felt like letting mike and steve work through some shit again
cw: descriptions and imagery of them being lost and self-sacrificing, left alone with trauma they have no means to work through, could read as suicidal tendencies or intrusive thoughts
🤍 also on ao3
“What do you want?” Mike asks when Steve sits down beside him, gravel crunching, their feet dangling over the dark and endless abyss that is the quarry at night.
Steve doesn’t answer right away, doesn’t really know what to say now that he’s here, now that he found him. He looks so small, now more than ever, and it reminds Steve so painfully that he’s still just a child. He was always just a child, and children shouldn’t—
It feels like they got their rights at a childhood revoked years ago, and then they were just… supposed to be okay with it. It was expected, it was implied when nobody came to talk to them after.
When all they got was one NDA after another. When none of the professionally trained adults took one look at the children that they were, and asked, Are you okay? What do you need to be okay? I will talk to you once a week and make sure you learn how to be okay again.
Steve feels like a big brother to most of the kids now, sure, but he’s not their shrink, and he sucks when it comes to actually talking about shit. He can be there to drive them anywhere, can provide an evening of distractions and as much of a sanctuary as a house as haunted as his can be.
With everything else, though, he’s helplessly lost. So he says nothing, weighs his words to make sure they come out right — especially for Mike, who’s always just waiting for him to say something wrong and throw it back in his face with the sunny disposition of a feral, rabid cat.
“Hey,” Mike says then, irritated again; but his voice is hoarse, too. Tired. No heat behind it after that stupid fight with Dustin and Lucas earlier tonight that made him snap and leave Steve’s house in a frenzy. “I said, What do you want?”
Steve shrugs, looking ahead into the darkness that feels endless and alluring and deeply terrifying.
I miss my friend! My best friend, Mike!
“Making sure you’re okay.”
You’ve changed, you know that? You’re not the guy who would jump off a cliff for me anymore, I don’t think I even know you anymore!
Dustin’s voice echoes in Steve’s mind as it undoubtedly does in Mike’s, too, and he can only imagine how much that hurts, especially if he’s shivering like that even though the night is warm for early September.
“I’m okay,” Mike says, sounding endlessly annoyed about the fact. Steve almost huffs out a humourless laugh. Yeah, right.
“Sure you are,” Steve says, keeping his tone carefully neutral.
He shrugs off his jacket and drapes it over Mike’s shoulders without a comment, half-expecting him to just throw it into the darkness below. But Mike doesn’t move, is eerily still beside him, pretending not to notice that Steve’s watching him.
“But you know it’s, like,” he starts again and trails off, looking for the right words because this is unfamiliar terrain and the ground beneath his feet is quite literally nonexistent. “It’s fine if you’re not, right? It’s actually really fucking normal to be more than a little fucked up after everything, all that crazy shit. Or just… in general.”
You were twelve, he wants to say. You were twelve and you jumped off from here. You were twelve and you were going to die. And not because of those monsters, not yet. Just because… you were twelve.
Mike doesn’t say anything, but the gravel crunches once more as he reaches for a handful of stones to throw them into the darkness one by one, the void beneath them so enormous that they don’t even hear the noise of impact.
You jumped.
The longer Mike remains silent, the more Steve wants to scream, wants to grab him by the shoulders and shake him, wants to make him see and understand that Steve knows about the scars a decision like that leaves, especially when you live to deal with the consequences.
He gets seizures to deal with the consequences. His ear is fucky, his eye is twitchy, his head is aching constantly, he gets migraines that knock him out for a day or two, all because he wanted to protect his friends. All because he did protect his friends. It worked. They’re safe.
But they’re also unaware of… of everything. Of the horrible stillness as clarity dawns and all signs point to the one way that always seems to work. The one easy way out, and still the hardest of them all when the plan goes wrong and he makes it out alive. When It’s gotta be me is the only thing to say, but later turns into an angry It never should have been me because the world looks different when it’s smeared with your blood.
And it’s always the lost boys who make decisions like that. Steve wonders, some nights in cold sweat, what happens if he makes these decisions without immediate danger. What happens if he just… decides to jump. Decides to run. To give the world more of his blood. Without saving anyone.
It’s not like he wants to — but he’s terrified that it’s just who he is. Who he’s turned into, terrified that his friends will forever expect him to.
And he’s even more terrified knowing that Mike jumped before he learned about monsters. Before he learned about fighting and surviving.
You were a kid, he wants to say again, but his throat is closing up on him.
“I don’t think that’s okay actually,” Mike says after a while, tearing Steve away from his fears. They’re still both looking ahead rather than at each other, but it’s fine. They’re still here. “Like, people say it is, but it feels so empty when they do, you know? Like, sure, yeah, I’m not fucking okay, but what the hell do we do about that now? Oh, right, I know! Let’s throw it in my face that I’m not good enough for you anymore now that there’s no monsters to kill anymore. Now that I’m just Mike, who’s not even enough to be that anymore, sure. Right. Yeah. Let’s pretend it’s all fine, Steve, let’s pretend it’s okay to hurt all the fucking time!”
Mike is shaking now, violent tremors running through his body, and Steve’s first instinct is to reach out and pull him close, to keep him from that edge and take him to his car; turn on the heating and talk there. But Mike seems to need the darkness, seems to need to be faced with endless depth to give voice to his thoughts.
“What Dustin said was messed up. He shouldn’t have said that.”
Mike shrugs, throwing more pebbles into the darkness, though his motions have lost their vigour. “He’s right, though.”
Steve sighs, though not unkindly. “No, he’s not. Hey, listen to me.” He waits until Mike turns to meet his eyes, and he leans forward. “It’s not okay. It’s not right what he said. You don’t deserve to have that shit thrown in your face just because Dustin is a tactless little douche bag.”
Taking a bullet for someone is not the baseline for friendship, he wants to say, and it occurs to him once again how fucked up their perception and idea of friendship must be, now that they’ve all bonded over the most horrific shit and actual grief they never learned how to work through.
It’s not even Dustin’s fault, not really. They’re all just collateral damage to something Bigger, and all they have is each other, leaving them in a vicious cycle that is so, so fucked up.
“Why’d you jump?” he asks eventually, quiet in case the darkness tries to listen in. “Back then, why did you jump?” And do you wish El had let you? Do you sometimes wish that? When your room is quiet and it’s only you living with all those silent, terrible decisions?
Mike shrugs again, but there’s not much fight left in him, Steve can see that, can feel it in the air between them.
“Will was gone,” he says like it explains everything— and it sort of does. Steve has seen the way these boys look at each other when the other’s not looking, he has seen the hurt and the anger and the gentleness stored there, the words unspoken and the fear that, despite interdimensional monsters, kinda goes unmatched.
Because they have each other. They only have each other. And if someone’s suddenly different than what they thought they knew, if someone’s suddenly different, then… Everything might just fall apart.
And Steve wants to grab him again; wants to pull him close and say, I’m the same. We have the same scars. We have the same!
Slowly, carefully, he does lean over now, weaving an arm around Mike’s shoulders and pulling him into his side.
“I get that.”
Mike swallows heavily and exhales shakily. “I don’t think you do.”
“No. I think I really, really do. But it’s okay, Mike. You won’t be alone with this, okay. I’m on your side, you little shit.”
A pause, a beat, a moment’s respite. Then, “Why?”
“Because,” his heart is racing, his mouth trembling around forming the words for the first time, but he knows it’s the right thing to do. Knows it’s important.
Knows it might just save a life.
“Because I fell harder for Eddie Munson than I ever thought possible, and once i found out what was happening, I kind of wanted to jump off a cliff, too. But I didn’t, because I had someone with the same fears as me, and instead of stupid shit we just… Cried together sometimes. Screamed into our pillows. Laughed with and at each other, calling ourselves hopeless, and— I don’t know. It’s really fucking scary, and that doesn’t go away just because you have someone to talk to. But it‘s… better. It’s so much better.”
He huffs, swallowing around the lump in his throat, smiling into the darkness.
“So I’ve got you, okay? Whatever it is, whatever makes you feel like it’s not fucking okay, I’ve got you. You come to me, yeah? Lucas does, Dustin does, even Max does. This is your official, standing invitation and whatever, okay, dickhead?”
Mike shoves at him lightly, still not parting from the rather awkward side-hug they’ve got going on, and Steve is glad for it.
“Okay, okay, geez,” the little shithead says, rolling his eyes which Steve can see even in the dark, and it feels like the edge has moved away from them, like they have solid ground beneath their feet again.
Steve doesn’t say anything more after that, just waiting for Mike to stir to lead him back to the car, load in his bike and take him wherever he feels like spending the night.
But Mike doesn’t move for another long while, and it makes Steve feel like something big has just happened between them. Like they finally have found the common ground that Steve’s been suspecting they had for months now, even years.
Eventually, as they make their way to the car and Mike goes to grab his bike, he speaks up again, but more subdued now.
“Hey, Steve?”
“Hmm?”
“Does… Does Eddie know?”
“About what?” My tendencies to take a leap off the edge?
“You. Being…”
“Oh!” A smile as he unlocks his car and opens the back door to squeeze Mike’s old bike in there with minimal smears of dirt. “I’d hope so, we’ve been dating for months.”
“You’re dating?! You? Eddie’s dating you?”
“Yeah, listen, do you want me to just leave you here or would you rather be thrown out in the middle of nowhere?”
Mike grumbles something unintelligible as he climbs into the front seat, waiting for Steve to start the engine before he speaks up again.
“It’s just, you’re so… How did you even do that?”
Steve laughs at that, disbelieving and all, because, “Trust me, I have no idea. Must have been the ol’ Harrington charm and all that.”
Mike rolls his eyes and crosses his arms in front of his chest, sinking lower in the seats to pout. “You’re so lame.”
“Sorry, I couldn’t hear you over how much I have a boyfriend and you don’t.”
If his heart skips a beat because it still feels like a forbidden truth saying the word out loud despite the playful banter, then he’s ignoring that in favour of revving the engine.
“Asshole.”
“Dickhead.”
“Grow up,” Mike says, but Steve can see the smile he’s not even trying to hide, and he mirrors it with his own as he turns on the radio catching the final tunes of Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark.
They’re not okay, none of them. But the car is warm, the cliff’s edge is behind them, and they’re not listening to the same ten songs anymore.
They’re getting better, step by tiny step.
426 notes
·
View notes
Charlie Cox experience at Philly Fan Expo 2023
So LET”S TALK ABOUT ME MEETING CHARLIE. I’m actually going to make two posts - this one just about my experiences with Charlie, because they were incredibly meaningful and deserve their own post, and then another one about the rest of the con!
I’m going to talk about Charlie first, because of how amazing the experience was, one of the best I’ve had, especially at the autograph table. I’ve done photos, gotten autographs and such before from other celebs - from niche voice actors I loved to people like David Tennant - but this felt Really Really Big. Obviously, I was nervous as all hell because holy shit Charlie Cox, my favorite actor whose work altered the course of my life. I won’t lie - I’d been practicing what to say to him in case I freaked out, but I’m happy to say that everyone who reassured me it would go great, because he was so, so genuine and kind, were right.
The photo op happened first (and thank you to everyone on tumblr guiding me where to go, cause I was LOST about where that was happening), and that went fast. By that point in the con hall, I’d already ditched my Jessica Jones jacket and gloves cause holy shit it’s hot and I am a creature of snow and ice, and my hair was a mess, but honestly I didn’t care, cause there he is. You don’t get long, but he made the most of it and he was SO sweet. Ya’ll, he asked my name, said my name as he shook my hand, and called me ‘my dear’ in that beautiful voice.
I was literally on the moon, but it was time for the big question:
Will he hold the red thread from TRT?
So in a quiet, nervous, soft author voice, I asked, ‘would you be ok with holding this end of the thread?’
HE FUCKING DID.
HE HELD IT.
HE HELD. THE. RED. THREAD.
I’m fairly certain he doesn’t know about the fic at this point - he wasn’t sure where to hold it until I told him, but he loved that it lit up! AND THEN HE PUT HIS ARM AROUND ME AND I GOT TO PUT MY ARM AROUND HIM BACK.
I’m fairly certain I’m dead in the photo. My soul had left my body. I had ascended. I saw Jesus and he looked like Charlie. I had achieved fic author heights never imagined. My brain filled with enough serotonin and dopamine to sink a ship. I didn’t care that I was hot and sweaty or that my hair was messy or that my cosplay didn’t work out like I’d planned. I had been blessed.
also look at that forearm holy shit
I floated outta that gd room ya’ll. I’m pretty sure @wonderlandmind4 did the same. WE FROLICKED OUT OF THAT HALL LIKE
But things got even better at the autograph table, and I had one of the most touching experiences ever.
not me tearing up thinking about it.
That line was long, but I kept getting glimpses of him and I could already tell he was enjoying interacting with people, and he was making sure everyone got their bit of time with him instead of letting anyone rush people through. He was so happy looking, laughing and grinning, high fives and fist bumps for kids, chatting with fans. Which made me feel a little more confident.
I know some people wondered if I’d tell him about TRT, and I’d already decided I wasn’t going to. Instead, I really, really wanted just a second to tell him what his work as Daredevil had meant for me, as someone who became disabled around the same time Matt did as a kid, and who related to... a lot of what Matt went through in the show. I’d practiced it over and over again, and there was only a fifty percent chance I wouldn’t start crying while telling him, and I wasn’t even sure I’d have time to tell him depending on how much time we had.
He made time.
I got up to him with my art print holy shit he’s even more beautiful in person and his eyes are STUNNING. He said hi, and asked my name so he could personalize the autograph if I wanted (DUH, YES PLEASE), and he apologized about the line after we shook hands. I jokingly told him it was fine since I’d driven hours to get here. A little time in line wasn’t a bother. He even loved one of the buttons on my lanyard - the button of Matt wearing a heart crown specifically! And as he was writing, I knew this was my chance to tell him. He was still signing, so I just decided to go for it in case I ran out of time.
“I just wanted to tell you,” I said quietly, “as someone who became disabled as a kid around the same age as Matt did—”
And then he did something I didn’t expect, something I’d rarely seen anyone do, famous or not, and something I’d never had an actor or artist do for me.
He immediately set down the pen, leaned in close over the table, and made direct eye contact, while giving me the most genuine, gentle, encouraging smile I’d ever seen.
In that moment, I knew everything in him was listening, that he cared about what I was about to say and recognized that this was important to me, and that he’d closed the distance to make this conversation just... us. It felt personal in a way I’ve never experienced at a con or signing.
Just like that, I wasn’t afraid to tell him what I’d wanted to.
“And as someone who related to... a lot of what Matt went through, his struggles in the show, and especially the dark parts of season 3,” I said, more confidently now, “I wanted you to know that all the work you put in, the way you played it, the way you played Matt and treated it seriously, seeing that helped me process and heal from a lot of my own trauma and pain over what I’ve gone through with my illnesses. What you did was important and it really helped me. So I wanted you to know that, how much that meant to me, and to say thank you.”
The whole time I spoke to him, he kept direct eye contact, and didn’t look away once. He didn’t get antsy, or look like he wanted me to hurry up (which I’d have understood, cause damn, these are long days for him). He listened, fully engaged and leaning in, his eyes warm and soft and kind but incredibly serious. I’m not sure how often he’s been told something like this—a lot, I expect; his portrayal was just that good, and I know it was important to a lot of fans—but what I was trying to tell him clearly meant something to him. I felt heard, seen, and understood.
Charlie really does care about his fans. It isn’t an act. I’m sure of it now.
“Thank you, truly,” he said, just as quietly but with that honest smile, eye crinkles and all, and seeing it in person, that close up, I swear the room felt ten times brighter. “Thank you for coming to tell me that. It means a lot, the idea that something I did meant so much and that it could help you. I’m so grateful that you were able to come visit and tell me.”
We shook hands after that. He wished me a good day and I told him thank you again, and that was that. The interaction only lasted maybe a minute, but it meant the absolute world to me, as did what he’s done as Daredevil. And now he knows that.
206 notes
·
View notes
murph was so fucked up for this. reveal of all time.
Transcript:
[The sounds of a storm in the background.]
Beverly (Caldwell): What have you learned?
Murph: He sits back down at his desk. Um, and you see he pulls out an old tome, and he begins flipping through it. And he goes--
Erdan (Murph): Okay, so. Apparently, there are multiple components to the Wraith's plague. It's not just a disease. It's something-- it's something more subtle than that. When you and I talked about it you described seeing the Wraith bounce from corpse to corpse when you first fought it.
Beverly: Corpse stride, yes.
Erdan: Right. [Emily laughs.] Well, what if the creature didn't have to be dead for the Wraith to be able to possess it? What if it merely had to be… asleep, or incapacitated?
Beverly: So you're saying that… anyone that's infected could be possessed by the Wraith?
Erdan: I-- I think that's possible. And if that were the case, then someone like you could hand an infected sword to someone like me. I'd be incapacitated by the initial disease, and you could cure me of it. But then, theoretically, the Wraith could still have possessed me while I was out. Not controlling me at first, but lying dormant in my body until an opportune moment-- [Emily: Mmmm.] -- Like when you and your friends left Gladeholm. Do you hear what I'm saying, Beverly?
[The Purge begins playing.]
Murph: You see Erdan's face begins to sprout bubbling cysts. [Emily gasps] That pop thick, dark green goo.
Erdan: Someone like me would have access to the All-Caster. Someone like me would be able to cast a powerful Dominate Person spell on it, and turn the whole city against you. I know you felt guilty about endangering your friends, Beverly, but don't worry. It is they who are endangering you.
Caldwell: My sword is already at his throat.
Murph: You see three arrows fly through the window from an unseen attacker.
[Emily gasps.]
Jake: What?!
Murph: You see Cran and Derlin--
Caldwell: No!
Murph: --wielding rapiers with glazed eyes burst from a closed wardrobe [Emily gasps] and stab into you. We cut to Moonshine.
Jake: (quietly) Fuck. Fuck!
Murph: Um--
Beverly: (gasps, then yells) Fuck, guys! What the hell, I didn't do anything!
Emily: Okay, well, I gotta be hon-- I gotta be truthful to how I feel.
Moonshine (Emily): Pee Paw, I-- I've been wanting to tell you, when you taught me Counterspell? I… I acted like it was really annoying and I didn't wanna learn it, and I just keep regretting that I didn't live in that moment a little more.
Murph: Uh, you see he puts his hand on your shoulder, and he goes--
Lucanus (Murph): My daughter, I'm glad that you're embracing this side of yourself.
Moonshine: Thank you.
Lucanus: You know, your mother and I have been talking about you a lot.
Murph: Um, and you see he opens the doors to his quarters, um, and you see Mee Maw is in the center of the room.
Moonshine: Mee Maw, this is also so wonderful because I've been wanting to talk to you, because, I've… been getting stronger, and I think I-- you know the druid change, where you suddenly live super long?
Mee Maw (Murph): Oh.
Moonshine: And I just-- it just feels really complicated. It's just really nice to have my mom and dad around right now.
Mee Maw: Well it's so nice to have you around, Moonshine.
Moonshine: Yeah.
Mee Maw: Tell me, do you know the Shapechange spell yet?
Murph: And you see she sticks out her tongue, and it appears forked. [Hisses] Then, the rest of her body turns into a giant snake.
Moonshine: Um, actually I did just learn it, Mee Maw. I-- I could probly change into that too, if I wanted. [Laughs nervously] I didn't know you knew--
Lucanus: That won't be necessary. Freeze, right where you are.
Murph: You see Lucanus holds his hand up and shoots a 9th level Cone of Cold at you.
[Emily laughs in shock.]
Murph: We cut over to--
Caldwell: Augh.
Murph: Hardwon.
Caldwell: Hey man, it's been a while since I said this, but fuck you!
[Murph laughs. So does Jake.]
Emily: (yelling) Oh my god! I like, literally was like-- I literally was like, "oh, like, I can't wait to see Lucanus and Mee Maw again," and that shit happened with Beverly, but I was like "well, gotta be truthful to exactly what Moonshine would want to have said to them!”
Caldwell: Anyway, I'm excited for this Ol' Cobb reunion!
Murph: Hardwon. You follow Cobb back, he's kinda shooting the shit. Um, he takes you to the house that Cobb was sharing with Red and Gunther and Egwene and stuff. And he takes you into the house, and you see that Jaina and Maw Maw are there waiting for you.
Jake: Aw, fuck off.
[Caldwell laughs.]
Jake: I-- I bend the knee to Maw Maw.
[Murph laughs.]
Maw Maw (Murph): Welcome home, my champion.
Hardwon (Jake): My queen. My sister. And my best friend. What could be better?
[Murph and Emily laugh.]
Murph: Uh, you see Ol' Cobb walks over, and he pulls out a long case, and he goes--
Cobb (Murph): I got somethin' for you here, brother.
Hardwon: For me? Cobb! You shouldn't have, uh-- but shit, I got you--
Jake: I pat my pockets.
Hardwon: --I also got you a gift. Uh, you go first.
Cobb: Alright. I got you… a belly fulla lead.
Murph: You see he opens it up, pulls out a blunderbuss, and blasts you in the stomach
Caldwell: Fuck.
Murph: As Maw Maw goes for your neck and Jaina swings her hammer. Everybody roll initiative.
Jake: Okay. Fuck this.
[Caldwell laughs.]
Emily: Owh….
[A dice rolls.]
50 notes
·
View notes