#apologies!
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and on the final day on august (not where i am hehe) i bring you my fic for @thefreakandthehair summer fanwork challenge! my prompt was nightswimming, its steddie (duh) and she's a baby 2.2k piece <3
— hold my hand and tread the water
The water ebbs around his ankles gently and the ripples move across the lake surface like black slicks of ink, twinkles of moonlight catching on crests of the small waves.
Steve swallows thickly.
Why did he think this was a good idea?
It's not Lover's Lake. He knows it's not— he knows that Hawkins and all its crawling rot, through roots and beneath lakes, is miles away from him.
Steve knows that even with the gate closed, if something slipped by- somehow, he can't think of how- but it doesn't matter, if it did, it surely wouldn't be able to reach him here.
It looks an awful lot like Lover's Lake in the shadow of night.
Steve blinks harshly and curls his toes in the sand, grounding himself by burrowing his feet into the soil. The sound of lapping water was once a sound of comfort, connected to a bout of nostalgia — the sort of comfort that can only come with a routine of familiarity.
Swimming used to mean... it was the exhilaration of the dive. It was the pleasant burn in his muscles and the blaze deep in his lungs as he held his breath as long as possible, pushing the limit every time.
It was the gasp, the relief of breaking the surface, a moment of loud noise before he submerged once again, muted rushing water the only sound. It was the long and solid strokes that he carved through water with. Swimming always used to to make him feel strong.
And now... there's this new fear rooted within him.
But, hell, there's lots of things that the years of fighting and surviving the Upside Down had taken from him. Steve will be damned if he adds swimming to the list.
"—Steve?"
Eddie's voice is suddenly beside him, right in his ear, and Steve flinches, dragged abruptly from his wandering thoughts. He tears his eyes from the swirling lake surface to find the other man beside him, brown eyes searching with that glaze of concern. There's a furrow in his brows. Steve feels the warmth of his hand before it lands on his shoulder, tentative and wary.
"Are you okay?" Eddie asks quietly, like speaking any louder might spook Steve more. He has this tone to his voice, the one that Steve thinks might be reserved just for him. He hasn't heard Eddie use it on anyone else. His usual loud and raucous voice, so normally used for jeering and loud heckles, completely softened.
It softens Steve every time Eddie uses it.
"We don't gotta do this tonight, if you don't wanna."
"I want to."
The words rush up his throat and stick a little on the way out. Steve clears his throat and digs his feet further into the sand.
One of his hands creeps up his chest til his fingers brush against Eddie's own hand, still holding his shoulder. He meets Eddie's gaze for a moment before an intensity seizes his chest and that recognizable lurch in his heart forces his gaze away.
That lack of courage is new too. Though, that's one thing he can't seem to blame on the Upside Down.
"It's the last one." Steve murmurs, eyes back on the lake ahead of them. Faint crickets fill the orchestra of the night around them, an occasional frog tuning in with a ribbit! Something splashes in the distance.
It is the last one. The last fear to conquer to reclaim back that piece of himself. Through out their whole silly and impromptu road-trip, they've pushed that slimy fear further and further down in Steve. Burning it away, making it smaller, til Steve was feeling bigger and better. They started in a pool, in the daylight, Eddie's open palms and soothing eyes coaxing him back into the water.
Here is the end. The last one. A lake in the night time.
Steve can feel the fear curdling in his gut, the tenseness in his muscles, every single instinct that's kept him alive for the past five years screaming at him to not get in. He feels like a house of cards, ready to topple in the slightest breeze, just drinking in the sight before him. Eddie's hand on his shoulder might be the only thing keeping him steady.
He could leave, could avoid swimming during the nighttime, could retract into himself every time that sticky fear licked up his spine— bringing back memories of vines tight around his ankle, pulling, tugging, drowning him, and— Steve clears the memory with a violent twitch, muscles jumping in their tenseness.
He's so sick of being in survival mode.
Eddie's fingers on his shoulder flex, gifting a comforting squeeze. Steve can see the chipped black polish on them in his peripheral, bare of their usual rings, prepared to swim because Eddie always gets in with him. They always swim together. God, Steve's not sure what he'd do without him.
Steve swallows again, the stone is his throat budging this time as the want surges up deep in his chest; he wants to make some goddamn new memories too.
"Can you..." He murmurs, finally turning his head to peer at Eddie beside him.
"Of course," Eddie answers his unvoiced question easily, beginning to wade into the lake a little further.
The water sloshes around his ankles, climbing up his calves, and Steve's gaze drags up with it, lingering on Eddie's milky white thighs. There's another tattoo there, a sphinx-like character, curled up and stark in it's dark colour against his pale complexion.
Steve hadn't been able to hide his staring the first time they'd swum together — a tiny bright-tiled pool in a motel, one or two states back — completely entranced by the swirling ink and the bareness of Eddie's thighs.
Eddie had caught his gawking with a smug sort of grin and ribbed him for it, tugging the fabric of his swim shorts up higher to show off the full piece. Mercifully, he didn't point out the flush it brought onto Steve's cheeks. Steve had apologised, both for his staring and for doing it in one of the more improper places, but Eddie had only given that wicked beautiful smile.
"M'used to stares, Steve." He said, not nearly as bitter as Steve thinks he's entitled to be considering the man-hunt set on him. "You don't look at me like them."
Looking at the stretch of his thigh now, tattoo partially hidden away, Steve ponders Eddie's words to keep the itch of panic at the back of his neck away. What had Eddie meant? Just how he does look at him?
Some girls like long looks, like feeling eyes raking them up and down hungrily but most of them like skirting glances, always glancing away if they've caught Steve watching. Eager glances at thighs and down chests are certainly not encouraged. It's a game of back and forth. One can't be seen to be too eager, too ravenous.
Except for, Eddie seems the complete opposite. He catches Steve's keen gaze, he spots the staring and relishes in it — like Steve's attention is something is something divine and Eddie will drink in all he can get.
It doesn't feel like it's a prize the way it did in high school, girls vying for King Steve's attention. It feels... Eddie makes it feel like something to revere.
"C'mon, sweetheart." Eddie croons, beckoning Steve into the lake and away from his distracted thoughts. He's got his hand outstretched, palm up, calloused fingers relaxed and inviting Steve to hold them with his own.
He does. He's not sure when it became a thing, holding hands — probably sometime when they upgraded from pools to rivers and lakes — but Steve's grateful for it. Eddie's fingers blanch beneath the tight grip but if it pains Eddie, he makes no move to show it on his face.
Steve grips tighter. When Eddie drifts back a step, the dark water licking an inch higher on his legs, he lets himself be pulled along. Step by step. He keeps his eyes ahead, even as the other peers down into the dark water momentarily.
Eddie gasps and a jolt of fright fires off, deep in Steve's gut. He clutches Eddie's hand tighter and Eddie's head pops up, squeezing Steve's hand back.
"Fucking chilly, is all, okay? My balls are freezing, Jesus. H. Christ."
He does this silly little hop like it's going to help the chill of the night-time lake-water. It's a funny enough sight that Steve doesn't try to stifle his shaky laughter and some of his panic melts away with it. He still doesn't look down.
Eddie scrunches his nose up and then narrows his eyes at Steve. "You're laughing now."
Steve sticks out his tongue — and bites it harshly as the water sweeps up past his waist, submerging his swimming trunks and everything below. Fucking hell, it is cold. Eddie wasn't lying.
As far as each of their swims have been — there's been six altogether, or seven if you count the high bath they took together, which Steve doesn't — this one is going smoother than what he's come to expect. There's still that prickle down his spine, like ice ghosting atop his skin, but Steve can shake it in a shiver.
The water looms higher, swallowing the plains of his stomach and Steve can feel his neck craning up, trying to get taller. Still, he takes the next step. And the next.
Suddenly, there's a brush against his leg— scaly and mucky and he knows it's not what he imagines it to be but there's no clamping down the instinct built in. His heart slams in his chest and his practiced even slow breaths transform into rapid bursts, this dread clawing deep into his gut. Steve can feel his hackles rise, knows his hand must be twisting tighter and tighter in Eddie's grip.
It all shows as a minuscule reaction on his face. Steve knows because Robin told him once—regarded him with that crinkled look once when the panic attack had crept up on him during a shift, then uttered an oh shit! once she realised what was happening.
You're too good at that. She'd told once he'd managed to calm down, head between his knees in the employee room out the back.
What?
Good at hiding it. Robin said, nudging his shoulder. He can't tell from her tone it's a good or bad thing. Maybe, it's neither. You look so calm all the time, even when you're panicking.
Eddie's come to learn the signs too. The specific pinch in his eyebrows, the twitchiness of his lips.
"Woah, woah, hey, hey," He brings the two of them closer, no longer leading them out. Eddie's dark eyes dart across his face, a wrinkle in his brow as he tries to soothe. "Just a stupid fish, nothin' to worry about, you're good."
His hands travel as he speak, shaking off Steve's tight grip to slide up his tan arms. Steve's hands shoot out, desperate to hold something, to cling to something, his big hands enveloping Eddie's wrists as the other rubs gently at his biceps. Fingers curl around the tanned skin and beg Steve closer, beginning to sink down in the water as he does.
"C'mon, you're safe." He murmurs and Steve, hanging onto tight, sinks down with him. The water climbs higher, lapping at his collarbones. Steve clings tighter, clenching up in preparation. "S'just you, me, and the fishies."
"If you think that's all that's in here, you know even less about lakes than I thought," Steve grits out.
"Shit, really?" Eddie asks. Then after another moment, "You think there's crocs in here?"
"You didn't even check?"
Eddie's grin rivals the moonlight, cheeky and delighted. "Course I did," Then he scoffs dramatically, tossing his head back. Some of his hair hits the water with a splash. "Can't believe you don't trust me at all, after all this time together."
A sly smile fights to reach Steve's face; he lets it win. His panic isn't dissolved completely, just lingering in the back— but it's been beat out by his interest in conversation with Eddie, in the strange flirt they keep seeming to do.
"I don't have any trust in you at all since you picked Motel Evergreen and—"
His words get smushed beneath Eddie's palm, warm and soft against his mouth, as the other boy narrows his eyes. "Shut your pretty mouth, Steve. You promised you wouldn't bring that up again."
Even as he threatens, Eddie's eyes light with a mirth and there's that glorious grin on his face and oh god, Steve wants to kiss him.
Like a vacuum, the panic sucks out of him in a single moment as the tide turns and his nerves turn to that. Fuck. Eddie's hand slips from his face, nervous he's gotten too close, too touchy. And, well, Steve's always been one to wear his heart on his sleeve, so he says;
"Make me."
Something glitters across Eddie's face, a bewilderment dipped with glee. For a moment, his expression shutters as he tries to comprehend what's been said. What's been offered.
He lands on an astute, "What?"
Steve sinks into the lake and kicks off the bottom, water swishing as he starts to tread water. His feet kick and he has half a mind to spray Eddie with a face full of icy lake water but he's got that doe-eyed exuberance that Steve adores, like he's daring to let himself believe what Steve's saying.
So, instead Steve holds his hand out. He treads the water and says, "I said, make me."
Eddie doesn't waste another second.
#LexsSummerFanworksChallenge#weehe! enjoy!#i luv it a little. having a deadline made it fun cos it turned out differently than i expected!!#ruby writes steddie#steddie#steddie fic#steddie ficlet#steve x eddie#hurt/comfort#nightswimming#pre-steddie#uhhhh thats all i got for u :)#beloved wren if u see this i SO keep meaning to run pieces by u before posting#however this is due as of yesterday apparently lmao#apologies!
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Nick Valentine, at the end of his personal quest, after an extremely emotional thank you: That is, if you’re still interested in travelling together. Wouldn’t blame ya if you wanted some time on your own after this.
Me, vibrating, viscerally wishing to scoop up the robot man, shake him like a maraca until the self-loathing falls out, and then hug him for approximately 400 years: Come here, you bloody idiot, I’m never leaving you alone ever again.
God, this robot man is a lot of work (this quest dragged us across the entire map, including into a three-way firefight in Quincy between the Brotherhood, Supermutants, and Gunners, and another three-way firefight in Natick between raiders, supermutants, and a random deathclaw), but I love him with all my heart.
Every time we play Fallout 4, I promise we’re going to take a different companion around (and we have, for short bursts, this time we got Piper to full approval), but I just … I really love Nick? It’s fun travelling with the others, but …
Nick, honey. I will always be interested in travelling with you. Over and above anyone else in this goddamn game. Every time. Possibly to the annoyance of everyone in range. Heh.
Love is a battered synth detective with an existential crisis and a mean line of one liners, who knew?
#fallout#fallout 4#nick valentine#my sister hates me#but literally every time the only companion i want is Nick#apologies!#i just love him a lot
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Not sure if you're aware, but eternalglitch, the author of LFLS, has asked that their work not be entered into competitions.
Oh I wasn’t aware! Sorry about that haha. It was just a fun poll thing that’s all. If everyone seeing this message is comfortable with it I’m taking the poll down lol.
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hai art request be upon ye:
tavros getting aaaall the bitches. all of them.
iT'S ME, GETTING ALL THE BITCHES,
#tavros nitram#aradia megido#nepeta leijon#kanaya maryam#terezi pyrope#feferi peixes#SIGH soo many tags!!!!!! ehee. also i kept furgetting to post this#apologies!#art.
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Louis on stage in Tampa, FL - 14/7
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i am NOT dead
hi hello lil disclaimer post to tell u guys that I AM NOT DEAD EVEN THO I AM SO FULL OF THINGS THAT DEATH ACTUALLY SOUNDS GREAT.
I promise I will catch up on EVERYTHING between today and tomorrow.
SORRY @bassguitarinablackt-shirt @briannaswords @anulithots @rmgrey-author @cat-esper @dancinginsepiaI. NOT MAD AT U GUYS I AM NOT DEAD I AM NOT OFF TUMBLR MY PARENTS DIDNT FIND MY PROFILE OUT I AM STILL HERE. SORRY.
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Hi, I don’t mean to be bitchy but could you start using read more’s pls? /genuine. It’s kinda hard to scroll my dash/fyp when I’m getting a lot of fics with no read mores. Like it’s not just you it’s a lot of ppl writing for the new Avatar movie.
Again I don’t mean to be rude or anything but it’s a small thing I think would help a lot, cause I want to read these awesome fics I’m coming across but not the exact moment I see it. Sorry if i was being rude
honestly, i’m ngl when i literally was about to give the same energy i thought you were using until i saw you’re nice lol. i’m new to tumblr, believe it or not i literally joined a week and three days ago and it’s kinda hard to literally know about everything as of i’m learning but sure! i’ll try to do that cause i, myself keep struggling to scroll all down with the long fics 🫤 — and thank you for the constructive criticism 🫶🏽
just give me some little time until i manage and learn how tumblr works! for now i apologize and will try to fix it :)
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....technically Percy
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you do show up alot in the tag, but not because you're maintagging—it's because of the asks containing his name
ohhhh that makes sense. not too sure what i can do about that then? i guess if you're going to send something in try to censor his name, but i can't guarantee everyone will see this ask
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Here I am again! And I’m here with something some of you might know!
I thought it would be a good exercise to draw all of the wonderful Welcome home Characters! (Plus adding my own little spin to them!)
so here are all of them I have so far (color coded! Made it more pleasing to the eyes I feel)!
I feel I must mention that this is a WIP! They aren’t finished , they are still baking!
#wip!!#welcome home#! oh I really do love it!#funny muppets doing funny things!#wally was my favriote to draw!#right after poppy! but I have a bias towards her#You can see I changed brushes half way though!#or well#you can tell when I changed brush’s!#I really love their voices in the new website update!#sounded exactly like how I pictured them!#my art#wahoo!!#welcome home art#welcome home fanart!#shaped eyes are my favorites#this is a lot of tags#apologies!#gah too many tags!
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my most beloved bottom-feeders of 2023
As we wrap up 2023, and before I reveal my most popular posts of the year, I'd like to once again highlight some art that ducked ninja-like under the radar. Part of the fun of this blog is never knowing which pieces will take off, and which will melt like half-glimpsed wraiths into the mists never to be seen again. To qualify, the posts had to have fewer than five notes. And, now that I've compared these works to ninja, ghosts, spine-bristling lantern-bearing boulder-jawed fish, and, in the next phrase, corpses, let's sing a hymn and give them a respectful send-off.
10. The creepy one-horned masked girl.
9. Oh, it's a tempest in a teapo-- why does she have lips under her eyes?
8. The bat is her boyfriend but more importantly her earring.
7. Even in official sources, there's no explanation for Elza's enormous face scar.
6. Emiya looks too pleasant here, clearly an imposter.
5. What do you mean you just made your vampire's last name Vampire?
4. This style of painting is much preferred by dragon nobility for their decorative plates.
3. Is the cat on her shoulders or part of the wall art?
2. In retrospect, should have drawn the nipple.
My favorite bottomfeeder was from the year of our Lord 2005? Yes, my hand, she is still recovering from the detail work. Also, there is a small dragon.
#unpopular art post#how do i tag this?#apparently i tag this by posting this to the wrong blog#apologies!
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Jedi June: Community/Jedi Temple
@jedijune
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[ 3tan9.5 ] gonna move the drop to this saturday, y’all! 3tan drabbles are one-shot length apparently lol.
teaser for flutter will still be posted today as bday gifts for some of you that told me🦋 and trust,, this one is 🥺🍊
#flutter is right lol#apologies!#i think this one will be worth the wait though#hopefully#*ryenfictalk#3tan9.5#3tanotes
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Will you be doing commissions any time soon?
unfortunately not likely! tying sales to art does my brain bad
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can you draw sol? :D
what a stinker !
#wc sol#wc leafstar#warrior cats#bile art#bile answers#i do not remember the names of her spawn!#apologies!
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Hey buddy, seems that one half of your ask didn't make it to me. I know I haven't replied - I'm actually keeping all the Asks with people's offered WoL's in my inbox so I don't lose them lmao. If you want to give me the rest of his details please by all means :)
Ah bugger, probably bc I tried to include a link to his Toyhouse, I always forget that tumblr hates that 😔
I can't remember exactly what I included in the second half of the ask, probably just a like "if youre interested in the roughly three million words of backstory I have for him here's his th page" haha, so here hopefully this link will work!
#Guess who didnt realise you cant answer an ask privately if you save it to your drafts first =w=#ive only been using this hellsite for like 12 years now#apologies!#araceil
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