#or any one direction album. or any book i like or want to read

[ierogenvy]

i’m a little weird huh.

[slayfics]

Explosive tendencies a slow burn fanfic about the readers developing relationship with Katsuki Bakugo.

Chapter one: You stalk Katsuki’s social media page.

Chapter links

Your phone lit up with a notification buzzing on your desk. You pick up your phone to see a notification from Instagram and see that Izuku has followed you. You curiously look at his page and see that it has an overwhelming amount of All Might photos, then click over to see who else he is following and quickly realize he has followed everyone from the class.

You had just recently started your first year at U.A. and still hadn't interacted too much with your other classmates. So curiosity got the best of you as you scrolled through Izuku's following list to look at some of your classmate's pages to get a better understanding of them.

You glanced at many of your classmates pages. Mina's page was super pink and most photos were either selfies or her or her out with friends. She seemed to have an easy time making friends and getting along with others. She was probably the classmate you had the most interactions with. Purely because she would come up to you as if she had already known you her whole life. Much like she did to everyone else.

Shoto's page was empty expect for one picture of soba.

Eijiro's page had only two photos. One of the pro hero Crimson Riot and another was a selfie with his bright red hair. You couldn't help but wonder if some of your classmates deleted their old photo's to start over fresh at U.A.

Kyoka had a bunch of pictures of concerts and band albums with a few pictures of herself in between.

Tenya had a bunch of picture's of books he read and recommended.

Continuing to scroll through Izuku's following list you stopped when coming across Katsuki's page.

You clicked on his page and scrolled through the few pictures he had. Your cheeks flushed ever so slightly looking at one of the selfies he had posted.

You weren't sure why but something about him had caught your attention. Ever since being in the same group as him in the U.A. entrance exam, you had found yourself curious about him. All of your other classmates seemed to be put off by his constant angry demeanor, but something about his tenacity made you want to know more about him.

You pulled your knees into your chest as you stared at your phone. Your phone was unlocked sitting idly on Katsuki's Instagram page. The bright screen illuminated your dimmed room.

You twirled your hair absentmindedly as you debated following him. Just do it, don't be a coward you told yourself. You swiftly picked up your phone and clicked follow then locked and dropped your phone down back on your desk.

To your surprise, your phone buzzed again shortly after, you quickly looked and felt your heart flutter. He had liked one of your pictures. Not just a picture, but a picture of yourself you posted a few days ago.

Your face flushed as you held your phone in your hand. Suddenly, your phone dinged with another notification making you jump.

He had followed back.

You gripped your phone in your hand harder as you scrolled over to direct message him and stared at the page feeling your cheeks get even warmer. Come on just say something, you tried to hype yourself up.

He liked your picture and followed you back so obviously that means something right? Fuck it just do it you said to yourself and typed out a message.

"Hey I never got a chance to ask what happened after we split up?"

You typed and sent swiftly before you lost your nerve. During a training for your class at USJ some villains had broken in and attacked the class. You were split up with Bakugo and Kirishima for a short time before the two boys decided to go after more of the villains while you went back to the exit with the rest of the class.

You set your phone down not expecting an answer any time soon but you were surprised to see three dots appear almost immediately. Your heart dropped at the next message.

"What’s your address? I’ll Come over and tell you all about it."

What?! Were you reading that right?? You never expected that response. Your hands started to shake a bit.

It was late and surely the others in the house wouldn’t approve of having him over at this time. Fuck- you knew you were supposed to be on your best behavior since starting U.A. but… how were you supposed to say no.

"You ok with sneaking in?"

"Yeah just hurry up and send your address."

Before putting any more thought into it you typed out your address and pressed send.

Oh crap- You looked around your room and noticed all the stuffed animals on your bed. You quickly shoved them all in the closet along with some loose clothes that were around your room.

It wasn't long before you heard a loud explosion from outside and your phone dinged again with a notification.

"Which window is yours?"

You opened your window and saw Katsuki standing outside, within a split second of spotting you he had used his quirk to be at your window seal. You backed up as he jumped into your room.

"Uh- Hi," You greeted him trying to sound confident but it was evident in your voice you were nervous.

Katsuki sat on your bed leaning back against the wall.

"So you want to know what happened?" He asked, his face adorned with his usual smirk.

"Yeah," you said, as you sat down in the chair at your desk facing Katsuki.

"We found the other villains and I took down that warp gate villain, which slowed the rest of them down."

"Wow really?!" You said, amazed. You knew All Might had shown up and taken over so you didn't expect to hear that Katsuki had played that much of a part in the fight.

"Fucking Deku got in my way though!" Katsuki yelled.

"Hey are you alright?" You heard someone else in the house call from outside the room as they approached your door.

"Shit!" You grabbed Katsuki by his shirt and shoved him into your closet. Just in time for them to knock on your door.

You opened your door, "Yeah sorry it was just the TV- didn't realize it was gonna be that loud." You lied.

"Oh- ok-," they said, slightly suspicious since your TV was off but having no other evidence decided to drop the subject. "Well goodnight don't stay up too late," they said as they started to walk away.

"I won't don't worry! Goodnight," you called back, shutting your door quickly.

You opened your closet door and a few of your stuffed animals fell out.

Katsuki had one of them in his hand, "This is a cute little guy," He said with a smug smirk on his face.

"Shut up," you said, reaching trying to grab the stuffed bear from him, but he quickly avoided your grasp.

"Did you hide these in the closet because I was coming over?" He asked, eyes analyzing you.

"I don't know what you're talking about," You said, stubbornly crossing your arms.

"I bet they were all on your bed, weren't they? Tell me the truth or the bear gets it," He said, sparks flying from his fingertips.

"Quite down! You're gonna get me in trouble!" You pleaded.

"Better hurry up and tell me then," he said, a smirk growing.

"Ok- Fine, yes! I moved them off my bed because you were coming over. Happy?" You said, giving in to his taunts. You tried to grab for the bear again but he moved the bear away from you once more.

"One more question, is this the first time you've had a boy in your room?" He asked. You felt your face instantly light up with a blush, and you averted your gaze looking at his feet.

"Hm- I'll take that as a yes," He laughed and handed out the bear for you to grab. You grabbed it from his hand, your fingers grazing across his when you did.

"Alright well I'll see you tomorrow, wouldn't want to get you in trouble, you're not supposed to stay up too late," He teased as he made his way back over to your window.

You turned around wanting to call out to him but didn't know what to say. As quickly as he came in, he left you alone in your room once more.

Thank you for reading! I’m very excited to share this series~

Tags: @unofficialmuilover

[supernovafics]

𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐔𝐒𝐓

pairing: steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: 6.3k words

summary: in which the summer of ‘84 was both the best and worst time of your life

warnings: explicit language, underaged drinking, angst, fluff, implied smut, cheating

author’s note: second part to cardigan (but could be read out of order). i fully did not expect this to end up this long but hope y’all enjoy<33 (full “folklore” album series masterlist here!)

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“but i can see us lost in the memory. august slipped away into a moment in time.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

July 19, 1984

Ten. 

That was how many days in a row you and Steve had seen each other. 

From the first time you two talked to one another outside of Ralph’s Sandwich Shop, his first ever words to you being, “Potato chips on a sandwich? That’s kinda weird,” and the conversation that proceeded from that somehow led you to watching a movie in the theater room at his house that same night. To now this— him spending the majority of his afternoon with you at the library, where you had been working for the past year and a half. 

You wondered how long the two of you would keep the streak alive. 

If it was anyone else you probably would have gotten sick of seeing them that many days in a row, but with Steve you weren’t. In fact, you looked forward to whenever you got to see him again. And maybe that feeling, the anticipation toward seeing this guy who you probably shouldn’t even be seeing this often anyway, should’ve worried you. 

Whenever you thought about how easily the two of you were able to go from absolutely nothing to this— an unlikely friendship that somehow felt like you’d known each other so much longer than barely two weeks— it startled you. 

Before, you had simply known of him; of course, you had, he was practically royalty at your high school. “King Steve,” a charmer, a perpetual flirter, somehow dating straight-A student Nancy Wheeler. It was the combination of those things that told you during that first conversation you had with him that you should stay away from him, but for some reason, you still said yes. 

Maybe it was because the home theater he had been bragging about sounded way too tempting not to take up the offer. Or maybe it was because you liked being an idiot sometimes. 

If it was the latter that was true then you still were an idiot because there you were ten days later still hanging out with him and not regretting it one bit. 

“I need to bring you better games here,” Steve said. He was standing across from you on the other side of the counter. 

“What’s wrong with Uno? Is it because you keep losing?” You jokingly asked, a small smile on your face as you started shuffling the deck. “Also, I’m technically working right now, so I shouldn’t even be playing any games with you.”

“There’s no one here except you and me,” He said and then gestured to the quietness that surrounded you both. “Actually, I think the only other person that’s been in here all day was that old lady who just wanted directions to the park.”

You loved your job at the library and you really didn’t mind how it was rarely busy, especially during the summer, because it meant that you could spend most of your shifts reading instead of helping someone find what they needed or reshelving books. Now the majority of your non-busy moments during your shift were spent with Steve. 

“What are you doing tonight?” He asked as you began dealing the cards, because what else was there to do but play another round of Uno? 

“My guess is hanging out with you,” You answered. “What’s happening?” 

“Party,” He stated simply, and you realized that probably should’ve been your first guess. “Need us to be beer pong partners again.” 

It had been last week, two days after you and Steve unspokenly decided that hanging out with one another would become a common occurrence, when he dragged you to a party; some too big thing at Matthew Lancaster’s lake house. 

A beer pong table was set up, which was not all surprising for a high school party, and you suggested that you and Steve play and be on a team with one another. You were insanely good, practically making every shot, and Steve wasn’t too bad at playing either, which made your team pretty unstoppable. It was a random hidden talent of yours that you would only show off every once in a blue moon because you deliberately didn’t frequent parties. 

“I’ve retired for the time being,” You told him. “I can’t show off my beer pong skills too often or it won’t be a cool talent anymore.”

He laughed a bit at that but still nodded. “Okay, what do you wanna do tonight instead?” 

“Don’t let me stop you from going to the party.”

Steve shrugged and shook his head. “Probably wouldn’t be fun without you, anyway.”

His words confused you as much as they made you feel so happy. And you quickly pushed that “happy” feeling away because you knew just how fast it could lead to feeling other things; things that would make you look like the worst person in the world.

Once again, you wondered why you were doing this. Why were you allowing yourself to get close to him when you’d probably just look like an idiot in the end? And why had he wanted to talk to you in the first place? Those fleeting questions would hit you a lot over the past few days, but you’d quickly push them away because you didn’t want to think too hard about everything. However, this time you couldn’t force them away. 

“Why?” You asked, breaking eye contact with him for the first time probably that entire afternoon. “Why… are we friends right now?”

If he was surprised or confused by the randomness of your question, he didn’t show it. 

“I don’t know. I wanted to talk to you that day, so I did it,” He made the answer sound so simple. “I didn’t really expect it to turn into this friendship, but it’s nice finally having something that actually feels so easy.”

What about you and Nancy wasn’t easy? 

You wanted to ask that but refrained from doing so. He probably didn’t mean her when he said that. You knew that the only reason why he was with you instead of her, and had been for the past ten days, was because she was out of town for the summer. That thought hurt a bit, knowing that you were essentially some sort of “consolation prize,” but it kept you from looking too much into things. You took everything Steve said that could be read as flirtatious with a grain of salt and forced yourself to see it as solely platonic. 

And you’d rather it all be completely platonic anyway because you really liked the friendship you’d developed with him. 

“You’re right. This does feel easy,” You ultimately responded, smiling at him because now that the unspoken lines were finally verbally drawn— the two of you were friends; nothing more, nothing less— you felt the tiniest bit better about it all. “But, I’m glad it does. I’m happy we’re friends.”

Steve smiled back at you. “Me too.” 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“you back beneath the sun. wishin’ i could write my name on it.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

July 28, 1984

The only reason why you allowed Steve to bring you to this party was because you were a sucker for a bonfire. 

And the only reason why you were currently drunk off your ass was because you couldn’t say no to a game of hide and seek, especially a drinking version of the childish game, which Steve had suggested and you quickly agreed to. 

There was something about this game that made you realize that maybe your entire friendship was a game; a game of who would break first. But, that was something to think about at a different time. Or actually not at all, because thinking further about that would probably only complicate things. 

It was easy to pretend that there was nothing more to you and him when you both were sober. It was also so much easier to lie to yourself that you didn’t feel anything romantic toward him and that you didn’t see that maybe he actually felt the same way too.

There was a constant back and forth happening in your mind, with you continuously telling yourself that being friends with Steve wasn’t a bad idea, even though maybe it was because it was slowly making you want something more. Sometimes it felt as if it made sense to like him; it felt obvious. The way you could talk to each other about anything and everything mixed with how constantly you two wanted to spend time together made you fall in so deep so fast. 

But, you couldn’t accept or think about any of that, and the reasons why were painfully obvious. 

However, with the alcohol currently clouding your brain, that felt like a slightly different story. 

“Sitting behind a tree? Not your best hiding spot.”

Hearing Steve’s voice right then should’ve made you feel at least the tiniest bit upset because it meant that you lost that round of hide and seek, but you drunkenly smiled up at him. 

“I wanted to be original and we’ve been playing for so long I feel like we’ve done everything else at this point. But, that was at least two minutes, though, right?”

“It was actually barely thirty seconds.”

“Oh, wow,” You said with a laugh as you extended a hand up toward him so that he could help you up. You wobbled a bit before getting your balance and then you grabbed the red solo cup in Steve’s free hand to drink the rest of what was left in it as your punishment for losing; the exact contents of the drink were unknown, but it tasted fruity. 

When you were done, you handed the cup back to him and then leaned back against the tree because it somehow felt nice and you weren’t bothered by the roughness of it touching the parts of your skin that the tank top you were wearing didn’t cover.

There were a ton of people at the infamous “Lover’s Lake” because of the party, but nobody had been paying attention to you and Steve running around like five-year-olds playing hide and seek and getting severely drunk in the process.  

The lopsided grin taking over Steve’s features let you know that he was just as inebriated as you were, maybe even more so because he’d been drinking a bit before you two started the game. 

“Maybe we should be done with hide and seek now.”

You gave him a nod. “That sounds like a good idea.” 

Things became quiet for a few moments with the two of you solely staring at each other in the darkness and ignoring the loud rowdiness of everyone else who was only a few feet away. Steve closed a bit of the distance between you both and leaned in close to you; his gaze flickered down to your lips for a hint of a second before going right back to your eyes.  

If this was any other moment, your mind would be running a million miles a minute, screaming at you to not allow the inevitable to happen. But, somehow, you were actually calm. 

“We can’t do that, friend,” You told him, making your voice sound as serious as possible, but you couldn’t help but smile a bit. 

“I know,” He responded but still shut the final space of distance between you both, bypassing your lips and kissing your cheek instead. “That’s okay, though, right?”

The reasonable side of you was obviously telling you to say “no,” but it was hard to make yourself care enough to listen to it. “I’ll allow it.”

The three words came out so quietly, but Steve heard you. He kissed your other cheek and then your forehead and then your nose before pulling away and smiling at you. 

Before he could say anything, you did the same to him; kissing both of his cheeks, his forehead, and his nose, and then pulling back to lean against the tree again. That time it was your eyes that glanced down at his lips before going back to his eyes. 

You were so close to doing it, and he almost begged you to, but then you were pushing off of the tree and asking him to turn around. 

“Piggyback ride to the car, please?”

“We can’t drive right now,” He said as he leaned down a bit so you could hop onto his back. 

You nodded even though he couldn’t see you. “I know, but I will die if I don’t sit down.”

The walk to your car should’ve taken less than a minute, but instead, it nearly took five because, of course, the two of you got a little lost and it took way too long to realize that the first car you had walked past was yours. 

“God, we’re acting like such idiots right now,” You said, laughing as Steve let you down so you could get into the car. 

He laughed too as he got in on the passenger side. “Yeah, definitely not our finest moment.”   

You sighed in contentment when you leaned back against the seat, immediately finding comfort in it, which definitely said a lot about how drunk and exhausted you were because you never usually found your car as super comfortable. 

You turned on your side to face Steve, and as if feeling your gaze on him, he turned to look at you as well. You silently admired each other. Sometimes it felt as if a thousand things were being said in the silences you two shared with one another, things that would probably always be left unsaid. 

“I really like you,” He whispered suddenly and you realized that maybe not everything silently said would be left unspoken. 

You let out a small breath before closing your eyes because it felt too hard to look at him right then. “I really like you too.”

“Please let me kiss you.”

It was difficult to describe exactly what his words managed to do to you, and you tried your hardest to disregard those feelings. 

“We can’t.” You shook your head, eyes still shut. “It’ll ruin everything.”

“What if that’s okay?” He said, voice still quiet. 

It could’ve been easy.

To finally do what you both had desperately wanted to do for weeks at this point, but had refused to admit. And doing it at this moment instead of any other time because, with the drunken states you both were in, none of this would be remembered. Which would also mean that it didn’t really happen, right? 

Your eyes finally opened and you looked at him. “Neither of us is gonna remember this conversation in the morning.”

“You’re probably right.”

“And if you did, you’d regret saying any of this,” You said, and your words were met with silence from him. You couldn’t tell if that meant that they were the truth, or instead, quite far from it. 

Even in your inebriated state, you were too scared to push him further and get an answer because you were unsure which response would be worse; “Yes, I’d regret it,” or “No, I wouldn’t regret it at all.”

Before he could potentially say a version of either of those responses, you began speaking again. “I’m really tired.” 

You then pulled your eyes away from him and looked straight ahead at the people that were still partying around the fire. A part of you wanted to join them, but the other part of you just wanted to fall asleep. 

“Me too,” Steve said and with how long he had been quiet, you were actually surprised to hear his voice right then.

Both of you fell asleep just like that for the time being, putting an end to a conversation that would not be talked about in the morning because just as you’d both assumed, it seemed as if it had been long forgotten.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“salt air, and the rust on your door. i never needed anything more. whispers of ‘are you sure?’ ‘never have i ever before.’”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

July 31, 1984

The sun had long ago set behind the trees, but you and Steve still had no plans to leave his pool anytime soon. 

You swam close to him, your hands finding his shoulders and then pushing down to dunk him under the water. A laugh fell from your lips as you immediately started swimming away, but Steve’s hand quickly found your waist and pulled you back toward him.

“What was that for?” He asked, one arm still wrapped around you, causing your back to be firmly pressed against his chest, while his other hand pushed back his wet hair. 

“For pushing me in the pool earlier,” You answered, only trying for a moment to wriggle out of his grasp but failing miserably so you stopped. 

“That was hours ago.”

“Revenge is best when you don’t see it coming,” You said, smiling widely. 

He laughed against your ear. “You’re evil.” 

You attempted to pull away again but he was still holding on to you, so instead you maneuvered so you were simply facing him instead. 

You were smiling up at him, and you assumed he’d match it with a smile of his own, but he didn’t. Instead, there was a certain look on his face that you couldn’t necessarily decipher. You almost asked him what was wrong, but he started speaking before you got the chance to.

“I remember the conversation we had in your car at the bonfire.”  

You could feel your heart start to race a bit, not expecting things to take that turn. “Oh… You do?”

He nodded his head. “Do you?”

“I remember the whole thing,” You told him, and that was entirely true. You’d spent the past few days constantly thinking about that moment and running through every single thing that was said. You had also tried your hardest to push the memory away because it seemed as if Steve didn’t remember it. 

“I don’t regret anything I said,” He told you and then a hand came up to cup your cheek. “I still really wanna kiss you.”

You were quiet for a moment, letting Steve’s words settle over you, before responding to him in a small voice. “Are you sure?”

Instead of verbally responding, he gave you the smallest of nods and closed the tiny bit of space between you both, dipping his head down and slotting his lips against yours. 

All you could think at that moment was finally.  

Finally, you were this close to one another.

Finally, you were kissing.

Finally, you were doing what you had wanted to do for so long.

The thing that both of you told each other and even convinced yourselves wasn’t going to happen, finally happened. And in a way, it sucked because neither of you felt bad about it, at least not bad enough to stop. 

Your legs wrapped around his waist beneath the water and your arms came up to wrap around his neck, one hand finding its way into the hair at the nape of his neck.

You weren’t in the deepest part of the pool anymore so Steve was able to stand, but both of you were still almost completely submerged in the water. He walked you both over to one of the sides of the pool, pressing you back against it and deepening the kiss. 

Nothing was said, and nothing needed to be said. In fact, you thought that if either of you said something, it would ruin the perfection that was that moment and harshly shove you both back to reality. A reality that told you that this was the farthest thing that should have been happening. 

For the time being, with Steve against you and his lips finding that particularly sensitive part of your neck, you were happy living in this fantasy world. It was a dream that you didn’t want to wake up from, and you convinced yourself that it wouldn’t hurt too bad when you did finally have to wake up from it. 

“We should…” You took a breath, biting back the moan that threatened to spill from your lips as Steve continued the assault on your neck. Your next word should’ve been “stop,” but stopping this was the absolute last thing you wanted to do. “We should go to your room.” 

He finally, and sadly, pulled away from your neck and pressed a quick kiss against your lips. “That sounds like a great idea.”

You detached yourselves from one another just enough to step out of the pool and into his house, wet bodies leaving drops of water across the floor that weren’t the slightest bit cared about. 

You couldn’t keep your hands off of each other.

After getting as close as you just had been, it was hard to go back to how it used to be; the friendliness and innocence that had surrounded the brief touches you two would usually share. Instead, your hand was intertwined with his as he led you up the stairs, and then his arms circled around you when you entered his room, cocooning you in the towel he’d grabbed from behind his door. 

It was you that kissed him that second time. 

You reached up to push his wet hair back and then leaned in, inwardly sighing in contentment. Both of his hands found your waist, causing the towel to fall and it was immediately long forgotten. 

When you pulled away you took the smallest step back and simply looked at him, his pretty face and soft brown eyes that were full of nothing but adoration for you. You tried your hardest to find something within you that resembled regret or made you want to stop this, but you couldn’t. And you knew exactly what that said about you, but it was also difficult to force yourself to care about that either. 

Steve eagerly brought you close to him again, which made you smile into the kiss he pulled you into. He slowly started leading you back toward his bed.

“Wait,” You said, detaching your lips from his and softly pushing him back a bit. “It would be really rude of me to lay on your bed with my bathing suit on.”

He slowly nodded and swallowed harshly as you removed your top first, letting that fall to the floor, and then going to your bottoms. “That’s very considerate of you.” 

You only smiled at him and his sudden nervousness, which managed to wash away any and all of your own shyness at that moment. 

His eyes met yours. “You’re so fucking pretty.” 

“You’re not too bad yourself,” You whispered, reaching out to grab his hands and pull him close to you again. You were about to kiss him again, but it was then that you noticed the time on the clock that was hanging on the wall behind him. “Shit, shit.”

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion and a look of concern crossed his face. “What’s wrong?”

“The time,” You answered and then sighed as you started grabbing your bathing suit. “It’s 12:40, and if I’m not home by one, my mom will kill me and then you.” 

“Your mom loves me too much to kill me,” Steve responded, grabbing a t-shirt for you to slip on too. 

“Yeah, kinda weird how after only one meeting where you two barely even talked, she somehow likes you more than me now,” You said as you put on his shirt which kind of swallowed you whole but you loved it and already knew that you would never be giving it back to him.  

You looked up at him and your next words came out quietly. “I’m sorry I have to ruin this right now.” 

Steve shook his head at you. “It’s okay. Don’t be sorry.” Both of his hands found your hips again, squeezing softly. “We’ll pick up where we left off next time.” 

You couldn’t help but smile at that. “Next time?” 

“Mhm, next time,” He said, smiling back at you and nodding. “If you want there to be one?”

“I’d like that,”  You responded and pressed a quick kiss against his lips. 

Even as you headed back downstairs and Steve walked you to your car, kissing you for a few more minutes before you reluctantly drove away, your stomach had yet to fill with even a hint of regret or guilt. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“wanting was enough. for me, it was enough. to live for the hope of it all.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

August 12, 1984

The constant sound of something softly pinging against your window pulled your attention away from the book you were reading in your bed. 

There was only one person that could've been throwing something at your window, but still, you were the tiniest bit surprised when you opened your curtains and saw Steve standing on your front lawn. 

Even though seeing him was such a natural thing at this point, it made sense that you were at least a little surprised because no part of you felt secure with this “thing” you had going on with him, which was more than just a friendship but so much less than any type of actual relationship. You lived in the perpetual state that it would all abruptly end. And maybe that thought process came from you knowing that eventually, this would all have to come to an end; there weren’t that many days of summer left. 

But then there was that tiny slither of hope that maybe it all wouldn’t have to end. You kept that thought buried deep down inside of you, though. 

You lifted your window. “Throwing rocks at my window? That’s very rom-com of you.”

“Sometimes I like to be cheesy,” Steve said, smiling at you. 

It was a sweet, adoring smile that you shouldn’t have been on the receiving end of; it was a smile that didn’t belong to you. It was so easy to see that, but it was nearly impossible to actually do something about it and let him go.

“Can I come up?” He asked. “I promise I’ll be quiet and your mom won’t hear me.” 

“She’s gone for the weekend, actually,” You told him, smiling a bit. “I’ll be down in a second.”

When you opened the front door, he was quick to greet you with a kiss before pulling you in for a hug. 

After that first kiss in his pool, there was an almost immediate shift that happened. An easy shift where you’d gone from constantly telling yourselves that everything was solely platonic to finally allowing yourselves to do every little thing that deep down you both had always wanted to do. With him now always greeting you with soft kisses, and you secretly spending so many nights in his bed because his parents were never home and most of the time it was easy to make up some sort of excuse to your mom. 

Something else shifted too, though. It was a shift that neither of you spoke about because you never really wanted to acknowledge what exactly your friendship had transformed into and what it really meant. Not talking about any of it was a decision that you were unsure if it was completely yours or his because it was all so unspoken. 

When you thought about it hard enough though, you could see that the decision was mutual, because on both sides it was easier to pretend that none of the outside things existed. In that fairytale, he didn’t have a girlfriend, he didn’t belong to anyone else. You were his and he was solely yours. 

“Tell me about this thing that your parents forced you to go to tonight,” You said as Steve kicked off his shoes by the front door and the two of you started heading up the stairs. One of his hands was intertwined with yours and there was barely an inch of space between you both. It had become really hard not to be close to one another.

“It was this big event for my dad’s job, and they always drag me to stuff like that as a way to prove to his coworkers that they’re ‘good parents.’ It was very boring,” Steve responded with a small sigh and then gave your hand a light squeeze. “It would’ve been much less painful if you came.”

He sat down on the foot of your bed when the two of you walked into your room, and the oversized t-shirt you had on as your pajamas rode up a lot as you settled yourself in his lap, knees on either side of his thighs and hands resting on his shoulders. It was an un-innocent position that, for the time being, felt quite the opposite. 

“Going to something like that is something a girlfriend would do, not…” That was the first time you’d even minorly referred to Nancy, and it felt both weird and wrong. It woke you up for a second and made you falter a bit in your next words, breaking Steve’s gaze. “Not a… friend.” 

One of his hands found the side of your thigh, rubbing the skin softly and trying to pull you back into this moment with him. You could feel him reading you so easily and knowing where your mind was going, and he didn’t want you to go there, and neither did you. 

You didn’t want this– you and him, him and you– to break just yet.

“Um, anyway, you didn’t tell me that it would be so formal,” You said, gesturing with your head to the suit he was wearing. 

Your eyes met his again and you could see the relief wash over his face because you didn’t bring up the unspoken topic. Things shifted right back to normal. Well, the normal that you two created for yourselves. 

“I feel kinda ridiculous, and I hate this bow tie,” He responded, hand continuing to rub your thigh. “I should’ve probably changed before I came here but I just really wanted to see you.”

You let his words further push away any thoughts of Nancy that lingered in your mind, thoughts that finally told you that what you were doing with him was wrong.

“Stop. You look good,” You told him, your fingers playing with the bow tie for a brief moment. “Like, really good.” 

“Okay, now I’m really glad that I didn’t change, then.” He smiled before leaning in to kiss you. 

You only deepened the kiss in response and focused on nothing but the feeling of his mouth on yours and his hands beginning to snake underneath your shirt. 

He pulled back, maneuvering things so you were sitting at the foot of the bed and he was standing. The black suit jacket he had on was the first thing to fall on the floor. You slipped your t-shirt over your head and tossed it to the side before helping him unbutton the long sleeve white shirt he had on. 

His hands found your bare waist and squeezed softly. “I’m so fucking happy I’m here right now.”

“Me too,” You responded and then sighed in contentment, eyes slipping shut for a brief moment, when you felt his thumb graze over your already hard nipple. 

Sometimes, usually in moments like these, it felt as if it was your sole purpose to be with him; canceling your plans just in case he’d call or show up, and meeting solely at his place, or yours, or the library.

How deeply intertwined you felt with him let you know exactly how much it would hurt when this all came to its eventual end. But then you were hit with the thought that maybe you would deserve it because you put yourself in this situation. 

Steve’s hand came up to gently stroke your cheek and pull you out of your thoughts. “What are you thinking about?”

Your gaze met his as you shook your head. “Nothing important.”

But, maybe it was the most important thing. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“i remember thinkin' i had you.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

August 23, 1984

You expected to see him that night. 

So maybe him unexpectedly showing up to the library– which was now busy with a bunch of kids scrambling to do their summer reading assignments– was what should have told you that everything was about to go to shit. 

“Hey,” You said to him and placed the book in your hand in its rightful place on the shelf and then did the same thing with the other one you were holding. “I didn’t think I’d see you until tonight.” 

Steve was quiet for a few moments too long, which made you look at him, and your eyebrows furrowed in confusion when you saw the look on his face. It was hard to exactly decipher his expression because it looked as if he was experiencing a thousand different emotions at once. 

“What’s wrong?” You asked, voice quiet. 

“I got a call from Nancy,” He told you, and you nearly flinched at hearing him saying her name to you for the first time ever. “She said she’s coming back tonight.” 

“Oh…” Was the first thing that fell from your lips. It was the word that perfectly encompassed your initial shock at that moment. “That’s, um– That’s really, uh…” You almost said “great,” because if the circumstances were different and if things were actually normal between you two, it probably would’ve been great that his girlfriend was coming back after being gone for almost two months. But, things were far from normal and the circumstances weren’t different at all, so you were at a loss for words.  

Finally, after what felt like hours of silence, but what was really probably only seconds, you said something. “I really don’t know what to say to that, honestly.” 

“I’m sorry,” He said softly and pulled his eyes away from you. He looked down and ran a nervous hand through his hair. “I guess we, uh, both know what that means.” 

“Say it, Steve.” You muttered. You had to hear him say the words in order for it all to be real for you. You couldn’t take all of the unspoken, reading-between-the-lines bullshit. 

He was quiet for an unbearable amount of time before he finally spoke. “We can’t see each other anymore.” 

From the second he kissed you in his pool nearly a month ago, you knew that those words would ultimately come. Each happy day that passed with you tangled up in his bedsheets or cuddled up on his couch laughing about nothing was leading to this moment. 

It had all been so inevitable, but it still hurt harder than you had expected it to. You quickly decided to pretend as if it didn’t, though. 

You nodded at him. “Okay. Got it.” 

“I’m sorry. This shouldn’t– I didn’t–”

“Don’t,” You quickly shook your head, not at all wanting to hear whatever pitying thing he would say to you at that moment. “Please don’t.” 

You were suddenly glad that you were at work right then because you could distract yourself from thoughts of him and everything that had just ended with the current busyness of the library. You looked away from Steve and noticed a little girl struggling to grab a book that was high on a shelf.

“It’s really chaotic here right now, and I have to actually do work for the first time probably all summer, so yeah…” You forced a small smile and then walked away from him, ignoring the words he said to you that you barely heard and couldn’t make out. 

Over the next two final hours of your shift, you’d silently accepted that that brief conversation would be the last time you talked to Steve Harrington. Although there were a thousand more things that probably could’ve been said, it was okay. That ending was okay. Or at least in the long run, it would be. 

So it slightly startled you when you saw him in the parking lot, leaning against the side of his car. When he noticed you, he waved. 

“Have you been here this whole time?” You asked, walking toward him, but leaving a wide space of distance between you two. 

“Maybe, yeah.”

“Why?” 

“I don’t know…”

For the first time probably ever, he confused you. 

“I just— I wish things could be different,” He ultimately said, and hearing those words simultaneously made you feel happy while also making you feel so fucking upset. 

“Things can be different,” You told him as you stepped toward him, the tiniest glimmer of hope inadvertently beginning to swirl in your stomach. “We could be together.”

Your hands found his, slowly intertwining them. His gaze met yours and you let the silent conversation play out. Your eyes pleading with him to not let go of what you two had, and him looking at you so softly while also battling whatever else was going on in his mind. After a few moments, he gave your hands a quick squeeze before he let go of them. 

“I love Nancy.”

Not you. Those were the words he didn’t say, but you could read between those lines a little too easily. 

“I love you” was the one thing you hadn’t said to one another, but you thought that you could feel how much he loved you through each soft touch, every longing look, every plea for you to stay in his bed for just a minute longer; one minute that always turned into at least five. 

Apparently, you were wrong, though. 

And now you knew for certain that you were wrong about every single thing that happened that summer. 

Because you knew that you felt that way toward him. You loved him. 

But he didn’t love you. He didn’t want to be with you. 

He loved her. 

His girlfriend— the only girl he was supposed to love. 

You let the feeling of regret and guilt toward everything that happened this summer crash over you like a tsunami. 

“I should’ve never done this,” You said, whispering that more to yourself, than to him. 

“What?” He asked, unsure of what you’d just said.

“You love her.” You said as you moved away from him. “Go be with her.”

“I’m really sorry,” You heard him say as you walked toward your car. 

You didn’t say anything in response to that. Mainly because there was nothing to say, but also because you refused to talk to him any longer. And quite frankly, you never wanted to talk to him again. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“so much for summer love and saying ‘us.’ ‘cause you weren't mine to lose.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

let me know ur thoughts<333

(read “betty” here!)

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 4/23/22

three months unemployed YAY. also wherein i get SUPER pressed about star wars lore

listening

funeral by tele novella. popped open tiktok to see something my best friend sent me and this was there, the first thing on the for you page. let's yoink a description of their previous album from an interview i'm going to quote at length in a bit: "The result was “exactly what we wanted it to be,” a perfumed mist of jingling, jangling, lilting, off-center pop—a strange little snowglobe gathering dust at the back of the shelf."

the lyrics did hit me like a train bc i often find myself mourning places and situations that were not necessarily good for me but were familiar.

Oh, you're not tied up Here comes the train The tracks feel safe because you know 'em

if you had told me this was made in about 2007-2009ish i would have believed you. very spare production in the way folksier songs of the time were spare. a bit raspy and direct in her delivery. there's a bandcamp interview wherein i found out this is the side project of a vintage/antiques dealer and she has a fascinating perspective on her own music:

Her passion for the craft is evident—in our conversation as much as in listening to the band—but music, for her, is a means to an end, a way to transmit stories. “As a musician, I’m mediocre at best,” Ribbons says matter-of-factly. “I think that my talent lies in my storytelling ability. I think that I’m a good storyteller.” It’s something instilled in her by her grandparents, “voracious readers” who were always buying her books and secretly wanted Ribbons to be a writer, she suspects.

i really adored this whole album as a cohesive work. "vampire cowgirl" is another standout for obvious reasons.

You came barrelin' down Rabid with some talk Of a gal who rides at night Picking off the stock

remarkably good at reproducing the general vibe of the midcentury cowboy western album, when tv cowboys were sweeping the nation

-

reading

T. Kingfisher's Nettle & Bone. enjoyed it, but not quite as much as her other stuff. whereas her other series are almost always comical and often stray into farce, this one was a bit grim. even with the addition of a demonic chicken. had to stop and really think about if my own experience with funerals and funerary rites (too many, too often) was coloring this for me but i think it is simply not as funny or interested in being funny as her other works. not a ding against it, but not what i was really expecting or in the mood for. image from tor, let's yoink the description from macmillan

This isn't the kind of fairy tale where the princess marries a prince. It's the one where she kills him. Marra — a shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter — is relieved not to be married off for the sake of her parents’ throne. Her older sister wasn’t so fortunate though, and her royal husband is as abusive as he is powerful. From the safety of the convent, Marra wonders who will come to her sister’s rescue and put a stop to this. But after years of watching their families and kingdoms pretend all is well, Marra realizes if any hero is coming, it will have to be Marra herself. If Marra can complete three impossible tasks, a witch will grant her the tools she needs. But, as is the way in stories of princes and the impossible, these tasks are only the beginning of Marra’s strange and enchanting journey to save her sister and topple a throne.

paywalled article, sorry, but i personally have a bone to pick with fanduel due to [REDACTED INCIDENTS] from [PREVIOUS JOB] so it does not surprise me in the slightest that they don't really seem to be doing a single fucking thing about money-laundering. allegedly.

-

watching

the bad batch, or the 13/16 episodes of the third and final season that are out. all these images are from comicbookreview bc i watched this on my actual television

one of the plots i hate most is the trying to get someone back plot. for example, i think finding nemo does this really well bc it's also a coming of age/parenting movie. i do not think the second finding nemo movie does this well bc as soon as one person is reunited with the group, through a wacky series of coincidences they lose another member. plus that movie is part of the downturn of modern pixar where they forgot how to tell interesting stories but that's neither here nor there. the bad batch falls into the finding nemo 2 category. it's simply frustrating to watch. it turns into a desperate floundering after whoever happens to be missing instead of using a The Searchers style plot to say something about the act of the search itself. i realize i am once again saying "what if star wars was good" but like. come on.

the bad batch s3 is surprisingly focused on retroactively filling in the backstory of how and why palpatine got cloned with his force powers intact, which is apparently a difficult technical problem. i would have cared about this if this show came out before the last movie and we had a cool breadcrumb style approach leading up to the movie. unfortunately that movie (and the sequel trilogy more broadly) killed a lot of my interest in modern star wars. anyway, this cloning problem leads to a lot of very technical conversations in a children's' show that are interesting to me, a grownup, bc no star wars media has ever successfully explained 1) what midichlorians actually are and 2) the biological processes by which they operate but refuse to be cloned? which is extremely funny to me bc midicholrians aren't supposed to be real. qui-gon has that whole little speech and blood test in the phantom menace but the series had So scrupulously stayed away from explaining how the force works before that. they still fail to explain it but they at least attempt to break two inches of new ground. side note this show gives us TWO canon trans girl clones and i really wish they were in a better show.

it's annoying that i'm annoyed about a children's show meant to sell toys. some fun things: the pyke syndicate shows up, a slew of my favorite bounty hunters show up, this show is much better at painterly backgrounds and has an overall more concept-art feel than the clone wars proper or rebels. i think it would be cool if they stopped whitewashing the clones. i'm going to finish out the season but i don't exactly have a lot going on in my life right now. i am not terribly sad that this is the final season but BOY do they have a lot of loose ends to wrap up in three episodes.

-

playing

new genshin update on uhhh thursday and it's kind of exciting bc i THINK it will finally fill in this hole on the map and the associated shorelines of three different countries!

i thought i had long since found all the chests in liyue (the second area released) but in the process of doing a recently released character quest set in liyue i found another chest. this game is very good at hidden objectives and little secrets but i wish it was better at letting you know when you have Actually cleared an area completely of all the little hidden stuff. anyway i have been holding back the last character hangout (ningguang, my best beloved ruthless girlboss business high femme) for a terrible day and that day came! unfortunately hanging out with the fake pretend video game lesbian did make me feel better!

also unfortunately i fucked up and cannot count so the gacha pity system (every 90 pulls you're guaranteed a 5-star character) gave me Neuvillette. who i don't hate but i wasn't really planning on pulling for. i do like his questline and his voice actor, he simply doesn't fit in super well with a mono-electro team bc i play this game like an insane woman.

the real bitch of the thing keeping me from upgrading him is going out in the overworld and collecting enough sea stars. why can't he need flowers or little gears or anything else i have a thousand of.

anyway this gal will be dropping sometime in the next six weeks and i AM extremely excited to pull for her. she has some cool abilities (GUN) and is part of a popular pair with the steampunk lolita character i love and leads my other main team. i hope their abilities play well off each other but she has such a cool storyline and design i don't super care if she fits in with my playstyle. i will adapt for her in a way i am not willing to do with neuvilette

-

making

i am once again obsessed with gallery walls, bc a friend has asked me to find the correct gigantic size frames to put some comics on his wall, and that has given me an excuse to go to thrift stores again.

unfortunately i have mostly found frames for me, and the projects i have been working on have kind of a long tail of when they will actually be on my walls. i picked up four 16x20 frames for $2.50 each (solid wood! remarkably detailed!) bc i eventually want to put up these fallout maps in the style of national parks maps up on the map wall in my office. i suppose this means i should join @ruffledringdove and actually play '76, bc that's the one modern game i haven't played. these are getting scuff sanded with 120 and painted with a eggshell paint sample in a bright white u all know the drill at this point. ive painted a lot of frames in the past few weeks.

left is one of the painted 16x20 map frames, right i have also finally sanded and painted both 12x16 deckle-edged wood frames i picked up off the side of the road in MA. and found glass + backs for them! eventually i will procure fancy mats and print + frame my grandmothers' portraits. they will eventually go on the living room wall, which is a neutrals and blue-greens wall of slightly disdainful women. this will help me swap the three maps in there to the office map wall.

i have also acquired this gigantic plaster-over-wood mirror for $15. i am using leftover rub n buff bc i don't have a great spot to spraypaint here without sheeting my entire front porch, and rub n buff is way less susceptible to 80% humidity than spray paint. also i would have to buy spray paint. i am looking up suspiciously bc i thought there was a bug. not sure what mackie was looking at.

[pastel-pillows]

💕💕💕

I got a treat in the guest room with some dusty books !

Thank you for stopping by my haunted house! I hope you enjoy your treat 💕

A treat with Billy Hargrove and some dusty books. No warnings, all fluff and feelings, maybe a little sad at one point? I don’t believe I’ve used any descriptors so this can be read as m/f/gender neutral!

The spine creaked as you cracked the old album, the dust that had collected in the ridges of the pages puffing into the air that you hastily wave away before it could reach your faces the corners were worn and the green cover on it had begun to peel back to show the yellow, once white, backing underneath it. The cover page held neat slanted writing that read, ‘Billy Hargrove, March 29th, 1968, Welcome home!’

On the first page a red faced and very angry looking newborn wrapped in a powder blue blanket greeted you, he had soft tufts of sparse blonde hair fluffy and sticking in all directions. The woman who’s holding the baby is absolutely beaming at the person behind the camera, she shares the same blonde hair as the child and you instantly know that the people in the picture are Billy and his mother. Despite the weathered appearance of the album the picture itself is pristine.

“Look at how chunky you were.” Next to you Billy’s face flushes the same shade of red as it had in the picture, his face pinching in embarrassment.

“Do you want to see the photos or not.” He hastily flips the page and you see a grinning baby, big blue eyes and a head of untamed curls, he’s got a grin that nearly reaches his eyes and as many cheerios as he can fit in his tiny hands. Next to him is his mother, her hair tied in a messy bun and elbow deep in the box of cereal. In the background you can vaguely make out the shape of a man in a recliner sitting in front of a tv.

“You look just like her.” He had his fathers nose for sure, but the eyes, hair and smile were all his mother's. Still pink in the cheeks, his lips curled a little at the edges, his eyes softening as he took in the tired but pleasantly happy visage of his mother.

“I thought so too.”

The next page had a toddler, hair sun bleached and freckles emerging from the summer sun, he’s on a paddle board and sporting bright blue floaties with sharks on them, his hands grip the front of the board, nervous but excited to be in the water. Behind him is his mother, a few more wrinkles are around her eyes but she’s just as stunning as she was in the first two photos. Her smile is there, but her eyes are looking at Billy, not the camera.

There are more photos after that, Christmas mornings with him sitting in his moms lap surrounded by wrapping paper, Fourth of July where they’re wearing matching shirts and terrible matching hats, another of him on his first bike with her cheering him on from the side. You get to see one of him as a baby in a tub surrounded by toys and another of him simply sitting in front of the tv eating a bowl of cereal. Not all of the pictures are significant moments, but each one is filled with the love you can tell she had for him.

You pass through the pages, first days of school, first tooth fairy visit, picnics and zoo trips, birthday cakes and stuffy looking Easter outfits, once you pass the picture of his tenth birthday you start to turn the pages a little slower knowing that there won't be many more. These photos you savor a little more, the joy and trust in the face of this kid.

“These are beautiful.” About a third of the album is still left when you stop turning the pages, she’d left the summer after he’d turned ten and those plastic sleeves would be empty.

“Keep going.”

You’re sure the next pictures would be of high school, of Max and him taken by Susan, the new house, his car.

Instead you see yourself, fresh out of high school and seated on the hood of his Camaro with your cap and gown tossed to the side and a beer in your hand while you animatedly talk to Lucy.

You see a sneakily taken photo of the two of you asleep on the couch, the lights dimmed and the tv casting a blue glow on the room and your cuddled up figures. The angle of the picture is lower and off to the side, Max or one of the kids must have taken it after you’d had a pizza and movie night. It hadn’t been too early in your relationship, you were just at the point where tentative emotions had settled into an acknowledgment of love.

Looking at the soft lighting of the picture now you could still feel the warmth of him against you and the way his hand would absently rub your back as he faded out of consciousness, he’d never been that soft around others before and it had melted you to know he was comfortable enough to do so then. It melted you even more now to know that that moment had meant as much to him as it had to you.

Pictures you’d never known existed fill the rest of the album, games from high school where you’re wearing his jacket, you on max’s skateboard and him laughing on the side followed by one of you on your butt and him by your side, one’s you’d remembered Tina taking but never seeing of Billy covered in beer and you in the crowd counting his keg time, the shirt he’d worn gripped in your hands because you’d known he’d leave it somewhere and lose it before the night was over.

Snapshots of your relationship were laid out before you ranging from special things like first dates to mundane images you’d never think of twice like one of you rearranging the living room in your first apartment together, all carefully laid out in chronological order.

“I didn’t even know some of these had been taken.” Your finger traces the glossy body of the Camaro in one of the pictures, you were in your swimsuit washing his car after losing a bet, that one you’d known he’d taken but had assumed he’d kept by his bed. Each memory had a date and a sentence or two under it, his scrawl much rougher than his mother’s had been but just as intimate in the way it revealed how each moment was special to him.

“She was always taking pictures, said it was important to save the good moments;” while they were there was left unsaid. “This is where I keep mine.”

@billysbabyy @boomhauer

Special thanks to @jo-harrington for all your help with this. 💕

[lovelytsunoda]

teenage dream // george russell

summary: george goes all out when he finds out his girlfriend missed out on the experience of having a teenage romance.

pairing: george russell x female reader

warnings: mentions of sex & suggestive content, inexperienced reader. geochalex being chaotic.

authors note: welcome to the katy perry throwback series! lately I’ve been shockingly into her first two albums so here I give you a series for basically anybody I usually write for that wasn’t covered by the one direction series.

this one is so personal to me because I also missed out on having a teenage romance so I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do.

“so, george, how’s y/n?”

the mercedes driver rolled his eyes, sticking his middle finger up at the computer screen even though he knew alex couldn’t see, the screen filled with the latest game of apex legends that he and his closest friends were playing to waste the night from their respective parts of europe.

“she’s great, we’re great.”

he could practically hear charles rolling his eyes. “you’ve been acting strange for the past week and a bit, something is wrong mate.”

“nothing is wrong. in fact, since she moved in with me, I think our relationship has gotten stronger.”

“have you guys…” alex trailed off before clearing his throat “you know, have you guys had sex yet?”

“I don’t understand how that’s any of your business, alexander.” george huffed, leaning back in his gaming chair.

but the truth was, he hadn’t slept with y/n yet, and it was starting to make him nervous, wondering if he was doing something wrong.

she was so shy and quiet that it had taken the brit two months just to make sure that kissing her wouldn’t scare y/n off.

they’d been together for just under a year, and the farthest they had gotten to having intercourse was y/n letting george go down on her.

he had never even seen her without a shirt on.

“It’s my business because it’s weighing on your mind and it’s bothering you. we just want to help you.”

“well, no. we haven’t.” george sighed, pausing the game and running his hands over his face. “I know she’s shy, and she’s nervous, but she means so much to me and it’s killing me to think that I might not be making her comfortable enough for her to let me see her like that, or maybe she feels like she can’t talk to me about it-“

“george.” charles cut him off. “I know you want to avoid this conversation, but I think you need to talk to her about this if it’s bothering you so much.”

“I know, I just-“

“georgie? it’s late, baby. come to bed.”

george smiled, turning slowly in his chair, eyes lighting up when he saw y/n standing in the doorway. the love of his life was dressed in her favourite short-sleeved flannel pajama set: white with soft pink hydrangea flowers dotting the fabric.

“yeah, baby, I’ll be up in a second.”

“is that y/n?” alex shouted, his voice carrying through the headphones george was wearing. “hi y/n!”

“is that alex? can i say hello?” y/n smiled, reaching out a hand for the headphones.

george passed them to her, and she slipped them over her head. “hi alex, hi charles.”

“hi y/n!” both drivers chorused.

“lily wants to know how book club went? she wants to know what book to go out and buy next.” alex starting talking, charles quick to talk over him.

“I think george needs some attention, hes been spending too much time moping lately.” charles interjected. “he sounds like a man who needs his dick suck-“

“okay, charles, that’s enough,” george cut the monegasque off mid sentence, taking the headphones back. “good night, jackasses. I’ll call you in the morning.”

half an hour later, y/n was curled up in bed with a copy of lucy foleys ‘the guest list’, smelling like bath and body works and looking stunning, reading glasses perched on her nose.

george slipped into bed next to her, her eyes instantly drawn to the tight cotton shirt he was wearing, the hen tucked loosely into his flannel pajama pants with the different marvel superheroes on them. she bookmarked her page, placing the paperback on her nightstand before leaning over and quickly pressing a kiss to george’s lips.

“good night, gorgeous.” she said softly, slipping underneath the covers and curling into georges side.

george hesitated. “actually, honey bear, there’s something i wanted to talk to you about.”

a worried expression formed on y/n’s face, a bad feeling forming in the pit of her stomach.

“baby, what’s wrong?”

“it’s nothing bad, don’t be scared. I just, I was thinking earlier that we’ve been together a year now, and I’ve never seen you take your shirt off, and we’ve never really been intimate in the sense that we haven’t….”

“we haven’t fucked yet, right.” y/n said softly, lacing her fingers with his. “georgie, I’ve never told you this, but you’re my first everything. I never had the experiences that most people my age have, I never had a high school love, never had a one night stand at a college party. I’d never even been kissed before you.”

george felt like an asshole. “honey bear, I’m so sorry, I had no idea. please don’t feel like I’m pressuring you. we can take this at your own pace, whenever you feel ready, I’m be right here. I love you, angel.”

“I love you too.”

as george fell asleep that night with y/n in his arms, all he could think about was all the experiences that y/n must have missed out on.

and what he could do to make them all up to her.

———————————

you think I’m pretty, without any makeup on

y/n stood in the middle in the ensuite bathroom, dragging a plastic brush through her hair as she stared at her plain, delicate face in the mirror, an unopened tube of mascara lying on the countertop as george came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“you look beautiful, honey bear.” the mercedes’ driver cooed, pressing a gentle kiss to her neck, twisting the urge to slide his hands up the front of her white blouse.

he would wait for her to tell him when she was ready.

“thanks, babe.” she smiled softly, and it set butterflies loose in the drivers stomach.

she truly was perfect.

as y/n reached for the mascara tube, george slapped her hand away. “you don’t need that. you’re stunning without any makeup whatsoever.”

———————————

now every februrary you’ll be my valentine

it was late when she got home, and the large house, the house that usually felt somewhat less cavernous and wide when her boyfriend was around, felt empty like it had ever since george had left for bahrain. she had gone with him to the airport in gatwick and had cried before reluctantly letting him go with the rest of the mercedes team.

being a working woman and dating a man with a schedule as complicated as George’s wasn’t always easy, but she kept saying she could handle it.

she leaned over the post box to check for mail, her foot caught the edge of something soft.

she looked down, her heart filling with love as she looked at the massive bouquet of roses sitting on the front stoop, an envelope tacked to the front.

“oh, georgie.” she said to herself with a smile, struggling to hold the bouquet and get the door open at the same time.

after getting herself settled inside the house, and placing the roses in a vase on the kitchen table, she opened the card.

hope you had a good day at work, my love. miss you lots already. it’s way too hot here, and this is supposed to still be winter weather. hope you’re keeping warm!

love you, my valentine.

- george

with a giggle, she pulled out her phone to video call george and thank him in person. because of time zones, she wasn’t sure if george would even still be awake.

“george’s phone.”

“hi, toto.” y/n grinned, waving at the austrian.

george’s team principal had quickly become a very important person in the young couples lives, and whenever y/n needed to talk to someone who knew what dating a driver was like, and the mental toll that the constant weekends away that she couldn’t follow her lover for was pressing in on her, she found comfort in talking to totos wife susie.

“ah, y/n! you look well! george just came back from a meeting with his strategist, let me go find him for you.”

“thanks, toto. tell susie I miss her, we should get coffee next time she’s in london.”

moments later, george was on the phone, his smiling face and wide blue eyes filling the camera.

“hi honey bear! did you get the flowers?”

y/n giggled. “of course I got the flowers! babe, valentines day was weeks ago. you didn’t need to get me more roses. carnations would have done just fine.”

“but you’re my valentine all year round, darling.” george continued, a wide, lovesick smile on his face that made her heart swell.

“I love you, you big idiot.”

“I’m offended.” george joked, pretending to be upset at the jibe. “I love you too, baby. I’ll be home real soon, and I can’t wait to have you with me in australia.”

———————————

let’s go all the way tonight, no regrets, just love

“he crosses the line, and george russell is your pole sitter this hungarian grand prix !!”

y/n was ecstatic, jumping up and down excitedly in the lounge area of the garage, bright green mercedes headphones over her ears. she was beyond proud, watching the green and silver car back into the garage, the engineers, mechanics and strategists getting to their feet and cheering for the driver as he stepped out of the car.

y/n took off her headphones, hanging them over the monitor before she ran over to her boyfriend, her entire body seized with want as george ran his fingers through his hair, race suit tied low around his hips, abs straining against the fireproofs he wore underneath.

“I’m so proud of you!” she gushed, throwing her arms around george as he picked her up, spinning around in a few quick circles before he placed her back on the ground, kissing her hard and deep.

“we should celebrate.” george said gleefully, still trying to catch his breath. “order room service, watch an absurd comedy movie, maybe something with zombies? and then we’ll cuddle. lots and lots of cuddles, I think.”

that was what sealed the deal for y/n. she had already decided that hungary was going to be the weekend. the weekend that she gave george her everything, let him see her completely.

she kissed him softly, one hand slowly sliding down his chest. “or, I think I have a better idea.”

“yeah?“ george hummed. “what’s that?”

“I’m ready, george.” she said softly, slipping her hand down the front of his race suit to play with the waistband of his jack & jones underwear. “I want you.”

the drivers breath hitched. “seriously? god, I love you.” he kissed her quickly, pulling her close. “if you can contain yourself for an hour while I do media, I’m gonna take you back to our hotel and show you just how much i absolutely adore you.”

aside from when he went to the media pen, y/n was always at his side, their hands clasped together. the tire drive home, george always kept one hand on the wheel and one hand with hers. when they got to the hotel, he swept her off her feet, carrying her bridal style back to the room before laying her softly on the bed, leaning over her body to kiss her.

“I love you so much, baby. you’re in control tonight, okay? this is all about you, and I want you to feel how much I love you.”

later, after they had both come ( and it was the quickest george had ever come but he wasn’t even complaining about it because absolutely nothing could compare to the feeling of finally doing it with y/n, the love of his life) they were curled up next to each other, still fully undressed as george peppered her shoulder with gentle kisses, y/n sighing contentedly in his arms.

“you okay, honey bear?” he said quietly, voice husky. “do you need anything? glass of water, a coffee?”

y/n turned around in his arms, gently kissing the bridge of his nose. “I’m okay, baby. just a little cold. can you grab me a shirt?”

george was out of the bed in a flash, rotting around in his suitcase for a fresh shirt. one that he had worn already simply wouldn’t do for his princess.

he playfully tossed her the cotton tee before rooting around in y/ns suitcase for the large plastic hairbrush before rejoining his girlfriend in bed, overcome with love as he sat behind her, running the brush through her hair.

“can we still order room service? I was thinking about that the entire cool down lap and now I’m all excited.”

y/n laughed. “of course we are. and we’re watching the hangover as well, just like we had already planned.”

and then they kissed.

———————————

got a motel and built a fort out of sheets.

the house was dark when y/n came home. she had gotten stuck in traffic on her way out of london and wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and cry. george wasn’t due home from belgium for at least another twelve hours, and she had never missed the man more.

she was sweating in the summer heat, white tennis skirt sticking to her body as she took her high heels off, enjoining the feeling of her bare feet on the marble tiles as she crossed into the kitchen.

she had missed the suitcases sitting in the doorway.

y/n froze when she made it to the kitchen, staring in the direction of the den that lead out to the patio. the dining room chairs had all been pushed into the living room, in a large circle, draped in the grey cotton sheets from her and georges bed, a soft glow coming from inside.

and in the middle of it all was the man himself, george emerging from the sheet-fort to simply say “hi honey.”

“georgie!” she shouted, launching herself at the driver and wrapping him in a hug, peppering his face in kisses before their lips finally meet. “but how?”

“I got toto to put me on an earlier flight. I just had to come home to my girl.” the driver grinned, kissing y/n again. “come, let us waste the night away in my humble blanket fort.” george grinned to himself, pulling the sheets back to allow her to crawl into the fort.

the floor of the fort was covered in pillows, the duvet from the bed spread across the floor, fluffy blanket lying on top. an unmarked pizza box from costco sat on a tray in the middle, a projector pointed at the sheets.

“george, this is amazing.”

“anything for you, my sweet valentine.” george hummed, wrapping his arms around her and pressing a gentle kiss to her head.

“hangover part two?” y/n suggests, powering on the projector

“hangover part two.”

[fallingforel]

heyy! i was wondering if you could do an alex turner fic with the one bed trope (sorry if it sounds weird but english is not my first language🥹). thank you so much if you do it!! <3

a/n. of course my lovely. I would love to do this. here it is and hope you like it. p.s. this would defo happen with 2013 slutty alex era and I hope you like it. and don't worry...I barely understand my own english sometimes and I'm a native english speaker I had this half written a few weeks back but have finally finished it now. half asleep so sorry if theres any errors. It's probably the longest oLove you all <3😂😂😂

CW: sexual tension, smut, MNDI

NOTHING I MENTION IN THIS IS HOW I PORTRAY ANY PERSON! PLEASE REMEMBER THEY ARE ONLY FICTIONAL, JUST LIKE ANY OTHER BOOK!

PROMPT: none

WORDS: 2,894

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⋆｡°✩

Alex and I have never seen eye to eye with each other. And that really sucked when we were in a band together. I had only ever agreed to it because they were really desperate for a female singer for their songs. I was Matt's sister but have always despised Alex, ever since he moved in next door to me. During the summers when we was younger he was always soaking me with a water gun when I was trying to catch up on some reading and sun bathing.

MAY 2002

"Y/n please come on we're desperate for a female singer, please come on. You know I wouldn't ask if I was so desperate. But you're the only girl I know that can sing well" Alex said

"Okay fine." I say which makes Matt and Alex whisper Yes to themselves and fistpump the air.

"But on one condition." I say making them hold their cheers

"What?"

"Only until you find a replacement. Because this is not what I want to do, I want a Uni. You must promise me you actively look."

"okay" They both say in Unison

MAY 2013

After the glorious upturns of the first album I was surprised, and also Matt and Alex begged me to stay. I reluctantly agreed but I decided that I could get used to the lifestyle after going on our first tour.

So here I was On our 4th tour and My opinions of Alex hadn't change Infact I think they have gotten worse, especially since the incline we've had. The fame getting to his head a little bit. Thinking he could get every girl he wants. It really angered me. He also thought he was better than me and that riled me up, especially when we were on stage and he took over the spotlight, cutting me off at any moment he could.

It was only when we got to sweden things took a turn for the worse.

"I'm staying with breanna, Jamies with Katie, and nicks with Kelly. so you two have got to share" Matt said when we arrived at the hotel.

"WHAT??" Alex and I said in unison

"what do you mean we've got to share? I am NOT sharing with him"

"yeah and I'm not sharing with her"

"EXCUSE YOU? IM A DELIGHT TO SHARE A ROOM WITH I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW" I said raising my voice a bit which had people turning their heads to look in our direction, usually I would've been a bit embarrassed but in that moment I was too riled up to care.

"YOU SAID IT FIRST!" Alex retorted which only started the anticipated tumultuous bickering between the two of us.

Which made Matt shout over us "ENOUGH!" which made us stop and turn out heads at him. "It's only for one night, Please can you just get over it. It only happened because we had our original room arrangement of Alex and I sharing and then You, jamie and Nick having your own rooms and Breanna surprised me. I'll make sure Ian books five rooms for the next stop and the stops after so it doesn't happen again okay?" he asks. raising his eyebrow at both of us, and holding up a keycard

"fine." we both say. I grab the card from his hand and get in the lift, alex following hot on my heels, grabbing his suitcase dragging it across the floor, to the lift. I press the button for the fifth floor. We're waiting in silence for what feels like a decade but in reality is only a minute. The lift dings and we both step out.

I look for room 542 which I finally reach after turning a million corridors. I put the keycard in the door and open the door to find my worst nightmare a double bed...one.

"Oh this has got to be the worst day in existence." Alex says from behind me. "At least we can agree on one thing." I say before I'm hearing the door shut so I look behind me to find no Alex so I open the door. Only to find an Alex shaped figure walking the way to the lift so I shout "where are you going" "To find another room" "You won't find one, the rooms are all booked incase you haven't forgotten we're hosting a concert tomorrow" but I am met with a middle finger and Alex walking away.

⋆｡°✩

A knock is heard on the door 10 minutes later, I open it to find Alex standing at it. "No rooms available then?" "Nope. I'm going to sleep on the tour bus. Anything is better than sharing a bed with you" "Okay fine whatever, you won't find it comfortable especially after sleeping in hotels for this tour. see you in thirty" I say my back faced to him returning on getting my pyjamas and my shower stuff out of my suitcase. I'm only met with "see you at soundcheck" and dragging of wheels on the floor and harsh slamming on the door.

⋆｡°✩

thirty minutes later I had managed to get in and out of the shower in my pyjamas. and I was just about to dry my hair when I was met with a knock on the door, and once again there stood Alex.

"Uncomfy?" I questioned. before walking away from the door.

"No actually, there were fans outside shouting for you."

"awwh is the little narcissist too afraid of his ego getting bruised" I said with a fake pout on my face and a fake mothers concern lacing my voice.

"Fuck this I'm gonna go see if any of the lads will let me bunk with them" "for fucks sake Alex leave them alone, they're all with their girlfriends for the first time in months they don't need you cockblocking them" I said but once again I'm met with the harsh slam of the door

⋆｡°✩

No more than 10 minutes later I am met with a knock on the door. I open it once again but laugh when I'm met with Alex wincing in pain from breanna holding his ear "please take him, he's not sleeping in our room" She says. "Bring him in." I say sighing

"I told you, the girls don't want you interrupting their time with their boyfriends. Now stop being such a baby and get changed for bed. It's not that bad sharing with me."

"I'll sleep on the floor thank you" Alex says tenaciously. stripping himself down to the boxers, Alex is a good looking guy that I will admit, but not near enough personality to have me on my knees risking them getting first degree burns from the carpet. He had my throat in my mouth, almost losing the words coming out of my mouth... key word, almost.

"No you fucking well won't come off it, you and I know that it is near enough impossible to have a good night's sleep on the floor, now get in the bed. I'll create a pillow barrier, if I'm really that scary sleeping with" I say while pulling the covers down for Alex to climb in

"No need. I'll just sleep on the edge so nothing happens" he says.

"fine suit yourself" I say sighing turning over the other way and moving right to the end of the bed so that there was a big enough gap between the two of us .

⋆｡°✩

We were in silence for at least half an hour before Alex broke it.

"Why do you hate me?" Alex turned and said Of course he chose now to air out our dirty laundry, right when I was just about to imagine being in Chris Evan's arms.

"I don't hate you, I just dislike you. Since the minute you moved next door." I say turning to face him

"Oh come off it, You can't hold a grudge for that long Y/n." he laughs, that sound that only ever came out of Alex once in a blue moon, the kind of laugh that has you quaking in your boots like one of the fangirls of Elvis many years ago.

FUCK, I really have fallen for him. Maybe whatever I was feeling wasn't distaste, but in actual reality, Like.

I didn't have to tell him, one thing about me was I could keep a good facade up for a long long time.

"Oh, I can and I will" I say lying through my teeth.

"No seriously, there's something else what is it?" he says raising an eyebrow.

"I...Uh..." I said my cloudy brain betraying me, I knew there was a reason. I just couldn't think of it. Not right now, not when Alex was looking like a greek god infront of me.

snap out of it Y/n

"does this feel like the hate you have for me" he said leaning in and kissing my lips holding onto my hair. The kiss wasn't slow or sensual, nor filled with distaste. It was desperate, needy and fast, filled with desire. I kissed back my hands finding a way to latch onto his gelled hair.

After mere moments he moved on top of me, pulling off my pyjama top and finding his way to my unconcealed breasts kneading them like he was a sculptor and I was his masterpiece. He then moved his way down from my lips kissing down my neck placing hot warm open mouth kisses until he reached my tits sucking them and occasionaly nibbling my nipples.

He spent a few moments on each of my boobs until he started working his way down my body until he reached my belly button sending shivers up my spine causing me to arch my back, which allowed him to tug my pyjama shorts off along with my panties. The cold air to my exposed core shocked me right though causing an audible gasp.

"Now, Now Princess, None of that yet. I haven't even showed you my expert skills" Alex said, cockily. Stopping his work for a second tilting his head up to reach my eyes looking into my eyes with his hazel ones staring right back up at me lust taking over the hazel with black.

He continued with his hot wet kisses down until he reached my core, placing a hand over my clit before he started licking my folds slow and sensual, before he dove right into my clit switching his fingers for his mouth. He entered his fingers into me easing slowly but the pace soon quickened, causing me to let out a few whimpers every now and again.

He then switched out his fingers for his tongue jerking in and out sending me right out the knot forming in the bottom of my stomach before I could even orgasm though he pulled away completely.

"what are-" "I want to be inside you when you come" He said cutting me off sitting up and ripping off his clothes, one item by one until I heard the irreplaceable rip of foil he was infront of me completely naked and he came back down over me, placing his cock back inside me without warning which made me gasp.

Our bodies moved together, slow and sensual then fast and needy before I felt that knot again in the bottom of my stomach "Alex" I let out a moan "Im about to-" "let go princess I'm there too." We both came together it was something out of a movie the way Alex's face morphed when he came. We stayed together for a few minutes before he flipped me over and both our libidos came back again.

"ride me this time sweetheart, I want to feel every inch of that pussy sweetheart" He said, I didn't need telling before I was on top of him bouncing rolling my hips every which way. It soon got me to come again. Letting out a few strings of moans before, "oh alex" "oh my god" "Oh fuck" before a final one.

"that's it sweetheart come for me let it all out"

He came soon after.

I laid ontop of him for a good while.

"Come on lets get you cleaned up darling" He said getting up and pulling out of me before picking me up and pulling me into the bathroom and sitting me on the toilet

"go for a wee sweetheart, you don't want any nasty UTI'S" I did as he said while he found a some bubble bath and started running a bath.

"why are you doing this alex?"

"Why am I doing what sweetheart?"

"Looking after me, it's not like I deserve it. I've been nothing but horrible to you these past years we've known each other"

"It's what you deserve." He said,

the silent air between us smelt of sex but also had tension riding between us. What that tension was, I had no idea.

"Can I tell you something y/n" Alex said breaking the uncomfy silence we were sitting in

"You don't have to ask if you can tell me something Alex. Just tell me."

"I acted vile towards you, because I thought it was easier than loving you Princess. I soon realised that couldn't be far from the truth though. Loving you has been the easiest thing I have ever done." He said before retracting back into the silence that we had created around us.

"Alex." I said sighing

"You don't have to say you love me back right now, But there has to be something there right? what happened back there. There wasn't an ounce of hate in that sex Y/n"

"It's a lot right now Alex, But I definitely like you back." I said smiling sluggishly, the post sex sleep taking over my eyelids.

"uh uh, don't fall asleep on me princess. It's time to take a bath" He said pulling me off the toilet seat and placing me into the bathtub before climbing in behind me and sitting behind me allowing me to put my head back onto his chest.

He washed my hair, my back and let me do the rest we stayed resting against each other for a few minutes before he coaxed me out of the bathtub wrapping me up in a towel and putting my hair in another towel turban style. After getting dried I put my hair into a ponytail and put my pyjamas back on.

Alex joined me back on the bed, and pulling me close to his chest. we stayed like that before I felt my eyes grow heavy and fall asleep in Alex's warmth.

⋆｡°✩

I was woken up with chaste kisses being placed on my back with a pair of manly arms wrapped around my waist. Panic ensued for a few moments before I realised what happened last night.

Alex.

"I acted vile towards you, because I thought it was easier than loving you Princess" "Loving you has been the easiest thing I have ever done"

Princess.

A smile ripped through the blank expression on my face. It felt like a dream but alas it wasn't it was real life. I had someone that loved me someone that I loved back. I always thought that this happened in romance books or movies. But, it happened in real life too. That much was proven by Alex and I.

I hummed and turned over wrapping my arms round Alex

"Morning princess," Alex said "Why do you call me that?" "what princess?" "yeah."

"because, you are a princess and you deserve the world of luxuries" "Alex" I said tearing up "That's one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me"

"don't cry darling, I didn't mean to make you cry. I've done that enough over the years we've known each other"

"Happy tears I promise" I say silence crowding over us, But this time a nice comfortable one, Unlike the uncomfy tension one last night in the bathroom.

"I've been doing some thinking" I say this time me being the one to break the silence.

"Oh yeah? what's that darling?"

"I realised that I feel the same way you feel about me, I realised that I haven't felt like this ever, not when I was with other people, I never felt about them the same way the way I feel about you. I love you back Alex." I say before I get a kiss on my lips. This time filled with love, no desire for it to turn into something deeper.

Though we were soon burst out of our bubble by a knock at the door we both groaned I got up and answered the door.

"What do you want Matt?"

"Oh shit, You and Alex had sex didn't you. EWWW, ALEX MY SISTER DUDE?"

"Shut up what do you want?"

"You didn't deny it. It's true then?"

"yes. Alex and I are now seeing eachother. It happened last night. Now. Answer my question. What. Do. You. Want?"

"good to know. Your going to miss breakfast, It ends in half an hour and also soundcheck starts in 2 hours so make sure you're at the tour bus with 15 minutes to spare. Thank you goodbye. guess I won't need to be telling Ian to book those spare rooms after all." Matt says turning his back as I go to the shut door.

⋆｡°✩

END.

[thislovintime]

During the filming of 33 ⅓ Revolutions Per Monkee, November 1968.

Peter leaving The Monkees, post 3 of 3.

“I just basically think that I wasn’t feeling a part of it anymore already by that point, I’d already felt like I was odd man out, and of course I quit almost immediately thereafter.” - Peter Tork, Headquarters radio, 1989

“I’d always had deep doubts, ever since the session for ‘Last Train To Clarksville.’ I walked in there with my guitar and Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart looked at me with derision and scorn, like, ‘Guitar in your hand, you fool!’ That was the end of it for me. Right there I was done with The Monkees in large measure. I struggled against it with some success at one point. But after Headquarters nobody wanted to be a recording group anymore. I did what I could, but I didn’t feel like there was any reason for me to be there anymore. I wanted to be in a rock group.” - Peter Tork, Head 1994 liner notes

“While we were making the TV Special, knowing I was not going to be there any longer, I just thought to myself — I don’t have to worry about this thing — and I just let everything slide off my back.” - Peter Tork, NME, January 25, 1969

“We never thought of replacing him — there’s only one Peter Tork in the world.” - Michael Nesmith, Melody Maker, March 1, 1969

Q: “So, when you left, did you want to be known as the former Monkee or did you want to erase that part of your past —” Peter Tork: “I tried to erase it.” Q: “— and start anew.” PT: “I tried to erase it completely.” Q: “How do you do that?” PT: “Well, you just don’t do anything connected with it, just absolutely refuse to have anything to do with it.” - NPR, June 1983 (x)

“Headquarters was by far the best album in the sense that it was us. It was honest, it was pure, and we had a great time. Peter says that the reason he quit was because after we did this album, we decided we weren’t going to be a group anymore. It broke his heart, because Headquarters was the whole reason why he’d become one of The Monkees.” - Micky Dolenz, Headquarters 1995 liner notes

“[Micky] did a great job [drumming] on Headquarters. [But] he wasn’t going to do it again, and there was nothing you could do [to change his mind]. We had to go back in the studio. He said, ‘Peter, you can’t go back.’ Eddie Hoh did the drumming [on Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., save for ‘Cuddly Toy’]. Chip [Douglas] got him ‘cause he could read [music]. The result is that you get directed stuff, there’s no group interaction, which is why I wanted the group to be on the album in the first place. You listen to Beatle albums and one of the things that makes them great is that they have found ways to use who they have to get what they want without asking anyone to do what they couldn’t do. That’s what makes group music happen. That’s all I ever hoped for, and I had it for like a minute on Headquarters.” - Peter Tork, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones Ltd. 2007 liner notes

“[Peter] admits he harbored a lot of bitterness for many years. The main bone of contention was the TV show’s producers insistence that the band members not play their own instruments. [...] ‘I was devastated at first. I originally approached The Monkees in terms of my own desire to be part of a genuine pop-rock music group. I felt like it was a professional slight to me. Like I was being excluded.’” - The Bellingham Herald, August 5, 1996

“Peter wasn’t satisfied musically [with The Monkees]. He’d been led to believe he could express himself musically. He was frustrated.” - Davy Jones, News-Press, May 14, 1977

“‘I was mostly interested in the Monkees as a musical entity,’ Thorkelson commented. ‘We didn’t fully realize that potential, and I felt ripped off.’” - The Bowling Green News Revue, May 24, 1979 (x)

“We’re all sorry to lose Peter but it was all very friendly and I personally can understand what is going through his mind, He’s a clever guy, you know, and he gets kinda restless sometimes. You should see the books he plows through… real deep stuff with words about a mile long.” - Davy Jones, Monkees Monthly, February 1969

“Peter and I were the bulk of the playing ability because we were musicians. But when Peter left it rather unnerved Davy and [Micky] — and I changed my mind [about quitting]. After all, the personal appearances were pretty well satisfying, the music was fun, and the whole thing was fairly lucrative. And Davy and [Micky] left alone would have been in real trouble.” - Michael Nesmith, Disc & Music Echo, September 19, 1970

“If the truth be known, the day Peter quit was probably the happiest day of Mike’s life. They’d never really gotten along, right from day one. Mike had always perceived of Peter as untenable, and they’d always been adversarial, if not outright combative. Finally he was out of the way. Now Mike could get on with doing what he had always wanted to do, make the Monkees his group. And I was happy to go along. I respected Mike and his music and was quite prepared to go along for the ride. [...] I saw Peter’s abdication as a minor setback at most. Basically, I think the three of us really thought that would be able to go on, just as we had before, and nobody would even notice there were only three people on stage instead of four — after all Peter didn’t sing on many of the songs anyway. How naive. […] I suppose it depends on whom you talk to, but as far as I’m concerned, the day Peter quit was the day the music died (apologies to Don McLean).” - Micky Dolenz, I’m A Believer: My Life of Monkees, Music, And Madness (1993)

[madeofsweetness]

Book Talk Continuation @2pretty

I honestly loved reading your thoughts (the analogy to junk food was perfect!) and I agree with everything you said. The most beautiful thing you wrote was, "Our time should be spent in a way that makes us love life, not distracts from us living it." It’s the whole conclusion of the book really! I’ve noticed that many people in our generation are almost against the idea of this. They call everything cringe, make fun of people who are happy, disrespect anyone who doesn’t believe their nonsense, and try to drag others down. This is the problem of social media I guess and I’m sure you’ve talked about it before.

Also let me point out, the quote at page 202 is spot on! When I began to limit my sm usage and do No Social Media Sundays (thanks to you girl!), I felt anew. I now do not wanna spend no more than like 20 minutes on apps like twitter and tumblr cause it feels weird😭 Cultivating a life worth living is the ultimate freeing state to be in and a lot of these apps become extremely wasteful, once you start filling your schedule with higher quality activities. It’s just like Outkast said, you need to get up, get out and get something. Don’t let the days of your life pass by! 

I would love to hear about any habits you have or will do as well! But here are my habits I would like to implement after reading this book: 

Calling people instead of texting. Honestly, the only people I call are my family but when I make more friends, I want them to know, calling is my preferred method of communication. I want to be even more human again and only texting doesn’t allow for that. (Reference to page 145 about irl communication vs digital)

Printing or writing out directions instead of using google maps. I love google maps but I want to be able to have an internal compass, know which street will come after the other and be able to ask people around me for help like my parents do, without feeling so sure that “oh my phone will tell me”.

Only accessing social media on my laptop instead of through the apps. The apps are there to make the process convenient and addicting but I’m planning on using these apps for a sole purpose which means, I can’t keep caring about conveniency!

Only looking up words in my physical dictionary. As a kid, I loved reading my dictionary and encyclopedia but as technology progressed, it became easier to quickly open the next tab and search "what does [blank] mean?" without thinking. I honestly miss the feeling of cracking open a hardcover book and scanning through the words until I finally landed on what I was searching for. Plus I think dictionaries are good for truth/historical purpose, it’s not based in emotion ;) hehe

Buy photo albums again!! I still use disposable cameras so that’s not a problem, but instead of keeping my pics digital, I want to print them out from my phone and keep them safe in a beautiful family album like how my other memories are. I also was totally inspired by my mom bcs I seen her photo book from her teen years and it warmed my heart completely. Memories will always be cherished, even the silly ones. 

Praying 24/7. To talk, to reflect, to ask for guidance, etc. I’m realizing that praying isn’t to be done only when in a [blank] state of mind nor is it to be "perfect". (Direct reference to page 95)

Learning to not just whip out my headphones when I feel awkward. On page 100, I felt sooo called out when he said iPods created this way of living that now enables you to have a musical backdrop for your entire day lol. I love music too much to give it up whenever I’m outside especially since it helps with my emotions, but I do recognize that being plugged in constantly will not want to make people talk to me, and I want to look approachable and friendly!!

I eventually want to start taking 2 hour walks. That’s it.

Months ago, I wished badly to have love letters written about me from my future man haha, but I realized I could write myself love letters! I decided that every year I could write about what this year was about for me. I don’t know if I will still do that or if I’ll just write everything down in my journal and label that as my "love letter" but either way, I’m documenting off of my phone.

Just like when I was a kid, I now always carry a current book im reading, my word finder book and a notebook whenever I leave the house. Only problem is I need a bigger bag haha.

As a (Black) American, I think it’s crucial for me to learn the skills that my grandmother and great grandmother knew, things like sewing, quilting, and cooking without recipes lol, are what I want to know how to do as well. I think it’s a wonderful way to honor them and when I have my own family, I would love to teach my children too. These crafts should not be forgotten, it’s culture.

[p0ssywhippedcream]

Omg a cute L POV where reader is part of the Yagami family and there comes the time when the cameras are put in the house . So L is surveying reader and sees her secretly smoke at night and put on music and start dancing by herself . He finds it endearing and attractive and begins to like her .

I love how you write fluff ❤️

Thank you so much, lovely! This is adorable and I really want to do it justice so I hope you like it :)

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Justice can get really boring. Being the world’s greatest detective may seem like an exhilarating and rewarding job but most of the time, it’s paperwork and surveillance and more paperwork.

Right now, L was bored out of his mind. Watching Light study and giggle to himself as he wrote down math answers orwatching Sayu squeal at grown idols on the TV was not very entertaining.

The only person in the Yagami household that was relatively interesting was Y/n Yagami, but half of the time she was out with her friends. When she was at the house, it was between the late hours of 10pm and 6am, and she would be sleeping like a normal person.

Tonight was a Thursday. Usually, you would be out at your friend’s house or seeing a film but you were tired of the drama in your friend group and decided to stay home. College was exhausting anyway, and listening to Kami rant about another failed date was not something you wanted to do.

So for a few hours, you’d read some of your favorite book series, rearranged your desk, took down posters, put the same posters up again and laid down on the floor. It was obvious you were nearly as bored as L was.

At about 1:37 in the morning, you pick up your phone and text someone. At about 2:04 in the morning, you slide out your window and grab something from a car that stopped outside. At about 2:16 in the morning, you’d changed into a T-shirt and boyshorts and propped open a window.

You lit and inhaled a poorly-rolled blunt, huffing out the window with a stupid smile. You turned to your old cd player that sat next to you on the window ledge and popped in your City to City Gerry Rafferty album. You skipped a couple songs and found Right Down the Line.

You unfold your legs, rising from your seat and swaying your hips as you hum. The music fills the small, quiet room, spilling out of corners and overflowing when it hits your roof. You tap the lit blunt on the edge of your window as you go, watching the ashes fall out like snow. They drift away like forgotten memories, stars that fade into the sidewalk and street.

The song reaches your favorite part and your lungs taste the distinctive warmth again as you inhale. You exhale in the form of the lyrics, raspy at first. It’s decently loud because of how low the music is playing, they flow out like water in a stream of smoke.

L watches entranced, his heart swells with every spin on your socked toes, every inhale on a smooth hand and every jut of your shoulders and hips. Your hair spills over your body as you move, and it’s not graceful, infact it’s jerky and unstable and you might fall at any moment.

But you look ethereal. Your eyes flicker closed and open through your dance, there’s a soft smile that plays on your lips who surround the blunt that’s now died to merely a stub. You notice a moments later, when your hands travel from your thighs to your torso and feel you up aimlessly.

Flicking it out the window, you run your fingers across your body one last time and collapse on your bed. You shirt comes up to right under your chest and you stare at your ceiling longingly. L’s heart skips a beat when your eyes meet a camera and narrow. He doesn’t want to be on the receiving end of your glare, even if he knows it’s not really directed at him.

Thankfully, you shake your head and let it fall to the duvet softly. Your hair spreads out around your head like a mermaid, and your stupid grin comes back. L thinks you look stunning.

When your hips continue to gently move against your mattress, L grows a smile to match yours. You look cute like that. Really cute. And he really wouldn’t mind seeing you in person.

He discards that thought but it lingers anyway, right next to your knowing eyes that shine when they catch the glint of a camera lens.

[final-girl96]

My Boyfriend's Back: Epiloge

A/N: This is short, and I hate to say it, but this is the end of the story. I will not be continuing into Scream 4, 5, and 6. I will be moving on to Killer Geek next. A very OOC Randy Meeks x Loomis Reader. I don't know when I will be posting anything on that story, probably not until I have at least ten chapters. I hope you enjoyed this story. Thank you for reading and being so patient with me and my lack of updates recently. I love you all. xoxo

Ten Years Later

We moved out of California like we said we would. Stu changed his name and looks. It's been ten years, and nobody has seemed to recognize him. Reese is eleven and in the sixth grade. Everything has been great. We got married seven years ago. I got back into my music and released an album, and Stu went back to school. He got his GED and then went to school for film. We live in a gated community and have the most expensive security system I could get.

I know it sounds ridiculous and over the top. I live with the man who started at this shit but I didn't want to be caught off guard one day. There had been the occasional prank calls here and there with someone pretending to be ghostface. I wanted to keep purpose daughter our of that life. She knows everything. It was hard to hide as she got older. She's smart and sneaky. I probably shouldn't have kept newspaper clippings of everything.

Dewey and Gale are married, still living in Woodsboro. Dewey is the sheriff now, and Gale hasn't written a book in years. But Stab movies keep being made. Of course, after the third movie, Sidney and I threatened to sue if they made any more stable movies based on our lives. The movies have gotten worse and worse.

Speaking of Sidney, she moved out of California too, right after our dad passed away. He had a heart attack a few years after the Hollywood murders. She wrote a book called Out of the Darkness." The books about her…our lives, and how she has dealt with it. She also married Randy, which let me say it was a huge shock. But they grew closer, and she agreed to let him take her on a date. That date turned into another and another, and before she knew it, she was saying yes to marrying him.

Randy wrote a script he had been working on for years, and then he made it into a movie. He produced and directed it himself. He's a big director now and had made dozens of movies, at least of them being his own. Stu has helped on a few of them, co-directing with him. Sidney and Randy also have two kids together, Lily is five, and Nolan is three. They live a few houses down from us, and we have dinner every Friday night.

Life couldn't be any better. It's not what I was expecting it to be, but it all worked out. I still have a small part of me that wonders if Stu ever gets the urge to kill. He's very protective of me and Reese. Randy and Sidney weren't all to on board when I told them about getting back with Stu. They both thought it was a horrible idea, but over time, they have learned to put the past behind them and accept it. I made Stu get rid of anything that linked him back to the ghostface murders. So far, we haven't had any problems, and I hope it stays that way.

[fayestardust]

Tag game: Get to Know Me

I was tagged by the lovely (or should I say lucky...) @luckynumber4 I haven't done a tag thing in forever and I am very excited to be included. I feel like I'm kind of on the outside of all the fandoms I'm in so thank you!

Name:

Maartje. But most of you will have originally gotten to know me as Faye. Or K-Maart, but only if you're a weirdo.

Pronouns:

She/her.

Star sign:

Libra and I'm indecisive as fuck.

# of siblings and fun facts about them (if you have any):

Only child. Unspoiled. Privileged, though.

# of pets & their names:

Three absolute menaces of cats. Toodle, Pip and Ollie.

Fandoms:

Band of Brothers, the Pacific, Harry Styles, One Direction (former but forever), Justified, Doctor Who, Timeless, Silo, The Social Network, whatever else you rope me into.

Favorite color:

Pink. #DD2D86

Favorite song:

Only one? Jesus. The audicity of making me choose. Stuck In The Middle With You by Steelers Wheel is what you get today. Ask me again tomorrow.

Favorite author (of anything readable - books, fanfics, zines, webtoons, whatever!):

@almost-a-class-act is my absolute favourite everything. But yes, fanfic writer, too. I can't really make up my mind about book authors, but I'm currently reading Wool by Hugh Howey who is fantastic and writes really original stories. I really like his short stories, too.

Favorite fic type:

Fluff and Angst. But outside of fanfic, I love a bit of historical fiction, sci-fi or mystery. Confuse the hell out of me, please.

Favorite Holiday:

Anything warm. Not particularly attached to any particular day. Christmas was good this year.

Do you have a partner (romantic, qpr, anything!)?:

Nope. Sad face.

Hobbies:

Writing, drawing, painting, photography, reading, and consuming content on various streaming platforms.

Fun facts about you:

I was born 12 weeks premature. I have aphantasia (look it up, it's weird af). I recorded an album in a studio once. Harry Styles knows who I am (flex. But he's probably forgotten).

Tagging

Anyone who wants to do this is welcome to of course, but @almost-a-class-act, @mutantmanifesto @cody-helix02 and @derry-rain are the people who come to mind immediately.

[sexybabystevie]

Hi! I'm rather new to your channel because I saw your Steve x sarcastic reader HCs and I absolutely LOVED them they were so, so good and you're extremely talented at making HCs and I wanted to add my own into the mix as well.

Rose 🌹 – Red roses symbolize romance, love, and courage. Send me a short description of yourself, including things you enjoy doing, and your desired character to receive a headcanon on how they would confess their feelings to you!

My desired character is going to be a little bit tricky because I have two ST loves of my life but because you just did a Steve one I think I'm going to pick Eddie.

So hi! I'm a little bit more of a socially awkward type, I tend to be really introverted but once you get to know me I'm insanely sunshine-y and happy. I tend to really love reading books especially Stephen King or fantasy novels, Lord Of The Rings has been a huge part of my life since I was in middle school and my parents finally deemed me old enough to watch the live action films with them. I also am obsessed with film, I love rewatching the same movies over and over again. I love studying film, my parents have this running joke where I can figure out the plot of any show and for the most part be right on the money every single time *they're always like wtf are you magical or something every time it happens*. I'm also utterly in love with musical theater cast albums as well and could probably talk for hours endlessly about my favorite ones. My music taste is a really intense mesh of 80's pop, rock, and metal music as of recently. It was actually due to Eddie that I explored metal music and found affection for it in the first place.

Thank you for listening! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with

A/n: Thank you so much for the kind words!! I'm so happy you liked my other headcanons! <3 I have to say that this is the first time I'm writing for Eddie, so I hope that I do his character justice! (And that you enjoy!) And, I’m also so sorry this took so long! You caught me right between the time that I was in the process of moving to and starting college, so things have been pretty hectic since then! Thank you so much for your patience!

Eddie Munson Masterlist

Song of Sunshine

Eddie Munson x Sunshine!Reader

Tags and Warnings: No Warnings, Soft!Eddie Munson, Friends to Lovers, Headcanons, Sunshine!Reader, Implied Love Confessions, Pure Fluff, Dorky!Eddie Munson.

Word Count: 3010

He hadn’t meant to, but Eddie Munson had been eyeing you for a while; you were someone of great mystery to him. He was familiar with almost every face in Hawkins High, having dealt with some of them for far too many excruciatingly long years, and yet yours is one that’s on his mind more often as of late. He’s been scanning the lunchroom on the daily, keeping his eyes out for any new recruits for Hellfire, and something in his gut keeps pointing him in your direction, his gaze always lingering a little longer on you than at any of the others. 

If he’s being honest with himself, he’s tired of seeing the same painfully mundane, averagely boring kids each and every day – none of them really having that spark, that potential that he’s been searching for – so he’s almost giddy when he sees you sitting alone at a lunch table, nose buried between the pages of The Lord of the Rings. Instantly his mind is ringing, thoughts scattering because he feels like you’re a light at the end of the tunnel – someone with the kind of creativity and interests that would fit in perfectly with Hellfire – and as much as he wants to rush up to you to ask if you’ll join his club, he’s still a little hesitant. There’s an almost shy nature about you, bashful and timid like a wild bunny, and while he finds it endearing, he also is aware enough that he shouldn't startle you and disrupt your peace. 

So, instead, he waits. He waits for probably too long, because it’s been about a week and you’ve moved on from The Lord of the Rings and are now reading Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. He thinks it’s certainly an interesting choice – despite his somewhat intimidating style of dress, he certainly isn’t one that handles horror easily. Especially horror novels; he only half paid any attention to a short story that one of his teachers read aloud in one of his many English classes, and he was so disturbed that he nearly didn’t sleep for days afterward. Hell, he can’t lie, there have been D&D sessions that he’s been to that he’s nearly pissed his pants over. To say that his imagination is overactive – so active that reading anything remotely grotesque has him shuddering and feeling nauseous – would be an understatement. Movies, he can somewhat handle, what’s shown on screen is tame compared to what he could conjure with his mind, but anything even mildly scary in book form is a no-go. 

That’s part of the reason that he stalls again, face scrunched up in thought as he look intently at you. Something about you has him feeling sheepish; all he can seem to do is marvel and wonder about you from afar. He knows the younger members of Hellfire – Mike, Lucas, and Dustin – have noticed his thoughtfully awkward glances, meaning his time before they undeniably make some witty comments is running thin. He knows he needs to say something before someone catches him staring and wrongfully assumes he’s being a creep like half of the guys in Hawkins High tend to be, but he feels frozen in time, a wistful statue caught in a moment of hesitance.

He’s so preoccupied with his thoughts that he barely registers the bell ringing and the horde of students that meander along to their next class. He’s not fully aware of his surroundings as he stands and takes his plastic tray over to the garbage can, and he’s definitely not on planet Earth as he accidentally steps on the back of his own shoe, sending him pummeling right into the back of someone who seems oddly familiar. Someone who he thinks he should be able to instantly recognize, someone whose mere outline is something he should have engrained into his mind, and all too quickly they’re turning their head and he gets a glimpse of the cover art for Pet Sematary and – oh, shit. It’s you.

This isn’t how he expected to introduce himself to you, with his hands grasping at your shoulders and his face inches away from the back of your neck as he tries not to tumble the two of you into the disgusting cafeteria floor, and he feels both like laughing and cursing himself for his inattentiveness. At the sight of you, however – wide, nervous eyes and bashful smile – Eddie’s completely drawing a blank. You’re looking at him with polite inquisition, questioning and uncertain but in a gentle manner, and he can’t even begin to imagine what’s on your mind. He has a reputation that precedes him; school-proclaimed ‘Freak,’ a thought that almost has him cringing. Normally, when he’s in his element – talking with his friends, managing the Hellfire Club, playing D&D – he doesn’t care less about what some pretentious teenagers think of him, but right now, he can’t deny the rush of anxiety that hits him like a wave on the beach. He’s been thinking of this moment for days, of how to talk to you so that you think he’s cool, and messing it up feels close to that same kind of humiliation that he vowed to throw away when kids relentlessly teased him for being different in the early years of middle school. 

Still, he trusts you and your awesome and somewhat intimidating taste in novels, and he must really be caught on the idea of that because he’s suddenly blurting out, “I wouldn’t have ever pinned you as the type for horror.”

He immediately feels regret – who is he to try and say something about your personality? He’s barely been aware of your existence prior to this week and God, he feels really stupid, until your soft voice breaks through to him.

“And you’re not?” It’s quiet in the chaos of the lunchroom, shrouded in shyness but also holds hints of something else, something more familiar. Something he’s used to hearing from his friends, that’s kind and a little playful, and then he realizes that you’re not only trying to make friendly conversation – you’re giving him a chance! – but you’re also attempting a little joke. Albeit, it is a tad awkward with the tone you’re using, but he doesn’t mind at all. He actually thinks it’s quite cute, although he doesn’t spend too much time reeling on that thought.

“Definitely not,” he says, and he finds himself shocked as how easily he’s telling the truth. Most people he knows would have lied, either to have more of something to relate to or to create a false sense of self, but he doesn’t feel the need to. There’s a kindness, a curiosity in your eyes that has him wondering if you’ve been stealing glances at him for days like he has. “I’m more of the adventure-fantasy type guy.”

The words have barely fell from his lips and you’ve already got a low-burning fire behind your eyes, the excitement that he previously saw secondhand now coming forward. He smiles softly to himself; the spark.

“Really?” you ask, voice a little louder, more incredulous. The rays of passion peek behind the clouds of your timidity, and it’s obvious that you find it hard to bite back an agape expression. 

“Yeah!” Eddie exclaims, as if his answer is the most obvious thing in the world. Maybe it is. “The only time I ever really cared enough to show for English class was when we read The Lord of the Rings.” 

His words are like gasoline, setting your already simmering demeanor aflame, the former introversion suddenly thrown out the window. Your features are bright, eyes glittering with interest. A bright smile overtakes you, covering you like a thinly veiled blanket, and you look so surprised and enthusiastic that you’re standing on your tip toes, bouncing softly on the pads of your feet. Your exhilaration is highly contagious, worse than the time Hawkins closed down the schools a few years ago because over half of the student population had the flu, and Eddie doesn’t fight the way his mouth automatically widens its grin to match yours. As if he could, anyway.

You trudge back to class together, replying to one another with elevated voices that earn a few annoyed glances from your teachers, and while neither of you are even aware of it in the moment, this is the start of something new, unbidden as a rose petal among the concrete, but not unwelcome. When Eddie finally gathers up his courage and asks you if you’ll tag along at the next Hellfire meeting – as a bystander so you can decide if you want to really join in and start making your character next week during your lunch break – you say yes with a smile sweet as honey, and just like that, your futures have been interwoven.

As Eddie expects, your “tryout,” as the younger children of Hellfire have so intelligently deemed it, goes amazingly. You’re already forming a character and their backstory, spewing intricate details to him as he drives you home. He doesn’t even have to ask if you’re coming to their meeting next Saturday; the gleam in your eyes already answered his silent question the moment that the group continued their game. You hadn’t even had all of the context and you were still watching in awe, shoes excitedly tapping against the floor as you “watched the magic happen,” as Eddie said. He wasn’t wrong; your creative and wandering mind easily was captivated the second that he began recalling where exactly the players had left off last time. 

You show to Saturday’s meeting, and the following Saturday’s, and you even go to Mike Wheeler’s dusty basement – which everyone made sure to let you know wasn’t mandatory – to retrieve some old character sheets on an early Monday morning during your autumn break. Even Mike, the kid whose house they were digging through, complained about having to get up to help find his own precious pages, but you hopped right into Eddie’s van without hesitation or resistance, only thing carried with you being a sleepy grin. 

Turns out, you make an interesting addition to their group. Your enthusiasm and cheeriness – regardless of the situation – is unmatched, and the contrast between the group before and after you’ve arrived is grand. You always shout out unique suggestions, make references to your favorite novels and movies, and you never fail at being a carrier for glee. One small gasp of excitement from you is all it takes for your energy to bleed through to everyone else; some of the other members, like Mike and occasionally Dustin, feign mock annoyance at how easily everyone is swayed by you, but it never seems genuine. If it ever verges too close to hurtful territory, Eddie shoots them a harsh glare as a warning and they back off, which you always find amusing. You know that, out of the two of you, Eddie’s the least likely to hurt even a caterpillar. 

It’s not long before the two of you are spending insane amounts of time together, including outside of school and Hellfire. Sometimes he comes over to your place and you sit outside together, toes in the soft grass as you catch each other up on everything going on in your lives – not that there’s ever that much you have to fill him in on; you’re practically attached at the hip when you can be. Other times you hang out in your living room, rewatching some of your favorite films while raiding your snack cabinet. Some of Eddie’s favorite moments are these; when he’s sitting next you, arm lazily rest upon the back of the couch, close enough to you that you can feel the warmth of his skin without touching, and he can watch you vividly talk about your analysis of specific scenes in the films. Witnessing your raw, glowing passion has his chest swelling with admiration.

On the weekends when conflicting schedules cancel Hellfire meetings – which isn’t often, as being present and an active participant are Eddie’s most valued expectations – you frequent an old, run-down theatre in downtown Hawkins together. The tickets are cheap, there are rarely any other viewers, and the employees there either have a preference for older films or they can’t afford to purchase many from this decade. Regardless, it’s always a good time. With no one else around to tell you to be quiet, you’re giggling at Eddie’s cheesy jokes and making a few of your own. 

There’s this one thing you can do – he calls it your “Wicked Movie Vision” – and it blows his mind every time it happens. You have this infallible ability to predict the plotlines, and the outcomes of said plotlines, of any movie you see. You insist that it’s not that difficult, that it’s only a matter of understanding popular tropes and knowing what to look for in the subtext, but it never fails to leave him in gaping awe. He likes to brag about it to the rest of your friend group, and he’s ever-persistent about how cool it is, despite their often lackluster attitudes towards it.

One Friday afternoon, when neither of you had any other plans, Eddie surprisingly called you on on the phone and sounded a bit more nervous than usual. It was barely there, a twinge of awkwardness, but was still noticeable to your observant ears. 

“Hey, it’s your favorite leader of Hellfire,” he greets, drawing out the syllables in his first and last words, making you laugh. You neglect to mention that he’s technically the only leader of Hellfire; you let him have his little moments. “So uh, I know you don’t have anything planned tonight since we talked about it yesterday... Do you wanna come over? I can pick you up and we can hang out for a while?”

You have the feeling that he’s holding back some words; something tells you that he has some other reason for inviting you over, but you still smile and nod, verbally expressing your agreement when you realize that you’re not, in fact, currently visible to your friend. 

Eddie comes to pick you up as usual, despite you saying that you’re fine with walking the short distance between your houses, and you start to feel a tad bit nervous. You don’t typically visit Eddie’s house often – your place is the usual hangout spot for you two – and you’re a little worried you might do something silly or disrespectful on accident. 

Of course, you have nothing to worry about. The two of you talk excitedly in the car just like usual, and Eddie admits that he wants to show you something that he wrote for his band. You’ve been to a few Corroded Coffin practices, forever cheering him on in the audience, and it’s actually due to him that your music taste started developing more towards the kinds of songs that he likes and creates. You’ve never said it outright, but you enjoy the music a lot more just because it reminds you so much of him.

When you walk into Eddie’s trailer and take a tentative seat on an extra chair, watching as he leaves the room and mutters on about something to do with his guitar, you can’t help but notice that the smidge of tension from before is back. You’re starting to wonder if something may be wrong, but you don’t have much time to reel on it before he’s returning with his beloved instrument.

“You ready?” he asks, ghost of anxiety within his upturned smirk. You nod, and his fingers begin to strum at his guitar strings.

The melody starts out a little slow, almost tentative, but then it picks up and you can tell that’s where a beat drop from the drums would typically be. Everything shifts, and the tempo speeds up and becomes more intense. He’s closing his eyes as he plays, feet tapping and head bobbing, and you can tell that he’s really put his heart and soul into this song. 

It’s over almost too quickly, leaving you wishing that you could somehow have a mixtape made of only that song repeated so that you could listen to it forever, and your closest friend is looking to you, silently waiting for your reaction. The hesitancy in his eyes fades away when you beam at him and go on and on about how much you loved it, recalling specific moments that really struck you as your favorite, and, as it’s sure to do, your admiration and eagerness pass unto him. 

He’s so touched, so utterly appreciative and happy that you liked it so much, that he doesn’t stop himself from admitting, “I wrote it when I was thinking about you.”

You’re stunned into silence, never having expected that such a masterpiece was written in your honor. Quite truthfully, no one else had ever done something so intimate for you before, and that certainly didn’t help with your overwhelmed quietude. You’re caught up in your thoughts, wondering exactly what he means by that because you certainly know what it sounds like, and the soft blush across his cheekbones seems to answer your question for itself.

You subconsciously scoot closer to him, knee softly knocking against his, and your hand reaches out to rest upon his forearm almost on its own accord. His arm is warm against your palm, shirt atop his skin soft and thin, and his eyes shoot over to yours in pleasant surprise. 

“Will you play it for me again?” you ask, toothy smile gleaming up at him, and who is he to deny you? Truthfully, he couldn’t say no to you even if he wanted to. 

With a goofy, almost timid smile, and an almost whispering of “’Course I will,” Eddie Munson’s fingers pluck the first few notes of the song that he wrote as he was falling in love with you.

[chai-hat-tea]

The lovely fellow desi @getawayheaven tagged me! Thank you ❤️✨

When did you become a Louie?

Don’t really remember, but I know I started with Niall and moved to Harry. I remember seeing a bad pic of Louis and I thought that he doesn’t look good and then when I read that one article that called him ugliest and least successful among his fellow band mates I instantly developed a soft spot for him. Then got into the Larry rabbit hole and LOVED Larry, but still leaned towards Harry. And then one day suddenly, I have the maddest crush on Louis. I don’t know how that happened, but yeah I’m not going back :P

2. Your earliest fandom memory?

One Direction fandom is definitely WMYB on the radio. Had no idea who the boys were, but enjoyed their songs a lot. Then 10 years of 1D and that’s how I got into the fandom! 

Larry fandom is because of that controversial book that got published and then at first I was a neutral before I watched the X factor diaries. I think by then I was a Larrie. 

Louis, I remember the wild thing he did during the 1st anniversary of walls.

3. Your favourite song (one off walls, one off fitf)?

Maaaan this is HARD. 

Walls - especially this. I have perfect now, only the brave and fearless tattooed on me sooo I think it’s a given? But also any song from this album just gives me so much joy. 

FITF - I frankly didn’t like the album in first listen, but then it’s something that totally grew on me. Greatest, Written all over your Face and Lucky Again are amazing songs!!

4. Favourite music video?

I enjoy his videos from pre Walls and walks because they had a story to them, and even if it felt straightforward, I could see there was more to it? 

5. Favourite gig?

Haven’t attended any because I’m in India, so nothing has been as exciting as attending it in person would’ve been. So I do like most of them, but I definitely dislike the ones that had anything to do with stunts. 

6. Favourite Louis hair?

Hmmmm I’m not able to recollect now but he’s had excellent hair styles except for one. I don’t want to mention that for obvious reasons 😂😂

7. Favourite Louis interview?

The one where he put the Australian reporter in his place was sexy as fuck 😂😂 but I also like the one where they asked him about the colour of his eyes and he looked like the smuggest bitch ever 😂

8. Suit louis or tank top louis?

Yes. 

9. Favourite Louis tattoo?

It is what it is, because I have it tattooed on me too. 

10. Favourite Louis body part? (c'mon we all have one!)

Just plain love and admiring - his eyes. Man I could get lost in them. 

Sweet lovey dovey - his tummy

Full blown slutty - collarbones and fingers. 🫠 (yeah I have a mad crush on him if it wasn’t obvious. BUT he belongs to Harry so please don’t come at me ✌️)

I definitely want to tag @beardyboyzx and @thinlinez for this!!!! 

[hillbillyhippiemusicreview]

THE HHMR ISSUED A STORM WARNING: A NORTHER IS BLOWING IN AS SHANE SMITH AND THE SAINTS ROLL OUT THEIR LATEST RELEASE

Areas affected include: The Heart, The Soul, & Your Tappin’ Toes. Prepare accordingly.

Strong. Fast moving. Cold. Breathtaking. Those are adjectives to describe a Norther or Blue Norther, a storm bringing in fast cold winds from the north into Texas and surrounding states. Those words also perfectly describe Shane Smith & the Saints newest album, Norther. This album hits you hard and fast! Shane, Bennett, Dustin, Chase and Zach put together an eclectic record that, in my humble opinion, is their best work yet, even topping my favorite, 2013’s Coast.

Before I go any further, I will give a disclaimer that this review is biased—for good reason. I have no affiliation with the band; I’ve only met Shane twice, I’ve met the other members each once, and I follow Bennett on instagram (he’s also originally from my adoptive city of Louisville, KY). BUT, they are my *favorite* band! I may have Timmy Ty’s lyrics tattooed on my arm, but there hasn’t ever been a band that puts me in a trance quite like Shane Smith & the Saints. I’ve seen them at: Tumbleweed (LaCygne, KS), the Basement East (Nashville, TN), Headliners (Louisville, KY), Bulls, Bands, and Barrels (Lexington, KY), and most recently for their headline debut at the Mother Church, the Ryman Auditorium (Nashville, TN). So yes, I am a fan—to say the least. I *may* even fanboy out when they are within a 4 hour drive. That may ruin the credibility of my review in some people’s eyes; however, in others it makes this review even more true and authentic as I have been a fan for 10 years for no reason except for the facts that they make damn fine music, and that they are the some of the nicest artists I have ever met. And to “kind of” quote Uncle Dallas Moore, “there ain’t no one [reading] my shit anyway.” 🤠

Norther opens with “Book of Joe,” a hard hitting ballad with a heavy fiddle presence from Bennett and drums that hit you so hard that your heartbeat matches that of the drum beat. “Book of Joe” repeatedly tells us that “It’s a rich man’s war, it’s a poor man’s fight”—no matter which side of the dollar you are on, this life is always a battle. Next up, we get “Fire in the Sky.” Shane starts out by “deep talking” the lyrics, reminiscent of some of Johnny Cash’s lasts works. But then it goes into a toe tappin’, head banging song that isn’t country, Americana, or red dirt, but in my limited Eastern Kentucky vernacular can only be described as Rock.

We have to go all the way to track number 7 (out of 13) for what may be my favorite song on the album, “Wheels.” One set of lyrics in particular makes this song my favorite…“You can’t blame the memories because they brought you a long long way.” As imperfect humans living in a broken world, we have all had experiences that that have shaped us. Some are great and some we could do without. Personally, looking back at those memories, the good and the bad, they all taught me a lesson or changed my direction; something I am thankful for from the Man up above. And “Just like wheels caught in their motion,” we keep trudging forward throughout this crazy life. Jumping down to the 10th song on the album, “1,000 Wild Horses” gives something to the lover of “real country.” While it may be a little faster and have some great instrumentals, the focus is obviously Shane’s deep voice, the lyrics, and the melody.

Y’all, most albums have one or two of those “skip over songs.” That isn’t the case with Norther. The album has 13 imposing songs, 6 of which were singles starting with “Hummingbird” back in 2022. I’ve already told you once, I am biased because Shane Smith & the Saints are my favorite band for no other reasons except they make great music that casts a spell on me every time I hear it; and that in my few interactions, they are all humble, friendly and down to earth fellas who work as hard as hell to make the music they want to make. So, I know it is only March, but this album has the potential to have my vote for best release of 2024!

Do yourself and the band a favor and go listen to these independent artists right now. Stream them on your preferred platform, check out their merch, and lastly go to the show! I’ve been to a ton of shows over the years, but not one show impacted me the way Shane Smith & the Saints with Justin Wells did at the Basement East. P.S. and that was a show they played with borrowed instruments from Turnpike Troubadours (I think) after their van burned!

-Cheers, N.

Below is the music video for “Adeline,” a track off Norther

[atricksterproblem]

NOTE: I’m going to quote one of the clues you find in Escape the Ministry below, so if you haven’t played the game yet, stop here to avoid the (admittedly minor) spoiler.

So in the game, the note on Papa III’s statue says that “The Clergy determined that he had not been staying true to The Path.” I’ve seen people here and there taking for granted that this is the truth. I want to suggest that the surviving leadership, as directed by Sister Imperator, is not necessarily a reliable narrator.

It’s worth remembering that the winners write the history books. It’s also worth remembering that institutions, even ones that are supposed to be freedom-loving like Unholy Church, need to come up with justifications for their actions to keep their membership in line.

I believe that Sister Imperator disliked Terzo for personal reasons. I think he reminded her way too much of what Nihil was like in his youth. I also think we have sufficient evidence now that Copia is her son, and therefore she favored him and resented anything that might impede his rise.

I don’t think we have any solid evidence that Terzo strayed from the path whatsoever. Did he fail to spread the message far and wide? His album won a Grammy. Ghost’s audience grew dramatically during his tenure. It’s not like he wasn’t gaining converts to the cause.

There was likely a faction within the Church that felt he was too frivolous. That doesn’t mean they were correct. There’s more than one way to embrace the tenets of the Church, and more than one way to spread the message. There’s plenty of evidence that his approach was winning hearts and minds.

I would also argue that demanding that the Church should adhere to One True Way goes against everything it’s meant to stand for. It seems to me that the powers behind the throne are only interested in perpetuating their own power, as such people so often are.

Anyway, this all a long-winded way to say we shouldn’t believe everything we read in the lore. Consider the source.