#but that means being gone

[acowardinmordor]

I was thinking about how self destruction is a form of running away. So I was thinking about Eddie self destructing in the aftermath of something awful happening. Then I saw several things with rockstar eddie and paramedic steve. Then I thought about how to make it more painful.

And I'm just gonna go ahead and put it under a cut. Bc Ow. Warnings for injuries, drugs, alcohol, AIDS, and the like. idek if its good. just thinking about it.

Eddie's best friend Chrissy came with him when they left their small town, and they kept each other afloat until someone signs Eddie and he becomes a rising star. She's with him for the parties, the fights, the late nights. They're not together, but they've hooked up several times over the years. It's just how they are.

But its the late 80s and the early 90s, and they're both queer enough that AIDS is inescapable. They've gone to more funerals than someone that young should have to see. They've watched friends go to the doctor about a rash and come back with a death sentence.

So yeah, they party, they drink, they hook up with people, but they're both careful. No shared needles, always wearing condoms.

Except careful isn't enough.

It's through something impossible to predict. An injury. A car crash. Visiting a sick friend who can't stop coughing. Both of them are there, because they're almost always together. Both of them get the same exposure. But its just Chrissy that gets sick. gets tested. gets the news. HIV positive.

And Eddie won't run. He won't leave her alone. They've seen too many friends die alone. He won't run, but he will self destruct.

He starts to spiral on the fact that she got sick and he didn't. That he's always been less careful than her. That he's taken risks and woken up next to people he doesn't remember.

That between the two of them, Chrissy is the one who is good and kind and who deserves to have a long beautiful life. Eddie is, and has always been the fuck up. Worse. Everyone knows that this is the gay disease. Chrissy isn't straight, but she was a lot straighter before she became Eddie's friend. Didn't go to parties like this or drink like this.

So we have Eddie self destructing, he isn't trying to catch it. He's terrified of it. He's terrified every time he sees her. But he is taking stupider risks, and drinking more, and taking more and mixing more drugs.

There's a bad stretch. Eddie wakes up with strangers and track marks. Chrissy's family finds out and disown her. Eddie gets tested. Chrissy gets a bad cold. Eddie gets yet another negative test.

So after his next show - generating buzz as they start to talk about a tour next spring - Eddie spirals, gets shitfaced, blackout drunk, high on who-knows-what, and tries to fight some guys. It takes one shove for Eddie to be flat on his ass with blood on his face.

Paramedics get called.

Steve listens to this guy half incoherently begging for them to go help Chrissy instead. How Eddie deserves to die and she doesn't. That she's his best friend, that she's everything, that she-- They ask what he took and they ask if he has any medical conditions or illnesses they need to know about. Eddie goes hysterical, talking about how he should have it, but he doesn't, because Chrissy does instead.

They get him to a hospital for observation and a few stitches.

There's no reason for it to matter. Eddie is too out of it to remember the paramedic he sobbed on outside of a bar. Steve could go home after his shift and never think of him again. But something about it echoed with how he and Robin are. So, after a 12 hour shift, Steve goes to sit with Eddie - this gorgeous, broken hearted man who is cracking apart because he's helpless to save his friend.

That's it.

That's what I want as the set up of a story that starts with Steve being sent on a call to help a guy who is on the edge of overdosing. Then let it get into the guilt and the fear, and the need to help.

And because I'm feeling kind this evening: Chrissy lives. It's terrifying. Every cold and cough and injury feels a thousand times worse, but she's lucky. It never progresses to AIDS.

[cosmosnout]

The most doomed siblings ever

[egophiliac]

Hi it's just to let you know that the official romanization of Revaan's name is Raverne ! Also they have romanized Baul's name to Baur !

Twst coming back at us again with the least expected romanization! thank you everybody (oh god my inbox) (no it's great, I literally asked for this and the reactions have been INCREDIBLE, thank you all!)

I do like Raverne though, I think it's got a nice fancy sound to it! (I had kinda suspected it was going to be an R instead of an L, so the fact that it's SO close to Laverne except for that is hilarious to me personally.) and Dragoneye Duke is honestly probably the best translation for his title, I wasn't envying the localizers that one. :') Baur instead of Baul I was NOT expecting, but in retrospect I think his name's supposed to be a reference to the Bauru crocodile, so that actually makes way more sense!

someone else also said Meleanor has become Maleanor, which is the REALLY weird one to me, because I was so surprised it was written as Mel instead of Mal in the first place?! oh god no I can't decide which one I like better. 😭 (I wonder if they might change it to Mal...they have made romanization changes before) (like I remember House of Distraction being corrected to House of Destruction in Playful Land) (I did check and she's still Mel for now, but I dunno, they might Mal her up and some point and save me from having to make a decision about which one to use) (HECK I CAN'T DECIDE)

uhhhh thank you for letting me ramble about anime names, let's just say MONOGRAMMED SWEATERS FOR EVERYONE

[plesiosaurys]

getting emotional over footage of an amateur scuba diver interacting with a coelacanth. they are hunted by large deepwater predators, and here comes a large creature bearing the brightest lights it's ever seen, making strange noises, but it does not shy away. it hovers, calmly, as the diver reaches out and trails a hand down its back. im strongly against the anthropomorphizing of real life animals but the stupid emotional part of me loudly insists this is because it recognizes us, the alternating movements of its four paired limbs matching the diver's four paired limbs, & it is thinking, "hello, cousins, we missed you these 66 million years, it's so good to see you again. welcome back, welcome home."

[lucabyte]

you dream of devouring your friends whole

[ionomycin]

mermay

[vaguely-concerned]

purple hawke who, at malcolm's death, lost not only a father, a mentor, the single most stable and safe point in their world up until this moment. but also the only person in their life who would consistently, gleefully 'yes, and — ' them. the loss, in one fell swoop, of both a beloved parent and your sole willing — no, not only willing, enthusiastic — improv partner. truly, the most unkindest cut of all that the maker could have seen fit to deal. (there's always so much less laughter in the house, after malcolm's gone.)

and then after all the horrors of the blight and trying to make a new life in the shithole turned shithome of kirkwall....... they meet varric. and something that's been slumbering deep within their soul dries a tear of relief and joy and whispers 'oh we are so back'. and they are so right

[carouselunique]

They had a bit of a chance encounter on a day where Blueblood was dealing with something that was very difficult and was so caught up in his emotions he didn’t even care that he was in the garden getting grass stans on his coat and Ditzy, with her natural impulse to cheer ponies up, didn’t even notice or care that she was flying into the palace gardens when she saw someone sat in the rain.

At first he was definitely going to call the castle guards to come apprehend this strange filly with the odd eyes who was intruding when this was the last moment he’d want to entertain any desperate debutantes, however she surprised him by not fawning or anything, not even caring about his status, just putting one of her fluffy wings up and asking if he needed somepony to lend an ear.

“Don’t let my eyes fool you, my ears work just fine!”

She was incredibly disarming and while he didn’t reveal everything about why he was upset, he found himself talking about his feelings to her. And she made such cheerful remarks, and was very comforting. In the end, he felt better and she came to check on him the next day, even sharing a blueberry muffin with him. He remarked that he’d never seen her around before, and that he wouldn’t mind terribly seeing her more often.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[fennelwasp]

Sunrise of the final day

[potatoeofwisdom]

[secretidentie]

Bruce finally feels settled in his role as batman. Dick just went to college, the Justice league is doing well and he's got a new Robin. So he decides it's finally time he made his parents proud and finish medical school (and totally not because he wants to be in college at the same time as dick, that's ridiculous Alfred).

Obviously since he's the prince of Gotham he can't really go to Gotham U without being recognized or harassed and since he owns half the buildings he knows he won't be treated fairly so he decides to study in Metropolis.

This is how he ends up in a communication and ethics elective class with a Clark kent, a journalist for the daily planet who is getting his PhD. They slowly develop from strangers to study buddies and maybe even more while Bruce balances academic pressure, with being batman and a dad to dick 2.0 jason.

As the year goes on and he has to deal with assignments, group projects, literal teenagers and not always being perfect Clark's apartment slowly becomes a safe space as he learns to ask for help and accept change.

[edwinisms]

you ever think about how edwin got like. no warning, no time time to process, nothing, when he reappeared on earth faced with the fact that virtually everyone he knew in life is dead. his parents? probably died in the 1950s or so (at best) almost forty years prior to edwin’s return. if any of his classmates were still around, they’d have been elderly, possibly senile, and in a few years they’d all be gone– except, of course, edwin. nothing looks the same, cars look like spaceships, there actually are spaceships, he can no longer see the stars, and everyone he knew is dead.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 68

Danny stares up up up at the being cooing down at him, a mass of eyes and tendrils and whatever else twisting in and out of portals, shattering to sand and reforming, buckling into a smaller shape and expanding in an ever moving form. This was not what he was expecting when Clockwork offered to introduce him to Chaos, but maybe he shouldn’t be so surprised. 

Bonus DPxDC crossover: Clockwork introduced his lil baby ghostling to his old friend Chaos so they can set up playdates between their two kids. Klarion and Teekl are now being spotted with a white-haired boy and a green puppy that can go giant and monstrous like Teekle, to Young Justice’s (And the league’s) concern

[beybuniki]

don’t make this about ships but I think deku feels some type of way about bakugo‘s friendship with kirishima, not in the sense that he’s jealous and feels entitled to the same treatment, but idk I think it would affect his ego/self worth a bit to see that bakugo can be nice to other people. and then bakugo notices that deku sometimes gets really quiet when he and kirishima are fooling around and they talk about it on their way home/at the midoriya household’s front door ☝️ as in bakugo has to verbalize that it’s just another level of awkward to be more affectionate with deku because of obvious reason but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t see deku as a friend!! And the deku gets teary-eyed and his nose starts running so bakugo shoves him into his apartment and goes home thag was more than enough for one day 🙏

[corpusdiem-seizethedead]

Fat Nuggets: *squealing inconsolably*

Angel: *appearing on scene, prepared to commit a murder* What happened??? Who hurt him??? I swear to satan if any of ya-

Husk: *casually turning the page of his reading material* I said he couldn't have two dinners.

Fat Nuggets: *squealing louder*

[casualavocados]

I asked myself why I failed to notice. It was the first time we'd been apart that long. I found the birthday gifts you prepared for me in my room, from my 18th to my 21st. ...Shut up. I started to think about what you were doing back then. Were you celebrating my birthday all by yourself?

KISEKI: DEAR TO ME Ep. 12