on the steps outside the place, giving him a smile, greeting him like he was just passing by. Billy thought nothing of it then, really.

Billy went grocery shopping with his reluctant kid sister on the weekend... again he finds Steve, sitting on the bench at the cafeteria, waving at him with that obnoxious smile, trapping Billy for useless small talk. Okay, it's a small town. Maybe they just happened to be at the same place at the same time a couple times, no big deal.

But it happened again, and again, and again. Outside of school, Billy feels like he's always got that certain fucking guy somewhere, ready to trap him into meaningless conversation, always standing just a little too close for comfort in front of Billy, as if they're lovers having an intimate conversation.

But they're not.

They're guys. Billy isn't into guys. And neither is Steve. The king of Hawkins High is dating Nancy Wheeler, and they seem to be a cute pair.

So why is it, that outside of school, this fucking royalty is always gonna run into Billy?

"Nothing to do with you, Harrington. I'm just getting stuff here. What's your fucking deal, huh? You following me or something?" Billy manages to reply with some semblance of defiance and his signature Tough Guy Gruff Countenance, but he can't help it if slight trepidation is to be felt at the back end of his sentence.

Steve shakes his head with a small smile, one of the loose strand of his hair falling into the middle of his forehead. He immediately fixes it, running a hand through his hair upwards. He fixes Billy a look. "Why'd you think that? It's a small town, y'know." He glances at the sealed product Billy's holding in his hand, then back at the blond. "New lock? Moving out?"

Billy, at this point, isn't even sure what the point of their talk is anymore. And he doesn't really want to give out more than he needs to. "Just... looking at options."

Steve doesn't reply. He takes the same one Billy has and places it into the basket he's holding. "You're right. Crime rates increasing and shit? Better safe than sorry."

He gives Billy one last glance, walking away from their encounter.

Billy watches him leave, miffed.

-

Steve steps into the car, where Nancy is waiting shotgun.

"You gotta stop scaring the guy," She mutters as he closes his side of the door without looking at him. "I get that he's your new obsession or whatever... just because you're into girls and guys, doesn't mean you should be falling for the first guy that walks into town,"

Steve chortles in amusement. "It's not that, Nance. I think he's cute. I think the whole tough guy act is bullshit, and I wanna know what he's hiding."

"We're hiding the Upside Down from the whole town," Nancy offers in confusion. "Isn't that a bigger secret than whatever the fuck Max's brother is hiding? Maybe he does drugs, I don't know?"

Steve shrugs. "I don't think it's that." He drives his beemer out of the store, merging into the easy traffic. "And that's what's driving me nuts."

2

Basketball practice was rough. Steve is having a particularly bad time. Everything was too much, going too fast, and he's just not having it. So naturally, he needs to cool off with a shower at the locker room, right?

Except for the fact that the asshole Tommy just walks in, lathering his own head with shampoo, and Steve can just tell from the unpleasant look on Tommy's face that he's about to say shit again.

"So, heard your girl's skipped town with that Byers guy, the weird one with the fag brother?"

and there it is. The opening line to Tommy's feature film Annoying Classmate #1.

Steve doesn't even bother giving him a look. He continues shampooing his head, trying to regulate his breathing. Tommy's not even right on the money. One, he and Nancy broke it off way before she even considered Jonathan cute. Two, he and Nancy, and Jonathan, are now on friendly terms, because of something of the supernatural kind terrorizing the town, which makes it kind of hard to be enemies with people you fought monsters with. Three, Tommy's an asshole, and there's a proper time and place to be one. Right now is not the time.

Steve is about to ignore him and move on with the day, but Billy Hargrove walks in to the communal shower, already in his birthday suit.

Billy walks in, positioning himself right next to Steve, who's only one Tommy Sentence away from pummeling the guy a la Lawrence of Arabia.

Billy thinks he's got it all figured out. He thinks to himself, that if he annoys Steve enough, the guy will stop giving him the creeps, because then he'll avoid Billy. So enter Billy into the conversation with the opener, "Hey, don't even worry about it, yeah?"

Steve gives him a look... while stealing a glance of what goes on down there. He doesn't say a word in reply, which encourages Billy to continue.

"Pretty boy like you got nothing to worry about, yeah?" Billy adds on to the sentiment, giving Steve's shoulder a squeeze, only now realizing that Steve is... pretty toned, with generous amount of freckles scattered across his torso... and beneath. Regardless of the observation he makes underneath the water stream, he continues, "Plenty of bitches in the sea,"

Steve fixes him a look. Something in his eyes shifts. "Yeah, I guess,"

Billy doesn't like what he's seeing. He's expecting annoyance. A hint of irritation. Being pummeled, even. But he doesn't understand what he's seeing, and he doesn't like it one bit. But what he doesn't like, isn't really the way to put it, as the blood from his brain is starting to rush down his body from the way Steve's staring at him, and he makes a point of leaving the shower, giving Steve one last aloof look before practically darting away from the scene.

Tommy watches the whole scene unfold, none the wiser.

Steve gazes at Billy leaving, his curiosity increasing tenfold, the awful time he's having slowly dissipating.

3

Late May.

Billy stuffs his shit into his locker, his face a gradient of the colors of the rainbow, with scattered blues along his jawline, some on the socket of his right eye. He makes no comment on it, people at school doesn't comment on it, though the general consensus says that he got into a fight last night, and he's now showing his battle scars. Such a badass.

He closes his locker door shut, and Steve is right behind it.

Billy is saved by the bruises on his face, making his facial expressions slower to show, giving him the grace to not look surprised at the way Steve just seem to appear out of thin air.

"What happened to you?" Steve asks in a slightly teasing way, but the hints of worry simmering underneath is audible, if only at the slightest decibel.

Billy thought that Steve would avoid him. It worked for the next few weeks after the shower talk, but then Steve wouldn't leave him alone, no matter how much Billy refuses to engage with him. He hates to admit it, but when they actually got into an actual conversation a couple times, he finds Steve extremely charming, pleasant, and he gets the idea of why Steve's the king of Hawkins High. But there's always that tug at the back of Billy's mind saying, 'this guy is bad news. Very bad news.'

"Got into a fight." Was the go-to that Billy chose. Everybody already thought it, might as well confirm it.

Steve looks skeptical. Not what Billy wanted to happen. "Yeah? Got you good, huh?"

"You should see the other guy," Billy quips with as much aloofness he can gather. It actually hurts like hell.

Steve gives him a placid grin. "Okay. You're a tough guy, you can handle yourself. So listen... your sister and a couple of her friends are gonna hang out at Hopper's place, the police chief; and they appoint me as their chaperone. You wanna come?"

Billy furrows his brows. "My sister seems to like hanging out with those fucking shitheads... and with you. What am I supposed to think about that, pretty boy?"

Steve is unfazed by the nickname. "That's why I'm asking you to come, Billy. See for yourself, and it'll all make sense."

"You know something, Harrington?" Billy steps closer into Steve's space, his nose barely an inch away from Steve's. "You give me the creeps. You and your baby friends."

Steve looks at him with the same aloofness Billy showed him earlier. "Then just come. We'll explain everything."

Billy backs off. "No. Fuck that. Whatever it is you fuckheads are doing, I don't wanna know. But if my sister got hurt because of you, I'll fucking gut you, okay?"

"Okay."

-

"You told him to come, right?" Nancy asks, handing out empty papers for the group of friends to write with, the sky darkening outside Hopper's place.

"I did." Steve nods, sitting at one of the dining table chairs strewn across the living room. "Guess he's a no-show."

Max sighs.

Steve uses this opportunity to ask, "So, Max... Billy told me he got a black eye from fighting a guy. But I don't think that was it,"

"No."

"It was your dad, wasn't it?"

Max's silence speaks volumes.

"Why?" Steve had to ask.

Max shrugs. "I don't know... that fucking guy loves using Billy as his punching bag. I know my brother's an asshole most of the time, but... I also know that he got the shit beaten out of him for me a lot of times, too, and... he just wouldn't admit it."

that was all Steve needed to hear.

-

A couple of days after that, Billy watches Neil come out of his car, slamming the door a little too rough, the familiar jolt in Billy's body telling him that tonight will be another night where he will need the bag of frozen peas.

Except that Neil didn't come into the house, instead he examines the rear end of his car while cursing up a storm.

Billy and Max watches from the window, glancing at each other uneasily.

"Someone rammed into his car or some shit?" Max asks a rhetorical question.

"Should've taken his life with it, too," Billy scoffs under his breath.

Max doesn't disagree with the sentiment.

Billy thinks nothing of it, going to bed. In fact, he's glad that something like this happened to Neil, as if it's proof that karmic retribution has a way of finding Billy's address and agreeing to be his avenger. He thanks the guy who totaled Neil's car in his head, something resembling prayer before bed.

-

The next morning, Billy parks his camaro at his usual spot, letting Max out first. They exchanged no words the entire ride, but there was an air of agreeability between the half siblings, perhaps something of shared joy.

Billy is left alone inside the car, where he takes the time to breathe. Compose himself. Put on the mask he's been parading around for the entirety of his existence ever since his mom left. He has a tough guy reputation to uphold, and shedding a tear isn't going to give him any credit. He takes a deep breath, looking at his own face in the visor, the blues and purples still stinging.

A car parks a few spots away from his, the front part of the car completely wrecked, the engine nearly taking a hit.

Billy watches dispassionately, until he realizes it's a fucking maroon beemer.

Nobody else in the entire fucking school drives a maroon BMW 733i except for Steve Harrington.

"No... that's just a coincidence..." Billy mutters under his breath, connecting the dots yet disbelieving what it proves.

He steps out of the car, approaching the crowd gathering around Steve and the scene of his wrecked car.

Steve easily sits on top of the trunk, giving the crowd an enchanting anecdote, which they eat up all too easily.

"The fuck happened here?" Billy asks, parting the sea of 8 or so people gathered around Steve for an explanation.

'Please be something else.'

Steve gives him a smile, and an easy, effortless shrug. "Got into a fight. You should see the other guy."

The crowd laughs. It's a crowd-pleaser sentence, of course. But those were the exact words Billy told him about the bruises on his face, and his words were all a lie.

Billy has a deep seated feeling that Steve's words are all a lie, too.

He can't prove Steve did it.

But for some inexplicable, baffling feeling, Billy wishes it was Steve.

To receive the attention of a king is nothing short of flattering, after all.

4

Summer break is officially here. Which means Billy will have to get a job. Luckily, he struck gold when he found out that the guy working at the pool could hook him up with a lifeguard gig, and all Billy had to do was give the guy his Love At First Sting album, which couldn't possibly be worth much in the future, he thought to himself.

It's all easy, really. All he had to do is sit on the high chair, blow the whistle once in a while, and act like he's watching people swimming at the pool. He doesn't even need to stand up most of the time unless someone is like, actually actively drowning.

But that's not the part he hates about the job.

It's the grandstanding he has to do in front of the middle-aged women.

They sit in groups in their brand new, spiffy swimsuits, lounging in one spot of the pool, begging for his attention. It's not like he's unaware that he's a decent looking guy. He just hates the attention he's getting, when all he's trying to do is get paid so he can save up and leave this shithole one day. But the guy working before him tipped him, that the middle-aged women loves the attention, and they're willing to pay him actual money for swimming lessons. He pretty much figured out that the swimming lessons were going to be the sexual kind.

But he needs the money.

A deep breath is pulled inside his lungs, and he makes his debut as the lifeguard of Hawkins community pool for the summer.

"Ladies," he gives them a charming smile, not forgetting to suck in his breath to show the women he's been lifting. "Looking good,"

"Oh, you flatterer." One of the women waves him off sheepishly.

One woman in a purple piece steals his attention. "Hello there."

Billy swallows and smiles. "Mrs. Wheeler. Looking gorgeous in purple."

Nancy's mom loves the attention.

That swimming lesson was pretty much a done deal.

-

The same night, a tired but money hungry Billy knocks at the Wheeler's door.

Mrs. Wheeler opens the door in her finest apparel, giving Billy a bashful smile at how she appreciates the attention.

"Mrs. Wheeler. I almost mistook you for Nancy's sister." He had to say. What else was he supposed to say?

She preens at the attention. "Ready to go?" she asks.

Billy had to play the part. "We can take my car,"

Before anything can happen, the telephone rings from inside the house.

Karen excuses herself to pick it up, as nobody else is home to answer it. "Hello? Yes? Is that so? Oh... Alright, then. I'll... wait for you at home,"

She hangs up, and returns to where Billy is standing, right at the threshold of the doorway. "Sorry, Billy... that was Nancy. She's not feeling too well, and I have to stay home for the night, just to give her a bit of company."

Billy sighs in relief inside. "Oh, that's too bad. Well, I suppose it can't be helped..."

he turns to go.

"Wait, maybe... you could... come in for a bit?"

Billy didn't stop walking back to his car. "Nah, I mean... Nancy's probably on her way back, y'know? I should get going, too. Good night,"

Billy drives away from the Wheeler's with relief, again thanking his invisible guardian angel for what happened.

-

It was late in the Wheeler's, everybody gone to bed, even the doting mother. Nancy takes the now-cold rag off her forehead, tossing it on the floor without much care for it.

She dials a number on the landline. It connects. "Hello?"

"How did it go?"

"He wasn't here when I got back. Nothing probably happened."

"...I see. Thanks, Nance."

"You owe me one, Steve."

"Hey, your mom was about to cheat on your dad. I think you owe ME one."

Nancy hangs up unceremoniously.

-

For the next couple weeks, the gig has been easy. The older women doesn't seem to fancy Billy as much anymore, and the kids are somehow running less vigorously than usual along the skidmarked tiles.

Tired after a long shift, Billy changes into his clothes in the pool's locker room, the evening sky darkening outside casting a rather eerie scene at the premises.

He pays no attention to the eeriness of everything, even if his own mind is running a mile a second. Thoughts about the obnoxious Steve Harrington keeps resurfacing, and how he finds the guy creepy, yet at the same time charming. He's pretty sure it was Steve who totaled Neil's car, which ended up costing the guy 5 grand in repairs. But the real question is, why would Steve do that for him? Did he even know Neil was the reason Billy's face was purple? Certainly not. But a part of Billy yearns for someone to understand the real him, but he would sooner die than to let anyone in. Especially Steve Harrington.

He suddenly remembers his sister, and what he was supposed to be doing today.

'Shit,' he thinks to himself. He was supposed to pick her up from the very same obnoxious guy's house, as they were playing DnD in the basement with those shithead kids. He curses as he locks up the place, driving his car onto the road, making the route to Harrington Residence as fast as he can.

-

He got there in under 20 minutes. It was nearly eight. Billy sighs in consternation to himself. Neil is usually more lenient when Billy's running late because of a job, but he still expects a pummel or two when he gets back.

He composes his face. He knocks at the door.

Steve opens the door, all smiles as usual. "Billy."

Billy doesn't address the charm of the smile. "Here to get Max home,"

Steve shakes his head. "You're way too late for that. The shitheads all got themselves home. I think she was on Dustin's bike,"

Billy sighs in somewhat of a relief. "Great. I came here for nothing."

"Not nothing," Steve steps aside to let Billy in. "You can come in... it's late, grab a drink or two, maybe?"

Billy's face is well-learned in facade. But he still feels the heat rising to his cheeks at the invite. "Nah, I..."

"What's the rush? It's summer break, you don't even have a shift tomorrow," Steve beckons him in.

Billy relents and walks in... also taking note of why the hell Steve would know about his shifts. He stuffs his hands into his pockets, looking around the interior of the home. "You're a rich fucking prick,"

Steve shrugs. "Folks are. I just live here,"

"They here?" Billy asks. 'Please say yes.'

Steve shrugs yet again, all too effortless yet practised. "They're out of town. They usually are."

'great.'

"Can I get you anything? Water? Soda?" Steve makes a beeline for the kitchen, a generous and spacious one at that.

Billy follows him, not too keen on drinking. "Uh... I think, I'd like to ask you a couple questions,"

"Shoot."

"...How did you total your car back then?"

"Got into a fight," Steve answers the same thing.

"Which guy?" Billy presses.

"One of those guys,"

"Right," Billy purses his lips, his back leaning against the unlit fireplace's brick structure, keeping an eye on the guy all the while. "And... how did you know what days I work?"

"From Max," Steve answers. Too easy.

"Uh huh," Billy nods uneasily. Steve hands him the glass of water, which he takes. Steve walks closer, stopping just a few inches from where Billy's standing.

Steve doesn't seem scared of what sort of accusation Billy might throw his way. Billy had to get it out of the way.

"Harrington, you--"

"Steve."

"Steve, you... you give me the heebie jeebies, you know?" Billy doesn't drink the water. He sets it on the mantle, fixing the guy a look. "You're... always following me around, you seem to know where I would be, and you always give me these looks, and I..."

Before he even knows it, Steve is now an inch away from touching him. Their shoulders nearly brush, and Steve's face is so close to his. Steve's warmth is radiating off his body, making Billy flustered in its wake. "and you what, Billy?"

Their noses nearly touch. The dimly lit house isn't helping the situation, as it only quickens the beating of Billy's heart, threatening to jump out of his chest. The strands of Steve's hair glisten under the light, stopping Billy in his tracks from moving. "I..."

"Yeah?"

"Are you... Coming on to me?"

"What do you think?"

Billy is at a loss for words. He scoots to the side, managing to get himself free from the grasp. He slowly backs away, the whole situation unfurling like the start of a horror movie. And yet... He can't help but blush at the attention. "Ya know something, Steve? I... I just gotta go. I gotta sleep early, wake up early and all that, yeah? So I'll just be taking my leave,"

Billy steps out of the Harrington residence in a flush, leaving Steve at the living room, watching Billy leave with an amused sip of his drink.

5

It's a science project, because of course it's a fucking science project. The exact one that pairs up Billy with none other than the Hair Harrington. 'Great. Just my luck.'

Because why wouldn't the teachers give their kids a big science project just before winter break? It's not like the kids have their own thing going on after school.

Steve insists on doing the project over at Billy's house, to which the blond doesn't even know what to say.

'If I come over to his place, then he'll corner me again. But if I let him come to my place, then at least I have the home turf advantage... for when he... god, what the fuck am I even saying? Get it together, dickhead! He's not into you! Get that out of your big head! We'll just do the project, nice and easy. Nothing will happen.'

-

As expected, Steve knocks at the Hargrove resident front door, right on time, 5 o' clock sharp. Billy opens the door, immediately irked by how charming Steve's smile is.

Steve wordlessly slinks in to the house, Billy closing the door behind him with a sigh.

"Let's do it in your room," Steve requests, sounding almost sinister in a way; except he accompanies that with a smile, and an easy skip to the blond's bedroom... which he seems to know where it's located.

"Fucking... Yeah, sure, let's just do that..." Billy follows along slowly, leaving the bedroom door open.

Steve plops himself easily on Billy's unkempt bed, leaning his body weight on an elbow.

Billy looks uneasily. He fiddles with his hair, watching his reflection in the mirror as his back is turned against Steve. He sighs, and turns around to face the brunette.

"You know I don't like guys, right?"

Steve almost scoffs. "Yeah, you do."

"As you can see around you, pretty boy, I like chicks!" Billy exclaims, pointing at the numerous posters of scantily clad women plastered all over his bedroom wall as proof.

Steve isn't moved. "We both know that's not true, Billy."

"And how the fuck would you know that?" Billy looks at him, befuddled.

"I've been in your room before," Steve shrugs easily. "Seen your stash."

"Yeah, all playboys--wait, what? Shithead Max let you in, huh?"

"No," Steve denies Max's participation.

"So when--"

Billy stops short as Steve dusts himself off Billy's bed, heading towards one of the drawers like he knows what he's looking for.

And he does.

Steve fishes out a handmade book, a shitty notebook plastered with magazine cutouts of women-adjacent breasts on the cover. Steve waves it in front of a gobsmacked Billy, and he turns over the pages. "All dudes, Billy. This is gay porn."

"You..." Billy's face grows red, he lunges for the brunette to get his book back, but Steve dodges the advances, stepping to the side. This throws Billy off his momentum, and he staggers, a hard landing on the carpeted floor is expected.

Steve pulls him before he can kiss the floor, his one hand grabbing Billy by the waist, the titty-covered book in his other grip.

Billy doesn't understand why this is all happening. He's pressed chest to chest with Steve, and the warmth is enough to drive him insane. But he needs the book back, his hands wildly reaching for it, as Steve hoists it up high in the air. They continue this uncoordinated dance number around Billy's bedroom floor for a while, until Steve's leg stumbles on the frayed end of the blanket hanging on the edge of the bed, and they both fall backwards on the bed with a hard thud.

Steve softens the landing for Billy, his grip on Billy's waist nowhere near slack.

Billy is on top of him, their noses touching, their lips already grazing each other's. It's kind of pointless to try and punch the guy now.

"Why are you so obsessed with me?" Billy asks in a hushed voice.

"I think you're cute."

"Bullshit. You... you want blackmail material, right? Following me around town, learning about my work hours... you just... you just wanna know I like guys so you can..."

"So I can what?" Steve asks quietly. Softly, almost.

"I... I don't know, Harrington--"

"Steve."

"It was you, wasn't it? That wrecked Neil's car?" Billy asks at the cost of sounding like a lunatic.

"I had nothing to do with that," Steve mutters adamantly, though the small upward twitch at the corner of his lips betray his defense.

Billy's face distorts into slow anger. "Why would you fucking do that? Because you figured out he beat me up?"

"Dads shouldn't do that to their kids, don't you think?" Steve basically admits it in so many words.

Billy frowns in confusion. "Why would you do that? You care about me or something?"

"When was the last time anyone was nice to you?" Steve asks instead of answering, the entire time their lips grazing each other's as they converse. "Do you know what that's like? Someone being nice to you?"

Billy wants to get off. But Steve isn't letting go, and he's not actively making an effort to break free, either. His discomfort at the truth of Steve's words contracts with the comfort of Steve's embrace. "Nice? Nice is when someone makes you... I don't know, fucking coffee, or say you look nice, not... totaling someone's car just because he beat his son up!"

"You give me too little credit, Billy. I know you like guys, and I know those moms at the pool were also salivating over you."

It all clicks for Billy. "You..." He momentarily rises his head away from their embrace, his face all sorts of red. "You asked Nancy to call in sick so her mom canceled with me? That was fucking you?"

Steve shrugs, pulling Billy back into the grip. "I didn't say that."

Too much. Their lips are grazing, Steve not making any effort to close the distance. Billy feels as if a magnet is drawing him to closer. He's overwhelmed by the idea, really. Someone so polished, effortlessly casual and hip like fucking Harrington? What does he get out of this?

Billy lowers himself, slowly pressing his lips against Steve's, which the brunette welcomes all too eagerly. Billy hates this. Steve Harrington turns out to be a creep. A jealous stalker. But at the same time, he feels safe in Steve's embrace, the tender way Steve holding him right now a polar opposite of how much of a creep he is, it's as if Steve cares about his well-being.

"You're a fucking creep," Billy whispers inbetween kissing, his breathing growing ragged.

Steve makes no reply.

The sound of a car pulling up into the driveway startles both, Billy immediately jumping out of the bed, his curls all messed up from their dance-fight, his clothes all wrinkled from the friction against Steve's cashmere sweater.

He doesn't look at Steve, his eyes peeled at the window, confirming it was indeed Neil that came home. "Let's, uh... move to the living room,"

Neil walks in to the living room, seeing Steve and Billy, with scattered, important-looking papers on the coffee table, seemingly the object of the two's attention. Neil clears his throat.

"Who's this?" he asks, addressing Steve.

Steve stands up, with an all-too-charismatic of a smile. He offers a hand, which Neil reluctantly shakes. "Steve Harrington, sir. We got a science project together, and we've been busy at it,"

Neil seems agreeable to Steve's straight man behavior. "Hm. Harrington? Your folks seem alright. You don't happen to drive a BMW, do you?"

Steve shakes his head with a laugh. "No, sir. We're a Ford-only family,"

Neil nods, satisfied, leaving the two to go back to their project.

Steve sits back down near Billy, greeted by the blond's miffed expression.

"What the fuck was that?" Billy quietly asks.

"I should've fucking killed him when I hit him with my beemer, too," Steve whispers nonchalantly to an alarmed Billy.

"Shut up!" Billy hysterically whispers, the flush on his cheeks betraying the butterflies fluttering inside his stomach in fear of not knowing what Steve is capable of.

-

As winter break finally comes, things have quieted down over the town, or maybe the snow muffles the hubbub of small town life to a whisper. Billy and Max had nothing to do, so they opted to sit on the living room couch while saying nothing to each other as the TV plays the news on mute.

"Shithead," Billy slowly turns to her.

"What," she replies in an equally disinterested tone.

"You know Harrington, right? From your..."

"If you wanna know, I really don't mind telling you,"

"For fuck's sake... Look, I don't care about your DnD shit, okay? Just... I don't wanna know about it. That's not what I wanted to ask,"

"Then what?"

"That Harrington guy, is he... ya know, a creep? a weirdo?"

Max looks baffled. "Creep? No... he's more like... I don't know, goofy?"

"Goofy?" Billy looks at her wildly.

"Yeah, like, a weirdo but in a goofy way or something. Nice guy, really, and Nancy said he's fine,"

Billy leans back on the couch with a disbelieving sigh. "I don't believe it,"

"The guys and I spent a fair amount of time with him, and he's... well, that. Goofy. Why do you ask?"

Billy shakes his head. "Nothing, really... and uh, did you also tell him what days I worked at the pool?"

Max scoffs. "I don't even care, why should I know?"

"...fair enough," was all that Billy could muster.

They continue watching TV in silence, the companionable aspect of it somewhat resembling comfort.

-

"Steve, you really should stop playing with the guy," Nancy sighs, sitting on the bean bag chair in the Wheeler's basement (Which the kids have turned into a demogorgon-defeating tactical base).

"I'm not playing with him! He's playing with me! Being all hot and cold!" Steve argues, pacing around the room while gesturing wildly.

Nancy rolls her eyes. "You're wasting your time with him, Steve. Guys like that are probably just gonna use you for sex and move on to drugs or something,"

Steve shakes his head. "Not if I make him mine first. Then he won't resort to shit like that,"

"I swear, where is all this coming from? You weren't even this crazy back then,"

"Well, that's because you had nothing crazy about you," Steve offers, to which he got smacked with a pillow on the face for.

The kids soon file into the basement, marking an end to their conversation.

+1

It's been almost one year since the Hargrove-Mayfield siblings moved into Hawkins, their lives turned upside down in more ways than one. Max continues seeing her circle of friends, even after the enemy is defeated (...for now).

Billy avoids Steve like the plague while they're at school, as they really have no reason to hang out, being from different circles and all. Steve has no reason to want to change that. They graduate in less than six months, after all!

The Harrington residence is once again empty, like it's always been most of the time. Steve sees his parents off again after a new year's eve party together, the sizes of their luggage a tell-tale sign telling Steve that they'll be gone for another year.

Not like it bothers him.

Steve's in his bed, comfy and cozy. Billy is in his hold, accepting his kisses while acting like he had no choice but to be kissed. Billy returns the kisses, sloppily letting their tongues enter each other's mouths with no sense of decorum.

Steve suddenly parts from the kiss, getting up from bed. "I gotta piss. Don't go anywhere,"

"Shut up," Billy utters disinterestedly, still maintaining whatever shred of aloof tough guy persona he has left.

Life's been a roller coaster for Billy. It's really true what they say, to be loved is to be changed. He went into town not hoping for much, he didn't even think he'd make it past 20 with the way his life was going. But then, this guy walks (well, creeps) into his life and turned it upside down. Steve offered him kindness, patience, persistence (that sometimes gets on his nerves), and all Billy had to do was let him. He didn't have to beg for Steve to stay, Steve is everything he thought he couldn't have.

Billy is... happy, kind of. In a way. He won't let his guard down, though. Shit can still happen, and Steve can still walk away. He's just a dirtbag, after all.

Billy walks around the bedroom, which is more spacious than his. He whistles at the collection of expensive watches. 'pretty boy won't mind if I wear one or two, right?'

Something pokes out of one of the boxes in Steve's drawers. Billy thinks nothing of it, but the way the slits of sunlight peeking through the blinds making the thing glisten, well... it makes it hard for Billy to ignore. He pulls the box out of the drawer...

And, well, is he even surprised?

Steve gets back into the bedroom, only to see Billy sitting on the floor, poring over the content of the box.

Steve sits down next to him, pursing his lips. "For what it's worth... those are old,"

Billy turns to look at him with a hapless, unimpressed smile. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, well, I have my own guy developing these," Steve defends himself half-heartedly, taking the printed photographs out of Billy's hand, putting them back into the box. "He's a no-questions-asked kind of guy, okay?"

Billy rolls his eyes. "You don't even have a camera,"

"I got a bunch of disposables,"

"And you wasted them being a creep, taking pictures of me!" Billy starts to argue, waving the photos around. Some of them are blurry, some aren't even close enough to depict anyone, but Billy knows they're all pictures of him throughout last year, how Steve took these he can't even tell. There must be at least ten film rolls' worth of photos here.

Steve shrugs. "What can I say... you really caught my eye,"

"You're a creep, and a stalker, Harrington."

"Steve." he insists on the name. "I keep telling you to call me Steve."

"I'll call you Steve when I actually like you," Billy challenges, absentmindedly tossing the photos into the wicker box.

"What do I do to get you to like me, then? Do I kill your dad?"

Billy looks at him, wide-eyed, but the smile forming on his lips betray his seriousness. "No, you... you wouldn't,"

Steve looks at him. Billy looks back at him.

'Yeah, no. He definitely would.'

"Okay... fine, I like you, Steve," Billy relents.

"Well now I don't want you to like me, if you feel like you have to say it," Steve sighs.

Billy quirks up an eyebrow, looking at the brunette in disbelieving haplessness. "You little..."

He lunges at Steve, tackling him as they're both still seated. He pins Steve underneath him, Steve's hair a mess on the carpeted floor, looking up at Billy with all the affection somebody could offer another person, and then some.

"You're gorgeous, Billy Hargrove."

"I'm about to sock you in the jaw and that's what you have to say?" Billy asks, his curls spilling from the top of his head, barely brushing against Steve's cheeks.

"We both know you won't," Steve smiles, easily. One of the many things Billy's learned to hate (love) about the fucking guy.

"You're lucky I don't feel like fighting right now," Billy mumbles under his breath, forgoing the punching, instead planting a kiss on Steve's lips, which he welcomes impatiently, feverishly.

Billy wants this to be his forever. He knows it's not, but he's starting to question what he actually knows to be the truth, or whether it's all just the voices in his head telling him he's no good.

He chooses to know now, for a fact, that somebody loves him to the point of no return, and if he were to complain about any of it, it would only to lament about past pains, while he patches up the present, and hey, while he's at it, why not the future?

[shorthaltsjester]

downfall has me thinking about the prime deities far more than is best for my mental health and so i’ve been rewatching c1 just because so many of the pcs have relationships with the gods — even percy and keyleth who hold lower opinions of the gods still have relationships with them — and good grief . you ever think about whitestone as this bastion of love that the gods still have for one another and the love that a party of idiots have for one another. that the centrepiece of the town is a tree from the dawnfather, one used for the builders of castle whitestone to take shelter from the tumultuous lands of the alabaster sierras. a mountain range that came about out of the conflict between the dawn father and the chained oblivion.

the fact that the family that whitestone’s lost son found and brought back with him amounted to two temples being erected, and how fitting that after defeating the briarwoods, the two gods that are given new houses of worship in whitestone are the gods of death and redemption, fate and compassion. do you ever think about how many of vox machina are champions but how much the ones who are not are still held in good faith by the gods, whether or not that is returned? do you ever think about the raven queen telling percy he is broken and reminding him that does not mean he is alone, that means he is mortal, as are all those whom he loves. do you ever think about percy’s death letter, read by vox machina in a tavern as he tells them that the raven queen calling him broken finally opened his eyes to the fact that he has chosen his life (and thus, he might choose better), writing “one the lie [that vengeance would bring my family back] was shattered, I scrambled to find a solution, to make a deal, to undo my mistakes and balance the scales. I now understand that there are no scales. There is no redemption, and no ledger that judges me good or evil. I am free to simply be myself and live with the terrible mistakes I’ve made. Tomorrow, I start upon a path beyond the gods and demons who have tormented me, and it’s your friendship that makes this possible. […] I will try and do my best for you all.” and signing it Percival, of Vox Machina - the family he found and chose, not the one he lost and buried himself in vengeance to avoid. and fucking, vex having just heard percy forgive ripley also hearing those words and having carved the word forgive on the weapon she carries who has a conversation with him to remind him (and herself) that committing to forgiveness over grudges and vengeance means also forgiving the person he’s been that prioritized vengeance. the fact that one of the main things they bond over is that they have similar dispositions to justice and a similar unwillingness to forgive but they both see that in themselves as something they wish to improve at, and that when they eventually marry, each time is by someone devoted to a god neither of them necessarily worship but each of which oversees a domain particularly relevant to that connection - keeper yennen is a worshipper of erathis, and thus the justice that both percy and vex care to honour; pike is a worshipper of raei, and thus the redemption that both vex and percy seek (and see in one another). do you get it.

and god the entirety of the final arc of vox machina is truly some of the most interesting cr content for me just because you get the silliness and depth of vox machina in the face of these Beings On High and they all gaze at these idiots trying to save the world with fondness and the realization with downfall that in many ways those gods were just as much idiots trying to save the world makes that so, so interesting. and i wonder what might’ve happened if one of the gods they’d gone to see had been the lawbearer or the wildmother, what might have been made of percy and keyleth. i wonder if the lawbearer might have taken an interest in a calculating and curious man who loves to strike a deal and stick to it, even if manipulating the contents of the deal made to better suit his ends - especially given that percy was rejected by ioun for his propensity not to share his knowledge, and especially given that whitestone has a historical precedent for worship of the lawbearer. and i wonder what the wildmother would make of an angry girl who is fated to watch the people and places she loves be irrevocably changed and die, who wields her vestige, and who favours the world and it’s people over the gods and their rules — something i’m willing to bet melora would find some common ground with.

there’s also some beautiful symmetry between the relationships of the gods to which vox machina become champions and their own relationships with one another. and i’ve made my post about vax and vex vs. the matron of ravens and the dawn father, but i also think quite a lot about vex and scanlan vs. pelor and ioun. vex and scanlan who can be quite antagonistic to one another but also understand each other as few others do; scanlan who tells the dawn father that vex is not perfect but she is the most perfect among them, vex who hears the knowing mistress tell scanlan that his stories give vox machina strength and genuinely tells him it’s true and that he is very powerful, even when he tries to joke about it. ioun and pelor were the ones to take on tharizdun, ioun nearly perishing and having to hide away to recover. when vox machina asks pelor for her location he doesn’t know it. and fuckin. dalen’s closet. should be a silly little wedding oneshot ends with fuckin. vex glowing with the light of the dawnfather as her and percy, the living son of whitestone, are married by pike who is a cleric and is also the champion of the god of redemption, where the champion of ioun turns into a. dinosaur to walk his friend down the aisle and then grants a wish so that she can see her brother again and the champion of the matron of ravens comes to visit - something that is explicitly stated to be allowed by the matron of ravens. where a twin glowing like the dawn and a twin darkened by raven feather embrace. do you get it . do you see it. the fact that the first story we all heard in exandria was one of a family threatened by fate who could not beat it but did their best with it and that now downfall, the newest story but with parts of the oldest story in exandria’s timeline, is the same. a family who is doing the best with what they have, and what they have isn’t always great.

[toastytrusty]

saw someone on twitter yesterday say that the "you could have just joined up" line was meant to show us that hickey lies and murders because he wants to and finds it fun and i am still SO pissed off about it. literally no. not in the slightest what that means. that line showed us many things, yes. like the inherent irrationality of his disordered, mentally ill thinking. like his abandonment and discarding of his former self and former experiences in favor of a career navy man, which is very tied to the show's themes of imperialism and how lower class/downtrodden people appeal to the system that oppresses them thinking it will give them some power over somebody else. it did Not tell us hickey Enjoys the vague concept of Being Evil. it is genuinely so irritating and LAME when he is flattened down to the insane apathetic machiavellian egotist archetype and it does such disservice to the nuanced intricacies of his character. i do think that the one singular thing in terror that feels poorly constructed Is the reveal that hickey killed someone prior to the show, because a Large Part of his arc Within the show is about how scared and unfamiliar he is, and him very Gradually coming to terms with killing people, believing himself a saviour for doing so. But like that was done to protect the sanctity of the Real Life Guy and to not slander the Real Life Guy so who even cares. it shouldn't be weighed against the rest of his character. you Cannot watch the carnivale fire scene and truly believes he just finds such glee in killing people for the sake of it. that line is imo most directly related to the themes of imperialism in the show, but also tells us so much about the Actual Depth of his character. his fear. his conflict. he wants to be recognized by these people, and yet he has been lying to them about who he is. he finally reveals the truth because he can't live with it anymore and he is immediately shut down and called irrational. because he is irrational. he doesn't know how to get what he wants because he is in such conflict with himself. not that he. just loves being evil so much. whatever

[sundays-wings]

Okay fuck it, Astarion with a Tav who's ace...

Him just being absolutely baffled that someone would like him for who he is and not for his body. It's so hard to believe because it's the only thing he's ever known, and yet Tav undeniably means it when they say they like him as a person, because sexual attraction isn't on the table for them.

Same thing with a demi Tav because again, they don't like him in a superficial manner simply because he's hot. They like him because they've come to trust him, and they appreciate his support, and they want to see him thrive, and maybe ontop of that they also think he's hot. But that's not the main thing they see about him. They see that because they first saw all those other things about him.

Idk okay, I just think he'd find it hard to accept that someone likes him for who he is, but once he actually learns to accept that reality, he's so, so grateful and never wants to let that person go again.

[baejax-the-great]

this is super late but I think of you as THE Achilles pov writer. the way you weave his mythology and humanity, arrogance and vulnerability, selfishness and generosity so effortlessly and IN HIS HEAD has made me cry so many times. Thank you thank you!

Ahh, thank you!!

It's funny, because I tend to default to writing from Pat's perspective, and I think I only have a few fics where Achilles POV gets to shine (Sunset, Agua Caliente, Numbered Days... that might be it).

Achilles really is such a fascinating character to me--a spiteful child and a great leader, generous and unyielding, calm and respectful to the men who take away Briseis and the Embassy while also purposefully causing the deaths of hundreds of his own side... And then, of course, there is his all-consuming grief (the only reason I read the Iliad if I'm being honest), grief so big it changed the course of the war, it changed the very landscape, it changed history--and it changed absolutely nothing at all.

He's just so... (I was going to put an emoji, but is there one for staring off into the distance for fifteen minutes thinking about the futility of the journey of grief, how it is long and winding and necessary and required and yet never leads you to a place beyond the grief because it will be with you forever, it simply cannot be undone, and the strongest, fastest man in history cannot outrun it and he cannot bear it so all there is to do is accept the crushing weight that his life has come to nothing and everyone in his entire culture was complicit in this conclusion...)

Anyway, I am working on an Achilles POV one-shot right now, but it's basically pwp so I don't know that any of that character analysis will realllllly be in there 😂

[zishu-arts]

I know everyone likes Agent comforting Victim, but I kinda wanna see Victim comforting Agent. I kinda like the angst that he blames himself and manz doesn't rest because of it 🙃.

anon i COMPLETELY agree. i mean ik vic is sad cause his wife died (“i miss my wife agent i miss her a lot”) but i feel like agent literally watching her die before his eyes is a little overlooked. sick of relationships where it’s almost reduced to therapist-patient(which ik is a stretch for most of the depictions of vic and agent but) — there are good agent angst don’t get me wrong but there should be moreeee

like maybe they were friends. maybe they were all in a poly relationship. maybe they were nothing more than coworkers. but even so they knew each other and cared abt each other. agent watched her die and could do nothing about it and he was supposed to protect them — he was the guard. he was meant to protect and he failed and in this essay i will *gets shot*

[iambecomeahamburger]

Um, so, about Lucy Barker

*rant incoming*

you know that fandom phenomenon where female characters will literally get hated on for being interesting (free my girls they did all that but your honour i do not care). lucy barker did NOTHING. NOTHING to deserve the hellish events that unfolded in her life, and she still gets hate. i have many thoughts about this, many of which i cannot properly articulate.

im gonna be so honest, pre-ruthie ann miles, the sweeney fandom was not so kind to my girl as they are now (2023 toddhead nation you are everything to me) and this i think was mainly the burton film enjoyers who hardcore shipped sweenett in the most uninteresting way possible.

REAL sweeney/sweenett enjoyers know that lucy is a pivotal and interesting character who took nothing but ls from life, and that sweenett only works as a ship if what you love about it is how deeply problematic and messy it is. I rest my case.

[pollsnatural]

I only posted fics on a site that was entirely in my native language. And now that I think about it, the fandom culture of that site was (and still is) so much more toxic than ao3. The general consensus on criticism on the site is that if you don't want people to criticize your fic, then you're a pussy and don't deserve to be there. Literally, if your fics sucked, and you didn't do proper research into the setting of your fic (e.g. when I was 13, I wrote a fantasy fic set in the Middle Ages where I mentioned that the castle had glass windows and I got an incredibly rude comment for it because glass windows apparently didn't exist in the year I was writing about), and if you weren't willing to improve your writing, then you were trash that made the site unusable and everyone had the right to tell you that. A lot of people actually argued that the admins should just delete these poorly written fics. Also, the site had an option to give fics dislikes (ahh fun times).

So, I wanted to ask. Have things ever been this bad on ao3? Or maybe other fanfiction sites? I know that on ao3 it's rude to come to author's comments and criticize their work. But maybe things were different in the past?

[nightcolorz]

The title card at the beginning of ofmd s2 ep5, The Curse of the Seafaring life, where the title is written in blood that’s being scrubbed away by a disembodied hand, makes me soooooo crazy. It’s so perfect. It wonderfully captures the thematic core of the episode. Episode 5 is the washing the blood away episode. it’s the episode where our characters just kind of chill, reconcile, rebuild themselves after the kraken incident. So of course the title is blood being washed away. Ed’s arc in the episode is washing the metaphorical blood off his hands as he tries to reintegrate himself into the crew. Lucius is moving on, trying to quit picking his scabs for a change…washing the blood away. Izzy is whittling sharks. 10/10 no notes.