#i know i'v been mia BUT this is one of my FAVORITE events

[thechaoticdruid]

MEET THE PARENTS

Okay so I've had this same Astarion x Tav idea floating around in my head for a while and I'm so surprised I legit have not seen anyone write about it! It's basically the classic meet the parents scenario! Yes I know we never see Astarion's parents and probably never will, they could be dead for all we know, but they are elves, a very long lived race so it's very possible they could actually be alive! So basically I'm gonna start a little fun writing challenge and tag three of my favorite Astarion romancers.

@spacebarbarianweird , @vixstarria , @marcynomercy

(If none of you are actually interested in this I'm so sorry 😭 I just wanted to do a thing.)

The challenge is to write up headcanons of your Tav meeting Astarion's parents and vice versa. Doesn't matter if your character's parents are dead or MIA this is strictly a what if scenario. And if you'd be so kind please tag some Astarion x Tav writers you think would be interested in this challenge!

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Astarion meeting Winnie's parents.

It definitely was not planned, Winnie literally had no idea her parents were even alive.

Her Gran had told her a long time ago they went missing off on an adventure after leaving their village and that they were very likely dead.

About 20 years later after their disappearance Winnie returns back to the ruins of the village she grew up in with Astarion accompanying her.

Astarion had actually insisted on venturing here in hopes of finding a lead on the drow wizard that plagued his beloved's nightmares.

The one who orchestrated the massacre of her village before kidnapping and experimenting on her.

There's nothing left but basically an unmarked graveyard. The amount of death and dark magic that seeped into the area has even brought some of the dead back from beyond the grave.

It is a horrifying turn of events for Winnie, actually seeing some of the people from her childhood roaming the land as lifeless corpses and then actually having to kill them herself this time.

Once the two of them were safe they took shelter in one of the old huts which just so happened to be Winnie's childhood home.

Astarion had to hold and comfort her as all the memories of her village's slaughter came flooding back.

At some point as they rested they noticed something watching them.

It was a wolf, with dark brown fur, eyes shining pink in the moonlight. A very peculiar shade indeed.

Peculiar but not unfamiliar as Winnie's own fuschia colored eyes stared back.

She just had to follow after the wolf and eventually it led her back to a small hut surrounded by some kind of dome-like barrier.

The wolf ended up shifting into the form of a tall muscular human woman who was none other than Winnie's long lost mother!

A short pudgy man with a lute stepped out of the hut as soon as he heard the tall woman shout. This was Winnie's Father.

Winnie was overwhelmed with all kinds of emotions with the revelation that her parents had been alive all this time!

Molly and Harry were their names.

Despite welcoming Winnie with open arms they seemed rather on the fence about Astarion.

At first glance Molly was overjoyed that her daughter had a partner so handsome and immediately began to babble on about what beautiful babies they'd make much to Winnie's dismay and embarrassment.

Harry was polite and willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He wasn't as baby-crazy as his wife.

Then came the realization that Astarion couldn't pass their magic barrier they'd created to keep out undead.

Winnie was quick to come to Astarion's defense however, but learning that your daughter's lover was a vampire would be unnerving for almost anyone.

At first Winnie's mother even asked if she was with him willingly, wanting to check and see if she was charmed. It was honestly a bit ridiculous.

Molly was checking her neck for bite marks and nearly losing her mind and screaming when she found them there.

Harry had to calm down his wife, wanting her to give the vampire spawn a chance.

Things were a bit iffy from there on our, but eventually they came to accept Winnie's undead love.

And Molly expected a dhampir baby or two within the next few years, which Winnie had to remind her frequently that she was not ready for that and might actually never be ready for it.

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

Winnie Meeting Astarion's Parents.

This was Winnie's idea all on her own.

Despite Astarion always telling her she was the only family he needed whenever she'd bring up the subject on if he thought his family was still around or not.

Yet the curiosity, the uncertainty just ate away at her.

His past was a mystery, not only to her, but to Astarion himself.

And they were elves for gods' sake. So it was very likely that they hadn't yet succumbed to old age.

What's two centuries to an elf?

But also she wanted her beloved to have someone other than herself to feel loved unconditionally by.

The human female had no idea how long she'd be able to run from her mortality.

With help from her tressym familiar Maddie to keep Astarion occupied, Winnie returned to Baldur's Gate in search of any old records of the Ancunin family.

Using her Hero of Baldur's Gate status to her advantage Winnie is able to get access to certain private documents no normal citizen would be able to.

She finds some old records on Magistrate Ancunin which immediately brings a grin to her lips.

Astarion's parents apparently left Baldur's Gate three years after his death.

From what little else she could find they moved to Evereska, but nothing told her if they were both actually still alive or not.

Winnie had her elven friends Vesperr and Arva do some investigating since they were constantly traveling nowadays and likely may be able to find out more than the human could.

She sent them a raven detailing her intentions and findings before returning home to her beloved vampire spawn.

He was a tad upset about her sneaking off for a few days and only leaving a note in her place, but Winnie was able to smooth things over with a little blood.

About a few weeks later a letter from Vesperr came back, telling Winnie that there were some Ancunins living in an estate just outside of Evereska. A couple in fact!

The human female could hardly contain her excitement, but she had to keep calm, especially when Astarion became curious about the letter she received.

He actually chased her around their home demanding to read it but Winnie wouldn't let him.

Soon after Winnie proposed that the two would go on a trip. A romantic getaway as she put it.

That was the cover she made up for going to meet his parents.

Luckily at this point the two had been able to locate the ring of the sunwalker so Astarion's days of running from the sun were a thing of the past.

The set off by carriage, taking Winnie's faithful tressym along with them.

Eventually at some point on the road Astarion ended up finding the letter from Vesperr Winnie had tucked away in her pack.

"A romantic getaway hm?"

The druid just smiled at her partner with a nervous chuckle.

Of course she apologized for lying and keeping secrets and said that she only wanted to make Astarion happy.

He forgave her and decided just to go and meet these people since the two of them had come too far to turn back now.

Astarion was getting more nervous the closer they got.

Perhaps this wasn't a good idea? What if they tried to stake him after what he's become?

Winnie would place her hand over his to comfort him after she noticed his stressed mood.

Winnie's tressym Maddie would also curl up in his lap and purr like a good little emotional support kitty.

Finally they would arrive at the estate where Astarion's apparent relatives were living.

They walked in, hand in hand before promptly being approached by who they assumed were the estate's security.

Winnie was quick to introduce Astarion, hoping to avoid any sort of confrontation.

Astarion's name had immediately made the guards freeze in place before then demanding he come with them inside.

They legit told Winnie she had to wait outside which Astarion was having none of.

If his lover was not allowed in then he would be leaving immediately.

The unfamiliar two elves muttered to each other in elvish as Winnie just watched in confusion. Every word coming out of their mouths sound like pure jibberish to the human female.

She then heard Astarion snarl back at them in elvish.

Winnie had a feeling they might have been talking about her due to her partner's very offended and frankly pissed off sounding tone.

The elven guards eventually agreed to let them both enter together.

Winnie was amazed by all the extravagant decor, almost getting distracted several times and having to be pulled along by Astarion who kept an arm linked around her waist.

Finally the time had come when they were face to face with his parents.

They were both insanely beautiful as Winnie assumed practically all high elves were, both adorned with fine silks and jewels Winnie had only ever dreamed to see.

Astarion appeared to have gotten his father's handsome facial features and his mother's luscious ivory curls.

Both his parents had different colored eyes his father's were golden while his mother's were green so the mystery of Astarion's eyes was still yet to be seen.

His mother looked over his face with pure shock before eventually bursting into tears.

She hugged him tight muttering something in elvish as she held him.

Astarion seemed to stiffen under her touch. Perhaps she was his mother, but at the same time she felt very much like a stranger.

His father eventually joined in on the hug as Winnie just stood there awkwardly.

It took them a few moments before the realization set in that their son was back from the dead.

His skin, cold to the touch, his eyes blood red and the fangs peaking out from behind his lips as he gave a nervous smile.

Immediately they jumped to a conclusion that the strange human woman Astarion was with was somehow the cause of this.

To which Winnie snarkily replied, "Do I look like a vampire lord to you?"

Astarion had to step in and explain what happened, he skipped all the unpleasant details to save himself a bit of pain.

While his parents seemed to become more accepting of his affliction rather fast, they barely batted an eye at Winnie.

And whenever they did look upon her it was with disgust.

Hells his father even assumed she was some kind of hired manservant! And tried to get her to carry Astarion's things in.

When Astarion said that Winnie was his lover, his mother gasped, acting as if she was going to faint.

It seemed theatrics ran in the family.

Things went rather poorly from there.

Astarion's father apparently tried to explain to him that bedding humans was not acceptable.

Winnie just stayed quiet and stood there awkwardly as she heard his mother claim that she probably used magic to tempt him into her bed.

It was then the pale elf snapped and told them off for not being there for him for over 200 years yet Winnie, a 'filthy human' had been there for him since the moment they met.

He made sure to let them know he wouldn't even have been here if it weren't for her wanting to reunite him with his 'family.'

Astarion eventually had enough and dragged Winnie out. He apologized to her very profusely afterwards.

He felt awful that she had gone through all this trouble only to be treated like trash by people she should have been welcomed by.

Winnie just smiled sadly and told him it was okay. It was worth trying.

The two hugged before leaving deciding to head back to Baldur's Gate and probably get drunk at the blushing mermaid.

Of course on their way out, one of the elven servants rushed after them with a letter.

It was from Astarion's father, apologizing for their behavior and begging Astarion to come back.

The vampire spawn simply rolled his eyes and tossed it out the window of the carriage.

Sometimes a real family was just a wild feral girl, a sassy vampire elf , and a winged cat.

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What? Did you expect Astarion's parents to be nice people?

~Druid

[she-is-juniper]

Put It Into Practice — Steve Harrington x Reader (chapter three)

Pairing: Scoops Ahoy era Steve Harrington x f!Reader (she/her/hers pronouns, AFAB)

Rating (by chapter): Explicit (***18+ only. Minors DNI or you will be blocked.)

Summary: “King Steve” Harrington had been the subject of swooning for every girl in their right mind back in high school. But when his sexual dexterity comes into question the summer after graduation, Steve is not about to let his reputation become marred quite so easily. Luckily, Steve is offered the help of his new friend—to give him advice, a few pointers, and maybe a bit of healthy practice…

Word Count (by chapter): 8K

Content: more angst, banter, more Robin in this chapter, making out, oral sex (female receiving), fingering, mutual masturbation, cursing

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and is not intended to be taken as truth or fact. I do not claim to own Stranger Things or any other affiliated names or fictional events. Other details, such as names, locations, and events, are also fictionalized. 

A/N: Ahhh! The long awaited 3rd chapter of what's becoming one of my absolute favorite series I've ever written! This chapter proved especially difficult for me to write, given the high volume of a n g s t . But I know how much you guys will love it...and it'll pay off ♡ I'm absolutely over the moon at how well-received this series has been!! Thank you immensely to each and everyone of you! It's also worth noting that this fic is an AU of Stranger Things Season 3 in which there's no overarching end-of-the-world/Shadow Monster from the Upside Down/evil Russians plotline. It's just a bunch of normal teens with normal lives set in Summer 1985 in Hawkins, Indiana. Fun fact: I ended up hiding a bunch of song title references in this fic! See how many song titles you can find 😂 And as always, PLEASE comment if you enjoyed this, for the love of god—thank u in advance ♥ Love, Juni

chapter one \\ chapter two

NEXT CHAPTER

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Steve is avoiding you.

It’s obvious. Aside from the fact that he hasn’t said anything to you in a week, he was also conveniently MIA every time you passed by Scoops Ahoy on your way to and from work.

Granted, you haven’t made any effort to see him in the past week, either. Clearly you’re both avoiding each other.

Whatever, you keep telling yourself. Not like I care. In truth, you do care—a lot. It still stings that Steve would rather pretend like you don’t exist than face you after what had happened in your basement a week ago.

And, well…more had happened since then.

The morning after he had come to your basement and left so abruptly, you had been determined to not let anything change. You had gone to work as usual. You had passed by Scoops Ahoy, as usual. You had said hi to Robin and Steve, as usual.

But what was not as usual was the strange, ravenous way Steve had glared at you as you came up to the counter.

“Hi, Steve,” you’d said, urging him to just act fucking normal.

But he’d just gulped and choked out a strained, “Hi.”

And that was that. You’d thought it was odd—and a part of you had been deeply nervous that he was panicking about (or regretting) what he’d done the night before—but you were already running late to work.

Later that day, your cookie store had received a delivery through the back door. You were coming in and out the dingy, dimly lit back hallways of the mall, dragging in boxes by yourself, when you’d spotted Steve down the hallway, bringing in a delivery to the ice cream shop too. And he’d met your gaze…

“Steve?” you called out, your voice echoing down the hallway.

Steve was just staring at you, looking like one of the twins in the hallway from the Shining. You wanted to laugh and make a joke about it, until he placed one hand on his hip and sighed deeply. His mouth twisted into a sly smile, and he shook his head while reciting your name, his voice inexplicably dejected: “Fuck, Y/N.” 

The next thing you knew, he was striding down the hallway to meet your mouth with his.

The kiss was hungry, desperate, full of unspoken words that you couldn’t possibly speak if you tried. He was a dark storm of undisclosed desires, with his body guiding yours to the wall, where he pressed against you, pinning you there. You’d never experienced Steve Harrington like this before. 

His hands raked urgently across your body, finally ending up at your face, your neck, the back of your head, tangling in your hair. The smell of him, almost familiar by now, brought back vivid memories of last night that made your head spin. There was no room for coherent thought in your brain as he ravished your mouth with his. 

“Steve,” you gasped in between his kisses.

He held your face and kissed you deeply, his tongue meeting yours with a dizzying frenzy, before he broke away at last to speak your name again. “Y/N.”

His hands went from rough to soft, suddenly caressing you now, as if he was trying to memorize the feel of your skin on his fingertips. He smiled at you.

Then, there was a noise from down the long hallway. And just as quickly as the moment began…it was over.

Steve tore away from you, sucking in an inhale. He gave you one final, curt glance, a feeble apology in his eyes, before he slinked off back to the ice cream parlor and left you standing there in the back hallway, trying and failing to catch your breath and collect your thoughts under the dim fluorescents…

That was a week ago. And Steve hasn’t spoken to you once since.

Who the fuck does that?? you find yourself thinking, absolutely baffled at what had happened. He had come to your house and given you head, he had left abruptly after awkwardly rejecting you for offering to give him head, he had beseiged and all but jumped you in the back hallway the next day…and now he was avoiding you. Talk about mixed signals.

After about the fifth or sixth day of avoiding each other, you’d started to panic. And now, seven days later, you were going mental. You still feel, well, humiliated, at the thought that he’d seen you naked and now was essentially a ghost to you. And now, you feel angry, too, in the mix of emotions. Angry at him for being an immature baby by avoiding you. Angry at yourself for letting it all happen in the first place.

It was all because of your stupid idea to proposition him into getting practice going down on a girl. Stupid, stupid, stupid of you for even suggesting it to him in the first place. Because now, because of it, you may have permanently fucked up any chances of staying friends. 

But really, though, what had you expected? Did you really think you’d be able to just go back to normal after what he’d seen, after what he’d done? 

And now, especially after that sporadic hallway kiss…you can’t get him out of your head. You can’t shake the image of Steve’s warm eyes peering up from beneath you, can’t forget the feeling of his lips and tongue, can’t stop imagining his hands soaking up your body. You can’t stop yourself from hearing his voice replaying in your head over and over again. The intruding memories have been distracting you so badly this week that you’ve been making stupid mistakes at your job. 

Like right now.

“I ordered a dozen sugar cookies, not peanut butter,” the woman in line gripes at you as she checks the bag of cookies you just handed to her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, let me fix that.” You take back the bag and prepare another one with the correct order while the woman taps her heel impatiently. It’s the day before the Fourth of July, and it seems like the entirety of Hawkins is at Starcourt, half of them with bad attitudes. The line at The Great Cookie hasn’t let up for three hours now. There’s no way your manager’s going to let you take a break today. 

A familiar blue-and-red sailor uniform flashes before your eyes. Your stomach lurches. But you realize it’s just Robin standing in line. She peers at you curiously while she waits her turn to approach the counter. 

“Hi, Robin,” you greet her when she finally reaches the front of the line. “Sorry, I can’t do any free cookies this week—”

“Why are you and Steve avoiding each other?” she asks you point blank with a curious smile.

“I—uh—why would you think that?” you stammer. 

“Well, I know he’s avoiding you,” Robin says, leaning across the counter. “He’s been darting into the kitchen anytime anyone who even remotely looks like you passes by the shop. And I know you’ve been avoiding him, because you haven’t come by even once this week during your breaks—to which I take great personal offense, by the way—but what I cannot figure out for the life of me is why you two are avoiding each other.”

Robin speaks so quickly, in her typical Robin way, that it takes your brain a few seconds to catch up with what she’s saying. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you say simply. 

Robin scoffs. “You’re a terrible liar, Y/N, even worse than me.”

“I’m sorry I haven’t been by to see you this week,” you say to deflect from her other musings. “It’s just been so busy.” Frankly, you miss Robin a lot. She’s become a close friend this summer, too, just as much as Steve has. Or had been. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Robin says and waves her arm dismissively. “But you have to tell me what happened. And don’t say it was nothing, Y/N,” she adds when you open your mouth to protest, “because I know Steve. I’ve had to spend every waking hour of every day with him, and he’s become even more annoyingly mopey in the past week than ever before. And you’ve gone AWOL. So something had to have happened.”

“Why don’t you just ask Steve?” you say gently. The curiosity of his inner thoughts is absolutely killing you. 

“I tried, but he won’t talk to me. It’s been so annoying. You should see him. He’s been acting like a kicked puppy.”

For as bad as you feel to hear that, the other part of you feels vindicated. “Good,” you grumble under your breath.

“Oh god,” Robin says, her tone suddenly serious. “What if he’s upset about something I said? I’ve probably been making fun of him too much for the whole Lisa R. thing. Maybe I should apologize—”

“Robin, no,” you interrupt her. “It’s—it’s not about you.”

She narrows her eyes. “So something did happen between you two.”

“It’s not a big deal,” you lie. “I’m sure it’ll blow over soon.”

“That dingus probably said something dumb, didn’t he.”

“No…” You scratch your head. “We just had a bit of a…disagreement.”

“Well, whatever it is, can you two hurry up and get over it? He’s being insufferable. Plus, it’s weird not having you around during your shift breaks.”

Robin is working hard to make her voice sound casual, but you can tell by the look on her face that it’s more than just curiosity that brought her here to talk to you. She’s concerned about him, you realize. She’s concerned about both of her friends. 

“I’m sure it’ll blow over in a few days,” you say reassuringly, even though you aren’t sure yourself.

“Okay, can we change ‘a few days’ to, like, ‘a day’?” she asks and pulls out a folded-up flyer with a drawing of an American flag. The flyer read, Mayor Kline Presents the Roane County Fun Fair. “The Fourth of July Fair is tomorrow. I think it’d be fun if we all three went together.”

You smile slightly. “That sounds like fun,” you say. Realistically, though, you’re not sure if Steve will stop this whole avoiding you thing within the next day. But that’s a him problem. You? You could handle seeing him. You could handle going back to being friends. If there was someone between the two of you who was going to make this weird and awkward, you’re bound and determined to not let it be you.

“Great,” Robin beams. “And then maybe you can tell me what your fight was about.”

“Uh, maybe,” you say, glancing between Robin and the growing line of impatient customers behind her. “I have to go back to work now.”

“Heard,” she says. “I’ll get out of your hair.” But there’s a little glimmer in her eyes.

“What?” you ask.

“One for the road?” she asks innocently, eyeing the cookies in the display window.

You roll your eyes. “My boss is going to kill me if he finds out how many free cookies I’ve been giving away.” But you go ahead and open the window to retrieve one M&M cookie, Robin’s favorite. She grins and claps her hands.

You also grab a chocolate chip and put both cookies in a bag, giving it to her.

“Oh, I get two this time?” she asks.

You shake your head. “The other’s for Steve.” Chocolate chip has always been his favorite. A silent look passes between you and Robin; she nods her head, acknowledging that she’ll make sure he receives it. 

Part of you deep down knows that you’ve been avoiding Steve as much as he’s been avoiding you. Part of you knows he might be feeling the same embarrassment you’re feeling. And you’re willing to consider that maybe Steve wants things to go back to normal just as much as you do. You can only hope your chocolate chip cookie of an olive branch is enough for him to realize it, too.

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For as busy as the mall had been the day before the 4th, the Roane County Fair must have attracted the biggest number of Hawkins residents you’d ever seen in one place.

It’s all very bustling and exciting in a way that makes you feel like a kid again. Colorful lights sparkles from every direction, drawing your eyes to countless games and attractions. The sounds of laughter and the smell of fried treats fills the air. You smile to yourself, enjoying the moment as you make your way through the crowds. 

Robin’s playing with the marching band at Mayor Kline’s inaugural speech, but she promised to meet you afterward. Steve…well, Steve’s nowhere to be found. Big surprise. You still haven’t spoken to him since that night, and hadn’t seen him since the hallway encounter, but Robin had coordinated with the both of you separately to meet up with her after her marching band commitments were finished. 

Sure enough, you follow the sounds of a marching band playing patriotic music. There’s a stage at the back of the fair, decked out with patriotic bunting flags and lights. Mayor Kline is giving some kind of long-winded speech while a small group of Hawkins High Marching Band members stands at parade rest behind him.

You catch Robin’s eyes and smile at her. She rolls her eyes, trumpet in hand, and mouths to you, “Get me out of here.”

You look around the stage and shrug at her. “Come on,” you mouth back, encouraging her to shirk her duties.

Robin doesn’t need much more convincing than that. While Mayor Kline rambles off about how he “spared no expense” with the Fun Fair, Robin slinks off the stage surreptitiously. Another band member thumps her on the shoulder, looking aggrieved that she’s leaving, but Robin just ignores him.

“Ugh, that was so boring,” she groans when she finally meets you where you’re standing at the side of the crowd.

“You know you can quit band, right?” you tell her.

“Yeah, but all my friends are in it.” She tears off her shako and gauntlets. “Let’s get out of here before the others notice I’m gone.”

You follow her, laughing as she struggles with the zipper on her uniform. She leads you to one of the band buses in the parking lot where she throws her uniform and instrument. Once she’s done, the two of you make it back to the fair, laughing with each other about how sleazy Mayor Kline is. 

“I heard he only organized this whole fair to make himself look good after the protests last week,” you remark.

“Yeah, my parents hate him. He’s slimy as hell.” Robin smiles and spins around. “But I love a good time.” She looks around, then, and frowns. “Where’s Steve?”

You shrug. “Dunno. Haven’t seen him.”

“You guys still haven’t made up?”

Little did she know it wasn’t going to be that easy. “It’s whatever.”

“He’s probably running late because he’s doing his stupid hair.” Robin stares at a food stall that’s caught her eye. “Wanna get some cotton candy?”

“Duh.”

You and Robin exchange tickets for two massive sticks of cotton candy, enjoying it and giggling about past drama from school while the fireworks start to go off. Even though you and Robin had lost touch since your middle school band class days, it was surprisingly easy to go back to being friends years later. You’ve never met someone with such a propensity for talking, whether it was to rant about a bad customer or to ramble during a movie, but you find it endearing and relatable.

When Steve still doesn’t show up after a few minutes, you and Robin decide to ditch waiting around for him to go on some rides. The line for the Big Top swing ride is relatively short, so you and Robin race for the turnstiles, laughing and jesting with each other. The ride is more than a little rickety, which only serves to amplify your laughter with an added layer of nervousness. But there’s nothing better than the feeling of the cool evening air as it whips through your hair. 

You go on a few more rides together—the Gravitron, the Matterhorn, and then the Fun Slide after Robin starts feeling too nauseous from the more intense rides. And then you decide to just walk aimlessly around the fair eating corn dogs, but it’s kind of nice. 

A few weeks ago, your friendship became solidified when Robin called you one evening asking for advice. She’d been distressed that she almost revealed a secret to her friends from school; a secret she wasn’t yet ready to tell the world. You’d helped calm her down and reassure her that everything was going to be okay. Since that day, she trusted you like an older sister, and you vowed to keep her secret safe with you. 

You trust Robin, too. You know she genuinely cares about you and Steve. 

“I think Steve and I may have overstepped a boundary with each other,” you say hesitantly after a lull in the conversation. 

“Overstepped a boundary?” she repeats. Then her eyes go wide. “Oh god. Do I wanna know? Did you guys—”

“No,” you say too quickly. “Well, yes. But not really, not all the way, not like—we’re just friends,” you blather. 

Robin raises an eyebrow. “I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but what I do know is that there’s no way in hell that Steve thinks of you as just a friend.”

You gape. “What? What do you mean?”

“Y/N.” She lowers her voice. “I may not be into boys, but I’m not blind. I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”

You’re at a loss for words. “I… I don’t know, Robin…”

What had Robin seen that you’d missed? You’d never even fully felt seen by Steve until he had agreed to go along with your proposition last week. Before that, though…he’d given little to no indication that he saw you in any other way than as just a friend. Or were you just blinded by your own bias?

You think about the way he’d rejected your advances last week, the way he’d contradicted himself. First it was, I don’t want that with you, and then it was, well I do want that, but I can’t go back to being friends if we did that…? You’d been overanalyzing his words for far too long. You don’t know what to think.

You’ve considered that he just isn’t as into you as you’re into him—entirely possible, since you won’t even admit to yourself how much you like him. But why would he have agreed to get you off…for nothing in return for himself? 

Or maybe it was just about getting practice. Maybe all he really did want in return was the experience…a notch in his belt…a verbal reassurance that he didn’t totally suck in bed.

And then the whole hallway encounter just confused you even further. That wasn’t something that just friends did. So many elements to your interactions—the way he looked at you that night, the way he treated you, the way he’d kissed you—all indicated that it was more than just an experience opportunity for him.

And yet, you couldn’t help but wonder… If some other girl instead of you had come up to him with the same proposition, would he have accepted? 

Did Steve just really like pussy, or did he like your pussy?

God. What a crude thought.

“He asked me if you were seeing anyone, you know,” Robin says, breaking you away from your racing thoughts. 

“What?!”

“Yeah. A couple weeks ago. It was the day that you nailed him on the forehead with ice cream and he kicked you out.”

It’s true; you had been trying to annoy him by catapulting spoonfuls of pistachio ice cream from across the shop. After you’d successfully struck his forehead, he’d griped like a grouchy old man and shooed you out. You and Robin laughed about it for days after the fact. 

“He asked if I was seeing anyone?” you repeat. 

Robin nods. “I told him you weren’t. But then I told him he had a pretty weird fetish if he found it attractive when women assaulted him with ice cream.”

You had no idea about any of this. You bury your face in your hands and sigh.

“What?” Robin asks.

“I just don’t know what to think anymore.”

“What’s there to think? It doesn’t seem that complicated to me. I mean…do you like Steve?”

“Well, of course.”

“Yeah, but do you like like Steve?”

You don’t know what to say. “He’s become one of my best friends,” you answer instead. 

“So what?”

“So… I don’t know. What if you’re wrong?”

Robin finishes the last bite of her corn dog and chucks the stick into a trash can. “He told me something else,” she says. 

“What?”

“He told me a while ago that he hasn’t been with anyone since Nancy.”

You gape. Nancy Wheeler? His long-term girlfriend…the Princess of Hawkins High…the Nancy Wheeler who left Steve for Jonathan Byers last October?

“That can’t be right,” you insist. “What about Lisa R.?”

Robin shrugs. “I’m guessing she would have been the next. But we both know how that turned out.” Robin gives you a level look. “And…if you and him…”

“We’re just friends,” you say again, the statement automatic and ingrained. 

“I’m just saying, if he did like you, and if you guys did hook up…it might be the first time since Nancy the Priss.” Robin shakes her head and smiles. “Steve tries to pretend like he’s over her, but I don’t think he is. So he tries to act like he’s this big womanizer, but I don’t think he’s been that way for a long time. And I actually do think he really, really likes you.”

You walk silently beside Robin, your mind galloping like a racehorse. You have absolutely no idea what to say, what to think. 

A few long minutes pass, and you hadn’t even realized that Robin hasn’t spoken in awhile until you turn to look at her. Which is a long time by Robin’s standards to not say anything, but she’s focused on something else. It’s a group of band kids standing by a drink stand, still in their uniforms, laughing with each other. 

“Are we still trying to avoid your band friends?” you ask. 

Robin shakes her head. “No…”

“You wanna go join them?”

Robin’s eyes go wide like you had just asked her to start singing on a stage. “No way.”

“Why not?”

“Because…because that’s…that’s…”

You squint your eyes to make out their faces. “Oh. Oh my god. That’s her, isn’t it?”

Vickie, the clarinet player. The one Robin was starting to develop a crush on. And her friends—those are the friends Robin thinks she almost accidentally outed herself to. 

“Don’t worry, they probably already completely forgot about what happened,” you reassure her. 

Robin shakes her head. “There’s no way they forgot about how I agreed when Vickie made that joke about how our last marching formation on the field last season looked like a pair of boobs from the stands.”

“You didn’t agree, you just nodded, remember? And it was a funny joke. Anyone would have laughed.” You clasp her on the shoulder. “You’re in the clear, dude. No one’s suspecting anything.”

“Yeah, but…what if they are?”

“They’re not. You’re being paranoid.”

Robin breathes out a big sigh. “Okay…Okay.”

“Besides…if Vickie the Clarinet Player’s making jokes about boobs on the marching field, then maybe she’s also—”

“Ah! Enough!” Robin cuts you off, waving a hand frantically. You giggle.

“Okay, sorry, sorry. But still…you should go talk to them,” you encourage.

“But she’s with them.”

“Who?”

“Vickie the Clarinet Player!!”

“Exactly. Don’t you want to get to know her, too?”

Robin muses and says quietly, “Yeah…”

You shove her shoulder. “Then you should go!”

“You won’t come?”

“I’ll catch up with you guys later.” You could use a moment to collect your thoughts. “And…maybe I’ll go try to find Steve. He’s got to be around here somewhere.”

Robin nods and bids you farewell, hesitantly walking over to her friends by the drink stand. You walk around a bit until you find an empty bench to sit and think. 

The news about Nancy Wheeler being the last girl Steve has been with... Is that why he hadn’t wanted to do anything more with you on that night last week? Because he wasn’t over Nancy yet?

Was it because he’d rather it be Nancy than you?

Albeit painful, that was easier for you to wrap your head around than the notion that Steve Harrington might actually, genuinely like like you. Besides, what if Robin was wrong? What if he didn’t actually like like you? 

It wouldn’t be the first time for you that a boy broke your heart. You handled it just fine the other times. Frankly, even if Steve broke your heart, you’d be okay. You’d get over it. 

But what you won’t get over is losing him as a friend. 

You weigh your options. You could keep ignoring him until he decides to talk to you again—not ideal, because you already sense growing animosity between the two of you. And because you really miss him. The other option is to make the first move to try to go back to being friends and hope he follows your lead. And just ignore everything that happened in the basement, ignore the hallway encounter, ignore your feelings.

But there’s another option…

You could confront him. You could ask him why he’s been avoiding you. You could go off of what Robin said and just ask him outright if he likes you or not. Get it out of the way. Rip off the band-aid.

Just the thought of doing that makes you nervous. You really hate confrontation…and you’re willing to bet Steve does too. But what if it gave him an opportunity to admit it…to admit that he likes you too? It could be a good thing. It could be a really good thing. 

And if he says no…then it’s just friends.

At almost the exact time you decide that’s what you’re going to do, you spot him from across the fairgrounds. 

He’s leaning against the steel support structures at the side of the Fun House, glancing around like he’s looking for someone. For a boy wearing the most basic, Steve-like outfit—gray jacket, navy t-shirt, jeans, and his trusty white Nike’s— he looks achingly good. And you’re willing to bet he’d spent way longer than necessary to style his hair so it sat just perfectly at the top of his head, just as Robin had suspected. 

He’s here late, as per usual, but he’s probably been looking for you and Robin for a while now. You haven't laid eyes on him in literally a week, and the sight of him set off a series of neurons in your brain. Images of the last time you’d seen him in your basement flash in your mind, but you cast those images away, determined to keep your head straight for the conversation you’re about to have with him. 

You get up from the bench and start heading over to him, rehearsing in your brain what to say and how to say it. Steve, I know you’re avoiding me, and I want to know if it’s because you have a crush on me. I like you, and I think you like me, too, but if not, that’s cool, we can just be friends—

Someone else is walking up to him, too. 

She gets there before you do. She steps in front of where Steve is leaning against the steel beams. At first, you can’t make out her features, but you can see Steve’s with crystal clarity…the way his eyebrows shoot up in surprise, the way his posture straightens.

The goofy smile. The hand running through his hair. 

And then she smiles at him, standing way too close for a stranger as they talk…her black ringlets of hair, her perfectly painted red lips. And suddenly, you know exactly who she is. 

Lisa R. steps closer to Steve. She places a dainty hand on his chest and leans in. Steve’s cheeks redden as she whispers something in his ear. He smiles and says something back to her that makes her purse her lips. She reaches up and touches his cheek with her fingers—

You’ve seen enough. But just before you look away…Steve’s eyes meet yours. 

You whirl around on your heel and start marching in the opposite direction. You don’t have any particular destination in mind—just as far away from Steve and Lisa R. as possible. 

While your legs work in overtime to take you far away, your mind sears with a million different thoughts. The exuberance of the carnival music and bright lights almost feel nauseating now, almost claustrophobic. You can’t believe you were about to say something so stupid to him. You can’t believe how dumb you were to have thought that Steve was here to see you and Robin.

You can’t believe how foolish you were to think that maybe Steve has a crush on you when there’s girls like Lisa R. and Nancy Wheeler. 

Maybe Lisa R. showing up was serendipity. Because otherwise, you had been about to make the biggest fool of yourself in front of Steve. 

“Y/N!”

His voice carries faintly over the cacophony of carnival games and cheering children. He’s following you. You pretend not to hear him, allowing yourself to become engulfed by a large crowd standing around the fair’s exit. The fair was about to close down for the night, you realize, and everyone is headed home. But it wouldn’t be long before the crowd dispersed to go to their separate cars and Steve would spot you. 

You duck behind a hot dog stand. It’s so dumb. The way you’re feeling right now, it’s so stupid. You have no right to feel upset about seeing Steve with Lisa R. after you’d been actively encouraging him all summer to ask her out. 

“Y/N!”

Steve’s standing in the crowd, whipping his head around, still looking for you. You take off again in the opposite direction, swimming up the river of people and back toward the attractions. But he spots you, and you know he’s right on your tail.

“Y/N, wait, please just wait,” he calls out. You want to beeline for cover—behind the ferris wheel, in one of the portable toilets, in the woods, whatever—but he grabs your arm and you have no choice but to turn around and face him. His eyes are wide and fixed on yours. 

“What?” you ask, deadpan.

“I didn’t know she’d be here,” he says in a rush. You just stare at him and say nothing. “I didn’t know Lisa R. would be here.”

“Well, I bet you’re happy she was.” You try to yank your arm back but he holds it tightly. There was such intense tension in his touch and in the way his eyes held you captive. 

“I saw you,” he explained. “Watching us.”

You frown and glance away. “Yeah. Sorry to ruin your special moment.”

“There wasn’t any moment! I—Y/N,” he calls again as you wrench your arm free and storm off. 

“You don’t have to lie about it, Steve,” you say as coldly as possible.

“I’m not lying! Can we please just talk?”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“There is. Please.”

You slow down a bit, finally stopping in your tracks. You sigh deeply; you know you’re being childish by running away. So you turn to face him again. When he doesn’t say anything—just stares at you with a dumbfounded expression on his stupid, beautiful face—you spit out, “We’re talking.”

“Will you tell me why you’re upset?”

“I’m not upset.”

“Yes, you are.”

“I’m not. Can I go now?”

He blinks. “I didn’t know Lisa R. was going to come up to me like that,” he says again.

“You already said that.”

“Yeah, but—but I wish she hadn’t,” he explains. “I’d be happy to never see her again, Y/N.”

You give a humorous laugh. “You and I both know that’s a lie,” you retort. “You’ve been trying to get with Lisa R. all summer, so don’t pretend like you weren’t happy to see her.”

“I was trying to get with her, but that was until—” Steve stops himself and snaps his mouth shut. You glare at him, unblinking, waiting for him to finish his thought. But he doesn’t. So you sculpt a mask of aloofness on your features.

“It’s not that deep, Steve. You’re allowed to be with Lisa R. Just don’t sue me for not wanting to be there to watch it happen.”

“I don’t want to be with Lisa R. Not anymore.”

You raise your eyebrows, shrug, and huff a laugh, still playing the part of indifference. “Alright,” you say coolly. “Good for you. Now you can get with literally any other girl you want. Is that it, or can I please go?”

“Stop it, Y/N.”

“I’m not doing anything.”

“Stop trying to pretend like you’re not upset!” he yells. You flinch a bit; you weren’t expecting him to raise his voice. 

“Don’t yell at me,” you spit. “You don’t get to avoid me for a week and then yell at me for no reason.”

“You were avoiding me,” he accuses, his voice still the same volume. “You didn’t come once during your shift breaks this week!”

“Yeah, well, Robin said you hid in the kitchen anytime someone who looked like me came in,” you say indignantly, “So excuse me for not wanting to come by.”

“Screw Robin,” Steve snapped. “You didn’t want to see me.”

“I did want to see you!” you shout back. “Of course I wanted to fucking see you! Will you stop bothering me?”

“Why didn’t you come, then?”

“Because I’m embarrassed, okay?!” You immediately look away from him after admitting it, but you can feel his eyes boring into you.

“You’re embarrassed?” Steve asks gently, all of the sudden. “Why?” 

“Because—” You glared at him, your skin hot. Because he's seen me naked? “Because I should have never asked you what I did in the first place.”

“Why not?” Steve presses.

Because you should have known you and Steve wouldn’t be able to go back to being friends after that. Because you should have known that feelings would get in the way. Because you really, really fucking liked him.

But you don’t say any of that.

“Because now you’ve made it all weird,” you accuse him. “You kissed me in the hallway, and you started avoiding me, and you’re yelling at me. So I know you’re embarrassed, too. You just won’t admit it.”

“I am not embarrassed about what happened,” Steve declares. 

“Then why were you avoiding me?” you say, enunciating your words dangerously slow. 

Steve would be foolish to try to blame you for the same again, and he knows it. He doesn’t say anything. The tension grows and grows until you’re almost choking on it. 

At last, he says, just as articulate as you, “Why did you run away when you saw me with Lisa R.?”

“Because she was a bitch to you, and you’re clearly too dumb to turn her down,” you spit. 

“If you must know,” he responds with venom in his voice, ”I rejected her. Right as you walked away.”

You want to say, he’s pretty good at rejecting people this week, it seems. But you bite your tongue. 

“Why?” you demand. 

“Because I don’t want to be with Lisa R,” he repeats. “Why did you run away?”

“Why were you avoiding me after you kissed me?”

It’s a stand-off. Neither of you are willing to put your pistols down. Seconds pass, and all you can do is just stand there in the middle of the fairgrounds and stare at each other. Waiting for the other to give in. But you’re both too stubborn. 

In the end, it’s Steve to give in first. But not to answer your question. Instead, he presents an entirely new one. 

“You said you should have never asked me to practice with you,” he says, his voice thick. “But why did you ask me?”

You want to keep the stand-off going. You want to retort something snarky back at him again. You want so badly not to give in. But you can’t do it anymore. 

He’s not dumb. And you’re done playing guessing games with him. He has to have figured it out by now. 

“Why do you think, Steve?” you say despondently, your voice barely audible, even though there’s no one left in the fairgrounds anymore. “Why do you think I ran away when I saw you with Lisa R.?” You find yourself leaning closer, even though every instinct is telling you to turn away. “Why do you think I’ve been avoiding you as much as you’ve been avoiding me?”

It’s all he needs to hear. As if the bubble of building pressure finally bursts with your words, Steve grabs you by your waist and kisses you. 

It’s rough. It’s messy. And it takes your breath away. 

Steve kisses you exactly like he had in the back hallway a week ago—as if his entire life depends on it. With his hands on your back, his arms completely enveloping you, he holds your body against his so tightly that you couldn’t get away if you tried. But you don’t want to get away, not anymore. All you want is him. 

You don’t know where it came from, but suddenly there’s a short metal staircase leading up the back of one of the attractions. Steve’s pulling your body along with his up the stairs, where he then whirls you around and pins you firmly against the wooden door. His mouth never once leaves yours.

A noise from behind Steve causes him to whip his head around. It’s a gaggle of police officers, wielding flashlights and sauntering around the now-empty fairgrounds. They’re looking for any remaining stragglers who haven’t left yet. Steve curses and looks around, locking his eyes on the handle of the door he has you pressed up against. You step away as he jiggles the handle anxiously; it’s stuck a bit, but it eventually gives way and the door opens. Steve ushers you inside and closes the door before the cops catch the two of you.

You look around. It’s the Hall of Mirrors. The neon lights are still on, casting endless colorful arrays off of the mirrors that surround you. But as far as you can tell, there’s not a single soul in the attraction besides you and Steve.

He’s on you again, kissing you fervently, as if he can’t help himself. There’s a million things you want to say, a million things you want him to say…but none as powerful as his kiss. He pushes you again, guiding you away from the emergency exit door and through the hall. You shriek as he pushes you against what looks like it’s a mirror, but it’s actually a pathway. Steve smiles against your lips; the feeling makes you want to rejoice. 

“Steve,” you breathe out. Same as you had that day in the hallway. He responds by wrapping his fingers in your hair at the base of your neck and pulling down, gentle but firm. You gasp, and his lips find your neck, and whatever thought you’d been wanting to say scatters like leaves in the wind. 

Your body longs for him, and clearly, his body longs for you, too. You can feel how hard he is in his jeans as he presses his body against yours. The feeling—the thought alone—sets you on fire. 

“Are you still upset with me?” he murmurs against your neck as he touches the straps of your sundress. 

“Yes,” you say.

He makes a noise—disapproval? Determination? You can't tell.

“I can’t avoid you anymore," he says, and he kisses his way back up your neck, your jaw, your chin, your lips. Meanwhile, his hands fall to the hem of your dress, hiking it up as he grabs your ass. A stifled moan emits from your mouth.

And then his fingers trace the lace of your underwear. “I can’t stop thinking about you," he says resolutely.

Is that why he’d stayed away from you? Because every time he saw you, he wanted to do this? You grasp for his shirt, slipping your hands underneath it, feeling the skin on his back.

“You’re a dingus for avoiding me all week.” Your back arches as his fingers brush against your heat through your underwear.

“Hey,” he murmurs, dipping his head to kiss your collarbones. “Only Robin’s allowed to call me that.”

You tangle your fingers in his hair. “Well, Robin’s not here right now.”

“Thank god for that.” He kisses in between your breasts as he holds your mons pubis in his palm. He breathes out hotly and pulls you tighter to him with the arm around your waist. “You’re so fucking hot.”

“Me, or my pussy?”

“Both.”

As he begins to rub you through your underwear, your mouth falls open and a hot flash ripples through your body. Steve watches your eyes, your lips, his forehead pressed against yours, as he feels you move against his fingers, your body itching for more. 

Steve pushes his torso into you so you’re pressed firmly against one of the mirrors. He hooks his thumbs in the elastic of your underwear and slides them down. And he trails kisses all the way down your body as he crouches before you. 

Oh, god, you think as you realize what he’s doing. 

Steve hoists one of your thighs up and on his shoulder, ducks under your dress, he plants a kiss right against your pussy. 

Oh my god.

A small voice in the back of your mind reminds you that this is probably not a great idea, that you and Steve probably should have a conversation with each other before you do something like this again. But the voice is easily squashed by the blank nothingness that washes over your brain, replacing all logical thought with your more primitive desires.

And fuck, he’s so eager for you. 

His tongue moves against your clit just like you’d taught him last week, just like he knows you like it. You can’t see him from beneath your sundress, but you see a thousand variants of your own reflection in all the mirrors, his figure crouched beneath your dress, his arms wrapped around your thighs as he sucks the life out of you. 

How the hell did he learn to maneuver you into a pose like this? You moan his name, letting your head fall back against the mirror. You rake your fingers through his hair and he groans against you at the feeling. As his tongue begins to find a familiar rhythm against your clit, a familiar itching ache blooms across your pelvis and torso. You gasp, grinding against him, hoping to god your knee doesn’t buckle. 

You want to come on his tongue, but you want him inside you even more.

“Steve,” you say, urgently now. He pulls away and peers up at you. “I need you inside of me.”

“I…” He frowns, clearly unsure of how to make that happen logistically. Impatient, you tug up at his shoulders, urging him to stand up. He does, and you kiss him sensually while you guide his hands back to your heat again.

“Please,” you whisper, pressing his fingers against your bare skin where you’re dripping with desire from his mouth. He moans as he slips a finger into you, and you echo his moan when that finger curls up into you.

“Fuck,” he sighs. With his other hand, he cups your face and kisses you again, but you’re far too distracted by his finger inside of you to kiss him back. 

Your own hands grasp for anything they can…his biceps, his back, and finally the belt of his jeans. You want to touch him, but you hesitate, remembering how he’d reacted last time you’d tried this. But this time, as your hand halts, he presses closer to you, pushing his hips into your touch. You pull your head back to look in his eyes as you dip your hand lower to feel his erection through his jeans. His eyes grow darker with desire, and he doesn’t stop you.

So you manage to unbuckle, unbutton, and unzip him. His mouth falls open and his finger inside you stops moving as you feel him through his underwear. He feels exactly how you’d imagined he’d feel, and even better was his unguarded reaction as you squeezed him gently.

“Fuck,” he groaned again, the word long and drawn out this time. Your grip tightens and you can’t help but smirk at his reaction, the way he bucks his hips, the way he inhales sharply.

You reach around and pull the elastic down, just far enough to free his dick so you can touch it without the barrier of fabric.

The atmosphere changes completely as you jerk him off. He fingers you at the same time now with a new vigor, one that leaves you breathless and determined to replicate the same energy. Meanwhile, your breaths become one, his mouth brushing against yours. As you pump him, his member suddenly swells in size in your hands, and you can feel the warm wetness of his precum dribbling from his tip, lubricating your motions.

And his hand…as his finger curls into you, coaxing out your moans as he hits that sweet spot every time, the palm of his hand presses into your clit. A sheen of sweat breaks on your forehead as you realize how determined he is to make you come.

Had this become a competition, too? Was it a game to see who could make the other come first? It wasn’t explicitly said, but with the energy between the two of you, you could feel it. 

Frankly, you were losing. His finger—two now—just felt too fucking good.

You match his energy, cupping his balls with your other hand, and he moans against your mouth. There’s nothing graceful left in either of your actions; it’s raw passion, gritty, fast, desperate.

“Steve,” you moan. You can feel wetness running down your inner thighs, inevitably covering his fingers.

“Irresistible,” he says huskily. His fingers speed up, which in this context feels fucking unreal. The neon lights in the mirrors’ reflections start to spin. You’re losing yourself in him. You’ll lose this unspoken game unless you double down. So you adjust your grip and settle into a rigorous rhythm for him, one you knew he wouldn’t be able to resist. Sure enough, Steve’s breath shudders.

But as Steve begins to fall apart, so do you.

“Come for me, baby,” he coaxes. You fall over the ledge. 

The heat emanating from the friction of his fingers overtakes you at last. The neon lights in the mirrors become kaleidoscopes in your vision. You moan out again and your knees shudder as a massive wave of pleasure racks your body. You lose your grip on his dick, instead grasping desperately at his shirt as your orgasm ripples through you.

Through the haze of it, you realize Steve has taken matters into his own hands—literally, as he jerks himself off to the sight of your climax. Steve’s hips tremor and his breath gets caught in his throat—and then he’s coming, too, all over his hands, just as you’re descending from your high.

Seconds pass, maybe minutes, there’s no sound except you and Steve gasping for air.

"I wasn't sure if you saw me as anything more than just a friend," you finally say in between gasps.

“I'm not the only dingus in the room, then,” he breathes. "Besides...we're still friends."

“Just friends don’t do this.”

“Fair.” Despite the mess you and he had just made, Steve dips down to kiss your lips once more. “Maybe more than just friends.”

✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷✷

A/N: Ooooof talk about horrible communication huh?? What are we all thinking? Any predictions for how Steve and Reader's relationship will change in the next chapter after this?? We still have a lot of ground to cover!

Thank you immensely for reading! I had originally wanted to make this series only a three-parter, but I still have a lot to write about for this story/this pairing. I hope you guys are in for another chapter! ◡̈

I’m dying to hear your thoughts about this work! Please note that I write fanfiction for free; my only request for repayment is a genuine expression of your thoughts, opinions, likes/dislikes, and predictions about the story. Whether it’s simply a “Wow, I loved it!”, a keyboard smash, a series of convoluted thoughts in the tags, or even a full-out review, please know that any and all feedback is welcome!

I write for the following fandoms: Elvis, Austin Butler, and Stranger Things. Requests are currently closed, but I adore receiving asks about your thoughts, headcanon ideas, other ravings, or just about life! Please send me some fun stuff in my ask box and I will cry of happiness!

Much love ❤︎ from Juniper

next chapter!!!!

Stranger Things fics taglist (if I'd added you by mistake, you'd like to be removed, or you'd liked to be added, please lmk via ask!): @rexorangecouny @k-k0129 @piecsesrising @cutesy-creep @whereintheworldisspencerreid @thingfromlove @hellfirebloodhound @buginksworld @wtfsteveharrington @yellowharrington @theangryjuniper @o-holynight @chestharrington @sexytholland @hoedameronsworld @floralcyanide @likexthexplanet @thatsonezesty13 @misaamaneswifey @undeniableadrenaline @bobo-bush @sojibug @hazzarights @touchmetouchmetouchme @homeskilletbiscuit22 @dullsocietyy @kirbursoot @lelenikki @keepingitlokiii @hoedameronsworld @xh-josii @sexytholland @theblairwaldorf2

[helenaheissner]

Comic Review: Green Arrow by Joshua Williamson Volume 1: Reunion

As a longtime Green Arrow fan, I had been looking forward to reading the first trade paperback of the current ongoing series by Joshua Williamson for a few months now. Williamson's been having something of a moment lately- his also ongoing run on Superman has been widely-lauded and very much enjoyed by me personally, and while I've not yet read his Batman & Robin series, the snippets I've seen online make it look very much up my alley.

In the wake of a recent event storyline titled Dark Crisis (also written by Williamson, and which I've not read either), Oliver Queen, rich brat turned hardcore survivalist turned bow-wielding man of the people superhero, is missing, stranded on an alien world for reasons he knows not why. So he does what he does best: survive.

The drive to survive is something I consider an inherent part of Ollie's character: he's motivated not by a desire for justice, vengeance, or familial obligations like many other DC heroes, but by an iron will to survive implanted by his being stranded on the not-so deserted island of Lian Yu for several years. He wants to survive, by any means, and he wants that for everyone around him as well. That is both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness, because sometimes by choosing survival over all else, he neglects to let himself truly live the life he wants with the family he has built, or otherwise cross moral lines for the sake of his (admittedly very noble) concept of a greater good. That dissonance is a huge part of what drives this six-issue opening act. Because while Oliver is doing what he does on the other end of universe, his family- specifically his adoptive son and former sidekick Roy Harper/Arsenal; the on/off love of his life and mainstay of the JLA, JSA, and Birds of Prey, Dinah Lance/Black Canary; and his illegitimate biological son, former Buddhist Monk turned co-Green Arrow, Connor Hawke.

It's on their hunt that they find trace of Roy's presumed-dead daughter by an unrepentant supervillain, Lian, and a touching father-daughter reunion happens... Only for Lian to suddenly vanish in a rush of light, and rematerialize on the same world where Oliver has been stranded.

Let's talk about the Arrow Family for a moment, shall we? The Arrow Family is freaking great! Oliver and Dinah are genuinely one of my favorite ships in all of comics, Roy is a Teen Titans mainstay who's undergone some of the best character development in all of comics, Connor is a brilliant example of a legacy superhero done well, and Oliver's adoptive daughter and other sidekick, Mia Dearden/Speedy, as well as his other-other sidekick and much younger half-sister Emiko Queen/Red Arrow, are two of the most criminally underrated heroines in the DCU. But due to several questionable editorial mandates and a few baffling writing choices over the past twenty or so years, the family has been scattered. Lian was straight-up dead for over a decade in real time, Connor and Mia were stranded in the proverbial comic book limbo after a continuity reboot in the early 2010s (long story), Roy and Dinah were on the outs with Ollie at various points in the past two decades, and while Emiko has gotten to hang around pretty consistently, the character wasn't created until 2013 and didn't became her big brother's sidekick until 2017. And this is without even getting into all the instances of Oliver being an idiot about his personal life and isolating himself from his family in the process.

This comic makes that a driving tension in a very literal sense- something is causing the members of the Arrow Family to teleport away from each other when they're near each other, causing Oliver to conclude that the only way they can all survive is to be apart.

He's wrong, of course. And he realizes he's wrong. And I won't spoil why, other than a very clever reveal of just who from Oliver's personal history would want to mess with him, as well as setting up a new potential archnemesis for the entire Arrow Family going forward in Amanda Waller (which, frankly, is a move that makes so much sense thematically it's surprising it took so long for someone to try it, given the potential contrast between Oliver's humanistic progressivism and Waller's authoritarian patriotism). What I will say that when truly pushed, when truly forced to choose between survival and family, Oliver sticks to his guns (so to speak) and chooses his family, chooses to take a chance on all of them being together no matter what risk there is for something to go wrong. Because when you're hardwired for survival above all else, the idea of letting someone, anyone, let alone a whole family of someones, into your heart is TERRIFYING. But Oliver Queen is not a coward, and he wants very much to be able to prove wrong all the many, MANY people who think that he is a bad man. He wants to be able to look in them in the face and tell the unblinking truth when he says 'no, I am a good man. Fuck you.'

And he does. And it is GLORIOUSLY CATHARTIC.

This book also does emotional beats very well. We get two parent-child reunions in this story, between Roy and Lian and then later Ollie and Connor, and both of them bring on the warm and fuzzies something fierce as these people who have been through so much together put aside all the hurt feelings and bad memories and are just thrilled to see each other once more. And then there's Ollie and Dinah's reunion... Let's just say I swooned. I swooned something fierce when my OTP got a spectacular (and rather hot) kiss scene.

This book also does banter and superhero lunacy very well (Roy and Peacemaker getting into a shoot-off becomes a plot point, and Oliver fights literal alien corporate fat-cats while in space) while still balancing it all in real emotion and a compelling personal story with personal stakes. It's aided by superb artwork from Sean Izaaske, who not only provides fantastic panel layouts, action scenes, and facial expressions, but also does several fun stylistic shifts when representing different periods in Ollie's history. It builds on established lore and character arcs without actually requiring you to know the storylines they originally came from (which is not always easy in superhero comics). Basically, it's very, VERY good, and I recommend it highly.

***

Thank you for reading! If you like this and want to support my work, you can give me a like, a repost, and a share! You can also become a paid subscriber to my Patreon in exchange for advance chapters of my stories and other exclusive content:

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[penvisions]

dev does a lil update

okay okay, so i really am all kinds of scrambled right now. between my birthday on saturday, work being intense leading up to and post valentine's day, and feeling a little under the weather with another cold front assaulting my city, i've been trying to write but end up getting so sleepy instantly. but here's a little glimpse into what i've got cookin' up:

of beskar and kyber {chapter 14} - 2.3k

continuation of season one events, the group is back on nevarro to help karga take out the heightened empire forces that have taken over the city

the melting point {chapter 17} - 1.8k

more of manté's recovery, frankie's frustrations, details of the criminal being brought to justice, everyone finding out about the engagement!!

return the favor {chapter 22} - 1.5k

we take a dive into bean's past, memories of outbreak day, joel and ellie travel towards the university, tension rises as you run into someone from your past, beginning of the silverlake events

garnish one shot {happy hour} - 1.2k

anyone remember jerry from chapter 3? he's back and giving reader a lot of shit for going MIA during and after her split with joel. kind of a timestamp piece. joel gets frantic when he can't get a hold of you one night, knowing you were going out for drinks and he's worried your professor has something to do with it

by the grit of sandpaper {chapter 1} - 1k

cutting board creator joel miller, was supposed to be a holiday piece that i just didn't have the time for, but am revisiting as ideas strike me

for the record one follow up {erasure} - 2k

a follow up of our favorite dummies who are so so so bad at communication. the love and attention this garnered really blew me away as i feel like i just threw half cocked ideas together that i didn't have the attention span to flesh out, but i'm glad it turned out well enough!

feel free to ask questions or anything! help motivate me, for the love of god, help me focus, haha ♡

[imaginidol]

Do u have any tips/advice on starting a fanfic blog ??

Hi!! I appreciate you asking me first of all, it makes me feel like I'm getting better to the point where I can give my own tips <3

I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE THIS IS SO LONG :(

I've given you here my 4 best tips that have helped me :) I hope they are of some use to you as well!!

I'll tell you what--the one thing that really helped me grow personally was consistency with writing. I did have a point where I went MIA for a while because of school, but I took advantage over this whole summer to write, write, write! Sure, if you read some of my old stuff it's actually pretty bad and poorly written lol, but I just kept going until eventually I found a decent-ish writing style that works for me. Sometimes I'd have a REALLY nice fic written, and other times it feels like my writing just wasn't it/downgrading. It's a lot of yo-yo'ing, but keep going at it and soon enough the ideas and words will come to you smoothly.

What I also started with was moodboards!! Like this Mingi moodboard, for example, which eventually became an inspiration for a short fanfic story that I went along with based off the pictures. You know what else is cute sometimes, too? Posting song links if a certain song is an inspiration for a fic. I'm gonna start diong it, and most definitely will be linking from anything like orchestra to noise music if it fits a vibe lol. I'll admit, I haven't gotten to give a really detailed moodboard + fic like that Mingi one in a while and I'd like to go back to it. And, it's currently my post with the most notes ever, so I really would advise you to try a fun mood board with pictures and feel your way around the vibes and write!

As for HOW to write -- I'm currently working on "show, don't tell." I like reading a few of my absolute favorite fics from other people and I study how they use methods of showing emotions, gestures, events, etc. in discriptive manners--it makes me feel as though the fic comes to life and I'm really there, feeling and experiencing everything my y/n does!! Also this is a short fun challenge that I give myself -- I don't ever use "Y/N" in any of my fics because i feel like it disrupts the flow of the reading lol (this is just my own preference though, you don't have to do this!) instead, I refer to anyone directing their attention to you as "You," or if your partner is speaking to you, something like "thank you, my love/how have you been, love?" :P ALSO!! I alwaayyysss have a second tab open on google where I look up synonyms/antonyms of words so that I don't repeat them so much. Like, angry synonym, and I'll choose the word vexed instead. Works wonders and actually enhances your vocab!!

Requests will come in soon, and they will definitely challenge you to think outside the box and get creative!! Who says all stories have to be happy endings? What if they're about self-reflection? Love? Friendship? Or just silly buffonery 😆 I could ask you a few requests as well if you'd like as a way to get started :') Also, interact with followers as inbox msgs come in! I wasn't too good at this at the start and it is one thing I wish I could go back and work on.

Thank you if you actually even made it all the way down here! My hope with this blog is that my fanfics will help me become a decent enough writer to a point where one day I'll have enough creative experience to draft a full YA novel, which has been a dream of mine since elementary school! I hope these tips help you in anyway, and I can't help but thank you and anyone else who even gives a second thought to this blog for all the ways you guys help me fix and enhance my writing.

-ii

[sexybabystevie]

Be My Valentine! 💘

sexybabystevie's Valentine's Day celebration, in collaboration with @eddieandbird - find their part here! ❤️

THE TIMELINE FOR THIS EVENT HAS CLOSED.

Prompts

My Dream Date 🎀 - Send in a description, however long or short you want, of your dream date and your favorite character, and I'll write a ~1k word one-shot for you!

Let's Play MatchMaker 💝- Send in a description of yourself – can include physical features, hobbies, personality traits, sexuality, etc. – to be matched with a character by me!

A Rose? For Me? 🌹 - Mutuals: send me an ask with this prompt to be given a bouquet of flowers from me (including flower symbolism explanations)!

I know I've been a little MIA recently, but life has gotten hectic and a little hard to deal with, so I deeply apologize. I'm hoping that this event brings my blog back to life, and I'll be working on non-Valentine's Day related requests very soon! Thank you all for still being here and for still interacting!

-sexybabystevie

[emeritus-fuckers]

Howdy hey I'm interested in trying the match-up event. I always enjoy reading the things y'all've written.

Apologies in advance if this is a mess. 1. Identity: I am nonbinary, use they/them and she/her pronouns. I'm bisexual and a bit on the demisexual side.

2. Who I like: I'm cool with either the papas or ghouls

3. What I look like: I'm 5'8" and chubby. I'm pretty strong and got some muscle so I'm built perfect for giving big hugs and cuddles (though it'll take a bit of convincing to get me cuddly). At the moment my hair is dyed bright red but it changes colors often. Both my eyes have sectoral heterochromia and are green with a bright blue chunk. I usually wear all black graphic tees, skinny jeans, boots, and fun colored socks that often show because i never find pants that are long enough in my size lol.

4. My personality: I am introverted but enjoy being around others even if it wears me out. I'm good with kids (I'm a human jungle gym at this point) and people tend to tell me their secrets and find it easy to be open/themselves around me. I'd say i'm pretty smart but I will do stupid things just because i'm curious. Folks i'm comfortable around will never hear the end of my current interests and I'm a complete goofball (I've been banned from being funny at the table because i've caused too many people to choke laughing oops). It takes a while to actually get to know me deeply because I keep things close to my chest and dont open up easily. I've got a lot of anxiety and some baggage that I keep hidden but I'm working on I swear. I can get really competitive over trivial things and can turn anything into a game. I sometimes go MIA when im distracted with whatever the hell i'm into at that time but when I reappear there's always something new to share. (I can tell you everything you never wanted to know about pipe organs!)

5. Interests: I've got the adhd so my interests bounce around a lot. I like making things and I mess around with a lot with different crafts. I do a lot of fiber arts stuff and I've also recently been whittling bears (I have a few around somewhere). I love music both listening and playing it. I play 8 instruments (violin, viola, cello, mandolin, ukulele, trumpet, trombone, and french horn) but I'm best with the violin because i've been playing it for around 17 years. I'm also teaching myself accordion and guitar. I play video games sometimes and I especially enjoy getting 100% completion. In general I love learning anything and everything and am a "jack of many trades but master of none"

6.Trivia: My favorite movie is fantasia 2000 and recently I completed my goal of performing every music piece in an orchestra (The Pines of Rome and the Firebird Suite are my favs). I collect knickknacks and random things I find and use them to decorate my spaces and I have a skeleton with a mustache in a wizard costume in the back seat of my car and its name is Todd. I also keep googly eyes in my bag just in case

This post is part of the 1000 followers match up event. Entries for the event are now closed.

Your match is...Swiss

You and Swiss quickly became friends, he's so excited by things and so enthusiastic that you got swept up in it all. He's charming and really sweet to you, so you started to fall for him. One day you were sitting outside, Swiss taking a large drag of his vape before he looks at you and grins. "I love ya, you know that right gorgeous one?" You blush and blurt out that you feel the same way. Swiss responds by biting your shoulder just under the collar of your t-shirt. "There now it's offical" he says so excited he's practically jumping up and down "you're my mate!"

Swiss adores your eyes, he thinks they are the most awesome thing ever, and so beautiful. He tells you this a lot.

Swiss adores how much of a goofball you are, he is too, and you spend a lot of time together both laughing so hard you end up tearing up.

If your anxeity is getting bad he will cuddle and do anythig he can to help. If things get too much and you seem sad he'll hold you. He will cuddle you as long as you need. Then he'll try and take your mind off things, anything to get you to laugh a little and smile. Swiss is chaos personified but one thing is constant for him, he loves you and is devoted to you.

Swiss can keep up with your changing interestests. Infact he loves it! This Ghoul enjoys chaos and jumping around from thing to thing, that keeps him occupied. Whatever you get into he'll throw himself into it completely with you.

He is fascinated by all the things you collect. He loves how varied they are and the skeleton with a moutache is his favourite. He was very excited when you whittled him a bear. You handed it to him and he just looked at it like 'woow this is awesome'. he keeps it in his room, pride of place.

He's more than happy to help you learn guitar, he gets so excited his tail starts swishing around. He passes you his guitar and sits behind you legs either side of you showing you a cord and then letting you practice. He'll kiss your neck or softly bite your shoulder every now and then. He'll rest his chin on your shoulder and watches. He smiles at how fast you are learning, his smile is gorgeous enough to make your heart melt for him, to forget completely what you were playing and you just smile back. Often this leads to you getting so distracted the guitar gets forgotten as he presses his lips to yours.

~

Written by Nyx

[bioerin]

Tag People You Wanna Get to Know Better

Tagged by @oddishblossom thank you!! Really liked yours!!!

Relationship Status: single

Song Stuck in My Head: Mamma Mia by ABBA it's because I read a post recently about the movie mamma mia and the song just... emerged

Last Thing You Googled: the try guys (bc i saw a post how they've... fell apart. they did.)

Time: 20:55 at the moment

Dream Trip: I would like to go everywhere starting with Alaska. I just feel like no one would be there and I could just be.

Last Thing You Read: your love is sunlight by doodlebutt. a wangxian au fix-it fic which was just so nice to read

Last Book You Enjoyed Reading: Golden Stage. Huh I really have not read any books since 2020 yikes. Anyway Golden Stage my wonderful enemies to lovers book loved it with my whole heart.

Last Book You Hated Reading: The Girl With Nine Wigs. Got that book as a gift ages ago, and it is probably very bad of me to say I didn't enjoy reading about a girl with cancer based on true events. But I won't lie, I did not like reading it all. The main character tried to be relatable with the reader but I never connected with her, so I guess that was the problem.

Favorite Craft to Do in Your Free Time: does assembling ikea furniture count? I've recently moved and everything in my room is from ikea now. And I even got a little toolbox kit from ikea!! Look at me go! I just have to learn how to make holes in the wall and then I'll be unstoppable.

If that doesn't count I would say creating little trinkets now and then? I don't really have time to do anything, but I like to do stuff like gluing glitter to an old key and putting it up on a wall, or tying something to a string and creating a cat toy, things like that.

Most Niche Dislike: I don't like cut flowers. Of course, if I ever get any, I'm polite and thank people, but overall I just don't like taking a cut flower and putting it in a vase to die.

Opinion on Circuses: The only time I went to circus was the only time I saw my biological father in person. I was eight and it was very, very weird and thus circuses has always been tied to that event in my life and I feel very weird about them. This event is most probably tied with me not liking cut flowers, because before that I had no opinion about them, but then my father came to see me and gave me flowers and I was very, very uncomfortable.

Do You Have Any Sense of Direction: Not really, I am really bad at it. However, after taking a few wrong turns I would find my way anyway. But I know people who are worse than me and cannot even follow google maps, so I'm not that horribly bad.

Woosh this was an interesting tag game that took me places I did not expect to go!

Tagging (no pressure): @empiria-caterima @coldjellyfishsoul @frost0wl @ante--meridiem

[rhaized]

I have been so MIA on this blog, but I've finally finished my PhD (!!!) and would like to make a shout out to fandom and fanfic, HDM in particular (novel incoming!).

I've always been a fangirl, before I even knew what that was. When I was little, I was obsessed with A Bug's Life and used to draw little stick figure motion books. I'd scribble the ants running around or talking to each other, rescuing someone or falling over something. As I got older, this obsession didn't really fade. I continued to become obsessed with things, like utterly and entirely obsessed with TV shows and actors and stories. Of these obsessions was one of my earliest and most favorites: His Dark Materials.

I happened upon the trilogy as a middle school teen looking for something to do after school. My local bookstore salesperson recommended I read this series because she thought I might enjoy it. Indeed, I did. There were daemons and armored bears and witches and, yes, a beautiful and mysterious woman I couldn't stop thinking about. Marisa Coulter captured me just like she captured all those children. I kept thinking about her life and her motives and her connection to Lyra. How did she become the way she was? We only got her POV in book 3. What was she thinking all that time living with Lyra? How did she view the events that happened? What if she had done even the slightest thing differently? How would that change the story and her relationship with Lyra?

To satiate my desire to know these things, I started writing little stories about her on pieces of paper in my school notebooks. I didn't know that fandom was a thing or that ao3 or ffnet existed, so I just kept to myself. I annoyed some friends and made them read my ideas, but I was alone in my obsessive pursuits.

It was like this for a long while, even into high school and then college. My dirty little secret; my strange thing nobody else would even understand. At some point, however, I *did* discover that ffnet was a thing. There was an entire site dedicated to people writing about books and TV shows! And there was even a space for HDM! So, I started to post my stories there. I did this for years, without realizing that spaces like tumblr and twitter existed as well. I was half in yet half out, here yet not. But I was happy. Sharing my thoughts and stories made me happy. It was enough for me, even though I was actually missing out.

I joined this tumblr space during the pandemic in late 2020, when I was well into my doctoral studies. Like a lot of people, I found myself displaced during this time, moving states to return home to ride out this uncertainty. I didn't see anyone except my immediate family. I couldn't access my university's library to do my research the way I wanted. I worked on my PhD qualifying exams and then my dissertation every single day in this weird isolated void, with the days bleeding into one another like bad dreams.

And then I remembered, suddenly, that HDM was returning for season 2. And I wondered if there were people out there who were talking about it.

So then I found this space. A friend encouraged me to start a tumblr, as it was a place for fans to connect and had content I'd probably like to see. I started this blog literally knowing nothing and no one. I simply wanted to talk about HDM and share my stories and read other stories. I hoped it would be a place for me. I slowly learned more about how things worked (although still hardly know and am the queen of the faux pas !), and then season 2 aired and I found myself going completely feral here with other people. At long last, I had a community of people who were just as excited as I was. I didn't feel embarrassed about my undying love for Marisa Coulter. I felt heard. I felt seen. I felt at home.

I joined a discord server and met amazing people through that. After more consideration, I made a Twitter account and met even MORE people, including an incredible woman I actually fell in love with and now have a long-term, serious relationship with. Because of fandom. Because I decided to make an account and see if other people like me were out there talking about HDM.

My PhD is finished now. After the hype of season 2 I had to buckle down and finally finish my dissertation. I had to apply for jobs, too, and somehow found one. And then I worked on another academic book and some articles, and what was once weekly fic updates and oneshots became distant memories of a freer and less inhibited time.

But I made it. I'm a whole new person now. A doctor, actually (something Marisa Coulter wasn't allowed to be). And I'm so thankful for the role fandom has played in this journey, in what it has given me and provided me not only during my PhD but for my future moving forward.

Fandom will always have a special place in my heart. I might not be as active as I used to be, during that strange pandemic era where time seemed to still. But I'm here, in the ways I can be, and I'm so excited for season 3 of HDM that my heart very well might BURST!

Thank you to those who have gone on this journey with me, be it yelling with me online or reading one of my stories or posting one that I've read. I'm so grateful for you and for this space, and I'm so excited for this next part of my life, fandom and otherwise. ❤️

[spirit-small]

The following is a Ratattorney Special Presentation, which I'm choosing to call Phoenix Wright: Ratattorney in "The Tiniest Turnabout (Part I)". It's inspired by and heavily based on @sa-gt-tarrius' The Tiniest Turnabout, which has the distinction of being the first ever piece of Ace Attorney G/t content I consumed that didn't come directly out of my own brain. So to pay tribute to it as well as Sal's own The Ratattiniest Tourneybout, here it is now, the crossover event of the century. If you have not yet read The Tiniest Turnabout, I highly recommend doing that before returning here, it explains the facets of the case in much more depth than I've chosen to, on account of this being written with the assumption of familiarity. It's also just really fun and well made and I highly recommend it in general.

What had started as a desperate ploy to stay out of jail had morphed into a "Fine, Just One More Time To Save The Show" only to now leave Phoenix wanting more. Craving more. Now that he knew it was possible for him to stand in court (well, stand on Maya standing in court) he couldn't wait to sink his teeth into another case. Most borrowers never got to be this close to feeling like a bean, to really do something that mattered, to actually, really make a difference. And now that he'd done it twice, well. It's not like he had any intention of stopping.

Maya, on the other hand, while she reveled in the grift, was definitely concerned that Mr. Edgeworth might be onto her little charade. But, then again, he might not be that bad, right? Like, he did help a little towards the end of the trial, and nobody who could get that heated over a Steel Samurai debate could be an evil man. Unless they were a magistrate, she supposes.

Still, she did find a certain thrill to it all. And they made a great team. So, she figured the best course of action was to ride this wave as far as they can go. It was kind of hilarious to her just how easy it was to impersonate a lawyer, which, according to Phoenix, is actually a felony. But can you really go to jail if you do something for the bit? She thinks she could talk old baldy down if she used the classic quirky girl defense.

The best way to avoid arousing suspicion is, of course, owning it. The city and the airwaves are plastered with her face. “When You’re Arrested, What Do You Fey? I Want Maya-ttorney!” is her slogan. Very clever, in her opinion. Nick disagrees, but what does a borrower know about marketing?

They had recently taken the case of one Lily Putian, and it was time for Maya’s favorite part of every case - investigating the crime scene. Especially since in this case, it was somewhere she’d probably never get to see otherwise. The laboratory of Dr. Mike Roscope was typically off-limits to the public, and if there’s one thing Phoenix and Maya love, it’s snooping around where they don’t belong.

“Huh. So Dr. Roscope was a microbiologist?” Phoenix reads the case file as Maya flips through it, barely skimming it.

“Guess he woulda been real interested in you, huh, Nick?” Maya laughs and pokes him a little.

“Oh, come on, I’m not that small.” Phoenix pouts.

“You’re pretty small.” Maya carelessly shoves the files into her bag and looks around the room. “Woah... what do you think all this stuff does?”

“I don’t know, probably just tests and measurements. Maybe one of these makes coffee?”

“Oh, come on, Nick, have some imagination!” Maya bounces over to a mysterious machine. “I’m gonna guess this one is... a portal! To like, the moon. Maybe Jupiter.”

“Maya.”

“Nick.”

“That’s a fax machine.”

“...oh.”

“We have one in the office.”

“Why? When was the last time anybody used one? When you were my age like a hundred years ago?”

“Mia said she didn’t like online.”

“Hrmph.” Maya crouches down and points at another machine, pressing a button on top and seeing it activate, now roaming around the floor. “This one’s gotta be like... an advanced military drone! A weapon to surpass metal gear! I bet if I press the other buttons it’ll pop out like huge missiles and bombs! Maybe it plants land mines as it moves around!”

“That’s a roomba. And this is a crime scene, I really don’t think you should’ve turned that on!”

“It’ll be fiiiiiiine.” Maya stands back up and stretches, placing Phoenix down on the desk next to the outline of the victim. “Here, you investigate all this stuff and I’ll go play with more of these funky machines!”

“Be careful, please? You don’t know what this stuff might do.”

“I thought you said it was all boring stuff?” Maya raises an eyebrow.

“It is, but you could start a fire, or a gas leak or something, and I don’t want you destroying all of my potential evidence.” Phoenix walks around the desk, reading the papers strewn about haphazardly. “Geez, this place is a mess...”

Warning: maximum energy capacity reached

“Uh... Nick?” Maya backs away from a now-loudly beeping machine.

“What did you do?”

Exceeding max energy capacity. Current level: 101%. Please discharge.

“Nothing! I... I don’t think?”

“Well undo it!”

“How?!”

Current level: 105%. Discharging excess energy. 3… 2…

A flash of light. And Maya’s nowhere to be seen. Phoenix gasps and rushes toward where she once stood, climbing over stacks of books and important-looking documents, finally finding himself with just a gap of a few feet between him and the machine. He looks around it, looking for any sign of what may have happened, a label, or anything. But all he sees when he looks down...

Is an unconscious, borrower-sized Maya.

Phoenix quickly finds a cable running from the desk to the floor that he can rappel down and rushes toward her.

“Wake up... come on, Maya, wake up...” He shakes her. “Oh no, this is all my fault- Maya, please! Wake up!!”

“Mmmmmrnn... Nnnickk...?” Maya’s eyes open, only for a moment, before closing again. Phoenix helps her up, half-dragging half-walking, when suddenly... he hears it. Footsteps in the distance. Nobody but them should be this close to the lab, which means it can only be... no. Not now. He should be thankful, he supposes, for his extra sensitive borrower hearing. It’s better he gets the advance warning than... not.

“Come on, Maya, we gotta hurry, we don’t have much time.” Phoenix rushes her out of the exposed walking area and under a shelving unit tucked away in the corner. It’s full of scrap metal and various electrical components, not much that should be of interest to anyone investigating, he should hope. After all, he didn’t give this area a second look, so why should...

Edgeworth. Why is he here? Didn’t he get enough earlier? Phoenix lays Maya down in the corner and moves to the edge of the shelf to watch Edgeworth. He investigates for a few minutes, and Phoenix can’t take his eyes off of him. He’s considering just... running out there and asking for his help. They were friends once, right? He helped him. He could do it again. And clearly, Maya needs help. Phoenix doesn’t know what happened, whatever that machine did to her... she’ll probably need a bean’s help to undo it.

But... then again... He’s not the same person he was when Phoenix knew him. Something changed him in the last 15 years, and the ruthless demon prosecutor is probably the last person a borrower should go to for help. And sure, maybe a big part of why he’s continuing this whole lawyer thing is to find out what it was and maybe even help him, possibly even reconnect with him... but is this the time?

“Nnnnn... Nick? Wh... where am I?! Why are you so bi-” Before he can even decide, Maya regains consciousness. Phoenix rushes over to her, covering her mouth with his hand and shushing her, pointing at the impeccably-tailored but terrifyingly-large shoe of Miles Edgeworth, oh so conveniently walking right in front of their hiding place. He gives her a stern look and she gives him back one of a mix of fear and confusion.

Once he’s out of what they hope to be earshot, Phoenix and Maya both let out a breath they didn’t even realize they were holding.

“What the hell happened to me.” It’s a statement, not a question. “What. The hell. Happened to me?!” Maya whispers. She wants to yell so, so badly but the fear of a towering prosecutor has left her without release.

“I-I don’t know! Just... stay here. I’m gonna go...” Phoenix clenches his fists, takes a deep breath and lets it out. “...talk to Edgeworth. See if he can help.”

“No.” Maya grabs Phoenix’s arm and holds it tight. “No! You can’t!”

“Rrgh- Maya! Let me do this! I can't help you, but... but maybe he can. This is a bean problem, caused by some sort of mean bean machine, and... the only other people that could help are all still suspects to me. What if I hand you over to a killer by mistake? You think they wouldn't take the chance to dispose of the only one who could actually convict them? Edgeworth has access to the machine, and at least hasn't killed anyone.”

"That you know of!"

"I'm sure of it. Edgeworth's not a killer. I'll believe that til the day I die."

“Which might be today if you go out there!” Maya looks up at him, tears forming in her eyes. “It’s my job to hide you from him, and I’m gonna keep doing that, even if we’re the same size now!”

Phoenix looks at her, then out toward Edgeworth, and back at her. He sighs and sits down next to her. “Alright. Alright. We’ll figure something out... we’ll find another way through this.”

[goblins-oc-askblog]

I've got a big one!!

34, 84, 109, 128, 156 ((these are general questions, feel free to deviate from Fallout))

Harper - 124, 145

Ivy - 3, 11, 38

Pallas - 161

Scar - 174

Tiny Tess - 149, 159

General

34. Do any of your characters collect sea-shells or wear shell jewelry?

I haven't really thought about it, but I think that Sebastian would like shell earrings or something like that. I also think that Rei would have a sea shell or rock collection.

84. Do any of your characters have gaps in their teeth or are missing teeth?

Rei has a tooth gap! She runs her tongue over it when she's worried or thinking. Phoenix has a missing canine on the bottom and the incisor next to it is chipped. Rowan has a plate (fake teeth) to replace four missing teeth on their upper jaw.

109. Would your character blackmail a god?

Its not blackmail but Ember has pretended to be a god at least twice (it worked once, the other time the actual god showed up)

128. Has your character’s home ever been destroyed?

All of the Zombie Apocalypse kids' homes were destroyed, one way or another. The most interesting one was Mia burning hers down before she left.

156: Were/Are any of your characters under less pressure and fewer expectations than their siblings?

I'd probably say Luci. Leo took over as the parent of the family sorta, and she wasn't put under the same pressure.

Harper

124. Does your character workout?

She doesn't really work out, but she carries a lot and will drag fallen trees to cut them up somewhere safer, so she's pretty strong.

145. How much first aid and medical knowledge does your character have?

She's only got the very base skills, enough that she doesn't die of an infection but she wouldn't be able to do full-on surgery without direction and help.

Ivy

3. Does your character prefer to work in silence or with noise and of what kind?

Ivy likes either, but only when she's inside/in an enclosed space. When she's outdoors she needs to have something playing on her pip-boy. During the events of the Pitt she just kept replaying the Better Days holotape.

11. What is your character’s favorite historical or fairy tale figure?

Hmmm. This one is hard, but I'd say probably Lincoln. When she was clearing out the Lincoln Memorial she learned a lot about him and I feel like she respects him.

38. Does your character worry about breaking the rules and getting in trouble?

Surprisingly, yes. Despite the vibes of her entire personality, she follows rules/laws whenever she's in settlements like Megaton/Rivet City/Little Lamplight.

Pallas

161: Your character’s opinion of pineapple?

Loves it. One of the few things she misses about pre-war life is pineapple.

Scar

174: Does your character get homesick?

Absolutely. Before she got shot, she wished she could go back to life with Asher and her mother, and after she got shot/got the memory issues she would feel the homesickness without knowing why.

Tess

149: How good is your character at lying?

She's fantastic at lying. She literally lived a triple-life before becoming the Overboss.

159: Does your character have any tattoos? And are any of them symbolic or significant?

I haven't developed any actual tattoos for her yet, but I know that either A) they're mostly superficial with one specific one with meaning, or B) there's a surprising amount of them and they all have some meaning.

Thank you so much I am starved for interaction and my asks are always open!

[blooming-violets]

i need all of them answered for Smitten

omg okay. (from this) (read Smitten here)

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I wanted two povs between Mia and Peter. I usually stick to one character's perspective because I'm not the biggest fan of changing mid story but, for this to work properly, I sort of had to. I originally wanted to have Mia be a Reader character but it was too big of a fic to not give her something more substantial than a nameless face.

2: What scene did you first put down?

The very first paragraph of Peter, post kill, jerking off with blood all over his hands. That was the always how I wanted to start off the story to set the vibes of exactly what was going to come.

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

I don't know because I don't want to reread all three parts but I am quite fond of the scene in part two where Peter cums simply because she saying his name. Then he cries after and she comforts him. "She found her heart breaking for him, needing to pick up his broken pieces." Like, honey sweetie pie baby girl, no he just molested you and has you locked in a basement who hurt you to be like this.

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

This: His eyes widened in shock, “She used to get her servants to torture young girls and kill them. It was rumored that she bathed in their blood. The Blood Countess.” He lifted his head and wiggled his fingers at her, the shadows dancing around his face, “Spooky!” - Because I like the idea of them having a somewhat normal, lighthearted conversation in the middle of the crazy.

Let's put the rest under a read more because it's getting long.

5: What part was hardest to write?

I haven't written it yet but I already know that it's the ending and figuring out to get everything exactly how I want it. But, up until now, I would say the hardest part is writing Mia in a way that would make everything that's happening to her seem plausible. I needed her to be a very broken woman in order for her to accept the things that she's going through and trying to get that balance right is hard af.

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

It's an AU. It's a serial killer/full on non-con fic. It's like nothing I've ever wrote before.

7: Where did the title come from?

The original title was Doll Face because that's what Peter was going to refer to her as before I decided to make her an oc. It became Smitten because it's a short and sweet title that sums up the way Peter "feels" about Mia. The difference between smitten and love: "Being smitten is about hope and promise and enchantment. To love someone is to love his/her person which implies that you actually know the other person, are attached to him/her on multiple levels and that you have a high regard for his/her feelings, thoughts, desires and needs." Peter is smitten. He is not in love.

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

Based off anyone: no. Based off general crime media I consume: yes. Have people helped inspire to write parts of this and helped give me some amazing ideas: yes. That would be @liz-allyn and @mrshipsmcgee for being at my beck and call whenever I need inspiration and help.

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

So many. The ending (which hasn't even been written yet) could already have about ten different ways it could go. I joked that I was going to write a chose your own ending style fic because I have too many versions of it. There's also about fifty random scenes in my mind that I know will never make it into the final product.

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

Peter needed to be sadistic and cruel and also needy af for human contact. Mia needed to be broken and submissive and desperate for love. Together they can make a strange pair that somehow feeds off the other into a very unhealthy co-dependency.

11: What do you like best about this fic?

I love Peter. I love dark shit. I love diving into the psyche of people. I love analyzing characters and figuring out why they do the things they do. Smitten is a good fic for me to play around with all that.

12: What do you like least about this fic?

It's very big. My attempts at making it three parts were too ambitious. I'm afraid I bit off more than I can chew and I'm slowly choking to death.

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

THIS by @plainemmanem I listen to it before I start writing to get into the mood and I think it accompanies Smitten perfectly.

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

lol yeah...don't let yourself get locked in a basement to become a sex slave to a man unless that man looks like Andrew Garfield and then it is okay

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

I'm a sick fuck with a lot of issues.

[planetnini]

Hi hi again Nini, I'm finally back! I am so sorry for being MIA for a bit there, the holidays had me crazy busy and the past few days I've just been relaxing and trying to get my energy back so I apologize for that! :D I hope you had a happy holiday with your loved ones, though!

Honestly I really felt the response you gave me about Christmas movies, I honestly usually watch the same ones every year and haven't really seen a lot but Home Alone is one of my favs too! (I just watched it the other night actually hehe :> )

I probably won't reach out again until the 31st when it's time for me to reveal myself to you and share the gift I made, so I want you to know that I've had a lot of fun getting to know you over this exchange! Maybe we can be friends after this is over, you've been really fun to talk to and I'm glad I decided to participate in this event :) I've also been hard at work on your gift and I think it's coming along pretty nicely, so I hope I can make something you'll enjoy when the time comes! :D

For my last questions for you, I wanted to ask what you got for Christmas, who your favorite Haikyuu character(s) is/are and why (since you mentioned you liked it in your last response), and what you're looking forward to in the new year? :]

- Your Secret Santa 🎁

hi secret santa anon! happy late holidays i was awaiting your arrival in my inbox, maybe a little too eagerly… don’t apologise at all, nothing a big girl like me can’t handle :)

holidays definitely should be all about recharging and getting some energy and ive been doing just that too! it didn’t feel a lot like christmas this year but it’s whatever ahahaha

i don’t know i watch a bunch of random stuff not rly christmas correlated but i did play the miles morales spiderman ps5 game and that was also set around xmas which was a funny coincidence

ive looked forward to ur messages, i can’t wait for my gift and i hope ur gift is to ur standard too. let’s talk more once ur identity is revealed😘

to answer your last question, i honestly didn’t rly get anything for christmas😭 sad as it is, i decided to use my adult money and buy some things i had my eyes on so stuff for uni, a new bag, some pins, skincare and some other stuff ahahah.. but my brother gave me money to buy stuff and i am looking in to buying more stuff. i i think i have a money problem…

my fav haikyuu characters are oikawa, sugawara, and osamu! very diff types of men in that bunch but they all mean the world to me

new year = new me definitely!!! 🙏 as cliche as it sounds, working more on me and stepping outside of my comfort zone. new skincare routine, new uni routine, new everything. trying more and achieving more kinda year😵‍💫

hope you’ve been well, what are you looking forward to next year? talk soon anon~

love nini

[faeriecap]

MCALPINE SESSIONS ANON HERE, BESTIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry I've been MIA, there was a little drama with a certain ship that is prominent on your blog that I just did not wanna deal with lmao. I didn't wanna project my annoyance with the ship onto you so for my sanity, I had to leave BUT I'M HERE NOW AND FERAL FOR SOME UPDATES (or just some shop talk, I need more friends 🥲) I hope you've been doing well though! I saw you were on a little hiatus a while back so I hope everything is good on your side of the universe ❤️

YAAAAAAAY YOURE BACK!!!! 🩷🩷🩷🩷 tysm for thé well wishes firstly, things are up and down over here but i’m trying my best to just keep on keeping on and the support means all the world to me! but it’s pride month so i’ve been trying have more fun and just enjoy it, i’m hoping to see some of the new marvel releases soon and OMGGG THE NEW CAP 4 content i am barking i am feral SAM LOOKS SO GOOD HES BACK HES BAAAAAACK

in terms of fic ive been writing a little bit but not as much as i’d like bc i’ve been pretty busy with life and also the rpg i’m currently modding lol HOWEVER i’ve locked in some new plot points and my definite plan once time frees up for me in a few months is a full rewatch of all 3 cap films and maybe even sam’s other cameos (and maybe fatws…. not sure yet, that one i saw more recently and a LOT of time has to pass before i can stomach rewatching anything if i ever do at all, even my favorite things, bc my attention span SUCKS lmao) + hopefully i’ll be able to crank out some of the scenes for the fic set within that time frame (bc i’ve been writing most of the ones that happen post cacw) and then it’ll be done! or ready to be beta’d at least… which… if ur interested 👀 i cant remember what my last update for u was about so i’ll update this post with a new snippet once it’s been shared <33

edit: here it is!!

the front door slammed, and sam dropped his keys on the counter before appearing upside down above them. to his credit, he did not seemed phased to find them tangled up underneath the couch’s throw blanket in the middle of the day.

“what’s this about hickeys, and why am i getting them?”

“bucky’s retired.” steve offered by way of explanation, raising his free arm to pull sam closer. even so, they couldn’t quite reach without him doubled over the frame, so he wandered down the hallway to change out of his clothes before steve could kiss him.

the problem is all the scenes post cacw after they get together are sort of just random which means it goes from this intense emotional will they won’t they with a touch of actual canon events created non romantic tension to this slush of fluff and domesticity and no real stakes anymore hahahahaha like idk where to go with it??? beyond just. making them cuddle more LMAO so…. any suggestions from the people lmk

i hope you’ve been doing well yourself and taking care of yourself and i as always look forward to hearing from you again soon :))) with regards to the ship drama, i am SOOOO curious could u elaborate??? was the drama related to my blog or just like generally in the fandom? DONT LEAVE ME HANGIN WHAT WAS THE SHIP 👀👀👀 i don’t feel like i post that many so i’m so intrigued which it could be lol since i’m assuming it’s not sambucky and probably (??) not stevebucky (tho maybe)

but seriously though i’d love to know bc i don’t want my account to be uncomfy for anyone but least of all my fav anon x so if i need to update my tagging system for u to properly blacklist my posts about it or anything of the sort pls lmk, either here (and i can answer privately too if you’d prefer 🤍) or messaging me! plus if by drama there’s smth actually problematic im rb i absolutely wanna be informed and aware of it! i will confess i’m quite curious as to who my secret admirer could be ;)) and i appreciate ur honesty!

until the next meeting, be well and lots of love 🫶🏻

[mrsgiovanna]

Changes(Don Giorno x wife! Reader)

A sweet scenario requested by a sweet nonnie🥺. I hope this was worth the wait my love. A look at how the Don's wife celebrates his birthday, (I need to remember this for next April lolol. Thank you for the sweet ask 🤲🥺

Warnings: none, only fluff

WC: 1.5k

What to get the man who has the whole world in the palm of his hand… it was the golden haired don’s birthday and after thinking carefully about what you could do to celebrate him, any hopes for elaborate plans were thwarted by an emergency that had reared its ugly head in the upper echelons of Passione.

So much for the mini vacation to North island, you thought to yourself, taking care to not allow your disappointment to show. You knew that whatever had been tugging at his otherwise serene features must have been serious enough for him to tear himself away from his precious family on a day as important.

To soothe his overactive mind and give him a tiny surprise to start his day you had woken up early to make him a special breakfast of all his favourite foods, brewed his favourite mocha latte, musing about how the most powerful man in Italy could be brought down by his affinity for chocolate.

"Happy birthday Don Giovanna," you teased, knowing full well of the effect that the epithet had on your husband.

"Feeling brave this morning aren't we… haha, thank you bella mia, although, when you get to my age-"

"Before you complete that sentence, Giovanna, remember that we are the same age…" you cut him off before he could make a damning statement, and met his sheepish gaze with one of your own.

"I was going to say that they become even more precious…"

"Good save… come tesoro, sit, I've made all your favorites,"

Giorno sat next to you with a smile and started to scarf down the delicious food, discussing the measures he's had to put in place to buffer the consequences of the events leading to the crisis he faced.

"I could always come to help… use my special methods to make them comply," the Don chuckled at your suggestion, knowing that you were only half joking seeing that you were truly capable of carrying out your suggestion.

"I don't want you hurting these pretty little hands… I've got it covered… this is delicious amore, I've always loved the things you've made yourself the most,"

"Haha, charmer; don't let Henry hear that, the way that man slaves to create the things you love, I swear, how do you get people to just devote themselves to you so effortlessly?" you asked while reaching over to tame a stray hair that had worked its way out of his braid. Giorno just smiled and leaned into the touch, prolonging the moment he had with you, he was fully aware of the arduous task that awaited him when he left.

Delaying for as long as he could, he finally gathered his things and wrapped you in a long, tight embrace, sighing into the crook of your neck, it felt as if he were trying to memorize the contours of your body with his own.

"I must go now tesoro, I will be back as soon as possible," Giorno reluctantly tore himself away from you and got into the awaiting car. No sooner than he left, did your son wake up wanting for his father. Doing your best to placate him, you played a few games and eased him into his morning routine. As you sat on the plush carpeting of your bedroom playing peekaboo with the toddler and blowing raspberries into the soles of his feet, your thoughts drifted to how much your life had changed in just a few years.

Your days of accompanying Giorno to these intense meetings were now replaced by playful interactions with your son and all of the wonderful things that came with being the wife of Italy's most influential titan.

"Mama, when is papa coming home?" he asked, crawling into your lap.

"Well, it won't be too long, do you know what today is, piccolino?"

After thinking for a bit the toddler threw his arms up and looked at you with expectant green eyes further reminding you of his father.

"Today is papa's birthday! I need your help to make the day extra special for when he comes home, can you do that for mama?" With an emphatic nod from him you both set off about your day.

Giorno's words had stuck with you when he said that he preferred your cooking the most, so you decided to take all the preparations into your own hands, giving 0the kitchen staff at villa Giovanna the day off so you could meander about at your own pace and unwind as you channeled your inner domestic deity. It was easy enough to prepare Giorno's favourite meal; baking the cake, however, was something you'd need to spend a little extra time on. You set up a small area at the table for the little one to "complete his mission" , having asked him to draw his father a special picture while you mixed the batter for the chocolate cake Giorno loved so much.

The deliciously sweet scents of just-baked buttery, chocolate sponge cake had wafted their way towards a cute button nose, and soon you were hoisting your son up and into the bespoke marble countertop to help you decorate the homemade confection. You allowed his artistic flare to shine through admiring the charming appearance of the irregularly decorated cake. His proud, frosting-covered smile as he looked up at you made the arduous cleanup a little less tedious.

After erasing the evidence of your domestic adventures you had shifted the focus on yourself and your son, making sure you both were washed up and changed by the time the golden haired don would grace those hallways again. Having stayed awake through his mid-morning nap time, all it took was a warm bath and few back rubs for the little one to fall into a deep sleep, allowing you to shower and get changed yourself, slipping on one of Giorno's favourite outfits on you.

You examined the present you had gotten him- it may not have been the getaway you were hoping for- but the beautiful golden timepiece you held in your hands would suffice. Giorno had taken to collecting one-of-a-kind watches such as those, so you were certain that it would be utilized and appreciated. Staying true to your sentimental self, you had the watch inscribed with an inside joke that only he would understand, allowing him to always carry a piece of you with him.

A little wail roused you from your daydreams and prompted you to go to your son, soothing him as you went downstairs to make him a bottle. No sooner had you reached the kitchen did you feel a strong pair of arms encircling both you and the boy.

"It seems like I arrived at the right time, no? Look at that grumpy face, here, let me take care of that, let him adjust to his surroundings again," suggested Giorno, taking over your spot at the kitchen counter.

"Thanks tesoro, so tell me, how did everything go today? Are you okay?"

"Everything is finally under control… oh amore I was so angry, but seeing you two makes it all better now. You look beautiful by the way, I always love that colour on you," His soft words would have brought a broader smile to your face but when you saw his slightly messy hair and slumped shoulders, you chased him to the bathroom to take a long long relaxing shower, using the time to get all the elements of his surprise ready.

It didn't take too long for Giorno to return, looking so much more relaxed than when he had left. Exchanging his suit for comfortable, soft loungewear and letting his golden waves cascade over his shoulders as they finished drying, he was the picture of serenity, somehow still managing to make your heart skip a beat. Even your little one was more sprightly than before, and had wiggled his way out of your grip to run into his father's.

"Oh there's my boy!" cooed Giorno, playfully roughhousing a bit, before carrying him to the table and seating him on his lap.

"Are you ready to eat my love, I've made your favorites once again… ah before I forget, here you go, it's not what I initially wanted for you but I think you'd like it nonetheless. Happy birthday Giorno," you said, placing the ornate box in front of him. His eyes widened slightly while he examined the beautifully crafted watch, a knowing smile adorned his face after reading the inscription.

"Tesoro… This… this is so special… I love you,"

"I love you too Giogio, here, your son's been beside himself wanting to give this to you"

Addressing his excited son, he asked for a full commentary on what the picture was about, sensing the excitement from the little boy, who sweetly explained the scene depicting the three of you at the trip you all had taken to the coast to visit a certain former Capo.

"This is the best picture I've seen, thank you piccolino,I'm going to put it on my desk so I can always look at it,"

By the end of the evening, after devouring the delicious food and cutting up that charming cake, Giorno's heart felt so full. He watched as you tucked the exhausted but elated little boy to bed, and mused at how much his life had changed… It was now complete, and he was happy. In the past, birthdays passed unnoticed, but all that changed when he had taken over as Don and started his life anew… Suddenly growing older wasn't a pain anymore, as long as he was growing older with you.

[thefairyletters]

✨ Spooky Recs✨

I read a lot of fanfictions... More than I am proud of. I thought I should recommend as I go before I lose sight of their existence among the sea of my favorites.

Since past few days I have been craving for some creepy, unnerving fanfics that will keep me restless and awake at night. I remembered my favorites and wanted to read more of the kind so I looked up, patiently going through each story that sounded compelling. I also revisited old stories for nostalgia's sake.

Of course, rare as they are, in Naruto fandom no less, it's even harder to find a horror and mystery fic that is well written, not dropped under 2 chapters, and really keeps your attention.

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Comedy

I've rated 4 aspects of the work -

Writing – I don't judge writing based solely on the grammar and vocabulary. I also consider how the author expands upon a subject, if they are consistent with the facts, if they are able to keep the attention of the readers regardless of their creative writing skills.

Characters – If the characters are well-developed, in their given character, if OCs have any real significance to the story.

Plot – How gripping is the storyline, if the story sticks to its original plot, the structure of the story, plot holes.

Flow – Mother-of-slow-burn, slow-but-steady, steady, fast, I-am-speed

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When the flowers cry : TCOOKIES777 || M || AO3/FFN || SasuSaku || Goth Horror || Post-Canon, set during Blank Period || Ongoing

When one of the greatest medical-nin in the world goes missing in what should have been a simple delivery to the Land of Spring’s Hidden Snow Village, the rest of Team 7 must reunite to find her. But even the most powerful team of shinobi will find themselves challenged in a battle against the supernatural. With Sasuke's return, vengeful ghosts of the past will test him and his love.

My thoughts : One of the best stories I've read in a while, and top tier SS stories. I read this in one sitting. I never listen to music while reading, preferring silence, but for this one, I suggest you do as the author says. Also, keep some tissues and food with you. This story is major in mystery and minor in horror but otherwise full of SS fluff.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 9/10

Flow: Steady, if a bit confusing (but that's why it's mystery)

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Kyuro : silver_shot || T || AO3 || SasuSaku || Mystery || Post-Canon || Complete

“Oh,” says Naruto, “well, its sort of like that. Except in this village, the story has a way more darker ending – it basically goes like this: the girl and the guy plan to run away together. The guy steals a bunch of treasure, and stashes it away. But then, when he goes to get the girl at her village, he kills her and decides to run away with all that money. But then he is killed by the guards of the girls village and now they're both dead and the treasure is hidden away somewhere”. Sasuke stares blankly at the blond, “that story makes no sense”.

My thoughts : I know you must be thinking the same thing as Sasuke – "makes no sense". I did too, but it's a pretty cool short story. It lies on the funny, creepy side that slowly starts to lose its funny touch. SS makes stupid mistakes later on but it could be because they are MCs. The ending is very ambiguous. It's not my favorite mystery but it is something. Enjoyable read but not something I will pick again.

Writing: 8/10

Characters: 8/10

Plot: 8/10

Flow: Fast

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Moon stuttering in the sky : xfrinz || T || AO3 || Gen || Mystery || Pre-Shippuden || One-shot

Kakashi is suspicious of many things about Haruno Sakura. Too many things about her don't make sense, with too many incongruous explanations.

My thoughts : Author of this story just summarised Pre-Shippuden in less than 4k words and made some tiny changes to it. Not much though. One of my favorite gen fics yet. Read it if you haven't yet. You'll feel more sad than thrilled tbh. But worth it.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 10/10

Flow: I-am-Speed

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Breath mints : silver_shot || T || AO3 || SasuSaku || Comedy-Mystery || Post-Canon || Ongoing (maybe)

Their home no longer exists with the life it once had – in fact no settlement thrives anymore; they exist only in a snapshot that contradicts time itself. Families within their own homes sleep in a slumber that they cannot wake from. Those that were chatting on the street prior to the event simply drop their heads and remain unresponsive.

My thoughts : I picked it up for Mystery but I stayed for Comedy. But of course that's not to say supernatural elements in this story is not it, but it sure pales in comparison to effortless humor in this story. Lee and Kiba pair is something you don't see often but they get along too well here. Charactisation is on point as well. SS angst! + NS angst (but it's downplayed)

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 9/10

Flow: Steady

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The Curse : sincerelyLen || T || FFN || SasuSaku || Horror || Post-Canon || Ongoing

Team 7 is unexpectedly assigned an S-Ranked Mission involving an unsolved mystery of 10 years. An eerie adventure that will test their teamwork, strengths, and greatest fears. Do you believe in Curses?

My thoughts : My all-time favourite horror Naruto fanfiction. To me, this sets the standard of how mystery and horror elements should be handled. I have never been able to get this story out of my mind even it's been years. Perfect charactisation of Team 7 with Smart-yet-Stupid!Sakura, I-can-fight-aliens-and-reanimated-corpses-but-keep-ghosts-away-from-me!Naruto and I-dont-get-paid-enough-for-this!Sasuke. I especially love OCs here. They kinda reminds me of Pillars from KnY. You must read this story, loosely based on Zombie apocalypse + curse concept.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 10/10

Flow: Slow-but-Steady

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Silent High : Istoria || T || FFN || Gen || Mystery || Post-Canon || Complete

A bit of the Silent Hill series mixed in with Naruto. Trapped in an illusion whose rules are unknown, they struggle to find answers before darkness consumes them.

My thoughts : One of the best mystery fanfictions I've read. I especially loved how this story handled Genjutsu in the best possible way it could without it turning into some cliche, ghost story. Though really, this story has shown what my greatest fear actually is. I will never be able to leave my back open to a wheelchair. This story has simple writing yet it gives you creeps with the twists and turns. A must read one because it is unlike any other in this list.

Writing: 9/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 10/10

Flow: Steady

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Silence of the Damned : Daystar Clarion || T || FFN || Gen || Psychological Horror, Mystery(?) || Pre-Shippuden || One-Shot

When Naruto wakes up to a dead body in his bathroom, he begins a quick spiral into madness.

My thoughts : Listen to Halsey's Control while reading this. Quite chilling, deals with mental issues and morbid but in a fascinating way. It gives a new meaning to Dark!Naruto, but one that actually makes sense. I never saw the ending coming... I had something else in mind and I was convinced it would be, but nope. Here's a sequel to this One-Shot (Uzumaki's War) which I never picked up.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 9/10

Plot: 9/10

Flow: Slow-but-steady

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To the Victor : Letta || T || FFN || NaruSaku || Psychological Horror || Shippuden || One-Shot

Naruto loses the fight and Sakura is a trophy of war.

My thoughts : A very twisted NS, if you squint. It's not horror but it might as well be... it is still a disturbing story to see from the eyes of Sakura. Quite chilling to be in Sakura's shoes. But I love this because it is one shot and I loved the ending.

Writing: 9/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 8/10

Flow: Steady

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Under the Skin : BukkakeNoJutsu || T || FFN || Team 8 || Body Horror || Pre-Shippuden || One-Shot

Your actions don't make you a monster. Your reasons do.

My thoughts : There's a reason why Shino is my favourite team 8 member. In my opinion, Shino is also one of the strongest Shinobi of his generation. His clan techniques are just that horrifying. This story is testament to that. He is so terrible.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 10/10

Flow: Slow-but-steady

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Instant Message : Keelah || T || FFN || SasuSaku || Murder mystery || Modern AU || Incomplete

She gave him names to kill, in order not to be killed herself. But having blood on her hands was turning out to be much worse than dying. "…There's still round 2…3…4…" When does this game end? She asked. "Don't you see, Sakura?" He said, "It never does."

My thoughts : I read this story a long time ago and have read this twice. Personally, it has the most interesting concept of all stories in the list. It reminds me of Vocaloid series, "Bookmark of the end". Kind of. To those who are thinking of picking this up, go ahead! It's a great book and has one of the best suspense I've read in Fandom. BUT, it has been stopped in mother-of-all-cliffhangers and Author is MIA for 4 years now. But, all things considered, it remains to be one of the best stories I've read.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 9/10

Plot: 10/10

Flow: Steady

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Monomoth : Ohtze || M || FFN/AO3 || SasuSaku || Horror || AU || Incomplete

Everything ends, eventually. Eight years after the war, Sakura's unhinged and Sasuke's obsessed. The fields are filled with corpses.

My thoughts : I read this story right after "The Curse", my favourite. From what I remember, Sakura and Sasuke are both mentally deranged, in different ways. Lots of death and gore to stomach, so not for weak readers. There's no speak of fluff in this one. Zero, Zilch, Nada. I wouldn't call it your classic 'Horror', but it is very disturbing, so psychological horror is more like it. Don't eat food while reading this one. Did I mention how Sakura is mentally disturbed beyond help in this one? And Sasuke is obsessed. If these suit your tastes, go ahead.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 9/10

Plot: 10/10

Flow: Slow

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I hope you enjoy this list. Let me know your opinion in comments.