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lil13 · 2 years

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MOVIE NIGHT - Ethan Landry

You've been best friends with Chad and Mindy since kindergarten. That being said, you and Chad are super close. You have a crush on his roommate, Ethan Landry. One night, you're all going over to Sam, Tara, and Quinn's apartment for a movie night and Chad decides to play wingman.

—

"I swear, Chad, if you call us the fab five one more time i'm gonna stab you.”

I laughed with Chad as we walked down the hall of his dorm, backpacks slung lazily over our shoulders as we decided to stop by his room so he could change clothes. We were having a movie night at Sam, Tara, and Quinn's and Chad refused to wear anything but sweats to movie nights.

He normally wore sweatpants to class but today was the one day he decided to wear jeans. "You would never." Chad faked being hurt, holding his hand over his heart.

I'd known the boy since kindergarten, my family moved in next door to his family. So, to say that I was close with the twins would be an understatement.

"You don't know my limits." I laughed as he pushed open the wooden door.

"Sup, E!" Chad called out to his roommate as we walked into the room.

I waved to the curly haired boy as well, shooting him a friendly smile. Ethan was an interesting guy. Extremely dorky and sheltered, unlike Chad. Which is why it didn't make sense of how well they got along.

"Chad, Y/N, I wasn't expecting you." That's when I noticed the boy fumbling to find a shirt to put on, "I thought you were going straight to your movie night."

"We were, but Mister 'I can only wear sweats to movie night' needed to stop by and change out of the jeans he put on this morning knowing we were having movie night tonight." My gaze was set on Ethan as he finally found a shirt, a blush evident on his cheeks.

Chad reached over and flicked my forehead, only causing me to swat him away and give him the middle finger.

"You know you can come too, right?" he asked, hopping as he pulled his sweatpants on. "Mindy might think you're a criminal, but the rest of us like you."

Mindy thought every new person was ghostface.

But she was fine being with Anika? I don't know. Make it make sense.

"Me?"

I looked up at Chad before looking back at Ethan. "Who else would we be talking about?" Another blush from the curly headed one.

Ethan scratched the back of his neck, "Right."

Both boys slid hoodies on over their bodies and walked toward the door, Chad moving me along with his body. The three of us exited their dorm room and made our way out of the building and onto the streets of New York. It was vastly different here than it was in our small town back in California. But we all decided that a change of scenery and getting the hell out of Woodsboro would be the best thing for us.

"So, what movie are we watching tonight?" Ethan asked out of nowhere.

I couldn't help but laugh, "Stab, ironically."

Ethan looked between me and Chad with wide eyes as if he were shocked that we'd ever watch the Stab movies considering what we've been through. But, the more I think about it, the less what happened to us even feels real.

You mean to tell me that I got stabbed 3 times in the stomach and had no real lasting damage? Seems fake to me.

"It's oddly entertaining now." Chad shrugged, throwing an arm over my shoulders as we walked.

Most thought Chad and I were a thing due to how comfortable we were around each other. But him and I knew the truth. We both had huge crushes on each other's roommates. Chad had liked Tara ever since we moved to New York and i've had a thing for dorky Ethan since the moment I laid eyes on him.

So, sometimes, I hate when Chad gets touchy with me around Ethan.

When we crossed a crosswalk, it suddenly got rather crowded which only pushed Ethan closer to me and Chad. This only meant that Ethan's hand brushed against mine which sent tingles throughout my entire body.

Fuck.

I hate how much control he has over me. "Sorry." He mumbled.

My eyes immediately shot to him, "No need." I spoke loud enough for only him to hear.

I really didn't need Chad teasing me about this later. Whenever he saw me minimally interacting with his roommate, he'd always tease me about the 'stupid' things I said during the interaction the next time we were alone.

But then again, I do that with him and Tara. So, I can't really complain.

When we reached the apartment building, Ethan picked up his pace to open the door for us. Chad let me go and let me in first, following in behind me. He playfully tapped my ass as we climbed the stairs, which only caused me to turn around and slap his arm.

However, I didn't miss the glance Ethan did between me and Chad.

Dammit, Chad. Stop ruining things for me.

"The love of my life!" Tara smiled brightly as she opened the apartment door, jumping out and pulling me into a hug.

Laughter spilled from my lips, forgetting the whole interacting before and enjoying the embrace of my friend.

Tara and I had gotten closer over the past year. Both incredibly hurt from the betrayal of our friend Amber and bonding over our stab wounds.

"Oh, and you losers." Tara playfully grumbled, arms still loosely around my body as she looked at the two rather tall boys behind me.

"Ha. Ha." Chad rolled his eyes, pushing the two of us girls into the apartment with Ethan closely behind.

Sam entered the living room, holding up a pack of beer. I pulled a face, beer was not my favorite.

"Pizza's on the coffee table. I've got beers for everyone and Bold Rocks are in the fridge, Y/N!" She announced and a smile took over my face.

I skipped over, grabbing the older girl's face and pressing a kiss to her cheek. "You're an angel, Sam Carpenter."

I made a beeline for the kitchen, yanking the door open and grabbing myself a drink. Sam had thankfully left the bottle opener out so it wasn't hard for me to dive right in.

"Holy shit." I cursed when I turned around to see Ethan standing behind me, my heartrate speeding up for more than one reason. "You've gotta make a noise, E."

His face flushed red, "My bad. But uh, mind if I have a Bold Rock too? Beer isn't really my taste."

A man after my own heart.

I cracked a smile, opening the fridge back up and fishing out a drink for the tall boy. I even opened it for him.

"Welcome to the Bold Rock club, E." I tried not to react when our hands brushed as he took the drink from my hand. I even tried to distract my flustered self by clinking our glasses together.

He sent me a smile, the one that always gives me butterflies, before taking a sip of the drink. Ethan winced at the flavor and I couldn't help but laugh. Maybe he's just not an alcohol guy, because these things aren't even strong.

Mindy shouted something about starting the movie and I yelped, not wanting to miss the beginning. Without thinking, I grabbed hold of Ethan to pull him with me into the living room. I wasn't going to have either one of us missing the beginning of the movie.

It wasn't until I let go of the boy's hand to grab a slice of pizza that I realized I had been holding his hand to begin with.

My face flushed red and I very pointedly kept face out of Ethan's view. But apparently not out of Chad's. Because, when I looked up, the boy was smirking at me. So, I flipped him off, for the second time today.

About an hour or so into the movie and i'd drank 4 Bold Rocks and eaten 3 slices of pizza. Ethan had managed to finish his first drink and get started on his second. I was oddly proud of him.

We all were settled into the couch. Mindy and Anika were cuddled up, Tara was situated in between Chad and Sam (a little closer to Chad than her sister), and Quinn was perched on the end of the couch. As for me and Ethan?

Well, we were still decently far apart. I was sort of disappointed. I thought i'd been sending the perfect signals to the boy, trying to tell him he could put an arm around me or something, but nothing was happening. The pit in my stomach was only growing.

My watched vibrated with a text and I casually looked down at it. Chad had texted.

Scoot closer.

I looked up to see Chad smiling at me, nodding. My heart pounded. Maybe dorky little Ethan wasn't going to make the first move. Maybe I needed to? Shit, i'm so fucking nervous.

Bitch, hurry up.

Another text from Chad.

I rolled my eyes, ignoring my nerves, and scooted closer to the boy. Ethan already had his arm propped up on the back of the couch as he watched the movie, so me moving closer basically already put his arm around me.

When our bodies made that light contact, Ethan's head turned toward me. Almost as if he were shocked I was touching him.

I kept my eyes on the tv, not feeling confident enough to make eye contact with him.

With a deep breath, I slouched a little lower on the couch, making myself lean more into his chest. I felt his breath hitch. He was nervous too?

Ethan picked up his phone from beside him, I tried not to be nosy but I couldn't help it. It was a text from Chad. Was he being wingman for both of us?

Dude if you don't put your fucking arm around her I will shave your head!!!

I heard Ethan swallow harshly and had to stop myself from laughing. Seconds later, Ethan slid his arm off of the back of the couch and let it rest on my shoulders. My stomach erupted in butterflies.

We'd been sitting like that for a while, but the longer we sat the more my head slid down his chest. Eventually, my ear ended up over his heart and I could hear how fast it was besting. Maybe he did feel the same way about me.

Out of a nervous habit, I brought up one of my hands and began drawing patterns on his thigh as we continued the movie.

Eventually, his hand caught mine, stopping it from drawing its patterns but instead linking his fingers through mine. I'm pretty sure my heart skipped a beat. It was almost as if our hands were meant to be together.

Cliche, I know.

"Y/N." He whispered.

I looked up at him, his brown eyes connecting with mine for a second before he nodded to the rest of the room. I sat up slightly, his hand now sliding from my shoulder to my hip. Sure enough, everyone was asleep and we'd only just started the second movie.

"Oh my." I stifled my laughter, holding my free hand up to my mouth.

Ethan cleared his throat which only made me turn back to face him. His whole demeanor had changed. There was still some signature Ethan dorky/nervousness there, but he almost looked like he was desperate.

I furrowed my eyebrows, dropping my free hand from my mouth and resting it on his chest. It was then I realized his eyes flickering back and forth from my eyes to my lips.

Oh.

So, I leaned in, welcoming and approving his wishes. My eyes fluttered closed as our lips connected and fireworks exploded within my body. This kiss was everything i'd dreamed of and more for the past however many months of knowing him.

He slid the hand holding my hip up my back and over to hold the side of my face, the pad of his thumb gently caressing my cheek. His hand holding mine letting go to carefully hold the back of my head. I think I could melt right there.

My fingers gripped his sweatshirt as I leaned in further, deepening this kiss. The hand still on his thigh gripping it due to the intensity of the situation.

But something in the mood shifted. I broke away from the kiss, eyes scanning over Ethan for any sign that I did something wrong.

"You okay?" I asked, suddenly worried.

Ethan averted his gaze and dropped his hands to his lap, no longer holding eye contact with me. "It's stupid."

"No, no, tell me." My voice was quiet, not wanting to wake the others. I'd even moved my hands to hold onto his.

"You're gonna think it's weird though."

"E, tell me. Please."

A slight groan fell from his lips, "I'm a virgin."

I swallowed harshly. Of fucking course he is and me deepening the kiss and squeezing his thigh freaking him out.

"Fuck." Ethan started to scoot away, obviously embarrassed by his confession. I, however, gripped his sweatshirt in my hands and pulled him back. "That's not a bad thing, ok? Just means you're not gonna give it away to whoever walks by. I went through a rebellious stage and hooked up with people I regret. We're different and that's totally ok."

His eyes finally reconnected with mine, a look of shock in them, "That doesn't freak you out?"

"Not at all, just means that we're gonna take things as slow as you want us to."

"We?"

It was like he was shocked on how I was referring to us. I was more just shocked at my boldness with him.

I leaned in, going with my boldness, and pressed a soft kiss to his slightly swollen lips. "If you want us to be."

He nodded quickly, eyes wide with eagerness. I giggle at his excitement.

This time it was Ethan who leaned in for the kiss, this was slightly longer than the last one. "You sure you're not with Chad?" He questioned, pulling away for a second.

"Oh, fuck no." I laughed, going back in for more.

Ethan pressed another kiss to my lips, pulling my body over so I was sitting on his lap and facing him. This was a bold move on his part.

"Good."

#ethan landry #ethan landry x y/n #ethan landry x reader #jack champion #scream #ghostface #imagine

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blzzrdstryr · 2 years

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Hardest yanderes to escape from (male human ver)

Request: Which (half or full human) male yan in Genshin would be hardest to escape from?

Let's say darling managed to bolt and make it to a faraway country. Which male yan (that's at least half human, so this excludes Xiao, Venti, Zhongli, Scara, Albedo, etc) do you think would be likeliest to have you back (alive) in his arms eventually? (In terms of sheer determination and ability even across the entire region of Teyvat)

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, this is my first time submitting an ask since I've only lurked on tumblr up till this point. English is not my first language so I hope my ask makes sense.

I think a lot of yanderes (if not all) would be willing and desperate enough to travel Teyvat by foot in search of their beloved, but there are definitely those who can afford it and those who don't.

Characters with enough money and good social standing will be able to narrow your window of escape and expand their chances of capturing you back to their loving embrace. These yanderes are(in descending order of getting away from them): Diluc, Ayato, Childe.

Diluc is the hardest to escape - the man is filthy rich and unlike Ayato or Childe he's not as stifled with a title to uphold. He can afford to chase you to the end of the world without causing too much damage to his image or business - Mondstadters may think he travels to establish new deals and expand his already gigantic wine empire, and there are Adelinde and Elzer to oversee the winery and domestic affairs. He is no longer a knight captain, and with his less than amicable disposition towards his old order, Jean and his former colleagues won't pry into his matters too much.

All in all, Diluc is scarily rich with an equally scary lack of duties to bind him in one place.

Ayato is also rich, yet he has the reponsibilities before the people of Inazuma and his clan, responsibilities he can't and won't neglect, so he has to plan and wait. Travelling isn't new to him, yet his journeys have to be politically beneficial for his clan at least in some degree - Ayato can't afford to be away, avoiding the title of the commisioner. Yet the same title also lends him some benefits, such as the usage of the Yashiro commision resources and eyes and ears of Shuumatsuban. Some of his requests may raise some eyebrows, so Ayato needs to be discreet, or at least have a convincing legend painting you as some kind of fugitive criminal that poses unique threat, that only Yashiro commision will be able to eliminate.

Ayato is rich and politically influential which gives him both advantages and disadvantages.

Childe is an interesting case - his servitude provides him with the help of the Northland Bank, yet it's also the same servitude that stops and stiffles him. If you're someone famouse, someone significant in the Teyvat world, then Childe won't be able to pursue you, as this will directly impact Fatui image and thus Tsaritsa too, should the truth leak out. On the other hand, Childe is one of the Harbingers, he has a horde of underlings at his beck and call, who were taught to never question their orders, so it won't be hard for him to order someone else to bring you back.

#yandere genshin impact #Yandere #Yandere Childe #Yandere Ayato #Yandere Diluc #Male yandere #Yandere x reader #Yancore #Yandere imagine

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theoihalioistuff · 4 months

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In the post you made debunking the claim of Ares being the protector of women, you have written that secrecy and disposal of the child born point to rape. Can you please elaborate a bit as I'm having a hard time understanding how exactly? Especially with the latter, is it because the conception of the child happened without the permission of the father of the woman (I've heard even if woman slept willingly, without her father's assent then it would have been considered rape)?

TW for Rape and Infanticide. (My eyes actually started watering and I had to stop several times while researching this ask)

There's a lot to discuss in here, and I'm afraid a Tumblr post from someone who's not a classicist won't cover all that needs to be addressed, so for further reading I recommend Rape in Antiquity (1997) edited by Susan Deacy and Karen F. Pierce, and their follow-up Revisiting Rape in Antiquity (2023), Edited by Susan Deacy, José Malheiro Magalhães and Jean Zacharski Menzies, a series of collected essays regarding Sexual Violence in Greek and Roman Worlds.

Broadly speaking, our modern concept of Rape (criminal act defined by the lack of consent during sexual intercourse) does not have a strict ancient greek equivalent (bearing in mind that "ancient greece" covers large periods of history where attitudes almost certainly differed from time to time and from place to place). Nor is there a greek match found for the english word 'rape' – derived from the latin rapere "seize, carry off by force", which was used for both people (in the sense of abduct or kidnap, only rarely denoting sexual violence) and objects (in the sense of plunder). The latin words most commonly used to denote rape were stuprare "defile, disgrace, rape," which is related to stuprum "illicit sex" (also to stupere "to be stunned, stupefied", origin of the word stupid) and violare "maltreat, profane, infringe, violate".

In ancient greek several words could be used to denote what we today would call rape: Biazomai (βιάζομαι - inflict violence, force, constrain), Harpazo (ἁρπάζω - snatch away, seize, carry off; from where the Harpies get their name, later used to refer to the christian rapture), Hybrizo (ὑβρίζω - outrage, dishonor, affront, treat as an inferior; related to hybris, a complicated word), Moicheia (μοιχεία ‐ adultery, illicit sex) or Phthora (φθορά - ruin, damage, destroy) were all words that, to a greater or lesser extent, were used to refer to violent or illicit sex. These last two concepts, though intimately related to our definition of rape, can be considered distinctly, especially when approximating a definition of "rape" in the classical world: e.g. the forcing of a slave was not morally wrong or illegal, while consorting with a free married woman was. Willingness did not define the crime, rather status and ownership did.

Regarding this last point, women's sexual and reproductive rights belonged to their kyrios (κύριος - guardian, master, head of the household), generally fathers and husbands, but failing that brothers (e.g. Apemosyne and Althaimenes) or sons (e.g. Penelope and Telemachos). Moreover a woman's virtue and reputation were primarily linked to her sexual activity: chastity, modesty, shame and obedience being her main ethical concerns. Therefore, when it came to sexual relationships outside of marriage, it was narratively "preferable that a woman should be raped [be unwilling] rather than seduced" (The Portrayal of Rape in New Comedy, Karen F. Pierce), thus preserving the moral virtue of "respectable" characters like goddesses or heroines. This is not to say every sexual interaction in greek mythology is presented as a rape, that obviously varies from telling to telling and depends on the myth, but it explains the narrative predilection for it. It should also be remembered that plenty of these unions are ambiguous as to whether rape or seduction take place, primarily because it's not usually of interest to the narrator unless the virtue of the women is being discussed (e.g. the centuries long discussions on Helen that survive to this day, and even then the distinction can be dismissed as irrelevant or nonexistent; "We think that it is unjust to carry women off. But to be anxious to avenge rape is foolish: wise men take no notice of such things. For plainly the women would never have been carried away, had they not wanted it themselves." – Hdt. Histories 1.4.2).

When it comes to panhellenic myth, sexual unions between gods and women are primarily framed as extramarital (beffiting a monogamous culture where gods' official consorts where to be found elsewhere), without the κύριος knowledge or consent (for a reversal see Hyg. Fabulae 129), and therefore under the umbrella of illicit sex (i.e. Rape). Recurring motifs are attached to these kinds of stories, which give us narrative context to identify (or at the very least be suspicious of) similar accounts in other myths where no explicit word denoting rape is used (as is most common in surviving works of mythography, that prioritise genealogy and gloss over instances of sexual assault). One of the most common tropes is that of exposure.

Myths of exposure in greek mythology usually come in three flavours. Either the child is exposed because of some prophecy (e.g. Paris or Oidipous), because it is born female (e.g. Atalanta or Iphis) or, in the majority of cases, because it is the product of rape (see below). As you noted the most frequent reason given for the exposure is fear of the κύριος discovery, who, in instances where he does find out about the rape, either does not believe the victim or is indifferent to her plight, and in either case kills her or attempts to do so (some examples below):

[Apemosyne: killed by her brother Althaimenes after she is raped by Hermes] "Not much later he became the murderer of his sister. Hermes loved her, but she ran away, and he could not catch her (for she was faster than him at running). So he spread freshly stripped hides along her path, and when she was coming back from the spring, she slipped on them and was raped. She told her brother what happened, but he thought the god was just an excuse, so he kicked her to death." (Apollod. 3.2.1)

[Auge: sentenced to death by her father Aleos after she is raped by Herakles] "After Auge was raped by Herakles, she concealed her baby in the sanctuary of Athena, whose priestess she was. But the land remained barren, and the oracles revealed that there was some ungodly thing in the sanctuary of Athena, so Auge was found out by her father, and he handed her over to Nauplios to be put to death. Teuthras, the ruler of the Mysians, received her from Nauplios and married her." (Apollod. 3.9.1)

[Psamathe: killed by her father Krotopos after she is raped by Apollo] "Psamathe the daughter of Krotopos got pregnant by Apollo [in Statius' Thebaid 1. 562-669 she is explicitly raped beside a river] and because she feared her father she exposed the child, whom she named Linos. The shepherd who received him raised him as his own, and one day the kings sheepdogs tore him apart. Maddened with grief, she was detected by her father, who [after she had bared her breasts and told him all] sentenced her to death, assuming she had been a harlot and lied about Apollo." (Conon. Narrations 19)

[Alope: killed by her father Kerkyron after she was raped by Poseidon] "Since Alope, daughter of Kerkyon, was very beautiful, Poseidon lay with her, and from this embrace she bore a child which she gave to her nurse to expose, since she did not know its father. When the child was exposed, a mare came and furnished it milk. A certain shepherd, following the mare, saw the child and took it up. When he had taken it home, clothed in its royal garments, a fellow shepherd asked that it be given to him. The first gave it without the garments, and when strife rose between them, the one who had taken the child demanding signs it was free-born, but the other refusing to give them, they came to king Kerkyon and presented their arguments. The one who had taken the child again demanded the garments, and when they were brought, Kerkyon knew that they were taken from the garments of his daughter. Alope's nurse, in fear, revealed to the king that the child was Alope's, and he ordered that his daughter be imprisoned and slain, and the child exposed. Again the mare fed it; shepherds again found the child, and took him up, and reared him, feeling that he was being guarded by the will of the gods." (Hyg. Fabulae. 187)

Not every account of exposure explicitly denotes rape (as mentioned before the nature of the union generally goes uncommented), and sometimes depending on the version seduction is to be better understood. Though both are interchangeable narrative-wise, frequently other details lead may us to suppose the stock character of the unwilling (raped) maiden is being portrayed, I'll use the example of Phylonome again:

"Phylonome, the daughter of Nyktimos and Arkadia, was wont to hunt with Artemis; but Ares, in the guise of a shepherd, got her with child. She gave birth to twin children and, fearing her father, cast them into the [River] Erymanthos. By some divine providence they were borne round and round without peril, and found haven in the trunk of a hollow oaktree. A wolf, whose den was in the tree, cast her own cubs into the stream and suckled the children." (Ps. Plutarch. Greek and Roman Parallel Stories. 36)

1. Phylonome is explicitly mentioned as a huntress companion of Artemis (presumably sworn to chastity). The sexual vulnerablility of Artemis' companions is a common trope; see Kallisto, Daphne, Arethousa, Britomartis, Kyrene, Syrinx, Nikaia, Pholoe, etc.)

2. Ares transforms/disguises himself to approach her (perhaps the most common trope of all), and conceals his identity in the guise of a shepherd (a disguise otherwise used by Zeus to approach Mnemosyne; Ovid. Met. 6.103-128, Clement. Recog. 22)

3. After giving birth she casts her children into the river Erymanthos. The reasoning is the typical stock example, fear of her father, though in this case the form of infanticide is much more direct than exposure: she casts them into the river to drown. As usual with these stories the children are saved by divine intervention, and are nursed by an animal and later raised by shepherds.

Again, no verb denoting rape is ever explicitly used, yet the context of the story is enough to reasonably suppose it was considered as such. Other examples of myths where babies are exposed are listed below, many of them are explicitly rapes, almost all the rest can be inferred as such (I can't for my own sake provide references for all of them, so those interested must do their own research):

Koronis exposes Apollo's son Asklepios on a mountain near Epidauros according to a local legend, Psamathe exposes Apollo's son Linos, Antiope exposes Zeus' sons Zethos and Amphion, Alope exposes Poseidon's son Hippothoon, Akakallis exposes Apollo's son Miletos, Tyro exposes Poseidon's sons Pelias and Neleus, Kreousa exposes Apollo's son Ion, Pelopia exposes Thyestes' son Aigisthos, Auge exposes Herakles' son Telephos, Evadne exposes Apollo's son Iamos, and Phylonome "exposes" Ares' sons Lykastos and Parrhasios (this list is by no means meant to be exhaustive).

My post confronting fake claims that Ares was the protector of women can be found here.

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hollyoongs · 23 days

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Hello everybody, this is your friendly girl Holly

So, beside Belift STILL giving the boys 44 more shows and celebrating two fucking years of nonstop "Fate Plus Tour," I came to speak about the current SK deepfake situation and also the case of that NCT member.

Let’s talk first about the deepfake situation. I’m beyond disgusted by this. The fact that SO MANY MINORS—whether they’re K-pop idols or just normal teenage girls—are being targeted by these vile deepfake pornographic videos is absolutely sickening. In South Korea, deepfake crimes are out of control, and it seems like every day we hear about another incident where someone’s face is digitally altered and placed in explicit content without their consent. Most of the victims are young women, and we can’t even begin to imagine the long-term emotional and psychological toll this is taking on them.

What makes it worse is that it’s not just random individuals being targeted; celebrities, influencers, and even regular high school girls are falling victim to this, which says a lot about how normalized and pervasive these crimes have become. The fact that these deepfakes are circulating on apps like Telegram, where anonymity protects the criminals, makes it even harder for authorities to stop the spread. Even though South Korea has started tightening its laws, it feels like too little, too late, because the damage is already done for so many people.

(I actually still can't believe that New Jeans, I'LLIT and more kpop idols which are minors, were in this bullshit)

Now, switching gears to the whole Moon Taeil situation... This one’s been heavy on my mind, too. We were all SHOCKED when SM Entertainment announced that Taeil had been removed from NCT because of a sexual crime investigation. Like, how does something like this happen without any of us knowing beforehand? It was already a blow when Taeil had to step back from the group due to his traffic accident last year, but no one was expecting this.

At first, there were rumors online that the crime involved minors, but the police eventually cleared that up, stating it didn’t involve minors or males. Still, the fact that this investigation is happening at all is alarming and upsetting. SM Entertainment hasn’t given too many details since it’s still ongoing.

It’s heartbreaking to see how something like this can change everything so fast, not just for him but for the entire group. NCTzens (the fanbase) are understandably torn—this is a tough situation to process.

My heart goes out to all the victims of deepfake crimes in South Korea, as well as to Moon Taeil’s victim. This is absolutely horrifying, and I still can’t fully wrap my head around how such malicious technology is being used to violate the privacy and dignity of innocent people. No one should ever have to experience this kind of violation, and the impact on both mental and emotional well-being is unimaginable. It’s heartbreaking to see how easily these deepfakes can ruin lives, and we need stronger awareness, advocacy, and legal actions to protect those affected. To everyone suffering from this, you are seen, and we stand with you in solidarity.

Tagging moots (sorry in advance): @intromortal @glitterjay @kwiwin @karinasbaby @dollyyun @alvojake @ja3yun @yzzyhee @yeonzzzn @taeghi @loserlvrss @serejae @kissofhoon @hxxsxxng @hvseung @heeslomll

#𝗁𝗈𝗅𝗅𝗒'𝗌 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑛𝑒𝑤𝑠 ₊ ⊹˚

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toweringclam · 28 days

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Limbus OC: Vidocq

Name: Vidocq Gender: Female Age: Older, possibly 40s Height: 5'10" Weapon: Justice (a short truncheon) Color: Police Blue (#374f6b) Emoji: 🚨 Hair: Brown with streaks of grey Skin: Mediterranean Build: broad-shouldered but slim and lanky Literary Reference: Javert, from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

Attire: Wears her uniform exactly to regulation. She's the only one who buttons her shirt all the way to the top, with her tie tightened like a noose.

EGO: "Chute de la Barricade." A massive barricade raises from the ground, lifting up Vidocq. Near the top, yet not at the pinnacle, she says, "To remain in my former uprightness would not suffice..." then kicks it, causing a cascade of random objects that fall on the enemies for AOE damage. A close look at the barricade shows it's made of symbols of law and justice like police cars, gavels, blind justice statues, etc.

Assessment: A coin balanced on the edge. Her demeanor is strict and authoritarian, but fraying at the edges. Violation of the letter of the law and foolhardy adherence to the law are likely to be equally upsetting. Allowing her to enforce discipline amongst the others will give her a sense of order. However, if she starts thinking that she's actually in charge, questioning her ethics or undermining her authority will unmoor her and make her easier to control.

Background: In a District where Order reigns supreme, she was born in the worst of circumstances: Inside a jail. From an early age Vidocq was branded as a criminal in the making and treated as such. She internalized this idea, but also recognized that the same traits that made her a natural criminal also made her a natural enforcer of the Law.

Vidocq joined the Wing security forces and at first they gave her the worst, lowest-ranking positions like overseeing the very jail she was born. Her commitment to guiding principles of Order, Law, and Justice brought her attention and she quickly rose up the ranks. However, that prison also sowed the seeds of her downfall, for there was when she first met a prisoner named Jean, doing hard labor for the crime of stealing bread to feed her starving niece.

Fate had bound the two together. Wherever they went, the other would follow without even realizing it. At every turn, Jean bested her, but for some reason showed Vidocq mercy even as she ruined Jean's every attempt at building a new life. This made no sense. In Vidocq's mind, there was only black and white, good and evil, order and chaos. If someone did not strictly abide by the Law they were a criminal. The only path to redemption was the one she herself took, of hunting down those who were inherently criminal.

It came to a head during a revolt by the Yurodiviye. Vidocq tried to infiltrate the rebel forces, but was quickly found out and set to be executed. Jean not only spared her, which Vidocq could rationalize. She saved her life. Stuck her neck out for her long-time nemesis. Later, when the barricade fell and the Wing forces overran the rebels, Vidocq finally found Jean at her mercy. Yet should couldn't do it. This criminal who had so defined her life had shown her mercy she herself had never given anyone.

Suffering a crisis of conscience and her entire worldview collapsing, Vidocq hurled herself into a river, but her suicide attempt failed. She lived, but now she herself was branded a traitor. Everyone believed she had been in league with Jean and the Yurodiviye for all these years. She joined with Limbus with the promise that they would arrange one final meeting with her nemesis.

(Note: The name actually comes from a real-world criminal-turned-policeman, who served as the inspiration for both Javert and the entire "consulting detective" genre)

#limbus company #lcb #limbus oc #limbus company oc #lcb oc #project moon #les mis #les miserables #victor hugo #javert

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nortism · 3 months

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Nor's Les Mis Fic Recommendations

I've been scouring les mis ao3 for a few months now so here are my fav fics I've found. I've tried my best to tag tumblrs where I can but let me know if you are the author of any of these and I'll tag you!

Three Days (or The One Where Javert and Valjean Take a Road Trip Through France and Raise a Child) by zamwessel

Rating: E

Ships: Javert/Jean Valjean

Summary:

Javert calls what he thinks is Valjean's bluff about needing three days to find the child Cosette and intercede for her. The Inspector comes along for the ride -- and gets much more than he bargained for, in the process.

Notes: First Les Mis fic I ever read and its an absolute banger. It's pretty much exactly what it says on the tin and I'm a sucker for a kid fic so I absolutely adored it.

A Change of Bizarre Kind by M_Moonshade

Rating: E

Ships: Javert/Jean Valjean

Summary:

Six months ago, Doctor Henry Jekyll sought to escape the dramatics of London by coming to M-sur-M. Tonight his murderer pays a visit to the Mayor Madeline. (Being the Curious Case of Inspector Javert and Mister Hyde)

Notes: Criminally underrated. Jekyll and Hyde AU but I went in knowing very little about that book and I could understand what was going on. Each chapter contains bits from the past and present day until the timelines eventually add up which makes the main mystery all the more compelling. Also Fantine is alive and well which is always nice.

Our Souls Still in Fetters by Cinaed

Rating: E

Ships: Javert/Jean Valjean

Summary:

After Javert is assigned to discover a blackmailer within a public-house that caters to men who prefer other men, Valjean is unexpectedly drawn into the case. Together they must stop the blackmailer before any lives can be ruined...including their own.

Notes: This author has so many great Valvert fics but this one is probably my favourite. There's the classic "undercover as a couple" trope as well as old timey gay bars. Also a huge fan of how this author portrays Cosette and Valjean's relationship.

In Defiance of all Geometry by idiopathicsmile

Rating: T

Ships: Combeferre/Enjolras/Grantaire

Summary:

Amis House might not be the biggest student co-op, or the fanciest, but it's got something all its own. Specifically, smoke damage on the kitchen ceiling from that time Courfeyrac lit a political pamphlet on fire. In which there are secrets, pining, pancakes, and revelations, and sometimes the shortest distance between three points is not a triangle but a circle.

Notes: I love a good poly fic and this is one of the best. Also just a generally fun and wholesome friendship fic. Definitely a nice comforting read after all the old man angst I've got on here.

Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) by Need_To_Comment_Rising (@aromantic-enjolras)

Rating: T

Ships: Courfeyrac/Enjolras, Combeferre/Courfeyrac (Its complicated)

Summary:

Enjolras takes a swig of his drink with everyone else, and then smirks at Courfeyrac over the rim of his glass. "You didn't seem to mind much me being bossy yesterday night when I had you in my bed..." At his side, Grantaire chokes on his drink and starts coughing. But how did we get here, you might ask? Well, let’s rewind. ------- Enjolras and Courfeyrac have had a friends with benefits arrangement for a while. But when Coureyrac starts dating Combeferre, Enjolras is left with the question of where he fits in the new status quo...

Notes: Another poly fic with aromantic!Enjolras. I love fics with unconventional relationship dynamics as well as people actually communciating with each other (though not before there's been some hijinks ofc). Criminally underrated.

How Marius (Painstakingly) Won the Hand of Mlle. Fauchelevent by writingsyrup (@syrupsyche)

Rating: G

Ships: Cosette/Marius

Summary:

When setting out to woo his beloved Cosette, Marius had never imagined that it would bring him to this: sitting at a dining table next to her grim-faced father, and staring at the marble that was Enjolras picking at his peas. Or; Enjolras and Cosette are siblings in 19th century France. Marius has to deal with the consequences of this.

Notes: Probably the best Marius characterisation I've ever read, he's just so awkward and weird bless him. I love a good awkward "meeting the parents" and this filled that hole in my heart. Is part of a wider series but can be read as a standalone.

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit by Apathy and saltedpin

Rating: M

Ships: Javert/Jean Valjean, Cosette/Marius Pontmercy

Summary:

Valjean's panting breath does not belong to him. He scrambles out of the bed and stumbles on too-light feet to the mirror in the corner, although he already knows what he will see. Peering back at him from behind a curtain of dark hair, wide-eyed, is Éponine Thénardier. Jean Valjean awakens one morning from uneasy dreams to find that something quite unexpected has happened during the night.

Notes: Cosette and Javert get bodyswapped and Marius is weirdly into it, if that's not enough to convince you to read this fic then idk how to help you. Not normally a huge body swap fan but this was absolutely hilarious as well as having some genuinely sweet moments. Also Theodule is there which means something to some people.

It's Not the Same Anymore by ShameDumpster (@shamedumpster)

Rating: T

Ships: Enjolras/Grantaire

Summary:

Grantaire is a bookstore clerk in his late twenties, and to everyone’s eternal disbelief, a father. It’s been years since he’s seen anyone from his former group of friends, after a falling out cleaved him from the ABC, but everything changes when Enjolras walks into his bookstore. Can they rekindle their friendship, or something more, while they both come to terms with how their lives have changed over the past decade?

Notes: SO SO GOODDD!! Top tier slowburn kid fic, I could wax poetic about it for days. Had me gripped from start to finish.

Acts of Mercy by cruisedirector and Dementordelta

Rating: M

Ships: Javert/Jean Valjean

Summary:

After witnessing and reporting a murder, Javert is dismissed from the police and takes a job protecting the women in a brothel, where many of his long-held ideas about justice are challenged.

Notes: Breaking, man from the 1800s finds out that life for women is hard. Such a solid redemption arc fic with some really memorable ocs.

Lynx's Claws and Wolf's Mane by Kaleran

Rating: T

Ships: None

Summary:

When he is older, when he is a prison guard, he thinks back to his childhood and realizes he had been considerably fortunate. "Prison is no place for a girl like you," his mother told him often, usually fussing with what rags they could use for clothing. "Forgive me for this, draga mea." And so, instead of a daughter, she pretended to have a son.

Notes: Completely canon compliant except Javert is trans and the impact that has on the story really adds an extra layer to his character that I find really compelling. Warning, it is very depressing bc canon.

#les mis #les misérables #fic reccomendations #fanfic reccomendation #les mis fanfic #valvert #enjoltaire #marisette #mine

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strictlyfavorites · 6 months

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One state prosecutor and one civilian plaintiff have already won huge fines and damages from Donald Trump that may, with legal costs, exceed $500 million.

Trump awaits further civil and criminal liability in three other federal, state, and local indictments.

There are eerie commonalities in all these five court cases involving plaintiff E. Jean Carroll, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, New York Attorney General Letitia James, federal special counsel Jack Smith, and Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis.

One, they are either unapologetically left-wing or associated with liberal causes. They filed their legal writs in big-city, left-wing America—Atlanta, New York, Washington—where liberal judges and jury pools predominate in a manner not characteristic of the country at large.

Two, they are overtly political. Bragg, James, and Willis have either campaigned for office or raised campaign funds by promising to get or even destroy Donald Trump.

Carroll’s suit was funded by left-wing billionaire Reid Hoffman.

Smith sued to rush his court schedule in hopes of putting Trump on trial before the November election.

Three, there would not be any of these cases had Donald Trump not run for the presidency or not been a conservative.

Carroll’s suit bypassed statute of limitation restrictions by prompting the intervention of a left-wing New York legislator. He passed a special bill, allowing a one-year window to waive the statute of limitations for sexual assault claims from decades past.

Until Trump, no New York prosecutor like James had ever filed a civil suit against a business for allegedly overvaluing real estate assets to obtain loans that bank auditors approved and were paid back in full, on time, and with sizable interest profits to the lending institutions.

Alvin Bragg bootstrapped a Trump private non-disclosure agreement into a federal campaign violation in a desperate effort to find something on Trump.

Smith is also charging Trump with insurrectionary activity. But Trump had never been so charged with insurrection, much less convicted of it.

Willis strained to find a way to criminalize Trump’s complaints about his loss of Georgia in the 2020 national election. She finally came up with a racketeering charge, usually more applicable to mafiosi and drug cartels.

Four, in all these cases, the charges could have been equally applicable to fellow left-wing public figures and officials.

Joe Biden, like Trump, was accused of sexual assault decades earlier by former staffer Tara Reade. Yet Reade was torn apart by the media and the left for inconsistencies in her memory. By contrast, the wildly inconsistent and amnesiac E. Jean Carroll won $83 million from Trump.

Jack Smith created the precedent of charging former president Trump for unlawfully removing classified files to his private residence.

But the government simultaneously did not charge Joe Biden for similar offenses. Yet Biden had removed files not for two years but for more than 30. He stored them not in one location but several.

His rickety garage was a mess, not a secure family compound like Trump’s estate. Moreover, Biden did so while a senator and vice president, without any presidential authority to declassify almost any presidential document he wished.

Biden never came forward to report the crime for over thirty years—until Trump was charged. Indeed, he was caught on tape six years ago, admitting to his ghostwriter that he possessed classified files but never reported it.

Bragg might have noticed that both Hillary Clinton (fined $113,000) and Barack Obama (fined $350,000) broke campaign financing laws. Neither was subject to federal criminal charges by local prosecutors.

An array of left-wing celebrities, politicians, 2004 House Members, former Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams have all recently challenged elections. They sought either to delay or redo ballot counting or, on the federal level, to sidetrack electors to ignore popular votes in their respective states.

These lawfare cases are part of other efforts that were highly partisan and without merit. Recall the Trump “Russian collusion” hoax and the “Russian disinformation” laptop farce.

In another first, some blue states are suing to take Trump’s name off the ballot for “insurrection,” a crime for which he has never been charged.

Total up the deaths, damage, and length of the summer 2020 Antifa/BLM riots. Then compare the tally to the one-day January 6 riot.

The former proved far more lethal, long-lasting, and destructive. Yet very few of the 14,000 arrested rioters in 2020 were ever prosecuted, much less convicted.

By contrast, the Biden administration sought to jail hundreds for crimes allegedly committed on January 6, such as “illegal parading.”

We are entering a dangerous era in America.

Ideology and party affiliations increasingly determine guilt and punishment. Opponents are first targeted, and then laws are twisted and redefined to convict them.

The left is waging lawfare with the implicit message to political opponents: either keep quiet or suffer the consequences.

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farfromharry · 2 years

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Long live the hero | Eddie Munson fic

Eddie Munson x Nurse!Reader

Summary: After Eddie almost dies in the upside down, Steve and Dustin need to take him somewhere that he can get help, only a wanted criminal can’t go to a hospital; so they take him to you. They’re not completely unaware about your history together, but they, nor you, suspected that history would start to repeat itself and you would find yourself falling for Eddie Munson all over again.

Word count - 8167

Warnings - language? injury, mentions of blood

━━━━━━━━━♡♥♡━━━━━━━━━

Loud, frantic knocking on the front door of your home startled you. Never did you usually get visitors so late, at least not ones that were unannounced. You pushed yourself up from the couch, pulling your wooly cardigan tighter around your body as you headed for the front door. If it wasn’t for the force being used to pound on the door, you thought you maybe would have second guessed opening the door to a possible stranger right now. After everything you had witnessed on the news tonight, and all that had been happening over the past few days with the murders of Hawkins students, you didn’t think it was a brilliant idea to open the door. But it really seemed like the person on the other side needed your help in some kind of way.

When you finally unlocked it and tugged it open, you were met with the sight of a curly-haired kid you hadn’t seen in a while. “Dustin? What’re you doing here?” you asked. It was much too late for him to be out on his own in this kind of catastrophe, a lot had happened to Hawkins over the night and to say you were scared out of your mind would only be fair. You thought if you were scared then surely he was terrified. He was only young, something like this had to be mind-blowing for kids his age. It was certainly shocking to grown adults.

He seemed out of breath, at a loss for words as he tried to tell you. “I, uh, I need–” he trailed off, and that was when you really surveyed him. He was covered in dirt, and it seemed some blood too, which was enough to have alarm bells ringing in your head. You didn’t know if it was his, you couldn’t see any visible cuts or large wounds, but as your eyes fell you noticed he was unable to put weight on one of his legs. It seemed like he was purposely avoiding resting on it, which led you to believe he had done some damage to it.

“Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?” He didn’t answer, instead his head turned to the side, looking down into the hall. Your eyes followed his, and the sound of hasty footsteps had you taking a step forward, letting you see into the hallway of your apartment building where a familiar man was practically dragging another, very, familiar man. Your voice wasn’t even above a whisper when you whispered the name of the metalhead. It wasn’t loud enough that it caught anyone’s attention, which gave you enough time to compose your thoughts and instead turn to the other individual. “Steve?” you asked, catching his eyes. He didn’t even attempt to force a smile, only exhaled heavily– like he was thankful that you were there.

And thankfully for you, he seemed to be the intelligible one of the three. “We need your help. I-It’s Eddie, please.” He sounded desperate, painfully so, and just from looking at the older boy he was basically carrying, you didn’t think you could say no. He looked on the verge of death, and there wasn’t a chance in hell you were going to let him die on you. Not today.

“Yeah, uh, come in. Put him on the couch,” you instructed. Your hands were already beginning to break in a sweat, needing to wipe them on your jeans a few times if you wanted to successfully help Eddie.

The first aid kit from your bathroom was grabbed quickly by the kid, used to being stitched up in your apartment. Ever since that first day you met, when you helped tend to Will’s injuries and promised those boys if they ever needed help then you would be willing, he had shown up at your home more than a handful of times with scrapes and such that needed your attention. You might have only been a nurse for a short amount of time, but you were getting pretty good with all the practice you were getting.

Never had you had to work on someone you had such affection for though. Your past with Eddie was long and complicated, but there was such a love for him held in your chest that had never gone away. It was exactly what was forcing all your nerves– the way your hands shook and your heart beat a little faster. “Okay, um–” You started barking out orders, as best as you could. They helped reveal the wounds to you, which finally let you assess the real damage. It was bad, so very bad that your nerves almost trebled. “God, how did this happen?”

The pair shared a look before their eyes landed on you again. They tried to each choke out a lie, but you figured that was only wasting more time– time that you weren’t sure you had. Eventually you just shook your head. “You know what, it doesn’t matter.” He was the priority, the injuries on him that weren’t going to help themselves, not the cause of said problems.

“I can do this,” you whispered, reaching into your kit for a needle and a thread to stitch him up. The only issue was, the tremble in your hands was preventing you from threading the needle, and that only meant that Eddie’s condition was getting worse. Dustin and Steve were holding parts of his shirt up against the worst wounds, hoping to put pressure on them to halt the bleeding. It wouldn’t be a permanent solution though, you still needed to be quick. Or at least quicker.

“Y/N, what are you doing? He’s bleeding out, we need you to hurry!” the kid insisted. It was obvious how stressed he was. You didn’t know he and Eddie even knew each other– though it made sense with both of them being huge nerds– but he made it clear he cared for the man.

“Dustin, I’m trying.”

Steve’s eyes flickered between the two of you, noticing the tension. It was mainly the younger of the two of you’s fault, because he wasn’t sure how to regulate his feelings right now. “Dude, you need to calm down. She’s working on it.”

He scoffed. “Not fast enough! Look at him, Steve. He’s going to die!”

You didn’t have time to clean him or the wounds on his chest– all over his upper body in fact– that would have to come after. “I’m getting to it. I can’t do this if you’re yelling at me.” Your voice was shaky, understandably so, and it seemed like that was the one thing that had Dustin taking a step back to re-evaluate how he spoke to you.

As the room delved into silence, you finally managed to thread the needle. With that you could let out a breath, getting to work how you did every single day during your shifts. You just had to picture Eddie was just another patient and everything should go smoothly. It took a while, you wanted to make sure you were really thorough, but eventually you thought he’d wind up stable from your help.

“I think I got all of them. He should be stable,” you told the pair. They had been watching you like hawks the whole time, making you more nervous than you probably should have been. Such a spontaneous ‘surgery’, paired with the fact it was Eddie and the fact you had a very suffocating audience– anyone would be stressed. The only relief you got was when you left the room to wash your hands, ridding them of his blood. When you came back though you were being hounded with questions once again, all while you tried to tidy up the mess you had created.

You answered their queries as best you could, most of them half-hearted considering all the current distractions swimming in your head. You weren’t really paying all that much attention, not until a hand settled on your shoulder. As you turned your head you noticed it was a guilty looking Dustin, the boy flashing you a strained grin.

“I’m sorry for yelling. I just– I was so worried,” he told you. You forced a smile, continuing to clean up the wrappers and other stuff you’d used lying around. He stopped you mid action, pulling you into a hug that you hadn’t been expecting. It took you a few seconds for it to register in your mind, but then you were happy to embrace him. It seemed as though he needed the affection, on the verge of tears the second his head was comfortably hidden in your neck.

“He’ll be okay, kid. I’m a pretty good nurse after taking care of you kids all this time if I do say so myself.”

He chuckled, pulling away and wiping at his tears. This time around you offered him a warm smile, a real one that made him feel comforted. You really had that bedside manner of being a nurse down he had to say. “He should be fine, but it’s gonna take time for him to heal. He had a lot of deep wounds,” you told the two. “Can you seriously not tell me how this happened?”

“Well, it’s a long story,” Steve said. “A crazy story that– It’s better that you don’t know.”

You sighed, nodding your head. There was still the possibility that if he woke up soon maybe Eddie could tell you himself. Apparently while lost in that thought your eyes had trailed over to the unconscious man on your couch, and it must have been a pretty longing look on his face for Steve to speak up.

“We, uh– Do you think he could maybe stay here for a little? The cops are still on his back and…” he trailed off, realizing what sort of thing he was asking you right now. Steve was aware of part of the history you and Eddie had, you were together when he was still in highschool. The metalhead had always been a known personality at Hawkins high, right since Steve’s freshman year, so it wasn’t like your relationship was secret. But he figured the two of you drifted apart after you graduated and Eddie didn’t. If there was any bad blood this was probably a large ask from him, but at the same time he felt you were the only person they could trust with this.

Dustin wasn’t quite as clued in as his older friend, so he felt the need to defend the reputation of his other friend. “He didn’t kill those people. He didn’t,” he insisted.

You shook your head. “No, I know.” He might look and try and act scary, but you knew better than anyone else that Eddie Munson was the biggest softie in the world. He couldn’t hurt nor scare a fly when you got to know him. Despite the tough exterior and the rough breakup you went through, you could still admit he was possibly the kindest man you had ever met. A little rough around the edges, or careless at times, but he had a heart of gold and you knew it.

The mood felt like it had shifted, leaving a feeling Dustin didn’t understand settling over the three of you. For a few quiet minutes, all that filled the silence of the room was Eddie’s shaking breathing, the only thing that kept the three of you hopeful that he was going to be okay. “Um. Do either of you need me to check you out, or are you good?” You mainly asked because your concern for Dustin’s leg was still high, but he assured you he was fine.

“No. We’re good,” the younger teen assured. “We should probably go update the others on how he’s doing.”

That was understandable. Though you were unsure if you were ready to be left alone with Eddie– unsure if that was even the right thing to do considering the bullseye on his back right now– you would still do anything for him. It didn’t matter how much time went by, it seemed like he would hold a special place in your heart for eternity, and in turn you would do the craziest of things for him. Plus, you didn’t exactly know how you would have denied Steve and Dustin’s polite ask anyway.

“Yeah, no, of course.” You followed the pair to the door, sparing a single glance at the man on your couch, checking he was still sleeping. “Be careful?” you proposed.

“We will,” Steve assured. He let the kid leave first, then turned to you one final time before he followed him out. “Thank you, seriously. We couldn’t have taken him to the hospital, if we didn’t have you, I have no idea what we would have done.”

You had never really had any sort of close relationship with Steve, not in school or outside of it. You knew of him, of course, King Steve had quite the reputation even to those older than him, he didn’t tend to stay quiet around town, much like your own boyfriend at the time. But over the last few years, due to the bonding with the group of kids, in turn you became friendly with the older teen. It was nothing special, you wouldn’t call him more than an acquaintance, but he was still comforting. “No, it’s okay. I’m happy you came to me. I, um, I’m glad I could be the one to make sure he was okay.”

There was nothing else for either of you to really say. He had just wanted to express his gratitude but you sort of guessed already. “I’ll take care of him, Steve. I promise.”

He nodded, pursing his lips before he took off with a final goodbye. As you closed the door behind him, you exhaled heavily, finally left alone with your thoughts while Eddie slept. There were too many thoughts to just focus on the one, so you settled instead with busying yourself with other things. You had already cleaned up the mess you made while stitching Eddie up, so that didn’t need to be done. It seemed like the one time you needed something to do to clear your mind, there was nothing for you to do.

“Guess I’m having dinner early,” you muttered to no one but yourself.

Every now and then, even while in the kitchen, you found your eyes landing on Eddie. It was mainly his chest, your nerves telling you to check that he was still breathing out of fear that you could potentially lose him any second. In reality you knew better, but it didn’t mean there wasn’t still a lingering fear in your gut.

He was out cold for a while. You hadn’t even realized he woke until you heard him.

“Am I dead?” the voice rang out. The sound of it, maybe even just the knowledge of knowing he was awake and okay, made you smile to yourself. Your hands halted mid action, long forgetting about the food you were making. You hated how easy it was for him to make your heart flutter even now. His awkward flirting was something that just worked for you, though most people might find it uncomfortable.

“Hey. How you feeling?” you asked. It hit you after the words tumbled out of your mouth that that was possibly the dumbest question you could have possibly asked him. Of course he wasn’t going to feel good, or even okay. You expected he probably felt terrible, and you didn’t need him to tell you that for you to know. “Sorry, that was a silly question. It’s been a stressful night.”

He chuckled, quickly followed by a wince as he realized laughing was a very bad idea right now. “My bad,” he joked.

The two of you fell into a silence, where both of you were sort of unsure what to say. You supposed that was what happened with exes who hadn’t had to speak in years. The last time you saw Eddie had to have been at least three years ago, so you hadn’t had to force any uncomfortable conversations since then. You had to admit you did miss talking with him, the random, nonsensical talks you’d have at all hours. When he was high, when you both were high– sometimes you were sober and just wanted to talk but had nothing of substance to say. Not only had he been your boyfriend, but your best friend, and when you lost him your life altered massively. Nothing had been the same since.

“So, do you always stitch up ex-boyfriends on your old couch, or just me?”

You chuckled. “While you were taking senior year for the first through third time, I became a nurse,” you clarified. “But yes, I seemed to have made it a habit.”

He grinned, shaking his head. “Low blow,” he muttered. You watched as he attempted to readjust the position he was laid in, though painful, he was uncomfortable. You could have offered your help, probably should have, but it didn’t seem like he wanted it. “When I’m sick and dying too?”

You rolled your eyes. “You’re not dying, Munson. Not anymore.”

His eyes looked like they lit up at that last piece of information you added. You didn't know what was going on in that crazy head of his, but you assumed he was going to say something dumb like he usually did. “So I can tell people I was almost killed by killer bats? Metal.”

His words made you do a double take. “I-I’m sorry. Killer bats?” The complete shock in your tone told him that you hadn’t been informed on anything at all and that had probably been a horrible thing to say. He didn’t feel like explaining all the logistics of everything to you, not now at least while he felt like he was still on his deathbed. There was just too much he would have to say, if he went right back to the beginning with Chrissy and all that. He barely had his own head wrapped around it all.

“Bats? Someone mentioned bats?”

With a sigh, you headed back to the kitchen to finish cooking your meal, leaving him to rest there. “You’re unbearable. Y’know that?” you asked, pretty much rhetorically.

His laughter could be heard filtering through the various rooms in your home. It was a genuine one that you hadn’t heard in what felt like forever, you missed the sound of it if you were being honest. Not that you would ever let him know that. “You love it,” he teased, sounding much too smug for his own good.

You huffed. “No, actually. I think you just love riling me up.”

You expected his answer to come back as quick and snappy as it usually would, he was always usually quick on his feet with his comebacks. But you waited, and waited, and nothing came. “Eddie?” you called. As the minutes passed by with nothing but silence, your heart began to sink more and more. This had been your fear earlier on after the two boys left, that something was going to happen to him while you were preoccupied. Once again your food was abandoned, you thought maybe for good this time, and your eyes darted to his figure on the couch, noticing his hands clutching a wound near his neck— one that was bleeding profusely again. “Oh my god, Eddie!”

The next few minutes were a flash of blood, gauze and quick stitches that were not helped by the racing of your heart. Things probably would have gone better if you were calmer, but this was Eddie, how were you supposed to be calm when your first love was bleeding all over your hands.

It seemed like you’d never get him to be okay, but as quickly as things went wrong, they started to go right again. The panic stopped, the blood stopped, and everything began to slow again, moving at a normal pace again.

“Don’t ever do that again,” you demanded, chest heaving as you tried to calm down from the sudden panic he had just caused you. Unlike the first time he woke up, this time around he seemed equally as stressed as you did. It was clear this has been a scare for him, maybe one that shocked him into realizing just how serious his condition was right now. If he hadn't been so injured you might have swatted him, thinking he deserved it after the feelings he just made you experience.

He didn’t say anything this time, just nodded. The look on his face told you he was a little spooked. Before he might have thought this was all just a cool story to tell, but now it was hitting him that this was very real. Oftentimes he tried to pass things off as lighthearted and a joke, but deep down it was because he was absolutely terrified of the situation at hand. It was his way of coping with whatever tragedy had happened to him now. It started all the way back as a kid.

This time around you didn’t think you could go back to doing simple tasks, your heart beat was too unstable for that, instead you planned to just sit by his side for a little while. You wanted to reach out for him, to hold his hand, but you thought it might be overstepping a boundary. You hadn’t held Eddie Munson’s hand in so many years, you had almost forgotten what it felt like, the comfort of that weight in your palm. You wanted to curse yourself for even thinking that way.

“I’m sorry,” he began, drawing your unfocused eyes to him. You didn’t know exactly what he was talking about, and it seemed he could tell. He was happy to clarify. “For them dragging you into this whole mess.”

You shook your head. “Don’t worry about it. Not like I had anything else to do. Hawkins pretty much went to shit tonight.” He didn’t like the sight of you walking away. Not when he didn’t know if you were going to come back. He couldn’t do anything though, just had to lay there and accept it– whether you came back to sit with him or not. He tried telling himself that he didn’t want you to go because he didn’t want to be lonely, but some part of his brain knew that he didn’t want you to go because he had been without you for so long.

Luckily for him, you weren’t gone long. He didn’t know what you were doing when you came back though. “For the pain,” you said, settling the glass of water beside the pills. He thanked you quietly, taking your help to sit up a little more so he could drink. It wasn’t easy, and it hurt him like hell, but you managed eventually. You didn’t want to just blatantly stare at him, but there wasn’t much else for you to do right now. If it made him uncomfortable– you watching him take the pills– he didn’t say anything about it. He didn’t say anything at all until you took the empty glass of water from him to set down.

“How bad is it?” he asked. He was scared to look. If it hurt as bad as it did, then he could only imagine what it must look like under all the bandages. If it was enough to almost kill him, he had to admit he was terrified about what might come out of your mouth.

You flashed him a strained smile, one that didn’t quite meet your eyes– he’d know a smile that met your eyes from miles away. “You’ll be okay. It’s gonna leave some nasty scars though,” you told him. You missed this way his eyes lit up at those words. It probably should have been obvious how much Eddie would love the knowledge of such a thing, he found the weirdest things metal. It was no shock he would find this the same way.

“I’m gonna have scars?”

You also missed the excitement in his tone. “Nasty ones I think. They would have been less noticeable if I could’ve gotten you to a hospital. But Dustin said—“

That one word immediately ruined any joy he had. “No, no hospitals,” he insisted. You didn’t have to look at him to notice his panic, but you did anyway. He looked entirely disturbed, face paling at the idea of being taken to a hospital while in the middle of the mess he was in.

“I know. Wanted man and everything.” You brushed it off with ease. He liked to think you wouldn’t think he’d do such a thing. You of all people should know him better than that. But there was a part of him that was scared you might think he was this awful person now. He didn’t know how to deal with the knowledge you might think he did all these terrible things. He could withstand a lot of shit, but not if it was coming from you.

“I-I didn’t do it, you know,” he said.

You didn’t need him to tell you, there was no way you ever would believe he would do such a thing, even if the entire world was telling you so. “I know. I know you, Eddie Munson,” you told him. A smile curled on your lips, your finger ever so lightly jabbing at his chest. “You have a heart of gold.”

He chuckled. “Don’t let anyone hear you say that, you’ll ruin my reputation.”

You huffed a laugh. “Okay, freak.” It was ironic considering there was possibly not a single way his reputation around Hawkins could get any worse. Freak turned cult leader, turned peer murderer didn’t have the best ring to it.

He laughed again, though quickly realized it was a mistake when it made every inch of his chest hurt. You grinned, rolling your eyes at his stupidity before pushing yourself to your feet. “Get some sleep, Ed.” You missed the flash of affection behind his eyes when you used the nickname. It was something you hadn’t called him in years, and it made his heart flutter so hear you say it again. He thought maybe with this re-found gentleness you had with him, you might have even stroked his hair a little. But that was just wishful thinking. “I’ll see you when you wake up.”

And you did. You were actually the reason he did wake up. You accidentally jostled him a little, though you hadn’t meant to. You were trying to be as careful as possible, but there were just some things that required a little more force than you would like. In result, his eyes fluttered open, a small groan leaving his throat as he came to for the first time in a few hours.

“I just need to check on a couple of cuts. See if I need to change any bandages,” you informed him, taking a seat beside him. He hummed quietly, letting you do what you needed.

As you tended to him, he was watching you, you could feel his eyes on you. As much as you could, you tried to ignore the urge to look up and lock eyes, but eventually it became too much. “Stop staring,” you hissed.

“You’re so pretty,” he muttered, dreamily. If you didn’t know any better you would have gathered he was high on pain meds or something. But luckily for you— obvious sarcasm— this was just his natural personality. “Is this heaven?”

“Shut up, Munson.”

He surprisingly did as you said. For the rest of the time you were checking him over, he didn’t say a thing. It made it much easier to work, but you also couldn’t quite admit that you missed the sound of his voice again. Now that Eddie had wormed his way back into your life, you didn’t think you wanted him to sneak back out.

»»——⍟——««

Over the next few weeks, while Eddie was recovering in your home, the two of you fell into a routine. It began to be something you craved, the only consistent part of your life that you had come to love. Sure, you and him might not have worked out the first time around, but a little distance and a lot of time seemed to be all you needed to remember just how much love you had for him. But you weren’t quite prepared to admit that to him. While he was under your roof, you didn’t need him being even more unbearable with his ego than he already was.

You were still going out to work as normal, working painfully long shifts, only to come home and then take care of Eddie too. You were impressed with how he was healing, and though he wouldn’t need medical care for much longer, he did still need a place to hide out. For now, you were happy to provide him with that.

“Honey, I’m home,” you called, hearing his chuckle from somewhere in the apartment as you pushed open the door. That awkward tension that came from your past breakup was gone now, the two of you had gotten a new sense of comfort for one another.

“Kitchen!” he called back. That one word filled you with fright. Eddie had never been a good cook, not at any stage of his whole life. You had no faith that he wasn’t seconds away from burning down your kitchen at any moment. You felt yourself rushing to where he said he was, finding him rummaging through your refrigerator. Thankfully, he hadn’t yet gotten the chance to even begin cooking something. “I was gonna make dinner. Thought you’d be tired after your shift, but there’s not much in here to make anything.”

You had to admit you were relieved at that. But also, you didn’t even think he should be on his feet yet slaving away like this. “That’s okay. I’ll order in. Pizza okay?”

He nodded. Maybe he had gotten a little too comfortable living at your place, but he had to admit he really was loving it. Things were so easy and light with you around, he didn’t think he wanted to ever leave you. He wanted to say that it was just past feelings talking, but he thought those past feelings might be making an appearance in the present. You weren’t much better.

The two of you did your own things while you waited for the food, worried that spending so much time with each other would push you together in ways you weren’t sure you wanted. When the doorbell rang, he hid, as he’d had to do anytime someone came to the door recently. He couldn’t even be believed to be here if you wanted to protect him. You were as quick as possible when grabbing the food, hating to let him feel like some kind of convict. Within the walls of your apartment, he was just the same Eddie that you had always known, you didn’t think he needed reminding what the outside world felt about him right now.

“Okay. You grab the drinks, I’ve got this.”

He nodded, joining you within a short while. You had already set him a pizza slice on a plate, and had made the pillows on the couch more fluffed up to be more comfortable. “Steve dropped off a movie today. Thought we could watch it, maybe.” He motioned to the VHS sitting on the coffee table that you had somehow missed. Ferris Bueller’s day off.

That was something Steve had been doing for the last couple weeks. He thought Eddie’s days would be long and boring, so he thought movies might help pass the time until he was a free man again. It was beginning to take longer than he originally planned. “Yeah, sure. I’ve been dying to watch this.”

It was a better bonding experience than you could have ever imagined it would be. For some added entertainment after the two of you grew a little bored– considering he’d been watching movies all day every day for weeks now– he decided to imitate what you were seeing acted out on screen. Which led to a very poor rendition of twist and shout from your couch.

Your head was thrown back in laughter, eyes lingering on Eddie’s face as he tried to keep from giggling like you were. You weren’t sure when the atmosphere changed, but you’d guess it was when your laughter died down, leaving the two of you gazing at each other, knees knocking together on the couch.

If anyone were to ask, you would insist that it was his eyes that put you into a trance. You couldn’t look away from the soft brown shade. At first you didn’t even notice the way you were edging closer to him, not until the tips of your noses brushed together. You could feel one another's breath, and it wasn’t until you saw his head tilt slightly to the right that you realized what was happening.

You quickly pulled back, blinking your eyes rapidly. “I, uh–”

He shook his head. “We don’t have to do this,” he told you.

You didn’t say anything, but you did put some space between you. It was only then that you had realized just how close you had ended up shuffling together on the couch. “I’m sorry. It’s just, it’s late, a-and we’ve been drinking. I don’t think we’re thinking straight.”

It was understandable, and Eddie would never expect you to roll out excuses. You could have just told him you didn’t want to and he would have happily taken that as an answer. “Hey, don’t worry,” he reassured you, stroking his thumb across your cheekbone sweetly. The smile on his face was real, genuine as he tucked some hair behind your ear. “We can just go to sleep. Move on. We don’t even have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

You would definitely want to revisit it once you got the courage, but for right now, you were so grateful that he’d said that. “Thank you.”

There were a few moments of awkward silence, where the two of you tried to go back to relaxing on the couch so you could continue your movie, but it wasn’t the same. It grew so uncomfortable that you decided to just head to bed, hoping everything was back to normal by the time you woke up tomorrow. “I think I’m gonna call it a night,” you told him, pursing your lips in an uncomfortable smile.

He understood. “Goodnight Y/N.”

You pushed yourself to your feet quickly, to avoid the urge burning inside you to just kiss him. “Goodnight, Eddie,” you mumbled. You still couldn’t look at him, the nerves swirling in your stomach had yet to die down. You hadn’t felt like such a lovesick teen around him since you were actually a lovesick teen, flirting with him between classes, having him tug on your hair to get your attention. This was all before you started dating. It really made you think about where you and he were heading the longer he stayed in your home.

He smiled at you softly. “Goodnight.”

You left him there on the couch to sleep, heading to your own room so he could have some peace. As soon as you were alone, you could finally gather your thoughts. You just almost kissed Eddie Munson. Eddie, your highschool boyfriend who you naively thought you would be with forever. You couldn’t help but wonder if it would be the worst thing in the world if the two of you rekindled things. He absolutely was a great boyfriend, and he knew that. You also didn’t think you could lie and say that you hadn’t missed him. Ending things on good or bad terms, you still missed being with him.

When the thoughts got too much to handle, you decided to try and push them to one side and sleep. It was a struggle at first, your brain refusing to shut off for a while, but eventually you managed.

You must have been out for a couple hours at most when you were roughly awoken. Eddie had had a few nightmares since he started staying with you, but none were as bad as tonight. He had woken you up with loud yelling from the living room, where he was still sleeping on the couch. You had rushed to him instantly, worried that some of the angry mob from around town had found him or something, or maybe some of his stitches had pulled again and he was yelling for your help. But when you saw him, he was thrashing around, still seemingly asleep.

“Eddie,” you called, panicking, shaking him slightly in hopes of waking him up. “You’re okay, Eddie. Come on, wake up!”

When his eyes finally snapped open, a gasp rippling through his chest, you let out a breath of relief.

You were shocked you couldn’t hear his heart pounding, but you could definitely hear how he panted loudly. There was a thin sheen of sweat on his face that you could see when he moved into the light just right. Your heart ached for him, itching to guide him into your arms, but you didn’t know if that was what he wanted. His eyes were unfocused, looking up at the ceiling like there was something on there that was going to make all the bad stuff go away.

He didn’t even look at you as he spoke. “C-Can you hold my hand?” he asked. The tone of his voice was so small, and quiet, that you almost didn’t hear it. He sounded like a scared child, and it made your heart clench.

You didn’t verbally respond, just took his slightly clammy hand in yours. It didn’t bother you as much as it should have. Your priority at the moment was making sure he could relax, and maybe talk through what was bothering him. You could take a wild guess, that you assumed would be pretty accurate, but having him actually talk about it must be better than it staying holed up in his brain where he could worry.

Neither of you spoke for a while. Instead you just sat there curled up beside him, your hand stroking through his damp hair. When he finally did open his mouth, it wasn’t what you expected to hear. “When I first woke up, I think you were the last face I expected to see.”

Hearing that made your chest sting. You still greatly cared for him, and you didn’t like that he thought you felt so negatively towards him. “But I’m glad you were the first face I saw. You saved my life, Y/N.” He was speaking so highly of you that usually you would flush with heat. But this moment felt too tender for that, he was just thinking out loud and you happened to be there to hear it.

“I did what anyone would have.”

“No,” he said. “Don’t sell yourself short, Y/N. Not a lot of people would have done that for me, right now. And you did an impressive thing– Like, it was incredible,” he gushed. The heat that rushed to your cheeks was scalding, and you wished you could have hid in that moment. He wouldn’t have let you do so, he loved seeing the way you grew all bashful at such a compliment. “I always knew you’d do something great.”

You sent a smile his way, your eyes lingering on his features much like they had earlier on. “When you finally graduate, maybe you will too,” you teased.

He huffed a laugh, then rolled his eyes. “I think graduating is officially off the table now.” It had been on his mind a lot lately, how close he was to finally getting out of high school, then this all happened. It was like the universe's way of telling him he was gonna be stuck in that place forever.

Your smile turned into a frown. “Eddie,” you muttered, your tone completely sympathetic. He hated that you were pitying him, he was not someone who enjoyed receiving pity from others if he could help it. “They’ll fix this. Dustin, a-and Steve, they’ll clear this whole thing up. I promise.”

“You can’t promise that,” he said. It was true, there was no realistic way that you could, you were just being optimistic, but one of you had to be.

You knew you weren’t going to get anywhere from here. You couldn’t get through to him and provide him with good thoughts if he didn’t want you to, it would be impossible. So, although you wished you didn’t have to, you gave up on trying to convince him– at least for tonight. It was always plausible for you to try again tomorrow. “I should get back to bed, I have work in the morning.”

He wanted to nod, give you the okay and let you go, but there was still a pit of fear in the bottom of his stomach. He didn’t know if he could stand letting you leave him right now. “I’m scared to go back to sleep,” he whispered. You could see the fear in his face, and it made your heart ache. Not only was the poor guy terrorized throughout the day, when he’s awake, but also when he’s asleep. He hadn’t been able to sleep for weeks without reminders of what put him in this situation in the first place. Almost daily he saw Chrissy or those bats in his dreams.

There was only one solution you could think of. For as long as you’d known him, he had only ever had a couple nightmares, about superficial shit, but you would spend the rest of the night in his arms, giving him something he loved to hold onto to remind him that he was okay. “You want me to stay?” you asked, checking that that was what he was implying. For all you knew, clouded by your thoughts about him, he could have just been making a general statement that you were reading too much into, you wanted his confirmation.

“I want you to stay.”

He shifted back on the couch as far as he could go, making some room for you so you could get comfortable. His arms opened, and his blanket was lifted up for you to climb under. There was only very brief hesitation before you made a move.

It was familiar, being pressed against him like you were, head on his chest and arms around his torso. You had almost forgotten how it felt to be held so tightly by him, but you definitely hadn’t forgotten how much you loved it. You felt like you could melt completely into him. It was something you had missed without even realizing it, and now that you got to experience it again, you didn’t want it to ever stop.

Neither of you said anything for a while, and you both thought the other might have fallen asleep. It was you that took the leap of faith to say something. “Do you worry that they’ll never prove you didn’t do it?” It was a risky question to ask, possibly overstepping, but it was something that was on your mind that you wanted an answer to.

“It’s all I think about. It’s not like the people in this town have ever really liked me all that much, but I- The thought of not being able to just live my life, of ruining Wayne’s life o-or my friends because of some accusations that aren’t even true? It kills me.”

It had always bothered you how people treated Eddie, and his uncle who was an absolute sweetheart, but there was never anything you were able to do to help. All you could really do was treat them how you thought they should be treated. They deserved just as much, if not more love than others. That was one thing both Munsons always loved about you, how you never judged them how the majority of this town had. To you, they were better than all those snobs.

“‘M so sorry, Ed. You deserve so much better than that.”

He shrugged. “Not your fault. S’okay.”

You tilted your head where it was resting so you could look at him. He felt the movement and in turn looked down at you as well. This had become an incredibly familiar position the past day. This time around though, you didn’t want to look away, you wanted to get closer. “Y/N?” he asked. His voice was so quiet that you almost didn’t hear him.

“Yeah?”

He swallowed, loudly in the quiet room, then blinked a couple times. There was some hesitation for him to say whatever it was he planned to, but eventually he couldn’t keep it in. He needed to ask. “Can I kiss you?”

If it shocked you, you didn’t let him see, keeping it to yourself. His breathing was heavy as he waited, the anticipation slowly killing him. He needed you to say yes, it had been years since the last time he kissed you, and he hadn’t kissed anyone since. In a way it was like he was waiting for you to come back to him. And although he hadn’t had a lot of faith that you would, the impossible happened, and you did.

You didn’t verbally respond, just took the initiative to lurch forward and take his lips with yours. He made a quiet humming noise in the back of his throat, one that told you he was completely content. The kiss was slow, filled with all the unsaid things you had been creeping around for the past few weeks. In reality it was all the things that hadn’t been said in the years you had been broken up. This kiss was much like the ones you shared towards the end of your relationship, where the two of you sort of knew it was all coming to an end.

Eddie found that he really didn’t want to pull away, so you did first. He tried to steal a few more kisses, in which he was successful, but eventually your grins forced you to stop. “I’ve missed you so much,” you said. You brushed your thumb over his cheekbone. “Breaking up with you is something I’ve regretted every single day since it happened. I love you, Eddie.”

It was as though you had put in the final piece of the puzzle in his heart. He hadn’t felt so complete in his whole life. “I’ve been wanting to hear you say that for years,” he admitted, breathing out a laugh of relief.

“So say it back,” you prodded. There was a glint in your eyes, one he hadn’t seen these last few weeks. It was back.

“I love you.”

»»——⍟——««

When Eddie’s eyes fluttered open the next morning, after one of the best sleeps he’d had in weeks (despite the nightmare at the start of the night), you were still curled up against his chest. The couch was much too crowded like this, barely any room for him to move or stretch, and his back definitely wouldn’t forgive him for this– but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

There was still time before your shift started, so he didn’t bother waking you just yet. Instead he let you sleep, and admired you as he did so. Some might have thought it was creepy, watching someone so intensely as they slept, but he just couldn’t get over the fact that you were back here in his arms again after all that time.

With you there, comfortable and content on his chest, he thought that maybe everything would be okay after all. Even if the outside world never forgave him for the things he was wrongly accused of, he knew that you didn’t see him that way. “Thank you for believing in me,” he whispered, kissing the top of your head gently. He didn’t want to wake you, so he was trying to be as quiet as possible. He just didn’t think he currently had the guts to tell you these things while you were awake. “Never letting you go again.”

For a second he thought he might have woken you, when you shifted against him, but you just as quickly settled back down how you were afterwards. Or at least he thought so. “Love you,” you mumbled, pressing a faint kiss to the middle of his chest over his shirt. He beamed, brushing his nose against the top of your head, whispering the words back to you.

Even if he was still a wanted criminal, and the whole town you lived in was after him, this was his heaven.

━━━━━━━━━♡♥♡━━━━━━━━━

eddie munson taglist - @pastel-abyss-x @lilylilyyyyyy @spideysbae @lexi-2004 @escape-in-time-x @liltimmyst @fandomxo00 @youcantseem3 @sharnnnnnn @dreashappyworld @audhd-dragonaut @liltimmyst

#eddie munson #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson oneshot #eddie munson imagines #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #stranger things fic #stranger things #stranger things 4 #nurse!reader #eddie munson x nurse!reader

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notyouraryang0dd3ss · 5 months

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Having a #1 Song doesn't mean SHIT anymore! It doesn't mean the song is a hit.

Let's be so serious rn. Nobody knows any of her damn fault track that keep charting. I asked my mom to name one song of hers and she could name "Shake it off."

Smooth Criminal went #7 in the US.

Remember the Time went #3 in the US.

Heal the World went #27 in the US.

They don't care about us #30 in the US. But it still went viral on tiktok. A song that is almost 30 years old!!

Thriller the song also never went to number one, but ask people to name one Halloween song they gonna name that song.

And what is more impressive, having 1M EAS the first day or still selling 1M EAS 15 years after your passed and more than 20 years after you dropped an album. Longevity is quality. 1M first day sales she's gonna sell that much for years. Hell, she be lucky if she even sold 50k in a year in 30 years.

5 music videos of his that are made in the 80's and 90's are about to have 1 billion views this year.

Billie Jean still gets 1M daily streams on Spotify.

I'm sorry if you aren't an Mjfan and I bring him up but he's the best example I can give you also because Swifties keep comparing her to him.

If people don't like the song they won't keep listening to it. And if Taylors song just stay in her fanbase and they just massstream her shit. Nobody is gonna know this song in 20 years.

Because what is the last hit Taylor Swift had that was known to the general public? Anti Hero maybe? Cruel Summer?

And something that is also funny is that, Remember when her drunk self got on stage and snatched the grammy from Celine Dion and didn't even look at her.

And people were pissed and her team was quick on working getting a picture with her to mend the damage.

Celine Dion has 5 Grammys and Taylor Swift has 14.

But they knew that Celine Dion got more respect from the GP then Taylor will ever have. And that is something you cannot buy. And they know if someone wins out of pure talent or just because of favourism. And let's be real. Most people know these award shows are rigged and they don't care about it.

Like when RollingStone came out with that fuck ass best singers list that put Taylor at #102 and excluded Celine Dion. People were mad that Celine was included but Taylor was.

Or just recently they also called her the better Adele. Nobody from the GP was like oh yeah that is true.

I mean they can try to name her the Queen of Pop in one of the award shows alà Michael Jackson style, but it's not gonna work with her. When he got that name people actually agreed and they still do. Outside Taylors cult nobody will agree with that.

Taylor's Team is aggressive with the Marketing and pushing these numbers onto us because they know outside of it she has nothing to offer. Her talent isn't marketable. Her singing and dancing isn't that impressive. The most marketable things about her career are her wealth and business success. Have they ever talked about her performance while she is on tour. What is so impressive what she does on stage? No they just keep talking about the money she makes.

No I completely get why MJ is a relevant comparison here. Swifties do keep comparing TS to him and for that alone they need to collectively get their asses beat. But you used good examples and I just want to applaud you for that

& you’re right, I can’t name a single vault track. Every time I’m exposed to her its against my will through my recommended (and its usually so out of place too because i watch really weird video essays).

Charts truly don’t reflect cultural impact because Drunk in Love by Beyoncé never went #1 and neither did Toxic by Britney Spears but both are super well known. Anti Hero is probably the last single to go #1 but I genuinely felt harassed by that song 😭 its sooooooooo bad

Yes! The vocal trinity—Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston—have done SO MUCH for music and all have less than half of Taylor Swift’s amount of Grammys. Celine and Mariah each have 5 and Whitney has 6.

I didn’t watch the Grammys this year (forgot to) but I heard about the Celine Dion incident I was SHOCKED because the audacity of this woman! Her entitlement shows in everything she does and she’s really starting to believe her commercial success makes her a better artist.

THE ROLLING STONE LIST WAS BULLSHIT. THEY DIDN’T INCLUDE JENNIFER HUDSON EITHER! Their definition of a “singer” was soooooooo bullshit too like that magazine’s merit has gone down so much in the past 20 years it should be regarded with way less status and credibility. And who tf called TS better than ADELE?

You’re right, her moniker will be chosen by the general public (probably from a viral tweet/tiktok/etc).

And she needs aggressive marketing because she really is a below average musician in all respects! She has her songwriting but she should’ve just been a hit songwriter (like Estelle Dean) not a singer. What makes her marketable is very “ordinary” image—which makes her relatable to “every girl, like me and you” 🙄 her soft voice really creates an intimate atmosphere especially with her vulnerable (but superficial) lyrics. She has to be friends with her fans for her success to work. Because there is no way you can justify her being regarded as a “god” the way people do with Beyoncé and MJ otherwise.

🎯 with the Eras Tour coverage. No one ever references or cites a particular jaw dropping vocal performance or dance number. It’s always the amount of wealth she’s generating.

#ask #anon #anti taylor swift #mj #beyoncé #celine dion #artist comparison #eras tour #notyouraryang0dd3ss #mariah carey #whitney houston

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burr-ell · 1 year

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Just for clarity's sake since I'm seeing this get spread around: Trump was not found guilty in the civil suit brought by E. Jean Carroll—he was found liable for damages for sexual assault (but not rape) and defamation.

It's nitpicky, but the legal standards are different because the verdicts are different. In short, guilty is a verdict in a criminal case and requires that a jury believe a person is committed a crime "beyond a reasonable doubt"—that no reasonable questions can be raised in their defense. Meanwhile, liable is a verdict in a civil case, and only requires the "preponderance of the evidence" (basically, that it's more likely than not) that a person is responsible enough for a crime that they owe financial damages to the plaintiff. A guilty verdict would require Trump to be held responsible to the state in some fashion, likely in prison time, while legal liability means he has to pay the damages to E. Jean Carroll.

The reason that matters is that the statute of limitations for rape in New York was five years, so by the time E. Jean Carroll came forward, she could not legally accuse Trump of rape and have him tried in a criminal court—she had to go through the civil process instead if she was going to see any kind of justice for what he did. The words "guilty" and "liable" carry specific legal meanings, and understanding that provides a better understanding of the ramifications here and a better tempering of public expectations.

So Trump wasn't found guilty, so he won't be in prison (even though in a just world he would be); he has to pay E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages and take the hit from the media and fundraise off of it and otherwise legally walk away. In short, to head off the fact that there will doubtless be an outcry about this, he won't go to prison because he hasn't been found guilty of a criminal act.

Yet.

#politics #ishkabibble

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planet-crait · 6 days

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Episode 9! I think it’s 9. (Edit it’s episode 10) I’m getting confused lolz. How about this the episode I’m watching is called Weird Science. This review tested the limits of my patience with how much tumblr ate it. Forgive me if things are out of order I did my best.

Hazel draws that face criminally quick and I also have to wonder if that buck tooth is another Timmy reference. I’m going to pretend it is.

Either way this seems to be a science project of some sort though I didn’t think you could turn a potato into a light bulb unless I am misidentifying the item Hazel is using.

(Fuck tumblr for eating like half of my post I hate this. I’m sorry if this are out of order or it seems I missed stuff I just. I did the best I could this is so frustrating.)

Okay so I googled it and there is definitely more Hazel needs to do with her potato for it to actually work.

Cosmo how do you not know what a lightbulb looks like??? I’m majorly concerned. Uh wait how does Cosmo know how lightbulbs taste like? Wanda that is so mean. Cosmo!

But oh. Oh I cannot imagine the pressure of trying to follow the footsteps of a sibling who won every year that sounds brutal. I went to the same school as my older sister I looked exactly like and got a lot of the same teachers and that was hell. She’s going to a different school at least but uh. Still a lot of pressure.

Wait wait wait why did you wait til the last minute to do this project if it’s so important? I thought Hazel cared about school so this seems weird to me for her to procrastinate but maybe it’ll be explained? Oh Wanda are you more concerned about Hazel or Cosmo right now I can’t tell.

Cosmo when did you have time to grab the lightbulb again you were in frame the whole time? Okay the jeans comment was funny though.

Okay so now Hazel is uh sort of doing the other stuff to make it work but she didn’t even try and glance over the book? Watch a YouTube video? Sweetie this won’t end well. Uhh wait how is the wish working? This is for a science fair that’s a competition, it’s against the rules to help in a competition? Maybe this will be explained later? Or maybe it will stop working once the competition starts? That could be interesting!

Okay so Jasmines song to remember is silly and oh she can’t remember it that tracks. But VIVA LA PLUTO PLUTO IS A PLANET I WILL NOT ACCEPT OTHERWISE!!!

How does anyone believe Dev actually made a microchip like legit that is. Way too advanced for a ten year old to make. I have a feeling bribery will be at play here.

Wait what is happening with…everything? Why would her wishing her project work screw up all of this stuff? Wait they…had to…rewrite the laws of physics? I. What? Is this to get around the no helping in compensation rule? Wouldn’t that still be helping? Why is Wanda encouraging this behavior or her cheating her project? It might mess with Devs but STILL.

Meditation? Uhh what kind of elementary school is this? Why are their wands NOW making the fart noise? Oh Jorgan is here. So much is happening so fast. How are the wands not working they’re magic not science??? And there is a science fairy!? I mean….I guess?

The laws of physics and the laws of the universe affecting eachother both does and doesn’t make sense and is making my brain hurt as much as when I try and unwind time travel logic.

WHY WOULD IT BEING FOR A SCIENCE FAIR AFFECT IT? I don’t understand. Why did they leave? Weren’t they supposed to help fix it? Oh poor Cosmo he is getting beat up this episode. Shouldn’t Cosmo and Wanda be careful? I would think people would wonder what is making so much noise and I guarantee you raining potato’s will make a lot of noise and cause so much damage. Like so much damage.

Wild speculation, Hazel is going to finally read the book and use the raining potato’s to make more power. Nope she’s going to steal Devs microchip. Once again missing the point. Okay then.

Oh Cosmo and Wanda completely missing the point but oh you two are also so cute lolz.

With how little time is left I imagine they’re going to just chase down the now floating…microchip and use it instead of the potato’s which fine okay whatever miss the point again.

Chip Skylark reference?????!!!?? Nice (Powerline is a way better pop star though lolz)

Wait they’re just sitting and watching and waiting for the ten year old to fix it??? Uhh what? Why come if you won’t do anything for to help? If magic is all screwy how have Cosmo and Wanda been poofing around? I have questions.

The principle ate the- okay. She should be dead but physics are weird so sure fine whatever. But seems I was wrong about not using the potato thing. When did they find such a big potato? And oh now they’re helping okay lazy bums.

Okay Jorgan that is impressive lolz.

No ones going to question how they wound up like that? No one at all? Okay off you go. Principle should definitely be dead though. Like for sure dead.

Okay this is just laziness the potato looks exactly the same as before come on yall. Oh it didn’t work okay. But wow a rare genuine moment of sort of kindness from the principle and the lesson I’ve been begging the show for on not procrastinating? Thats good to see lolz. I do think it’s important for kids to know they did good even if they don’t win these competitions. Thankfully I never had to enter one but still.

OHHH DISABILITY REP I LOVE TO SEE IT!!! We’re seeing so much diversity in the show is really great to see honestly

I almost forgot about Winns project. Should have expected them to win lolz. (It’s literally their name). Aww, I’m glad Hazels parents are supportive. That’s really good to see and maybe a tiny baby nod to Meet the Robinson’s with the message about failure helping learn? Love to see it.

With how many times wishes go wrong because Cosmo and Wanda have to do crazy things to make the wish work why don’t they warn her about this? Thats the main thing I’m wondering right now.

Overall not a bad episode but there have been others I liked more. Onto the next one!

#fairly oddparents #fop #fop a new wish #review #fairly odd parents a new wish

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homosociallyyours · 2 months

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10&30

THANK YOU FRIEND!!! This got LOOOOOONG so I put it behind a cut. The crime stuff should be better but guess who's not in the right mindset to invent a frame job? It's me, hi.

Framed for a crime they didn't commit/only one bed

OK, it doesn't quite fit but immediately my brain jumped to the Belle & Sebastian song, "White Collar Boy" that describes a guy who stole from his job trying to do his community service until the woman he's chained to decides to escape and drag him along.

In this AU, Harry is the white collar criminal-- he was working at the Gucci store and taking a few goodies for himself when he got caught. But listen, they were damaged, ok?? Like. If you're paying Gucci prices there shouldn't be any loose threads or similar, right? And yeah, sometimes Harry was the one who pulled loose the threads. But in fairness, that sweater looked really good on him!! So did those trousers, I mean-- yes, the squats have done wonders for his arse but those TROUSERS, they took it to the next level!

Unfortunately none of that convinced his manager or the judge, and he considers himself lucky to get assigned to pick up trash at the local pier. At first he gets to do it alone, but after a few weekends he's told he's gonna have a partner. Who he's gonna be cuffed to. The indignity!

But then he SEES said partner.

Louis is all shaggy hair and cigarettes and somehow making the coveralls they have to wear actually look good, and Harry would be smitten with him if not for the fact that he keeps trying to move them further down the pier toward the docks, where they've been told not to go.

It all comes to a head about half an hour before they're supposed to be done for the day. The cop in charge of them comes to herd them back to where they should be and Louis, using the dull end of his plastic trash grabber arm, whacks the cop in the head and bolts, leaving Harry no choice but to follow. When Louis jumps into the trash barge that's headed out, Harry takes the leap too.

Harry freaks out, of course, and they fight about it a little bit before settling down and stewing for a while.

---

"You're not ugly, really," Louis says, chin resting in his hand as he studies Harry in the waning daylight. Harry looks back at him with a withering glare before rolling his eyes and huffing as he tries not to wonder if the trash bag he's lying on just moved, or if it was his imagination.

"Wow, thanks for the compliment," he deadpans.

"I just mean-- you could kiss me if you'd like. Might help the time pass."

Harry scoffs. "My time would be free right now if it wasn't for your shitty little stunt back there, so pardon me for not being entirely thrilled by the idea of snogging you." He squirms into a sitting position, tugging at Louis' arm until he adjusts his position. "Why would I kiss a criminal, anyway?"

"Oh! So you think you're better than me, hm?"

Harry swallows, mentally kicking himself for walking right into that. "Well I'm not the one who-- did whatever you did." Nice one, Harry. Really.

"Mm, that's right. You," Louis studies him for a moment, reaching out with his free hand and picking a bit of trash from Harry's hair, "stole something, didn't you? Nothing much. Bit of petty cash, maybe? Ooh, or a little returns scam at a high end shop." Harry scoffs, looking away from Louis' too blue eyes as he feels his cheeks heat with embarrassment. Before he can deny it, Louis laughs. "I'm right! Aren't I?"

"Yes," Harry says, kicking at the fast food cup that's sticking out of a nearby trash bag and studiously avoiding Louis' gaze.

"And me? What did I do?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Harry asks, picking at a hole in his jeans. "Not a professional criminal who can tell that kind of thing with a look."

It's Louis' turn to scoff. He wrenches his arm away, sending Harry scrambling to keep himself sitting upright. "You're a right prick," he says, crossing his arms over his chest in spite of the fact that it means he's got one of Harry's hands captive there with him, dangling just over his stomach.

"So," Harry says, edging closer. "What did you do, then?"

"Nothing," Louis says simply. Harry shakes his head, gearing up to call him an idiot and a few other names, maybe, when Louis holds a finger up to silence him. "I was framed."

---

So it turns out Louis shared a locker at work with a guy who seemed nice enough, but was actually using the business as a way to build a network of stealing and selling prescription meds and some harder drugs. He'd put a false back into the locker that Louis hadn't even thought to look for, and then when law enforcement figured out where the drugs were coming from, the guy tipped them off.

Louis' escape had actually been planned for a while-- he and his best friend Liam have come up with a way to expose the guy who framed Louis, and he picks them up on a little boat that Louis and Harry have to swim to just as night falls.

They end up having to shower together at Liam's house and share a bed that night, and Louis is actually a very good cuddler, it turns out? Plus he laughs at Harry's dumb puns. And even when Liam's roommate shows up with a saw finally get them (kind of) out the the handcuffs, Harry decides to stick around.

He even takes part in the scheme to catch the guy who framed Louis by pretending to want to buy drugs from him and getting the guy to admit everything on tape. It takes a couple of months, but Louis and Harry do get free and make a nice little life together that's mostly crime free. Unless Harry really needs a little designer shirt, in which case...he might still try to scam it.

#my ficlet #1d #ideas i'll never write #oh also I support most crimes and I hate the prison system!!!#the only truly shitty crime here is the guy stealing people's prescription meds bc imo that's scamming down!!#SCAM UP ONLY!!!!!#anyway #I'm gonna rb one more lil writing ask thing and see if I get any bites.

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shadyruinskryptonite · 2 months

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Titan Bending Chapter 25

Warning: Violence consistent with cannon, NSFW so MDNI, language, major character death (both consistent with canon of both AOT and ATLA as well as diverging from canon), so much trauma literally everyone is so traumatized, very much slow burn, a little enemies to lovers, SO MUCH ANGST, hurt/comfort, hurt and delayed comfort, AFAB reader

Anything in bold is considered to be a different language and the context will specify what that language may be.

Chapter Warnings: Family Death (past), more death (past), extreme fire damage (past), talks of criminal history - reader has killed people before

WC: 3537

Previous Chapter, Next Chapter

Masterlist

Tags: @mochminnie @sseleniaa @naruwitch

I’m awoken with a shake, and as I open my eyes I see Aang standing over me.

“Can you steer Appa while I take the glider to scout out a place to land?” Aang asks with a comically large smile.

From this angle, I’m struck by how much he still resembles his childhood self. I rub the sleep from my eyes and stretch before nodding and standing up. I take the few steps across the saddle to slide into place behind Appa’s head and grab his reins.

I mentally kick myself for falling asleep. I had been so excited to get the opportunity to ride on Appa again for the journey to the Fire Nation and the first thing I did was take a nap. As soon as I’m settled behind Appa’s head, though, I notice how lovely the air feels whipping through my hair and I can’t fault myself for having such a good nap.

After only a few minutes, Aang is back on his glider. “There’s a clearing about a mile ahead. Start taking Appa down a bit now and you won’t be able to miss it. I’m going to go tell the others about it.”

I direct Appa downwards and, sure enough, after about three minutes I can see the clearing Aang was talking about. I direct Appa to the ground and I help Levi, Connie, Sasha, and Jean all get down. It appeared to be a natural clearing in the woods, but there was also a small village that couldn’t really be noticed from the air.

At least, it was the remnants of a small village. It had clearly been ravaged by the Fire Nation during the war. Every building was in ruins, but some were worse than others. Just a cursory glance around revealed that some of the buildings had be completely demolished, the only pieces remaining were the rubble and the foundation.

We all started to look around, just purely out of curiosity, as Aang landed with the airship in tow. As everyone started milling about, I couldn’t help but be struck by the familiarity of this little village. I couldn’t quite place it, and it was hard to tell with it being a shadow of its former self, but it definitely seemed to me like I recognized it.

As everyone else began to approach, a melancholic silence apparent, I couldn’t resist the urge to ask, “Did we ever camp out here? I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve been here before.”

The Gaang all seems confused, and it’s Sokka that says, “No, I really don’t think so. I…I feel like I’d remember this place…”

All of the kids immediately start rifling through the rubble, seeing what they can glean from the ghosts of the village. Meanwhile, the rest of us go about setting up camp around what was clearly a firepit in the middle of the village during it’s hayday. As we do so, I see Armin out of the corner of my eye marching down the hill with Eren and Mikasa in tow.

I don’t pay them much mind until I hear Armin matter-of-factly state, “I found something, but I don’t know what it is and I didn’t feel right opening it.”

This draws everyone back to our little home base and I glance up as he hands something distinctly Watertribe blue to Katara.

“It’s Watertribe for sure but I’ve never seen something like it so it must be from the North. Y/n, do you recognize it?” She asks.

Now turning to look at it fully, I realize that I do in fact know what it is. “Oh, yeah. It looks like a medical bag. Makes sense that it survived too, we make ‘em fire-proof. Depending on how high-ranking the healer was that owned it, it might even have a name embroidered on it.”

I turn back to organizing the supplies in front of me as Sokka leans over Katara’s shoulder to take a look and sounds out the name he sees. “Kai…Kaima? I might not be pronouncing it right, I’ve never seen a name like this before.”

My blood runs cold. My head now snaps up from what I was working on and I’m absolutely locked in.

“W-what did you say?”

“Kaima? K-A-I-M-A. Do you recognize the name?” He clarifies.

My vision narrows like I’m going to faint. I stutter out a quiet “y-y-yeah” before realization hits me. I whip around, taking in all the sights of the village.

If the contents are the same, that likely means the bag hasn’t been moved.

“Y/n are you-” Katara begins to ask.

I cut her off, “Are there a pair of children’s dance shoes in the bag?” still looking every which way.

“What?” She asks incredulously.

I finally turn back to look at her. I don’t know what my expression must look like, but I feel a bit crazed. I repeat my question much more firmly. “Are there a pair of children’s dance shoes in the bag?”

When I feel her hesitate, I try to plead with my eyes as I say, “Humor me.”

Reluctantly, she slowly opens the bag and before she even pulls anything out I know I’m right. After what seems like an hour passes, she slowly produces a pair of shoes small enough for a young child and worn down but not sullied. Everyone looks at me like I’ve suddenly gained clairvoyance, but for me that was the final piece of confirmation I needed.

“How the fuck did you know that?” Sokka asks when I don’t immediately explain myself.

I have to shove my hands in my pockets so that people can’t see how badly I’m shaking. When I speak, I somehow can’t recognize my own voice. “The name on that bag is pronounced Kay-ma. That’s my mom’s medbag. She…she kept my first pair of dance shoes in it for good luck once I grew out of them. The fact that it still has its original contents means that it hasn’t been moved or tampered with. That’s why I am the only person that recognizes this place. This…this was my village.”

Everyone is too stunned to say anything for a moment. I cross my arms tight against my body, suddenly feeling a chill in the air. Finally, it’s Suki that breaks the silence, “I always wondered why you never came back,” seeming to moreso be thinking out loud than talking to anyone in particular.

“I did,” I say remorsefully. Still not looking at anyone, terrified of the pity that I know will be written on everyone’s faces, I continue, “About a week after the raid I came back to see what and who was left. When I got there, some of the buildings were still smoldering and there wasn’t a person anywhere to be seen.”

Still speaking contemplatively, it’s Zuko that speaks up next. “The Fire Nation was brutal, but this…this looks…intentional.”

“It was,” I respond again. “It was a very strategic location, close enough to the shore for any Watertribe troops but inland enough to also be utilized by the Earth Kingdom Army. Up at the top of the hill,” I point in the direction I’m talking about, “the biggest structure up there, my mom and I set up a little hospital. All kinds of soldiers would come through here and we would heal them. Not only was this super important for the cause, we had so many different people come through here that it was a good place to share intelligence. I guess the Fire Nation found out. If you look closely, the structures that are the most damaged are the hospital and the house right next to it. My house.”

The group is left speechless yet again.

After a prolonged silence, Aang quietly asks me, “Y/n. Are you okay with staying here tonight?”

“Huh?” I turn to finally look at him. Just like I had predicted, there’s pity and sorrow written all over his face which ties my stomach into an uncomfortable knot. “Oh, yeah. It’s no problem. Good closure, ya know?” I try my best to smile, but my attempt doesn’t change his expression.

Addressing everyone while talking to Aang, I’m more stern than I intend to be when I say, “Don’t pity me. This happened ten years ago, I’ve made my peace with it.”

I finally turn to look at everyone and I feel like my skin is crawling with thousands of tiny bugs. The sympathy on their faces and - oh god, is Katara crying? Shit, Armin and Sasha, too? - their sad eyes make me want to run into the woods I lost myself in as a child.

“Alright, come on, we’ve got stuff to do to get dinner ready,” I say in a desperate attempt to just get everyone to stop looking at me like that.

Reluctantly, everyone goes back to what they were doing before, but there is noticeably less curiosity and vigor in everyones motions.

The rest of the evening is begrudgingly very quiet. No one quite knows what to say and when I tried to start conversations they would end abruptly. Once the fire was out and everyone had gone to bed, I decided to do my own exploring, starting with the remnants of my former home.

As I sift through the derbis as quietly as I can, I hear footsteps crunching on the gravel. I can tell without turning around that it’s Levi. He stops at what would be the edge of the house.

“Come on in, the door’s open,” I joke morbidly.

I hear him snort as he steps forward, the sound of the ground shifting beneath his feet indiscernable from when he was on the gravel pathway. I lean back to sit on some moss covered bricks and Levi finds a similar perch. It feels so vulnerable. I can tell he’s searching for the right words to say, so I cut him off before he gets a chance.

“If you’ve come here to express any level of pity, please don’t. I can handle the emotions, I can’t handle people acknowledging them.”

He merely shakes his head. “The stars are really bright out here.”

For the first time tonight, I crane my head back and really look at the sky. He’s right, they are bright here. As I look up, I’m flooded with memories of laying out in the field with my mom stargazing. But I can’t think of my mom without my mind immediately jumping to the last time I saw her. I huff out a sigh.

“What are you thinking about?” Levi asks tentatively.

I look at him out of the corner of my eye and raise a brow. “Economic policy,” I say sarcastically.

To my surprise, he chuckles a bit. “I-I guess that was a dumb question.”

My face softens and I shake my head. “No, it wasn’t.” I pause for a moment, weighing my options before ultimately deciding that if I’ve already been exposed today, I might as well continue. I look away before saying, “I was just remembering all of the times my mom and I would star gaze together - both here and back in the Northern Watertribe. But, maybe it’s just today’s events, but I can’t seem to think about anything other than the…less savory memories.”

Thankfully, Levi isn’t the type to pry. But, he does know how to get someone’s mind off of the bad things. “W-what did your m-mom look like?”

This draws my attention back to him and I mentally curse myself for thinking he looks particularly handsome in the moonlight. I force myself to look back up at the sky and I smile in recollection. “I was always told that I was a carbon copy of her. Same complexion, same features. Her laugh wasn’t as abrasive as mine but we had the same eyes. It’s kind of nice, actually. When I really look in the mirror, which, albeit, I don’t do very often, I really see a lot of her in my appearance as an adult. Our smiles were the most similar though.”

“Sh-sh-she sounds…b-beautiful,” Levi’s voice is barely a whisper.

My heart jumps into my throat at the implication of what he just said. I have to swallow hard before I can speak again, and even then my voice isn’t any louder than his was. “She was.”

We hold eye contact for an eternity before he breaks to look at the sky again. I do the same and my thoughts immediately return to her smile. I shiver a little at the memory and Levi takes that as my being cold so, like so many times before, he moves to sit next to me and drape his jacket over my shoulders. I hold it across my chest and, in a moment of vulnerability, scoot myself tight up against his side craving the comfort of contact. He stiffens momentarily before almost melting into it, even going so far as to put his hand on my shoulder to pull me in closer, clearly sensing that I need the comfort despite how much I might deny it.

“My last memory of my mom is of her smiling, actually.” I chuckle humorlessly. “I think that’s why I avoided smiling for the first few years after everything happened,” I trail off.

“What do you mean?” Levi probes.

I sigh sadly. “When the Fire Nation attacked, my mom and I were the only benders. I was ten, so obviously she didn’t let me fight. She was taking on multiple soldiers at once as she was screaming at me to run. I was frozen for a minute, but it seemed like time stopped and she turned and smiled at me, a big, genuine smile, and told me she’d take care of it. To this day, I don’t know how she managed to smile like that when I’m pretty sure she knew she was about to die. I took off running into the woods. I was amazed that I didn’t hear anyone following me. At the time I thought it was just that they figured a child wasn’t worth it to chase down. When I came back a week later, I found her in the same spot she was in when I left, but…I also found the rest of the village. At the edge of the woods, I found 29 people with their arms still linked. The Fire Nation didn’t follow me not because they didn’t try but because my entire village prevented them from following. That’s also why I never searched for any survivors afterwards, I knew there wouldn’t be any because the village only had 31 people counting my mom and I.”

Levi’s only response is to pull me closer, squeezing me so tightly that it would’ve almost hurt if it weren’t so damn comforting.

Quietly, I say, “I’ve never told anyone that…Thanks for listening.”

I feel his body shake as he nods and I snort a little laugh. “You seem to bring out all of the stories I’ve never talked about before.”

He stiffens again momentarily and I take the opportunity to stretch before returning to my position tucked against him. It’s at this point that I realize just how much of a problem my budding feelings for him are, but I can’t force myself to leave the comfort of being close to him despite my better judgement.

I giggle a little to myself, prompting him to look at me quizzically.

“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about how this has been a rather unexpected distraction from the whole Avatar thing.”

“Why are you so bothered by that? Isn’t it a good thing?” He asks.

“That’s kind of the problem. I’m not a good enough person to be the Avatar,” I state.

He seems taken aback by this. “How do you figure?”

“Well, after losing my village, I was just a ten year old kid on my own in the wilderness. I had to steal and do other…very bad things for a long time. I was so angry that I didn’t see a problem with it until I got a little older and my grief wasn’t all-consuming anymore. The Avatar shouldn’t be someone that’s a criminal,” I say almost angrily with a hint of saddness.

“I ran a crime ring in the Underground,” Levi says plainly.

I turn to look at him with furrowed brows.

“I did bad shit. Stealing. Murder. You name it. I was a bad guy, but that’s what I had to do to survive. You were just surviving.”

I grunt in agreement, thankful for the gesture but not fully buying it. “I suppose.”

“How bad could it be?” Clearly, Levi wasn’t buying my dismissal.

“Irredeamable,” I say resolutely.

Levi shifts to make me look at him, but I can’t hold his eyes. Gently, he says, “I have a h-hard time believing that, given the version of you I know n-n-now.”

I shake my head. “Once I grew some morals and realized just how bad of a person I had been, I vowed to spend the rest of my life trying to make up for what I had done.”

I was continuing to hold my cards close to my chest, but for the first time in my life I felt my resolve starting to waver.

“You don’t have to tell me, y/n. But I promise, there’s nothing that you could say to me that I haven’t done personally,” Levi whispers.

I mentally take note of how hard Levi is trying to learn about this part of my life and it feels very…validating? While it could technically be considered prying, it doesn’t feel that way. It feels like he’s genuinely trying to understand me.

I sigh and look at the ground. “I started with stealing. Until one time someone came home while I was in the middle. I panicked and killed him. Then I went on the run - well, more on the run than I already was, I guess. I started fighting for money and overhead someone after my fight negotiating a hit. Despite just being a kid I jumped in and said I could do it for half of what the other guy was asking and I could make it look like natural causes. That got me into the murder for hire business for about a year until I ran into a group of orphans, all around my age. They called themselves the “Freedom Fighters” and they basically engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Fire Nation. I liked it because it felt like I was finally getting some kind of revenge. This is when I started hiding my bending because none of the other kids were benders. Given my background I acted as their assassin for the first year or so that I was with them. When the anger finally started to ware off, it really began to dawn on me just how terrible I had been for so many years. So I still acted in their assassin capacity, but I stopped killing them. This is also when I stopped bending altogether. For over two years I had used my bending to do heinous things so I figured it was safer to just not bend. It took me another year or so to fully wake up to how poisoned and blood-thirsty the Freedom Fighters were overall, especially their leader, Jet. So, one night I left and basically started over from scratch.”

Before Levi has a chance to respond, I chuckle to myself again and finish off by saying, “The Avatar is supposed to be the embodiment of peace and light. Not someone that uses their bending for personal gain or even survival. I’m the wrong person, the universe chose wrong.”

Levi takes a long pause. “I-I-I’m not great with words…but the y/n I know seems like the right choice to me.”

I raise my eyes to meet Levi’s and for a moment the air between us feels like it’s charged with electricity. “Thank you,” I breathe out before forcing my gaze away. “But that’s just because you only know this version of me.”

I give Levi a half-hearted smile and sideways glance before I qualify what I’m saying. “Sorry, I know I’m being difficult. I really do appreciate you saying that, it…well, it means a lot coming from you.”

For the first time, I notice his breath catch and I realize that Katara and Suki may know exactly what they’re talking about. I catch myself glancing at his lips and, emboldened by the intimacy, I lean in slowly. Unexpectedly, Levi breaks my eyecontact and looks in the other direction.

Well damn, I guess I read THAT all wrong…

“Y-y-you should…probably get some s-s-sleep,” Levi says almost imperceptibly.

I scoff a little, trying my best to brush off my embarrassment. “I think the pot just called the kettle black.”

He snorts at me but doesn’t otherwise acknowledge that I said anything. Standing up slowly, Levi faces away from me as he whispers “Goodnight, y/n,” and walks away before I have a chance to respond.

Alone again, I sigh and lay my face in my hands. “Goodnight, Levi,” I say to myself, defeated.

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