#missed social queues

[suspiciouslackofclowns]

He’s spent years cultivating the persona that is Steve The Hair Harrington. Has memorized social queues and comebacks and conversation topics so he doesn’t lose his footing when he finds himself enveloped in conversation. Learned how to do his hair perfectly. How to dress. How to smile. How to laugh, because everything he has, his entire reputation, depends on doing these things the right way.

And now he’s letting it all go to shit.

Since graduating, he’s fallen out of his rhythm. Slips up more when he socializes. Says things that often don’t make sense, rambles, and lets his confusion be known when he doesn’t understand what’s being said to him. Hence why Robin lovingly refers to him as dingus, as though she’s any better.

But now he’s really off his game. All it takes is a silly joke, something about the little bear things from Star Wars, and he laughs.

Steve doesn’t often laugh in public, at least, not with his real laugh. Jokes tend to go over his head and when he does understand them, he doesn’t always react correctly. Laughs too hard. Doesn’t laugh hard enough. So he tries to gauge other peoples’ reactions before he chuckles politely, which always seems to yield positive reactions.

The way he laughs right now is not polite. He’s crouched on the floor near the center of an aisle, shelving tapes. Snickering crudely as he grabs a copy of Back To The Future from the box at his side.

He doesn’t even realize that he’s doing it until it’s too late. Until customers start looking at him like he’s insane and he snaps his mouth shut.

“That’s cute.”

“What?”

Steve looks up. Spies Eddie leaning against the shelves with an amused look on his face.

“Your laugh,” he supplies. “Never heard it before. It’s cute.”

Something freezes in Steve. Like every thought suddenly decides to go on break all at once, leaving his mind vacant.

He knows he’s waited too long to react when Eddie nudges his sneaker against the box of tapes.

“I didn’t think you’d be into Star Wars. You seen ‘em all?” Eddie asks.

“Uh, yeah. Bits and pieces.”

“Which one’s your favorite?”

Steve reaches for the next tape. Makes a popping sound with his lips that’s too loud, and he cringes.

“Return of the Jedi. I like the bears.”

“The Ewoks?”

“Yeah.”

“Y’know, they have a couple of their own movies if you ever wanna watch ‘em. They’re spin-offs, but still pretty good.” Eddie crosses his arms nonchalantly. “If you’d be into that.”

Suddenly, Steve’s thoughts all return from having their smoke, and he spreads a goofy grin.

“I’d love that!” he blurts.

Too loud. Too enthusiastic. He immediately grimaces and ducks his head, avoiding looking at Eddie.

He’s not sure why this is suddenly so hard. Why he can’t just make himself be normal anymore like he used to. Part of him wonders if it’s because he’s not as social as he used to be. Another part wonders if it’s because his brain has been scrambled too much by all of the Upside Down shenanigans.

Or maybe it’s because he feels weird around Eddie now that they’re kinda sorta friends. Kinda sorta really friends.

“It’s a date, then,” Eddie chuckles.

His choice of words makes Steve burn brighter than the god damn sun.

“Neat.”

Neat? Oh, Steve is gonna get an earful from Robin later. He can’t help but make a face again out of habit. Inwardly chastising himself yet again.

He makes another popping sound with his mouth.

“What’s that?” Eddie asks.

“What’s what?”

Steve shuffles down the aisle. Tries unsuccessfully to return his focus to the task at hand.

“That sound you keep making.”

As if things couldn’t get any worse.

“Oh, it’s uh…” Steve begins. Pops his lips again and immediately shakes his head. “I just do it sometimes.”

“Yeah, I noticed that.”

Steve does it again. Sighs and rubs his hand over his face, pinching his lips together when Eddie chuckles at him.

“Sorry. Long day,” he supplies. “I only do it when I’m focused.”

“I noticed that, too.” Eddie crouches down next to him. Reaches into the box and examines the first tape that he grabs. “You don’t have to apologize for it, I was just wondering is all.”

“Mm.”

“It’s actually kinda cute.”

If Steve didn’t know any better, he would think that Eddie The Freak Munson is flirting with him right now. He doesn’t know better, but still. Even attempting to wrap his head around that is too much right now.

“It’s annoying.”

Eddie’s quiet for a moment. Steve can see him staring out of the corner of his eye. Then, Eddie pops his lips.

And Steve can’t help it. He mimics the sound and blushes harder when he’s snickered at.

“Nah, Harrington, I hate to argue with you, but it’s pretty cute. Almost as cute as Ewokese.” When Steve just glances at him, he continues, “Y’know, the language of the teddy bear things?”

The ugly laugh comes out again at the thought of the little creature’s gibberish language, and Steve claps a hand over his mouth. Eddie is absolutely beaming at him.

“You really like them, huh?” Eddie muses. He chuckles as he stands up. Drops the tape back into the box with a thunk. “Better bring that cute laugh with you when we have our Ewok movie marathon or I’m gonna be disappointed.”

“Yeah,” Steve manages flatly.

He winces at his tone, but his attention is pulled to Eddie when he hums thoughtfully.

“How about your place this Friday?”

The guy’s expression is… kind. It’s a stark difference to what Steve is used to when he slips up like this. To the countless mean looks that he’s received from Tommy H. and Carol over the years. Even sometimes from Robin, though there’s never any malice behind it.

Forget about Nancy.

But Eddie is different. Like he’s laughing with Steve instead of at him, and that’s oddly comforting.

“Yeah,” Steve says, softer this time.

“Neat.” Eddie gives a salute before he turns on his heel and struts down the aisle. “Don’t work too hard, cutie.”

The little bell above the door jingles as he leaves, and Steve bites his lip to hide his smile.

He returns to shelving tapes. Makes a collection of popping sounds as he works. Considers that maybe, just maybe it isn’t such a bad thing that he isn’t as good at upholding his old persona as he used to be.

After all, Steve is the one who got a date with Eddie Munson this Friday. Not The Hair.

[occidentaltourist]

bbc: Some sweet #Silvacre content for your FYP ❤️

[the-shy-wolf]

I hope that when things get hard, or my friends are going through something. They feel comfortable enough to tell me. I want to do my best to be there for them.

[hella1975]

ive attended six total therapy sessions in my life and it was with a free university counsellor and i told her one thing that ill admit was pretty concerning but aside that spent the entire time waffling about shit that isnt actually super important i was 100% just talking for the sake of talking with 0 intention of receiving help and then when she asked me to come back i never rebooked and now i think daily about the fact she has information about me written down and i sometimes convince myself she’s going to use it maliciously and it is something i actively regret because of aforementioned conviction. so all in all i’d say i handled the whole thing with the mental fortitude of someone in need of significantly more therapy

[kimtaegis]

not me looking forward to finally have a free weekend in forever only to get a call from an old school friend and his sweet girlfriend who I haven’t talked to since september randomly asking me out to dinner and a musical show tonight

[one-chaotic-neautral]

Said something that made the whole group laugh so followed it with something really awkward and uncomfortable to even the balance.

Harmony is restored.

[hiddenbeks]

hmmmm i may be back. tentatively

[euphor1a]

So, do you guys ever feel like your life is a social experiment🧍🏽‍♀️

[vargaslovinghours]

Y’all are being subjected to my Sims 2 tests, so there

The other set of Vargases came over for a visit and Scriabin picked up Shmee and started talking to Scriabin through him. Very normal, very usual

I downloaded some circle-glasses recolours and hghghh they look so good! Closer every day to his final details! Getting ever closer!

Edgar too! I made him a custom hair with a lighter undercut - I’m mostly happy with it, probably could’ve shifted it a shade closer to his skintone but the texturing was weird no matter what :P And his stripey shirt! I wish Body Shop didn’t have that hands-on-hips pose lol, it looks so much better in-game, but that’s all the better :)

I got some new clothes for Todd as well! As soon as I saw this ‘fit I was like “Oh that’s 100% Todd there he is.” Scriadad hug ♥ So cute

Foot-dancing together stopp it’s so cute!!

The way he looks at them stoppp <3 <3 They kept doing this right up til they left for home haha, Todd’s giggles are the cutest

Used SimPE to save him to the Body Shop, I now have infinite copies of The Boyyyy ♪

Moved him in with his “parents” as just shadow people basically, they’re not gonna matter in a bit as long as I remember how to get the Social Worker/Adoption process to work properly. Get her Todd!!

Wanna play? :D

Menacing :(

Look, Todd, your new dads are here! Initially I wasn’t sure who I wanted to adopt him, got lots of options; the first passes, the married couple with their own Todd, Johnny?? He definitely doesn’t have the facilities for a child lol But these are the ones that showed up on their own, so the married Vargases are the winners!

Scriabin cares more about him than his actual parents ;; A stranger off the street shows him more care! Not that it’s a high watermark

Look at him being a good dad!

Weh, he just wants friends ;; Poor baby

Best timeline, thank you

While we wait for CPS, let’s get some other interactions in! Nny is mean so he tended to prank the other two with a nose flick - mostly Edgar lol ♪ Now kiss

“Oh please don’t break all my bones~ :3” I love Todd looking up at them haha <3

Pffft, I think he was talking about the other Scriabin and just how attractive he is. Classic Scriabin. Alternatively, also funny to imagine him bragging himself up about how he’s just so handsome that Edgar can’t help but love him hahaha ♪

Allow me to tickle you with my KNIFE! >:D

Get a load of this guy lol

He ended up passing out at one point - I forgot which motives make CPS show up >.> - and completely 0%’d his comfort, but for some reason stargazing increased it?? It’s the same ground wh

Is two not enough to satisfy your butterfly bloodlust child?? He ended up with three, I had him release them before he was picked up by the Social Worker - success!

He rolled a new Want as soon as Todd was taken away - “Wants to see Ghost of Todd” Woah, dark! :0

And here he is on the married Vargases’ lot!! Success!! I did it right!! Heck yeah! :D Unfortunately they were uh, indisposed at the time. Good job guys pft

Goes right for Shmee, he really is Todd <3

[afton-family-askblog]

[slips into the Afton’s bathroom, locates William’s 13-in-1, adds a generous helping of day old hair bleach] Oops. - Blake

[Runs out of the bathroom] MICHAEL WHAT THE BLOODY HELL-

WAIT WHAT DI- PFFFFFT

[daisywords]

Oh! I was going to start watching Twin Peaks!

[floripire]

picture perfect // @asgaerdian may reblog

[gay-yosuke]

a couple days back i went to use my discord bot to get my persona weaknesses checked to make a point against someone and my file was the fucking test file instead of the real one. my physical affinity is "fuck you"

[hecho-a-mano]

6 years later and most of us still miss vine 😥

[cladestruction]

omg hi babes! sorry i've been so inactive here (my last posts were all queue lmao). i've been enjoying some good outdoor activities these days and i still don't have tumblr on my phone so... yeah. i hope you're all doing fine!

[chaospochi]

hello haven’t been here in a month because i thought inactivity would slow the amount of pron bot follows i get daily but alas