#this is my last year in art school and actually my school's adult courses will be banned after that so my last chance too

[goreking890]

im sorry yall I just needed to rant because it's getting ridiculous and I'm fucking tired of it 😑

The amount of people I blocked And reported on tiktok is insane to me like if you mothafuckers dont shut the hell up about hobies age I will continue to block and report accounts because I'm sick and tired of being called a ped0phi!e for liking punkflower or goldenpunk/chaipunk like when I watched across the spiderverse and I saw hobie I thought " yeah, he's 16 or 17 years old " Because he kinda like the guys in my high school but yall bitches are saying that Mf is "19" "in his 20s or 30s" or whatever like no bitch he's like gwen's age and a lot of y'all get from the video of the directors talking about hobies CONCEPT AGE you hear me CONCEPT!!! Also I noticed a lot of people would say shit like " hobie is a adult " sexualize the fuck out of hobie being "my man, my man ,my man" THAT IS A BOY even in the spiderverse art book it says " A slightly older BOY" ( also I love the idea of hobie living on a boat lmao) always this reminds me of the adultification of black teens ngl like sometimes teenagers look older they actually are like remember one time last year seeing a freshman in my high school with a whole ass beard and also yall are like "well looks he's 30s look at his face!!"

Yeah, you do know his World is under a fascist regime? Of course he's not gonna look sunshine and rainbows under a fascist regime he's freedom fighter he gonna be emoting a lot plus some teens have face wrinkles!!

Now PLEASE STFU ABOUT THIS ARGUMENT! Like please put to rest!!

—

thank you for reading my Ted talk 🌺🌼🏵

#hobie brown #lgbt #gay #across the spiderverse #punkflower #goldenpunk #hobart brown #sorry for the rant #rant post

[stargazer-sims]

The Art of Redemption

(part 14)

previous // next // story index

—————

Eden's cousin leaves halfway through the group class.

For students Eden's age, most of the caregivers don't hang around to watch the class. Stan's grandson Marek and three little girls Nikolai doesn't know are also in the class and they don't have any adult caregivers present either, so Eden being there without an adult family member isn't odd from Nikolai's point of view. It's the fact that the cousin would just get up and disappear before class was over that unsettles him, particularly because now class actually is over and another one will be starting soon, and there's no sign of anyone coming to collect Eden.

For his part, Eden doesn't seem bothered. Once he has his skates off, he happily climbs onto the bench and plops himself down next to Nikolai with a cheerful, "So, what did you think? Everybody in our class is really good, right?"

Eden is so tiny, the toes of his boots aren't touching the floor, and Nikolai has to remind himself that the boy is only a few months away from turning eleven. He smiles. "Everyone in your class is really good, but I'd say you and that red-haired girl are the best."

"Oh, that's Everleigh," Eden says. "She totally is the best. She wants to do pairs when she gets older, and she has a big crush on my friend Marek, but he thinks girls are gross. I like girls, but sometimes I think I like boys too, but actually I don't want to date anybody because I have to think about my career first. Are you dating anybody?"

"That's a lot, Eden. Are you always this talkative?"

"No," Eden says, casually swinging his little legs. "But, I like you."

"To answer your question, I'm not dating anybody. I'm married."

Eden nods sagely. "My dad says marriage is sacred, but I don't know about that. I think it just means you have to pay a lot of bills and complain about things like having to change the oil in your car or somebody leaving wet towels on the bathroom floor."

Nikolai laughs. "Not going to lie, I like your definition better. It's more accurate, from my experience."

"Does your wife complain about you leaving towels on the floor?"

"Yeah, and sometimes I complain about her doing it too. She complains about my cat shedding, and I complain about how long it takes her to get ready to go anywhere."

His and Anya's problems aren't nearly that trivial or innocent, but he's not about to tell a ten year old child that his marriage is in shambles and he's all but made up his mind to ask his wife to agree to a divorce. This is assuming he can work up the courage, of course. He doubts Anya will make it easy for him in any case, and he's not looking forward to the confrontation.

"I'm never getting married," Eden declares.

"Good choice," says Nikolai.

"Yeah. Yi-Joon says I'm probably going to be too high-maintenance for anyone to handle anyway, but y'know what? I'm okay with that."

"Yi-Joon?" Nikolai inquires.

"My stupid cousin," Eden clarifies. "He came here from South Korea last summer to stay with us for a year and learn English. He's so annoying. All he does besides go to language school is watch K-dramas and talk to girls on the phone and go to expensive coffee places. I don't think he even likes sports."

"We aren't all going to like the same things," Nikolai says. "Life would be kind of boring if we were all into the same stuff, don't you think? Our differences are what make us interesting."

"Maybe, if people respected what other people were into."

"Do you respect what your cousin is into?"

"He can like K-dramas if he wants to. I don't like them, but I don't try to stop him from watching them, and I don't make fun of him for it."

"That's all anyone should reasonably ask for."

"I think so too, but it's like I'm asking too much when I want people to respect what I like. I want Yi-Joon to stop making fun of me about skating. And my parents... they don't even get that It's not just a hobby. I really want to do this. Like, to be a real athlete."

"You want to know something?" Nikolai says. "My parents don't get it either. They've always supported me, but I'm not sure they've ever really understood my love for skating."

"At least they supported you," says Eden. "My parents want me to stop skating."

"Yeah, so I heard."

Nikolai glances down at the ice, where Beth-Anne has just returned and is now setting up her orange cones for the next class, which is a group of preschoolers. A different group than the one Gabriel Torres is in, he'd learned. Beth-Anne has two preschool groups, and this morning on the way to the rink she told him she's hoping that he'll be able to take over teaching one of them by autumn. He wonders if he will be.

"You know what I'm worried about?" Eden is saying.

"What is it?"

"I'm a kid. I'm not allowed to decide anything important. If my parents decide I have to stop skating, I'm gonna have to, and by the time I'm old enough to decide anything for myself, it's gonna be too late." He sighs, sounding far older than his ten years. "If Beth-Anne can't make them understand, my dream is basically dead. My parents are gonna kill it, and if that happens I don't know what I'm going to do with my life."

There are probably a thousand different responses Nikolai could make to this. He could say there's life beyond skating and that Eden's too young to stress about what to do with the rest of his life, or he could just offer some platitude about trying not to worry. But, he realizes he doesn't want to say any of that, because Eden is right.

If Eden's parents make him quit skating now, by the time he has the autonomy to make his own choices, it will be too late to be competitive in the way he clearly wants to be. Nikolai recognizes Eden's passion for the sport and his drive to succeed. It's the same energy and intensity Nikolai had; the same obsession that carried him to six top-three finishes at the World Championships, to his two Worlds gold medals, right up to the moment when he crash-landed in Taiwan.

No, it didn't end there, whispers a small, insistent voice in his mind. You still love the sport that much, and you can still succeed in it, just in a different way.

He turns to fully face Eden, who's starting up at him expectantly. "You know how I said I'd like to be your coach some day?"

"Yeah," Eden says.

"I meant that."

"I believed you," Eden tells him. "But, what's that got to do with my future if my parents make me give up skating? If I'm not skating, what'll I need a coach for?"

"Exactly," Nikolai says.

Eden looks perplexed. "This isn't helping."

"Don't worry," Nikolai says. "I am going to help you."

"How?"

"Your parents are worried about you getting hurt, aren't they?"

"Yeah," Eden confirms. "Like, all of a sudden, for some reason. It's not like I just started doing jumps or something. I could do a waltz jump when I was six and I did my first single jump when I was seven, and I fell loads of times before I got it right. My parents have seen me fall a bunch of times, but they never seemed too worried about it until this January or so."

"Maybe because it never occurred to them before that a fall could completely change your life."

"What do you mean?"

Nikolai gestures down at his leg. "I mean, it could literally change your life. I'm never going to compete again because I seriously hurt myself when fell at the Four Continents back in January."

"Wait..." Eden frowns, his delicate brows scrunching together in concentration. "You got hurt in January? Do you think my parents know anything about that?"

"I don't know," Nikolai says. "Your parents and I have never met. Do they watch competitions on TV or read sports news online?"

"They watch competitions with me sometimes, but I don't know if they watch stuff by themselves or look at anything on the internet. But... you don't think they're trying to make me stop skating because one person they don't even know got hurt, do you? 'Cause like, that's kind of stupid."

"To tell you the truth, I have no idea why they're trying to make you stop," Nikolai admits. "All I know is, somebody has to convince them that it's not a good idea."

"Somebody... like you?"

"Yeah, that's kind of what I had in mind."

"Really? You'd really do that for me? You don't even know me very well yet."

"Not yet, but I'd like us to get to know each other. Besides, you've got way too much talent to throw away your opportunities. Plus, I've seen you on the ice and it doesn't take a genius to know how happy you are when you're skating and how much you love it."

"I do love it," Eden says. "If skating was a person, I'd probably marry it."

"I thought you said you're not getting married."

"I'd make an exception for skating," Eden says. "You know, 'cause I'd want us to live happily ever after with all our medals."

"And you wouldn't complain about wet towels on the floor, or damp, stinky skate stockings?"

Eden giggles. "Maybe a little bit about the stockings. They do get pretty gross. Beth-Anne says when I get a little older, I won't have to wear them any more. She says I can just put my bare feet in my skates if I want to."

"That's pretty gross too, honestly," Nikolai says. "Trust me, I know. But, you'll be able to feel your edges better with nothing on your feet. That'll be important when you start competing."

"If I start competing."

"When," Nikolai repeats.

Eden hesitates for a beat, but then looks up to meet Nikolai's eyes and echoes. "When."

"Good," Nikolai praises him. "You have to believe in getting what you want. That's part of how you succeed."

"You're already coaching me," Eden says, sounding a little amazed. "You really did mean it."

"I'm not..." Nikolai begins, but then quickly realizes Eden isn't wrong.

How many talks has he had with Stan and Beth-Anne over the years about things only tangentially related to skating? Coaching is more than helping an athlete perfect his technical skills. It's also about helping him with his self-confidence and his overall attitude. It's about being a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, a teacher about life as well as sport, a mentor, a confidant, a friend, and sometimes a disciplinarian. Beth-Anne has done all that for him and she's still doing it, and the thought that he's already able to pay her kindness and wisdom forward fills him with an emotion that feels like a mixture of astonishment and pride.

He smiles and offers, "You know what they say. Practice makes perfect."

Eden returns the smile. "I think you're going to be a super great coach, Nikolai."

"Thanks," he says.

"When my parents come to pick me up, you should tell them you're going to be my coach."

"I don't think—"

"Yeah, you should! You want to do it, and you said it's important to believe in getting what you want."

Nikolai grins. "So, you're obviously paying attention."

"I'm a great student," Eden says. "Anyway, the way I see it, you can't be a coach without a student, and Beth-Anne already said I'm gonna need a different coach when I get to Junior division, so I think we have to help each other get what we want."

"Okay," Nikolai says. "I'll talk to your parents when they come to get you, but maybe leave the strategy to me for now, all right?"

"Okay," Eden agrees. "This has got to work, though! With you and Beth-Anne both talking to them, they have to change their minds!"

Nikolai has to concede that Eden's enthusiasm is infectious, and he wants to be as optimistic as his potential future student, but he has the unfortunate reality of experience looming over his shoulder. He hopes the parents can be convinced to let their son continue skating, but he's enough of a realist to know that it may take more than the opinion of a stranger to sway them.

"Like I said before," he tells Eden. "I can't make any promises beyond promising to do my best."

Eden reaches over and pats his hand. "I believe in you."

Unexpectedly, Nikolai feels a lump in his throat. He barely knows this kid, but for some reason he already feels a connection with him.

Is this how Beth-Anne felt about me that first day? he wonders. He files the idea away so he can ask her about it later.

His very next thought is, I cannot let this child down.

He has no clue how he's going to do it, but somehow he has to make Eden's parents understand what's at stake. It's not just competitions and medals. It's Eden's well-being, his sense of purpose. His raison d'être, as Anya's coach Isabelle might say.

Nikolai remembers how he'd felt, hearing the doctors in Taiwan saying that he'd never skate again. To say his very soul had been crushed wouldn't be enough. It'd been as if his entire world shattered into a million pieces around him. He'd barely been able to survive that, and maybe he's not completely out of the proverbial woods yet. If it's this difficult for an adult, he shudders to think of what losing something so important would do to a young boy like Eden.

And what sort of second chance would Eden get? Unlike Nikolai, he doesn't have a new opportunity waiting for him to transition into.

Nikolai recognizes he's lucky. Coaching is a natural progression for him, especially with the knowledge that he'll be able to return to the ice soon and with Beth-Anne ready and willing to train him. It all became more tangible when his doctor here told him that not only would he make a full recovery but that he'd still be able to skate. His aching heart had swelled with hope at that news.

Now, it's growing again with a new surge of determination. He wants to succeed for Eden, but even more so for himself. The future doesn't seem as bleak and scary any more, and he wants more than anything to make it evolve into a scenario in which he isn't merely settled and unafraid, but happy, thriving and fearless once again.

#writing #the art of redemption #theartofredemption #nikolai pavlenko #eden seong #stargazersims

[sortagaysortahigh]

Still Into You | Eddie Munson

A/N: Hi besties, here she is, my first Eddie Munson enemies to lovers(ish) fic, this is definitely way longer than expected and honestly it’s been a hot minute since I’ve sat down and finished a fic so thank you to the Stranger Things Gods for bringing me out of my writing hiatus. This fic also has a Black coded reader because she’s a Sinclair, however it can be ready by anyone regardless of race or ethnicity <3 ALSO THIS IS SPOILER FREE!

Summary: As enemies or as lovers, they were fine with either, after all fourth grade left a lasting impact on them both.

Warnings: Cussing, spelling and grammatical errors (sorry baes I don’t believe in editing), slight angst, mention of drugs + drug dealing, mentions of on going insecurity, slight mentions of violence, mentions of p*rn*gr*phy (i.e, the adult video section at movie rental places), and the reader being a bitch (as she should)

Word Count: 12.5k (she’s a long one, at least for me)

Eddie Munson x Sinclair!Fem!Reader

Every Thursday Y/n Sinclair had a routine, it was a simple routine, she would wake up at seven in the morning and be ready by eight-by ready that typically meant her hair would be done but she would throw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, sometimes pants depending on the weather outside. After that she drove her younger siblings to school, dropping Erica off first, then Lucas.

Some days Lucas stayed over at one of his friends' houses-so she’d just drop Erica off. Then she’d make her way back home, stopping by the local donut shop to pick up her favorite chocolate glazed donut with sprinkles-the sprinkles were a necessity. 

After that she made her way to the local library, spending the day studying and completing any assignments or research she’d been procrastinating on. She’d always been a great student-however when things came down to it she couldn’t afford to go to college out of state alongside the fact that she didn’t want to go to college both played a key role in her decision to pursue an Associates of Arts degree at the local community college a town over. 

Once she finished at the library 1pm was rolling around-meaning she would make her way across town to the Hawkins Middle School parking lot, where she’d read for around half an hour before Erica and her posse of obnoxious attitude ridden eighth graders would follow her-sometimes begging for a ride home from the eldest Sinclair while trying to win her over with flattery-to which she’d roll her eyes and tell the younger girls to get it. 

By the time she finished dropping off Erica’s friends they’d looped back around to Hawkins to pick up Lucas. However her routine changed today when Lucas hadn’t come out on time-rather an hour passed before Y/n left the car with Erica in tow and walked throughout the school while peaking into the different club meetings trying to find him. 

Of course most older sisters would simply assume he’d joined a club, and would’ve turned around and driven home-however after the past two years they had-she had to make sure he hadn’t decided to go on another supernatural ‘chasing monsters’ adventure with Dustin and Mike. 

When she realized where he was-she regretted even stepping foot into the school-trying to usher Erica away from the slightly ajar classroom door full of teenage boys playing Dungeons and Dragons in a somewhat dark room lit by faux candles. Of course she wasn’t mad at Lucas, Mike, or Dustin, actually she was happy they found a place at the highschool after their first month of complaining about being losers in combination with Y/n having to go to the school and tell off a few of the junior and senior girls that decided they had the right to bully her younger brothers. 

”Girl get off of me, you’re not my mother, stop trying to push me down the hallway! When did you get so strong anyways, what are you a damn linebacker?” 

One thing about Erica Sinclair was that she could never keep her mouth shut-granted she’d picked the habit up from her eldest sister-and in times like this it really showed.

“You’re gonna embarrass us if you don’t stop trying to act like hot shit, you have literal bright pink bows in your hair, shut it up and start walking before I drag you by those uneven pigtails-you need to let mom do your hair instead of trying to do it yourself.” her younger sister gasped, eyes wide, jaw dropped, as she processed her sister’s words-however before Erica could formulate a response the door they were a foot away from swung open.

“Can you two take your little argument somewhere else-we’re in the middle of a campaign here-wait a second-Sinclair?” before she could respond to him-the sound of Lucas’s voice was heard “Yeah Eddie?” the tall brunette quickly looked behind him into the room “not you-your sister” with that he turned back to face Y/n who was now clenching her jaw in annoyance while pushing Erica away by placing a hand on her sister’s face and shoving her slightly.

“Now to what do I owe the honor? The retired Queen of Hawkins High herself-Y/n Sinclair in my presence” she scoffed, now crossing her arms across her chest while watching Eddie’s theatrics, he now placed one arm behind his back-the other in front of his chest while bowing before her, the smirk on his face evident as he stood back up-stepping closer then leaning against the door frame.

It was no secret that Y/n was deemed as the Queen of Hawkins High throughout the later years she attended the school, however it wasn’t something that she formed her personality around, nor was it something that she openly embraced. Truth be told the entire reason she was so ‘popular’ was simply because she was an athlete. The girl was a varsity cheerleader for four years, and she’d won homecoming princess her junior year when the cheerleaders practically forced her to run, which followed with homecoming queen her senior year and she ran for Prom Queen after Nancy and Steve were committed to making sure Carol wouldn’t win.

People liked Y/n, she was real, and she wasn’t a bully like most of the self proclaimed ‘royalty’ of Hawkins high. She was the only person that would put a stop to the endless bullying and teasing that everyone witnessed at the hands of Tommy, Carol, and their mindless minions-hell the girl was known for punching Tommy in the face their junior year after he tried to corner Nancy Wheeler. 

However, Y/n didn’t like people-she wasn’t a people person by choice, she did what she had to, to make her high school experience more enjoyable. She wasn’t going to let anyone walk all over her-hence her efforts to ensure the same thing would not happen to her younger brother-and the other two that she basically co-parented with Steve Harrington. 

People always called Y/n their friend although she did not reciprocate the same energy or friendship. She viewed friendship as something important and close to her heart-hence the reason her personal social circle was so small. Yeah the girl used to smile and wave at anyone who glanced her way, even continuing conversations that were randomly sparked on a whim to see if the ‘queen B was as nice as they say she is’, of course there were also the people who saw through the nice facade she’d built up.

People like Eddie Munson. She couldn’t stand him, he was always two steps ahead of her, cutting her off mid sentence, or making small slick comment such as ‘you don’t really like them as much as you say you do huh’ or ‘y’know I like you better when you’re being a stone cold bitch y/n’ and of course her favorite ‘Here yee, here yee, the Queen has arrived’. 

The two of them had grown up in Hawkins, paths always crossing one way or another. They’d been neighbors for a short period of time before his Mom skipped town, then of course the fact that his Uncle and Y/n’s father fought in the Vietnam war together meant that every now and then her father would ask ‘how’s that Munson boy-Wayne gave me a real show at Poker night last week’ or something along the lines of that, but as the years went by her father asked less and less about Eddie.

That didn’t mean the boy wasn’t around her, being a pesky nuisance. He painted himself as a social reject, and when Tommy decided to label him as Eddie ‘The Freak’ Munson he went along with it, and sure Y/n did jump in to defend Eddie when his name was brought up in conversation with the group but that didn’t mean she liked him, it was simply because she defended everyone who’s name was thrown around by the town douchebags. 

“Oh fuck off Munson. I just needed to know where my brother was, and now that I do-what time do you nerds wrap this up? Figure I’ll take my two other children home too” He furrowed his brows for a second before nodding his head.

All the while Erica just looked between the two, her brows knit together while she tried to piece how her sister knew Eddie-and why he looked like he was in love with her older bitchier sister. Then again, Y/n looked like she wanted to bite his head off like the praying mantises Erica learned about in her science class last year.

“Oh come on, you shouldn’t talk to your ex boyfriend like that princess! We were practically in love y’know” Y/n scoffed, nostrils flaring as she furrowed her brows and frowned slightly, the evident look of disgust on her features only making Eddie smile more as he ignored the continuous protests from his fellow club members all complaining about continuing the campaign instead of watching Eddie flirt with Lucas’s sister.

“Munson, we “dated” for two weeks in the fourth grade. Once again, fuck off” He placed a hand over his heart, leaning forward slightly, letting out a dramatic sigh before standing back up, raising his left brow-the look almost challenging her. 

“Y’know Sinclair-you can admit that you like having me around-probably even miss me sometimes” His confident tone set Y/n off, her fists clenched at her sides now as she let out a deep breath, closing her eyes for a few moments before opening them again-the few seconds that her eyes were closed Eddie wasted no time in taking in her entire appearance-the baggy ‘Hawkins Cheerleading’ t-shirt in combination with her daisy dukes that were just short enough but not too short had his lips slightly parted.

“Aw how sweet, you think I actually want you breathing my air? I’d rather get jumped by four large Russian men in an underground tunnel while being drugged” The memory had Erica’s brows knit together once again, glancing up at her older sister with a look of shock on her face. Of course Erica knew that anyone who hadn’t been there wouldn’t understand it-but she still remembered seeing her older sister getting dragged down that cold metal hallway as she crawled through the air vents above. 

Eddie looked visibly confused, nodding his head a few times while puckering his lips. Something about Y/n had always made his heart race, after all she was his first crush ever-and his first girlfriend-not to mention his first kiss. Although it was chaste and didn’t last very long-he still remembered it and he knew she did as well.

“That’s oddly specific princess-but if you want to play hard to get then so be it-I love a good challenge” she scoffed, her jaw dropping slightly before she rolled her eyes and shoved past him, their shoulders bumping as she walked into the classroom, all of the Hellfire club members now looking at her while she let out a deep sigh, her eyes searching for Lucas-and when they made eye contact her younger brother looked mortified.

“Okay dorks, since your almighty lord and savior Edward won’t tell me when your campaign ends-when does it end” it seemed as if all of the guys in the room were afraid of her as she stood there, blinking a few times, brows raised, moving her hands together in a ‘wrap it up’ circular motion as she waited for someone to answer her. 

“Y/n-haha about the time thing-it ends at 8” she looked taken aback for a moment as Dustin answered her, and that only made his eyes widen when he processed that today was Thursday. On Thursday nights at eight she went to the local diner to get a milkshake with Robin. She’d been doing it for months at this point-and everyone knew it was a part of her Thursday routine-something she valued.

“Oh shit it’s Thursday” Mike spoke next, glancing between Lucas and Dustin, the three of them now staring at each other looking frantic. Part of her was irritated by the abrupt interruption to her entire Thursday routine, but the other part was happy they were happy-granted she would prefer their happiness without Munson.

“Sorry uh-Y/n-not to ask a stupid question but uh is that everything you need? We’re kind of at a really important moment-not to like upset you or anything” she sighed, glancing at Gareth, taking a moment to roll her shoulders back while he spoke-trying to appear more relaxed and less irritated. She knew she was technically barging in on their club meeting and of course no one appreciates an abrupt pause-sure she wanted to wring Eddie’s neck for even assuming that he had a chance with her to have anything other than a ‘Hi Princess’ ‘Fuck off Munson’ relationship with her, but that was no excuse to be a bitch to any of the guys.

“Gareth-it’s cool, I’ll go, sorry for the barging in and shouting in the hallway-she’s just an overactive ass-” Erica scoffed from the doorway “and you’re a loud mouthed jester” Y/n took a moment to glance over her shoulder, ignoring the way Eddie’s eyes immediately snapped up from her ass to her face. “-shut it before I drop you off in the middle of the woods at night” 

“Anyways, me and the mouse over there are leaving. Lukiepooh, Mikeybear, and Dustybun I’ll see you at eight-promptly or you’re next on my shit list. I gotta go reschedule my date with Rob now-bye nerds'' She spoke in a playful tone, all of the guys exchanged looks outside of Eddie, the way she said ‘nerds’ or ‘dork’ was never malicious, rather she smiled at them before turning around, flashing Eddie another dirty look on the way out.

She hadn’t expected him to follow behind her, but Erica cleared her throat, causing Y/n to turn back slightly, pausing her steps.

He stopped walking too, a few feet away from the Sinclair sisters, brows furrowed while he wrapped one arm around his waist, the other moving so that his hand could grab his hair, slightly pushing it towards his face-the motion made him look somewhat shy or even nervous and that confused Y/n.

“So you uh-have a date?” she shrugged “Is that a concern to you Munson?” something about him always bothered her, even now when he looked-well he looked like that. She could never describe it-even when she still attended Hawkins-anytime they crossed paths, made eye contact across a classroom or the cafeteria, or even when she’d stop Tommy from bothering him and his friends-there was always something else there-something that was undeniable yet unexplainable and that only bothered her more.

“I feel like it should be, after all I am after your heart” she scoffed, rolling her eyes then turned around, grabbing Erica’s arm and pulling her to walk while responding “whatever Munson”.

The car ride was mostly silent until Erica realized the two of them were at Family Video-not their neighborhood. Then she finally sat up in the Jaguar’s leather front seat, shifting her body to face her older sister.

“What the hell was that!” y/n glanced at Erica, letting out a small sigh as she shifted her thick voluminous blown out curls away from her face. “It was nothing okay.” the youngest Sinclair shook her head “You’re such a liar! He’s so into you!”

“Yeah sure he is Erica, he’s just an ass that likes to annoy me.” Erica shook her head, pursing her lips while raising a brow at her sister “Ain’t no way! The way he was staring at you! You’re lying! It doesn’t take some super genius to see that” 

Y/n groaned, rolling her eyes and opening the car door, forcing Erica to follow suit as they walked into the video store.

Little did she know, across town in the same classroom she’d recently left, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas were all trying to piece things together as well-mostly because when Eddie walked back into the room, he was smiling from ear to ear and there was a slight red flush to his face.

After thirty minutes of whispering between roles, Lucas finally cleared his throat and declared a time out. “Eddie, are you and my sister a thing?” he stared at the older boy “c’mon-what was that? I’ve never seen her like that-like ever and she’s my sister! I’ve known her my entire life!” Lucas sat there, waiting for a response, the other guys at the table nodding their heads before joining the conversation.

Gareth spoke first “Honestly-no offense Lucas-but I expected her to be a bitch. Everyone kind of assumed that she was nice as an act-and I didn’t even know that she knew my name. But that’s probably the meanest I’ve ever seen her be-and she apologized to us?” Jeff nodded alongside one of the other club members.

“That’s true-Y/n’s always been intimidating-when she was here she basically ran the entire school-she decked Tommy H. in the face my freshman year-that shit was terrifying” It was clear that Jeff was thinking of the memory, seeing Y/n pull Tommy back by the right shoulder of his leather varsity jacket and the few seconds that followed were something out of a movie, the sound of Nancy’s ‘Y/n! It’s fine! Stop!’ followed by the sound of Y/n’s fist making contact with Tommy’s jaw almost echoed throughout the hallway. 

Everyone who was there would never forget that moment, especially the way Tommy stumbled back a few steps, blinking while holding his face, slightly hunched over, his lip bleeding and a look of pure shock on his face. The moment followed by Y/n kneeing him in the abdomen to seal the deal before checking on Nancy, her entire demeanor shifted as she made sure her friend was alright.

“That was probably the most attractive thing I’ve ever seen-I wanted to drop down on one knee and propose to her” Eddie spoke, gaining everyone else’s attention as he stared off in the distance, his elbows leaning into the table as his chin rested in the palms of his hands. 

“So you’re telling me this entire time…you and Y/n have known each other?” he nodded his head at Mike’s question. “Yeah, Hawkins isn’t a huge town boys, course I knew Sinclair’s hot mean sister” Before Lucas could respond Mike did, the look of horror on his face “Hey! That’s basically my sister!” 

“Can you please answer the important question here?!” Lucas’s mortified expression didn’t go unnoticed by his fellow club members-sure Eddie and Y/n together would be kind of cool-Lucas looked up to Eddie in a way. He knew Eddie had his flaws, no one who repeated their senior year more than once was perfect-but Eddie had a good heart, and he was a metaphorical king among the ‘nerds’, he took kids under his wing and gave them a space to belong at Hawkins. He wasn’t mad, he was just confused.

“To answer your question, my dear Sundar the Bold, no the Queen and I are not dating, rather she can’t stand me and I’m after nothing but our fair ladies heart and somehow every time I get close-she slips through my fingers.”

That response was all Lucas needed, and based on the way Dustin looked at him, followed by Mike’s look-the three of them were already on board with one another.

That night on the drive home the boys all bombarded Y/n with questions about her relationship-or lack thereof-with their Dungeon Master. So much that she responded to all of them with “Shut the hell up! Yes I know Munson! We’re not friends! We’re not anything! Let the shit go!” then she commenced to ignoring all of them as she pulled into her driveway, all of them walking into the house with Chinese takeout in their hands.

The week that followed she did her best to dodge any questions brought to her, instead she focused more on her priorities and watched the few episodes of Designing Women that she would usually catch up on on Thursdays. She went to her classes, gave a presentation on the male gaze’s impact on historical portraiture that she’d been working on for weeks, and worked her usual shifts at Family Video with Steve and Robin. 

She’d done a great job at avoiding the topic of Eddie Munson, especially because it was as if everywhere she turned, one of the boys or Erica was bringing him up, asking her questions about how they knew each other, what happened in Fourth grade, and how they went from being friends (according to Eddie) to Y/n completely avoiding him as a topic of conversation, and walking right past him during her time at Hawkins High. 

That was until Eddie strolled into Family Video wearing his usual denim vest, leather jacket combo, alongside a pair of fitted black ripped jeans and his worn in docs. His hair was in it’s usual curly messy state and he sported a wide smile on his face the second he noticed Y/n behind the counter rewinding tapes while humming along to the Iron Maiden song playing in the background. 

He knew she hadn’t noticed him-which gave him just enough time to trace his eyes along her figure, her voluminous hair framed her face perfectly, the look of concentration evident on her face-brows knit together in the same way that Lucas’s and Erica’s did, and she stuck her tongue out ever so slightly as her teeth lightly bit down on it, only seen when one really focused on her slightly parted lips. 

He took in the slightly oversized Aerosmith shirt tucked into her black jeans alongside the dark green Family Video vest made him smile-she was so different than most of the girls she’d been grouped together with in school, and even now, he knew she was in school, and he knew that she wanted to pursue art-all things he’d overheard from Lucas’s conversations-things that he kept noted because Eddie Munson was head over heels.

She spun on her heel, grabbing the next bin of tapes that needed to be rewinded, lost in her own world until she dropped a tape, mumbling ‘shit’ while squatting down and picking it up, then when she finally stood up did she notice Eddie leaning against the counter, a dopey smile on his face while he looked at her.

Y/n let out a sigh, placing the tape on the counter next to the VCR and computer, before placing a hand on her hip. 

“What do you want Munson” he raised a brow, the same smile on his face “Do you want my real answer, or do you want the Family Video related answer” she scoffed, rolling her eyes-already having an idea of what he was going to say based on her answer. 

“You look beautiful today M’lady” she nodded her head, now shifting her weight to her left foot while crossing her arms over her chest “Flatter won’t get you far. If you don’t have any returns or rentals, you can go” he nodded his head a few times “what if I want a recommendation”

Before he could open his mouth to speak Y/n was quick to shout for Robin, yelling “Rob! C’mere” while glancing towards the Adult section of the store. Robin had lost their game of rock, paper, scissors which forced her to do the sorting and restocking of their very graphic Adult section-also known as their self proclaimed ‘section of doom’.

Eddie straightened up, fully expecting a man to walk through the beaded curtains, he would finally know who Rob was-and in his head who his competition was. Of course when it came to Y/n his competition was never ending, she had people throwing themselves at her for years-and yet he’d never actually seen her give anyone the time of day except for her ex from sophomore year.

However when the dirty blonde walked through the curtains, swatting at them in a spastic motion while adusting her short bob-cut hair he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. Sure women were competition-but Eddie had seen Y/n with Robin before and he knew they were just friends-he just had no idea what her name was. 

“Don’t look too happy, Munson. You want a recommendation, Rob can give you one. I have a job to do” with that she turned back around, doing her best to ignore the almost burning feeling of Eddie’s stare, her gaze focused on the vcr in front of her as she placed a copy of the animated version of Lord of The Rings into the machine, proceeding to rewind it.

Yet when she glanced over at him, he was quick to make eye contact with her while Robin talked about different horror flicks, going on and on about the different genres of horror and what the store had to offer. Y/n loved how much Robin talked, most people were bothered by the girl’s high energy-however she was the straw to Y/n’s berry. The two were like two peas in a pod the second they’d met in the girl’s bathroom Y/n’s junior year.

Robin had been crying about getting rejected, and Y/n was the only person who didn’t ignore the sounds of choked sobs and sniffles coming from the large stall. The two of them ended up sitting on the dingy bathroom floor for two hours together, talking and laughing, Y/n reassuring Robin that whoever rejected her was just an asshole who couldn’t see what was in front of them.

Eventually when she got a job at Scoops Ahoy with Robin, she’d introduced the girl to Steve after forcing Steve to put in a job application-knowing that the boy hadn’t done much since graduation and was living in a post-highschool rut. 

Of course the whole Russians in Hawkins, Mindflare possessions, fighting in the upside down and regular world, plus everything else that had gone on at that god forsaken mall only brought the three closer together, which led them all to applying to the understaffed Family Video 

“These are all amazing recommendations-really but I need to talk to her” he pointed at Y/n, who was back to rewinding tapes and doing her best to alphabetize the box of rewound tapes so it’d be easier for Steve to stock them back on the shelves. She was more focused on figuring out why a copy of Grease wouldn’t properly rewind than she was on Eddie and Robin-which is why the second Eddie lightly smacked the counter to her right she jumped, immediately meeting his stare.

“Jesus Munson, can you not take a hint?” he placed a hand on his chin for a moment, raising a brow and nodding his head, mimicking a thinking pose. “I don’t think so no-not when it comes to the girl of my dreams” she scoffed “yeah okay Munson.” She rolled her eyes, going back to looking at the tape in front of her, popping the front of the black plastic case off of it, groaning at the sight of the tangled tape. 

Before she could try to fix it-something she was terrible at-Eddie reached across the counter-grabbing it from her hands and examining it before he started carefully unraveling the tape, then he started rolling it back around-it seemed so effortless to him-and for the first time in a long time-Y/n found herself staring at him without her usual bitchy expression. 

Her eyes were focused on his hands, watching him fix the tape that would’ve taken her at least half an hour to figure out. 

“You should try dropping the attitude every now and then-it’s a good look on you” she blinked a few times, her gaze now meeting his while he stared at her, a small smile on his lips when she didn’t roll her eyes at him. 

“I don’t have an attitude.” He raised a single brow “mmm I don’t think so, it’s usually there, and you stand all tense with your shoulders raised and jaw clenched. You’ve kind of always stood like that too” she rolled her eyes “I do not stand like that Eddie” the name slipped past her lips before she thought about it, and for a second it felt like Eddie had finally slipped through a crack, that he was finally getting through her walls.

“Yes you do” he mimicked her, raising his shoulders slightly, clenching his jaw and furrowing his brows, then he tilted his head up slightly “This is literally how you walk around, you also cross your arms a lot and occasionally you slightly stand on your toes to seem taller than you are” she tilted her head slightly, somewhat taken aback by how much he actually paid attention to her. 

The two were almost in their own world, both of them too distracted by one another to notice Robin whispering on the store phone a few feet away.

“Yes he’s here-they’re talking and like she seems super into it, she’s not even being mean-and y’know how she stands all stiff and stuff right now she looks totally relaxed” Robin whispered into the phone, glancing over at Eddie and Y/n, her hand cupping the bottom of the phone as she held it against her face, trying her best to keep whispering while she spoke to Dustin, Lucas, and Mike-well technically it was the Wheeler residence’s phone, however the other two were hovering over it as well. 

“We’ve been trying to get her to open up to him! She keeps brushing us off!” Dustin’s voice was heard through the phone while Robin nodded her head, listening as Lucas spoke next “We didn’t think he would actually show up, he kept going on about how she’d kick him out or ignore him” 

“Well I can see why, she’s been ignoring him for years at this point, I feel like we have to figure out why she hates him-because there’s no way she actually hates him-Oh my god-guys-she’s smiling and laughing-I repeat she’s smiling and laughing” 

It took everything in Robin not to start smiling and squealing, she was easily recruited for ‘Operation Fourth Grade to Forever’, granted none of them knew what happened in fourth grade, or why the two went from being friends to Y/n wanting nothing to do with him, but that was the entire point of the operation. Besides they were all looking for something to do-they had more free time on their hands after the gate was closed-so what better way than to help young love blossom.

Y/n found herself laughing at Eddie’s jokes and his mimicking of her uptight posture, she rolled her eyes playfully while taking the fixed tape from his outstretched hand. 

“Thank you, that would’ve taken me hours” he laughed, a small smile on his face “I wouldn’t be a gentleman if I’d let you suffer through that” she let out a small giggle at that, rolling her eyes at his flirty tone as she tried to stop the smile on her face-rather it was her smiling upside down-leading both Eddie and Robin to smile. 

But their moment felt like it was stomped on when Steve rushed into the store, slipping on his vest, making the bell above the door ding back and forth a few times.

“Shit I’m late-sorry guys-got caught up with this girl-” he paused when he noticed Eddie across from Y/n, the both of them now glancing over at him, then his eyes moved to Robin who was still on the phone, but she quickly moved her hand away to make it seem like a casual phone call made to the store. 

“Store’s pretty dead I guess.” his tone shift was evident, and he eyed Eddie, who simply put his hands up in a surrendering motion, then he glanced over at Y/n again “do you want to maybe, hang out, maybe go see Labyrinth sometime?-for uh old times sake” he rushed the last part, heat rushing through his neck, towards his ears, and the red flush slightly moving into his cheeks.

Before she could answer Steve did it for her “she can’t we’re already seeing that with Robin. Sorry Eddie, anything else you need? I can help you” Y/n blinked a few times, usually she’d be thankful that Steve stepped in to essentially cock block him, however, in the moment she felt something-something else. Some part of her was mad at Steve, especially when she noticed the way Eddie’s expression dropped.

“Oh uh, alright, well I’ll see you around Sinclair, cool meeting you Robin!” With that he tried to leave the store in a casual manner, internally he was a mixture of embarrassed, irritated, and oddly enough a sliver of happiness overtook him. That was the first time in years that she’d called him Eddie, not to mention seeing a genuine smile on her face-it was all the hope he needed.

When the door shut Y/n immediately grabbed a random movie from the Adult section returns bin and threw it at Steve. It hit him in the face while he struggled to dodge it, and Robin laughed before hanging up the phone. 

“Are you serious? The hell was that for! You hate Munson!” she scoffed, rolling her eyes “I can answer questions myself Steve, I don’t need you to Mama bear me!” her attitude was back, and her shoulders were tense again, that in itself confused Steve-especially because the group made sure to keep Steve out of the operation, knowing that Steve considered Eddie a ‘bad influence’ and went on tangents about him to Dustin. 

“You’re acting like you actually wanted to go see the movie with him! And really? Throwing ‘Katie Chow takes the big black kong’ at me was unnecessary!” he grimaced at the name of the tape, before tossing it on the counter and making his way behind it. However when he said that Y/n felt an unfamiliar feeling in her stomach, something she hadn’t experienced in a long time-and she had no idea what it was. 

When she hadn’t answered for a few minutes Steve slowly turned to face her, he glanced at Robin who simply shrugged while grabbing another bin of returns and started placing them on the old vinyl countertops.

“Wait-you wanted to go didn’t you!” she scoffed, eyes focused on the rewind button in front of her “I never said that Steve” he nodded “but you also never said you didn’t want to go!” she craned her neck back slightly, rolling her eyes, then returned to her original posture, trying to look more relaxed-now hyper aware of how she stood when she was irritated.

“Holy shit! You did wanna go! You were gonna say yes!” Her scoffs started to sound the same, she did her best to look disgusted at the idea, but she knew she wasn’t fooling Steve or Robin in the moment. “Shut up! I never said that!” he nodded “oh but it’s what you didn’t say that mattered!” she shook her head “Leave me alone! He was just being nice okay! Shit” 

Steve and Robin exchanged a knowing look.

“I don’t think he was the only one being nice” Y/n’s jaw dropped at Robin’s words, she turned to face her and shook her head “Who’s side are you on!” Robin shrugged “whichever side gets you to tell me what happened in fourth grade” 

“It’s not important!” Robin shook her head “clearly it is because you’ve fake hated Eddie since then, like yea he’s kind of a weirdo-but he doesn’t seem like a bad guy-” before steve could interject Robin pointed a finger at him “and you shush it, you’re a shit judge of character” Y/n nodded her head, taking a second to agree with the blonde. 

“Please, it’s not important Rob” Robin raised a brow before nodding, deciding to brush everything off, she also took the opportunity to sneak off into the backroom, using the phone to call the Wheeler household back, telling them to lay off ‘O.F.G.T.F’ for now. 

However, that would only last until the following Friday. 

Everytime Y/n and Eddie had crossed paths they kept their conversation to a minimum, she felt more comfortable just acting as if everything last Wednesday didn’t happen. Instead she went back to her usual facade, keeping everything short. Of course he tried to stop her in her tracks when she was picking up the boys from school, he easily spotted her Jaguar in the parking lot, so he jogged up to it, however she was quick to brush him off-and the entire time she avoided making eye contact with him.

Now it was Friday night, at 8:30, and the boys were all waiting for Y/n to get there, she was slightly late because Fridays were always busy nights. Eddie always stayed after their sessions ended to clean everything up, so when he walked out of the building to see the guys all waiting outside, sitting on the curb, he raised a brow.

“Usually your chauffeur is early, what happened today?” his voice caused the three freshmen to look back, Dustin shrugged while Lucas spoke up. 

“Family Video’s busiest days are Fridays and Saturdays-she’s probably stumped at work, so we just gotta wait” Eddie nodded his head “I’ll take you there if you guys want, vans kind of a mess but hey-it’s probably better than sitting on the cold ass concrete all night while your sister cusses people out at her job” The three boys looked at one another before nodding and getting up off the floor, they’d been in his van before, hell he’d driven them home a few times, however they all knew that if they didn’t show up at her job, or if no one called her the second they got home-which she probably would’ve missed due to being at work or on the road-that she’d freak out.

During the first half of the ride they all spoke about their DND campaign, and even about future campaign ideas, or campaign expansions alongside introducing new characters into the mix. Then Dustin simply word vomited-something he always did.

“Okay I can’t keep it in, Y/n won’t tell us-so please tell us what happened in fourth grade. O.F.G.T.F cannot be successful until we find out why she hates you-or pretends to hate you because based on what Robin told us-she definitely doesn’t hate you. We know people she hates, and she usually does more than just cuss and act all stiff and mean. Usually she resorts to violence-which is probably not a good thing cause like-violence. But I don’t think I know anyone who can fight like she can”

Everyone was silent after Dustin’s rant, Eddie looking at them through the crooked rear view mirror, letting out a deep sigh.

“We dated for like two weeks in the fourth grade, Y’know Sinclair she was my first kiss-even back then she was probably the prettiest girl in our class-not probably-definitely. But uh yeah, it isn’t my place to tell you what happened” Mike scoffed at that.

“Are you shitting me? That’s all we get? We’re trying to get you two together and all you can tell us is she was your first kiss and she was pretty-we all know Y/n’s pretty, she’s always been smokin’ hot-no offense Lucas-but there’s clearly something else there!” 

The three boys-and Robin-were all fed up trying to understand what happened in elementary school between the two of them. All of them knew that Y/n held a mean grudge, she always held grudges, to those who were close with Y/n-it was easy to tell when she didn’t like someone. There was a difference between the few grudges she held versus the people she outwardly hated-and as much as Y/n hated to admit it outloud-her fight or flight had a lot to do with it, and the fight usually took over.

“She has like this grudge against me okay-I tried to talk to her about it-I tried everything! I think I honestly only made it worse, I can’t tell you exactly where I fucked up, but I know a lot of it has to do with that” they all nodded, motioning for him to keep speaking, Dustin going as far as to clear his throat to get him to continue.

“I dunno, it was after our first kiss, it wasn’t like one of those gross first kisses you hear about either, it was really quick, like a peck I guess. Anyways-it happened in the old treehouse at you place Sinclair-I don’t even remember exactly what I said, but I knew it bothered her. Then I tried apologizing but I never did because she didn’t want to talk to me, so I kept on trying to apologize after that for like weeks and never could because she was ignoring me, or she’d tell her dad not to let me around the house. Then we got into this huge fight the first week of summer break, and admittedly I fucked up here-but I was also an immature kid-but I remember shoving her back and she cut up one of her legs on the concrete. I probably said other fucked up shit too, but I know that was back after my mom split-I was definitely the asshole”

He paused, parking the van in front of the Family Video in one of the few empty spots before he took a deep breath.

“She tried to be there for me a few weeks after that, showed up to my uncle's trailer and everything-she rode her bright pink princess bike there, and she brought a bag of gummy bears with her-I guess she figured I wasn’t the happiest after moving and wanted to be nice. I slammed the door in her face. After that she stopped talking to me overall, and as the years went by when I tried talking to her she just got bitchier and bitchier. Granted-it’s kinda hot-so when we were like fifteen I started doing shit to bother her-cause I knew I’d get a reaction. But that’s what happened in fourth grade-she can probably go more into detail”

Lucas furrowed his brows, he knew his older sister had a scar on the side of her left calf, over the years it’d gotten smaller as she’d gotten taller, however it was still there to this day, and anytime he asked about it growing up y/n would reply with “I fell, don’t worry it’s fine Lucas, besides scars make you look badass” 

He knew she added in the last part to reassure him that all of the scars he had from falling and scraping his arms and legs up were fine and that he shouldn’t care about how they look. The more Lucas thought about it, the more he realized that sure his sister was definitely a bitch, but she was also the reason that Lucas had some self esteem-and she was the reason Erica had the self esteem of a God. Y/n worked hard to make sure her younger siblings were comfortable in their own skin-just as she did with everyone that was close to her.

By the time they all left the van and made their way into the video store, they could see Y/n arguing with an older man, he looked to be in his forties, and he was arguing with her over what seemed to be overdue copies of films that stopped him from being able to rent anything else.

“Listen, if you return the damn movies, I’ll rent you the new ones. You have four that have late fees on them because they were due two weeks ago, you don’t return the movies, you don’t get shit from here. It’s a simple fucking rule”

The older man scoffed at her, causing her to crane her neck back slightly, brows raised, and a smirk forming on her face.

“That’s never been the case before, I don’t need some teenage brat trying to tell me what I can and can’t do. I turned in the films, it’s not my fault your shitty staff can’t keep track of anything. Where the hell is your manager anyways-clearly you don’t need a job working in customer service when you can’t talk to people”.

She slammed her hand on the countertop in front of her, and it clearly startled the older man.

“Wow, if only the fucking manager was actually here to deal with your shit, so sorry sweetheart but he’s not here because he never is, and for the record you old asshole, I’m twenty, so if you’re gonna call me a brat at least get my age bracket correct. Now, you didn’t return shit because it’s not in our system that you returned anything, if you don’t like how we run our store-aka the only movie rental store in all of Hawkins, Indiana, then you can drive to the next town over and lose their rentals. Also since you’re here you can pay those late fees, that’ll be eight ninety five. You’re holding up my God damn line, so either pay up or get the hell out.”

He looked taken aback, tossing the movies he wanted onto the counter before scoffing and storming out, Y/n rolled her eyes at him-she was tired, and she ran out of patience two hours ago. Fridays were the worst days of the week, that’s when everyone decided to come in, and they always came in after 6. 

Robin noticed the boys before Y/n did, so she let all of them behind the counter-including Eddie-who took the risk of standing next to Y/n as she continued checking peoples rentals out, while mumbling for them to have a great night. 

“So why do you work the register on Fridays?” she almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of Eddie’s voice-she hadn’t even noticed him next to her. She sighed, glancing at him before scanning the barcode to the store’s last copy of Rambo for a group of teenage boys.

“Because I’m the only one that’s actually mean. Steve tries to talk people down when they’re angry and he only makes things worse because he’s overly confident and it annoys people even more, and Robin cracks under pressure and starts rambling-once someone made her cry. So we came to the conclusion that I’d be the only one working the register on busy nights. Also thank you for bringing them here-I haven’t had a break so I couldn’t call” 

Y/n spoke without looking at him, instead focusing more on replacing the receipt paper in the cash register. However at the sound of the boys in front of her trying to rush her, she simply looked up and raised a brow “you either wait another two minutes, or you little shits can give me your IDs which clearly don’t say 18 considering you look like you haven’t hit puberty yet and I don’t let you rent the god damn movie. Now give me the damn money before I card both of you and call your mothers” the two boys stared at her with wide eyes, one extending a shaky hand holding cash.

“Thank you, now you have a wonderful night. Bring it back in a week or I’ll charge you all double on the late fees. Oh and don’t let me catch either of you going into the Adult section again. At least sharpie on a mustache or something first.” with that she slid them their receipt on top of the VHS tape and smiled while shewing them off.

“I dig the attitude, it’s hot” she rolled her eyes “y’know maybe the flirting wouldn’t be as bad if I wasn’t exhausted and pushed past my people limit for the day. I just wanna lay down and relax instead I have to deal with jackasses trying to rent shitty movies.” 

With that the next person in line stepped up, holding six tapes and placing them on the counter, she hadn’t even looked up before speaking “limit is four per customer, you have fifteen seconds to pick the four you want or ill kick you out of my line. We close at nine thirty, odds are if you get kicked out of line you’re not getting any movies tonight.” with that the person quickly discarded the top two movies, sliding them to the other end of the counter and allowing y/n to ring her up.

“You need help?” she shook her head at Eddie’s question “no, what I need is a five day vacation to some fancy ass spa where they give you massages and shit, I could also use a very very hot bath in combination with a bag of gummy bears.” he laughed at that.

“They’re still your favorite huh?” she furrowed her brows, now finally looking up at Eddie. “What?” “Gummy bears-they’re still your favorite, you used to love them when we were kids, you almost always had a bag on you” 

“You remember that?” he nodded his head, a small smile on her face as the two of them held eye contact, but the sound of another customer clearing their throat ruined the moment. Y/n rolled her eyes before looking at the customer, then eyeing the stacked movies, he didn’t look a day older than sixteen, so she grabbed the top movie-an easy to spot cover up-some random rom com-then she looked at the three films from the adult section.

“I’m gonna save you some embarrassment here and tell you to get the hell out of my line. You’re not a day older than sixteen, and if you try to lie to me and give me a shittily made fake ID from Ricardo Smith I will actually cut it up with scissors and make you pay me for my time” the kid was a blushing mess as he tossed the dvds into the large pile at the other end of the counter and speed walked out of the video store.

“Damn, that was ruthless, can’t let a kid live?” she shook her head at his comment “No Eddie I can’t cause when his mother sees him and his right hand going at it to Blondes Have More Fun Volume 69, then the stores gonna have to deal with her ass and by the store I mean me because once again Steve and Robin cannot handle confrontation.” She spoke as she checked another person out, she was at the point in the night that she was tired of reading off peoples totals, instead motioned to the register calculation and waited for their payment method. 

Eddie took a small risk, he stood behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders-gently massaging into them and when Y/n let her head lean back for a second as she took a deep breath, he took that as a silent thank you. He expected her to smack his hands away, and yet she was practically melting under his touch. He slid his hands under the green vest-getting a better grip of her shoulders through the thin material of her t-shirt, and in the moment Y/n’s brain had gone into autopilot.

She’d done this job enough to do it perfectly by muscle memory, it just took her a few more seconds than usual to count the cash given to her.

Robin was working behind the counter to get all the returned VHS tapes into one pile and all of the grabbed but not rented tapes into a bin for Steve to stock on the shelves, she easily recruited the help of Mike and Lucas, while Dustin helped Steve. Robin called them her free labor-which was honestly necessary on days like these. 

“Do you see those two? He’s giving her a freaking shoulder massage! And she’s letting him!” Robin spoke in harsh whispers to the boys next to her, the two of them glancing over to the front register, eyes widening, then they waved their hands in the air to get Dustin’s attention-who elbowed Steve and they all looked over at Eddie and Y/n. Everyone had a smile on their face outside of Steve who was shocked and had his usual confused expression, to which Dustin sighed and replied with “I’ll tell you later”. 

“Your hairs not usually up y’know” she sighed “I get hot sometimes, especially when people are constantly getting on my last nerve” he nodded his head-knowing she couldn’t actually see him, but she slightly flinched and let out a small hiss when he moved one of his hands-accidentally placing the cold metal of his rings against the back of her neck. “Shit sorry” 

“It’s okay-just kinda cold”

After they closed up the store Eddie hesitated to try asking her out again, he debated it, but he decided it wasn’t the right time. Instead he headed back home, a large smile on his face the entire drive home.

However that didn’t stop everyone else from questioning Y/n-who was working on cleaning off the countertops, a smile on her face as she did it, and for once she didn’t hate the feeling in her stomach, rather she welcomed it.

“What’s got you smiling like that-oh wait I think the question is who? Hmmm?” Robin smiled, lightly bumping her hip against Y/n’s while wiggling her brows, everyone now stood around the store, cleaning up and organizing, and it was quiet in the store as they’d turned off the sound system after the tapes kept getting stuck. 

“Oh shut it Rob” the blonde nodded her head “it seems like someone has a little bit of a crush to me” y/n tried to hide her smile, she felt like a walking cliche-the ghost of Eddie’s touch still lingering against her skin-or maybe that was just her exhaustion setting in-but she couldn’t even deny Robin’s accusation-because part of her knew it was true.

“So does fourth grade still matter hmm?” The sentence reminded Y/n of the entire reason she stopped talking to Eddie, and now her smile dropped as she rolled her eyes. “Yes it still matters.”

The eldest Sinclair moved to a different counter, now aggressively spraying it down in cleaner, her jaw clenched while she wiped the vinyl in circular motions. They all left her alone for about ten minutes, then of course they all had to bring it up-that and the fact that Dustin was spilling everything to Steve-who scoffed at Dustin’s retelling of what Eddie had told him.

“Yeah he forgot two of the most important parts of the story.” Dustin raised a brow “and how would you know that?” Steve tilted his head, one of his classic ‘are you serious’ expressions on his face “I was there-I’ve been friends with Y/n since we were kids Dustin.” 

Of course, Y/n overheard them, she was only a few feet away, and with little to no background noise it wasn’t difficult to hear one another talking at a normal volume.

“It was a bet. I was the butt of the joke. He’d admitted it to me after our shitastic first kiss, he said that he’d won the bet, and I was confused-but he already said it outloud on accident. So he went on a tangent about how he’d never actually liked me before his friends bet him like twenty bucks or some shit to ask me out-sure we were just kids but that shit hurt. Especially because I thought we were friends.” She paused for a second, letting out a deep breath to stop herself from tearing up.

“He started to word vomit-the way Robin does when she’s nervous-or the way Dustin does when he’s thinking. He told me all of his friends thought I was ugly, and that they wanted to see if he would actually go through with ‘dating me’-whatever the fuck that even equates to as a fourth grader. Then he admitted that kissing me got him another twenty bucks. Let’s also not forget the fact that I wanted to forgive him, hell I convinced myself to forgive him. I knew what happened with his Mom, she split and he moved to Forest Hills, so I rode my stupid little pink bike across fucking town to go see him and see if he was okay”

She looked up now, her eyes glossy as a singular tear slipped down her cheek, everyone saw it-no one said a single thing. “Y’know what he said. He said that the bet was over and he didn’t want to talk to my ugly ass anymore, then he went on to tell me to leave him the hell alone, called me a stalker, and felt the need to reiterate the fact that he thought I was ugly. So yeah, maybe I am childish for holding the grudge about fourth grade, but when your entire self esteem is tanked and it takes you until your sophomore year of highschool to actually love yourself because of some stupid boy in the fourth grade-you have the right to hold that grudge.” 

She wiped the tears off of her face “and y’know what? He never even apologized to me, instead he got more fucking annoying and more obnoxious and he always-always did his very best to get under my skin. He’d cut me off, or he’d say these stupid slick comments, and he would just piss me off to no end. Sure I’ve started my fair share of arguments, and yeah I am a bitch to him, and I will continue to be a bitch to him. But he’s never even apologized, and now knowing that he doesn’t even fucking remember it? I’m supposed to want to jump into his stupid arms and just embrace him and his stupid curly hair and his stupid cologne and his stupid big brown fucking eyes.” 

Everyone was silent and she nodded her head a few times, a sad smile on her face.

“That’s what happened in fourth grade. That’s the reason I hate Eddie Munson. Because he never even fucking apologized. We were friends y’know. We did our stupid third grade science fair volcano together-he was one of my best friends as a kid. Then he just wasn’t, because I wasn’t as pretty as the blonde haired blue eyed girls. Now please for the love of God let this stupid shit go. I don’t want anything to do with him.”

She went to the back storage room, taking off her vest, and grabbing her bag. She then left the room, still sniffling slightly. 

“Lucas, are you coming home tonight or staying the night at Mikes?” he glanced over at his sister before looking back at Dustin and Mike. “I’m gonna uh-stay at Mikes if that’s cool with you” she nodded her head “yeah that’s fine. Rob, do you need a ride home? Steve take the boys home” She shook her head, and with that Y/n left the store, getting into her car and playing the mixtape that Robin had made her as she drove home.

Meanwhile everyone still remained at Family Video, deciding to give y/n space after that heavy confession-but now they knew two things. One Eddie needed to apologize to her, and two they needed to tell Eddie where he fucked up. Well they knew three things technically-Y/n definitely has a thing for Eddie-and maybe she always had-but it’s something that she will forever ignore and suppress because of how he made her feel. 

So that’s what sparked Operation Apology Accepted-which also included Robin, Dustin, Mike, and Lucas showing up at Eddie’s trailer two days after to unpack everything that Y/n had shared with them, to the point that they’d all taken turns explaining parts of the story to him-and they all watched as Eddie’s eyes widened, all of the memories suddenly connecting and everything making sense. 

The entire time he was trying to apologize she didn’t want to hear it-and he now realized that she was right to not want to hear anything-especially after knowing the lasting impact it’d left on her. Of course Eddie knew all about his peers impacting his self esteem, he was never popular, and for a while he’d been the butt of the joke, but as he got older he embraced the “the freak” title which led to him building up his own confident facade, but underneath all of that he was still the stupid kid projecting his own pain onto his best friend.

These realizations led Eddie to spending the next week and a half trying to talk to Y/n, and every single time he tried to catch her-whether it be at her job, or at the town library, or when she’d pick up her siblings, or when she went to Erica’s middle school dance competitions-she would simply ignore him and move away from him.

He knew he had to apologize to her, he knew he had to let her know that he never meant any of it, that he’d practically been in love with her since they were kids, that he thought she was the prettiest girl in their grade as kids, and that the only reason he accepted the bet was because he knew he would finally be able to admit his feelings to her-but as a kid he was stupid-in fact he was so stupid that he word vomited that things started as a bet over a measly forty dollars at the worst possible time, and when y/n got mad-what did he do? He just said whatever would make her want to leave him alone-because he knew she wouldn’t want anything to do with him after that.

Then his mom split, and he went from being an idiot to a hurt, angry, idiot. So he started to project that onto the people in his life, and y/n just happened to be one of them. He even remembered shoving her-something he should’ve never done-something he regretted doing. 

Eddie Munson knew one thing, he was absolutely in love with Y/n Sinclair, and he always had been. But he needed to prove that to her, and he needed to start with an apology for his stupidity, he knew he couldn’t make up for the pain he caused her, but he knew the apology was a start.

Which is what led him to standing in her room awkwardly at six fifty-four on a Tuesday afternoon. Lucas told him that she got home from her classes and work at seven, so he let Eddie in, and now the man was pacing back and forth in a bedroom he hadn’t been in since he was nine. Granted it was a lot different, the once pink paint now replaced with white, but her walls were covered in posters, tickets, signs, and she had a large wall shelf near her closet which displayed her cheer trophies, starting from the sixth grade leading through the twelfth. She had her art work up on the walls, and all of her furniture was originally white, some objects covered in stickers, others were clearly worn-but the entire room fit her.

He placed the large stuffed cartoony octopus on her bed, alongside that he’d gotten her sunflowers, and that was solely there to lighten the blow of Eddie being in her room. Everything else was going to be said, and he sure as hell hoped she wouldn’t knee him in the groin and kick him out-but that was also something he tried to prepare himself for-knowing he’d just have to take the hit and walk it off. 

Another few minutes passed before the door opened, followed by Y/n letting out a small yelp at the sight of Eddie-then she furrowed her brows, looking at her bed. She shushed him with a singular finger as she walked towards her bed, picking up the small card next to the sunflowers.

‘All I need is ten minutes, please’ she knew his messy handwriting anywhere, he hadn’t ever grown out of it. So she picked up the sunflowers, opened her closet and pulled out one of the vases she’d made in her pottery elective and placed them inside before grabbing the water bottle from her bag and pouring the water inside, following it with the water from the nearly full bottle on her desk. 

He watched as she moved in silence, placing the vase on top of her dresser which sat adjacent to her window. Then she took off her shoes, followed by her socks and placed her shoes on the shoe rack in her closet and her socks in her dirty clothes hamper. Once she finished doing that she sat on her bed-holding the Octopus again while glancing at him.

“I know they’re your favorite-cause they uh-they have three hearts.” she nodded her head at him, her expression unreadable while she stared at him. It was something she’d gotten good at, yes she had a temper, and yes she wore her heart on her sleeve most of the time, however when it came to moments like these, she knew how to keep herself composed and almost looking numb to the world around her.

Internally Y/n was screaming, she wanted to start throwing things at Eddie the second she saw him, she wanted to trash the flowers, she wanted to burn the card and tell him to get the hell out, she wanted to do a lot of things, but after a week of crying herself to sleep in an almost heartbroken manner, she figured she’d listen to whatever the hell he had to say-especially if her younger brothers were in on it.

“Are you not gonna say anything-no-okay that’s totally fine-uh I just uh I came to apologize. Which I know is super late and super overdue and probably doesn’t mean shit to you anymore, especially because I kind of forgot why you hated me, then everyone kind of told me-why? I don’t even know because you hate me-and I deserve to be hated for what I did cause shit I was a dickhead-but I just I need you to know-that I-that I lo-no sorry that’s not it. Uh that I’m sorry.”

She furrowed her brows, blinking a few times, tilting her head in a confused manner.

“I’m not really good at this kind of thing y’know, I’m kind of a coward, I don’t really like confrontation-it's’ all an act-and I know that you know that it’s all an act because you see right through my shit which is why it’s always been so hard to get close to you because jesus you see through everyone's shit and yea I knew you weren’t as happy go lucky and positive as you wanted people to think you were, but you have these walls up and they're like a russian gulag’s walls-they’re like impenetrable and shit I’m the reason they’re even there in the first place because nine year old me was such a little prick” 

Y/n stiffled a laugh at that, nodding her head slightly, he was rambling, it was clear he was nervous, and somehow she found it comforting. She found him comforting-even if he was the cause for her heartbreak-and for her anger. He was also the cure.

“I’m just so sorry I said that shit about you, I’ve never in my life thought you were ugly-jesus christ I was so in love with you as a kid but I could never even tell you because I was a coward, and then they made that stupid bet to me and I was like ‘sweet heres a way to get the girl and also get some money’ cause y’know when you’re a kid you’re stupid and concerned with forty dollars-but I mean I deal pot so I guess i’m still concerned with forty dollars.”

He took a pause, running his hands through his messy curly hair, while also fanning himself “jesus is it hot in here or is that just me? Do you mind if i just-” with that he took off his denim vest and leather jacket, leaving him in his hellfire shirt. “-I was wrong to call you ugly and to say all that mean ass shit because I was freaking out and I was already hurting and I was so afraid to tell you in that moment that I really liked you and I thought you’d reject the hell out of me-even though it makes no sense thinking back on that-so I just said whatever I thought would make you hate me, and clearly it worked because we’re both twenty and you still hate me” he placed his hands on his hips for a second, avoiding making eye contact while he looked up at the roof.

“Then you showed up to my uncle’s trailer, and you had those gummy bears, and I knew it took you a while to get there, and I was just doing so fucking shitty, I was so hurt over my mom and I had like no real friends left because you were probably the best friend I had as a kid, and I felt so fucking miserable so I just projected it all onto you and I should’ve never done that because it was mean and it was stupid and I’m so-so-so sorry that I made you feel less than, or that I made you question your beauty because listen to me Y/n-you’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met, inside and out”

He now looked down, holding eye contact with her, and he couldn’t stop the words from coming out “and jesus christ I did everything to get a reaction out of you after that because it was the only way you’d actually talk to me, and i knew I annoyed the shit out of you, but then you’d respond and you’d say the bitchiest shit and I’d be there feeling like I wanted to go home and think about you, and your attitude, and the way you knit your brows together and how pretty you look when you’re about to cuss someone out, and i felt like i was gonna kick my feet back and forth and twirl my fucking hair or something”

“I’m so sorry for making you feel the way I did, I’m so sorry that I never apologized to you and that I gave up on trying, because jesus christ y/n I’m so in love with you that it fucking hurts. I’ve been in love with you since we were kids and I was such a little asshole”

Her eyes widened at that, jaw dropping at his confession as everything processed, she didn’t even realize she was standing and walking towards him until she was a few inches from him.

“Say it again Eddie” he blinked a few times, his breath hitched at her closeness to him “please Eddie I need you to say it again” he swallowed hard, eyes wide, and as she stared at him all she could see were emotions running wild in his eyes.  

“I’m in love with you” that’s all it took for Y/n to place her hands on the sides of his face and pull him in, their lips clashing together at first, then molding together like the perfect match, one of her hands moved to the back of his neck-holding him against her as his hands found their place on her jaw-thumb lightly caressing the skin of her face as his other hand sat against her waist.

She poured all of her emotions into the kiss, the anger, the annoyance, the hatred, and most importantly the love she’d always had for him. 

It was difficult for Y/n to navigate her feelings towards Eddie Munson, she’d gone most of her life equating the heartbreak she’d experienced to hatred, and as they got older she did her best to keep the anger from fourth grade, but eventually that anger and hatred turned into love. An emotion she could never really identify or process, she loved Eddie Munson. Not because he broke her heart as a child-no she loved Eddie Munson because even if he did break her heart, he was always around, he never truly left her alone, he was always somehow wedging himself into her life even when she tried to push him out. 

Over the past week any time she thought through her relationship with Eddie she realized two things. 

One- she valued his opinion of her above everyone else's, it was the same reason that throughout middle school she found herself looking in the mirror wondering what he would think of her hair, or her clothes, or her music taste. It was also the reason that in high school she dumped her ex boyfriend because of Eddie’s sly comments about the fact that she could do better-and he was right. She wanted to be the pretty popular girl that everyone wanted, most importantly she wanted to prove her 9 year old self, and his 9 year old self wrong-she was pretty, and she would use that to her advantage. so she settled for someone who would help that happen-and in the end she broke up with him because he was a self absorbed douchebag. 

Hell, it was the entire reason that she kept painting and sculpting, everyone told her that it was a waste of time, but Eddie always complimented her work, even when she wasn’t looking or around, he’d write little notes about the in progress pieces, and he’d tape them to the back of the canvases, or he’d tape them to the base of the sculptures. She knew it was him, she even told him to ‘fuck off with the fake compliments’ once, to which he responded with ‘alas the only thing fake is your hate for me’.

The second thing she realized was that he was one of the most constant factors in her life, it wasn’t because Eddie was from the same shitty town she was, or because he was her self proclaimed arch nemesis, or even because they ended up being polar opposites in high school. No, he was a constant factor in her life because behind all of those sly comments and petty arguments he was always there when she needed someone around. 

He always knew when to show up, it was odd, but whenever she needed someone around-there he was, making a sly comment about her friend group as she sat alone in the library, or he’d lean against the locker next to hers, complimenting her ‘cute little cheerleader outfit’, to follow it up with ‘didn’t know you were into halloween that much’. He was never truly malicious, and yet she was, but he still stuck around because deep down the both of them knew that they’d always find their way back to one another.

As enemies or as lovers, they were fine with either, but now, now Y/n Sinclair knew she was in love with Eddie Munson, and she was tired of denying that.

-

Taglist: @dmonchld​ @anxietyandtacos​ @1nfinitely-yours​ 

If you’d like to be tagged in any of my future stranger things fics or Eddie Munson fics please send me an ask :), I’m in the process of making a new ST masterlsit and taglist doc so yea

#Eddie munson x reader #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson x sinclair!reader #eddie munson stranger things #stranger things x reader #stranger things fanfic #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson x you #stranger things x you

[magicalmanhattanproject]

[Recorder clicks on. Through the entire recording, there is a persistent repetitive click and hiss from an oxygen tank] WOMAN: And you promise this will be completely confidential?

[A smooth, masculine laugh] MAN: Rest assured, Miss–?

WOMAN: Hmm. Let's go with Cleo.

MAN: Rest assured, Miss Cleo, that we here at Convex Consulting will stop at nothing to keep your words secret.

CLEO: Right. Stop at nothing and take no further steps, I presume?

[An awkward silence.]

MAN: That usually works… Cub, why didn't that work?

CUB: I don't know, Scar. I don't know.

CLEO: It's because I'm not an idiot.

SCAR, plaintive, almost whining: But I'm doing my magic on you!

CLEO, scornful: Have you really never met another avatar before?

SCAR: What's an atvavar?

[A sigh, muffled, as though into one's hands] CLEO: How about this? This statement stays out of the Institute's hands for at least the next six months. You can charge them as much as you like for it then, but if I find out they got it early, I hunt you both down and take your heads. Sound fair?

CUB: I dunno. The Institute pays best for the freshest stories, so–

CLEO: You take my deal or I take your heads. Which will it be, boys?

CUB: Well, I do like my head… I say we take the deal. Scar?

SCAR, softly: But my magic…

CUB: Yeah, he's fine with it. Okay, so the Institute gets all fussy if we don't format these correctly so–

CLEO: Seriously?

CUB: I mean, we are stealing their own prey and selling it back to them.

CLEO: Guess, I'd be fussy too, when you put it like that. So, how do we do this?

SCAR, halfheartedly: Really put your soul into it. Act it out. Relive all that tasty, tasty trauma. Try to make it sound all story like. Maybe use your artavar powers to make it more dramatic or something.

CUB: I got a couple of templates you can look through for the intro.

[Papers rustling] CLEO: Okay, I got one.

CUB: So, now we– Huh. The tape's already on. That's handy. Okay. May 2nd, 2020. Statement of Alias: Cleo regarding…

CLEO: A series of encounters with a substitute teacher called Joe Hills.

CUB: Statement begins.

CLEO: So, like I mentioned, I used to work as an English teacher. Only just quit a couple months ago, actually. The whole creating unholy abominations thing is a great hobby, but it didn’t exactly pay the rent up until recently. I didn’t actually mind it all that much, honestly. The kids were great. It was the adults that were the problem. The parents, the administration, the other teachers. They were the ones who made it hard. Now, I believe in the value of strong work-life separation. If I take the head off an annoying parent and their kid can’t focus on the assigned readings because they’re having flashbacks to finding their parent’s lifeless corpse, then that’s a poor teaching job, that is. So, when Ms Anna Hawthorne – one of the really lovely teachers with a very delicate and shapely skull – checked herself into a mental ward, I can assure you two, I had nothing to do with it. I don’t get paid enough to cover her classes, for one thing. 

The guy they called in to replace her was called Joe Hills. She was the art teacher, so of course the school board wasn’t going to hire an actual, proper replacement. Just someone to fill her seat until the end of the year. Now, we had staff meetings every Wednesday. I’d stored up enough sick leave that I normally just took every Wednesday off since I knew it was my last year, but I decided to show up for the meeting when Joe Hills first arrived. I can’t say for sure if I regret that. If nothing else, it makes a good story to tell. And to sell. 

I got there as late as I could and sat in the back so I could slip out at the earliest opportunity. I had been a teacher at that school for seventeen years and never once had the staff meetings not been a waste of time. Everything important was sent out in an email anyway. I spotted the new guy right away. He was impossible to miss with his neon green hair and bright blue tank top. He was stood in the corner of the library where we always had our meetings. He had had these bright green cat eye frame glasses that would have put the zaniest of librarians to shame and his hair and beard were only just barely short enough to be considered presentable. 

When you’ve been in... our business for as long as I have, there’s a certain kind of normal that sets your teeth on edge. A certain kind of quiet that’s too quiet where you know you’re just waiting for all hell to break loose. That’s the kind of normal I specialize in. The kind that’s so very, very perfectly normal that it makes you desperate to peek behind the curtain even though you know there will be something horrible there just so you don’t have to keep pretending nothing’s wrong. 

Joe Hills wasn’t like that at all. Too weird for it, for one thing. He was just a freelance tech guy who’d happened to be free to sit in a classroom with a bunch of brats and make sure they didn’t get the school sued for more than it could afford. He didn’t slot right in like he’d always been there; he was a bit awkward until you got to know him. He didn’t have some picture perfect home life that made you feel like shit about yours by comparison; he had some trouble getting by. There was nothing about him that seemed strange or off except for perfectly mundane quirks of human nature. We chatted over coffee once or twice. Nothing romantic, just friendly things. He’s a decent conversationalist. No distortions in any reflections, no parts of him that didn’t fit right when you looked up close. Just seemed like... a perfectly ordinary person.

Phil Garamond was next. Math teacher. Twenty-seven years old. Healthy, no major vices. Dropped dead of a heart attack on the walk to work. Doctors said it was a genetic condition, but it wasn’t. 

CUB: And you know this because....?

CLEO: I like to get to know my coworkers. Anyway, turned out Joe Hills just so happened to know enough about math and education that he could cover Mr Garamond’s classes until they could get a proper replacement in. He was always running around like a chicken with its head cut off with the pressure of all those responsibilities, but he managed to make it work. He wasn’t very good at saying no when people asked him for favors. 

Well, by this point, I’m starting to get suspicious, naturally. Two is still a coincidence, but I’m not about to sit around for it to become a pattern. More teachers gone missing is more traumatized students and more traumatized students is worse grades and worse grades is me looking like a worse teacher because some two bit spook thought he could just prey on what doesn’t belong to him. Most anything established knows well enough to give me and mine a wide berth, but there could always be some up and coming critter who needs showing how things work around here. 

So, we had coffee again. At Ren’s place. Ren....bob? I believe? The one with the coffee shop, obviously. Anyway. I asked him right out. “What are you?” 

“Joe Hills,” he said to me, “Just as I always am, from Nashville Tennessee.” 

And again I said to him. “No. What are you?”

And he smiled. And it wasn’t too wide and there weren’t too many teeth and it didn’t send a shiver down my spine and it wasn’t quite symmetrical so it wasn’t eerily perfect either. And he said to me. “Joe Hills, just as I always am, from Nashville, Tennessee. And I reckon you’re curious–”

“I’m not,” I said, and that seemed to surprise him. “Anna and Phil were curious people and it didn’t work out too well for them. I just need to know you won’t be trying anything with anyone else at my school.” 

He blushed when I said that. Actually blushed. “Oh, I am so sorry! I had no idea that was your territory! I’ll get out of your hair as soon as I can, but I do need to find somewhere else to feed.” 

“You wouldn’t happen to have any archiving qualifications would you?” I asked him.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” he told me. And now I think you two might see where I’m going with this.

SCAR: Ah yes, Indeed we do. [In a loud whisper] Cub, where is she going with this?

CUB: You know, we’re trying to avoid feeding the Eye as much as possible, not give it a tasty mystery to chew on.

CLEO [dry, sarcastic]: Which is why this statement will go deep into your vaults and never be heard by anyone else.

CUB: Point taken, point taken. But still. Tasty mystery to chew on. 

CLEO: Oh, there’s nothing mysterious about Joe at all. That’s the bit that’s gonna be really nasty to the Eye. He’s Joe Hills, just as he always is, from Nashville, Tennessee. And absolutely nothing else. That’s all there is to it. It’s just when you try to examine it more closely that–

[Static loud enough to drown out every other sound, playing for nearly a minute. Then, complete silence.]

CUB [dazed]: Hoo boy. That was nasty.

CLEO [delighted]: Yeah! How long do you think they’ll be able to resist poking him? I give them a week at most. You guys can give him an in, right?

CUB: Nah, the Institute knows better than to trust us, even if they don’t Know it. We can get him a legit looking reference from Doc or somebody though. And we’ll definitely not be selling them this statement anytime soon. Pleasure doin’ business with you Cleo.

CLEO: Oh, I assure you, the pleasure is all mine.

SCAR: We should get together and play retro video games sometimes. I’m more of a Sega man myself, but– what are you looking at me like that for? Didn’t you say you had an Atari?

[Another muffled sigh. Recorder clicks off.]

#tma #the magnus archives #hermitcraft #the hermit archives #joe hills #cubfan135 #goodtimeswithscar #zombiecleo #my writing #fanfic #hermitcraft fanfic #statement fic #tmau

[crookedkingdomruinedme]

Kimchay in Hogwarts <3

Yes, I'm still stuck on my fic but here's a Kimchay Hogwarts AU.

Like I said in my last post, Kim's a Slytherin in a house full of Gryffindors (straight parallel to Sirius, who was a Gryffindor in a house of Slytherins) and Porchay is a Hufflepuff, just like his brother.

To make all characters fit in, let's just pretend that Kim's only a year older than Chay but they're in the same year as Kim rolled in late. So, both of them are in their 5th year. Chay's 15 while Kim just turned 16.

Kim's the lone wolf of 5th year. (Inspired by Regulus Black my beloved) and doesn't really interact much with anyone. Dubbed the Ice Prince due to his stunning looks but his cold face, he mostly stays to himself with his nose stuck in a book and does his things without bothering anyone. He's, obviously, a star here as well for his music, but it's always uploaded anonymously, and so far no one knows who actually Wik is. So yeah, he's more than a bit touch starved and very bad at actual student social interaction. He doesn't even talk to his brother/s at school at all due to the constant rivalry between Gryffindors and Slytherins (never mind the fact that he thinks Kinn doesn't even want to talk to him after his sorting). Vegas, for the most part, leaves him alone unless there are some "joint jobs" to do with Kim. Macau, being the annoying cousin he is, always seems to stick to Kim and disrupt his peace. But that's all anyone sees on the surface.

Porchay's the sunshine of 5th-year students. A chill guy who's fun to hang out with and never judging. Everyone knows him or has at least heard of him (just like everyone knows Kim but for exactly different reasons). He's famous for his kind personality and acceptance of all things weird(TM). He's comfortable with his sexuality and is a great help to students who just want to explore or talk about their gender/sexuality issues to someone other than an adult. An absolute Wik fan and always daydreaming about who the person could actually be. So yeah, he's comfortable in his lanky form, has a cool brother who's also a pain in his arse, helps around at the herbology garden whenever he can, and is a good tutor, even if he is not that extraordinary at studies. The other students are kind of freaked out by the two brothers. It's like they have twin telepathy with the way they understand each other by just looks.

Anygays, That's their background in the school.

Kim's a straight-A student, obviously. He's an extraordinarily strong wizard, being able to do a variety of spells that someone of his age shouldn't be able to. This just adds to the rumors that already surround him though, about how he's secretly a dark magic practice and stuff. He's on top of the class by a mile to the other students, untouchable even in his studies. The one class he thrives the most is Defense Against Dark Arts, it's as if he was born to do it. Ironic considering his overall image at school.

But of course, every smart student faces a challenge in at least one class, and for him it's Herbology. Even though animals absolutely adore him, it's as if these plants can't even look in his direction. It's frustrating him to no end. He's mad at himself too, how can a few plants hate him with such an intensity that they won't even come near his hands???

It's bad for his OWLs too, which he's already stressed enough about it as it is, he doesn't need saplings adding to it. He needs to pass this class damn it!

The worst part is that no one's willing to help him. He doesn't really have anyone to ask for help. He's 100% sure Kinn would walk the other way if he even comes close to him (he already averts his eyes whenever they see each other anyway). Macau's just as shit as him in caring for anything, no matter alive or not. Vegas doesn't even take these classes, and even if he did, Kim wouldn't go near him with a ten-foot pole. It's not really as if he has any friends, with students always walking the other way if he so much as comes close to them. And he gets it, okay? He absolutely does. He wouldn't go near himself if he could, either. But this also means he's stuck without any help and he's scared of falling behind in his classes and what Papa would do if he failed one.

Enter Porchay, An absolute god at Herbology but horrendously lacking in his Defence against Dark Arts skills. He also wants to pass OWLs with flying colors, if only to help his brother and make him proud. After all, Porsche passed with one of the highest scores of his age, and who is Porchay if not competitive?

It starts one evening when Porchay's helping Professor Sprout with arranging the new batch of seeds needed for the second semester when he sees Kim, sitting in one of the greenhouses and looking at a book with such fury Porchay was scared that it might just catch fire.

Of course, Porchay recognized him. Kimhan Theerapanyakul is a mystery to everyone in Hogwarts. A kid that didn't speak much but always seemed to look superior to anyone. Porchay has seen him around the school, and even shares a few classes with him, but has never talked to him. He's beautiful, Porchay thinks, vastly different from his two older Gryffindor brothers.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he asks Professor Sprout what Kim's doing here, to which she sighs and tells him how that kid just won't give up on this class even though he's on the verge of failing.

And hey, Porchay can respect a stubborn person with enough fire to keep going. It's when the professor goes on to say how he's got more than enough points from his DADA classes that a light bulb goes off in his head.

Porchay's always been a bit reckless, a trait shared between both the Kittiswat brothers. He knows and has heard about the different rumors surrounding the other boy, ranging from curious to borderline disturbing, but will he listen to them? No. He likes to make observations on people by himself, something that will eventually be his downfall, but for now, it's that curiousness that pushes him forward to stand behind the green-clad boy and tap his shoulders.

He interestingly notes how Kim didn't even flinch at the sudden contact but simply looks at him with an eyebrow raised.

For now, Porchay extends his right hand out for a handshake, smiles brightly, and says, "Hello, I'm Porchay, and I'd love for you to be my DADA tutor"

#kimchay #kinnporsche #kim #kim kimhan theerapanyakul #kim kimhan #porchay #porchay pichaya kittisawat #kinnporsche funny #kinnporsche incorrect quotes #yes I'm back with my kimchay dump #your honour they're gay #and in love #slytherin!Kim and Hufflepuff!Chay my beloved #we all wanted confident Chay and I'm here to serve them #kim my pathetic meow meow #haha no im not projecting #why would you even think that #(yes I'm absolutely projecting onto kim) #chay being loved as he should be #and chay getting ready to love kim like he should #kim won't know what hit him #he's just a startled kitten #still in my bbg kim agenda

[tearsinthemist]

Want to learn something new

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

Jan 2, 2023

Want to learn something new in 2023??

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

Dec 26, 2023

Want to learn something new in 2024??

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Full beginner mechanics technical training, if you want to go more in depth

Playlist on how car engine physics work if you want to go ultra in depth

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

Yucatec Maya

[booksandchainmail]

My Hugo Award thoughts:

Best Novel: Nettle and Bone

this makes sense to me! It was my second choice (and my first choice, Nona the Ninth, is a controversial entry in controverial series) (controversial in that people tend to either love or hate them). I think I've made it clear that I think this year's Novel nominees were weak: while this was at the top of the nominees it is nowhere near the best sff novel of last year.

Best Novella: Where the Drowned Girls Go

this one confuses me. I very much like Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series, but I don't think this was one of the best of that series, and it is heavily context dependent. It's a good novella! But the novella category was so strong this year that I don't know why it won. This was actually my lowest ranked novella. My first choice was Ogres, with Into the Riverlands as a close second.

Best Novelette: The Space-Time Painter

Confession time: I did not read this or include it in my rankings. There was no English translation provided, and I was running low on time and energy and didn't machine-translate it myself. Sorry. That said, I've heard good things about it elsewhere, and it is of course nice to have a work from the host country/language win. My vote was for Murder by Pixel, and in general I thought this was a good category.

Best Short Story: Rabbit Test

yeah this was always going to win. Excellent short story, well written and topical, it was my top vote. I'm interested to see how the voting metrics break down: this category was a mix of chinese and english entries, and I'm curious as to how that impacted results.

Best Series: Children of Time

YES! YESSSSS! This category was incredible this year, six well-deserving nominees, very hard for me to choose between them. But this was my top vote (a hard decision), and I'm delighted it won. Three hefty volumes of the best kind of drawn out philosophical science fiction, deeply moving, with incredible worldbuilding and alien minds. This was absolutely the highlight of works I read because they were nominated.

Best Related Work: Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes

No surprise here, Terry Pratchett is beloved and this book was well written. This was in my top three, which I had a very hard time choosing between and all I would have been happy to see win. My own top vote ended up going to Chinese Science Fiction, an Oral History, which was also the only work I couldn't read, aside from the translated introduction and table of contents. I voted for it on the grounds that what was translated made an excellent case for it being an important work, not just a good one, digging into the history of science fiction in China in a way that had never been done before, and I felt that nonfiction about a specific person or movie, no matter how well-written or informative, couldn't compete with that scope.

Professional Artist: Enzhe Zhao and Fan Artist: Richard Man

this is fine! Neither was my top pick, but both were near the top, and I will freely admit I know little about art.

Lodestar (Not a Hugo): Akata Woman

Not my top pick, but a perfectly good winner. I suspect my ranking of it suffered from a) being in a reading slump that made me have to push to get through it and b) this being the conclusion of a trilogy I last read six years ago, and remember very little of. There were a lot of moments of resolving emotional conflicts that I had no context for, which left the book a little flat. My top vote was for The Golden Enclaves, which I think was by far the best nominee, but also dubiously qualified (while the books, especially the earlier ones, certainly feel like YA, and center around teenagers in a magical high school, they are published as adult fantasy). My runner up was Into the Serpent's Wake, the sequel to Tess of the Road, a book I am still bitter did not win in the first year of the Lodestars.

Astounding (Not a Hugo): Travis Baldree

... ok. I do not get the hype for Legends & Lattes, and by extension Travis Baldree. The book was delightful! But it was also fluff, not something that provoked any strong thought or emotion, not any great work of prose, not innovative or creative in any new way that would mark a rising new author. This was my lowest ranked nominee (leaving out Weimu Xin, whose work did not have an english translation). This would be less disappointing, given I found most of the nominees so-so, were it not for Isabel J. Kim, whose short stories were miles above any of the other nominees.

Other Awards:

I didn't vote in the other categories, or read/watch/listen to their nominees. Nothing in their results jumps out at me, though I'm happy EEAAO won.

#fair warning this is pretty negative towards some winners in places #hugo awards #hugoes #hugos

[dahairoman]

Allow me a bit of a selfish rant, but I'm kinda flabbergasted how I have been "The card game guy" for all of my life, yet have only got card-related presents 4 times in all of my adult life.

2 times I got card-sleeves from my sister, cuz of course she would, she was my dealer and enabler of this card board vice when I was a kid, god bless her.

1 time from a friend, in a very sloppy "oh yeah, you love this card I have no use for, merry Christmas!" Kinda way, but he was totally right I love that card; I was at the game store, at the pre-release, just hoping to pull that card so he made my week that day.

And last from a high school friend last year, a Red-Eyes Retro Dragon. I haven't played Yu-Gi-Oh in over 10 years, I didn't really play Red-Eyes when I did (I tried, during DM era, with close to 0 support. It was hilarious) and I'm very vocal about the negative aspects of the game. Yet he saw a card that reminded him of me and gave it to me because of that. I almost cried, I absolutely loved it, that's really all it took, I'm pretty sure the actual card is on the cents rn, but it was just the gesture of "Cards remind me of you".

And it doesn't even have to be a TCG card. I would love a new Poker Deck (used mine in questionable art projects after 'The Dark Knigh' hit theaters) a Conquian deck to sit down with dad and gramps to play, fuck I would kiss full on the mouth the first person to gift me a Tarot deck, I'm dying to get one...

Also Lorcana cards. Lorcana cards are gorgeous, and the game is young enough that you can pick up any sealed product and it would be perfect...

Anyway, as I said, selfish rant, no one has to actually gift me anything, their presence and support in my life is so much I would forever feel grateful for it without the need for anything else.

It's just that with my birthday coming close, everyone is asking what do I want for presents and I'm getting into that dilemma of "I don't want to say anything to not seem selfish, and much less I want to say cards, because I don't wanna put you on the spot, I know it's a niche hobby; but you guys have known me for years, come on!"

#card games #personal rant #yu gi oh #magic the gathering #I might make another post about that attempt at playing Red-Eyes during DM #seriously you had to get so creative back in the day

[is-she-suffering]

13/05/2000 - KERRANG! CONFIDENTIAL

KERRANG! CONFIDENTIAL

This week, get up close and personal with Queen Adreena’s frontwoman Katie Jane Garside.

What is your nickname and why? “No! I’m not prepared to divulge any of them, they’re too incriminating. I can’t do it. Nicknames refer to things about me that I’d rather forget.”

At school, were you a dunce or a teachers pet? “I was very removed. I daydreamed too much. I had a really mixed education; my parents taught me for four years and I went to a really hardcore comprehensive in Poole in Dorset. I did have an art teacher who was amazing. She made it alright to be me.”

What was your first shag like? “Coral gardens, and crystal blue waters. Glue sniffing and babysitting. I’ll say nothing more. I was high in the most gritty way.”

Who is your best friend? “All of my little friends are down in the basement and in the attic. It’s too trite to explain. I have to be abstract.”

What’s the best pet you’ve ever had? “I had a cat we found when we were living on a boat in the Canary Islands. We named him Los Cristianos, after the place he was found in Tenerife. He fell overboard and drowned in the Pacific.”

Have you ever been arrested? “I’ve been strip-searched but not arrested. Flying back from a holiday in Tenerife. I’d gone back as an adult and I couldn’t bear it. I took an early flight home and that alerted suspicions back in England. I was examined. You know the people who do that kind of thing love it. You can see it in their eyes.”

How would you describe yourself on a blind date? “I’d avoid the form and hand over my record. Actually, no, that might attract people even more psychotic than I am. Perhaps it would throw up someone who was at least prepared to stay the course.”

What’s the most extravagant thing you’ve ever bought? “A lifetime of information and misinformation”

Who’s gagging for a shagging? “The primordial mother in the basement. She can never be filled. She’s very frightening. Very emasculating.

Who’s gagging for a smacking? "Nobody. I’m too busy saving my own life.”

What’s the worst job you’ve had? “I learned a lot when I was cleaning lavatories. I got a terrible eye infection and I got paid six pounds a week.

When did you last call home? "I do it as a daily ritual unto myself. My dear family are always on tap.”

What was your most embarrassing moment? “I dance naked with animals, but that’s not embarrassing. The worse moment was when I was at boarding school. It was a terrible regime, like being in the army. I forgot my hymn book and that was the biggest crime against God. As I snaked in, a teacher - one of the only men in the school - shouted at me from behind and I collapsed on the floor and pissed myself. I was so scared. He was very sadistic.”

Who would you least like to see naked? “My alternative job would be to work in a fetish house, and that teacher would come in for a good beating. I’d hand it out with expertise. Theres that whole repulsion/attraction thing going on there. I’d get a kick out of it.

What’s the best rumour you’ve ever heard about yourself? "After I left Daisy Chainsaw (Katie’s previous outfit) Robert Plant asked Crispin what had happened to me because he’d heard I was into golden showers - pissing on people. I don’t know how that got to Robert Plant.”

What’s in your wallet right now? “I have a bag. Theres a copy of Kerrang! to check our review. I have a small bottle of Johnson’s baby powder - it’s my staple diet. There’s a writing book with loads of new songs in. I don’t remember writing this. I was drunk and every word is genius.”

What’s your favourite joke? “I hear them all laughing at me upstairs but I never know what their joke is.”

If you were marooned on a desert island without food, which member of Queen Adreena would you eat first? “My, that implies so much. Billy would be the obvious choice to keep alive, he’s kind of an Adonis. If I needed someone to talk to for a long time I’d keep Crispin alive. We’d have to eat Orson. He’s the best prime cut. He’s exotic and rich.”

Which Queen Adreena song would you donate to a compilation album entitled ‘Crap Songs of Our Time’? “We’re finding our way with our new album, but I’m not going to dismember it. I couldn’t have given more to that album. I could say that every single one of them is crap, but the bit of me that looks after myself isn’t going to let me say it.”

What’s your drug of choice? “Eroticism and sex.”

What does God look like? “A friend of mine’s little boy said to her, 'Mummy, God must be space because theres no beginning and no end’. She’s cultivating a potent child there.”

When you die, how do you want to go? “I want absolution, to dissolve. I want to become sky and ocean. That’s how I want to go. I know it can really be that simple.”

#queen adreena #2000 #interview

[rickie-the-storyteller]

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday! Tell me bow would you say that the world where your story takes place has "shaped" your characters and their lives into who they are? In which ways would you say it was positive and in whcih ways negative? What are the most unique aspects of your world that you're the proudest about?

(By the way this is part of an ask game event by @writeblrcafe, you can check out the post I've reblogged from them for the rules)

Thank you for the ask! Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday (or Thursday) to you too.

I wasn't entirely sure how to answer this... I didn't do a lot of "worldbuilding" for my main WIP, per se. It's not like I created this fictional universe, or set it in a historic era or something, and imagined how life would be like in those times. It's literally set in London lol (I was born there!). In the year 2010 (no specific reason for that, actually. Those were just simpler times).

For most of the stories I write, the setting tends to take a bit of a backseat in favour of expanding the characters and making them feel like real people. We view the story through the characters' lens after all.

That being said, I still wanted to answer. So, I thought about it for a while and realised that the setting and the world in which my characters live shape them quite a lot. They are all students in their final year of high school (or sixth form), so they aren't exactly kids anymore, but they're not fully adults, either. This is a really interesting age to play around with (and I'm about that age myself, as well, so I can identify with the struggles these characters face in some ways.

Let's look at this one character at a time:

Stephanie

Stephanie moved to this school in Year 12. That is the beginning of sixth form (so, last year, since Year 13 is their final year).

Steph has been living in London for the least amount of time. She's a foster kid, so she is used to moving around and not having a lot of stability in her life. As a result, she's lived in many different places throughout her childhood, all over the country. She's been in big bustling cities and quiet rural areas. She has an idea of what living in a place like London is like, so this move doesn't phase her too much.

She's a free spirit, just making the most of right now (not having a ton of stability led to this mindset for her. She's like, "I have to enjoy myself now. Who knows if things will ever be this good again?"). She adjusts to London life pretty easily - though, of course, moving to a new place doesn't come without its challenges.

London life offers Steph a chance to form new relationships and deepen her connections. She makes her first real friend group here, and for the first time in her life, she finds someone that she can call "best friend." Another thing I think Stephanie enjoys about living in London is that its dynamic and energetic atmosphere could resonate with her strong personality. The city's vibrant arts and culture scene, along with its rebellious and diverse subcultures, may align with her feisty nature and spunky energy. There is always something to do here, and I think Stephanie would like that a lot.

Growing up in the foster care system and constantly moving around may have made Stephanie feel like she doesn't belong anywhere. However, living in London, a multicultural city with a diverse population could offer her a greater sense of belonging. The city's multiculturalism and acceptance of diverse backgrounds could help her embrace her mixed-race identity. Her experiences in the foster care system and her tendency to be self-reliant may be further reinforced in London. The city's fast-paced lifestyle and the need to adapt to new environments can enhance her resilience, resourcefulness, and ability to navigate through different challenges.

Bret

Unlike Steph, Bret has lived in this city for his whole life, pretty much. I think that living here has impacted him in both positive and negative ways.

Firstly, he loves to have a good time and party with friends, and in London, there are plenty of opportunities to do this. The city has a vibrant nightlife and a thriving party scene. However, the social scene might exacerbate his already existing tendencies towards excessive alcohol and drug use, making it easier for him to continue down a self-destructive path. Living in the city could provide Bret with easy access to these substances.

London is a bustling city where individuals can often blend into the crowds and remain anonymous. This sense of anonymity might provide Bret with a temporary escape from his troubles, allowing him to avoid confronting his grief and depression. It could also contribute to his feelings of detachment and a lack of accountability for his actions. The vastness and anonymity of a big city like London can make it easier for Bret to engage in risky behaviour without immediate consequences. This might further fuel his disregard for rules and authority figures.

Bret is really creative and artistic. He especially loves to make music. London's diverse and vibrant culture could expose Bret to various subcultures, alternative lifestyles, and artistic scenes. This city has plenty of inspiration and opportunities to boost his art further. London's size and diversity mean there are numerous social circles and communities for Bret to explore. This could lead him to associate with like-minded individuals and get his work more attention and opportunities.

He struggles a lot with grief and depression. London offers a range of support networks and resources for individuals struggling with mental health issues. He kind of tries to take care of his problems by himself at first, but if he could look for help elsewhere, it could really make a difference.

Elise

Elise, like Bret, has always lived in London. She loves living here for a couple of reasons...

London is known for its vibrant literary scene, with numerous bookstores, libraries, and literary events. Elise's love for reading would have definitely been nurtured here, by the city's rich literary culture. She would have had the opportunity to explore a wide range of books, engage with authors etc, which could have further fueled her passion for reading.

London's multicultural environment would have exposed Elise to various cultures, perspectives, and ideas. This exposure might have broadened her horizons, allowing her to appreciate different viewpoints and develop a more open-minded outlook. It could have influenced her appreciation for diversity and acceptance of people with different backgrounds and values, despite her own introverted nature. This could have also contributed to the unlikely friendships and relationships that she has formed in her life, e.g. her relationship with Stephanie, and her long-time friendship with Bret (which ends up turning into something more 💕). Living in London would definitely fuel her intellectual curiosity and open her mind to new things/people/opportunities.

El is a huge nerd lol. Luckily for her, London is home to many prestigious educational institutions, and Elise's dedication to her studies would have been supported by the city's emphasis on education. The competitive academic environment might have motivated her to excel in her classes and maintain top grades. Additionally, being surrounded by a city filled with museums, historical landmarks, and cultural institutions could have enriched her learning experiences.

Living in a bustling city like London requires individuals to be independent and adaptable. Elise's ability to always have a plan, her organizational skills, and her resourcefulness might have been influenced by the fast-paced and dynamic environment of the city. London's diverse public transportation system would have also contributed to her self-reliance and navigation skills.

Dylan

Dylan has also been living in London for a while. He has been going to this school since Year 8.

He loves sports a lot. London has a strong sports culture, offering numerous opportunities for Dylan to engage in various athletic activities. The city's sports facilities, clubs, and competitions would likely contribute to his passion for sports and his involvement in physical activities.

London's competitive and fast-paced nature might contribute to Dylan's tendency to bottle up his emotions and express frustration in unhealthy ways, e.g. struggling to open up about his problems and seek help, or taking his pain and frustration out on others.

London's fast-paced lifestyle and the challenges of a multicultural city may impact Dylan's family dynamics. The high cost of living and the strains of a divorce might contribute to his family's struggles and potentially influence his own coping mechanisms and emotional challenges.

London's vibrant and multicultural atmosphere would expose your character to a diverse range of people, cultures, and perspectives. This exposure can enhance his openness and broaden his understanding of the world. London offers a lively social scene with numerous entertainment options and events. This environment would provide ample opportunities for your character to indulge in his fun-loving and enthusiastic nature, constantly seeking new adventures and exciting experiences.

Alice

Alice moved to London from the United States when she was 15. She has been going to this school since GCSEs (so Year 10 - Year 11).

Moving from the United States to London would expose Alice to a new cultural environment. London's diverse population and multicultural atmosphere could contribute to her sense of humour, incorporating elements of British wit and sarcasm into her personality (British humour is very distinct lol. Alice's sarcastic and sassy sense of humour may align well with the city's wit and banter). Living in London could further nurture her comedic skills and provide her with opportunities to engage in humorous exchanges with friends and peers. It would require Alice to adjust to a new culture, lifestyle, and educational system. London's environment would expose her to diverse perspectives and help her develop a broader worldview.

London's competitive educational environment may initially add pressure on Alice, particularly if she compares herself to her talented and academically successful sister. However, witnessing her parents' support and realising that they value her happiness and personal growth above perfection could alleviate some of that pressure. Alice's dedication to self-improvement and her willingness to work hard could help her navigate the academic challenges she faces.

Alice often feels invisible, or out of place. Feeling out of place in her friend group is a common experience for many teenagers. London's diverse social landscape, however, offers Alice the opportunity to meet a wide range of people and potentially find a supportive and understanding circle of friends who appreciate her unique qualities and help her expand her horizons.

Alice is all about pushing herself to do and be better, and London's fast-paced lifestyle could inspire Alice to pursue new interests and challenge herself intellectually and culturally. Her desire to improve, exemplified by her efforts to improve her grades, could be further fueled by the stimulating, ambitious environment of the city. The competitive nature of the educational landscape in London could contribute to Alice's determination to work on herself and strive for improvement, instilling in her a strong work ethic and resilience, pushing her to put in the effort required to achieve her goals. London's educational opportunities and high academic standards could play a role in Alice's motivation to improve her grades (as well as seeing some of her other friends succeed academically, leading her to want that for herself).

So yeah, that's how the setting of the story could impact each character individually. Another thing to take into account is how long each of them have lived in London for... this is why I made sure I mentioned it in each section. If you are born and raised in the city, and you've never been anywhere else, then that's going to impact you. You aren't going to see things in the exact same way as someone who's lived in both rural and urban areas.

#rickie-the-storyteller #worldbuilding wednesday #ask #worldbuilding #steph's crew #impact of setting #writing #creative writing #stephanie smith and her friends #current wip #Stephanie #Bret #Elise #Dylan #Alice

[mariellewritesalot]

It's my 9th anniversary on Tumblr 🥳 (since December 2014)

Almost a decade, wow! Excelsior by mariellewritesalot is a writing blog I started as a teenager to fully embrace the fact that I wanted to become a writer. I wanted my own "website" or at least a home for my words. "Excelsior" is my favorite word, and I was a bit obsessed with it back then, given that it meant going ever upward. "mariellewritesalot" was just something I thought of while watching cartoons where one of the characters had "a lot" attached to their name (I believe it was Sir Yipsalot). I could cringe, but honestly, I'm not too bothered enough to change it. Maybe it's part of its charm.

Suffice it to say, this has been my longest relationship so far, haha. We've had our ups and downs, terrible lulls of writer's block when I would be too busy with life or too paralyzed with fear that I'm not good enough to actually post something here.

I started writing early on because I was the kind of child who read everywhere and owned a Kindle since I was 12. I joined essay contests and wrote fan fiction until I was in the middle of my teenage years. I loved Total Girl Philippines, and eventually became a Jr. TG Staff Writer for one week in the summer of 2012. I won a Palanca when I was in senior high school. I dabbled, of course, in campus journalism for many years. Editor-in-Chief for some publications. I wrote news, features, opinions...even UAAP sports! I then created a Facebook page for my blog to expand my audience. I was fortunate enough to land a spot in UP Diliman where I took a certificate course on Malikhaing Pagsulat sa Filipino (loved working on my Filipino writing skills) and eventually, my Bachelor of Arts degree in Philippine Studies, where I also majored in History. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Filipino food in Filipino-American restaurants based in the United States, guided by my love for Doreen Fernandez essays and curiosities about the diaspora; so I could also help these restaurants map out their histories. During the pandemic, I worked on a practice Young Adult novel called, Don't Write Me Off.

I started working freelance and interning for some publications like PhilStar Life and Esquire Philippines. I've been a part of college organizations in UP Diliman, where I honed my skills in leadership, writing, and research so that I may be able to do talks and workshops about writing in different schools and provinces in the Philippines. Last year, I became a Creative Nonfiction fellow for the 61st Silliman University National Writers Workshop, which has been a dream of mine since, well, I was in high school and deeply obsessed with 'the scene.' I got to belong with my chosen family in the fellows with whom I shared the once-in-a-lifetime experience in Dumaguete. We have since joined the Cebu Art Fair last year with our zine, Saudade: A Study on Longing, which features two of my works. As a collective, we're always collaborating on something. Watch this space!

Nowadays, I'm living somewhere in Spain, and I'm working on my first book. It's a collection. It's (too) vulnerable. I think you'll like it. I believe that I will probably be in pursuit of more knowledge and skills as a writer for the rest of my life, so despite my wanting to be a mysterious private person, I think you'll be hearing (reading?) a lot from me on various platforms. Hopefully.

While we're here, I have something new. Since we're losing Tinyletter next month, which was where I used to send out my newsletter of truly vulnerable, exclusive pieces, I have decided to "move houses" and finally join Substack. I'm going to talk about some facets of my life here in Spain, food, and the usual prose. Essentially, a lot of my stuff will be free to read there, but I would appreciate pledges if you can. I will still update my Tumblr from time to time, of course, seeing as this is my main site. No worries!

This year, I'm also going to work on creating an Instagram account for my writing. I have beautiful plans I can't wait to share with you. I'm hoping you'll come along for the ride.

Thank you, lovers, for this milestone.

Always,

Marielle

#9 year tumblrversary #tumblr milestone #mariellewritesalot #marielle fatima tuazon

[demon-of-the-ancient-world]

Modern Au Athelstan headcanons

Back on my bullshit

Wears glasses and has horrible eyesight

And Ragnar teases him about it

Probably got them as a kid too

Wasn't full on bullied as a kid (I feel like other kids tried but he just gave zero reaction because he's a litttttle bit oblivious) but did get teased a bit for being really really short for his age and also the huge glasses

I swear I didn't steal this from @procrastinatingsoicanreadfanfics it's been in my head a while and believe me I was Shook when it turned out to be their headcanon too but anyway Athelstan was a foster kid

Never knew his birth family, just knows he had a lot of siblings

Was never officially adopted by anyone, I like to think that the last family he lived with was really good to him though and helped him learn to navigate the world as a young adult

Still sees that family occasionally after he goes to school, they were the people he was closest to out of all his childhood

Ok I actually have a highly specific au in my head where OF COURSE years later he meets Ragnar and Lagertha and their kids but it turns out THEY were former foster parents who he'd lived with when he was really young before their own kids were born and for whatever reason he had to be given to another family and they were heartbroken about it but then they recognize each other and I cry

Got a scholarship to go to a decent university (was always a straight A student let's be real this boy's a massive nerd) and ended up studying something history related but I can't decide what

It's gonna be like either religious history or ancient languages or something (or maybe just Medieval art idk I didn't go to uni I don't know what they get up to in there)

Is a little embarrassed by his name. Most people call him Stan or Ath - if the full name comes out Something Is Wrong

(But Ragnar and Lagertha both call him by his full name whenever, they've earned that privilege)

I love love love the thought of him meeting them via babysitting/tutoring their kids

I know I know I know romance is popular but in this au I always liked the idea of them kind of pseudo adopting him. Even before they've recognized him they're like "this one needs a family we're taking him home"

Lagertha especially her mom instincts kick in the second she sees his little face. This one belongs to her now.

Ragnar calls Athelstan "kid"

(It turns out he didn't properly remember his name until several months after they'd met)

Their family is Norwegian/Danish but live in England which is where Athelstan meets them

When he starts going to their house (because they invite him for dinner almost right away after he's started looking after the kids) and realizes all 3 languages get spoken sort of haphazardly around the house he makes a determined effort to learn them on his own because he wants to communicate with them in more ways than one

They aren't *rich* but definitely have a lot more money than what Athelstan grew up with and he's more than a little surprised to say the least when he finds out

They have a cabin somewhere in Norway up in the mountains that was Ragnar's dad's or whatever and one winter they take him along with them and I really want to write a fic about this so bad guys you have no idea

Ragnar teaches him to drive and it's about as chaotic as you'd expect

Bjorn plays *all* the sports and tries to get Athelstan to practice with him (this is mostly an excuse for him to kick soccer balls and the like at him)

He probably has like every social media account you can have but he either never uses them (or just logs on to observe everyone else and never says anything himself) or uses it to argue with assholes

Listen you cannot tell me that if someone is being a jerk on twitter or whatever he wouldn't absolutely go after them in the calmest yet most smug fact-checking way and just obliterate them only to fade into 100% obscurity once again

Hates conflict in theory but can't resist calling out people being mean online lol

Has a lot of house plants

Bakes the best breads and cookies ever I swear

Awkward about having people over but loves to make food for his friends and generally just take care of them

Photographs literally everything. Phone storage: full after like a month. Gets a digital camera. Fills up storage on that too.

Has an energy that just inexplicably draws others towards him. Any rando who comes up to him on the street he'll just have a full conversation with too, he takes everyone fully seriously even if he can't quite understand why they're talking to him

Loves museums. Will sit quietly and look at Art and do nothing else for hours at a time.

Probably plays D&D

(as a monk, of course. Or maybe a cleric.)

#athelstan #vikings #phew #nobody asked for this but i'm spamming you with it anyway i do what i want here

[feathersandfoxtails]

15 questions

@oonajaeadira tagged me and I must do as she commands.

1. Are you named after anyone?

No. My first name was originally going to be my middle name but then my mother heard a nickname for it in the grocery store and hated it so thought of my first name instead. Which is great because I hate my middle name. Also both of my brothers have family names and I'm just like.... picked out of thin air.

2. When was the last time you cried?

My boyfriend makes me cry a lot by being the sweetest and I am not a crier.

3. Do you have kids?

No; the baby factory is closed.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Not as much as I used to. I try to be as genuine as possible nowadays.

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

I love looking at people's hair! Colors, textures, styles... I just find them all beautiful and interesting.

6. What’s your eye color?

I have a yellow ring around my pupil, a blue ring around the outside, and they mix together in the middle to make green.

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

Scary movies. Sometime happy endings make me mad if they're not earned.

8. Any special talents?

I'm a decent viola player, even though I am years out of practice. My super power is being able to learn new things quickly if I can watch someone else do it first.

9. What are your hobbies?

Writing, reading, learning languages, playing video games, baking, knitting, coloring, gardening, home improvement, swimming, buying clothes online.

10. Where were you born?

Minnesota!

11. Have any pets?

I have two beautiful black cats who are twins (littermates). Their birthday is almost here and they will be 7 years old. They are the best boys and the best brothers.

12. What sports do you play/have you played?

My older brother and father have always been really into sports and I wanted to be like them, so growing up I tried softball, tennis, and golf. I both sucked at and hated all of them. I feel like there were others as well that I can't think of. I did take swimming lessons as a kid, but once it got to learning actually strokes I peaced out, but now swimming is the only "sport" I actually enjoy.

I also took martial arts lessons for about ten years as an adult. It taught me a lot even outside of the physical skills.

13. How tall are you?

5'9"

14. Favorite subject in school?

I always loved English/Language Arts classes. As I got older, arts courses. My senior year of high school I took classes at the college for free and came back to my high school just for Orchestra and Theatre and it was the best.

15. Dream job?

Being retired. Seriously. I just want to not have to work and be able to travel and give time to my hobbies and interests and also do volunteer work.

.

Tagging: @beecastle, @trinikins, @nissameta1782, @sunflowersturn, @serpentstyles

#tag game #personal

[painted-blackbird]

I’m not back… yet

So that January return didn’t work out did it? But never fear! I do have an update <3

Firstly and less excitingly, I’ve officially retired Lithaira and her friends. I actually did this IRL like midway through last year and ran this blog on buffer content until I went on hiatus. I made their story when I was in my high school years, and now as an adult I’ve outgrown what I did with it. I still love a lot of what I did, so I’m keeping my favorite parts and tucking them away for another project (not the one I’m currently working on). But those four and this world is retired now, and I’ll be adding a Retired tag to all their posts.

With that out of the way, time for the fun part! That new project I’m working on that sent me into hiatus in the first place! I’m not ready to reveal any details yet, but I’m almost there! What I can say is that this new project is going to be a serially published novella. My plan is one update a week for about a year. With a couple of pre-planned breaks between acts. I’ll be posting here on this blog of course, and also on Tapas! I’m aiming for an early spring release, so late March/early April.

I plan on posting updates and actual details to this blog soon! Just gotta get all my ducks in a row before I do lol. The only thing left for me to sort out before I start revealing stuff is my antagonist and a final plot revision. I’m pretty much set on everything else <3 In the meantime, you can find me on my other blogs if you’d like to see what I’m up too!

@painted-fanbird is my fan blog! This is where I post fanart and headcanons and whatever incomprehensible feelings I have about media that is not my own. The content I post here is not consistent, it’s literally just whatever is in my brain at any given moment lol. I usually post here about once a week!

@reblogging-blackbird is my reblogging blog! This is (obviously) where I reblog stuff, so if you want to see what I’m thinking about, see some cool art (like @meroaw’s OCs and Warriors designs, and @lilianade-comics delightful slice of life (with a dash of family drama) and crafting webcomic) and read my riveting commentary in the tags, this is where to do that!

That’s all I’ve got for now, but expect to hear from me again soon! With actual updates ;)

#bird caws #txt

[childlikegoblinqueen]

Chapter 83 Notes:

Spoilers and actual history which inspired the last line within.

Chapter 83 had a considerable amount of fluff. I wanted to give the tense relationship between Hunter and Darius a reprieve.

What better way than to have Darius teach Hunter how to dance for his very first Grom?

Some inspiration for that came from the scene in book 3 of ATLA where Aang and Katara rework their Katas into a dance.

There’s plenty of examples of the correlation between dancing and fighting within pop culture and so many articles on it, but after an offhand conversation with @threegoblinart about Baz Luhrman’s Strictly Ballroom, I went a different route.

Also, fun fact! My spouse, whom I met in martial arts class was a competitive ballroom dancer when he was a teen. He was an amazing fighter too.

I loved the image of all of these adults whom Hunter was out at odds with under Belos taking on a nurturing role aside Camila and helping him figure out how to redirect the years of combat training into something like dance, so he could get to enjoy his first school dance with his girlfriend.

It felt like a sweet healing moment.

ThreeGoblin and I also agreed that Hunter would loose his mind over Swing Dancing, and the movie Swing Kids came to mind. Under the Third Reich, Swing Dance became part of a movement of youth who opposed the nazi party. Swing Kids was a simplistic look at the history of the movement, but not necessarily a bad place to start. I dropped a wiki article about that at the end of the chapter.

ANYWAY this is a perfect chance to drop info about a covert historical operation which VERY LOOSELY inspired the big reveal at the end of the chapter.

Please take into consideration that my refrain when asked about Darius’ deal in SCOM has always been that Darius has made a series of poor decisions.

That said, he is essentially the head of the CIA for the BI. Intelligence is the shadowy part of the military. Defense is the more front facing one. It’s not fleshed out by any means and in this story the two work together very closely, but if Darius was to answer Hunter’s questions with the classic,

“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” It would go very badly.

The concept of a current government working with former enemy scientists to develop weapons /etc is based on Operation Paperclip.

So Darius being directed to work with Kikimora to develop Miki- Ultra has a real world precedent.

Doesn’t mean he liked it or even wanted to do it.

Much less scope in the fic, of course, but information about this below.

#hunter noceda #toh hunter #the owl house #willow x hunter #spotify #toh fanfic #a03 fanfic #willow park #huntlow #fanfiction #sweet child o mine #huntlow fluff and feels #fluff and comfort #hurt/comfort #angst and fluff #fan fic author #fan fic stuff #toh fan fic #writing reference #historical references

[duhragonball]

I'm babysitting a machine at work today, so I'm gonna pass the time by disscussing more DBSSH spoilers. Well, first I gotta figure out how to put a read-more cut on mobile...

Yeah, there we go.

Okay, so I talked about Cell Max last night and I got so focused on him that I forgot to discuss anything else. Sorry, but Cell is objectively the coolest character, so even an off-brand Cell takes priority in a movie like this.

This time, let's talk about the lore that gets sprinkled throughout the movie. It's not the main focus, and they probably could have edited a lot of it out and made the movie tighter and more efficient, but it's better this way. The old movies worked that way, just dumping viewers into Dragon World with scarcely any introduction to the characters, but the 21st century Dragon Ball movies are events. They need to be long and have plenty of fanservice (not the sexy kind), and that's what we've been getting. Tidbits like finding out Vegeta is "Vegeta the Fourth" is half the fun, I say. So let's take a look at what we have here.

One bit I liked was how Videl said she teaches a martial arts class of some sort. I think she called it a "combat training course" in the dub, so it sounds a little different from a classic dojo, like the one Tien ran in the DBS anime, but it's the same basic idea. For years, fans have complained about Videl moving away from the badass crimefighter she was in high school. My feeling has always been that nobody is the same person they were in high school, and if Videl wants to settle down and be a housewife, that's a valid choice for the character to make. But I never understood the assumption that Videl stopped fighting. For all we know she's kicking ass off-screen. Well, it turns out that she's teaching other people how to kick ass, which is the next best thing. Maybe she still fights crime, I don't know, but I think it's important not to put her in a box. Just because her recent appearances always involve her taking care of Pan doesn't mean that's all she does.

They threw in a line to lampshade Goten and Trunks' growth spurt. According to Gohan, all Saiyan children are like this, staying small for a while, then suddenly shooting up like weeds. I think that's been the fan consensus for some time, because that's how it was for Goku and Gohan, but DBS really strained credibility by having the boys look and act so young for so long. At least the franchise is acknowledging the issue.

On a related note, it's nice to see they remembered to keep Dende looking like an adult. I'm pretty sure there were Buu Saga episodes that screwed this up, so you never can tell with that guy. I liked how Piccolo considered asking Dende to awaken his hidden power the same way Guru did for Krillin and Gohan. And Dende explains that he can't because he's not old enough to perform the technique, which neatly explains why no one has tried this before. Then he proposes modifying the Dragon to do it instead, and Piccolo's like, I didn't know that was possible, and apparently it wasn't possible back when Kami was in charge of Shenron, but Dende knows tricks that must have been innovated since Kami came to Earth.

However, now that this has been established, they need to account for any other character who can take advantage of the power boost. Krillin and Gohan have already undergone the process, but apparently Shenron's version is more potent than Guru's, so maybe it's worth doing again? But besides that, this would be a handy way for Tien and Yamcha to "catch up", if they ever plan to use those characters more seriously.

On Beerus's planet, Vegeta is seen meditating, which he explains is his attempt to duplicate Jiren's awesome strength from the Tournament of Power. He reasons that Jiren wasn't actually that much stronger than himself or Goku, but he dominated the ToP because he had such precise ki control, only bringing it to bear at the exact moment when it was needed. Something like that. I'm not sure if this is meant to lead into Ultra Ego or some other form, but it's cool to see some explanation of why Jiren was so Different from the others, and that it's possible for other characters to beat him.

And that's what I mean when I say they could have trimmed down the movie if they wanted to. Vegeta's barely in this movie, and he's about as far removed from the action as he can be, so we don't really need to check up on him at all, much less hear him analyze Jiren, a character who doesn't appear in the movie whatsoever. But it still awesome to get this sort of footage anyway, and without a TV series, they don't have anywhere else to put it. The manga, sure, but it's got to move a lot faster than a movie like this. Again, the movie is an event, and Vegeta's observations are part of the icing on the cake.

But of course, the biggest lore contribution relates to the Red Ribbon Army. We learn Magenta is the son of Commander Red, which is fairly predictable for a story like this, but what surprised me was the revelation that Colonel Violet is his mother. Did anyone else catch that? There was a shot of Magenta's desk and he had framed photos of Red and Violet, so I think the implication is very clear. I'm not sure how those two ended up together, but it adds a new dimension to that scene where Red watches Violet raid the safe before she deserts her post.

Also, we learn Magenta's been running Red Pharmacuetical Corporation, which was a front for the Red Ribbon army all along. After Goku wiped out the RRA, the RPC carried on, but they also funded Dr. Gero's scheme in DBZ. This is awesome stuff, because I always envisioned Gero as a lone wolf trying to avenge an organization no one else cared about, but the RPC is a much more intriguing idea.

We also see the first canon reference to Gero's wife and son. Toriyama revealed in an interview that #16's design was based on Gero's son, but I don't think that ever got used in a story until now. While Magenta and Carmine go over their plan, there's a graphic of Hedo's family tree, and a 16-lookalike is identified as Gero's son, named "Gevo".

Likewise, Gero's wife is named "Vomi", and she's a dead ringer for #21 from FighterZ. I'm unclear about whether #21 is Vomi in an android body or just an homage like #16, but I find myself suddenly much more interested in the character.

I already wrote about the idea of Gero's Cell data being in the hands of the RPC, but I guess that's true for all of his other android projects too. The thought occurred to me that this is probably where all the android/cyborg/bioweapon characters in Dragon Ball Heroes must have come from. Sure, it looked like Magenta and all his goons got killed in the movie, but the RPC probably has offices all over the world, and a robust succession plan. And even if the company collapses, the data could still leak and other aspiring geniuses might try to reproduce Gero's work. So that's a cool idea.

I think that's all I got for the moment. I'm sure I'll remember more stuff to talk about later.

#dragon ball super super hero #spoilers