#what the fuck is the ship name for that hELP

[squaredbean]

I have so many thoughts about WL!Renchanting.

The way their Third Life base was named exclusively after Ren (Renchanting, Dogwarts), and now it includes Martyn (RenWood (literally getting their own ship name wrong smh), InTheLittleLake).

How it’s like Ren has grown so attached to Martyn since Third Life that his life has to incorporate him in as many ways as possible. (“What can I do to make you happy?” Ough.) How before Martyn served HIM, and now the roles are not explicitly reversed, but fuck, Ren is out providing, doing everything he can to please his partner. Because he wants him to stay with him so badly

Not that Martyn could ever leave (“I was going to betray Ren” MY ASS! Aren’t you the motherfucker who went so insane without him that you betrayed your only ally and won the season with nothing but bloodlust? Scar on your cheek from when you cried so hard when he died??? It’s in your LORE sir????????)

How Ren wanted to invite BigB to to join them. FIRST OF ALL, he was your SOULMATE who CHEATED ON YOU in the season YOU DONT REMEMBER BEING IN. WOW. Being cheated on didn’t even hold a candle to what you and Martyn had going on I guess

Second, BIGB WAS AN ORIGINAL MEMBER OF DOGWARTS. Carried the dang shield and everything. Are you trying to recreate the home Martyn helped you build in order to keep YOU safe, because you want to do the same for HIM??? WITH KNIGHTS AND A WALL AND EVERYTHING????? Just kiss already. Damn.

[signedaiko]

Hiiii! May I request some platonic headcanons for MTMTE? I was thinking about a g/n human reader pulling some pranks on some bots on the LL (Ratchet, Rodimus, Rewind) and what their reactions would be.

Ratchet | Rewind | Rodimus [MTMTE]

In which you try pulling a prank on some of your friends aboard the Lost Light.

Reader is: Gender Neutral | Human | Autobot. Platonic.

Ratchet

Your friendship started with you making teasing comments, which eventually led to jokes and seemed to be verging towards pranks

Ratchet was a grumpy one, so while your jokes are welcome, there is a time and place for them

One of those times is not the first thing in the morning, especially when he's preparing to get into a surgery

And yet, as he went to enter his office, he was surprised to run into some kind of thin, transparent film that forced him back onto his aft

You'd spent the whole night lining the door of the medbay with several rolls of plastic wrap, knowing his optics would still be woken up

It came to bite you in the ass; he wakes you up from your sleep after the all-nighter by yelling your name and banging at your door

He's pissy, and now he's making you sit on his desk all day, watching the surgery, and banging his fist on the table every time you start to doze off

You can sleep when he's done and when he feels you've learned your lesson for startling him so early

Rewind

You were the life of the party, in many ways

A lot of Rewind's best recordings come from you

Were all humans this fun? Or were you some rarity?

Either way, he's a big fan, and he's always got his camera rolling if you're there

You also make him feel special because none of your jokes or pranks are aimed at him

In fact, you usually request his help with pranks, be it as small as catching it on tape or something like replaying someone's voice to lure another of the crew

That's what made your plan against him so effective; he never expected himself to be a target of your genius

Until one late evening, he enters the habsuite to get some rest and-

Wait

Why is everything on the wrong side?

Chromedome is there resting, and Rewind wakes him up to ask what's going on

"What are you talking about? Are you feeling okay?"

Chromedome fully convinces Rewind he may have something wrong until he pulls up a clip of the room

"Fuck." He hears your small voice come from somewhere behind Chromedome, and he's running at you

"Both of you! Traitors!"

Rodimus

Rodimus knew you better than most others, and while he pretended to scold you in front of Ultra Magnus all the time, he liked the energy you brought

Besides, he was always pulling small pranks of his own, usually on Ultra Magnus, which was cheap and easy, but pranks nonetheless

That meant he presented a challenge, though

Rodimus was very good at telling you were up to something and had caught many of your pranks before

Unfortunately for him, most is not all, and he'd once again been fooled by your trickery

You'd mixed powdered sugar into his paint polish, which made it look shiny at first, but once dried, it left him very sticky and matte and made his paint look uneven

Oh, he knew who'd done it the moment someone pointed it out, and he wasn't going to let you get away with it so easily

Next thing you know, Siren is over the ship's comms claiming there's an emergency and that Rodimus is severely injured in the med bay

Of course you go racing to see him, unaware the announcement was only to your hab suite

He sat there, Rewind by his side, recording as you burst in with emotions evident on your face, only to realize what he'd done

Asshole

Authors Note - I am actually, secretly, the least funny person in the universe so I hope these parnks were realistic in some shape or form! Thank you for requiesting ��

[bird-in-the-space]

Echoes of the Unknown

You put your plan into action. Now, will you escape, or be captured by the cons?

Warnings: Cursing, near panic attack, Emily sweet-talking Knockout, shocking Knockout, and escaping.

Chapter 19

----------------------------------------

Fuck! 

Shit! 

Fucking!

Hell!

Dammit! 

You were trying your hardest not to have a panic attack after watching Soundwave take Emily away to somewhere they might torture her for information. How the hell did it go this wrong? You just needed to figure out the ground bridge controls, wait for Emily, and then get the hell out of this ship. 

What are you gonna do now? 

You took a deep breath, trying to calm down your panicking mind. Alright, (Name). Calm your shit down. You can’t help Emily if you start panicking and give yourself away. There has to be something you can do to get her and yourself out of this. 

You knew Knockout. He’s the medic of the Decepticons. The bots also described him as someone who did not like his paint job getting ruined. As the medic, he had to be at the med bay, so that’s where Emily was currently taken toward. 

You knew where the ground bridge console was. You could go to the med bay, grab Emily, and run for the ground bridge console. But what would you do when they sound the alarm? You would then need a diversion to keep the attention away from you. 

Your eyes widened when you remembered something. The drills! You could code the drills to start automatically and use them as a distraction. But what if they turn off the drills before you could use the ground bridge? Then what? 

You then grabbed the Holly out of its hiding place. You stared at the little device while organizing your thoughts into a fully formed plan. It was a bit of a long shot, but if you were careful and timed everything right, you and Emily would get off this ship without further issues. You could use the Holly to trick the cons when needed. You just needed to do a few more scans. It was a good thing the vehicons shared the same face as you. 

Attaching the Holly around your wrist, you left the ground bridge console to prepare your plan for action. You just hoped that Emily could hold on till then.  

Emily stayed quiet while still being held by the metal tentacle thing. Soundwave quietly took her somewhere. She tried to start a conversation, but the mech was silent like a rock.  It was actually a bit unnerving—- even you weren’t this quiet. 

They then arrived at what seemed to be the med bay. Emily saw a red bot waiting there. 

Soundwave dropped her off on the metal table. Emily yelped and grunted from the fall. She quickly checked on her camera, seeing no damage to it, before returning her attention to the two cons who looked down at her. 

“So, this is the Autobot pet that caused poor Airachnid some trouble? You can leave Soundwave. I’ll take it from here,” the red bot said, and the faceless con left without a word. 

Emily cautiously looked at the red bot. She had seen him a couple of times while hiding in the vents and guessed his name to be Knockout, the medic of the cons and assumably the crazy doc. 

“Now, doll face. Since you know the location of the Autobot base, I suggest you start talking. I would hate to ruin that pretty face of yours,” Knockout said, turning his arm into a spiral saw. 

The sight of the saw unnerved her, but unwilling to share the information and desperate to cause a diversion, she quickly went through her mind for ideas. Only one idea seemed worth the shot. 

“I… uh… Sorry. I was stunned for a moment because you certainly are the most dashing con I’ve seen on this ship so far,” Emily started. 

Knockout turned his arm back to normal with interest in his eyes. “Oh?” 

“Yeah! This place is so dark and gloomy. There’s barely any color and here you are, standing out in your cherry red paint like a polished ruby among these plain rocks,” she continued, quickly observing his form and the wheels on his back. 

“Is it safe to assume that your alt form is based on Aston Martin? I heard it's one of the best sports cars to this day, really pretty and really fast,” she asked, emphasizing the pretty and fast words. 

“You have a good eye, human, and a good taste,” Knockout stated. 

“I admire beautiful things. I’m afraid not even the Autobots can compare to your looks,” Emily said, causing him to grin. “You must have a meticulous paint care routine. So, what’s your secret?“ she asked 

“I’m glad you asked. I rarely get to talk about my care routines with anyone on this ship,” Knockout said. 

“Then talk away. Perhaps we could exchange secrets, one car enthusiast to another,” Emily smiled. Knockout started talking about his supposed care routine while Emily hoped it would buy you enough time to form up a plan to save her. 

Walking past vehicons, you used the Holly to scan them while they were walking. You were careful enough to cover the scan light to avoid catching attention while making your way to the mining storage. 

You arrived at your destination and to your luck, no one was in the room. If you remember correctly, Steve, Carl, and the others were on their breaks. You quickly grabbed a data pad and climbed to the nearest drill. Remembering how Raf did his coding tricks, you opened the drill’s panel and attached the wires to the data pad. You connected the datapad to the drill and opened the coding terminal.

You put your complete faith in remembering what each of the codes did and how to write them in cybertronian letters, adding them to the drill’s system and giving you a way to activate them remotely. After succeeding, you placed the panel back and jammed the controls so that they would start moving after activation.

You then went to the next drill and repeated the progress. You programmed three of the drills and decided it would be enough for the diversion. 

Now, it was time to get Emily. 

Emily nodded along as Knockout continued on about his paint job and complaints about working with the Decepticons. She kept up with an interested face, but after some fair minutes, it started to get a bit tiresome. However, it was necessary to keep him talking about his interest because it would buy you time to figure out a plan to save her. She had faith in you — you were smart and creative when it comes to solving problems. 

She checked the time on her camera. It had been twenty minutes now. Hopefully, you have already come up with something to get you both out of this mess. 

“Anyway, even though I enjoyed this brief discussion about my life. I think we have to get back to the real business, which is you telling us the location of the Autobot base,” Knockout suddenly stopped talking, turning his attention to her. 

“Hold on! I was enjoying listening to you talk why stop now?” she asked, hoping he would keep talking. 

“Because, dollface, I have a job to do, and Lord Megatron would do something much worse to me than scrap my paint if I do not bring him results sooner than later,” he answered. 

“Okay, I understand…” Emily’s eyes suddenly noticed you arriving behind the doors of the med bay. You were looking at them through the opening. 

“But— I must ask. If working with the Decepticons is so rough and most of your colleagues treat you badly— why do you keep working with them?” Emily asked. “From what you were saying, it’s nearly impossible to satisfy their expectations,” 

“It is challenging I admit, but there are certain perks of being a con which makes fighting for the Decepticon cause worth it,” Knockout replied. 

Emily kept Knockout talking while you surveyed the med bay, trying to think of a way to get Emily out of there without causing an alarm. Your eyes then landed on what seemed to be one of those shock rods. It gave you an idea. It would most likely set the alarm, but the other options also involved setting off the alarms, so this was probably something you just had to do. 

You dared to enter the med bay through the automatic doors. You walked slowly while watching Knockout and Emily talk. She glanced at you a few times. 

“Anyway!” she started, raising her tone, and keeping Knockout's attention on herself. 

“Knockout. I get it you have a job to do. “ she slapped her hands together, causing Knockout to raise his brow curiously. “Working with Megatron seems hard enough so I won’t put up a fight,”

“Hmm. Smart choice, Emily,” Knockout said with a pleased tone. 

“But! Before we start with my interrogation. Can I take a few pictures of you? I’m actually a photographer and I think it would be a waste not to capture a beauty like yourself in my camera lens,” she asked. “Be my model for a moment, please. I will then start talking about the Autobot base,” she said, pleading innocently with her eyes. 

You stopped to see if Knockout agreed to it. 

“Hmm? Well… I guess I would not mind getting photographed if it gets you talking. Make sure to get my good sides, doll face. You won’t get an opportunity like this for the second time,” Knockout said, flaunting his claws. 

“Lovely!” Emily slapped her hands together. 

You quietly sighed in relief and rolled your eyes at the con’s ego. Emily— you one hell of a sweet-talker. 

You turned your attention to the shock rod as it was within your reach. Quietly grabbing it, you then turned toward Emily and Knockout as he prepared to pose. 

“Alright,” Emily held up her camera after setting in. 

“Ready…” 

Knockout waited but then you pushed the shock rod between his neck, causing him to yell as he was electrocuted. He then dropped down on the floor, smoking from his openings. You and Emily stared at the unconscious con for a moment. 

You sighed then dropped the rod, extending your hand toward Emily. 

“Come on. It’s time for us to leave this place,” 

Emily hopped into your hand and you quickly left the med bay. 

You move through the hallways, taking calm deep breaths. You try to keep a steady pace while walking past the vehicons. They paid you no mind except some nods as a greeting, which you returned. Your nerves and spark pulsed with anxiety as you were actively hiding something from the cons. When you felt the weight inside your chest move again, you made a quick stop at an empty room. 

You opened your chest. “Em! Stop moving! “ you said as she was hidden in there. 

“Sorry, it’s a bit cramped here,” she said, trying to get into a better position. 

You then heard what you suspected to be an alarm. 

“Troopers. An infiltrator with a similar face as yours has released the human prisoner and is attempting to escape. You are to find and capture them immediately!” you heard Megatron order through the com. 

“Seems like our time is running out,” Emily remarked. 

“Then It’s a good thing I prepared a diversion,” you said then pushed a button in your arm, sending the signal for the drills to activate. 

In the mining room, the three drills activated. The baffled vehicons watched and ran away when they saw the drills move, hitting each other and the walls. The vehicons quickly fled the room and avoided getting torn to pieces by the drills. 

The ship shook beneath you and you could hear the drills in the distance. You saw the passing vehicons turn their attention toward the mining room and run over there to stop the chaos. 

“Alright. Time to go,” you said, closing your chest. 

After seeing the last vehicons run past you, you used a shortcut to run for the ground bridge console. To your relief, the ground bridge console was empty. The cons would be too busy to stop the drills, so you had time to set the coordinates. 

“Squadron in the east hallways. The pretender is at the bridge console,” you heard the voice say and then noticed what seemed to be a surveillance camera watching you from the ceiling corner. You quickly shot the camera with your blaster. 

You then heard running in the distance. 

“What are we gonna do now?” Emily asked through your chest, having heard the speaker and your blaster fire. 

Your mind wanted to panic but then an idea popped into your head. 

“I have an idea,” you said, inputting the coordinates and activating the ground bridge. The green vortex appeared beside you. You then powered up the Holly, just in time when a squad of vehicons arrived at the ground bridge console. 

You looked at them as they saw you.

“Halt!” 

You ran inside the ground bridge. They gave chase, following you into the vortex, unaware that they were following a hologram version of you. 

After they ran in, you appeared from the wall, having figured out how to use the Holly to camouflage with the environment. You stepped to the console and deactivated the ground bridge, trapping the vehicons to the random location you inputted. You then added your intended coordinates, opening the ground bridge and running through — escaping the Decepticon warship with the ground bridge closing behind you. 

Driving on the road in your alt-mode, you speeded without stopping. You did not want to take chances of the cons catching up to you or tracking you down even though you had the locator long removed. The adrenaline makes you go even faster as you and Emily finally take a breather from the tense escape. 

Emily laughed. 

“That was brilliant! That was awesome! You actually tricked them!” she exclaimed with the biggest grin on her face. 

“Yeah! But let’s not do that again!” you replied through the radio. 

“But still! That was awesome!” she exclaimed, laughing and resting against your car seat. 

“You know. You are much braver than you let yourself believe,” she said. “You’ll make a one fearless Autobot,” she added.  

“I was actually terrified the whole time. I was afraid it would fail and we both end up as hostages,” you replied. 

“But we didn’t thanks to you,” Emily smiled softly. 

“Thanks for coming after me. I do not know what I would have done if I was on my own with them,” she said, looking through your windshield. 

“Of course. I couldn’t just stand there while they took you, especially someone like Airachnid,“ you said, thinking about the spider con. 

“I care about you too much to let anything happen to you,” you said. 

Emily smiled. 

“I love you too,” she said, patting the top of your dashboard. 

“Now, let’s call in the bots. They must be dead worried about us,” she said. You then called in the bots and asked for a ground bridge, which they happily activated. You were glad as you both were finally out of danger. 

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

BREAKING NEWS: GAL DISCOVERS A NEW POLYSHIP AND IS ABOUT TO MAKE IT HER ENTIRE PERSONALITY FOR THE NEXT WEEK OF HIS LIFE, MORE AT 11

[renonv]

Got mega inspired by @temtamtom ‘s gorgeous art so I went a littleeeee crazy 🫶

The rest of gay sillies below ⬇️

Ivan will regret letting them go this day but he WILL get Francis back for it (as history will tell)

[estrellami-1]

Steddie Week 2024

July 5th Prompt: Reunion

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 6 | Day 7

@steddie-week

“Babe,” Eddie calls from the kitchen. Steve’s in the bathroom, brushing his teeth, so he garbles out an unintelligible one minute! before quickly finishing.

He walks into the kitchen, tugging at the collar of his shirt. “What’s up?”

Eddie’s eyes are dancing with mirth as he helps Steve fix his collar. “You’ll never guess what just came in the mail.”

Steve raises a brow. “You’re acting like my parents are groveling at the door right now.”

Eddie barks out a laugh. “Oh, sweetheart, no. I’d very much be laughing in their faces if that’s what was happening.” He grabs Steve’s glasses from the counter he’d forgotten them on last night, unfolds them, and carefully slides them on Steve’s face. “No migraines,” he murmurs, and Steve’s hit with a rush of love so big he just has to tell Eddie.

“I love you.”

Eddie smiles softly; a small, disbelieving, hopeful thing that’s never changed from the first time Steve said it. “And I, my love,” he murmurs back. “But no, it’s not your parents.” His grin grows into a giggle. “It’s fuckin’ Hawkins High.”

Steve makes a face. “It’s still standing?”

Eddie snorts. “Apparently-fucking-ly.” He grabs two letters; one with Steve’s name, one with Eddie’s. “One letter for each of us. I already opened mine. It’s a reunion.”

Steve furrows his brows, rips into the envelope, pulls the paper out. “Hawkins High School… forty-year reunion… de-” he frowns up at Eddie. “Decennial?”

Eddie hums, nods. “Every ten years. God knows where our other ones went.”

Steve hums. “Guess we can throw these in the trash, huh?”

Eddie shifts. “You don’t want to go?”

Steve stares at him incredulously. “You do? You, Eddie Munson, want to go back to the place where—and these are your words, here—apart from our group of friends, only the- the backwoods of inbreeding resides?”

Eddie cackles. “Oh yeah, I did say that, didn’t I?” He’s delighted. Steve’s finding it hard not to smile in the face of that joy.

“So you want to go back?”

Eddie shrugs. “Think about it,” he requests. “I don’t want to go to see how anyone else is doing. Frankly, I don’t have the time to give two shits about them. But you know I’ll always jump at the chance to show you off.”

Steve raises both eyebrows this time. “You want to show me off? In fucking Hawkins?”

Eddie deflates. “You don’t want to go.”

Steve shakes his head. “No, babe, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that even though it’s legal, even though we’re officially married now, if there’s one place that isn’t gonna be accepting…” he trails off, lets Eddie finish the thought for himself.

“What if I convince Nancy to come?”

“Well, she’ll have to come if we go, won’t she? Cause you know she’ll go anywhere Robin does, and Robin’s gonna follow me, so…”

Eddie snickers. “Okay, yeah, fair enough. But babe, we’ll have Nancy and Robin on our side. The three of you took on Vecna, I think you can take on some overweight, washed-up, balding fifty-something-year-old.” He squeezes at Steve’s biceps, and Steve tries not to preen.

He’s proud of the care he’s shown his body, he’s proud of the way he looks, he’s proud that Eddie likes the way he looks. He can feel his resolve waning, is about to tell Eddie fuck it, let’s go, when his phone rings.

He pats his pockets, looks around for it. “Room,” Eddie supplies, and Steve gratefully peck his cheek before jogging to their room, where it’s laying on his nightstand. Eddie walks in as he answers it, having followed at a more sedate pace. “Hello?”

“Are you going to the reunion?”

“Hey, Robbie,” Steve chuckles, meets Eddie’s eyes. “Yeah, we are.”

“Yes!” She cheers. “You’re the best, we’re getting joint hotel rooms, right?”

He laughs and sits on the edge of the bed. “It’s Hawkins, Robs, I don’t think it has anything quite that fancy.”

Robin groans, loud and long enough that both Steve and Eddie have to stifle their giggles. “But I haven’t seen you in forever!”

“It’s been barely a week, Robbie.”

“That’s what I said!”

He relents. “I know. I miss you too. We’ll see you there?”

“Yeah,” she agrees, and hangs up.

Steve looks at Eddie, amused. “I guess we’d better pack. And you should tell the guys, don’t you have something going on that day?”

“Oh, shit,” Eddie says, and runs to the living room for his phone.

Steve surveys their room and sighs. He calls out to Eddie, “bring me a notepad on your way back, please!”

Eddie does, so he sets to work making a list for everything they need to pack while Eddie types away, postponing his plans.

While they might not get joint hotel rooms, Steve, Eddie, Robin, and Nancy are carpooling back to Hawkins in Robin’s van. She’s driving, Nancy’s in the passenger seat, Steve’s right behind Robin and Eddie’s right behind Nancy. Their luggage is piled precariously in the back, meaning every time Robin turns, the luggage slides from one side of the van to the other. Steve, with his mostly-undiagnosed OCD, flinches every time. And every time, Eddie pats his hand.

Besides the shifting suitcases, it’s a nice ride, even if Steve does grab Eddie’s hand and squeeze, just a hair tightly, whenever they pass the Welcome to Hawkins! sign.

Everyone gets a little quiet, after that. Robin fumbles with the radio, and Eddie perks up. “This song,” he says, practically bouncing in his seat.

Steve snorts. “Iron Maiden,” he tells her.

“The fact that you know that-”

“It gets worse,” he tells her, grinning. “The song is called Wasted Years. I know all the words.”

Robin grins, turns the volume up.

The joke’s really on her, though, because she’s always been good at music, patterns, and she’s singing the chorus with him and Eddie by the time they get to the end of the song, Nancy laughing at them. “So understand,” they sing, Robin glancing in the rearview mirror, Steve looking from her to Eddie and back again. “Don’t waste your time always searching for those wasted years. Face up, make this stand. And realize you’re living in the golden years!”

Steve and Eddie are practically screaming it at each other by the last line. Robin’s given up to join Nancy in laughing at them. Steve joins in as Eddie plays air guitar to the end of the song, collapsing in a laugh when it’s finally over.

“Okay,” Eddie says, grinning. “I think I could take on anything now.”

“Yeah?” Nancy asks, pointing ahead. “You’re ready for the reunion?”

They’d decided, since the last time they took a proper road trip had been too many years ago, they could do it the same day as the reunion.

They’d forgotten how getting old, coupled with the problems every one of them still has from the Upside Down, means they’re all very much sore from sitting in a car for upwards of five hours.

The plan was drive the five-something hours, go to the reunion, crash in the hotel, and drive back home the next day.

Steve hates the plan now and wants to go to the hotel to rest like the old man he’s letting himself be.

However unfortunate it may be, the reunion is today, which means Steve gets to suck it up, say hi to people he probably doesn’t even remember anymore, and then leave.

He hops out of the car and stretches a little, laughing when Eddie attempts the same hop out of the car and almost eats asphalt. “Dumbass,” he mutters. Eddie shoots him a Cheshire grin.

Before long they’re ready to walk inside. Steve takes a breath as he passes through the doors. The hallways are the same, but the lockers are new. It still smells like teenagers and feet, he notices, wrinkling his nose. The things you’ll get nose-blind to, he supposes.

The letters they’d gotten said the reunion was to be held in the gym, so that’s where they head.

Steve didn’t know what he expected, but it wasn’t a few snack tables along the edge of the room and a single Reunion of ‘85 banner. “Goddamn,” Eddie says from beside him, “depressing much?”

Steve snorts in agreement and walks over to the drink table. If he’s going to talk to people, he’s at least going to have questionable-looking punch while he does.

When he turns after getting punch, he nearly runs into someone. He quickly steps back. “Oh, sorry!” He looks up into the shocked face of Tommy Hagan. He blinks. “Tommy?”

“Steve.”

Steve smiles. “How’ve you been?”

Tommy blinks, like he can’t believe Steve’s being nice to him right now, and that’s when Steve remembers they’d parted on not-so-nice terms. Oh well, he would’ve feigned politeness even if he’d remembered. “I’m good, yeah, uh, how- how’re you?”

“I’m good,” Steve agrees. “Really good. Last I remember you and Carol were dancing around each other, yeah? What happened there?”

“We got married,” Tommy nods.

“Congratulations!”

“And then divorced two years later,” Tommy adds, smirking. Steve winces. “How about you? Last I knew, it was you and Wheeler, ‘cept she cheated on you with Byers, yeah?”

“God,” Steve laughs, “that was so long ago. Yeah, that happened. We talked it through and Nance and I are really good friends now. She’s married to someone else, as am I, but we both keep in touch with Jon, thought he’s out in California now.”

Tommy’s brow raises. “Married? Who’s the lucky girl?”

A presence beside him makes Steve turn to see Eddie grinning at him. “My ears are burning.”

“They should be,” he laughs. “Tommy, you remember Eddie?”

“Munson,” Tommy nods, then does a double take. “Wait, you’re married?”

“As of three years ago now,” Eddie says proudly. “But together for…”

“Thirty-seven years,” Steve provides, smiling at his husband before turning back to Tommy. “Did you ever get remarried after Carol?” Tommy shakes his head.

Eddie whispers in Steve’s ear, “You know he totally had the hots for you, right?”

Steve winces at the blast of static from his hearing aid and quickly shuts it off. “Ow,” he mutters, grinning crookedly at Eddie, who looks apologetic. He quickly signs what he’d whispered, and Steve laughs. “Don’t you remember my initial panic?”

Eddie thinks, back to when Steve had asked him what’s gay versus friendly, becoming increasingly confused when most of the things Eddie ticked off in the gay category were things Steve and Tommy had done that Steve had thought firmly resided in the friendly category. “Oh, yeah.”

Steve snorts, shakes his head, pushes him away. “Go talk to someone else. Rescue Robin, she looks like she needs it.”

“Nah,” Eddie says, “she can hold her own,” but goes anyways after a quick peck to Steve’s cheek. Steve turns the hearing aid back on.

“Man,” Tommy says wonderingly, “what happened to you?”

“Concussions,” Steve answers flatly. “Three of ‘em. Then I grew up.” He sighs, looks down at his cup, then up at Tommy. “Listen, man, about what we used to do-”

Tommy winces. “I know. I had that revelation a while ago, actually, but it was definitely shitty of me.”

Steve smiles, shrugs. “You had a crush on me. It’s not an excuse, but it does make a certain kind of sense you’d react that way, especially considering the kind of home life you had.” He smiles self-deprecatingly. “Feel free to stop listening if the therapist side of me comes out. I swear I’m not trying to, like, diagnose you with anything.”

Tommy’s brows raise. “You’re a therapist?”

Steve hums affirmatively. “Started as a school counselor, if you can believe that.”

Tommy fixes him with a wondering grin. “Y’know? I think I can see it.”

“Do my eyes deceive me,” someone says from their side, draping their arms across Steve and Tommy’s shoulders, pulling them into a hug.

Steve comes face-to-face with Carol. He grins. “Hey, Carol.”

“Hey, you,” she says, raking her eyes over him. “Time’s been good to you.”

“You’re one to talk,” Steve says happily, but its true; she doesn’t look a day over forty, instead of the fifty-odd she is now. “How are you?”

“Can’t complain,” she agrees.

They go through the same song-and-dance, but this time when she asks who he’s married to, he sees Eddie juggling water bottles, talking to a couple of people. “Oh, for-” he mutters, then louder, “Eddie, what in the everloving fuck are you doing?”

Eddie drops a bottle, puts the other two on the table behind him, and jogs over to throw his weight onto Steve. “Making friends.”

Steve snorts, elbows him off. “Say hi to Carol, babe.”

Carol clocks it immediately, based on the twitch of her eyebrow, but only says, “I didn’t peg you two as a couple.”

“Well, yeah,” Eddie snorts, “it was Bumfuck, Indiana in the 80’s.”

Carol tilts her head in agreement, then turns to Tommy and says coolly, “Tommy.”

“Carol,” he replies, tips of his ears red.

Eddie looks between them, then turns a raised eyebrow on Steve, who quickly signs, “Married for two years a while ago. I don’t know any details.”

“He clearly is still into her.”

“I refuse to be a part of whatever you’re planning.”

Eddie pouts. “You’re no fun.”

Carol clears her throat. “Sign language?”

Steve snorts. “Turns out brains aren’t supposed to get banged around. You’ve got a real good chance of messing something up that way.”

Eddie pokes his cheek. “‘S not your fault.”

“Never said it was,” Steve placates.

Carol shakes her head. “How many concussions do you have?”

Steve hums. “Three? Four?”

“Three,” Eddie corrects. “Not that we need to get into it right now.” He gives Carol a tight smile, and Steve hip-checks him.

“Down, boy,” he murmurs with a smile. “I’m alright.” He turns to Carol with a wider smile. “Long story short, the concussions caused irreparable hearing loss. I’m almost completely deaf in my left ear, but I get by.”

“Damn,” Carol says lightly, “life, huh?”

Steve snorts. “You can say that again.” He tilts his head. “How are you?” He asks. “Really?”

She gives him a crooked smile. “Let’s walk and talk.” Steve offers her his arm, which she takes with a laugh.

“How am I,” she muses. “Well I thought I found love, but we imploded two years later. Thank god for prenups, I guess, but at the same time, that made it feel like we were doomed from the start.”

Steve hums. “Eddie and I have been legally married for three years,” he tells her. “Together for thirty-seven. We’ve got prenups. Not because we think we won’t work, but because we want the people we care about to not have to worry about any of that.” He’s silent for a few steps. “I used to think love is out of our control. That we don’t get to decide who we fall for. And maybe, to a certain extent, that’s true. But love is also a choice you make every day. Eddie and I are still in love because we choose to be.”

“You look at each other like you’re on your honeymoon.”

Steve giggles. “And to think we didn’t even have a honeymoon!”

Carol laughs, too, then sobers. “You always were more fortunate in love,” she says. “What do you think? Do we have a chance?”

Steve hums. “I think it’s obvious, just by looking at him, that he’s still into you.”

“No shit.”

“So what’s important is how you feel. Marriage is work, I’m not gonna lie and say it’s not. So are you ready, and I mean really ready, to work for it?”

She works her lower lip. “I think so,” she admits. “But I- I’m also not completely sure I’m straight.”

“Okay,” Steve shrugs. “Do you know what he and I used to get up to?” He shrugs at her look. “I’m just saying, neither is he.”

“I mean, I definitely still like guys.”

“Well duh, you’ve taken more dick than I have and I’m married to a man.”

She snorts. “But women…”

“I know,” Steve says sympathetically. “It’s hard, isn’t it.” He pats her hand. “If you’re ready to try, though, you need to talk to him.” He turns her around, gestures toward Tommy, who quickly looks away, cheeks burning. They both laugh softly.

Carol leans up to kiss his cheek. “Thank you, Steve. Let’s keep in touch.”

“Let’s actually keep in touch,” he agrees, handing her his phone. “Where do you live?”

“Columbus for now, but he’s in Dayton.”

Steve hums. “We’re in Detroit.”

“We’ll do phone calls,” Carol decides, laughing.

Steve chuckles, saves her number. “Plan to meet up-”

“Never actually do-”

“Oh, Carol, it’s been so long-”

They both break off into giggles. “You’re fun,” she decides. “I wish we’d kept in touch.”

“To be fair, we competed for title of bitchiest.”

“To be fair, I don’t think we ever grew out of that,” Carol retorted, and Steve snorts, gently shoving her.

“Alright, go get your man, and send mine over here.”

She gently steps on his shoe as she leaves, impish smile in place, and Steve turns only to run into Nancy and Robin. “Hey, guys,” he smiles.

Nancy gives him a look. “Making nice with Carol?”

Steve shrugs, grins at her. “Turns out we were just kids. Who knew, right?”

Just then, Eddie comes up behind him, wrapping his arms around Steve’s waist and resting his chin on Steve’s shoulder. “What’re we talking about?”

Nancy smiles at him, wraps an arm around Robin’s waist. “Being kids.”

“That so?” He presses a kiss to Steve’s cheek, pushes back to look at him. “You look lighter.”

Steve hums. “‘S cause I love you.”

“Charmer,” Eddie mutters, turning bright red. “C’mon, seriously.”

“Seriously,” Steve agrees. “I was talking with Carol about her and Tommy, and I told her that why we work is because we work at it.”

“Very true.”

From behind them, someone cautiously asks, “Eddie Munson?”

They both turn, and suddenly Eddie’s scooping her up in a hug. “Ronnie! What the hell are you doin’ here, huh?”

She laughs and hugs him back just as hard. “Did you ever know a Jackson Starnes?”

Eddie’s brow furrows for a second, then smooths out. “Oh, Jackie! Yeah, he was cool.”

“Mhm. He’s my husband.”

“No shit? I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks,” she laughs, then nods at everyone else. “Who’s the hunk you were hangin’ off of?”

Eddie chuckles. “Ronnie, meet my husband, Steve.”

She turns an eyebrow on him. “You got married?”

“He proposed,” Steve corrects her, grinning.

“To the preppiest of jocks,” Robin adds.

Eddie laughs. “What can I say? It’s love.” He swoons, placing a hand over his chest, almost pulling Ronnie over with the arm still over her shoulder.

She laughs and dumps him off of her. Steve swoops in before he can fall, hoisting him up with a quick kiss.

“I’m Nancy,” she says, extending her hand to Ronnie. “And this is my wife Robin.”

“Oh!” Eddie says, literally jumping back into the conversation. “Robin and Steve are like how we were.”

“Platonic soulmates,” Steve agrees.

“With a capital P,” Robin emphasizes.

“It’s nice to meet you all,” Ronnie says.

“How’s Wayne?” She asks Eddie.

“Dead.” He snickers at her face. “‘S alright, Ronnie. It’s been years.”

“Still. I can be sorry.”

“You can,” he agrees. “It won’t help anything, but you can.” He digs his phone out of his pockets, opens his contacts app. “Here, lemme get your number, yeah?”

“Fuck yeah,” Ronnie says, “let’s hang out, just lemme know when so I can get a sitter.”

Eddie chokes on nothing. “You have a kid?”

Ronnie grins, a shit-eating thing as she hands his phone back. “Three.”

“Goddamn,” he says, “you got pictures?”

Ronnie rolls her eyes, grabs her phone. “What kind of mom would I be if I didn’t? Here, this is Cassie, Alex, and… that’s Elijah.”

“Oh, man, Alex looks just like Jackie, doesn’t he?”

“I carry him for nine months,” Ronnie bitches good-naturedly. “‘Nough about me, though, how’re you? Corroded Coffin ever take off?”

Eddie snorts. “You hear about the psychopath in ‘86?”

“I remember something about it.”

“Yeah. I got caught in the crossfires, wrongfully blamed, and spent…” he looks at Steve. “A year?”

“Almost.”

He turns back to Ronnie. “Almost a year hiding out. Corroded Coffin was officially disbanded after I was allowed out of hiding.”

“Fuck,” Ronnie says, “there goes my entire foot in my mouth, I guess. What’re you doing now, then?”

He chuckles. “A little bit of everything, honestly. A little music, a little writing, a little D&D. Nothing that’s made me a household name, but enough that I’m kept busy and we’re comfortable.”

Ronnie nods. “And how about you?” She asks Steve.

“Oh, nothing as fun as that,” Steve chuckles. “I’m a therapist.”

Ronnie tilts her head. “Any specialties?”

“C-PTSD, mainly.”

“Damn, I know about eight people who could use someone like you.”

Steve snorts. “That’s usually the way it goes, yeah.”

“Well it was great seeing you, Eddie,” Ronnie says. “And meeting all the rest of you. But I’ve got to find my husband and get back home, so we’ll have to continue this later.”

“Of course,” Steve says. “See you later?”

“Absolutely,” Ronnie nods, then turns and walks off.

They decide to leave not too much later. They’re all tired, so the drive to the hotel is filled with only the sound of the radio, turned almost all the way down.

“Y’know,” Eddie murmurs, tracing the ring on Steve’s finger, “she was my first kiss.”

Steve snorts, an explosive thing that he definitely learned from Robin. “She what?”

“Yup,” Eddie nods. “I knew I liked girls, but she’s the only one I got close enough to to actually know. We got stupid one night and decided to kiss and it basically went how it would if you and Robin were to kiss.”

“Ew,” Steve says on reflex. Eddie snorts.

Robin slaps at him from her seat, then yells when he slaps back, “Don’t distract the driver!”

“Bitch,” he tells her, “you slapped first!”

“You said ew about kissing me!”

“Do you want to kiss me?”

“Hell no!”

“That’s why I said it!”

Eddie leans up to murmur to Nancy, “should we break it up?”

“Eh, give it a minute. Once they resort to cursing their lineages we can break it up.”

He chuckles. “Always the wise one, Wheeler.”

“You’d best believe it,” she nods smugly.

“Nancy!” Robin says. “Baby! Defend me!”

“About kissing Steve? Who I’ve kissed before?”

“Oh, no,” Robin says, horrified. “I’m stuck in the car with the two people who are experts on Steve kissing.”

“Why’d you make it sound like a bad thing?” Steve demands.

And… yeah. Eddie’s glad they got separate hotel rooms.

Based on the look Nancy throws his way when they part, she’s glad, too.

[mouseshift]

marble hornets more like idk gay joke

[chialattea]

There’s something so funny about Arthur taking himself hostage like John I swear to god I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna kill ourselves you fucker I’m taking you back to the fucking dark world

then John is like oh focking do it orthurh I dare you to you fucking coward do it!! Olso I’m getting us arrested because FUCK YOU!!!

Like guys the divorce energy is off the charts could you stop being so fucking petty ???? I’m crying

[kooki914]

his love language is telling you all the weirdly whimsical sadistic shit he'd do to you if his actions didn't have consequences

[lesbianwyllravengard]

No but Astarion wanting to be valued for more than sex and seen for something that's not just sex regardless of who romances him and Wyll wanting a chaste and genuine romance with sincere and committed courtship with no sex regardless of who romances him is insaneeeeee. I know everyone's talked about this before but everytime I stop to think about it I lose my mind. They couldn't be more narratively bound I'm clawing at the bars of my cage

[ye-olde-tardis]

You're telling me. You're telling me. That David Lister. DAVE LISTER. stopped Rimmer from committing suicide. (Because that's LITERALLY WHAT THAT WAS. HE WAS GONNA UNPLUG HIMSELF and DIE.) he stopped him from committing suicide by. Comparing him to moonlight. Fucking MOONLIGHT. what the fuck what the fuck‽‽‽‽‽‽ AND IT WORKED‽‽‽‽‽

[skittle-is-little]

part 2 of "im deleting flipaclip so im just gonna share this unfinished animation here so its not lost to tiiiiime ooooo"

[part 1]

i think this is the highest fps ive ever used

[eloscore]

Eager Beaver!!!!!!!!!!!!

and without all the effects n shit lmao

[manitapaleta]

listen,….. we don’t know y hermie didn’t grow up with his dads but i already know its going to DEVASTATE ME when anthony tells us bc i know they would have loved the little joker, our sweet little thespian (also big brother nick hellooooooo)

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

Vox and Velvette continuing to work with Valentino confuses me. Like, not even from a morality standpoint or "oh he treats them like shit", it's just a weird fuckin business choice. That man almost ruined one of Velvette's shows because he was throwing a tantrum, Vox regularly has to prevent him from causing scenes in public, he ACTIVELY ENCOURAGES VOX TO CAUSE A SCENE IN PUBLIC, he just seems like more trouble then he's worth, y'know? And on the surface it really does seem like he'd be pretty easy to get rid of. Since Vox could ABSOLUTELY kick his ass to kingdom come(like c'mon he can hold his own against ALASTOR-), and Vox and Velvette combine control literally all of the media in Hell(sans radio), they could kick Val out, or even straight up kill him, and then flood Hell with propaganda painting themselves as Good and Correct for this(which to be fair wouldn't be hard...). So then like. Why are they still working with him.

And then I remembered ~soul contracts~ and was like. Wait nvm that makes sense.

Right out the gate gotta make it clear that I do NOT MEAN THAT VAL OWNS THEIR SOULS OR ANYTHING that would be stupid. I mean like, social/political/whateverthefuck overlords got going on power works differently in Hazbin Hell then it does in any other setting. The Vees don't just have their reputation, they also have their soul contracts. And Valentino owns a LOT of souls. So, no matter how much propaganda the other two throw out there, no matter how low they drag him, Hell even if they kill him!, Vox and Velvette would lose a LOT of power by getting rid of Val. No matter how much damage he could do to the brand, they keep him around because he's better off as an ally then he is as an enemy, and he just. Hasn't done anything either consider egregious enough to outweigh any possible benefits of working with him, I guess. Small, fixable incidents that may damage the brand VS losing all those souls? The answers kinda obvious. There also might be a contract going on between the Vees but that's less about their souls being bound or whatever and more about like. Business. So. Not particularly dangerous for any of them I don't think.

Also there are two smaller reasons I'd like to discuss before I stop rambling: 1; Velvette probably uses Val's spit to make the love potions and 2; emotional connections with the other Vees.

The love potion thing is kinda obvious. Without Val, Velvette wouldn't be able to make her roofie juice, and since this is. Hell. Where all the sexually deviant freaks go to rot. Of course that's gonna be a popular item. And while I think the Vees would probably be fine if they took it off the market, that would still probably take a sizable chunk out of their profits, y'know? They can't really make it without Val's weird, disgusting pheramone spit.

And reason number 2: emotional connection. The Vees are a horrendous toxic polycule and we all know it. While I, personally, don't think Velvette and Valentino are dating(I still don't fucking trust that man and it's bad enough that he's involved with Vox), they do both have chemistry with Vox, and probably are at least on decent terms since they like. Sit together sometimes. WHATEVER THIS ISN'T A VEES RELATIONSHIP ANALYSIS(Im saving that for later)- basically what I'm saying is that Vox and Velvette probably, on some level, do care about and trust(?) Val, and vice versa. How much do they care? Unclear. Val's capacity for love is still TBD and Vox and Velvette's relationship seems a bit shakey at best, like they don't *fully* trust eachother, but there's still affection there!!! The Vees are exactly why we don't let villains discover the power of friendship, people!!!!!!!!! Like their part in the Finale is all the proof I need. You don't dance around like that with your business partners/fuck buddies lmfao, there's gotta be some genuine feeling there. So, at least a small part of why Val is still. Here. Is because Vox and Velvette do care about him. And, despite the fact that the three of them are entirely morally bankrupt and will probably die next season(god please don't let Vox die he's so silly :(), I can't help but find it sweet that they do kind of care about eachother. Like it's nice <3

(Genuinely though I am still worried for Vox and Vel's safety like idc how bad those two are idc if they're on decent-ish terms with Val most of the time he is still the most realistically dangerous character in the damn show besides *maybe* Alastor's serial killer ass and anybody within a 10 foot radius of him should be considered At Risk)

[submaskudari]

me when i um um teehee bonus art under tha cut,,