#i got half life and half life 2 and fallout 4

[zmbieprty]

AHHHH AHHHH!!!!!(the sound of my brain being activated via cosmic radiation)

[its-in-the-woods]

Coyote Head - Part 7 - Bloodied Kiss

master list

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Pairing: Cooper Howard x Lucy Maclean 

Includes many other characters from Fallout

Synopsis: The nightmares are finally catching up to Lucy.

MINOR GET OUT. Rating/Warning:  Animal/people death, Blood, Gore, Body Horror,Violence, Nightmares, Monsters, Alternative Universe, Slow Burn, Death, Aging, Family Feuding, Older Man/Younger Woman

Note: that I will not be spoiling any of the reading. So you have been warned. I will keep my tags relevant without spoiling what is happening in the story.

*Mind the tags

*This had been clawing at my mind for dayssssss I needed to post it early or I was going to explode

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As the dust of the car faded, Lucy felt her shoulders drop, it was barely past mid-day and she was already feeling worn out. She was proud of herself, for not backing down and holding her ground. Max had been the first boy she’d really fallen for, and it sucked it had ended the way it did. It was time for her to move forward, to let that part of her life go. Move onto what was coming next for her, hopefully, something that won’t end as tragic.

Lucy turned to her two companions as they started to move, happy that they had stood at her back despite having no idea what was going on. She gave a weak smile at the two, trying to shake off the lingering feeling of dread.  

“Ya’doing okay?” Cooper asks as he moves towards her, the way the afternoon sun shone on his skin making her heart speed up. Her eyes unabashedly went over his body, the man was well-toned. The day-to-day work is evident on the hard lines of his muscles covering him; a crooked grin on his face when Lucy finally catches her eyes. 

Lucy glances away, as Dane grins at her, “Yeah, just, wasn’t expecting him to show up. Ever.”

“Well, shirtless. Could I get a hand movin’ some stuff around to get the mower.” Dane chuckles, Cooper smirking at the comment, the tips of his ears going pink. Lucy smiling at the two ribbing each other.

“Yeah, I can help the greasemonkey,” Cooper throws back, with raised eyebrows. “Shirt got wet. But pipes should be fine.” He said just loud enough for them to hear.

“Sure it did,” Dane rolls their eyes as turning to head to the other shed. Cooper gives them a sideways glance before following, a smile on his lips as he looks back at Lucy.

“I will go turn the water back on for the house,” Lucy chirps, her face was going to be stained beet red at this point. She was feeling happy that she had friends like these.

***

Lucy is once again sitting on the counter, the pipes are now running without leaks. Cooper had actually laid in water, which had given Lucy an excuse to toss his shirt into the dryer. She’d take any excuse to see the man move around her home and property shirtless. Dane had teased him endlessly about it much to Lucy’s amusement. Dane had taken off about an hour ago with the promise to come back on Monday to continue the work. Lucy had half a mind to figure out how to keep them on a more permanent basis. Something she’d run by Harris, see if it was worth doing, and if Dane wanted to stay of course. 

Cooper walks in, putting the caulking gun down beside the sink. He’d decide after finishing the pipe to fix up several issues around the sink. Lucy was positive she could have figured it out but Cooper was insistent. Really who was she to refuse the offer from a shirtless cowboy in her kitchen. She hands him a beer, he pops the top off with a ring on his middle finger. Lucy adds that to the list of things she found way too hot. 

“I can make up some dinner?” Lucy offers, she was pretty sure she could find something worth eating in the freezer. She also needed to make sure that she got Cooper some tallow too.

Cooper leans against the counter right beside her, taking a sip of the beer. Lucy can’t help but watch how he drinks it. “If ya don’t mind. Grandparents are taking the kidlets to d’pool and pizza after. Figured, we’re going to have a long day. ”

Lucy couldn’t help the smile that crosses her face, liking the idea of the two of them having an evening just for them. “Were you planning something, Cooper?”

Cooper’s sliding over so that he was leaning against Lucy, “Well, I was goin’ to ask ya out Ms. MacLean, but ya kinda jumped me.”

Lucy's head tipping back in a laugh, taking another sip of her beer. The two of them looked the other over, her eyes trying to memorize the way he looked out of his shirt.  “I don’t seem to remember you complaining,”

The man puts his beer down shifting so he is standing in front of Lucy, she swallows under his gaze. He leans forward putting a bare arm on either side of her, eyes wandering up her body, their face just inches from each other. Lucy’s breath catches in her chest as his hazel eyes stare into hers. 

“M’no, I certainly didn’t.” Cooper hushes, leaning forward to kiss her again. Lucy can’t help the little whine that escapes as she pushes back against him. Her hands ran up his arms, feeling his muscles twitch under the attention. He tastes so good, their tongues finding the other as they pull each other closer.

Her hands come up to cup his face, his hands resting on her thighs, fingers gripping against the flesh there. Lucy lets her legs open so that Cooper can move closer to her. He breaks the kiss, moving down along her jaw, small kisses down her neck. Lucy whimpers as he licks down her neck, his large hands rucking up her shirt. The callous on his fingers makes her body vibrate as he touches over her skin. 

“Cooper,” Lucy whimpers, her hands running up into his hair, as his hands cup her breast through her bra. “M’maybe we should-” His head ducks down, mouth going along her stomach. It feels so good, but it’s so fast. “Cooper, we shouldn’t-”

His teeth sink into her flesh, “Fuck- Ow- Cooper-” Lucy tries to pull him away but he bites in deeper, Lucy can feel her skin tearing. The sound of teeth in flesh, the wet sticky pop, her face twisting in a grimace. 

Lucy is scrambling, a scream finally leaving her throat at the pain, trying to get him off of her. “Stop. Stop-p it.” Lucy cries out, her hands finally pushing him off of her. The skin is not skin anymore, but rough and lizard-like under her hands. Cutting into her palm as she does her best to get it off of her. 

It’s not Cooper. Looking up at her, with blood painting its chin like a crimson river, is something that looks like Max. Its features are the same, but eyes instead of brown glow like orange flames, skin darker than shadows. Skin Covered in layers and layers of never-ending shifting scales that move in the light. A bloody grin spreads across its face. There are too many teeth, so sharp, in neverending rows, the pink spit glistening as it grinned up at her. Stomach oozing blood over her pants and dripping on the floor. 

“Just wanted a taste.” It growls at her, suddenly lunging forward to latch onto her neck.

Lucy is howling and fighting to get it off her struggling, as she falls to the floor. Her body protested as she hit the ground with a thud, the whole room going dark. She is pushing and struggling, but it’s soft now. Her hands are not grabbing at scales but material, eyes adjusting to the new surroundings. She was on the floor of her bedroom; chest heaving as she tries to make sense of where she was, and how she got there. 

Pushing the blanket off of her, she takes in the room around her. Her bedroom, she had fallen off the bed and landed on the floor. Lucy flips on the light and looks down, pulling up her shirt to look at her stomach. Hands running over where there should be torn tissue, before going up to her neck. Nothing. 

It had felt real, she could still feel the way it’s teeth had dug into her, the pain that had shot through her body. Looking at the bed Lucy expected to see blood, expected to see something. Throwing off the sheets there was nothing but sweat stains. 

Lucy collapsed onto the floor, her body trembling at the memory. It looked so much like Max, but it was all wrong. His face had been too round, eyes too far apart, hair too spiky, so many teeth. The eyes, orange fire-filled eyes, glowing like embers burning into her soul like hot ash on ice. Her hands scramble to the side of her table gabbing for her phone. 

For the first time, she doesn’t hesitate, hitting Cooper’s number. Pressing the phone to her ear, she hadn’t even looked at the time.

***

Cooper was there in a matter of minutes, Lucy opening the door for him, still in a state of shock. He had immediately gathered her up into his arms, hugging her tight against his chest, refusing to let her go until he got her over to the couch. He had her sit, covering her with several blankets, before moving into the kitchen. A hot cup of coffee with hot chocolate was put in front of her, along with some toast. He slid in beside her, bundling her up and tucking Lucy into his side. Her hands wrapping around him as she shivers, her whole body felt like it was frozen.

“You doing okay, sweetheart,” Cooper murmurs, his voice rumbling against the side of her head. Lucy could feel herself melting into his side, wanting to find some way to stay there forever.

Lucy swallows, nodding, “Just-” She wasn’t even sure how to put it all into words. It wasn’t exactly normal to have eighties horror movie dreams every night. “Nightmares have been really bad.” 

Cooper rubs his hand down her arm, Lucy lets her eyes close for a moment and enjoy the comfort.“How often have you been having them?”

Lucy snuggled in closer, reaching for the coffee mug and taking a sip. The warm caffeine and chocolate drink heating her insides. “Since the house got ransacked, it’s been nightly.”

Cooper’s chest grumbles at the words, arms somehow pulling her closer to him. “What was it about?”

“I don’t, I-” Lucy takes a sip of more coffee, before telling him what she’d dreamt about. Not skipping any details, the warmth of the coffee and his body made it easier to get it off her chest. 

Cooper hums, he takes his hat off, setting it beside him on the couch, hand running into his hair. He scratches at the stubble for a second. “Well, that wasn’t the dreams I’d hope you’d have of me.”

Lucy smacks his stomach at the joke, a small smile passing on her lips at the jest, “You think I like this? I’d much prefer no dreams, or well other dreams.”

Cooper grins, Lucy pouting a little, as he chuckles, “No, I don’t think that, I do worry about the nightmares. Can’t ‘member the last time I had a night-terror. Why you’re tired all the time?”

She nods, her eyelids weighing heavy despite the coffee and mind-bending visions.“I feel like I am losing my mind, Cooper.” 

“You’re not goin’ crazy, I think ya need sleep. Maybe some time away.” Cooper mumbles into her ear, pushing hair out of her face. “Why don’t ya let me take ya to my home.”

Lucy’s brows furrow, she didn’t want him to leave, but she also felt like she should stay. Why did she want to stay? The nightmares never stopped her, the shadows, the taping, the knocking? Yet the thought of leaving made her stomach turn, but when Lucy left she felt lighter. 

“You promise you don’t think I am going crazy?” Lucy whispers, wondering how much he would believe. How much did she even believe? None of this made sense, not really. 

He shifts so he can look right at her, eyebrows making his forehead wrinkle.“I promise I don’t think’ya’re goin’ crazy. Anymore than am goin’ crazy.”

“I feel like I am supposed to be here, even with all the nightmares, the shadows, the house being tossed. I keep comin’ back.” Lucy states, her fingers fiddling with the edge of the blanket. Saying it out loud made it seem even more ridiculous than it had in the confines of her mind.

Cooper nods, placing the mug on the coffee table, hand running up and down her arm more. “It’s not surprisin’, this place is your home. It’s where ya grew up.”

“It’s not just that,” Lucy said, sitting up a bit, clutching at the mug, trying to hold onto some shred of reality. “It’s like something is pulling me here. Like I can’t leave.”

“So, leavin’ would probably be wise,” Cooper replies, his hand finding hers. “You’re sleep-deprived, runnin’ on fumes, Lucy. We have a spare room ya can stay in. Until ya can catch up on sleep, have a better view on thin’s with a clear head.”

Lucy sat back, the thought of being off the farm made her stomach twist, but she also needed sleep. Actual sleep sounded amazing, to not feel like she was burning at both ends. 

She nods her head finally. “Yeah, maybe I do need to leave.” 

***

Lucy was sitting at her family's dinner table, watching the kids outside to play on the deck. She had slept most of the day away, her exhaustion not feeling nearly as pressing as it usually did. The spring air was warm today, the hints of summer shifting in the air. She’d slept most of the day, Cooper had brought her to his place at about three am, the two tiptoeing upstairs. Initially, he’d offered her the spare bedroom, but after opening the door and seeing a pile of laundry, his room was the next best. Cooper had insisted on sleeping downstairs, despite Lucy’s best attempt to get him to stay. Traumatizing the children wasn’t high on her list. She was a little peeved he hadn’t woken her up, but she was also grateful for the extended rest. 

Stephanie sat down across from her, glancing out at the kids. They were running back and forth across the deck, possibly paying tag. “How’s it going, Lucy.”

“I am doing okay,” Lucy lies, there was no reason anyone needed to know any more about her problems. “Did you ever talk to Betty?”

“Oh! Yes, Betty.” Stephanie smiled, digging through her phone. “I sent her the photos.” She lets out a sigh, “Unfortunately no dice. Seems like it’s still a mystery.”

“Dang was hopin’ we’d get somethin’ more,” Cooper said, sitting beside Lucy. She desperately wants to crawl onto his lap and fall asleep, but instead, she shuffles a little closer. Steph watching the two of them closely, one eyebrow up. 

“Yeah. probably something diggin’ like you said.” Steph says, shutting her phone off and leaning back into her chair. “Had any more weird stuff happen?” 

Lucy shook her head, not wanting to get into the details, “Nope, hoping it stays that way really.” 

Bert sat down beside Steph leaning in to give her a quick kiss, “Y’all heard about the Roths.”

Cooper and Lucy looking at each other, shaking their heads. It wasn’t like they had had a free moment lately.

“Last night something came and killed two calves. Did some damage to some of the cows too.” Bert sighs, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. “Like we needed more loss this year.”

Lucy's mind ran over the property map. The Roth's had a section leased from her that was back half on parkland and half onto her farm. There was also the nightmare last night.

“Which section was it?” Lucy asks, already knowing the answer.

“The section southwest of your place, actually,” Reg's brows furrowing. “Weird huh.”

“Do you know what time?” Cooper asks, his hands taping at the table.

Lucy realizing that Cooper was also putting two and two together. 

“Not sure, I know it was overnight.” Reg replied, “Why? Something happened with you guys too?”

Lucy swallowed, her hands going to cover her stomach. The feeling of her flesh ripping out, the haunting image of its eyes, the sound of its voice. 

“Nothing of note, we did have a mummified calf. But Barry figures it was just a bad pregnancy.” Cooper shrugs, the action supposed to be of disinterest, but his shoulders stay tight. Lucy is happy that he didn't bring up her nightmares until she got some more sleep it wasn’t worth mentioning. Right? 

“Maybe it's the weird spring. Warming up too fast. Animals reacting to it,” Steph adds, her hand covering Reg's. Her eyes looking between the two of them. 

Cooper is up and moving as the sliding door opens, Mathias holding a frog in his hand. The little boy had a grin from ear to ear as he holds it up to show his Dad the little critter he'd found.

“Can't bring it in here, buddy. Why don't we go take it to the pond,” Cooper tells him with a smile, petting the little creature his son held up. Lucy smiling as the two wander out of sight.

“So how long you two-” Steph raises an eyebrow, with a cheshire smile,

“Been a thing?” 

Lucy’s cheeks burn at the words, not realizing how obvious she had been. “No. Well. Yes. But not that long. Didn’t realize I was that transparent..” 

The couple chuckle, Steph smiling at her cousin, as she squeezes Reg’s hand. Free hand waving at Lucy as if it was nothing.

“You both need a little light in your lives,” Reg states smiling at Lucy, before looking at his wife. 

“Keeping things quiet for now. Haven't really talked about it much.” Lusy confesses, Marge coming over to sit at the table.

“Keeping what quiet hon?” Marge questions, holding a cup of tea in her hands. Cooper comes back in through the sliding door, walking over and kissing Lucy on the cheek. Marge chuckles and makes an ahh sound, Lucy doing her damndest not to slide under the table. 

“As long as you're both happy,” Harris says, patting Lucy on the shoulder. Lucy having a hard time keeping her cool, it wasn’t as if they’d put a label on things. They’d kissed once for crying out loud.

“Could I speak to you for a moment, Lucy?” Harris asks, kissing Marge on the top of her head before moving towards the hallway.

“Absolutely,” Lucy smiles, looking back at Coope who nods before following her Uncle into the big house. 

Down past the bedrooms a door leads into a well-lit office, the far wall has three large windows that face out into the backyard and forest line. A large old desk sat in the middle, along with several large filing cabinets and bookshelves. The room was bright against the dark wood, space big enough for two large overstuffed chairs beside the bookcases. On a well-worn stool were three faded bankers' boxes. Lucy recognizes her Grandpa's handwriting on the front. Harris puts a big hand on top of one rotating so he is facing Lucy.

“Me and Margie have,” He pauses looking out the large windows towards the forest. “Debated about whether we should give you these. Tim asked me to burn them. But it didn't feel right.”

Lucy crossed her arms, hugging herself a little as she looked at her Uncle. His usual nonchalant demeanor now scrunched together in tight lines across his face. Pacing back and forth in front of the window as he spoke. 

“These are Tim’s journals. Going back to a month after your Dad and Uncle went missing.” Harris replies, Lucy, feels a wave of dread wash over her as he moves over to his filing cabinet.

“They didn't go missing- '' Lucy goes to reply, Harris placing a newspaper in front of her. Headline read Two men killed in farm accident. “Yeah, this is what Tim showed me.”

“Flip to page four,” Harris said, Lucy did as he asked, unable to get a read on his emotions. Page four has a smaller blurb, Search for brothers ends. Lucy reads through the blurb, a cold pool of dread weighing in her guts. 

“They went missing in the forest. In the forest around my house.” Lucy whispers, her hands shaking as she rereads the words. “They never found the bodies.”

Harris meets her eyes as she looks up at him, “What is going on?” Lucy demands dropping the paper on top of the boxes. “Why? Why? Did no one tell me?”

“Tim made us promise,” Harris said, placing his big bear paw-sized hands on her shoulder, it felt like the weight of the news pressing down on her. “He didn’t want you or Norm to know. He figured that if you thought they were dead you could move on. In ways he never let himself move on.” 

Lucy moves away from Harris, a deep sense of betrayal washing over her. “You’re telling me he didn’t think they were dead? It’s been decades since they went missing.”

Harris had sat himself down in one of the overstuffed chairs. “We searched and searched for weeks. Even after search and rescue stopped, stuf-,” He rubs one of his big mitts across a day's worth of stubble. “Stuff happened during the search. Stuff that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Lucy sighs, flopping into the chair beside her Uncle, “Could we not be vague, please? I can handle whatever happened then.”

“While we were searching, people heard things.” Harris’s face went pale.

“They kept hearing Hank call out, or Shaun. It sounded like they were close, but we could never find them. It would go quiet for days, then Me and Tim would go out and hear them again.”

Lucy swallows, “Like it was calling you there.”

Harris looks at her, a knowing look passing over his face. “It scared some of the volunteers. Hearing them, but never finding them. Then a week before your Mom checked out it stopped. These journals are the first time I even had any idea that it had continued after you both got there.” 

“We spent our entire childhood in and out of those woods.” Lucy’s voice was raised, her heart thudding in her chest. “Why would he let us in there if he thought it was dangerous?”

Harris looking older than his year. “Lucy. If I thought you were in any danger I would have taken you and Norm out of there.” Lucy stands there staring at him, anger subsiding at the honesty in his words. “No one. Not one of us. Thought you were in any danger there.”

Lucy swallows, tears pricking at the corner of her eyes. “Once you kids arrived, Tim didn’t share anything. I thought. I thought he was dealing with the loss of his sons. In his own way, never finding the bodies made him want to hold on to hope. So I let him. Then when he got the cancer diagnosis he brought me these boxes. Telling me to burn them once he was dead. That it would all be over, I didn’t know what he meant. But it was like a weight had finally been lifted off of him. ” Lucy shifts in her chair, unsure how to feel. “When your place got tossed I pulled them out, I read a few.” Harris shifts in his chair, staring at the boxes. “I don’t know what I was expecting but you should read them.”

“What is in them?” Lucy pushes, feeling like she is waiting for a bomb to go off. Her hold on the world was sliding, and she wasn’t sure if she would make it.

“Memories, stuff about your childhood. But also. Other stuff. Stuff I don’t know if I can believe.” Harris’s voice going soft. “I should have told you a long time ago and I am sorry for that. But maybe this will help, maybe put things to rest finally.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

PART EIGHT

Tag list: @toogaytofunctiondangit , @hiddlebatchedloki , @whatsorceressisthis @dichromaniac @autumncryptids

*I am gonna say we are onto act 2... it's only gonna get darker from here < 3

**As always likes, comments, shares are soooo appreciated, you can find me Ao3 as well

** Want to be on the tag list let me know

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for hooking up with my ex-fiancée's friends

nsfw for obvious reasons. everyone involved is early to mid twenties

I was dating a girl for 4 years, we were engaged, planning to buy a house, had a wedding date and theme, the whole shebang.

Well, she had actually been spending the last 4 months of our relationship turning all our mutual friends against me, draining my bank account, talking with other people on dating apps, and generally ruining my life, which culminated in me coming home from work to find her, half our pets, her stuff, our stuff, and half my stuff gone from our apartment (along with a note from all our friends and multiple broken utilities).

Anyway it has been about 7 months and I have since cut my losses, gotten my life back together, and I've even started going on dates and hookups again. It was a bad relationship for numerous other reasons, so I'm counting this as a fresh start. Yay.

I was scrolling and saw her best friend (who was one of our mutual friends who I still miss hanging out with) Being an adult, I didn't match. I then got an alert I missed a potential match. I laugh about this and move on.

But here's where the AH part comes in. I find them on another app, along with some other members of that friend group. I match with them for a few reasons. 1) They have me blocked on everything, so I can't really text them any other way. 2) I do miss these people still. 3) Well, they tried to match first. 4) I am leaving this state soon and don't have to deal with any fallout.

Well, turns out I was apparently hot shit in this friend group bc I now have multiple hookups scheduled with different people in this group. They all know it's just a one-time thing. They do not care that I am sleeping with other people. I always use protection, and I regularly get tested.

But, like, these are her friends. And they're my old friends (though I plan to cut contact with them after this for the whole trashing my apartment and not believing me about the legit abuse I suffered thing)

So, AITA for sleeping with my ex-fiancée's friends?

What are these acronyms?

[erebiatyndarus]

this may be too broad of an ask so sorry but i'm just getting into the sims 2 and want to recreate vtmb locations as well + make the game look more grungy and "alpha" i guess sims 4 players would call it. can you point me in the right direction in terms of your favorite mods or creators? thank you. also i am polish-american and your presence is so so welcome and your builds are amazing

thank you anon!

there's so many creators, i don't know where to begin

go to place for grunge, rusty-dusty cc - garden of shadows

Aviolina made some Silent Hill stuff worth checking out kativip has some good cc packs that i use a lot (S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Metro converted objects) Pixelhate has some nice Fallout convertions and more Adele got beautiful things (liam buid set my beloved)

check out this board by @zombies-who-speak-simlish

as you can see theres a pattern: 🔥converted objects🔥, try looking for cc by searching the sims 2 *name of a different game*

also, speaking of vtmb, my dear anon, we have been blessed by Yolartut who gave us these (scroll down a bit), just got them, beautiful, i'm mad at myself for only just now downloading them heh, now i want to recreate the whole chinatown part of vtmb

damn, wish there were more convertions from this game... (and half life, source engine stuff + the sims 2 is like a match made in heaven)

oh, and a lot of my cc tbh... comes from builds of other simmers xD i like to download any build that tickles my interest and analise how others design and decorate. later i end up with a bunch of cc in my build/buy catalog of unknown origin (don't really recommand doing this tho, this way i got some really nice stuff, but the mess and the amount of stuff i would later end up deleting, oh god)

hope i helped a bit

[datcloudboi]

List of Video Games Turning 20 Years Old in 2024

Alien Hominid (started off life as a Flash game and graduated to a real game.)

Army Men: Sarge's War (the sequel to the Sarge’s Heroes games, but this one was rated T for Teen and used realistic guns instead of plastic ones)

Astro Boy: Omega Factor (seriously, if you have a chance to play this, take it. This game is AMAZING)

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II

The Bard's Tale (the 2004 version with the guy who played Wesley in The Princess Bride)

Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings & the Lost Ocean (hey! That collection with this game and it's follow-up is out on the Switch now! Go get it!)

Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space

Blood Will Tell: Tezuka Osamu's Dororo

BloodRayne 2

Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django (this GBA game had a special cartridge that required you to go outside into the sunlight to power up your character in game)

Breakdown

Bujingai: The Forsaken City (the game where you play as Gackt)

Burnout 3: Takedown

Call of Duty: United Offensive

Call of Duty: Finest Hour (a side story to the original Call of Duty, which came out the year before)

Capcom Fighting Evolution (the darkest of the dark age of fighting games)

Carmen Sandiego: The Secret of the Stolen Drums (a full-on adventure game where you play as the mascot of a series of edutainment games)

Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (the rare movie-in game that's not only really good, but is actually better than the movie it's based on)

Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage + Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy

Crash Twinsanity (a childhood favorite)

Crimson Tears

Crusader Kings

Custom Robo (the first one in the series to release in North America)

Cy Girls

Dead Man's Hand

Dead or Alive Ultimate (remakes of Dead or Alive 1 and Dead or Alive 2)

Def Jam: Fight for NY (the vastly superior sequel to Vendetta)

Dog's Life

Doom 3 (the original version. Hope you've got a flashlight on you...)

Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors

Dragon Ball Z: Buu's Fury (the final game in the Legacy of Goku series)

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3

Drakengard (Yoko Taro's debut as a game director)

Driver 3

Evil Genius

Fable (another childhood favorite)

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (the last Fallout game made by Interplay before Bethesda acquired the IP.)

Far Cry (the very first one.)

Feel the Magic: XY/XX (a launch title for the Nintendo DS)

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (the only Final Fantasy game to release for the GameCube)

Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (remakes of the first two mainline Final Fantasy games)

Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone

Front Mission 4

F-Zero: GP Legend (the last F-Zero game to release for almost 2 decades, until F-Zero 99 released in 2023.)

Galleon

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (the PS2 one. There was another version of SAC that released for the PSP a year later that is completely different.)

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2

Ghosthunter

Godzilla: Save the World

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

Gradius V (the last mainline Gradius game)

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto Advance (yes, there was a GTA game on the GBA.)

Growlanser Generations

Guilty Gear Isuka

.hack//Quarantine

Half-Life 2

Halo 2

Hitman: Contracts (the third one)

Hot Shots Golf Fore! (yet another childhood favorite)

It's Mr. Pants (Rareware made this for the GBA after being acquired by Microsoft)

Jak 3

James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing

Katamari Damacy (the very first Katamari game)

Killzone (PlayStation's supposed "Halo killer".)

KOF: Maximum Impact

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

Kirby & the Amazing Mirror

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

Lifeline (a microphone-based survival horror game for the PS2 by Konami.)

The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (a turn-based RPG that uses the exact same battle system as Final Fantasy X.)

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth

Mario Golf: Advance Tour

Mario Party 6

Mario Pinball Land

Mario Power Tennis (not to be confused with "Mario Golf: Power Tour" for the GBA.)

Mario vs. Donkey Kong (the first one, which is getting a remake for the Switch in February!)

Maximo vs. Army of Zin

MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf

Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault

Mega Man: Battle Chip Challenge

Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun/Blue Moon

Mega Man X: Command Mission

Mega Man Zero 3

Mega Man X8 (yeah, there was a lot of Mega Man stuff in 2004.)

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (a remake of the original Metal Gear Solid for the GameCube)

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (SNAAAAAKE EATERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR)

Metal Wolf Chaos (LET'S PARTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY)

Metroid: Zero Mission (a remake of the original Metroid for the GBA.)

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Monster Hunter (the very first one)

Mortal Kombat: Deception

Mushihimesama ((a bullet hell that you’ve probably seen a lot of if you search for “HARDEST GAME OF ALL TIME?????” on YouTube)

Myst IV: Revelation

Need for Speed: Underground 2

Ninja Gaiden (the reboot from the Dead or Alive devs)

The Nintendo DS

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege

Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors (an action-adventure hack & slash made by FromSoftware)

Painkiller

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (can you believe this is getting a remake this year??)

Phantom Brave

Pikmin 2

Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (the last game in an series that started all the back in 1982 on the Atari 2600)

Pokemon Colosseum

Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (the 3rd one)

Red Dead Revolver (the predecessor to Red Dead Redemption.)

Resident Evil Outbreak

R-Type Final

Sacred

Samurai Warriors

Scaler

American McGee Presents: Scrapland

Second Sight

Serious Sam: Next Encounter

Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne (you know that “Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series” meme you guys love so much? This is where that came from.)

Silent Hill 4: The Room

Siren (a spirital successor to Silent Hill from the same creative director)

Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Sonic Heroes

Sonic Battle (an arena fighter for the GBA.)

Sonic Advance 3

Spider-Man 2 ((based on the movie of the same name. The one with the really good web-slinging)

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (the 2nd one)

Spyro: A Hero's Tail (the 5th one)

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (the 3rd one)

Star Wars: Battlefront (the one that everyone liked)

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords

Steel Battalion: Line of Contact ((this, and the original Steel Battalion two years prior, used a special controller called the Mega-Jockey 9000, which had 44 buttons, two joysticks, a throttle handle, a radio channel dial, five switches, an eject button, and three foot pedals.)

Sudeki

The Suffering

Super Mario 64 DS

Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain (the 4th one)

Tales of Symphonia

Thief: Deadly Shadows (the 3rd one)

Tony Hawk's Underground 2

Total War: Rome

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Viewtiful Joe 2

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War

X-Men Legends

[penny00dreadful]

Return of The King - Part 4

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 AO3

Eddie closed the back door quietly behind him and sat down in one of the lawn chairs, tipping his head up and staring at the scattered passing clouds as he smoked.

He could hear muffled conversation and an awful lot of tears from the house behind him and it nearly made him want to cry himself. There was so much relief filling him up both from Steve being back and finally getting to do what he’d been planning to do to him since he first got to know him but also that the healing within the Fellowship could begin. He just hoped it didn’t damage anyone further.

He had no idea how he was going to do it. How the both of them were going to do it. How on earth were they going to tell all these extremely broken people that the reason they were broken wasn't a reason anymore. That he was back? And how were they going to explain that he was back different but not bad? 

It could go so very wrong.

But maybe it would be enough comfort to them to know that Robin was talking again. Hell, not even just that she was talking again but that she was even… conscious again. That she was existing in the world again rather than around it.

He must have been ruminating in his own head for at least a half an hour vacillating in between smoking and worrying about the fallout of all this and watching the clouds and feeling that giggly excitement that comes with a new relationship and all the things they had left to do to each other and experience together when the door creaked open behind him and a pair of thin arms wound their way around his shoulders.

“You’ve been hoarding him.” Robin’s voice came soft and thick from the floods of tears she’d no doubt shared with Steve inside.

“Hoarding, Buckley?” He reached up to grasp her wrist. His heart was soaring. It was so good to hear her voice again. “I wouldn’t call it that. Though I suspect my Stevie exclusivity is coming to an end now that he has you back in his life.”

She hummed into his hair and tightened her arms around him, gently rocking the two of them back and forth as much as she could without toppling them over. “If I was gonna share him with anyone, I’m happy for it to be you.”

Eddie smiled to himself and tipped his head back onto her shoulder. “Awh, you’re gonna make me all misty eyed.”

“Join the club,” she let out a wet laugh, rubbing her eyes against his shirt, “it’s what the rest of us are doing.”

“Where is the man of the hour anyway?”

“He’s giving us space to say my ‘thank yous’ for taking care of me and everyone else for the last month or whatever.” 

“Ah.”

“So like, thanks or whatever.” She whispered, her levity coming through clearly despite her humour.

“Not a problem, Buckaroo.”

She gave him one last squeeze and placed a kiss against the side of his head before disappearing back inside.

Eddie followed not long after, desperate for a shower and to finally get back into his own jeans. The pair he was wearing last night hadn’t been his favourite but they were a worthy sacrifice especially considering just how they were destroyed. How Steve's supernaturally strong hands had effortlessly gripped onto the tough denim and ripped them clean in two right below him, all the little noises he'd managed to work out of him with his tongue and his hips as he'd slowly, torturously slowly, sunk in-

He turned the shower water icy cold, he needed to keep his head clear for the next few hours ahead and he definitely wouldn’t be able to do that if the only think that was knocking around his brain was the continued idea of fucking around with Steve.

When he came back downstairs, he and Robin sat Steve down and tried to summarise everything that had happened in the last month. The complete and utter fuckery that the California crew went through, Joyce and Murray’s little vacation to the Soviet Union where, oh yeah, Hopper was alive but imprisoned, the cracks in the earth that had split the second Steve died, inadvertently saving Max from mutilation, the wide open gates that creatures would crawl through every so often, the fact that Hawkins was half abandoned, his parents…

It was a lot to take in and Steve took it all surprisingly well, almost like he’d been waiting for some catastrophic events to hit Hawkins for a few years now.

The next challenge that was presented to him was just how they were going to tell everyone. If they just sprung Steve on them out of nowhere it would be disastrous. They could all collapse into grief, they could run scared, they could attack him, believing him to be some fucked up trick of Vecna’s, there was so many things that could go wrong.

At the very least Wayne was going to be out of the house for the rest of the day so he couldn’t accidentally get caught in the crossfire.

Eddie sat at his kitchen table bouncing his leg so quickly his whole body was jiggling. Robin and Steve had helped him write out what to tell the others over the walkie to get them to arrive.

It wasn’t easy.

He needed them to know that it wasn’t a world ending Code Red but at the same time wasn’t it? Steve was back and that was a huge thing on its own but definitely didn’t warrant sending them all into a blind panic and putting them on edge, especially when the thing that was waiting for them was enough to implode everyone in the worst ways possible if handled incorrectly.

So he had to tell them it was urgent without skyrocketing everyone’s collective stress levels.

“Eds, it’ll be fine.” Steve tried to soothe him as the three of them sat waiting. He had a gentle grip on the back of Eddie’s neck, rubbing his thumb in small circles. It wasn’t working. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Eddie and Robin shared a look for a long moment while Steve glanced between them.

“Okay, I don’t love this,” he said, pointing to each of them in turn, “whatever this is.”

“D’you think you’d be able to dodge a bullet if it came down to that, Stevie?” Eddie asked from behind his hair with his head hung low.

“Nance wouldn’t shoot me.”

“Yes she would.” They answered at the same time.

“She’s gonna think you’re some Vecna trick like I did.”

Robin nodded, agreeing. “Yeah, and you can’t fuck the doubt out of her like you did with Eddie.”

Eddie lifted his head just a fraction to glare at her but she didn’t back down, just raised her eyebrow.

“That’s not what happened.”

“No?”

“No, I wouldn’t have let him fuck me if I still thought he was the spawn of Satan.”

Robin scoffed with a cheeky smirk on her face. “That’s a lie. But maybe it’ll be Hopper who’ll try to shoot you, Steve.” She blinked innocently over to him. “You could try to fuck some sense into him?”

“Robin.” Steve hissed, his whole face turning red.

“You had a thing for Hopper?” Eddie couldn’t help the shit eating grin that started to pull at his mouth, quickly joined by Robin as Steve tried to glare at the two of them with as much venom as possible.

“You never heard those words come out of my mouth.”

“No, but Robbie insinuated which is as good as a confession.”

“I hate the both of you.”

Eddie and Robin shot to their feet, cooing and crowding around Steve, squeezing him tight in between the two of them with a downight dramatic level of sarcastic comfort and affection. Steve just scowled harder but wormed his arms around the two of them squeezing back, unable to hide the upward curl at the corner of his mouth.

They only broke away from their mocking ‘you love us’ ‘you looooove uuusss’ when they both felt Steve tense under their arms.

“They’re here.”

Eddie shot to his feet, his adrenaline and anxiety coursing through his whole body. He needed to move, he needed to get it all out somehow. Fuck this was it. Everything was about to change. Again.

God, it could all go so wrong.

But it could be so good too.

It could fix everything.

“Are you hidden?”

Steve nodded. “Yeah. Only you and Robin can see me.”

“Okay good, you know them, they'll just burst in-”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the front door was thrown open and a gaggle of teenagers spilled into his hallway. Eddie felt a short kiss be pressed to the back of his head, just a silent reminder I’m here before he took a deep breath in and tried to steady himself as best he could.

There wasn’t the usual noise and chaos that used to be so normal with the kids, there were no childish arguments or rapid fire discussions. They filed into his house quietly and without bluster, each finding a spot to sit around the dining table or lean against a kitchen cabinet looking at him expectantly, barely sending a glance in Robin’s direction who had marginally retreated back into herself. Whether it was the pressure of the situation or so many people around he didn’t know. He couldn’t really blame her or the group for their reactions.

Steve was staring around at all of them with wide eyes, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. But instead of any kind of delight or smugness or smart remark about finally getting them to quieten down, he looked heartbroken. Like he hadn’t realised just how changed everyone was.

“Well?” Nancy snapped. Short and eager to get to the point as she always was these days and Eddie could never hold it against her.

He realised he’d been watching Steve’s reaction too closely. It probably looked like he was staring off into space while they all filled in around him. 

So he took a deep breath in and began.

“Okay, uh,” he started to thread his fingers through his hair, picking out individual curls and twisting them, anything to keep his hands occupied, “it’s not bad news. It’s actually good news, or it might not be good news depending on how you view it and how we had to get here, but it’s news! I’m gonna be honest, I’m having a bit of trouble trying to figure out how to tell you all because it’s gonna be really hard to swallow at first-“

“Eddie.” Dustin interrupted, his voice lacking its youthful energy and his face as grim as it had been for the last month. “Does Robin really need to be here for this?”

Robin startled at the mention of her name and seemed confused for a second. Eddie supposed it was a fair question, Robin hadn’t exactly been present in the last month and the rest had mostly gotten used to talking like she wasn’t in the room. Most of the time she wasn’t, really.

Eddie looked over at her along with Dustin who’s eyes widened at the sight of any emotion on her face apart from blank despair.

She looked up to meet Eddie’s eyes and gave a small nod. The whole room seemed to have caught the tiny movement, automatically straightening up and becoming much more engaged. Because if it was something that had the power to pull Robin out of the pit of her mind, it must be something extreme.

“Get on with it.”

“I’m trying, Nance, but this is actually very nerve wracking-”

Nancy glared at him, hard and cold. None of the warmth he’d seen in her before was present now and it hadn’t been for a while. She crossed her arms before speaking in a very stern tone of voice.

“Eddie, I don’t have time to waste with this bull-” she stopped herself short, swallowing harshly before continuing, “with this nonsense. So just-”

“It’s Steve.” He blurted out before he could stop himself, sudden and loud and impossibly catastrophic.

Silence crashed in around all of them in the wake of his statement, filled with so much tension he could feel it tingling against his skin. They were all staring at him, some with anger, some with devastation and some with just blank expressions that hurt more than anything.

The sound of a chair scraping against his tiled floor screeched loudly through the kitchen, almost too loud to bear. Dustin stood and without a backwards glance, began to walk away.

Eddie opened his mouth to call after him, his heart breaking in two but before he could say anything a voice made itself known from behind him.

“Dustin!” Steve called out to him, cracking through the air in the kitchen like a hammer against stone. 

The air was sucked out of the room like they’d all entered a vacuum chamber. Dustin stopped dead and the silence that permeated around all of them felt both fragile and immovable at the same time. 

The delicate click of a gun being cocked echoed around them and there was a heartbeat where nothing happened before the room erupted into chaos.

Eddie whipped around but it wasn’t Nancy that had drawn her weapon, it was Hopper. He couldn't even make the appropriate salacious jokes at Steve's expense about that because such a panic had gripped him at the room's collective response, he found himself frozen solid. 

This wasn't going well.

Shit.

Shit!

Robin threw herself in between Steve and Hopper with her hands out, screaming at him to wait! 

Everyone else looked a mix in between terrified and shocked. Like Vecna himself had just manifested in front of them, Max and Lucas were shouting, their heads ping ponging between Steve and Hopper, Mike and Will were shouting questions at Eddie. Joyce had pulled Will back, trying to push him behind her, Jonathan and Argyle were trying to stand defensively in front of Joyce but Jonathan also had a hand fisted in the back of Nancy’s shirt, who was pulling a pistol out of her bag, El was staring up at Steve, silent and considering, Erica oh god Erica was crying, she was just a child, Hopper was barking at the kids and Robin to stand down and Dustin…

Dustin hadn’t moved. He still had his back turned to everyone, both fists clenched so tight the colour had left his knuckles. 

“Shut up!” He screamed, high pitched and cracking, somehow making himself heard over the cacophony of noise that swiftly came to a halt at the sound of his voice.

Steve had an arm around Robin’s waist, having pulled her out of the line of fire while she scrambled against his immeasurable strength to try and get back in front of the barrel of the gun but he too froze at the sound.

Dustin took a deep breath in. “Eddie. What makes you so sure?”

Eddie looked in between Steve and Dustin. What could he say? He couldn’t exactly tell everyone what had transpired in the last twelve hours, he definitely wasn’t going to mention the sex. What had originally convinced him? Would it be enough?

“He…” Eddie swallowed. Somehow he’d never felt more vulnerable than right now, every single eye in the room was on him and he had the power to make or break everything. “He laughed at me? I insulted Vecna to his face and he… he thought it was funny.”

It sounded stupid, it sounded so stupid when he said it out loud. He couldn’t even bear to look up at them all to see how that explanation landed.

After a few seconds of heavy silence, El spoke up.

“What was your insult?”

Eddie glanced at her, she had her head tilted slightly to the side and her face was calm but curious. “I, uh, I called him a lump of unseasoned bolognese.”

“A dickless lump.” Steve interjected, a small smile on his face despite the tension in the room. Like a spell had been cast through the group at the sight of that smile, the strain on them seemed to lessen. Steve probably didn’t even realise he was doing it, there was just something about him now, something about his smile brought calm to them all. Maybe he’d always been that way. Eddie couldn’t really be sure.

Dustin whirled around and stomped his way over to Steve, the rest of the group parting like the Red Sea for him.

He stared up at Steve, an angry tilt to his brow and his jaw set, like he was ready to punch him in the face if he moved wrong.

“How many puffs?”

Eddie supposed the question must have been some kind of test, he certainly didn’t know the answer to whatever the fuck had just been asked, and no one else around him seemed to know either. No one else except for Steve.

“Four.”

Dustin’s lip quivered for just a second before he gathered himself, slamming his eyes shut again and turned his face away.

“El.” He called over his shoulder.

“Dust-” Steve started, reaching out, but was cut off.

“No!” Dustin yanked his shoulder away, his voice sharp and cutting. “I can’t- St-” swallowing harshly he continued a little quieter. “I need to be sure before I can- I need to be sure.”

Steve retracted his hand slowly, letting it fall to his side where it was quickly snatched up by Robin.

“Okay.”

El took a step forward but was halted by Hopper’s hand on her shoulder.

“We don’t know if this is safe.”

“I’ve been inside Vecna’s head.” El took her fathers hand and gently lifted it away. “If Steve is an agent of Vecna he will not be as strong. This is not the most dangerous thing I have ever done.”

“And that makes this okay, does it?”

“What else would you rather do?”

Hopper scowled at her, the downward tilt of his mouth making it clear he didn’t have an answer.

“I still don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to like it.”

El stepped out of Hopper’s space and towards Steve, holding her hands out and waiting.

Steve nodded down at her before leaning forwards, effectively slotting his head carefully in between her hands and they both closed their eyes.

For two and half long, long minutes the room collectively held its breath, waiting in anticipation for her to draw down her verdict.

Eddie was sure as shit that he hadn’t had sex with Vecna in Steve’s body but god damn if the thought still didn’t make his skin crawl.

El’s brow furrowed and her grip tightened around Steve’s head as though she was trying to burrow her fingers into his skull. Steve grimaced as she dug in hard but held himself steady, his hand still clutched in Robin’s.

Dustin had moved to stand beside Eddie, staring wide eyed at the scene before him. Eddie had never seen him look so young, so small, so lost. He slung an arm around his shoulder and pulled him back towards his chest, holding him firm, trying to impart comfort in any way he could. Dustin sagged into him, barely holding on by a thread.

A small hand slipped into his. Erica refused to look at him but the shake of her hand and her silent tongue told him all he needed to know. For all her bravado and all her snark she was still the baby of the group and by a long shot too. While she protected herself and made herself seen with her attitude, it often made them forget that she was barely out of elementary school.

In some ways she was the biggest victim of all of this, no one else had been thrust into this apocalypse as young as Erica Sinclair.

And based on the little he had heard about how she had gotten introduced to all this, Steve was there. Steve, Robin and Dustin were the ones around trying to keep her safe against some kind of underground Russian spy operation or something. No wonder she was affected by all this.

Eddie pulled her back towards him too, his other arm around her shoulders, all three of them huddled in close together, watching and waiting.

“There’s something else there.” El muttered as her fingers relaxed, gently combing through the parts of Steve’s hair she’d messed up. “This is Steve. You are Steve. You are here. But there is something else here too.”

Steve’s face paled just a fraction. “Vecna’s not in my head.”

“No, it’s not Vecna, it’s something else. A cloud.”

“A good cloud?”

“No.”

The tension in the room ramped straight back up.

“A b- a bad cloud then?”

“No. It’s just a cloud, but pushed and tugged. Made into long legs-”

“The Mind Flayer?!” Will shrieked out in a burst of panic.

“El, is he Flayed?” Joyce asked, somehow calm but straight to the point.

“No. No it’s not like-” not like Billy. “The Flayed were Vecna. Vecna puppeteering The Mind Flayer. This little bit in his head… it’s free.”

“So he’s…” Dustin huffed, his voice cracking again. “El, please, in plain English? Is he safe? Is he Steve? Is he- is he back?”

El nodded. “He is safe, he is Steve, he is back.”

She barely had the words out of her mouth before Dustin had ripped himself away from Eddie to throw himself at Steve. Steve unwound himself from around Robin quicker than should have been possible to be able to catch Dustin in time but catch him he did.

“You- you died. You died! You told me you loved me then you just went and died on me like an asshole. How could you- please, please don’t ever do that again. Swear to me, I can’t… I can’t-” Dustin was screaming, wailing into Steve’s neck, the sound echoing loudly around the room while everyone simultaneously tried not to intrude on their moment while not being able to bear the thought of leaving Steve.

“I know, I’m so sorry, Dusty. I’m so sorry. Never again, I swear on your mother.” Steve tried for humour but even he couldn’t push past all the emotion in his voice. “Never again.” He had his own face buried into Dustin’s hair, his arms wound tight around him, unable to keep his voice from wobbling.

Once Dustin had stopped screaming and cursing and was able to take a few deep breaths, he loosened his arms slightly, allowing Steve to glance up towards the other kids. 

It was all the invitation Max needed. 

She threw herself against Steve and Dustin, clutching on to them for dear life. She had barely made contact before the rest of the kids were rushing forward, grabbing onto any piece of Steve or each other they could reach.

Dustin unwound an arm from around Steve’s neck, opening his body up, looking back towards Eddie and Erica.

She shot forward, being pulled right into the centre of the group hug, right up against Dustin, Steve and Robin.

Robin still had herself pressed in close, her arms around Erica and Dustin while the kids all muttered and cried and punched and breathed. They told Steve they couldn’t lose him again, they practically fell all over themselves to tell him how much they appreciated him, how important he was, the guilt at thinking him dead and having never told him how much he meant had been eating away at all of them for a solid month. They even turned to Robin and told her how happy it made them to have her back too. They’d missed their Aunt Buckley. 

That started a fresh round of tears from everyone.

Movement to his side caught Eddie’s eye. Nancy was standing a little bit away, pale faced and swallowing repeatedly, trying to keep her emotions in check. She looked like she was desperate to throw herself into the fray but didn’t know if she’d be welcome, didn’t know if she was allowed. 

Her eyes were shining and her mouth was tight as Eddie approached her. He took her hand in his and pulled her forward. She turned her wide gaze on him as he led her closer, scared and apprehensive but Steve raised his head and held his own hand out to her. Will and Mike almost immediately shifted to the side, pulling her into the group with them.

Steve sent a short thankful glance Eddie’s way before turning his watery attention back to that wild eclectic group of people that loved him so incredibly.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 AO3

@romanticdestruction, @darkwitchoferie, @justforthedead89, @didntwant2come, @estrellami-1, @warlordess, @goodolefashionedloverboi, @weeennussy, @studentlife-with-sassyaf-friends

[scarlet--wiccan]

How do you feel about Tommy being back in Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver - what do you hope for his interactions with Wanda and Pietro and his place in the story? Bonus: this might lead to his first interaction of significance with Vision 🤣

I'm pretty excited, any interactions between Pietro and Tommy are bound to be fun and I wonder if Tommy and Luna will ever meet. I do worry with all the extra characters involved and two villians (not to mention the Wizard's army) that this 4 issue series may be overstuffed and suffer from pacing issues. The advertised core of the story is the Maximoff twins relationships but depending on how early the fight is in issue 1 and the point at which they meet up again in issue 3 they might actually spend half the series separated (not keen about Wanda potentially spending more time with a former love interest than her own brother in a book which is heavily advertised to be about siblinghood and family).

Yeah, I'm actually a little nervous about the pacing. I really, truly, do enjoy Orlando's writing and the work he's done with these characters, but the pacing has been a consistent problem. To be fair, the short run of Scarlet Witch and unconventional structure of Darkhold weren't his fault-- those are editorial and publishing decisions-- but I felt like both titles were overstuffed and it caused him to elide or rush past moments that really needed more page time. The back half of Scarlet Witch #10 is low key sloppy, and it left me feeling kind of sour on the whole second arc of the series. I really hope SW&Q doesn't repeat that experience.

I'm kind of assuming that #2 and #3 are going to be more self-contained-- I don't think that Wanda, Vision, Tommy and Pietro are going to actually end up all in the same place. I hope that Tommy at least gets to see his mom, but I won't be surprised if he doesn't. Sorry to be a downer, but it's like you said-- we've got a lot stuffed into four issues, so we need to keep things moving fast. No pun intended.

Anyways, my main concern for Tommy is addressing the fallout of the Hellfire Gala and David's apparent death. Presumably, Tommy just got back to Earth and is going to be processing a whole lot of grief. Orlando collaborates regularly with Steve Foxe, so even if SW&Q doesn't spend a lot of time on this, I do expect there to be good continuity for Tommy's relationship and the time that he's been spending in outer space.

I do have a lot of ideas about what kind of dynamics Tommy should have with Wanda and Pietro, and ordinarily I would want to focus on developing those relationships-- him having a fun rivalry with Pietro and being able to connect with him about their unique mental and emotional wavelengths; him actually having a fulfilling parent-child relationship with Wanda for the first time in his life-- but I just don't feel like it would be right for Tommy to show up in a lighthearted mood right now. It sucks, because he already gets so little page time, but I don't want fun, sweet Tommy content. I want someone to actually take this character seriously, and I think right now, that means he's going to be in kind of a bad place, emotionally.

Who knows, maybe he'll be the one to push Wanda and Pietro-- but especially Wanda-- to do more in the fight against Orchis. I doubt it, since this is very much not an X-Men title, but it would a clever way to loop them back in.

[messydoodles]

Hi I’m Messy Doodles or MD! In light of my 50th post I thought I would have a small intro to myself since I never did it lol. I’m a v private person so nothing too personal, just some basic stuff I wanted to share :)

Pronouns: Any! (He/she/they in no particular order)

I don’t really care abt what I’m called. I don’t really identify with any gender and don’t got a label on me tbh

Race: FILIPINO RAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭

(I’m v passionate abt my Filipino identity)

Fav Games (other than MK)

A Little Bit to the Left

TF2

Left 4 Dead (both)

Half Life 2

Portal (both)

The Beginners Guide

Dead Space

The Arkham Games

There more that I didn’t mention. It fluctuates between sad to action w/ guns to puzzle.

Favorite Movies/Shows

Fallout (2024)

Justice League Unlimited and Justice League the Animated Show

The Bay

The Truman Show

The Batman (the Robert Pattinson one)

Batman: Brave and the Bold

Sm more

Fav MK1 character was immediately Li Mei. I fell in love w/ her character because of one of her brutalities, I thought it was so cool. She will always be my favorite even though I’m playing other characters now since I already finished her character mastery/character level

Tysm for all the love!! I never thought my little dumb posts would get traction. At first it was just a dump of doodles I started board and wanting to let go of perfections. Now this page has become sorta a therapy for me to just let go of the perfectionist in me. Art is merely a hobby and ik I’m not that great at it. And that’s okay! My philosophy I’ve adopted because of this account is to not get hung up on every single imperfection or mistake. It will ultimately make you discouraged. You’re creating something! That’s cool beyond belief that you are taking your thoughts and making it real through art, writing, whatever. And if it’s making you happy, that’s all that matters (in my opinion)

Again tysm! Gonna post a small comic later today, and have a nice rest of your day 😎👍

[alackofghosts]

got two lil bits of memery for you today ehehe. i'm tagging @callsignnightshrike, @azemessence, @jul-likes-magpies, @fourteenthz, @all-of-humankind - no pressure of course, and feel free to snag one or both memes!

first off tagged by @oneiroy, thank you <3 :3

Last Song Listened To: doctor blind by emily haines & the soft skeleton. recently remembered this song from My Youth and now youtube likes to sprinkle it in sometimes on autoplay lol

Currently Watching: recently graduated from obsessively watching sunrise/sunset times, currently obsessively watching the local weather site for spring weather updates. tv shows, never heard of 'em

Sweet/Savory/Spicy?: i tend to actively crave savoury things more often, but i'm waaaay less picky about sweets (if it's sweet i'll probably eat it, it is as shrimple as that)

Relationship Status: 2 aromantic 4 this

Current Obsession: like two weeks ago it would still have been fallout 4, but i have returned to being able to do and think about other things since then. i don't have anything that's of the making me chew on the bars of the cage right now levels of obsession, but you know, having fun noodling about in ffxiv now that i have escaped todd howard, making little plans for what to get done before dawntrail and drawing my lil pictures

and also the 5 songs i'm into meme, tagged by @crackinthecup <3 sticking it under the cut for length!

...narrowing down the criteria for this was a challenge and a half, but i'm playing this on hardcore mode and leaving out 1) oc/character/ship songs 2) all time faves that i love but i'm not super actively listening to right now, i've only got 5 songs after all, gotta make 'em count!!

1) stoppa mig juni (lilla ego) by kent - tbh still kinda reeling from the revelation that kent... good??!! when ingenting made me want to set the radio on fire as a 12 year old. anyway, this whole meme could be populated by kent alone, i've been listening to them so much

2) it will all make sense in the morning by halou - i adore the atmosphere in this song so much, one of those 'i wanna apply this to something but i don't know what' tunes

3) a masters in reverse psychology by murder by death - ...if i pulled up a random song from this album to put on this list. well. i'm SO obsessed with the whole album, not a single bad song on it and i love listening to it from start to finish all the time

4) children of the sun by poets of the fall - the absolute fight for my life against rule nr 1 when it comes to potf... and even so, the line is very blurry with this one BUT i just love this song, it's so gentle

5) isa tuli koju by metro luminal - the obligatory estonian entry and i'm trying to be slightly less predictable by not listing terminaator for a change. it's a bit of a meme with my family, but i can't deny that this song nevertheless fucks, i love the dark lyrics

[beardedhandstoadshark]

Genuine question because I‘ve seen this hc around…not frequently enough to be fanon per se, but often enough to notice it-

Where did the whole "8bit Link lives in a wasteland/Hyrule is a barely livable wasteland“ thing come from?

As in, nature is dead, the water is toxic, Link‘s shunned by the people, that sort of Mad Max/Fallout type wasteland. Because if you play the games or even just look at the maps, that’s not the case at all? Like, here’s the Zelda 1 map:

Those parts circled in cyan? They’re almost all trees. Out of all screens, only 4 don’t qualify as woods, 2 of which are Fairy Fountains. The other two areas are a clearing in the woods and a pathway to the (extremely tiny) desert, respectively. Both however still have very green trees. Ironically the most "dead“ part of the tree areas is the Lost Woods of all places, on the very right just under the graveyard lol.

The upper half of the map doesn’t have trees because it’s a giant mountain- a giant mountain with a waterfall leading to the giant lake and presumably where the woods underneath get their water from, so probably not murder-juice, and the lower right corner‘s a beach that (Just like the desert) still has some sort of functioning ecosystem going on given the enemies are probably just in their natural habitat there.

But the real kicker is Adventure of Link.

The light green‘s grasslands, Hyrule Field style, and the dark green tiles are very dense, lush woods. But then there’s a third type of green tile, the ones circled. Stretching acres of plants that have grown so big they not only hide enemies from sight, but even slow Link down.

Those are flower fields. (Swamps. Turns out they’re swamps! Not as conventionally pretty as flower fields, but just as much filled with life!)

I don’t think there’s a single other version of Hyrule that has as many flowers as this one, bar perhaps the Switch games. But even then, proportionally speaking AoL‘s got more percentages of land covered.

Maybe the water isn’t poisoned but the opposite, because there’s definitely fish living in those ponds and just like the plants, they’re very big. May I dare say they’re chonky bois. Very annoying ones, probably the enemy I died most to, but very chonky, and presumably getting a lot of food. Plus, the towns have fountains, and there’s a cave with a healing water spring somewhere.

Speaking of towns! Links not being chased out at all, quite the opposite in fact! My man’s getting premium healthcare, for free! And sometimes the people you can talk to call him a hero! Teach him sick moves and cool spells for his quest! One even gifts him a magic container! That’s like a whole heart container, but for magic! Also, once again, some of the towns have fountains. Therefore, they have a properly working water system of some sort, which means the structures gotta have been in place for a while.

That fact is further cemented if you look back at the map, as those yellow lines are roads. Real, actual roads where monsters can’t fight you. Every single town minus one is connected to the road. (And Old Kasuto is connected). This land is better connected than every other place in this entire series. Half of them don’t even have roads!

In many ways, 8bitrule resembles Switchrule a lot- most likely because it was a deliberate choice to go "back to the roots“, not just to the beginning, but also to the only other open world games in the series.

And just like its grand tech-filled counterpart, the Kingdom of Hyrule might be in ruins, but the land of Hyrule- it’s not a wasteland, it’s thriving.

[hotch-girl]

Let’s talk ER!! Who are your top five fave characters and why?

plssss thank u so so much!! no one ever sends me asks ab er im excited. this is actually hard bc there are a lot of great characters who’ve all annoyed me at some point dsjfksk. im going to rank them: 

5. mark - i almost picked kerry or benton because they have better character development. when i first started watching, i didnt care ab mark. and the season and a half post-susan i hated him akdjfsk. but i sobbed his last ep and mark leaving changed the tone of the show more than any other character who did. i always loved how (unless he was in a bad place) he put patients above his career, too. also 1x19.  

4. early season susan - the only reason shes not higher is because late season susan was terrible 😭. shes likable but her storylines are nonexistent. there was actually a lot of potential for her to battle kerry over the importance of being a good practitioner vs. research and fundraising. INSTEAD WE GOT CHUCK!!!! shes still a favorite because her characterization in s1 is amazing. shes a great teacher and a really good doctor. i loved her niece storyline in s2 and wish we could’ve seen more of her dealing with the fallout in s3. susan was my favorite character when i first started but her good seasons are so brief shes not a fave-fave 

3. neela - imagine if they didnt give neela thosee bad romantic storylines imagINE THAT!!! neela means sm to me because shes the only er character i identify with. it helps i blocked out tony and ray and only paid attention to her friendship with abby 😌. seriously, her plot ab being good in school compared to struggling in real life resonated with me bc i worry ab similar things. theres another scene when she talks about going into surgery because it gives her time to think and plan and a chance to be good. most people probably dont even rmr it but it meant a lot to me. neela is set up as a character who's the foil to abby- seemingly ready to be a doctor while abby struggles. but neela develops into someone who it takes a while to figure out what she should do and accept who she is/what shes good at. forever will love her for that  

2. carol - my other early season love <33. loved her deciding not to become a dr and her mental health storyline is so important. overall, shes a genuinely amazing character (shes mean to jeanie but she comes around and is nice eventually!!!). love how she wanted to foster the little girl and that she always treats the patients with dignity. 

1. abby - my best er girl the number one girl!!! abby went through sm that actually seeing her get to be happy meant the world to me. of all the characters, she had the most trauma. she was literally kidnapped and the next ep all she did was act a little sad, smoke, and that was it dsjkfsk. still abby never becomes bitter like mark or self-important the way carter did. she deals with a lot and still is always willing to help anyone she can. i dont think its possible to watch er and not love abby. she CARRIED the middle to end of er. mark lied bc abby set the tone, not carter. she was the heart of country general my forever er love <33

[its-in-the-woods]

The Woman Who Couldn’t Die Part 9

master list

Part 1 , Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Pairing: The Ghoul/Cooper Howard x Original Character

Synopsis: “I don’t know if I can lose someone again.”

MINOR GET OUT. Rating/Warning: This is based on Fallout expect typical horror as well as: Blo0d, G0re, Death, Bodily injury, mentions of SH, death, drugs use, soft!cooper, angst, slow burn, hurt/comfort, Dead dove,

Note: that I will not be spoiling any of the reading. I will keep my tags relevant without spoiling what is happening in the story.

*thank you to everyone that reads <3 You all make the world go round. I've really fallen in love with this story

The next two outposts were the same burnt outside, body parts, and not much else. The third one left Cooper feeling frustrated as they went over the whole place trying to find something worthwhile. Food, water, and chems were low. They could probably go a few more days, but it was making his fingers itch. He didn’t like to run low on anything, as it would mean withdrawals, withdrawals lead to going feral. He glances over at Jade, he was not going feral. No. They’d figure this out, or he’d off himself before that happened. 

Jade had started lifting floorboards around a desk, the woman was convinced something was under the floor. Ghoul was less optimistic, it wasn’t the first time she’d torn into a wall or floor thinking there might be more behind it. Jade hadn’t said much about whatever was happening, she’d curl up against him at night, and while they walked she’d occasionally hold his hand. She’d kissed him a couple of times too, it left him feeling slightly dizzy, the world didn’t feel so dark with her in it. She was a vicious killing machine when it called for, but also full of ridiculous optimism. How? He didn’t try to understand. The more he learned about her life the more he questioned why she kept going. Why did anyone keep going? Jade just wanted to live, she lived for each day, and each morning. Somehow grateful that she got to keep putting one foot in front of the other. 

“Yes!” He hears her call out, taking him out of his thoughts. She had dropped down below the floor, just her hand sticking up out of the hole she jumped into. “Chems!”

The Ghoul moves over looking down into the dark hole. Jade had a big smile on her dirt-covered face shaking the case of chems above her head like she’d struck gold. He reached down, grabbing the box before placing them on the old table. Opening it up, six bottles of his chem, he couldn’t help the small smile tug on his lips.  

“Hell yah,” He says, turning to look back down at her, there were half a dozen or so crates scattered over the basement. She was going through each carefully, a small stack of cans beside her, some water purifying tablets.  

“Start passing stuff up’er, Pip-Squeak.” Cooper leaning down, she turns face to him, now covered in more dust and dirt. She grabbed a few things wrapping them up in her coat to hand to the man. 

“Think we should be good for a little while now,” Jade smiles at him, he couldn’t help the way his heart twitches seeing her grinning.  She looks at him like the sun revolves around him, eyes lit up like fire. 

“Grab whatever else, then we should get you outta here, don't know what could be down there.” He states, squatting down to hand her the jacket again. 

After one more load, he helps Jade out from under the floor, they are both covered in dirt. Jade was over the moon with her small find, “This should keep us supplied until we get to the next town. God I hope we get to -”

A click of a gun had Cooper whirling his own gun up, as he turns to face the two men who stand in the doorway. He fires at them, his other hand pushing Jade down, he hears her drop as gunfire goes off. His gun blasts a hole in one of the men, the man falls as the other blasts scattershot. The shot hitting the Ghoul in the chest, but that didn’t stop him, instead the Ghoul was already aiming his gun at the man. The blast coming out and blowing the man's hand clear off. Another shot from outside hit the Ghoul's side, Jade standing up beside him firing at the man. Her speed and accuracy were no match for the other man as he was hit by both of them. The one man was dead on the floor, the other screaming holding the stump of his hand up. The man outside had chunks out of him but was taking off. Cooper was already at the door grabbing the man and dragging him back to the door. Jade stood over the blood-covered man as he begged her to end it. 

“Why are you here!” She yells at him, Cooper slamming the other man’s blood body beside the door. The other man was coughing and sputtering blood all over the ground as he oozed. 

“There’s a bounty on you two,” The man sobs, his face starting to go pale as blood gushes out of him. He wouldn’t be long for this world, not without them fixing up his stump, which isn't going to happen. 

“A bounty huh,” The Ghoul said, crouching in front of him, watching him try to squirm away from his gaze.

“You killed the wrong guy's brother, Ghoul,” The man beside the door choked out, blood foaming down his face. His eyes were going in and out of focus, words more a slur than speak. 

“Whose brother!” Jade gritted, her hand grabbing stumpy's stump and pushing a finger in. 

The man howled, “Stop, please. Please no more.” He whimpered tears covering his dirt-smeared face. “Joel, Joel Pedro. Dom Pedro’s brother, you dumb cunt.”

Jade looked up at the Ghoul, the two immediately recognizing the name. The ghoul handed her a knife, she took the knife and cut his throat, blood squirting out as he sputtered and choked. 

The Ghoul had a foot on the other man pressing it down into its chest, the man wailing as he pushed on it, “Who the fuck is Dom Predo?”

The man shrivels back, squirming in his own icker. “He’s coming for yah Ghoul. He’s going to take you and the experiment girl alive.”

Cooper shot him without hesitation, the splash of blood on the doorway dripping down. Jade stood there with a confused look on her face, before moving towards the bodies, digging around in pockets. She pulls out a sheet of paper, unfolds it, and holds it up to the Ghoul. 

His face sans hat was on there, and beside him was a poorly done drawing of Jade. Both drawings were half-assed but it was clearly them. A large bounty for them both found alive, less if they were dead. A bit more info was below, they were to be brought to the southern west coast. Details were sparse but it was enough to give them a direction. 

“Well fuck, looks like you got your first bounty on your head, Tiny” The Ghoul states before he folds up the paper and puts it back into his pocket. Trying not to think too hard on the fact that Jade was now in danger because of him. 

“First? You’ve had this happen before?” Jade pushes, Cooper shrugging as he starts to go over the dead men. He had lost track of how many times someone had wanted his head on a platter, it never ended well for the ones looking for him. You didn’t stay alive for this long without killing a few fellas. 

“Won’t be doin’ good if I wasn’t on the boards myself,” He said, grabbing a good bag of caps from one of the men, they’d be well stocked now. The Ghoul pondering a change of course now that there was a bounty on their heads. 

“How’d they know it was us?” Jade asks, pulling out some ammo and pocketing it. Her pants and bag were already heavily weighed down by her findings. 

“Always someone watching, could have been someone in one of the towns or outposts that recognized you.” He replies, fishing out a couple vials of chem, as well as another inhaler. Never hurt to have a spare one or three. The old saying, ‘One is none, and two is one’, came to mind.  

Jade sitting back on her heels looking at the mess, “I wish I could remember their faces, at least we could avoid them then.”

The Ghoul watching her, he could see the wheels turning in her head, he got up and went to her. Crouching beside Jade to look at the body, really what was left of the body. 

“Look’er, I can give you some bullshit 'bout how it’s gonna be okay. That they’ll never catch us dead or alive. But I know you Jade, you’ve seen this world for what it is. It ain’t gonna get better, you decided to follow me. You decided to jump down that creature's throat. We both know that chances of us makin’ it to the other side unscared, much less alive, is low.”  He states, he didn’t know why he needed a speech, but it felt right. “Now ya can try and dig those memories up, to make sense of it’ll. But I’ve been wandering this bullshit for two hundred years, and most memories that’re gone are best left gone.”

Jade looked at him, brown eyes watching him before she stands up and stretches, audible pops as she moves. “I think that’s the most words you’ve said to me.”

The Ghoul huffed, “Yeah, you're welcome, Pip-Squeak. Good it gets me.” He rolls his shoulder under the duster grabbing his bag, hoping that maybe some of the words crept into that thick skull of hers. 

Jade has a small smile as she goes back into the building rummaging through the last dead body. “Well, it does get you a bunch of Chems, and a good amount of caps. I am not a completely useless sidekick”

She jingled the cap and held out the chems, the Ghoul took them. Letting his hand linger on her fingers a little longer. Watching as her cheeks go a little pink, the girl had just killed three people with him and was now blushing at the touch of his glove. Maybe he was still stuck in the forest somewhere living in a daydream.

“Think we should head south at the next intersection.” He said as he stashes the bottles in his bag, Jade doing the same thing, making sure all their loot was tucked away.

“Why south?” Jade asks, closing up her own bag. The Ghoul was grateful to see her not wincing when she shifted it onto her back. He had taken out the stitches at the second outpost. Most of her bruises and cuts are now gone, but he'd catch her every now and again wincing in pain. “Thought we would be heading west?”

The Ghoul pulls out the paper that had their bounty on it. Rereading the words.“Want to know more about this fella. Dom Pedro. So we know what we are walking into.”

“Walking into?” Jade pries, as she walks over to him. “Are we planning on going after him?”

“Won't be who I was if I ran from every slimsnake that wanted my head.” He clicked his tongue, standing up and taking a hit of chem, the numbness easing his mind. “I know of a small town that should be able to get us some information. If you're game?”

Jade shrugs, looking around the place, before back at him. “Don't got any other plans.”

They continued west until they hit a crossroads, the beat-to-hell pavement more sand and gravel than the once black tarmac. Jade stands beside her companion watching him look at the different directions. His eyes squinting, head tipping as he listens. His senses were much sharper than hers, he often stop to do just this. Listen, look, smell, and take stock of what is around them. Since the forest incident, he had been extra cautious about anywhere they went. Constantly making her stay somewhere so he could scope it out. Jade would have called it annoying, but really she knew he was just trying to keep her safe. 

As he turns she saw the wreckage of the scattershot he had taken. Grimacing a little at the wounds, she hopes he’d let her dig them out. It had to be painful, right? He finally faces south, squirting down the way.

“What is it?” Jade finally asks, trying to see what he could. She moves to stand right behind him, shifting the weight of her bag on her shoulders. Regretting having taken those extra cans of cram, the bag's weight pressing down on her tender joints. 

The Ghoul huffs, rolling his shoulders, “I am not sure, something feels wrong.” Jade tried to let her senses feel out, when she had been in the forest she had felt the strangest, the wrongness of the place. Here though, it didn’t feel any different than any of the other trails they’d been on. 

Jade shifts her weight onto her other foot. The thought that they could be going down another fucked up forest trail was not high on her to-do list. “Can we not go that way?” She gestures towards the western trail. 

He turns to her, looking to where she is pointing. “You scared now pip-squeak? Thought you went on instinct.”

Jade rolls her eyes at him, at the moment her instincts are dull. She had blamed it on the many stimpaks and med-x shots she’d taken, but standing there she wondered if it was something else. “Instinct would like me to live, not go through another monster-being-dropped-on-my-head forest walk,” Jade replies sarcastically, trying not to let the fear creep into her voice. 

The Ghoul let out a wheezing cough of laughter, a crooked smile on his face, “Yeah, I would rather not carry your dead weight around.” Jade gives him a dirty look at the comment, “We should keep going West then, it will be a bit roundabout.”

“Roundabout, but alive sounds better than, straightforward and dead.” Jade sighs, turning towards the western path. She is about ten steps down the road before realizing he hasn’t moved yet, “You losin' it, old man.” 

The Ghoul turns towards her, eyes covered by the shade of his hat. “Dotcha think it’s a little odd, how everytime we try to go in a directions somethin is standin in our way?”

Jade shrugs again, she hadn’t really thought about it that much. Really she hadn’t thought further than the next place they slept. Was it weird? Maybe, but this was the Wastes, and it wasn’t uncommon to run into issues. 

“It’s really only the one time?” Jade said, walking back over to him. “Not like we’ve been traveling for months here.” 

“Fifteen days,” The Ghoul said, still staring down the southern path. Jade standing beside him, wondering why he had kept track of how many days. Maybe it was an old-world way she didn’t understand. 

“If you really want to go south, we can,” Jade states, yeah she was not really up for another battle, but she wasn’t going anywhere without him either. Sense dulled or not, she couldn’t imagine being alone out here. The realization that she is heavily relying on him, made her heart clench. Did he even feel the same way? Was this a hint that they would be splitting?

The Ghoul turns to her, his hazel eyes looking over her face. Jade held his eye contact, wishing he would just tell her what he was thinking instead of staring at her. The silence was always so much worse than the arguing. 

“Well, let’s go,” He said, moving past her down the western trail, in a flurry of material swishing behind him.

Jade’s shoulders slump as she follows him, working hard to keep up with his long-legged pace. Wondering why he had decided to move at the speed of sound all of sudden. She thought about his comment, about how there always seemed to be something in their way. 

“What did you mean back there,” She finally asks, “About something being in our way?”

The Ghoul was quiet, Jade’s boots echoing around them as they moved. Jade stops, waiting for the Ghoul to do the same. He turns back looking at her, she still couldn’t make out the expression on his face. Maybe this was it, he had finally decided he was done carrying her dead weight.

“What?” He asks, throwing his hands up. “We're going West, will go around. Save us the headache of finding another critter.”

“What do you mean what?” Jade asks, “You were standing there like you were contemplating the meaning of life instead of which direction we should go."

“Just doesn’t feel right is all.” Ghoul huffs, making as if he is going to leave but doesn’t move much. Instead pacing back and forth. “We should.” He swallows, looking away towards the trees. “I can’t,”

Jade is moving towards him, but he is still staring off face covered in shadow. “What is it? Is this ‘cause of the bounty? Thought you said this wasn’t uncommon?”

“It’s not safe traveling with me. Yah got a bounty on your head, you almost got killed. Cause you are following me.” The last words are so quiet she almost doesn’t hear them, his shoulders drawn up like he was trying to hide himself away from her. 

Jade stands in front of him, seeing the pain in his eyes makes her heartache. The holes in his chest had mostly stopped bleeding, but would need to be tended to. At the moment his mind was what needed tending. She reaches up to touch his face, but he moves away from her touch.

“Stop it.” He says, the words holding no venom, he takes a step back from her. Jade wasn’t having it, moving backward with him.

“Me? Stop it?” Jade cusses, “You think I can’t make my own choices?” This time when she reaches for him she pushes him backwards. He barely moves, head tipped down, not looking at her. “Treating me like a child.” Jade is now raising her voice, “I am here, following you. Cause I want to be here.” She shoves him again, “My life has been a living hell for years, and the last however many fuckin days, have been some of the best ones. Even if the monster almost killed me.”

She goes to shove him again, the Ghoul is grabbing both her wrists holding them in iron-like vices. He pushes her back, she stumbles until her back hits a tree with a thump. Thankful that her backpack cushions it. Jade’s hands are pinned against the branch, the Ghoul is right in her face, eyes lit like fire as he glares down at her. Jade's Heart pounding in her chest as his eyes flow over her face. 

“You are so frustrating,” He growls at her, Jade staring right back at him with just as much venom, “I can’t keep you safe forever.”

Jade grits her teeth, struggling against his grip, knowing she most likely won’t break free. But there was no way in hell she was going down easily. “I am not asking you to. You vacuum-sealed raisin.”

A small smile twitches his lips at her insult, “Look who's talking, smooth skin.” 

Then he leaned down and pressing his lips against hers. Jade froze for a moment, brain trying to figure out how they went from arguing to kissing. Pushing that out of her mind, she pushes back, the bridge of his nose bumping against hers, the warm brush of air as he breathes out. Her whole body reacts when he opens his mouth and sucks her lip into his, keening as she pushes her body against his. Feeling her wrists being let go, his hands traveled down her body, pulling her close. She reached down and held his face, his rough skin under her hands, feeling each scar and mark. Trying to remember the way they felt and how he tastes, all of it. 

As suddenly as it started it stopped, the Ghoul pulling away, resting his forehead against hers, hat shading both of them. Their breath mixes as they try and catch it, hearts thundering under their clothes. 

“I don’t need you to save me,” Jade whispers, opening her eyes so she can see him. Feeling how his brow furrows at the words. “I just need you with me. For however long we get.” His breath is evening out, eyes still closed, Jade wishing he would look at her. “Please, I don’t know how long I will get. But I’d rather spend it with you.”

She hears him swallowing, his hand coming to cover the sides of her face. “I don’t know if I can lose someone again.”

The hurt in his voice had Jade wrapping her arms around him, hugging him close to her body. Feeling him tremble a little as she held on, refusing to let go of him. She didn’t care about anything else but holding onto him. Holding onto a man, who had seen every part of his world destroyed. Lost family, friends, and more to this horrid wasteland. 

“I will follow you, wherever you go. Until this world of ours ends,” Jade whispers, holding him tight for a moment more.

Part 10

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

*likes, reblogs, and comments are greatly appreciated. It helps more people find me <3

*Updating one a week depending, please note my schedule is getting hectic but I will continue to update! Please be patient with me

@pixelatedprofilepic @hiddlebatchedloki @toogaytofunctiondangit

@dionneroyal49

[idsb]

I once thought my life was a movie in the worst way. I once had main character syndrome in the most toxic iterations you could imagine it manifesting in. I watched things burn and burn and burn and I figured they would always work out because they always did, and I was me, and they had to. things happened so wildly no writer could've been genius enough to script them. each day was a new adventure. a lot of you watched it unfold. the one where she goes to Australia, the one where she fucks a guy on her friends couch, the one where somehow the fallout of this is funny, the one where she's drinking wine into her webcam and cursing them all for being mad at her and somehow it makes sense to you, the reader. the one where she drives to Florida for a hookup and winds up being paid by a prostitution ring leader laundering money on the run from the FBI (yes, this happened). The one where her roommates kick her out and it actually somehow works out for the best. the one where the toxic friend she was pretty toxic to as well got what. was coming.

the world put character armor around me, and I was its beloved Arya Stark. It stayed this way even through the worst of the pandemic. Somehow in the darkest hour of my life I found love. Somehow, in the darkest hour of my life, the gentlest soul I knew and the only guitarist I worked with who had been too decent a human being to want anything to do with me added his notch into my bedpost, too. And somehow, the girl who's broken heart had half the pieces still splintered across the Pacific Ocean, and the boy who's heart was shattered to pieces over the most insufferable woman alive, who made me borderline hate him as a result, found each other as the world crashed and burned. and we held onto each other as tight as we could as the ashes and rubble poured down around us. It was beautiful.

and then. and then, and then, and then.

this is the part that the people who followed me here don't know. this is when I stopped posting about my life. because we had started having feelings for each other. equally, simultaneously. like snow on the beach. flying in a dream. because the emotional flood gates opened a hundred deep conversations later and it was said, "I can't keep falling for you if I have to worry I'm a character for Taylor Swift fans on Tumblr to root for or turn against". and I said that made sense and it was fair.

so I held all this in. I held it all in and ultimately I think it is destroying my relationship now because it is still there bubbling under everything. because I never processed it. because I have video diaries where I watch it all fall apart. because I have a 4 hour video diary livestream of this going down that I get to sit sick to my stomach with every single time my brain wanders too far because I was in the middle of recording a video diary when it all started and the night became too dramatic as it all unfolded to hit pause, and now I have nothing but the spot where acid rain washed away the story I was the main character of, where it was always building towards something and I always got to win. where it all crumbled and died.

our quarantine pod consisted of 5 people. myself, and a boy I'd semi-illicitly been hooking up with, one tie to my old friend group - the one filled with people I'd backstabbed and hated who kind of backstabbed and probably hated me right back; E, and her 2 best friends, B (f) and N (m).

On my webcam, at home, I am smiling like a giddy schoolgirl. The world is ending and I've just been kicked out of my dream apartment and lost my then-closest friends. But instead of caring I'm nervously wondering if I said too much. Sending a text and throwing my phone across the room and covering my eyes. Reading a text aloud from him that says we're on the same page. A serendipitous bliss so deeply shielded from everything else in the lonely basement I'd moved into. Watching that same page progress into more and more real feelings as the weeks and the pandemic ran on. Burning sweet nothings I hadn't heard the likes of in my whole life into the back of my mind. Thinking I should pinch myself every waking second because how could it all seem so pure and so real when everything in the world was supposed to be so lifeless and black? I started recording video diaries so I could see in past relationships when I was being gaslighted. And I do have that. But mostly I have a fossil of the most hopeful naiveté I will ever have. This is my restaurant.

Everyone saw the chemistry between us. everyone saw the way we leaned on each other. everyone saw the sly looks we gave whenever someone made any kind of sexually suggestive joke. no one knew that I drove back and forth from Massachusetts to New York every other night to see him. No one knew I turned around and snuck into his basement after every hike we all went on together when they all got in their cars. But they knew. They knew.

And then one day, he ran into the ex I mentioned. He said he wasn't phased by this. He went through a literal New Moon Bella 4 month montage over this girl. He was me for Australia over this girl. He was phased. And then, suddenly, a talk about our feelings we were supposed to meet up and have was "accidentally" forgotten about and never brought back up.

And then it started out with a joke. We climbed a mountain one day in June. And B said, "now I have to mount ____ next". and most of us laughed. He laughed. Our other 2 friends laughed. She didn't laugh. I didn't laugh. Convincingly. And then she said it the next day. On the next hike. and the next one. and the next one. I had a panic attack and was dry heaving in our mutual friend E's house because I couldn't even drive anymore because I had so much anxiety from it. Because she was trying to fake the chemistry he and I had, like gently waking someone up by smacking them in the head with a crowbar. It was embarrassing. I later learned everyone talked about it behind her back and agreed it was embarrassing. But I never won anything and I was so deeply fucked up from so much else. I knew it'd bite me eventually. I just had to swim in the trauma induced, self-fulfilling prophecy of paranoia and non-existent self esteem until it did.

And then, on the evening of June 21, 2020, she sent a text in our group chat. "Did you guys know that self timer elevates nudes to the next level?" This was when I was in the middle of recording a video journal. Suddenly the giggles were wondering why he wasn't gripping my hand as tightly anymore. Snippets of written songs I'd soon stop writing about how everyone always leaves when they see enough of me. Blaming myself for saying too much or being too vulnerable when no one could actually ever love me. I specifically said, "if this bitch tries something and puts the final nail in this coffin I am going to backflip out this window, walk my ass back to New York, fling myself into the Hudson River, and die."

Well. She sent the self timer nudes. Right into the fucking group chat. Without anybody acknowledging her or asking for them. The entire concept of subtlety died that night.

I threw my dignity into the fucking dumpster right along with it and sent my own nudes in the group chat to remind him I still existed. I spent an hour painstakingly taking them to tear her self esteem to fucking shreds. my hands were shaking each time I clicked the shutter. I watched N awkwardly try and diffuse the obvious tension by making everyone vote for who took the better picture. He voted for me. I watched him invite her over anyway. in the group chat. I watched her say she was on her way. In the group chat. I told myself they were joking. I spent 2 hours, on video, because like I said I'd left it rolling, telling myself they were joking, believing it less and less as the minutes tick by. I've played it back twice in full since and, watching my state of mind and confidence deteriorate is the hardest thing to watch in the entire fucking world. Brilliance beyond scriptable in a different way that the glory I was used to. The way I have it on camera is a brutal, cinematic masterpiece.

As I spiraled I called the mutual friend in the pod, E. Told her everything. Completely info-dumped on her. It, in the end, ruined our friendship due to the cornucopia of bullshit that stemmed from this. Was hyperventilating on the phone to her for hours still. Until I got a text: "yes, B and I had sex. It was fun. But it wasn't..... I did it because I'm single and I wanted to see what it was like. But it wasn't the same as with you" and then going on and on to say that there weren't feelings there.

Saying you're single but then admitting it's not the same because there aren't feelings. What a filthy, August-coded, literally everything wrong with this day and age-esque thing to say. The authority to cheat on me without having the moral implications of it, really.

I got off the phone with her and I yelled at him and I yelled at the webcam and I sobbed and sobbed for hours more. He got it but I don't know if he really did. Then we went on a roadtrip to spend the rest of lockdown living out of a van with our 2 other best friends or whatever the hell, and the tensions from it and what it did to E's perception of him tore apart that friendship for both of us, and I made myself sick to my fucking stomach every waking moment he was near another girl and sort of made it E's problem but that's sort of.... what friends are for, right? I eventually kept hooking up with him because, well. Because of the same problem I had for all of 2019 and 2020, really. I liked sex and had no self esteem. And as the roadtrip went on I grew to love him.

I was writing a song about how free it felt to hold his hand driving down Santa Monica Boulevard the day before with the sun roof down eating ice cream, crafting a chorus in my head (the hook was "you're a pastel Santa Monica sky and I'm / wildfires flaring in your eyes, whatever it takes to feel alive / just here on the freeway you and I"). It's what was playing in my head when he pulled over in Big Sur. When he told me it all needed to stop because it was too much. Time stopped. I stood on the cliffs looking at the turquoise waters felt all the hope fading from me like it did from the grey clouds lingering over the sky. The salt air whipped by my face and I got the taste of tears even though I was too sad for them to even fall. He was mean as hell to me for 3 days. I cried for those 3 days. Eventually apologized and said he was subconsciously doing it to achieve distance. Then we started having sex again. We had lots of deep conversations rationalizing it all. It all made sense. He wasn't over his ex and couldn't handle this and didn't want to hurt me. But I still cried every day the rest of the trip.

When we were home the first weekend, I felt like his girlfriend. I slept curled up against him while he played video games. We made cookies. The next we didn't even kiss. I have a hundred drafted notes app docs telling him off. Trying to keep track of what was real and what wasn't so I could convince myself the 'on' of it all was my imagination over-doing it, or maybe the bad was. I never became convinced of either. Just more angry and more confused. We went on a trip to Maine and I told him I loved him and we needed to just be together. that I couldn't take it anymore. He said no. This was the first I learned he was openly sleeping with other people the whole time. I absolutely fucking lost it. I thought we were dating all but in name and it was some formalities and my anxiety. Imagine being told to your face you're being cheated on but you're technically not so you have to just say okay. I didn't. I cried for 4 fucking hours - ugly crying, right up in his face, and then was told I overreacted and believed it because I was in love and had low self esteem. He asked if I wanted to know the details. I said no and I wish I hadn't, because maybe I'd have ever felt some more resolve if I did. maybe I knew I'd have gotten SO angry I would've left, and I didn't want to have to. And then instead of having the guts to end it, I, sad and low-self esteem and in love and liking sex, tried to say forget I said anything. He had to be the one to call it off.

We got home and kept in contact and first he then tried to hook up again and I had to say no. then he ghosted me for 2 weeks because this ex hit him up. then, finally, once he got over that, I took him on a trip to stargaze to make up for what happened in Maine. And that's when he said he was ready. And he's been nearly perfect in every single way since that moment.

So, anyway. I'm angry. It's been 2 and a half years and we've spent at least 15 hours of our lives talking about it and are very much in love and yet I'm still viscerally angry if my brain touches any of it with a 10 foot pole. I feel embarrassed to be in a relationship that I'm only in because I had a complete lack of dignity even though so much about that relationship now eclipses all of that a hundred thousand suns over - or it should. I feel robbed of a fairytale ending but I still have a fairytale person. So why do I still feel resentment over this? How do I make it go the ever-loving FUCK away? I'm over it. I want to be over it. I don't want this acid raincloud over me anymore. I want back the perfect story it washed away. It was so much rage and angst and turmoil leading up to the sweetest ending at the middle of the worst of the pandemic and instead it ended in the most anticlimactic melodramatic alternate ending it possibly could've. it should feel like I rode off into the sunset with The One. Because, in the end, that's what I did. So why are we trudging along near a swamp one mile from town? Someone change my fucking perspective like the way only the people on this hellsite can because I'm fucking tired of harboring all of this and I'm tired of wondering if I'm subconsciously causing problems in our relationship because I'm stuck on all of this. I just wanted the happy ending with fireworks and the author just forgot about me and stopped writing. This is all so three dimensional and we're all 3 dimensional people but it's stained across my deeply 2 dimensional world that never got to be resolved like it was supposed to first.

[50cal-fullauto-astarion]

For the OC ask game 💖

10, 14 and 17 with Rivka

2, 9 and 25 with Stallard

KEZ MY BELOVED THANK YOU FOR INDULGING ME 🥰🥰💖💖

Rivka:

10. What’s an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC?

FALLOUT AU. FALLOUT AU. FALLOUT AU. Oh good lord, any of them, really. Fallout 3? Sour unpleasant child raised in a vault with no memory of her parents, her grandmother is the vault’s Overseer, and she busts out of her own accord after she’s assigned to be the admin path to become the next Overseer. Selfishly wreaks havoc across the Capital Wasteland, picks up a dogmatically loyal Ghoul bodyguard (König, ofc), falls instantly in love with one another, and decide to fuck over the BoS who took over her parents’ work on the water purifier for their own gain.

Writing this I’m realizing I could have this au carry her through all three games hehe. New Vegas: made it across the country with their ill gotten gains, picks up courier work, ends up shot, buried, and separated from König, and the game is them both brutally tearing apart the Wasteland to get back to one another. When they reunite, it’s a whole thing. Riv has gone more than half ghoul-y bc of all the unchecked radiation in the area, and just when she thinks König will see what’s become of her and decide no, he surprises her. He’s elated—they can be together forever now. And they bring the libertarian Wunderkind Robert House back to power, with the sole intention of returning someday and violently overthrowing him to rule Vegas themselves. The only reason they don’t do that immediately is bc—

Fallout 4: the Brotherhood of Steel is back in business in Boston, Massachusetts, and there is something rotten in the state of Denmark when it comes to Synths. There’s some dickhead Sole Survivor running amok with the do-gooder Minutemen faction, Stallard something, running around with her own rotten asshole that goes by the name of Ghost, so spooky. But they aren’t doing shit-all about the Brotherhood, so Riv oh so kindly inserts herself in the situation and makes sure it goes the fuck down in flames—literally.

Then, upon returning to New Vegas, she takes her place as the leader of the independent city, improving where others had failed miserably, and protecting her claim like the cold blooded warlord she is, providing König an ultimate life of luxury. 🥰

14. How does your OC want to be seen by other characters?

Ohhh this is an interesting question, because Riv doesn’t really take the perception of other people into account. She has solely lived in her own world since her parents were killed, and the only person who has ever gotten close enough to be welcomed in is König. He’s the only one that matters. For him, she wants to be a safe haven, and a soft place to crash. She wants him to look at her and know that as long as she’s alive, he’s got a home, and that he’s protected.

The world at large? Again, she doesn’t pay it any mind, but if pressed, she needs people to understand that she is capable and she is not fucking around. She is not casual, she will commit to the bit and return Someone being funny with her being hilarious.

17. What is the worst thing you have put your OC through story-wise?

DFHHDG I’m a very mean creator and it’s still her parents being killed. She came home from Hebrew School to an open door and a house that reeked of blood, listening to two thugs comfort one another over their brutality, and seeing her father’s severed feet—still in black alligator skin Chelsea boots—sitting six feet away from his legs poking out around the side of the stairs. She was struck in the back of the head by one of the thugs, who further freaked out, and was beckoned by her mother to come over where she lay dying in the sitting room.

Teàrlag Zabludowicz had gotten her face bashed in by the same weapon that caved in the back of Rivka’s skull, and with her last breaths she pulled her daughter’s body under her own to hide her. Her jaw was so destroyed that her tongue lapped at Rivka’s cheek when she tried to speak comfort, and she bled into Rivka’s mouth and eyes. Rivka can still feel her mother’s tongue against her skin when she’s stressed.

Stallard:

2. What’s something about your OC that people wouldn’t expect just from looking at them?

Her favorite author is Jeanette Winterson, and she’s read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Lighthousekeeping to Simon and for herself more times than she can count. She loves to sing, even if her voice is shit, and she misses her mother, even though she’s still alive. She misses her twins more than she’s ever loved her little half-sisters, but obligation would’ve had her kill herself before admitting that for decades on end. She still feels like a little girl and wishes she didn’t feel as constantly, back-breakingly lost as she always has. She’s a little old fashioned and would like to be treated like a lady more than she is. She’s dreamt of Simon so many times that she swears he’s visiting her in her sleep. At one point in her life, her greatest wish was only to marry him.

9. Do you have a specific lyric or quote which you associate with your OC?

OH BOY DO I.

The entirety of Gold Dust Woman by Fleetwood Mac is a song for Stallard, and here’s a pull from the lyrics!

As well as Marie Douceur, Marie Colère - specifically the cover by Manon Hollander. Verses in English:

25. What is your favorite thing about your OC?

Ohhh ;;;;++++++;;;; VERY good question. I love a lot of things about Stallard—how she endures, how she holds her soft vulnerabilities to her chest. But I think my favorite thing about her is that despite the fact that her rage has burned down to dead cinders over the years, after what feels like lifetimes of abuse, after the fatigue has settled in so heavily that it could kill her, she nurses a bead of compassion and kindness and patience that she could very easily let drop and die to give way completely to apathy and misanthropy.

But that’s anathema to her nature, it’s unthinkable to her to the point it literally never crosses her mind as an option. She’s got a motherly streak at her core in a most basic sense, and she cares deeply about people that fall under her purview as if they were her own, despite the fact she’ll never have children of her own, nor does she want any. But she wouldn’t be herself without it.

[prophet-problems]

List five things that make you happy, then put this in the ask box of the last ten people who reblogged something from you. Spread the positivity💫🌈

AW THIS IS SO CUTE THANK YOU!

wife :3 i love her

my pets, i know cliche but yknow what you get what you get and they literally get me out of bed some days

cooking makes me really happy, and im getting back into baking

video games!!!! this is like half of my life. esp fallout 4 right now, but i have been enjoying rdr2 and fortnite lately, and some of my faves of all time are pkmn emerald, skyrim, kingdom hearts (2 is the best), dragon age (2 is also best but inquisition is good; origins sucks incredibly large nuts to me and is unenjoyable and miserable to play but i did it anyway so that i would know wtf i was doing) and i have been getting into borderlands with my wife lately since it's a big interest of hers!

drawring. i kinda stopped doing this for a long time actually because it got un fun and then i started antidepressants. who knew!

secret 6th option: 65 degree spring weekdays where there's a light breeze and clouds, the grocery store has a lot of good clearance stuff that i can actually use/eat, and i go home to eat a fresh mango

[wanderingandfound]

So, after years of just letting BioShock, Fallout, and Half-Life occupy the same space in my head, I am slowly separating out Half-Life because that's the one in the same world as Portal.

Also apparently Left 4 Dead and The Last of Us are also different games, which I'm only realizing because I just got Left 4 Dead 1&2 in a bundle, and people have been talking about The Last of Us because somebody said something dismissive and ignorant about it being the first nuanced/complex/plotty game.