#this was 90 percent finished

[theladycarpathia]

Everything was different this year.

“Let’s go, Harrington,” Billy crows, slinging an arm around Steve’s shoulders. Ahead of them the house is lit up with strings of lights and gaudy cackling Halloween decorations. Steve eyes a skeleton dressed in a top hat and wonders if he’s made the right decision. Robin and Vickie are watching A Nightmare on Elm Street in Vickie’s basement and he’s starting to think that maybe they had the right idea. 

“I’m not carrying you home if you get drunk,” Steve promises, and Billy gives him a flash of teeth. It’s surprisingly fitting - with the shaggy headdress, wolf ears and tight jeans, Billy’s an odd sort of werewolf but it works. His eyes are just the right shade of bright blue, the lean, tanned stomach that is only just made decent by the denim, the glittering pendant hanging against his bare chest. It’s designed to draw attention. 

“Sick from doing that last year?” he asks, and Steve bristles. But before he can point out that he didn’t carry Nancy home, Billy has dragged him through the front door, and is relieving a vacant looking basketball player of a few beers out of a cooler.

“Have a drink and lighten up,” Billy says, pressing a cold bottle into Steve’s hand. Condensation drips against Steve’s fingers, wet and sharp.

“No kegs this year?” Steve asks pointedly. Billy is already unscrewing the cap and tipping the bottle back, the long lines of his throat rippling as he swallows.

“Not yet,” Billy says, licking foam off his lips. He always gets oddly manic on nights like this, like he has something to prove. Steve hates it. Hates this. “But the night is young.”

A few cheerleaders wander by, teetering along in their high heels. They haven’t put much effort into their costumes, all three clad in identical crisp white dresses, little nurses’ caps pinned into their hair. Billy grins at them as they wander by, relishing in how their eyes drift to his bare chest.

“Tramp,” Steve mutters around his beer. He mostly means Billy, who never seems to mind being objectified. 

“Try and have some fun, Stevie,” Billy says, his arm like a weight around Steve’s neck. The fake wolf fur is tickling Steve’s nose, smelling faintly of must and wet dog. He should probably be glad that Billy’s not wearing a tail. “You used to love this shit.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t anymore,” Steve mutters. Billy purses his lips.

“Right, well you loved this shit with Wheeler,” he says pointedly, Nancy’s name falling off his tongue like a curse. Steve winces. He hadn’t meant it to sound like that. But of course, Billy would think that Nancy was special, that she’d been able to have more influence over Steve than he has.

“I was different when I was dating Nancy,” he tries to explain, but Billy has already slipped away, beer bottle held aloft. Steve watches him go, wondering when watching movies at home became more fun than dancing in a room with dozens of other heaving, sweating bodies, people that he barely likes.

No, actually, he knows when. But Billy still loves this, still thrives on arriving late to a party like the King of Hawkins High. It’s a rush that Steve’s forgotten all about.

Sighing, Steve dumps his bottle onto the nearest counter and makes for the punch. Time to pull a Nancy.

The punch is overly sweet and smells of strawberries but has a kick that burns the whole way down Steve’s throat. Steve drinks until the unease in his belly has settled and the party has settled into a more palatable haze. 

He wants to go home. He doesn’t belong here anymore. But this is Billy’s last Halloween party of high school and he knows what it’ll look like if he vanishes now. There’s no way Billy won’t take it as a snub. 

Billy would almost certainly take it as a rejection.

“Steve!” The girl who appears at his elbow has had far too much alcohol for her tiny frame. It takes a minute for Steve to recognise her under the frothing white dress and the voluminous curls.

“Hey, Amy,” he says fondly, slinging an arm around her bare shoulders, grateful to see a friendly face. She’s an adorable, totally wasted Madonna, little white gloves and all. The remains of the wine bottle slosh as she flings an arm around his waist, settling easily around his hips. Steve eyes the bottle warily, wondering if Tina’s parents are going to miss that.

“Having fun?” Amy chirrups, seeming to not notice or mind that she’s basically using him to hold herself upright. Steve knocks back the last of his punch and grimaces.

“No,” he says, crumpling up the cup and dropping it onto the counter. “Got any of that wine left?” She passes him the bottle and he tries to ignore the smear of lipstick at the rim.

“But it’s a party?” she says, with a careful blink of her dark, slightly smudged eyes. “You used to like parties.”

Yeah, he had. He’d be enjoying this one if he could be with Billy. But he’s vanished into the heaving crowds, without a single look back. Steve gets that it’s only out of hurt and jealousy that Billy’s ditched him but still. It doesn’t make it any better.

“Not enjoying this one,” Steve says miserably. He’s deeply fond of Amy - a cute little cheerleader he made out with once, before he started dating Nancy - but he’s not about to spill his guts. He’s not that stupid. Billy still has months left before he’s free of Neil.

“Wanna make out?” Amy asks, all too easily, and it’s a good offer. An offer Steve would have taken. Should take, because clearly he’s not gonna kiss anyone else this evening. Some horrible bitter part of him considers it, tilting Amy’s chin up and kissing her until everyone notices. He wants to be noticed.

But then the poison drains away, and he gently pats Amy’s cheek.

“Thanks,” he says, because that’s not the warm body he wants. “But not tonight.” 

All too soon, the bottle is gone and they stumble outside, Amy tipping her head back to inhale the sharp night air. The party has spilled out here too - more lights wound between the trees, skeletons hanging from the gazebo, a few messily carved Jack-O-Lanterns glowing from the patio. Some of Amy’s fellow cheerleaders wave to her from the deck chairs but she stays where she is, clearly clinging to Steve’s warmth. There’s loud cheers and shouting from a group crowded around something - someone - and Steve cranes his head to see what’s going on.

It’s Billy, tipped over head first into Tina’s hot tub and Steve would panic if he hadn’t spotted the bobbing little red jewels gleaming on the water. Someone has tipped apples into the still water of the tub, and typically Billy is here, making a show of it as he tries to bite down on an apple.

There’s a spray of water as he emerges from the tub, water dripping obscenely down his chest, soaking the fur of his costume and his prize clenched between his teeth. There’s howls of delight, Tommy and a few others slapping Billy on the back, king once more. Billy reaches up for the apple and bites down on it, gleefully ripping into the tender red skin.

Halloween is a time for putting on masks and acting the part and no one does it better than William Hargrove.

Steve knew this going in. He’s always known, and he can’t deny he didn’t. The terminator costume, the keg, the attitude. Billy came in last year, meaning to make an impression. Put Billy on a stage and does he perform.

But the problem with that? Steve doesn’t like that Billy. That’s not the Billy he wants. He wants the Billy who paints his nails with polish pilfered from Mrs Harrington’s dresser. The Billy who traces words in the bare flesh of Steve’s leg late at night. The Billy who knows the names of stars and bakes sugar cookies and shares lazy, heated breaths with Steve. 

He doesn’t know this Billy.

Which is why his stomach curdles when Billy swaggers over, dripping wet, apple clutched in his fist like a trophy. His eyes turn cold when he spots Steve, his arm still slung around Amy.

“Harrington,” he says cooly, eyes flicking disdainfully to Amy’s fishnets, the smeared lipstick on her mouth. 

“Hey,” Steve says, because this is his fucking boyfriend and he’s not playing this game. He had that with Nancy, bullshit and bullshit, and he won’t be sucked into that again. “You remember Amy?” Billy nods and Amy is too drunk to notice much of a snub. Instead, she pecks Steve gracefully on the cheek.

“Thanks for keeping me company,” she says, releasing her grip on him and immediately wobbling. Steve rushes to hold out a hand to steady her. 

They watch her stumble off to join the other cheerleaders, a drunken, perfumed collection of Madonna’s, bunnies and corpse brides. 

“Cute date,” Billy jabs, fingers twitching in the way that they do when he wants a smoke. Steve rolls his eyes.

“We’re friends,” he retorts. “And she’s so pissed she can barely stand up.”

“I noticed,” Billy says, a touch too jovially. There’s a glitter in his eyes, something visible in the flickering candlelight. Steve feels a jolt of satisfaction. Billy’s jealous after all.

“I’m having fun,” he says, wishing dearly that he had another drink. He can’t take the burning in Billy’s eyes. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Yeah,” Billy says, lobbing the half eaten apple into the trees. Behind them, someone else has taken up the game, and the cheering makes for an odd backdrop for their fight. “Bullshit, Harrington.”

A knife would have been easier than that word.

“Fuck off,” Steve says in a low voice. This one hurts just as badly and he wonders if he’s not meant to last a Halloween party as a boyfriend. So much for things being different. 

Maybe the problem is Steve.

“I won’t,” Billy says and he crowds into Steve’s space, so close that Steve can smell the apple and beer on his breath. “And you are. You’re not fucking having fun, Steve. Not unless drinking bad punch and hanging off some girl you almost definitely ate out counts as fun.” Steve takes a deep breath and tries to remember that this isn’t Billy. Just the monster that lives in his skin.

“I never had sex with Amy,” he says, in the most even tone he can manage because all he wants right now is to shove Billy’s head underwater until he drowns on old water and apple pips. “She’s a friend. Don’t be an asshole.”

Billy purses his lips, something bitter and rueful. For a minute there’s the flash of the real Billy, before it’s wiped clean. 

“Thought you knew that about me, Harrington?” he says, in a voice that Steve just doesn’t quite believe.

“Yeah,” Steve says, jamming his hands into his pockets. Back in the house there’s a crash as someone drops a bottle and Steve feels like he can relate to being shattered. “I do. Just never thought you’d be like that with me.”

“Bet you thought that about Wheeler too, huh?” Billy says quietly, and Steve’s not quite sure what game he’s playing here. All he knows is that he’s tired of whatever Billy is trying to prove. 

“Are you trying to prove you are like Nancy?” he says, pointedly. Because as much as Billy hates it, there’s similarities there, always has been. “Because well done. You’re dumping me at a Halloween party. Feels pretty fucking similar to me.” Billy’s eyes widen.

“I’m not…” he starts, before remembering where they are. There’s a beat in the pulse at his neck, the same spot that Steve’s kissed so many times. 

“Well, it feels like you are,” Steve mutters darkly. He turns his head away  “I get that you don't like Nancy. You really don’t like that I was in love with her. Just stop…fucking acting like her.”

Dylan from the basketball team stumbles over, and clearly misses the razor thin tension, because he slings an arm around Billy’s neck. Judging by the water dripping down his neck, he’s also been bobbing for apples. While Billy looks good with the damp softening his curls and pooling in the curve of his collarbone, Dylan just looks like a drowned rat.

“Hey, Harrington,” he slurs, rubbing at his damp mouth with an equally damp hand. His demon horns are lopsided on his head, the cheap plastic of a last minute store bought outfit. “You gonna play?”

Steve looks at Billy but can’t see anything past the mask that has slid back into place. It’s not something he understands and maybe it’s from having Neil as a dad. Maybe if you have to wear a mask all the time to hide every real, true part of you, then it becomes second nature to wear that mask. Maybe Steve’s been shitting himself to think that he was special. Like Billy Hargrove was going to love him.

“No,” Steve says briefly. He wonders if there’s something in that punch that rots the insides of every person he’s ever loved. He shifts his feet and turns away, pretending that he doesn’t see the flicker of guilt in Billy’s eyes. “I’m leaving.”

“Leaving?” Dylan asks, sounding confused. Billy’s face is hollow like he was expecting this. Like this is what he was always expecting to happen. “Mate, you can’t go. It’s fucking Halloween.”

“Yeah, well, not having fun,” Steve says, still waiting. But if he’s hoping for Billy to say anything, then he has better chances of Amy being able to do algebra in her current state. Billy will choke on his words, regardless of whether they’re poison or not. “Going home.”

Dylan flicks his eyes over Billy and then to Steve. He almost suspects something has happened but he’s too drunk to really put the pieces together. 

“Alright,” he says slowly. “See you around.” Steve nods and turns, but stops just before he walks away, out of Tina’s house and down the street to his empty home, where he can examine the torn pieces of his heart.

“No one’s home,” he adds, unable to close that door entirely. It’s pathetic and he hates it. It’s the cloying smell of roses rotting in his backseat all over again. “Just gonna…watch films.”

Dylan’s face says that he clearly didn’t ask but Billy finally looks up to meet Steve’s gaze head on for the first time since he called bullshit. Steve holds it for a moment, wondering if when this night is over, if Billy will stumble up the pathway and through his patio doors. If he’ll climb into Steve’s bed, with cold skin that smells of apples, and murmur apologies into Steve’s mouth.

He hopes so, and he tries to fool himself that he’ll be fine if Billy doesn’t. But it’s for the best. He’s tired of begging people to love him. It didn’t work with Nancy, and it won’t work here. 

He slips back through Tina’s house, ducking past the merry revelers, the James Deans, the Bowies, the Cindy Laupers. He supposes that this time at least he doesn’t have to worry about Billy going home with another guy. He’s also been wrong before. 

The house is still when Steve lets himself in through the backdoor, his parents not due home until sometime in November. Steve wearily flings his jacket down, and turns the oven on, rummaging in the freezer for a pizza. He doesn’t have the energy for anything else and when the cheese is bubbling away, he steals one of his dad’s beers and drops onto the couch.

It’s fine. It’s fine, it’s all fine. 

He eats his pizza on autopilot, licking grease stains from his fingers. He half absorbs some shitty horror film, and he pretends that he doesn’t jump at every little sound outside, hoping that it’s Billy. 

He can’t fix Billy anymore than Billy can fix him. So when the early hours of the morning creep in, Steve clears away his plate and empty cans and climbs the stairs to his room, prepared to spend the night alone.

He nearly jumps out of his skin when he flicks on the light and finds a werewolf on the bed.

“What the fuck, Billy?” Steve hisses, holding onto the doorframe. But then he takes in Billy’s red eyes and the gooseflesh on his bare skin. “How long have you been here?”

“A while,” Billy says quietly. His wolf ears and headdress lie abandoned on a nearby chair, Billy’s costume stripped down bare. Steve closes the door behind him, feeling adrift. 

“Why didn’t you come downstairs?” Steve asks, his eyes flicking to the window. It has a dodgy latch and it’s not too hard to climb over from the roof below. But Billy knew that the backdoor would be open, that the spare key lies under his mom’s stupid garden gnome. Billy once slipped out of the sliding patio doors while Steve’s parents were still sleeping. 

“Thought you wouldn’t want to see me,” Billy says, jaw tense, and Steve recognises the self-deprecation in his tone. 

“That depends on whether you’re an ex-boyfriend or not,” Steve says curtly, because he’s really fucking tired and heart-sore and he loves this badly broken boy curled up on his bed in jeans and a stolen sweatshirt. 

Billy immediately looks stricken. 

“I don’t want…” Billy says, and then stops suddenly, mouth twisting in pain. It’s barely an admission but it’s closer than Steve’s ever gotten before. So he sits down on the bed next to Billy, reaching over to wind his fingers around Billy’s. His heart starts again at that simple touch and Steve was so numb that he hadn’t even realized that it had stopped.

“I need you to stop pushing me away,” Steve says bluntly, because someone has to say it. “It’s not fair.” Billy licks his lips and nods. His fingers are warm in Steve’s and it makes him wonder how little time passed between Steve leaving Tina’s and Billy following. Little Red being followed through the woods by the big bad wolf. 

“I don’t know how to do anything else,” Billy confesses, his eyes fixed very firmly on the delicate link of their fingers. Steve aches. 

“It’s bullshit,” he says and Billy looks up. He looks his age for once, dirty blonde hair clinging to his cheeks, red rimmed and bloodshot eyes, his mouth soft and pink.

“I know,” Billy says softly and when he leans in to kiss Steve, it feels like a fresh start.

[weebsinstash]

so like in the most awful manipulative evil way possible can you imagine Valentino pulling some outright DEBAUCHED, VILLANOUS shit like making Angel do one of those "ha ha you were blindfolded and your partner isn't who you thought it was" sorta pornos because yes that's an entire genre and for him, the blindfold gets ripped off and it's, ya know, his friend, YOU

and you'd think "oh chicks would be safe though right" WRONG BECAUSE APPARENTLY ON ANGEL'S WIKI IT SAYS HE'LL FUCK WOMEN IF THEY PAY EXTRA also like how does that even work out. Like... dude is a hole a hole for you??? Like with Husker??? I guess being able to withstand sex is different than being actively turned on and desiring but I guess that's pretty sad on his part, he's probably snorting pills and shit to get it up just to get the job done

Also I need to visit genuine nonplatonic yan Angel x male Reader at some point but that's a story for another time. God the absolutely TOXIC potential of poly Val/Angel/Reader like ughhhhh the suffering, throw Vox in there too and you've got just a bunch of toxic codependent horny addicts and then also there's the TV they watch porn on cjfjfnfjr

But like. Valentino just being a MENACE because one or both of you have CROSSED HIM. he wants to punish you both in such a fucked up horrible way that he also wants to get off on and potentially film for himself or profit(and I imagine even outside of this specific scenario, Val would be 500% a voyeur/cuck to some degree and loves watching his toys play together, like didn't he even kinda make Vox strip in a gram post once? Once you're his ho, you're his ho, that certain "I haven't fucked you" type of respect is never regained back)

I just picture. Maybe Angel is blindfolded but he's still in an aggressive dominant role and maybe even instructed to be rough or say really mean shit (slapping you, calling you a whore, demeaning you about how much you're definitely enjoying this) and all he can tell is that his partner is gagged and restrained, and at some point in the most traumatizing post nut clarity possible the blindfold is removed and one of two things happens

1. You were gagged but unlike him WASNT blindfolded so you could see him and cry through your gag and like pointlessly uselessly call for his help and tell him who you are but it doesn't work and that's like part of your punishment

Or 2. You're blindfolded and kept ignorant and Valentino holds this over Angel's head like an atomic fucking bomb. "You better remember this the next time you try to betray me, because I have pleeeenty of nice footage to show your little friend if this happens again"

just saying, I doubt Valentino would even NEED to use Angel's contract to make him behave anymore after getting THAT kind of dirt on him. Angel's SO lonely, and he can't lose his best friend, and also, he couldn't possibly traumatize you even worse like that.... totally not also being potentially selfish and self serving "I can only protect you if you're around me" or some deranged shit... and of course, now Val gets another nice little plaything out of it too, isn't that so nice for him ❤️

[breadbox-draws]

"Hellooooo, Vinyl City! Who's ready to bring this house DOWN?"

-

A slice of what DJ Dragonflyte's performances might look like! Very loud, very neon, very bright, but never flashing. Enter the party master's domain if you dare, a whole night of fun awaits you there!

[codacheetah]

Thinking abt how Siffrin only pulls out the fake portraits for Loop in ACT 5. Falls over

[kanerallels]

My hubris has struck again (I am attempting a Wingfeather Saga ficlet for the writing challenge I'm participating in next month)

[hold-him-down]

🍉

For... anyone who you think has the funniest/best pet peeve lol

answered here and I think it's Link's! :) Excerpt below.

"I don't think either of them get under my skin all that often," he says. "For River, I guess it would be when he refuses help, even from Felix. Watching it from a distance can sometimes get really upsetting, even if it's understandable." He pauses, considering. "For Felix, hmm. Maybe when I come home and he's reprogrammed the remote to all these random documentaries and weird apps that he's found."

River, arms wrapped around his legs on the sofa opposite him, says, "That can't be a pet peeve. It's funny when he does that."

"I'm not saying it's not funny," Lincoln says, only a little defensive, "but when I get home at midnight and try to watch a game and he's got it programmed to bring me to some panda live-stream in Beijing, it takes a few years off my life."

The corner of River's lips twitch, just the smallest amount.

[nero-neptune]

musicians i saw on campus

[dynamimight]

been on my grind i am becoming an academic weapon my brain gets 10 times bigger every day

[windor-truffle]

some quick graces thoughts (mostly about NPCs), i'm almost done w the child arc:

one of the Lhant soldiers already thinks Cedric might have ordered Bryce to attack Richard, and a few other NPCs seem to think someone in the royal family is involved in the king's mysterious "illness." It really feels like Cedric being sus af is something everyone knows but doesn't do anything about for like 7 years, maybe because they can't *technically* prove it? I guess Cedric has enough support that even the king doesn't want to point fingers and risk backlash.

That or the king himself is oblivious to the culprit due to their family ties, but that's really more of my own headcanon that King Ferdinand IV has a trusting, Asbel-esque personality. He did apparently tell Richard to follow his dreams of building a world without conflict, Richard notes the similarity there, but it's implied through use of the past tense that maybe the king doesn't see things that way anymore

You can tell this game was made in Japan because almost no one seems to bat an eye at letting the children wander around free-range, even when Asbel is supposed to be grounded neither the maids nor the guards or even his own Mom actually DO anything to stop him from leaving town. You'd think they'd want to keep a slightly closer eye on the next heir, but at least it means Asbel gets to avoid a Luke-like scenario of never leaving his house ever

Deciding who gets to protect who via foot race is the most childish and Asbel thing to ever happen 😂 Also him swearing to win next time just adds to his ever growing list of things to take vengeance on, like the Windor cow or the door in the catacombs. I feel like he loses a lot of his competitiveness once he's older but maybe I just need to do a closer study

Two different NPCs comment that after his trip to Lhant, Richard looks happier already than they'd ever seen him. Aww 💜

I didn't realize Victoria was in the child arc, complete with a younger-looking model:

Also I think I originally must have missed the cutscene where you bump into Malik and Asbel tries to lie about Richard being his brother Tiger Festival, but Malik is cool with letting Richard wander around and just tells him to be careful

Lastly I forgot just how excited Asbel is to sneak into the castle at night via secret passage, he keeps saying stuff like "This is a GREAT idea!" like he's TRYING to tempt the narrative into ruining his life forever ;_;

[ed1c24]

i always forget i have art to post

[yzafre]

Things I should have been doing with my creative time: writing

What I did instead: started on.... this thing

[thealterscrolls]

tag game time!!! 8 shows to get to know me by! thank you mike my homie for the tag @tiptapricot

these aren’t rly in any order

1 moon knight

2 midnight mass

3 good omens

4 star trek the next generation

5 forever (2014) if anyone else knows this one i’ll love you forever (lol)

6 my little pony friendship is magic

7 hannibal

8 our flag means death

i was fighting for my life to even remember what shows i’ve watched so here’s what came to mind

anyway tagging uhhhh @theoutli3r @sunflowerseraph @cheeseandstrawberrytartlover @pizzee @riddlebot @julskylyly and anyone else who sees this can consider it a tag

[howabhwmwn]

I figured out what i want to do with my next few years!! Idk how many of my relatives and friends will think im an idiot and i dont know how ill have enough money, but im pretty sure i know this will make me the happiest, so i should do it.

[teamisc]

Mousey time :T

[sleepii-moth]

ngl ive seen so many people say that reading and analyzing all those old ass books in english class at school was actually really important and good for society but as someone who i think has pretty good media literacy skills now i would say that shit did absolutely nothing for me. i hated every second of it and im not out here thinking about the crucible or hatchet all day so i would say that it was a total loss of time for me personally. this is no "who gives a shit if the curtains are blue" this is "i know why the curtains are blue and i dont give a shit let me read something i find interesting for once"

[coffeeaddictandinsomniac]

whoops, went too fast