#they should have never had only four players left on their own side

[beachesgetpeaches]

nothing says dignified loss better than shitty comments towards a team who stood their ground for 105 minutes, had the psychological (and physical) strength to RETURN to 1:1 after the opponents scored 10 min earlier with like 5 minutes till the game was over. like im sorry but croatia scored because brazil nt messed up big time, how are you going to have 6 of your players on croatias half with semi-finals basically secured...

nothing says dignified loss better than saying the ref robbed you and that croatia bribed refs (with what money babes?)... when the ref was pretty equally bad for both sides. (i mean if we had lost I would have said that ref has called many breaks bcs some brazilian player decided to stay on the floor while croatia was moving forward - a few situations happened where as soon as the game was stopped everything seemed fine)

ngl, brazil plays well and they play imo wonderful football, but it is what it is. there were quite a few chances for brazil to score during the 90 minutes, and then again in ET, but they didnt because croatia had solid defense, and thats about it.

doubt that anyone would be that bothered if brazil won the cup, I mean they are the ones who have every right to say the cup would be "coming home". it is what it is. dont diminish another teams success because yours didnt manage to go ahead this time.

[jq37]

Just to throw my two cents on the Rat Grinder discourse: They weren't worth the Intrepid Heroes' time. We didn't get the full picture of what's going on with the Grinders until the last quarter of the season. Before that they were just this other clique that hate the main characters, so in-character why would the Bad Kids bother giving them so much attention when they've got so much of their own crap going on. Kristens quest to get Cassandra back and her presidential campaign, Gorgugs courseload, Riz's million and one plates that he's been spinning all season, Adaines financial problems, Figs curse and her doubts about what she wants to do with her life. Fabian's the only one who might have had the time, but he had to be Maximum Legend. There genuinely was no time or even an incentive on the IH's side to develop the Rat Grinders characters.

I still think it's fucked up that these teenagers got taken advantage of by adults they trusted, but we didn't learn any of that until we only had two roleplay episodes left. Too little too late to even try anything diplomatic even if they didn't spend all their time after the Last Stand in hiding.

And a thing about Ivy that no one is roasting her about and really should: An elven archer? Really? Wow, never seen that before.

Yeah totally. Like, from a meta level, I see where the players themselves could have been more curious about the Rat Grinders. There are obvious plot threads that could have been teased out there (though, in fairness to the cast, the adult manipulation aspect didn't become clear until way later in the season--the rivalry and foil aspects were more obvious). This final confrontation could look really different if they'd played that all the way out all season.

But in character? The Bad Kids really didn't have a good reason to waste time on the Rat Grinders. They came into this school year already burnt out from their Night Yorb quest and wanting a break. But they don't get that because they immediately are beset by problems they have to deal with--Kristen's god is on death's door from neglect and she's on the brink of expulsion, Riz is running himself ragged trying to boost his resume for college, Fig is having a whole ass existential crisis, Adaine is struggling with money issues she doesn't want to talk about, Gorgug is taking FOUR YEARS of school at the same time, and Fabian is multiclassing and dealing with his empty house/not having parental support (or Cathilda's support) for the first time. They are dealing with SO MUCH high stakes, personal stuff before the plot even kicks in. And, mechanics-wise, this is represented with the downtime system that means that any time they spend on the RG's is time they can't spend on something that matters more to them. IMO, not prioritizing your haters is actually pretty mature. Like, they weren't proactively using their free time to bully them or anything (except for arguably Fig). They were snippy with them when they crossed their paths and that was it. As opposed to the Rat Grinders who literally had to be told by Jace to stop antagonizing the Bad Kids (though they must have been pretty ineffectual at it because the Bad Kids hardly noticed, which I bet stung considering they were so obsessed).

And also, it's not like they didn't try at all with the Rat Grinders. Early Insight checks on Kipperlilly just got, "This is a polished steel orb of a personality" which doesn't sound very worth interacting with in a sympathetic way if at all and then the next big thing they learn is that she had hated Riz since Freshman Year and that she wants Riz and Kristen dead. And that's AFTER we saw her smile and kill her party cleric. In their position I'm not spending further time trying to empathize with this person, I have made my judgement and it's up to the Jawbones of the world to find if there's something in there to be rehabilitated.

And that's not the only case. Adaine straight up saved Ruben from disintegration during the Frosty Folk battle when she easily could have saved the spell slot, but that didn't soften him towards the Bad Kids any. Adaine also was really keen to Scry on the Rat Grinders to find out what was happening at their meetings. But, in scene at least, she was never able to do that so we never got a scene of them, huddled together, clearly unsure about the path they're on but not feeling like they can walk it back or say no to the authority figures in their lives. She didn't get anything humanizing that would cause her to rethink their position on them the way that she did with Aelwyn for instance. So why would they think they're anything but gleeful co-conspirators?

Hell, the one RG Adaine was even slightly curious about was Oisin and now we know that he was feigning interest in her which, man, can you imagine how much worse that would have felt if she'd actually taken the bait and pursued him beyond just thinking he was cute? Of course, it's possible that her interacting with him more along with some good charm rolls could have changed the narrative in some way but we can only go off of what we know to be true in canon and those facts are (1) He tried to get closer to Adaine while actively planning the downfall of her and her friends, (2) he (along with Ivy) was mean to Buddy behind his back while tricking him into a plan that would force him to go against his religious beliefs, and (3) he called his KVX related dragon ancestors to try to kill the Bad Kids and endanger the entire student body population. Three strikes, you're out. If I'm a Bad Kid I'm not super interested in whatever else is going on with him. And again, literally all of Adaine's friends (except Riz) gave her help to do an Insight check on him during their confrontation in the hallway so she was looking for something there worth engaging with, but she didn't get much.

Fig was fully doing CIA, MKUltra, Fantasy Geneva Convention violations on Ruben to try see if she could get information or flip him. I think she did it in an objectively insane way so I'm not entirely shocked that it didn't yield the exact results she was looking for. But she never found the smoking gun (or whatever the opposite of that is) in his head that would absolve him/show the Rat Grinders were being controlled and her messing with his dreams never flared his conscience enough to make him try to break free (as far as we know) which is what I assume she was going for. If I was Ruben looking for a way out but scared of the repercussions, I might go to Adaine who saved me from certain death earlier the same year and has helped saved the world 3 times with her party and their friends in high (and low) places. Maybe that's what Fig thought might happen but it didn't so from Fig's POV? Gave him a chance. Time to start blasting. And again, at that age, if I walked in to the first day of class and the first thing this random boy does is sneer at me and flaunt his musical success, I'm popping up on his Nemesis Alert at that moment. Doubly so after he tries to trick me and my friends into doing drugs so we get expelled. I'm surprised she tried at all with him.

Fabian absolutely tried to interact with Ivy--in large part for self interested reasons of course, but that doesn't change that he did it. And she came across as callous and unkind from the jump. Their final conversation before the latest episode is the one where she talks about wearing Mazey like a sweater and then says that Fabian missed his chance with her before stalking off. That's a pretty open and shut interaction. No way 17 year old me is like, "Hmm, but why is she acting so mean? Perhaps I should examine that more closely to further understand her." Nah, I've decided she sucks.

And Kristen has tried with Buddy literally up until the last moment. She rolled an Insight check on him right before the fight started and she got a 1. She got nothing from him.

Mary Ann is actually the only Rat Grinder who hasn't done anything to make a bad impression on the Bad Kids--the only thing she did was have a really good Bloodrush tryout. So no reason to hate her specifically (and, in fact, she is also the only Rat Grinder that at least half of them are positively obsessed with), but no reason to explore her further. And Kristen still tried giving her a stuffed animal and her response was that she already had that one and that she was going to give it away. What are they supposed to do with that?

Even when they tried, they didn't get information that was worth chasing when they were so busy and had to manage their free time. Gorgug didn't even slot in downtime to talk to his bio parents when they visited. Why would he spend any time on Mary Ann to figure out her deal? Maybe if they were given more explicit opportunities to interact with them in passing. If Mary Ann was shown at Bloodrush Games. If during class time Oisin tried to interact with Adaine. If Kristen ran into Buddy and Bucky talking. If any of their forays into talking to them or looking into them yielded anything actionable or that piqued their interest--they opened the door for Brennan to give them something more than once. But they never got anything that was worth investing more of their limited time into.

(And also, they didn't learn that Porter was involved until WAY into the last quarter of the episodes. Which absolutely could have changed things since, as far as they knew the RG's were working alone to raise this god which isn't crazy for them to think because Kristen literally did that last year and it was of her own free will. If they knew early that the RG's were smaller players in Porter's plot then maybe they would have been in more of a rescue mindset--especially since Fig has always mistrusted him--but that's not information they had and by the time they got it, the RG's were in deep hiding, like you said.)

And so, coming into the last few episodes, that's who the Rat Grinders are to the Bad Kids. A group of kids who they first heard about in the context of, "they famously hate you," even though they'd never interacted before. A group of kids who they already thought sucked even before they tried to kill the entire study body an hour ago. A group of kids who are trying to doom all of Elmville to eternal rage and who are willing and ready to kill them to do it.

With that context, yeah I think their actions are pretty understandable.

(Also, lmao. Yeah, I think calling Ivy basic would probably hurt her more than most things you could say to her.)

[sc0tters]

Moment of Regret | Matthew Tkachuk

summary: you and Matthew have been in a situationship for far too long and when he gets injured things come out of his mouth that he so badly regrets.

song: The Way I Loved You - Taylor Swift

request: yes/no

warnings: swearing, asshole Matthew.

word count: 2.17k

authors note: first time getting to write for the man with an irritating mouth guard biting habit, but I have to say that I enjoyed writing this! Was meant to be up yesterday but I fell asleep… if you want to see more from the celly you can find the playlist here!

Your relationship took everyone by surprise.

Matthew started off as Brady’s brother and you as one of Emma friends. But one night at a party that you’d both been invited to and when there was too much liquor in both of your systems the only logical next move that could be found was to get into bed together.

It continued on for a year, you were like a girlfriend without the title but with all the love. Matthew was never shy to pull you onto his lap and mutter sweet things into your ear, or wrap his arm around your waist as you spoke to one of the panthers wags.

That was the real beauty of the relationship, you lived in Florida only two apartments down from him meaning that you were always at his games.

Because even if you had plans Matthew knew you were too far wrapped around his finger to care about them, quickly making sure that they were all canceled.

You should have wanted more from the relationship with how much you cared for the blonde boy but you knew he wasn’t interested in it and thus you chose to not be either.

The one night you had to miss the game, Matthew got injured. You had watched the game on your phone as work was slow. When Matthew got hit your whole body went into shock as you watched the boy skate off, you knew something was wrong. You could feel it in your gut as the camera panned away from him.

Like clock work the second you got out of the office you didn’t go back home, instead you drove to his place.

A place you shouldn’t have been, Brady had sent you messages warning you that Matthew had been in a mood but as the message remained vague in the hopes of not letting you panic. It only caused your curiosity to grow adding fuel to your reasoning for driving over the speed limit.

Matthew opened the door to see you stood there, but before he could say anything your arms were already wrapped around him as you pulled him into a hug. Relief seemed to ooze out of you as he wasn’t in the hospital “y/n,” Matthew croaked out as he tapped your back signalling for you to let go of him “your hurt,” you noted as you looked up at him with a face full of worry as you began to scan his body.

It threw the boy off how much you seemed to care “just my chest,” he mumbled as he let you in.

Brady let out a sigh as he got up “he broke his sternum,” he announced causing his brother to scoff.

The panthers player sent the older boy a glare “dude!” He yelled as he wished Brady kept his mouth shut.

But unfortunately for him Brady just continued “don’t let him trick you in to thinking that he is okay.” He added as he gave you a hug before he left the apartment wanting to get back to his hotel room.

You stared up at the boy “what do you need?” You asked putting your bag on the ground as you pulled your sweater over you shoulders making your own pile of stuff.

Matthew didn’t have a lot to say “just want to be alone,” he announced as he sat on the couch and began scrolled through the tv.

It had been days since Matthew got injured and now game four was meant to roll around yet you hadn’t left his side “why are you still here?” He asked as he cocked his head watching you prepare things for a smoothie.

You placed the knife on the cutting board as you looked up at him “someone’s got to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.” You teased as you tapped your fingernails on the counter.

The hockey player sighed “just go home y/n,” his voice was almost desperate, “I don’t want you here.” You weren’t going to lie that it hurt to be told that but Brady had warned you about how Matthew would talk to you so you knew it was coming.

But as the apartment remained empty besides for the kitchen where you two were you knew you couldn’t let him win “unfortunately that isn’t up to you,” you shot back as you crossed your arms.

He hated how much he had seen you, you hadn’t left his side in days “stop trying to act like you’re meant to be my girlfriend or something,” the words that left his mouth were all as foreign as he felt “all you are is my quick fuck.” A sentence so short had so much power to hurt you as it was laced with venom.

A scoff left your lips as tears began to well in your eyes “look around Matthew everyone has been pushed away by you and you can’t even fucking dress yourself.” You pointed out as you had helped him do all of the basic tasks of life today.

Despite the fact that tears were forming in your eyes his words didn’t let up “at least I’d get some peace and quiet if you left.” The boy spat sending you a harsh glare “wouldn’t need to hear you all the time.” He added as you continuously spoke to him about things as you tried to keep his mind off of hockey.

A single tear ran down your cheek “well you’ve just gotten your wish,” you pushed your lips into a fine line as you got up and made your way out of the apartment without a single word of apprehension from Matthew on your trip out.

You had never left a place quicker in your entire life.

Brady and Emma’s wedding finally rolled around and it was going to be the first time you were set to see Matthew since his apartment.

Sure it had been weird driving past his apartment without having the chance to turn in and see him. But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t plaguing your mind. Everywhere you looked his face seemed to follow, the billboards, the ads, even in your apartment. The memories of him laying on your couch as he pulled you into a hug not wanting you to leave, to the moments when you’d wake up and see him looking right back at you as he’d been watching you sleep.

You never never expected to fall for Matthew, it wasn’t what you were looking for when you started sleeping with him. Nobody plans for that when they start that kind of relationship.

So as you stood in the bathroom fluffing out the creases in your dress you thanked the universe that you hadn’t seen Matthew yet, well you had seen him but it didn’t seem like he had seen you.

His comments still replayed in your mind as wondered why he hadn’t said it before, you two had been sleeping together for over a year but here he was saying that you only had one job to him.

Someone came into the bathroom pulling you away from your thoughts “beautiful dress,” the girl complimented you as she sent you a smile “got a lucky man out there,” she added as she had seen someone waiting for you.

It caused you to furrow your eyebrows “I didn’t come with anyone,” you shook your head causing the older girl to grow surprised.

She placed a hand on your shoulder “go let him know that then,” she pointed out before she went to one of the stalls.

You stood there for a moment as you thought to yourself but curiosity quickly got the best of you as you walked out of the bathroom “Matthew,” you gasped as you almost knocked yourself off of your feet.

The boy wrapped his hands around your arms to stop you “we should talk,” he announced once you were back on two feet.

It felt awkward “gonna tell me how I’m only good in bed again?” You didn’t meant to let your voice get laced in venom but this was your time to say how you felt.

Matthew knew that he deserved it as he pushed his lips into a thin line “I’m sorry,” he blurted out as he didn’t know what else to say.

Sure he had racked his brain to see what he should have said but nothing ever seemed worthy enough of being heard by your ears.

Your eyes just danced around his face as you were desperate to ear something more from his lips, a please, a descriptive apology was all you truly craved.

To hear that he didn’t mean what he said, that he actually did want you but his pain was what stopped him from being honest.

But when the world around you remained to be the only thing actually talking, it was the tough truth of reality “I’m getting a drink,” you announced as you wriggled out of his grasp.

Matthew was quick to reach out though as he stopped you “I miss you,” he confessed causing you to let out a dry laugh “now you decide to miss me?” You scoffed as you crossed your arms.

It should have been a crime to look at you the way he did “you were a dick to me those few days, I would have left anyone else way earlier for saying less.” You pointed out as you pushed your finger into his shoulder not wanting to push it into his chest in case it was still soar.

The hockey player remained quiet as he figured it was best to have you say your little speech in peace “but I stayed because I fucking love you,” tears welled in your eyes as your lower lip began to quiver.

Your hair was messy as you pulled your fingers through your curls “it makes my stomach churn but my mind somehow feels at ease when I think about you,” your ramble was starting to turn into a love confession.

Yet he didn’t really seem to care “you are a cruel man for making me feel like this.” You sucked at your teeth when you finally locked eyes with him “it sucks knowing that all I’m going to be is some girl that was in your bed.” Your voice was soft as you placed your hand on his shoulder letting it squeeze the piece of fabric from his suit before you turned around to walk back to your seat.

You let your nails dig into your palm in an attempt to stop the tears from falling “wait!” Matthew called out as he pushed off of the wall realising that you were actually leaving.

The call was meant to fall on deaf ears but you couldn’t help but stop at the sound of desperation in his voice “you didn’t give me a chance to say my part.” He pointed out as he walked around to the other side of you.

An unimpressed glare was all he needed to see to start talking “I was an ass and had been one all week,” he began caused you to crack a smile “just an ass?

It spread to his lips too “just want you to know that you were more than just some girl in my bed.” His voice was sweet as he was trying to how you had he took back what he had said all those weeks ago.

Although it didn’t seem you were too impressed “why’d you say it?” The words seemed foreign as they left your lips.

The boy didn’t know the answer to your questions “I didn’t want you to know how weak I was.” With that injury Matthew couldn’t even undress himself.

You could have reached up to hit him “it’s me! I’ve seen you at your worsts and your bests!” You pointed out causing the boy to wrap his arm around your waist “that’s exactly it,”

Matthew had always been tough to crack “I’ve loved you since that night in the rain in Canada.” That was a moment you two knew of. You had been on a run when the clouds began to let the rain pour. Matthew went on a drive to find you and when he did it caused an argument that you eventually won after saying that rain had three main beautiful components.

The noise,

The smell after it cleared,

And the ability make a kiss like a thousand times better.

That last one was a new one you added to the list because Matthews lips looked really kissable.

Boy were you right.

Matthew looked down to your lips as he smiled “Should we test out our old theory?” He asked as he let his fingers brush up your side.

You looked out to the clear blue skies “might be a little dry for that,” you pointed out with a soft laugh as the boy sent you an unamused look.

“I’m kidding, kiss me.”

[hungry-tum-stuff]

Your character and their friends just ate lunch, but your character has a notoriously big appetite, and it's not long before they're hungry again. They feel silly saying so when their friends are still plenty full, so they keep quiet about it, intending to eat when they return home. Eventually, though, their rumbly belly gives them away, and their amused friends urge them to have a snack.

absolutely adore your writing & ocs btw

Thank you so much! It really means a lot to me when folks like my characters and my writing :D

For the first time in awhile, Buck had a weekend off.

This didn’t happen often. He usually only closed up his auto repair shop on Fridays and reopened on Saturday, but his buddies Lenny and Bruce, two of his regulars, had planned a fishing trip and invited Buck and Dante. Dante wasn’t on a case at the moment and Buck ran the auto repair himself, so he figured it wasn’t the worst idea in the world to close up shop and take a weekend to relax.

But it was also the weekend just before the full moon, which meant that Buck’s appetite was in full swing. Despite Dante worrying about it, Buck wasn’t going to turn during the trip. But he would sure as hell feel it coming.

Buck already had a pretty big appetite to begin with, being as tall as he was. He could clean his plate at any restaurant, he always took seconds, and he snacked frequently throughout the day. Now that he wasn’t a high school football player anymore and instead just beginning his thirties, his healthy appetite had left him with a strong physique and a soft middle. But during the days leading up to the full moon he just felt like a bottomless pit: Whatever he ate never seemed to be enough. Thankfully Dante was an excellent cook and had done enough research on werewolves to help keep his tummy quite satisfied, but when it wasn’t, it made sure everyone knew just how hungry he was.

During the drive up to the lakeside town his stomach had started to growl despite having eaten breakfast less than two hours ago, and as a result he’d had to endure Lenny and Bruce making jabs at him about his belly whenever it made itself known during the ride. They’d stopped at a diner as soon as they rolled into town, and were just now heading out to shop for supplies for their trip.

“That should keep Buck full for about thirty minutes.” Bruce teased, leading the pack down the street and towards the supermarket.

“Yeah well I’ll be full until dinnertime…” Lenny groaned, rubbing his stomach as Buck scratched his neck bashfully at the comment.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine until then too fellas.” He insisted, at which Dante raised an eyebrow in his direction. They’d all eaten a lot: All four men had gotten some variety of sandwich or lunch special with a side, and three of them were leaving the restaurant positively stuffed. And while Buck did feel fine, he also felt like he had enough room for a second course.

“I hope so, because we got a lotta shit to do until then.” Bruce said as he grabbed a cart. “Speaking of, Dante, you wanna find something for dinner tonight? Buck here tells me you’re a hell of a cook.”

“Oh yeah, no problem.” Dante agreed, smiling slightly at Buck.

“And we will find the rest of the shit for the cabin.” Lenny interjected, and they peeled off to hunt for their respective things. Buck tagged along with Lenny and Bruce because he knew they’d end up at the fishing counter, and he had to get some bait and tackle of his own. But not too long into their shopping, Buck felt that persistent ache begin to gnaw at his stomach again. He rubbed it discreetly and just hoped it would stay quiet as his friends were hemming and hawing over which bait was better and which hooks they should use, and the store was loud enough that any noises his tummy made weren’t too noticeable.

But once they rolled around to the food section to start picking up snacks, Buck found it much harder to ignore his tummy. It was definitely never a good idea to shop on an empty stomach, because now food was the only thing on his mind after walking through aisle after aisle of snacks, desserts, frozen treats, and everything in between. His tummy was already rumbling something fierce, but thankfully the hum of the freezers and whatever conversation Lenny and Bruce were having was enough to keep the attention off his noisy gut.

Eventually they regrouped with Dante by the produce section, flagging him down as they scanned for an open checkout lane.

“Wha’d you get for dinner?” Bruce called as they walked over to meet him, and Dante held up some of his ingredients triumphantly. Buck watched the package of raw chicken like it was a steak being waved right in front of him.

“I’m making one of Buck’s favorites: Chicken Scampi.” Dante proclaimed, only for Buck’s stomach to howl a terribly loud and hollow-sounding noise. He slapped a hand over his belly and chuckled nervously.

“Sorry, I s’pose I’m just really looking forward to that Chicken Scampi.” The other guys chuckled too, but Dante made sure to give him a pointed look that came across as worried.

“Well could you make it now Dante? Doesn’t sound like he can wait much longer.” Lenny joked as they got into line. Considering Buck’s stomach was snarling over the beeping of the cash registers, he was probably right.

“No, but I can get him a snack.” Dante insisted, piling his ingredients on the belt and adding a few extra bags of beef jerky on there with them. And as soon as they were checked out, Dante shoved them into Buck’s hands as Lenny and Bruce checked out their things.

“Eat.” Dante said sternly, standing beside the other. “This is your time off too y’know, so don’t worry about trying to follow our eating schedules. I know you hate being hungry.”

Buck tore open a bag of jerky and immediately stuffed as many pieces as he could fit into his mouth. Minding his manners, he did finish chewing before he got out a “Thank you, honey.” between bites. Dante just gave Buck’s belly an affectionate pat.

“Anytime. And don’t worry, I got enough to feed a family of ten, so make sure you eat you fill tonight.” Dante pointed at Buck sternly, as if he needed to be convinced.

“That shouldn’t be no problem at all.”

[xkseii]

⎮It's just a Game.⎮

⏤ Characters: all, but Childe is the most mentioned along with Ayato

⏤ Including: Gender neutral reader, self-aware characters, implied yandere

⏤ Summary: Put me in your team.

⏤ 2.300 words

Their favourite moment of the day, is when you turn on your computer and open the game.

Everything is silent until you come by, the world, and the sceneries appearing slowly as the loading screen win some time, the time for them to get ready.

The one character that you last used runs back to their position, the place you left them before exiting the game and turning off your computer.

Your team is ready, they are all so excited to see you again, afraid that you would leave them one day and never come back. They exist and live because of you, you don't have the right to take this away from them. They will never allow you to forget them.

Finally, the game is ready, the sceneries are loaded and all the characters are awake. Your team jumped on their feet, motivated and glad to be used again. Excitedly, they look at the sky, and a sudden white rectangle appears, for now, just a blinding white form with nothing inside of it.

And then, the brightness decrease, colours appear and you are here. Your familiar and lovely face looking down at them, watching them with an excited smile, ready to do your daily commissions, level up your characters and destroy some monsters. Your four usual characters are standing on the side, the rest is put away, hidden away in the scene, hoping that you would switch someone out and choose them instead.

In your team, Childe and Zhongli are beaming, one more than the other, knowing he is your favourite.

Childe is standing tall and proud in the middle of Sumeru, waiting for you to guide him, and share some of your time with him. He was your main character after all, you should only use him to explore and play, the rest were just unnecessary. And sending a cocky smile their way, he feels himself move, running towards an unknown location, trusting you, the player, his loved one.

He is sometimes being put back so Zhongli can use his shield, protecting your team and guaranteeing their safety. Childe hates it, but at the same time, he knows that you do this so he won't get hurt, and he loves being important to you. Never, you did let his HP fall below 10,000. Never, you did switch him out for another character.

He was your favourite, you were choosing the best artefacts for him, level him up, buying him all the skins. No one could take his place.

Many other characters were jealous, and all of them wanted to be in the spotlight. Often, Zhongli would turn off his shield if you were playing with someone he disliked, not caring if the timing was too short compared to his normal ability. Bennett would not heal the character you are playing with, if you used them more than himself during the day. Barbara would stop healing someone, Itto would make his bull hit someone, Diluc would himself in a bad position so the next chosen character could get hurt, Kaeya would make his ice freeze the character, and so on.

They all had their own way of cursing the rest, but still keeping it hidden enough, so you couldn't notice it. They would sabotage each other, watching you get frustrated because that one character wasn't doing any critical hits, because of them, and you switched them out, out of frustration. Leaving them a chance to be chosen.

As long as you didn't know, it was fine, right?

Childe was happily running through the alleys of Liyue, until he came to a stop. Confused, he looked up at you, wondering why you stopped without any reason, in the middle of nowhere.

Until, you click on the wish icon, the current banners appearing in front of his eyes. Annoyed, he watches you selecting the banner of a blue-haired man, who was smirking at him, far too confident. Gripping his bow tightly, he watched the comet turn into a golden nuance, Childe cursing out loud when you get this new character on the first try.

He observes you jump around through the screen in the sky, shouting happily, the camera of your computer showing all your movements and facial expression. Despite being annoyed, Childe can't help but smile at your joy, happy to see you so motivated and excited.

He had no reason to be so mad anyway, he was your main character, your main DPS. This guy was just a nobody.

But it seems like he spoke too quickly, because, instead of farming to get better artefacts for him, in the usual domain, you went into another one.

Childe was helpless as he watches you farm items that couldn't be used for him, his artefacts or his weapon. Little hope came back to him when you went to his character details, selected his artefacts… and then took them away. Only to give them to this fucking bastard.

He screamed internally when you took everything away from him, putting it on this new guy, levelling him up to the maximum, along with his talents. Putting such a beautiful sword on him, and his favourite artefacts, Childe's favourites. And the worse thing was that he had a hydro vision too. Just like him.

Before he could comprehend anything, you went into your team settings and took him out. Replacing him with that thing.

You started to play with him, and praise that guy whenever he was doing great damage, just like you were doing with him before. You even talked out loud about spending more on him, to get him to C6, just like you did with himself. With your supposed main character, your supposed main DPS, Childe.

But now, everything was about this Ayato.

Just like the rest, the other nuisances, he was standing in this small locked place, watching the four others have their fun. Zhongli glanced up at him, before acting as if he saw nothing, too focused on playing as well as always to keep his spot safe.

Some characters, from the near locked place, were laughing at him, getting replaced by a newbie. Burning with rage, Childe observed as time passed by, your attention fully on this new guy. Not even one glance was sparred at him, despite being your favourite. Why did you have to get Ayato now, as his banner was going to end, that was so unfair.

Next, it was his banner, and you would usually wait for him, farm and then spend everything on him. But since you got Childe C6, you've been spending more on the rest, and soon, Zhongli joined him as one of your greatest characters, along with Xiao and Kazuha. He wasn't your only one anymore.

He needed your attention on him, the others didn't deserve it.

Suddenly, he gets pulled out of his thoughts by an annoying voice, coming from the outside, from your bright rectangular box.

And along with the rest of the characters, they glared at the person appearing behind you, murmuring your name happily before kissing your lips. How dared you have a partner, when they were here? The usual loving display disgusted them, wishing that person could just go away forever and let you play in peace.

As always, this person took your attention away, and you got up, walking away from your computer. Only remembering a few seconds after, that you needed to exit the game and turn it off first. Your poor helpless characters watch the rectangle turn black and then disappear, the sceneries vanishing into thin air. Except for the region you stopped in, Ayato stood proudly and sent a cocky smirk towards Childe, who was still locked away.

Maybe it was a bug in the interface, or an error from the developer.

But Childe managed to get out, breaking the door and sneaking away. In the darkness, he appeared behind Ayato, a wide smirk on his face. And before the male could do anything, Childe knocked him out, his body falling down in a sinister noise.

When you opened Genshin Impact the next day, Childe was standing happily in the middle of the desert, the bottom of his coat tainted with a strange shade of red.

Taken aback by his presence, when you were certain to have played with Ayato the day before, you found him in your team, but his HP has fallen below 0. He had no artefacts and all his talents has been reset. It was such a weird thing to see.

Shrugging your shoulders, you just guessed that you were too tired yesterday, and didn't do as much as you thought you did. After all, you would play whenever you had free time, and sometimes, you were really too tired to remember what you did. So you were convinced that it was the reason why. As you continued to play with Childe normally, unaware of the chaos that would unravel soon.

Each day, after your daily login, you would notice a new character in your team, the previous one has completely disappeared, and was with the rest, their HP below 0. Only Zhongli and Childe haven't been affected by it yet. This situation makes you more and more uncomfortable as time went by.

Strange things started to happen. The idle animations would change, the character currently used seemed to look at you directly in the eyes, or their weapons would be changed to something they shouldn't be able to use, or their artefacts would get switched with another character.

Everything was far too abnormal.

And then, the strangest thing happened. Childe and Zhongli banners were out, and despite having both of them C6, you would spend 10 wishes on each, as always, to get the 4 stars characters and also see if you could get any of the two again. And you did get both of them.

But why did you get Stella Fortunas?

Confused and a bit disturbed, you looked in shock when a new constellation was now able to be unlocked for both characters. There was no name or indication of what it was doing exactly, as there was just three question mark, and nothing else.

Curious, you unlocked and activated both spots, but nothing happened, not in their statistics or abilities, and the characters' designs weren't altered at all too. Perhaps it was just an error, and it would be patched soon, as it wasn't really important anyway. You looked online but no one talked about something similar, so you just guessed that it would go away soon.

At the same time, your partner came back home, and you stood up to greet them, kissing them gently. Completely forgetting about the open game and strange event, you went on with your evening, cooking and joking around with your partner, eating together and watching your favourite series.

Suddenly, you remember the left-open game and your poor computer that was surely overheating. Excusing yourself, you rushed to the room, noticing the game on Childe's constellation, and the disappearance of this C7. Blinking multiple times, you checked immediately, and it was the same case for Zhongli.

Did you imagine it?

You had a bad feeling about it, a shiver going down your spine, but you tried to ignore it. You didn't want to make your partner wait any longer for you.

Leaning forward to exit the game, you saw two persons standing behind you in the reflection of the screen, scaring you. Before you could do anything, a hand was placed over your mouth and another around your neck, choking you. Your wrists were grabbed by another set of hands, and before you knew it, your vision darkened and you passed out.

When you woke up, you found yourself in a warm embrace, surely your partner holding you as they slept, as they were always cuddly during the night. Turning your head, instead of your partner, was a smiling Childe who rested his head on your shoulder, crazy blue eyes staring down at you.

Panicking, you tried to move, but another arm was immobilizing you, Zhongli's chin resting on your chest as you offered you a lazy smile. All around you, were the rest of your characters staring down at yourself and the two men, lovesick smiles only directed at you.

You felt your blood run cold, fear, and panic spread through your heart and body. Giggling, Childe kissed tenderly your jaw, biting down on your neck, telling you with a honeyed voice to relax.

As you saw the insane look in his eyes, a familiar scream was heard from afar, catching your attention. Looking up at the sky, you saw your partner screaming your name, searching everywhere around the room in a panic.

Sobbing, their voice cracking as they begged for you to not leave them, asking where did you go.

The sadness transformed into fury, and you watched in despair as they knocked over your computer, the screen falling off the table and suddenly, it went black.

You could still hear their voice, but then another crashing sound was heard, and it went silent. Calling their name, you were met with complete silence, your body growing weak at the realization.

The male behind you chuckled, some characters standing near smiling brightly, seeming more than satisfied by this action.

And then, the black rectangle vanished from the sky, all connection cut with the outside world.

Now, no one could reach you.

No one knew what happened to you, no one could find you here, and even if they do manage to think about something as crazy as opening a video game to check, they didn't know your password.

You had no way out.

You were trapped here, forever.

With them.

⏤ Thank you for reading! I wish you a great day.

⏤ here is my masterlist & ko-fi ⏤

[elynnss]

binary stars

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53886976

“I want at least three.” 

Cassiopeia twinkles above. Sirius follows the zig-zag of it down to Perseus, then Taurus, then Gemini. Castor and Pollux take turns flashing. 

“Oh yeah? And how many does she want?” 

The serpentine line of Draco flows down to Ursa Major. Part of him wants to sit up and turn to see Andromeda, but he’s comfortable on his back, with James a warm line of warmth along his side. 

“I’ll convince her. Being an only child is lonely. They need someone to play with.” 

“You wouldn’t play with them?” 

“Course I would! All the time. They’ll be quidditch players before they can speak. But I won’t be around to play all the time.” 

“Oh please. You’ll be the stay at home wife while poor Lily goes to work. I can already see it.” 

James just laughed, elbow knocking into Sirius’. It should have been freezing with the cracked stone of the Astronomy Tower at their backs and the cool October wind in their hair. But James was like an inferno- a sun amongst stars. Sirius wasn’t cold at all. 

“Nah. I’ll be a pro quidditch player. She’ll never work a day in her life if I can help it.” 

“Oh, you know she’d hate that.” 

James sighed, dreamy. “Yeah. Yeah, she would.” 

Lyra, Cygnus, Cepheus. Silence sat comfortable between them. 

“Do you want kids, Sirius?” 

“I’ve… never really thought about it.” 

He tried very hard not to. Kids only ever made him think of closets and family dinner and the flick of unfriendly wands and his own eyes staring back at him, big and wet with tears as he pleaded, pick me up, S’rius-

“Nah. Nah, I don’t think I will.” 

“Really? You don’t think Moony would ever want one or two?” Somedays, Sirius thought Remus didn’t even want to be with him. With them. Not for lack of love, but for that persistent, unyielding fear that someday his claws and teeth would finally sink into one of them. He sincerely Moony would tolerate something as helpless as a child in his life. 

“Maybe. I think he’d be scared, though.” 

James hummed. He didn’t need to ask what he’d be scared of. 

“And you? C’mon, they could be cousins, Sirius.” 

“I don’t think I’d be a good dad.” 

Hercules. Bootes. Ursa Minor. 

“I don’t think that's true.” 

“Don’t have the best example, do I?” 

If he squinted, he could see Mars. 

“I think that’d help you know what not to do then, no?” 

He did shudder a bit, then. Sometimes, there had been smiles, a hand on his head, a fountain of sparks to make two little boys laugh. It all got too mixed up, too jumbled to know which hands and which sparkes had been good and which had hurt. 

James only hummed at his silence, unfazed. This wasn’t the first time they’d spoken about this, or something like it. 

“Godfather, then. You two can babysit. How many can you handle?” 

He thought of James, happy but alone in a giant house. He thought of a set of three sisters, of the one who’d been left behind. 

He thought of nights just like this, with a different boy on top of a different set of ancient stones, pointing at the same constellations as they named their cousins and aunts and uncles one by one. 

“Two. Or four. Keep it even. One always gets left behind when it's uneven.” 

Sirius had a brother. He did not have a brother. His brother was asleep, countless stories below. His brother was next to him, staring at the sky. 

“Alright, Pads. Even numbers it is. I think I can convince her into that.” 

Sirius knew he would. Knew Lily would sigh and give in, as if she wasn’t just as excited. Knew that one day, James would host dinner for all of them at Potter Manor with a horde of rambunctious children at their feet. 

And Sirius would take them outside and point out stars, help their little hands trace out constellations. And his heart would ache- impossibly full and impossibly hollow as he stared up at the night sky- just as it did now. 

His side was warm. His brother was miles below him. His brother was right beside him. 

[lauranthalasah]

Fuck... I'm an idiot, I think I got why so many people felt Orym's nod to Laudna over Bor'Dor so bad.

This is a long one...

See, Orym has been painted as the "good one" by the group, the moraly upstanding, let's say. "The dad friend," the fandom said. And he kinda is, compared to the rest, he has more internal rules, which tend to kindness, respect, etc., and the others clocked it (not saying the other's don't have their own morality, just that Orym seems to have more lines he will object to be crossed).

For a long time, his actions proved this side of him to the Bell's Hells, but what is more important, I think... they start relying on it! Many PCs had done that, from EXU, to C3, to even guest players, somebody said something in the lines of "I look at Orym, if Orym it's okay with it, then I'm good" (I think it was a guess star). The group relaxed over their own process of decision making because they started counting on Orym to call them out if they went too far!

The key thing is... Orym never asked for it! As a mom friend, let me tell you... it's frustrating as hell to have to "parent" people who are my age or older, I do it only because I love them, and I don't want them to die! And Orym showed us his frustration with them a long time ago!! Remember when they all were rising hands over who thought they would all try to kill each other? Remember how Orym just stand up and fucking left?! That's what you do when you are tired of trying to be the voice of reason in a group in which at least four of them are older than you and the other two are adults as well! Hell! Ashton noticed it!

Orym never asked for that position, no one ever does, you just fucking fell into it, and then you care too much for the idiots you call friends... even if you want to killed them yourself half of the time (that's me). In fact, Orym reaaaaly doesn't want to be any kind of leader, not even a "moral" one, but he keeps falling into Chaotic groups, sorry man!

Now, something else the group as a whole fails to realize in its full meaning is that Orym is a soldier in a mission. He has always been, and they know it, intellectually, but they failed to understand the implications of it. Fearne understands Orym, that's why she goes to him when she herself has doubts over Imogen, because she knows what Orym did with Dorian, so she knows Orym must be thinking some strategies just in case, and I'm not sure if she goes to him only because she is worried or also because she wants to show him her support, whatever it is... it's one of the best shows of not only that Fearne loves Orym, but that she actually understands him more than one could think. But Bell's Hells don't have the knowledge that Fearne does, they don't know how lethality serious Orym can get, how he will do things he hates because he things they must be done, they've seen glimpses, but Fearne saw it in all its cold steadfastness when Orym pulled his sword on Dorian, she knows, the rest are going to find out little by little.

So we have Orym trying, for a long time, to understand the enemy, what motivates the members of the Ruby Vanguard, trying to keep seeing them as people, not just "enemies." But he also recognized that he can not be impartial with them. We saw how he left another "should gods live or not" discussion because he is tired of it. Even if he thought (which he doesn't) that all the Gods should died he would not help the Ruby Vanguard, they will always be his enemies. He has been saying it is personal to him since his chat with Chetney. The philosophical conundrum, it's in the end, pointless to him, if he can stop the Ruby Vanguard he will, just for what they did to his people. And even with this as a known factor... he still tried to understand the members of the RV, they were people who have been hurt, even after they killed him, Fearne, and Laudna, Orym still tried to keep that openess of mind and heart.

Until Bor'Dor.

Bor'Dor attacking them after they offered him kindness and friendship, but even worse, I think... it was Bor'Dor attacking Prysm and Deni$e, who had nothing to do with Bell's Hells and their attack to the RV, just because they were there, and he wanted to hurt Ash, Laudna, and Orym. That proved to Orym once and for all that the RV were too dangerous, too cruel in the pursuit of their goals, simply put... they don't care how many innocent people they have to kill to reach their objective. At that moment, Orym went to war, at that moment he became completely the soldier he could be. At that moment, he thought, "He has to die".

And in the middle of this storm we have Laudna on her own, and she looks up, she looks at Orym, hopping he will maybe stop her, the friend that has always stop them from going too far, and she doesn't realize that what she sees is an aspect of her friend she hasn't fully met yet, and because she is used to rely on his instincts over this things... she lets herself go.

So later, when things get a bit calmer, it kinda feels like a betrayal, doesn't it? Why? Why does the friend who always stops us from doing stupid things didn't stop me?! WHY? And the answer is, because he couldn't stop himself.

He didn't betray Laudna, he fails her in the rol SHE had assigned HIM, now they will have to rework their friendship.

This moment weighs in the three of them, Ashton, too. It's obvious in the way he and Orym tell Laudna to take a moment for her. They are trying to help her now. Nothing changes what happened, though.

This is going to be interesting because it's clear that that aspect of Orym's personality, the cold soldier, is quite on the surface now. He is angry, really angry, angry enough that he might not have the strength to keep being the "dad friend", because he might be too focused on keeping himself at bay to be the person who helps the others to do that as well. Like I think he will keep trying to be there for his friends, but his own mental and emotional state makes him less reliable to what the group is used to.

[matteosilly]

SL GEM + SCOTT POV SPOILERS

I can never be normal about the ends of these series. If you think this is cringe go away 😊 [NOT A SHIP]

"Scott? Where are you?" Gem calls out to her last ally left, dread and desperation seep into her voice. Impulse had just died, she'd been too late. She couldn't be late again. "Where is everyone..." She mutters, eyes scanning over the battle torn terrain. A speck of telltale light blue peaks through the savannah trees, the faint sound of shouting and arrows following him as he runs in her direction.

The relief fades immediately as the bloody image of one of her best friends inches closer. "Scott!?" She shouts, rushing towards him and past the secret keeper.

"Gem you need to kill me!" He says, rushing towards her. He repeats himself over and over as if it's the only logical choice left.

"No- Why do I need to kill you?!" She says, helping him walk over to the secret keeper. His blood stains her hands a dark red. He sits down on a patch of moss, still breathing heavily. The air feels still here, like the secret keeper is granting them one last moment together. She can't kill him, he's her last Scott, her last friend left alive.

"I'm on two and a half hearts, if they kill me and get the ten-" Panicked tears prick in his eyes. Several patches of his hair have been stained an ugly greyish blue with his own blood. There are arrows sticking out of angry red wounds. Gemini hates the color red right now. Hates how it's taken over every valuable thing in this life. "I don't think I can do it. I think- I think you're gonna need to do it." Scott heaves. His gaze settles on her seriously, he knows exactly how she'd feel in this situation. He's had to kill his own allies before. He hates it, but it's better than the alternative.

"Scott-" Gemini says, on the verge of tears. This was not how this was supposed to end.

"Wait, before you do— here, take these." He says, pulling things out of his bag. An end crystal, his entire stash of ender pearls, the rest of his food, zombie eggs, and his power four bow. All of this stuff that he should be using to fight lays at her feet. She wants to refuse it. She wants to force him to fight, but at this point, that'd be crueler than death.

"Go on, gem, go. You got this." He says, nudging the sword clutched in her right hand. Tears pour down her cheeks like the raging river surrounding their home, she wishes for a moment that this was all one horrible nightmare. One terrifying dream. She wants to wake up back in those pink walls of her base with her two closest friends.

She settles for a pathetic "Thank you, Scott." as she tucks the items into her bag, save for the bow, which she replaces her near broken one with.

Gemini lifts her sword, if she has to kill him, she wants to make it quick. Her blade slices through his skin and bone, snuffing out the last candles of hope. Lightning strikes down in front of her. She gains ten hearts, but hers breaks as her best friend's body lies, cooling rapidly and lifeless. She cuts a layer of moss off of the secret keeper and covers his body in it. It's an unmarked grave, sure, but it's the most she has time for. He deserves this much. Fire tipped arrows rain down around her. An unmarked grave is better than no grave, and that's quite a lot more than what most people have after the last few days. She hopes he's at peace, or at least cheering her on from the other side.

The world around her seems to gray out around the edges. Her will to fight has been snuffed out. Three players remain. "Hey secret keeper..." She mumbles as she scrambles to the top of it for leverage. She starts raining down arrow fire at her enemy with Scott's bow. Every arrow should be his. The damage she deals is in his stead. It should've been her. Her heart's not in it anymore. Gemini takes a deep breath, before

"You wanna fight? Let's fight." She says, under her breath to no one in particular. Maybe it's to her opponents, maybe it's to the secret keeper. This game of dodgeball isn't going anywhere, she slides off the back of the secret keeper, landing in a roll.

"I don't think I can fight Pearl..." She says to herself. Shes already killed one ally, or now, ex-ally. "I think pearl wins this." Because if anyone has to win, maybe the person she'd fought alongside at one point could win for the both of them. She'd never liked Scar much anyway.

"Gem... Don't make me do this, Gem." Pearl says from atop a foothill.

"I don't know!" Pearl shouts back, desperation clinging to her voice. An arrow strikes Gemini through the side. She doesn't cry out. She ender-pearls away from her ex-ally as more arrows wizz by. She takes in a breath right as she's dumped into ice cold water surrounding the disheveled heart foundation. Her blood mixes with the water, yet the feeling of blood on her skin never leaves.

"I'm not making you do anything!" Gem shouts exasperatedly. "Pearl, what are you doing?!" She dodges under an arrow, sliding behind a tree.

She exits the water, just to see Scar rounding the pass. "Hi, Gem!" He says, all too sweetly. She slashes at him with her sword instead of returning the gesture. Pearl follows up close behind him, as she and scar exchange sword swipes.

"Two versus one? You guys are so gross!" Gemini snarks. She slashes and stabs at Scar, who dips away so Pearl can land another strike. Maybe she can wear Scar down at least. Secure the victory for someone else. Scar swings at her again and again as Pearl watches on, cheering her ally along.

"D'ya wanna sword this out with me Gem, or with Scar?" Pearl says, grazing Gemini across the face.

Gemini's blood splatters on the soft grass staining what was once green, red. She hates red.

A peaceful smile graces her face. She thinks she can hear Impulse and Scott somewhere, cheering her on.

Images of her old life flash before her eyes. Pink walls, easy laughter, the joy of existence, those first days of peace. She wants that again.

Lightning strikes.

[g0ttal0ve101]

🎶💯💤🎄😖🎮 for any of ur little shits :3

they are little shits………my little shits 🫶

TW: obsessive behavior, a lil suggestive, and implications of trauma.

🎶 - what type of music does your oc like? do they listen to music very often?

Sam: weezer/the front bottoms….like. mentally ill homosexuality shit. yes he listens to this shit 24/7….(he j like me fr.)

Evelyn: Beethoven? i mean what else do British people listen to? IM PLAYING-uhh probably shit like the cardigans/cults. and yes, she listens to music when cleaning :)

Thomas: Nirvana/Radiohead. yeah. it’s sickening. no, he doesn’t listen to music often unless it’s on in a party……

Lucian: he listens to literally anything. he doesn’t care. i mean like he doesnt really wanna listen to WAP or something but-yeah no he listens to whatever’s on the radio (he’s fucking weird.) and he doesn’t go out of his way to listen to music.

💯 - share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.

Sam:

1. ALWAYS wants to be riley’s type. so whenever she was dating jordan, HE WOULD DRESS LIKE JORDAN. if he saw riley spare a glance over at some girl, HE WOULD DRESS LIKE THAT GIRL THE VERY NEXT DAY. in other words he has no sense of style himself.

2. he didn’t ALWAYS have his stutter. it developed by the time he was six. also it’s genetic, not any sort of brain trauma or anything - his dad had a stutter when he was young too, but went to speech therapy and eventually fixed it.

3. speaking of which HE DOES HAVE A DAD YALL!!! HE’S ALWAYS OVERSEAS FOR WORK!! VEGA DADDY FOR THE WIN!! and no he’s not abusive or anything either lmao he’s just a busy man.

Evelyn:

1. yes she lived in the UK up until she was fourteen. she’s sixteen now. so she’s only been in the USA for about two years and she regrets coming.

2. she lives with her uncle alfie after the passing of her parents. he’s very distant and barely associates himself with her, but makes sure she’s well taken care of before she turns eighteen and gains all the money her parents left behind. so yeah he’s aight ig

3. she’s very good at horseback riding. (she took lessons from the time she was a kid.) however, she never puts any of that talent to use considering she HATES TOUCHING ANIMALS so yeah that ended quick.

Thomas:

1. had a prosthetic arm (left side) since the time he was nine. how did he lose the first arm? that’s a good question you should ask him!! sometimes it’s because of self harm and losing all circulation after trying to commit, other times it’s because he was kidnapped and the joker himself sawed it off. (he will never tell anyone)

2. he has his own band and plays at parties sometimes. the cooler thing is that david nixon is the drum player even though he despises thomas <3 but a deal’s a deal right? also it works out in the end for both of them bc thomas gets all the chics after singing and david gets all the dudes after playing.

3. a bit of common knowledge but - he has three siblings. an older brother, a younger sister, and a little brother. he hates them all equally. however, they aren’t actually full siblings. they’re all half. Adrian (their father) had babies with FOUR DIFFERENT WOMEN!! role model, am i right? also thomas hates every member of his family lmao.

Lucian:

1. LUCIAN WILLIAMS HAS A TYPE!!! fluffy hair, freckles, a grunge/gothic style, and FUCKED UP TEETH!!!!! GAAAAH!!! both his exes had fucked up teeth (aka sophia had braces and david was missing a lot of his), and now his current boyfriend does. (bitch is a shark.) like shit. he loves those fucked up teeth. <3

2. he has tons of scars. like. tons. and you might be thinking TRAUMA!!!!! bc yes. trauma. however, a lot of them are from him being a dumbass as a kid. he would climb the top of a tree and fall off it. he would swing on his neighbor’s tire swing and fall into a pile of hoarded trash with glass in it. he would try to pull a root out of the concrete stairs and slice his shins after he fell. he is clumsy.

3. it’s time fess up….he’s not a total skinny legend no mo. he works out and is actually PRETTY BUILT. he ain’t got no six pack or nothing but he has nice ass triceps tbh……..and that’s on having an axe as a go-to weapon <3

💤 - is your oc a light sleeper or a heavy sleeper? how are their sleeping habits?

Sam: pretty light sleeper. he’ll wake up whenever he hears footsteps, or when his curtains blow in the wind, or when the fridge turns on. he usually peeks under his eyelashes and then just goes back to sleep.

Evelyn: light sleeper. any little noise makes her sit up and check her surroundings, even if it’s just her furnace turning on. she’s still half asleep when this happens though, so she goes back to sleep pretty easily too.

Thomas: DEEP FUCKING SLEEPER LMAO. you think he cares if there’s a nuclear war outside his window? bro as long as it don’t make one side of his pillow hot…

Lucian: deep sleeper when it comes to noise, light sleeper when it comes to any movement in the room. if anyone touches him, he’s up. if anyone applies pressure to the mattress, he’s up. if any footsteps are in the room, he’s up. you get the point. he will jerk awake if he feels someone else is there with him. (trauma) it’s not so easy for him to lay back down either. depending on what happened, he usually stays up for the rest of night. (this improves if kai’s sleeping with him bc he feels safe.)

🎄 - what’s your oc’s favorite holiday?

Sam: HALLOWEEN! 🎃

Evelyn: EASTER! 🐣

Thomas: HALLOWEEN! 👻

Lucian: CHRISTMAS! 🎄

😖 - is your oc an introvert, an extrovert, or an ambivert? do they let people in easily, or are they more reserved?

Sam: not even a question lmao. INTROVERT. and he does NOT let people in easily. only if it’s a pretty young woman named riley morg-

Evelyn: honestly i’d say she’s an ambivert solely because she doesn’t care about being out in public. (she cares about the GERMS.) she doesn’t avoid talking to anyone but she doesn’t go out of her WAY to do it either.

Thomas: EXTROVERT? HELLO? HE’S THE LIFE OF THE PARTY. Thomas knows everyone and their mamas atp. he’s so extroverted that he would commit a crime in the middle of the street and no one would give a fuck because he’s Thomas Hall. and if someone has a problem with him, they’ll just be gone in like 2.0 seconds lmao.

Lucian: this might be a shocker but…introvert. yes lucian is definitely an introvert. he avoids crowds, he doesn’t like talking in front of people, and he definitely doesn’t like people acknowledging him. when he doesn’t know someone, he’s not all bubbles and flowers like he is usually - he’s on high alert. Lucian only shows his true colors around his friends!!

🎮 - what are your oc’s favorite hobbies?

Sam: Reading, mostly. His favorite genre is romance and horror so he can take notes lmao……….

Evelyn: idk what British people do to pass the time…..JK!!! Evelyn loves crocheting and sewing, and designs clothes for her gf a lot <3

Thomas: this man is so talented and yet his favorite hobby is having sex 💀-no but seriously. he can play piano, guitar, and drums. he can sing. he can draw photo realism. he can skateboard. etc. etc. etc. and yet he spends all his free time partying………

Lucian: everyone knows he loves gardening, but he also likes skating and coloring too. :33

[unknown-lifeform]

One choice about Rebirth I am sort of confused about is specifically how Myrna Wallace was handled. It's great that we finally see her face in the one flashback! But also I'm not quite satisfied with how she was presented to us

Because when you see the flashback of Barret convincing Dyne they should let Shinra build the reactor, Myrna is never mentioned, while in OG Barret was all about the reactor because he hoped it would bring doctors to help with Myrna's sicknesses. In Rebirth, all Barret talks about is Marlene. Which is mmm a choice? For starters, it makes the whole thing feel a bit more manipulative on Barret's side since he's bringing Dyne's family into this as opposed to his own. But at the same time, I don't think Marlene existed yet? The flashback is set six years ago, and Marlene is four, so like. Not only she wouldn't have been born, but presumably Eleanor hadn't even been pregnant

But it just feels weird that Barret would never mention Myrna there. In fact, all of Myrna's sickness seems to not be mentioned in Rebirth at all. It's kind of annoying to me personally in a way, because imo the fact that Barret was so desperate to bring better doctors to Corel served to highlight that he is fundamentally a man that cares a lot about his loved ones and would do anything for them, and that to me is a key part of Barret's character. He just cares a lot about people. Maybe sometimes he makes bad decisions, but hell if he doesn't put himself into it

Also like we know Barret cares about Marlene. We have countless moments building up their relationship, both in Remake and Rebirth. And while being a father is an extremely important part of Barret's character, not everything needs to be about Marlene necessarily. He can have scenes that show his ties to other characters too

So anyways. I could sort of understand if the writers had decided to make Myrna a surprise, you know? Give new players a shock showing them Barret was married. After all, Corel is an open wound for him, and especially Dyne and Myrna. No one knew of his part until they hit Corel, not even Tifa who knew him the longest. Clearly Barret doesn't like talking about it. And it would make sense, then, that he would still be so deep in grief about Myrna's death that he wouldn't talk about her specifically. That angle makes sense. He could have omitted Myrna from his retelling of the discussions regarding the reactor. Then we get the Dyne fight, and Dyne does mention Myrna a few times, and I think as a new player that would be enough to pique my interest, who is this Myrna? And then at some point a big reveal

Except the reveal isn't quite there. Especially because I got the Barret Gold Saucer date, and in Gold Saucer Barret talks to Cloud about Myrna. Sure, it's assumed by now there is a level of trust, but still. It's a relatively light conversation. Knowing Barret's backstory already I enjoyed seeing him mention his wife, but it also means he doesn't have that much trouble talking about her in the end, and the previous reasoning is moot. Maybe he doesn't talk a lot about her, but he does obviously

And then we get that other flashback that actually has Myrna, which I guess if you are a new player and didn't get the Barret date is how you discover Barret had a wife (or partner, at least, I don't actually know if she is explicitly called wife but I think not). And idk it just doesn't quite hit as a big reveal kind of scene for me. It has good emotional impact but in a different way. And I feel seeing Myrna's corpse would have hit more if we had gotten more context of Barret being in love with her, as opposed to her being barely mentioned before

So yeah idk. I don't quite like how they dealt with Myrna here. Which is a pity because I feel in general the fact Barret is a widower deserves to be elaborated upon more, instead it was just kind of left there hanging a bit

[deusvervemakesgames]

Project RBH Devlog 0025

Following the cataclysmic discovery that the Procedural Generation code no longer worked, I had a few options available to me.

I could’ve switched gears to a Vampire Survivors clone. While the original Vampire Survivors did not feature any dedicated attack button, instead preferring automatic attacks, at least one of the game’s many successors has been a twin-stick shooter like Project RBH, and the upgrade system would be well-suited to this style of game while staying in the idea of being a reverse bullet hell.

I could also have gone with something like Nuclear Throne, which procedurally generates a single combat arena and then throws a wave of enemies at you, which also would’ve worked out well within the framework I’ve already established.

But in the end I did neither of those things.

I don’t remember if I mentioned it before—I should have, but I don’t remember if I did—but the procedural generation code I’m using is not my own. It was publicly provided by another member of the GameMaker Studio community, Cloaked Games, who has continued to work on it for the past few years now and has recently started their own DevLog series on Youtube dedicated to their own roguelike.

I reached out to Cloaked Games about the problem and within hours they had replied and patched the code to work again. It turns out the some of the code was using depreciated functions that had been replaced as GameMaker itself updated through the years, so replacing those old functions with the new equivalents made everything work again. Problem solved!

To celebrate I started messing around with the camera; the very thing I’d been trying to do back when I discovered the problem. The new camera isn’t perfect, but I have successfully made it so that the camera will offset from the player towards their cursor. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to have worked the way I wanted, as it isn’t very reactive until you cross an invisible threshold that separates the screen into four quadrants. I’ll figure out some way to fix it, since I don’t want it to cause any motionsickness, and I’d rather err on the side of caution there.

(Note: Camera Movements resulted in a GIF way bigger than Tumblr will let me post! Check out this DevLog on my Patreon to see the full GIF!)

Following that, I finally got around to fixing some bullet behaviors that have been in the game almost since the beginning. Specifically, Piercing and Ricochet.

See, I want both of these to happen a limited number of times so that I can dynamically change them via the upgrade system, so you can get +3 Piercing or something and hit a bunch of enemies in one shot, but not every enemy in that line, or go through too many walls. Unfortunately, my code for that was based around preventing the bullet from seeing that it had a confirmed hit against a target, which triggers them to delete themselves. All I had to do was slightly adjust the code I’d previously tried to unconfirm that it had hit something and decrease a variable tracking how many things it can go through. And now it works!

Ricochet had a similar problem in that I wanted it to only happen a few times, but it was unlimited. However, this is because I was using the in-engine physics to handle their bouncing so I wouldn’t have to figure out the geometry calculations myself. As a result, they never registered that they were actually hitting the walls. This fix was a bit more involved. I had to go into the damage script that registers that the bullets hit something and add in an If statement checking if they still had ricochets left and if so, to bounce, and if not, to move onto the next step (deleting itself or piercing).

And now it works!

My final bullet behavior is one that I’ve wanted from the start but I didn’t know how easy it would be. Homing Projectiles, but ones that I could also dynamically adjust. Turns out it was easy, actually. I tried several different math formulas to adjust the bullet’s direction mid-flight, which was easy because I am again using the engine physics for their movement, so they already preserved velocity. Some of them worked better than others, but I found one that also allowed me to assign a variable to how fast it would turn towards the nearest enemy, and that means I can upgrade it!

Unfortunately this all means that I no longer have any excuse to not stare at my spreadsheet and plan more upgrades. Well, except for fixing my camera, but I doubt that will take very long. So back into the tank for dry office work, I guess.

But on the bright side, the core gameplay is coming along nicely!

Speaking of which, I almost completely forgot, but it’s the last Monday of the month! That means it’s time for this month’s release of the early build for my Tier 2 and 3 Patrons!

Until next Devlog!

-DeusVerve

Special thanks to my Tier 3 Patrons, Haelerin and Christos Kempf!

Support me on Patreon to get Early Access to builds!

[turquoisepolo]

Fight So Dirty, Chapter Five

Andreil thing based off of this post. Trying to make this a thing, if all goes to plan. Read chapter four first!

Chapter Rating: PG-13

Warning(s): Violence (minor)

The next morning Neil felt pleasantly sore, arms aching with the strain of using an Exy racquet against Class-1 collegiate Exy players for hours. As expected, he was awake ridiculously early and looked to the side only to find a short blonde haired boy sleeping across from him in the opposite bunk. He felt shocked at first, then quickly came back to his current situation as a fake college student and slipped out of bed to go change. 

Once his running shoes (beat up pair of thrifted converse) were on, he left Fox Tower and took a moment to breathe in the crisp morning air. It was the perfect time for a run, especially during the summertime. Before the sun had the opportunity to beat down on the Earth, while still chasing away the cold of nighttime with its early morning rays.

Just before his mind was allowed to wander back to his mother again, Neil shot off. He wasn’t sure where he was going, unfamiliar with the campus, but that was the beauty in running. He didn’t have to know anything, he didn’t have to think. His feet had carried him to (relative) safety for eight of his eighteen years now, and Neil had no reason to doubt his instincts yet. 

He ran, and ran, head blissfully empty for a moment before hazel eyes and a dangerous smile came to mind. Neil frowned and ran faster, faster, faster. Andrew was a threat, sure, but no more than his father’s men and they never came to mind during his runs. Perhaps it was different because Andrew was in close proximity to them? That would be a valid reason for his mind to be working overtime concerning the other man. 

Still, once Neil had made his round around the entire campus, he couldn’t erase his anxiety. Perhaps he should take his mother’s advice and run while he still could.

One look at Fox Tower convinced him otherwise. This was his. At least for a little while. He could go to school, play Exy again. He ran through his mother’s rules again.

Rule #1: Do not stay in one place for too long.

He wouldn’t, he’d stay until the end of the season and leave, if even that, Neil reasoned. 

Rule #2: Stay hidden.

Neil flinched as he thought of that one. Playing any sport was risky, but in a class one college it was worse. Every game would be recorded, and he was sure to be noticed. Still, he had his hair colored and contacts on, so the chances of being noticed were slim enough. 

Rule #3: Do NOT get attached.

That one was easy enough. Andrew, Aaron, and Kevin weren’t likable, each for their own reasons, and although Nicky was easy enough to like, Neil knew he wouldn’t fall for the charismatic smile. 

Once Neil got out of his own head, he realized he’d traveled all the way to the door of his dorm. He opened the door and still found it to be dead silent. Neil frowned to himself, glancing at his (also thrifted) watch. Past seven, which seemed like a reasonable enough time to begin the day. It was summer though, so Neil decided not to judge too harshly. 

He opened the door to the shared bedroom and opened his duffle bag, grabbing clothes and a towel before heading to the shower. 

Thankfully no peculiarly colored eyes plagued his thoughts as he headed under the warm stream of water.

Neil finished quickly and changed, and upon exiting he found Nicky awake and in the kitchenette. 

Nicky perked up at the sight of Neil. “Good morning! Another early riser, huh?” He flashed Neil one of his friendly smiles and poured milk into his bowl of cereal. Nicky’s voice had a faint morning rasp in it, indicating that Nicky really hadn’t been up for very long.

He frowned. “If you can call seven early.” Neil’s response seemed to throw Nicky off, his smile dropping for a second before returning in full force as Neil put together his own bowl. 

“It is compared to the twins! Aaron isn’t so bad, but if you’d let him, Andrew would sleep himself into a coma!” Nicky laughed before taking a bite and Neil chose to ignore the seemingly useless comment. He wasn’t quite sure why they were talking about their sleeping habits.

Apparently Neil’s silence was noticed because Nicky smiled knowingly at him in a way that made Neil shift uncomfortably.

“Not big on small talk, huh? That’s alright, I like getting right to business anyways too.” 

Neil was about to ask what he meant before Nicky sidled up beside him and brushed one of Neil’s stray curls behind his ear.

He froze, unsure what to do before Nicky was being pushed into a wall across the room by a short angry blonde. Andrew, Neil realized. 

“Don’t touch my things,” He said, quietly, threateningly. Neil couldn’t make out either of their expressions, but Neil knew Nicky had to be terrified if it was the same dead eyes and empty smile that had greeted him the first time Andrew had introduced himself to Neil. 

Nicky must have said the right thing, because Andrew let go, not sparing a glimpse at Neil before he headed to the bathroom, presumably to brush his teeth. 

The redhead looked back at Nicky. There were pronounced ligature marks where Andrew’s fingers had pressed against the taller boy’s neck, and he seemed to be catching his breath still. 

When Nicky noticed Neil staring he tried giving him a reassuring smile. It didn’t work as intended, and Neil felt a bubbling of confusion and anger and a myriad of questions haunting his thoughts.

What had Nicky done that was apparently against Andrew’s rules? Why was Nicky acting so normal? Was strangulation a common occurrence? If so, was that another danger that Neil had to account for when it came to living in this strange, strange place? What did Andrew mean by “my things”? Last Neil checked, he was his own separate individual. 

By the time Neil had finished his cereal, Nicky had vanished mysteriously and Andrew had emerged from the bathroom.

Before he got the chance to ask Andrew his questions (or at least the ones that wouldn’t get him choked), Andrew spoke.

“Get dressed.” Neil frowned. “I am dressed.”

Andrew paused and looked him up and down, slowly, mouth curling in obvious distaste. “Then put on your shoes.”

He did, reluctantly. “Where are we going?”Twirling the car keys around his finger, Andrew gave a response that answered absolutely nothing.

“You’re going to become a real person, Pinnochio.”

[cherrypieships]

bizzarre love triangle

A/N: hi!! this is a fic from a few months ago that i never posted! This is the getting-together story of Mel, Eddie, and Steve. enjoy! 🫶🏼

Ship: Steve x Melody (s/i) x Eddie

Summary: A post s-4 (obviously canon-divergent) steve-centric fic about love, queer awakenings and polyamory. also there's weed in this if you care.

“The Outsiders, Halloween, Airplane… any of these sounding good?” Steve asks over the sound of Mel pulling at the seam of a bag of potato chips, rolling his eyes when she shoves a hand inside and withdraws a fistful of salty treasure. “Guys, come on, are we watching a movie or not?”

To her left, Eddie waves his hand. “Dude, I don’t care if we watch something or not, if it gets you to stop your nagging, put on whatever you want.” 

Mel laughs a little at that, crunching down on the chips in her mouth and pushing the bag towards Eddie so he can indulge. “Yeah, baby, just choose something and come sit.” She pats the other side of the couch next to her.

She smiles at him, all tilted lips and potato chip crumbs, and the way she looks at Steve makes his heart hurt enough that he grabs for the closest VHS tape- Rocky Horror Something Something- and pushes it into the player. “Alright, but if you guys complain I’m not getting up to switch it.” He says, pressing the play button when the menu comes up and moving to flop down next to her.

As the opening credits roll, Mel bops her head along to the song that plays, and Steve smiles when her hand winds up holding his own in his lap. He can smell her shampoo this close, familiar in a way that makes his stomach flip, and he allows himself, for the first time all day, the pleasure of leaning against her skin, all soft and smooth under the arm that he tosses around her shoulders. She’s humming under her breath, and Steve is suddenly glad he chose this movie.

Blissfully, she leans back against him, her hip jutting into Eddie’s side gently, and she mumbles a soft ‘sorry’ as she tucks up close to her boyfriend. The boy to her left shifts, and Steve eyes him as his hands move for the pockets of his vest. “Oh shit,” he exclaims. “I forgot I got you guys a gift. You know, as thanks for the whole ‘saving my ass from hellbats’ thing.” He makes eye contact with Steve as he digs around in his pocket, and Steve tries not to think about the way his pupils are blown wide, a thin ring of coffee-sweet brown around them. What was that thing Dustin used to tell him about pupils dilating?

Steve can’t help himself, he snorts at Eddie’s words. “Dude, you saved yourself. Henderson told us everything.”

“And you don’t have to thank us, Eddie, you would have done the same for us,” Mel agrees, her voice softer than his came out. She’s always been better at bedside manner. 

Nevertheless, Eddie presents a little hand-rolled cone wrapped in white rolling paper. It’s a joint, which Steve guesses he should have predicted, but this one has a sweeter smell to it that has his girlfriend grasping for it immediately. “No fucking way, you’re carrying Columbian Gold again?” She beams.

Eddie’s grabbing at a stray lock of his unruly hair, pulling it in front of his face before he can speak again. He shrugs, nonchalant. “I’m not,” he says bashfully. “I came into some of it and, well, that’s what you used to get, right?” He digs in his pocket again, and produces a ziplock baggie, four more joints rolled tightly inside of it. 

Steve knows about his girlfriend’s past with Eddie Munson. They used to ‘hang out’ as Mel so eloquently put it, and had only expanded on once, when Steve had explicitly asked. They’d met at a battle of the bands in her freshman year, his junior. When the bassist for The Syrens had started talking shit (Charlie had always had a big mouth and low tolerance for men, as Steve learned all too quickly), Mel and Eddie were the ones to break the tension with a civil handshake. They’d started talking, eventually realizing they were more similar than they’d thought.

In their respective sophomore and senior years, Mel had started buying her supply from Eddie, enjoying both his warm conversation and generous Friends and Family Discount. She hadn’t ever told him how they’d drifted apart, but Steve assumed it had something to do with him entering the picture. He’d asked about it once, if she found Eddie attractive. If there had ever been anything between them.

She’d shrugged, focusing more on the wallpaper of their apartment than the question. “Sure, he’s handsome, you know. Objectively.” Steve had pretended to know what that meant. “I think I liked him, but when I realized it, I had just broken up with Charlie, right? It was bad timing.”

In the present, Mel smiles, a big, wide, infectious thing that has Steve doing the same. “You got this for us?”

“Please,” Eddie scoffs. “It’s the least I could do. Pretty sure I’m forever indebted to you guys.”

Steve snatches a lighter off the coffee table, not making eye contact with either of them. “You don’t owe us shit, man,” he says quietly, turning Mel’s face by her chin as she lifts the joint to her lips. He flicks the lighter on, burning away at the tip until the greenery inside catches flame and she can take a hearty puff. “But thank you,” he amends.

Mel blows out a mouthful of earth-smelling smoke, then simpers up at Eddie. “It’s very nice Eddie, thank you.” She repeats, sweet as she is, and Steve can’t help but smile when she passes the spliff to the other boy instead of him.

Though it’s only May, the living room is sweltering. Steve suspects it may have something to do with the thick haze of smoke that fills the room. The three of them had blown through the first joint fairly quickly, and were now splayed around the room rather than properly seated like before. Steve’s still in his spot, but Mel has now taken up the other three cushions, her legs swung over her boyfriend’s so he can rub circles into the soft skin of her calves. One arm is across her stomach, rucking her shirt up above her belly button, while the other dangles down towards the floor where Eddie sits, criss-cross applesauce. 

The movie in the background has gone almost entirely unwatched, but Steve clocks in during a scene in a pool, with five people in various states of undress playing in the water, sharing kisses and intimate exchanges that make his stomach stir. Not that he hasn’t watched like, a sex scene before. But this one feels so different, less of a sex scene and more exploration, giggles and smiles, splashes and song. There’s no rules, no restrictions, everyone touching and kissing whoever they please. Boys and boys and girls and girls.

It surprises him in the moment how he feels watching it. There’s no restless feeling in his chest the way there was the first time he ever saw two boys kiss (fourth grade, two boys on his little league team during a game of truth or dare). Now all he feels is curiosity. 

It’s like his life has been split into two, pre- and post-Nancy Wheeler. He wonders if his Junior year self would have knocked him to the ground for even watching this weird movie. If he hadn’t met his now close friend, would he be here today? Melting into a soft couch with the love of his life and a boy with the kindest face he’s ever seen? Or would he still be shoving kids and calling them queers around town?

Something tells him he would have always made the change. Fate and shit. He thinks given the choice, between being popular and feeling the way he does right now, he’d shun King Steve for the rest of his life. He’d kill him if it meant he could be here in this moment. 

He tilts his head watching it, and is about to ask if anyone else is confused, when Mel shifts, shakes her curls out from where the couch has pressed them flat. “Anyone else need water?” She passes the second spliff to Eddie.

“Yes,” the boys chorus, and Steve giggles. The sound makes Eddie turn to look over his shoulder, his long hair tickling against Steve’s leg. It splashes goosebumps across the skin there, and Steve claps a hand over it, scratching as though he can make the sensation go away.

Mel stands, using Steve’s shoulder as leverage and tucking her feet up so as to not kick Eddie in the back of the head. She kisses Steve’s cheek as she leans over, and he grabs for her chin as she pulls away to drag her in for a proper kiss. Watching all those on-screen kisses had left him a little wanting.

After Mel has made her way into the kitchen, Eddie takes a pull from the joint, red lips wrapping around the end. “God, Tim Curry is such a badass.” He says through a breath of smoke. 

“Who?” Steve asks.

Eddie whips around, eyes going wide. “Tim Curry?” When Steve only blinks, he elaborates, and the scene feels so familiar he’s almost transported back in time. “Legend, dude? He was Darkness.” Another reference gone over his head. Eddie seems to see it. “Clue? Fucking Annie?”

“Who was he in Annie?”

“Rooster.”

Steve squints, thinking, and comes up empty. “Who is he in this?”

Eddie looks up onto the screen, pausing for just a moment while he waits for this Curry guy to appear. “Him. Frank-N-Furter.” He points to a man in a glittery corset and fishnet stockings, his hair in wet long curls and melting makeup dramatic. 

Steve leans forward to get a good look at the actor’s face. He’s got strong eyebrows, a wide mouth wrapped in purple lipstick. He notes it. “Oh yeah, okay.” He lies.

If Eddie clocks the mistruth, he doesn’t mention it. “He’s incredible. Got three albums out, too.” When he turns, his face is closer to Steve’s own than he’d expected. Steve can’t help but look down at him, at the round set of his lidded eyes, the smooth pale expanse of his skin, the way his bangs whisper against his forehead. Maybe he should feel weird, looking at his friend this close, but maybe the weed is helping. And maybe Eddie is looking back.

Mel comes back from the kitchen toting three thrifted glasses full of ice water. “Are you talking about Tim Curry?” She hands Eddie a glass of water, evidently breaking the spell. Steve takes the other glass with shaking hands.

“I knew you’d have my back on this,” Eddie grins. His movements are liquid smooth, slow and relaxed, and Steve shakes the thoughts that are rattling in his head. He’s overthinking again.

His girlfriend- who he still loves, thank you, brain- drops back where she had been laying before, her skin cool from the fan in the kitchen, and he presses a kiss to her knee as it props up in his lap. “This movie is so goddamn weird, were they high when they wrote this?” He ponders aloud, watching where the people onscreen are now dressed in space alien outfits.

A laugh erupts from Mel, and both boys smile at the sound. “It’s a cult classic, Stevie.” She pets his hand fondly, then nudges Eddie with the other. He turns around dutifully, back to the television now. “Right, Eddie? Tell him it’s a cult classic.”

“Stevie,” Eddie repeats, the nickname so soft from his mouth that Steve almost misses the way he smiles at the couple. “It’s a cult classic. A pivotal moment in cinema.” He turns to Mel, who is giggling so hard it’s shaking Steve’s ribs and rattling his heart in its cage. “Jeez, you’re a lightweight.”

Steve reaches over to pet the side of her face. “Yeah, she’s a funny one. Surprised she hasn’t greened out already.” Mel shuts her eyes, then opens them and pokes at Eddie’s cheek.

“That was one time,” she protests, her mouth turning pouty. “And this is way less strong than whatever insane shit you brought home that day.” She snorts, trying to think of the name. “Fucking… kite-flier? Kite-skyer? Sky…”

“Kite-rider.” Steve offers.

Eddie turns to face Steve now, eyebrows raised under his bangs curiously. “Jesus, Harrington, are you trying to kill her?” He asks, and thumps Steve’s knee, more playful than protective. The contact still makes Steve’s face feel hot. Something curls up sweet and tight in his chest, impossible to name. Fire and wonder and curiosity. Like jealousy declawed.

Steve shakes his head, turns his focus back to Mel, who is smiling with her eyes closed, preening under the touch and attention he’s granting her. “Oh please, she’s the one who overdid it. She knows her limits.”

Melody opens her eyes to glare at him. “She is right here, and she has not overdone it! This time.” She swats his hand away from her cheek, turns to Eddie with doe eyes. “He’s bullying me.”

A nod has Eddie’s hair brushing the bare skin of Mel’s arm. “I mean, you are acting pretty silly right now,” he admits, then looks back up to Steve, disturbingly deep into his eyes. He watches as the boy smiles gently, and he gets it. 

It’s a series of realizations that Steve makes. They all come tumbling through his brain at top speed, so fast he doesn’t even have time to process them. They’re palpable, visible in the tilt of Mel’s pink lips, the wide stare of Eddie’s sparkling eyes.

The first realization is that he’s into Eddie. And subsequently, that Eddie is maybe into him. He’d done enough body language reading in his high school days to be semi-sure of it.

The second is that Mel is still into Eddie. And subsequently, that Eddie is still into her. He knows the way his girlfriend moves enough to be sure of that.

The third, and most daunting, realization is that he’s well and truly okay with all of these truths existing at once. He can’t honestly tell if that’s because he’s high and he’s not thinking quite straight, his thoughts still fuzzy and soft at the edges, or if it’s because after years of being with his girlfriend, his views of romance and relationships and all that shit have taken a sharp turn from the way they used to be. 

He’s tired of sitting in spaces unsure of where he should be. His friendships, his family ties, his career have all left him itching for more- a sense of belonging, he chalks it up to. And he knows Mel, so naturally and deeply that she feels like an extension of himself at this point. He doesn’t have to look at her, or even ask her, to know she’s okay with it all too.

Somewhere in the back of his brain he thinks back to their talk about her history with Eddie. He remembers the look on her face, lax and fond, her nails scraping a gentle pattern against her inner arm the way it does now. And that tips him over the edge into decision making.

He breaks his eye contact with Eddie- that’s been going on for god knows how long- and pokes his girl’s cheek. “How silly are you, huh? Are your eyes all bloodshot?”

Mel turns her head defiantly. “Bullying,” she reiterates to Eddie, who lowers his head to look at her face better.

“She’s not super red actually,” he relays, then pauses and looks again, this time with more intrigue. “Oh. Oh my god.”

“What?” Steve asks.

Eddie stares up at him, God, why won’t he stop doing that, then returns his gaze to the aforementioned girl. “You two um, you have the same eyes.” He says, reaching down to move Mel’s shaggy bangs from blocking this apparently very interesting view. “Holy shit, like the exact same eyes. Same shade of brown and everything.”

Mel squirms, not uncomfortable, Steve notes, just fidgety, in his lap. “Stevie’s are prettier,” she protests.

As a warm flush melts into Steve’s cheeks, a smile curls into Eddie’s own. “I think yours are just as pretty, Vaughn.” The hand that had been pushing her hair back stops, suddenly self conscious. 

Steve clocks it at a speed that impresses even himself. “Hers are real sweet.” He presses another kiss to her knee. “Not much about her that isn’t pretty, Eds. You ever notice her lips?” When Mel gifts him a curious sideways glance, he just grins, tilts his head toward the other boy in the room. Go ahead, he tries to send her the message psionically, it’s okay. 

Mel swallows visibly, but doesn’t move away. She’s many things, but shy isn’t one of them. She’s never been afraid to vocalize her discomfort before, and he knows she’s not about to start doing it now. He can’t tell if it’s on purpose that she bites her lower lip at the corner.

A gasp comes out of Eddie’s parted lips, like he’s really never realized. It’s bullshit, Steve’s caught him staring before. At himself too. “Oh… huh,” he muses. His hand still hasn’t left Mel’s cheek. It’s a little sweet, that he’s so caught up in the moment and enamored with her that he hasn’t realized yet. Even sweeter if he has realized, and doesn’t care. Steve knows the feeling.

“Soft as they look, too.” She squirms again, evidently done with the game Steve’s been setting up. He gives in, never able to tease her too fiercely. “Think she wants you to find out for yourself.” With this, he cards a hand through the hair that rests at the nape of her neck. “You wanna give Eddie a kiss, baby?” 

She gasps next, and then offers a shy nod, and Steve keeps his hold on the back of her head as she leans up, emboldened by his curious permission, and kisses their friend. Eddie, the gentleman his uncle apparently raised him to be, kisses her right back, his pouted lips pressing ardently against her. Steve feels more than sees the goosebumps that rise on her bare legs. 

There’s a strange space in Steve’s brain that’s blissfully empty as he watches the pair. He supposes it’s reserved for the jealousy that won’t come. When Eddie slides a hand into Mel’s hair, linking his fingers with Steve’s own, affection blooms in its place.

The dichotomy of Melody Vaughn is something he could study for hours. Just seconds ago, she’d been blushing and hiding, moving slow and unsure. Now, she pulls away from Eddie’s kiss with a mischevious smile painting her face. She hums, a dazed expression in her eyes before she nuzzles her nose against Eddie’s. “You’re um… you’re pretty good at that.” Eddie says, still holding Steve’s hand at the back of her head. He could easily let go, they’re not even kissing anymore. And yet…

Mel tilts her chin up at her boyfriend, seated and barely moving at the end of the couch. “Learned it all from this guy.” She giggles like a bellchime. They’ve always been on the same train of thought.

His heart swells up the second Eddie’s head turns towards him. It’s going to burst out of his chest. A hand lands on his knee, ring-clad and pale-fingered, the skin impossibly warm even through the denim of his jeans. “That so?” Eddie asks in a light voice. 

Heat swirls in Steve’s throat. His first instinct is to get up and run. And it scares him for a moment. He thinks back to all the talks he’s had with Mel and Robin- gay rights and homophobia and growth and acceptance- and it spooks him to think he’s grossed out by this, by the idea of kissing a boy. A boy that he likes. But he isn’t grossed out, he realizes. It’s not fight or flight that’s clawing thorugh him, he realizes; it’s excitement.

His second, stronger instinct is to touch Eddie’s fingers with his own. And he does. 

Eddie’s lips part, sucking in what looks like a deep breath. Steve steels his nerves, does the same, and leans down to kiss him. 

And it’s leagues better than he could have imagined. Eddie’s lips are soft and chapped against his own. He can feel the rough tug of a five o’clock shadow on his skin, the cool metal of his rings brushing the underside of his jaw. He hasn’t kissed anyone but Mel in three years. He hasn’t even kissed a boy before. He can’t help the laughter that bubbles up from his throat. 

Mel is laughing too, thank God, holding Eddie’s right hand, the one that isn’t touching Steve’s face. Eddie pulls away with a smile he’s never seen before. More relaxed than his usual one. “Jesus what are we doing?” He asks, still so close to Steve’s face that he can feel his breath as he speaks.

“I think we’re kissing.” Steve says dumbly.

It’s Mel that sets it straight, finally. “I think we’re avoiding what we wanna say.” She sits up, brushes her hair down with her fingers. “Cuz how do you even start talking about this?”

“Yeah,” Eddie whispers, finally moving out of Steve’s personal space. He almost pulls him back. “I can go, guys, just tell-”

“Would you stop talking for a second?” Mel cuts him off. She looks at Steve, gaze intense, the way it always is when she’s being serious. “I love you. And I like Eddie, and obviously you do too. So, how do you feel about this?”

It’s like his heart stops in his chest. He hates this part; the honesty, the feelings-confrontation. He’s shit at it. It’s how he ended up on a break with Mel. It’s how he and Nancy didn’t work out. It’s how he almost lost his girlfriend forever. 

Maybe that last part alone is enough for him to speak up. 

“I have no idea what this is,” he confesses. “But I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this with other people before.”

“Mhmm.” Eddie hums quietly.

Mel sighs, reaches for Eddie’s hand. “Fuck it.” When both boys look at her, all she offers is a shrug. “Fuck it! I don’t know what this is either but I’m in.” Her other hand grabs for Steve’s wrist, fingers impossibly warm on his bare skin. “We’ve done more confusing shit.”

She has a point, Steve realizes. The Upside Down, Vecna, the Mind Flayer, all that shit had almost split his brain in half. Somehow, trying to navigate a three-person relationship seems easier in comparison. More fulfilling, too. “You know what? I want in, too,” he confesses, though he can’t pull his eyes up from the carpet to look at them.

It’s up to Eddie, then. The boy in question is staring intently at where Mel’s holding his hand- gold skin pressed against silver- his mouth agape and eyebrows pinched. “You really need me to say it?” He mumbles. “Make me sound like a total loser?”

“We literally just poured our hearts out to you, why would you sound like a loser?” Steve laughs.

He flaps his hands out of Mel’s grip. “Because! Because I’ve had a ridiculous crush on you for four years,” he stares at Steve’s (their?) girlfriend. “Since I heard you singing that first time, I was fucked. And, like, what kind of idiot says that, you know?”

Mel huffs, leans forward on her knees to get closer to him. “You aren’t a loser for having a crush Eddie, I liked you, too,” she says.

“But when you two got together it just spread,” He confesses, turning red-cheeked to face Steve. “I couldn’t help watching you two at school, kissing in the halls and shit. And I just thought you were so cool, and pretty, and then this spring when I found out you weren’t the douche everyone thought? I was double-fucked. I was a freak with a crush on a couple that was out of his league.”

And Steve is done. He’s over the self-loathing that’s audible in Eddie’s voice. “You’re not a freak, and we’re not out of your league.” He stated, voice terse and brokering no arguments. When Eddie looks away with a scoff, he grips his chin the same way he has to with Mel when she won’t listen. His chest twists when the eyes that look back at Steve are ones he’s seen in the mirror. “I want you. Mel wants you. You have a spot here.”

Melody pushes closer. “We’re asking you if you want in, Eddie, not judging you,” She coos. 

There’s a pregnant pause, and Steve can feel his shoulders growing heavy as he anticipates the weight of rejection. He releases Eddie’s chin, lays a hand flat against his shoulder instead- the absence of skin-to-skin contact makes him dizzy. 

Eddie grabs their hands. “If you’re inviting me,” he speaks slowly, looking quick between the pair. “I’m in. I’m all in.”

“Fuck yeah,” Mel says, leaning forward to peck his lips once more. “Clear your schedule for Saturday then, bitch, we’re taking you on a date.” She lays back against Steve. 

Eddie doesn’t object, instead shoving him closer to Mel so he can sit on the couch too, squishing Steve right into the middle. When Mel slings her legs back over his lap, and Eddie’s hair tickles the back of his neck, Steve sighs, feeling like the Earth beneath his feet has moved and, instead of throwing him to the ground again, it’s finally shifted everything back into place.

[lifeofadivisioniiiathlete]

Chasing a Dream

         Before coming to Endicott College to play football, I had no idea what was in store for me. I played for my high school team, at Amity Regional High School, in my hometown of Woodbridge. I started all four years, and never really had to earn my spot, simply because my athleticism stood out. Although, after my first day at camp at Endicott, I realized that I was just a smaller fish in a bigger pond. What I then began to realize was that each and every player on my team was the same type of player at their own high school. Not only that, but my high school roster had around 50 players, compared to the 140 players on the Endicott team. It was a lot for me to process at first, going from being “the man” in my hometown, to just another player on my new team. At some points, it made me feel like I should quit. However, I knew that every other freshman felt the same way that I did. Unfortunately, it was too much to handle for some of my teammates, who ended up quitting before the season started. I quickly realized that I had to look past this, and continue to chase my dream that I have had since adolescence.

            Training camp in the summer was probably one of the toughest things I have ever faced in my life, but mentally and physically. My team and I arrived at camp on August 10th, which is pretty early compared to when my friends from home left for school. Our schedule lasted from seven in the morning, to about ten at night; straight football, with few breaks in between. We would have breakfast at seven in the morning, followed by practice at around 8:30. For the rest of the day, we would have lifts, conditioning, and meetings based on our position. At first, the only part of the day that I truly enjoyed was dinner. Also, I enjoyed our team meeting, which was usually around seven thirty at night. These meetings had nothing to do with football, and everything to do with team building, so that our comradery would be the best it could be by the time the season started. It also gave everyone a chance to get to know each other better, especially the freshmen.

            Even with all the struggles I encountered, everything slowly started to work its way out when I realized one thing; surrounding myself with people that have the same goals as me would both keep my head in the right direction, while also making me a better player. When everyone on the team has this same mentality, it becomes unified, and results in success. Fortunately enough, we won all ten of our regular season games. Along with that, the regular season schedule became much more appealing to me, because it was the perfect balance between schoolwork and football. Our coaches stress the importance of doing well in the classroom, while also being the best person you can be. The way a college athlete performs is usually based on a trend. The way you perform in the classroom correlates to the way you perform on the field, because when you have a mindset that is allowing you to “slack off”, it will apply to anything you do.

            Unfortunately, our perfect season was halted in the NCAA playoffs, by Springfield College, in a 14-17 loss for us. However, the bright side is this allows more room for improvement, as we continue our hunt for a national championship. Spring ball began just about a month ago, which is technically just the second quarter of our season, with the first quarter being the winter lifts and runs, the third being summer training camp, and the fourth quarter being the actual season. I look forward to the rest of my four years of football, and it is a blessing to continue to chase my dream.

[todayisafridaynight]

Y5's plot is a little messy from there being five protagonists, but I feel things converged pretty well regardless of that. Even though I wish they had more time to interact with each other aaaaaa. But I did start to get a bit confused around the end of Shinada's part because I was trying to keep track of who was actually important to stuff overall. And also baseball. Trying to understand all this terminology what's going on I don't have time to learn the plot anymore, game 🙄

Gameplay? God. The moment I was starting to get used to Saejima finally I had him snatched away from me by the story. So it felt like I was relearning his moveset every time afterwards 🫠 Akiyama is so easy to fight as, but Shinada was giving me slightly similar problems to Saejima. The enemy rate encounter in the old games was insane and they should go to jail for making the decision to do that tbh. I got into nearly 200 street fights at the start of the game. And kept running into fights right after I finished one. Directly. After. I found myself not doing a lot of side stuff. I think part of it was from trying to get to certain parts I really wanted to see, and part of it was because of who knows what really... The only character's side story I did was Saejima's, and I did almost all of their substories, tho. Besides Haruka's. I can see how someone who wants to do everything would get instantly burnt out. I just didn't

Story? Why the F U CK didn't they bring up Kiryu's thoughts and feelings on Majima after he hauled ass back to Tokyo to find answers. That was the whole initial reason he was there, and the writers were like "nah. Let's not touch that with a ten foot pole but here's Kiryu threatening to end that twink Baba." He didn't even directly react to knowing he's still alive. Like, that's one of the most glaring problems I have with it. It feels like someone ignoring an elephant stomping in the room. However I have to admit I didn't care for the out of left field relationship drama Majima had in the past. It was like a huge brick was dropped on me and then am anvil

Five catches some weird heat from people who want to pretend the whole thing never happened, and those that gave up on it super easily. To each their own of course. I just don't think it's nearly that bad, personally. Four is definitely my least favorite of the bunch. Next to six

my thoughts below the cut cause this post's already long </3

unfortunately for the rest of this website, shinada's baseball scandal was easy for me to follow on account of me being a baseball lover myself. BUT yeah i can totally see how the typical player will get lost on things like 'stealing signs' and either might take too much time googling terms and rules to pay too much attention to the plot, or not bothering to do that and just proceeding with the story without fully understanding what's happening

on that note though like i said in the last post, shinada's the strongest point about this game for me: him and his co-stars are just such fun characters, and my favorite thing about shinada is that his play style reflects his i'm-just-a-guy-fghting-for-his-life character. it's incredibly rough, unrefined, and sluggish- nothing you'd expect from a regular fighter like maybe kiryu or akiyama. from purely a gameplay standpoint though i get how it could be irritating when you're shifting from characters you're familiar with who move relatively similar to. Shinada. (affectionately). especially if you weren't using weapons beforehand and now you're trying to become accustomed to them if you don't want to raw dog his gameplay

speaking of akiyama though, while i did like how he and haruka get to team up (i also think the protags shouldve had more time to hang out, if not at least invite each other to karaoke </3) his part felt so short. t'was foreshadowing for being sidelined in y6, but yk even for the three seconds we get to play with him, and despite the minor nerf done to him, i love him too much to be too upset. plus that air-combo shit's Wack

all things majima related in Y5 were weird, but park was especially. Off. for me. as an antagonist, she's great- hell, even NOT as an antagonist she's great. but it's just a weird feeling how the game wants us to sympathize with her and ignore how she's been threatening kiryu and haruka this entire time and treat her like a martyr. i dont think park's the worst charcter and most evil character ever, but that's prob a post in of itself honestly. what does make me feel weird though is her and majima's relationship- i guess it's just weird hearing about it after y0 though, but i'm not forgetting this game was made way before y0 was even conceptualized. it sucks that we don't get to know about majima's reaction to her death though, and honestly i was hoping they would get to reunite at haruka's concert: he said he wouldn't see her until he was dead, and according to every news outlet at the time he sure was dead, if you catch my cold.

back to majima though, it DOES suck how we don't get to see how kiryu reacts to majima not actually being dead. it's as you said, that's the reason why he even came back in the first place, and now that he's fine we're just going to have to assume how he felt

for me, five was alright. yakuza game plots are hardly anything to write home about (unless it's 7 tbh i love 7 sorry not sorry), so i'm not overly pressed about the plot being the way it is. besides, i cant be mad about the plot when part of the plot is 'daigo's on thirteen doses of copium so he runs away and decides to give 20 mil yen to his old classmate cause Dreams'.

the only game plot that actually does deserve a 'that's so stupid' comment from me is Y4's plot 🥴

[slashersteve]

A Million Miles Away

pairing: Eddie Munson x Female Reader

summary: You find yourself hanging out with Eddie Munson at Lover’s Lake one night and feel something you’ve never felt before

warnings/extra tags: kissing, sexual tension (i think), feelings, fluff, it’s my first time writing eddie so this is a warning, beta read, edited by autocorrect tm

note: This can also be read as Eddie/Chrissy if you so choose, I loved them and wanted to emulate that kind of dynamic with a reader! Anyway, I got inspired by Valley Girl (1983), and a certain scene, so please enjoy and thank you for reading!

✧ ✧ ✧

You weren't usually like this. Maybe it was because you’ve never done anything like this before in your life, hanging out with a guy you vaguely recognized from school in a van at Lover's Lake all night .

The truth was though, you didn't know if this was something you weren't like, or were like, as you've come to realize how superficial you were after breaking it off with your boyfriend of almost four years.

You were over it, over him. He never called when he said he would, keeping you waiting. He talked to other girls, flirted with them on occasion. He made you feel like you were just there, like you were just some chair in the corner of his bedroom he'd just throw his dirty laundry on.

Your friends were deadbent on you just wanting to have some kind of fun, that maybe you were perhaps bored with him when you knew there was a lot more to it.

Your boyfriend had thought so too, claiming that you'd be back after you handed him his wrist watch back he'd make you wear to show everyone who you belonged to. Your reputation would, in his words, take a downfall and his exclamations just reminded you of how his narcissist personality seemed to have only skyrocketed since you started dating in freshman year.

And maybe, they were right in some way. You wanted, no, craved something different, something that made you feel something that you should be feeling in a relationship that isn't the dullness you felt with your now ex-boyfriend. The only problem is that every available guy at Hawkins High was disinterested, treating you like you were still your ex-boyfriend's property and ignoring you when you tried to strike up friendly conversation.

It was frustrating, especially when at the basketball game that started your adventurous night you would look across the court and see your ex's eyes on you. He was wearing a smug expression, silently telling you that he'd be waiting for you when you beg him to take you back.

You kept your head up then, sticking by your friend's side and indulging her talking about how cute some of the opposing players of the basketball team were. Your eyes would continue to meet your ex's until the final buzzer would go off.

The Hawkins Tigers had lost by just a single point, but still decided to have a party at one of the player's places. Your parents had already expected you to sleep-over at your friend's house, and be back the following afternoon.

If only things worked out like that.

Long story short, you were left by yourself at Hawkins High, your friend ditching you to go with her own boyfriend to this party. Your ex had found it amusing when he pulled his car up to you, asking if you were ready to come back after being left alone like he suspected.

When you said no, he laughed and said he'd give you time to think, and then...he drove off, leaving you all by yourself in the near empty parking lot of Hawkins High.

If your ex had wanted you to feel humiliated, it had definitely worked. Sitting all alone in the parking lot on a bench, and you thought at that second that at least nobody was here to witness you here all alone and on the verge of tears.

That was when you met Eddie Munson.

The double doors of the one of the school buildings behind you had been slammed open, and Eddie emerged all alone. He had been planning his final Dungeons and Dragons campaign for the Hellfire Club that would start that following Monday, and time had escaped him as he planned meticulously as the Dungeon Master.

He didn't see you at first, not until he heard a hiccup that was followed by a sniffle as he was digging in his pockets to pull his car keys out. His eyebrows had folded inward and he turned his head to see you sitting there all by yourself, tears glistening in your eyes and on your cheeks.

"Oh," Eddie started, "Are you uh, okay?"

At the sound of his voice, your eyes widened and you only turned to look at him for half a second before turning away to try and wipe your tears away.

"M' fine," you replied, "Just waiting for my ride."

Eddie stared at you for a long moment, and then looked around, seeing no cars pulling into the parking lot or any other cars beside his own van. He checked his watch then, seeing just exactly how late it was.

"Are you sure?" he questioned you, "Because you're kind of crying like a kid whose parents forgot to pick them up from soccer practice."

You scoffed loudly, and finally met his eyes again, "Do I really?"

"Oh yeah," Eddie replied, "Though...it's pretty unbelievable that anyone would forget you." He felt his own cheeks heat up at his attempt to flatter and cheer you up.

And even though it was pretty lame, it had actually worked. You laughed, albeit it was a weak and quiet one, but a laugh nonetheless.

"That's probably because I wasn't forgotten," you admitted easily to him for some reason, "My friend kind of just left me here, and...I guess my boyfriend- well ex boyfriend did too."

Eddie's jaw had dropped, "Ex-boyfriend? Wait...I think I know you now, you were dating that asshole, what's his face? I don't know, all their faces become one in my head since they all look the same."

You laughed again, and this time, it was a more genuine one and Eddie's gaze lingered on your smile for longer than he should've.

"It doesn't really matter who it is, but yeah," you said your ex boyfriend's name. Eddie was shaking his head then, in disbelief mostly.

"And what about your friend? Did she have an emergency or something?"

You huffed, very irritated with her too, and replied, "If you call a party an emergency, then yes."

Eddie snorted at her, "What a bitch."

You laughed again and nodded in agreement, "Yeah...yeah I'm starting to think so too."

Eddie would admit that he didn't know you that well, outside of just a first name, but that was mostly because he remembered you from an English class you shared. Outside of that, he didn't really have any thought about you, up until right now.

You actually seemed nice, and genuine. And clearly, you had a sense of humor too with how he was successfully making you laugh with his comments. He would say that you were actually pretty cool and...well he wasn't going to leave you here all by yourself was he? Only problem was, he wasn't sure how to ask you if he could take you home without possibly scaring you off.

Before he could though, you were asking him a question instead.

"What...what's your name?" your question had caught him off guard, despite the way you tried to ask him as politely as you could, and when you saw him squint his eyes at you, you quickly added, "No, I know you, I remember being is Ms. B's English class together...I'm just having a hard time putting a name to your face."

You were cringing then, feeling stupid that this guy was here trying to cheer you up and you couldn't even remember his name.

Eddie had sighed deeply, and sadly, "Wow, and here I thought we were having a special connection. I know your name, but you don’t even know mine.”

He looked away from you, and was shaking his head while you frowned and leaned the upper part of your body forward, trying to look at him and tell him you were sorry for being so dumb and rude.

But then, he turned to look at you and you saw an amused grin growing on his lips. You scoffed loudly and crossed your arms as he chuckled and told you who he was.

When he said his name, you felt even more stupid.

"Eddie," you said under your breath, "I feel like I knew that or at least should’ve."

"Oh don’t worry, it's a pretty unique name if you ask me..." he brought one hand to the back of his neck and you laughed softly.

“So...uh...Eddie..."

His eyes were on your lips again as you said his name, and he replied to you with a breathless yeah as his eyes still lingered there.

You had noticed his eyes weren't on yours, and you shifted slightly in your spot, not understanding what he was looking at or why you suddenly felt warm underneath his brown gaze.

In a suddenly shy voice, you asked if he could take you home. That was when his eyes flickered back upward to meet yours, and you watched his long lashes fluttering as he blinked.

He turned to look at his van, then held out his hand to it, and then the other to you, "Your chariot awaits, mi'lady."

You let out a breath you didn't realize you were holding due to sudden nerves that had you nervous he'd say no and leave you too. You took his hand like he seemed to have wanted you too, and you found yourself very hyper aware of how his hand had felt.

His fingers were a little rough, and his metal rings felt cool against your palm in the few seconds your hand had been in his. It made your face feel hot, and caused your heart to slightly skip a beat.

You had gone quiet because of this sudden feeling of warmth that Eddie Munson was making you feel. It wasn't a bad feeling, you deducted, but rather quite good.

Eddie had mistook your silence in his van for sadness, or something along that emotion. And so, he did what he thought would make you feel better. He motioned to the radio, and said, "Hope you don't mind."

And you really didn't mind, as it was his van and he was nice enough to take you home when your friend abandoned you and your ex left you out of spite.

That was when a loud, almost obnoxious song (at least that's what your friends would say if they heard it) that you honestly should've expected but didn't began to play the moment he turned it on. You even jumped when the heavy guitar and rock accompaniment blasted through the speakers.

Instead of turning it down, Eddie had actually turned it up and he had laughed when he saw you look at him with wide eyes.

"You can only really feel the music when it's this loud!" he shouted at you over the music, "Do you listen to this kind of music?!"

The corners of your lips were almost twitching up into a smile as you replied, "No, I don't really-"

"What?! You're gonna have to speak up!" Eddie shouted again as he began to tap his hands against the steering wheel and bang his head to the music.

Anyone would be irritated at this point, but you instead found yourself amused and...very intrigued with Eddie. You admired the way his long, messy brown hair bounced with every head bang, and didn't even worry that he was driving over the speed-limit or barely paying attention to the road. He was making you grin widely before you even realized it.

"I don't really listen to this kind of music!" you shouted this time, and Eddie gasped in feign shock as his eyes flashed toward the road and then he chuckled.

"Just kidding! It doesn't really surprise me! But that's okay! I'm glad I'm the first to introduce you to it! This is WASP!"

He even tapped the pin he wore on his sleeveless denim jacket he wore over his leather jacket. You stared at the pin, and then you were just staring at him again, finding him and this feeling he was bringing out of you so very endearing.

You turned away from him then, and began to focus on the music. First, you were tapping your hands on your thigh, and then your leg was bouncing to the music. It was little movement, but Eddie had caught it. He felt like he'd just won something when he saw you were actually enjoying this music.

It was like this until he pulled into your neighborhood, and up to your house, and even then, he didn't turn the music down as it echoed down the empty, dark street. It was making you laugh, out of pure amusement and nervousness as you were sure your neighbors and parents were probably being woken up.

"You're going to wake up the whole neighborhood!" you shouted at him, your grin widening as he only continued to bang his head harder to the music, "Eddie! Please!"

You weren't sure if he was actually just messing with you, or if he actually just didn't hear you this time. You reached over and rested your hand onto his shoulder and shook him.

When he still didn't respond to that, you knew he was messing around. Playfully rolling your eyes, you leaned your face toward and closer to him, but before you could shout for him to please turn it down, he had stopped aggressively banging his head and turned to look at you.

Your prior thought of wanting to tell him to turn it down all but vanished from your mind as you realized how your faces were only a few mere inches away from each other.

His lips were parted, his breaths heavier from the performance he was putting on for you, and his hair was more wild than before, framing his face. It was his eyes though that captivated you...they were so big and brown, too soft for a boy like him.

Something sparked within you, and once again, your face had grown hot, and you realized then what it was you feeling. It was how you felt once about your ex, back in Freshman year, before he grew in popularity, before he changed for the worse.

You hadn't felt such a way in a long time, and it was striking to you that Eddie Munson, a guy you really only met tonight, was bringing it out of you so easily.

You swallowed thickly then, a shyness like never before washing over you. Still, a small smile was resting on your lips and you leaned toward him, placing your face right beside his ear and said softly in his ear, "Good night, Eddie."

Your breath had tickled around his ear, and it had gently blown some of his messy strands of hair too. It sent something straight down Eddie's spine, and he could only stare at you almost dumbfounded in the after effects of it as you leaned away from him.

You didn't move to leave when you did though, your hand didn't even reach for the handle to indicate that you were. You were just gazing at him, as if waiting for him to do something that he didn't know.

It was probably for him to tell you good-night back, but what slipped from his mouth after he turned the music down finally was, "Want to get out of here?"

He inwardly cursed at himself, feeling as if he was pushing his luck. He drove you home like you'd asked him to, and now...he was asking you to stay with him? A girl who he doesn’t really know as well as she knows him?

You were quiet for a moment, and asked, much to his surprise, “Where would we go?"

Eddie shrugged weakly, "Anywhere, I guess."

Your eyes fluttered gently as you stared at him in thought, contemplating on if going with him was a good choice, or a bad one.Sure, he was making you feel something you forgot, but that didn't mean you should act on it and go with him somewhere this late.

Still, this feeling inside of you was powerful, soaring through you and flooding you with a warmth that told you to say yes, yes, I'll go with you, Eddie, wherever you want.

You listened to that feeling. Your parents weren't expecting you home until tomorrow and you decided that if there was a better time to take this kind of chance, it was now.

"Take me wherever you want, Eddie."

And he did.

You found yourself at Lover's Lake with Eddie Munson, sitting across from him in the back of his van while rock music vibrated the floor of the van beneath you.

You hadn't stopped smiling since being with him, hadn't stopped laughing, and this feeling he was giving you only got stronger and stronger, to the point where you wondered if you'd ever felt something like this so strongly before.

He was striking, and just different, from the way he acted to the way he dressed and spoke. Everything about him was making your heart soar as he talked about himself and his band, as he introduced you to his favorite songs and artists, and especially with the smile he would give you after he'd make you laugh again, like he was amazed he was making you laugh so much.

He made you feel different as well, but maybe this feeling of difference was actually just you, the real you poking through that hadn't gotten a chance to come out because of your past shackle of a relationship and reputation you had wore for nearly all four years of high school.

He had since taken his jackets off, letting you cover your bare legs with the leather one while he was left in what you learned to be an Iron Maiden shirt, a band he had shown you as well.

Throughout your conversations, and breaks where you would listen to the music he was showing you, your eyes were drawn to a tattoo on his right forearm. You didn't think he had noticed your looks, not until the song ended and he twisted his arm for you to get a better look.

"You like it?" he asked you as he flexed his arm out for you so you could get a better look. You reached out without really thinking, gently grasping his wrist and causing him to inhale sharply, especially when the tips of your fingers traced over his tattoo with interest.

You heard him, and let him go, "Sorry, I don't know why I did that." You chuckled nervously, but Eddie was shaking his head.

"No, it's okay! I was being the weird one," he shifted in his spot, moving the van slightly and reached up to the collar of his shirt, "I have more, you know." His hands grabbed at his collar and lowered it, showing you more that decorated his skin. You would've never expected it, but what you didn't expect more was a heat settling at the pit of your stomach at the sight.

Now, that was different from the fuzzy, warmth that continued to course through you.

"Wow," you said, slightly short winded at the sight of his tattoos and chain that he wore around his neck. He looked satisfied with your reaction, dropping his hand back down and resting it over his thigh.

He tapped his fingers against it for a moment, as if contemplating his next words. Eddie wasn't stupid, he could see the way you were looking at him, the way you've been looking at him since you told him good night about an hour prior.

There was something about you that he liked, as you were different than he suspected you were too. And he suddenly wondered if this would be the only night you'd ever spend time.

"So..." he started without really thinking, "When am I going to see you again?"

Your eyes fluttered shut for a moment, and lifted back to meet him, and you chuckled nervously, "You know, Eddie, most guys would say things like that when the night is over."

Eddie bent his left leg to his chest and rested his arm onto it, and he was grinning, his cheeks slightly redder than before, "Shit, okay, that sounded lame, sorry...but I'm just going to roll with it, it's just how I...feel, and I want to see you again...and again after that."

You felt the butterflies flutter in your stomach once again, touched by his words.

"I'm here with you now."

Your voice was so soft when you said it, and all Eddie could say was as swiping his bottom lip with his tongue was, "I know."

Your gaze rested on each other then, and you found it harder to look away from this time. His wide, soft brown eyes that continued to captivate you.

It's been a long time since you've felt like this, but the more you thought about it, the more you wondered if you'd ever felt like this with anyone, this kind of connection you felt with Eddie at this moment.

"I don't know how to explain it," you stated your thought, "It's like my mind is just moving and moving and won't stop."

You felt silly saying such a thing, even laughing out of embarrassment, but if Eddie thought so he didn't say anything. Instead, he just stared at you, as captivated with you as you were with him.

"Yeah?" he said, his voice a little quieter.

"Yeah...it's like...I feel like we're kind of connected in a way." You nervously chuckled again, "God, I sound so weird- it's ridiculous right? I barely got to know you tonight."

It didn't occur to you that Eddie was probably feeling the same way, not until he swiped his tongue over his lips again and let his eyes fall. Your heart jumped, realizing that every time his eyes had flickered down while staring at you, it was because he was looking at your lips.

Your heart had blossomed in your chest then, and suddenly your words didn't sound or feel so ridiculous to you. This connection you felt, he was certainly feeling it too, with the way he was gazing at you and your lips all night.

"Eddie," you said his name softly, in a tone that was asking him to do something you couldn't say out loud for some reason. So, you did it yourself.

His leather jacket slipped from your lap as you moved to sit on your knees, and moved toward him like how one might crawl to someone you landed on to kiss in a game of spin the bottle. All the while he watched you closely, until you were closer to him. You leaned toward him, he smelled vaguely of cigarettes with a hint of cologne, a unique smell to you that you were positive you'd never forget and it intertwined with your more expensive perfume.

You breathed it in, breathed him in, letting your mind short circuit for a moment, but then you stopped, and realized how forward you were being.

You didn't do things like this, like you mentioned before, you had one boyfriend, one man you've ever really kissed and been this close to. Doubt flooded your mind, but you didn't have time to really think on it as you met his gaze again.

His eyes were slightly darker, his cheeks flushed, and there was silent message sent between the both of you. Your doubt all but vanished, and you and Eddie were leaning in, your lips meeting each other halfway as you tilted your head.

His lips were warm, and your chapstick made it easy for his lips to slide and move against yours. It was slow at first, almost shy, as if you were both testing the waters, but it changed a few seconds in.

It felt like you were getting drunk off of him, and his lips and taste were suddenly making your legs wobbly. He must've noticed you falter slightly, as right afterwards he rested a hand onto your waist and kept you steady.

You leaned closer to him, causing his lips to move more rough against yours. You exhaled sharply through your nose when you felt his tongue swipe your bottom lip, and you gently parted your lips for him.

A noise escaped from you when he slipped his tongue inside of your mouth, colliding with yours. God, you were definitely getting drunk off of him for sure and nothing felt more right than his lips devouring yours.

Your skin felt hot, and you were shifting in your spot before you knew it, moving so that you could sit onto his lap. Eddie complied, his lips leaving yours and eyes opening as the hand on your waist left and moved to grasp the back of your thigh.

His cool, metal rings felt cold against the skin of your thighs as he helped you sit on him and it sent a fresh wave of chills and desire through you. As you sat comfortably on top of him, you moved your hands to his long strands of hair.

He must've had the same reaction as you, as his breath hitched and his eyes that were half-lidded with desire flashed up to meet your own stare that mirrored his.

"What a nice fucking night this turned out to be," he said, the curse word slipping easily from his wet lips that shined with the residue of your chapstick.

You giggled softly at him, and agreed with him by leaning down and kissing him once again.

Like you said, you didn't do things like this, but for the first time in a long time, you knew you were doing something you wanted, something that felt right.