Tumgik
#cause it's not exactly threatening
poisonousquinzel · 1 year
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Always and Forever,
Your Pammy
x x ♡
Poison Ivy (2022-) #6
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corvidexoskeleton · 7 months
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Turning into the joker because both of my landlords keep threatening to kick me out every single time i have a slight disagreement with them or dont do exactly what they want
#text post tag#both of them keeo independently threatening me with homelessness for the stupidest fucking reasons#its honestly so fucking irritating and annoying and its pissing me off so much#but i cant even have a simple fucking conversation with either of them because they both think that i should just#roll over and do exactly what they say without protest and im fucking sick of it#reek will actively try to puff himself up and act like a big tough alpha male and tells me to get out if im not gonna ''respect'' him#and my sister will threaten to make me homeless just because i dont want to be the only fucking person the house who does dishes#and because she doesnt like that i have trouble keeping up with the dishes of three adults#two of which dont fucking rinse anything and just pile everything into nasty standing water#and shes mad that i have trouble getting down on my knees to clean the cat boxes out - esp since now theres a bunch bc pf the fosters#when i famously have knee problems and cant be on my knees for very long or often without it causing intense physical pain#and she never even fucking helped me clean any of them out even when it *was* just our own cats#not to mention that she keeps getting pissed off at me because i dont like thay she keeps throwing fits and being out of line with how#she reacts to every single fucking thing that stresses her out#like its my fucking fault that shes hitting her dog with a shoe or its my fault that shes screaming at her baby#reek doesnt even fucking do anything around the house when hes home#and hes almost never home#and he thinks he can lecture me about how i dont do anything and they have to do everything for me?#as if he has any right to think he has any authority over me whatsoever or as if he has any fucking right to treat me like a child#i fucking hate the both of them so goddamn much#im just constantly pissed the fuck off but i cant do a damn thing about it because everything i do is bad or wrong to them#to my sister i cant do anything right because the only thing i know how to do is escalate and make things worse#i am so fucking mad
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morninkim · 8 months
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never originally drew this guy so not technically a redraw, but here's the twins' dad!
JUMP Striker (former) // Hideki Ishino
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drumlincountry · 1 year
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[Redacted for confidentiality reasons] But yeah one of my coworkers was threatened with a gun the other day. So I guess we ARE challenging things.
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starsmuserainbow · 6 months
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"This isn't a threat. It's a promise."
Tara to Moonshot. XD
Ominous Starters
[[Thank you for sending one! :D]]
Why did he have to work with her again? They didn't exactly get along the first time, and now again? Moonshot was angry, and within their initial arguing he barked back when she said something that sounded like a threat; he retorted saying that she better not dare threaten him, to which she responded this.
For just a second, he was stunned in response, then his anger vanished. Perhaps there was even a little hint of a smirk on his face for a fracture of a moment. "I understand," he simply responded now, willing to let the argument subside for now. "Let us start with our task, so we are finished faster." He was going to keep her threat, no, her 'promise' in mind, though.
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surrender-souls · 2 years
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autism beams be upon you fictional man >:)
#yes this is about cornelius leyden.#i speak#i wanted to make it more noticeable in my fic i guess? hell i dont even know if the word autistic existed at the time#hmm… interesting im getting a time in the 10s ANYWAYS i just dont believe he has a word for what he is not one that he knows of#so i cant just go out and say hes autistic since to him he doesnt know that. only that he is different and does things in an odd way#and well you cant say a character is autistic you have to actually make them autistic!#its a headcanon that is very close to me so it makes me very happy#the part im working on rn is talking about how he can go home but he cant get rid of the effects of that night#bringing up masking certain things such as autism and being gay since i think hes both and this is a feeling i know myself#its exhausting but letting it out can be similarly painful you can get scorned or hurt#i just want to fit these things into the plot. not have them have their own area but letting them flow throughout every scene#cause thats how it works! but body language it’s difficult to put into writing in a natural way… and its so evident in this movie!#the body language is one of my favorite pieces in it! and its so distinct very casual close and leyden has a habit of rubbing things#gesticulating while talking as well! i dont think he has much trouble with touch peters does touch him a lot#he only rejects it (at least an affectionate touch not. being vaguely threatened) when peters trys to hug him#to me it didnt read as the hug but rather the phrase peters keeps saying. really im not sure exactly where i lie on that bit#cause leyden doesnt seem to be touch adverse in any other scene but it could also be the repeated phrase that bothered him#he does say he had enough of that#i think its interesting that peters keeps repeating that phrase…#oh jeez im getting. well not actually off topic in the tags… hmm
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belanova · 1 year
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Everyone goes on about like "OMG they should've just communicated they're soooo Bad at it!" But the thing that started the escalating was something that wasn't fully in either's hands
Luzu taxed quackity cuz he did it to everybody else but he then added the personal tax of losing which was the first blow to Quackity's perception of luzu
But the second came from the tax people themselves mistreating Quackity, by threatening him and having guns up to his face if he didn't pay it immediately
Which then gives quackity the image that luzu is a massive dictador of not only rigging the elections but harming people for shit they couldn't control and there goes the story
But the thing is how would've luzu ever known the tax payers were going to treat quackity like that yknow? I personally think he shouldn't have made the tax personal and just said it was gorvenment funding
But also how can luzu stop the tax payers from mistreating the people cuz yeah he can fire them later but the damage is already done
Cause the taxes were always inevitable regardless if luzu and quackity were Friends or not but the tax payers never got told to act like that so they did it on their accord towards k!quackity
Which means the whole reason the friendship broke up was a complete third party
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muirneach · 2 years
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today at work a customer said to the security guard ‘if you make me pay for this i’ll kill you’ which obviously extended to me the cashier so um yeah another wonderful day at work
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todayisafridaynight · 2 years
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Loved the essay, and it had a lot of thought provoking truths. Mine was an amazing character and I miss him dearly everyday 🥺 I still need to check out the story with Hamazaki and him.
But geez, Hamazaki was suspiciously fixated on Majima's relationship with Kiryu and the "Heeeeey what if Kiryu-san became the new chairman, Mine? Would that be fucked up or what 😳" just leaves me feeling ???? Like, what did he know, why them specifically, h u h.
mine IS such an amazing character, if not at least an incredibly interesting one to examine and think about. i love him dearly and while i miss him everyday, i can’t even imagine what the yakuza series would look like if he did survive Y3 and became a reoccurring cast member...
as for hamazaki’s fixation on kiryu, while i know the rggo stories were written after the mainline games, after reading the one i linked beforehand hamazaki at least has a personal reason to target kiryu so much and try to goad others into pouncing on him. but removing rggo’s existence, the most i can wager is that it’s nothing particularly personal, it’s just that hamazaki’s aware of kiryu’s popularity and strength and wants to try to turn people against him so hamazaki has a better shot at becoming chairman
#snap chats#hamazaki saying as much to mine especially tells us he wants kiryu out of the picture#i cant remember when the rggo story takes place but either way im willing to bet eveyrone's aware of mine's devotion to daigo#so by hamazaki reminding mine that daigo's position could be threatened by the likes of kiryu#it's more likely than not that mine would do what he could against kiryu to preserve daigo's status#of course at this point during that flashback daigo's status isn't exactly perfect but it's not totally fatal#so on hamazaki's end it was a bit of a gamble: get kiryu out of the picture and hopefully daigo would follow suit and not recover#of course things dont exactly turn out well for hamazaki either huh#it is a wonder why hamazaki tries to have majima go against kiryu though#i feel like just as everyone's aware of mine's devotion to daigo everyone should be aware of majima's faithfulness to kiryu#a weird move to be sure BUT oh well#ngl i really liked hamazaki- if not cause Y4 somehow made me like him lmao#i guess it was nice to see a character be able to redeem themselves for once- yk before like. immediately dying afterwards#but im getting off topic lmao thank you for the ask im glad you liked my essay :) i'll happily write another one if prompted or whatever lol#me answering this ask is such funny timing though in regards to the first half#i was JUST talking to my brother and theorizing what the yakuza series woulda been like had mine lived#thats definitely something i wanna try writing or at least looking into at some point#but... Say It With Me Now.... i gotta replay Y4 first LMAOOO#I DONT REMEMBER ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN Y4#ughhh i keep saying ill replay it but i never do#i wanna draw something quick so lets see...#no i dont think i can play it tonight i told my sister i'd pack her lunch tomorrow#i guess after that i can.... we'll see i'll end this post now tho im rambling lmao
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trollbreak · 2 years
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Got myself thinking about my favorite least favorite guy again and like. I should incorporate more of his fun little things into other characters
#thinks about how he’s never been a ghost but he’s been haunting people since before he even died#he’s haunting people he’s not seen in years and even more so haunting the man he’s spent most of his life with. they’re so intertwined that#the second Lawrence started remembering his life he found very on and fell in love with him all over again and it took threatening his#family for him to look over his rose tinted glasses for the man for the first time#they’re the ones that caused each other to experience the afterlife and the only deaths that stuck to any meaningful degree and when the#void takes the universe and they’re thrown back to the moment before that reality touched their lives they cling to each other in spite of#it all because if they both remember the exact same things for so long that has to count for something and they love each other and they#hate each other and they understand exactly how the other thinks and they fear each other more than anything and#anyways the point of this was that I should have someone still walking among the living haunting someone just a lil. just present enough to#continuously get under the person’s skin but just absent enough that the person doesn’t feel they can justify it. and they keep it to#themselves to spare others the trouble. and I think I might maybe be figuring out where that’s gonna happen but it’s probably gonna take#some time. anyways yada yada the living dead haunt the living dead and *gestures vaguely*
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waywardsalt · 3 months
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i love having post ph ideas and no idea where on the timeline they go
#like. i know exactly how long it lasts like i set aside two calendars and picked starting and ending dates so i hope to use them#to plan what happens and when and to force myself to limit things#like. i dont actually have a ton of ideas yet#i know damien gets a cool story arc and bellum learns some art stuff and link learns blacksmithing#they have brief visits back to oshus’ world for periodic checkups on bellum’s uh. parole#ciela is scandalized to find out that linebeck not only has a boyfriend but that hes also somewhat involved with bellum too#theres a bit where they find and check out this… ruin? where it is capable of summoning the ghosts of people close to those who entered#so damien gets to come out to his (dead) parents and it goes well :) and linebeck curses out one or both of his parents#he probably curses out and threatens to attack his father and has a mixed thing with his mother#link briefly gets to see the korl. bellum either sees no one or wades through dead armies#theres some asshole pirate captain who declares himself linebecks nemesis but linebeck just wants to kill him and be done with it#things escalate from there he and his crew are reoccurring antagonists causing typical pirate issues#i think things between link and tetra get worse and then they get kinda better. they meet with her crew periodically#theres an overarching plot but thats still being hammered out#i think theyll get the master sword. they somehow revisit ganondorf’s… corpse? and likely get the sword#either the master sword itself or its base goddess sword form. either way the idea is like. fi has done her job so she can rest#like demise’s curse has ended he has given up so her job is finally complete yknow? she can rest once and for all#rn its a handful of big stuff tied together by vague overarching plot plus just slice of life adventure stuff with exploring different#islands and meeting people and seeing different civilizations and helping em out and stuff#less looking for a new hyrule and more exploring what settlements already exist if that makes sense#post ph#salty talks
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man I absolutely Knew my dad would end up falling head first for the zionist propaganda so it wasn't even Remotely worth tryna talk to him about current affairs but it is so goddamn frustrating to be proven right... 🙃
I tried to talk to him about the state of palestine Years back (somewhere around 2018-19 I think) and admittedly I didn't have all the facts then but I could tell I was fighting a losing battle even then facts or no facts because my dad's too busy sucking israel's dick to care when human beings are being subjugated, or even consider that maybe israel Could be in the wrong here. add all the propaganda being shoved down his throat rn and I just know he ended up saying death to palestine with his whole chest. absolute joke of a family I'm in man.
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rebeccathenaturalist · 5 months
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A study that just came out demonstrates that outdoor cats are known to prey on over two thousands species of wild animal, from mammals to birds to insects. That includes 347 species that are endangered, threatened or otherwise of concern, and they've been a key factor of the permanent extinction of over 60 species. And while cats may not always bring home what they catch, chances are if your cat is allowed to roam unsupervised outside, they're killing your local wildlife.
Why is this so important? Worldwide, wild animal populations have decreased in number by 69% in the past fifty years; that means that in my lifetime (born in 1978), the sheer number of wild animals in the world has been decreased by over half. Even "common" wild species are less numerous than before. While habitat population is the single biggest cause of species endangerment and extinction overall, outdoor and indoor/outdoor cats are a significant cause as well. In fact, they are the single biggest cause of human-caused mortality in wild birds.
Most importantly, it's very, very simple to fix this problem: keep your cats indoors, and spay and neuter them. If your cat is bored, they need more enrichment, and there are plenty of ways to make your home more exciting for them, from bringing home cardboard boxes for them to explore, to playing with them more often. If you want your cat to get some outdoor enrichment, leash train them (yes, it can be done!) If you have the space and resources, build them a catio where they can be safe from outdoor dangers like predators and cars, while also keeping local wildlife safe from them.
If you just give into their whining and pawing at the door, then they know that that's what they have to do to get their way; I know it's a tough transition, but it's worth it in the end for everyone involved. Cats are domesticated, which means they are not native anywhere in the world; there are exactly zero ecosystems in which they belong, save for the safety of your home. It is your responsibility to give them an enriching environment without taking the shortcut of letting them go wreak havoc outside.
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semercury · 8 months
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Girl help, my brain wants me to do the forbidden anti anxiety measures.
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evilminji · 3 months
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You know all those Cults in Gotham?
Bet at least ONE of them could spring for both a Legit Magic User and a Cloning pod.
Because The Wayne's? Hearts of Gold. Long standing pains in the asses. Probably the only thing standing between this gods forsaken wasteland of a city and Their Dark Lord. For GENERATIONS no less!
It's sooooo obnoxious!
So they want to Curse Um dead. Just a good ol fashioned bloodline curse. Destroy um from within, etc. BUT! To do THAT? You kinda need a blood relative to sacrifice!
And Bruce is... well... rather infamously An Orphan With No Biological Kids (at that point).
So? What do you do? Make one, obviously. You send in some of your own on a Holy Mission. Honeypot that playboy! Get us a kid to sacrifice! Our God will reward you etc! But... FFS! What? Are brunettes not your TYPE or something?! Pretty lady! Throwing herself at you!!
TAKE THE BAIT!
But he DOESN'T. Because he's both really used to that behavior, as The Wayne Heir and a False Playboy, AND because? He's fuckin Batman. He can see through your schemes.
Okay.
Okay!
Plan B!
Get us some DNA. We'll CLONE the sucker. That should be doable, right?
........OH COME ON! How?!
Batman: [REDACTED] / Cultists: 0
Fuck it! This is impossible! How are we supposed too... *eyes drift over to the Wayne Family Private Graveyard* .......Idea? Ideeeeaaaa~! Someone get us a shovel!
So they, cultist bastards that they are? Fuckin rob a grave for some DNA.
OBVIOUSLY though, it can't be one of the more RECENT graves! He probably VISITS those! Watches them! No we gotta be SNEAKY! Get one a bit further back! Mwahahahaha! We're so brilliant! Our God is gonna give us SUCH a Good Grade in follower!
A thing that is both REAL and possible to achieve!
So, while a Weirdly FURIOUS Batman? Is just... VIOLENTLY breaking ALL of their bones? Cultist 17 is furiously digging like his life depends on it. Either somebody snitched or Batman was hunting them down! Either way?
Gotta! Get! That! DNA!!! *digs faster*
Ah HA! Got it!
Fucking SCATTER! Run you fools, RUN!!! *everyone bolts*
And AT LAST! They have it! Wayne DNA! Now? Pop that sucker into the machine and make us a baby! Too sacrifice! *relieved noises* Man, that was hard work you guys. But we DID it!
Except??
Theoretical Babies? And "Real, slowly forming in front of me and becoming a human child" type babies? VERY DIFFERENT psychologically. It's ONE thing to sacrifice a HYPOTHETICAL baby... but when you're the guy running and monitoring the Cloning machine? Watching it slowly form and come together into... into a CHILD?
You start asking questions of yourself. Of God.
Of what, EXACTLY, you are willing to do.
What lines you find yourself unwilling to cross.
And yeah, your life was SHIT before the cult. Yeah, you were alone. Adrift. Without purpose. Angry at the world for all of its ugliness and failings. But... sitting, alone, in a dark room? Nothing but the steady hum of machines and the cool light of that pod? You are left with nothing but time... and your thoughts.
And the baby.
The one... the one YOU made.
Almost... he's almost like a son, in a way. Your son. Floating there, innocent and unknowing. Destined to be born, only to die painfully, for a cause he could not even begin to understand. Because he's too young. Too small. Just... just a baby.
The baby YOU made.
Doubt seeps in like mist. Creeping into the cracks forming in your faith. Surely there's another way, right? Why not save up for a better magician? Or... or hire a hitman? Why involve a child? Surely... surely your God would not WANT this, right? Or if He did! Surely, he would want the boy to be able to CHOOSE, right? A noble sacrifice, for the cause?
The pressure builds. Batman is tearing the city APART looking for your fellow Believers. Leadership is pressuring you to get "It" ready all ready.
He's not an "it".
They are dismissing your questions. Threatening and posturing, as you grapple with your faith. Where? Where is the COMMUNITY that you joined? The camaraderie? Every day, Believers are being torn down. The faith has lost so many!
How can this be WORTH it?
Your faith is slowly, cruelly, strangled in your chest. A death, by ten thousand silences, and ten thousand more cruelties.
Your son is ready.
You do not tell them.
The Clone of Bruce Wayne's great-grandfather is small, but healthy, in your arms. A tiny warm body, with a strong beating little heart. You call the police. Leave your phone, call running, on the desk. No one thinks to stop you, as you calmly walk out the back door.
Why would they doubt?
You are Faithful.
You drive. Pray to a God you have lost faith in, beg forgiveness for what you do now. Your beat up old junker of a car makes decent time, as you leave Gotham. Your son, asleep in a carefully made nest of blankets, on the seat next to you. You drive. You keep driving.
Past towns.
Past cities.
Out of the state.
Stopping only to feed your son and fuel your car. You... you can not bring yourself to care about what will happen to you now. You know they will find you. Know this is the end. But something ancient burns in your chest. A caring you never thought was REAL.
You are afraid.
But you will not let them harm your son.
Finally, a town. Far from Gotham. Quite and cheerful. It calls to you.
Here. It... it has to be here.
You find the hospital. Tears choking you. There is a place to drop of children. You've seen them before. How strange, that now you stand before it and HURT. Your arms not listening to your command. You... you have to do this. You HAVE too.
He is just a baby.
He is your son.
You have to keep him safe. And... and that can not be with you.
You gently put your baby boy into the drop off. Press the buzzer. And then? You make yourself walk away.
Get back in your car, and drive. The gun in your glove box will insure they can never pry from you, what you have done. Where he is. He is safe now. He has to be. You... you did your job. As his father. You made sure he was safe.
You can barely see the road, through your tears.
You take your secrets to the grave.
And Danny? He grows up. Is adopted young and never knows different. Both a Fenton and a Wayne. Knowing only one of these, to be his. But... that Wayne? Was a damn fine man. A pillar of his community and a champion of the people.
Got tossed more then a few blessings, in his life.
They weren't the STRONGEST. But they added up. And more importantly? Were hardly the refined magics of the more powerful. They were cast onto "Him". By blood and bone, more often then not. Which was all well and good!
When there was only ONE of "Him".
Cloning technology did not exsist. So why would you word carefully against it? Danny becomes a VERY lucky boy. Survives many things he should not. In fact, the kindness and hard work of his original? Gifted back in magically powered well wishes? By this, he survives something NO ONE could possibly expect him too.
It saves his life.
His template would be quite pleased, knowing that. That his life of good deeds, saved the life of the child he never got a chance to meet. That it protected his children, from even beyond death.
And in Gotham? At long, long last. The program Bruce made in his helplessness and despair, to search EVERY child until the child made of his bloodline was found? Spits out a match.
A Watchtower engineer.
Daniel J. Fenton.
@hdgnj @hypewinter @lolottes @babbling-babull @nerdpoe @mutable-manifestation
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lovebugism · 5 days
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hi!! could you write shy!reader where Eddie bumps into the new kid at school and she gets hurt? I’m a sucker when it comes to Eddie doting on people 🙈
i tried to be so normal about this request but then proceeded to write 2k words for it so... hope you like it lol :D — the hawkins high freak takes the new girl under his wing after they run into each other. literally. (shy!r, meet ugly-ish, hurt/comfort, 2.2k)
You clutch a paper schedule in a pair of anxious hands, squinting to see through the scribbles there. Three boys in bright green lettermans made a total mess of it — writing directions in chicken scratch and doodling a sloppy map of the school over your classes. They said they were helping you, but really they’ve just turned you all around.
Fallen leaves crunchbeneath your feet as you walk past the vacant football field. West of the bleachers and down the dirt trail, the stranger with a harsh jawline and quaffed blonde hair told you. His directions lead you directly to a half-decrepit building in the thick of the woods. A strange spot for a biology lab.
You’re trying to make sense of the scrawled notes on your syllabus — eyes narrowed, and chin tilted downward — when you run into something tall and firm. You don’t hit the warm body hard enough to fall, but stumble back in fear enough to slip on the dewy grass. Like a cartoon character and a banana peel, you land comically on your ass.
“Shit. Sorry,” the towering stranger grimaces. “Didn’t see you there.”
Your wrists start to sting, burdened with the weight of catching your fall. “It’s okay…” you tell him anyway. ‘Cause everything’s always okay. Even when it isn’t. 
A ringed hand enters your vision then — lanky, pale, and tattooed. “Here. Let me help you up.”
“It’s okay,” you dismiss with a shake of your head. “I got it.”
Your jaw clenches tight as you rise on your feet. The slippery mud threatens to pull you down again. Your wrists throb with a dull and distant ache. You stand, despite all that, before the stranger you’d stumbled into the back of. 
Eddie watches you wipe your dirt-covered palms together with a lopsided smile tugging at his mouth. He doesn’t have a clue who you are, but he’s getting a few ideas now. You’re a strong, stubborn, and shy little thing. Pretty, too. 
“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he cautions with his palms spread awkwardly in front of him. He wants to make sure you’re alright, but he doesn’t want to make you uncomfortable. Strong, stubborn, shy, and definitely skittish, he thinks to himself.
You shake your head again, finally glancing at the boy looming before you. His curls are dark and untamed, billowing in the early spring breeze. His deep chocolate eyes match the color of the frizzy strands — both equally as wild as the smile he looks at you with.
Your breath catches suddenly in your throat. You hadn’t expected to bump into him, of course, but you expected even less for him to be so pretty.
“I’m—”
“Don’t say okay,” he interjects before you can start. His plush lips quirk in a genuine smile a second later, to show he’s only joking.
You swallow hard, still hopelessly trying to rid the mud from your aching palms. “I’m… I’m— I’m fine.”
The boy scoffs a faint laugh. “Here. Let me see.”
He takes your wrists in his hands before you can protest. His fingers are long, gentle, and strangely warm as he brushes the mud off your scrapped skin — hardly flinching when it dirties his own. 
He wipes his palms on his jeans after, never minding how it stains the denim. Then he reaches a leather-clad arm behind you and plucks a leaf gently from your hair. He flicks it to the ground again.
“There,” he grins. “Good as new.”
“Thanks…” you sigh, voice wavering from a reason you can’t name.
“Why haven’t I seen you around before?”
“‘Cause I’m… I’m new.”
“Explains why you’re all the way out here,” he jokes. Most people only come around this side of the football field to buy weed off him, and you don’t exactly seem like the type. His chocolate eyes narrow. “You lost?”
You shift on your feet, feeling suddenly very silly about the whole thing. You’ve got to be a special kind of stupid to take advice from a bunch of jocks and hardly bat an eye when they lead you in the exact opposite direction. You’re too trusting for your own good. It’s embarrassing.
“I was, uh— I was just trying to follow this map, but…” you wave the paper in your clammy hand. “I think it just made me more lost.”
Eddie reaches out a ringed hand and takes the schedule from you when you hand it over. His face scrunches softly together as he squints at the sloppy scribbles. You can’t tell if he’s confused or if he needs glasses. Maybe both.
He can hardly make sense of the directions. And the map was designed in a very obvious attempt to confuse you — the sweet, shy girl who’s never stepped foot here before. Something redhot simmers in his chest ‘cause he can’t imagine doing this to someone. Finding someone who obviously needs help and doing them over for a couple measly laughs.
It’s got Jason Carver and the Dick Brigade written all over it. Literally.
“Who gave this to you?” he asks anyway, just to be sure.
You blink up at him with a pair of doe eyes, gaze glimmering with innocence. “Um… A couple of basketball players, I think. They were wearing lettermans, so…”
“Fucking Carver,” the boy grumbles under his breath.
“What?”
“Nothing…” he sighs. “Here. C’mon. Let’s go.” 
“Where— Where are we…” you mutter in a mousy voice, trailing off when he stomps past you. You get a faint whiff of floral shampoo and woodsy cologne as he goes. Less inclined to stay alone in the unfamiliar forest, you decide to follow behind him. “O-Okay…”
You fight to keep up with his considerably longer strides as the stranger leads you back towards the school. His dark eyes flit over your schedule, squinting to see past the messy lettering covering the typeface. 
“No point in making it to your third period,” he announces suddenly, swinging the heavy metal door open with a ringed hand. The rusted hinges squeak in protest when he holds it open for you with his foot. You slide in past him. He walks on ahead of you again, letting the thing slam shut behind him.
“Why?” you ask the back of him, voice wavering.
“‘Cause you’re already fifteen minutes late. And take it from me— Mr. Kaminsky hates when people are late,” Eddie tells you, flashing you a stern look over his shoulder. “Trust me. I learned that the hard way.”
Your brows pinch as your face swirls with a distant panic. You couldn’t conceal your worry if you tried. The gravity of it all hits you, then — the fact that you’re following a stranger you ran into (in the most literal sense of the phrase), who’d previously been half-hidden away in the forest behind the school.
It’s all a bit odd when you think about it. This. Him. You. 
But this strange boy, dripping in silver and all black, is the very first person to show you an ounce of kindness all day. You don’t know why you’re following him so blindly — only that you don’t mind it as much as you should.
“Okay. So. Uh… Where are we— Where are we going, then?” you squeak behind him.
“Right here,” he answers, stopping short in the middle of the hallway. 
Still a few paces back, you don’t hopelessly bump into the back of him like you did before. You watch with wide and curious eyes as he wraps a pale hand around a rusted door knob. The heavy wooden entrance squeals when he opens it.
“Welcome to my humble abode,” the boy jokes with a crooked grin. Everything about the pink expression glitters with mischief. He flicks on the light switch, letting the flourescent lights buzz on in protest. “Well, not abode— I don’t live here, but… You get it.”
The room smells overwhelmingly teenage boy. A mixture of cologne, sweet soda, and sweat. Most of the chairs have been stacked on top of each other and pushed to the edge of the room to make space for the long wooden table in the center. Binders, notebooks, and miscellaneous figurines sit scattered on a gameboard.
“Is that D&D?” you wonder quietly.
Eddie lights up at the question. “You play?” he asks as he saunters to the desk shoved in the very back corner of the room.
His excitement makes you regret your answer. 
“No…” you waver, then quickly follow. “But I’ve— I’ve heard about it.”
“I’m president of the Hellfire club,” he tells you, nodding to the poster on the wall. The demon in the center of it isn’t nearly as intimidating when you can tell it’s handmade. “You should join.”
The boy eyes you expectantly as he rounds the metal desk. You shift your weight on your feet and wring your clammy hands together. He tilts his chin to his chest and peers at you from underneath his lashes. “Think about it?” he presses.
You nod once. “Sure.”
He ducks down then, out of view behind the bulky desk. You stand awkwardly in place while the boy rummages through the drawers. “Ah, here we go…” you hear him murmur after a few moments — followed by a dull thud when he bangs his head. “Shit!” he swears under his breath before rising to his feet again.
You hide your smile behind your scrapped palm as he walks back over to you. His cheeks glow faintly pink as he rubs the crown of his head with his hand — the one not clutching a first-aid kit. “Here. Shit down. Let me look at your hands,” he urges, still worried about you despite his throbbing skull.
You shake your head rapidly in response. You’re not used to being doted on like this — or at all, really — but especially not from a metalhead, wild-haired, pretty-faced stranger. “No. I’m— I’m okay.”
His chocolate eyes go wide and softly stern. They glimmer playfully down at you as his brows raise behind his fluffy bangs. “What we’d just talk about?” he teases.
You swallow down the rest of your protests. “Right…”
You sit in the chair adjacent to the one at the head of the table. The cheap plastic is a stark contrast to the heavy wooden throne the stranger descends upon — with a sort of ease that tells you he sits there often.
He digs into the opened first-aid kit and pulls out a bandaid for you. He fumbles with the packaging for a moment before ripping it open with his teeth. 
“It’s okay not to be okay, you know?” he tells you, mostly muffled until he spits out the paper in his mouth. It lands on the floor at his feet, but he doesn’t seem inclined to pick it up. “Tell me I’m a shithead who needs to watch where he’s going. I know that’s what you’re thinking.”
Your face screws in offense. “I wasn’t—”
“I’m teasing,” he interjects softly, peering at you with a pair of button eyes. “Even though I am a shithead who needs to watch where he’s going.” He takes your palm between his warm and gently calloused ones. He smooths the large bandage over the raging scrape below your thumb with an impossibly delicate touch. “I’m sorry about that, by the way. Again.”
“It was my fault,” you murmur, gaze averted to the boy’s kind hands — at the six tiny bats tattoed in the junction of his thumb and forefinger. “You don’t have to apologize. It’s just a scrape, anyway, I can handle it.”
“Agree to disagree,” the boy says with a lopsided smile, brushing his thumb over the bandage to smooth it out. He gives your fingers a small squeeze before he parts from you. “There you good. Good as new.”
Your hands buzz with the longing to feel him again. You bring both of them to your lap, wrenching your fingers into a knot and hoping your face doesn’t look as hot as it feels. “Thank you…” you murmur, trailing off when you realize you don’t know the kind stranger’s name.
“Eddie,” he finishes for you.
“…Eddie.”
“You can stay in here with me if you want,” he offers with a nonchalant shrug — trying to be cool despite his thundering heart. “Third period’ll be over in, like, twenty minutes. I can walk you to your next class— you know, make sure all the freaks leave you alone.”
You purse your lips to the side of your mouth in attempts to hide the beam tugging there. It only halfway works. “That’d be great,” you tell him in a mousy voice. “Thank you…”
Eddie swallows hard and leans forward again. You can smell the nicotine on his breath and the musky cologne on his neck. His face hardens into a gently solemn look. 
“And don’t… Don’t hang around Jason Carver and his goons anymore, okay?” he tells you, sounding like he’s half-pleading. “Those assholes that fucked with your schedule? They’re bad news.”
Feeling like he must know this better than anyone else, you nod firmly in response. “Okay,” you answer, though it comes out in a whisper when the word gets caught in your throat. Something about having Eddie to you is making your body go all funny. It’s weird.
“Stick with me, okay?” the boy smiles, pink and pretty and petaled, as he slouches back onto his throne again. “I’ll take care of you.”
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