#but yeah if I get a job lined up for summer I can basically stop stressing about a lot of things

[la-galaxie-langblr]

So Much happening, lots of it good but So Much

[hellfirenacht]

Wing Man Part 6

Fic Summary: Steve 'the Hair' Harrington is your best friend, and is constantly striking out. Sick of this, you two make a deal; you'll wing man for each other. Hooking Steve up with dates is easy, but he finds himself struggling to find you a date. At least, until Dustin starts talking about his new cool friend Eddie. (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)

Chapter Summary: What DID he mean by five? The second meeting.

5.1k words

A/N: How are we feeling in a post-"Flight of Icarus" world, y'all? I knew from the beginning that I'd want to add some of the lore in and let me tell you, I LOVE Ronnie Ecker. For those of you who did not read the book, or haven't had a chance to, Ronnie is Eddie's best friend who ended up with a full scholarship to NYU. They're siblings, your honor.

Also if anyone can show me on this map where the plot is going, I'd really appreciate it.

This late at night, the only sounds in the trailer park came from the occasional dog barking and the echoes of Eddie’s tapes blasting as he pulled up to Wayne’s trailer. His uncle was working tonight as usual, which would normally allow Eddie time to hog the tv before passing out for a few precious hours before he had to get up for school. 

Tonight however, his mind was buzzing with what had just happened less than an hour ago. He liked you, he wasn’t sure how much yet but he did. You were sharp and knew your stuff about metal. It helped that you were cute. Really cute. 

He liked seeing you in the passenger seat of his car, matching wits with his friends and ranting about Ozzy. He liked seeing you laughing and the way you watched him play. He really liked the way you had fiddled with the pick he’d thrown at you at the end of the set. 

Eddie had never done that before. He’d wanted to, but never had anyone’s attention like that before- no. That wasn’t true. There had been one other person who’d listened to him play like that, two years ago. 

Was he always gonna fold to the site of a pretty girl actually paying attention to his music? 

“Of course you are.” Ronnie’s voice echoed on the phone. “And I’m gonna laugh every time you do.” 

Eddie groaned, holding the receiver to his ear as his forehead pressed against the front of the fridge. He hadn’t planned on running to her with this, but he was nowhere near able to wind down. He hadn’t even expected Ronnie to pick up the phone this late at night with the time zone difference and the fact that it was a school night. He’d have to push his stash a bit harder to pay Wayne back for the long distance call. 

The past two years had been a slow crawl of building back trust up with Veronica Ecker. The two had gone almost a whole summer without talking before Eddie had basically groveled for forgiveness outside of Granny Ecker’s trailer before Ronnie left for New York. She had forgiven him enough to let him give her a ride to the airport. 

“Last time?” He’d asked. 

“Last time.” She’d repeated. 

“So why didn’t you shack up with her tonight?” Ronnie asked. “You got her into your van, and you dropped her off like a gentleman.” 

“I don’t know, I panicked.” Eddie sighed, bonking his head against the fridge a few times. “She was right there, and she was leaning in and all I saw was Paige leaning in-”

“You know not every girl who shares your taste in music is Paige, right?” Eddie could practically see Ronnie rolling her eyes on the other end of the line. 

“Any girl that shares my taste in music ends up fucking off to the opposite end of the country.” 

This made Ronnie laugh. “You’re an idiot. Paige fucked off back to her job and I fucked off to college.”

“Fucking off is fucking off.”

“Maybe you need to fuck off.”

“I tried, remember?” 

She remembered. Both of them remembered. 

“Look, stop being a dipshit.” Ronnie said after a moment of awkward silence. “You’re graduating this year, right?”

“Uhhh...”

“Eddie.”

“Yeah, yeah I’m working on it. I just need those last stupid two classes and then I’m home free.” Eddie confirmed. 

“You can’t stay in high school forever.” Ronnie said. “And you’re gonna realize that there’s life outside of Hawkins. Have you even talked to Paige since then?”

He hadn’t, and they both knew it. Eddie gave up two months after she’d bailed him out of jail. Two months of dead air silence. He got the hint. 

“No.”

“Then stop worrying about one girl from over two years ago!” Eddie could feel the phantom pain of Ronnie punching him in the arm like she always used to. “Get laid and graduate, Munson. You earned it.”

Eddie snorted, sliding down the fridge to sit on the cool floor. “Is that the only advice you got for me, Ecker?”

“It’s the only advice you need. Did you pass that test last week?” Ronnie asked. 

“By the skin of my teeth.” Eddie sighed, leaning his head back against the fridge. 

“Your new girl graduated, maybe she can help you study.”

“She’s not my girl. She’s a girl that I’ve met a handful of times-”

“That’s turning your brain to mush.” 

“She doesn’t even know who I am, Ronnie.” He fiddled with the chord in his hand, watching the spiral wind and unwind around his fingers. It was already stretched out pretty bad, with a few spirals already tangled beyond repair like his old slinky from when he was a kid. 

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Ronnie asked. “She doesn’t know you, that means she doesn’t feed into the bullshit of the rumor mill.” 

Ronnie had a point and he hated it, but that’s why he called her to begin with. Ronnie was the only person who could cut through his Munson bullshit and give it to him straight. He missed it. As much as he enjoyed the power he had to protect his little lost sheepies, they were all too intimidated to actually stand up to him and call him out the way that Ronnie would.

“Yeah, you’re right. As usual.” Eddie could hear her snort and he couldn’t stop himself from grinning. “So why the hell are you even awake right now? Up til 2 am on a school night, Ecker?”

“It’s barely past midnight, the time zone isn’t that off. I was studying for a test, but hearing you complain about your love life is a far more productive use of my time.” 

“You’re using me to slack off, aren’t you?” 

“If I have to look at my flashcards one more time tonight my eyes are gonna go square. How’s Granny doing?”

“She’s an empty nester and is determined to turn me into her replacement grandson until you visit again.” Eddie shook his head. “She threatened to give me a haircut the last time she dropped off a plate for Wayne.”

Ronnie had come back to visit a grand total of five times since she’d left, returning for holidays and summers to visit Granny Ecker and by extension Eddie. Each time she’d come back with stories of law school and how different New York is. 

It seemed impossible, everything that Ronnie had told him about going to college and about life outside their small town. She was playing Dungeons and Dragons still, having found a group that would play with her. According to her, being a rules lawyer for the game at a law school hit way different than it had their small Hellfire group in high school. No one even cared that they played outside of a few students who had better things to do than enact violence against a few nerds. 

Then again, in law school everyone was some sort of nerd. Eddie wondered if even a freak would be accepted there. Well, socially at least. He wasn’t delusional enough to think he’d be able to be accepted into law school with his grades. Ronnie had invited him up to visit a few times, but there was never time or money to do it. 

The two continued talking for another hour, catching up until Ronnie was scolding him for staying up so late on a school night. 

“Yeah? And what’s your excuse?” Eddie said. “It’s almost 4:20 am there.” 

“Ha. Ha. Again, ha.” Ronnie said. “Still not how timezones work. And my first class doesn’t start until noon.”

Right. In college you didn’t have to wake up at the ass crack of dawn every day. 

“Night, Ecker.”

“Night, Munson. Graduate and get laid.” 

“Does it matter the order?”

“Good night, Eddie.”

Talking to Ronnie had eased his nerves, but there was still something inside that wouldn’t let him lay down and go to sleep. It was late now, way later than he intended to stay up tonight. The night he played at the Hideout always had him up late, and his teacher already considered him more useless than usual on Wednesdays. It’s not like anyone would care if he slept in class, unless they were in a particularly foul mood. 

He made his way to a stack of books in his room rummaging through a pile or two until he found what he was looking for. Eddie’s copy of Lord of the RIngs was well loved at best, and completely trashed at worst. The cover of the paperback was nearly torn off, taped back together haphazardly over the years. Pages were dogeared, the spine was cracked, notes were scribbled in the margins, and his name was scribbled in messy cursive on the front page declaring that this book belonged to Eddie Munson and that he was in third grade.

Eddie stripped out of most of his clothes, tossing his jewelry on his nightstand, and hopped into bed. He turned on a small lamp and opened the book. He could probably recite the first chapter from memory if he tried, the words on the page a comfortable lullabye for his wound up mind. But tonight he flipped to a page near the end where his bookmark was. The flower made out of blue construction paper wasn’t nearly as old as the book, and only in better shape because it never left the safe pages of Tolkein’s writing. 

His eyes glanced at his arm again, your phone number a temporary tattoo on his skin until it washed off. Shit, it was going to wash off eventually. Eddie grabbed a pen from under his bed and added another scribble to the inside of the book before copying your number carefully onto the paper flower. At least this way he’d always know where it was. 

With that aside, Eddie didn’t make it through three pages of his book before he passed out with the light still on. 

Fall Semester, 1984

The PrinciPAL’s office was just as interesting and inviting as it always was, which is to say not at all. Eddie was slumped back on a chair, watching as Janice sorted through paperwork, pretending to look busy so that she could avoid any small talk with ‘that Munson boy’. He had been waiting for Higgin’s to show up for almost fifteen minutes now, because why shouldn’t he waste Eddie’s time at this point? The worst that was going to happen today is that they’d do their little song and dance, Eddie would plead his case that the flyers were absolutely serious and that Chris Morrison had every intent to run for student council, and that it was all of the club that had made the posters, Higgins would shake his head and not believe Eddie for a second (which to be fair, this would be the first time that Eddie would admit privately that it was his fault), they’d go back and forth until Eddie got some form of detention or Saturday school. 

Honestly, the worst part would be rescheduling Hellfire if he wound up in detention. 

Eddie had counted out 13 paper clips that Janice had used in her papershifting before the door to the front office opened up again. He looked up, expecting to see Higgins walk in, ignore him for another five minutes, before Janice would let Eddie go in. 

He didn’t expect to see you, pale and shaken, clutching a teacher’s note in your hand. Eddie watched as you handed the note over to Janice who read it, shook her head, and pointed at the chair next to himself. Your eyes never left the floor as you sat next to him, staring at the cheap carpet as if you could somehow burn a hole in it and disappear. 

Trouble was no stranger to Eddie, and Eddie was no stranger to trouble. In Hawkins the name ‘Munson’ might as well be in the thesaurus next to the word. This wasn’t his first rodeo, and it would be far from his last as long as Higgins stayed the princiPAL. He’d walk away with a lecture and a sigh and then it would be business as normal. 

The look on your face though, that was far from the mild annoyance he felt. You look downright traumatized at the idea of having been sent here. Eddie glanced up at Janice who deigned to make eye contact with him now. Her eyes flicked between the two of you, a disapproving look behind her purple frames as if this was somehow Eddie’s fault that you had ended up here as well. But then, as far as any of the faculty from the office was concerned, even him being enrolled at this school was a death sentence to the rest of the poor student body. Eddie was a disease that they would try to contain until they had the cure to remove him. 

The shaking of your knee made your chair (and his chair by proxy) rattle slightly. The quiet of the office and the mundane shuffling of Janice’s papers only added to the tension that was radiating off you. 

“Janice, is Higgin’s gonna be long?” Eddie finally asked, and your bouncing knee stopped for just a moment before going back to its nervous movement. 

“He’s in a very important meeting.” Came the reply over a stack of papers, still not looking at Eddie. 

He sighed again and looked over at you, trying to place where he knew your face. Your eyes were a bit red, and you looked like you were on the verge of crying. Shit, he needed to do something before he had to ask Janice for the tissue box. 

“First time?” Eddie asked, and when you didn’t respond he nudged your knee with his. 

You jumped slightly, head snapping up. It was a wonder you didn’t give yourself whiplash and it would have been almost funny to Eddie had you not looked like a deer in the headlights looking at him. 

“I... Huh?” your voice cracked slightly. 

“What are ya in for?” Eddie did his best to give you a smile which he was sure made him look more like a serial killer than a comfort. It was rare he wished that he had his dad’s smile, but in cases like this he’d make an exception. 

You looked at the paper in your hand and swallowed. “Uh... skipped.” 

“Skipped school or just class?” Eddie prompted, trying to get you to talk more. If you were talking, then you weren’t crying. That’s what he hoped at least. 

“Class.” He didn’t think you’d say anymore but you surprised him. “US History.” Eddie caught the way your eyes darted to Janice again as if to make sure she wasn’t listening in, but Janice had better things to do than to eavesdrop on two delinquents. “I wasn’t... I had a bad day. I'm having a bad day. I felt like I was going to explode and I went to the library.” 

Eddie nodded, wondering what had happened today that made you need to duck out. It wasn’t his business, and frankly Higgin’s was going to grill you enough as it was. 

“Rookie mistake.” He said instead. 

“Rookie...?” 

Eddie kept his voice low and leaned in closer to you as if telling you a secret. “If you’re gonna skip, you can’t go to the library. You might as well have walked into the teacher’s lounge and announced that you were cutting class.”

You let out a sharp breath that he swore counted for a laugh. “Thanks for the heads up, can you tell me that a few hours ago?”

There was color returning to your face now and Eddie kept going. His brown eyes scanned your face, trying to place where he knew you from. Hawkins was a small town, and there was nothing about you that screamed ‘I’m new!’. 

He liked your sarcasm though, and his ‘comforting’ grin shifted into a genuine smile. “If you’re gonna ditch, you need to go to the bathroom or go outside.” He said. “Especially for last period. Go hide outside in the woods and you can slip into the parking lot seamlessly without anyone noticing. By the end of the day the teachers are barely taking attendance anyway.”

“Have you been in the girls rooms here?” you asked, shaking your head. “I think I’d rather take my chances here than stay in there longer than I’d have to.” Eddie wasn’t sure if you were trying to make a joke or if you were serious.

“Would you rather hide in the boys room?” he asked. “I swear it only smells like piss almost all of the time and you’d end up in the splash zone even if you were in a stall.”

That got a laugh out of you, a genuine one. Your shoulders were relaxing and you looked down at the paper again and took a deep breath that you exhaled with a sigh. 

“I’ve never been in trouble before.” you said, your hands starting to bend and fold the paper on your lap absently. “I’m not good at being in trouble.”

“Well, lucky for you I’m here.” Eddie nudged your knee again with his. “Being in trouble is kind of my job here at Hawkin’s High. I’m a professional, you know. If I wasn’t here taking up all of Principal Higgin’s time he might have to actually do his job.” 

That last part was louder, as he directed it to Janice who refused to take the bait and only reached for her lilac stapler instead. 

A small smack on his arm drew his attention back to you, you were smiling at him looking astonished. “You’re gonna get us in trouble!” you whispered at him. 

“We’re already in trouble.” Eddie reminded you, his smile never fading. “Look, you’ve never been in trouble before, right? You’re gonna be fine. Just give him a good sob story about being overwhelmed with school, or about a sick pet. If you can squeeze out some tears that’s even better. The worst that he’s gonna do is give you a slap on the wrist and maybe detention if he’s in a shit mood”

You take in his words, listening to him carefully and taking in every word he was saying as if this was life or death. Eddie admittedly, had purposefully slipped into his Dungeon Master voice. It was a skill that normally only worked on his little sheepies in his club, and that was after semesters of training his players to listen and pay attention to his words or else it would be life or death for their characters. 

Having someone else listen to him like that? It felt really good. 

Your mouth started to open to say something but then the office door opened again and Higgin’s stepped in, nodding to Janice and then looking at the two of you. There was an accusatory look in his eyes as he made eye contact with Eddie again, and it was clear what that look said. Leave her alone, don’t make things worse for her than they already are. 

“Munson.” Higgins said and it took everything in him to stay still and not flinch at his last name. He was used to the weight that came with his name, but he hadn’t wanted you to know who he was. Not after he just remembered where he knew you from, glancing down at the note that you had folded into a flower in a fit of nerves. 

“I heard you missed me, Sir.” Eddie forced his eyes to meet Higgin’s. “You really should just start saying hi in the hallways instead of inviting me to these little chats every week. You’re taking away valuable learning time from me, you know.” 

If the two of them had been alone, Higgins would have snapped back at Eddie about being a smartass. But you were there, and the color had drained from your face again, and there was a shine to your eyes that was threatening to spill over your waterline. Higgins looked at you and motioned for you to follow him into his office. 

Eddie wished that you would turn and look at him before disappearing into the PrincePAL’s office. He could imagine you turning to look at him for comfort, he’d give you a smile that would put you at ease and a thumbs up. You’d give him another smile and walk in feeling brave. 

Instead it was like you forgot he was there as your figure disappeared behind the heavy wood door that shut with a heavy click. 

Of course Higgins had you come in first, even though Eddie had already been sitting here since the beginning of the period when he’d been called in. 

He was tempted to go over to the door and press his ear up against it to listen in on what he was saying to you but even Janice would scold him for that. So there Eddie sat for another ten minutes as he waited for you to step out again. 

Higgin’s was the one to open the door and let you out of the office, as if he were some gentleman instead of Eddie’s own personal warden five days a week. You walked out and to Eddie’s surprise you gave him a nod and mouthed thank you as you slipped back out the door and into the hallway. 

Eddie’s eyes followed you until he couldn’t see you anymore and it took Higgin’s standing in front of him with folded arms and saying his full government name for Eddie to snap back to reality. 

“Munson. A word about your little flyers?”

“Well, I’d say a picture is worth a thousand words-”

“In my office.”

Eddie didn’t remember much else about that talk, only remembering the white paper flower that had been carelessly tossed into the trash next to Higgin’s desk. 

“He still hasn’t called you?” Steve asked as you, him, and Robin continued your closing routine. The day had been busy, with almost everyone in Hawkins coming to rent a movie for the weekend. Robin was stocking the candy while you wiped down the sticky counter where children had been touching all day. Who’s idea was it to leave out free suckers on the counter anyway?

Oh right, that was your idea because you loved Halloween. 

“Nope.” you said, your voice a little tense. It had been almost two weeks since that night at the Hideout. You hadn’t returned to the dive bar, hoping that Eddie would call you and make the next move. Each passing day you had stayed as close to the phone as possible when you were home and you’d checked your voicemail every day when you got home for any sign that he’d attempted to reach out. 

Nothing. 

You shouldn’t feel this rejected but you did. It was far too early to tell if you had any feelings beyond initial attraction to the guy, but... you’d felt something. An enjoyment of bantering with him and an ease that came as naturally as your friendship with Robin and Steve. 

Plus, you had to admit it, he was really fucking hot. Seeing him play guitar two weeks ago had haunted your dreams and slipped into a few of your fantasies when you were alone. 

You kept that part to yourself though, that was the last thing that Steve or Robin needed to hear. Besides, that was Steve’s job to go far too into detail about his sex life. Steve had tried ribbing you about going home with Eddie but you’d told him that you were a complete gentleman with him. 

That night had left you feeling electrified, almost high as you danced around your room as you got ready for bed. Even as his odd parting rattled around your brain, you couldn’t help but to feel excited at the idea of seeing him again. 

Then a few days went by. Then a week. And now two weeks later you hadn’t heard from him. The kids hadn’t stopped by either so you couldn’t hassle them about Eddie either. Even if they had, you weren’t sure if you could ask about him, you didn’t want to come across as desperate. 

“Did you ever figure out what he meant by ‘five times?’” Robin asked, opening up a squished package of Reese's Cups. “Like, didn’t you say you didn’t know him?”

You threw your hands up before tossing the paper towels you were using to clean in the trash can. 

“I have no idea.” you said. “Either I’m bad at math, he’s bad at math, or maybe we’re both stupid.”

“He did get held back a few times.” Steve muttered to himself. 

“There’s a chance that you two have met before though.” said Robin, “I mean think about it, you’re both weirdos who went to the same school. Shouldn’t you both have bumped into each other before?” 

“You’d think so, but my group kind of kept to ourselves.” you said with a sigh. “We were private weirdos. When I DID try and make other friends-”

“Yeah, yeah, Chris Morrison shot you down.” Steve said, waving his hand. 

“Oh, you heard that story?” you laughed. “I didn’t think I mentioned it to you before.”

Steve gave you a blank stare that only made you laugh more. “I swear you keep talking about that guy more than Eddie. Maybe I should track him down and set you up on a blind date with him instead.” 

“Don’t you dare!” 

“Hey, that could be fun!” Robin added. “We’ll dress you up super hot, set you up with Chris, and then you can turn him down instead!” 

“Excuse you, Robin. I am always super hot.” you declared, straightening out your unflattering Family Video vest. “Who wouldn’t want a piece of this?”

You hadn’t done laundry in a week, and your hair had seen better days. The green polyester vest was wrinkled and if Keith saw you looking sloppy he’d probably have words about it. Not big words or even intimidating words, but words nonetheless. It was night and day compared to how you’d looked at the Hideout and the arcade earlier in the month. But it wasn’t like you had anyone to impress while you were at work anyway. 

“Hey, nerdy chicks can be hot.” Steve said. “I mean, Nancy’s an academic nerd and I was crazy about her.” 

You hummed thoughtfully and turned to Robin. “How about we get married instead?” you asked. “You, me, a fuck ton of cats, and a tax break. What do you say?”

Robin laughed and shook her head. “You aren’t my type.” Her eyes darted nervously to Steve for a split second and you sighed dramatically. 

“Guess it’s just me and the cats I’ll eventually adopt.” you said. “Not even a tax break.” 

“You know, Keith thinks you’re cute-”

“I am going to pretend that you did not just say that, Harrington.” you said firmly. “Nope, not happening. Uh-uh. Absolutely not.” 

“He’s not... that bad?” Robin said, but you could hear the pain in her voice through the laughter. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.” 

“The lady is trying not to think actually.” you laugh. “We’re closed, I’m actually done thinking. I just wanna finish cleaning up and go home. What’s left?”

“Rewinding the returns,-”

“Ugh.”

“Cleaning up the kids movies,-”

“Ugh.”

“And cleaning the bathroom.”

“UGHHHHHH.” 

“Would you rather clean up the porn room?” asked Robin. 

“Yes actually, I would.” You said. “Whatever they think about doing in that room is what they do end up doing in the bathroom.”

“Gross.”

Steve sighed “Okay, I’ll be the hero and save you ladies from cleaning the bathroom. Robin, you fix the kids section, and you can rewind the tapes.”

“I thought I was in charge here.” You crossed your arms. 

“Okay, did you have a better way to divide and conquer?”

“...No.”

“Then let’s hurry up and-”

Ding!

“Who didn’t lock the door?!” you asked. 

“It was Steve’s job to-” Robin started. 

“Oh, shit. Hi.” Steve was staring at the person who had just walked in. You turned around and your heart jumped in your chest and your stomach dropped. 

“Cursing in front of customers, Harrington?” Eddie said. “Now that’s not very professional of you.”

Robin’s eyes were darting so fast between you and Eddie that you were surprised she wasn’t giving herself vertigo. You tried to give her a pointed glare but your friend either didn’t get the hint or refused to. 

“Well, we’re closed. You can’t be a customer if you can’t pay.” Steve said, putting his hands on his hips. 

Eddie looked away from Steve and made eye contact with you. It had been two weeks since you’d seen him, and you glazed at his arm for a second, trying to see if the faded remains of your phone number were still stamped on his arm. Unfortunately for you he was wearing a heavy leather jacket and you had not yet developed x ray vision. Perhaps in another genre. 

“Do you want to get out of here?” Eddie asked and you, ignoring Steve who looked mildly offended. 

You stood there in shock for a second before Robin nudged you in the rib. 

“I- uh. I have to finish closing.” you said, snapping out of it. 

“Steve and I can handle the rest of closing!” Robin grabbed Steve and shook his shoulder. 

“Guys, I’m literally in charge of you both. I can’t leave before you.” You said, already reaching for your bag under the counter. 

“We can handle it!” Steve said. 

“And I can handle Steve!” Robin added. “We close without you and Keith all the time, remember?”

You could trust Robin, and as long as Steve didn’t knock down any displays then it wouldn’t take them more than another ten minutes to finish up. You were so tempted to turn them down, make Eddie wait as you had waited for him for the past two weeks. 

But you were already stepping behind the counter towards Eddie and tossing the keys to lock up to Robin. Keith would murder you and write you up (in that order) if he knew what you were doing but looking up at the roundest pair of brown eyes you’d ever seen had you in the mood to make questionable choices. 

You shrugged off your vest and tossed it at Steve, in an attempt to make yourself look like you hadn’t spent the whole day dealing with unruly customers and screaming kids. Part of you almost wished that you had agreed to bathroom duty, if only to give you an excuse to look in a mirror and straighten yourself out. 

“Thanks, guys.” you gave them a quick nod, catching sight of Robin’s knowing smirk and Steve shaking his head before walking out the door that Eddie was holding open for you. 

The last thing you heard was the scrambling of the entrance to Family Video being locked. 

Part 7

Dividers by @strangergraphics

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[ahsokaismyqueen]

Hold Me Tight

Pairing - Steve Harrington x HendersonSister!Reader

Summary - Ever since Prom, Steve and you had been growing closer to crossing that line from friendship to something more. During a hot summer day, a little more of that line gets crossed. 

Word Count - 3.3k

Warnings - Basically two idiots being in love, but neither one of them ready to admit it and some language. 

It was out of sheer desperation that you found yourself pulling into Steve Harrington’s driveway and almost cheering when you discovered that he had the day off as well. Of course, even if he had been working, ice cream would have been a great treat on this sweltering, humid day, but there was something about taking a dip in a cool pool that was calling your name. 

And there was one person you knew that could provide you with that. 

You were giddy as you walked to knock at his door, a large tote bag in one hand and a six pack in the other, a bribe if needed. You rang the doorbell, once, then twice when he didn’t answer, and your finger was about to press the button for a third time when the door creaked open and a very disheveled, shirtless, Steve Harrington answered the door. 

Your mouth went dry as your eyes took in the gorgeous sight in front of you. It was obvious that you had woken the guy up. His hair was all over the place, stuck up in multiple different directions, and his eyes were blinking at you like his brain had not quite caught up with the fact that you were at his door yet. Your eyes on the other hand, continued their path down his face and neck, widening somewhat at the hair covered chest in front of you. 

Guess they didn’t call him Steve ‘the hair’ Harrington just for the hair on his head. 

Then he said your name in a raspy, sleep filled voice that made your heart clench so hard in your chest you were worried for a moment you were having a heart attack. “What are you doing here?” He asked, rubbing his eyes, and you couldn’t help but be grateful he hadn’t seemed to notice your ogling. 

Focusing your gaze back on his face, you bit your lip as you concentrated back on the reason you were here. “We’re friends right? I mean I would even go as far as to say great friends.” 

Steve was becoming more awake every second, it was clear in the way that he raised his eyebrows at you in confusion while a small smirk started to form on his lips. “Yeah . . . Any particular reason you’re declaring this at 9:00 a.m. on a Tuesday?” 

You gave him the most charming smile you could, and pulled out your towel out of the bag you were carrying. “Do great friends get pool privileges? If they don’t -” You lifted up the six pack. “I brought a bribe.” 

Steve took the six pack from you with a shake of his head, taking a step back to let you inside. “You didn’t have to wake me up for that. You can come use the pool whenever you want.” He said, putting his hand on the small of your back to lead you outside. 

You tried to ignore how that made you feel. Instead, you beamed up at him, excited at the prospect of having a pool you could go to any time. “Are you serious?” Most of the time you had been stuck swimming at the public pool which was always too crowded. Steve’s nice, private pool would be a welcome change.

“Yeah, you can go in the back like you guys did for Dustin’s party.” He said, running a free hand through his messy hair as he stopped in front of the door. The warmth of his hand left your back as he held the door to his backyard open for you. “Have at it.” He said, gesturing out to the empty pool. 

Even though a small part of you couldn’t help but be a little disappointed that he didn’t seem to be joining you, you were excited to be in the water again after working a ridiculous amount of shifts at the hospital. You weren’t doing anything medical yet, having just graduated high school, but the caregiver job still took a lot out of you. Swimming had always been a way for you to relax, and that water was calling your name. 

You didn’t hesitate, slipping the dress you had been wearing over your head, leaving you in your black one piece, and after dropping your bag off on a chair, dove in. 

As soon as the cool water engulfed you, you felt better. You took a couple of laps, stretching out the muscles that had been neglected for far too long before you grabbed a book from your bag and a float that was already in the pool, laying on top of it.

You tried to focus on the pages in front of you, knowing you hardly ever got the chance to read and that you should be enjoying this time, but your eyes wouldn’t stay fixed to the words. You kept glancing up at the window that you knew was Steve’s wondering what he was doing. Had he gone back to sleep? Was he taking a shower? Watching something on the television? It was frustrating and all your mind seemed to be able to think about was how you craved to be around him right now. Which was ridiculous because if you wanted to, all you had to do was get out of the pool and find him. 

But you couldn’t shake the way you thought it might make you look desperate, so, for the twentieth time, you tried to focus on your book once more. 

“Did you really come over here to read?” 

The amount of happiness that was bursting through your chest at the sight of Steve grinning at you, the picture of ease in his sunglasses and swim trunks was a little embarrassing. “Already did twenty laps in the time it took you to fix your hair.” You teased, a smirk on your lips. 

“Oh, I call bullshit on that one.” He replied, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Are you forgetting who made the Swim Team Captain, and who didn’t?” You asked pointedly. 

Steve tilted his sunglasses down so that you could see him roll his eyes. “You beat me by .3 seconds. Not exactly a landslide.” 

“Sounds like something someone who was a sore loser would say . . .” You said in a sing-song voice. 

For a moment Steve stared at you, and having all of his attention made you fidget. “Get rid of the book.” He said finally. 

Your brow furrowed in confusion. “What?” 

“Well I’m going to jump right in there beside you in about .3 seconds, and I don’t want to get your book wet. So I’m giving you a warning.” He said, pulling his sunglasses back up to cover his eyes. 

“.3 -” It was a good thing you had excellent reflexes, because the second you saw Steve start to jump, you threw your book to the side, landing on the concrete several feet away as the water from his jump splashed all over you. “God, you’re such a dingus.” You said, giving him a shove as he popped up beside you. 

He ignored your movements, grinning at you and settling his arms on top of the float beside you. “You’ve been hanging out with Robin too much.” 

“I love Robin. I can trust her to give you shit when I’m not around.” You said, trying not to think about Steve’s arms kept brushing against your side. 

“I think she actually gives me more shit than you do.” Steve admitted, shaking some of his wet hair out of his eyes and once again getting it on you. 

A mischievous smirk started to form on your lips as you looked at him. “Oh, well I’ll have to remedy that immediately.” You said, sitting up on the float, getting in a better position. 

Steve seemed to sense you were up to no good, taking a step back and an uneasy tone coming into his voice. “What do you mean?” He said. 

You gave him a now full blown smirk, and without any warning leapt off the float to the best of your abilities, latching your arms around his neck and dragging him under. 

After a couple of seconds of grappling under the water, you let go of him, coming back to the surface a few feet away with a loud laugh on your lips. “I wish you could have seen the look on your face.” You told him, choosing to giggle about the surprised expression instead of the feeling of his hands on your waist and hips. 

He was trying to look annoyed at you, but you knew Steve pretty well now, and could see the playfulness in his eyes as he looked at you. “Oh, it’s on now, Henderson.” He said, taking a step towards you. 

“Only if you can be .3 seconds faster.” You teased, and dived back under away from him. 

Turns out he still wasn’t faster than you, but you let him think he was. Selfishly you wanted to feel his arms around you again. When he pulled the two of you up above water once more, he didn’t let go, and you didn’t make any move to pull away. “I think you’re getting slower with age.” He said, smiling down at you. 

Narrowing your eyes at him, you punched his bare chest. “You’re older than me, Harrington.” 

He rolled his eyes. “By like two months and a few days.” 

Though he said the words so casually, they made you feel like your heart had skipped a beat. “You know when my birthday is?” 

Steve looked at you like you were crazy. “Of course I do.” 

It seemed ridiculous when you thought about it, to get so emotional over someone remembering your birthday, but it was such a small thing, something even your best friend had to be reminded of, that he needed no prompting for. It left you feeling a little speechless. 

The two of you didn’t separate, the quiet becoming something more as you looked at each other. Your hands spread across his chest, almost as if they had a mind of their own, wanting to feel the heat radiating from his skin. You felt the breath leave your lungs as Steve pulled you closer, seeming to be trapped under the same spell you were until the two of you were chest to chest. You watched, unable to take your eyes off of him as his gaze drifted down to your lips. “Steve . . . ” You whispered. You had meant to make it sound like a question, but instead it came out more like a request, and his eyes darted back up to yours. 

He was going to do it. There was no doubt in your mind that at that moment, Steve Harrington was about to lean forward and kiss you. 

Then the first rain drop fell. 

The spell broke, and the two of you swam over to the edge, Steve grabbing his towel while you grabbed your things, and hurried back inside, Steve covering your head with his towel as you ran. As Steve shut the door behind the two of you, you shook your head. “I thought that storm wasn’t supposed to hit until tonight?” You said, wrapping your arms around yourself. 

“Yeah, me too.” Steve said, looking out at the darkening sky before turning back to you. “Hey, you wanna stick around for a bit? Dustin found out I hadn’t watched this movie and freaked out on me.” He said, holding up a VHS copy of Ghosbusters.  

Your mouth dropped. “You haven’t seen Ghostbusters yet?!” You asked in disbelief.

“That’s what your brother said.” He replied, shaking his head. “So you wanna watch with me?” 

Putting a finger to your chin, you pretended to think about it, but it wasn’t even a question. You would take any more time with Steve that you could get. “I’m assuming food will be provided?” You bargained. 

It wasn’t fair that something as simple as a smile could make your heart give such a reaction. The thumping in your chest when he looked at you like that was so hard and heavy that you were sure he could hear it. He gave no sign of that though, leaning against the wall and watching you. Surprising you once again, Steve said your favorite pizza toppings. “I can have it here in twenty.” He said. 

Taking a few steps towards him, you took the VHS out of his hand with a bright smile. “Say less, Harrington. Say less.” 

_______________

Your stomach was full, the living room was dark, you and Steve had finished watching your third movie, and the rain outside showed no signs of stopping. In fact, the longer you stayed, the worse it became. 

Another flash of lightning and a small crackle of thunder lit up the room, and you sighed, sinking back further into Steve’s comfortable couch as the credits to Gremlins played. “I don’t want to get out and drive in that.” You admitted, looking out the dark windows into the heavy rain illuminated by the lights around the pool. 

“Uh, you’re not driving in that.” Steve said, matter of factly. “I’ll drive you home when you’re ready.” 

You looked at him incredulously. “I don’t want you driving in that either!” 

“Well you’re not driving in that, so unless you want to stay here -”

From the expression on Steve’s face, you don’t think he realized what he was going to say before it came out of his mouth. The two of you stared at each other in awkward silence for a moment, neither of you sure of what to say. 

Steve broke it first. “I didn’t mean for that to sound creepy.” 

You were quick to reassure him. “It didn’t sound creepy.” 

“I just think it’s dangerous for you to be driving right now -”

“I get it -”

“And I like hanging out with you.” 

“I like hanging out with you too.” You did. A lot. Between both of your work schedules and your brother’s demanding attention, it wasn’t often that the two of you got to do things by yourselves, and you were finding that you enjoyed every second of being around him, whether you two were swimming, arguing over characters’ intentions in a movie, or sitting in silence. It was nice, it was quiet, and it was peaceful. You didn’t want to leave. 

A shy smile formed on his face as he looked at you, “Then stay.” 

Ever since Prom, the two of you had been toeing the line of friendship and something more than that. You could feel the two of you teetering right now on the edge, because this invitation and his soft smile was a toe over the line. 

And you were scared. Scared of losing the friendship the two of you had grown into the past few months, because ever since Eddie had left that gaping hole in your life, Steve had been the one to help fill it in. You feared that if the two of you started anything romantic, no matter how desperately you wanted to . . . you’d end up with another crater. 

So part of you wanted to say no, while the other part, the part that was mainly controlled by the fast beating heart in your chest, said no harm would come of staying over. Steve would never try anything without your permission. You might end up falling for him a little more, but hey, what was a little more heartbreak? 

Your heart, as it always does, won. 

_______________

“You know, that thing’s kinda cute.” Steve admitted with a mouth full of popcorn, leaning over to hand the bowl back to you. 

“Falkor? Oh yeah, he’s adorable. I’d pay good money to cuddle him.” You said, grinning as you watched Steve. His eyes were glued to the screen in front of him. You never would have imagined Steve getting into a fantasy movie, but here you were, watching it before your eyes, and it was one of the most adorable things that you had ever seen. 

“Bet he wouldn’t smell good though.” Steve teased. 

“He’s the luck dragon! He smells like chocolate and magic and everything good in this world!” You argued, poking him in the side with your foot. 

“Look at all that fur! There’s no way he doesn’t smell.” He said, grabbing your foot and starting to massage it almost absentmindedly. 

The movement of his fingers made your whole body start to melt further into the couch. You were so relaxed it almost took a moment to remember what he had said, but then you shook your head at him. “Nothing smells in fantasy, Steve.” 

“Bullshit! There’s no way -”

At that moment the lights, television, and everything else in the house plunged into darkness. You jumped up, scrambling forward to grab a hold of Steve’s arm, the popcorn bowl falling on the ground as visions of demogorgons danced through your memories. “Steve -” You whispered, clutching at him. 

You couldn’t see him in the darkness, but you felt his hand, that wasn’t attached to the arm you were holding, rest reassuringly on top of yours. “Hey, it’s okay. Storm, remember? It knocked the power out.” His hand gave yours a squeeze. “I’ve got you.” 

Logically, you knew that Steve was right. In the time that you had been here, the storm had seemed to get worse, thunder and lightning crashing in a never ceasing rhythm while the wind howled against the windows. There were no monsters from the Upside Down responsible for this storm, but still, your mind attempted to play tricks on you, every scratch of a branch sounding like a monster creeping towards you. 

Steve sensed your unease. “Come here,” he murmured in a soft voice, and you allowed yourself to be tugged into his lap. “You’re safe.” He whispered in your ear, wrapping his arms around you in a tight embrace, grounding you to this moment and not the monsters inside of your head. 

He was right, and your brain started to let you out of that flight or fight mode as Steve’s hand began rubbing up and down your back in a comforting motion. You took a deep breath, and your hands slid around him, burying your face in his neck and inhaling his scent, reminding yourself where you were. 

It was impossible to say how long you laid in his arms. No matter how long it was, neither one of you showed any signs of wanting to let go, even when the lights did flicker back on and the thunder and lightning stopped being so consistent. Instead, you stayed there, breathing deeply and nuzzling your nose further into his neck while Steve moved the both of you into a more comfortable lying down position. 

You never thought that you would be someone who loved to be cuddled, wrapped in someone’s arms for long periods of time. You thought it would get hot and uncomfortable, and you had never been too big of a fan of touch in the first place, but this was proving you might have been wrong. Or maybe it was because it was Steve. Either way, you had never felt more safe, comfortable and at ease than you were right now, curled into Steve’s body. 

“You okay?” He whispered sometime later, after the lights had returned and you had to fight harder and harder not to close your eyes. 

“Yeah,” you whispered back, and after a moment asked a question you were anxious to hear the answer to. “Do you want me to get up?” 

Steve’s arms slid from your back to your hips, and maneuvered you onto your side, with little to no effort. A small smile formed on your lips as he turned as well, spooning your back against his chest. “Not a chance,” he murmured in your ear, the fingers of his hands splaying across your stomach. 

Forget the toe over the line of friendship, this was pretty much the whole foot, but cozy and content in his arms . . . you willingly let it hang there.

[yelenabelovasbxtch]

Crush On An Archer PT.1

a/n: Hey! Omg long time no see! I kinda maybe lost interest in writing for a bit there but tbh I think I'm back. No promises because I don't want to promise and then break your hearts but also I realllyyyy enjoyed writing this and I hope you all enjoy reading it! Will def be making a part two in coming days so stay tuned. LMK if you want to be added to the taglist, I am going to put some tags of past taglists below just in case they are interested in reading :) ALSO! Special shout out to @scmg11 because their writing is honestly what made me wanna get back into it. So,,I hope you enjoy!

Kate X Fem!Reader

Concept: Reader has a crush on Kate (school/Uni setting) and she doesn't know how to tell her.

Warning: Cussing, mentions of smut, IM TRYING TO WRITE SLOW BURN BUT BEAR WITH ME ITS NEW!

Word Count: 2.7k

You’re a month into your summer vacation and things couldn’t be more…boring. You love and appreciate your parents dearly for putting out the money so that you could attend a prestigious school in New York with a kick ass archery team but does it ever suck to be this far from all your friends for four months. To make the situation work, your dad had to transfer jobs to another state that pulls in a little more money annually with slightly more affordable housing but that means you aren’t even near the people you grew up around. Rural Mississippi is a fairly big step from living in Boston. Boston at least had people, out here it’s like you’re lucky if you get to meet a neighbour because the land has us all so far apart. In all honesty, although it’s boring, you really have one specific reason for being so bummed out. Towards the end of your last semester, you got started getting closer with one of the girls a year younger on your team, Kate. Typically the older girls competed and practised together and the younger girls did the same. Although you two were only a year apart it’s just how things worked out, so you didn’t cross paths very often. However, one day you were walking home from class, stopped to get coffee and basically bumped into her. The meeting was really brief but it was enough to make you catch feelings almost instantly. 

Your interest in her grew as you followed her on Instagram and she followed back. Obviously you took a peak at her page and scrolled to the bottom laughing at the really cringey posts from 2015 she had still up. All you wanted to do was talk to her again but you didn’t know how, although she was a year younger than you she intimidated you so much. Her deep blue eyes were honestly enough to make you stutter whenever you had the chance to talk to her. A month had gone by already and you could not wait to get back to school so you could see her again. Luckily, coach has yearly “team-building” days before the season starts and they’re about half way through the summer so hopefully you can talk to her before then and maybe convince her to hang out when you come back to school. 

Over the next week or so you liked a few story posts that she’d upload every now and again but the day finally came where you felt like you could swipe up and respond to it…y’know…maybe spark a little conversation. 

“Damn Bishop, is this a new bow?” In response to a story post of her showing off some of her off season training. 

“Haha yeah it is, flips out and everything…it's really freakin’ cool.” She replied almost instantly and that made a giant warm smile come across your face. 

Shit– what do you say back? Your main goal was honestly to keep the convo going so you could subtly mention down the line hanging out with her. 

“Yeah that’s sick, wow I’d kill to try something like that out.”

“Well next time I see you, please by all means give it a shot” She replies back.

“Might just have to take you up on that. How’s your summer going anyways?”

“It’s alright, kind of boring though. All my friends from school move back home and I am working for my mom’s company over the summer so it all is just kind of dull. I miss going out and having fun. Wbu?”

“Yeah, I hear that. I am SO bored here. I would kill to fast forward to the fall, I miss being at school honestly. There’s only so much I can do by myself here during the summer.”

“Ugh right! I want it to be school again too but don’t get me wrong, I love the summer, the weather is great here recently and the nightlife is amazing too. I just have nobody to go with, you know.”

“Yeah I get it. Trust me, if I could be there to go out with you I would, there is definitely no nightlife here haha.”

Shit. That wasn’t too forward was it? She is taking a while to respond to you. She hasn’t even opened the message yet. 

*4 minutes later*

“Well, you’re going to be around for that team-building thing coach has us doing in a couple of weeks right?”

“Yeah, I should be.”

“Well, we can go out then if you want? Me and a few friends had plans but they’re all on the team and I’m sure they’d love to have you there too.”

“Yeah, that sounds great I’d love to!”

The conversation pretty much ended there and your contact with her was fairly limited, just a small comment here or there until you finally got to fly back to school for summer training. You settle back into the apartment you left a couple months ago, everything is still a mess where you left it but the kitchen and living room are even filthier since you are not around to clean up much after your roommates. You decided to wait until your team practice to talk to Kate about hanging out again. You didn’t want to come on too strong but also a small part of you feels like she forgot what she said months ago and you won’t end up seeing her, not outside of team stuff at least. 

You grabbed your gear and headed to the field where practice was being held. You saw some of your friends from last year and decided to catch up with them before coach pulled you all in to start practice. You were trying your best not to make it obvious but your eyes were tracking all around you looking for Kate but she was nowhere to be seen. 

*Whistle* “Okay team! Let’s bring it in. First, I just want to say thank you to everyone for making the effort to come back to campus for this, meeting I–”

“SORRY SORRY SORRY!” You hear the coach interrupted as footsteps are fast approaching the circle of archers. 

“Hi Kate.” Says coach.

“I am SO sorry. My driver was running late and then there was traffic because of a giant accident, I think there was some battle in the streets again, I don’t know, either way, my bad coach, won’t happen again…I promise.” She says with the most adorable grin that is absolutely saying she will be late again. 

“It’s alright Kate, it happens, I was just telling the team how thankful I am that everyone could make the trip back to campus for this.” Coach went on to talk about the drills you were doing for the day and man was it hard to not be in awe watching her. You tried your best not to stare all day because the last thing you wanted to do was make it obvious but fuck it felt impossible. The day came to an end and you packed up your gear, Kate was talking with the other seniors on the team as they were gathering their things and started to head out. You could feel your window closing to talk to her but interrupting her conversation with her friends and “inviting” yourself out with them just felt too weird and uncomfortable. If it wasn’t meant to be then it wasn’t meant to be but you would kill to be able to just spend an hour with her. 

You watched as she started to walk away towards the parking lot with her friends when all of a sudden she motioned for them to hold on a minute and she turned around and jogged over to you. 

“Hey y/n! Sorry we didn’t get to catch up much during practice, I saw your shooting though it’s looking good.” 

Yeah…your face is bright red. Control your shit. 

“Anyways, me and a couple friends are going out later tonight to a party that one of their friends is hosting. It’s like a Hawaiian beach summer nights themed type of party so if you have something like that to wear, that would be great.”

“Yeah, I might have something, I’ll take a look when I get home.” 

“Cool! I’ll text you the address once I get it off my friend and I’ll see you there?”

“Yeah, sounds good!” 

“Here, why don’t you put your number into my phone, I don’t like using DM’s that much.”

You take Kate’s phone out of her hand and fill out a contact for yourself, praying that she can’t hear your heart beating out of your chest. 

“Cool, thanks, I’ll send you a text in a bit.” She says with a smile and then runs off to re-join her friends. 

It seems silly sitting by your phone and literally watching the minutes tick by waiting for her to text you but that’s all  you could do. The anticipation felt like it was killing you. 

Your phone finally buzzed with a mystery number attached, “Hey y/n! It’s Kate. So…slight change of plans.”

Fuck. Is she bailing? Your eyes were glued on the three dots as she typed and you watched as they disappeared and reappeared. 

“Turns out the party is actually around the corner from my place so if you wanted to just come here first, we could pre-game and shit and then walk over together? My friends said they were going out to get their hair done so they’ll be running late.”

“Hey Kate, yeah no problem that works for me just send me your address and lmk what time you want me there.”

Kate dropped a pin of her location to you with the text attached telling you to come over at 7pm. 

7pm rolled around and you were already there outside but you kind of felt like you should wait another minute or two so you weren’t RIGHT on time. Or is it weird to be a minute late? But wouldn’t being on time be weirder? Whatever, you decided to just wait a minute and then knock on her door. 

Knocking on her door was the most nerve wracking thing you ever did, you were genuinely shitting bricks. 

“HEY! Come in come in!” Kate eagerly yells at you as she swings the door open. She’s wearing shorts with a bright purple bikini top and a button down Hawaiian shirt over top that doesn’t have a single button done up. Are you starring? Yes. Probably? Absolutely you are. 

“Make yourself at home, feel free to grab a drink from the fridge, my roommates are out of town and left all their alcohol so help yourself.” She said with a laugh. 

You heard that right? Her roommates are out of town. Just the two of you…you never know. 

You grabbed a drink from the fridge and took a seat on the couch next to her and yeah…the drink started going down faster than usual because of all the nerves in your stomach. The two of you made small talk for awhile but the conversation started flowing a little more naturally about 2 drinks in. Were you still kind of awkward as hell? Yeah…a little. But at least you warmed up to her a bit and weren’t acting so weird. About an hour later, her friends showed up and grabbed you guys to head over to the party. Honestly, things were going so well with just the two of you that you didn’t even want to go to this party but if it meant you got to spend more time with her then there you were. You got to the party and you honestly knew practically nobody. You weren’t exactly a social butterfly but Kate clearly was. She was talking to EVERYBODY. The boys at the party especially loved her. There was lots of laughing and flirting going on, you could feel the jealousy building but acting out was definitely not an option. You ended up socialising with a few of the other people at the party but for most of the night you stuck by Kate’s side, the two of you got pretty drunk together, pouring shots for one another and dancing in the pit of people to extremely loud music. There was a point where it felt like it was just you and her and nobody else was there while the music was blasting into your ears and the two of you were jumping together to the beat and singing out the lyrics to whatever song was on at the time. Kate got really close to you until some guy would come and pull her away in an attempt to make a move on her. Although, it never actually happened. Kate always ended up finding her way back to you. At one point she grabbed your hand and pulled you into the middle of the crowd as the two of you sang (screamed) the lyrics to “love story” into each other's faces. The party, as all do, started to simmer down. You guys actually ended up being some of the last people at the party, you stuck around to the point where the music was gone and most people were just sitting around chatting halfway sober. 

“Hey, I think I’m going to go home, I am super tired right now.” Kate says to you. 

“Okay, I’ll walk with you, I left my bag at your place anyways so I have to grab it.” 

“Right, sounds good.” 

Although the two of you had been singing and dancing for hours, she looked just as perfect as when you left and you were trying your hardest not to stare at her while the two of you were walking side-by-side. 

The walk back to her place was pretty quick, when the two of you got inside you went to grab your bag and get your things together. You were desperately trying to figure out what to say to her while you were organising your stuff. You didn’t want to come on too strong but you also want to make sure that she knows you had a good time…I guess just tell her exactly that?

“I had a really good time tonight, thanks again for inviting me.” You say as you’re leaning against the wall in her hallway. 

“Of course, anytime. And I did too. We should really hang out more when we come back to school.” She replies. 

Kate walks towards you and stops about a foot away leaning up against the doorframe to her bedroom. The hallway is super narrow and all you can think about is pinning her against the wall while you kiss down her neck and pull her tight by her waist. 

“Yeah I think so too. I guess I should probably head out.” You say as she looks at you with the softest eyes that you swore said “please stay”. You lingered for a second longer as the two of you were looking at each other, tired, kind of tipsy and on the verge of ripping each other's clothing off. All you wanted was for her to actually ask you to stay a little longer but before she had the chance you were already walking towards the door. 

“Have a good night y/n.” She says. “Text me when you get home safe.”

“I will. Sleep well Kate.” You reply as you turn to look at her with a smile and step out the front door. 

That goodbye felt different. It felt like there were still feelings in the air and lots that wanted to be said that wasn't. It felt like the perfect opportunity with nobody around after an amazing night together has passed but you regret none of it. Although you weren’t able to get a confirmation on whether or not Kate even likes women like you do, you knew there was definitely a type of tension between the two of you that she definitely noticed.

-- END OF PT 1 --

Taglist: @yelenaslyubov @youreatotalposer @jeyramarie @flosbelova @bridgecitybrad @justthis-stuff @chloe7076 @ailenepuff @ravenclawbitch426 @mellowladyangel @amcg0605-blog @kassies-take @yelenaswife1996 @wandanatchick @lilroachsworld @inluvwithfictionalwomen @x666hours @natashaswife4125 @onetruwhore @karmasgxrl @hopelesslyfallenninlove @setsuna1415 @swiftdazer @imobsessedwithmilfss @madamevirgo @louisprettybab @splatalia-jumpanova @jediluka @t00manyfand0ms

[sailorwritesstuff]

i got you on the dustin requests >:3 !! maybe a blurb/headcanons of him working at scoops ahoy with steve and robin for a summer job and reader is a regular? he's basically in love with them and maybe they're a little flirty👀👀?

How bout I do BOTH 👀

Dustin Henderson x reader blurb + Headcanons

The new Scoops ahoy has it's youngest sailor yet and he's in love.

"Ahoy new crewmate! Would you like to set sail on this ocean of flavor with me? I'll be your Captain, Dustin Henderson."

This. Little. Baby. Sailor.

In the little shorts. And the smile. UGH.

He had gotten the job after his mom said they couldn't afford to send him all the way to camp this year.

They were fine financially of course. But with Mike and Lucas dating and Will always looking at him with those hopeful eyes he found it best to find something to do.

And that's how he ended up a ice cream sailor scout.

When you came in the first time it was his second day on the job. He found himself fumbling though his lines.

Almost dropping the scoop.

Smiling goofily then rushing to hide it as a habit

"hi I'm uh. And I'll be your uh... caption on this flavor ride?"

He makes it though tho. He gets the order.

Soon you KEEP coming back and you smile when you see him. So he figures he hasn't screwed up TOO bad.

No matter what as soon as you walk in Robin and Steve are pushing the Littlest captain to the front.

"you got this bud."

"hello again captain. Same as usual, please?"

Your smile makes him weak in the knees

He's totally smitten.

"Ahoy- shit Robin gogogo!" You watch as the two taller sailors rush to a room in the back and the youngest one about your age is pushed out with some protests. From his annoyed look you put together he had probably been on break. "Ahoy crewmate! Would you like to set sail on this ocean of flavor with me? I'll be your Captain, Dustin Henderson."

"Hello again, Sailor." You smile you couldn't help it. It was utterly ridiculous how cute he looked as his annoyed face brightened at the familiar customer. "The usual again please?"

He grabs a cone from the stack tower and grabs his scooper but he stops midway through.

"are you ever going to switch that up?" He asked eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"what do you mean?"

"It's just," he places the scoop back in it's holder and leans on the counter. "I've seen you, what? 3 times a week since summer started. Always the same order."

"Well I like it. It's...safe. I know I like it." You explain simply but Dustin shakes his head almost like your answer was amusing

"Ah. A play it safer." Now you could see a small close mouth smile as he once again began scooping.

"Oh?" You raise a brow " You don't play it safe captain?"

"Can't say I do. "

"Well then, if I weren't going to play it safe and I came back tomorrow to see you fourth time this week what would you suggest I get?"

"chips-ahoy. with the chocolate cone."

"ah a cavity then."

"maybe," he laughs reaching across the counter to hand you your treat. "Only problem is I don't work tomorrow."

"well than maybe you can take me out for it then. Like a date."

"A date?"

"your treat, captain big bucks." You slide the money to him along with a scoops ahoy card with your number on the back, a trinket from the last time you had tried to work up the courage, before turning around and leaving a smile on your face.

"yeah..." He stares at you in wonder. "My treat."

It wasn't until you were already several stores away that you noticed he'd given you 2 scoops when you'd only paid for one.

"smooth captain" you mumble to yourself

[angelthemanspanker]

10 and 24 for the violence ask game!! i want the drama!!!!!

also your askbox name is so funny like are we supposed to submit guys xander might've fucked or what cause if so can we go cross-ip or is it just buffyverse people

asfgjkl my thought process was basically if anyone is coming into my ask box to talk about literally any guy my stance is that xander probably fucked him at some point. the cross-ip thing has potential tho who did you have in mind bc I personally think Xander could have the stupidest babies with Scott Pilgrim

10. worst part of fanon

There is this. version. of Buffy Summers that I see in fics. Mainly tbf ones not about her, usually mlm stuff bc that's what I'd be reading but I feel like pops up a lot in general where she's like. This judgmental bitch who looks down on everyone and could do with being brought down a peg or two. With a big vibe being that the Scoobies are all a bit sick of her attitude but no one's willing to call her out until the writer has somebody turn to her like Buffy shame on you, how could you fail to consider that Spike is sorry now and he's so hurt by your rejection of his five minute redemption, Buffy why do you always have to be so stubborn, Buffy why do you always see things in black and white. And just. Who IS this girl. Its like people base Buffy’s entire personality on the I Am The Law speech out of context, that she is undeniably fighting for good but just wants to kill everyone who steps out of line and has no capacity for forgiveness, her friends can't and shouldn't go to her with their problems bc she'll immediately judge them, and she always needs a rational word from Giles or Willow or somebody to reel her in and see someone else's perspective. It makes me unwell. Negatively.

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

literally any attempt to hold a character accountable for capital E Evil they commit, to explain why a ship is bad or why fans of that character are bad or whatever. Not saying people can't swear off a character who did something they can't stomach but more the idea that stuff like Angel eating Holtz's family or Anya's history of horrific punishments against guys she admits did Not all deserve it or yeah, even that a not-insignificant percentage of the cast have committed sexual assault should mean the characters should be written off. Obviously this comes up most in Spike vs Angel wars as a way to say which one is the worst when their body counts really truly do not matter on the character front. If Angel has killed like a thousand more people than Spike does that really mean fucking anything if Spike has still killed thousands of people. This is a 'verse where The Forces of Evil are very much like. A thing. Demons who kill people for no reason that we need to fight once a week exist. But hey what if one of them like Angel or Anya or Spike suddenly had to stop killing and get a job and try to maintain a friend group. That's what this shit is all ABOUT. Its FUN. And it vitally requires a cast full of people who have DONE HORRIBLE THINGS. We would have no story if they hadn't

Thanks for the ask 🤟

[topperscumslut]

“why do you even like topper?” *deep breath*

imagine you’re 16 and your brain isn’t fully developed and you just finished your sophomore year of high school, and you’re ready to have the best summer of your life with your beloved girlfriend. you’re both like crazy rich, and you hate the poor kids in your town and everyone thinks it just cuz they’re poor which probably isn’t entirely untrue, but they also all have a huge victim complex and believe poor=good and rich=evil and they can do whatever the fuck they want with no consequences. in fact, you don’t even hate ALL the poor kids cuz there’s actually a very high working class population on the island none of which you’re seen having any problems with besides these four kids who probably don’t shower and have some weird nickname for their friend group. whatever. so you’re at a party one night with your girlfriend and one of these drunk rascals starts basically harassing her and not letting her leave so you stand up for her and throw a drink in his face and at this point he’s ready to throw down. so now you’re in an all out brawl with this guy and his best friend and you and the best friend are just beating the ever loving shit out of each other until the guy from before literally holds a loaded gun to your head and gets you to stop.

the next day you’re chilling with your girlfriend and your two best friends, one of which is her psychopath brother, and she likes to do quirky little things like pretending to die to prank you. cute! so you’re talking to her little sister about how you’re worried about her and how much she means to you and the little sister is like “oh yeah btw she’s cheated on every guy she’s ever dated and the guy you were beating up last night works on our dad’s boat and is stealing from us but she let it slide and started flirting with him so that’s fun” which isn’t untrue but is also an extremely dramatized version of what went down cuz the sister’s like 13. and you’re probably thinking just trust your girlfriend over her sister, she’s with you for a reason (definitely not social status and your hot bod, which she ironically accuses you of later on) and she only has your best interests at heart and would never do anything to hurt you, right? to which i say lmao you’ve clearly never watched this show. you’re already done with this punk ass bitch and we’re not even a full two episodes in, so you decide to let your girlfriend’s dad know that his employee has been stealing from him, like any logical human being would do. you try to talk to your girlfriend about the fight from the night before and confront her about flirting with this guy and letting him steal from her family, and she tells you you’re being irrational and the fight (and you getting threatened with a loaded gun) is your own fault.

a day or two later, things are good with your girl again, you’re hanging out and treating her like a queen and you go to a party with her and y’all are drunk and kissing and she promises you she’ll never, ever cheat on you and this girl is dtf so of course you ask for consent like three times like a gentleman and she says yes but then changes her mind and stops you and you get upset (this is one of the only things he’s done that’s actually pretty fucked and i can’t really justify lol) but still handle the situation a lot better than you could have cuz instead of pressuring her of begging her to put out you’re just like “ok whatever fuck this” and walk away from the situation and then her brother (your established bestie) who’s three years older than you peer pressures you into doing lines of coke. cool! so the next day you’re hanging out with said evil brother/bestie right and one of the poor kids that’s friends with the guys you fought is walking on your golf course just doing his job and your friend has the grand idea to fuck with him and you’re like “ok dude, calm down, he’s just minding his own business not hurting anyone let’s just leave him alone and play some golf please bro golf with me bro” and this piece of shit is like “lmao no” so he goes over to the guy and starts harassing him and even tho you know it’s wrong you kinda go along with it and start antagonizing him too cuz you wanna prove to your older best friend that you’re cool but then he starts beating the absolute shit out of this guy and you’re like woah woah woah holy FUCK and get him to stop cuz he’s about to kill this mf and you’re checking to make sure the guy is okay and then y’all go about your day and kinda just pretend that didn’t just happen ig? until the dude your friend just beat up gets convinced by his friend Gun Boy that it’s a great idea to sink your probably $100k family boat to get back at you guys… cuz, ya know, that’s reasonable. why go after your friend who did 99% of the damage, right? so then you get absolutely reamed by your emotionally abusive mother who blames you for the boat sinking and tells you everything is your fault. fun! and who do you blame for this? not even the guy who sank your boat, no! you understand why he’s upset! you go to your friend like “hey bro, wtf is wrong with you, stop beating innocent people up now I don’t got a fuckin boat” but your friends are dicks and gaslight you into thinking this is all the guy who sank your boat’s fault and you should get back at him so y’all beat him up. funky! meanwhile unbeknownst to you your girlfriend is out of town cheating on you with the guy she found stealing on the boat.

anyway the next day is this really huge party and you’re so excited to go with your girlfriend and have an amazing night with her but you’re a little worried because she fully ignored you the day before and you’re not really sure what’s up. so she completely stands you up at the party and arrives with her family instead of with you and tries to ignore you the whole time until you confront her and tell her you’ve been worried about her and she refuses to tell you where she was the day before and gets mad at you for asking. anyway she sneaks off with this guy that she’s cheating on you with and you see them together but you’re not really sure what you saw so you ask her about it and she gaslights you and says you’re being crazy and too controlling of her. neato! so of course since you’re a sad insecure teenager you let it get to your head and you believe her and are like man, i was being an asshole and i should’ve just trusted her, she’d never do that to me! so you go to her room and apologize profusely to her and tell her how much you love and trust her and how much she means to you and then you find out she’s not actually there, who’s there in her bed? plot twist: her little sister who admits to you that she’s out cheating on you. fun! so you go find her with this guy and at this point you’re wasted trying to drink the pain away and you and the guy are fighting up on this big structure and you’re pushing him and he pushes back and falls thru the railing and almost dies lol. even though it’s very obvious from your shocked and terrified reaction that you didn’t mean to push him to his near death but now your girlfriend and the fandom hates you but you don’t know the fandom part because you do not know that you are a fictional character. great! however you immediately forgive her for cheating on you and try to fix things and she’s just like “fuck you you almost killed my boyfriend” and you split on her cuz you’re heavily BPD coded and call her a slut and everyone’s like “bUt tHaTs mIsOgYnIsTic” yes but it’s also not false lmao.

now this guy she’s apparently dating, who’s pretty much an orphan has been adopted by her evil father (cuz her entire family is insane besides her poor sweet innocent little sister) and they’re technically siblings ig which is really uncomfortable but anyway now they’re living together. awesome! anyway some really important plot shit goes down that you know nothing about and the sheriff gets murdered it’s all real weird but everyone including your now ex girlfriend’s dad, who you don’t know yet is an evil mastermind and he’s the most trusted man on the island, is saying that the guy your ex left you for is the one that shot the sheriff and since you have been given no reason to trust this douchebag you immediately believe it and even help the police catch him like the good citizen you are until your ex tells you the truth, that it was her psycho brother that killed the sheriff, and you’re kinda not sure whether to believe her or not but she’s like “if i was lying and framing someone, why would i say it’s my brother?” so you’re like “oh shit you right fam” so you decided to help her and her new boyfriend by disguising yourself as him and going out into a sea of armed police men ready to shoot him down, risking your life, while your ex and her new boo run off into the night and escape into the ocean in the middle of a storm and are presumed dead. lovely!

anyway some time goes by and you’re mourning your “dead” ex who you’re still in love with while putting some distance between yourself and her brother which was a weird enough friendship to begin with cuz you’re 16 and he’s 19, and don’t get on me cuz that’s the age difference of me and my bestie cuz i have a plethora of friends ranging from ages 16-22 whereas this goofy mf only hangs out with two 16 year olds and his evil dad. it’s real weird. not only that but he’s just really busy with the whole covering up the murder thing and doesn’t really talk to you anymore. you’re worried about geometry tests, he’s worried about how to cover up a murder, y’all are in very different stages of life with very different priorities rn. and all your friends are like “omg of course this poor kid from the janky side of the island did it good thing he’s dead right” and even though you don’t like this mf at all you still stand up for him to your friends cuz you know he’s probably innocent and you (unsuccessfully) try to stop a fight from breaking out between one of your friends and this guy’s best friend (the one with the gun) over it cuz there’s a time and place to beat a bitch and breakfast at the country club is Not It. and also you see both sides so you’re like *peace and love* but they still beat the shit out of each other lmao.

anyway surprise! your ex is alive and her and her boyfriend are back! interesting! but her brother is still fucking insane and she’s willing to testify that he is indeed the one that shot the sheriff so he tries to murder her but you show up just in time and save her life and beat the shit out of her brother cuz who the fuck tries to drown their sister like why were you ever friends with this dickface. so you let her stay the night with you to make sure she’s safe from her murderous brother and give her a phone that you can track her location on and even though it’s clearly established that that’s not something you actively do cuz you know it’s none of your business and only for emergencies cuz she keeps putting herself into dangerous, near death situations that she had never been in before this new guy, everyone (the fandom) thinks you’re a stalker now. groovy! oh also her boyfriend is now jealous of you that you saved her life and is mad at her about it. anyway a couple days later she watches her dad supposedly kill himself and you immediately rush to her aid while her boyfriend is just like “he was a bad person get over it” so she breaks up with him and you and her start hanging out more, and you let her stay at your place for a bit since she can’t stay with her (now ex) boyfriend or her family.

a couple days after all that you all go to a party together and you’re not quite sure how she feels about you since she just got out of a relationship but you still love her and you are her are getting along really well, you both forgive each other for the pain you’ve caused each other in the past and things are starting to feel like they did this summer when you guys were together. so you try to kiss her at the party and she shoots you down, and since you’ve grown as a person instead of getting offended by her rejection this time you totally get it and are 100% respectful of her boundaries, and blame yourself for trying to make a move in the first place. meanwhile her ex is talking to some pick me girl who’s saying terrible things about her, and she decides to go confront them which leads to this girl insulting her and you standing up for her while the other guy just kinda… stands there. so you’re like “hey man, what the fuck, you’re gonna let this girl talk about her like that?” which leads to y’all getting into yet another fist fight cuz the peace and love attitude did not last long lmao. anyway you talk to your ex and she thanks you for all you’ve done for her and promises you she’ll never disappear on you again like she did last time. so you make plans with her and you show up to her house cuz she’s back living at home now for some reason and encounter her psycho brother who tells you she blew you off to go hang out with this other guy again, which you don’t believe cuz she wouldn’t do that to you, right? (she would) anyway she’s out doing god knows what with him and before you know it, lo and behold, she disappears and is presumed dead again!

a month goes by and you try your best to get over her, she’s missing and presumed dead and even in the insane chance that she did come back, she’s made it clear she’s not interested, so you try to move on and have a life outside of her and her insane family for literally the first time. anyway, it’s been a month and guess who’s back, back again. your ex! and her boyfriend that she got back together with! wonderful! also turns out her evil father is actually alive and ALSO tried to kill her lmao. so she’s back but she’s trying to ignore you cuz she knows if she so much as looks at you it’ll piss her boyfriend off, but you’re rich and she’s not anymore since she decided to cut off her family so her and her friends have the grand idea of making you their errand boy and convince you to steal your dad’s truck (also you have a DAD? what???) to commit a train robbery of some ancient artifact which is apparently extremely important to boat sinker’s heritage. so you’re like ok whatever, i would do anything for this girl, like literally anything, and you do it. and the whole time her entire group of friends is ordering you around like you’re their servant (damn, these poor kids sure are entitled), and berating you for not being down for committing a felony, running from the police, wrecking your dad’s truck, and almost dying. when the job’s done there’s not so much as a thank you, just you having to go home and answer to your furious parents.

a couple days later her and her boyfriend get into a fight cuz he decides to rub in her face the fact that her dad tried to murder her, but they’re still together. so you invite her to a party that you’re going to (cuz you’re somehow not grounded??) with your group of friends who also happens to be her old group of friends from before she started slumming it with the poor kids. so you’re talking just the two of you at the end of the night and you tell her how incredibly sorry you are for anything you’ve done to hurt her and how much she means to you as a friend cuz you’re soooooo totally definitely over her for sure and then she kisses you. SHE kisses YOU. and you’re like fuck yeah, maybe she actually likes me, maybe I’m finally enough for her (you’re not). anyway she spends the night with you and you maybe fuck but idk it’s unclear. so you take her out to a nice breakfast the next morning so she knows you care about her and she’s not just some one night stand. that night you see her at a fancy party and her broke ass boyfriend sneaks in telling her they need to leave to go to south america. what for? you don’t know, you’re a side character that only exists to be her boy toy when her boyfriend is treating her like shit.

anyway she confesses to her bf that she cheated on him with you and he decides to beat the shit out of you, but this is a nice anniversary party and you really don’t want any trouble and you’ve also grown up a lot and are tired of fighting so you’re like “c’mon bro, please, let’s not do this here” but he’s furious cuz who gets with another guys girl, right? lmao oh wait. it’s almost like that’s how they started dating in the first place. so he starts swinging at you the whole time you’re begging him to stop bcuz you’re tired of fighting and trying to change from your old ways, you’re just tired bro. but he keeps beating the absolute shit out of you even far past the point that you’re already unconscious while his girlfriend begs him to stop. so what do you do (when you regain consciousness the next day, that is)? what literally any sane person would do and press charges. so you ask your ex to testify on your behalf bcuz she saw everything but when the day comes she tells you she can’t do it and begs you not to press charges bcuz her boyfriend needs to flea to south america to help his dad (who was presumed dead and lost at see but is actually alive) who’s been abducted (and this is actually the truth, believe it or not!) and she promises you that her bf will be gone and out of your hair but that she’ll stay on the island with you and will not go with him. so you begrudgingly agree to drop the charges, your mother of course taking the opportunity to tell you what a failure you are for not going thru with it. your ex says she’ll call you tomorrow night but she never does, and who do you happen to run into? none other than your ex best friend himself, her psycho brother, who tells you that she stood you up and is off with her boyfriend. and you’re all like, no, no way, she would never do that to me, things are different this time, she made a promise! and for once in his life he’s actually right and he’s like “oh yeah? check for yourself.” so you drive to her boyfriend’s house and lo and behold, there she is, fucking him. now look me in the eyes and tell me you wouldn’t burn that fucking place to ashes. look. me. in. the. eyes.

[maranello]

Hiii!! Sorry to disturb you, I'm kinda new to the fandom and i was wondering what was the joke that charles pulled on the Ferrari team and how they broke the news of his 5yr contract to him? And what is the "car he won in" thing included in the contract? Sorry to be bothersome ksjsjsn

I need cute Ferrari and Charles story to somehow mend my broken heart after the mess of the last few races, i love anecdotes about how much his team loves him and is wrapped around his fingers

helllooooo, it's no trouble at all! I love talking about charles and ferrari :') so here we go!

The prank Charles pulled on the Ferrari team was at the last 3 corners to him winning Bahrain 2022. For context, 3 years ago, Charles was leading the race in Bahrain by around 10 seconds, in his second race ever with Ferrari. It was brilliant to watch. It felt like he was really going to win his first race in just his second race ever in a competitive car. (Previously, he had just one year at Sauber, which finished P8 in the standings.) But then. "There's something strange with the engine, something strange with the engine!" Lewis passed him. Then Valtteri. He managed to keep a P3 thanks to a safety car, but his very first podium in F1 had been a disappointment because were it not for the engine problem, he really should have had his maiden win then. It wouldn’t be until Spa 2019 where he would win his first F1 grand prix. Flashforward to 2022. First race of the season. Ferrari had been P3 last year. They looked quite strong in testing but you never really know until you get the cars on track. Charles is on pole. He drives beautifully, outsmarts Max Verstappen after a close pit stop then holds him off with a perfect restart. We’re at the final lap. Three corners to the end. Then you hear on Charles’ radio: “There’s something strange with the engine, something strange with the engine!” Brief pause. Engineers checking their date. Mechanics suffering a mini heart attack in the garage. Tentatively, Xavi, his race engineers, laughs, nervously, “Copy.” Pause. “I’m joking.” You can hear his smile. “Understood.” He reaches the finish line. “And P1!!”  Charles says he’d actually been planning this prank for about 10-15 laps, the madman, hoping there wouldn’t be reliability issues. (Possibly through that nervy safety car restart even.) He said he was already imaging the face of an engineer Torre in the garage, “povero gabbiano hai perduto la compagna.” [reference to an italian meme, “poor seagull who lost his mate!”] This is an inside joke between Charles and the Ferrari garage, who had played the song in the garage and dared him to say it on the radio, if he won. Mattia says to him on the radio, “Never do that again, eh?” Charles responds that no, of course not, it was only appropriate in this situation.  Charles pulls up to the pit lane. P1. He embraces his team, they are rejoicing, this feels like redemption and a rebirth. “Sei uno stronzo! Sei uno stronzo!” his mechanics/engineers say as they hug him. Yeah, because he is an asshole for making them a heart attack for a few seconds like that!

The story of Charles being notified that he got the Ferrari seat for 2019 is also such a great one because, like Charles’ Bahrain 2022 joke, it really is representative of Ferrari humor. (Basically, Person A will go like [smth completely untrue/opposite of what they want to say,] Person B will be like oh..., and then Person A is like :3 jk, actually-)  I’m not sure if this call takes place during the summer or during the season, but it should before Kimi announced at the Italian Grand Prix that he was going to Sauber/Alfa Romeo next year. Charles, at that point, was in his first year with Sauber. He’d been doing a brilliant job with a car that wasn’t that great, getting it into Q3s and scoring good points too. It was a big debate among tifosi whether or not Charles should be called up or not. Most wanted Kimi to stay. He was massively popular, his form was seeing an uptick in the latter half of the season, he was a very steady and solid partner to Seb who was leading the championship fights for Ferrari. Charles, just 20 at the time, was an unknown. It hadn’t been in Ferrari’s nature to promote drivers young for some years. Massa had spent 3-4 years at Sauber before stepping up to Ferrari in 2006. The Ferrari Drivers Academy had only been established in December 2009, Jules Bianchi was the first member. He was still part of Ferrari’s program when he made it to F1, driving at backmarker team Marussia F1 in 2013 and 2014 until his fatal accident at the Japanese Grand Prix. Jules probably would have made the step up to the midfield Sauber in 2015 first, to prove himself more, before he could step up into Ferrari, a future that had seemed certain to so many around the paddock until his accident.  But then, a few years on you had Charles, who was immediately fast in a car and learned even faster. He won GP3 and F2 back to back in his rookie seasons. Since 2017, there’s been quite some hype surrounding him as a Ferrari junior who was dominating the F2 season, even more so for his incredible show of maturity and determination to race and win on the very week his father died. That weekend had impressed then Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene.  And so, in 2018, some time during summer break or before the Italian Grand Prix, Charles receives a phone call from Maurizio. Maurizio says, “Okay, we’ve made our decision, you are not taken for 2019.” Charles was, of course, disappointed. But it is an understandable decision to renew Kimi Raikkonen, the last Ferrari champion, you know? He will get his chance eventually. 15 seconds pass. “No, I’m joking,” Maurizio says. On September 11,  there is the official announcement: Charles Leclerc will drive for Scuderia Ferrari in 2019. 

Charles won Spa and Monza back to back in 2019, his first and second win consecutively. The first Ferrari win at Monza since Fernando Alonso in 2010. He’d sustained consistent pressure from Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas throughout the whole race, and he won. As soon as he won Monza, this 21-year-old kid said to Ferrari, “...You know, I would love this car at home.” And they were like, “Oh, we’ll see, we’ll see.” The end of the year rolls around. Charles is renewing his contract with Ferrari. In the process of re-negotiating his contract, he brings up the point about the car that won in Spa and won in Monza, and Ferrari accepts. Charles renews his contract with Ferrari by 5 years, the longest contract length in Scuderia Ferrari history, a courtesy not even Michael Schumacher received. That 5-year contract just shows you the regard Charles and Ferrari has for each other.  So, in 2021, ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Charles teases that he has received a very special gift from Ferrari. It is that SF90 car, with the same exact chassis that he won his first two grand prix with back in 2019. 

[felassan]

Some snippets of interest from Netflix's Toon In interview with Mairghread Scott and some of the voice cast, from the premiere of Absolution episode 1:

Mairghread: "I was asked to pitch for the show. I brought in three pitches and they were just like 'what would you do with a Dragon Age show'? I was like 'here are three different ideas' and this was the small little mean one in my heart that I was like 'they're not gonna pick this one, but like, it's fine'. It's the funny thing about writing, you're like, 'no way, no-one's gonna pick this one', and they were like, 'oh yeah, this is it', and I was like, 'ooh, okay, um'. [...] They really went for this show. This show is all about going for the jugular."

Mairghread: "We had such a fricking amazing team. Whatever you guys think of the show you gotta know that people left it on the mat. Our director actually got in trouble once because in the title sequence, we were reviewing an episode and they had the title sequence up, and there's a shot where there had just been a regular transition, instead he made it like Miriam leaping into the shot was the transition. And I was like, 'oh, hey, Bae, that's a new shot, right?' And the line producer was like 'no it's not, because he was supposed to stop working on that, because it was locked', like... and I was like 'oh... sure...' and Bae's like looking at me like, 'don't fricking -' and I'm just like 'yeah, must've been wrong, just - such a cool shot'. Like, they had to pry this show outta his hands. Everyone, the actors, we'd be like, 'yeah, great job', they're like 'no, I gotta, one more time, one more time, I really wanna nail it', like everyone just gave it." Mairghread: "We wrote this show in 2019 and we recorded this show in the summer of 2020. We never met [the voice actors], we literally recorded the show over a giant ten person Zoom call, which is insane." Ashly Burch: "The scripts are so good and we got to record everything together, so I got to hear these guys and their awesome performances." Host: "Y'all filmed the Zoom calls and some of the facial expressions were used?" Mairghread: "Yes, it was a very lucky thing where because we were on Zoom, the animation team asked, 'hey, can we just, just for reference, record this?' and it really helped get some of those, I talked about those priorities, acting and like facial acting was so important, that the fact that they could reference you guys while you actually did the lines really helped them get that extra level of facial acting into the characters." Mairghread: "For the European fans, all your ships are now canon. Like thank you so much [for staying up late to watch the premiere]." Ashly: "You have opened the box you can no longer close." Mairghread: "God, I know right. This is where BioWare's like, 'Season 2? No'." Mairghread: [on the cool intro] "Everyone was saying like, 'look, it's a Netflix show, they're gonna skip the intro, you don't have to', and we were like, 'No. We're bringing it. For everything.'" Phil LaMarr: [at the Roland-Lacklon 'no girlfriend' scene] "I don't have a girlfriend [chuckles]. Spoiler Alert!!" Host: "Why are they all so hot?" Mairghread: "We were in the writer's room, one of my friends happened to have been working on a show down the hall, and she came in and she was like, 'hey, you got any ships on your show?' And I was like 'bitch, I've got an armada'. [...] Reached out to the character's [editors/artists?], and I was like, 'they all have to be hot, just so you know'. They don't have to be the same kind of hot." Ashly: "Qwydion is so many things. She's excited by magic, she's bubbly, loving, she's a caretaker, but I just can't get over how tall she is, I love it so much because I'm very short. [...] The thing that I love about her, especially in this ensemble, she has this lightness to her, like it's so fun seeing this episode because every time she's on-screen she's smiling basically, she's happy to be there, happy to go on an adventure. I love that light-heartedness. And she also has a genuine affection for people, there's not a lot of prejudice there, she's a sweet soul. I love how funny she is, it's such a joy to be playing a character, it's my favorite type of character, the character that comes and makes you laugh, gets to scream 'shit' a bunch of times and then goes about her business."

Mairghread: "So many people, like I cannot stress how many people worked for three years, three and a half years we started to when it airs. The cast, everyone, people gave a good chunk of their lives to make this show and I'm so, so thankful and proud."

Mairghread: "Dragon Age: Inquisition is the only game I've played more than once, I loved it so freaking much. [...] Then my manager called and was like 'BioWare wants to know if you've ever heard of Dragon Age' and I'm like, 'Have I heard of Dragon Age?'"

Kimberly Brooks: [on how she found the voice for Miriam] "She's kind of close to me, just my natural voice, and I'm naturally a badass like that so, it really was just like, typecasting. We got to record as an ensemble, we had a great voice director. [...] We fine-tuned it I felt like, when we were, all of us. It was a great experience, coming up with the voice. [...] Tough but warm, it's the dichotomy." Mairghread: "You get a file [of auditions]. A lot of people could bring the badass, but she really brought the warmth, and really, your voice and performance was so warm, in like, this, quieter moments where you could feel a person instead of just a phenomenal killing machine. I knew instantly when I heard your audition, I was like 'that's it, that's absolutely it'. [...] Phil's audition was so smooth and sexy, I was like 'oh this is so nice', but actually what clinched it is there's a moment where he has to like, act badly, and it's actually really hard to get actors to act badly. A moment where he has to do a bad job of acting. And you went for it 100%, it was hilarious." Mairghread: "This has been one of the best fandoms I've ever had the privilege to interact with. I really mean it, you guys, like, there's videos of going shot-by-shot like 'look at what this means', it's like 'YES! Yes that is what that means!' You guys deep dive and you're so passionate and that just makes all the work that you put in, all the work that we put in just feel so worth it, and I really hope we do you proud. [...] You work so hard, there's some little background painter, and everyone tried so fricking hard, and I'm watching a video three years later which is like 'you know if you look at the architectural style of those columns, you can see that we are definitely in Tevinter'. And I'm like 'Fuck yeah!' Cause that background painter studied everything and worked their butt off and that IS the architectural style of Tevinter."

Phil: "Believe me, you have a lot of wonderful things to come. [...] Put on your captain's hat, because there are some ships coming." [source]

[madrone33]

I'm so glad the PJO show stuck the landing. I've seen a lot of shows lately that have a habit of, uh, not doing that, so I'm really happy I liked the finale episode!

(Also because I watched it with my mum, and she hasn't seen anything but the first two episodes and my rambling recaps, so I'm glad my show didn't disappoint me in front of her lol)

MAJOR SPOILERS for the PJO finale past this point!

There are only two things I can think of that I didn't really like, and that Gabe's- whole thing, basically, soz. I get why they toned him down for the visual format, and I'm not trying to undercut the actual abuse that is still happening, I just personally like Sally turning her piece of shit abusive husband to stone and then selling his statue to get money for a degree lol.

And then also the dropped police plot line is a bit iffy. They probs cut it for time or smth, but it just felt weirdly unresolved. Like, they set it up so well, and then they don't follow through at all, just straight up don't mention it again. Idk, maybe they'll bring it back for the 2nd season? Not sure how that'd work tho. It's a minor issue, but it did feel strange to me.

The rest of it was very well done though, imo!

It starts with Luke saying The Thing but different?? Giving The Last Day of Summer from The Lightning Thief musical vibes fr fr.

The fight with Ares was hella cool, with the awesome wave, and the choreography was pretty well done to my completely inexperienced eye. The ichor looked cool, very handy that it's gold so they can show 'blood' on screen and still keep it PG lol. I was cheering Percy on so hard.

They did the flashbacks so well. Honestly, every episode's done the flashbacks well, but Luke? Oh yeah. As soon as he showed up on screen, helping Percy, preparing him, I knew the end of the episode was gonna hit so hard.

The trio is still amazing. They play off of each other so well, and all their actors are so talented!

The necklace!!

Ok, Percy had zero chill on Olympus. He straight up said his shit to Zeus, knowing he'd probably be killed for it and not giving a single fuck because that was his world and his friends and his mum that were going to be hurt if this stupid war continued, and he was going to make Zeus listen even if it killed him.

And then Poseidon steps in and surrenders and when I tell you I audibly gasped I'm not kidding. Like- The gods don't just back down when they're fighting, that's not how their power dynamic works, how the glory system works, how their pride and respect and status works. I'm probs not explaining it very well 'cause it's like 1:30 am rn, (I really should stop writing these essays at midnight lol) but yeah. Poseidon was giving up a lot. And he didn't care. Because that was his son, and his son was worth more than any glory could give him.

Also, funny side note: after they started speaking what I assume is greek, and then switched back to english, my brain for some reason decided to completely forgot my native language and just- didn't process english anymore. I kid you not, it just registered as sounds without meaning. Completely alien. I sat there without understanding the next four sentences they said until my brain clicked back in and I was like, ohhh, they're speaking english. And then I had to rewind and listen to it again lol.

Zeus smugly saying he'll announce his "swift and crushing victory" and Poseidon rolling his eyes was so sibling energy lol.

... So, does Poseidon yeeting Percy back to camp without answering mean he's too overcome by emotion to say 'yes' or that he's too guilty to admit 'no'?

I like how all the cheering and clapping is muffled out by the music at first, because Percy's still shocked that he's actually alive. It's only when Annabeth hugs him that he fully processes the fact that he's safe.

Gonna be honest, I'd completely forgotten that they thought Clarisse was the Lightning Thief. They did a good job of reminding me though.

Yeah, Luke's betrayal was executed better here than the books imo. First of all, the lighting is immaculate. The past episodes had an issue with night scenes and being super dark, but the fireworks lighting up selective scenes really works.

I like how Percy figures it out first, and almost challenges Luke to deny it. And Luke is- not prepared. He had a plan. He was going to ease into this. And it hurts all the more because Percy is scared and angry and betrayed and Luke never wanted to hurt him.

What's done so well is that you can see how Luke didn't want to fight- and then Percy mentioned Hermes and Luke just snapped. Trigger button. Wrong thing to say. Now, suddenly Percy wasn't the 12 year old kid Luke was trying to save and help, he was just someone who'd said the name of That Man and now Luke was just bitter pain and rage.

Also, Percy accidentally cutting Luke - with a sword that can't even harm him anyway - and immediately apologising, and then Luke only seeing a weakness to exploit and going in for the kill. That hurt.

Ok wait imma copy paste a small ramble I posted earlier to here because it stands true. Here we go:

A bit rambling, a might not make much sense, but had a thought about that scene when Annabeth saves Percy and reveals herself. There's two things that stuck out to me; she didn't let herself show any emotion but anger, and she'd been there the whole time but only interfered just then.

She'd been suspicious enough of something to go against the plan and follow them. She heard Luke confess his betrayal while invisible and alone. She heard his true feelings about the gods, about their parents, and now after everything - after Athena. After Percy - she understood him so much more and so much less at the same time. She'd been locked in shocked grief that froze her, and the only thing that snapped her out of it was seeing Percy beneath the blade of the person they'd both trusted, and the need to protect burnt away the numbness long enough for her to compartmentalise and lock away everything but anger so she could move.

Luke's face though. Oof. All I could think was "She's like a little sister to me." (Don't crucify me if that's not his exact wording, it's almost 2am now, I'm tiiiired.) But yeah, the fact that he probably could've taken them both if he truly wanted, but the moment he saw her and her betrayed, furious face, and then looked down and saw the kid he'd been about to kill- He just ran.

The parting of ways, with the trio at Thalia's tree, bright plans for the future, hugging and smiling and making a pact to come back to each other, no matter what- that was so toothrottingly sweet.

And then the cabin scene? Heartwarming af. The mother and son duo is just. You can feel their desperate relief and love for each other. It's so good.

A bit wary when Kronos showed up, wasn't sure if the whole prior stuff was 'just a dream' but I'm guessing Percy was just remembering how they reunited, and Kronos hijacked his nice memory. That was well done, too. Percy was just so Done with this guy, like c'mon, give the kid a break. And then him waking up with his mum again - like I said; they're so sweet. The fact that this happens often enough for them to have a dedicated book lmao. Also, him calling Kronos grandpa was on point.

It exits out of the window Sally was sitting on! And it's raining!! (Also, another side note, but whenever something exits with a window I just think of The Last of Us episode 3).

Ok so they have to make a second season. It's the law. They gotta.

Hmm. Think that's everything I can think of saying now lol.

(Thank you for everyone who worked hard on this! Even if I don't like some stuff, I know that so many hours of work was poured into this and I appreciate it so much!)

EDIT: OH WAIT I almost forgot Ares completely out of pocket line about Percy's mum, and yeah, no way was he getting out of that now, asshole. Also, the way Percy and Luke's parents are a trigger. The character similarities are similying~

[oneleggedgiraffe]

Aleks concept

people were interested in her so i figured id make a separate post explaining what her deal is and also at the same time giving context for my vigilante au that ive been vaguely making content for

Vigilante AU:

Basically the city hates the ninja from about the end of season 1. They hide their identities for most of the show and cant really return to the monastery so they live in the crappy apartment from season 2 and take on day jobs. They also send Lloyd to school because he might as well learn how to divide while they’re at their day jobs. The basic plot events still happen but a bit differently and all the ninja have cool street clothes

 Aleks’s plot

She's a central character in one of the plot lines I made for the vgilante AU. To summarize the plot and her involvement; after the events of season 7, the time blades were lost to the streams of time and scattered around history. One of the blades happened to land in a small village a few hundred years after the beginning of Ninjago. 

The time stop blade was seen as a blessing. The villagers thought it was granting them longer lives when the subtle effects of the blade would slow down their lifespans and halt their aging. Years later, a man travelling through the area heard about this and stole the blade. Hundreds of people frozen in time for several dozen years were released and the effects hit them all at once. Most of the village died short after the man left and upon hearing about this, the man decided the blade was cursed and locked it away. 

Time passed and the blade was forgotten. Until one day a young thief broke into a house and found the blade stashed away in a vengestone case. Almost being caught she fled with some money, jewellery, and the case. After a few months of owning it, Aleks couldn't seem to figure out what it was or even someone to sell it to. Until a man approached her showing interest in it. After reluctantly following him, he revealed himself as the owner of the time forward blade. He attacks her and she tries to escape before eventually fighting back. After a mysterious third party stopped their fight, both blades break near Aleks and she ends up absorbing their power.

 As the man attempts to lunge at her again she finds herself instinctively transporting herself away, and she finds herself in modern Ninjago where eventually the Ninja find her. They recognize her as the first Elemental Master of Time and decide they have to help her locate all blades so she can absorb their power, travel back to her time, and return to her destined path. She's reluctant through most of it, becoming even more hesitant when learning about what Krux and Acronix did. She figures if she never follows this path then the elemental power of time will never exist and Krux and Acronix will never have committed any of their crimes. But eventually they convince her of her destiny and they start looking for the other blades and train her to take on the role.

sorry about the giant block of text. I tried to format it to be a bit more readable. But yeah! I’ve been meaning to get properly started on the vigilante AU some time ago but life got busy and summer break means that nothing can stop me. This fake season for the AU takes place sometime after season 10 and before season 11 when the taste of destiny is still fresh on their lips

[ronance4everbrainrot]

Soo @corgiplays themselves requested... Well I asked them because I had no idea which one I should do, but they said the one that I would have liked to do next anyway for the

Murray adopting Robin AU

and well they chose the Thanksgiving with Murray! (I mean finally a story with the main focus being him and Robin again! Also very very long intro until the Thanksgiving with Murray. Also the Halloween part wasn't supposed to be so long 😭)

✨✨✨

[October, 26th Saturday]

Robin wanted to see Murray again, so she asked him to come to Hawkins. Her Mom has been a bit more demanding than usual so she didn't have that much time to talk to him over the phone. This is also the reason why they meet at Steve's house. Steve was out somewhere, he didn't really say where, but he say they could use his place, so she doesn't really care.

"So this is Steve Harrington's infamous house" Murray says and starts looking around. "Um-yeah! I guess it is.." Robin says while looking at him suspiciously 'why do i feel like he knows something I don't?....' she stares at him for a bit but then let's the thought go. She clears her throat "soo...I've been basically living here since summer, so if you need anything, or want to know where stuff is,you can ask this expert here" she says. embarrassed at her last line 'did I really just say that' while also pointing a thumb at herself. Murray stops looking around and turns to Robin with a weird look in his eyes "You and Steve are close"

Robin's confused for a second but then her eyes widden "We-" "Are not dating. I know" Murray cuts her off. She looks surprised "how-" "do I know? Well either that or Steve would be emotionally cheating on you, also you would have told me if there was anyone, because even though we just officially not even 2 months ago, I, for some reason, trust you and I feel like you also trust me, which surprised me since you obviously have trust issues" Robin was shocked. They're just standing in the doorway to the kitchen for a few silent minutes, with Murray gently smiling at her. "How-" "do I know that?" he shrugs "I'm just that good" snickering quietly. "Now" he claps his hands together. "I need something to drink" "But it's like still-" "earily? Well I don't care. There's a happy hour time somewhere" He says while going through a few cabinets.

This was not what Robin thought would happen. But he is right. She does trust him. After just standing there for a few seconds she points at the cabinet Murray was looking for. Murray opens it and is met with disappointment "Oh wow.. You'd think rich people at least have whiskey, but it's only beer...disappointing" Robin laughs at that "Yea well Steve buys the groceries around here so that's probably why" Murray either didn't care or didn't want to talk about this comment so he just said "well at least it's not the cheap one" and takes one, holding one out for Robin "no thanks" she says and they walk over to the living room. "So you mentioned that you got a job, how's that going?" Murray asked while taking a sip from the bottle and sitting down on the couch. Robin's eyes sparkle "It's amazing! I mean the manager is weird and the payment isn't really that good, but I love working with movies! I love when I can talk about movies or when people ask me for suggestions. I'm also basically a movie expert, at least that's what the kids told me." she starts shaking her head "Oh God the kids. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but they can be such a pain in the ass! Like, just two days, I was in the back room and Mike started throwing videotapes at Dustin because he said something about..i don't even know!- And then Dustin starts throwing them at him too and when I came out of the back room, it was chaos. They were all over the floor and genres were mixed together, luckily non of them were damaged, but since Steve couldn't go to work that day, guess who had to clean it up. Yup, me. At least the kids felt guilty enough to help. Yesterday they also came over, and apologized again, well Mike and Dustin. Nancy was there too, she probably made them apologize again, I also think she threatened them to do it..they seemed kinda scared....So well I love my job." She ends her ramble with a smile. "That's good to hear" Murray smiles at her and puts the now empty bottle on the coffee table. 'oh God, did I really ramble that long, why didn't he stop me' Robin blushes in embarrassment "Sor-" "Well besides that it doesn't pay well, but you gotta start somewhere" "Y-yeah" Robin looks down with a smile.

"So you and Nancy must be close for her to threaten her brother to say sorry again" her head snaps up at that "uh-" Murray got this weird look in his eyes again "n-not really, I mean we kinda bonded, and I guess you can say we're friends, but mostly just friends because we're hanging out in the same group..." she looked down again. "that doesn't really fit her character..." he mumbles to himself. He clears his throat "So you and the kids are also close? Let me guess, you're closes to the red haired one" "Max, her name is Max" Robin answered a bit annoyed "but yes, we're even gonna have a matching costume for Halloween!" her tone getting exciting again "we're gonna go as Wendy and Jack from The Shining!" "Well you don't even need a costume to be Jack" "I'm gonna take that as a compliment" "Sure" Murray says snickering. "Anyway..we only spend money one a few things since we already had fitting clothing, the only missing thing is Wendy's overrall dress, you know the brown/orange one and without that the look just isn't complete and we couldn't really find anything similar to it, but well we still have a few days, so maybe we'll find something" Robin's tries to sound hopeful but her eyes show doubt "I mean it's just a costume but we got this far and we even got a fake axe and I just like when costumes have every single detail possible on them" Murray thinks for a bit "You know I can make one for you, well Max. I just need her measurements and the fabric." Robin looks at him in disbelieve "You know it's not weird for a man to know how to se-" Robin attacks him with a hug "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she's chants. Murray pats her on the back "Yea yea, you're welcome" he chuckles. "You're the best" she pulls away from the hug with a giant happy smile and Murray can't help but smile back "We'll see about that" he pats her back again "Now get off of me" Robin quickly sits back to her spot from before, still happy as ever. "So when-" he get cut off by the house phone "Uh- I'll get it!" Robin stands up and walk over to the phone.

A bit anxious but also not wanting it to be her fault if Steve misses any important calls, she picks up the phone. "H-hello, Harrington's residents" 'stupid stutter', the line is quite for a bit and she gets nervous.."Do you always answer the phone like that when I'm not home?" she here's the voice from Steve says "You literally say the same thing!" she argues back "I-...True.. Anyway, I'm at Nancy's right now and her mom asked me to check up on you for some reason, which I don't get but ok-" Robin ignores that way this sentence hurt. She hasn't been over to the Wheelers for like 2 weeks, so she hasn't seen Karen, which makes it was sweet she asked, maybe Nancy told her about the chaos at Family Video. "So, you good?" "Uh, yeah, I'm good.." "Great, now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back and help Nancy with something, byee" he says, his tone more existing "ok b-" he hangs up before she can bye.

'Um.. Rude..' she puts the phone back and goes back to the Murray who got himself another beer. "Who was that?" "Just Steve" She sit back down on the couch. Murray noticed her mood change and the tone but doesn't comment about it. "So when would be a good time to get the measurements?" he tries to hide his smiles when he sees Robin's eyes light up a bit

[October, 31th Thursday]

"I still can't believe Murray actually made this" Max says for the 11th times this evening, while twirling around with it. She was also very happy that they got the whole custom together. "Can you shut up about it already, we get it, you're surprised, big deal!" An annoyed Mike Wheeler said, throwing his hands in the air for dramatics "Mike, stop being rude" An now also annoyed Nancy Wheeler said, while hitting him on the head with her fake gun.

She is dressed up as Ripley from Alien, it not really a detailed custom, but she got the pants and a similar jacket with difference patches/patterns as the actual jacket, but they are on the same place mostly, not that Robin was looking, nope. Robin definitely didn't almost trip over nothing when she saw Nancy in the Wheelers front lawn while walking over to them. She most definitely did not. She also was very much able to talk back when Nancy says "Who are you supposed to be? I thought you were gonna dress up, but just look like yourself." in a teasing tone. Ye know, Robin didn't almost compost. Luckily Steve interrupted them before Robin could answer.

They were walking in a group together right now. Nancy, Steve, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Erica, Max and herself. "Mom says you should stop hitting Mike" Oh right and Holly! How could she forget. "Yeah well sometimes your brother is an idiot and needs a proper punishment for being an idiot" Robin says while smiling down at Holly. Holly giggles. She is so adorable! She's dressed up as a beautiful Princess, instead of her dress being the stereotypical pink dress, it's blue, and she basically looks like Cinderella, besides the hair still being in her usual pigtails, she also has a shiny tiara on her head. It's a big contrast to what Nancy is wearing so it's kinda weird when they walk besides each other.

"I'm not an idiot!" he says and tries to hit Robin with his plastic sword, which she blocks with her axe. Mike however is perfectly matching with Holly, since Karen chose his custom for him because he couldn't decide on anything. He's got a pastel yellow dress shirt, with red dress pants, he didn't put much effort into it, but he tried to match the cinderella vibe as prince charming.

"wow, easy there, little Wheeler" Robin chuckles nervously, blocking another hit. Mike stops trying to hit her "I'm not an idiot" he crosses his arms. "You are, tho" Dustin jokes, ironically enough he's dressed up as Robin, no, not her, but as Batman's sidekick. And who could be the perfect Batman for Dustin's Robin other than Steve. Dustin made a lot of jokes about being Robin which Robin actually found funny but acted annoyed. And Steve said he only answers to the name Batman, or well tries to, because he always forgets not to answer when they say Steve. 'dingus' both of them have the full body suit with capes and Steve even has a belt with stuff attached to it.

"Why is everyone bullying me" Mike pouts and crosses his arms even more. "stop being a wuss and don't act like you don't insult people too. Cause that's total bulls-" "Erica!!" Lucas and Robin say and point at Holly, who is completely unaware of what's going on because she's focusing on a person who has butterfly wings. "Oh please, as if hadn't heard that before" Erica rolls her eyes, she's dressed as her own created character from Dnd. Lady Applejack. She had a black bandana with apples on it tied around her neck. And she looks like a mix from a cowboy and and a pirate [idk]. Her color pattern is mostly dark colors, she has some red and orange touches, also dark, but most is a dark green [idk]. She also has pointy ears.

"Well maybe she hasn't" Lucas shrugged. He is dressed up as a pirate. He's got red and black striped loose pants and a white shirt and a light brown sleeveless jacket. He also got a bandana tied around his had and also an eye patch on his left eye. [Idk] He also got his sling shot with him, because he can.

"Ok, can everybody just stop bullying everybody, so we can finally get some more candy." Max said, very annoyed. She has her Wendy custome on. The overall dress Murray made fits perfect and looks amazing. She also has an actual bat with her. Out of wood...Well anyway. "Ye, she's right, we'll never get more candy if we keep arguing" Dustin says. Steve agrees. They continue walking and chatting, with Robin, Max Lucas and Erica in the front and Steve, dustin Nancy, Holly and Mike in the back, who go slower and slower because Steve somehow makes them go slower, which is how they lose the others. The other don't notice at first, too caught up into their conversation, until they turn around to see that the others are gone. At first they kinda panicked (well Lucas and Robin) Erica and Max suggested to just continue. So they went from house to house alone without the others.

When the others noticed (well it was Steve's plan anyway) that the others are way ahead and gone, Steve says that it's ok and they have Robin. "Are we talking about the same Robin?" Nancy asks, a bit concerned. "Um yeah? Don't worry about her, she can handle herself and others." "I'm sure you should know best about this" Nancy says with a bit of jealousy and teasing voice. "Stop flirting and let's get some candy" Dustin says. Steve flushes red "We are not flirting!!" 'Wow he's so mad he turned red. Dustin probably doesn't know Steve is already dating someone, which is weird since he's the closes to Steve' "-you think Nance?" she shakes her head "What?" Nancy asked. "I asked what you think about it?" 'shit, what did he ask!?' Nancy looks at Dustin who, bless him, most have noticed that she didn't listen and pointed at his custome. "Oh, it's cool! Batman, nice choice.." she politely smiled at him. "yea, thanks, I came up with it since Robin's name is Robin and then I thought Batman and Robin would fit together. Sadly Robin already had a matching custom with Max, so I asked Dustin." he explained "What do you mean, 'sadly'? Did you not want to match with me!?" Dustin asked and stomps forward. Steve follows him "No-no, not that! I just meant that-" she tunes their conversation out and thinks about Robin for a second.

Robin is dressed as Jack from the shining. She is basically wearing her normal clothes, but a bit more manly or smth. She can't explain. But her custome was something else. She's probably just jealous that it's still detailed and looks so good. [sure, Jan]

(Time skip)

They met at the Wheelers house again at 9 p.m. Holly is very tired, so Nancy was carrying her inside. They all got a good amount of candy and also had fun just talking to each other. But there was one moment that is both just annoying but also funny.

/

A few minutes after being split up, some stupid boys thought they could 'prank' them, oh well, they threw an egg at them. Which only hit Robin. You'd think Robin should be the mad one, well she was just annoyed that she has to clean that later. Max however was furious 'How dare you throw an egg at Robin' she started threatening them and saying she will break their shins. Robin being worried that she's going to kill them, tries to stop her but accidentally gets hit by the bat on her head, because Max was pulling back to swing at the boys. Max turns around to apologize and the boys laughed at that but Max takes one threatening step forward and they run off like the cowards they are "Shit, I'm so sorry Robin. I didn't mean too! I just-" Robin rubs her head where she was hit "it's ok, it's my fault, I shouldn't have tried to stop." she chuckles a bit. "Yeah, you should have let Max beat those bastards up" Erica speaks up. "For once, I actually agree with my sister" "I have a name, you know, and you should be the one being called Erica's brother instead" Erica argues and they continue walking. "Hey! I've been in this party longer than you! If one of us-" they keep arguing. "I'm sorry again.." Max says and Robin just smiles and ruffles Max's hair "It's totally fine kiddo, I'm very tough" she proudly says while making a weird 'tough' pose. "Yeah right" Max laughs. They start walking so they don't lose the still arguing siblings. Robin shoves her "Rude, anyway, give me the bat, we don't want you to get arrested" "What?! But they-" "I know they deserved it, but you don't deserve to go to jail for that, they are not worth it." Max looks at the bat for a second and then hands it to Robin while mumbling about it being unfair. "I know it may seem unfair, but they literally just had eggs and you had a bat, also you honestly could have taken them without the bat" she says, struggling a bit to carry the axe, bat and Erica's candy bag. "Can you guys stop talking and start walking some more, I don't want to be stuck with My brother any longer" "We went over this!-" "Shut up, brother" Robin and Max laugh at that "Well at least you acknowledge that you are siblings, so it's sweet" Robin says. She looks at Max after realizing what she said, she doesn't seem to be bother by that sentence. Lucas and Erica start arguing again that it's not sweet or smth, but Robin didn't really listen.

/

Her head still kinda hurts from that hit, but you can't really see that anything happend so she doesn't say anything. Max also has her bat back since Robin was too lazy to carry it after a while.

As Nancy was putting Holly down on the couch, Steve, Dustin, Mike and Lucas were already going down to the basement. They were gonna watch 'The Shining', which obviously was Robin's idea. "Wow, the boys really have no manners, just walking by without even a hello" Karen says as she stands up to greet the girls with hugs. "at least I got my fellow ladies here" she jokes. Murray speaks up firm his spot on the couch "Glad to know that I'm a part of the fellow ladies, now" "Of course you are" Karen turns to him with a smile as she was done with the hugs. "I wouldn't talk about my family recipes if you weren't such a housewife" she jokes again.

This gets a laugh out of Erica "Him? A housewife? I'd love to see that" "Ignoring that comment, how was it? Hit any jackpots?" Karen says picking up a sleeping Holly "Mom, stop trying to sound cool! It's embarrassing" Nancy complains putting her hands over her face. "Oh shush you, I'm positive you are the only one thinking that and I thought you grew out of the 'embarrassed by your parents' phase" "Well I for one, don't think it's embarrassing, Mrs Wheeler" Robin's says, grinning like an idiot. "See, Robin doesn't think so, and for the 100th time, call me Karen" Karen says while patting her cheek with her free hand "R-right, sorry, also to answer your questions, yes, we did hit the jackpot, we got to a house right when they were restocking the bowl, so we got lots of candy" Robin says grinning like a child who's showing their parent a picture they drew. "That's awesome!-" "moOoOm!" "-Now let me put Holly to bed and you-" she says looking at Nancy "-stop being so embarrassing" she walks off leaving a speechless Nancy behind with her jaw on the floor. Max stops snickering for the first time since this conversation started. "Yea well, she has a point, it's more embarrassing that you call her out and complain about it, then her saying it" Erica nods in agreement. "I-..traitors" Nancy says as she leaves with crossed arms, going to the basement. After a bit of quiet laughter, Karen came back "Oh you're still here? I thought you were going to watch the movie soon?" "Oh right, almost forgot" Robin looks at Max "You know the plan?" "Yep" Max nods "So Karen...I have a question." Robin starts

(Tiny time skip)

They were almost at the end of the movie and Robin was surprised that Nancy is still holding her hand, she has been since the first time she got scared. And Robin definitely doesn't want to let go but she sadly has to. She looks eyes with Max and then stands up, which makes her let got of Nancy's hand and she swears Nancy said something but she can't tell what it was "gotta go pee" she quietly says so Nancy can hear her. She wanted to leave with no one noticing but Nancy has been holding her hand, which she is not complaining about tho.

Robin went upstairs and actually did ho to the bathroom to try and make her look more creepy (she has no idea what she is doing). Then she went back down to the basement door and waited for Max. The door opens and max comes out, Robin nods at her and walks to the basement door outside she waits for Max's scream and then their plan goes in action.

(pov change?)

Nancy missed Robin, but only because she was great comfort, not because of anything else. She was probably the only one who saw max leave since she wasn't that focused on the movie. Now however there was this very intense scene 'she's not gonna fit threw the window...' Nancy thinks, while staring at the screen, completely focused and curious/scared about the out come, she hasn't seen it before so that's why she didn't know who Max and Robin were dressed up as. Speaking of Max, she just slammed the door shut, screaming as if she's just seen a demogorgen. Everyone screamed back at her. "MAX! WHAT THE HELL!" Mike yells after calming down "Not cool, dude!" Dustin says as he stops hiding behind Steve. "N-No- G-guys! I-I saw-" then the someone starts banging against the door from outside and Max rounds down screaming, to join the others 'oh God-oh God! SHIT SHIT' Everyone starts thinking the worst. Is it a demogorgen? the Russians? Something new?! "WHAT IS THAT?! WHAT DID YOU SEE?!" Steve asked very panicked. Max just starts crying and the doors starts breaking. Everyone huddled over to the corner looking around for weapons but they couldn't find anything "What do we do!?" Steve asks while Lucas is trying to calm down Max. "Let's just go upstairs!" Dustin yells "NO! D-Don't! T-THEY AR-" she gets cut off by the axe breaking through the door and screams.

No one noticed, besides Erica, that the scene in the screen and the axe that now broke through the door were perfectly in sync 'Wow, ok that's impressive' Erica thinks, she knew about the plan but she didn't know it was gonna be this intense, if she didn't know any better, she'd be terrified like the others. But she does know better and is trying not to laugh.

Everyone screamed again when they saw the axe. Max is screaming everytime the axe hits through the door. Mike, who thought this was still some kind of prank, is now terrified aswell. 'oh shit, this cannot be a prank'. Mike looks at Max who is shaking so bad she's be one yell of an actress if this is fake [like damn give her an Emmy for that performance] (but well she is acting, also she hides her tiny laughters as sobs)

Nancy was just frozen, she didn't have her guns, she didn't have any weapons, she couldn't do anything. Nancy looks at Max and then hears a scream, but it's Max screaming. She looks around the room and her eyes land on the TV. She stares for a minute and then blinks 'You've got the be kidding me...she wouldn't-' A hand reaches in to opens the door (that Max locked after she came in screaming) and everyones huddling even closer, which honestly is stupid.

The door opens and they hear "Here's Johnny" from the TV a second before "Here's Robin!" Everyone screamed at first but Max started laughing and Erica also started laughing and Nancy just thinks '..she would'. Everyone else starts glaring at Robin. "Uh-...Hi?.." They all went after her, yelling at her and throwing stuff at her, while Nancy still sits there, just shocked. "What. The. Fuck" she says and glares at Max. Max's laughter died down "Uh-..IT WAS ROBIN'S IDEA!" she panics. "I'm surprised she was serious breaking the door, also I'm more surprised your mom let her do it" Erica says. "What-"

(Time skip to the next morning after everyone calmed down and they forgave Robin and Max)

"Ok, I mean I hate you for it, but the commitment, holy crap" Dustin says while munching down on pancakes. "and max! Wow!" Lucas says "You were AMAZING!" "How the hell did you get my mom to agree with breaking the door?!" Mike asks "I can't even convince her to buy the cereal I want! Teach me your ways, please!!" "I'm pretty sure if you don't want to do it her ways, if-" Robin cuts him off by hitting him with the plastic axe, knowing exactly what he would say, blushing furiously. "Ow-hey!-" she gives him a look and he realizes "Oh shit-..Sorry.." [I don't know what I'm doing help].

The others unaware of this interaction still talking about the prank. "I always had to laugh when Lucas screamed like a girl" Max laughs "luckily I covered them up with sobs, but it wa so hard not to laugh" Mike rolls his eyes "Yeah, well I knew it was a prank" "You were literally hiding behind Steve and screaming the loudest" Erica argues "Well, I-I-, ok I didn't know, but! I did think so at first! Only after the door started to break did I think it was real!" Mike explains "Ok, but seriously, how did you get my mom to agree to this?" he looks at Robin, who was just enjoying her own pancakes in peace "Well-" Murray cuts her off "I helped, well I had to share one of my secret recipes with Karen, so she has a new dish to show at Thanksgiving to your relatives. She told me about the stories of her sister always mak-" "Ok, that's enough Murray. I told you that in confidence!" Karen blushes in embarrassment. "Wait! Where going to our relatives? When were you gonna tell us?" "Yeah well last Thanksgiving we weren't there and we also haven't visited them in a long time, so that's why we're going. End of discussion." "But Mooom-" Mike follows Karen as she leaves to the living room. "Oh that reminds me! My mom invited you over to Thanksgiving Steve!" Dustin says. "Oh really? Thanks bud! I'll gladly come over! My parents are probably not gonna be here eitherway." "At least your parents have an excuse to not celebrate Thanksgiving, my mom is too much of a workaholic to any time off" Robin jokes. It's only quiet for 2 seconds but she feels like she said something wrong. But then Murray speaks up. "Well how about you come over to mine and we celebrate?"

[November, 28th Thursday]

[I actually googled when Thanksgiving was in 1985 lol]

Robin stayed over at Murray's the day before, because Murray wanted to teach her how to cook. I mean she can cook the standard stuff like pasta, eggs and pancakes...even tho she sometimes gets distracted and one side gets burned...eitherway she never really tried to make anything else, like lasagne or all stuff baking related. So now that it's Thanksgiving morning, Murray marches into the room she was staying in and wakes her in the most pleasant (read: worst) way ever.

"Wakey Wakey eggs and bakey!" he yells while slamming two pots together. Robin jumps up and falls onto the floor. "woAH-" She groans and rubs her head. (her poor genius head, always gets hurt) "did you seriously just say that..." she hisses out. "Also what the fuck was that?" she yawns and stands up, stretching a bit. "Well it's how I used to wake up my roommate in college at Thanksgiving, he always hated it" he sighs blissfully "Good old days, anyway, get yourself cleaned, we'll have to start cooking soon it we want to eat at noon." he laughs "Ha! That rhymed, how funny!" he says while leaving the room.

'what the hell was that...' Robin stares at the door that Murray just left through. 'Anyway... I already showered yesterday so Imma just change clothes and brush my theet and wash my hands and ' Robin looks at the mirror while entering the bathroom 'yikes..my hair..i should also brush my hair..' while making herself ready she thinks about the past days.

She got closer to the Sinclairs, both kids and the parents 'guess it's just my parent who doesn't like me' she jokes to herself with a sad chuckle. Erica confessed some stuff and they had some sleepovers, since Lucas also lives there he joined them, while staying over she got closer to their parents, Sue and Charles. She thinks they have are the best parents anyone could have. No offence to Joyce and Karen, but their children don't really parental love from both parents.

They also invited her to Thanksgiving but she declined since she wanted to spend Thanksgiving at Murray's, who, to be honest, is what she is most thankful for. Steve is great and all, but he has also been acting kinda weird lately, one time when Nancy was over at Family Video he completely ditched her and acted like she didn't exist and when she was gone he acted completely normal. He also kinda flirting with her but she doesn't want to think about that.

Being done with brushing her theet she, quickly washes her hands and then brushes her hair a bit. Checking the mirror one last time, seeing everything looks ok, she leaves the bathroom and changes her clothes, after getting dressed she walks into the small kitchen. "Last night I didn't seem this small" she says while walking over to Murray, who is wearing an apron. She stops her steps "Omg" she bursts out laughing. "Are you wearing an apron!?" still laughing. Murray hits her with the spatula. "Ow-" "Don't make fun of the apron, it's a great invention to not get your clothes dirty while cooking or baking" his apron is very old and worn, which you can see from the tears and the lots of stains. "Ok-jeez-..sorry.." Robin apologized while rubbing her arm where he hit her. 'now that I think about it, it is actually smart, even when I'm just making eggs i still make a lot of mess and get stains on my clothes...' She looks around and find a smaller apron hanging on the wall "is that one for me or...?" "No, it's for the other person coming over and you'll get no apron so you'll have to get your clothes dirty......Of course it's for you, Birdbrain!" Robin hates when he calls her that.

Murray is already cutting a few things for the stuffing. "soo, what should I do?.." "take the vegetable and cut them into small pieces like this" he shows it with a carrot "okie dokie, I'll try" 'Did I just say okie dokie?' She ignores it and starts cutting the vegetables, which she is struggling a lot with since she never really cut anything when she was cooking stuff. When she was done with the carrot she looks at Murray "Like this?" she asked nervously, hoping she didn't mess it up. He looks up from the gravy he's making rn and look over to Robin's work "Yeah, well done, now cut the other vegetables like that" he finishing up the gravy. Robin smiles at his approval. 'I did well'. Happily cutting the vegetables with that thought, time goes by faster than she expected and all the vegetables are cut. "great work, now we just need the mashed potatoes and we can stuff the turkey" Murray announced.

While waiting for the potatoes Murray gives her a few tips on how you can peel the potatoes while still hot, he says you need to be fast or it'll be harder to mash the potatoes. So when the potatoes are done they got a bowl off cold water and dipped both their hands and the potato in. "Oh God, I thought my hand was going to catch fire" Robin says as the cools off the her hands along side the potato. "Where did you learn that from? And how do you know so much about cooking? Where you some kind of chef?" "No, not really, I just taught myself how to cook and eventually was good at it, and I came up with it myself, I mean we always put cold water on our hands when we accidentally burn ourselves, so I just thought it should work, which it it" He answers, his tone hiding something but Robin doesn't speak about it. "You're right, we do do that" After being finished with the peeling Murray shows Robin how to easily mash the potatoes and then let's her do it while he gets the turkey.

After having stuffed the turkey, which Robin honestly found disgusting so she covered her ears and looked away. After they put the turkey in the oven they set a timer for 2 hours and 45 minutes [I have no idea what I'm doing, I just googled stuff]. Robin sways around a bit, awkwardly waiting for the next step "Soooo, what now?" Murray dusts his hand off and tells Robin about his plan.

After waiting almost 2 hours, where they were talking about some more conspiracy theories, from UFOs to big foot and everything they can think of and also Murray teaching Robin a bit more Russian, they get back to work and Murray trust her with making the Pumpkin pie, while he is making a chicken casserole (which he only made because Robin never head a casserole). He only makes a small one since they'll still make one more thing after that.

Robin was really struggling, she was thankful for the apron Murray gave her, she still had one more set off clothes because she was staying over after tonight aswell, but then she wouldn't have any for tomorrow. Anyway, she luckily didn't make too much off a mess and Murray also gave her tips on how to mix the stuff better. After dropping an egg to the ground and accidentally knocking the salt over, she managed to make the filling for the pie.

Murray done with his part, looked at the timer "Ok 1 hour for the Turkey to be done" Murray explains the situation and they come up with a plan on when to put the pie and when to put the casserole with the 10 min difference. Robin suggested they just put it in when the timer hits 50 min for the pie and 40 min for the casserole.

20 minutes pass, both dishes are in the oven and they are preparing Murray's risotto. She feels honored for knowing his secret recipe for his risotto and they also talk about Italy since the dish is from there. While cooking the risotto over the stove, Robin tries to teach Murray Italian "really? You just want to know curse words? Very mature of you, Murray." "You literally asked me the same thing when learning Russian" "yeah-well! At least, I actually want to learn the language fluently. And how come you only know Russian? Why didn't you learn and other languages?" "I never said I didn't learn any other languages" Murray smirks. Robin dramatically gasped "HOW DARE YOU HIDE THIS FROM ME" she starts getting him with an oven mitt. Murray just quietly stands there, still smirking.

Robin got tired of hitting him after a minute and just frowns at his sitll smirking face "what other language did you learn!" she asked, or more like demanded. Murray just quietly snickers and doesn't say anything. "Ugh, you're the worst" "Oh ouch. Ok fine, I'll tell you" "finally!" "it's...drumroooolll....German!" "...why am I not surprised" "Well-"

The timer goes off, scaring both of them. "We'll talk later about this" They take the food out of the oven, after checking if the lie was ready, and take the risotto off the stove. They also put a tin foil over the casserole and risotto so they don't cool off too much. "Wow, that smells really good" Robin says any her stomach growls "Looks like someone hungry" "well duh, I haven't eaten anything yet"

(Time skip after they were done eating)

"Oh God, I'm so full!" Robin mumbles into the table, while patting her stomach, "also, you're risotto is amazing! I think it's my new favorite food." she says as she picks her head up from the table. Murray chuckled "Thanks, the pie that you made wasn't actually bad, by the way" Robin scoffs "Why, thank you, I only really mixed the ingredients together that you prepared for me" "Yeah I know, but I thought you'd somehow fail it" Robin sits up straight and gasped, putting a hang over her heart "The audacity you have to just doubt me like that. I am truly hurt" Murray shakes his head at her antics "You know I was just joking" "of course I knew, because how could I ever fail at something" Murray chuckles at that "Yeah yeah, anyway, I almost forgot about the traditional 'what I'm thankful for' thing so let me do it know" he says and stands up as if he is gonna give a toast. He clears his throat "I am thankful for my friends, Joyce, Hopper 'may he rest in peace' and now Karen, for well, being my friends-" "Oh wow" "-I'm also thankful for my new found family" he says while tilting his glass at her "for being able to about conspiracy theories with me, for wanting to learn Russian, and for honoring me with their company at Thanksgiving" he says, gently smiling at her, and sits back down.

Robin didn't think this was gonna be anything serious, but she almost starts crying when he continued his speech. "phew- I recommend not standing up, it's not a good idea when you are full" she chuckles at that comment and wipes her tears away. She also clears her throat and stands up, since Murray did it "Oh-nevermind-I'll sit down-" she said right after standing up. Murray chuckles "I warned you" Robin rolls her eyes with a smile and clears her throat again "I am thankful for my job at Scoops Ahoy, which brought me into this crazy mess but gave me friends. I'm thankful for Steve, for..being the dingus that he is" she almost slipped up, but she also thinks this has been a long time coming "I'm thankful for the kids, that even tho they are a pain in the ass, they are also caring and sweet and just loving, having me included into their party" Robin starts tearing up again "for including me into their family" she clears her throat again "I'm also thankful for you" she look Murray in the eyes, but she looks away again. "for also being able to talk about my crazy conspiracy theories, for teaching me Russian, f-for giving me the honors to spend Thanksgiving with you!" she jokes back, a tear rolling from her eyes with a sniff "s-sorry, I just never really had anything to be thankful for.." 'well besides...not now...' Murray looks at her with a sad smile, but also really happy "I know what you mean....also, you just copied my speech." Robin wipes her tear away "I did not!" "yes you did!" "well just the last part" "So you admit!" "Just shut up and be glad that you were even in the speech" "Oh wow! I invite you over and you act like that!" Robin couldn't hold it anymore and bursts out laughing. "and now you are laughing at me again!" Murray shakes his head in disappointments, but then joins the laughter.

After they laughter died down, Murray looked the the clock and saw that a football game was on. "So, you probably know nothing about football but it's kinda a tradition to watch it and there is a game on right now, so, want to go watch it?" Robin thought for a moment 'I don't think there is a good moment while watching football..'"Um..actually... I need to tell you something..." all the happy vibes Robin had now turning tense and cautious. Murray sensing the mood change, nods his head "Sure? What is it?" Robin struggles to get words out and just sits there looking like a fish with the mouth opening and closing. "i-.." she finds Murray's eyes and sees the gentleness in them, sees the understanding in them and especially the tiny hint of pride and excitement he has, which is the boost she needed "I'm a lesbian" she says after looking anywhere but him. She hears his chair getting pushed back and footsteps coming closer, then she feels a gentle hand on her shoulder.

She slowly looks up at Murray, his presences welcoming, and he doesn't look disgusted by her "I'm so proud of you, this was a brave thing to do" he starts and she tears up "and even if the world tells you it's wrong, you know it's not wrong and I hope that one day the world will also see that" she just stares at him in awe. He squeezes her shoulder in support. A comfortable few seconds passes and then Murray speaks up again "Now that we're done with that, let's go sit on the couch, I can't stand any longer" Robin gives a teary laugh and stands up to follow Murray. Robin pauses for a second. Murray at the same time also pauses. "We should clean up first". Robin just nods.

While cleaning Murray explains a few things about football and Robin just silently listens giving a few nods. After putting the left overs in the fridge and stacking the plates to the side to clean later. They are sitting on the couch. A few minutes into the game Robin speaks up for the first time after she came out "I guess now I have another thing I can add to the 'I'm thankful for' speech..." Murray chuckles at that "I guess so" then he gives a sigh "it's honestly sad that you have to be thankful for something like that..." Robin nods in agreement "Yeah...". The mood changed to something bittersweet, but they still enjoyed the game.

While watching, Robin got confused by the point system. "Ok wait- how do they still get points when they didn't even get a touch down?" "How many times do I have to tell you this. The touch down is not the only way to get points!" then suddenly, there is rapid knocking on the door. "I-I thought no one else was coming" "I thought so too" Murray says as he swiftly goes over to the TV with the camera footage from the front door. He squints for a minute and in a confused voice asked "What is your redhead friend doing here?.. And how does she even know where I live?!" He hears something falling on the ground and turns around to see Robin picking herself up from the ground to get to the door. "Hey!-"

Robin opens the door and is very shocked to see Max standing in front of her. "Max? What are you doing here? Did something-" Max looks up at her and she finally sees her puffy red eyes. Max crashes into her and burries her head into Robin's shoulder. Robin wraps her arms around her and leads her inside. "Want to tell me what happened?" she quietly asked. Max's shakes her head. "Ok ok, that's totally fine, want to sit down on the couch-" she looks at Murray for a second and hears the cheering from the TV "-or we can go to my room? Well it's a guestroom, but I'm the only guest Murray really has" she tries to joke. It's doesn't really get a reaction out of Max and she doesn't do anything for a moment, then Max's mumbles into her shoulder "..your room.."

Murray just stands there confused on what's going on but also sensing the not so good mood. '....should I leave..?'. "Hey Murray, we're going to the my room, so you can still watch the game" Robin says while walking passed him. He just nods as to not disturb Max or anything.

They enter the room and Robin is a bit embarrassed at the mess she left behind. Luckily Max's head is still burried in her shoulder. "do you want to talk about it now or just cuddle?" she asked as she struggles to find a way for both of them to lay on the bed while Max is still clinging to her. "..cuddle.." "Ok well you gotta let go for a second so I can properly lay down" Max refuses. "...alright then.."

After a minute of struggling and almost somehow knocking over the lamp on the bedside table, Robin managed to lay down while Max is laying ontop of her. 'Huh, it's like a weighted blanket' she thinks for a moment. They lay in silence for a few minutes, Robin running her hands through Max's hair. "....can you just talk about something..." Max's mumbles "Uh- yeah, sure..uuhh.." 'What should I talk about? What if I mention something wrong?'. She starts talking about the sleepovers she had with Erica and Lucas "-Lucas just came back from the bathroom and when he was about to open the door, I opened it from the other side and slammed the door in his face! I'm mean totally on accident and I apologize imidiatly after realizing, but Erica was laughing her ass off and then I just had to join" she start laughing a bit at the recent memories. She also managed to get a laugh out of Max "he's such an idiot" "Well he didn't walk into the door, it was my fault really, since I perfectly opened it to slam into his face, but it wasn't planned, I swear!" "Ok well, then you both are idiots" Max proclaims. "Hey! I'm no idiot." Robin's scoffs and shoves Max's off "Hey!" "You insulted me, so no cuddles." Robin crosses her arms. Max glares at her and then rolls her eyes "Ok, you're not an idiot" Robin smiles in satisfaction "Thank yo-" Robin gets hit by a pillow and Max is laughing "Oh, its on"

After a chaotic pillow fight, with Murray shouting at them to not break anything (they almost knocked the lamp of again), they both fall head first onto the bed in exhaustion. After catching her breath, Robin turns around so she lays on her back and looks at Max "If we ever have a sleepover with the others, I would hate to not be on your team in pillow fights." Max lifts her head up "Yeah same, even tho your very uncoordinated you actually have good aim" Robin thanks her and they just chill a bit in silence. Max also laying on her back now.

After a whole, Max's says something that Robin would never forgot. Max was looking up at the ceiling when she said "You're a better sibling than Billy could ever be..." It was so quiet that you almost couldn't hear it, but Robin did hear it. Robin feels guilty for some reason also still staring up at the ceiling, not saying anything. Max her head to the side to look at Robin and decided that it's too quiet for too long "Sorry, I-I shouldn't have said th-" Max started apologizing but Robin sits up and reassures her, waving her hands around for more emphasize "No!..no, it's fine! I'm h-honored that you see as a sibling and I also see you as a little sister to me...." Max smiles at that, she thinks back a few hours when she came out to Murray "t-there is just something..there is just something I want you to know about, which may change the way you see me..." Max's eyebrows furrow a bit and she look at Robin with concern, but doesn't say anything. Robin looks at her for a moment and then looks away.. 'Twice in one day...huh..and I thought I'd never even come out once...' "I'm..I'm-" Max also sits up and takes Robin's hand, which Robin didn't notices was clenched into a fist, and gives her a little squeeze, just like Murray had. Robin takes a deep breath and squeezes Max's hand back. "I'm a lesbian.." she finally says while looking at their combined hands, thinking Max will pull away when she finally process it. But to her shock, Max hugs her "Wha-" "I don't give a damn about who you like, I'll still see you as my sister.." Max is again burried in her shoulder, and even tho it's muffled, Robin hears it clear as day. Robin was about to hug her back when Max shoves her "but don't scare me like that again! I thought you were gonna say you're a spy or some shit" Robin doesn't even know what is happening anymore, so she just bursts out laughing, happy tears rolling down her eyes. Max joins her laughter. Murray shouts at them to be quiet which just makes them laugh more.

"A spy? Really? For who?" "I don't know! I just thought you were gonna say something bad!" Robin smiles at the fact that Max doesn't see her being a lesbian as bad. "Honestly, you being gay make so much sense know that I think about it" Robin throws a pillow at her "Hey! I was just saying, you not wanting to date Steve and always blushing when a girl talks to in Family Video....Wait omg... Do you have a crush on Mrs. Wheeler!!?" Max stares at with wide eyes "What-NO!" "That's why you always compliment her!" "I-" "You totally think she's hot!" Robin regrets telling her.

✨✨✨

I regret everything and nothing.

Also this was not planned to be so long.

Also I have no idea what I did at the end. I was just bored.

Also ignore all the mistakes.

And uh..... I hope you enjoyed...

Also sometimes I write a little detail but then forget about it so if something didn't make sense just ignore it...ye..

[notasapleasure]

I'm asking aLL THE FIC WRITER MEMES!!! in reverse order from current WIP back through your published works

Omg thank you, you mad man! But you know now I’m wondering just how much homework you set your actual students… ^^;

So I’ve chosen to interpret this in a very literal way. I started with the bottom ask and applied it to the current WIP, and worked backwards through my fics as I went up the list. I didn’t answer any of the ones that needed a trope or ship picking, but am still open to being asked if anyone wants!

★ what was the scene you most wanted to write in [fic]? what was the hardest scene to write?

(Whumptober 2022 day 31: Comfort | Bedside Vigil | “You can rest now.”) The whole thing is really just one scene, but it really did epitomise the eternal problem with writing Francis/Jerott, which is how do you get them to stop being smart with each other and just. Open up a little? Of course this opening up is also the scene I want most to write at any given time. Though any and all Jerott whump makes my horrible little gremlin brain happy, so to be able to include various flashbacks to times Jerott was having an even worse day was fun. And Francis feeling guilty about the kiss in Anemone was also fun >:} But I think finishing this one was hard. I wanted to push for more intimacy between them but that isn’t where either of them is at this point, but Francis’ care for Jerott even in his disappointment – AND VICE VERSA – is honestly one of my favourite things about Checkmate, so it was trying to do that justice while keeping them in-character.

✿ did anything major change when you started writing [fic] to when you finished?

(Only Ever Just One Night). I initially thought I’d write follow-up chapters. I had a mean little desire to whump Brasso and have Cassian get him out of a Situation. But it would have meant Plot, which I never fully managed to figure out, and then I got distracted writing lead-up smut to the friends-with-benefits situation instead. But on the whole what’s posted wrote itself really easily – it’s often the way with my first fic in a new fandom, all the initial impressions and headcanons come gushing out before I can start making problems for myself by overthinking.

☉ what do you do when you get stuck writing?

Ahhh, sulk? Nah, it doesn’t happen too often, and usually I manage to knuckle on through. A tried and tested method is a two hour bath lol. Lock the door, turn my music on, nothing to do except figure out that tricky bit of bridging. Usually results in fewer words than it feels like, but gets me through sections I’m struggling with. Also just leaving gaps and continuing to write the bit I want to write, knowing I can go back and join things together later. Making a playlist to remind myself of vibes helps, too.

✄ what’s your editing process?

I re-read quite a lot and tinker with things as I go. I quite like editing (good job as I do it all day), and I like seeing things come together, but I am awful at kill your darlings. I’m writing for fun so I just leave it all in – ‘sure this might not be relevant relevant but it adds fLAvourrrr!!’ I will stick a bunch of line-breaks in or use highlighting/bold to remind myself that a section doesn’t read well or needs adding to, though, and try to go back and figure it out before I let myself continue much further.

✦ what was your easiest fic to write & your hardest?

Some of the Whumptober days were like pulling teeth and I think it shows. I think the sweet spot is when I have a pretty clear idea of vibes and outcome and it’s not had the chance to outgrow containment – some scenes (e.g. the chapters at the summer house in Inchoate) lie in wait in my head and when I get to that part of the fic they practically write themselves (sometimes it’s nice stuff, sometimes it’s DDDNE, but it’s basically kind of scene or action with a concrete beginning and ending). But often fitting these scenes in – what comes just before and after – is a nightmare. And like. Yeah ok, I could just write one-shots of the scenes I want to write without the thousands and thousands of words of context but – and you might have noticed this – I am a CONTEXT FIEND. In terms of stand alone fics it’s like I said above about Only Ever Just One Night – fresh in a new fandom and determined-to-get-my-thoughts-down fics are usually dead easy to write.

✎ how do you think readers would guess a fic was yours if you posted anonymously?

Ah this one’s easy: it would be LONG. Probably at least three times as long as it needed to be. For a long time very little would happen, but the minutest detail of everyone’s body language would be described and everyone would probably be in denial about their emotions/circumstances. Most likely they would fuck nasty about it.

♡ pick a fic and I’ll pick a comment that made me really happy

(Escape Velocity) Well OF COURSE I am happy the person it was dedicated to left lovely comments. But especially where you picked up on Brasso being worried about flying in ships because he knows how to take them apart, and even more especially the idea of Cassian ‘stealing’ Brasso temporarily at the moment it’s paralleling the light on Kassa’s face when he leaves Kenari :’) it’s especially pleasing when readers pick up on stuff like that.

▵ pick a fic and I’ll tell you my favorite line

(Counting on You) Still a wip, so subject to change, but I’m very pleased with ‘something crueller than punishment - the certainty that Cass is loved’ and utterly delighted that @elwenyere picked it out in a comment <3

♫ send a fic and i’ll make a 3-5 song playlist for you

(Brassian saga au) Thankfully I already have a 3 hour playlist for the vibes, so to cherry pick some essentials, here we go…

Kate Bush – Get Out of My House Sam Lee – The Devil & the Huntsman Björk – Pagan Poetry Nikniume – Nonantzin Anna B. Savage – Crown Shyness

[amerie-wadia]

meg’s obx s3 thoughts (don’t read if you enjoy jiara or don’t want to read spoilers)

overall thoughts:

plot—i’ve said it once and i’ll say it again, i do not care about the gold plot. i like obx for the fun and goofy summer teen vibes with some messy romance and that silliness that we haven’t really seen since season 1 despite tiny one or two line teases of it every so often. i don’t care about the gold and i don’t think anybody should be that rich to have that gold and seeing the kids at the end with all that money just felt SO weird in like a fanfiction i wrote at 13 sort of way. secondly, too much adults this season. yeah i’m an adult and i usually enjoy a good adult pov in a teen show but these adults are off the rails so it’s not like a splash of maturity and groundedness it’s just straight up murder and child ab*se. the only good adults on this show are the heyward parents and we barely got to see them but i’ll give the writers what we did see was so warm and inviting and felt like the only safe space of this entire series. finally, although there’s so much to touch on, the poguelandia bit really broke my suspension of disbelief bc where was the body hair and grease and sunburn?? i know this show is written purely to be a male fantasy but let’s be real.

characters:

pope—number one character third season ina row!! he was amazing and is always amazing. it hurt seeing how pope was hurting because of his breakup with kie but i’m glad they didn’t brush it all over and pretend it was nothing to him the way they wrote it for kie. it also felt realistically in character for the academic burnout and perfectionism to spiral when pope got back and temporarily drops out of school, but i’m so happy that it quickly got resolved of course with the help of popes loving support system. slay baby!!

sarah—babygirl was a standout to me this season. i enjoyed her in s1 and was extremely bored of her in s2 but she came right back around and basically took all the screen time and did not disappoint. i mean, she did cheat on john b and that’s icky but i’m not saying she’s a good person her character was just really fun to watch if that makes sense. i’m still waiting for us to learn ANYTHING about sarah (or kie or any woman on this damn boat show) because right now sarah cameron is just an enigma and not much a human person. but madelyn can act!!

kie—well, i really enjoyed kie in season 1 and i kind of felt meh in s2 and this season i’m just not able to enjoy her character anymore. the rich girl who wants to be edgy thing is getting old and like yeah i get feeling connected to your friends but babes being a “pogue” (i cringe every time i hear it especially at this point in the show) is about growing up with all the cards stacked against you and being a poor kid on a super rich touristy island and like yeah the “kook” kids are rich assholes but kie needs to stop getting so heated when people call her a kook because she is. anyway. i’m sorry but kie is just such a missed opportunity because the writers refuse to give her any sort of dimension besides being a not-like-other-girls girl and literally all of her scenes were either being an unhinged 16 year old trying to go dangerously flee to south or central america or jiara or with rafe cameron and i just couldn’t enjoy any of her scenes. i’ve given up on obx writing even one decent female character.

jj—i can’t stand him anymore. i know, i know, he’s the boy of the moment but at this point he’s gained zero character development and all the other characters are off the rails so he feels so much less banana pants as he did the first season. and again, with no time for goofy silliness his character just faded into the background for me. i would’ve loved to see literally anything in the way of character growth, like he could’ve have a good going back to school ark alongside pope or maybe gotten at job at heywards or anything but all of his scenes were either jb side kick or jiara and his actual character just fell flat for me.

cleo—i want a flushed out female character SO badly!!!!!!!! i can’t wait for fanfic writers to give her some personality of her own because she and pope have fabulous chemistry and i’m rooting for them but i barely know who she is.

john b—he got absolutely played this season. he’s grown on me a lot since season 1 but then he started to beat topper into oblivion and it really brought me right back to not liking this kid. i mean get that he’d just seen his dad murder people and that’s super traumatic but like this show is already enough toxic masculinity and i just need him to find a different way to express himself. i know obx writers are not at all concerned with being socially progressive or conscious in any way shape or form but watching this show as an adult woman is just ~shakes head~

relationships:

sarah and john b—are they married? lmao i don’t remember this at all. the wiki page says not legally so i don’t even know but that seems on brand for the level of chaos that is this show. i feel like they’ve reached a point where they don’t need to be together. like, i’m sorry but if sarah or john b were my friends i’d give them the advice to break up. like jb she cheated on you with an ex at the very first fight. and sarah, please just get with a guy who’s stable and kind and not physically or verbally violent with you or anyone else. plus the chemistry was all off this season so even in their good moments it just felt like a sinking ship to me.

jj and kie—if you follow my blog you know my take on this ship. i tried to go in open minded but the writing was so poor that it didn’t feel natural at all. the thing that really got to me was the “jayj” nickname. i know it was all fanservice and the nickname is popular in the fandom but kie nor anybody else has EVER called him that prior to this season and it just felt so forced and weird. like she’s always called him jj and that’s already a nickname. whatever. i also wonder what actual jiara shippers think because i thought any natural chemistry was crushed with how awful the writing was. don’t get me started on the entire weird dynamic with jj breaking her out and driving her around on his dirt bike in a high speed chase without a helmet on.

pope and cleo—fantastic natural chemistry and probably the most likeable couple this season imo. i wish cleo was flushed out and had her own characterization and layers because they have a lot of potential. they’re fanfic-trope heavy as well but with tropes i like so i’ll allow it. cleo getting along with popes family was so cute to watch and the way she and popes dad joked around was so natural and sweet.

final thoughts:

this was pretty negative and yeah i didn’t know if i was going to even watch the new season because it feeling kind of bored and meh after s2, but i needed something lighthearted to watch and i wanted to see where they were going to go with the story, especially for pope because he really is one of my favorite characters atm. regardless, at this point i don’t know if i’m gonna stick around for the next season or not. it’s really hard to watch a show that is as strong of a male fantasy as this one. like there are no fleshed out female characters, no queer characters, and it’s so hard to relate to what any of these characters are going through because they’re living on deserted islands with shaved legs and bumping off of yachts to and from central and south america to go fight mob bosses and find an ancient city that was so easy to find i was shed of my suspension of disbelief. last thought, the dynamite scene was so wtf because why’d he bring it (1) and (2) for that much money people could just absolutely mine that mountain, so it’s absolutely not “giving up the gold for his son” kind of redemption arc that isn’t possible for his character after all big john has done.

those are my thoughts. argue with me if you want but if you follow my blog you likely agree with some of these takes.

[spectral-kitkat]

Miraculous Rant.

Where the hell do I begin…

Season 1:

The show was decent in season 1. Some episodes were just mindless filler and probably weren’t needed in the grand scheme of things but they helped us get introduced to the characters, we got to know the plot and the world our characters inhabit. It was good. The love story between Adrien and Marinette was cute and off to a touching and fluffy start.

Season 2:

This season was immediately better than season 1. It had character development, it went more into detail about the lore surrounding the Miraculous and we got to learn more about our characters and their families and the villian’s motives. (HM really went from “I wanna destroy the world” to “I wanna wake my wife from the coma she’s in”).

We got to see new heroes which was fun! We got new characters like Luka and Kagami.

The season finale was epic! The Miraculous team all taking down all the previous villains in the show was awesome. At the end we even got Mari kissing Adrien on the cheek. It was great! (Even though it clearly reset itself in season 3 cause it’s never mentioned again)

I really enjoyed season 2 and it’s probably my favourite out of the 4.

Season 3:

Season 3 was kinda good and kinda bad. We had some great episodes but this is where the show took the wrong turn.

Marinette lost some of her character in season 3. This was the start of her descent into being the Queen of Mary Sues. It’s also where she was crowned the Queen of Stalkers! Her character took a fucking nose dive in this season. We had so many moments that just creeped me the fuck out.

1. The ENTIRETY of Puppeteer 2 🤢🤢🤢 I could not stand that episode. When we reached the dreaded statue scene I physically had to pause it like 10 times. That scene takes about 3 minutes to watch… it took me about 20. I cringed so fucking hard because of the secondhand embarrassment I was feeling. That was not sweet, it wasn’t romantic, it wasn’t the least bit cute… it was a train wreck! It was creepy and stalkerish and it’s a wonder Adrien even spoke to her again after that atrocity!

2. LB delivering the present in Chat Blanc. Two words: STALKER BEHAVIOUR!!! I genuinely could not believe my eyes when I saw LB run her hand across everything in his room and then actually SNIFF Adrien’s pillow. Like WTF!!! 🤮 I’m pretty sure whoever was responsible for that scene clearly thought it was the equivalent of when someone gets their S/O’s jumper or something and it still smells like them. But this turned it up to the nth degree and way passed the line of sanity.

Adrien was extremely under-utilised in this season. He didn’t really do anything. The only episodes we got about him didn’t really focus on him. ‘Felix’ whilst focusing on Adrien’s family didn’t really feature him. ‘Party Crasher’ while a beautiful mess was more about Mari trying to get into the party than the party itself. ‘Chat Blanc’ again focused more on Mari trying to fix her mistake.

We got even more heroes in season 3, not in the right order but they were there. It was fun seeing everyone’s transformations.

Season 3 was also the season of destroying redemptions. The big one obviously being Chloe. Season 2 was setting up this amazing redemption for her and before it could go anywhere it was wiped off the face of the earth during the finale (and don’t worry we’ll get to that dumpster fire later). Gabriel also had any remaining sympathy ripped away from him. How did the guy who stopped Gorizilla from letting Adrien die when he only thought he was CN go from that to using his son like fucking baseball in Chat Blanc when he knew his son was CN. Like I knew you were a shit father but you still cared about Adrien in some way shape or form but after that episode I can see I was clearly mistaken!

Before we get to the finale I want to talk about probably my 2 least favourite episodes from this season: Desperada and Reflekdoll

Desperada:

I fucking hated this episode! The only good thing was Luka getting to be Viperion, other than that this episode was awful!

Marinette was a selfish cringey bitch. Completely ignoring Luka to gush about Adrien to Jagged. Brushing Luka off as soon as Adrien turns up. Immediately cuddling up to Aspik and flirting with him when she needed to focus on the akuma (something which she has told CN not to do many times before)

Adrien, I love you kid but Jesus Christ you were a dumbass in this episode! Aspik’s design was terrible! Aspik himself was awful. I know Adrien tried his best but dude you were given the Black Cat miraculous for a reason! He shouldn’t have tried to be Aspik but even when he did he should’ve called it quits after like 5 resets not 25,913 times.

The only person with a brain this episode was Luka. So well done guitar boy, gold star!

Reflekdoll:

This episode was annoying! It was basically the start of the Marinette can do no wrong streak! When they have to swap miraculous I was happy cause it meant we got to see new outfits and see how they each handle the different powers. It would also serve as a way to get LB and CN to see what their partners role is first hand. Until we actually get to it…

LadyNoire is of course amazing and needs no introduction to using this new miraculous that she’s never used before. She’s cocky and confident and basically just LB in Chat’s costume with his powers.

Mister Bug on the other hand is just useless. He struggles with this new miraculous (like anyone would!) and is stupid and goofy. He has to rely on LadyNoire to solve the lucky charm. They swapped miraculous so shouldn’t that mean that Mister Bug should get the lucky vision and the creative powers that the earrings give him.

Overall Reflekdoll is awful. It was shitty writing and the start of Adrien getting the short end of the stick.

And now the season 3 finale… Just what the fuck. That is my only reaction: what the fuck!

Chloe you poor fucking child! What did they do to you!!! So much potential SQUANDERED!!!!

What was the point in bringing in all these different superheros with unique skill sets, costumes and transformations if you were just going to immediately reveal them to the main villian so they can’t be used again. That’s stupid! If you wanted the shock value that is “Oh no HM knows some of the heroes identities!” Then keep it as only some. Have like Max, Kim and Kagami outside trying to find somewhere to hide but unfortunately they get hit. Or Nino and Alya are hiding but the windows open and they get hit. Have some of the heroes hide so they’re fine! Taking away every ally of LB and CN’s was a stupid move! (Even if they wanted Alya to become a spy have her as part of the like 4 that get revealed or something, it’s not that difficult)

Season 3 was 50/50 for me

Season 4:

So I know season 4 isn’t even halfway through yet but so much is wrong with this season already that I need to vent!

So my biggest problem with this season of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybitch and Rena Rouge, I mean Rena Furtive… shit, Chat Noir! Is that CN is basically pointless! Adrien has been flung over a rainbow and is only remembered when he’s needed as

1. Marinette’s love interest

2. Someone for LB to shout at

3. A plot device

He has basically been sidelined. Partners my ASS!!!

Adrien is being blown off by pretty much EVERYONE! It’s coming to a point where this poor sweet summer child is going to crack! And it is not gonna be pretty… I definitely feel like the writers are leading up to a big fight between CN and LB which will probably end with Chat Blanc 2.0.

I REALLY HATE MARINETTE/LADYBUG!!!! In Season 3 I said it was the beginning of her descent, well in season 4 she’s done it. She’s descended, she has hit rock fucking bottom. She is so unlikable I don’t actually care about her as a person. She has entered full blown stalker territory it’s only a matter of time before she starts killing people for even looking at Adrien! Not to mention that Miss Mary Sue here can’t do anything wrong! She never has to suffer the consequences of her actions, she is always perfect no matter what she does… it pisses me off!)

She’s the Guardian now big whoop. I know what it feels like to be stressed and under pressure so I do understand why she needed to tell someone about it all. I just don’t see why that person had to Alya! Especially considering she has someone by her side every akuma attack going through pretty much the exact same thing. I know she’s worried about CB happening again but as I said before the more she leaves him out the more she is actually pushing that to become a possibility! Plus it makes sense for them to reveal their identities now since LB is now the guardian it’s probably a good idea to know who holds the cat miraculous, she knows everyone else’s identities!

Even if she didn’t want to tell CN her identity she could still explain the situation to him. If she didn’t want to tell him anything (which she doesn’t anyway) then instead of Alya she should’ve talked to Luka! Her boyfriend for all of half an episode (thanks writers…). He’s so sweet and caring and clearly loves her so much! If she wanted someone to confide in then why not choose the person you clearly wanted to date but couldn’t because of that very reason! (Yeah I know it’s kinda a moot point now since Luka knows both identities but still). He wanted to try and comfort her so it would’ve been the perfect moment for it. That way you could still date him and he’d know why you had to suddenly leave dates halfway through! But no break the boys heart instead!

Adrien and Marinette were both such fucking idiots in the first 2 episodes. Like why would you start a relationship with someone when you know your heart isn’t in it! That’s called leading someone on and is a really shitty thing to do to someone! No wonder Kagami and Luka ended up akumatized!

Another aspect of season 4 I don’t like is Rena Furtive. Yes ok having a spy for your side is a good strategy but when said spy basically tells an important member of a duo that the 2 person job doesn’t involve them… it just really ticks me off! Alya you are the sidekick to LB and CN! Chat isn’t!

Miraculous specials:

The Miraculous World specials suck! Shanghai is better than NY but still has its problems. Both specials add nothing to the overall plot/lore of the show apart from trying to set up some weird cinematic universe…

NY special:

One of the worst things I’ve ever had to sit through! The plane scene alone I paused a few times. I want to say well done to Mari for trying to move on from Adrien (especially considering I’m pretty sure she’s dating Luka at this point) but I can’t help but think it’s just to give her character some pointless development that goes nowhere and doesn’t actually develop anything!

LB can pretty much fuck off at this point! I hate her! She put all this shit on CN (like she doesn’t know exactly how that feels). It’s like why does she get to go off on holiday but CN can’t. LB should’ve stayed in Paris for 3 reasons:

1. She’s recently become the guardian meaning it would probably be best that she stayed with the Mircle Box

2. She’s the only one who can purity the akumas

3. If she’s so sure about being the boss then she should take responsibility of Paris and the citizens.

What really pisses me off about her is what she says to CN during the big fight. “I can’t trust you”… surely you could have this conversation afterwards since you’re supposed to be focusing on taking down the villian! Plus everyone bashes Adrien for giving his miraculous up in this episode but look at it from his point of view: His partner and best friend just said she couldn’t trust him which in turn caused him to cataclysm someone and essentially kill them. That’s gonna take a toll on anyone, especially a 14 year old! He probably thought in that moment. “Ladybug needs a partner she can trust and someone who won’t mess up and kill someone. She needs a better partner.” It makes sense he renounces his miraculous! I’m just upset that in doing so he loses Plagg who is pretty much his only friend who actually understands what Adrien goes through at home.

When Uncanny gets CN to come back, LB acts like it’s not her fault in the first place that he feels inadequate! She didn’t even apologise for saying what she did! He apologised for lying about not being in Paris but nope LB wasn’t in the wrong at all and didn’t have anything to apologise for 🙄… (yes the LadyNoir hug was amazing but I just wish it was under different circumstances!)

Also are we not gonna mention Gabriel Agreste almost starting WW3??? He wanted to launch a fucking missile!!!

Shanghai:

As I said before, this special is way better for several reasons.

We got MariChat! (Best side to the love square imo). This special actually had some semblance on a plot. Fei, whilst a bit op, was a cool character. It was nice to see Wang Cheng again.

However once again there were many problems.

A big one being Marinette yet again! (What a shock! 😒 I’ll come back to this). Another was that once again HM’s motivation has changed. How is getting the Prodigious gonna help bring back Emilie??

Back to Marinette… The fact that the words “Huh?! There must be some kind of mistake! I always know what's up with Adrien! … His 5 first names and every corresponding name date, his yearly schedule, even his shoe size! If there were anything to know about him, I would know it!” come out of her mouth whilst she is flipping through his schedule that she keeps in her pocketbook is a hugh red flag!!! That is not cute or adorable! That’s messed up and Adrien needs to fucking run and maybe possibly go into witness protection… Marinette is a full blown stalker! Not to mention the GPS she has (that could just be the find my friends app on iphone but still).

It also is extremely rude of her to use not only her great uncle’s birthday but also a lie about wanting to know her Chinese heritage in order to go to Shanghai to stalk her obsession, I mean crush. This could’ve been avoided if the Dupain-Chengs were going to Shanghai for the purpose of celebrating Wang Cheng’s bday and then Adrien just so happened to be in Shanghai.

Also this means LB left Paris without telling CN! I know CN did the same but again he can’t purify the akumas. Plus he has a reason he couldn’t stay in Paris, Mari just went cause her crush did. Great guardianship there Marinette.

This was also the last time CN actually did something. Even if it was for a short while before LB and her female partner took over (the beginning of a theme…)

Other things:

There are 2 other things that I wanna say but felt they needed a separate bit.

In Furious Fu, Su-Han has a rule book that he uses to tell Marinette which rules she has broken. At the end of the episode he tells her that is she breaks 1 more rule that he will take the Miraculous and the Miracle Box off her, which fair enough but wouldn’t it be helpful to leave the rule book with her?! How can she be wary of not breaking anymore rules when she doesn’t even know what the rules are??

Now the big one: Master Fu…

Where do I even start with him. He is so fucking manipulative!! He is Asian Dumbledore!

He decides to leave these extremely powerful jewels in the hands of 13 year olds! Surely leaving the miraculous to someone in their 20s would’ve been better!

He clearly favours LB over CN even though the Ladybug and Black Cat are supposed to be partners! Wouldn’t it make sense for them both to be in contact with the guardian from the start?? He randomly started introducing rules such as if LB and CN find out each other’s identities they would lose their miraculous… what kind of bullshit rule is that? It also came out of fucking nowhere!

Final Thoughts:

But to summarise all of that: Miraculous is on quite a steep decline but I’m invested at this point and I am genuinely curious as to where the fuck this will go.

Marinette needs professional fucking help before the writers even consider canonising Adrienette cause at the moment she is not what Adrien needs!

Adrien needs to stand up for himself! He needs to pull LB to the side and tell her what he feels and what he’s going through cause he is on the precipice of a breakdown!

(Small point that’s more to do with the fandom: when searching for fanfics it’s really annoying that Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir Bashing is a tag but Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug Bashing isn’t. Why does everyone think Marinette can do no wrong???)

[asterlark]

ok. samwell college of music au. i wrote all four years let's go babey

eric bittle is this lovely southern tenor (sounds kinda like mitch grassi or ben j pierce) who posts covers (& sometimes originals, but always with neutral or no pronouns because he can't post anything that says he or him ☹) on his youtube channel and has major stage fright but is very talented; he also plays ukulele

he got into samwell college of music on a voice scholarship and his dad doesn’t exactly approve but eric was never the 6′2″ masculine football player he wanted anyway so why not go for his dreams

he auditions for the very competitive samwell men’s contemporary chorus (there’s like 20 choirs; chamber choir, jazz choir, a cappella groups (lax bros do a cappella), combined choirs, etc- smcc does contemporary pop/rock music) and while he’s very very nervous and shaky as he auditions, directors hall & murray see a lot of potential in him (with major grumbling from student director jack)

(the rest of this ridiculously long au under the cut)

the group is small, for a chorus, because the point of the group is not a wall of sound but a focus on all of the very talented guys’ voices coming together in these gorgeous harmonies and basically they’re like one of the best choruses on campus and all the male singers want in

so there’s jack zimmermann, who of course eric knows because everyone knows who he is, he’s the son of bob and alicia zimmermann, both incredibly talented and famous musicians, and basically those genes were in his favor because he’s mega fucking talented

(jack was supposed to sign a recording contract to be in a band with his best friend kent parson when he was 17 but something happened between them and the pressure was too much and jack overdosed on something- there’s so many rumors no one knows what’s real- and kent signed solo in LA & went on to win grammys for his albums about a mysterious ex and jack disappeared for a few years to be a counselor at a music camp and reappears at samwell, knocking everyone’s socks off again like he’d never left, except with a renewed vigor and intenseness that freaks everyone out)

jack is a contemporary writing & production major, freaky talented and sings like a modern day frank sinatra, and he plays like 20 instruments and can read music like breathing air and writes songs like if he stopped he’d die; his music is folksy and mournful and he plays all the instruments on his tracks himself- guitar, piano, strings, drums- it sounds like a full band but nope. just jack. he’s intense

“we all get nicknames in this choir,” justin informs eric on his first day, “we’re those kinda guys.” so he’s bitty, which he finds vaguely offensive (bc he’s not that short!) but still cute, & the rest of the group is introduced to him:

“shitty” knight (voice like colyer) is a musical education major and an enigma of a singer with this awesome, earthy, raspy voice that’s really interesting to listen to and a very.... unique style & look; he writes cheesy but shockingly good raps about social justice topics and he will sing-lecture you if you’ve said something offensive (he also plays banjo)

justin “ransom” oluransi is a music business & management major with an angelic voice you can’t help but listen to; he’s sultry and has an incredible range and does runs like nobody’s business (with a voice like daniel caesar or leslie odom jr UGH)

adam “holster” birkholtz is a voice performance major, wants to be on broadway and it’s all he ever goddamn talks about basically, he’s a belter and has a lot of charisma and starpower and he’ll charm the pants off of you within one note; can also play piano and irritates everyone constantly because his regular volume is like a level 11 (voice like the frontman of my brothers and i combined w/ x ambassadors lead singer)

larissa “lardo” duan is at the local art institute because performing arts is not her jam and she’d much rather paint; she’s a barista at annie’s and supervises open mic nights and keeps the annoying choir dudes from driving away all her patrons

“i’m not even in your dumbass choir,” she says when the group gave her her nickname. holster just told her that she was an honorary member and then started sing-shouting a song at her about how good she is

bitty’s first year is hard because he’s talented and he works hard but he shies away when anyone asks him to sing outside the group and like, he can sing to a camera by himself but being on a stage with everyone looking at you and the sole responsibility of the song on your shoulders is terrifying and no thanks

jack does not. understand this. he’s been performing practically since he came out of the womb and he doesn’t really get performance nerves (what he gets is anxiety about how he did after he gets off stage that follows him home and makes it so he can’t sleep) - so he bothers bitty about it constantly like “you just need practice, you just have to sing by yourself a lot and then you’ll get over it” which like.... that’s true but it’s also hella scary and bitty’s like “no thanks!!!!”

but jack’s annoying and intense so he makes bitty do open mic with him every saturday night and it’s going okay and bitty loves his choir and loves his school and these new friends he’s making and he finally feels comfortable enough to come out to them during his second term

then during their spring choral showcase at the end of his freshman year bitty has a solo and he’s worked really hard on it and he’s feeling good- okay he’s completely freaked out but he’s trying to feel good- but when he gets up on stage there’s so many people and the stage lights are so hot on his face and he flips out a little and maybe he passes out from anxiety and stress right on stage and it’s terrible and he’s so embarrassed and ashamed that he ruined their set at the showcase

of course jack blames himself because “we shouldn’t have given you a solo before you were ready, i misjudged it, i’m sorry” - and they all feel kinda bad bc holy fuck they didn’t know his stage fright was that bad like they didn’t know someone could pass out just by being anxious to sing

he practices all the time over the summer and goes to his local open mic at jack’s insistence and it actually helps a lot because instead of a sea of strangers judging him it’s a bunch of people he knows and they’re all smiling at him and when he finishes his song they cheer for him and it boosts his self-confidence a lot

his sophomore year they have three new members- chris ”chowder” chow (voice like ieuan), an excitable music education major with impressive rapping skills, derek "nursey" nurse (frank ocean or leon bridges type), a songwriting major who can also play violin and guitar, and will ”dex” poindexter (like tom west), a production & engineering major who tried out with chowder bc he needed moral support and didn't expect to get in but impressed the directors with his voice

the year’s going pretty good, bitty’s still pretty scared of singing alone but more confident now and the open mic nights with jack haven’t stopped, so he’s getting better. and one night they’re hanging out at annie’s after closing waiting for lardo to be done so they can walk her home, and bitty suggests that jack sing with him one of these nights, and jack says he doesn’t know any of bitty’s songs and bitty says they can write one together half jokingly but then jack is like “yes.” with that Intense Look

SO they get together a couple days later in jack’s room at the house they all live in together (bitty moved in at the beginning of the year after previous smcc member john johnson called him- how’d he get his number?- and told him he could take his room if he wanted), jack with his guitar and bitty with his ukulele, and it’s a little awkward until bitty says jack should play him one of his songs

and, okay, he doesn’t really know what to expect because the only music jack ever released to the public was that one single he did with kent parson when they were 17 so bitty doesn’t even know if he has anything to play him, but he does- he starts playing these soft, sad notes on the guitar and opens his mouth and sings about being lonely and scared and unsure, about false starts and shaky ground and not knowing where you stand with someone, about expectations and lying awake at night and wishing so hard you were someone else, and bitty watches him sing and just kind of... realizes he’s head over heels for this boy and internally Freaks Out a little

he tries to put that aside and they start to write this song, at first it’s weird because jack’s like “all your songs are love songs i can’t really relate to happy love songs” and bitty’s like “listen... i’ve never even had a boyfriend i just write a bunch of sappy love stuff because it’s not about me it’s about whoever’s listening to it, they’re gonna project their own experiences on my music anyway so it doesn’t matter if it’s my real life or not” and jack’s like “alright while fake af that’s smart and i respect you” (what bitty doesn't say is that he writes about what he really wants which is to fall in love & be in a happy relationship)

they say they’re just gonna write this kinda vague sad song but they both secretly write lines about their actual lives so it ends up being really personal and real and raw for the both of them

they sing the song at open mic that saturday and the crowd at annie’s is never that big but they’ve never got a standing ovation here before, and some girl shouts “MAKE AN ALBUM” (it may or may not be lardo) and they both blush furiously and bitty’s like “... that was really nice, jack” and jack’s like “... yeah it was good good job you’re really getting some confidence out there nice work” (bitty: “THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT AAAAH”)

around this time jack’s really thinking about what he’s gonna do when he’s done at samwell, talking with his parents and his agent and looking into different record companies and deciding if he wants to sign with anyone or possibly start his own company- the head of a small company called falcon records in rhode island has been talking to him a lot, and jack talks to bitty about how he thinks it’d be nice to start small, and the record exec georgia and the producer marty had both been really nice and welcoming, and bitty’s so happy for him but also just... sad that he won’t be around jack every day after he graduates

THEN at a haus party celebrating their win of a local choral competition, who shows up but none other than pop star kent parson to Ruin The Fun

bitty sees the way jack pales when kent walks in, notices them disappear upstairs together and feels a little sick worrying about jack but chalks it up to the highly alcoholic concoction shitty and lardo had cooked up but nonetheless decides he’s sick of the party and goes up to his room and hears.... a little too much

and YIKES he’s standing right there and kent parson, pop star, two-time grammy winner, is looking a little rumpled and staring right at him and he puts his hat on and clears his throat and snaps at jack- “hey. well. call me if you reconsider. but good luck with rhode island. ...i’m sure that’ll make your parents proud.” and jack’s shaking, and bitty doesn’t know what to do but jack goes back into his room and bitty’s just kind of standing there like What The Fuck

so.... he kind of stews over winter break but tries not to think about it too much and he and jack text a bit and jack tells him to practice and bitty’s like “oh, you” and jack’s like “im serious” and bitty’s like “>:( it’s christmas”

spring semester starts and they're doing well in competitions and they go to semifinals and then finals for a prestigious collegiate choir competition and the pressure is mounting but they all are so optimistic and really feel like they're on the same page and bitty’s confidence is better than ever and then.... they don't win

jack especially takes it very hard, but then he also has signing to worry about, which everyone helps him with and he decides to sign with falcon records and start work on an album after graduation

speaking of graduation, shitty and jack graduate and it's hard for them but harder for bitty who feels like he's losing jack in a way, he knows how intense jack gets when he's making music and it doesn't feel like he'll have any time for bitty anymore so when they say goodbye bitty goes back to the haus and listens to his and jack's song and just cries

but, like in canon, dadbob has words of wisdom to impart and jack has an "oh" moment and races across campus to kiss bitty

they get together and the next few months are spent with jack working nonstop on his album (which tbh, he'd had many of the songs written already so it's mostly recording and producing) and texting bitty constantly and coming to visit him and playing him demos of all the songs

jack also asks bitty if they can record the song they wrote together & have it as a bonus track on his album & bitty says of course, so when jack visits they set up an impromptu studio and record vocals in the guest bedroom and this deeply personal song they wrote before they were ever together means so much more to them now

and bitty is so happy but so scared and sad too because jack is playing him these songs telling him "they're all for you bits, & a lot of them are about you" and he just doesn't know how he's going to keep all this love inside even though it feels like jack's career is at stake

he tries to shove it down and stay strong though, especially since he's now an upperclassman and they're taking on new members- connor "whiskey" whisk (voice like finneas or the male singer in valley), a music business/ management major who seems to hate bitty's guts and tony "tango" tangredi (like chaz cardigan), a jazz composition major who astounds everybody with his endless questions but also his ridiculously impressive composition skills & naturally perfect pitch (he can also play saxophone??)

i want ford in this au so fuck it she is a composition major with dreams to write scores for musicals and she stars training as a barista at annie's (aka training to corral the smcc)

the pressure of it all proves to be a lot and bitty and jack have their hi, honey moment where bitty's like i can't be this deep in the closet!!! and so they tell the smcc and also jack's label that they're together and that eases things a bit

jack's album comes out to much critical acclaim and shouting in the groupchat ("#1 ON ITUNES BRAHHHHH!!!!!!!!") and several months later, when smcc has already been eliminated from choral competition in an earlier round, jack is nominated for SEVERAL grammys including best album, song of the year, and best new artist

when the time comes he takes his parents and bitty on the red carpet which, everyone keeps being like "who are you here with jack?" and he's like "my family and my good friend :)" and yes it is awkward

jack wins... all three awards. it's the comeback everyone is stoked to see and when his third win is announced, he and bitty are so elated that they kiss before he goes to accept the award

his speech is basically just "um... wow. thank you. i just kissed my boyfriend on live tv. this is amazing and i'm so humbled. i'd like to thank my boyfriend and georgia and marty and my parents and my friends and my boyfriend"

obviously the press has a FIELD DAY with this but bitty & jack are honestly vibing and so happy that it doesn't matter untiiiillll bitty's mom calls and he has to tell her "mama i'm gay and i'm going on tour with jack this summer okloveyoubye"

the last few months of bitty's junior year pass quickly and he's voted student director which is a huge honor considering how much he struggled with stage fright and confidence & how he'll now be stepping into ransom & holster's shoes

r&h and lardo all graduate (the smcc basically crashes the art school graduation and all scream when lardo gets her diploma lmao), which is a bittersweet occasion and they all do a bit of tearing up

that summer bitty goes on tour across the u.s. & canada with jack and his touring band (snowy is a bassist, tater is a drummer and poots does backing guitar, he also brings nursey to play violin on a few songs) as well as georgia who's there to manage logistics

and tour is so fun & chaotic with many bi and rainbow flags in the audience that end up thrown on stage and draped around jack's neck and they spend so many nights in the bus drinking and laughing and fooling around on the guitars and bitty's uke and exploring new cities bitty has never been to before and it's the freest bitty has felt in a long time

summer ends though, and jack leaves for the uk/europe leg of the tour, and with the new school year brings a few new members- river "bully" bullard (voice like gregory alan isakov), a music therapy major who draws his own cover art for his songs, lukas "louis" landmann (like jr jr), an electronic production and design major with a penchant for EDM, and johnathan "hops" hopper (like keiynan lonsdale), a film scoring major who wants to write music for movies and video games

bitty meets and befriends some of the other student directors- shruti, sd of the women’s contemporary chorus; sharon, sd of the chamber choir; and edgar, sd of jazz ensemble (even chad l., sd of the all-male a cappella group)

senior year passes similarly to the comic; coach visits and sees one of bitty’s competitions, jack comes to madison for christmas, smcc does well in competition and goes to regionals etc

however… bitty keeps putting off and putting off gathering the songs for his senior recital

he has a hard time doing that because he’s so focused on the group and making sure they’re performing well and as they advance in competition, everything else starts to fall away

eventually the rest of the smcc has to lock away his uke and change his youtube password and FORCE him to choose songs for it and start preparing because he cannot graduate without doing this recital and doing well on it

he chooses (of course) a beyonce song, a few of his own songs, an ellie goulding song, and an adele song

with all that his breath hitches and his hands shake before he goes on stage, he does really well and his voice instructor prof atley tears up a little in the audience as does his mom

meanwhile smcc goes to semifinals, then finals, of the national collegiate choral competition they participate in

and i imagine bitty faces somewhat less homophobia in this au because i mean, he’s in the performing arts, but i think it’s still there and he also faces a good amount of classism from richer students and performers who think they’re better because they had the resources and money to be performing professionally from a very young age, and he has been practicing via filming himself on a shitty camcorder and posting it to youtube

but they still get there! and the national finals are fucking HUGE and a big deal and a little overwhelming

bitty’s stage fright is Present because this is the biggest stage and the biggest stakes he's ever had and he has a big solo in one of their songs so if he fucks up, he fucks up a national championship for his whole group and school

luckily though, when he steps on the stage with his best friends and sees his boyfriend and family and smcc alums in the audience and they perform their first song, a high-energy pop medley that always gets the crowd going, everything seems to melt away and it's just him living in this moment and singing his heart out

when it gets to the next song and his solo, he forgets to be nervous and belts it out, getting screams of approval from the audience when he finishes

(dex and nursey do have a duet together that they had to practice for many long nights in the practice rooms alone but that's neither here nor there)

their time on stage seems to last both hours and no time at all and then they're done, the crowd gives them a standing ovation and it's at least 30% r&h & shitty's hooting and hollering and jack's enthusiastic clapping that makes bitty & the others beam with pride

then it's just waiting, giddy and nervous beyond belief in their green room, for the judging to be over

after what feels like forever they're back on stage, arms linked together waiting and hoping for their name to be called and it is, they win and it feels like years have built up to this moment, and bitty tears up because years ago when he was fainting from anxiety at having to perform in front of people he never could've imagined that he'd do this, that he'd be the student director that led them to a championship

they get the trophy and a ridiculous amount of flowers from their loved ones and they all are just in giddy disbelief that this is happening, they're national champs!!! they are the best choir boys in the nation!!

they come home and the rest of the school year passes by so quickly that it's very suddenly graduation and bitty can't believe his college career at samwell is over 😢

(he and ollie and wicky take pictures together, o&w talk about how excited they are to devote full time attention to their band & wedding planning and bitty's just like wait you're gay??)

bitty got plenty of offers from record companies but he likes his freedom of creativity and he has a built in fanbase from doing youtube all these years so he decides to make an album independently (jack helps him produce & master it 🥰)

when bitty's album comes out about a year later, full of bops about being gay and in love and having struggled but come out the other side more confident than ever, it doesn't get any grammy nominations- and he didn't expect or need that.

what it does do is it resonates. it makes the rounds in youtube and queer internet circles; people his age reach out to him saying this is the music they wish they had as a kid and kids reach out to him saying he's a role model and they're so glad to have his music to listen to. his album is written about as an underrated gem that shines with queer brilliance and is sure to start a party when it comes on.

his parents may not fully understand the road he's chosen for himself but they're still so proud and promote the album as hard as any of his loyal fans (especially the one country-inspired song on the album that he wrote and dedicated to them).

and jack, jack who saw this album from its infancy to its release date, who took the film photo that ended up being the album cover, who worked with bitty to make sure his vision was realized exactly how he wanted it to be, is proud beyond words.

jack starts using his semi-abandoned twitter again to tweet "stream [album name]" every day and bitty retweets them sometimes, with just a "this boy. ❤"

and they're happy. they're good. they have come so far and they are reaping the rewards of all the hard work they put in to make the music that they truly love.

the end :)