It's the "repeat after me" that always gets me.
The silent, invisible struggle is over. Jon has tried and failed to stop himself from speaking. He has turned the page and his voice is steady and expressive. His voice is Jonah's.
Was there ever a fight at all? Jon has always followed the path Jonah laid out for him. Or was that a lie Jonah told to make his victory seem unilateral? Regardless, the eye's weapon is information, and Jonah wields it with precision and uncompromising force. He always has. And now his favorite plaything is finally ready to serve its purpose.
In some ways, Jonah made a gamble by tossing his statement in the stack randomly. If Martin had seen it before Jon, then they would have known his plan and been much more wary of any future attempt he made. But his calculation was sound. Martin had no real reason to look over the statements, and Jonah knew that his Archivist liked to read them in private.
It's one thing for him to gloat. Villains like to have their little monologue, and an avatar of Beholding especially so. But dragging his confession out of the throat of the one he abused?
He chose Jon as Archivist. He made sure that he went far enough down the path that he wouldn't be able to stop. He made sure that every word out of Jon's mouth sounded uncannily like Jonah's own voice.
But even that wasn't enough. All he really had to do was put his little incantation on the second page and he would have won. But he wanted Jon to know what was happening, and why, and how. And that he never could have stopped it. And after all that:
"Repeat after me."
Jonah had never seen Jon as a person, that had been obvious for a long time. Even so, he had great affection for him. Enough to apply his twisted love to one final act of exquisite cruelty.
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If I Should Stay
Part 1 | . . . | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9
After pizza—and after El wakes up and eats her own pizza—everyone gathers around again to listen to Steve and Robin. “So I think by now we’ve proven we’re from the future,” Steve says. “We’re here, four years in the past, because a lot of bad things happen, and if we can, we’d like to stop those things from happening. The big one, and really the recurring problem, is a guy named Henry Creel who essentially took control of an alternate plane of existence we call the Upside Down.” He motions El over beside him, and she goes gladly, tucking her feet up onto the couch as she leans into his side, trusting him to hold her up. He does, sliding a protective arm around her shoulders as he says, “He’s also One.”
He watches as one by one the lightbulbs come on. “Oh, shit,” Dustin whispers, and Steve doesn’t even call him on it, just nods.
“Beyond Henry, though, there are creatures in the Upside Down that can and will kill you.” He rolls his eyes fondly at the boys. “For some inexplicable reason, you came up the names, so they’re called demogorgons, demodogs, and demobats. Demogorgons are what took Barb and Will, but they both got away. That doesn’t mean they’re safe, though. Like El said earlier, Barb was safe in the moment, but it’s still a very dangerous place. There are vines everywhere that are connected to a hive mind. You step on one, and Henry knows you’re there.”
He continues telling the story, Robin interrupting when there’s a detail he misses. It’s silent when they finish. Finally, El speaks up. “So, it is… my fault?”
“No, El,” Steve says softly. “None of this is your fault. Things out of your control happened that made you who you are. Those same things created all of this.”
El frowns. “So I am bad? Like One? Like the Upside Down?”
“No,” Mike says sharply. “You’re good, El.”
“He’s right,” Steve murmurs. “You made yourself good.” He pokes her arm teasingly, and she smiles, leaning back into him.
Steve looks around, catches Nancy’s eye, and sighs. “Nance? A word?”
“Steve?” Robin asks.
He shakes his head. “I’ll yell if I need you,” he promises, rubbing her head as he passes. She squawks and bats his hand away.
“Asshole,” she mutters, and he laughs as he disappears down the hallway, Nancy in tow.
They end up in a room Steve thinks was meant to be a study. “You have questions.”
“Understatement of the century. There’s just one that’s really bugging me, though.”
“Us?”
“Yeah.”
Steve sighs and leans against the wall. “On Halloween, Tina throws a party. We didn’t know what we do now, about the Upside Down, and you were still looking for her. I was an asshole, self-centered and unhelpful.” He blows out a breath, crosses his arms, and looks away. “You got drunk, called me, and my love for you, bullshit. Left. I tried to talk to you the next day at school about it and you couldn’t say you loved me. I was still hopeful. I’m a romantic at heart, y’know? I thought maybe if I could be everything you needed, if I changed enough, if, if, if…” he shakes his head. “So we stayed together. I tried. You slept with Jonathan Byers, then broke up with me.”
Nancy looks horrified. “Steve-”
He shakes his head. “I made my peace with it. And maybe this makes me an asshole, I dunno, but Nance, I can’t go back. We’re okay, we’re friends, but I can’t pretend I still have feelings for you. I’m sorry, but we both know I was just convenient for you.”
Nancy takes a breath. “So that’s it?”
Steve shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know what you want me to do. I tried and got my heart broken for it. I moved on, found someone I think I can really be happy with, without changing who I am. And for the record? It gets rocky for a second, but I think you and Byers are it, too.” He smirks. “Plus Mike likes him better than me.”
Nancy rolls her eyes. “Oh, well, if Mike likes him better…” they both laugh, and she looks at him. “No more feelings?”
He shakes his head. “We make much better friends.”
Nancy grins lopsidedly. “And Robin?”
Steve snorts. “Purely platonic, I promise. Neither of us want anything else with each other.”
Nancy looks at him then. Studies him. “You’ve been through some shit,” she decides. “But you look happy.”
He smiles. “I am, for the most part. I know who I am.”
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More family members gossiping at the reunion.
Yes I’m posting more stuff about the Jon Matteson (+ Curt Mega) character family tree. This time including more Jon Matteson Characters!
I went to bed thinking about this last night btw.
Bonus: Ed knows when he’s being talked about and Peanuts will hear about it. They interrupted his nap.
If you can’t read it’s all under the cut.
First picture-
Boy Jerry: Little Ed has a son? But he was so good at being celibate! I can’t believe he’s a dirty sinner now!
Officer Bailey: I didn’t even know he knew how to talk to girls.
Daniel: guys, it’s a squirrel.
Second picture-
Officer Bailey: Oooh! Yeah that makes way more sense!
Boy Jerry: taking care of another one of Gods creations in need, he’s such a good child of the Lord unlike the rest of you.
Daniel: Hey! I’m just 15!
Third picture-
Proud Papa Ed: Someone’s talking shit Peanuts. I bet it’s Bailey.
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Do you have a masterpost for gpt? Thanks :)
Gunpowder Tim Masterpost:
He wears steampunk goggles with gold accents. He also usually has geometric eye makeup that resembles a circut board (a lot more controlled than Jonny’s eye makeup)
He usually wears a white button up shirt, brown vest, brown overcoat. He usually wears black jeans or dark brown striped pants. He usually wears a pocket watch in his vest’s pocket and sometimes has a flask in the vest’s other pocket. He also sometimes wears blue jeans and a vintage patterned brown vest and a brown bracelet(as seen in the last image). He wears a brown belt, a black belt, and a brown leather holster. He also sometimes wears 2 belts across his chest like a harness. He always wears brown lace up boots. I think his gun holster has gold embroidery on it but i cant tell what the design is. (Shown in the 1st and 3rd image above)
His holster carries an old timey steampunk pistol(?)
Other variants to his outfit include a brown striped vest that matches the striped pants he sometimes pairs with his brown vest, and his regular outfit without his brown overcoat. He also might be wearing a grey button up in the second picture instead of a white one but i cant tell for sure. He wears his goggles wither around his neck or on his forehead.
Bonus: His fancy attire as pictured above consists of a white button up shirt, red patterned tie and black striped vest and pants.
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I think on this fine Saturday afternoon it's a good opportunity to take a breather and remember that there are really no ethical paparazzi pictures. Every single one is inherently exploitative.
Just because photos were taken on a movie set, when someone is 'working,' does not make the practice any less invasive and creepy. Imagine just going about your day, doing your job and having some weirdo snapping pictures of you to sell without your consent for others to endlessly repost online.
There are thousands of pictures of your favourite actor online already. Plenty taken with his knowledge and consent. I'd really like to see more of them on my dash, rather than the creeper shots.
And don't get me started how disseminating these pictures directly leads to people going to said sets. What starts off as admiring how good someone looks has real world implications.
No, hanging around a movie set and disrupting people doing their jobs is not harmless fun or a way to show your appreciation.
If you hang around a movie set, you are a stalker.
Don't tell me that it's okay to take your online admiration for someone offline. You may admire him but he does not, and will never, personally know you. He will never be your friend/boyfriend/daddy. He is a stranger.
The only way meeting your favourite actor is going to happen is at a convention or maaaaaybe a movie premiere if you're incredibly fortunate. You know, places they appear specifically to meet fans (or not in the case of premieres, where the purpose is to promote a movie. Which is also completely understandable if actors don't stop. You are not owed an interaction).
Of course, you cannot help it if you randomly run into someone you admire in the wild. Even then, consider that they probably won't be all too thrilled to be approached in public by a complete stranger. It's up to you to gauge the situation, but remember there is a person at the heart of all of this.
Boundaries and respect are a kindness which deserves to be extended to each and every human being regardless of their looks/talent/fame/wealth.
Fandoms blur those lines a little too often for my liking and I think just scrutinising what you're interacting with, or what behaviour you could be possibly falling down that slippery slope towards is nice to do every once in a while.
I mean no malice with this post and it is not directed at anyone in particular. It's something I cannot help but feel strongly about because I've seen this destructive cycle time and again in fandoms over the years. It's not healthy and it makes us all a little bit more disconnected from our humanity for it...
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Tuna Tunastime's Official Commissions
hi everyone!
it's that time of the year (again! but not again, since this is my first time saying this) and if you're looking for fun or unique gifts, for yourself or someone else, I'm opening up writing commissions all the way through the holidays!
the holidays means I have a good chunk of time off and some free time to be writing besides the stuff I work on for myself! so I'm opening up about 5 slots (with chances for more!).
as you all know, I feel the most comfortable writing life series and hermitcraft, but I've written for DBH, DSMP, and some Yogs, and I also would be willing to do some research into other mcyt series', creators, and smps. but if there's something you're interested in that you're not sure I know, shoot me a message!
I take payments through ko-fi, which is linked in my pinned post and here, and you're welcome to chat with me through tumblr dms or through my email.
(some samples of my work in my fics tag, and my more well known works on ao3 here, here, and here!)
even if you can't afford a commission right now, you're still helping out a ton by being here, sharing my work, or even donating a small amount to my kofi!
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