#i assume someone else is talking about them now yeah? do you have the link to that?

[mymarifae]

you were right about vsa-pieldepapel. they admitted on the kriselle discord to drawing porn of the deltarune kids for 4chan, a 15 year old in chat said they'd seen it, and vsa was only worried about making sure "tumblrinas" didn't find out. not that a minor had seen it.

ohbmy god WHAT i haven't heard that name in a hot second and didn't think i would ever again WHATTTTTTTT

context: vsa-pieldepapel is a user i namedropped in a post i made like... months ago idfk but i was talking about how fucking bullshit it is when people get asked "hey are you a proshipper?" and respond with like, "i don't want to answer this question because no matter what i say i'll get harassed. this doesn't affect how you should view me or my art" like ... yes it quite literally does. and the only people that would harass you for Not being proship are pedophiles do you really care what they think about you. at the end of the day it's just code for "yes and i actively make and/or consume disgusting content but don't want to get #cancelled so i'm going to be vague and hope no one catches onto this"

i namedropped vsa because i saw them saying exactly that ^

idr why i was on their blog long enough to catch that - i think i might have been trying to figure out the same thing abadbdbsjfjjfk because their art of the kids is... it has bad vibes. why are you as a 24 year old creating suggestive art of teenagers. what's going on here

among other things they have made some very strange insinuations about kris being nonbinary like, because they're autistic-coded they're not really nonbinary they're just nonconformative and when they grow up they'll no longer be nonbinary. (???????) also they talk a lot about kris's "agab" and it's like why are you thinking about this so much why why WHY does it matter SHUT UP. i could not be arsed to summarize it coherently atm but they had a lot of strange things to say about autism in general like ok we get it... your internalized ableism is insane. stop projecting it onto everyone who tries to ask you about your autism headcanons

idk. basically i had already determined they were a fuckin' weirdo who only cares about not being publicly "proship" or what the fuck ever to maintain their follower count not because they have morals SOOOOOOO not particularly surprised. figured they were drawing worse things in private. but still

[kaziwi]

Heyyy, congratulations for the 100 followers 😍😍

I would like to ask for number 8 with Zoro, if that's okay. Thank you!!

Ugh i love Zoro sm, I hope you enjoy!!!

Link to Event

"I'll just stay behind."

Character(s): Zoro

WC: 727

CW: Sick fic, Zoro being a sweetie

It was cold....but also hot.....you wished your body would make up its mind already. Of course you were the first one on the ship to get the common Grandline Flu this year. But in all honestly you didn't mind being sick, the only issue was your crewmates avoiding you like the plague. Sickness spread easily on the ship, so no one wanted to take any chances. The only one who ever spent long periods of time with you in the infirmary was Chopper, who kept his distance and wore a mask to avoid getting sick. Other than him and Sanji dropping off your meals, you really didn't have any other company.

You didn't blame them, I mean you would do the same in their position, but thinking that didn't make you feel any better. Chopper said they all missed you dearly, but you wished you could hear it from then.

The Sunny had docked at an island earlier that morning, and now it was time for everyone to split up and stock up on supplies. The only issue was who was going to stay with you. Chopper had to run out and grab a few herbs only he could identify, so someone else would have to stay. Luckily for you, they were discussing this right in front of the thin infirmary door, so you could hear everything.

"I wish I could stay with Y/N swan, but I have to restock on food," Sanji said, dramatic sadness in his voice.

"Well I don't want to stay here!! I really don't want to get sick," Usopp pleaded.

"I thought the great captain Usopp didn't get sick?" Nami snickered at him as he rambled on to defend himself.

"I need to get cola so I can start some SUPERR repairs on the Sunny!!"

Everyone fought over who would stay, making you feel kinda sad. They really didn't want to stay with you?? Maybe you were a bit of a burden. Just before you could continue your negative thoughts, a voice caught your eye.

"I'll just stay behind."

The commotion stopped and you assumed everyone turned and stared at Zoro, but the shock didn't last long.

"Thanks Zoro-bro!"

"Yeah, thanks Zoro!!"

"Zoro!! Let me run you through what Y/N needs!!"

You couldn't help but laugh at Chopper's explanations, knowing Zoro wouldn't remember any of it. Slowly the commotion died down, and after a little Zoro entered your room.

"I'm assuming everyone else left?" You asked, not wanting to let him know you heard everything.

"Yeah, they won't be long, just restocking," Zoro said as he took Chopper's doctor chair and rolled it towards the side of the bed, sitting next to you. You then noticed that he wasn't wearing a mask, nor was he afraid to get close to you.

"Why aren't you wearing a mask? Aren't you afraid of catching what I have?"

"Eh, not really. I mean its a small ship, we're all gonna catch it eventually, so might as well catch it early."

You chuckled a little at his response...but you wondered why he of all people chose to stay behind...

"So...why did you stay behind? I mean, I'm assuming everyone else didn't want to cause they don't want to catch it...but why did you?" You asked after a bit of silence. He looked off to the side, and as he cleared his throat you swore you saw his cheeks turn red.

"Well...uh.." Zoro fumbled with his words a bit, which he never did, EVER, "I just didn't want you to be lonely...I know how annoying it can be stuck in the infirmary, and especially being sick and if someone else stayed they would keep their distance. And like I said I don't really care about getting sick so I didn't think there was any harm in staying."

It was cute, watching him ramble on, trying to give you a convincing explanation on while he volunteered to stay.

"Well thank you," you said, cutting him off, "It was a very nice gesture."

He almost looked like a tomato, his face turning red. You both talked for hours until everyone else came back. You were better in a few days, but that same day Zoro started showing symptoms. While everyone else again avoided Zoro, you stayed by his side, making sure his kindness was repaid.

[nogenderbee]

♡˗ˏ✎*ೃ˚ 𝔹𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕙𝕒𝕥𝕖 & 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕥 ₊˚ˑ༄

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ @stellas-starry-stove13 request: FIRSTTIME IV EVER SEENREQS OPen

Okayhow about pjsk boys with shyand pushoved blind reader who gets bullied and always says its not a big deal but the. when time they find themcrying in (char's) sekai cuz of the bullies and pressure from like her family? Like, imagine her family pressures her to beas good as like her sivlings who arent blind?? Like, even though shes blind, they treat her and expect her to act as if she isnt?????? Fem! reader plz!

link

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ OMG HIIIII! So happy to see you here!

Anyway, somehow, I really enjoyed writing it ^^ As for genshin boys, I used opera in Lyney's part and beach in Freminet's~ Hopefully that's still fine! Aaaand I hope you like it!!

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ fluff

✧ Akito was probably going all around school, trying to find you panically, he didn't even care if you went to Miyamasuzaka, he HAD to find you, especially when he knows your disability and gentle heart

✧ it was probably when he heard your bullies laughing that you couldn't even run away properly... and something just switched in him...

✧ it's easy to say, he doesn't care if your bullies are boys or girls, he'll give them a little lesson anyway. But I'd they're girls, he'll go a bit lighter, not breaking their noses but just giving few bruises... They can do that to you, so why he can't?!

✧ after he deals with that, he asks Kohane/An to look for you around the school you go to and call him if they find you, while he goes look for you anywhere else

✧ his first thought would be to scan area around the school but when he doesn't find you there, he goes to your SEKAI and either Miku immidietly tells him where you are or he finds you himself

"Hey, hey, don't worry, it's me, yeah? Why didn't you tell me someone was giving you a hard time? I could give them a lesson or keep you company.. or ask someone I know to do that."

✧ he'll most likely hold you closely, trying his best to comfort you, letting his soft personality slip a bit

✧ and you bet either he won't take his eyes off you at school for even a second or you'll see Kohane or any of her friends every break, checking on you

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@bleachtheidiot @akitosheart @yulikesminori @toyaswif3y @miya-akane @hayillaaaaaaa @stellas-starry-stove13 - come get your pancakes lover!

✧ Rui always was a bit worried about you, don't get him wrong... he trusted your abilities and experience but he couldn't help but still be worried whenever he left

✧ he obviously tried always being around you or taking you with him whenever he could, but it's obvious he can't be there forever

✧ he probably assumed you could have some problems around your peers, so he tried observing closely but never could find evidence

✧ untill today when he clearly saw you running away to the nearest quiet spot you remembered

✧ he didn't wanted you to break under criticism so he of course intervened by having quick talk with your bullies, he won't throw fists but he might sneak in few problematic robots that'll get them into suspension~

✧ but coming back to you! He immidietly went to look for you, and when he saw you nowhere despite you just running in that direction, he immidietly knew to take a peek in your SEKAI

✧ he knows you well, so he trusts his intuition and current knowledge to lead him to the right place

"There you are! Sh sh sh sh... It's fine.. I promise they won't bother you again. I'll be right next to you from now on, okey?"

✧ he's very worries and you can tell that by his voice and by the way his hands are always holding yours or embracing you gently

✧ and most importantly, you can tell he's sincere when he promises you he won't let you walk alone through corridors ever again, even if you're from Miyamasuzaka, he'll get Emu or some of his robots to keep you company

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@bleachtheidiot @akitosheart @yulikesminori @toyaswif3y @bl4cktourmaline @r4wrclwz @superstar-ethereal @stellas-starry-stove13 @alicewinterway18 - come get your crazy inventor!

✧ gossips always reach House of the Hearth quickly, and Lyney as a magician gets to hear them not only from there but also among his audience, so you could only imagine how quickly he abandoned his street performance the moment he heard about someone joking about your disability

✧ he didn't had time to look for who it was exactly but thanks to few gossips, he got few hints onto where you could be hiding at the moment

✧ he ran so fast to the opera, poor Lynette had to deal with shocked audience all by herself... he bought her favorite sweets and apologized later tho so she forgave him

✧ he on the other hand, couldn't even express how much he panicked, but you could probably hear it by the way his voice shaked upon yelling your name when he finally noticed you and how out of breath he was

"Y/N!!! Here you are... What happened? Who was it? Please tell me everything... I just want to make sure you'll be safe and sound without me..."

✧ let's just say... you never hear the people who upset you again... and even if you do, they never dare to even come close to you for some reason

✧ he's probably gonna watch over you more cautiously and spend some more time around you after that situation but doesn't want you to see it got to him so much or to upset you so soon, he's back to normal

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@bleachtheidiot @stellas-starry-stove13 - come get your charming magician~

✧ Freminet probably heard about it from one of his siblings who rushed to tell him about your situation or overheard some gossips on his stroll in city

✧ either way, he just takes Pers with him and runs around to try and find you, that's how he ends up knowing you were bullied, and what's worst.. not for the first time...

✧ knowing one place that you could've went to for comfort, he immidietly runs there, leaving small investigation for later

✧ he doesn't yell your name tho, instead he just keeps keen eye on his surroundings and finally he finds you just sitting on a beach with your head in your knees

"Y/N? I.. heard what happened. Can you tell me about it? I really want to help... or at least be here for you.."

✧ he'll place Pers on your lap and caress your arm in hopes to comfort you a little, as he listens to every word you decide to share with him

✧ if you decide to tell him who it was, you can be sure he'll do what he can so they won't bother you again.. and as a member of House of Hearth, it's not gonna be as hard

✧ but he keeps quiet about it and instead follows you to many places for few weeks out of worry about you. But he will stop if you tell him or if he notices it's bothering you

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@bleachtheidiot @miya-akane @stellas-starry-stove13 - come get your shy diver~

[dnalt-d2]

Christ alive can anyone get a break right now??

(Ahem)

Update time, once again!

Also once again, it is a mixed bag

So to start off with, as most everyone knows, Pomme and Dapper's admins have resigned from their positions. This is incredibly unfortunate, and I honestly don't know what it's gonna mean for the French Creators who said they wouldn't stay on QSMP if Pomme's Admin was fired. Since she technically left of her own volition, I really don't know what they're gonna do

(Edit: I talk about Quackity's stream here but I don't speak Spanish so I can't personally say what was said exactly. Thankfully, it looks like someone JUST POSTED an English Translation so I'm just gonna drop the link here for anyone who wants to read it)

On another note: Quackity has finally given a slight update. For obvious reasons, he can't say anything specific, and I wouldn't have expected him to. But according to the translations I've seen so far, basically said that he can't update because the leaks that happened are creating added complications in the restructuring process. I'm assuming his reason for that is that he simply doesn't want anymore information to be leaked out, but unfortunately, that's just counterproductive to the miscommunication problem

AND SPEAKING OF MISCOMMUNICATION???

So as you all know, I've been in support of the French Union getting involved with this. As I've stated a dozen times now, Unions are meant to be resources, people who inform employees of their rights and do what they can to help them get those rights. As far as I know, one of the main things they do is mediate between the employees and the employers. But APPARENTLY the Union has not attempted to reach out to Quackity outside of Twitter. Which REALLY isn't all that professional. Twitter is a NETWORKING site. Meant to START building connections. Afterwards, people typically move onto email or even discord, which are way better equipped for the long-form communication that's about to have to happen

So even if Quackity WAS active on Twitter, which he isn't. And even if the Union DIDN'T know that, which they do. This isn't the right route to communicate. They have stated that he "has their email" and has to "reach out to them." They are apparently working on the logic that SOMEONE would have had to pass on the information to him by this point, which isn't a fair assumption at all, considering that we know there were Admins ALREADY hiding information from him before all this

They're acting like Quackity is the CEO of a major corporation, with COUNTLESS RESOURCES on-hand. Yeah he's the CEO of this business, but he's also a 23-year-old Twitch Streamer who in all likelihood is learning a LOT about running a business for the first time AS WE SPEAK. I'll tell you right now, when I was 23, I didn't know jack-shit, and I'd still say I don't most of the time. And the only reason I LEARNED jack-shit was because someone would actually TELL me about it. When someone makes mistakes, it REALLY helps them learn when someone is able to not just point out the mistake, but also HOW to fix it. I don't know how they're expecting him to grow from his miscommunication mistakes when they aren't willing to give him the chance to

And yes, there are MANY problems that need to be fixed, as I've said before. But Quackity did outright confirm some of the other things I've said too. That things ARE happening, and we aren't hearing about it. That we aren't GOING to hear about it. Which is fine. It makes sense. We aren't the people who need to know every step of the process. But he is going to have to figure out a better system for talking to the Admins. It's a real problem when he's communicating with people like Aypierre that Pomme's Admin has her job still, but didn't tell the Admin herself

There's still lots of problems, and I know it sounds like I'm just repeating myself, saying to wait and see, but in reality, there isn't much else we CAN do besides that and voice our support

This might be the last time I make a post on this for a bit, because this has been a little draining on me. Which I would normally be able to handle SUPER easy, I'm pretty good at handling stuff like this well enough. But now I've also got real-life stuff reminding me that no matter how much better things SEEM to be getting for me, something's gonna come smack me in the back of the head to remind me that actually things suck, and I just should've known better! And unfortunately that stuff requires my focus more than this. I'll still be here, watching everything, maybe commenting on stuff, but I might not be quite as vocal as I have been

Once again, I remind you all, take care of yourselves first and foremost. Whether it's physical, emotional, or mental, or whatever else. You matter more than the events taking place here right now. My support goes out to all of you, as well as the Admins who VERY WELL COULD BE SEEING THIS APPARENTLY. So I guess this message goes out to them as well lol. You guys rock and I've enjoyed all the contributions you've made

Anyways, see you all later

[olderthannetfic]

My experiences with DreamWidth fandom spaces are the same as my experiences with DreamWidth RP: a lot of people talk about wanting more people to post, missing the old days, and disliking fandom puritanism, but don't interact with others much and, when someone disagrees with them, decide that this is the end of the world. I've seen people in DWRP angry at other people for disagreements from up to 12 years ago. I've seen people in DW fandom spaces vaguepost about specific people they're mad at for disagreeing with them from up to 8 years ago. Neither reaction makes me go, "Ah, yes, this is where I want to hang out", because I just don't fucking care. When someone confronts me about traumatizing them because I said I didn't find X character as engaging as Y or I think it's possible Character A is bi and not gay/lesbian default and it's been 5 years, my first thought is almost always, "I'm sorry, who?" and not, "OMG I feel so bad let me apologize for this!" Not apologizing doesn't go over well, so it's off to gossip to their friends in DMs and on other sites about how someone else totally said this, that and the other thing too and it was super mean.

IDK, maybe I'm just old (I did just turn 30) but I look at this kind of drama and all I can think is, "I don't care and I don't have the energy to engage with this." It doesn't help that I meet people on DW who are self-identified fandom olds (usually that means they're 40-ish) who complain about yaoi fangirls/"fujoshits" and call female characters who've had multiple sexual partners "cockhops" and assume anyone writing f/f is a "neckbeard". This is still less sensitive than antis are, but there's still a lot of moralizing things you don't like and reading into what someone writes in order to judge them as a person.

Between that and the very low level of overall engagement it kind of feels not worth it? I'm not seeing what the benefit is. Making fandom friends is fairly difficult on DW and when you do, losing them is as easy as not having seen something, not liking a pairing or not caring about something (contentious canons, especially). I'm sure someone's having a great time but to me it's sort of like shouting into the void, except sometimes the void calls you a fujoshit neckbeard and never elaborates on how that'd work.

--

DW's moment as a potential community hub has come and gone, in my opinion. Now, it's just the people who can't hack it on other platforms plus some legacy uses that DW is good for that other sites aren't.

I did make more of an effort to make fetch happen in the past, but it became apparent that a lot of the people who are primarily on DW are not people I want to make that effort for. I've got a couple of old friends still hanging out there because they like very text-based internet stuff, and good for them, but overall... yeah... the vibe just isn't that great a lot of the time.

I used to advocate getting a DW just to have a place to link your other social media in case your tumblr is suddenly deleted due to mysterious tumblr enforcement shenanigans... but honestly, I could probably use my AO3 profile for that just as well.

I'm glad DW is still around, and I hope it continues to be. I don't regret my seed account. But it's just not something I use actively in the 2020s.

[stemwriter]

Pursuit of Knowledge - Chapter 4

Summary:

[Y/N] continues Act II of Mondstadt, finds out the worst thing about not having the ability to control time at will, and, along with Kaeya, takes a well deserved rest. What's something else that happens in Act II?

That's right! The Diluc trial run. Still, even that should be "normal", right?

Completion of story recommended: Akasha Pulses, the Kalpa Flame Rises (Sumeru Act V), Shenanigans and Sweet Wine (Kaeya hangout)

Also on Ao3 under StemWriter!

Word count: ~8k

You were part of the story now, weren’t you? No matter if the world your avatar was in was made from earth and sky or 1’s and 0’s, you were influencing it regardless. At this point, it’d probably be best to just go with the flow, but you had been thinking about what major event you would want to change, and you really hoped everything would stick to the script long enough to enable you to do that. Even if it meant you would end up upsetting people by hiding things from them.

The four of you hung around in the tavern for a bit just thinking, until Venti finally said to you, “Ah, [Y/N], it should be getting close to time now. Shall we get going?”

You looked at your phone to see the time. It was about 15 minutes past 6pm. It was time. “Oh- right, yeah, we should!”

“You two have somewhere to be? Since Kaeya and I have nothing more to talk about up here, I suppose I can go do other things. If you need me, I’ll be working the bar for a while.” Diluc said, crossing his arms.

“Everyone’s leaving already? Well then, I’ll be taking my leave as well.” Kaeya said, heading towards the stairwell.

He hung around for a second, seemingly expecting someone to say something, then left.

“Come on [Y/N], let’s go! Our prize is waiting for us!” Venti tried to make it sound like you weren’t about to try to steal a divine artifact, and become wanted criminals. 

Oh right, you were going to see Diluc again after this! You should probably give him a little hint on what’s going to happen.

“Alright, we’re going to go now.” You walked up to Diluc, and began whispering. “Hey Diluc,” He looked at you. “I promise it wasn’t us, it was the Fatui.”

He looked at you in confusion.

“You’ll get that later. Anyway, bye~” Your tone sounded a lot like Venti’s at the end there. You sighed internally when you thought about that.

------------------------------------------------------------

“Alright fortune-teller, what’s going to happen?” Venti asked, eager to get a response from you. For some reason, it almost seemed like he already knew, and was just asking you to see what you’d say.

“Well… We’re not going to get arrested, I can tell you that. At least, not if we do this right.” You didn’t want to tell him it wouldn’t work.

“Is that all you can tell me?” He whined. “Fine, let’s go in.” He pouted after saying that. “But you have to tell me more later! I want to see how much you know!”

You went back in the Cathedral with him, making sure to be quiet. He stayed behind while you snuck your way to the Holy Lyre. You made sure to be very careful there, assuming the guards were actual people, and not the dumbest A.I. you’ve ever seen in any modern game. You looked at their movements on your way in, and they… still seemed robotic. Were they still AI? They can’t be, right? You looked at the face of one of the guards, and while his face had a few more polygons than the NPC’s you saw in the regular game, he had a blank stare as he paced back and forth. That’s… something to think about later. You kept going through the basement, avoiding being seen.

During your attempt at burglary, you remembered your soundboard. You hadn’t used that in a bit, and you knew a good moment to use it again is coming up. You got that ready as you made your way through.

As you entered the room with the lyre, an Electro Cicin Mage steals it, and teleports out. Wow! What a surprise! Thankfully, you just got teleported out of the building too, because you weren’t sure you could go back through the basement without getting caught.

“We’re busted! Run!” You and Paimon said at the same time.

Venti looked a bit confused for a second before leaving with you to the tavern. You made sure your soundboard was ready.

*Benny Hill theme*

The goofy music was fitting, considering the wind tunnel things you assumed he made threw you into the huge statue in the middle of the plaza, as well as the roofs of several buildings. Your grand escape wasn’t very graceful, but you made it safely. As you busted into the tavern, Venti gave you a weird look.

Next thing you knew, you were talking with Diluc again. Right before you headed upstairs, you decided to remind him of what you’d said earlier about the Fatui. In the version you remembered, he trusted the Traveler enough to not turn them in, but you still wanted to make sure he didn’t turn you in here. You listened as two Knights rushed in.

“Ah, Master Diluc. Have you seen two thieves around?”

“...What happened?”

“Haven't you heard, Master Diluc? Two thieves were trying to steal the Holy Lyre!”

“Oh? How odd… any ideas on who the culprits could be? Fatui, perhaps?” He remembered. Yes!

“We don’t know, Master Diluc. One appeared young, was dark-haired, and dressed in a teal green, and the other was… blond. We’re putting up wanted posters now.” 

You still didn’t know how they got so much from Venti and yet couldn’t describe Aether as anything else as “blond”.

“I believe they headed that way.” Diluc said, pointing out the door.

You went downstairs to talk to him, Venti running ahead of you. Diluc already seemed tired of Venti’s attitude, assuming he stole something. Not the Holy Lyre der Himmel, but a bottle of alcohol.

You forgot the Traveler and Paimon hadn’t met Diluc yet. Sure, you have, but they weren’t you. Thankfully, Diluc understood enough to where a quick “Ooohhh, right, they haven’t met you yet!” was enough to get the point across. He continued as you remembered, sneaking in an expected bash at the Knights at the end.

Diluc really didn’t like the Knights, huh? You understood that he felt that way because of trauma and stuff, but you wished he had a more… positive attitude about things like that. There weren’t any therapists in Teyvat, were there? Oh! New idea! Become the therapist. Were you qualified? Probably not. But at this point, anyone for these people to talk to would help. You sat back and listened to Venti’s stunning performance again, this time without the fancy cutscene to go with it. Diluc looked awe-struck, probably the same way you did when you first heard it.

You agreed to meet after midnight, when the tavern was closed. Great! Another six hours to wait! …That rhymed, didn’t it.

“Alright, I don’t really have anything to do, so I’ll probably just eat something and take a nap. Bye, see you later!” You said to them, leaving the tavern. You found a corner to log off, and left your bedroom to go “take care” of yourself. 

Your eyes hurt a bit from looking at the screen for so long, and your stomach growled with hunger. You’d been online for a good 7 hours, and you only now realized just how much you needed a break. Well, time flies fast when you’re having fun! ‘Was all of that really fun though?’ You asked yourself, before immediately pushing that thought out of your mind to go eat a whole family-sized bag of potato chips. Self care!

You snacked before… gracefully falling asleep, yeah, that, on your couch for a nap that would end up lasting way longer than you anticipated. 

--------------------------------------------------------

As it turns out, falling asleep on an uncomfortable couch after binging on junk food isn't the best for the human body. You woke up on the floor, nauseous, and somehow even more tired than when you fell asleep, and you decided to go in the bathroom just in case. You checked the time on your phone, and it was already close to midnight. Thankfully, the nauseousness went away and you didn’t have to get worried about getting sick at the worst time possible. You washed your face, and headed to your bedroom to meet the others in the tavern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before [Y/N] had left with Venti, they said something that Diluc had no clue what it meant until those Knights came running in, looking for the thief who stole the Holy Lyre. He had chosen to believe [Y/N] when they said they could basically see the future, and this only proved it more. 

The question was no longer if they were telling the truth or not. It was how to proceed. He had some time to spare while they waited until the tavern closed. He needed to investigate this on his own. “It was the Fatui”, [Y/N] said. If that was so, then he should start where all the Fatui in the city seem to stay. He headed to the Goth Grand Hotel, preparing for a search for answers.

He hadn’t seen Kaeya at all. He was normally still out and about at this time. Did he actually wrap things up at a decent hour? Or was he up to something?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as Kaeya left the third floor of the tavern, he was hit with a wave of exhaustion. He was planning to stay in the tavern for a bit, and possibly wait for [Y/N] and Venti to do whatever they needed to, but he desperately needed rest. He left the tavern, beginning to walk to his room in the Favonius Headquarters. Wait, couldn’t he use the waypoint there? [Y/N] had taught him how earlier that day.

It was at the highest point, wasn’t it? He just needed to visualize the area, imagine himself there. Just feel it, and…

And there he was. He almost fainted from the sensation paired with his exhaustion, but he made it. He glided down to the door on the roof, and entered the building. It had been a long day, hadn’t it? He entered his room, took off the bits of armor he was wearing, and promptly passed out on his bed.

--------------------------------------------------------

He woke up in the middle of the night for seemingly no reason. Everything told him that he wasn’t supposed to be up right now, but he didn’t feel like he could fall back asleep. He sat up, and realized how bad he felt. He was drenched in sweat, his hair was a mess, and his eyepatch had shifted, making his right eye visible. He quickly adjusted it. There wasn’t anyone else in the room, right? …Of course there wasn’t. 

After a quick shower, he changed into a clean uniform, minus most of the accessories. It wasn’t worth the time to put all of that on for the little he was planning to do. He figured he wouldn’t need it, since he could easily hold his own in a fight, should he get in one, but he decided to bring his Vision with him. 

He left the building, being careful not to make too much noise, and realized he had no destination in mind. Had the tavern closed yet? Ah, it probably had, it’s not worth it. Is it? Again, something told him to just forget stopping by, but it wouldn’t hurt to check, right? He planned to stop by the tavern to see if it was open, and if it was, to get a drink before leaving the city. After that? You know what they say in Mondstadt:

“Let the wind lead.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Venti couldn’t believe Master Diluc wouldn’t serve him any more alcohol, especially when he was going to be in the tavern, in a room filled with wine barrels for so long. He was alone now, so maybe he could sneak just one more sip without him noticing… But that wouldn’t prove he was trustworthy now, would it? And besides, he wasn’t that addicted to it to where he couldn’t go a few hours without it. For now, he just started to come up with his latest ballad to pass the time.

Or at least he was going to, but he just couldn’t stop thinking about [Y/N]. From the very beginning, they knew who he really was. At first he thought it was because they recognized his voice from when he helped them battle Dvalin, but they supposedly have knowledge of future events. He was wondering how much they knew, but they wouldn’t tell him much at all. It seemed like a weird way to phrase it, and they acted like they knew a lot more detail than he did, but if they really were telling the truth, were they too, aware of the s-

Venti heard Diluc open the door to the room on the third floor. He immediately looked around at the wine barrels, making sure they weren’t touched. Good thing he didn’t try anything!

“Ah, Master Diluc, you’re back! Any news on the Holy Lyre?” Venti perked up. He already knew the answer to that, but he wanted to get the conversation started.

“It’s not where I thought it may be, in the Goth Grand Hotel, but I… persuaded some Fatui members to tell me where it is.” He adjusted his left glove.

“Well then, are we only waiting for [Y/N] and the tavern to close now?” Venti asked.

“That, and I was thinking of contacting one more person to help us. I know it’s late, but hopefully she’ll understand…” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Diluc stopped by the tavern to close up and check on Venti, and quickly set out again to find some others who could help. It was getting close to time, but he should be able to get someone. Hopefully Jean wouldn’t be too preoccupied with her work…

He opened the door to leave the tavern, and saw Kaeya walking away. Had he not gone to rest? Kaeya turned around after hearing the door open, and looked at Diluc with that same smug expression as always.

“Diluc, you’re still here? And here I’d thought everyone left already… I came for a drink, but I won’t bother you if you’ve already closed up.” He started to turn back around to leave.

“Hold on. I haven’t put everything away, you can come in for a bit if you’d like.” He could help right? Even though Diluc didn’t exactly get along with him very well anymore, he couldn’t deny that he got things done when he needed to.

“Oh, where’s this hospitality coming from? Do you need something from me, is that what this is?"

“I think you’d be useful to us here. I’ll discuss it with you more inside.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Diluc said he was going to contact people to help them, but Venti didn’t expect him to be back with help this soon.

He heard two sets of footsteps coming up the stairs, and then there were three in the room. The help he had found was Kaeya, who sounded almost… shy, like he didn’t feel like he should be there. When questioned about it, he got a little nervous and insisted it was just insomnia. From the looks of it, he thought he could cover up his emotions with clean clothes and perfume. Venti played along with him, changing the subject to what they were going to do next.

“So Diluc, where exactly did you say the Holy Lyre was?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You turned on your console, opened the program, and watched the celestial pathway for a while. It had been sitting there for quite a bit now, huh?

Verifying file integrity…

Why was that taking so long? 

Almost as soon as you noticed it, it went back to its normal speed, and the doors appeared. It probably wasn’t anything to worry about, but it scared you at first. You thought your game finally realized something was wrong, and was just going to either fix itself, and sever your connection to this Teyvat, or ban your account.

If you remembered correctly, Venti, Diluc, and Jean should be waiting for you inside Angel’s Share. You knew Jean couldn’t hear you, but you wondered if she would notice your avatar’s robotic movements. Apparently, she didn’t back in the Knights headquarters, but who knows? Maybe she just wasn’t paying much attention.

You walked in to an empty tavern, but after a few seconds, Venti jumped down from the second floor, landing right in front of you. He looked around, and you made Aether jump a couple of times.

“The mysterious [Y/N] has finally returned! Ready to go? Master Diluc can tell you where we need to go. Or, perhaps you already know?” He said, smiling.

He wasn’t going to stop bringing that up until you told him every little detail, was he?

You sighed, and said “Yes, I know. It’s near Springvale, isn’t it?” 

You had basically just woken up, so your voice didn’t sound the best, but you hoped he wouldn’t notice. Diluc came down the stairs, followed by… Kaeya? Did he come instead of Jean? That wouldn’t drastically change anything, right? Wait, was that why it took so long to load? Because the story had changed? This wouldn’t drastically change anything yet, right? No. It can’t. Not yet.

Diluc looked at your avatar, and answered, “You’re right about the location. If we’re all ready to head off, we should get going.”

Venti turned to you, you, not your avatar, and questioned, “Everything alright, [Y/N]? Is there something bothering you?” Did you sound nervous when you answered him?

“Yeah, I just took a nap, and… I didn’t exactly sleep well. But that shouldn’t matter too much, let’s go.”

You briefly explained to Venti and Diluc how you were able to teleport, and that they should be able to do it too, and then you all were at Springvale in the blink of an eye. Venti acted like it was nothing new to him, while Diluc was… fascinated, to say the least. Kaeya had to explain to him that yes, that feeling of having your soul torn from your body was normal for this.

Diluc had quite a bit to say about it.

“Those waypoints are all over Teyvat… If the wrong people learned how to use them…” He looked in the direction of the hideout. “That could spell catastrophe worldwide.” 

At one point, you had noticed Kaeya had a different shirt on. Or was it the same one, just with less of the flamboyant stuff on top of it? It was nice seeing people in different outfits, instead of the exact same clothing 24/7.

As you all stood at the entrance, you thought about what was in this domain. This was the one where you had to ask a bunch of different Fatui agents where the key to a door was, right? …And it was the one with the Diluc trial, wasn’t it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Add another thing to the list of [Y/N]’s powers… Not only could they possess others at will, and suddenly make people stronger, and tell the future, but they could teleport anywhere in Teyvat they wanted to. And apparently, anyone could do that last thing. Diluc was surprised no one else had found out about this, and frankly, he was glad. There was also something else he didn’t know about yet. The other two kept looking at a spot a little above and behind [Y/N]’s avatar when they were talking to them. It felt like something was there, but he couldn’t see anything. He doubted it was a secret, since chances are, they wouldn’t be doing it in front of him if it was, but he hadn’t had a chance to ask anyone about it yet.

He was about to go in the hideout with everyone when [Y/N] gasped, and said they needed to tell him something.

“Hey,” they began. “I know I probably should have told you this earlier, but remember what my system did with Kaeya that one time? Or, I guess technically two times, but whatever- Just, that thing where it forces someone into my team?” They sounded very tired saying that. He knew they had just woken up, but he felt they were also just… annoyed by that happening.

“Yes. It happened less than a day ago. …Why are you bringing this up now?” 

“So- I- Look, there’s nothing I can do about it, at least, not now. Maybe I can eventually figure out how to fix this, but-”

He sighed. "...I’m about to be forced into your control, aren’t I? You don’t have to tip-toe around it, I guessed that as soon as you brought it up. If you can’t do anything about it, do you at least know how long this is going to take?”

He trusted them, right? As far as he was aware, they hadn’t lied to him yet, and they were warning him beforehand. Still, it felt like he barely knew them. Should he trust them with his body? Did he even have a choice?

“Give me a bit, and I can check, but it shouldn’t be more than 10 minutes.”

“You make it sound like you can check any little detail with the snap of your fingers.” 

This was a very specific event of the future they were talking about, but it would just take them a minute to check it? They’d done it before with that letter, but he had no clue how. Either that meant they were a very talented hydromancer, or they were getting their information from some other power or source.

“Oh, uh, I kind of can, except I have to do a little more than just snap my fingers. I type the thing I want into a device, I find the media I want, and then I have it. Sometimes it’s pretty hard to find said media, but I can pretty much find anything you could ever think of. Aaaand here’s the thing I was looking for! One more second…”

“You have a device that allows you to view information on anything you want? I guess that sounds about right if your world also has the technology to see the future of other worlds… I’m sure you already know of this, but we have something called astrology that allows people to see the future using the stars. Does your technology take advantage of that?”

“I’ll tell you more about the device later, but no, the technology my world has doesn’t use that. Astrology does exist here, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work the same as it does in Teyvat. People in my world use it to give people ideas of what may be yet to come in their lives, but here in Teyvat it’s like astrologers can see fate itself. …Anyway, I think we’re getting off track here. Going off of what I’ve seen, it’s going to take a little over 10 minutes, give or take. It might be a little longer because I’ll be focusing more on your safety than getting through it, or it might be a little shorter because I have others to help me now. Are you fine with that?”

So it’s not astrology… What is it, then? …Whatever. They’re right, they’re going off track. 10 minutes shouldn’t be too bad, especially with others watching over him to make sure [Y/N] doesn’t do anything harmful. It’s not like he had a choice, anyway.

“That’s… fine. Just try to get it over with quickly. It’s fine if I get a few scratches, just don’t kill me.”

“Alright, I guess we’re ready to head in. I’ll check to see if the guards in there can hear me. If not, great, but if so, I’m… gonna need to rethink things.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

…How were you going to explain to them what a phone is, and what the internet does? That’s a question for another time, but it still made you think.

You’d let Diluc know what was about to happen to him, and you just needed to tell everyone your plan, at least for this first part.

“One more thing, as soon as we go in, there’s going to be a rotating bridge with those cylinder torches or whatever they’re called on one side, and a clear path on the other. Once the bridge flips to the clear side, there should be just enough time to get all the way to the other side if we run like hell.”

Venti thought for a second before responding with, “Wouldn’t it be better for me to just… make a wind current at the start? Then no one has to worry about spinning bridges and torches at all~”

Oh. Right. You had others to help you. He could make a wind current and you could just. Skip over it. 

“...Yeah, that might be better. I guess I’m so used to having to rely on my own skillset here that I don’t realize others can help. Also, I’m probably just... tired. Anyway, after that first room, there’s a… door with a guard who acts like he’s about to piss his pants, but after that, there’s a big room with a bunch of smaller rooms inside and we’re going to have to find a key to move on. My question here is, should we split up or stay together while we search?”

Diluc was the first to chime in this time. “Normally I’d suggest we split up, but under these circumstances, it’d be better to stick together in case something goes wrong.”

“Alright.” You said. “We’ve been standing here for a while, I think it’s finally time to go in.”

Diluc adjusted his gloves, and you all went in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once again, Kaeya gets to witness [Y/N]’s powers of possession; except now, he isn’t the one experiencing it.

After everyone entered the hideout, Aether had vanished, and Diluc, now wearing a Fatui mask, stood in his place. Something about this whole situation seemed… familiar, for some reason. Nothing like this had happened before, right? …It’s probably just déjà vu. 

“Come on, let’s just get this over with.” [Y/N] said, nudging Diluc forward.

Now, Diluc had the same slightly-inhuman movement Aether had when [Y/N] was using him as their “avatar”. He was somewhat used to seeing it on Aether, but it was strange seeing Diluc move like that. When he was under their control, he could only move his eyes, and now, he couldn’t even see Diluc’s, as they were covered by the mask. 

Venti did as he said he would, and made a fairly large wind current to carry everyone over. He made it look incredibly easy. If it wasn’t for him hearing other Anemo Vision bearers talking about their experiences, he would have thought that was something anyone could do.

At first he thought [Y/N] had been hiding something from him, but he had a feeling they weren’t. Something was certainly… different about Venti. He couldn’t merely be just a wandering bard. Until Kaeya found out who he truly was, he figured he would stay on guard around him.

Diluc- No, [Y/N] walked into a small opening, thinking there might be something in the room it led into. There was a chest inside, guarded by 3 small Electro Slimes. They made quick work of them, unsurprisingly, but they weren’t paying attention to the fight, instead focused on something else.

They left the room and headed to a large door guarded by a very nervous-looking Agent, just as [Y/N] said. They went up alone to talk to him, and switched avatars to the Traveler, who was also wearing a Fatui mask. The Agent did not seem to notice the change.

“No, NO! Don’t eat me! Ah? You’re… You’re human? The entire floor’s defenses… have been broken. I thought it was the Abyss Order attacking…” 

[Y/N] said “Hey,” testing whether or not he could hear them. No response at all. They chuckled a bit, and he could swear Aether said something, though he couldn’t hear anything.

“AH- No, do- We hi- The place- I don’t kn-” 

“This guy-”

“Y-you- One of the Ele- Signora-”

The Agent pointed his sword at them in both fear and anger, still shaking, still not noticing the person he was speaking to change forms in front of him. So to get the key, they have to venture further in, also just like [Y/N] sai- Wait a minute, did he actually hear that guy say any of that? He definitely heard him say the floor’s defenses were broken… and then [Y/N] checked if he could hear them… and then they laughed for some reason… and then about 5 seconds later, the conversation was over. Something must have happened; there’s no way he could have said that much in that little time. He looked at where the man was again, only to see that… he was gone.

Kaeya turned to [Y/N], who now seemed nervous, and simply asked, “... Did you notice anything unusual there, by chance?”

“...Shit, you did notice. Uhhh, so remember when you first met Aether and you didn’t know his name until I told you because you didn’t hear it even though you knew what was said? I might have done the thing that does that again.” 

Which was what, exactly? They hadn’t explained it yet, but now wasn’t the time to get an explanation from them, so he reluctantly decided to move on from that.

They opened the door and though he couldn’t see her, Paimon decided now was the time to ask questions.

“Did he say Signora? What a strange name…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kaeya had described to Diluc what it felt like, and although it did feel exactly as he described, he definitely wasn’t used to it. He felt something watching him that he didn’t feel before, but when he looked in its direction, there was nothing there. He didn’t think much of it, as Kaeya had mentioned something like this to him. It was likely where [Y/N] was looking at Teyvat from.

[Y/N] talked to a guard, and for that conversation, he was thrown out of his body, now watching the Traveler from a similar position [Y/N] was. Was this how they saw the world? Strange, but again, exactly what Kaeya described. 

Other than that, Diluc didn’t notice anything off with the conversation, but Kaeya apparently did. Diluc wasn’t the type of person to miss things, so he knew something weird was happening when [Y/N] responded to him in a way that practically confirmed something was off. He made a note to himself to ask them about that after this was over with.

He didn’t understand how that fairy thing- Paimon, was talking. Where was she?

“Number 8 of The Eleven. Goes by the name Signora. The fact the Fatui can run amok across the seven nations like they do is entirely because of The Eleven.”

That was his voice talking. Was that what he sounded like? …Whatever, it was just another thing Kaeya had told him about. He had been surprisingly reliable so far, but he still wondered if there was something important he was leaving out.

They entered a large hall, with a large door at the opposite end and two rooms on each side. There was a mechanism in the center that needed a key, and it presumably opened the large door. …If [Y/N]’s system hadn’t taken control of him, everyone could search one room on their own. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, so it was better they stayed together.

They first searched what seemed to be a storage room. No one was there, so they searched every nook and cranny without interruption. At least, until a few Pyro Slimes came out of nowhere, which his abilities couldn’t provide much help with. Sure, if everything was normal, he could use just his sword instead of his Vision, but…

Kaeya and Venti made quick work of the slimes, since Venti could make a massive wind vortex to suck all the slimes in. No key to be found in there. They moved on to the next room, which stood a single guard. He seemed to stop paying attention to anyone other than the Traveler once he started talking to him. The Traveler tried to convince the guy he was part of some alliance and wanted to “borrow” the Holy Lyre, but he obviously didn’t believe it, especially not when he offered a single apple in exchange for it.

A Cicin Mage appeared, and they fought. His Pyro abilities would actually do something here, but [Y/N] still wouldn’t engage in fear they would hurt him too, with how Pyro and Electro interact. It ticked him off a bit. Fight. He told them before they all went in, it was fine if he got a few scratches, just fight, don’t just run around like a headless chicken. Did this have anything to do with them being a pacifist? She’s already attacking you, just defend yourself. Fight. It’s an easy opponent, he could easily take care of her if he could just- fight. 

His body stopped for a second, then pulled out a sword he’d only seen in legend, sending off a fiery phoenix at her, setting the blade ablaze. Was he back in control?

[Y/N] screamed, before going completely silent. Diluc heard something fall to the ground with a clatter, and could feel someone watching him in fear. Was that the point Kaeya and Venti were looking at?

He still couldn’t do much. He was only able to mimic the same few repetitive motions, and even those were incredibly difficult. Every movement felt like breaking out of chains. But still, he pushed. How was he able to do this? Kaeya couldn’t escape it after hours, but he could do this after minutes? The mage was defeated, and [Y/N] finally spoke up again.

“I didn’t do any of that. …Diluc?”

He tried to move more freely, but he couldn’t do anything except that same moveset. How did he even do that? He looked around, trying to get the attention of someone, but he realized he was wearing a mask. He had no way to communicate with anyone. 

“I… I don’t know, maybe my controller just glitched? Let’s just keep going.”

…There goes any hope of being able to break out of it. He shouldn’t have thought it was that easy. Still, how was he able to control himself at all, even if it was just for a few moments?

They checked the last room that was downstairs, which had a chest with a few Cicins around it. Just like the other enemies here, they weren’t an issue at all. Thankfully, the key was in the chest, and the group managed to open the door. [Y/N] said there was one more fight, and then they could get the Holy Lyre, and this whole thing would be over.

“Hey, you wanna know the guy's name?” [Y/N] asked. They sounded more and more tired by the minute.

“You know his name?” Kaeya scoffed. “If you know that much, you might as well tell us what he says to us.” 

He was acting as if he didn’t believe they really could see such things, but he obviously believed it. He was just saying this to squeeze more information out of them, wasn’t he?

“Oh my god, fine, but I’m not going to be able to do stuff like this all the time. First of all, his name is, I hope I’m saying this right, Zamenhoff…? And as soon as we go in there, he says- wait should I do the voice? I’m doing the voice. ‘Where did you rats scurry out from… Signora is not going to tolerate this kind of interference in our affairs. So I'll be the one to take care of you - save her the trouble of having to deal with you herself.’ …I’m sorry. I think I need to go back to sleep.”

That was probably the least professional telling of the future he’s ever heard, but as they walked into the last room, it turned out to be accurate, just as everything else they’ve said has been. They were audibly exhausted, and he could only think of one time they’ve taken something completely seriously. Should he have let them take control of him? It hadn’t gone too horribly yet, and it was almost over, but he started to get a little nervous. 

They entered the fight, and once again, he tried to perform those repetitive moves. [Y/N] was actually fighting this time, but he wanted to contribute something as well. They didn’t seem to notice anything was off this time. The Agent was defeated, and finally, he was fully in control of his own body again. He immediately let out a large sigh. 

“Signora is going to end you. The songs bards sing of your demise will be so terrifying - the people of Mondstadt will never sleep again for the nightmares they give them.” Said the Agent, now escaping. [Y/N] mocked him while he was saying it, speaking at the same time as him, but in a far more dramatic tone. 

They mocked Paimon too, even trying to match her high-pitched voice. He will admit he found it a bit funny, but he kept a straight face, unlike the other two, who couldn’t help but chuckle. She shot them a look before vanishing again.

“You alright?” [Y/N] asked him.

“Well, I’m not dead, so that’s something.” That… definitely could have gone better.

“So… Back to the tavern now, right? Wait, Venti, aren’t you still wanted?”

“Ahh… That may be a problem… But can’t we just teleport back?” Venti sheepishly said.

“We can only teleport to waypoints, at least as far as I know, and the nearest waypoint is right next to the plaza with all of the shops. I know it’s literally the middle of the night, but I don’t think we can be sure there won’t be anyone out. I don’t want someone seeing people appear out of nowhere.” [Y/N] had a point. Doing that when someone was near may have consequences.

“So I suppose we’re walking, then? I’ll walk ahead, and make sure any Knights patrolling at this time are… looking the other way.” Kaeya said, already going ahead of everyone else.

No one said a word for a bit. Venti had a slightly worried expression on his face, as if he was hoping whatever plan he had would work. [Y/N]’s avatar had that same expressionless face as always, which was… creepy, sometimes, but they seemed like they weren’t paying attention to anything now. Normally Diluc wasn’t one to break the silence, but he had something to say now.

“That wasn’t an issue with your controller earlier, [Y/N].”

“...Hmm?” They replied. They sounded… completely out of it. “So you did that? How?”

“I don’t know. I hope you don’t take any offense to this, but your… pacifism doesn’t exactly suit the way I do things, so, I broke out of it, in a way. I wasn’t able to fully break it, but I managed to do something.”

“So the solution to breaking out of it… is to just break out of it. Wow…!” They sarcastically said, before walking their avatar into a tree.

“I don’t mean for it to sound like that. I’m guessing I had enough willpower to resist your system a little. Again, not all the way, but I think I was able to at least do what you could.”

“That’s so weird… I think I’m gonna have to set aside some time to take a closer look at my system and figure out what’s up sometime.” They yawned. “But definitely not tonight…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

…God, you were tired. What the hell had happened in that domain? Somehow Diluc had managed to fight against your system, and do a bit on his own. How? No clue, but it was a nice surprise. 

You remembered that quest on that far-away island that you couldn’t finish the first day. After this, maybe you could beg Venti to take you there so you could finally finish it. There was still about… what? An hour and a half? before you were able to continue it. Yeah, never mind, screw that. There was no way you’d be able to stay awake that much longer. That nap just made you more tired. Guess that quest’ll stay unfinished…

The four of you finally got back to the tavern. Thankfully, Kaeya managed to keep any Knights from seeing you. You pulled up the Wiki again, and found your way to the page on the part of the quest you were at.

Sure, Kaeya was there instead of Jean, but everyone else’s lines were still the same. It looked like things would be on the right track. You repeated everyone’s lines as they said them, but only vocalizing Paimon’s, while just mouthing Diluc and Venti’s to not weird them out too much.

“From now on, you’ll be known as-” Oh, this part, where Paimon gives him a nickname and refuses to call him by his actual name ever again!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Tone-deaf bard!” said Paimon and [Y/N] simultaneously. The bard didn’t seem too bothered by his new nickname.

So not only could [Y/N] could just pull up a word-for-word script of the “story” they knew whenever they wanted, but said story was accurate, also down to the word? That’s… concerning.

It had been a very long day… Kaeya hoped he could finally get some sleep. Everyone bid their farewells after agreeing to continue in the morning, and he left. Venti was still wanted, right? That may cause some problems. He made a mental note to tell Jean that the Holy Lyre was in safe hands first thing in the morning.

Again, he teleported to the Knights Headquarters, but now, he remembered why they didn’t teleport back to the tavern. Was anyone watching? He looked around, and could see no one. As for the last time he did this… He didn’t check, did he? …Whatever, it should be fine. He made his way to his dorm, and, now feeling he had enough energy to do so, actually did his nighttime routine rather than just passing out. He stayed awake for quite a while, making notes and pacing around before he finally felt tired enough to be able to sleep through the night.

Those thoughts of [Y/N]’s “story” continued as he drifted to sleep.

--------------------------------------------------------

“But I shall not bow to the will of fate. I am no pawn in heaven's plan.”

…Here he was, acting in a play, as a character destined for tragedy. Seemed familiar. His character was supposed to simply accept it, yet “he” had decided to improv a section on defying fate. 

Despite this being “improv”, it was obvious all of this, scripted parts included, was supposed to reflect his own story. He’d noticed the similarities when he first heard of the story, though he didn’t fully remember when that was, but it seemed even more accurate now, looking at it from a different view.

The truth was, the improv was no less scripted than the rest of the play, nor anything else he’d experienced for that matter. This “play” began much before this street performance.

Even though it felt as if it had been years, he still remembered the beginning as clear as day.

When the Traveler first appeared in Mondstadt, he was unable to clearly remember anything prior to when they arrived. Hell, other than the most major events in his life, he couldn’t remember anything at all, and even those major events were fuzzy. He knew his interests, and his relationships with people, but it was like he had some strange form of amnesia. He’d wanted to tell someone about what he was going through, but every time he got a chance, he would black out, and wake up somewhere completely different.  

To him, it hadn’t even been that long since he’d first noticed, but already, days had gone by. He “woke up” again outside of Good Hunter, in the middle of a conversation with the Traveler about something he couldn’t recall thinking about. It had been days. The periods of time he was being knocked out for were getting longer. He had to say something as soon as possible, but he found he couldn’t control what he was saying.

He quickly realized that he was bound to some sort of script. Sure, “fate” served as a loose script, but this was word for word. He wondered whether this was happening to anyone else, but had no way to check, since he was either stuck to this script or unconscious.

It would sometimes be months at a time now he would be unconscious, almost like slipping into a coma. The Traveler was there with him wherever he was, so he assumed they must have something to do with it, but he hoped they didn’t know they did. Maybe then he could still tolerate them.

Over time, it seemed like the writer started to tease him more and more. It started with a few jokes from “him” hinting at it being some kind of story, and now it was a whole play.

He was an actor, playing a character, playing a character destined for tragedy. The only difference between this play and his experiences was that in reality, he was given no choice on whether to take the role.

This little improv session with Prince Qubad made the audience think he refused to accept the fate he was given, that he rejected it entirely, but the story still ended in the same way it was written.

As he looked at it now, he was no different from Prince Qubad in this story. Or at least, “Kaeya” wasn’t. He knew how Qubad’s story was similar to his, yes, but this improv session added something to it.

There were two layers to the scripting. One was fate itself. Destiny. Most people knew about this, and it could be seen fairly easily, only needing the help of some magic. This already seemed like enough restriction, as it was supposedly extremely difficult to change, but there was even more on top of that, at least for him.

It looked like in the future, “he” would have to make a very important decision, and end up choosing a secret third option. While this would be rejecting his fate in terms of what the people of Teyvat consider it to be, he would still be following the narrative this second, stricter script had for him.

…Oh, the irony. Just like the play, the character is written to refuse fate. Sure, the original script may not have included that, just as “his” original fate does not include what he’s likely to do.

He’d been wondering whether he should keep trying to break out of this. Obviously, doing so would grant him back autonomy, but it would also be following the whole “defying fate” path set for him by whatever scripted this. Either way, he was still playing right into its hands.

“Perhaps there's an inept god out there deciding everyone's fates... much like the Akademiya student drafting Darbil's scripts. Yep, "inept" is a good word for it. Honestly, it might even be a little too civil to describe a god who turns fathers against their sons and is bent on endless warmongering... don't you think?”

Either somehow, he had managed to change the script slightly with his thoughts, or the writers were mocking him.

…It was the latter, wasn’t it? “He” continued on about how someone doesn’t have to follow the script if they don’t like it, like it was just that easy. He’d made up his mind. He had to get out of this, no matter if that was what the writers wanted.

The conversation was coming to an end now, he could feel it. The Traveler was about to leave, and from what he knew about their journey, they likely wouldn’t be seeing him again any time soon. Any second now, the Traveler would disappear, and he would be knocked out for gods know how long. Couldn’t they just stay a little longer…?

[humming-fly]

every year for my birthday I do something self-indulgent and THIS year it's me finally organizing all the doodles and lore for my kirby oc Fayre that I have yet to put on tumblr into one place!

because i love you all putting the vast majority of this under a readmore but yeah if you want a collection of doodles and vaguely coherent scraps of info about my little guy please read on and if you want to ask questions about 'em go for it i love talking about these idiots

gonna also be mentioning a few other OC's here so for the record Strix belongs to @alagaesia-overlord and Stell belongs to @aseuki, because everyone knows it's more fun being insane about something if you have company~

real quick gonna just link to the past main posts on fayre for posterity lol

Fayre Details/Backstory:

So as has already been established in prior posts fayre is a very fae-aligned little critter that pretty exclusively hangs out in the woods with their 1-way mirror mask behaving for all intents of the word like some sort of weird cryptid. In terms of defining characteristics they have a set of very odd wings that constantly emit a stunning aura that causes confusion/distress when observed at close quarters, as well as a permanent 0.0 expression that they can't change (so no blinking, smiling, etc.) which is a byproduct of their creation as a mirror clone.

How all that worked out is their 'original', Prism, landed right next to a mirror portal as a newborn and more or less immediately wandered into it - my general headcanon about how the mirror doubles work is that they're made up of Every reflection someone has made up to the point they look into the amazing mirror, but since prism only just existed her first and only reflection was the 0.0 expression of a child looking through the mirror before passing through it, so fayre is locked and loaded with that expression but nothin' else. This is also why fayre's wings are way different than prism's bird-of-paradise setup, as technically prism's back was never reflected by the mirror either so it got the randomizer setting instead.

Despite being 'born' more or less at the same time the two never formally met until many years later, as prism wandered right into the mirror world and fayre wandered right out into the primary world and neither ever looked back. Differences aside, when prism did eventually track fayre down they immediately hit it off and now consider each other to be twin siblings. (Prior to meeting Prism Fayre didn't know they were a mirror clone, but largely took learning that detail in stride, as they do with most things)

In terms of early life fayre was actually found and raised by a small village of broom hatters, who came upon this child in a little crater they'd made after falling off the cloud holding up the mirror

The broom hatters assumed that fall was what had paralyzed their face, but fortunately as the broom hatters are a race of faceless creatures themselves the lack of expressions wasn't ever a problem. Not being able to move or open their mouth means fayre can't talk with it, but instead uses the general telepathic way of speaking used by most species lacking that particular facial feature. The main benefit of that skill is being able to throw their voice and also talk in hieroglyphics if desired

Fayre stayed with the broom hatters until reaching early adolescence, after which they left to go explore the natural world - though now living on their own they do still come back to say Hi every year or so during the Sweeping Seasons.

Fayre got their wings sometime while off living by themselves in the woods, and after some trial and error did figure out a way to more or less 'replace' their wings with a funky cape (the trial and error being a learning curve whereupon getting near people with their wings would cause people to get dizzy/sick, so for a while they were wandering around in a little cape they found until they could puzzle out a way to properly tuck them away) - while the cape is replacing the wings they're more or less 'in stasis', so damaging the cape doesn't damage the wings and vice versa, and is more of a strange pocket dimensional swap than anything. Thus the cape can't actually be removed from fayre, trying to rip it off them won't hurt or anything but will probably just yank them around a bit (maybe they're somehow trading their wings with an equivalent in the yarn dimension? who knows, they certainly don't)

The wings themselves are pretty odd as they look sort of like dragonfly wings but are actually made up of individual feathers of varying traits - general consensus is they are indeed very pretty, but other than gliding fayre can't actually fly that well with them. The stunning aura on them Does keep bugs and wildlife away though making them ideal for forest exploration, and fayre will wrap themselves up in them every night when going to bed as the wings work to deter any predators from going after them, and it's Comfy

~Plot Stuff Begins~

Meeting Strix:

For quite a while Prism was the only consistent point of contact Fayre had with anyone else, and even then the two only visited one another infrequently, both happy to largely keep to the homes and lives they've carved out for themselves.

The first major change to fayre's day to day life was the introduction of another puffball named Strix, who happened upon them while looking for their wayward coworker

After conversing a bit it was discovered that Strix is actually employed as a Reaper, of the paper-pushing variety, and only tends to poke their head out of purgatory when hunting down their work-shirking coworker.

Said work-shirking coworker is also the reason strix is the only person fayre has met that isn't affected by their wing's wonky aura - spending a few centuries in close quarters with someone who puts out a very similar status effect tends to build up an immunity, which fayre tries their best to take full advantage of

Fayre and Strix managed to hit it off early on, and occasionally meet up every month or so for an hour or two to get their required socializations in before wandering back off from whence they came. Strix will often share their work bereavements, or encourage fayre to actually learn some self-defense, which is largely met with playful ambivalence, though despite fayre's general disinterest in combat some minor progress was made on strix's part

(To that end farther the line a more favorable and not at all ominous deal was struck between the two so time will tell how that pans out)

During one of these chats strix also shared some of their Tragic Backstory:tm:, which fayre empathized with in the only way they know how

These friendly meetings continued with regularity for some odd years, up until fayre accidentally rode-along on one of strix's business calls~

Meeting Stell (aka The 'Among-Us' Arc):

Unfortunately for Fayre, Strix had been called to investigate what was reported to be an erroneous wish caused by a faulty comet, one without its proper safety regulations in place. Fayre tumbled on through strix's portal and into the sidelines of an ongoing fight between strix and some new armored fighter apparently affiliated with said comet.

Hoping to avoid whatever anime-ass conflict was going on over there, fayre started drifting towards the only other point in space of any note, the giant cat-like mechanical comet. Unfortunately for fayre, whoever had maintained that comet had rigged it up with a series of perimeter defenses, which fayre became intimately familiar with as they were shot down and forced to land on the comet itself to escape the bullet-hell firing at them.

Suffering some fun knicks and scrapes predominantly on their wings fayre pushed that on the back burner with their cape and started to look for an exit from this weird mechanical death trap. (Past this point Fayre has a quasi-permanent notch in their left feather).

Thus began fayre's fun-filled two-ish weeks of impromptu among us where they had a jolly time hiding in the vents and cutting wires to stall the maniac doing their level best to eject them with lethal force

Eventually contact was made with the assailant, whose name was apparently Stell, and an agreement was brokered just as Strix finally decided to stop by again to see how fixing that busted-ass comet was going.

after that misunderstanding was cleared up Fayre finally got off that shitty comet and after being dropped off in the woods by strix managed to trudge all the way to the mirror dimension to visit prism and get some bandaids (slash bullet holes patched up)

Mirror Arc & Beyond:

Some additional fun is had with the twins in the mirror dimension, namely the whole kitten kaboodle becoming corrupted for a time and fayre becoming a bit of an asshole because of it, which predominantly ended up aimed at strix who popped by to help sort all that out

post-corruption fayre found out apparently strix took the verbal abuse personally and fixed that all right up in their own way by visiting them at their workplace

tragically for fayre's happy-go-lucky attitude they've come to be attached to strix, which only became obvious once strix relayed a recent near-death experience to them and they got to experience their first ever Bummer Emotion

making that extra fun was learning said near-death experience was caused by their good friend Stell, which in turn lead to fayre's first ever Catching Hands Emotion

fayre's emotional roller coaster topped out after more or less jumping stell in a convenience store and trying to forcibly shove their own negative emotions down his throat after he brushed off the encounter he'd had with strix (partially due to running a high fever but that sure wasn't fayre's problem) - since then they've leveled back out and are back to being the most emotionally well-balanced of the three, which is a low bar to clear but hey first place is still first place~

[morganski-19]

I Don't Know Which Way's Home

Chapter 11: Holidays

ao3 link, Part 1, Part 10

Present Day, December 1986

“Why does your house look emptier than normal?” Robin asks, leaning on the kitchen counter.

“Probably because it’s not drowning in Christmas decorations like your house is,” Steve responds, pulling the frozen pizza out of the oven.

Robin cranes her neck to look in the doorway to the living room. Normally there would be a large tree sitting in front of the window, but this year there’s not. Steve thought about decorating, thought about doing something for the holidays. But so much has happened in the past few weeks that he just forgot. Or didn’t have time to think about it.

And when he did have time to think about it, he didn’t know what to do. He thought about asking Julie what she wanted to do but didn’t want to push. This was going to be a hard time for her, the first Christmas without her mom. Thanksgiving came and went without either of them noticing or saying something about it. Having just moved in, Julie was still adjusting, so Steve didn’t bring it up.

But now, there wasn’t really an excuse now. Steve should have asked. Should have asked what her mom used to do to make it feel like something was happening, instead of him just ignoring it. But the holidays were a sore subject for him too, and he tended to avoid it until it sprung on him. Buy gifts for his friends, expecting nothing in return, and then spend Christmas alone in his big house.

At least that’s how it went until Dustin called him on Christmas morning and practically dragged him out of the house to come spend it with him and his mom. It was nice having something to do. Something that was considered normal, a staple. And now this year he was invited to the Byers’ for Christmas Eve dinner.

Steve wanted to go, continue the little traditions he has made for himself. But then there was Julie. He didn’t know how she wanted to go about this. Or if she wanted to go to places where she barely knew the people there.

He just really needed to ask.

“Your house does look suffocating, and that’s coming from someone who’s uncle is a Catholic,” Eddie pipes in, trying to take a piece of the pizza but flinching away.

“I just pulled that out of the oven, give it a minute.”

Eddie flips him off gently, while trying again with his other hand. A knock comes from the front door, and Steve excuses himself to go answer it.

Nancy is on the other side, smiling. “Hey,” she says excitedly.

“Nance, welcome home,” Steve ushers her in and pulls her in for a hug. “I thought you were supposed to get back last week.”

“Yeah, I was, but I got held up at work. How’s it going? I haven’t been able to get a hold of you for a while.”

Steve rubs the back of his neck. “It’s been interesting. I’ll have to fill you in-.”

“Steve, who was at the,” Robin walks into the hallway. “Oh my god, Nancy, hi.” She runs up and almost tackles Nancy into a hug.

Eddie wanders into the hallway, confused. “Oh, hey Wheeler. Welcome back.”

“Thanks,” Nancy mumbles while Robin still squeezes her. When Robin pulls back, Nancy tries to lean in for a kiss, but Robin stops her.

“There’s someone else in the house,” she explains.

Nancy’s brows knit together. “Oh, are one of the kids here?”

“Something like that.” Steve fills in.

He hasn’t exactly talked to Nancy in a few months. The months where his life had news other than just general work things. Sure, he meant to call her, meant to fill her in. They became pretty close over the summer, forming a friendship after their weird past. But Nancy got busy, and so did he. So, the phone calls kind of dwindled.

Robin calls Nancy at least twice a week, but they started dating a month or so before Nancy went off to college, so it was expected. Steve just assumed that Robin would have filled her in, but he guesses not.

“Wait a second,” Eddie starts figure out.

Robin turns to Steve. “You seriously didn’t tell her?”

“It just didn’t come up, ok,” Steve loosely defends.

“Oh my god, you idiot,” Robin rolls her eyes at the same time Nancy says, “Tell me what?”

Julie opens her door and walks down the stairs, stopping halfway. Eyes immediately widening when she sees them standing in front of the door. “Oh, hi. Is something happening?”

“No, nothing,” Steve says before anyone can jump in. “There’s pizza in the kitchen if you want any.”

She nods, making her way down the rest of the stairs. “Ok,” she says super confused, giving Steve a questioning look. He makes a face of “I’ll explain it later,” and she shrugs and heads to the kitchen.

When he turns back to the group, Robin has her arms crossed, Nancy has a very confused face, and Eddie’s trying hard not to laugh. Nancy crosses her arms, mirroring Robin, and raising her eyebrows. Waiting for an explanation.

“So, you might have missed something big,” he starts to explain.

“You think,” Robin interrupts. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell her about Julie.”

Eddie’s attempts at not laughing starts to fail. Steve slaps him on the arm, looking for support, but Eddie just raises his hands in defeat.

Steve lets out a long sigh, turning back to Nancy. “That was my sister, Julie. She’s living with me right now.”

Nancy’s mouth drops as her eyebrows raise even higher. She turns to Robin, who just nods in conformation. “I’ve known you for four years, and you never told me you have a sister,” she finally says.

“In my defense, I didn’t know I had a sister until two months ago.”

“You have known for two months and didn’t tell me,” she says louder.

Eddie is full on laughing now, trying to calm himself down, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes. Robin just rolls her eyes more, too tired of this.

“A lot of things were happening, and I haven’t talked to you in a while. I got a promotion, had to get custody of her. Went through a lot of the mental side of things and a bunch of realizations about my childhood. It was a lot.”

Nancy squints her eyes, taking everything in. “I guess I can forgive that. But you need to pick up my damn phone calls.”

“That’s fair.”

There was more that he wanted to talk to Nancy about, things that she would know. But he didn’t want Julie to overhear, not about this. He hasn’t yet told her about the decision to sue his parents, or really done anything other than say he wants to. A few days ago, he had told Eddie about it. Had a few more tears about it too. Each time he said it, it became more real.

Each time, a small weight was taken off his chest. Because someone finally knew. Knew what he went through, and believed him, wanted to stand by him during this fight. Cementing the fact that what happened to him wasn’t normal and shouldn’t be ignored.

Nancy was one of the first people who pointed out something that his parents did that was wrong. How parents don’t just forget to call on their child’s birthday, or don’t show up at all. That getting a card months later without an excuse wasn’t normal. She would be proud of him for standing up, and he wanted her to know. Just not now.

Steve finally invites Nancy in past the doorway, leading her into the kitchen and offering some food. Julie is sitting at her usual spot at the island, listening to music through her Walkman. She looks up when they walk in, pulling the headphones off, soft sounds of rock music coming through the speakers.

“Julie, this is my friend Nancy,” Steve introduces. “She’s back from school for break.”

Nancy smiles at Julie. “Nice to meet you. I see it now,” she says towards Steve. “She looks a little like you.

“Everyone says that, but I don’t see it,” Julie says. Steve just shrugs.

“I think it’s the eyes,” Eddie mumbles with a mouthful of food, finally able to eat his pizza.

Robin shrugs, “Or the hair.”

After eating, Julie heads back up to her room, leaving the rest of them to catch up. They talk for a while until Nancy has to get back home. Steve sees her out, stopping to talk to her before she leaves.

“How are you really doing, with all of this?” Nancy asks, slipping her coat back on. “I mean, finding out your dad had another kid, and then taking her in after all these years. That had to be hard.”

Steve swallows. “Yeah, it was. Not the taking her in part, that was easy. But it kind of opened my eyes a bit. Showed me how much my parents did, or didn’t do, I guess.”

Nancy softens her face, reaching out to rub Steve’s arm, comforting him. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m suing them,” Steve says, unable to keep it a secret. “For neglect. Since I’m over eighteen, it the only thing I can do to affect them now. And I want them to know, for a judge to make it real to them since it never was just coming from me.”

She gives him a sympathetic look, bringing him in for a hug. “Let me know if you need anything, I’ll happily be a witness against them. And call me, please. I love talking to Robin, but I don’t like hearing everything about you from her. You’re my friend too, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. See you later, Nance.”

. . .

Julie sits on her bed, music playing through her headphone as she writes in the journal placed on her lap. Finally writes in this journal again. Something about the past few days gave her the motivation to finish what she started. For symbolic purposes, if anything. But it was going well, and she turned the story to reflect how she was feeling now. It was helping.

She thought with the holiday coming up in a few days, she’d be a mess. Christmas was never a huge deal in her house, not for a few years. It was just a day that her mom took off work so they could spend the day together. Julie would get a few new clothes, maybe a new pair of shoes, and her mom would get a picture to go with the story that Julie had wrote for her birthday.

But instead of crying, she just sat in her bed and wrote. Poured all the feelings of the past months onto page, like old times. She hadn’t been able to write at all since October. Since the accident. How she missed the feeling of paper under pen. Of the worlds she crafted because her own was missing something.

Except this time, her worlds included someone new. Something new. Julie always brought new characters into her stories when she needed to. Always incorporated her own experiences into her characters. This time, her experiences required a new person.

There was a light tap on her bedroom door. Julie slides her headphones off her ears, resting them on her neck, and hits pause. She looks up at Steve, waiting for her to say that he can come him.

He always does that. Respecting that her room was hers, and that she might want privacy. Never entering if she didn’t want him to. It was annoying on days where she really didn’t care you came in. But on the days where seeing another person would just make everything worse, she appreciated it.

“What’s up,” she says, closing her journal with her pencil to mark her place, setting it off to the side.

Steve enters. “So, I don’t know where you’re standing with this week, with-. Y ou know.”

“You can say Christmas, Steve. I’m not going to fall apart at the word.”

He shakes his head. “Yeah, right. So, with Christmas, I don’t normally spend it here. The Byers’ have a Christmas eve party that we’ve been invited to, and for Christmas morning, I normally go over to the Henderson’s.”

Julie tries not to feel affected by the way he says it. Like it’s normal not to spend a holiday with other people’s families. There’s nothing really wrong with that. Only that he does it because his own parents don’t bother to show up to celebrate with him.

Every new thing she learns about them just makes her feel sorry for Steve. And then sorry that she feels sorry for him. He probably doesn’t want that. But she can’t help it.

“And I know you don’t know them that well, so I was going to ask if you wanted to go, or we say no.”

“But you said you go there every year?” Julie doesn’t want him to miss out just because of her. He should still be able to live his life.

Steve shrugs. “Yeah, but if you’re not comfortable to go, it’s not like I’m going to leave you alone.”

Julie takes a second to think. “I mean, I don’t know all of them sure. But I think I’ll be ok. It’s not like I don’t know them, and you hang out with them a lot. I’ll be seeing them a lot, so it’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’d be honest if I wasn’t. You’re my brother and these people are your family, so I want to get to know them.”

Steve smiles. “Ok then. If it gets too overwhelming, just let me know, ok. We can always leave.”

Julie nods, opening her journal again as he closes her door.

. . .  

When Steve, Robin, and Julie pull up to the Byers’ house on Christmas Eve, it’s already packed. Noise hits Julie in the face when they walk through the door, the kids talking in the living room while the adults are mingling in the kitchen drinking some wine. A woman with brown hair and bangs comes over to greet them. Looking exhausted with an old apron tied around her.

“Steve, Robin honey. Good to see you.” She brings them both in for a hug, before turning to Julie. “And you must be Julie. It’s so nice to finally meet you, I’ve heard so much about you. You can call me Joyce, I’m Will and El’s mom.”

Before Julie can say anything, Joyce gives her a light hug. Julie doesn’t quite know what to, so she just gently returns it, awkwardly. It’s supposed to be welcoming, she knows. But it’s all too similar to something she knows and suddenly everything comes rushing back to the forefront of her mind.

Suddenly, she feels like crying again.

But she doesn’t because there are people here. This is a party. A happy one. It’s not meant to be ruined by a wave of unexplainable grief.

“I think El and Max are in her room, it’s a bit quieter in there,” Joyce says when she pulls away. “It’s all the way down the hall and to the left. Let me know if you need anything.”

She walks back to the kitchen, leaving Julie standing in the doorway. She shakes her head, telling herself that it’s ok. It was just a hug, that’s all it was.

“You ok?” Steve whispers, bumping into her shoulder gently.

Julie nods, promising not to ruin this for him. “Yeah. I’m just going to find Max, and Jane.”

“Ok, have fun. Remember, if it gets too bad, we can just leave, ok.”

She gives him a fake smile, nodding and heading through the crowd in the direction Joyce pointed her. She knocks gently on the last door on the left in the hallway, opening it to find Jane and Max talking. Jane jumps up when she sees Julie, running over and giving her a hug.

“Julie, I was hoping you would come.”

Max waves from where she sits on the floor. “Hi, Julie.”

“Hey,” Julie says, strained.

Jane’s smile falters slightly. “What’s wrong?” She pulls Julie into her room and shuts the door behind her, ushering Julie to sit down.

“Nothing,” Julie shakes her head. Blinking her eyes to get rid of the small line of water starting to build. “Your mom just gave me a hug, it’s nothing really.”

Jane sighs, smiling a bit. “Yeah, she does that.”

“She’s like a second mom to all of us, so it kind of always affects you.” Max adds. “You should have seen when she gave Steve a hug once, it was the first time I saw him almost cry.”

“I was just hoping that today was going to be a good day,” Julie half laughs, rubbing her sleeve on her cheek. “I’ve been having so many good days, guess I was due for a bad one.”

Jane reaches over and grabs Julie’s hand, comforting her with a small smile. She’s seen her do it with Max so many times, but she thought it was just them thing. But now that it happened, it’s comforting. Somewhere along the line, she was added into their friendship. It was nice.

“It is ok. I understand.” She pauses, thinking for a second before continuing. “Joyce is not my real mom. Or, what is that word?”

“Biological,” Max fills in.

“Right, biological. I met my biological mom once, she was frozen. Stuck in time. I could not be with her. My dad took me in, adopted me, and then Joyce took me in. I had so many good days, and bad days then. You cannot really choose when they happen, they just do. But you are safe here, with us. You do not have to pretend.”

Julie lets out a shaky breath. “I think I’m ok now. But thank you.”

There were more questions that Julie wanted to ask, but it didn’t feel right. The small story that Jane shared left blanks that were unfilled. Her past something that Julie still doesn’t know. Maybe she would sometime. But tonight was already sad enough, she wanted to move past it.

“Oh, who’s El?” Julie asks. “Joyce mentioned the name earlier.”

Max starts laughing, slowly followed by Jane. “I can’t believe we never told you.”

“It never came up,” Jane justifies.

“Jane is El. It’s a nickname.”

Julie makes a small o with her mouth. “Oh, ok. Can I ask why?”

“My middle name is Eleven, so it is short for that.”

“I’ve never heard that before,” Julie laughs. “But I guess that makes sense. Is it ok if I call you that too?”

El nods, smiling.

They three of them get back to talking, the cloud of gloom over Julie’s head slowly dissipating. It’s still there, but not as noticeable.

. . .

“You’re making that worried face again,” Eddie notices. “Calm down, she’s fine.”

Steve rolls his eyes, watching Julie as she sits and eats with the other kids. “Yeah, I know. I’m just making sure she’s not overwhelmed.”

“Anyone can be overwhelmed with those kids,” Robin adds, sitting down next to him with her food. “They are so chaotic when left to their own devices.”

“God, I know,” Steve sighs. “You think she’s ok though, after that moment when we came in.”

He noticed it, as small as it was. The small shift in her face when Joyce hugged her, the slight bit of water resting in her eyes. The same thing that happened to him the first time it he got one. Right after Star Court, when the government agents were asking everyone questions.

Steve was going around, making sure everyone was ok. The adrenaline still flowing through his veins and making his own pain go unnoticed. That and the rest of the drugs that were still in his system. He couldn’t stop moving. Not until Joyce, grieving Joyce, stopped him just to ask if he was ok. Gave him a hug that only made him aware of the fact that he’d be going to an empty house after all of this. Even if he ended up spending that night in a hospital room next to his best friend.

He knew how motherly Joyce’s hug were. Fitting for the kind person she was, and he loved getting the mother treatment from her. But with Julie, he wanted to make sure that she was ok.

“She’ll be fine. She went with El and Max afterward, if anyone can help her with that it’s them,” Robin comforts, and Steve knew it was true. He was happy that she started becoming friends with them. Growing a support system other than him.  

“What’s it like having someone else in the house now?” Nancy asks from across the table.

“It’s been an adjustment. A nice one, though. I’ve actually started to think about looking for a smaller place. Something just for the two of us, you know, that isn’t technically owned by my parents.”

Moving out has been in his mind for a while now. Obviously, he was never going to live with his parents forever. But for the past few years, it was convenient to be able to have a house he could live in rent free. Especially since he didn’t have a full-time job until a few months ago. It gave him a chance to breathe, recover from the years of terror.

But with the decision of going forward with suing his parents, getting kicked out was on the horizon. At least that’s what they would say about it. He was going to leave willingly, never looking back to that empty house. Leaving a shitty paint job in two of the bedrooms that will undoubtably thrown his mom into hysterics.

The thing that’s bothering him now, is that as soon as the paperwork is filed and his parents get word of it, they’ll come home. Do damage control, try and find a way to get the charges dropped. But he wasn’t budging. He’s not under their control anymore.

So, it’s ideal for him to find a place before getting everything started. But he needs to save up just a little bit more to get a place. Then, hopefully, with the payout of the case, he’d be able to support him and Julie for a while and try to get a better paying job. Maybe then he could get full custody of her too.

“That would be nice,” Nancy says. “There’s a bunch of availability now too, after everyone left. You might be able to find something cheap.”

“That’s what I’m hoping.”

. . .

Julie, El, and Max stayed with the rest of the group after dinner. The boys were playing some sort of game with El, while Max was making fun of them on the couch. Dustin wasn’t playing though, he was sitting next to Julie, distracted by something.

“Have you noticed something weird going on between Steve and Eddie,” he asks Julie, her taking a second to realize that he was talking to her.

She shrugs. “Not really. I mean I didn’t know them as long as you have.”

“Yeah, but you live with Steve. And him and Eddie hang out like, all the time now.” He looks back at them. “Something just seems off.”

Julie looks to where he is. Steve and Eddie talking off to the side. Huddled together, whispering. It’s not the weirdest thing she’s seen. The party is pretty loud, so they probably just want to hear each other.

“They look pretty normal to me,” she says.

“Yeah, but just wait, there. Right there when Eddie does the thing.”

The thing in question, is gently placing a hand on Steve’s side, whispering something directly into Steve’s ear. Making him stutter for a second and take a sip of his drink. It could be normal, just a thing between friends, but she’s not so sure anymore.

She wouldn’t have a problem if there was something going on in a “more than friends” way. There were worse problems in the world than care about who people loved. And it sort of made sense, from what she knew. Dustin seemed to be pressed about it, though.

“So, it could be a normal thing between them, you don’t know,” she defends. Worried that Dustin might have a problem with it.

Dustin pulls his attention away from them, facing Julie. “That’s the thing, I do. Even after spring break they weren’t like this. Well, kinda, it’s complicated. But like, a few months ago, something shifted between them and now they’re acting weird.”

“Would you have a problem with it, if there was something more happening?” Julie can feel her defenses rising, protecting. These people were Steve’s family, but he was hers too. She wasn’t going to let them say anything bad about him.

Dustin makes an offended face. “What no. I don’t really care as long as they’re happy. I just want to know.” He looks back over to them. “We’ve been through a lot together. I want them to know it’s ok to tell me about this, if it is that.”

Her defenses lower themselves again. She gently bumps her shoulder against his, getting his attention again. “If he ever tells me anything, I’ll let him know. I really don’t know more than you do.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it. I’m glad he has you, you know. I always worried about him alone in that house, with no one around. He never wanted me to, the self-sacrificing idiot. But I was. It’s nice to know he has some actual family living with him now. Not just his stuffy piece of shit parents that are never around.”

“You know you really shouldn’t talk bad about people’s fathers in front of them,” Julie fake defends, before breaking out in a smile.

It takes a second for him to register that she did, before he starts laughing. “Well, it’s true.”

“Oh, I know it is.”

. . .

Steve says his final goodbyes to the people all piling out of the Byers’ house. Pulling out of the driveway to go drop Robin off at her house, and then head home for the night.

“Did you have a good time?” Steve asks.

Julie nods. “Yeah, it was fun. I finally learned Jane’s nickname is El. I can’t believe I’ve known her for months now and no one told me.”

Steve laughs. “Yeah, I saw the face you made when Joyce said it. You were so confused.”

“Hard not to be when she says a name I’ve never heard in my life, expecting me to know who she’s talking about.”

Julie’s smiling, laughing. He was expecting her to be overwhelmed with everything, but she seems fine. He feels the need to check in on her, make sure that the small moment she had at the beginning of the night didn’t affect anything. That she’s ok. But she’s so happy right now, he’d rather not bring it up.

“So, tomorrow,” Julie starts. “You said you normally go over to the Henderson’s.”

“Yeah,” he nods. “But we don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“It’s ok if we go, I was just going to ask if we could go somewhere after.” She pauses, fiddling with her hands. “I was wondering if we could go visit my mom.”

Steve softens, pulling into the driveway. He parks the car, turning to look at her. “Yeah, we can go visit her.”

The next morning, they go to the Henderson’s for breakfast. Claudia welcoming them in with warm hugs, freshly made cinnamon rolls ready at the table. She asks Julie pretty much every question in the book, wanting to know everything about her. Making her feel at home as much as he does.

This place always felt more of a home than his own house did sometimes. He was never one to say no to Claudia’s dinner invites, after that one time where he did refuse, and she showed up on his doorstep with a lasagna in her hands. She was the only mother figure that he really had. Immediately taking him in as soon as she heard what it was really like in his home. She even started calling him and Dustin her boys. Because she loved them. She loved Steve.

When breakfast was over, Steve thanked Claudia for having them over, and excused the two of them. Accepting her hug goodbye and giving Dustin’s hair a good ruffle, warranting him an eye roll before a reluctant hug. Julie says her own goodbyes, getting her own hug from Claudia and an awkward fist bump from Dustin. They say their final goodbyes before leaving.

In the car, Julie pulls out a journal, holding it in her lab. Steve knows better than to ask about it, he recognizes the pattern on the front. It’s her mom’s journal. The one that Julie would give her every year with a new story.

He knew why she wanted to go.

When they get to the cemetery, Julie takes the lead. Leading him to the small grave where her mother lies. Rebecca Lawson, Loving Mother engraved on the stone.

“Can you give me a minute with her,” Julie asks quietly.

Steve nods. “I’ll be over on that bench if you need me, ok.”

She nods before sitting on the cold ground. The blades of grass still gleaming with the morning frost. Steve gives her space, going over to the bench a few feet away. Sitting, and waiting.

Julie opens the journal in her lap, presumably reading it to her mom. Taking a deep breath every so often, before continuing. The pages turning until the end. At the last page, Julie turns the book outward toward the grave, showing her mom the picture at the end.

He couldn’t hear it, and he didn’t want to. Julie’s stories were sacred, for her and her mom. It wasn’t right for him to eavesdrop. This was Julie’s moment, she’ll call him when she wants to.

When she does, it’s a simple turn to Steve and a wave of her hand. He goes over to her, sitting beside her. Her eyes puffy, and her nose red.

“This is Steve,” she says quietly. “He’s my brother, I met him a little after you left. I wish you two could meet each other, I think you’d like him. He’s nothing like his dad, if you’re worried. I can tell even if I never met him. I’m living with him now. It’s not like living with you, but nothing ever will be.”

She takes a shaky breath, trying to find the strength to finish. “I miss you. Every single day. But it’s getting better. I think I’ll always be a little sad that you’re gone, though. That you’re not here with me anymore. To see me graduate, go off to college. Maybe get married one day. I’ll miss you all the time. But I know wherever you are, you’re watching over me.”

She wipes away the tear rolling down her cheek. “I love you. And miss you. I know I already said that, but it’s true. I hope you liked the story, I thought it concluded everything well. I’m sorry I didn’t get it finished by your birthday, but I thought it would be ok to give it to you today instead. It was nice talking to you again. I’ll come visit you more often. And you don’t need to worry about me, I’m doing ok.”

After a moment, Julie leans her head on Steve’s shoulder, quietly asking for a hug. Steve wraps his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.

“You ok?”

“Yeah,” she whispers. “I’m ok.”

For the next few minutes, they sit there. Steve giving her the time all the time she needs.

“Thank you for being here with me.”

Steve rubs her shoulder comfortingly. “You’re welcome.”

“I meant what I said, I think you two would really like each other. She would be happy that I’m here with you. And I know she would thank you for taking care of me.”

Tears start forming in his eyes without permission. After another minute, Julie pulls away, ready to leave. Steve pulls out his keys and hands them to her. “Go ahead, my legs fell asleep. I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”

She snorts. “I’ve been sitting here longer, but ok.” She takes the keys, starting to walk along the path to the parking lot.

Steve turns to face the grave again, taking a deep breath. “You raised a great kid, I wish my dad was less of a dick head so I could have met her sooner. Sorry for cursing at your grave, but he deserves it.” He turns to look at Julie walking down the path. “I got her now, you don’t have to worry. Or do, I know how moms like you always will. But she’ll be ok. I’m not leaving her anytime soon.”

He slowly stands, heading down the path Julie’s on. Catching up to her as she gets to the parking lot. She smiles at him when they get into the car, probably knowing that his excuse was made up. Silently thanking him for taking the time to talk to her mom. It was important to her, and it was important to him.

When they get home, Steve heads to the living room and puts on the tv. Christmas movies filling the channels. Julie joins him, sitting on the other end of the couch with a blanket.

It’s the first Christmas where he didn’t feel alone. And the first where he knew that he would never truly be alone again.

Tag list(let me know if you want to be added or removed): @homoerotictangerine, @mugloversonly, @thesuninyaface, @imyelenasexual, @anaibis, @ilovecupcakesandtea, @brainsteddielyrotted, @jackiemonroe5512, @eddie-munsons-missing-nipple, @goodolefashionedloverboi, @cinnamon-mushroomabomination, @lolawonsstuff, @writingandmushroomdragons, @stevesbipanic, @sierra-violet, @steddie-as-they-go, @dauntlessdiva, @mousedetective, @the-daydreamer-in-the-corner, @zombiethingy, @connected-dots-st-reblogger, @that-agender-from-pluto, @allyricas, @cheddartreets, @devondespresso, @crypticcorvidinacottage, @queenie-ofthe-void @chronicpainstevetruther, @cheddartreets, @theupsidedownrealestateagent, @acidbubblegummie, @sirsnacksalot, @l0st-strawberry, @helpimstuckposting, @strawberry-starss, @freddykicksasses, @italianwhore1, @i-threw-my-name-out-the-window, @rageagainsttheapathy, @nuggies4life, @ape31, @whimsicalwitchm, @chrissycunninghamfanblog, @michellegilligan, @hippielittlemetalhead, @bridget-malfoy-stilinski-hale, @jaytriesstuff, @confused-stripes, @faeb1tch42069, @marklee-blackmore, @hel-spawn, @genderless-spoon, @mamafaithful, @estrellami-1, @starryeyedpoet17 @i-amthepizzaman, @lilpomelito @melonmochi

[snarkylinda]

Sad bitch though of the day: whenever he graduated, was Spencer always alone?

We know he graduated HS at 12 years old, in Las Vegas, so Diana might had been able to go. And that is a huge might, because by this point her state was bad enough to not notice her son wasn't in the house all day in a bad day (Elephant's Memory backstory)

Now his first PDh was on California, when he was around 14- no mention of any College friend, and hell there is the little "she lived there for size months and didn't made any friends? Though that only happened to me." Joke that yeah- anyways I doubt his mom got to be there since it was in fucking California, so it's not a stretch to say he was on his own here.

We don't know when he got his other titles- but it's safe to say that at least one happened after he institutelate her, yikes, and I like to think that Gideon was in one of them at least.

Point is- imagine this: you are collecting titles like they are pokemon, sure being a Genious™ gives you a heads up that literally nobody else around has on the academic side but as it has been shown over, and over, and over again Spencer's intellect is strictly linked to his mental state; if he feels pressured enough he might see something that nobody else sees- or be completely unable to focus (*points to Zugwang, the most in your face example since he actually states it to the camera*) high school must had been a breeze at the academic department, but it was also when he was the most targeted (again he studied with fucking sociopaths), so....yeah, being a Genious is the only reason why this kid managed to do that with that environment.

Then college- Spencer is a little vindictive bitch so if he was ever mistreated in college we would had known about it almost instantly so it's safe to assume it was chill, if a bit lonely. And I mean in college most people don't care enough to fuck you up on the same way high schoolers do so it's fitting- but he was still a 14 years old, in another state. Mature enough to care for himself? Sure -it's not like he had any other option tbh- but he was still a fucking 14yo in an adult space, no wonder he knows how to keep a fucking anxiety attack at check. So obviously, going through all of this, Genious or not, must had been hard af.

College is hell. I dropped out of my first career and cried all night, we as humans tend to have this need of validation over our accomplishments hence why graduation is so idolized, we want to feel good about the years of our lives we lost to get there, with our closer family members cheering at us...

Now I want you to picture someone that is not even an adult, not friends in the class, no one at the crown cheering for them- maybe a teacher could cheer them up? But that is as far as it comes, as they just...look at the title they earned while dealing with some shit™, maybe a reporter or something want to interview them because what they did was awesome and their teachers puff their chest with pride over having taught such a prodege... and then they look in the way the other students are taking photos with their loved ones and talking about going to dinner to celebrate....

That, but 6 times.

[hbyrde36]

Life is a Game (and True Love is a Trophy)

Chapter 5

Ch 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 Ch 4 ao3 link

*Eddie - 1986*

As soon as he entered the library, Eddie scanned the room for Chrissy’s familiar strawberry-blonde ponytail. It didn't take long to spot her, and when their eyes met she waved him over to where she sat alone at a table in the back corner.

He took the chair catty-corner to her and set his lunchbox up on the table, unpacking his sandwich right away. He wasn’t surprised to see her sitting there with no food, even though it was lunchtime. He’d noticed she often sat in the cafeteria with nothing in front of her, trying to look like she was too busy talking with her friends to eat. It was worrying, and he wondered if anyone else noticed.

Chrissy smiled, looking at him expectantly as he settled in.

“This might sound weird, but, uh, I've been thinking a lot lately about Steve’s disappearance. Sort of looking into it, actually, and there’s some things that aren't really adding up.” He cringed at himself, already half regretting bringing this up to her at all. “Sorry, I probably sound like a total freak right now”

She shook her head adamantly. “No, Eddie. I think it’s nice. Steve might have been popular, but I don't think he had a lot of true friends, no one who was really there for him. I mean, look at what happened. He’s gone, and it’s like no one cares! His parents never even came home after the school reported him missing, isn’t that awful?”

Eddie blinked rapidly as her words sank in. “Wait, I always assumed his parents were the ones who discovered him missing?”

“No. We’ve been neighbors for years, well, we were neighbors, I guess. As soon as Steve began high school his parents started traveling. They were hardly ever home. It wasn’t until he missed a few days of school that the police got involved.”

“Do you remember noticing anything out of the ordinary in the neighborhood around that time?” Eddie asked.

Chrissy flashed him a weak smile, but quickly dropped her gaze to where her hands rested on the table as she spoke. “I think maybe, yeah. It didn’t seem all that weird at the time, but on Easter Sunday that year, I was sitting on the porch with my mom watching my little sister have an egg hunt in the front yard. I saw Steve come out of his house with a girl. She was young and she had really short hair. I only saw them for a minute, they got right in his car and left. I assumed she was a relative visiting for the holiday or something. Honestly, I was just happy he had someone to keep him company for once. I didn’t realize until the next day that he never came home. I still didn’t think much of it at first, he could have been away for the break or something, but later, when it was announced that he was missing, I knew something was wrong.”

“Did you tell anyone about it?” He had to ask. He could almost understand Nancy being overlooked, but if the police hadn’t interviewed Steve’s neighbors?

“Yea, Hopper came around door-to-door the first day of the search, asking if anyone knew anything. I told him about that day, and the girl. He said he’d follow up, but I don't know if anything ever came of it.”

Eddie recalled Hopper saying things were out of his hands now, that the government was handling it. Had the chief told them Chrissy’s story?

He thought of the photo hidden away in his wallet, but hesitated, wondering if it was safe to show her. She did seem to genuinely want to help, and what harm could it really do.

Eddie glanced around to make sure no one was paying them any attention before pulling the polaroid out and sliding it across the table.

“Is that the girl you saw?”

Chrissy peered down at the picture, eyes growing wide.

“That’s her!” She gasped. “Where did you get this?”

“I think, maybe it's better if I don’t tell you.” Eddie pulled the photo back, quickly tucking it away again. “It wasn’t anything bad, I promise.” He added quickly, not wanting to come off like a creep. “I just don’t want anyone else getting in trouble, so, the less you know the better.”

She reached over and patted him on the hand. “It’s fine, Eddie. I get it.”

“Thanks, and, um, would you mind not telling anyone that I asked you about this?”

She smiled at him warmly. “Your secret is safe with me. I’m just glad someone cares enough to keep looking for him. Steve was a sweetheart deep down, even if he didn’t always show it. “

The bell rang and they both got up. Chrissy could have taken off, but she hovered, waiting for Eddie to gather his things so they could walk out together.

“If you ever want to talk again, I'm here. About this or anything else, ok?”

“Sure thing, Cunningham. I’ll see you around.”

He didn’t know what he’d done to endear himself to the cheerleader, but he was glad for it. Maybe they really could be friends.

-

This was a bad idea, arguably worse than breaking into Steve Harrington's house, but Eddie had spent the whole afternoon thinking over everything he’d learned from Chrissy. It just sounded so odd. Even shitty parents had to show up when their kids disappeared, right? If only for appearances sake, at least. This whole thing about the girl was really gnawing at him too. Hopper was going to be pissed, but at least Eddie was coming right to him with it, and not running wild around town or whatever the fuck everyone was so worried about him doing.

It was weird going into the police station on his own two feet. Eddie always figured his first time inside would involve being hauled in wearing handcuffs, not him walking in voluntarily and politely asking the secretary if he could see the chief.

Hopper was out, apparently, but Eddie wasn’t in a hurry. He didn’t have anywhere to go but home, and this was important. Finally, after about 40 minutes, the man he’d been waiting to see came walking through the door. He frowned down at where Eddie sat and quickly hauled him up by the arm, marching him straight into an office. Hop closed the door and the blinds, which seemed like overkill but Eddie wasn’t gonna call him on it.

“What are you doing here, kid?” Hopper leaned back in his chair, lighting up a cigarette that quickly filled the small room with smoke.

“I know you told me to drop it, but I was talking to Chrissy Cunningham today and…”

Hopper slammed a hand down on the desk. “That’s right. I DID tell you to drop it. So why are you out there interrogating witnesses?!”

“I wasn’t interrogating her. We’re in school together, I bumped into her in the hallway and we got to talking. We’re.. friends.”

The older man almost cracked a smile. “You, Eddie Munson, are friends with Chrissy Cunningham?”

Eddie glared. “Believe me or don’t, chief, I don't care. She told me what she saw. Did you even look for this girl? Try and figure out who she is? Is she missing too?”

Hopper blew out a long plume of smoke, stubbing the cigarette out in the very full ashtray that rested on his desk. “Eddie, you have to let this go. I’m sure you mean well, but you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I may not know what I’m doing but at least I care enough to try!”

“It’s not that I don’t care, kid, it’s out of my jurisdiction. There are things at play here that you don’t understand.” Hopper sighed, massaging his temples. “Look, I think you need to talk to Wayne about this.”

Eddie wrinkled his nose. “Wayne? What does he have to do with anything?”

“I have a lot of paperwork to catch up on. I’d ask if you need a ride home but I saw your monstrosity of a van out in the parking lot.”

It was a clear dismissal. Eddie wanted to keep arguing but knew it would be a waste of time. He stalked out of the office, slamming the door behind him.

-

Eddie got home just in time to catch Wayne before he left for his shift at the plant. He'd gone back and forth about it for the whole drive home, whether he’d mention his visit to the police station or not. Apparently Hopper had made the decision for him. Eddie’s foot was barely in the door when it started.

“Chief called.” Wayne said gruffly. He was standing in the kitchen by the door as if he’d been waiting on Eddie’s arrival. “I thought you were done with this, Ed?”

“Well I'm not!” Eddie snapped.

It was probably a little harsher than his uncle deserved, but Eddie was well and truly pissed off now. How dare Hopper call and rat him out. He was legally an adult for Christ’s sake!

“Do you know what I found out today?” Eddie seethed. “His fucking parents didn’t even know he was gone, Wayne, and once they found out they apparently didn’t give a shit. No one in this goddamn town seems to give a shit!”

“Ed..” Wayne looked taken aback by his attitude, and honestly, Eddie was a little surprised at himself too. He didn’t realize how upset he’d become about the whole thing. He wasn’t sure when his curiosity had become something so much more.

“What if it was me?” Eddie pushed. “Would you ever stop looking if something happened to me?”

“Of course not.” Wayne quickly replied. “But that’s different, you’re my boy.”

Eddie deflated a little at the reminder that maybe it wasn’t his place to do this. Maybe he was overstepping, but he just couldn’t let it go.

“I have to go, i’ll see you in the morning.” Eddie muttered, turning on his heel and straight out the door he’d just come through.

He speed walked to his van, pretending not to hear his uncle calling after him to stop. He needed to get out of there, take a drive, find somewhere to sit and think or something.

-

Eddie had never been a hike through the woods kinda guy. Though he’d never been to one, he always thought of himself as more of a city person. The anonymity that could be had in a place like that, where the population was so enormous, was intriguing. As well as the prospect of said population being a bit more open-minded than their small town counterparts.

He didn’t really know why he stopped at the pull off. The one closest to the trail that would lead him right to Skull Rock. He blamed Dustin and his stupid list for putting the idea in his head. The walk was longer than he expected, and by the time he reached the base of the rock formation, he had to take a seat and catch his breath.

He supposed it was as good a spot as any to sit and sulk about his day. Being in this place did weirdly make him feel close to the missing boy. Just knowing there was a chance that, in another time, Steve might have sat right where he was sitting now. Realistically, he’d probably had a girl here with him at the time, but Eddie decided to ignore that part of it, instead choosing to picture Steve right there, back up against the rock, smoking a cigarette from the pack in his jacket.

It was quiet out there in the woods. Usually Eddie hated the quiet, he’d much rather blow his eardrums out with a good metal mixtape than commune with the sounds of nature, but something about this moment just felt right. Like he’s exactly where he should be for once.

Eventually, it starts getting dark, and Eddie knows he needs to head out soon, otherwise he might have trouble getting back to the van. He decided to have one more smoke before making his way back through the trees. He lit up and pushed himself to his feet, arching his back to stretch until something made a satisfying pop.

The sound echoed, which was weird. Then it happened again, and Eddie realized it was the sound of branches snapping under foot. His heart raced. He didn't know whether to check it out or run in the opposite direction. He stood there, frozen in indecision, until a figure came bursting through the brush.

*Steve - 1985/1986*

El didn’t hide things from Steve anymore, no matter what Brenner said or threatened. Neither of them wanted to risk being caught unaware again, and so they made a promise to each other. No secrets.

It was Christmas 1985 when Steve figured it out. Honestly he felt a little like an idiot for not realizing it sooner, but that was nothing new for him. Feeling like he’s ten steps behind everyone else was kind of his default setting.

Steve had thought this holiday would pass like all the others during their time in the lab, with barely any acknowledgement from the various doctors, scientists, and staff. But Owens, it seemed, was determined to prove he was a good guy, or at least that he wasn’t as bad as the rest of them. He brought in a small 3ft tall christmas tree, which Brenner begrudgingly allowed to be placed in the rainbow room. It had lights but no ornaments. That was fine, Steve taught El how to make paper chains that they draped around it instead.

Since they had no way to buy gifts, Steve and El drew really bad portraits of each other, giggling as they shared them. All while enjoying one last surprise from the doc, a huge thermos full of hot chocolate.

Steve had been sitting on his realization all day, not wanting to ruin the mood when they were actually having a good time for once, But eventually it started getting late, and he knew they wouldn't have long before being forced back to their rooms.

Without a word, he got up from the table they’d been sitting at and moved over to the chess station. It had become their code for when one of them needed to have a serious conversation. One they needed to be sure wasn’t overheard. He waited for her to join him at the board and slowly moved out his first pawn.

“I think I know what Brenner’s doing, what he’s really had you looking for all this time.” Steve said, smiling brightly, the expression not at all matching the grave tone of his words.

Eleven returned his smile, letting them each make a few more moves before she replied.

“He says we are just exploring this new world, and making sure the creatures stay there. Sometimes he asks me to watch people over here though, the ones who speak differently, like at the mall.”

“The Russians, yea. I think that’s mainly about trying to make sure they don’t get ahead of us with technology, and that they're not trying to open another gate. That’s not what I mean.”

“What do you think it is?”

Steve hesitated, suddenly doubting himself. “It might be dumb, I could be wrong.”

She started to reach out to him, almost breaking character, before dropping her hand back down to her side. “You are smarter than you think, Steve. Please tell me.”

“I think it’s Henry. I think Brenner suspects that One is still alive in there and wants you to find him.”

He watched as the idea sank in, as she ran through her mental catalog of every interaction with the lab, every conversation with Papa. “If he is alive, he won’t be the same. He was bad before but if he has been living with monsters all this time…”

“He’ll be so much worse” Steve finished for her.

“Why would they want me to find him?”

“I don’t know. It seems like asking for trouble to me.” Steve would like to think that they wanted to find the guy in order to eliminate him as a threat, but somehow that didn’t sound like a Brenner move.

“What do we do?”

Steve chewed his lip. “Now that you know what you’re looking for, it should be easy to avoid it, right?”

“Yeah, maybe.”

-

A few months passed without incident, and Steve started to relax. Either their plan was working or his theory was wrong. He was glad for it either way.

He was marking the days off on his calendar when he realized they had missed an important milestone. It had been two years since they were caught and taken back to the lab. The anniversary had passed a little over a week before. His heart sank.

Two.

Years.

Two years, and he was no closer to getting them out of there than he was on day one.

Steve wondered if El realized it and just hadn’t said anything, or if she’d be just as caught off guard as he was. He knew she was with Owens today, so he could go see her right now if he wanted to.

It took twenty minutes for him to find a guard available to take him to the right floor, but at least the guy didn’t hover. He let Steve off the elevator and then went back about his business. It had taken some time after his possession for the lab’s personnel to relax around him again, but finally things were getting back to normal.

Steve was almost to the door of Owens’ office when he heard a gut-wrenching primal scream. He knew without a doubt that it was Eleven. He burst through the door, almost crashing into the doctor’s back.

Owens didn’t even turn around, he was staring up at El, who was floating several feet in the air. Blood ran down her face in streaks, and it wasn’t just coming from her nose this time. Her eyes and ears were also bleeding freely. She had one hand raised up in front of her, the same way she did when she needed to really focus her powers. It looked like she was fighting something only she could see.

Steve shook the doctor's shoulders, shouting. “What’s happening? How do we help her?”

The man finally turned, but before he could say a word, El went limp and dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Steve lunged, only half catching her and just barely managing to cushion her fall.

“I don’t know what happened.” Owens said, dragging a hand over his face. “One minute we were talking and suddenly she just stopped responding. Her eyes…”

Steve got a solid grip on Eleven and stood up, cradling her to his chest.

“I should call Brenner.” The doctor murmured to himself. “Steve, can you take her up to the infirmary? I’ll meet you both there as soon as I can.”

He didn’t wait for a response before pulling a chair up and dialing. Something swung from the pocket of a coat sling over the back of the chair, catching Steve’s attention. It was a key card hanging from a retractable lanyard.

Steve didn’t think twice, he snatched it up while Owen's back was still turned and palmed it before walking out the door. He was met in the hall by the same guard who had brought him up. He let the guy take them down to the infirmary, which was on the same floor as his room, as well as the service elevators that he knew went all the way to the ground floor. He had a key, now all he needed was a distraction.

Luck was on their side twice that day, because the moment they stepped off the elevator, the building’s alarm started to go off. The guard pointed, urging Steve to continue down the hall, then he got back in the elevator to go off and deal with whatever was going wrong now.

Steve knew this was their moment, it was now or never, best chance they were gonna get. He ran to his room, El still cradled in his arms. She roused a little and he was able to coax her to wrap arms and legs around him. It would be much easier to run with her that way. He grabbed the bat he still kept next to his desk, it was the best he could do for a weapon.

He ran the length of the corridor, skidding to stop at the other set of elevators. Steve swiped the key card and to his relief the doors opened instantly.

It felt like ages before they reached the ground floor, but in reality it couldn’t have been more than a minute or two. He tapped his foot impatiently the entire way, praying no one was watching the cameras.

The doors slid open and Steve took a tentative step out. Someone spoke nearby and he froze, it was the last voice he wanted to hear in that moment. He thought they were done for. Brenner was facing away from them, but Owens, who he was standing there speaking with, was looking directly at them.

Owens tensed but allowed the Brenner to continue without interrupting. Steve didn't know what to do. He stood there frozen for a handful of seconds until he noticed the doc subtly gesturing towards the emergency exit door with his head.

Steve nodded dumbly and backed toward it, not taking his eyes off the pair of men until they were around a corner and hidden by the wall.

He carefully pushed the door open with his hip. The alarm was already going off, so he didn't need to worry about that, but the metal arm on the door sounded loud to his ears, in his tense and anxious state.

No sooner were they outside, breathing their first mouthful of fresh air in far too long, than the alarm changed pitch, indicating the building was going into lockdown. He’d gotten them out just in time, with not a minute to spare.

Steve took in their surroundings. The building was flanked by trees, which would provide excellent cover for their escape, but it was also completely enclosed by a tall chain link fence. He wasn’t sure how he’d get them both over it.

He shook Eleven gently as he walked towards the perimeter.

“El honey, I need you to wake up. We have to climb the fence and I don't think I can carry you over it. Please…”

She stirred, blinking her eyes open, and threw a hand out towards the barrier. Steve never got used to seeing El using her powers. He watched, slack-jawed, as an unseen force separated the links in a line that went about 7 feet up.

She sagged back against him and Steve squeezed her tight. He curled himself around her as he pushed through the narrow opening, scratching the hell out of his arms in the process, but thankfully leaving her untouched.

-

Steve ran as fast as he could, for as long as he could. He wasn’t in as good a shape as he used to be, the lab didn’t exactly have a gym facility, and El wasn’t as small as she used to be either. He managed as best he could, ignoring the burn in his lungs and biceps, as well as the sting from the scratches that still trickled blood.

When he couldn’t go another step, and felt like they were far enough away, Steve finally stopped to take a break. He carefully set Eleven down on the ground, leaning her up against a downed tree before plopping down next to her to catch his breath.

Steve rested his head in his hands and tried to think. It would start getting dark soon, but he didn’t know where to go. Home wasn’t an option. The lab knew his full name so it wasn’t a stretch to assume they knew his address too. Besides, he’d been gone for two years now, who knew if that house even was his home anymore.

He gasped in surprise when two small hands wrapped themselves around his wrists, pulling them away from his face. He hadn’t heard her wake up. El was looking him over with concern, appearing much more lucid than she had been before.

“You are hurt.” She said, fingers hovering over the smattering of small wounds on his arms.

“It’s nothing, I'm much more worried about you. What happened back there?”.

“It was Henry, One. He.. found me. I was here, and then I was somewhere else. Like the dark place, except it was different.” Her eyes grew more and more haunted as she spoke. “It was awful, Steve. He does not look like a man anymore, but he is not like the faceless monsters either, and he is so angry. He has been trying to find a way out, but every time he comes close I get in the way. It’s been him, this whole time. The creatures are part of him, he’s seen things. He knew your name.”

Steve gathered her up in a crushing hug, both of them shaking. For the first time he’s afraid that running away might have been a mistake. What if Henry tried for her again? He wouldn’t have the first idea how to help, or how to stop it, but the lab...

No, he couldn’t worry about that right now. He needed to find them some form of shelter to at least get through the night.

There was a rough trail not far from where they were resting, and Steve was pretty sure it would lead them to Skull Rock. It wasn’t a perfect solution but it would provide some cover. He hadn’t come at it from this direction before, but it made sense considering the side of town the lab was in. Steve wasn't exactly a boy scout or anything, but he always had a good sense of direction.

El insisted she could walk. Steve tried to protest but it was half hearted at best. He was utterly exhausted.

Steve smiled when he spotted the top of the rock, but slowed his steps as they got closer and he caught a whiff of cigarette smoke. Shit. He hadn’t expected anyone to be out here. He tip-toed closer, trying to make as little noise as possible, but was sure he stepped on a twig or two anyway. He heard the jangle of chains and his heart shot into his throat. Steve could only think of one person in Hawkins who wore chains. It couldn’t be.

He peaked through a small gap in the bushes and spotted a familiar head of dark curly hair. It was a little longer than he remembered, but unmistakable. If the boy was anything like Steve remembered from school, someone who regularly stood up to defend others and had a habit of adopting any outcast he came upon, then he was sure they could trust him to help.

Steve turned, ready to warn El that they had company, but instead, for the second time that day, he was just in time to catch her as she fainted. He knew walking all this way was going to be too much.

He cradled her in his arms and pushed through the last of the brush separating them from the rock.

The other boy went deathly pale, blinking hard several times as he stared at the new arrivals.

“Harrington? Is that really you?”

Steve felt a surge of sympathy for the guy, he knew they must be a sight, covered in blood and dirt.

“Eddie, please. I need your help”

Chapter 6

@penny00dreadful @buckleybarnes @steddie-there @yeahhhh-suga @goinsteddie @brbsoulnomming @the-s-is-silent @paintsplatteredandimperfect @estrellami-1 @herebedragons404 @epiclazershark @iaminmultiplefandoms @adaed5 @mentallyundone @hardboiledleggs @hotshot9 @manda-panda-monium @ellietheasexylibrarian @stxrcrossed186 @5ammi90 @meccaminayah @bestwifehaver @sofadofax

[theneighborhoodwatch]

Found this welcome theory video that i found interesting: https://youtu.be/9Lz6OcILeSc?si=tcPnCX3QC4JmAyC-

Thoughts :3?

(functional link to video)

i tend to avoid youtube coverage of welcome home because i'm petty, but fuck it, it's a new year and i've never actually heard of this youtuber before. i'll give it a shake. liveblog under the cut:

"y'know if it wasn't for the unsettling mysteries, the feeling that somebody is always watching you, and the mold.... i'd wanna live in the neighborhood" that's exactly why the mold and paranoia's so scary babeyyyy

"update number two" Tch.

i'm less inclined to call the writing in this update character development so much as it is just character establishment. especially since before the july 22nd update (bc that's what this video is about) all we knew about the other neighbors was what the WHRP was willing to tell us. i feel like i'm preaching to the choir though.

ok i laughed at the grindset alpha male howdy joke

"now i wanna move onto eddie bc i wanna make a connection between [eddie and howdy]" :D OH DO YOU NOW.

i do love the energy in this video, very infectious. i too have recommended people welcome home solely on the basis that they would have the hots for eddie and y'know what i haven't been wrong yet.

I WAS GONNA SAY SOMETHING ABOUT HOW LIKE. almost all of the characters have that backstory element of having coming from somewhere else before settling down in home, but i see the point about howdy and eddie specifically dealing with stuff that comes from someplace else as like, an actual job. putting a pin in it.

i'm not Sure how i feel about the idea that the world of home/the world in which home exists is Within our world? pretty much from the beginning i assumed it was running on re:creators/deltarune dark world rules (i.e. it is a world that was born from human thought and its existence is dependent on/influenced by our world, but at the end of the day it does exist on like a separate plane of reality) and i still stand by that. barbieland in barbie 2023 is a more apt comparison though.

"possession route" Tch.

ok actually i can't tch at that because i have talked about it in my own posts. TL;DR: i think possession/haunting theory could work but only if it's anything other than actual literal ghosts. as soon as you try to make it FNAF 2 i sleep.

don't have much to say about Real Poppy Lover Hours except emphatic smiling and nodding. although i will say i have seen people use "oh she's more like a mom/aunt/etc.!" as an excuse to sideline her in fanwork bc for some reason some folks think that her having a motherly personality means that she can't be shipped with anyone? even though all of home's residents are adults who aren't even related to each other? that's a gripe for another post, though.

THE CONCEPT OF SALLY BEING AS BIG AS POPPY IS KILLING ME. I PROMISE SHE'S SMALL SHE JUST HAS A BIGASS HEAD. she would want to be big though wouldn't she.

...actually now i want big sally. note to self to draw that later.

i do like the examination of whether or not sally referring to the audience is meant to mean anything. personally i think it's just a bit of wordplay/red herring action but You Never Know!

i misheard "girlboss bossgirl slay" as "girlboss boygirl slay" for like a split second. still fits tbh.

IT'S FUNNY THAT THEY MENTION THINKING THAT THE WHRP IS A SINGLE PERSON bc i do have an ask about that right after this. i'll save my thoughts for that response though.

it's funny that "was the majority of the gang being some form of queer/disabled/nd/etc. planned in-universe" is a question at all bc at the risk of sounding like an asshole it feels so obvious to me that it very much was not. the interview is definitely playing into those themes though.

"them <3" yeah

again. extremely refreshing to see a welcome home video from someone who actually likes welcome home instead of the clicks that covering it will give them.

BARNABY-SANS COMPARISON IS... DISTRESSINGLY APPROPRIATE.

he always knows when to show up, huh.... huh.... i've been trying to break away from being so self-referential ever since welcome home and consequently this blog blew up but. huh...

do i think he's a service dog? i think to answer that question we would first have to answer the question of whether or not he's even a Dog or just Shaped Like A Dog. the laws of his reality say he is a dog, but we can at least guess that even even those can't be trusted. i think it's possible that he may see himself as in service to wally, that he worries about what will happen if he doesn't butt in, but i don't know if this is an objective truth.

"[wally] being so mysterious i don't think is like, him wanting to be mysterious. [...] there just may not be that much about him." and then relating that to how typically protagonists in puppet shows have more subdued personalities than their co-stars so they can be more relatable to the audience. Teehee. (this is positive)

oh there's something kind of poetic about the idea that each bug video ends bc wally's snapped out of his dissociation by one of his friends calling his name when paired with the idea that he's disassociating in part due to his connection with the audience isn't there. being reminded of one's own personhood through your connections with others, and how that has the potential to become more bittersweet the more wally continues to risk it in the process of regaining a sense of purpose as The Audience Surrogate. oogh. that's just me waxing poetic though.

oooh that whole passage about the idea of remembrance and the pursuit of a "correct" story and tying that back into how welcome home in-universe has been almost universally forgotten and the themes of living as a disabled or mentally ill or queer person. beautiful connection.

"hmmm, how much agency do you have in your life actually" AHEHEHE. HEHEHEHE. HEHE.

conclusion: Good Video. thank you for sending it.

[skullsnbruises]

If it's not too late, could you write about giant!ranboo encountering tiny! sbi+tubbo with some nom action and possible fear play? Also, I enjoy your artwork! ^-^

-🧁

Anxiously setting this down because it’s been so long since I got this request I am so sorry

[Ao3 Link]

Taglist: @poprockpanda @brick-a-doodle-do @local-squishmallow @dingbatnix @da3dm

Sleepwalker

(1199 words) [fearplay]

As the sun had set, and Michael was tucked into bed, and Tubbo was off spending time with the others on the server, Ranboo was left alone in their mansion with a certain sorrow in their chest. They were lonely and bored, but it was nighttime, and there was no need for any more activities to take up their day. Sleep would be a distraction from how they felt. Hopefully Tubbo would be back by the morning, and they could plan something like a picnic with their child.

Ranboo stood lonely over their king size bed, wishing for a moment that someone else was there, at least to talk to. They sighed and pushed the feeling down before climbing into bed, tucking themself in under the covers. They shuffled to their side and stared blankly at the wall, ender particles floating around dimly by their head. Slowly, they closed their eyes, drowning in late night thoughts until they dozed off.

When they woke, their brain was crowded with an uncomfortably familiar buzz, something speaking in a language that felt so natural, but so distant at the same time. They watched through their own eyes, as their body moved on its own. Standing up from the bed, kicking off the blankets, staring down at themself. Ranboo felt a dull panic, scared of this feeling but unable to do a thing about it. Something ached of deja vu, but between the amnesia the exact memory was lost.

Though, by the way Ranboo’s legs walked without them, they knew this had happened before. The particles that usually lazed about their head glowed brightly in neon hues of purple, blurring with speed as they circled and danced.

Oh yeah, enderwalking. Or whatever the server were calling Ranboo’s sleepwalk state.

Two toned hands met doorknob after doorknob, until they had left the mansion behind, out in the bitter cold of Snowchester. The country was frozen still as the snowstorm raged, sending icy flakes to battle against Ranboo’s ender particles. The body shivered, and Ranboo wished their sleepwalk state would have grabbed a coat before leaving, but alas. They were useless as they watched, body leaving fresh paw prints in their path, that would only soon be covered with more powdery white, judging by the swirling haze of snow.

‘Where were they going?’ Ranboo questioned as they took an unfamiliar path. The body stepped past into the garden, fields of crisp dead sprouts. ‘Why do we even plant here?’

They were in a clearing now. Plenty of room as the unconscious body stopped dead still. Unmoving, the eyes darted to the side, assuming the space around them. Ranboo was quiet in the back of their mind, viewing the space outside them carefully. It was beautiful, white filling the sky around a masterpiece of the same. The ocean lulled out powerfully against the icy shoreline. Wave after wave crashed, a gorgeous pattern of sound that echoed in the otherwise silent space. Something about winter was gentle and peaceful, silence and serenity. Despite the death of it all, between the lack of wildlife and the sleep of greenery, it was kind. Nature recharging for another year, where life would be brought back once again, a cycle of rebirth and death.

Maybe Ranboo was just tired to think so, though.

The world around them shook all of the sudden, and Ranboo felt anxious, unable to grab something to ground or hold still. Their heart thumped in their ears as they watched the landscape shrink around them. Everything became impossibly small, the frozen dead crops turning into tiny blips in their vision, and the mansion seeming like a dollhouse in scale.

They realized then, with a shocked horror, that the world didn’t shrink. Ranboo had grown. They were now a giant, towering over the infinite space of the server, scale stretched taller than the trees. ‘What is going on??’ They begged to nobody. Ranboo was aware they had powers, but this was unprecedented. They could do small things, like pick up grass blocks, not grow into a giant!

Suddenly, an insatiable appetite wracked through Ranboo’s body, his stomach growling to emphasize its point. His mind raced, demanding to meet his friends. The implications scared him, but they weren’t able to control the urge. They pulled out their communicator, and promptly asked for Tubbo’s coordinates. He returned them, and said he was hanging out with Wilbur, Tommy, Phil, and Techno. Ranboo purred deeply at the thought of more friends.

He quickly made his way over to the location, traveling so much easier with his newfound height, taking long strides over trees and otherwise annoying obstacles. They were making their way along with ease now.

It was only a few moments before Ranboo spotted the group, chatting happily with one another on the prime path. The first person to spot the looming ender hybrid was Tommy, who shouted out a yelp, pointing shakily to the sky. The others turned around and eyes widened. Tubbo faltered, Wilbur’s mouth was left agape, Phil and Techno reached instinctively for weapons, and Tommy was shouting incoherently.

Ranboo couldn’t care, his thoughts chirped away at wishing for his friends and husband. They crouched, movement slow. He cooed at the terrified group.

“Ranboo?!” Tubbo panted out in fear.

That was the last chance he had to speak before Ranboo’s hands came around his husband, and lifted him into the air effortlessly. He dangled his husband above him, opening his mouth with a swipe of his tongue. Tubbo screamed helplessly, before being dropped directly into Ranboo’s mouth. He felt him struggling and fighting against the squishy insides. Ranboo swallowed his husband down with a soft burp.

The others stared like deer in headlights. Too terrified to look away. Phil started to slowly back up, and Ranboo noticed immediately. He grinned and chuckled under his breath, causing tears to form in Tommy’s eyes. Then, their claws came back around, squishing the four into his palms. They laughed maniacally, almost enjoying the sense of fear he was inflicting onto them, the poor things didn’t realize they’d be okay.

His instincts had completely taken them over at this point, as the handful of friends was shoved into his mouth. They swished the bodies around from cheek to cheek, tongue curling around playfully. They felt weak punches from, probably, Tommy. His tongue came around something pointed, weapons. Using the prehensile appendage, he swiped the swords away from the two, and spat them out, the metal clanging against the path.

Then, a simple few swallows led the four down into his stomach. A sudden wave of fatigue washed over the enderman, and they rubbed at their mismatched eyes.

He made his way casually back to the mansion, watching scenically as the land transitioned from grass, to sea, to snow. When their presence was introduced back into Snowchester, they realized they were too giant to go back into the mansion. Upon this mild annoyance, he laid down among the snow, the coldness like a shivering blanket. They wrapped around themself, curling into a comfy little ball, tail curled over his legs.

The struggle inside his stomach amused him, as they dozed off to sleep.

[project-sekai-facts]

have you seen that theory about vbs not being the original owners of their sekai, and if so what are your thoughts about it?

i stared at this post for a few minutes wondering if you were talking about a post that was written by me and then i checked twitter and a post about RADder being the original owners popped up on my fyp so i'm assuming that's what you're talking about (also i realised that my post is. still in my drafts).

i go full pepe silvia under the cut. uh. sorry.

yeah anyway i do agree with that theory. kinda. The Street SEKAI is mentioned multiple times in the initial cards to have been around for a while, though this could be referring to the fact that SEKAI take time to grow before they manifest fully to the owners (think about School and Wonderland SEKAI, which probably took years to reveal themselves). But it could also imply that someone else contributed to the SEKAI before VBS. I actually talk about the theory briefly in that first linked post, so we'll continue from there.

so I don't think it was RADder. And yeah basically my only reason is that they're too old. MEIKO was released in 2006, considering the only date mentioned in the game is (Autumn) 2021, this is after An was born, when RADder was already pretty successful. Also we don't know enough about SEKAI physics to confirm this, but Miku seems to be more important than MEIKO so maybe space-time wasn't broken until 2007, and RADder is probably even more successful at that point because of the CDs they recorded when An was a baby.

the SEKAI just doesn't work in the time frame. What we know is that the Street SEKAI was formed by dreams and aspiration. Which is kinda the case for most SEKAI but Street SEKAI was more specifically formed by the passion its creators have for these dreams. and while RADder had big dreams to be top musicians in the world and was passionate about that, they were like realistically never gonna achieve that, but also they were at a point where they were doing very well and were very successful and on their way there. they didn't really need the help from Miku as much as VBS needs it.

Now the way Nagi talks about some things in Light Up the Fire definitely could be read a certain way, especially when she talks about passing on RADder's dream to the kids in the audience at RW, but I still don't think RADder being the original owners entirely works. Honestly the easiest point to argue for that claim is that the Street SEKAI has a very strong attachment to RAD WEEKEND, which on the one hand could be part of the fact that Taiga very clearly never moved past it and never fully processed the death of his sister, but it makes a lot more sense to be a trait tied to the people who aspire to surpass it. also MEIKO outright says that's why the attachment to RW is there in her initial 2*.

However,

I don't think it's entirely out of the question for some of the other side characters to have an influence over the Street SEKAI. As I've mentioned, the SEKAI has a strong attachment to RW, and all of them have the same goal of surpassing the event. Also the 4 older VSingers in the SEKAI (MEIKO, KAITO, Luka, Miku) all takes traits from the members of RADder. Which makes a lot of sense for the main mentor figures in the SEKAI to be based on the people that the kids look up to.

There is an argument to be made though that they gave up on their dreams to easily. In LUTF, Taiga decides to crush all their dreams and Tatsuya (+ his group), Arata and Kotaro all leave, like, they just give up while (an admittedly very shaken) VBS sticks with their dream.

Tatsuya and EVER leave because all this time they'd been just carrying on until they eventually saw victory, but after taking a beating from Taiga, they realised that there's some things that you won't be able to overcome and give up.

Arata leaves because even though he has skill, Taiga was able to get through to his weakness - Souma. Taiga realises that Arata has experienced a similar loss and grief to he did, and although Arata is trying to carry Souma's dream on his behalf, Taiga knows from experience that Arata is just clinging on to Souma's dream as a way of coping with his loss, rather than actually trying to uphold it (basically he calls him selfish). Arata isn't able to argue back, feels a lot of guilt over that, and leaves.

Kotaro is like. particularly interesting and also most eligible for Miku therapy. He's genuinely really scared and overwhelmed by Taiga's challenge, and gives a poor performance when he has to stand up to him, and straight up gets called shit and weak by Taiga and the audience. Dead serious. Afterwards he literally has a breakdown, calls himself an idiot for not being able to sing and then goes on about how he's shit at everything and apologises because should've given up ages ago because all he's ever done is drag everyone else down before literally running away and DAMN do I hope he gets development on that in the Toya event.

all things considered i'd honestly say that all of them to some degree could've contributed to the formation of the SEKAI, Souma included (honestly he seems the most passionate about it even though he was forced to give up). all of them were passionate about it but then there's always the fact that they all gave up really easily, although they were reluctant. that said, toya did the same thing in the main story so...

Although,

There's still an argument that the Street SEKAI was just formed by the four of VBS, and Kohane was just the final piece of the puzzle that made it reveal itself. Three passionate people who are wholeheartedly devoted to their dream and one ordinary girl who wants to do something that she can dedicate herself to and feel passionate about. inverse MMJ if you will. fate is probably canon in project sekai also like i've mentioned this a few times before so that could play a part in all this.

but come to think of it, the sekai doesn't even reveal itself to Akito and Toya until really late in the main story. supposedly they still heavily influenced it but that's a bit... odd? don't you think? like the only other times that happens is N25 and WxS, wherein the SEKAI was made by only one person and let the others in later, but this was a SEKAI that was supposedly made by all 4 of them. so if you think about it hard enough, could the street sekai maybe do that again?

Also,

Nagi is very important to the VBS story and lore despite the fact that she was very obviously written in much later in development. Going back to the fate thing, at RW she states that since RADder is over and she's over, she now has a new dream, that being that she wants the next generation to be inspired by what they achieved and carry on their legacy. While when she says that, she's talking about An and Akito in the audience at RW, it's stated multiple times that the "next generation" includes all of VBS, and all the side characters. so yeah, the fate thing. I doubt the game will ever do anything about it since they're side characters, but I think it can be argued that they contributed to the SEKAI a bit.

i wrote this in so many increments and in the wrong order and now it lacks any cohesion whatsoever and i have no idea what i'm even saying at this point and i think i sort of proved it and disproved it simultaneously but like. yeah. it's an alright theory. i have some thoughts on it.

[strawberry-fields-things]

Btw just so you know cellbits ex never said to not talk about him being an abuser she feels people are trying to silence her.Not surprised tho Quackity Stan’s love to deflect, that’s what y’all do, that what y’all stay forever doing. I’m glad I grew out of his content after he added that weirdo, maybe you should too. At least ya stopped supporting a pedophile shows you have some common sense.

i’m only gonna be replying to this ask of the three you sent. if you actually wanna talk instead of just sending anonymous hate, you can message me.

that being said, tw for abuse:

i’m going to assume you’re only from the english-speaking community when it comes to minecraft content, if i’m wrong, please do correct me.

the issue the spanish speaking community (and i’m guessing the portuguese speaking community as well, though i don’t really consume their content so i won’t be speaking for them) has had for a while with the english speaking community is that people tend to be a lot more toxic in the latter. you’re speaking of this whole issue AS IF this is brand new information that has just been uncovered.

cellbit HAS BEEN a streamer (one of the originals for the brazilian community) for a WHILE. the english speaking community didn’t just “find out he was an abuser before anyone else did”. this whole controversy you’re bringing up right now HAS BEEN RESOLVED by the portuguese-speaking community A WHILE BACK.

the video you’re talking about of sasa talking during an ig live (which i’m guessing that’s the one, because it’s the one floating around twitter— if it’s a different one, you can link me it) is taken completely out of context— and i know this sounds like a way to deflect the accusations, so i’ll explain why:

the ig live was SIX YEARS AGO

sasa afterwards said that she was overwhelmed and later explained so people would stop.

the clip floating around twitter of her live? yeah, it’s been mistranslated on some instances to intentionally mislead — (as far as i can tell; again, i’m not a fluent portuguese speaker, so i might make some mistakes. but i’ve seen a fair share of brazilians saying it’s mistranslated to english).

now, if you do care about cellbit’s ex-girlfriend sasa (who, by the way, in none of the asks you have mentioned by name) and not just about shitting on content creators, i think you would care to know she has stated multiple times that she wants to MOVE ON. so in the process of shitting on quackity and cellbit, you’re making sasa relive something she’s stated multiple times SHE’S TRYING TO LEAVE BEHIND. both cellbit and sasa have agreed (5-6 years ago, when this was happening) that they were both trying to move on and consider it a “finished matter”.

as i stated on my last post (and something you seem to either have skipped over/ignored) cellbit has also stated he has been going to therapy for the past four years to improve himself. he has a new girlfriend named lore (lor-eh, not lour) and people from both his life AND his community have stated that they have noticed the change in him during the past four years.

i would like to say this again: for someone trying to resurface pretty heavy accusations, you don’t seem to care for either cellbit’s ex-girlfriend sasa OR cellbit’s current girlfriend lorena (who i believe is a streamer?). here what lore posted RECENTLY on twitter:

and if you understood portuguese, you would see that the entire comment section of this same tweet is brazilians just being confused as to why this is even being brought up by “gringos” again when this whole situatuion was ‘resolved’ during 2013 (i put resolved between ‘’ because abuse is never something that is solved from one day to another— it’s a healing process that takes time).

(found this tweet that basically sums up what i mentioned before of being a member of the hispanic/brazilian community and watching english-speaking fans attempt to stir up old problems :/ )

(ps: you keep saying you outgrew dream/quackity’s content, but here you are making beef with a former dsmp/qsmp blog 🙂?)

[trainsinanime]

WIP reblog game

I got tagged by @chaos-has-theories and @into-september. Sorry for the delay in doing this, I just forgot about it.

If you're like me and you have a million WIPs and are anxious about updating them, play this game!

List the titles your top five priorities for WIP updates (link your fics for new readers!)

An upcoming scene, event, or detail in each fic that you're looking forward to writing

Bonus: make a poll for your followers to vote on which top 5 WIP they are most excited to see an update on!

Then tag 10 writer friends!

Let's start with the stories. So, I don't trust myself with multi-chapter stories, it takes me forever to write one-shots already, so (almost) none of these are out yet. You can read the ones that are out over here.

Operation Multifail. Three-chapter story where Marinette tries to convince Chat Noir to stop thinking about Multimouse by fighting as Multimouse, badly, on purpose, so he'll think she's incompetent. It doesn't quite work out.

Kwamidaddy Adrien. Assumes Marinette is the guardian. For reasons, Chat Noir has to take the Kwamis for a while. They all promised not to tell him anything about her private life. Shouldn't be a problem, right? This one may also end up being like three chapters

Chlogami Sabrina's Wedding. I think I posted a rough outline for chapter one here: It's Sabrina's wedding, and drunk Chloé confides in also-drunk Kagami about her complicated relationship to Sabrina, how she's happy for her but also jealous but also knows that because of their baggage, it could never work, while Kagami also has feelings about Adrien's and Marinette's upcoming wedding. I have like half a first draft of a first chapter here and absolutely no clue where this might go next.

Wings AU - Learning to Land. So there's a wings AU concept for Miraculous that keeps coming up every now and then. A bit too angsty for me, but when I first heard it, I thought it was a fun idea to talk about aerodynamics and world building in that context, specifically where Marinette teaches sheltered Adrien how to fly.

Plagg Interview. Now we're deep in the dregs, I picked a folder at random. Alya publishes interviews with someone close to Chat Noir's thinking. That someone: Plagg, who has been bribed with cheese. Marinette is not happy, but she can't say anything because Alya can't learn she's Ladybug. Yeah, this one's been sitting in my folder for a while. As have the others. Probably a one-shot.

Stuff I'm looking forward to in each fic:

The whole thing is based around big action set pieces. Three big Akuma fights, one in each chapter, which Marinette tries to fail at in different ways, and fails to fail, so to speak. I have no idea how to write these well, but I think that can be fun. Super-unpopular opinion: Fanfiction has way too much angst and romance and not enough action, and I'm definitely part of the problem myself.

Adrien interacting with the Kwamis who imprint on him as their father should be really adorable. As should the Kwamis trying their best to get Adrien and Marinette to marry (without revealing too much (they will reveal too much)).

Writing the banter between Chloé and Kagami is fun. I want to write more of it. I can definitely see someone taking that concept and turning it into, for lack of a better word, "normal long fic"; you know, thirty chapters, misunderstanding, they take a trip for a few chapters and return, so on and so forth. I'm not doing that, I don't have the work ethic and it's not actually my favourite genre of fanfic anyway. But what else could this story be? Figuring that out is an interesting challenge.

Aerodynamics! Learning to land! How do you learn to fly in a Wings AU? What does "rich kids aren't allowed to fly" mean for the world building? I don't have a story here at all but I do like the setting.

Plagg and Alya scheming together should be gold. Plagg trying to barter with a Marinette who can't reveal she's the Guardian has also a lot of comedic potential. Plagg trying to teach both of them how much Adrien needs them could be very emotional. Just Plagg.

Also, do you have any title ideas for any of these? I think Operation Multifail is good, the rest are just literally the file names I chose when I started with these projects.

I am tagging, very much at random, @sizzleissues, @pauliestorylover, @oblivionhold, @wrw47, @precious-notes, @kyuunonana, @aidanchaser, @aanabear2803, @valtionrautatiet-official and @cosmiccarrotcake. The requirement for inclusion was "I found you in my activity view in the past three months", so if you don't know what fanfic is, or don't feel like doing this, do feel free to ignore this.

[archivalofsins]

So uuuh I remembered you mentioning in a Mikoto post how Orekoto seems to refers to Haruka as just "Haruka" whereas boku-Mikoto calls him "Haru-kun". And earlier I was going back through all the Minigrams and in episode 34, Mikoto uses "boku" (僕) AND calls Haruka just "Haruka" so I wanted to know if you had any kind of thoughts on this because atp I'm just lost 😭

The explanations I can think about are : 1) the two alters were co-fronting so the two alters ways of talking mesh together 2) Orekoto just has had an influence on Mikoto as a whole and now Mikoto also adresses Haruka as "Haruka" in general instead of "Haru-kun" 3) it's actually Orekoto fronting but he's"masking" by taking on the host's manners

I guess it's not that big of a deal but it still bugged me slightly and since first heard of Mikoto's alter showing up in Minigram through your blog I thought I'd ask

Yeah, I re-blogged something recently that brings up that idea it's not the first thing to though. Many people have pointed it out over the course of Milgram. I'm assuming the post you're referencing is this one here.

To keep a long story short like you said in your follow up ask I did not write that I just re-blogged it from someone else.

Edit: I have since taken down that reblog and as such have linked to the original post above instead. I prefer not being asked why I did that. (I've also edited this again to fix formatting and spelling errors. 08/22/23)

Again, I'm assuming what you're referring to is this part,

There are other verbal differences between how Mikoto and the other one speaks. Mikoto proper referring to Haruka as Haru-kun is one of the more obvious ones.

We see this illustrated throughout the portal timeline repeatedly,

20/06/05

Haruka: Ah…… ah, u-um, Mikoto-san. The c-communication……? thing, that you were saying was important I-I thought, I’d give it my best…… Um, so, Mikoto-san, what’s your favourite food……?

Mikoto: Ooh? Nice going, Haru-kun~ Yeah, we still have no idea how long this lifestyle will go on for, so it’s best if we all get along together here. My favourite food…… I like pasta and horse-meat sashimi. Also bubble tea, and recently I’ve been big on custard puddings. What about you?

Haruka: ……ah, I, I wonder…… H-hamburg steak, and omurice, a-and also…… what else? Ah. Cotton candy……

Mikoto: C-cotton candy!? That’s the first time I’ve met someone who has that in their top three favourites!? ……man, Haru-kun, you really are hilarious.

22/10/06 (Mikoto’s Birthday)

Haruka: Mikoto-san. Um, are you ok……?

Mikoto: Ah, Haru-kun. It's been a while since we last talked, huh. Yeah, I'm fine. Are you doing ok......?

Haruka: Ah, I’m fine. I’ve been enjoying myself, a lot. Um, I’m sorry, for avoiding you. I was a bit scared. Of you, honestly……

Mikoto: Ahhh, yeah. I’ve been lashing out whenever I go to sleep, right? ……it’s fine. Even I think you’re right to be scared. You know, I kinda just hate that I don’t even know what’s going on myself…… haha. Ah, but despite all that you still came and talked to me because it’s my birthday, right? Thank you, you’ve grown into a good man.

Mikoto is also the one shown and stated to be the one who gives other people nicknames. He is shown doing so off the bat with Mahiru.

20/05/25

Mikoto: ……I’ve really got caught up in some trouble, huh. What even is this place? It’s probably a TV reality show or something. ……but to think someone in this day and age would try to do a project that could land them in so much trouble. Uh……

Mahiru: Ah…… I’m Shina Mahiru! You can just call me Mahiru. And you are……?

Mikoto: Kayano Mikoto. I’m fine with just Mikoto too. Ahh, I’m glad there’s someone here who’s easy to talk to…… It’s nice to meet you, Mappy.

Mahiru: ………… ……Mappy???

He's also the one to refer to the prisoners by nickname in his first trial Interrogation.

"See? Like, Yun-chan and Mucchan, are just high school girls, Haru-kun looks like someone who can't hurt a fly, and Futa would be an umbrella thief at worst."

And states this when asked about it during his first trial interrogation,

Q.09 Why do you give everyone nicknames?

Mikoto: I guess it became a habit when I was at university. Having a nickname for someone that only you call them comes with a lot of advantages, do recommend.

Even though it seems to follow the rules stated within the other post this is not some hard rule. It is just an observation.

We've seen in Milgram through other prisoners that they can switch up honorifics or not use them at their discretion. Just as people in real life can. For example, Yuno with Mu.

Yuno went from only referring to Mu by her name to using chan over the course of Milgram,

20/06/04

Yuno: Huh, so you go to that high school. So, you are from a rich family then~! I mean, you already gave off that vibe though. What year are you in?

Mu: First year…… Kashiki… san…… you’re older than me, right?

Yuno: Yeah, I’m in third year. But you can just call me Yuno, I don’t really like the stuffy formalities. It doesn’t really matter who’s older and who’s younger. If you squint, we’re basically the same age anyway.

Mu: ……fufu, what’s with that? But ok…… I’ll call you Yuno from now on.

Trial 2

Q.11 Which of the other prisoners do you get along with least?

Haruka: I don’t dislike Amane anymore. I’m not scared of small children now

Yuno: I wonder; the ones that are painful just to watch are Haruka and Mu-chan.

The use of honorifics is highly circumstantial. In Minigram 34 Spoiled,

Mikoto is doing a mock job interview where referring to someone by kun might just be contextually inappropriate or disrespectful for the environment he's attempting to simulate. So, he reasonably drops it.

A lot of the Milgram characters do what many people where I'm from would refer to as code switching. Basically, changing their language to fit the environment. People in general do this a lot in their everyday lives. People who are incapable of doing this or have difficulties doing it can run into social issues.

So, to put it simply given the topic he rightfully wouldn't refer to him as kun. He also doesn't refer to the others by name at all. Something common in job interviews, at least group ones.

The best way to come to a simple conclusion is to ask simple questions.

If they could co-front why would Milgram have any issues restraining the other Mikoto or even be unaware of their presence until after trial one? It is likely that there are other prisoners who have dissociative disorders, and their cases haven't been as difficult as Mikoto's. So, from that we can infer that if Mikoto had a more interconnected system or was even aware of the other then Milgram would have been able to better account for their presence.

The other Mikoto having more of an impact on the usual Mikoto would allude to the progression of time when it has been stated by Yamanaka that the Minigrams take place during trial one only.

A bit of a more accurate translation (still not completely accurate though),

"The minigrams are basically going to remain in the first trial timeline forever. It will remain in a relaxed, relaxed manner. There is a lot going on in the main story, but please rest assured to enjoy it."

Although since you can read the minigrams this is more for my benefit.

Because this is the case we will not be seeing any of the prisoners who have injuries with those injuries within the minigrams. This is perfectly displayed through the state we Mahiru is in within the minigrams in comparison to her state within Milgram currently,

Being able to jump rope despite needing a wheelchair in canon.

Since the minigrams take place during trial one chances are Mikoto is still unaware of the other's presence. It isn't completely impossible for the other's presence to be subconsciously impacting Mikoto, but I personally don't think it would be enough to change his way of speaking. Especially if this is all taking place over the course of trial one.

There are much more definitive ways to tell when the alter is in the minigrams the use of ore is one of them. However, just referring to Haruka as Haruka and not Haru-kun is a bit too skewed by circumstantial and contextual factors for me to consider it a reliable indicator.

Something your question has brought to attention here.

This is why I don't use that as the only indication of which personality is out myself. There are a lot of subtle mannerisms verbal and non-verbal that indicate which one is out currently and who has been out the longest. All these details come together to make Mikoto and his situation far more realistic in my opinion.