#and what each of them are actually saying-but-trying-not-to-say-because-that-would-be-weird

[chimerafeathers]

reading the end talks knowing how everyone feels about staying with each other feels like being beaten over the head with a hammer. the subtext that Siffrin is taking away from each conversation confirming his own expectations of the others' expectations, versus the subtext that each of them are desperately trying to convey back to him without coming across as weird and clingy because of their OWN perceptions of everyone's expectations.

Bonnie (regular): "Wait, that's such a long journey though!!! I'm not gonna go find you just so I can punch you if you're wrong!!! That's dumb!!! [...] Okay, then I'll believe you!!! Hopefully I won't have to walk forever to punch you!!!"

Bonnie (friendquest): "...I'll miss you, Frin. ... I know you'll leave soon, but, um... Y-You should come by Bambouche one day! So you can meet my sister!!! So I can say... "That's Frin! They helped me a bunch! They're really cool!!!" So come and see me sometime, yeah? Promise? [...] I'll be waiting for you, Frin!!!"

"i know you'll leave soon" "that's such a long journey" assuming that Siffrin would never want to stay close by, that wherever he goes would be arduous for them to reach. ...and, maybe in Siffrin's interpretation, not worth the annoyance and exertion it would take to reach them.

Isabeau (regular): "I can't wait to go back to my old job, you know? Make sure to say hi when you're near Jouvente, 'kay?"

Isabeau (friendquest): "...I hope...I hope you'll at least visit sometime, Sif. Our journey is over, but don't be a stranger, okay?"

Isabeau, short and restrained after his aborted confessions. maybe keeping it brief and simple to not overcomplicate the triumph of the moment, hoping he'll have the chance to express himself properly later (they're all having dinner together tonight, after all! they'll have time for feelings talks then! why wouldn't they?). not wanting to overwhelm or assume. how can he ask for anything more substantial than a visit before Siffrin knows how he feels, what he might want, what Siffrin might want?

Odile (regular): "But now I can finally get back to traveling. [...] It'll be weird to travel alone now, but I'll get used to it again. Or I could just go home to Ka Bue... Hm... [...] Ha...I'll miss you, Siffrin. You're a little strange, but you're a good kid. Maybe try letting down your walls every once in a while, huh? And come to Ka Bue anytime. Maybe we'll meet again during your travels."

Odile (friendquest): "It was fun. Traveling with everyone. I will miss it. [...] I... I suppose everyone will go back to their homes, now... Mirabelle will probably stay here, Isabeau will probably go back to Jouvente, and we'll ask someone to accompany Bonnie back to Bambouche... And what about you, Siffrin? Will you be going back home? [...] Oh... Why no-- ... No. Sorry, this isn't any of my business. But... No home at all... I never knew. I'm sorry. [...] ...I'll probably be going back to Ka Bue soon. Our paths will diverge soon... But if you ever come towards Ka Bue... Please come by, and say hello, won't you? ...Don't be a stranger, Siffrin."

Odile, reinforcing everyone's assumptions, backing away from the opening Siffrin gave her out of respect for their privacy, and sharing more of her own hand than Siffrin may even realize—resigning herself back to the quiet of her own company after the warmth and noise of being with everyone else. but even as a fellow traveler, both ~obviously intending~ to continue their journeys, there's no suggestion that their paths may intertwine deliberately, only inevitably diverge and briefly cross by happenstance or on a whim.

Mirabelle (regular): "...You can be so nice, Siffrin. [...] You know, um, um... Um!!! I know we haven't known each other for that long... B-But I hope you know I really treasure your company! I do! I really really do!!! And so... Thank you! Thank you for accompanying me on this journey! [...] ...I'm sure you're excited to go back to traveling on your own... But don't forget me, okay? Come see me at Dormont anytime! I'd love to hang out! Promise!!!"

Mirabelle (friendquest): "I have a lot ahead of me, still. But I never would have realized this without you, Siffrin! S-So, whenever you're done traveling, or you'd like to stay someplace for a little bit... Maybe think about coming to visit Dormont? Just to say hi? B-But you don't have to!!! It's just an idea!!! [...] I'm glad we're friends, Siffrin. ... D-Don't forget about me on your journey, okay!"

Mirabelle got so goddamn close to an actual, straightforward invitation for them to stay with her. "whenever you're done traveling or you'd like to stay someplace for a bit" could be a long-term thing of indefinite duration! but then she anxiously backtracks to "visit," "just say hi," "you don't have to! it was just an idea!" out of fear of coming on too strong, imposing too much. she's the one afraid of being forgotten, here, worrying that she'll fade as easily from their mind as anything else, unmissed. trying to balance emphasizing that his company is something that she genuinely wants, but leaving room for them to back out without feeling awkward if it's not something that they genuinely want.

in every case, Siffrin's plans "to keep/go back to traveling" are assumed, the distance is assumed, the separation is inevitable. it's all Siffrin can hear, couched in polite, socially mandated overtures to keep in touch. everyone will be gone and they will be alone again, outside of brief, occasional reunions (and always reunions that he would have to impose to initiate—how can they choose to visit Siffrin if they have no home to visit?—how can Siffrin know if they truly meant it when they asked, if they'll still mean it as time goes on?).

it's all the rest of the party can imagine, too—of course their mysterious rogue will quietly disappear back into the forests and crowds, impossible to find or contact after it's all over. they're left asking, begging, through the clenched teeth of social restraints, not to be left behind or forgotten, either. please visit, they say. don't you get it? don't you know how important to me you've become, how much i want to keep you in my life? they don't say.

and now all i can hear when i read back these lines is

i can't ask you to stay/come with me, but please, please don't let this be the last time i see you.

[nixnbob]

THIS. This was one of the best scenes for writing and acting (to me) around heartbreak. Actual, real, shredding heartbreak. Whether you see it as platonic or otherwise. It felt so real. Like it really tapped back into the energy from the Fishes episode.

Especially to open the season with them reconciling and Carmy literally telling her that's what he wanted. He wanted them in the kitchen. No dysfunction. How she opened up to Claire while her dad was in hospital and everything pouring out about needing consistency, while her one piece of it lies in a hospital bed. And how it had felt like her and Carmy were starting to get that.

And the conversation with Carmy's mom. After all of the set-up each season around Sydney and Carmy's partnership and then like, when she felt it like a gut punch, so did we as viewers. She had chosen him over Shapiro and the Bear over anywhere else. And then... It was *chef's kiss*...

Hell of a way to end the season. Hoping there's another, but we'll see. I don't hate Claire, I just feel like she's a bit of a nothing character. She's just kind of there. And I feel like they've constantly gone well out of their way to have every character tell us 'how amazing' and 'how awesome' she is.

Like, so is Sydney, but they really haven't shied away from showing us her flaws either. Or any other character in the show. Sydney feels REAL. To the point it feels odd with Claire that they're not showing her flaws, or at least trying to actively tell us as viewers that there's no flaws, she's perfect.

Selfishly, I want another season just to finish a few arcs off, as it feels unfinished at the moment:

- It feels like Carmy is burnt out and has never had freedom to reconnect with what he loves in a healthy way. And that's why he's noping out if things. I see him trying to retire and it not really being possible for him. Especially with the chat with Sugar around how he had such a spark with it. Maybe he gets a few episodes of just cooking to enjoy it, or travelling again with some of the chefs that cared about him and helped him develop.

- Ibra's sandwich franchise is teased as maybe a bigger plot point for another season. Why have Unc and Albert only almost meet?

- What's going in with Unc and his money. Downsizing by choice or was there more going on?

- The (food and wine?) review hasn't been published, the one the guy called Sugar about.

- Frank, Tiff and Eva haven't visited the Bear yet. I would love them all to see how far Richie has come and for Tiff to tell Richie how proud she is of him. And even sweeter would be if it came from Eva, because she can see how together her dad is now, compared to where he was at the start of the series.

- The guy that came in the restaurant on his own and asked for a Beef. Was he another reviewer? Are we ever going to get an answer to that? It feels a little weird to focus in on him like that, more than with other guests.

- Whether there's something more going on with Donna. Felt weird to have Lee just say something hinting at it as a throwaway line.

- If they're hunting a star, maybe that's one of the main drivers for the next season and it would feel amazing after everything the characters have been through, if that's how they ended.

- There's a suggestion Carmy and Claire have reconciled, but they haven't really shown them back together-together. Maybe Claire is who Carmy thinks he needs, but then with her finishing her residency she'll surely be even busier now? Maybe they try to make it work and he sees how much she loves what she does, but how she can't give that up just for him. I feel like that might be a way to explore where their relationship is going.

I dunno. I just think Sydney deserves to realise her dream and Carmy deserves to be happy. And I don't think either of them are quite there yet. IMO it's being hinted that where things are heading, they might get there. But let us see it. Please.

Anyway, this was meant to be a short post and has now turned into something with paragraphs 😅.

i got shot a million times

[suzukiblu]

WIP excerpt for Rabbit behind the cut, who asked for something sweet with Kon/YJ and is getting “come on barbie let’s go party". Kink and banter is totally sweet, right? Content notes/warnings: micro/macro, temporary magical transformation, Dom/sub, and a background radiation of unhealthy coping mechanisms. (( chrono || non-chrono ))

"Y-yeah,” he manages to croak even as he hides his face tighter against Tim's fingers, still trying not to shiver. It's just–he's just–“That's–y-yeah.” 

He doesn't know what he actually is right now. He doesn't . . . 

“Mm,” Cassie says, running a finger up his back, and he shivers after all. It doesn't feel anything like it normally feels when she does that. “Should we take turns? Or do you want one of us specifically to do it?” 

Kon's face burns, because the answer is . . . 

“You're–playing with me,” he manages stiltedly, keeping his face hidden. “S'not up to me if you share your toys with each other or not.” 

“Ngh,” Tim mutters. 

“Oh,” Cassie says faintly, her finger stilling against the small of his back. It takes up a lot more space there than it’s supposed to. “Ah–okay. Yeah. Okay.” 

Kon thinks–is that weird? Did they want him to pick one of them, was he supposed to pick one of them, were they–was it weird kinda like–kinda calling himself–? 

“Dibs,” Bart says immediately, and Cassie sighs. 

“It is not your turn, Bart,” she says firmly, and then suddenly Kon’s all wrapped up in her hands and she’s pulling him in against her chest again. “You have had your turn. Anyway, I’m the one who has experience playing with dolls here, you don’t even know what to do.” 

“Okay I grew up in VR and Kon just grew up asleep but like, you’re making some very heteronormative assumptions about Tim’s growing-up process there,” Bart counters reasonably, and sneaks an attempt at snagging Kon back from her. Cassie folds her hands in tighter around Kon and pins him against her tighter as she scowls at Bart, turning her torso away from him, and Kon flushes darkly and feels a little bit, like . . . insane, maybe? About that? Like, about being crushed in against her tits, yeah, but mostly about them like–about them talking about this like it is up to them if they . . . “share” or not. 

Which, like . . . he wants it to be, kinda, just he didn’t know if they’d actually, like . . . 

He wants to do, like–he can’t do the kind of things he’d normally do for them, so he just . . . he just wants to do–something for them, he guesses. 

Maybe that’s stupid, though, or not actually what they want, or . . . selfish, even, if he really . . . 

“I literally have never played with a single doll in my life, Bart,” Tim says wryly. “Unless you count the minifigs in Warlocks and Warriors, but those don’t come in ‘dress-up’ sizes.” 

“You actually play Warlocks and Warriors?” Cassie asks, wrinkling her nose at him. “That’s so unbelievably nerdy, Tim.” 

“I mean, I used to,” Tim says. “But I don’t really think you can call that ‘nerdy’, given the global TTRPG market is worth something like two billion dollars now.” 

“Was it worth two billion dollars when you ‘used to’, man?” Kon can’t help asking dryly, even though he can only half-see him past Cassie’s folded-in fingers. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Tim says. 

“The fact you know it’s worth two billion dollars now is definitely nerdy, but no, I mean only old people with math fetishes play Warlocks and Warriors,” Cassie scoffs as she kind of squeezes Kon in a way that he thinks is maybe supposed to be appreciative but mostly makes him feel some very complicated things, only about half of which are horny. “Everybody else plays Serpents & Spells.” 

“You mean ‘everybody who’s prepubescent’?” Tim asks wryly. 

“The math fetish would explain knowing the global market value, I guess,” Kon manages to make himself “muse” as Cassie sticks her tongue out at Tim, and an eighth of a second later Bart absolutely phases his hands through hers and snatches Kon out of them before zipping halfway across the room with him cupped to his chest. 

That does not make him feel any less complicated and half-horny, for the record.

“Hey!” Cassie protests indignantly. 

“You snooze you lose also TTRPGs are the objective worst and you’re both objectively wrong, math is the console's job and waiting for everyone else to take their turns in a TTRPG is an actual literal circle of actual literal speedster hell,” Bart informs them both. “And no I am not making that up.” 

“. . . I feel like you might be, but I’ve also never been to speedster hell,” Cassie says, then frowns and says– “Wait, there is a speedster hell? Specifically?!” 

“There are a lot of speedster things,” Bart says reasonably, then rolls his eyes. “What, your family has Tartarus. Is your family the only family that gets to have a personal hell?” 

“Please don’t refer to the Greek pantheon as my family, I really don’t want anyone getting cursed this weekend,” Cassie says with a wince, then gestures awkwardly with her hands. “And look, I thought you all just–I don’t know, went to the Speed Force or something!” 

“I don’t know what you think that means,” Bart says, squinting skeptically at her. “Like you know the Speed Force is more than one thing, right? Like I mean it is one thing because it’s all the Speed Force but like, this reality is all ‘one thing’ and–” 

“I really don’t know why everyone’s religions are so obsessed with the afterlife,” Tim says with a sigh. 

“Sorry, you think I worship gods I have personally met?” Cassie asks. “That doesn’t seem weird and awkward and embarrassing to you, socially-speaking?” 

“The Speed Force isn’t a sprocking religion!” Bart says, looking indignant. 

“Please explain to me how it’s not,” Tim says. “Like, what is the objective difference there?” 

“The objective difference is objective fact,” Bart retorts snidely, then opens his hands again and peeks down at Kon, and Kon immediately feels like a gross rumpled sweaty sticky mess all over again, and also feels a little bit off-balance, and also feels a new rush of embarrassment about how stupid he probably looks right now. 

Just they’ve all gotta think–like, he must just look so–

“You really are super-cute like this,” Bart observes, then hooks his thumbs into the insides of his knees and pushes them open again by sliding them down the insides of his thighs. “Especially with the suit all wet and everything. Totally worth getting all that scratchy glitter on my tongue.” 

Kon is even more embarrassed about how hard he blushes over hearing that. 

“Oh, so now we remember what we were doing, huh?” he grumbles, and tries to at least sound grumbly about it. He knows–like, it’s obvious what they were doing, talking about that weird random stuff. They were trying to help him, like–settle, or relax, or . . . like. It’s obvious, that that’s what they’re doing. New thing, different kind of scene–they all do that kind of thing, with those. 

Bart just cocks his head, looking down at him intently. Kon tries not to blush harder. 

“What’s that look about, Jesus, man,” he mutters. “Speed Force Jesus, maybe.” 

“We don’t have one of those unless you count Grandpa Barry, maybe, and that took way longer than three days,” Bart says, then narrows his eyes consideringly. “It’s just really hard to decide what to dress you up in. Like there’s a lot of stuff and the eidetic memory is making it real hard to narrow it down because I keep thinking about all of it all at once.” 

“‘Decide’?” Tim repeats, and Kon can hear the raised eyebrow but can’t actually, like, make himself take his eyes off Bart, when Bart’s looking at him like that. 

“Duh,” Bart snorts. “I mean like I’ve never played with dolls, we already had that conversation, but I definitely know you pick their clothes, they don’t pick ‘em.” 

JESUS, Kon thinks faintly, and would probably fall right out of Bart’s hands if the other weren’t holding him so tight. 

He’s still holding his legs open, too. Like–Kon could probably close them if he wanted, just–like, Bart would let him, probably, just–just like–

“What the fuck, Bart,” he says, still feeling a little faint. Like–yeah, okay, the “YOU pick their clothes” thing makes sense and all and it’s probably a logical thing and all that he already should’ve figured was gonna be a thing and whatever, but like–Jesus. Just–whatever, actual religion or not, just–Speed Force JESUS.

[eden-writes-stuff]

The pizza-pool-party-predicament

@steddiebingo ~ prompts: pool / firt kiss ~ wordcount: 1801 ~ ao3 here

Nancy was the first one to arrive - as always. At only five after seven.

"You know, usually, when people say 'seven' no one is actually coming until eight and nothing’s gonna happen until nine", Steve greeted her. 

"I know. Which gives me enough time to make sure there is nothing around that one could summon the dead with." She hung her jacket in the hallway before striding past him into the living room.

"You're never going to let me live that down, will you?" Steve sighed, following her. 

"You mean, 'will I get over almost being killed'?"

Shaking his head, Steve dropped onto the couch. "Knock yourself out, but I'm not helping you."

"Fine by me."

She spent an entire hour carefully clearing the living room before she continued to the kitchen. 

Robin and Vickie arrived half an hour later. 

"What is she doing?" Vickie asked when she saw Nancy bring a bunch of knives into the cellar. 

"Locking away everything that could be used for satanic rituals, don't worry about it," Steve answered before quickly moving on to Robin. "Hey, how're you doing?" He pulled her into a quick hug before patting her on the shoulder. 

“Drinks are in the kitchen. The pizza will get here any minute," he explained, stepping to the side so the girls could pass through the living room onto the patio. 

"You're such a great mom," Robin grinned teasingly, following Vickie into the living room, but halted when she passed Steve. 

"Is it weird?" she asked him quietly. 

"What do you mean?"

"That I brought Vick? I mean, I'm not gonna stop dating her because of anyone's opinion, but like, when I bring her around. I just don't want it to throw off the whole group dynamic. And you know how bad I am at reading this stuff, so I need you to be honest with me."

Steve smiled gently at his friend, shaking his head. "Don't worry. She fits in pretty nicely. I mean, I just want you to be happy, and if she's the girl for that, I won't stop you. She and Eddie already sort-of know each other from band, and she seems to really get along with Nancy as well-" he pointed over his shoulder where Vicky seemed to be shooting question after question about rituals and demons and everything else at Nancy, who loved explaining things she cared about. "So, yeah. I think it could be a lot worse."

Robin smiled in relief, letting out a long sigh. "Okay, good, because I really don't want this thing to mess up our group, because you guys are like the only friends that I have, and-" 

Steve put one arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to him. "Oh, Robin..." He was about to come up with some cheesy wisdom when the shrill ringing of the bell saved him. "Food!"

"Nice!" Robin grinned in anticipation, already making her way toward the door. 

But the person outside was not the pizza guy. 

It was Eddie Munson. Dressed in swimming shorts and a shirt of a band Steve had heard him mention before. His messy hair was tied up in a tight bun.

Steve felt his knees get weaker with every second he looked at the man in front of him. 

He had never seen Eddie in shorts before. He'd had no idea what he had been missing. 

"Steve, what did we say about eyefucking?" Robin groaned, pushing him to the side to let Eddie come into the house. 

"I was just..." Steve shook his head in determination. "You're early!"

"You said seven, it's half past 8. I'm perfectly on time."

"No, but for you. I didn't expect you to come before 10. I mean, we didn't expect-"

"Don't pull me into this, loverboy," Robin argued, already stepping backwards, leaving them both in the hallway. Steve knew that she would be spying on them from the living room.

"You're just disappointed I'm not the pizza guy, aren't you?" Eddie smirked, teasing. 

Steve decided to take the safe way out and nodded quickly. "Yeah", he cleared his throat, trying to make his voice sound steady. "Yes, I am." 

~

Pizza arrived half an hour later. Eddie and Nancy were hanging out in the pool, and for once not arguing. Steve was talking to Robin, while Vickie was fixing up some drinks for them in the kitchen. They had quickly learned what an amazing Bartender Vickie was - if you could keep her from coming up with some crazy, experimental drink.

As soon as the bell rang, Eddie was rushing past them for the door like an excited puppy.

Steve didn't see exactly what happened; he only heard a squeak and a scream, and then a lot of cursing from the foyer. Instinctively he turned toward the noise.

"I swear to god, if you got the carpet dirty, I will get those candles out and personally sacrifice you to Vecna," he shouted, quickly making his way through the house.

The carpet was fine. Eddie, however...

"You ruined the pizza! Look at it, it's all over me," he was yelling, picking bits of pizza toppings off of him, while the tomato sauce dripped over his skin. 

"You ran into me. How was I supposed to see you coming?" Vickie was still holding the pizza boxes, but after a minute returned from her freeze to pick up the slices from the floor. 

Robin turned up behind Steve and started laughing and snorting uncontrollably. 

"If there's pizza, people are gonna be unpredictable!"

"Oh, so I should predict the unpredictable?"

"Yes, you should!"

Steve decided to step in before things could escalate further. "Let's get you cleaned up before you make a mess," he said, carefully placing a hand on Eddie's bare shoulder and pushing him towards the stairs. His skin was warm from the sun."Rob, would you help your girlfriend clean up the floors while I help Ed out?"

Robin looked like she was about to protest and mention how sexist it was, letting the women do the cleaning up, when her eyes met the spot where Steve was still touching Eddie. "Yeah, sure thing. I got you covered."

Steve was thanking her quietly, while he led a cursing Eddie upstairs into the bathroom. 

"There you go, you can use the shower and I'll see if I have some pants that could fit you," Steve explained. 

~

Steve picked the cleanest, most boring pair of underwear he could find before knocking against the bathroom door. Eddie opened just enough for him to stick his arm through. "Thanks," he muttered quietly before closing the door. 

"I... I'll go looking for some pants," Steve announced, leaving Eddie to himself. What pants did Eddie want? He usually wore black jeans, but Steve didn't have any of those. Maybe dark blue? But those were pretty tight. Steve wasn't sure if he would survive Eddie in skinny jeans. Seeing him in swimming shorts had been bad enough. 

A knock at the door pulled his mind back to reality. 

He turned around to see Eddie in the doorway in nothing but Steve's underwear, hair flowing over his shoulders like spilled  ink. 

The dim light of the sunset shone through the blinds, leaving bright stripes on the floor and across Eddie's body. 

Slowly, Steve rose back on his feet, eyes never leaving the man in front of him. "I got some jeans here. You should probably take a look yourself."

"Oh, I'm not picky, just give me anything," Eddie answered, shaking his head. 

"I doubt that. Just take whichever one you want."

"Okay, thanks." 

Steve relished in the small, thankful smile Eddie had granted him. He looked even better like that.

"I can feel you staring, you know?" 

The soft voice dragged him back to reality, in which Eddie was looking right at him, still in his underwear, a knowing smile on his pink lips.

Steve cleared his throat, averting his eyes to the ground. "Sorry. I didn't- I'll just leave you alone." Idiot!

Steve used to be so confident. He was great at flirting. Until Eddie came along. Whenever they were in the same room, he just wanted to sink to his knees and do the most unholy things.

He was already halfway out the door when Eddie spoke up again, voice shaking nervously. "Or you could stay..."

Steve paused, unmoving. He didn't dare to speak. 

"Just... if you'd like to... stare some more?" Eddie cleared his throat. 

It took him a moment to find his voice again. "You- don't you mind? Being stared at?"

"Not by those eyes." 

It was the sort of thing people said before their brain could stop them. 

Steve had to do something. Eddie was clearly... probably... maybe flirting. He couldn't let an opportunity like that pass. 

Slowly, he turned around, letting his eyes trail over the other man's body. Up from his thighs over his hips, to his chest and arms, then his neck up to his hair, lips, and then his eyes. 

"I wouldn't mind you staring either."

"That's good..."

"Why?"

"Because I stare a lot. I'm just not as obvious about it," Eddie smirked.

Steve decided to take one careful step towards him. Here he was, alone in a dim room with Eddie Munson. Their friends were downstairs, probably eating whatever was let of the pizza. Steve wouldn't trade places with any of them for anything in the world.

"I'm not that obvious."

"Not really. But once you notice, it's impossible to miss." Eddie mirrored his movements, closing the distance between them, inch by inch. 

"Well, once you start staring at you, it's impossible to stop," Steve admitted quietly. 

"Flattery will get you everywhere, my love."

"I'm exactly where I want to be," Steve answered, stopping when they were facing each other, breath mixing, noses almost touching. 

His eyes met Eddie's, but eventually found his lips and lingered there. They seemed impossibly soft. He wondered, for perhaps the 200th time that week, what they would taste like. 

He got his answer a second later.

Eddie Munson tasted of booze, and smoke, and delicious sin. Further than that, he was a great kisser, and his hands were just big enough to grab Steve's ass. 

What really settled it was the quiet moan that escaped Eddie's lips when Steve's hand found its way into his hair. 

Unable of any other rational thought, Steve turned them both around, pressing Eddie up against the door.

He let his lips caress the skin of his neck, making their way up to the little tattoo below his ear. 

Eddie sighed in delight, leaning his head the other way. 

"I guess the others will have to wait a little longer for us," Steve murmured, looking up at Eddie, who quickly nodded in agreement. 

"Looks like it."

[munsonsmixtapes]

Hi! can I get an order of the buttered popcorn with a milkshake with a ticket to the swings??

Come on down to the fair!

Order up: Eddie Munson with hurt/comfort and miscommunication

Summary: After he introduces you as his girlfriend without talking to you first, you and Eddie have to have a conversation about where your relationship is going.

The bar is packed as you sit and watch Eddie and the rest of Corroded Coffin get on stage. This is definitely a bigger crowd than usual and that’s because you took it upon yourself to put out flyers advertising the show tonight. You know people love live music and you thought this would be a great way to get the band some new fans. It’s the least you could do for your-well, you don’t exactly know what Eddie is to you because you never discussed it. You’ve been hanging out and sure, you’ve slept together quite a few times, but you’re still unsure.

The lights go down and you turn, giving the band your undivided attention. You sip on your drink as a spotlight shines down on Eddie. Now he’s the only other person in the room as everyone else seems to disappear. That’s how it always is when the two of you are in the same room together. It’s almost like no one else matters.

He turns to his left and gives you a smile as he sings one of the many songs he wrote for you directly to you. You hope to talk about where your relationship stands after the show. You know you like each other, but the status still hasn’t become clear. You just want to know what it is so you can stop thinking about it. It’s taken up every inch of your brain but you’re actually too scared to ask him.

Eddie has been head over heels for you since the second he saw you sitting on that very stool all those months ago. He wants to tell you that he loves you-that he wants to be more than-well, whatever you are. He wants to be able to introduce you as his girlfriend even though he’s more than nervous to do so.

He’s never felt this way before. He’s never actually fallen for anyone he’s hooked up with. He wasn’t supposed to fall for you, but god, did he. And he fell hard. When he thinks about his future, all he can see is the two of you together. He pictures you on the road with the band, cheering him on. He sees the two of you getting married and having kids-if you want them. Even though you’ve only known each other for a couple months, he’s in this for life.

Their short performance ends pretty quickly and Eddie makes a beeline for you as soon as the last note is sung. He pulls you in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek before throwing an arm over your shoulder.

“Guys,” he says as you make eye contact with his three band members. “This is y/n, my girlfriend.” Everything goes still as the words leave his mouth. You’re trying to play it off like he’s said those words a million times, but you’re actually mentally freaking out. You wish he would have at least talked to you first before introducing you as his girlfriend to his closest friends.

They all tell you that it’s nice to meet you and you feel like a dick for basically ignoring them, but you’re too in your head right now. You’re honestly just trying to think about how you want to go about bringing it up to him. He obviously seemed really excited to use the word in reference to you, but you guess it just caught you off guard.

You’re both silent when you leave the bar and head to Eddie’s van. He’s embarrassed that you were so rude to his friends. He doesn’t usually introduce his hookups to them, but thought you were different. And he still thinks that you are but that it was just a bad night.

You sit in the van, still both quiet as Eddie puts the keys in the ignition but he doesn’t crank it. You turn to him and he gives you his undivided attention as he prepares for whatever you’re going to say. Even though he has a pretty good idea. You’re going to break up with him. This is it. The end. Why else would you be acting so weird?

“I’m sorry,” you apologize, breaking the silence. “I just-I wish you would have talked to me before introducing me as your girlfriend.” He didn’t even think about that. He honestly thought that the two of you were on the same page. He was sure that you were just as into him as he was to you-that you were together and just didn’t need to discuss the specifics.

“I really like you, Eddie, and I do want to be your girlfriend, but I just wish you would have talked to me first.”

“I’m sorry,” he replies, scooting closer to you. He takes your hands in his and looks you directly in the eyes, his pretty brown ones boring into yours. “I won’t ever do that again. I was just-excited and I really wanted you to meet my friends.”

“It’s okay. I shouldn’t have been so rude to them. I’ll fix it next time. That is, if you want to give this a shot?”

“I’d love nothing more,” he says, leaning in for a kiss. You both smile into it-your first one as a couple. And all of that anger melts away as you pour everything into it, feeling like nothing but the luckiest people on the planet.

[strang3lov3]

You make me want to get a cat soooo bad!!! What would you say is the downside of owning one because I’m contemplating

I will give you all the downsides, because here are multiple 😭

We’re gonna get really personal. I mean, we already are but whatever.

Be prepared to never shit, shower, or shave alone ever again. I’m fuckin serious. I have an audience for everything I do in the bathroom. Look at it this way, okay? When you’re showering, you’re being attacked by water monsters. Your concerned kitty just wants to make sure you’re alright. And when you’re using the toilet, in the cat’s mind, you are vulnerable, because that’s how it works in the wild. So they’re just looking out for you. I think that’s kind of endearing, right?

The litter box suuuuucks, I’m not gonna lie to you!! It sucks! But dealing with poop is part of life, whether you have a dog or cat or kids. I minimize my own suffering by way of the litter robot. It’s expensive and we paid for it over time but it’s made all the difference and totally worth it imo. But my cats are dicks about it. They try to jump in while it’s cycling and swipe at their poopies so…that’s…another downside.

Get ready to be cuddled at the most inconvenient times. When you have to leave or when you have to pee. That’s going to be exactly when your furry beast decides to park it on ya and then you’re stuck.

Your cat will care about none of the toys you get them. They will care most about a hair tie.

Sometimes they don’t kill bugs. Like they really fucking suck at killing bugs actually

Sometimes they kill mice and leave them on the floor for you. Worse, they might bring you the corpse as a gift.

They’ll wake you up at the ass crack of dawn for food they won’t eat.

They are TROUBLE. My stupid son gizmo has lit himself on fire before. He’s also turned on the stove and filled our apartment with gas.

They can be escape artists! And very good at hiding.

Cat scratches don’t feel very nice.

Fur will be all over your clothes. Look at this as an accessory.

You will be shocked at how much space in your bed a little cat or two can take up.

You might have to kiss your plants goodbye!! Lots of plants can be toxic for kitties. Lilies!! Lilies are terrible.

You will wake to loud crashes.

You may never be able to drink out of a cup that doesn’t have a lid again, lest kitty will drink from it too. And probably knock it over.

Naughty paws in your food!!

Vet visits can be difficult and expensive. My boys are such assholes about getting in their carriers.

I won’t lie to you. They are annoying, manipulative little shits. But your life will be so much better with one (hopefully two!) of these weird little guys keeping your hands full. Nothing makes me feel happy the way my cats make me feel happy. They’re family, you know? We talk to each other and play together and sleep and eat together. Shower together, too 💀 but there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them. My cats sit on me and purr when I’m having an anxiety attack. If I’m sick, they sleep on my head or my stomach to keep me resting. They check on me when I’m crying. They’re magical creatures. Get the kitty 🩵

[artsty33]

Alr when I created this blog I thought I’d only post art here, but turns out I’ll post some vents💀

Now that I made the post where I said I insanely care about my friends (which is true🤗), I’d also like to say why am I like this. Why do I care about my friends even more than I actually care about myself.

Well, since kindergarten I had a friend (let’s call her Elle). We were best friends and promised each other we’ll be friends forever. I really liked her, but… guess what happened..

She broke her promise, started to ignore me and talked to her other friend instead. I was really trying to talk with her and maybe become friends with her friend too, but I ended up being ignored.

I thought “why did I do wrong, why did she change so suddenly” and that moment I realized she’s always been some kinda bitch to me. She told me that I’m weird or disgusting whenever I did something she didn’t approve, she said it’s weird to look masculine as a girl (I didn’t even trust her enough to tell her I’m nonbinary) and honestly, she made some of my past days unnecessarily bad.

I didn’t feel comfortable in her presence because she would just criticize me if I did something wrong, the worst thing is that she was the only friend I had that time and I thought that it’s normal in friendship to behave like that. Now she doesn’t even talk to me and whenever I speak to her, she just looks at me as if I was some kind of an idiot and ignores.

I told myself that I won’t be like her, that if I ever have friends, I’ll be better than her. That I won’t ignore them, or tell them that they’re weird for being themselves and I’ll support them. And now that I have friends, I really am like this. And I’m glad I am.

This was freaking long but whatever XD

Friendos💕(I’ll do more posts like this so if any of you don’t want me to tag you anymore just say):

@123artist-freak123 @loonafan33 @ladybugfandomfantasy @multifandomer537 @imafangirlforsure @sillygoobr64 @aceontheline @animeweebart @crkndandysworld @l-xwx-z @hydra-failure @helluvatrek @popstar-poppy

[riteliso]

Ah yes, my guilts. That one time my friends were lying down, when my friend was tortured, when I left my girlfriend, and when my friend was consumed by green flame but I only heard about that one.

DON'T YOU FUCKIN TRY TO GOTCHA ME ON ANYTHING OKAY I FIGURED OUT THAT THE FIRST ONE WAS FROM WHEN SHADOW WEAVER SHOWED UP AT MYSTACOR

It's tamer than the rest but it fits THEMATICALLY with her whole thing of "oh things from my past are showing up to hurt people I care about" so it gets a pass, just--

I don't think people usually RECOGNIZE it, it's not a very striking scene.

Lighthope sucks and I hate them

Man, as soon as you start thinking about their actions it becomes clear how cruel and ruthless and manipulative they truly are

>:(

Also a parallel we see in this episode is Adora falling under Lighthope's manipulation while Catra at least BEGINS to escape SOME of Shadow Weaver's.

Here we see how Shadow Weaver falls apart when things are taken away from her, and how she falls back on violence to solve her problems. Sounds like some other people I know.

And here it happens.

Catra, unfortunately, HAS learned a lot from Shadow Weaver. But she's confused enough that she's got a few things backwards.

You don't learn to resist because of the hatred that you resist against.

You learn it from the love that gives you the reason to fight in the first place.

Shadow Weaver didn't teach her how to resist, she learned on her own. For Adora.

What Catra has learned on her own, now that she's been free to leave the Fright Zone, has made her a lot stronger.

Again, we've seen her grow a fair bit in this very short period of time.

That Catra who transparently threatened to run away is not a Catra capable of slicing Shadow Weaver's face off.

We're reaching a point in the narrative where it makes sense to move Shadow Weaver to the backseat, because Adora isn't as scared of her anymore, and neither is Catra.

In the future they'll have other things to be scared of, but for a brief window here, they really mostly fear each-other.

Yeah but we the audience didn't know that so it doesn't actually surprise or confuse us

You should have told us that earlier

IT'S SENDING UP A BEAM OF LIGHT A MILE HIGH, IT ISN'T THAT HARD TO FIND

I am glad they put this to sleep right away by having a stupid horse say "dude how would this ever be even a little bit beneficial to anyone ever"

Uh, you ruined ONE girl's life.

And ended one girl's life. According to what you believe.

So you're literally only 50/50 here so suck it up, buttercup

Okay now remember that and don't forget

If you forget I'll be mad okay

So don't you--

Do NOT forget that

Y'see, flexibility, ability to think on her feet, knows opportunities when she sees them-- these are all VERY desirable traits in a partner. I look at the screen and I see a beautiful woman with many green flags (and other assorted colours but we'll look through those another time)

Oh I guess I'll take a second before I forget to go over her current getup. I know it doesn't change for a WHILE yet but shh.

She's wearing a tight fitting uniform with stirrups, a badge, and a weird half helmet half tiara thing. The half tiara thing also has either cat eyes, or ADDITIONAL angry eyebrows, depending on your perspective.

The tones are muted, almost chalky. We have reds, purples, and not much else. The only thing completely bare is her arms.

Now, if I were to read into the symbolism here, I'd say that we're looking at a very guarded and reserved Catra. Keeps her cards close to her chest and doesn't let anyone in. The only thing free and visible is her arms, which brandish her claws.

I feel like there must be SOME amount of sybmolism in the tiara-- I might muse on it more in the future, when we actually lose it, but here's my current hypothesis.

The tiara is inherited from the 80s show. It's, in real life, a relic from the past.

If we use it to represent CATRA's past as WELL, then it makes sense why it's left behind in terms of themes.

It's also inherently something that makes her appear much more guarded and warlike. Our final Catra we end up with seems like one that can actually exist outside of a battlefield, whereas this one and the design we'll get later-- I struggle to see it.

ALRIGHT SO

Here's how we're doing things, right? We're gonna go one episode at a time, and I'm gonna give my thoughts whenever they come up. This is a train of thought type beat, alright? Unlike my usual grandstanding authorial and analytical self, this re-watch is purely for the rant factor. If you don't know me, and you just happened upon this thread because you like reading she-ra rewatches, hello. I'm a writer from Canada who found she-ra in 2025 and is currently on her sixth watch through. From that, hopefully you can discern that I like this show, even if I'm likely gonna criticize parts of it. We good to go? Good. We start with S01 E01.

RIGHT, THE SWORD PART 1! A zoom in, with an angelic singing being drowned out by digital bloopy fright zone vibes, and then Adora being a fuckin dweeb as her leitmotif plays in a decidedly crystiline synth-y tone.

Now, what do we learn from this? This, aside from one gripe I'll have more to speak on later, is an excellent introduction. With the music alone we're essentially taken from the beauty of the planet, the overwhelming dread of the fright zone, and then into a hopeful tune that isn't FREE from these sort of digital themes in the music, but is very defined and separate FROM them.

This isn't gonna be one of those things where I praise literally every single fuckin thing so keep your panties on, I'm not gonna full-on overanalyzing avatar this shit, but the most important parts of a story are the beginning and the ending.

Now, when I say that, I am speaking pragmatically. Every part of every story is important-- but when it comes to what people remember, what they love, what they never shut up about-- it's the start and the end. You need to nail the take-off and the landing, people will forget the turbulence from the rest of the trip.

Now, what does THIS bitch's intro tell us about her? Well, a lot, honestly. Most of what we know about Adora at this point is she plays by the rules, but she is a notably goofy person. She's goofy, but she's unwilling to goof-OFF too much.

And while we get a taste of the rivalry they have instantly, with "That's low, even for you." "You know nothing's too low for me~"

We instantly see that that is not the CORE of their relationship.

I'd like to praise the voice direction in this show for the first of many times here. The voice actors do amazing work in this, and the direction can be felt throughout.

"Come on, you look stupid hanging there" can obviously be a seen as a strange first line to show the warmth these two share, but the inflection from Catra's voice actor, AJ Mikalcha, makes it read as downright sweet.

Also don't get used to me using names of the crew besides ND Stevenson because I'm so awful with names I was still calling Catra Katara half the time on my second re-watch and I was like 90% of the way to realizing I kinned her at that point

Also don't make fun of me for kinning Catra there's no RESPONSE to people making fun of you for kinning Catra THAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU SEEM MORE LIKE FUCKING CATRA OKAY

Anyway, the following scene makes it clear that this is not a one-way dynamic. The two banter, and it's clear Adora knows how to get under Catra's skin and annoy her as well. This is notable in a few places MUCH further on, but it is a difference worth highlighting NOW.

Once Adora leaves, Catra's primary goal is still to get under her skin. She's angry about it, she's mean about it, but she's still just doing what she's always done. The relationship between the two doesn't actually change as much as the context does. I'd say the relationship itself doesn't change much until the final season, at a scene I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about.

On the flip-side, Adora's goal when it comes to Catra is simply to fight her off. But that's not all there is. At points, it's clear that Adora holds some sort of REVERENCE for Catra, and while Catra is very capable of very mean things, don't get me wrong, Adora sees Catra as more of a threat than she realistically is.

At a few moments I'll point out she also relishes in getting under Catra's skin, but admittedly those are few and far between.

People have gone over this introduction billions of times, so I won't BORE you to death with it, but Shadow weaver's introduction does hint at a lot of what we'll learn later. I think it's very notable that while Shadow weaver brings a dark gloom that encompasses both our leads, her vile tendrils only dare to touch Catra. We learn the specifics of the dynamic these three have later, but it is a very unique and terrible situation to be the least favourite of an abusive guardian. Especially if you are repeatedly reminded of that fact.

I'm not gonna go over all the body language shit I've seen other text posts about it there's plenty of them a lot of focus in this show goes into tiny details where characters are constantly reacting to the world around them, and very rarely do we get lame stretches where anyone's face is just frozen and unflinching while they listen to someone else.

with all due respect to the setting at this point in time the bright moon rebellion is so pathetically anemic it's the two teens, some movie night lesbians, an immortal princess queen, and a bunch of fucking trees.

And you'd think the one carrying the team would be THE IMMORTAL PRINCESS QUEEN, BUT NO, ITS THE FUCKING TREES DOING ALL THE GOD DAMNED WORK

This introduction is fine. I don't particularly like it, nor have any strong feelings about it. It establishes the relationship between glimmer and her mother, but besides that it doesn't honestly do much. And don't come at me with "Uh, all it needs to do is establish that relationship?" Yeah, no shit, but we just had a better introduction to our other lead characters. And yes, those are the MAIN leads, the sort of heart of the show, but that doesn't mean that the other characters are unimportant. Glimmer's development later on is truly interesting, and Bow becomes a massively inspiring character. Fun jokey times are fine or whatever to show that they're immature and don't know the first thing about war, in contrast to our full-blown child soldiers raised from birth in the fright zone, but we really don't learn anything particularly INTERESTING about our best friend squad compadres in their intro, nor do we really see any of it until episode 2, to be frank.

This is something we don't actually see much of-- Catra has this ideal of being a conqueror, but it's very clear that she doesn't want that. Her threats are vapid and aimless-- She can enjoy some chaos, sure, but a shit-stirrer isn't gonna use that feces to build brick shithouses that they never intend to fall.

I think this should have been elaborated on more, personally. Catra is comically terrible with authority, and her plan, as stated later, is to wait it out until her and Adora are the ones calling the shots. But we don't really see what she thinks conquering even looks like, and it's not clear whether that's that she hasn't even imagined it and just likes evil words, or if she genuinely wants to rule with Adora as her Queen.

I gravitate towards the first, but that's partially because I wake up and post shit like "I want to destroy the world and rule its dust" and then forget I posted it when someone likes it 5 minutes later. If she do, in fact, as studies point toward, "be just like me fr," then I fully understand. If not, then I'd like to understand.

aw :(

Fuckin dweeb pulling the "my mom doesn't want me hanging out with you anymore" card

HA! Ah, what a bitch. Anyway, she's lashing out, but it's also quite tragic. A lot of people seem to think Adora IS, in some way, a people pleaser, but in reality she just has such an ingrained and violent sense of justice that she wants to right every wrong she has ever and will ever come across. She believes her validity is tied to what she can provide to the world, and she's got a natural sense of charisma, so it's natural for someone who refuses to blend in and naturally tends to put people off like Catra to have this view of her.

In reality, Adora is just-- a good person. And people LIKE good people. She's not a good person with an asterisk-- a good person with terms and conditions-- someone who falls into the definition of a good person while feeling and being treated like something else. Catra is the "a tomato is a fruit" of good people. Adora is just, like, a 1 dollar costco hotdog of a woman. An inarguable good treading water on this earth, no matter how hard it tries to pull her under.

Imagine falling for a brat with mad hops, like a fucking 50 foot vertical, you say you're too tired to play their favourite board game and they go hang out on your neighbour's roof, couldn't be me. Get fucked I guess

Yeah this is sad. Empathy is very much a learned skill, and people who don't learn empathy don't GET happy FOR people. Catra's not a complete person yet. She's not ready to be. That doesn't happen for a really long time, during an exceptionally long manic spiral. We'll get there, calm down, don't think about how far away that is and how much I've already yammered on.

Anyway, if you find yourself getting jealous or annoyed instead of getting happy for people, consider empathy isn't what you thought it was, and that you might still need to work on yourself.

fucking porno framing. Immensely sexual image, really. These bitches violently gay I suppose, I think I'm picking up on that during this sixth re-watch.

Buddy you got no idea how many problems those two already have you literally lose your little tiara at some point I think it ends up in the middle of a tree in space or something it's kinda unclear

Adora elbows her square in the nose during this so to everyone accusing Catra of physical abuse I just want it to be clear that Adora started it :/

Actually I'd like to retract that joke immediately because I know how people get about these two

My feelings are that they are literally child soldiers who were likely raised sparring each-other.

I was raised sparring other children and I ended up fine! Not for war, for Karate. And I didn't end up fine. And neither did they. Anyway, my point isn't even specifically that because this is sci-fi fantasy it's ridiculous to hold real life standards to it, it's more-so that because it's sci-fi fantasy there's extenuating circumstances that are going to affect how these two characters treat each-other. I'll go into hotter takes later, I'm sure, and get people to send me plenty of death-threats, but I'm gonna go into the nuances of exactly what forms Catra's abuse takes, and how it differs given by the separate circumstances we're shown the two in throughout the show.

my girl when I'm tryna live my best life playing as blue toad in mario 3d world

also holy shit we're only like halfway through this I am an AGONIZING yapper jesus fuck

Okay, what to say about lighthope-- well, their first words are "balance must be restored," far before they say Adora's name, so it somewhat lays out their secret priorities for us there. Besides that, I dunno, they got circuits on them? I don't have particularly strong feelings about lighthope, nor their introduction. I think they serve the setting and are written well, I just subjectively am not a sucker for the way they be. Their friendship with Mara is cute tho

I was gonna point out this is cute and how often I do this exact brat tactic but instead we data moshin, nothin wrong with a little data moshin, I'm down

This is the only reason she even wears a ponytail I'd stake my fuckin life on it

Once she leaves the fright zone that thing's fucking vestigial like a tailbone or having "any pronouns" in your bio when it's pretty clear you're very much a "she/they" type of bitch by now

glimmer why don't your windows have glass

or alternatively

how the fuck do you open and close that window

you can absolutely fucking hear her from this distance what on earth are you trying to pull

you a pillow princess tho how many of those arrows are just hitatchi magic wands attatched to a stick with duct-tape after the series ends do you think

The fuck you mean BOTTOM drawer we lookin at left and right here

or is this similar to my pillow princess comment and she's just addressing him and giving him an order

"Bottom; drawer."

It's established later on that he's a tech wiz but at this point in time they don't really give us much to lead us to the fact that he made that fucking thing

she's a freak

yes it's very sweet that she sleeps this way but I don't think it's some bdsm powerplay thing or anything like that, which would honestly be more tolerable, I think she's just like that

like how the way I'd sit in high school was to get two chairs and face them toward each-other then sit cross-legged across both

even if there weren't enough chairs to go around

people would sit on the FLOOR because I wanted to sit criss-cross-applesauce across two chairs, they wouldn't even ask for one of my chairs

also since I was sitting, again, cross-legged, it would have made more sense for ME to sit on the floor

I mean I think I got asked ONCE for one of the chairs and I just said "fine" but besides that people just let me sit on my fuckin throne

She really is kinda dumb, though. Like I ain't complaining, it's a character trait, but like obviously even if just you get in trouble Catra's gonna get blamed, you've seen it like at least once a month for your whole entire life

Mind you, can't really have Catra for the next part, because Catra's reaction to Bow and Glimmer wouldn't be "just let me have the sword" it'd be murder

oh wow we hit the image limit looks like we're doing TWO SEPARATE POSTS FOR THE VERY FIRST EPISODE YEE-HAW!!!!! THIS IS GOING TO TAKE ME FUCKING FOREVER

[silverwhittlingknife]

hi Silver! o/ because that fanart made me wonder - would you happen to know when/where Dick's stuffed elephant plush Zitka turns up in the comics?

GREETINGS CAM <3333 THAT ART WAS SO CUTE

Yeah, I think your instincts are right - it's a truly adorable bit of transformative fandom, but I'm 95% percent sure it's not comics canon. Barbara has canon plushies, but I don't think anyone else does.

I got kinda invested in the investigation (it's hard to prove a negative!) and I ended up typing out an entire History of Elinore/Zitka, so, uh, if you're curious, meet me below the cut for:

Where does Elinore / Zitka - the animal - appear in comics?

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

Where does Elinore / Zitka appear in comics?

We're gonna go in chronological order!

Dick's circus elephant friend was first created for practical reasons: in Batman 436, Marv Wolfman does a big expanded flashback to Dick's circus backstory as a way to subtly show us Tim before officially introducing him (so that we can have a technically-solvable mystery-of-Tim's-identity in LPoD). In this comic, there's an elephant named Elinore who loves Dick:

Aww. Such a cute elephant!

Batman 436 comes out in August 1989. New Titans 60 comes out a few months later, in November, and guess what? When Dick visits the circus, he is suddenly surprised by an unexpected blast from the past! It turns out that even though it's been years, Elinore still remembers him!

Here's the part where Elinore remembers Dick:

SUCH a cute elephant. I love her.

(Guess who else still remembers Dick even though it was so long ago. Guess which other character is about to be an unexpected blast from the past. Guess which character Elinore is directly paralleling guess guess guess sorry everything is about Dick and Tim in my mind but I can focus I swear)

Four years later, in 1993, Batman: The Animated Series retells Dick's origin story. They like and keep Wolfman's elephant, but they change her name to Zitka:

Wolfman doesn't return to the elephant beyond those two appearances, and a few years down the line, New Titans gets cancelled and Wolfman's not writing Dick anymore anyway. So the animal gets abandoned for a while, until Devin Grayson, a fan of both Wolfman and B:tAS, revives the Wolfman-era Titans team in JLA/Titans and then the ongoing series Titans 1999.

Grayson then brings back the elephant in a flashback to Dick's past in Titans 16 (Jun 2000), where she imports the B:tAS name. Sometimes I'm skeptical of TV-to-comics imports, but honestly, I endorse this one. You lose the alliteration, which is a shame, but IMO Zitka is a better elephant name than Elinore.

Here's Dick with the newly-christened Zitka in Titans 16:

Grayson also briefly references the elephant in Gotham Knights 20 and - in a final angsty callback - in Nightwing 88 (Feb 2004), where Zitka tries futilely to comfort Dick in the midst of his trauma conga line:

... And... honestly, I think that's it for comic appearances? The two Wolfman comics plus the three Grayson comics.

Both Wolfman and Grayson are writing multiple titles - Batman, New Titans, Titans, Gotham Knights, and Nightwing between the two of them, spanning a big chunk of Dick's post-Crisis canon - and both writers use the elephant for heartwarming moments of nostalgia, which means if you're doing a post-Crisis readthrough for Dick, Elinore/Zitka feels memorable. But I don't think she actually shows up that much.

For post-2011, I am not as well-informed - throwing this out to the dash? anyone know? - but I feel like Zitka the heartwarming symbol of Dick's heartwarming circus past is, uh, thematically very at odds with the Court of Owls evil!circus vibes, so my instinct is that this story element was almost certainly dropped in the reboot.

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

In WFA, yes; in main comics continuity, no. Technically, I have not read every comic ever published, so I could be wrong!! But I don't think so.

Below, find my rambling reasoning on the tonal vibes of pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, and post-2011, and why this particular story element doesn't seem right to me for the first two.

Pre-Crisis (...okay, mostly the Silver Age): stuffed animal, yes or no?

tl;dr no, requires too much background knowledge on the part of the reader, plus the elephant wasn't a thing until later

Elinore doesn't get created until post-Crisis, but also just generally, pre-Crisis callbacks are more along the lines of this reference in Batman 129 (published in 1960), where, wow, Batman and Robin are hunting jewel thieves - and it turns out Robin recognized this strongman! BUT HOW?!

The comic goes on to recap Dick's entire origin story in flashback, on the assumption that you may not know it.

(BTW, if you'd like to know more about Haly's Circus throughout the years, nightwingology has a great post here summarizing a lot of fun plotlines and characters!)

Basically: Silver Age comics are very self-consciously episodic and kid-friendly; they're not generally gonna do overly-elaborate callbacks because they don't know what comics their kid readers may have randomly picked up or remember.

By the time of post-Crisis, comic books were being written for an adult audience buying from the direct market, i.e. readers who are collecting whole runs & don't need or want Dick's origin story to be recapped to us in full every time it's referenced. That's why in post-Crisis, we get stuff like "hey, neat, this particular soda brand is getting mentioned in several different books!!" or "in order to understand this story arc, buy SIXTEEN DIFFERENT COMICS in FIVE DIFFERENT RUNS and read them ALL ACCORDING TO A NUMBERED ORDER and also you better be following the individual plotlines and recognize these five minor characters who we don't bother to introduce!! Good luck!!" But the elaborate post-Crisis plotlines - and subtler worldbuilding like a stuffed animal callback to Dick's backstory - don't make a lot of story sense UNLESS you're imagining your readers as completionist adult fans.

So IMO a stuffed animal wouldn't be a pre-Crisis thing unless it was The Episodic Story Of the Week, and I don't think a stuffed animal is action-adventure-y enough for the fast-paced storytelling of the Silver Age. (Unless it, like, came to life and tried to eat you or something.)

Post-Crisis: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr: no, Dick's a manly tough guy, he's not gonna have a stuffed animal, that'd be lame, like something Tim might do

Part of the edgy grimdark adult vibes in 80s/90s comics is that some characters who used to be kinda silly & goofy & lighthearted - like Batman and Robin - get reimagined as Serious and Angsty and Edgy in a Tough Cool Manly Brooding Way. This massively affects characterization for Bruce, Dick, and Bruce and Dick's relationship.

(I obviously love this change & love the tense Bruce-and-Dick interactions, but plenty of fans of the earlier fluffy comics really disliked the edgy retcons of Miller / Wolfman / Starlin / et al.)

The upshot is that post-Crisis is a period when you could have a recurring reference like a stuffed elephant, but you wouldn't have a stuffed elephant, not for Dick. I think a toy like that would be too cutesy / childish / effeminate to give a male character in post-Crisis, unless you were poking fun at him.

Now, you could probably let Tim have a stuffed animal, because Tim is sometimes cool but also sometimes a tryhard loser who is faking being cool and not entirely pulling it off (see e.g. the Robin comic where he practices tough-guy faces in the mirror, or the Teen Titans comic where Conner discovers his cringy Enya CD, or when he's fanboying over Connor and it's awkward, etc etc.). A stuffed animal would be deeply embarrassing, and you'd have to be careful to compensate by having Tim do something cool afterward - but Tim's character concept allows for "he's kind of a loser sometimes."

But Dick isn't!! In post-Crisis, Dick's a tough / impressive / "cool guy" character, the kind of guy anyone would want to be, even in the flashbacks where he's Robin, and even in the stories where he's more lighthearted than angsty. It'd be kinda lame for Dick to have a stuffed elephant, so he wouldn't. I feel like Dick would be more likely to poke fun at it if someone had one, like when he's making fun of Wally for liking the Hardy Boys. Dick could have a Batman action figure, at most, and if he had one he would have it ironically.

Basically: in post-Crisis, a male character hugging a stuffed elephant feels more likely to be a punchline to me, not something poignant. (Even with Tim, Tim could have an embarrassing stuffed animal, but he couldn't hug it when sad - that's too far. Maybe Booster Gold might do this. Probably he wouldn't, but spiritually, he would. Sorry Booster ilu! <3)

Instead, Dick instinctively deals with his inner turmoil like the TORTURED ACTION HERO he is: by punching things and brooding and yelling and joining the mob and sleeping on rooftops and going on obsessive secret missions and acquiring Angsty Stubble!! Just like Batman!

(Technically I don't know if Bruce ever joined the mob but you know he would.)

Anyway as you know this is my favorite continuity and I am poking fun affectionately, but uh, yeah sdfsfdsfs. No stuffed animals.

Post-2011 / Infinite Frontier / Wayne Family Adventures: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr it's in WFA! Probably not anywhere else, but it could be.

Post-2011 stuff tends to be cutesier overall, most of all in the current Infinite Frontier era. So I don't feel like this would be tonally out-of-line with IF comics. Taylor tends to go for more meme-y references rather than fanfic references, though.

So the obvious best fit is WFA, which is aiming for a rough approximation of Silver Age family-friendly vibes - wholesome, episodic plots, Teaching Good Moral Lessons For The Youth, etc. - plus lots of Easter eggs for fanfic readers and some comic references.

And look, here we are:

Aww.

Whew - that's everything I could find!

Anyway as you can probably tell, I LOVE the elephant, so this was a very entertaining rabbit hole to go down, thank you <3

[disposal-blueeee]

doodles

edgar vargas and squee by johnen vasquez

scriabin by zarla-s

[sockdooe]

FUCK YOU VOLTRON LEGENDARY DEFENDER!!!!!!!!!!!! I SHOULD NOT BE CRYING AT DAMN NEAR MIDNIGHT CAUSE OF YOUR FAILURE OF A SHOW ASS 🖕

[hsslilly-blog]

huntclaire divorce au. everything is exactly the same but wait i was going to make a joke here but i’m actually very invested in this

[professorspork]

idk how to word this properly but wrt the fanfic thing you reblogged earlier. Why do fanfic writers have such different expectations than any other content hosting platform?

Like lets take youtube as a point of comparison, Engagement like comments and likes largely exists to boost the works place in algorithm, thats why youtubers put in calls to action and other engament bait. Few with decent reach even read the comments and the audience shouldnt try to develop any weird parasocial relationship with the youtuber. Fanfic authors ask for likes (kudos, because the websites gotta use nonstandard language for some reason) and comments despite them not having any impact on an algorithm, and seem to want the audience to try and develop a relationship with the author based on tumblr posts like that one.

Why the radical difference in behaviour away from the norm? And honestly with all the (usually) metaphorical blood spilled online about parasociality why are authors really surprised that the audience tries to keep their distance as is best practice with any other content producer?

okay I am going to answer this as kindly and as calmly as I can and try to assume that you are asking this in good faith. because my friend, the fact that you feel the need to ask is, to me, The Problem.

[this is, for the record, in response to this post]

fanfiction writers are not *posting content.* (I also have reservations about engaging with the term "content producer" or "content creator" but let's put that aside for now, I'll circle back to it.) you say "they seem to want the audience to try and develop a relationship with the author" as though it is strange, off-putting, and incomprehensible to you, when in fact that is the point of writing fanfiction. it is a way of participating in fandom. it is a way of building community and exchanging ideas and becoming closer with people.

if authors wanted to solely ~generate content~ that would get them attention (?? to what end, the dynamic you have described seems to equate algorithmic supremacy as winning for winning's sake, as though all anyone wants to do is BUILD an audience without ENGAGING with them, which I cannot fathom but let's pretend for a moment that is, in fact, true) then like. if that were the case why on earth would they choose a medium in which they categorically cannot succeed and profit, because it isn't their IP?

you are equating two things that are not at all the same thing. to the degree that parasocial relationships are to be avoided, and "that person is not trying to be your friend they are trying to entertain you, please respect their boundaries" is a real dynamic -- which it is!! -- like. you have to understand that the reason that is true for the people of whom it is true is because it is their JOB. they are storytellers by profession, and they are either through direct payment, or sponsorship, or advertising, or through some other means, profiting off of your attention. i don't say this to be dismissive, many wonderful artists and actors and comedians and any number of a thousand things that i enjoy very much go this route but they do so as a *career choice.* and so when you violate the public/private boundary with them, you are presuming to know a Person rather than their Worksona. the people who work at Dropout or who stream their actual play tabletop games or who broadcast on TikTok or YouTube are inviting me to feel like i know them to the degree to which that helps them succeed in their medium and at their craft, but there MUST be a mutual understanding that that's a feeling, not a fact.

however.

a fanfiction writer is not an influencer, not a professional, and is not looking to garner "success." there is no share of audience we are trying to gain for gain's sake, because we are not competition with one another, because there is nothing to win other than the pleasure of each other's company. we are doing this for no other reason than the love of the game; because we have things we want desperately to say about these worlds, these characters, these dynamics, and because we *want more than anything to know we are not alone in our thoughts and feelings.* fanfiction is a bid for interaction, engagement, attention, and consideration. it is not meant to be consumed and then moved on from because we are NOT paid for our work, nor do we want to be. the reward we seek is "attention," but attention as in CONVERSATION, not attention as in clicks. we are not IN this for profit, or for number-go-up. there is no such thing: legally there cannot be. we are in this because we want to be seen and known.

like. please understand. i am now married to someone i met because of mutual comments on fanfiction. our close friend and roommate, with whom i have cohabitated for over a decade now, is someone I met because of mutual comments on fanfiction and livejournal posts. that is my household. beyond my household, the vast majority of my closest personal friends are people with whom I built relationships in this way.

you ask why fanfiction writers want THIS and not "the norm," but the idea of everything being built to cater to an algorithm to continue to build clout, as though the only method of reaching people is Distant Overlord Creator and Passive Receptive Audience being "the norm" is EXTREMELY NEW. this is not how it has always been!! please think of the writers of zines in a pre-internet fandom, using paper and glue and xerox to try and meet like-minded people in a world that was designed for you to only ever meet people in person, by happenstance, in your own hometown. imagine the writers of the early internet, building webrings from scratch to CREATE a community to find each other, despite distance. imagine livejournal groups, forums, and -- yes, indeed, of course -- comment threads IN STORIES -- as places where people go to *converse.* in the past, we had an entire Type Of Guy that everyone knew about, the BNF ("Big Name Fan") whose existence had to be described via meme because it was SO DIFFERENT THAN THE NORM. treating fellow fans like celebrities or people too cool for the regular kids to know was an OUTLIER, and one commonly understood to lead to toxicity.

in the past, I have likened writing fanfiction to echolocation. i am not screaming because I like hearing the sound of my own voice, though i can and do find my voice beautiful. i am screaming so that the vibrations can bounce back to me and show me the world. the purpose is in the feedback. otherwise it is just noise.

does this make any sense? can you see, when i describe it that way, why an ask like yours makes me feel despair, because it makes us all sound so horribly separate from one another?

perhaps I will try another metaphor:

a professional chef who runs a restaurant will not have her feelings hurt if you never fight your way into the kitchen to personally tell her how much you enjoyed the meal. that would, indeed, violate a boundary. professional kitchens are a place of work, and you have already showed her you enjoyed the meal by paying for it, or by perhaps spreading your enjoyment by word of mouth to your friends so they, too, can have good meals. you show your appreciation by continuing to come back. if a bunch of people sitting around randomly happen to have a conversation about how much they love the food, it wouldn't hurt that chef's feelings to not be included in the conversation. however: EVEN IN THIS INSTANCE, it is ADVISABLE AND APPROPRIATE to leave a good review! you might post about how much you like this restaurant on Yelp, and it would probably make the chef feel great to see those positive comments. but the chef doesn't NEED them, because the chef is, again, *also being paid to cook.* that's why she started the restaurant, to be paid to cook!

i am not being paid to cook.

i am at home in my own kitchen, making things for a community potluck where i hope everyone will bring something we can all enjoy together. some people at the potluck are better bakers, some better cooks; some can't cook at all but are great at logistics and make sure there's enough napkins for everyone; some people come just to enjoy the food, because that's what the party is for. and if I, as this enthusiast chef who made something from my heart for this reason alone, learned after the fact that a bunch of people got together in the parking lot to rave about my dish but no one of them had ever bothered to tell me while I sat alone at my table all night, occasionally seeing people come by to pick up a plate but never saying anything to me -- of course that would bother me, because I am not otherwise profiting off the labor I put in. this is not a bid to be paid, because if someone WERE to say "hey, great cake!! here's five bucks for a slice" i would say no, friend, that is not the point and give them the money back. i'm not trying to Get Mine. I am in it to see the look on your face. I'm in it so you can tell me what about it moved you, so that I can say back what moved me to make it in the first place. so we can TALK about it.

because what happened in the first place is this: one time I had a cake whose sweetness, richness, flavor, intensity, and composition moved me so much that I *taught myself to bake.* so I could see how much vanilla and sugar was too much, so I could learn how to make things rise instead of fall flat, so I could even better appreciate the original cake by seeing for myself the effort and talent and inspiration that goes into making one even half as good.

learning to do so is a satisfying accomplishment in and of itself, yes.

but I also did it because at the end of the day we should EAT the cake. and it's a lonely thing, to eat alone when a meal was always designed and intended to be shared.

so, to answer your last question: i'm not surprised, i'm just sad. because somehow two things that were never meant to be seen as the same have been labeled "content," and thus identical. and it diminishes both the things that ARE intended to be paid for AND the things that are not, because it removes any sense of intimacy or meaning from the work.

i hope you know i'm not mad at you for asking. but i'm frustrated we've come to live in a world where the question needs to be asked, because the answers are no longer intuitively obvious because we're so siloed.

[cosycryptid]

Steve slowly realises way more customers end up actually renting something when he flirts a little with them. So for the sake of making sure he gets the Christmas bonus him and Robin were promised if they hit a certain target, he stops being picky about who he flirts with and starts turning his charm on for literally every adult who walks into the store.

It works surprisingly well. At first he's worried that some of the guys who come in might try to punch him, but he's mastered the art of being subtle with his smiles and compliments. So they mostly just have a pleasant chat with him and leave feeling conflicting emotions and carrying a movie they hadn't planned to rent, but somehow felt compelled to. When Steve and Robin get good feedback from the manager for their consistently improved rental figures, Robin starts encouraging Steve to keep it up.

The only issue is because he's spending pretty much every day flirting with people at work, it becomes second nature to him and he does it in his personal life. Most of the time he does it without even realising, but there are the rare embarrassing occasions where he catches himself saying or doing something that would not be interpreted the way he meant it to be.

One of the worst was when he dropped the kids off at the Byers' place for a sleepover and when Joyce thanked him for getting them there safe, he said, "Anything for you, Joyce," in an unintentionally suggestive tone and winked at her.

He got about half way down the driveway before practically running back to her with a bright red face, apologising profusely. "I'm so sorry, that came out really weird. I just meant that like I think of you as a mom and - no wait, shit, that makes it sound weirder." He had to take a breath to find the words and it came out stiff and unnatural when he said, "I appreciate everything you've done for us all and if you ever need help with anything you can always ask me."

The party witnessed the entire interaction and relentlessly tease him about it and mimic what he said while making kissy faces every time he's scolding them for doing or saying something stupid. They only stop when Will tells them to because that's his mom and he doesn't want to relive that weird, uncomfortable moment where Steve sounded like he was trying to proposition her.

An even worse occurrence happened not long after, when Hopper saw Steve standing around by his car, waiting for the kids to get their shit together and get out of the arcade. Hopper was on patrol, so he called over to him jokingly, "Loitering is a criminal offence, you know."

And Steve, before he could stop it, put one hand on his hip, brushed the other through his hair and said, "Are you gonna cuff me for it, Hop?"

Steve's blood ran cold in the deafening silence that followed where they looked at each other with horrified expressions, but Hopper managed to collect himself quickly. "I'm going to forget you just said that because I know that's not how you meant it to come out."

Steve couldn't look him in the eye when he quietly responded, "That would be really great, thank you."

He also had a weird moment with Jonathan, when he and Nancy walked into Family Video - which to be fair is Steve's main flirting ground - one afternoon later that week.

"So I heard you tried to flirt with both my parents?" Jonathan opened with.

And instead of more blushing and apologising, something unhinged in Steve's brain made him lean forward and say, "You jealous, Jonathan?" and even more wild is the fact that his body thought it would be a great idea to press his index finger to the middle of Jonathan's chest as he said it.

Jonathan looked at him, wide eyed, and only found himself able to let out a blank sounding, "Um."

Nancy, however, stared him down and said, "He's taken, Steve."

Steve pulled his hand away like he'd been burnt as soon as he caught on to what she meant.

And because Steve is a disaster, what was meant to be an assurance that he would never go for Nancy's partner, comes out entirely different.

“Relax, I’m not after your boyfriend. I have much better taste. Like… you, for example." It dawned on him that his tone had been way off as both Nancy and Jonathan stared at him like he had grown an extra head. "That sounded better in my brain. I've moved on, I swear. I meant my past relationships show that my type is not Jonathan. No offence, Jonathan, you are a good looking guy, like you're unconventionally handsome and it's kind of charming... I need to shut up."

He heard himself digging a deeper hole but couldn't make it stop.

"Dude, what the hell is wrong with you?" Robin said, slapping him on the shoulder. "You're supposed to flirt with customers, not everyone."

"I'm sorry, I was going for reassuring this time. Why does everything I say sound wrong lately?" Steve groaned with his face pressed to his hands.

"If it makes it any better, it totally would have worked on me if I was single and into guys," Jonathan shrugged.

"No, Jonathan. That doesn't make it better." Steve snapped in response.

Eddie is blissfully unaware of this new development, until he invites Steve and Robin to one of Corroded Coffin's shows.

Steve can't keep his eyes off Eddie the entire time, and it seems as if Eddie notices and thinks it's weird because Robin definitely notices and announces to Steve that he's being weird. Also, Eddie's eyes keep flitting over to him and he definitely messed up a note or two at some point, which must mean Steve's weird behaviour is throwing Eddie off. Steve tries his best to stop but he keeps doing it so in the end he just lets himself stare and decides he'll explain it to Eddie later.

Then someone tries to approach Eddie at the side of the stage after their set, looking at him with an expression Steve recognises as one that says 'come home with me'. And he feels awful about it because he should let Eddie have that with someone, especially after all the shit he's been though, but his traitorous feet carry him through the crowd to steal Eddie's attention before the person can get there. Robin's left to follow after Steve like a parent chasing a toddler who's running with a sharp object.

Eddie's got no clue that Steve just ruined some potential action for him as he downs a bottle of water so quickly some of it drips down his shirt. Steve's brain suddenly goes 'wow I wish I was that bottle of water', which he will admit catches him off guard because where the fuck did that thought come from? All the other times he'd behaved like this, it was without any thought at all until after the fact. He's also weirdly satisfied when he notices the person who was coming over to talk to Eddie is walking away dejectedly.

"Hey, you guys made it!" Eddie says, his face lighting up as he notices Steve and Robin standing there.

"Of course we did," Robin smiles.

Eddie gives both of them a hug, but Steve's seems to linger a little longer and Steve has to fight himself not to lean in closer and smell Eddie's hair because that's a really fucking weird impulse, especially since Eddie is all sweaty from performing.

"So, what did you think?" Eddie asks, a slightly nervous tone in his voice.

"You were awesome," Steve says, and mentally pats himself on the back for saying something that sounds normal.

"Really?" Eddie asks hopefully.

Something about the look in his eyes makes Steve's chest feel strange. Which is the only explanation he has for immediately demolishing his winning streak against his flirty tendencies.

He means to compliment Eddie on how talented he is at playing guitar. That's what he tells himself anyway.

What actually comes out of his mouth is, "Yeah, you're really good with your hands, Eddie," and it sounds absolutely filthy with the low tone of Steve's voice and the little lip bite he does after, all while leaning in close and making eye contact. There is no room for interpretation at all, but Steve doesn't feel the usual panic and embarrassment that comes when he accidentally does something flirtatious. Huh.

Even more surprising, when Eddie closes the gap even further, raises an eyebrow at him and says, "You should see what they can do when there isn't a guitar in the way, sweetheart," it doesn't throw Steve off one bit, he only feels a spark of excitement at the challenge.

"Maybe I will," he replies, his gaze darting between Eddie's lips and his eyes. And yeah, he's pretty much realised that he's just intentionally flirting with Eddie at this point. He's hoping he'll leave with him because they can't exactly kiss in front of a bar full of people.

"Oh my God," Robin groans, exasperated, and both boys break apart. "Could you take me home before I have to witness anymore of this? It's bad enough watching you flirt when you don't know you're doing it, Steve."

"Shit, sorry, Robin," Steve apologises. "Yeah, I'll drive you home." Robin thanks him, says goodbye to Eddie and starts walking towards the exit. Steve turns back to look at Eddie. "See you later," he smiles, but when he's about to turn to follow Robin, he feels ringed fingers wrap firmly around his wrist.

"Yeah, you will," Eddie responds, his tone still flirty and his eyes watching Steve with purpose. "Your place or mine, big boy?"

[emmiesoverthemoon]

go ask your father!

pairing: lee minho x reader tags: drabble. domestic fluff. part of the emmieverse special—see here

minho is halfway through folding the freshly dried clothing in the laundry room when he hears it: the unmistakable chorus of tiny, judgmental meows.

he glances down. three pairs of eyes stare up at him like he is personally responsible for the downfall of society.

“what,” he asks flatly, holding up a pair of your socks.

soonie meows again—loud and mournful—and doongie rubs against his shin like he is trying to awaken guilt. dori simply stares. always watching. always planning.

“i fed you. i scooped your litter. i gave you those weird snacks you like,” minho lists, bending to scratch doongie’s head. “what else do you want, huh?”

they do not answer. they simply exist at him.

until—

the sound of the front door unlocking echoes from the other side of the house.

everything changes.

soonie bolts first, nearly slipping on the hallway rug. doongie trots after him with poise, and dori makes his usual dramatic entrance: meowing as if he just survived war.

minho snorts, shaking his head.

“traitors.”

you barely have one foot inside before you are surrounded.

“hi, my babies,” you coo, crouching down to pet them as they swirl around you in a furry storm. “missed me that much?”

minho stands at the end of the hallway, arms crossed, a hopeless little smile tugging at his mouth. the sight of his babies loving on you like this never gets old.

“they’ve been moping around like your absence broke each of their hearts,” he says, slowly approaching you from where he stood.

you grin at him. “maybe it did.”

he leans to kiss you hello, warm hands settling on your waist like they never want to leave. “well i missed you more,” he murmurs.

“i would hope so,” you quipped. you melt into his embrace for a beat, then pull back. “i’m starving.”

“same,” he agrees. “want me to start on—”

“i got it,” you wave his offer off, stepping into the kitchen. the cats follow after you immediately, falling into formation like little soldiers of chaos. they may as well be magnetised to you.

you open the fridge, eyeing them. “you just want food, huh?”

meows follow. of course they do.

you point down the hallway vaguely to where you left minho standing. “then go ask your father.”

there is a pause.

then three sets of paws patpatpat down the hall like a furry stampede. when they don’t find him near the entryway, they search the house.

not in the living room…

not in the bedroom…

….he’s in the laundry room again!

minho, in the middle of matching your sock pairs again, looks up just in time for the interrogation squad to arrive.

they meow. in sync.

he blinks. “did you—did they actually—”

from the kitchen, you call: “i delegated!”

minho just laughs, setting the socks aside to kneel on the floor like a medieval servant to his royal court.

“you guys are whipped.”

soonie hops in his lap. doongie starts purring. dori knocks over a cup.

minho sighs, grinning. “yeah, yeah. i’ll feed you. but only because your mother’s scary when she’s hungry.”

from the kitchen, you call once more: “i heard that!”

he smiles to himself, completely gone for this weird little family of his.

and for the record, the cats get fed first.

he knows his place.

tysm anon! i love writing lee know soft….. soft domestic lee know and i are married now

taglist (ask to be added here): @burlesquerade @makeitworse @petersasteria @gdinthehouseee @aizshallnotbefound @floofeh-purpi @ldydeath @wcnderlnds @ttturnitup @breakmeoff @sherrayyyyy @ricecake9999 @leni111 @scream-queen-25 @spiritualgirly444 @fairyprincesslvr21 @loonybunny1 @uuchii @sherxoo @m-325 @slut4junho

[fairyhaos]

◇ the way you make me feel // choi seungcheol

seungcheol x gn!reader, 2.6k+ words

tags: requested by anon, established relationship, fluff, mild angst, seungcheol is sooo down bad oh lawwd

warnings: pet names, 1 vvv mild curse word ig?? (ass)

notes: any fic where i get to write besotted cheol is a great fic! might be slightly ooc but oh well. who cares. ty anon for this request <3

“I'm going to be very honest, honey… this feels like a sleeping arrangement for a couple that's just had an argument.”

You laugh a little at the mild pout on your boyfriend's face as he stares contemplatively at the bed after you've suggested a rather… interesting sleep method that he's never really heard of before. 

“It's really not,” you assure him. “Other couples do this all the time! And I thought it would be fun to try out too.”

Your boyfriend, Seungcheol, blinks at the bed before looking over at you, mystified. 

“Really? People want to do this?”

“Yes, Cheol.”

“Hm.” Seungcheol frowns. “What did you say this was called again?”

“The Scandinavian Sleep Method,” you say cheerfully, hopping over to the drawers with all the different duvets and duvet covers that you and your boyfriend have collected over the years you've been living together. “Isn't it such a great idea? We sleep in the same bed, but we each have a different duvet so we get better sleep but still get to be next to each other.”

You begin pulling out different duvets, inspecting them and continuing to chatter as you do so. 

“I know how much you love weighted blankets, but you know they're not something I'm a big fan of,” you say. “And you really hate my fluffy covers, for some reason. But if we sleep this way, then both of us can sleep happily without causing disturbance to the other's sleep quality!”

With a flourish, you turn back round to Seungcheol, the offending weighted blanket and fluffy cover in your hands, as if emphasising your point. There's a bright beam on your face, evidently eager to try out this new idea, but Seungcheol? 

He's still looking a bit hesitant. 

Which, understandable. You're introducing a new sleeping arrangement three years after you've been quite happily living together. Anyone would find that weird. 

“If we don't like it, we can switch back,” you assure him. You shrug. “It's just a trend I saw online, Cheol. I thought it would be cool.”

Seungcheol pauses, and then smiles, nodding once. “Fine, fine. Let's try out, then. We'll see if the Scandinavians actually sleep well.”

You cheer, dropping the bedding and skipping across the room to launch yourself into Seungcheol’s arms. He catches you easily, laughing as he does so, amused at how delighted you are by his acceptance. 

“Yes! I love you. Now I get to make the bed all aesthetic with different layered sheets!”

Seungcheol laughs again. “All right, sweetheart. Tell me if you need more sheets to fit in with your vision, okay? I'll buy you whatever you need.”

“Oh my god, suddenly I love you even more.”

───────────── 🗝

Admittedly, Seungcheol does love hearing you say that you, the absolute love of his life, love him (and any self-respecting boyfriend would feel the same), but he's wondering if this entire thing is really, really all that worth it. 

Because, well. 

Seungcheol hates the Scandinavian Sleep Method. 

He harbours no hatred towards the Scandinavians themselves, of course, but their sleep method, for him, well and truly sucks. 

Of course, he can understand why people like it. There are aspects he doesn't mind, too: such as how it's currently way less likely for him to wake up at 4am with a cold ass because you've stolen half the covers from him again. Or how he doesn't have to worry about the fluffy, fuzzy feeling of your sheets pressing creepily soft kisses against his ankles. Or how he can now actually sleep peacefully without finding that he's been suffocated by your weight on his chest because now, you actually sleep on your side of the bed. 

Nevertheless, he hates this. 

Unfortunately, he can't bring himself to say anything about this, because—

“I seriously think my quality of sleep has improved so much,” you say to Seungcheol one Sunday morning, beaming over your cup of coffee as he makes breakfast waffles for you. “The Scandinavians really know what they're talking about, huh?”

And your eyes are bright, sparkling as you say this, so full of life even though it's nine in the morning on a Sunday. 

So Seungcheol smiles back, happy purely because you're happy, even though if you really pressed him, he'd admit that he's not really happy at all. 

“I guess they do,” he says, turning back to the waffles. “Do you want honey with the waffles? Or the new maple syrup I bought you?”

“Ooh, maple syrup, please!”

And then Seungcheol had done all sorts of fancy tricks with the bottle of maple syrup, and you had clapped your hands and laughed, delighted, and Seungcheol felt a little better, the weight of his guilt that he didn't share your opinion beginning to lighten. 

There's no real big reason why he hates this sleeping arrangement. Sure, it stops all your bad sleeping habits, but, truthfully, he… misses all those things. 

He misses waking up to you all huddled up in the blankets, looking all small and adorable whilst swathed in the thick fabric. He misses cuddling you close and entangling his legs with yours in order to escape from the weird fluffy texture of your sheets. He misses feeling the comforting weight of you asleep against his chest, warm and secure like the physical manifestation of his soul, safely tucked against his side. 

Now, you simply smile at him, face shiny and soft from your skincare routine, and give him a peck on the cheek goodnight before snuggling under your duvet, away from him, in your own little bubble of comfort. 

Without him. 

It makes him feel like an abandoned dog left in the rain outside of his owner's home. 

Excuse him for being dramatic, but he's literally slept with you curled up in his arms for a very, very long time now. And these days, now that you're no longer with him and are miles away on the other half of the bed, he can't fall asleep by himself. 

Withdrawal symptoms from cuddling must be a thing, because he's going through them right now. 

“Just talk about how you feel, then,” is what any sane person would say about this matter, which is very good, very sound, advice. 

However, it's also what Joshua says to Seungcheol when he complains to him about the new sleeping arrangement, and everyone knows Joshua is the least sane person in existence, so Seungcheol decides to ignore his advice. 

Joshua rolls his eyes, used to but not pleased by Seungcheol's stubbornness. 

“You're being silly,” he says, when Seungcheol vetoes his suggestion. “This is obviously impacting your sleep quality in a negative way, which is the exact opposite of what Y/N was hoping for.”

“But Y/N seems to be sleeping better,” Seungcheol argues. He rubs his eyes, and the world spins a little as he does so. “So I probably shouldn't say anything, right?”

“No, you should say something,” Joshua says firmly. “What do you think Y/N will do when it becomes obvious that this new arrangement is actively harming you, and yet you didn't say anything? Hell, if I found out my boyfriend wasn't telling me that kind of stuff, I'd get really mad.”

Seungcheol frowns. “What? Why?”

“Because you're my boyfriend?” Joshua says. “Uh—not actually mine, obviously. But that's how Y/N would feel. You need to communicate your feelings. That's what couples do.”

Joshua takes a sip of his tea, spinning around in Seungcheol's desk chair in his study whilst Seungcheol, the owner of the chair, is currently exiled to the small wooden stool beside it. 

“Just think about how you'd feel if you were in Y/N's shoes. How would you feel if your partner wasn't telling you that they're sleeping badly and feeling increasingly more terrible throughout the weeks because of something that could be easily fixed by them talking it out with you?”

And oh, now Seungcheol understands. Now it makes more sense. He'd want you to communicate your feelings immediately. 

Joshua must see the revelation on Seungcheol's face, because he snorts smugly. “I knew you'd get there in the end.”

“Shut up,” Seungcheol grumbles, and Joshua mocks him for how ridiculously macho-man he was being before. “I'll talk to Y/N about this tonight.”

“Well done,” Joshua says amusedly, spinning around in Seungcheol's chair so fast that its joints, even as expensive and well-oiled as they are, begin to groan in surprise. “I'm so proud of you.” 

 “Shut up,” Seungcheol says again, and Joshua laughs. “And get off my chair.”

“Hmph! You're so mean. I bought this chair for you, you know.”

“No, you didn't.”

“No, I didn't. But you believed me for a second, didn't you?”

“Definitely not. Now get out of my house before Y/N gets home.”

───────────── 🗝

It's one of those very, very rare days where you finish work later than Seungcheol, and so when you unlock the front door and finally make it inside, you're more than ready to just fall into your boyfriend's arms. 

Except, the entire ground floor of your house is dark when you get home.

“Where is he?” you say to yourself, mystified. “Cheol? Where are you?”

“In our room!” he calls back from upstairs, and you take off your coat and shoes, dumping your bag by the doorway and bounding up the stairs two at a time to get to your boyfriend. 

“Seungcheol! Why were the hallway lights off? Have you eaten dinner yet? What's— wait, what are you doing?”

In the middle of your bed, right over where the two halves of your bedding meet, Seungcheol is sprawled out in an upside down starfish shape, staring up at you balefully as you walk into the room, and you laugh a little at the state your boyfriend is in. 

“Hello,” you say amusedly. “You look like you're sulking.”

Seungcheol just continues to blink up at you like a displeased cat. 

You laugh again, bending down and kissing him on the forehead. “Definitely sulking, I see. What's wrong, baby? What happened?”

There's a long moment where Seungcheol doesn't say anything, and you continue to smile down at him, petting his hair fondly. And then, he frowns, and speaks. 

“What do you think of our bed?”

You look over at the head of the bed, scanning it briefly. “I think it looks fine.”

It's apparently the wrong thing to say, because Seungcheol frowns harder. 

“Why? Do you not like it?”

“I don't like it,” Seungcheol says, and sits up, turning around to face you. “I don't like this sleeping arrangement.”

You tilt your head. “Oh? I thought you didn't mind the Scandinavian Sleep Method.”

Seungcheol sighs. “I lied,” he admits. “I actually hate it so much. It's the worst thing in the entire world.”

Your face softens in worry, feeling something thick and bitter rising to your throat at the idea that you've been forcing Seungcheol to go through with something he hates. 

“I'm sorry,” you say sincerely, sitting down beside him on the bed. “I didn't realise. You should've said something, Cheol. I would've changed back in an instant.”

Seungcheol, for how big and manly and good at acting as your guard dog he is, still always melts under your touch, and the moment you wrap your arms around his neck, he softens into your embrace, burying his face in your shoulder. 

“Would you really?” he asks, muffled into your blazer, and you belatedly realise that you're still in your work clothes. You haven't even washed your hands. 

“Of course I would,” you say in your best don't be silly voice. “I don't want you to be feeling bad.”

His hands wrap around your waist, warm and comforting and he pulls you in closer, hugging you even tighter. 

“Sorry,” he says. “I feel like I'm being stupid. This isn't even anything big. It just… makes me feel really terrible, and I don't know why.”

“Hey, that's totally okay,” you say placatingly, threading your fingers through his hair and patting him consolingly on the back. “I told you we didn't have to carry on with this, baby. I said we could switch back whenever we wanted to.”

He squeezes you tighter, arms wrapping more securely around you. “I still feel bad. You liked this sleeping method.”

You laugh softly, resting your chin on his shoulder. “Yes, but not as much as I like you.”

If possible, he seems to melt even further into you at those words, and you smile, adoring how clearly he adores you. 

“Come on, sweetheart,” you say affectionately, kissing Seungcheol's ear before untangling yourself from his embrace. “Let's start remaking the bed then, hm?”

You pull away from his arms, and Seungcheol is staring at you with big eyes, irises all melty soft. And then he nods, smiling slightly, looking like a pleased puppy as he gets off the bed and begins helping you take the covers off the duvets. 

───────────── 🗝

It's unusual for Seungcheol to be so shy like this—normally, he's the one telling you to be more outspoken, more confident, so it's a nice change. You quite like being able to reassure him, gently tell him what to do, praise him and shower him with love in the way that he always does with you. 

“So why did you hate the Scandinavian Sleep Method?” you ask him a bit later as the two of you sit in front of the washing machine, watching it spin your bedding round and round. Seungcheol had insisted that you wash all of it right away, because otherwise the two of you were bound to put it off for a whole month. 

Your boyfriend shrugs. He watches the bedding get spun in circles again and again and again. 

And then, he finally looks at you, clad in your classic two-piece cotton pyjamas, hair all a mess, your face softened and natural now that you've washed up for the night, all ready to go to bed. 

You look so pretty like this, so open and comforting and god, Seungcheol had missed you. 

Even though he sees you every day. But that's whatever. He's missed being this close with you at night, in this kind of domestic setting, where it's just the two of you pressed close together in your house as the rest of the world sleeps. 

“That sleeping arrangement…” he begins quietly, and you look up. 

“Hm?”

Seungcheol holds your gaze very seriously as he continues. “It didn't let me hug you.”

You blink. “What?”

“It didn't let me hug you,” he repeats, as serious as ever, and you want to laugh in fondness because it really is that serious for him. “I couldn't cuddle you to sleep. I hated that.”

“Oh,” you say, positively melting away at his reason, so unbelievably in love with him that your heart is goo in your chest. “That's so sweet, Cheol, oh my god.”

You lean over and pinch his cheek, cooing over him, and he bats your hand away with a groan, smiling. 

“Go away,” he grumbles, but it's so full of warmth that the words carry no weight whatsoever.

“But then you can't cuddle me in your sleep,” you say, pouting exaggeratedly. “Unless… you don't wanna cuddle me any more?” 

You gasp dramatically, leaning away from him for full effect, and then yelp when he grabs you by the waist and pulls you into his side, preventing you from moving away. 

“Don't say silly things like that,” he reprimands teasingly, laughter tinging the ends of his words. He kisses your shoulder. “Of course I want to cuddle you. It's the only thing I'll be doing every night from now on.”

“That's awfully cheesy,” you point out. “Sap.”

“It's all your fault.”

“Huh, I suppose it is,” you say proudly, snuggling into your boyfriend. “Glad to know I have such an effect on you.”

Seungcheol sighs, fond, and kisses your shoulder once again. “Oh, if only you knew.”

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