#and the rest are too stubborn

[marimbles]

a little R&R (redecorating and resentment) between escape attempts

[sewerratzz]

Chip: okay. do you know where Gillion is?

King: we are unaware of such creature.

Chip: then what good are you.

i LOVE the dunjon arc. i LOVE chip being so fucked up over this

[smithsibsceo]

zane and kai bonded in the early seasons by discovering new music together. both didnt really have a great access to it growing up (there was an only an old radio or maybe a scratchy vinyl player in ignacia's library and zane's village had no electricity) so they mainly grew up hearing their respective villages' traditional live music. Hearing those 'end-of-2012-mashup' compilations changed both of their lives

[oceanwithouthermoon]

imagine saiki full on fantasizing about a crush for the first time ☠️ with satou, he kept it fairly realistic and wanted to go immediately from being practically strangers to being friends, but if he started crushing on someone he was already FRIENDS with ?? the only next step to take is like.. actual romance.. so he has to actually start thinking about that..

kusuo knowing he has a crush on someone but somehow, at like 8pm on a random tuesday evening, he pops out of a daydream like.. WAIT I WANT TO KISS THEM ?? I WANT TO KISS THEM SO BAD ???

whole 17/18 year old boy laying face down in his bed, bright red and kicking his feet cuz oh my god he wants to kiss someone.

[llutik]

i think it's not my place to speak but the way johnnys disability was treated at the end of steel ball run feels wrong

he can walk a bit... as a treat <3 (the entirety of steel ball run is his physiotherapy)

[psychotic-nonsense]

< || >

"Eddie...?"

"I'm sorry. No. Not quite."

"The hell does that mean-" Steve doesn't get to finish. His body reacts on its own again, wanting to surge and face the evil head on. All it does is strain everything in him again, makes him hiss in pain and struggle to remain upright.

The hand that he didn't even realize left returns, and the other holds a wet cloth. It dabs at his forehead, lukewarm and comforting. Everything is as cold as the Upside Down, these days.

"Not important. It really is best that you stay in place." That tone is monotone again, the brief moment of clarity gone. It's back, the... thing using Eddie's voice, his body, his face like an amateur puppeteer. How brutally ironic. "You must heal."

Steve, ever stubborn, bats the hand above him away. It's just a limp wave in his state, but the thing backs off. The hand behind him remains though, surrendering to help Steve find his way up. It's tough, considering how swollen one hand feels and the lingering phantom pains that Steve's body endured but Eddie's did not, but Steve gets himself into a sitting position.

"'Not important,' my ass." Probably not the best threat when Steve hacks up a lung immediately after. The thing doesn't respond, and when Steve faces it again, it's face is painfully blank. Wide, yellow glowing eyes stare at him, a bare hint of white at its center, so utterly familiar yet simultaneously foreign.

"If you're not Eddie, then what are you?" Steve spits, full of emotion compared to the husk beside him. He brings his left hand up to his chest, rubbing softly along the wrist with his other and wincing at the feeling.

The thing takes in a breath, eyes flitting off to the side briefly before returning. Still with that infuriating lack of emotion. "You are not in a good state to have this conversation."

It reaches for Steve's hands with the rag, and he pulls them out of reach. Too quickly, as well, his jaw instinctively clenching with the motion, resulting in an even more embarrassing groan of pain. "You don't know that," Steve forces out.

"I do."

"How so?"

"You are injured, weak. And this is a complicated matter."

"You just don't want to tell me."

"Because it will be too hard for you to hear."

Damn, it's got him there. As much as Steve wants to know, he's not sure he could bear the answer. Everything rubs so raw, everything having happened in such quick succession to him, and he feels like a live wire.

It reaches for his hands again, now frozen on his lap. Steve doesn't fight it, lets it carefully take his hands in its own. "Rest, let yourself calm." The thing says. "Then I will tell you."

Steve, begrudgingly, welcomes the still damp rag it wraps around his swollen hand. Doesn't do more than flinch when it's warm hands begin carefully massaging his through the cloth, thumbs circling around the wrist in a barely there pressure Steve feels in pulsing waves.

He takes the time to study the thing beside him. Human, definitely, an exact replica of Eddie at its core. Same clothes, same hair, all the same from the last time Steve saw Eddie alive. Except this thing glows like a faint light bulb, the light seeming to come from its entire being rather than one place. Steve already knows it's eyes, wide and unfeeling, pure gold but for a pale shape at the center.

Then there's the scars. When Steve last saw Eddie's body, there was a huge gash along it's left cheek, deep and bloody. Now the mark remains, but it glows the same damn bright gold as everything else. No blood, no tears, and this thing seems to have no problem talking with it. He wonders what that means for the wounds that took Eddie.

A slightly stronger pressure is applied to his wrists, and Steve groans again. The hands stop, let him breathe through the pain. Sprained, at best, and the doctors lingering around Hawkins have more to deal with than one possibly broken bone.

They've been sitting in silence for who knows how long now, the rag in their shared hands already cooling. The massage and quiet have done their job for Steve's brain, allowing him to come down from the panic. He's still pretty raw, but he no longer feels so in danger.

"Can I ask you something else then?" he asks carefully, voice raspy and soft.

The thing doesn't respond right away, and doesn't look up when it answers. "Yes."

"Where'd you get hot water from?"

It almost seems to relax at the question, as if it was expecting a different one. It still hasn't moved, still cradling Steve's hand. "Your bags had water and matches. This place had pots, and we are in the woods."

Fair enough, Steve supposes. "Why bother? Water is water."

"It is cold, and you are weak. We assumed the heat would help."

There it goes with the 'we' thing. It referred to itself that way earlier too. But Steve knows he should be wary with what he asks, so he ignores it for now, in place of something far more important.

"Is Robin okay?" His voice cracks a little there. Neither of them talk much louder than a whisper, but Steve still glances over at his best friend. She remains asleep, unmoving in every place but the one that matters.

"You both have similar injuries. You have woken, so she will too. She will be okay."

Steve sighs, put more at ease by that than he thought he'd be. Yet the response only creates more questions. He gently pulls his hand away, turning back to face the thing beside him. It does the same. Confusion to blankness.

"How'd you find us?" Steve asks slowly.

It blinks in response, pausing. "I found you in the Other woods." It says 'other' like it's a title. "I don't know what happened to you."

"Why did you bring us here?"

"It was empty. Close to the Gates."

Steve's coming up on the point of no return. He can feel it. He doesn't ask the more obvious, important question, but he can't stop himself from toeing that invisible line. "Why take us in at all?"

The thing finally shows its first sign of emotion in a while, eyebrows furrowing just slightly. Guilty again. "This is your home. You weren't safe there."

They stare at each other for a while after that. Steve holds back every impossible question he has. It watches him, face falling just a tiny bit more, waiting for him to break.

Steve cracks. His voice shakes, fighting to keep himself in control. To stay calm enough so he can finally get answers. "You apologized for bringing us... here earlier. How did you even know about that- about any of this? The boathouse, the medical supplies, how to start a fire. What-" He stops himself before he goes too far.

Its eyes search his expression, flitting between the injuries across his face. Still just the barest hint of guilt in the slight furrow of his eyebrows. Eyes still wide and inhuman. "I was told."

Steve doesn't ask, 'By who?' Doesn't let it come out in the desperate wail it wants to. Because he already knows. So he gives that plea to another question, puts as much emotion into the pathetic whisper that slips past his injured jaw.

And he breaks. "What are you?"

[winded-wolf]

when you’re in a party for the first time and have to actually admit you need help (aka when tae’larah finds out shadowheart doesn’t put up with bs)

[aroaessidhe]

2025 reads / storygraph

Love Points To You

YA contemporary coming of age

an artist struggling to get used to the idea of moving in with her new stepmother & stepsister can't wait to go away to art school

when her ipad is destroyed, her rich classmate offers to buy her a replacement in exchange for concept art for an otome game she’s developing, and as they work on the game, they start to fall for each other

while she tries to get used to her new family situation, and the fact that her parents seem to be more invested in her stepsister’s future while ignoring hers

bi ace MC, bi demi LI

[sysig]

Clothes, if I ever figure out how they work (Patreon)

[scificrows]

Thinking about Murderbot and ART again and how Murderbot is so adamant that ART is not its friend and that they can't be friends and okay fine it'll tell the stupid space ship about its traumatic past but only because it keeps pestering it! And alright, maybe ART can help Murderbot and do a little surgery on it and assist with uncovering the Dark Secrets™ of Murderbot's past but it's and asshole and NOT Murderbot's friend!!!

And then when Murderbot mentions ART to its clients on RaviHyral it just immediately goes for the word "friend"??? And I understand that it couldn't exactly say "there's this giant research transport AI in my feed that helps me pretend to be a human" but like. Murderbot, darling, you could have used anything. You're cosplaying as pretending to be a professional human security consultant, you could have said something like "associate" or "assistant" or whatEVER but "friend" just rolled right off the tongue there, didn't it?

Bonus from Network Effect:

[gremlinbehaviour]

the system maintenance has scheduled itself

[pixelatedraindrops]

Okay lemme be real with you all.

I LOVE it when someone touches someone else's cheek to check their temperature. Sooo good and sooo tender 💕 One of my top favorite prompts when it comes to an illness scene.🌡️

So I had to make a quick edit of this. Poor Yuma tries too hard...😞 At least there's a sensible adult in the room to tell him so. (and even his death god partner thinks he's pushing it)

A scenario of Yuma about to leave the agency, but Yakou KNOWS something's wrong. The trainee looks tired, he’s panting a little, and his face is tinted red. So he stops him, walks up to him, and puts his hand to his cheek to check.

And turns out, he was spot on.

Yuma tries to deny it, but Yakou ain’t havin’ it.

Then he IMMIEDATELY puts him to rest. Practically pushing him onto the couch (it only takes one hand like what is yuma gonna do lol)

I like to believe Yakou’s like a worried mother hen for his agency's staff. Panicking as a first-time caretaker in years. ESPECIALLY with Yuma since he's very likely the frailest of the bunch. (he's a father now :3)

Shinigami tries to help in her own way too

Yay for duo caretaking >w<💕💊

(...yes I know its the SAME freaking couch edit template here I'm sorry, ITS ALL I HAVE OKAY? LEAVE ME ALONE X’D)

[luthwhore]

nearly got into a fight with my mother at christmas eve dinner last night bc she kept spouting off misinformation about vaccines. she literally tried to tell me other family members that they didn’t do human trials on the pfizer vaccine, which is just straight up false. and when i proceeded to tell her she was wrong, that they’re required to do a clinical trial before putting them in the market, and that i know this because i know people who participated in the moderna and pfizer trials and i had specifically put my name on the list for the trials half a year before the final vaccine came out, she tried to argue with me, by which i mean she just said “no they didn’t” and refused to listen to reason.

[thesixthstar]

this has been the month of getting literally electrocuted by professionals, bc I got a nerve conduction test for carpal tunnel and also got electrolysis hair removal on my face. And on the downside, the nerve conduction test came back normal so they can't actively do anything for me about that, but on the up-side, that one hair that I keep picking at until I am ripping off my facial skin, the hair that is my ultimate nemesis, is GONE. AND. DEAD.

[pyjamacryptid]

When they said “this medicine may cause drowsiness” they weren’t kidding

[zhoudadudugongjin]

Trying to explain Zhuge Liang to my parents and the best I can come up with is the Chinese version of Merlin, if Merlin was real.