#public transit isn’t as fun as it sounds

[samsqueerpolycule]

So you’re an American who watched Emily in Paris and now you have a little voice in your ear saying that it might be cool to move to Europe. Heed my warning! Do not listen to him! That little voice is the devil and he wants to ruin your life. Trust me. Trust me look me in the eyes do NOT move to Europe. It is not the fun quirky adventure you think it is. Do not do it! Don’t make the same mistakes I have

[mykaeba]

here’s the stage.

a minuscule village in the south of france, nestled against the pyrenean foothills. you certainly don’t know where it is, since even i have no idea.

the church is even smaller, built during a bunch of different eras. there is a dead bird under one of the benches, and no one has any idea how long it’s been here. in the middle of the church, a baby grand. it’s too close to where the public sits, and the acoustic make it so the sound turns and turns if you sit anywhere other than the first two rows. (but you’re in second row, isn’t that grand.) the light is weird. the benches hurt both your back and your ass immediately.

the lady that enters stage right is old, and fat. she has no idea how to speak in the shitty mic she was handed, and has a strong accent that rolls the ‘r’. her dress is a dark gold, and she holds herself as if she’ll be playing in the last century. she’s the nonchalant kind of funny, the kind that knows exactly her way around any kind of audience.

she speaks a bit about what she’s about to play. says some things about beethoven and falstaff as if everyone in the room obviously knows who falstaff is.

then she starts to play. bach’s fourth partita. the pacing is weird. she looks like an old monument no one was able to destroy -not even time. her head is high. her demeanour stately. she is immutable.

suddenly, you’ve been in this church listening to her forever.

you don’t even like bach that much, but you can’t move your eyes away from her hands. from the absolute certainty with which her left pinky hits the notes.

she goes on with mozart, and it’s the same. those hands on the piano act like jesus walking on water. it doesn’t really feel like she’s pressing the keys. every second is holy. (you don’t even believe in god.)

beethoven just keeps it rolling. falstaff is here. she’s playing everything by heart.

schubert. she forgets how to start a variation and just plays the first one again (from the start) to find the correct transition. somehow, no one cares. you barely even notice. she made sure of that. complete certainty, even when she has no idea where to go from a certain point. it’s so fucking cool.

ravel, then chopin. you have the biggest smile on your face. you’re in love with music. the notes are pristine. she’s not even playing an instrument anymore. the music just is. (you learn later that she was hitting half the right keys. no one cared; it was monumental.)

she’s so old that there are stuff she can’t do correctly because of- y’know- age. but who cares?

she’s having fun. you’re having fun. music is magical.

[boldlyvoid]

Midnight Runner part 2

18+ Steve Harrington x Eddie Munson

Summary: having a crush during the end of the world was difficult

Warnings: season 4 canon scenes just fruitier, coming out, teasing, flirting, overprotective steve

word count: 9.4k

Fic Masterlist

Steve convinces Robin to take a trip to the grocery store before heading over to pick up Dustin and Max. She doesn’t question it, she thinks it’s actually kinda cute that he wants to take care of Eddie as much as he can. He gets mostly snacks, things for breakfast and a pack of cigarettes for good measure.

Withdrawal isn’t fun and he was stressed as fuck, Steve would want a smoke too.

They didn’t talk much about it last night, not that Robin didn’t try and ask why he was being so quiet, Steve just didn’t know what to say. He has had these mixed feelings about Eddie for years… he was loud and opinionated and seemingly fearless. He had no problem biting back, sometimes he started shit for fun and he always knew how to end it. He’s probably been in more fights than Steve and yet Steve has never seen him with a black eye. Anytime Steve saw him on the bench outside the principal's office, he was waiting for his uncle to pick him up after another suspension with an icepack on his ringless fingers. He can't remember if he had his rings on that night… he was so caught up in the feeling of everything else that he can't place those little details anymore.

He couldn’t wait to see Eddie again. After a long night of only thinking about him, he wanted nothing more than to be in his presence and see his eyes and hear his voice. He knew he was pretty before, but now he was everything… he’s almost glad he never believed Robin that his mystery man was Eddie because a year of this crush he was feeling would’ve killed him. One day is already almost unbearable.

In the car, Dustin and Max explain everything they heard on the radio that night and Robin tells them that they couldn’t get a hold of Nancy, apparently, she was working late at the newspaper and must’ve stayed out… Mrs. Wheeler was worried about her, and wanted them to call if or when they heard from her, just to be safe with everything going on.

At least one of their parents was worried for them.

Everyone takes a bag out of Steve’s trunk and walks them back towards the boat house. The street is quiet, the lake is empty apart from the ducks that can be heard… and what sounds like a loon?

“Delivery service!” Dustin announces their presence as soon as the door opens.

They find Eddie in the corner, broken beer bottle still in hand, terrified, “Jesus Christ!”

Steve just smiles and gives him a little wave, the kind where all his fingers wiggle and he can’t help but smile harder. “Hi…”

Eddie sighs and relaxes, “hi.”

“We come bearing gifts,” Robin says, walking over to him while opening one of the bags, “you’re not lactose intolerant right?”

He laughs, “no… what did you bring?”

“We thought you’d like some cereal and chips… and goldfish? There’s some water, a few cokes and chocolate milk,” Robin explains.

Eddie takes a seat with his things and immediately rips open the box of cereal, he accompanies it with chocolate milk, alternating between handfuls of cereal and swigs of milk, he eats like a feral dog.

"So we’ve got some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer?" Dustin asks before diving in.

“Bad news first, always,” looks at him like he should know that already.

“We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro and they’re definitely looking for you… also, they’re uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy.” Dustin explains.

“Like 100% kinda convinced,” Max adds, having been there in Dustin's room when the transitions came through.

“And the good news?” Eddie looks at Dustin with a glimmer of hope still shining in his eyes.

“Your name hasn’t gone public yet,” Robin answers, drawing his attention that way, all while Steve is leaning against the post, watching Eddie with a sorrowful feeling in his chest. The poor boy didn’t deserve this and there was no way for Steve to make it better for him.

“But if we found out about you, it’s only a matter of time before others do, too, and once that gets out everyone and their shallow-minded mother is going to be gunning for you,” Robin keeps rambling, knowing much more about Eddie than the other kids, she knew what things the town was going to say about him and the name started with and F.

“Hunt the Freak, right?” Eddie look her in the eye, he could tell she meant a different word but it still fit.

“Exactly.”

“Shit.”

“So, before that happens,” Dustin, ever the optimist, jumps in to soothe his anxiety. “We need to find Vecna, kill him and prove your innocence.”

“That’s all, Dustin? That’s all?” Eddie almost snaps because that doesn’t seem simple in the slightest.

“Yeah, no, yeah that’s pretty much it…”

Eddie looks like he could reach over and strangle him, it wasn’t going to be simple, not now, not ever. Even if the plan worked, the cops weren’t going to believe it was a monster from another world that did it. There were monsters in America doing crimes just as bad as this shit every fucking day, no one ever thought it would happen in Hawkins, but it is. Bringing justice to the victims, especially the pretty little white cheerleader, is going to come at a price and sometimes that price was paid by someone the jury of his peers simply didn’t like.

Him.

“Listen, Eddie,” Robin draws him back out of it. “I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we’ve actually been through this stuff before— I mean, they have…”

Eddie turns to Steve, shocked that this was something he had lived through… which means all the stories Dustin had about Steve being a badass were real. He really did know how to kill anything, he really has protected Dustin from a pack of wolves… even if they were actually from a hell dimension. Steve kept him safe. Steve fought for him. Maybe he’d fight for me too?

“A—a few times, and I have once,” Robin keeps talking, still clearly traumatized by it all. “Mine was more human-flesh-based and theirs was more smoke-related— but bottom line is, collectively, I really think we’ve got this.”

Steve finally chirps in then, “yeah, see we usually rely on this girl who has superpowers, but uh, they went bye-bye, so…”

“Sore we’re technically in more of uh…” Robin tries to keep the assurance up, but everyone else also struggles to find a silver lining.

“Brainstorming phase?” Max finally finds the word.

“Brainstorming!” Steve snaps his fingers and points at him with a smile.

“There’s—there’s nothing to worry about?” Dustin’s voice goes up a pitch like it usually does when he’s lying, causing Eddie to roll his eyes.

Steve scoffs, laughing because he felt awkward, it felt like there was very little hope… especially without Nancy and Joyce. They always knew what to do.

The sound of the siren draws their attention away from Dustin's failed attempt at comforting Eddie. “Tarp! Tarp now!” Robin points to the boat, ushering Eddie over to it and pulling the blue sheet over him.

They rush to the window of the boathouse, crowding the pane, Steve stands on his tip-toes to watch an ambulance head up the road with two cop cars close behind. It isn’t even really a question if they’re going to follow it or not, Dustin simply grabs his bag and heads to the door with Max and Robin in tow. Steve stalls, knowing they have to leave Eddie if they want to go investigate, and he hates leaving him alone, but who else was going to drive the kids towards the danger? Max? Never again.

He takes a moment to tell Eddie it was just an ambulance and they’re going to check it out, he kneels beside the boat and pats Eddie on the shoulder just as he pulls the tarp back, ready to talk but Eddie grabs his wrist, keeping his hand there, “radio me later and tell me what’s going on? Me and Dustin use 96.6 on the AM frequency, no one else should be on it if you have his walkie…”

“Yeah, I will,” he gives him a sweet smile, “don’t worry.”

Steve had the worrying covered for him.

—

They’re alone in the car for maybe 5 seconds before Dustin brings it up, “so… are we gonna talk about… it?”

Steve is too busy watching the door, making sure Max is safe, “huh? Sorry, talk about what?”

For a moment he panics, thinking Dustin saw the way he looked at Eddie, or maybe picked up on all the things Steve bought for Eddie with his own money to make sure he was fed while hiding… or the way Eddie touched him before he left? But no, he once again thinks Steve is in love with every woman he speaks to.

“Your temporary insanity earlier today when you basically threw yourself at Nance?” Dustin exaggerates what just happened at the trailer park.

“First of all, that’s not what happened,” Steve corrects him.

“Pretty sure that’s what happened,” Dustin shrugs, always having to be right.

“No.”

“It was pretty public, there were like a lot of witnesses.”

“Are you implying that I still have a thing for Nance?” Steve just gets it out in the open for him.

“I’m not implying… I’m stating,” Dustin teases as if he’s trying to piss him off. “AND as it relates to your steadfast refusal to date Robin, it’s pretty much the only logical option…”

Steve huffs, that’s the part that makes his blood fill with rage, “thats not the only one… And as for Nance, I was just trying to protect a friend.”

Dustin bites the inside of his lip so he won’t laugh, not believing him at all.

“A friend, Henderson. A Friend. Okay?”

“Okay,” Dustin agrees to settle it but Steve can see in his face that he’s just going to bring it up another time, he wasn’t going to let go of it that easily.

“I don’t want to find her in the morning with her eyes sucked out the front of her skull by this Vecna creep!!” Steve panics and tells him half of the truth. He wasn’t sure if the real truth would bode well with him… sure, Mrs. Henderson was a democrat but that didn’t mean their household was okay with gay people.

The last thing he needed was to lose Dustin at a time like this.

Dustin laughs at him, it’s always funny when Steve is the one to get into these panic rambles. “You’re like bright red in the face right now.”

“No I’m not, I don’t want to talk about it— I’ll punch you so hard in your face your teeth’ll fall back out.”

Mean girl Steve jumped out before he even has a chance to realize the cage was open, he reels her back in and turns to Dustin as he registers what was said, a look of pure regret on his face.

“Woah, too far,” Dustin stares back at him, worried… he’s never been on the receiving end of Steve’s bad attitude.

There’s a pause, they look at each other completely seriously, understanding it was all a bit and it’s over now. “Not cool. Sorry,” he apologizes immediately.

“Not cool, but it’s okay,” Agrees and accepts, nodding softly and smiling, “seriously though… why is it that you’re just friends with two of the prettiest girls I know?”

It's now or never. The last thing he needed was Dustin asking him about the girls in front of Eddie. He didn’t need Eddie thinking he was just some one-time jock in the forest who wanted to try something and never talk about it again. He really liked Eddie. When this is all over, he wants to get to know Eddie better than ever before, better than anyone else knows him. And Dustin was his key to doing that.

“Did you ever consider the fact that maybe girls aren’t the only people I like…?”

Dustin is a bit taken aback by it, he purses his lips and thinks about it for a sec, and then he smiles “really?”

Steve nods, “yeah, so I spend a lot of my time talking to Robin about boys I like… and girls too. I’m just hung up on someone who isn’t Nancy, and it’s not Robin either, I’m just not ready to talk to you about it.”

“Okay,” Dustin is super understanding, “sorry for bugging you all the time, before, I never would’ve thought… but it’s cool. It’s really cool, you’d be a great boyfriend to another dude.”

“Thanks,” he manages to smile. “It’s only you and Robin who know… so don’t tell anyone—

“I would never,” Dustin reaches over and lays his hand on Steve's arm, “I promise.”

“Good,” he pulls Dustin into a hug and pats his back before he lets him go. “Thank you.”

“No problem, man,” Dustin leans back in his seat and looks out the front window as if nothing happened. “Can you not tell me because he’s not out yet and you want him to choose when I find out?”

“No… it’s kinda one-sided right now,” Steve admits. “I would call it a crush but I don’t want you to tease me.”

“No, no, it’s cute,” Dustin smirks, trying not to laugh at him. “Do I know him?”

“Maybe?” He lies, he thinks it’s convincing enough. “I barely know him.”

Dustin looks at him with a smirk, “you know, I have other gay friends who I could hook you up with?”

Steve looks at him funny, “you know other gay people?”

He nods, “yeah, why else do you think we’re all searching for fantasy worlds? This one isn’t accepting, trust me, I know… so we made a cool world in our game where we can all be different and it’s allowed… and I have a feeling based on who has a boyfriend in the game, I know who would love to have a real boyfriend.”

“Are you… gay?” Steve can’t help but ask, they’re more similar than Steve realizes, sometimes.

Dustin shrugs, “never thought too hard about it but it doesn’t gross me out to think about kissing a boy, so, who knows? I’ve just always been bullied for my disability, so in dungeons and dragons I can be both smart and agile, I don’t have to worry about breaking something or being in pain for days after a big game. I feel normal there. Everyone else does too.”

“I’m glad you have that,” Steve smiles thinking about how happy Dustin is after every game and how much that has to do with Eddie. “We really need to find a way to get the police to believe that it wasn’t Eddie… we can’t have you losing that.”

“Right,” Dustin, once again, see’s through him. “So you can take him out on a date after?”

“Do I need to take it too far again?” Steve teases, looking at him with a fake sense of dominance while holding his fist up. He smiles, breaking character and the two of them crack up. Laughing almost too hard to notice Max running towards the car.

—

If Vecna wanted to curse people with sad home lives, why didn’t he just pick Steve?

He’s the only one awake still, involuntarily taking the first watch while the rest of the party went to sleep. Mrs. Wheeler was fine with everyone staying now that she knew where Nancy was, she just made them separate at night. Steve had Dustin and Lucas with him down in the basement while Max and Robin were sharing a sleeping bag on Nancy’s bedroom floor.

Steve has been watching them sleep for about 30 minutes, they’ve been snoring the whole time, he doesn’t think they’ll wake up if he moves but he still gets up slowly. He reaches for Dustin's bag and pulls the walkie out from the front pocket and backs away from their sleeping spot. They don’t even budge, thank god.

In the back corner of the Wheeler’s basement, behind the stairs, is the laundry room and the utility closet, just far enough away from the boys that he wouldn’t be heard. He sits down with his back against the dryer and uses the light on the water heater to see the frequency gauge on the radio.

He moves it to 96.6 and holds down the talk button, “Eddie, you there?”

“Steve?” Eddie questions, knowing for sure it’s not Dustin’s voice coming through. “What’s going on?”

“Do you remember a kid named Fred Benson? He was on the newspaper team with Nancy?”

“Yeah, I know him,” Eddie says with a sigh, he could already tell where this was going.

“So uh, Fred died just like Chrissy. He was at your trailer with Nance to interview Wayne and then he disappeared into the woods and they found him this morning where Cornwallis meet’s Lover’s Lane,” Steve explains and then lets go of the button.

The radio static is all that can be heard, and Eddie is quiet. Too quiet. “You copy?” Steve asks, worried he never heard him.

“Yeah, yeah sorry… Do you think the trailer park is cursed?”

“That’s what I asked when we went back to get Nancy’s car,” Steve shares with a slight smile on his face. It was weird talking to him and not playfully pissing the other off. “But uh, we’ve got more bad news… both Chrissy and Fred were getting headaches, bad dreams and visions before they died, it started gradually and then got worse until they died. It’s probably why Chrissy wanted drugs, she couldn’t handle it alone…”

“She seemed really fucked up, I mean, she’d have to be to come to me?” Eddie believes it, “I guess the trailer park isn’t cursed then because they got sick before coming to the park, they just all happened to die near it?”

Steve hates that he has to tell him this next part.

“Max admitted to us that she has all the symptoms and we were there for her vision… it was so freaky, I’m sorry you had to see the whole thing with Chrissy.”

Eddie bypasses the niceties and goes right to the issue at hand, “So we’re 3 for 3 on connections to just my trailer now,” Eddie says with a sigh.

“Yeah, but at least that gave us somewhere to start looking,” Steve assures him.

“Did you find anything?”

“When Nancy was there with Fred, your uncle told her all about Victor Creel and how he killed his family in the 50’s… she went to the Library and found some articles about it and they’re going to look into it more tomorrow, so I’m not sure if we’ll be able to come see you at all?”

“That’s okay,” Eddie replied, he didn’t really mind.

“Are you okay being there all alone?” Steve asks, still worried for him. It’s just his luck that the first person he’s crushed this hard on since Nancy would end up being wanted for murder. The last thing he needs is for Eddie to get cursed too. “You’re not feeling any of the symptoms?”

“I mean, I have a headache from being up for almost 3 days and when I do sleep I get nightmares because I’m processing the trauma… but yeah, I’m fine. It just sucks being here ‘cause I’m a little afraid of the dark… I’m not gonna lie, Steve, it’s a lot scarier now that I know what’s out there,” Eddie admits.

“I’m sorry…but you’re okay? You still have snacks and you’re warm enough?”

“Dustin wasn’t kidding when he said you were like a mother hen,” Eddie teased him.

Steve laughs then too, holding the button down so he catches the end of his giggle, “yeah, yeah, I take care of the people I care about, sue me, Munson.”

“You care about me, Harrington?” Eddie asks with a fondness in his voice that Steve can hear.

“Yeah,” Steve answers, squeezing his eyes closed with regret. “I mean, Dustin loves you so if anything happened to you he’d be deviated… I have to take care of you for his sake.”

“Yeah, no, I get it, you’re doing it for the kids…” Eddie sounded disappointed almost. “Um, thanks again for the groceries, you didn’t have to do that.”

“I’m sure Reefer Rick doesn’t have anything edible— I mean, he probably does, I should say he doesn’t have anything that won’t get you high when you eat it in his house,” Steve teases, “I wasn’t going to let you starve, it’s bad enough you’re wanted for murder.”

“Do they really think I was able to kill Fred too? Why don’t they think I’m a victim too if they can’t find me?” Eddie asks, “it’s just straight-up bad police work to think it’s me?”

“If only Hopper was still here, he knew all about this shit,” Steve admits. “He died closing the last gate that opened under the mall.”

“From the girl with the superpowers?”

“No, actually the Russian’s made it but thats another story,” Steve doesn’t want to get into it either. “El closed the first one and Hop died closing the second…. he like adopted her and everything before he died but now she lives with Jonathan Byers and his mom and brother,” Steve explains, “and we can’t get ahold of them in California, so I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

“I should’ve known there was more to that zombie boy story…”

“Yeah… it’s just gotten crazier each year,” Steve can’t believe it either, and this is his 4th go-around. “But we’ve won 3 times, so…”

“The odds look good,” Eddie agrees, somewhat optimistically. “Can you give me the stats, what kills this thing? What’s its weakness?”

“Well, the mindflayer doesn’t like heat so we’ve been just lighting everything on fire, we used fireworks last time cause the monster was fucking huge when normally they’re like either little dog size things and their mouths open like those flowers that eat flies— Venus fly traps, thats it, and there’s some that are like 8 feet tall scary men sized dudes, we call them demogorgons, they also have the big opening mouth for a head, it’s fucking horrific,” Steve doesn’t mean to ramble but he’s never really been able to tell anyone about this stuff, other than Robin.

Eddie stays quiet on the other end, “they’re cold-blooded if they don’t like heat… which would make sense cause you said their world is nasty and dark, right?”

“Yeah, only Nancy, Joyce, Hopper and Will have actually been in the upside down and come back alive, I was in these tunnels between the worlds with the kids— once again, setting shit on fire, to give the others an upper hand… It all works like a hive mind if you burn one thing the whole system suffers.”

“So this Vecna fucker must be the puppet master,” Eddie agrees, “were the other monsters just feelers for what he could do or do you think this is an evolutionary thing?”

“Evolutionary?”

“Yeah, like in my games sometimes one villain has multiple evolutions, it starts small and then gets bigger and badder as time goes on and they take more souls and shit,” Eddie explains. “Maybe that’s why Chrissy and Fred ended up so broken like that… it’s like Vecna is sucking their life force out of them for his own gain?”

“The thing we fought last time was a bunch of infected people from Hawkins who all turned to mush and then formed one big monster with a gaping mouth and 6 legs… it was huge, like the size of a monster truck.” Steve shares, “So it’s like he found a cleaner approach to absorbing them?”

“Make sure you tell Nancy that in the morning,” Eddie says as a way of agreeing with him. “That could be really important.”

“I will, they’ll figure something out with it, I know it,” Steve assures him.

“You should get some sleep,” Eddie cares about him right back. “Those kids need you at your best.”

He can’t help but smile like a fool, “okay… are you going to sleep tonight?”

“Honestly? Probably not,” he admits, feeling a lot more comfortable with Steve now… “but I’m going to let you go, have a good night, Steve.”

“Try to sleep for me?” Steve asks, softer than ever before. “Head back into the main house and crawl into Rick's bed and just try… take care of yourself.”

“Thanks, mom,” he teases Steve one last time and then he’s gone. Radio off, hopefully heading back inside to sleep.

Steve sits there for a few more minutes with the radio pulled to his chest in a semi-hug, he wanted this to work out more than anything in the world.

—

Eddie hears a car pull up to the main house just after 3 pm that afternoon, one that doesn’t sound like Steve's or Nancy’s, it sounds bigger. He thinks maybe they brought a different vehicle after whatever they were up to that led to their radio silence all day… but he can’t see the road from where he is in the boathouse.

Sure enough, he heard 3 doors slam followed up by the worst voice he knew.

“Come on out, Freak!” Jason called out, letting him know they were coming for him.

He crouches by the window, staying low and still so no one sees him back there. He takes his walkie in hand and holds down the button, “Hey, Dustin? You there? It’s Eddie. You remember me, right?”

Nothing.

“Hey, uh, if… anyones there, I really think I might be in a bit of trouble here. Okay?”

Still nothing.

“Wheeler?” He begs, peaking out the window to see if the jocks have spotted the boat house yet.

“Steve?!” His voice gets a bit louder, more panicked and then he reaches a new level of desperation, he smacks the radio and almost yells through gritted teeth, “anybody?!?”

Still absolutely fucking nothing.

He shakes his head in disbelief and quickly gets back under the tarp in the boat, he’ll just pretend he’s not there as long as humanly possible… he hears them shouting his name and other derogatory terms around the yard and from inside the house, threatening to kill him if they find him. After about an hour, they quiet down. It becomes a once-a-half-hour thing for one of them to yell for Eddie as they tore the house apart worse than the police when they arrested Rick.

The sun eventually goes down around 8:30, after hours and hours of hiding, he finally hears Jason say what he’s been so afraid of.

“Has anyone checked the boathouse?”

He takes a deep breath and accepts his fate, he could either sit there and wait and hope they’re not as smart as Steve to start poking around where they didn’t belong… or, he could grab an oar and he could start to paddle out across Lovers Lake, towards Skull Rock. Before he can even think it over, his instincts kick in and he’s rowing his boat away from the dock.

He gets about halfway into the lake when Jason spots him, once again, calling out for the freak. Shit.

Now that he’s been seen, he doesn’t give a fuck about being loud with the motor running, so he pulls the cord on the engine as hard as he can… and nothing. “Come on! Just come on!!”

Jason is ripping off his suit jacket, newly returned from his girlfriend's funeral, he was manic as fuck and scarier than ever. In a moment of desperation, Eddie leans towards the engine and begs her to cooperate, “come on, sweetheart, you’ve gotta help me out here…”

And to no avail, she’s dead in his hands too. Nothing seems to be going right for him. Not now. Not ever.

His anger builds the more he yanks on the cord, “you… piece… of.. shit… Goddamn it!!” He finally smacks the engine and grabs the oar again, he had to do everything himself.

By now, Jason is in the water and swimming towards him like a piranha that smells blood. Eddie paddles as fast as he can, just hoping and praying he makes it to the other side and Jason gets a fucking cramp or something so he has enough time to run. He really needs to be able to run. He was not going to die in the hands of Jason Carver, that would be fucking pathetic.

They’re so close to grabbing onto the boat and slowing him down. One wrong move and they could tip him out, grab a hold of him and drown him before he even has a chance to swim. He paddles faster and faster, always getting just a mere metre ahead of them when Patrick stops.

“Hey, come on, let’s go! We almost have him!” Jason calls out to him, causing Eddie to stop too.

He stands with the oar in his hand, waving it like a sword, “stay back!! Stay back, you hear me?!”

“Patrick?” Jason calls again, more concerned. “Patrick!!” He turns to Eddie, treading water and breathing heavily, “what did you do? What kind of devil work is… oh my god?” Jason's attention is pulled to his friend who is now floating out of the water and into the air.

“Not again,” Eddie doesn’t want to be there when it happens this time. He sits back down and paddles faster than ever before.

He runs before he can hear the sound of their bones breaking, the cartilage twisting and that awful snap and crunch… it’s the worst sound known to man and he hears it every time he closes his eyes already. He didn’t need to witness it again. He doesn’t turn back when he hears Jason's screams and cries for his friend, or when there’s the inevitable splash that indicates it's all over.

Vecna took yet another life in close proximity to him.

He gets all the way to the other side of the lake and jumps out of the boat, he doesn’t tie it down or give a shit where it ends up, he’s got to go. He runs like a bat out of hell through the woods while his mind races in a million different directions. He didn’t even realize he left the radio in the boat until he reaches an all-too-familiar spot in the woods.

The tree where it all started.

He stops dead in his tracks and turns towards it, he grips the bark like his life depends on it and then wraps his arms around it. He holds onto the fucking tree like it's his lover after a long war, his chest is heaving, and he’s so tired and out of breath and scared. He’s so fucking scared he could have a heart attack and die right here… but right here is where he belonged. Right here is safe and holy and good. He drops down to the ground, still leaning against the tree as he takes a deep breath and another one, he rubs the tree bark to ground himself with the texture and returns all rational thought back to his brain.

He would stay here tonight. No one will be cruising with a murderer on the loose and the cops had better things to do than dish out public indecency charges tonight. He was truly safe here. In the morning, however, he’d go back to the shoreline, he would get the radio from the boat and he’ll call for Steve… or Dustin. Either way, he’ll probably see Steve tomorrow.

He knew Gareth was right about his mystery midnight runner being Steve, he accepted it a while ago, actually. He just never expected Steve to be anything more than a jock. He didn’t expect him to be soft and caring and funny… he knew he was pretty sure, but his soft heart made him beautiful.

And to think that just last year Steve was playing basketball with the same kids that are trying to now kill Eddie right now… it was a strange double life that Steve led. He was both cool and responsible. He was a babysitter and a whore. He sucked dick like a god and left most of the women in Hawkins satisfied too.

He’s a bloody mystery that Harrington, boy.

And if Eddie liked anything for sure, it was a challenge. Getting Steve Harrington to like him back was going to be just that and so much more… he just had to live long enough to see it through.

—

Eddie called and asked Nancy for more food yesterday morning, they didn’t have time to visit him at all during the morning and then everything with Max got worse so Steve was preoccupied. By the time Steve sat back down by the dyer to call Eddie, it was almost midnight again and he didn’t pick up the radio at all… it left Steve with a pit in his stomach that wouldn’t go away.

Dustin was snoring with his mouth wide open, snuggled into a pillow on the floor, he let Lucas have the full couch tonight. Lucas stayed up a bit longer than he should’ve, worried for the girl he loved, he stared at Max until his eyes got heavy and sleep took over… which was exactly when Max stopped pretending she didn’t still love him, she walked over to the couch and wrapped a blanket over him, she kissed his forehead and went right back to the desk in the corner as if nothing happened.

Steve saw it all happen from the laundry room, she saw him talking to the walkie and just turned her music up louder, giving him the privacy that he didn’t need because Eddie wouldn’t pick up. Every few minutes he asked the same question on the radio, “hello? Anyone there?” Not wanting to say his name because he had no idea who else was on the line, anyone in the town could be on this frequency. Yet no one answered.

He moves back over to the couch with the radio on a low volume so he could still hear Eddie if he called but it wouldn’t startle the kids awake. He watches Max in the corner, her headphones on and music blasted, she was drawing in the corner with a little light on, perfectly fine.

Dustin's watch starts to beep at 4:30, Steve watches him sit right up and rub his eyes with a groan. He lets out a huff and then turns to Steve, “my turn to keep watch.”

“I’m good,” Steve waves him off. “Go back to sleep.”

“Nope,” Dustin stretches, his voice almost disappearing as all the air in his lungs is expelled. He takes another deep breath and then stands up, “I’m going to pee, your eyes better be closed when I get back out.”

“Fine,” Steve wasn’t going to fight with him, he simply clutches the radio a bit tighter and settles into the chair in a comfortable position.

His eyes are closed for barely 2 minutes when his brain wanders into sleep, his head drops forward and his breathing picks up. It makes Dustin smile when he comes back from the bathroom, he puts a blanket on Steve’s lap and leaves him be. He needed this rest.

He wakes up clutching a pillow like his life depended on it, startled and alarmed by how peaceful the sleep was until now. He stared at the black nothingness of his closed eyelids for 4 hours straight before Nancy was waking him up with a shake.

“We’ve gotta get ready to go, I’ve still got some of your clothes in my room if you want to change,” She admits. “Track pants and a yellow sweater?”

“Kay,” he hums, rubbing his eyes until he sees blue and green dots and his head starts to feel like he’s spinning. “Anything happening?”

“There are reports of another body being found, we need to go see—

“Eddie?” he wakes right up, realizing he doesn’t have the walkie anymore, he looks around the room and he’s the only one still downstairs. “Has anyone contacted him?”

She shakes her head, “still nothing.”

“Let’s go,” he rushes past her up the stairs to the main floor and then up more stairs on her way to Nancy’s room. The boys were rifling through Mike's drawers for new shirts while Robin and Max wore something from the bags they packed days ago, at the start of all this. They came prepared.

He changes in the bathroom as quickly as possible and returns to Nancy’s room with his keys in hand, “I’m going to take Dustin to the store, Eddie said he was hungry yesterday… we’ll be back in 15?”

“Okay,” Nancy doesn’t care that he’s all concerned for Eddie like he’s his lover, but Robin smirks at him. “Remember, he asked for beer when he called and with this news… he’s going to need it.”

—

When they roll up to Rick’s house, there’s a media frenzy and a million and 1 cop cars lining the streets. They all rush up behind a news van just in time to hear the inevitable. “We have named a person of interest… Eddie Munson.”

“Ah man,” Steve groans. “This is not good. Really not good.”

Everyone agreed but no one says anything, they just glance at each other, feeling a bit more than defeated. They felt hopeless.

“Dustin, can you hear me? Wheeler?” Eddies voice crackles through the radio about too loud for where they are.

Dustin is quick to pull the radio out and turn the volume down, “Eddie, holy shit? Are you okay?”

“Nah man, pretty… pretty fuckin’ far from it, actually,” he admits, sounding totally and utterly devastated.

“Where is he?” Robin asks just as Dustin hits the button to talk back. “Where are you?” He asks.

“Skull rock, uh, do you know it?” He asks, probably because Dustin's a kid, he shouldn’t know the most popular make-out spot in Hawkins.

“Uh, yeah?” Dustin answers and turns to Lucas, “that’s near Cornwallis and—

“Garrett,” Steve finishes his sentence for him and pats his shoulder, running back to the car. “Yeah, I know where that is.”

Nancy tosses Steve the keys and they all follow him back to her car, he drives like a crazy person when he needs to, and they needed him to. They all pile back into the station wagon and he basically burns out, leaving tire marks on the asphalt.

He takes them down lover's lane back to Cornwallis for just a mile until he turns onto Garrett, heading up another mile to an all too familiar spot. The snow was long gone but the snowmobile trail was still there, he takes the car off the road and onto the trail, making everyone in the car scream and hold onto things to stay steady. He’s only off the road not even 20 seconds when he comes to an abrupt halt behind some bushes, “it's north from here.”

“Got it,” Dustin replies, digging out his compass while the gang gets out of Nancy’s car.

“And you said I was a risky driver!?” Max complains, straightening out her shirt and taking a deep breath. “That was insane?”

“I’m sorry, but we’ve gotta find him before the cops do?” Steve reminds her, feeling snippier than ever. He doesn’t stand around to listen to her answer, he starts walking in the direction he knows they should be going while they all follow.

“Damn, okay, what happened to you thinking he could’ve done this?” She can’t help but ask as she runs up beside him.

“He means a lot to Dustin… I’m not letting another one of you go through what you and Nancy have,” he admits… it’s not a lie, but it’s not where his true intentions lay either.

“Yeah, no, I get it,” she backs down. “But who’s going to take care of you?”

“What?” He stops.

“Who’s going to take care of you so that he doesn’t lose you? You’re the most important person he has, Steve, killing yourself to keep us safe is going to hurt him just as badly,” she reminds him, sounding a lot wiser than she should at 14.

He wraps his arm around her and keeps walking, “you can, how about that?”

“Deal,” she laughs and shoves his arm off of her, still not a touchy person.

Lucas catches up to them, hands full of groceries, Robin has another bag only she has chosen to walk with Nancy. Dustin has his compass and takes the lead, and it’s all fine and dandy until Steve starts to notice the same tree again and again… he tries to tell Dustin this, but he makes Steve look at the compass, he gives him a snarky lesson on how they work and Steve shoves him into a bush lightly.

“Hey!”

“Dude, I’m telling you, you’re taking us the wrong way,” Steve argues. “I know these woods better than any of you. This is the wrong direction.

“It’s north, I’m positive, I double-checked the map.”

“You do realize Skull Rock is like a really popular make-out spot?” Steve starts to lose his cool.

“Yeah, so?”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t popular until I made it popular,” Steve brags. “Alright? I practically invented it… we’re heading in the wrong direction.”

At this point he’s fed up and anxious, he cuts to his left and just starts going out on his own. He jogs downhill, jumps over twigs and keeps going no matter what Dustin says.

“Steve?!” Dustin simply calls after him, not wanting to admit he’s wrong.

“Stop whining and trust me!!” He starts to run, making up for lost time.

These were his woods. He played pretend out here as a kid, he followed his idiot friends out here to party and smoke, he had his first beer by the lake with Tommy… he had his first time by the lookout in his Beamer… and he met Eddie at that tree.

He stops just for a second to look at the tree, knowing skull rock was just a stone's throw from where they are. He keeps going, through the bushes and past the overgrown branches, “oh, boom!” He cheers when he finally sees it. “Bada-bing bada-boom, there she is, Henderson, skull rock.”

He holds the branches back so that the rest of the party can make it to the clearing in front of the giant rock formation. “In your face, man, in your stupid, cocky, little face.”

“It doesn’t make sense?” Dustin stares at him like he grew two heads and then back to the rocks.

“Yeah, yeah. Even with it staring you right in the face, you can't admit it. You just can’t admit it that you’re wrong, you little butthead,” Steve drags on, eyes trailing the place for any sign of Eddie.

He drops down from the rock then, “I concur,” he announces his presence, drawing Steve's attention right to him, he has to try not to smile, instead, he turns away and rubs his face. “You, Dustin Henderson, are a total butthead.”

“Jesus, we thought you were a goner,” Dustin sighs, walking into Eddie's space and stealing a hug from him.

“Yeah, me too man,” he sighs, patting his back while staring at Steve, he lets him go and keeps staring.

Steve gives him a smile and a nod, playing it cool when on the inside he wanted to run over to him and wrap him up in a hug, himself and make sure he was okay. He wanted to hold his face in his hands and look him over, he wanted to brush his hair out of his face and look into his eyes and— and he really needed to stop thinking about it.

Robin walks up to Eddie then, “hey, you’re okay?”

He nods, “yeah, as good as I can be.”

Steve didn’t even realize that Robin and Max were carrying the groceries for Eddie, not until Robin started handing him things, “how long have you been out here?”

“Since like 10 pm,” he explains, ripping into the bad for literally anything, he was so hungry he could eat a horse. “Tweedle dee and dumb chased me into the lake and then Patrick started to float and I couldn’t be there… I couldn’t handle it again so I did the thing that I do now. I ran.”

Eddie takes a box of cereal out of the paper bag, they’re cinnamon toast crunch this time because Steve thought he might like something different. He all but moans when he sees the box, “oh I’m so fucking excited to eat, I haven’t had anything since I called Nancy yesterday morning…”

“Dustin ate most of your Pringles,” Max teases, handing him the other bag of groceries and Lucas hands him the pack of beer, too.

“You’re a godsend,” he thanks Nancy, his eyes are like 10x bigger than normal, and he’s so happy he could cry…

“Steve got it all,” Nancy points and Steve straightens out, looking terrified as all eyes shift to him. “He’s the only one that can get beer…”

Eddie gasps, knowing he’s older than Steve and still not able to buy beer himself… “Harrington, do you have a fake ID?”

He nods, “yep… one of my dad's business partners is 27, he gave me his old licence. Don’t expect me to get you booze all the time now.”

“Well, thank you,” Eddie gives him a sweet smile. “But what the fuck took you guys so long?”

“We have a lot to tell you,” Nancy sighs, she takes a can of Pringles from Eddie’s snacks and leans against the rock. “We’re going to be here a while, dig in.”

—

“Sick, thats just fucking sick,” Eddie’s sarcasm is palpable, he shakes his head and rubs his eyes, it was a lot of information all at once and the only thing that really stood out was the now Eddie was wanted for not 1, but 3 murders.

The whole time they’ve been talking, Dustin has been pacing, talking to himself and smacking his compass in his hands. He looks distraught, he’s thinking so hard smoke might start coming out of his ears while the rest of the gang immediately starts discussing how they’re going to kill Vecna before he gets Max too.

“Well, we’re one step closer, we know how Vecna attacks,” Robin, once again, tries to make it seem like they’re got it all under control.

“And where he attacks from,” Lucas agrees, standing so close to Max you’d think they’re dating again.

“So, now we just need to sneak into his lair in the upside down and… and drive a stake through his heart?” Max suggests, arms crossed, a smug look on her face, she thinks it’s going to be easy.

“If he even has a heart,” Robin jokes.

“A stake? Is he like a vampire— is he a vampire?” Steve's voice lowers with excitement, it’s both cool and terrifying.

“It was a metaphor,” Max looks at him like he’s an idiot and Eddie jumps in to save him

“A bullet should work on him, right?” Eddie suggests, knowing where they could get some guns.

“I say we chop his head off,” Lucas throws in for good measure.

Steve looks like he’s about ready to ask how that would help when Nancy steps back in… Eddie only knows because he’s been watching Steve talk and switching his attention over to Dustin every few seconds. He’s still pacing, still talking to himself, it’s strange, sure, but Steve is too pretty not to stare at when he talks.

“yeah— I say all the above, but we can’t do any of that,” Nance reminds them. “We need to find another gate.”

“We need to get El’s powers back,” Max follows up, it seems like the most effective way to win this.

“Everything was like way easier. We had this girl… and she had superpowers—

“Superpowers, yeah, you mentioned her,” Eddie cuts him off, he remembered perfectly everything that Steve has said to him these last few days. “But, hey uh, Henderson’s no uh, cursed? Is he?”

Steve looks at Eddie and then Dustin and back to Eddie, catching his eyes and staying there, “cursed, no, no… mental? Absolutely.”

“BOOM!!!!” Dustin suddenly pops off, everything clicking in his head.

Everyone jumps out of their skin for a moment, startled to their core by the sheer volume of his voice. “Badda… badda… boom!” He points at Steve and walks toward him. “I was right. Skull Rock was north.”

Steve's blood starts to boil, like a real brother, Dustin never fails to find a way to grind his gears and piss him off. He crosses his arms and sighs, “seriously? You’re serious?”

“Mhm,” Dustin smirks, holding back the key information so he can wow them in a sec.

“THIS IS SKULL ROCK?!” Steve freaks out, pointing at the fucking rock formation and then down to Eddie who’s squatting on the floor like a fucking champ… (he’s been squatting for so long, Steve is a lot more than impressed, he was invested in seeing how long he could go. But that’s not the point.)

“You’re totally, absolutely, 100% wrong! Right now!!” He speaks with his hands, gesticulating with anger.

“yes… and no.”

“Oh my god,” Steve has to fight off the urge to swing at him, he instead turns around and covers his face. He takes a few deep breaths while Dustin continues.

“This compass worked correctly when we left the Wheelers, it was correct when we got in the car on Kerley but it started to slip the further east we went,” Dustin explains. “Now! it’s… way off?”

Steve turns back to him, looking at him with an expression Dustin can read as ‘and your point is?’

“When I was leading us here I wasn’t wrong!” Dustin assures, pointing to his own chest, he stares into Steve’s eyes for approval. “The compass was.”

“So you’re using faulty equipment? Dude, you’re still wrong!” Steve can’t believe him, or his fucking tone.

“It isn’t faulty… Lucas, do you remember what can affect a compass?” He asks as if he’s Mr. Clarke and this is grade 7 all over again.

“Any electromagnetic field!” Lucas clues in immediately, validating Dustin's theory.

“Yep,” Dustin smiles, ego bubbling inside of him and reaching a boiling point that they can’t return from.

“I’m sorry…” Robin steps in, “I must’ve skipped that class?”

“In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power… so either there is some super big magnet around OR—

“There’s a gate,” Lucas cuts Dustin off, remembering how he was the first one to ever find a gate to begin with.

“But we’re nowhere near the lab?” Nancy is trying so hard to comprehend all this, but geographically, it’s not working in her mind.

“But what if, somehow… there’s another gate?” Dustin hypothesizes. “A gate that we don’t know about…? It’d have to be smaller. Way less powerful.”

“Snack-sized gate!” Robin teases, remembering all the little labels on the snacks Eddie just ate, it fit the situation and even made Nancy smile a bit.

“Okay but how? Why?” Steve is the last to really get on board with it.

“No idea?” Dustin admits. “All I know is something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we’ve seen anything like it, it was a gate. And I hope it is because then we’d have a way to Vecna and a shot at freeing Max from this curse…” and with that, Dustin makes his grand exit from stage one and heads into the woods.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Steve yells at him, but he doesn’t stop. “Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Eddie's still a wanted man! We can’t just go for a hike in the woods??” Steve panics, his voice even cracks.

Robin looks at him with a knowing smirk, Nancy even picks up on it, they knew Steve more than anyone else in the party. Eddie however, he’s never seen Steve react like that… in fact, no one has ever really cared for his safety like this. No one but Wayne. Wayne would probably like him.

“This little steal capsule might be the key to saving both Max and Eddie,” it’s incredibly pointed at Steve, and then he turns to said wanted man. “What say you, Eddie the banished?”

Everyone turns to him and he looks away, staring off at the ground, he bites his lip and thinks about it. “I’d say you’re asking me to follow you into Mordor… which, if I’m totally straight with you, I think it’s a really bad idea…”

He catches Steve nodding along, clueless, but agreeing.

“but the shire… the shire is burning,” Eddie exaggerates, hyping Dustin up unintentionally to the point that the 15-year-old starts to jump up and down like a toddler, rustling the leaves under his feet.

Eddie places his hands on his knees and stands up straight, “so Mordor it is.”

He walks right past Nancy, just as clueless as Steve, but she doesn’t care, she follows Eddie. And Robin follows Nancy, and soon, everyone is following Eddie who isn’t ready at all to be a leader. He turns back around and notices he left all his shit by the rock just as Steve is catching up with everything.

“The fuck is Mordor?” He asks himself, absentmindedly following everyone when Eddie bumps into him on the way back to the rock, “get your shit man, let’s go.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Eddie picks it up with haste and runs back in front of Steve, slipping on the dewy grass and almost falling when Steve places his hand on his back to keep him steady.

Dustin takes the lead again, explaining the science to Nancy and Robin who followed him the fastest. Lucas and Max have heard it all before, so they just trail behind and no one cares that Steve stays back with Eddie, about 10 feet behind everyone else, he bumps Eddie’s shoulder and smiles at him. “You’re not going to thank me for breakfast?”

He laughs, “just add it to the things I have to thank you for.”

“Huh?” Steve doesn’t know what he means.

“You know,” Eddie references towards the trees, “just everything you’re willing to do for me… without anything in return.”

Steve almost stops breathing, stopping dead in his tracks, “you know?”

He nods, “yeah, I’ve known for a while… why when did you figure it out?”

“When you almost killed me 2 days ago?” Steve admits, he bites his lip and then shakes his head as he laughs. “I mean, Robin was saying it was probably you, but… I don’t know, I was kinda building him up in my head and then I couldn’t—

“Separate fact from fiction,” Eddie cuts him off, knowing all too well what thats like. “Gareth accused me of the same thing.”

Steve sighs and pats his shoulder, making him keep walking so they don’t lose Dustin and the gang. “Come on, we can talk about it later… I have a lot to tell you if we make it out of this.”

“I’m honestly surprised you’re not freaking out?”

“I had my time to freak out,” Steve teases. “Robin heard it all.”

“So she’s…”

Steve nods, “yeah. Is Gareth?”

Eddie nods too, looking forward to see everyone so far ahead of them. “Are you?”

Steve smiles, “yeah, couldn’t you tell?”

Eddie chuckles, “yeah, which is why it was so hard for me to come to terms with the fact it was you… cause like where the fuck did that come from, Steve?”

He shrugs, “I don’t know. It’s pretty easy to replicate once I’ve had one… and I’ve had quite—

“You whore,” Eddie whispers as he bumps his shoulder, smirking away. “But it paid off…”

“You’re going to give me an ego,” Steve shoves him right back.

“At least we’ll know where Dustin gets it from,” Eddie teases him once again.

And Steve loved every second of it.

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[strawberryblondebutch]

Saw your AMA 4 hours late, sorry if you're not still doing it, but: 1 piece of advice you'd give to someone moving to Philly?

A fun fact about me is that I always answer questions. I just joke about it more when I drink as an inside joke thing.

I’ve mulled over a lot of pieces of advice and I think it all boils down to one theme — don’t be scared.

I grew up in Philly, went away for high school, came back for college and stuck around. I went to undergrad and grad school with a lot of people who were in a big city for the first time, and we approached life very differently. They heard horror stories about public transit, so they took Uber everywhere. They went out to eat in the university bubble because they were convinced they’d get robbed if they left. Those who had the means went home every weekend to visit family instead of making new friends.

Philly isn’t perfect. No city is. Our transit is underfunded. Some neighborhoods are rough. But our reputation as a bunch of assholes is… kind of just for show? Don’t be a dickhead and you’ll get by just fine. Whatever your hobby is — sports, music, D&D — you can find people who do that and they’ll want to hang out with you. If you drink, head to a corner pub to watch the Phillies and half the bar will start chatting you up.

This is a city of shared experiences. Even if you don’t like football (honestly, I don’t! I have my reasons, but it’s not my thing), we all want the Eagles to do well. We climb up light poles and dismember robots and venerate a landscaping place in the northeast. The sooner you give in to the fact that this is a city of loud little freaks who are simultaneously mean and nice (and sound like they have a mouth full of marbles), the better you fit in.

[nuitapp]

Are you ready for things to heat up 🔥 in the cosmos?

♃ Jupiter, the planet of expansion, optimism and growth, enters the fiery, passionate flames of Aries, igniting new opportunities and new connections!

While Jupiter is leaving the dreamy waters of Pisces it loves so much to enter a sign it is peregrine within, this energy is activating our drive and desires.

✨The Mars-ruled Jupiter fun and confidence continues come December 2022, where it will continue to tour Aries until it enters Taurus ♉️ in May 2023.

👥 Collective Jupiter in Aries ♈️ Themes:

Jupiter expands where it transits, so expect collective themes around:

• Expanding our independence

• Desire to initiate

• Opportunities that can be granted when we dare to take a risk

• Look before you leap, as Jupiter is prone to overdoing it

& Aries has never met a challenge it didn’t like to conquer!

• Boost of confidence of cosmic support you’ve been waiting for

• Take educated risks, but know that what it is you want is on the other side of your fear

• Time to be fearless & go after your desires!

⭐️ Who will feel this fiery Jupiter in Aries transit the most?

*The Jupiter-ruled signs, Sagittarius ♐️ and Pisces ♓️ are extra sensitive to what their ruler is doing, so they will feel a distinct tonal shift when this energy begins.

*Aries placements ♈️ will get an extraordinarily lucky boost amidst the Jupiter in Aries transit.

💞 Whose relationships are getting a fiery boost during this influence?

While this is ramping up us all collectively around being more confident and going after what (and who!) we want, the Libra ♎️ and Sagittarius ♐️ love lifes will get particularly ignited!

👤 Where will I feel the Aries Jupiter energy?

👉🏽 We’ve got you covered! Find your Jupiter in Ariesscopes below - read for your sun and rising!

♈️ Aries

Aries, get ready for a lucky boost! You can expect to feel EXTRA confident, bold and enterprising during the Jupiter in Aries transit. Some Aries could find that they get more rewards during this influence when they are investing in their physical appearance - bodybuilding, chiseling an aesthetic, taking care of their body. While this energy is concentrated around matters of self, identity and visibility, you all get a fiery boost wherever you direct this Jupiterian energy. Keep your eye on the prize of your desires, Aries, and maximize this once in twelve year transit by boldly going after what (and who!) you want.

♉️ Taurus

This energy is expanding an area of your chart (and your life) that may not be visible to the external world - but that doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful, Taurus. It’s more so that the Jupiter in Aries energy is concentrated within your private world. You can experience a boost around feeling more confident in solitude, comfortable within your own presence. The spiritual realm can be supportive for you to dive into at this time.

♊️ Gemini

Gemini, you all are the social butterflies of the zodiac - and the largest planet of the solar system is coming to expand your social networks even more so! This influence will bring in interesting new contacts, colleagues and friends - so keep your calendar packed! If there’s an interesting-sounding business mixer, say “yes,” - your network can secure you some fascinating opportunities during this time. Dream big, twins!

♋️ Cancer

For the crabs, this influence is expanding your career and public persona. As the sign of home, family and emotions, you all tend to be comfortable within your internal, safe world, but this is an influence where the greatest rewards are waiting outside of your comfort zone. This is the time to take initiative around securing the career goals of your dreams. Believe in yourself, Cancers - this can be an enormous time of expansion in your public world, so long as you are bold enough to go after your desires!

♌️ Leo

Lions, as a fellow fire sign, this influence is extra supportive for you! While you’re benefiting from this fiery burst of energy overall, this energy can be PARTICULARLY supported around your travel, higher learning and spiritual world. This is a time to reconnect to the person you are via your beliefs, to dabble in spirituality or religion that reminds you of your personal sense of meaning. Reorient yourself to your big picture beliefs and let that curiosity to understand more of your purpose drive you towards all sorts of fascinating adventures.

♍️ Virgo

Virgo, your sign is one that values planning and understanding, but this is an energy where your greatest rewards come from an element of risk. Your expansions are waiting for you during this transit when you are able to surrender into your connections and receive from the people around you. Your spouse could receive an income boost, you can receive a legal payout or benefit from other sources of money from those around you. It’s all about surrendering into the magic that can occur when you trust others, Virgo, which, as a very independent and capable sign, can ignite some fear within you - but Jupiter in Aries is asking you to be FEARLESS.

♎️ Libra

We have excellent news for you, you romantic Venusians - this energy is expanding your relationships and partnerships! Single Libras can find they are EXTRA magnetic during this transit, with tons of potential suitors all around. This energy may ask you to be bolder than you typically are - so take action directly if someone catches your eye, Libra, and you can find your relationship reality is extra exciting! Committed Libras, you can find you’re expanding your connection this year, whether it’s taking your relationship to the next level, going on adventures with your beloved or otherwise just expanding the flirty vibes within your union. Enjoy this passionate transit, scales!

♏️ Scorpio

The Scorpions can reap enormous benefits, if they’re willing to put in the work around strengthening their daily routine. Some Scorpions will expand their diet and exercise routine during this time, using this spicy Mars-ruled Jupiter energy to boost their physique. Other Scorpions will feel this energy concentrated around their work environment, able to get a promotion in the workplace, get into a new work environment or have better connections with their coworkers.

♐️ Sagittarius

Archers, you all are ruled by Jupiter, so you can expect to feel the fun, carefree shift when it enters Aries. You all will feel an expansion around your lust for life, craving new hobbies, ways of spending time and ways to express yourself. Be bold when it comes to your art - this can be a lucky influence in which your creations gain some traction IF you dare to put yourself out there. Expect to feel EXTRA romantic, confident and bold when it comes to the dating scene. Be courageous - slide into your crush’s message on NUiT - the perfect match could just be a pick up line away!

♑️ Capricorn

Capricorn, the Jupiter in Aries transit is focused upon the most private portion of your chart. This yearlong transit will certain be expansive, but the benefits felt within your world will largely be concentrated around your home environment, family connections and emotional landscape. Some Capricorns will get a confident boost around FINALLY advocating for themselves when it comes to roommates or family members. Some Capricorns could be moving to a bigger home or an environment that allows them to be more fully themselves. Make the most of it, goats!

♒️ Aquarius

As an air sign, you’re no stranger to speaking your truth. This influence is igniting your communication, asking you to be more bold and authentic with how you express yourself. Some Aquarians could be inclined to put themselves out there more on social media, start sharing on a podcast or launching a blog. Aries is the sign of self, so just remember to be wholly yourself and to be honest to reap the benefits from this transit. Other areas of growth and expansion for the Aquarians could be via short term travels, learning new skills and even transportation. This is a time to be open, be bold and be curious!

♓️ Pisces

Pisces, you all are ruled by the planet of higher meaning and academia, so you are going to feel this fiery transition extra! Fish, take that enthusiasm you’ve been igniting for the next year, and now the focus is to money, finances and possessions, as you can reap enormous benefits and expansions in this energy. Just be mindful, as this energy can be a bit more impulsive and reckless - so ask yourself before swiping your card if you really NEED those $300 boots - as this lucky influence has a tendency to expand the money coming in AND money going out! Maximize the extra income Jupiter invites in and keep an eye on your out flow to ensure you are putting your money towards your financial goals.

https://nuitapp.com/cosmic-connection-blog/jupiter-in-aries-2022

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

i lived in a huge metro area for a decade, where i got spoiled by the gorgeous city library along light rail and i often lived near the system’s local branches. back then, i could easily browse and borrow and once even attended a knit/crochet group. now i live in a car-dependent smaller city that only has a single library downtown. 

randomly today, i was listening to a podcaster discussing graphic novels, and wishing to myself that there was some sort of trading/lending library for comics because it would feel like a waste for me to buy any. i would want to read them for the stories, but i don’t wish to collect them, so afterwards they would gather dust with nobody else to enjoy them. the trading idea occurred to me because i know there are groups like that for jigsaw puzzles, which i can’t participate in these days but still think are awesome for existing.

however as i was wishing for a comic trading space, it occurred to me that duh, there is an ACTUAL LIBRARY. where they probably have comics (my library uses an ebook system that isn’t common and has weirdly few offerings, so i can’t guarantee they have comics just because i know some libraries do). 

that option didn’t occur to me at all, though, despite the fact that i have a library card here and get their promotional emails every month. because needing to enlist a friend’s help to get me there makes the downtown library inconvenient for actual borrowing--or the knit/crochet group i learned exists this summer--and there’s no closer location.

the funny thing is that now that i got distracted thinking about all of that, about how central to my life the library used to be when it was fun and easy to use, and how i forget it’s even an option now because it’s not a very accessible one...i don’t even remember anymore what graphic novel sounded interesting. 

i think a comics-swapping community would still be really cool, though, and i suspect that’s because i like imagining it as a group of friends passing them around, like kids in a bedroom in the ‘80s or ‘90s, rather than anything more formal online that would take knowledge and effort. i spent my childhood sharing movies and music and tv instead, leaving me way less comics-literate now than i kind of wish i were.

when media was presented to me in a comics style as a child, like little health psas meant to ‘engage the kids’ by speaking our language, i disengaged immediately--the panels full of pictures and stylized text made my brain freeze up. i wonder if the problem was that learning to read adult novels by the third grade never felt challenging, leaving me unprepared when other reading did feel difficult.

anyway, i don’t think i have a central point for this ramble. libraries are good, accessibility and public transit are good, i suspect some graphic novels are good but can’t say so definitively. communities that prioritize sharing over capitalism are very good and i’m always happy to come across them. if anybody wants to talk to me about comic books, feel free!

[m0tel6mxzzy]

here’s how euphoria s3 can still work:

ngl if euphoria has an s3 i just wanna see all the girls happy in therapy and developing healthy repaired relationships and nate suffering. they need some succession writers pulling cousin greg succession whump levels of pathetic. make that man a loser as kat knew. not bc he isn’t living up to his expectations but bc he feels no shame about the harm he’s caused others. also, more interaction w elliot and nate just awkwardly in college altho i hope elliot meets a nice guy like a jock similar to who derek was and despite their differences, they grow to find happiness. maybe someone straight lace like lexi but social anxiety-ridden like rue and struggles to communicate, but in times of stress blurts out the truth and elliot just laughs bc he knows and is deeply intuitive.

like so far even when i’m in college nate is not relatable, and in fact the moment u get here you’re surrounded by ppl who are sometimes more advanced than u and i wanna see him crushed under that while refusing to improve and it killing him in this graphic, gory manner with intense greek mythological creature horror effects while the girls are motivated in whatever their choose to do w their lives but also make efforts to repair their relationships to one another.

the aesthetics revert to this glittery s1 while cassie adopts a darker, more effy stonem look but simply “darker and messy” but not fully emo like kat was, while dressing how she truly wants to dress w/o influence of maddy, but also in more complex mixed layers and patterns. lots of dark blues, maroon reds, blacks, greys, and silvers. some vivienne westwood archive looks that sounds cute and lexi wore a miu miu dress lol and bc cassie is now embracing her body but for her own sake and not anyone elses w/o feeling like she has to compensate to just exist. for once, she lets herself exist and dress as she wants even if others make fun of her or find it over the top, but it’s her.

and i’m assuming cassie finds friends who don’t give a shit abt her past w the leaks and in fact affirm she was a victim in that situation by those who manipulated her. the context of this is connected to kat, and rue narrates the negatives of what lat went thru similarly and closes the gap w her by acknowledging her presence (which levinson sounds scared to do) now that barbie is no longer present in the show.

also jules and rue seem to have mended things but i hope they talk bc a lot was left unsaid when they didn’t speak. cassie also needs to apologize to maddy bc it’s clear a part of her regrets her actions (ex: flaunting maddy’s abuser in her face) altho cassie is now part of nate’s abusive cycle and some of it is out of her control and she feels lonely, and knew inside that maddy and her family held that support nate and his disaffected parents could never replace. she does need to find friends outside of maddy tho bc part of her feels like she can’t always admit the truth to her, and college is the perfect atmosphere for new friends who acknowledge but don’t hate the old you.

it’s clear cassie never liked nate and liked the idea of someone who disregarded her past (even if she doesn’t know he was in on the reason the entire school demeans her) and i’d also like rue and lexi being roommates. lexi might be a writer but consider something else more “practical” like a stem field, and rue is undecided but considers becoming a child psychologist. i see jules as an artist that often brings awareness to childhood psychiatric abuses in her art as she grows popular, and moves to ny w maddy eventually

maddy and jules remain friends, and maddy decides to leave in east highland but adapt to college there first, as all she needed was a transition from her traumas associated w high school, and majors in fashion design, marketing, and fashion sustainability while also acing math bc surprise suprise this girl remembers everything. cassie i’m not so sure of, i think she’d be an excellent public speaker (obviously lmao) but i’m not sure what career she’d map out

***also nate’s secret brother, tyler, and anna are addressed

[watching-pictures-move]

Viddying the Nasties | Delirium (Maris, 1979)

This review contains mild spoilers.

I’m reading the back cover of my Severin Blu-ray, and there’s a blurb from some publication or website I don’t recognize claiming that this is the “first psycho-killer movie to exploit the graphic nature of the its murders”, which is the kind of claim that I suspect holds up only if you haven’t seen any movies made before this one. But credit where credit is due, there are at least a few gruesome murders in this, including one by spear and another where an actor’s hand is lopped off. The person doing the murdering is a PTSD-stricken Vietnam vet, who another blurb on the back of the Blu-ray describes as a “cracked-out Seth McFarlane”, but I think he looks more like Nathan Fielder myself. Given their comic sensibilities, I’d wager Fielder is a bit more deranged than McFarlane, but neither strikes me as likely to go on a killing spree.

But the movie doesn’t stop there. It turns out this Vietnam vet was part of an underground vigilante group of Vietnam vets hired to kill criminals the justice system failed to convict. The group is run by a bald hardass type played by Barron Winchester, whose name sounds like the upper class villain in a spaghetti western and whose presence brings to mind an even flintier James Tolkan. Winchester plays most of his scenes wearing sunglasses, even when indoors. I wear transition lenses, and anytime I step indoors when it’s been sunny outside, I’m blind as a bat for a minute, so I gotta respect his commitment to the bit. But the sunglasses are also an astute bit of costuming, as they make him look much meaner, and also hide the fact that he’s kinda weird looking when he takes them off. Out to stop him are a pair of detectives and the friend of the first victim, who frankly does more to solve the case than any of the cops. She also wears a cute floral dress late in the movie, although I personally would have used this fabric to make a Hawaiian shirt. Also, one of the detectives ends up dating her, and the other one is bizarrely enthusiastic about the relationship. I guess it’s nice when your friends are happy for you.

I was seeing a lot of less than stellar ratings of this from my Letterboxd circle, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. This is a low budget regional production, and the best thing you can say about it is how well made it is. This apparently was an effort to salvage an unfinished movie, but the end result holds together surprisingly well. Certainly the budget shows, but some smart use of locations (some of the St. Louis locations were later used in Escape From New York, although they look less hellish here) hides the lack of production value. (Fun fact: the hand-chopping scene was improvised after the director found an extra who was born without a hand.) And when the movie pivots from slasher to action thriller, the action elements feel sturdier than one might expect. The climactic shootout is fairly coherent, if not exactly stylish.

If anything, the relative slickness of the movie takes some of the sting out of the murders, which don’t have the pungency they might have achieved in a more slapdash production. But this isn’t quite as grimy as its reputation as a Video Nasty might suggest. Politically, it’s quite a bit less reactionary than the average vigilante thriller, suggesting that extrajudicial killings might be a bad idea, while also sympathizing with the plight of Vietnam vets. There is a disarmingly poignant moment in the climax when the villain flashes back to an aborted rescue during the war. And with a handful of pretty good performances, from the discount James Tolkan, the two cops and the plucky friend, I found the proceedings surprisingly involving.

[alarrytale]

I’m so confused why him using an accent now seems to be a discourse. The album has been out for almost 2 years. You either like it or you don’t at this point. I personally like the accent. It’s breaking out of the cookie cutter sound of pop and that’s ok. I’m sorry but pop has become so watered down to the point where you can barely tell one singer from another these days. I think he’s experimenting with sounds and is deciding what works best for him. I don’t see the issue here? He’s always liked indie music and if he wants to go that route with his sound, why can’t he? A singer should love what they sing anyway and if they don’t then what’s the point of them singing anymore. Singers are inspired by other singers and sounds since the beginning of music. Why is that an issue suddenly when it comes to Louis being inspired by Oasis? If we look at Niall for example, he’s clearly inspired by Bruce. Who cares if they’re inspired by someone. I think the main trouble here is not an accent and it’s not a “lad” image. The real problem is the general public doesn’t see him at all. BBC has hyped up every single member of 1D’s solo work, except for his for example. I don’t think that’s a coincidence because he has just as radio friendly music as the others do. Same with iheart, capital, etc. With the reactions to the articles from Glastonbury, most of the general public didn’t even know he did solo music. Some articles at least mentioned his solo events so he got some exposure from that. My point is the issue isn’t his accent, his smoking, weed, his having a normal fun time at Glastonbury like every other single attendee there, etc. He’s just simply not known. If image was an issue, Zayn and Liam would never be played either and that’s just not the case. That’s nothing against Zayn or Liam either, it’s just reality. They have worse images out to the general public than Louis does. Even Harry’s image out there isn’t good at the moment. Personally I think Louis and his team need to be more proactive and figure out how to promote him. They’ve been lazy with this. The tv & silver Fox stories going viral was surely a surprise to even them but it took ahold with the general public and got his name out there again. And just to add because I know you agree with me on this one… Why did they not make waoyf a single. WHY!?!

Hi, anon!

The accent while singing is a discourse again because it's a divisive thing in this fandom and people don't agree on it. There is no right or wrong answer to it, it all depends on his goals. Since we aren’t really privy to his goals, it's hard to understand what he's trying to do. If he's moving towards being more indie, and fitf was a transitional album, my guess is that's why they didn’t make waoyf a single or capitalised on it's popularity. I think it was a big mistake, but i don't want Louis to do indie music or have an indie image. It's such a waste of momentum and having accumulated a broad international fanbase who love pop music over the years. To see it all go to waste, because of his shitty image and trying to appear as a lad, is fucking hard.

Louis is not unknown. He was in 1D and he's got 35 million followers on twitter. Right now he's catering to people outside of those 35 million followers, instead of trying to awaken those who are already partial to him. His shitty image is stopping the gp, and his own fans, from buying his music and going to his shows. People do know him, but people don't like what they see or what they hear. He's got one foot in each camp, and he's not committing. He's too rich boybander with teenage girl fans to be indie, and he's too grey haired, northern lad with issues with no hit songs to be commercially successful. The only one with a less appealing image is Liam.

He's yelling at larries, he's singing about larry. He's getting headlines at Glasto, but he isn't headlining Glasto. His monthly listeners is falling day by day. To figure out how to promo him, they need to figure out what the goal is and how to get him there. I fear the goal is being mid, the promo is mid and the effort is mid. I also fear Louis is viewing himself as mid and the confidence in himself is mid. So we see some half assed efforts and missed opportunities. If the goal is being mid, then that's disappointing, and it's going to be hard staying mid, when his fans is used to success, superstardom and effort being made.

I don't understand Louis and his team at all. Even if he's got things against him that he can't control stopping him from progressing, he's fumbling a lot on his own too. He doesn’t need to be mid at all, he has potential to be so much more, but it does look like that mid is where it's at.

[whereareroo]

FUN OR FLOP



WF THOUGHTS (7/29/23).

If you want to squeeze every drop of fun out of life, you have to take some chances. Fun isn’t going to fall into your lap if you just hang around your house and stick to your regular routines.

On our recent trip to Spain, I was near a harbor and bumped into a memorial plaque for a guy who died in a boating accident. The inscription said: “A boat is always safe in a harbor, but that’s not what boating is all about.”

The fact that the guy died is proof that all attempts to have fun do not have a happy ending. Thankfully, the flops do not usually result in death. Unfortunately, flops are part of the “fun seeking” process. I think it’s smart to tolerate the inevitable flops and seek fun anyway. Is that your approach to life? If not, why not?

I’m writing this on Saturday afternoon, and I’m broadcasting to you from Long Island. I’m back in my old home town because an opportunity for fun has presented itself. The odds of actual fun are small, but I’m giving it a shot anyway. Why not? Let me give you the story.

A few days before I left for the Spain trip, I got an unusual phone call from a guy. I hadn’t spoken to the guy in 50 years. Let’s call him “EddieO,” which is what we all called him 50 years ago.

EddieO was always a smooth operator, and he hasn’t lost his touch. He immediately assured me that he wasn’t calling for money. He announced that we had just celebrated the 50th anniversary of our graduation from 8th grade, a fact that I was aware of because the date coincides with my youngest sister’s birthday, and that there was a reunion tonight at a local bar. My mind started to spin.

As background, I need to tell you that things were different 50 years ago. Our Catholic School started with first grade and finished with eighth grade. Most of us were together for all eight years. After eighth grade, kids scattered to different schools and tended to lose touch with the original group. I was one of the few kids (I think there were only 3 of us) that transitioned to public school. I lost touch with everybody soon after our graduation.

Anyway, let’s get back to the call from EddieO.

My immediate reaction was to say “NO.” Fifteen or twenty years ago, I went to a high school reunion with Mrs. Highschoolsweetheart. It was a flop.

I didn’t want to say “NO” right away because EddieO sounded so excited and he had put in so much time into organizing the event. Instead, I said “maybe.” And, I told EddieO that I was a “very soft” maybe. I explained that I would still be recovering from Spain and that I’d have to travel from South Carolina.

In a blog post to y’all last week, I discussed the wisdom of rejecting your gut instinct when evaluating a problem. Well, I took my own advice. Within a few days of his call, I contacted EddieO to say that I would be attending. Why not? Even though the odds are low, it’s an opportunity for fun. All sorts of weird things could happen when you meet with a group that you haven’t seen in 5O years.

So, will it be a fun night or a flop? I’ll know tonight, and you’ll know tomorrow. Either way, I have no regrets about making the trip. I’m going to keep seeking fun even if I experience an occasional backfire. I hope that you’re having fun today, and I’ll talk to y’all tomorrow.

[pushing-on-800]

♊️About the Character♊️

⇢˚⋆ ✎ fast facts↷♊️

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

💎Country Name: Gemini

💎Human name: Diame (pronounced like “Dee-AH-May”) Delarosa

⇲ fun fact :

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Her name translates to “Diamond of the Rose” in her language. Her native language, Geminian, is a Romance language like Spanish and French. Her parents named her after the diamond as their way of reminding her that she’s strong and beautiful.

💎Gender: Female

💎Sexuality: Bisexual

💎Birthday: June 12, some year in the 1200s

💎Age: Somewhere around 800 years old, but she looks like a woman in her early twenties

💎Height: 5’6

💎Build: Lean and toned. Has shredded abs that have been described as being hard like armour.

💎Bra size: 34D

💎Hair colour: A brown so dark that it’s almost black.

💎Eye colour: Deep chocolate

💎Skin colour: Olive

💎Likes: Fashion, dancing, swimming, investigating, fighting for causes, ducks, watching public freak outs, working out, travelling, chatting, shopping, lingerie.

💎Dislikes: Boredom, offensive smells, overcomplicated parking lots, loud chewing sounds, cruelty, the smell of too much cologne, parallel parking, alcohol, oppressive religion practices, bad hair days.

💎Voice claim: Lauren Landa

⇢˚⋆ ✎ family↷♊️

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Gemini has a few family members, all of which are deceased in the present. Ancient Gemini was her grandmother. Ancient Gemini was alive until inner conflicts culturally and politically split the island into two. The two parts were Pollux and Castor. Castor is Gemini’s father. His culture is known as being “traditional Geminian” as he was the direct descendant of Ancient Gemini. Ancient Gemini is Gemini’s grandmother. Pollux, however, was the half of Gemini that was more influenced by the mainland Europeans. Pollux is Gemini’s mother. Pollux and Castor spend a long time wanting to beat each other in everything. Castor is not at all enthused with the idea of being run by an imperial power. So, he loves his autonomy and persists in building his strength because he wants to make it clear that he’s his own nation and he means business. He emphasises that he values his individuality and won’t roll over for Pollux’s influence. His rivalry with Pollux is strengthened because he and Pollux both know that Pollux would gladly take Castor’s land if he didn’t put up such a fight for it. That goes both ways too, however, as Pollux also values her own independence and Castor wouldn’t mind snatching some of her land either. Not to mention they’re stuck sharing an island so they already feel like they’re stuck inside a box together. It wasn’t until their leaders forced them to merge that they had to share space. As expected, it wasn’t a smooth transition. But, eventually, their rivalry subsided in place of a newfound love for each other that both were blindsided by.

Pollux and Castor, the kingdoms that combined to form Gemini as a whole, are Gemini’s parents. As their merged cultures became more consolidated, Pollux and Castor grew closer to their time running out. But they made the most of it loving their daughter and being good parents for her. However, Gemini struggled with this and still does struggle with their deaths. She misses them dearly to this day. She had watched the strongest people in her eyes slowly crumble. On top of that, Gemini often felt inadequate because Pollux and Castor had a powerful reputation that she didn’t feel confident she could achieve. A lot was expected of her as the fusion of Pollux and Castor.

Pollux is a very intimidating woman. She is a hard worker, she is speedy and witty in combat, and she has the air of somebody that is never in the mood to play around. She has quite a temper and isn’t very patient. She’s stressed out and more uptight on a regular basis. She has a soft side that comes out in the presence of most animals, however. She’s flexible, limber, and swift. That woman, in Gemini’s eyes, doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything except for snakes. And spiders. Pollux is the same height as her daughter. She has short sunflower blonde hair that hangs above her shoulders, and she has full fringe. Her irises are an icy blue.

Castor almost seems like her polar opposite. He has a more olive tone of skin. He has thick black hair. He stands at 6 feet and 4 inches tall. His eyes are a dark chocolate like his daughter’s. Like Pollux, he’s ambitious and doesn’t want to be somebody trampled on. He’s strong, loyal, athletic, energetic, assertive, and knows just how to get on Pollux’s nerves. In fact, her temper only makes her all the more fun for Castor to pick on. He could actually be very playful and reckless, conjuring up the most bewildering ideas, which Pollux initially believed she felt annoyed by. Teasing is just Castor’s way of showing affection. He also hates being bored, being more of a thrill-seeker. When married, he reveals he actually admires Pollux’s strength. Although, Castor was never a man to make sexist remarks in the first place. That was the last thing on his mind being raised by his mother Ancient Gemini, a tough lady who enforced the respect of women. He’s more laid back and confident than his wife, often being her calming counterpart who is there to comfort her. Pollux, on the other hand, is a voice of reason for Castor and shows genuine concern when discouraging him from trying out a stupid idea. She’s not so trusting of others and is a more calculating person. Both parents, however, share an odd similarity of being conscious of fashion. Pollux is more fussy about it, however. It should also be made known that a lot of forgiveness was exchanged between Pollux and Castor.

⇢˚⋆ ✎ personality↷♊️

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

To get a basic idea of what she would be like in an academic setting, she would be an A’s (and sometimes B’s) kind of student. She’s an overachiever. She would feel like an absolute disappointment if she were to get a B. The need to succeed has been long installed in her since the death of her parents. Their highly esteemed reputations as respectable, strong forces of nature paved for Gemini (Diame) a long road of trying to surpass the expectations of her country’s leaders. Considering she was the child of two renowned nations, hopes were high for her. But she wasn’t born with the ungodly strength her father Castor had nor the speed and wits her mother Pollux had. As a child, she was meek and easily pushed around. Bullying was an issue for her once her parents were dead, so she found more comfort in the company of animals.

She wasn’t unaware to how much she was disappointing her people with her shortcomings. She doubted herself all the time and struggled to stand up for herself. The humiliation of not being as strong as her parents followed her everywhere she went. Other nations even taunted her over it, confirming that she would never be as great as her parents. Being so ashamed of herself and wanting to be somebody she felt her parents could be proud of, she caved in to all the arduous training her leaders put her through. She endured a lot of disappointment and defeat during this. Defeat isn’t just a familiar taste to her; she’s drank deeply of it. Inundating her head are a plethora of humiliating memories showing her getting her bones crushed, her spirit broken, and her body being tossed around like a rag doll.

So, when her nation was brought into subjugation by England, there was yet another push to try and become stronger to free her people and fight for what they believed in. Even though she was all too familiar with the feeling of being a disappointment, she couldn’t deny how much she detested the imperialism that was being forced upon her and refused to let her culture be washed out by the English. It took decades upon decades but, in the late 18th century, Gemini had been hardened into the killing machine that her first leaders had always hoped she would be. At this time, she has the body of an older teenager, and she’s not looking so doughy anymore. Instead, her muscles are finally showing some definition. Her hardship had finally sharpened her skills. She was a lot stronger than the fragile child she was once during the medieval ages, having worked so hard to make an example of herself as a woman. Being under a more sexist Britain only fuelled her bold feminist attitude.

Gemini and her people fought for and won their liberation from Britain, marking the beginning of Gemini’s more assertive self. Being put through defeat after defeat had only made her into a more stubborn person. It’s also made her more of a powerhouse. She won’t stand for any sexism or discrimination. Her views against those things were just one of many reasons she fought for independence. While deeply disturbed by the overwhelming amount of failure in her past, she fights as efficiently and swiftly as she does now so that she never has to experience that humiliating life she used to. Moving through centuries of helplessness and weakness has allowed her to explore herself more thoroughly, especially now she has removed an imperial power that would have pushed too much of its beliefs onto her. While England (Arthur) and Gemini are more civil centuries after she liberated herself, their rivalry is still clear as day. They take jabs at each other on the daily.

Gemini idolises her parents, but forgets that she is a fusion of them after all. Their contrasting personalities share her headspace. She gets annoyed easily by the dumbest things like her mother does. This can make Gemini just as much fun of a person for some people to annoy. She’s impatient like her mother. But she’s also a compassionate person like her deep down. They both share a love for animals. Gemini is also elastic and limber. Like her mother, she also has a deep love for investigating.

Gemini and her father both show affection through teasing. It’s just her way of showing fondness for another person. She can get impulsive and excited like him too, which can lead to brash actions. It can sometimes override the Pollux side of her trying to urge her not to indulge in reckless decisions. She can’t help but loathe boredom like her father does. She’ll get antsy. Like him, she has a very hard time staying still. Both of her parents have a sense of compassion and concern for others, and perhaps because they are parents and are used to worrying for somebody else. In any case, their daughter has this trait and will want to comfort anybody in need. The only problem is that she often doesn’t know how to. She’s more comfortable holding a sword than holding somebody’s hand, but the desire to help is still very much there. She’s a very loyal and protective friend. She likes making friends, but is always afraid of losing mortals she allows herself too close to.

In a way, her head will switch back and forth between her parents’ personalities. She’ll act more like her father one moment. The next, like her mother. And no, this is no way a diagnosis of ANYTHING. Just a quick disclaimer since I do study psychology. One minute demure and doting, the next ruthlessly sarcastic, she can turn from Madame Jekyll, bashful and with impeccable manners, to Ms. Hyde, wild and unpredictable, but no less fascinating. When dealing with her, it’s important to understand that she doesn’t change her mind often for the heck of it. It’s actually quite normal for her to go back and forth. She constantly has a million thoughts running through her mind, which gives her her nervous energy.

Gemini is a equipped with a sassy attitude like her mother, and can often scare others away just as easily as her. She won’t tolerate any nonsense from creeps, whether they’re targeting her or others. She’ll make it clear that she’s no longer everybody’s doormat anymore, which can result in aggressive behaviour. Everybody’s first impression of Diame in Fódlan is basically this:

But there’s more to her that will reveal itself once one gets to know her better. For example, besides animals, she turns into a completely mushy soft person when it comes to babies. She can’t help but stare tenderly whenever one is nearby. During her time at the monastery, she helps take care of lost or orphaned babies. She’s too curious to not explore or go investigating things for herself. This can land her into trouble, however. She’s got a fashionista side of her, which is why one of her critical quotes in Fire Emblem would have to be, “You ruined my outfit, you bastard!” It is also why she will hide away to draw out some ideas for designs, feeling too shy to let others in. Actually bringing her design ideas to life is a whole different story, as she is not so good at sewing. This is partly out of spite for stereotypical expectations for women back in time, but also because she was more focused on other hobbies. As a result, she ends up paying people to do the stitch work for her. Her passion for fashion took form early on in her life. However, her ideas often pushed the limits of historical society, which only made her more determined to achieve creative freedom. She doesn’t want women to feel that showing a little skin automatically makes them floozies and gives people the right to make unwanted advances on them. Her belief is that nobody is entitled to another’s body, regardless of what they are wearing. She thinks that slut shaming only enables people to violate the boundaries of others. In addition, she wants people to be able to feel comfortable in their skin. She grew up with a lot of appearance insecurities, after all. And they continue to linger in her mind. Ancient Geminian clothing resembled those of the Greeks and Romans, although Ancient Gemini was more directly influenced by Ancient Rome. While Ancient Geminians were not nudists, some of their clothes were more revealing. The Ancient Geminians also believed people should be free to express themselves and be comfortable in their own skin. She bathes regularly, and this does not change when she’s in Fódlan.

She can be rather impulsive and sometimes her mood is downright confusing. She has a lack of consistency and is very indecisive at times. She gets bored too easily. She’s unpredictable, and not in the good way. She’s constantly making plans left and right and then cancelling them because she’s always changing her mind. She can get unexplained senses of paranoia and jealousy. She’s also capricious, restless, and easily annoyed. She still has a problem with perfectionism stemming from her childhood, and can be harshly critical of herself.

Any further questions can be addressed directly! I’m more than happy to provide answers!

[writingwithfolklore]

Planning Master Checklist

I just recently started a new project, and after you’ve been working on the same old project for years it’s so easy to forget how you started—how you managed to get to where you are. I truly believe the blank page is one of the most exciting parts of writing—but it can also be paralyzingly daunting sometimes, so I’m putting together a handy-dandy planning checklist for you to come back to whenever you’re planning something new!

(This is really more for planners, pantsers you do you.)

Figure out…

1. Theme

- Motifs

- “Feel” of the story

2. Character

- MC

- Close allies/teammates/other POV characters

- Antagonist

Major Character Development:

- Objective

- Goal

- Unconscious Need

- Disrupting Characteristic

- Formative Event

- Backstory

- Voice

If you need a more in-depth explanation of all this, visit my “Character is Plot” post!

- Secondary characters (allies, friends, important minor characters.)

Minor Character Development:

- Objective

- Goal

- Core characteristics

- Formative Event or brief Backstory

*You don’t need all these characters. I try to make as few major characters as I can starting out and add more only if the story demands another. These are just suggestions for characters that you can create in this step, depending on what your story calls for.

3. Outline

- Set up

- Inciting Incident

- First Act Turn

- Fun and Games

- Midpoint

- Things get Worse

- Second Act Turn

- Crisis

- Climax

- Resolution

“Outline” post should help if you’re stuck here.

4. Worldbuilding

- Homes/classrooms/jobs (minor settings)

- Minor characters (worldbuilding characters—fill out world, may not impact plot as heavily)

- City/town/village/settlement/etc. (larger setting)

- Weather

- Culture (ethnicities, languages, major economy)

- Mythology (beliefs, superstitions, if applicable)

- Brief history

*As a side note, this is a place it’s really easy to get too large and grand. If you’re writing a fantasy, maybe your story will require you to create an entire world and several countries… but I leave worldbuilding to last so that I don’t waste time making anything that doesn’t directly serve the story. I don’t need to know the weather on the other side of the world, who the mayor is, and what the conflict they have with their neighbours if I’m writing something that takes place entirely within a small town bubble.

Just something to think about. You know what’s best for your story, but don’t be afraid to zoom in.

5. Research

- Characters—backstories, hometowns, hobbies, skills, jobs, education, etc.

- World—mechanics, mythology, architecture, look and feel

- Outline—look back inwards to your planning, does it all line up? Are there inconsistencies with how you know your city works and what needs to happen in your plot? Or a character’s skill versus the world they’re in?

6. Question everything

That sounds ominous. I mean, ask really critical questions about your plan so far. If something isn’t going to work, I want to know now rather than when I’m halfway through my draft. So here’s some good questions to ask before you start writing.

1. Are all my characters necessary?

Go through each one and ask, if I take them out, what will happen? If the answer is “everything will fall apart” keep them, if the answer is “Character B could take on their role and nothing else would change.” Or “I’d lose a cool friend for my MC but nothing plot-wise would change” Take them out, adjust as necessary.

2. Have I done my research?

If the city you’ve created rains a lot, have you lived in a place that rains a lot? If not, research how much rain is a lot vs. a little, what happens if it rains for weeks without end, think about how the city has adjusted for the weather. As a hint, I’ve lived in a place where 20 inches of snow is nothing, and we’re still walking to school. I’ve also lived in a place where less than an inch of snow shuts down the public transit system. Know as much as you can, and base as much as you can off what you know.

There’s quite a lot of parts to go through when asking this question, but trust me, it’s worth it. Keep a separate doc or journal page to make sure you remember everything you have left to learn. Characters, outline, worldbuilding, have you done your research?

3. Do my characters inform my outline, or is my outline informing my characters?

Do you have to cause a character to act out of hand to make a plot-point work? It’s going to be really hard to make that be believable. Don’t change the character, change the outline. Your characters can’t chase your outline, your outline must meet your characters. Remember, character is plot!

4. Can I put everything to words/Know the specifics of everything?

If you have something around the lines of “then they figure out what the charm meant” or “the monster has dark powers” you’re more likely going to reach that point in your story and not know where to go next. I hate playing catch up in the middle of a draft, because now I’m researching powers for my monster and none of it works within my world and the characters have no way to know the things they need to know—it gets complicated.

So put everything into words. “The monster is a shapeshifter and can form animalistic but not human traits, needs to be recharged by the full moon, and says ‘babalabagooie!’ whenever he does it” cool, now you know. Get specific, and if you can’t put it into words, you don’t really know it. I hate when profs say that to me, but now I’m saying it to you. Sorry.

Best of luck in your planning!

[cosmiccannibalcamille]

What your Venus sign says about your Love Language

OK, you’ve read about Venus in Taurus, Venus in Gemini and everything there is to know about Venus (RIGHT??), and you’ve loved what you’ve read because the horoscopes and info is SOOOoo GOOD (thanks, I try) but those are all transits, bb. They describe Venus’s travels through the 12 zodiac signs and how her month-long journeys affect the collective.

Now, it’s time to get personal.

In astrology, the birth chart shows all the different planets and the different parts of y-o-u. Venus is the planet of all things love, relationships and money. But unlike Venus transits, your natal Venus doesn’t change. Her sign describes your style of romance– how you flirt, fall in love and show affection –what you value and find attractive, how you spend or save money and who you are in relationships from now until the end of time.

And honestly, who doesn’t want to know what they're like in love?

Venus in Aries ♈

Gutsy and romantic, you love the thrill of the chase. In fact, if a relationship isn’t somehow challenging or thrilling, you won’t bother with it. But when you do bother, you invest your whole self, falling fast and hard. Loyalty is a hallmark. You can be self-involved, sometimes, and you’re always running out of money…

Venus in Taurus ♉

A physical lover, hugs and hand-holding are but some of the ways you show how you feel. In relationships, you’re praised for your steadiness and stability, though you can get stuck in a rut. With money, saving is more appealing than spending, but you will splurge on anything that smells, tastes, sounds or feels yummy…

Venus in Gemini ♊

A playful flirt by nature, your affections are as fickle as they are short-lived, if not a little insincere. Commitments give you the creeps, which is why you always find yourself keeping things casual or staying single altogether. Money doesn’t mean much to you, but you do like to spend it when you have it…

Venus in Cancer ♋

Soft-hearted and supportive, you dote on loved ones, giving them loads of hugs and kisses (sometimes to the point of smothering). For this reason, you struggle to stay unattached and can cling to romantic partnerships like English Ivy. With money, you’re a cheapskate. But this is because money, like unconditional love, makes you feel secure…

Venus in Leo ♌

A proud soul, you demand to be the center of attention and can turn aloof (if not haughty) when ignored. Otherwise, you’re a warmhearted pussycat. Though passionate and loyal, you can be a penny pincher until something or someone flashy catches your eye. And when they do, they better watch out: you’re an unrelenting pursuer…

Venus in Virgo ♍

Nurturing and obliging, you dote on loved ones with an unmatched attentiveness. Care and concern are expressed through acts of service: cleaning, running errands, organizing their closet. Though you can be nitpicky, it’s your overly compliant nature that can lead you to lose yourself in a relationship. Your money is reserved for useful expenditures…

Venus in Libra ♎

Relationships are as natural to you as breathing, and you’re (almost) never without a S.O. Tactful and considerate, you express your romantic side via compliments, love notes and quality time. As far as money goes, it’s fun and you tend to spend it on items that make you or your living space look beautiful…

Venus in Scorpio ♏

Passionate yet aloof, you won’t share your heart with just anyone. Even once they’ve earned your trust and respect, you keep your feelings to yourself. A committed partner, you value loyalty and will walk through fire for loved ones, but jealousy and possessiveness can get the better of you. Money is a source of power…

Venus in Sagittarius ♐

Spur-of-the-moment affections make you a warm and openhearted companion (though you’d rather not settle down). When you feel something you must make it known in the most exaggerated ways possible (e.g. skywriting “I love you” and making out in public). Generous to a fault, you can be foolhardy with your cash and your heart…

Venus in Capricorn ♑

Independent and methodical, you treat relationships like a marriage or business. Actually, it’s your romantic dream to be one-half of a famous power couple and your life’s goal is to be a billionaire. Naturally, saving cash is a cinch. Sometimes shy, your affections are slow to build and most comfortably find expression through the senses…

Venus in Aquarius ♒

You find this whole romance thing too restrictive, which is why you have more friends than lovers. But when you do fall in love, it’s with a person’s mind and personality. Warmth, sensuality and long-term commitment don’t come naturally, but you’re one helluva loyal pal. Money is nbd, just something to spend on wacky trinkets…

Venus in Pisces ♓

Gentle and unselfish, you devote yourself to love without ever expecting anything in return. Romance gives your life meaning. Heightened imagination and intuition allow you to sense your S.O.’s needs before even they know them and make you a creative gift-giver. Passivity and self-sacrifice can cause problems, and money is a necessary evil…

Want more astro-logic from Cosmic Cannibal? Follow me on Medium! Also, check out my website and my astrology podcast, Cosmic Chronicles: Astrology with Cosmic Cannibal, and be sure to get your hands on my book, The Zodiac Abstract.

[vodkaskys]

FANFIC REC: pretend

From the start  (Louis has no idea that one act of kindness will cause his life to spiral out of control. But that's what happens when his new friend fake proposes to him and a video of it goes viral.) (32k)

From the start(Traducción) 

Peaches and cream (Louis is allergic to peaches, Harry smells like peaches. Louis just came for the money.) (64k)

Peaches and cream(Traducción) 

Adore you (Vaguely set in the 1920’s. Headpieces, jazz, fashionable canes, and flapper dresses, and that.) (66k)

Let our hearts collide (When Harry, a lonely transit worker, saves the life of the handsome commuter he's been secretly pining for, an innocent mistake results in Liam Payne's family believing that Harry is engaged to their son. In the Paynes, Harry finds the big family he's always longed for...and a love he never saw coming.) (76k)

Wild love ( Two best friends try to date each other for forty days. It's supposed to be fun until emotions make it complicated.) (130k)

And then a bit ( Harry and Louis fake a relationship for publicity. Eventually it becomes a lot less fake and a lot more real.) (158k)

And then a bit(Traducción) 

Flash (Harry es fotógrafo. Louis se siente solo. Están en una boda. No se conocen. Ninguno de los dos quiere estar ahí.)

Whatever Floats Your Boat (When Harry's mother convinces him to attend his ex's wedding, he must enlist support in the form of his handsome and charming best friend, flatmate and convincing fake boyfriend, Louis. With Louis by his side, the ever present sun and the plenty of open bars, an all expenses paid week long cruise doesn't seem like the worst he could do.) (24k)

white winged dove (Louis isn't expecting it when his parents drag him back to the life of aristocracy that he had left behind three years ago. Pressured to marry in order to save his family from financial and social ruin, Louis finds himself caught between wanting to be selfish and doing what he needs to do for the sake of his sisters, if no one else.Befriending Prince Harry of Wales was not part of that plan, and neither was joining him in an elaborate ruse to fool the country and more importantly, their parents.Marrying him had not been a part of the plan at all.) (100k)

This charade (was never going to last) (On the surface, CitizenX, an international caritative nonprofit, looked like any other nonprofit, funding humanitarian missions worldwide and striving to make the world a better place, one donation at a time.At least, that was what Harry thought, until he was hired as a computer specialist for a spinoff agency called carish, whose true purpose was to reveal CitizenX’s tangled web of lies.As if the whole ‘industrial spy’ business was not stressful enough, Harry found himself in a hatred-at-first-sight relationship with one of his new coworkers, Louis, a man intent on detesting Harry.When the worst happened and Harry and Louis found themselves thrown together in hiding, with only each other to rely on, Harry never could have predicted the turn their relationship would take.Nor could he anticipate that it would all be taken away from him and he would have to decide how far he was willing to go to get Louis back.) (68k)

Last Hope (Louis Tomlinson just wanted to go to sleep until Hot Neighbor Guy asked him for a very mysterious favor. Now he has to stay awake while convincing the most sought out couples therapist that he is in love with Harry Styles.) (1k)

Visions Of A Life (Harry Styles wants nothing more than to be a part of the adaptation of his favorite book and Louis Tomlinson is casually looking for another film to star in. They end up getting casted to play lovers on screen, but behind the cameras, they cannot stand each other. Then months after filming has officially finished, they are forced to date for publicity, no thanks to a video of them becoming popular amongst all the fans. It sounds like a brilliant idea, doesn't it? They acted as boyfriends before, so they should be able to do it again under slightly different circumstances. At least they all hope so.) (86k)

English Football: History in the Making ( another Football AU absolutely nobody asked for) (31k)

Playin' It Safe and Breakin' The Rules ( the One Where Maybe this Fake Relationship Gets a Little Too Real.) (90k)

i'm gonna keep this love, if you let me (Louis makes Harry pretend to be his boyfriend one night out. The rest is history.Here she is! My entry for the 2021 1daboficfest :)Title is from "Burning" by Maggie Rogers.) (26k)

Pretending we're not in love ( Harry and Louis get a year off work and decide to explore North America. What happens when they get drunk in vegas and get married? What happens when they forget to tell their families for a month and now they have to go to christmas together? What happens when they decide to pretend they are not together?) (9k)

Be My Dandelion (Supposedly, what you write on your skin, appears on your soulmate’s. What happens when a few things get in the way and Louis and Harry are too oblivious to notice?) (57k)

Glitter in the sky, glitter in our eyes (What happens when a Duke who will only marry for love and a courtesan who only sells it create a public ruse? Well, nothing boring for sure. An Edwardian AU.) (59k)

Chestnuts Roasting... And All That (Louis is apparently the only person at his new job who is single as can be. It’s not a big deal to just tell his new colleagues that he has a boyfriend, right? Until he has to make this imaginary boyfriend magically appear at the office holiday party. Cue fake relationship antics with a certain someone who is more than willing to play along.) (46k)

Find You Home (When Louis lies to his family and says he’ll bring his new boyfriend home for Christmas, his best friend and roommate Harry agrees to play the part. It’s that, or be left alone over the holidays.What will happen? No one knows! Perhaps Santa will swoop in with a Christmas miracle.Featuring lovesick idiots, kissing and cuddling, pies and Christmas clichés.) (35k)

the frost covers all ( a friends-to-lovers/fake relationship when harry needs a boyfriend for a family thing, and louis obliges.) (19k)

When You're Smiling (and Astride Me) ( Harry, Niall, and Zayn are in an up and coming indie band, White Eskimo. Liam is Harry's best friend. Louis is a writer who only signed on for an interview, but ends up getting much more than he bargained for.) (48k)

Just For Me (Harry is a supermodel with a fake boyfriend. Louis is the captain and star forward of Manchester United with a fake girlfriend. They should have no problem having a completely platonic lunch between friends.) (9k)

Be My Dandelion (Supposedly, what you write on your skin, appears on your soulmate’s. What happens when a few things get in the way and Louis and Harry are too oblivious to notice?) (57k)

[beels-burger-babe]

If you haven't answered this yet, what do you think the brothers' love languages are?

Alright! Now that I am sitting down, I can answer these! (I realized halfway through writing this, this is basically one of those headcanon thingies and changed the format)

Lucifer.

Man is the literal embodiment of Pride.

He won't say "I love you" until you say it first. As a result, he shows his love in other ways.

Lucifer shows his love in how attentive he is to you.

He'll check in throughout the day and see how you're doing.

He'll always make sure that he's aware of all of your needs, and the moment something is wrong or you need something, he's there.

He takes pride in being the one who knows you best and being able to help and provide for you whenever he can.

Mammon.

Ah, our dear tsundere.

At first, Mammon definitely has a hard time talking about his feelings, but I feel like once he's pushed past his denial of them and has confessed, our boy would be more open about it.

That being said, Mammon is the Avatar of Greed, so I feel like he'd show his love in a more material way.

He'd give you gifts whenever he can.

If he sees ANYTHING that reminds him of you even the slightest bit, he's buying it.

He also gives you things that he thinks will remind you of him.

So you probably have half of his closet. It makes him happy to see you wear his jacket in public

It tells others that you're his

Leviathan.

So, as the self-deprecating otaku that he is, Levi gets nervous about all kinds of aspects of your relationship, and boy is showing his feelings one of them.

Still, I think the way Levi shows his love is in small things.

He'll want to talk to you even more about his favourite animes and games because he trusts you enough not to make fun of him.

Even more telling, he'll start asking you about your opinion on them or even what your favourite animes and games are.

He'll also just be inviting you to spend time in his room with him as frequently as possible, that way there's less of a chance of you changing your mind on how you feel about him.

Satan.

You cannot convince me that Satan is not a hopeless romantic.

We're talking about a man who lives in a literal library and has been reading every book he can get his hands on for centuries.

So yeah. Satan pulls out all the stops.

He does the big gestures.

He serenades you with poetry that reminds him of you.

He'll wake you up with breakfast in bed.

He'll take you for every single cliché date in the books, and to cat cafes.

Why is all of this so special?

It means that Satan is not afraid to let down his mask and be soft and nerdy around you. You taught him that he's more than just Wrath, and now he'll want to spend every last second proving you right.

Asmodeus

As the Avatar of Lust, Asmo is extremely affectionate physically.

But that's not the only way that he shows his love.

You taught Asmodeus that he is more than just his beauty, and that means so much more to him than he can put into words.

So he dotes on you.

He'll always be asking if he can brush your hair for you or do your nails.

He'll put together matching outfits for the two of you to wear.

If he notices you're stressed, he'll run a bubble bath for you and give you a massage.

Most importantly, his flirting that he did on daily basis will transition from quips about your physical appearance and sensuality to more sentimental, nearly poetic, compliments about how kind, beautiful and simply radiant you are.

Because he doesn't want you to think that he only loves you for your appearance either.

Beelzebub

Listen. I'm the first person to say "Beel's character isn't just his appetite."

But let's be honest.

If our hungry himbo loves you, part of the way he's gonna show it is by sharing his favourite foods with you.

Beyond that, however, I think Beel will also just want to be around you more.

Beel wants to protect the things he loves, and if that includes you, he'll be extremely protective of you.

He's always offering to help you with even the smallest things

He makes sure that your health and get enough water, food, sleep, and if you take prescription medicine, he'll remind you to take those too.

Beel just wants to see you happy and healthy and will do everything in his power to make sure that happens

Belphegor

So Belphie, similar to Beel, will become more protective and attentive of you, but he does it in a more subtle way.

If one of his brothers tries to rope you into a shenanigan that sounds dangerous, he'll yawn and lay down on top of you so that you can't leave.

He'll always make sure that you aren't overworking yourself, and will drag you into a cuddle pile if you are.

He'll make sure that he knows everything about you.

Especially any fears or triggers, so that he can avoid them and protect you from them.

Belphie knows that he's caused you a lot of pain already, and he wants to do whatever he can to make sure that you're never afraid or hurt again.

Also, I don't think he would tease you as much.

I know what you're thinking, but hear me out.

Look at how he is with Beel. He is so incredibly soft and careful when he's with Beel because he loves him more than any of his other brothers.

He'd be the exact same way with MC. Careful, gentle, and soft.

[kkusuka]

hiii I was wondering if you could do a threesome w kuroo bokuto and y/n?? plsss💞

i can actually, that’s the fun part.

(I'm going to try to use gender-neutral pronouns, but the reader has female anatomy, I hope that’s ok!) 

I deadass just took this and ran with it oml. 

All 18+, public sex, circumstantial humiliation, slight voyeurism, orgasm denial, threesome M/F/M, they’re both kind mean but not really, slight degrading 

Synopsis: Your college chem class is kicking your ass so when your professor recommends you to Kuroo, who seems to come in a package deal with another owl-ish boy, you were more than thankful. 

4/25

You couldn't believe it, you were so sure you had done well on this test. You made flashcards and even scoured the web for as many quizlets on the subject as you possibly could. But one thing remained the same: Masahiro sensei’s chemistry class was kicking your ass. 

No matter how many times you looked at the reference tables and started at the elements you didn't understand a single word that came out of that man's mouth. What’s worse is that you seemed to be the only one who ever had trouble in his class, and he always made sure to let you know. 

Side glances during lectures, calling you out when he knows you have no clue what the answer could be, talking about how 'some people’ would do better if they tried harder. You just didn't know what else to do. 

So, in some twisted way, you were thankful when he requested to keep you a few minutes after class requesting to talk about some personal issues. Issues you wished would include a new grade and easier tests. 

But him telling you about a boy with exceptional grades who would be a perfect fit to help you out, was something you had expected, but did not want. You felt more embarrassed than you already were, couldn't he just give you a website where you could watch videos about ionic and binary compounds? 

Looking back to the phone number he had written for you on an index card, you relent. Sending a quick message to the number you shut your phone off and tried to get to your dorm, dropping onto your bed faster than you’d like to admit. 

Hey, this is y/n l/n, Masahiro-sensei gave me your number for possible tutoring, if you're up for it of course. Any time for me works. 12:56 pm 

Yeah, he let me know about a possible tutoring session, how about the library tomorrow at 4? 1:03 pm 

I'm Kuroo Tetsurou btw. 1:07 pm

And like that your day got 10x worse, you don't even know who this way. You at least hoped it was the boy with the fluffy hair in the first row. At least Masahio told him, you assume it may have gone worse, tomorrow at the library at 4. 

You could deal with that. 

-- 

Your first meeting had gone fairly well. You arrived that the library entrance five minutes early reaching for your phone to let the mysterious Kuroo Tetsurou know that you had arrived, but before you could get that far- 

“No need babe, I'm right here, L/n right?” 

He was tall, taller than you at least. Tall enough to be able to lock down at you. Looking at you with his narrow hazel eyes and his sleazy yet comforting cat-like smile. His hands were shoved into the pockets of a bright red- volleyball jacket? Nekoma volleyball club must be from high school. 

He led you to an isolated corner of the science section on the third floor, a place you had frequented during your mid-semester crying chemistry sessions-- hopefully your tears have dried up by now and you won't make a fool of yourself. 

He wasted no time asking exactly what you need help with and seemed more than surprised when you told him everything. He let out a laugh that made you want to get up and run away before letting you know that it was normal to be confused and that you would just start with the electron configurations. 

It was going great, he was an amazing teacher and knew exactly what to tell you to make you remember all the rules of the SPDF configurations and everything leading up to the oxidation states of the transition metals. It was just sad that he had to go over everything a second time just for you to get it in your mind. 

In the middle of explaining lead’s second oxidation state, Kuroos phone lit up with a notification a Bokuto was calling. Without a second glance, he declined the call and went right to the first state of silver. 

Three seconds in this same Bokuto called back after a few choice texts, letting out a sigh he apologized muting about a stupid owl not giving him a moment of rest no matter the time of day. 

He picked up and tried to walk away as quick as he could, the only thing you could gain from the conversion was a 

HEY HEY! you still at the library? Though you’d be done by now Kuroo!

To which Kuroo told whoever was on the end of the line, that he didn't mind and they should mind their own business. Then you were out of earshot. when he came back he looked as if the life was sucked from his soul. 

He plopped into the chair across from you and sat for a second before releasing a deep breath. He looked back at you connecting eyes--they looked impossibly cat-like under the lights of the library-- before shooting you a shifty smirk. 

“Babe you're doing great but I've gotta cut it off for today, and you don't mind if a friend joins us for the next few sessions? He isn't that bright.” 

It took you of all five seconds to think of your answer, another person who wasn't the brightest will make you look less stupid. Just the thought made you feel bad, you're sure that Bokuto was a wonderful person, hopefully, and did not deserve to be used to make you seem less hopeless. Yet still, 

“Yes! That’s totally fine, I'll see you in two days?” 

“Sounds great” 

--

“‘C'mon babe what's the dashed configuration of bromine?” 

You didn't know, or maybe you did. It's not like that would matter considering the two fingers curling into your sweet spot. You could only focus on the way he rubbed your throbbing nub that sent sparks straight beach into your core. 

“I-i I don’t- god, please, please, need to cum.” you were so close, Kuroo had already ripped two orgasms from you because you didn't know the answer, and you were going to scream if he did it again. “Please, wanna cum” 

“No can do baby Owl, that’s the deal no cumming until you get the question.” 

Bokuto. 

You would have forgotten he was there if it weren't for his piercing gaze on Kuroo’s fingers drenched in your slick. Not once has it wavered from you, your silt to you tits up to your lips. 

You had to try, he’ll stop. Somewhere in the back of your mind you know the answer, they know you know the answer. Somewhere else in your mind you think about how you got caught up in this in the first place. 

How Kuroo was frustrated and told you the if you got another wrong answer he would fuck the right one into you. Or bokuto purposely mocking him that sent him further until his hands were pulling your panties down your legs stuffing two fingers in your cunt, saying how he won't stop until you get all the answers right. 

“Two- e-eight- eight-teen- please please, si--six- NO seven, it’s seven. ‘M so close please” 

Kuroo seemed pleased with your answer, his hands moving quickly around your bud and curling further into your g-spot as Bokuto makes his way around the table to where the two of you are seated. 

Pulling the shirt above your head, Bokuto circles a nipple through the fabric of your bra commenting on how quickly it had pebbled, attaching his mouth to your other as Kuroo commanded you to cum around his relentless digits. 

Clenching around his fingers you hadn't noticed a head of white and black hair moving towards your center. Coming off the high of your orgasm you felt Bokuto’s tongue spread your lips as his nose circled your clit.  

“Oh, dude! You gotta taste ‘em! Like liquid gold, Man!” 

You flushed further, if possible, tethering a hand into Bokuto's hair. Understanding the compliment Kuroo swiped a finger along your slick-covered thighs and let a mockingly loud moan fall between his lips. 

As if you could be more embarrassed by the noises of Bokuto slurping whatever he could catch in his mouth, Kuroo’s coos of how red you look and how delicious you look, as the man under you eats as if it was his last meal. 

Two hands grabbed your waist and lifted you off Bokuto, placing you back on your feet. Turing you toward the wall of windows and hand on your back bent you over the table surrounded by all of your notes. 

“Look at that, she’s just gushing all over the place. All this over a chemistry lesson? Who knew I was teaching such a cockwhore this whole time.” a hand met your clit as Kuroo began to push into you, forcing you further into the table. 

You heard a gasping moan as he bottomed out, glancing over to where Bokuto sat hand around the base of his cock, standing as Kuroo waved him over to you. 

“I think you can fit two, right?”  and just like that bokuto was forcing his way into your clenching walls. There was discomfort until a soft pop to which both the boys let out a sigh. 

You feel so full. You didn't know who but one of them was brushing against your cervix. The first thrust came to you as a surprise,  following with a second's rest before the two of them created a steady rhythm.

The faster they went the more apparent it was, they were using you like a fleshlight. You couldn't even speak as a cock hit right at your g-spot. Back arching you let out a series of small “ahs” much to Kuroo’s enjoyment. 

“You fucking like this! Getting dicked where everyone can see. By two cocks no less!” he laughed pulling your head up from its place in your arms, making you have to look at your reflection in the glass. 

“No-no I-” a smack to your ass stopped you from trying to defend what little dignity you had left. There was no defending as Bokuto leaned towards your ear, never breaking rhythm. 

“No?,” he was practically snarling, “Then why the hell are you clenching our dicks so well, Baby Owl?”  

As if he flipped a switch your world went dark as you clenched further on the two men as you came. Riding out your orgasm neither of them let up the pace as they jackhammered into your poor pussy. 

Bokuto came first, with a loud groan of your name before he slumped into the chair he previously inhabited.  Settling to watch as Kuroo pulled your chest up to meet your back to his chest. Rutting into you as his orgasm rapidly approaches. 

If you weren't so sure this place was desolate you would be worried about someone hearing the slaps of your skin, or Kuroo’s final grunt as he filled you with his load, dropping you to lean on the table. 

At least your next chemistry test was graded with a 21/25, you’re sure the two of them will love to hear about that.