#marriage of the minds

[incarnateirony]

Lateralus Project: Evolved:

The Winchesters Edition

So. First things first. Boy am I dizzy. This is, at this point, four years of work invested in this video series. We won't get into the nitty gritty on WHY it works out so well, as much as enjoy what it is!

I KNOW THIS STORY LOOKS FAMILIAR BUT I AM GOING TO PUT THE PIECES TOGETHER IN A WAY YOU MIGHT NOT EXPECT!!!! - Dean

I want to change the World. But this monster in my head could destroy everything.

334 episodes*; 13 songs; 13 processes, 13 episodes; 2 sides to the coin; the hardest beast to face is the one within; even with your helpful half djinn son or the light in the road calling you home. We're turning over all the cards and opening all the doors in the info and episode shuffles behind the cut. YT includes episode timestamps in the full movie. So does the cut, as well as links to lyrics, quick summaries and more general information.

Follow the Path of The One towards Heaven.

You can find more information about the Original Double Order over on This Post. (2 direction shuffletrack with different endings moving through consciousness as a movement of along spirals: "Spiral out, keep going, spiral out")

However, The Winchesters took its own means of reshuffling. If you view the old post, one song remained the same in both directions: 11 is 11, Reflections. It's a causal point, and has been moved to midseason, respectively, as 1x7 Reflections. Rolling back, if one starts the spiral at Mantra, 11 becomes 7, and the track plays out, reverting after 12 to the steps missed earlier, 1-4 respectively, but reverse: 4-1.

I know that sounds like wonky math, don't overthink it, just. Explaining there IS method to the madness. The simplest thing to remember is, follow the basic ideas: Generational Trauma, who the generations ARE, doors, spears, guns, blossoms, you name it. You WILL get dizzy you WILL be overwhelmed but ride it and you'll put the pieces together.

EVERYTHING means SOMETHING. The current order then is:

ACT 1: THE PAST -- IN THE BEGINNING

Ep 1: 0:00 - Intro: Mantra: What makes a story work? Jensen and robbie's revenge

Ep 2: 03:29 - The Spiral: Lateralus (Lyrics) The snake is the-- Ep 3: 12:44 - Trauma Broadcasting System (TBS): Faaip De Oiad: Tower

Ep 4: 15:21 - Transmutation: The Grudge (Lyrics) The Rupture

ACT 2: THE SELF AND INFLUENCE -- THE ONE

Ep 5: 23:53 - Generations of Eden; Triad: Father, Cursed Christ, Holy Ghost Ep 6: 30:21 - Aeon: Eon Blue Apocalypse: Midnight channel interrupted Ep 7: 31:34 - Reflections: Reflections: Reflections; Narcissus (Lyrics)

ACT 3: THE PRESENT -- KNOW THYSELF

Ep 8: 42:45 - Face it to Get Out: The Patient (Lyrics) Vampire act's a little old. Ep 9: 50:05 - The Akrida: Ticks and Leeches (Lyrics) I hope you choke. Ep 10: 58:13 - The Truth: Schism: The Trap (Lyrics) Bring the pieces back together (in a way you might not expect), rediscover Communication.

THE FINAL ACT --- THE FUTURE

Eps 11 & 12: 01:05:11 : Don't Spiral, Evolve: Parabol & Parabola (Lyrics)

The Eternal Soul. People, families. That's real. We are.

Finally, Ep 13:01:14:13: In the Light you will Find the Road: Disposition (Lyrics) Mention This To Dean, Watch The Weather Change

The moon gives me her secret, a confidant; as full and bright as I am this light is not my own and a million light reflections (of the sun) pass over me.

I cared about the Whole World because of you. (see Vitriol)

With my feet upon the ground I lose myself between the sounds and open wide to suck it in, I feel it move across my skin. I'm reaching up and reaching out, I'm reaching for the random and whatever will bewilder me, whatever will bewilder me. And following our will and whim we may just go where no one's been. We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been. Spiral out. Keep going. Evolve.

SEE ALSO:

Traxxverse; Find The Queen; Ramble On;

(Art by Mortea. Six flags here we go, 1x12 Barrelhouse. Dizzy. Rolling downhill in the barrel into the riverside or the tunnel or dean's opening, I don't know anymore)

Castiel's Resolution

Dean's Resolution

End Of The Line

End of the Road.

Steal Your Heart; Death Has Something I Want;

VITRIOL: The Occultum

Saturn (Not Grudge, but as The Grudge/The Trap tells us, Saturn comes back around to show you everything) As above, so below.

Perfect Landing, Son (The Garden, The End, Calling you home; the moon at the end of mary's tunnel; we're opening all the doors; we're turning over all the cards. At the center of it all is the magic kingdom. the garden. We're the one thing he couldn't control. Follow the Full Moon through the storm; Watch the Weather Change; Lift the Fog, Find the Truth; 15x18. Despair/The Truth. Chuck only wins if you let your life go by without meaning. It's in just being. It's in just saying it. Cas, there's something I have to say.)

Windmills. I came to in a garden. Three days journey, end of the stream, or a river, or a tunnel, or a road, or an opening. You'll find a clearing. You'll find your angel blossom there. In The Trap you still are stuck in. Not in Purgatory, but for yourself. The Rupture. The Trap. And The Truth.

It's all about the Truth.

There's something I have to say.

IF YOU APPRECIATE THE QUITE LITERAL YEARS OF WORK PUT INTO THIS SPIRAL PIECE AND ITS MANY WEBS AND BRANCHES AND LIMBS OF REACH AT THIS POINT,

PLEASE CONSIDER BECOMING A MEMBER OF MY PATREON TO ENCOURAGE ME, YOU KNOW, CONTINUING TO MAKE BACK BREAKING CONTENT LIKE THIS.

⛤|| Creations: Youtube || Ao3

⛤|| Support: Patreon

⛤|| Community: POLOL Discord || Kripkeverse Guilded

** This project was first developed as 13 parts in two directions season 14. One was released with ep 300, and the others with Ouroboros. Only two were directly updated season 15, For Reasons, also on hiatus. All 13 tracks are now master tracked with The Winchesters content, Ouroboros, In The Beginning, The Future, The Truth and processes in alchemy gathered as a secondary partner project through Season 15's myth-arc. This final wave was developed beginning a few episodes into The Winchesters, for targeted mass release today, Weds 12/7/2022, in sync with the airing of 1x7 Reflections, which one could call. Conveniently named. Heh. Consider this The Final Hiatus. Once episode 13 airs we may end up with a Final Final Final Right Edit, if you will, but otherwise this is it. Entertain yourself picking this apart all hiatus.

#Youtube #winchesters codex #lateralus project #lateralus evolve #spiral narrative #serpent #i couldn't possibly tag this everthing #marriage of the minds #that's the right tag #and of the opening #in the body #that totally isn't another hole #Lata begs us #no one gives us anything #i took it #magnum opus #The Work is done #the clown's journey is done #it's time to tap out and enjoy the ride

[gayagendaofficial]

hey uhhh. why the FUCK would you write the headline like that? like in 2015 you didn't see headlines like "the US sent gay people to conversion camps and had them lobotomized, now its Supreme Court is legalizing same-sex marriage." Cuba is on the verge of doing something amazing, meanwhile the US is facing a wave of homophobia and transphobia and a group of unelected judges can just decide to take the country back decades to the time of sodomy laws. then again, i'm not surprised that the Washington Post would write an article about a socialist country in the global south like this 🙄

#cuba #cuba referendum #washington post #socialism #same sex marriage #also i don't mind them discussing that stuff in the article itself. like it shows how far cuba has come #but why would you put it in the headline when yoh wouldn't write about the US or a european country like that?

[fanby-fckry]

Modern AU

Alastor: If you’re not married by the time you turn 40, will you marry me?

Husk: What the fuck? Did you just propose to me?

Alastor: Maybe! :)

Husk: Why? Why would we get married?

Alastor: Tax Evasion! :)

Husk:

Husk: Ok, deal.

#getting married to someone else isn’t even an option in Alastor’s mind #Husk is his best friend and the only person he trusts enough to marry #nobody else will do #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel memes #hazbin hotel incorrect quotes #incorrect hazbin quotes #incorrect hazbin hotel quotes #incorrect quotations #radiohusk #fake marriage au #alastor x husk #alastor #alastor hazbin hotel #husk hazbin hotel #fanby’s fuckery

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Wardrobe Woes

[First] Prev <–-> Next

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #Yes: there are people who read these comics who don't know much about mdzs. Several are my beloved and supportive friends B'*) #This comic in particular is one that I've been thinking about for a very long time and I'm so happy to finally be here! #I was trying to think about how to explain the social rules of the forehead ribbon and the reason lwj was so upset #and the metaphor of 'it's kind of like wwx accidently undoing lwj's bikini in front of a crowd.' came to mind. #of course there's a bit more to it than that but the point here is that - accident or not - it still embarrasses lwj #wwx doesn't get the entire context behind it (at the time. Now he *does* and it all makes a bit more sense) #But he knows he made lwj upset. He knows he doesn't want to put lwj in another embarrassing situation. #Not after all this. Not after everything. Not after realizing that his desire for friendship might be the kind of desire that ruins lan zha #Love the symbolism of the archery outfits being red during this moment of 'whoops only married couples can do that' moment. #What if we accidental proposed............accidental marriage....accidental kiss the bridegroom....accidental fall in love. #Guess we did inadvertently get the puffy sleeves and bikini outfits in the end. #wwx in an old timey bathing suit is so important to me. I'll die on this hill. #lwj's cute little box is inspired by @lazycranberrydoodles's cute fan art <3 I love it a lot

[purpleguitar]

Perfect Marriage Revenge EP 6

#perfect marriage revenge #pmredit #kdramaedit #a girl is about to lose her mind #purple.mp4

[variksel]

scary and linc calling their wedding 'marriage part 2: electric boogaloo'

#or. lets be fr taylor calls it that FOR them #in my mind linc grows up to be kind of a big romantic so he doesnt think its super funny #(scary does) #anyway their less close guests are confused and politely try to ask if theyve been divorced before or something #and normal and taylor semi accidentally spill the beans that Actually they were in a five way marriage before #and they leave it wayyy too vague so everyone is. confused! #and assumes some DRAMA has been going down when theyve not been looking #dndads #dungeons and daddies #glenn close #scary marlowe #linc wilson #lincoln li wilson #gothcleats #taylor swift #dndads spoilers #normal oak #dungeons and daddies s2

[loubatas]

Holy fuck, I have just learned that starting from today, your Allocation Adulte Handicapé (French state's allowance for disabled adults who can't work) is no longer tied to your partner's income!

This means disabled adults can now live with their partner and even get married without losing part or all of their allowance, as it was before!

This will help so many of us. So many of us who had to live with their partner because they needed their help everyday and so couldn't get governmental financial help and had to scrap on with only one person's income. So many of us who had to stay with their abusive partner because they didn't have any income of their own. And so many of us who had to live alone because we couldn't afford to lose our allowance

That's the best news I've heard this year. Disability benefits being tied to your partner's income is still the norm in most countries. I hope it'll spread to the rest of the world quickly

(Source)

#disability #disability rights #marriage equality #france #frenchposting on main #I had heard they were working on it but I had no idea they would implement it so quickly #a few years ago the government refused to untie the AHH from your partner's income because 'no other country does that' #I can't believe they changed their mind so quickly #and I hope no other country will ever use that fuck of an excuse to their disabled population #mine

[queenoftheimps]

we saw you from across the bar and we really loathe your vibes

#interview with the vampire #iwtv #louis de pointe du lac #armand de romanus #daniel molloy #i don't even mind that alice=armand is debunked #armand pissily reading daniel's mind is exactly what i wanted #definitely not armand being like “HEY REMEMBER YOUR HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGES DANNY” #“I'M DEFINITELY NOT MAD ABOUT IT STILL” #loumand #devil's minion

[moeblob]

Sorry I forgot Hanneman suggested Byleth undress after they show up with a different hair color. And I miss Hanneman. And also while swapping between Houses and Hopes and seeing Hanneman pop up to help in a Hopes paralogue is just devastating since he doesn't ever actually join you at all and I am denied my old man rights.

So I had to draw this. Thank you for understanding.

#fe three houses #byleth #hanneman von essar #i like that Byleth just kinda stares at him and he realizes WHAT HE SAID and the implications and is like #step back uh forget that I said that #like man so zoned in on research he blurts that out and has to backtrack mentally to AH socially bad to say that my bad #if i need to tag this as anything lemme know even though it is a conversation in game basically (minus the marriage) #also if you have never married hanneman i genuinely enjoyed his s support and was VERY surprised and hes just #honestly one of my favorites overall in 3h ?? and im still bummed i cant play as him in thropes like thats just mean #also i think if byleth was like oh well if its awkward to see someone undress randomly #then marriage would solve the awkwardness this is truly the best deduction #which is really funny that i can see it happening with both leths despite my hc of them #with fyleth as bi and myleth as ace i think both would just be like AH cool we can avoid awkwardness by marriage #and hanneman just wants to go lie down in a ditch because he said something like that #and and byleth doesnt even know about religion while working at church school they dont know about school regulations #that wasnt really on their mind to check ok just saying you could tell byleth no to something #and then they just go oh school policies i understand unfortunately #and the person is like no we just meant its frowned upon to do archery practice in the tea garden its not technically illegal just dont??

[incarnateirony]

prydain parallels aka cas forsakes his powers to marry dean??????? maybe a reach but 👀

Kinda, not quite. It's more that Cas already made that sacrifice (and ironically became Much More during it, but didn't know it at the time). If you check my Marriage of the Minds tag, or pretty much any of my art or garden tags, you'll see that the plot of season 15 was something called the alchemical wedding. There were two near instances (15.09, 15.13-- one cancelled, one proverbial proxy jack) and then the actual moment 15.18 for Cas, but Dean really never got his beyond Not Who I Am and I'll Try To Live For Him/Them. And at least telling his little brother he was proud of him and loved him, that kind of qualifies but was really just a plug for the plot checkbox, because that's not new, he's said it before, and that's not what Berens' plot was leading to (but I'm not about to get back into Singer's fuckery.)

You may want to also check my occultum tag, because of 15.13. You'll see in my Art tag that the occultum is actually pulled from that card, which represents that alchemical union.

The "loosely translated, in order to be in the occultum, the occultum must be in you" was quite cute, actually. They put it in Enochian so Cas had to read it, even if the original was in Latin, which is why Billie and Sam had that. THATS LATIN FOR HIDDEN RIGHT. where is it. I DONT KNOW. ITS HIDDEN.

It was in fact VERY LOOSELY TRANSLATED in the like "alchemy for dummies model" 

Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem

“Visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying what you find there, you will discover the hidden stone (philosopher’s stone)”

So let me shorthand what that means again in a new post, then direct you to the aforementioned tags. (cut for length)

OK so in alchemy there's a whole spiritual quest of breaking down your bad stuff and becoming a good clean pure self, but purity isn't christian purity. It's the mastery of the self without fear of a christian god to condemn you or whatever. You Do You, Do What Thou Wilt (and harm none) Shall be The Whole Of The Law.

In alchemy think of Earth as Body. So Visit Inside the Body, and by Rectifying what you find there, you will find-- The Perfect Soul.

That's what that means. Or, in order to be in The Garden, The Garden must be in you. Which is why Cas' plot was all like, learning to speak his open truth and let the light in. The Moon lets the sun Shine On Her Face To Become Full.

Part of the process--again, deeper coverage in my tags per subject--involves the death of the Empress which--another tag to check--is where Cas landed in his path, with the Mary, Rowena, and Amara parallelism, right down to the blossoms and pink shit of death and the gift to be lost if not appreciated. (both Cas and Dean shared that, while Sam avoided that light, Jack only got hit by it before his rebirth in-episode and missed it after.)

That same episode also placed: Joseph-Dean, Mary-Cas, Christ-Jack where the two halves of Mind and Soul, (*mortal) Life (*actually mind/grace) and Being (*soul, still) marry, passing the Philosopher's Stone as a seed from Emperor (dean gets it first, via Bobo correction note from the script), then Empress (Cas) then the Aeon Child (Jack). It's a matrimony forecast.

Unfortunately, the Empress is considered to die in the process, whether in birth, after birth, or just the passing of the old generation before the new. The process talks about returning to The Black Womb By Which All Life Springs. Gonna let you rattle that around in your head a bit.

But Cas reached in. He let the light in. He let himself love outwardly, not fear judgment. From God or Dean or anyone. He let IN the light Dean showed him. He took in the shadows humanity cast too. The Shadow, the thing that rules the Empty. In that moment, Castiel integrated with The Infinite Vessel of Death (to not explode) while taking on both all the light in humanity (his unending love for Dean, and a reflection of Dean's own love for the world) and accepting its shadows and what it hides away, just like his own.

If you venture into my Heaven tag, and discussions, you'll find that like. Heaven, as we call it, is basically the World Soul. Human souls, the grigori said in Angel Heart, are slices of heaven and angels since the dawn of man have made them make mental heavens to distract them. To keep them in contentment, like Nihilism, even if that same void of repression was beyond it just like the Empty.

Because really, The Empty and Heaven are the same place. It's Not Being, Not Having Soul, Not Letting In The Light; vs Being, Just Saying, Just Being Yourself, And Accepting it.

The occultum is powerful--a key, they said. it's not a place or a thing. It's a key. It's a key to the Kingdom of Heaven, and the secret Chuck hid away all along is that it's always been the soul and humanity. That serpent that talked to his first gabriel-esque barbies, and taught them what Good is (the soul, as the Absence of it Isn't Evil in alchemy, just like Cas said, but the Absence of Good; the human soul is the one true thing, everything else is a matrix of commentary we're put through).

Chuck mentioned a beauty and glory in creation greater than his pride or ego waiting to be born, like he and amara just were. He knew she'd seen it, and felt it, and looked at Dean.

One day a sleeping Nothing went TheFuck (why) do I exist, chuckmara popped up, Chuck made a playbox with toys in it, some toys met a snake, got a soul--that snake is just. The Shadow in the world of Chuck's Mental Box Of Perception, Awake. It's the Let There Be Light before the sun, of the true creator, the living soul of man in its rawest form, and that's why Jack got his soul back THERE even when Chuck couldn't. Chuck just made the sandbox. We play in it.

So Cas thought he was giving up his everything, his very being, for his love of humanity but in doing that, basically unbirthed The World Soul the way Rowena did hell via Death. Cas became heaven, and that's where the Castiel's Uterus joke is from, and why the Akrida are a triple threat joke in three languages of locust, garden and a complicated birth that could cause death.

You know. I Cared About The Whole World. John and Mary's love saves The Whole World. Turning over all the cards at the end, and the final card: The World.

The Whole World waits for us, and what is Dean's Whole World. What is keeping him from reaching peace in the garden, what is he looking into his parents as he crosses past timespacesoulstuff, as the light tries to call him home. What regret--like the ones that haunt Rowena--is keeping him from being At Peace With Himself. What is he not Being yet. What does he have to Say, or Do, to be able to reach Heaven Proper, where all his family is, what does he have to do to stop disconnecting himself like the monsters in the Winchesters morals, to lift the fog on his path and find his garden, his roadhouse, his family.

Cas already made that sacrifice. And with it, Castiel is calling him home.

Come home, hometown hero.

the main thing is the Taran Wanderer parallels, not anything from The High King. eg the hero's journey is over so let me look into my parents and learn a few things about myself on the way.

#the end #spnwin #meta #occultum #marriage of the minds #empress #emperor #art #the world #heaven

[onehundredfallenpetals]

Flower picking at night

#aerith gainsborough #ffvii remake #ff7 aerith #ff7r #ff7 remake #ff7 rebirth #ffvii aerith #she's waving at either Cloud or Tifa you can decide #Or if you're like me... you can pretend she is waving at you and will greet you with a smooch when she gets close #BUT bear in mind I will fist fight you for her hand in marriage so don't pretend too hard 🤨

[pearlcaddy]

ELIZA SCARLET & WILLIAM WELLINGTON Miss Scarlet and the Duke 2.02 | 2.04

#miss scarlet and the duke #msatd #msatdedit #eliza scarlet #elizascarletedit #william wellington #williamwellingtonedit #williza #willizaedit #otpsource #periodedit #perioddramaedit #filmtvdaily #romancegifs #pearlcaddyedit #pearlcaddy msatd #500 #1k #i go back and forth on them because i need will to really start changing his thinking about what he's looking for from marriage #but i lose my mind over how well they know each other

[mysicklove]

You think sukuna feels prideful when they get asked if they’re a family in public? “awww you look just like your daddy, what a cute family yall are!” I can see this being a regular comment for them 🥺

people probably look at readers finger and ask why sukuna hasn’t proposed yet while sukunas dealing with a sobbing yuji telling him he can’t steal the puppies from the dog park

u guys have too high of expectations of sukuna. mans is not as kind as u think 😔😔😔 HAHAHA

he actually does not like getting compared to yuujis father bc it makes him feel old and he is barely 21. so LOL

but he does often get teased about not marrying you yet (mostly from choso tbh) and he definitely is thinking about it……

#💌 - love letters #big brother au #not going to go into details about marriage yet #but #yea #it’s been on sukunas mind for awhile

[shelfperson]

gabriel is horrible stinky etc but i do support gay wrongs. i do support gay wrongs.

#it's honestly impressive i had once pinned him the most cishet angel of them all #defying all celestial logic #now he is the 3rd good omens lesbian to me #they (i) hate to see a corporate butch career bitch use his privilege to escape the system unscathed at the expense of others winning #class traitor looking ass i am exploding him with my mind #anyway congrats to the bureaucracy on their marriage #good omens #good omens 2 #good omens 2 spoilers #gabriel good omens #beelzebub good omens #gabriel x beelzebub #ineffable bureaucracy

[pinkpetalbee]

#unitarianuniversalism #uu #trans lives matter #transgender #happy trans day of visibility to you my friend! #transrights #progressivefaith #inclusivefaith #interconnectedness #spirituality #belovedcommunity #unitarian #mindfulness #personalgrowth #transfem #transgirl #trans joy #nonbinary #transblr #trans rights #trans lives are human lives #trans lives are valid #protect trans kids #protect trans lives #lgbtq #lgbtqia #lgbtq community #lgbtqiia+ #lgbtqplus #marriage equality

[unclewaynemunson]

“I already did”

It was 2014 when Wayne heard the news.

He was sitting in his favorite chair, the sun warming his face through the window while he stared out over the lake, when Eddie came bursting through the door in his usual whirlwind of chaotic energy.

'Where's Scott?' He had something almost frantic in his face; Steve came walking up behind him, placing a calming hand on his shoulder in an attempt to stop him from practically vibrating out of his own skin.

'Hi, uncle Wayne.'

At least one of them had proper manners.

'Takin' a walk,' Wayne said in reply to Eddie's question. 'You alright there, boy?'

'You haven't heard it yet?'

'Heard what?'

'Jesus Christ, you don't know it yet!'

Eddie dramatically flopped down on the couch, grabbing Steve's wrist to pull him with him.

'What's this about? Good news or bad?'

'Great!' said Steve, at the same moment Eddie groaned 'Baaaad.'

Wayne raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the both of them.

'Well... Drumroll, Steve,' Eddie ordered, waiting for Steve to repeatedly slap his hands on his legs. 'As of today, the state of Indiana has bestowed upon same-sex couples the unimaginable honor to express their love for each other in matrimony.' The sarcasm was oozing from his voice.

'Pretty cool, right?' Steve added, flashing Wayne an excited smile.

Eddie rolled his eyes so forcefully it looked painful.

'No, it's not “pretty cool!”' he exclaimed before Wayne could say anything. 'What, after centuries of oppression and violence they get to decide that we're now worthy of joining their fucked-up social constructs and we should be clapping our hands ready to conform to their gross ideas of what love is about? We should be grateful that they finally let us play by their rules?'

'It's not about playing by the rules, it's about – about...' Steve rapidly snapped his fingers a couple times, and Eddie, despite his passionate dramatics, patiently waited for him to find the word he was looking for.

'It's about recognition!' Steve finally exclaimed in a somewhat triumphant tone. 'We get to be a family!'

Eddie scoffed. 'We already are a family. Have been for almost thirty years. We got each other, we got the girls; we don't need any ridiculous bureaucratic documents to prove that.'

'That's not – it's a celebration of love!'

'It's a preposterous and backwards tool of the heteronormative patriarchy to submit the people to their institutions and chain women to their men and keep the masses quiet!'

'Lotta big words you got there, did you rehearse this?' Wayne chimed in.

Steve chortled, which earned him a poke in his ribs from Eddie.

'So are you and Scott gonna...?' Steve let the end of his question hover silently in the air.

'I dunno,' Wayne said. It wasn't something he had ever given much thought to – not because he didn't care, but because he had never expected to live in a world where it was a possibility in the first place. Hell, he still vividly remembered the sodomy laws being abolished. He had never exactly been an optimist. But here they were.

Eddie kept on ranting for almost a whole hour, while Steve kept looking at him with that fondly amused expression on his face, as if he could never get enough of Eddie's dramatic complaining.

'You don't mind that he's bein' so, um... stubborn?' Wayne cautiously asked him when Eddie left the room to go to the toilet.

Steve chuckled. 'If I did, I wouldn't have kept up with him for this long,' he jokingly answered.

'But you want to. Get married.'

The fine lines around Steve's eyes deepened. 'Yeah, I want to,' he admitted. 'And I'm pretty sure that all his aversion against it will fly right out of the window as soon as I get down on one knee for him.'

He got this cocky, confident smile on his face; Wayne loved those moments, when despite the gray hair and the wrinkles, something of the young boys Eddie and Steve used to be shone through in them.

XXX

Wayne didn't stop thinking about it after the boys left. He could still barely believe that this was a decision he could make. Who would've thought, after decades of self-loathing and suppressing his feelings, that he could now get married to the man he loved?

He grew more certain of it by the minute. The answer was already everywhere around him, after all: in his eager expectation of Scott's return, in the framed photographs on the wall, the cheesy Mr & Mr mugs on their coffee table, the two pairs of reading glasses that were lying side-by-side on a newspaper next to those mugs...

He wouldn't buy a ring or drop down on one knee – he was nearing eighty, he probably couldn't drop down on one knee and get back up again even if he wanted to. But he didn't want to do it by the rules anyway. He wanted this to be theirs.

And he saw everything he needed to know in Scott's eyes before either of them even opened their mouth.

'Did you hear the news?' Scott asked, that beautiful glow of being outside and active that he always had after he came back from his walks clinging around him. Sometimes Wayne would join him, but Scott could still walk faster and longer – the price Wayne had to pay for smoking like a chimney for nearly seventy years – so he didn't mind letting him go alone and having a pot of coffee ready when he'd come back, enjoying the sound of his voice while he told Wayne about the ever-changing nature or the birds he had spotted along his way.

Wayne merely hummed in response to his question, while Scott settled in next to him on the couch.

They had shared this life together for almost thirty years: in sickness and in health, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer – they'd already done it all. And yet...

He took his time to look into Scott's eyes, to search his face. His gaze wandered over the fine maze of lines that had kept expanding over the years they had spent together, the gray stubble where once a thick mustache had been, that one big age spot right below his left eye, the scar on his chin from that time one of the twins had viciously attacked him for having the audacity to make her eat her veggies.

He could see the question in Scott's eyes before either of them even spoke.

'Should we..?'

'Yes,' said Scott, smiling. Eager. And that was that.

XXX

There was no elaborate party, no fancy reception, nothing like that. Eddie took Wayne shopping for a new flannel and a slightly nicer pair of jeans for the occasion. Scott jokingly wore a tie with little rainbows on it over a button-down in a light shade of pink. It was simple: just them, Eddie, Steve and the girls at the town hall. Their signatures side by side on a piece of paper; it almost seemed too profane. They were back outside before they knew it. But Scott's smile still managed to light Wayne from inside like the very first time he had seen it.

Everybody else was already gathered back at the house. The house they got together, the house that had been theirs for more than twenty years, the house they had made into their home with or without that piece of paper that told them they could. Hopper and Joyce, Robin and Nancy, all the kids who lived close enough to make the trip; they were all there, sharing food and laughter in the garden near the lake while the sun set behind the trees.

After the world was wrapped in darkness and it was just the two of them again, Wayne grabbed Scott's hand to guide him back inside. He lingered on the porch, looking up at the stars shining down on them. He felt Scott shiver beside him, cold now that the sun had disappeared, and pulled him closer. His husband.

He knew that the two of them were finite, of course, unlike the stars in the sky above them. He knew that the biggest part of their lives was behind them, that they would leave this planet sooner rather than later. He had honestly never expected to make it this far. But he had. He had made it, all the way from being officially fundamentally wrong, through years and years of deep-rooted, stubborn self-hatred, to here. 2014. The year in which he got married to the man he had allowed himself to love. The best thing, after Eddie, that ever happened to him. The person who had colored his every day, who had made it easy to get up in the morning and to go to sleep feeling content.

He tore his gaze away from the sky to look at Scott.

'What are you thinking about?' Scott quietly asked him, watching him with that attentive gaze that wouldn't ever let a single detail escape him.

Wayne took his time to think about how to phrase it.

'How it's possible that everything changed and nothing changed at the same time, today,' he eventually answered.

Scott squeezed his hand, brought it up to his lips to press a kiss against it.

'Who would've thought, huh?' he said. 'That something so simple and silly as saying “I do” can change your whole life?'

'It didn't change my life,' Wayne answered with certainty. 'I already did.'

Scott chuckled. 'I already did, too.'

And somehow, this moment, just the two of them sharing these words on their porch wrapped in darkness, was infinitely more meaningful than anything that happened in the town hall.

#oh the complicated relationships of older queers with being able to get married #i know this isn't a popular opinion but eddie the non-conformist queer metalhead would 100% HATE the idea of marriage #no you can't change my mind #(steve can change his tho) #don't mind me rambling about stranger things #clarkson my beloved #wayne munson #scott clarke #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #fruity ficlet