#which is an amazing p&p retelling

[briarosie]

PRIDE & PREJUDICE ㅤ{ an Unequal Affections inspired fancast }

Jessie Mei Li as Elizabeth Bennet Alfred Enoch as Mr. Darcy Sonoya Mizuno as Jane Bennet Dev Patel as Mr. Bingley Banita Sandhu as Lydia Bennet Tom Brittney as Mr. Wickham

ㅤㅤㅤ❯ㅤ"Fitzwilliam," she tried again after a moment, her voice husky. "Why do you love me?" His eyes widened at the question, and he reached out to trace her cheek. "I cannot help it." "Then," said Elizabeth, leaning forward into him until her head dropped against her shoulder, "neither can I."ㅤ❮ UNEQUAL AFFECTIONS: A Pride and Prejudice Retelling by Lara S. Ormiston

#pride & prejudice #pride and prejudice fancast #jessie mei li #alfred enoch #sonoya mizuno #dev patel #banita sandhu #tom brittney #unequal affections #pride and prejudice #prideandprejudiceedit #austenedit #* #briar fancasts #a very british very poc cast tyvm #and very much inspired by the book Unequal Affections #which is an amazing p&p retelling #i might do each family later #fancast

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

Rewrite for Masters Of All Time.

What's worse than a bad episode? A bad episode that had the POTENTIAL to be truly amazing. The concept of Danny time-traveling to the past and messing with Vlad's portal incident only to make the timeline even worse than it currently is so he *needs* to fix it back to normal.

[Certain changes and explanations why I made those changes will be put in brackets like these.]

Borrowing @schnuffel-danny's Jack wrote letters to Vlad hc for this loose plot rewrite. Finally got spurred into writing this when I saw @picturejasper20's post about it.

Starting at the beginning, let's cut out Vlad going to the Fentons for help and make the trigger for Danny relying on time travel being that he is fading in and out of the time-space-continuum and he goes to Clockwork to figure out why. Clockwork in turn, gives him a medallion to stabilize him and informs him that someone stole stuff from him and is changing the past, thus effecting the present. Danny jumps to the conclusion that it's Vlad and volunteers to go after him, Clockwork can't read minds so he doesn't know that Danny thinks Vlad did it and okays it, sending him to the year he saw the 'dubious creature' flee to.

[This change both lets us dive right into the time-travel shenanigans thus giving us slightly more time to see more timelines. It also makes Danny look less stupid because in this case, jumping to the conclusion that time-travel is the answer makes much more sense. There's multiple solutions to trying to cure a virus that don't involve time travel, but you can't fix 'somebody's messing with the past' *without* time travel.]

After he lands in Wisconsin University, 198X, Danny's even more sure that it's Vlad messing with the past, but despite that, he doesn't find him anywhere while he zooms around the university hunting him down. He *does* find or rather, crashes into College!Vlad. Who is surprisingly chill with the existence of ghosts being real and doesn't seem phased by Danny phasing through him. Danny apologizes, C!Vlad accepts it, telling Danny not to worry, it's not like anything happened. Both move on their way without thinking about the interaction while C!Vlad mutters something about 'Undead Fenton Family reunion'. [Scene is there for foreshadowing.]

Danny spends all day looking for Present!Vlad up until he finds a flyer for the 'Ghost club' where they plan to show off the proto-portal. Figuring that P!Vlad is going to sabotage it somehow, he stakes out the area the portal's being built waiting for P!Vlad to show up and he doesn't.

Instead, College!Jack insists C!Vlad handle the remote while he inspects the portal's structural integrity. C!Vlad agrees, but has doubts that the portal will really work which he expresses to C!Jack, who waves it off and sticks his head inches away from the portal frame as he's 'inspecting' and Danny's waiting until C!Jack's done so Vlad can peer into it so things can happen as they're supposed to.

But he doesn't.

College!Maddie inspects the calculations and tells the two that they are wrong, C!Vlad sneezed and turned the remote on by accident, cursing as the portal turns on. Thus, the proto-portal incident occurs with Vlad and Jack's positions swapped. And Danny learns his dad left out that the accident was far more horrific than he described.

[The horrors occur off-screen, but we're shown shadows, see Danny's reactions, hear C!Jack's agonized screams along with C!Vlad and C!Maddie's horrified screams, and see Danny run out of the room to throw up in the nearest trash can. I made this change for three reasons. 1. Reveal that Jack's retelling of the 'good ol' days' has a few lies ingrained in the sugar coating, the biggest of which being the severity of the accident 2. Reveal to the audience that Vlad actually has a really high Fenton-nonsense tolerance level and that while he holds grudges like a cup holds water, he doesn't hold unwarranted grudges. 3. I just want to add a little body horror concepts in the show about a half-dead kid who fights ghosts, sue me.]

From there, Danny follows the three and sees how things must've played out from the original timeline, but with Jack and Vlad swapped; Maddie and Vlad keep trying to visit Jack, but hospital security keep turning him away, they also attempt to send him letters and gifts but those are also rejected, but neither are giving up... [Scene added to show the audience Jack and Vlad were friends back then and that Jack didn't just drop Vlad like a bad habit after he was hospitalized]

Feeling defeated as he didn't prevent the timeline from changing but not sure what to do, Danny kinda waits on the hospital roof until Clockwork pushes a button on his staff that brings the kid back to the present.

Clockwork is confused, Danny's also confused, but surprisingly, the timeline is as things should be on the surface... Just to double check, Danny heads in hoping for the best, like maybe things were pretty rough for his dad at first, but *surely* his face healed up and he and mom got together soon afterwards right? Maybe this change is a good thing and he can learn how to be a halfa from his own dad, right?

Wrong. Instead, Jack Fenton lives alone in Amity Park with a robotic version of Jasmine and a cat named Jack Junior. There's a lot less Fenton inventions in Fentonworks and a lot more ghosts strapped to dissection tables, many, if not all of them, are not moving.

[Robot added and cat's name changed because as silly as he is, Jack *is* an inventor in his own right and making a robot daughter does seem like something he'd do if he was REALLY lonely, as well as would parallel Vlad's future creation of Danielle. Ghosts on dissection tables added to add some tension as whether or not Danny is in danger, this Jack is definitely dangerous.]

Instead of the bootleg Vlad Plasmius costume, Jack's ghost form does have the pointy ears, red eyes, bluish skin, and fangs that Vlad's strain of halfa-ism has, but he wears the same orange jumpsuit (as only his face was caught in the portal, not his entire body) and an added purple cloak/hood combo.

Danny is at first intimidated by this large hooded figure surrounded by dead ghosts and they have a short fight, then in battle, the latter notices the medallion on the former and flips the hood off, excitedly asking Danny about it, being just as chipper and ramble-y as he remembers his dad, even as a very scary ghost. Relieved, Danny explains what he knows the best he can and asks 'Jack Frighton' [ghostly surname being a poor mesh of 'Fright' and 'Fenton'] about what happened in the past.

Jack's own recollection of how things played out is a bittersweet story about how back then, someone warned him that his best friend would go through something terrible if he looked through that proto-ghost portal and he took the fall for him, only for said best friend to never visit him in the hospital and Jack, heartbroken by his supposed friends' lack of care for his life (which Danny knows isn't true), moves away to Amity Park for a fresh start.

"..Did you forgive them?"

"I did, the distance and time made it easier to and now I've got the best job in the world, the coolest powers to do it with, and an assistant who's like a daughter to me. Although given that apparently in your timeline I have a REAL daughter and a son I guess that might be where the feeling comes from..."

"Do you ever want to see them again? Vlad and Maddie, I mean."

"*laughs* not when I'm half-ghost and they're professional ghost hunters! I'm happy for them, but I can be happy for them at a safe distance, we send each other letters, cards, and research materials all the time now!"

"...Aren't you a ghost-hunter too?"

"Nope."

"But what about all the-?"

"Oh? These guys? I work as a ghost-mortician. I also ghost-fish, but that's just a hobby. I've tried, but I'm not cut out to be an actual hunter, 'got a really lousy aim, but you don't need an accurate aim with a fishing rod to catch something!"

"Ghost-fishing? So you do have a ghost portal? Can I use it to get back to Clockwork?"

"Well Danny, I'd say 'yes', but I sent it over to Mads and V-man for reference on their own portal a month ago... ...I'll show the way to their address."

One Specter Speeder flight to Vlad and Maddie's Wisconsin house later, Jack and Danny switch to human forms and Jack knocks on the door, getting no response.

Jack knocks again and calls out for them, still no response.

Danny just phases through the front door and Jack follows, both of them notice that the house is in a state of disrepair; broken furniture everywhere, puddles of ectoplasm on the ground, and strange claw marks on the walls.

As the two quietly make their way through the house, (well, Danny quietly goes through the house, Jack calls out for his old friends every two minutes), Danny notices framed pictures, inventions, and other odd items symbolizing Vlad and Maddie's relationship through the years on the walls and left broken on the ground. Through these items he sees their wedding, their honeymoon, their anniversary dates, the devices they built together, their ghost-hunting trips, their... the pictures of the "children" they apparently made together with mad science. [Clone kids foreshadowing Kindred Spirits, but they look closer to the skeleton and Frankenstein clones as opposed to anything like Dani.]

While Danny's holding up one of the letters, he hears ectobeams going off and Jack flies into the room, panicking as he's yelling at Danny to run for his life, saying that they messed with something they never should have messed with. That they bit off more than they could chew. Danny is just about to question Jack before he hears the inhuman groan and sees the ectoplasm-oozing figure of what is supposed to be Vlad Masters.

[We will not see a dairy king!Vlad future in this rewrite for multiple reasons, but one of the biggest ones is that despite being a different timeline, DK!Vlad is a copy-paste of Main Timeline!Vlad despite it making literally no sense and just downgrading Vlad's character by saying 'he's just an asshole, don't pity him'. However I understand as a writer that Danny needs to not have moral dilemmas about undoing the Vlad X Maddie timeline especially since I gave them kids even if they are weird-clone kids that might not even be sapient, so enjoy ecto-zombies and the looming implication that said kids are also zombies.]

The ecto-Zombie Maddie shrieks as her husband's pinned down and lunges at Jack, who puts up a shield blocking her barrage but also giving Zombie!Vlad time to get up...

As he's holding them off despite being distraught, Danny finds the portal and looks back at Jack just as he can't hold them off any longer, promising him that he will fix the timeline, Jack wishes him luck while Danny jumps through the portal to head back to Clockwork.

Once there, Danny explains that he learned from Jack what happened and what he needs to do to prevent this timeline that's on the brink of a zombie apocalypse from happening: He needs to stop Vlad from convincing College!Jack from sticking his head in the portal.

Clockwork attempts to clarify that Vlad isn't the one who changed the past, but Danny's already going through the Time-thing and while Clockwork *could* just bring him back to the present, he decides to stay and watch what he does to let Danny's rash decision not to listen be its own punishment.

This time when he's in the past, he shows up in C!Vlad and C!Jack's bedroom in the morning and basically sticks to the two of them like glue, claiming that he's one of their relatives and being really vague about it so Vlad thinks he's Jack's distant cousin and Jack thinks he's Vlad's distant cousin.

He drags himself along on two different classes with C!Jack and C!Vlad, a really boring study session with them accompanied with C!Maddie, a lunch at a diner where Danny has to remind himself that yes, this is really Vlad because the one and only time he's seen this laid-back, (stoner but its hinted at with the munchies, not shown), actually kinda cool guy get Present!Vlad levels of mad, the only time he sees him get into a full on fight with someone, is when another student from the college tries to steal C!Jack's lunch.

C!Vlad gets his ass absolutely handed to him because he's a twig in an oversized jacket, but he still gets C!Jack's lunch back because he bit the other guy at least five times.

While Danny's playing bodyguard, he uses ectobeams to successfully scare off what he thinks was Skulker in a bedsheet as the figure was far too large to be Vlad, even in his Plasmius form.

Aside from his presence being known, things in the college go on as Danny assumes they're supposed to, and at the point he sees C!Vlad looking into the rim of the proto-portal, Danny thinks that he's fixed the timeline and heads out of the room before the accident happens as he does NOT want to see it again.

Clockwork sends him to the new present and Danny walks home sweet home only to be greeted by the realization that no, he didn't fix the timeline as the sign on the building reads "Walkerworks".

Today he learns that his mom's maiden name is "Walker".

Danny lets out an exasperated sigh and flies out to Wisconsin to figure out how Vlad messed up the timeline from the man himself before borrowing mom's portal for a bit.

As he gets there, he finds the the beefy Packers' Quarterback: Vlad Masters, who lives with his best friend, the ghost-studying scientist Jack Fenton.

Danny pulls Vlad aside and says that while he understands the Packers thing, why the heck would he'd change the timeline to this when he was obsessed with marrying his mom is he just trying to spite him or just erase him from existance? And Quarterback!Vlad has no idea what he's talking about.

While he buys that Danny's from a different timeline when Danny shows Vlad that he's a halfa, the two are having trouble getting on the same page due to the fact that Vlad has no idea about the timeline Danny's talking about and Danny's getting frustrated up until Vlad brings up the incident and he finally understands what changed in the timeline when Vlad tells him about the aftermath of the portal accident.

"The ghost powers themselves are great, I don't think I'd accomplish any of this if I didn't have them, but the process of mastering them was absolutely terrible, if my best friend Jack didn't visit me in the hospital all the time and encourage me as much as he did, I don't know what I would've done."

"Visited you?"

"Yes! Practically every single day, he also brought gifts and letters, apparently, he wanted to send them, but thought they'd get lost in the mail, so instead he brought them in person..."

Now that he knows what's changed, Danny goes back in time once again to the first day Vlad's at the hospital and waits for either Present Vlad or the past Version of his dad to show up, feeling guilty about ruining Jack and Vlad's happy life together, but also really wanting to, you know, exist.

As night falls and he sees someone his dad's size squeeze through one of the windows, Danny tackles him, throws off the figure's sheet, and takes off his hood/goggles for good measure, revealing that it's not Skulker, not Present!Vlad, not College!Jack, but Present!Jack.

Danny's shocked and demands an explanation from him, also warning him that he ruined the timeline twice and that he's not going to let him do it a third time.

Jack explains that this all started when he added some extra line on his Fenton Ghost-Fisher and while testing it out, he caught a time travel-remote. After figuring out what it was and what it did, he thoughtlessly used it to attempt to fix his broken relationship with his former best friend.

"But it seemed like every time I finally fixed something, I'd turn around for something else to break. I lost him and Mads in one timeline, at first I tried not to mind, but then they even lost themselves, in another, I had him, but lost her, Jazz and Danny..."

Jack hands Danny the remote back with a sigh.

"I'm sorry Phantom. I never wanted to mess anything up or hurt anyone. I really love my family and don't want to lose them. I do want my kids to exist and I swear I'm not trying to run away from them or anything like that. But if I can't save Vlad, if I can't be there for him, how can he ever forgive me for what I've done to him?"

"When you were put in the same situation he was in, you forgave him. You were trying to reconnect with him and Maddie when they were a thing... So why can't he forgive you?"

"It's not as simple as that, kiddo. I saw what could've happened and chose to sacrifice myself, he didn't even get to see the choices."

Danny rolled his eyes.

Sure, he himself 'didn't see the choices' when he was caught in his own portal incident, but he never held a grudge against Sam over it. In Danny's point of view in this moment, the difference between Jack and Vlad is that in the exact same situation, Jack would choose to be a hero where Vlad would choose to be a villain. And to him, that was the reason why his parents worked as a couple while when Vlad was with his mom, things ended terribly.

But he said nothing to his father who had been through enough today. He just sat by him in the hospital hallway waiting for Clockwork to zap them back.

___

And that's the end of the rewrite, comments, opinions, questions, criticisms, and suggestions on how to change this to make it better welcome. I know that it's not a *perfect* piece of work but I hope that it was one less infuriating than the actual Masters Of All Time episode.

#danny phantom #danny fenton #vlad plasmius #vlad masters #dp clockwork #jack fenton #maddie fenton #masters of all time #maddie x vlad #vlad x jack

[storyswept]

Finished The Running Grave the other day. Spoilers for the whole series below the cut.

Robin's last chapters undercover had me on the edge of my seat, I was so stressed for her.

Once again didn't realise whodunnit until Strike laid out the facts. I was in the “Daiyu is still alive” camp. After we learned that Mazu originally claimed that Alexander Graves was Daiyu's father, I thought the title of the book was a clue to her still being alive but… nope XD

Then again, the only character we met that could have been her was Becca, but she didn't quite fit the bill, did she? As Abigail said, “’Er sister an’ bruvver would’ve known she wasn’ Becca! ’Er muvver would’ve known! (...)” And it didn't explain the role of the hatchet or the burned rope.

One thing I wasn't surprised by was Charlotte's suicide, though I expected it to happen later on in the book.

Some background: after the first sample came out, I'd found out through some research that Dream of the Red Chamber (or The Story of the Stone), a novel in which one of the main protagonists is called Daiyu, had been adapted in a English-language opera in 2016. One of the changes in the opera version was that Daiyu kills herself by drowning into a lake after the man she loves marries someone else. In the novel, Daiyu succumbs to chronic illness before the marriage takes place.

Considering Tannhäuser turned out to parallel Strike's love life in The Ink Black Heart pretty closely (for an in-depth explanation, see this series of posts on The Strike & Ellacott Files Blog), I did wonder if Daiyu's suicide in the opera and/or other plot points of Dream of the Red Chamber would play a role in The Running Grave. A synopsis of the opera is available here.

Of all recurring Strike characters, Charlotte seemed the most likely to commit suicide. She has attempted it in the past. Plus, some aspects of her character seemed similar to Dream of the Red Chamber's Lin Daiyu:

[Daiyu] is an icon of spirituality and intelligence: beautiful, sentimental, sarcastic, self-assured, an accomplished poet, but subject to fits of jealousy. - Dream of the Red Chamber, Wikipedia

I couldn't see (or didn't want to see :P) a Strike/Robin marriage being followed by him becoming a monk though.

Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. In the end, here's how The Running Grave parallels the opera adaptation of Dream of the Red Chamber:

In both stories, Daiyu only drowns in the retelling (the opera / the story what was spread by the UHC).

Daiyu and Charlotte are tragic characters, who both had been “unwell for a long time” (to quote Strike).

Daiyu / Charlotte kills herself because she can't handle the love of her life being with someone else. However, Charlotte doesn't drown, though she dies in a bath. Robin is the one who almost drowns.

Baoyu turns to religion after Daiyu's death / Strike visits a religious building (a church) after Charlotte's death.

After Robin escapes the cult, the story takes a very different turn, concluding with Strike's sort of confession. At first I was worried that Murphy was going to propose to Robin (since Daiyu's murder at Abigail's hands was clearly supposed to mirror the siblicide of The Cuckoo's Calling), but this was much better.

Who knows what awaits our heroes in Book 8 though… Hopefully not more (un)intended consequences of Strike's fling with Bijou. She said it wasn't his but she could be lying (or, more likely, have no idea who the father is).

P.S. Special mention to Pat who, along with her husband Dennis, was amazing in this book.

#the running grave #cormoran strike #robin ellacott #charlotte campbell #pat chauncey #dream of the red chamber #just read #spoliers

[madamegemknight]

I've finally watched the Muppets 2011 with my dad, and it was a blast!! I love its sense of humor (seriously, that Muppet man joke had me CACKLING), and it's so heart-warming in its simplicity and having a good time despite the trials the Muppets went through... I feel like I can't wipe this smile off my face (ehe)

Do you have any other Muppet or puppet media you'd recommend? I thought I'd ask you since you're the resident puppet expert, and I've been wanting to get into more puppet-related stuff :P

OH YAYYYY I’m so glad you liked it!!

And I do have other Muppet/puppet media I would recommend, thank you so much for asking (and gosh I am incredibly flattered you consider me the resident puppet expert). This is going to be LONG (sorry about that in advance), so under the cut it goes!

First off, I’d recommend the sequel to Muppets 2011, Muppets Most Wanted! It’s about the Muppets going on a world tour after getting back together in the previous movie, only for a criminal mastermind named Constantine (who looks exactly like Kermit) to hijack the tour, sending the real Kermit to prison and pretending to be Kermit so he can hide from the law and use the tour as a chance to steal the Crown Jewels. It’s a really great comedy heist that’s also an INCREDIBLE musical, and it has the same humor and sense of heart that Muppets 2011 has. I haven’t seen it in a while, but I have incredibly fond memories of watching it with my sibling when we were younger, and I think you would really enjoy it.

I would also recommend the original Muppet Show! I haven’t finished watching it yet (I’m on season 4 of 5 at the moment) but it’s a really fun show that serves as a love letter to old vaudeville theater and is just consistently entertaining. There’s no overarching plot and you can pretty much watch any episode in any order, though I would suggest that if you’re interested in checking it out, you watch the Harry Belafonte episode first - it’s regarded by a lot of fans (including me) as being the best episode of the series, and gives a very good idea of what the rest of the show is like.

(Also I HIGHLY recommend you watch the pitch reel for The Muppet Show, which you can find on YouTube here. It’s not essential viewing by any means, but it’s very funny and gives a bit of context for what the field of entertainment was like at the time the show was pitched)

The original trilogy of Muppet films are also absolutely stellar. The Muppet Movie is the story of how the Muppets got together, The Great Muppet Caper is essentially an AU where Fozzie and Kermit are brothers working for a newspaper and trying to prove Miss Piggy innocent of a jewel robbery, and Muppets Take Manhattan is essentially an AU where the Muppets were all friends in college and are trying to put on a show in New York. The original trilogy films are really fun in my opinion because they play fast and loose with what’s real and what’s fake; Kermit admits at the beginning of The Muppet Movie that it’s only an approximate retelling of how the Muppets actually got together, and the other two movies in the trilogy are telling completely separate stories than the main Muppet timeline, with The Great Muppet Caper even having an entire song devoted to telling the audience that it’s just a movie and that it isn’t actually canon. They all have INCREDIBLE soundtracks, too, the songs from these movies are some of my favorite Muppet songs ever.

Fraggle Rock isn’t really considered a piece of Muppet media anymore, since when Disney bought the rights to the Muppets they didn’t bother buying it as well, but it was originally a Muppet production and all of the stuff I watched as a kid referred to it as a Muppet production, so I’m counting it as a Muppet production still lol. Fraggle Rock is an absolutely amazing show on all levels; the puppetry is great, the songs are all stellar, the characters are so well-written, and despite being a show aimed at kids it never talks down to its audience, handling serious issues like death and prejudice with the respect they deserve. It’s probably best to go into Fraggle Rock as blind as possible (unlike The Muppet Show, there is an overarching story, though you don’t really find out that there is one until towards the end of Season 1) so all I’ll say is that it’s probably one of my favorite Muppet productions ever and that the finale, without exaggeration, made me cry for 30 minutes straight. There’s also a Fraggle Rock reboot called Fraggle Rock: Back to The Rock, and while I personally don’t think it’s as good as the original series, it’s still REALLY amazing and you can tell that the team working on it really cares about the og series. If you do end up watching Fraggle Rock, I’d recommend the reboot as well!

Getting into a bit more obscure territory here, but Tales From Muppetland: The Frog Prince is very near and dear to my heart. It’s a Muppet retelling of the Frog Prince fairytale, with the twist that the princess has been cursed by the same witch that the frog prince has been cursed by! The relationship between Prince Robin and Princess Melora is really cute, and it’s clear that the two of them really care for each other. I love the changes that it makes to the original fairytale, too; I mentioned the twist of Melora also being cursed, which gives her and Robin the chance to bond and leads to a very sweet song about finding someone who understands who you are and what you’ve gone through, but the story is also altered so that Robin explains why he needs Melora to kiss him instead of hiding the fact that he’s a prince from her - she doesn’t believe him, but I’m glad they made that change regardless. The witch is also a really fun villain! She’s reused from a previous Muppet production (Tales of The Tinkerdee) that was meant to be a pilot for a planned show but was never picked up, and I’m really glad she got a chance to shine in something that was actually officially released.

Sam and Friends is the first ever Muppet series, debuting in 1955, and while most of it is unfortunately lost media there are a couple episodes you can find online! I really like Sam and Friends (I have a book all about the making of the show), and I would recommend it both as a way to look at how far television puppetry has come and as just a genuinely very entertaining show in its own right - plus, the episodes are only 5 minutes long, so you can get through all the available episodes pretty quickly. My personal favorite episode is “Powder Burn,” a parody of the show Gunsmoke.

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas is probably one of my favorite Christmas specials ever, despite me only watching it for the first time this past December. It’s a very earnest and emotional story about a family (Emmet Otter and his mother Alice Otter) living in poverty after the death of Emmet’s father. Both Emmet and Alice want to be able to give each other a good Christmas present, so they both enter the local talent contest on Christmas Eve in order to win the cash prize without telling each other. The soundtrack is done by the same man who did the soundtrack for The Muppet Movie (Paul Williams), and is just GORGEOUS - it manages to be silly and heartfelt at the same time, and does some really interesting stuff with the instrumentals, like having a kazoo solo during one of the more somber songs which somehow actually works! Like Fraggle Rock, it it isn’t afraid of tackling serious issues like death and poverty, and like Fraggle Rock, it made me bawl like a baby.

Finally, I would recommend both the documentary Of Muppets and Men and the Jim Henson Hour episode “Secrets of The Muppets” (I sadly haven’t watched enough of The Jim Henson Hour to give a proper recommendation, but from the little I’ve seen it’s very good). Both of these tackle the behind the scenes of working on the Muppets, with Of Muppets and Men being about the making of The Muppet Show specifically and “Secrets of The Muppets” being a general overview of the stuff the Muppets had done up to that point. I completely understand if you don’t want to see the behind the scenes workings of the Muppets (my mom doesn’t like seeing that kind of thing either and I get why), but if you do want to see it I can’t recommend these two enough. They do an excellent job at introducing and highlighting the skills of the troupe of Muppet performers, detailing specific tricks of puppeteering, and showing how everything comes together.

There’s definitely more Muppet media I want to recommend, but if I did so we’d be here FOREVER, and I still haven’t gotten to the puppet media recommendations! This list does serve as a pretty good starting point though - if you like Frog Prince and Jug-Band Christmas you’ll probably like the rest of the Tales From Muppetland specials, if you like one of the original trilogy of Muppet movies you’ll probably like the others in the trilogy, if you like Sam and Friends you’ll probably like the Muppets’ appearances on shows like the Ed Sullivan Show or the Jimmy Dean show that they made during that period, etc. Most of this stuff is on YouTube or the Internet Archive, but if you’re looking for something specific and can’t find it, let me know and I’ll do my best to locate it 👍

AND NOW AFTER 50 MILLION PARAGRAPHS WE ARE ON TO THE PUPPET MEDIA IN GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

I have to start this list off with my favorite movie of all time, The Dark Crystal. It’s a fantasy epic done entirely with puppets, and it is utterly gorgeous. All of the puppets are so detailed (I had the absolute blessing to see some of them when a local museum held a puppetry exhibit and the sheer amount of tiny details you can’t even SEE in the film are incredible), the world is so richly developed, the soundtrack is absolutely top-tier, and the amount of innovations in puppetry that this film causes are mind-blowing. There are traditional puppets, people in suits, radio-controlled puppets…the list goes on! I cannot recommend The Dark Crystal enough, it means so much to me and is probably the reason I’m so obsessed with puppets in the first place. It also has a prequel on Netflix called Age of Resistance - like the Fraggle Rock reboot, I don’t think it’s as good as the og, but it’s still absolutely stunning and the team working on it clearly cares about the world of the original film. Sadly, the prequel was cancelled after only one season :( I still recommend it if you like the film, but just go into it knowing that it’s gonna end on a cliffhanger.

The Little Shop of Horrors movie has an absolutely AMAZING puppet in the form of Audrey II, the film’s main antagonist. There are multiple Audrey II puppets, as the character grows throughout the entire film, and the biggest one required over 50 puppeteers to operate. There are no opticals or blue screens used for Audrey II (except for one scene at the very end of the film that they had to reshoot), and the effect is mind blowing. Little Shop is an absolutely incredible film overall, too, and thankfully doesn’t use Audrey II as a selling point or a gimmick - the puppet is incorporated very naturally into the film, and you appreciate the puppetry much more as a result.

I haven’t watched Labyrinth, but my sibling has and they really like it! From what I’ve seen of the puppetry, it’s really well done, and the movie seems very fun. Sorry I can’t give a better recommendation than that lol.

If we’re counting stop-motion animation as a form of puppetry (which I personally do considering the models are typically referred to as puppets), then I absolutely recommend checking out the work of LAIKA, which includes productions such as Coraline and Kubo and The Two Strings. I also highly recommend Wendell and Wild, made by former LAIKA supervising director Henry Selick, as well as Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. All of these films are stunning, and they absolutely deserve the hype that surrounds them.

This one is a bit more preschool-centric, but when I was very little I was OBSESSED with Johnny and The Sprites, and having watched a bit of it again recently, I feel it still holds up somewhat for older audiences. It’s a show about a musician named Johnny who moves to a house in the woods in order to focus on his music only to find that the house is next to Grotto’s Grove, where a species of fairy-like beings called the Sprites live. The series is focused on Johnny teaching the Sprites about human stuff and the Sprites teaching Johnny about Sprite stuff in turn. It’s a very cute and charming show :3

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum is Mystery Science Theater 3000, a show about a man trapped in space with 4 robot companions and forced to watch bad movies as part of an evil science experiment. It’s very goofy and very immature at times, and 99% of the time you need a guide to understand the stuff they reference, but it’s great regardless, and despite being very simple the puppets are really well-designed. Unfortunately, one of the characters is named after the ethnic slur used against Romani people in the show’s original run; it wasn’t done out of any intentional malice and the creators changed her name when the show was revived and viewers expressed their concern, but if that sours your opinion on watching the original show I completely understand.

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is a classic, and for good reason - both the original webseries and the tv show riff off of and play with the stereotypes of traditional children’s puppet shows, while still clearly respecting the art of puppetry and giving it their own unique spin. It’s definitely on the spookier/gorier side of things, so MASSIVE content warning if you want to check it out, but DHMIS is very good and I adore it.

And with that, this very very very VERY long list comes to an end. I definitely didn’t mention everything that I wanted to - there are some excellent pieces of puppet media, like Starkid’s Starship, that I just haven’t gotten around to watching and thus can’t properly recommend - but like with the Muppet section, I’d suggest using this as a starting point. There’s a TON of puppet media out there, and this is just scratching the surface!

I hope this list helps, and that you find something on here that you enjoy :D

#I am SO SORRY for how long this got akabwkrnsalsk once you get me talking about puppets I cannot stop

[dangermousie]

On "upscaling" of covers ie why are we so boring now?

So, my recent desire to reread some Robin Hood retellings I used to love led me to Jennifer Roberson's Lady of the Forest. Roberson wrote a LOT of fantasy (Tiger and Del series is amazing) but she also wrote period novels now and then, and LotF is a historical take on the Robin Hood legend with focus on Marian.

I adored that novel back when I first read it many years ago and every time I've reread it since. My paperback copy is somewhere it's a pain to get to and is probably falling apart, so I went on amazon to get a kindle edition. It's there, I own it, yay but it also made me discover the new cover for it.

This is the original cover. This is the edition I first read as a young Mousie back in the 1990s:

And this is the current cover:

Notice the difference?

The first cover would definitely make me pause and check the book out a bit in a book store. It has a gorgeous old tale vibe that actually does convey a lot - it's heavy on romance (which it is), it has our protagonists (no wonder it's one of my favorite versions - I am a total sucker for blond with PTSD MLs.) The new cover is so depersonalized and generic I'd never pause twice.

This cover, like so many others, has gone respectable. No pretty people (no people at all), no romance no nothing. Some medieval weapon or two, a bland pattern and color. WHY?

The first cover you may like or not but it conveys a story! It catches attention. The second I wouldn't even pause in front of.

I know that romance novels have (sadly) moved from those gonzo covers with shirtless dudes clutching busty ladies but this is not even that. This is just boring.

Two corollaries.

One: I miss 1990s fascination with blond dudes holding their OTPs. Here is Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince (a delightful old school fantasy read I totally recommend.)

Two: I can't say I get the romance novel cover switch either. This is the old cover for Justine Davis' Lord of the Storm:

This is the new cover:

It's not any less eye popping but it's kinda odd to leave off the heroine (though as someone who's read this novel more than once (it hits some VERY specific kinks; if you read it you know which ones. This is my judgment free zone :P) I am still not sure where she was clutching the dude's leg while wearing a nightie and 1980s hair.)

There are some amazing relatively recent covers that fight the bland and photoshop:

I mean look at this beauty! I checked out this trilogy because of that cover! It's just as gloriously pulpy as the cover promises (side note if you like fucked up x fucked up battle couple, dude finding meaning of life and learning to trust because of one deadly woman, and hot blond guys with supernatural powers and hot dark haired ladies with a huge kill count, boy do I have a series for you.)

Anyway, I don't even know where this is going any more except you should read all the novels I mentioned.

#books #book covers

[mermaidsirennikita]

Any Black Cat heroine recs? I don’t necessarily care if the hero is a “golden retriever” or whatever but I want to read a good heroine who’s just plain mean.

aaaabsolutely, I love mean heroines

Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole is always my go-to. It's paranormal, with the set-up of "the hero and heroine are fated mates, but she doesn't super care about that part and kidnaps him (on her brother's orders) and edges him in an attempt to get him to agree to marry and impregnate her for the evil because he is indeed a demon king". Sabine is literally evil lol. The hero is nOT evil, but he does have a secret dom side that comes out to play... and he doesn't fuck around on vengeance-related things, as she finds out. Super hot, and one of my favorite things is that, while Sabine does fall in love for real and does have a loved one prior to that (her sister) she doesn't stop being a bitch. She loves that all his associates hate her. She enjoys a good torture. She's also a *technical* virgin (like she hasn't had p in v sex but she does give an amazing BJ, much to his agony), and her virginity is magically connected to this altar, so that when she loses it the altar will break.... and that is so funny.

For My Lady's Heart by Laura Kinsale. A Medieval historical. Melanthe is a stone cold bitch and doesn't really care who knows it. She has her reasons (she's lived a very traumatic life) but she's hardcore, she's scheming, she's political, and again--her hero isn't a golden retriever type (he definitely has his moral issues) but damn if he isn't kinda awestruck and horrified by her icy brain lol. Melanthe is a survivor and she'll use whoever she must to stay alive and accomplish her goals.

Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas. This one errs more on the "hardened by the situation" side, but the heroine definitely isn't afraid to be a bitch when she needs to be. She and her husband have been separated since the day after their wedding, now for ten years. She asks him for a divorce so she can marry her lover, and he agrees on the condition that she gives him an heir first.

Lush Money by Angelina M. Lopez. Contemporary. The heroine is a billionaire who wants a baby that's smart and ideally heir to a minor kingdom (why not?) so she offers a prince with a genius-level IQ a deal: she'll bail out his country financially if he marries her for a year and gets her pregnant. She does NOT fuck around.

You know... I'd actually also recommend Salt in the Wound and then Salt Kiss (the next book in the series) by Sierra Simone. Isolde doesn't start off as mean, exactly, so much as cold--but you definitely see why, in Salt in the Wound, she is a much harsher, colder, bitchier figure by the time she rolls around in Salt Kiss (she's not in the book until the last third, but there are two more books set in the series so we will for sure see A LOT more of her). She's downright dangerous, and definitely a black cat. It's MMF, so the first book (novella technically, but it's amazing and necessary) is centered on her relationship with fellow black cat Mark (her arranged fiance) and the second, for her at least, is more about her relationship with Tristan (PUPPY, Mark's bodyguard and lovah). I adore her.

Once More, My Darling Rogue by Lorraine Heath. This is less black cat and more spoiled brat, but she's definitely mean lol. The heroine is basically a bitch who hates the hero, a man who was born illegitimate and was adopted by a duke and duchess. Then she falls into a river and gets amnesia, after which he rescues her and decides that for some light revenge, he'll tell her she's his housekeeper. (It's an Overboard! retelling lol.) She definitely maintains her bite despite the amnesia lmao.

#romance novel blogging #romance novels #book recs

[bonsiii-art]

Random question; what do you think of the new update; Shadow milk cookie?

To be completely honest, Beast Yeast Chapter 2 was good but at the same time, a little disappointing for me ε-(´∀｀; )

(Putting a read more here because I know the story details are super new and don’t wanna spoil anyone accidentally.)

- Spoilers for Beast Yeast Episode 2 -

The ending with that amazing cutscene of White Lily outsmarting Shadow Milk was hype, I’ll not deny that. And Elder Faerie giving her that one bit of courage was very sweet too qwq

I think how Shadow Milk acts and what he does in the story has a lot to do with my disappointment with this part of the story. :0

When Shadow Milk was introduced with the other Beasts in the teaser vid, I was like oh shit, powerful mastermind character whose a jester, this is gonna be good. And so I was ready for him to really mess with the characters’ heads, either by unveiling some new truth or turn people against each other!

So when I read through this chapter, I realized I may have expected too much. ε-(´∀｀; )

He messed with them alright, specifically Pure Vanilla, but instead of an experienced puppeteer, he came off more as… a sore loser :P I’m saying this as someone who like him, btw!!

I mean it makes sense, considering everything! His play gimmick was fun but felt more like Shadow Milk taking the opportunity to puff up his own ego and finally make fun of people. Which would be fine if it wasn’t for the fact that our heroes’ reaction to it was “Oh, don’t believe his lies! He likes to cause confusion and chaos! He takes the truth and covers it in lies!!”

Like…he’s not really lying, he’s just retelling the story in a way that makes him and his friends look good in the most blatant way possible. Like they act he’s manipulating them in some grand way when reasonably, them and us, the audience, know what’s truth anyways.

I hope this makes sense, I’m not great at explaining stuff (￣▽￣;) I just think the pure vanilla mental conflict was the closest to what I wanted to see for Shadow Milk but even that has some lost potential.

I think that’s a good way for me to summarize it- missed potential.

#bonsi talks #sorry I didn’t think I’d yap a lot about this (=´∀｀) #cookie run kingdom spoilers #lemme just add rq that this ain't a serious criticism of the story and just how I feel about it! <:P if you like it then heck ye

[xnchxntmxnt]

hiyaa !!

i’d like to request fluff sjsjsjsjsj

i’ve recently got back into hq,, once again<3

so teru pls n ty cause just,, he

anyway if you pls, male/gn reader who gets rejected and basically gets comforted n then realises,, oh shit i like you not this mfer 😦😦 so there’s sobbing and ilys but then a real ily and it’s just all so

aww

anyway !! don’t feel pressured to write ever, have a good day :]]

my b!! forgot to sign off lol,,

yr recent ask was me !! i have returned <3

-🌱

we're gonna pretend i didn't get this ask several months ago ok im sorry

small conversations, smaller confessions

Fandom: Haikyuu!!

Character: Terushima Yuuji

Warnings: some kissing at the end, maybe a little cursing?

Notes: i decided to empty out my drafts/inbox and this was the latest thing in my inbox again i am so sorry. thank you @possiblypoe for the help love /p <3

gn!reader!

Reblogs > likes

It was hard to stay upset when your best friend had ice cream smeared on his nose and was giving you a retelling of a conversation he’d had with his four-year-old brother, while somehow managing to sound exactly like his brother when he mimicked him. 

For the last ten minutes, Terushima had been parading around your room, overdramatically imitating his brother while taking quick breaks to shove more ice cream (from the giant tub, by the way—you were sharing it since he forgot to buy himself anything on your way home) in his mouth. 

The person you’d had a crush on rejected you at school, and since they had, Teru had been right by your side. You had to threaten him to get him to go to class, actually. He was trying to be incredibly supportive, though, and comfort you in any way he could. 

Which lead to him insisting on going to the store, buying a ton of your favorite junk food, and now he was doing everything in his power to make you laugh. Including some rather inappropriate jokes that had him laughing harder than you. 

He sat on your bed, kicking his feet up and putting them on your lap. “How you feeling now?” he asked, taking a rather large scoop of ice cream and putting the whole thing in his mouth. 

You stared at him for a moment. “Worried you're going to get a brain freeze, Yu.”

He shrugged. “Eh, whatever,” he said through a mouthful of ice cream. “Not what I meant. You feeling better about what’s-their-name?”

“A little.” You let out a long sigh before shoving his feet off of you, deciding to lay down. Your pillows were on the other side of him, so you laid your head on his leg. He smiled down at you as you kept talking. “You’ve done a lot for me. Thank you, Yu.”

“Anything for you,” he said, booping the tip of your nose. “Y’know, that person’s kind of a jerk, anyway. I don’t think that would have worked out well for you.”

“Did you hear something or are you saying that to make me feel better?”

“It’s just to make you feel better.” 

You scoff and roll your eyes at him. 

“I’m sorry! I don’t think I’ve heard one person say something bad about them! President Perfect, if you ask me. Maybe a little too perfect.”

The comedic suspicion in his voice made you laugh again. What would you do without him?

Teru was…amazing, really. He was there to comfort you at any given moment, always had something to make you laugh, and had this energy that drew people to him like a magnet. He was always so chipper and, despite sometimes needing someone to reign his shenanigans in, really cared about the people around him and made sure they knew it. 

When you looked up at him again, a content smile stuck on his face as he looked back, something seemed like it clicked in the back of your head. You’d been pining after this person for a few weeks and sure, maybe you liked them, but there was something different about Yuuji. How much of that was years of friendship, and how much of that was something else?

You sat up abruptly, shaking the thought from your mind. You didn’t need to go there right now, what if he didn’t feel the same? What were you saying—you yourself weren’t sure how you felt about him! You needed to get your head straight first and then you could figure out what the hell all this meant. 

“You alright?” he asked, following you by sitting up as well, reaching out a hand to make sure nothing was wrong. 

Quickly, you nodded, jumping up and heading toward your door. “Yeah! I’ll, uh…ill be back in a sec. Feel free to finish off the ice cream.”

He made a weird face but you didn't take the time to look, instead running for the hallway and deciding to lock yourself in the bathroom for a moment. What were you thinking? Years of friendship down the drain because of a fleeting thought? But now you were thinking about it more and—

“Dammit!” you cursed, half-whispered as you slammed your fist on the counter. Now what were you going to do?

A quiet knock sounded from the other side of the door and you heard Yuuji’s voice. “(Y/N)?” he asked. “You good? Thought I heard something fall…”

You sighed and turned, opening the door. He offered an encouraging smile that broke whatever sanity you had left in your mind. 

All the emotional exhaustion finally got to you. Maybe it wasn't a great decision, it was definitely rash, but you grabbed his hand and pulled him a little closer, asking, “would you freak out if I kissed you right now?”

He stared, wide-eyed, but shook his head. Without a second thought to let your sense of reason kick in, you dropped his hand, grabbed him by the collar, and kissed him.

It was fast—much too fast—but you could feel the tension cut through the air and dissipate the closer you got. Expectantly, you looked at him as you pulled away, waiting for one of you to say something. You tried to, but the words didn’t want to come out. 

He spoke up first, barely above a whisper. “I have been waiting to do that for years,” he muttered before leaning in again. This time, he kissed you breathless, one hand gently on your hips and the other holding the side of your face. Your hand dropped from his collar and played with the (quite soft, actually) buzzed hair at the bottom of his head. 

You stayed there for a while, back against the counter, just kissing. Neither of you wanted to pull away from the other, he was more important than air, and apparently, he thought the same. 

After a minute or so of that, he leaned his forehead against yours, smiling against your lips. “You have no idea how much I wanted to do that,” he said, bumping his nose against yours. 

You leaned back quickly, looking him in the eye, expression that of shock. “You what?” you asked, just now processing his earlier words. 

He laughed and laid his head on your shoulder. “I’m sorry, (Y/N), I…I never wanted to say anything, but I’ve had a massive crush on you since…what, probably first year?”

Gently, you smacked the back of his head, asking, “why didn’t you tell me?”

Yuuji picked his head up and kissed your cheek. “I didn’t know you’d feel the same!” he said, mimicking your tone. “Let’s just…skip that part. Less talking, more kissing.”

He paused for a moment to make sure you didn’t want to argue/would be okay with that (always a gentleman) so you closed the gap between you. He was right, talking could wait.

taglist

@emswordss @kodzukoi @animated-moon @duckymcdoorknob @mysterystarz @sirimirihiro @momoewn @otaku-thingz

#//ᴏɴᴇꜱʜᴏᴛꜱ #//ɪɴʙᴏx #//ᴏʀɪɢɴᴀʟ ᴡᴏʀᴋꜱ #🌱 anon #terushima yuuji #terushima yuuji x reader #terushima yuuji x gn reader #terushima #terushima haikyuu #terushima x reader #terushima x gn reader #haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x gn reader #johzenji

[queer-ragnelle]

Hello. I shall thank you again for replying to my requests, which are really helpful. But there is a question that I would love to ask. Or maybe two

1. What are your personal favourite Arthuriana movies/series?

2. Which Arthuriana movies/series are the most accurate to the Legends?

3. Which ones shall I avoid? And why?

P. S. I have already watched:

Knights of the Round Table (1953) 9/10 (I loved Lancelot and Elaine together. He loved her, just not as much as he loved Guinevere... Arthur/Lancelot chemistry. Lancelot vs Mordred... Unexpected duel)

Lancelot du Lac (1974) 7/10 (I loved Gawain and the relationship with Lancelot)

Excalibur (1981) 10/10 (The movie is a gem. I wish we had more like this nowadays... The Lancelot redemption was amazing)

Cursed (2020) 6/10 (I only liked the Fae lore there)

BBC Merlin 8/10 (There were some wack moments. And Arthur wasn't really my jam. But the show is amazing)

hi! you’re welcome, i’m glad it was helpful. :^)

this is going to be a long multi-part answer, so i’ll throw it below a cut to avoid an obnoxious wall of text on the dash.

1. What are your personal favourite Arthuriana movies/series?

movies:

Knights of The Round Table (1953)

Sword of Lancelot (1963)

Camelot (1967)

Lancelot du Lac (1974)

Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975)

Excalibur (1981) [review]

Merlin and The Sword (1985)

A Knight’s Tale (2001)

Tristan and Isolde (2006)

Kaamelott First Installment (2021)

The Green Knight (2021)

shows:

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956–1957)

BBC The Legend of King Arthur (1979)

Merlin (1998)

Starz Camelot (2011)

2. Which Arthuriana movies/series are the most accurate to the Legends?

finding an “accurate” arthurian adaptation or retelling is an exercise in futility. no iteration exists without its own unique interpretation, including the medieval texts. gawain is obscenely inconsistent, so determining what constitutes an “accurate” characterization of him is literally impossible. the same can be said for every aspect of the legends. each author does their own thing! the other problem is that even if what’s there is reminiscent of the stories it references, something is inevitably missing. most of the time it’s gaheris. (okay, it’s always gaheris.) more often than not, the entire prose tristan cast gets cut. occasionally, one of the lads will show up on his own completely disconnected from the original lore… (palamedes in the black knight (1954), lamorak in sword of lancelot (1963) and again in kaamelott the first installment (2021), dinadan in camelot (1967), and tristan in king arthur (2004)) but i digress. if you’re looking for something that covers the majority of the story from arthur’s conception to his death, the choices are minimal.

BBC The Legend of King Arthur (1979)

Excalibur (1981)

3. Which ones shall I avoid? And why?

movies:

The Black Knight (1954): orientalist, black face palamedes. enough said.

Sword of The Valiant (1984): a remake of gawain and the green knight (1973) with worse everything from casting to costuming to pacing. tall, jacked gawain isn’t real and can’t hurt me.

Guinevere (1994): if i was persia woolley and they showed me this movie calling it an adaptation of my books, i’d maul them.

First Knight (1995): so ick it’s funny. wow this lancelot sucks. american accent, insufferable, entitled, gives face-hugger kisses? convoluted scenarios presented as romantic. lame costuming. questionable age gap between arthur/guin. he knew her as a child????? girl run.

Quest For Camelot (1998): rip author vera chapman, fortunate enough to pass before witnessing this abominable adaptation. why americanize the names lynette and gareth? why the hideous animation? the shabby song and dance numbers? the books are dark let’s make a kids musical out of it!

King Arthur: Legend of The Sword (2017): weaksauce attempt to cash in on existing audience. discombobulated the lore until unrecognizable. two women are fridged in the first half hour. strangely edited. nobody is likable. overall cringe.

shows:

King Arthur and The Knights of Justice (1992): nothing of substance here, typical 90s cartoon existing to sell toys.

The Mists of Avalon (2001): i’ll never support anything related to author marion zimmer bradley. she’s dead, let’s kill her legacy too.

Merlin’s Apprentice (2006): not sure what happened here but this sequel to the 1998 original is the biggest downgrade ever.

The Seven Deadly Sins (2014–present): every pitfall an anime can have, this one has in spades. beyond the bastardization of arthurian lore, it’s hard to follow chronologically bc the seasons are named not numbered, full of shameless fan service, lolis, a drop in budget resulted in ugly cgi animation.

Netflix Cursed (2020): take a shot every time a nicknamed character is revealed to be loosely arthurian. no don’t you’ll get alcohol poisoning. did netflix do it? did they solve misogyny by putting a sword in a girl’s hand? this was so disappointing it offended me.

anyway if there’s something i didn’t mention here then it’s mid. bbc merlin isn’t really my thing but it’s fun! transformers feels so far removed from actual arthuriana it’s not worth discussion, unlike some others that are trying really hard and suck so much. stuff like that. hope this gives you some things to check out next!

#arthurian legend #arthurian legends #arthuriana #arthurian mythology #fanficwritinggremlin #ask

[kaylans-imagines]

eddie munson and tulip hopper: best unconventional friends

synopsis: in which y/n 'tulip' hopper teaches her kids to drive and gets roped into a competition with steve.

disclaimer: this can be read as a standalone, but the character 'tulip' is part of the mini series i may or may not be writing :) there will be other parts to this (they arent connected but yk) also petal is the moms nickname, not her actual name.

warnings: cursing. a lot of it was written by my bbg @farfromharry and also eddie gets called some names. several time skips and eddies d*ath erasure

word count: 15k (my bbg went ham)

~*~

1971

The circumstances under which Y/N Tulip Hopper and Edward ‘Eddie’ Munson were cliche. It was the classic tale of the underdog being bullied by the popular kids when an unlikely hero steps in and puts an end to it. In retellings, the boy is always the one who becomes the savior, and the girl the damsel in distress. But in the story of Y/N and Eddie, it was the opposite. She had been the one to save him from relentless jibes and teasing. Stepping in front of the asshole kids in corduroy overalls and a green undershirt, her hair managed into two different colored scrunchies, and a scowl on her face. To five year old Eddie, she looked like a superhero. 

She hadn’t needed to intervene. All Eddie had wanted was some chalk, just to join the kids who were drawing on the scratchy concrete of the playground. But on his way to grab some, he’d been intercepted, George O and George P–with their puppy dog Steve Harrington trailing behind them, had told him trailer park kids like him weren’t allowed to use their fancy chalk. 

He had visibly deflated, but upon not wanting to go home with a black eye, he didn’t protest. But she did. 

Little Tulip Hopper had stepped in front of him, shielding him from the big mean bullies who had been just, no more than five minutes ago, happily drawing beside her. She made a big threat about how those chalks were hers, bought by her step-dad, and if they didn’t want their parents to find out about their mean ways, then they needed to back off. 

At first he was scared she had only made it worse. Despite being five year olds, the more aggressive two of the three sent him looks of fury, ones that would scare a grown man, he thought, (realistically, no they wouldn’t, but they had Eddie trembling in his worn down Converse.) But then they actually backed off, apologized to her and not him–but he didn’t care about that– and then left. He was amazed at her power. 

With all that just happened, too much for his small brain, he took a seat on the ground, staring up at the little girl in awe still. 

Once she was sure the bullies were gone, she turned to him. “Hi,” Eddie blinked, brown eyes staring at the little girl with two buns on her head, “I’m sorry for what those boys did.”

“You’re not gonna do that too, right?” he asked wearily, fearing her assumed meanness. After what he had just witnessed, he was scared she would turn on him too. 

“No,” she denied, taking a seat next to him and handing him a piece of green chalk, “I just wanted to tell you that I’ll totally steal their desserts. I know what their lunchboxes look like.”

“Are they your friends?” Eddie asked, taking it from her. 

“Not mine,” she sighed, “but I hang out with them because my family knows their families. They suck.”

“Oh,” was his response. He looked down at the chalk drawing he was absentmindedly coloring in, “does your family suck?”

Y/N let out a breath, shaking her head and cringing at the flower she thought she was doodling. “No, my mommy’s really nice, and my step-dads pretty cool. But not everyone in our neighborhood is like that.” 

“Oh,” was his response. His uncle had warned him about getting caught up with the rich folk of Hawkins–they had so much control and power over the small town and if he were to get accused of something by them…well, they couldn’t afford to dispute it. And the little girl next to him was definitely affluent, if the nice shoes on her feet and prim clothes on her person were any indication. 

“What’s your name?” she asked, looking at him with wide eyes, curiosity swimming in the irises. 

“Eddie,” he stuttered. He flinched when she thrust her hand out, giving him a gapped-tooth smile.

“I’m Y/N,” she introduced, taking his hand in hers, “but you can call me Tulip.”

“That’s a weird name,” Eddie panicked when he saw her frown. He had said the wrong thing. And any potential of making a friend would be wasted, all because he spoke before he could think. 

In her hand she held a chocolate ding dong, offering it to him with a mischievous smile. Eddie was reluctant to take it, but Y/N was persistent, going as far as to shoving it in his hands. The two sat in silence, relishing in the privacy being distanced from the other kids on the playground granted them. Eddie wasn’t good at making friends. He’d been labeled an outcast for things outside of his control, like being all but an orphan and living in a trailer park. He didn’t mind either of those things, but the rich kids liked to scrutinize him for it. So, he did what any other socially awkward kid would do and faked a heart attack. It would either make the little girl next to him laugh OR it would make her never want to speak to him again. 

“Are you done?” she asked after a couple minutes of his dramatic display, “I didn’t poison your ding dong, you ding dong.” 

Eddie let out a rebellious chuckle, and from the corner of his eye, he could see the crooked smile on her face. His laughter died down when he caught sight of her chalk drawing, confusion evident on his face with a little bit of horror. It just didn’t look right. 

“What is that supposed to be?” he asked her, genuinely wondering. Y/N closed her eyes and snorted. 

“Well, I started doing a flower, a periwinkle, but then I realized it looked nothing like it,” she grimaced, “so I tried to fix it by making it into a bird. Obviously it didn’t work if you’re asking me what it is.”

“I say this as nicely as I can,” he started, eyes locked on the atrocity decorating the pavement, “but you’re not very good at drawing. Like, at all.” 

Y/N pouted, “I thought it looked pretty decent.”

“Yeah,” he couldn’t help but chuckle, “if you close your eyes.” 

The little girl laughed, secretly agreeing with him. Despite her mom's many attempts to get her to ‘unleash her artistic side’ Y/N was not the best artist. She doubted she had any artistic blood in her body. And even if she did, it wouldn’t have been anything like the little boys’ talent. But of course, she was petulant. She was not about to tell the little boy she admired his drawing skills. 

“Well, what’s yours supposed to be?” It was obvious, but she was bitter. 

Eddie only stared at her, wondering if she was being ignorant on purpose or if she was being genuine. “It’s a dog.” To him it was blatantly clear, whether that was because he had drawn it, or because he just had some artistic ability. He didn’t know what she was–or wasn’t, he guessed, seeing. 

She was grumbling under her breath, mocking him, “It’s a dog,” she muttered. He was finding it extremely amusing that she was taking his prior comment so personally. So, she wasn’t a Da Vinci when it came to chalk drawings. They were pushing six, she had time to improve if she was that desperate.

He wasn’t trying to hurt her feelings, that wasn’t his intention at all, and he was scared he might have. Wayne had told him before that he wasn’t the greatest when it came to socializing, and he often said things that wounded others. Usually he tried to get around apologizing for it by lightening the mood. A little joking around never caused more damage, right? 

“You’re just jealous,” he teased, nudging her ever so lightly with his elbow. 

She huffed, trying to hide the smile that she so desperately wanted to show to him. “Am not. My blind Uncle could draw better than you.” 

As the two laughed loudly in the secluded area of the playground to their own teasing, they both realized they had just made a friend. Neither of them knew just how important they would come to be to one another, or how time together would become cherished as they got older. But the day Tulip Hopper saved Eddie Munson from a trio of rich bullies, was the day they became lifelong best pals. 

1971

The very day Eddie met his best friend, he was eager to tell anyone who would listen. Right as he got home he pestered his mother to listen, but as usual she didn’t care. She mindlessly hummed along as he went on a long, exuberant kid rant, however not a single bit of information was heard. She didn’t care if he'd made a friend, or he was happy–he’d have to tell someone that was actually concerned about him. So, he waited until the next time Wayne came over. 

His foot was barely in the house before Eddie was basically tackling him. “Uncle Wayne, guess what!” 

The child-like excitement filled his heart with joy. It didn’t matter that he’d had a long day, a bad one, his nephew was dying to tell himself and he would be damned if he didn’t listen to every word. “What, big guy?” 

“I made a friend today! Well, she saved me from some bullies. She’s so cool.” He was happy to hear that. It wasn’t news to him that Eddie had had a difficult start to his schooling years, always coming home with bruises or scrapes from various fights he’d gotten into. Though he claimed he never started them. This was possibly his first friend, Wayne wanted to hear all about her. 

He planned to take him to the couch at first, but then he caught sight of the woman he called his sister-in-law and took a detour to Eddie’s room instead. It was safe to say he didn’t get along with Judy Munson, even if she had given him the person he loved most in the world. 

The kid’s room was small, but it was his own space, filled with various things Wayne had purchased when he had the extra money, or stuff he found around the trailer park– sometimes even in the woods. It was cool, screamed Eddie right from when you stepped in. It was the boy’s safespace, the place he could hide out when his parents were being strange. 

“So, tell me all about her.”

That quick sentence had the boy delving into a detailed, overdramatic and wild story about how she saved him. He even compared her to Superman at one point– then changed his mind and decided she was more like Batman. She did sound pretty perfect from what the older man was hearing and he was over the moon the kid finally had someone to look out for him when he wasn’t around. It helped him relax a bit. Usually when he was sent off to school, Wayne had to wait and see what kind of injury he would return with, but now that would no longer be the case. “What’s her name?”

“Tulip– Well, she told me to call her Tulip. Her actual name is Y/N Hopper,” he explained. The man paused. Back in high school he had known a Hopper, Jim to be exact. They weren’t close, he was a year or so older, left for Vietnam as soon as he graduated. But his girlfriend, his girlfriend was the one that always caught Wayne’s eye. 

Just like Hop, she was older, popular, a complete spectacle to someone like him. She was way out of his league, even if she was single at all in high school– which Jim made sure she wasn’t– he wouldn’t have stood a chance. Now, he didn’t know entirely what occurred with them after they graduated, he tried to stop thinking about her when that happened. So, he didn’t know if they’d wound up having a kid together, but he did know that now Petal was some fancy, rich lawyer. All while Jim was working his way up to Chief of police. He couldn’t imagine anything good could come from the trailer park boy sniffing around some Hawkins, rich girl, princess. “I knew a Hopper, back in high school. Wonder if that’s her dad.”

The look on the kid’s face was not one that was amused. “I don’t know, but Uncle Wayne, stop interrupting.”

With a quick apology, he didn’t open his mouth again the entire time the little boy was talking. There was a stupid grin on his face as he listened though. He just loved the way his eyes lit up. Not a single part of him understood how the woman Eddie called his mother couldn’t care to look at him when he got like this.

It was casually thrown in there at some point that Tulip had asked Eddie to come over to meet her mother, so now that was another thing on Wayne’s mind that made him nervous. It wasn’t like his brother or sister-in-law would take him to such a thing. They didn't care if he had friends or not. 

The first time Wayne was supposed to meet Tulip Hopper, he was scared to death. He felt like he was holding his breath the entire time. He had asked around a little at work, found out she was in fact Jim Hopper’s kid with Petal, though the two weren’t together now. He wondered if either of them even remembered him. Back in high school he was quiet, didn’t have a lot of friends, but he got through by not being noticed.

The plan was that he take Eddie over to the large house on the other side of Hawkins, the side of the city where only the rich lived. It was a little horrifying, considering someone like him was treated like shit by those exact people. There was a fear in him that his nephew would end up being treated the same way, and his little heart would break. Wayne didn’t know if he could stand that. Sure they could ridicule him all they wanted, he was a grown man he could take it, but not his innocent five year old boy–he’d had enough hurt already.

His truck certainly didn’t fit in with the fancy cars around, he stuck out like a sore thumb and he hated it. But he was doing this for Eddie. Who, speaking of, was pretty much bouncing in his seat.

The house was just as enormous as he expected. He had never seen a home so big, barely even a building so large despite something like the school. He made Eddie hold his hand during the trip from the car to the front door, even though it was only a short distance, he didn’t like the thought of being in a place like this where they were definitely unwelcome. 

As he knocked, Eddie couldn’t stop telling his uncle that he was going to positively adore his new best friend. Wayne hoped he would too, if not he was going to be very torn about what to do. In his head he was praying she wasn’t going to be a snobby little girl, that she truly was as kind as Eddie had said and he wasn’t just being naive. 

The red colored door was pulled open to a familiar face. The sight of Petal standing in front of him, not looking like she’d changed a bit in the last seven years, felt like a dream. He wasn’t honestly entirely convinced he wasn’t dreaming. He would have to pinch himself when he got back in his truck. “Hi, you must be Eddie.”

He nodded, his hair which was getting far too long, bobbing with him. Like the little gentleman he was, he held out his hand for the woman to shake. With a quiet huff of amusement, she took it, greeting him like ‘proper adults do’ as he said. When Tulip caught sight of Eddie, she was instantly dragging him away from the adults, insisting they had things to do. Petal just laughed, a sound the man opposite her loved to hear. At that very moment, she decided she would do anything for that little boy. Whereas Wayne couldn’t get an opinion on Tulip considering she hadn’t stayed long. 

“You can come and get him in a few hours. Or I can drop him off for you, if you’d like.”

Immediately he shook his head. Someone like Petal would surely start to think less of him and less of her daughter’s friend if she saw where they lived. For Eddie’s sake, he wanted to keep that a secret as long as possible. “I-I can get him, don’t worry.”

She nodded. “Yeah that sounds good…” she trailed off as she waited for him to give her his name, though what he said next hadn’t been what she was expecting at all. 

“I don’t know if you remember,” he chuckled, feeling shy to admit to her that he knew her from way back when. “We actually went to high school together. I think we talked a couple times.” 

Her brows furrowed, just as he expected. He was embarrassed now, of course she wouldn’t remember someone as plain and boring as him. “We did?” 

“You really don’t remember?”

She shook her head. “Sorry. I-”

He was quick to let her know it wasn’t that big of a deal, waving his hands to brush it off like some crazy person. “I wouldn’t remember me either. It’s okay.” It looked like she wanted to, Petal had never been mean to him, or anyone really, so he couldn’t imagine she was being this way on purpose. “This one time, you had a fight with Hopper, right before graduation, I think. You ran into me in the woods, we talked, you cried. It was weirdly nice.” 

A sudden look of realization crossed her features, one that made his heart skip a beat. “I do remember. How could I forget you, Wayne Munson?” He hadn’t expected his name to come out of her mouth, not without him having to introduce himself. “You were doing drugs, offered me a blunt, and I said no,” she recalled. “I didn’t tell you, but I thought I was pregnant. That’s why I said no–turns out I was.” She laughed to herself. She definitely was pregnant then if she now had a five year old running around with his nephew.

“You looked so different back then,” she added. His cheeks were flushing much against his will. All he could think was that she noticed him, and she carried that memory with her all these years later. 

He hummed. “Well, my hair was buzzed. Certainly looked a lot younger considering I wasn’t taking care of that kid in there.” 

At the mention of Eddie, she seemed confused and like she wanted to ask something. A couple of times she opened her mouth, but would close it again a second or so later when nothing came out. Until eventually, she went for it. “Is he yours?” She was only asking because never once had seen him with a woman–not that she was paying around the clock attention to him. 

“No, uh, he’s my brother’s kid. But he’s a deadbeat, mom’s no better,” he shrugged. Those words made Petal sad. Her encounter with Eddie had only been short, but he seemed sweet. If he was anything like Wayne, then he probably was. She didn’t think the kid deserved such a lack of love in his life, definitely not from his own parents of all people. 

“Well, old friend, he’s welcome here any time.”

At the mention of him, he seemed to come running, confused why his uncle was still hovering by the front door. Surely he should have left like, hours ago, even if it’d only actually been minutes since they had arrived. “What are you still doing here?” he asked, not in a rude way, just curious. 

He couldn’t even explain himself, his blush coming back in full force as he looked between the young mother and the kid. With the smile on her face, he was convinced she knew exactly why he was still there. But she let him keep his pride. 

March 1972

It wasn’t often that Eddie went hungry at school, but when he did, he knew to keep quiet about it. His uncle was the sole provider in their trailer, and sometimes, keeping the lights on and the air on took priority. He needed shoes and clothes that weren’t holey and too small for him more than he did a small lunch. His dad was too busy committing petty crimes to care about his son and his well-being. 

Usually, it was fine, no one asked or noticed really. It was easy to sneak it past teachers and your peers that you weren’t having lunch sometimes four or five days a week, when they didn’t care all that much that you were even there. No one tended to notice Eddie Munson. But Tulip did, she was observant. He was her best friend, the person she paid the most attention to in the world. So, when he abruptly stopped bringing his lunchbox to school one spring day, she asked him about it. Her mother had raised her to be the type of person who held concern for others; Eating in front of him when he had nothing, made her feel bad. 

“Where’s your lunch?” Y/N asked, biting into half of her sandwich. Eddie blinked, trying to come up with a lie Y/N wouldn’t be able to see through. 

“I left it in the classroom.” He lied, “my lunchbox. I left it in the classroom.”

That was how Y/N knew he wasn’t being truthful. When Eddie lied, he tended to repeat himself more than he should have. Y/N narrowed her eyes, unbelieving of him before passing him the other slice of her sandwich. Eddie refused, not wanting to admit that he was hungry. 

“Take it, Eddie,” she demanded, “I’ll pretend to believe you if you do.” 

So he did. And in his hunger, it was the best damn sandwich he’d ever eaten. He could never tell Tulip Hopper how grateful he was for her generosity at that moment. 

The very next day, he was surprised that she’d remembered. Everything flashed by as normal throughout the morning, their usual classes and conversations– Nothing felt different. But when lunch rolled around, it seemed as though the girl had already thought ahead. Carrying not only her lunch, but another alongside it. 

“Here,” Y/N said, stretching out her hand and the metal lunchbox she had. He looked at it wearily before taking it at her insistence. She looked satisfied. “Good, now my mom can rest happy. She was worried about you.” 

Those words echoed in his head. She was worried about him. He wasn’t mad that Tulip had told her mom, he knew she told her pretty much everything– they were close like that. But that didn’t prevent the looming dread that something as serious as being unable to feed a child could get him taken away from Wayne. That was only if her mom said something though. In the back of his brain, where the logical part was buried, he knew Petal wouldn’t do that. She may be a powerful woman, but she was caring and understanding all the same. 

As the two took seats on the usual bench they ate at, under the large oak tree, he was tentative to dig in. Tulip let him do his own thing, eager to start on her own food as soon as she could. When he did finally push all the overbearing thoughts out of the front of his mind, he lifted the lid of the new Scooby-doo lunchbox, and caught sight of a piece of paper placed delicately over the top of his sandwich. With a confused glance to the little girl opposite him, who wasn’t paying attention– just happily swinging her legs and munching on her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, he picked it up to read. 

Hi!

I hope you don’t mind, but I wanted to pack you lunch today–I fear I made too much for Tulip :(. Don’t tell her, but she doesn’t appreciate my cooking. She always brings back leftovers. I also wanted you to have the lunchbox, Tulip didn’t want it (again, why is my daughter so unappreciative?) Anyway, Teddy, have a great day, and please, make sure Tulip doesn’t get in trouble. I can’t have another call from the school. 

Love you loads. 

Mrs Petal.  

Ever so lightly he traced the shiny, smiley face sticker that was placed in the right hand corner. It did its job of bringing a smile to his face, one that Tulip got curious and asked him about. “What did she do this time?” She emphasized her words with a small eye roll, like she was embarrassed that her sweetheart mother had put so much effort into her friend’s lunch. 

He held up the colored paper for her to see, “She gave me a sticker.” 

Tulip had never seen someone get so excited over a simple piece of laminated, sticky paper. But seeing the way Eddie’s eyes sparkled, made her envious that she hadn’t gotten one. There was the possibility that her mother forgot, or maybe it was intentional that she didn’t put one on there. Either way, it upset her a little. “She didn’t give me a sticker,” she grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest as a frown spread across her face. 

“‘Cause I’m better than you,” he stated. This was the Eddie she knew, not the one who had been too shy and embarrassed to come out of his shell the past couple days. It all stemmed back to his nightmare that he would be taken away from the only relative of his that had ever cared to try for him. To love him. But he was confident now that Tulip’s mother would never allow such a thing. 

Tulip scoffed, but she couldn’t fight the grin creeping onto her face to replace her grumpy frown. “You wish, Munson.” Just like that, her best friend was back. 

Both the notes and the lunches continued as time went on. His gratitude was still impossible to express. Every day he watched Tulip go home with that Scooby-doo lunch box and a poorly scribbled ‘Thank you :)’ from him on some random scrap of paper he found (or on the back of Tulip’s note from her mom, while his was tucked safely away in his pocket.) Then she would return the next morning with it refilled. 

He was always excited to see what Petal had to say. Sometimes it could be the highlight of his day, though he would never admit that out loud for the sake of hurting Wayne’s feelings. He didn’t have time to do stuff like that for the boy, although he would like to, he didn’t need to be reminded that he was slacking in the affection department. 

Like every other day for the past couple weeks, when the pair of kids sat down on their regular bench, he was practically bouncing in his seat to read what she wrote. 

Good day!

I was thinking about you last night–we went to see Psycho and it made me think of you. Tully was telling me that you liked it. We can make a day out of it this weekend if you like. Anyway, dear, enjoy this beautiful day. I’ll see you when you get home. Remember you are going to change the world. 

I love you so much.  

Mom. 

“Lippy,” he called after reading the note. His best friend turned to him, raised eyebrows asking him what he wanted. His brow was drawn tight together as he outstretched his hand her way. “I think this is yours.” 

She looked at the green notecard in his hand before lifting her pale yellow one, “nope. This one’s mine. That one’s yours.” 

“But it says ‘I love you so much. Mom.’” He quoted. 

Y/N sighed, shaking her head slightly. “Um, mine always just say ‘mom’ so I guess my mom adopted you too. You can’t really fight it, just accept it.” It’s not like he wanted to. Eddie had always been envious about Y/N’s mom and the relationship the two had. He had never had one with his mom, unable to bond before she left recently. Judy Munson preferred cigarettes and alcohol to her son. But Y/N’s mom was always there for her daughter, laughing at inside jokes and buying her whatever she wanted. He had always yearned for that, and now he got it. 

Though he was positive it was different when it was your own mother, and he would have loved it to have been the woman that gave birth to him. Motherly love was motherly love, it didn’t matter which mom you got it from. Petal was more than happy to share her love around; there was plenty for all the kids that needed some. “Oh.” 

He didn’t know what else to say at first, so he just didn’t. In his eyes it was better to ask his questions once he had thought them through, or at least processed the information first. Tulip’s mom loved him like her own kid, that was crazy. If only Judy Munson could see him now, loved by a mother that wasn’t even his. It made him feel wanted in a way she never had, a way that only his Uncle had before. 

While he took it all in, he dug into the food she had provided for him. Another little thing she tended to do was give the kids different lunches day by day. On different days of the week she liked to switch it up, or maybe she’d sneak in something they had never tried before, even if it was just an option on the side in case they wanted to add it to their sandwich. For Eddie, that was a lot of stuff. Not having a lot of money and barely any food meant he and Wayne ate blandly pretty much everyday. There wasn’t a lot of choice, and he was okay with that–he understood, but it was nice finding new foods he liked. 

Today's new food was pickles. The green vegetable seemed intimidating at first, with the strong smell and intense color. But he was content to give it a shot anyway. Tulip couldn’t say enough good things about them, “they’re my favorite,” she kept reminding him, happily munching away. 

Now, Eddie had never known himself to be allergic to anything. He always thought that that was something only a few people had. Never in a million years would he have guessed he was allergic to his best friend's favorite snack. He never had a reason to eat them, they were always just something neither he or his uncle cared for. Besides, they were often too expensive, so they didn’t fall under the category of attainable. 

Now here he was, having the unfortunate, and scarring, experience of finding out he couldn’t eat the vegetable without his throat closing up and his skin breaking out in painful, itchy hives. The seven year old was justifiably terrified as his best friend leaped into action to guide him to the nurse’s office. Despite the guilt bubbling in the back of her throat, she pushed down her desire to cry and focused solely on Eddie and the frightening way he was breathing. 

Once inside the office, the older woman looked at the child with such pity. Unlike Tulip, the boy wasn’t afraid of letting anyone see when he was upset, and right now there was fear in his chest and tears welling in his eyes.

To him, that woman was a superhero. He didn’t know how to settle a reaction like the one his body was having to the pickles, but she worked her magic as best she could. In no time, his symptoms had certainly relaxed, but not vanished entirely. He could breathe a little better, to the point he no longer thought he was going to die if he wasn’t gasping for air. But he still didn’t really understand what was going on, nor did the scared Tulip holding his hand. All he knew was that he could no longer eat pickles and the nurse insisted he call one of his parents to come get him, which in this case would actually be his beloved Uncle. 

He was ever so glad he memorized the number to the plant where he worked. 

A teary Eddie held the phone in his slightly puffy red hand, sniffling while it rang. A stranger answered first, being asked by the timid six year old if he could speak to Wayne. After a few minutes his Uncle’s voice filtered through, confused as to why anyone was calling him when he was working. Eddie couldn’t help but feel relief; he was finally going to get a bit of comfort. “Wayne?” 

He recognised the voice instantly. “Eddie,” his uncle breathed, “what’s wrong, big guy?” 

“I don’t know,” he wheezed, “I can’t breathe. Why can’t I breathe?” 

The words sent him into a panic, “What d’you mean, Kid?”

Eddie explained briefly that he’d eaten something and then all of a sudden, thought he was going to die. Not actually exaggerating for once in his very short life. Even though, at first, he was in a panic thinking the child was unsafe, he quickly pieced it together that he must be having an allergic reaction. Wayne’s heart broke in that moment, clenching at the thought of his son nephew scared and crying because of that fear. He knew he wouldn’t be able to leave work, and deep down Eddie knew that too, but he wanted nothing more than to leave for the school and be there to comfort him. But he really couldn’t afford to lose his job. He was already pushing his luck by taking a personal call. 

“I’m scared, Wayne,” The older Munson frowned, closing his eyes as he fought back a couple tears at the tone of his voice. How he wished he could be with him. Just to tell him everything was okay. 

“I’m sorry, Eds,” and he truly was. Eddie was used to people not being there, mainly the adults in his life, but this time it was different. He knew Wayne wanted to be, would have been in a heartbeat, but it was a sticky situation. The real person he should be mad at was his dad. That man was no doubt passed out on the floor of the trailer, drunk at twelve pm on a Tuesday. 

“I know,” the younger boy sniffed, craving the comfort of someone familiar. “It’s okay.”

He shouldn’t have been comforting his uncle, it should’ve been the other way around, but he would do anything for Wayne. Never did he want the man to think Eddie was upset with him or let down. He tried more than anyone else. 

Before the call even ended, Tulip took it that it hadn’t gone well, and her chest ached for him. He deserved to have hundreds of relatives ready to drop anything for him, just like she had. She hated how unfair life could be to sweethearts like Eddie Munson. A little boy who just warranted the world. 

She began to scheme. 

Already in the nurse's office, it was easy to get her attention and whine that the little girl had developed a stomach ache. Eddie was confused as she was fine no less than two minutes ago. Part of him was worried she could be having a reaction too, but the wink she sent his way when the older woman wasn’t looking, told him otherwise. 

She used her ruse as a means to phone her mom. She too was at work, in a meeting no less, but that didn’t matter to her the second Tulip told Petal what was going on with Eddie. Not only was the motherly instinct kicking in, but also the guilt at the fact she had been the one to provide him with the pickles. Oh, she felt terrible. If the sad little boy had known the woman walked out of a meeting just to help him, he would have been shocked, but he also understood she could afford to do that. 

In no time she was waltzing into the room with urgency. Her eyes scanned the room frantically before they landed on the boy whose skin had become a speckled red shade as a result of the side effects. 

“Teddy,” the lawyer breathed, wanting to take him into her arms and make all his woes disappear. She smiled at her daughter. Y/N had dutifully been by his side the moment the symptoms kicked in, allowing him to seek solace in her. 

“Mommy,” Eddie cried without thinking. The weight of his words would sink into him later, and he would apologize profusely then. But now. Now he just needed her. (And when he did apologize, she would wave them off with a kiss on his forehead and a promise that she’d always be a mother to him; even if she didn’t have the pleasure of giving him life.) 

The mother couldn’t help but take his head in her arms, especially after the title had been uttered from his trembling lips, cradling him to her chest and rubbing his back. She didn’t know that her actions would incite his tears, but it wasn’t long after she had taken him in her arms that he started sobbing. The older woman didn’t mind that her blouse was getting stained or that she was missing work. Her kid needed her, and there was no other place she’d want to be. 

“I’m signing him and Y/N out, Lorraine,” she informed, digging into her bag for her pen. The nurse nodded, motioning to the clipboard on her desk and allowing her to do so. When she finished, she turned to her daughter and son. “Tully, I’m gonna go with Teddy to his classroom. Think you’ll be okay going to yours?” 

Her daughter nodded, running off in the direction of her classroom to grab her stuff. Petal knew Eddie wouldn’t ask for more comfort than she’d already provided, but she also knew that he needed to be placated even more. To keep from overstepping a boundary between them, she offered him her hand, waiting for him to either take it or deny it. When he did, she squeezed it and walked with him to his classroom. 

He was clinging onto her for dear life as they traveled to get his coat and bag, Petal doing the honors of carrying them for him, (not for her daughter though, she didn’t almost die.) That was all they needed before they met up with Tulip and headed off on their way. 

There was a mandatory stop for ice cream, obviously. Though the mother-daughter duo were almost floored to hear Eddie had never had the pleasure of trying the dessert. It was all the more reason why they were determined to get him some, any flavor–or flavors, he wanted. 

“You mean, I can pick more than one?” The childlike amazement in his eyes was heartwarming, but at the same time made the older woman sad. Why would anyone rob such a precious child– any child for that matter–of this kind of joy? She didn’t verbally answer his question, only nodded and encouraged him to do so. 

In the end, he decided on raspberry and cotton candy. Tulip got mint chocolate chip, her favorite. And Petal, for herself, landed on Strawberry.

The mother was headed to pay when Eddie tugged on the sleeve of her coat to get her attention. “C-Can we get one for Wayne too?” he asked, shyly. His voice was almost so quiet that Petal didn’t hear him, but luckily she did, and his thoughtfulness made her heart swell. She reached a hand down to ruffle his hair, grinning at him. “Of course, we can.”

Together they settled on pistachio. The lawyer paid for the four ice creams and then ushered the two children out of the small shop. Eddie was surprised they were allowed to eat such a messy food in her expensive car, his dad would never let him do such a thing– but it was Petal’s belief that a car could be cleaned, crucial childhood memories couldn’t wait. 

Driving home was filled with much laughter and Tulip’s horrid singing along to the radio. Eddie had complained a couple times about the screeching in his ear, but she always just took it in her stride and raised her voice louder. It was a lovely moment for the mother to witness, happy that her daughter and pseudo-son were getting along so well. 

By the time they made it back to the large, fancy home, the three’s desserts had been eaten, Wayne’s slowly melting in Eddie’s hand, and the incident concerning the little boy had been almost forgotten (at least visibly anyway.) It was a rush to get it into the fridge once inside, but the mother was convinced it would be fine; still edible at least, even if it was a weird mush. To pass the time until Eddie was picked up by his Uncle, the two kids played on Tulip’s new Nintendo, a console that had only recently been released. 

It was almost eight when the man showed up at the door of the Providence residence. He was jittery, understandably so after what he had experienced over the phone earlier on. It was hard for him to think this door was going to open and there his nephew would be, completely okay. Wayne had only been taking care of Eddie, practically full time, since the beginning of the year. In reality the dad was supposed to be caring for his son, but Chet Munson was no father. He couldn’t believe in the couple months he’d been in his care, he had already almost died. 

Knocking was nerve-wracking. He even thought he might be sweating as he stood on the step and painstakingly waited for someone to open up. 

When they did, he was greeted with Petal’s friendly face. “Hi, Wayne. He fell asleep, come on in.” 

She led him inside, over to the couch where the small boy resided peacefully. He almost felt bad waking him. For a little longer he let him sleep, just long enough that he could talk to the matriarch about what had happened. But that was going to have to be put off for a few minutes while his nephew’s best friend welcomed him. 

“Wayne!” Tulip cheered, rushing over to him to give him a hug. Her tiny arms wrapped around his waist where she could reach. His hug back wasn’t quite as enthusiastic. It was a head rub more than anything really, but she didn’t mind. Their interaction was short, the little girl being diverted by her mother to elsewhere. 

The older woman turned to her daughter. “Tully, why don’t you go and get Eddie’s stuff?”

There was no hesitation or protest, she just did it. Now that the pair were alone, aside from the unconscious child, they could talk like adults. “Thank you for helping him. He needed someone today,” he began. “I’m glad you were there.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he was feeling bad. It was a mix of things, the fact he couldn’t be there even though he would have loved more than anything to have been, but Petal could. And that his nephew had almost died and he wouldn’t have even been there. She also seemed to know just the right thing to say. 

“Don’t feel bad, he’s okay. He’s the happiest kid and that’s all because of you, you’re doing your best.” Her words did reassure him. He never knew that a singular person could make him feel so comforted or relaxed, but apparently Petal had a strong way with words–obviously, she’s a lawyer. This helped him understand why Eddie felt so comfortable in her presence. Even with what she said though, there was still brief uncertainty in his eyes that came along with the fact he had yet to hear the kid’s voice. “Go wake him, I can tell you want to.”

The man thanked her again, nodding his head. He was by Eddie’s side in seconds, trying to rouse him from his sleep in a way that wouldn’t startle him. It only took a little whispering and a single nudge for him to see those puppy eyes fluttering open, immediate relief spreading throughout his entire body. Now he could be a hundred percent sure he was okay. “Hi, sleepyhead.” The boy stretched, and like his usual clumsy self, almost fell off of the couch.

“Please never let me eat pickles again, Wayne.” The words prompted a chuckle from him, glad that even through such a terrifying experience, Eddie could have a sense of humor. 

“Never again.”

As Tulip brought the kid’s stuff, not much more conversation was made. There were lots of thank you’s from both Munsons, and Wayne finally got his ice cream, before the pair headed on their way. It was almost the five-year-old's bedtime, and after the day he’d had, he must've been exhausted. The man left the house with the sleepy boy in his arms, his head on his shoulders as he fought to keep awake. Wayne’s large hand brushed over the expanse of his back, his erratic heart finally slowing down now that Eddie was safe and unharmed in his arms. “You scared me, big guy.”

That made the boy frown. He felt bad for doing that, it was never his intention. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey,” Wayne placated, running his hand over his hair, “it’s not your fault.” 

The two talked about it while he buckled him into the back seat of his truck, sharing smiles and simple promises. Stuff like Wayne would keep him away from the food, and Eddie would never scare him like that again. It was what they both desperately needed to hear. 

1972

When Eddie had proposed a playdate, he hadn’t expected her to suggest his house. After all, why would a rich kid from the richest neighborhood in Hawkins want to play in the trailer park. But he couldn’t say no, after all, it had been his idea. He knew Y/N wasn’t like the other pretentious and snobby well-off kids in Hawkins, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be the littlest bit judgemental when she sees his trailer home and compares it to her mansion. Little did he know she only suggested it because she was sick of her own house. 

Upon her first time seeing the trailer, she didn’t seem automatically repulsed, which was good in his eyes. She was actually pretty intrigued by it all, it was the complete opposite to her home, and at six years old she had never seen anything like it. The entire place was a mystery to her, but she was obsessed from the second she stepped foot inside. 

“Can you show me around?” she quizzed, bouncing on her feet in anticipation. She couldn’t wait for him to open the door fully. 

“Yeah. Um, follow me,” he instructed. The two started in the small, but cozy, living room. Then there was the kitchen, the one that was usually empty. And then all that was left were the two tiny bedrooms and the bathroom. “And well, this is it. It’s short but, um, there’s not a lot here.” He was nervous about her reaction, but the one he got definitely wasn’t what he had been expecting. It actually surpassed all his expectations of her.

“I love it,” she gushed, eyes widening as she took in the distance between the rooms. “You’re right next to your uncle? I sleep so far away from my mom.” 

He didn’t know how she managed to make such positivity out of his situation, but it was exactly what he needed to hear. It wasn’t pity, it was genuine excitement that just so happened to make him feel better. She was never one to judge, but Eddie hated to assume the best in people only to be let down in the end almost ninety percent of the time. No one could blame him. Really, what were the odds of a rich girl like the Hopper kid being content with a home like this when she had everything she could ever ask for? Luckily for him, the odds were in his favor. 

After she had seen the inside and what little the place had to offer, not that she was thinking that–Eddie was–the two ventured outside with a quick unnecessary apology from him. “Sorry, I don’t have cool stuff like you do. But we could go outside, ride bikes or something.” 

That was the moment he found out Tulip Hopper didn’t know how to ride a bike, nor was she up to learning after she skinned her knee the last time when her dad tried to teach her. He did find out she could skateboard though, that was a fun little piece of information that he could do nothing with. 

It was all going well for a while, the neighbor Wayne had gotten to check on them could see well enough from her front window. They had just been innocently playing when the bullies had shown up on their bikes. It was the usual ‘posse’, the two George’s and their puppy dog, the one who never said anything. For whatever reason, they were riding their bikes past the entrance of the park, and by pure luck they had spotted a waft of Tulip’s hair. They called to her, just to check they had the right person, and then the taunting began; ruthlessly. 

It was the usual. They laughed at his home, at him, and questioned why someone like Tulip would ever want to hang out with him. They acted as though he was complete filth. But just like the first time they met, and how she always would, she jumped to his defense. At first he tried to tell her it was pointless, they would only continue harassing him another time when she wasn’t there, but the second the word ‘freak’ tumbled past one of their lips– oh, she’d had it. 

“You can’t call him that,” she huffed, arms crossed over her chest, “he may be a freak, but he’s my freak. Right, Freak?” 

Eddie stared at her. If she was trying to defend him, she had a weird way of going about it. “I mean, I guess.” He rationalized it. Better to have her calling him the mean name without any actual despise behind it, than some rich jerks. 

“Uh, y-yeah.” It was unclear whether this was the right way to go about getting them to stop, but he trusted her and her crazy mind. 

Somehow it did work, the trio looked unsettled and backed off a little bit, but Steve couldn’t keep his mouth shut like the dummy he was. “Are you really blowing us off for this freak, Tulip?”

Anger flashed through her features and Eddie thought if looks could kill, he definitely would have been dead by now. If he was in Steve Harrington’s position right now he would have been terrified, actually the boy probably was. He genuinely thought she might step forward and push the kid off of his bike if he wasn’t careful. “I said, don’t call him that, Steven.”

There was a brief stand-off, where the rich kid looked like he was going to say something back to her, but then found himself defeated. It was truly a sight to watch. The way the boy tried to puff out his chest, seem taller, only to deflate when he realized he was no match for the rage the Hopper child possessed. He clearly grew embarrassed, especially at the sound of Eddie’s quiet laughter. “Get lost,” Tulip snapped. 

They followed just as she said, rushing out of Forest Hills like they’d just seen a ghost, all while the two small children burst into loud laughter. 

That event was long forgotten by the time the adult of the trailer finally got home from his shift, the familiar vehicle pulling into the park. Wayne found the pair playing outside the trailer, the two laughing away like they didn’t have a care in the world. He smiled brightly at the sight as he climbed out of his truck, takeout in hand for himself and the kids. “Food’s here, kids,” he announced. 

He was almost tackled by Eddie as the kid rushed to hug him, whereas Tulip was only concerned with the food in the bag that he was carrying. It wasn’t often she got to have take out at home, her mom didn’t really love her eating such junk, but she wasn’t going to know. Plus it’s not like Wayne could have cooked anything better considering the lack of ingredients in the home. 

When he saw the fascination in her eyes after taking her first bite, his mind immediately jumped to what Petal would think, and he quickly uttered out something to save his ass. “Don’t tell your mom about this, okay kid?”

She just hummed. Tulip liked dinner at the Munson house much more than she liked it at her own home. When she ate there, her mom and step-dad talked about work and adult things, barely even acknowledging she was there. They had to eat at the table too, the one that was much too large for only the three of them. She still didn’t understand why it was so big. But here at the Munsons, they had a ton of fun conversation, joked around, and sometimes watched rented VHS’. It was a whole different kind of environment and she loved it, she wanted to be there all the time. 

The mood changed quickly when Wayne properly glanced at Eddie for the first time since getting home. “What happened to your hair?” the older man asked, suddenly noticing it looked different than usual. Both he and Tulip froze mid-bite. That was not a good sign, but nothing with that kid ever was. He sighed, setting his food down to inspect his nephew’s long hair. At the sight of the pale pink confectionary tangled within the curls he let out a mental groan. That would be hell to remove. “Eddie.. How did this happen?”

“Um, we were playing, a-and I tripped over Tulip’s foot– by accident! And it got stuck,” he explained, shyly. The last thing he wanted to do was get her into trouble, and he hoped that with the way he had worded the story, that hadn’t happened. 

Not a single part of Wayne felt up to spending hours detangling the gum from his hair, so instead, much to the boy’s dismay, he shaved his head. And that was how Eddie Munson ended up with a buzzcut for almost a year of his life. All thanks to his best friend wedging gum in his hair. 

1978

Y/N was Eddie’s first kiss. Eddie was Y/N's first kiss. It was a fond memory for the pair of them, keeping it from their shared group of friends years later, wanting to keep it a secret. It wasn’t that they were scared they’d get mocked for it; for the longest time, Eddie and Y/N were joint to the hip, it was only understandable it would happen. Of course, it meant nothing. The feelings shared between the two were strictly platonic, but they wouldn’t lie and say it wasn’t something they cherished. Everyone wants a great first kiss, and who better to share it with than your best friend? 

It happened when they were twelve. Eddie was going into the seventh grade, Y/N into the sixth. While she may have had a lot of power based on her family’s wealth and her father’s position within the police department, pre-teen girls didn’t care about any of it. They only cared about what was cool, who was part of the ‘in-crowd’, and fashion trends they saw in magazines. And because Y/N didn’t care for any of that, opting to stain her expensive clothes with mud and befriending anyone and everyone she could, they despised her. Her mother had told her it was because they were jealous, but Y/N didn’t think so. They were just evil. 

The twelve year old had been sitting on a bench in the playground when they approached her, malicious smirks decorating their faces. She had greeted them with a smile, eager to have a conversation with the group of girls she had yet to befriend. But as soon as she had, her welcoming smile fell. They were ruthless in their taunting–somehow having found out that the rising sixth grader hadn’t been kissed. 

“It’s because you’re ugly,” one of them spit, “no boy would ever want to kiss an ugly girl.” 

She wanted to retaliate. To defend herself and spew something just as mean, but nothing came out of her mouth. It was as if it’d been glued shut, rendering her unable to talk back. Y/N couldn’t hold back her tears, believing every spiteful word they said and taking it to her. She had always been good at blocking them out, not paying any attention to them, but eventually, they struck her where it hurt. After all, she was only human, and humans are nothing if not sensitive and insecure. She believed every spiteful word that came out of their overly glossed lips. Unwillingly storing them in her heart.

Despite how much she liked to project herself as something other than what she was–a little girl in a big world–she wasn’t superhuman. Y/N wasn’t born with the ability to fly or shoot laser beams from her eyes nor was she experimented on until she was a mutant, able to withstand the harshest of conditions and do unbelievable things. Sometimes she got ahead of herself, believing every fantasy world she created for herself. When reality hit, it hit her hard, threatening to knock her unconscious. This was one of those times when reality was cruel. 

Instead of being the heroine she could have been, she turned heel and ran, leaving them to their mocking laughter and rumors. In her hurry to get away from them, she had forgotten her belongings. The Star Wars comic book–the newest one–her mother had given her was left behind, waiting for someone to take it and claim it as their own. The little girl would have been heartbroken, it was her most prized possession, but she was too hurt to care. Her plan of waiting for either Steve or Eddie to show up disappeared in an instant, wanting nothing more than to be alone. 

She found solace atop a branch, overlooking the grounds. The bark was scratchy on her thighs, digging into them unforgivingly, but she didn’t mind. Y/N sat quietly, trying to hold in the sniffles that threatened to leave her every so often. The tears had brimmed her eyes, occasionally leaking out, but whenever they did, she would wipe them away with her arm. 

The preteen had been lost in her thoughts when her friend joined her, climbing up the tree and sitting beside her, her comic book in his hands. Eddie had smiled at her, wanting to tease her for leaving the expensive object behind despite her mother’s insistence. But the smile he had and his words died out when she didn’t return it, keeping her watery eyes locked on the grass below them. Her bright and youthful eyes brimmed red with dried tear streaks running down her soft skin. The older boy couldn’t help but frown at her appearance. It was as if someone had forgotten to water a bright flower causing it to lose its color. It was unsettling. 

When she finally acknowledged him, she wiped at her runny nose and forced a smile. He didn’t like that. Eddie, always having had a personal space problem, shuffled closer to her. He carefully took in her appearance. Her cheeks were puffy and flushed from the crying and her nose was red from her constant rubbing. She obviously felt her worst, but to Eddie, he saw her at her best, as he always did. “What’s wrong, Lippy?” 

“Do you think I’m ugly?” she whispered. Eddie, in his prepubescent age, reeled back and furrowed his eyebrows. He had never thought of his best friend in that way, and he was sure he never would. He would let her other–less cool–best friend pine over her. 

“Is this a trick question?” he dubiously asked, dark eyes wide in shock. She shuffled away from him with a sniffle. Y/N threw all rational thinking aside when she was upset. Eddie hadn’t said yes; he also hadn’t said she was ugly. But, in her hurt, she took his query as an agreement to her question. It was, to her at least, confirmation that the girls’ words were in fact true. She was unkissable because she was ugly. 

“So you do think I’m ugly,” she accused, moving farther away from him–as much as she could before she fell off the branch. Eddie was bewildered. All he wanted to do was hang out with his best friend, not get roped into an interrogation. 

“No, Y/N, wait,” he sighed, scooching closer to her, “you’re not ugly. In fact, you’re the prettiest girl in all of Hawkins.” It was the truth, at least to him (and to Steve, but he would never admit it. Cause he’s dumb.) Y/N was effortlessly pretty. At twelve years old, she had a smile that blinded and eyes that shined. But that wasn’t her most redeemable quality. It was her personality that drew people in. She was social and warm with an aura of gold around her. It wasn’t a wonder that all the boys wanted to be hers. 

“I am?” how she couldn’t see her beauty was beyond Eddie. 

He nodded, “yeah. I would say the whole state, but–” she pushed him slightly before he could finish his sentence, a glower adorning her face. And just like that, things were back to normal. Eddie laughed, rubbing his shoulder despite it not actually hurting him. 

“What happened?” he asked, wanting to know just what snuffed out his best friend’s sun. Y/N took her book from his hands, fiddling with it while she confessed ever so quietly. The summer breeze was louder than her words, but he knew better than to ask her to speak up. 

“Just, you know how girls can be,” she sighed. Eddie nodded. They were assholes. “They were making fun of me because they had their first kisses, and I haven’t. They said they didn’t know why Steve was my best friend because I’m so ‘ugly’ and he’s not–that I haven’t had my first kiss because of that.” 

Eddie felt a fury he never had before. He wanted them to trip and fall in mud. “You’re not ugly, Lippy. I don’t know why you listen to them; they’re just shallow, jealous girls.” 

“I know, but sometimes, it’s just a little too much,” she responded softly. He looked at her before surging forward and kissing her. The dark haired boy didn’t know what he was thinking, if he was at all, but he couldn’t stop himself. The sound of something so trivial making his best friend upset didn’t settle well with him, and if he could solve her problem for her, he was going to. 

She froze, pushing him away. Y/N stared at him with wide eyes, a heat capturing her cheeks. Eddie and her had never crossed the line from friends to more than that. Neither one liked the other in that way, anything they felt for one another was platonic. A love like that of siblings. So it was peculiar, and unwelcomed, when he kissed her. 

“Why would you do that?” she demanded. He smiled sheepishly with a shrug. 

“Now you can say you had your first kiss,” Eddie stated proudly, “and so can I.” 

“I was your first kiss?” she asked, shocked. It wasn’t that Eddie was the coolest kid in Hawkins with dozens of girls begging for their chance. He was just older than her, and he had a lot more time to experience things with different people than she had. For whatever strange reason, she just thought that her best friend had been kissed before. It made her feel giddy, the knowledge that she got to share a first with him. 

Biting her lip, she cheekily replied to his confession. “I’m so glad it was with you and not Steve.”  

1984

“You know what I do when I’m sad?” the metalhead asked, leaning across the wooden table to look at her with mischief in his eyes.

“What?” Y/N sniffled, wiping away the remnants of her tears from her cheeks. 

“I smoke,” he answered, proudly displaying his tin lunchbox and opening it up. He held up a rolled blunt, moving it through his fingers as he looked at her expectantly. Y/N sighed.

Eddie Munson was the devil in disguise, she was sure of it. She was Hawkins’ Flower; the epitome of innocence and virtue. Or at least she was supposed to be. People often forgot that she was a Hopper first and foremost. With the knowledge of her genetics in mind to appease her, she took the blunt from him and brought it to her lips. She was going to regret it later when her emotions amplified and her sadness bordered depression, but for that moment, she felt weightless.  

“You’re a terrible influence, Freak.” She informed, inhaling the toxin into her lungs before passing it to Eddie. 

“But you love me, Lippy,” she scowled at him. 

“You’re a bastard,” she took the blunt from his hand, “this is mine now.” 

June 1985

Never did Eddie or Tulip think she would be the one graduating first. He was supposed to have accomplished it the year prior, class of ‘84, but of course he failed more than two classes, so it wasn’t possible for him to leave. Tulip told him he’d get it next year, and then the pair would be able to graduate together, but he failed that one too. She didn’t know what he was doing wrong, and she knew he was a little defeated when showing up for her, even if he didn’t say it. But he had promised her he would be there.

Most of her morning had been taken up by Steve, mainly because Eddie hadn’t been around. He’d been pretty MIA and part of her worried he wasn’t going to show at the school with her parents like they had planned. Her mother noticed her qualms, trying to soothe her nerves. She was already uneasy about graduating anyway, she didn’t need to start fussing over Eddie too. “He’ll be there, Tully. He always is.”

The doubt on her daughter’s face was clear, and although the mother would have loved to spend hours reassuring her until she was a hundred percent positive he was going to be there, there wasn’t time. “Are you sure? Cause what if this is the first time he doesn’t come? Like, he just decides to break his promise. Mom, do you think he’ll do that?” 

Petal had to make her next words the most sincere, ones that would really get through to her daughter. “When has he ever broken a promise to you?” she questioned. “That boy would never do anything to purposely upset you. He’s not going to miss this when he knows how much it means to you.”

And of course Petal was never wrong. Just like her mom had said, he was there, standing side by side with Hopper as she was called to the stage. At the sight of him her heart raced, happy he had made it and stuck to his promise. Despite the worry she had presented to Petal before they left the house this morning, deep down in her heart she trusted him enough to be there. 

The first time she got to speak to Eddie after she was handed her diploma, she couldn’t just approach him fairly, of course she had to torment him a little. “I guess this means I’m officially the smarter friend,” she teased, coming to a stop in front of him. Her parents were watching them with amused smiles.

He chuckled. “Sorry, I don’t recall you doing any of your own artwork. You passing art is courtesy of me.” He wasn’t wrong. They’d known since they were small children that Tulip couldn’t draw even basic animals, so she had no hope of passing that class. The first time she had ranted about her misfortune to Eddie, he had offered to help in return for her assistance with Math– her strong suit and arguably his worst. 

“Touché.”

There was a beat of silence before he was lunging forward to pull her into a bone crushing hug. At first she couldn’t breathe, but then she just accepted he wasn’t going to let up and wrapped her arms around his torso. “I’m proud of you, Lippy,” he whispered, squeezing her once more before he pulled away and reached into his pockets. “I actually got you a little something.”

In her hand he placed a small rectangular wrapped gift. It was terribly done, as usual, Eddie was useless when it came to wrapping paper. He also hadn’t had a lot of time. While he was sulking this morning about his younger friend graduating before him, he had gone present hunting, coming back with little time to make it look presentable enough to give to her. 

She didn’t care if it looked bad anyway, she had been receiving terrible looking gifts since the first Christmas they had been friends all the way back in ‘71. The paper was ripped off within seconds, her eyes lighting up at the sight of the cassette in her hands. “Tears for Fears, I’ve wanted this for months. How did you know?”

He rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding? You never shut up about it.”

Obviously she was grateful for the gift, but her go to response was to tell him he hadn’t had to do that. It wasn’t a secret Eddie didn’t have that much money, and she didn’t want him wasting what he did have on gifts for her, gifts that she really didn’t need. “Ed,” she began, but he jumped in to cut her off so quickly, shaking his head as though he already knew what she was going to say. And he did. He knew her too well. “Don’t even think about telling me I didn’t have to. It’s your big day, I wanted to.”

So, instead of protesting, she thanked him over and over, until he was sick of hearing the words coming out of her mouth. 

When their conversation died down, he noticed she wasn’t paying much attention to him anymore. Her eyes were straying off to the boy that stood not too far away. Steve was making weak attempts at conversation with his parents. Usually they didn’t turn up to any event for him, but this was something they deemed their presence necessary at. Tulip wasn’t much of a fan of them, which is why she wasn’t already over there with him. She would much rather spend time with Eddie than the snobby Harrington adults. 

But even he could tell she was dying to go over there. “Don’t let them stop you. Go to him,” he encouraged, noticing the way she and Steve shared longing glances when they thought the other wasn’t looking. He may not have been one of the fellow graduates this year, but Tulip and Steve were, they deserved to celebrate together. She sent him a thankful look, rushing across the room to practically throw herself in her friend’s arms. Even if he now had to stand by himself at a graduation that wasn’t even his, he was glad she was happy. 

1986

There weren't many things that could get Tulip to come back to Hawkins after her dad died. It was one of the hardest times of her entire life, and going back there would surely only remind her of all the bad memories linked with his death. She may have missed her friends and the town and all the good memories she had there, ones she didn’t have in New York– but a Hawkins without Hopper wasn’t a real Hawkins at all. 

However, if there was one person who knew exactly what to say to convince her, it was Dustin Henderson.

Getting a call from him on one random day in March was weird. 

“Please, Y/N, things have only gotten weirder,” he said. That made her curious, though she thought if she asked it could only force her to give in. However, he told her anyway. “Lucas joined the basketball team– which isn’t actually that important, Chrissy Cunningham was killed, Eddie Munson’s even a murder suspect.��

She gasped, her thoughts slowing as she tried to process what Dustin had just told her. Her childhood best friend, the Eddie her mother almost killed with a pickle when they were kids, had somehow been accused of murder. She didn’t know the situation, the kid hadn’t told him what had happened or why, or even if he was innocent. But she knew that he was, of course he was. The Eddie Munson she knew was incapable of ever doing such a thing. 

“Dustin. He didn’t do it, right?” She didn’t know if she could take being told that he had.

“No, no. It isn’t looking good, though. The police are looking for him, a-and Jason Carver’s on, like, a manhunt.”

It didn’t make any sense how so much could go wrong after she left. She hadn’t even been gone that long, and Steve had been supposed to keep her updated on everything. How could everything have gotten so messed up in such a short amount of time? “I-Is he there?” she asked. 

There was a bit of hesitation before she heard rustling on the other end of the phone. At first she was scared, as was he. Never did she want Eddie to be upset or terrified, but she could only imagine that was the exact headspace he was in. 

“Tulip?” he whispered. 

“Eddie, oh my god. What is going on over there?”

He didn’t answer her question like she thought he would. Instead he began defending himself, hastily, like he couldn’t get the words out quick enough. If Tulip even for a second thought he might be this evil monster, he wouldn’t know how to live with himself. “I didn’t do it, you have to believe me. Lippy, it wasn’t me.”

“I believe you. I know you, Teddy.”

That was all she really needed to say, all that mattered in the long run. She was on his side, and if the kids alone couldn’t prove his innocence, then she knew people that could. Hell, even her mom would do it at the drop of a hat. Eddie wasn’t going down for this, not a chance. 

“Dustin’s telling me I have to go. B-But please, come back, I need you.”

The call ended before she could respond. It left her in a dilemma for no more than a minute. She didn’t need time to think about this, this was Eddie and he needed her help. She had to go home as soon as possible. 

1986 - After 

Time seemed to still the second Tulip caught sight of a crying Dustin, his sobs breaking her heart and having her fear the worst. It turned out, the worst in her head didn’t compare to the actual worst. She would have never guessed Dustin was crying over the pulseless body of Eddie Munson, but it was the reality. The closer she got to him, the more dread she felt. They had won, so why did it feel like she had lost? 

“Eddie,” she whispered, rushing to him in an instant. Despite wanting nothing more than to stay frozen in her place, not wanting to see her best friend as anything other than alive. Breathing and joking around with her. She ran to him, at his side as quickly as she could, fingers immediately searching for a pulse. Her breath caught in her throat in relief, finding the faintest of pulsing.

With tunnel vision, one could only see what they wanted to see, focusing on a single thing. And to Tulip, at that moment, it was her best friend and keeping him from stepping into death’s hold. Without thinking, she softly pushed her younger friend aside, hands instantaneously going to the metalhead’s chest and counting the beats. Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust ironically playing in the back of her mind to stay on count. “Please, Teddy. Please.” 

Her arms were aching and her vision was blurred, but she couldn’t stop. Not until she knew her best friend would be bothering her for the rest of their lives. It was too soon for him to go. Eddie Munson was worth more than an untimely death; he deserved to graduate and live out his dream of finally leaving Hawkins. Tulip didn’t care that her friends were watching her attempts, thinking they were futile. She just wanted him to fucking live. 

“Y/N,” Steve tried, gently tugging at her shoulders in an attempt to pry her off of Eddie’s body. “Y/N, please. He’s gone. I’m sorry.”

Y/N sniffled, hastily wiping off her tears and shrugging him off. She continued her ministrations, humming a song in her head to keep at it. Her heart was splitting in two, but she didn’t allow herself to succumb to the exhaustion. She kept going, attempting to bring her friend back from where he’d been tittering the line between life and death. 

“Y/N, come on,” Steve’s voice sounded far away. She’d subconsciously pushed him to the back of her mind. The only thing that really mattered was her best friend. Every little thing they did as kids floated through her mind. Glimpses of times where she was happy by his side, smoking the day away or simply bickering with one another. 

“Y/N,” this time it was Dustin. Her heart clenched at the sound of his broken voice, and more tears sprang to her eyes. She was doing this for him. Eddie Munson had a knack for nestling his way into everyone’s hearts and staying there. He had done so for her when they were children, sharing chalk on the curb. And he had done it to Dustin, acting as a refuge to him when high school proved to be too much. “Y/N, please. He’s gone.”

No. He can’t be. She thought, it takes a lot more to kill off Eddie Munson. 

She couldn’t hold the sigh of relief upon hearing Eddie’s sharp gasp. He coughed, looking up at her with blurry eyes before giving her a bloody smile. 

“I’m feeling like the Bee Gees right now,” he croaked, voice dry. 

“What?” she questioned, tearfully holding him. 

“I’m stayin’ alive,” Under normal circumstances, she would’ve dropped him off her lap as soon as the words left his mouth. But these weren’t normal circumstances. Her best friend had gone from knocking on death’s door to breathing and alive in the blink of an eye. 

“I thought you were dead,” she confessed, holding back a sob. Eddie frowned, never in his life had he seen her cry as hard as she was. Especially not over him. It was then that he realized the severity of what happened and just how much importance he had on her life. 

He weakly grabbed her hand, uncaring if it was covered in blood–whose he didn’t know. It was probably a mix of his and hers–and brought it to his lips. “I’m alive. I promise.” 

That was all that needed to be said to break the dam. Both of them ended up crying on the floor, holding each other as tightly as they possibly could. Tulip didn’t love to let people see her so vulnerable, even people she cared about, but she had never been so shaken up. The fact all her friends were watching the two of them have this moment, barely even crossed her mind. All that mattered to her was that he wasn’t going anywhere. He had a heartbeat, he was talking, he’d be okay. 

For two and a half months, Eddie had been in the hospital recovering. His injuries had been bad enough to almost kill him, he knew he wasn’t going to be miraculously healed within a couple days. But he hadn’t thought it would take this long, and he had only just made it on the homestretch yet, according to his favorite nurse. His friends had been by his side the whole time, and Wayne. But Tulip was mainly the one who never left his side. 

The two had been there for each other during their worst times, the lowest of the low. Eddie had been her shoulder to cry on back in ‘78 when her sister died, then again when her dad also ‘died’. She had been the person he confided in when his father went to prison almost a decade ago, the one who had her parents practically hold an initiation to welcome him to the family when his mom left. So, of course she was going to be by his side now. Though this wasn’t like anything either of them had ever experienced, it still hadn’t completely set in, but there was no way Tulip would be doing anything but holding his hand through the entire thing.

His graduation was rapidly approaching, but he didn’t want to go. He’d been given the green light, his body was healing well. But he didn’t want to see anyone– or really, have them see him. No longer was he the Eddie he used to be, not completely. People still thought he was a killer, hell the police were barely convinced he wasn’t. Going back to the school wasn’t going to be as easy as he would have liked, so he chose to sit it out. It was ironic, the first time in three years he was on track to successfully make it, and he’s accused of murder, then almost murdered by bats in another dimension. You couldn’t make it up. 

However, just because he wasn’t up to going to his graduation in person, didn’t mean graduation couldn’t come to him instead. Tulip, with a lot of help from her mom and friends, had been scheming. If he didn’t feel up to going to get his diploma, she would have the entire ceremony brought to him in the hospital. 

The only problem that seemed to arise, was that she had to get him from the bed in his room to the corridor where it was going down. “Come on, Munson, you know you have to walk around at least once a day.” This was always hard for her to get him to do. He had gotten so used to the uncomfortable hospital bed, and the specific position in which it caused him no pain to his injuries, that he didn’t like to leave it. If he went on this walk around the floor of the hospital with his best friend, he was going to have to spend the next hour in pain until everything settled again. 

He pouted as she started to tug on his hands. “Don’t want to today, Tulip.” He was already down due to the fact this was another year he wasn’t going to get his diploma. He didn’t even know if the school would give it to him after the whole serial killer scandal– even though that wasn’t his fault. 

“Stop being a little bitch boy,” she demanded. He was taken back at her use of words, eyeing her with a slack jaw as she tried to fight back her laughter. It had sort of slipped out by accident, but she was definitely glad that it did now that she saw the reaction it brought on. 

“What did you just call me?” he asked. 

She was still giggling to herself as she pulled the warm covers off of him, leaving the chilly hospital AC to get to him. “That’s not important. Just get up or I’ll get the nurse.”

With the threat lingering in the air, he sighed, taking the help she offered for him to get out of the bed. It wasn’t as easy as he would have liked, and it definitely hurt, but he eventually managed it. 

A thank you left his lips as she steadied him. He was still a little shaky on his feet, even after all the time he had been spending in recovery, so he walked to the hall with one of his best friend’s arms around his waist. She stopped him just before they reached the doorway though, telling him not to peek as she got a quick surprise ready for him. Although he so desperately wanted to just look, he didn’t disobey her, she was scary when she got angry. 

When she returned, on top of the clothes she had been wearing when she first entered his room, were now a cap and gown, specifically the ones that Hawkins high graduates would wear. He cocked his head in confusion, but she handed a similar material to him, placing the cap on his head for him. “What’re you doing? I’m not going to the graduation, Lippy.” He was putting his foot down on that. 

But she shook her head. “No, you’re not. It’s actually coming to you– just put the gown on.”

After being friends for so long, he knew not to argue with her. He just did as she asked, slowly, painfully, slipping the material over his arms. “Now what?”

Her hands were thrusted out to him again for assistance, but now she showcased a beaming smile. The first sight of all his friends standing down the hallway, off to the sides so a podium could stand in the middle, it had tears springing to his eyes. They all held the biggest smiles on their faces as she helped him limp to them.

It wasn’t a shock that Wayne was crying, as well as Petal who stood beside him. He didn’t know if it was new-same old, crying because he almost died and he was in the hospital, or if it was because he was finally graduating after so so many attempts. He supposed it didn’t really matter which it was, either way he knew they were proud of him. 

Two of the girls stood out from the crowd, Robin and Nancy, who were also in their cap and gowns having just come from their own proper graduation. It seemed as though they’d brought Principal Higgins along too, who looked rather uneasy to see Eddie. There was a large shock surrounding him, for various reasons. He was still weird about seeing him because of the murder suspect thing– but honestly he also never expected the kid would make it. He always thought he’d drop out before he finally passed his final year.

“Munson, Edward,” he called with a grin, holding the piece of paper ready to hand over. 

Tulip was going to help him, but he insisted that he could do it for himself. With some difficulty and a lot of pain in his right leg, he made his way over to the podium. Everyone watched on, some emotional, some just happy he had finally made it. Honestly, Dustin was still on a high at the fact he was even alive. 

When he reached out his hand, the diploma was placed into his palm, a congratulations uttered from the teacher he once hated. A camera flash startled him, his head turning in search of the perpetrator. Steve stared at him with a crooked smile, lifting the camera like it was some awkward nod to him. Of all people to take the picture he didn’t know why it was Harrington, but he also wasn’t aware Tulip had threatened him to do it. If he’d been given that piece of information then it would have made much more sense.

To stay true to his word, the one that he shared with Dustin and Mike what felt like forever ago, even if it wasn’t entirely appropriate, he gave Principal Higgins the finger. He laughed to himself as the man just accepted it, expecting no less from the Munson boy. 

As quickly as he could give his healing injuries, he rushed back to Tulip, gushing about what he had just accomplished. He didn’t notice the way she slipped something in the pocket of his gown, but he would come to find later that it’d been a cassette, specifically of the new Queen album. He had been eyeing it for a few days now, so she thought why not? 

Eddie hadn’t felt this happy in a long time, and it was all thanks to the girl he called his best friend who could not get any more perfect by the sounds of it. “I did it, Tully.” With a quick stolen kiss to her cheek, one that had her gasping, he was shuffling away from her and over to his uncle, prepared to rejoice in his accomplishment. Tulip couldn’t even be mad, she was so proud of it and he really deserved to have his special moment. He’d been to hell and back the last few months, more than anyone in the room could understand; he needed this. 

That morning he woke up as the ‘ex murder suspect turned bedridden bat food’, and now he would end it as Hawkins high graduate, Eddie Munson; class of ‘86.

~*~

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[ammoniteflesh]

It’s ✨my birthday✨ today, and thus I feel justified in doing some shameless self- (and others!) promotion. Reading and leaving a (positive!!!!) comment on any of these fics would be a fab present, if you’re so inclined. Tags and warnings on AO3. :)

Fics That I Wrote!

The Path of Aching Blood - My large ongoing project retelling the Fifth Blight through the lens of Morrigan, Alistair, and Ghila Mahariel. Featuring: bi Alistair and bi Morrigan; a lot of big repressed gay feelings; spooky Blight content; visibly elf-blooded Alistair; the complicated matter of saving a world that would much rather see you dead. Has gone without updates for a while but I am still working on it (and, frankly, I’m p damn proud of what’s there). For Love of the People - A short one-shot set in TPoAB canon, in which Ghila goes to her first Arlathvhen following the Fifth Blight. Featuring: leftist infighting elvhen politics; the joy of going home; the grief of knowing you can’t go home, not really. Originally written for Dalish Appreciation Week. The Hermit, Reversed - A character study of Merrill, with some bonus pre-relationship Merrill/Isabela/f!Hawke. Featuring: the feeling of being alone even when you’re not (especially when you’re not); interactions with spirits manifesting as experimental POV; being in love with your best friends; Merrill asserting her selfhood and strength. Originally written for the Arlathan Exchange. Fics That I Think Are Cool! Mostly Dragon Age because, lbr, that’s what pretty much all of my followers are here for but I’ve sprinkled some other fandoms in too. Canary by Anbaricity - Never talked about it on here before but I adore Revolutionary Girl Utena - and I especially adore my fave horrible little deranged weirdo, Nanami. This is, imo, the Nanami fic. A beautiful exploration of her character through her interactions with other members of the cast. Tether by @breadedsinner​ - A beautiful exploration of Judith Hawke’s grief, trauma, and eventual healing as she escapes from the Fade. Features some absolutely amazing character work - Judith is one of my favourite OCs in all of fandom, she’s so unbelievably well-fleshed out. Besides which, the care and tenderness with which this is written really make it shine. Fab stuff. things that die over and over by @potatowitch​ - This was written for me in the Arlathan Exchange and oh my god it’s everything I wanted and more. Velanna and Sigrun talk about happiness and othering and the Grey Warden death sentence; written in the most incredible prose. The Folding Light in the Dark series by Leaves_Turning - A brilliant slow burn between Zevran and Thoryn Surana, with intrigue and spooky Fade shenanigans galore. The sheer atmosphere in these fics is off the charts, and there’s some brilliant takes on pretty much every canon character in there. I paticularly love how they make use of in-game dialogue, recontextualising it and elevating it to something far more complex and vivid in the process. Waiting for Destiel: A Tragicomedy in One Act by Kalya_Lee - Look. Listen. Are you nostalgic for the chaos of November 2020? Do you like noted postmodern playwright Samuel Beckett? Would you like to read a parody of Waiting for Godot making fun of canon Destiel? Of fucking course you would. Go read this. You May Forever Tarry by FaustianAspirant - Another thing I’m into but have never talked about on here: Deep Space 9! This honestly feels like it could’ve come straight from canon, but with a level of warmth and intimacy that canon wishes it could achieve. A wonderfully touching diptych of vignettes for Garak/Bashir and Jadzia/Worf.

[theheelerbooklifereads]

Thank you, Macmillan audio, and NetGalley for the ALC/ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

The Forest Grimm is the first book set in a new young adult romantasy series. We follow our 17-year-old main character, Clara as she embarks on a quest into the deadly and dangerous Forest Grimm to find a magical book called the Sortes Fortunae (aka the Book of Fortunes). Typically, no one ever makes it out of the forest out alive, but she will go to great lengths to break the curse that is placed on her village and to rescue her mother. What Clara does not know as she ventures through the forest, she and her friends that tag along will encounter some well-known fairytales.

✨I discovered Kathryn Purdie's books back in 2020 when Bone Crier's Moon came out and ever since I have been reading some of her books which I end up enjoying. When I saw The Forest Grimm go up on NetGalley, I instantly went to request it since I know Kathryn is an author I enjoy.

✨When The Forest Grimm first opens up with the villagers having their names drawn to see who would go into the forest to break the curse my first thought was: "is our main character going to yell-I volunteer as tribute?!" That part just made me think of The Hunger Games and no there was no one who yelled that they volunteered as tribute with those exact words.

✨Kathryn Purdie does such an amazing job setting up this world and the atmosphere. She really draws you in and makes you feel like you are in this dark, bleak forest with odd run ins with fairytale characters. I should note that these fairytale characters are not the Disney ones that a lot of us know but the darker ones that we encounter with the Brother Grimm Fairytales. You can expect Cinderella, Hansel + Gretel, Rapunzel, and a few other characters to appear in this book. With that being said I really enjoyed seeing the different characters and how they are portrayed as well interact with the main characters and the world.

✨When it comes to the characters, I for the most part enjoyed them but did find Henni and Clara to be aggravating at times. But I did love the friendship and the even more than friends' dynamic between Clara and Axel.

✨The pacing for the most part was great and fast but there were areas that felt like it dragged out. I was very engaged in this story and curious about what was going on and what would happen.

✨I've been seeing a lot of mixed reviews on The Forest Grimm about it feeling too young as well as other things. To put in perspective: I will be 28 this fall, and I did not find it juvenile or targeted for a younger range. To me this felt like a good, clean (no smut) romantasy retelling that I would have encountered when I was a teenager. Everyone does perceive things differently, so it is all good if people find this too young, but I just wanted to say for me it felt fine and I think many people who want a clean YA romantasy, a dark fantasy retelling, or to feel reminiscent of YA a decade ago then you'll enjoy this.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxLLeHrgvuM/?igshid=MWZjMTM2ODFkZg==

#bookstagram #book review #booklover #bookworm #bibliophile #booklr #bookish #books #must read books #book #romance books #fantasy books #romantasy #young adult books #the forest grimm #Kathryn purdie #4 star reads #books i have read #new books #book recommendations #book blog #bookblr

[screadingchallenge]

Behind the Keyboard: Volume 9

Behind the Keyboard is a series of interviews with different Schitt’s Creek fanfic authors. The series will last as long as there is interest (from authors) and capacity (from me). If you are an author from the Schitt’s Creek fandom who would like to participate, send a DM to this account.  

Each author was given ten questions. The first five questions are the same for every author, the last five will vary.

Remember, this year’s Reading Challenge begins July 15, so polish up those MFL lists.

Let’s meet our next author:

@missgeevious / missgeevious

How many fics have you written?

22 for Schitt’s Creek

When did you publish your first fic on AO3?

I started posting All the Songs I Sing Are About You on 12/20/2019. It’s a retelling of one of my favorite romcoms, Music & Lyrics. It was part of a fest, and the first fic I’d ever written. I had no idea what I was doing. Hitting “post” that first time was t e r r i f y i n g, but I got so many lovely comments from people who really seemed to like it, and that was it—I was hooked, sucked into this writing life that is amazing (and sometimes awful) and which has brought me friends I treasure. Someone who especially loved that story, vivianblakesunrisebay, ended up becoming my beta and good friend. 

Describe your writing process from “Oh, I have an idea” to pushing publish on AO3. 

Process? I don’t know her.

Fine.

It’s something like this:

a) Have a shiny idea that excites me.

b) Flail and yell about the idea a lot to whomever will listen.

c) Realize I have to actually write something to make it happen and whine about that

d) Write

e) Complain

f) Repeat steps d and e until everyone in my friend group is borderline ready to kick me out of the club.

g) DM Houdini and whine more

h) Complain and Write

i) Repeat g and h until Houdini regrets everything

j) Fling it at Houdini and Viv for beta

k) Repeat prior steps as necessary until *I* am so sick of it all that I want to post it just to be done with it.

l) Realize summaries and tags are a thing and whine about that

m) Post and promptly realize I forgot or messed up a dozen things and go back in to fix them.

BONUS STEPS

n) Worry that what I wrote sucks spectacularly and no one is telling me.

o) Refresh and worry that I messed up posting somehow.

p) Repeat steps n and o until I remember/re-convince myself that it doesn’t matter if anyone else likes it because I did the thing and should be proud I finished it.

Tell me about your most recent fic? What do you love about it? Is there anything you think you could have done better?

My most recently posted fic is Nothing About This Was Proper. It’s a fic I started a while ago that ended up fitting a little collection I did with some friends. If that collection hadn’t come along to motivate me, the story would probably still be languishing in my WIPS folder. I’m terrible at talking about what I like about my own fics (hello, imposter syndrome is so real). I guess I like my set-up in that one—the whole thing with the dog being the catalyst (ultimately) for David & Patrick getting together, and the banter in the car (David’s position that the dog is trying to “assault” him). As for what I could have done better, I would’ve liked to tie up some of the loose ends (e.g., whose house were they in and those folks coming home to find them), but the fic was already getting long and the deadline was looming so I focused on getting the boys together. 

What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking about publishing their fic for the first time?

This question assumes you’ve written the fic already, which is a huge accomplishment. Congratulations! You’ve agonized over making it the best you can, no doubt spending time and energy and likely putting a bit of your heart in it. Finishing a story is hard work—as opposed to starting a story, which is usually easy and fun, in my experience. You should absolutely publish that story and give folks the chance to enjoy it. Make sure you also take some time to be proud of yourself. You did the thing! You saw it through from start to finish! That’s huge! 

Weirdest thing you’ve googled as research for a story?

Heh. When I was writing the bathhouse fic (Thank God. It’s You) I did a lot of googling that was, shall we say, enlightening? I forgot to use a private browser half the time, too, so my ads got real interesting.

How has writing fic changed you?

Writing fic has brought me friendships that have changed me for the better and a hobby I (usually) love and a new life goal of publishing a novel. I think it probably had an extremely beneficial impact on my mental health during the pandemic as well. 

Most memorable comment you’ve had on one of your fics?

Oh, gosh. This one is really hard to answer. I can’t think of a specific one. My pal weathereyehorizon’s comments regularly make me feel like I could slay dragons and I love her for them. Overall, the comments folks made on All the Songs I Sing were life-changing. They helped me believe I might be good at this and should keep working at it. 

Would you rather find a title or write a summary?

I’d rather write a title. They usually come to me by the time I reach the end of a story and I kind of like coming up with them, but figuring out a summary is always difficult.

Do you remember the first SC fic you ever read?

I do not. I wish I did!

#behind the keyboard #meet the authors #sc fic reading challenge #sc reading challenge #sc fanfic #schitt's creek #schitts creek

[chasingfictions]

what's the butch spike series?

it's the most important fic series in the world to me!!! by ao3 user lovelyorbent. it's called they will know me by my teeth, and it's a retelling of btvs where spike is a butch lesbian!!! it's dearer to me than some members of my own family. all of it is amazing but specifically i want to shout out the thanksgiving fic in that series which im p sure the author wrote in part by rolling a d20 to see what would happen. i cant stress enough how much i love everything about this series hi

#ask

[thebookpandemonium]

Book Review - The Never King - Nikki St. Crowe

Rating: ✭✭

I have seen this book dozens of times, on bookstagram, on booktok, on goodreads, on storygraph. It was everywhere. And now I know why.

Spoilers incoming, be aware!

The Never King is the first book in a dark Peter Pan retelling, which now consists of four books. It was written by Nikki St. Crowe and it follows Winnie Darling, Peter Pan and some Lost Boys.

Synopsis:

Winnie Darling is set to be kidnapped by Peter Pan on her 18th birthday. Or so, she is told by her mother, who according to legend has been kidnapped by Peter Pan as well, same as all the Darling-women that came before her, dating back to the Original Darling: Wendy! However, Winnie is a bit sceptical about the whole affair, as her mother always has been a bit unstable and, dare I say, insane.

But, Peter Pan does come for her, and everything she believed to be madness, suddenly become true. Peter and his Lost Boys hold many secrets, and they believe Winnie somehow can help Peter Pan and Neverland from the fading magic. A tumultuous time is unleashed on Winnie, together with several good-looking young men. A recipe for disaster if you ask me.

Review:

This book had so much potential. So much! I mean, dark retelling, Peter Pan, good looking Lost Boys, sign me up! However, this book was somewhat underwhelming... From the first moment I started reading the book, I disliked Winnie. She felt one dimensional, shallow and obsessed with s*x. However, I was willing to accept that because I was here for Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. Sadly, they turned out to be nothing better than Winnie Darling.

I mean, there was a plot somewhere. However, it was completely covered in smut, which is truly a missed opportunity, if you ask me. However, Nikki St. Crowe did pull my interest and is more or less forcing me to read the sequel to this literary fantasy p*rn book, which I must admit is very clever of her, haha.

See, there is this Lost Boy, Vane, and he is very mysterious, dark and twisty, violent and all things wrong. He is the only one without a POV, and though there is some discussion about who and what he is, still there is a lot left that will keep you guessing. So, I want to know more about this creeper. Winnie, Peter Pan, Bash and Kas are all mweh, smut-obsessed and semi-boring. But Vane, the man without a POV is the hidden force of this book, I'm sure.

So, to summarize:

✅ The Peter Pan world full of magic and all we ever wanted from Neverland: Mermaids, Pirates, Faeries, you name it, they have it!

✅ It's definitely a lot darker than OG Peter Pan

✅ Mysterious, but highly interesting character, Vane

✅ A plot which has a lot of potential, which can still lead to a nice sequel with an epic fantasy plot

💢 Too much smut

💢 One-dimensional smut-obsessed main characters

💢 Smut without sufficient reason behind it, which showers over the plot that could have been nice

💢 There is fast pace, and there is Formula 1 pace. This is Formula 1 pace. Take the time to get to know the characters, man...

And I know, I complain about the smut. I despise the smut. And I know that the so-called 'spice' is the main reason people read these books, but it so sad to sell it as a 'Peter Pan retelling', while you could have used some random names for a random fantasy-driven plot and still you would have ended up with the same thing. I read Peter Pan retellings, because I loved Peter Pan as a child, and now I want to enjoy it as an adult. And I really don't mind spice, I like it in most books, as long as it makes sense.

In the current setting of the book, the characters have turned in to s*x-obsessed beasts, which is a waste of the characters as well. All of them, especially Winnie, could have been amazing characters, if she would not have said 'I don't care, I love having s*x', at least a dozen times. And if not every POV of her would be her thirsting over not one, but four men. Get a grip, woman!

Anyway, I am set to read the sequel. I was told it would get better, less smut-driven and all that, so who knows! To be continued.

-S.

#bookreview #book blog #the never king #nikki st. crowe #book review #books and reading #reading #booklr

[smblmn]

Promote-Your-Fic

A fun way for writers to promote one fic they think deserves more attention. Add a comment from the fic if you want.

Okay, I feel a little bit weird about doing this, but let's go.

I was tagged by @mallpretzles, thank you so much! 💖 sorry for being so late, I love it when you guys tag me on things but my life has been a little bit chaotic lately.

On the Outside Looking Through

A Schitt's Creek Pride& Prejudice AU

Summary: Alexis chooses that moment to wave enthusiastically in their direction –apparently ready for them to meet her new acquaintances– so David sighs and stands up from the bench, taking Stevie’s hand to lift her up too. The whole group turns to look at them then and David can see the moment the accountant –as he is calling him in his head, because ‘very nice ass’ somehow sounds worse– looks at David and their gazes meet. David’s stomach plummets to the ground at the immediate change in his demeanor. The man goes from relaxed and carefree to tense and annoyed? –Is it annoyance what David sees in his face?– in the span of two seconds. He drops the arm he has over the cute redhead’s shoulders and looks at the floor.

Why I wrote it: I've seen the 2005 Pride & Prejudice movie an unhealthy amount of times and after one of those times I thought: hey! why don't I put these guys in that situation? So I started writing it last october (I think), before being active in the fandom and just for fun. I didn't have any intention of publishing it because I had never posted anything before, but then the SC MediaFest happened and one of the prompts was for a P&P AU and despite all my doubts some friends told me I would regret it if I didn't post it, so I did. I'm pretty sure having that deadline was the only thing that made me finish it.

Why I'm plugging it: I spent a lot of time thinking about the ways in which this story could take place in a modern setting and I think I did a good job of blending the two worlds.

A couple of comments: I'm not exaggerating when I say I love and appreciate every comment I've gotten. I didn't expect people to read it to begin with, so to receive such a positive response is amazing. There were even people who commented on every chapter, which really blows my mind 💗💗

Really enjoyed this! I'm commenting on this chapter because I thought the rain scene was so well done. Patrick's energy was palpable. I thought you handled the adaptation from the source material really well, keeping the spirit of the story here without it being a word-for-word retelling. Thanks for writing! by @wordthieve (the rain scene was the first one I wrote -though I changed it a lot in the end- It's such an important scene and I was so worried it wouldn't have the emotional impact the original has that this comment meant a lot).

The Sebastien storyline is so smart and makes so much sense! Omg the scene in the car, I thought for sure they would kiss. And the Your Song scene! I was losing my mind!!! by @petrodobreva (because I wasn't sure I could make Sebastien work as Wickham so someone telling me it was smart made me soooo happy).

This exceeded my expectations in every way. You hit all the notes of my favourite story, but made it fresh and interesting, so told the story in an unexpected way. I'll be coming back to this time and time again. Loved it. Beautiful work. by @obsessedwithdavrick

I'm not tagging anyone because I'm veeery late for this.

#tag games