#they should stick together right?

[psychotic-nonsense]

Steve Harrington doesn't expect today to be anything special.

His kid, Dustin, is out in the garage hanging out with his friend Lucas. It's a calm spring evening, and there isn't a single call coming from the phone asking for his services. The former handy man turned jack of all trades has a day off, and he's taking the chance to catch up on the fantasy book Dustin picked up for him on his last trip to the library.

He's older than he once thought he could be, he's alive, and he's happy.

He's mid sip of his sweet tea - recipe courtesy of the Byers family - when someone suddenly comes in through the front door. Mr. Harrington jumps, closes the book with a dog-eared page ("Terrible habits, sir, terrible terrible habits," says a voice from the past in his head). But then Dustin walks into view, and while he's not entirely calmed, he's less startled.

"Hey there, big guy," his starts calmly, but his mood quickly sombers when he gets a full look at his son. "Everything okay?"

Something's off. Dustin's coming in through the front door, not the back door that's easier to get to from the garage. Lucas isn't with him, and Mr. Harrington's old acoustic guitar is in his hands ("Be careful, love, you might end up as our backup," says the voice with a wink he can still see). But most importantly, Dustin looks nervous. Sad, even, and Mr. Harrington never lets that kind of face linger long in this household.

"Yeah, I'm okay, dad..." Dustin mumbles, pausing in the front hall, staring down at the guitar. His eyes look far away. "I was just wondering, um... you know that band group that I'm friends with?" Dustin looks up, directing all of that pain right at his father, stabbing at his heart.

"Yeah, your buddies on that forum, right?" Mr. Harrington says cautiously. He's leaning forward on his knees now, book discarded to a side table to give Dustin his full attention. "Were they telling you something? Is Lucas okay?"

"No, yeah, Lucas is fine, his mom called," Dustin quickly mutters, briefly distracting the nervous tension in his face with a shaking head. He takes a deep breath, releasing it in one big huff as he holds the guitar tighter. "So, you remember how I told you we were all helping each other? You know, learning how to write songs?"

"Yeah?" Mr. Harrington affirms, gently encouraging him to go on.

"Well, um..." Dustin looks away again, down at his feet shuffling in the carpet. "The- the lead singer of that band? Said he wanted some feedback on one, so uh..." His eyes glance at the guitar in his arms before meeting his father's eyes again.

Mr. Harrington huffs a small sigh of relief, a smile overtaking him. Nothing's wrong, it's just Dustin wanting to share a song with his dad, and he's nervous. Mr. Harrington has nothing to worry about ("A one man crowd? Gotta make this really memorable then," says the voice, teasing words but a soft, scared, nervous tone). "Yeah yeah, of course, kid, I'd be honored."

But then why is Dustin still so tense when he nods? Why are his eyes still so sad when he sits on the couch opposite Mr. Harrington, while he tunes the guitar? Why does he keep looking at the empty space beside him, growing more anxious each time?

"Take your time buddy, it's okay," Mr. Harrington tries to reassure, but Dustin doesn't look up.

Instead he sits there, breathing deeply a few times. Looks over at the other end of the couch, blinks a few times before nodding to himself, turning back. His left hand runs over the frets a few times, other hand coming up to rub at his eyes-

Oh god, he's crying. And his dad is just sitting there, helpless and useless. Mr. Harrington's heart is impaled once again and he reaches up, wanting to try and fix this, to help.

But then Dustin's hands are settling on the guitar, determination joining the mix of sadness and anxiety, and Mr. Harrington is forced to sit back and watch.

Because Dustin starts playing.

He's heard the music from outside the garage walls. He's bought plenty of guitars for Dustin to play over the years, heard many types of genres coming from under the secrecy of that roof. It's Dustin's thing, his hidden passion outside of science and fantasy, so Mr. Harrington has let him have the privacy, keeping his pride tamed for his son's sake.

So to finally see Dustin playing is like pride tenfold, longing grasping his heart tight when he sees how Dustin leans into the music ("We're the few good ones left, dear... We just feel it differently from others, you know?" bemoans the voice in his head). How his eyes close, the tension in his body loosening as music echoes from the guitar's.

And it's a beautiful melody. Simple, like all good things are, but melancholic. Longing incarnate. Nothing he was expecting from this, but he never wants it to end. It feels like lost love, regrets...

But then the singing starts.

"First things first

We start the scene in reverse

All of the lines rehearsed

Disappear from my mind"

Faint and echoing. Barely audible at first, but steadily growing in sound as Dustin plays. Ethereal, Mr. Harrington remembers from the book. That describes it.

It's not Dustin, he's too focused on the guitar. And his voice cracks on words this quiet, his tone off no matter what genre he's singing along to. Gets it from his dad.

It's almost familiar. Sounds like home.

"When things got loud

One of us running out

I should have turned around

But I had too much pride"

Suddenly, something shifts in the air. It feels cold, like soft wind in a breath, then going tingly. The light pattering of winter's first snow.

There's a window behind Dustin, the evening light shining through the blinds and curtains lighting everything in a warm glow. If he wasn't watching Dustin, he wouldn't have seen it. The beams being cast on the couch beside Dustin are slightly bright... and are swiftly getting brighter.

"No time for goodbyes

Didn't get to apologize

Pieces of a clock that lies broken"

Before his eyes, the sunlight starts moving, swirling and disconnecting into little beads of light. It shifts colors, a gradient of orange and reds, purple and blue, a hazy cloud slowly materializing on the couch.

It's shaping into something, moving into specific sections to the music and words. Changing color all the while, blacks and reds appearing deeper, a figure coming through the shape. The voice keeps getting louder, screaming familiarity at Mr. Harrington-

Then in a flash, it solidifies, and everything else fades away. No room, no weather, no sense.

Just music and singing and... and him.

"If I could take us back

If I could just do that

I'd write in every empty space

The words 'I love you' in replace

And every time would not erase me"

He's sitting on the couch next to Dustin, almost laying down. Leaning back against the arm rest, knees bunched up on the cushion but shoes hanging off the side. His clothes look aged compared to nowadays, but it's the same flannel and black ripped jeans and chains as the faithful day they lost each other.

Oh god, his voice has the same gorgeous vibrato, words flowing from his lips like poetry. His hair has the same soft curly bounce, product keeping it infinitely safe. His face, his hands, his presence remains unchanged.

He's not looking up, doesn't have to for those deep amber doe eyes to be so visible. He's messing with his rings while he sings, watching the silver glint in the light that created him. Doesn't hide how sad, how longing and lonely he looks and sounds here in this place.

A hand is coming up to Mr. Harrington's chest, tears blotting his vision and he's not ashamed of blinking them into reality, can't let himself look away from this.

It's him, it's him, dear god, the man he thought he lost over 30 years ago, the man he thought left behind their love by choice while he had never let it go, who's voice and presence never left his mind, who he thought would come back but never did and couldn't have, he's ghostly and gone, he's gone but it's him, his love, Steve's love, finally here after so long...

"If you could only know

I never let you go

And the words I most regret

Are the ones I never meant to leave..."

His voice starts cracking, that sweet pretty voice breaking. His face crumbles, hands trembling and it breaks Steve in two and he wants to reach out and help, he wants but he can't-

Then he finally looks up. Their eyes meet and there's relief and longing and pain and sorrow in both of their eyes because they're seeing each other, finally finally finally, after so long...

"Unsaid Emily..."

Sung in a whisper to the strumming of his son.

Munson.

Eddie Munson.

Steve's sweet, dear Eddie Munson.

He came back...

He finally came home...

[chemicalarospec]

you've heard of: aroacespec "is this person flirting with me" confusion, now get ready for: Does this person think I'm flirting with them (and also are they flirting "back" with me) because I accidentally bumped into them a lot?

[crabussy]

man its absolutely crazy how far simple politeness gets you. if you are polite to strangers on the internet who hate your guts 9/10 times they will LISTEN to you and TAKE YOUR POINTS INTO CONSIDERATION????? I've have genuinely very pleasant conversations with people whose worldviews COMPLETELY contradict my own and have come away knowing that they're thinking about what I said and may have even changed the way they think about the issue we discussed. it feels like it shouldn't work but it works almost TOO well. if people feel like you're listening to and considering THEIR opinions and experiences, they'll listen to yours too. it goes both ways!!!!

[todayisafridaynight]

Why not combine them? You could post about MineDai eating pasta! Does Mine bulk with pasta? Does Daigo have a favorite pasta dish? Do they cook it together for a date night? Does Daigo even know how to boil water?? (Genuinely if you have any interest in posting about this please do, would read)

mine could, in fact, be the one who makes daigo pasta with a lil olive oil and salt and parmesan youre right ......

[poisoned-pearls]

okay I now can elaborate on the thoughts I was talking abt in the tags of my last post-

Jamil has always hated being touched, and physical contact in general. He was raised around kalim, he's had enough hugs for a lifetime, thank you.

well, that is until he started dating Azul.

Azul is very clingy. Physically, at least. He is an octopus, after all. He finds comfort in just, having any kind of contact with someone. It keeps him grounded and focused. So once he has permission, he can and will hang off of Jamil every chance he gets. Jamil doesn't like holding hands (because his training has instilled the need to constantly have them free just in case) so Azul hangs off of his elbow. If they're in class, Azul either has his hand on top of his arm or his hand. 

and Jamil realizes... he doesn't mind it. In fact, he enjoys it. Way more than he thinks he should in fact. It relaxes him so much that it almost unnerves him (the first time he found himself dozing off while Azul laid in his lap doing god knows what he quite literally shoved him off in shock.)

belatedly, he figures out that he is in fact, VERY touch starved, he is just very particular about how someone touches him.

it's silence. He likes silence. Azul rarely ever talks when he's laying with him, usually doing other work or something for the Monstro lounge. When kalim would run up and hug him, he knew it just meant he was about to be bombarded with questions and ideas and statements and work. He never gets to relax with Kalim. It always came with noise, with chaos. While being around Azul was like lying on the beach, with nothing but the soft crashes of the waves to bother him.

(Of course, this wasn't every time. Azul was still a schemer and quite annoying, but he quickly learned that if Jamil wasn't in the mood to entertain his ramblings or schemes, he'd simply shove him off of his lap. It always made Azul quite disgruntled, but he'd take the hint and shut up.)

This also lead into another thing: Their forms of nonverbal communication. Azul and Jamil could easily have a whole conversation from opposite sides of a room when they got along. Jamil knew all of Azul’s little ticks (like whenever he fucking clicks, something he learned was an octopus thing (which begged the question of how the fuck he made that noise in his human form-) or when he randomly slaps Jamil or the twins, who then immediately told him it was a sign of affection and he should be immensely flattered over (apparently it was something he only ever did lightly with friends, which he has concerningly little of. But Jamil doesn’t know if he has much room to talk on that front.) and Azul knew Jamil’s. Azul almost knew his too well, in fact, but every time Jamil tried to ask him about it he was simply met with some comment about how ‘he simply couldn’t keep his eyes off of him.’

Jamil still didn’t like people touching him.

Azul was an exception though. And he was quite happy about that.

[catgirlkirigiri]

Hey guys is it cool to draw your webkinz as furries. Doesn't matter I'm doing it anyway

[akkivee]

kuukou says as he was shown reading manga a few episodes prior and so ichiro says as he literally was moved by kuukou’s phrases 15 seconds prior lmao

[villain-in-love]

took me far longer to send an ask than it probably should have because my brain decided it wanted to be a puddle of goop and not do the thinking thing it's here for and convince itself this was far harder than it is.

anyway. 🌼✈ and ‼ for our two Zeros?

(figured it was best to pick a Nanbaka s/i since they're the more developed ones of the fandoms we have in common and these two in particular's interactions I'm fond of so...)

(@canarycurse)

I am finally confident enough in my answers! This took too much time for questions this simple, but you know me. I'm a perfectionist who writes to much.

In any case, I love getting back to talking about Nanbaka and Zeroes, those things are very entertaining.

🌼 - What does your S/I like about mine?

I think that my Zero really appreciates the curiosity of your Zero, and her desire to learn new things. She thinks that it’s one of the most important traits a "worthy" person should possess. And my Zero is always up to exchanging information and knowledge with yours! She doesn’t think any less of your Zero for coming off as naïve sometimes – you can only learn so much in prisons. And, after all, both of them are still young, and I think that there can be a peculiar bond between two inhuman creatures who are still learning about this world. In a way, they are in this together.

She also likes how talkative your Zero is, and she finds it easy to hold conversations with her, due to how open your Zero is to topics that humans are often squeamish about. It’s nice to be able to talk with someone without trying to navigate the labyrinth of human social norms. She also likes that she’s down for mischief and gossip – that makes her an entertaining friend, which is probably the best praise you can get from my Zero.

Other than that, my Zero simply likes yours for what of an unusual creature she is. She met her fair share of supernatural beings, but an emotion ghost is something new, so… she’s very curious and wants to study your Zero. The girl got a mind of a scientist, it can’t be helped. But it’s another reason why she likes being your Zeros’ friend – it’s stimulating for the mind to deal with someone who’s not like any other creature or person. Like a new puzzle to solve.

✈ - What would be an ideal hangout between the two S/Is? Any particular activities the two would enjoy together?

Hhhmmmm, how about the game room of the cell 13? That seems to be a good place to meet with friends. What kind of games does your Zero prefer? And in case she can’t play games due to intangibility, then there’s karaoke (that appeared here thanks to Mitsuru and my Zero sharing a braincell).

I’m not sure if my Zero will be allowed to go there, but I think that going to the library together also could be an option? There's a lot of interesting things you can learn and experience from books, and my Zero has quite a few things to recommend, both in terms of fictional stories and non-fiction books (it also would have been interesting if Musashi could join them…) It's all up to what your Zero prefers to read.

If they were free, I think that my Zero would have used the fact that they both can go to places usual people often can’t go. Like, exploring abandoned construction that are located gods know where, or how about going to the forest? My Zero thinks that your Zero might like the animals here.

But in any setting, they could definitely get up to mischief together, maybe pulling pranks on people, though your Zero might end up having to take the role of the damage control and hold back my Zero when she comes up with particularly unhinged or dangerous ideas. And my Zero also has many ideas how your Zero’s abilities can be used! Or they could have fun just by talking, sharing stories or gossip.

‼ - Share anything else you think about our S/Is together !

I think that they are, in some way, are interesting parallels/contrasts to each other, especially considering their equally weird and very recent existence... Both literally and physically – your Zero is the embodiment of an emotion and is semi-incorporeal, my Zero lacks emotions and is very, for the lack of a better word, materialistic. But also! In terms of freedom, I think. Your Zero is physically free from any material restrictions like walls and chains, yet she never leaves the prison, and has “mental” chains keeping her here. My Zero used to travel and wander around a lot, and has absolutely not mental barriers, but she can be (and currently is) heavily restrained. I don’t know, just something-something which one of them is more free something-something.

(I also got a funny image in my mind of what could happen if they went to café or shopping together – that should be an interesting new experience for your Zero. But when it’s time to pay for the food/purchases, my Zero just says “Don’t worry, I got it covered”. Then she just grabs your Zero and runs off with her (my Zero definitely runs faster than yours, so, good thing that she’s also strong enough to carry her!) That is NOT what people usually do, please don’t let your Zero follow her example.)

[sheliesshattered]

I think my tastes must just vary wildly from most people's, but I feel like the last several fanfics I've read have gone on for five or six chapters too many. I'll take an open-ended happy ending over wading through 15k+ words of a dense cloud of cotton candy overly sweet denouement in which every aspect of their perfect life together is explained in excruciating detail, and pet-names and 'I love you's are exchanged every other paragraph

[dirt-str1der]

Me (im brain poisoned): i think this is kiryu and haruka

[pepprs]

ok mutuals be honest. should i “break up” w my counselor over these texts yes or no

[soulcluster-moved]

Would it be trite to make 3h verses for eirika and ephraim where they're at the officer's academy, visiting from magvel under friendship to....idk faerghus?? And during the war arc magvel provides reinforcements?

[puppy-the-mask]

So I've been cooking up some alternate outfit ideas for my Lmk sona and this is what they'd look like if they were with the Demon Bull Family! The idea is basically they'd be something of a court musician but it's mainly just a title.

Edit: Added the version without her armor <3

I don't have a concrete story but the initial idea was that cas was friends with swk in the brotherhood days and stuck with dbk after everyone else got sealed away and the whole consumption incident went down since she had nowhere else to go (and conveniently was the only lady around that he could ask for relationship advice when courting Iron Fan). They didn't expect Cas to live this long, only really expecting to have her around through her natural lifespan but they noticed she wasn't aging so now she gets to be their babysitter for date nights! Through the years she's been something of an aunt/sister figure and has become fiercely loyal to the family despite having no desire to take over the world. Redson built her electric bass and the armor she wears over her gems, the Bass has 2 extra buttons on it- the fire button spews fire out of the pipes and the Bull button unsheathes her sword from the neck of the instrument since she can't exactly walk around with a sword on her hip so easy these days. She travels with a heavy metal band across the continent- i like to imagine her intro episode has the crew excited about a big band coming to the city and while they wait they run into redson and annoy him cause he's bragging about getting exclusive vip passes to the show. The crew would expect someone mean from the music and the from the rest of the family but Cas is super welcoming and nice when the crew sneak backstage to bother redson some more XD

[msbarrows]

Less than 48 hours since ordering and the shaggy comforter cover set has already arrived. In the second image you can see how much darker this actually-sage-green thing is than the supposedly-sage-green fuzzy blanket. Also the colour difference between artificial light (left) and sunlight (right).

Shaggy thing (which looks amusingly and mildly distressingly like I bagged and skinned a very large muppet for its fabric) is still perking up from being compressed during shipping. I’ll probably run it through the dryer on low heat cycle to fluff it up properly (and blow off any loose bits of fibre) before using it. I figure if I don’t insert a comforter in it, I can get some use out of it as an extra-thick and fluffy blanket before it goes into storage until next fall.

Meanwhile the sheet set only just finally set out from Salt Lake City in the US southwest yesterday. The quilt set should be arriving tomorrow. The two remaining pillows (coming from China) passed through Toronto on Monday, so they could probably arrive here any time from now until Friday.

So unless the sheet set makes a super-fast journey it’ll probably be some time next week before I can put everything together on the bed. Even so, I am excite.

[todayisafridaynight]

hah nice

[neverendingford]

,