#this isn't coherent enough to tag properly

[late-night-vocaloid]

minase kou is so free! makoto coded

[snailpebbles]

Hold You - OP81

pairing: Oscar Piastri x fem! reader

summary: Oscar is bone tired and just wants to hold you close, but still needs to clean himself up. Why not drag you into the shower with him?

tags: Oscar is so clingy, fluff, more fluff, innocent and loving shower fic that we all need

wc: 1.4k

a/n: uhh it's rly late, I wrote this instead of sleeping so it isn't proofread or coherent. lol. SEND ME ASKS OR WTV PLEASE ??

⋅˚₊‧𐙚‧₊🍊˚ 🧡୨♡୧ ⋅🔸˚₊‧꒰ა🟠໒꒱ 🍊‧₊˚

It's been a long day and all Oscar truly wants us to have you close. When he steps into your shared apartment it's like all the stressful events of the day melt off his shoulders, and he bee lines for your comfy form on the couch. You pop your head up out of your blanket cave, a bright smile on your face at the sight of your tired boyfriend sluggishly coming to you.

"Hi handsome." You greet, sitting up straight and pushing your arms out of the blanket mass to get him. He slumps forward with a groan, burying his head into your chest as his arms wiggle around your waist. A chuckle escapes your lips before they press to his brown hair.

After a moment of letting him soak up your presence, his arms tighten around you out of nowhere. Oscar feels the sudden urge to hold you and keep you there, all light blocked out so all he can focus on is you. He smiles into your shirt when you yelp from him suddenly lifting you out of the blankets, his strength making the task easy in a way that warms your face.

"Shower." He mutters into your shirt, not wanting to spend energy on properly speaking when you understand each other well enough already. Thankfully you allow this even though you've already washed and dried your hair, a process that takes far longer than you'd like but hey, you're weak for him.

He flicks the bright lights on, listening carefully as you direct him where to walk since he's still carrying you. Oscar finally sits you down on the bathroom counter, slotted between your thighs as he presses his forehead to yours. He cannot stand a moment away from you, especially not when you look so soft. It makes it difficult to think clearly, the way his shirt hangs off your shoulder and your eyes are clearly growing heavy. Regardless of your tired state you entertain him, something he will always appreciate and feel undeserving of.

You both silently undress the other, boundaries mush at this point in your relationship as the unspoken understanding extends to every instance. His hands are cold against your warm skin, giving you goosebumps. Meanwhile Oscar quietly sighs in relief at the warmth seeping back into his exhausted bones, every part of you managing to relax him. He drops his head in favor of nuzzling into your neck and you wrap your arms around his bare shoulders, tracing a mole on his left. He breathes you in, honey warm and sweet, an intangible scent that he would follow to the ends of the Earth.

Eventually you detach from one another, turning the shower to hot and reattaching while you wait on the old pipes. During this time Oscar clings once more, slim fingers tracing the stretchmarks on your thighs as you trace the ones on his back. It's clear that he knows you and your body, something he's paid more attention to than even the most important races of his left because.. well, what could possibly measure up to someone as lovely as you?

The hot water cascades over you both, relaxing Oscars tense back further as you silently appreciate the groan he gives in response. His hands don't leave your hips, instead anchoring you close like the slightest move will make you disappear. It's a reoccurring nightmare he has had but every morning you're there without fail, brushing his messy bed head into something worse while giggling into his skin about some silly noise he made while sleeping.

As he goes to wash his hair you tut in disapproval, snatching the shampoo from his hands.

"Nuh uh, lean your hand back baby." You instruct, a fond smile growing on his face as he listens to you without a fight. Why would he ever say no to you touching him, especially when you're washing his hair? You're gentle, drawing soft sighs of relief from him as you scratch at his scalp. Few things can compare to this he realizes, the level of comfort you bring him unparalleled. Gently, you wash the shampoo out while mumbling some random song you heard that morning, a common habit of yours that he's grown to love.

"You smell good."

"... We're in the shower, it smells like your shampoo."

"Yum."

Regardless of his bizarre commentary, you still chuckle and continue the process. He makes more odd comments just to hear you laugh or playfully scold him, but then again he'd do anything to hear a singular peep of your voice. Oscars sure he must have a problem or maybe you're addictive, but he knows inside that it's love. He loves you, plain and simple. Being the man he is, he doesn't understand how everyone isn't borderline obsessed with you. Then again, that's his job and he'd be a little a lot upset if someone tried to take it.

"Someone's eager."

"You smell like sweat, oil, and grease."

"You say that as if you don't find it attractive."

"... Shut up or I'll pour soap in your mouth." You mutter, face warming once more since you both know he's right. He does shut up because you will follow through on that soap threat.. he knows from experience.

The smell of your vanilla body wash fills the air as you lather it on the washcloth, gently scrubbing the layers of the day off of his pale skin. Oscar melts into your touch, struggling to even stay upright as all he wants is to have no gap between you two. If he could absorb you, he would (when he admitted that you teased him relentlessly while ignoring the fact that you want the same).

You both bask in the hot water for a little longer even after he's fully clean, pressed close together. In your mind, it's empty. The usual rush of thoughts and things to do have fled to make room for the safety he brings you. Meanwhile, Oscar is bliss, peace, happiness, the whole shebang. He could die right here and have no regrets at all. Except for not kissing you yet. He fixes that soon after with a gentle lingering one that leaves you both buzzing.

Time does have its demands, so you do eventually get out of the shower before you go full prune. He wraps a fluffy towel around and then himself, mumbling an apology for your hair which you brush aside with a soft peck on his cheek. Once you're fully clothed, aka he put on boxers and you put on underwear while stealing another one of his shirts, you curl up into each other in bed.

He holds you close like he's dreamt of all day, pressing his face into your chest with his arms locked around your waist once more. You toss a leg over him, burying your face into his hair and peppering kisses on the top of his head to hear him giggle at the ticklish sensation. It's good and it's right, the cozy feeling that overtakes him nestling into his chest right alongside his perfectly overwhelming love for all things you. There's no other way he wants to sleep; your heart beats right next to his ear, your chest rising and falling while lifting his head with the motion, not to mention the way you hold him like he's the cuddliest thing on Earth (to you, he is). An honorable mention is his face is conveniently resting on your tits. For you, the weight of his arm around your waist and the feeling of his breath brushing your collarbone is enough to reset your nerves to a low hum, something you greatly appreciate. The solidness Oscar brings to you physically is needed and heavily enjoyed, your personal weighted blanket whose constant coldness keeps you from overheating. A perfect balance only further showcasing how well you go together (or maybe you're just delusional and in love).

"g'night." he mumbles out sleepily, kissing your clothed shoulder with his last bit of energy before promptly passing out in your arms. A chuckle slips from you and you whisper an 'I love you' into his soft hair, heart fluttering when he pulls himself from the brink of sleep to yawn 'I love you too'.

[griefabyss69]

Pull Me In

Written for @steddiemicrofic!

[ AO3 ] [ Tip / Commissions post ]

‘EDGE’ wc: 509 | rated: E | cw: Weed and explicit gay sex <3

Here's 4/4 of Eddie's side of The Hole Story (Rated E)!!! The final one. Read the hole thing by clicking the link or by clicking the tag on this post!

After Steve opens up about his secret, Eddie gets him to open up in another way.

Eddie's head spins pleasantly.

For a night that started off with a joint, a briefly polite distance, and with all of their clothes on, he sure has his tongue in Steve's ass.

God.

However the fuck he got here, he's not taking it back. He can't take it back, the feeling of Steve around him is tattooed into his nervous system for the rest of time.

Maybe his mind is starting to feel like soup, but nobody on Earth could blame him. He's the proverbial dog galloping through a sunlit field of daisies; he's got Steve's ass spread open under his lips as Steve's moans drift out of his beautiful mouth like smoke.

The only reason Eddie isn't jealous of the pillow under his face is because his mouth is really busy right now.

He shoves his tongue in deeper, feels the strain as he goes as far as he possibly can, feeling the clench as Steve gives up short gasps over the sound of the sheets tearing under Steve's fists.

The destruction of his personal property shouldn't be so fucking hot, but like with anything in life, it's the intensity that makes his dick jerk into attention.

"Eddie," Steve moans, the first glimmer of coherency he's had in a while, since before the first time he came.

He's pushing his ass back into his mouth, nearly smothering him.

Eddie takes a big breath while he can and dives in completely, hums against him because he's learned that vibration drives a lot of people nuts. It works on Steve too, given the way he fully face plants into the pillow and screams, writhing so hard he almost knocks Eddie's nose crooked.

He digs his fingers into Steve's ass cheeks, holding him still with all of his effort, and Steve manages to stop trying to break something long enough for him to go back to humming.

"Yesyesyesyesyes," Steve's gasping, barely forming the words under his heavy breaths. "Pleeease…"

He asked really nicely and Eddie's feeling inspired, so he starts thrusting his tongue, fucking him properly, able to feel the melt of Steve's spine and then –

Something choked off and clouded rips through him and he's coming again, hitting Eddie's thigh as he tries to fuck himself back on his tongue.

Eddie moans into him, lets go of his ass cheeks to scramble for his belt, gets his jeans open even as he pushes his face down hard, letting Steve use him to work out the last of his orgasm.

It doesn't take much for himself, he's always been into taking beautiful men apart, and as soon as he's able to grip his dick he's at the edge already.

There's a deep, rumbling groan; Steve's got to be feeling too sensitive all over again, but he still keeps his position, offering himself up.

It's that little piece of masochism that has Eddie coming all over the back of his leg, his free hand coming back up to hold Steve's ass open as he presses a “Thank you” into his skin.

[egginfroggin]

Alright, I promised y'all here on Tumblr a bit of an update post in these tags.

Simply put, summer was a heck of a trip. Lots of schedule changes, and I spent a lot of time expending myself both physically and emotionally, a lot more than usual. That left me with not a whole lot of time to mentally apply myself to writing coherent stories.

As of right now, I'm also in the middle of a lot of stuff, and I haven't gotten a chance to properly rest and recharge. Additionally, my focus has flipped around between several fixations, so I've been having trouble settling on one long enough to get anything solid down.

On the upside, I should be able to catch a break soon, and recuperate over the holidays. I'll be starting my annual official hiatus at the beginning of Advent -- this year, it starts on December 1st -- and that goes until Christmas. Obviously this isn't a promise that I'll be back with any updates, much as I'd love to do so, but I will, if all goes to plan, be able to sit back for a while.

So, that's it. Burnout came for me, and it hit hard, I guess. I've missed Submas and my fics, and I'm looking forward to newer fandoms, as well. And I've missed talking about fics with all you guys, too!

Thank you all for reading my fics, checking out my art, and listening to my rambles, sparse though they may be.

I hope that November has been treating you well, and that the rest of the year follows suit. <3

[tlozypaka-tina]

What's the new Tina incarnation

Ehe, you'll get the hyper-abridged version and the somewhat coherent one after the read more.

Abridged version: Soppy wet cat that's a less-than-average duelist, a coward who avoided most endgame battles, has beef with a demon living in one of her friend's soul bc they killed her while possessing her crush another friend and is the embodiment of these images:

Serious version (ft. tag censorship bc uh I don't want this leaving my circle even by accident):

Her name is Anita, my newest s.elf ins.ert oc in the y-g-o verse. Not as OP as other incarnations because she is in a sh.ou.nen this time, so I avoid making her too important.

As a character, she is the kind of person to do well in theory classes and written tests- but not so much in practice, which keeps the self-esteem quite low, leading to her choosing to stay back or go look for adult help in the more "end-game" battles. This, of course makes it so she never quite improves skill wise...

Accidentally ends up becoming an older sister (despite being just a few months older on average) figure to the core group, but is still childish enough to enable and partake in tomfoolery that isn't too dangerous.

Her d.eck's theme is centered about protection. She is too scared to put her life on the line for anything-- even her beloved friends-- unable to draw on it's full potential.

Until she literally can't run away from one of those world-ending situations her protag friend keeps getting tangled in. She fights a loosing battle knowingly, because otherwise someone else will, and she can't bear the thought of losing a friend to inaction. Not anymore. No more. No more fear, no more hesitation, even as your legs shake and you can't breathe properly- fight.

tl;dr: She is a coward, she loves her friends, she wants to help but doesn't trust herself, she can't live to the expectations of her deck, it took her being forced in a world ending situation to push past her cowardice and fight despite death staring right in the face, she lost, her death broke morale, she haunted the narrative, she came back, nothing will ever be the same, she is becoming braver, she loves her friends no matter where they are and go.

She crushes on the funky crystal lad. Doomed by the narrative from the get go because...gestures c'mon man I'm not blind that 3rd season is very 🌈.

A demon shakes her like a dog toy for their own amusement until graduation. Anita wants to swing at them but the demon isn't corporeal.

--

I'm having brainworms over her lately because it's not usual I deviate from typical heroic characterizations for my oc's or my sona's

I have a more "coherent" plot-point by plot-point breakdown but I gotta paste it on a drive doc.

[silverstreams]

Hello again, let's see if I can be more coherent now that I'm not sick. I wanted to more properly answer your question about the sort of fic I was looking for! The timeline of it all was that once I stumbled on your fic, I'd been tossing around opening up A03 to find something, but hadn't consciously sat down to think "I wonder what fic to search for".

What I'd seen from yours in both the fanart and the tags on the fic told me it'd likely be in my interest wheelhouse. And then once I got reading, I very quickly realized "Oh, this is my type of fic." Sometimes when I get into or fall back into a fandom I do have the urge to write something, and that urge is usually because I want to read something that doesn't exist. I hadn't consciously, again, plotted out what a Portal story would actually be from myself, but TLG hits on a lot of themes and character features I like to write myself, and frankly has some great twists in it I don't think I would have ever thought of. So it's hitting the itch nicely.

But since I'm rambling a bit, this is what I usually write/enjoy in fics:

Morally complex antagonist or antihero who makes decisions ranging from 'that wasn't great' to 'yes okay we need to talk about your choices'

When the above character's descent into bad decisions is caused by a trauma or situation beyond their control

Explorations of what it means to be human, not in the neurotypical sense, but in "how do we connect as a species" in spite of the wonderful diversity of the human experience

When the above theme is applied to the above character, usually resulting in a non-human character with the potential for growth discovering something critical about what makes humanity profound and somewhat indestructible

When the above situation presents the character with the opportunity for growth and potentially redemption, wherein the growth at least in part involves them recognizing the mistakes they made regardless of the trauma that led them there

Sarcasm

Character(s) who identify outright as ace or could be characterized as such

A slow, slow burn dependent on character development and if a love story is even included in the fic.

A lot of this is featured in the last major fic I wrote. Oddly enough, enemies to lovers isn't something I usually gravitate to! But in TLG it has enough compelling character reasoning to make it work for me quite well.

Also, to reply a bit re: my kid, she loves the game. She's a bit young for it, so we're giving her "quick summary" of a couple parts in terms of content, but we've been introducing her slowly to gaming and she's really good at the problem solving. She loves the characters and likes to mash up stories about them with other characters based on figurines she finds around our house.

This is how we got a rousing crossover going with Geralt, Claptrap, and Glados. Then we showed her Poker Night at the Inventory and I think her mind blew a bit about why Glados and Claptrap were in one game like she was joking about.

She also brings us home a tremendous amount of drawings of Glados that she does at school and I'm just waiting for a phone call about "why does your kid keep drawing the scary looking robot and why does she love her so much?"

oh my god……child glados drawings……that is adorable thank you

[names-of-courage]

FAQs

Comic

Why can't I commission someone to make a fanwork of (Character(s)) from NoC?

The reason why you can't is because in Japan there isn't a Fair Use in its Copyright Law that countries like the USA have so Nintendo has the Legal Right to request that a fanwork based on their Intellectual Property to be taken down. Commissions are a great way to alert Nintendo of NoC and to shut it down.

I know the perma block seems harsh when I'm trying to fly under Nintendo's radar but, I get a lot of joy making this comic and I don't want something I've poured my soul into to get DMCA'd because money was exchanged between fans.

(please do not provoke the ninja lawyers that Nintendo has in their bottomless pockets)

Can I do an art trade with someone that includes a fanwork of (Character(s)) from NoC in the trade?

Sure! As long as money isn't exchanged, go for it! I'd love to see the fanwork!

Can I use your art as a pfp?

Only if you directly link to the art that your using in your bio. If you don't have a link I will request that you add one and I'll add to your strike counter.

Why can't I make a fanfic or fancomic until a year has past since the first comic arc finishes? A year seems like a long time.

This is for the fanbase to get to know the Bravery and to mitigate misconceptions that might get popular while I set up the story. I have it as a year because I'm a slow artist and have chronic pain that is occasionally debilitating.

I saw that (blog name) had posted (NoC!Link A) x (NoC!Link B) as a ship. Is that okay?

That is total okay. Depicting selfcest is okay as long as it is properly tagged as such with appropriate tags like Linkcest, Vidow, Ravioli, Zeldacest, Zeik, Hilzel, etc.

(Personal I'm not a fan of selfcest, but that should not stop others from depicting my characters in such a way nor does it give anyone the excuse to harass others that like selfcest /srs)

Why do you not have ask anonymously enabled on your blogs?

I have it that way as to deter anon hate and for my mental health. I find that the anon feature, and social media in general, has lowered humanity's inhibitions of saying heinous stuff because of the idea that the internet keeps people safe from backlash. People die from things they've said online

I'm genuinely tired of people not treating social media like you're talking to another person in real life. I grew up being told not to give out identifiable information nor show my face and I'm astounded that nowadays people have no sense of personal privacy on the Internet. (Why do people like to show their face on the internet?!?)

Why are the Heroes collectively called The Bravery? Why are the Zeldas called The Prudence?

The Heroes are called that because the Group or Heroes feels generic and the Chain is generally associated with the LU Links, so I choose Bravery as the group's name since it's another name for courage and it sort of rhymes with aviary. (I had originally called the Bravery, the Links, for awhile)

The Zeldas are called that because the Princesses wouldn't work because not all of them go by that title. They're not the Zeldas for the reason that they're not all named Zelda.

Personal

What can you tell us about yourself?

You can call me Snowy! I'm transmasc genderqueer (he/zhey) and I'm old enough to have heard the death knell of Blockbuster but too young to not remember where I was during 9/11. I live somewhere in North America.

Also, I have written expression disorder; it's quick definition is a difficulty to write coherent sentences. The way I describe it is thinking in a native language and having to translate it into a second language that is learned solely from watching dubbed media; and then writing it down, but having to recheck it for missing words.

I'm a huge music nerd and I'm constantly listening to music.

How long have you been an artist?

As long as I can remember :)

Are you self taught?

Mostly. Outside of the art classes I had in primary and secondary school plus the three semesters in college for ceramics and drawing, I'm self taught.

What art program do you use?

Good ole traditional media ;p

How long have you been on tumblr?

I've been here since 2020. Am babey

What's your favorite Zelda game?

I'm gonna break this ask in two with what is my faves gameplay-wise and my faves story-wise.

Gameplay has to be Hyrule Warriors with a close second being Breath of the Wild and Link’s Awakening as the third fave.

Story has to be Link’s Awakening with its rug pull of a twist that the island and its inhabitants are merely a dream, Twilight Princess's developing friendship between Link and Midna, and finally Ocarina of Time's overall theme of change and the weird sense of deja vu

But my absolute favorite is Twilight Princess. (adjusts nostalgia glasses)

What Zelda games have you played?

In order that I have finished playing is LANS, BotW, OoT3D, HWDE, TotK, SkSw & EoW. I have played a bit of ALttP, OoS, OoA, CoH, & AoC.

[eddiemunsonsmum]

Aftermath | Chapter 6 | Eddie Munson

Eddie Munson x Female OC | E.M x Karmen Jones

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 Chapter 15.

Chapter Summary: It's been a couple of days since Karmen suggested that she and Eddie learn ASL. In his moments alone, Eddie thinks back on the big things that happened in past few days.

Story Summary: This story takes place after the canonical events of Season 4. Eddie wakes up in the Upside Down after 'dying' in Dustin's arms. He wakes up again in the hospital and is reunited with his loved ones that he hasn't seen since before Chrissy's death. This story covers Eddie's time in the hospital and overall physical recovery after the Upside Down.

This fic is part of the She Feels Like Home series. It sits between Boxing Day and Drop Out but can be read as a standalone. 

Tags: Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Lots of Comfort, Medical Talk, ASL, American Sign Language), ASD !Eddie, Autistic Eddie, Non-verbal Eddie, Abandonment Issues, Canonical Murder, Implied cheating (no actual cheating), Lying and manipulating, Blackmail, Bribery, Season 4 Spoilers

Words: 4k

A/N: This chapter isn't as heavy as the others but is full of lots of important info for Eddie and the story moving forward. I hope you guys like it! Also, Eddie referring to his autistic traits as 'his crazy' is indicative of the time period and the fact he is 100% undiagnosed. NOT my own thoughts or feelings on them.

~

Eddie stared longingly at the TV remote just a foot out of his reach. He could probably touch it with his fingertips if he stretched himself far enough. But doing so would risk ripping open his healing wounds. So instead he made do with staring at the blank screen above his bed and thinking back on the previous few days.

It had been nearly a week since he’d woken up in the hospital and was coherent enough to remember it. About ten days all up since he had been brought in half dead by his ‘friends’. 

He hadn’t heard from any of them since, besides Dustin of course. According to Wayne, two girls had come around and asked about him in the first few days while he was out of it, before Karmen had arrived. One of them was Nancy, Wayne had remembered her from the trailer park. Eddie assumed the other was Robin but it could have been anyone really.

They had made sure he was alive and gone on their way. Eddie wasn’t sure exactly why it hurt so much. He barely knew them after all. 

Dustin had visited a couple of times since Eddie had been awake. Apparently Steve was just down the hall and Dustin’s Mom would drop him off at the hospital for an hour so he could split it between the both of them.

Eddie wasn’t sure if Dustin’s Mom knew exactly who he was visiting or if he’d just said that he was seeing Steve. He wasn’t sure he really wanted to know. He’d only met Claudia once and she seemed really nice but he knew from Dustin’s stories that she was a worrier. He didn’t like to think of the things she must have assumed about him when she saw his name on the news.

Eddie had been concerned to see Dustin standing in the doorway of his room. The kid looked worried. Nervous. His expression somehow made him seem even younger than he already was.

Eddie knowing he couldn’t speak to reassure him or even explain what was happening to him and why he wasn’t responding was gut-wrenching. Luckily at that point in time, Wayne had barely left his side and he had been present to explain the situation to the kid.

Mortified was an understatement. Eddie had known his ‘crazy’ was showing during his time on the run. He could hardly keep it concealed when he wasn’t sleeping, eating properly, taking his anxiety medication and had just witnessed the most traumatic thing he’d ever experienced in his young life. But at least he had been able to talk. To bluster and lie and pretend like he was fine.

But now in this setting, he felt so small. Stuck in the hospital bed and not really even able to move, let alone speak. Dustin and the Gang had been through so much more than him over the years and yet here Eddie was, unable to talk because he was so fucking traumatized.

It was humiliating.

Eddie found himself preparing for a quick visit with the kid which ended with him never coming back.

But, to the kid’s credit, he had rolled with it just fine and made Eddie feel… normal. He had sat down by his bedside and chatted away about mundane things that didn’t really need responding to. That was, until Wayne had left to get lunch and he had immediately taken advantage of their alone time and begun to talk about all the things he knew Eddie was dying to know.

From what Dustin had told him, Max had been hurt pretty bad on the other end of the mission. Dustin said she had died at one point. But then… Came back to life? No. Maybe he had the story wrong. He had still been pretty out of it while the kid was explaining. He would need to clarify.

Max was recovering well though. Just a few broken bones to deal with. It was a lot but she would heal mostly the same physically and stupidly, Eddie couldn’t help but be jealous of that. His own body was ravaged with wounds that would scar. Leaving him covered in horrible marks.

Constant reminders of the secrets he was being forced to keep. Symbols of what he had been through just blatantly on display. Scars that would cause people to ask him hard questions for the rest of his life.

He remembered everything now. At least he thought he did. He knew what had happened to him because Dustin had regaled the story in a dramatic manner that Eddie would have been proud of in any other circumstance. 

Eddie the Banished and the Demobats that (Almost) Ate Him Alive.

He had a memory of it through Dustin’s eyes. The same way he felt he experienced what had happened with Max and the others despite neither of them witnessing it. Dustin hadn’t really even seen anything bad when it came to Eddie’s downfall. By the time the kid got to him, the bats were all dead and Eddie’s munched on body laid in the middle of the frey. 

It was all speculation really. But that made it easier to digest. The disconnect between what had actually happened and what Dustin thought had happened, helping him process it.

After that talk, Eddie understood a little better why his brain was so insistent that he was mentally scarred beyond even his own realization. He pushed away the knowledge that somewhere, deep in his subconscious, he remembered and hoped it never rose back to the surface.

Dustin had teared up when he told the part of the story where Eddie had told him that he loved him. When Dustin had said it back knowing full well it might be the very last thing Eddie ever heard. 

Eddie had pushed through his pain to force himself to sit as best he could. Pulling the kid in for a hug and trying his hardest to convey the reminder that it wasn’t the last thing he ever heard, without actually speaking. That he was safe. That Dustin had done so well for him.

Dustin had pulled away, wiping at his eyes as he reiterated that it was almost the last thing anyone ever said to him. Because everyone thought he was dead. They’d left him there despite Dustin’s protests and it was only when the kid had threatened to risk his own life going back, that they had relented.

Eddie nodded along softly, picking at his fingernails as he so often did when he wasn’t feeling right. An ache in his chest at the prospect of being left behind. Discarded, because he wasn’t one of them.

After hearing Dustin’s version of events he was solid in his decision to be glad he didn’t remember. Except maybe the part about his sick guitar solo. That would have been nice. But overall it sounded like more trauma than it was worth to have it in the forefront of his mind right now. He didn’t mind knowing what had happened without the added emotional damage of being forced to relive it while he was awake. He had enough traumatizing memories from the first few days of the ordeal. He didn’t need any extras. Especially not ones that were tied to being eaten alive.

He had been grateful for Dustin’s visits. Knowing that at least one friend was still interested in him after he’d been delivered to safety and was cleared of his charges. 

It was nice. 

The only thing that would have made it nicer was if Dustin happened to run into Karmen while he was present so he could finally rub it in the little twerps faces that she was in fact real and still stood by him after everything. 

But it was yet to happen. Coincidence leading Karmen and Wayne to swap shifts or Karmen to leave early for the afternoon right as the kid appeared again. Eddie swore they must be crossing paths just outside his room. Outside the hospital at the least. But neither of them had mentioned it yet.

Dustin wasn’t Eddie’s only unexpected visitor in the time between when he’d first woken up and the present day where he continued to stare at the blank TV screen and think.

The day after Karmen had brought him the library books on ASL, he had been visited by two big, burly men in suits and a friendly looking doctor that he’d never met before and seemed a little too enthusiastic to meet him. The man had introduced himself as Dr Sam Owens and when Wayne asked the question they were both thinking on; where was Eddie’s regular doctor? Owens had been quick with his rehearsed reply.

He’d explained that he was a doctor of the mind and it was his job to assess Eddie privately and figure out if there was a need for him to file a case against the Hawkins PD for defamation due to the Witch Hunt they had incited by releasing Eddie’s name without any concrete evidence against him.

He had asked Wayne to leave the room and the older man was hesitant. Luckily for all of them Eddie was somehow coherent enough to remember the name from Dustin’s dramatic retelling of 1985, that night they’d found him in the boat house. He knew what this was about and he assured Wayne with a silent nod that he would be fine alone with the man.

Once Wayne had exited the room, Owens dropped the act. He introduced himself properly and went on a long spiel about how none of this was supposed to happen. Eddie was in the wrong place at the wrong time and they were going to make sure he was comfortable for a long while after thoroughly destroying any little comfort he had already had in his life before the ordeal.  

They had already seen to it that his charges were dropped but they needed some time alone with Eddie to give him his new version of what had happened to Chrissy. The same version that was going to be circulating on the news later that night.

Eddie had narrowed his eyes at the man. Frustration boiling inside him at the fact that his story had already been constructed for him. That his story would be on the news for the entire town to see before he could speak to tell his loved ones about it himself. That the people of Hawkins were allowed to hear his story in the first place after the way they had treated him.

They didn’t deserve to know shit. But, Eddie conceded that if he wanted to continue living in Hawkins after the incident, he needed to have a cover. He needed to be proven innocent in the eyes of the general public.

So he listened as Owens carefully explained the narrative as if he was recollecting it from fact. Eddie wondered silently if that was a psychological tactic to help him believe it or if it was just the way the other man told his stories.

Eddie and Chrissy had arrived at the trailer unaware that Victor Creel had broken in earlier and was lying in wait for them. What they had gone there together to do was no one’s business. 

Eddie wanted to object at that. Making it sound like he had taken her home to try and get laid. But he knew deep down that there was no way Chrissy’s parents would take the slander of it being drug related. They’d rather everyone assume that she was rebelling by fucking the town Freak than know she was suffering so badly living in her parents home that she was resorting to drugs.

But Eddie didn’t want Karmen to think that was the case for even a second. He would tell her the truth on that part of it whether the government liked it or not. Besides, they didn’t outright say that being intimate with Chrissy had to be a part of his story. That was just what seemed to be implied by commenting that it was ‘no one's business’. 

Anyway, apparently it was realistic to assume that Creel had waited around until he heard one of them go into the bathroom to take his opportunity to attack. Eddie had heard Chrissy’s screams from the bathroom, running out to find that she was already dead. There was nothing he could do to save her. Creel turned on him and he feld, getting away from the crazy old man and realizing that if he tried to turn himself in, it would probably pan out that no one would believe him. There was no guarantee that Creel would still be there by the time Eddie brought the police back to his trailer and if that was the case then it would be just him, the cops and the dead body of a girl that was too good for him. 

So he hid.

Makes sense, Eddie supposed. Mostly the truth too if he was honest. He knew no one would believe what he’d seen. He was always going to be suspect number one. That was why he ran. Why he hid like a coward. 

Patrick’s death was going to be reported as an inaccurate account of events. With Jason Carver being the only other witness besides Eddie, they could easily claim that Carver was having delusions due to his grief and therefore his depiction of events was considered null and void. With his witness statement retracted, it would be usual for Patrick’s body to be re-examined by the coroner. It would come out that he had simply drowned after following Jason into the lake to try and stop him from chasing after a fictional version of Eddie Munson that was never actually present at the scene of the crime.

Eddie was grateful for that one.

Owens had explained all of this to him as if he was simply chatting about his plans for his weekend away. This will happen, that has happened already and these events in the next few days will transpire as follows. It was incredibly surreal on Eddie’s end to catch a small glimpse into the workings of the government and how easily they could cover up such a monumental disaster with the ease of simply… lying. Fake witness statements and phony papers. It was a little scary. 

Had him wondering when he was alone next and unable to sleep what else the government was covering up with half-truths or outright deceit. 

Eddie was appreciative of the effort they put into clearing his name. But of course as all good things do, it came at a price. All of the things that Owens had just told him would happen, would only actually come to fruition if Eddie used his shaky hand to sign an NDA. Swearing upon punishment of the prison time he was escaping, that he would not tell another soul that wasn’t already involved, what had actually happened to him, Chrissy or anyone else entangled in the labyrinth. 

He wasn’t to tell anyone in his life what had really transpired in the trailer that night. What had really happened at Lover’s Lake. That monsters, other dimensions and superheroes existed. For that, he would have his freedom and as a gesture of good faith he would also receive the sum of $50000 dollars in his bank account by late next week.

Eddie had been startled by that. Not expecting financial compensation on top of everything else.

Owens explained that he understood money would be harder to hide. So if anyone asked where it had come from, he was to tell them that Hawkins PD had wanted to settle their defamation case out of court and he had taken them up on the offer to put the bad situation behind him.

Fuck… They really had a cover for everything.

Eddie had sat and thought about what Owens had said for a long time after the man stopped speaking. 

He didn’t want to go to prison for a crime he didn’t even commit. He knew deep down he didn’t truly have an option. But the thought of telling the government to shove it after all they’d put him through was very tempting. He didn’t want to lie to his loved ones and keep such terrible secrets all to himself. 

On top of that… He wasn’t sure he could do it. He never had been a good liar. 

Eddie had pointed to Wayne through the small window on the door to his room. The older man hadn’t gone far, standing guard in the hall outside in case his nephew needed him. He had given Owens his best inquisitive look, pointing to Wayne again insistently as the Doctor put the pieces together.

He hadn’t learnt enough ASL yet and even if he had, he doubted Owens would understand him.

The other man had seemed to grasp the question anyway, shaking his head solemnly in reply. 

“Not a soul.” He had reiterated, as Eddie dropped his arm back to his side and continued to think on such a heavy decision. He still wasn’t in his right mind. Was so doped up on painkillers that he could only stay awake for an hour or so before he was restlessly snoozing again. He shouldn’t be making this decision alone. Shouldn’t be forced to sign such important papers while under the influence of strong medicines. 

It was in that moment that he had realized how truly alone he was. How isolated he would probably feel for the rest of his life. It turned his stomach, but he didn’t have time to cry about it like he wanted to.

He needed someone to talk to about it all. Bounce the options off them and make sure he was doing the right thing. But he didn’t have that. Never would. Just about the only person he fully trusted to talk about it that already knew was Dustin and he was just a kid. Eddie would never want to put that on him. He’d been through so much more already that Eddie still could not fathom after his own adventure. He wouldn't burden the kid with his adult problems like that on top of everything else.

His heart had been heavy and his eyelids even heavier as he nodded in solemn understanding. Resigning himself to a life of silence. Lying and deceit that he wanted no part of. He never was good at telling lies no matter how much the people of Hawkins liked to spin it that he was some horrible, manipulative thug. That he used his silver tongue to coerce their children into joining his cult.

He had taken the pen that Owens offered and signed all the papers that were placed in front of him one by one without reading them though. His arm was giving out from the small exertion by the time he was finished. His wounds aching and his head lolling forwards every few seconds as he tried to stave off sleep until the impromptu meeting was over. 

It had taken such a long time that his tired body was giving up. Desperate for a nap.

The doctor had quickly reiterated Eddie’s story one more time before placing a card with a phone number on it down on the table in front of him. He had instructed Eddie to call the number when he was better to get a refresher on the narrative if he needed it. With that he was gone. Stopping outside briefly to explain to Wayne the fictionalized version of what had transpired. Informing him that Eddie was filing a defamation case against the Hawkins PD and foreshadowing their decision to settle.

Wayne hadn’t asked too many questions when he’d returned, not that Eddie could answer them anyway. But he had found himself once again incredibly grateful for his Uncle’s respect for him as an adult that was allowed to have his own secrets.

He knew the small amount of contentment wouldn’t last for long, although he had kind of hoped he would at least get a couple of hours out of it after he had woken from his nap.

But that wish was not to come true. When Karmen had arrived later in the afternoon and Wayne had explained the situation as he knew it, she had seemed annoyed. 

Frustrated? Bitter?

Eddie wasn’t sure. They were feelings and emotions that he hadn’t really seen too much of from her in the past. She didn’t actually say anything to him about it. But she had motioned for Wayne to speak with her outside the room and left Eddie there to wallow in his dread as he watched them interact through the glass.

He knew she had questions. Knew he would have them too if the situation was reversed. Hell, if he was honest, he wasn’t even sure he would have shown up in the first place if she was in his situation. A fact that he harbored so much guilt for deep inside every time she smiled kindly at him and he was so ridiculously grateful for her company. 

Would he have stayed if he did show up for her and then still had to get most of his information from the News at the same time as the rest of Hawkins and sometimes secondhand from her family? If the only thing he knew was that she was with another man and then that man died and she just… Disappeared for a week… 

He’d like to think he would because he loved her so deeply. But he could tell that his time away had accidentally hurt her in ways he could probably never make up for. 

Without being able to fully explain the truth of the situation, he didn’t know if she would be able to move on from it. These were the questions that he had for her. But a part of him was glad he couldn’t ask them. Asking difficult questions often led to difficult answers and being able to ask questions in general meant being able to answer them.

He had watched them talking dramatically. Flailing their arms around in an exasperated manner as they conversed with tight lips and shaking heads that he could tell were not directed at each other but the topic at hand. It had planted a heavy seed in Eddie’s gut that hadn’t dissipated when they reappeared, all smiles and it only continued to grow as the questions remained unasked.

Karmen didn’t treat him any differently after the talk with Wayne but he could feel the unease inside her within the way she moved. The expressions on her face that didn’t quite match the way he knew they should look.

She knew she was being lied to. They both did. He could tell.

As if on cue to quell his own unease, Karmen appeared in the doorway of his room in present time. His longing stare towards the TV remote was interrupted. His eyes dragging over her frame as she smiled tiredly in greeting. Letting herself in and relieving him of his unending boredom and relentless anxieties by picking up the remote and switching on the television.

She settled herself on the bed beside him without a word and he snuggled into her as best as his injuries would allow. Both of them turning their attention to the daytime TV talk show that had become somewhat of a ritual for them in the last few days. A distraction from the strange goings on of the world right now. 

Eddie watched for a few minutes before his eyes began to droop. Her company, the only way he was getting any proper rest. He slipped into an easy sleep while listening to the talk show host question their guest on trivial things. Grateful that at least in this moment in time, it wasn’t him in the hot seat.

Yet.

~

Totally forgot to mention the "car accident" cover. 😬 So will bring that up again and go into more depth next chapter.

Part 7!

Read the rest of the series here :)

This series is so personal to me, so it means the world to me when someone let’s me know they enjoy a work from this series. If you guys liked this please pleaseee consider letting me know via comment, reblog, message, anon ask etc.  

Tag List: @ghosttownwherenoonegoes @3ddi3-daydreamer @micheledawn1975 @munson-blurbs @wheels-of-despair @browneyes528 @stevemunsons

[hexagon-club]

Thought I'd respond to the one person in the comments who so far has been brave enough try and answer these questions. Doing this through a reblog because I don't think I could do it properly in the comments on account of so many words.

So a person with a female reproductive system is a woman, but also a person with a female reproductive system may also not be a woman? Not really useful as a definition then. Unless you can provide some clear guide on what those exceptions are.

The thing about the "what is a woman?" question is that's not meant to test your knowledge. It's meant to test your honesty. You can't really be trans if you don't know what a woman is, you have to know what it is you're trying to mimic or get away from in order to adopt this identity. But admitting that you know what a woman is would be admitting that you still are one (or are not one). So we just get this absolute ouroboros of logic instead.

So a lesbian is attracted to female anatomy, except for when they aren't. Another tautology, the thing about taxonomic classifications is they have to exclude something in order to be useful. So for "lesbian" to exist as a discrete category, there needs to be some idea of what makes someone not a lesbian. If it's just an undefined vibe that anyone can have, then it's just another word for "person". Also the phrase "asexual lesbian" is going to give me an absolute migraine. The absolute nonsense phrases this site invents...

Transgenderism (the idea that gender can change) is real and transracialism (the idea that race can change) is fake... because gender can change and race can't change. More circular reasoning. The funny thing is that if you go through the transrace and transracial tags it's mostly people being salty about the fact that transgenderism is accepted and they are treated as a joke. And they have a point, they are basing their identities on the exact same logic as a transgender person bases theirs on. They are right to be annoyed at the double standard. I've seen people in the transgender community accuse LGB people of throwing them to the wolves in order to try and get mainstream acceptance, do they not see that they are doing exactly this to the transrace community?

Transgender is closer philosophically to transrace than it is to being same sex attracted. In fact, homosexuality and transgenderism have fundamentally different epistemological understandings of what sexual attraction is (same sex attraction vs attraction to identity). So I don't see it as anything more than opportunism that the transgender community would rather associate with the LGBs over the transracials.

Thing is, once you've divorced yourself from the idea that the titles of "man" and "woman" have anything to do with biological sex all you're really left with is stereotypes. I'm not really sure what gender could possibly be if it's not stereotypes. If "man" and "woman" aren't descriptions of biological sex, or descriptions of certain cultural stereotypes, then what the hell are these words?

Words by their very nature arise out of a collective need to identify and communicate a certain idea. If there isn't an agreement on what idea a word represents, that word ceases to serve any purpose. Which is why words have definitions. If you can't explain to me what a woman is, then how am I supposed to take you seriously if you tell me that you are (or are not) one?

This is how all those "I identify as an attack helicopter jokes" started. I know the trans community rolls their eyes at the one joke, but do they have a coherent response to it? If "man" and "woman" are nothing but unfalsifiable identities based on an undefined set of vibes then why can't I be an attack helicopter? Who are you to tell me what my identity is? They've given up on the idea that personal identity should be based on physically observable reality. So I don't see how one set of unfalsifiable beliefs about what I am could make any less sense than another set of unfalsifiable beliefs.

I will denounce being gender critical and become a trans rights activist again if someone can logically answer any of these questions:

What is a woman? (and no, “someone who identifies as one” is not an answer)

How can one be a lesbian (or a straight man) if there is no way to define a woman? What are you realistically attracted to? Someone’s pronouns? Someone’s “sense of self” ? How can sexual orientation exist without a concrete idea of sex/gender?

How can you say that transgender makes sense but transracial does not? If anything shouldn’t it be the other way around because race is literally an intangible and undefinable social category while sex is grounded in biological reality?

How is it “””misogynistic””” to women to say that their femaleness is grounded in biological reality (their bodies, their hormone, their genetic makeup) but not insulting when TIMs say they transitioned to be submissive, to wear makeup, because they feel emotional, etc. (what genius misogynist managed to convince a whole generation that our sexed bodies are regressive and shameful but gender stereotypes are totally empowering!) tldr: why is sex fake but gender is real?

I spent years trying to convince myself that these questions could be answered in a way that uphold transgender ideology so that I wouldn’t be a bigot. But hey, if you can answer any of these I will happily switch camps!

[moved-19871997]

Well, you said you'd love to hear my thoughts in the tags and I like talking about this, hello, I was the one talking about Dan Sloss, and I'll do my best to make it coherent and shorter than the initial plan, it isnt much but ill still try

Also, the name was Jigsaw aparently, not Puzzle, cool

So, for starters, I wanna point out that Daniel's specials usually use the principle of the Chekhov's gun narrative and a method explained in Hannah Gadsby's comedy special (not sure if its in Nanette or Douglas) about tension used for comedy. I'm not any of those people and I will not elaborate, I'm sorry, you should look it up tho, really interesting

"Oh my god, did she just reference another stand-up?", yes, I get upset very easily, comedy makes it better

Something else worth mentioning is that he is the type of person that got to talk long enough to sound like a genius, he's stupid yall, dont get fooled, anyway...

Spoiling the show, Daniel learned from his dad, as a child, that family, hobbies, friends and everything is part of a jigsaw, in which the picture is your life, the center would be the goal, and our goal is love, I can't explain it properly, its a full hour of content

He's a bad person, he's relatable, he's got extreme views, and he got dumped, so he doesn't believe in love, haha loser, there's a lot we should unpack but no time, moving on

Do we remember that whole thing? Do we remember thinking he wanted to kill his ex so he didnt have to deal the awkwardness of calling it quits just to deal with what felt like our heart broke with his? Good, lets go

What kid Daniel learned from his father was that love is supposed to be the final and most important part of a jigsaw, that your soulmate would just fit and that would make you happy, but we all learned that love is perfect and if it isn't perfect its our fault, so we developed a tendency to make bad relationships work no matter what, but they dont.

Well hello there Dream, you said soulmates are... people that match perfectly with you and your personality? Interesting.

What we see here is Dream matching the logic that Daniel is skeptical of. I could make parallels or talk about how Dream's pov could be the very thing to deteriorate his relationships with his friends, but I won't. Let me tell you how adorable it is that Dream was the one to call his platonic soulmates pieces of his puzzle

The goal of a puzzle is to solve it, if people are puzzles its not anyone's job to solve/fix someone else, you are the only one who should define who you are and whats a part of you, but some puzzles, some full defined pictures, could be placed next to another one and create a wider landscape, they don't depend on each other to be fulfilled, but it just looks nice and cool

Dream calling his friends pieces of his puzzle could be read as them being so important that even if they parted ways they'd still be a part of him, but also like independent and not at all connected puzzles/people that match so well and are so easy to love and care, that they choose to be together.

Dark Humor will be just my love letter for Twitter, and the general analysis of Daniel's specials is essay-worthy but not relevant rn, so I'll stop here

So... that's my thought, I have spent a little too long thinking about it. I personally don't really like overthinking irl relationships as idk anything about them, but this one makes me happy, so who cares?

I will not read it again, so I'm sorry for any typos and I understand if you also dont read it lmao

Hope you're drinking water :)

OK HI YEAH i do rmr watching it a while back and the puzzle metaphore puts so much into perspective and just in general its such a good special and ifl a lot of what he says come from experience that a lot of people dont have yet and this acceptance that he's not the best person ever n yeah

[threeletterslife]

Hiiii I'm sorry I've been inactive for a while :/ I'm just less active on tumblr nowadays, and the fact that I can't post when I'm on the site really isn't helping ajshhshd (it doesn't let me add tags from my phone? but TAGS ARE MY LIFE and I can only go on my phone because of the vpn :( )

Anyway I am here!! For chapter 13!!! I'll try to read chapter 14 soon too ajshdhdbd

It is currently 1am so do not expect my thoughts to be coherent

A YEAR ON SOLARIA LETS GOOOOO

Rant on the general? Yes please, I will gladly listen to this

Omg not the meaningful(?) Dreams... (there's a word I'm looking for but my brain is not working I mean like...... dreams what have deeper meanings.... mystic? mmmmmmmmmmmmm I don't know you know what I mean)

Battlefield talks???? Things are PROGRESSING I like this

I understand why people would want her out on the battlefield but also my girl hasn't been trained properly??? Yeah she's learned to wield her fire but it'll take a lot more time to learn how to fight with it

Ah, yeah she's very empathetic and doesn't really deal with pain and death too well, as we've seen before. But also she's also been very open about her patriotism for solaria, so I'm wondering what she would have to say about this

Captain Im's speech ayyyyyy. (No but seriously) she's well spoken and a GREAT fucking debater, she handled that effortlessly

WAIT PLEASE I KNOW YOONGI'S GONNA BE TOO WORRIED ABOUT HER HES GONNA GO ROGUE

He went rogue 😭😭😭😭 this is so fun to watch look at him

“Officer Ryu’s going to give him a little visit and change his mind again.” — OMG PLEASE YES

You doubt it? Well, sir, its going to happen anyway because ✨plot✨ (and you're head over heels for y/n so you have to do what she says, and besides letting your emotions get in the way like this is a HUGE fucking mistake)

Also is this how she's gonna meet jungkook? Cause he's from darlaria.... ajshhxhsbs I should think so much ahead let's skip back (NO BUT SOMEBODY IN THE DARLAREAN ARMY WILL RECOGNISE HER I'M CALLING IT)

Yes, he's in denial. He doesn't want to admit he's in love with a darlarean :(((

Y/n knows she's darlarean right? She just doesn't care... her heart is solarian through and through

HES IN DENIAL THIS IS SO CUTE AJSHXHHXJSJS

Oh :( love and war and death :( YOURE GONNA KILL OFF YOONGI ARENT YOU??? YOU MAKE HIM GO ON THESE LONG SWEET TANGENTS BECAUSE YOURE PLANNING ON KILLING HIM YOUR MONSTER

I'm sorry, I shouldn't assume. bUT IF YOU DO IT I WILL BE AT YOUR DOOR FOR REVENGE

...no it doesn't make sense that she wasn't there? I don't know man I mean shouldn't she have a say in whether she fights?

WHY DID HIS BROTHER SHIFT TONE MIDSENTENCE I- "Am I good enough, brother? 🥺🥺🥺🥺" "Youre good enough for me" :))) "yoUR ENOUGH IS SUBPAR THATS TGE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND ME" ??????????? Mid conversation??? his brother needs help 😭😭

This conversation hurts so much seeing it from yoongi's point of view like.... he's messing up so much right now conversation-wise but only because he's sOFT

Ah... yeah I think jungkook will recognise her and the the story will continue from there

Part of me is like LET THE GIRL FIGHT but on the other hand I DONT WANT HER TO MEET JUNGKOOK.please dear God just let her and yoongi have their love story, I'm sure jungkook's a great guy but live triangles stress me the HELL out and I will cry

Why would he ever care for a darlarean? Wow, it really shows how he's been raised to not even think of them as humans...

THE TENSION OHHH this isn't good for my heart

CAPTAIN MOON'S BACKSTORY HELLO??????? Sweetheart I want to hug you 😭😭😭

Captain moon is spiritual  I can see that, and I'm GLAD we got a meaning to the dream. Y/n is the ✨change✨

FINALLY THE GEM THANK YOU

THATS IT??? I WAS SO SURE IT WOULD B ESOMETBING IMPORTANT AHHHH

Great chapter as ever, love <3 ill try to read chapter 14 soon Have a great day!!

omg no don't apologize!! i can't believe tumblr has the audacity to mess with your tags >:((( ugh

nevertheless, you're here and i have received yet another one of your amazing asks!! (i can't believe you're writing these so late omg 😭 my brain shuts off at 11 these days 💀) but then again, i feel like the best time to read is at night because i'm more prone to ~feels~

ANYWAYS. yes! can you believe it's almost been a year? coincidentally, it's also been almost around a year since i've begun to actually write this series! time flies, doesn't it

LMAO i love writing the battlefield scenes! in the original plot, there weren't as many politics/technical aspects of the war involved, but as i began writing, adding it just felt right LOL

in this household, we love and respect captain im. that is all i have to say

LMAO i like your line of thinking 👀 we will see about your predictions!!! (please don't come for me; i am scared)

yoongi's siblings are... interesting. we'll get into them more in future chapters *wink wink*

the general's too soft for his own good LOL. but we love to see it

captain moon is totally an underrated officer! nobody thinks twice about her because she's always off praying to the spirits, but it's the only connection she has left with her family. a lot of the officers' backstories are tragic. like wait till we get to captain goe's 💀

:)))))) don't worry the gem will come up again <3

and THANK YOU! as usual, for writing such a long review so late at night!! i love reading through your scene-by-scene reactions LOL. it's one of the things that just motivates me to write more! have a wonderful day/night/afternoon!

[gunkreads]

Pulling your original tags back into this, because it's interesting that this is a similar idea to what I, with blind optimism, am hoping they'll do with Nynaeve in future seasons. The first two seasons set her up with very little success or progress where the books gave her incremental victories, so I feel like the later seasons need to break the dam and have her rocket into some kind of power. These tags are suggesting the opposite might happen for Rand; he might be built up as a heroic figure and then torn down with some unintentionally-fulfilled prophecies.

That said, I don't fully agree that they've completely missed that it's bad to be the Chosen One in the show. I agree that they haven't emphasized it in a way that matches the books, but the message itself is still there under the umbrella of "being a man who can channel". This doesn't do the same thing, fundamentally, but I think the writers might've meant it to. I hope not.

To reiterate what you're saying: by skimming over the Prophecies of the Dragon and the extensive discussion of how scary/bad/horrible the Dragon Reborn will be, the show is reshaping Rand's character around the absence of that fear. His "fear of what he'll become" has two main facets in the books: 1, being a man who can channel, consequently going insane and killing everyone; and 2, being the Dragon Reborn, having the weight of the world on his shoulders and having to save+destroy everyone.

To be fair to the show writers, Rand's fear of being the Dragon Reborn (and having all the associated responsibility) specifically doesn't kick in until, well, TDR, and isn't really prominent on-page until TSR. Up to that point, he's mostly 1: in denial and 2: more worried about immediate dangers and his embroilment in larger plots than the actual madness or responsibility.

What's missing, as you're pointing out, is the looming background knowledge that Dragon Reborn=Guy You Don't Wanna Be. Jordan loved to repeat shit ad nauseam to get his points across; obviously the show writers don't feel the same way (and I don't blame them, however much I may like Jordan's style). In the books, people talk about false Dragons all the time and emphasize the death and destruction they always bring with them; it's constantly implied, then later demonstrated, that a false Dragon's influence is nothing compared to the real Dragon Reborn. Rand is as aware of this as anyone who hears world news (by TGH, at least he is).

So yeah, the show is recontextualizing Rand's fear of his identity without spending enough time establishing that a different fear of a different aspect of his identity is going to be much, much more important later on. I still have hope that this'll turn out more coherent in later seasons, especially now that we have him accepting that he's the Dragon Reborn, but I don't anticipate feeling like the particular fear of being the Dragon Reborn was set up properly.

I do wonder when they're gonna get into "you do not want to be the chosen one" aspect. Cause yes they have shown the madness and what the Aes Sedai want to do to him but we do still have some show onlies thinking being the Dragon is a good heroic figure? Guess I'm just waiting for the shoe to drop in the show where they're like "actually this is more like finding out you're the antichrist."

[storytravelled]

Helpppp I love your confidence with approaching ppl to become moots 😭😭😭😭 I wish I had that confidence lol, any advice on approaching ppl ? <3

aw you're so sweet ty! i'm actually not that confident and barely interact with the mutuals i get and kind of just collect them which makes me super sad but i'm not confident enough to do anything about it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

but i've also been here for a short while now and have some tips!

join groups! i found my first and dearest mutuals (who i ACTUALLY talk to) after joining my first discord server. we've got a few mutual interests (some that we've gotten into together) and we can get each other into stuff. honestly, tumblr isn't my favorite messaging platform and i prefer discord a lot, which is why you won't see a lot of interactions on here from me. i have a ton of mutuals now from making writing and rp blogs and finding spaces where others did the same- my ayaka blog made me mutuals with a ton of big genshin people, and joining interwoven fates did that for a ton of smaller genshin people that add just as much to my dash and daily interactions

this kind of goes with #1, but pay attention to events! i joined the aforementioned first discord server because of an event, and i've gotten to know quite a few people from either joining or following genshin extreme bias games. I've joined fanfiction and collaboration events hosted by blogs that are larger than mine, giving my work publicity and also giving me an opportunity to talk to other participants and the host as well as some talking points to use

interact with people! i know this is kind of useless and vague, but it is really easy to just send someone an ask off anon asking if they wanted to talk about something or contributing to something they're talking about. make sure to ALWAYS have at least three different talking points to use. they can be coherent with each other or not, but you need backup plans in case your conversations hit a dead end. however, the talking point strategy applies much better on discord and in pms than on asks. still, make sure to have backup plans. i recommend that if someone continually interacts with your posts or work, go talk to them! i remember the first person to send me interactions on my writing blog- he sent an ask off anon and i went to clarify with him and now we're super close! to go with this, it's generally easier to get people like that to go with you into groups. that way, you're not alone, and they can help you get more acquainted with a larger circle if you're not confident in your own interaction skills. i know @unkownknowledge, who i'm speaking about, mentions a lot that he's happy to help others who are intimidated about speaking to mutuals, and i am as well.

find multiple avenues! i created my sideblogs for fun, but they've become great ways to meet people. sideblogs are just more roads into more fandoms, so i highly recommend making some exclusively for some interests to get a concentrated topic in the people that follow you. to go with that, always make sure to properly tag your content so people will actually see it, even if it's a reblog. blog organization looks really professional too, although it doesn't really matter if you use it or if you tag reblogs as reblogs so it looks like you do. it's a neat trick and i don't think anyone really notices it, because it becomes a subconscious thing.

be yourself, be patient, and have fun! i know i said a lot of this with an undertone of "be super strategic and use all your angles and manipulate people into seeing and caring about you" but, in the end, what helped me most was finding what parts of myself were truest and amplifying those. be genuine and be yourself, and it'll be genuinely less tiring to talk to people. this is tumblr, where it's incredibly easy to find when someone's being fake because we're all insane and ridiculous here. please remember not to take things here too seriously. we're all just clowns in different circuses. the worst that can happen to you is that someone will politely reject you, delete your ask, or impolitely reject you. polite rejections will generally assure you that it's not your fault and they have a reason for doing what they do. deleting your ask means that you can let go of that person. don't worry too much about them, but i generally assume if they're answering asks regularly about their posts in a timely manner, about three days of them responding to proveably recent asks and ignoring yours generally signifies for me that they deleted it. in this scenario, you should forget about them. they don't matter that much, and you'll be okay without them seeing your url once ever and doing nothing, i promise. i'll help comfort/distract you, if you want. if they impolitely reject you, tell me and i'll take care of you darling don't worry about that. if you don't have many mutuals yet, you won't have much of a support system on this app. but that's what i'm here for! i'm going to help you in any way i can. this whole thing is solely for the purpose of having fun, so please keep everything lighthearted and don't worry too much about a lot.

ask literally everyone if they want to be mutuals. this is less a tip and more of a way for me to offer to you my mutualship because i genuinely like you. let's be friends, anon! i'd love to know more about you