Prompt Source - You can find other prompts I've posted in here.
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Sneaking away to a hidden corner to share a secretive kiss
Keyleth fiddled with her fingers on her lap absent-mindedly as an older half-elven man spoke of something she ought to be paying attention to. This was her fourth meeting of the day, and Keyleth couldn’t wait to go home, to curl up with Vax on the couch and sip on a warm herbal tea as she read her favorite book.
Sensing her aloofness, Korrin coughed to get her attention, his eyes searching hers in concern. “Keyleth? Are you alright?” He asked her. Keyleth nodded softly and moved to get up from the hard wooden chair.
“If you don’t mind, I need a couple of minutes.” She said, taking a bow to the elders.
Her legs felt like jelly, and her body trembled under the protection of her mantle, which should not allow any ice or fire to reach her skin. No, Keyleth soon realized the source of her shudders was anxiety, an overwhelming sense that something was wrong. She let her feet guide her through the long path laden with beautiful blossoms until she reached the trunk of a large oak tree.
She tried taking short breaths, but her chest insisted on heaving, and her heart raced like a maniac. She could feel herself slide down along the rough bark until her fingers dug into the damp earth beneath her as if they were trying to hide within the roots of the massive tree.
“Keyleth?” Vax’s voice sounded in her ear through the magical earring they still shared with the rest of her friends, now far out of reach.
“Vax…” Keyleth called with a shaky breath.
In an instant, a dark figure was landing in front of her, his massive raven-like wings folded against his back.
“Are you okay?” He asked as his hands cradled her face. Keyleth nodded and pulled on his armor, forcing his knees to fall to the ground on each side of her legs.
“Better now.”
Keyleth’s lips found Vax's, and she could feel the sweet taste of mead and the saltiness of the cheese they had shared for lunch. At that moment, all her concerns and anxieties vanished from her brain. Her body sagged into his touch, her heart purred inside her chest, and her soul felt like the first rays of sunshine bursting through the clouds after a long day of rain and storm.
“I have to go back.” She whispered, pulling away unwillingly. Vax nodded and helped her to her feet.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked again, his gaze searching her for any signs of distress. Keyleth just nodded again with a smile.
“Walk with me?”
Together they made their way back through the path of flowers, hand in hand, until they reached the big oak doors that led to the council chambers. One last kiss, and Keyleth sneaked back inside, taking her chair at the top of the large table with a much lighter chest and a much bigger smile.
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Hi a quick lil read: I did a poll the other day because I was thinking of creating Steddie fic recs and so I decided I’m gonna do 5-10 fic recs a post based on some sort of theme and here’s the first installment! Please feel free to ask for themes, I can’t promise I’ll fulfill them but I’ll do my best.
Theme: my favorite fucking idiots
single / taken / pining by 96tears (Ao3) @pizzaqueen (tumblr)
T | wc 4,435 | no cw
Summary: When a girl Steve’s trying to flirt with starts flirting with Eddie, Steve says the only thing that comes to mind: he tells her Eddie’s married. It’s not his smoothest moment, but it works, and Eddie goes along with it. It's not like Eddie was interested, anyway, and he figures Steve wanted the ladies to himself. So, Steve figures that must be it, too.
But a little later it hits him: he doesn’t want to keep the ladies to himself. He wants to keep Eddie to himself.
Ugh!!! I love it when the dumbasses don’t understand why they’re jealous, or that they’re jealous in the first place. Post season 4, Steve and Eddie work at Family Video and the Arcade respectfully, and come and bug each other during slow times. Steve gets a little jealous when a girl starts hitting on Eddie.
‘cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to run by stellapoint (pettifogger) (ao3) @heybluechild (tumblr)
T | wc 9,308 | no cw
Summary: Realization #1: Steve is wearing a costume. He’s dressed as Springsteen on the cover of Born In The U.S.A. The album cover is staring at Eddie from the stack of records by the speakers, and he flicks his eyes between the cover and Steve, almost laughing at how obvious the resemblance is.
Immediately after that, revelations two and three slam into him like an eighteen-wheeler.
#2: Bruce Springsteen is kind of hot.
#3: Steve Harrington is really hot.
A fourth and much louder thought echoes through Eddie’s brain: oh, shit.
(Many months ago, I wrote a tumblr post about Steve Harrington being a Bruce Springsteen enjoyer. This fic is about that.)
Takes place after season 4, Eddie and Steve are friend. Eddie’s love language is music. He’s a bit of a music snob, and doesn’t understand why Steve wants him to like his music. It takes a moment for it to click to Eddie what’s really going on. I love Eddie but sometimes you want to shake him like a snowglobe and oh my god, I’m shaking him so hard.
wasted crying by MixAddams (Ao3) @mixsethaddams (tumblr)
T | wc 6,471 | cw ow (light angst)
Summary: Steve just wants a buddy.
So why does it hurt so much when Eddie introduces everyone to his new girlfriend?
There’s a happy ending I swear! You’ll just want to bundle Steve up in a few blankets first. Post season 4, Eddie gets a girlfriend, and Steve is not jealous. Not at all. He just … misses being in the honeymoon phase of dating? No that can’t be right… is it? There’s a lot of good heartaches in this fic. I do want to share one of my favorite lines:
“I think so. Stuff like this is supposed to scare you, I think,” said Eddie. “It’s supposed to feel….”
Eddie took a breath and Steve watched his eyes move around as he searched for the words. Steve thought he might wait forever for him to find them.
“It’s supposed to feel like a leap, right?”
I can be pretty (why don’t you think I’m pretty?) by starsdontsleep (ao3)
T | wc 8,942 | no cw
Summary: When Eddie comes out as gay, he assures Steve that he doesn’t find him hot. Steve tells him it’s fine, he even teasingly asks what he should do to change that. It becomes a thing. A way to always make Eddie laugh, blush and relax around him—but as the days and weeks pass, Steve begins to realise that maybe there’s another reason why he cares so much that Eddie Munson finds him pretty.
Remember when I said I’m shaking Eddie like a snowglobe? I’m shaking Steve now. Steve, please tell me why you think you want Eddie to think you’re pretty? Why do you need to know what Eddie’s type? Steve’s only worried that Eddie doesn’t fully trust him with his sexuality. So Steve works to be the best ally… and definitely does not fall in love with his friend along the way.
clown music at the disco by fragilecapricorn (ao3) @fragilecapric0rnn (tumblr)
M | wc 3,717 | no cw
Summary: “What the fuck are you doing here?” He nearly squawked, meaning for it to come out anyway other than that. The man turned around, and here he was. In a stare down with ghostly pale Steve Harrington, who was not only supposed to be straight, but was also in a MESH TANK TOP at Frankie’s on a Wednesday night.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” He pauses, glancing around the room, small voice. “It’s disco night.”
Post Season 4, Eddie, Robin and Steve move to the Chicago. Eddie has a new habit of going to the bar on gay disco night, finding another brunette ex-jock to fill the Steve shaped hole in his heart. Until he runs into said brunette ex-jock at the same gay bar on disco night. 10/10 no notes I’ve read this like 5 times.
of all the gin joints by genesisofrhythm (Ao3)
e | wc 4,016 | cw: they fuck | spice level: I read this at my work desk in between meetings
Summary: “So, do you come here often?”
Steve choked at the familiar voice, turning abruptly. “Munson?”
“What’re you doing here?” Eddie asked, his mouth gaping open as he looked over at Steve.
Steve was surprised to see Eddie here as well. What were the odds of them both driving out of Hawkins to come to the same gay bar?
Or: Steve goes to a gay bar to support Robin, when he sees Eddie Munson. He can't tell Eddie the real reason he's there without outing Robin so he tells him he's bisexual. But Steve's totally straight... right?
Steve [Evan Buckley voice]: “I’m an ally ✊”
This is a fun fic, definitely Steve Harrington speed running a sexuality crisis. Good for him. (also I have a soft spot for fics that use fob lyrics as a title, forehead kisses for that)
Exactly What It Looks Like - BilbosMom (Ao3) @bilbosmom-belladonna (tumblr)
E | wc 31,517 | cw | spice level: I should not have read this at my desk 😳🥵
Summary: Steve makes a face at Eddie. “You've imagined doing stuff with a guy?”
“Yeah, man,” Eddie replies, spreading his hands wide. “Doesn't everyone?”
Steve tilts his head to the side as he thinks. Maybe not very often, but his freshman year when Davey Riggs had been swim team captain? Yeah, he had definitely imagined some stuff that had made trips to the locker room kinda awkward.
“Yeah, that's true,” Steve answers, nodding. “I wonder why everybody acts like it's so gross, though.”
In the summer of 1986, Steve and Eddie have some perfectly normal fun between a couple of perfectly normal dudes.
I’m honestly insane over this. Like, I’m going to be thinking about this for a long time. Post-Season 4, Eddie and Steve find themselves watching porn together. And it’s not weird at all if you jerk off next to your new best friend. And maybe it becomes a habit. And helping them out every once in a while isn’t weird. And maybe sucking his cock isn’t weird. Or fucking his thighs —
Please remember to leave kudos and comments on the fics you read/enjoyed! Support your writers 🖤
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hi. im here to kamukoma ramble. ok so i reeaaly hate how all kamumeshi Fan Content (which is basically all kamukoma content) waters down izuru to being the dominant one and servant to being his cute little dog like i feel like its so much more complex then that.
izuru was created to be subservient, to be smart enough to see through manipulation tactics and yet not care enough about himself to do anything to stop them, always doing something to serve someone else’s interests - and even when he does do one thing in his own interest (the killing game), it was largely because of his obsession with junko, so we see her still pulling the strings on him from beyond the grave (emphasized by his convo with her in his udg cameo). he doesn’t have power and he’s been designed not to want it. he’s been robbed of his humanity over and over again and been taught to accept it. he even explicitly states all of this in talent dev plan with taka
komaeda, on the other hand, is always framed with such heavy control over the narrative - he heavily influences dr2’s ending and takes that same puppeteering role in udg too. although he has that inferiority complex, he still holds so much power over everyone else, manipulating them like chess pieces. he is just as dangerous as izuru is, considering he has not only the intelligence but the motivation to act out like this, something izuru lacks.
and so this creates a really cool complexity where servant believes he’s meant to be subservient to izuru but this may not be wholly reflected in the way he acts, and izuru most definitely does not care for/about controlling servant. and, if izuru does take a domineering role, it’s because that’s what servant wants (especially after junko’s death, when he has no one left to place himself beneath), and so izuru’s still letting himself go with whoever the people surrounding him want him to be. he’s not with servant for the power trip, that goes completely against everything he’s ever been - because, in reality, IZURU is the one who exists to serve. to serve his creators, and then junko afterwards, even after her death. his purpose has always been assigned to him, not created by him.
both characters are fucked up and morally grey. both characters are the man, both characters are the god.
this is what i wish people would focus more on when writing their general character development and the development of their relationship. because they barely get any screen time you get lots of creative freedom and you can take this concept in either a “they are going to heal and get better together” route or a “they are doomed to always hurt each other in their codependency” route or some weird thing in between; again, personal preference, and if you want to keep izuru and hajime separate postgame this opens a whole new plethora of dynamics and development to write about after komaeda becomes himself again. the flexibility of their dynamic is whats so intriguing to me - kamukoma is a very complex and fluid idea that i wish more people would mess around with like this join me and we can play with them like putty
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Aromanticism in Academic papers (day 1)
A few days ago, I posted wondering about aromanticism in academic research. Well after a search through google scholar and some institutional access (thank you wikipedia <2) I've found some papers. Since it's Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week this week, I'm gonna try posting about one paper I found each day this week.
So today's paper is The stability of singlehood: Limitations of the relationship status paradigm and a new theoretical framework for reimagining singlehood By Dr. Hannah Tessler (2022) [stable link]
To give a summary, this paper focuses on the idea that the general conceptualization of the term single is extremely limited within the standard definition of a person without a romantic partner. This assumes that a given person's relationship status is binary, that the individual is willing to be in a romantic partnership, that singlehood is a transitory state and not one that some people prefer to be in long term. Obviously, the implications of the term single does not accurately reflect the experiences of many people without romantic partners (like many aromantic people). The paper instead proposes a new framework for classifying singles on a graph of two axes, one for Openness to romance and one for desire for romance. This framework not only allows for the term single to encapsulate more than the normative assumption, but also shows how singlehood can be stable.
Tessler identifies seven populations of singles that subvert the standard assumption:
Singles that perfer singlehood
Aromantic and/or asexual singles
Heterosexual single women who elect to opt out of heteronormative relationships
MGTOWs and to an extent some incels
Singles committed to religion
People satisfied with single life but facing social pressure
and Single people after divorce/widowhood
The section on aromanticism itself is well written and accurate. It describes the state of many of us very well, while acknowledging that there are partnering aromantics out there. For future considerations, Tessler writes: "There is currently scant research on aromanticism, but more scholarship is necessary in order to better understand the intersections and boundaries between sex, romance, and relationships."
All in all, this paper is a wonderful insight that I hope future researchers in the area of romance take a look at and use ideas from. There's a lot of research out there on romance, but not as much on the lack of it. Tessler challenges the scientific community to help fill that gap.
[link to day 2]
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