#i promise there's gonna be romance at some point ok

[spiderrrling]

Seventeen - JD! Eddie x Veronica! Reader

you guys aren't going to believe who it is....me with writing

this is part of my unfinished vip that is theatre kid! Eddie x theatre kid! reader where they play JD and Veronica from Heathers

note: this is unedited in rough writing stages, its not even proofread but I wanted to post it!!

"you know, for this to work you're gonna have to get close to me at some point"

"You- you're right," the admission left your lips with a breath of air which seemed to deflate you more than it probably should have.

"So what's the problem here?" Eddie leant against your wall, seemingly trying to put as much distance between the two of you as he could, which admittedly wasn't much. "And don't tell me there isn't one."

He was right, of course. He'd picked up on it all and if you were being honest you weren't shocked.

Sitting across from him in a booth in the diner, or in the passenger seat of his car. The nerves and excitement still churned in your stomach but it wasn't the same as the heavy panic that seemed to set in whenever he was close, too close.

"Its just that-" the words did not want to come, your teeth digging into your bottom lip as you looked away from him, staring directly at your door, "I've never been...kissed?" 

You realized how pathetic you must have sounded, the words sounding more like a question rather than an admission of complete lack of experience.

Only daring to look back at him when you heard him breathe out a soft laugh. His doe brown eyes soft as they met yours, his fingers playing with the rings on his hand nervously, it was calming not being the only nervous one for once.

"And this is not how you expected it to go?" There he went again, reading you like an open playbook.

"Yeah,"

"With me?" The look in his eyes said so much more than his words ever could, with *me* he'd said. Eddie Munson, town freak.

"With anyone," you refuted his point, and it wasn't a complete lie.

"Well, we can't have that now can we?" The mischief sparked up his eyes and tugged at the corner of his lips, scrunching his nose ever so slightly. "So.... we need a plan."

Eddie turned around, his eyes scanning across your bookshelf, fingers trailing the dustry shelves as his eyes wildly flew from title to tile blindly searching for something, he knew what he was looking for but he had no idea what it might look like.

"What- what exactly are you doing?" Words seemed to be getting stuck in your throat, this was new territory, unchoreographed scenes where you had no idea what would come next.

"Looking for inspiration..." Eddie seemed almost lost in his own plans and schemes as his words trailed off. "Romance novels, a script, something... a diary," he turned back around to face you, the mischievous grin bigger than before, eyebrows raised.

"A diary?" 

"What you're not a hopeless romantic who rambles about being kissed by the perfect guy?" 

"What no- no!" You could not believe this was the conversation you were having, hands covering your face and you weren't sure if it was due to the utter disbelief or the embarrassment.

"No you're not a hopeless romantic or no don't write about it in your diary?"

"Who's to even say I have a diary?" 

"So that's yes to both, where is it?" He looked almost like a little kid, nearly giddy with what you could only describe as devious plans. It took all your might to keep your eyes on Eddie and to not look at your bedside table

"Eddie, you're not reading my diary,"

"So you admit it, you have fantasized about it,"

"Ok fantazised is a very strong word,"

"If you won't let me read, will you at least tell me?" He sat down across from you on the bed, his legs crossed, picking up one of your pillows into his lap, and you couldn't help but think just how out of place he looked, but he seemed so at home. There seemed to be something almost genuine in his eyes, yet you were terrified to trust him completely. "I promise I won't laugh, I have no reason to." 

Almost on instinct he held out his pinkie to you, his smile vanished for just a minute to really show you he meant business.

"C'mon, it's just me, I'm nothing dangerous." You swore he grinned like the devil when he said that, and maybe that's why you took his pinkie in your own.

You let yourself fall onto your back, eyes sliding shut, once again not being able to look at him.

"I don't think I ever actually imagined it...more than like wanting it to be special, with someone I like..." teeth dug into your bottom lip, guarding your words carefully before you continued, "and it would be natural, not forced, like I'd be laughing from something they said and they'd just lean over and kiss me, and that's all it would be." 

He didn't say anything, but you felt the mattress dip next to you from his weight, laying shoulder to shoulder with you and you realize it's the closest the two of you ever have been to each other, and the alarm bells in your mind weren't going off, the panic wasn't building. It was nice.

"You didn't laugh," you open one eye and glance over at him just to find his eyes closed.

"I promised, didn't I?" Something about that made your thoughts stand still, go into a quiet, comfortable lull, it made breathing just a little bit easier.

"So... Do you like me?" Now that question caught you off guard and you found yourself instinctively move away from him just a little bit. "Nono stay, it's nice having you not tense up whenever I get close, and no- not like *that*, as a friend, a person if you will."

"You're not half bad, I suppose," it felt good to smile because of him, there was something really easy about it.

"You suppose?!" The fake hurt dripping from his voice is infatuation and you cannot help but laugh, you feel his hand leave yours and you see him grabbing one of the teddy bears off your bed, "she supposes!" he exlaims while looking the bear right in the eyes.

Eddie uses his fingers to manipulate the bear to life, moving the bear to look at you next.

"Yeah, I guess."

"And now she guesses!"

"Well, if I am not so half bad then?" He turned on the mattress, laying to face you, but you were still struggling to gather the courage to actually look him in the eye.

"Then what?" You folded your hands over your stomach, linking your fingers together, trying your best to stay composed because deep down you knew what was coming next.

"You know what I am asking," his voice was soft, calm, not at all what you had expected.

"Here? Now?" The realization of what he might mean dawned on you, and as if almost on cue, the same pit of anxiety started growing in your stomach, making your mouth dry and making your limbs go numb.

"No- no, let me take you out," he laid back down on the bed, prying your fingers appart and grabbing your hand, it was as if he had figured out how to make you comforable, "as friends, don't go thinking anything else, and I'll make it special."

"Special, only as friends," you repeated quietly, your eyes drifting back to the light fixture bolted to your ceiling, taking deep, slow breaths. "When? Because with rehersals and school, you know I have a very busy schedule-"

"Thursday, we're supposed to run lines anyway so I know you're free," you didn't have to look at him to know he was smiling, you could hear it in his voice. "And before you say anything, you will still live if we skip one afternoon of running lines to kiss me."

"You're sure?" 

"About the kiss or the lines?"

"Both." It was your turn to make him laugh, a genuine laugh from a genuine joke, not laughing at your lack of experience, an actual laugh. A deep chuckle from his chest. It felt good.

"Mmmh, I'll do my best but no promises,"

"Can I ask you something?"

"I'm an open book," you didn't doubt what he said, as long as you had the courage to ask you fully believed Eddie would tell you the truth.

"How many people have you kissed?" You put your finger on what exactly had changed between you, but there was now a lightnes hanging in the space you were sharing with Eddie. It was easier to breathe, as long as you kept your eyes fixated on the ceiling.

"Me? Why'd you wanna know?" That stupid coy smile was back on his lips, the exact kind that seemed to get under your skin a little too easily.

"I suppose I just need to know if theres like a mountain of people I need to compete with here,"

And he laughed, that same laugh that made everything in the air between you feel lighter, an atmosphere where it became easier to breathe.

"Me? A mountain?" You can still hear the laugh in his voice as he speaks, "you are aware of well, this?" he quickly gestures to all of himself, the harsh denim, leather and metal combination that makes up so much of his wardrobe.

And you can't help but feel just a little bit stupid, you weren't blindly unaware as to his social standing in the general town of Hawkins, but it was still Eddie. Someone who had an air of efortlessness around him, and he wasn't bad looking, just maybe not what you would class as the typical highschool look.

But you had also heard the swirling rumors, the resident outcast didn't only come with rumors of satanism and devil worship.

And all of it weren't rumors, you had seen it with your own eyes, the looks between him and Natalie last year, their failed attempts of hiding quick kisses backstage between calls. So there had been at least one. You knew that.

Had he been laying on her bed last year? Fingers laced and sharing secrets just as you were now. Had he given her her first kiss?

"Ok yeah fair enough Mr president of the Hellfire Club," you laugh and do your best to elbow him in the ribcage, "but you still have, right?"

"Yeah, of course I have-," he pauses for a moment, his hand immediately coming up to cover his eyes when he realized what he had said, "not- not of course like *that* more like yes I have, you know what I mean? Right?"

There was something ever so slightly satisfying about seeing Eddie Munson be the flustered one out of the two of you for once. With his hand pulled over his eyes and you swore you could see just the slightest amount of pink in his cheeks.

"I know," you quickly squeeze his other and which you are still holding in yours.

"But for your reference, I prefer master of the Hellfire Club, not president," you know he is joking, but you cant help but wonder if he does actually mean it deep down. You don't know much about the Hellfire Club, other than the alledged rumors they're responsible for all the weird things going on in Hawkins.

And a part of you is intrigued, it's near impossible to miss the props they use for their game when you're backstage, the big, black, wooden throne Eddie stored along with a handpainted banner of their logo had made you stop and look on more than one occation.

"Whatever you say, master of Hellfire Club." And thats all you say for a minute, for the first time you didn't feel the need to fill the empty space between you with lines or questions, the silence was comfort enough for once.

"Do you find it weird I haven't?" For the first time you do more than sneak a quick glance at him, turning your head on the mattress you can see his profile, the mess of his dark tangle of curls laying right next to you. "Kissed anyone, that is," you add quickly.

"Weird? No, I know you're weird but not because of that," you feel his elbow nudge you in the side, and you can't help but laugh, "I was more surprised."

"Surprised?" Did that mean he had thought about you?

"Yeah, just didn't expect you to not have been kissed," he stopped for a second, carefully trying to detangle the web of questions it seems he wants to ask, "didn't James ask you to homecoming or whatever?"

"Oh- no, I mean he did, ask me that is, but I didn't go with him," you stumble over your words as they hapazardly leave your lips, suddenly wanting nothing more than to sink into your bed and never resurface.

He's quiet, just for a moment, what you have realized is that rarely anything ever truly quiet when it comes to Eddie, "Sooo, why didn't you go?"

"Can I be honest with you?"

"Wouldn't want anything else,"

"I kinda didn't want to?"

"Once again, you surprise me," and there he went again, carefully difusing the immediate anxiety that built in your stomach.

"But you still want to go with me? Tomorrow?"

"Yeah- yeah of course," you do your best to sound sure of yourself, of your own words, but there is still the unexplicable anxiety festering in your stomach with every passing second. Where part of you wishes he would just kiss you, right here, right now.

Getting it over with would be better than another restless night of wonder filled anxiety.

Maybe you could be friends with Eddie Munson, laughing in a booth between the sharing of scripted lines, laying on your bed sharing innocent secrets you havent told anyone else, listening to his newest music concotion he's created on a mixed tape in his car.

Yeah, that shouldn't be too hard.

----

Two days had passed, two entire days had come and gone. And your sheets still smelled like Eddie Munson.

The dark scents still hung onto the soft sheets, to your bear, your pillow. Every breath you take was as if he was stil laying beside you as you swapped secrets.

It had become another reminder of just how entangled he was becoming in your life. It was astonishing how quickly someone could establish themselves in your life.

Which is why the slight pang in your chest at the thought of his scent slowly dwindling was making more sense with every passing moment. Not that you were fully ready to admit that to yourself just yet.

"You're gonna skip rehersals,"

"But-"

"Consider it a type of rehersal then if you will," he was quick to dispute your protests, and he was right. This was a step you had to cross, "You're gonna go home, do whatever you want to do, get dressed up, do your makeup, anything,"

"And then, I am going to pick you up,"

"Do I get to know where you're taking me?"

"No, that is a surprise,"

You probably shouldn't be surprised to see Eddie standing beneath your window with a handfull of pebbles guarded carefully in his hand, along with his normal michevious smile.

"What are you doing!" You whisper shout down at him, why you're not really sure, but it felt like the appropriate thing to do.

"I'm here to pick you up!" He said it like it was the most normal thing in the whole world, but there was something different about him, you could tell even at a distance, but exactly what you werent sure of yet, "isn't this what they do in all of the movies?"

You wanted to dipute it, throw some snarky comment back at him and hope in exhange he would laugh, but you couldn't. He was doing this for you.

"Just know, I'm not climbing out the window I am going out the front door,"

"It's your night princess," He said just before attempting a small bow, earning laughs from both of you.

The butterflies were back, but they didn't gnaw at your stomach like the nerves did, they were unsetteling in their own terrifying way.

"My lady," Eddie opened the passenger door for you, just as one would a carriage and gestured for you to get in, "your evening awaits."

You didn't say anything, you struggled with telling if it was the nerves or fi it was the excitement making your head spin ever so slightly.

Only climbing into the passenger seat of Eddie's old dinged up van.

"You know...technically since you haven't told me where we are going this could be considered kidnapping,"

"Technically," Eddie held up a finger, but he didn't look at you, not even a quick glance, his eyes were glued to the road in front, "you got in the car willingly."

"And you're still not planning on telling me where you are taking me?"

"Do you not understand the concept of a surprise?" his tone was never mean, never condecending, always the same level of playfull and easiness to his voice.

You only rolled your eyes at him, with every turn of the car you tried to detangle the clues as to where he actually was taking you.

There wasn't much to the town of Hawkins, and it did not matter how long you lived there, somehow there was always a new spot, a new something to be discovered.

When he finally stopped the car it felt as if you had been there for years, but it couldn't have been more than a couple minutes tops.

For once the silence sitting between you felt comfortable, normal. Not the same way it used to feel suffocating.

"Here?"

"No, not just yet, but I'm gonna need you to close your eyes,"

"Close my eyes?" 

"Yes ma'am,"

"Why?"

"You're still not understanding the concept of surprises I see,"

You roll your eyes at him and do as he says, even bringing your hands up to cover your eyes. "Happy?" you ask, turning as if to look at him, and his reasounding laughter leaves you with a smile on your lips.

"Very."

You feel the car start to move again, trust. This all had to be some weird trust exersice for the two of you that he had deviced.

Your sense of distance was well... distorted, to say the least. Any semblance of ideas where he might take you was completely gone, because now you could be just about anywhere. If there even was an anywhere in Hawkins, there was barely a somewhere.

"Okok, wait here," Eddie said as the car finally stopped and you heard him open the driver door. The door next to you swung open, and you knew he was right there next to you. "Give me your hand, but don't open your eyes!"

Giving up at resisting you fumble around blindly untill you find Eddies hand and he holds it firmly in his own as he helps you out of the car.

"Ok, right here," he moves to stand behind you, your hand still in his, and you open your eyes. "Ta-da."

You take a second adjusting to the harsh light, blinking a couple of times before you can begin to orient yourself. A lake?

"Do you like it?" 

"It's a lake,"

"Yes, but do you like it?"

"Eddie, it's a lake, I don't particularly have strong feelings about a lake,"

"Nonono, not any lake, lovers lake," he's moved to stand in front of you and you have to hold back from laughing. Obvious, you probably should have guessed. "I've brought marshmallows, thought we'd make a fire."

He doesn't let you say anything before he starts working on his grand plan, only gestures for you to sit down.

The unforgiving summer temperatures in Indiana had slowly lulled into a cooler fall, but there were still traces of the last summer everywhere. There was still those hints of the sweet summer air left only just starting to be undercut by the sharp chill air of fall.

With the stars hanging low in the sky reflected in the lake. Lover lake. Of all places.

It might have been a bit obvious, but there was something satisfying about a cliche.

"Sooo, how do you know about this place?" you sit down in the back of the van, letting your legs dangle over the edge of the bed.

"My uncle, he used to take me here during the summer, taught me all the manly things," you have to hold back laughter as you look at him, hunched over, with his toungue sticking out of the corner of his mouth, "fishing, firing a gun, and luckily for you, how to start a fire."

"Well thank you Mr. Munson," 

He never mentioned his parents, only ever his uncle. There wasn't really much you knew about Eddie Munson besides the surface level tuff and circulating gossip and rumors.

He lived in the trailer park of Curley, with his uncle, who worked the night shift somewhere. You knew that he broke his last romantic stage partners heart once the show was over. 

He was a tennor with a good vocal range and had been in just about every theatre production Hawkins High had to offer.

Oh, and that there was always a low level chance he was part of a devil worshiping cult.

Exactly the kind of person you would want to be alone in the woods with, late at night, when no one knew where you were.

Deep down you knew that he wasn't a devil worshiper, but that also wasn't what made you the most anxious.

Glancing over at him it was easy to forget all the things people said about Eddie Munson, when he was here next to you without the constant noise from the people of Hawkins.

Here you could trace the soft lines of his face with the quick stolen glances you allowed yourself, watching the long shadows grow on his face with passing time.

"So why did you pick this place?" Your legs dangled over the edge of the van, sitting on the threadbare blanket Eddie kept in the back, your eyes wandering over the water, trying your best not to look at him as he worked.

"I thought you would like it, it's quiet but there's always something going on," Eddie sat down next to you, and you had to actively keep reminding yourself to not reach for his hand the way he had reached for yours the other day, "it kinda reminds me of you in that way."

Suddenly, you were happy with the dimming light and the soft orange glow from the fire as you hoped it would camoflague at least some of the blush that grew on your face.

"I do- like it," 

"Good, and-" Eddie reached for something behind him, rummaging through his bag to find what he was looking for, "this, is for you."

He held out a small package in front of you, wrapped with what had to be left over holiday paper, with probably more tape than paper in the end.

"Don't judge my wrapping skills, as you well know my talents lie elsewhere." He said as you carefully picked the package out of his hands, looking at him with raised eyebrows.

"It's a mixtape-" you said, turning it over in your hands, there was no writing on it like there normally was, just a blank casette.

"No, it's our mixtape," Eddie snatched the tape from out of your hands before quickly jumping out of the back of the van so he could place it in the stereo. "I made it for you."

"You made me a mixtape?" You couldn't tell in your own voice if it was surprise or disbelief, you had seen the box of his tapes in the van but you never expected him to make you one. Wondering what exactly Eddie Munson would put on a first kiss mixtape.

But once again, you find yourself surprised at the workings of his mind. Slow, carefully crafted music started pouring from the static speakers.

"My lady," Eddie stood in front of you, repeating the nickname from earlier and holding out his hand for you to take. "You do dance, right?"

You reach for the hand he offered you, letting him help you to your feet and suddenly you find yourself closer to Eddie than you had expected.

One of his arms wrapped around your waist, the other still holding your hand tightly in his. Carefully, you place your free hand ovr his shoulder, resisting the temptation to play with his curls.

"Happy now?" You ask as you smile up at him, being mindful of where you were placing your feet on the rough and uneven ground.

"Well, you didn't flinch this time," you move slowly together as Eddie coreographs your movements, swaying you side to side in time with the music. "So I'll take that as a win."

You had danced with Eddie before, but never like this. Always awkward steps as you both learned choreography to a number a comfortable distance apart.

Never wrapped in his arms slowly swaying to static music from an old car radio.

"Do you dance much Eddie?" You laugh as he stumbles over a root sticking out of the ground.

"Normally no- but for pretty girls who need their first kiss, I make exeptions."

"You're ridiculous," 

"And you're beautiful."

You knew he was just saying it, part of the whole pantomime to make the whole ordeal special for you.

But that didn't mean you were completely blind to the charm of his empty words.

"See look at you, you're a natural," Eddie said as he guided you to twirl, careful to never let go of your hand.

You take turns stealing glances at one another, anticipating when he is not looking so you can steal the next one, carefully studying every milieter of his face with a million hurried looks.

Something about him looked so at peace, his dark brown eyes looking almost black in the dimming light, the same careful carefree smile on his lips.

His fingers splayed against your lower back locking you into his every movement, the small comforts of it all.

Eddie was just a friend, but he looked so pretty, with those long dark eyelashes resting against his cheek as he closed his eyes.

You feel the need to look around, despite knowing no one is watching you, it feels like breaking the rules when you stand up on your tip toes and quickly press your lips against his.

It's not even a second, and yet your heart is racing so fast you can feel it through your entire body, eyes sliding shut as you quickly realize you do not dare look at him.

"That's not a real kiss," there seems to be almost a twinge of disbelief in his voice, and you can feel his hot breath against your face as he speaks, but you don't dare open your eyes, "doesn't count."

You feel his hand slide into your hair, cupping the side of your face and pulling you towards him, closing the small space between you.

The arm around your waist tightens, bringing your body closer to his and he stops swaying with the music. And just like that he is kissing you, properly, this time.

You have no idea what to do, letting him take the lead as you carefully lean into him just that little bit more.

His lips moving against yours, carefully, as if he's worried if he goes too fast you'll fall apart right in front of his eyes, and maybe he isn't wrong.

It was the kind of kiss that made you long for the promise of more.

When his lips leave yours it feels as if an eternity had passed, and only one thought hangs stranded in your mind. Friends.

You're just friends with Eddie Munson. He was just doing you a favor, a strange, maybe slightly fucked up favor, something that also served his interests.

And thats what stops you from leaning into him again, despite the soft look in his dark brown eyes when he finally opens them, despite the giggly feeling that was making your head spin, despite really wanting to.

The last rays of the evening sun cast long shadows across his face, and for the first time Eddie wasn't the picture everyone made him to be, he finally looked like Eddie.

You had no idea what to say, where to even begin, but it seemed Eddie took the smile on your face as confirmation enough. His own smile was infatuating, it seemed genuine.

His hand was still tangled in your hair, and his touch seemed to linger on you, carefully holding you together in one piece within the embrace of his arms.

"Not too bad right?"

"I suppose since you had a mountain of girls to practice on," you laugh as you place your head against his chest, hearing each beat of his heart.

"Once again with the supposing," he gives your hand a quick squeeze, both of you seeming to find peace in your old inside jokes.

"Thank you," you look up at him through your eyelashes, giving him what you hope is a reassuring smile.

"Nothing to thank me for," and as he speaks the reality of the situation hits you again, the uncomfortable reality that you're both playing a part for a role.

There is nothing to thank him for, because this also serves his own self interest. You do your best to push away the pang of pain that hits you right in the chest.

Ignoring the screaming thoughts of distrust that seemed to race through your mind faster than you knew how to tame them.

Because there was still that part of you that wanted to believe Eddie and everything he said. That he was doing this because he genuinely cared for you. Not because he had a role to fulfill, and you stood in the way of making that happen.

Did he take Natalie down here? Make her a mixtape of slow songs they danced to? Was what they had real? While what you had with Eddie was nothing but pretend from all sides?

Mostly, pretend. That is.

"Now- one more surprise," Eddie's words pull you out of your spiral before he carefully untangled his body from yours, dropping your hand, hand leaving your waist, and quickly you realized just how cold the night had grown.

"One more?" You could only see his back as he pulled out something else from his bag, "you really had this planned out," you say to no one in particular, the words hanging empty in the space between the two of you.

"Ta-daa," he finally says as he turns around, presenting you with his copy of the script, and you can't help but laugh. Of course.

"I- I didn't bring my script," you blurt out, which is true. You're resisting again,and you would like to claim you didn't know why, but you knew the more time you spent with Eddie the more difficult it was becoming to distinguish blurred lines.

"You and I both know that you don't need it," Eddie pats the space next to him as he sits down in the back of the van, leaned against the back of the drivers seat, "we'll just share mine."

You sit down next to him, trying to keep at least some space between him and yourself, but before you can fully process what is happening he has snaked an arm around your waist and you've ended up right next to him.

Eddie holds up the script in front of you, using both hands to try and keep it stable, the orange glow of the small camp fire doing it's best to illuminate the pages between you.

You couldn't be less focused, he is so close, he is everywhere. His arms around you once again, but so differently to just a few minutes ago.

Your eyes scan the script in front of you, slowly trying to untangle the notes he has left hapazardly in the margins with messy handwriting. You also spot more than one small drawing along the sides, covering up the first few words of text.

Yeah, it was definetively Eddie Munsons script you were looking at.

Reciting lines with him could quickly become a game, you'd imagine little people watching you as you bounced the ball back and fourth between you. That same rythmn you had found before returned, Chemistry X PERSON had called it.

You just chucked it up to Eddie being a really good scene partner. Which wasn't wrong.

You don't know for how long you sit there bouncing lines back and fourth between you, you've come to find that time spent with Eddie is rarely linear in the way you would normally expect it to be.

But you don't remember falling asleep, you remember mumbled words mentioning going home, and you don't remember when you wiggled even closer to him.

But you do remember waking up, still with Eddies arms wrapped around you, with the first rays of the morning sun peeking up over the horizon, and the final embers of the fire 

And you barely remember the car ride home, struggling to keep your eyes open, Eddie in the drivers seat with his eyes fixated on the road.

And you remember what he said as he dropped you off.

"Hey," he says, making you turn around before shutting the car door, "you've kissed, and also slept with me, all in one night."

"I think you might be a bad influence," you say to him before laughing, it's all so ridiculous.

"I wouldn't want to be anything else," he winks before you hurridly close the door.

My loveliest mutuals: @uglypastels @catastrofhe @indouloureux @mypoisonedvine @luveline @hellfiremunsonn @babybluebex

[katsu-curry835]

Why Bisexual Jon Snow Could Work /srs

Jon Snow is bisexual and here's why.

Aight, I'm aware the queer rep in asoiaf is pretty eh for the most part. Sweets is cool, and Loras and Renly have a nice implied relationship but Dany and Cersei having gay sex scenes felt way more fetishized than actually meaningful representation, especially since neither character considers a romance with a woman. Because of this, I'm gonna say that while I think this could be a valid direction to take the story, I'm like 50% sure that GRRM won't write it. Then again, it's been so long between books that times have literally changed and FnB seemed to have a ton of queer relationships so who knows.

Ok, ok, so I've laundered my argument; we all know why we're really here. Jon Snow could be bisexual and that could be really important for the story. Why?

First and most obvious is that it's another parallel with Dany. Jon and Dany have had storylines that directly mirror each other, especially in books 3 and 5. Dany is confirmed bisexual by the narrative, since she has regular sex with her handmaiden Irri, although because of her position of power over her, she tries to limit them. And, as already mentioned, she never gets to be romantically attracted to a woman. Maybe that's coming in future novels, who knows, but all that to say Dany and Jon mirroring each other on the bi front is not inconceivable, especially when you consider that there is already evidence for Jon being bi.

I'm sure most of you deep into this discourse(?) have probably predicted that I'm going to talk about Satin. And if this story does go in the 'Irri' direction, Satin is definitely the candidate for Jon's male love interest. He's a former prostitute from Oldtown, which mirrors another of Dany's handmaids (Doreah I think) and he's Jon's steward, like Irri is to Dany. Other characters also seem to think that Satin has kinda slept his way up the ranks to being Jon's steward, confirming at least that this idea is in GRRM's head. I wanna take a look at a few scenes and see how they could imply a future relationship between Jon and Satin. Take a look at this fight scene between Jaime and Brienne (I promise this is relevant.)

"'Give me the sword, Kingslayer.'

'Oh I will.' He sprang to his feet and drove at her, the longsword alive in his hands. Brienne jumped back, parrying, but he followed, pressing the attack. No sooner did she turn one cut than the next was upon her. The swords kissed and sprang apart and kissed again. Jaime's blood was singing...

...The dance went on. He pinned her against an oak, cursed as she slipped away, followed her through a shallow brook half choked with fallen leaves. Steel rang, steel sang, steel screamed and sparked and scraped, and the woman was grunting like a sow at every crash, yet somehow he could not reach her."

To me this scene has always read as implicitly foreshadowing Brienne and Jaime's future romance. Words like "kissed" or "grunted" or "pinned her against a tree" feel implicitly romantic/sexual, even the way the scene is described as a "dance." Jaime even says at a later point "Might I have this dance my lady" to mock her. Of course there is plenty more in the story as a whole that foreshadows Brienne and Jaime having a relationship, but I use this as an example because I want to point out how GRRM sometimes writes a fight scene as romantic and sexual foreshadowing, or at least that can be how some scenes are interpreted. Now I want to look at the scene where Jon trains Satin.

"It's too heavy," the Oldtown boy complained.

"It's as heavy as it needs to be to stop a sword," Jon said. "Now get it up." He stepped forward, slashing. Satin jerked the shield up in time to catch the sword on its rim, and swung his own blade at Jon's ribs. "Good," Jon said, when he felt the impact on his own shield. "That was good. But you need to put your body into it. Get your weight behind the steel and you'll do more damage than with arm strength alone. Come, try it again, drive at me, but keep the shield up or I'll ring your head like a bell . . ."

This scene reads similarly to me. Words like "jerked," "rim," "get it up," even the one word sentence "Come," can read as sexual foreshadowing in a similar way to Jaime and Brienne if you are given context that Jon and Satin do end up together. In particular, "ring your head like a bell" reminds me of a scene where Gendry gets approached by a girl but rejects her advances.

"I'm named Bella," the girl told Gendry. "For the battle. I bet I could ring your bell, too. You want to?"

I would be remised if I didn't mention that Jon calls Satin pretty three times in the chapter where he's supposed to be engaged in a battle with the wildlings. Like yeah, that's a bit weird, why are you thinking about that now Jon. Or I could mention the fact that he described Satin’s voice swearing his words as being like song and that he could smell the fresh sweet oils Satin rubbed into his beard. Jon… buddy you got something you wanna say? I’m joking of course: you don't have to be queer to recognize another man's beauty. What I think puts this into perspective is if you compare this to how he describes Val, someone who it's generally agreed upon that he takes an interest in.

Here's a quote where Jon describes Satin:

"The boy claimed to be eighteen, older than Jon, but he was green as summer grass for all that. Satin, they called him, even in the wool and mail and boiled leather of the Night's Watch; the name he'd gotten in the brothel where he'd been born and raised. He was pretty as a girl with his dark eyes, soft skin, and raven's ringlets. Half a year at Castle Black had toughened up his hands, however, and Noye said he was passable with a crossbow."

Now here's Val:

"Val stood on the tower roof, gazing up at the Wall. Stannis kept her closely penned in rooms above his own, but he did allow her to walk the battlements for exercise. She looks lonely, Jon thought. Lonely, and lovely. Ygritte had been pretty in her own way, with her red hair kissed by fire, but it was her smile that made her face come alive. Val did not need to smile; she would have turned men's heads in any court in the wide world."

I mean, the fact that "pretty" is a word used to describe both Ygritte and Satin is a connection that I shouldn't need to point out the significance of, but I digress. If you actually compare these quotes, both look like neutral descriptions of someone's appearance in isolation, however in context, you have to ask why the author shows you this stuff. Why does Jon comment on how good looking both of these characters are so often? It doesn't seem like there would be any other purpose to these, again, repeated descriptions of both Val and Satin other than to highlight that the fact that Jon finds both of them attractive is important.

Again, none of this proves anything outright. I mention this because this is the sort of thing where if you reread the books with this lens, suddenly more things start to jump out at you, and it can read like obvious foreshadowing you missed. Like when Catelyn sees her reflection in some armor and comments on how "drowned" she looks. It doesn't mean too much on a first read, but when you know what happens to her, it's some clever foreshadowing.

Another big reason I think Jon getting with Satin might be important is that you can see it as a pivotal part of Jon's character arc, specifically Jon's sexual awakening storyline. When Jon first has sex with Ygritte, she's the one who initiates the interaction. In fact she has been doing that the whole time he's had her hostage, teasing him with advances and mocking him for his inexperience. In the famous cave scene, Jon's thoughts are how he wants to bang her, but also about how it would be in conflict with his vows. That's the main reason he never has sex with her until she incites it on her own; it's not because he doesn't want to. It's because he thinks it would violate the words he swore at the weirwood.

So Ygritte begins this part of his arc, and Jon discovers that he likes having sex, how original. But he still feels reservations about it, during the act and afterwards. After all, his people resent him for being able to openly take a woman to bed with him, while they have to go to Mole's Town to dig if they want to get any action at all.

My view on this is that the story is heading in a sex-positive direction with respect to Jon. There’s plenty of theming about this “why is it a sin if it feels so good” etc etc. The books are full to the brim of people feeling needlessly guilty about having casual sex, Jon especially. Where I think this is headed, therefore, is probably something like a wildling understanding of sex; Jon has to view sex as Ygritte did, because that was always the healthiest way for him to go about it. Except this time, to complete his arc, he is going to need to take the initiative himself and embrace his desires like Ygritte did. Her teasing him for not doing this was trying to get him to come out of his shell. It would feel strange to me if this went nowhere. Jon needs a future romantic/sexual partner so that he can feel no qualms with taking the initiative with them. How he learns to do that is up to George but suffice it to say, however uncertain I maybe that this partner will be Satin, a future romance is in the cards for Lord Snow.

So Jon's in a bit of a bind here from a meta perspective. If we want him to complete his sexual awakening storyline, he's going to have to take the initiative himself with a partner without feeling any inhibitions. But he can't do that if he's still a brother of the Night's Watch because of the aforementioned conflict with his vows. But he's not going to stop being a crow, his vows are important to him. So how do we reconcile the fact that Jon's character arc about his sexuality needs to be resolved, but he also needs to keep to his words? Simple: make his next partner male so it doesn't violate anything.

I've actually thought this could work as a plot point for anyone either in the Night's Watch or the Kingsguard. One of these men surely has to consider at some point the obvious loophole of "so I can't bed a woman, but what about a man?" and how that affects their honor or whatever. It just slots kinda nicely into Jon's storyline here. Another reason it really works is that Jon is looking to socially progress the Night’s Watch: unity with the wildlings, defending Satin from homophobia etc. Him realising the obvious flaw of the vows for not considering that men can be romantically involved through his own experiences as a bi guy can help him begin to dismantle the outdated nature of the customs. He’s framed as this sort of reformer, and being a queer bastard (who is also probably the lost heir to the Targaryen dynasty) makes this thematically poignant. He’s an outcast, but also a king.

Of course, he’s always been an outcast, being queer would just help add to that. And this is just one way of writing this arc; I’m not married to this take on this basis alone.

I can so imagine a scene where Jon is having sex with Satin and the lit hearth is positioned behind Satin's head from Jon's POV and it looks like Satin's been 'kissed by fire.' Also, Jon considering how Ygritte would feel about him doing this and coming to that conclusion that she would be proud seems like a great way to end a chapter about the two hooking up because Jon's arc would be basically resolved.

This final part is something that I feel should not be left merely implied: Jon being canonically bisexual would be great representation. This is one of the most beloved and famous heroes in all of fantasy, hell, in all of modern fiction. Making him queer would be a really important step forward for queer rep that should not be underestimated. Verity Ritchie (VerilyBitchie on yt) did an excellent video essay on bisexuality in reality tv, a point from which I'm going to paraphrase: it's really hard to effectively depict bisexuals because any confirmed relationship with another character would look like they 'picked a side.' But in order to continually show someone's openness to sexual attraction to two or more genders, you risk going to far the other way, falling into the bisexual sex demon stereotype. This is a really difficult needle to thread, and is why we have characters like Nick Nelson constantly having to remind us that they're bi, rather than having us just assume they could be. Put simply, we need better bi representation, especially with men and Jon Snow is excellent casting for the role. His relationship to Ygritte is constantly referenced throughout the narration as something he treasures and misses, so there would be no doubt that he was not 'gay the whole time.' But, if the Satin story goes ahead, there can be no doubt he's not queer either. Literature is a great place to put bi characters, I think, since an internal monologue can remind you of past relationships with other characters of different genders and how they mean something to the character in question, but never undermining the integrity of the current relationship.

Me personally, I'd be buzzing for Jon Snow to be confirmed as bi. Really interested to see people's thoughts on this.

[unabashedly-so]

💙💜🩷 SDV Bachelor HC 🩷💜💙

How much has each bachelor explored their bisexuality?

Content warning: compulsive heteronormativity, loss of family, grief, risky sexual behavior mention, drinking mention. SFW.

✨The Bachelors✨

Elliott

look me in the eye and just try to tell me this man doesn't already know. i dare you i fuckin' dare you i WANT YOU TO

that line on the 10 heart boat scene about not knowing he could feel that way about another man is bullshit and that is a piece of canon I toss into the sea.

now please understand the majority of this is colored by my very vivid hc of Elliott's upbringing and young adult life, but you're literally reading a hc post that is labeled hc so you bought the ticket now board the train. choo choo mfs.

the low hanging fruit is that this is a man that canonically spends hours on hair care, dresses like that, talks like that, etc. etc.. Yes, you can be cishet etc. and do that, sure.

and don't get me wrong, it's valid that Elliott could just Be Like That. (I love and respect the hell out of that incorrect opinion)

but this man is penny-romance novel cover coded. just. think about that. think about this active CHOICE he is making.

ffs he lives on a BEACH and dresses in a THREE-PIECE SUIT with his PERFECTLY COIFFED hair that he has to spend HOURS on because that's what happens when you LIVE. ON. A. BEACH.

i am going to have an aneurysm about this man's life choices rn

he's arguably pretty self-secure*, which tracks because you don't get to be his age and not have some better understanding of yourself. As others have pointed out, there's no real ""growth"" in Elliott's arc because boy came whole because HE BEEN KNEW HE BEEN THROUGH THIS ALREADY. He's secure in his identity because he's worked it out already! He's moved on! focusing on his career and legacy now that he knows who is he and who he's not!!

*dont make me drag out the receipts his part is already long enough just trust me ok

now meet Elliott in his early 20's and wow, buddy, you are trying way too hard I promise you things are gonna be okay sweetheart

speaking of his early 20's, it's hc to me that he did, uhhhh, so much exploring. of everything. and everyone in the English and Theater department during university.

King Slut, long may he reign. 🙏

just. someone who's not as self-secure and self-aware would not be able to own the aesthetic PLUS the temperament we see with Elliott, who really only gets flustered with the intimate interpersonal stuff because he's a romantic and it's meaningful. He's confident in who he is and the kind of person he wants to be, and you don't get to that point in life without having done a lot of experimenting and soul-searching.

I could write a whole fucking meta on this boy, but for today: 9/10 he knows it, owns it, enjoys it, but he's got more interesting things going on in his opinion than to make one of his core personality traits just Gay/Queer/Bi/Pan, etc. He has an AESTHETIC and BI BY YOBA he's sticking to it.

also he can walk in heels better than you.

Harvey

Hmm, he's actually hard to get a read on for me. There's a few others in the fandom who might have a better take than me, but here's what I can offer.

first let's grant him that he's older. With age comes wisdom, experience, etc. the older bachelor/ettes are just going to be at an advantage vs the younger ones.

also... like 8 years in college. I cannot be swayed away from this as a crucial part of his journey.

twinkle TWINK-le little snack.

it just feels like one of those things he felt happening in high school and might have gotten bullied for it because everyone Knew but he couldn't/wouldn't just own it.

but then in college he finally realized that owning it would give him the power, so he did. kind of. very quietly.

he probably had a boyfriend or two in undergrad. They were definitely the kind to hold hands from the coffee shop to the library. you know the ones, we've all seen 'em. <3

and isn't he just so lucky that he can get butterflies from girls too?

a blessing and a burden for this man with anxiety because, oh no, now everyone's cute.

by the time he gets to Pelican town, his last relationship kind of ended on a sour note, so he's a little discouraged from pursuing romantic relationships, hence why he's a bit guarded and shy and nervous.

he gets a 8/10, he's just quiet about it because who's business is it but his own? also, like, he's literally the doctor for everyone. He's gotta keep some confidentiality in this small town.

Sebastian

while he doesn't show it, I'd say Sebastian is actually quite comfortable with being bi.

I mean like as comfortable as he can be around people in general.

He doesn't bring it up, and doesn't really let anyone know either, but again that's just kind of his MO, regardless of gender.

now when he's Together with someone, well that's a different story. we stan possessive Sebastian in this house 🫡

he probably wouldn't bring it up with the gang unless someone else brought it up first. 🤷‍♀️

would probably give some semi-defensive response of "yeah, what of it??" to his friends, but a low hearts farmer might get a coldly aggro "why are you asking? That's none of your business."

he and Maru Know about each other but keep those conversations private. hashtag just sibling things ig

has definitely kissed guys at concerts before. Lots of people can also provide a feeling of anonymity, letting him get lost in the crowd and not have to worry so much. 10/10

Shane

closeted sportsballer. As a former Closeted Sportsballer, I can see this going two ways.

First option: you DO NOT explore that unless you want things to get real weird REAL FAST.

Like, I'm not even talking locker room nonsense, let's be mature here. Even if you do not like your teammates, you WILL still share a Sports Bond with them built on a shared passion, a common goal, and lots of comiseration.

So if you're already on iffy social standing, which I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say Shane might have had... you're gonna have a bad time.

Then after his gridball career ended, it may have already been baked in that that was Dangerous. OR he could have just been so far down the path of self-loathing that he stopped looking at people romantically.

OR OR--part of his self-loathing actually opened him up to exploring his sexuality......

......which is a very nice way of saying he took part in a lot of risky sexual encounters. 😮‍💨 (with all genders! One night stands do not discriminate!)

so if there were any feelings involved, it was... not good or conducive to self-understanding. Probably made things worse.

cue the drinking! the depression! all the risky behaviors!

ALTERNATIVELY... Option two: he does explore Feelings For Dudes and it could have played into his sportsball exit. 🤔

Hi. Let me just reiterate personal experience here: LEAVING A TEAM CAN REALLY FUCK YOU UP depending on your life outside the sport. Sports teams are a social support group, like, I really hate the phrase "like family"... but literally structurally so similar. If you already don't have a strong family life outside of the sport (like Shane has admitted to, let's fuckin goooooo), AND being on a team is an overall positive thing in your life??

Leaving your team (willingly or unwillingly) takes away that social support. And not just the social/emotional support, but the structure to your life, the routine, the feeling of belonging, the PURPOSE!!!

gee, wonder what kind of feelings those can bring about in a person. like a sad chicken man.

are we seeing a trend here???????

Ok this definitely got more into a sportsball psychological study, but what I'm saying is my money's on gridball heavily influencing his trajectory but since he DIDN'T have the family or social supports outside of it, he crashed and burned afterwards. Contrast with Alex below who DID have social supports and--

focus, bisexuality.

Personally, I like the idea that Shane's been with dudes, but it's never been anything emotionally healthy (except maybe one pre-gridball-exodus which could have prompted the leave......🤔👀) or fulfilling.

5/10, would be 6 but he got -1 because it was driven by self-loathing. >:(

somebody come show him some mlm love!!!

Sam

baby boy. sweet baby boy.

the younger bachelor/ettes are at a bit of a disadvantage because they're in the time of their life where they would be exploring their sexualities in a conducive environment. Not to say the valley isn't but there's, uh, only 11 other singletons there and they all know each other sooooo...

that said, due to Kent's military career, it's likely Sam has had time living outside of Pelican Town, so may be a bit farther ahead than, say, Sebastian who's lived there his whole life.

speaking of Kent, it's canon that Daddy has been in and out of his life and tbf I don't remember exactly how Sam feels about that but

I'm JUST SAYIN'. baby boy gets a whiff of attention from some buff dude who wants to make him his baby girl?? melting.

you know the trope of how girls with absent fathers sometimes overcorrect for that and seek out male attention like crazy? well, who says boys are any different??

what I'm getting at is this: you're trying to tell me Sam has NEVER had a raging crush on Alex?????

I mean fr it was probably like. Alex told him "good choice" on his ice cream flavor once and it was all downhill from there.

plus I'm hoping he's got a solid enough friendship with Sebastian (and Abigail) that they could talk about these things without it getting weird.

also, singer/lead guitarist in a band?? come on, too easy.

anyway 5/10, once again a bit oblivious until he gets smacked in the face. Definitely a flavor of "haha no homo bro! :):) ...... unless...?? 👀"

Alex

closeted sportsballer, round 2 EXCEPT

he canonically admits he crushes real easy. so just statistically speaking, there's an equal likelihood that he's crushed on the male singletons of the valley, too. Which totally doesn't even take into consideration his gridballer time, which I'll get to in a second.

he also admits his crushes don't usually last very long. part of that probably has to do with a lot with attachment issues (seriously he should be more messed up than he is), but if gridball is just SDV American Football, there's probably a good deal of internalized homophobia Alex has had to either work through or not work through. hence why his not het crushes might not last long.

but confusing and conflicting as they may be, THEY'RE STILL THERE. just. probably presenting more like a "wow I'm really noticing this person a lot lately huh. I mean I guess they look pretty good and seem kind of cool..." he's completely and utterly oblivious to so much, his own feelings included.

so what I'm saying is there was a brief window of time where Alex unknowingly had a crush on Sam and, listen, under the right circumstances Sam/Alex (Smalex?) could have been canonized--don'T BOO ME, I'm RIGHT

as for gridball, compulsive heteronormativity is absolutely rampant so there's no way he could have felt comfortable exploring his interest in other gender(s). ESPECIALLY in his case where he's still kind of on the outside, trying to model himself to fit a certain kind of mold. Just, no chance, absolutely none.

and really, Idk, between him and Haley I'm starting to get real compulsive heteronormativity vibes now... not that they're mad about it, but they were kinda forced into those roles and, well, the shoes KIND OF fit I GUESS...

you might say it was ... they're kind of sh... shoeho--shoehorn--*shot*

Anyway, boy's represso. 2/10, if you called him bi he'd say wait why are you leaving , what did you want to tell me???

[dadrielle]

Trick or treat?

Happy Halloween! Here are two related snippets from the Laudna Writes A Romance Novel AU that I might get back to someday:

“I would think you'd like romance novels, darling. Half the point of them is that you already know the end.”

Imogen laughed. “You are never gonna let that go are you?”

“I just think you might like novels better if you stopped flipping ahead all the time!”

“I can't help it, things move too slow and I get all itchy about it. And I use up all my no-peakin’ willpower to not look in peoples’ heads. Reading the ending early doesn't hurt anyone anyway.”

“It hurts the intended experience.”

“Laud, I promise I will not read the end of your story early, alright?”

Laudna sniffed. “Well of course you won't, because I haven't written it yet.”

~*~

Orym stared at her. “Laudna,” he said, with that slow, knowing tone that she knew meant he could see something she couldn’t, which for some reason plucked a string of fear in the back of her brain. “You’ve been reading this to Imogen as you write it?”

“I was, yes. Or…” She started to wring her hands together. “Some of it, I did, but then she said she'd rather wait until it was done, which seemed strange since she’s usually so impatient to tear through books that she spoils them for herself and I do worry it’s because she doesn’t like it and doesn’t want to hurt my feelings. Orym, why are you looking at me like that.”

“It’s just, well. I don’t think it’s that she doesn’t like it, exactly. I mean, don’t you think she might find it a little familiar?”

“I don’t follow.” Laudna concentrated very hard on the motion of Orym scratching his chin - isn’t that funny how he picked at that one spot as he pressed his lips together thin and tight, raising his eyebrows at her, what a particular habit she’d not noticed before, and far more interesting than rising, ringing staccato in her head that seemed to be calling her a liar. “What do you mean?”

“Ok. Let’s try it this way: how do your characters meet?”

Ah, safer ground.

“Oh it’s your classic knight in shining armor situation, the heroine is beset upon by ne’er do wells who have accused her of a crime she didn’t commit, and the love interest saves her, but they’re forced to go on the run together.”

“And how did Imogen and you meet?”

“We-I was-well! She saved me from a mob, yes but. It’s not quite the same-”

“It IS pretty close though, you have to admit.”

[slafkovskys]

ok but old money barzy taking reader to his family’s huge vacation “house” (mansion) in wine country of italy where she gets to meet the wholeee family. and they’re in a hammock watching the sunset over the sprawling vineyard, sharing a dessert the private chef made for the night and mat brings up convos about gold or silvery jewelry and how many diamonds does she want on an engagement ring since his family knows “the best” jeweler in italy

there’s just no way this is real, she thinks to herself as she over looks the view from their balcony just off of their bedroom. it wasn’t the room that he had usually stayed in when they visited, but she found it when she was exploring, fell in love with it, and mat had their stuff moved in in less than thirty minutes. the pictures don’t do it justice.

mathew’s chest vibrates from underneath her and that’s how she becomes hyper aware that she was not just thinking these things, she was indeed verbalizing them. “they never do, do they?”

“you weren’t supposed to hear that,” she mumbles, letting her shoulders relax again as the breeze starts to gently sway the hammock they were laying on. she had to get her passport for this trip, mathew payed for it to be expedited and she knew that he made some phone calls for it to come within the two weeks that she would need it. she was embarrassed, but so thankful that it was done. she raises a curious eyebrow when he picks up her hand and runs his thumb over her ring finger, “that interesting to you?”

“a little bit,” she can’t see him, but she can almost picture the lopsided grin that he sports, “you prefer gold jewelry, huh?”

“i do,” she drawls out the second vowel.

“what’s your ring size?” he says it so casually, like her world didn’t come to screeching halt at his words. sure, they had had the textbook definition of a whirlwind romance the last six months, but she was still adjusting to him, to his life. he was still adjusting to hers. there was no way that they should be married right now. “i know that you don’t care about carats, but what about diamonds. two? three?”

“mathew-” she rarely used his full name now ever since she let him both into and out of the friend zone, but this was serious. “i’m not gonna marry you.”

“oh, i don’t expect you to. not right now anyway,” he helps her roll over so that she can look at him. he pushes her hair away from his face, “my family’s jeweler is in the next town. i want to meet with him to start getting ideas for when we do eventually get to that point. i promise that there’s not going to be a ring on your finger any time soon, not until we discuss, so tell your heart to calm down. i can feel it on my ribs.”

his words make you take a breath and rest against his chest, “i don’t need anything fancy, y’know? especially not multiple diamonds. you could do it with a ring pop and i would say yes.”

“oh, my love,” he sighs, “you deserve so much more than a ring pop.”

[homicidal-slvt]

Your First Valentine's Day Together {Pt. 3}

-

MDNI

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Creepypasta Head-Canons

-

Ok ok- I realized there was more characters I wanted to do so here we are.

-

GN/Reader

Warnings: None

-

Dr. Smiley

Expect to have a lovely dinner for two in his office. He refuses to take any patients today, they'll all have to either go to Nurse Ann, Dr. Pain or EJ. It's gonna be a long evening of pure romance, rose petals, candles and all.

"You love it, right?" "Yes..."

Dr. Pain

A date with him is bound to spiral into chaos, careful planning is not one of his strong suits and he loves going with the flow. Will most likely think teaching you how to stitch up a wound is a perfect date idea, his poor victim having to watch you two love birds.

"You're doing great, honey!" "Thanks!"

Papa Grande

Will take you to a show in the underworld, wanting only the best entertainment for him and his darlings special day. Afterwards expect a fancy dinner and lots of deep conversation.

"What would you like to discuss next, Y/N?" "Hm...."

The Bartender

He has no idea what the significance of Valentine's Day is but will take you on a simple but sweet date regardless. Ordering your favorite food and gifting you a lovely heart shaped locket. He simply likes showing you how he feels.

"It's beautiful!!!" ".....~"

Emra

Is learning ballet a good date? Because that's probably what you'll wind up doing. She thinks it's wonderful to involve you in her passion, and is fully willing to teach you other forms of dance as well. Also expect to receive lots of roses.

"Are you alright, dear?" "Yeah just... Fell again."

Wendell Wilson

Appreciates a simple date at home, his gift to you is him cooking dinner for the both of you. Calmly listening to you rattle on about your day- well at least pretending to listen and occasionally tuning in. He does love you I promise.

"Wendell... Are you even listening?" "Of course."

Daisy White

Today is incredibly exciting for her! She joyfully drags you to some small town diner to eat a burger and fries. Though you have to order of course cause she's a ghost- and also you look kinda crazy when you're talking to her. But it's so cute when she rambles on about anything and everything.

"And then!!! I found a cute kitten!" "That's an awesome story, Daisy."

Mary Vaughn

She would've completely forgotten it was even Valentine's Day if it weren't for you. She takes you for a nice little picnic in the woods, feeding some seed to the little birds around. She likes just being near you.

"Their chirping so much. I think they like you, Y/N." "You really think so?"

Ani The Wight

She can't resist treating you to breakfast in bed, to which the whole day you both go back and forth doing sweet things for one another.

"We should do this more often." "Agreed"

Asylum Nancy

She doesn't really celebrate holiday, not really seeing the point. She will get you a small gift like a cute little ring or something. That's about it though.

"Thought you'd like it." "I do. Thanks."

The Seer

Goes out of her way to plan a special date for you guys, not too romantic but not too simple. Trying to balance it out. She gives you a bouquet of white lilies, feeling the elegance of them suits you.

"A special flower for a special person." "Thank you."

Sketcher

..... She agrees to go on a date with you but all the planning is on your hands. You're making this day special for her not the other way around. She can be somewhat demanding at times, but starts acting a bit more loving later on. She's just a tough cookie to crack, not very romance driven.

"Do you like it, Sketcher?" ".... It's sweet I suppose."

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{More Content}

[biblicallyaccuratechicken]

@toytanks I had to ok

Have a list of every MCR song (that I've heard of) and how it relates to Billford, which I definitely do not ship and if you've ever seen any proof to the contrary noo you didn't

I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love

(fuckk even the album name is Billford-coded)

Romance -- no lyrics, but I do think that the fact that they only played the part in minor and not the major one does feel like Billford

Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us -- post-betrayal Billford. There are two distinct parts to this song; the one that comes first is Bill, and the other is Ford.

Vampires Will Never Hurt You -- honestly this kinda feels like the opposite of Billford to me, it's more like Ford x Jheselbraum.

Drowning Lessons -- One Of Us AU? It still doesn't feel quite right to me though

Our Lady of Sorrows -- it definitely feels like Billford, particularly from Bill's perspective, but some of the lyrics make me think more of Fiddauthor (kill me right now)

Headfirst For Halos -- it feels like Bill starting to catch feelings for Ford and partying trying to forget but still gushing about him lmao

Skylines and Turnstiles -- it just kinda feels like Billford, I can't explain it.

Early Sunsets Over Monroeville -- to me it kinda feels like around the time Ford found out about the betrayal. Like, the narrative of being really close and sharing happy memories and dreams, and then suddenly your lover is a monster you have to destroy

This Is The Best Day Ever -- perhaps, if Ford was a shape like Bill, and Bill destroyed his dimension for Ford's sake.

Cubicles -- lmao I can see Bill sulking about Ford to this song

Demolition Lovers -- this song was definitely on the soundtrack of the most toxic relationship I've ever been in, so I know for a FACT that this is 100% a Billford song.

Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge

Helena -- I could see this being from Ford's point of view, during Wierdmageddon. Some of it feels like One Of Us AU.

Give 'Em Hell, Kid -- on the other hand, this one is definitely Bill during Ford's exile

To The End -- the level of toxicity is definitely there, but since it's a pretty clear narrative, I'll call it vibes-only-Billford

You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison -- it is, again, mostly vibes-only, but I can also see post-betrayal Ford feeling this way if they happened to hook up during that time

I'm Not Okay (I Promise) -- I really don't think this fits them at all, but the one clip of Frankie going "you have something on your face" and then violently taking a fallen eyelash from the cheerleader's face before absolutely booking it is something I could see happening between them and it cracks me up

The Ghost of You -- this feels like either post-betrayal Bill or if they became a couple and Ford died of old age

The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You -- This is just Billford. I. What do you want from me.

Interlude -- not really Billford. I'll say it. Yeah, it's melancholy, but again it feels more like Ford x Jheselbraum or Fiddauthor.

Thank You For The Venom -- Billford, either perspective. It feels very reminiscent of the exile era (or even during Weirdmageddon?)

Hang 'Em High -- This also feels very much like Billford. Not sure when I'd place it to, but the vibes are there, especially One of Us AU imo.

It's Not A Fashion Statement, It's A Fucking Deathwish -- Billford. That's it that's the commentary.

Cemetery Drive -- definitely post-betrayal Billford, particularly Ford's perspective ("Is this what you always want me for?" I'm going FERAL)

I Never Told You What I Do For A Living -- Bill. Bill. Bill. Bill. Bill. You Cannot Change My Mind It Is Imbued With His Essence And The One He Is Singing To And About Is Fordsy.

Welcome To The Black Parade

The End. -- nothing obviously Billford sticks out to me, but some of the lyrics could be applied to either of their perspectives, precisely because it's so neutral

Dead! -- post-season 2 Ford about Bill (though the last lyrics are definitely something Bill would vibe with)

This Is How I Disappear -- post-betrayal, pre-season 2 Billford. Could also fit pre-betrayal, but not as much due to its “laughing at a bad thing to hide the pain I lie awake over” vibes

The Sharpest Lives -- Bill. 100%. Maybe Ford during exile. Idk I know he made some decisions he regretted later back then.

Welcome To The Black Parade -- Ford post-season 2, maybe? It doesn't scream it to me, but it could be made to fit ("your weary widow marches on etc etc)

I Don't Love You -- post-betrayal, from Bill's perspective

House of Wolves -- it's just Billford. Idk what you want me to say.

Cancer -- if Bill reincarnated as a human and couldn't be with Ford

Mama -- this one fits Bill as a character really well, as well as One Of Us AU Billford

Sleep -- post-betrayal Billford

Teenagers -- yeah I don't really see it. Some of the lyrics do have that paranoid feeling Ford has pre-exile though

Disenchanted -- definitely feels like Billford from Bill's perspective. Some of the lyrics also feel like Bill reflecting on his life as he's dying, and the bridge in particular feels like post-exile Bill

Famous Last Words -- So. Much. Billford. I can't speak.

Blood -- doesn't really strike me as Billford. I do see elements of the two of them separately though

The Black Parade: The B-Sides

My Way Home Is Through You -- heavy Billford vibes, though some of the lyrics also make me think of Ford x Jheselbraum. That's neither here nor there though, as this is a Billford-driven list of reviews.

Kill All Your Friends -- Billford. It feels like both of their perspectives, but some of the verses feel like Weirdmageddon-era Bill.

Heaven Help Us --definitely a Billford song. Again, it could be from either of their perspectives, but I'm feelin a lot of Bill from a few of the lyrics. Ford has his moments in the sun too, though

Danger Days: The True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys

(listen a lot of these are about love so ofc they're gonna be Billford that's just how my idealistic brain works ok I mean who said that I don't ship Billford hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha)

I am counting Look Alive Sunshine as part of Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) because it's true ok -- it kinda feels like the two of them coping with their separation during the exile era and it cracks me up to hell and back

Bulletproof Heart -- Bill trying to convince Ford to join him during Weirdmageddon and it's working

SING -- this is definitely how Bill sees himself. In a Billford context, I can see this also as him trying to convince Ford

Planetary (Go!) -- wow, our first 100% pre-betrayal Billford song! It tastes like candy and battery acid and stardust

The Only Hope For Me Is You -- this could easily apply, with its galactic imagery and love-song-esque feeling. I could see this being Ford, having been by Bill's side after Weirdamageddon for many years, telling him "This isn't the answer, we only need each other"

Party Poison -- HHHHHHHHH it feels like Billford in that it feels like the two of them interacting. Lyrically, it mostly makes me think of Ford during Weirdmageddon trying to stop the party, but MCR are musical geniuses so it also feels like the party itself. This one turned me into a little geek ngl it's one of their songs that gets the biggest primal reaction out of me.

Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back -- gonna be honest, this one, more than anything else, reminded me of Dipper and Wendy's time together during Weirdmageddon. It does feel very much like Bill though in the sense that it bleeds anarchy and lasers

S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W -- again, this was part of the soundtrack of my toxic relationship, so I really want it to be Billford but if I'm being honest it's just hard to see.

Summertime -- This does feel like Billford, in a more fluffy way than any of the others. "Terrified of what I'd be [...] Could you stop the noise" feels a lot like Ford as he met Bill. Really, this whole song is more Ford-sung than Bill, but I could also see most of the lyrics being sung by Bill (it just depends on his back story, which as of now we can only speculate)

DESTROYA -- I definitely would put this on a Billford playlist, but imo this is another vibes-only one. Like, the denial of God and the "we're in this together" and stuff is there, but lyrically it just doesn't quiiite hit the mark for me

The Kids From Yesterday -- much like Planetary (Go!), this one feels like pre-betrayal, stardust and citric acid, Billford

Vampire Money -- this seems like Bill's initial ideal of how Billford would turn out lol. Also, Bill partying and pretending he's okay without Ford during the exile. Also, Ford partying and pretending he's okay without Bill during the exile. Also, Ford being mad at Bill during the exile. Also-

We Don't Need Another Song About California -- this does feel like Ford talking to Bill, and it also has Billford vibes

(i know there are others but i haven't heard them that often so i wouldn't be a good judge so! moving on...)

Conventional Weapons

(I hope to God these are all Billford cause they're some of my favorites)

Boy Division -- I can very easily see this as Billford, and like Bill is bein dramatic to Ford about what happened at Weirdmageddon cause you know he's not letting that little "murder" go even though it was incredibly justified and Ford has way more reason to be mad but he's just patiently sitting through it and waiting for Bill to let him talk

Tomorrow's Money -- despite the actual point of this song, it also feels like Bill talking to Ford post-season 2 at some points

AMBULANCE -- oh this is very Billford. Yessiree, this is the good shit, especially One Of Us AU

Gun. -- This is definitely from Ford's perspective. What are you obsessing over a gun for? To kill this dream demon? Why are you so worried about having a son? Hm? So in other words, you're obsessing over this dream demon and sad you can't have a family with him? Is that it? Pretty gay tbh

The World Is Ugly -- This is an us-vs-them love song. This was made for them.

The Light Behind Your Eyes -- Bill sad about losing/leaving Ford cause he's just one more in a string of people dear to him but especially Ford because it's been so long since someone was that close and he wishes now that he could've done things differently but alas

Kiss the Ring -- I'm sorry, it's mostly just Weirdamageddon-era Bill. Some of it is like Ford replying to him, but otherwise there's not really all that much Billford in it

Make Room!!!! -- yeah again, it's mostly just Weirdmageddon Bill, though in this one he is doing a lot of ogling Ford I think

Surrender The Night -- oh Billford 100%. Dreams, secrets, surrender, everything. It's just Them, and you can't change my mind

Burn Bright -- this feels like the idealized version of Billford we you all have in our your heads, y'know? Like, we you want them to go on these adventures together and be steamy about it a good amount of the time, and that's what this is. This is them being anarchist murder hoboes together and I love that for them <3 and that's that ig

[sunshine-overload]

[BSTS] Gui June Bride 4* Card Story

(note: Lico’s team’s show is based on the novel ‘Metropolis’ by Thea von Harbou)

chapter 1 -starless hallway-

lico: Hey, Gui. Why did you step in front of me just then?

saki: (That voice, it sounds like Lico-san? I wonder what happened.)

-rehearsal room-

gui: It’s Josaphat’s job to protect Freder. Josaphat is within me, so I will protect you, Lico. Have I not understood Josaphat’s heart correctly?

lico: His heart? It’s not like I’m trying to say your acting is bad or anything. What I mean is that you stepping in front of me during this scene ruins it.

gui: Ruins it…

lico: Look, you understand that this show is a june bride performance right? What all the ladies in the audience want to see is the sweet romance between Maria and I.

gui: ….?

lico: What I’m saying is you need to look at how you’re affecting the performance as a whole, not just concentrate on your role.

gui: The performance… as a whole.

lico: Sigh… For now let’s just take a break.

-lico notices saki-

lico: Oh you were here, Kotori-chan. Sorry, I didn’t notice you come in.

saki: It’s fine.

lico: I’m gonna go and buy some water, stick around to watch us rehearse once I get back, ok?

saki: Ok, thank you.

gui: Good work with practice, Gui-san.

gui: Saki. I have something I’d like to ask you.

saki: What is it?

gui: What’s a sweet romance? Is it a type of candy since it’s sweet…?

saki: Um… Well, in a love story, it would be seeing the happy couple’s relationship develop, sometimes to the point where they get married.

gui: …I don’t get it. Would you like to see the romance between Lico and Maria as well?

saki: Yes, I suppose so. I’m sure it’ll be wonderful.

gui: I see. For the sake of Lico and Maria’s romance I need to look at the performance as a whole. I’ll give it my best shot. In order to make you happy.

saki: I’ll be looking forward to it.

-

chapter 2 -starless hallway-

saki: Hello, Gui-san. Do you have dress rehearsal now? Your costume looks really nice on you.

gui: Saki, thank you. Are you going to be watching us rehearse?

saki: Yes, I’d love to. 

gui: …The scenes between Freder and Maria need to stand out. So, I need to make sure I don’t interfere with them. That’s what Ginsei told me looking at the performance as a whole is. I’m going to look at it that way while rehearsing today. I’d like you to see it too.

saki: Fufu, I see. I’ll make sure to keep an eye on you.

gui: Thanks. There’s still something I don’t understand though…

saki: What is it?

gui: You told me romance is things like falling in love and getting married. But why do people get married?

saki: Oh? Well… I’d say it’s because when you find someone that important to you, you always want to be together with them. So marriage is like a promise that you’ll always be there for each other.

gui: …A promise.

-gui steps close-

gui: In that case, I want to marry you.

saki: What? Me!? Um, Gui-san, that’s not what…!

gui: You’re a person who’s important to me. Did I misunderstand?

saki: Ah, umm… well no not exactly…

gui: That’s good. I understand romance now thanks to you. I can improve my acting with this.

saki: I’m glad to be of help…

saki: (I still don’t think he fully understands the implications though…!)

-cg

gui: Here, hold out your pinky finger as well.

saki: My pinky?

gui: Let’s make the promise like this. A promise that we’ll always be together, I’d like you to pinky swear me that.

—end

[inquisitoradaar]

feel like i need to elaborate on musics love shape. long post ahead bc god there is so much explaining that needs to be done here. the situation is Intricate and Dire. also spoilers for balding gate or whatever

i went in without any idea who i was gonna romance but then i met gale and was like ok. i think this is the guy. and had made up my mind on it until wylls introduction where i was like oh fuck hes so hot but i couldnt change my mind id already promised myself id romance gale.

anyways. the party ends up being music + shadowheart + gale + wyll for a while. this is not because of preference but bc i literally managed to miss astarion (i went to the bottom of the hill hes on and then said out loud to myself 'nothing else here' and went back in the nautiloid.) and lae'zel (saw the two tieflings that caught her but didnt see the cage and decided to avoid conflict). i eventually swap out shadowheart for karlach when i meet her (it was besties at first sight for me) and then get told by some friends who r also playing that im a fucking dumbass and completely missed astarion and lae'zel (id already saved the grove by this point so LMAO)

i go back to the crash site, grab astarion, then use a scroll of revivify on lae'zel bc shes dead in the mountain pass (whoops). theyve both missed literally everything. i go to camp and astarion immediately reveals to music that he is a vampire. awesome. theyre also both charlatans which is a lil funny to me. i add neither of them to my party bc by this point im extremely attached to gale wyll and karlach and music has rlly high approval w all three of them.

now in truth the love shape was already in the equation bc gale is still not over mystra. music is unclear as to whether or not this affection is still reciprocated on mystras part (and tbh so am i . i havent finished act 2 yet ok) but when they shared a Moment in the weave gale enjoyed it so clearly thats also happening. so we have a love triangle going on. this is fine and manageable even if music is not a big fan of the whole the-guy-im-into-has-a-bomb-in-his-chest-bc-of-his-ex-who-he-still-loves thing.

we get to the underdark. i have a long rest. astarion has smth to say. in-game it has been two days since i finally grabbed him from the crash site (has he just been waiting that entire time for someone to walk down that path so he could stab them?). cutscene plays out, he wants music to tell him hes pretty, music responds w 'gales more my type', and astarion makes a comment abt how hell have to work on himself if hes to 'catch up w the competition' um?

so the love triangle is now a sort-of love square. could be just a lil silly fun joke and i think of it as such (at least when ignoring the meta (thats another story)) until i get to act 2 and have a long rest in the shadow-cursed lands. and astarion says to music smth like 'were kindred souls, were walking down the same path, we should take over the absolutist cult and rule the world together' WHAT IS HAPPENING. what coded declaration of love bullshit is this. music and astarion barely even know each other.

so, great, love triangle is now officially a partially unreciprocated love square. but then. but THEN. to make matters WORSE for ME PERSONALLY. having another long rest in the shadow-cursed lands and a cutscene starts to play. wyll is dancing and so music joins in (naturally, theyre best friends w wyll (literally, they have maximum approval from him) and a BARD) and then things start getting. quote. "intimate" and i go oh no i have to put a stop to this bc things have started getting more serious w gale. and when i tell wyll that they should both step away from this he looked so genuinely heartbroken it made me feel so horrifically sad.

so the partially unreciprocated love square is now. even worse. a love shape of no real design. with music, some random loser tiefling bard charlatan in the middle of it all. gods help them

[demons2003]

My Boys (Chapter 57)

Series List

Steve's pov

"Have you seen or heard from Eddie recently?" Dustin asks into the phone for what felt like the 100th time. "Eddie Munson," Max says into another phone. God, why has no one heard from him? I ignore them both and try to focus on the work I was meant to be doing right now. Shit, Y/n's been asleep for a really long time. I hope she's ok. "All right. DoctorZhivago. It's a double VHS. It's long. But that's because it's filled with action and romance, and a little bit of suspense," I flirt a little, feeling worse than I normally do. "So, my boyfriend won't, like, totally puke when I bring it home?" She asks me, filling me with so much happiness. "Oh, you... your boyfriend?" I try to pretend. God, I sound so dumb right now. "Uh, no. He's gonna... He's gonna love it," I tell her. I help her check out around the chaos of the kids and Robin and then let her out of the store, saying see ya as she walks away.

As I walk over to the counter, Max slams the phone down and says, "Hey guys, I might have a lead." Robin puts her phone down and Dustin spins to face her. "Seriously?" He asks, excitement written all over his face. "Yeah. Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick, and sometimes Eddie crashes there," Max explains to us. "That sounds promising," Robin says. Why does that name sound so familiar though? "Where does this Reefer Rick guy live?" Robin asks. "See, that's the thing. No one knows. He's more of a... a legend than someone that people actually know," Max says, the rest of us deflating. "Well, what about a last name?" Dustin asks her. "I don't know that either," Max tells us. "I bet the cops know the last name," I put in. "What?" Max questions. "The cops," I repeat and move over to the trolly with the VHS tapes. "I mean, listen, if this Reefer Rock is actually a drug dealer, I guarantee you he's been busted at some point. Means he's in the system," I tell them, moving to lean over the counter. "The cops? Really Steve? That's your suggestion?" Dustin asks in disbelief. "I mean, I just think they should be filled in on what we know, what's going on," I say. "You think Eddie's guilty, don't you?" Dustin asks me, sending a knife through my heart. Of course not, he's the sweetest person I know. "Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. I believe in innocent until proven guilty, all that constitutional shit. I just, you know, don't think we can rule it out," I say, hating the words as soon as they leave my mouth.

"That's precisely what we're trying to do here Steve," Max says to me. Dustin points back at her in agreement and says, "And maybe we'd have a little bit more luck if you spent less time trying to find a girlfriend and more time trying to find Eddie." "Oh well somebody has to attend to the customers," I exclaim. "Especially if they're babes right?" Robin tease, helping me a little bit. "Hey, not fair. Okay? I attend to all customers equally, babes and non-babes alike," I ramble, hearing the bell go off at some point. "We've got a very big selection in here. It can be super overwhelming for people," I explain. "Yeah, it can be," Robin says, seeming to get an idea. She jumps onto the computer and Max and Dustin look at her confused. "What are you doing?" Max asks her. "Maybe we don't need a last name," Robin says, typing into the computer. "What are you all doing?" I hear a voice say. I look over to find a very sleepy Y/n coming out of the back room. "They're trying to find a guy called Reefer Rick. Hoping the computer has the right one." I explain to her. I slowly move over to her while the other three focus on the computer. "I know where he lives," Y/n says, catching the attention of everyone around the computer. "What?" Dustin asks.

Y/n's pov

I wake up in the back room to no Steve and a very sore head. God, I hate crying and then sleeping. I leave the break room to find Dustin, Robin and Max around the store computer. Oh, thank god Max is ok. I let out a breath and hear, "Maybe we don't need a last name," from Robin. "What are you all doing?" I ask them but none of them turn around to look at me. I look around as Steve explains, "They're trying to find a guy called Reefer Rick. Hoping the computer has the right now." Wait, what? Why the hell are they looking for Rick? Without thinking I say, "I know where he lives." Robin, Max and Dustin all look over to me as Dustin yells, "What?" I shrink a little and wrap my arms around myself. "I um, know where to find Reefer Rick," I tell them, looking at Robin for help. Out of everyone in the room, she was still the only person that knew that I used drugs. She nods and before Dustin can say anything she says, "Then lets go." I nod and notice a customer at the counter. Robin stands from her seat and we double-check he's the last person while Steve serves him.

"You okay?" She asks me when we are out of earshot. I nod and tell her, "Yeah, let's just not tell them why I know where he lives." She nods and we come back to the rest of the group. "All right, let's go already!" Dustin snaps and throws me my car keys. I nod and we all run out of the store, Robin the last one out and closing the store. I jump into my car, Steve hopping into the back seat with Max and Dustin while Robin jumps into the front seat. I start the engine and speed out of the car park. "So, why are we going to Reefer Rick's?" I ask them. They all look at each other, trying to work out who the hell is going to say what's happening. "All you need to know is that a body was found in Eddie's trailer and we think he's hiding at Reefer Ricks," Dustin finally says. I try to nod and smile at him but my heart rate picks up. Robin and Steve notice, Steve giving me a soft look while Robin squeezes my hand. God, I really hope they are joking right now.

At Reefer Ricks

By the time we get to Reefer Rick's night has fallen. "You couldn't have told us that it was really far away?" Dustin says as we all get out of the car. "Well, normally that's the last thing on my mind," I snap, looking around the area. I go to the boot of my car and give everyone a flashlight so we can move around safely. The main house has all of the lights off, not a single thing is out of place. Dustin and Steve walk over to the front door, a flashlight in Steve's hand as well as Dustin, and Dustin rings the bell over and over again. He starts to press it over and over again before Steve says, "Okay. Well, that's settled. I guess he's not here." Before I can suggest going to the boat house, Dustin starts knocking and yelling, "Eddie! It's Dustin! Look, we just wanna talk, okay? No cops, I swear. We just wanna help." Robin and I look through the windows, trying to see if there is any movement inside. Dustin continues to bang on the door and call out for Eddie. Robin shushes him and looks a little closer into the house. Dustin ignores her and starts to ring the doorbell, knock on the door and call for Reefer Rick.

"Let's check down at the boat house, I doubt Eddie would be up in the house anyway if he is hiding," I tell them, pointing over at the small shed near the lake. "Sounds good," Steve whispers and we all walk over to it. I walk in front of the group and quickly look through a window, not seeing anything. I slowly open the door and Robin comes up behind me and says, "Hello. Is anyone home?" We all slowly walk into the boat house, splitting up. I stick with Max and Robin while Steve and Dustin go to the other side. "What a dump," Steve says, looking around the room. I look over the benches and hear Steve and Dustin arguing over something. God, just for once can they not? "Hey, look over here," Max whispers over to Robin and I. We both quickly make our way over to her and look down at the bench. "Someone was here," Max tells us. I nod while Robin says, "Maybe he heard us. Got spooked and ran." "Don't worry. Steve will get him with his oar," Dustin sarcastically tells us. "I know you think you're being funny, but considering everyone in this room has nearly died a hundred times, personally, I don't find it funny in the slight..." Something jumps out of the tarp that Steve was just poking and Steve is dragged across the room and pushed against a wall. "Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!" Steve yells over and over, but the person wasn't listening.

Eddie's pov

A car pulls up to the house and I freeze. Fuck. Did someone find me already? I look out the window and try to figure out whose car it is, but I can't tell from this distance and it being dark outside. Flashlights start to come down the hill towards me and I run over to the boat and hid under the tarp. I grab a beer bottle that I had stashed for something like this. The group of people walk into the boat house and I wait for the right moment. Oh fuck, I'm gonna die. I listen as they all spread out the room, trying to work out how many there are but I can't focus on it. Something starts to poke into the tarp and I freak out more. What if they feel me under here? I hold my breath and try not to make any noises when the oar hits me. When I hear the person start to yell something and stop poking me, I scream and jump out of the tarp, grabbing onto the closest person and shoving them against a wall. They scream at me but I can't hear what they are saying.

I stare at this person in anger but my eyes are too blurry to realise who I'm holding. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Eddie! Eddie! Stop!" Someone yells at me. "Eddie! Eddie!" The person yells at me. I look over to the person and notice a group of people standing around the one yelling. Who the hell are these people? "It's me. It's Dustin," Dustin calmly tells me. "This is Steve," He explains, pointing at the person in my arms. "He's not gonna hurt you, right, Steve?" Dustin continues. I look at Steve and watch as he nods his head, whispering, "Right. Yeah." Shit, that shouldn't have sounded as good as it did. "Steve, why don't you drop the oar?" Dustin asks Steve. A bang sounds behind me, scarring me, so I push more into Steve and press the bottle more to his neck. Steve groans at the contact while Dustin raises his voice saying, "He's cool. He's cool." "I'm cool, Eds. I'm cool," Steve whispers to me, using his old nickname for me. I loosen my grip on him after hearing it and look into Steve's eyes. Fear shines through but something else is hidden in there. What the hell is that emotion?

"What are you doing here?" I ask him, not anyone else in the room. "We're looking for you," Dustin replies instead. "We're here to help," Someone else whispers. I look over to see Robin has stepped forward a little bit. "Eddie, these are my friends. You know Robin, from band," Dustin introduces, pointing at Robin while she imitates a trumpet. "This is my friend Max. The one who never wants to play Dnd," He points to the other girl, her giving me a wave. He goes to point to someone behind him but they step in front of him and place him behind them. "Eddie, I need you to let him go," they whisper to me. I look up to see Y/n softly smiling at me, the one she used to always use when I was freaking out about things.

Y/n's pov

I pull Dustin behind me and whisper to Eddie to let Steve go. I try giving him a smile but I don't know how well it comes across. He looks at me confused but my gaze flicks to Steve. As much as I trust Eddie, watching him push Steve against the wall and hold the bottle to his neck is freaking me out. My heart rate is beating so fast and I'm trying to control my breathing but it doesn't feel like it's working. "We're here to help you Eds. We're on your side," I whisper to him. He tenses a little and I yell, "I swear on Dustin's mother!" He looks confused at me but Dustin says, "On my mother." Everyone else slowly follows, saying they swear on Dustin's mother. Eddie stares down at Steve still, I step forward without him noticing and he pushes Steve back and walks away.

As soon as the bottle is away from Steve I run over to him and cup his face. "You ok?" I whisper, tears building in my eyes. He tries to smile at me and nod but he only really smiles. I turn back around and watch as Dustin slowly walks towards a blank Eddie sliding down the wall. "Eddie..." Dustin whispers to him. Dustin slowly crouches in front of Eddie and says, "We just want to talk." He reaches out to touch Eddie, the rest of us moving closer, but Eddie flinches and Dustin motions for us to stay away. "Okay?" Dustin whisper. Robin crouches next to Dustin and I follow just next to her, right next to Eddie. "We want to know what happened," Robin says. Eddie doesn't say anything until a broken, "You won't believe me." He shakes his head and looks at us all. "Try us," Max whispers to him. I look back at Max to find her and Eddie staring at each other intently.

Eddie nods at her and starts to talk about how he took Chrissy to his trailer for drugs and what happened while in the trailer. I sit down in between Steve and Robin and listen to every single detail. "Her body just, like, lifted up into the air and, uh... And she just, like, hung there. In the air. And her bones... Uh, she... Her bones started to snap. Her eyes, man. It... It was like there was something, like, inside her head, pulling. I... didn't know what to do, so I...I," Eddie explains to us, looking off blankly at the wall. "I ran away," He whispers. Oh god. This is my fault. I told Chrissy to go to Eddie. I lead her to him. If I never said that Eddie sold drugs, she never would have died in his trailer. I stand quickly from my seat and look out the window, holding my hand over my mouth and trying not to let anyone hear me silently cry. We need to focus on Eddie, not my stupid breakdown.

"I left her there," I hear Eddie whisper. Everyone stays quiet, processing everything that Eddie just said. I hear a scoff and then Eddie saying, "You all think I'm crazy, right?" "No. We don't think you're crazy," Dustin tells him, I nod but don't turn around, looking out at the forest. "Don't bullshit me, man! I know how this sounds," Eddie snaps at him. "We're not bullshitting you," Max says seriously. "We believe you," Robin adds. "Look, what I'm about to tell you might be a little... difficult to take," Dustin starts off. "Okay," Eddie whispers. "You know how people say Hawkins is... cursed?" Dustin asks him. I turn back around to watch them all but stay at the window, leaning against it so I'm as far away as possible. Eddie looks at him blankly so Dustin continues, "They're not... way off. There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins. Sometimes it bleeds into ours." "Like ghosts and shit?" Eddie asks, obviously confused about the whole thing. "There are some things worse than ghosts," Max tells him. "These monsters from this other world... we thought they were gone. But they've come back before. That's why we needed to find you." Dustin continues to tell him. "If they're back again, we need to know," Max tells him.

"That night, did you see anything?" Robin asks him, trying to work out if we were dealing with the right thing. "Dark particles, maybe?" Max asks. Eddie shakes his head but they aren't happy with that. "It would almost look like dust, swirling dust," Dustin tries to prompt. "No, man, there was nothing you could see or, uh... or touch," Eddie says, shaking his head at the start. I look over at Steve to find him looking at Eddie with concern. "You know, I tried to wake her man. She couldn't move. It was like she... she was in a trance or something." Eddie continues to explain to us. "Or under a spell," Dustin says. Eddie's eyes flick up to Dustin's and whispers, "A curse." "Vecna's curse," Dustin replies. "What is with us and making everything a Dnd thing," I whisper to myself, causing Robin to snicker in front of me. "Who's Vecna?" Steve asks. "An undead creature of great power," I tell him, not liking where this could go. "A spell caster," Eddie adds on. "A dark wizard," Dustin adds more. Without another word, I walk out the door of the boat house and walk towards the tree line.

"Y/N!" I hear someone yell behind me, but I don't look back to check. I walk off to the closes tree and swing at it with my fist. I start to punch it over and over again until arms wrap around my middle and pull me away. "No!" I scream and try to go back to punching the tree. "It's okay. I've got you," I hear a voice whisper in my ear. I let a sob break from my throat and let tears pour from my eyes. "It's all my fault, Steve," I whisper, falling onto the ground. He follows after me and wraps his arms around me. "You had nothing to do with this Y/n. You couldn't have stopped this." He tries to reassure me. I shake my head and break from his arms, standing up and looking at him. "There's a reason I knew where Reefer Rick's was," I say, trying to keep eye contact with him. "Y/n," Robin whispers, coming closer to us both, the other three close behind. "I've been taking drugs since all of this shit went down," I snap, letting my emotions get the better of me. Steve looks at me concerned and walks closer. "I'm confused right now N/n," He whispers, trying to make sure I calm down. He reaches for my hends but I pull away from him.

I shake out my hands and notice that blood is slowly coming out of the cuts I got from the trees. I should fix them soon. "After the whole Jason shit that day, I spent the afternoon till I left with Ms Kelly," I explain, something Steve already knew. "Y/n," I hear Robin whisper again, getting closer to me. I look up at her apologetically and say, "Before I left to go to Family Video like normal, I had a smoke in the bathroom." She stops and looks more concerned than before. "How does this have anything to do with what is happening?" Max snaps at me. "Chrissy came in while I was smoking. Something we've done 100 times by now. But this was different. She was jumpy. She asked me where she could get some fucking drugs. I was gonna say here but Rick's in jail right now. I said she should go to Eddie," I say, whispering the last part. Eddie stiffens a little but I ignore him and look up to Steve. "I shouldn't have told her 'cause now I've done it again," I whisper to him, breaking down even more. Steve tries to step towards me, but I take a step back. "What did you do again?" Dustin asks me. I look over at him and see that he's more concerned than I have ever seen him.

I look back at Steve while Robin walks closer. "I dragged you into this. You wouldn't have come back if I wasn't there," I point out. Steve tries to shake his head to argue but I stop him. "I let the boys bring Max into this mess. I'm the one that's meant to protect them," I continue, still stepping away whenever Steve tries to get closer. "I got Robin and me the job at Scoops. I let her help us with that stupid code. I was the one that thought of Erica helping us to get into the base. I let her go in alone!" I yell, running my hands through my hair, trying to calm myself. "I told Chrissy where she can get some drugs and dragged Eddie into this mess too!" I continue to yell, my emotions spill all over the place. Robin finally reaches me and wraps her arms around me. "I was meant to keep the ones I love safe," I whisper to her, collapsing in her open arms.

Steve runs over to us and places his hands on my cheeks to try and ground me. "I need you to breathe," he whispers, trying to take a deep breath. I shake my head at him as more tears fall from my eyes. "I need you to copy Robin's breathing baby," Steve whispers to me, putting his forehead on mine. I try to follow Robin's breath but mine was breaky and uneven. "I can't breath," I panic, knowing I can but my mind is all over the place. "Y/n," I hear a small whisper say beside me. I look over and find Dustin looking up at me with so much concern. "Dustin," I whimper, hating that I've caused him to feel this way. "I need you to calm down please," He whispers, grabbing onto my hand and looking into my eyes. I try to follow his breathing and Robins, both of them going up and down at the same time. "Okay I'm good," I say to them all, trying to break away. Dustin breaks from me but Steve and Robin both hold onto me. "You are lying to the wrong people love," Robin says, running a hand up and down my back. I laugh at her and shake my head. "Well, can we at least go sit in the car? I need to get Max and Dustin home," I tell her, trying to move in front of her and Steve. She nods but Steve looks at me concerned.

He wraps me in his arms again and turns to the group. "Ok, we're gonna go home. I'll drop Max and Dustin home before I take Robin and Y/n home. I'll grab some food for Eddie and then I'll pick everyone up again and we'll come back here tomorrow. Sound good to everyone?" He asks. I nod and hear others agreeing to what he's said. He nods and picks me up. "What the hell Steve?" I snap a little, confused why he is picking me up. He ignores me and we all walk back to the car. I look back at Eddie to find me sadly waving at us all and giving me a worried look. I look away from him as Steve places me in the back seat, Robin and Dustin getting in on either side of me. I roll my eyes but let it happen. I'd had a complete meltdown in front of everyone. Robin was right, I can't lie to her and Steve. They will be at my side for the rest of the week now.

[bethagain]

Thinky-thoughts incoming! Today’s topic: Musings on relationships and The Mandalorian, from someone who doesn't get it. AKA, What’s the deal with shipping Din and Bo-Katan?

Friendly chats about the following are welcome! But, please ignore if my ramblings are going to upset you.

I didn’t get the Din/Luke thing at first, but I have to admit there’s some potential there. And I can see why the Bo-Katan/Armorer thing has its fans. But I do not get the Din/Bo-Katan thing. At all. And because I feel like writing and my fic ideas are absolutely refusing to happen, I’m gonna pontificate about it.

Ok, so: Din and Luke, they’ve got stuff in common.

They both love a hotrod. Luke’s gonna swoon over the N-1 starfighter. Din’s gonna ask if he can try out the X-wing. They’re gonna bore the crap out of everyone but Peli, talking specs over the beer that Luke’s drinking and Din’s got untouched in front of him (because, helmet).

Yeah, Din’s a reluctant hero while Luke’s been a willing one—but by now, Luke’s seen a few things and I bet he’s starting to feel the weight. Bet you they have their moments of commiseration: Oh come on, not me, not again.

Once they’ve committed, though, they’re both reckless as hell. Luke might jump in faster while Din takes a minute, but once they get going neither one of them has much of a sense of self-preservation.

We’ve seen Din be a stone-cold killer, and people like to think of Luke as the gentle one. But Luke didn’t get his Tumblr reputation of “sunshine and tempered death” for nothing. Do not threaten something he cares about, or someone he loves.

Din’s more deadpan and Luke’s more likely to burst out laughing, but I think we’ve seen they each can appreciate the absurd. They’re going to get each other’s jokes.

Bo-Katan and the Armorer? We know less about each of them, I think, but still:

They’ve taken different paths, but their end goals are the same. The Armorer chose stealth and secrecy, keeping the people away from the world that would hurt them, while Bo-Katan chose guerrilla warfare. But they both gave over their lives to preserving what was left of Mandalore.

They’re both extremely skilled fighters, and they both fight with economy and grace. They’re well matched to train together, even if their skills are different.

They’re both intentional leaders. They’ll be able to share notes on the challenges of authority and how to overcome them.

But Din and Bo-Katan? What are people seeing, that makes them think these two should be together?

Bo-Katan obviously cares a lot about her people, but she’s irreverent and sarcastic about Mandalorian culture, too. Din takes it all extremely seriously, to the point of risking his life (more than once) for a point of protocol. They try to get together, they’re gonna drive each other nuts. Especially if they’re trying to raise a kid together.

Bo-Katan plans and strategizes, as she did with building the fleet. Impulse is not really her thing. When have we ever seen Din have a plan that he didn’t make up on the spur of the moment? Imagine them trying to organize a vacation together. Or dinner, even.

The getting-each-other’s-jokes thing. Do they have the same sense of humor? No idea. Does Bo-Katan even have one?

And then there’s the fact that Din promised to serve her. I know a lot of folks thought that was romantic, but I don’t see it. That was a pledge of deference and duty to a military and cultural leader. When Din speaks, he's generally got one of two settings: He's either utterly serious or offering up dry humor. Sure, he's capable of double meanings, but we've only seen him use that against people. It's not a trick for someone he respects. Plus, we never see Bo-Katan offer anything like a pledge to him in return.

Of course, there’s also the fact that my non-shippy heart wants to see more of Din and Grogu’s adventures together, and Din’s development as a parent and as a Mandalorian—and I don’t see any real need to hand him a canon romance. I mean, sure, he’s a bit of a blorbo for me and I want him to be happy. But from a storytelling perspective I just don’t think it’s missing.

[zestyderg]

OK SO BASICALLY

This is a crack au where, while zz is possessing joe, he comes to realize that the cowboy is kinda 😳😳 and wants a relationship with him lmao

He's so infatuated with Joe that he halts all his plans, gives up on possessing a Majestic Vessel, and willingly gives Joe's body back when Dina and Todd confront him with the pipsqueak. Mf literally stops being evil so he can try to get with Joe.

It's really funny because at first he thinks he HATES him! Zongazonga probably has no relationship experience and thus for a while doesn't realize that his "loathing" is actually quite the opposite. Poor bastard is confused as hell and thus just internally insults joe constantly, and is definitely thinking about him more than a normal amount.

Like, ZongaZonga goes and watches a bunch of media with Joe in it so he can imitate him better. At least, that was the initial intention. But it devolves into zz watching tapes of joe solely so he can stare at him, thinking things such as "God this cowboy is so fucking stupid just LOOK at him. That fucking smile, it makes my head REEL. That accent, it's irritating yet I cannot stop listening to his voice! His sheer enthusiasm and good nature... cute... no, SICKENING!" All the while he's blushing madly.

(Fellas, is it gay to think about a cowboy you're supposed to hate more than world conquest?)

Its only after joe saves Dina and todd from him and a staff member walks in on him watching tapes of joe, sees the blush, and questions him does ZZ actually realize. And when he does... oh boy...

After being in denial and acting like a total pissbaby for a little bit,

He comes to the conclusion that:

1. World domination sounds kinda ass in comparison to Relationship with Cowboy, especially since his first attempt at controlling everyone ended with him locked in a stone chest for centuries, and maybe, just maybe, doing the same thing would be kinda dumb of him.

2. World domination means no chance at the cowboy willingly getting with him. He knows Joe hates him right now, and while he could just mind control Joe into liking him, ZZ really doesn't want to do that, he wants Joe to like him willingly. Mind control doesn't seem fulfilling, and for once ZZ would rather someone have their own free will, and not bend to his every whim.

So after leaving Joe's body, apologizing to everyone for being an evil bitch, and promising not to steal anyone's bodies, the patrol team hesitantly let him stick around, but they keep a close eye on him, and Dina keeps the pipsqueak on her at all times juuust in case.

But zz doesn't pull any more evil shit, and, after getting to know the patrol team and gaining a bit of their trust, he actually admits he likes joe to Dina. Dina gets really excited. Finally, some interesting stuff is happening around here! Potential romance drama no less!

Dina then decides it would be really funny to help zongazonga try to win joe over. With ZZ's permission Dina tells the patrol team and they all decide they're gonna help Zz woo Joe lol.

Everything after that is the skull's attempts to impress joe and hopefully score a date with him. The patrol team (and eventually the bb brigade because c'mon, if someone is trying to date their dad they wanna know about it) try to guide him in the right direction.

It takes a while for joe to actually warm up to him though, for... hopefully obvious reasons. He does not trust the former body snatcher at all but he's willing to give him a second chance. Zz tries to make up for the worst first impression imaginable and makes a great effort to get to know joe as a person first (while trying his best not to stutter or do stupid shit in front of him). The necromancer does eventually get joe to actually relax a little around him, and even gets to the point where Joe will call him "pard". Yaaay progress!

Once they're actually friends the patrol team decide that it's time.

It's come to the point where ZZ starts actually trying to do stuff to impress Joe. He sends a lot of gifts (anonymously), especially gems and any special fossils the kids get their hands on, to Joe (who is VERY confused by this btw). The skull even writes a love letter to him (with the help of the patrol team and bb brigade) and signs it as a "secret admirer". When Joe gets this letter he is quite bewildered and gets rather flustered by it. The kids report this back to ZZ who's practically vibrating with excitement.

ZZ spends a lot of time around the cowboy, and sometimes accompanies him to go fossil digging. While he can't dig up fossils due to lack of hands, he does offer Joe company, and the two bond over their knowledge of vivosaurs (zz leaving out the part where he made people fight with them to choose a MV, but shhh he's grown to feel really guilty about that).

Everything seems to be going great, Joe seems to at least like hanging around zongazonga now, and the two's friendship is slowly but surely getting stronger. Zz is getting his hopes up and is getting more excited at the possibility that joe might actually reciprocate.

Then one day Joe steps outside of the fossil station only to find an absolutely HUGE... uh... zombie... rex... with a skeleton molded to it? With blue flames coming out of its skull?? Uh????

The great purple beast gives a wide grin.

Then it speaks in a familiar voice.

"Ah, Joe Wildwest, just the man I wanted to see! Do not be alarmed, it is I, Zongazonga, merely in a far more impressive form!"

"Erm... how'd ya do that?"

"I used my magic to cast a spell on myself, so that I would be transformed into a being far less pathetic and more dexterous than a skull, though I am not sure how long I can maintain this form before I tire. D-do you like it?"

"Well, it's mighty impressive, if I do say so m'self."

Zz beams at this.

"Oh good, I'm very glad you like it! Now, there is something that I've wanted to tell you, and I think now is a good time to do that."

"Yes...?"

"I... I thought I hated you more than anything else back when... you know... I stole your body and impersonated you. I however have fully realized that I do not hate you, and that I was merely very confused and in extreme denial about my feelings. Joe wildwest, I fancy you, and you have grown to mean a lot to me.

Would you... entertain the idea of going out on a... a date with me?"

[ellieaka]

Ok. I gonna talk about my problem with the focus of August/Sara romance in S2. One last post about what I don't like about season 2 before I start to write what I actually like about season 2. (I'm a overly critical person and very opinionated, so if you are looking for positive feedbacks only just don't read. I very much argue and make no promises to not offend💀 discussions welcome tho)

⚠️ YR Season 2 Major Spoilers ⚠️

The choice of having August/Sara as the main relationship and having more screentime than even Wilmon is simply unwised. If the production team did their research, which I believe they definitely did, they would know exactly how many people watch the show for Wilmon. Other ships (romantic, friendship, or familial) don't even get nearly as much attention. As an audience I want to see more Wilmon, even if it's all pinning and angst, not the how happy, sweet, and genuine the main "vilian couple August/Sara" is. August/Sara relationship is there to serve a purpose, as a potential problem for Wilhelm, Simon, and wilmon's relationship. The amount of screentime August/ Sara romance has (way too much in my opinion) swifts the focus away. My point is, I'm not against August/Sara having a sweet relationship, I just dislike how it takes up disproportional amount of the screentime. With very limited screentime (only 4 hours), some more screentime is better spent on Wilmon or Felice. Felice becomes a complete supporting character in season 2 and doesn't even have a plot of her own outside of her friendships is unfitting for the importance of her character.

Wilhelm is the main character, and everything revolves around him. Other characters screentime should depends on how much/less they ultimately affect Wilhelm at this specific stage of the story, plus a bit of their own character developments. However, I see the production team wants to make YR a teen drama that has several main focuses and the characters could have their own arcs & development. Unfortunately, they don't have nearly enough screentime for that. (Maybe make it 10 episode if that's what they want🤔) The amount of screentime in my opinion is only enough for a story develops tightly around Wilhelm plus a bit other major supporting characters' development.

This is why I love how they deal with Nils, Vincent, and Henry's characters in this season. Just the right amount of screentime to show their characters and serves a purpose. Nils provides ideas that what Wilhelm could've done if he hook up with one of their own and stays in closet. Vincent becomes the team leader under Wilhelm's push, and shows how power is perceived & abused in aristocrat teen boys with a hierachy in mind (in a not so smart way😂, also in contrast to August). Henry is still the lil rumors spreader. He also shows how the beta boys choose who to follow depending on how the power dynamics shifts.

According to my own lil story contribution theory, here is how I would rank the importance of the characters from the first tier to the 4th in season 2.

1st: Wilhelm

1.5th: Simon

2nd: August, Felice, Sara

(see how little time Felice is given for her own development that's unrelated to Wilhelm? How much time August & Sara get? August & Sara being a couple very much affect Wilhelm & Simon from the story perspective. But the little details of their relationship, like how sweet their morning after is, is not Wilhelm related and shouldn't be given this much time.)

2.5th: Kristina, Marcus(as for S2)

3rd: Vincent, Nils, Henry, Alexander, Stella, Fredricka, Boris, Ayub, Rosh

4th: Madison, Linda, Jean-Olaf, Valter

(I will edit the above if I think I forget someone or get their name wrong 🤪)

👆 so my conclusion here is that August/Sara and their relationship takes up disproportional amount of screentime that should be distributed to Felice & Wilmon. I would definitely skip August/Sara's happy little sweet scenes during my rewatch (as well as Wilhelm/Felice make out scene💀).

[liesyousoldme]

fuck it friday

i was tagged by @messyhairdiaz for fuck it friday, and we are going full fuck it bc i am literally just going to talk about an idea i have but will never write <3

over the pandemic we all had that one show that we binged right? ok. i watched all 40something seasons of survivor for the first time. and yes the early ones were ridiculously problematic but i looked past it for the sake of the drama ANYWAY i was NOT immune to the romance of rob and amber. i ate that shit up. i rooted for them the whole damn season. i did not know any spoilers. he PROPOSED AT THE REUNION i physically gasped out loud. and obviously there will never be another rob and amber bc now everyone knows to split the couples up right away so anyway in this universe rob and amber do not exist (sorry guys) and somehow the show has gone up into 30 something seasons without any couple pulling an amber and rob. and then buck and eddie show up in whatever year s2 was set in. eddie’s from el paso. he’s got a kid and he’s working three jobs and his wife left him but he’s got military background, he can win the fuck out of challenges, his emotional intelligence is through the damn roof, and he needs a million dollars. evan buckley landed in LA and is barely into his first year of being a firefighter and on a call he happens to meet a former contestant who makes the suggestion to him so he’s like what the hell. he’s never watched the show so he binges it and decides i can do that. and they both show up to whatever beautiful beach they’re on that season and buck and eddie end up on the same team and they fucking crush challenges together. at first there’s a little rivalry, they’re both the strong hot guy, they’re dreading the merge from day one bc they both are afraid they’ll be targets, but eventually after a tough challenge eddie compliments buck and from then on they’re always together. buck is the social butterfly and eddie is the strategist. they’re attracted to each other and they both know it but they try to hide it from everyone else. they’re Just Bros. they’re in an alliance with some others on their team but they both know they’re only loyal to each other at the end of the day. they get separated during a team switch up and eddie makes a promise to somebody that if he makes sure buck (loving trusting buck) doesn’t go home he’ll help him out later and this guy makes sure of it, actually convinces others not to vote buck out bc they were thinking about it (they know the merge is coming soon and don’t want buck around for that bc he kills at challenges). it’s not til eddie turns on the guy that saved buck that everyone realizes Oh They’re A Couple They Are Working Together. (obviously there’s been loads of sexual tension up to this point). and now they’re like fuck it everybody knows! they go into the merge as the dudes everyone wants to get rid of quick so they up their social game and wiggle into an alliance and they win challenges left and right (and i think it’s buck that wins the challenge that gets him a new car and when he gets to pick a guest for his reward and he picks eddie, surprise eddie gets a truck! here’s date night! and of course they absolutely make use of date night separated from everyone else). anyway eddie, who desperately needs that million dollars, makes all the dirty moves so buck can still charm everyone bc they realize nobody on the jury’s gonna vote for eddie. but if they don’t realize eddie’s pulling the strings they might just vote for buck (loving trusting charming buck). and yay buck wins! eddie literally packs up as soon as he gets home and moves himself and chris to LA and joins the fire academy. then you know like 9 months later boom proposal at the reunion show! anyway. i’m too stupid to write all the strategy of it and it would be so long and i could never write it but. yeah essentially a survivor rob and amber au is my dream au that i will never write. thank u for your time <3

[karimac]

...in the details, Part 9

A/N: Warning for this series: 18+ audience (minors DNI), some cinematic level violence, some fluff and angst. Doubt that smut will be involved, but it may be implied. I’ll make sure that is noted clearly if it pops up.

All relationships, at this point in the story, are platonic, but there is romance in the cards for Kari and Bucky.

Please do not repost or translate my work. Likes, comments and reblogs are greatly appreciated.

Taglist is now open! Please send an ask, and I will gladly add you to the list.

Word count: 3.3K

Masterlist

Where we last left this motley crew: Kari was now on her way to Delacroix, LA, but things were still bubbling along at the Stark Lab where Bruce, Wong, Darcy, Shang-Chi, Katy, Peter and Ned were all trying to find the answer to one question:

“I have no idea who or what a Cailleach is, do you?” Darcy said as she gazed up at the holographic figure hovering in the air before the group. “Bruce, any clue?”

“You’re asking me? Mythology and fantasy novels are not my go-to subjects, Darcy,” Bruce replied as he turned to Wong. Wong looked more like he wanted to run to the nearest mountaintop than answer that question. “Wong, I’m guessing from the look on your face that you know and just don’t want to go there at the moment.”

Wong stood with his arms crossed, staring at Bruce. “No, I have no idea who that woman is. Not exactly anyway. Her name is in some ancient texts in Kamar-Taj. But there has never been any clear context about who she is or what she can do.”

“Guys, I’m sure the database has the answers,” Ned said as he tapped on his keyboard. “What’s the AI called here? Peter’s is called Karen.”

“Friday, what can you tell us about Cailleach?” Bruce asked, but the AI stayed quiet for a good few seconds.

“I’m sorry, Doctor Banner,” the AI said with a lovely Irish lilt, “but Mr. Stark has put that information off limits for now. You’ll need the OK from Ms. Potts to access it.”

“Seriously?” Darcy yelped as she looked at the hologram. “He didn’t set things up in case something went bad? Great.”

“Let me get Pepper on the phone,” Bruce said as he started calling up a view screen so she could see everyone when they got through to her. “Pepper, Hi. Uhm, what’s going on there?”

“Oh, Hi Bruce! Morgan is building something…” Pepper turned to face where Morgan was sitting.

“Hi Uncle Bruce!” Morgan shouted as she showed off the castle she was building from LEGO. At least it looked like a castle. “Where’s Auntie Kari? I need her to tell me if this horse has the right stuff for battle. My troops are gonna fight a dinosaur.”

“Hi, Morgan. I was calling your mom to talk about Auntie Kari. Can we borrow your mom for a minute?”

"Sure, but not too long! She promised to help me make a tower for Rapunzel!"

“What’s wrong?” Pepper asked as she walked away from Morgan and finally looked at what was going on at the lab. “Oh, Friday blocked access? I can see the hologram is red.”

“Yeah, Tony set up a failsafe on this file, and we need to access it. I can explain the details to you later, but we could use an access code.”

“Sending clearance over the line now,” Pepper said as she tapped keys on her own computer console. “Could you use my help? You look like you’ve got a full house. New faces, too.”

Bruce chuckled as he opened up the view a bit so Pepper could see more of what was going on in the lab. “Wanda got in trouble, and Kari went to help her. Some bad magic stuff happened, and we’re trying to help Kari fix it. That’s about as simple an explanation as I can give you right now.”

Pepper sighed as she nodded to Bruce, and the look on her face said a lot more than Banner expected. “Pepper, yeah. If you want to head down here to Jersey, great. I’ll keep the coffee pot on.”

About an hour later, Pepper came into the lab, with Morgan and Happy Hogan trailing behind her. “Bruce, we’re here. We brought along some food,” she said as Happy set down bags from a local diner.

“Pepper Potts, Xu Shang-Chi and Katy Chen, and I think you know Dr. Darcy Lewis,” Bruce said as he gave Pepper a hug. “And Peter’s friend Ned Leeds.”

“Hey, Pepper. Hey, Happy,” Peter said before Morgan ran over and almost tackled him. “And who is this linebacker for the Giants?”

“Petey! We brought dinner! And I wanna help Aunt Kari!” Morgan shouted before she ran back to Happy to help set out the food.

“So, the file’s working now?” Pepper asked as she looked at the hologram. “We can’t see a face? Why?”

“According to Tony’s records, he and Steve talked to Thor about this at some point, but even he had no idea who this is. She is bad. That’s all I know. And Cailleach is not so much a name as a code name or an honorific. It’s apparently a reference to a crone in Celtic mythology. I’m guessing she is one of the rogues’ gallery of people Kari talks about when she insists we do not want to fight the people who want her dead.”

“Maybe this person is part of the bad guys in The Rift?” Peter said as he went to help Morgan so she didn’t drop a big bag of food on the floor. “Kari told us about them one day at lunch, right, Ned?”

“Right! At that pizza place when we all got back from the blip,” Ned said before Wong spun around, his tuna melt almost dropping from his hands. He had literally grabbed one from the New York Sanctum just before Pepper arrived. He was going to ask Ned to go get food, but Pepper saved the day, as usual.

“Bruce, Kari never mentioned that, did she?” Wong asked as Banner shook his head. “Darcy, you said she was missing about six months’ worth of time when you two sat in Westview? You mentioned that when we first started trying to unravel this mess.”

“Bingo on the time frame. She went back to Ireland for a bit, then off to Westview, and then she did the Sam and Bucky stuff, but a hole about the size of Hoboken is sitting in the middle of everything,” Darcy noted as she grabbed some fries. “Trying to break up Wanda and Agatha Harkness’ fight really knocked Kari for a loop.”

“Agatha Harkness?” Pepper asked as Wong rolled his eyes. “Oh. Bad magical person?”

“You could say that, and you would not be wrong. Kari was trying to make everyone forget her for some very weird reason,” Wong said as Katy and Darcy both chimed in with the one reply that made any sense—“Bucky Barnes”—and then Wong continued his story.

“Kari cast her spell, and whatever happened in Westview with Wanda made it go off the rails. She’s tied to Barnes on some psionic level, and we can’t undo it yet. Wanda may have wanted to...”

"Get the old Buckster to Westview for Kari. As Husband Material. Wanda created cats for them for crying out loud. I was there. Darcy Lewis, circus entertainer extraordinaire."

“Would anyone in Asgard be able to help? They have magic wielders. I know what Kari does is different from what you and Stephen do,” Pepper said as she looked to see if Morgan was playing or paying more attention to the grown up chatter going on around her. “Maybe they could help? This is a huge mess.”

“I can see if Valkyrie has anyone who might be able to give us some help,” Bruce said as he looked up at the hologram again. “Friday, where did Tony get the information for this file?”

“From some of Howard Stark’s personal papers,” the AI replied as some files appeared on screens around the lab. “Howard was once in a relationship with a friend of Kari’s named Devnet Casey. Devnet…”

“The magic book lady!” Katy shouted as she grabbed the volume on mystic weapons that was sitting on one of the tables. “This was written by Devnet Casey! Who is probably dead…”

“No,” Friday said as a picture of Devnet appeared where the hologram had been. “She’s very much alive and living in Ireland. She lectures at the National University of Ireland, Galway.”

“Do I sense a road trip?” Darcy asked as she looked at Bruce. “Please? I’ve never been to Ireland, and I’d love to go sing in a pub there and eat those boxty things Kari makes. Potato pancakes. Like latkes but not.”

“Maybe we should see if we can contact her at the university before we just jump on a jet or open a portal?” Pepper replied before hearing Morgan shout “oops!” as Happy almost knocked over a small box of files. “Morgan? Happy? What is that? It looks old, and Tony was not a fan of old.”

“It says it belonged to Uncle Steve!” Morgan said as she pointed to writing on the side of the box. “What’s inside?”

Hogan opened the box and held up what looked like evidence envelopes and confidential file jackets. “These all belonged to Phil Coulson. Why did Steve Rogers have a bunch of stuff that belonged to a SHIELD agent? Didn’t Coulson die on the Helicarrier when Loki was making life difficult?”

“Yes, he did. I’ll ask Maria Hill about this stuff,” Pepper said with a small sigh as she walked over to look at the box. “Wait,” she said as she took one envelope from Happy. “Oh, Tony. What were you digging up this time?”

Bruce walked over toward Pepper, Happy and the box before glancing back at Wong. “What is it, Pepper?”

Before Pepper could answer, a FaceTime call request came in from Ireland. The screen lit up, and on the other side of the Atlantic, Devnet Casey sat on a brown leather sofa with a cup of tea in her hand and her Irish wolfhound Tyrone’s head resting on her knee. If she were compared to an actor or movie character, she was the real life version of Xena’s Gabrielle, a petite, short-haired blonde who now chose tweed and denim over leather.

“Hello. I’m not exactly used to getting call requests from the States. Especially at this hour. So, is this about a redhead? I’m betting it is. I haven’t heard from Kari in ages. Is it a man this time, or did the government lock her up because of those damnable Accords? She never listens. About men or mayhem!”

“Oh hey there! Dr. Darcy Lewis here, and Wong, Sorcerer Supreme, and a seeming cast of thousands. And yes, it’s about Kari. Can we come visit you? We thought you might be able to help.”

“I’ll do you one better,” Dev said as everyone saw her get up, and in an instant she was in the middle of the lab via her own portal. “Ty, sweetie, you need to stay home while Mama talks to these nice people. You can go snuggle in the bed, and I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she said to her dog as the portal closed. “Now, has Kari gone off the radar entirely? Or is she just acting weird again? And…who told you about her?” she asked as she pointed to the hologram.

“Howard Stark did, more or less,” Bruce said as he walked over. “Bruce Banner. We can do all the introductions later.”

“You spoke at NUIG a few years ago. Before I got dusty, I mean. I went to your talk. You and Tony Stark...” Dev started to say as she looked over and saw Pepper. “I’m so sorry for your loss. I was one of Howard’s, uhm, lady friends, shall we say, before he met Maria. Kari told me all about Tony when he was younger. She babysat for Howard and Maria once. Tony was a very spirited child.”

“You mean my dad!” Morgan shouted as she ran up next to her mother. “He was the best!”

“Indeed he was,” Dev said as she stopped and looked at the Stark mini-me standing there. “You remind me of your grandpa. Now, back to Kari. What do you know about Cailleach?”

Darcy had maneuvered herself so she was standing next to a box of cookies the Stark crew had brought in with them. She finally found a chocolate chip cookie and started to nibble on it. “Next to nothing? Can’t see a face. No data in the database beyond that goofy image.”

Dev looked around the room and seemed to be debating what to do next as she moved to face the hologram. “I wish Kari were here. It’s her life, and none of us should be digging into it without her here. It’s not as simple as fighting off aliens or robots. I know this is cliché, but it is complicated.”

“Especially because she got magically whammied,” Ned said as he waved at Devnet from his chair. “She was trying to help Wanda Maximoff, and some other weird witch hit her with an energy blast.”

“That would have been helpful at the top,” Dev grumbled as she looked at the hologram again. “What kind of magic?”

“Wanda is a user of chaos magic,” Wong said very bluntly, “and Agatha Harkness…”

“A succubus. She’s a succubus. I’ve heard about her but never had the pleasure of fighting her. Creepy is the best word to describe her. And cracked like an old pot. She likely hasn’t had a good thought since 1692 from what I’ve been told. So chaos magic and succubus powers, and you had the Goddess in the middle. Or was she trying to help either side? Was Kari light or dark in this?”

“She was trying to help Wanda, but we had no idea about her full powers until this all happened,” Wong replied, “so light. And I know that makes a difference.”

“Thank you. You do not want to fight against Kari when she is on a magic bender. Enya and I have…oh shite! I’ll need to get Enya here. If I can find her. She went time hopping. Or was that universe hopping? I’ll check my last note from her later. Enya is Kari’s sister-in-law. Sister of Galen Sun, Kari’s first husband. Oh, this could get to be all sorts of bad. But I am not calling Minerva or Dorian just yet. Thomas O‘Malley’s sister and her husband. And you have no idea about anyone I just talked about. Great. Shut up, Devnet. You are only making this worse.”

“And you are who in her life, exactly?” Darcy asked as she grabbed another cookie. “You write books. That’s all we know.”

“I grew up near Galway, and I met Kari and Enya at Camelot when Arthur was king. And for the record, Merlin was not a hottie like on the BBC show. Arthur was a snack, and Lancelot. Oh my gods. Yes. Wait. Why isn’t Kari here anyway? Don’t tell me she’s off in The Rift again?”

“She went to Louisiana to help one of our teammates,” Bruce started to explain as Dev shook her head and started to mutter under her breath. “Delacroix to be exact. Is that a problem?”

“As long as she doesn’t run afoul of the preternatural community there, things should be just peachy. Her brother Ewan got into a fuss once with some fellow vampires there, so who knows who is holding a grudge? But I keep getting this vibe that there is more to all of this than anyone is letting on. You had better spill the tea now. I can’t work with spotty intel.”

Dev grabbed a bottle of water before staring up at Cailleach again. “Can’t you just get Kari back here?”

“Does the name Bucky Barnes mean anything to you?” Darcy finally asked, “Or was he not a topic of conversation when you and Howard were friends, Devnet?”

“Barnes? She found him again? No. No. No. That is all sorts of bad. He damned near killed her the last time, and I am not going to try to patch her up again. And I don’t mean broken bones or a bruised shoulder. I mean mentally.”

“The files say they fought in Katowice, Poland,” Peter noted as Dev stomped over to where he and Ned were stationed. “Is that right? Is that the last place they fought? Because Bucky spent time in Wakanda with a bunch of doctors and scientists. He’s better now. They undid what HYDRA did. The brain washing, I mean.”

“Yes, Poland in 1991, and on the steps of the Winter Palace in the 1960s, and some other Cold War era hot spot. Havana. That was before the Winter Palace. Mid or late 1950s, I think. They nearly did each other in at least a half dozen times. Poland was the worst because she finally realized who he was. Star-crossed is not even the right word for those two. Cursed. Tortured. A disaster waiting to happen. I’m glad he got help. I didn’t know that. Peace to him, but they are still not a great match.”

Dev paced behind Peter and Ned and then stopped as she reached down to pick up a screwdriver on a desk next to them, flipping it in her hands as she tried to get her next thoughts in order.

“Did Loki give her back that stupid dagger? Please tell me that hasn’t popped up again. I hate that damned blade.”

“Dagger?” Wong asked as he looked over at Bruce. “What dagger?”

“It’s this ornate blade with emeralds on the hilt. The blade has gold filigree work on it. She and Barnes each got stabbed with it in that fight in Katowice. We never knew where it came from, but it brought her nothing but pain,” Dev explained as she stayed near Peter and Ned. “I wish I knew more. It isn’t from any group we know about. Not elven. Not demonic. Not a weapon of the Heavenly Warhost. Kari got very weird after that fight. Weird for Kari, I mean, and I’ve known her for over a thousand years. It was like part of her soul was sucked out. That isn’t even a decent explanation. I just wish we’d been able to see how it affected Barnes back then, but you couldn’t exactly roll up to a HYDRA base and ask how their top assassin was feeling.”

“Uh, no on the dagger,” Darcy said as she walked over toward Katy again, motioning for the book next to Chen. “Is it in this book you wrote?”

“No, that’s weapons before 1990,” Dev explained as she looked at the tome. “I never wrote a thing about weapons after that. I should have, but, as I said, Kari got weird, and Enya walked away, so I’ve been teaching and doing children’s books and romance novels ever since. I’ve been muttering for years that Kari let us down. Guess I need to order that ugly sweater in my size, too. I fucked up. She needed me, and I fucked it up royally. Do you guys have room for a slightly weepy professor of writing and antiquities on your squad? At least until this is over? Oh, and my dog Tyrone. I can’t leave him alone too long.”

“Mommy! A puppy!” Morgan squealed as she ran around Pepper.

“Tyrone is hardly a puppy,” Dev replied as she looked at Morgan. “I’d keep him leashed or in another room if needed. He’s sweet. He just looks and eats like a small horse.”

“Bruce, this is getting too complicated,” Wong noted as he started to do a head count of everyone there.

Darcy stopped noshing on food and gave Bruce one of her typical glares as she, too, started a head count. “Not if we break up into teams, guys. We may not get answers for weeks. Months even. But come on! We are The Avengers and Their Super Brainy Friends! What? Bad team name? I think it rocks.”

“You’ve been pretty quiet,” Katy said to Shang-Chi as he sat doing his own research on his father in the database. “Oh, dad stuff?”

“I figured I might as well since I have no idea about this Celtic stuff. But my dad may have known things since he was immortal. Can't hurt to look, right?”

Dev looked at the pair but didn’t engage them just yet. She had noticed the rings sticking out of the backpack earlier but had kept quiet about them. One problem at a time was all she needed at the moment.

“So, we make a pact to keep this quiet for now?” Pepper asked as she walked over to Bruce. “This feels wrong.”

“When Kari comes back from Delacroix, I’ll call you, Darcy and Wong. Then we can talk to her. I agree that this seems off, and our new friend seems to know more than she is letting on. I’m not shocked.”

“I just do not want to say things before Kari can say them herself. She really has told me precious little about The Destroyer there.”

Darcy spun on her heel and glared at Devnet.

“Wait. What now? The what?”

“Cailleach roughly translates to the crone creator and destroyer, and, depending on which aspect you reference, that is what you see. This one is The Destroyer. I thought that was pretty clear from the huge sword.”

In Part 10: The scene shifts to Delacroix with Kari, Bucky and the Wilson Family, but will romance flourish, friendships be made or hearts end up broken?

Tag list: @arrthurpendragon, @historygeekfics, @starryeyes2000

[palavapeite]

WOOHOO! 1, 4, 7, 8 and 16 for choose violence please! :D :D :D

I'm gonna go with ofmd for these because that's the one I have most opinions about right now (jsamn unfortunately populated only by impeccable content and delightful people, BOOOH).

This is also not going to be very bitchy, I apologise.

the character everyone gets wrong

Izzy, hands down see what i did there ehehehee, in particular the Izzy-Ed dynamic in a lot of fic. And I'm really not talking about stories where Izzy is a background asshole in an Ed/Stede romance and basically just a plot point; those are fine. But particularly in Izzy-centric and/or Calicohands fic I have actually had to filter out fic that had Ed in it on occasion because wow, have I seen some hot garbage there. I get that Izzy is a polarising character in general, but I really balk at fic that has to somehow paint him as Ed’s victim to make him worthy of sympathy? Excuse you, the man is a cunt, he’s insecure, cruel, and he is largely the architect of his own downfall at every turn, both because it’s a comedy and because it’s also baked into his insecurity complex. And I find that compelling, actually. I don’t need a fic explaining to me that, actually, Izzy has done nothing wrong and really, Ed is the cruel and manipulative control freak (???) to feel like Izzy deserves my sympathy as a reader. (And to be fair, the other side of the big Izzy-shaped chasm in the fandom isn’t much better because blegh, I get that you need a villain, but with the fervour with which some people out there are driving home the point that they think he’s The Worst Ever, they’re making Ed look like a hapless idiot in comparison, at the cost of plot and world-internal logic. And that is also BAD and I just can’t with that.)

Admittedly, some people have also gotten it deliciously right. So it’s not like everyone does it, but… you know.

(Conveniently, I have avoided writing that dynamic in detail altogether. Peace out. [Exit stage left atop high horse.])

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

I haven’t actually ever blocked anyone for fandom reasons that I remember. The worst I’ve done in any fandom was unfollow people, and the spiciest reason I ever did that for was that they were reblogging a bit too much (read: any) discourse onto my dash.

I have one (1) person muted on AO3 though because they were clogging up a very dear tag with their content that was decidedly Not For Me. And I’m purposely not saying which fandom/tag it was because that tag isn’t busy and I’m not trying to start shit, so… yeah. Sorry, I’m very boring on that front. :P No, I promise it’s not you. That person will never see this post.

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how the fandom acts about them?

I think I’ve gotten pretty lucky with the (corners of) fandoms I’ve been in? idk. There’s always waves and trends of interpretation with characters and some are more my thing and some I grow tired of really fast, but I don’t think it’s ever affected my view or enjoyment of a character as such. But without trying to belabour the Izzy point above, I took several steps back from both writing and reading about him after being subjected to an avalanche of hot takes that just kind of killed the fun and the irreverent spirit of shaking the gremlin man for a good while for me.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Idk about “common” fandom opinion, but it makes no sense for Ed to have a praise kink. His whole life consists of people telling him how great he is, and it doesn’t do anything for him?  That being said, have I read and enjoyed fic in which Ed has a praise kink? Yes. Yes I have. Several. Repeatedly. And it will happen again.

Also, while we’re here: Stede is not a good parent. I get that it’s comfortable and tempting to make him into a father who cares deeply, especially in AUs, and it’s not like I actually mind it in fic either (I have the daddy issues too, ok), but canonically, he’s the kind of occasional fun dad who does zero actual parenting and is never there. And by the same token he and Mary wouldn’t be great friends after their divorce, either, because they’re still fundamentally different people who have nothing in common,. That’s not magically going to change just because they’re no longer married. And again: I have absolutely enjoyed fics where these things were front and center, but as a fandom, I think we’re a bit too prone to sand down Stede’s edges when it comes to his family.  

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)   

The problem with this question is that I can understand why people like something most of the time, regardless of whether I agree, lmao.

BUT: I have stuck my nose and sniffed around in a lot of nooks and crannies of the ofmd fandom, but I remain benevolently baffled by Stede/Izzy (without Ed). (again, “so many people” in a fandom of this size is… maybe a bit generous, but I’ve seen it often enough by now to have paused to go “???” at it, so I’m counting it.)  

Thank you! <3 I'm sorry I couldn't be more ranty. I swear, I'm usually a huge bitch about things.