#oh god lots of people time for mass tag

[1moreff-creator]

(03) David Chiem - First Trial (DRDT - Milgram AU)

IMPORTANT: This had to be reposted due to technical issues (it wasn't showing up on tags). There were two votes on the original before I privated it to avoid confusion. Please check you've voted if this disclaimer wasn't there when you first saw the post.

Another entry in this crossover AU! This time David, with his VD Nebula, and his MV Star in the Night! Wait. David… MV? David MV? Oh God no not again I don’t wanna go back no-! (/joke) 

Thumbnail:

So for the content warnings, you know what, I’ll just make an universal list of all the content warnings I think the AU will need, hopefully I don’t miss anything. So, here are the universal CWs! Not all of them apply to David, but I do this to prevent sorta spoiling things in the CWs. In no particular order:

Universal CWs: Violent murder, suicide, self-harm, stabbing, strangling, poisoning, gun violence, fire, child abuse, animal death, bullying, road accidents, betrayals, transphobia, mass death, conspiracy to harm.

By the way, important note: when I originally made the Undercover post, I fucked up with his kill-shot. The victim was supposed to have one shoe off, and I forgot to mention it, oops. I’ve edited it, but  just in case you hadn’t seen the edit, keep that in mind. 

Voice Drama: Nebula

(Why is David so hard to write send help. Hope he's not too ooc)

*Footsteps*

Es: Hi!

David: Hello there! My name is David Chiem. A pleasure!

E: And I’m Es! Nice to meet you, David!

D: I hope you don’t mind me asking, but you are the Warden of Milgram, right?

E: That’s right! Why do you ask?

D: Well, I wanted to know if I could bring certain… issues, to your attention. After all, you are an authority figure here, from what I understand.

E: Oh! Of course! Is there something wrong? Are any of the other prisoners causing you trouble?

D: Oh, no! Nothing like that. It’s just, well. See, you’ve claimed every person here is a murderer, right? 

E: That’s right, yeah.

D: Well, it seems there’s been a mistake. But don’t worry! I won’t hold it against you!

E: A mistake? What do you mean?

D: Well, how do I put this? I… have been wrongly imprisoned, you see. I’ve never… killed anyone.

E: Huh, really? You know, it’s funny. You’re not the first to say that.

D: Oh? Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were other innocent people here. But it’s fine! Mistakes can be corrected. It’s not difficult to change, if you’re willing to!

E: … Is that so? You know… you seem pretty calm about all this.

D: Hm, I guess you could say that. But it’s just who I am. See, I try to be as positive as I can, since I know there's a lot of people that don't get the privilege. 

E: Really now? And you don’t think a situation like this merits being at least a little bit worried?

D: Ah, I guess so. I…am worried, deep down. But being negative can only make things worse, right? When it feels like everything else is against you, the least you can do is help yourself. 

E: Hm…

D: A lot of the people here are extremely distressed, understandably so. And I have to think, well, these people might have bigger issues than me, yes? I live a pretty good life, I can look forward to returning to it whenever this all blows over. So it’s my responsibility to keep morale high! 

E: Alright…  And what does your life look like that you are seemingly so content with it?

D: Want to count my blessings, huh? Well, let’s see. Although I’m an only child, I have a good relationship with the rest of my family, and I have good connections with people outside of it as well. I consider myself talented, there are some things I’m quite good at! I am quite wealthy thanks to my work as a professional inspirational speaker, so I don’t have any financial concerns. In fact, one of the other murderers even recognized me!

E: Oh! What a coincidence!

D: Yeah, right? I was surprised too-

E: So why did you call them a murderer? 

D: *Sputter* I’m sorry?

E: You said they were “one of the other murderers.” I thought you said you believed some of the others could have been wrongfully imprisoned? I would imagine someone as positive as you would only want to assume the very best, right? 

D: *Sharp breath*

E: *Slightly smug* Not to mention, “other murderers?” I thought you hadn’t killed anyone, David.

D: Yes, that’s right! I’m- I’m sorry, it was a slip of the tongue. 

E: Is that really it? You seem nervous about something. 

D: *Nervous chuckle* Didn’t you tell me I should feel worried about my situation? But now you’re suddenly concerned with a bit of stress over false accusations. *Fake-sounding chuckle* You’re giving me contradictory information, Warden!

E: *Cheery* Well, at that point you hadn’t revealed you knew you were a murderer! 

D: Huh? What do you mean, know I’m a murderer?

E: Well, sorry! But you are a murderer.

D: … Are you- Are you serious? I make one little mistake, just misspeak once, and you immediately assume the worst?

E: …

D: You know, things like this have happened before. People like to pretend I’ve said things I haven’t said, misinterpret actions and statements… That can hurt people, you know? 

E: …

D: Just jumping to conclusions… all of you are the same. You hear only what you want to hear, and then decide I’m a murderer just because I misspoke-

E: No, that’s wrong.

D: …What?

E: I don’t think you’re a murderer just because of what you said. I just never believed you from the start. Again, sorry!

D: … Excuse me?

E: You are a prisoner in Milgram. That is all the proof I need to know your actions have led to someone’s death. Because of that, when you told me you weren’t a murderer, I knew there were only three options.

D: … Do enlighten me, please.

E: One option is that you are mistaken. Maybe you don’t consider what you did murder, when in the eyes of Milgram, it could be judged as such. The second is that you were lying to yourself, in an attempt to protect yourself from your actions.

D: …

E: The third is that you were lying to me.

D: …

E: That Freudian slip of yours was enough to tell me you do consider yourself a murderer. So you’re not mistaken, and you’re not lying to yourself. Therefore, you must have been lying to me!

D: … I see. 

E: So you admit to it?

D: … Admit to it? Admit to what? Your reasoning only works if you assume this accursed prison can’t get things wrong, which is just delusional. 

E: Perhaps you feel that way. Except, I know you don’t, since you consider the others murderers as well. 

D: Will you just-?! *Deep breath*

E: Listen, David. I’m not mad at you. I understand your murder must have been traumatic-

D: I didn’t- 

E: But lying and hiding it all isn’t going to help you here. I will find out the truth anyways, so being honest is probably your best bet!

D: Being- *Mix between a chuckle and a short wheeze* Do you even know what you’re asking me to do?

E: I don’t think I’m asking too much! Just tell me what you did and-

D: You really don’t understand anything, huh? 

E: … Your eyes…

D: Oh? Are the stars gone? Yeah, they do that.

E: N-Nevermind that. What do you mean I don’t understand anything?

D: … Well. How do I put this? I can’t have you- You shouldn’t be allowed to know everything about my life, right? What gives you the right to invade my privacy? Nothing! 

E: That’s unfortunate for you, then! I will find the truth, whether you like it or not.

D: … *sigh, his voice is filled with poison* You really are arrogant, huh? 

E: … And you aren’t really as positive as you say, right? 

D: …

E: David?

D: Ah! Apologies. It seems I was losing track of myself there. I apologize if I said something hurtful.

E: *Sputter* The stars-

D: In any case, if I may, I’ll once again state. Nothing I've ever done could be considered murder, and I wholeheartedly believe that.

E: But that's a lie.

D: Perhaps. But, you see... If you do find the truth…

E: …

D: Then you might as well just kill me on the spot!

*Machinery whirs*

E: Huh? Wait, what do you mean?

D: Oh, it seems the extraction process starts now, right? That’s unfortunate.

E: Wait, I still have questions! I just need more time!

D: Ha… well, we all want what we can’t have, I guess. 

E: Huh? 

D: Ah! Sorry, maybe that came off a bit depressing. In any case, I want to leave you with one last message, a quote from Shakespeare’s Othello. 

E: What are you-

D: “To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on.”

E: Huh?

D: "Holding grudges and focusing on the past will only lead to misfortune." It is better to focus on the future and-!

E: Are you serious?! Stop trying to convince me into not doing my job! It’s not going to work.

MonoTV: Well, it sorta is! Why are you taking so long? We’re on a schedule here. 

D: *Chuckle*

E: Urgh…

E: Prisoner 03, David Chiem, sing your sins!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trial 1 Cover: Magical Girl and Chocolate by PinnochioP

(Listen I saw the chance to play into the magical girl joke and had to do it)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Music Video: Star in the Night

(By the way, I reference Chinese tally marks quite a bit, so here they are for reference. Also to clarify they are used in other countries but I'm calling them that because their origin is Chinese (from what I understand I hope I'm not getting this too wrong), I don't know if there's a better term for them, sorry)

(I also call out real books by name, which I hope isn’t too immersion breaking, but I felt it was fitting considering who we’re dealing with lol. Now the song)

[The music sounds like a pretty standard “inspirational” pop song. Think Firework by Katy Perry]

[David speaks the first few lines]

Welcome ladies, gentlemen, and everyone else! It’s the start of another wonderful day! Let us make the most of it! I hope you can trust me when I say, It will all be alright

The video starts on a shot of an empty stage, the front row seats barely visible around it. In the center stands David, who looks small in comparison to the stage. Several spotlights shine on him, his arms out beside him. He’s wearing his canon outfit (pre-CH2 EP11), as well as a white domino mask with golden highlights (the one from the thumbnail) over his eyes. He also wears a pin on his right, which looks like a pink camellia. A red dot is visible on the top left of the screen, alongside the word REC.

The camera slowly zooms in, and David puts his left hand over his chest as he continues talking. He smiles wide and bright as the opener ends, and the camera glitches.

[Now he starts singing. I’m still basing this off Firework tbh]

Waking up again, Watching the sun rise, (I) Another brand new start, Another breath of air! (II)

(I) We get a shot of David sitting up on a bed with a deep blue blanket decorated with stars. The walls are grey, but there’s a window with purple curtains in the background, which lets in sunlight. His head is off frame, but he’s reaching up towards it with his left hand. There’s a nightstand off to the left. On it we see a simple lamp, a photograph frame (the photograph is obscured), and a phone with a blue case. There’s a grey circle visible in the top left of the screen. 

(II) We zoom in on the phone, the grey circle at the top right still visible. The phone screen lights up with a message. 

Edward W. 

Good morning. Remember we signed an agreement for an advertisement with…

After that message arrives, David’s hand appears on screen and grabs the phone.

Burning ever bright, the passion for your life. (I) Don’t ever put it down, And hope will never drown! (II)

(I) We’re back at the stage, the same scene as before, but now we’re looking at David’s back. The seats for the audience are visible, and on them sit a bunch of grey figures with no discernible features. The circle at the top left is red again, and once more the REC word appears next to it. 

(II) Grey circle again, as we switch to a scene with a pure white background. A hand with the following bracelet appears from the top right, holding the white domino mask.

(Please pretend that's not the shittiest image ever made)

Another, smaller hand appears from the bottom left, grabbing the mask and taking it off screen. 

[Pre-chorus, the instrumental builds]

See a quasar that now spins Emitting hope, emitting dreams! (I) The center, truly irrelevant When the light is all we see! So- (II)

(I) Grey circle. Back to a front-facing shot of David, who is holding the mask with his right hand. The shot starts with the mask covering the screen, but David swiftly brings the mask closer to him. His eyes lack stars. His expression is neutral-to-dead inside, and he looks down at the mask for a few seconds. 

(II) He takes a breath. Then, he brings his head down at the same time he brings the mask up, covering his face with his hand. He holds that position for a moment, and as the song says “light”, spotlights begin shining on him. At the same time, the circle turns red with REC again. When the “so” plays, David brings his hand up and we zoom in as he points to the sky.

[Chorus!]

Tally up the good things like dots in the sky! (I) You’ll find there’s always hope if you’re willing to try! (II) And even when you feel that you’re lost in the dark, (III) Then I offer my advice, allow me in your heart And then let me be your star in the night! (IV)

(I) Thumbnail image, except the tally symbols start off as yellow dots that look like stars before turning into the tally symbols we see in said image. 

(II) David continues singing, but we get different angles to make the shots a bit more interesting. 

(III) Front-facing shot of David again. His right hand is over his chest as he sings with a slightly less enthusiastic smile. The stars in his eyes fade out. When the song says “dark”, there’s a quick flash to another scene. The background is now black instead of blue, and while David is standing in the same position, his appearance is a bit different. Hair clips off, messy hair, tie undone, black circles around his pupils. He’s wearing a black and blue domino mask, similar to the other one he was wearing before. The pink camellia pin has disappeared, but now he’s wearing a black rose pin on his left. He looks vaguely frustrated. The circle is grey.

(IV) After only a moment, we’re back to the previous scene, and David continues singing as the camera slowly zooms out. Just as the chorus ends, the camera glitches a bit. We see this for a moment:

(Okay so there was an image here, but it gets the post shadowbanned for unknowable reasons. I'll just put the image description here:

"David stands neutrally, with his white mask outfit. He's in front of a green screen on a grey wall. It looks as if he's being recorded by a camera which shows things such as the time of recording, the camera battery, the pixel size, etcetera. Red REC circle on the top left.")

Then, the camera suddenly goes dark with a bright flash at the center, as if it had been turned off.

[More spoken words]

There will be times in your life, when you feel that (I) you don’t have anything worth living for. (II) This will always be false. (III) Let me tell you some, uh, paraphrased quotes from books I like, which help me maintain a positive attitude! (IV)

(I) We see David from a POV to his right. He’s sitting on a comfortable looking blue and yellow chair as he talks with a calm smile, wearing the white mask and pin with the red REC circle visible. He’s in a small room, with star decorations hanging from the ceiling. On the blue walls, there’s a poster of David (white mask and all) holding a book with a big smile on his face, alongside some unreadable text. The book has David's face on the cover.

(II) The screen glitches, and we’re now looking at David from the left. He’s still sitting on a similar chair, except it’s black and purple. He’s back to his bed-hair, black mask, dark circles around pupils, black rose pin costume. He’s smirking as he talks. The background is completely black, but the circle is still red with REC. 

(III) Screen glitches again, and we’re back at the same scene from (I).

(IV) We’re now in a different room, with a wooden floor and blue walls decorated with stars. Red circle with REC. The back of David’s head covers most of the screen, a hand with the same bracelet as before on his shoulder. In the background, there are four blurry, white silhouettes of people.

[Back to singing]

One: (I) Being harmed by cotton wool, Happiness scares the weak (II)

(I) We see a grey background with a horizontal line glowing bright yellow in the middle. There is a small table in the foreground, which shows a book with a pink cover and a black silhouette on front. The side reads “No Longer Human.”

(II) Red REC circle. We see one of the white silhouettes, with long hair, holding up a daisy flower as David (white mask) gives a thumbs up with a wide smile. The background is completely blue.

Two: (I) Our doubts, traitorous Make us lose what we may win (II)

(I) Same grey background as before, but now the glowing symbol in the background is the Chinese tally mark for 2. “No Longer Human” is still there, but now there’s a book standing next to it. It’s orange and has a scale on the front, alongside the words “Measure for Measure.”

(II) Grey circle. The screen is split in two. On the left, David without his hairpins (post-reveal hair), but also without a mask, is staring blankly at his phone. The background has the grey walls and purple curtains from his bedroom. On the right, we see someone in a suit with a pin which looks exactly like David’s hairpins accepting money being handed to them by a white silhouette. The white silhouette has similar pins on their other hand. The background there is blue.

Three: (I) Time and the hour, Run through even rough things (II)

(I) Same scene with the books, but now the symbol is the Chinese tally mark for 3 and there’s a new addition. A book with a red cover with a skull and a crown, labeled “Macbeth.”

(II) We see a white silhouette with short hair slouched over on a desk, in a dark room. They’re looking at a computer screen showing David’s white-masked, smiling face. The circle isn’t visible in its usual spot, but it’s on the computer screen, red with REC. The desk the computer is on has discarded candy wrappings all around the keyboard, as well as a white mug with a yellow star drawn on it.

Four: (I) Time soothes sorrows,  Be content you have known me. (II)

(I) Book shot. The symbol is now the Chinese tally mark for 4. Apart from the books which were already there, there’s now a white book off to the side, with a small, stylized drawing of a person with blond hair and green clothes standing on a grey sphere. We can barely see the words “The Little Prince.”

(II) Another white silhouette in a blue background, a book with David's face on the cover beside them. Red REC circle. The silhouette is on the floor, their hand outstretched towards (white-mask) David, who is leaning down over them and offering them a hand with a placid smile. It looks as if David is trying to help them stand up.

Five: (I) There’s relief when you know, You won’t carry burdens, see…

(I) The same scene as before, except all the books are gone. The symbol in the background is the Chinese tally mark for 5. On the table stands a book with a dark cover showing a big house, with the title “And Then There Were None.”

(II) We see David’s face (white mask, but hair undone), with a smile that doesn’t reach his (starless) eyes, as he accepts his usual hairpins being handed to him by a hand with the previously shown bracelet. 

[Pre-chorus]

And there is so much, so much more (I) So many reasons to carry on (II) Even when the world’s against you You just have to find your hope! (III) So (IV)

(I) Back to the scene with the comfortable looking chair for a moment. Red REC circle again.

(II) Grey circle. We see David’s back (post-EP11 hair) as he looks out the window of his bedroom, which shows a pitch black sky, the purple curtains framing the shot. 

(III) David walks off frame, but his reflection remains still on the window. It’s David with the black mask outfit, smirking. 

(IV) Screen glitches, and the window disappears, but David (black mask) is still there, on a black background. The circle turns red with REC, and spotlights begin shining on him. 

Tally up the good things like dots in the sky! (I) You’ll find there’s always hope if you’re willing to try! (II) And even when you feel that you’re lost in the dark, (III) Then I offer my advice, allow me in your heart (IV) And then let me be your star in the night! (V)

(I) David (still black mask, black rose pin, black circles around pupils, no hairpins and post-CH11 hair) points up, the camera zooms in on his hand. It quickly goes back to showing his full upper body, he’s still smirking. The background remains completely black, but the circle is still red with REC.

(II) We zoom in a bit. David tilts his head and rolls his eyes behind his mask.

(III) We change to the back of David’s head. We see the four white silhouettes on the black background, looking as taken aback as silhouettes can look. 

(IV) Screen glitches, we see a side shot of white mask David holding his hand out with a bright smile. Screen glitches again, now black mask David is standing in the same position.

(V) We see this:

[There’s a small guitar solo, as the music suddenly switches to a very fast-paced rock style instrumental. David can be heard laughing]

Still with his black mask outfit, David sits down on the same comfortable looking purple and black chair from before. He’s laughing.

[The next lines are sung very quickly]

One: (I)  I wonder, does it make me a villain… (II) Two: (III) If I choose to discard the ideal? (IV) Three: (V) Should I regret what is true now? (VI) Four: (VII) Is it my fault? Does it make me inhuman? (VIII) Ah… hahaha! … (IX) “Correct” (X)

(I) Back to the grey background with a table in the foreground. We again see a horizontal line glowing bright yellow in the background, but now there’s a withered daisy laying on top of the table.

(II) Screen is split, the circle is gone. To the left, David (black mask) has his mouth open in a smirk as he points to his head in a finger gun gesture. There is blood on his hand. To the right, we see the long haired white silhouette’s head laying on the ground with their head turned to the side, a splatter of a pink liquid under it. 

(III) Grey background with Chinese tally mark for 2 glowing. The withered daisy is still there, but now there’s also a broken pin beside it which looks very similar to David’s.

(IV) Screen is split again. To the right, a side shot of David holding his now bloodied neck with both hands, again with a big smirk. To the left, another white silhouette laying on the ground, face down with their hands to their sides, and without any pink liquid visible.

(V) Chinese tally mark for three on the grey background. Alongside the withered daisy and the pin, we see the broken pieces of a white mug with a star drawn on it.

(VI) In the bottom left, a shot from David’s left, where he’s giving a thumbs down with a bloody hand, the blood still on his hands and neck. On the top right, another white silhouette laying on a pool of pink liquid on the ground, their limbs bent in unnatural positions. 

(VII) Chinese tally mark for 4 in the grey background. Alongside the other objects, we see the book with David's face. It’s completely drenched in water, several pages ripped out and strewn around the table.

(VIII) To the right, a side shot of David pinching his nose, still smirking. On the left, another of the white silhouettes lays on the ground with their head tilted to the side, again without pink liquid.

(IX) We see David’s upper body as he stands up and cackles, throwing his arms out to the sides. As the laugh trails off, the screen glitches. David changes a bit. His hairstyle turns into his pre-Ch11 hairstyle, but he doesn’t have the hairpins. His eyes have neither stars nor dark circles around the pupils, though he does have eyebags. He’s not wearing a mask or a pin, and his tie is undone. He’s looking at the camera with a horrified expression. The grey circle returns. The screen fades to black as the laugh fully disappears and there’s silence for a moment.

(X) An image fades in from the black. It’s the same table from before, but lit more dimly. The grey background shows the Chinese tally symbol for five written in blood. The only thing in the table is the bracelet, stained with blood.

[Bridge, the instrumental slows down again]

Count up my mistakes, like stars in daylight.  You will find “me” again, if you’re willing to try. And even when it feels it’s all lost to the dark (I) Then I beg you, I beg you… (II)

(I) Screen fades in again, and we see David standing in the stage from chorus one. Grey circle, no spotlights. The shot is zoomed out, so David’s face is impossible to see, but his arms are to his side neutrally, and his head is tilted down. His hairpins and chest pins are missing, and his tie is undone. There is a stool next to him, the white mask laying on it. 

As he stands still, words appear behind him, slowly rising from the ground and scrolling to the top of the screen. 

CREDITS

Main cast:

Chiem D. 正 Williams E.

Producers:

Chiem D. Williams E. MILGRAM

Script-writing:

Williams E. Chiem D.

Camera Operator:

Chiem D.

Original Idea:

Chiem D.

Special Thanks:

Background Characters:

As the credits scroll, David brings his hands to his chest and fumbles around a bit. When he moves them away, his tie is now done correctly and his pink camellia pin is back up. He then takes something out of his pocket, and brings his hands to his hair. After removing the hands, his hair pins are back up. 

(II) Right as “Background Characters” appears on screen, we cut. Zoom in on the white mask on the stool, and David grabs it. Shot switches to David’s face, his eyes closed and mouth pressed in a thin line. He slaps the mask on his face, and quickly swipes his hand up. As he does, his mouth twists into a big smile, the circle turns red with REC, and the spotlights begin shining on him again.

Tally up the good things like dots in the sky!  You’ll find there’s always hope if you’re willing to try!  And even when you feel that you’re lost in the dark, (I) Then I offer my advice, (II) allow me in your heart (III) And then let me be your star in the night! (IV)

(I) The camera zooms out slightly to show David’s upper body, as he points up. The credits behind him now start scrolling backwards (top to bottom). He’s singing cheerily, but there are no stars in his eyes. Right as he says “lost in the dark”, the credits fully disappear from the screen.

(II) Cut to the ‘正’ symbol, written in blood, on a grey wall. Grey circle. 

(III) David’s hands appear on frame, holding a mirror with a golden frame. He puts it over the ‘正’ symbol, covering it completely. In the reflection, we see white mask David frowning at the mirror with starless eyes. 

(IV) Screen glitches, and we’re back to the same screen as before (white mask - no stars - spotlights - red REC circle - stage). David finishes singing, but he’s still breathing quickly.

[Instrumental begins to wind down]

The camera zooms out as David continues breathing heavily.

Let me be your star in the night!

The camera fades to static before suddenly cutting off.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MonoTV: On the topic of inspirational speaking, do you need any encouragement?

Es: Uhm, I guess it couldn’t hurt?

M: Too bad! I’m not gonna be nice to you! 

E: Who are you talking to again? 

M: The only encouragement I’ll ever give you is when it comes time to cast your verdict. And speaking of that, it’s… g

VOTING TIME!!!

#drdt #david chiem #milgram #drdt milgram crossover au

[askweisswolf]

Fanfic Writer Questions

Thank you for the tag @foibles-fables!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

19!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

Currently at 89,257.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Oh man, uh. I think it would be better to say what fandoms I don’t write for at this stage, it’s still crazy to me to think it’ll be twenty years this year that I started writing fanfic. Currently I’d say Baldur’s Gate 3 has me by the throat, with a little bit of the DCAU (specifically, Justice League/Unlimited) and the occasional dash of Fallen Hero and Dragon Age that I post to Discord servers. I’ve also got a few Mass Effect short pieces floating around. I really need to post to my AO3 more.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I’m going to mess with this one a bit and go off of my top five finished fics by fandom and stick to the ones I wrote solo, that way it’s a bit of a mix. I apologize in advance since a lot of these are years old at this point, but it definitely goes back to what I said before about writing in multiple fandoms, ha.

Rest for the Weary (Frozen) Flare (SPOP) The Same Big Sky (Fire Emblem: Three Houses) Skin Deep (Dragon Age: Origins) At The Door (Baldur's Gate 3) 5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to! I’m not always the best at it but I genuinely appreciate everyone who takes the time to comment on one of my fics, it means the world to me and I always love hearing everyone’s feedback and thoughts, it makes me so excited for my own writing.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

If we’re going purely by just what’s on AO3… hm. For stuff that’s a bit older, easily The Silence Is Your Answer (Fire Emblem: Three Houses). For something I wrote more recently, Few Finer Torments (Baldur’s Gate 3) because I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about Shadowheart in Act 2 specifically.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

… Most of them. Oh my God I’m mainly a fluff writer, like I knew this about myself but to actually realize it so starkly is something else. Of my most recent stuff I’d probably say A Little Slice (Justice League Unlimited) has possibly the softest ending I’ve written in awhile.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully not.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not often but I do sometimes! All of it so far has been for f/f ships, mostly with a lot more focus on like… the thinking and the feeling aspect of it and not so much the physical aspect, if that makes sense? I just like using sex as a way to explore the characters, when I’m in the mood to write it.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Oh, man, okay. I have written a few crossovers over the years, but my favorite is still one I co-wrote with a friend of mine for the Beast’s Lair fan forum back in the day that was just a complete off the walls one-shot crack crossover with Fate/Stay Night, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and I think we had a dash of Highschool of the Dead right at the end. It was insane, we wrote it on a Skype call in a matter of hours.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know, thankfully.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not! When I was more active on FIMFiction.net though I did have a few people who did live readings of my fics, those were always neat.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! I’ve co-written with him a lot before, but Pen Pals (Frozen) was co-written with Moczo. Just a heads up that I think he has it set that you can only read it if you’re logged in, if you want to check it out.

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

… I don’t think I can only pick one, man. I really don’t. If I have to, my brain always comes back to Shayera/John or Raven/Terra.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I feel like I owe everyone who started reading my The 100 fic or my Black Widow fic an apology at this point.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, emotional payoff, character study (I guess?). I have one friend who told me I write very good Catholic guilt.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Sex and fight scenes are the absolute bane of my existence, for as much as I enjoy the character potential of the former in particular. I’m also slow as hell, I’ve been working on this one Shayera/John fic now for like a year trying to finish it before I post it and ugh.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

If it fit the context of the fic I would, yes! I’d double check it with someone else who knows the language first, though.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Like, ever? Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers to my old Fanfiction.net account when I was 13. I had a bunch of old stuff saved to floppy discs that I never posted, though.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

This changes on a nigh daily basis, but currently I’m having an absolute blast with my The Beast Whisperer series focusing on my Tav who romances Shadowheart, so I’ll leave the link for it here.

Going to gently tag @optiwashere, @kittlesandbugs, @antigonick, @miabicicletta if you guys want to participate, no pressure! And of course anyone who sees this is free to respond as well.

#my writing #fanfic meme #ask game

[memaidraws]

On Repeat Playlist Tag Game

Rules: Shuffle your repeat playlist 10 times and tag 10 people. Tagged by @flymmsy 😘

If you've ever wanted to laugh at my musical tastes, no better opportunity now, folks!

I know a lot of you guys are within the venn diagram of shared/mutual fandoms, so what I'll do for this (to make things interesting) is assign a pairing for each song and a wee rationale as to why ;)

Tagging: @defira85 @atypicalacademic @dirty-bosmer @henbased @braindancer @feykiller @vasiktomis @circlejourney @chickenparm @sweatandwoe (sorry if you've been tagged before!)

SHEPARD / GARRUS (Mass Effect) Okay, Reina's technically not 'Shepard', and this is a big cheat because Jeon Somi is her voice claim haha. Definitely a song she's released out of spite when Garrus all but disappeared to play vigilante on Omega ;)

MARTIN SEPTIM / MARINA CORVUS (TES IV: Oblivion) Listen, listen, this song is so perfectly them it actually kind of hurts a lot. To people that surrounded Martin, Emperor-to-be, Marina was exactly the kind of troublemaker they needed him to stay away from. But to Brother Martin the man made of flesh? She was everything to him uwu

GORTASH / DURGE (Baldur's Gate III) Come on now, the lyrics are PERFECT for a Durge lamenting about the big dumb crush she's got on Enver and oh my god? He likes her back? (She says, kicking her feet in the air, after a bloody massacre, much to Sceleritas Fel's dismay)

MAYOR HANCOCK / LEE (Fallout 4) UGH oh my god so I know Lee Know from Stray Kids is his faceclaim but this song is very much them. Wanting to run away, seeking freedom where they can take it? Not wanting to take shit for all the crap that's been thrown their way? Yeah <3 Maybe for a modern AU <3

GORTASH / DARK URGE (Baldur's Gate III) It's not cheating! If Kill! Kill! Kill! was from Durge's perspective, I can see this being from Gortash's perspective (the fact this is one genuine emo/alt??? perfect for Gorty's aging rockstar look). Like come on, it's in the name, the lyrics, the screamo bridge? Davey Havok knows what's up.

ONMUND / ALREK (TES V: Skyrim) Oh man. Oh man so this particular album from Bastille has been very Onmund/Alrek coded to me (for reasons I won't get into yet ;D) But this is very much like Alrek watching the world quite literally burn and the only thing he can think of is courting the cute mage and throwing all his cares into the wind. After all, when the world's ending, why does any of it matter?

CAPT DELACOURT / MC (Heart of a Sky Pirate) Hey, my otome game officially lives on an app, so this counts ;D But these more upset, shanty-esque songs definitely reminds me of Delacourt and his romance route. Throwing your cares to the wind (literally) and having a grand ol' time no matter where the adventure takes you.

F!SOLE SURVIVOR / CURIE (Fallout 4) Hear me out: I think Parker's (my sole) romance with Curie is almost highschool puppy love. And it doesn't help that they both have some pretty huge baggage that they need to work through-- so having someone to lean on and love in a way that's easy, carefree and happy? Yeah they're gonna hold onto that <3

STELLE / MARCH 7TH (Honkai: Star Rail) Forever crying that my Caelus is getting so many better pulls than my Stelle, but fwiw, I definitely think Stelle and March have a very fun, easy-going relationship. Kinda need to when you're Trailblazing across the galaxy in a giant space train (and angering gods along the way, oops!)

GALE DEKARIOS / TAV (Baldur's Gate III) Hear me out: I think these two would be so into each other in the way that they absolutely would not leave each other alone. You think Astarion/Tav is bad? These two have it worse. To be more precise, my Tav for this romance, Rae, is very much into exploring his romantic curiosities with Gale. No one else makes him feel as safe and wanted uwu

#music tagged #if you weren't tagged and wanna participate go ahead! #just say I tagged you and I'll come check it out! #no obligation btw to those who were tagged! #Spotify

[mtreebeardiles]

Things I'd like to know about my fellow writers

Tagged by @illusivesoul -- many thanks!

Tagging uh... um. All of you. Any writer who sees this and wants to participate

Last book I read: oh god I read a lot of books at the same time uhhh hmm I did recently finish Claudia Gray's The Fallen Star (book three in the High Republic books) and am emotionally compromised about it

Greatest literary inspiration: Ooh, gotta be Tamora Pierce. Amazing world building, great characters, a wonderfully down-to-earth writing style you don't often see in the high fantasy genre. Good stuff all around.

Things in my current fandom I want to read but I don't want to write: luckily for me someone IS writing WWII crossover fics ( <3 @theoriginalladya ). Otherwise it's less an issue of not wanting to write something and more an issue of not feeling like I can pull it off as well or else not having the energy to do so

Things in my current fandoms I want to write but I think nobody would be interested in them but me: Guardian Angel x Songbird in a borderlands/cyberpunk crossover/au. The entire concept of the second part of my ME:A long fic because I go even more off-script -- talking Kett characters from beyond the heleus cluster, AI fuckery, poking at the jaardan, and yeah. Stuff. Probably why I'm struggling so hard to finish the first part, eh?

You can recognize my writing by: excessive love of commas and semicolons; third person with a stream of consciousness touch. a rousing game of "is this a run-on sentence or does the comma negate that" (it DOES, i swear).

My most controversial take (current fandom): Hoo boy okay uhhh

For Mass Effect: ... I don't ship shakarian and I don't ship Talibrations. If I were to write anything with Garrus it'd probably be an OC or someone with less established interactions in canon, because i feel Garrus's canonical depictions are all over the fucking place. And I just really like Tali with Traynor /shrug

ME:A is a good game. Cry about it. (as in im crying about it because chances are high they won't let us go back)

Top three favourite tropes: idk if this is a trope per se or if it is idk what it's called but I'm such a sucker for people being super dorky in their relationships. Absolute nerds. Hmm I also like "saved" by the narrative -- characters who have to face the consequences of making it out alive and figuring out what that means. Found family is another goodie.

What’s your current writing mood (10 – super motivated and churning out words like crazy, 0 – in a complete rut): 0.5 -- i wrote like! Some sentences recently! Ayyy!

Share a random frustration: I think I need a different dedicated writing space. My current office is just too "this is the place you work" and it just adds to the already pervasive sense of burnout.

#tag meme #tag game #writing stuff

[dirtbra1n]

WAIT ONE MORE I JUST REMEMBERED. Prev pres tashiro hanzawa. All three or any combination Whatever yknow.

TWELVE DAYS AGO NOW. answering to cope with the fact that I’m being held back from tashiro post by things like Class and Final projects and The horrors.

all of it makes sense. all of it compels me. you’re not insane and neither am I. I’m gonna reread Love & Passion for this. I have a feeling this is gonna come back to shoulders again sorry sunnfish. also I’m maliciously scanning through the note in my phone for something appropriately damaging and not big enough to be too spoilery This is such a fun slippery slope we’re on I sure hope I don’t subject us all to gravity! ha ha

I don’t know. I wouldn’t worry about it

two sentences in did you guys know this is fucked up Oh really fucked. what the hell did they put in this Call me prev prez the way I’m representative of an insurmountable barrier

was gonna hold off until I finished reading I changed my mind

facing an insurmountable barrier

dipping a toe in

“tagged as a potential future president”

^ naïveté

He was so much better than I was that I thought I might pass out from the sheer skill difference. This wasn’t one of those things where the more anxious I got, the more mistakes I made. No, it was a simple matter of one player being impossibly, crushingly better than the other.

Hey I’m gonna throw up maybe

tashiro thinking, I don’t have anywhere else I want to be. I like ping pong. tashiro thinking, verbatim, I just couldn’t accept the logical conclusion of those facts. Something inside wouldn’t let me.

I clenched my fists, a yawning, lonely feeling of loss opening within me.

I don’t get it. What happened to the loneliness?

hey I’m back. Guys seriously did you know how fucked up this all is

like I guess if I have to pin in down short form. prev prez -> tashiro = He sees something in you. in his sights from the start. a genius worthy of being in his inner circle.

and tashiro -> prev prez = an insurmountable wall; a high wall to scale. walk into club—rabbit, meet fox. It’s because I want to win. I want to beat him.

and prev prez -> masato = bearer of world’s gravity, inheritor of legacy. the next president. the next guy to pass you off to. speculatively: someone who’s seen a lot of you. speculatively: someone you might never show yourself to again.

and vice versa masato -> prev prez = someone who can shoulder responsibility without so much as a buckled knee. all the earth’s mass pressed into the world’s most loaded Yes, sir.

and of course tashiro -> masato = the next guy to be passed off to. Man, he sounds so cool saying that. Have a warm drink and put your feet up. run until you can’t anymore. run until you get your bearings. run after him. fast guy, that guy.

and of course masato -> tashiro = I hear great things about you all the time. [GUNSHOT] You’re the person I’m trusting in the most. [GUNSHOT] Not that I ever had any doubts about it. [GUNSHOT] did you know that the people you look out at can themselves look in? fucked up, isn’t it?

Love & Passion already this much. AND shirahama is there. god damn it. you notice how those got kinda longer. I’m sure that means nothing.

where was I going with this. that victorian conversation chair again, I guess.

and also the psychological homoerotic political drama in the ping pong club. some other stuff. prev prez is killing me. reblog to kill me faster Okay enough

#askbox #sunnfish i love you. am normal about it as always #hanzawa to tashiro #<- contractual obligation #db says NO to coherency that’s a luxury afforded to DRAFTED AND EDITED CAPITAL P POST!!!!!!! #it’s also a lie. when have you ever known me to be coherent. ENOUGH FOR REAL THIS TIME

[pinkyjulien]

Yesterday's modding session got me pretty frustrated, I wasted so much time and was feeling overall pretty shit. Woke up feeling a bit violent, so to calm my nerves and get some serotonin I decided to check some old posts of mine over my old blog @pinkydude

This blog got flagged last year, I was always upset about this, especially cause I always suspected the fandom to be the cause by mass-reporting it

Well, today I got confirmation that this was indeed the case, so from the bottom of my heart

Fuck you

And especially Fuck You to all the passive homophobic pieces of SHIT that couldn't handle a fictional character's queerness, y'all are fucking pathetic HGFHH

NOW For more context; one thing I loved to do back in the day was to share some of Pawel's streams, pics and videos in majority.

A lot of people didn't liked his streams mainly because of "the favoritism"; the Sasko Sunday streams became an habit for a lot of us, watching him for literal years, he recognized our names and we had "inside jokes" in streams with the community there. You can see why some people felt jealous and became nasty about it.

There's a lot to be said about people feeling "left out" of something they don't even willingly participate in, the streams were always public and anyone could join at anytime they'd want to, but I disgress.

His streams were always really interactive; we would ask questions about the story, the characters, and Pawel would reply and give us insight, BTS infos, hints and other cool crumbs!

Pawel eventualy had to stop most of his interaction with the community because he was being HARASSED by SOME PEOPLE on Twitter openly tagging him about his "favoritism" and even sending letters to HQ complaining about it.

Back to my old flagged blog; We can't search up tags on flagged blogs, it becomes really hard to look up for anything there, we can't access the archives either Friendo gave me this tip months ago; if you have a pinned post, simply add tags to it and you'll be able to click them, like a lite "search box"

So that's what I did this morning, in bed, on my lil phone, adding "pawel sasko" to my pinned to go through my old stream posts!

And imagine my surprise while scrolling down past the majority of my posts being flagged for...... sexual content??

Now I recognized these posts simply by the comments and reblog on them, they are nothing sexual. Y'know what they are?

Posts about Mitch! Of course, who else, it always goes back to him doesn't it? All the drama, all the bullshit this fandom ever gave me alwaaays goes back to him.

So anyway, I couldn't see these posts on Mobile, but I can actually see them on desktop, so let's see what The Fandom TM wanted to take down sooo bad

My post about Mitch's database being fixed Nothing surprising here, I'm the reason Mitch's database got fixed and people didn't NOT like that at all!

Of course this one would get reported too We're starting to get a better picture of who went on a reporting rampage.

Pawel comfirming that they left hints of Mitch being gay on purpose in game? Of course it'd get flagged too

Pawel reacting to my stuff in general? Boom

They even went as far as to report my FIRST ever post about Pawel, when I talked on his streams for the first time back in 2021.

We all know who could've been so butthurt about all this that they went on a flagging spree ghfhg fucking PATHETHIC oh my god

Anyway, y'all have a nice day ✌😩

#tbd #long post #fucking piece of shit oooooh #Need to touch grass this made me UPSET

[therealrosebuddies]

Good Red, Bad Red

Part three of What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Steve Harrington x Babysitter!Reader (maybe soon to be FinalGirl!Reader)

Desc:  Well, Steve and babysitter!reader have finally made it to Starcourt. All they need is a dress and between the two of them, that shouldn't be that hard. That is, as long as they don't bump into any one they hate. That would be terrible.

Notes: (sorry haha) Hi, thanks again for the support on this fic, I really, really appreciate it. Also, in the flashback, the POV gets a little wonky, and I wanted to apologize for that. I'll probably fix it later, but I'm tired and I wanted to get this chapter out! It really helps to connect these upcoming parts, so I'm excited to keep laying the ground work. Also, I may start releasing separate smaller one shots for this version of Stranger things, ones connected to this story. idk though haha

warnings: violence, character jumpscare

(set between season 2 and 3!)

Part 1 Part 2

read on ao3

Breathing in the smell of soft pretzels and a clean waxed floor, Steve decided that he liked this new mall. Of course, it wasn’t just because of the smell- that would’ve been weird. No. it was the throngs of people that littered the three huge floors, the bright shapes and colors that battled for his attention. It was a far shot from what Hawkins usually was and he liked it.

He glanced back to look for you, realizing that his thoughts were directly contrasting yours.

Pressing closer than you usually cared to, you almost clung to the back of Steve’s jacket, head on a swivel. While he was excited by the mass hysteria that was Starcourt- you eyed the crowd warily, as if any one of them was going to jump you. You were acting like a skittish, traumatized baby deer, and he was the park ranger ushering you to safety.

It was quite the change of pace from how your dynamic usually went.

(Most times, he was still attempting to be a park ranger and you acted like his smarter, more competent boss.)

“How’re you doing back there Chief?” He asked, making his way toward the escalator.

You repressed a sigh, elbowing past a group of teenagers with a wrinkled nose and brow. “There’s a lot of people here.”

“That’s a bad thing?” Steve stepped onto the revolving steps, turning to watch your feet as they followed.

“No.” Answering distantly, you place a hand on the railing, head tipping up to take in the bright signs and gaping skylight. “I just like being able to get places without…” you trailed off, jaw clenched. “…without much in the way.”

Steve’s eyes widened as he fully faced you, both hands on the railing. “Do you really think of people as things in your way?” He asked, flabbergasted.

“No!” You insisted, voice high and head-shaking rapidly as you tried to dissuade him. “No- I just… I’m used to having a plan for everything I do. And my stupid little unconscious ideas don’t usually include dodging and weaving! I just don’t like the extra-”

“Oh my god. You’re like my old next door neighbor.” He breathed, twisting his body so he was looking half at you and half at the approaching end of the escalator. “He throws things at kids as they run over his lawn.”

You gaped at him as he jumped off the escalator. “I am not.”

“Are too.”

“Am not.” You hissed, pushing forward in an attempt to get away from him. He watched you walk past, glancing fervently around the second floor. He smirked, waiting patiently for you to turn around. He knew you were more stubborn than you liked to admit, but also knew that you hated providing evidence for that stubbornness. Which is why he stood there with a smirk, watching as you slowly turned to face him.

“Which way is it?”

Steve shrugged, rubbing his face like it was the greatest mystery in the world. You rolled your eyes at him, brows low. He just walked over to you, gesturing ahead with his hands. This way, he could still lead the way and force you to tag along right next to him. And despite your little made-up plans, you followed after, complying with his actions.

Only a few minutes pass as the two of you walk together, Steve’s head snapping back and forth to make sure he was actually leading you in the right direction. Heaven forbid if he wasn’t. Then, as he was passing a flashy athletic shoe store, you got a little distracted.

He feels more than sees you leave his side. Steve turns, neck twisting this way and that. Despite your hesitation in this place, you sure didn’t seem too nervous enough to drift into the crowd. Luckily, he caught sight of you before the annoyance took root. You had slowed to a stop next to one of the displays, transfixed by the scene inside.

A girl was standing on a pedestal, dressed in a bright white gown. She twirled hesitantly in the dress, looking at herself in the multifaceted, full-length mirror. You stood with an unreadable expression, fingertips ghosting across the glass. Your eyes, normally fire bright and present, were distant and soft, lids low. There was a soft smile tugging at the corners of your mouth. You had left him by accident, and were now a million miles away, somewhere deep in that head of yours. Steve looked quickly between you and the crème-colored shop, connecting the dots.

“You know, I didn’t take you for the wedding type of girl.” He tells you, unaware of the way it sounded. The expression that crossed over your face dunked Steve’s nerves in ice.

“What is that supposed to mean?” You inquired as you snapped out of your quiet reverie, eyes narrowing sharply. “You don’t think I’m good enough to marry?”

“No!” He refuted immediately, “No, of course not- you… you’re great! Any guy would be lucky to land you!”

Your narrowed eyes softened slightly and pulled away from him, back into the store. But that distant look was gone- overtaken by your usual blazing alertness.

“I just…” Steve continued cautiously, hoping not to stick his foot right back into his mouth. “You don’t seem like the type of girl who would stop and stare into a boutique window.”

“I have my layers.” Your eyes drift slowly from the store as you take a step back. He follows, eyes trained on the way your head bobbed as you spoke. “I can manufacture a mean flamethrower and plan a wedding- they’re not mutually exclusive.”

“Okay, well for now, we aren’t here to plan for your future wedding. We’re here for Prom.” He reminded you, feeling like he needed to really stress the importance of this dance. If you could be that transfixed by a wedding dress- how hard would it be to get you excited about these ones? And, the more excited you were, the more painless it would be for the both of you.

And he needed that night to be as painless as possible.

He suddenly felt your gaze on him, burning mischievously behind innocent lashes.

“You know, with the way you talk about it, I think you’d be someone who’s planning their wedding right now.” You prodded, voice bouncy as you bumped his arm with yours. The sly little smirk that stretched your mouth was covering something- some kind of hidden motive. The thought of you trying to dig for something- some other hidden reason of his- inflated his ego. Instead of ignoring or tolerating him- you were actively trying to pull him apart like a Rubix cube. And if he was being honest- it was fun.

Playing along, Steve looked at you and shrugged, cocking his head left then right, making a show of contemplation, his eyes squinted. Your mouth popped open, brows shooting up.

“Wait- have you?”

“No! I mean, I’ve definitely thought about it.” He admitted, saying much more than he let on. If he was telling the whole truth, he'd done a lot more than thinking about it. Honestly, it was a dream of his- a life goal. He wanted the wedding, the house, the kids, and the steady job. Everything that came with it. The wedding was just part of it. Well...That, and a wedding included being legally bound to someone who really, really loved you. He wanted that kind of life- badly. He wasn’t going to tell you all that of course, not if he didn’t want to look insane. “But not to the extent of you know, what type of flowers would be on the tables or who would actually be invited.”

“Oh my god.” You breathe and Steve turns at your much less giggly voice. You’re looking up at him with a slack jaw, fingers pressing against your cheek and grazing your lips “You’re a total sap.” You laugh, the sound jumping out of your throat as you drop the hand.

“Hey! Don’t laugh.” He hisses, face burning as he's sure it starts to turn pink. Why’d he even admit that anyway? Was it just because he wanted to relate to you? Was it because he wanted you to feel comfortable? Or was it just because of the soft, easy way his words seemed to tumble out of his mouth when you were around? Either way, he was starting to regret it. He shook his hand and pointed it at you, vying for reclamation of his dignity. “You’re gonna want to cut that shit out if I’m going to be paying for both the tickets-”

“Steve- it’s not a date. I already told you that I can-” You stop in your tracks, mouth snapping shut. For a moment, Steve wonders if it’s another bridal boutique.

And then he sees what you do.

And his nose aches to think about the last time he had been this close to Billy Hargrove.

 *****************************************

 It was a few days after Halloween, only thirty minutes after the rest of the team had left to take care of their separate missions- and Steve’s group was left at the house.

That lucky group included you.

And you weren’t happy about it.

You had been literally benched by Hopper, grounded after you had voluntarily driven his adopted daughter off of his secret property. From what he could gather, you wouldn’t have changed a single thing you had done. But that didn’t mean you weren’t pissed about being left at the Byer’s house.

And now, there was this.

Between the two of you, Steve had assumed you were the smart one.

But oh my god, he had been so wrong.

Instead of dissuading the kids from their stupid, reckless plans to distract those weird dog things, you were agreeing with them. It was driving him crazy, watching you scramble around the house with them, trying to decipher away to fight an all-powerful interdimensional being. What were you guys even going to do? Hit it with Lucas' dinky little slingshot?

But honestly, he should've been prepared for your strange behavior. He should’ve known you'd be on board the second you showed up that night, freshly decked out in your all-black outfit, a shadowy specter cloaked in leather and Demodog blood. Oh- and Eleven, who most everyone thought had died about a year ago.

The biggest red flag should’ve been your makeshift flamethrower, a dangerous combination of hairspray and a tiny pink lighter. It was terrifying to see the distance between your fingers and the roaring flames.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t considered any of that.

You were standing next to the kids, staring over Dustin’s shoulder at the weird, pasted map. A flicker of excitement was blazing in your kohl-lined eyes, as if an unseen plan connected in your brain. “We can take my car. I still have an extra lighter left over-”

“Hey. Hey! Hey!” Steve exclaimed, clapping loud enough that he finally tore your attention away from the quickly spiraling plan. The blaze faltered, your head snapping towards him questioningly “This is not happening.”

“But-”

“No buts. I promised I’d keep you shitheads safe- we promised-'' Steve looked pointedly at you, swathed in your unfamiliar cloud of coal, really trying to convince Dracula rather than the kids. If there were two ‘babysitters’ saying no, there was a much higher chance of nobody dying. You just stared at him blankly as he continued. “-and that’s exactly what I plan on doing. We’re staying here. On the bench. And we’re waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand?”

You shook your head slightly, mouth pressed into a thin line. “Steve, if we can help at all-”

“I said, does everybody understand that?” Steve repeated loudly, no longer asking. You stared up at him as something changed in your pointed, blown wide pupils, your stained lips forming a silent ‘o’. Your gaze flickered across his figure before you looked at the kids- and they looked at you. Once again, they were referring to your reaction, your judgment of the scenario.

He would’ve been mad about it if he hadn’t been wanting to do the exact same thing.

“I’m going alone then.” You decided, arms folding defiantly as Steve pinned you with an unbelieving look. All he was asking for was one thing. One.

You were being difficult on purpose- he was sure of it.

Yelps of resistance rose up from everyone else in the room as you placed your hands on your hips, mirroring Steve in his posture. Eyes narrowing up at him, you stood as an unwavering point of night in the yellow seeped house. You were intimidating for someone your size- but Steve didn’t care. He wasn’t letting anyone be stupid on his watch- and that included you.

“Like hell you’re-”

That’s when the loud roar of a car rips through the night, stopping all of the commotion to a dead halt. Max rushes to the window and her round pink face grows pale, blue eyes clouding over. “That’s my brother. He can’t know I’m here. He’ll kill me. He’ll kill us.”

For a tense moment, no one moves, the sound of tearing gasoline flooding the air with anxiety. Steve looks at you, trying to gauge your thoughts. He wanted to make sure you weren’t going to run out the back door and head off on your own. But you’re just staring out the window, attention firmly set on the dark Camaro. It didn’t look like you would be moving any time soon- not with Billy Hargrove posted up in the driveway.

Steve looked at the rag-tag group, a lump hardening in his throat. He knew you were a capable person- he did. You and El had literally just taken on a pack of Demodogs- so he couldn’t rationalize that you weren’t able to take care of yourself- or the kids.

But this was a fragile situation. He wasn’t sure what Hargrove was capable of- but he didn’t want to find out.

“Everyone stay here.” Steve ordered.

You moved to follow him, pent-up emotion roaring beneath your gaze.

“Hey. No- stay with the kids.”

“Steve.”

“I’ve got this,” he assured you, pointing back at the kids on the couch. “If a Demogorgon comes in, use that can of hairspray you love so much.” Plastering a smirk across his face in an attempt to loosen your tight fists, he turned toward the door and let the cold November air swallow him up.

He could handle this. The fewer people he had to worry about, the better. As long as everyone was inside, he just needed to scare Hargrove off.

Piece of cake.

He stood expectantly at the foot of the porch, dread grinding his stomach as the reckless driver kicked open his door. Steve could smell his cigarette from there, the smoke announcing his presence.

“Am I dreaming, or is that you Harrington?”

“Yeah it’s me, don’t cream your pants.” Steve said, trying to move the whole thing along. He didn’t have time to put up any resistance to his shitty attitude.

And for a minute or two, Steve thought it was going well. Maybe he had it handled enough that your little group would leave this night without a scratch.

And then Billy saw the kids- and you- in the window.

Steve should’ve known it was going to come to blows. Or at least, he should’ve been ready for it, or thrown the first punch. If he had, the guy wouldn’t have been able to stomp up to the door and smash it open, coming face to face with you.

Steve groaned on the ground as Billy stomped past him, beating you to the door before you could lock it. The door slammed, sounding far away as Steve tried not to throw up across the grass.

While he did so, you had other problems.

Billy had taken one step inside the house and was looking at your little group like it was something to eat. His eyes eventually landed on you, planted firmly between him and the kids. He let out a short laugh, teeth sharp.

“Hey Gatekeeper, you in on this with Harrington?”

You kept your jaw clenched, unfazed by his jab at your Halloween costume. The Halloween costume that you had worn for the very kids behind you. The kids that were relying on you to keep them safe, some even gripping the edges of your jacket on reflex.

The act made your heart heavy, fists clenching as you stared down the teen goliath before you. If he thought he was going to get a chance to even yell at one of them, he was dead wrong.

You decide not to indulge him, face stony.

A stitch of silence passes and Billy shifts his eyes off of you- and onto Lucas.

“Sinclair.” You stretch your hand out a little farther, hovering close to Hargrove’s next target.

He makes a purposeful lunge in Lucas’s direction and you seem to make up your mind, launching forward without fear. The contact is fast- and the sound is immediate. It was like watching a forest fire colliding with a mountain. Your hand snaps out at a speed and ferocity that only the last year and a half would have given you, striking across his face like lightning across the sky. The rings that you had acquired from your recent makeover shine black on your retreating hand, explaining the fresh split in Billy’s lips. He stares at you in momentary surprise, eyes flaming as he realized what you had done.

“Okay.” He muttered, wiping the bright, sluggish blood from his growing smirk. “You first then.”

He’s on you before you can stop him, rough hands digging into your collar. You’re drug backward by pure force, sneakers dragging against the floor. You hear the kids screaming. The struggle you put up barely has any effect as Billy slams you up into a cabinet.

You honestly should’ve thought this one through a little more. He was bigger than you- and he wasn’t some kind of Demogorgon that you could light on fire. He was a human. A giant, hulking, insane human- but a guy nonetheless. If you really wanted to take him on, you needed something that was going to really hurt him- even kill him.

And you don’t think you were ready for that- physically or mentally.

The world is spinning and your head rings, reeling from the impact. Your hands fumble for purchase as he pushes into you, burning hot knuckles bruising your collarbone. He’s looking at you like you were the one who was doing this- like you were the one who deserved to get thrown into the looney bin.

“You do that again and I’m going to make sure the next place you end up is a hospital.”

You ignore his threat as you glare up at him, contempt rolling behind closed lips. He was stronger than you- there was no arguing that point. But you’d be damned before you let this guy get anywhere near those kids. As soon as he felt finished with you, he’d go straight for Lucas.

That wasn’t going to happen.

You push out your neck and sink your teeth into one of his thumbs.

Billy drops you with a scream. Falling to your knees, you scramble away, head reeling and lips smeared with blood. You hadn’t hit bone- but you know you had made a dent. The taste fills your mouth, warm and metallic. You didn’t like it. And if you didn’t get away from Billy now, you’d be tasting more of it pretty soon. That thought was enough to push you toward the table, head ringing. But before you can lift back up, one of your ankles is yanked backward, slamming you back to the ground.

There isn’t time to brace for the impact. Your jaw connects hard with the wood and stars explode across your vision. A noise squeezes through your clenched teeth. You hear a strangled laugh pierce through the blended shouts for your safety as you’re drug back across the floor. You move to fight back, but a hand fists itself in your hair, slamming your face straight into the hardwood.

Pain explodes through your nose, eyes pricking with tears. Before you can even react, you’re being raised to your knees, yanked up by the hold on your hair.

“You know what? I take it back. We aren’t going to need a hospital tonight.” Billy threatens, pointing at you with the hand you had tried to take a bite of. If you hadn’t been so out of it, you probably would’ve laughed at his bloody finger. His grip on your hair grows tighter. “You’re dead.”

And honestly, you might have been. You might have gone out against a sociopathic musclehead, splattered against the Byer’s kitchen floor.

But then you catch sight of a familiar mop of brown hair over Billy's shoulder, and your heart performs a weak jumping jack. You struggled against your aggressor's grip, keeping his eyes on you.

Steve had managed to make his way back into the house. He had stopped momentarily at the sight in the kitchen, panic shooting through his veins the way he imagined heroin would. Your limp figure was just barely visible behind Billy’s and he couldn’t see what was happening. He couldn’t see you.

Steve blinked out of his momentary hesitation and rushed forward, pushing Billy hard in the back. You dropped out of his grip, hands barely planting before you hit the ground.

Hargrove turned with wide eyes, coming face to face with Steve, a savior in blue denim.

“No. You are.”

For the second time that night, Billy was struck across the face, Steve’s fist just barely missing the spot where you had slapped him. He watched, stone-faced as Billy stumbled away, a bone-chilling cackle rising up from his throat. Steve stole a glance at you, pushing away slowly from off the floor, nose dripping with darkened blood. Dustin and Max were pulling you away from the scene, coaxing you back from the danger.

For now, you were out of harm's way.

If he had gotten there sooner, you wouldn’t have had to be in it in the first place. Your blood wouldn’t have been smeared across the hardwood floor, dark against the dinky yellow lights of the house.

Billy pointed at Steve, pulling his attention back to him. “Look’s like you got some fire in you after all, huh?” He taunted, smile full of teeth and half insane. He stepped forward as he pushed his hair out of his face, eye to eye with Steve. "I’ve been waiting to meet this King Steve everybody’s been telling me so much about.”

Despite how much he wanted to kick his ass, Steve knew they had bigger problems to deal with. The sooner they got rid of Billy, the better. He was wasting their time, and he wanted him gone. “Get out,” Steve ordered simply, contempt straining against his steady words. He didn’t want to waste more breath on this guy than he had to.

And apparently, Billy felt the same way. At this point, words were useless.

Which is probably why he swung at him.

And for a while, Steve was doing pretty good. He landed a few punches and kept his head down and for a few moments, it seemed like the two guys were on common ground.

That was, until Billy smashed him overhead with a plate.

That was when everything went downhill.

Steve had ended up with his back against the floor, mirroring your situation a few minutes earlier- except he was getting punched over, and over, and over. The contact rained down repeatedly, his face beginning to feel like a tenderized piece of meat. He probably would’ve been a goner if you hadn’t keyed Max onto the syringe next to you. She had plunged it into his neck without so much a flinch, injecting him with the strange tranquilizer.

Everything sounded underwater as Steve lay on the floor, lights dancing across his eyes. He only really registered what was happening when you appeared over his head a few minutes later, head haloed by the yellow light.

“Hey.” You slapped his face lightly, Steve barely feeling it. “Hey, Steve, you need to stay awake. I think you’re going to have a concussion.” You informed him, hands now planting firmly on his shoulders and shaking. But his head felt like cement. Even if he had understood a single word you had said, nothing but a groan would have passed his swollen, bloodied lips. “Come on. You did pretty good. If he hadn’t had the plate, my money would’ve been on you.”

You were lying, but he appreciated it anyway, even through the fog.

Steve spit up a weak chuckle and you flinched, dodging the spray of blood. “Sorry.” he mumbled between split, swelling lips, trailing your movements as you pushed up his coated, sticky bangs. Your hand was warm.

He wondered if you were always this warm.

In the back of his punch-drunk brain, he registered the jangling of keys and pieces of the conversation between you and the kids. He’d feel you shake him every few moments, right as his vision would start to fuzz, growing black at the edges. Eventually, you were pulling at his shoulders, trying to get him out of his steadily growing puddle, hands and face streaked in red.

“Steve…” you sounded far away. “We need to go. And we can’t leave you here… not with all this blood…” He watched your lips move but didn’t really understand what you were saying. Go where? And why did the blood factor into his need to tag along?

When he didn’t respond, you just sighed, a strange sort of pity hanging across your face. He blinked lazily, watching as you turned away from him, obviously talking to the kids. He would’ve liked to hear what you were saying, but it was too late for him then.

He had already begun drifting off.

 ********

 “Huh. I see you took my advice.” Billy called out, stopping the both of you in your tracks. He was standing a few feet away from you, accompanied by some of his block-head cronies and rim-lit by the turquoise lights of a nearby store. Pushing away from the pillar he leaned against, he began walking towards you, smile dangerous.

Usually, Billy stayed out of Steve’s way. After last October, he had seemed to give everyone Max was friends with a wide berth, holding fast to his promise. Steve didn’t think he would be the type of guy to honor a sister’s wish, but so far it had looked that way. Until now, it seemed.

He hopped down the two small stairs, hands dug deep in his pockets as he came to stand right in the way. Steve would’ve groaned if he hadn’t known better. Billy’s razor-sharp gaze flickered your way as Steve felt the weight of you at his side. He almost sneered, a hand twitching reflexively, as if cowering before your bared teeth. “And look at that- it’s Max’s new mommy.” he looked at Steve. “That must make you Dad huh?”

“We’re friends.” You answer, harsh and hatefully hot. Steve realizes then that as much as you like to argue with him, he was nowhere close to the level of dislike you had for Billy. You looked at the leather-bound prick in front of you like he was a Demogorgon. Not a human- a monster that you needed to get rid of. In your hate, you beat Steve to the punch, poison dripping from your tongue. “But you wouldn’t understand that, would you?”

Billy tilted his head at you, pink lips curling over blinding fangs.

“I forgot you were the ones with the balls in this relationship.” His gaze tracked you up and down, a little huff leaving his mouth. “Did you have fun cleaning up after me and your little boyfriend?

This time, you didn’t flinch.

“Not as much as kicking in your nose.”

Oh. Yeah, Steve had forgotten about that.

Before you had left the house that night, and even before you had gotten him in the car, you had recruited Max and Lucas to help drag Billy out to the garbage. The literal garbage. The three of you had left him propped up against one of the cans, keys dropped into his lap. As little as you had wanted to help him out, you had wanted him gone as soon as you could.

Then, after Max had gone back inside, you kicked him square in the nose.

You had thought it poetic- and payback for you and Steve’s matching injuries.

Billy let out a terse little chuckle, strain rolling in his darkening eyes. Steve had been ready to jump in, to say anything. But you had beat him to it- reminding Billy exactly why he had been staying away for the last few months. When it came back down to it, you were all friends- and shared a deep dislike for Billy, one that went deep enough to cause violence. So if he ever tried something, he knew there were plenty of people waiting to get back at him in return.

Steve was one of those people. If it ever came to a head like that again, he wouldn’t be going down this time. Especially not when there were no plates around.

Air tense, Steve tore his gaze from your rocksteady stance, ready to back you up. If trading insults was the agenda today, he could do that with you.

But that’s when he saw it.

While you absolutely loathed Billy- he found you entertaining.

It was the searing heat in his eyes as he had looked up and down, smirking close-mouthed and taunting. He had been much too pleased by you jumping into the conversation, forcing yourself between himself and Steve. He had seen this look before. It was the one guys would throw at each other after passing a girl on the street- or talking about someone in the locker room.

The flash of panic hit Steve in the chest, throat closing up like a crushed coke can.

He didn’t deserve to look at you like that- he didn’t deserve to look at you in any way besides apologetically. From like- the bottom of a six-foot grave that the two of you had dug.

Or something like that.

Either way, he wasn’t going to get to be around you anymore. From what Steve was gathering, Billy wanted you to take a bite out of him.

But you didn’t seem to realize this- probably focused on every way you’d like to hurt the mulleted barf bag in front of you.

Steve took a chance and caught your shoulder. “Okay, back up.” He advised, coaxing you back as Billy leared closer. Luckily for him, you didn’t fight back, letting him step in front of you. If he hadn’t, you probably would’ve lasted a few more moments before trying to tear into him. Billy scoffed, reluctantly drawing his eyes away from you before stabbing them into Steve.

“Yeah. Put that new bitch of yours on a leash.”

The rush of anger that punched through his throat came so fast and so hard that it almost knocked him off his feet.

Okay.

Maybe you couldn’t do anything violent.

But Steve hadn’t made any promises about himself.

He pushed forward, intent on getting Billy to apologize. Whether it was through words or fists, he wasn’t really sure. But before he could even open his mouth, a toddler burst between the two men, laughing maniacally. Following quickly after was his mother, offering quick apologies after she raced past.

Steve looked at the gap caused by the interruption, blood quieting in his ears. Whatever tension was there before had snapped, dissolving into the commercialized air. Billy seemed to figure that out too. He looked up at Steve, blue eyes narrow before relaxing into a cocky nonchalance. The guy threw his arms out wide, shrugging at himself- as if daring Steve to resume what he started. He was trying to make it look like he was inviting a fight- like he wasn’t concerned about the aftermath it would bring.

Luckily, Steve knew better.

And, he had an errand to run.

He let out a dry chuckle, nudging the back of your jacket. “Let’s get out of here. We’re wasting our time.”

You nodded, never keeping your eyes off of Billy. Steve held his tongue, knowing he couldn’t tell you to stop glaring. That would just open up a whole can of worms.

Hargrove watched as the two of you passed, smirk unflinching even as Steve turned his back. He could feel the burning sensation as you walked away, drilling into his back. And then it was gone, replaced by the carefully controlled air conditioning of the mall.

“God, that guy is a dick.” You groaned, knocking Steve out of his paranoid thoughts.

“I dunno, I think he was pretty pleasant,” He tried joking, the words feeling forced on his tongue. He grimaced at that, annoyed that he still felt Billy’s presence. He swallowed, trying to banish the dry scratchiness in his throat. ”But in all seriousness, I was worried he was going to swing at you.”

“Aw, you were worried about me?” You asked, the pitch of your voice rising in mock flattery.

Steve just blanched at your funny, but clueless reaction. “Yeah. I was a little bit worried about you. I mean, you were the one who almost bit his finger off.” He answered, completely honest. “I thought I was going to have get another concussion.”

“Defending my honor?”

“Saving your scrappy ass.” Steve corrected, smothering the brief moment of vulnerability a few seconds earlier, hoping his humor did the job. You hadn’t seemed to notice his admission, but he just wanted to make sure.

He didn’t need you getting any ideas.

You laughed, and the tension left in his shoulders evaporated. Whatever had just occurred minutes earlier- or even months ago- was now completely out of your head, replaced by his own clever jokes. He would’ve patted himself on the back if it hadn’t made him look stupid.

The remaining walk to the store was short, filled with relative silence or little comments on items that stuck out in the windows. By the time you made it, Steve had five more solid reasons why he liked the mall.

Stepping into the department store, Steve was immediately hit by the flowery perfume, face scrunching.

“Dress first?” You asked, biting back a laugh as you drifted over to one of the display racks, fingers ghosting over the fabric. Steve shook his head, mostly to get rid of his reaction to the perfume and partly to answer.

“No. I already have a suit.” He answered easily, still focused on taking in the advertisements and strange decorations.

You spun on him, dress quickly forgotten. “ You already have a suit? Then what are we matching with?”

“The tie and the corsage.” Steve answered easily, passing you and heading over to what he thought was formal wear. You stared at him, for a moment refusing to move. He looked over his shoulder at you, miming confusion. “You coming or not?”

“I can’t believe-” You stared, but quickly cut yourself off, eyes closed as you took a deep breath through your nose. “You know what? It doesn’t matter,” you decided, eyes flashing open to stare at him. “If we aren’t looking for a suit, you’re going to be at my every beck and call.”

Steve had just laughed at that, unaware of how serious you had been.

You made good on your promise, quickly getting the gist of the department store before he did. You swept through the isles quickly, grabbing dress after dress. He followed your lead, throwing in a few of the dresses you had passed by. If he was going to be here, he might as well join in on the fun. He preferred the ones with lots and lots of sequins. You hated them. Around thirty minutes later, the cart Steve pushed was piled high, threatening to topple over.

Conceding the need to empty the cart, the two of you found the dressing rooms, connected to a wide, mirror-lined hallway. Steve stopped the cart in one of the first open rooms, watching as you disappeared behind a curtain.

The first dress you tried on was a disaster. It had been one of the ones Steve had pulled- the one with huge, arcing frills that seemed to make up the straps. He had seen plenty in the store like that- so he had just assumed it was what girls were wearing to prom. He didn’t claim to know much, but he could see all of the mannequins and the other girls in the store carrying dresses around that were just like it.

But when he threw it over the dressing room door, all he heard was a groan.

“No way.”

“What?!” Steve asked, genuinely confused. It was pink- you liked pink. Hell, your nails were painted pink. “What’s wrong with that one?”

“I just- I don’t like it. Give me a new one.”

“But you were the one who set it in the cart.” He reminded you, eyes wide and pointed at the wall. There was a door between the two of you, but he still saw the perfect picture of your reaction in his head. You had most likely rolled your eyes, all haughty and annoyed, arms folding as you crinkled the dress in hand.

“I was distracted!”

“Listen, if you try it on and don’t like it, you don’t have to try on any of the other dresses I picked out.” Steve promised, a smirk on his face. Of course, he meant it if you didn’t like it. But you were going to love it. He knew that. As a guy who really didn’t care that much about fashion, he still had excellent taste- so the promise wasn’t going to matter.

At least, that’s what he thought until you actually pulled back the curtain.

“I look like a half-eaten cotton candy stick.” You bit out, bare feet smacking against the linoleum as you spread your arms out wide. The bright pink material was poofy and wide, the curved sleeves sticking out and digging into your jaw, while the shorter skirt rode up your thighs with every small step you were taking. It was... it was a terribly awful dress.

But the thing that broke him was the fact that you were in it, all edges and blazing personality, stuffed into a pink, oversized, paper mache finger trap.

“No! No, you look…” Steve tried his best to keep it together- to keep that stiff smile firm upon his lips. But one look at your smoldering expression broke him. He ducked his head down toward his feet as the laugh burst from his nose. “Yeah, yeah the cotton candy thing is really accurate. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He apologized, watching with a rising, weakly sympathetic grin as you snatched the next dress from the cart- one he hadn’t picked out.

Fair was fair he guessed.

But, there wasn’t much luck on the next one either. It was a color you had liked- shimmery, iridescent turquoise. Steve had insisted was going to make you look like the little mermaid, but you didn’t care.

You had shuffled out, holding the skirt high along with your hopes. Those quickly came crashing down as you had to admit to him that he was right. The dress did look a little like Ariel’s seashell bra.

So, that dress hadn’t worked.

No biggie.

You had a huge pile of them in the cart next to Steve, so you weren’t running out of them anytime soon.

Unfortunately, he was wrong.

Morbidly wrong.

You tried on dress after dress, but none of them really worked. Sometimes it was the fit, the color, the way it made you look like a cartoon character- nothing was working out. Steve had handed you each dress, knowing that this would be the one.

It never was.

You kept throwing them back at him after changing out of them, your frustration quickly beginning to be taken out on him. At one point, Steve felt like he was drowning in fabric, choked by colorful skirts and sleeves. He had let you do it though, knowing a sarcastic comment offered by him would’ve been met by more crankiness.

And honestly, he was starting to worry that you were going to give up. The huge pile the two of you created was down to its last few dresses. And the odds of any of them working out? Dismal.

Steve’s feet ached, having tried a million ways to stay on his feet. But after as long as you had been inside that partition, he couldn’t take it anymore. He slid down to the floor, finding heaven on the cold, squeaky floor.

“Steve.”

He grunted in response.

“Throw me one.”

Without much of a complaint, Steve got up onto his knees and slid one of the dresses from the cart, balling it up and throwing it over the top of the curtain. If he hadn’t been so tired, he would’ve pumped it fist as an excellent show of marksmanship. He slumps back against the wall, resigning himself to sit and agree with whatever you veto next. After a minute or two, the curtain rod shrills at the drag of metal. Steve drops his head to look at you and…

Huh.

You looked really good.

Steve cocked his head to the side, eyes wide as his gaze traveled from the very edge of the skirt, up to the off-the-shoulder neckline. You had shoulders- and a collar bone. He had never seen those from you. He swallowed slightly, stomach burning with something like indigestion.

The red of the dress stood out like a firecracker against the unoffending beige of the hallway, punching through the unerring boredom. It followed your curves like a car on a track. Your hands follow those curves, a scarlet vision straight out of fiction. He straightened up slightly, eyes blown wide.

“Hey- that looks-”

“It’s too much.” You muttered, a hand smoothing up and down your bare arm as you looked at yourself in the mirror. “It’s tacky. None of the other colors are half as loud as this one.”

Steve faltered, eyes landing on the curve of your butt. He cursed silently, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

This was you.

You were his friend- a surprising gorgeous one- so the fact that he had looked was an accident. One he definitely would not be thinking about later.

He cleared his throat, re-engaging you as he moved to stand. “Even the cotton candy dress?”

You didn’t answer him, lost in your own head as you turned this way and that, nose wrinkling and brows forming their familiar concerned curves.

On one hand. You were right. Most of the dresses in the store- or just in general- were pastel-colored, light and unoffending, or just slightly off-color. He couldn’t even remember a time a girl had worn a dress that bright and distracting- he would’ve remembered it.

“It fits you,” is what he finally manages to offer. He had moved closer behind you, now visible in the changing room mirror. The fluorescents overhead burn his eyes and are giving him a headache, but he sucks it up anyway. The picture of you in the mirror makes eye contact with him, frown jagged. Steve returns that expression. “You don’t like it?”

How didn’t you like it?

You held your tongue for a few moments, your fingers swinging slightly in the loose fabric.

“I like how it looks on me. I’m just worried people will think I look stupid,” you admitted. “Is that a totally ridiculous thing to worry about?”

You.

You of all people were worried about looking stupid.

Through his exhausted haze, Steve felt the deep sickness of confusion. He watched as the person who had stolen a police chief’s gun worried about what would happen when you settled on the wrong dress. He didn’t think you felt fear. You had never shown it before. Maybe the closest he had seen was annoyance or uncomfortability- but even in the face of monsters and sociopaths, you kept up a defiant image.

Maybe that was one of the reasons he had asked you.

Deep down, Steve had been too scared to show up to a stupid high school dance alone. And you? He thought you wouldn’t have broken a sweat.

But here you were, greying and panicked over your slim dress options.

For every time you had saved his ass, he owed you this one at least.

The thick confusion starts to dissipate as he makes up his mind and he’s back to quickly answering your concerning, but albeit endearing question. “(F/n). Look at who you’re asking,” He joked, warmth curling in his chest as you heave out a barely audible laugh. You turn over your shoulder to look at him and he continues. “Honestly, I think that’s the first dress that’s worked for you- and I’m exhausted. We’ve been here for two and a half hours.” Steve whined slightly, making a show of his sagging and weary bones. You narrowed your eyes at his act, lips pursing to keep back what he knew was a smile. Encouraged, Steve shot out one of his arms, ready to wrap it up. “And, just for a little more incentive, I’ve already got a tie that matches the dress.”

Your eyes widened, mouth breaking open with curved corners that you didn’t care to hide. “You just want to spend less money!”

Steve just shrugged, prideful in the way you had seemed to blaze back to life. “Finally figured that out huh?”

Gracing him with a biting, forced laugh, you ruffle up your hair and turn back to the mirror, hands atop your hips. Steve was starting to get used to how you looked, chest loosening. You were still your over-critical, annoying self. It put him at ease to see those familiar expressions crossing your face, returning you to normal. Everything about you was the same- you were just wearing a dress.

The soft worry that had filled your face was gone, replaced by serrated caution of the red garment. You were weighing your options. Lip pouted slightly, you took another spin, head on a swivel as you made sure to capture every angle of the dress.

Steve would’ve teased you for being so meticulous, but he knew how long it took him to do his hair. Instead, he just offered a soft roll of his eyes, folding his arms.

“Shut up.” You muttered, grabbing two fistfuls of the dress and lifting. Walking in place, your focus was solely on the wily fabric.

Thinking he was going to be stuck in this department store for decades, Steve let out a played-up groan, gaze finding the ceiling.

“Do you really think this works?” You ask finally, now facing him instead of the mirror.

That momentary shock of emotion flooded his system, limbs tensing. Steve loosened his jaw- repeating the same phrase over and over: she’s annoying, she’s annoying, she’s annoying. Steve nodded reassuringly, the confusion gone. “You look great.”

“Are you sure?

He took a deep breath, knowing that he could handle it. He could just tell you the truth. No big deal. “(F/n), if I didn’t already know how much of a nightmare you are, and I saw you in that dress, I’d be asking you out.” As it rolled off his tongue, cheeks slightly pink, the pressure he’d felt on his chest lifted.

“A nightmare?” You gasped, eyes wide as you spun to face him.

“Hey- that was a great compliment. I was basically calling you hot.” He pointed, correcting you for your own benefit. Then he winced, tilting his head. “Platonically.”

“Good.” You nodded matter of factly, turning to look at yourself in the mirror, smile growing as blinding as your eyes. “Platonic is the only option.”

With that out of the way, you hopped back into the dressing room. After a few minutes, the dress was off and situated, and the two of you dumped the discarded dresses back into the cart. It was a high stack- the ladies at the desk hadn’t been exactly happy when you brought it back.

But that didn’t matter.

Because you bought the dress.

After those long few hours, you were done. And Steve couldn’t be happier. Until you forced him to carry the long plastic bag that is, almost skipping along as the two of you left the heavily flowered store. He couldn’t complain though. Well, he could, and he did- but there was no real emotion behind it. He liked spending time with a friend- and right now, you were one of the few he had. Even if it was holding your bags or almost falling asleep on a department store floor.

On the way out of the mall, the two of you stopped and grabbed Chinese food- because by the time you had finally finished, it was time for dinner. Steve had wanted a burger- and you had wanted tacos.

You had met somewhere in the middle- somehow.

Eventually, dinner was eaten in the parking lot, sitting atop the hood of Steve’s car, sharing the chow mein and two sides meal.

You pushed away from him as he grabbed at your box.

“Hey!” You yelped, watching helplessly as Steve was able to snag a wonton from your grasp.

He shrugged, making a sort of ‘duh’ face at your expense.“We’re supposed to be sharing.”

“You said you didn’t like wontons.” You reminded him, repeatedly stabbing your chopsticks into the box, glare weak.

“Well, I didn’t love how they looked.” Steve explained, shoving his stolen food into his mouth and pushing it aside. “But now I know they taste great.”

He watched as you shook your head at him, tugging your bent legs closer into your body. Your silhouetted hair shook as you did so, drawing his eyes to the mellowing red sun.

“You’re like a little boy,” you grouch, shoulders hunched as you eat your own wonton.

Glee rising in his throat and stopping from swallowing his food, Steve coughs slightly, barely avoiding choking.

Beside him, you smile, red light reflecting in your eyes. “Gag.”

Steve snapped back to look at you, eyes blown wide. “What?!” He asks, trying to sound shocked and hurt- but can’t help the delight driving up the pitch of his words. “Did you just tell me to gag- so I would drop dead?”

You looked at him over your cup, mixing your chow mein slowly. “Yeah.”

“That’s it,” Steve began, slapping his own box down next to him and turning towards you. “I’m taking all of the wontons.”

“No-” You cut yourself off as you let out a scream, pushing out with one arm and extending the other, far away from him as he reached over. You caught him sharply in the chest and he barely grunts, reaching in a display of desperation. He can feel your breath bursting against his collar as you wind up for another yell. “You don’t even like them!”

“Stop complaining- just hand them over-”

“(F/n)?”

Steve freezes, ice-cold fear running through his bloodstream. Throat drying, his gaze dropped from yours, panic overtaking his motor functions. You take his momentary stillness to jab him with your elbow, pushing him off your shoulder and turning toward the voice.

He knew who it was before having to turn around.

He heard that voice... saw her face whenever he closed his eyes. She was the one person he wanted to see the most, and the one person he couldn’t talk to. And- she was the only reason you were going to the prom with him. If had had the choice, he would be with her in a heartbeat. He loved her- and it was sucking the life out of him.

The relaxed air he had felt sitting beside you caught in his chest, easily swept away by the girl approaching.

“Nancy?” You ask, grin growing wide as you recognized your friend. But as you actually took a second to look at her, a good forty feet away, you were able to get a look at her face. She was walking toward the two of you at a brisk pace, expression unreadable. Typically, you would’ve received a swift smile back.

That couldn’t be good.

Usually, she would offer him an awkward smile- even a wave if they somehow crossed paths. But the two of you got neither.

“Steve.” You turn to look at him, brows low and expression confused. “You told Nancy about us going to Prom- right?”

Oh.

Oh shit.

Now he knew why she was walking so fast, an uptight vision of pale purple hurtling straight for the car. The realization grabbed him by the throat and squeezed, threatening to stop the flow of oxygen to his brain. He’d really screwed up and his own body knew it before he did.

But what could he do?

He just inhaled through his teeth, shoulder’s raising apologetically.

“Damn it, Steve.” You groaned and turned back to Nancy’s ever-approaching figure, ready for the worst.

#steve harrington #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x reader #x reader #reader insert #stranger things #stranger things x you #stranger things x y/n #stranger things fic #stranger things x reader #y/n #fanfiction #billy hargove x reader #billy hargrove #x you

[29daffodils]

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better

Augghh I love these games! thank you for tagging me Mickey 🥺🌸(@thisautistic)

3 Ships You Like :

1. Yohan/Moogyeong from The Shape of Your Love (manhwa by Park Nodeok)

this is my ultimate OTP. i never had OTPs before them. they'll be my rise and fall. but yeah, anyway. they. my boys.

2. Vegas/Pete from KinnPorsche The Series

they had me by the throat even before i knew kpts existed and just, well. then i watched kpts and found them and they were everything i hoped for and more. a lot of it is also because vegas and i are very much alike without the mass murder aspect 😂

3. Alan/Gaipa from Moonlight Chicken

listen, MLC is like, the best thing i've watched in a while and alangaipa gave me what i had been craving since yohan/moogyeong c. 2019 : a small rare/ghost ship with barely any screentime but that hooked people in worldwide. firstkhao's acting was just bonus. alangaipa represent everything that i want from my own life. i couldn't not love them.

First Ship Ever :

Kanata/Miyu from Da!Da!Da!

oh, these two. i was head over heels in love with them. i shipped them even when i didn't know that shipping existed or what it meant, when we didn't even have anime on TV besides the broadcast on SONY at 5pm sometimes. i just wanted them in love and happy and raising a kid together. ugh i miss them.

Last Song You Heard :

The Moon Represents My Heart, by the Moonlight Chicken cast! God do I love this song so much! It fits all the ships so well! The lyrics are gold! (I also recently found that this is a cover of the OG by Teresa Teng and that's even more beautiful??)

(also, this has been helping me visualize and write a lot of sand/ray, surprisingly enough.)

Favorite Childhood Book :

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

ahhh, well, this is embarassing. i didn't have a favourite book until adulthood actually. and it's my only favourite (as in something i've read time and again). i don't think i'll ever find another book like this one. this is it for me. nothing can ever top this. (yes, I'm very picky about my favourites lmao)

Currently Reading :

i found out this fic exists because of twitter discourse lmao, and I'm not even a dramione fan, i'll probably never read another work, but goddamn, the writing was stellar. lived up to all that hype. good stuff. (I'm almost at the end so wish me luck!)

Currently Watching :

Our Dining Table

no offence to those who love this, i loved the manga when i read it years ago, but lord was i bored to death even on the second trial at watching this lol. I'm soldiering on though, i'll get through this!

Currently Consuming :

Thai BLs

uhh... not sure what answer this demands actually, so, uhhh... lots of thai BL i guess? that's really what i've been consuming lately. i had never watched thai BLs before KPTS in 2023 so it's eye opening, they've gotten better ( i tried once before , quite a while back when a friend recommended, and i found it ridiculous so i never thought i'd actually ever watch any again lol, mostly because i never was a fan of live action BL dramas in general)

Currently Craving :

💵💵💵💵

well, i'll be honest here, money is vital and that's what I'm craving lol, i gotta feed myself and my cats and pay a 50k laptop repair bill that my company thrust on me even though it's not my fault it's damaged. anyway, essentially I'm experiencing financial doom among other unfortunate events, so here's your chance to commission a fic or donate at my KOFI so...... haha.

alright, this was super fun! I'm tagging @skyfish7 @semantics-error @justfionn @boyslovecorner @peachym00 @lilitblaukatz @ae-azile

(please feel free to ignore if you're feeling up to it!)

#tag game #my posts #source : 29daffodils

[ferniliciousness]

As always, please read the tags before indulging but this is a mild chapter with just some mild language.

A small snipped below the cut, hope y'all enjoy!

"You know, as much as I... Huh... Loved watching you... Ugh... Fall and make a fool of yourself, you could have at least waited till we weren't about to die." Esmea had known turians were heavy, but she hadn't expected to learn firsthand just how hard it was to lift one.

"God, I need to start going to the gym." Her small 125-pound frame was no match to even get the dazed alien sitting upright, let alone somehow manage to drag him over to her car. She quietly panted for breath, looking up at the building behind them. Garrus had barely made it 20 feet before passing out, idiot probably had a concussion.

She could hear people yelling and saw flashes from the windows above them, they didn't have much time. "Oh fuck it all I should just leave you here." But even as she spoke she was still trying to pull him up in any way she could. He seemed to be gaining some kind of semblance thank God, but as quickly as he stood up he started to fall again.

"Oh no you don't." Esmea barely came up to his shoulder but by God was she not going to let him fall. "If you can just stay standing this whole thing would be a lot easier."

"God the ground is spinning."

"Don't you dare throw up on me."

If the two of them weren't covered in blood at the time, not to mention carrying assault weapons, a passerby would easily have just assumed they were two.... Very... Drunk friends stumbling home. Yeah, we'll just leave it at that.

#mass effect #garrus #garrus vakarian #fanfic #esmea #chaos queen #mass effect fic #i actually posted #can you believe it #i def haven't been workinb on this for months #and def didnt get distracted with bg3 and art #lol

[burins]

happy Sunday a couple people (@feyburner and @try-set-me-on-fire and maybe someone else? if so I forget and I'm sorry) have tagged me in snippet stuff! I still can't write atm and I'm not rly sure when I'll be able to (June?? maybe?? please god let this PT round work) but I have been reading old drafts and I found 6k of ancient catws Sam & Bucky road trip fic that for having been written eight years ago still makes me go oogh. maybe it will also make you go oogh!(don't worry I am not posting all 6k.)

“Steve’s probably told you all about the 30s, right?” Bucky says. He’s sitting in the backseat, right in the middle of Sam’s view out the back. They’re somewhere in Nowheresville, North Carolina, so it’s not as annoying as it was when he pulled this shit in Jersey.  

“Not really,” Sam says. He can see Bucky’s silent scoff without even looking, but it’s true. Steve hasn’t told anyone shit about anything. It seems to be his MO. Sam wishes someone would explain to him that the element of surprise doesn’t apply to interpersonal relationships, but probably everyone is assuming that job falls to Sam.

“Really?” Bucky asks. “Nothing? Why the hell am I in your car, then?”

“I mean, he gave me the basics, the two poor little matchboys, y’all had approximately half a penny to rub together, you kept him alive with nothing more than the flame of your undying devotion to warm your little breast, but he didn’t really flesh the story out.”

“Huh,” says Bucky.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Sam says, feeling like he might have made a wrong turn somewhere about five conversational miles back, “he cares about you. We all know he cares about you. And when he does talk, it’s nice stuff, you know, ‘Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky,’ that kind of shit.”

“Your Steve voice needs work.” Bucky’s picking at the upholstery in the backseat. He hasn’t made a hole yet, which Sam thinks is either a major point in favor of Japanese engineering, or Bucky Barnes is reining himself in for the first time in his life. 

“Always open to suggestions,” Sam says. The hills roll out before them. Someone else might call them wide and welcoming. His skin prickles. They pass another billboard for another peach farm. It’s faded from who knows how many years of Southern sun, the oranges and reds gone ghostly.

“In 1937, he almost died,” Bucky says.

“I kind of got the sense that he did that a lot.”

Bucky chuckles. “Yeah, he did. This was different, though. We called the priest, and the priest came in and stood over him and said a lot of things about absolution, which was funny because Steve never went to confession after his ma stopped making him go.”

“Really?” Sam can’t help himself. “Sorry, I guess I always thought he would’ve been the altar boy type. What with all the guilt and all.”

They passed a lot of quarries going through Virginia, and Bucky’s smile looks familiar, like it’s been blasted into his face. “No, that was always me,” he says. “Steve was always trying to pick fights with anybody stronger’n him, and that included God.”

“Do you still?” Sam asks. It’s a few moments before Bucky replies.

“I go to Mass,” he says. “I don’t go up, though.”

“Oh.” Sam doesn’t know a lot about being Catholic, but he’s pretty sure the wafer part is a big deal.

“Yeah.”

They pass a field, a strip mall, a large block of concrete that’s either a factory or a prison. Bucky’s plant is slightly too small for the cupholder, and it rattles every time the road gets a little rough. It rattles a lot out here.

“The priest tried to put the oil on him, you know, like you’re supposed to at the very end, but Steve was sweating so much it just slid off him. Father said some stuff about easing his passage into the light everlasting, and he left, and it was just me in there, looking down at this little shit, this little bastard who was half my life. He couldn’t breathe, really, just kept making these scared, choked gurgling noises. It was fucking horrible. He wouldn’t stop. He wouldn’t stop making that noise, and I wanted him to die so bad.”

There’s a hawk circling above them. Sam stares blindly out the windshield.

“I reached out and I put my hand on his throat and I wanted to press down. I wanted to make it easy for him. He always tried so damn hard at things. He kept choking and I just pushed down, just the littlest bit, and it stopped, and god, I’ve never loved a silence so much in my life.” 

Bucky’s wrapped his metal hand around the little pot, holding it still. The rattling stops. 

“I let go, obviously. I let go, and he finally fell asleep. I guess maybe I jolted something loose, because he wasn’t making that noise the next day.” He laughs. “Or maybe I’m giving myself too much credit, huh? Maybe I’m just trying to make myself feel better.” 

Sam pulls left to pass an ancient Honda.

“HYDRA didn’t do shit to me that wasn’t already there.”

“I don’t think it works like that.”

“Nah,” Bucky says. “It does, though. Because here’s the really fucked up thing, okay. More fucked up than me trying to kill my ‘best friend since childhood, inseparable in schoolyard and battleground,’ even. You wanna hear it?”

Sam doesn’t wanna hear it. He doesn’t. But Bucky needs to say it, and so he breaks yet another of his own rules, and he says, “Whatever you need to tell me, I’m listening.”

Bucky snorts. “Sure, Wilson, sure. I can’t remember, is the thing. I don’t know if I did that then, or if it was another scared kid I killed thirty years later. That sound got pretty fucking familiar after a while. Maybe I dreamed the whole thing. I don’t know. I sure as hell can’t ask Steve, can I?”

#my fic #tag games #catws #sam wilson #bucky barnes #mcu

[cr-noble-writes]

20 Fanfic Questions

thanks for the tag @mallaidhsomo!

How many works do you have on AO3?

124

2. What's your total AO3 words count?

675,033 (about 200k or so of these aren't actually mine because when you do a collaboration with several authors, it adds the total word count of the fic to everyone's word counts)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mass Effect mostly. Once in a blue moon Dragon Age. The majority of my posted fics are Supernatural.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Season Z Watching You Truth or Dare You Should See Me In A Crown Lock Me Up (These are all Supernatural)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I respond to every comment I get! There have for sure been times where its taken me months to do so, but I always do.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Here's the thing, "angstiest" is super subjective. I've got lots of fics with pretty angsty endings. There was a point at which people regularly called me a murderer because I had a habit of killing characters. However, I tend to find 'fate worse than death' much angstier than character death, so this one in which Dean burns off his soul to find Cas' grace to save him is it, I think: Whatever It Takes.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

You Should See Me In A Crown. I have a tendency to not do straight up happy endings. Like, trauma doesn't just go away, ya know. So my happy endings tend to be more melancholy/hopeful or what have you. This fic is absolutely an exception to that. Everyone gets what they want, the guy gets the guy. Basically I wrote this like an action movie haha

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've never gotten *hate* on a fic, but I have gotten comments that are rude and shitty in the way of commenters being demanding about what should happen in a fic or complaining that things weren't written the way they wanted them to be. My response to that usually something along the lines of "you fucking write it then."

9. Do you write smut. If so what kind?

Yeah! I very much enjoy writing smut. I think probably most of the smut I write is pretty vanilla, although I have definitely written some more intense kink by request and also because I like to challenge myself and learn new things. I do think my sweet spot when it comes to smut is leaning into the emotion involved. For most of my characters sex is less about the physical act of sex and more about trust and intimacy, so leaning into that works for me.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I have an unfinished Supernatural/Into the Badlands fic, and honestly I only ever wrote one chapter, but I had initially planned to do a chapter for every episode of Into the Badlands. I also have a half-outlined, partially written Supernatural/Dragon Age crossover in which Dean is a templar, Cas is an apostate, and Sam is a Grey Warden haha

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don't think so

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Several! Its why my word count on AO3 is so high, actually lol

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I have a lot of ships across a lot of media, but the one I always always always come back to is mShenko.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Oh god, I have a ton of abandoned WIPs from my Supernatural days that I'd love to finish but probably never will. I just can't bring myself to write Supernatural fic anymore.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Character voice and creating dynamic relationships between characters.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Consistency, especially in long fics. My writing style tends to change, sometimes pretty significantly, from one chapter to the next.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Hell yeah, I love multilingual characters, and I love putting foreign language dialogue in fic. If you're using a made up language, you can kind of do whatever you want. If you're using a real language, try to find a native speaker to help you with it so you don't accidentally end up writing something offensive or that you don't mean to.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Marvel

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Lust. I wrote this fic for the SPN Dark Fic bang in 2019 because I wanted to write murder husbands. It was honestly super fun to take a full loving, domestic dynamic between Michael and Crowley and juxtapose it with them also being incredibly brutal murderers.

no pressure tags: @imbiowaresbitch @nickelkeep @bleuzombie and @rotschopf-thedrow

#20 fanfic questions #tag games

[rose-n-gunses]

Okay, so. I've got a LOT of thoughts about the Catholic Munsons post that's going around and I really wanna talk about it because I think it's SO interesting so I'm going to post about it here so I'm not clogging up the tags on that post (and I'm probably going to end up turning it into a little bit of a hellcheer thing because it plays a bit of a role in one of my upcoming wips).

Fair warning, this post is really fucking long and really fucking rambly. I had Thoughts and they. Refused to stop, so just,, bear with me!!

My Catholic father grew up around this same time near Cleveland, Ohio in a little town that's maybe half the size of what Hawkins is projected to be according to the fandom wiki page. He attended a parochial school for elementary and I think middle school, and the majority of his friends growing up were either Jewish or Catholic. When I asked him today about the distribution/ratio of Jewish to Catholic to Presbyterian in that area (since my research wasn't quite answering my questions), he told me that he was probably in middle school before he actually realized that there were other religions besides Jewish, Catholic, and whatever denominations the African American churches in the area were.

Because of this and the general notion that Catholicism is/has been somewhat more prominent in the northern/northeastern and, like, some of the more northern midwestern United States (if that makes sense), I've always imagined that Hawkins, being a decently sized (10-15K according to the wiki page) town pretty close to Indianapolis (around 80 miles, again according to the wiki page), would have a pretty solid Catholic community, so it's always kind of surprised me to see so many people write the Cunningham family, for example, as attending a Presbyterian church (although it is entirely possible, but more on that later).

Okay so now my actual thoughts on the Catholic!Munsons:

Since the pictures from the Munson trailer (and I love that it's been a year and we're still finding new stuff in there) show that calendar, we know that if Wayne did purchase it intentionally, then he's most likely gotta be actively Christian. However, I don’t see Wayne as the attending-mass-every-week type of Catholic -- he strikes me as Too Tired For That Shit. My personal headcanon is that he’s Christian, and was probably raised Catholic, but he only really attends mass for Christmas and Easter (not even for other Holy Days of Obligation). I guess to put it in shorter words, I see it as Wayne is definitely Christian, but he’s Catholic for convenience, meaning he believes in god but would prefer to do it privately and on his own terms (like, idk, praying on his own and displaying his faith through his actions) rather than having to deal with the church and its members, and he just continues to go to mass occasionally because it’s what he grew up with so he’s used to it and there’s no point in fixing something if it ain’t broke.

But Eddie. Oh, Eddie. If Wayne grew up Catholic, then so did Eddie’s dad. Since Eddie's dad is, like, y’know, an asshole, I think he’d be the sort of Catholic that’s a total hypocrite and gives the entire Catholic Church a bad name. Eddie’s mom could be Catholic, she could be Presbyterian, she could be Jewish, it really doesn’t matter (though I do see a lot of people headcanoning her as Jewish and I do kinda really like that headcanon).

If Eddie’s dad is Catholic, then it’s possible that Eddie could have attended a parochial school, but it could go either way. One: maybe he didn’t because his mom is Jewish/non-Catholic or just because his parents didn’t feel the need to send him to one, or two: he did attend a parochial school, at least for a little bit. However, since we know that Eddie and Chrissy attended the same school for middle school, there are also two ways that this can go. One is that Chrissy also attended the same parochial school and the talent show they talk about in the forest scene in 4.01 occurred at said parochial middle school. The other is that Eddie did attend a parochial school for a while but got kicked out and sent to Hawkins Middle School, where he then participates in the talent show. (I also think the concept of Eddie getting kicked out of a Catholic school and sent to a public school -- whatever the reason may be -- would add to his reputation and image as A Freak or Mean And Scary because did you hear that the weird new kid got kicked out of his other school? will always spawn rumors.)

In regards to Eddie’s personal beliefs, I think he’s kind of similar to Wayne, but also not. Whereas I see Wayne as “Catholic for convenience”, I see Eddie as more of just “Christian for convenience”, which to me just means that he’s not really sure what he believes, but when it comes down to it, he’ll say sure, I guess I believe that there is A God because it’s a little easier and a little less terrifying to believe in Something than it is to believe in Nothing. I don’t personally see Eddie as an atheist, because to me, he seems like he would be the kind of person that wants to believe in something, but he doesn’t like to spend too long thinking about what exactly it is that he believes in (in regard to there being a higher power) because it’ll send him spiraling into some sort of existential crisis. Which, same.

I do think that Eddie would become disenchanted with and disconnected from the Catholic church as an entity/community, because I definitely think he disagrees with a LOT of the stuff that the church preaches/believes. Also, since Eddie’s a big fat nerd and I headcanon him as a major literature buff, I think he’s definitely read the Bible (and probably the Catholic Catechism as well) so that he can 1) call out aforementioned hypocritical Catholics/Christians and 2) get inspiration for writing campaigns and/or songs.

Somewhat unrelated, but in the one (upcoming) fic I have right now that bothers to explore the religious sides of the characters, I have Eddie attending mass with Wayne for Christmas, but it's an anomaly for him and he grumbles about it the whole time. (It's for plot purposes and he doesn't like it.)

And then of course, Eddie's probably really interested in the stories of some of the saints and martyrs because some of them are pretty fuckin' metal. I also think he's super interested in religious iconography and metaphors for some reason, and loves finding those references and metaphors in songs and books.

Side note: I don't necessarily think that being Catholic is something that would have Othered Eddie (and Wayne) in Hawkins, especially if there is a strong Catholic population, but I do think that because of Eddie's non-conformist attitude and apparent general disdain for authority, he would have been Othered by the church (or rather its parishioners) and probably therefore deemed Freak, Satanist, etc.

I also think there’s something to be said about Eddie being put in an almost Christ-like shepherd position with his freshman sheepies. Also, the sentiment expressed in Mark 2:17 feels vaguely Eddie-like. (For those not familiar, this occurs when Jesus is asked by the pharisees and officials why he associates and eats with tax collectors and sinners, to which he replies “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”) However, I think that Eddie’s thing is less redeeming the sinners and more giving the excluded and ostracized a place to be included and treated well. But I digress.

Now, Chrissy. Dearest, loveliest Chrissy. While it is totally plausible that the Cunninghams are Presbyterian or Evangelical Christian or something else, miss girl has mega Repressed Catholic Girl Energy, so I’ve been headcanoning her family as Catholic. I definitely think Laura would use Catholicism (or Christianity in general) as a large tool in her attempts to control Chrissy and dictate her life. So like, because Catholicism is more strict/regimented/structured compared to other denominations like Baptist or Presbyterian, I think Laura would try to use it to make Chrissy’s life more strict/regimented/structured. (And also there’s the Guilt™️. Chrissy seems like the type of gal to be crippled by Catholic guilt.)

I’ve got this image in my head that I hope to be able to express in that upcoming wip I mentioned where Chrissy, once her mother (and Jason) starts trying to control her and obsess over her body, somehow equates the general “be Christ-like” thing with “Take this and eat of it; for this is my body, which has been given up for you” (which, again, for those unfamiliar with the proceedings of a Catholic mass, this is something that the priest says in regards to the Eucharist/communion wafers; it’s a reference to the last supper when Jesus broke bread and shared it with his disciples.) so she ends up letting her mother control her because that’s what she thinks is the right thing to do in order to “be Christ-like” and gain approval.

And then I know a lot of people headcanon Jason as the pastor’s son. In a story where they aren’t written as explicitly Catholic, I do like this headcanon because I think it would explain a lot about his character. However, in a setting where they are written as Catholic, I think Jason would be of the hypocritical sort. (He’ll preach the Bible at anyone he disagrees with, but then will turn around and completely disregard anything said about premarital sex, love thy neighbor, love thy enemy, etc. Essentially the sort of Christian that twists what’s said in the Bible to suit their needs and ignores the parts that they disagree with -- which is exactly the kind of person I think Eddie would read the entire Bible to be able to argue with.)

#idek if this makes sense but #wow haha. whoops #me: *sees the catholic munsons post* same hat!! #also me: *thinks about it for more than thirty seconds* *writes over 1500 words about it* #it's been marinating in my head for two days but i havent had time to sit and write it out #it took up two and a half pages of a google doc #ANYWAYS #✌️🤪 #am i thinking too much into it? probably #it was fun to think about though #it really helped me further develop their characterization for this wip i keep mentioning #also if you read all the way through ily <3 #okay wow sorry that was a lot of words and im tired as shit now #eddie munson #eddie munson headcanon #eddie munson headcanons #wayne munson #wayne munson headcanon #wayne munson headcanons #chrissy cunningham #chrissy cunningham headcanon #chrissy cunningham headcanons #hellcheer #stranger things #stranger things headcanon #stranger things headcanons #just r's thoughts

[plutoprophecy]

9 people you would like to know better

This sounded really fun so i did this as soon as i could :))

Thank you for the tag @xyrnys !! 💖

Three ships: had a hard time deciding bc i used to read/watch a lot of stuff when i was younger, so i had a lot of favourite pairings...and then forgot most of them. My top favourites are Bagginshield (i hyperfixated on the for like. A whole year. It was insane), Dinluke (i just. have So Many Thoughts about them) and Seirei (aka Serizawa and Reigen, my favourite pathetic office men <3)

First ship ever: ok i am showing my ass here but listen. Cringe is dead. I am on tumblr the weirdo app I don't care anymore. My first ever ship was. Germany and Italy from Hetalia. I read so many hetalia fics on wattpad it has caused irreparable damage to my psyche </3

Last song listened to: Exeunt by The Oh Hellos, it's such a good song!! I recently started going through all of their discography and my god, i love The Oh Hellos so much they're incredible

Last movie watched: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead from 1990 bc my best friend recommended it to me. Didn't like it that much, tho, it was a bit too boring for me :(

Currently reading: Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson (still haven't finished it rip)

Currently watching: the Mandalorian s3. Watched the first episode and based on what i heard about the rest....idk if i want to continue watching :///

Currently consuming: hyperfixating super hard on Star Wars (and also crying about how good it could be if it was actually good lmaooo), Mass Effect: Andromeda (it's a really fun game, even if it has some big faults lol) and The Adventure Zone: Steeplechase (Justin is SO good at worldbuilding holy shit. Montrose has me in a chokehold tbh he's such a fun character)

Currently craving: hot cocoa and long, uninterrupted sleep

I tag (no pressure tho!!): @mertensia @melodyshmelody @havent-the-foggiest-mate @highonairtm @gayteensupreme @capitalistboyfriend @bastardraccooon @dpurut @sansxfuckyou

[disasterdrvid]

What are your top 10 video games?

Thank u @shift-shaping for the tag!

I'm tagging @localfruit @star--nymph @wardenrainwall @full---ofstarlight @perfectblve @sneklesbian @magic-space-games @notebooks-and-laptops and anyone else who wants/I may have forgot to tag <3

These aren't in any particular order tbh

Dragon Age: Origins

Genuinely this game has some of the best writing in the series and really wants players invested in their characters as character origins intersect with the main plot. Inquisition was my first DA game but Origins rewired my brain chemistry.

2. Pokemon Soul Silver

Not my first Pokemon game nor my most recent but it was the one that came at a pivotal moment in my life. Many weeks of coming home from middle school and ignoring my homework to run around in the game.

3. Stardew Valley

Absolute classic and one I consistently go back to. Sometimes I need to turn off my brain and yearn for the mines.

4. Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

I was never a Zelda person growing up, but I picked up BotW this year in time to play TotK. Oh my god, this game made me cry multiple times with it's lovingly-crafted story. I love the act of exploration in this game and it's encouragement to find multiple solutions to the same problem. Truly one of the best games of the last decade.

5. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

This game is such a mess and I love her dearly for it. It's character creation and leveling system is one of my favorite in any game and I'm very glad traces of it exist in Starfield (I'm not playing but my brother is and there's a lot of Oblivion love in it).

6. Cult of the Lamb

A very fun gameplay loop and roguelike combat make this super fun to replay. I don't come here for in-depth story (I've compared it to Happy Tree Friends in that regard), but I love the cult creation and maintenance.

7. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Underrated game of all time. It shows it age and there's elements of the story that don't work great but dear god I love it and I'm forever sad no one plays it. Lots of Irish folk inspiration, which I think would draw more people if they knew that was there.

8. Baldur's Gate 3

For context, I haven't actually been able to play but I've been consuming a lot of content for it so I know its up my alley. (My PC would explode bc I don't have the specs and it's not coming to Xbox for a bit 😭) But I love the characters and the DnD aspect so much.

9. Mass Effect

I'm not huge on shooters but the first Mass Effect really drew me in with its story. Not a perfect game by any stretch. However, it still feels fresh and new even now.

10. Tetris

Finally, original Tetris. Love me some shapes. First game I ever played because my mom had an old school Gameboy from before I was born that she handed down to me as a kid. Sadly can't play it on the original hardware (I still have it and it still runs!) because the screen is dogshit and I can't see, but luckily there's more places to play it now.

#this was fun! #also yes i almost exclusively play rpgs/jrpgs im aware

[lonelyvomit]

I know you write so I hope you don't mind me bringing this to you, Apparently something is happening at Ao3 to do with board membership and someone running for it could cause really strict censorship rules to be put in place. I only started writing few months ago and if this actually does happen I'm worried I could lose all the stuff since I've wrote since it's all explicit and some of it is pretty controversial.

yeah I've seen a post about it on my dash a couple times and finally took a look at the original transcript. there's a fairly new employee running for the board, and she's openly advocating for censorship with the classic "we need to be socially responsible" bullshit - which, for anyone who has been around fandom and fic spaces for longer than couple years, the pattern is always the same. once the banning starts it's never gonna stop, it goes from "problematic" content to queer content to smut in general, all under the "protect the children" excuse.

ao3's entire point right now is that it's the one place where writers can safely post their fiction. because they understand fictional people don't get hurt and people themselves are responsible for reading the tags and deciding if the work is something they want to read, just like people check warnings on video games and horror movies and then decide if they want to consume it - for some reason when it comes to fanfic, some people have suddenly decided if they don't like it, it shouldn't exist at all.

starting to worry about external people's collective opinion and trying to limit ao3 to their standards - or even worse, as she seems to be interested in making ao3 more accessible in her home country, China, which we know censors fucking everything - is going to end up in a mass deletion of so much fandom content. it doesn't protect anyone, it's just puritanism and "video games cause violent behavior" with a new fancy wording and aimed at fanfic instead. and personally, yeah, it would delete a lot of my favorite works from others, a lot of works from my friends, and few works from myself too.

idk if literally anything here made sense I'm sorry lmao the topic pisses me off (not as in "I'm pissed at you for bringing it up" but as in "oh my god this world is full of fucking idiots") so I ended up ranting lol.

anyway the board members are voted and anyone who had donated over $10 to ao3 before July 30th (so unfortunately we can sweep in anymore) has the right to vote and they should've already received an email about it. to anyone with the right to vote - please keep Tiffany G out 🙃

#asks #fanfic #fanfiction

[commaclear]

Oh god Quackity is slowly creeping onto everyone's radars, he's slowly sinking further and further into the ball pit, and he doesn't even know

Niki!! I don't know to be happy or horrified!! Probably both!!

Phil is so right man, about everything. Age really does come with wisdom. He was right about Tommy, he's probably right about Tubbo, and the more correct he is about those matters, the more he is definitely correct about Wilbur.

As for Wilbur, I think he likes how Quackity makes him feel. He's always been somewhat of an object, which while it has allowed him to reach where he is due to how objectification works, it's also isolated him a lot.

Quackity isn't like other pigs. He's incredibly sexually repressed and honestly quite pathetic, but those things allow him to see Wilbur as a person. Yes, he can see the sex appeal that Wilbur has, but only when Wilbur basically forces him to. He sees Wilbur, he checks up on him daily, and as soon as he thought he might be in trouble, he set out to help.

"It's just manipulation" or "it's just method acting" is how Wilbur is going to defend his actions, even as he wonders about Quackity in bed with him, or watches Quackity just living his life while his guard is down.

He's a little parasocial ig L

How was that for Wilbur-defending, Comma? Got a lol rusty after that freak shit Wilbur pulled ngl

-Wilbur Semi Defender anon

Forget "How to win friends and influence people", Quackity has been reading "How to make enemies and end up on a hit list" instead

Now I'm sure a lot of you have mixed feelings abt me making Niki fucking terrifying, but let me explain... I had to make someone who was scarier than Schlatt, I had to do the 'no fear ... one fear' meme with him but for plot reasons, and I decided that the fandom makes Niki a soft uwu caregiver wayyyyyy too often (something I am also guilty of, which is bad cuz she's way more complex than that), so this time I made her Heisenberg instead

Phil is fucking based, he's watching all this go down from his little fnaf room, and he knows

That's not fucking defending, you just called him parasocial and gave him an L (and you're not wrong). You are not Wilbur semi-defender anymore, you're Wilbur semi-bully /lh

Unfortunately, mass editing tags is kind of a pain and I can't be bothered rn, so you get to keep your name ig

#you may be wilbur semi bully anon now but you're totally based #like phil #anons my beloved #violets are blue #wilbur semi defender anon