#I like to think that a few years later Death pops in on the guys as they’re celebrating yet another anniversary

[mollymagician]

Dreamling Week Day 2: stuck in an elevator

Hi guys!! *shows up three days late with a Starbucks, two immortals and an old lady stuck in an elevator*

It was June 7th. Not THE June 7th, not the big one, they’re a few years off from that yet, but a random rainy 7th of June, and Hob was off doing errands. He’d have been a lot more disgruntled about slogging half way around the city in a pelting downpour if he hadn’t known that Dream would pop up somewhere, he always somehow managed it on this specific date.

But it’s still a surprise when he suddenly comes into being just as Hob is about to hop onto the lift at stop #2 on his to-do list.

Hob shoots him a grin. “Fancy seeing you out and about on such a miserable day.”

Dream replied with the small smile that seemed to be his grin-equivalent. “I thought you could use…assistance holding your umbrella?”

There was a ding as the doors slid open, and then began to close behind them as they stepped inside. Suddenly, Dream’s arm shot out, inhumanly quick and totally lacking the primal human fear of getting one’s fingers squished.

The doors sprang back open, revealing a stooped and wrinkled figure shuffling along behind a walker. Her gray hair was bundled into a messy bun, and gray eyes were magnified enormously by the thickest glasses Hob had ever seen.

Her name was Gladys, they would soon come to find out.

She didn’t seem to notice that Dream somehow knew what floor to push for her without asking, just crackled, “Oh, thank you kindly, dearie!” and Hob stifled a snicker. Dearie.

The lift began to rise. They made it to the sixth floor before the power went out.

Gladys sighed and pronounced with feeling, “Oh bugger!”

Gladys was eighty-two years old, never trusted elevators, but was delighted to be stuck in one with “two such handsome young men!”

“Er…I’m sure the power will be back up in a tick,” Hob said. Gladys settled comfortably on the seat of her walker, seemingly very content with her lot.

“So romantic, eh boys? Just like those little stories my granddaughter likes to write!” She gave Hob a wink. Dream’s head tilted and he took on the far-away look he got whenever he was accessing his mental metaphysical Google, or whatever it was he did. Hob could tell when he finally found what he was looking for, because his eyebrows shot up so high they nearly cleared the top of his head.

Fifteen minutes later:

“Well lads, thank the good Lord I had a piddle before I came or we’d be in dire straights right about now!”

Standing behind Gladys, Dream reached into his coat and produced his pouch of sand, giving Hob a look that he could only translate as is it really necessary for us all to be stuck in this box?

Hob wasn’t sure how to telegraph we cannot throw sand at a little old woman and teleport her out of a lift because she will have a STROKE with nothing but expressive eyebrows so he just shook his head and shot Dream his sternest look. It worked on his students…usually. Dream signed and put the sand away obediently.

Another fifteen minutes:

They had heard about Gladys’ late husband, her three grandchildren and how lovely the cardiologist was that she’d been on her way to visit before her morning got derailed. She rummaged around in her purse. “Like a mint, dears?”

Hob swore under his breath at his phone. “Connection is wretched in here. I can’t get through to anyone.” Dream patted him awkwardly on the shoulder. Hob could FEEL him restraining himself from pulling his sand out and dangling it in Hob’s face.

“I’m sure everything will be fine, lovie. I think I have a deck of cards about, somewhere…” More purse-rummaging. “Oh, and a sandwich! Bless, I forgot that was there.”

Ten more minutes:

“So,” Gladys said, “How long have you two been together, eh? I’d have been celebrating fifty years with my Bert this July.”

Silence. Distantly, Hob could hear the rain pounding against the building, echoing down the elevator shaft.

“Er…” he began, eloquently.

“That is…” he continued.

“Oh go on, it’s all right,” Gladys chirped. “My grandson, the one at university, he’s got himself a nice boyfriend. I said to myself, I said, Gladys, you can tell when two lads are sweet on one another, so don’t go challenging anyone to strip poker.” She pulled the deck of cards out of her purse and winked. “Yet.”

“Um,” Hob said.

“Sometimes it feels like six hundred years,” Dream intoned.

Gladys cackled and bopped the Immortal Endless King of Dreams and Nightmares on the arm with her purse. “Oh, listen to this one here!”

“It is…our anniversary,” Dream added.

He reached over to nudge Hob’s jaw shut with a little click, and then tugged Hob into his side like…like it was just something they did. And yes, that was definitely a smirk.

The power chose that moment to come back on.

“Oh…bugger,” Hob said.

——————————————-

They made it back down to the lobby with little incident. Gladys shuffled off to call her daughter, she said, since her doctors appointment was a bust. But first, she gave Hob a surprisingly crushing handshake and thumped Dream on the shoulder and said, loudly, “Well, thank you for the LOVELY time, boys. Let’s hope that the next time you’re stuck in a lift on your anniversary it’s not with an old bird like me hanging around, eh?” She executed a frankly indecent eyebrow wiggle, and shuffled away, humming to herself.

Hob stood for a moment watching her go, and realized he didn’t have the patience for any more of that day’s to-do list. He was to-do’ed out, as it were. Except for one thing. He glanced up at Dream and tried hard to control the idiot grin attempting to take over his face.

“We need to talk,” Hob said.

“That was partially my intent when I came to visit you today,” Dream said, still smirking, the bastard.

“Partially?”

“I must admit, I’d hoped that talking wouldn’t be our only activity.”

Hob sighed. “Right. I’m not hiking back to the tube in this weather. Get back in the lift, dearie. This time you can sand us all you like.”

Dream said, “I thought you’d never ask.”

[hellfirenacht]

Wing Man Part 3

A/N: This fic is all vibes, no plot so it's hard to write lol. I have a few ideas now thanks to the wonderful @crocwork-clockodile and @hellfiredarling 💜

As usual, typos are fixed live and in post lol

Fic Summary: Steve ‘the Hair’ Harrington is your best friend, and is constantly striking out. Sick of this, you two make a deal; you’ll wing man for each other. Hooking Steve up with dates is easy, but he finds himself struggling to find you a date. At least, until Dustin starts talking about his new cool friend Eddie. 

Chapter Summary: You really should be trying to flirt, but somehow you and Eddie can only ever talk about Chris Morrison.

5k words

Part 1 Part 2

Steve did not show back up for at least a half hour after he ‘went to the bathroom’. Had you not been in your current situation, you would have made fun of him for being ‘backed up’ or something along those lines.

But in all honesty, you hardly even noticed that he was gone. When Eddie dropped the puck the world had faded into a whirlwind of clacking, yelling, and pitting children against each other. With the sudden death match, Dustin had won. You had taken Mike's place, giving him a condescending pat on the head. He hadn’t been pleased about the situation, but at least it kept him from saying whatever rule-grudge that he held against Eddie.

To your surprise, Eddie had stuck around to watch the match between you and Dustin. You tried not to be too nervous as the match went on, but your freshman friend was your saving grace even as he kicked your ass.

“Eddie’s been the leader of Hellfire for years now.” Dustin said, dropping the puck down and hitting it. “He’s always been the DM.”

“Except for Chris Morrison.” you said.

“Yeah except that guy.” Dustin nodded.

“He started the club, but I made it the merry band of bandits and misfits that it is today.” Eddie said, his hands resting against the side of the table, leaning forward. You’d only been chatting with him and Dustin for a few minutes, but you had quickly learned that Eddie was not the type to stay still for very long.

“You’re gonna get your finger smashed if you keep your hand there.” you said, glancing at how close his fingers were to the smooth surface of the rink. “You’re putting a lot of trust in geometry that this puck isn’t going to crush your hand. It’s already tried to kill me once.” You doubted that the heavy silver rings on his fingers would help at all.

Eddie looked down at his hands and pulled back, just in time for the puck to nearly hit where his fingers had been. “Shit, I didn’t even notice.”

“I notice everything.” You said, not noticing as Dustin smacked the puck at an angle that went directly into your goal. “I notice some things.”

Dustin laughed, and Eddie even grinned at the joke. With that point it was game set and match, or something like that.

“Alright, I’m going to go win some tickets now.” Dustin said, putting the clacker? Paddle? Not-Hockey Stick? Down. You still didn’t know what it was called, but luckily air hockey probably wouldn’t come up again later.

You expected Eddie to leave again, but instead he leaned back against the table, now free to let his fingers dangle without fear of being crushed.

“So you really were interested in Hellfire when you were still in school?” he asked, tilting his head over at you. That same distant and unreadable expression on his face. You really wished that you knew what he was thinking right now.

“Yeah, I saw you guys always having fun so I thought I wanted to try.” you said. “But, you know. Chris Morrison.”

“Forget about Chris Morrison.” Eddie turned towards you, standing upright and looking down at you. How did he feel so tall all of the sudden? How did he keep doing that? What magic switch was he able to turn on and off in his brain to make him go from ‘just a guy’ to ‘hey, I’m in charge here.’? “What made you have an interest in Dungeons and Dragons?”

“The dragons first, and then the dungeons.” It was the first thing that popped into your head, and you immediately realized it was maybe a little stupid and sarcastic. To be fair, you also were a little stupid and sarcastic, but with the way he was looking at you, Eddie wanted a real answer. The look on his face was actually a little funny, the way his whole face fell in annoyance.

Right, he didn’t know you. You didn’t know him. He was still trying to decide if you were some sort of friend or foe. You suspected that if Dustin hadn’t chatted with you so easily through your match with him Eddie wouldn’t have bothered talking to you more.

Maybe you should fire Steve and make Dustin your wing man instead.

He didn’t immediately leave though, which made you assume that you were being given a second chance to give him a real answer.

“Alright, I played a lot of make-believe as a kid.” you said. “Then as I got older, people stopped playing, but I wasn’t ready to be done. Then when I heard about this club where you could play make-believe again, I thought it would let me have that feeling again. I thought it’d be cool to, I don’t know, have people to play with again.”

It was a childish answer, but it was a real one. Everything in your life after middle school had been a steady monotonous stream of ‘work, home, work, school, home, school function, work, home’.

“Hellfire Club isn’t Make-Believe Club.” Eddie said, still staring you down. “Yeah, it’s a fantasy game but we take it seriously. It’s not all princesses and fairy tales.”

Actually, this guy might be getting on your nerves now.

“You’re taking my answer awful personally.” you said, straightening up under his gaze. You didn’t care how intimidating he was trying to be right now, he had pissed you off. “You asked why I wanted to play, I gave you my answer. You don’t have to like it, but there it is.”

He seemed taken aback by your bluntness. He blinked, his round eyes shifting to something else. “You’re right.” he said finally with a subtle laugh. “That was a dick thing to say. I really sounded like Chris Morrison for a second.”

“Yeah, you did.” you agreed. “You always this cynical about people?”

“Well, when you’re the town freak it comes with the title.” he shrugged.

“Does it come with a sash too? Or perhaps a crown?”

“No, unfortunately Hawkins High didn’t have that in the budget this year.”

“You should take that up with the student council.”

“Or City Hall.”

He was smiling at you now, and you hated how that smile was brighter than any of the flashing lights of the arcade. The longer you looked at him, the more attractive he got. God, you were going to kill Steve for delivering something you couldn’t have.

Eddie’s demeanor changed as you two bantered, no longer on edge now. Now that he seemed sure that you weren’t here to cause problems or were just looking to laugh at the freaks, his stance was much more relaxed. You looked him over again, taking advantage of his gaze drifting to where two other members were hunched over an arcade cabinet.

He had long wavy brown hair, and you tried to place how you could have missed that in school. Surely you would have remembered someone like him, right? It felt so much like you were missing something, but you couldn’t place where you knew him. It was going to drive you insane.

“So it looks like I’m done here.” You jumped as Steve appeared behind you. You looked over at him, your face reading with panic at the idea of him ditching out on you now. Yeah, things were going a lot better without him here, and he had not been very helpful-

Okay, maybe he didn’t need to be here to help with your attempt to flirt but you still weren’t exactly eager to be left alone.

Eddie looked between the two of you and you turned to Eddie. “I’ll be right back, I’m gonna see him off.” You said.

“Right, yeah.” Eddie nodded. He was on his guard again and you felt bad that Steve’s presence caused that.

Eddie and Steve looked at each other, a tension between the two of them. For five full seconds they just stared at each other with you in the middle, wondering what the actual fuck was going on.

That’s when Eddie threw up his hands over his hand in an imitation of horns and sputtered at Steve who was immediately taken aback. It was so out of left field, and you let out a laugh before covering your mouth and grabbing Steve and dragging him away towards the entrance.

“What was that about?” you asked as you two stepped outside. “And where the hell were you for the past half hour?”

“I was giving you space because you weren’t going to get anywhere with me around.” Steve said, looking back over his shoulder. Eddie had disappeared into the arcade with his club. “He really does live up to his nickname.”

“Nickname? You’re trying to set me up with a high schooler with a nickname?” You sighed.

“Yeah, and you were basically drooling over him the whole time you were talking so, you know, you’re welcome about that.” Steve said. “Everyone called him a freak in school so, Eddie ‘the Freak’ Munson.”

“Yeah, he mentioned something about being the town freak.” you said. “Why’s he a freak exactly?”

Steve tilted his head, as if he couldn’t tell if you were joking or serious. “He runs a club called Hellfire, plays that weird game you and Dustin keep talking about, and just- look at him! With the long hair and the chains and metal patches.”

“According to you, I was looking at him.” you snorted. “So he plays games and dresses differently and has taste in music. Doesn’t make him a freak.”

“Right, I forgot you’re a total weirdo who’d be into that.”

“He was your idea!”

Steve couldn’t argue with that. All the things that he would have found off putting to him in high school now seemed to parallel and fit with someone who he now considered a close friend. He’d been wrong about a lot in the past year, maybe he’d been wrong about Eddie too.

“So are you gonna actually flirt with him when I leave or are you just gonna stand there and make small talk?” Steve asked, crossing his arms. “I introduced you two, at least tell me you’re going to put in the effort.”

You winced and glanced back to the arcade, you couldn’t see Eddie but you knew he was still in there.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Steve gawked at you. “This whole thing was your idea and you’re not even going to try?”

“Listen, Steve, I like him. I do. That’s the problem. You actually hit the nail on the head, and he is absolutely my type.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“I’m not his type.” you admitted. “See, I know guys like Eddie. I’ve fallen for guys like Eddie. Funny thing about a lot of male weirdos, freaks, and outcasts, is that they still loooove themselves some popular girls. Girls like that love them because they’re trying to either fix them or piss off their parents. Freak guys don’t like weirdo girls.”

“You’re being the biggest dingus in the world and I think you’re full of shit.” Steve said bluntly. “Nice try, but you’re gonna go in there and flirt with him. Did he actually say that he was into that type?”

“Well, no but-”

“But nothing!” Steve sighed. “Listen, you’re cute, okay? I’ve seen what you look like when you’re not at work.” He gestured to your outfit. “If I took you to a party or a bar I’d be able to help you get at least six numbers by the end of the night.”

You furrowed your eyebrows. “So why are you so bent out of shape about Eddie?”

“Because you’re picky, and you’re my friend.” It was a surprisingly nice sentiment. “I’m fine dating around while I figure out what I want, but you’re not the same. You need someone who is going to understand what you’re talking about, and he is the only person in Hawkins who would also bite a head off a bat.”

“You know, everyone wants to talk about how Ozzy bit the head off a bat but no one wants to talk about how that whole thing actually happened-” you started.

“Nope. Not me. Don’t tell me, tell him.” Steve cut you off. “I should be telling you that talking about biting animal heads is not the best way to flirt but he might be into it. Just promise me you’ll at least try okay?”

Steve gave you a pleading look, and you couldn’t say no. You didn’t have the heart to. He was right, you’d given up before you’d even tried. Steve went out of his way to hand pick a potential date for you, someone he never would have even bothered talking to before. You had to try.

You breathed in the cool night air deeply, holding it before exhaling slowly. “Alright, I’ll try.” you promised.

“I expect you to tell me everything tomorrow!” Steve said as he started walking towards the parking lot you found yourself following him, your body reacting to all the times you two had parked next to each other at work.

“Yeah, yeah, you get first dibs on any kiss and tell!” you shot back. “After the details you gave me from your dates, I promise I’ll be worse.”

Steve pulled you in and gave you a hug, and you squeezed him tightly in return. You never would have thought that Steve Harrington of all people would end up such a good friend, but you were glad he was there. You two said your goodbyes before he got into his car. You waited until he’d pulled safely out of the parking lot before turning back into the arcade.

Just go in there, crash the Hellfire Club meeting again, and shamelessly flirt with Eddie Munson. Three things, that’s all you needed to do.

You pushed the doors of the arcade open and walked back inside.

You wander around the arcade.

You’re alone.

Shit.

There was no sign of Eddie or any of the Hellfire Club. You were completely alone in the arcade now and there was a pang in your stomach. You had told Eddie you’d be right back, but he was gone. Maybe your comment about still wanting to play had totally fucked over your chance to talk to him more after all.

You made your way back outside, just in time to see a van peel out of the parking lot. Your eyes widened when you saw Dusting looking out the window with an apologetic look and mouthing what you assumed to be the word “Sorry”.

Eddie must have gathered up the club to go somewhere else. You wanted to be fine, you wanted to shrug it off as you had every other time you’d failed to impress a guy, but you felt disappointed. Really disappointed. Sure you’d only talked to the guy for a half hour, most of which was spent talking trash as you all played air hockey, but you’d had fun. More fun than you’d had in a while with a guy, Steve notwithstanding.

It felt like Chris Morrison all over again.

You sighed to yourself and made your way to the car. Of course the second you wanted to try you ended up alone again.

Well, that killed it for tonight. You pushed the rejection out of your mind and made your way back to your own car, thinking about how you were going to tell Steve that you’d blown your chance.

Eddie Munson didn’t know what to make of the fact that Steve Harrington of all people was at the arcade. Popular? Played sports? Someone like him didn’t hang around at the arcade, not under any normal circumstances. The only thing that made sense about him being there was that he was with a girl, one that didn’t match up with the normal type that someone like Steve should be dating.

He had planned on avoiding Steve, choosing to focus on his club rather than antagonize the former king of Hawkins high. Really, he did. But then that shrimp Henderson had made his way over to Steve and his date. The kid already talked about Steve too much as it was, always going on about how cool he was while also dodging questions about how the two had met and become friends. Eddie had long since given up on asking about it, not that he cared. Not that he was jealous that the kid he was growing to see like a little brother already had another older male friend in his life.

That wasn’t Eddie’s style.

But this was Hellfire Club, and Eddie wasn’t about to lose another member to the dark side. Dustin had been looking forward to this rare gathering of the club outside of school, more than usual actually. He’d been wearing that same shit eating grin he always did when he was about to pull some bullshit at the table. Now Eddie knew why.

This little shit was trying to introduce him to Steve. Dustin talked Steve up so much, and now he just happened to be here on a date the same time as Sidequest Day? That was too convenient. Eddie shouldn’t have been surprised that Dustin was trying to bridge his friends together, but he was.

So, when Eddie saw Dustin watching Steve and his date chatting and playing Q*bert, he could have ignored the bait. He should have ignored the bait. But then Chris Morrison’s name was mentioned, and curiosity got the best of him.

Plus how could he ever resist talking shit about Chris Morrison.

So he walked up to the group, fully prepared to make agonzing small talk with Steve for thirty seconds before dragging Henderson away to focus on the real reason he was there. It wasn’t often that everyone had the time or money to come to the arcade like this, and Eddie had been lucky enough to make a special sale that day to some senior from the art department. He didn’t often have spending money for something like the arcade. He’d prefer to go to the movies or get his supply from Rick or buy anything to maintain his guitars, or upkeep of his van. Arcade time with Hellfire was something that happened once a semester at best, with the promise of him giving out advantages during the campaign he was running.

“Henderson is right. Morrison was the biggest asshole that Hellfire has ever seen. Worst DM too.” Eddie said, glancing between Dustin with a warning glare and Steve with a weary look.

He didn’t expect you, the girl playing the cabinet, to be the one to speak up. You knew Chris? This night kept getting weirder. When Eddie turned to Steve, to ask about what he was doing at the arcade, just to appease Dustin, Steve directed his attention back to you.

That made more sense, Steve Harrington wouldn’t be at an arcade on a Saturday night unless there was a girl involved.

When you turned around to face him, he noticed the way your eyes looked him down and up quickly. That was something he was used to with most people in Hawkins. They’d size him up just so that they could try and tear down the freak. There was a look in your eyes that he couldn’t quite catch before it turned into one of... disappointment? Discomfort? Shit, it was all the same to him.

Dustin made quick introductions of everyone, and Eddie was surprised when you offered your hand so easily despite the look in your eyes. Well, at least you were polite. It hadn’t even been two minutes and Eddie was already itching to get back to spending time with his club rather than crashing whatever meeting Dustin had clearly planned here.

But he’d be polite, humor the kid for just a second. If Dustin wanted him to meet Steve, then Eddie would be the contrarian and make small talk with his date instead.

You two would have graduated the same year, had Eddie not been held back. Yeah, it was starting to come back to him. He remembered you.

And that was enough of socializing with the upper class for the night. Eddie started directing Dustin back to club activities before Steve spoke up again.

“So, my friend here actually had an interest in Hellfire Club back in the day.”

It could have been left at that, but Eddie was getting more and more irritated over this situation. He looked at you, who looked like a deer in the headlights. Of course, Dustin might have seen something in Steve but he was no different now than he was back then.

“Really?” Eddie said. “And what about our little club was so interesting to you?”

He shot a glare to Steve, but looked down at you with a frown. You’d always seemed nice at school, but he’d made that mistake before. Eddie always liked the groups that kept to themselves and didn’t whisper behind his back or cause trouble for his friends. It was a shame he had been wrong about you.

But when you answered awkwardly about asking Chris to join, there was something in the way you spoke that was genuine. Either you were a really good actress, or you were being serious about it. Eddie might have been the biggest cynic in Hawkins, but he always did have a weakness to cute girls.

The conversation fizzled out quickly, and as much as Eddie didn’t mind talking to you he still wasn’t interested in crashing your date or getting to know Steve at this time. Not when his club started going wild across the room as Lucas was scoring big at a game.

So he turned around and left the two of you alone, running off to see what the jackpot prize was that Lucas had claimed.

For about ten minutes everything went back to normal. He was in the middle of an intense racing game against Jeff, when suddenly he heard Dustin screaming for him, causing his car to spin out and lose spectacularly.

Tonight was not going well at all for Eddie Munson.

Pushing down his irritation, he could hear it in Henderson’s voice that he was about to start trouble again. Of course as he made his way over to the hockey table, there you and Steve were again. Great. Eddie was so excited to be the third wheel during his club’s meet up.

But then Steve disappeared to take a shit. Well, he didn’t say that exactly but it made Eddie feel better to think of Steve having a miserable time in the bathroom. Jealous? No. Not at all.

Maybe a little.

You didn’t seem to like that Steve had left you, and Eddie figured you were uncomfortable without your date around. Dustin only ever talked Steve up, but had never mentioned you to his knowledge.

When the puck went flying towards your face a moment later, Eddie’s eyes widened with shock as you caught it with a laugh. The way you spoke to Wheeler and Henderson was familiar, as if you’d met them before. How did they know you? You were cuter when you were laughing with his friends.

As Eddie watched the chaos of you bantering with his freshmen, his mind wandered to what you would have looked like in the darkness of the prop department wearing the Hellfire shirt. With how easily you got along with Henderson and Wheeler he was sure you would have fit in.

Damn Chris Morrison and damn Steve Harrington.

He snapped out of his thoughts when you spoke up, a glint in your eyes as you handed over the puck.

“What say you, Eddie of Hellfire?” The way you spoke to him, a hint of a laugh in your voice but not in the normal mocking way he’d hear from others at school, made him break out into an unabashed grin as he took the puck.

“Sudden death it is.”

Making small talk with you was easy, and it wasn’t long until Eddie had forgotten about Steve completely as Dustin decided to bridge the gap between the two of you. You were the assistant manager at Family Video, had helped Dustin and Mike with homework on occasion, and were a regular at the Rocky Horror Picture Show that played at the seedy theater on the outskirts of town.

Eddie was starting to like you more the more the three of you chatted. When the topic od D&D came back up, your answer had struck a chord with him.

“I wasn’t done playing.”

Those words would tumble around in the back of his mind for the rest of the evening. They had been honest, raw words. There was a weight to them that he’d carried himself for a long time. Growing up with Al Munson didn’t exactly give him the idyllic childhood that one would see in movies or tv. Play time wasn’t exactly a priority when you were just trying to fucking survive.

He’d challenged your answer, when he knew in his cynical heart that he was the same. Between Hellfire and his band, there wasn’t much else he had going for personal enjoyment. Of course there was time to hang out with his friends and the occasional odd night where he crashed at Rick’s place when his home with Wayne felt too small or cramped.

Eddie wanted to ask you what you’d play, if you ever did have a chance to join a campaign. He wondered if you enjoyed fantasy the same way he did, if you were a fighter, a spell caster, or a healer.

Then Steve showed back up.

Right, you were here with Steve on a date. A date that had way too much fiber and had probably exploded the toilet while he left you hanging for going on forty minutes now. And now Harrington decided that the date was over? Jesus, this guy didn’t know what he was missing out on. Eddie felt for you, he’d been on his share of bad dates in the past too, and bad nights that he wished were dates.

He shook the image of Paige out of his head.

You gave him a smile as you said goodbye. Well, you said you’d be back in a moment but Eddie knew that the night was over. You walked out of the Arcade with Steve, and that would be that.

Sidequest day was always short, with limited spending money between members and the machines eating quarters like candy. Soon his little sheepies were gathered around him again, talking about their winnings and who deserved to get some sort of perk for the game. It was almost unanimously decided that it would go to Lucas, after he’d nearly broken the basketball machine from how fast he had been throwing balls.

Eddie still had a bill burning a hole in his pocket, having spent more time talking to you than playing games. He had to get this weird night out of his mind, and turned towards the group, knowing that he was going to regret this.

“Whoever has any money left, pool it in I’ll take us to get pizza.” He said. This was followed by cheers and a scrambling of pulling out loose quarters, dimes, and even a five that Gareth forgot he had in his wallet. Eddie lead them all towards the parking lot, his eyes scanning the parking lot for you.

You and Steve were chatting by his car and laughing the same way that you had laughed with him before Steve pulled you into a tight hug. Maybe your date wasn’t a bust after all. Eddie didn’t know why he cared, this was only the third time you’d met. You didn’t know him.

Dustin nudged Eddie, that same smug grin on his face.

“Pretty fun night, huh, Eddie?” he said.

“Your plan didn’t work, shrimp.” Eddie said. “I know you were trying to set something up and I’m not interested.”

Dustin looked surprised, and looked like he was going to argue but a sharp glare from Eddie shut him up. Eddie never had an interest in meeting Steve, and it was clear Steve felt the same way, going so far as to ditch his date to hide in the bathroom the whole time. Eddie didn’t know what the kid saw in Harrington but Eddie was less than impressed.

“Geeze, sorry.” Dustin sighed. “I thought you two would get along.”

“You know, a little humility wouldn’t hurt you.” Eddie said before grabbing his shoulder. “Next time you decide I have to meet someone, don’t make it during Hellfire, mk?”

Dustin looked disappointed but nodded as everyone piled illegally in the back of Eddie’s van. As long as Eddie didn’t drive like a madman (a difficult feat) it would be safe enough. He’d put the seats down to haul equipment years ago, and never could get them to come back up. He could fix it if he wanted, but there was never a real reason to.

As everyone got settled, Dustin looked over at Mike with a shrug. The two of them had thought that things were going well between the two of you, but the look in Eddie’s eyes had said otherwise now.

“Maybe she just wasn’t his type?” Mike said, as the rest of the club chatted. “Eddie doesn’t really talk about those things anyway. Maybe he doesn’t even want a girlfriend.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t see the way they were talking. Even if he wasn’t into her like that, they were still getting along.” Dustin sighed and shifted to look out the window as Eddie started up the van. Everyone in the back held on for dear life as Eddie started out of the parking lot.

As they passed your car, Dustin caught your eye just as you stepped out looking dejected.

“Sorry” Dustin mouthed to you.

It had been a bust tonight, but something felt off. Why would Eddie have such a clearly good time talking to you, just to turn around and say he wasn’t interested?

Dustin made a mental note to drop into Family Video tomorrow to talk to you and Steve.

Part 4

Dividers by @strangergraphics

Tag list: @k8loo @terrormonster55 @sp1dyb0y1008 @crocwork-clockodile @ali-r3n @mxcheese @josephquinnschesthair @gagasbee @peaches-roses-sins @witchwolflea @vintagehellfire @royale1803 @cumslutforaemond @prestinalove @browneyedgirly93 @perpetualmess @thebook-hobbit @mistonk @cultish-corner @grishaversecaptivated

Comments and reblogs help me know that y'all read and enjoy it, which feeds my excitement to write!

[dixons-sunshine]

i requested for scud but you never replied so im gonna req gf finding out scud works for a blade again

Apologies, Baby | Scud Frohmeyer x Fem!Reader

Summary: Long ago, back when you were only ten years old, vampires murdered your parents and left you an orphan, forcing you into foster care. You hated the species with a passion, and wanted nothing to do with them. So when your boyfriend revealed that he was working for a half-breed, you didn't know how to feel.

Genre: Angst, some fluff towards the end.

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of death and blood.

Word count: 1.3k

A/n: For some reason your first request never popped up in my inbox, so I'm sorry I didn't see it back then. I hope this is somewhat decent enough to make up for it (I don't really like this). Also, I feel like Scud is a little ooc in this, but I wanted to write a tender moment for our favourite stoner.

➳༻❀✿❀༺➳

“Baby, could you please just listen to me? It's not like you think, okay?”

You shook your head and let out a bitter laugh, clutching your side tightly as you limped away from your boyfriend. Bruises littered your skin, the recent vampire attack you had found yourself in taking its painful toll on you.

Everything was a blur. One minute, you were walking back to your apartment after a long shift at work. The next, some creep in a mask—later revealed to be a bloodsucking monster—grabbed you and forced you into his car. And a few hours, maybe even days, later, a mysterious man with freakish abilities came to your rescue. Thankfully, the vampire hadn't bit you, but he did take great pleasure in hearing your screams, so he tortured you. Hence the injured side you were currently clutching to.

You had always known of vampires' existence. They were the reason you became an orphan at the mere age of ten years old. And to top it off, nobody believed you when you told them the real story. They were the reason why you were sent to a facility to treat your "absurd beliefs".

You hated vampires and anything to do with them. So it came as a great shock to you that when the mysterious man, who had introduced himself as Blade, took you back to his workshop to tend to your wounds and you found your boyfriend there. The same boyfriend who told you that he was too sick to hang out after your shift. The same boyfriend who lied to you about his job. The same boyfriend who revealed that he was working for a guy who was half vampire.

To say you were pissed would be an understatement.

Scud hurried to you, gently but firmly grabbing your wrist in his hand. He spun you around, forcing you to look at him. His blue eyes gazed down at you, begging, pleading for understanding. For you to listen to him.

“Babe, please. Just... let me clean you up while I explain everything. You deserve that much,” Scud begged, frowning deeply as guilt swarmed around in his beautiful blue eyes.

You shook your head. “Josh, I—”

“Please,” he pleaded. “Just... Please.”

You sighed, giving him a reluctant nod. “Alright,” you agreed, pulling your hand from his grip. “You have until I'm bandaged up.”

In no time at all, you were seated on top of what you assumed was Scud's workbench while your boyfriend carefully helped you out of your shirt, leaving you clad in only your bra. The wound on your side was deep, but it luckily didn't look like it needed stitches.

“You probably want that explanation now, huh?” he asked, breaking the silence well he brought a washcloth with lukewarm water closer to clean your wound.

You hissed in pain when the cloth made contact with your side. “Yeah,” you said through gritted teeth. “I was promised an explanation.”

A few beats of silence passed. Scud sighed and shut his eyes momentarily, as if gathering his thoughts. “You remember that week before we got together, when I came home from my hiking trip and I was all messed up?” When you nodded, he continued. “I was attacked by two bloodsuckers. They tore into me and wanted to drain me of my blood. The only reason I came out of that situation alive was because B saved me. He brought me back here and patched me back together. I owe him a debt because of that.”

You frowned and brought a hand to rest on Scud's cheek. He instantly nuzzled against your hand, sighing in content at the warm feeling. You didn't know this, but when Blade had relayed your full name to him over the radio, he was out of his mind with worry. He nearly abandoned everything just to go after Blade and make sure that he brought you back in one piece. You were important to him. You were the only girl who would put up with him and his habits with a smile on your face. You were the only girl that actually ever meant anything to him.

“B saw what I could do, what gadgets I could make, and he decided that I would make a great addition to his team, so to speak,” Scud continued, withdrawing from your touch and switching over to clean the wounds on your hands. “It was a great opportunity for me. This gig meant that I could make things, and not just those shitty fucking mini flamethrowers I made back in college. I mean actually make things. I felt wanted, needed, like I could actually be a part of something bigger for once. That I wouldn't be such a big fucking letdown. I wanted to tell you, especially since I know how you feel about vampires, but B swore me to secrecy. He said that working for him came with risks, and if the bloodsuckers were to find out about you, they would use you to get to me. I couldn't let that happen. I wouldn't.”

“So you had to lie to me to keep me safe,” you concluded, realisation dawning on you.

“Please believe me when I say that I didn't want to,” he said hurriedly, halting his movements with the bandage and looking deeply into your eyes. “I never wanted to lie to you. Hurting you was something I didn't want to do, ever. I love you so much.”

A minute of silence passed between you. Scud was anxious, his hands nervously fidgeting with the bandage that was now wrapped securely around your hand. The last thing he wanted was for you to hate him. He wouldn't be able to live with himself.

“So this Blade guy... He hunts vampires?” you finally asked, taking him by surprise.

“Yeah,” Scud confirmed, nodding his head.

“Why? Isn't he like them?”

“Yes, in a sense. He has all of their abilities, but only the good ones. The only bad thing of his is that he inherited their thirst. Thankfully we have a serum that helps him with that. B's cool, I swear.”

You pondered over his words for a moment before letting out a small sigh. “I don't like it,” you began, wrapping your arms around his neck to bring him closer, much to Scud's suprise and great delight. “You know how I feel about vampires, but that Blade guy did save my life, so I guess he's okay.”

Scud gave you a smile. “He is, I promise you.”

“So as long as you promise me that you'll stay safe, and promise to keep me in the loop with what happens around here, I guess I can learn to live with it. You look like you're enjoying yourself.”

Scud smiled brightly and brought you into a hug, pressing a kiss to the side of your head. “I love you.”

“I love you too. You're my little stoner baby. Nothing's gonna change that.”

©dixons-sunshine 2024. I do not give permission for my works to be copied, modified, adapted or translated to any other site or platform without evidence of my given consent.

[jamneuromain]

😍🕯🎉 with lloyd hansen 🫣

happy 500 followers, jammy! (it's me, petalj, from my main blog hehe) you deserve each one and more 🥰

Hi bestie<3 (yes I followed you right after I saw this request but it still took me forever to write....

okay so for 🕯 I present to you this small drabble:

Take Care

Lloyd Hansen x You

Warning: None?

Summary: He's going to take care of you.

You look like as if you were about to faint any second now.

Which, to Lloyd's surprise, stirs the few drops of sympathy - if he still has it - at the bottom of his long-forgotten conscience.

He doesn't blame you, of course, since this funeral is lasting way too long for his liking as the priest drones on about good people going to heaven and blah blah blah. As you wipe your tears away with a handkerchief.

It's your grandfather's funeral, after all.

Lloyd bounces his foot on the marble floor.

He is not sitting among the common folks. Hell no.

He reserved himself a seat on the second floor, a perfect spot to place a sniper rifle - which he did, by the way, in case anyone dares to disturb the peace of this boring-ass funeral, but also to watch and observe.

If it weren't for this old man saving his ass a couple of years back in Nigeria, he wouldn't even bother.

Yet, he's here anyway. Fulfilling his promise to "take care" of your grandfather's family after his death.

Lloyd pops a bubble gum into his mouth, blowing a pink bubble when the priest asks you on stage, to deliver a few words before the casket is buried.

This is going to be fun. Lloyd thinks to himself, snapping a picture of you with his phone, and sending it to his investigator.

Now, should he tie you up with a red ribbon or a black one?

You murmur "thanks" to the last guest at the door. It's been a long day and you should probably head to your family house for the small gathering and receive another round of "I'm sorry for your loss".

But you want to spend some time alone, with your grandfather's body. For this could very well be the last time you could see his face.

As you close the door with a heavy thud, someone clears his throat behind your back.

It seems you have one last guest left.

"Thank you for attending the funeral, the gathering is at our family house on Blackcast Road in about half an hour." You manage a small smile, "Mister...?"

"Hansen." The moustache man in a black turtleneck replies, "Your granps is a nice guy."

"Thank you, Mr. Hansen." You shake his hand. Boy, he has a strong grip.

"No need." The smile on his face seems inappropriate for a funeral - or someone who has come to say goodbye. Lloyd widens his grin, "I'll see ya' later, sweet cheeks."

Red ribbons would look amazing on you.

Find Jammy's 500 Follower's Celebration here 👈

Questions? Comments? Requests? 👉Send them to my inbox 👂

[hoonieyun]

“pink carnations”

pairing: riize song eunseok x reader “y/n”

genre: strangers to lovers

plot: every year, for the last 4 years, you’ve always visited your mom’s grave, each year it gets harder and harder. this year, you weren’t able to visit your mom’s grave on her death anniversary, but when you visit the day after you see a bouquet of flowers that you didn’t bring. 

warning: aside from mentions of death, i don’t think so but please let me know if there are

notes: obsessed with riize TT so i’m going to be writing a couple of riize au/fics and uploading them - italics are dialogue but they will also be in quotations i just like to differentiate them from regular text sometimes lol also slight sungchan mention - also this isn't proofread lol

word count: 3902

thursday

“hey, are you going to visit mom today?” your older sister asks you through the phone. you ponder for a moment before responding. “i don’t think so. i’ve got that deadline at work that i need to finish but i’ll probably visit her later tonight or tomorrow.” you respond, a small amount of guilt hitting your chest for the lie. truth is, your mother’s passing has only gotten harder on you the last few years. you’ve lived out your dreams but what was it worth when your mom wasn’t there to see you reach your successes? or even say she was proud of you… 

“you know…” your sister breaks you out of deep thought, “you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. i know ever since mom died you’ve kinda thrown yourself into your work and it’s nice to see it pay off but you need to find happiness again. i know it’s easier said than done but…” your sister stops her sentence there. you think about what she just said, almost as if she knew you were lying about your work situation and that she read you like a book. “we’ll grab dinner this weekend okay? i haven’t seen you in a while and i’m not taking a no; its the weekend i don’t wanna hear and work bullshit.” and the line cuts off. you sit at your dining table for a moment, looking out the window and taking in what your sister said when your phone gets a notification. 

5 Years - Mom’s Anniversary March 14 2024

you forgot that you had set a yearly reminder onto your phone, you swiftly swipe away the notification. it felt a little stupid to have that reminder, only because how could you ever forget when your mom’s death anniversary was? you only kept the reminders because in some way it made you feel more accountable, but this year you weren’t going to visit her. you would eventually, probably tomorrow, but not today; you had too much on your mind and you’d probably break down more than the last few years if you went to go see your mom. 

thursday evening

you had finished work early today, which was almost never but you knew today would be somewhat easy going as you just closed out a deal the day before leaving the rest of the week with almost no work to be done. “wanna grab a drink with us after work?” your coworker sungchan from IT asks you, his head popping into your office. he was cute but a relationship wasn’t something you needed right now. you softly smile at him, “not tonight, you guys have fun.” you politely decline and he dramatically acts like you just stabbed him in the heart, clutching the left side of his chest and letting out a fake painful groan. the two of you share a laugh as he slowly enters your office and stands next to your desk. he leans over and softly places his hand over yours, “i know today is hard for you, but just know i’m here for you if you need anything.” sungchan says looking deeply into your eyes. a warm feeling makes its way across your face and before the tears start to pool at your eyes you take your hand back and just smile and nod. sungchan takes this as a sign you’d like to be left alone so he does just that, exiting your office but not before he takes one last look at you, to which he sees you’re now chewing on your bottom lip and looking out the window. 

it was around 7:30pm when you left the office. you could’ve gotten home a lot earlier before the sun had set but you made yourself busy at work. finding anything to do just to avoid having to go home. your drive home didn’t feel real, almost as if you were in limbo, for a while it felt like you weren’t moving on the road but everything else was moving around you. it wasn’t until you turned onto your neighborhood did you snap out of this weird feeling. you had no thoughts in your head but upon entering your home you instinctively went to your kitchen to grab a glass of wine and made your way into your bedroom. changing out of your work clothes and into pajamas, you climbed out onto your roof. something you really enjoyed about your home, a balcony that led to the roof with a ladder. whenever you were up there it felt like nothing else in the world existed. like you were on top of the highest mountain, the only person for miles, and it was just you, the sky, and the never ending thoughts of perrill as you finish your glass of wine. 

*beep* 9:56am *beep* friday morning *beep*

you're awoken by your alarm and the cold air pinching your cheeks. you had accidentally fallen asleep on your roof. your lips were chapped and hair frizzy from all of the morning wind. thankfully it didn’t rain. you grab your phone to turn off your alarm when you realize the time, your’re almost 2 hours late to work, getting ready now would only make you even more late. you quickly dial sungchans work phone but he doesn’t answer so you try his cell but nothing either. you leave him a voice, asking him to cover for you in case something at work comes up. even though you’re in different departments, he’s always had your back; the two of you were in the same group of new hires when you both joined the company. 

you made your way inside, getting out of the cold and plopping down onto your bed. you let out a groan as you do a full body stretch, regretting falling asleep on the roof as your back slightly aches but now grateful for the comfort of your mattress. you get a text, assuming it’s from sungchan to which it was, “don’t worry, got you! *winky face*” you smile, mentally thanking him when you get another text. “oh… was that winky face weird..? sorry!” he says with 3 wide smile face emojis. you can’t help but laugh and find his actions cute. you text him a thank you and saying you owe him one to which he says you’ll have to grab drinks with him sometime. 

it’s almost noon when you finally decide to get out of bed to get ready to visit your mom’s grave. every year it not only got a lot harder on you without having your mom but going to see her grave got harder because it was just a constant reminder of how close she was but so far away at the same time. 

2:28pm friday

you’re driving to the cemetery, trying to compose yourself; getting ready to leave wasn’t so hard but the closer you got to leaving the house and getting into your car made your anxiety rise. you’re not necessarily an anxious person, but right now everything seems to be causing you to panic. you sat in your for half an hour, catching your breath, before you could even start the car. you’re driving with the windows down, needing the extra air to breathe as it feels like the air in your lungs are being funneled out of your body the closer you get to your destination. 

when you see the familiar stone fixture at the front of the cemetery you let out a huge breath. almost as if you had been holding your breath the whole drive there. you quickly find parking when you realize you didn’t bring flowers or anything to offer your mother. you shut your eyes and almost fall to your knees. a ringing in your ears causes you to wince, making you regret coming all the way here. you question whether to just leave and quickly grab flowers, or stay, or just leave altogether and maybe come back during the weekend with your sister. 

a sudden burst of wind envelopes you, almost like a hug. taking it as a sign from the earth to stay, you release one more deep breath before making your way to your mother’s grave. as you pass the other tombstones, adorned with candles and colorful flowers, you almost want to turn around and just run back to your car but something keeps telling you that you shouldn’t and before you know it you’re standing over your mother’s grave. 

a bouquet of pink carnations rests to the left of her tombstone, adjacent to the bouquet your sister brought during her birthday at the beginning of the year. “i wonder why she got pink carnations this time?” you think to yourself, questioning your sister’s decision of flower choice. you spend the next few hours just sitting there, catching up with your mom, telling her the new stuff in your life, mentioning sungchan but only briefly because you know her response to any boy in your life would be to automatically bring him to meet her so she can feed and investigate him. 

your phone rings so you reach for it inside your bag. pulling it out to see that it was your sister, you quickly answer. “hey, what are you up to?” she asks after you answer. “i’m actually at mom’s grave right now. probably going to head home soon i’ve been here for like 3 hours now.” you respond, as you pick yourself up from the ground and dusting off the dirt from your clothes. “that’s nice, i’m glad you got to visit her.” she says, “yeah, i’m glad i did too. hey why’d you choose pink carnations this time?” you ask her. theres a slight pause before your sister responds. “pink carnations?” she says like she has no idea what you’re talking about. “yeah, the bouquet you left at mom’s grave? don’t we usually bring her roses or sunflowers?” you explain. “i wasn’t able to visit her yesterday, that’s why i called you; i was going to ask if you wanted to go together today.” you make a confused face, now unsure who the bouquet is from. 

you bend over to pick up the flowers, “someone probably left it on accident or maybe it was one of my mom’s friends. you know she was popular at the market we used to go to as kids.” your sister explains but you remain silent, observing the flowers. “look, let’s catch up this weekend, maybe saturday?” and you just respond with a short “mhmm” before ending the call. 

with the bouquet in hand, you turn around when a voice startles you. “they’re for remembrance.” a boy says behind you as you slightly jump from the sudden voice. “sorry…” he shyly chuckles, “didn’t mean to scare you.” you’re looking at him, blinking rapidly. “remembrance?” you ask. “yeah…” he walks closer and grabs the flowers from your hands and places it back where they were when you had arrived. “pink carnations are for remembrance. they’re also a symbol for gratitude and heartache for someone you love” he explains. you’re now staring at his back as he places the flowers down, he turns around and you’ve come to your senses when you realize you’re staring. 

“sorry this is probably weird. uhhh. i’m eunseok” he extends his hand to shake yours. you shake his hand, “y/n” you tell him as you shake hands. “nice to meet you” eunseok smiles and you feel your heart beat faster. “were you the one that left these?” you ask him, pointing at the carnations. “uh, yeah i did. hope that’s okay, i noticed no one stopped by yesterday so i thought i’d leave some flowers.” he tells you while wiping his hands on his pants. “wait, what do you mean? why would you leave flowers for my mom?” you question him, unable to read if you were getting a red or green flag from the random boy. “i see you every year, my mom’s grave is just that way.” he points to a tombstone a few feet away. “i always see you whenever you bring your mom flowers, i spend the whole day at my mom’s grave on her anniversary and when i didn’t see you yesterday i thought i’d leave some for her so she didn’t feel forgotten.” this boy, who you didn’t even know, remembered to bring your mother flowers on her death anniversary when it was so hard for you. 

it made you think about how the hardships you were facing were all in your head. that the turmoil of facing the truth that your mother’s passing is real and was something you were eventually going to have to come to terms with. you realized you needed to get out of your head and that your mother passing wasn’t the thing stopping you from finding happiness, it was yourself. a stranger’s kindness felt like the comfort you’d feel from your mother’s embrace after a long day. 

“i’m sorry, i didn’t mean to upset you.” eunseok says in a panicked voice. you realize that you’re crying and he offers you a small towel. you wipe your tears with your hands and eunseok retracts his hand with the towel and places it into his pocket. “no, i’m not upset. that’s very kind of you eunseok. sorry i don’t know why i’m crying.” you explain trying to stop the tears. “that’s okay.” he smiles. “sometimes we just need to cry. it may not seem like it but i spent most of yesterday crying, i’m kind of glad you weren’t here so you didn’t see me crying” he chuckles and his small joke also makes you laugh. 

“it was nice meeting you, i should head out it’s getting late.” you say and his smile forms into a straight line. “yeah, i was just heading out too when i saw you and overheard your conversation.” the two of you begin to walk together to the parking lot. “how come you came back today?” you ask him. wondering if yesterday was his mom’s death anniversary like yours; why did he come back today. “i’m not sure. i just felt like it, like something in the air was telling me i should go see her.” he says with a shrug and it makes you think about how upon arriving here the air seemed to comfort you and let you know you were in the right place. 

the two of you arrive at your cars, which coincidentally, are parked next to each other. you enter your car with a big sigh as you lean your head back onto your headrest. as you’re about to start your car you notice something from the corner of your eye, making you turn your head. you see eunseok somewhat leaning outside of his car, waving his hands; trying to get your attention. you roll your windows down, your heart beating faster, like it was going to explode. “your tail light is out by the way.” eunseok says and you briefly look to the back as if you would see it. you smile softly at him and thank him before he retreats back into his car. 

you back out of your parking spot, almost wishing he had asked you out. sure he was just a stranger but his kindness alone was enough to make you swoon. let alone his kindness to your mom, he was also attractive. as you’re exiting the parking lot, you think about all the times your mom asks you if you have a boyfriend or when are you going to get a boyfriend, only for you to respond with a groan or rolling your eyes at her. maybe this was a sign from your mom, bringing eunseok and his kindness through pink carnations to your mom’s grave. your mom truly bringing him to you. 

you’ve been stopped at the exit of the parking lot for a few minutes now when you realize eunseok has just been behind you, probably growing tired and confused waiting behind you. you close your eyes and let out a breath before putting the car in park and exiting. you walk towards eunseok’s car and see that he’s rolling the window down. “do you wanna go out sometime?” you ask him as you look into his eyes. you could almost see the sunset in his eyes the way they reflected light. “as a thank you… for the flowers you left my mom.” and to what seemed like eternity waiting for a response from eunseok, you felt disheartened. maybe you thought too much into it. what were you even thinking taking this as a sign that you may have found love. before you turn around and walk away, eunseok stutter’s out a response. saying sure, prompting the two of you to exchange phones to add each other’s contacts.

you grab your phone from eunseok and return his phone. after you’ve entered your car again and exited the parking lot you let out a squeal. just like you would when you were younger whenever you’d tell your mom about the boy you had a crush on in middle school and how he looked so cute during lunch time. 

eunseok

eunseok sighs and slightly hits his head, “idiot! why didn’t you ask her out?” he says. when he’s getting ready to leave he notices you’ve already driven off and are about to exit the parking lot, he pulls up behind you, waiting for you to make your turn onto the road. thinking about how he’s going to have to wait a whole nother year before being able to see you again. his little crush he’s developed over the years while visiting his mom.

eunseok realizes he’s been waiting for a while behind your car when he stops thinking about regretting not asking you out. he sees you put your car in park and he watches you exit the car and make your way to his window to which he rolls down. 

“do you wanna go out sometime?” you ask as eunseok pops his head out his car through the window. “as a thank you… for the flowers you left my mom.” you explain further. eunseok is shocked you just asked him that he’s a bit speechless. the silence is so deafening you take it as a no, but before you walk away he stutters out. “s- sure.” you hand him your phone and so does he, adding one another into each other’s phones. you make your way back to your and exit the parking lot. once you’ve left eunseok can’t stop smiling, cheeks flush; almost as pink as the carnations. he even double checks his phone to make sure you really did put in your number, you even texted yourself through his phone. 

next year

“ready?” eunseok asks. it’s been a whole year since you met eunseok. the day after both of your mother’s death anniversary. your relationship has grown a lot within that one year. growing closer each day, getting to know one another, and eventually dating. he’s parked outside of your job, standing next to his car. 

today marks another year, the day of both your mother’s death anniversaries. he’s come to pick you up after work so the two of you can visit your mothers. you walk out the office building towards him with a smile and nod. he extends his hand out to you and you grab; the two of you quickly share a kiss. you enter the car and he closes the door behind you and makes his way to the driver’s seat. before he drives off you groan, “what’s wrong?” he asks placing his hand over yours and slightly rubbing it. “i forgot to grab the flowers, i’ve been so busy with work and-” you start to ramble, feeling your anxiety start to build in your chest. “hey… everything is okay. i’ve got it” he says. soothing your nerves. you look at him endearingly and he shares a smile. 

he reaches in the back seat and presents you with a bouquet of flowers, specifically pink carnations. “you got them?” you ask. “of course, i’d never forget.” he responds. your heart was now beating a lot faster, not because you were anxious or that you were beginning to feel like the world was crumbling beneath you; but because eunseok has started to make you feel happy. replacing your anxiety with joy and allowing you to grow out of your habits of suffering alone. that we would gladly suffer with you if it meant at the end, there was no pain but just love. 

the two of you arrive at the cemetery, deciding to visit your mom first since eunseok’s mom was a bit further down; you’d visit her after. you introduce eunseok to your mom and vice versa. tell her about the year you’ve had and how happy and grateful you are to have eunseok in your life. he holds you tight, an arm around your shoulder; slightly rubbing your arm to further your soothe and provide comfort. 

you pull out some photos from your bag, childhood photos you wanted to share with eunseok and your mom. a few of you and your sister during your birthdays, photos of you beginning the first day of school, but one in particular caught eunseok’s eye. a photo of you and your mom at han river, she's bent down to your small height helping you blow bubbles. it wasn’t the image of you and your mom that caught his eye but something in the back of the photo. a mother is holding her small son up on her shoulders. she’s wearing a bright yellow sundress while the son is fitted into a red shirt and denim blue shorts with a cap that has a propeller on top. 

“wait…” eunseok says causing you to pause your trip down memory lane of childhood photos. “everything okay?” you ask him as you turn your head to face eunseok. he brings his arm from around your shoulder to grab something from his bag. he takes out a small tin box, one an assortment of cookies used to reside in. “cookies? eunseok are you hungry?” you ask him with a slight chuckle. “no… look.” he says after opening the tin box and flipping through some photos. he hands you a photo, one that looks familiar but you can’t tell why. the photo is of eunseok as a baby, sitting on top of his mom’s shoulders. “aww, you’re so cute! look at your little hat.” you say pinching his cheek. “nooo, not that. look at this.” he grabs the photo of you and your mom blowing bubbles and puts them next to each other. there you realize that in the back of your photo with your mother at han river, there was a boy with his mother as well; and in the back of eunseoks photo with his mom, stood a mother bent over to help her daughter blow bubbles. 

the two of you make eye contact, realizing that at this moment. you’re both sat at the cemetery your mother’s are buried in together, in which another instance in both your lives, where the two of you alongside your mother’s were near at hand. sharing the memory of a joyful time with not only your mother’s but now with one another. 

copyright 2024 - present © hoonieyun fka jjhyn all rights reserved

all writing here is fiction & not in any association with characters mentioned.

[its-malarkey]

Watching a playthrough (I have no game money unfortunately) and I fucking love the character interactions in DM2. Like. Daimon reassuring Yashiki over his guilt of not being able to save people - relating to how he's a doctor, and how the moment he looses that reassurance he tries to cut everyone else out of the investigation. And then Hiroo (who I like a lot more than in the first game, guess a couple months of friendship w the mark bearers did her good) and Mashita just go like 'cut the shit Yashiki we're helping you' because it's pretty damn obvious that otherwise he just straight up wouldn't accept help otherwise.

I love this game so much, I love trying to figure out who The Departed is between each upload of the playthrough I'm watching, I love the body horror, the characters, Yashiki's personal torment nexus, I just love this game so much aaaaaa!!!

ALSO!! The way Yashiki's and Mashita's different thought processes come together to make up for eachothers weaknessess make my DAY!!!

Sorry for long anon but I love this game so much!!

I started playing the games in October for spooky season because I just looked up “horror games” on my Switch and it was one of the first ones that popped up. Lucky me, I didn’t have to wait years for the English translation of Death Mark 2, just a few months. You’re absolutely right, the character interactions are just improved from what they were in the first game. It really feels like these guys are actually friends now, and I think that’s lovely. Yashiki is SO good at tormenting himself and thinking everything is his fault, and I love how his friends deal with it. There’s a really great (and a little funny) moment later on sometime in the finale chapter (I can’t remember if it’s after he defeats the Departed or before) where he starts blaming himself for not being able to save enough people and Mashita goes “I’m gonna have to stop you there bud I’m not here to listen to your self-loathing… but anyway it’s really not your fault. You did the best you could” and I think that absolutely sums up Mashita’s character when he’s with Yashiki. He tries to pretend he’s cold and doesn’t care but then almost immediately follows it up with the best kindness he knows to give. Their relationship is so fun to me, and I just have to say there’s definitely a reason people ship them (I’m people).

And don’t apologize! Death Mark brainrot is affecting us all and we need to come together to cope

[blind-alchemists]

sorry, Zagreus, I've had your sister for five hours and I already like her more than you.

anyway! I did treat myself and bought the game early and. it's just very good!

in somewhat chronological order, my thoughts after yesterday's session

the music! the music is even more amazing than in the first game and if I'm done, I need to listen to the whole OST on loop

the art!! also even better than in the first game!!

Melinoë is a great protagonist

it's incredibly funny the first god we encounter is Apollo, because Apollo is the guy people modded into the first game years ago

... boy, I wonder what the speedrunning meta will look like for this game (I have very obscure knowledge about Hades I speedrunning meta)

I love the little backgrounds that pop out with the art

oh, right, I jumped into the Hades I EA late, so I never saw the place holder graphics in-game before

the environments!! beautiful.

I shouldn't have played the first game last week. It's fucking with me. where's my second dash??? Why do we start with 30 HP??? where are my death defiances??? weapon mechanics???

of course there's a fishing mechanic again.

I like Hecate's design.

saluting??? what's the lore behind that?

OH. this tone of the story isn't ... quite what I expected. A lot more serious. a lot more severe.

Melinoë doesn't remember her family??? Hello??? what the fuck???

and she keeps talking about her task with such a dutiful determination ... no, I'm not crying. But. That's such an interesting conflict.

NEMESIS!! She's holding her sword aspect!! her design!! her resentment!! her vengeance!! her rivalry with Mel. how Mel calls her Nem. please. tell me she's a romance option. PLEASE.

oh, hi odysseus.

hey, there's hypnos! ... why's he sleeping??? (funny thing is, I got the Charon dialogue that implies he's more useful this way lol)

I cannot. Take. Skelly serious. It's worse because Mel does.

I like Moros' design. The long hair going over the horns? Yeah, that's good.

Mel gets an AXE??? a heavy, double-bladed axe??? (I love women wielding heavy weapons, and as long as the rail doesn't make a return, I'm good with anything after enough time)

I like the new art sprites for reoccurring characters!

ahhh, the good old "we don't trust Olympus so we're not telling them everything" line. understandable, but I figure that's going to blow up sooner or later.

I love Mel's bond with Artemis and Selene and the implication that both helped raise her.

... and I like the predominantly female cast so far

Nemesis can show up in Erebus???

BABY MELINOË omg

why does every chthonic goddess / titaness sound like they have a thing for Persephone. Nyx already had a few lines like that in the first game. Why does Hecate also have these kinds of lines.

the Hecate fight frustrates me to no end, because I'm very used to more dashes, more health, and more death defiances, and very different weapons :( (I have bet her twice in total so far)

unrelated, but I didn't know I needed a sheep in the Hades art style but it's so damn cute and I want a large art print of it

Archane!! I love how her silks change Mel's avatar

Oceanus is beautiful

... except for the traps. Really not digging the traps. or the maps.

CHAOS??? why are you holding your old form's head??? and why is there an embryo coming out of it??? why do you have wings??? why do you wear a suit??? the new design unfortunately checks all the boxes but upon reflection that is because it fits into that very niche character design trope I've seen in manwha recently and I couldn't put a name on it if I tried

on that note, I also adore Aphrodite's new design!!

not quite sure what I think of the gathering / farming mechanic yet

I do like the incantations, magic, hexes, and arcana though!

HERMES! I also adore his design.

wait, what? Mel's going to Olympus? You're telling me one part of the game is descending into the House of Hades and the other is climbing to Mount Olympus?? (that's my speculation, at least.)

god, I hope the cast of the first game is alright/alive. :(

I hope we also get to see Athena, Ares, and Dionysus at some point :(

on that note, I can't wait for Mel to meet her brother and realize he's the opposite of her lol. I love siblings and mirrors.

[urlocallesbiabs-reblog-sideblog]

so, i remember seeing a red dwarf tumblr post about how if you leave your universe, it's almost impossible to go back, because there's trillions upon trillions of them, and every minute decision branches off a new one

so what if our original rimmer spent maybe a few months genuinely being ace and enjoying the hero status, then decided it's too dangerous and scary and tiresome and wanted to go home, and spent the entirety of those nine years (between s7 and s9) looking for his home universe?

and he kept saving people along the way of course, ace duty is ace duty (half of those heroic acts were accidents anyway), but his heart wasn't in it anymore; he's found many a universe where there were still people, where he could theoretically fit in and settle and live as close to a normal life as he could hope for, but he could never stay for long, he longed for *his* home, for lister, *his* lister

and wise people told him "you'll never get there. there are too many universes, and every day that you wake up and make a choice to continue looking for home, that choice creates a new one, setting you back. you're dooming yourself.", and he answered "shut up, you stupid goit, you don't get it! get smegged to hell!"

and i imagine a scene:

it's close to the end of the 9 year gap, kochanski's already gone, lister's Not Doing Well, and it's another monster-of-the-week life-or-death situation aboard the red dwarf, a particularly nasty one: all is shit, end is near, how will our heroes get out of *this one!* this is probably it! this is it! they're all gonna smegging die! and then outta nowhere ace pops out, hair billowing in the air and all, shoots some bullets that bullshitly ricochet and perform miracles, and saves the day

after that he asks to spend the night there, because even heroes need to sleep a bit, and of course he's welcome!!

lister doesn't quite know how to approach the subject, so he goes for subtle bordering on undecipherable: asks how long has it been since this ace got the flame passed on to him? what was it like? ace deflects with a charming non-answer and a fun adventure story, and lister thinks well, that's not him, then. must be a new one. that means that his rimmer passed on the flame, that he... died.

lister doesn't know how to process the idea, so he doesn't.

he tries to stick around and listen to the stories that's gotten kryten (and even cat, a little bit!) enthralled, but quickly grows bored and goes off to wander the ship and entertain himself on his own. at some point few hours later, he notices ace out and about as well, measuring doorways with tape, comparing wall paint with color swatches, counting the rooms and making notes in his little notebook; ace doesn't notice him. kinda sketchy behaviour, lister thinks, but doesn't confront him just yet. who knows, maybe the guy just went a little bit space crazy, maybe he's preparing for some impending disaster; would be rude to accuse him of nothing, wouldn't it?

as lister returns to his quarters in the evening, he sees ace briskily walking out from about the same corridor that lister is headed to, throwing him a shining, but somewhat strained smile; ace is going to the room he's claimed for the night, which is on the officer's deck, literally on the other side of the ship (makes sense to lister that he doesn't share the room with him, since this isn't really his bunkmate. smeg knows him, maybe in his universe he actually was an officer and slept alone, not like lister cares). this feels *really* sketchy, but none of lister's things seem to have been messed with on closer inspection, so he can't really prove shit. he feels kind of paranoid, but also tired, and decides he'll talk to ace in the morning.

lister sleeps badly and fitfully, and wakes up in the middle of the night. he can't fall asleep again, and decides to go and grab a bite; maybe visit krissie in the observatory, watch stars together, have some time for himself.

the lights are on in the drive room. ace is there, talking to– *interrogating* holly and kryten, swiveling on a chair back and forth to face either of them, whisper-barking rapid-fire questions; lister is Alarmed (what is this? mutiny? a hostage situation? a threat?), so naturally he hides and eavesdrops.

ace runs them through a bunch of questions that vary wildly in immediately obvious importance, seemingly nonsensical (what fuel does this ship run on? when did the leak happen? who was assigned to fix it? how many irradiated haggies were in the ship's hold at the moment of disaster? has lister ever passed an officer's exam? on what day and what ship did they find kryten? and so on and so forth), growing more and more agitated and focused, determination so passionate it's almost angry. at last, he takes a deep breath, clenches fists, and says "now, i did notice this ship's crew lacks a usual, i'd say indespensable member, namely one arnold judas rimmer. where, pray tell, did you put the bugger?"

"arnold died in 3,002,386 from a vending machine related incident, arnold," says holly.

ace's face falls, and he laughs like someone died. "ah, of course it's like that, of course. it's always like that. well, good chat, gentlemen, thank you for humoring me." he gets up, even though it obvious his legs are weak.

noticing his distress at the information, kryten hurries to clarify, "it was the second one, though! the first one died a few months before that!"

ace falls back into the chair. "what do you *mean* the second one?!"

"the one my nanobots ressurected!" kryten clarifies with mostly pride, partially guilt.

"what smegging nanobots? what on io has happened here?" ace rimmer has to forcibly hold his horses, pulling a palm down his face. "no, forget it, doesn't matter, not right now. the other one, the first one — how did *he* die?"

"well, physically it was the cadmium 2 leak in 2181" holly helpfully explains. ace rimmer makes a dying groan. "but his hologram form was destroyed by an escaped knight from an AR camelot game."

the man perks up. "was me — well no, not exactly me, but — ugh, was ace rimmer there?.."

they confirm that yes, even though he left soon after. rimmer goes slack in his chair and puts a hand over his eyes. "so this is it?" he whispers. "so many years, and... this is it. i'm here. i can't believe it."

after a minute in weird silence, he gets up and staggers out.

lister's a few paces down the corridor, having been unsettled by the exhange and made the decision to leave.

rimmer calls out to him, loudly, with intense gravitas, "lister!"

"rimmer," he responds, shocked and disbeliving, eyes open.

"lister!" he exclaims urgently, desperately.

"you're my rimmer, aren't ya," lister states a question, incredulous.

"of course i'm yours, you stupid git!" rimmer cries out and lunges at him, crushing him in a hug. "you gimboid, you imbecile, you smeg for brains smeghead," he chatters on, out of breath, cradling him.

"i've missed ya," lister sobs. rimmer doesn’t manage to respond, only hugs him even harder.

(rimmer didn’t want to throw himself at the guy until he'd made sure it's *his* guy, didn't want to make himself vulnerable only to later make a fool of himself; too many times he let himself hope and get drunk on that hope and then had his stupid heart broken by some tiny little thing being off, inviting a flood of other little things, suddenly finding himself in an embrace with a stranger wearing his best friend's face. he just couldn't bear it anymore, not again. he needed to make sure first.)

however, this headcanon poses a problem of reconciling this with late series rimmer claiming to have saved red dwarf from the corrosive virus back then. because if our rimmer only returned during the 9 year gap (closer to end of it), he couldn't have been there at the end of s8, right?

to which i propose this: the alternative ending to "only the young" is canon, and it was nanobot rimmer who saved (or rather tried to save) the day; then he was killed by a rouge vending machine. they couldn't bring him back as a hologram though, because the holo-suite was heavily damaged by the corrosion virus and they didn't have the intricate spare parts needed to fix it. so, his memory disk stayed unused, carefully kept in the hopes of someday fixing the holo-suite (never found a suitable derelict though, not with their shit luck). then our rimmer came along, learned of the entire situation, fixed the suite using details taken from wildfire, and asked holly to merge the info from this disc onto his (because for smeg's sake, it's at least 1 year out of those hellish 9 that he can remember having spent home; he can Not pass it up). the merge was successful, but majorly jittered his vibes (since he remembered two different versions of being 32, and in one of them lister was 8 years older than in the other, and he became aware that in the same year as he was 32 for the second time he also was 40 and in another universe) and gave him lifelong memory issues. he's still happy as a clam about the result, though!

that's why other's disagree when he claims having saved the day back then — he figures that if he has that guy's memories, he *is* that guy, because that's how holograms work, but others want to argue that the alive nanobot rimmer technically wasn't exactly him; you Don't wanna be there for all of the smeg-throwing that occurs during the argument.

it all could be a fake episode (or maybe a fake two-episode special), where the first half's main gag/storyline would be lister slowly growing convinced that ace is actually evil and is in the process of brewing some Sinister Plans, and the second would be about rimmer going peculiar from the merge and randomly glitching between various remembered stages of his life (thinking he's still ace and this is isn't his lister; thinking he's nanobot rimmer and wondering what happened to the crew; a throwback to an early episode or two; thinking he's a fresh hopeful enlist on red dwarf [kinda painful in a hindsight way, but also pathetic and hilarious]; thinking he's a small child [very silly and funny, mostly cute even if a bit weird because that's a grown man's body, also an epic Rimmer Trauma Lore moment as usual]; etc), to the point that lister worries they've smegging broken him and he'll never be alright, only for him to finally cope and appear sane, only to reveal last second that parts of his memory are still kinda jumbled.

i'd call that fake episode:

"H Stands For Home"

and i imagine a scene from the second half:

rimmer sees the destroyed holo-suite (god, i really can't leave you bastards alone even for a day, let alone a decade), and finds the memory disc for the other him (wait, what is this? i clearly remember taking mine with me when i left...), and gets filled in on the whole nanobots, ressurected rimmer, corrosive virus debacle (he needs to sit down.)

naturally, he decides to fix the hologram-projecting hardware (obvious turn of events) and merge the discs' data together (man, what??)

he pops out, promises to be back in a jiffie, and returns from the hangar with a bunch of circut boards, unconneted wires and the likes, immediately getting to work

"whatcha doing?" lister asks, clearly entertained but also genuinely curious

"having a smegging picnic, what does it look like?!"

"...can you fix it, though?"

"i've serviced my own ship for a decade straight, i've prevented all kinds of disasters on dozens of red dwarves, i've saved countless city-states from technological ruin, of course i'm perfectly capable of fixing this ship's holo-suite!" (this very moment, he connects something wrong and gets a shower of sparkles right to his face, which startles him and causes him to bang his head rather hard against an open latch)

when lister's done laughing, he asks "where on smeg did you even get the details? i've meant to patch it up all these years, but just... never could find 'em." (here his voice voice grows distant and sad; he had lost rimmer *twice* in one year, and it was just unfair. it just hurt.)

"good ol' baby racehorse wildfire," rimmer slaps one of the circuit boards with pride; something falls off of it. "presume it got the upgrade sometime since the original ace kicked the bucket; something needs to keep all of us holograms going."

"wait, you tore these from your ship?"

"what, was i supposed to pull them out of my arse?" rimmer is getting annoyed by the pointless conversation

"it's just... how will ya fly it, then?"

"it's still perfectly spaceworthy, i'll let you know!" rimmer preens. "sure, no more having my arse fall asleep after one week straight in the cockpit, hauling vaccine to pluto or some such (would not recommend), but i can still give it a good run as long as my lightbee's got charge! not all that different from our other off-the-ship missions — now what are you, stupid?"

"you won't be able to travel for long," lister clarifies apprehensively. "you won't be able to have your... space smeg adventure. you won't be ace."

rimmer looks up at him like he's crazy. "of course i won't be ace." he gets up, walks weirdly close to lister. "i'm not leaving. what — what did you think this was? that i'd spent all these years looking for you, for this dimension, only to have some tea and smeg right back off?!"

"...i don't know what i thought," lister admits, half-laughing and weirdly upset and relieved.

rimmer gripes him by the shoulders very, very hard. "i'm not leaving. never."

also, he wears his hair in the classic long and free ace style until the proper Reunion, then as soon as he fixes the holo-suite and hookes his projection to red dwarf he asks holly to chop it all off (he wanted to do that immediately after confirming that this is his home universe, but he was still connected to wildfire's holo-hardware and the ship's ai wouldn't let him bc ouughhh houghhh ace but your hair is So Beautiful, i simply Can Not); between the two points, he wore a tight neat ponytail to keep all his golden locks out of his smegging face, and he looked Hot doing it

***

and another thought, that isn't directly connected to this imaginary two-episode special, but still has to do with rimmer, lister, and the 9 years gap:

(though i'm not sure if it's canon to my personal headcanonverse [...i'm not even sure i've got a personal headcanonverse here. i love the idea of them getting together in early series when he's still soft-light, or later when he's hard-light and they can touch, or after the reunion, or post-tpl; too many possibilities!] because i feel like it gets rimmer off the hook of his internalized homophobia way too easy, but anyway, just imagine.)

it's rimmer's ace years, and it's not only beautiful young birds throwing themselves at him for his sexy heroics, but beautiful young studs as well; he switches many a dimension, and what happens in a reality stays in that reality, right?; he meets many a lister, some of them openly queer, some of them in a relationship (past or ongoing) with their rimmer; he sleeps the night away with some of them. long story short, 9 years of both excessive human attention and crushing loneliness are ample time to confront one's sexuality. he's still got his hangups though, so in his mind "i am gay" and "lister is my best ever friend whom i miss terribly" don't quite cross together, not immediately.

either way, he finally gets back, they have their happy reunion, and then rimmer learns while he was off adventuring, lister had a wife and a child and loved her deeply and then she died; obviously, lister still needs some space to process all that. rimmer will talk to him about his soul-search some other time (no, he doesn't feel like he'd been replaced, he's not jealous, jeez!). lister just needs some time to move on, yea? and then it'll all be back to how it used to be, just the four of them.

and then s9 happens, and lister is obsessed with getting kochanski back, and rimmer feels as insecure as in s1 but ten times worse — there's the woman who'd been by lister's side for the last decade, there's his wife, there's the love of his life, and there's, well, just some guy. there's rimmer.

he longs desperately to be the most important person in lister's life, but he just isn't, and that's driving him mad. that's what (partially, together with all his lifetime-accumulated trauma) fuels his tpl insistence that nobody aboard red dwarf (read: lister) likes him: he knows lister doesn't love him back, and that is killing him.

[kaittalkstoomuch]

Hey! A new chapter is live! I hope you guys are doing good.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The War Zone

Tw: mentions of blood, mentions of guns, someone punches a prick that’s it

Nancy stands by my side and it seems we have a buddy system going on. Steve is with Robin, makes sense. Max and Erica are together, good. It was just Nancy and I. “You okay?” She asks as I look around wary. “Yeah, just.. What if Jason is here? With his idiot friends? He’ll know Eddie’s here.” Nancy grabs my hand. “He is not going to lay a fucking finger on you, or Eddie. I will not let that happen.”

We go check out everything. This place has a ton of things. I’m talking first aid supplies, guns, weapons, Molotov cocktails. I see Nancy eyeing the guns. “So, what’s in the bag?” She asks as I look at the Hunter green crossbody bag Dustin packed. “Clothes. I think… the anniversary gift Eddie made me… my camera, journal.”

Nancy seems to smile once I say “journal.” “Do you still write silly little entries about your adventures like you did with ‘Hawkins Angels’?” We continue looking and grab guns and magazines. I can’t help but to laugh. “I gotta keep the magic alive.” It was then we both started laughing, and I feel our friendship blooming again. “Do you write about being the ‘Dungeon Mistress?” “I do. I write about those nights.”

I remember the old times with Nancy and Barb. How it dissolved so quickly. How Nancy felt with me leaving, how Barb must’ve felt. There’s a bit of a pang in my chest. “I always look at my scrapbook with photos of the three of us, especially when I can’t sleep. I truly miss those times.” Nancy gives me a sympathetic look.

“Oh, Rox.” We hug. “I’m okay, Nance.” I say hushly. “I promise. I’m so happy we’re okay. I’ve really missed you.” “I’ve missed you too, Rox. It really hasn’t been the same.” I chuckle. “Obviously.” Nancy chuckles back. “Well, I mean, these past few years, they’ve been pretty intense.”

“So I’ve heard… Dustin would tell me about when Will went missing and the connection to Barb’s death. Then the recurrence a year later. Though, what really intrigued me was the Russians and of course, Billy. God, he was such an asshat, but he didn’t have to die… Poor Max.”

Nancy holds out a gun at the gun counter. We examine it together. “Yeah, the Mind Flayer got him. It was devastating watching him get killed. And then we can’t even say what the actual cause was. It sucks. I know Max is struggling with it. I think Vecna was using Billy’s death to torture her.” “Me too.”

I look to my right for a split second and see Vickie, Robin’s crush. “Holy shit.” I whisper. “What?” Nancy looks over. “Nothing, everything is okay.” I can’t blurt out Robin’s secret. That’s sacred. “How much?” “$129.” The clerk says. I sigh at the sight. “We should get guns for the guys, to be on the safe side. You know?” I say referring to The Hellfire Club. Nancy nods.

I see Nancy holding the gun in her hands and giggle as I pull out my camera. I snapped a photo of Nancy, making her smile. “What’s that for?” I smirk. “My new scrapbook. I’m not sure what I’m gonna call it yet, but we’ll look back years later and see what badass people we are.” “‘86’ seems accurate. It’s what popping into my mind. It’s senior year, we’re kicking Vecna’s ass. It’s the year of big, big changes.”

Nancy grabs my camera for a quick second while I pose for the camera. We’re both laughing as she hands me the camera. “Nailed it, Foxy Roxie.” A chill suddenly runs through my spine and bile forms in my throat. That voice doesn’t need to register as I whip around beside Nancy, camera in hand. Nancy has the gun in her hand looking it over.

Jason’s holding a revolver and looking rather unhinged. “Jason.” Nancy breathes as I shudder. “Nancy Wheeler and Roxie Henderson. An unexpected combination.” I grip on my camera and slip it back into my bag. “Don’t you need to report me to the cops?” I manage to slip.

Jason tsks as if I said something degrading. Nancy tenses up and so do I. “They’re no use… besides…. Is your satanic worshiping boyfriend here? Or your brothers? Mike Wheeler and Dustin Henderson, right?” I ball my fist up. “Leave our brothers alone.” Nancy growls.

I look over to my right and make eye contact briefly with Erica, who is frightened and runs off. She’s gonna alert the others of our predicament.

Jason walks closer to us, we stay stern in our place. Jason’s eyes look insane. Pupils are dilated, wild. My fist tightens as I stare into his eyes. “Let go.” Nancy replies to Jason, who grabs the barrel of the gun. I instinctively slam the money on the counter for the cashier.

“She said let go!” I snarl as I throw my fist in his face, grabbing Nancy’s hand and running away. We got the goods.

Steve hurriedly opens the door to the RV and we all come charging in. “What happened?” Dustin asks. “Lucas’ old friends showed up.” Erica says as I crawl to Eddie, who takes my apparent bloodied hand. “Damn Rox, what happened?” “STEVE DRIVE!” Dustin yells as Robin hands us a first aid kit, of many.

“She finally gave Jason what he deserved.” Erica says proudly. Eddie returns the same expression while wrapping my hand. “You punched Carver?” “Yes. He was threatening everyone. I have to protect my people.”

Eddie grabs my face as Steve speeds. His kiss is electrifying. “As much as I wanted to see that, I’m so happy you did that. I bet you looked hot.” I laugh at his goofiness. “She was smoking!” Nancy says, making everyone laugh.

“He was so unhinged Eddie. His eyes were so dilated. He’s out for blood. Ours.” I shudder in Eddie’s arms. “We got him, baby, don’t worry. We will end this.” He kisses my injured hand.

I look over at Robin, somberly looking out the window. It’s Vickie, something must’ve happened. Dustin and Lucas interrupt my worry. “Does it hurt?” Lucas asks. “Did he look scared when you punched him?” I lightly smile thinking of Jason’s possible reaction. “Oh yes, yes he did.” I smile at Eddie, who smirks back.

“I bet he’s pissed.” Dustin sayas. “I took a quick look before running out. He has a black eye. It was gold watching Roxie punching him.” Erica says. “I would’ve aimed for his nose, but I was in panic mode. He just about hurt Nancy. My instincts kicked in.” Eddie kisses my hand. “And they were perfect.”

[madiomens]

Just Pretend [n.s.]

Epilogue

A/N: This story is my baby and I love her so much. I really hope you all love her as well. I am currently working on the second one and will upload the summary along with the first couple chapters tomorrow <3

One year later.

I rushed around backstage as Matt and I tried to put together almost an entire new sound system for the show tonight. The guys were doing a pop up one night only show in LA to perform their entire new album that dropped at midnight, and the sound system decided to malfunction thirty minutes before they were supposed to start.

"Maddie, go to the stage and test the mic for me. I'm going to run to the sound booth and adjust the volume." Matt said, rushing out of the backstage area before I could protest.

I sighed and looked towards the stage entrance before walking onto the stage, causing the crowd to cheer for me. I laughed and waved at everyone before flipping on the microphone switch.

"Hello Matt." I said into the mic, my voice echoing around the room.

"Hi, Maddie!" The crowd echoed back, causing me to laugh more.

"Testing, testing, one, two, three." I said as he adjusted the volume louder.

He motioned for me to turn the mic off then back on again, which I did and talked into it. My voice echoed back, signaling it worked for him. I saw a sigh of relief leave his body, causing me to chuckle and wave at everyone before returning backstage with the mic in hand.

"Did it work?" Nicholas questioned as he situated his in ear.

I nodded and set the mic on the couch. "Works perfectly." I said, causing him to let out a sigh of relief. I looked around the room in confusion when my eyes came up short of the tall brunette. "Where's Noah?" I asked.

"Umm, I think he said he had to run to the store real quick." He said, adjusting his other in ear.

My brows furrowed. "The store? He goes on stage in less than thirty minutes."

Nicholas shrugged. "I told him that but he insisted he would be back in time."

"God, this man will be the death of me." I said before making my way to the bathroom to do finishing touches on my makeup.

I fluffed my hair and applied some lipgloss before zipping up my makeup and tossing it into the duffel bag. I left the bathroom to see Noah and Bryan running in the back entrance, chests heaving from being out of breath.

"Noah! A store run minutes before you go on stage to perform a sold out show?" I said, fastening the earring in my ear.

"I know I know, but I'm here." He said, hands on his knees to catch his breath. He straightened up and made his way towards me. "Hi, baby."

I shook my head with a grin. "Hello, my love, you stress me out."

He chuckled and leaned down to place his lips on mine. "But you love me." He mumbled against my lips.

"Always." I said, kissing him back before shoving him towards the bathroom. "Now, get changed so you can go on stage."

"Yes ma'am." He said, making his way into the bathroom. "You look beautiful."

I grinned and kissed him again before pulling away. "Thank you."

He walked out of the bathroom a few moments later with a loose black button up and joggers along with black boots. A smile made its way onto my face as my eyes landed on him, walking up to wrap my arms around his midsection.

"I'm excited to see you back in stage attire." I said, leaning closer to smell his cologne. "And smelling the cologne I got you."

He chuckled and leaned down to kiss the top of my head before my lips. "I'm excited to perform this album. I think it's my favorite one so far."

"Mine too, it's so good." I praised.

"You just like it because you know what songs are about you." He said, causing me to laugh.

"That does help, yes." I said, causing him to laugh as well.

He shook his head before kissing me again. "You're something else."

"Good thing you love me." I said against his lips.

"Always." He said, finishing our phrase we always say.

He reached up to pinch my nose, a gesture he's been doing for the past year, and causing me to scrunch it up. The crowd's deafening screams echoed backstage, signaling that the lights dimmed in the venue. I gave Noah another chaste kiss and wished the guys luck before making my way to barricade. A few people waved at me as I took my regular seat, making me smile and wave back as my heart was warmed by the friendliness of them. The last year we have been met with more and more love from the fans and friends of the guys. Of course there's the occasional rotten apple in the bunch who despises me purely because of our relationship, but the majority have been supportive and loving.

Excitement filled my soul as Jolly played the opening riff to their first song off the album, the screams getting even louder as the guys walked onto stage one by one. Everyone performed effortlessly. I could feel the happiness radiating off of them from the excitement of the album. They worked tirelessly day and night on it to make it perfect, and their hard work has for sure paid off. About half way through the set the lights went to a light blue color and the screens around them changed to a montage of videos of Noah and me- some that Bryan or the guys took and others Noah and I took. I brought my hand up to my mouth as tears welled up in my eyes at the sight, not knowing he was going to do this.

"Is it alright if I play a song from the last album for you guys?" He questioned, causing the crowd to scream as the beginning intro to Just Pretend started. "This song means a lot to the band and we can credit a lot of our success to it, but over the past year it has gained more personal meaning to me." He said, causing the crowd to echo 'awww' throughout while they watched the montage. "As most of you may know, the song started off as a joke to see if I could write a stereotypical radio rock song, but the lyrics resonate deeply with me now. You all may know my girlfriend, Maddie." 

As he finished the last sentence the crowd went into a loud roar of cheers again, causing my face to heat up as a smile spread across it. I waved at everyone while shaking my head, looking back up at Noah to meet his eyes.

"I never believed someone could love me as much as she does and I'm so fucking grateful everyday that I get the opportunity to love her back. I will never stop showing you how much you mean to me. This is for you, baby." He said, sending me a wink before starting the song.

I put my hand back over my mouth as a tear streaked down my face, wiping it away while watching him. His eyes were closed as the words flowed from his lips, velvety voice sending shivers down my spine. The beat dropped and he went into the chorus, voice barely audible above the crowd screaming the lyrics alongside him. I sang along as I swayed back and forth, hand over my heart which felt like it could burst. My eyes went between watching him and the videos that played behind him, a laugh escaping me at one of him smashing a plate of whipped cream onto my face. The song slowed down into the bridge, but before he started singing he started talking again.

"Okay, this is the part where I need you guys' help. I need you to repeat this bridge over and over until I say stop. You know the words." He said, causing the audience to start singing 'weigh down on me, stay till morning, way down, would you say I'm worthy?' over and over. "Now Maddie, I need you to join me on stage." He said, causing my heart to stop. I shook my head no quickly causing him to chuckle. "Come on, baby." He said, extending his hand to me.

I sighed and pushed myself to my feet before grabbing his hand to help me up over the stage lights. I chuckled as I met his eyes before gasping when I looked out at the audience. Everyone had their lights on their phones, so it was like looking out at a sea of stars. 

"Hi, love." He whispered in my ear, causing me to look at him with a smile.

"Hi." I breathed out as he pulled me center stage.

"I love you so much." He said, voice slightly being caught up by the mic so the crowd could faintly hear him.

"I love you, too." I said as he took my hand into his, causing my heart to race.

"I want to spend the rest of our lives showing you how much I love you. And proving to you that you are worthy of that love, and everything else good in the world." He said before slowly sinking down onto one knee, causing me to gasp and smack my hand over my mouth as tears welled up into my eyes again. Screams came from the crowd as they kept singing the bridge for him. "Maddie." He said, letting go of my hand to reach into his pocket.

"Noah." I said, sob escaping me.

"Would you please make me the happiest man in the world and spend the rest of your life with me?" He asked as he opened the velvet black box in his hands, producing a large diamond ring.

A sob left me as I looked at it, the lights causing it to sparkle brightly. I nodded as I grabbed his face with my hands, bending down so we were face to face. "Of course I will."

The crowd cheered deafeningly as we kissed, Noah standing so my head dropped backwards while our lips were still connected. He pulled back and rested his forehead against mine, a cheek splitting grin on his face. He pulled my hand into his to slip the ring onto it, somehow being a perfect fit. I looked down at it before he pulled my hand up to his lips to kiss it, reaching out with his other hand to wipe the tears from my face. 

"I love you so much, baby." He said, leaning in to kiss me again.

I returned it before he rested his forehead back onto mine, the crowd's singing turning into screams as the guys kept playing the instrumental to the bridge. "I love you, too." I whispered.

"Here's to forever."

[flowerpot-broppy]

SO! i feel bad about updating after so long! my life has been going…. uh... not so well to say the least. BUT! if you are wondering! overall, It's been ok, and i want to move on to trolls! First things first, Honey! shes doing ok development wise, but I wanted to give you guys a little something, something to cling too, a cool little bit while you are being so patient with me. so! introducing Feral Honeydew! I took some inspiration from a lot of different fics, but mostly from To Be Left Behind on AO3. ive been reading it since the beginning (chap. 11 through all of it tbh) and I love the way the feral behavior is portrayed, especially through the perspective of other trolls like Clay, JD and Spruce/Bruce. Anyway, with Honey in my au, she has not seen another troll (pop or otherwise) in 20 years! shes stuck to the forest and survived on her own, A tough cookie and maybe a little crazy and distrusting lol

Next up we have Mount Rageous!Honey X John Dory! So she finds him within the first few years (2-5) of him leaving the troll tree and they live happily ever after with 3+ kids cause I said so!! except not really cause JD goes back to the Troll Tree after 2 or 3 years and just assumes his whole family is dead, Yikes!!! He thinks all of his Bros and Grandma are gone and when he finds out branch is alive durring the rockpocalypse he totally flips! (its a whole thing, ill make a post about it later. Maybe.) Thats what therapy is for folks! and JD gets a lot of it in all my AUs before hes ready to have a family orrr even introduce Honey to any of the bros if they haven’t met already! Its only cause Floyd is in a life or death situation that JD even goes to his rescue, but he also has encouragement from his adopted daughter cotton!! ill be posting about her a lot soon too!!!! So! I have officially moved into my new house, BUT i am going to have to move into either another one close by, OR move across the country in a few weeks AGAIN… either way, I'm so sorry for being so busy and inactive!!! let me know if you guys have any questions or anything as id be happy to answer!

[melishade]

Attack on Prime Chapter 90: The Big Twist

Spoilers ahead if you haven't read the chapter. I recommend that you do if you haven't.

So.....

let’s talk about Primus. Eh?

So looking back on the Transformers franchise as a whole, Primus himself isn't really capitalized on. In a few of the shows, he’s only name-dropped or doesn’t even exist like TFA. In shows like TFP and the book the Covenant of Primus, he is alluded to and even given a brief backstory of his and Unicron’s origins before shifting gears to the Primes and their dynamics, but never makes an on screen appearance. He’s shown as the core and that’s it. We don’t know what he looks like in the Aligned Continuity. I think there is a toy out for him, but it was never said to be official. The only Transformers content that really explores on Primus is the IDW comics. Where Primus has aligned himself with three other transformer deities, but one of them got really angry with him for some reason and as punishment, got rid of his god powers, made everyone forget ever knowing him after he so much as left the room. (Look my info on IDW is spotty. I never got the chance to read the comics in full. Although god being a therapist is hilarious).

Besides IDW, there aren’t many interpretations or characterizations of Primus, which is a damn shame, considering we’ve always seen Unicron in almost all Transformers iterations. So it was something that I’ve always wanted to take a crack at: putting my own spin on the creator of the Transformers. I wanted to bring him into Attack on Prime, but before the AOT story was completed, I had no clue how to bring Primus into the story without it sounding so contrived and out of nowhere. I couldn’t have him pop out in the sky, tell everyone to stop fighting, and then have him leave, confusing everyone. It wouldn’t have made sense. In fact, I was all but ready to scrap the idea for AOP…until the Paths chapters dropped in the AOT manga, and I realized:

And I immediately got to work on how to incorporate Primus into the story while also making it make sense. Which took a while. I’ve worked on multiple rewrites of Primus’ character and his interactions with Eren and Zeke before creating the final draft for the chapter. I started my brainstorming of my characterization of Primus in late 2019 with the document titled RELGN 132 (which was the title of a religion course I took at UCLA, so fairly on the nose). So yeah, I’ve been working on it for 4+ years.

But first let’s talk about the multiple lead up I’ve had up until this point, because again, I’m meticulous with my foreshadowing. Chapter of foreshadowing include:

Chapter 45 Chapter 69 Chapter 70 Chapter 72 Chapter 77 Chapter 81 Chapter 82 Chapter 86

(And a bunch of other additional chapter do have foreshadowing and there is a small inkling of Primus' presence, and I might explain that later, but I want to see if people can piece it together by re-reading the chapter. If not, then I'll probably just say it outright, IDK.)

But, some moments might’ve been noticeable, some not so much. I knew that I didn’t want Primus’ introduction in the Paths to feel out of nowhere. Eren and Zeke are talking and suddenly this guy just pops out of nowhere. I needed him to be alluded to, which is where the 4th notebook and Pieck come in, oh and also Unicron. Well, at least Unicron's powerset.

In the Covenant of Primus, Primus and Unicron are said to come from the same being: The One, who split apart due to its own internal conflict regarding the state of the universe. If Primus and Unicron come from the same being, they must have the same abilities. Or similar abilities at least. One of the abilities should include: using their blood to communicate with others who carry their blood. Dark energon flows through Unicron while energon flows through Primus. Through energon, all Cybertronians are connected and return to the place they spawned from after their death, regardless of how good or bad their intentions were. If this concept can apply to Cybertronian, surely it could apply to titan shifters, who’s powers even defy death itself on some level. Once all the titan shifters, or at least the Founder, had access to energon, Primus had access to them, and would have found a way to enter the Paths, either through his own power or Vector’s help, since the Paths operate outside of space time. (Primus himself will provide a brief explanation in the Paths II. And the In Between OVA that I keep bringing up, is simply AOP from Primus' perspective. God I am so happy I can say that now!)

But because the Paths operate outside of space and time and the fact that the full powers of the Founder hadn't been utilized on the flow of time, Primus lacked the tools he needs to figure out what the hell was going on or even eliminate the power of the titans. He is flung through the memories and lives of each titan shifter; however, some memories are blocked from him and he doesn’t know why. And because of Primus lack of control, he can’t properly interact with the world around him. He can only interact with other titan shifters as a distorted image. A shadow. He can’t give so much information to Kruger and Pieck. He can only provide images, hidden clues because of the barrier between them. And Primus wants to learn about the truth of the AOT world, so he sees through their eyes and listens to their stories. Even when Kruger and Pieck interact with Primus and even touch him, they are met with a warm, gentle, touch of comfort. Something to show that he is other worldly. In addition to that, the allusion to the overlap of voices, how Primus knows about even that happened thousands of years into the past, his glowing blue eyes, how he forces Kruger to feel the pain and suffering of the people he turned into titans, how Primus had called Megatron and Arcee by name before asking Pieck to believe in Optimus, proclaiming he would be the one to end the power of the titans. The longer Primus is on screen as the shadow, the more ‘in your face’ the information becomes. If you haven’t pieced together the shadow is Primus, then at the very least, you know that the shadow is Cybertronian.

Other pieces of information that are not so subtle, is actually the local therapist Rung in the Cybertron OVA. If you know your transformers lore, then you should know that Rung is Primus. That was one of the obvious bits of information that I was incorporating here. Some of the interactions that Rung has includes him not batting an eye when Starscream lashes out at him and catches the energon cube with such ease that he completely forgets to react the way a normal person would. The scene that Rung had alone where he looks at the Jackhammer in a remorse manner, almost as if he knows what’s going to happen but can’t do anything about it. Finally, when Rung places a comforting hand on Arcee, Arcee notes that the hand feels warm and comforting, and she feels a swell of emotions. Ya know, like every other interaction he’s had with humans on screen. Not to mention that Rung recommended that Arcee leave the planet on purpose because of prior knowledge of the AOT world because I’ve hinted at the fact that Primus in the story right now is from a time where the events of AOT haven’t happened yet. Right before he sends Optimus (Of course, this will be explain more cohesively within the In between OVA, which is going to focus on Primus and what’s he’s been doing throughout the AOP story).

More subtle bits of information when foreshadowing Primus’ role in the story is the drawing of Optimus Prime’s holoform, or rather Primus, from the 4th notebook. The drawing is led to believe and cement the fact that the Attack Titan can see into the future. Which is true, Primus’ appearance in the story is a future event, however, I have to make a note that what they are looking at is not Optimus. It’s Primus wearing Optimus’ face. So I had to have someone who would take notice of the way that Primus is wearing Optimus’ face. Erwin had to be the observation because he’s the only human that has been known to notice those subtle details and connections. He of course brought this up with Megatron and Megatron does notice the difference. But the drawing is not Megatron’s concern, assuming that someone trying to interpret someone from memory is going to get a few details wrong. Also, they have other priorities to take care of besides a drawing from the past. Megatron and ultimately Erwin let it go, but I’m letting the audience know, something is clearly up. Adding on top of that, Kruger has never met Optimus, but he had seen the shadow’s face before dying. That should be another indicator that it’s not Optimus. It’s the shadow. It’s Primus.

Finally, the more subtle indication of Primus’ presence in the story is the conversation that Eren and Kenshin had about the existence of gods in general. While Kenshin believes that god exists, Eren does not. He critiques god and believe god to be hypocritical while Kenshin believes that god cares and wants the creation to live freely. It’s supposed to be an engaging conversation while also hinting at the fact that Eren’s definitely going to talk to a deity with his mentality and future visions and get the crap kicked out of him.

I’m certain that I missed something but what I’ve wanted to say but the foreshadowing of Primus is there, and I wanted it to be clear. However, Primus’ characterization is something I wanted to discuss for a long time too. Again, we don’t know much about Primus’ character besides Rung, and I didn’t want him to be a stoic deity. That’s boring. I wanted to have some fun. I wanted Primus to be the complete opposite of Unicron. While Unicron is haughty and prideful, Primus is kind and humble. While Unicron loathes the idea of existence and wants death and destruction, Primus believes in life and creation. Unicron believes that everything is beneath him while Primus sees the value of even the smallest living thing. Unicron believes in working alone, and that he is the most powerful being. No one else should have his power. Primus believes in cooperation, unity, and sharing his power. Unicron wants to destroy the universe, Primus wants to be a part of it.

With that in mind, I was able to write a characterization of Primus: a gentle, kind being that cares deeply for the lives of others that may or may not even be his own. Someone who gets excited at the prospect of learning new things about new beings, someone who mourns the loss of life, and someone who gets angry at the prospect of someone wanting to take that life away. Someone who genuinely tries to understand the individual and their experiences in order to truly understand the meaning of life.

However, there is a fatal flaw to Primus. People I've talked with in the transformers fandom, myself included, have criticized Primus for his own inaction during the war. He gave the Matrix to Optimus, sure, but he did nothing to stop the War in its tracks or even stop the caste system from taking place. Why didn’t he help out Megatron and his people? Why didn’t he stop Megatron when he had gone insane? Why did he make Optimus shoulder all his responsibilities twice? Why does Primus not step in when there are life-threatening events that could destroy the universe? The very thing he values and wants to be part of? It’s very simple: Primus is an immortal deity, with powers to see beyond the veil of time and defy reality if he wanted to but chooses not to based on the safety of the whole universe and every living creature. A personal theory I've come up with is the Unicron prophecy in TFP. Unicron was set to reawaken on Earth, but Cybertron doesn’t know about Earth until the war happens. Sure, if the war didn’t happen, the caste system could have been fixed and Cybertron could have been a better place to live, but Unicron would have awakened with no one to stop him and would have destroyed the whole universe, Cybertron included. It’s an example of Primus trying to see the bigger picture and that’s where his flaw lies. When seeing the bigger picture, he ignores the sufferings of mortals who lead very limited lives compared to him. Primus has all the time in the universe to figure everything out, but not Cybertron, and not everyone else. His purpose even if Cybertron is destroyed is to battle Unicron once more. It’s an endless cycle. But Primus ends up missing the point that he wants to understand. There’s a quote from Steven Universe’s character Sapphire that encapsulates this perfectly:

“I keep looking into the future when all of this has already been solved, as if it doesn’t matter how you feel in the present. No wonder you think I don’t care.”

The meaning of life to a mortal is vastly different to that of an immortal. As a result, Primus will never fully understand them and can’t be part of the universe like he wants to. He cannot live and die like they can. But even so, he still tries to, and that’s what makes him all the more understanding. This is what I want to encapsulate for my characterization of Primus in AOP. Now he has to confront two titan shifters with their own flaws and failings: one that wishes to die, and one that wishes to destroy. And he is not happy with either of them trying to play god out of selfishness.

(There's other things that I want to discuss, like Primus' design and other actions within the story, but I think I'll take care of that tomorrow. Still if you haven't, please leave a comment. That would be greatly appreciated. And I encourage you to read back through AOP to find those clues of Primus' presence.

Not to mention, chapter 45 isn't Primus' first appearance.)

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Is It Really That Bad?

Disney and Dreamworks have been locked in combat since day one, and honestly, can you blame them? The Katzenberg/Eisner feud is pretty legendary, with both men taking potshots at each other in films, and the drama behind stuff like A Bug’s Life and Antz has been done to death. The thing is, in the early years of Dreamworks, it was pretty clear that no matter how hard they tried, Disney was the one who was taking the Ws when it came to the cinemas. Stuff like Sinbad and The Road to El Dorado were flopping pretty hard, and while The Prince of Egypt was a success, the failure of the former two ended Dreamoworks’s hopes of ever competing with Disney in the 2D animated market. What’s a studio to do in a situation like that? Well, someBODY ONCE TOLD ME...

Shrek didn’t just solidify Dreamworks as a contender, that movie changed the course of animation in the 2000s all on its own. With its snarky humor, pop culture references, awesome pop soundtrack as opposed to musical numbers, and celebrity cast, Shrek codified many trends for animation going forward—for better and for worse. But whatever impact the film had pales in comparison to one simple, unignorable fact: This movie came out on top over Disney. It won the first ever Academy Award for Best Animated Picture, and considering how long Disney was in that game that must have really fucking stung. While Disney spent the early 2000s floundering and releasing flops that would only become cult classics later, Dreamworks was riding that green wave Shrek produced all the way to the bank. What’s a studio to do in a situation like that? Well, someBODY ONCE…

Oh no.

Chicken Little was Disney’s blatant attempt at making their own Shrek (with blackjack! And hookers!), but to say that things didn’t pan out well for Disney there is a vast understatement. Michael Eisner made sure to meddle as much as possible, turning a more straightforward adaptation of the fairy tale into a snarky, self-deprecating comedy about baseball and aliens, which certainly is a choice. This choice had some dire consequences; while not a bomb by any means, the film ruined the already-struggling career of The Emperor’s New Groove director Mark Dindal, producer Randy Fullmer left Disney with Dindal and went into making guitars, and ultimately Eisner himself became a victim of the film as well, with it being the final blow to his tenure at Disney after a decade of failed investments. Eisner ended up passing the torch to Bob Iger, who turned out to be a better leader than Eisner who never did or said anything quite as stupid!

Audience reaction to the movie has always been pretty mixed, to say the least. Reviewers on YouTube such as Schafrillas, Doug Walker, and Mr. Enter have used the film as their punching bag at various points, with the latter in particular helping shape the image of Buck Cluck as Disney’s most vile father figure. Audiences these days aren’t particularly receptive to it either, with most people considering it Disney’s absolute worst film, though there are nostalgic viewers with a soft spot for it. I first watched the film myself a few years back, and I was thoroughly disgusted and unimpressed by what I saw; for the longest time, I had it higher than Doogal on my list of the worst films ever. Fucking Doogal! Can a film really be that bad?!

Well, I decided to give it a second chance and find out if maybe my perception was just colored by all the negative reviews. Is Chicken Little really that bad, or is this just a so-so Shrek ripoff that people overreacted to?

THE GOOD

Most of the characters in this movie are actually decent, even if they’re a little cringe. Chicken Little himself is a likable dork, which only makes all the suffering and setbacks he goes through that much harder to watch; I think they made him too likable, y’know? His friend group is pretty solid as well, with Abby being an okay love interest, Runt being a nice guy (or maybe I should say Nice Guy considering what he does with a bimbofied Foxy Loxy at the end), and Fish Out of Water being a cute “lol so random XD” character. They aren’t the best thing ever, but they’re all pretty decent. I can see why Zach Braff likes voicing the title character so much, and it is cool he got to be in the best Kingdom Hearts game, so that’s something!

Though of, course none of them hold a candle to the absolute Chad that is Morkubine Porcupine, a character so fucking cool that he refuses to give this movie the dignity of more than three single words out of his mouth. If he had more dialogue, the whole movie might collapse under the sheer power of his voice. He’s like Black Bolt, except a porcupine, and in a marginally better piece of Disney media.

There’s a great sequence at the end of the movie that has a Pee-wee’s Big Adventure-esque film within the film about Chicken Little’s exploits… except he’s a ridiculously buff rooster voiced by Adam West in a film that looks like an insane version of Star Fox from the brief clips we see of it. Runt is in there as a hardcore, ugly warthog and Abby is an overly-sexualized space bimbo, but I’m not even particularly bothered by the fact they gave the girl chicken breasts because Adam West’s chicken breasts are so much more massive. 

The entire scene, as brief as it is, is delightful thanks to West being West, and it honestly makes you wish that the whole movie was just a ridiculous space battle adventure… And everyone’s wish was granted when they released a pretty good video game based on this silly concept!

Of course, as is typical of any Disney movie, the best part is without a doubt the villain: Buck Cluck, Chicken Little’s own father.

 In his youth, he was a strapping sports star, and because of this he feels a deep sense of shame at his son’s wild antics and is completely unable to relate to him. He constantly puts him down in front of others to try and salvage his own reputation, throwing him under the bus at every opportunity and refusing to support him. And even after Chicken Little pushes himself to the limit and becomes a baseball star all so he can earn even the slightest smidgen of his father’s respect, Buck is quick to cast him aside once more all so that he can try and keep the dignity among the townsfolk he mooched off of his son’s victory. Buck Cluck is the proto-Mother Gothel, a distant and absent parent for the ages, and one of the most despicable foes the studio has ever produced. Hell, I might even go as far as to say he’s one of the greatest villains of all ti-

Wait, hold on. I’m being informed that Buck… isn’t intentionally a villain? He’s supposed to be… sympathetic…?

THE BAD

I’VE COME TO MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT! BUCK “THE CUCK” CLUCK’S A BITCH-ASS MOTHERFUCKER!

Ok, ok, let’s be serious for a second. I’m gonna get a bit controversial here, but Buck Cluck isn’t nearly as evil as people make him out to be.

Let me explain: While the film’s narrative completely and utterly fails to make his redemption feel earned at all, it’s not like he was ever really intentionally or even physically abusive like Frollo, Gothel, or Lady Tremaine were. Buck Cluck has a very real problem a parent can have, in that he has a hard time relating to his son while being a single parent that is likely still dealing with the loss of his wife. The issue is the movie doesn’t bother trying to flesh him or his feelings out and tries its damndest to make him look like a good guy all while he emotionally neglects his child.

All this being said, his vocal performance from The Princess Diaries director Garry Marshall is actually pretty great, he gets a few good jokes here and there, and it’s actually really endearingly goofy when he overcompensates with loving his son in the third act. While I’m never going to stop treating the character like he’s Chicken Hitler, I want it to be clear that my jabs at him are very much in the same vein as someone like Huey Emmerich. The difference, of course, is that Huey is an intentional case of making a character you love to hate, while Buck is accidental. And that’s why this segment is here, in “The Bad” part of the review: The movie failed this man so bad that he is put alongside characters like Shou Tucker, Ragyo Kiryuin, and Fire Lord Ozai in animated parent rankings. How do you fuck up that badly? Mainly by deleting the scenes where he actually gets development or characterization beyond being a lousy parent, that’s how!

These writing issues don’t just affect Buck, though; literally the entire movie is as messy as that Kentucky fried bastard’s characterization. The main issue is with the story itself. Now, when you have a movie called Chicken Little, you kind of expect an adaptation of the fable of the same name. And since this is Disney, you wouldn’t be stupid to assume that’s what they’d do, considering adapting fables, myths, and fairy tales is basically their bread and butter. But that is decidedly not what they did here; instead, they decided to make Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius by way of Shrek, because movies like that were popular at the time, and what we’re left with is a film populated by mean-spirited jerkasses who do nothing but dump on our likable main character as he takes part in a story to win the love of his dad via baseball that suddenly, out of completely nowhere, turns into an alien invasion movie about halfway through. Absolutely none of these elements work well together, and the film comes off felling like it was stitched together from unrelated scripts and turned into an unholy Frankenstein of bad ideas.

Not helping helping the disjointed story are the desperate attempts to seem cool. I like Morkubine Porcupine, he’s one of the better gags in the film, but he is so plainly a desperate attempt at creating an ensemble darkhorse that it hurts (the fact it actually worked in spite of this is nothing short of miraculous). The humor is very much aping Shrek, with lots of snarky humor and mean-spirited characters which ends up not working because it’s too cruel, and even ignoring that the pop culture references (a staple of Dreamworks at the time) just all come out of nowhere. Why is the fish reenacting King Kong? Why are these animals watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, and why is Indy still a human? Why did Disney think referencing the lemming suicide myth was a good idea when they literally perpetuated that myth by driving lemmings off a cliff for a movie?

Then there’s the animation. It is so blatantly obvious that this is Disney’s first time making a fully computer animated movie without Pixar’s help. A lot of characters look really unpolished, and even worse is that a lot of the characters are extremely overanimated. If you wanna see what I mean, watch Abby at the end of the dodgeball scene when she’s talking to Chicken Little. She just never fucking stops moving! Once you notice it, it becomes really distracting.

But by far the worst thing this movie does is the constant needle drops. This movie would make The Super Mario Bros. Movie blush with its overuse of licensed music, and it sure feels like Suicide Squad took notes from this because they cram so many tracks in here it’s not even funny. Sometimes they even just have thew characters sing them because… who fucking knows. Barenaked Ladies gets a pretty fat W with their song “One Little Slip” playing over our introduction to Chicken Little, but after that we either get the most obvious songs possible for any given seen (“It’s the End of the World as We Know It” plays over the alien invasion at the end, because of course it does) to “what the actual fuck is this doing here in the movie” (“Wannabe” by the Spice Girls is sung by Runt and Abby during a karaoke session, proving that canceling the Spice World review was not enough to save me from this band).

IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?

Alright guys, here comes my hottest take ever: Chicken Little… isn’t that bad.

Now, don’t get me wrong! This movie is still not really good at all. It’s disjointed, mean-spirited, confused, and stuffed to the brim with the tropes and trappings of every bad animated movie of the 2000s. But all of that is also what helps make this so genuinely fascinating! When Dreamworks did stuff like this, it was whatever, that studio is a rising contender in the animation game… but this is Disney! This is THE animation studio, the biggest around, and they’re making every single mistake possible because they want to try and beat Dreamworks at their own game, and they are failing at it! It’s honestly so funny that they tried to make their own version of Shrek without any sort of understanding of what made Shrek work.

But even beyond that, even though this movie is bad, it’s not really worse than Shark Tale is, and that is a premier so bad it’s good film. Really, this movie is the opposite of that film in many ways. Where that film had a world that was too overly nice and propped up the shittiest main character animated at the time, this movie has an insanely cruel world where the sweet, charming, heavily traumatized child is incessantly beaten down and belittled to the point you half expect him to try and dive headfirst into a deep fryer; where that film had a single generic plot that was at least remarkably consistent, this film has two separate plots that don’t go together at all and just end up making both halves of the film feel stupid and pointless; and where in that film Oscar is desperately seeking love from his peers due to his sheer selfishness, Chicken Little just wants the love and respect of his father. Pile on that the mountain of similarities, from the overuse of lame pop culture references for the sake of pop culture references gags to the bland love interests, and you have the Awesomely Bad Animation Double Feature of your dreams.

So yeah, I think the rating it has is about what it deserves. This is easily one of Disney’s weakest entries for sure, but it’s not without its moments and it has some amusing jokes, charming characters, and Adam West as a buff space chicken. If you go in with lowered expectations, you might be amused, but honestly I get why this film is so absolutely despised. It really isn’t great at all, and is firmly in the “so bad it’s good” category. You can’t really expect much more from a movie that presents a character whose biggest crime was just being an asshole getting their personality overwritten with a girly-girl one that the comic relief fat guy insists is perfect as a hilarious joke and then leads into a dance party ending where the whole cast sings Elton John.

...Or you could expect more if it weren’t for that son of a bitch Buck Cluck. Fuck that guy.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

Hey, what's your opinion on James Raggi IV the writer and publisher of Lamentations of the Flame Princess?

I mean... from some of the posts I've seen from him and things I've heard, he's def an edgelord reactionary, but neither the worst nor the most notable edgelord reacionary from the old Google Plus era OSR circle, right.

I was into LotFP a couple years ago before I found out about the guy's politics and links to notable bigots in the OSR scene, mostly because I liked the whole black/death metal horror aesthetic and because it's one of the few straight-up retroclones that actually have a unique vision for the aesthetic and experience they want to create, (i.e. it tries to be a little bit of its own game with its own unique setting/aesthetic instead of being yet another legally distinct repackaging of an older D&D edition), and I still think the book itself is a good product, but ultimately it's not an experience you can't replicate with a copy of B/X D&D (or your retroclone of choice) plus a couple flavorful metal-inspired sourcebooks, and that unique aesthetic appeal has also now been far outdone by later RPGs like Mörk Borg, so it's not like you're really missing much by refusing to support the guy anyway.

Tho I've gotta say, It kinda surprised me when I first found out Raggi was one of those "BUT MUH FREEZE PEACH" edgelords, because some of the advice he wrote in the LotFP refbook seemed to be directly countering that particular flavor of edgelordism that pops up in right-leaning """"apolitical""""" OSR circles, e.g:

"The Referee shall realize that Rule 0 is for the purpose of establishing the desired atmosphere for his campaign, and not as an excuse to abuse players or a license to be a despot at the game table… The Referee’s role is to challenge players, not victimize them."

"Know your players. Communicate outside of the game, and find where the limits lie. Your job as Referee is not to shock, scare, scandalize, or assault the senses. Respect for the real person sitting before you playing the game comes before any idea for the game you actually have."

Reading that definitely painted to me a very different picture of him as a person.

[areyougonnabe]

Tell us your favourite fact or piece of information about a polar expedition

this is the one that comes up in conversation the most that the people i'm talking to (fellow polar nerds) don't know - but basically, one of my areas of interest is THIS mfer, Sir Clements Markham. now let it be known i don't like him or "stan" him by any means i think he's for the most part a terrible person lolol but i am fascinated by him and have done a lot of research into his life and work:

most people know him as the guy above, the *ahem* controversial old fogey who was more or less the driving force behind the british end of the heroic age of polar exploration. but when he was a teenager, and looked like THIS:

he was on one of the early Franklin search expeditions in 1850-51, on board the Assistance under Captain Ommanney, sister of the Resolute under Captain Austin. this was his last journey with the Royal Navy - he only lasted about five years, he wasn't really cut out for the lifestyle (except for the parts where he got have intense life-destroying crushes on his superior officers) - but it was definitely the most impactful. it left markham with a singular, youthful and optimistic impression as to what polar exploration was all about. homosocial camaraderie, midwinter entertainment, effortful manhauling, geographical discovery, honor and bravery in service to the Empire. et cetera. (can you see where this eventually is going?)

this myth-through-experience grew and grew over his adult life as he worked his way up through the imperial bureaucracy, first at the India Office and later at the Royal Geographical Society, which was to be his most long-lasting professional association.

he participated in the organization of the Nares expedition in 1875, but when that was a resolute failure he bided his time until the 1890s, when support for antarctic discovery began to grow amongst the scientific establishment.

during the time that he was working on drumming up support for what would eventually become Scott's first expedition on the Discovery, in the mid-to-late 1890s, he was working on a, let's say, "private manual of devotion." this was a lengthy manuscript with an equally lengthy title:

James Fitzjames: the story of the friendship, devoted zeal for the service, high souled courage, self denial, and heroic deaths of 129 British Naval Officers and Seamen - A Romance based on information and on facts so authentic and so numerous that it must be very near to the truth.

as you can probably tell already. this was a piece of work. its first few chapters are indeed "based on information" - biographies of Franklin and his officers, often using details Markham received secondhand from men he'd met who actually knew them. (apparently he went around asking everyone he ever met if they'd known anyone on the FE and could they tell him about them which, relatable)

but then after the ships leave Disko and the historical record, the story turns to pure fancy. markham is, as you may have noticed from the title, absolutely obsessed with James Fitzjames to a psychosexual level. he was the "beau ideal" of an officer to Markham. (they never met!!! i might emphasize!!!!!) according to good old clem, if Fitzjames had been in charge of the expedition entire, it would never have perished - the fate that befell them was due to Franklin and Crozier's aged stiffness and inability to adapt.

going into detail about the rest of this frankly bonkers fanfiction would take ALL DAY i swear to god BUT highlights include: a self-insert character named "Baby" who swears fealty to Fitzjames, at least three midwinter theatricals described in detail incl. crossdressing, egregious and disgusting racism against the inuit, pop culture references, a complete and hilarious mix-up of the expedition ranks due to clem not having access to the full roster (jopson as caulker's mate!!!!), and of course lots and LOTS of men dying piously and nigh-erotically in each others' arms. of course there is no cannibalism whatsoever and the men are devoted to the naval hierarchy until the very end.

anyway, the fetishization of youth and inexperience which is visible in the story is quite glaringly tied to markham's selection of scott for the 1901 expedition. at the very least subconsciously, he wanted to recreate the FE with a "Fitzjames" in charge, thinking that would be the key to success.

and to that we can only say: LO fucking L.

[thequietmanno1]

TheLreads, Vigilantes ch 118, Replies Part 2

1) “Oh yeah, Koichi got a lot of broken bones and lost a lot of blood less than two minutes ago. Good thing that was not easily solved and completely brushed aside, phew, it would be a problem if we had lasting damage to raise the stakes or something. Anyway, how’s your coma going Pop?”- Yet symbolic/meaningful, yet minor damage like Nomura’s scar-creating slash manages to stick around. Gotta love it. 2) “Koichi is mastering the art of of using so much power to blow up his target that whatever is behind said target remains completely intact, especially if it’s made out of glass.

The boy is truly becoming too powerful”- We could chalk it up to precise damage control, only inputting as much force as would be needed to blow through a target and lose all inertia when coming out the other side, but yes, Izuku’s own building-destroying punches always carried some collateral effects, which is why he needed to beat Overhaul up in the sky to go all out. 3) “yeah sure, now all his power comes from the power of friendship”- Friendship, and believing in himself!...but sadly, “believing in himself” also means he believes even more strongly in his “no-killing” rule. 4) “Shame that AfO has ignored the most likely scenario that explains this situation: The author is pulling it out of his ass as needed. It’s in a need-to-pull basis.”- Koichi has evolved to the ultimate tier of power: becoming the author’s pet character, and reaping the benefits. 5) “Well good thing he’s not literally burning himself away by kicking his, erm, quirk, into overdrive. You know, his plasma based quirk.”- Honestly, seeing Nomura start to falter a little might have helped here. Give some sense that this power-up is as taxing on him as it is destructive, rather than him just hovering on the verge of death for several chapters. 6) “All the fun thinking that Pop has more impact in the story as a ghost than as an alive person, I need to start grabbing the beer bottles again.”- Hey, at least this way she gets to contribute! 7) “Oh he’s gonna go for the close-and-personal hit?

…

KOICHI DID YOU FORGOT HE’S MADE OUT OF PLASMA? DO YOU KNOW HOW HOT THAT STUFF IS?!”-I mean, not much of an issue when Koichi’s punches have an automatic “keep-away” function built into them now. Guy’s a walking, hitting force field. 8) “You know Koichi, you should at least try aiming for his teeth, because apparently he can made solid teeth out of plasma.”- Nomura’s attempts to warp the fabric of reality in his favour to win are commendable, but doomed. 9) “OH MY FUCKING GOD ANOTHER FLASHBACK GOD PLEASE SAVE ME FROM THIS”- I can’t tell if this final battle was harder on Koichi, or you. This would’ve been a terrific opportunity to show Tenko there playing hero with them, although he most certainly didn’t live anywhere near Naruhata.

10) “This would’ve been a terrific opportunity to show Tenko there playing hero with them, although he most certainly didn’t live anywhere near Naruhata.”- Maybe, but his friends may have. He did go out and play ball with some of them when he was still innocent, it’s where he picked up the inspiration to become a hero like they all aspired to, until finding Nana’s picture solidified it. 11) “who the fuck just left their All Might figurine behind like that? Kids those days smdh…”- Litterers in the future throw away not only their disposable plastic junk, but also their perfectly-functioning toys too! 12) “You know, everybody just gives up wanting to be a hero a few years later. Everyone.”- Times like these, a re-read to refresh yourself on the inner lore of the world is necessary.  Eiichiro Oda has a whole conspiracy-ass corkboard that he refers to on occasion to keep track of plot points. 13) “DID- DID FURUHASHI FUCKING FORGOT WHAT HE FUCKING WROTE HIMSELF?!”- I can practically see the blood pouring from your eyeballs as you read this. 14) “OH LOOK, THE GHOSTS WENT AWAY

FUCKING FINALLY. GUESS THAT MESSING UP WITH THE TIMELINE SENT RIPPLES THROUGH TIME AND SPACE”- The ghosts went away, but the fight goes ever onward… 15) “I had a feeling before you were treating me like I was stupid Furuhashi, but after that last flashback I’m sure of that, and I will never forgive you for that.”- To be fair, with the monthly release schedule, I’d totally forgotten about the content of the earlier chapters, so I didn’t pick up on the inconsistency until you pointed it out.

(Vigilantes ch 116) 16) “WHEN YOU PRETTY MUCH ACT LIKE IT WAS NO BIG DEAL, JUST A FANTASY THAT YOU WERE READY TO GROW OUT OF

RIGHT???”- And now, with the hoodie getting burst and blasted away to nothing by Nomura’s barrage, it’s finally time for the Crawler to end his vigilante days for good. @thelreads