#when i say i’m third i mean there are only two other people here period

[alexturner2005]

i’m literally 3rd in line for the strokes right now and they’re soundchecking drag queen 😵‍💫

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lilli Petersen at HuffPost:

When Taylor Swift came out to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris last month, it was the Instagram post heard ’round the world (or at least ’round the TikTok FYP algorithm). “I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift wrote immediately following the first, and only, debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump. She signed her message “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady” — a knock at Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, who has used the term to demean women without children.

With her simultaneous endorsement of the Democrat and swipe at the Republican, Swift, at 34 arguably the most famous millennial woman in U.S. pop culture, also made herself the avatar of an ongoing shift in politics among her demographic of young women: For the past few decades, they have been tilting decidedly left. “It’s popping out in the polling because it’s more dramatic this year than it has been in other years,” said Elaine Kamarck, director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. The Harris campaign has been assiduously courting women, and particularly young women. Harris regularly makes abortion rights a talking point in interviews and stump speeches, has embraced the meme-ification of her campaign (including Charli XCX enthusiasm and Swift-themed get-out-the-vote campaigns), and recently went on the popular podcast “Call Her Daddy,” which began life as a relationship and advice podcast and whose audience is now over two-thirds female and over 90% younger than 45. Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, has been... less deft. From Vance doubling down on demeaning childless women and suggesting they should have less voting power, to Trump promising to be women’s “protector,” to, really, just all of the plain ol’ misogyny, it’s not surprising the gender gap isn’t in Trump’s favor.

“You hear important people talking like this, and you say, ‘What the hell?’ You know, ‘People with children should have more votes than people without children.’ What?” laughed Kamarck. “Between Vance and Trump, they are articulating an amazingly old-fashioned notion of women’s role in society,” she added. The shift of young women leftward is not a particularly new trend. Women are regularly more liberal than their male peers, and young people are regularly more liberal than their older counterparts.

[...] She also noted that the research only focuses on women who were ages 18-29 at the time of polling, which means the data reflects the views of multiple generations, rather than the changing attitude of a steady cohort. The overall picture also shows some variance by race: White and Black women under age 50 have especially moved to the left, while Hispanic women have largely stayed the same or even shifted rightward. “But even with the ups and downs, we’ve ended up at a place that’s significantly higher, on a percent level, than it was in 2015,” Saad said. And while young women are shifting left, young men are staying relatively moderate. Sixty-three percent of young women in 2001-2007 had views closer to those of liberals than of conservatives, a figure that jumped to 78% in the 2008-2016 period and then to 87% in the 2017-2024 period. Young men, meanwhile, saw those same figures move from 47% to 57%, and then fall to 50% for the period from 2017 to 2024. The divide is becoming ever clearer as the 2024 election approaches. According to a fall 2024 Harvard Youth Poll, Harris has a 31-point lead over Trump among likely voters under 30 — and when it comes to likely female voters in that age group, Harris leads 70% to 23%. “Brat,” indeed.

[...] Young women, though, are more likely than young men to be involved in liberal-leaning social movements like Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, environmental activism and gun violence prevention. Particularly involved are young women of color, who Kiesa notes have taken on “significant” leadership in activism work.

HuffPost’s Lilli Petersen explores why young women in the USA are shifting leftwards at a historic pace since 2015.

Read the full story at HuffPost.

[unhealthy-reading-habits]

Like many people, I binged watched Season 2 of Good Omens on Friday. I had a couple of days to deal with all the emotions, and I’ve now reached an epiphany. What follows here is the mad rambling of a GO apologist.

Warning: Good Omens Season 2 spoilers ahead, do not read if you don’t want spoilers. I will be spoiling the ending of Season 2 in this post. Please go watch it first. I’m also going to mention the ending of two of Jane Austen’s works (P&P and S&S)

The epiphany: Good Omens is a romantic story. Both Crowley and Aziraphale asked for this heartbreak but both are so woefully naïve about what love is, they didn’t even realise what they were asking for.

What do I mean by this?

In episode 2 (S2), they both describe what they think a romantic scenario is, but both are only focusing on the romantic finale. They are not thinking about the build-up to that moment, which includes a heartbreaking separation which only then leads to those romantic conclusions.

They are actually describing the same romantic scenario of having a separation and then reuniting in love again, they just present the scene differently.

Crowley describes his idea of romance as two people looking longingly into each other's eyes in the rain. He does say “beneath a canopy” but follows the above line by saying that if you “get humans wet and staring into each other’s eyes”, this is what makes them fall in love, so Crowley is talking about confirming your love in the rain.

Examples in Richard Curtis films

Four Weddings and a Funeral - No cover, just rain kissing

Bridget Jones's Diary - No cover, just snow kissing

At face value, we think Crowley is saying the rain thing because of what happened at Eden, and I think that is part of it. But keep in mind that during the "before the beginning" scene and at the Eden scene, neither of them stared into each other’s eyes. They both kept facing forward.

What Crowley is actually describing is the romantic trope of the protagonist couple having a love-confirming kiss in the rain. The issue is the “confirmation” love kiss occurs after there is a period of separation or break-up in the relationship itself.

It’s sometimes called the “Second-Act Breakup” or "Third-Act Breakup" and the ending of Season 2 is a classic set-up for a Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario.

The trope often happens after the couple get into a big fight/misunderstanding/some event that breaks the two people up. The “under a canopy” bit isn’t the important detail here, the actual romantic scene Crowley is eluding to is the reunion kiss in the rain. To get a reunion kiss though, you need to break up properly first.

The romantic film story for the reunion kiss in the rain is only fully satisfying because it’s the moment after the horrible low of the two breaking apart, trying to forget the other person and thinking that they might not be together. So when the two characters do reunite at the end, it is a great romantic conclusion to the story.

Aziraphale described his idea of romance as going to a ball in a Jane Austen novel, where the characters realise they misunderstood each other, but the misunderstanding has to come first in this case.

It’s very obvious that the Good Omens 2 story is only halfway through and is written like a Jane Austen novel, which is blatantly said throughout the show.

[Side note: it’s been years since I read these novels so I’m hoping I’m not misremembering.]

Pride & Prejudice – Elizabeth angrily and rather viciously rejects Mr Darcy’s proposal mid-way through the novel and the remainder of the story is the “being separated” phase of the romance until they are reconciled at the end.

Sense & Sensibility – Elinor’s affection for Edward is disrupted by Lucy Steele’s presence as Edward’s fiancé half way through the novel. This “break up” of the courting between Elinor and Edward is only resolved at the end of the story when Lucy leaves Edward and he is now free to propose to Elinor.

The two most well-known stories by Jane Austen have a break up/separation scene about half way through, which the characters have to work through to then have the reunited happy ending.

For the Break-Up/Make-Up story, the two romantic interested need to finally realise/decide to disregard everything else, settle the misunderstanding and reunite, that’s the finality of the romance. To get this scene, you have to go through the break-up where the two separate first to get those raw emotions, which makes the reunited ending so incredible.

Yes, Aziraphale and Crowley have had fights and temporary lapses in their relationship, like the bandstand scene. But it’s not really them that are causing the break-up. It’s outside forces pressuring them, the environment around them making them act this way. They are also only fighting about something external (raising the antichrist, finding the antichrist etc).

This break-up is more personal, it is them individually instigating the break-up over their own intimate relationship. It’s not the usual song-and-dance, this is Aziraphale choosing a plan and Crowley choosing a different plan and both are too stubborn to relent.

It is Crowley and Aziraphale choosing to split because they cannot reconcile their opposing views about their own relationship and both choose to walk away from the situation.

There is a hypothesis about the “coffee” and Metatron’s maybe brainwashing here, but in my opinion, Aziraphale still chose his plan for their relationship over Crowley’s plan for their relationship. This was a conscious choice on Aziraphale's part.

This time, they were arguing about themselves, which led to a true break-up. An irreconcilable argument between them that they must work through so their relationship can mature:

Crowley still cannot understand that Aziraphale will never run away with him to be just the two of them. Aziraphale cares too much about Earth and humanity and wants to help people, so Aziraphale will never just leave.  

Aziraphale still cannot accept that Crowley is not and does not want to be an angel. Aziraphale is not listening to Crowley when he says he does not want to go back to how things were before because he is genuinely happy with just being with Aziraphale.

Aziraphale consistently reminds himself that Crowley is a demon because (maybe knowingly, maybe subconsciously) he still sees him as an angel.

Crowley’s good actions further emphasise what Aziraphale already knows, that Crowley is a good person, but it’s very difficult for Aziraphale to separate the concepts of “good” and “angel”.

Both of them are not accepting the other as they truly are. Their relationship needs a real break-up, caused by themselves so that they can learn to accept each other as their full authentic selves.

We have to endure the low points to fully enjoy the high points.

Neil Gaiman has been very clear he intends there to be a season 3 so this love story is only halfway through, and frustratingly the break-up scene is the end of season 2. It’s like ending P&P when Elizabeth rejects Mr Darcy’s first proposal, or ending The Notebook as Allie sees the newspaper article about Noah but not showing them getting back together.

We know Crowley and Aziraphale will end up at the South Downs cottage. It’s just an emotional heart-wrenching journey between the two points. But when we get that reunion between them, it’s going to be delicious.

P.S. Neil Gaiman, you goddamn tease, if you are going for a full P&P/kiss in the rain experience, I really hope we get an Aziraphale wet shirt scene

[bumblebyaf]

the pricefield breakup was good

just finished double exposure and while the game had many flaws i entirely disagree with one of the biggest complaints i’ve seen both before and after the games release: the pricefield breakup. in fact, the pricefield breakup is my favorite part of the game and one of the most fascinating character writing decisions that defined a lot max’s character for me…so here’s my essay on why max & chloe could never work long term, the breakup was incredibly natural, and how its the only way for both of them to move on. don’t bother reading of course if you don’t want to hear any of these opinions <3 

to start off the bat (and this will be the paragraph people hate the most): max & chloe are one of the weakest lis pairings (and again this is obviously all my opinion). they honestly never even had that much chemistry to me and i probably never would have shipped them had the game come out later but since the game came out when it did and it was the first gay game i’d ever played and they were like the only gay rep i knew it was brilliant & i think nostalgia for this clouds a lot of what people see when they think of pricefield but objectively they never make sense as a pairing to me and i find their scenes together quite awkward or boring. chloe is an asshole to max throughout the whole game (and i am a huge chloe supporter, i understand absolutely where all of her anger and issues were stemming from and it made sense!) and max is either a pushover who just lets her do it or like entirely indifferent to it/ignores it i guess depending on how you play; and max is shitty too i mean we know she ghosted chloe for years and then went back to blackwell for like a month or whatever without ever looking up chloe and who knows if she ever actually would have. which like max doesn’t have an obligation to do that but she clearly wanted to after she meets chloe again and then she spends so much of the game thinking about how chloe replaced her with rachel when max left first and trying to just slot herself back into the exact spot she left (also chloe did not replace her anyway they were entirely different relationships). (unrelated but this is why i hate when people have max add her name to the wall in the junkyard hide out lol) max spends the entire game watching chloe die in several different ways and trying desperately to keep her alive which has got to make a crazy trauma bond/attachment and honestly aside from one or two very obviously written “gay” scenes chloe barely registers as romantically interested in max to me (which…yeah chloe is spending the whole game going through a lot of stuff!) right up until the end where chloe realizes how hard max has been trying to keep her alive/max has been helping her with all the struggles she’s having this week/backing her up with her family drama etc during a time where chloe doesn’t really think anyone cares about her…which i don’t know again seems like a trauma bond to me! and then max sacrifices an entire town for her? of course they get together. you also have to remember that this game takes place during like the WORST week of these two young girls lives it’s just crazy to me how people define their entire relationship/personalities by this time period 

also like i know a lot of LIS fans don’t love BTS because its a different studio and the original LIS writers never wanted a prequel & that for some reason a lot of LIS fans think rachel is the devils fucking spawn BUT thats a different argument (bts being my second favorite game & rachel my third favorite character) but after watching chloe in bts (still with Issues and trauma but less heavy and more shared) and seeing her fall in love with rachel there i could never see her with max the same way

also to be clear i’m not saying at all that i think max & chloe don’t care for each other deeply; i do believe they love each other my argument is just that this relationship could never really last long term and mostly stemmed from the trauma they were going through which brings me to the main part:

max & chloe breaking up makes perfect sense for their characters, especially the reason given as well. chloe telling max that she wants to move forward and live in the future but max is always looking to the past- this single line sold me on the break up immediately i found it fascinating! max does live in the past! its her entire power! her entire game is about rewinding over and over to make the perfect moment etc. max’s character is constantly being brought into question when it comes to how she uses her powers even when she only ever tries to use them for good reason (in particularly i really like the subtle way the comics handled this too, BY CHLOE, but i know not everyone likes the comics either and they’re obviously not canon to the games since they contradict double exposure lore as well. but in the comics an alternate timeline chloe criticizes max on how reflexively she uses her powers to save/help people without considering how rewinding a moment affects everyone around them as well- and how sometimes things go wrong but can work out anyway. this is proven by us also following a second timeline without max there to rewind and we see how those characters navigate the issues max erased and in some instances they turn out even better and i like a happier healthier chloe having this perspective).  i feel like the chloe we meet in life is strange is so specific to that one game (she is going through so much active trauma and it is literally like the worst week of her life) but the pieces of her i’ve seen outside of that game show me how much her character can change when given space to breathe so i don’t think its fair to hold her to just that week. i can very easily see how chloe would want to put everything behind her and try to fully move on/away from everything that has happened and this being the only way she feels she can move forward- similarly how max could spend everyday stuck living with the choices she made and the effects its had on her, how much harder it is for her to separate and move on. 

i also think it makes perfect sense that chloe could grow some resentment towards max for her mothers death- i’m sure chloe wouldn’t act on this but i can see them both knowing it’s there and chloe not really being able to help feeling it. i mean chloe really is fully accepting of her death in life is strange and its max who makes the choice to keep her alive (and yes it’s shitty of chloe to make it seem like a choice at all but that’s also just like…the game having to give the player a choice too). chloe has to live with knowing her mother and everyone she knew died so she could live and max has to live with knowing she directly made that choice and both of them have to just…know and live and think about this everyday they’re with each other how can they move on? is that not suffocating? with some space they can at least maybe start to really separate from it 

i also think chloe’s implied insecurities around max rewinding parts of their relationship also make sense to be honest…max spends the entire game trying to fix every interaction to be the right one like i KNOW she would rewind mistakes because i DID that as her; and maybe you can say max would never use her powers again after the storm but to be honest i don’t think thats true…i think she would never redo grand scale things again (except i guess she does in double exposure) but i just don’t know if i believe she could resist the temptation to keep her and chloe’s interactions perfect- at least in the beginning. i’m not saying she DOES but i GET it- i understand chloe’s paranoia (if it is just paranoia and not fact) because i don’t think i could trust either because i also understand MAX. max who killed an entire town for chloe & their relationship- wouldn’t you feel like you had to keep doing everything in your power to make sure it works? to keep it good, to keep chloe happy?  it’s a really complicated feeling for both of them i’m sure

and i think chloe is right when she says max is always living in the past because we literally see her doing it during the game. she’s still journaling to chloe, she keeps chloe in her wallet & on her wall, we keep having flashbacks to arcadia, max keeps a box of arcadia with her (even though we know she’s also been traveling/on the road most of her adult life), she’s never discussed any part of her past with her friends, her photography focus is about the lonely and abandoned. the entirely of double exposure is about max learning how to really stop living in the past and the harm it could do (through what happened to maya and safi and how its still happening four years later because no one ever really dealt with it etc) and that’s why this undercurrent and the pricefield breakup is my absolute favorite part of this game and the best part of it

i also think it’s really worth pointing out what a lot of people seem to have missed (in the complaints i did see); max & chloe didn’t have some horrible explosive ending and they hate each other forever now and the two are forever ruined or whatever…chloe simply saw she could never truly move forward with max and maybe more importantly she saw max could never move forward with her (how could max move forward from the worst choice she’s ever had to make in her life when she’s also sharing a bed with it?) chloe still loves and cares for her, max still loves her, they could be on friendly terms very easily- in fact i think the only reason they don’t talk right now is because of max (which is for the best during this time i think anyway) and chloe would be absolutely open to their friendship whenever max is ready. chloe wants the best for both of them & chloe’s text at the end of the game proves she’s still thinking of max & open to talking again whenever max is. max also has feeling by the end of the game that’s ready to really start moving forward from arcadia now and one day she will be ready to confront chloe again and i think whenever that happens the two will be really good friends again- like they always were.

[stories-by-hails]

Sweet Tooth: 1 {The double date

Sweet Tooth

Mafia Boss!Steve Rogers X Baker!Reader

Summary: At the age of 25 you inherit your parent's bakery after they died in a fiery car accident, leaving you to run the family business with your best friend Charlotte (Cherry) and after MANY failed relationships your best friend decides to hook you up with her boyfriend’s best friend. She only left out one teeny tiny detail… He’s a mafia boss, in fact he practically owns half of Brooklyn

Chapter Warnings: 18+ MDNI Mentions of sex (Between Cherry and Bucky) Fluff, mentions of parental death, drinking, and possible romantic tension.

Word count: 3.4K

As always, I do not consent to my work being copied, translated, or posted to another site. Thank You. -Hailey

Two years ago~

You sat across from your parent's lawyer Andy Barber as he read through the will. Your parents had been dead for about two weeks, and the police wouldn’t tell you much other than it was just a really bad accident and that the investigation was still ongoing. When you were able to see your parents again at the funeral, the two people in those caskets barely even resemble the two faces you grew up with.

“...And finally The Sweet Tooth bakery and the rest of our assets will go to our daughter Y/N.” Andy sighed as he set down the documents on his desk. You’d barely heard anything he’d said the whole time, instead focused on trying to figure out what was next. 

Charlotte or “Cherry” as everyone called her gently squeezed your hand pulling you from your trance. She’d been your best friend since third grade, and you’d been through everything together, from first days of school and first periods to first boyfriends and first heartbreaks. Now unfortunately it was this. 

“I- Um- How does this work exactly?” You asked making Mr. Barber stroll over to his filing cabinet and pull out some paperwork. 

“You’ll sign this paperwork here, and in a few business days the bakery and your parent's assets will be in your name.” He explained passing the pen across to you and pointing to each dotted line, and on each one, you would place the same two letters and at the bottom of each page your signature. “Just give the bank a few days to process everything and you should be set.” He nodded as you and Cherry stood up.

“Thank you, Mr. Barber.” You nodded as you slipped on your jacket.

“Of course, and um- I’m sorry for your loss. Your parents were good people.” He rubbed the back of his neck. You gave a small hum as Cherry smiled politely before exiting his office and into the cold Brooklyn air.

Now~

“Okay but this guy is genuinely a good one!” Cherry argued as you carefully scooped the banana bread batter into the loaf pans before topping them with chocolate chips.

“Didn’t you say that about the last two? AND they turned out to be huge jerks.” You smirked at her dumbfounded expression before wiping your hands on your flour-covered apron. 

“Alright yes, I will admit my judgment may have been slightly askew with Tweedledick and Tweedleasshole-” She shrugged taking the loaf pans from you and putting them in the ovens. “But this one isn’t like those two. I met this one this time, he’s Bucky’s best friend and he seems really sweet.”

“Seems and is have two very different meanings, Cherry. Now come on and help me finish up these cupcakes we have an hour until opening.” You chuckled as you grabbed the piping bag filled with orange buttercream frosting.

You could remember being 6 years old and standing at this exact same countertop with your mother behind you helping to guide your hands as you helped her decorate the cupcakes she’d just made. You earned your title of the sprinkle monster after you poured way too many onto one cupcake, your father despite not being one to like sprinkles said it was the best cupcake he’d ever had.

It made you chuckle as now 25-year-old you lightly dusted sprinkles across the now-frosted cupcakes. As Cherry loaded them into the glass display cases by the front counter and you checked over your bread doughs from the night before the bell above the door could be faintly heard.

“We’re closed for another 30 minutes- Oh, hello James.” You deadpanned as Bucky leaned against the counter talking to Cherry who appeared to be a little flustered.

“Hello to you too sour patch.” Bucky nodded, he was wearing a black henley and his brunette hair had been pulled into a bun. 

“Buck, tell her! Steve really is not that bad!” Cherry huffed pointing over at you.

“I think you need to make that decision for yourself so how about this, we can do a double date and go to that club over on Flatbush tonight.” Bucky shrugged pushing his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

“That’s a great idea! What do you think Y/N?” Cherry asked, her green eyes sparkled with excitement.

“Fine. What time?” You sighed leaning against the doorframe leading to the kitchen wearing a defeated look.

“9 and we’ll meet the guys there!” Cherry beamed squeezing Bucky’s forearm.

“Okay, James if you’re gonna be here you're gonna have to help.” You said making him shake his head.

“‘Fraid I can’t. I’m running some errands for my boss and thought I’d stop in to say hello.” He explained as he took a chocolate chip cookie from the free cookie jar, and let out a hum of contentment after taking a bite. “Still the best cookies in Brooklyn.” He mumbled kissing Cherry and waving to you before leaving, the bell ringing out again.

Cherry arrived at your apartment at around 7 to begin getting ready. You opted for a navy blue wrap dress with silver heels while Cherry chose a light pink strapless cocktail dress with gold heels.

“Nervous?” She asked as she wrapped your hair around the curling wand.

“I mean a bit but not really. I'm not expecting this to lead to anything or go anywhere” You shrug looking at Cherry through the mirror.

“Let’s make a deal. If this date is half as bad as you’re expecting it to be then I will never try to set you up with anyone ever again. But if it goes amazingly I expect to be maid of honor at the wedding.” She chuckled.

“Fine. You got yourself a deal.” You nod as she finishes up with your hair. 

By the time you were both ready, it was nine in the evening. Cherry grabbed her gold leather clutch, a gift from James, and slipped her lipgloss and phone inside. “Bucky is on his way, he’ll be here in a few minutes. You ready to go?” She asked squeezing your hand, pulling you from whatever world you were in inside your head.

“Oh, uh- Yeah. Just let me grab my phone.” You sighed walking into your bedroom to grab your phone off its charger. Next to it on your nightstand was a picture of you and your parents from two Christmas’ ago. It was the last one you’d celebrated with them, since then you’d opted to celebrate with Cherry and her family.

“Y/N?” Cherry poked her head into the room. “He’s here, you good?” She asked, quirking her brow in concern.

“Yeah, let’s go.” You nod, grabbing your keys and clutch. You’d locked the door to your apartment before slipping your keys into your clutch, together you and Cherry made your way to the elevator, not daring to walk down the building’s steep staircases in heels. 

“Well, don’t you two look amazing?” Bucky asked as Cherry climbed into the front seat, and you into the back seat of the Rolls-Royce. The two of them kissed over the center console before James took the car out of park and began to drive through the streets of downtown Brooklyn.

As Bucky and Cherry began to catch up about their days you couldn’t help but stare out the window, your nerves were firing left and right, leaving you to play with the hem of your dress anxiously. 

“You okay Sour Patch?” Bucky asked looking through the review mirror, you shrugged your shoulders in response. “You should put sour patch kids in your cupcakes.” He smirked trying to distract you.

“Ew! No!” You scrunched up your nose in disgust. “Maybe as a topping on a vanilla cupcake with my mom's watermelon frosting or strawberry frosting. But inside the cupcake? You’re insane Barnes.” You chuckled as you guys pulled up to the nightclub. 

The outside of the building was white, the words ‘Star Spangled Club’ illuminated in red and blue, and the line to get in wrapped almost around the building. Bucky pulled up to the valet, the three of you climbing out. He grabbed onto Cherry’s hand and she grabbed onto yours to get you through the crowd, together you walked up to the bouncer, and James whispered something to him making him step aside and unhook the blue velvet rope to let you three in.

Once inside music played loudly, multicolored lights flashed as the fog machine covered the ground with a dense haze as people flooded the dance floor. The place itself smelled of booze, sweat, and citrus. Bucky directed you and Cherry up a staircase leading you to a more quiet space above the dance floor where the music didn’t play as loudly. 

“Steve will be a few minutes. He’s wrapping up a business deal.” Bucky stated as the three of you scooted into a round booth, Cherry between you and him. 

You shot them a confused glance as Cherry shook her head. “Shit, sorry I forgot to tell you. He owns the place, and a few other businesses in the city.” She apologized.

“So he’s a CEO of some kind?” You asked Bucky who shrugged.

“Not quite.” He shook his head. 

After a few minutes of small talk among you three, a tall man with dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and a thick dark brown beard slid in next to James. He practically took your breath away, the sleeves of his impossibly-tight blue button-up rolled up to his elbows showing off the muscles on his arms and upper back. He offered you a small smile and a nod before turning to Bucky who seemed a bit too interested in sticking his tongue down Cherry’s throat.

He cleared his throat making Bucky pull back and wipe his lips on the back of his hand. “Hey, punk when did you get here?” He smirked, blush creeping up Cherry’s neck and cheeks. 

The man who you now assumed was Steve rolled his eyes, a small chuckle escaping his pink lips. “A few minutes ago, though I think you were a bit too occupied to notice. Are they always like this?” Steve asked you, a smile tugging on the corners of his lips.

“All the time.” You laughed quietly, blush making your cheeks feel warm.

“Oh, right! Steve this is Y/N, Y/N this is Steve.” Cherry said gesturing between the two of you.

“Nice to meet you.” He nodded.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” You smiled politely.

“Cherry and I are going to get drinks for everyone so you guys can get to know each other. What do you two want?” Bucky asked as Steve stood up so he and Cherry could slide out. 

“Strawberry Daquiri.” You replied.

“Whiskey,” Steve said as he sat back down across from you. You two watched as Bucky squeezed Cherry’s ass cheek before making their way to the stairs.

“They’re definitely gonna go have sex in the bathroom.” You sighed leaning back into the leather cushioning of the booth.

“Or an office.” Steve nodded in agreement making you snicker quietly.

“How long have you and James been friends?” You asked, crossing your legs.

“Since elementary school. I had a thing for picking fights on the playground despite my size, Bucky would tend to end the fights on my behalf.” Steve explained leaning his forearms against the wooden table top.

“Have a thing against staying down?” You asked curiously.

“If you do, they may never let you get back up. How long have you and Charlotte been friends?” He asked, his blue eyes scanning over you.

“Since third grade. She punched the little boy pulling my pigtails, made him lose a tooth. Seems like she and James are a perfect match.” You chortled, and he laughed. That was a sound you could definitely get used to hearing.

“Bucky tells me you own a bakery a few blocks over?” He questioned.

“Ah, yes. Sweet Tooth, I inherited it from my parents.” You explained, looking down at your hands. Dead parents aren’t exactly your favorite first date subject.

“My mom used to get their cupcakes for birthdays, and their pumpkin bread when it was in season.” Steve had a glazed-over look in his eyes before he shook his head and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry about your parents, I get how it feels.” He sighed and you reached for one of his hands which he willingly gave you and gave it a small squeeze. His hand was warm and rough with calluses and a small part of you didn’t want to let go.

“It’s alright. The recipes are still the same if you ever wanna stop by, and it’ll be pumpkin bread season in a few weeks.” You sighed as you let his hand go and pulled it back to your side of the table.

“I may just have to take you up on that.” He smiled. You both locked eyes for a few moments, silence falling between you. He opened his mouth as though he was going to say something but was quickly interrupted by Bucky setting the drinks down on the table.

His shirt was slightly wrinkled and disheveled while Cherry no longer had eyeliner and her hair was slightly frizzed up in the back. You gave Cherry a knowing smirk before Steve got up to let them back into their seats.

“...So? How are things coming along?” Cherry dragged out her words in a giddy manner, her voice a little rough sounding.

You and Steve looked at each other before bursting into a fit of laughter. “Bathroom or office?” Steve asked between giggles.

“Bathrooms were closer,” Bucky grumbled only making you and Steve laugh harder and causing blush to rise up Cherry’s face.

“I’ll take it you two are getting along.” She mumbled taking a sip of her drink.

“Beautifully,” Steve said as you two clinked your glasses together. 

As the rest of the night went on you and Steve seemed to be getting along just fine, and eventually it was just the two of you after Cherry and Bucky called it a night. So you two moved down to the pool table that was just below the VIP loft.

“You’re going down Sweets.” Steve teased as you leaned over to hit the cue ball, knocking one of the striped balls into the hole.

“You were saying?” You quirked an eyebrow and rested your hands and chin on the cue stick.

Steve studied the table before lining up his shot and hitting three of the solid-colored balls into the holes in the corner. “Good luck.” He winked, and you swore you felt butterflies erupt in your stomach. 

Taking a breath to calm your pounding heart you studied the table, there was no chance of you getting a striped ball into a hole on this turn but you could hit one to nudge it closer. So you stepped slightly to the left of Steve and leaned over to hit the cue ball, just narrowly missing your target. “Shit.” You groaned as Steve smirked to himself.

“So close sweetheart,” Steve said, his hand brushing your upper back before he stood to your right knocking two more balls into the holes. He only had two more balls left before he could start aiming for the eight-ball.

You really had to think this one through, there were striped balls scattered around but if you hit the cue ball just right you could sink 4 of them in one go. So you carefully lined up your shot and hit the ball, making the four striped balls you were aiming for scatter and roll into the corner holes. Now you two were about even.

Steve straightened his stance as he looked over the table. He wouldn't have a clean shot this round, not without sinking one of your balls. “Oh however will he do it?” You teased as he lined up his shot sinking one of his balls and yours. 

“Your turn.” He smirked, watching as you leaned down to line up your shot, you watched as the white cue ball smacked onto the last striped ball knocking it into the middle hole. From there you now had an extra turn to attempt to get the 8-ball into a hole. So once again you line up your shot and just narrowly miss the 8-ball.

“And she misses!” Steve teased from behind you making you roll your eyes. 

“Alright, Rogers be my guest.” You say, stepping to the side to watch him. Like you he had also sunk his lost ball and was now lining up his shot to attempt to sink the 8-ball which was currently the last ball on the table. You watch as the cue ball smacks against the solid black ball making a crack sound, and it just barely rolled into the hole before stopping just on the edge. 

He had set your next turn up perfectly. All you had to do was line up your cue pole just right and you’d have no problem. The second you hit the cue ball and it smacked into the 8-ball it had rolled into the hole and you raised your arms into the air triumphantly.

When you looked back at Steve he was grinning at you. It made your cheeks heat up as you passed him your cue pole. “Good game Sweets.” He nodded, his smile still hadn't fallen.

As you looked around you, the club wasn't nearly as packed as it was when you had arrived. “It's getting pretty late. Do you need a ride home?” Steve asked as he returned from the pole rack.

When you looked into your clutch, you’d realized you’d completely forgotten your wallet in the rush to leave, and that meant you couldn't pay for an Uber home. “Seeing as Cherry and James brought me here, and I forgot my wallet at home… Yeah, if you don't mind.” You sighed looking up at him. 

“Of course, just let me go grab my things from my office. You can follow me if you want.” He said, sliding his phone into his back pocket. 

You nodded and began to follow him through the last of the lingering crowd and into the employees only door, the hallway was brightly lit and a lot quieter than the dance floor. The bass a dull thud as you two walked side by side in silence. You watched as Steve pulled out his keys and unlocked the big oak door before walking into his office.

Inside was a large dark wooden desk, with two black leather chairs facing it, against the opposite wall was a black leather couch with royal blue throw pillows. Steve walked behind his desk and used his keys again to open one of the drawers where he grabbed his wallet and car keys before closing the drawer again and walking back over to you.

“Ready?” He asked as you two stepped outside of his office. With a nod you guys began the walk back down the hallway. There was no longer any loud music playing meaning they were trying to close for the night. You managed to take a peak at your phone for the time, only to notice it was now two in the morning. Luckily for you Cherry was in charge of opening tomorrow.

As you finally made it to the parking lot, he lead you to a blue Audi A7 and opened the passenger door for you and ushered you inside before shutting the door. Once he got inside and you gave him your address, you guys fell into a comfortable silence as Steve sped through the streets of Brooklyn.

Unfortunately your time together had come to an end as he pulled up to your apartment building, and for the first time after a date you really didn’t want to go and by the looks of it Steve didn’t want this to end either. 

“I had a good time.” You whisper looking up into his blue eyes.

“Do you wanna do this again?” He asked, making a smile spread across your lips.

“I would love to.” You exclaimed, a smile tugging on the corner of his lips.

“Friday sound good?” He asked as you nodded rapidly.

“Perfect.” You grinned as you got out of the car.

“I’ll see you then Sweets.” He nodded, watching as you walked through the glass doors of your apartment building before leaving.

Once you got inside, you toed off your heels and hung your keys up on the hook before walking into your room and flopping down on the bed. Cherry was right, which meant she was to be your maid of honor IF you and Steve get married, but it also meant you were so hopelessly screwed.

A/N: I'm so sorry this took so long, life just got a bit hectic (And it's definitely still hectic, college is insane) because of that I won't be having a set upload schedule but this story will be updated as often as I can but I hope you guys enjoyed chapter one. More to come!

-Hailey

[cultivating-wildflowers]

2024 Reading - November

I started off with a reading plan in mind for November (read the books on my shelf!) and almost immediately got sidetracked with a couple of series (not on my shelf!). Two attempts at a "Q" title failed; and for the first month this year, I didn't so much as touch a nonfiction. (I had one all ready to go but couldn't focus on it.) But I had fun, and I’m content to have narrowly completed the requisite eight books this month.

Total books: 8 |  New reads: 6 |   2024 TBR completed: 2 (1 DNF) / 35/36 total   |   2024 Reading Goal: 82/100

October | December

potential reading list from November 1st

#1 - Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett - 5/5 stars

Reading this on the heels of Witches Abroad was absolute fun, because it picks up almost where Witches Abroad left off and all of the chaos just flows into a new narrative.

And awwwwww, Magrat!!! I loved her in this one.

#2 - Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger - 5/5 stars (audio)

Note: If you want a more squeal-filled overview of my thoughts on this series, I answered Penni's ask about it here. (Thank you again for the rec, Penni!!) That was written as I was just getting into the third book, but it holds true for the whole series.

Ahhhh, this book was so much fun! I can see why my mutuals recommend it. The cast absolutely shines, and they feel so authentic for their time period of the 1850's. Sophronia had the potential to be obnoxious, a know-it-all, impossibly clever, or insufferably whiny and argumentative, but she was none of that; she was a fun, inquisitive main character who understood her faults, leaned into her strengths, and knew how to rely on other people for help. I loved her to bits. The rest of the characters were just as colorful and came together to create a delightful story that never let up. Y'all weren't kidding, this was an absolute treat! I will definitely be recommending this one.

Also, the narrator was perfect. She nailed the dialogue. Only complaint: she didn’t pronounce “Sidheag” correctly. I actually thought it was Sidhe until I read some reviews. (Which, upon reflection, wouldn't entirely make sense as a name. I've just read a lot of stories with faeries lately.)

More like this: "Princess Academy" by Shannon Hale; "The Thirteenth Child" by Patricia C. Wrede; "A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking" by T. Kingfisher; the Chrestromanci series by Diana Wynne Jones. It also vaguely reminded me of "The Paper Magician" by Charlie N. Holmberg, but for a younger audience. Ironically, only one of the books on this list doesn't have magic, and neither does Etiquette and Espionage. But it has vampires and werewolves, so that has to count for something.

#3 - Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger - 4/5 stars (audio)

Don't ask me what happened in this book because I don't know. I just know it made me laugh several times. I'm also recognizing Carriger's formula (at least for this series) and it's predictable but it's fun!

My only complaint is that Sophronia is becoming a bit more of everyone's very special girl, and I was hoping that wouldn't happen. I do like that she still knows there is strength in the friend group.

#4 - Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger - 5/5 stars (audio)

I loved that consequences were examined early on in this one. Yes, the espionage school is a delightful angle, but it's not often we get to move past the glamor and drama and say "hey, people are actually going to get hurt, and the people hurting them are also human". It's nice.

I mean, the consequences themselves aren't nice. But that is one way to muddle a love triangle....

On the other hand, the ages are starting to confuse me. Sophronia was 14 (a year older than her classmates) when the series started and, while I have no idea when her birthday is, I think it's only like...just over a year since the first book and now she's 16?

#5 - Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger - 5/5 stars (audio)

Another time jump for this one, and everything rushes toward an ending. I really wasn't sure how Carriger was going to wrap up everything in a satisfying conclusion--even at the halfway mark I was worried.

Silly me, of course. That was a splendid conclusion! And once again I love that despite Sophronia being the best intelligentsia the world has seen (at least in a while), she never accomplishes the impossible on her own. There's always someone beside her to help carry the weight, and she asks them to help. It's nice.

Overall, a fantastic series. Absolute fun and, while largely light-hearted, not so to the point of fluff. I had a wonderful time.

More like this: Weirdly, by this final installment, I kept thinking of the City Between series. On the surface the only thing they have in common is vampires, so my guess is it has something to do with style--in writing and/or in the cast. Carriger is stronger with endings than Gingell, but otherwise I'd say I enjoyed them both to the same degree. Also, they both have amazing audiobook narrators.

#6 - We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor - 4/5 stars (reread) - 80th read of the year!

I found this series at random back in 2017, when it was still just a trilogy, and tore through it. Weirdly enough, it's one of those stories that's stuck with me. Then I discovered there are two new additions to the series (one published this year) and I decided it was time for a reread.

This isn't the sort of book I would ever expect to enjoy. I don't typically go for stories featuring clones, or consciousnesses uploaded into computers, or universe-sweeping discoveries--but I guess I found it at the perfect time.

It holds up on a reread, despite a rocky start. Something about Taylor's writing just works. It's not fancy (his main character, Bob, is best friends with characters named Carl, Alan, and Karen), and at times the dialogue is stilted, but it flows well, driven by a hilariously pragmatic main character and under-girded with just enough sci-fi mumbo-jumbo to feel clever without getting too technical.

More like this: "The Martian" by Andy Weir; "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi.

#7 - For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor - 4/5 stars (reread)

This whole series reads like one continuous story broken up into volumes, which explains why the installments were impossible to differentiate in my memory of reading them the first time. Something that happens right at the end of this book is one of the big things I remember from the series.

This installment remains a fun, somewhat silly read. I had to make myself ignore what looked to me like a pretty obvious plot hole, and things kept moving quickly enough that there wasn’t really time to rubberneck. For anyone considering checking out this series, know that the chapters tend to be quite short and there's a lot of POV changing. (Though it hardly feels like a change because, y'know, clones.)

#8 - All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, tr. A.W. Wheen - 5/5 stars ('24 TBR, audio)

I knew this book would be a heavy one, but wow.

Books I would make GRRM to read, though I’m confident he wouldn’t get it.

More like this: The style/tone reminded me STRONGLY of Cormac McCarthy. Other than that, I haven't read much like it, though even in a line-up of "war novels", I'm confident it would stand out.

Honorable Mention Short Stories:

The Star by Arthur C. Clarke - Holy. Cow. That was a gut punch. I feel like the Inklings circle here (and adjacent folks) would go ham in a discussion about this one. Shout out to Lyds for recommending it, and I NEED to get my hands on more of Clarke's work. (He's been on my list, but here I am. Drowning in that list.)

DNF:

The Quiet at the End of the World by Lauren James ('24 TBR) - This is the second Lauren James book I've read and, as much as I love her concepts, I really struggle with her execution. It's fine if you don't squint. But I squinted and all I could see were plot holes. So I looked up reviews, accidentally found a spoiler for the big twist, and got plain irritated. Plus, the environmental overtones and token character identity markers were irritating from the get-go, even knowing what I do of James's style.

The Queen's Blade by T.C. Southwell - Lost me on the first page when the readers are told that the citizens pay their taxes in gold and, having no other use for it, the royals use it to guild their halls. In a kingdom fighting an Endless War so endless it's capitalized. Um. I gave it until the end of the first chapter to see how it would progress, but I can tell the style isn't for me. The desperate scrabbling for a "Q" title proceeds.

[tuiyla]

“Why isn’t Santana nicer after coming out”

Okay so I bring this up in the meta post I’m working on and I don’t want to hijack a post about Quinntana with just my issues on how the fandom perceives Santana so here goes, side note rant post.

As a Santana stan first human being second Gleek third, there are many many aspects of the larger fandom’s interpretation of Santana’s character that bother me. Unsurprisingly to anyone who’s talked to me for more than a second most of my issues come down to a gross misunderstanding of her inner turmoil and particularly all the mess surrounding IKAG. Santana spell it out in Sexy when she confesses her love for Brittany that she’s a bitch because she’s angry and she’s angry because she’s scared. Some people, even though it’s an excellent moment of self-reflection that could serve as a basis for understanding much of Santana’s character, still choose to get so close to the point and then miss it by about a mile.

I’m referring to the take that “Santana should have just been nicer when she was out.” I’ve witnessed legitimate confusion surrounding her behaviour post-outing (emphasis on outing) because people are shocked she’s still a bitch even after that, I suppose. Her anger and therefore her bitchiness was supposed to come from fears regarding her sexuality, so being out should solve all her problems and make her a nice person, right? I hope that writing it out like that makes people see the problem here. First off, obviously and most importantly but somehow still in a “needs to be said” way: Santana was outed. She didn’t come out, she was outed. She was terrified of what people would say if they knew she was a lesbian and then suddenly everyone knew, before she was ready. Shocking, I know, but for some reason that didn’t solve all her problems. Not to mention, being out came at the cost of being rejected by a close family member that undoubtedly shook her sense of self. That Santana continued to be angry “even after” having been outed shouldn’t be some big revelation. No shit she didn’t suddenly find enlightenment and inner peace upon being dragged out of the closet through an act of cruelty.

Second, coming out, even when one is outed as a lesbian to her whole state on television, is a process. Santana’s main source of fear wasn’t the process of coming out but the state of being perceived as the Other. She was terrified of being an outsider and judged for her sexuality and her fears are only proven right once the secret is out. That’s something she’ll carry for the rest of her life, even when she’s happily married and her relationship with her grandmother begins to mend. And that’s not to sound all bleak about queer existence because it doesn’t mean she’s doomed for a sad, angry life or anything, it just means that dealing with her deepest insecurities and fears is... a process. When we leave Santana as a newlywed, she’s around 21 years old. Honestly, it’d be a miracle if she had it all figured out by that point, particularly given her acute allergic reaction to vulnerability. Does she strike you as the kind of girl who willingly walks into therapy to sort out her misplaced feelings of anger? Didn’t think so.

Third, and this is two-fold, Santana is both considerably softer in the later seasons than she used to be and she’s also just never going to be a nice person, period. We could make it three-fold and point out that progress isn’t linear but let’s take it one step at a time. Santana is a kind person but not a nice one. From season 3B onwards and particularly in seasons 4 and 5 we see her forming deeper bonds with people other than Brittany and she even has a realization about using her bitch powers for good by the end of season 5. She has been using them for good ever since she first opened herself up to the possibility of letting people in and being her true self around them. So to me, complaining that Santana isn’t suddenly a ~much better person~ after being out is faulty on account of her does becoming a better friend and person as the show goes on. I think people’s problem is that she doesn’t become nice, but like I said that’s because she’s not. She just isn’t. In my ideal Glee future where Santana does get the help she needs and sorts out her emotional baggage, she becomes a much healthier adult capable of not sabotaging her friendships. But that still doesn’t make her nice. She will always have her signature snark and and she’ll always be ready to dish some insults out. Is that a good thing, that’s not the point here. The point is that she does become less cruel and more open to letting her kind heart actually show as the series goes on and still being rude to people doesn’t negate that.

I could go on, such as about the fact that Santana’s still a fictional character whose snappy one-liners and page-long takedowns are a part of her appeal. Glee wasn’t gonna stop utilizing Naya’s comedic delivery and turn Santana into a less recognizable version of herself, nor should they have. And like I say, nor should Santana’s continued prickly behaviour take away from the fact that she does soften as the show goes on. Then we have the issue of progress not being linear and faling back into old habits being perfectly realistic, and then we can also talk about how Santana’s issues go far beyond accepting her sexuality so it’d be unrealistic for her to drop her all defense mechanisms even if she becomes perfectly content sexuality-wise. She rightly identifies fears about being perceived and judged for her sexuality in Sexy and concludes that that’s why she’s angry and lashing out all the time, but it’s only a source of that. Although it’s a big part of her character and journey, it’d be wrong to reduce Santana just to her sexuality. That’s how you reach false conclusions like “oh she should have just been way nicer post-season 3,” because you ignore her general feelings of insecurity and how deep-seated this instinct to close off and lash out is.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this impromptu Santanalysis post, it’s been a while since I’ve written one not as a reply to an ask. Quinntana post coming soon, until then please remember to read way too much into a decade old silly Fox show and when someone misinterprets your faves, go get that shovel and start digging.

[chaotic-kitty]

Nightbringer mini game tutorial✨

I’ve seen some people struggling with the new mini rhythm games from Nightbringer……a lot saying that the games tutorial wasn’t any help. I thought I’d make my own little crash course to explain it if anyone is interested!! I’m going to try my best to make this understandable and neat so please bear with me.

We’ll start with learning the basics of how certain things function and what requirements there are. Etc:

So first things first!

You have 3 different levels when it comes to the mini games. Normal, Hard, and Extreme. Normal is the main mode that we play on as we go through the story. With hard and extreme popping up around/after the extra unlock-able stories. As with the original game, there is a hard version of all of the mini games to play through as well.

Also like with the main game, there are items you can use during the mini game to help out.

Flower Staff Bud (first one)- Gives a smaller increase in strength

Flower Staff Blossom (second one)- Gives a bigger increase in strength

Magical Score (third one)- Increases drop rate

Azuki-Tan Wallet (fourth one)- Increases Grimm

Both the Magical Score and the Azuki-Tan Wallet affect the items which you receive after you’ve completed the mini game (that is my understanding anyways), with the Azuki-Tan Wallet specifically increasing the amount of Grimm you receive as a prize.

The Flower Staffs are very helpful in completing the mini games!

You can active one Flower Staff, one Magical Score, and one Azuki-Tan Wallet all together for a battle. However, you cannot stack Flower Staffs together. Only one can be used per round. You also can only use on of each for the other two items too.

When it comes to the rank you get upon completing the mission, there are 5 different ranks

D Rank - Fail - You fail the level and cannot move on.

C Rank - Clear - You’ve gotten a high enough score to move on.

B Rank / A Rank / S Rank - Clear - These scores also mean you can move one. These just indicate how high you scored. With ‘B’ being the lowest of these three specific rankings, and ‘S’ being the highest rank you can get period.

‘A’ rank on all battles for each chapter is what is required to unlock the locked books for specific chapters.

Upon starting a battle/mini game/ mission I can’t seem to pick just one word for it you can see what score you’re estimated to get-

Here it’s estimated I’ll achieve ‘S’ rank. And as you can see, it indicates which scores allow a pass. When you use the Flower Staffs, the bar will increase and show you your new estimated rank with the added strength of the Staff.

The rank you’re estimated to get depends on the strength of your cards!! So don’t forget to try and strengthen your cards up!

Upon clearing a level, you are then given the option to automatically clear levels (just like in the previous game). You just need to click the level you want and the preview will show up. This option pops up at the bottom of that preview.

Edit: You need to achieve ’S’ rank to be able to unlock the automatic clear option.

Okay now for the actual game mechanics!

So, the screen is broken into two parts. (For the sake of this, I’ve labeled them with the way they will appear to you)

As you can see, there is a pink line that separates the two sides. Our blorbos characters are on the left side, with the enemies and obstacles coming from the right side.

The characters run on their own, we just control how they jump and hit! We do that by tapping the screen.

Tapping on the left side causes them to jump up and hit!

Tapping on the right side just causes them to hit whatever is in front of them!

In order to hit and enemy or obstacle, you need to wait for it [the thing you’re trying to hit] to reach the pink line. Once it reaches the line, that’s when you tap. (You have a split second either side of the line where a tap still counts)

You can tap both sides at once. Example, if you’re currently tapping the rainbow bar that’s higher up, you can still tap to hit whatever is lower on the screen.

Enemies and obstacles will appear at two different heights. To clear the ones that appear higher up, you tap the left side. To clear the ones that appear lower on the screen, you tap the right side.

Most enemies and obstacles only need a tap, however! There are rainbow bars that appear. They can appear both higher and lower on the screen.

To clear them, you need to tap the screen as the circle part reaches the pink line, and then hold down until it clears. Tap and hold.

To clear them when you get two at one time, tap and hold on both sides of the line together.

You will also come across these things:

They take 5(?) points from you if you hit into them. When you approach them/they approach that pink line, tap the left side to jump over them!

You can tap the screen multiple times in a row and the characters will do the action. You don’t need to wait for them to reach the ground before you tap again. So if you miscalculate your jump, you can just keep tapping the screen until you’re clear. That goes for the whole game, and not just these obstacles.

Now, besides enemies, rainbow bars, and danger acid, there are two other things that you will encounter. These are gift boxes, and rainbow Karasu orb things.

The gift boxes provide points that add to your total. You don’t actually have to pick them up and they don’t register as a missed item and revert your combo number (to my knowledge). They’re helpful for achieving a higher score, but there’s no need to panic if you don’t think you can get them.

Now, the rainbow Karasu circle…orb….things. Collecting those increases your fever bar. (This game has a fever option for battles too!!). The more you collect, the more the bar fills. If you get enough, you’ll be put into fever mode. From what I know, I believe you don’t actively need to pick them up and not picking them up does not affect your combo score.*

Edit- clarification on my wording- you need to pick them up if you want the effect. But I don’t believe it affects your overall score/combo score if you miss them.

Edit- Okay, missing the Karasu things does reset your combo score!*

You can see your fever bar, your health bar, and your score bar at the top of the screen. It can help you have an idea as to how you are going.

Speaking of combo…….

A combo score is a number that appears at the bottom of the screen and increases as you hit multiple enemies/obstacles in a row. If you miss a hit, the combo score resets.

At the end of a battle, your highest combo score will appear on the screen so you can see. I believe it also affects your overall score outcome.

Achieve a full combo, is where you have not missed a single enemy or obstacle. You hit everything. That increases your overall points and can get you special full combo awards at the end of the battle.

Now, circling back to the enemies. You encounter a few enemies during the game ……..though technically I suppose they’re not proper enemies they’re just obstacles I guess? Idk what you’d class them as. Anyways, moving on….

Each game you have a boss. Most times it’s a Little.D, sometimes at the end of a chapter in particular, it’s one of the characters. Now they can be a bit tricky. Generally speaking they work like this:

They show up on the screen at different times, in order to get rid of them……you need to hit them too. There are two different types of hit they require.

Sometimes, they’ll come at you and only require one hit to knock them back.

Most other times, you’ll need to hit them repeatedly. Now there’s a method to it.

As you can see, the bosses have a bar. That bar shows how many hits you’ve dealt.

To hit them correctly, you need to tap repeatedly on both sides of the screen in quick succession. Like left, right, left, right, and so on.

This fills up their bar. If you fill up the bar all the way, it counts. If you don’t fill up the bar, it classes as a miss.

Sometimes you’ll only have to do it once, others a few different times.

When it comes to hitting the bosses, you have to wait for them to reach the pink line!

I think that is everything for now! But to recap……

You tap the left side of the screen to jump up and hit

You tap the right side of the screen to hit forward

Wait for things to reach the pink line before tapping so that it counts

Most obstacles/enemies just need a tap to clear, but bars need to be tapped and held! And bosses need repeated tapping on both sides of the line in quick succession to fill their hit bar

Karasu orbs/bubbles fill the fever bar (which can be found at the top of the screen). And gift boxes help with your scores.

The danger acid takes your points if you hit it (as with missing other things). Just tap left side of the line to jump over it.

You can use flower blossoms and other items to strengthen your cards/characters and increase your winnings

To clear a level, you need to reach ‘C’ rank. To unlock the locked stories in different chapters, you need to receive an ‘A’ rank in all battles.

You can go back and reattempt battles and get higher scores. Or you can clear them automatically once you’ve cleared them once.

There are also different prizes you can get! Including devil points. Though I believe you can only get devil points once per level unless the combo prize for that level is more devil points. The amount you can get depends on your score when you finish.

Okay, now I think that’s it. If I think of anything else, I’ll add it to the comments. Sorry for any mistakes in spelling. And if I’ve gotten something wrong in general, please feel free to gently correct me in the comment section or something. I hope this helps!!✨💖

And just remember, this is a new game. It can take awhile to learn how to do it and to get the hang of it. And that’s okay. Practicing can help!

(Oh and at the bottom right hand of the screen you can see the characters bar fill up. I believe that’s their unique power or something. Ngl, I haven’t been paying too much attention to that😭 also, I have been having issues where taps aren’t registering properly so just keep that in mind!)

Edit: Perhaps it’s more a purple line than a pink line…….🤔

Edit 2: I remembered something else 😭

To clear these ones, you need to tap on both sides of the line (on the left and right side) at the same time once it reaches the pink line.

[irishhills]

fragility

Eliza goes about the day in a stupor after finding out she’s on the prom court. The Class of ‘92 got together to vote on five prom princesses before they choose their queen, and she’s one of them. She’s not sure how to feel when they put that plastic tiara on her head. Two and a half years ago, she would have been desperate for it. She would have thought it was the best and only way to get noticed in all the right ways. For boys to think she was beautiful, for other girls to think she was worth talking to. So she could relate to her mother.

But now … now, she’s not sure what to feel. Everything’s happened in such a weird way. She hasn’t had a real boyfriend since Luke, and that was two years ago. But as of last month, she’s not a virgin, either. She’s not a virgin, but she hasn’t talked to the boy she slept with since the night she slept with him. She hasn’t even told anyone, except Blair, who swears she would never tell Chris, no matter how much she might want to. Two and a half years ago, Eliza thought this little plastic tiara was her ticket to love, beauty, sex … all of it. It doesn’t seem to mean much now. Just a sign that being the yearbook’s main photographer puts you at the front of people’s minds, even if you’re the one behind the camera. People want your lens to notice them, so they notice you. Even if they didn’t mean it.

She asks to go to the bathroom in the middle of fifth period, which feels like a silly thing to do. In a few months, she’ll be in college, and if she asks a professor the same question, they’ll look at her like she’s nuts. But these are the last weeks of high school, and hall passes are a necessary evil. She takes a slip of yellow paper from her teacher’s desk and wears the crown all the way down. When she gets to the bathroom, she grips the sink and stares at herself in the mirror. A real cinematic moment. Part of her expects “About a Girl” to start playing out of nowhere. Isn’t that the kind of song that would go here? Blair would know, but she wouldn’t understand the stress. The stress of a cheap tiara.

Eliza hears one of the stalls swing open. Over her shoulder, she sees Amy in the mirror, too. They politely smile at each other. It’s been a long time since they were really friends, but Eliza has never stopped loving her. She has never stopped hoping they could be friends again.

“Nice move on the prom court,” Amy says, and she really means it. Eliza can tell.

“Thanks. Sorry. I know you would have liked to be on it.”

“Eh, maybe. But homecoming court makes you ineligible, and I’m good with being homecoming queen. Don’t know how I pulled out that win.”

“Couldn’t have anything to do with you being popular and beautiful.”

Amy laughs like she doesn’t believe it, but Eliza knows she does.

“You don’t like it,” Amy says, almost out of nowhere. “Do you?”

Eliza’s heart stops.

“Don’t like what?”

“Being on the prom court. Having that kind of attention. Any of it.”

Eliza doesn’t say anything. There’s really no use in lying to Amy. After spending all of third, fourth, and fifth grade telling each other ridiculous secrets about TV star crushes, dream careers, and fantasy outfits, she knows Amy can see right through her. There is a kind of transparency that only comes from being children together. It never goes away.

“It’s just weird,” Eliza says, “to have that many people looking at me. I’m the one who’s usually looking at them, and now … I don’t know, do they expect me to take pictures of myself?”

Amy laughs a little. She shrugs, takes out a tube of lip gloss, and applies in the mirror like this is a normal conversation. Perhaps it is.

“The thing that got me,” Amy says, “was the fragility. You take off that crown, and it’s so cheap. It just … breaks without you even having to bend.”

“Did yours break?” Eliza asks. “Your homecoming crown?”

Amy shrugs again.

“I think so,” she says. “I kinda don’t remember.”

She waves goodbye and leaves without another word. Eliza still stands over the sink, and the crown still rests atop her head.

She’s not going to do anything on purpose, but she wishes it would fall off and crack in half. Just because.

(part of @nosebleedclub february challenge -- day 16!)

[shmowder]

I’ve Returned with some more falin stuff to give some more details! Since rambling is a job and oh boy am i absolutely aceing my end of the year evaluation.

“And only one year younger! Does that mean they met in university 👀 or high school sweethearts? I love relationships that are built on friendships.” The answer to that is yes!! They met in university falin hears a rumor about someone who finds to defeat death and feels drawn to seek him out…almost like something in his blood draws him to death like a wolf looking for a lamb. But their relationship starts off as casual collaboration on projects for shared classes then expends to having deeper conversations about death and their childhoods (Both of them having fathers who were in someway military men) then becoming Daniil inviting him out to bars and dinners….then something happens once when they’ve both had a fair share of wine leading to a relationship blooming in its wake. They get married in secret during their third year of university, they both believe they have hidden it well and nobody knows….everyone knows they both act far too obvious about it and both just keep drawing attention to the rings on their respective ring finger….they believe they were slick…they absolutely were not!!

In most of his interactions with Katerina it’s usually him slightly on edge around her, his dialogue never gets snippy or witty he acts almost like a small child talking to a adult they’re afraid of disappointing because he’s never genuinely had a mother type figure who actually seems slightly worried about him, he’s got bad parental issues on both ends of the spectrum so being around both Katerina and Alexander brings those out full force but as the days go on his snippy and awkward interactions become more akin to wanting approval from a parental figure wanting to hear he’s doing the correct thing and that he’s cared for in some way that can be views as familiar. At falin’s core he seeks out what he’s lost In childhood a family.

Not sure where to put this fact but nobody outside the saburov’s actually refer to him by name! Daniil always refers to him as mea vita or darling, Clara only refers to him as Fae, Andrey only refers to him by insults he hates falin and very well might have been the one who attempted to murder him previously (which if he was and Daniil were to find that out…things would go well surely!) and besides that Everyone else refers to him as the psychologist

“The two sandcastle kids took it literally but then had a fight and separated Falin and Clara.” That’s absolutely amazing and I’ll raise you they got into an argument over how to say Falin’s name and that’s why they got separated (For lore related context Falin’s name isn’t pronounced the way it’s spelled it’s actually pronounced Phelan and the only people who correctly pronounced his name ends up being Daniil and Clara because he’s too tired to correct anyone on the pronunciation.) Wait that made me just realize that Clara would be daniil’s sister in law….since she’s Falin’s sister oh that’s an absolutely funny thing to think about…

I’m so glad you picked up! On what I was going for with his period happening and removing his agency! One of the main themes I really wanted for his character is bodily autonomy and the utter struggle to keep that. He’s playing a difficult balancing act because his own body has now robbed him of that autonomy he’s no longer in control of the blood that flows! Hes had that choice ripped from him much like how in his youth he had all his personal choices decided by others once again suffers from an utter lack of control over his body but in a way that’s even more personally cruel.

Here’s some further lore he actually comes to town with a handgun because his father being a military man (or at least before the events of the main story he was) insisted falin always have some form of protection as “This world isn’t kind to people such as yourself…it’ll do you good to be a good shot” but it don’t worry falin tells anyone who will offer him a gun that “No I don’t have one of those could you give me one please?” He ends day 12 with far too many what does he use these for? Nothing he just wants to collect like like some kind of raccoon looking for shiny objects.

On the note of him and franziska’s interactions since both her and my other Patho character interact with Falin quite a fair bit, they are sorta friends? In the sense both are hiding a secret from the rest of the town (Falin being trans and Franzsika being a conman) so they do find some common ground with eachother which softens their thoughts on the other/ falin is much kinder to those who treat his sister well since that’s few and far between so they’re chill with eachother but they probably won’t ever speak again once they go their separate ways.

Uhhh the final thing I have to offer up for Falin is songs that remind me of Falin, Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In! by Will Wood and the Tapeworms and brand new city by mitski!

Also as a bonus a song for falin and daniil’s relationship, without you I’m nothing by placebo. I also have one more patho Character who I may or may not also share as a final hurrah! For the final day of this event!! If one wants to hear more of my oc ramblings that is lol

-Immune anon

Thanks for the expanded story!

[ragingstillness]

MAJOR SPOILERS

Ok just finished the season here are my thoughts:

@/djenks fuck you man

No seriously, I love like 99% of what you do but killing Izzy? Fuck you man

I know it’s entirely possible he won’t turn out to actually be dead and season two will start with Izzy being like “you fuckers buried me alive without even checking?! I hate you all!”

I’m always afraid of stuff like this happening when characters are given so much development and love but really it feels so unnecessary I can’t accept it as a plot point like I don’t even feel sad now because I’m so numb

Certainly seems like we’re getting a third season or at least the set up is there

Ricky can fuck right off. I do kind of wish he had remained and become a sort of protégée for Stede from the beginning and someone else became the villain because the whole thing with him was clearly that he was meant to be a metaphor for queer people feeling safe to live their truth when they see other queer people do so and playing out that metaphor against the plotline of the season gets pretty negative

Not a fan of us not seeing if the rest of Zheng’s crew were ok

Not a fan of them just fleeing without acknowledging that the port is probably overrun by soldiers who are holding pirate captives still. In general I wanted a better idea of how many British soldiers were really there so I’d get a better understanding of how the plan worked

This is turning into a rant about the things I didn’t like but I’m gonna keep going, I’ll put the neutral and good thoughts at the end

Yeah Zheng’s ships got blown up but they seemed to still be on the water. Did they even try to fix them up and make them seaworthy again? Healing people?

During the fight where Stede and Ed reunite and Zheng is there I got a bad feeling that she was starting to replace Izzy as the “swordsman” character and I thought of how Auntie is acting an awful lot like how Izzy was developing when she was trying to be more encouraging to Zheng to be herself

If they were gonna have Izzy get gut shot I wanted more significance to it, maybe it’s over the only wound he has from being stabbed “in the right bits” and it was from Ed? Or smtg like that

Izzy’s death scene was way too short and no one was sad enough for me

Genuinely ridiculous for Ricky’s character to be faster on the draw than Izzy with a literal knife against his back

We never found out what happened to Ed’s red silk scrap and that was a bummer

Did the only person to acknowledge Izzy’s infamy really have to be Ricky? Give Izzy more respect from more people

Idk if this was on purpose, probably was, but the way Ricky was treating Jackie felt racially motivated to me. It’s rare the show gets explicit about that, mostly just in season one when that one officer called Roach a slave and got killed for it. It felt, like Izzy’s death, unnecessary, considering how much of this show is about joy and seems to dance nimbly around the discrimination that would have existed in that time period. Pick a lane. Is the world gonna have racism and discrimination or not? Because having just tiny moments feels out of place.

When something like “we get poison training in this family” exists why kill Izzy

Really I’m just pissed about that, he means a ton to me and to a lot of other people too. Con was the first celebrity I got to meet in person and hug and talk to. Ok the numbness is wearing off now I’m sad

Still waiting on Sam Bellamy to show up in this show

Not sure I love Izzy calling Ricky a cunt. I mean, I know I’m somewhat prescribing American sensibilities onto British language and that it seems like splitting hairs when Izzy has been calling everyone twat from the beginning but while I know this show is mostly about men being queer I wouldn’t mind less gendered insults against women

Izzy still never got a proper apology from Ed and that’s bugging me

Did Zheng not say she’d need Ed and Stede? How did they go from that to the two of them being inn keepers? Just odd and jolting

When did Ed and Stede take possession of that house where they buried Izzy?

Did the bird landing on Izzy’s grave symbolize Olivia or Buttons and are they implying that sea witch magic is gonna bring him back? Confusion symbols

The Happy/Neutral stuff:

“Finding family to kill for” - fuck me up Izzy that’s so sweet

“Being a part of something bigger than yourself” “the crew” “you have family all around you and they love you” dammit Izzy this is supposed to be the happy section

Auntie is my love she’s so good

This episode had all the slow motion badassery of my dreams

I totally knew Ed was gonna dive for his leathers, idk how I knew but I totally did

Ed reverting to a violent version of himself on the rejection of ��pop-pop” is totally analogous to Ed turning to a life of piracy after killing his father and the fact that Stede’s letter/Stede’s love has always brought him out of that killing phase is beautiful to me

I had forgotten about the messages in bottles and that genuinely cracked me up

Finally we get to see the characters be really really cool. Like we’ve seen them be silly and incompetent but it’s refreshing and exciting to see them be genuinely awesome, makes me feel an odd sort of pride

Love that Zheng remained relevant for the whole season and wasn’t a one-off

I could literally feel the passion in Con’s voice talking about how the pirate spirit will survive I guarantee he was picturing himself giving a speech about queerness because the wording and delivery was very reminiscent of his commentary during conventions and especially the “vote the fuckers out” speech

Archie/Jim kiss wahoo we love to see it

Jim should wear a tricorn hat forever they looked so good

I am genuinely having difficulty remembering so many of the good parts because I’m so sad

I’m glad Ed said I love you first, it was beautifully delivered, that frigging Star Wars reference Stede you fucker

Lucius/Pete marriage fuck yeah

Wedding questions asked by the crew? Beautiful

Mateys - yeah Matelotage is a little clunky of a word to say without a french accent this is a good medium

Ok I legit can’t think of anything else I’m gonna see if I can get in a good cry before work in the morning sorry guys

[housecatclawmarks]

Not including the reblog commentary here bc it’s long as hell & you can go see it in the notes but a lot of the stuff people are saying about no kill shelters and rescues here is absolute bullshit and I’m saying that as someone who works for a no-kill rescue. What IS very true is that these are often smaller operations, meaning we do physically have a lot less room to take in animals. I also agree that people working in kill shelters aren’t monsters or animal haters.

However, the idea that no-kill rescue work is founded on some kind of moral high ground or that (like people in the comments seem to think) it’s done by people who are gleefully turning away older animals in order to take in ‘adorable kittens with fast turnover rates’ is uninformed and inaccurate.

First, to talk about kittens-at my street cat rescue we do tend to somewhat prioritize kittens when we’re over capacity, because they are smaller and more physically VULNERABLE than older cats living on the street-this includes feral kittens, who absolutely do not have ‘high turnover rate’ and who we can’t put through the faster catch-and-release spay/neuter/vaccine program we do for adult ferals. Even domestic kittens who have a higher chance of getting adopted quickly are a TON of work-they get sick easier, there’s always a ton of them, they need to be bottle fed when they’re really young if they don’t have a nursing parent or if their nursing parent can’t provide enough milk for them, it takes a While before they’re old enough that we can even put them up for adoption, and it’s a lot harder to get them into foster homes because a lot of the time they need fosters with kitten-specific experience, whereas adult and senior cats are a lot easier to set up with first time cat fosters.

Secondly, to address seniors-we have multiple senior cats at my rescue who have been there longer than I’ve been working there, and criteria for the cats we take in is based on how much physical room we have, not on how quickly we think they’re going to get adopted. This is only my experience at my workplace of course, but I see senior cats at other local no-kill shelters all the time being cared for for long periods of time until they get adopted & having a lot of work put in to promoting them and trying to find them the right family. If you think that’s happening for those cats at kill shelters when they haven’t been adopted for like two years. well. You can have whatever kind of fictional little dreams you want I guess.

Third, to address rehoming-again just speaking for my workplace, we don’t rehome cats unless they’re being abandoned after being adopted from us. That sucks and isn’t something anyone is happy about, but we are operating out of a city with a TON of cats on the street (again, see above-it’s true a lot of no kill shelters are smaller and this comes with a lot of limitations). But it seems really fucking weird to me to get on some type of defensive track and blame rescues for cats getting dumped or forced outside when someone willingly took on the responsibility for that animal in the first place-AND WHEN THERE ARE PROGRAMS THEY CAN USE TO CONNECT TO ADOPTERS AND REHOME DIRECTLY WITHOUT GOING THROUGH ANY TYPE OF SHELTER AT ALL. I get calls every week at work from people literally saying shit like ‘well, I adopted a kitten but now it’s jumping on the counter and knocking things over so I want to get rid of it and get a different cat. Can I just leave it with you guys?’. It isn’t the fault of rescues that some people are fucking dipshits refusing to take responsibility for the animal life they decided to care for and were given plenty of information about to anticipate these things before adopting.

Fourth, I see SO MUCH misinfo about no kill shelter rescue ‘criteria’ anyway, but even if it WAS true that we were only taking in young, healthy, super adoptable cats with high turnover rate, what do you think is happening to the cats outside that criteria when they go to a kill shelter? ‘Taking in’ every animal does not mean ‘rescuing’ every animal.

Fifth, yes, support all your local shelters. But if you adopt from no kill shelters you’re giving us more room to take in more animals who are going to be able to stay there as long as they need to until they get adopted.

I think this is super important to remember.

[avadacandelabra]

Dream from 6/11/23

I’m getting ready for school in the morning. I put on some jeans and a top not really overthinking it, but know I looked cute. Then I realise I needn’t have done so, so early because I have a blank period in the morning until like mid morning or afternoon like 11am or 1pm. There’s only two classes, it’s because the morning block is for P. E. class which I always skip. I head to school anyway.

We're having lunch. I'm hanging out with my classmates. I'm waiting in line at the cafeteria. AJ is here. He is in front of me in the line. He ordered a sandwich and then it was my turn and I was trying to make changes to the order but the waitress wasn’t really having any of it. I kept trying though. There was a dude and his friends behind me who liked me and were trying to talk and flirt with me. The lady who was serving me was mildly annoyed at first but then suddenly she was really nice and asked if I’d ever heard of a strawberry squeeze. It sparked some far off memory, I said no and she said she’d press me a fresh one but I didn’t hear her properly. I just went with it.

I was waiting for my food when I remembered my timetable. It was a Wednesday. Then I though about the class I’d completely forgotten about on Fridays which I never attend. Then all that came out was the pink juice which I was surprised about. I thought I had ordered some food too but I didn’t care anymore food makes me feel kinda heavy now and I’m not hungry anyway.

I start to ask everyone about the timetable. We’re sitting in a large booth and I say, has anyone heard about that Friday morning class? I’ve only just realised I never attend. On the timetable, it showed up as some old some weird advert. I dunno what the subject was but I saw an ice cream ad, it was so strange. No one had heard of the class either like we had all just collectively not been going and never realised it. It irked me a bit but I let it go. I confirmed with everyone that we knew about and were all attending the afternoon Friday class.

We were all chatting and then one girl said I was rude to the waitress. I started to get angry wanting defend myself but only for split second and then I said, yeah you know what I don’t care and I laughed. At this point, AJ was onto the third course of his meal now. I hadn’t realised he had bought so much. I though he only had a potato sandwich. We were sitting in opposite ends of the booth but were still able to communicate. AJ starts defending me to say I wasn’t rude to that waitress and I was like to him, oh so you were paying attention? I figured he was zoned out and he was like no. I was joking with him we had such chemistry and friendship. He was talking about how his gaze can wander and what it means. He demonstrated by looking to one side at a bunch of people then to the other and I made a joke like yeah I’m autistic I do that too like just before with that lady I was being abrupt with my words but my face is amused or in an bemused expression why does communication have to be so lengthy when it’s pointless when I can sum it up in a few words it’s bc I’m autistic. Then AJ chimed in with the gaze thing and I said yeah that’s how you look at me sometimes and I’m like ok, ok, and start fake crying like I’m upset that he never looks at me or pays attention. I only said it to make everyone laugh. But he was, he was paying attention.

[eristic-kaleidoscope]

PENDulum swings | E.N.D. | Trial 4-3 | RE: Blood trails and sheets, timing | ATTN: Jae-min

Man, this trial’s a whole mess, huh? Well, she can clear up at least a few points, if nothing else.

“Yeah, AION confirmed that there three favors were by different people. Aside from that, the colors of the sheets can tell us who did what. The dorm sheets are white if you don’t replace them, y'know? The sheets holding up the trap that killed Erika were green, purple, and two different shades of blue. They were from the hidden room, and the tech room ones were Jae-min’s old sheets. That being said….. Okay, we’ve heard from everyone, and what I don’t get is….Someone had to bleed, but no one’s spoken up about getting hurt. I don’t know if that means they’re involved with the case or have another reason for not speaking up, though….." 

Akito’s comment about food reminds her that she also hasn’t eaten lately, but she puts away thoughts of her growling stomach for now. The rest of what he says, though–

"Yeah, fair, I guess they could’ve just not wanted to be seen with the drill, good point. That being said, I don’t super know we could use the motive to eliminate anyone, since all of us were acting in different ways and I don’t think everyone’s changes were all fully known.

As for needing AION…. Alright, I don’t have the mental capacity to do the math right now, but here’s a lesson about simple machines for you–wheels, pulleys, etcetera etcetera–the jobs they do is reducing the amount of force needed in order to do a job. That’s why for example Akito, musical rigging uses a lot of pulleys. So, aside from moving the sheets to be less noticeable by going up where people wouldn’t look–it’d lessen the amount of force needed to topple a bookcase. That being said, when it was lifted up during the investigation period, it took three people, one of which is Jae-min, to do so–and even then, it didn’t look easy. One single wheel acting as a pulley would not be enough for someone to topple that bookcase at that angle, unless they managed to put out…. At least two thirds of that force, if I had to guess. I’d have to have more time looking at the size of the wheel and everything to get the math on that, but that’s neither here nor there. Point is, AION was probably the only one who could do it, with the way that was set up. We know they’re strong enough to pin down people stronger than Jae-min with no trouble, after all.”

With the sheets and lighter fluid in the tech room…. I suggested to my group that it could’ve been an attempt at creating a fire in there, and if I had to guess? It was going to be an attempt to destroy the memory machine so the sisters couldn’t take any more of our memories away. If anyone has any other guesses on that front, though…. Feel free.“

She frowns, and shakes her head.

"Anyway, unless someone can suggest otherwise, I don’t think the tech room stuff is directly related to the case, so I’m moving on until someone else says something on that. That being said, I can’t help but turn it over in my head, so–

Jae-min, we don’t know if Erika L was lured into the room or just was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but by your own admission, you were there less than ten minutes before she died. No one can vouch for when you left, either. You also have been spending plenty of time in the library, and we all know that, so it wouldn’t be suspicious for you to be there at the time, and you had plenty of time before that to set things up while people slept. 

I also know that, despite how you act at times, you’re fucking smart on a purely educational level, and you admitted in public that you forgot what was driving you to be a better person at all. So I wanna know–is there anything that you can say to prove you didn’t have a hand in this?”

[inactiveanimeblog]

THIS ISNT A FINISHED STORY !! I JUST NEED OPINIONS.

hey y’all, it’s been a MINUTEEEEE since i’ve written anything omg. please read this and let me know if you think i should continue to write this story. it’ll be like two maybe three parts? idk just lmk what you think :)

there is nothing too crazy in this so far (no smut or anything yet. so i guess trigger warning swears?)

bully shikamaru who is so viciously mean to you :(

he makes fun of your glasses and outfit choices. you look homeless.. why are you wearing sweatpants to school? baggy clothes that make you look.. poor?

you’re disgusting in every way, him and his friends are sick of seeing you to the point where even bullying you becomes old.

you’re an absolute nobody.

and that changes come third year of high school.

you never tried with looking good in school because.. what’s the point? it’s a place to come and learn, to prepare for the big world.

but then you think about how you’re sick of being treated the way you do. being talked about behind your back. being beat up for the sole fact of your looks.

so when you decide to shop for new clothes, try new skin care and makeup, a new hairstyle, you see the difference in yourself. the confident oozing from your eyes. your posture straightening out.

you look good.. better than the popular girls that hang around shikamaru and his friends.

first day of school arrives and it’s finally time to make some friends, enjoy high school like every other normal kid teenager.

when you walk in people are staring and whispering.

“is that a new girl?”

“who is that?”

“dude she’s so hot!”

the chattering amongst everyone doesn’t go unnoticed. it’s overwhelming with how much positive attention you’re getting considering how much negative attention you used to get.

and then you walk past shikamaru and the rest of his shitty group of friends.

they all turn around and stare at you. it’s like you’re in a movie and this is your big corny slow motion scene. you walk forward without sparing them a glance. flipping your hair over your shoulder and turning the music in your headphones up.

from the corner of your eye you can see naruto and kiba gawking at you, the popular girls glaring at you, and shikamaru eyeing you with the same bored expression on his face he always has.

you smile to yourself as you walk into class, taking a seat at the back corner and glancing out the window. first day of your third year of high school and so far it’s already been a success.

the home room teacher comes in introduces himself, opting his students to say their name and an interesting fact about themselves. when it’s your turn you stand and place a piece of hair behind your ear. “hi i’m y/n y/l/n.. and uh an interesting fact about myself is i enjoy reading manga.” you bow and sit down. everyone’s eyes still on you as they yet again whisper amongst themselves.

“that’s y/n??”

“she looks so different.”

“what happened to her over summer break?”

lunch period comes around before you know it and you’re debating on leaving school to get lunch or hiding somewhere.

but it’s a new school year right? you should try new things and stop hiding from everyone.

walking out of the school entrance you spot shikamaru and his friends sitting in the parking lot, talking amongst themselves about who knows what.

you only hope they don’t notice you as you scurry by and try to leave.

to your dismay they do see you and sai calls you over. “hey you! get over here.”

fuck. here we go again.

you walk over with your head held high. “is there something that you need?”

“what? you think you’re all high and mighty now because you got ‘prettier?’” the most popular girl in school speaks. ino. you hate this bitch. “you don’t even look that good. all you did was take your glasses off and put on sluttier clothes.”

“are you done yet? lunch period’s only an hour and i gotta get something to eat.” you pass a glance at each of them, who are completely dumbfounded by your change of character.

once no one says anything you make your way out of the parking lot, walking to a near cafe up the road.

(btw this isn’t the end of the first chapter this is only half lol)

[collectorsedtn]

The (insane, crazy, stupid) Deal - P.2

Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader Summary: Steve and Y/N get to know each other better to make their story more believable. ST Timeline: After Season 2, before Season 3 (but may play around with the timeline just to have Robin and their Scoops Ahoy job in here) word count: 5k a/n: btw I’m making the reader Dustin’s half sister bc I’m a poc and get annoyed when the reader is just white so mwah in my head she’s a woc bc I said so <3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 coming soon

It was a good idea. It was necessary. It’ll probably only last a week. Everything will be fine. It’s a good idea. It’ll work.

You had managed to block out any thoughts of Steve or Danny over the remainder of the weekend, deciding to not stress about the very impulsive choices you had made whilst slightly intoxicated, however, the second you had set foot into the halls of Hawkins high, all the panic that you had blocked away had risen to the surface, plaguing your thoughts and overriding your brain. You were second guessing yourself and the idiotic deal you had made with Steve Harrington, worried that it would add unnecessary complications to your already complicated life. You weren’t a great actress, and you were now starting to worry about the questions that your friends and family were likely going to ask when news spread around that you and Steve were being seen together essentially out of nowhere. 

“Spill.”

You jump up at the sudden, unexpected presence at your side, Robin pulling away from your ear with a wicked grin as she leans her shoulder on the locker next to you, folding her arms in front of her. “Jesus Christ, you scared me!” You breathe out, your hand clutching your chest and heart beating a mile a minute. 

“Spill the details. Now.” Robin repeats, unrelenting in her gaze and ignoring your very shocked reaction.

You furrow your eyebrows at her, truly not understanding what she means, feeling your heart rate finally start to slow down. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” You say honestly, turning to face your locker again to start grabbing books out. 

“I’m talking about how you made out with Steve Harrington at Paul’s party last Saturday and I’m somehow the last person to hear about it.”

You’re speechless when she says this, momentarily slowing down and stopping your movement as you try and think about how best to approach this subject with your best friend and whether or not you should tell her the truth. You honestly weren’t expecting news to travel this fast and thought you’d at least have until third period to think about what your answer would be to her inevitable questions. You knew she would want to know every little detail, especially since she had recently gotten to know Steve better after working a few shifts with him at their new job at Scoops Ahoy, the two of them slowly forming a friendship of their own. “Oh, that.” You finally mutter, slowly starting to retrieve your books from your locker again and avoiding making eye contact with her.

“Yeah, that.” Robin repeats, moving her head so that she’s in your direct line of vision and looking at you pointedly.

You give her a sheepish smile, blush forming up your neck when you think about the embarrassment of it all, not just from the kiss but from the interaction you had had with Danny and Mandy as well. “It wasn’t even a make out. It was just a kiss.” You shrug casually, hugging your books to your chest “A small kiss. It was barely anything.”

“Oh sure, ‘just a kiss’” Robin said with air quotes, rolling her eyes and turning her body so that her back is fully leaning against the lockers. “I’ve been your best friend for four years, Y/N, I know you don’t just go around kissing people willy nilly. Plus, what the hell happened with your crush on Danny?” She asks.

You weigh the pros and cons on whether or not you should tell Robin the truth, trying to decide if having an outside perspective outweighs the embarrassment of telling somebody the reality of your situation with Steve. You decide that you’d rather just tell her and deal with the teasing rather than have to navigate this unique situation by yourself. “Well, since you brought it up, what actually happened w-”

“Guess who.” You’re interrupted and slightly shocked as a pair of hands circle around you from behind and cover your eyes, your back pressed against someone’s chest. You immediately know it’s Steve just from the smell of his aftershave, a smell you’d recognise anywhere as you’d smelled it around your house so often whenever he was over to hang out with Dustin.

“Um. Hi.” You greet stiffly, body rigid in response as you stop all movement once again, not quite sure how to respond just yet. You know that you were the one that suggested this whole thing, yet you somehow weren’t expecting Steve to fulfil on his word so quickly and so publicly right off the bat.

Steve slowly removes his hands from your eyes and leans his face down, bringing it closer to yours so that he can whisper without anyone hearing. “Okay you gotta try and act better than that.” You crane your neck back so you can look at him directly, rolling your eyes fondly in response.

“Hi Steve,” Robin interrupts, causing the both of you to pull away from each other to look over at Robin whose attention was focused on Steve, fake smile plastered on her face. “Whatcha doin?” She asks, pointing between the two of you. 

Steve nods his head in greeting before casually slinging his arm over your shoulder, looking down at you with an easy grin. “Just hangin’ out.” Steve answers, and he says it with such casual conviction, like this whole situation was completely normal and not at all happening for the first time. Steve’s good at this, or at least a lot better than you since your body is still stiff against him again, only relaxing once you remind yourself that people are watching and that you want this to look authentic. You need this to look authentic.

You watch as Robin's eyes widen at the two of you, this unseen level of familiarity completely confounding her. “Uh huh. Right. And since when do you guys just ‘hang out’ ?” She asks, once again using air quotations and obviously very suspicious of your strange behaviour. 

You open your mouth to answer her but Steve beats you to it. “Well I’m always coming over to her house to see Dustin, and she’s obviously always there. Eventually I started coming over just to see her.” Steve tells the lie so casually and with such a sincere expression that you’d almost believe him if you didn’t know the truth - that the extent to yours and Steve’s so called “hang outs” were sharing polite pleasantries whenever you bump into each other on your way to the bathroom or kitchen.

“Yeah, we hang out all the time.” You confirm with a nod, deciding to follow Steve’s lead and halt on telling Robin, especially since you spot Danny and a few female onlookers watching you and Steve closely as well. You understand their interest, as Steve is a so called “hot commodity” at Hawkins and any sort of female attention that he entertains is usually watched and surveilled by the masses. You take a note from Steve’s book and decide to amp up the PDA, reaching your hand up and intertwining your fingers with his, earning another look of complete and total utter confusion from Robin whose eyes just about fall out of her head like a cartoon character. 

“In fact, we had a great time hanging out on Satu–”

“Okay, that’s enough. I don’t even want to hear it.” Robin interrupts, turning around so she doesn’t have to look at the two of you.

“He’s just teasing, Robin. Like I said, we just kissed.” You clarify through a laugh, causing Robin to reluctantly turn back around, frown etched onto her face. You have to bite your lip to stop yourself from laughing at Robin's bewildered, yet annoyed expression, obviously completely dumbfounded as to what was going on between her two friends. “Anyway, we gotta get to class.” You tell Steve, squeezing his hand before sliding his arm off your shoulder. “But I’ll see you later, right?” You ask, looking up at him with a small smile, still loosely holding onto his hand. 

“Yeah, I’ll see you in a bit.” Steve says with a lopsided grin, giving your hand one last parting squeeze before letting go. “Robin,” He salutes her, walking away backwards before turning around and heading down the hallway. You watch after him, at the way his messy hair falls in his face and seems to bounce around as he walks, almost like he’s in one of those dramatic shampoo commercials. He looks good, it’s a universally known fact that he always looks good and is the only reason you allow yourself to think it, since it would be a blatant lie to say otherwise. 

“But I’ll see you later, right?” Robin mocks in a high pitched voice, breaking you away from your momentary trance. “God, who even are you? I missed one party and suddenly the whole world shifted.” She grumbles out, causing you to snort in amusement in reply.

“It’s honestly not that big of a deal. We’ve just been hanging out a bit recently.” You say, shrugging your shoulders in what you hope looks like nonchalance before shutting your locker door closed. “It’s very casual.”

“You don’t do casual, though. You’re always either in a relationship or you’re not. And you and Steve are acting real touchy in public to just be casual.” Robin points out.

“Well, maybe that’s exactly why I wanted something casual. All my past relationships have been too intense too quickly.” You counter, making your way down the hall to get to your first class of the day.

“I mean, sure. But I still don’t understand the Steve Harrington-ness of it all.”

You furrow your eyebrows at this, confused. “What don’t you understand?”

“Well, for starters, last I heard you had a massive crush on Danny McCormick and were gearing up to ask him out. What the hell happened to that?” Robin reminds you, bumping her shoulder with yours. 

You let out a humourless laugh, remembering that your crush on Danny is what got you into this whole mess with Steve in the first place. “Apparently he’s dating Mandy Carlson.” You explain, lowering your voice to a whisper, scared that Mandy or Danny will overhear you talk about them, especially since you knew Danny was close by and walking in the same direction as you as you shared your first period class together. 

“Shut up! Since when?” Robin exclaims, stopping outside your classroom, no doubt likely going to be late to hers but wanting to hear the gossip first. 

“No idea, but I found out at the party.”

At this Robin sends you a knowing look, a small smile forming. “Ahh, now this is starting to make sense.” She says, nodding her head. You stare at her blankly, waiting for her to elaborate. “Steve’s your rebound guy.” She clarifies simply, stating it like it’s obvious to everyone.

“He’s my what?”

She rolls her eyes at you, obviously thinking that you’re trying to act coy. “You made out with Steve because you were probably all sad about Danny. Don't worry, I get it now.” She explains, shrugging her shoulders before starting to slowly back away, knowing the bell is going to ring any second now.

“That’s not what’s going on here.” You argue after her, raising your voice slightly and earning a few curious looks from people passing by. Before you can get another word in, she’s already too far away and about to round the corner, forcing you to heave out a sigh before entering your classroom just as the first bell rings. 

You take a seat just as Danny walks in, sending him a small smile in greeting as he drops into the seat next to yours, your teacher still nowhere in sight. His blond hair is a little more dishevelled than usual as he runs his fingers through it, sending you a smile back in return. The two of you had always been friendly with each other, constantly sharing classes together and exchanging notes and answers whenever either of you needed help, but now the energy between the two of you felt a little awkward. Usually you could easily converse with Danny as the two of you shared a lot of similar interests, however something just felt off after your awkward run in with him on Saturday. You were sure that he knew that you really were asking him out, that you had lied about Steve to save your own ass after realising he was dating someone else already. 

“So… you and Harrington, huh?” Danny finally says, breaking the silence as he gathers his belongings from his bag to get onto the desk.

“Oh that’s – we’re just – it’s very casual.” You stutter out.

Danny sends you a look, eyebrows raised in disbelief. “Didn’t look casual to me out there.” He says, nodding his head in the direction of the hallway. “Seemed pretty cosy from what I saw.”

You don’t remember your throat feeling dry before, but now it suddenly felt like the Sahara desert. “I mean, we’ve hung out a few times and been on a few dates.” You say, tucking your hair behind your ear, a nervous tick that you’d always had. “And you saw us on Saturday.” You add. 

“Yeah I remember. You asked me and Mandy if we wanted to double date and then just launched yourself at him.” He’s joking when he says this, you can tell, but that still doesn’t stop you from internally wincing when you remember just how not smooth that whole situation was, and how even Danny noticed that it was a little random. 

“Yeah sorry about that, I guess I was more drunk than I thought.” You’re lying. You had been tipsy at most, but you were willing to say anything to convince Danny of the lie you had fabricated. “And about that double date… I know I suggested it but can I also rescind my invitation? Steve’s not really a double date type of guy.” Danny’s reaction to this kind of annoys you - he rolls his eyes with this smile that insinuates that he didn’t think it was gonna happen in the first place, like he expected you to cancel. It makes you want to defend you and Steve and your whole fake relationship, as ridiculous as that sounds. “He’s just not really comfortable in group settings is all.” 

“King Steve got all shy now?” Again, you know he’s only joking around, but you’re starting to feel really defensive now. 

“He’s actually a lot different than this whole ‘King Steve’ persona that people seem to think he has. He’s different from what you’d expect. Better.” You’re only half bulshitting when you say this since you weren’t actually that close to Steve, but you know it’s true just from watching his interactions with Dustin. You had honestly been extremely weary upon finding out that your younger brother had a new mentor in Steve, especially after hearing about his reputation in highschool, but after seeing how sincere Steve was in his protectiveness over your brother first hand, all of your concerns were gone. You knew that Steve was a good guy and you felt weirdly responsible over making sure that other people knew it too.

Danny at least has the decency to look a little embarrassed now that he sees how defensive you’re being, thankfully unable to get another word in when your teacher finally walks into the room, halting all conversation.

 *ੈ✩‧₊˚ 

You spot Steve sitting at your usual table in the cafeteria, completely alone and probably waiting for you. He’s got his legs on either side of the bench with an apple in one hand and a piece of paper in the other, munching on his apple and completely oblivious to his surroundings as you make your way closer, too concentrated on whatever was on his paper to notice you until you plop yourself down in front of him, straddling the bench similarly to him with your knees touching his. He finally looks up once you’re directly in front of him, letting out a small “Hey!” in objection to you grabbing the paper out of his hand and setting it aside on the table.

“I don’t think it’s working. Yet.”

This grabs his attention, his expression clouding over to concern in a flash. “What happened?”

“Danny didn’t seem convinced.” You reach over to Steve’s food tray, grabbing at the open packet of chips and popping a few in your mouth, Steve completely unphased and just staring at you, waiting for you to elaborate. “He was kinda making jokes about how I just randomly jumped on you.” You say this through a mouthful of chips, words garbled and barely coherent but Steve somehow still manages to understand. 

“But you did do that.”

You roll your eyes. “Yeah, I know. I remember. I was there.” Steve raises his arms in defence. “It’s not just that though. I just got this vibe that he could sense the bullshit. It was honestly kind of annoying me, like, why are we not believable to him? Plus, he was kinda snarky about the whole double date thing.”

Now Steve’s the one rolling his eyes, although his is more directed at Danny than at you. “Even if we were in an actual relationship, I still wouldn’t want to go on a double date with Danny freaking McCormick. Who does this guy think he is?”

“I know! Like, forget about Nancy, I almost want to keep this thing going just to prove him wrong.” You exclaim, to which Steve just stares at you, slightly unamused. “But also let’s not forget about Nancy because this deal is very much mutually beneficial.” You correct, Steve smiling sarcastically in mock gratitude.

“I think part of the reason he doesn’t believe you is that we haven’t fleshed any of this out. I mean, our whole story is that we’re ‘casual’, whatever that means. We haven’t said anything to make this seem actually believable. Plus, your stiff performance this morning wasn’t exactly ringing any Oscar bells either.” 

“I was just surprised, okay? I’ve never been a very PDA heavy type of person. You caught me off guard.” You’re a little defensive, but also not lying. You do kind of hate PDA, especially when it’s in early relationships, which is exactly yours and Steve’s relationship, or fake relationship, or whatever was going on between you and Steve, real or fake. 

“All I’m saying is if you’re gonna ask me to fake date you, don’t be surprised when I actually do it.”

“Yeah whatever okay? I’ll be more prepared next time.” You grumble out, stealing a few more chips and causing Steve to simply sigh and shove them closer to you, essentially letting you have all of them.

 *ੈ✩‧₊˚ 

“Please don’t tell me you’re a ketchup spreader.” You interrupt Steve, his hand holding the ketchup bottle and hovering above the plate of fries that sat between the two of you. He had driven the two of you to a local diner after school to discuss the intricacies of your deal as you both agreed that you needed to get to know each other better in order to make this fake relationship look more real. This also doubled as a great fake date since it was a fairly popular spot for people to go after school, although you had yet to see someone you knew. Dustin and all his friends thankfully had an AV club meeting, ruling out the possibility of them seeing you and Steve in public.

“Of course not. I’m not an animal.” Steve looks disgusted at your accusation, squirting ketchup onto the corner of the plate like a civilised person. 

“Good.” You grab a fry and dip it in ketchup before pointing it at him, “that’s one more fact that I know about you that I can add to my list.”

“There’s a list?”

“Don’t worry, it’s a short one.” You eat the fry before pushing the plate closer to him. “I currently have that you’re a notorious flirt, that you got your heart broken by Nancy Wheeler, and that you like hanging out with my brother for some reason. Oh! And that you’re a civilised french fry eater.”

Steve snorts at this, obviously amused at your so called ‘list’. “You know, it is kinda weird that we don’t know each other that well. I mean, I know everything there is to know about Dustin and yet–”

“We barely know each other at all.” You finish. 

Steve nods his head. “Well, better late than never, I guess.” He shrugs, eating a few fries himself.

“Exactly. So let’s get started.” You rest your arms on the table, threading your hands together and staring at him directly. 

Steve mimics your pose, even squinting his eyes dramatically. “Shoot.”

“Favourite colour.”

Steve’s bottom lip quivers to a smile before he quickly corrects it back to a look of neutrality. “Does that even matter?”

“I feel like it matters.”

Steve rolls his eyes. “I don't know. I guess I like yellow.”

You’re silent for a moment as you process this, slowly nodding your head in agreement. “That is both very surprising and not surprising at all.”

“What’s your favourite colour?” Steve counters, quickly moving on. 

“I thought you just said it doesn’t matter?”

“No, I questioned whether it matters, then you said it did. So answer the question.”

“Green. What happened between you and Tommy H?” You get the question out so quickly, opting to just rip the bandaid and get to the juicy stuff straight away.

“What?” Steve chokes out, thankfully smiling and noticeably not annoyed at your questioning, if anything you’d say he looks amused. “You were just asking about my favourite colour and now you want to hear about my friendship drama?”

You shrug your shoulders. “What can I say? I was warming you up.”

Steve shakes his head good naturedly, grabbing more fries to buy himself some time before answering your question. “I outgrew Tommy H.” He says simply. You stay silent, waiting for him to continue, which he does. “I guess I was just sick and tired of acting like an asshole. I think I finally realised that my entire highschool experience consisted of me acting like some phoney just so I could sit with the popular kids at lunch. And the worst part is that after all of it, y’know, after bettering myself and all of that, I figured out that I didn’t have a single real friend all throughout highschool. Not one… well, except for Nancy, but then we broke up so…” Steve trails off with a sad smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes, stabbing his fries into the ketchup, playing around with his food to avoid eye contact. 

There’s a bit of an awkward silence as you take in the sincerity of his words, not sure how to handle the situation as you had never really seen Steve in this light, all serious and heart achingly honest. “And now you hang out with fourteen year olds.” You say it teasingly, deciding that humour is the best course of action. You thankfully know Steve hasn’t taken it the wrong way when he lets out a surprised bark of laughter in response, one that’s a little too loud to just be heard by the two of you and actually makes a few heads turn in the diner. 

“And now I hang out with fourteen year olds.” Steve confirms, and it’s meant to sound like he’s saying it in this jokey, self pitying way, but you see the way he smiles when he says it, like his smile is saying yeah my friends are considerably less cooler now but I’m happier for it. Or at least that’s how you read it, and you think you can actually read him pretty well. 

A swell of random affection takes over you and you grab his hand in yours, not just because you were in public and wanted people to see, but because you could tell that Steve needed this, needed this level of sincerity and kindness, that he needed a friend. “If it’s any consolation, I think it was the right choice.” You can feel yourself blushing a little, not used to being this serious with someone who you were just getting to know. “You are considerably less dickish now than when you were friends with Tommy and Carol. Trust me, I would not have let the Steve from a year ago hang out with my little brother.”

You know you’ve said the right thing when you see how he perks up, like what you just said had revitalised his momentary slump of honesty. “Yeah? What would you have done to stop me?” Steve asks, lifting his eyebrow. You let out an amused snort at his obvious flirting, noting that he’s definitely done feeling sorry for himself now. You pull your hand back from his and flip him the bird, to which he just cackles at. His laughter is so infectious that it’s kind of impossible to hide the smile on your own face, and that whilst you pretend to be annoyed, it’s so obvious to anyone with functioning eyes that you enjoy this whole back and forth with him.

The next hour is spent talking about both nothing and everything, learning both necessary and unnecessary facts about each other and discussing the deal. Steve insists that PDA can be done tastefully but you’re hard to convince, eventually compromising by agreeing that all forms of physical touch are allowed if he’s comfortable doing those things in front of his mother. It’s a weird clause but seems to cover all necessary bases. You both also agree that this deal stays between the two of you, that telling Robin would be a bad move since she was a notorious blabbermouth, and that the only person that should know is Dustin, but that that was only a worst case scenario situation if he were to find out about the two of you from an outside source. You also flesh out the details of your backstory, leaning into the truth in order to make the lie more believable. You’d tell people that you grew closer because of Dustin, that you were friends before and only really became a “thing” at the party, that you weren’t “official” but you liked each other. 

You also learn a lot about each other, that Steve’s childhood dream was to be an olympic swimmer, and that he took guitar lessons up until he was 14 and only stopped because his father said it was a “slackers hobby.” He learns that you’re actually supposed to be in the grade below him, but because you were such an advanced eight year old, you had skipped a grade and were now graduating with him. You tell him how you kind of resent your third grade teacher for pushing you up a grade and how it set you up to have such high expectations of yourself for the rest of your educational life. He tells you how he wishes he had any sort of educational motivation, that no matter how much he tries to focus, he just can’t get himself to care enough. You tell him you’ll help him study, that you weren’t lying when you said you were a great tutor and he thanks you, says he might need to take you up on that offer if he wants to graduate on time. You learn stupid stuff as well, like how he hates pickles, and he learns that you like them, promising that “the next time I have a burger, I’ll give ‘em to you”. You also somehow manage to get him to admit that Madonna’s his guilty pleasure artist, that he genuinely has all her albums at home that he listens to in secret. You laugh your head off at this and promise him that you’re going to use this information against him at some point, and he says it’s fair, as long as he’s allowed to tell people that E.T genuinely terrifies you, which you had told him at some point for some reason.

The two of you grow so relaxed and at ease with each other that you don’t even think twice about how Steve’s hand presses against the small of your back as he leads you to the door, that you forget why you were hanging out in the first place until you walk past Jonathan and Nancy entering the diner just as you’re leaving it. You both smile at them politely as you walk past, but you feel the way Steve stiffens up, like he’s just been suddenly punched in the chest and all the air has gone from his lungs. You don’t blame him since it had only been a few months at most since he and Nancy broke up, plus there was that unspoken knowledge that everyone seemed to have that Nancy had cheated on Steve, since the timelines between relationships were a bit blurry. You were actually pretty good friends with Jonathan since you’d grown up with each other, constantly babysitting the boys and bonding over your little brothers. You had even asked how he and Nancy got together, and at the time it was an honest to god, innocent question, but you knew that the rumours were true when he couldn’t give you a straight answer. You know the heart wants what it wants and they both seem happier together, but a small part of you had always been a little annoyed at them for breaking Steve’s heart, especially when you see the effects of their actions firsthand.

“Don’t worry about them.” You say, grabbing onto Steve’s arm and squeezing it, looking up at him as you walk, chin barely touching his shoulder. “We make a way better couple anyway.” You’re joking, and you hope it’s enough to wipe away that kicked puppy expression on his face, which, of course it is, because he does smile back at you. It’s a shy smile, and he looks a little embarrassed that you had read him so easily, but you can sense the gratitude rolling off him. You simply smile back, wondering how it had happened so quickly, how you and Steve Harrington had become friends in just one day.

-

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