#(i know it's not actually that soon after the last one but i've been cranking out a surprising amount of fanfic in general)

[solalunar-eclipse]

Sonic Boom - S3E11

Episode title: Having A Mecha Good Time

Summary: Sonic's testing out his mech, but is struggling to keep it charged up. Shadow has something that might help, but unfortunately, Eggman interferes (as always) and messes things up.

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[Episode opens on Shadow in his cave. The camera follows him as he walks farther back, to the same shelves where he stored the grey sheep in episode five. The sheep is visible in the background as he searches the shelves and the stacks of boxes below them for something else.]

“Ugh, where is it…” he muttered, digging through the old cardboard boxes one by one. Many of them were filled with strange and mostly broken machinery, some more organized than others.

[Camera shows a few pieces of metal and crystal with odd carvings clattering to the floor as he looks.]

Suddenly, his fingers closed on a gleaming diamond-shaped crystal, etched with a variety of complex patterns. He studied it carefully for a moment, making sure that it emanated a clear blue light and nothing else. 

Once he was satisfied, he stowed the crystal in his quills. “Alright,” he sighed, “let’s just hope this is compatible…”

…

[The same intro sequence plays as last time, but Shadow is slightly less irritated. He still refuses to play along with the others, but is no longer outright angry.]

[Eggman’s villain reveal follows the usual green screen sequence…except it doesn’t malfunction, and the outline of his mech from Og Man Out appears behind him in red as well.]

[The intro then continues on, before ending with the title of this week’s episode.]

…

Shadow appeared at the entrance to Tails’s workshop, sliding open the door right as a laser beam shot above his head. He immediately dropped into a battle stance, prepared to fight—only to see that it was just Sonic messing around in his mech, like he’d been doing all day long.

“Hey Shadow!” the fox called, sitting at his computer station (which was currently protected by a reinforced blast shield). “You here to see how long it takes for the mech’s battery to wear down again?”

Sonic groaned. “It just died. It’s barely gonna last me one battle like this!”

Shadow glanced over at him. “That’s probably because you’re trying to power it with the energy from this workshop.”

“Yeah, and?” the hero asked. “We gave it some juice before and it worked just fine when Eggman made his mech—it’s only now that it won’t take right!”

Shadow began to walk over to Tails, rolling his eyes. “You forget, I had this thing for quite some time before you and your friends ‘discovered’ it, so I know more about how it works.” he said, complete with air quotes around the word ‘discovered’. “The only reason the mech functioned for as long as it did then is because it had leftover power from the symbiote chip in addition to your attempts to recharge it. Now that you’re trying to run its systems on solely ordinary electricity, it won’t last nearly as long. The amount of power required to keep it active is immense.”

Tails shrugged. “So I’ll jack up the power then. I have enough electricity stored to boost it.”

“You absolutely should not do that.” Shadow replied, shaking his head. “You’ll fry the circuitry in that thing. It’s designed to respond to energy from Chaos Shards and neural networks, not crude electricity.”

“And, uh, also don’t do that with me inside the mech, please?” Sonic added.

“So what do you think we should do then, oh all-knowing Ancient expert?” Tails shot back, smirking.

“Ooh, burn!” Sonic laughed.

Shadow resisted the urge to facepalm. “If you would listen to me, then you would know that I think you should use one of these.” With that, he reached into his quills and handed over the symbiote chip he’d found in his cave earlier.

Tails promptly shrieked and dropped it as though it had burned him.

The striped hedgehog snatched it out of the air, his eyes wide. “What was that for? These things aren’t weak, but they can still break, you know!”

Sonic winced. “Uh…the last one of those we found kinda turned me into an evil jerk.”

“Was it red?” Shadow asked. “Do you still have it?”

Tails smiled awkwardly. “It was red, but we don’t have it anymore. Amy…kinda smashed it with her hammer.”

“To be fair, from what I was told, I was being a full-on villain by the time the others got me outta there.” Sonic explained, leaping out of the mech.

Shadow frowned, confused. “There should have been a display that told you the status of the chip, though.”

“There wasn’t…but hang on, how do you know that much about it?” Sonic asked.

Shadow froze. “I found schematics for the mech in its control seat, but an animal stole them one night.” he said quickly, looking away.

Sonic snickered. “Forest: one, Shadow: zero.”

The other hedgehog let out a long sigh. “Ugh. Here, let me show you how this thing is supposed to work.” He stalked over to the mech and shoved the symbiote chip into its proper place, making the entire thing light up with cyan lines.

“There.” Shadow said, folding his arms triumphantly. “One perfectly safe mech, all ready to go.”

Sonic inched towards it cautiously. “And if I start being weird again, you’ll pull me out, right?”

“Of course.” Shadow replied, softening his voice slightly. “I promise.”

That seemed to be more than enough for the hero, as he jumped right in, powering the mech on. “Whoa!” he gasped, seeing the full display for the first time ever. It showed the time, date, current weather, and his exact longitude and latitude, as well as a tiny map. 

(While he didn’t notice this, the map was significantly incorrect, as it showed Seaside Island mostly covered by a giant city instead of sparsely populated…)

The machine scanned both of his friends, labeling Tails as “Age: appx. 11 yrs - Species: unknown - Threat: Minimal—High” and Shadow as “Age: appx. 17.5 years - Species: unknown - Threat: Moderate—High”.

Sonic glanced around a bit nervously. “Uh, guys, I think it just targeted both of you or something?”

Shadow stepped forward. “There should be some sort of switch you can press. It’s currently in attack mode, but I think you can switch it to a more defensive mode or even a pacifist setting.”

The hero fiddled around with the controls for a minute, making the mech cycle through colors rapidly by accident…which then gave him two problems to fix. (Even if he didn’t really think that second one qualified as a “problem” but instead “really cool”.) Thankfully, he eventually managed to solve both of them with some guidance from his friends, leaving the mech in a more relaxed position.

“Hey, this says ‘full motion test’.” Sonic said, getting more and more excited now that he was assured the mech was safe and under his control. “I wonder what happens if I—”

“Wait, maybe you shouldn’t—” Shadow began, but it was already too late. The mech had begun to run its full range of motion, including windmilling its arms, balancing on one foot, both at once, and (for whatever reason) doing the Macarena, complete with music.

By the end, Sonic and Tails were both crying with laughter, while Shadow was sitting down with his face buried in his hands. 

“C’mon, Shads, wasn’t it funny?” Sonic asked teasingly.

“The…only other thing that I managed to make out on those schematics was that this was intended for serious fighting.” Shadow explained, still looking like he was fighting the urge to cringe. “You just made a deadly machine do the Macarena.”

“Well, technically, whoever programmed it made it do the Macarena…” Tails said, fighting off giggles.

Shadow shook his head, taking a deep breath. “Fine.” he said, but there was a hint of a smile on his face. “Just try not to blow anything up.”

…

Soon enough, the rest of the team appeared to check out this second attempt at using the mech, though some were more skeptical than others. Knuckles jumped right in, challenging Sonic to a no-holds-barred wrestling match (that the former was somehow currently winning).

Amy, on the other hand, had multiple questions for Shadow. “How do you know it’s safe?” she asked him.

“I read the schematics I found with it, but they eventually went missing.” he explained.

“He said an animal stole them!” Tails called from his position as both referee and commentator, making Amy laugh and Shadow huff.

“It was probably working for the government.” Sticks whispered.

“No, but really, how do you know it’s safe?” Amy insisted.

“You see how the chip is glowing blue?” Shadow pointed out. “If you see any red—or even a hint of purple—that means it’s broken or corrupted. If that happens, you should absolutely rip it out and break it as soon as possible.”

Amy nodded. “That’s good enough for now. The other question I have is: why did you think it would be a good idea to give Sonic more weapons?”

Shadow blinked. “Oh. Good point.”

“So what you’re saying is, you didn’t think.” Amy said, smirking.

“Shut. Up.” he grumbled unhappily.

“I still think it’s part of a plan by the robots to trick us into thinking they’re our friends.” Sticks explained. “And just when our society begins to rely on them…boom! They’ll turn us all into robots too!”

Shadow’s expression flattened abruptly at that.

“Sticks, I’m feeling fine.” Sonic called, having just lost the match. “This new chip is actually really great!”

“Sure, you’re feeling fine now…but you might not forever.” Sticks said ominously.

Sonic shrugged, making the mech’s shoulders move up and down as well. “I trust Shadow.”

The hedgehog in question looked away quickly, his arms tightly folded against his chest. “Well.” he said, his voice strained and small. “You trust plenty of people. Too many, in my opinion.”

“Yeah, but you’re my friend. That’s different.” Sonic insisted.

Unseen, Shadow smiled quietly as the hero turned back to round three of his fighting match. 

…

As Sonic continued to stomp around the workshop area excitably, two robots watched from the bushes outside. They were supposed to be sneaking around, but considering that they were, well, Orbot and Cubot, that wasn’t going so well.

“Hey, what’s he doing now?” Cubot asked loudly.

“Shh! Keep your voice down!” Orbot hissed, dragging him back down. “We are supposed to be spying on Sonic!”

“Can we go home yet?” the yellow robot whined. “These bushes are making me itchy.”

“How does that even—oh, never mind.” Orbot sighed. “I think we’ve learned enough now, let’s go home.”

…

“Oh ho ho, so that’s what Sonic’s been up to!” Eggman chuckled. “Well, two can play at that game.”

“I heard them talking about something…they called it a ‘symbiote chip’?” Orbot added nervously.

“No, I heard them say ‘antidote dip’.” Cubot interjected.

“I see…a symbiote chip, hm?” The doctor stroked his mustache thoughtfully, completely ignoring Cubot in the process. “Well, there’s no technology I can’t surpass with enough time—so I suppose I should start working!”

[A montage ensues, alternating between images of Eggman working hard in his lab and the team (now including Shadow) messing around with the mech. Eggman does a variety of tasks involving complex equipment…including downloading some pieces of software designed to emulate Ancient technology into a custom-built disk.]

[Meanwhile, Sonic is delighted to discover that he can now pick up all of his friends with ease, and they use this new ability to take a variety of funny pictures. Shadow is a little hesitant at first, but as time goes on he seems to accept this silliness and even begins to enjoy it.]

[The montage ends with Eggman inserting a disk with pieces of glowing red machinery into his mech, complete with ominous music in the background.]

…

Sonic and his friends were careful not to take the machine anywhere near the village, considering how much damage it had caused last time. He did, however, give each of them a chance to ride in it as well, though Sticks and Shadow both ended up turning it down. 

Knuckles was currently doing his best to lift the mech and carry it around, while Sonic and Sticks cheered him on and the three others all flinched every time his hands slipped. 

“Why are we messing around with this again?” Amy asked, sick of wincing so often.

“Hey, you were ready to hop in the driver’s seat when I offered!” Sonic said.

She sighed. “That’s different. It’s meant to be driven, not to be used for weightlifting!”

Knuckles peered out from behind the machine. “Anything can be used for weightlifting if you try hard enough!”

Shadow, Amy and Tails all gave him flat looks at that.

Suddenly, however, a loud explosion pulled them out of their argument. The ground shook beneath the team (and Knuckles just barely managed to set the mech down before crashing into it) as they tried to get their bearings.

“What’s going on?!” Tails cried.

“It’s the robots! They’re invading!” Sticks shrieked.

A loud, booming laugh echoed throughout the forest. It sounded a lot like Eggman, but also…different. Eggman’s usual laugh straddled a careful line between menace and delight, and gave the impression that he most certainly had not practiced it for hours in the mirror during his early days of villainy.

This laugh, on the other hand, sounded downright deadly.

Seconds later, a giant mech burst through the trees, glowing a bright, terrifying red. Sonic paled considerably. “Oh, no…” he whispered.

Shadow froze. “Another corrupted crystal? How many of these are there?”

Tails held up his Miles Electric, blanching at the readings it showed. “This says it’s not a crystal…it’s a piece of his own tech that he’s downloaded Ancient code on!”

“Is that worse or better?” Knuckles asked.

“Worse.” Shadow and Tails said simultaneously.

And that was when the mech’s fist came crashing down.

The entire team scattered. Sonic scrambled for his own machine, while everyone else began to throw everything they had at Eggman. The doctor growled, a red glow emanating from behind his glasses.

Furious, he swatted Knuckles and Tails aside, the echidna just barely managing to shield his friend with his own body before they hit the ground. Sticks and Shadow at least managed to land a couple of hits with boomerangs and Chaos Spears before suffering the same fate.

Screaming, Amy charged the mech, leaping from branch to branch until she gained enough height to whack its cockpit, sending Eggman stumbling backwards. Fortunately for her (as she fell back to solid ground), it was practically a rule in this universe that nobody ever takes fall damage.

By now, Sonic had gotten his machine up and running, immediately firing twin lasers at his opponent. They fought back and forth for a few tense moments, nearly blasting Sonic’s friends once or twice, even after they’d scrambled for cover.

“Come on, Eggman!” Sonic cried. “You’re smarter than this thing, you can fight it!”

Sadly, Eggman did not, as a matter of fact, fight it. Instead, he quite predictably continued fighting Sonic, using enough weaponry to destroy the village at least twice over in his single-minded pursuit of his greatest nemesis.

Thankfully, the hero’s machine soon began to predict the doctor’s moves well enough that it could provide Sonic with actual advice on how to fight him in this state. With that, he managed to get in a calculated blast that sent the doctor toppling, completely off balance. 

Knuckles and Sticks had gotten into position by this point with Amy’s direction, perfectly poised to tear the disk out and hurl it to the ground. The moment the metal hit the grass, Amy and Shadow proceeded to hit it with a combined amount of firepower that could have destroyed the entire island, let alone one small disk. 

When they were done, even the pieces were shattered into pieces.

Meanwhile, Tails pulled a heavily disoriented Eggman out of his mech, saving him from any further injury (he’d gotten a little banged up in the fight) and carrying him to the ground. “Ugh…” he groaned, sitting up slowly. “What happened? I feel like I got run over by a Motobug…”

Shadow stormed over, folding his arms irritably. “You made a truly absurd mistake, that’s what. Your fake symbiote chip corrupted your morality until you became even more of a madman than usual. You’re lucky we managed to get you out of there, otherwise this whole island would have been in great danger.”

Eggman sighed, getting to his feet. “I guess I’ll just have to make some improvements to it so that this doesn’t happen again.”

“No you won’t!” Amy cried, brandishing her hammer. “We’ve had enough of disks that turn our friends evil for one lifetime! Or Fuzzy Puppy Buddies, in your case.”

The doctor scoffed. “I’d like to think that I was evil without the help of some disk, thank you very much!”

Sonic cringed. “Yeah, but didn’t you hear? You were, like, really evil this time. Like full-on terrifying supervillain stuff.”

“…how terrifying, exactly?” Eggman asked cautiously.

Sticks shrugged. “Eh, you probably would’ve blasted us all to bits without a shred of remorse if we hadn’t stopped you.”

Everyone stared at her. “What?!” she cried. “I’m just telling it like it is!”

The doctor thought for a moment, frowning. “Well, maybe I’ll get to work on some of my other evil schemes instead. Clear out the old files, see if anything’s in there that I can update.”

The entire team relaxed marginally at that. “Sounds like a good idea to me.” Sonic said, clearly relieved.

“But what about your mech, Sonic?” Eggman asked. “It won’t be a fair fight if I give up my machine and you don’t!” The doctor nearly whined that last part, attempting to give Sonic puppy-dog eyes despite the fact that his glasses were very much in the way.

“Fiiiine, I promise not to use it in our fights.” the hero muttered. 

“Pinky promise?” Eggman said suspiciously. 

“Pinky promise.” Sonic sighed, linking his little finger with Eggman’s. (The doctor had to reach down quite a lot to make it work.)

“Now then! Robots!” he cried, making all of the others jump into defensive positions. Then, however, he smirked, and simply said “Clean up this mess! I’m certainly not dragging it all home.”

Much rolling of eyes and facepalming ensued.

While Eggman’s various robots skittered around the fallen machine and began to carry it back to his evil lair, Sonic leapt back into his own mech. “So what do you wanna do now, guys?” he asked excitedly.

When he turned around to face them, though, he saw that they were all beat up from the battle with Eggman, and hesitated. “Anyone want a ride home?” he said, a little more gently.

“Oh, yes please.” Amy sighed, leaping onto one of the mech’s shoulders. Tails perched on the other, while Knuckles sat down on one of its hands. Even Sticks overcame their aversion to technology long enough to hitch a ride.

“Shadow? Don’t you wanna hop on too?” Sonic asked.

“I’ll be fine.” Shadow muttered. “I heal quickly.”

But nobody could miss the way he held his arm close to his body, or the way he winced with every step. “Knux, can you help me out here?” Sonic sighed.

The echidna promptly picked Shadow up, making him yelp and writhe in surprise. Before he could muster up the ability to teleport, he was placed at the very top of the mech and then immediately held in place by Tails and Amy.

“I don’t need help.” he said weakly, feeling his touch-starved body jolt at the sudden contact.

Nobody seemed to notice except for Amy, who leaned against him and glanced up to make sure he was alright with that. Shadow rolled his eyes, but allowed her to remain for the whole ride back. By the end, he was alternating rapidly between tension and relaxation, striving not to let his contentment be shown and failing miserably at it.

Thankfully, he was also mostly healed by then, and so was able to leap off the mech with no problems. The others weren’t so fortunate, and only climbed off with a bit of help and lots of complaining about stiff muscles.

“Maybe we should put this thing away for a while.” Tails said. “It’s caused us a bunch of problems and hasn’t helped all that much.”

Sonic sighed. “Yeah, probably. I guess I can’t go as fast in it as I can by myself either.”

“I’m sure we can still bring it out if we ever have a serious problem.” Tails added reassuringly.

“How are we gonna move this thing into storage, though?” the hero asked.

Tails stared at him for a moment. “Sonic. You can literally just walk it into storage and then get out.”

“Oh. Right.” Sonic said sheepishly.

[Iris out ending in which he smiles awkwardly at the camera, before the entire screen goes black.]

[roll credits]

[hannahssimblr]

That evening after I drive home the house is a battlefield. As soon as I let myself into the hallway the sounds of some escalating conflict are sweeping through from the kitchen, but it doesn’t surprise me. It’s been this way for months. I just toss my car keys onto the table and head upstairs. 

“Think about the way you make me live!” My mother shrieks as I shuffle through my desk drawer to retrieve my iPod and the noise cancelling headphones I use for my laptop. My dad says something in response, his rumbling tones infuriatingly calm, unfazed. He always speaks to her with such a patronising air of reasonableness, so honestly it’s no wonder she’s going insane.

“Ivy?” I knock on her bedroom door, “I’m back. Can I come in?”

Her voice is quiet within, “Yeah.”

“Hey, what’s up?” The noise from downstairs is louder I come inside, but Ivy’s room is right above the kitchen. I know she has been listening. She is perched on her bed kneading a corner of her blanket in her little hands, body tense and static like a startled cat. 

Mom raises her voice even further in shocked outrage, “What are you saying? Do you regret our children?”

“I just bought a cool new album,” I say, “do you want to hear it?”

“What’s it called?”

“Contra. You remember Vampire Weekend, right?”

“Um...”

“You liked their last album.”

“Did I?”

“Here,” I climb to my knees in front of her and plop the headphones onto her head. They’re big on her and want to slip down towards her jaw until i carefully adjust them while she watches me with interest. Everything I do is interesting to Ivy, even my thumb circling the dial on my iPod as I navigate to the first song on the album. I grin into her face, “can you hear me?”

She nods, so I crank it up, “how about now?”

She gasps, “It’s so loud! I can’t hear you!” 

“Good,” and I sit right by her, on the floor by her bed while she lays back and tries to hum along to songs she's never heard before. She does it in mom's car every time the radio comes on, which is apparently irritating, but I don't think so. She's a musical kid who is just trying to work something out in her head.

As I listen to her weird little melodies I doodle with a ballpoint pen I found in the pocket of my jacket. I've flipped to the back page of one of her school copy books, and I know she doesn’t mind, she can bring them into school and tell her classmates that she did them if she likes. 

Every now and again pieces of the argument are clear enough to understand, mostly mom’s side. “You do nothing around here, what are you talking about?” She screams, “You just sit in your office all night and-” some muffled aggression. Then at one point she brings up Fergal from work, which is a poor choice, because it really sets dad off. I know this because I finally hear a shocked “how dare you!” from him, which seems fair, actually. 

Fergal from work is her boyfriend. Or was, maybe, I don’t ask. All I know is that Fergal from work exists and that my mother was having an affair with him for, like, two years or something. I googled him when I first started hearing his name thrown around like daggers through the rooms of this house, and he’s pretty much how you might imagine a Fergal. He’s older, weedier and less good looking than my father, with hair so fine and light that his eyebrows are hardly visible and a hairline like the tide has gone out on it, but his smile is sort of kind. His LinkedIn picture has him smiling broadly and the lines on his face and around his eyes suggest that he’s spent a good chunk of his life doing just that. Smiling. Aside from likely being nice, he’s probably ten times more interesting than Christopher too, which has to be the real selling point. I bet that listens to her when she talks to him and makes her laugh, if she’s still capable of that, so I can’t really be angry with her about Fergal. I might have done the same thing as she did if I ever felt so trapped.  

I must be listening too obviously because Ivy slips the headphones off. “What are they saying?”

“Stupid shit, Ives, it’s not interesting.”

She pauses and says in a very small voice, “Do you think they’ll get a divorce?”

I turn to her, “They might. But I don’t think it’d be such a bad idea. Do you?”

She shrugs. 

“At least if they divorced they’d stop fighting.” At least eventually.

“They fight a lot,” she whispers, “I hate it.”

“Yeah, same.”

“What will happen to us? What if neither of them wants us?”

This surprises a laugh right out of me, “It's not like they'll have a choice. Did you think we’d get thrown into an orphanage or something?”

“Maybe.”

“I think you’ve been reading too many of those Jacqueline Wilson books about the kids from broken homes. Next time we go to the library we’ll get you something a bit less sad and tragic, do you think?”

She shrugs, but I'll get her into Goosebumps yet. I am determined.

“You want to know what I think?”

 A nod.

“I think them being divorced would actually be fine, because at least they wouldn’t be doing this all the time,” I tilt my head toward the floor, shaking with the reverberation of the slamming patio door, “And also we probably wouldn’t have to be around dad half as often.”

Ivy looks conflicted, “Well I don’t not want a dad.”

I almost tell her that Christopher isn’t that interested in his role as her father and the way that he interacts, or more accurately fails to interact with her, is not normal, even if it’s what she’s used to, and that I bet Fergal would be a better dad, but I figure it’s probably not the wisest to mention any of that. 

“He’ll still always be your dad, just like how mom will always be your mom and I’ll always be your brother, you know? No matter what happens or how things change. You're made from him, you know? That doesn't just go away.”

“I don’t want change.”

“Everything changes, all of the time.”

“I don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to. Things move on whether you like it or not, and you have to accept it.”

Her eyes fill with tears, “I don’t want you to move away either.”

“No, c’mon,” I scramble onto her bed and pull her into my chest, “I know, but I can’t stay here forever, I’m an adult now, I’m going to have to go, but it’s not right away…” 

“Yes, but soon.”

I hesitate, “Oh, Ivy, it’s, like-”

“And then it’ll be just me, and everything will be different,” as tears overflow I understand that it’s not just about this, it’s about everything, all of the chaos and the disruption that I cannot fix. I just shush her and rock her side to side. It’s hard for her, but I refuse to lie to her about what might happen. 

“I need to move away, I feel like I don’t have another option.”

“But why?”

“I- I think you’ll get it when you’re older, maybe. It's just very important to me.”

“I won’t see you anymore.”

“Yes you will, maybe not as much, but you’ll get used to it really quickly. And imagine if I went to college somewhere really exciting, you could come and see me and we could do all kinds of fun stuff, yeah? Like if I’m in Paris, imagine, I could take you to Disneyland.”

She sniffles, “Paris?”

“Yeah, you loved Paris a couple of years ago, right?”

She nods and rubs her eyes, “Could we try and go up the Eiffel Tower again?”

“Duh, and you’d be old enough not to be so scared.”

“Maybe-” a thick swallow “maybe even your new house would have a balcony and we could see it from there.”

“Oh, for sure, and we’d get pastries from the bakery downstairs in the mornings, they'd just so happen to be best ones ever, and there’d be a man playing the accordion outside- no, everywhere, like, no matter where we go, he’s there with his swirly little French Guy moustache...”

She giggles, “Is he following us around?”

“Oh, yeah, a total stalker, actually. Maybe we’d have to call the French police on him.” 

We both laugh as she dries her face with her sleeves. Coming up with all the very French things we would do in Paris, every detail down to the layout of my beautiful Haussmann style apartment overlooking the Seine is nice.

I'm not stupid, of course, I know perfectly well that the reality of a move to Paris would involve me and Michelle stuffed into a Chambre de Bonne tiny enough to touch both walls at the same time, tripping over half baked art projects and every possession we own, our pent up frustration causing us to have screaming matches that would wake up the whole arrondissement, but it’s nice to be an idealist for a minute or two. 

“Where else could you live?” she asks me once we’ve exhausted all of the parisian stereotypes and run out of hypotheticals. 

“Hmm, how about Amsterdam?”

“Oh! Anne Frank lived there, we read the book at school last year.”

I tell her that yes, if I lived there I’d take her to see the house with that stairway hidden behind the bookcase, and then we would... cycle around the place and annoy everyone because she’s so unsteady on her bike. I make up a story about how she keeps swerving out of her lane and getting in everybody's way, eventually causing a giant bike pile up along the canal like some sort of rat king of Dutch cyclists.

“Where else!”

“Um, Berlin...” and I purse my lips and try to think of things to do in Berlin that are appropriate for a nine year old, but for some reason all I can think of is a surly line of leather clad druggies in front of a techno club. “They like going to nightclubs, I guess…”

“I can go to a nightclub.”

“Yeah, as if! You’d hate it, it’s just loud music and everyone bumping into you. Hey, you know there’s one nightclub in Berlin that’s so exclusive that they only let the coolest people in Europe inside? You have to wait in line for hours and if they think you’re even a little bit uncool then they send you home.”

Her eyes get wide, “Really? Hm. I think I could get in.”

The idea of Ivy being let into Berghain makes me guffaw, “Oh, you think so, do you?”

“Yeah I’m cool enough!”

“No you aren’t.”

“I am,” she leaps up and pretends to strangle me while I hold her at arm's length, “there’s no such thing as a cool nine year old.”

“There’s no such thing as a cool eighteen year old either.”

“Uh! There is, you're looking at one. I would get into that club, no doubt.”

“No you wouldn’t, they wouldn’t even let you in the line.”

“Nah, they’d beg me to come in because I’d make it cooler.”

“They’d see you coming and pretend to be closed.”

As we laugh and make stupid, childish jokes at one another I’m aware of an acceptance I feel with her that I don’t around other people. I’m never really so blatantly stupid and goofy in public, but Ivy, who has become my favourite person in the world, no matter what I do or say it’s funny, and she never thinks I’m weird, at least not in a bad way. I can fully let my guard down. Even though the fighting has stopped I don't really want to leave, but the moon has risen now, and the grasshoppers are chirping. Ivy has to sleep.

I gather up my headphones and iPod and get up, despite her protests and attempts to come up with more funny things we might do as we galivant through fictional Europe.

“You're stalling,” I say, “you know well you have to go to sleep now.”

“No, no! Just one more thing!”

“Nope! Sorry! And don’t forget to brush your teeth, or I’ll tell dad.”

She pulls her ugliest face. She knows I’d never, but it’s funny, like telling a christian kid that Satan is watching.

I shut the door very gently. It's not particularly late, maybe ten, but the house is morgue quiet, almost eerie, like the aftermath of a hurricane. 

Beginning // Prev // Next

[nahimjustfeelingit-writes]

I feel like you have made such a safe space and I really need to tell you my IRL Erik moment after reading about my girl with fairytale ending with her bestie <3

Um.. I thought I gave pretty good head y'all. Truly I did. But then last week I came face to face with a man who humbled the fuck out of me and my knees are still so weak still from his presence. 🫠

Ok so boom! I was on my period and we had been flirting for awhile so although we agreed to hang out my master plan was originally to come in the door looking good, charm him with my wit, and give him some bomb sloppy toppy to blow his mind and make him really be feenin for wanting to fuck me later on.... I know, I know. I was trying to be on my femme fatale Charlie's Angel shit and failed miserably 🙄

Hunny did I ever get humbled so quickly. I'll keep it short but BABY let me tell you the shock in my soul when I saw it...he has the longest dick I've ever seen in person. Like I seriously had my two hands cranking at the base and still had a mouth full of dick at the top. It was insane.

I walked in with confidence and walked out as happy and broken woman lmfao. We were kissing and touching and I told him I wanted to take care of him. He asked how and when he realized what I wanted to do he was like "ok ma but if u want that ur gonna have to pull him out" so me being me went straight to pull that shit out. No going back.

I was feeling myself at first. In my head like go meeeee mini superhead!! I got this boo.

I think he was amused by my attempts to swallow him y'all I could tell he was enjoying it but my deep throat was leaving some dick unsucked and he wanted more from me

Next thing I know this man is standing on the bed. One hand on the ceiling and the other is gently on the back of my head guiding me so he can fuck my mouth. TRAINING MY THROAT. 😭 He was sticking it down my throat until I gasped for air and he pulled out and then he did it over and over again.... 😫 It worked too cuz when he laid me back on the bed and told me to try again baby I was down on that thang further than I knew I could handle. I knew at that moment I fucked up and this man was not there to play with me and also that I must be a real freak cuz I loved every minute of that shit. I felt myself getting creamy from getting him off. Lord.

He really claimed my mouth and I'm not even mad about it. Then he has the nerve to be able to stop himself from cumming WELL so I was getting my throat fucked for like 40 mins 🥴 so yeah mission failed but he did nut and I sucked that shit down like it was the sweetest prize I've ever won! I worked hard for that!!! It felt so powerful to see him submit to me for even a second. This powerful man gave me some of his power in that moment and it tasted so sweet too lol

THE ICING ON THE CAKE? When we were done he takes a towel and gets some warm water on it and starts cleaning my face GENTLY.... INTIMATELY.... Staring me in my eyes while he slowly wiped my mouth, eyebrows, bridge of nose 😭😭😭😭

So yeah I'm in lust now. This is how stalkers are created I just know it....smfh

We are on opposite schedules so idk when I'll see him again. He tried to hit me up yesterday but I couldn't get to him and I was kicking myself. I'm off myself and ready to get dicked down 😭 I feel like such a stalker though cuz this man has me in an actual chokehold just from that.

Sorry I didn't edit this!! Thank you for letting me get this off my chest. I feel better now 🥹

Y'all please pray I get some help soon lmao

😩😩🥵🥵😭😭🤯🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

“Okay ma but if you want that you’re gonna have to pull him out.”

Bruh!!!!!!! And the after care while staring you in the eyes on some “that’s my good girl.” Shit?!!!!!’

This was too damn good!!!!!

Thanks for sharing!

[constantcrisis19]

Loose Lips Sink Ships - Part 1

Dean Winchester x GN S/O

AN: Hey guys! I know that I disappeared for a bit, but I promise that I'm still alive and kicking! I've just been really consumed by the SoapGhost fics that I've been writing/planning for ao3 and that made it hard for me to find time to write for Tumblr in between irl things when all of my free time seemed to be dedicated to COD. But I finally decided to just sit down and work on one of my numerous WIP's which led to me cranking this bad boy out! Hope you like it!

Word Count: 2,118

You moved your hands out of your jacket pocket, revealing your well-loved wallet that you’d had for years, and pulled the card with your current alias printed onto it out of its assigned slot in a practiced motion. 

You tapped the chip against the screen of the card reader in order to pay for the obscenely greasy food that you’d ordered for yourself and Dean –who you had left fast asleep in your shared motel room– watching with a keen eye as the payment processed and then was accepted with a little innocuous green check mark, the receipt printing with a soft whir.

You startled a little as a phone suddenly began to ring, the tune echoing loudly in the store, and it took you an embarrassing amount of time to realize that it was actually your cell that was going off, your free hand –which wasn’t currently juggling both your card and wallet– darted down to the back pocket of your jeans in order to collect the device with a sheepish smile.

You swiped your thumb across the screen and answered the phone without looking at the caller ID, quickly wedging the device between your ear and shoulder in order to take the receipt that the bored looking cashier was impatiently holding out toward you with your newly freed hand.

“Hey, where the hell did you run off to?” Dean was already talking before you could even manage to get a greeting out, his voice rough in a way that it only was immediately after waking up, which told you that he most likely called after rousing from sleep and noticing that you were no longer in the motel with him.

“Just figured that I’d treat your lazy ass to some breakfast since you didn’t look like you were getting up anytime soon.” You said as you took the long strip of paper from the cashier with a small nod of thanks before stepping off to the side in order to make way for the next customer to step forward and be assisted, folding up the receipt and carelessly cramming it into your wallet before shoving it back into your jeans.

You had wanted to let Dean sleep in for once since it was technically your fault that you were both up so late last night, the two of you having been all wound up after running around all day asking anyone and everyone about the suspicious deaths that had been happening around town only to come up with fuck all, so you and Dean had decided to dispel all that pent up energy and frustration by testing Dean’s so-called ‘endless stamina’ that he constantly bragged about.

Needless to say, you had put him through the wringer and managed to come out the other side a little less worse for wear than Dean had.

You settled in with your phone now comfortably resting against the side of your head as you waited for your order to be called, and you bit your lip in an attempt to repress the love-sick smile that wanted to overtake your neutral expression when you heard the telltale shift of blankets over the line. 

You could see Dean carelessly sprawl his limbs out across the bed in your mind's eye, your fingers twitching with the urge to brush your fingers through his –no doubt– adorable bedhead, the impulse always bubbling up without fail when you saw his hair sticking up at all sorts of odd angles.

“Rough night?” You asked, your voice practically dripping with faux-concern as you idly watched the people milling about the pop fountain, and Dean let loose a distinctly unattractive snort that had a smug grin spreading across your lips, your salacious smile earning you a dirty look from a woman who had just finished filling a large cup with cola that you unfortunately just so happened to make eye contact with.

“You’d know.” Dean groused, the sound of him moving about restlessly nearly drowning out his petulant response as he heaved himself upright with a groan that had him sounding like he was an old man rather than a spry twenty-six year old, and you winced in sympathy.

As hunters, your line of work was unforgiving and you yourself were subject to the various aches and pains that came from such a physically demanding job on more than one occasion.

“You order yet?” Dean asked suddenly and you blinked rapidly, his voice abruptly pulling you from the aimless staring that you’d been unknowingly doing as you recalled how stiff and sore you were when you woke up this morning. Though, if you were being honest with yourself, that was definitely a byproduct of last night's rigorous activities rather than having to fight for your life against some bloodthirsty creature or another for once, which was admittedly a nice change of pace.

“Yup. Got you a bacon breakfast burrito, hash browns, and a slice of cherry pie.” You replied with a wide grin, a bark of laughter erupting from your chest and startling the few people standing near you when Dean let out a truly sinful moan of appreciation.

“I love you so fucking much.” Dean declared, the mattress springs creaking as he pushed to his feet and walked across the small room before clicking on a lightswitch, his voice taking on a distinct echo as he entered the borderline claustrophobic motel bathroom.

“I know.” You said smugly before suddenly remembering the woman that you had run into on your way to the restaurant, causing you to be out longer than you’d originally intended, which was the whole reason why you were back with breakfast before Dean woke up. 

“Also, while I was out, I happened to run into a friend of the ex-wife of the last victim and I may have found a lead on this case.” You stated after briefly glancing around and taking a couple of steps back in order to make sure that no one would be overhearing your conversation.

The most that you’d been able to get out of the shell-shocked woman when you and Dean had went to interrogate her the previous day was that her ex-husband had broken into the house while she was home alone and, after saying some shit that made no sense at all whatsoever, had dropped dead right there in the dining room before she could even process what had happened.

And that wasn’t even the weirdest thing that had happened, the person before that had slumped over dead in a church confessional booth after saying about three words to the priest and the one before that had just randomly collapsed to the ground in the middle of a crosswalk after angrily yelling at a reckless driver that had almost ran her over.

“Alright, hit me.” Dean said, sounding much more awake now but, before you could say a word, one of the employees called out your order number over the general chatter of the restaurant. You snapped to attention, muttering a quick warning to Dean that the food was done and you were gonna go grab it, before moving forward and maneuvering your way through the small crowd that had accumulated between you and the front desk.

You took the grease-stained brown paper bag with a grateful smile and a polite nod before turning on your heel in order to make your way over to the exit. You shamelessly used your foot to bully the door open –since your hands were full– before stepping outside and squinting when the sun made your eyes ache, unused to the intense brightness after having spent so much time under the fluorescent lights that they had installed indoors.

“As I was saying, apparently there’s an old legend–” You began as you trotted over to the nearby sidewalk in order to begin the long walk back to the motel, only to be almost immediately interrupted by Dean.

“There always is.” Dean muttered to himself through a muffled yawn, but you expertly ignored him –a talent that had been born from being around the older Winchester for several years– and continued on as if he had never even uttered a word.

“–that a witch used to terrorize the area way back when this place used to be just a tiny trading town and, considering that there is definitely some kind of curse involved here, I figured that a witch –if not the very same witch from the story– is most likely our culprit rather than a cursed object, like we initially suspected.” You continued explaining your findings, lifting a hand to wave at the driver of a pick up that had slowed to a stop and motioned to the street in front of them, allowing you to quickly jog across the crosswalk.

“Fucking witches man.” Dean growled, the deep sound sending the wrong kind of signals to your brain and making your core heat up in anticipation as images of last night came to the forefront of your mind, an overwhelming sense of smug satisfaction blooming in your chest when you recalled the plethora of possessive marks that you’d shamelessly left all over his body.

The deafening blare of a car horn unceremoniously yanked you from your internal musings and you gave Dean a noncommital hum as your gaze scanned over the street in an effort to find the origin of the noise, pausing your search and freezing mid step when you noticed a man and a woman standing stock still on the other side of the busy road, both of them just staring at you as passersby gave them a wide berth.

“Hello? You still there?” You heard Dean’s voice as he called out over the phone, but your attention was firmly locked onto the pair on the opposite sidewalk who were very openly watching you with an intensity that made your gut churn, your eyes widening when you made the mistake of making eye contact with the woman and she shot you a mean grin.

“Uh, yeah. It’s just– There’s a man and a woman staring at me… and I have a feeling that they’re not coming over here for a friendly chat.” You relayed warily as the two finally moved, the woman taking the lead as they stepped off the curb and began making their way across the road toward you. 

And, no sooner than the words had left your mouth, you heard the telltale sound of Dean grabbing his keys and jacket before the rhythmic thump of rapid footsteps and the heavy slam of a door signaled his rushed exit from the motel room, the relative silence of the room being replaced by the whistle of the wind and general bustle of the city as Dean climbed into the Impala.

“Don’t hang up and don’t move, I’m coming to you.” Dean snapped furiously –though you didn’t take his harsh tone to heart since you knew that he was just worried– and you winced when you heard the deafening squeal of tires on asphalt from Dean’s end of the line, the commotion promptly being followed by a flurry of irritated honking as he drove like a mad man.

“The not moving thing probably won’t be an option, but you can access my location from your own phone and use that to track my movements. I’ll keep the call connected if I can.” You said quickly before acting as if you dropped the call and stashing your cell into the right pocket of your jacket moments before the woman came to a halt about a foot away from you, her companion not too far behind.

“Hello. You’ll have to forgive my rudeness, it’s been awhile since I’ve come across a hunter. Especially one who is brave or stupid enough to travel with someone as infamous and recognizable as a Winchester.” The woman –who you assumed was in charge– greeted with faux-remorse, and you swallowed nervously as her red lips stretched into a wide smile that showed off too many teeth to be strictly friendly.

You scrambled for something to focus on as you began to panic at the realization that the mystery woman –who you strongly suspected was the very witch that you’d been looking for– not only knew who you were but also why you were there, your brain stupidly choosing to latch onto the fact that the pair were going to cause you to be delayed even longer, which meant that it was becoming more than likely that your food was going to be stone cold by the time you made it back to the motel.

If you managed to come out of the confrontation alive, that is.

[dennisboobs]

i genuinely wonder if people’s issue with Dennis “winning” at the end of DTAMHD might be influenced by Goes Bowling. like, if the order had been reversed or if they just saw the episode in a vacuum there wouldn’t be this want for Dennis to actually fail at lowering his blood pressure. which inherently assumes that Dennis breaking every bone in his hand doesn’t negate him “winning” but no one being there to see Dee actually win at bowling negates her achievement. which is a different but still important can of worms.

if anything, the lyrics of Listen To Your Heart make it more clear that the most fitting outcome of this episode is Dennis succeeding in lowering his blood pressure.

and in general i thoroughly enjoy when the gang “wins” and i hope small good things continue to be peppered in for them cuz it takes some of the weight off of the whole ‘they can never truly get better or make real progress because this is a sitcom with the premise of them being shitty people so that wouldn’t be funny’ or whatever. their “wins” lighten the existential dread that comes from seeing this group of friends get worse over the course of 18 years. Inspires hope even.

(sorry for just dropping this here i just figured you might have some better/additional thoughts on this than what i have)

I definitely agree, that's a huge part of it, I started seeing the complaint pop up frequently after bowling (which I think is a 10/10 episode lol) and it got worse after DTAMHD aired and personally I just. disagree. with the reasoning for both eps. I think people are overly sensitive about Dee not "winning" in that episode because it's very specifically tied to Dennis saying that women are inferior to men, which is fair, but I also don't think it's that deep. It feels like... extremely typical childish sibling rivalry to me. Just because Dennis' "villainy" is cranked up to 11 doesn't mean what he's actually doing is really....... that bad. I've done the same shit to my sibling, and they've done the same to me while bowling. The competition was never really about Dennis vs. Dee or men vs. women, it was about getting in Dee's head. Carrying on that same ribbing from when the twins were kids, but drenched in misogyny because Dennis is intentionally trying to discourage the ladies' team. I don't think Dee's accomplishment is negated because everyone left, it's a personal triumph, just like Dennis' in DTAMHD. She managed to succeed at something she had been unable to for decades, proved she was capable of breaking out of Den's mind games, which is also in-part due to her own lack of self confidence (fostered by Dennis and Barbara ofc), she just didn't care enough about that victory by the end for it to feel like one. Because it became about proving herself to Dennis instead of winning the actual game. Which is not unusual for the gang at all, The Gang Gets Invincible is a good example of the same exact thing happening. Dee does prove herself to be better than Mac and Dennis, but in the end it doesn't matter because as soon as she reveals she's a woman she shatters her fuckin' leg on that kick. No matter how far she gets by being genuinely good at something, she can't make it that last extra step because her focus turns to the wrong thing and it is ultimately what fucks her over. She is a legitimate threat to the guys in terms of skill, Dennis knows she's more than competent at bowling (hence the mind games employed by the guys' team instead of it being a fair competition, which they knew they couldn't manage), and she proved she was more physically capable than him at football too. like Gets Invincible she actually wins, it's just bittersweet, and it's not good enough for Dee. She proved herself, but external validation is what she was seeking, not that internal win where she knows she is capable of beating Den.

I absolutely 1000% think that mixing it up is important so that the show doesn't stagnate, become predictable, or you know. become plain unfunny because something is out of balance with the main cast, and I think DTAMHD aimed to fix Dennis' miserable ass that's been pulling down the show, especially because Glenn has mentioned he wants to play a happier Dennis (which is. good, actually, we very rarely see anything but straight man Dennis anymore, but we got a taste of it in Inflates BECAUSE I believe Den has been doing this emotional regulation trick across s16, and I don't think we would have been able to if not for that decision to have him actually "win" ie. change himself for the better). The gang's dynamic has shifted over time from being a group of jerks to a group of idiots with Dennis as their keeper, and I think the little changes in 16 were setting it up to shift that back to..... a group of jerks again. Like we all read in those early reviews that noticed the gang went a lot easier on Dee and didn't call her a bird five million times, that is one piece of it, Dennis trying not to explode in anger is another, Charlie showing he's actually quite competent is yet another, Mac not being a victim of Dennis but secretly the puppetmaster who has been playing dumb is another.

So yeah, I believe that the opposite of "the gang should be punished for doing something bad" should also be true. The gang should get to win because they Listened To Their Heart and made a positive change. They should get to have moments like the s15 finale, or King of the Rats where the gang does something nice and the episode just ends, there's no final gag, no twist, just us remembering why this group of weirdos is friends. But it doesn't need to be Carries a Corpse every time either. Dee can have a little win, Dennis can have a little win. They really aren't huge things, Den's is just heavily exaggerated because it was in his head, dramatized, and he accepted the small win wheras Dee did not.

[fiorimaya]

Could you do a Dr. Teeth x reader? I hardly see any these days, so it would be nice!

You got it! This is actually the first canon x reader fic I've ever done so I hope I do it right! D: LOL thanks for requesting!

"I think I'm just going to do a bit of homework and then head to bed," you told your mom.

After the exchange of "goodnights", you went up to your room, and... well, you didn't necessarily lie, but you didn't tell the whole truth either. You got some of your homework done, but right before ten after you stopped for the night, you most definitely wasn't sleeping. Your phone buzzed, alerting you of the text that you'd been waiting for all day. It was from Teeth.

Just a couple blocks down between Crimson Street and Spruce Street. You ready?

You couldn't keep from smiling as you texted back, telling him you were on your way.

You already had your bag packed for the night and once you heard complete silence throughout your house, you threw your bag over your shoulder and snuck out into the hallway. Very quietly, you crept down the stairs and out the front door. You began walking down the street. The bright moon and the streetlights being the only light at that point. And then you saw his car's headlights.

He smiled at you while you got into his car. "Hey, Y/N. You look absolutely (adjective you prefer) tonight."

You blushed a little at that.

"Ready to go? I've already filled her up," he said, patting his dash with a laugh.

"Let's do this!" You cheered.

Within a few minutes, you were on the interstate. He was holding your hand, giving it a squeeze every once in a while. He had a CD of some 80s band cranked up loud you were both singing along with it.

After a five hour drive and a whole tank of gas, it was around 3 in the morning when you finally arrived at your destination: the beach. The two of you ran, giggling all the way, to the shoreline.

The night was spent slow dancing at the shoreline to your favorite love songs (that were played on his little speaker he'd brought), collecting seashells, night swimming in the ocean (which included a little water fight between the two of you), and a lot of cuddles while looking up at the sky full of bright stars. Eventually, the two of you got up and ran to the gate. Hoping you wouldn't get caught, you jumped the gate and assisted him in getting over it. And then, hand-in-hand again, you made your way together out onto the boardwalk.

The two of you found a nice spot about halfway down and sat, your feet dangling off. The sun would be rising soon; the skies already changing colors showed sign of it.

"We are going to be so dead when we get home," you laughed.

He laughed with you. "Perhaps. But it was worth it."

You smiled and nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Yeah it was."

Your hands rested behind you on the cool wood. He turned towards you slightly and put a hand over one of yours. "Y/N... you have no idea how happy you've made me these last few months. I don't know what I did to have someone like you. I don't deserve you, but I'm so glad you're mine."

You could feel your face heating up as you looked down with a smile. "Well, Teeth. I feel the exact same way about you."

You looked back up at him and he grinned. "You mean the world to me. And I... I love you. So much."

Your eyes widened a little bit. That was the first time he'd said that. Your smile grew. "I love you too. With all my heart."

And just when you thought you'd seen it all that night, he leaned forward and kissed you softly.

You both pulled away, giggling; faces both red.

"Well, uh. Maybe we should head back," he suggested.

"Good idea."

You helped him over the gate again, and the two of you ran back down to the beach to grab your shoes and your belongings before hurrying back to his car. He refilled the tank again, and just like the night before, you were on the interstate again. Hand-in-hand.

It had definitely been a night you wouldn't ever forget. You two's first "I love you", and then you two's first kiss... what would ever be able to compare?

[run2min]

𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧'𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐝 - 𝐊𝐲𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐦𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 599

𝐂𝐡𝐨 𝐊𝐲𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐦𝐢𝐧 𝐗 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐅𝐥𝐮𝐟𝐟

"You always go on such weird dates," your friend told you. You were on the phone while getting ready for your date with your boyfriend Kyungmin and; she was right. You and Kyungmin do go on 'strange' dates, but you love them. In the last month you'd been: on a train to go nowhere in particular, tea tasting, and paint-balling. Wouldn't recommend the last one, Kyungmin accidentally shot you in the arm and it really hurt. Today you didn't actually know where you were going to go, Kyungmin said that it was a 'surprise'. You didn't have your hopes up though as, last time Kyungmin planned a 'surprise', he took you to a dog cafe, nice right? No, you're allergic to dogs and he 'forgot'. Just then, you received a message from Kyungmin:

"I've got to go, Kyungmin is here, I'll see you soon!" you quickly hung up the phone and grabbed your bag. Opening the door, you were greeted by a happy Kyungmin, pulling you into his embrace, planting a soft kiss onto your temple, whispering into your ear, "I hope that you enjoy today!". He took your hand in his and led you to his car, opening the passenger seat, letting you in. "Soooo," you said, twenty minutes into the drive, "where are we going?" he let out a chuckle and tapped his nose twice (that means mind your business by the way). You sighed and sunk into your seat, cranking up the radio to seven and humming along to Fancy by TWICE.

After another thirty minutes of endless driving and Kyungmin's awful attempt to sing along to ASAP by Stayc, he turned to you briefly and said, "close your eyes,". You were confused, yet you obliged and covered your eyes. A few minutes later you felt the car come to a holt and Kyungmin's hand pulling yours away from your eyes. "Where are we?" you asked him, getting out of the car and looking around. "You'll see, trust me though, you'll like it!" He took your hand and led you to the door, opening it you gasped and turned to him, "The aquarium?!"

Kyungmin and you had just finished checking in and he pulled out a map from his pocket. "Where do you want to go first? What about 'Stingray bay' or 'coral reef'?" You and him started with the Stingrays, wandering through the dimly lit room, naming all of the stingrays after your friends, "That one is definitely Minho Hyung," Kyungmin laughed, pointing out one of the creatures. "That one looks like Haemin, It's tall just like him!" you pointed out.

You and him wandered throughout the exhibits, him stealing glances at you ever so often, you rubbing your thumb over his hand and kissing his hand. You were walking through the jelly fish exhibit when Kyungmin let out a whisper, "have you liked today baby?" you nodded you head and Kyungmin grabbed your hand while turning to you. "I love you," he mumbled, looking directly into your eyes. You smiled and squeezed his hand, "I love you too, thank you for today," Your date with Kyungmin was the best you'd ever been on. You spent the rest of your day wandering the streets of Busan, talking about your future and what it held for the both of you.

Maybe Kyungmin's surprises weren't that bad.

𝐓𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭: @m1ssluvyoobot @warm-oatmi1k

[dollarbin]

The Last of World Party Week:

Love is Best and Rolling Off a Log

I know the week of Karl Wallinger's passing is long past but I can't resist one final, for now anyway, entry. I've played a lot of World Party this month, relishing the music and the fact that my wife doesn't complain when I've got them cranked.

(The later of these benefits is decidedly not in place during a lot of the deep auditory research work needed for this august blog. This weekend I heard several, very reasonable, spousal sighs while the Stills-Young Band did their fairly terrible thing for this week's Shakey Sunday. Turns out that coked up tunes from Stephen Stills about deep sea love making with Jesus as your only witness are not the best basis for marital bliss. I therefore put on a pair of headphones.)

But at 9:15pm on Saturday evening my wife woke me up from a way too early, book in my lap, snooze with a groovy question.

"I want to hear that one World Party song you played lately," she announced as I came back to some form of consciousness and remembered that I had yet to brush my teeth. "I don't really know how it goes. And I don't know the words. I think there's 'love' in the title."

She then hummed something incredibly vague: it could have been a version of Thank You World, or Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, or Bach's 65th Piano Concerto or Raffi's Baby Beluga. My wife had no other hints, theories or guidance to offer. She wanted me to figure it out and play her that song. Now.

Well, I love this kind of thing. Seriously. Ask me out of the blue what Neil Young song rhymes "knees" with "frozen peas" and I will not rest until I've (without any help from google; I can't stand that approach) identified the track (Dirty Old Man), played it through twice and decided, after nearly two decades of loathing, that the song is actually kinda great.

Well, maybe it's not that great after all. But we get to learn about what happens when you drink on the job and then get caught doing something or other with the boss's wife in the parking lot. So that's good information to have. Thank you Neil.

Anyway, it took me three false guesses and ten minutes on Saturday night before I identified the World Party song my wife wanted to hear: Love is Best from the band's fourth, too long and occasionally dull, record Egyptology.

I'm so glad my wife set me the challenge. Love is Best is a fantastic, richly textured dream I'd never fully appreciated.

Until now:

There must be 16 vocal tracks floating through this homemade, yet polished, track. We also get a tiny, perfect bridge, sweet, understated electric guitar and the corny title is given a perfect home in the all-too -sudden ending.

The song also highlights yet another of Wallinger's manifold gifts: his surprising, richly rewarding sequencing. Want an example? Goodbye Jumbo's two timeless pop singles (Way Down Now and Put the Message in the Box) are bridged by the spacious and epic background track When the Rainbow Comes.

Indeed, here's a fitting sister song to Love Is Best: a full twenty seconds pass before the track really begins, allowing us time to savor not just Karl's rats and bleeding in the sewer but also the harmonies that carried us in Way Down Now; and then at the 35 second mark we get a surprise, beautifully bent, second hook. There's just enough happening in the lyrical postman bridge to grab us fully and then the song just glows for another two and a half minutes, fading out with perfect la la las, and leaving us fully prepped for the record's central motif in Message in the Box.

Love is Best serves a similar purpose on Egyptology, setting us up for the record's most ambitious and rewarding song:

Wallinger's approach is so thoughtful here. The Sergeant Pepper strings, the spoken bridge, the balance of falsetto with strength, the muscular but respectful guitar that only arrives a full five minutes in, and the surprise vocal gymnastics that chase us soon after: Rolling Off A Log echoes the complexity of a Disintegration-era Cure track without ever losing its identity as a World Party classic.

So good! I can't wait for my wife to vaguely order up more World Party greatness.

[onebizarrekai]

some ibvs-related stuff

you probably noticed that it's been quite some time since ibvs updated (like. eight months) and while ibvs tends to have pretty large time gaps between updates, this one has been particularly long. it's been more of an unannounced and uncoordinated break, to be honest. I was hoping that I could at least update it before the end of the year. I still kind of want to do that—maybe it'll be easier after my next concert is over in the next few days—but yeah, it has been a long time.

I've been having a really hard time creating stuff lately. sure, I've cranked out a few dsmp pieces, I made a lot of danganronpa art and writing this year before I did that, but I mean like, in the last while. maybe the last 6 months or so. I don't even know how I posted anything in august. like, yes, my ao3 says I cranked some danganronpa stuff out in august, but I don't… really remember writing anything in august. I barely remember what I was doing in august. I guess they were like, partially completed wips already so all I had to do was get them done. I dunno.

I finished one fairly long-ish fic in the last month. I uh, had to post it anonymously for reasons, and I'm proud of what I wrote, but that's pretty much all I've been able to get done done. I guess this is part of the problem? not really ever feeling done with stuff. or maybe forgetting how much I've achieved and only being able to focus on the stuff I haven't been able to. and I have all these ideas for this same fandom and I'm struggling to get those done too. and like, my v3 fic series is just kinda collecting dust because I haven't been thinking about danganronpa in the last few months. that's just how it is, I suppose.

I've also just had like, the worst writer's block ever for ibvs and I'm just shoveling around in fandoms (and often misery) trying to stave off stress. I keep looking back at it and going "am I happy with this" and like, I am. I should be. I'm pretty happy with it, but the longer I go unable to write it the more I feel like I'm just adding things to the story that aren't gonna matter to anyone even though… it is that. it is the story. I'm writing it for fun. it doesn't have to be perfect. it has to start somewhere, but every time I try to write it it feels like I'm off in the deep end. I have to remember everything. I have to backtrack and make sure I know what I'm talking about. I have to make sure that I don't write anything that, well… is boring as hell.

I've been getting caught in a lot of negative thinking and I'm both trying to focus on mental health while also feeling like the things I'm doing on behalf of 'focusing on mental health' are actually either sustaining the problem or making it worse. like it's making me feel more lethargic and more trapped and less able to create things. I'm trying to get a therapist, but no insurance-covered psychologist who lives in near me is willing to do in-person sessions. one of my issues is feeling like I'm stuck at my computer and stuck online and stuck inside where everything is nonpermanent and I can't move; doing online counseling would make things worse. I don't really get it. I'm hoping I get a proper one soon.

anyway… we'll see if I feel better after the concert is over. maybe after I actually manage to get a therapist. thanks for the patience, everyone.

[alicemichelle297]

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (2023) review

When I cranked out my 4000 word review of Sonic Frontiers, I thought that would be the last I talked about a Sonic game for awhile. After all, there were no more games planned to be released any time soon and I didn't figure I'd have much to say about the Frontiers DLC for example. So until I worked on some retro reviews for the series, I figured it'd be on the backburner for a few weeks.

Imagine my surprise when the Sonic social media team released their own game for April Fool's Day: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog.

And the best part is it's great!

I've never really been one for visual novels, though I am aware of them. I think the only VN in my Steam library is Long Live the Queen (and I wouldn't expect a review of that any time soon, by the way), but I've seen others including some dating simulators on YouTube so I'm familiar with the genre to an extent.

Story

It's Amy's birthday and she's arranged for everyone to join her for a murder mystery dinner party on a luxury train, the Mirage Express.

Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, Vector, Espio, Rouge and Blaze are all given roles and costumes to match and are asked to put on a mystery for Amy, playing the role of a journalist, and Tails, a detective, to solve.

You play as a poor anthropomorphic animal on their first day working for the Mirage Express. You help Tails sort through the clues and keep the party going.

Gameplay

It's a visual novel, so the gameplay is very simple. Most of the time, you're just going to be reading dialogue and choosing between two dialogue options to advance the story.

During investigation segments, you'll be given a widescreen view of the room and use your mouse pointer to search for clues. Some things are of no consequence, but you never know what you might find.

Then, once you've found enough clues, it's time to confront and interrogate your suspect. The game starts you off easy with a mystery about Amy hiding something from you and Tails before you move on to solving the murder of Sonic.

At key points in the interrogation, you'll have to pick a piece of evidence to support your accusation and then play a mini-game on the "DreamGear" to think through your argument.

The DreamGear mini-game is an isometric style platforming challenge. It's actually interesting to see Sonic at this angle because it hasn't really been done before.

You simply have to jump over hazards like spikes and explosives and collect enough rings to clear the challenge. The first mini-game only requires 10 rings to clear, but by the end of the game you'll need to collect 100 rings to beat the game.

On the bright side, if you just can't get the hang of moving left to right at this awkward angle, you can actually decrease the game's speed and the ring requirements by percentages in the options menu. Perfect for people who are more used to visual novels and not platforming games, not that I know why anyone who doesn't like platforming would be interested in a Sonic game.

Presentation

I. Love. This. Art.

The art director, Min Ho Kim, perfectly renders these characters in a clean and expressive art style.

Each character is dressed up in a costume for Amy's party and yet each one fits their real personalities in a fun way. Tails in a Sherlock Holmes costume just looks right, and Blaze being a tycoon of industry is just fancy enough to suit the inter-dimensional princess. Sonic dressed up as a ship captain weirdly suits him but I half-expected him to start calling us "Old Sport."

The environments are all colorfully and creatively done. Some of the background details are such cute and random references to the wider franchise that the whole game becomes a treat for longtime fans.

The dialogue has plenty of nods to past games, as well, including Sonic Forces and Sonic Frontiers, adding to the streak of recent content forming a consistent continuity. Is this game canon? Probably not, but it's still positioned itself in the IDW/post-Forces continuity, which I'm loving so far.

The Verdict

Is this a bit over-kill for a review of a free Steam game that was literally an April Fool's joke? Yes.

Does it deserve this much attention? Yes.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is a love letter to the entire fandom and it's an easy recommendation from me. Download it now on Steam (while you can, I'm guessing) for Windows and macOS.

[leieryx]

im a little guy that can do any task if you have a task i can get it done so quick, like you wouldn't believe. I am an unstoppable force of nature. I use the zipper 3030 to climb and scutter through known time! So basically, as soon as you hire me, the jobs done. I've brought something from overseas in an hour, I've made a wedding cake in twenty, and just for fun I learned ASL by going back in time to its foundation! Of course I only learned like two signs, none of them really usable now, but boy it was fun!

When you have simpler goals of course, it's much much easier. You don't have to guess at the time, you can just go back to last Tuesday and make sure you bring an umbrella or know about that inside joke before you make a fool of yourself. Time is easier to understand when we can just refer to our own memories, even though those are also riddled with faults. Maybe I'm just not a book guy. After all, im two inches tall! Words in books tend to reach up to my waist, and a book is as big as a building! try to get through any-book when you have to squint into the sky to even start haha! History for me is only what i travel back to, so it's very haphazard, but i enjoy it. you figure it out along the way as you live like most things.

Yes I may have started the space race, but that was mostly good. And the extinction of Gaplandasaurs but- well- making mistakes is inevitable. Whenever I try and fix it, there are a lot of contrivances to stop me, such that I begin to think it must have always been this way, and my intervention is in fact woven in time! poor Gaplandasaurs… destiny was not kind to you, and i miss you! I put them on cookies once, and the client said 'God, what are those things!'. I said 'Gaplandasaurs, miss! Just one of my favorite creatures, they count as silly kid's animals, right?' and oh my dear, she practically screeches, 'You're an ignoramus!' (This was back in the day, so that was a common word) 'I've never seen such a stupid imaginary creature in my life!' I tell you, I could not stop laughing! Who would have lived such a sheltered life to never have heard of one? A boring life, too, and one she was so sure of! But then that day I found that she had been perfectly reasonable; my actions in the past had indeed caused a splinter of time where the Gaplandasaur had gone extinct. It was at that point only a scientists fancy, and so it made sense she had never heard of the strange beast. I was distraught after that- never took an assignment to get an ancient cookie-recipe again. No sir. It would be unlikely to cause anything of that magnitude again, but that memory would breathe down my back like an ugly sailor who thought i'd stolen his net.

But anyway, that's not the point at all, is it? I can certainly do this job for you, and better than anyone else, dare I say! I've had plenty of tussles with the law, and on account of being so small, they can rarely catch me. I've stolen all manner of things back for people, provided I won't have a rough night's sleep about it. And I dare say I'd rest easier, knowing your family's heirloom is back with you, and out of the hand of that greedy bastard! Sure it's a trinket, but a meaningful one! It's nothing but a shiney object to that old crank, and thus it'd be more valuable to the world back in your own pocket. Plus, I do hate the guy. The one problem is though, he has many a shiney object, and I feel as though locating it would be difficult unless I went back in time to see the trinket in your possession. I could steal it from you to bring it forward in time, and thus, it would've never been in his hands, but you wouldn't ever be able to get justice about it, seeing as in that timeline, it never happened. And it would need to wait this long, otherwise, you wouldn't pay me! Wouldn't know you'd even hired me!

That happened to me once, actually, back in the day… There was a princess, a beautiful one who surely impaired my judgement. At the time, my close friend was away, so I had no one else to pine after. I do admit I went quite mad, and agreed to do the job without seeing any payment before hand, although she was surely in a position where she could have shown me any manner of riches. It seemed like such a useless thing to request at the time, but once I had brought back her kingdom's crown from the flood's waters, she banished me completely from the kingdom, assuming I was some charlatan. Usually it wouldn't matter much, it would just be a hell of an inconvenience to trick her into paying me, or to steal from her vaults. But it turns out, she already had some sort of wizard on her side the entire time! I don't put much stock in wizards, I believe far more in the witches, but this one was a beast. I couldn't time travel anywhere within the kingdom at any point. Even after it's dissolution! To this day, I cannot travel there, even though the new rulers have made delicious food and many improvements… it's always embarrassing to tell clients I can't do something so simple. Sometimes I think to kill the wizard, but he lived his entire life in that dammed kingdom, under the rule of that- well the king and queen were fine, good folks. Just not their daughter, I suppose. She thought I was a phony, and was smart otherwise, so maybe she ruled well, but I still feel slighted about the whole banishment thing. I mean, who does that to someone of such short stature? I can't even go on a bus or a plane, not without the help of someone much taller. I wonder what she thought I should do-- live in a tree maybe! Yes, living in a tree… unfortunately I do really love that coka cola you all have made, so a tree would be no suit for me.

Oh yes, for a little guy, even a sip is like the sweetest, purest punch of energy, it makes me think of ambrosia! Surely that's what the myths had in mind. I risk getting stuck in the bottle all the time- you all do realize you could make these things safer for bugs and little guys- but it's worth it! One time I was stuck in one for quite a number of years, because I was missing my time-traveller's device, and it became a ship in a bottle with me in it! I told the artist to please, let me out, but he kept telling me my inclusion added 'character'. Said that I would help him make 'the big bucks'. Off an old cokea cola bottle, no less! Well, we did become fast friends, because it felt nice to be appreciated in such a way, and he kept adding things to make it easier for me in there. He wasn't able to sell it, didn't have the heart, and broke me out of there, ruining his week's work. I think he cried a little, but i was too busy feeling the grass, and eating cheese. When I turned around again, ready to offer him a gold coin or perhaps a date, he was gone. The moon had also come out at that point, but im sure that was unrelated, just a nice detail to remember. It was very beautiful and all the air was scented with dew. A great first day to be freed of the bottle! A long while passed between then an my next sip of coakey cola, but not forever- it could never be forever.

[faeriecap]

MCALPINE SESSIONS ANON HERE, BESTIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry I've been MIA, there was a little drama with a certain ship that is prominent on your blog that I just did not wanna deal with lmao. I didn't wanna project my annoyance with the ship onto you so for my sanity, I had to leave BUT I'M HERE NOW AND FERAL FOR SOME UPDATES (or just some shop talk, I need more friends 🥲) I hope you've been doing well though! I saw you were on a little hiatus a while back so I hope everything is good on your side of the universe ❤️

YAAAAAAAY YOURE BACK!!!! 🩷🩷🩷🩷 tysm for thé well wishes firstly, things are up and down over here but i’m trying my best to just keep on keeping on and the support means all the world to me! but it’s pride month so i’ve been trying have more fun and just enjoy it, i’m hoping to see some of the new marvel releases soon and OMGGG THE NEW CAP 4 content i am barking i am feral SAM LOOKS SO GOOD HES BACK HES BAAAAAACK

in terms of fic ive been writing a little bit but not as much as i’d like bc i’ve been pretty busy with life and also the rpg i’m currently modding lol HOWEVER i’ve locked in some new plot points and my definite plan once time frees up for me in a few months is a full rewatch of all 3 cap films and maybe even sam’s other cameos (and maybe fatws…. not sure yet, that one i saw more recently and a LOT of time has to pass before i can stomach rewatching anything if i ever do at all, even my favorite things, bc my attention span SUCKS lmao) + hopefully i’ll be able to crank out some of the scenes for the fic set within that time frame (bc i’ve been writing most of the ones that happen post cacw) and then it’ll be done! or ready to be beta’d at least… which… if ur interested 👀 i cant remember what my last update for u was about so i’ll update this post with a new snippet once it’s been shared <33

edit: here it is!!

the front door slammed, and sam dropped his keys on the counter before appearing upside down above them. to his credit, he did not seemed phased to find them tangled up underneath the couch’s throw blanket in the middle of the day.

“what’s this about hickeys, and why am i getting them?”

“bucky’s retired.” steve offered by way of explanation, raising his free arm to pull sam closer. even so, they couldn’t quite reach without him doubled over the frame, so he wandered down the hallway to change out of his clothes before steve could kiss him.

the problem is all the scenes post cacw after they get together are sort of just random which means it goes from this intense emotional will they won’t they with a touch of actual canon events created non romantic tension to this slush of fluff and domesticity and no real stakes anymore hahahahaha like idk where to go with it??? beyond just. making them cuddle more LMAO so…. any suggestions from the people lmk

i hope you’ve been doing well yourself and taking care of yourself and i as always look forward to hearing from you again soon :))) with regards to the ship drama, i am SOOOO curious could u elaborate??? was the drama related to my blog or just like generally in the fandom? DONT LEAVE ME HANGIN WHAT WAS THE SHIP 👀👀👀 i don’t feel like i post that many so i’m so intrigued which it could be lol since i’m assuming it’s not sambucky and probably (??) not stevebucky (tho maybe)

but seriously though i’d love to know bc i don’t want my account to be uncomfy for anyone but least of all my fav anon x so if i need to update my tagging system for u to properly blacklist my posts about it or anything of the sort pls lmk, either here (and i can answer privately too if you’d prefer 🤍) or messaging me! plus if by drama there’s smth actually problematic im rb i absolutely wanna be informed and aware of it! i will confess i’m quite curious as to who my secret admirer could be ;)) and i appreciate ur honesty!

until the next meeting, be well and lots of love 🫶🏻

[natromanxoff]

Queen live at Elland Road in Leeds, UK - May 29, 1982 (Part-2)

Fan Stories

“We got a coach from my home town (about 2 hours from memory) and drank an ocean of lager on the way, by the time we got there we needed the toilet so badly we could have exploded! We got into the stadium and waited for the first band of the day. Soon enough a not very well known (to me) American band came on called Heart. They weren't bad but did nothing for me. Then came The Teardrop Explodes who tried and who I reckoned did quite well despite the flying bottles of liquid being hurled at them from the crowd. After them was Joan Jett complete with Blackhearts who got the crowd going with "I Love Rock'n'Roll" mainly because Brian appeared at the side of the stage with his daughter to have a look. Eventually after a long wait the stage lights dimmed and a strange cranking sound started up and then you were suddenly aware of the drum beat to Flash thumping out and spotlights chasing around the stadium. This went on for a minute or so and the excitement was unbearable. All of a sudden in an explosion of smoke, lights, guitars, drums... Brian, John and Roger are there blasting out the opening part of The Hero. Seconds later in a gleaming white leather jacket out runs Freddie and it begins... A moment I will never forget along with many others from Queen shows since and before it. I can't say which show was my favourite as I loved them all but that moment WAS Queen, the sheer power, the anticipation, the fantastic musical ability and above all else the way they gave people what they crave more than anything... wonderful memories.” - whiteman

“29th May 1982 - a really nice warm day. We only lived a few miles away so walked down to Elland Road - I can't believe it - Queen live in my home town at the home of the greatest football team in the country (well maybe not now!). Got to the ground early and were allowed in by security, such a relaxed atmosphere. Saw band's soundcheck - great! So hot sun, never went behind stadium roofs. Got best suntan I have ever had! Heard Teardrop Explodes - not bad. Then you are aware of the beat of flash thumping out around the stadium, the smoke rises and bang - they are on! The greatest gig I have ever seen from the greatest live band in history. God bless you, Brian, Roger and John. Rest in peace, Freddie - we will never forget.” - Michael Quine

“This was my second ever gig, the first being Rory Gallagher the year before (I am sure I once read that Rory was one of Brian May's favourite guitarists). Anyway, being only 14 and not yet in the habit of getting off my face at gigs,I can remember that day very clearly. I am convinced I saw someone throw a hamburger at Julian Cope (Teardrop Explodes were going down like a lead balloon), and just as Julian was opening his gob to sing, he CAUGHT IT IN HIS MOUTH. A huge cheer went up, then they stomped off. Somebody, possibly Queen's manager, came on and told everbody to behave. I also remember a fan getting on stage and Freddie expertly rolling him off the stage. I didnt like the Hot Space album much but was chuffed they were still a hard rock band. I bought the next edition of Kerrang mag and the write up of the gig said STUNNING. Great memory.” - Edwin

“I was 15 years old in 1982 when I attended my first ever concert. Fortunately for me, it was QUEEN's show at Leeds AFC ground in the North of England. I remember when my ticket arrived in the post, possibly 2-3 months before the concert, as was often the case in those days. I stuck my ticket on a cork notice board in my bedroom and could barely contain my excitement over the coming weeks. Every morning, I would wake up and look at the yellow ticket, wishing the days away. I imagined everything that could go wrong would. Queen would cancel the gig, I would break my leg, the family pet would die on the morning of the concert and it would be too insensitive of me to go, the transport wouldn't turn up or would break down, there would be a pile up on the motorway, I'd lose my ticket en route, etc, etc. As it turned out, May 29th 1982 was a hot and sunny day, perfect weather for an outdoor gig. I was CRAZY about Queen and had been since the age of 9 but I really didn't know what to expect on that day. Myself and three friends took a coach organised by my Dad's company from Lancashire across the M62 motorway to Leeds. Our excitement began to really take a hold when we arrived at the football ground and we followed the droves of people towards the turnstiles. To me, this was something on a really big scale and I could already hear the hum of the crowd inside. Not really believing that we were actually about to witness a Queen concert, we found our seats on the West Stand, offering a great view of the stage. I remember marvelling at Queen's new lighting rig and the equipment that adorned the stage, shining in the afternoon sunshine. The ground was almost full at this point and the pitch was heaving with people. The atmosphere was relaxed as people bathed in the sunshine. I remember two guys climbing the fence from the stand and attempting to get a better spot by running into the crowd and losing themselves on the pitch. Their efforts were in vain however as they were quickly located and ejected back into the stand by two security guards. We bought some black Hot Space tour shirts (I wore mine with pride until it literally fell apart) and a programme from a vendor inside the ground and waited for the first band to take the stage. A guy near us shouted and punched his way through Heart's set and then left just as they vacated the stage. Obviously not a Queen fan! The Teardrop Explodes suffered at the hands of the Queen congregation and found themselves battling against a shower of bottles and assorted missiles. Other than that, I don't really remember much about the support bands. I think that Bow Wow Wow were billed to play (an odd choice) but I can't recall if they actually turned up. No matter, we were about to witness what is still one of the best gigs I have ever attended.

As the dusk descended upon us, the giant floodlights were extinguished one by one and the memory of the roar that followed still sends shivers down my spine. Dry ice drifted across the heads of the crowd on the pitch as the intro tape of Flash thumped out of the PA and the strange 'grating' noises added to the recording created a foreboding atmosphere. Two of our party were on the pitch and to this day remember their chests thumping in unison to the powerful rhythm. A sea of hands clapped in perfect time to the beat. To me, this was already an amazing experience. And then the big moment. Freddie, resplendent in dazzling white made his entrance to The Hero and the blaze of the lights. An apt number to start with. Before he had even sung a note, the audience were locked tightly in the palm of his hand. Such an entrance, such a showman. "You're a F***in amazing crowd", he exclaimed after the first rush. The beginning of the gig is, in truth, my strongest memory of the show itself. In particular, the "Flash!!!" vocals cutting through the night air with so much volume. I recall being shocked at the sheer power of Queen's performance and the clarity of the huge sound they harnessed. Morgan Fisher's keyboards during 'Action This Day' sounded bright and hypnotic. Freddie's intro to Fat Bottomed Girls caused quite a response too; "the bigger the t*t the better it is!". I also remember the follow spots darting wildly over the crowd during 'Tie Your Mother Down' and everybody going crazy. Oddly enough (and this is something I still swear by to this day), I was in a Maths lesson at school the following Monday and I swear I had a flashback of this and could actually 'hear' the music being re-played in my head. It was a weird moment and life was never quite the same again. We talked endlessly about our experience for months to come and one of my biggest regrets is not jumping on a train to attend the filmed Milton Keynes show a week later. Having been to so many gigs since, I can honestly say that there is nobody who has been able to top Queen live; I was lucky enough to see the band five times between 1982 and 1986, including Wembley Stadium and their last show at Knebworth. I think that my personal favourite was their performance at the NEC in Birmingham on 'The Works' tour in 1984. People were literally stood there with open mouths, unable to believe how good they were. Leeds is definitely up there too. I recall Brian May stating that he thought it was one of their best performances ever. I can't argue with that Mr May. I've often wondered if an audience shot cine film or even just photographs exist from the Leeds gig. It would be a dream come true to see my memories come to life again.” - Keith Lambert

“I can't believe it was 30 years ago that I attended my first ever gig at Elland Rd Leeds in 1982. I was 17 years old at the time, I was into Queen when I first heard seven seas of rhye, which was so different to all the other stuff around at the time. I'd heard them live on tv, and had Live Killers. Also I used to buy bootleg cassettes of all of their tours from 74 onwards. But nothing could prepare me for that day. They should have played this gig at Old Trafford Manchester, my home town, so I was gutted when the residents opposed it. Tickets were very easy to come by, believe it or not, cos Queen were not seen as a relevant band at that time. Also touring the Hot Space album didn't seem to excite anybody. So, Billy no mates had to go on his own, haha. My memory is a bit hazy, but I will try my best. I got to the ground about 1pm, and was lucky enough to have a pitch ticket. I got right to the front, well about 10 yards from the stage, slightly off centre and to the right. If I told you I never moved from that spot all day and never spoke to anyone, would you believe me? One of the reasons for this is the rivalry between Manchester and Leeds, also I was only a kid, haha. Not sure who was first on, probably Teardrop Explodes, Julian Cope, I remember while they were throwing bottles at him, picked one up and started hitting himself with it and stretching his arms out saying he was an Argentinian bomber or something. It was during the Falklands war, remember. Then Heart came on, not really my cup of tea, and I had a lie down on the tarpaulin and tried to go to sleep. Then Joan Jett, who was better than the rest, but not really exciting. During the band changes, I remember the roadies polishing Roger's drum kit and climbing up ropes and those threepronged lights, which before I saw them move I thought they were cameras. Queen took ages to come on. From my recollection and I might be wrong, they didn't come on until 10pm and went off around Midnight. I heard later that they got fined so much per minute for being late on stage but they wanted to wait until it was dark for the lighting rig to take effect. If you watch the Bowl DVD you will notice it was light when they came on stage there. But that was being filmed by Channel 4. But it was absolutely pitch black when they came on stage at Leeds. Then the floodlights went off, smoke started to appear and strange noises started, which I can't describe, sorry. Then Flash's Theme started, it was loud, very, very loud. I knew they were supposed to be loud and this was the part that scared me. The ground was thumping, the bass just pumping away. The these 'cameras' flicked into life, with men on them. The intro seemed to last for a very long time. Then BANG Brian appears with the first chord of The Hero and a flash of the biggest white light I've ever seen and will never forget and the absolute loudest noise I have ever heard just hit me. The intro was quite in comparrision to this. When I play Live at the Bowl, I tend to repeat the intro and The Hero, virtually every time, because it was definitely a life changing experience for me at that moment, just incredible. Then Freddie appeared in brilliant white again, I was that close, I swear His hair seemed blue because of the mass of white lights. His voice, so loud, so clear, honestly, I can't describe that moment properly. I heard Freddie swear, saw Roger spitting, quite a lot, over his drum kit and onto the stage, I was bewildered.

When they did Play The Game and also Somebody To Love, when Freddie was doing the intros for them and it will sound strange to those that weren't there, but I didn't know what the songs were. I thought they was new unreleased songs. The reason was they was so loud, It kind of deafened you and then kind of sunk in what they were about to play. Then the rest of the gig flew by and I was singing my head off. Everyone was, but you could only hear Queen. Again my memory may be wrong, but I read afterwards that Queen had paid for residents to move out of their homes for the day. These houses were monitored and they said that the sound was like Concorde flying 10 feet over your head... Yep I will buy that. For all that and for all the bad things said about it, The Works tour, which I went to all the 4 origional England gigs they had planned, was the best tour they ever did. The set list was fantastic and the lighting rig was incredible. Not as loud, I also add. I also saw them in Manchester, 86. They had to be off stage by 10pm and noise levels had to be adhered to. I was too far awy to see them and the screens didn't come on because it was too light. Also I couldn't here them properly. I've watched the mMagic Tour gigs on DVD etc, but for me, that was the poorest tour they ever did. So that's it, hopefully some of you can confirm my bad memory, or say I'm wrong. Hopefully not bored you all. But it was the greatest musical experience I ever witnessed and I am proud I was there.” - Paul Wakefield

Part-1

(x)

[stabby-pigeon]

OKAY HERE YOU GUYS GO! I'm sorry this took me all day. Got busy with family biz. BUT! it's 11 here so it's still out by today by my standards :D . I think you'll enjoy the ending, er, I hope you will. Please tell me if I should write more and who might yall want me to write for!

.

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You woke up in Axl's bed, thankfully you were fully clothed. You looked around at the room and remembered you were cleaning it and must've fallen asleep while doing so.

You stood and stretched, looking around once again. There were a couple holes in the wall, assuming it was from either Axl punching it, or something being thrown. They were difficult to cover but you managed.

Walking out of the room, you heard vomiting in the bathroom across the hall. You sighed and stepped in, finding Steven against the toilet bowl, wrenching. Kneeling down beside him, you held his fluffy hair back, he tried to smile at you but failed and ended up with his head back in the bowl.

After helping Steven back to his room, and getting him some aspirin and water, you headed downstairs. Duff was sitting at the table, nursing a mug of coffee next to Axl and Slash, who had his head down. Axl smiled when he saw you,

"Well good morning Y/N/N." He pulled out a chair next to him for you to sit, which you gladly took.

"Good morning Axl, to you as well Duff, Saul." You smirked and took a sip of Duff's coffee.

"Hey! Make your own!" Duff protested, trying to snatch the cup away from you but failing. You held it just out of his reach before he finally gave up and you handed it back to him.

"Saul? How much did you drink last night?" You asked, poking him in the side. He grumbled something incoherent to your ears. You decided not to pester him further.

Axl was looking over the morning newspaper with Duff, and you rested your chin on his shoulder to peek. The headline read something like, "Mötley Crüe Drummer Makes it Official with Dynasty Actress!"

You scoffed, knowing well it wouldn't last very long, rockstar relationships never did. Erin and Axl were a perfect example. Rockstars could not be tamed, simple as that.

"What are you thinking about Y/N/N?" Axl asked, putting his arm over your shoulders.

"Nothing, just how their relationship won't last long. They never really do."

Axl winced slightly at your statement, and you realized you pressed a wound.

"Shit Ax- I'm sorry-"

He cut you off with a wave of the hand, "It's okay doll, you do have a point." He stood up and went to pour himself another cup of coffee. "Refills anyone?" He asked to the table. Duff raised his mug, so did you, signalling you both wanted more. Axl came over with the pot and carefully refilled your cups.

Right when he was about to retract his arm, Saul slid his chair back quickly. He knocked Axl out of balance, causing hot coffee to pour all over you.

You screeched, standing up with lightning speed. You were drenched and burning. Still screeching, you ran to the shower and cranked in the freezing water, allowing it to soothe your angry red skin.

Shortly after that, you heard Axl yelling- presumably at Saul- and then sudden silence, followed by heavy footsteps.

Axl came into the bathroom, "Babe- are you okay?!"

"Yeah.. yeah Axl I'm fine- please tell me you didn't murder Saul." You said, more concerned about him. Then it hit you, "uh Ax? D-did you just call me babe?" You asked. Now your cheeks burned too.

He fell silent momentarily, "I... uhm, yeah? I guess I did huh?" He laughed quietly.

You sat there, also briefly quiet then spoke up again, "Hey Axl? Can you go get me some clean clothes? Please?"

"Oh, yeah sorry, I'll be right back." He said before you heard the door close.

You stepped out and turned the water off. Stripping, then grabbing a towel to wrap around your head and another for your body.

Axl returned with one of his shirts and a pair of his boxers. When he saw you standing there in just a towel, he was thankful he didn't get an erection. You paid no mind to his....subtle reaction.

Thanking him, you closed the door and got changed quickly, then dried your hair. When you finished, you left the bathroom to find the Axl sitting on the couch.

"Where's everyone at Ax?" You ask, fiddling with the hem of the shirt.

He looked up at you and he swore his jaw got dislocated. You looked so adorable to him. Standing there, in his clothes. Not the other boys' or your own but his. He beckoned for you to sit next to him.

"They ran to a party, I figured I'd stay behind to hang out with you." He said, placing his arm around your waist as you sat down.

You didn't know how to respond, "I... Thank you then. You really didn't have to." You leaned against him, inhaling his cologne and cigarette scent. You felt at peace. Until he spoke up.

"So... I've been meaning to talk to you." He began, waiting for your reply.

"Oh? What's up?" You ask quizzically.

"I heard you last night." He said, his gaze never leaving yours.

You froze, your heart pounding and the color from your face drained. You swore he had been asleep when you said that. This was it, your whole world was crumbling. He was going to friendzone you and it would be awkward forever.

"I love you too." He said, his eyes finally dropping to his hands.

"Wh-what?" You were shocked, did you just hear him right?

"I love you too. I mean, is that not what you said last night?" He was now the one who looked fearful. "Was I just dreaming? Oh, fuck I'm sorry Y/N, I didn't mean to out you on the spot-"

You surprised yourself by kissing him, to which he returned gladly. Soon you were both interrupted by a sharp whistle and clapping. You pulled away abruptly.

"DAMN! Took you fuckers long enough!" Duff exclaimed cheerfully.

"Pay up Slash." Izzy held out his hand to Saul who pulled out his wallet, grumbling.

"You three assholes actually made bets?" Axl raised a brow, eyeing the trio. They nodded, Axl rolled his eyes and told them to fuck off.

You chuckled and just kissed him again. Earning more cheers from the rest of the band. You both flipped them off.

Pulling away once more, you looked into his eyes and your heart swelled with joy, knowing that this fiery hothead, was yours.

[ghost-nabbers-imagines]

👶 The baby is mine isnt it? Larry x reader

Ok so two things about this request. One, this is Larry's I have one started for Sal but really wanted to get this one up And two, a trigger warning is in effect. And in both instances the husband or boyfriend is an asshole who does not treat you well but it's going to be bad in Sal's.

Larry

I never meant to be the kinda guy who slept with another man's girlfriend. People who cheated on their partners were assholes and I wasn't like that. However, Sebastian was worse than any other asshole I've ever met. I've always thought he treated (Y/n) terribly and that she deserved better. I mean the guy treated her like shit, he was constantly poking fun at her, and making her feel bad about herself.

The day the affair happened she showed up at my door crying about how he had apparently cheated on her with a friend of his. We spent the night at my place hanging out like always except we got a bit too drunk and ended up having sex. It was the best sex I'd ever had with anyone and I knew that my love for her was genuine. I thought she felt the same way about me, I thought she would leave him and finally be mine. But I was so wrong.

She all but promised me she was leaving him that they were done. She told me she was leaving him for good this time, but a month later they were back together and she was avoiding me all together. I noticed she was different after that, more closed off, distant, almost scared. It was two months after that Ashley informed us that (Y/n) was pregnant. The news broke my heart and shocked me to my core.

It took me two weeks to get fed up with my feelings and to tell myself I had to to confront her about it. Pulling my hood up over my messy brown hair I trudged down the snow covered pavement. My hands were trembling and my mouth was dry, not because of the weather but from nerves to how she'd be towards me. Had I become a dirty secret that she wanted to hide away? Did she lie when she said she'd always felt that way?

As I knocked on her door a million ways this could go wrong flashed through my head. 'Shes pregnant with his baby what are you doing here?' My head practically screamed at me. Before I could turn and run the lock clicked and the door opened. (Y/n) peaked her head through the door her eyes widening when she saw me. She stepped out into the hallway closing the door.

"Hey Larry."

"Hey really that's all you have to say?"

"I'm sorry I know this is hard to understand right now but please try and believe me I'm doing what's best."

"I thought you were leaving him but now all of a sudden your pregnant?"

"Larry I wanted to leave I did but the baby changed things."

"Did you know you were pregnant when we slept together?"

"N-no I swear I-"

"And what about how much we drank that night? Did you tell the doctor you had gotten drunk within the first month?"

"Larry-"

"No please explain to me how you could be so damn careless. Not just to me but to the baby. And with everything you've told me about that jackass how could you want to raise a kid with him? Do you seriously think he'll get any better? For fucks sake (Y/n) are you really gonna let him treat your kid that bad?"

I truly didn't want to be yelling at her but I couldn't help it I was angry and hurt. Silent tears were cascading down her cheeks falling to the floor. Part of me wanted so badly to wrap my arms around her and stop her tears but the other part of me was focused on the pain in my chest. She didn't bother to wipe her tears away till the door clicked open again. Sebastian stepped out a frown already plastered on his face.

He glared at me in a way animals look at their rivals. It took every ounce of strength I had to not pounce on him, however whether I liked it or not he was still the father of her child. She would need him and that almost angered me even more. "What's going on here?" He asked putting his arm around (Y/n)'s shoulders making her flinch. I clenched my jaw shut balling my hands up into fists in my hoodie pockets.

"Nothing. I was just leaving." I scoffed turning to leave. "Wait Larry please." (Y/n) pleaded in a broken voice making me stop in my tracks. "Yeah. Larry (Y/n) hasn't told you the good news yet." He said in an odd voice. I turned to face the two, (Y/n) was looking away fresh tears pooling in her eyes. He had a boastful smile as he lifted up her left hand revealing a small diamond ring.

I like a sharp knife had pierced right into my heart at the sight. (Y/n) couldn't face me but she had tears falling down her face again. "We're engaged. Right after graduation we're getting married and then moving to Santa Fe with my mom." He informed me. "Congrats. You deserve each other really." I spat turning to leave their building. I felt numb but also broken as I made my way home.

What was the point of any of this any more? The girl I'd been in love with since fifth grade was pregnant and engaged to another man. I had truly lost her for good. I hated thinking I had become just another regret to her. Our drunken one night stand was nothing but that to her while I had hoped it would be the first of many times I'd get to be intimate with the girl i loved.

With slumped shoulders and silent tears I made my way into the apartments. Sal would be with Ashley so I knew I could get what I needed from his apartment. I grabbed the bottle of pills petting Gizmo on my way out. Next I went out to the treehouse turning on some of my favorite music taking a seat in a bean bag chair. I sat pondering the whole situation while staring at the bottle of pills now sitting on my shelf.

"She chose him over you." The voice in my head whispered. I squeezed my eyes shut trying to focus on the lyrics and drown out the voice. "They're going to get married, and have their baby and you'll just be a bad memory she wants to forget." The voice continued. I cranked up the music louder pressing my hands to my ears but it was no use. The voice was in my head, and unfortunately it was right.

Finally giving in I quickly scratched a note for mom and Sal. Once it was finished I began taking the pills followed by a swig of Fireball I kept up in my treehouse. I didn't cry or feel angry it was like something inside me was urging me to continue to take the pills. I made sure to include an apology about taking the pills to Sal in my note. Pretty soon there was only a small amount of pills left and I was feeling almost relieved.

As I took the last pill I leaned back in my beanbag chair my eyes landing on a Polaroid of (Y/n) and I. It had been taken by Sal just two weeks before the affair. Despite the drowsiness overwhelming me I picked up the picture a sad weak smile on my face. (Y/n) had a really bad day at school between Sebastian being a dick and apparently having her period, she ended up borrowing my jacket so she could tie her jacket around her waist. That's when it clicked in my head.

I tried to do the math in my head but I was slipping into unconsciousness quicker than I could add. The world began to get darker and darker. The last thing I saw before I passed out was (Y/n)'s beautiful face. I felt like such an idiot. Now both my girl and my baby would be stuck with that monster.

The next thing I knew I was standing across from my own corpse. "No! No I take it back! I'm not ready! I don't want to die!" I screamed at my slumped over body. Black opaque tears began to fall from my eyes never landing on the floor but disappearing mid air. "No you asshole! The babys yours! Wakeup and go save them before it's too late!" I yelled at my corpse. It was too late, I'd truly lost them both for good now because of my issues.

"Larry dear dinner is ready!" I heard my mom call from the ground. My poor mom would he the one to find me rather than Sal or anyone else. I felt even guiltier for leaving my mom alone. First my dad disappears on her now I kill myself? I felt selfish for leaving so may people behind.

"I'm so sorry mom." I whispered unmaterializing so she wouldnt see me. I stood there and listened as she called me once more still not getting any response. She began climbing the treehouse ladder mumbling something if I was asleep up here in this weather she'd kick my ass. My ghostly tears quickened hearing my mom's voice. When she reached the top of she immediately noticed the bottles and my body.

"Oh no oh god! Larry!" She screamed tears falling down her face. She kneeled next to my body her hand reaching up to feel my forehead. I could practically still feel her warmth but she felt how cold my body was. "Someone help! Please oh god be ok Lar Bear!" She screamed through sobs. She turned me on my side trying to get me to vomit.

Henry came running out to the bottom of the treehouse. "Lisa what is it what's wrong?" He asked in the same panicked voice Sal has sometimes. My mom tried and failed getting me to throw up the pills. "Call 911 Henry hurry!" She sobbed. Henry shakily pulled out his phone and ordered for an ambulance to come quickly before joining my mom in the treehouse.

"Oh no Larry." He said in a saddened voice as he knelt down next to mom who was cradling my head in her lap sobbing and taking her fingers through my hair. "My poor Lar bear." She choked out. I kneeled next to them placing my hand on my mom's shoulder making her turn and face where I was confused. I knew she wasnt ready to see me yet but I kept my hand there till the sirens came.

I watched from the treehouse as the loaded my body into a bag and into an ambulance. My mom and Henry went with a couple officers leaving me alone. After rematerializing I debated going into the actual apartments and talking to Megan but before I could I heard someone shouting my name. "Larry? Larry! Did you think that was funny? Because it was a really sick fucking joke." Sal's shaky voice yelled. I looked down to see him climbing up the treehouse.

Taking a deep breath I stood back preparing to deal with a very hurt best friend. When he got up to the treehouse he was shaking and had clearly been crying before. His eyes wondered up and down my ghost form seeing that it was in fact not a joke. "No. Not you. How could do this? How could you leave?" He said through a sob. "I'm sorry Sally Face. I left you and my mom a note. I went to see (y/n) today and Sebastian said they were getting married and moving so I lost it. I felt broken so I came back here to do this." I explained.

He shook his head sadly using his sleeve to wipe under the prosthetic. "I'm sorry Sal the voices got to me. By the time I realized the truth it was too late." I said apologizing. "Realized what truth?" He asked confused. "I found that picture the one you took remember?" I explained pointing towards the picture.

Despite being hurt and angry he leaned down grabbing the Polaroid. "Yeah that's the day you spent like all night cheering up (Y/n) and making her smile as much as you possibly could." He said confused as to why this was important. "Do you remember why I had to give (Y/n) my hoodie even though she's got a flannel around her waist?" I asked pointing to her in the picture. Sal went to speak but before he did his eyes got wide and he looked up to me.

"Oh my god dude!" He yelled shocked. "I know. I'm an asshole and now I'm no better than my dad." I said sadly. For along time I had a constant battle in my head about why my dad had left and why he didnt want me. Now here I was abandoning my baby and (Y/n). It made me hate myself even more to think about.

"But Larry you have to stop her from going!"

"How the hell do I do that when I'm stuck here? Not to mention, what would I say 'oh hey i know I'm dead and all but since you're pregnant with my baby you should stay in town and not marry that fuck head of a boyfriend of yours."

"You have to do something Larry. I mean she can actually see you and the baby will able to too."

"You're right as always little dude. Just hopefully she'll come over here after I was so horrible."

Not even minutes later we could here someone calling for both Sal and I. The voice was sad and scared but i recognized it immediately. "Go ahead hide for a second I'll try to break it to her." Sal said. I nodded unmaterializing as Sal and I made our way down from the treehouse it seemed like I could only go as far as the ground underneath the treehouse. The sight of (Y/n) almost hurt worse than that of my mom.

Her eyes were red and puffy and she had tear streaks down her slightly pink cheeks. She had a hand on her stomach the other clutching the necklace that had been a birthday present from me. I'd recognize the guitar pick anywhere it had been one I'd gotten at a Santiy's fall concert that she'd been to sick to go to. "Tell me it's not true Sal. Tell me it wasnt him." She pleaded crying. Sal pulled off his mask before comfortingly grabbing one of her hands.

"I'm so sorry (Y/n). But you should know he loved you so much." Sal said as she gradually lost it more at his words. She began shaking her head her other hand covering her mouth. "No! No no it's not true it's not true!" She cried out sinking to the ground. My heart ached and screamed for me to hold her but I knew I couldn't yet. Sal crouched down next to her placing a gentle hand on her back.

"(Y/n) do you remember what Larry and I told you about this place. About how we showed you Megan?" He asked trying to ease her into the subject. She looked up sniffling thinking for a brief minute. "About the ghosts? I thought we made all that stuff up." She said tears still falling down her precious face. Sal shook his head before answering "it was all real Megan was real. If you die in this building you stay here. Larry is still here." He told her. She let out another small sob.

"Where is he?" She asked looking towards the treehouse. I took a deep breath and materialized making her eyes widen in shock and she stood up quickly. "I'll give you some time alone." Sal said excusing himself. I turned my stare to the ground I couldn't look at her knowing what I had done. "Oh Larry. I'm so sorry this is all my fault." She said sadly. I finally looked up at her meeting her sad eyes.

"No I'm sorry. I was an asshole. A jealous fucking asshole and I'm so sorry."

"Larry theres something you should know. About-"

"The babys mine isnt it?"

She nodded and I felt myself begin to weep again. I fell to my knees the pain of this whole situation hitting me again. She moved in front of me and I wrapped my arms around her waist letting my head barely lean against her stomach. Her arms hovering around my neck. I sobbed into her stomach till I felt something gently nudge my cheek.

I looked up to face (Y/n) confused but she gave me a weak smile moving my hand to her stomach placing hers next to mine. "She's kicking." She whispered. Sure enough I felt the smallest little nudge once again. My face broke out into a grin. "She? I have a daughter?" I asked happily. She nodded giggling "Yes Larry we're gonna have a little girl."

My grin only got bigger as I stood up pulling her into as much of a hug as I could manage. "I fucking love you (y/n). I know i can't really be what you need considering I'm a ghost but I want to be a part of your life and our little girl's life." I told her pulling away from the hug but continuing to hold her hands. When I looked down I saw her hand no longer had a ring. "I want that too bear. I told Sebastian earlier it was over. That I wanted to be with my baby's actual father. He yelled and threatened me but I had already packed up my stuff and left. I was heading here when the ambulances passed me. I asked someone out front and they told me the young stoner Overdosed in the treehouse." She said frowning. "I'll have Sal fix my note to mom so she knows about you." I told her knowing despite my moms broken heart she would love to take care of her grandbaby and sort of daughter in law.

"Does Lisa know about any of this? Or about you still being here?" She asked. "No I haven't talked to her about it yet. She asked why you weren't coming over anymore I just told her you were back with him. And I dont think shes ready to see me just yet." I explained making her nod her head. Sal came back out his prosthetic back on but I could tell he too had been crying. "Hey Sal can you grab my note from the treehouse I need to have you change something." I asked smiling at my best friend. He smiled back climbing the treehouse before returning with the note and a pen.

"Tell my mom what happened, that I thought I was losing them both and how much I really longed for (y/n) to be mine and the baby to be mine. And add that Henry was the best step dad I could have asked for." I told him. He scribbled everything down as close to my handwriting as he could get before folding the note back up. "(Y/n) you can stay with me tonight if you'd like and go to Lisa's tomorrow." Sal told (Y/n). She turned back towards me smiling softly. "I'd ask to stay in the treehouse with you but I take it you won't want me climbing up there and everything. I laughed shaking my head. "I'll be watching over you dont worry." I promised.

~your pov~

The next morning I made my way down to Lisa's apartment with a lasagna I had picked up the stuff to have Sal help with. From the outside of the door I could hear Lisa's soft crying coming from inside. Taking a deep breath I knocked on the door. After a couple minutes the door opened to reveal Henry. "You hang out with the boys, (Y/n) right?" He asked observing my growing belly. I forced myself to nod with a smile before answering "Yeah Hi Mr. Fisher. I wanted to bring this by for Lisa."

A moment later Lisa appeared next to Henry. "(Y/n) sweetheart come in." She sniffled offering me a broken smile. Henry let me in and took the lasagna to the kitchen for me. Lisa pulled me into a hug holding me tightly. She was wearing her pajamas but with one of Larry's jackets on. "He loved you so much dear I hope you know that." She said with a small sob.

"I know Lisa. I loved him too. I'm so sorry this is my fault. If I had just told him the truth about the baby, or if I hadn't been so scared of Sebastian he'd still be here. I'm so so sorry." I choked out feeling myself break down into tears again. Lisa pulled away pushing some of my hair back. "Now dont you talk like that Larry wouldn't want you blaming yourself or stressing about his actions. We'll all miss him of course but he wouldnt want you to be in so much pain in this state. He loved you and if you're saying what I think you are he would have loved this baby too. It's not your fault you were in an impossible situation." She told me sternly. I nodded trying to wipe away some of the tears. "The babys a girl. I wanted so badly to go tell Larry when I found that out. But Sebastian said if I talked to him there wouldn't be a baby to talk about." I admitted making Lisa frown before smiling and putting a comforting arm around me as we sat on the couch.

"Where are you staying dear?" She asked taking a sip from a mug on the coffee table. "I stayed with Sal last night once I found out about Larry. I was coming over here to talk to him about our baby but I got here too late." I sniffled. I pulled the picture from my pocket, I had brought a copy of the ultrasound picture for Lisa. She smiled grabbing the picture. "Is this her?" She asked. I nodded smiling at the picture of my daughter and her granddaughter.

"I hope she has Larry's eyes." I sighed. "Hopefully she doesn't have his nose. My father gave him that nose and he hated it. I cant imagine it's a trait he'd want to pass on." Lisa said with a pained laugh. "Oh god yeah. I kinda hope she does. It'd be like having a little Larry running around." I laughed. "What if you moved into Larry's room? I couldn't stand the idea of getting rid of his things or donating any of it." She suggested looking up from the photo. "Are you sure I dont want to impose Lisa especially with everything that's happened." I asked. She shook her head smiling. "Of course dear. I could use more family right now." She smiled.

~Third person pov~

Over the next couple months you lived happily with Lisa helping her around the house while she helped you with baby stuff. You spent most of your time after school hanging out with Larry in the treehouse. Sal and Lisa went with you to your appointments. Sal would take his walkie and let Larry listen in each time. Of course when you'd get back you'd go straight to him and talk to him about it anyways. As the baby was born and got older Larry was an amazing father in your opinion. He was always there for you and your child.

~Lex💛

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

S.T. REWRITE - S2:E2; Chapter Two, Trick or Treat, Freak - [Pt. 2]

A Will Byers x Reader Series

After Will sees something terrible on trick-or-treat night, Mike wonders whether Eleven’s still out there. Tensions grow between Y/n and Mike as does their concern for Will.

A//N: This chapter is slightly different cause I realized I'm a complete Doof™, and I had Max and reader meet twice. It had been so long since I wrote MADMAX, that I forgot they met in the arcade lol. So if you've read this before, the scene in the hallway is different.

||Reader's POV||

"Well, good new is, this is only slightly humiliating," I mumble.

I was doing the best I could to shrink back and be as hard to notice as possible, even though I know it's a lost cause.

Unfortunately, the boys all had the same thought and I had been slowly pushed front in center.

"Oh, my God," Someone laughed.

I did my best to let the side comments and laughter slide off my back.

"Maybe its's not so bad," I tried.

"That's easy for you to say [Y/N], you're not in a proton pack and jumpsuit." Lucas said.

I winced. He did have a point, their costumes are a bit more obvious than mine.

"When do people make these decisions?" Dustin said.

I heard Will speak up behind me. "Everyone dressed up last year."

"Yeah! I mean, who are they to judge, he went as Frankenstein's monster last year, and no one laughed despite that being super played out." My anger was getting the best of me, and I made direct eye contact and let my voice rise as I uttered those last words.

The boy I had targeted, covered his laughs with a cough and grew silent fairly quickly. At least I shut someone up.

"It's a conspiracy, I'm telling you."

"Just be cool" Mike encouraged.

I took a deep breath in, and that's when we all heard some prick speak out. "Who you gonna call? The nerds!"

I had a million things I wanted to say to that kid but nevertheless I took another deep breath in. That's wen I felt a hand grab my own, and I knew it was Will. I gave his hand a light squeeze as a silent thank you and kept walking.

+++

...three to the right, four to the left.

I mindlessly repeat the combination in my head as I've done a thousand times before at this school and my locker opens once again. I let it swing open and I sigh. I pull the fake glasses off my head and fold them, putting them on the small shelf in the locker space. I reach forward and grab my textbook and notebook after scanning for them. It's then that I barely make out my brother's voice.

"...so you probably don't have any friends to take you trick-or-treating,"

I frown and look over to find them just down the hall. Talking to Max. Or, attempting to at least. I continue to exchange my things and get ready for the next class. Although, I can't help but wince when I hear him continue.

"and you're scared of bullies, so we were thinking that it would be okay if you come with us."

My eyes widened slightly, and I took that as my cue.

"'It'd be okay'?"

My eyes widened slightly and I took that as my cue to jump in. I closed my locker and quickly reset the dial.

"Yeah. Our party's a democracy, and the majority voted that you could come."

I quickly made my way over, my things held tightly against my chest. I smiled and spoke up.

"Hey guys," I chirped. I made eye contact with Max and I chose my words carefully. "How are you guys?"

I ignored the frantic and slightly confused looks Dustin and Lucas were desperately trying to send my way.

Max smiled knowingly at me.

"I'm good." And I knew, just like me, she had a double meaning to that.

She turned back to the guys and plastered on a fake smile.

"I didn't realize it was such an honor to go trick-or-treating with you." I couldn't help but smirk at that.

"Yeah, I mean, we know where to get the full-sized candy bars. We figured you'd want in."

Her eyes squinted ever so slightly. "That's presumptuous of you."

I stood there awkwardly before I recalled that Max and I had our next class together.

Desperately wanting to change the subject, I smiled and turned to her. She was already closing her locker.

"Wanna head to class?"

"Sure thing." She smiled, and the two of us walked away, leaving the boys a gaping mess.

I felt kinda bad for the guys, but at the same time, I hadn't realized how nice, and refreshing it was to have another female friend for once.

||3rd person POV||

Max felt a looming sense of dread knowing it was time to go home. Which meant another painful care ride with him. She hated even being around him, he made her life a living hell. As she skated across the parking lot, she knew he was gonna threaten her in some way for being late. She didn't feel bad though, of course.

"You're late again."

"Yeah, I had to get catch-up homework." She mumbled, opening the passenger door and climbing in.

"Jesus. I don't care. You're late again, and you're skating home. Do you hear me?"

+++

Max sits quietly, wishing with all of her might that the car ride could just be over. 

Billy, her older step-brother blasts the song Wango Tango as he drives, wrecklously down the road. He scoffs.

"God, this place is such a shithole."

Max thinks of the [Y/N], the only girl who had actually been nice to her, despite her own short temper. Her only real friend since moving here.

"It's not that bad,"

He looks at her, and she knows - she knew as soon as she said something, anything, Billy would find away to use that against her. And sure enough.

"No?" He said, angrily.

She watched as he reached for the window mechanism and rolled down her window. He watched smugly as she winced at the smell and harsh wave of cold crisp air. He took a deep breath, and pulled his nose.

"You smell that, Max? That's actually shit. Cow shit."

"I don't see any cows." She said, matter-of-factly, reaching over and rolling up the windows.

"Clearly, you haven't met the high-school girls."

Max's head threw itself back at the headrest at the comment. She felt her anger boiling up, but she tried to keep it down.

"So what, you like it here now?" He snapped.

"No," she said defensively.

"Then why are you defending it?"

"I'm not."

Max knew he was getting angry again. He knew his pattern by now and she knew he was already up to no good. He loved to corner her.

"Sure sounds like it," He said calmly.

Max hated it when he got calm like this. It always meant he was going to snap. Go too far. Her heart began to pound. She shook her head, tying to regain her composure.

"It's just we're stuck here, so..."

"Hmm. You're right. We're stuck here," She felt his head turn and his eyes zero in on her. "and whose fault is that?"

"yours."

His attention when back to the road. She couldn't help it, her anger was getting the best of her, and the answer came out in a weak whisper she prayed he didn't hear. But he did, and she knew 

he was going to do anything to make her pay.

He looked at her, then back at the road but then back at her. "What'd you say?"

Max felt like she was shrinking. "Nothing," She mumbled, quickly.

Billy got calm again. Her heart began to beat faster once more. "Did you say it's my fault?"

"No," she said quickly.

"You know whose fault it is."

She stayed quiet. Max knew anything she said would it would piss him off. Her words failed her.

"Say it,"

Her eyes began to burn, but she refused to cry. He always made her feel weak and powerless and she knew she might not be able to do anything now, but she sure as hell wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

"Max..." He said lowly, drawing out her name. "Say it." He growled.

He whirled towards her in his seat, his face inches away from hers. His face was completely red as he screamed his throat raw. "Say it!"

She closed her eyes tried to ignore him. Even though she could feel his spit on her face, and his screams were loud enough to vibrate the car. She couldn't let him see how he got to her.

He returned to road, and reached for the volume dial, cranking it all the way up. His foot stomped on the gas and the car was suddenly going unnaturally fast. Billy threw his hands on wheel to every beat of the song.

She let him take it out on the car, grateful it wasn't her. But she knew there was nothing she could do to stop him anyway, right?

She was prepared to make it through the rest of the car ride, but her pounding heart stopped, her breath hitched and her eyes went wide when she saw four figures on their bikes in the middle of the road, not far up ahead.

"Billy, slow down." She said, quickly.

"Oh, these your new hick friends?" he asked, a scary gleam in his eye.

She quickly shook her head. "No! I don't know them."

"I guess you won't care if I hit 'em, then?"

Max knew Billy was crazy. He was out of his damn mind, but what terrified her most, was that she truly and honestly did not know if he was crazy enough to hit some kids with his car. She felt sick to her stomach, everything was going too fast and her heart began pounding faster and faster. 

"I get bonus points, I get 'em all in one go?" he asked excitedly.

The car was getting close and just like that, her fear was quickly replaced by anger and her adrenaline was pumping. She whirled herself around all the way to face her nasty scum of a step-brother and her voice was rising. "No, Billy, stop. It's not funny."

His body kept dancing, his head bobbing and hands drumming themselves against the steering wheel, but his head turned to her and his eyes were stone cold. He had no emotion in his face and it was enough to send a chill down her spine, but she knew now wasn't the time. He stomped on the gas pedal and the car roared.

Max wondered to herself why and how in the hell do these idiots not here this car and why the hell aren't they moving?!

She kept an eye on the road, the kids, the girl - [Y/N] - noticed the car coming first.

'Why the hell, aren't they moving?' she thought.

Max found her voice one more and screamed at the top her lungs. "Billy, come on, stop it. It's not funny. Stop!" The car got faster.

What she feared most was coming true. He snapped, and he might as well have been in trance cause he was laser focused, she was positive he hadn't even blinked, and she knew it didn't matter whether or not he had any intention of stopping. She couldn't afford to sit around and wait, they were only a few feet in front of them.

"Billy, stop it!"

With a racing heart, Max lunged forward, gripping the steering wheel and the car swerved to the left, just in the nick of time. 

Billy came to life and started shouting again. "Yeah! That was a close one, huh?"

He let out a wild and crazed laugh, and Max whipped around in her seat, peering out the back to see her classmates emerging form the leaves on the side of the road. She was unable to get a good look, the car was over the hill within seconds and they were out of sight. But she breathed a sigh of relief knowing they were alive.

+++

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