#nerd writes things

[pandorem]

Ok fiiiine I don’t even really go here but my brain conjured up the idea of Steve Harrington, pre season 4, like after school picking up the kiddos after Hellfire, defending Lucas’s sports playing to his friends and Eddie. Like “wait I thought you liked nonconformity, or does it only count if it’s about the stuff you like? Let the kid do the things he likes, man”. Which is something they all need to hear I think but then it turns into Steve COMPLETELY obliviously and accidentally turning it into “it’s ok to be Bi” subtext.

Like “you can be more than one thing, you know? It’s ok to like both. They don’t have to cancel each other out.”

And the kids maybe aren’t picking up on anything but maybe one or two of them are subconsciously like “you can??? This is good to know and keep in my mind for future crises” meanwhile Eddie is like “Holy fucking shit is STEVE HARRINGTON bisexual?” and being launched head first into a crisis of his own.

It is so, so important to me that Steve has no idea that he’s doing this, and may not even be aware that he himself is, in fact, bi.

[the-witchhunter]

So Lucifer Morningstar, the fourth of the fallen, (retired) ruler of hell, the Devil himself, is a character in DC comics, appearing in the Sandman comics, his own solo run and various other comics

He is absurdly powerful

The thing is, Lucifer still has access to his Divine power, unlike other fallen angels, and is actually more powerful than other angels

What does this mean?

Lucifer was the guy that shaped the matter to create the stars, an ability he still has

Enter one Danny Fenton

“Omg(oh my ghost) I’m a HUGE FAN of your work”

Just Danny fangirling over the literal Devil because of stars and space

[ruby-static]

Dude caught me taking a screenshot, I'm cooked-

[mediumgayitalian]

“We should hold hands,” Will says. He scratches his nose. “You know, for safety.”

Nico looks at him. He looks until Will looks back, bright blue peeking out from pale eyelashes, and then makes a point of looking around the absolute beauty of the day; the sweet strawberry breeze, the giggly rustling of oak leaves, the gentle golden sun dappling in through the branches. The chatting and laughter from the unusually calm demigods strolling around them, stopping every few steps to pick up a rock or scrawl something unintelligible on their clipboards.

“Safety,” Nico repeats.

Will ducks his head, visibly biting back a grin.

“Yup.” He coughs. “These woods are dangerous, you know. And, hey, everybody else is doing it.”

Nico raises an eyebrow. “Everybody.”

“Yeah! Yeah, look, there’s —” Will waves his arm around, indicating the Group, then upon noticing the general lack of hand-holding and general trend of tripping and punching and sniggering at misfortune, clears his throat and redirects. His arm waves again, with slightly less direction. “There’s examples all over!”

Nico’s mouth twitches. He stares at his friend, who stares right back, light eyebrows furrowed stubbornly.

“All over!” he insists.

“Right,” Nico drawls.

“Look, there’s — Harley and Nyssa, exhibit A —”

Nyssa, shamelessly eavesdropping, barks a laugh and tugs on the Celestial bronze handcuffs Harley is currently trying to blowtorch his way out of, jiggling her bound hand in Nico’s direction.

Will, ignoring her, barrels on.

“ — and — and — Julia and Ellis, there, look —”

Nico does indeed look. Julia does indeed appear to have her hand in the general vicinity of Ellis’s, and she does appear to be moving her arm with every swing of his, and she does also appear to be silently unlatching Ellis’s beautiful gold watch and sliding it very carefully into her pocket.

Nico glances back at Will’s still-somehow shameless face.

“Is that what we’re calling it.”

“— and — of course — there’s Cecil —”

Shoulders setting in that prim, snooty way they do when he’s winning an argument, Will gestures widely and broadly over to his best friend. Nico rolls his eyes and looks where he’s pointing, sighing, only to find, to his endless amusement, an openly snickering Lou Ellen, and a Cecil who is, perhaps for the first time in his life, walking with both hands in his pockets, face lax and serene, absentmindedly watching the leaves as he strolls past. Will’s shoulders drop.

“Dude,” Will says, or rather hisses. “You had — one freaking job —”

He holds out a hand to pause, and Nico, dutifully, pauses. He watches Will skim long fingers over the silky dirt until they close tightly around a small, shining pebble.

Which he, with better aim than Nico has seen him throw anything, whips directly at Cecil’s head.

“Hey!” cries Cecil, immediately tripping over the nearest root and sprawling onto the dirt. Lou Ellen has quite nearly joined him, laughing so hard she has gone silent and can no longer stand. “Why did you — what the heck!”

“I asked you to do one task!” Will whisper-shouts. “One!”

“Mail Clarisse a bag of fire-frogs?” Cecil asks, scratching his head.

“No! Well, yes, but — the other thing!” He flops his hands aggressively, pointing them vaguely in Lou’s direction. She has, at this point, fully succumbed, and is clutching her stomach, eyes streaming, curled into a shaking ball on the ground. “The — hands!”

It takes several seconds — eight, Nico counts — for the visible lightbulb to go off in Cecil’s eyes.

“Ohhhhh,” Cecil says. He flops his hands back in Will’s direction. “The — thing.”

Hurriedly, he stands, trying and failing to pull Lou Ellen up with him. He makes it about halfway before he drops her, wheezing, and they both go tumbling straight off the path, down the hillside, and roll to a rocky, painful stop at the base of a cedar tree. Cecil’s head hits the bark and visibly bonks.

“I genuinely think it might be hollow up there,” says Will, aghast. “I might have to check.”

Nico peers down at them. Harley, abandoning his blowtorch, stretches over Nico’s shoulder to see. When he can’t — the day Nico loses the three inches he has on the kid he’s killing himself, that indeed will be his time — Nico crouches down and allows the little menace to stand on his knee.

“I think they might be holding hands now,” Harley observes.

Nyssa hums. “Hard to say. Does it count if she’s pulling him out of a termite’s nest?”

“Of course it does,” says Will hastily. “Handholding is handholding. So. There.” He turns to Nico, eyes wide and expectant. A cloud passes overhead, and his eyes brighten. Nico smiles.

“So, what?”

“So — safety!” He waves his hand again, barely managing not to smack himself in the face. “We gotta — link up! Link up to sync up, you know what they say.”

“Nobody says that.”

“Nyssa — who asked you.”

“Nobody needs to ask me. I see bullshit, I say bullshit, I mean —”

“What if I! Cursed you! What then! Actually!”

“How about you curse these hands —”

“I will! Actually! For serious, I’m gonna —”

Lips pursed thoughtfully, Nico flexes his hands. He glances down at them. He supposes they are cold. He glances down at Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dee, now somehow both in the termite nest. He supposes safety is, indeed always important. He glances over at Will’s bright red face, hair sticking up in every direction like a grouchy hedgehog’s, and Nyssa’s completely unhidden smirk. He supposes someone should put the dumbass out of his misery.

Experimentally, he slides his hand forward. He trails his cold fingers over Will’s warm palm, linking their thumbs together. He squeezes.

“Safety is important,” he says, quietly.

Will stops.

He swallows.

His hands, quite suddenly, get sweaty.

Nico smiles.

“Definitely one of the top seven things,” says Will, just as quiet. His voice cracks.

“Gods above,” Nyssa mutters.

“The termites are eating them!” shouts Harley, gleefully. “Look!”

They do indeed look.

“We should probably help them,” says Will. Or, sighs Will.

“Probably,” Nico agrees.

“Especially since it’s my fault. A little.”

“A little,” Nico smiles.

“Sigh,” Will says.

Nico smiles again. He lifts their joined hands. “Safety first, though.”

Will grins. “Safety first.”

[s0fter-sin]

one of my favourite aspects of supernatural that you very rarely see in paranormal shows is that sam and dean are already versed in the world they live in. there’s no sudden discovery of ghosts and demons and now they have to learn about them along with the audience; they are born into it and already know all about it. it allows the audience to follow their personal story instead of also trying to figure out this new world and its rules

the first season is full of knowledge we never see them learn; “w*ndigoes are in the minnesota woods or- or northern michigan. i’ve never even heard of one this far west.” […] “great. well then this [his gun] is useless.” (1x02), “you don’t break a curse. you get the hell out of its way.” (1x08), d: “it’s a god. a pagan god, anyway.” […] “the annual cycle of its killings? and the fact that the victims are always a man and a woman. like some kind of fertility right.” […] s: “the last meal. given to sacrificial victims. d: “yeah, i’m thinking a ritual sacrifice to appease some pagan god.” (1x11)

almost every episode in the first season is a monster they’ve faced before that they then explain to the audience in a way that should feel patronising; like it’s the same speech given over and over again but instead, the audience almost feels included in the knowledge. it’s stated with such an innate confidence and comfort in said knowledge that it feels like we already knew it too; “spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. if they want inside, they just go through the walls.” […] “the claws, the speed that it moves; could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog.” (1x02), “it's biblical numerology. you know noah's ark, it rained for forty days. the number means death.” (1x04), “no no no, not the reaper, a reaper. there's reaper lore in pretty much every culture on earth, it goes by 100 different names.” […] “you said it yourself that the clock stopped, right? reapers stop time. and you can only see 'em when they're coming at you which is why i could see it and you couldn't.” (1x12)

they already know and, at least in the first season, already have what they need to kill whatever they’re hunting; already know to salt and burn bones for spirits, fire for a w*ndigo, exorcisms for demons, a silver bullet to the heart for shapeshifters. there’s only three times in the entire first season that they run into something new to them; 1x14 when sam gets his first vision that leads him to another psychic, 1x16 when dean calls caleb for help on the sigil he put together and he tells him about daevas, and 1x20 when they find out vampires are real- and they only don’t know that bc john thought they were hunted to extinction and not worth mentioning

(there’s also technically two half instances if you count one of them knowing something the other doesn’t - sam figuring out the tulpa in 1x17 and dean already knowing about the shtriga in 1x18 - but those still rely on sam and dean having prior knowledge)

even when they’re uncertain about facing something, it’s not bc they don’t know what it is; it’s precisely bc they know what it is and acknowledge that it’ll be a difficult hunt (“i don't know, man. this isn't our normal gig. i mean, demons, they don't want anything, just death and destruction for its own sake. this is big. and i wish dad was here.” 1x04)

so much of the tension in paranormal shows typically comes from the main character(s) not knowing what is happening to them/the people around them and having to find out how to resolve it. supernatural is unique in that it operates more like a police procedural. the tension comes from solving the clues and identifying patterns to figure out who (what) the killer is and intercepting before they can take another victim

it’s such a different tone to go for when compared to other shows that came both before, during, and after its run. it sets sam and dean on even footing with each other since they both have the same knowledge going in, and it puts them in a place of authority usually reserved for an outside character

the shows i compare spn to most is charmed, buffy and teen wolf; every main character in those shows are brought into the paranormal world knowing nothing, putting them on the same level as the audience, and they have their mc interact with others already knowledgeable about that world in order to overcome their problem/monster of the week. the audience organically learns about this new world as the characters learn about it. it’s a sound writing strategy that prevents “as we already know”-style exposition but something that complicates it is if your world building isn’t unique or intriguing enough, this slow introduction can become boring

we’ve seen shows like these before; sitting through the same tropes of characters learning to use their powers, struggling with no longer feeling normal/relating to the regular world around them, and not knowing how much they can trust the people already involved in this new world gets repetitive. all three shows eventually reach the same level of comfort with their new world that spn starts with but if the characters aren’t enough to draw you in, you can end up dropping it before they reach that point (and often, before the overarching plot can really kick in and evolve the show beyond the villain of the week format)

it’s the superhero origin movie in tv format; dragged out and overplayed. dropping the audience into an established world of course comes with its own problems but you also have the benefit of pre-existing established character dynamics that let the audience slot in like they’ve always been there instead of just getting to know all the characters while the characters also get to know each other

sam and dean already knowing about the supernatural lets the audience immediately get to the core of the story; the conflict between sam and dean, the search for their father, and the mystery of what killed their mother

[naylvsx]

PLSSSSS🙏🙏🙏

[krazieka2]

Vampire Mercedes lore doodles (and vampire Lorenz bullying)

[mer-acle]

Btw since I am writing rn, I figured out that the nicknames for Athena in Silent Wars actually have nuance lol

Ath - For situations when Athena was too long of a name to call, and for bickering used by Ares and Aphrodite mainly

Thena - Everyday best, seriously that is basically her name atp used by everyone who is even tangentially close with her on occasion

Thea - softer and more affectionate, "I love you so much" packaged in four letters used by Ares, Hera and Heph (Zeus uses it sometimes and I am not happy about it).

[dragonsbluee]

I have a request for batfam/Jason Todd fanfic writers:

I love the "Jason Todd is a bookworm/theatre nerd" fics as much as the next person, don't get me wrong, but can we please diversify his interests?

90% of the time when I open a fic with that tag, we see Jason reading Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice or quoting Shakespeare. And not to say that there's anything wrong with any of those being his favourite but even if he loves to read "classical" books, come on!

You're telling me Jason raised-in-crime-alley-spent-his-formative-years-between-an-eccentric-billionaire-and-an-assassin-cult Todd only reads books by dead white people?!

I refuse! Give me a man who takes to books more than ever after his return to Gotham. Jason, who reads books like I am Woman, A Really Good Brown Girl and White Tears/Brown Scars, then recommends them to the working girls as he establishes his territory. Who reads in multiple languages, and who loves Arabic poetry.

Give me a little "Robin is Magic!" Jason scouring Bruce's library and picking up a copy of The Mahabharata after he's done The Iliad, and spends weeks obsessed with Journey to the West.

Give me a Jason who's read Things Fall Apart, and One Hundred Years of Solitude! The number of quotes and references he could pull that would further support his dramatic tendencies? It would make him so happy!

[matlab-exe]

tell me about your favorite jazz sessions

(happy record store day!)

[eashgirl]

One detail I find weirdly bittersweet is how both Orion and D-16 were curious young bots who wanted to learn more about their world. It's more obvious with Orion, who wanted to sneak into the archives to learn about Cybertronian history. I think it's mentioned in the novel that Orion would often ramble about Cybertronian history so much that D-16 would act disinterested, which surprised Orion since he couldn't understand how anyone could not be fascinated by it.

Yet, Dee was always interested in his own way. In the storyboards, his dream was to lead an expedition off Cybertron to explore uncharted worlds and locations for Cybertron’s progress. That boy was just as curious and eager to learn—both of them shared the same curiosity and thirst for knowledge, just channeled differently,he never even wanted to become something even remotely close to a soldier,he never wanted to pick up a gun at all and that makes me so sad.

This fits so well within the narrative sense of how they started with the same goal in mind—bringing down Sentinel and rebuilding society with the power Alpha Trion entrusted to all four of them. Yet, the paths they took to achieve that goal were starkly different. Orion saw how broken the system was under Sentinel and sought to create a better system. D-16, on the other hand, wanted to kill Sentinel, destroy everything he built, and rebuild from the ashes.

To think that, in a better world, their initial dreams could have actually been realized... it's just so sad. I need someone to write an AU where Dee gets to lead that expedition he always wanted and Orion to get that opportunity to learn about Cybertronian history,maybe in a world where Sentinel never succeeded in killing the Primes by a deux ex machina they survived so the two of them were able to grow up and live normal fulfilling lives 🥹.

Also I think it was also mentioned in another storyboard that Elita's dream was always to become a soldier imagine in this perfect scenario she gets to enlist in the High Guard or something like that,since they were the army of Cybertron before Sentinel took over, (although honestly I feel like she'd still try and overwork herself either way, she's still very much a perfectionist)

I wonder what B-127's dream was I don't believe it was ever mentioned,he did say he wanted to work for the government but I'm not sure of an exact profession for him.

[lovelylittlegrim]

Stobin headcanon that after everything both Steve and Robin go into law enforcement and become a pretty solid detective partnership. They have a really high close rate for all their cases because they’re stubborn and smart and they’ve seen some shit ™️

The only problem is that they like to do the whole good cop & Bad cop shtick during interrogations except they always forget who is supposed to be playing what role and they’re just both bad cop more often than not and now the suspect is crying (they always make the suspects cry because steve has a mean girl attitude and Robin just likes the drama of slamming her hands on the table)

And their poor chief is in the background with a headache, on the phone BEGGING hopper to take them back. And hopper has zero sympathy. He gave them a glowing recommendation for a reason. They’re good kids and great detectives but they give him ulcers.

[starssoblue]

"the reason adrien is just instantly good at everything he tries is because he is programmed to be that way as a senti" aside from the fact that i don't think that's how it works (and also while he was decent at everything he tried with marinette he wasn't instantly good at all of them, and what marinette actually said to him was that he could improve in anything with practice but it was a great first attempt) did we all collectively forget about how adrien actually canonically isn't the best singer?

[fipindustries]

world building concept for an old stuffy aristocratic society:

transitioning is perfectly allowed and this society makes space for trans people but it works in very repressed ways. you are supposed to come out privately to your parents who will then make a formal announcement that their heir has "found a job abroad". you will take a trip to a little hospital/boarding school/retirement home far into the countryside where you will live for a year with other trans people transitioning, you will be given all the medical assitance needed as well as classes on how to properly perform your prefered gender. how to dress, how to talk, the little social niceties needed, etc.

afterwards when you return home your family will throw a little party to reintroduce you into society and to welcome you back where they will claim you are a "distant cousin" that [deadname] found abroad that your family now wants to sponsor and is going to become part of the family. all the needed paperwork is quietly taken care of in the background by very well paid lawyers.

absolutely everyone knows what "finding a job abroad" and "distant cousin" actually means but it is extremely impolite to ever bring it up out loud. at most some people will gossip about behind closed doors. no mention of your previous identity is ever made again, you are supposed to act as if you are 100% cis.

[psychomusic]

oc time again! + her town & culture (heavily inspired by pre-roman italic populations)

she is suri sauthon. her story is linked to my swtor imperial agent, tar'x, but most of her life except for the one year away where she meets him, is spent in a town in the mountains of mirial.

despite mirial being cold and desert, and many cities developing underground, her town flourishes thanks to a force nexus, venerated in the form of an ancient, sacred, alive crystal. the ecosystem of that mountain depended on what "the horned crystal" was capable of giving them, but mirialans couldn't live off of that alone, so they developed trade and some rudimental technology, even if oftentimes it was bought thanks to the highly profitable trade of a plant used to make medicines that slowed down aging and had overall healing properties.

note: everything that's generated by this nexus has these healing properties BUT they have to be processed, except for those who bathed in the waters of the cavity under the crystal - the "real" nexus, but not the worshipped one. the waters were sacred but they were not thought to be miraculous, unlike the crystal, who instead was thought of as the keystone of the ecosystem: without it, everything would fall apart (and that is partially true: the cavity was the "real" nexus but thanks to the crystal, also strong in the force, the properties were spread all over the mountains). those who bathed in the cavity's waters - so, all of the town, who had a sort of baptism there - could eat the plant, make whatever food with it, and not only that plant, but everything generated by the nexus, that, again, had similar properties. this allowed people to live up to normal life-spans without advanced medicines or, much, really. to those who didn't live there, though, after the processing, had incredible effects, slowing down aging - for those who took it regularly - and making people able to live up to half a century more than the average]

originally, there were four tribes of nomads that lived thanks to horned farm animals that decided to settle down into one bigger town and other smaller settlements, to live off of transhumance. this division of the tribes stayed into the political and social organization: every person belonged to one tribe specifically, and had slightly different rituals and culture. for examples, each tribe had their own priests and healers, with different techniques and traditions. the town, tho, was guided by a group of people in the high priesthood, a position you could reach only by having earned the trust of all tribes. those high priests had many roles: they guided the people into sacred processions common to all the tribes, they managed the trading with outsiders, they did the maintenance of the temple of the summit (the one that functioned as casket to the crystal) and created a special liquid to offer the crystal that helps it grow.

this particular temple was important because 1. it was very visible, from every angle of the town, and it became an important identity symbol; 2. it stored the venerated horned crystal; 3. it had the altar where sacrifices were made for the crystals. that altar had a hole connected to the cavity, that allowed the liquids to reach the underground; 4. it had various symbols: statues representing each tribe + the high priesthood, and typical mirialan tattoos carved into the wood of the trees that served as columns for the temple, symbolizing 8 values that who dared to enter HAD to have; 5. it was on the way to an important lake (called "mother lake" because the lake the town was built around to depended on the waters of that other lake) where they traveled to in important processions; 6. it was said that a the wizard who unified the tribes made it with its magic, making the plant grow to hold the temple's roof. this wizard was, actually, a force user, obv.

BACK TO HER THOUGH: she's daughter of one of the high priests, who was in charge of managing the trades with outsiders, and lives in a house on the mountains with her mother and him. her parents are from different tribes (that's one of the things that earned him trust from the 4 tribes): when a child is born from two different tribes, they don't pick one to allign to, but they're usually linked automatically to the one with more relatives in it (in her case, the father's tribe: she had many uncles and aunts on his side while her mom only had one sister).

later, though, she got quite tied to her mother's tribe due to a mysterious illness that only her mother's tribe healer was able to cure. she spent 4 years (from 10 to 14 years old) living with the healer and learned her secrets. to better study, she wrote them down. when she returned home, she studied to become a priestess with her father. at 22 (the average age: you can't become priest before your 20s), she was supposed to take a test and become a priestess, but the healer of her mother's tribe died and the tribe asked her to take her place. she couldn't technically do that, but both tribes estimated both her and her parents and she was allowed to become both. she then decided to try to become a high priestess, and became one at 25 (a quite young age). being part of the council, she tried to convince the various tribe healers to unite their knowledges and write them down, and eventually made it. healers still remained tribe based but they now had an "upper, inter-tribe level" similar to high priesthood.

years later, the sacred horned crystal is stolen from the temple by some Hutt mercenaries looking for a profit. given the trust she has earned from all the tribes and the fact that her father is the high priest that deals with outsiders (and she's been hearing stories and advice about it since she was little), she is the one tasked with getting it back. without the growing crystal, the keystone to their ecosystem, the village would have lasted only a few years. in hrr quest, she meets imperial intelligence agent tar'x laran and, as they "solve the mystery" and fight to have it back, they get closer. they'll get married and have a daughter, Vegoia (who's the only one who actually will get to the plot of my story. this was all background)

[steddielations]

Flight of Icarus lore dump part 2:

Part 1 | Character List

- Wayne has a green thumb. He reads Gardener’s Weekly magazine. It doesn’t say what he grows, but it says he buys vegetables from the store so I’m going to say that gruff old man Wayne has the prettiest petunias in the whole trailer park.

- Eddie sneaks into the Hawk with his best friend Ronnie to watch action movies and thinks Snake Plissken, Han Solo and Conan the Barbarian are cool.

- Eddie talks for hours about the intricacies of Elven politics in Tolkien.

- Eddie read comics as a kid and hid them all over the house "like a little squirrel" under the bed, behind the nightstand, under the rug. Wayne found his Uncanny X-Men in the freezer between stacks of tv dinners. Also, "Hellfire Club" comes from these X-Men comics.

- Floor time! There's a part where Eddie is literally just lying on his back on his bedroom floor counting down from a million. When Wayne comes home, Eddie army crawls on his belly to the doorway to see him.

- Eddie reads Gormenghast paperbacks, gothic fantasy novels. It mentions that Wayne saved them from the house fire along with Eddie’s guitar. It never says how/when Eddie originally got his guitar.

- Eddie says lots of cc’s original songs have D&D references. It's implied that he writes them. One is called “Fire Shroud” after a spell

- Eddie is called Freak King at school and Munson Junior or just Junior around town and he hates all of it

- Eddie talks about having anxiety a lot and it's implied he has had panic attacks in the past

- Eddie is the lead singer and guitarist of cc. He started the band with Ronnie specifically because it was required to participate in the school talent show.

- Neither Wayne or Al graduated high school. When Eddie (temporarily) drops out, Al celebrates.

- Eddie doesn't cook. He doesn't even own a spatula. The smell of cooking in their house actually shocks him and gives him a deep longing for family meals, which Al uses to manipulate him

- Eddie jokes about being into Saturday Night Fever and strikes the pose a couple times.

- Eddie knows how to hotwire and how to pick locks. Al taught him this at the age of ten. Eddie is "disgusted" with himself any time he does either of those things.

- Eddie "drives like a monster" when he's upset about something.

- Eddie smokes cigarettes occasionally. Weed is mentioned a lot in the book but it never says anything about Eddie smoking it or doing any drugs. He either doesn't smoke much or he hasn't tried anything yet in the book. Also, he’s just now meeting Rick. But It’s pretty clear after everything he went through why he would start

- There's lots of mentions of PBR and Bud Light. Though Eddie says he doesn't like to drink after his shifts at the Hideout (where he's a barback). He mostly drinks off-brand Big Buy soda in the book (he calls it "pop")

- Eddie's parents were married on March 12th, 1966. The date is inscribed on the bottle of their wedding wine. Eddie asks what kind it is and Al says they only had 'red or white' kind of money

- Al breaks out the wedding wine (to manipulate Eddie, you guessed it) it's red wine and Eddie really, really likes it

- Eddie went to War Zone with his dad for supplies for the truck heist (spike strips, coveralls, etc)

- Eddie's band played Exciter by Judas Priest at the talent show. The song was only approved because they emphasized the "priest"

- There was another (?) talent show in Winter of 1981 where Eddie's band played "Prowler" and they were kicked off stage halfway through because the song was considered Satanic, and the PTA visited all their parents for trying to convert everyone to Satanism.

- Eddie imagines hitting his dad twice. Once with a glass bottle and once with a metal wrench. (He should've- oops who said that)

- The only hug Eddie gets in the book is when his dad first comes back, Eddie knows it's the first step in his cycle of showing up, using Eddie and leaving, but Eddie still accepts the hug and feels guilty for enjoying it.

- It's implied Eddie gets close to tears a couple times in the book, but the only time they actually spring up is when his mom's favorite song (from Muddy Waters) comes on in the truck radio while Eddie is doing the heist with his dad and feeling awful about it. Eddie has several flashbacks of dancing with her to this song, it seems like his happiest memory that he always returns to.

- Whenever Eddie is doing what his dad wants (hotwiring, charming a person into their plans) he puts on what he calls his "best Al Munson smile" and he's terrified that it will eventually take over his whole face. There's a part at the end where Eddie is sitting in a jail cell and says "All I want to do is tear my face off. If a new one grows in it's place, maybe it'll make me a different person. Someone who isn't such a complete fuckup."