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she-posts-nerdy-stuff · 1 year

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Absolutely banger content!! Love it! When Kaz calls Inej "treasure of my heart" he's cheapening an otherwise meaningful phrase. Do you think he is being totally sarcastic or is he deadpanning his feelings to a degree? Because a little later he describes another time he said something cold-blooded to Inej and says to himself "in moments like that he thought she might hate him." Can the second quote be used as context to explain the "treasure of my heart" quote?

Hi, thank you so much!

I definitely think that this is a prime example of using sarcasm as a defence mechanism, so although he comes across completely sarcastic - as confirmed by Inej’s reaction, which is to look pointedly at his cane and wish him a long trip down the stairs before she herself slides down the bannister - I would agree that to some degree he is voicing his genuine feelings. It could be viewed in a somewhat self-destructive nature, because by voicing these feelings in a manner that he knows will elicit a negative response from Inej he can use it as evidence for her not returning his affection and therefore use it as a reason not express his feelings in any real way - claiming that she won’t be interested, when actually he simply has a massively debilitating fear of being vulnerable bred in him by Rollins and the general attitudes/environment of the gangs in the Barrel (and arguably to some degree Jordie as well; by trying to protect his younger brother he doesn’t necessarily convey the full severity of their situation when they first arrive in Ketterdam, inadvertently leading to the belief that such vulnerabilities should never be spoken of or discussed becoming a highly complex and difficult aspect of Kaz’s character)

When Kaz comments “in moments like that, he thought she might hate him” it’s coming off the back of him effectively defending the appropriation of Inej’s culture. She is horrified to see the Suli Jackal masks on sale and being worn by pleasure seekers in Ketterdam, because they should only be worn by Suli seers and are “sacred symbols”. In return, Kaz says that he’s seen the seers “ply their trade on party boats and in pleasure houses” and that “they didn’t seem very holy”, and when she says that “they are pretenders” and “they’re laughing at you behind those masks” he responds coolly that he would never pay to have his fortune told, whether it was from a conman or a holy man. When Inej is visibly upset by this conversation, he comments that he wonders if she hates him, and I think that a large aspect of this is because he is the only person who knows what she went through to its fullest extent. And the specifically relevant aspect of what he knows here, is that Inej was forced to appropriate her culture herself when she was at the Menagerie (slight tangent, but so was Nina, it’s very interesting, I’ve mentioned it in a post before). Inej describes her room at the Menagerie to be a farcical mockery of a Suli caravan, she was forced to “donn false Suli silks”, and it’s even mentioned that the only reason she was ‘the lynx’ is that the Jackal masks were seen as unattractive - “but what man would want to bed a Jackal? So instead, the Suli girl - and the Menagerie always stocked a Suli girl - wore the lynx”. What a quote. What. A. Quote. Starting with the Jackal, it makes it clear that there are no lines that won’t be crossed, and that’s emphasised by other girls at the Menagerie wearing animals sacred to their countries such as the Fjerdan woman being the wolf, and that the only reason Inej didn’t have to wear an outfit similar to the one she’s so horrified by here is that it couldn’t be sexualised and exploited the same way the lynx could. And then we have “and the Menagerie always stocked a Suli girl”. Wow. That gets me every time I read it. There are two main things I want to comment on in this quote, so I’ll start with “stocked”. This singular world is so dehumanising; the idea that the women and girls at the Menagerie are seen as stock, produce, literal consumables that can be bought and traded and sold. There’s also the point that Inej herself is the one using this word, and I think it’s left purposefully ambiguous as to whether this is a satirical usage of the word on her behalf as a criticism of the culture surrounding pleasure houses and cultural appropriation in Kerch (although more specifically Ketterdam), or if it’s the product of indoctrination to this toxic culture - similar to Nina’s horror at releasing that the appropriation and disdain for foreigners she’s been surrounded by has actually led her to judge traditional Ravkan dress as old-fashioned in Crooked Kingdom (I think it’s chapter 13). The second thing about this quote I want to mention is “always”. “Always”. It so subtly introduces so early on in the books the deeply ingrained over-sexualisation of Suli culture, which is evidenced time and time again but most specifically in the ‘Rare Spices’ billboard that Inej describes un Crooked Kingdom. I could talk about that billboard for DAYS so I won’t go into it here because this is already a long post.

But I think it’s incredibly important that Kaz knows all of this when he makes these comments, every time he mocks her gods or her “depressing Suli wisdom”, he knows that he is part of a culture that dehumanises and sexualises and appropriates and reduces everything about who she is, and he knows that it’s hurting her, of course it would hurt her anyway, but especially hurting her because she was forced to do it herself as a cherry on top of the worst year in Inej’s life, a year made of unending pain and terror. But arguably this is once again all that self-destructive nature; the pushing her away, similarly to the sarcasm as a defence mechanism, because it is easier to hate than to love, and because if she hates him then he never has to be vulnerable with her.

Oh wow I just looked at that and realised it’s way longer than I thought, sorry about that… Thank you for reading it, and thank you so much for the question this was really interesting to think about! :)

#grishaverse #leigh bardugo #six of crows #crooked kingdom #inej ghafa #kaz brekker #nina zenik #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #kanej #kanej brainrot #kanej my beloved #kanej supremacy #analysis #fantasy books #book analysis #long post #amita suman #freddy carter

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bigskyandthecoldgun · 8 months

Text

electricity

very loosely based off that one exchange from episode 6 of the dhmis show

words: 4,444

ao3

“Closing shift again, Harrington?”

Eddie watches as Steve’s face shifts from muted disinterest to something like annoyance. “Unfortunately for both of us, yeah,” he mutters, a little red in the face as he rips that stupid little sailor hat off his head and tosses it over his shoulder into the Scoops Ahoy break room. Eddie snorts as it misses the table. Steve runs a hand through his hair and cocks a hip so that he’s leaning against the doorframe. “So, what’ve you got for me?”

Patting the massive tubs of ice cream beside him, Eddie gives Steve as wolfish of a grin as he can muster. “For your beloved freezer,” he says with a low bow, and he glances up just in time to watch Steve roll his eyes. Eddie kicks up the dolly the tubs are stacked on and nods at Steve, to the doorway behind him. “Lemme roll these in.”

“You got it?” Steve asks, stepping aside but hovering at the side of the dolly as Eddie wheels it into the back of Scoops. A couple of the tubs wobble—the ones at the top, because Eddie’s stacked it ten high. He’s not making multiple trips. Steve hisses out a curse under his breath and outstretches his hands by the ice cream, as if he’ll be able to save all of them as long as they fall in his general vicinity. “Careful, careful! Jesus, Munson, these are gonna fall on top of you if you’re not careful, ruin that fantastic hair of yours.”

Eddie huffs out a laugh at the definite sarcasm as he wheels the ice cream into the freezer and sighs contentedly at the feeling of cold air on his skin. He started working at Starcourt a little over a month ago, and the summer’s only gotten hotter. It’s ridiculously hard work, carting around shit to different stores and helping out when security’s short-staffed, and Eddie’s not exactly the most fit person around. Years of smoking and skipping gym class will do that to a guy.

But what makes it all worth it, in Eddie’s humble opinion, is that he gets to spend his summer tormenting King Steve, Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington, Steve from Scoops Ahoy. It’s a fun little dive into Eddie’s favorite pastime—enacting sweet, sweet revenge. Sure, Steve might not have done anything to him directly, more preferring to stare down his nose at people like Eddie while his lackeys—namely Hagan—did the dirty work for him. Nonetheless, Eddie hates the guy. Well, maybe hate is a bit of a strong word, but he still can’t stand Steve and his stupid hair and his dumb little sailor uniform that has shorts that are way too tight and his dashing smile and his long lashes and his sparkly laugh and—

Bottom line is that Eddie can’t stand the guy. No amount of pretty can fix past slights.

“So,” Eddie says, drawing the word out as Steve heaves the cardboard tubs onto the shelves, and he lets his eyes linger over the cord of taut muscle in Steve’s biceps. Sue him, the guy’s nice to look at. “You got any big plans tonight, Harrington?”

Steve makes a sound that’s about halfway between a scoff and a laugh, with a little bit of contrition mixed in. “Not unless you count sitting on my couch with a lukewarm beer and watching reruns of shitty sitcoms as ‘big plans,’” he says, shifting the tub in his hands to one arm so he can do some sarcastic air quotes, and Eddie blinks. Steve raises a brow at him. “Why, are you offering?”

Willing the heat that’s rushing to his cheeks to screw off, Eddie squints. “To make plans with you? Maybe when hell freezes over, Harrington,” he says, coming off a little more biting than he’d really intended, and Steve’s shoulders tense. A minute change, but a noticeable one. Eddie taps his hands on the now-empty dolly and gives Steve a shit-eating grin. “Well, see you tomorrow, sailor.”

“Can’t wait,” Steve says.

Just as Eddie turns to wheel the dolly towards the freezer door, the power goes out. Shit.

“Jesus H. Christ, can’t catch one goddamn break,” he mutters, fidgeting with the flashlight clipped to his belt until it turns on, and Steve groans beside him. Eddie waves the flashlight around the freezer until he shines it at Steve, who squints and throws his hands up in front of his face, and he snickers. “Looking good, Harrington.”

“Shut up,” Steve huffs, cheeks flushed, and he smacks Eddie’s flashlight until the beam’s directed away from his face. It’s hard to see him now that he’s not directly in the light, but Eddie can still see the way his eyes dart around the freezer, can hear the way his breathing picks up. “Shit. Shit, d’you think—it’s probably just a power outage. Right?”

Eddie snorts. “What else would it be?”

Steve levels a glare at him, and Eddie makes a face back, because he hasn’t said anything wrong, and Steve’s just being a dick. “Okay, well, let’s just…get the hell out of here so we can go home,” Steve says, and Eddie couldn’t agree more, actually. He moves past Eddie to get to the door, and Eddie half-expects him to shove past, shoulder him or something, but he doesn’t; he makes himself small, even, shrinking back and around him. Steve tugs on the handle, but the door doesn’t budge. Uh oh. Steve tugs at it some more. “Wh—oh, you gotta be shittin’ me.”

“Are we locked in here?” Eddie asks, and it comes out as an embarrassing squeak. Steve’s answering groan doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. “Why the hell didn’t you prop it open if it locks from the outside?!”

Sighing as he rattles the door some more, Steve glances back at Eddie over his shoulder. “I didn’t know the power would go out while we were in here, man,” he huffs. “Starcourt uses these fancy electronic locks for all the freezers in the building to keep the cold in them as much as possible, helps keep all the stuff in ’em from going bad, but they’re only supposed to go off after hours.”

“So we’re stuck?!” Eddie asks, and Steve gives the door one last yank before giving up.

“Just ’til the power comes back on,” he says, and Eddie can’t think of anything he’d rather avoid more than being stuck with Steve Harrington for an indeterminate amount of time.

That can’t be true. There’s gotta be a failsafe or something, right? That’s a total fire hazard if it doesn’t have one, and the mall wouldn’t cut corners, would it? Oh, who’s Eddie kidding? A corporation cutting corners is, like, a given. Shit. Shit! “For fuck’s sake,” he hisses, doing some yanking of his own on the door handle, flashlight pointed down at the floor, dangling from his belt, but it doesn’t budge. “Fuck! Shit! Son of a fuckin’ bitch, man!”

“Alright, woah,” Steve says with a nervous laugh, “calm down, man—”

“I’m not gonna calm down, we’re fuckin’ trapped!” Eddie snaps, and Steve winces.

“I mean…could be worse? We could be stuck out there, in the heat…?” he offers, and Eddie affixes him with the most supremely unamused look he can muster. “At least we’ve got each other for company, right?”

He can’t make out a lot of Steve’s face in the dark like this, but just looking in the guy’s direction is enough to annoy him. “I’d get heatstroke in a heartbeat if it meant I’d have the ability to be further than five feet from you,” Eddie tells him.

Whatever expression that garners from Steve, Eddie can’t see. “Harsh,” Steve mumbles, and Eddie barks out a laugh.

“Yeah, okay, pardon me for being pissed off that you didn’t do your job and prop the damn door open!” Eddie snaps, and Steve puts his hands up. That, Eddie can see, can make out the gestures in the way his silhouette moves.

“Dude, how was I supposed to know the power would go out?” Steve asks, clearly exasperated, and Eddie hates that that’s a fair point.

He gestures out, all flappy hands and uncoordinated limbs, and he’s pretty sure he smacks a couple of ice cream tubs in his dramatics. “Because it’s common sense! You don’t let a freezer close behind you, man, haven’t you ever worked a food service job before?!” he asks, and Steve is quiet for a while. Eddie huffs out a humorless laugh. “Of course. Of course you haven’t, because Daddy Harrington probably has enough money to—”

“I’m cut off,” Steve interrupts. “Been cut off for years. He sent me money for basic groceries when I was still in school, but he forced me to get this stupid job when I graduated. Since I didn’t get into any colleges, he wants to teach me a lesson about being too dumb for higher education or some shit. I don’t have his money.”

“Oh,” Eddie says.

“Yeah, ‘oh,’” Steve echoes. “And besides, just because I haven’t worked a job before doesn’t mean you have to be a dick about it. It’s not like the training Scoops gave me was, like, good. Even without a manager, I'm pretty sure we’re not supposed to leave the freezer open.”

That’s…pretty fair, actually. Eddie’s kinda certain he hasn’t seen a manager at Scoops Ahoy since the day the mall opened. And most of his food service job knowledge is based off of sitcoms and movies made for TV that have someone getting trapped in a freezer as a plot device anyway, so who is he to talk?

Still, though, he kind of doesn’t want to give Steve the satisfaction of being right. “Alright, there’s gotta be some way out,” he mutters, grabbing his flashlight to aim it at the doorframe, but there doesn’t seem to be anything. If there is, he certainly doesn’t know what it is. “Shit, shit!”

“Dude,” Steve says, and he sounds a little farther than he’d just been, “chill out. The power’s probably gonna come back any minute now.”

Eddie whirls around, and Steve is sitting on the floor, twirling that stupid sailor hat around his pointer finger. He squints a bit in the beam of light, and Eddie hates that it makes his nose scrunch up all cute and shit. He can’t stand the guy. “You’re infuriating,” he tells Steve, “you know that?”

Lips quirking up in what Eddie’s pretty sure is a sad little smile, Steve shrugs. “So I’ve heard,” he says, and Eddie’s eye twitches. Steve pats the empty spot next to him. “You can sit down, y’know.”

Eddie sits where he is. He doesn’t feel like getting closer to Steve Harrington than strictly necessary, thanks very much. Steve just shrugs, tossing his hat from one pointer finger to the other, and Eddie redirects his flashlight. There’s the soft thump of something hitting the ground, followed by a quiet swear. Eddie snorts. “You drop your hat?”

“Maybe,” Steve says. “You wanna lend me some light?”

“Not particularly,” Eddie says dryly.

Steve just hums. It drives Eddie a little crazy. “Wanna play twenty questions?” Steve asks him, and it’s so goddamn bizarre that Eddie busts out laughing.

“Are you—you’re not serious,” Eddie cackles. “What, like we’re at a high school party? C’mon, man, why the hell do you wanna play twenty questions with me in an ice cream freezer?”

A short pause. “To pass the time, I guess,” Steve says. “You got a better idea? ’Cuz I’m all ears, Munson, really.”

Damn.

Eddie doesn’t have a better idea.

“Okay, fine,” he sighs, “what’s your first question?”

There’s some shuffling, like Steve is sitting up properly, and it’s not endearing, it’s not. If anything, it should be pathetic that he’s so excited to play some dumb party game in the freezer of a nautical-themed ice cream parlor. “What’s your favorite hobby?” Steve asks him. “Like, not the one you do most often, or the one you’re best at, but the one you think is the most fun.”

Eddie makes a face. “You have hobbies that aren’t fun?”

He moves his flashlight over to shine at Steve, who nods. “Yeah, man. Like, I don’t hate them, but they’re not fun. Just something to do to pass the time, or something I do with my dad and his business partners, like golfing,” he says with a shrug. “Go on, answer, what’s your favorite hobby?”

Eddie’s having a hard time getting past the idea that Steve isn’t passionate about his hobbies, but only does them to have something to do for the sake of doing something. Or for the sake of someone else, someone that had apparently cut him off. “Uh,” he says eloquently, “I don’t know. I like all my hobbies.”

Steve tilts his head like a confused dog. It’s dumb. “Really? Huh. Alright, lemme change my question, then. What are your hobbies?”

“I play guitar for my band, I run Dungeons and Dragons campaigns—”

“Oh, shit, really? That’s cool, the kids I babysit play that game, too,” Steve says, and Eddie’s brain screeches to a halt. Steve’s head-tilt gets a little tiltier, and he snaps his fingers. “That’s right, you run the club at the high school, don’t you? Hotfire or something?”

“Hellfire,” Eddie corrects hollowly, and Steve winces apologetically.

“Sorry. Shit gets mixed up in my brain sometimes. Buncha concussions, you know how it is,” he dismisses, and Eddie very much does not know how it is. Steve perks up. “Your turn.”

Eddie is, admittedly, kind of dumbfounded. “Uh, what’s your dream job?”

Frowning, Steve glares down at the tile. “Hm. I don’t know.”

At that, Eddie scoffs. “Oh, c’mon, you can’t be serious,” he says. “Everybody’s got a dream job, man, even if it’s totally outlandish. I mean, I wanna be a bigshot metal guitarist for a world-famous band—preferrably mine—even though I know there’s, like, an almost-zero chance of that happening.”

Steve just shrugs. “Maybe, like, be a teacher or something? But I couldn’t get into college, so…not likely,” he says. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Yellow,” Eddie says, “yours?”

“Swear you won’t laugh,” Steve says, and Eddie blinks at him. Steve crosses his arms. “Munson, swear it.”

“Okay, okay, I promise I won’t laugh,” Eddie says. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Tiffany blue,” Steve answers finally, and, come on, Eddie can’t help it if he chuckles just a little. “You said you wouldn’t laugh!”

Eddie snickers, trying and failing to hide it behind his hand. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s just—that’s such a snooty color to pick,” he wheezes, and Steve glares at him.

He drags his hat around in circles on the ground with one finger and pointedly doesn’t look at Eddie. “Yeah, well, I like it ’cuz it’s my mom’s favorite,” Steve mumbles, brows drawn together, and now Eddie feels kinda bad for laughing. Only a tiny bit, though. Steve glances up at him. “If you had to pick a movie world to live the rest of your life in, which would it be?”

That’s…actually a pretty cool question. Not that Eddie would tell him that.

“Um…my favorite movies are horror movies, so those are a no-go,” he says, and Steve laughs. It’s good-natured and nice, stupid and sparkly. Eddie clears his throat. “But, uh, I’d probably go with Star Wars.”

“No way, me too!” Steve says, and Eddie blinks. Steve grins. “I like the one with the little teddy bear guys, you know the…”

He trails off into an impression of the ewoks, and it’s painfully charming. Annoying. Annoying, not charming. “You know those are called ewoks, not ‘little teddy bears,’ right?” Eddie asks, because he’s nothing if not a pedantic asshole, and Steve just smiles at him.

“Eh, tomato, to-mah-to,” he says. “Your turn.”

Eddie tilts his head back. “Who was your first kiss?” he asks, and Steve doesn’t answer for a while, which is weird. There’s this pained look on his face, and he won’t quite meet Eddie’s eye. “What, is it, like, someone you’ve deemed ‘embarrassing?’”

“That’s…not it,” Steve sighs. “It’s just—I don’t want you to, like, flip out and punch me or some shit, man.”

At that, Eddie laughs, but his curiosity is piqued. “Have you seen me, Harrington? I’m a total toothpick. I’m, like, pretty sure if I tried to punch you, I’d break my own arm,” he says. “Who was it, seriously? Some dorky chick you think I know? Is that why you think I’ll flip out?”

“No,” Steve tells him, “it was, um…it was at camp, summer after fifth grade.”

“I asked you who, not when or where,” Eddie says.

“And I don’t know who it was,” Steve shoots back.

Eddie makes a face. “Oh, bullshit, dude, you were at camp with this girl and you didn’t know who she was?” he scoffs. “I mean, I wouldn’t put it past you to forget, but just say you forgot her name, then.”

“I didn’t forget,” Steve tells him, “I don’t know.”

Crossing his arms, Eddie points his flashlight right at Steve’s eyes. “Be so serious. You gotta know. Why else would you think I’d flip out?”

“Because—! It doesn’t matter.”

“Just tell me! You’re not honoring the rules of the game, Harrington, you’re the one who wanted to play—”

“I keep telling you, I don’t know who it was!”

“Bullshit!”

“I never got his name!”

Record scratch.

Steve’s face goes bright red, and he ducks his head so that Eddie can’t see his expression. It’s just as well, because the flashlight clatters to the ground when Eddie drops it, and he hurries to scoop it back up, eyes as wide as humanly possible. There’s no way. There’s no way, right? He’s just doing this to fuck with Eddie, he has to be, that’s—that has to be what it is. It’s eerily silent, and Eddie shines the flashlight at Steve again, swallowing.

It’s audible. It toes the line between gross and annoying.

Eddie toes that line often.

“It was a dude?” Eddie asks, because he really needs some clarification here. “Your first kiss was with another guy?”

There must be something in his tone that he hadn’t intended to put in there, because Steve’s whole posture shifts. His shoulders square, his jaw goes tight, and he looks down his nose at Eddie, even though they’re both sitting on the ground, like it’s a challenge, like it’s a dare. “You got a problem with that, you keep it to yourself,” Steve says, voice carefully even. “We’re gonna sit here and—and we’re not gonna say anything ’til the power comes back on. Game’s over.”

He looks away again. Eddie’s flashlight flickers, and he turns it off, because it they might need it to get out of the mall once the power comes back, in case the timed lights turn off by the time it does. It’s silent for a long while, and Eddie’s kicking himself. He shouldn’t have pried. Shit, now Steve probably thinks he’s a total asshole.

“Sorry for ruining the game,” Eddie says after a while. “My bad, man, really.”

A long stretch of nothing. Eddie calls Steve’s name after another couple of minutes.

“It’s fine,” Steve says quietly. “I don’t know why I didn’t just, like, lie. I usually do, y’know, when that question comes up.”

“If it, um, makes you feel any better, I’m—I haven’t had one,” Eddie offers. “A first kiss, I mean.”

More silence.

“Are you messing with me?” Steve asks, several long moments later, and Eddie shakes his head, even though they’re bathed in darkness, and Steve can’t see him.

He scoots closer, close enough that he can feel the body heat radiating off of Steve without the two of them touching. “Nope. Cross my heart, hope to die, all that good stuff. Haven’t kissed anybody. Not for lack of trying, mind you, but, uh, pretty sure nobody’s exactly jumping at the chance to kiss the town freak, and it’s not like it’d be any good if they did, because, like I said, zero prior kisses,” Eddie rambles. “I’d probably suck at it.”

A light chuckle. Thank fuck. “Probably,” Steve agrees.

“Probably,” Eddie echoes.

They sit in silence for a while longer, though it isn’t uncomfortable this time, which Eddie supposes is a plus. The freezer is just barely less cold, which means the power’s still out, which sucks. How long are they gonna be trapped in here? It’s chilly as hell. How long is Eddie supposed to be trapped in a freezer with Steve Harrington, armed with the knowledge that he’s apparently kissed one whole boy before?

Eddie definitely isn’t straining to see the time on his watch. He definitely doesn’t watch it tick for fifteen whole fucking minutes before Steve speaks up again. “Hey, uh, what happened to your flashlight?” he asks.

“I’m saving the batteries,” Eddie tells him.

A beat. “Saving the batteries…for what?” Steve asks.

“Oh, I was planning on putting them in my Walkman, actually,” Eddie snaps, a little on the sarcastic side, because they’ve been trapped in here for a while, and the freezer is steadily dropping in temperature. Embarrassed, though, because Steve should arguably be the only really upset person in this freezer right now, Eddie barrels on. “Anyway, we may as well get used to being in the dark.”

“Yeah…” Steve murmurs, trailing off, like there’s another thought accompanying it that he just isn’t saying.

Eddie’s brows furrow. “What?”

“Well, it’s just not that great, is it?” Steve hums. “I wouldn’t mind looking at the mall again, and…maybe…looking at you.”

Eddie snorts. “Really? You like looking at me?” he scoffs.

“Uh…yeah,” Steve admits, voice soft. “I suppose I do.”

Eddie feels his face go hot. “Well, I like looking at you, too,” he confesses under the cover of darkness, because it feels a lot safer than it would if he could see the pitying wince that’s probably on Steve’s face right now.

“Oh, yeah?” Steve asks, sounding vaguely pleased, and Eddie doesn’t get him. He doesn’t understand King Steve, Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington, Steve from Scoops Ahoy, who apparently babysits D&D-playing kids and likes the ewoks in Star Wars and kissed a boy at camp. Steve’s shoulder presses against his own. “Thanks. For that.”

Eddie swallows. It’s audible again, and he really wishes he knew how to cut that shit out, because it does a hell of a job of giving him away. “Yeah, man, no—um, no problem.”

“You know,” Steve starts, “I could be your first kiss. For practice.”

“For practice,” Eddie repeats flatly.

What an asshole. He should’ve known this was some elaborate setup to get Eddie to admit that all the rumors about him are true, to humiliate him or some shit.

Steve laughs, but it isn’t cruel like Eddie’s expecting. It’s soft, almost embarrassed. “Sorry, I just—that’s how the boy at camp got me to kiss him, figured I’d try the line out,” he says. “Guess I still don’t have my game back.”

“Your game?” Eddie asks, because what the hell is happening right now?

“You know, how I, like, suck at flirting lately,” Steve says. “I mean, I’ve been flirting with you all summer, and it took us getting stuck in a freezer for you to be even a little nice to me. Well, to get you to admit you don’t hate looking at my face, but I’ll take it.”

Record scratch number two.

“I—sorry, what?” Eddie asks, eyes practically bugging out of his head, and Steve shrugs with a quiet laugh. Eddie shakes his head. “Not fucking funny, man, you can’t just—you can’t say shit like that.”

“What, I can’t be honest with you?”

“You’re not—! You aren’t being honest, you’re fucking with me!”

Another little laugh. “Well, I’d like to be, but you don’t seem to like me very much,” Steve tells him. “What’d you say again? ‘When hell freezes over?’ Robin’s gonna have a field day with that ‘You Suck’ board of hers when I tell her I got rejected again.”

Eddie rethinks his entire summer.

Come to think of it, if he doesn’t consider a lot of Steve’s comments to be sarcastic, it actually does come across as incessant flirting.

Son of a bitch.

“How—why are you—what makes you so confident I won’t be an asshole about this?” Eddie asks, utterly bewildered.

Steve tilts his head—the shadows move, he sees the silhouette of Steve’s annoyingly perfect hair sway with the movement. “I mean, considering you apologized for ruining the game after I told you my first kiss was with a dude, figured I’d have nothing to lose except for my pride, of which I have remarkably little,” he says. “I’m pretty much shameless, man. And besides, your whole thing is, like, standing on tables and shitting on everyone else for conforming to society’s expectations, so…it’d be pretty weird if you were homophobic.”

This shit just gets crazier and crazier. “You paid attention to me in high school?” Eddie asks, and his eyes are adjusting to the light now. He can make out the faint, nostalgic smile on Steve’s face.

“Oh, I had the biggest crush on you my freshman year,” Steve tells him. “But, y’know, you made it very apparent you weren’t the biggest fan of jocks, and I’d already joined, like, a bunch of different teams, so—”

Eddie cuts him off by practically smashing his mouth against Steve’s, all jittery nerves. He’s not a very good kisser, but Steve lets out a tiny, pleased hum anyway as he lifts his hands to Eddie’s waist, tugging him closer just slightly. It’s insane. It’s bizarre. By all rules of both basic logic and the Munson Doctrine, this should not be happening. Steve Harrington should not be carefully and softly moving his lips against Eddie’s, but here they are.

“I’m sorry,” Eddie breathes, pulling back, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“You’re kind of an asshole,” Steve tells him, and Eddie can’t really argue with that, “but, uh, I’m sorry, too. The whole pigtail-pulling strategy really doesn’t work with you, huh?”

The mental image of Steve tugging his hair does something to Eddie that he’s a little too ashamed to admit. “Um,” he manages, “yeah.”

“Sorry about all of high school, then,” Steve says, and he kisses Eddie again.

And just as Steve’s hand snakes underneath Eddie’s shirt, the lights in the freezer come back on, and cold air begins to blast through the vents.

Once again, son of a bitch.

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie fic #steve x eddie #my fic #cross posted on ao3 #i really hope i did tumblr formatting right #i'm not used to it lmao

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lonely-soul-02 · 11 months

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I have thoughts on the interview where Noel says that Liam is deeply in love with him. 4:37

youtube

Thanks @devilsrefugee for providing the source. And thank you @lily-bluey for translating. I have looked for it for ages! Up to now, I thought it might have been an Oasis myth-quote. Is there also a source for the other quote where he says that Liam has always loved him and loves him even more now than when Noel was in Oasis?

Anyway, we could put this comment down to Noel being sarcastic and/or a massive cunt. Which he is.

But there is sarcasm and dry humour, and then there is saying that your brother is deeply in love with you. Twice. As if that wasn't a punchy enough statement to make, Noel pushes it further by saying his brother is upset about the fact that he is deeply in love with him.

Had he left it at the first one, we might have been able to file it under 'batshit crazy things Noel says' albeit with a distinct sense of 'that's not how brothers should talk about one another'. But drawing attention to Liam being very, very upset by it was extra. It hints at something else beneath the humorous surface. Even if it's not true, this is something that Noel had in his head? For how long? It's tempting to reflect on Oasis history and how the band ended, beyond the usual power struggles.

I mean, those two weaponising the fears and insecurities of each other is nothing new, but weaponising romantic attraction in your brotherly power struggle is not normal no matter how it’s spun.

If it's not true that Liam was in love with Noel, the fact that he used a universal taboo against Liam is a worryingly disturbed head space for Noel to have been in. If it is true, then it's almost worse, because Noel was hurting Liam in the cruellest way, not by exposing Liam's fears or insecurities, but by exposing his love.

Whatever the case, his comment strongly suggests romantic attraction was either at play or threatening to be, for one or both of them. After all, you don't just pull 'incest' out of your sarcasm and dry humour arsenal.

Oddly, when he was asked on twitter if it was true (since made private) Liam didn't exactly deny it. He could have said Noel was full of shit like he usually does, but he didn't. And there could be no mistaking the nature of the question/statement.

I'm not saying this proves that they had a sexual relationship or that they desired one another in a sexual way - it doesn't - but it does indicate that their relationship was much more complicated than most Oasis fans would care to admit. And when you contextualise this quote with the vast library of similar quotes, song lyrics, all the video clips, the multiple photos of them kissing, it's not a stretch to say that something else was going on, at least on an emotional level.

#gcest #Liam gallagher #noel gallagher #oasis #gallagher relationship #gallaghercest #obsession #confusion

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jorvikzelda · 1 year

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Also, I think one really weird part of SSO marketing themselves as a "girls' game" and sticking to that really really hard is their rock hard refusal to let the player character be a boy.

TL;DR because this got long: It is not progressive to, in a game about horse riding (a very stereotypically girly hobby), exclude boys.

(Spoilers for Saving Concorde and the Light Ride, but only in the first paragraph.)

We all know SSO's decision to only allow for girl player characters isn't about being Aideen reborn or the game being about sisterhood or only women being Soul Riders. Had that been the only problem, it would've been solved the second Rhiannon explained how Concorde could've been reborn as a mare - I quote, "A soul is not defined by the gender it's born into".

I absolutely do not mean to through this post make it seem like boys' inclusion in SSO is a priority over gender equality in gaming, and obviously I understand that women and girls have historically been excluded from gaming and have not had games catered to them. However, a) (as other people have pointed out) that isn't even NEARLY as much the case today as it was 10-15 years ago. b) I would honestly argue that not allowing the player character to be any other gender than a girl in SSO furthers that inequality. Also, this post doesn't even really touch on the full consequences of not having truly diverse body shape options and some variety of pronoun customization in a game that's "for girls", but in short: if you exclude all non-girls, you also cannot include all girls.

I've seen the (mostly community, to be fair) argument that "boy characters would lead to more problems with romancing", and that's bullshit. People already do that. Start reporting the daily weddings happening in Silverglade if you're seriously concerned about that.

I've seen SSO's argument that "in many games, girls are forced to play as boys", and I would really buy that argument if this was a single-player game with a premade player character, but do you know what games never ever do that except for SSO? Massive-multiplayer online games. That's right: that thing SSO is (or at least calls itself, but that's a topic for another post).

I've seen SSO's argument that boys can play Star Stable, they can play with the girl avatar just fine, but do you know which demographic of children interested in horses isn't going to look at SSO's website and go, "oh, that's all right, I'll play as a girl and it'll be fine and fun!"? That's right: preteen boys.

That's where we get to the next part of this conundrum: there are horses involved. Yeah, you know, that hobby that boys have never been shamed or bullied for partaking in! /sarcasm, obviously. If a boy is interested enough in horses to want to play a video game centered around them, it is more than likely he's been mocked and more than likely that mocking included insults aimed at his perceived femininity for partaking in equestrian sport and/or insulting him for enjoying a "girly" hobby. No 12 year old boy, especially not if he is being bullied a little bit, is going to look at SSO's character creation screen and go, "Oh, what a great feminist initiative! I feel just fine and dandy leaning into the perceived traits that I am being mocked for".

Horse riding is not traditionally seen as a "boys' hobby", and SSE is only furthering that perspective by actively choosing time and time again to not allow SSO's player characters to have physically masculine attributes or for SSO's players to choose their pronouns in game.

It's weird. I don't understand why they're doing it.

Part of me earnestly suspects it's a coding limitation: if SSE wanted to properly include non-girls in SSO, they would have to work for an amount of time ranging from many months to several years to change the way quest text and pronouns work.

I never truly expected them to care about true inclusivity enough to do that. I shouldn't be disappointed. It's easier to keep up the image of this being a grand feminist mission than to say, we would like to do this but our code is flawed and it would take so long and it's just. not. important. enough.

#this is the ONE thing I'll neg SSO about #sso #ssoblr #z talks #sso discussion

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batmanego · 1 month

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i was going to make a point about how zionists make sweeping claims and assumptions with very little research to back it up but i actually think a better point that im more equipped to make is that zionists seem to hold the idea of morality above actual morality. the idea behind why someone is doing something as opposed to why they may actually be doing it and the consequences that has. personally i am less interested in the question of "was the US on the right side of the vietnam war" than i am the question of "what were the material outcomes of the vietnam war". which were, like. mass death and irreparable damage. i don't think we should give commendations to an entity for "trying to do the right thing" when that attempt ultimately resulted in massive swathes of violence across a civilian population in a war that american leadership knew was incredibly unlikely to be won thereby making it carnage for carnage's sake and little more. which i mean you can see that ideology in zionist rhetoric. israel is "doing the right thing" by "defending itself from attackers" (heavy quotes and sarcasm there), consequences be, if not damned, then excused after the fact as an inevitable tragedy

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readerleedigest · 2 years

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Quotable

This is a tickle fic. Don’t read if that’s not your thing. And yes, this is another Eddie and Steve x Reader fic because I’m slightly obsessed with their characters.

When it came to the gang’s get-togethers, there could be anywhere from 2 to 10 conversations happening at once. Whether it was the younger kids talking amongst themselves, the older kids talking amongst themselves, or a free-for-all, things could get pretty hectic.

When you’d first made friends with Nancy and Robin, you’d come to these hangouts in the Wheelers’ basement and inserted yourself into one of the conversations, trying to give it your full attention. But it was difficult to listen to simply one when so many absurd ideas and statements were being said at once.

Usually, you’d find yourself missing out on key parts of one conversation because of an awfully funny remark made by another group, and your attention would turn to them. Sometimes Nancy would hear the remark too, and you’d share a look with her across the room, both amused.

The more you began to hang out with the group, however, the more you found it was fun to sit back and listen to all the conversations selectively and silently. That didn’t mean you never talked, but sometimes your most fun evenings were spent barely having spoken a word. You particularly paid attention to Eddie and Steve, whose interactions never seemed to lack intense sarcasm and a level of stupidity that was there intentionally.

Steve had let out a massive yawn towards the end of one evening, stretching his arms out wide.

“You sound like my uncle,” Eddie had laughed, mocking Steve.

“I AM your uncle,” Steve had responded immediately, his tone so serious you couldn’t help but bark out a laugh, drawing a grin from the two of them.

You weren’t sure if they made comments for their own amusement or for the amusement of others, but you’d become hooked on their conversations when you found yourself listening as you usually did. And while other comments still had you laughing, it was most commonly Eddie and Steve.

So you began bringing a notebook with you to these hangouts, sneakily writing down quotes from the group members when you heard one particularly funny.

It was a long, long list. And 75% of the list was Eddie and Steve, not that anyone knew of this except for you. And you had planned to keep it that way, at least for a while.

You’d been writing down another quote, this time one from a conversation between Dustin and Max, when you’d felt two weights settle themselves on either sides of you on the couch.

“Whatcha writing?”

You immediately slammed the notebook closed, cradling it against your chest and attempting to school your face into a nonchalant expression before responding to Eddie.

“Just, remembered something I needed to do later. Wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget.”

“Mmmmhmmm.” Steve’s suspicious hum, drew your attention to him. “If that’s the case, you sure do remember a lot when we’re all hanging out. We’ve all seen you writing in that notebook an awful lot.”

“I don’t think that I-”

“Y/N, Y/N, Y/N... you have a horrible poker face,” Eddie lilted. “Spill it.”

“It’s nothing!” Your grip on the notebook tightened, and you brought it closer, so it was flush against your stomach, your body slightly curled around it.

Steve across you at Eddie. “My money is still on some sort of diary.”

“And I,” Eddie responded. “Think it’s some sort of blackmail booky book.”

You let out a laugh at that. “Nope.”

“You could be lying though.”

“A booky would be good at lying.”

“They’re not a booky, Eddie.”

“So says you, Harrington.”

“I think we need to see the notebook to settle this.”

“Absolutely not,” you cut in, noticing the way they’d both shifted to angle towards you, eyeing the notebook.

“C’mon Y/N. You and I both know we can easily get that notebook from you. Might as well give it up the easy way.” Eddie reached out slowly as he spoke, and you smacked his hand away.

However, you’d been too busy protecting yourself from Eddie, and Steve had reached out to pry the notebook away. His hand reached to grab the bottom corner of the notebook, but in the process, he clawed your stomach.

“NoHOHO Steve,” you twisted away from him, both protecting the notebook and flinching away from the ticklish touch.

They both grew quiet, a predatory smile on both their faces.

“Ooooo, someone’s really in trouble now.” Steve reached out to repeat the action, and you shifted backwards into Eddie, who sloppily grabbed for the notebook, tickling you as Steve had.

“Guhuhuys, let’s talk about this,” you protested. They paused, just long enough to give you hope of getting away.

You threw your weight forward, and you only made it a step away from the couch before you felt Steve’s arms wrap around your waist, slinging you dramatically onto the ground.

You shouldn’t have been surprised when the conversations around you didn’t even pause as Steve settled himself on your waist, and Eddie sat cross-legged by your head.

“This better be good stuff you’re trying to hide,” Eddie teased, his head leaned over yours. “For your sake more than ours.”

“You’ve got 5 seconds,” Steve stated, his hands resting on the strip of stomach not covered by your notebook. “Or else you’re facing the two best tickle monsters in Hawkins.”

“Five.” Eddie’s hands moved to hover over your neck.”

“Four.”

“Three.” Steve’s fingers began tapping at your stomach.

“Two.” You squeezed your eyes shut, a ticklish grin already making your nose scrunch up.

“One.”

Steve wasted no time in skittering his fingers across your stomach, as Eddie focused on tracing patterns on your neck and collarbone. You couldn’t decide which was worse.

Eddie’s surprising gentle touch left you shrugging your shoulders, which worked in Steve’s favor, as it pulled your notebook up further, revealing more of your lower stomach and shifting the hem of your shirt up further.

Steve switched tactics immediately, alternating between squeezing your lower stomach and swiping his fingers across the bare skin.

“I forgot how ticklish you are,” Eddie teased. “I think you may be even more ticklish than the last time we got you.”

“EDDIEHEHEHEHE,” you squealed, blushing at the teasing.

“Eddie and Steve aren’t here anymore, Y/N.” Steve lowered his face so his nose was practically touching yours. “Only the tickle monsters.”

The ticklish sensations combined with the sheer butterflies his words gave you caused you to forget your mission, letting go of the notebook in order to cover your face, which felt like it was on fire from blushing.

“Dohohon’t look at mehehe,” you giggled, embarrassed.

“Not gonna happen, giggles,” Eddie said, grabbing your wrists and pulling them to either side of your head.

When you opened your eyes, they were both looking down at you with an amused look, Steve holding the notebook open in his hand.

He looked down and began to read, and you began to tug against Eddie’s grip. Steve’s amused look turned to confusion, to shock.

“What is it, Harrington?” Eddie asked.

“It’s us,” Steve laughed. “Us and some of the others, but mostly us.” He held the notebook in front of Eddie so he could read it, and you closed your eyes again. You knew it was silly, but you hoped they didn’t think you were weird or anything.

Your eyes flew open again when Steve clawed your stomach to get your attention.

“Hey giggles. Care to explain?”

You groaned, really wishing they’d quit looking at you the way they did.

“I just, I think you all are funny. So I write down what you all say that makes me laugh.”

“Sooo,” Eddie drawled. “What I’m hearing is you like it when we make you laugh.”

“Well, yeah,” you responded matter-of-factly, immediately realizing after where this conversation was going. “Wait, wait, that’s not what I meant.”

“I think I’m hearing exactly what you mean,” Steve smirked.

“I didn’t mean that you all could... y’know.”

“That we could what?”

And you stupidly responded.

“Tickle me.”

“Well, if you’re going to be so kind as to ask,” Steve grinned, lowering his hands to vibrate into the center of your stomach.

“WAHAHAIT NOHOHO!”

“Eddie, I’d like you to add that to their list of quotes, if you please.” Steve handed the notebook over to Eddie, who released your arms.

“DOHOHON’T!”

“I think you underestimate just how quotable you are yourself,” Eddie laughed, scribbling in your notebook. “Besides, we need written record that you definitely like this.”

“I DOHOHO NOHOHOT, EDDIIHIHIHIIE!”

Steve leaned himself into that horrible horrible position again, your noses touching as he shifted to squeeze your sides.

“How many times do we have to tell you, Y/N? It’s tickle monster to you.” He shot you a wink, lowering his voice to a whisper. “And if you didn’t like it, why aren’t you using your arms to fight back?”

Oh shoot.

Eddie had let go of your arms, hadn’t he?

Steve slowed his tickling, still keeping his eyes locked on yours.

“Ihihi, I didn’t realize...” you trailed off, unable to come up with a defense.

Steve shifted his head to the side, pressing a quick kiss to your cheek. Eddie followed suit, doing the same to your other cheek.

“It’s sweet,” Steve stated, rolling off of you and pulling you into a sitting position.

“Keep writing the quotes, Y/N. We won’t tell the others.” Eddie smiled, handing back the notebook to you.

“And if you’re that desperate for laughs in the future, you know exactly which tickle monsters to call.”

You shoved Steve’s shoulder playfully, before your eye caught on the two new additions at the bottom of the notebook page.

Tickle me. - Y/N

Let the record show that Y/N is the best. - Steve & Eddie

“Thanks,” you smiled bashfully, closing the notebook as Steve pulled you to your feet.

“Y/N!” Robin called from her conversation with El and Max. “What do you think about....”

And thus began another quotable conversation.

#lee!reader #ticklish!reader #stranger things tickle #ler!steve harrington #ler!eddie munson

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