#this is a short chapter because this episode was super long so i had to go to three parts

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 42 part three

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)  (whole thing on AO3)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Just Call Me Angel of the Morning

Now we are in the Jingshi, and Wei Wuxian is waking up in Lan Wangji's bed and also apparently in his shirt, since we know Wei Wuxian doesn't own any white clothing.

Lan Wangji gets up without needing to use his hands - I never tire of watching that - and comes over to check on Wei Wuxian, who promptly lies about his condition.

Lan Wangji confidently yanks WWX's shirt open to check out his titties abdominal wound for himself.

There's no blushing or flusterment on either side; Wei Wuxian only becomes modest when Lan Wangji looks at the curse mark on his arm.

(More after the cut!)

Wei Wuxian says that now he knows who the last person on the curse's kill list is, and speculates about the identity of the person who's helping them to hunt Jin Guangyao, dorkily speculating that the person is JGY's vengeful ex.

Suibian

Next, Lan Wangji talks with him about Suibian, and how it sealed itself when Wei Wuxian died. Although it also sealed itself back when he fell into the burial mounds, so it's maybe been consistently sealed since then.

Lan Wangji demonstrates how locked the sword is by doing this:

Nice framing, camera operator.

Love the Way you Lie

Zewu Jun arrives and Wei Wuxian gets out of bed but doesn't get dressed. Zewu Jun might as well get used to seeing him like this because it's going to become a regular situation.

Lan Wangji explains what Wei Wuxian saw in empathy, and Lan Xichen says "yeah, but you didn't see it; you trust him, and I only trust you and Jin Guangyao." Lan Wangji feels that Jin Guangyao is a lying liar but Lan Xichen feels that he's a precious baby who only murders occasionally. What follows is the Lan Brothers version of a heated argument.

Lan Xichen says "you think you're right, but can't I think I'm right?" Lan Wangji does not say "I got whipped 33 times for my man and you just stood there, how about you fuck off?" because he is a better person than me. Wei Wuxian politely interrupts and Lan Xichen stops and puts his nice face back on again.

(Actor) Liu Haikuan is amazing. Lan Xichen assures Wei Wuxian that he won't snitch on him until they sort out what's really happening.

Fortunately for brotherly harmony, Wei Wuxian is a genius, and realizes that something is wrong with the soundtrack of his Empathy session. He plays Song of Cleansing: Jin Guangyao Remix for them.

They tell him he played it slightly wrong, and he's hilariously (and appropriately) put out that they would think he is capable of a mistake like that.

Because he is a genius, he guesses that musical cultivation can be used to harm people, not just to help people and/or control them after they're dead, and that Jin Guangyao modified the music accordingly.

Library

It happens that the Lans have a collection of harmful music. They trot off to the library together, and sexy Librarian Lan Xichen opens up the secret section.

The secret section has way more books in it than the regular section, including a book of music collected by a Lan from an earlier time, called the Collection of Chaos.

This music can rile up a person's Qi, suppress their power, kill them, and other bad stuff. As soon as he has the book in his hands, Wei Wuxian figures out Jin Guangyao's entire plot against Nie Mingjue.

There is also a guqin in the room, presumably used to learn secret music, and when Lan Wangji sits at it there is suddenly incense burning and a fresh flower in the vase. Lan Wangji is magic.

Soundtrack: Angel of the Morning by Juice Newton

[worth-the-chaos]

Adventures In Babysitting - Steve Harrington x female!reader - Chapter 1

Chapter Summary: You haven’t been babysitting Dustin for very long. Underestimating his tendencies for rebellious behavior, you realize too late that he’s snuck out, with your dire search for the boy leading you to the last place you wanted to be: Steve Harrington’s house.

Content warning: swearing, inter-dimensional demogorgon bullshit, kind of strangers to friends to lovers (not necessarily all in this chapter), stancy, slow burn

Word Count: 6.5k

Author’s note: This is my first fic and it isn’t super original; it pretty much sticks to the plot of the show, but adds you to the mix! I tend to like fics that put the reader directly into the Stranger Things universe, demogorgons and all, so this chapter roughly follows Steve’s involvement in season 1 episode 8 when he goes to the Byers’ residence. This is more of a prologue and I plan to be more original with the story as it goes on, but it will still largely follow the plot lines of the series, so if that’s something you’re looking for, you’ve found it here!

Series Masterlist | Next Part

***

You knocked quickly on the door in front of you, eyes darting left and right to take in your surroundings. You were out of place here among the upper class houses in the neighborhood, with your hand-me-down and thrifted clothes screaming the opposite of prosperity. You were antsy, weight shifting from foot to foot; in fact, you were almost confident that if any of the neighbors were out and caught a glimpse of your obviously anxious form, they’d put a call in to the Hawkins police in an instant. You didn’t belong here. You scoffed at the thought. Though every fiber of your being was telling you—no, screaming at you—to leave, you really didn’t have a choice.

Not to mention the address you were at housed probably the last person you would ever actively seek out. He probably didn’t want to see you either, if you were being honest.

“Come on. Just answer,” You muttered through gritted teeth as you raised your hand to knock once more. However, before your hand could even make contact with the nice, expensive oak of the front door, it opened and you were met with the annoyed and confused glare of the one and only Steve Harrington. The expression on his face didn’t surprise you but the state of it did. Bruises and cuts littered his otherwise perfect skin, leaving you with a lot more questions than you had originally intended on asking.

“What do you want?” His words were direct, his tone short and clipped, drained from what on the outside seemed to be quite an eventful day.

“I-I, uh…I’m sorry, but what happened to you?” You breathed out. You had more pressing concerns, but you couldn’t help but wonder why King Steve of Hawkins High looked like absolute shit.

“I don’t have time for this,” he sighed as he began to shut the door.

You reached your hand through just in time to catch it as you shoved your way into the Harrington household. You knew his parents were likely on some sort of fancy business trip, so they wouldn’t be there to reprimand you for your actions. It’s what made Steve’s house the prime destination for the biggest parties in Hawkins. Parties you were rarely, if ever, invited to.

“What the hell are you doing?! I barely even know you and now you’re breaking and fucking entering into my goddamn house!”

“Technically, I’m just entering. You opened the door.”

“Are you kidding me right now, y/n?”

You were surprised he even knew your name. You tended to blend into the background, flying under the radar in your attempt to make good enough grades to maybe, just maybe, give yourself a fighting chance at attending college on scholarships. “Will you just hear me out. Please.”

You must have sounded desperate because Steve’s furrowed brow relaxed, his expression softening before he rolled his eyes, sitting down on a pristine white couch saying, “Fine. But make it quick because I have a raging headache and my patience is wearing thin.”

You breathed in a deep breath before you rattled off your reason for trespassing.

“Well, it’s kind of a long story, but I happen to babysit Dustin Henderson—or, well to be more accurate, I just started babysitting Dustin Henderson since Jonathon Byers’ brother disappeared—and everything was going fine one minute, but then I went to check on him in his room because he was being awfully quiet, and then I noticed his window was open and he must’ve snuck out, and—“

He cut you off, “Woah, woah, woah. How does any of this concern me? I mean, it’s not my fault you’re clearly a shit babysitter and can’t keep track of some seventh grader.”

“If you would just let me finish,” you warned through gritted teeth, “I’m aware of the fact that it doesn’t concern you, but I’ve been looking all over for him and I can’t find him anywhere. I’ve checked the Sinclair’s, I’ve checked the Wheeler’s, I’ve checked every location a seventh grade nerd might frequent, nothing. So, yeah, though it doesn’t concern you, I thought I might find Nancy here, given the fact that the two of you have obviously been going out, to ask her where the hell her brother is so that maybe, just maybe, I could find the damn kid I’m babysitting before I get fired from my fucking job. Now, if you could stop being so goddamn selfish for once in your life, I would really appreciate the help.”

Steve paused for a moment while he considered this. Being called selfish stung, but you weren’t wrong. The events leading to the myriad of injuries across his face seemed to prove just that. However, there was something about you in particular saying it that cut deep. You were seemingly so perfect, granted a bit odd. You were nice, you made good grades, but other than that he didn’t know much about you, so the expletive-laced explanation was a bit out of place coming from your mouth.

“I hate to break it to you, but you’re a little too late to find Nancy here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she didn’t say it, but I take it things are probably pretty over between us.”

This was surprising to say the least. Nancy Wheeler wasn’t someone who you would have guessed would go for a total asshole jock like Steve, but even you had to admit, he was easy on the eyes. Your heart skipped a bit at the thought, as you suddenly also remembered that you basically broke into the house of the most popular kid at your high school. One whom you’d never really spoken to in any meaningful sense before this very instant.

“What happened?” You asked hesitantly, taking a step towards Steve as your fingers hovered over his forearm. Even though you hated nearly everything Steve stood for—popularity, prosperity, assholery—you felt compelled to comfort him. Something about him was different than you expected. When he didn’t pull away, you let your hand rest there.

“Well, speaking of Jonathan Byers, we kind of got into…an altercation. I would like to say that I won, but I think it’s clear that I didn’t. I was with Tommy H and Carol and he spray painted a bunch of awful shit about Nancy and Jonathan all over town, and I didn’t stop him, so yeah, things aren’t what I would call good between me and Nancy right now.”

Your comforting instinct told you to apologize, sympathize, but you weren’t going to condone his actions. You’d seen the “Nancy ‘the Slut’ Wheeler” graffiti earlier in your mad dash to locate Dustin. Though you didn’t know her super well, Nancy had been nothing but nice to you and she definitely didn’t deserve that sort of treatment.

“Well, how do you…feel about it?” You asked gently, internally cringing at your anxiety forcing you to find something to fill the silence with.

“I mean, definitely not good. I was an ass, and I know it, and as much as I hate that I screwed things up with Nancy, I think I’m more so realizing how shitty I was to Jonathan. I mean, he’s got enough going on without me making things more difficult…I need to make things right.” He stood up abruptly, quickly grabbing his car keys from a likely expensive decorative dish on the side table by the door.

“Woah, wait! You’re just going to leave me?” You asked incredulously. “Steve, I-I….I need help.”

“You can come with me,” he responded as he spun his keys around his index finger.

“What?”

“To the Byers’ house? You know, kill two birds with one stone? I apologize to Jonathan, you ask about the Henderson kid. Hell, you might even luck out and find him there, so what do you say?” He explained as he placed his hand gently on your back, leading you out the front door, down the driveway to his car. You tried not to think about the way his hand felt on the expanse of your back. Before you could say no, he was opening the passenger’s side door for you.

Your eyes met his, your mouth slightly parted as you weighed your options. Sure, you could handle yourself fine on the way to Jonathan’s house…but then on the other hand, Steve had a car and you didn’t, and with all of the weird things going on in Hawkins recently, it was probably best not to be a young woman walking around on her own, especially now that you were losing light. Safety reasons aside, the element that settled the internal argument for you was the look in Steve’s eyes. He wanted to do better. He wanted to be better. Who were you to deny him that?

You breathed in once more, shaking your head as you breathed out. “Alright. Let’s go.”

***

Being in Steve’s car was, needless to say, a bit awkward. You both had your own problems, brought together by chaos and regret, a combination which didn’t make for great small talk.

“So, Nancy Wheeler, huh?” You asked in an attempt to ease the tension, needing to rid the car of the weight of the uncomfortable silence.

“Yep,” Steve muttered, eyes focused on the road.

“She’s pretty cool. I mean, she’s always been nice to me.”

“She’s the best.”

You weren’t sure why, but this comment made your heart sink a little in your chest. Though Nancy had always been nice, you couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous of her. She stood out in a way that you never could. She was smart but had the money to back it up, which, in terms of social status, meant that she mattered and you didn’t. You were living paycheck to paycheck, barely functioning, picking up odd jobs all the time just to support yourself in the way your family couldn’t. You barely had the time to study or have fun, becoming the background character to everyone else’s life. Hell, you weren’t even sure you had a starring role in your own. She was also pretty in a way that you could never be, with her big blue eyes and thin frame making clearly even the douchiest of douchebags swoon. Steve was living proof.

“Y/n? Did you even hear anything I just said?” Steve’s voice finally flooded your consciousness, drawing you away from your thoughts and feelings of inadequacy.

You shook your head trying to clear out the negativity. “Sorry! I was-I just zoned out for a second, my bad,” You chuckled, your smile not quite reaching your eyes.

“I asked you why you were babysitting the Henderson kid anyway. It just seems like something that you wouldn’t be interested in.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I mean, I don’t know, you’re…different. Yeah, you’re nice and make good grades and whatever, but you’re also pretty edgy. You seem like one of those weird, alt kids that would be into like pretty heavy music and shit, and babysitting just seems a little too suburban-status-quo for someone like you.”

You stared at him blankly, not really sure how to answer given that his words were more a statement of assumptions rather than a question. You opened your mouth to speak, but he interjected before you could even say anything.

“That came out wrong. What I’m saying is that you’ve always struck me as a little bit intimidating because you’re actually an individual; you don’t follow the crowd which, I mean, is admirable, but babysitting? Come on. I’m as stereotypical as they come, and I wouldn’t even babysit, especially not for some thirteen-year-old misfit who seems like more of a handful than its worth.”

“Well, for starters, you’re a guy, so no shit you’re not babysitting the youth of Hawkins, and also, I just need the money, which I’m sure is a foreign concept to you. And babysitting is kind of a piece of cake…normally. Henderson is a special case; he’s too smart for his own good.”

Steve laughed and you blushed, grateful for the darkness to hide the heat in your cheeks. His words felt like they were trying to be a compliment, but you weren’t sure how to interpret them. You guessed that maybe you stood out at least a little bit more than you had initially thought. By his description, people must be noticing you to some extent. He was noticing you.

You shook your head at the thought. What had gotten into you? Half an hour ago you hated this man, but now you weren’t too sure. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as you thought he was.

With Hawkins being a small town in rural Indiana, the drive was not long, so your conversation ended here as you pulled up to the Byers’ residence. You felt a pang in your heart as you saw the tarp-covered hole in the front of the house. From speaking with Mrs. Henderson, you knew how much of a toll her son’s disappearance had taken on Joyce. Both of you got out of the car and you made your way to the front door.

Steve knocked. When there was no response, he banged on the door again. “Jonathan! Are you there man? It’s—it’s Steve! Listen, I just want to talk.”

He continued to bang on the door. You were about to reach up and stop him, tell him that it was enough and clearly no one was home, when the door opened a crack and you were met eye to eye with Nancy Wheeler. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw you, but it only lasted for a fraction of a second before her expression settled and her brows furrowed.

“Steve, listen to me.”

“Hey. Nancy, what—“

“You need to leave. Both of you,” she added as she turned to meet your eyes. She was serious, her expression stern, but there was something else there…desperation maybe?

“I’m not trying to start anything, okay?” Steve pleaded. It didn’t make a difference, as Nancy had clearly made up her mind.

“I don’t care about that. You need to leave. Now.”

“No, no, listen, I messed up…I messed up, and I just want to make things right.” Steve was desperate, you could hear it in his voice. You wanted to try and reason with Nancy, speak on behalf of Steve, but it wasn’t your place. You went to cast your gaze downwards, trying to give the two of them a private moment, but Nancy’s gauze-wrapped hand caught your eye instead.

“Hey, what happened to your hand?” You asked hesitantly, brow furrowed, “is that…is that blood?”

You went to gently reach for her hand but she quickly drew it back and out of sight, but it was too late. Say what you will about Steve, but he was protective to a fault, and in seeing Nancy hurt, any desire to make things right with Jonathan quickly dissipated.

“It’s nothing! It-It was an accident.”

“Wait a sec. Did he do this to you? Nancy, let me in!” Steve demanded as he pushed into the Byers’ home, not dissimilar to how you had intruded upon the Harrington residence earlier. You entered behind him. Under any normal circumstances, you probably would have felt awkward, but instead you were too preoccupied with Steve’s short temper and the fires you knew you would inevitably have to put out.

Unfortunately, you didn’t have the premonition to know the literal nature of that preoccupation.

Crossing the threshold of the Byers’ residence, you weren’t entirely sure what you were looking at, but it did make your heart stop in your chest. You momentarily locked eyes with Jonathan as you looked around the room. There were multicolored lights strewn about the whole house, makeshift weapons on the coffee table, the entire alphabet painted sloppily on the wallpaper, and Jonathan’s hand had the same blood soaked gauze as Nancy’s.

“What is…what the…what is all of this?” Steve demanded.

“You need to get out of here. I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.” Jonathan grabbed the fabric of Steve’s shirt attempting to force him out of the living room, but Steve planted his feet.

“Is that….is that gasoline?!” You stammered as the rest of your senses finally showed up. Your hands were trembling at your sides, and you felt like at any moment you might have a panic attack. You took a shaky breath as you attempted to calm yourself down.

“Steve! Get out!” Nancy shouted. The distinct click of a gun rang out, and Steve froze, eyes fixed on the revolver in Nancy’s hand, pointed directly at him. Jonathan’s grip loosened on Steve’s shirt as he stepped away, shock registering on his face as well.

Something was obviously very wrong. You pushed your anxiety deep down in your chest, and you took a step forward. If I could just talk to her, you thought, I can deescalate this.

“Nancy—“ you began cautiously, but as soon as you took a step she pivoted and now you were the one staring down the barrel of a gun. Your breath hitched in your throat as you slowly raised trembling hands in front of your chest. “I think you need to calm down.”

“I think you need to leave,” she responded, her voice icy. Suddenly, Steve bounded forward, grabbing your wrist and pulling you behind him. Once you were hidden behind his tall figure, you allowed yourself to break down a little, pressing yourself against him for some semblance of security.

“Is this a joke, Nancy? Put the gun down!”

“I’m doing this for you.”

“What is this?! What does that even mean?” He yelled back at her, but his words weren’t doing anything to help. His hand was still wrapped around your wrist, and his grip tightened. He was holding onto you just as much as you were holding onto him, with a fistful of his shirt balled into your delicate hand as you attempted to ground yourself. It felt intimate, and if it weren’t for your current predicament, you would have been embarrassed.

“Three. Two—“

“Nancy! The lights!” Jonathan shouted, and you peeled your face away from the solace of Steve’s back, watching as the lights flickered with a raging entropy, making it nearly impossible for your eyes to navigate the small room.

“Where is it? I don’t see it!” Nancy cried out and for the first time in the craze of blinking lights and shouting, you saw the fear on her face, her previous stoic facade shattering in the chaos. Seeing the fright in her eyes made your stomach drop, as the reality of the situation began to sink in.

Something was very, very wrong.

“Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going on?!” Steve shouted and you couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. Even with the family room being sporadically lit up like a Christmas tree, you and Steve were very much still in the dark.

No sooner had he said it did the ceiling begin to crack, something large writhing as it made its way into the small house from above. Nancy began shooting at it as you stood frozen. Finally, it burst through the drywall, falling to the floor on all fours. If someone asked you to describe what you had seen, you weren’t sure what you would’ve even said. It had pale skin, nearly translucent, and made an awful chattering sound as it started to gather its bearings.

“Go! Go! Run! Go!” Jonathan started shouting as he grabbed Nancy around the waist and shoved her in front of him as she darted down the hall. Steve turned around and did the same, his hands harshly grabbing at your sides to redirect you as you formed a human chain; Jonathan’s hand wrapped around your wrist, and your other hand wrapped around Steve’s as you made a mad dash to the bedroom at the end of the hall.

In all the commotion you barely heard Jonathan shout “jump!” narrowly missing the open bear trap on the floor. You shrieked and willed yourself to be coordinated for once in your damn life as you hurdled over the metal teeth of the trap, blindly trusting that Steve’s athleticism would kick in and he would do the same. A low growl sounded out just as the bedroom door slammed shut behind Steve, his momentum causing him to collide into you. You would have toppled over if it wasn’t for his quick reflexes, as he reached out to steady your shoulders.

“Shhh, you’re okay. It’s all going to be okay,” Steve frantically whispered, his hands still holding together your shaking form, as you stumbled backwards and collapsed down on the bed. His lips were dangerously close to your ear, and he brought a hand to the base of your neck, drawing his fingers down to your shoulder to reassure you. He was barely holding it together himself, scared out of his mind, but he brought you into this mess and he was determined to protect you first. “What the hell was that?!”

“Shut up!” Nancy and Jonathan yelled in unison. Everyone’s gaze then fixed on the yoyo that was precariously draped over the chair. Your heart thundered in your ears, your eyes welling with tears as you held your breath and waited. The lights continued to flicker, until a jolt of electricity rang out and they became static. The silence was unnerving.

“Do you hear anything?” Nancy asked.

Jonathan shook his head and slowly opened the door. The four of you stepped into the quiet of the hallway, eyes fixed on the undisturbed bear trap in the middle of the carpet. You all cautiously made your way back to the disheveled family room of the Byers’ house, Nancy and Jonathan prepped with their weapons in hand.

“This is…this—this is crazy!” Steve shouted, running his hands through his perfect hair.

You tugged on his sleeve trying to draw his attention away from what just happened; this was already a shit show, the last thing you needed was Steve losing his mind. “Steve, you need to calm down,” you begged, still shaken from before.

“Y/n, how the hell am I supposed to calm down?! This isn’t a situation where you can calm the fuck down! What the hell is going on?!” He continued to shout, grabbing your wrist and shoving it away. You tried not to take it personally, but it still hurt. You hated how quickly he had gone from comforting to cold.

Before you could open your mouth to speak, Nancy spoke up, “It’s going to come back! So you need to leave. Right now.”

Steve grabbed your wrist, your body lurching as your trajectory quickly changed, the inertia causing you to stumble while your feet attempted to keep up with Steve’s large strides. Steve fumbled with his keys as you reached the car. His shaky hands finally unlocked the door and he swung it open, about to sit when he realized that you had stopped following him, still positioned in front of the house.

“Y/n, what are you doing?”

“Steve, we can’t leave, are you kidding me? They’re in way over their heads. They need help.”

“It’s too dangerous. I don’t want you in there. It’s not up for discussion,” Steve argued, stepping around the door and reaching out to grab your wrist again. You quickly stepped back, pulling your hands out of his reach.

“Y/n, you’re not going back in there. I’m not joking.”

“Neither am I,” you shot back, turning back towards the door. You heard him call out your name again, but you were already through the front door, back in the discomfort of the Byers’ family room.

“Y/n, what the hell are you doing here? I said to leave,” Nancy warned.

“I’m not leaving. You guys need help, and I want to help.”

“Y/n—“ Jonathan began, but his warning was cut short when the lights began to flash again. You quickly grabbed a large kitchen knife from the pile of improvised weapons on the coffee table and met Nancy and Jonathan back to back in the center of the room.

“Where is it?” You asked, trying to shove the fear in your chest down, hoping it was a false alarm, that the wiring was screwy, that you were safe.

“Come out, you son of a bitch!” Jonathan yelled out. You willed your hands not to shake as you tightened your grip on the handle of the knife. Suddenly the lights went out, plunging the room into inky black darkness. You blinked rapidly, a futile attempt to get your eyes to adjust to the pitch black room.

You heard a low growl before Nancy exclaimed, “Y/N!”

You spun around, eyes meeting the nine-foot hulking form of whatever the hell this thing was, standing less than a foot from you. You didn’t even have time to scream as it lunged at you, pinning you to the floor. Your knife fell from your grasp, clamoring across the hardwood. You wish you could go back to when you hadn’t had a good look at the monster. Now you stared wide eyed as its face opened up revealing countless rows of razor sharp teeth as it shrieked, spewing thick drool across your face.

“Help me! Please! Nancy!” You screamed out as you writhed under the pressure of the beast. Its clawed fingers began tightening around your upper arm, ripping into your skin as you cried out in pain. It reared back to scream its ear piercing scream again, but something collided with it, knocking it off-kilter. Its long claws dragged across the flesh of your arm, etching larger gashes as its grip began to release.

You took this opportunity to slip away, scrambling across the floor on hands and knees as you grabbed the kitchen knife, turning around to slash the monster’s achilles. It cried out, turning back towards you, this time far angrier than it had been in the first place. This was when you realized that the collision from before had been Steve, swinging Jonathan’s nail bat as hard as he could at the creature.

He had come back for you.

He continued to swing the bat with all his might, causing the monster to stumble backwards until the resonant clang of metal hitting against metal rang out.

“He’s in the trap! He’s stuck!” Steve yelled out, causing the rest of you to spring into action.

“Jonathan, now!” Nancy shouted. Jonathan hurtled around the corner, the unmistakable flick of a lighter sounding out before he tossed it in the gasoline soaked carpet. The hallway erupted in flames that were almost too bright to bear, as the four of you covered your eyes. You took this opportunity to sprint back to the family room, quickly grabbing the fire extinguisher laid out on the rug, before bounding back to the hallway.

“Get back!” You shouted as you desperately tried to put out the fire before you were all suffocated in a fiery mix of ash and smoke. You all coughed as the smoke cleared, revealing that the monster had disappeared, no longer stuck between the teeth of the bear trap.

“Where did it go?” Nancy hesitantly asked.

“It has to be dead. It has to be,” Jonathan said, though it seemed more like he was saying it to convince himself; to speak it into existence.

Suddenly the string lights started blinking again, this time in a line leading toward them in the hallway. Your breath caught in your throat, and Steve protectively pushed himself in front of you and Nancy. The lights then blinked again, this time in a line towards the front door. This time they weren’t the erratic display of chaos from earlier, but rather an orderly demonstration of cosmos. The four of you cautiously followed the lights, weapons drawn just in case.

“Mom?” You heard Jonathan quietly ask. His eyes welled with tears, and you immediately wanted to hug the boy. He’d been through so much. He didn’t deserve this; none of you did.

You followed the lights outside the house, watching the streetlight gently flicker before all trace of the paranormal phenomenon dissipated.

“Where’s it going?” You asked quietly.

“I don’t think that’s the monster,” Jonathan responded. He didn’t elaborate and none of you asked.

Steve quickly turned to you, gently grabbing your wrist. “Y/n, you’re bleeding,” he said, his eyes widening as they focused on your blood soaked sleeve.

“It doesn’t matter. Where’s Dustin? Please tell me one of you knows,” you turned to ask Nancy and Jonathan, both of them caught off guard by your question.

“Uh, I think it really does matter, y/n. We don’t even know what the hell that thing was! You can’t just ignore—“

“They’re at the school,” Nancy interrupted. She wanted to argue with you too, to tell you that you definitely needed medical attention, but she also knew you weren’t going to listen. Hell, you’d just run back into a house with an inter-dimensional threat so her and Jonathan wouldn’t have to face it on their own.

You turned back towards Steve. “Steve, I promise I’ll let you take me to the urgent care or the hospital or whatever if you just please let me go make sure he’s okay,” you pleaded. Tears were welling in your eyes and Steve realized that he wasn’t going to be able to say no to you.

“Fine, but this is fucked up.”

***

By the time you pulled into the parking lot of Hawkins middle, it was swarming with police cars and emergency vehicles. You felt nauseous and negligent, as you frantically scanned, looking for the curly mop of hair hidden under a baseball cap. Before Steve stopped the car, you flung your door open, jogging across the lot, calling out for the boy.

“Dustin! Dustin Henderson!”

“Woah, woah, woah! You can’t just jump out of a moving vehicle!” Steve caught up with you. He wanted to reach out and put a hand on your shoulder to rein you in a little, but he decided against it, not recalling which one was torn up. You had to be in excruciating pain, but you didn’t show it. She’s pretty damn tough, Steve thought to himself. Suddenly, you both saw the Henderson boy, chatting away with Lucas Sinclair, as if nothing had happened.

“Henderson!” You growled, marching across the parking lot towards the young child.

“Y/n, I can explain—“

“Do you have any idea the hell I just went through trying to find your ass?! Where the hell were you?!”

“You’re not going to believe me, but there’s this alternate—wait, what the hell happened to your arm?”

You looked at Steve, trying to silently decide how much to tell the young boy. He was just a kid; he didn’t need to be mixed up in all of this, and neither did Lucas. To be perfectly honest, neither did the two of you, but you couldn’t change what happened. You broke eye contact with Steve and looked at Dustin, lips slightly parted as you tried to find the right words to say. Before you could even say anything, Dustin broke the silence.

“It was the demogorgon, wasn’t it?”

“What in the fresh hell are you talking about?” Steve asked, growing tired of this kid who had inadvertently caused you to risk your life trying to find him instead of just listening to his damn babysitter.

“Monster, big and scary, likely inter-dimensional?”

“You…But how do you…you know about all of this?” You asked, your heart sinking knowing that you couldn’t protect him from this.

“It took Will, and we’ve been trying to find him,” Lucas chimed in.

“B-but…but there was a funeral. He died,” you stammered, your heart aching this time as you thought back to Jonathan and Joyce and how miserable they had been over the loss of the young child.

“Look, y/n, I’m sorry I snuck out but it was to find Will. I can explain the rest but it’s going to take a while and you might want to sit down,” Dustin hesitantly spoke.

“You’re so damn lucky your mom is out of town for the next few days,” you spoke through gritted teeth, but you sat down and you listened to the boy.

***

After his explanation, you and Steve were, needless to say, a bit stunned and speechless. How the hell did three middle school boys figure all of that out? And a girl with a shaved head and super powers? You couldn’t wrap your head around the fact that Hawkins Chief of Police Jim Hopper knew about all of this either. What was there that you could trust? Your head started to spin and you were getting a bit nauseous at the thought.

“I mean, this is wild Henderson. It’s borderline unbelievable,” Steve chided. Dustin’s eyes widened and his face reddened, clearly mad that Steve wasn’t buying his story.

“Are you serious right now, Steve? You saw it! You saw the damn demogorgon! How could you possibly deny that—“

“I said borderline unbelievable, shit bird. Obviously I know some strange shit is going on, it’s just still fucking insane.”

You couldn’t agree more with him as you attempted to stand up, but your vision blurred and you stumbled. You would’ve fallen if Steve hadn’t immediately shot up to catch and steady you.

“Woah, y/n, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Steve’s eyes were darting all across your face. He wished he could read your mind but you just stared up at him with those eyes and it all remained a mystery.

“I think she needs to get that checked out. She’s losing a lot of blood,” Lucas chimed in, his brow furrowed under his camo bandana. He pointed at your blood soaked sleeve, and everyone simultaneously realized that blood was now dripping down your hand, the fabric no longer able to hold anymore liquid.

“No, no, I’m fine, I swear. Let me just walk it off. I’ll be okay,” you tried to sound confident, but your speech was slurred and there were dark spots invading your vision. Steve gently patted at the side of your face, attempting to keep you conscious.

“Y/n, just stay with us. We’re going to get you help. Just keep those pretty eyes open for me. Y/n, please!” He sounded desperate, and you fought to stay awake. The next thing you knew, he was carrying you, attempting to make it to an ambulance to get your wounds assessed by a real medical professional.

“Hey, we need you to take us to a hospital right now,” Steve spoke quickly as he sprinted to one of the EMTs on scene.

“What happened to her?”

“It’s a long story. Please sir,” Steve’s voice began to falter. The EMT gestured for Steve to hop in the back of the ambulance where he gingerly placed you on the gurney. Lucas and Dustin swiftly followed suit, going to hop into the ambulance, but the EMT stepped in front of the boys to stop them.

“Woah, where do you think you’re going?”

“Sir, if you could please let them come with us. We babysit them and I can’t leave them here by themselves,” Steve argued. It wasn’t entirely a lie, but it was the best he had to work with to convince the guy to take Sinclair and Henderson with them. Dustin looked at him with confusion, mouthing the word “we?” before Steve shot him a warning glance to fix his face before their story was invalidated.

You woke up in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV. You were no longer in your blood soaked clothes, your frame fitted with a hospital gown instead. You looked over to your left arm which had since been stitched up and was now wrapped in gauze, the bleeding slowing to a stop.

“Steve?” You called out, hoping he was still with you.

“Y/n! You’re awake!” He exclaimed rushing over to the side of the bed. You’d been out for the past hour. They had sedated you once you arrived at the hospital, saying it would be easier to tend to your wounds that way.

“Today didn’t really go how I thought it would.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Steve chuckled.

“I mean, my worst fear earlier was that I was going to get fired. I can tell you that I have significantly worse fears than that now,” you hated crying in front of people, with Steve being the last person you wanted to be vulnerable in front of, but you couldn’t help it as your eyes welled up and one stubborn tear slid down your cheek. Steve was quick to wipe it away, his hand reaching down to hold yours.

“I know, but on the bright side, I think you might be the most qualified babysitter in Hawkins,” Steve tried desperately to make you smile. It worked as you let out a wet laugh through your sob.

“I mean, I guess so,” you chuckled, your cheeks heating up at the compliment.

“You guess so? I know so. I don’t know anybody who would fight a monster with that many fucking teeth for some kid.”

“Nancy would,” you reminded him, your voice getting small again. The light in his eyes suddenly dissipated and he let go of your hand.

“Yeah, no, you’re probably right. I guess we’d all make pretty damn good babysitters,” he averted eye contact, preferring to look at his hands. In the time he’d been spending with you, he kind of forgot about Nancy. He felt guilty.

“You should talk to her, you know?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sure she’s probably ready to put whatever happened between the two of you behind her. I mean, you really stepped up when it mattered today,” you added. You weren’t sure why you were saying it because the thought of him going back to Nancy made your heart ache, but maybe you weren’t ready for the alternative. You weren’t ready for him to look at you the way he looked at her. Not that you thought he would, but you just felt the need to create some distance. A lot had happened and this wasn’t the way you wanted him to realize you were something special, something to hold onto.

“Yeah, I guess…I mean, I guess I’ll go talk to her. Let me know if you need anything, yeah?” He looked you in the eye. Instead of seeing annoyance or indifference, you saw something new for a change: sincerity.

“Promise.”

He gave you a small smile, pausing in the doorway as he took one last look at you. You did a small wave goodbye, reassuring him that you’d be okay. With that, he took a breath and turned the corner, making his way back to the hospital waiting room where him and Nancy would patch things up. There was something about you though; something he couldn’t quite get out of his head.

He also had a sinking feeling in his chest that this wasn’t the end of whatever was going on in Hawkins. He had a feeling that the danger would linger, lurking in the shadows. He pushed the feeling aside and smiled weakly at Nancy, moving to sit in the empty chair next to her.

***

a/n: I hope y’all liked it; in theory there’s more to come (like I said earlier it’s gonna be a slow burn so yeah lol). If you feel so inspired to reboot this post that would also be pretty dope and I’d be eternally grateful <3

[solar4seekstron]

Chapter 4: Especially when he was unconscious!

Transformers One x reader: Awakening Chapter Four

Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Five, Chapter Six

Transformers One x Cybertronian!GN!reader

Introduction Movie Masterlist

Tw/Tags: non?? D trust reader a bit more, it was hard to add Elita and B scenes I’m trying. That should be all

(Chapter 4 is here! I had a little more fun for this episode I knew what I wanted to have happen between D and Y/N and yes he’s my favorite (Besides OP and B shut up) and i wanted to show the bit of change we witness in D before his fight with Starscream,. Figured it’ll be right to add it where I did.. I will go back to writing more for Elita but it’s hard to write without it taking out of the story much since honestly Elita feels a little too less developed then the other three. I’m trying guys. I did add that small moment with Shockwave and Soundwave with thee reader just to add something there with the two. Hopefully in the second movie that I’m sure we’ll get eventually will follow the]m and starscream a bit more so fingers crossed. Anyway that should be all I hope you all enjoy this long chapter.)

“They found us!”

The five looked around scared.

“Oh yes, time to fight back!”

”D wait we must-

“No! You must return to Iacon City and alert everyone! Embedded in this are the records I have shown you. Use it to reveal the truth.”

“We will.”

“This tunnel leads to the mountains. Cybertrons future is in your hands.”

“We’re out of time. We gotta move!”

The three of them start running. Orion would follow but then stop to look back at Trion

“Wait! Wait! We can’t just leave you here!”

”Come with us!”

“Your fight will come my friends. Primus has a purpose for us all. But this fight. This fight is mine. Now go!”

The five would then continue their run as Trion stands and waits for the fight. His back to them. Soon parts of the cave collapses and soldiers of sentinel appear with guns. Soon causing smoke then pointing their guns at Trion

“Stand down. Old timer.”

“Ah. Old you say?”

Trion would then use his powers. Transforming and attacking th the guards giving Orion and the others time to escape

“Not too old for you.”

But when he looks up he is then attacked by Airachnid who pins him down

“We need to hurry!”

“I still think we have better odds fighting than out running them.”

“Wait! We have cogs! We can transform now.”

“That’s right! Everyone ready?”

“I was born ready!”

“On three! One-“

From there they fall. The gang then struggling with parts of their bodies transforming. As the others struggled Y/Ns blades started spinning which caused them to trip and spin side ways because of the blades down the hill. Going up and down in short and hard bumps. Their body spinning along.

“Hey I got- woah! Help HELP!!!!”

“How do we use these things?!”

“I don't know! Just try!”

“It’s working haha! It’s work- My head. My head! Help! Help!”

“This is not faster!”

“Come On!”

“Aaaand- Transform!! Wheels! I need Wheels!”

Once in the forest deeper three guards would stop in front of them shooting. The five then keep running then once in mid air they all transform hitting the guards. Bee would then hit a rock breaking his stop being in vehicle mode still

“Oh yeah we’re alive!”

The four would then talk to each other super excited. Not noticing the guard behind Orion pointing their blaster until the guard is then shot and flown back. D coming in and landing on the guard as he laughs

“Yes!”

“Hey woah buddy. You ok?”

“I’m great! Are you kidding me? We can transform! We. Trans. Form!”

“Wait I-I- I know. I know.”

“We’re wasting time. We have to get back to Iacon.”

“Looks like the fastest way back to Iacon i-“

“Here I got it!”

“Woah hey what are you doing?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah but our proof is inside and you’re spilling it everywhere.”

D would then turn to face Orion and in a low voice speaks as he stares Orion down and stares closer. Elita and B watching in shock as well.

“I. Got. It.”

“Ok.”

D would look at Orion for a moment more. Looking at the map and then the others. D and Y/N making eye contact. Y/N was unsure as they then look down and a bit of fear in their eyes. Then looking back at Orion. Satisfied with Orions answer before heading forth

“Follow me.”

Orion and the others would start follwoing him after a second

———————————————————————————

As they continue to walk as the sun starts to set. Orions face shows that he’s worried about his friend. Elita and B can tell as well. Y/N then gets the idea walking past Orion and stood next to D who was a lot further ahead then the others.

”Hey D look when we get back we will take down sentinel.”

”I don’t want to kill sentinel i want to-“

”I know what you want to do. I know how you’re feeling because I am feeling it too!” This catches D off guard bit as the two keep walking. Y/N would then sigh

“I want sentinel to suffer just as much as you do. But we must also think smart. If he has been in power for this long then surely we’re just walking into a trap. A web.” The two wold stand and face eachother. D grumbling and sighing as he looked to the side. The three stoppping and just watching staying at the same distance.

“Then I guess I’ll just have to stay stronger. With th help of the people I know I can only trust.” D would put his hand on their arm as he stepped a bit closer with a smile that isn’t as in concept as it use to be. Y/N looked at him still unsure and looked down for a moment

”D strength isn’t always-“

”I can trust you to be there….right?” His hand squeezing their arm a bit and pulling them a bit closer

”….Always.” They say finally looking at him. His smile still there and he pats their back and starts walking forward again. Leaving them there as the others start walking to them

”You tried…Thank you.” Orion stand next to them. They would pt their hand on his shoulder and just nods. Orion, Elita and B start walking as Y/N Stoof there for a second. Their expression changing from sort of sad to angry then to unsure

*Back at Sentinels Tower———————

“Alpha trion! You are still alive? Won’t you look at that! You look horrible.”

“Traitor. You are a disgrace. Primus will surely-“

“Uh-huh yes shut up. I seized an opportunity to take control of my future. Anything to get out of working for you and that boring council of elders. Seriously I would watch you primes spend half the day losing a war and the other half sitting around waxing poetic loyalty and honor. But now look at you.”

“Hear my words! You will fall and a new prime will rise-“

“There you go again. I don't want to listen to any more speeches. There was others in the cave with you. Who are they?”

“They are to be your undoing you’ve lost Sentinel. Nothing can-“

From Trion would kill Trion

“Ugh didn’t I just say no speeches. You heard me right? This is what I’m talking about. Unbelievable. All of them were like that. So disrespectful. Given that friend of the miners Y/N didn’t visit. My money is it has something to do with them and whomever else with them. A real shame really.” He would then sigh then look over at Airachnid

“Ok hunt down the others.”

“With pleasure.”

———————————————————————————

*Back to the others-

The group are walking after transforming. Y/N having sitting on the end of Orions truck. Their helicopter would make too much noise. Once they transform Y/N made sure to get off to let Orion to transform as well.

“Hey buddy!”

“Yo.”

“Hey…You've been a little quiet. Are you alright?”

Orion walks next to D as the other two stay behind

“All I can think about is Sentinels' smirking face. He must pay for what he’s done. Someone has to do something.”

“We are! With Alpha Trions proof inside that device we will show everyone the truth.”

“You honestly believe it’ll be that easy? Iacon doesn’t want to hear the truth. They worship sentinel. There’s got to be a better way to bring him down.”

“We just have to trust that everyone will believe what we show them-“

The two would stop for a moment

“I trusted sentinel! With everything! I will never trust a so-called leader ever again. There’s only one bot I know I can-“

The five are then attacked and knocked out cold by a device

“All right. Wake them up!”

Orion and the others would then wake up. Orion closer in the front as D was beind him on the right. And D and Elita on his left a bit further. Y/N was in front of the two but a bit further from Orions left

“Now. Are you spys? Or just incompetent lackeys?!”

“We’re not spys.”

“But he is incompetent.”

”Elita.”

“Scanning electrical impulses. He’s telling the truth.”

“That just means he believes himself! Like any spy would.”

B would try to speak

“Uh why is he gagged?”

“He wouldn’t stop talking!”

“Even when he was unconscious?”

“Especially when he was unconscious!”

“Enough! Two options for you! One. We slowly dismantle each of you one bolt and screw at a time. And really make sure you feel it. Or two. An exchange for a quick death you give us and tell on the energon trains. Access to mines. Or anything else that could hurt your boss' sentinel prime!”

“Who exactly are you guys?”

“The Cybertronian high guard!”

“I told you it wasn’t tight enough!”

“Prestigious defenders of Iacon!”

“Prestigious?”

“Wait, he's right. I read all about you in the archives! You were the most legendary warriors of all of Cybertron.”

“Look! Look! Look! There’s Starscream and you’re Shockwave and Soundwave! Guys raise your hand if there’s a wave is in your name there’s a lot of waves.”

“Silence! The yellow annoying one is correct.”

“WOAH!”

“We were once the high guard. We witnessed sentinels betrayed. Saw the primes fall. Since that day we’ve been fighting from the shadows. Doing whatever we can to sabotage sentinel.”

“That’s great! We’re-Oh ok ok! We’re good! Everyone relax. I’m just saying we’re allies. We were on our way back to Iacon and now with your help. We can unify Cybertron against sentinel prime.”

“The idea of a unified Cybertron is a myth. All that counts is the strength of one bot over another!”

“Ok so these- these guys are a little intense.”

“Yeah. Just a little.”

“Hey! What are you doing?”

“I'll tell you what I’m not doing. I’m not cowering inside some busted ship playing king of the throne. I’m not pretending like I’m making a difference by throwing in one punch and then running away to hide! I found out that sentinel is rotten today and I’m going to make him pay for it. Today!”

“You think you can insult me and just walk away? No one leaves here unless I say so.”

“Is that right? Well how can you say so. With my head in your teeth?”

“D!”

“D would hit Starscream with his head. Causing Starscream to get irritated and fly in the air to kick D. Only for him to block it. Starscream would then fly and grab D. Flying him to the ceiling and punching him only for D to transform his leg and kick him. Starscream would fall back D landing on his feet over him and starts throwing punches at Starscream face

“Hit me! Do it! Come on! Hit more!”

Shockwave would then be seen taking a step to walk to them but Soundwave would stop him. The two looked at each other before looking back at the two. D would then notice the other bots cheers causing D to look around surprised, confused, but now given with pride

“You want to see the strength of one bot over another?!”

“Is that all you got, tough guy? Lets go! Come on! “

D would then gain a canon. He stops to look at it for a moment before looking back at startscream. Orion and Y/Ns face shocked

“Please! I beg you!”

“Stop! D! He’s not the enemy!”

“Bare witness! This is the last time I show mercy. Decide right now! You can stay here in hiding. Bowing before your pathetic leader or follow me as we march on Iacon and I take down sentinel once and for all!!!”

From there D shoots up as the other bots cheer and walk to D. Shockwave and Soundwave doing the same as the bots walk around Elita, B, and Orion as D is soon surrounded. Orion would then look at D as everything seems to slow down. D would look back but his eyes only passing Orion as he looked at the other bots around him having an angry look. D would then make eye contact with Y/N you looked at him with worry and sad eyes. The stare going only for a second as Y/N grows scared but more so worried. From there, there’s a huge explosion causing many to fly back. The hidden base now attacked my sentinels guards

“B! Come on!”

B and Orion fight together shooting at the soldiers. Y/N and Elita join together and start fighting showing off their fighting skills.

“Engage all hostiles. I got the bridge.”

The fight would commence and after a minute the fight was over. B and D were taken as Elita and Orion are left behind. During the fight, Y/N would be cornered. They would then look at the blades of their alt mode and sigh.

”Well better then nothing.” Choosing to use them as swords until they realize most of the blade was a cover up for their swords. They then start fighting at their swords were like sabers and they start slicing up the guards. The fighting continueing

”Elita get down!”

Y/N was thrown by an explosion to the side behind the ship. From there they would grab a gun and wait to ambush one of the soilders. Only to hear one of them com Airachnid that Orion and Elita were gone. With everything Y/N starts to panick saying quiet. Then hearing they got B and D-16. They would then wait until the soilders to leave then once they’re far enough. They are successfully able to get away transforming into their helicopter not noticing the remaining guard. Y/N was so fueled with anger and sadness. That all they can think about is to just save their remaining friends being D-16 and B-127.

———————————————————————————

*Later that morning-

“I feel like someone dropped a cliff on me. Where are the others?”

“Sentinel troops took as many prisoners as they could carry. They got D-16 and B….there’s a chance they could’ve taken Y/N but when asking one of the captured guards he said they didn’t tale Y/N and their body. Isn’t anywhere….”

“Oh no.”

“And half of those high guard nut jobs.”

“Our proof. It’s gone.”

“So what do we do now?”

“D was right.”

“About what?”

“Everything! Look at it. Look around. This is a disaster. It’s all my fault I should’ve stayed on protocol.”

“Listen to me, I really want you to hear this. Are you listening? I’m better than you.”

“Yeah ok. I’m hearing you.”

“I’m better than you in every way except you have hope. You always have. You went into the mine to rescue Jazz. You snuck up into the surface to find the Matrix of Leadership.”

“Yeah, and how did that work out?”

”My point is that your instincts tell you to break protocol for a reason. This blind optimism that you have is why you make such bold and courageous choices. That are extremely stupid.”

“First time giving a pep talk?”

“You’re inspiring. You can envision a better future that no one else can see. And if we ever wanna see B and D-16 and possibly Y/N again. That. That is the Orion Pax that we need right now. Listen to me, we can do this.”

“Those energon trains will be heading back to Iacon. If we intercepted one-“

“Hell yes. I can reroute it. What else do we need?”

“Well my bold instincts tells me we have to recruit some nut jobs.”

“I was afraid you’d say that.”

“Uhh Shockwave, Soundwave. You in the back. In order to save our captured friends we have to act now.”

“How about I blast you back to Iacon- Ugggh she punched me in my eye!”

“Everyone shut up! All of you! Listen to him!”

“Most likely our friends are being held captive at the top of sentinels tower. A surprise attack will give us a chance to rescue them.”

“Impossible. We do not have enough soldiers or a way inside.”

“Elita will get us in. And I will get more troops.”

‘Why should we follow you?”

Elita threatens him again with the show of her fists

“We will follow you.”

“Attention High Guard. Prepare for battle. What is our first move?”

“We roll out.”

“What?”

“Louder.”

“Transform and Roll Out!”

I couldn’t really find a right place to add anything for the high guard with the reader. But that’s what my other series Before and So Forth is for lol. Hope y’all enjoyed this chapter

[physalian]

A Guide to Productive Filler

I was going to write this post about the wonders of fanfic and how it does not do the “forced miscommunication for cheap drama” trope, and it did not stay that post for long.

I’m sure it’s out there, but it’s not saturated in the most popular fics and I think I know why: Fanfic exists in contrast to the established canon, and the canon has forced miscommunication, thus fanfic looks at the perpetual failure of those plotlines and ignores it.

Nobody likes this trope, yet it keeps happening. In TV, at least in the old days when we had full seasons with appropriate and satisfying filler episodes and actual good stories and such (you know, before Disney +) TV shows were contracted to fill a minimum number of episodes and didn’t always have enough content to fill it, especially CW shows.

Enter filler episodes, which, when productive, still entertained the audience with off-beat side quests or gave more screen time to beloved side characters or explored more of the world and the lore. Filler plots meant that you could casually check in on your favorite show once a week, or miss an episode, and not feel completely lost because the plot wasn’t super tight and lean. Some of my favorite episodes of all my favorite TV shows are filler plots and just because they’re “filler,” as in, not a plot-heavy element to advance the narrative, doesn’t mean they were lacking in story.

That was good writing.

Bad filler elements were sh*t like forced miscommunication for cheap drama and it still exists even in the “mini series” that are really just long movies extended to keep people from canceling their subscriptions. TV shows may have one or two head writers, but they’re still written by committee and producers and production companies trying to milk as much from a profitable product as possible, which means they couldn’t write an efficient, epic romance that ended too quickly. They had to faff about for a few seasons before delivering to keep butts on couches tuning in to generate sweet, sweet ad revenue.

Forced miscommunication in TV shows have always made sense in that light. Yeah it’s a product of bad writing, but I can’t point at the head writer or even the staff writer alone and criticize their writing ability because it likely wasn’t their decision.

Forced miscommunication in books, however—that I have no excuse for. Books aren’t written by committee. In this case, I really can just blame the author for their bad choices, which, in turn, maybe came from their favorite TV shows and how they executed similar plot lines.

Fanfic does not do this, usually. It’s not written by committee and has no quota to fulfill to beef up the narrative with extra chapters.

—

So. You want your story to be longer, fanfic or otherwise, but you’re struggling because your plot is too thin and you don’t know where to go from here.

First, a disclaimer: Novellas exist and can be as short as they need to be.

“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter,” means that  just because it’s long doesn’t mean every word serves a purpose. With enough time, the writer can trim down their thoughts for conciseness and clarity, and say the same thing with better impact with less beating around the bush.

So just because it’s short doesn’t make it bad, just because it’s long doesn’t make it good. It’s about what you do with the words you’ve written.

However, if it really is a thin story lacking substance and oomph, here’s some suggestions that are not sh*t like “forced miscommunication”. These are not meant for generalized application and should be considered heavily before implementing, because any one of them can change your book for the worse by adding in unnecessary detail that distracts from the main story.

1. Consider multiple narrators

Now. I just read a rather bad book that could have lost about ⅔ of its story for a variety of reasons and told the same story in a fraction of the page count. One of those issues was giving the villain several POVs that ruined the suspense and the tension because the reader became privy to their grand plan long before the protagonist and instead of having all our questions dying to be answered with the protagonist, we were waiting around for them to stop fooling around and figure it out already.

With that said, if you have a character of second importance to the protagonist whose perspective would benefit and enrich the story, consider giving them POVs to explore either when the protagonist couldn’t be present, or in contrast to the main narrator’s thoughts on the story and conflict.

I’ve never written anything without multiple POVs and still get carried away sometimes just trying to fill in all the missing time that didn’t add enough to the story to make it worth it. I have deleted POVs from ENNS that were better left up to audience interpretation then all laid out on the table.

This technique very much necessitates restraint, but giving your foil character, your deuteragonist, even your villain some narration “screen time” might help you beef up your word count and tell more than just one biased side of the same story. Fanfic tends to be very efficient with this because, again, one writer working for free tends to want to be efficient and not give pages upon pages of useless prose.

2. Side-quests and character studies

My all time favorite filler episode of any TV show is LOST’s “The Constant”. It focuses entirely on the side character Desmond. He’s an unwilling time-traveler and throughout season 4, struggles to control his temporal displacement and risks dying if he can’t find a “constant” to anchor him to the correct timeline.

This episode is often praised as one of, if not the show’s finest hour. Desmond spends most of the runtime flipping erratically between the past and the present as his romantic relationship spirals for other plot reasons. He ends up making his “constant” his fraught relationship and is able to revert to the past with knowledge of the future to get his then-ex girlfriend’s new phone number so he can call her at an exact date in the future to prove he won’t have given up on them. When Des finally makes that call 8 years later, it’s so emotional, so full of catharsis, so exciting to see him finally reach her after struggling since we met him.

And it has absolutely nothing to do with the plot at large, only Desmond’s arc. It explores some of the world’s lore but doesn’t answer any of the main plot questions or progress any other major character, and Des is the only time traveler so all the risk surrounding time travel is only for him. Critically, it still adheres to the themes of the show and fulfills much of the promises of this character’s role in it.

The show’s worst episode, “Stranger in a Strange Land,” is also filler about protagonist Jack’s tattoos. He makes a relationship with a woman nobody cares about and spends the entirety of the episode’s flashbacks, which is most of the episode’s runtime, dicking around in Thailand. With this quasi-wise woman’s tattoo techniques. Nobody cares what they mean, they didn’t connect with the themes of the show, didn’t tell us anything substantial about Jack or the world, lore, or story, and just felt like a massive waste of time.

If you’re going to write side quests, be more like “The Constant” and less like “Stranger in a Strange Land”. 

3. “Slice of Life” moments

A repeat of referencing this scene and this movie but I don’t care: “Doc Racing” from Cars is just one example. Adding in scenes like these won’t give you tens of thousands of words, but maybe you only need a couple hundred to feel satisfied.

Slice of life moments slow the pacing down, so place them wisely, and just let your characters be people in their world. Small things, human things. In Cars, it’s an old man letting himself enjoy life again when he thinks nobody’s watching. I have a scene in my sci-fi WIP series where two brothers, plagued by their family’s social status, take a drive and pick up greasy drive-thru food to park on a mountain overlook and just watch the city while licking salt off their fingers. I think Across the Spiderverse is about 20 minutes too long, but that scene of Miles and Gwen upside down on the roof before the plot ramps up is another quiet, human moment.

It could be a character who needs a break from the breakneck speed of the plot and the stress to listen to music, walk away from the project and enjoy the sun, anything. Do try to not get overly pretentious trying to make it super metaphorical and poetic, let the audience do it for you. These quiet scenes could end up being the audience’s favorite.

—

If you’re trying to make your book longer, don’t be like Bilbo Baggins, okay? Don’t let your characters be spread thin, like butter scraped over too much bread. Add, don’t stretch. If the romance is on track to come together sooner, let it, or figure out a more meaningful way to delay it than throwing in a dumb argument that won’t mean anything in 20 pages anyway.

This wasn’t an exhaustive list, just what I think could be the most effective with the widest applications across genres.

[lych33dragoncookie]

Okay I’m curious, what would you change in Dark Cacao’s Beast Yeast episodes to make them more interesting/compelling/in-character etc?

okay this is admittedly a bit of a tricky one to tackle B.Y Ch3's main thing is that. Really, there's... not very many interesting character moments or interactions in particular? And that's sort of an issue with most of the DC Kingdom characters, they're sort of plain (not a bad thing) and work best when bouncing off of other characters; see Dark Cacao & Hollyberry, and Crunchy Chip & Wildberry. So, inherently, just sticking a bunch of DC Kingdom characters with each other will result in cutscenes that are just sort of a slog where not much of interest really happens. It's kind of interesting any time the whole Flour Disease thing is actively in play, so maaaybe if they had leaned harder on it they could have done something more interesting to watch? Unsure. Again, tricky situation.

As for Ch4, I do think Dark Cacao's climb up is pretty interesting, but it's... not that well paced? Like, not a lot happens, really. It's a lot of cutscenes, but not very much of interest happens Within those cutscenes. It's at its most entertaining when Peach Blossom is onscreen, because he's a weird old man who can't help but make himself Look evil when he's literally not doing anything wrong, and I like him for that, just kind of makes for a fun guy to have next to Dark Cacao The part I REALLY feel like was wasted was his awakening scene. Frankly, it feels underwhelming. Barely anything changes, and it just sort of feels like he's going back to his default. In his ingame dialogue and the one cutscene he gets for the 4th anniv there's Some convincing and actually fun change, but... not a lot, honestly Personally, I really think they could have benefited from having him show stronger emotion during his awakening. Resolution doesn't JUST have to be a completely serious super-focused determination on seeing things through to the end; that determination can, in fact, be more passionate. I really think that, silly as it may be, they could actually have leaned on the "i know how to laugh now :)" thing that they do with some of his ingame dialogue and animations. Have him laugh in the face of Mystic's absurd propositions, laugh at the fact she could have even thought for a second that showing him a future where his kingdom prospers after his passing through his own son's will would actually make him give up. outright mock her, make it clear that all she's done is give him more of a reason to strike her down, to ensure that his son and his kingdom will both thrive long after he's gone. that he will not, by ANY means, let her destroy that which he loves

aka please. please just let that man love his son. properly. in a way that feels sincere and at least somewhat well executed. that's part of what fucked over his Crispia chapter's ending, how abruptly he went from "KILL" to "LIVE" without so much as a fight scene showing him gradually realizing that he's most certainly fucked up and that he really should have done better and that as much as he loves his son he never showed it and that the only way he can correct that mistake is by starting to show that love Now. just. please. let him show actual sincere human passion and emotion. please. how the hell is it that it took until THIS UPDATE, in a short little event-only side cutscene, for him to show ANY kind of actual convincing warmth. like that's such bullshit

↑ This. More of this and I will be satisfied.

[dixonsstinkysock]

"Je t'aime de tout mon cœur."

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader, Daryl Dixon x Daughter, (slight Carol x Reader???)

Era: Daryl Dixon: The Book of Carol

Pronouns: She/Her

Warnings: Swearing, Violence, Descriptions of the Dead… THIS TAKES PLACE IN EPISODE 1 OF THE BOOK OF CAROL, IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN IT AND WANT NO SPOILERS, DO NOT READ.

Word Count: 3,441

Chapter Summary: Carol, Reader, and Remy start their search for someone who’s been gone far too long.

A/N: This is (sorta) my first x reader fic. I’m super excited and nervous at the same time, I’ve worked very hard on this chapter so I hope it’s readable. Also this entire fic was inspired by @villifix !! They are so creative and are basically the reason I’m writing this 😭😭. Sooo Thank you so much for inspiring me! (and letting me use your character concept muah) I don’t know alot about guns or cars so bear with me here. One more thing, I feel like Carol is very protective over the reader and Remy in this, which is mostly biased because I think she’s hot and I want her to protect me…okay goodbye.

Click–clack..click–clack..click– 

“Ow! Damn– ...Sorry.” You adjust the rearview mirror to glance at the 17 year old in the backseat– who should be asleep– instead messing with that stupid butterfly knife.

“What happened? I thought you were sleeping.” You mentioned, slightly annoying at the fact she’s still trying to perfect her knife tricks, over getting some rest. Carol looks back at the hazel-eyed girl, checking if the wound is bad enough to pull-over. “You’ll be okay Rem, it’s just a small knick. Be more careful–Please. We wanna bring you back home in one piece.” 

“Right..I’ll be more careful.” Remy agreed, her voice small and soft, as if she’s a little..embarrassed. “Uhm..Mom, could we stop for a minute?” she asks with a slight country accent–an accent she got from being raised by a certain redneck archer. “I kinda have to pee..” 

“Sure Angel Face, it can’t hurt us to take a short break.” You smile at her through the rearview and turn to pull onto a dirt patch on the side of the road.

Remy walks a little out into the brush–knife in its sheath–hidden a little under her purple zebra striped dress. You and Carol are leaned up against your car, a white, 2010 Toyota Matrix. “Have you noticed anything off about Remy recently?” You question, turning to face Carol. “It’s like she’s…I don’t know–Distracted?” Carol responds immediately, already having an idea of what the problem was.

“Well..We’ve been looking for Daryl non-stop and we’ve had no luck so far. Not so much as even a clue. She’s worried, I don’t blame her..I am too.”

Remy stands, fixing her dark brown-striped leggings. It’s quiet, the only sounds are the leaves rustling, a squirrel scurrying home with dinner. It’s almost peaceful–if you forget the dead are roaming around. Unfortunately, the smell is too pungent to miss, their throaty growl, the agonizingly slow footsteps or the sound of their decaying body separating as they drag themselves against the ground. Remy knows the feeling, knows the sound, the smell–it’s like being watched..being hunted. 

It isn’t hard finding the lone walker, Remy gets closer to “put it out of its misery” as she says. She knows that the dead aren’t people anymore but she still prefers to give them the respect they deserve– for them to finally rest in peace…sometimes pieces.

Carol notices her first, itching to get back on the road and continue their search for their beloved hunter. You all pile back into the car, preparing for the long journey ahead. You look back at Remington–your daughter–she’s grown so much, so fast.

“You okay Rem? No bites?”

“Yeah, No bites.”

Turrrr..turrrr..turrrrrr

“You hear that?’

“Yeah..There!” 

Carol frantically points to where the familiar noise is coming from– a motorcycle– specifically Daryl’s motorcycle but…No Daryl. 

“Mom, is that–” 

“Yes it is, buckle up please.” Of course, Remy is already buckled.. She doesn’t feel safe riding in a vehicle without a seatbelt– especially with her mother driving. You whip the car around, now following behind the bike– matching its speed, determined to find out where this random man got Daryl’s bike from.

Carol rolls the window down, leaning out of it to aim her handgun at him. Only wanting to do enough damage to where he stops– and is still able to be questioned after the crash.

BANG! SCREEEEEK! 

Fortunately, the man is almost perfectly intact..besides the bullet wound in his shoulder. Also– lucky for him– You’re able to bring the car to a halt just before running him over. Carol gets out of the car, slowly, the stranger obviously isn’t going anywhere. She walks to the trunk, and pulls out her Weatherby PA-08, already loaded.

Approaching the injured man, aiming her shotgun–

“Where’d you get the bike?” Her voice is flat, but confident.

“W-Wait! Don’t shoot..please..” The man’s voice was shaky and unclear, almost on the verge of tears as he held his wounded shoulder.

“Where did you get the bike?”

You’re still in the car, not bothering to get out, knowing Carol can handle this herself. That crash was loud enough to draw a good amount of walkers– you hope to get out of here before then. Remy’s in the backseat twirling the ends of her short braids, a nervous tic she’s had since she grew hair.

Carol checks the man for any weapons, she finds a small hunting knife and a handgun similar to her own. No bullets. You decide to get out of the car now, wondering what’s taking so damn long.

“He know anything?”

“Yeah a little..Let’s tie him up. Leave him in one of those trunks over there.”

Walking back towards the car, Carol picks up Daryl’s bike, turning it in the direction you all were heading in the first place and walks it to the driver window.

“Follow me, there’s a junkyard a couple miles from here. That’s where he said he got the bike.”

“Alright, right behind you.” Remy climbs in the front seat, her mood lightened, knowing that we are one more step closer to finding the man who raised her.

You stop the car a few miles from– what you assume– is the place you need to be. Carol pulls up beside you as you roll your window down.

“I’m gonna ride up on that hill right there– Take a look at the place. Stay here until I come back.”

Around 5 minutes go by, when you see Carol riding the old death machine back towards you. “So?”

“I only saw a few people, but there might be more inside. Let’s walk straight in there– show that we’re friendly.”

“Sounds like a plan.” You start the car up, putting on your best poker face. “I’ll let you do the talking, people seem to trust you more.” You say, teasing Carol at the fact she’s so good at manipulating people..a little more than she should be. She gets the job done so maybe you shouldn’t complain too much.

“Ha-Ha Fine. I’ll do all the work, again.”

“Oh–Whatever” 

You both laugh, and start heading towards the Camp. Carol gets off the bike, while you and Remy get out of the car, staying a few steps behind Carol and ready to move if need be. Her hands are up, and her steps are slow– an “I’m Friendly, Don’t Shoot” gesture. Clearing her throat she starts–

“Ahem…Hello..” The 3 men startle, spinning around and stopping what they’re doing to find out where the new voice is coming from. You notice a familiar crossbow in the hands of an unfamiliar man. He sets the bow down on one of the cars hood and picks up a new tire– walking away from the weapon. It felt like seconds..Carol attacking them after the man walked away. Before you knew it Carol had Daryl’s crossbow back, one of his arrows in someone's foot, and new information.

You decided to leave your old car back there, running low on gas and starting to overheat. You’d gotten lucky to make it that far. Carol decided to take the Mercedes Benz SLS one of the guys had just finished working on, the same guy who had Daryl’s bow.

“Sucks, we had to leave his bike back there…” Remy murmured, her voice back to being soft and small, her lower lip slightly jutted out. She’s always had a problem with letting thing’s go– worthless or not, everything means something to her. 

The Boatyard was a waste of time. A couple beached, useless, boats aren’t going to help you in your search for Daryl, especially in getting to Europe somehow. You can tell Carol is getting more and more frustrated by the minute. Everytime you think you’re finally getting somewhere– it’s another dead end.

Getting back on the road with no destination– again– had tensions rising.

Carol was quiet, Remy was jotting down everything we had learned in her old tattered notebook. She’d been writing more, sometimes drawing, You’ve gotten a few peeks here and there when she falls asleep re-reading everything. 

“-ey..Helloo? Earth to Y/N.” 

“Yeah? Sorry..lost in thought… Did you need something?” You noticed the pair of square sunglasses Carol found in the car, they look good on her.

“Just wanted to see if they had anything good in that glove box, the silence is making me itchy” Opening the glove box, you find a couple audio cassettes inside, different rock bands, pop, etc. You grabbed a random tape and handed it to Carol, still looking at all the other ones. Some lady with a high pitched voice starts singing. Obviously Carol is not into it and throws it out the window.

Another tape. An up-beat instrumental, again not a fan.

A third tape. You should’ve been carefully reading the names on the cassettes before giving them to her, but honestly, finding the right song wasn’t important right now. It’s a meditation audio, she hates it. Almost breaks the radio trying to get it out. With no luck, she decides to try and follow the instructions coming from the tape..taking a deep breath in..and then–screaming in frustration.

Kinda awkward but you understand, Remy decides to lay down in the back seat, trusting Carol enough to take her seatbelt off for the first time while the vehicle is still in motion. Carol hears a strange whirring noise, like a plane or a helicopter. She looks through the windshield up at the sky, searching for the object making that noise, not paying attention to the road. You look up right before it happens.

“Carol, Watch out!”  SCREEEEEK!

She swerves off the road, after hitting the walker in your way– crashing into a tall Drive-IN sign.

“AHH! What the hell?!” Remy yelps in confusion, now squished in the floor behind the front seats. “Holy shit..Remy?! Are you okay?” You whip around to check your kid for any injuries– she’s fine– might be a bit sore later but thankfully nothing serious. 

“Fuck..I’m sorry. Are you two okay?” 

“Yeah, we’re good, are you?..”

“Carol, you’re bleeding.” You reach your hand up towards her forehead, there’s a 3-inch gash going from her hairline to right above her right eyebrow. It’s bleeding but not enough to be anything critical; you hope.

“I’ll be fine..Might have a major headache but I’m sure it’s nothing serious..” She takes another look in the sky searching for the plane again.

“What the hell happened? Why weren’t you watching the road?” You’re a little upset at the fact she put your kid in serious danger.

“I- I saw a plane or.. something above us. If we find it..” Carol looks at you as if she doesn’t need to explain anymore. She doesn’t, it’s like you two are connected telepathically, you get it. Remy’s up and in her seat looking at you two, a lost expression on her face.

“Y’know, It would be nice if you guys would finish your sentences once in a while, then maybe I’d be up to speed.” Carol gets out of the car to assess the damage done, while you turn to explain what you two were thinking. 

“I think the radiator is fucked. We’re gonna be on foot from here.” You and Remy get out of the car, gathering all of your belongings.

“The plane went that way.” Carol points where she last saw the plane heading.

“Okay..Rem, you got your stuff?”

“Yeah..I’m ready.” She confirms after putting her bag strap over her head.

That noise is back..which means the plane is close. All three of you look up in hopes of seeing it. “There..that’s the direction we need to go.” Carol points at the plane again before it disappears behind the tall trees.

“Alright, we should hurry before it gets too dark. I don’t wanna be out here on unfamiliar grounds with the dead walking.”

You couldn’t make it before dark but it was better than nothing. After a few hours of walking, you three come across a tall metal fence– not knowing if it was electric you ask Remy to keep back a little. Carol moves forward to scope the place out, once she knows it’s relatively safe she gives you two the signal to follow her.

There’s a large trap on the right side of the metal gate, the gate looks stable..and powered, a good thing that whoever lives here has power, a bad thing at the thought of what they had to do to keep this place secure. Carol motions for you to get under the large trap, stepping over the previous attempting the same. Remy’s the smallest out of all of you; no one would expect her to be able to lift something that heavy. 

“Okay, Rem get over here and pretend to get us out. Me and your Mom are gonna try and get this guy's attention.”

“Just follow what he says and we’ll be okay.” You reach your hand out through the gaps of the bars to caress her cheek.

“Yeah.. I got it.” She slightly smiles at you, reassuring you she’ll be fine.

“You ready?” 

“Always.” You put your arm back into the bars and position it to look lodged under the rusted metal prongs, Carol does the same.

“HELP!..SOMEBODY HELP!” You two shout loud enough to attract the man.

He comes up from behind the cliff, pointing a light–and gun– at you three. “Quiet! You’re gonna draw them..”  Carol explains what happened to our car, striking a deal with the man, spewing a bunch of bullshit like “Relying on the kindness of strangers”. 

“Is it just you three?” Carol nods. “You swear?” 

“Please..We won’t cause you any problems, I promise.” Remy being here made it a little easier for his guard to be let down; Him realizing she’s just a teenager.

“I’ll get you all fixed up..then you leave.” He opens the gate with some kind of remote. “One false move and I’ll shoot you.”

You and Remy are standing in the open barn waiting for Carol to finish cleaning up. Ash, the man who is helping you three, is standing right outside, gun in hand– waiting to shoot if need be. The power goes out unexpectedly, Carol stops what she’s doing and slowly looks over to Ash. 

“What’s that?” He looks a little impatient and sighs. “Problems with my generator..happens from time to time.” 

He walks away to go and fix the problem, trusting you three a tiny bit more, enough to leave you unguarded. Carol follows him out, still dabbing her forehead with the damp towel. Ash flips some switch on the generator and the power comes back on– a temporary fix.

“Have you ever hit a walker with your car?” Carol questions, trying to get him to open up a little. “No..” He gives a short response, obviously not wanting to engage in small talk with a stranger he just met, creeping around his walls.

“Hm.. You're lucky, I think I smashed the radiator”  He shoulders his gun, not thinking of you all to be too big of a threat.

 “You can spend the night here if you want..”

“Really?” Remy gives him a hopeful smile, excited to be sleeping within walls again. 

“Yeah. C'mon you three can stay out here in the barn” He leads You, Carol, and Remy out to a quaint, small barn, a little ways from what you assume is his house. Remy walks in first checking the place out, she thinks it's kinda ugly, considering her face is slightly scrunched. You go to walk in after her but realize Carol isn’t following you two. It’s like she’s frozen in time, somewhat shaking, as she starts to tear up.

Ash walks towards her slowly, gently grabbing her arm before you can, snapping her out of whatever trance she was in.

“Hey..You okay?” She looks at you with a dazed expression, blinking away her tears and pulling herself together. “Fine...C’mon let’s get inside.” Ash shuts the barn door behind him, turning the main lights on. You see Remy standing in front of– what you assume– is the plane you all saw earlier. Carol walks up behind her, rubbing her shoulder.

“Alright, you can sleep in there” Ash states, turning on the lights of your room for the night.

“You fly that thing?” He looks at the plane, longingly, as if he misses it.

“The noise attracts the dead but it's worth it, just to get up above everything for a while everyday” Remy looks at him with a genuine smile on her face. “It’s pretty cool, I’ve always wanted to fly in a plane.” He gently smiles back at her.

“Alright.. There you go”. He gestures towards the room, clearly wanting to get this awkward moment over with. You, Carol, and Remy make your way into the small room, getting as comfortable as you can. There's a few heavy blankets in the room as well so, at least you’ll be warm for the night.

“Thank you..for everything.” You turn to give him a lighthearted smile, keeping up this facade. Ash shuts and locks the door behind him, finally you and Carol have a moment to come up with another plan. You need to get him on your side somehow, he knows how to operate a plane, he's useful.

Remy is already dead-asleep, she’s always been a heavy sleeper. Something that will get you killed if you’re not careful but she knows she’s safe, especially with you and Carol.

“So..What are you thinking?” You and Carol sit down on the floor next to Remy, speaking in your normal tones, knowing she wouldn’t wake up if a tornado came through.

“I’m not entirely sure..We need to find out more about him. Somehow we need to stay longer, do some digging.”

“Alright..we can think about it more tomorrow, I don’t know about you but those blankets look really good right now.” Carol smirks at you, but not without looking at the make-shift bed herself. It does look very comfy.

“Goodnight Y/N.” She moves to get under the blankets, and get in her signature sleep postion, you do the same.

“Night Carol..” 

You can’t sleep, your mind is racing at the thought that Ash can help you find Daryl, and what you could do to get him on board with flying to Europe. You can’t stop thinking about all the negatives and everything that could go wrong while doing this, the plane won’t make it without a couple stops along the way–who knows what you’ll run into during them–, you could hit a bad storm and die in that death trap, you’d be putting your daughter at even more risk; flying into the unknown.

Is it worth it?.. Of course it is, it’s Daryl. You’ve made it this far you can’t give up now. You could never give up on Daryl, he’s done too much for you..for Remy. He’s family, you’d do anything for family–that’s what you thought when he first started going back outside the walls, looking for Rick after 10 years. Honestly It’d be a miracle if Rick was still alive but you didn’t have the heart to tell him that. Why would he not come back if he was still living, he knows where Alexandria is..Hilltop...

It feels like a long shot but if that’s what Daryl had to do to sleep at night, who were you to tell him no? You two made a deal, He would search for a little, but no more than a couple weeks at a time. That way he could still have a little peace in his life knowing that he’s trying but also spending time with his family, watching his kids grow.

The first fight you and Daryl had about the entire situation was stupid, the only reason it happened was because you were frustrated that you barely saw him anymore, that Remy barely saw him anymore. Daryl was frustrated because he felt like you didn’t want him looking anymore, that he should just give up, pretend like Rick never existed and move on with his life.

 You made up barely an hour later, both realizing you shouldn’t be arguing at a time like this. Tensions were high and it was a spur-of-the-moment argument. Your brain is getting foggy now, thinking of memories with Daryl made your mind calm. You’re falling asleep, now less anxious than you were when you first laid down, eager to wake up tomorrow and continue your search.

Hope you enjoyed! Like I said I spent alot of time on this so super excited!! Chapter 2 coming soon!! 💚💚

(also if you would like to see Remy’s design I had in mind dm me!!!)

Translations:

"Je t'aime de tout mon cœur." -- I love you with all my heart.

[spidermans-l-o-v-e-r]

Orange Blossoms

Pairing: Buck x Reader

Word count: 7.7k

Notes: No cause actually I’m just finishing this now and it comes out Thursday how could I do this to myself it’s Tuesday. And more importantly why is it so LONG cause it’s cute that’s why and this is the SET UP chapter okay

Episode 6: Beach Blanket Bingo

Approximately three weeks after your first date Buck has the third one all set up and ready to go

He did not want to wait, in fact, he wanted to plan five dates in five days which would have been cute but Eddie said no. He had to take his time and show you that he cared about you so he went along with it because Eddie was his patience.  

Eddie helped him set the whole thing up, they went to Target and had a little shopping spree. They bought a cute pink blanket, a checkerboard print picnic basket, and two beach chairs. Eddie threw in a few other things, A couple of portable silverware sets, and a strawberry-shaped serving bowl. Actually, he got two of those because he really wanted one too. 

Everything they have is very colorful and Buck hopes you like it. Eddie knows a private beach area, from a friend and he got that spot for Buck just for tomorrow 

“You really think she’s gonna like a beach date? What if she secretly hates water or something”

“Did she tell you she secretly hated water?” Eddie asks as he cuts up the strawberries for the fruit salad they’re making 

“If it’s a secret how am I gonna know” he makes a dumb face at Eddie and Eddie has to take a second, just to remember why they’re friends and why he loves this man 

“Yeah…you’re so right” He puts his head down, returning to cutting the strawberries. 

“Anyway” Buck throws some grapes he cleaned off into the bowl and pops one in his mouth 

“I should probably get cooking. You mind being my guinea pig?” 

“For what?” Eddie asks warily as he slides the strawberries off his cutting board and into the bowl 

“I’m trying out a new seasoning mix for burgers I want to know if it’s good and I can’t eat it myself because then I won’t be hungry later!” 

Eddie rolls his eyes as he starts on the watermelon 

“Fine, I suppose I can suffer through this,” He says sarcastically, but his growling stomach gives him away 

Buck is so particular with the way he cooks these burgers, he’s so careful about how he seasons and what he seasons with and Eddie sits on the counter, handing him things and watching him. He even times how long he cooks each side and puts the bacon in the oven 

“You’re doing great dude,” Eddie says as he holds out the plate Buck puts the toasted bun on 

“You think so?” 

“I have literally no idea how this could suck. Like it’s beautiful” He hops off the counter, setting the plate down and Buck plates it exactly how he wants it to be and takes a couple pictures

“Ketchup or not?” He teases him and Buck rolls his eyes as he hands him the ketchup

“After you try it plain. You probably won’t even want it!!” 

“Oh, we’ll see about that” Eddie pokes at his side before picking the burger up and taking a bite out of it. Buck puts his hands to his face, nervously watching as Eddie takes his time considering it. He sets it back down and puts his hands on Buck's shoulder 

“That’s the most delicious thing you’ve ever made me in our entire lives and you’re right I don’t want ketchup”

Buck has four swimsuits he could possibly wear and a speedo Eddie said that he should burn and it literally didn’t even fit his junk properly 

Not his fault he’s too big for it

So he and Eddie settle on his shortest pair because it shows off his thighs the best and they’re really short and they make his butt look good and they really think you’ll appreciate that

Not to mention they have super cool sharks on them. 

“You nervous?” Eddie asks as he blows up the cute pink and white beach ball that Buck bought especially for you 

“Incredibly. Like what if I mess this up?? You’re usually there to save me, what if she thinks I’m like a freak or something, or what if I accidentally drown her”

“How?? How would you accidentally drown her?” 

“It’s called an “accident” Eddie! I don’t know! Oh god, what if she can’t swim?!” 

“Then you get to hold her in the water? You haven’t asked her if she can swim?”

“Oh god, I should have asked oh my god. Eddie!! I’m already ruining this!!”

Eddie rolls his eyes and takes out his phone, dialing your number “You’re not ruining anything Buck you’re putting way too much on yourself, she would not have accepted a beach date if she couldn’t-“ 

“Oh hey!” Eddie holds the phone up between him and Buck “Just a silly, crazy, cute lil question… can you swim?”

“Uhhh” He hears through the phone and he looks horrified as you take too damn long to answer this question 

“Y/N” Eddie pinches the bridge of his nose and you nervously giggle, Buck looks like he’s about to have a heart attack. In fact, he sits down on the floor just staring at his hands 

“Yes, Eddie?” You say so sweetly he’s sure his teeth just rotted 

“You can’t swim, can you?” 

“Okay okay hear me out-“

“Y/N!!”

“Hear me out!!” You yell and Eddie groans loudly as Buck lays out on the floor, waiting for death to take him 

“I’m not a strong swimmer okay!! But you know… I can… float and do little kicks….”

“Jesus fuc-“

“Besides!!! I figured you know… um… see okay I was thinking that I could just tell Buck when we went into the water and just ask him if he didn’t mind holding onto me you know?? I just- I thought hey maybe he’d want to and- and that way like-“

“Are you telling me you’re using the fact that you can’t swim to get Buck to have to keep his hands on you??”

“For safety!!” 

Eddie hears May laugh and you shush her, he looks down at Buck who’s got his hands over his face and he can’t tell what he’s feeling. 

“Don’t tell him okay?? He might back out if he knows” 

“I don’t think he’d back out, he’d rather die than cancel a date ”

“Promise me you won’t tell him!!” You whine and he rolls his eyes 

“Fine. God. Goodbye, Brat.”

“Bye, bestest friend in the entire world!!!”

Eddie scoffs as he hangs up, nudging Buck's foot with his.

“God sometimes I think you two dumbasses really were made for each other…Well?” 

Buck squeals at a level only dogs can hear and Eddie slaps his hand over his face 

“She wants me to hold her!!” 

“I’m packing water wings” 

This was such a bad idea, this was the worst idea he and Eddie could have ever come up with. Why did he think he could do this? 

He and Eddie picked you up together from the house, Eddie came with you as a decoy because Buck just had to pick you up from the house. 

Eddie lets out a low whistle as they look up from their phones, Buck’s mouth drops open and Eddie closes it for him 

You’re walking towards them, a little skip in your step. You’d just bought a new swimsuit anyway so Buck’s idea of going to the beach was perfect. The red material clings to your body, it's low on your chest and cut high on your hips. May called it your Baywatch swimsuit as you spun around giggling while showing it to her the other day. 

“Are you gonna be okay?” Eddie asks as they watch you walking over to them. That bounce in each step is causing him to feel things 

“Huh?” He mumbles, still staring at you. It feels like it’s taking years for you to get to the car, Oh okay he kinda understands the slow-motion runs now. 

“Hi, guys!” You say as you open the front door and climb into the jeep. Eddie wolf whistles and you giggle, handing him your bag to put in the back 

“Damn, Pamela” He jokes and you roll your eyes, pulling your cover-up tighter around your body 

“That’s literally what May said. I think it’s cute!” 

“Oh trust me I’m not disagreeing in the slightest,” He says, putting his arms on the backs of your seats 

“You think he’s ever gonna snap out of it?” You turn your body towards Buck and Eddie and Eddie shrugs 

“Eventually… this one really is a banger though sweetheart it might take him a minute”

“Does he even know I’m in the car?” 

Buck’s hands are on the steering wheel, his palms are sweaty, and his stomach flutters like crazy… maybe he’s sick. He’s definitely sick, he’s gotta be sick. He should cancel the date he doesn’t wanna make you sick 

“Buck?” You poke at his arm 

“Breathe… dude” Eddie rubs his shoulders and Buck starts to relax slowly 

His voice is robotic and plain, and his hands grip the wheel tighter

“Hello, you look nice. Are you ready to go?” 

Eddie falls back in his seat laughing and you pull him into your chest, hugging him

“Buck come on!” You whine as you smother him like he does to you 

“Snap out of it so we can have fun!” 

He groans loudly and wraps his arms around you, nuzzling his head into your bare chest, definitely getting glitter all over his face and hair 

“You look So. Damn. Good. I swear Y/N I could just eat you up right here right now” 

“Please don’t do that. We’re still in the driveway” Eddie says from the backseat, reminding you both oh yeah he’s still here 

“Wait the driveway is your problem?” Buck turns to face Eddie, still keeping his head on your chest 

“Why did you say it like that” Eddie slaps his arm and Buck starts giggling as he finally pulls away, he starts up the jeep again and leaves the driveway to drop Eddie back off at home 

“It’s fun to harass you” 

He reaches for you as soon as he gets to a stop sign, cupping your face in his hands, he lets everyone go first as he kisses you, sliding his tongue in your mouth and wrapping it around yours. Your cheeks flush deeply, the butterflies in your stomach going wild as you kiss him back, fighting him for dominance 

“Oh my god, do you want me to freaking drive? Go!” Eddie yells at Buck as cars start to honk behind him and he pulls away quickly, hitting the gas. 

You hook your phone up to his Bluetooth and pull up the playlist he’d made for you. Jessie’s Girl plays through the speakers and you squeal, turning up the volume. You play the guitar while Eddie does the drums and Buck looks over at you, enjoying the way you sing into your fake microphone and cue Eddie for his drum solo 

“You’re singing this, way too intensely” Buck looks down over his sunglasses into the rearview mirror at Eddie as you and he sing together and he bursts out laughing, falling over in the backseat as you kick your legs, hiss laughing 

“Shut up!” 

After your little laughing fit you mostly talk with Eddie as you drive back to his place, he’s not coming with so you give him a little extra attention, but that doesn’t stop you from cuddling up to Buck and blowing in his ear softly. At first, it tickles and he’s trying to fight you off with one hand while you giggle and keep blowing. But one particular moment sends a spark of electricity down his spine and he’s fighting a boner with every… bone in his body. He shifts awkwardly and his eyes shoot up to Eddie’s in the review mirror, silently begging him to save him and he shrugs, getting your attention back easily and Buck can finally breathe again.

Which isn’t even easy in the first place because you smell good. He wonders what it is, he could bathe in it. Maybe you’ll spray some on his pillow for him, he’d do it for you in a heartbeat if you asked. 

He’d do a lot of things for you if you asked. 

Once you pull into Eddie’s driveway he hops out and you open the door, giving him a big hug. He winks at Buck who rolls his eyes and flips him off 

“I’ll see you two later! Enjoy your day!” He steps back from the Jeep waving as Buck pulls out of the driveway 

“Bye, Eddie!! Have a good day!!” You wave back as you speed off toward the beach. 

Buck and Eddie showed up earlier and got everything all set up so when he grabs the picnic basket from the backseat and takes your hand his nerves quiet just a little. He really wants this date to go well, Eddie was right, he wants to show you how much he cares. 

“Buck this is really cute,” You say as you kneel down on the blanket and reach out for the basket. He hands it to you before sitting down and straightening out the blanket a little 

“I can’t take all the credit, Eddie helped set things up” He watches you take out the food and set it out. You grab a plate and serve him first and he blushes, it’s so domestic and it makes his heart do flips 

“I should be doing that for you” He takes the spoon from your hand and puts some of the fruit salad on a plate for you and you sit with your legs out in front of you 

“You did everything else, the least you can let me do is serve you, it’s not that difficult you know” 

“I know… but I want to do it anyway. He hands you the plate and you smile, leaning forward and kissing him sweetly

“Thank you, for everything”

“It’s my pleasure, Doll,” He says, kissing your nose and sitting back with his plate 

You and Buck eat the fruit salad first because it’s your favorite part and you taste even sweeter when he kisses you again. His hand trails up your smooth thigh, pulling you closer to him by your hip. He nuzzles his head against yours and you melt into his touch. He smiles, pulls away, and goes back into the basket 

“You know we should probably actually eat” 

“Personally I think there are more interesting things to taste but okay” You shrug and his cheeks turn red 

“Oh haha, very funny” He sticks his tongue out and you bat your eyelashes playfully 

“What can I say, I’m a slut for a dirty joke” you quote him from earlier and he slaps your thigh, handing you a warm bowl. You take off the lid and there’s a delicious-looking burger inside. 

“Where did you get this” Your mouth is already watering as you put the little container up to your face, inhaling the delicious aroma 

“I made them myself! But wait-“ he grabs a couple of buns from a bag and hands you one “I didn’t want these getting soggy” 

You carefully take the burger from the container and put it on the bun, he hands you a napkin, and you wipe your hands off before putting the bacon on and wiggling a little 

“It’s gorgeous,” you say through fake sniffles and he rolls his eyes smirking when you take a bite. Your eyes widen before rolling back in your skull and you sigh 

“Oh Buck” you moan and his cheeks flush deeply. He knows you mean his cooking but like…. Like could you just do that again??

“I think I’m in love” You giggle as you eat and he opens the bag of chips for you both 

“Well that makes two of us” he winks and you blush as you take the chips and nibble on one 

It’s quiet when you’re eating and you can’t help it, because it’s good and who even knew Buck could cook, because he hadn’t cooked for you before and now you wish he would again, or maybe you could cook for him next time, you set your empty container aside, leaning back in your chair a little as you chew the tip of your sunglasses in deep thought 

“What are you thinking about?” Buck asks as he sips his capri sun “You kinda zoned out a little there” he chuckles and you shrug 

“Maybe… for one of our dates? I could do something for you. I want to do our next date okay? You can have the last one!” 

“Awww you don’t have to! I like spoiling you” He boops your nose and you giggle, wiping off your hands grabbing the hand sanitizer, and spraying it 

“I want to Buck!! You deserve to be spoiled too” 

“I can think of other ways you could spoil me,” he says dreamily and you roll your eyes as you stand up and stretch out for a second before bending over to grab a drink from the cooler. You fall out of your top a little and stop for a second, putting your hand over your chest 

“Hey! That was one of them” 

“Oh shut up!!” You swat his thigh and stand tall, opening your little drink 

He eases himself out of his chair and onto the ground, pushing his chair away a little, and opens his arms

“C’mere cutie” 

You step over him and he looks up at you, goddamn are you a sight to behold as you straddle his lap and sit down. 

“There we go! Nice and comfy” he smirks and you wrap your arms around his neck 

“Oh yeah, soooo comfy,” you say as his hands slide down to your ass and squeeze gently 

“Oh? Is this not to your liking?” He slides his hands up your sides while laying back and bringing you with him. You blush as you’re laid out on him 

“How about this?” 

“Even better” you purr and he sighs, his hands shaking a little as he feels you up 

“You wanna go swimming soon?” He cups your face in his hands, mushing it around and making silly faces and you snicker, pushing his hands away

“Yeah!! But um… I gotta tell you something about that” You say quietly and he slaps his hands on your butt, making you jump and yelp and you punch his chest 

“And what would that be?” He starts tapping out a little beat on your butt and you reach behind you trying to bat his hands away but he just smacks your butt 

“Would you quit that!!” You wriggle on him and he gasps, his hands stalling. 

“Oh? Oh, you like that huh?” You smirk evilly 

“I mean you’re literally inadvertently grinding on me so yeah I think I like that” 

“You want me to do it on purpose?” You ask quietly, reaching up to twirl his hair with your finger. His mouth drops open 

“Wait- seriously?” 

“If you don’t want-“ You start to get up and he shakes his head fast, pushing you down against him by your ass 

“No- no!! I want, I want!!” He says pleadingly and you laugh, burying your face in his neck for a moment before you start to roll your hips. His breath hitches and he sighs, melting into the sand below him 

“Mmmm that’s my girl,” He says quietly as you sit up, putting more pressure on his cock 

“Did I mention you look super, super good today?” you say and he blushes 

“Really?” 

“Uh huh, your sharks are so cute” 

Buck perks up a little as he holds your hips 

“You really think so??” He sounds so cute and excited and it makes you blush at how adorable he’s being

 “I named this one Kevin!!” He points to one of the sharks on his swim trunks and you stop grinding for a second to look down 

“Hi Kevin” you giggle and wave at the little hammerhead shark and Buck sits up now, looking at Kevin 

“Yeah he’s pretty cool… just don’t tell the others” He whispers in your ear and you bite your lip before kissing him, knocking him backward into the sand again. He moans quietly, wrapping his arms around you and squishing you down onto him a bit. He laps at your tongue, tangling his with yours as he kisses you passionately and downright dirty 

“God you’re just so cute sometimes” You pant in between kisses and he pushes down on your ass as you start to grind on him again, he chuckles, grinding back against you and you gasp against his lips 

“Cute huh? I don’t wanna be cute right now…” He rolls you over onto your back and grinds into you, bending down and kissing you breathless. Your body shudders as he’s a little more aggressive with his movements now, thrusting his hips gently into yours. 

You tug on his hair, your hands tangling through it as you open your legs to him more, lost in the moment of pleasure he’s giving you. You can tell by the way he’s angling his hips he’s after one thing 

And he’s hitting it over and over again. 

Oh, he’s definitely boyfriend material. 

He gasps in your ear, a soft little pathetic noise that sends a shiver straight up your spine. Your heart flutters and your pussy clenches around nothing desperately 

“Jesus Buck” you pant, wrapping your legs around his waist and he chuckles darkly as he ruts his hips harder into yours. 

His phone rings and he completely ignores it while you claw at his back, egging him on. The heated desire between the two of you could practically make glass underneath you. You slide your hands down his lower back, going to ease his shorts down-

It starts to ring again and you turn to look at it “Who is that??” Your chest bounces with each of his thrusts and he’s practically mesmerized by the way you look underneath him 

“Uh I’m not-“ He moans desperately, letting his head fall onto your shoulder “Fuck it’s Eddie” He bites down and your body arches into him

“Shouldn’t you answer it?” You pant softly as you look over at it 

“I’m kinda busy??”

You laugh as you reach your arm out toward his phone, wiggling your fingers to grab it and answer it. He stops for a second, grabs it, hands it to you, and goes right back to kissing your shoulder and leaving hickeys across your chest 

“Hello??” 

He’s definitely not going to stop this time, in fact, he makes it worse by pulling the front of your swimsuit down 

“Buck!!” You shriek as his hands cup your breasts, he places featherlight kisses on them, trying to refrain from biting 

“Yes, beautiful?” 

“Put the phone up to his ear” Eddie hisses and you do as he says 

“I swear to god if you fuck her in the middle of this beach”

“How do you know what I’m-“

“Binoculars” 

Buck's hips freeze in place and you can hear Eddie laughing his head off 

“What did he say??” You ask and Buck looks around frantically “Uhh nothing baby nothing” He gets up, tossing a towel over your chest, and awkwardly pats it 

“I really really need to take this call,” he tells you and you nod fast handing him over the phone 

“No, go ahead!” 

He jogs away a few feet closer to the ocean so you can’t hear him 

“Where are you?!” 

“Actually pretty far, you were so nervous I thought I’d show up for a bit and make sure you were okay… and now I really wish I hadn’t” 

“Did you see…her-“ He gestures around his chest and Eddie laughs

“No, I looked away. But it seems like you don’t need me, man. So… I’m going to Chipotle”

“Wait bring me home some queso” 

“Oh yeah sure okay. I’ll send you my locaysh so you don’t have to be paranoid I’m still here”

“Wow, thanks how’d you know I would be?!” 

“Because I know you better than you do buddy. Also, she’s going toward the water, 9 o’clock”

“Mmmm I can’t tell time” Buck turns around 

“Jes- Goodbye” 

Buck jogs back over to your little picnic and tosses his phone down. He looks over at you as you walk towards the water, your backside covered in sand… god he loved that swimsuit. 

He follows after you, walking right next to your footsteps and semi-fangirling over the way they look so cute together 

“Is everything okay?” You look up at him and god you really have given him a size kink 

You’re. Just. So. Petite. He could pick you up and throw you. God okay he doesn’t wanna actually throw you. But you’re like five feet tall and that’s cute 

“Earth to Buck” you wave your hand in front of his face and he flinches “You good”

“Huh?? Oh. Oh yeah sorry I was just thinking about throwing you” 

You blink at him and he blinks back, narrowing his eyes and pursing his lips for a moment really just thinking  

“…Just gonna leave that there huh buddy?” 

“Leave what where?” He asks, looking around 

“You- you just said you wanted to throw me?” 

“Ohh…”

3…2…1…

“Oh shit! No fuck no!! Shit god no that’s!?? That’s weird I just- no I meant like you- you’re just so tiny and-“

You’re letting him dig his hole deeper as he fumbles over his words 

“And-and like so easy to pick up and like no god no I’d never throw you I- know I would never hurt you” 

You shake your head, listening to him with a wide grin on your face 

“I’m- I’m making this worse aren’t I” 

“Yes” you shake your head giggling and he groans loudly, spinning around in a little circle and throwing a tiny tantrum 

“It’s like when you see something just so darn cute you wanna squish it forever!!” 

“So you’re saying you think I’m so cute you just wanna throw me?” 

“Yes!!!” He throws his arms out and you nod 

“Yeah no okay I get it now. Like how I want to be Lady Dimitrescu’s vanity” 

“Goddamn, what I wouldn’t give to be that” Buck wholeheartedly agrees and you both stand there for a moment, just… dreaming. 

“So you wanna get in the water?” Buck asks 

“Okay!” 

Maybe Eddie was right, maybe you were made for each other. 

The bimbo to his himbo 

Buck sighs dreamily as he takes your hand, pulling you closer to the water. What a match made in heaven. 

You nearly drown in a wave that knocks you flat on your butt. 

You forgot to tell Buck you couldn’t swim and Buck forgot to remember you couldn’t swim. 

Both of you blame it on the messing around earlier. 

Buck pulls you up the beach before flopping down on the sand next to you, both of you panting heavily 

“You terrified of the ocean yet?” 

“I think I just swallowed half of it” 

You look over at him, you look like a drowned rat. The cutest drowned rat he’s ever seen. He chuckles as he leans into you, kissing you slowly and putting his arm over your waist 

“You wanna try that again?” 

“You promise you’ll hold onto me?” 

“I promise baby” He kisses your nose and you blush 

“Okay…” you get up, bending over to brush the sand from your legs and Buck smacks your ass 

“Hey!” You yelp and shoot up straight and he puts his hands up in mock defense 

“I was just trying to help” He pats his eyelashes sweetly 

“You’re groping me way too much today” You scold him as he takes your hand again and leads you back to the water, it seems to have calmed down 

“Honestly, if it’s too much please ask me to stop and I absolutely will. On the other hand… if you like it. You know you can do it right back, right?” He smirks as you look at him, a light blush dusting your cheeks 

“Huh?” You say and he takes both your hands, walking backward into the water 

“Might I remind you I have a butt too? A very cute one” 

You giggle as he walks you out a little deeper so you’re floating and he’s still standing 

“I also have- you know,….something else if that’s to your liking” He winks and you roll your eyes, wrapping your arms securely around his neck. He stops at a safe distance and bends his knees so he’s floating with you on top of him 

“I’m just saying… I’m giving you permission you know… if that’s something you’re interested in and you know now that I’m saying that I’m sorry I didn’t ask to use your booty as bongos”

You laugh into his shoulder and pull back again to look at him 

“It’s okay, you’ve got pretty good rhythm, and I’ve got a pretty nice ass”

“Oh boy do you” He sighs softly, tilting his head cutely “I just can’t get enough of you, my sweet, sweet little bunny” 

“Bunny huh? What happened to Doll?” You ask, booping his nose and he nods 

“It's Bunny when I’m ready to take a bite out of you” He growls and nips at your finger and you squeal, pulling away from him and he pulls you back closer

“No-no-no!!” You try to push him away from him laughing loudly “Don’t eat me!!” 

“You better watch out or my sharks are gonna get you!!” 

He purposely drags you to shallower water and lets you go and you run away 

“I can’t tell if that was an innuendo or not!!” You call over your shoulder and he nearly trips from laughing so hard 

“Oh my god, I didn’t even think about that!! Now that’s exactly what I mean!” 

You know he’s running so much slower than he really can, no matter how hard your little legs pump you know he could catch you if he really wanted… and maybe that’s what you both like about it so much. For as much as you run and dodge his lunges you know he’s just toying with you at this point and you sort of do feel like a little bunny, like his prey. 

“Awww come on! You’re starting to slow down bunny! I thought this was gonna be more of a chase!” His voice is borderline sinister? And that’s hot. 

What a great distraction. 

You shriek as his hand grabs the back of your swimsuit and yanks you backward, pulling you down into the sand with him, the waves lap against your bodies as he pins you to the ground and stares at you, his pretty eyes, dark and stormy now 

“Well, well, well, look what I’ve caught” He runs his finger down your cheek as you pant beneath him, his eyes roll back slowly as his hips connect with yours, grinding against you 

“You gorgeous, gorgeous little bunny. I like watching you run from me” He whispers in your ear, his voice dripping with a seductive husky tone. Your eyes widen as you shove him off of you, sitting up fast. He falls onto his butt, stunned for a second, and looks at you 

“Too far??” He asks worriedly and you run your hands over your hair, they’re shaking so hard he can see them 

“Y/N??” 

“That was the hottest damn thing I have ever experienced in my entire life I need a minute,” you tell him and he falls backward laughing loudly 

“You scared me! You brat!!” 

“Oh, I’m just supposed to be completely normal. When you treat me like prey?? And you’re all “Grrr, I’m…I’m some sort of…”I don’t know what kind of animal do you wanna be?” 

“I’ll be a wolf, it’s funny” 

You giggle into your hands as you fall back into the sand “Okay, my very own werewolf boyfriend, Nice!” 

“Hey I’m on TikTok, I know what booktok is okay. You’re into it” 

You burst out laughing, throwing wet sand on his chest “Are you kidding me?!” 

“Let me see your Kindle unlimited Y/N!! Let. Me. See. It” 

Buck has another little surprise but you have to wait for it to get darker he says so instead you guys go for a walk down the beach. He’s picking up little random pieces of wood as you go 

“So you think we could have a sleepover sometime?”

He asks as he picks up another and you shrug, smiling “It sounds nice, but how are we gonna get around that one?” 

“If Eddie’s there I’m sure Bobby won’t mind” 

“Right…right Having a sleepover with two, grown, attractive, men! That totally sounds like something he’d go for!” You poke his side and he giggles 

“Maybe we can say May is invited too! She’d cover for us” 

“I could always ask her, you think Eddie will be available?” 

“Yeah to cover for us, no way am I having my best friend come over when I’m trying to have a completely innocent, wonderfully pure, amazingly sinless sleepover with my girlfriend” 

“Oh, we’re gonna fuck huh?” 

Buck bursts out laughing, grabbing your arm as he almost falls to the ground and you steady him, laughing with him. He giggles and kicks the sand, trying to stop laughing all the way back to your little slice of heaven. He drops the wood he was collecting and plops down in his chair 

“I hate you so much” 

You snort as you sit down next to him “It was funny!! You’re the one who laughed for six hours” 

He kicks some sand on your leg and you slap his thigh, to which he slaps yours. Your mouth opens a little and he sticks his tongue out at you. 

“You wanna go? Because I’ll fight you right here right now” you tell him and he flicks you off with both fingers 

“Come at me, Princess” 

He doesn’t know what he expected, even though if he was actually paying attention he would have known. You tackle him out of his seat and he yelps as you two go rolling in the sand. He screams laughing as you tickle him and kick his legs as you end up back on top of him 

“Stop!! Stop I’m gonna pee!!” He screams and bucks his hips trying to knock you off but you just hold on tighter, attacking him more

“Nice try! But I’ve won the bull riding contest at Lucky Jacks four times!!”

He grips your wrists, holding you off “Wait you’ve what???” He pants harshly, holding you back as you struggle 

“Yeah! I’m actually really good at it” 

“Are you telling me with a straight face you’re good at riding” 

You stop wriggling so much and think for a second, humming softly 

“Yeah okay, I’ll go with it. I’m amazing at riding” you purr seductively and he groans, rolling his eyes back and letting your wrists go 

“Oh god you’re my dream woman” He sighs and you giggle, bracing your hands on his chest 

“Are you good at taking it?” You ask, letting your head tilt to the side as you look down at him 

“A-am I what?” His voice is hoarse and his eyes turn wide as saucers 

“Are you good… at taking it?” You ask again and his heart nearly shoots out of his chest 

“I wouldn’t know,” he says simply, quietly. But damn is he starting to think he wants to find out 

“Are we talking about the same thing?” You giggle and he shrugs because he’s sure he’s got little hearts radiating in his eyes right now 

“I don’t know” 

You both leave it at that (much to his dismay) and you get off of him, going back over to your little setup and grabbing a dry towel from the pile Buck brought 

“Suns just about right for some last-minute tanning!” You say as you spread it out and grab another, spreading it out next to yours for him 

“Hey uh…just how private is this beach?” You ask and he looks up from the cooler where he’s grabbing two water bottles 

“Extremely, they kinda keep a tight lid on this but rent it out for parties and stuff sometimes” 

“So…there’s no danger of anyone showing up expectedly?” 

“None at all, Why?”

“I don’t really like tan lines” 

You turn away from Buck, slipping the straps of your swimsuit off and rolling it down your body so it looks like it’s just a pair of bottoms and he has to turn away before his sharks start to get a little too tight. 

He walks past you to his towel and you turn again, covering your chest with your arms 

“No peeking,” you say and he closes his eyes 

“Didn’t I literally full-on grab them earlier?” he asks and you kick his thigh lightly as you lay on your stomach, it’s not a sustainable position but it’ll be fine for a little while at least 

“Yeah, you did. You can look now” 

He looks over at you, laid out on your tummy with your legs crossed and your head resting on your hands and he smiles, shaking his head before looking up at the sky 

“I ever tell you how pretty you are?” 

You blush and shrug, “Not nearly enough” you tease 

He chuckles and scoots closer to you, your faces so close you can feel each breath he takes 

“You are the most stunning little thing I’ve ever met” His voice is husky as he turns over, trailing his fingertips down your back and you shiver under his touch “So beautiful and I get you all to myself”

“How lucky you are” you tease and he leans closer, kissing you softly 

“Damn right I am” 

You lay together in the sun for a while, just relaxing and occasionally talking. He likes to listen to you talk, he especially likes to listen to you laugh. He’s falling faster and faster every second and he’s starting to not care about Eddie saying he needs to wait to tell you he loves you 

As the sun finally starts to set, Buck gets up and dusts off his legs 

“You ready for your lil surprise?” He asks excitedly and you perk up, carefully sitting up and keeping your chest covered 

“Yeah!!” 

He turns around so you can fix your top again and picks up his towel, shaking it out 

“I wanted to just leave you here and surprise you more but to be honest I kind of want to show off” 

You snort as you get up, shaking out your own towel and taking his hand to walk back over to the chairs 

“Well whatever it is I’m excited about it” 

“You can help if you want! Or I can do it myself” 

“Well if you’d just tell me whatever it is, I’m sure I’d be happy to help” you tease him and he smirks as you both toss your towels down. He brings you a little ways away from your stuff and there’s a little pile of rocks and his sticks 

“Just make a big circle with the rocks in the sand alright? Brat” he smacks your butt and you swat his hand away, putting the rocks in a circle as he told you to, you make them pretty, setting them out nicely as he arranges his sticks in the middle 

“You know…” you start to help him pile his sticks “I’m pretty sure I know where this is going now and a firefighter starting a fire is pretty funny” 

“I’m an expert!! Trust me I can even start it with two sticks okay you’ll be so impressed!!” 

He gets up with a little pail and goes running off to the water and you watch him, shaking your head and groaning softly 

“Why is everything he does so damn cute???” 

You finish setting up the sticks for him as he comes back, setting the pail down. He can indeed start a fire with two sticks, and it is actually pretty impressive as the fire roars to life. He slowly throws some more sticks on it, feeding it carefully and you scoot next to him, putting your head on his shoulder 

“That’s pretty hot,” you tell him and he looks down at you

“Oh? Do you wanna scoot back??” 

You giggle and push him a little “No, Buck. You’re hot” 

His cheeks flush as he looks at the fire in front of you both and rolls his eyes “Oh, thanks” 

You wrap your arms around his and snuggle against him “No, thank you. Today was really really great” 

“You think so?” He pulls his arm away for a second, putting it around you instead and cuddling up with you. He kisses your head and you blush 

“Yeah I know so, I’ve never been so happy with someone before,” you say quietly and he smiles, laying his cheek on your head 

“Yeah me either” 

The sun finally sets, the air around you becoming colder as you cuddle in front of the fire. He reaches behind him and pulls over the cutest little box in the shape of a giant s’more and you laugh 

“Oh my god I love that” you smile as he hands you a skewer with a marshmallow on it and you put it over the fire 

“I saw it at Target and have never put something in my cart so fast it’s literally so cute and a total waste of money” 

You toast your marshmallows to a nice brown while Buck literally sets four on fire and this doesn’t surprise you in the least. He likes making them almost as much as he likes eating them. He looks over at you, a wide grin on his marshmallow-covered cheeks and you giggle, sitting on your knees in front of him and licking his cheek 

He snorts and tosses his head back “You could have just given me a napkin”

“No this is way funnier” You give his other cheek a little lick and he reaches forward, yanking you into his lap 

“Maybe I’ll just use you as a napkin!!” You squeak as he kisses all over your face before kissing your lips, he tastes good, like the sweet marshmallows and dark chocolate, and a little summery and warm. 

“Mmmph” You whimper against his lips and his arms wrap around your waist, pulling you closer to him. He can’t get enough of your body, enough of your existence. 

“So gorgeous” He mumbles against your lips and you grin, nodding along with him 

“Damn right you are”

His cheeks flush as he gets a bit shy and pulls away some

“Why do you compliment me so much?” 

You look at him curiously, pulling away now too “What do you mean?”

“I just… you tell me I’m gorgeous or- or handsome” 

“Why wouldn’t I?” You look taken aback 

“I mean- why would you??” He asks quietly, looking up at the night sky and shrugging and you take a second, looking down at the sand before looking back at him and cupping his cheek to tilt his face to you… kind of understanding now where he’s coming from 

Evan Buckley is a breathtaking man. And you’re not sure anyone’s ever told him that he’s so much more than his looks. 

“Evan Buckley, you’re one of the sweetest, most caring guys I’ve ever met. You’re funny and sensitive. And I know you try your hardest with everything you do… I’m not- I'm not just into you for your looks Buck. I’m into you for your heart and the way you care for everyone around you with every last breath in your body. You save lives every day Buck! You’re a hero, you’re my hero” 

He didn’t mean to tear up, but he couldn’t help it, no one… no one really sees him for him when he goes on dates, sometimes his friends don’t even see him.

But you do. 

He wipes at his eyes quickly, clearing his throat and rolling his eyes trying to reign himself in before looking away from you 

“You’re such a sappy baby” 

Buck lays back, propping himself up on his elbows as he stares up at the stars. That’s his real surprise, how dark it is over here. You can see more than you ever have before. He looks over at you, watching the sky like he is and his heart melts. Your eyes are so wide and sweet, there are literal stars in your eyes

He can’t stop thinking about what you’d said, or the way you tackled him over after he called you a baby and tickled him until he had to run to the ocean to pee to which you screamed in horror and he started chasing you around the fire. 

“I love you” 

You look over at him, the fire illuminating your soft honeyed skin, and he’s sure he’s seeing an angel all over again. His heart hurts with how badly he wants you, the air is sucked from his lungs the longer he stares at you 

“I know” 

“You don’t have to say it back, we aren’t even together yet and you know today was amazing but we still have a lot to learn about each other and I love you.”

You smirk at him as he rambles, because honestly? Truly? It’s on the tip of your tongue too. 

“Eddie’s gonna kill me for this”

“I won’t tell if you won’t” You put out your pinky finger and he smiles, linking his with yours 

He drops you off at home around 2 again and he knows Athena is definitely gonna kill him for this. He always brings you home way too late. You make him park down the street from the house so you can climb into his lap and make out with him one more time before going in. It’s a bit messy, he doesn’t bother being proper as he feels you up, his hands sliding up and down your sides and over your ass. It makes you giggle against his lips and nip at them while pulling his hair back. 

“So you’ll come over tomorrow, right? Since we stayed out so late today and you’ll sleep over? Just me and you?” He looks so sweet and hopeful as he asks, like a cute little puppy wagging his tail for treats 

“That sounds like a perfect plan,” you tell him just as excitedly and he squeezes you, hugging you dramatically 

“I can’t wait to spend the night with you”

[catpriciousmarjara]

Katekyo Hitman Reborn!: Namimori Location

(Documenting my research process so I won't forget and get confused why I did something in a fic during a later read through. Nothing serious really.)

Where exactly is Namimori in canon?

As I was writing a khr fic, I realized I needed the exact location of Namimori for one sentence. A sentence that wasn't even important in the long run. Rather than abandon that single sentence I decided to try and locate where the town of Namimori would be in Japan. Because apparently I like pain.

There is virtually no information on the actual location of Namimori anywhere. So I had went on a research binge. And I found something that gave me a starting point.

In 2009, there was a special KHR episode that was aired during the Jump Super Anime Tour titled, Vongola Style School Trip, Arrives!

Saying that I found it is not that accurate. Its more that I went looking for an episode like this specifically. This isn't the first time I tried to locate fictional locations on a map for the sake of the plot. And I've realized that episodes centered around trips provide amazing clues, especially where the trip starts, where it ends, the scenery outside etc.

Thats what I hoped for here as well. And the hunch paid off! Between timestamps 3:07-3:10, there's a map. Not very detailed mind you. Just enough to show the direction where they came from. But that's better than nothing.

So they're going to Nagoya city, which is in the Aichi Prefecture. Its in the Chūbu region. It also looks like they're coming from the Kanto region, possibly from the direction of Tokyo.

So that means we can leave out the Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu regions in the south. There's no way Namimori is in Hokkaido, or Okinawa, so those two prefectures are out as well. The most likely locations for the town to be in is in the Kanto, and Chubu regions.

Comparing the physical map of Japan with the short glimpse we get, I'm reasonably sure they passed by Mt. Fuji as well.

See that little protrusion under Fuji-san? I'm pretty sure thats what we see in the map shown in the episode. So yeah they passed Mount Fuji.

Another thing, see that arch like thing before the protrusion? Thats Kanagawa prefecture, and we can see in the very beginning of the video, around the 0.03-0.04 timestamps, that they don't start anywhere there.

See? They pass by it completely and started somewhere well before Kanagawa. So Kanagawa is out.

Lets go back to Fuji-san again.

The mountain lies between the Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefecture borders.

That gives us three possible routes:

Chiba-> Tokyo-> Yamanashi-> Shizuoka-> Aichi [Nagoya City}

Tokyo-> Yamanashi-> Shizuoka-> Aichi [Nagoya City}

Yamanashi -> Shizuoka -> Aichi [Nagoya City]

Why did I decide on Tokyo as the starting point in Kanto despite there being other prefectures in the region?

In KHR's seventh volume, Hot Summer Arrives!, we get chapter 57, Swimming at the Sea. Its a beach chapter.

The beach is described as being close by and the fact that Ryohei's boxing club senpai, Kuroda Eiji and his buddies Kisanuki Yukio and Ookura Takuya, apparently work there as lifeguards, supports this. (You know...cos they're in middle school and all and jobs at that age tend to be close by...for civilians at least.)

Which means that prefectures like Saitama, Tochigi, and Gunma, which are all landlocked as you can see on the map below, are automatically disqualified as locations for Namimori.

By that same logic, Yamanashi is also disqualified.

Ibaraki is not counted because despite the abrupt beginning and ending of the map scene in the episode, we can guess that the starting point of the trip wasn't quite that far back. By the curve of the arrow I mean. {Yeah I know this is a reach but I'm pretty sure I'm right.}

That just leaves Tokyo and Chiba.

The argument in favour of Chiba is a meta one. Tokyo is an iconic location when it comes to manga and anime. Most anime set in Tokyo shows several shenanigans centered around Tokyo's various landmarks. Even works not set in Tokyo sometimes have Tokyo episodes and Tokyo adventures. Like Haikyuu for example.

Considering how much shenaniganry and crackishness KHR has, it would be very strange if it was set in Tokyo and yet didn't have any Tokyo misadventures in it. Reborn would just go ahead and name Tokyo Tower Vongola Tower or something just like he named Nagoya Castle Vongola Castle. So Namimori might not be in Tokyo, but in Chiba instead...which is still part of the Greater Tokyo Area now that I think about it, so still Tokyo in a way?

I couldn't find a way to clearly articulate an argument in favour of Tokyo when a friend send me this link.

I was walking on a path well-tread! @ladydraculena had already slashed through the figurative jungles for me!

I went looking for the two locations marked in the map in their post but it seems like Namimori Steamed Buns has since closed down. Hibari Nursery School on the other hand is going strong.

With this information the argument in favour of Tokyo grew much stronger.

Thus canonically the town of Namimori is most likely located in Tokyo and if not in Tokyo proper, definitely in the Greater Tokyo Area.

(Please note that I left the Tohoku region out of this. The region is very distinct and neither anime nor the manga has shown a singular sign of being set in Tohoku. By that I mean that if a work is set in Tohoku, it would be impossible to hide its Tohoku, or mistake it as somewhere else.)

Edit: @rooigseix pointed out that since most of KHR's usual shenanigans strictly happens in Namimori, the usual Tokyo adventure trope meta might not be applicable in this case. Namimori might be far away from Tokyo centre like the Ota or Edogawa districts, which are close to the sea as well.

Edit: @lightning-will-bovino pointed out Kokuyo land and there is in fact a theme park called Noah Forest Amusement Park or Mori-no-Yeunchi near the Hibari Nursery School!

It seems very likely that Amano-sensei was inspired by the area. It might not be where Namimori is actually located but the existence of these establishments in close quarters lends further credence to the theory of Namimori being in the Tokyo area.

In conlusion, the most likely location of Namimori would be in Tokyo prefecture but close to the Chiba border. Not landlocked as well.

Thus, Edogawa ward is the most suitable location.

And after all of that, I decided that Tokyo wasn't a good fit for my fic's Namimori and by my magical writer powers shifted it to Mie Prefecture instead. ╥﹏╥

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  @ghostdeb! Arbeds Ghost (GhostDeb) has 20 fics posted to AO3 in the Stranger Things fandom and 18 of them are in the Steddie tag!

Our anonymous nominator recommends the following works by @ghostdeb:

The Long Walk Home

The Last to Know

Balance Point

Hung Jury

Eternal

"They have a lot of incredible ideas and their writing is original and fun! I always enjoy reading their stories!"

-- anonymous

Below the cut, @ghostdeb answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

I blame my dear friend @cheshiredog for getting me to jump head-first into this rabbit hole. The very first Steddie fic I ever read was Devil’s King by @cheshiredog, who had casually mentioned one day that the Stranger Things fanfic they had been working on for a while was completed. At the time (early in 2023) I had never seen a single episode of the show but I was eager to read the piece. As soon as I finished reading, I binged all four seasons (and then SCREAMED and yelled because I had no idea what would happen to Eddie in the Season 4 finale). I was hooked instantly and began reading everything I could get my grubby little paws on. After a while, I decided to try my hand at writing in this world, back in May 2023. And the rest, as they say, is history.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

I’ll read virtually anything. Truly. But my favorite fics often have healthy doses of angst and resolved conflict. I love the world-building that so many writers in this fandom are capable of achieving, and I’m consistently awed by the level of talent out there.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

Hands down, it’s gotta be Idiot 4 Idiot. I love when they’re goofballs. I will almost always make them so.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

I will always go back to Black Out Days (Fairground Nights) by @OonionChiver. I have this one on my bookshelf as a bound hardback (as well as almost every other fic in their catalog!) and I will be first in line to devour every single thing she writes. Simply impeccable.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I don’t usually write much angst or hurt/comfort — mostly because I don’t feel that I can really give those tropes the depth required to really land a well-rounded story. But I would like to.

What is your writing process like?

Pretty chaotic, actually. I don’t outline or really put anything on the page until I start typing the first opening lines of the fic. I tend to start with an idea along the lines of ‘wouldn’t it be fun/funny if _ …’ and jump off from there. Once I have a solid few paragraphs I’ll read and re-read and edit as the story takes shape and I find things I want to layer in. So — in short, it’s a bit of a mess.

Do you have any writing quirks?

I always tend to make them silly, and in modern aus, Steve will ALWAYS be a James Bond fan and Eddie will ALWAYS hate Hugh Jackman if I can work it into the flow of things. Those just feel right to me. I love the dynamic the actors gave to these characters and the way they interact with one another on the screen, and it feels like they would have a fun, chaotic kind of relationship if any of this was real. Those relationships are fun to explore, and super fun to be in, so I tend to gravitate toward those common themes in my stuff.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

Schedule? I don’t know her. I write pretty chaotically and I like to post pretty much as soon as the chapter (or the one-shot) is finished (or if it’s for an event, as soon as the posting schedule allows).

Which fic are you most proud of?

This is a really tough question — it’s probably going to be Read: 1:13am, to be honest. I love Read: 1:13am because it was so much fun to write as a collaboration with @Malikat22 — we had an absolute BLAST working on it together! It’s just a silly, fun ride — I wrote Eddie’s POV and she wrote Steve’s POV. Just so much fun.

How did you get the idea for Eternal?

I think I was watching random YouTube videos one day and I stumbled across one of the videos of someone restoring an old gravesite. And then I started thinking it would be fun to explore as a Steddie fic — Steve cleaning up the old, dilapidated gravesite of Eddie Munson, suspected murderer who died long before he was born. The idea evolved from there and I just jumped in. I have so many things planned for this one and it’s going to be a huge undertaking to get it completed. I’m really proud of what’s out there so far and I swear I’m working on the next chapter — it’s coming soon.

When writing Hung Jury, what was something you didn’t expect?

I truly was surprised at how long it ended up being. What started as a ‘what if they were sequestered, wouldn’t that be funny?’ kind of idea, which I foolishly thought I could tackle as a one-shot, ended up evolving into a much more detailed, multi-chaptered fic. I love this story so much and I knew what I wanted the big reveal to be almost from the very beginning. I just had to write quite a lot to get there.

What inspired Balance Point?

Oddly enough, whiskey. I am a fan. And one day I heard or read about somebody ordering ‘whiskey neat, on the rocks’ and it made me chuckle, thinking that sounded like somebody who doesn’t drink whiskey too often. And of course I thought it would be funny if Eddie tried that as a means of getting to know Steve. And wouldn’t it be even funnier if Eddie was also underage and he had a truly horrendous fake ID. And then Balance Point was born.

What was your favorite part to write from The Last to Know?

Probably the interview portion - that part was a lot of fun to explore. And the interactions between the besties are always a blast to write.

How do/did you feel writing The Long Walk Home?

This one is definitely one of my favorites. I had so much fun with incorporating the songs and Eddie’s radio show into the story, and I really believe that Eddie would be exactly that type of DJ. You ask, he plays it. I really enjoyed every aspect of this one.

What was the most difficult part of writing Eternal?

Since Eternal is a WIP, I fear that the most difficult parts might still lie ahead for me. But so far, it’s been difficult trying to land on how much of the story to reveal with each new chapter. I’m keeping a lot of it pretty vague for the sake of the plot, and keeping all of the moving parts in order as I write it is a bit of a challenge. Maybe I should try an outline for once in my life …

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

The scenes with Eddie and Chrissy in Hung Jury are my favorites by far. I love when they’re chaotic besties, and the way Chrissy winds him up in that fic is so much fun.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

Right now, I have another collaboration WIP called Burdens of Influence (collaborating with @GenVonLee) and we’re really having a lot of fun with it. We’re probably about halfway through at this point, and it’s been great to collaborate. If Steve Harrington as a 1990s London-based supermodel and Eddie Munson as the hot new up-and-coming rockstar sounds appealing, give it a look!

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

I’m eternally grateful for everyone who gives my stuff a look - it truly means the world! I don’t really consider myself to be a ‘serious’ writer — I truly write things that amuse me — so when someone else enjoys something I’ve put out there it means so much! Thank you so much for reading!

Thank you to our author, @ghostdeb, and our nominator! See more of Arbeds Ghost (GhostDeb)'s works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[lej222]

ASLFUA 150 spoilers

I've been waiting for a chapter like this for a long time, and it was even more fun than I imagined. Miae was always told by other people that Jisu has a unique personality. Her friends, her schoolmates, Jisu's mom, even the academy students all knew it and tried to warn her that Jisu was different than other kids. Miae, though, had no idea what they were talking about and always dismissed it with how she knew how weird he was better than anyone. Until this episode, lol.

So, short story time if anyone cares, but my friend from university has an autistic little brother, the same age as Jisu. And he reminds me of Jisu in so many ways it's fascinating, that's why I said Jisu is a very-well written and realistic character. Just a few examples: my friend's brother has difficulty understanding personal space and boundaries, he is a genius in linguistics and never uses his own native language at home, he only has friends in his online games, he's super blunt and doesn't know how to explain things that he can easily do.

In the last few chapters we see Jisu doing the exact same things. He enters Miae's personal space without realizing what he is doing, touches her, leans into her, he even puts his face close to hers when she doesn't recognize him. He doesn't know how to explain using the toy cars, playing the guitar and solving the problems so he tells Miae to look at what he's doing and imitate it. He tries to prove he can be an equal friend to Miae, so when he helps her and she understands, he says he's better than Cheol. He points out Miae's flaws like he's stating facts. It's super funny because Miae truly had no idea that Jisu's personality was unique in this way, so in these chapters we get Jisu weirded out by Miae and Miae weirded out by Jisu. It's no surprise that Miae called him a bald eagle, KR readers had so much fun with that. Because a magpie is a small bird, as if it needs protection, like how Miae kicked Jisu's bullies who never asked for it. A bald eagle, however, is a predatory animal, and Jisu is definitely a force to be reckoned with. She was pushing his buttons and tried to rile him up, but what she didn't expect was that Jisu was a petty person. The moment she challenged him, he was ready to strike back, hence the hilarious moment at the end where he enrolled at the academy. Lol. (Fun fact, but bald eagles mate for life, it's just so fitting with how Jisu still wants to be around Miae, I wonder what animal would best symbolize Cheol)

So, last week someone asked me my predictions about this episode and I said Miae would say "see you again" to Jisu for the first time because it's in line with my supernatural higher power/important and ominous details theory and looks like I was right. While Miae leaves angrily, she says she had fun and they will see each other sometime. Jisu is flabbergasted and takes the challenge, that's why we will see him in the upcoming episodes as well. This is probably an important turning point, because so far Jisu was the one who said "see you again" to Miae to which she always replied she hoped they would not. Even as she's leaving, the car ads are flying in the air around her. I believe the next chapter will be Cheol and Miae-centered, but I'm really curious how the story will unfold from here on. I will also continue to update the meta about the supernatural power.

[number1villainstan]

Random questions? I'm down! So on the whole thing with deku not existing and all, can you elaborate I've had some thoughts on it but haven't thought of it hard enogh too write anything about it?

jesus fuck this took so long to answer, i straight up forgot this was in my drafts--

The short answer/thesis statement: Midoriya Izuku is a "black hole protagonist": he, as a character, twists the story around him in order to make himself look sympathetic/always right/super cool (or, more accurately, Horikoshi writes the story that way) to the detriment of the plot, themes, and development of other characters--hell, even to the detriment of his own character depth/development.

(Disclaimers and justification/the rest of the essay under the cut. This is going to be long, and will probably take a long time to answer.)

(Disclaimer: I've really only watched the anime to the end of the Shie Hassaikai arc and through part of the Gentle Criminal--sorry, School Festival arc and read the manga chapters where Lady Nagant appears (the first time) or is mentioned. Quite frankly, I don't want to watch or read further, except for maybe watching the Nagant episodes, or clips of the MLA. That being said, from what I've seen of spoilers, I'm not sure the later part of the series is much different on the points I'm going to talk about.)

Probably the first thing is Deku's internal/inherent traits as a character. What traits does he have? Well, there's his physical appearance, he's a fan of All Might, he cries a lot, he wants to be a hero. Okay, sure. But why does he want to be a hero? What does he get emotional about? He was bullied for being Quirkless--where do we see the effects of that in canon? He and the rest of Class 1A have been repeatedly attacked by villains and lived through seeing one of their classmates chained up like an animal on live television BY THEIR SCHOOL and then kidnapped by a group of villains that attacked a summer camp that was supposed to be safe. (Yes, I am salty about the Sports Festival and Bakugo, because that was bullshit.) Moreover, that student that got chained up was supposed to be someone Deku looked up to. What the hell are the emotional effects of that? Does Deku even see Bakugo Katsuki as a person? A bully? Or just as a standard to surpass? Canon doesn't answer any of these questions--it doesn't even treat them as relevant. Deku's just a bland character for the author to make look cool through Beating Up Villains and pretty (but ultimately hollow) Speeches About The Importance of Heroics and Compassion.

And of course, we have the traits we're told he has, like compassion and understanding, but that don't actually play out--or at least don't play out consistently--in his actions. If he's so compassionate, why doesn't it extend to Overhaul, who breaks out into hives every time someone touches him? That's not normal or healthy! If he's so understanding, then what's this shit I hear about him telling Dabi he's worse than his abusive father? And--furthermore--why does this "compassion" only seem to come out when he's physically fighting people? Why is it that he never steps down from a fighting stance and sits down next to someone? (Although maybe that part's just shonen bullshit.) Furthermore, his informed compassion never leads him to change his mind--no matter what his opponent's arguments are, the narrative always frames Deku as in the right.

And then, of course, there's the fact that he takes up far more than his fair share of screen time. Yes, even though he's the main character. Like 80% of every single episode is dedicated to just showing him off (and despite the disproportionate amount of screentime he gets, he's still such a nothing of a character). How much character development does anyone else around him get, outside of maybe one or two arcs? Hell, it's so bad that Bakugo Katsuki, the guy who's apparently supposed to be his long-term bully/friend/frenemy, has practically no details about him. We don't see his room in the dorm tour, we don't see his parents outside of the montage of a bunch of different characters' parents when the teachers are going around (and the fact that his mother slaps him and calls him weak for getting kidnapped goes completely unaddressed? In a series with the Todoroki family and the Hassaikai arc???), we see comparatively little of Bakugo outside of his interactions/relationship with Deku. And Bakugo is supposed to be a deuteragonist--think of how many secondary characters have their characterization cut short or subsumed into the black hole of Deku. Uraraka Ochako, Iida Tenya, to some extent even Todoroki Shouto, every other member of Class 1A.

And then there's the effect of having Deku as a protagonist on the story's treatment of its villains. BnHA tries to send the message of "everyone deserves to be saved" or "villains are products of their circumstances", but, for a variety of reasons--including Deku being a "black hole protagonist"!--not a whole lot of the villains actually end up getting saved (rather than arrested), and when they do sometimes it's in a way that negates their very real concerns/reasons for being a villain. Very first to my mind is, of course, the Hassaikai: the only one in that group "saved" in any capacity is Eri, which, being one of thirteen named characters (among a host of unnamed ones), isn't exactly a very high rate of 'saving.' I thought everyone was supposed to be saved? And of course, there's the added factor of Overhaul--the main villain for that arc--being the character most heavily coded as mentally ill and/or neurodivergent in the series, and that that coding is used to make him seem more scary/villainous/evil. (I could write a whole Rant on how the narrative's treatment of Overhaul's character is ableist as fuck, but that's not what we're focusing on here.) And then we have Lady Nagant--who is saved, yes, but how many of her concerns about the deep structural issues associated with hero society and the HPSC are actually, meaningfully, specifically addressed? She shouldn't have been 'saved' by a fifteen-year-old cop in training. She shouldn't have been able to be 'saved' by a fifteen-year-old cop in training.

Sometimes, the kind of self-indulgent overpowered protagonist that Deku is can have its place, but BnHA as a story is trying to make a point, and Deku's role in the story actively contradicts its messages. BnHA is supposed to send a message of compassion and "everyone deserves to be saved" and whatnot, but then, not least because of its black hole protagonist, turns around and says that actually the mentally ill don't count, queer people don't count, anyone who's ever hurt a child doesn't count, anyone who reacts to trauma in the "wrong way" (with anger, irritability, etc) doesn't count, anyone who was subject to the wrong high-control group doesn't count, anyone who has the wrong idea about how the world should be doesn't count, anyone who isn't "sympathetic" for whatever fucking reason doesn't fucking count. Maybe I could just write Boku no Hero Academia off as a mediocre show if it had failed its goals in some other way, but as someone who fits just a few too many of the traits I just listed, it's hard to ignore the bigotry and judgement behind these contradictions.

And quite frankly, this shit makes me mad.

[sskk-manifesto]

yeahh atsushi's internal monologue and plea always felt like a eye of the storm moment to me, absolute silence, except for the plea for "somebody anybody... please fight with me". it could have stood well enough on its own, just atsushi calling out in the darkness, the music was not needed

EXACTLY exactly!! It's a moment of complete solitude, and that can only translate with low and slow music / complete silence tbh.

(Following a line of thought I ended up rambling a bit about some things I haven't had the chance to bring up so far, it's quite negative on occasions so leaving it under the cut / feel freee to ignore)

I don't knowwwww like why are they compressing the episodes so badly to the point in three (3) episodes they never had time to roll the ending credits. I don't get it. In my very humble opinion: chapters 84-87 should have taken one episode and half (again. The sskk / Fitzgerald fight has the same length and that's the anime screentime it got). And it actually works perfectly, because chapter 87 *needs* to be a cliffhanger at the end of the episode, so they could have easily arrenged the episodes like: all the previous episodes events (chapters 78-83) should have taken two episodes and half, then the remaining half together with the entirety of episode four would have adapted chapters 84-87. As in season 4, the amount of events adapted isn't really the issue (they're almost adapting on panel by panel basis) as much as it is the restless pace that leaves you trying to catch your breath. By making the events adapted so far take 4 episodes they could have easily spaced everything better, included some things that were overlooked (I feel like leaving out Fukuchi's motives was a big loss... Like as an anime only, why is he even doing what he's doing? I know some people have speculated it's for political reasons and I understand the argument, but then again even if they wanted to include it, how could they possibly make it fit)- not to mention, well, maybe have enough time to show the ending and not make it overlap with scenes that have a completely different atmosphere.

I don't know why they're cutting things so short. The pace was a problem with season 4 too, but now in addition to that there was also a massive and evident quality drop to the animation which... Eh. Episode 3 had whole scenes of just static frames which are extremely awkward to see, and a thousand times more so in a supposedly action centered episode. From the very beginning: if one was bitter enough to bring together all the time they spent on the same Akutagawa / Dazai on opposite sides frame in the first flashback sequence they'd get 36 seconds, which is just unacceptable.

I don't get it. Wouldn't it make more sense to make as many episodes / seasons as possible as to have more dvds to sell AND to keep the fans engaged with the franchise for as long as possible? It's not like the manga updates super quickly so they were in a rush to catch up or something. But that can only lead me to one consideration: what was the reason of having two seasons come out in the same year? From my very limited perspective, applying a little common sense, here's a very simplified way to describe how I'd guess things should work: anime company releases a season. The anime season gets the fans invested, so anime company can sell them merch for a while- and that's why you can attest an abundance of merch release simultaneus and following the anime airing. After some time passes, the audience will start losing interest: that's when anime company releases a new season, and the cycle starts over. If anime company releases the seasons with such a small time frame between them, aren't they losing profit? This way anime company basically ends up losing all the potential profit of the first wave of interest that comes after the season that released first. And it's reasonable to guess that, given the unusual amount of it, bsd profits /a lot/ from selling merch, so I don't get it. (And that is neglecting, in a way that is reprehensible on its own, mentioning the negative ethical consequences that releasing one season right after the other has, especially in relation of overworking animators. I was hoping the execution of season 5 was assigned to a new animators team who worked on it in parallel to season 4 but, given the evident drop in quality and overall how unpolished the new season is, I'm afraid one can't afford the luxury to believe that anymore).

Tl;dr: Capitalism ruined the Atsushi “I’m all alone someone come rescue me” scene, which should have had either silence or a gloomy background music, but instead got the ending song because they just don't have space to fit things. I really can't seem to understand why they'd rush the anime release because it doesn't make sense to me from any point you see it. Also justice for chapters 84-87

[iamthecomet]

@purlty23 tagged me in This game and I'm super excited about it! (I tried to reblog the original post and just tack on but tumblr hates me)

Thanks Blue, this was so fun!

I'm tagging: @amara-among-the-stars, @mac-and-thefox, @littlemoon-beam, @divine-misfortune and whoever else also wants to expose their sins to the internet. Under the cut, because LONG.

Xena Warrior Princess - Passive Enjoyer Only passive because I was too young to be anything else. Barely counts, except that this show was my first real obsession so I have to include it. I dressed up as Xena for halloween when I was like…5. The pictures are incredible.

Good Charlotte - Mostly passive As is a trend with a lot of these, I wrote a little fan fic, and daydreamed a thousand scenarios, but never shared any of it. I was mildy obsessed with Benji Martin, but I didn't really get involved beyond that.

LOTR - Creative Enjoyer The first fan-fic I ever posted on the internet (I was twelve, people were mean). I didn't make any friends within the fandom. But I was so determined to write for it that I had an entire novel planned out--that eventually became an original book idea instead.

Harry Potter- Mostly Passive I read a lot of HP fanfic, but not as much as others. I didn't get involved in online conversations. I did dabble in writing some fics that I hid from the world and never finished.

The Boston Red Sox - Creative Enjoyer Ok. Now you know why I said I was exposing myself. Look I was like 12-14. My best friend and I filled entire notebooks with our MANY chaptered fic that spanned the entire 2004 Red Sox Season, that we started the day they won the world series that year. We hand wrote it all, I transcribed it into my computer where it still exists somewhere. It was our EVERYTHING. And it has never (and will never) see the light of day. I may have posted some Red Sox fic on the internet in my Live Journal days, and I made a bunch of online friends within that community, but they never saw THE fic.

Rammstein - Creative Enjoyer Again, my best friend and I had a notebook with a long form rammstein fic in. We didn't go as far with this one. And I didn't get involved in any online communities. Though, our love for Rammstein lived a lot longer than our fic writing did.

Twilight - Creative Enjoyer In that I wrote and posted a single fic about Alice.

Lost - Passive Enjoyer. I read a billion Skate fics. Probably thought about writing my own, but I don't think I ever actually did. Was obsessed with this show until the last season. I still have never seen the last episode.

Vampire Academy (THE BOOKS) - Passive Enjoyer. Not a lot online. Read some fic. Was so obsessed with this book that I started to write a fanfic where we got to see some of the story from Dimitri's persepective and accidentally created and entire new plot and new characters and accidentally created my own CHILD of an original novel because of it.

Grishaverse (Shadow and Bone/Six of Crows/Rule of Wolves) - Passive Enjoyer Loved these books. Loved every single character. Read as much fanfic as I could find. Accidentally spoiled a death in one of the books with fanfiction.

Avenged Sevenfold - Creative Enjoyer Short lived. Read some INCREDIBLE fics on the basically defunct site Mibba and thought "I can do that" and was fighting for my life in college. Wrote a few chapters of a fic. Got decent feedback. Got bored immediately.

Supernatural - passive enjoyer Read some fic. Took me like 15 tries to actually get through the whole show. Adored it, never went very far with it.

Marvel (Specifically The Winter Soldier) - Passive Enjoyer. I should have been a creative enjoyer, but was too afraid to write anything or put myself out there. (I spent all of my time after high school/college thinking that fanfic was a waste of time and I should never write it because I needed to be serious. What a waste). Still mildly obsessed with BuckyNat. I adore Bucky and Black Widow. If they put out another good movie I could see myself falling down that rabbit hole and actually letting myself land. The trailer for The Winter Soldier changed my brain chemistry (nevermind the whole move).

Fallout 4 - Passive Enjoyer I could read Sole Survivor/Paladin Danse fics every day forever. I know that's insane. Stop looking at me like that.

Ghost - Creative Enjoyer. Finally allowed myself to write whatever the fuck I want and have fun with it and it has changed my entire fucking life. Wish I'd done it sooner. So glad I got to do it now and with all of you. ♥

[jazasterr]

Completed the first chapter to my genderfuck hilson fic! It's a super short set up for the rest of the story because even in crackfic I need some kind of logic to base my wacked up science in. The link to ao3 post is below the cut!

Title: What was in the wine in '73?

Rating: M

Category: f/f

Words: 597

Summary: Wilson is staying at House’s place again. After a night of playing cards, watching bad TV and getting wasted, both men wake up the next morning to new weight on their chests and hair in their faces. Will they unearth what the fuck happened? Or will they be too distracted by new developments to care?

Or: House and Wilson drink some badly preserved 1973 red wine. Overnight they’re transformed into their woman equivalents and have to figure out how to adjust to their new bodies, social perception, and sexual confusion.

House flipped over a set of aces once again. On his right, Wilson groaned, “What?! Oh, come on.” He smacked his cards on the coffee table, revealing a 7 of clubs and 9 of hearts. House snickered and reached over to take the $10 pot, placing it in his pile with the others.

“Down on your luck tonight, maybe you should stop while I’m ahead.” He had that expression on his face, the one that he only showed when he was really having his fun. The playfulness in House’s eyes burned into the side of Wilson’s head, and he sighed. Changing the subject (trying to get out of losing all his cash, without admitting to being beat), he said,

“You got anything to drink?” House let him wiggle away. It was no fun teasing Wilson when he had pulled all the ground from under him. House would say it’s because his fuse would get shorter, he’d have less of a chance to poke at him. But really, he enjoyed seeing Wilson win, at least sometimes. It kept his spirits up, with a smile on his face and the banter burning hot.

“Yeah, I’m sure there’s something.” House got up from the couch and searched his kitchen. With Wilson staying with him again, the liquor ran dry fast and every few cupboard’s insides had been tampered with. Eventually, he found a tall bottle of wine lodged right at the back between a few other boxes and decided it was good enough. The branded label was smudged and scratched so badly he couldn’t make out anything on it, the only legible text was on the neck, a date which read ‘bottled 1973’. An aged wine, red. House had no idea why he had it and for apparently long enough for it to decompose on a shelf. He grabbed two glasses and settled back next to Wilson, who looked like he could doze off at any moment now. It wasn’t late by any means, Wilson had done an overnight at the hospital and needed a distraction. One that required all of their favourite activities in one night, ending with a drink it seemed.

“Hey, don’t leave me hanging here, you’ve gotta match me shot for shot!” House poured barely any liquid into each glass, already sensing they wouldn’t have time for much more.

“You brought out wine.” Wilson pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. He fought them open with the help of a few tired blinks.

“So you are still conscious.” House handed one of the glasses off and quickly threw back his drink. He was already pouring another when he noticed Wilson eyeing the dark red. “It’s fancy aged wine, so appreciate that I broke it out just for you.” Wilson stayed quiet but sipped his glass. Honestly he couldn’t care less what they drank right now as long as it was inebriating.

***

House was happily surprised when Wilson almost did ‘match him shot for shot’. When they emptied the bottle it actually had become late, a few episodes of housewives later. It was clear Wilson was ready to drop dead, so House took the remnants of their evening to the kitchen, glasses in the sink, bottle in the trash (he had no recycling) and money in his pocket. He returned to the living room only to walk past Wilson, still sat in his spot on the couch, and called out, “I’m heading in, don’t forget to turn out the lights in your drunken stupor!” All he heard in reply was a faint “Uh-huh.”

[threebooksoneplot]

Question for G :)) how was your fanauthor workshop experience? I don't know if I should apply it sounds interesting but at the same time almost no reviews or whatsoever. Thank you!

well I ended up doing it a second time, so I'd say it was pretty damn good! I think the reason there are "no reviews" is mostly due to tumblr's format not really lending itself to that? @fanauthorworkshop isn't marketing itself as a product so much as a pedagogical (educational) extension of the existing fandom gift economy—an exchange where you both learn stuff and share/teach stuff!

this answer is mildly off-podcast-topic and it's gonna get super long and wordy, so it's under a cut lol you're welcome

my Fanauthor Workshop experience

personally, I found the FAW perfect for me. I was at the point in my fic writing where I was getting some lovely comments and glowing praise, but also wishing the world in general took fanfiction more seriously, as a craft to be practiced and discussed, something with both intrinsic and literary merit. @bettsfic's first episode as a guest on Fansplaining really resonated with me and kind of spoke to that desire (it's a must-listen for anyone on the fence about applying to the FAW!!)

but I had never studied creative writing at a university level, and barely knew what a crit letter was. I found the FAW was the perfect way to learn that sort of thing in a low-stress environment! I didn't struggle with feelings of burdensome obligation the way I had with schoolwork; rather I was excited to read everyone else's writing and see what it had to teach me. I also loved having an appropriate venue to air all my writing opinions, lol. I found I was so motivated that I managed to attend every FAW session even though it conflicted with family vacations two years in a row. I wrote crit letters from the lobby of a restaurant in a national park because it was the only place with wifi. I even Zoomed into one session from a random public library in Durango, where I managed to alarm everyone else in the irl vicinity with my enthusiastic discussion of fictional cannibalism (shoutout to the story we workshopped that day, it SLAPPED.)

personally, I approached the FAW with the very specific goal of Having Fun first and letting the writing stuff come second (ie, not putting too much pressure on myself when it came to choosing and polishing my own workshop pieces, and not worrying too much about how they were received.) I still ended up getting some AMAZING critiques and responses to my two (very different) pieces—I was deeply impressed by everyone's insights, how much they were able to pick up on, and how willing they were to meet me at my level. the other pieces we workshopped ranged all over the place in technical ability, from "giohvnsksbnf this writing is so good I'm gonna fucking eat glass" to "this person is clearly just starting out as a writer, but even if their prose has some technical mistakes, their story has Good Bones and their critiques and discussion observations have been spot on."

my big secondary goal was to Make Friends and there I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. I now have SO many cool FAW mutuals, a few of which I have hung out with IRL and the rest of which I totally WOULD hang out with IRL if given the opportunity. they're all uniquely creative and clever people who I probably wouldn't have met otherwise, so that's kind of the biggest Win for me. it's so cool knowing I have all these people I could DM out of the blue and be like "hey, would you mind looking over this short story/beta-ing this fic chapter?" and end up with some great insights. there's also an FAW Discord where anyone can kind of bring fandom- and writing-related questions to the floor, as well as share recs and self-promote projects (or in my case, recruit podcast guests who I know have been pre-screened for both their chill lack of pearl-clutching and their basic fiction-analyzing skills, lol.)

I would recommend the Fanauthor Workshop if:

you're a self-taught writer who's done most of your learning in the fanfiction space and you're curious about how writing is actually taught in academic settings

alternatively, you're a writer from an academic background who chafes at some of the more restrictive rules in traditional workshops/you're tired of the irl Guy in Your MFA -types who refuse to or can't engage with your work on its level

you're ok with doing some "homework" (writing two crit letters per week) on the honor system

you're down to read original work in a wide variety of genres/read fic from fandoms you're not in (maybe even fandoms/pairings/characters you don't personally like)

you like what you read in @oficmag

you wish fanfiction was taken more seriously as a craft

your favorite trad-published writers all seem to be workshop alumni (eg: I swear half of my favorite writers are Clarion grads)

you have work you'd like to publish and/or submit someday but you're not sure if it's ready/not sure where to start

you follow writing advice blogs or send them asks

you wish people would leave "concrit" (constructive criticism) on your fics

you wish people would leave concrit on your fics but you're worried they might be too mean or not "get" your work

you wish people would analyze your work and give critique without letting their personal value judgments get in the way (and you're ready to do the same in turn)

you worry your work is too niche, kinky, queer, romance-focused, or "weird" for a traditional workshop (note: but it doesn't have to be any of these things. people also workshopped gen and the equivalent of coffee shop AUs!)

you'd like to hear perspectives that don't come from cishet dudes

you enjoy Class Participation and discussions (or maybe you're no longer a student and miss that kind of thing!)

you think @bettsfic seems like a good teacher (spoiler: she REALLY is)

you like the idea of a creative writing class with no grades or possibility of "failure"

you'd like to meet people you probably wouldn't meet in any other setting, and make some cool friends from other fandoms

if even a couple of these bullet points sound like you, you'd probably get a lot out of the FAW!! I hope the next session of FAW-ers have a blast. I'll be lurkin the Discord rooting for y'all

[solarsavoy]

May I ask 10 and 23? :)

Of course! Ask thing.

10. What's something you're excited for?

The Masquerade event in Twisted Wonderland! I've already started my Stag pic and super proud of how it's coming along! ^^ I was so excited I even started working on the pic instead of the next episode of Frenz or the next chapter of Zodiac Killers or the next fic for Karmagisa week. ^^;;; And yeah, it's kinda something like this.

23. Favorite piece of clothing?

I have a few ways to answer this one. So, in terms of piece of clothing I wear most frequently of everything I have are these comfy home pants I wear that are black and I've had them for years. I don't know clothing very well, so I don't know what this kind of clothing is called? I want to say it's mostly cotton with a bit of spandex in it for flexibility, so whatever that is.

In terms of what I wear most frequently outside of the house, I have these pants that are more of capris with super wide legs and despite them being capris (which I interpret as not pants but not shorts, somewhere in between, I hope that's correct 😅). It's easy to move in and decently stretchy. They're my work pants and it's made from that fabric that's somewhere between cotton and jeans and maybe it's cargo pants material? It doesn't have all the pockets cargos usually have but it's a similar feel in fabric, which could just be cotton. (I know I'm being way over analytical in this question, but also I'm coming to accept that that's just me and how I am and it's not so bad, so super long winded explanation it is!)

And lastly, in terms of what I like the most but don't necessarily wear it as often as either of my preferred pants. I went to a Three Days Grace concert last year and on top of loving the band and their music, their T-shirt is just super comfy. It's a mix of cotton and spandex and I wear it every chance I get, inside and outside of the home. I try not to wear it multiple days in a row because I want it to last and it's already got a hole in it. :/ I think I bought it that way and just didn't notice though tbh...

Thanks for the ask! ^^ Now time to continue ignoring all my problems and hoping they'll figure themselves out at the last minute! (AKA, this seems like a future me problem and I'm okay with that. Future me is okay with it too. I speak for her. 😉)