#the problem with usual starter / ask calls for me

[diveyne]

ok i probably have interaction calls somewhere but i'm too lazy to look for them and i want something easy to kick things off with people SOOOO.

like this for a one-liner. iconless probably bc despite having many icons, they're all of the same few images lmaooo.

i will choose one of morg's voicelines at random. feel free to go crazy and write as much as you want in response.

[heavyhitterheaux]

Safety Net

See Me Through You Series

I've never been this scared before

Feelings I just can't ignore

Don't know if I should fight or fly

But I don't mind

Synopsis: Falling for someone else while you were still in a committed relationship was not supposed to be in the cards for you

Series Masterlist

A sigh left your mouth as you looked down at your phone and you rolled your eyes when you saw it was none other than your boyfriend Trevor. It had damn near fell off the table from the vibration and you watched it until it stopped ringing.

It had to be the tenth time that he called you today and it was the tenth time that you had ignored him. It seemed as if you and your boyfriend were arguing more than usual and it was honestly the last thing you wanted to deal with. There seemed to be a shift when you had gotten accepted to LSU and you applied there to be near him since he was a year older than you and you honestly had no clue what his problem was. He asked you specifically to do it and you were all for it. If you knew then how it would be, you probably would have applied elsewhere.

Any time you tried asking him about how he was feeling or if something was wrong since it seemed like there was, all you got was an attitude in return. He would pick fights for no reason, you would get upset and not talk to him while he went on to beg for your forgiveness when it was all said and done. The latest fight had been about how you wanted to stay in and have a study date instead of going out for date night when he knew that you had a test the next day that was a big percentage of your grade seeing as there weren't a lot of assignments to begin with for that particular class. Of course he told you no, and you left it at that.

Being your first semester, you had taken on a lot more than you could handle and you were now feeling the effects seeing as you were about a month and a half in. Last night you went to one of LSU's home football games because not only did Ja'Marr beg you to come, but Joe did also and was out until damn near four in the morning.

You could tell that he was getting more comfortable being a starter and they had been playing amazing. It was now Sunday night and you were trying to make up for lost time when your phone vibrated once again at your desk. Except, an instant smile came upon your face when you saw who it was and quickly answered.

“Joey…”

“Princess, why haven't I seen you yet? I thought you were coming tonight.” He asked you without giving a proper greeting. You could hear a bunch of commotion in the background and you simply assumed he was at another party.

Ever since the two of you met that first day in the gym, the nickname princess had stuck.

“Uh? Coming where? I was literally out with you, Ja'Marr and Justin until FOUR in the morning. I was UNWELL. I couldn't even see anymore by the time I got home.” You expressed and all you heard was his laugh. In your head you imagined that he was probably shaking his head too.

“Couldn't see anymore? Really? Now that's dramatic, even for you.”

“Excuse me!? Look, all I know is my eyes were red and my contacts were dry as hell and the THREE OF YOU kidnapped me.”

“Well I'm about to kidnap you again. At least for a few hours.”

“I have another EXAM to study for, sir. You got to have me all last night.” You told him as you had taken out your highlighters from your pencil case and set them on your desk.

“And? I want to have you all night again. But I promise not to have you out that late.” Joe told you and you felt butterflies in your stomach.

At this rate, Joe spent more time with you than your actual boyfriend and actually wanted you to be around him. He was always down to have a study session with you unlike Trevor.

“Hmm, what time did you plan on having me out until?”

“Three give or take.”

“JOEY that is literally only a one hour difference!” You exclaimed as you shook your head in disbelief.

“You don't take your exam until later in the week! I've helped you study and you're going to be fine. Come on, I want to see you. I forgot what you looked like and I need a reminder to be in person.”

“You are such a hot ass mess and you have been around my brother too long because that sounds like exactly something he would say. Take a picture next time.”

“I could take one tonight if you let me see that pretty face of yours.”

With a deep sigh and a groan escaping your lips, you finally gave in.

“I'm ignoring that last part.”

“Why? I called you pretty and it's a compliment.” Joe asked, suddenly confused.

“And I'm not single, which you already knew.”

“Hmm, at least not yet. But I'll patiently wait my turn.”

You were glad that it wasn't a facetime call because your jaw had literally dropped and it took you a second to close your mouth.

It was quiet for a few seconds and Joe had to make sure that you didn't hang up.

“Princess, you still there?” Joe asked and the music in the background distracted you for a second.

“Just text me the address.”

“Can't wait to see you, gorgeous. Text me when you're outside.”

As soon as you hung up, Joe sent you the address and then you went to ransack your closet to find something to wear. Looking through your closet, not only was your mind racing, but your heart was too.

Joe had a crush on you, that much was obvious but the last thing you wanted to happen was for it to suddenly be awkward between the two of you. Why did you suddenly get butterflies when he's around, but when it comes to Trevor you felt absolutely nothing? You were nervous that it would get to the point that you would make an absolute fool out of yourself in front of him. But at the same, why should you care? You had a boyfriend.

The more you kept thinking about it, the more you were probably going to hurt your brain so you put your focus solely on searching for an outfit. In the back of your closet, you found a short black dress staring back at you. It was already known that you had the perfect shoes to go with it, so the answer that you came to was yes almost immediately.

After taking a quick shower and straightening your hair, the dress was slipped on along with the shoes. You did a once over in your floor length mirror that you had gotten from IKEA and nodded to your reflection in approval. Looking at your phone, you saw that it was close to ten at night and the goal was to get there as soon as possible in order to be able to get back as soon as possible.

The drive was a short one and once you pulled up, you saw multiple people hanging out outside including someone who was shitfaced on the front lawn of whoever's house it was. Shaking your head to yourself, you quickly pulled out your phone and sent a text to Joe in order to let him know that you were here.

Less than three minutes later, you saw him come out of the front door and take the steps two at a time to make his way to your car. Getting out, you closed your door and made sure to lock it before turning to face him as he had come up to you from behind.

“Hey, I'm here just like I promised. Since you know that you forgot what I looked like and wanted to see me in person.” You told him while rolling your eyes he smirked.

“Nothing changed from last time. Still as gorgeous as I remember.” He responded as the two of you started walking towards the front door.

“You literally just saw me last night and I don't have any idea what I'm going to do with you.”

“I could think of a few things I want to do with you. Just let me know when you're ready to find out.” He whispered and you simply shook your head.

Once the two of you crossed the threshold, his hand was on the small of your back as he guided you through the swarm of bodies and soon made your way to the kitchen where Justin and Ja'Marr were in the middle of an intense game of beer pong.

“About time you showed up, big sis. Tell the little bro that he is about to get his ass kicked.” Justin told you as it was Ja'Marr’s turn who looked at Justin to suck his teeth.

“I am not! How is that possible when I’m definitely winning right now?!” Ja’Marr asked as rolled his eyes.

“I just don’t see how the three of you have so much energy.” You said as you looked at all three of them.

“Yesterday we were pregaming.”

“Justin?! Pregaming?!?! We were out for hours!” You exclaimed as he looked at you and shrugged.

“You made it back home in one piece, didn’t you?”

“Of course she did because Joe wouldn’t let her out of his sight.” Justin quietly said but you could see Joe turn a slight shade of red while Ja’Marr smiled.

Since Joe and Ja’Marr had grown closer in the almost three months that he had been down here, Ja’Marr knew for a fact that Joe liked you and had been infatuated with you ever since he introduced the two of you to one another. He had his suspicions that you liked him back, but he wasn't so sure.

He would try to do everything that he possibly could to get you away from Trevor.

Joe had walked away from the three of you for a minute and when he returned he handed you a red solo cup. Before holding it up to your lips, you looked inside of it to inspect what it was. You could count on one hand the times that you had gotten drunk and rode it out at Erin’s house with her older sister giving you both IV fluids to help recover.

“What’s this?” You asked as you smelled it. It wasn’t a strong scent that would knock you off your feet and it gave you the vibe of it possibly being fruity.

“Your drink that I got you.” Joe said as he took a sip of whatever was in his cup.

“I was always told not to accept drinks from strangers or accept a drink that I didn’t go and get myself.” You told him as you looked back up at him.

“Well, it’s a good thing that I’m not a stranger right? And you honestly think that anyone would be stupid enough to try something with your brother standing right there?” He asked you as you gave him a look of approval.

“I guess you’re right, now what is it?”

“Just taste it, but if it will make you feel better, you can taste mine first. I promise that it’s the exact same thing.”

Without a second thought, you grabbed Joe’s cup and took a small sip. Just as you suspected, it was fruity and had a light taste that wasn’t overwhelming.

Seeing that you approved, he handed your cup to you and as you took another small sip, as promised it was the exact same thing.

“Good choice, Burrow.”

“I figured that you would like it and didn’t want any of the harder options that they have over there.”

“Y/N, you playing?” Justin asked and you gave him a small smile.

“Sure, but only if Joe plays against me.” You answered as you poked Joe’s side making him smirk.

“And here her competitive ass goes. We about to be over here for the rest of the night.” Ja’Marr muttered as he got some chips out of a large bowl and threw them into his mouth.

“I can take her, let’s get to it princess.”

“Famous last words, Burrow.”

After many rounds of beer pong later and mingling with other people, you were making your rounds with a few familiar faces in the living room, when you had suddenly spotted no one other than your boyfriend who looked to be drunk off his ass coming through the front door and sighed.

“Shit.” You quietly said and tried to look for an exit, but came up short. Before you could even make your way into the kitchen, he had spotted you and was moving towards the direction that you were in.

“So, you can’t answer my calls, but come to a party instead?” He asked as he towered over you.

“You pissed me off and I didn’t want to talk to you, simple. So yes, I can dodge your calls whenever I fucking feel like it and come to a party instead. Move out of my way because I still don’t want to talk to you.” You replied and attempted to move around him, but instead he caught your arm and pulled you back.

“I’m not finished fucking talking to you and the last thing you’re about to do is walk away from me.”

“I can and I will and you need to get your fucking hands off me before I get my brother who will beat your ass. I still don’t want to talk to you so move along. You’re clearly drunk and we will have this conversation when you’re sober.”

One thing that you were not going to do was let him intimidate you. You might be small, but you still stood your ground and let him know that you would be tolerating any form of disrespect coming from him or anyone else.

“Who the hell are you talking to like that?” He asked as his grip on your wrist tightened at the same time you were trying to get away from him.

You were trying to look around for Ja’Marr, Justin, or Joe but was coming up short until you heard Joe’s voice from behind Trevor.

“Is there a problem over here? Y/N, you okay?” He asked as he stood on the side of both of you and looked Trevor up and down.

“We’re fine, mind your own damn business. This is between me and my girlfriend.”

“I believe that I was talking to her and not to you. I don’t give a damn if you’re her boyfriend or not. What you aren’t going to do is disrespect her in front of me. You can first start by getting your hand off of her damn wrist because you’re hurting her and it’s turning red.”

“Who the fuck is this guy? Y/N, you fucking him instead of me?” He asked the first question to no one in particular, but the second one was obviously directed at you.

“Trevor, quit it. Just leave. I already said that I wasn’t going to talk to you.”

“Nah, because he thinks he can come over here and get in my business when it has nothing to do with him.” He told you as he turned to keep his eyes on Joe.

Suddenly the room had gone quiet and all eyes were on the three of you as he began to raise his voice.

“Just leave and we’ll talk later.” You told him as you wanted for this night to be over since your mood was now ruined.

You knew that you should have stayed home.

“Not until pretty boy hear learns a fucking lesson.”

Next thing you knew, Trevor shoved Joe who barely moved one inch and you went to stand in between them.

You saw Joe’s jaw clench and knew for a fact that this was going to end badly unless you did something and did something now.

“Joey, no. And Trevor do not fucking put your hands on him.”

“So, you’re defending him instead of me?”

“Yes, because you are being a straight up asshole. Why the hell are you pushing people?”

The next thing you knew it seemed like everything was happening in slow motion, Trevor raised his fist and got ready to punch Joe who dodged it, but Joe made sure to push you out of the way first so that you didn’t get hit. Ja’Marr and Justin came running over to where all of you were standing and caught Joe’s fist as it was about to connect to Trevor’s jaw.

“Joe, chill. It’s not worth it as much as I want to let you go and beat his ass.” Ja’Marr told him as he was holding Joe and Justin was holding back Trevor.

“Y/N, go and get in my car.” Trevor said and you looked at him like he was crazy.

“I think the fuck not. My sister is not going anywhere with you. What you can do is take your ass on out that front door before I let him go and all three of us are kicking your ass, your choice.” Ja’Marr told him as Joe was still struggling to get out of his grasp making him have to hold tighter.

Trevor then held his hands up in defense and began to slowly walk away towards the front door finally giving up on the thought that you were going to leave with him. Once he was finally out the door, Ja’Marr released his hold on Joe and turned to look at you.

“Pebbles, I wish you would fucking break up with him. Do you not see what the fuck he just did? What if we hadn’t been here, huh?! Do you know what could have happened?!” Ja’Marr started but Joe quickly intervened when he saw tears forming in your eyes.

“Not now man, important thing is that she’s okay. You are okay aren’t you? Let me see your wrist.”

You held out your right arm so Joe could look at it and there was a red indentation from where his hand had been.

“Come on, let’s get you some ice from the freezer.”

As you nodded your head, Joe guided you into the kitchen and you were caught off guard as he placed you onto the counter as he rummaged through the freezer and got a small ziploc bag to put the ice in. When he was finished, he walked back over to you and stood in between your legs as he placed the ice on your wrist which led to you letting a hiss escape from your lips.

“Seriously, princess. Are you okay?” Joe softly asked you and you nodded your head.

“I just… I’ve never seen him get like that before and I was scared. He has never put his hands on me or yelled at me like that.”

“I’m just glad we were all here with you.”

“Me too.” You quietly said as Joe brushed a piece of hair out of your face and smiled at you.

It was quiet for a few minutes as Joe tended to your wrist before he looked back up at you.

“You ready to leave? I can come with you.”

“Yeah, I think that it’s probably best at this point.”

Ja’Marr came into the kitchen and made his way over to you as he gave you a hug from the side since Joe was in front of you and kissed the top of your head.

“I yell because I love you and never want anything to happen to you. You’re the only twin I got.” He told you as he pinched your cheek which made you smile.

“I know, I love you too, Bam Bam.”

“I was going to take her home. I’ll text you when she’s safe.” Joe told him, with him nodding in approval.

“Sure thing.”

It had gotten a little colder outside and made sure to walk as fast as possible to your car since the heels you were wearing probably wouldn’t allow you to run. When you were about to get into the driver’s seat, Joe stopped you.

“Let me drive, I know your wrist is still hurting.”

Unlocking your car and not putting up a fight, you walked over to the passenger side and slid in as Joe held the door open for you.

The two of you were now driving through Baton Rouge, as your head laid against the glass and Joe noticed the small circles you were massaging onto your wrist.

“Make sure you take some motrin or something to help your wrist. You don’t have practice tomorrow do you?”

“No, but we have it on Tuesday and then a competition on Saturday. I just hope it’s okay by then.”

“It should be. Just keep stretching it and taking something for it. And more ice will help too.”

“I will. Actually can we make a stop really fast?” You asked and of course Joe nodded.

“Of course and besides, it’s your car that I’m driving.” He responded while laughing.

“Good point. Make a left at the next light and then a right.”

Joe followed directions and was now on a dimly lit street.

“Where are we going?”

“When I get sad, I eat ice cream or get a milkshake at this twenty four hour spot I discovered.”

“Not you holding out on me.” Joe teased as you shook your head.

“I would have taken you eventually. But when I’m around you I’m always happy so there was no need for it.” You quietly said as Joe tried to hide the smile that was forming on his face.

“And that’s how it will always be when I’m around you.”

A few minutes later, Joe saw the sign for the ice cream shop that you had pointed out and quickly parallel parked on the street before the two of you got out to head inside. Joe once again opened the door for you and helped you up the steps to the entrance.

Looking at you now scanning the menu, Joe couldn’t help himself but to take in your appearance for the night. The black dress you were wearing was hugging your curves just right and the shoes you had on was a perfect compliment to it. He was pulled from his thoughts as he heard you call his name.

“Joey, what are you getting?” You asked as you looked over at him.

“Hmm, I’m not sure. Did you decide what you wanted yet? I’ll pay, it’s my treat.”

“Probably an oreo milkshake and you don’t have to pay for it.” You told him as you shook your head.

“Then lets make that two and I’m going to because I said so.”

You knew you smiling at him was more than enough to thank him as he placed both of your orders and paid. The two of you stood to the side and Joe noticed that you were hugging yourself and assumed that you were cold.

Without even asking you, he took off his hoodie and told you to hold your arms up.

“But I don’t want you to be cold.”

“You need it more than I do, arms up.”

You finally gave in and held your arms up as he quickly pulled it over your head and took out your hair from the back and pulled it down in the front.

“Better?”

“Better.”

When Joe had turned away from you to get both of your milkshakes, you took in the scent of his hoodie and it happened to be one of your favorite scents that he would wear. You put it in the back of your mind that you were not giving him this hoodie back any time soon.

He handed you your drink and he walked in front of you in order to be able to open the door and help you down the steps. As the two of you got settled in your car and he started to drive when he broke the silence.

“Y/N…”

“Hmm?” You asked as you were sipping on your milkshake.

“I’m saying this as someone who cares about you so please don’t take any of this the wrong way.”

“I know what you’re about to say, just like everyone else. I need to break up with him.”

“Then why don’t you do it? I mean I’m to the point where I wouldn’t want you to be alone with him because of what I saw tonight.”

“In some weird twisted way I do love him and he means well. He was not like that when we first got together and I honestly think that he’s going through something and he either doesn’t want to tell me or…”

“Y/N, stop making excuses for him. Even if he is going through something he has no reason to act like that towards you, drunk or not. What would have happened if the two of you were by yourselves?”

“I….”

“I just want to be sure you’re safe. At the end of the day, I’m not telling you what to do because you’re an adult but…. Take it how you want it.” Joe said, being completely honest as he turned into your apartment complex parking lot.

When you were quiet, he spoke up again.

“I would want nothing more for someone else to be able to show you how you should be treated.”

“Joey…”

“Y/N, I know you like me, and I like you. I’ve made that obvious time and time again. You literally spend more time with me than your actual boyfriend, and you even just told me yourself less than thirty minutes ago how happy you always are around me. Why don’t you just let me in? What are you afraid of?”

[transmascaraa]

Reader "secretely" steals an prop their partner uses to try and recreate something they do with it

(example - gamings Lion dance hat (I'm not very cultured idk how it's called canonically...) to try and do at least a part of lion dancing, lyneys cards to try and do a magic trick, wanderers hat to try and do his usual poses etc!!)

multiple characters headcannons!

JUSTIFIED stealing.

characters: lyney, gaming, wanderer x gn!reader

author's note: this one's next because i can🤩 yeah i'm gonna do all 3 of those so i hope you have fun reading lol

♡ Lyney

-uhm you basically stole his hat AND his cards right before an important magic show.

-he was looking for them literally EVERYWHERE.

-but he couldn't find him so he was getting worried by the second.

-until he saw you walking up to him with his hat on your head.

-"hello lyney, my love, may i show you a magic trick before i return it to you?" as you put his hat out to him.

-"oh, mon amour, of course! just please hurry, i was getting really concerned there." he awkwardly laughs it off.

-he's not one to really have a problem with you taking it with yourself, butttt his magic show was starting soon!

-your card trick was one where you turned 2 cards into 4, then 4 into 8.

-even tho it was a starter trick and he knew exactly how you had done it, he smiled brightly.

-he's happy to see you having fun with something that he likes himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

⑅ Gaming

-again, a performance was starting soon.

-and he couldn't find his lion dance hat!(that's what i'm gonna call it)

-the first few times he walked into your room, he asked you if you'd seen it, but you always said no.

-you were getting more suspicious to him each time.

-so he secretly walked into the room, but then you just looked at eachother when you realized he had caught you.

-you, in a random pose, mid-dance, in his lion dance hat.

-"you- i was looking for it EVERYWHERE!! are you serious??" he was laughing while talking, it was actually quite cute to him, how you looked in his hat.

-"well- uhm- rate my dance?" you then tried to make up a little dance for him and he really liked it

-after he literally laughed his ass of with you, he said:

-"10/10. but i have to go to my performance now, i'll be back soon. see you, love, and then i'll let you use it once again."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

๑ Wanderer

-(i am so excited to write this one)

-so basically, he was about to go for a walk through the desert, with nahida, and he was missing his hat.

-usually, it's in the living room on the table, or next to the bed. and he searched throughout the whole house, nothing.

-but then he entered your shared bedroom.

-you, on the bed, in his drip marketing pose, shouting his "voicelines" in whispers.,

-"uhm- hi?-" you said awkwardly.

-"what the fuck." (he thought you were cute.)

-"i'm just- uhm- cosplaying you? ahm- yeah, i'm cosplaying you." the best excuse you could come up with.

-"cosplaying my ass. your outfit is your everyday outfit. you didn't even try to make your hair like mine. the hat doesn't suit you like that." he started acting smart and like the know-it-all

-"excuse me-" but then he cut you off (again).

-"no excuses. i said what i said." he took his hat back from you and just before leaving the room, he turned to you and said something more.

-"don't touch my hat, idiot. bye."

-you could've sworn you've heard a quiet "i love you" at the end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

damn i really like this one too

i used to hate them when i js started writing wtf

but i most definitely at least improved lmfao

| @keeyisbored | @mariaace <3

[seat-safety-switch]

Children love nothing more than a castle. Adults, too, but we have to be more conservative in our approval of it. We have to impress the other adults about how practical we are. Maybe slap the bricks a little and go "this must cost a fortune to heat!" I'm here to tell you that you can enjoy a castle for what it is: a bunch of cool bricks that were once the site of brutal and cruel mass deaths.

Sure, there's lots of castles that were never sieged or even singed. These are fake ones, usually somewhere in North America, where the castle proved to not be a sufficient defence against roving gangs of feral cowboys.

Here, the situation is often that a rich person looked in a magazine, saw a cool picture of a European fortification, and then asked a bunch of masons to "build me one like that." Respectable, of a sort, but not a real castle. Doesn't matter: you can still enjoy them. The rich person sure did, unless they mixed it up with several dozen of their other castles and just never bothered getting around to enjoying the fruits of their workers' labour.

There are a couple problems to practical enjoyment of North American castles. For starters, many of them are still privately owned. The residents no doubt strut around their homes, pretending to be princes and earls and duchesses. Is it a weird sex thing? Nobody knows for sure, but NASA research is strongly pointing towards "yes." Those ones are probably off the table for most people reading this. That said, if you do purchase your own castle, let me know so I can come by and take a picture of my Dodge Viscount in front of it. Get it? Viscount?

Even with those ones removed from general circulation, you can probably enjoy one of many public castles. These are often placed in public parks that were spontaneously created when a rich person died and dropped their loot, like in the popular computer game Murder Rich People And Take Their Shit. For only a few bucks (for preservation purposes: remember, it costs a fortune to heat these things, not to mention the rising cost of castle wax) you too can enjoy the fortress lifestyle. And if you bring your own king and queen outfits and turn it into a weird sex thing? I won't call the cops if you don't tattle on my use of the horse stables as temporary overflow parking.

[crownmemes]

Advice; Everyone Should Be Making the First Move

There's been a trend within the rpc here for years now where nobody is willing to make the first move. The problem with this is that if nobody ever makes the first move, then nobody is ever going to write anything. Considering that, everybody should be making an effort to be the first one to reach out to their writing partners more often.

Examples of making the first move:

Sending an IM to say hi, then suggesting a plot

Sending a meme to start a new thread

Responding to starter calls and open starters

All of this is just as valid for old partners as it is for new. If you haven't written with someone in a while, maybe it's time to reach out to start a new thread?

The most common reason I see for people not making the first move is social anxiety. I'm going to give you all a bit of tough love here: speaking as somebody who once had crippling social anxiety (and still does in irl settings), the best way to overcome it is to push yourself to try the things that make you anxious.

Communicating with people is a really important part of rp because it's not a solo hobby, therefore you are going to have to talk to people at some point. It's unavoidable. Here are a few reminders to help you feel a little less nervous:

If somebody follows back, they're doing it because they're interested in writing with you. They are not going to be upset if you send them an IM with plot ideas

Most people are friendly! In 12 years of rping on this site, I can count on one hand the number of people who I've talked to that were actively rude to me

It's okay if someone says no to you! People have different styles and not all of them will work together. If someone says no, say thank you for the consideration, then move on. There are more people to write with out there

If somebody is nasty to you, you can block them. Don't be afraid to do this; you don't have to explain yourself, and you wouldn't want to write with someone who's rude to you anyway

If you're not sure what to say, I usually go with a version of "Hello! Thank you for following/following back! I've looked through your rules and about pages. Would you be interested in plotting something for X and my character, Y? I have an idea already, if you would like to hear?"

Don't just say "Hi!". Cut to the chase and tell them why you're messaging so they immediately know what the conversation is about

Reasons why it's good to message first:

You look actively interested in writing. This is a huge boost in your favour when it comes to asking to write with someone

It makes it a lot easier to get new interactions

It makes you appear more active

If you're a new blog, you won't have a lot of examples of your writing on your blog yet. People will be more willing to give you a chance if you approach them first

If you don't message first, you are likely to be waiting a long time before somebody messages you

It's easier to make friends if you have an active conversation!

Some other thoughts on messaging first:

You have followed the person because you are interested in writing with them. Think about why you are interested, and suggest this as a plot idea

Make sure you read through the rules still. It's very obvious when you haven't. Also, look through the muses on offer so you can suggest which you'd like to write with

If the rules say they're not mutuals only, or that you're welcome to IM to introduce yourself if you want to plot, don't be afraid to message. They wouldn't have put that in their rules if they didn't mean it

If someone is reblogging memes, it's because they want to write responses to them. Send them in! If they didn't want them sent in, they wouldn't have reblogged the meme

IMing to plot is often a better idea than liking a starter call or sending memes if you have never interacted with the person before. It gives you a chance to work out what kind of thread would work well before you start something, so the resulting thread has a lower chance of fizzling out quickly

However, all that being said, it's not just up to the person messaging first to make all the effort. If the receiver doesn't put any effort in in return, then the person making the first move is going to think they aren't interested. Eventually, they may give up messaging people at all, because what's the point if it never goes anywhere? Some tips for not seeming uninterested:

If someone IMs you, try to reply to them in a timely fashion. Especially try to reply to them if they sent you a plot idea. You don't have to agree to do the idea - it's just very annoying to be ghosted the second you actually start plotting

Suggest your own plot ideas in return, or build on the idea that the other person has given you

If you agree to write a starter, or one is written for you, follow through with it. Write the starter, reply to the thread. If it's going to take a while, let your writing partner know that you've seen it but you're going to be slow for a while

Similarly, if you post memes, reply to the ones people send you. If you never reply, people will pick up on this and eventually stop sending you things

If you go on hiatus, message your writing partners directly when you get back to let them know you'd like to write again. This will demonstrate that you really are active and ready to write again

[mrdixon]

Work in Progress

pairing: pre-negan Alexandria Daryl x f!reader

wc: 8.1k (sorry.)

warnings: 18+ content, unprotected sex, p-in-v, fingering, oral (fem. receiving), alcohol (sober sex.), mild swearing, some fluff,,,

summary: Your friends peer pressure you into asking Daryl out to the cookout that's taking place tonight.

A/N: this is like my first ever smut officially written and OH MY GOD im so sorry if its terrible i was cringing at some parts. sooooo cliche but i promise ill be better. i realize reading this back that so many of them are slightly out of character but ignore it, i was drunk writing half of this. i also never intended this to be that long and i freaked out reading the word count so. anyways i hope you enjoy and feel free to request anything more!! id be happy to write more for you all.

masterlist!

“I’m telling you, he likes you.” You roll your eyes from your spot at your desk after hearing Maggie’s comment, continuing to focus on your work rather than the idiotic conversation taking place.

“How and why would Daryl like me?” You ask and look up at your three friends Maggie, Carol, and Rosita. It’s like you can pinpoint the exact moment they all mentally facepalm at your question, “I’m just saying.” You mutter under your breath, looking back down at the plans for the reinforcement of Alexandria’s walls. The silence was too loud but you could tell the three of them were all glancing at each other while trying to figure out what to say to you.

“Well for starters, he visits you a lot.” Carol tried to reason, earning a scoff from you. “No I’m serious, he doesn’t even stay home that often. That prick has only stayed for food recently.” The corner of your mouth curls up slightly at her comment, still looking down at your notes.

“Plus he smiles a lot around you, I’ve never seen him smile that hard before… Let alone at all.” Rosita adds. You sigh, finally looking up at your friends and immediately getting startled by all of them looking towards you. You think about what Rosita said and contemplate it for a moment, well he has been hanging around you recently…

“Nope, no way.” They all audibly groan as they turn away from you, “besides. I don’t even like him like that.” Now that earns a scoff from them.

“Oh please. You can hardly keep eye contact with him, let alone speak coherent sentences when he’s around.” Carol retorts, tending to the carnations in a vase in the corner of your study room. You scoff again at the exaggerated example whilst shaking your head.

“Uh uh, I can keep eye contact with him. In fact I have no problem interacting with him because he’s just a friend.” You state bluntly before getting up and putting your notes into a folder behind your seat.

“Oh my god hey Daryl!” Rosita calls out, causing you to quickly fix your hair and spin around with a bright smile on your face. All just to slouch back down onto your chair once you realize it was just to catch you off guard. The three of them laugh silently to themselves while muttering a “we told you so” in unison.

“Fine. I guess I do like him but that does not mean I’m going to do anything about it.” You look down at your lap, hearing clothes shuffling from how quickly they all snap their heads in your direction.

“Why the hell not?” Maggie exclaims, “you know it’s nice. Being in a relationship, plus you guys complement each other well.

You sigh as you spin around in your chair, staring up at the ceiling in thought. “Well… Even if he does like me, I don’t want to ruin our friendship.”

“Bullshit.” Carol says bluntly before walking up to you, “just ask him out. He won’t say no.” You roll your eyes and spin away from her, staring at your wall.

Rosita spins the chair around back so you can face them, “Carol’s right. Daryl has been pining you for like months, maybe even years now.”

“How am I even supposed to ask him out? Like should I ask him to hang out like usual and pop the question or should I ask him to dinner?” You nibble at the end of your finger anxiously, even considering asking him out is terrifying.

“Oh! You should ask him out to the cookout tonight, it’ll be perfect.” Maggie grabs your hands excitedly, flashing her bright smile at you.

“Oh god no I’m not going.” You sigh, pinching the bridge of your nose. Rosita grabs your hands, forcing you to look at her. You can tell she has an idea, one you won’t like.

“You are going. No questions asked, no objections. And you will ask him out.” You bite your bottom lip, “c’mon…. If you’re lucky you’ll get laid-” Maggie’s hand flies over Rosita’s mouth to stop her but the statement was already heard.

“I’m not going to fuck him on the first date!” You exclaim, your eyes wide in disbelief.

“It’s a date!” Maggie yells, Rosita says the same but muffled from Maggie’s hand over her mouth. You shake your head profusely, waving your hands around as you panic, not wanting to admit asking him out.

The door opens suddenly, all four of your heads snapping towards the door. A very confused Daryl pokes his head in, furrowing his brows at the scene. “Am I interrupting?”

Carol grabs Maggie and Rosita, dragging them towards the door. “Nope, in fact (Y/N) has something to ask you so we’ll leave you to it.” Carol grins “unsuspiciously” at him whilst dragging the other two out. Rosita mouths a “we’ll come back later” while exiting the room, Maggie giving a thumbs up. You groan, putting your head in your hands as you run your fingers through your hair.

You can hear heavy footsteps walk towards you, the squeak of a chair being pulled up next to your desk before that familiar gruff voice speaks. “What was it that you wanted to ask?”

You lift your head to look at Daryl, your heart jumping at the close proximity you two were in. For a moment you contemplate whether to bail on the question or just go for it. You clear your throat, sitting up and crossing your arms, “are you going to the cookout tonight?” Quickly looking away in embarrassment. Nothing even happened yet.

He grunts, shifting in his seat. “Was just gonna go fer a little bit, don’ really feel like stickin’ around.” You nod slowly, muttering a mutual statement.

“Wanna go together?” You look up once more, mentally cringing and hitting yourself. For a moment you could swear his eyes lit up, he nibbled the inside of his bottom lip. A habit of his which you silently found endearing.

“Yeah. Yeah sure.” He grumbles, looking to the side. His hair falling over his face, you had an urge to reach up and brush it away but you held back, not wanting to be too bold. You hum silently, awkwardly shifting away from him in your seat.

“Oh, why’d you come here? Did you need something?” You look over at him, realizing he came here on his own free will. He clears his throat, brushing his bangs out of his face with his hand as he looks at you. Reaching into his pocket and handing you a little fox figurine, he had a slight smile on his face as he handed it to you.

You giggled, inspecting it as you held it in your hands. Unbeknownst to you, he was staring at you. Looking at your features and studying them, if someone walked in it would look as if he were a painter and you were his subject. “I jus’ found it on a run earlier, thought ‘cha might like it.” He murmured sheepishly, playing with his fingers.

You looked towards him, smiling at him with those eyes that made his heart skip a beat every time you even glanced in his direction. “I do like it, thanks Daryl.” You placed the figurine on your desk, next to a picture frame of you and the group. Daryl suddenly stood up, looking down at you softly before turning towards the door.

“I’ll pick ya up later tonight then?” He smiled slightly and you nodded, waving to him as he left. Once the door shut you spun around in your chair, your face heating up as you just processed everything that just happened. But now you were left to dread about the upcoming cookout in a few hours.

“No, not happening.” You crossed your arms at the dress presented to you by Rosita and Maggie. It was a very flattering dress for sure, it was a deep red colour, the length ended just above mid thigh, and the neckline was pretty low. It was something you probably wouldn’t ever wear, even pre-apocalypse. “Sorry Rosita but your style just doesn’t fit me. If anything, I’d like to try one of Maggie's dresses.” You shrug and Maggie stifles a laugh.

“Hun this is my dress.” She smirks at you while you frown, “farmer’s daughter can be pretty outrageous too y’know.” Rosita laughs, tossing the dress at you.

“At least try it on, just humour us.” Rosita mockingly pleads with you. Rolling your eyes you walk towards the bathroom with the dress in hand, hearing a quiet cheer from the both of them as you shut the door.

You stare down at the garment in your hands, trying it on couldn’t hurt… Right? You sigh, taking off your shirt and shorts before slipping the dress on. You audibly gasp at your reflection in the mirror, a hand going over your mouth. The dress hugged your body perfectly, it wasn’t tight but it fit in all the right places. You looked hot.

“Everything alright?” Maggie knocked on the door. You rushed over to the door, opening it.

“Dude…” You mutter in disbelief as you show yourself off to them. Maggie clasped her hands together laughing.

“Girl. If I wasn’t helping you get with Daryl I’d be all over you right now.” Rosita smirks, looking you up and down as you smack her shoulder playfully.

“Well are you gonna wear it or not? I think you should, if you have Rosita thirsting over you then imagine how Daryl is going to react when he picks you up like this.” Maggie giggles, fixing the back of your dress.

You bite your lip in thought, “I don’t know….” Rosita almost slaps you with how fast she turns around to grab you.

“Why not!? You look so fucking hot right now and I swear to god Daryl will think the same.” You laugh slightly at Rosita’s shock, Maggie murmuring agreement with her.

You let out a breath, shaking your head as you turn to the mirror. Fixing your hair a bit and brushing over the dress, a small smiling tugging at your lips as you nod. “Okay fine I’ll wear it, but only because I want to. Not because I want to impress Daryl.” Maggie rolls her eyes playfully as Rosita jumps up clapping.

“Okay well don’t let us bother you, and have fun tonight.” Maggie giggles, taking Rosita to leave, “not too much fun.” She jokes while winking and leaving the room causing you to shoot a glare at her as the door closes behind them.

You go to grab some small heels which surprisingly matches the colour of the dress and quickly look yourself over. Fixing your hair properly this time. Now all that’s left is to wait for Daryl to come pick you up… You take a deep breath, muttering a small affirmation before exiting your room and going downstairs to wait for Daryl.

After what feels like an eternity of waiting, a familiar three beat knock shatters your thoughts. Immediately standing up and walking over to the door, taking yet another deep breath before opening the door.

There he was. Daryl was standing there dressed in his normal attire but neater. His eyes widened at the sight of you, discreetly looking you up and down. A small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips before averting his gaze after a moment, causing you to blush and look down at your feet.

“You look… great.” He breathes out, a small smile playing at your lips as you mumble a small thank you. You tucked a strand of hair behind your ear, not noticing the way his eyes sparkled as he looked down at you. He cleared his throat, moving to the side to let you exit your house, “well let’s get going then.”

You guys started walking towards the middle of Alexandria where the cookout was being held, you felt a bit nervous for tonight as you were worried about fucking everything up. You glanced up at Daryl who had a slight smile playing at his lips, you sighed softly as you looked back down. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

You two walked in silence, the air was tense. Neither of you said anything before you got to the cookout. You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding when you saw Carol cooking up some rabbit stew by one of the picnic tables. “I’ll be right back.” You muttered to Daryl, giving him a pat on the shoulder before darting towards Carol. Daryl stared after you for a moment, a slight frown on his face when you left him.

Carol shook when you approached her from behind and smacked a hand on her shoulder, placing down a large pot of soup as she looked at you with furrowed brows. “Don’t do that, I could’ve dropped that and I bet a lot of people here would be very mad at you for destroying everyone’s favourite rabbit stew in town….” You rolled your eyes, turning your head to find Daryl before nodding your head over to him. Carol narrowed her eyes confused as she looked at you, “you got a neck problem or something?”

You sighed, rolling your eyes as you muttered to her. “Daryl’s over there.” Her eyes lit up before immediately smacking you on the head, causing you to yelp and hit her back.

“What are you doing here with me? Go talk to him you idiot.” She grinned, taking a wooden spoon and stirring the pot of soup. Before you could argue she pushed you away, “go, I’m busy anyway.” She giggled as you glared at her, taking a deep breath and turning to walk in Daryl’s direction. He was over by the drink table, pouring himself a glass of whiskey and taking a sip. Your eyes traveled down to his throat in which his adam’s apple bobbed when swallowing the liquid, his bicep flexing when he moved his arm. You immediately shook your head to escape those thoughts and looked around to make sure no one was watching you practically drooling over him.

You took a deep breath before approaching him, a soft smile on your face as you looked up at him. He glanced down at you, his usual tough demeanour faltering and he flashed you a quick smile. “You wan’ a drink?” He offered, gesturing to the table. Your gaze moved towards the table, scanning over it before eyeing the bottle of red wine. He immediately followed, picking up a glass and pouring some for you. He shyly handed you the glass before taking your hand and dragging you along with him. The contact of his hand holding yours was enough to make your knees shake, looking at the back of his head as he led you through the crowd.

He finally let go of your hand once you guys got to a more secluded spot of the area, he took a seat by the tree nearby. You quickly followed suit, making sure to hold your dress down as you went to sit beside him, once you sat you took a sip of your wine to calm your nerves. He slowly shifted closer to you, taking his vest off and placing it over your lap which made you look up at him.

“Don’ wan’ anyone to look up yer skirt.” He mumbled, sitting back against the tree and taking a swig of his whiskey. You blushed, hiding your face by drinking some more of your wine. He noticed and chuckled a bit, tucking your hair behind your ear. He immediately retracted his hand, “sorry.”

You shook your head giggling as he watched you, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “It’s fine.”

“You really are pretty tonight.” He mumbled, clearing his throat as he looked you over again. You chuckle, placing your hand on his knee.

“Thanks, you look good too y’know. Clean.” He snorts at your statement, hiding a grin behind his glass. You try to grab his head and turn him to you, the both of you giggling as you quickly discard your glass of wine, the substance seeping into the ground beneath you.

“Stop hiding… You’re so cute when you smile.” You blurt out, causing Daryl to pause for a moment before scoffing and shaking his head. You were glad you drank, the alcohol probably aiding you with even looking at him. “You are.” You insisted, brushing his bangs out of his face.

He pulls back which makes your brows furrow together, worried that you may have made him uncomfortable. “Don’ say things like tha’.” He murmurs, only fueling your confusion.

You tilted your head to try and read his expression, but like always you couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking. He was hiding behind his hair again, you tried to reach up to brush it away. To look into those piercing blue eyes you grew to love but he backed away. “Stop, ya shouldn’. We shouldn’t.” He said gruffly. You frowned, moving closer to him.

“What do you mean?” You asked quietly, a twinge of hope in your tone as you placed a hand on his knee. He shifted away and cleared his throat, running his fingers through his hair.

“We shouldn’ do things or say stuff we don’ mean.” Your heart broke at his sentence. Maybe you were right, he didn’t like you like that. You moved away slightly, a gap in between the both of you as you sat in silence. You played with your fingers, a lump in your throat as you realized you probably made him uncomfortable. You beat yourself up mentally for being too bold with him, thinking about how you should’ve just stayed home tonight.

He glanced at you, nibbling the inside of his bottom lip before grunting, moving closer to you before speaking softly. “What I mean is, I don’t wanna do somethin’ you don’ want an’ scare ya off.” You looked at him, tilting your head as you bite the edge of your thumb.

You took a deep breath as you processed his words, still looking up at him as you narrowed your eyes questioningly. “I like ya, (Y/N).” He mumbled, scratching the back of his head as he again, shifted away from you. You said nothing for awhile which only piqued Daryl’s anxiety, making him wonder if you even heard him.

“I like you too.” You physically cringed hearing the words come out of your mouth, feeling like you were in middle school again. He chuckled, leaning back against the tree and staring up at the purple sky. You looked at him for a moment, the soft summer breeze was blowing his hair gently and causing it to occasionally fly into his eyes, giggling when he grunted about it. You also leaned against the tree, your head turned towards him the entire time as you stared at him with eyes he never thought would be directed towards him. He turned his head to look back at you, a soft smile playing at his lips before he opening his mouth to speak.

“Wanna get outta here?” Once you nodded he smiled, standing up and offering his hand which you gratefully accepted. He took his vest back and wrapped it around your shoulders to keep you warm which didn’t really help due to there being no sleeves, but the feeling of his affection did. You interlocked your fingers together with his as he led you through the crowd for the last time tonight, his heart skipped a beat when you initiated the hand holding and he felt a warm feeling in his chest. One he never knew he’d get to experience.

He eventually brought you over to his house in which he shared with Carol, letting you enter first as he came in behind you. His large hand lingering over the small of your back while you took off his vest, mumbling gratitude as you handed it back to him. He chuckled, placing the vest on the couch as he took a seat, gesturing for you to join him.

“Carol won’t be home ‘til late tonigh’, reckon it’s gotta do with the cookout.” He grumbled, watching you sit down. He took time to watch you, noticing the way more of your thighs were exposed when your dress rode up. He quickly averted his gaze, biting his bottom lip as he rubbed the scruff on his chin. You just nodded, silently leaning over to rest your head on his shoulder.

He laughed silently, “yer awfully quiet tonight. Why’d the sudden confession change the way you act aroun’ me?” You slapped his chest gently, hearing a quiet “there it is” from him as you lifted your head up.

“It’s just… different. I guess it’s just me seeing you in a different way, officially.” He snorted, glancing over at you. His eyes caught a glimpse of the low cut neckline of your dress, your cleavage practically flaunting in his face. His head shot up towards the ceiling, a gruff chuckle escaping him.

“What kinda way you see me before?” He grunts as he mocks your words slightly, you shake your head and placed your head against his shoulder once more.

“Never wanted to admit my feelings for you, not even to myself. I always just thought you saw me as a friend and nothing more.” You mumbled, absentmindedly tracing shapes into the back of his hand with your finger. He smiled at the gesture before looking up in thought.

“It was the same fer me.” He rubbed over his face with his left hand, “if you didn’ ask me out today I probably never would’ve.” You hummed softly in acknowledgement, silently happy you were literally peer pressured into asking him out.

His hand grasped yours, rubbing circles into your hand with his thumb, sighing softly. “I’d probably still be sneaking glances at you. Who am I kiddin’ I’ll probably still do that.” He chuckled softly as you grinned stupidly. His heart swelled at your smile. Wanting to see more of it he lifted your hand to his lips, kissing it gently while you giggled at his stubble scratching against it. “I love the way you sound.” He added softly, looking at you with eyes you never knew was possible for him to make. This Daryl was way different from the one you met all those years back at the quarry, you weren’t complaining. You just hoped you’d be the only person he looked at this way.

You both sat in silence as you stared at each other, gradually leaning closer. You closed your eyes as his lips pressed against yours. The way his lips felt against yours was perfect, better than any pair of lips that fell upon your own. The kiss went on for awhile, it was soft, innocent. His hand moved to your cheek, tilting your head as he tried to deepen the kiss, his tongue prodding at your lips for entrance. You gratefully granted it and his tongue slipped into your mouth, the faint taste of whiskey and tobacco lingering on his tongue. You hummed into the kiss and felt his breath hitch from the vibration, reluctantly you both pulled back for air, your foreheads pressed together.

“Daryl… can we go to your room?” You broke the silence, feeling his hot breath against your face. He stroked your hair and pulled back with his brows furrowed.

“Ya sure…? I don’ wanna do anything you don’ want to do.” He was serious, looking into your eyes. Once you nodded he hesitantly grabbed your hand and gently guided you towards the basement where he claimed his bedroom. His hand no longer lingered on the small of your back, now fully pressing against it as he held your hand with his free one, guiding you down the stairs and into his bedroom.

He closed the door behind him, turning back to you as you wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him down to your lips. He let out a shocked noise which you found cute, his arms wrapped around your waist as he kissed you back. The kiss quickly deepened, your tongues moving together in a sensual dance as he backed you up towards his bed, gently placing you down.

He pulled back, sitting next to you. You immediately sat up to try and kiss him again but he stopped you, “(Y/N), you drank earlier. ‘m not gonna do anythin’ if yer drunk, ya know that.”

You shook your head, moving closer. “I had two sips, barely enough to get me drunk. And I know I want this, especially with you. Only you Daryl.” You whispered, noticing the way his breathing became shallow as you moved closer.

“Ya sure? (Y/N), I need you to be absolutely sure. I—I don’ wanna hurt ya.” He nibbled his bottom lip anxiously. You placed a hand on his chest, your eyes clouded with desire, feeling the way his heart beat faster. He watched as you lowered your head towards his neck, kissing and licking the skin there, closing your eyes as he groaned quietly.

“I’m sure.” You whispered against his skin and caused him to shiver before he took you by the shoulders, pushing you onto the bed. No further words were needed as he started kissing your neck, his teeth grazing over your skin. You shook underneath him as small pleas escaped your lips.

He growled quietly, nibbling you and leaving small bites on your neck, searching for one spot. You let out a louder than intended moan, there it is. There was one thing about Daryl, he was good at finding things. He continued to kiss and suck on the soft spot of your neck, quiet noises left your mouth almost pathetically as you fell apart underneath him. He pulled back to look at you, his breath hitching as he saw the state you were in. Your face was flushed, eyes closed, and your lips were parted. Red and swollen from your previous making out. You whined softly, raising your hands to try and feel him again. He swallowed hard. He barely even touched you and yet you were so… so needy.

“Jesus (Y/N)…” He muttered under his breath, lightly tracing over your knees before pushing them apart. Rubbing his chin as he stared down at you, grabbing you by your shoulders, “sit up girl.” He helped you sit up, kissing your lips softly before looking into your eyes once more. His hand moved to your back, playing with the zipper of your dress. He looked up at you for permission, you gave a nod and he smiled softly, kissing your temple before slowly unzipping your dress. He slowly slipped your dress down, kissing your shoulder gently as his left hand rubbed your knee comfortingly.

Soon he pulled your dress off, leaving you in your undergarments. His eyes traced over your body, thinking he’d never live to see this moment. You shivered as the cold air hit your body and he immediately encircled you, his arms moved around your body as he went to press his lips against yours once more.

Your eyes fluttered shut and giggled into the kiss when his stubble tickled you, his hand running through your hair gently. The feeling of his nails scratching your scalp made you shiver excitedly. Gently, his hands moved down your body but they moved with hesitation. It was like he was treating you as if you were fragile and would crumble if he moved too quickly.

“Don’t hold back Daryl…” You whispered, stroking his cheek with your thumb. He nodded, looking back down as his hands moved with more force. He lightly traced over the straps of your bra, playing with the little bits of lace as he moved down to kiss your collarbone. His tongue darting out to lick over to the bra strap, kissing your shoulder before slipping the strap off your shoulder. All while glancing up at you to make sure there were no signs of discomfort, you looked back down at him and smiled softly causing his heart to skip a beat. He pressed another loving kiss to your lips before slipping the other strap off your shoulder, his hands moving behind you to unclasp your bra with ease. He tossed your bra onto the floor, backing up to look at you. After he said nothing you felt a rush of embarrassment, shyly covering your breasts from him.

“No, no, no…” He whispered, taking your hands and moving them to your side, “don’ hide ‘em. Yer beautiful.” He quickly kissed your cheek, then your chin, your neck, and then finally the valley of your breasts. You let out a soft whimper as his lips moved over to your left breast, kissing the flesh gently before parting his lips and placing it over your nipple. A shocked but pleased moan exited your mouth while his left hand moved to massage your other breast, his tongue swirling around. Your eyes fluttered shut when his mouth moved to give your other breast attention, your lips parted and let out soft gasps of pleasure. Your hand moved to the back of his head, running your fingers through his hair and gripping it gently, causing him to grunt against you.

He moved back giving your chest one last kiss before unbuttoning his shirt, you reached up to help him. Hands shaking with anticipation as each button was undone, pushing the shirt off his shoulders and onto the floor. He kissed you intensely, pushing you down onto the bed and pressing a knee in between your legs. Your hands moved to touch his chest, tracing over the scarred skin. He flinched back, suddenly self conscious about the scars all over his back and chest. You knew about his trauma, you were one of the only people he opened up to, but this was your first time seeing it. Noticing his anxiety, you leaned up on your elbows, tracing the scars gently. Pressing your lips against them, feeling his tense body relax under your touch, he let out a deep sigh as you showed affection towards him like this. Closing his eyes as his love for you only grew deeper, never in his life would he have thought someone would creep this deep into his heart.

He pushed you back, his lips finding yours as his hand lingered down over the waistband of your panties. You groaned into his mouth as his fingers slipped under and over to your wet pussy, his breath faltered at how wet you were. How eager you were for him.

“Daryl.” You breathed out when he parted from your mouth, his fingers gently rubbing your clit.

“Mm?” He hummed next to your ear, his middle finger dipping through your slick as he continued to rub your sensitive nub. A choked moan escaped you as he did this, his other hand running his fingers through your hair as he shushed you. “Easy…” You bit your lip as the hand in your hair left to pull your panties down, tossing it onto the floor to join the other clothes.

His fingers left you momentarily as he moved down the bed slowly to look at your glistening pussy. He placed a hand on your thigh, spreading your open further while you looked down at him. Your brows were furrowed in pleasure, lips parted as your breathing came out shallow and ragged. He pushed his index finger past your folds, groaning at how wet you were as he teased your entrance. Your whining was enough to make him twitch in his pants, suddenly realizing how tight his pants felt. He let his index push into your entrance, feeling your tight walls convulse around the digit and hearing a moan escape you. He smirked from his place as he looked up at you, “alrigh’ up there?” Your eyes were shut tight while your brows were pressed together, you let out a shaky breath and nodded. He took your confirmation as a sign to start pumping his finger in and out of you, your legs shaking.

You were kind of embarrassed by how this man had you shaking just by one finger, but it’s been awhile since you’ve last done this with anyone. Plus it was Daryl fucking Dixon… You let out yet another pathetic moan, your hand coming up to cover your noises out of embarrassment. He stopped moving his finger and you whine, looking down at him. He had a frown on his face.

“Don’ cover yer mouth, lemme hear those pretty noises from you darlin’.” He drawled lowly, you whimpered as you slowly lowered your hand and he continued moving his finger. He eventually slipped a second into you, stretching you out. You threw your head back against the bed as you cried out in pleasure. After a moment he removed his fingers, only to replace it with something warm. You gasped out once you realized it was his tongue pressing against your clit.

“D—Daryl…” You stuttered, your fingers finding themselves in his hair. He lapped at your pussy, eating you out as if you were the most delicious meal he’d ever eaten in his entire life. Loud moans echoed through his room as you tugged on his hair, lifting your hips to grind against his face. He grunted against you, holding your hips with his large hands as he held you down, slurping up your arousal.

Moans kept spilling out of you as he kept sucking at your clit, feeling a familiar feeling building up in your stomach. You whimpered, pushing his head further down against you. “Fuck Daryl… I’m gonna…” You groaned when he slipped a finger into you again, his tongue still lapping at your clit, “I’m gonna cum.”

He hummed in acknowledgement, the vibrations almost sending you over the edge as another finger pumped into you. The amount of attention he was giving your pussy was overwhelming as his fingers curled inside of you, fingertips just barely brushing over your sweet spot. You mewled, pulling his hair hard as he curled his fingers again, sucking on your clit in the process. He could tell you were close and he pumped and curled his fingers faster, finally hitting that sweet spot inside of you. A loud moan spilling out of your mouth as your head pushed back further into the bed.

“Tha’s it… come fer me..” He mumbled against your clit, sending you over the edge and reaching that climax. Your fluids rushing onto his fingers, which he pulled out. His tongue darting towards your juices and licking it all up. You let out a small whimper as lewd noises of him slurping all your juices up rang through your ears. He licked you clean, lifting his head up and wiping his chin with his forearm, covered in your release. The corner of his lips curled into a smirk as he watched you breathe heavily, your chest rising and falling rapidly as you come down from your high. He licked his fingers clean, rolling his eyes back with a low groan. “So sweet…” He whispered, eliciting a whine from you.

He quickly started unbuckling his belt, needing to free his almost painful erection. You whimpered again, his hands twitching at the noise. “Daryl…” You whispered so desperately you normally would’ve been embarrassed, but the ache between your thighs and the desire for him was too strong for you to even care.

“Shh.. I got ya..” He whispered, moving closer to you as one hand gently caressed your cheek, the other continuing to unbutton his pants. He placed a sweet kiss to your temple while the hand on your cheek moved to push your hair out of your face. “So beautiful.”

He planted another kiss to your head before moving back to shove his pants down, you eyed the bulge in his boxers. You moved to sit up and grabbed his hips, pulling him closer. He chuckled lowly, caressing your head as he looked down at you. His lustful eyes peered down at you as you looked up at him with your own desperate ones. Before you could pull him out of his underwear he stopped you, pulling back.

“Hold on.” He whispered softly, moving to his bedside table and rummaging through it. Your gaze followed him, crawling over on the bed towards him, “shit.” He muttered, a frown on his face. You furrowed your brows in confusion, sitting on your knees as he went to cup your face. He kissed your lips sweetly, apologetically. “Sorry (Y/N)… I think we have to do this another time, I don’ got any condoms.”

You took his hands from your face, kissing his knuckles. Feeling his calloused fingertips run against your palms. “It’s okay… I don’t mind.” You said gently and looked down at his fingers laced with yours. His eyes widened and he frowned once again, rubbing the back of your hands with his thumbs.

“Ya sure? I don’… I don’ think tha’s a good idea (Y/N),” he murmured softly. You sighed, lowering your hand to palm him through his briefs, earning a grunt from him as his hand gripped your wrist. You looked into his eyes, begging him to just continue without it. His grip on your wrist loosened and you continued to move your hand against him, a low groan escaping him. “(Y/N).”

“Please Daryl… I don’t care. Just pull out.” You pleaded with him, you just needed him inside of you. Feeling more aroused the more he kept you waiting. His bangs were over his eyes again, ”I’ll have to trim those soon.” You thought to yourself, he kept silent as if contemplating the idea. He nodded slowly, taking your chin and lifting your face to his before smashing his lips onto yours in a heated kiss.

His tongue met yours messily as he pushed you down onto the bed, his hands finding your breasts again. Kissing him was addicting, it felt right. You let out a small moan into his mouth, his grip on your breast tightening as he caught your bottom lip between his teeth. A low growl escaped him as he pulled back, slipping off his boxers. Your eyes travelled down to see his cock, your breath catching from how hard it was. Not to mention how huge he was. He groaned, taking hold of himself and stroking himself slowly to relieve some of that tension, precum starting to dribble out of his tip. You pulled him down by his neck, connecting your lips once more while you replaced his hand with your own. Jerking him off slowly as he groaned deeply into your mouth.

“Hol’ on baby.” He whispered sweetly, taking your hand away from him. He moved back, keeping his hands on your knees as you looked up at him. Your expression one of pure lust and desire, the dim light of his lamp highlighting your curves, your body scarred from past battles and years of being in the apocalypse. Your hair was perfectly splayed around the pillow framing your head and your lips were parted, swollen. The hands on your knees slowly pushed them apart, spreading you open for him. He groaned at the sight unravelling in front of him, his cock twitching as his gaze wandered down to your dripping cunt. “Fuck, (Y/N).”

His finger dipped down to touch your pussy as he jerked himself off slowly, a mewl spilling out of your mouth at the sensation. His touch was so light and delicate it almost hurt. “Daryl please.” You pleaded, not wanting to continue this any longer. You needed him inside of you. He got the memo, nodding while grabbing your hips with one hand as the other grabbed his dick and positioned it at your entrance.

“Fuck yer so wet.” He drawled, his tip running through your folds as you whined impatiently. He chuckled quietly, lowering his head to kiss your jaw, sucking gently. “So impatient.” He growled, kissing down your neck and over to your breasts. His tip pushing into you slowly.

You let out a cry as he slowly pushed into you, his thick dick stretching you, your walls convulsing around him as you struggled to adjust. He cursed into your neck, kissing the sweet spot on your neck while a hand moved into your hair to try and distract you from the pain. You whimpered, closing your eyes as you tried to focus on anything but the pain as he continued to push in slowly. He caressed your hair and kissed up your neck and over to your jaw, shushing you. Murmuring sweet nothings into your ear as he bottomed out, halting once he fully entered. You weren’t necessarily a virgin but the last time you’ve ever had sex was before the apocalypse, and he wasn’t as big as Daryl.

“Move.” You whimpered breathlessly, he looked up at you for confirmation and when you nodded he slowly pulled out. Only to push back in, eliciting a whine from you. He hesitantly continued and soon the pain turned into pleasure, a deep moan erupting from you as he kept his face buried in your neck. His hot breath turning you on further as he started to bite at your neck, his cock sliding in and out of you with ease.

He let out a low groan into your ear, sending shivers down your spine as he moved down to your breasts once more. His tongue darting out and licking your nipple while his hand moved to pinch the other. Everything quickly became overwhelming as your back arched off the bed and into him, a loud moan escaping you once more. You didn’t care about being too loud, you were too in bliss to even think about someone hearing you. Your hands moved into his hair, tugging it and causing him to grunt in your ear. His pace quickened and the squelch of his dick pumping into your wet cunt echoed through the room.

His lips returned back to yours, your tongues meeting in an intimate dance as his hips snapped relentlessly into you. You could do nothing but moan into his mouth and tug his hair, his own hands gripping at your hips, probably going to leave bruises in the morning from how tight he was holding onto you. The kiss was sloppy and messy, your teeth clashing together while moans and whines poured out of your mouth and into his. He swallowed up your noises, pressing his mouth right up against yours to muffle your sounds. All while pounding into you at a rough pace.

One of your hands trailed down his neck and onto his back, digging your nails into his skin and releasing your mouth from his. He buried his face into your neck, groaning more as you scratched his back and pulled his hair. His hips stuttering slightly. You held him close, wrapping your legs around his waist while he tried to speed up again. The headboard was hitting the wall now and the bed was creaking with every thrust he gave. Your moans blended perfectly together with his heavy groans, the sound of his balls hitting your ass echoing through his room.

You started to shake, that same feeling building up in your stomach as your walls throbbed around him, eliciting a choked moan from him as he slipped an arm under you. Soft gasps came out of your mouth, your throat hoarse from all your screaming and moaning, but they kept on coming. He held you close to him, acknowledging the fact you’re close.

“Almost there baby, hold on fer me.” He grunted into your ear, his thrusts becoming more sloppy and irregular as he also chased towards his climax. You quietly whined into his ear, your pussy clenching around his dick. His eyes rolled back into his head as your walls trapped him inside of you, thrusting deeper into you and hitting that sweet spot.

You threw your head back, arching off the bed as you let out a loud moan of his name. Releasing all over his cock and onto his bedsheets.

“So tight…” He moaned softly, pulling out and cumming on your stomach. He collapsed on top of you, not fully pressing his body weight on you. The two of you breathing heavily as you try to catch your breaths. After a moment he lifted off of you, kissing your jaw. You kept your eyes closed, lips parted in a soft breathing while he whispered into your ear. “Be righ’ back.”

You can hear him walk into the bathroom, a bit of shuffling around before he comes back into the room. You were right where he left you, eyes closed and covered in cum. You could hear him chuckle quietly before a cold feeling hits your skin, your eyes snap open in shock and he shushes you. You look down and notice he’s wiping you clean with a wet towel. Relaxing, you lay your head back down on the pillow, enjoying the cold feeling on your hot skin as he wipes you completely clean. He leaves for a second time to throw the towel into a laundry bin, walking back up to you and smiling softly as he watches you wrap yourself up in his blanket.

“Got some room fer me?” He drawled, chuckling softly. You open your eyes a bit, lifting your arm to welcome him. He quickly got into bed with you, shutting off his lamp as he pulled the covers over the both of you, kissing your forehead. “Okay?” He asked quietly, stroking your hair out of your face.

“Better than okay.” Your voice cracked, hoarse from all the moaning. He just breathed out softly in response, holding you into his chest.

“Y’know I wanted our first time to be special…. but ‘m not entirely upset with how this went.” He snorted, squeezing you gently. You laughed gently, lifting your head to peck his lips.

“It was special.” You argued lightly, kissing his cheek before relaxing in his arms. He looked down at you, there wasn’t much light in the room but he could still make out your features. He smiled to himself, glad that tonight happened the way it did. Nothing else was said as you both slowly succumbed to sleep.

You woke up when you felt no one beside you, panicked you sat up and looked around for Daryl. Your shoulders relaxing when you heard the sink in the bathroom, quickly getting up and slipping on your underwear along with your bra. You didn’t have any place to be so you decided to just stay here for the morning, grinning as you found one of his shirts. Bringing it up to your nose and smelling it, tobacco and his natural musk filling your senses. You put it on, blushing at the fact that you could now wear his clothes.

“Oh my god.” You turned around at the sound of Daryl’s voice, he stood there at the doorframe of the bathroom. Looking you up and down before walking up to you and wrapping his arms around your waist, “you look so gorgeous (Y/N)…” He kissed the top of your head, rocking you side to side slowly as you giggled.

“You going out?” You beamed up at him, knowing he usually wakes up early to hunt. He nodded, kissing your head again before ruffling your hair and letting you go.

“Yeah, ya should probably go get somethin’ to eat. Wouldn’ want yer pretty self to be hungry.” You giggled, nodding before turning to go upstairs. He smirked as he watched you leave, his eyes trailing over the marks on your neck. He shook his head grinning to himself as he got his gear ready.

You walked into the kitchen, looking through the fridge and grabbing some leftover food from the cookout. Jumping when you closed the door and saw Carol, “jesus fucking christ.”

“So you did fuck him on the first date.” Carol smirked at you, following you over to the table. You rolled your eyes, hiding a grin. “So are you together now? Finally? After months and months of painful interactions that I had to witness and hear about with my own two ears and eyes???”

You scoffed, opening your mouth to answer before Daryl stepped into the room.

“Mornin’.” He gruffed, waving to Carol and kissing your head before heading towards the front door. “See ya later, (Y/N)…” He looked you over once again before leaving, crossbow in hand.

You turn your head back to Carol, a light blush on your face along with a grin. “Got my answer.” She grinned.

You giggled softly, picking at your food. “It’s…. a work in progress…”

likes, reblogs, + comments vv appreciated !

[worth-the-chaos]

Adventures in Babysitting - Steve Harrington x female!reader - Chapter 8

Chapter Summary: Well, the five of you do get in that secret room, but the problem is you can’t quite find a way out. Tensions rise as you realize the gravity of the situation, the forced proximity revealing hard feelings between you and Steve.

Content Warning: swearing (per usual), angst, mentions of the upside down, scary Russians and violence

Word Count: 7.2k

Author’s Note: I really enjoyed writing this chapter, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Sorry it took me longer than normal to get it written! Message me if you want to be added to the taglist to get notified when the next chapter is posted! :)

Series Masterlist | Chapter 7 | Next Part

***

The four of you crouched on the roof while you waited, the door to the secret room in sight. At this time of night, the room was no longer guarded with the mall being long closed by now. Steve was crouched right beside you, and you could feel his warm breath against your neck.

“Erica, do you copy?” Robin asked over the walkie talkie.

“Mmm hmmm, I copy. You nerds in position or what?” She shot back over the radio and you rolled your eyes.

“Yeah, we’re in position. It’s all quiet here so you’ve got the green light.”

“Green light, roger that. Commence Operation Child Endangerment,” Erica’s voice rang out through the receiver. You quickly snatched the walkie talkie from Robin, pressing down the button to speak.

“Can we maybe…not call it that?” You asked. You had a reputation to uphold and you’d be damned if you were going to let the sassy Sinclair girl change that.

“See you on the other side, nerds,” Erica’s voice was thick with attitude. Robin took the walkie talkie back from you while you and Steve shared a look. Erica wasn’t necessarily wrong in viewing what she was doing through that lens. If you were being totally honest, it probably was damn near child endangerment. Steve could tell you were worried, placing a hand on your shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze for reassurance.

It had been a while since you heard her over the radio and your mind started to dart to all of the worst case scenarios. What if there were still evil Russians there? What if they had found her? What if she had gotten stuck and had no way of getting out?

“That’s it. I’m going back inside,” you started to stand, but Dustin reached around Steve and yanked you back down.

“Y/n, you’re going to blow our cover. Just give her a second; I’m sure she’s fine,” Dustin attempted to convince you, but it wasn’t doing much to quell your concerns.

“Alright nerds. I’m there,” the walkie talkie finally came to life again, and you finally let out the breath you’d been holding, as one of your anxious hands went to worry at the collar of your shirt, tugging on the fabric as you tried to calm down.

“Do you…do you see anything?” Robin asked.

“Yeah I see those boring boxes you’re so excited about.”

“Any guards? Booby traps?” You asked, snatching the walkie talkie from Robin once more, trying to get a feel for how safe this room was.

“For starters, no; there aren’t any guards. Secondly, if I could see them, they’d be pretty shit traps, wouldn’t they?”

“Thank you for that,” you muttered through the transmitter, rolling your eyes. You were about to press the button down on the walkie talkie to speak, to give her further guidance on what she should do now, but before you could, her voice crackled through the radio once more.

“I’m in,” She announced and your heart stopped in your chest. That wasn’t the plan; she wasn’t supposed to do anything else other than scope it out so you could make more plans together. The little shit was going rogue.

“Oh god,” Steve breathed out, running his hands down his face, clearly not pleased with Erica’s complete disregard for authority.

He didn’t have to be worried for too long though, as the doors began swinging open seconds after she had said it as she strolled out, unbothered as she put a hand on her hip.

“Free ice cream for life,” She emphasized, and you had to give her credit. The girl really deserved it. The four of you looked between each other, shock and excitement registering on your faces as you quickly got up to go join the girl at the door she had just opened. You weren’t quite as giddy as Dustin and Robin, and as you all descended the stairwell from the roof, you pulled Steve aside on one of the landings.

“Steve, I don’t think we should go in there,” you said quietly, the intensity in your voice making your unease blatantly apparent.

“What do you mean? Y/n, we’ve spent hours translating that damn code, we can’t just bail right before we figure everything out. Chances are it’s probably nothing anyway,” Steve assured you, putting a gentle hand on your back as he attempted to redirect you, guiding you towards the next set of stairs. You didn’t budge as you planted your feet, your hand darting out to grasp the railing.

“Steve, I’m serious. I have a really bad feeling about this,” you pushed the issue. Too many times you had pushed aside your intuition, leading to life threatening scenarios, and you were tired of it. “I just don’t think it’s the right move to have those kids in there, it’s not safe. Please, Steve,” you begged, trying to get him on your side.

The look you shot him was enough to break his heart, and he wanted nothing more than to just agree with you, to take you home with him and kiss you like all was right with the world, but he knew that he couldn’t. “Y/n, the way I see it, we can leave. If that’s what you really want, we can walk out to the parking lot and just go home…but you know as well as I do that if we leave, the kids aren’t going to come with us. So we can either leave them behind or be there to make sure they’re okay.”

He was right and you hated it. You sighed, pushing past him and continuing down the stairs as you met up with Robin and Dustin. You all swiftly exited the mall, finally coming face to face with Erica, a self-satisfied smirk painted on her face.

“That shit—,” she said, pointing over her shoulder at the open room, “—was easy, so next time you nerds can figure it out yourselves.” She turned around entering the hidden storage room. You rolled your eyes but joined the rest of your friends as they filed in after her. Steve pulled the doors shut behind you so that if anyone happened to walk by, they’d be none the wiser to the fact that five misfit kids were solving imaginary mysteries in there.

Dustin handed Steve a pocketknife, which he gladly accepted, cutting open the tape on one of the Imperial Panda shipments, tearing the box open to reveal a metal case. You all looked at each other hesitantly, not quite sure what you were supposed to do with it. Steve shrugged, reaching to grab the metal handle, twisting it to cause air to hiss out the sides as the lid unlatched.

You all stared confused at the four metal canisters nestled neatly in the case, unsure of what to say. In a way, some of this had all felt like just a game you were playing, a puzzle to pass the time. Seeing the cold hard evidence that there was something shady going on completely shattered what remained of that facade, as your heart stopped in your chest. Steve finally broke the silence, speaking up to say “that is definitely not Chinese food.”

He went to remove one of the canisters, but stopped before pulling up on the handle. “Uh, maybe you guys should, you know, stand back.” He was saying it mostly for your benefit, hoping that demonstrating an abundance of caution would ease your nerves. He knew that what they were doing was risky, and as you all uncovered more and more shit that didn’t add up, he couldn’t help but feel like the risk was increasing dramatically.

Robin, you, and Erica stepped back cautiously, giving Steve a wide breadth of space. Dustin, on the other hand, planted his feet responding with a simple but resounding “no.”

“Dude, just step back,” Steve reiterated.

“No, I’m not backing up.”

“Dude, I’m serious, just back up.”

“No! If you die, I die,” Dustin shouted, his tone far more serious than it needed to be. Sure, you thought what you were doing was dangerous, but you were pretty confident that this little metal canister wasn’t going to kill you.

Steve stared at him for a second before shrugging with complete nonchalance. “…okay,” he responded as he turned back to the task at hand. You rolled your eyes, unimpressed with the way Steve immediately gave into Dustin’s dramatics, before pulling Dustin back by the collar, stepping in front of him, right back into the “danger zone.”

You ignored Dustin’s protests, as Steve turned the metal handle, slowly pulling it out, revealing a glass tube filled with some sort of green liquid. You looked at Steve who was staring at it with a furrowed brow, all of you just as confused as to what the substance could be.

“What the fuck is that?” You breathed out, your heart sinking in your chest as your suspicions were confirmed. This wasn’t just some elaborate conspiracy theory that your bored minds had construed; it was real, and you desperately wished you could go back to a week ago when you were just unhappily scooping ice cream, unaware of all of this shit.

“What the hell?” Steve whispered, holding the canister up at eye level to further inspect its contents. Before he could get a super close look at it, the room slightly shook and you jumped, grabbing onto Steve’s arm as your heart raced in your chest.

“…was that just me or did the room move?” Dustin asked hesitantly, eyes darting around to meet all of your concerned faces.

“Booby traps,” Erica whispered. Her voice was usually so sassy and strong and full of life, but this time it seemed weak and scared and your shoulders tensed as you braced for the worst. A mechanical whirring sound rang out through the room as it continued to shift.

“You know what? Let’s just grab that and go,” Robin spoke up, jumping into action as she ripped the canister from Steve’s grasp, moving to unzip Erica’s backpack and shove it in there. Dustin rushed over to the control panel on the wall, pressing the button labeled to open the door but nothing was happening.

“Which one do I press, Erica?”

“Just push the damn button, nerd!”

The fear permeating through the small room was palpable, and you were no longer able to take a deep breath. You kept trying to force air into your lungs as you began to hyperventilate. You felt like you were choking as your eyes began to water.

Dustin and Erica continued to yell at each other, and Steve was quick to grab your shoulders. You were blinking rapidly, your eyes darting all around the room as a tear slipped down your cheek.

“Y/n, look at me,” Steve spoke up, moving his hands to either side of your face to force you to focus on him, “you need to breathe.”

“I-I-I just…I can’t!” You choked out, more tears streaming down your face as a sob escaped your lips.

Steve, turned towards Dustin, shouting at him to hurry, desperate to get the doors open to calm you down. You were getting more and more upset by the second, and he couldn’t bear to see you like that anymore. “Just press the other button!” Steve yelled, pulling away from you momentarily to start pressing buttons on the control panel. He needed to get you out of there…ASAP.

Suddenly, a metal door dropped in front of the double doors you had entered, sealing you in further. You all stared in disbelief, as the reality of the situation slowly started to sink in.

You were trapped.

The room jolted again, shaking violently. Screams and shrieks broke out among all of you, as you fell to the floor, unprepared for the sudden movement. Steve rushed to your aid, quickly pulling you up to stand, hugging your shaking form to his body. You buried your face in his neck as he gripped you tight to him, one of his large hands on the back of your head to protect it as the room continued to shake.

Suddenly and without warning, you felt a dropping sensation, and you felt unease settle deep within your stomach as you realized the room was plummeting. You all screamed, as you cried out into Steve’s uniform shirt. Dustin continued to press all of the buttons on the control panel, yelling in frustration at the fact that none of them did shit.

“Just press the button!” Erica screamed, moving over to the control panel.

“What do you think I’m doing?!” Dustin screamed back.

“Come on! Just press something! Just press the button!” Steve shouted, and you could hear the fear in his voice, which deepened the sinking feeling in your chest. Steve usually managed to stay relatively calm, all things considered, so knowing that he too was terrified, scared the everliving shit out of you.

Finally the room screeched to a halt, causing everything in it to violently shift. Steve fell backwards to the floor and you toppled over across his chest. His hand instinctively wrapped around your waist, as one of the boxes fell on top of you both, pinning you to him as you groaned under the weight of it.

“Help! I can’t move” You choked out, as Dustin and Erica swiftly moved to pull the heavy box from your back. Surely that is going to bruise, you thought, as Steve slowly groaned and sat up, still holding you to his body, as you sat nestled in his lap.

He looked you over frantically, making sure you were okay, noticing the way your lip was split open. You must have hit something when you fell earlier, and he reached his thumb up, dragging it across your bottom lip to wipe away some of the blood that had began to drip. You stared wide eyed at him, your chest heaving as you tried to regain control of your breathing.

He helped you to stand, as Robin finally spoke up. “Is everyone okay?” She asked, clutching the back of her head, which she must have bumped in the fall.

“Yeah, I’m great now that I know Russians can’t design fucking elevators!” Steve shouted, sounding angrier than you had ever heard him as all of his chill disappeared, his calm facade he had kept up to keep your anxiety at bay shattering under the circumstances. He swiftly pulled away from you, shoving Dustin out of the way as he began pushing at all of the buttons on the control pad hoping that one of them would do something, anything, to get you out of that goddamn room.

“I think…I think we’ve clearly established that those buttons don’t work,” you stammered out, your voice weak as you tried and failed to regain your composure.

“They’re buttons! They have to do something!” Steve shouted back at you.

“If we had a keycard,” Robin spoke up, when Steve looked at her confused she continued, “it’s an electronic lock, same as the loading dock door. If we don’t have a keycard, it won’t operate, meaning—“

“We’re stuck in here,” you breathed out, finishing her thought. Your heart sank as the reality of the situation sank in, your eyes locking with Steve’s, his worried expression matching yours.

You were going to die down here.

***

You had discussed your options, realizing that there truly was not much you could do at this point. Dustin had considered the fact that you could climb up the elevator shaft, but upon realizing you had plummeted way too far for that to be feasible, that idea quickly fizzled out.

“Code red, I repeat this is a code red. Does anyone copy? We are innocent children and we are trapped under the Starcourt Mall. The Red Army has infiltrated Hawkins and if we are found they will torture and kill us—“ Steve cut off Dustin’s transmission, climbing out into the elevator shaft to join him.

“Hey, gotta take it easy on that thing; gonna drain the battery,” Steve warned. Dustin’s walkie talkie may be their only hope for an escape and if that dipshit blew their only chance to avoid certain death, Steve would personally kill the boy himself.

“The mall just opened,” Dustin replied, frustrated that Steve was telling him what to do.

“So?”

“So, someone could be in range.”

“What do you think, Petey the mall cop is gonna rappel down here and save the day?” Steve asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he made the rest of his way onto the roof of the elevator. It was just the two of them out there, all the girls inside, still considering options for escape.

“Why are you such a cranky pants after getting to spend the night with y/n?” Dustin asked, whispering the last part and Steve immediately shushed him.

“Shhh! Will you just give up on that creepy dream already? Besides, it’s not like she hasn’t spent the night at my house before—something you clearly already knew—and I would have to say, my bed is much more comfortable than the floor of some creepy ass Russian death trap,” Steve grumbled, realizing he made a very significant error when Dustin’s eyes lit up.

“Your bed? As in like, you and y/n have been sleeping in the same bed when she stays at your house? I thought she stayed in the guest bedroom?”

“I meant beds…plural,” Steve attempted to backpedal his previous statement but it was no use. The small detail had already sparked more conspiracies in the boy’s mind and Steve knew he was just going to run wild with it.

“Whatever you say,” Dustin replied, his tone indicating that he didn’t believe a word that Steve was saying, before adding “that still doesn’t explain why you’re in such a shitty ass mood.”

“Well, while you children were sleeping, we were trying to figure out a way to open the damn door. After eight hours, we’re still exactly nowhere, which is, you know, probably just a little bit of the reason why I’m feeling just…a tad cranky,” Steve replied, turning away from Dustin and walking to the edge of the elevator, unbuckling his belt.

“What the hell are you doing?” Dustin asked incredulously.

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m taking a leak, look away!” He shouted back.

Meanwhile, you and Robin were at the control panel, still trying to determine a way out of this hellhole. You had been able to remove part of the panel, exposing some of the wiring, but despite how much you messed with it or attempted to rewire it, nothing worked.

“Can you redirect your stream please?” You asked in disgust before turning back to the panel in front of you. Erica began banging the glass canister against a barrel, and you immediately sprung into action, “woah, woah, woah, careful! We don’t even know what that is” You shouted, running to grab the vial from her before she could do irreparable damage to it.

“Exactly, it could be useful,” she shot back, clearly unhappy that you had taken it away from her. When you looked at her confused, she continued, “we can survive a long time down here without food, but if the human body doesn’t get water, it will die.”

“I hate to break it to you, but this is not water,” Robin emphasized, taking the canister from you and shaking it to get her point across.

“Yeah, but it’s a liquid, and if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink,” she smiled her sassy little smile up at Robin and you rolled your eyes. Erica snatched the canister back, and Robin didn’t put up much of a fight as she quickly darted to the heavy metal door, pressing an ear up against it with a quizzical look on her face. After a brief moment she turned to you and Erica, wide eyed.

“We’ve got company,” her words rang through your ears and your heart began to race, you quickly reorganized the room to make it look like you hadn’t just spent the night in there against your own will, and you quickly boosted Erica to the roof before you and Robin followed, relaying the message to the boys. You all crouched around the grid pattern cut out on the ceiling which housed the light as the door opened, watching as two men speaking Russian collected boxes. Dustin looked up at Steve, gaping and Steve quickly put a finger up in front of his mouth, looking between all of you to serve as a reminder to be quiet. He didn’t want to find out what these men would do to all of you if they found you.

Your mind was working double time trying to figure out what you should do when you saw a look of realization flash across Steve’s face, his eyes fixed on Erica and the metal canister she was still holding in her hands. He quickly snatched it from her giving you a look that said “trust me” as you waited with bated breath until you heard the sound of a vehicle driving away and the mechanical whirring of the door beginning to drop again. Your heart raced at the thought of being stuck in there again, but Steve quickly dropped down back into the room lunging across the floor and blocking the door from shutting all the way with the canister.

“Come on! Let’s go!” Steve yelled, and you and Robin quickly helped the kids down back into the elevator before following them, watching as Steve helped them slide through the small opening before Robin shimmied through followed by you. As you passed under the heavy door, you noticed the glass of the canister beginning to crack, fissures forming under the pressure.

“Steve! Hurry!” You cried out, as he began to slide his way under the door, eyes wide as he realized his time was limited. He rolled out of the way, fingers barely clearing the gap before the glass gave way, shattering as the door slammed shut with a heavy thud, the green contents of the vial spilling. The liquid hissed and sizzled as it began eating through the floor, caustic like an acid.

You all quickly backed away, attempting to avoid the splash zone of the dangerous mystery fluid, Steve muttering out an “oh my god.”

“You still wanna drink that?” Robin asked Erica, a smirk on her face as the small girl rolled her eyes. Steve looked over at you confused, and you just shook your head and gave a tired smile. This babysitting gig was rough and kids were stupid sometimes. You and Steve had been through enough shit together to know that that might be the most fundamental truth humanity had to offer.

“Holy mother of god,” Dustin exclaimed, and you all turned to look at what he was going on about. Your breath hitched in your throat as you stared down the long hallway. It looked as if it never ended, and your hand instinctively went to grab Steve’s as he interlocked his fingers with yours. You all stood there staring speechlessly for a moment before Steve’s hand dropped yours, as he began to push past Dustin to the front of the group.

“Well, hope you guys are in good shape…looking at you, roast beef,” he added as he patted Dustin on the chest, making his way down the infinite hallway. Everyone just stared at him before he looked back, motioning for you all to follow. “Let’s go, come on.”

You shook your head to refocus as you joined Steve, the rest of the crew following close behind you. You guys had a long way to go. To find what? You weren’t exactly sure, but you hoped that it ended with a way out of this hellhole.

You had been walking for a while, glad that the hallway was deserted and that you didn’t have to dodge any Russian guards. It would be kind of difficult, you presumed, with the way you were all dressed in nauseatingly bright colors, you, Robin, and Steve looking especially out of place in your Scoops Ahoy uniforms. You were glad you at least all got the opportunity to ditch the hats.

Dustin and Erica were ahead of you, constantly bickering and arguing about stupid shit. The three of you that remained had been walking in a comfortable silence. You stared at your feet, tired and ready to go home. Robin noticed and her heart broke for you. Besides all of this shit, she knew you also had your weird undefined relationship with Steve on your mind, most likely eating away at you. Robin quickly elbowed Steve in the ribs, and clearly not anticipating it, he groaned before grumbling out “Robin? What the hell?”

She cleared her throat, glaring at him before doing a small nod in your direction. Steve may be dumb, but he was not too stupid to connect the dots. “I’m gonna take a stab at this whole babysitting thing you guys seem to be either experts or incompetent at—I haven’t quite decided,” Robin spoke up before quickly leaving the two of you alone to talk through all your shit.

“Right now, I’d probably go with incompetent,” you sighed. You didn’t know how to wrestle with the disappointment you felt. “I should’ve stopped all of this way before now. I mean, I-I…I should’ve stopped Dustin from even attempting to translate that tape. I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to him or Erica down here. Never,” you spiraled. All of this was just too much. Yeah, the upside down shit was scary, but these were people who potentially wanted to hurt you, and that would always be far scarier. The demogorgons had never known humanity; these people had.

“Y/n, hey! This is not your fault! You couldn’t have known that this was going to happen. Never in my wildest imagination would I have guessed that the room we were in was going to turn out to be a fucking elevator! Like what the fuck, you know?” Steve attempted to comfort you but it wasn’t working.

“Yeah, but that’s the thing…I should’ve known better. When does anything we do ever turn out good. Nothing that has happened when we’re together has ever been good. It is all just chaos and carnage and bullshit.”

Steve stopped in his tracks. His mind flashed back to Nancy’s words at Tina’s party last year. He could at least give her the benefit of the doubt when she had said it; she was fucking wasted and couldn’t even remember it the next day. You—on the other hand—you were stone cold sober. He felt his heart breaking all over again in his chest.

“So that’s all this has ever been? Everything about this has been completely awful fucking bullshit?” Steve asked incredulously, anger seeping into his voice as he gestured between the two of you.

You laughed an exasperated laugh, feeling misplaced hate settle in your chest. “Can you really blame me, Steve? Can you really blame me? Because as far as I’m concerned the only reason we’re friends is because we almost fucking died together. You wouldn’t have been bothered to give a shit about me if it hadn’t been for what happened in Jonathan Byers’ fucking living room two years ago. And then—surprise, surprise—you weren’t there for me! You fucking dropped me for a whole fucking year until you needed help with your dumbass college essay.”

“That is what is complete and utter fucking bullshit, y/n. You never once have really believed that I could change. I’ve spent eight fucking months showing you how much I care, but it’ll never matter to you,” Steve seethed. He didn’t know what else you wanted. He couldn’t fix what happened in the past, but he had been desperately trying to make up for it, but it was clear that his efforts didn’t do jack shit.

“Oh, right! How could I forget? You, Steve Harrington, have been so incredibly kind as to let me sleep in your bed so that you’re not fucking lonely while you go out and fuck other girls. I’m so sorry I haven’t been properly grateful for that,” you shot back, sarcasm dripping from your tongue as you spat the words at him. “Forgive me for being unappreciative of the fact that I’m just another one of your girls.”

“If that’s all you think you are to me, then you’re a lot dumber than I thought you were,” Steve replied, his voice small and hurt as he turned away from you. You turned to watch him, hot angry tears falling down your cheeks. As you watched him walk away, you saw the way his shoulders dropped as he ran a hand through his thick hair. He was clearly upset and it had been your doing. You felt your heart drop in your chest as you realized that you likely ruined what you had.

You had been wrestling with yourself all this time, waking up in the morning to his gentle kisses wondering whether it was worse to have him like this—him never truly being yours—or to not have him at all. You felt a lump form in your throat, realizing you had finally answered your own question.

***

You had walked for what felt like miles, and still there was no change in scenery from the long ass hallway you had been in. You had all decided it was safer to stay in a group, so you made sure you were as far away from Steve as possible, avoiding any interaction as much as you feasibly could.

Robin looked at Steve questioningly, wondering what had happened when she had left him to smooth things over with you. He just shook his head, his lips set into a scowl and she realized that her attempt to push the two of you together had likely been the driving force that ripped you two apart.

“I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive,” Dustin spoke up, attempting to clear the awkward air that had enveloped the group.

“What are you talking about? It’s a total fire hazard,” Steve replied.

“Yeah, there’s no stairs, there’s no exit, just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell,” you chimed in. Even though you were frustrated with him, you couldn’t help but agree with his sentiment. You both made eye contact, an unreadable expression painted on his face before he broke your gaze, looking away.

“They’re commies,” Erica spoke up, “you don’t pay people, they cut corners.”

“To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don’t think this tunnel was designed for walking,” Robin added, “think about it. They developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo.” Your mind quickly flashed to the tunnels from last year, and the way that Steve had held you close to him as you buried your face in his neck as the demo-dogs darted past you. You shook the thought away as Dustin interjected.

“It all comes in the mall like any old delivery.”

“And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody’s the wiser,” Robin finished. You did have to admit, it was a good system. It was terrifying that it could all happen right under your noses, but it was a good system nonetheless.

“You think they built this whole mall so they could transport that free poison?” Steve asked.

“I very seriously doubt it’s something as boring as poison, it’s gotta be something much more valuable,” you rolled your eyes, tired of hearing Steve’s voice.

“Yeah, like promethium or something,” Dustin interjected.

“What the hell is promethium?” You and Steve asked in unison. Robin rolled her eyes, biting back a smile. Why couldn’t you shit birds just realize you were perfect for each other?

“It’s what Victor Stone’s dad used to make Cyborg’s bionic and cybernetic components,” Robin explained.

“You���re all so nerdy it makes me physically ill.” Erica’s face twisted into a look of disgust as she said it. You rolled your eyes, but you couldn’t really argue with the sentiment. Other than Steve, you all were into some pretty nerdy ass shit.

“No, no, no, don’t lump me in with them. I’m not a nerd, alright?” Steve spoke up and you rolled your eyes again. If you rolled your eyes one more time, they were going to get stuck back there.

“Why so sensitive Harrington? Afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old girl?” You spat, ever frustrated with his constant focus on being cool. When was he going to realize that none of that shit mattered?

“No, I’m just saying I don’t know jack shit about Prometheus.”

“Promethium,” you corrected, “Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure.”

“Whatever,” Dustin chimed in, wanting to end the bickering between the two of you, “all I’m saying is, it’s probably being used to make something.”

“Or power something,” Robin suggested.

“Like a nuclear weapon,” Dustin responded.

“Totally,” you agreed. It was pretty damn feasible.

“Walking towards a nuclear weapon, that’s great. That’d be…that’d be just great,” Steve grumbled, and you couldn’t really fault him for it. You weren’t super jazzed to be in this hellhole either.

“But if they’re building something, why here? I mean, Hawkins. Seriously. Of all places,” Robin wondered, something clicked in your head, and you noticed the look of realization flash across Steve and Dustin’s faces too as the three of you fell back as Robin continued. “At the very best, we’re a toilet stop on your way to Disneyland, but maybe that’s it. Maybe it’s our very…” Robin’s voice trailed off as her and Erica got farther and farther away from you.

“You think the Russians know?” You quickly and quietly cut to the chase.

“About the—?” Steve began asking, not wanting to say it, afraid of speaking the words into existence.

“They could,” Dustin answered.

“So it’s connected?” Steve asked.

“Maybe,” you replied, looking at him with worry etched across your face.

“But how?” Steve pushed the question, wanting to be damn sure before you all jumped to any conclusions.

“I don’t know but it’s—“ Dustin began.

“Possible,” you all finished in unison. You and Steve made eye contact, your previous argument long forgotten as you considered the terrifying possibility that this did have to do with the Upside Down.

“I’m sorry, is there something you three would like to share with the class?” Robin called out as she turned around, realizing that the three of you had fallen behind.

The three of you looked between each other, trying to figure out what, if anything, you should tell them. Before you could speak, static hissed from Erica’s backpack as she darted to fish out the walkie talkie. You all crouched down beside her and listened as Russian filled the silence, the familiar words ringing out through the desolate hallway.

“It’s the code,” Robin confirmed.

“Wherever that broadcast is coming from—“ you started.

“It’s close,” Robin finished your thought, “if there’s one thing we know about that signal—“

“—it can reach the surface,” Dustin chimed in, realizing that this could be your way out. Smiles broke out on all your faces as you considered the possibility that your hours long ordeal may finally be over.

“Let’s go,” you breathed out, quickly standing. You let out a laugh. You were going to get out of here.

If only you had known how naive that sentiment truly was.

***

You were pressed up flush against Steve’s back, and you tried not to blush at the predicament. You had all shimmied through a tight corridor, pausing at a junction while he checked to make sure the coast was clear. Even though you were mad at him, you couldn’t help the way your heart still skipped at his touch. You leaned forward slightly, attempting to reach your head around to get a visual on the hallway, but he reached his hand back, grabbing your wrist as a warning to stay put. The two Russians that had been passing as you reached the junction continued down the hall, oblivious to the gaggle of teenagers and children that were infiltrating their secret hideout.

“Okay, clear,” Steve whispered, turning the corner and pulling you gently behind him, his hand still around your wrist. When no one else followed, he let go whispering again, “clear, come on. Let’s go.”

“Okay, that was close,” Robin whispered, stepping quietly out from around the corner.

“Too close,” Dustin agreed, speaking up.

“Relax! Alright, relax. Nobody saw…” Steve’s assurances trailed off as you turned another corner, the hall opening up into a larger room with bustling activity. Your eyes darted around, mouth agape, as you took in the sight of Russian scientists in lab coats, soldiers in army uniforms carrying large guns, and men clad in hazmat suits. Your stomach dropped realizing that this was all a far larger operation than you could have conceived in even your wildest imagination.

“Shit!” Steve exclaimed quietly, realizing that you were out in the open and easily visible as you all darted to hide behind a big red metal cart.

“I saw it. First floor, northwest,” Erica suddenly spoke up.

“Saw what?” You asked, unsure of what the girl was talking about.

“The comms room!” She whisper-shouted.

“You saw the comms room?” Steve asked, unsure of how she could have noticed anything with the pure chaos that was the mess of people they just saw.

“Are you sure?” Dustin inquired, wanting to be certain before you guys made your way to the room. One wrong move and he had no doubt that you all were toast.

“Positive. The door was open for a second, and I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there.”

“That could be a hundred different things,” Dustin replied.

“I’ll take those odds,” you turned to look Steve in the eyes. You were desperate to get out of here, and Steve’s eyes darted across your face, taking in your expression of certainty before sighing and peaking around the side of the cart. You all followed suit, looking and calculating how you could possibly get from point A to point B with the amount of Russians the place was crawling with.

You all sat back, and Steve looked at everyone carefully before speaking. “Alright, we’re gonna move fast, we’re gonna stay low, okay?”

You all nodded in agreement and Steve took off, you following close behind as he darted to hide around another corner, slowly but surely making his way towards a door on the other side of the room. A Russian wearing a white lab coat pushed the door open, focused on the clipboard in his hand as he exited, the door swinging slowly shut behind him.

“Let’s go!” Steve whisper-shouted, quickly moving to grab the door right before it shut. “Shhh, come one!” He whispered, motioning for all of you to enter as he held the door open for you.

You should have been more careful, turning around to be met with a confused looking Russian soldier, turning away from the console in front of him as he swiveled in his desk chair, ripping off his headset. He stared at you wide eyed and his hand began to reach for the gun holstered on his hip. Your breath hitched in your throat as you pushed Erica and Dustin behind you while Robin stepped forward, reciting bits and pieces of the code, the only Russian she knew.

The man responded with words you didn’t understand. You all held your hands up to show that you didn’t mean any harm as Robin continued speaking Russian with her limited vocabulary.

Continuing to perceive the five of you as a threat, the soldier continued his reach to unholster his gun and suddenly Steve was yelling out, sprinting towards the man as slammed into him, knocking him off kilter. He threw Steve against a console behind him, going to throw a punch that Steve dodged. Steve turned towards the console, elbowing the Russian soldier in the gut to create some space, before grabbing a telephone and spinning around, swinging it hard as it made contact with the soldier’s face. The soldier groaned as he stumbled, hitting his head on the desk in the process before falling to the floor with a sickening thud.

Steve panted, running his hands through his hair, his heart racing a million miles a minute. Dustin suddenly spoke up, drawing his focus away from the Russian on the floor as he made eye contact with the boy. “Dude! You did it! You won a fight!”

Steve chuckled slightly, realizing the boy was right, self-satisfied with the way that he had been able to protect all of you. Suddenly another force slammed into him, knocking him slightly off balance as you ran to hug him, wrapping your hands tightly around him as you buried your face in his chest. He was surprised by this, after your argument in the hall earlier, but he felt his heart skip a beat as he reciprocated, gripping you tightly as he rested his chin on your head, swaying from side to side.

“What were you thinking?!” You exclaimed, the anger in your tone throwing Steve off, a sharp contrast to the loving way you were clinging to him. “You could have been shot! You could’ve died! How could you just run at him like that, unarmed?!” You pulled away and shoved at his shoulders. You were fuming, and reasonably so.

“Y/n calm the fuck down! If I hadn’t we all would’ve died,” Steve responded, anger leaking into his tone as well.

“Don’t ever do that shit again.”

Dustin rolled his eyes at both of you, moving swiftly towards the guard and snatching his keycard off his belt.

“What are you doing?” Erica asked.

“Getting us our ticket out of here,” he responded, holding up the keycard as if it was obvious.

“You want to walk all the way back?” She questioned in disbelief.

“Well, we can hang out for a little bit, relax, have a picnic maybe,” he replied, sarcasm dripping from his mouth. While they continued to argue, you realized that Robin had made her way up the steps. She stopped momentarily to look through the small window on the door before sprinting back down the stairs to the rest of you.

“Guys! There’s something up there,” she breathed, a look of shock across her face, you all darted to follow her, quietly walking through the door, pressing yourselves against the glass. You couldn’t believe what you were looking at.

Beyond the control center that you were looking through there was a huge machine, pulsating with energy. A man in a hazmat suit loaded it with one of the green canisters not dissimilar to the one you broke earlier, as it continued to spin, shooting out a stream of bright blue light. You followed it to see the fissure forming on the wall directly across from it, as a sickening cracking noise rang out. You and Steve looked at each other, panic registering on both of your faces.

“The gate,” you both whispered in unison, as you sucked in a deep breath. Your heart sank in your chest, as Steve grabbed your hand, just as much to comfort you as it was to ease his worry.

It was happening again.

***

a/n: thanks for reading! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I’m looking forward to writing the next one. Remember to message me if you want to be added to the taglist! Please reblog if you feel so inclined! It really helps motivate me to write more :)

taglist:

@season4steve @sassyheroneckgiant @tangledinthegreatxscape @maeve-wileyy @palachannie @chaerfull @usaguisenpaisblog @emilieluckwood @sabrinadelreyy

[obxcc]

introducing . . . the bigsister!reader universe family

of course , up first we have bigsister!reader. she’s the oldest (20) , and so she has to take care of her siblings whether she wants to or not. she’s obstinate and persuasive. she doesn’t take shit and she’s much stronger than people give her credit for. her hard exterior often blurs the fact that’s she’s still a young woman , and she wants to be able to live her life and have fun and fall in love.

the second oldest is dallas. he’s seventeen and would be a senior in high school had he not dropped out— much to bigsister’s differing opinion on the situation. think whiteboy!carl… but he loves his sister more than anything and he’s always willing to help out around the house even if he complains. he’s also bigsister’s unspoken favorite.

then we have shawna. she’s the last teenager at fifteen years old. she’s a little genius , and everyone can agree that she deserves far more than what she’ll probably get out of life. she’s a miniature version of you— same hair , eyes , smile , nose. everyone always calls her mini y/n , and she isn’t bothered by it one bit.

parker is twelve , and he’s a menace. he’s setting abandoned buildings on fire , getting into fights at school , and blowing shit up. he’s honestly a more chaotic version of dallas. bigsister tends to let things go with him— always after a scolding , because she understands he’s just acting out because of mom and dad not being around like they used to.

the twins are eight. ethan & elijah. angels sent from heaven above , and thank god because bigsister wasn’t too sure the household could handle two more parkers. they’re the epitome of eight year old boy without any of the bad behavior. ethan is older by six minutes but he’s a little shorter. they’re identical , and they also figured out they can get away with switching identities when the house is more frazzled than usual. they’re identical constantly try to trick pope & cleo just for fun.

and finally aaliyah the baby. she’s five and funny. she’s got the biggest crush on john b and makes it very well known. she flirts with him and asks him to go on tea party dates— he always says yes. she’s young enough to not realize how fucked up her home life truly is , so she’s just a ball of sunshine. she slips up and calls bigsister mom sometimes:(

their mother , heather , wasn’t around. she dipped every so often for different amount of times without as much as a word. but after aaliyah turned two , she left and hadnt come home in awhile— three years to be more specific.

and their father was the same , but he was around more often than not. bigsister usually had an idea of where he was on the island. chris was a drunk for the majority of his life , and having seven too many kids with a woman he claimed to love but so clearly despised didn’t change that. in an out of the house , using the younger kids to help him out with shady things because the older kids stopped trying with him years ago. but bigsister? oh how he loved her. “best thing t’ever happen to me , kid,” he’d drunkenly slur to the girl as she tucked him into his bed after a heavier drinking night. it killed her every time.

on the bright side , bigsister had the best three friends anyone in kildare could ask for. an obvious starter would be pope. they were neighbors , and so his mom and dad would help out when they could. mrs. heyward had no problem babysitting when bigsister really needed the help , and eventually pope was recruited as a friend. when cleo came around , she became a tight knit part of the family as well. the pair never had problems with waltzing into the house unannounced , and the kids never had a problem with it either , loving when their big sister’s friends came over.

and of course there’s john b. he’s bigsister’s rock. best friends from a young age from a moment they couldn’t even remember anymore. it was like they were always a part of each other’s lives. he often stays at the house with bigsister just because the extra supervision is helpful , but he also liked being able to help her out. he helped pay bills , watch the kids— he even showed up to the school when parker got in trouble one time as a guardian. him and bigsister fuck on the dl.

[vampyresovereign]

Hi hi hi!! <3 <3 <3 I love your account and your music hcs for the characters especially Savanaclaw thinking about Jack listening to Ice Cube and Eazy-E is so funny to me to imagine. KDot too oh yes <3 If requests are still open could I ask for a GN!Reader as his gym partner. Kinda like he thinks MC is so weak with bones like jelly so he tries to motivate us to work out with him... Even if we suck at it haha!~!

YES QUEEN/KING OF COURSE ILL WRITE THIS FOR YOU!! I honestly was kind of scared cause I thought i put TOO much unnecessary thought into what everyone's music taste might be (like you could tell i was geekin out over music ngl) so I'm really glad you liked the headcanons. mb this took so long, here's your request<3333 -isa<3

Pairing: Jack Howl x GN!Reader Fandom: Twisted Wonderland Quick Synopsis: You accompany Jack on a little trip to the gym, inspired by a snarky comment from coach Vargas. Tags: Use of Y/N, reader is not Yuu, no specific physical description of reader, reader is embarrassing as hell but it's okay cause Jack is patient with them, might be inaccurate/i've never been to a gym

-

“Alright everyone! Class is over, get out of my face!” 

Coach Vargas practically screamed from the middle of the field. You watched, sitting criss-cross applesauce on the freshly cut grass as your fellow classmates grabbed their brooms, walking and talking in groups on their way towards the locker rooms.

Maybe it was because the weather forecast advised sunscreen since it was over 80 degrees, or maybe you were just stressed out from other classes, but something made phys ed today much harder than usual. 

You were startled when the coach suddenly appeared behind you, placing a hand on your shoulder. 

“Your endurance is getting stronger, L/N,” He started. “But you still have a long way to go.”

“What do you mean, coach?”

“Well, for starters..” He removed his hand from you, taking a second to lift his arm and flex the bicep in front of you, as you raised an eyebrow.

“..You know, something many don’t know about broom riding is that most of your energy actually concentrates in the arms. You need to be able to balance yourself and hold onto the stick, y’know? And to be honest with you, kid..”

He pointed towards your arms.

“That’s something we need to work on, don’t we? Hit the showers.”

You shouldn't have taken that comment so seriously, coach was known for being pretty vain and shallow when it came to physical appearance. But unfortunately, he had a point.

You constantly skipped leg day and couldn't lift a dumbbell with more than 3 plates.

Though you were dwelling on it, you decided to try and put those negative thoughts away. Your next period was lunch, and you had even more stressful classes to deal with after that.

Lack of muscle was the least of your problems at the moment.

As you walked towards the cafeteria, lagging behind another random group of people, you spotted a familiar pair of fuzzy white ears in the crowd, walking the opposite direction.

You felt your eyes spark in recognition, immediately calling his name out.

"Jack!"

Jack's eyes widened, ears pointing up for a few seconds in surprise. He walked towards you, scratching his head. "Hey Y/N, what's up?"

"You know the cafeteria is that way, right?"

It was then you noticed the giant duffel bag slung across his right shoulder.

"I know. I'm not goin' to lunch."

"Why not?" You inquired.

"Decided to hit the gym at around this time from now on 'cause it gets way too crowded after classes are over," He said.

"So.. You're just not gonna eat anything?"

"Of course not," He scoffed. "I got a few protein bars and shakes in my bag. I'll be fine."

You hummed in response, you had totally forgot that working out was Jack's whole thing. As he adjusted his bag, an idea suddenly popped into your mind.

"Hey, can I join you? I kind of wanna try exercising for a little bit."

He looked at you, slightly shocked. "For real? You never seemed interested before."

"Well, I guess I wanna try something new today. How about it?"

He placed a finger on his chin in thought, before placing his hands on his hips.

"..Sure, I guess."

-

Before the two of you headed to the gym together, you each went back to your respective dorms to grab comfortable clothing.

You didn't know what exactly to wear, so you settled on an old tracksuit you hadn't worn in the seven knows how long.

When you walked in, there were obviously some people there, but you had strolled past them and followed Jack into the section where the bench presses and mats were, suddenly feeling nervous.

Jack very quickly got to work, setting his bag down next to a random bundle of equipment, and adding about 5 plates to the light dumbbell.

You stood next to him awkwardly as he leaned his back down on the bench, wondering if this came off as creepy.

He glanced at you as he sat the dumbbell to rest, raising an eyebrow. "You know, there's a set right behind you, right?"

"..Oh. Sorry, this is my first time here, I'm just kind of trying to figure out what to do through you," You blurted out, a wave of embarrassment washing over you.

You moved to the set he had just mentioned, which also happened to be directly across from his, grabbing pretty much the same amount of plates on the way there.

You held back a grunt as you held all of them in the palm of your hands, wondering what the hell Jack was eating to be able to carry this amount effortlessly.

You leaned back on the bench, trying to replicate the same position you saw Jack in as you curled your hands around the base of the dumbbell. Taking a deep breath and lifting it up, you were good for about 4.5 seconds.

"Fuck!"

The realization of how heavy the equipment was immediately crushed down on you, literally. You dropped the dumbbell on your stomach, curling up and holding onto your belly for dear life when the instrument fell on the floor.

You heard Jack get up from behind you to assess the incident.

"The hell happened?" He asked, placing his hands on his hips.

"I don't know how you do it, man."

He grabbed the dumbbell from off of the floor, sighing. "Y/N, beginners don't start with this amount. It's kind of common sense."

"It looked simple when you did it.."

"Yeah, because I've been honing these skills for years." Jack removed about 2 plates from each side of the dumbbell, handing it back to you on the bench. "Here, try to lift it now."

You nodded, proceeding to do as he said.

"..Still heavy, but do-able."

Jack smirked.

-

You spent the rest of your time at the gym attempting to try a little bit of everything with Jack at your side, teaching you what to do. You felt a little bit bad that he used up all his training time essentially babysitting you, but he assured you it was no big deal.

The only problem was that when your time to train together was up, every single part of your body felt sore. Even your eyes.

Jack let out a laugh, a rare thing, and slapped you on your back.

"This was a great sesh, wasn't it?"

You stumbled a few paces forward from the impact of his hand. "..I would say yes, but I still gotta go to my afternoon classes after this."

"Hah. You better get used to the grind, we're doing this tomorrow. And the rest of the semester, actually. Breaks are on weekends."

You stared at Jack like he had three heads.

"Don't look at me like that. We're partners now. No turnin' back," He grinned.

You awkwardly laughed in response, excited to hang out more with Jack and expand your muscles, but not too excited about the process anymore.

i don't even like jack like that but this was very fun to write. apologies again for the wait gang. -isa<3

[lowkeyrobin]

Confident in his sexuality fuckshit x confused and doesn't know their sexuality reader where reader confines in fuckshit about their sexuality problems and confused on what they like since they've never had their first kiss before so fuckshit offers to kiss reader and ray and fourth grade catch them kissing so every time the gang and reader hang out ray and fourth grade tease and make jokes about it while ruben and Stevie are just sitting there confused asf please🙏

-♣️

STOP I LOVE THIS I CANNOT. ; ♣️ were getting married ur reqs are always so yummy istg ; thank you for requesting pookie, hope you enjoy! ; also back 2 back kinda fueled me w this LMFAO

FUCKSHIT ; skin

summary ; after coming out as nonbinary, you're confused on where you stand with your sexuality

warnings ; language, mentions of weed/alcohol, censored racial slur, making out stuff, sex jokes

disclaimers ; reader is nonbinary instead of just gender neutral, kinda brings the plot point to where it is

track ; skin, rihanna

word count ; 849

masterlist

"I'm proud of you for coming out, y'know? I don't really get it, but whatever makes you happy, okay bro?-" He quickly stops himself, "Do I call you that or nah?"

You nod with a smile, appreciating his considerate thought. "Yeah, it's cool"

He nods, running a hand through his hair to push it away from his face for a moment. "But, whatever makes you happy, okay? I'll always be here to support you, no matter who you like or what you identify as" He smiles, leaning back on the pillows on your bed.

You nod. "Speaking of who I like..."

His eyebrows shoot up, "You like someone? You better spill that shit, n****"

You giggle and crawl next to him on the bed, sitting on the left side while he lounges on the right. You shrug to begin the conversation.

"I dunno. I don't like anyone in particular, for starters. I just, don't really know what I like right now. Cause I finally came out as nonbinary and stuff, and like, I dunno who I'd like, date or what my standards are or anything" You explain, looking to him for some sort of validation.

He nods. "Have you ever kissed anyone before?"

"No" You answer with a slight giggle.

He quickly sits up, looking at you like you're crazy. "What?"

"Hm?"

"You've never kissed someone?"

"No," you shrug. "Does it look like I have?"

He blinks, then moves his legs over each other in a criss cross manner. "Well, I mean, do you wanna know how? So when you do kiss someone, you know what you're doing?" He suggests innocently.

You shrug and nod, then stop yourself. "Wait, like, we're gonna..."

He nods, "We're friends though, it won't mean anything more. It's like, uh... an educational purpose"

You nod nervously. "Uh, okay"

He scoots forward, then looks at you up and down. He softly places his hands on your cheeks, bringing you forward as tenderly as possible.

"So, like" He speaks, just above a whisper, "You can either put your hands on their cheeks," He removes his hands from your cheeks and wraps his fingers around your hands, then places them on his face instead. "Or like this," He moves your hands down under his jaw, "or down here," he then moves them down to the middle / bottom of his neck.

You nod, taking in the information as he speaks.

"Guys love when you tug at their hair or mess with it when you're making out" He adds, "But don't be rough, and only do it when you're like, making out and shit"

You bite the inside of your bottom lip, nodding again. "Can you like, show me how to do that?"

He nods, bringing your right hand up to his scalp. He allows you to tangle your hand in his curls and slightly tug on it with minimal tension, letting you grasp an idea of what he's saying.

"Get it?" He kindly asks, his breath caring the slight scent of weed like it usually did.

"Mhm." You quickly nod in response.

He moves his right hand under your chin, making you look up at him. His left hand rests behind your ear, his thumb in front of it as he feels some of your hair. He pulls you into the kiss, going easy on you to start.

You're obviously caught off guard, but lean into it, trying to ignore how your best friend is giving you kissing lessons.

He decides not to scare you with tongue, hoping whoever you share your first kiss with will teach you about that instead. He'd probably throw up if he did that in all honesty, no offense to you.

He pulls you more toward him, then lays all the way back to fall on his back. Your lips are still connected, moving in unison as he helps you, eyes closed, to straddle his waist. You move your hands to his jawline, lightly pressing your fingers into his skin.

You only remember your stereo is playing music in the background as he pulls away from you with a smile. You might has well have just died hearing Garbage's Push It bouncing its soundwaves against the walls.

"You're a good kisser." He smirks, looking up at you.

"Yeah, seems like they are"

Your heads snap toward the door, seeing Ray standing in the doorway with Fourthgrade, Ruben, and Stevie behind him, watching in awe. The dark-skinned boy crosses his arms with a deadpan look.

"No way y'all are this desperate"

You quickly bounce off of Fuckshit, letting him sit up to explain yourselves.

"I was teaching them how to kiss-"

"Sure you were. C'mon, we have a party to attend"

"Watch out, we can't leave them alone. They'll start making out in the hallway closet" Ray jokes, looking over at you and Fuckshit.

"Shut up." You both reply in unison, smiling afterward at the chances.

Fourthgrade attempts to speak, "They're convinced they aren't dating-"

"We aren't!"

"We caught them fucking earlier!" Ruben exclaims to the girls.

"We were not fucking, Ruben!"

"Close enough!"

[anonymous-rendezvous]

Fika

💙 Ike Eveland x GN!Reader

✦ — Written by Mod I ✨. Beta Read and Edited by Mod S 👿.

✧ — Contains: Strangers to Friends to ???, fluff, light angst, & open ended

✦ — Word count: 2k+ | Ao3

Fika | pronunciation: fee–ka Swedish | (n.) a moment to slow down and appreciate the good things in life. — A new coffee shop opens near Ike’s home. As he starts to visit it more regularly, he slowly gets to know you.

Based on the sentence starter “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

Ike was just past the planning stages of his most recent book when a new coffee shop opened within walking distance of his house. ‘Home Brewed’. A cozy little place with comfortable seats, potted plants, and lots of natural light. The little bell above the door jingles as he pushes it open, immediately greeted by the two staff members he’s started to recognize, currently working behind the counter. With a glance around, he could see that the cafe is fairly busier than usual. A handful of people waiting on their orders while a quarter of the tables have been claimed.

Stepping up to the counter, he’s greeted by your bright smile. “Ah! Nice to see you again. The usual today?” Your head tipped to the side in question, causing the necklace around your neck to catch the light. An onyx ring swaying across the chain and he notes to himself that this is the ninth time it’s changed. Yesterday it had been a silver band with some sort of writing, and the day before that had been a gold band with small emeralds lining it.

The barista behind you calls out another customer's drink, reminding him that you're still waiting for him to respond, quickly meeting your eyes. “Good morning, and yes, the usual, please. That’ll be all.”

Nodding along, you add his order to the computer. “For here or to go?”

Turning his head, he scans the room one more time, spotting his usual table by the window open. “For here.”

“You got it! We’ll bring your drink over when it’s done.” He pays for the drink before bee-lining towards the table he’d become used to setting up base in. Over the last two weeks, he’s found this particular table to offer him the best view; sunlight pouring in just right. Perfect for getting lost in thought staring out towards the bustling streets, but also an ideal spot for observing the people around the cafe. His bag slides off of his shoulder with a soft thud as it rests on the empty seat beside him, pulling out his laptop and notes, ready to dive back into his work while waiting for his drink.

It’s not long before a mug is carefully placed on his table with a soft clunk. His fingers pause in the movement upon the keyboard, forcing his eyes away from the screen to meet yours. As your eyes lock, you flash him another smile, “One chai tea for…” there’s a pause, your eyes darting to the side before slowly asking, “Ike, right?” The novelist nods with a polite smile, hazel eyes quickly flicking down to your apron in search of your nametag; thanking you while repeating your name aloud. “No problem! Lemme know if you’d like another cup.”

The novelist gives a nod and you take that as your cue to return to the counter. He’s just returned his attention to his work when, from the corner of his eye, he notices that you’ve stopped moving. His head jerks back in your direction when you make a quick turn on your heels, taking a few steps closer to his table – yet still maintaining a polite distance. Ike can’t help but watch curiously, noting the way your expression twists in what he assumes is hesitation, one of your hands reaching up to fiddle with the ring hanging from the chain on your neck. The silence hangs for another moment before you finally speak, words spoken almost cautiously, “Could I… ask what you're working on? You don’t have to tell me. I’ve just been curious since you always seem so absorbed in your work.”

“Oh.” He can’t help but feel a little surprised by the question. Adjusting his glasses, he glances down at his laptop before returning his gaze to you, the small but polite smile returning to his lips. “I don’t mind. I’m currently working on a book.”

It’s rather interesting to him, the way you seem to light up, as you seem to take a subconscious step closer to the table. “Ah, really?” There’s a slight raise in your voice, however you quickly lower it, not wanting to disturb the customers sitting nearby. “Can I ask what it’s about?”

There’s already a smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he settles back in his chair. “They commissioned me to write a children's book, so it’s just a lighthearted adventure tale.”

“Ah, that’s really cool–” There’s a loud call of your name and your attention immediately snaps back to your coworker, who’s giving you a pointed yet amused look. “Ah–Sorry, just a second! Right so, uh,” You give a little awkward laugh before giving him another small smile. “If you need anything else, just let us know. Good luck with the book!” With a small wave, you quickly make your way back to the counter where a small line had begun to form. With a light chuckle, he adjusts his glasses before returning to his work.

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

From that day forward, it was rare to find the pair of you not locked in conversation. It was almost surprising to Ike how quickly the pair of you were growing closer. He’d begun spending more time at the cafe than he did at his own home and getting to know you felt as easy as breathing. Hours turned into days, and days turned into weeks – time, feeling as though it were flying by.

A change he hadn’t known he needed until you’d already settled in past the point of acquaintances, but just shy of what he would call friends.

You never seemed to run out of stories to tell him, having an endless supply of experiences in your back pocket. Sometimes it would be retelling interesting moments from your day: a rowdy customer, a bizarre drink order, or something one of your co-workers had done. Though what fascinated him most was the tales behind the different rings you’d switch out on the chain around your neck. You seemed more than happy to talk about them, explaining that some were gifts from family members, friends, or co-workers; past and present. Others were picked up from different places you’d visited; having traveled a lot over the years.

His curiosity hadn’t been satiated, however, until he asked if there was a reason you wore them on a chain rather than around your fingers, as most typically would. You had looked almost sheepish when you explained that it was a mixture of wanting to keep said rings in better condition, but also an irrational fear of losing them – or worse – accidentally dropping one in a customer's drink. Your expression was rather horrified at that thought.

He can’t remember the last time he’d laughed quite so hard.

Ike’s friends were quick to notice his change in mood, asking him – some subtly, others less so – about what happened. It had only been such a short amount of time and yet, something about the novelist seemed different. It wasn’t a bad difference, they reassured, chuckling once they saw the look on his face. He just seemed… happier. Intentional or not, you’d started to brighten his days. Drawing an excitement from him the others hadn't seen in a while. His chest filled with a warmth he can’t quite remember living a day without.

You were similar to an ever-burning flame. You brightened the spaces you moved between, drawing others to your warmth. Maybe it was the way you moved, dancing easily from place to place. Never invading, but never apologetic for what space you did take up. Maybe it was in your smile, the ease with which your lips would curve upwards – leaving even the grouchiest of customers a tad less tense. Most noticeable were the days you had off, the building seemingly a tad bit colder than he'd remembered.

Whatever it was, Ike just couldn’t seem to pinpoint it; at least not with words. It was something so inherently you.

And then his book was complete.

He had to stop visiting the cafe. All of his time and energy funneled into the final steps of his work. Delivering his manuscripts, going through edits and finalizations, getting in contact with the commissioner– so on and so forth. All of which is a very time-consuming process, eating away at all the free time he had.

Before he knew it, nearly two months had passed before he pushed through that all too familiar door; a bundle of papers in hand. The smell of familiarly brewed coffee and freshly baked sweets helped to ease the tension in his shoulders – even if just slightly.

With a pep in his step, he approaches the counter and your gaze lifts to meet him. Almost immediately, your eyes widen, hands freeze in place. Heart pounding in his chest, he greets you, calling your name with a smile. Except… his smile falters when your expression twists into something he hadn’t seen on you before. Your lips purse into a thin line, intentionally dropping your gaze to the computer before quietly asking, “Chai tea, for here or to go?”

The brunette opens his mouth to say something, but the way you avoid looking at his face causes him to pause. “For here.” He finally says, voice coming out much quieter than he’d intended. Ike doesn't realize how tightly he’s gripping the papers until he feels them start to crinkle, quickly loosening his grip before he ruins them.

He pays for the drink then shuffles quickly towards his usual table. Releasing his hold on the bundle of papers entirely, setting them lightly on the table as he attempts to ease the worst of the creases out. The excitement that he had been feeling before was slowly bleeding into nervousness, causing him to worry his bottom lip. The novelist startles when the mug clicks against the tabletop, eyes hurriedly looking up to see you. “Ah–thank you.” He stutters, yet your gaze remains locked on the wooden surface, still refusing to look at him. He almost expects you to turn and leave, yet… you just continue to stand beside his table silently. The cafe lacks the warmth he's grown used to; a chill running down his spine. 

The silence continues to hang, casting a heavy fog between you, before finally, you raise your head to meet his gaze. “You just… stopped coming one day.” There’s a slight shake to your voice that makes his heart drop. “I… You worried me, Ike.” Your lips pursed, eyes shifting to look out the window rather than at him. “At first I tried to rationalize that you were likely just busy, but… I couldn’t help but worry if something had happened to you. But I had no way of checking. We never exchanged numbers or socials, you just… disappeared. I had no clue if you were okay.”

Ike’s brows furrowed, “I– I’m sorry, I didn’t think–” his words felt caught in his throat, sentence hanging because, really, he hadn’t thought. It hadn’t even crossed his mind once to tell you that he’d be gone for a while. He’d caused you to worry for no reason. Truly, a stupid mistake on his part.

You let out a sigh before meeting his gaze, a small smile tugging at your lips. “I’m just glad you're alright.” Your eyes trail back down to the tabletop before narrowing in on the papers resting before him, lips parting in a small ‘o’ as your eyes scan the top page. “Is that–You finished your book?” Ike swallowed before nodding, nudging the papers closer to you.

“I did. It’s technically still in the processing stages, hence this isn’t a proper physical copy, but I thought–” He swallows again, nerves swelling inside of him once more. The warmth had returned to your expression, picking up the bundle and cradling them in your hands as if holding something precious. Clearing his throat, he adjusts his glasses, suddenly unable to meet your eyes, clear embarrassment on his face. “It is only a children's story, but you’d seemed so interested when I was writing it, I figured–”

You cut him off, excitement building in your tone. “This is for me?”

He nods, “Yes. I can give you a proper copy when the book is finished, if you’d like.”

“I’d love that!” You exclaim with a cheerful laugh. “I’m gonna go put this with my things so it doesn't get ruined. Thank you, Ike.” You’d already turned, halfway making it back towards the counter when you suddenly stop, turning around to face him with a bright smile on your face. “Oh, and Ike?” His heart pounded at the honor of being allowed to bask in the warmth of your smile once more.

“Y–yes?”

“I’d like to think we’re friends now, so don’t be a stranger, okay?”

Heat rises to the novelist's face as sudden realization all but slaps him in the face. The only tangible thought that crosses his mind at that moment is a very small ‘oh’ as butterflies fluttered in his stomach.

It seems that he might already be in too deep.

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

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[thebucketpail]

When You Accidentally Kill a Clown pt 14.

Pt.1 pt.13 Ao3

------

Jason had alot on his mind.

For starters, apparently his boyfriend had a kid, which, great! She seemed awesome and that was totally okay. But then there were the concerning things he had overheard from the phone call. Like the bit about cloning, which would make Dani- well at least it was somewhat better than the alternative. Suffice to say, he and Danny had alot to talk about later.

All this had led to the very strong urge to find this 'Vlad' character and shoot him where it hurt. (Well it would probably hurt no matter where he shot him but the point still stands.)

Luckily, Jason didn't have to spend long trying to hide this fury before getting an alert from Oracle about some super-powered lunatic tearing up the upper east side. Now that usually wouldn't be his problem, but beating up bad guys is, shockingly, a really good stress relief, so he took the out.

Hopefully Danny didn't take him leaving so suddenly the wrong way.

Unfortunately, Jason didn't really have the mental bandwidth to actually think all these thoughts while also getting shot at by a green floating maniac.

"Oracle, please tell me you have something on this guy, I'm almost out of tricks," he yelled, not waiting to watch the round he unloaded sail right through the guy, before diving behind a half melted car.

"Tt, you may be out of tricks, Todd, but I am not," Robin called as he vaulted over Hood's makeshift shelter. Giving him a satisfying view when seconds later he sailed back overhead and crashed into a storefront, as a chorus of, "Names, Robin," crackled over the intercomm.

"Lucky shot," he grumbled, stumbling over to Jason who had to stifle a laugh at how the kid's face was scrunched up in annoyance. "Not a word. Oracle?"

"Sorry boys, nothing yet. I'll keep trying but all I'm hitting are dead ends."

Robin scrunched up his nose and sighed in annoyance, "So what's the plan then?" He asked.

Hood was about to snap back that 'how should he know' when someone else spoke.

"The plan is: you focus on getting civilians out of the way while we take out big, mean, and corrosive over there." Okay, Red Hood would never admit that he jumped, but to be fair, Robin did too. The voice had come from directly over his shoulder and no one should be able to sneak up on two trained vigilantes that easily. Especially not Damian.

They turned in unison to find two floating teenagers, no more than 17 and 13 each, with floating white hair, and green, green eyes. They were nearly identical, all the way down to the black and silver jumpsuits emblazoned with a flaming D insignia, or were they p's? It was hard to tell.

They were clearly heros of a sort, but Jason didn't recognize them so they were either really small time and in Gotham for a visit, or they chose the wrong city to jumpstart their heroing careers.

"Why are you dressed like a traffic light?" The younger one asked, blowing and popping a blindingly pink bubble as she floated closer to Robin, "I thought the bats were supposed to be discreet."

"That's none of your business," demon Brat growled, "Touch me and you're dead." The girl's hand paused, halfway outstretched toward Robin's cape. She didn't back off, though, until he pulled a birdarang.

"Woah there," she said, holding up her hands and floating backwards as if to calm him, "You're a little late on the dead part, but let's go easy on the knives, eh?"

The guy, now standing next to Hood as he watched the scene play out, snickered.

Robin scowled, "Who are you?"

The guy beamed and raised his hand like he was waiting to be called on in class. "Ooh! I know this one! Uh, hi, my name's Phantom," he gestured grandly to himself and, grinning, took a small bow, and that's Stray," he continued, "We are ghosts, like you, but we're here to help with that." He finished off the whole thing by pointing at the guy stomping around the streets and shooting acid.

The little one- Stray- nodded and popped another bubble. "Yeah, basically, our job is to beat up the ghosts who escape the zone and cause mayhem. We're just cool like that. But don't worry, y'all aren't causing to many issues so you're good."

"We are alot more expirienced than you though, so you guys should just stick to evacuation while we take care of the combat part," Phantom added as he flipped a -was that a soup thermos?- in the air.

Somehow Robin's frown managed to get deeper.

"We do not need you're assistance with combat," he scoffed, "and I find it unbelievable that you two have more experience than I do."

Stray's eyebrows shot up. " Oh okay, sorry didn't relise you were good on your own. I guess that's probably why you just flew through a window and can't seem to land a single hit," she sassed back, hands planted firmly on her hips.

"Tt, a slight miscalculation. Besides, I have no doubt I could take you in a fight easily, much less the flying green bozo over there."

"Oh yeah?" She replied, her nose twitching slightly, "You wanna go traffic light?"

"Bring it," he growled, dropping into a fighting stance.

Then they were at each other's necks. Damian was tackled off his feet almost immediately, making it less of a standard fight and more of a knock-down, drag-out brawl, and Phantom was just watching. No, not even just watching, he was cheering them on, meanwhile Jason was still trying to wrap his head around what they had said.

"Wait, waitwaitwait. Rewind," he said, causing the ghost to turn toward him distractedly without pulling his eyes from the wrestling demons. "What do you mean 'ghosts like you'? Were not ghosts" At least as far as Hood knew he wasn't a ghost. Zombie plausibly, but he had gotten better, so not a ghost. No walking through walls and spraying people with goo, and he definitely didn't float and/or glow like these people.

Phantom snorted and turned toward him fully with a roll of his eyes.

"I don't mean like ghost, ghost," he snorted, "at least not what most people think of ghosts. But you've both clearly died before, and you have cores, however small, so- ghost," he explained, trailing off with awkward jazz hands.

what?

"What?"

Phantom looked like he was about to respond, but was cut off when a large glob of plasma careened into their makeshift shelter and melted the remains into the ground.

The demons, now rolling on the ground, froze, and Phantom let out a low whistle.

"Right, forgot about that. Stray, come on." The girl popped up from the ground, sporting several new bruises and a manic grin.

"Time to kick butt now, Dad?" Hood's brain froze. 'dad?' Phantom just let out a drawn out sigh as he mussed up her hair in a way that seemed oddly familiar.

"Oh so no I'm 'dad'," he grumbled before turning back to Hood. "You're good on the plan, yeah? Cool, see you in two shakes of a ghosts tail." He punned, then they were off, shouting insults and throwing punches that actually managed to hit.

Hood took a few seconds to process what the fresh hell just happened as Robin stood up and spat some blood from his mouth. He was also sporting fresh bruises, aswell as a small cut on his forehead. Impressive.

"Tt, they are adequate," he muttered, turning on his heel and heading for the nearest building where civilians were still trapped.

Hood sent a quick message to Oracle and B that they had help and to focus on civilians, before following as the fight raged on overhead.

---------

"So is it just me or does Red Hood seem kinda familiar?" Dani asked, ducking an ecto blast and moving in to land a solid hit.

Danny raised an eyebrow and shot a widely at their opponent. "What do you mean?" He asked in response, frowning as the shot missed.

"I don't know, I think it's his core? I feel like I've met him before, but I'm pretty sure I would know if I had."

"Huh, strange. Hey Acid Breath! When was the last time you took a shower? You're stinking up the whole street." The Ghost roared in response as they showered the area in corrosive ectoplasm. "Damn, sorry, didn't mean to strike a nerve. How'd you get here anyway?"

"AAACCCEEE!!" now what could that possibly mean?

"Sorry I don't know anyone called 'Ace'," Danny called, stopping long enough to keep their attention off Dani as she went in for another attack. "You wouldn't mind introducing us, would you?"

"RAWR!!!" Okay, that was a no then. Finally, Dani struck, landing a solid hit to their back before getting smacked to the pavement twenty feet below.

Danny yelped, fumbling with the thermos on his belt before promptly souping the poor sap and flying down to his clone.

"You good kid?" He asked, wincing as Danny scowled up at him and spat out her wad of gum.

"Just peachy," she replied with a sarcastic smile as she took his offered hand. "I thought you promised me a fight."

Danny squinted at her and looked around at the carnage and smoking crater they were currently standing in.

"Was that not? A fight?"

The kid snorted and rolled her eyes, "I meant like a fun one, like with Ember or Skulker. This guy was no fun, no finesse. The closest thing I got to a fight was that brawl with the traffic light."

Danny sighed and ran a hand down his face, "Sorry? We'll see if Robin's still up to fight, either that or we can spar later?"

"Hmph, fine. But don't think I'll go easy on you just because you're old and you're bones are creaky."

Danny gasped, old? Him? "Oh you're going to so pay for that comment kid."

"Oh yeah?" She asked, planting her hands on her hips and raising an eybrow.

"Yeah," Danny grinned back, with equal levels of Fenton sass.

Their standoff lasted about twenty seconds before Dani's gaze focused on something behind her original.

"What's with the guy in the leather furry suit? He's staring at us."

Ancients, could he not do one thing in this city without attracting this guys attention? Apparently not. Batman stared at Phantom and Phantom stared back. Danny groaned.

Unfortunately, with the fighting now finished and most if not all civilians safely removed from the street still dripping with ectoplasmic acid, Danny probably should, *shiver,* talk with the local heros, including the Bat himself. There was no way Danny would be able to walk out of this without setting up several more flags for the furry brigade to hunt down.

But as much as he dreaded it, for some reason Danny obeyed when Bats stared him down from a nearby roof, his eyes communicating a clear talk now or I will make your life hell, though he would probably do that anyway.

"Ugh, here comes the hard part," Danny mumbled as he motioned for Dani to follow him up to the roof. "Batman," he greeted with a curt nod when they landed. At least they were on equal ground now and it didn't feel like he was being looked down upon.

Dani landed behind him, just as Robin, Red Hood, and Red Robin materialized next to Batman.

"Hey, Traffic Light!" Dani beamed, pulling an arm across her chest to stretch her shoulder, "You wanna go again? That fight wasn't too enriching."

Robin scowled at her and shared a look with his- father? Partner? Boss?- whatever their relationship was, Batman had a hard set to his jaw, but Robin looked, not exactly pleading, but more that he wouldn't back down. Somehow Batman lost the stare off.

"Very well, your form could use improvement and I am an excellent teacher," he said, taking a few steps away from the group. In no time at all they were fighting again like they hadn't even stopped.

Robin tried calling out the flaws and tactics in the fight, but was quickly, fully, engrossed on not losing his ground or footing as Dani attacked with more brute, unrelenting, strength than with tact.

Batman stared very dissaprovingly, seemingly ignoring Danny. Danny cleared his throat in an attempt to, Ancients forbid, draw the Batman's attention back to him.

"Don't worry, Stray won't hurt him, at least not more than some bruises or maybe a small sprain if he's not careful." Shit, maybe he shouldn't have said that. The stare Batman gave him chilled Danny to the bones.

"Sorry," Danny muttered, with a sheepish grin he held out his hand, "I'm Phantom by the way, I don't think we've met."

---------

There was something about Phantom that felt vaguely familiar, Hood just couldn't quite put his finger on it. Aside from the fact that he could've sworn he'd seen this guy before, the ghost felt familiar. The vibes that seemed to exude from the glowing teens somehow felt cozy, in a way.

It was so weird. There was no way to explain it. It felt like- finding someone who was just like you, someone who shared your interests and tastes. It felt like community, like people you can rely on and a place to come home to.

The feeling was so sudden and out of place it made him want to punch something. But like in a positive way. Like when he used to wrestle with Dick or B, way back when. Something in Jason's chest seemed to sing, or more like contentedly rumble. It was something he was used to feeling around-

Hood watched as Phantom ducked his head with a nervous smile, his outstretched hand wandering back to rub at the back of his neck as he avoided Batman's glare.

"Not much for social niceties then, eh?" He asked, shooting honest to god finger guns at The Batman, personification or 'revenge and 'the night'. B's mouth drew into a tight line as he studied the ghost.

"Uhm, sorry for like, invading your territory and stuff, I'll try not to let it happen again," Phantom said, attempting to bring his eyes to meet B's gaze.

"Hn," B grunted, "Gotham is no safe place for meta's, besides, we've got the heroing thing taken care of. We don't need help."

Finally Phantom managed to lock eyes with the bat, he looked taken aback.

"Yeah, sorry. No. You kinda did need help with this one, thank you." Phantom's confidence grew as he proceeded to explain just exactly why he and Stray were needed there. Citing the Bats' underpreparedness, as well as a bunch of ghost politics stuff that was hard to follow.

Batman listened raptly.

And yeah, no. Jason had to be entirely wrong. This couldn't be him, sure the face shapes were nearly identical, and the same freckles, and actually if it weren't for the color change and differences in age they could be the same person. But they couldn't be.

Sure Jason's boyfriend could be a bit... odd, and boisterous sometimes. But he really couldn't imagine him being able to scold motherfucking Batman with that much confidence.

But still it nagged at his brain. It really was a long, long shot, that was really, very, highly, unlikely. And Jason really, probably shouldn't have said anything, but he did.

"Danny?" Phantom faltered and the way he froze at the name was almost confirmation enough. His green eyes flicked around the rooftop, then fixed on Red Hood. For a moment his mouth pulled to a slight frown and his brows furrowed, even the noise of the kids' fighting ceased as Stray- come to think of it, that was probably Dani- stared dumbfounded, with a hint of surprise. The two 'ghosts' shared a look then melted into.... laughter?

One double take later and sure enough they were laughing. It was actually kind of unsettling, all echoey and reverberating as if they found the statement absolutely hilarious. If he didn't know better, Hood would've thought they had gotten Joker gassed or something, but he did, and suddenly felt very awkward at even entertaining the notion.

Batman grumbled.

So yeah, whatever, he gad been wrong. He shouldn't have said anything. But did they really have to keep laughing like that?

Phantom was doubled over and clutching his stomach, while Stray went intangible and rolled out from under Robin, who'd had her pinned, giggling uncontrollably.

Eventually, Phantom managed to straighten out and wipe a tear from his eye.

"Who's Danny?" He asked with a few residual giggles tainting his voice. "I don't know a Danny," it was said with such ease, but something felt forced, and his eyes kept flickering around.

"Pft, yeah," Stray snorted, floating a bit to lean her elbow against her partner's shoulder, "His name's Bill actually. Y'know, like inviso-Bill?"

Phantom sobered up completely and fixed her with a glare as the kid devolved into another laughing fit.

"Its not," he said seriously, "I've been going by Phantom for thousands of years, that one nickname is not going to stick." Yeah, if there was any doubt left that he'd been wrong, allegedly existing for thousands of years probably blew that theory out of the water.

"You wish," Stray forced out between giggles, causing Phantom to sigh.

"Anyway," he emphasized, clapping his hands together as he forced a smile, "Ghost problem solved, so we should probably get going then. Right, Stray?"

"Sure thing, Bill," She snickered, but followed as he slowly drifted away form the rooftop, "cya around traffic light!"

Phantom rolled his eyes once more before they both shot off. In seconds they were gone.

B turned toward Hood, mouth already open to ask a question, but he was already gone too. He'd done his part and he could debrief later. For now he had a boyfriend and his kid to get back to.

Fifteen minutes later, Jason was back outside Danny's door with a whole new set of emotions swirling about in his head. He took a deep breath and opened the door.

Danny turned form their game to look at him with his ice blue eyes, and smiled. He patted the spot on the bed next to him as Dani threw a card down with a small shout. She followed Danny's gaze and twisted to look back at Jason, blowing a strand of black hair out of her face and grinning.

"Ay, welcome back! Glad to see I'm not a deal-breaker!" Jason chuckled and took the seat, cuddling up into Danny's side. What gad he even been thinking. There was still alot of concerning things to talk about, but being a ghost/superhero was something he could cross off the list.

-even if their similarities still nagged at his brain

--------

Woop, finally did it! And with Jason's suspicions successfully waylaid, we're going to take a (planned) break, while I get swamped down with all my other projects + school.

Hope you liked.

[uselesslexbian]

the battle of the labyrinth by rick riordan sentence starters.

it's not a date!

not even my luck could be this bad.

i didn't get your full name last time when you tried to kill me.

you called me a mortal. like you're not.

tell me. you know what it means. all these horrible things i see?

for years i thought i was going crazy. i couldn't tell anybody.

i'm not a monster.

you don't need that. how about a kiss instead?

such a pretty little blade. what a shame it stands between us.

it would be merciful to end your life now, before you have to see that.

what did you do this time?

i'll make up some story. i'll tell them it wasn't your fault.

she's kind of cute.

promise not to kill me if i put my sword away?

i'm talking about justice. vengeance.

you will learn differently as you get older.

do you want revenge or not?

he was driven insane. he didn't die.

your armor is crooked.

we're fine. we fell in a hole.

there will be no killing today.

i don't fear you.

are you going to help me or not?

don't tell me you're scared.

you don't understand anything. i'm never going in there again.

we've had plenty of problems before, and we solved them.

you wanted power. i gave you that.

i told you not to disturb me.

you know my heart belongs to you.

you're in charge now. all the decisions are on your shoulders. that's what you wanted, isn't it?

i didn't think you liked heroes.

didn't you try to kill him, like, a lot of times?

getting something and having the wits to use it... those are two different things.

if you thought your first imprisonment was unbearable, you have yet to feel true torment.

demigods are cheaters.

i have nothing to offer. i have lost everything.

you should sleep.

how about i take first watch? i'll wake you if anything happens.

my friends are in danger.

you pick fights for no good reason.

i was hoping you would give up.

you have to forgive. you have to promise me this.

you should not fear power. use it.

some of us... the way we learn not to trust people is even more painful.

no. i'm not leaving you.

do you support the gods because they are good, or because they're your family?

be careful of love. it'll twist your brain around and leave you thinking up is down and right is wrong.

you could stay with me. i'm afraid that is the only way you could help me.

we thought you were dead.

you are the single most annoying person i have ever met.

she will calm down. she's jealous.

sometimes things go wrong. heroes get hurt. they die, and the monsters just keep coming back.

do me a favor. if you find him, don't trust him. don't ask him for help. just kill him.

i'm calm. every time i'm around you, some monster attacks us. what's there to be nervous about?

i could be gone a week and my parents wouldn't notice.

you've gotten better with the sword. i'll give you that.

hey, i'm usually about to die. don't feel bad.

you don't have to act like that.

i regret what i did. i was angry and bitter. but i cannot take it back.

there's something evil down that tunnel. something very powerful.

i'll be quick. i won't do anything stupid.

i renounce the gods. what have they ever done for me?

we needed to help you or you'd mess things up.

i didn't want you to die. you owe me too many favors. how am i supposed to collect if you die?

well, i did not miss this place.

maybe it's okay to still be a kid once in a while.

i was beginning to feel better, so i thought i would talk with you a bit. you always manage to annoy me.

you will regret this insult.

it sounds like we've got a lot to talk about.

[bullet-prooflove]

Clean: Trey Cahill x Reader

Tagging: @@mariashane @kj77 @tiredmarshmellowuwu @choppedgalaxynerd @herwordslikebutterflywings @flopiboni @words-and-seeds @aiko24k @@kane-nero-6 @wabi-sabi1090 @kmc1989

Trey used to traffic drugs. His dealer used to give him ten grand to transport a few bricks of coke over the border into Arizona under the guise of delivering one of the classic cars he’d been restoring to a buyer.

It was usually a five hour trip to the stash house. He’d drop off the merchandise, take his cut and then get high in a shitty roadside motel. He’d stay there for days until he was right again to drive the five hours back to Vegas.

He doesn’t do that crap anymore, he hasn’t since Folsom got him into rehab two years ago. That’s when he got serious about restoration, started turning a profit on the garage, building a client base. He may not ask where all of his spare parts come from for the sake of plausible deniability but the heavy stuff, he’s out of it.

If he gets caught it’s not just his life he fucks up, it’s yours too. You’re already getting shit for dating a former criminal, you will never admit it to him but Folsom had filled Trey in after the scuffle with the defence attorney. That stuff, it reflects badly on you, it puts you under scrutiny.

He’s kept his nose clean since then. He’s stopped going to the bars with all the shady shit going on, lost contact with the people who could suck him back into that life, tossed his burner phones. He’s gone completely legit.

He has his head tucked under the bonnet of a 1969 Chevy Corvette when Killian turns up at the garage. There’s a problem with the starter, he’s still trying to figure it out when he hears someone clearing their throat behind him. He knows it’s Killian, even before he glances over his shoulder. He’s been trying to get a hold of him for days now, putting the word out through the people they used to have in common for Trey to get in touch because he needs the cars to move product.

“You’ve been ignoring my calls.” Killian says as Trey straightens up and turns to face him.

He’s leaning against the hood of a Stingray Trey’s been tuning up, his hands are tucked into the pockets of his black leather jacket. He looks more haggard than the last time Trey saw him. Dipping into his own supply, Trey thinks.

“That’s not my life anymore.” Trey tells him as he picks up the rag from his work bench and uses it to clean the grease from his hands. “I thought you would have got the message when I stopped buying drugs from you.”

“Hm.” Killian says as he holds up a baggie of coke between two fingers. “So I assume you don’t want this.”

This is how it starts, he remembers. A freebie, a little fun, before he knows it he’s five grand in the hole, doing ‘jobs’ to pay off his debt.

“Do you think I’m really that weak?” Trey laughs, crossing his arms over his chest trying to ignore the twitch in his fingers. “That I’m going to jump back into bed with you because you offer me a bump.”

“I think if I leave this here.” Killian says setting the baggie down on the workbench alongside Trey. “I’ll be getting a call from you in a couple of hours’ time for a little more.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it.” Trey bites back and Killian gives him that smile, the one that sets Trey’s teeth on edge.

“Once an addict…” Killian says, pushing the baggie towards him.  “…always an addict.”

It’s a few hours later that you turn up at the garage. The lights are still on despite the late hour. Part of you is worried and the other part pissed because Trey was supposed to meet you for dinner tonight at that little Chinese place you both like. You’d sat there for an hour before you realised he wasn’t coming. He hasn’t been picking up his calls or his texts.

When you step inside you find him hunched over the workbench with his head in his hands. Your hand comes to rest on his shoulder and he flinches at the sensation before he turns his head to look at you. His eyes are red rimmed, the vibrant blue shining through the frustrated tears as the muscle in his jaw clenches.

“Trey.” You say softly and he takes a sharp inhale of breath before he tilts his head towards something on the workbench.

“I need you to get rid of it.” He says, his voice pained as you follow his gaze to the baggie of coke. “If I touch it…”

He trails off because he doesn’t need to say anything else.

Two years sobriety, everything he’s worked for, it’ll be gone and he can’t go back to that place, not when he’s come so far. But the thing is he can’t seem to help himself. His mouth is dry, his fingers itch, he can feel himself giving in and he’s powerless to stop it.

You pick up the baggie and tuck it into your pocket. The relief is visible, Trey exhales for the first time in what seems like hours, the tension seems to flood out of his body as he uses the back of his hand to wipe across his eyes.

“I need to know what happened tonight.” You say quietly. “How this ended up here.”

If it were anyone else including Folsom he’d lie, say one of his customers dropped it because he wouldn’t want them to know about all the bad shit he’s done in the past. But it’s you and he’s always been honest with you and that’s not about to change today.

He tells you everything, from the product he used to move for Killian, to the nights he spent high as kite. You listen quietly, your hand holding his and he’s grateful for that because being here with you, it keeps him anchored, it reminds him that he’s more than just his addiction.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you.” He says quietly as he clasps your hand to his cheek. “Really I don’t.”

Love Trey? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

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[crimeronan]

turning off reblogs bc we were able to get the car fixed!! ty everyone!!

god okay. i wish i was NOT constantly having to keep you guys updated on various life struggles. at the very least, i’m Extremely Hopeful that this is the last post i’ll need to make to this end for a while -- my rheumatology referral is finally sorted, so i’m just waiting for them to call me to schedule me in, and then i Should finally have some control over the medical emergency i’ve been trapped inside for. months.

i’m on medicaid so i don’t need financial help with medical bills (THANK GOD). however, my car just died. it needs a new starter and my mechanic has quoted me around $870 for the cost of parts and labor. i was able to use the help you guys gave me last time to get caught up on bills and to have my engine tuned, so i’m hopeful that this fix will keep my car running properly for the next few years.

it’s very very very important that i fix my car -- i can use public transit to get to the grocery store and to my main doctor’s office without much trouble, but the bloodwork lab & specialist doctors & my partners’ doctors & other stores are further away and more difficult to access. in theory, i CAN still do it, but chronic fatigue and crippling mobility problems make long trips on public transit infeasible. and obviously lyfts/ubers are extremely expensive when i’m already below the poverty line.

i’m happy to expand more on my financial and health situations if anybody needs more info, i’m just trying to keep this post concise. i don’t want anyone to overtax themselves donating to me, i know pretty much everyone is struggling. if you DO have a couple bucks to spare, everything will go toward repairing my car. literally anything helps and i’m immeasurably grateful for the help i’ve received in the past.

i’m also spending tonight reaching out to old job clients and getting my fiverr profile set up for a better / more consistent client pool. i haven’t been able to work as much as usual because of the aforementioned health problems AND because AI articles have really eaten into my usual client base. but i promise i’m doing my best to keep my head above water. my dream is to get back to a place where i can be the one donating to my friends instead of asking them for help ;-;

thanks for reading and thank you all for the support -- not just now but over the past several years of hashtag Struggle. it means So Much, i don’t have words to express how much it means.

venmo: @Katherine-MacEachern

paypal: paypal.me/kitkatmkath

ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/elliptical

AND i just got direct tipping set up on this blog if it’s easier not to leave tumblr!

[spicyvampire]

Hi! So sorry to bug you, but I see you post about "4Minutes", so thought I'd ask. In one, the phrase "Great's Dying Brain v. Reality" appears, and (only if you have a spare moment) wondered what that meant? Some friends and I have watched the whole series (some twice) and still don't fully understand it. If not, no worries! Have a great day!

Hey, that is no problem at all, the fun of this show lies in the understanding and what you as a viewer make of it

I'm gonna give you the very surface level of explanation that helps understand the premise of the show but also the parallel gifsets I've made with captions like "Dying Brain vs Reality" or "Great's vs Tyme 4MP"

So what you need to understand for starters is that, in the premise of the show, when someone goes into cardiac arrest they see in their dying brain a life they could have had if they took different decisions for 4 minutes before the lack of oxygen kills their brain and they die forever, it's kinda their own little world/timeline where they can be happy, I call it (and doctor Den in the show call it) the 4 Minutes Phenomenom (4MP), and a good part of the show is those 4MP timelines created by Great and Tyme while they are dying, their heart stopped at the same time at 11:00 while Great was in the hospital and Tyme was dying outside in the rain, thus there is 3 timelines -> Great's 4MP, reality (real timeline) and Tyme's 4MP

Great's 4MP basically most of what you see from ep 1 to 5 : this is the longest one because Great's 4MP was used to establish the lore of the show, also Great could time travel inside his 4MP to actually change what happened in reality, Great's 4MP follows almost the same patterns as the real timeline but he changed a lot of things to be a better person (because when he got shot in reality he was starting a process to be a better person than he actually was)

Reality aka real timeline is most of what happened in ep 6 to 8 : it's the gruesome sad true of what actually happened to everyone story wise, this is why my gifsets of Dying Brain vs Reality are so sad, because what Great or Tyme created in their 4MPs is usually much sweeter than what happened in reality;;; also there are bits and pieces of reality in ep 1 to 5, especially the things Tonkla and his boytoys related

Tyme's 4MP end of ep 7 from when he got shot and start of ep 8 : this one is pretty much fabricated almost completely even if the characters keep their essences (but it is logical because Tyme lost a lot before he got shot, and he was feeling a lot of guilts and regrets)

All the changes in the 4MP timelines are direct results of the emotions and situations they lived during the real timeline, and they come out of that experience changed people, the 4MP was there as a vehicle for character development that you see at the end of ep 8

Disclaimer : personally, I do not think all of this is as cut and dry as I'm explaining it, I think there are signs of Great and Tyme's consciousness intertwining in ep 1 to 5 and in ep 8 while they are dying even if the 4MP timeline was led by only one of them specifically narratively speaking but that's the beauty of this show! While everything was pretty much explained in my opinions, you can always continue theorizing and it still would work, because there are things in there that can be interpreted in many other ways! It's why it's the show of the year for me

If you want/need more explanation, here is a link to a post on MDL that explain like absolutely everything step by step, including the whole deal with Korn/Tonkla/Win and Title & Dome

Hope this helps and don't hesitate to come back and discuss more, this show is fascinating and I'm always happy to talk about it