#It took a while. And I'm very tired. But pretty much every single word of this is canon-compliant.

[emotionallyattachednerd]

Lucky Winners ❙ ES Bumblebee X f!robot reader X Breakdown ❙ NSFW 18+

Word count: 2300+

Warnings: Smut ( valve in plug and port and double penetration ) threesome, mentions of BreakBee and a pretty tasty sandwich. NSFW 18+.

Notes: This...I really liked this! Thanks anon for sending through it was a lot of fun and excited to share with the world. Enjoy. 🥰

They are at it again. Bumblebee and Breakdown were having a few races together at the track while you watch on, unable to hold back your smile as you admire them both carrying on like sparklings. Honestly, you think it's cute, they both are, and you enjoy spending time with them.

After the horrible events with both G.H.O.S.T. and Mandroid there was a lot to repair and more verbal agreements to be made. All decepticons and autobots are finally working together to repair the space bridge, and to put the differences aside for a better future.

You're an autobot, loyal to Optimus, but even you grew tired of this war. Despite still being considered as young you felt ready for retirement. After the space bridge would be fixed you wanted to revisit cybertron, and from there you're wanting to consider what you want.

What you truly want is to settle, a change to start a family perhaps, but finding the right mech was no easy task. Right now your thoughts and optics are right on both Bumblebee and Breakdown. Both were rather handsome, funny, and they were both kind to you. But of course you can't have both, right?

Your thoughts are interrupted when you hear the sound of engines roaring and tires skidding, both bots come screaming around the track and as always Breakdown beats Bumblebee. They both transform in style right before you then.

"Too slow!"

"Not again! I know you're cheating somehow, there's just no way you can beat me every single time!"

"Just admit that I'm faster to you, Bee." Breakdown gave out a hearty laugh that you are fond of hearing.

"Y/N, to be honest, did he get a head start?" Bumblebee asks, bringing you into the moment.

"Breakdown a cheater? That's a serious accusation." Your tone is playful. "I'm pretty sure you both went off at the same time."

"I want a re-race!" Bumblebee declared.

"Let's make it interesting. Winner takes the prize." Breakdown grins with mischief.

"What prize? You've got nothing to offer!" Bumblebee argues with slumped shoulders before looking at you. "Name the prize, Y/n."

"Me?" You sound surprised. "Well, alright. The winner shall...." You think before giving a shrug, followed by a silky giggle. "The winner gets a kiss from me."

It's a joke, at least that's what you told yourself.

Both Breakdown and Bumblebee stare at you, then at each other, before they transform and are flying down the track as if their lives depended on it.

"Oh." You whisper to yourself as you feel your cheek plating warm up a little. It was a joke, and they both took it very seriously. Surely they didn't seriously think you are being for real?

Well, you sit there, anxiously waiting for the winner to finish. It's not that you were opposed to the thought of kissing either of them, you would like that very much, but perhaps it's just you overthinking it. It's just a kiss.

Eventually they finish, and once again Breakdown is the champion.

"Yes! I get the prize!" He looks rather proud of himself and even eager to get the kiss from you.

"No fair..." Poor Bumblebee sounded like a wounded critter.

"So, Y/n, how about that kiss?" Breakdown cruises towards you, holding a charming smirk as you stand up from the ground in front of him.

"Very well." Leaning forward you caress his cheek, turning his head lightly and kissing his cheek lightly, giving him a dainty giggle noticing his confused expression.

"What? That's all?" You don't miss Bumblebee's amused smile.

"Oh I'm sorry, were you expecting a hot make out session?" You teased with a seductive smile.

"Yeah?"

"That wasn't the prize offered." Patting his cheek you step away crossing your arms across your charris.

"Alright then, put it on the table." Breakdown sounded determined to get that kiss, which makes you blush lightly knowing what he wants from you. "Bee, one more race?"

Bumblebee vented heavily. "Fine! But I'm watching you, no cheating."

"Y/n, all good, kiss on the lips on the table?" Breakdown looks very anxious as he dances lightly on his pedas making you smirk lightly, an idea forming in your mind. It was crazy but you can't help yourself. After all, it's been a while since you've had any intimate fun.

"How about...whoever wins, get's to have me." You declare before leaning yourself against the brick wall and parting your legs a little, your servos cascading over the top of your thighs, teasing the two racers. "And they can do whatever they want with me."

Once again the silence lingers, and after a long moment of waiting, both Breakdown and Bumblebee have driven off down the track once again in a more desperate attempt to win. You can't help but giggle lightly, the joy and thrill already working through your frame as you wait, curious as to who was going to win and have their way with you. You are going to feel so sorry for whoever doesn't win.

As both come around the bend you notice that both are side by side as they floor it towards the finish line. Would this be the race that Bumblebee finally wins?

Keeping your optics at the finish, you anxiously bit your lips and waited, and waited, right before they both crossed. It's a tie.

"It's me! I won!" Breakdown yells as he's letting everyone know he's won.

"No way! I did! I won that race!" Bumblebee argues not wanting to lose this round.

"Y/n, be honest, who's the lucky winner?" Breakdown leaves it to you to decide, smirking lightly as he sends you a charming wink.

Of course though you answer honestly. "You're both the lucky winners."

"What?" Both looked confused at you causing an uplifting giggle to leave you.

"I saw it, and it's a tie, no more arguing about it. Now, if you two are done with your racing, perhaps you both would like to have your prize now?" You tease as you walk back into the sheltered part of the race track, optics illuminating in the shadows as you await their pounce.

It doesn't take long for either of them to do exactly that.

You find yourself being embraced by Breakdown from behind, feeling his servos roaming over your hips and waist, his lips planting against the back of your neck as he lets out a groan just from touching you. Bumblebee stood in front, his lips latched onto your own in a lustful aura, glossa's tangled gentle together as you both let out hushed moans into one another. It seems both didn't have any issues sharing you.

Curiously, you teased Bumblebe's horns between your digits, earning a short gasp from him as he pulled away in surprise, notice his cheek plating heat up from your actions.

"Sensitive?" You ask through a gentle teasing tone.

"Y-yeah, but it's alright." He gives an innocent smile.

"He secretly loves it." Breakdown says from behind you against your audio.

"And how would you know?" You continue to tease.

"I know everything." His tone was very suggestive.

You bit your lips in thought, considering that the two fool around with one another, which you actually found quite arousing. You digits continue to gently tease Bumblebee's horns, enjoying the sounds he made as you both kiss deep again. Breakdown's servo moved down between your thighs earning a low moan from you under their seductive touches.

"I bet you're already soaking for us, yeah?" Breakdown's tone seems to have that in depth effect on you.

"So much." You weren't going to lie or hold back as you spread your thighs a little, rocking your hips down against his touches. Moving your own servo behind you touch his heated panel, your other moving to Bumblebee's panel as you give them firm rubs, making the two groan from your touches. "And I bet you two are eager for this."

Their answer is by moving, and you find yourself straddling Bumblebee on the ground with Breakdown behind you still, feeling him tilt your helm to the side so he can steal another warm kiss from you as you grind yourself against Bumblebee, who has now retracted his panel and you do the same, rubbing yourself along his already throbbing spike. Breakdown does the same and you feel his thick spike rubbing up against your aft earning a thrilled quiver to rush through your frame.

"Are you alright with this?" Breakdown asks you gently, knowing very well you are about to take them both.

"Definitely."

You trust both to take care and satisfy you greatly. You end up retracting your port than for Breakdown and grind yourself against the two mechs to get them even harder and yourself more lubricated.

A lot of your juices have already leaked out and Breakdown uses this to coat his digits and gently probe your port to prepare you for him. The invasion was different but not bad, in fact you find yourself rocking back against his digits, right before positioning yourself over Bumblebee's tip and sinking down on him.

"Oh primus..." Bumblebee moans, servos holding onto your hips as you slowly lower yourself, feeling every ridge press through your inner walls before bending down to kiss him softly.

Slowly you rock yourself, clenching around his spike along with Breakdown's pumping digits, letting out soft mewls that linger and savouring every second of this. You honestly had no idea if something like this would happen again, and so you want to make every second count for the three of you and make sure they never forget it.

Breakdown removes his digits and you hear him shuffling behind before feeling the warm tip of his spike against your port, nudging gently, before he pushes forward slowly. His grunts hit your audio as you tip your helm back against his shoulder, moaning loudly before it's swallowed by his lips over yours, devouring you with his glossa as he continues to inch forward into your tight port.

Bumblebee found the sight of you both above him even more arousing while you rode his spike slowly, his servos resting at your waist while he vents through the heated desire rushing through him.

You take both their spikes fully, feeling every bumpy ridge and throb from them, clenching around them teasingly as you continue to rock yourself slowly against them. "You both fill me so well, so good." You send them both praises. "You can move, please."

"We'll take very good care of you." Breakdown purrs before looking down at Bumblebee. "You ready slowpoke?"

"Bring it, show off." Bumblebee grins at him.

Holding yourself above, both of them start to thrust into you in sync together, slowly and firmly. Your valve and port welcome both spikes eagerly, clenching around them, feeling every ridge dragging across your inner walls. Your optics shuttered as your mouth hung open, constant silky moans forming from you as you let both winners take you as their prize.

Breakdown's heated grunts are deep and continuous, pressing into you repeatedly as his servos grip your waist securely. Bumblebee's moans are different, softer, servos held a sturdy yet gentle hold across your hips, feeling his digits circling into your soft armour which sends pulses of bliss through your already quivering frame.

"Oh frag..." Is all you can whisper out through the intense interfacing you are receiving from two impressive mechs and their throbbing spikes entering you over again in perfect sync.

"Taking us so well." Breakdown whispers hoarsely against your audio, feeling ever heated vent from him as he rocks into you. "Think you can go for more?"

"Easy Breakdown, don't want to hurt her." Bumblebee's concern was sweet, you think to yourself.

"It's alright. Yes, please. I've got two speed racers fragging me. Give me your true speed." You are ready for them, and it's all the coaxing they both need.

It's as if something set off between them, an electric pulse, because the next thing you know is both of them let themselves go, and truly show you the speed racers they are.

Metal hitting metal, scraping together, throbbing spikes now being rutted into your valve and port repeatedly. Both their hips slam against you over again, but of course all you can feel is the overwhelming pleasure boiling through you as you somehow manage to hold yourself up above Bumblebee with shaky arms.

Your overload suddenly snaps, catching you off guard and half broke shout and collapsing against Bumblebee's chassis while clamping tightly around their twitching cables buried deep in you, aftershocks and pulses rocking through your frame as your moans continue to linger out through their rapid thrusts against you.

Both weren't too far behind, and as you let out short whimpers through they final thrusts, you suddenly feel them giving their final movements through their intense moans and filling you deeply with their transfluids, jerky thrusts lingering before Breakdown lays gently across your back, careful to not crush you or Bumblebee.

Laying on top of Bumblebee he turns his helm a little and you end up kissing him softly making him smile lightly in return as his servo caresses your shoulder. Breakdown leans down over your shoulder, moaning a little as you still feel him inside you, before he tilts your helm back to kiss you as well. That wasn't all though, and you watch through inquisitive optics as Breakdown then leans across to kiss Bumblebee.

You already guessed they are fooling around, and it only turns you on.

"Just so you both know, if you ever want me to offer myself as a prize through racing for each of you, I'm keen." You inform them.

"Guess Bee and I will be racing more often than." You can feel Breakdown's grin through his voice.

"One of these days I'll beat you." Bumblebee sounds determined.

"Sure thing, slow poke."

You let out a soft giggle and touch both speeders tenderly. "I can't wait."

[risuola]

BIRTHDAY GIFT — F. READER x GOJO SATORU

Sometimes you forget about your own birthday, but no worries, Satoru's got you. He always remember, and he even prepared a very special gift for you.

cw: fluff, no warnings — 2,8k words

a/n: i turned 28 this week, so here i am indulging myself with a fictional party, because i hate real parties. also i'm not sure if the picture in the middle is an official art or the fan art, i claim no rights to it 🩶

“Thanks Kento,” you addressed the blonde, when you got out of the bathroom in his house. “You’re saving my life.”

“No need to thank me,” he responded with the ghost of a smile on his face, and you checked yourself in the mirror. You looked tired, but other than that, thankfully normal, which wasn’t the case just half an hour ago, when you finished your job in the field.

It was a simple mission – get to the place, exorcise a bunch of curses, nothing out of ordinary and nothing especially difficult to do. Quite the opposite, it went smoothly – it took you three hours to hunt down every single one of the little curses, but their grades were low. One thing you were not told before taking the assignment though, was that those curses had a tendency to ugly explode with purple and green goo as they were exorcised. That’s why, when the job was done, you were covered from head to toe in those slimy curse gut-residuals. It was on your clothes, hands, in your hair and you could have sworn it was in your mouth too. You could feel it, smell it, taste it and damn was it disgusting. Hence why you called Nanami on your way back and thankfully found him at home. His apartment was so near, compared to the way you had to reach Jujutsu high and being the sweetheart that he is, he agreed for you to take a shower at his place and even gave you one of his dress shirts to wear, because your clothes were good for nothing but a trash bag. It was way too big, but with a belt it made for a pretty cute dress actually.

Once you were ready to leave, he got up as well.

“I have a thing to check in school so Ijichi will drive us both,” he explained and you gave it a nod and after that, you two went down to get a ride.

“How are you?”, you asked your friend, while you two were comfortably seated in the back of a car. It’s been a while since you last saw Nanami. “I didn’t even ask.”

“I’m good, thanks y/n,” he once again, gave you the slightest one of his smiles and exhaled deeply. “You’re tired, huh?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. Guess I didn’t sleep well today, it’s all good.” You shrugged it off, looking at the driver. “And you, Ijichi? Satoru’s not bothering you too much?”

“I-I’m fine and no, he’s n-not,” the man stuttered, sweat beads forming on his forehead as he spoke and you chuckled. That poor man was constantly being terrorized by the strongest sorcerer for god knows why.

“So, he is bothering you,” you chuckled and Ijichi laughed nervously, wiping his forehead with a tissue. “You don’t have to be so scared of him, he just likes to assert his dominance but he wouldn’t hurt you. Is he bothering you as well, Nanami?”

“Gojo is always bothering me,” the blonde sighed. “It always amazes me how fondly you speak of him. You really seem to like Satoru.”

“Oh, he’s really not that bad,” a smile spread over your face as you thought about Satoru. “He’s quite charming, actually.”

Truth is, you and Satoru are closer than any of you might wanna admit. You’re co-workers, that’s for sure. Friends, also, you know each other since high school and you kept in touch ever since. You probably know the man more than he knows himself. You’ve also been on few dates. Unofficial dates, of course, more like you just went to the same place, at the same time, just the two of you, and sat at the same table or bench, and talked for hours as you were brushing circles onto the skin of his hands or he was just keeping yours in his palms. Those kinds of dates. Nothing serious.

“As charming as a clown can be, I guess,” Nanami shrugged softly and you giggled. “But you two should get together, it’s only you who he seems to not enjoy annoying.”

“Commitment in our profession doesn’t seem like a great idea.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

The rest of the drive went in calm, you talked with the two in the car about sweet little nothings, sharing meaningless details about your days and maybe Ijichi seemed a little more stressed than usual, but you didn’t notice anything too weird to think about it. That’s why when you pulled off to the school and got to the main building, your heart almost jumped out of your chest at the sudden and incredibly loud ‘surprise!’ being thrown at your face.

“Huh?”, it stunned you to the point of disorientation. Why were all of your students and most of the older sorcerers that you know here? Why all the balloons, confetti and the cake?

“It’s your birthday, dummy,” you quickly were swept by the long arm of no one else but Satoru Gojo, who greeted you with a grin wide and bright and a light squeeze on your shoulder. The gesture was friendly, but you couldn’t deny the warmth that exploded in your chest the moment he touched you.

“My birthday?” Oh yes, your birthday. “God, I forgot about it.”

“I figured, buuuut we didn’t so I hope you have a little bit more power in your batteries to celebrate?”, Satoru led you more into the crowded space and with real surprise you noticed that even Yuuta was here, and students from Kyoto along with Utahime. No Gakuganji though, thanks to the heavens.

It was all surreal but at the same time so grounding to be surrounded by so many people that you find close to your heart. And for the next hours, you forgot about how tired your body was, how disgusting you were earlier that day and how perfectly Nanami acted like he has a real job in the school rather than the party to attend.

You stayed there until very late, enjoying every second of talks and laughs with your friends and students. You caught up with all of them, learned about the progress the teenagers were making, got to know more about how work was for the older sorcerers and even, when outside for a quick fresh air breath, one of the little, flying curses gave you a card with few wishes written in it, with no sign whatsoever, but it was the handwriting that gave it away. Suguru Geto. Even though he went a very different path than the rest of you, even though you all lost contact with him the moment he left around the second year, he had never, not even once, forgotten about your birthday, always delivering a card or something else one way or another. It warmed your heart and sometimes you wished to see him just for a moment to give him one last bear hug. You couldn’t, but the card will go to the box of things you cherish, along with the round, dark shades that no one could see through – the ones that Gojo was wearing while in high school; with Shoko’s first scalpel that she used to practice – the very cheap one that got blunt after just few uses; with one button from Haibara’s uniform – the only one that was left hanging by a thread, when he got back to school one last time and along with many other things you’ll hold onto until the day you die.

“Tired?”, Satoru asked you, when the clock hands moved past 1am. Most of the students were already gone and teachers also began to crumble down, calling it a night.

“Exhausted,” you chuckled softly and squeezed the hand he offered you, helping you get up from the couch.

“Let’s get you to bed, how’s that sound?”

“Perfect.”

With all of the goodbyes done, you gathered your gifts and left with Satoru, heading towards your little apartment. All the way he was keeping your hand in his, grinning like he usually does, but something felt off in the way his fingers were wrapped around you. A little tighter than always, little more possessive – a little more like he was afraid to let go of you even though that would be an irrational fear, because you never wanted anything more than to be held by him.

“Soo,” he began, when you both stepped into your place and you put down all of the bags, “I hope you don’t think I forgot about your gift. Though it’s technically not your birthday anymore.”

“Oh, Satoru, you know I don’t care about the gifts, right?” you smiled at him. “All of this, the party, the people, is more than I could wish for. Every second spent with all of you is worth more than any gift I could receive.”

“Yea, yea,” he waved a hand at you, making you laugh. He made you feel all kinds of weird things, one of which being the urge to slap and kiss him at the same time. “I actually have two gifts for you.”

“Of course you have,” a shake of your head was all you could offer him. Of course, Satoru Gojo had to be extra like that. “So?”

“Sooo, that’s the first one.” You didn’t even question the way he pulled the light-blue bag with a matching ribbon on top of it from behind his back, like he had it all of the time, which you know he didn’t. You took it anyway and before you even peeked inside, you reached up to him and pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek, whispering little ‘thank you’. “You’re welcome, now, you can check it later,” almost immediately after the bag landed in your hands, it was snatched away and put down where the other gifts were. “The second gift-“

You looked at him with confusion, realizing that Satoru was… nervous? He was bouncing slightly on his feet, as if he was hyping himself up. He took his glasses off and brushed a hand through his hair.

“Yea?”, you encouraged him to continue, taking him by the hands in hopes to calm him down a little. “What is it? Satoru, don’t tell me you bought me a snow tiger or something?”

“Huh? No, I didn’t. What, you want a snow tiger? You said they are cute, but-“

“No, absolutely not. No snow tigers, please.”

“Ok, wow, I’m more nervous than I was… ever, probably, that’s new,” he laughed at his own composure, or rather the lack of thereof, and now you really began to worry. What the hell did this man did?

“Just say it, I can take it.”

Pulling him by the hands, you took him onto the sofa, now slightly worrying he might really pass out. Doors to your apartment stayed open wide, but that was the least of your worries, when you two sat down and all your eyes could fix on was a man next to you. He looked stunning in his dark grey sweater that exposed a little bit of his collar bones and his long neck, contrasting with his pale skin, light hair and really making his eyes pop. The eyes that made it so easy to get lost. They were like an ocean under the clear sky and bright sunlight, illuminating with thousands of glittering sparkles and the shades of azure and turquoise mixed and flew one into another, intertwining and creating an artwork impossible to recreate. If someone were to animate Satoru, the whole budget would probably go into his eyes alone.

“So, first you need to know that if what I want to give you is not something you feel comfortable accepting, please don’t feel obliged to and just say no. Okay?”, he spoke again and you nodded.

“Come on, Satoru. Just tell me. Or show me, whatever it is.”

“Show you. Alright, I can do that.”

You expected everything. Your mind even wandered into absurd such as him giving you an airplane for god knows what reason, but even in your boldest, bravest dreams you didn’t anticipate his lips on yours. He went all slow and soft about it, closing the distance carefully, leaving you with more than enough time to react and push him away if you wanted to, and when he finally reached you, planting a gentle kiss to your mouth, whilst his hand rested on the side of your neck a little stiffly, you froze for a second. Your body froze, but your heart was racing inside your chest, beating so hard he probably could hear it and feel it in your pulse underneath his palm. Satoru’s lips felt as soft as they looked, so perfect against yours even though what was happening wasn’t even resembling a kiss. It was more like a press with the slightest movement applied but it spoke so much. It was an offer – that way Gojo opened himself to you, ripped his own chest apart and with that simple peck on the lips, he wanted to tell you that now, he’s ready to be vulnerable with you, if you’d only want him to.

“Is my second gift a kiss from you?”, you questioned when he moved his head back just a little, searching for your reaction. It would be on brand for Gojo to consider a kiss from himself a valuable gift, which it was, but if that’s what he wanted to offer you, he had to put more effort into it.

“It’s me. If you’ll have me,” he almost whispered, smoothing over your jawline with his thumb. “Maybe it’s not the best idea to commit to relationship in our line of work, but fuck this. If you’ll have me, I’m yours.”

“Are you serious?”

“Never been more serious.”

Your heart fluttered. Grabbing his face in both of your hands, you went in and kissed him, pouring into it all of the love you held for him and he purred softly against your lips, wrapping his long arms around you and leaning more against you. He outweighed you; you lost your balance and fell back onto the couch and he followed you closely, breaking the kiss just to ask, “is that a yes?”

“Yes, Satoru. Very much yes,” you chuckled and his lips were back on yours, taking your breath away with how good it felt. Your fingers found a way through his silky, snowy white strands, you smoothed over the back of his neck and his broad shoulders, giving into the sensation that radiated throughout your entire nervous system, sending hot waves of pure euphoria down your spine and into every cell in your body. You were happy, the exhaustion now completely forgotten and only the man above you mattered. His weight felt so right on top of you, even in the insanely uncomfortable position you two were now trapped in with your hips twisted below his torso and him now half in the air and half on the couch because there was no way for his height to fit in here. But it didn’t matter. What mattered was his lips on yours, his warmth on your skin and-

“Doors,” you mumbled into the kiss, the gentle whiff of cold air reminded you of what has been forgotten. The doors, that were still wide open. He could feel your chest rumbling with a chuckle as you realized none of you cared enough to even close your apartment when you went in and he made a decision to ignore this fact, now completely consumed by the thought of you. He hummed something and moved his lips lower, smearing kisses all over your chin and down your neck and you tugged softly onto his hair. “Satoru, doors are still opened-”

Getting up, walking towards the entrance and locking the doors would be the logical thing to do, but the thought of parting his own body from yours for even a second now didn’t dare to cross Gojo’s mind, so he stretched his hand towards the doors, consumed by sucking a red spot to the side of your neck and you couldn’t believe it, but he blasted the door with a cursed energy. They shut with the loudest noise anyone could create at that hour in the middle of the night and not ten seconds passed, before they just fell out of frame and hit the floor with another harsh thud.

That seemed to do the trick in stopping the heat, because both of you froze for a moment and you looked to the side, he looked to the side and the world stopped for a whole five second, before you started laughing and playfully patting his shoulder.

“What have you done,” you whined. “Satoruu~”

“I’ll fix this,” he swore, hiding his face back into the crook of your neck, pretending like he wasn’t even there and you couldn’t help but brush through his hair as laughter still had the better of you. “Guess I’ll have to stay the night so you can be safe.”

“Guess that might be necessary.”

[random-twst-things]

Question - of all the characters, who: doesn't know twst isn't a dating sim, knows it's not but aims for it anyway, knows and suffers, and doesn't know - just vibing? Feel free to add more categories

Oooh! That's an interesting concept. I had to think about this for a while bc I wanted this to be the most accurate I could make it. And I'm SO sorry this took so long, I got busy with school and first semester tests I'm so sorry 😭

Contains: Tiny(very tiny) bit of possessiveness(Malleus) angst(?)(idia, jamil, azul, cater, sebek) most certainly some spelling mistakes here and there (English is not my first language I'm srry 😭)

Doesn't know twst isn't a dating sim:

Riddle: Did you really think Riddle would even know what a dating sim is? Absolutely not, especially not with the way he grew up. He has no idea why he loves you (he does, he's just in denial) he's so shy trying to pursue you, he has this act he tries (tires) to put up but it's so easy to see the effect you have on him. He's not as strict on you about the rules as he is the rest, he seems to have developed a soft.

Trey: (I'm so sorry, I don't know much about the guy 😭) Gentleman. That's its. Ty for coming to my TED talk. Okay, but srsly, hear me out on this; He's a whole gentleman when he has a crush. He definitely uses his great baking skills to his advantage with you. He definitely sees how others look and act around you, I mean, who wouldn't when it comes to you. Wanna learn how to bake? He'll gladly teach you and take this as a chance to get to know you even more.

Ace(1): I honestly don't think he'd know twst isn't a dating sim. He's mosy definitely smug about being close to you, after all he is your best friend, right? Bro thinks he has rizz but he's just a fumbling mess when he tries it just makes him look clumsy (sorry ace)

Deuce: he's so sweet. He's glad he's one of your best friends and get to be close to you without worry. Part of his delinquent side does come out a little when it comes to you, it's not directed to you! Not at all! More like directed towards those who did you wrong and didn't even try to say sorry. Don't worry, he won't do anything to reckless! He still wants to be an honor student after all. He's gonna do his very best for his mom and you.

Ruggie: oui, he's hard to tell on what category. He likes you. He likes how you are. It never bothered him one bit that your home was semi broken. God, the things he would think and want to say to you (He's romantic like that yall), but he's too shy to actually say (yall he's making me blush eeeee)

Kalim: he's too busy hanging out and being happy with you he doesn't even notice. All he knows is that he loves you and wishes to show you the world (see what I did there? Eh? Eeeh?) He's not at all shy about the compliments he gives you, he's really creative with them, tho. Invites you to every single one of his parties and makes you take home as much food as you want.

Epel: He's going for you most definitely, even with all these people. He does his very best to look strong and manly in front of you, that it's cute. He doesn't really mind if you call him cute or pretty, if that's what you like, but he's still gonna act (only a little) like he hates it, but he never tells you to stop.

Floyd(1): Two words; good luck. This guy will not try to hide his favoritism with you. He will not hide his desire to steal you or keep you from the rest. His very (very) open about it, too. It doesn't even matter if he knew twst wasn't a dating sim. He's still gonna be the same. You don't mind his (bone crushing) hugs? He's allowed to squish you? ....you shouldn't have said that bc now every time he sees you he squeezes you so tight he cracks your sore muscles like those chiropractors on TikTok.

Jade: hmmmm (good luck, again) He's a gentleman, but in an offsetting way, yk? He's the silent one. The type to smile when provoked and just bc, it's hard to tell the difference but its there. He's a watcher. He knows almost all of your special interests (Don't ask how he knows that). Putting the creepy aura behind, he's a nice guy (?) He'll most definitely rant about his mushrooms to you. You don't mind? You like hearing about his mushrooms? Oh my.... good luck

Malleus(?): I feel like he does, but doesn't at the same time? I don't think he knows what a dating sim is, but he notices the way the others act and look at you. He notices the way things seem... different. But he isn't one to back down when something precious to him is to be taken away from him. He is a dragon, after all. (Not that he'd let that happen to begin with, you'll love him dearly in the end....won't you?) Talks to you about his gargoyles, all the different facts. You dont mind the long talks about it? Youre asking to know more?? Oh great sevens....

Silver: (AWWWWW) he's so sweet. He tries so hard to show he likes you but in such a subtle way that it's hard to catch on it even notice. He's a gentleman at heart. He loves how understanding you are of his sudden sleepiness and tiredness and don't get angry at him for something he can't control as much as he'd love to. You wanna watch over him while he sleeps? Why? Oh, so nothing harms him when he's asleep? Oh dear... His heart is beating so fast he might not even be able to sleep now (he does anyways, but with tinted cheeks)

Knows it's not but aims for it anyway:

Leona: he's the type of guy to somehow always know something you don't expect him to know. Anyways. The dude could care less if the game wasn't designed to be a dating sim. He's still going for it in his own way. Unlike the past, this is something he can't give up on. you're something he can't give up on. But oh, is this man so so smug when he uses you as a pillow.

Vil: it's either Rook told him or he figured it out on his own before Rook told him. Even if twst wasn't meant to be a dating sim with love, he will turn zero into something like he's always done. He will by any means do his utmost and his best to pursue you all while being himself. He cherishes the moments you have alone when he's giving you advice on how to take care of your skin. The small and soft lingering touches when he teaches you how to apply moisturizer correctly.

Rook: Okay, he's bound to find out twst isn't a dating sim. He's a sharp guy. Even with the knowledge of knowing twst isn't a dating sim, it isn't going to stop him from pursuing you. He himself finds this situation funny with how many hearts you've captured even with twst not supposedly being capable of that. Oh? How did you know he was watching you? You could feel him? Oh dear trickster you sure do know how to pull his heart strings.

Floyd(2): Good luck once again. I couldn't decide whether he knew or not. But! Same situation regardless. Instead, tho, he's a bit more.... more him? He's gonna find this all so much more hilarious and funny.

Lilia: This cheeky old man most definitely knows. He's seen dating Sims and knows what they are. Just bc twst isn't designed to be a dating sim doesn't mean he can't aim for it. He's not at all shy when it comes to pursuing you. He's been alive for hundreds of years, what's there to be afraid of?

Knows and suffers:

Cater: (I'm so sorry, I had to 1.0) cay-cay gonna slay-slay, more like cry-cry. I feel like he's a "2nd male lead syndrome" type of guy, yk?? It's a bit hard to explain, but yeah. Anyways. 2nd male lead, we all know how that ends, don't we? (Hint: tears) He's cautious when it comes to love, hes scared of it at times. He does know he loves you but he's going to watch you being happy instead. He wishes you the best, truly! (he hates the little feeling in his chest when he says those words bc his words and actions say their happy for you, but the little feeling in his chest says otherwise)

Azul: he loves you, he really does, but would you? He knows he isn't the ideal guy. He knows he's done some shady things. And most of all, he knows (thinks) that with all these suitable people for you, he'd never be considered a choice. So he's content with just watching you from afar living a happy life. Every time you enter the lounge he finds himself between wanting to hide away or catering to your every need but he knows that if he gets any closer to you it'll just hurt more in the future.

Jamil: He's a smart guy, he knows. He also knows that he doesn't stand a chance with all these suitors going after you. A prince, an heir, a model/actor, knights, etc. He'd like to think he did stand a chance, but standing next to them, he can't help but let his insecurities get the better of him. But, oh... when you offer to help him with his chores he can't help but think that maybe... Just maybe there's a chance.

Idia: he most definitely knows, I mean, look at the way they all look at you!! He knows and suffers with the thought that he'd never stand a chance. You're being pursued by all these SSR characters!!! Surely you'd never pick someone like him when you could do so much better. He'd stuff himself in his room even more (if that's even possible) He'd avoid you even with his tablet. Every time he rejects the offer when you invite him to play video games he hates himself even more. Stop giving him false hope... Please

Sebek: (I'm so sorry 2.0) Malleus. That's why. His master, he can't seem to accept that his master would aim for a human like you, but he's hurt. He doesn't know why he feels that way. He doesn't understand why his chest hurts when he sees malleus and you interacting in such a way. (He'll begin to understand after a while, WHILE) once he realizes why it hurts, he is distraught. He won't show it, but you can see the subtle changes in his composure every now and then. He knows he has to let you go. He feels as if he has lost you. Lost something that wasn't even his to begin with and never would have been.

Doesn't know and/or just vibes:

Crowley: Dudes clueless

Grimm: he's just confused as to why everyone is after his henchmen. He doesn't know what a dating sim is either.

Ace(2): he's having the time of his life seeing you struggle with all this. He has absolutely no idea why so many are after you, but he's just gonna watch as they all struggle. (He knows why they are after you, after all his best friend in kinda cool, but he'd never admit to that) also has a laugh with watching riddle try (don't tell riddle he said that tho)

Ruggie(2): another that's gonna have the time of his life with this. Laughing like the hyena he is, watching the struggle (especially Leona's struggle 💀)

Jack: He's just vibing. This whole situation is a mess, really. He watches out for you most of the time just in case. (*caugh* floyd *cough*) He's a bit worried for you ngl so he wants to teach you self defense just in case, if you already know how to handle yourself thats great! (*cough* floyd *cough)

Bonus

He does know and tries to be supportive

Ortho: he knows. His brother told him in his ramblings, and he noticed that idia is thinking smth negative. He tries to encourage him in every possible way to just try, that there is a chance, but nothing seems to work.

[tainted-heartz]

first off i love your writing sm!! you’ve definitely been feeding my hyperfixation! i especially love the ones where wally is in the tv and the reader isn’t. in fact i have a request if you don’t mind. reader has had a very stressful day and everything is kind of building on top of each other. so when wally decides to check in he finds dear reader laying in bed upset. i just think some comfort from the cutie would be nice. anyway i hope you’re doing well!!

| aaaa I'm happy I'm feeding ur hyperfixation!! and I hope ur doing well and I hope u enjoy this fic I probably put too much effort it- |

- you had so many things building on top of each other , from small work to big things like having to plan big events and it was doing a lot to your metal health. you've locked yourself up in your room for almost days only leaving for for , etc. it even made you pull all nighters and make you tired the next day or sleep in a little too long.

- after not hearing a single thing from you for a while wally decided to check in on you but once he did he saw you curled up in a ball on your bed,sobbing into a pillow. he felt his heart break at the sight of you so upset but he took a gentle approach. he stepped over to your bed and climbed up making sure not to make the bed squeak.

- a plush hand rested on your back, causing you to roll over and look up at wally. your face was stained with tears and puffy from the constant crying you've been doing. “ oh dearest.. ” he sighed as he cupped your face before using his this thumb to wipe away a few stray tears. “ what has you so upset? ” he asked as he let you pull away from the pillow and rest your head on him instead. he didn't look away from you for a second as you ranted about everything and even cried more but he was there to rub your back and reassure you.

- he even went to the extent of holding your face in his hands and kissing away the tears with reassuring words coming from his mouth with every kiss. he hated seeing you upset and would do just about anything to make sure you didn't feel overwhelmed.

- after you had calmed down he gave you a small kiss on the forehead before saying , “ your eyes are all puffy..but you're still pretty. ” he said with a quiet monotoned laugh. you laughed along with him and nuzzled your face into his chest more.

[irisintheafterglow]

Polish Up Real Nice! (bnha boys x you)

summary: hcs about taking care of yourself and taking care of the boys (with bakugo, shoto, izuku, kirishima, and denki)

cw/tags: swearing cuz bakugo is here, sickeningly cheesy fluff, the tiniest little bit of angst, pet names (love, babe, baby, sweetheart, lovey)

note: this is your reminder to take good fucking care of yourself because you deserve to feel loved !!!

likes, reblogs, and feedback is always appreciated <3

Bakugo Katsuki

he has a longer skincare routine than you

does not matter if your routine is 2 steps or 10

he absolutely has a more complex regimen

will hide your body wash/shampoo to force you to use his instead

he likes it when you smell like him because he doesn't know how to voice his fuckin emotions any other way

it's ok !!! we love him anyway !!!

will automatically assume you're using his stuff if he starts running out

"babe, do you know what the fuck happened to my serums?"

"no, love, i'm sorry"

"you're not using them behind my back, are you?"

"i can't read half of the instructions on that tiny-ass bottle."

"it's self-explanatory-"

"it's also $100 for literally 2 milliliters, kats."

"that's a no, then."

it was denki lmao he was over at your house trying to figure out which bottle was soap

also has a haircare routine but not as strict as skincare

he'll just put leave-in conditioner if he wants it to look extra fluffy

MELTS when you massage oil into his scalp

he would rather die than wear one of those cutesy face masks

but he's over here putting fucking cucumbers on his eyes

you have a photo of him with a clay mask on and cucumbers over his eyes that he doesn't know you took

immediately sent it to his friends and now every single contact photo is of that picture

his love language is most definitely not words of affirmation but i think quality time is a strong contender

so when you're both getting ready in the morning he'll wordlessly hand you bottles of products without you asking because he's memorized your habits too <3

Todoroki Shoto

has like????? no skincare routine??????

man is just effortlessly pretty

for a long time he'd just use whatever momo or his mom recommended to him

when he started dating you and you asked about his skincare routine, he was the definition of confused

he was like

"i wash it??"

"no, but like with what product, sweetheart?"

"soap??"

despite not having much of a routine for himself, he will buy you WHATEVER you want

does not matter if the product costs more than the fucking moon

he'll have at least two bottles of it in your house at all times so you never run out

whenever he visits the store or has an assistant out shopping for him, he'll ask if you need anything (applies to basically everything but especially selfcare items)

when you do a facemask with him your favorite part is tying back his hair and giving him a tiny little sprout on the top of his head

also melts when you massage hair oil into his scalp

but he likes to give you massages more

could be with lotion or body wash, doesn't matter

will heat and/or cool his body depending on what you need

he likes running his hands over your skin until you're on the verge of falling asleep

and then he'll just lie down next to you and press his body against yours

Midoriya Izuku

doesn't really know much about skincare but is very eager to learn!!

adores doing facemasks with you

will pick up silly little animal masks from the store while he's on patrol

"look, it's a penguin."

"zuku, my love, where did you get these?"

"on patrol today."

"you're supposed to be stopping villains, babe."

"to be fair, i did kick the hell out of some thieves before buying them."

"ah, so you rewarded yourself."

"by being able to spend time with you, yes."

when he comes home late from a mission or from patrol and he's too tired to take care of his curls, you do it for him

just taking care of him in general when his body is physically unable to do it

which is quite often because you know, he's fucking deku

you'll lead him to the bath and make sure the water is warm beforehand

after he's settled and you clean any pressing wounds, you start working on his hair

he almost falls asleep right there, with your fingers gently rubbing product into his curls

you have to gently wake him to remind him to rinse

will sleepily watch you put on lip balm and then ask to try it

when you hand it out to him, he shakes his head

you smile and he kisses it off your lips

"that's pretty good. keep wearing it, please."

Kirishima Eijiro

probably uses a simple face wash and moisturizer

sometimes uses toner if you remind him but he doesn't really need it since his skin doesn't get super oily

he has a hand care routine

does that even exist??

it does now !

one of your nightly routines with him is rubbing lotion into his palms

because of his quirk, they can get really, really rough and dry

his skin in general gets beat up the most

he tries to remember to put lotion on but he's so busy that he forgets often

he also likes it better when you're sitting across from him and dotingly running your thumb along his palms

despite having a lot of callouses, it's one of the more sensitive spots on his body

"what is it, eiji?"

"that tickles."

he also asks you if you can help him take care of his nails, too

they tend to get roughed up during battles and he also sometimes picks at his cuticles absentmindedly

you help him clean up the nailbeds and scrub dirt from under the fingernails

he watches you like you painted the stars in the sky

when he comes out of the shower and his hair is down, he'll shake his head like a dog if you're in close proximity

effectively hitting you with water like a lawn sprinkler

the absolute KING of physical affection self-care

if you've had a hard day sometimes the one thing you need is just for him to lay his entire body weight on you

"can i ask a favor, babe?"

"anything, lovey."

"work was shit today, could you-"

he's already throwing himself at you and burying you both into the couch cushions

Kaminari Denki

definitely used hand soap to wash his face before dating you

instead of hiding your body wash to make you smell like him, he likes to use your products instead to make him smell like you

because of the videos you send him, most of his social media feed is influencers doing product reviews

he'll send you those product reviews and ask if it's legit or not

if you say it's legit, he'll buy it for you even if you didn't ask for it

"the fuck is this?"

"looks like some crystal roller thing, i don't know."

"baby, you're the one that bought it."

"to be fair, i black out every time i press 'proceed to cart,' so i don't remember doing it."

LOVES taking pictures and videos while you're doing self-care together

he's a sucker for the domestic life what can i say

will play music while you're trying to do your routine and take videos of him just spinning you around your bathroom

his skin also tends to dry out because of his quirk and sometimes he just needs a nice, long soak

will adamantly try to convince you to join him

not in a sexual way but in a matter of he has a small water gun hiding below the surface of the bubbles

instead of doing deep pressure therapy for you, sometimes he needs it from you

it gets hard for him, being a conduit of such a volatile quirk, and he needs you to remind him that his body isn't just a weapon

therefore he likes to just walk up behind you and ask to put his arms around you or just hold you

because he needs it

and deep down?

you need it too

if you think this was self indulgent then you are absolutely correct;

if you enjoy my writing and would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee on my ko-fi! you can also check out my full masterlist here :)

[sammyboyimagines]

Heeeeeeey~ its me again, but now I have a request for you :3

Can you please make headcanons of Billy Hargrove married with the reader?~ maybe some sfw and some nsfw?~ pretty pleaaaaaase? *puppy eyes*

//hi of course of course!! I'm so sorry this took so long I've had very confusing week and I love this request. Also thank you again for the kind words a few days ago! I'd love to write more for you anytime if you want to request, absolutely no pressure though! <3 I'm listening to my romantic playlist so this should be fun, also it's 1 am sorry for any errors, I think there are many lol

warnings: established relationship, oral, unprotected sex, fluff, smut, MINORS GO AWAY ON THE SECOND HALF OF IT, rough sex, idk what else

alright, first I'm gonna start off with the SFW stuff!

now, obviously the minute you are alone on your honeymoon, he is all over you. Kissing all over your face and neck, cuddling you for hours, etc.

Billy enjoys letting everyone know you're his, your name might as well be "my wife" because he introduces you as his wife to everyone that will listen.

I like to think that Billy settling down might make his father make an effort, I think that seeing him be so loving with you makes his father want to be a better father.

Adding onto that, I think it would also bring his sister closer to him, as she definitely hangs out with you a lot whenever she's not with her friends.

Billy is a very touchy husband, holding your hand as he speeds down the freeway, holding your thigh during dinners with your parents, and pulling you close to him any chance he gets.

He gave you a fancy ring when he proposed to let everyone know you were taken.

Billy doesn't know much about love and committed relationships, but you take everything day by day, and it makes him much more comfortable with the idea of building a life together with you.

I think he would stay awake some nights just thinking about the fact that it really happened. You're his wife.

It took him forever to really let it sink in, but he was excited nonetheless.

I think deep down, Billy was worried that he would never fall in love with someone and really tie the knot. Commitment used to scare him until he found you, someone who didn't care about superficial things like money, looks, etc.

Billy definitely saved up for the proposal in advance. It took him a while to propose because he wanted the scene to be perfect, with nobody interrupting.

The wedding was fairly small, the less the better in his opinion. Just a few family members from each side.

Billy would never come out and say it, but he loves spending holidays and domestic things with you. Exchanging gifts even though you were the best gift he ever could have received.

Though you'd disagree, Billy was constantly worried about being a good husband.

Coming from a broken home, he was terrified that his marriage would end up in shambles like his parents.

It took many sleepless nights and comforting talks for Billy to realize that some things last forever. He wanted it to last forever. (I'm listening to Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls rn sorry if it gets sad)

One thing he had to come to terms with was SHARING. Sharing everything, clothing, feelings, etc. He never learned to give and get back, and he adored every single one of these life lessons from his darling wife.

That reminds me, he stops calling you pet names in public and just starts calling you his beautiful wife. For example, shopping, he'll get your attention with a quick, "Come here, my beautiful wife."

He learns to love the little things. Your tired face in the mornings when he wakes you up from a dead sleep, the way you stare at the ring on your finger for at least 10 minutes every day, the way you looked when saying your vows. He wanted to keep these memories forever.

In conclusion, married life frightened Billy, but with his beautiful wife by his side, he felt better every passing day.

Ugh so sweet and fluffy, time for some NSFW headcanons! NO MINORS BEYOND THIS POINT OR I'M GONNA TELL UR MOM, SHE'S IN BED WITH ME RN

Minors I really mean it, istg she's right here

She's literally right here.

If you don't have a mom, I will tell your dad, I have him on the phone rn

Go away minors, last warning.

Okay onto the content, Billy absolutely revels in the fact that you are his, his baby, his wife, his little slut. He fucking loves it.

Your honeymoon was WILD. He tried positions all over your vacation spot. Against the wall or bending you over was his favorite though, classic and intimate.

The looks he gives you in public places, he definitely undresses you with his eyes whenever he gets the chance.

The ring always gets him hard, knowing that he's yours and you are his for forever makes him long to show you just how much love he has for you. He has A LOT apparently.

Billy loves to hold hands when he's fucking you. Feeling the ring as a loving reminder while he roughly drills into you until you're a moaning mess underneath him.

Billy was very soft on his wedding day. The way he swayed and spun you around as you two danced made your heart flutter. But the honeymoon? He was a beast. You'd get home from a nice dinner and within 2 minutes, he'd have ripped your dress and bent you over whatever surface was closest.

Except for your first night as husband and wife. It was the first time he was gentle. He made love to you, and took his time to make sure he watched his wife's face contort in pleasure as he ate you out or fucked you gently.

That first night, it was the first time he came before you. He was so worked up he had lost control from just teasing you, so when he finally slid inside you, it only took him about a minute to let go. He was extremely upset until you convinced him that he could try again next round.

Adding to that, now that you're married, Billy feels like he has all the time in the world to shower you with love. On weekends, you're never out of bed without your legs shaking and a fucked out smile adorning your face. Billy thought it was the best way to wake up, and how could you refuse morning sex?

Billy hadn't considered children yet in all honesty, but he was opening up about the fact that marriages could work without constant arguing and compensating. He was in the moment.

That being said, he fucked you raw practically every time. You were on birth control (or not, whatever you wanna do), and he couldn't resist the feeling of your soft warm walls on his dick, it was like heaven.

After several rounds, Billy loves to either draw you a nice hot bath to make up for his roughness or cuddle up to you.

Billy was accidentally the little spoon for one night and now he likes to be the little spoon every now and then.

Being, his wife, you got used to his hands on you all the time. You couldn't pass by him without a loud slap on the ass or a kiss on the head.

He loves to kiss your collarbone and your neck, to leave marks, and hickeys all over. The first time you talked to Robin and Steve after the honeymoon, they were disgusted by the blatantly obvious hickeys covering your neck, collarbone, chest, and under your clothes.

High sex drive, he loves quickies, blow jobs, and fingering you under the table. He loved fucking your throat, watching you struggle to take him as you gag on his cock.

Hair-pulling kink. He pulls your hair while fucking you from behind, pulling your body back to whisper, "my good little slut, taking me so well" into your ear. He loves when you pull his hair too, the first time you did it he audibly moaned. It shocked the both of you.

Never lets you get off alone. He was visibly upset when he found out that you still masturbated when you two were married. He felt that there was no reason to do that when he was always there to help you out. He was offended.

Billy explored many kinks with you as the marriage went forward. He has a daddy kink for sure. This was discovered when you mumbled in during sex and he lost control in like 30 seconds.

Billy likes to think that he's the man of the house, you're his. That's what he tells other people. However, he is absolutely whipped for you. Whatever you need, whatever you want to do, he's right there doing it for you. Whether its eating your out or making dinner.

He can hardly stand in the kitchen cooking with you, he'll get carried away and before you know it, the food is burnt and you've been making out on the couch for an hour.

Car sex is a must, before hanging out with friends, before dinner, before anything, you aren't leaving until he's had his way with you.

//okay i think i'm done, i really hope you liked it!! <3

[alliddewrites]

FAVORITE

Chapter 1:

Extravaganza

Revenant x Legend!Reader

Content disclaimer:

Not completely canon compliant,

Takes place a bit after season 9,

Mention of murder,

Mention of guns,

Gender neutral reader

Summary: You join the Apex Games, but before you can actually begin, you have to go through all the extravaganza.

Word count: 2218

Masterlist

The Apex Games…

Out of dozens and dozens of competitors, you came out on top.

It was honestly unbelievable.

The sheer anxiety and excitement throughout the match. Except this time, the stakes were even higher. It was the last competition you needed to win to qualify to be a Legend.

To be a Legend... Your biggest dream. You have been working towards this goal for quite awhile now.

Of course, the road was rocky. It had its ups and downs, but you're finally at your destination.

You can have it all now! The fame! The money! The recognition you've always wanted!

The recognition…

The recognition!!

How could you forget about the upcoming interview?? Every winner gets interviewed after their matches!

All that adrenaline must've blocked out some important information in your brain…

The match only finished a couple of hours ago, and now you've already got to go somewhere else.

Man, this is going to be extremely tiring…

What are they even going to ask?

How personal are they going to get?

Do you have to wear your competing outfit? Or can you just wear anything?

Why didn't anyone inform you about these things??

'You're going to get interviewed.' Yeah? And what else? They said where and when, but not much else.

God… Guess you'll have to improvise!

Forge wore a suit in his interview. The one that went wrong…

You'll have to dress fancy too then!

Make it elegant, but not too over the top.

You got this!

You got this.

——————————

Okay, maybe you don't got this.

All the cameras and the lights in this relatively empty room are extremely anxiety inducing.

The banners of you in your fighting outfit are pretty flattering, but being in the spotlight right in front of them is not the most calming thing you could be doing right now.

At least the photographers notified you to stay in your armor for the photoshoot…

They also cleaned you up after the match.

Wouldn't want a competitor in a blood sport to be bloody in the advertisements now, would we?

"Starting in 5 minutes! I repeat, we're starting in 5 minutes! Everyone to their places, check your equipment again to make sure everything works properly!" yelled the director. Every single staff member hurried to their places.

Huh, he commands the room well.

As you stand on the side awkwardly, the interviewer walks up to you and asks to go and sit down in the chairs located on the stage.

"Very nice to meet you, I'm Lisa Stone.

Some staff members are going to come up here in a second to put a microphone on you, so relax and get comfortable . You don't have anything to worry about"

Well, Forge didn't have anything to worry about in the beginning either… You wonder how Ms. Stone got over that incident. Probably required a whole lot of therapy. Poor woman.

"O-Oh thank you! Nice to meet you too." you replied, trying to look as relaxed as possible. It wasn't very convincing…

You both took your respective seats.

While 2 members of staff started putting hidden microphones on you and Ms. Stone, she picked up a stack of papers and looked through them.

The interview questions.

"One minute left! Everyone better be ready, no mistakes, this is going to be live!"

No mistakes. Don't mess up.

Be as level headed and polite as possible. Can't mess this up, if you do, no one will take you seriously.

It can't go worse than Forge's interview though, right…? I mean, it was a literal assassination… by the coolest robot to ever exist!

Okay maybe phrasing it like that is wrong, but it's true-!

"Are you ready to get started?" Mr. Stone inquired, interrupting your inner rambling.

"Oh! Y-Yes, I am." came your hesitant reply.

This is going to go great…

"Good. I know this can be hard on some people but there's no need to worry." she smiled reassuringly.

At least she's not actively working towards making your situation worse, you can appreciate that.

"Starting! In 5!"

The lights dimmed.

"4!"

Well, this is really happening.

"3!"

Ms. Stone faced the main camera, you followed.

"2!"

Goodbye last shred of confidence!

"1! ACTION!"

The lights slowly came back on.

"We're sitting here tonight with our latest Legend to join the Apex Games; (Y/N) (L/N). It's great to have you here." Ms. Stone began, turning towards you during the last part.

"Thank you! The pleasure is all mine." you answered, trying your best to seem less nervous.

"So, now that you're finally here, how does it feel to have accomplished such a big feat?" she questioned.

"To be honest with you, tiring, extremely tiring."

you exclaimed, Ms. Stone giving a short giggle to your response.

"But it feels great. Surreal even! Accomplishing one of my greatest dreams, one I've been working towards for so long, is still pretty hard to believe." you chuckled lightly.

"I can imagine. It must've been pretty hard having have had to train every day for multiple competitions.

Was it nerve-racking to have your very last match be a solo match?" she responded.

"It did amp up the anxiety for that match, yes. But I'm glad the last qualifier is played without teammates. I, and many others, will then know whether I'm actually good enough to proceed or not." you say, gaining a bit of confidence back. Maybe this whole interview thing isn't going to be so bad after all.

Mr. Stone looked at you, surprised.

"I haven't heard anyone say they preferred the solo matches for the finals before. Interesting." she noted. There was a short pause while she looked down to check her papers.

"Next question… 'Why did you decide to join the games'?" came her scripted inquiry.

"I don't like getting too personal on TV, but one of the reasons was that I like guns a lot. I love to go to firing ranges to try out various kinds of firearms. I don't own any personally, but I'm very much interested in them." you answered.

You really didn't want to get into your private life and past too much…

"Another reason is that I like strategy games and working in small teams. Something like the Apex Games seemed like the perfect combination of both!" you added right after.

Ms. Stone looked at you quizzically. She probably didn't expect an answer like that.

"What an interesting motive. So the reason is 'just for fun'? No deeper meaning there?" she tried to dig deeper, genuine curiosity appearing on her face.

"Nope! Just wanted something big I can achieve that I'll also enjoy."

You know that one is a lie.

"Curious… Let's do something more fun then:

'If you were to pick a favorite, out of the current roster of Legends, who would it be'?" she looked at you, once again, very interested.

You heard somewhere that this was one of her favorite questions to ask, but even then, somehow you didn't think this far…

"Well, this will sound very weird, because most people wouldn't choose him as a favorite… but um-" you take a long pause, palms becoming slightly sweaty.

You look away from her, not wanting to see her reaction to that answer.

It was indeed a very unique choice to have as one's most liked Legend.

"It's… um… Revenant…"

.

.

.

You swallowed, your mouth and throat feeling dry.

You've never heard a quieter silence before. Not a single person was making a sound, even the director was staring in shock.

Some people were looking around awkwardly, some were staring right at Ms. Stone and you. Eyes darting back and forth.

Ms. Stone stared at you, absolutely appalled, mouth slightly open. Her reaction was perfectly understandable.

Having seen that same simulacrum murder a Legend right in front of her…

You cannot blame her.

"P-Pardon?" she gives a nervous laugh. "Did I hear that right? Re-Revenant? The simulacrum?" she asks to confirm, tone uncertain.

You nod your head slightly, still not looking at her. Well you made this situation indescribably awkward.

You should've lied about this one thing; could've said Mirage or Pathfinder, or even Loba! But no! You had to tell the truth!

Ms. Stone cleared her throat. "We-Well, that's certainly… an… i-interesting choice. Um… May I ask why… him…?" her voice was shaky, having been reminded of what she has witnessed before, right in front of her.

You take a deep breath. You really need to think about this, you can't just compliment him all you want, he's still a murderer.

Be smart. Be empathetic, she got traumatized by him, you need to choose your words right.

"Umm… I'll be honest-" everyone takes a deep breath, "-it's, um… mostly because he… uh… h-he's cool…?" you say, drawing out the last two words.

The sentence sounded just as uncertain as you.

The staff kept staring at you, now solely focused on you.

"Ahaaa… and there's no other reason, at all?" she kept prying, suspicions still clearly present.

"Yeeaah… He just… does things so efficiently, e-even if they're horrible. He was designed so well…" you say back, trying to calm her down, if even just a little. You really do not want her, and all of the Outlands by extension, to hate you.

Ms. Stone kept staring at her pages, not reading any of the sentences written there. "Mhmm… He's efficient alright…" came a quiet murmur from her.

She finally turned back towards me.

"Now, people can have their preferences, within the law of course.

I'm relieved you don't agree with what he does, even though he's your favorite." she pipes up after a brief silence, still not sounding 100% sure about this.

Ms. Stone turned towards the main camera.

"Well that's all for today's interview. Thank you so much (Y/N), once again, for coming. We're happy to have another Legend join the games." she briefly takes a glance at you.

"We'll be back with the next championship's winners real soon. Stay tuned." she finishes up, completely professional.

As the live stream ends, everyone seems to sigh at the same time. This must've been one of the worst interviews they've witnessed throughout their careers. Oops.

Note to self: don't get into weird and awkward situations next time by choosing the worst option. You really don't need to ruin your reputation before even starting in the Apex Games…

If it isn't already too late for that…

——————————

After the whole debacle, you had to meet with your new manager. He was a kind dude, avoided the topic of your recent mess up so he doesn't embarrass you further with it.

He explained everything that needed to be known before your first game; where you'll be staying from now on, training routines, schedules, gear, sponsors, how the seasons work, etc.

You also had to sort out some more paperwork before everything became completely official. You wrote your name so many times, it was unbelievable. You're pretty sure you haven't written it this many times while you were learning to write when you were just a kid!

This whole day has been extremely tiring… By the time you got home it had been late at night and you were ready to pass out and never see the world ever again.

Your new apartment welcomed you with open arms. The bed looked oh so enticing in the bedroom, but before you could get in it to finally be sent to the dream world, you had to unpack your things.

You got the biggest walk-in closet you've ever seen, to load your clothes into. The shiniest bathroom you've been in, to set your hygiene products up in.

It really does pay to be a Legend, huh? And you haven't even had your first match as one yet!

After you finished putting everything away, you went back to the bathroom to get ready for a shower.

It's astounding how high up the apartment is, the large floor to ceiling windows give a great view of the world below. The gorgeous starry sky mixed with the beautiful lights below, made for a sight to behold.

After you finished admiring the new perspective you got thanks to your new living space, you got into the shower to wash off all the dirt and stress you've acquired today. Finishing your shower, you got out of the steam filled cabin, dried yourself off with a nice fluffy towel and got dressed in your nightwear. Before going to bed however, you didn't forget to wash your teeth.

Throughout your nightly routine, you started to feel more and more relaxed, becoming less and less aware of your surroundings. All you were focused on was finally getting to sleep.

At last, you got into bed, covered yourself in the enormous blankets that laid on the mattress beforehand.

Looking around your room, you thought about how you were going to decorate the place in the future. In its current state, it all looked very generic, something straight out of a display in a furniture store.

It didn't take long for you to enter dreamland after a couple of ideas that slowly made their way through your head.

.

.

.

What you didn't notice before that, however, were the pair of seemingly floating, glowing eyes watching through your windows with clear interest…

[ask-ikevamp-faust]

Faust!!! You speaking spanish really surprised me! I'm really happy when I discover sides like this from you! You for sure have a great person as a teacher taking good care of you and I really don't expect less from someone as smart as you. That was very very sweet, thank you! 🩷 Still, I'm trying my best to write in english to make things comfortable.

I've been really tired this days but reading your words the other day gimme such a energy boost! I was less tired in a instant! It really put me in such high spirits even if everything feels so awful lately.

I'm working the most dreadful job ever, I wish I could do everything but what I'm doing right now. I wish I was doing something more trivial like cleaning houses, everything to escape, I could be cleaning the castle where you live, I wonder how much the wrinkle old bat would pay for dusting off the whole place (haha).

Such delusions I have. I do respect people who do domestic labor, they deserve more recognition and to be payed more!

I think a lot of my bitterness comes from me spending already 10-12 hours in the office, so I really have very limited time between the week for myself. When I take my time to write back to people, I'm giving them part of the little time I have. I think how every person's time is precious.

I think a lot about this woman that I really like who talks a lot about otome games and I really like how she always takes her time to reply to every single person who leaves a comment or ask a question and she says is because if someone is taking their time and effort to leave some words, the least she can do is doing the same.

TBH I did over did the other day at work and stayed very late, but just because I wanted to have some peace of mind today and I leave work early. I had to take a bath because everyone was sweaty and stinky in the bus I took and It was packed so I was feeling pretty gross. Right now I'm just writing before going to bed.

There was a beautiful white full moon while walking at home the other day and today there was a golden moon slowly rinsing to the sky.

Really considering making a "faustian bargain" just so you're here with me (doesn't sound that crazy if I look for a way) I would love to have a date, either to walk at the beach or a tour in your secret lab with the corpses you have there, both sound absolutely delightful to me ✨

I think is very sweet you're taking word from your admi to tone it down, but I do think one of the things I love about you is the extremes of your personality, I think it makes a perfect balance of you, you can be very rough and harsh and yet very soft and kind. I think there were already some times in past replies when I was the gremlin to you and you were trying to be annoying but I expect as much of you.

Sleeping is also very unpleasant to me lately, I wish at least one sweet dream of you and less nightmares at night, I don't know what I have to do to channel those positive ideas. I really wish you a very cosy oversleeping to you ☺️ I just wanted to write back as soon as posible 🩷

– @crowmero

Don’t praise my admin. It's undeserved, I had to find resources on my own. She claims it’s unfair if any of us in the castle speak her second language since the rest of us speak languages she doesn’t understand. You may continue to write in English or switch between both languages, I’m fine either way. If it serves as good English practice for you then who am I to deprive you of it.

I doubt Vlad would pay at all when the overly devoted Charles is here doing everything. Try convincing Charles to work less around here, maybe you’ll open an opportunity for yourself. Of course if the castle is too big, you can always become my employee; my lab always needs to be cleaned. 

If you don't mind sharing, why did you choose your current job and what’s keeping you there? If it’s causing you so much distress you should find something else. It could potentially harm your overall well-being in the long run if you continue putting such stress on yourself. 

It’s good to see that there are still people in this time who reciprocate and show appreciation for people’s time, like this woman you mentioned. I agree with this sentiment, time is precious. That may sound odd coming from a vampire but in my line of work, I’ve seen many people run out of time for several reasons. Life and time are extremely precious.

Mmmm, it’s difficult to punish you for staying extra at work when you leave early the next day. I suppose your decision deserves praise.

Is that truly what you desire? To spend time with me… Hmm I’ll have to add kidnapping you on my list, right next to my grave digging.

Excellent, this means my admin can’t try to scold me for being a “gremlin”. Now then, don’t be shocked if you receive the extremes of my personality from now on. And yes, I recall our other replies, such fun banter. I expect more of it from you, don’t disappoint me.

You’re strange, most people would consider it a nightmare if I appeared in their dreams. However, if you're seriously trying, they say that if you think about something before falling asleep, you’ll dream about whatever you were thinking about. Try thinking about me before sleeping, find pictures of me as well if it helps with immersion. I’d like to know if this method works, so make sure you share the results of this experiment with me.

By the way, @crowmero there's no need to reply to me as soon as possible. I'm not going anywhere, I'm always here; even at the most random hours because my sleep schedule does not exist.

[residentweasels]

Radiohead Songs With Resident Evil Characters

Featuring very few characters this time cus I took the time to apply correctly and describe why I put what..

Equally so, the descs of the songs do not match the actual meanings, I applied meanings that I believe would fit the characters themselves ! Every character got two, and some got a bonus :^)

Chris Redfield -

Vegetable (points towards having done so much for what feels like nothing, repetition in the refusal to stop and to spit at anyone who tries to stop, overall a tired song of someone who is on the cusp of giving up),

(Nice Dream) (The minute hope and joy in one good dream could put a pause on everything else in reality, that one sheer, minimal good thing would be a deal-breaker against what is just another day all the same against what has been a stalemate on earth for as long as he's been around to try and solve it. That if at night, he could sleep and have a good dream it would be what he needed only then.),

BONUS: MAN OF WAR (pretty self explanatory, descriptive of being designed to kill despite the eventual fact of death sooner or later only meaning he'll be food for the worms)

Leon Kennedy -

How To Disappear Completely (after everything done, everything experienced is a hum and a denial that "I'm not here" creating an implication of dissociation towards events, something I apply as a hc but yk. not to mention the idea of moments like that already passing, as if the pause in action could reverberate the worst of it all in a single second),

Street Spirit (expectations of perfection, protection and a steelish way of life that can't keep itself together, broken thoughts become lyrics in this with the slow rising ticking and picking of the song to act as the time being always just out. Mentions of death like a glaring concept as if the mere idea of death being so close isn't a shock much anymore)

Ethan Winters -

Paranoid Android (Applicable lyrics against things he's faced, feelings he has, repetitive notions towards different lyrics, ending off with "God loves his children" bringing back to the catholic part which is a friends hc!)

Fake Plastic Trees (dissatisfaction in a life deemed unreal, sad tones and consistent mentions to being worn out but still going, wishing to just escape)

Albert Wesker -

All I Need (a continuous sentence of indecision, whether things are right or wrong. Putting oneself down and then up again, consistently denying yet desiring someone to love "you are all I need, you're all I need" before it shifts into the rest of the song being "it's all wrong" "it's all right")

Videotape (Depictions and descriptions of hesitation, repetitive audio creates that feeling of being unable to properly finish the beat, the thought and therfore the words against someone who they won't ever see again)

BONUS: Ill Wind (a short quiet echoed song of reverberating the belief that showing emotion could make an ill wind, a cold blow of words that "must not be spoken")

William Birkin -

My Iron Lung (love driven away, consistent tone of something eery, a cynical happiness towards something that really isn't happy, but under the facade of sarcasm/humor in the midst of suffering)

No Surprises (with everything someone can do in a life, there comes a point where you're only living to provide, to leave that lasting mark while making an internal promise to not leave anyone behind who needs them in their life, "no alarms and no surprises" is a quiet, gone feeling of just slipping away, not in control)

Sherry Birkin -

Everything in Its Right Place (repetition, glitched out memories of words, but the tone shift between the pacing and singing makes it feel like a slow moment in a fast scene, constantly dealing with everything at a time with no near end)

Ful Stop (true ignorance is bliss, choosing to know and ignore the wrong you see is its own form of moronic tragedy. This song represents the harsh reality that someone can face, and how destructive it may prove to be if you can't accept the truth. Most of the song is the repeated lyrics of "truth will mess you up" accompanied by a picked up pace in speed of the song as "all the good times" floods over the truth, covering up what should have been accepted a long time ago.)

Excella Gionne -

Nude (Soft, even tones and higher pitches as if it's a calm scene, but it describes a sort of guilt inducing scene, as if the nice sounds of the song are meant to be a false sense of safety to let the 'truth' in, a guilt towards either not being enough, or being too much for someone),

Burn The Witch (a sharp, repetitive song meant to replay a single type of feeling as something builds up, a feeling of confident anger accompanied solely by the idea that its meant to represent a panic attack. The chorus is a break in the pace to be a reminder of the duty, the reminder of being the messenger, the voice of the song)

[overplannedbutunnamednpc]

1, 3, 30 for glade, 8 and 16, for Nyxi, and 12 for Legacy

Glade:

1. Things you said before you knew any better

It was strange these days to have Ruin actually be here.

Not that Glade minded it! Quite the opposite! His baby sister was always welcome. She was also pretty good at finding whatever place Glade had picked to squat in that week, which was… well, Glade frankly didn’t know how she did it every single time, when not even the Crownsguard had noticed his hovel-hopping, but he wasn’t a complainer when it came to Ruin.

She didn’t take up much space, either. Physically or emotionally. Ruin was only an inch or two clearing five foot, and not much of a talker.

Not much of an emotional talker, at the very least. Glade could throw a dart blindfolded at a wall filled with feelings words and be about as sure of where it would land as he was sure about his baby sister’s inner thoughts.

It made it all the more surprising when Ruin sat down heavily next to him on the place’s couch, unwrapping the foil off her baked potato as if it didn’t just come out of the oven and biting into it like a corn dog, and asked, “So what’s with you and that bodyguard?”

Glade, who couldn’t just eat or pick up recently-baked potatoes, dropped his fork, and then swore. Elvish, which surprised him. He’d been picking something up, apparently, but not the part of the language he’d actually find useful, of course. “Uh— what do you mean?”

“Playing dumb doesn’t work on me,” Ruin replied. “You fed me long enough for me to recognize when you’re counting coins.” She held up her fingers, counting them off as she continued. “You put some aside yesterday while buying dinner for us, and took it with you when you went to 'temple' this morning."

Her free hand does the air quotes for temple. Glade stuffs a too-hot piece of potato in his mouth and does his level best to not spit it out when it's still too hot.

"Then, when I go to pick you up from the terrors of organized religion, what do I see but you with a tat-faced tiefling and two cups of hot coffee, just laughing away. She's got palace guard garb on, but she was hanging out with you instead of going directly to the palace for shift change, so she's not a regular guard. Ergo, bodyguard. Crownsguard bodyguard. Who you're buying coffee."

Glade winced. He hoped he could pass it off as his burnt mouth. "Uh."

"Gotcha." Ruin leaned back to focus on her own dinner. "Does she know you're a no-good criminal?"

"Of course she doesn't," Glade replied, defensive. "She's Crownsguard. She'd have to turn me in. Both of us, if you were here, too."

"So you're just buying her coffee... what, to throw her off your scent or something?"

Glade shook his head, almost violently. "No! No, nothing like that! That makes it sound like I'm... tricking her or something."

Ruin hummed, then, singsongy, "So you're just in loooooove."

Glade studiously ignored the feeling that evoked in him. Ruin didn’t know what she was talking about. Just because she saw the two of them talking— no. And it would never work, anyway.

“No, c’mon. It’s not like that. We’re just, you know, hanging out. We’re friends. She’s too… Crownsguard for me, anyway.”

“Okay, man. You do you.” Ruin looked him over a little too knowingly. “But I’m telling you now, I am not wearing anything pastel for your wedding.”

3. Things you said before leaving

The two of them died angry.

Which, yeah. He couldn't say he blamed them. He had taken to wearing two handkerchiefs soaked with water over his mouth and nose so that the smoke didn't kill him, too.

It still seemed to be working, which was nice.

Hrall—Glade Razed, maybe, he hadn’t decided—was exhausted. And he wasn’t angry, though he didn’t really know why. Maybe he was too tired, but Kriviri—Rest Ruined?—was tired, too, and she was angry. She was thinking she’d shorten the whole thing to just Ruin.

He just kind of felt… numb. Though.

The druids that actually had shown up weren’t able to stop the eruption, but at least most of them stayed. It would have been a lot more difficult to bury everyone if they hadn’t.

Even that, though, was done. All that was left was ashfall and broken buildings, two dead parents and two new names.

He probably did have to use the new name.

“Sir?” asked Alasse. They had taken to using the word lately, because he didn’t know if he’d use the new name, and they said they admired his strength and weren’t calling anyone else anything respectful here, so it may as well go to him. “Our wagon is almost ready. I was wondering if you were still coming with.”

“In a second,” he promised. He and Ruin had nowhere else to go, after all. “I just…”

He didn’t finish the sentence. Alasse waited for the end, and, when it didn’t come, simply nodded. They looked over the scene, too, in the detached way they had. “Something will grow here,” they said. “But not in the time it will take for you to kill yourself waiting for it.”

“Something will grow here,” he repeated.

“I can promise it,” they confirmed. “Are you ready to go?”

Glade Razed. It sat badly on his back. He straightened up a bit. Mentally rewrote it. Recontextualized it. Razed now, but not forever. “I’m ready as I can be, I think. Alasse?”

“Yes, sir?”

“You can call me Glade.”

30. Things you said when you should have been quiet

One day, Glade was going to get in trouble for this.

Amaunator was a goddess of the sun, so her temple was almost never open at night, except for the summer solstice and Longest Night. Glade wouldn’t know this, except Lent had complained enough when she was taking shifts as Iris’ day guard that she could pretty much never go to temple considering her off hours were spent either sleeping or in the dark.

Didn’t affect Glade much, really. He didn’t go to temple except to see her, back when, and he could always think of more interesting things to do in the dark anyway.

It was well past sundown. He wouldn’t see anyone. The place had surprisingly terrible security, too, for being a temple of Amaunator, a temple for the Crownsguard. Then again, they probably didn’t expect anyone to be stupid enough to break into a temple of the Crownsguard.

Normally, Glade wouldn’t be this stupid, but that was under normal circumstances. Sometimes, things weren’t normal. Sometimes, Lent woke up clawing at her eyes and sobbing, convinced she was blind because they didn’t have the lights on. Sometimes, the city got a new infusion of Crownsguard recruits, and ninety-five percent of them whispered and cowered from him, convinced he was some sort of criminal mastermind, and the other five percent were brave enough to spit at his back, and Glade had to take it nicely because he wasn’t about to make a scene while buying squash. Sometimes, he had to play nice with Endurance, because both Iris and Glade were visiting the city at the same time, and Iris had been hoping to make friends with another person associated with the Motherfuckers.

These things alone would probably have been enough to make him angry, but he could have been angry within his own four walls. (Lent’s four walls? It was her adventuring money, but then again, it was him staying there full-time.)

These things all together? Well.

So, yeah, he shouldn't be doing this, but he wanted to. It was pretty unlikely he got caught. If he did, well. Lent would be coming home to a hell of a scene. But he wouldn't be caught. And he had to.

He had to.

The temple was beautiful. Large stained glass windows and white marble meant to reflect the light at all points of the day. Some cunningly-positioned mirrors and crystals reflected enough light into the place that it was always lit like high noon even late in the day. Yes, it was a beautiful temple.

Glade struggled not to throw one of the heavy holy books out one of the fragile, fragile windows.

“You raise your children to be sanctimonious, obsessed, ignorant, selfish, violent bastards,” he said, whirling on the altar instead. Amaunator wasn’t depicted as a humanoid here. She was the Sun in the window behind the altar, the books of Neilian law in the shelves in the back rooms. She was the fragile book of prayer the high priest Ferire put on clean gloves to open every morning, the same book Glade would drive a dagger through if it wouldn’t get him hunted down like a dog and Lent in more trouble than she already was. There was still enough to hiss expletives at.

“And you have the fucking gall to pretend as if Relentless still might belong with you. To allow her to believe there’s still some reconciliation because there’s something, anything, that links you and her. Anything at all that makes you similar. There isn’t. You are manipulative. You are unbending in the same way cold iron is, and you are exactly as brittle. You aren’t worth being scraped off a shoe alongside horse shit, and you call yourself a fucking goddess! As if you don’t see what they do! As if you didn’t see what they did to her! Either you are as powerful as that book calls you, in which case you are cruel and a coward, or you’re weak, sniveling, and pathetic.” He’d gotten past hissing. He was yelling. Whoops. “I’m inclined to think you’re both. Cruel, pathetic, self-serving, you—”

He heard a door open deeper in the temple.

Fuck.

Glade wasn’t supposed to be here. One day, he was going to get in trouble for this.

Not today, though. He didn’t have many spells, but one could turn him invisible. He had two slots for it—one was for sneaking in, the other was for sneaking out.

But, unable to help himself, he hissed one last time, up to the Sun in the window, “Go fuck yourself, pig-tupping bitch.”

A terrible insult to the pig, really.

It was… probably good she wasn’t listening, though, because even after that, he actually could turn invisible.

Nyxi:

8. Things you said you immediately regretted

“You’re really leaving?”

Nyxi steeled herself, and nodded. “I’m a tutor, Martha. And you’ve got no one left here to tutor, and certainly no one left to nanny.”

Her patron frowned, but finally nodded. She had a single curl of greying hair that had escaped her meticulous updo, and it bounced with the motion. Her hair had gone grey so fast. Nyxi still barely believed it, and it had already been years.

“I’ll miss you,” Juniper said. All of seventeen. Oh, how Nyxi wished it were just her and Martha. Juniper hadn’t yet left home, but it would be soon, and Nyxi had needed to rip the bandage off before that happened. She couldn’t say goodbye to the last of her babies. She couldn’t.

“I’ll miss you, too,” Nyxi said, turning to the teenager. “I’ll miss the whole family. But you won’t need me anymore. It’s time for me to go.”

Juniper hesitated visibly. Then, “You’ll visit? Or, hells, nanny for us, when Derrick and Feena or someone have kids?”

Nyxi’s already soft heart melted. Damn this girl—her girl, who she had held since she was still newborn and bloody from Martha’s own body. She loved her children, all of them, but Juniper was hers, hers. “I’ll be back, baby,” she murmured. “I’ll visit. And I’ll— when you all have your children, they’ll be my children, too.”

The grateful grin on Juniper’s face was intentionally lost by Nyxi closing her eyes in immediate regret. As if leaving weren’t hard enough, as if her children growing and leaving weren’t enough. Another generation of Elevines—Juniper’s hair greying just as Martha’s—their babies Nyxi’s own. A family Nyxi would never keep. Two hundred more years of this? How many generations of humans was that? And Nyxi, slowly and slowly older, an old woman who never made a family of her own, because her family outgrew and outgrew her.

A terrible promise.

But Juniper had asked.

16. Things you said rather than apologizing

Eve was a teenager.

Sometimes, Nyxi had to repeat that fact to herself. Eve was a teenager. Really, Eve was a child. She could barely be counted as a teenager. She really only counted as a teenager when she was trying to be just that little bit older than a child.

Sometimes, telling herself that Eve was a child, or teenager, was Nyxi’s way of keeping herself level-headed around the girl. Eve could be cruel or snarky, could be biting and bitterly sarcastic, and, frankly, could be downright annoying.

Other times, Nyxi had to tell herself that Eve was a child because if she didn’t repeat it over and over to herself, she would scream it in the face of Eve’s so-called parents, along with some well-chosen expletives and maybe a comment or two about the sorts of terrible things that should befall various choice anatomies of theirs.

But they didn’t exactly seem to know that. They treated Eve alternatively like a paid servant or a prize-winning house pet, and not like the child she was. Nyxi couldn’t stand seeing the way the girl stood straighter through the doors of the house, like a soldier at attention. She couldn’t stand the way her parents’ eyes slid right past the both of them in the exact same way, as if their own child—their beautiful, snarky, intelligent, annoying, clever, funny, perfect little girl—never mind that she was a teenager now—was little more than a piece of expensive furniture. She hated that she was hired, not as a companion and caretaker, but as a minder, as a protector of an investment, as a second line of defense against those who would take advantage of a child on the roads they strongly encouraged Eve to travel.

Some days, Nyxi wanted to take Eve by the shoulders and shake her. Others, she wanted to hug her and never let her go. Some days—this was one—Nyxi wanted to tell Eve that she was sorry they didn’t love her like they loved the others, that she was sorry they thought of her as an asset, that she was sorry about the bare minimum Eve had gotten used to.

But, Eve was much more likely to sneer at her or yell or tell her parents rather than allow that apology, so instead, Nyxi looks around Eve’s room and picks something at random. “Did you make any of this?” she asked, choosing a few embroidery hoops and holding them up for Eve to have something to do instead of looking down at her hands.

“No, I just have random half-finished embroidery laying around,” Eve replied. Nyxi didn’t have to be looking to know she was rolling her eyes.

“Maybe that was the point of the finished product. Far be it from me to judge creativity. Don’t be rude.” Nyxi was smiling, though. Eve had looked up from her hands, stood up from her bed. Small victories. Small apologies.

Legacy:

12. Things you said that got interrupted

Dang it. She totally lost count on this row. “Okay, uh. One, knit, one, purl, two, knit, two, purl, three—”

Adore.

She didn’t look up, at first. “Just a second!”

Adore, I am not your mother.

All at once, like a cart crashing into another in a busy market, Adore recognized the voice. She was familiar with it from dreams, recurring ones with soft voices and comforting touch. She mostly only remembered snippets, but hearing this voice, now, it’s all like perfect clarity, like Adore having a conversation with someone yesterday at school instead of a dream she’d had a month ago.

“…Baba?” she tried. She looked around the room. Empty. But a familiar sensation—a hand settling gently on the top of her head.

I hope you don’t mind the imposition. I thought it better to meet you outside your dreams. The waking world, it feels more real to mortals like you.

Adore couldn’t argue there. It wasn’t scary—not like nightmares were scary—but it definitely felt different than the safety of “it was just a dream” like it’s been for everything since she first met Baba. The hand on her head was gentle, but she could still feel the claws on it when it started stroking over her hair. “Why?” she asked. It seemed a fair question.

We have been talking. I thought our talks could continue. You should be aware that anything you agree to, you agree to in something other than the world of your dreams. I thought I should prove myself real, and that my offers were real as well.

“Both eyes open,” Adore confirmed, repeating a phrase Baba had used.

Both eyes open. Adore got the sensation of approval. I am not interested in trickery. I see much more use in negotiation. As I say, you are my blood. I would like you to think well about what I offer. You are clever, and I would not begrudge you second thoughts or negotiation. What I offer, I offer honestly, and it will have an effect on your life and on your soul. So I offer it in your real world. Would you still like to speak about it?

Adore grinned, and the hand in her hair picked up the bulk of the strands, separating them into three equal parts to start braiding. “I would. Baba, you still say you are a devil?”

I do.

“Tell me about your deal.”

Very well.

[iamgrowingstronger-blog]

Cloning Clyde

Hours played: Around 10

Completion: 100%'d

I believe this was among the first wave of games for the Xbox 360 marketplace, and man, I remember playing the shit out of the trial version of this game as a kid. I don't think I even knew what the concept of trial version meant, but that didn't stop me from replaying the game again and again. Recently, I saw it was cheap on Steam and decided to buy it and finally see once and for all what was in the full version of the game.

The biggest thing I love about the game is its graphics, honest. Everybody has some old video game artstyle they really love, be it the beautiful pixel art on some of the titles on the PC-98, or the early uncanny stages of 3D on the PS1. For me, it's gotta be the specific kind of 3D in this game that I can't find the words to describe (maybe when I get better at writing). Combined with the surprisingly animated Clydes you control, and the game has this style that, while old, does not feel very dated. I absolutely adore how this game looks.

Anyway. You control the Clydes in individual levels, defeating security robots and exploding chickens to reach the goal while using various switch mechanisms, using animals to get further, and combining your Clyde WITH an animal to gain new abilities. The game only really has a handful of assets: just four or five level types, the aforementioned enemies are the only enemies, and the number of different puzzle-related objects are probably in the single-digits. Despite that, I never really got tired of the game's small handful of assets. I always enjoyed kicking the crap out of the security robots or jumping around the map riding a sheep, or pulling a random lever to see what happens. What the game has is charm.

However, the game does have a big weak point: the level design. Aside from the occasional puzzle that made me think a little bit, most levels can be beaten while functioning on autopilot. If you're going for 100%, the levels can just feel tedious, since some of them have 15 or 20 Clydes that you have to control and have escape individually, one at a time. Other times, the levels just get questionable, like how there were a couple levels toward the end that were very, very spacious for seemingly no reason. I didn't hate it, but it felt like instead of doing something new, they just took a level and spread it way out. GImmicks get reused, objects get used in the same way, and thus, a lot of the game's 30 or so levels blend together. There were a couple that stuck out, like a neat catapult puzzle that made me have to think for a minute, or the penultimate level, which was this absolutely massive sprawling course that felt like this game's The Great Maze from Brawl, but generally, most were forgettable.

Another gripe is the lack of background music. You'll get a little melody at the start of levels or for defeating every security robot in a level, but otherwise, it's just silent. In a game like Frogger Returns, I'm focused so much on not dying that I don't notice as much, but in a more explorative, relaxed game like this, it really bugs me.

For what the game has, I still really like it. It pretty much was what my childhood self remembered: this fun, jank little game with funny little character animations. I really, really wanted to give this game a 7, but it just doesn't quite reach that bar. Too much of the game just doesn't feel like it's pushing what it has to the limit. It's not the lack of assets that's the problem, it's that they mostly get used in very surface-level ways. Most levels in the game you could stick at the beginning and few would bat an eye.

Overall score: 6/10. Can recommend, was a fun experience. If you're an achievement hunter-type, this game is pretty easy to 100% on top of being relatively short.

[busyfish]

.

sometimes i wish i had never asked you to hang out with me

i wish you would have just said no instead of like getting my hopes up. i wish you hadn't lied about things too when you finally came back.

i spent about a week hyping myself up before i actually like asked. i honestly thought i was going to throw up like every single day before then. i'm a little surprised i didn't after i did even though i was actually pretty proud of myself for actually going for it. it's odd to feel like that is now kind of like the best and worst day that i can remember in a very long time. it took a few weeks to sink in before it felt like the worst. and then a few months before it hit me in the face. i think that is part of what's made it so hard for me to like let go of all of this. why? i want to know why you did everything like this?

you could have just told me you changed your mind. i know that's scary. i know even saying no is scary. but i was VERY scared to even ask. doing the scary thing a lot of the time is the right thing.

i still cannot bring myself to really be upset with you. i miss seeing you around here. even if you never messaged me again i would be so happy just to see you posting. i like seeing the things you like, or even the things you dislike, seeing your thoughts and feelings and things.

i wonder sometimes what you thought of the new mitski album. i wonder if you listened to the new beach bunny album. i wonder what you're reading right now, watching, playing. Are you excited for tears of the kingdom? what version of pokemon are you going to get?

i feel so messed up. i really wanted to be someone that mattered to you. for a while i thought maybe i did. i wanted to be close, really close, maybe even some day your closest friend. maybe that's selfish of me. you said a lot of really sweet and kind things to me. we had some really nice interactions. i was feeling really down and lost and everything around me was crumbling and you were just so sweet and kind to me. you made me feel special and like i was worth something to someone and now that's just gone without any real explanation, probably no closure, and you probably don't even think about me. i feel like such an idiot. i've thought about you every single day since december.

i don't even know what i'm doing. i just have A LOT weighing on my chest over this and i just want to maybe just get it out there somewhere. i'm really tired. today's been draining. i have to hang out with someone tonight and i'm already tired from it. don't get me wrong, she's nice but i don't know, she's just a real big try hard and wants to be an influencer and all that and it's just such draining energy to hang out with someone who's putting on a face for an audience all the time. every time i end up doing something like this it makes me think about you, how i wish i was giving you my energy instead. i would gladly give you my time and energy and i feel like a lot of the time i'm wasting it on other people. i don't relate with a lot of them, even though they're nice and all that, i just wish it was you instead. i have a couple of friends that i do enjoy hanging out with but it's just i feel so often there's people who i'm just wasting time with. i think about the song geyser a lot when i think about that. there's been a few hands that have beckoned. i turn them down. my heart's not into it.

it's really stupid right?

you don't even know. you have no idea how much of a devoted friend you have just waiting here for you, like a dog. i made you a few playlists. i wish i could give them to you. sometimes i feel like they can say more than i can put into words. or at least blurt out. i did blurt out some things to you but it's so withdrawn and i held back because i didn't want to seem weird or crazy. i have promised myself though that if i ever get the chance, i'm going to say the things i've wanted to say. i mean beside liek here just embarrassing myself. i know that this is such a misunderstood thing and i hate explaining it to people because i feel like there's a lot of misconceptions. i've had someone tell me that i'm not being honest with myself or whatever and i've been bullied from feeling or expressing or whatever about you. i do feel a lot of heartbreak. i had really hoped we'd be able to be closer and it looked like we were going to finally walk down that path or whatever. but now i'm here by myself wondering why you chose to do things like this.

[superlintball]

Diary Entry 2/7/24

Dear [qpr],

What the fuck. What the actual fuck.

I just.

What?

You sent me a letter detailing how you're in love with me and also hate my partner and closed it off with telling me how you know that you've just touched on my biggest insecurities and it's okay to hate me.

But... you didn't.

Yes, I'm angry, but my immediate and most pronounced emotion was, frankly, bewilderment.

In the immortal words of one of my favorite YouTube videos, "Good lord, that's remarkable. And completely wrong. Everything you said. Was wrong."

Jesus fuck, every single assumption and every single guess you made in that letter was completely incorrect, and I'm just bewildered. Clearly, you don't know me as well as you think you do.

Honestly, apparently you don't know me as well as I thought you did.

Twas wild.

Let's go through the whole thing, shall we?

First, let's start with me.

You are in a committed, functionally monogamous, relationship

No? I'm not? You do understand that the whole point of a QPR is that it's a platonic relationship that's just as deep as a romantic one, right? Like that's the definition of it. Yes, I only have one romantic partner, but I spend half my time at your place. That's not monogamy, you fucking dumbass. Genuinely, it took my partner a while to come around on you, entirely because our relationship is so deep. So fuck you for that one, I guess.

And beyond that, the only reason I'm not dating anyone else is just that I'm lazy. You know that right? Like I've been thinking about making a dating profile for a while, but I don't want to deal with the awful experience of dating apps. I tend to ghost anyone who wants to hook up on Lex because we start talking about logistics and I just get tired. That's literally it. [Partner] is the same way; I'd love it if they hooked up with someone but they just aren't up to it either. lmao

My guess is that you “cheated” on [partner]. For months. With [ex]. My guess is you either didn’t tell [ex] about [partner], or [partner] about [ex]. Or both.

This is where the genuine bewilderment comes in.

Because... no.

Also side note: why did you put quotes around "cheated"? Do you think it's not cheating if you personally don't like my partner? The fuck is that about?

Anyway.

Do you know what my deepest fear is? idk if it counts as an insecurity but it's definitely my deepest fear.

My deepest fear is losing the trust of someone I love. It's having someone that I care about decide I'm not as reliable as they once thought, or that they can't always believe what I say, or that I won't keep their secrets. It's the idea that they can't trust me anymore.

Trust is the most important thing in the world to me, so much more than love.

So the idea. That you. A person whom I thought knew me pretty fucking well. Would think. That I would lie. To my partner. For months. Is FUCKING INSANE.

I was gobsmacked reading that.

You're not wrong in that I did cheat on [partner] with [ex], but it's not how you think. Because I convinced myself that I wasn't.

There was never a point where either of them didn't know about the other.

My relationship with [ex] was completely platonic until I had a long conversation with them and also [partner] and we decided to try it out. Because I'd known for a long time that I was polyamorous.

The problem was that I could tell that it was hard for [partner], so I didn't give them details. That was how I cheated. [Partner] wanted us to go slow, so I didn't tell them how fast [ex] and I were moving. [Ex] wanted us to move quickly, so I didn't tell them how slowly [partner] wanted us to move.

And I convinced myself that this was okay because I was just protecting their feelings by not giving the gory details, so I didn't technically do anything wrong.

Was I wrong? Absolutely.

But at the end of the day, what happened was that I failed to communicate and hurt both of my partners very deeply in the process.

[Ex] and I only explicitly dated for like, maybe 3 weeks. At some point, [partner] asked me point-blank for all the details, and I, having convinced myself that I hadn't done anything wrong, told them everything, because I would never lie to them.

And they looked at me and said that I had disrespected their boundaries and gone much further than they were comfortable with. That that was cheating.

And I was like "well shit. Yeah, you're right."

So yes, I did cheat. But no, it was not a form of self-sabotage. No it was not for months. And no, I did not explicitly lie to my partner for months. What the actual fuck.

God, I have so many fucking thoughts.

No, [partner] is not taking advantage of me.

How DARE you accuse them of that.

What are you even BASING this off of? The fact that you've met them all of FIVE TIMES? The fact that for over half of the time we've known each other, you've completely shut down every time I mention them? WHERE ARE YOU MAKING THIS ASSUMPTION FROM?

Or maybe it's your trauma? It's the fact that you have experienced being wildly mentally ill and disabled and yet still forcing yourself to keep going and find a way to make things work without asking for help? You can only fathom someone finding that help as doing so maliciously?

It's fucking bullshit.

I had to fight to get [partner] to let me take care of them financially.

They refused.

For years, they refused.

And I watched them suffer for it. They have no family at all, no safety net. They tried to force themselves through college, and failed. They tried to force themselves to work, and broke their body doing it.

It was miserable. I couldn't bear to watch.

And at every turn, I asked if I could help. Please, dear god, let me help you. Let me in. Let me be someone you can lean on.

And finally, slowly but surely, after 3 years of dating and 4 years of knowing each other, they let me be someone they leaned on.

How. Fucking. Dare. You. Accuse them of maliciousness.

They would be out there. Right now. Continuing to break their body to pay half of our expenses if I hadn't fought tooth and nail to convince them to let me support them financially.

I've spent so many therapy sessions dissecting my relationship with them. I've talked with them so many times about it.

We've worked through it. You tell me that you can pass judgment because you were homeless while dating a doctor?

What if I said that YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN.

This isn't me saying that you should have asked for help. This is me saying that your partner should have seen that you were homeless and found a way to help you. To convince you that you could lean on them, could let them in and let them support you. That you didn't have to go it alone. That your worth is not connected to your ability to work. That they should have fought to make you as happy as they could.

But we already know that I hate your exes, don't we?

Anyway, when everything exploded with [partner] about [ex], they broke up with me.

I don't think they'd have done that if they were using me for my money, would they have?

I fought so hard to earn back their trust.

That was what got me into therapy.

For the better part of three months, every therapy session I had was working through my emotions, figuring out how I felt, why I missed them, whether I wanted them back, all that shit.

So yeah, I know exactly how I'd feel if we broke up.

And I promise that yes, I would actually miss them.

And also that I'll be okay. Losing [cat] won't be the end of the world. Yes, it'd suck, but I've already experienced the idea of her not being in my life, and fun fact: the idea of [partner] not being there was a lot worse.

Another fun fact: I actually am not insecure about whether or not I can find a romantic partner.

I have absolute confidence that if [partner] and I were to break up tomorrow, I wouldn't be alone for the rest of my life. Even if I hate myself, even if I think I'm ugly, I've managed to internalize that inexplicably, people find me attractive.

I know I'll be okay if we break up.

Relationships aren't transactional, but to be clear, what do I get from them? Joy. I get to see them smile, and laugh. I get to know what they're interested in and what they're listening to. I get to eat their cooking and share in their culture. I get someone who will teach me about plants and lean into my stupid bits. I get someone who makes me laugh. I get to be in love with my favorite person.

Also fun fact: they do a lot more emotional labor for me than I do for them. Also what makes you think I send them thousands of dollars at the drop of a hat? I've literally never done that. They've never asked me to. They never would. They feel so guilty about every cent I spend on them.

Sigh.

Every single guess you made about me, every single assumption and claim you made about [partner], was completely and utterly incorrect.

And I'm extremely angry at the way you perceive [partner].

They have tried so hard to develop a relationship with you despite the fact that you refuse to engage with them. They send you gifts and recommend things through me. They ask about your cats and how you are doing. They try so hard to care about you JUST BECAUSE I CARE ABOUT YOU. And they trust my judgment in people, so if I think you're the shit, then that's all they need to like you.

Why can't you do the same?

How dare you hate them, based on no information whatsoever

HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT THEY DESERVE WORSE THAN TO BE CHEATED ON FOR MONTHS.

I'm done being passive about this.

I was hoping that slowly but surely I'd be able to develop your relationship so you could be friends.

Clearly, that's not going to happen.

I'm not going to cut you out of my life. I'm not going to give you an ultimatum.

But I can't be your best friend if this is how you perceive my partner, who's done absolutely nothing wrong.

You need to fix this.

Fucking hell

[hanflowers]

pairing: ꒰ l. castellan x apollo's daughter reader ꒱

genre: fluff

warning: like, one swear word

summary: you never forget to send luke castellan daily poems.

a/n: bye, i literally wrote the poem here...sorry if it sucks guys 😜😜

you've never failed to cheer him up even at his worst moments. and today was one of those tiring moments.

luke entered the cabin, looking tired as ever. the day had just finished—for him and the sun's at least. the moon's was just beginning—casting its evening glow at the camp, its rays entering the window panes.

he was met by his lover, sitting on his bed, waiting patiently. [name] didn't realize he entered, too busy perfecting her daily poem for her one and only.

luke immediately sank into you, resting his tired head on your shoulder. "love," you whispered, taking his hand. he hums in response.

"how was your day, hm?" you ask while playing with his fingers. "terrible." he whispers into the crook of your neck.

"want to talk about it?" you stopped playing with his hands and now turned to look at him. hearing no response from luke, you assume he doesn't want to talk about it.

"come on, let's go outside. i've got just the thing to make you feel better!" you chuckle, cupping his face and giving his oh so sweet lips a peck.

he still doesn't say anything but he follows you, locking his fingers with yours.

the walk was silent and you stopped by your cabin. "wait here for a bit, pretty boy."

you entered your cabin and as promised, returned quickly. but now, you had something in your hands. a lyre.

"okay, now, quick! let's go." you took his hand again leading him somewhere. after a while, luke now knows where you're going. he's very familiar with the path as this is where you go all the time.

whether it may be secret dates or just meet ups—he loves that place because he spends most of his time there with you.

"and, we're here!" the two of you sat by the lake, finding solace in the calmness of the stars illuminating the sky.

it was silent. but the good kind of silence, where the two of you just understood. luke had his head on your shoulder and you had your head on top of his.

"thank you," he whispers, finally breaking the silence. "hm? for what?" you ask.

"for cheering me up and being with me." he never failed to compliment and praise you every single day even if he was tired or anything—he'd never go to sleep without thanking and telling you how much he loves you.

"but, i'm not done yet." you face him and caress his cheek. you take out your lyre.

"did you know, your father, hermes, gave apollo the lyre?" luke nods and chuckles in response. you prepare your lyre and take out a piece of paper as you begin to recite your poem.

you're my everything

my everything

to see you

i'll do anything

anything

let's lie down

watch the stars

embrace each flaw

and heal our scars

in the quiet hours

in the moonlit skies

hand in hand

we dance through time

a symphony of hearts

a melody that rhymes

as you finished, you noticed luke's breathing was slow and relaxed. 'he must have fallen asleep. should i return to the cabin or nah?'

"ah, fuck it. we're sleeping here."

bonus:

"isn't that luke?"

"what are they doing here?"

"aww, they look so cute!"

*camera flashes*

yeah, it was sort of, maybe, kind of a bad idea to sleep by the lake.

[saal-school-project]

Part 2

6th grade

In 6th grade, I changed schools, so I didn't have many friends for the first few months, but my notebooks kept me company. I might sound like a loser here, but bear with me. I was really into horror games, movies, and stories back then, and it was around the creepypasta craze, so it didn't take long for me to join in on that too. (Creepypastas are short horror stories on the internet, btw), but keep in mind that I still didn't know any English, so my options were limited to whatever was available in Turkish, which wasn't much at all. So soon I ran out of actual creepypastas to read, and I was left with whatever self-insert romance fanfiction was written about the creepypasta characters. Great, now I'm admitting my dark past for a school project. To be honest, I don't regret it because the lack of good content available in Turkish eventually led to me learning English. There were a lot of creepypastas based on video game characters. I liked watching horror game let's play on YouTube, and I was really proud when I managed to pirate Minecraft to my mom's phone (admitting crimes now). So by extension, I got interested in video games in general, so in the summer of 6th grade, I decided to become a REAL GAMER by making a Steam account and buying some games. I also bought an ininal card because I didn't feel like convincing my mom to use her credit card. I exactly transferred 50 TL to my card and, after some not-so-thorough research, decided to buy the following games: Undertale because people recommended it to me; Hollow Knight because I'm a big fan of 2D animation; Don't Starve Together because I don't remember why; and Deus Ex: Human Revolution because I got leftover money and it was on a really big sale, so my cousin urged me to buy it.

I would try to play these games throughout the 6th grade's summer, but there were some problems. First of all, none of these games are in Turkish (I'm not sure, but that's what I remember; I'm too lazy to check). That fact didn't really matter for games like Hollow Knight and Don't Starve Together (as there wasn't much of a story), but it mattered for Undertale. Oh, I know, I could just use a Turkish patch (unofficial translation); it's not that I couldn't figure out how to do it. It's just that the game recently got a new update, and the patch didn't work with that update. As for the other games, Hollow Knight was pretty hard for a kid who never really played any proper video game other than Minecraft. On top of that, I didn't have a controller at the time, so I had to play it with the puny keyboard my laptop had, and that made it unplayable for me. As for the other two, I didn't like them very much. There was a learning curve to Don't Starve Together, and it just felt like Minecraft without the creative mode (which happens to be the part I like the most). I didn't even bother checking out Deus Ex because I randomly bought it and I don't like first-person shooters. So much so for becoming a gamer, I guess. But one day, while still in the summer holiday, there was a problem with the wifi for a few days, and it really got boring. So I played the games I downloaded before to kill time. I started playing Undertale. I looked up the words I didn't know (which were the majority of them) in a dictionary or something, and I wrote them down along with their meanings in one of my journals. I was pretty used to writing thanks to school being so boring, so my hand never really got tired of writing pages and pages of words. and I really took a liking to the game too! It took me a long time to beat it since I literally had to pause to write some words for every single dialog line, but I enjoyed it, so it didn't feel like a chore. Eventually, our wifi came back, but I continued playing. I also started watching more English content. I watched Lele Pons again, something I'm not proud to admit, but the lightness of the language used in her videos made it perfect material for a beginner like me. I also texted with the cleverbot. Lately, the chatbots are much more advanced, so Cleverbot isn't so clever anymore compared to them. I can't remember why exactly, but cleverbot had something to do with creepypastas I think. like there was a correlation between Cleverbot and Ben Drowned (a creepypasta character) for some reason? It's been years; I don't remember.

 I talked with the bot so much that I could literally predict what they would say with 99% accuracy, so it became boring, and I stopped talking to them. By the end of that summer, I had replayed Undertale for a different route and, for the first time, noticed that I could actually understand what it said without having to look anything up. It was a weird feeling in the best way possible. and I decided that I wanted to make a game too. The summer ended, and I started 7th grade.

[candied-cae]

And Who Are We At The End Of The World? - He's Innocent

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]

Chapter 6/? - - - Read it on AO3

Word Count : 7,257

Summary: Now it's go time. Time to stand in front of the Hawkins Police and convince them Eddie's innocent. Without having any physical evidence to use, only the personal accounts of a bunch of children... But it's fine. It can't be too hard to exonerate an innocent man. Right?

More ST Fics

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Once all the parents were satisfied with checking in on their children, they were all escorted to the conference room that was set up for them. Steve was in a wheelchair, which he told them he didn’t need, but the doctors insisted. They said he had to ride in it if he went anywhere further than his room for the rest of the day. So there he was, being pushed by Nancy through the creepily, sterile white halls, only slightly stressing about how they were supposed to play off the days since Spring Break started. When everyone arrived in the room, they saw Chief Powell and Officer Callahan sitting on the other side of the table.

Once they all settled, Callahan was the first to speak,“ You kids are in a lot of trouble.”

“We didn’t do anything wrong.” “Eddie didn’t do it." "We were trying to help.” “In trouble for what?!”

“Alright” Powell silenced them with a firm tone,” If we’re going to make this easy, we have to agree that we’re not going to talk over each other. I want clear answers on everything that has been happening since the night of Chrissy’s death. I don’t want anyone stalling for time, coming up with lies, or covering asses. We are going to sit in this room until we figure everything out.”

“And you want to know ‘in trouble for what?’…” Callahan spoke in a mocking tone with a finger pointed at Steve, who was indeed the one who asked.

Powell clasped his hands together and leaned back,“ Well, the most straightforward of the charges would be that stolen RV that’s currently sitting in the hospital parking lot-”

Ted Wheeler interrupted, loudly expressing,“ You kids stole an RV?!”

Powell didn’t look pleased,“ Thank you, Mr. Wheeler. But let us take it from here." he cast his eyes back to the youth," There’s also the fact that Officer Callahan witnessed Ms. Sinclair pop a tire on a police cruiser.”

Callahan narrowed his eyes at the girl, like he really saw the eleven-year-old child as some hardened perp,“ Saw her do it right from the Wheeler’s window.”

The Chief sighed, almost more exhausted by his officer's character than the children were,“ Now, obviously, this sort of stuff can be forgiven and forgotten if you kids answer our questions. Because the most important reason we’re here... is for the obstruction of justice as you aided and abetted Eddie Munson’s evasion of the law. Evasion of charges in a serial murder case. So, I want to know what happened.”

Nancy shook her head at them,“ You don’t want to believe us. You just want to believe he did it because that’s the easy answer. Just like everyone else around here.”

Callahan butted in, again pointing his finger at who he was talking to like it made him any more intimidating,“ Hey! We are talking to you about crimes. Actual crimes, that have happened in Hawkins. No more of this-" he waved his hand over her," this teen angst and drama, Little Miss Sass-”

“Callahan.” Powell snapped at him.

The room settled into a tense silence as the Chief sighed, again, before he looked back at the children,“ The police are here to listen and find out the truth of what’s happened. We are here now, with pencils and paper, to listen. So tell us why you were running from us and hiding him?”

Dustin huffed,“ Because he didn't do it, and there was a psychotic jock hunting us.”

“Alright, we can stop there for a bit if you want. A nurse…” Powell checked his notes,” Gladwell, tells us when you came in last night, you said this was Jason? So explain that to me. Because I’m looking at a lot of hospital records that spell a whole lot of hurt, and I don’t know how to make much sense of it. Officer?”

The other man pulls from the table a manila folder and begins reading off the summary they were given by the hospital,“ In the case of the seven patients received by Hawkins Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Room on the night of Thursday, March 27th, checked in at 11:48 pm, notable injuries include:

“Stephen Joseph Harrington - signs of ligature strangulation, severe animal bites to the abdomen, open wounds on the back, multiple cuts and bruises. Nancy Olivia Ann Wheeler - signs of ligature strangulation, multiple bruises, and displaying other signs of a struggle. Robin Mary Buckley - signs of ligature strangulation, multiple bruises, and displaying other signs of a struggle. Dustin Leroy Henderson - tenderness in the right leg, multiple cuts, and bruises. Erica Michelle Sinclair - hand-shaped bruising on the left forearm, tenderness in the left shoulder, minor scraps on the face. Lucas Charles Sinclair - multiple facial lacerations and contusions, including a black eye and broken nose, two broken ribs, bruised and bloodied knuckles, and multiple bruises the size of fists indicative of an altercation. Edward Alexander Munson - signs of ligature strangulation, severe animal bites to the abdomen and neck, multiple cuts and bruises, remains unconscious. And finally, Maxine Beatrice Mayfield - complete blindness in both eyes and multiple fractures from hyperextension of major joints, currently in medically assisted comatose.”

Callahan closes the file and finishes,“ And Maxine's-"

"Max." her mother cut in. She couldn't look at anyone. She just started at the table like she was barely there. But she spoke to insist. Insist that they call her Max, like how she preferred.

Callahan paused for a second before he continued," Max... uh, her condition is identical to the cause of deaths of three victims: Chrissy Cunningham, Fred Benson, and Patrick McKinney. With the exception, that Ms. Mayfield has survived to this point with her eyes still in her head.”

Susan Mayfield shuttered at the last line. “Survived to this point” Like they were waiting for her to die. To become a fourth victim to tack to his sentence, like she wasn’t her little girl. Her little girl… who she hasn’t been watching out for enough. She's been missing from Max's life so much recently. Around all the work and the drinks she drowns herself in at night, she hasn't been around. Not like she should've been. And the other half? "Eyes still in her head" It made everything in her writhe at the idea that her child could have lost her eyes. That someone could have just- taken them- just-

Powell continued,“ And you say all of that….”

Lucas finished,“ Was Jason.”

The rest of them agreed in one way or another. With nods or comments, they confirmed. It was him, Jason Carver, who did all this damage.

More or less.

“Alright. Callahan, write that down.” he instructed,” We will come back to that. You say this was Jason, so walk me through it. From the beginning. Because I need to understand why he would do this. So, let’s start with the night of the 21st, the night Chrissy was killed.”

Robin started,“ When we talked to Eddie about it, he said that earlier on Friday, Chrissy came to him looking to get some drugs.”

Powell supplied,“ A theory Jason himself completely refuted when we questioned him the next morning. Said that she didn’t mess with drugs. Why would she have suddenly changed her tune and not mentioned it to her boyfriend?”

“She wasn’t well,” Dustin answered solemnly.

“Meaning?” Powell waved his hand for Dustin to elaborate while he wrote his notes.

Dustin’s mother rubbed his shoulder to bid him to continue,“ She was freaking out. Told Eddie she was having nightmares and seeing things, it was so bad she couldn’t sleep. I don’t know what was wrong with her, but Eddie said she seemed super messed up and like she was scared of something, or someone.”

“Can anyone outside of this room corroborate that?” Powell asked.

“I don’t think this was the kind of thing she’d have told any of her friends, but Eddie said she had already tried talking to the counselor and it wasn’t helping. That’s why she was so desperate to score. She didn’t want to have to survive Spring Break in the state she was in.”

“And this counselor, that’d be Ms. Kelley at the high school?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, we’ll talk to her after this.”

“Anyway," Dustin continued," Eddie and Chrissy met up in his usual spot during school, he was just going to give her some marijuana so she could relax. But she was acting really scared and wanted anything stronger. He told her he had something like that, but he doesn’t carry that stuff around with him. If she wanted it, she’d need to let him get it from his stash.”

Lucas jumped in,“ They agreed to go to his trailer together after the game before she came to the afterparty at Benny’s.”

“That's where she told her boyfriend she was just going to run home and change clothes, but never showed up? Correct?” Powell asked to confirm.

“Yes,” Lucas answered.

“And?”

Dustin resumed,“ And they went to his place. He was looking around for what she asked for while she waited in the living room. Eddie said he was barely gone a minute, but when he came back out Chrissy was on the floor.”

“And afterward, Eddie said he thought that Jason saw them going off together before the afterparty and followed them,” Steve added.

“Followed them?”

“It’s what he thought.”

“Now, Lucas, you said on the 22nd that you didn’t see Jason go off at all,” Callahan mentioned.

“Well, not after the party started.” He clarified,” But once the game let out, we all split up and took different rides to the abandoned diner. We were all arriving at different times for the first half hour or so. I didn’t see Jason at the very beginning.”

“And no one rode with Jason?” he pressed.

“I don’t think so. A few of us were going to, but he said he wanted to drive Chrissy over. That was before she said she was going to run home and get changed. So I went with Chance, Andy, and Patrick. A little while later, we saw him show up saying Chrissy was going to be on her way.”

“So, Jason was unaccounted for before the party, Chrissy went to Eddie’s Trailer, he claims to have left her alone for a minute, only to come back to find her on the floor.”

“Yeah,” Robin took over,” Said she was unconscious, or maybe she was already dead. But he was just worried that she’d just found some pill in the trailer and took it while he was in the other room. So he tried to shake her awake-”

Callahan remembered their investigation of the body and muttered to himself,“ Fingerprints on her shoulders, but nowhere else…”

“And that’s when he noticed her legs were broken. Then Jason tried to get him.”

“Tried to get him?” Powell asked.

Steve stepped in,“ Yeah, said he tackled him from behind. Was talking like he was crazy and just looked really wrong. He tussled with him a little, and when it was clear it was a fight he wasn’t going to win, he got out from under him and bolted for the door.”

“And why didn’t he call anyone?”

“He was scared and in shock.” Dustin argued,” Max heard him scream and saw him nearly fall out of his own front door, terrified. If you want to arrest him for getting scared, then go for it. But he didn’t kill Chrissy Cunningham.”

“Did you see any of this Ms. Mayfield?” Powell asked Susan.

“I wasn’t- I was asleep by that time of the night,” she answered, but a few of them figured it meant she had drunk herself into a blackout by then.

“And did Max say anything the next morning?”

She shook her head,“ Nothing specific. We just saw the cop cars arrive, and I said something about the boy getting into trouble. She ran off a little later, said she needed to see a friend.”

“Alright. So Jason killed his girlfriend because she snuck off with Munson, according to him, and then he just went to this party? Like it was no big deal?” Powell asked, pointing the question at Lucas.

“I don’t know. When I saw him, he seemed fine, he got more pissed as he drank, but he kept saying he was just mad Chrissy hadn’t shown up yet. We didn’t push it.”

“And by this point, where’s Eddie run off to?”

Robin answered,“ Rick Lipton’s house on Lover’s Lake. He’s stayed over there before, so it was the first place he thought of while he was trying to figure everything out. By the next day, everyone saw the news and heard on the radio that some kid was killed in the trailer park. He knew if there wasn’t already an arrest made on Jason, then he was probably the first suspect.”

“And why didn’t he come in and explain that to us? Why not report what happened if he wanted to claim he was innocent?"

Wayne felt like he’d bitten his tongue enough, hearing so many times what Eddie should’ve done when he witnessed something so horrible,“ Please…”

He shook his head before he continued,“ His mother’s gone, his father was in prison damn near his whole life, he lives in the trailer park, and sells pot while he does his damnedest to graduate high school on his third time through his senior year. He has tattoos, likes loud music, doesn’t dress how all the good kids in town dress, and he plays a game that people, who don’t know any better, say comes from the devil. He knows what he looks like to the police and to the whole town. You might not think it, but he’s smart enough to know how much he wouldn’t have been listened to. Especially, if it was his word against a kid like Jason Carver’s.”

“Mr. Munson, we are not judging your nephew-” Callahan tried to say.

“But you are! That’s what this whole thing is. You want to pick apart every detail about him, take every trait of his that you think makes him a bad seed, and tally it against everything these kids are going to tell you actually happened. To decide if your assumptions about him and his character can be outweighed by their testimony. And he can’t even defend himself...”

Wayne’s hot, angry tears had built up again, and he turned his face away while he reined them back in.

The words barely cracked through his breaking voice," It's not right."

There was a moment of silence like they didn’t know what to say before Powell decided to simply voice,“ Let’s continue. So, the morning after, what happened at Benny’s?”

“I woke up late feeling like I was going to die-” Lucas cast his parents a wary eye.

“Keep going.”

”It was the first time I’d ever drank before, so I was over the toilet while most of the people who woke up were clearing out. The only thing I remember before you came by was coming out of the bathroom to catch Andy making some joke about Chrissy being the dead kid on the news.”

“He did? And what did Jason have to say?” Powell asked.

Lucas recounted,“ Nothing. It was Patrick who told Andy that the joke wasn’t cool. Jason didn’t say a word. Just went towards the windows when we heard the sirens.”

There was something in Powell that carefully processed that answer. He scribbled into his notes. Clearly, something piqued with the fact that Jason wouldn't have said anything to a joke about his girlfriend being dead.

“And what happened after we finished talking to you boys?”

“Well, you saw him storm out. He just walked off into the woods alone. When he came back, he jumped in his car and left. He didn’t talk to anyone until later that night when he showed up with some Hellfire Club poster that he must’ve snagged from the school and got everyone all riled up.”

“Riled up?”

“He started going on about Eddie killing Chrissy for his cult. I tried to explain to them that it was just a club for a nerdy game, not some satanic cult, but none of them listened. Then he told us we were going to go ‘hunt the freak’ because the cops just wanted to call Chrissy a druggie, and he wasn’t going to let that happen. Every single one of them were cheering for it. Like Eddie wasn’t even a person to them. But I knew Eddie, I liked Eddie, and I didn’t want to believe he’d do something like Jason was saying he did. But I didn’t know for sure. What I did know, was that I cared about a lot of people in Hellfire, including my sister. And the best thing I could do for them was to keep an eye on Jason and make sure he didn’t go too far.”

“When was this happening?”

“Probably around 8:30 or so, the sun was setting, so he said we’d strategize at Denny’s and get started fresh in the morning.”

Powell and Callahan shared a look before the former asked,“ So nobody had eyes on Jason from about 3 pm and 8 pm on the 22nd?”

“No, none of us saw him between then.”

They didn’t say anything, but the way the two of them nodded, the Party knew they were putting together that Freddie disappeared and was killed somewhere within that timeline. Leaving Jason without an alibi for the first or second murder

“Alright, and where was everyone else, the day we found Chrissy’s body?”

They run through the rest of the stories about their day. Most of it was the truth anyway, just a bit of twisting to make it believable. Of course, Max wasn’t marked with a curse from a dark wizard in another dimension. She was triggered, after seeing Chrissy in such an awful state.

Dustin was remembering the morning Max came to his house,“ She saw the body in the trailer. She’s the one who told me it was Chrissy. She was terrified, said she didn’t feel safe anymore after she lived next door to someone who could’ve… But I knew he didn’t do it. Not Eddie. There was no way.”

Callahan tried to argue,“ But, son, you can’t have actually known that-”

“No” Dustin affirmed,” I did know that. Eddie Munson was the guy who saw Mike and me alone in the cafeteria. While Lucas was getting to know the basketball team, Will and Jane had moved, and Max just wanted her space… We were alone. We’re the kinds of guys that have gotten bullied every day since elementary school. Until he saw us. He gave us a place to belong…"

Dustin looked at Wayne before he continued. The older man had looked so beat down. Over and over again he has had to listen to people say terrible things about his boy, the closest thing he'd heard in his favor was Nancy even bothering to listen to him... But this kid believed in Eddie from the very beginning. Never stopped being sure that Eddie was a good kid. Wayne looked so relieved to hear someone hold out faith for his boy.

Dustin pushed," So I knew Eddie didn’t do it. Not Eddie, who didn’t like us biking home when it was dark even though we did it all the time. Not Eddie, who loaned Mike cassettes of his favorite music to try out. Not Eddie, who insisted ‘Metal was the only real music’ and still sang along to the radio with us when I switched the station on the ride home-”

“Alright. You’ve made your point.” Powell wanted him to move on.

But Dustin didn’t budge,“ I don’t think I have. Because unless you listen, unless you agree that Eddie is a person - a good person - who’s just a little unconventional by your standards and does things his own way. Until you decide that he deserves a fair chance, just like anyone else, then you won’t get it. You won’t listen to what happened.”

“Alright. We’re listening. Callahan?” Powell gave in.

“Yeah, yeah,” Callahan said it like an afterthought. Like he got swept away in Dustin’s passionate defense for a moment,” We’re listening.”

“So, please, continue. What happened when you told Max that Eddie didn’t do it?”

“Well, she and I went over what she did see. She said she saw them show up at the trailer the night before, and only a few minutes after, she heard yelling, saw him run out, and speed off. And, at first, she wasn’t sure if he was just scared of what he did, but when she thought back… she said he might’ve just been regular scared of something else.”

“Ms. Henderson?”

“Well, I didn’t speak to her. But she did drop by early that morning. And she did look real shaken up. I asked if she was okay, and she just said she had something she needed to ask Dusty about. They went into his room and, not fifteen minutes later, they were out the door saying they needed to check on someone.”

“We figured that Eddie saw something and was hiding because of it,” Dustin said.

They go over the biking to Family Video and calling everyone they could think of who knew Eddie, using the account system to find phone numbers. They mention someone telling Max about how he stayed at his supplier, Reefer Rick’s, place sometimes. Then they sorted through the Ricks in the computer and used the rental history to figure out the right address. They closed the store early and went out to find him and give him a chance to explain himself.

Powell asked,“ I have to ask. Eddie might've been scared of coming forward, but why you didn’t call us in? Before confronting a possible murderer on your own, why didn’t you reach out for backup?”

Steve shrugged,“ I said we should.”

“Steve-” Robin smacked his arm.

“What? I did. I didn’t know the guy. At the time, I didn’t know how innocent he was. I figured we should catch everyone up with what we knew.”

Dustin took over,“ And I told you the same thing I’ve been saying: Eddie didn’t do it. But, if we went to police before we found him and with no proof, we’d just doom him to pay the price for a crime he didn’t commit.”

“If he would’ve told us-”

“No." Steve argued," Okay, I was wrong about trying to bring more people into it too soon. When we found him, he was still scared out of his mind nearly a whole day after. Barely even recognized Henderson, even though he’s known him for months! Didn’t want to believe us when we told him we wanted to help and would listen to his side of the story. Even when we were able to get him to calm down enough to tell us what happened, he was still shaking just remembering it.”

Dustin nodded along,“ He wanted to run. Wanted to find some way to a different state and change his name, because was so sure no one else would believe him. He was terrified to go down for this. He said he didn’t want to end up in prison like his father. That he wanted to be better than that… We barely convinced him to trust us and wait.”

Robin explained,“ The only reason he stayed in Hawkins, is because we promised Eddie that we wouldn’t turn him in until we had a plan to prove he didn’t do it. We just wanted to give him a chance so someone would actually listen to him.”

The pair of police officers seemed to finally register that the kids were truly desperate to help Eddie Munson. Not to cover for him and get him off the hook, to help him because they honestly believed, with everything they had, that he didn’t do it. That he never killed anyone, and he’s just been petrified since the night of the 21st, trying to find some way out of it…

Then it was Lucas’s turn to talk about what he saw while riding around with Jason. He emphasized having a really bad feeling about Jason’s plans when they tracked down members of Eddie's band to Gareth's garage.

“They started asking questions about where Eddie was. Gareth made some comment, like, 'Look around, he's obviously not here'… and it was like Jason just snapped. One second, he nodded like he understood and was going to be reasonable. The next, he was punching Gareth, screaming in his face, throwing him against the drum set, standing on his fingers, and threatening to break his hand, all while Andy and Patrick held the other two back from helping him… And I was frozen…”

Lucas’s mother squeezed his hand, to silently assure him. He took a breath and continued,“ I wanted to run away, I wanted to pull them off of him, I wanted to start crying, I wanted to call for help. I just wanted to make them stop. But I didn’t know how. Then Gareth told them Dustin called looking for Eddie. Said he might’ve found him. And I knew Dustin would’ve.”

“He’s just that smart?”, Callahan sarcastically asked with a glance at the other boy.

“He is, sir.” Lucas insisted,” So I told them how to get to Dustin’s place, hoping he wouldn’t be home. While they were busy trying to figure out if it was empty, I climbed into Dustin’s room through his window and used his radio set to warn them. Told them I had a really bad feeling and that they should stay away from his house. They told me if I could get away to go to Steve’s and meet up with them. And then, when Jason caught me in there, I told them I found a clue to where Eddie was hiding. I lied and said that he was in this busted cabin in the woods I knew about. Once I got them out there and had them distracted looking for nothing, I just split and ran for Steve’s.”

The group substituted their investigation for Venca with trying to find proof of Eddie’s innocence. Instead of turning the whole world over in a search for how they could get to the Upside Down and kill a being that was less man than monster at this point… they were simply trying to find proof. Trying to find some way to connect Jason to the murders beyond circumstance and witness testimony.

Then they got to Patrick’s death on Lover’s Lake. They tell them that Eddie got on a boat and was rowing himself out just to put some distance between him and Jason. He honestly expected one of the boys to call the cops, and at the very least, they would all get brought in together. And he would just have to explain himself and hope it would be enough. But then Jason started swimming after him. Andy was still riffling through the house, and Patrick was hesitant to jump in after him, but he did.

Jason was yelling that he was going to kill Eddie. Then Patrick started getting cold feet. Saying that Jason needed to cool down, reminding him that the plan was just about scaring him into confessing, that sort of stuff. Eddie realized Jason must not have told them what really happened. Eddie started pleading with Patrick. Told him what he saw Jason do. Patrick started to believe him. He started asking Jason what Eddie was talking about. Asked if he was telling the truth. It must’ve started to add up because Patrick tried to stop Jason from getting into the boat with Eddie. And just like with Gareth, he switched. Turned on him in an instant and started hurting Patrick.

Eddie fell out of the boat and swam off while he was busy.

“Now kids, I want to you know I am listening. I am.” Powell clarified,” But this- to say Jason Carver did all of this? I just can’t understand why he would want to kill three people. He’s a good kid, an upstanding member of the community, comes from a good family, has decent grades, athletic talent... He's got a bright future ahead of him. Why do all of this just because he might’ve seen his girl go get some drugs from Eddie Munson?”

“It was because it was Eddie Munson,” Dustin asserted.

Lucas added,“ Jason hated Eddie.”

“He did?”

“Oh yeah. Jason was the top dog this year. Everyone respected him or feared the basketball clique enough to stay out of his way. Everyone except for Eddie.” Dustin paused,“ Eddie didn’t care. He didn’t care that he was an outcast, didn’t care that he was at the bottom of the food chain, didn’t care that Jason was ‘better than him’. And he wasn’t quiet about it.”

Lucas continued,“ Jason couldn’t rule over Eddie. He was openly mocked by him, just on Friday at lunch. That’s just how Eddie was. He didn’t care about the stuff other people cared about. And he thought they were ridiculous for caring about it at all.”

Steve pointed out,“ And Jason’s always been a little explosive. It usually just looked like he was competitive at games… but he can really go off on the refs when things don’t go his way.”

“And you’re right.” Dustin nodded to the Chief,” He had a good future ahead of him. But then he snapped and killed Chrissy. Then he had witnesses and people poking around. Then he had people turning against him, instead of falling in line behind him…”

Nancy wondered,“ Had Fred and I found out it was him?”

“Had Patrick or I turned him in?” Lucas asked.

“Had more people found Eddie and believed him?” Robin leaned in.

“All that bright future would’ve gone away,” Dustin concluded.

“So, why would Andy put himself in that position? Doing violent stuff for a crazy guy?” Callahan asked.

“You were at the town hall.” Erica spoke up, arms crossed,” You saw how he talked to everyone. Ranting and raving, obviously out of his mind. And yet, you saw how they all ignored you in favor of him. Some high schooler. He made a student club public enemy number one in minutes, and you two couldn’t do anything about it.”

“Erica…” Her father said, not liking her usual tone when it was directed at officers.

“Just the facts!” she argued before turning back to Callahan, her manner of speaking like she was spelling it out to a child,“ He’s charismatic, like Bundy. People listen to him, even if he's crazy.”

“Alright, so what happened after that? When we had four of you kids together under one roof, we tried to ask you what was going on, and you all lied before running off on your own again?”

Nancy started,” We were trying to come up with a new game plan on where to store Eddie since Rick's wasn't an option anymore when we heard you coming through the woods. Before we even had a chance to try to come up with a solution, Max stood up and pulled her ‘I saw the killer, this way!’ scene. Then Lucas and Dustin ran after her while we were still in the brush. They weren’t supposed to run off and-”

“And,” Dustin took over,” we didn’t have a plan about getting brought in with the cops. We didn’t really know where we were going from there. So, we sat on that couch and made it all up as we went. Couldn’t even get our story straight and didn’t know how we could get you to calm down about Eddie and stay away from him while the four of them tried to find something.”

“We camped out in the woods after the kids ran off with you guys,” Steve answered, looking at Nancy and Robin,” We didn’t have anything with us, and we left my car too close to Rick’s house to try and go back for it since with the police team still there. And we were so exhausted. We were completely out when we fell asleep out there, especially Munson and me. We didn’t even come to until the girls woke up and chased off the critters that swarmed us. Hence all the bites.”

Robin pitched in,“ After that, we knew we needed to get them in to see a doctor. When the kids called us on the radio, we met at Max’s trailer and tried to figure ourselves out. But we had no car, and Eddie couldn’t be seen just walking around. So we stole an RV. We felt really bad about it, we swear, but we needed a ride, and everything felt so critical. So, life and death. We just drove out to the abandoned Creel house Nancy and I read about, to do a little bit of damage control on the way to the hospital.”

“I got wrapped up, and we did our best with Eddie. And I think it had to have been because of all the blood, Max started having, like, a panic attack.” Steve continued.

“We didn’t want to leave the younger kids behind, but she couldn’t even look at the two of them.” Robin added,” She was shaking and crying and just- we couldn’t put her on that RV where she would have to keep looking at it. Where she’d be trapped with it…”

Nancy continued,“ We left the kids at the Creel house with her, except for Dustin because he messed up his leg while we were running. We planned to get everyone checked in and call parents from the hospital once we knew we had Eddie somewhere he could be watched and kept safe from the crazies. Then everyone would get picked up, and we’d just have to figure it out from there.”

Lucas spoke next,“ I was just going to sit with her while she listened to her favorite music to get her mind off of it. She just sat there, eyes closed trying to breathe while Kate Bush helped her settle a bit.”

Steve got quiet,” But somehow Jason found them…”

“Erica was outside to keep a look out for when parents, or police, would show up. But it was Jason and Andy.”

“Jason went straight for the house while Andy chased after me." She recounted," He was raging about Lucas, and I wanted to warn him… but Andy jumped me, pinned me to the ground, and pulled my arm behind my back. He told me he’d break both my arms if I wasn’t quiet. I only got away because he got startled when we heard gunshots from the house-”

“Gunshots?”

“From Jason. From them, I was able to get out from under Andy and kick him between the legs before I gave him a hit with my flashlight. He should be wearing a nice shiner on his left eye the next time you see him. Courtesy of Erica Sinclair.“

“Jason came into the attic. Started attacking me. Said it was because I switched teams. Then he saw Max in the corner, just trying to hold herself together. And his face just went… sinister. It was just like Gareth, but I saw it from a new angle. Then he was just on her, so fast. I saw him break her arm… I tried to stop him, but he knocked me out. When I came to… he had…" Lucas shuttered, remembering the way Max's limbs broke as she dangled in the air," And he was kneeling over her and pressing into her eyes. I slammed into him and got him away. He was unconscious when the earthquake started.”

“I made it up the stairs and saw Max was all messed up. I was running to get the walkie I dropped outside when the earthquake started. And the house-"

Lucas took over," I don’t know if it was old - or just a bad foundation - but it just cracked open.”

"Cracked open?" Powell asked.

"Right down the middle. I'd never seen anything like it."

“So, now Jason is?”

“I don’t know. Not really. He was passed out right where it came apart, and when I looked up… It was like it just swallowed him. I don’t know how far he fell, I just pulled Max and me out of the way.”

“Erica called us after the earthquake. Eddie got thrown around the RV and was bleeding worse again, but when they said how bad Max was... we turned right around, got the kids loaded in, and came here. And on the way, when Lucas told us what happened… told us what he said to him on top of everything else…” Steve let his voice seethe.

“What he said?”

Lucas remembers the words Jason had said. The real parts that hurt with such familiarity within the othered look in his eyes...“ When Jason was hitting me… he said he thought I was ‘one of the good ones’. That he was wrong about me. He ‘never should’ve let me in the door’. Like Patrick.”

Lucas's mother's hand tightened on his shoulder, and his father clenched his jaw.

And Chief Powell stiffened, his eyes going hallow. He kept his composure, but he knew. He knew what those words meant from boys like Jason. He knew about all the things that happened to Lucas that his parents had to fight for the school to report. He knew how it felt to be that kid in this town, one way or another.

“I’ve heard enough…” he muttered

The other officer looked at him like he wanted to dispute,“ Calvin-”

“I said, I’ve heard enough. All that’s left is you kids came to the hospital, right?”

“Yes sir.” they all answered, practically in unison.

“We have the hospital records for everything after that. I have heard everything I need to. We’ll still need to speak to Eddie and Max when they wake up, but we will start verifying the information you’ve given us in the meantime. Now, all of you, just stay out of trouble. I want those of you that the hospital signs off on to go home and stay there while you rest up. No one is to go running off or doing anything stupid. Am I understood?”

“Yes sir.” once more.

Powell nodded them along, and each kid and adult emptied out of the room so the two policemen could discuss.

Robin volunteered to push Steve back to his room while everyone started on their paperwork to get checked out. Once she put a little distance between her and her parents, she started having fun with her best friend after the tense morning. She was weaving him side-to-side in the hallway like she was providing him a ride on an exclusive Robin Buckley Wheelchair Rollercoaster. Then she brought up that now they all have ultimate power over one another from the questioning... they all found out each other’s middle names. It was like childish weapons of mutually assured destruction had just been handed over to them.

“Edward Alexander? He has to hate that so much. And Beatrice? For crazy, badass Mad Max? Beatrice? Oh my god- I need them to wake up and get in trouble asap, just so I can whip those out when they least expect it!” Robin giggled along, imagining the situation.

“And you? Mary? I mean, once I saw those parents, Mary made sense. But I would’ve never pegged you for a Mary if I was guessing!” Steve laughed too.

And then suddenly Robin stopped in her tracks,“ Oh my god…"

"What?" Steve asked, a little worried.

"We’re Mary and Joseph!” She loudly exclaimed.

Steve leaned his head back to look at her and let another laugh break through his chest,” We are! Seems pretty fucking fitting, right?”

Robin nodded along as she continued rolling him down the hallway,“ Never had sex, and yet we’ve got mouthy kids who end up in a lot of bloody, end of days shit? Yup, sounds just like us.”

“But I remember the originals only had the one who was getting caught up in trouble..." Steve ran over the list in his head: Dustin, Lucas, Erica, Max, El, Will, and Mike.

"So how’d we end up with a litter of seven?”

“We’re overachievers?” Robin suggested with a shrug.

“I’m not,” Steve counters,” I for one would happily return a couple of them at this point.”

“Sure, buddy. I’m sure that wouldn’t make you the saddest little boy in all the land.” she teased as she took a hand to ruffle his hair, knowing this was one of the few chances she’d have a good angle on him to do so,“ Come on, you love those little shits.”

Steve fought away her hand with difficulty since she was behind and above him“ And what makes you say that?”

She hummed the answer at him as they crossed back into the room,“ Just about everything you do.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let me get back to my nap.”

“Fine. They going to let you outta here tomorrow?” she asked as she went to help him get back into the bed.

He swatted her hands away again,“ That’s the plan.”

She got a touch more serious as she formed the next question,“ Are your parents…?”

Of course. That would’ve been the obvious thing to ask, given how well she knew him. Robin and Steve spent arguably too much time together after Starcourt. She noticed no one showed up for him when the other parents started to filter into the parking lot after the fire. At the end of the day, they always seemed to be somewhere else. So they shared lots of movie nights in his empty house, filled with their lamentations of love and loss, sometimes fears. But, whenever she tried to worry about him, he’d remind her that he'd been semi-independent for a while. And now that he was out of school, his folks didn’t need to be around so much. He assured her of it all the time over snacks. But she worried anyway.

“Nah” he answered simply as he started to pull the covers around him.

“Do you need a ride?”

Steve’s face deadpanned at her,“ You can’t drive.”

“I know that-” she smacked his arm,” It just, you know, seemed like the moment when a person’s supposed to offer?”

“Don’t worry about it, revered chauffeur. Mrs. Henderson’s going to come collect me.”

“Alright. You'll call me when you’re feeling up to do something? The high school’s running as the relief center right now, so we decided this morning before you woke up that we’d all come together and donate some stuff.”

“You want me to give away my own things after I just bled for this town?”

She shoved his shoulder again,“ You’re gonna be there.”

He smiled,“ Alright. With bells on. Just for you though, Rob.” and threw her a wink.

“Then it’s a plan. You’re going to call me?” she asked one more time to make him promise.

“I’m going to call you. Now go away, you’re too loud.” he shooed her out the door and shuffled around in the bed to get comfortable.

“Alright. Get your much-needed beauty sleep,” she called before heading out to go home herself.