#the upside of having a friend that can sneak you into adult stuff

[im-not-buying-it-ether]

I wholly blame @thefantasmarex

The Lazarus pits can’t save my brain rn

[skepsiss]

Master Writing List of My Works

I've seen other people do this and it seems like a good idea. You can follow my Ao3 where more of my works are posted, but for the ones available on Tumblr I will list them below.

Skepsis_Ree on Ao3

Art, Photos, and Moodboards

Stranger Things

Steddie

Mini Fics. These are asks that people have sent me. You can send me a prompt and I'll write you Steddie stuff.

The Last Strange Thing [Monster reference guide] [The art for the fic!] Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 [FINISHED] // Welcome to the apocalypse. The demo-infection has taken hold of the world, and humans are a rare thing these days. Still, people hang on to civilization in pockets across North America and beyond. Hawkins is one such place.  Steve Harrington is a scout who runs missions for Hawkins, and on one of those missions, he becomes separated from his scouting partner, Robin. He has to find his way across Indianapolis in an infected world, meeting one very important individual on the way, Eddie. The two of them must trust one another in order to journey across Indiana, while perhaps finding something softer to nurture with one another along the way.

Long Road Ahead Pt1  Pt1.2   Pt2    Pt3 Pt4 Pt5 // A Five part (maybe six?) series about Steve and Eddie getting together. Steve really struggles with the possibility of him being queer and doesn't know how to deal with it. Each part alternates between Eddie's POV and Steve's POV; lots of yearning, miscommunication, a pining with a happy ending.

Join the Party // One Shot, AU Where Steve and Eddie have been friends since childhood and I guess no Upside Down shenanigans (yet?). Hurt/comfort with confessions. Written from the period of them at 10 (ish) to 18 (ish).

Heart Beat City // One shot. A character piece on Eddie as he has some of his faith in happiness returned to him. Eddie thinks pretty firmly that love and kindness are not a real thing--at least not for him, but that changes when he meets Steve. Poetic and moody, optimistic ending.

House to Ourselves // Series of one-shots. Steve and Eddie are finally living together after a long courtship. They get every other weekend to themselves when Steve’s ex-wife takes the kids for 2.5 days. That means sex… definitely sex.

Because I Want You // Part of the adult AU, one-shot series. Steve and Eddie have been broken up for 9 years. It just so happens that they both have 3-year-olds, and they end up in the same daycare, allowing them to reunite. It’s bittersweet in a lot of ways, mostly because Eddie feels so guilty for how things ended with Steve in their previous relationship. This story is about them trying to get back together.

Modern Problems, Modern Solutions Pt1 Pt2 Pt3 Pt4 Pt5 Pt6 Pt7 [FINISHED] // Modern AU. Eddie's POV and his judgy, budgie, anxiety-filled self-denying for a long time that he has a crush on Steve. I wanted to explore what being an awkward teen was like (again) and how the personality dynamics would work between Steve and Eddie if they were in more modern times. A story full of miscommunications set in 2015 ish. This mini-series is finished, and it has a happy ending. Enjoy the very soft end for the boys.

Basketball Shorts // PWP. Explicit, 18+. Eddie and Steve are in an established relationship, and Eddie asks Steve to wear his old basketball uniform. They fantasize together about what it would have been like to date in high school (and how hard it would have been not to sneak off to bone).

Tooth and Nail Pt1 Pt2 Pt3 Pt4 // Uuhh, it's kinda sad guys. Prompt was to write something where Eddie is the one that is in denial about his queer-ness and Steve is the one who makes him question his sexual identity. Full request here. This is hurt comfort and miscommunication riddled; read some realness and slowburn towards romance. Part 4 onward is pining time with Eddie trying to figure out his feelings.

Stories of Youth (microfic) // A short (480 words) fic written for the steddie microfic month with the prompt "Suck." This is fluff and just a little window into the sweetness (and eternal horiness) that is Steve and Eddie in a relationship.

His People Chapter 1: His People // This story is more about Eddie than anything. Exploring the idea of Eddie coming back very "monstrous" from the Upside Down, and he doesn't have a lot of memories on how to be human. He does learn quickly though that the people around him do love him no matter what. This was written for Eddie Month with the Oct 13 prompt "Monster."

Chapter 2: Like. Lust. Love. // Eddie relearns what attraction is, and acts on the memories he has of himself and Steve... or what he thinks are his memories of him and Steve.... (angst, drama).

The Audacity - Corroded Coffin Lyrics only Written in Sung/Spoken form // A limerick that I wrote as if it were a song written and performed by Corroded Coffin. Angry, but also very f*ck the establishment.

The King - A Corrded Coffin Song (Accompanying art) // An imagined metal ballad written by Eddie Munson. (Think Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills"). It's about Steve and his father, but also Vecna, and Eddie vs Hawkins. It's multi-layered and I thought it felt equally tragic and love-filled.

Time // Just a one-shot of them maturing and being in a 2-3 decade relationship. Romantic and fluffy, less than 700 words.

Through Leagues and Miles Pt1 // Eddie and Steve meet up again after 7 years. They're proper adults now and Eddie is living his dream of being a rockstar, while Steve has just started to go back to school to become a teacher. They were only supposed to be meeting up for a reunion with The Party, but one thing leads to another, and well... maybe acting on that crush from 7 years ago is worth it.

"Newly-wed Game" // Just this silly little "Newly-wed Game" post I added to. For some reason, it has 4,000 notes.

Reflection Steve's Part Robin's Part Nancy's Part Eddie's Part [FINISHED] // This is a 4 part mini-series about the Fruity Four. It's 1989 and Steve, Eddie, and Robin are visiting Hawkins over winter break. Nancy has invited them all over for a little Christmas get-together, and we read from the point of view of each member of the crew across 1 event. I wrote these pieces to be read in any order, so... enjoy some Steddie, vague Ronance, Vickie x Robin, and just the Fruity Four being... fruity. Dialogue prompt "You Remember That?" for Spicy Six Winter Fanworks Challenge.

It's Snowing In Hawkins // This is all fluff. Steve goes over to visit Eddie during a heavy snow in Hawkins and gets roped into helping him build a snow fort. Both of them have been inching toward a romance for months now, and Steve adores how innocent and young their relationship feels. It’s the start of something real tonight, and it makes Steve feel brilliantly happy. 

Before the Fire - Steddie Microfic // Wrote for December's prompt "pine" (508 words). Steve and Eddie are around a fire and Eddie is trying to cheer Steve's up because 'someone' is missing and Steve is beside himself with worry. Eddie is pining, but Steve seeks him out for comfort.

The Cock Tail Club [18+ explicit] // Society thinks poorly of Alphas who prefer to be with other Alphas. That is why underground bars like The Cock Tail Club exist. Where one lonely Alpha can meet another and hit it off for the night. Eddie is doing just that, and of course, he finds wild, satisfying release… and maybe a bit more than what he bargained for.

Batter Up [18+ explicit] Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 // This fluffy story is about Baseball Player Steve Harrington, meeting Rock Star Eddie Munson and the whirlwind 1-week romance turned committed relationship. They're instantly obsessed with one another, but neither knows how to take things to the next level. Enjoy Steve being a love-sick idiot! (The story turns explicit in Chapter 4, other chapters are all fluff).

Stranger Things

Not steddie. Things like stobin etc.

Survival of the Sister [Link to art] // Max is a young knight who has lost everything to the darkness of the Upside Down. The last thing she can lose is her life. She puts it all on the line to save her family, friends, and Hawkins. Fate has another idea for her as she struggles to recall her happiest memories that will bring her back to life and toward Lucas, who is desperately searching for her. Overall, it is a short, emotional piece about Max fighting back death with sheer willpower and then getting to relish in being reunited with Lucas.

We the Youth (1987) [Link to art] Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five [FINISHED] // A five-part, mini-series that is 100% complete and being posted during the Stranger Things Reverse Big Bang 2024. This Stobin-centric story is about Robin learning how to love herself (with the help of her very queer life)! The first part of the story focuses on Robin losing her job and seeking comfort from her best friend, Steve. After moving to New York after graduation to work for a year before college, Robin has "lost her path" and isn't sure what she wants anymore.

Each chapter focuses on a different kind of love, and how difficult it is to find a place to belong when you're a young adult. (Especially when you're a young, queer adult in the 80s). The story has a happy ending though! So please enjoy this lovely platonic Stobin tale and the importance of having people in your life who love and support you.

Momento Mori [complete story 15/15] [Accompany Art] // Steve gradually falls in love with the memory of Eddie Munson, while creating a deep bond with the uncle Eddie left behind. Eddie Munson has died. He died and left behind people who care for him—more people than he knew. Despite his reputation, and the slander thrown at him, Eddie is deeply and fiercely loved by the people in his life. Wayne is one such person, and the hole his nephew left in his heart is something he didn’t think could ever be filled. Surprisingly—to all involved—Steve Harrington is another person who cannot shake Eddie’s death from his mind. Gradually, Steve and Wayne bond over their mutual loss, and share their fond memories of Eddie with one another. The living must move on after all… even if the dead don’t remain gone for long.

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

COSMIC - S1:E2; Chapter Two, The Weirdo On Maple Street - [Pt. 4 - FINAL]

A Will Byers x Male!Reader Series

𝘠/𝘯, 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘴, 𝘋𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯.

|| 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕 ||

The three of us were invited to stay for dinner. Since there weren't enough chairs, they were kind enough to pull out an extra chair for me, so Dustin and I shared the end of the table, opposite Mrs. Wheeler. Nancy and I seemed to be the only kids who were eating.

"Thank you so much for letting us stay Mrs. Wheeler. The food is amazing!" I said, followed by another bite of mashed potatoes.

"You're very welcome, Y/n. And thank you." She said, with a kind smile.

She looked around and noticed the boys were just playing with their meatloaf.

"Something wrong with the meatloaf?" She asked.

"Oh, no, I had two bologna sandwiches for lunch," Dustin said a goofy smile on his face. There's a noticeable pause before he speaks again. "I don't know why." I breathe out a light chuckle and take another bite of mashed potatoes.

Lucas chuckles nervously. "Me, too."

"It's delicious, Mommy." Nancy bats her eyelashes and a quizzical look flashed across my face. I know that tactic. Hell, every kid knows that tactic, she wants something and she is trying to butter up her mom. But to see a Nancy of all people do that is almost laughable.

"Thank you, sweetie."

I look to Mike to gauge his reaction to his teenage sister's odd behavior towards their mom. I fight back a laugh when his actions closely resemble that of an adult in a movie who takes a drink of beer with a thousand-yard stare, trying to forget something said at that moment in time; only this time it's a glass of milk.

"So, there's this... special assembly thing tonight... for Will at the school field."

I furrow my brow in confusion and shock. 'Nancy is nice and all, but since when does she care about Will?' Then it dawned on me. I remember Mike complaining to us earlier about that "douchebag Steve Harrington" and how he and Nancy have been dating. And how he's been sneaking in and out of Nancy's room.

"Barb's driving."

My jaw clenches.

"Why am I just now hearing about this?"

'Because she wants to use my best friend's disappearance as an excuse to leave the house and suck face with her stupid boyfriend.'

"I thought you knew." She said, playing innocent. Mike and I look to each other knowingly and then at Nancy. Well, glaring was a better term for what I was doing.

"I told you, I don't want you out after dark until Will is found."

"I know, I know, but it'd be super weird if I'm not there."

CLANG

I half drop, have threw my silverware on the table in a mix of shock and frustration. When everyone turns and looks at me silently, I quickly play it off with a chuckle.

"Heh, sorry about that. Lost my grip. I'm just thirsty." I say with an innocent smile as I hold up my water, gesturing to it before taking a large gulp.

Everyone but the boys seem to buy it.

Nancy continued and I had to bite my lip so as to not say anything.

"As I was saying, everyone is going."

Mrs. Wheeler sighs and looks to us, then back at Nancy.

"Just... be back by 10:00."

Nancy nods, happy with herself.

"Why don't you take Mike and his friends, too?" She suggested. We all panicked and spoke at the same time.

"No!"

"Mmm-mmm."

"I have a headache" I finished weakly.

"Don't you think you should be there? For Will?"

The four of us all spot Eleven walking down the stairs behind Mrs. Wheeler.

Mike nearly chokes on his milk while I accidentally inhale my water and I begin to choke for real. Mrs. Wheeler turns to see what provoked us so much but the mix of Dustin randomly slamming his fists against the table a few times and me going into a coughing fit was enough to grab her attention.

She looked between the two of us in shock. During my horrendous coughing fit, I was relieved to see El had gotten out of sight.

"Sorry. Spasm." Dustin says sheepishly.

However, it was still incredibly awkward seeing as it was quiet as and everyone just stared at me while I coughed obnoxiously. The coughs got less violent to a point where I could speak.

"Ahh..." cough. "I'm okay... really, I" cough. I hold up a finger and cough for a few seconds. I look up, a painful and sheepish look on my face as I awkwardly try and diffuse the tension. "Don't you hate that. Like, what can you do, wash it down with water?" I look around laughing weakly, but not for long because my awkward chuckles turn into more coughing and I groan. "Haha, ahawww god." I put hands on my knees and take a breather.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"El?" Mike called down the stairs. Mike and I had were able to sneak some food downstairs for her. Thankfully we found her down here, she was in the fort that Mike had made for her, fiddling with Mike's Supercomm.

"Hi, El!" I say with a smile as I walk over and kneel down next to her. Mike does the same and sets down the tray of food. Dustin and Lucas remain standing.

"We brought you some dinner,"

"Yep. No adults. Just us and some meatloaf." Mike replies.

She looks to me, then warily to Dustin and Lucas.

"Don't worry. They won't tell anyone about you. They promise." I assure her in a gentle voice. I turn for them and give them a look. "Right guys?"

Dustin gives her a goofy smile. "We never would've upset you if we knew you had superpowers." I roll my eyes and Mike turns around and swats Dustin in the shin.

I look back to El.

"What my brother meant to say was, they were just scared... earlier. That's all."

Lucas speaks up. "We just wanted to find our friend." I turn around and smile warmly at Lucas, mouthing a 'thank you'. He's a great person, he's just skeptical is all. And protective. He nods his head at me. I look back at El to see her face riddled with confusion.

"'Friend'?" She asks.

"Yeah, friend. Will?"

"What is 'friend'?" She asks.

Lucas starts to say something but cuts himself off, thinking better of it.

"Um, a friend-" He begins.

"Is someone that you'd do anything for." Mike finished for him.

"You lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards," Dustin said, wistfully.

"And they never break a promise," Mike adds.

"Especially when there's spit."

"Spit?" She asked, looking concerned.

"A spit swear means..." Lucas spits into his palm and shakes Dustin's hand. "you never break your word. It's a bond."

I cringed, while Dustin looked at his hand in disgust. I turn back to El and smile.

"That's super important, because friends... they tell each other things. Things that parents don't know. A friend is someone you can trust completely."

She seems to be soaking up the information, then she looks at me and smiles.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

We had all convinced El to come out of her fort. The three boys were huddled together whispering and I joined El at the D&D table. In fact, she sat where Mike sat during the campaign and I subconsciously sat where Will did on that night.

Although I was a little surprised to see how focused she became. She gently spread her hands along the table, her fingers touching the board.

The three boys walk over. "What's the weirdo doing?" Lucas questions. I give him a glare, to warn him. He clears his throat and corrects himself. "Sorry. Eleven."

I smile, silently thanking him.

"El?" Mike asks. She had her eyes closed for a short while and suddenly she opens them. She grabs Will's signature miniature, the cleric. I hold my breath in anticipation.

"Will." She says.

"Superpowers." Dustin whispered. Lucas rolled his eyes and Mike sat down between me and El, and started asking the questions that were on all our minds.

"Did you see him? On Mirkwood? Do you know where he is?"

She set aside the cleric as I spoke up, my voice barely above a whisper.

"El?" She looks up at me. "Is there... is there anything, anything at all that you could tell us? Anything that you know about our friend?" I ask, my voice breaking. She gives me a sympathetic smile and clears the board by swiping her arm across the table. We all watch intently as she reaches forward and flips the board upside down.

We all stare at the board and then look to El as she grabs the cleric and slams it down in the center of the board. My stomach seems to drop in perfect sync with the miniature.

"I don't understand." Mike croaks.

The room is silent for a few moments as we stare at El, waiting for her response. "Hiding." Her voice came out in a whisper.

"W-Will is hiding?" I stammer.

She nods her head 'yes'.

My fingers subconsciously begin wringing together as I try and swallow all of this information.

"From the bad men?" Mike clarifies.

Her brows furrow ever so slightly as she shakes her 'no'. I take a deep breath.

"Then from who?"

She looks to her side and grabs another miniature, and places it next to the cleric. I let out a breath of air I didn't even know I was holding when I recognized the dreaded piece. We all look around to each other, a look of horror on our faces. Dustin puts his hands behind his head and I put my head in my hands as I try not to panic.

It was the Demogorgon.

[moderndaybard]

CRInktober 10/1: Friends/Loved Ones/Family (Part 2/2—Mighty Nein)

Luc Brenatto to a moment to size up the newcomer from his hidden perch before revealing himself. The human boy was supposedly here for the summer adventurer camp that Mom and Uncle Caleb ran, but they were both paying him just a bit too much attention for that be the whole story. He was a couple years younger than Luc, but already his height, if not a little taller (unfair), and he was just standing there, looking around the seemingly-empty cabin like he didn’t know what to do with himself now that the adults had left so he could ‘settle in’.

(As no one else was due to arrive until tomorrow, this was the perfect time to ‘introduce himself’ with a dart from his toy crossbow...unless the other boy was prone to crying or tattling.... Hm, perhaps a different approach was best—just to avoid getting into trouble before the camp even technically got started.)

Finally, the boy sat down on one of the bottom bunks—and Luc thanked his lucky stars that it just happened to be the one beneath the one he was hidden on top of. Poking his head down over the side, just in front of the other boy’s face, he gave his biggest upside-down grin. “Hi! I’m Luc. What’s your name?”

To his credit, while the human startled at the halfling’s sudden appearance, he didn’t scream or even look that upset as he answered:

“I’m TJ.”

-*-*-*-

TJ still wasn’t exactly sure how his big sister had gotten his parents to agree to let him go all the way to Nicodranas for the whole summer—or even why, besides her off-handed ‘gotta get you out of Kamordah for at least a little bit before it’s too late’—but he wasn’t about to object! This camp was certainly going to be far more interesting than anything back at home, and Beau had also promised that, on the days he didn’t have any activities, she and her wife, Yasha, would pick him up and take him around to their favorite places in town to have fun and hang out.

(He didn’t actually know either of them all that well yet, but he could already tell that they were two of the coolest people he’d ever met, and he figured that he could get up to all sorts of interesting adventures this summer without having to worry about getting into trouble basically at all. Awesome!)

“We can learn magic here—right?” he asked Luc after the two had talked for a little bit and he’d found out that the lady running the camp was the other boy’s mom—now he had an inside scoop!

Luc just wrinkled his nose and shrugged a little. “Not if its your first year. Mom and Uncle Caleb focus on safety and survival kind of stuff first, and they make people wait a bit before getting into the really dangerous stuff.”

TJ deflated a bit—he’d heard that one of the people running the camp was a wizard who’d traveled with his sister, and he’d been hoping that this would be his chance to finally learn some magic instead of just ‘things you’ll need to know when running a business’.

“But, if you can keep a secret, I can give you a sneak peek—Uncle Caleb gave me a magic book to learn from, and a notebook for when I start learning spells of my own. Wanna see?”

Yeah, this was going to be his best summer ever!

-*-*-*-

In the end, it was hard to say if it truly was the best, but it was the first of many great ones, as TJ got to come every summer and attend camp, hang out with his best friend, Luc, and spend time with Beau and Yasha.

(And, yes: he did start to learn magic, eventually, to Caleb’s delight that he had such an eager young protégé and Beau’s mock-despair that her little brother had ended up ‘that kind’ of nerd. Still, she’d always tell him that he was doing a great job and that his spells were cool, and to let her know the instant that Dad started to give him any trouble about not wanting to take over Lionett Wines. Even all these years later, TJ wasn’t sure how his sister had gotten leverage on their dad, or what it was, by the had come to realize just how fortunate he was that she had already blazed her own trail away from Kamordah and was standing ready to help him do the same.)

Luc took a little longer to find his own, eventual path, as he found that he was equally drawn to magic with Uncle Caleb, chemistry with Dad, and fighting and sneaking with Mom. Still, he had time, he knew, and he made the most of each and every day (he’d learned early on not to take anything for granted and to enjoy each day while it lasted, whether at home, at camp, or even visiting TJ or some of Mom’s friends).

Eventually, he came into his own by finding his own niche rather than another’s, and combining his interests in potions, magic, adventure, and tinkering into one. (A skilled artificer in his own right, the sheer unpredictable force that could be unleashed when he collaborated with TJ had all the Mighty Nein exchanging glances and chuckling about ‘Chaos Crew 2’.)

-*-*-*-

By the time the two of them set out together in search of adventure of their own (and a party of their own as well, eventually), they were equipped, not just with skills taught and advice imparted, but also with the knowledge that they had a whole family behind them, just a sending spell away (not that Aunt Jester had gotten any better at keeping track of 25 words, over the years...)

---------

(Also on AO3)

[moonlit-imagines]

Headcanons for being a Party Member

Stranger Kids x reader

warnings:

a/n: 💖💖 these ones were kind bad but i hope you like!

prompt: anonymous: “Hi! Can you make a headcannon for Stranger Things of just being in the party? Sorry if its too vague. Thank you so much for giving us so much free content!!”

you’ve known the boys for a long, long time

your mom was friends with joyce in high school, so you knew will your whole life

he introduced you to mike and soon lucas and dustin had joined the mix

let’s face it, you guys weren’t the most popular, but as long as you had each other it was fine

“at recess do you want to play castle?”

“yes! but we need to make up our characters”

will the wise was born that day, it just stuck

you guys were obsessed with star wars when it came out

“i’d totally be a jedi” -mike

“mike, you’d cry at the sight of any alien creature”

“not true!”

“i think lucas would be a kickass pilot, though”

“i’d get the princess, too” -lucas

dustin ended up playing lightsabers with you, though

you’ve accidentally knocked down tons of stuff in mike’s basement

“cut it out, you guys!”

“soooorryyyyy”

“you are not!”

AV club was just the 5 of you acting afool under adult supervision

mr. clark was still proud of your young minds, though

D&D campaigns, you were the rogue

you were also easily distracted during the game

“anyone want chips, im gonna get some chips”

“no! you can’t leave now!”

“watch me”

playing with mike’s toys while he’s not looking

battling them with lucas, dustin, and will

until mike started protesting

bike rides around town until sunset

SLEEPOVERS

“who the hell is snoring?”

“i think it’s dustin”

“PILLOW FIGHT!!!”

“kids, time to sleep!” -any parent

“let’s watch a scary movie”

“no! i mean—i’m tired” -mike

depending on which house you were staying in, you’d have a great time

will’s brother, jonathan, was always nice to you

nancy...not so much

“hi na—” *door slams* “oh...”

erica always intruded on your sleepovers at lucas’s

“i wanna play! can i play?”

“no, erica, go play somewhere else”

“you’re so mean, lucas”

“bye!”

dustin didn’t have any siblings, but he did have a cat who was pretty nice

“hi mews!”

the night will disappeared was a night you’ll never forget

you were so determined to find him, he had to be around somewhere

you ended up getting in deeper water than you’d originally thought when you met eleven, who apparently had superpowers

“mike!!! you’re mom is gonna kill you for bringing a random girl in the house”

“i know! shhhhh”

she was weird to say the least

and it was pretty scary sneaking around with her

“dude...she has the force”

“shut up!”

after a long week of fighting with your friends and encountering inter dimensional monsters and the government, you realized your life would never be the same

your mom was pretty protective over you for a while

the party had to come to your house instead for the next few months

“sorry guys, she’s just...really upset about the whole thing”

“it’s okay, y/n. we don’t mind”

being each other’s support system

especially when it came to will, he really worried you guys

“today is will’s doctor visit, hope it goes okay...”

spending HOURS in the arcade, struggling to beat other people’s high scores

“i’m gonna do it! i’m gonna get the top score!”

“in your dreams, y/n”

hAlLoWeEn

you knew you weren’t supposed to dress up at school but no one was paying attention to you when you told them

unfortunate.

there was a new girl who mike hated right off the bat

but lucas and dustin wouldn’t stop fighting over

“you two are the worst, you know that?”

trick or treating and dumping your candy later on to trade, the most effective way to get the best halloween

“nougat, disgusting. anybody want it? i’ll give it to you for free”

*dustin and you simultaneously* “ME!”

dustin’s “pet lizard” scaring the hell out of you

“dart makes me...uncomfortable”

max pulling you aside to ask why mike hates her

“uh...he’s a dick? i don’t know”

you and max ended up getting along pretty okay, though

she did complain about mike a LOT though

and when lucas filled her in on the demogorgon/upside-down/eleven situation, EVERYONE was pissed

you guys realized that the upside down stuff was not over and there was an epic teamup with all of you yaaaay

steve harrington adopted you it’s true

eleven came back

that was cool

you gave her a hug bc like duh??? you missed her

steve babysitting you guys and then getting beat up by max’s stepbrother, billy

“can i hit him? i wanna hit him”

“do it!”

doing dumbass shit in the tunnels that ended up working out anyways! yay!

“we’re all gonna die we’re all gonna die oh my god i’m too young to die”

“Y/N STOP”

in the end everything was (mostly) okay but like, that was scarring

summer rolled around and el and mike were dating, max and lucas were dating, and dusting came back from camp and claimed to be dating some girl from faaaar away

“liar”

“i’m not lying!”

steve sneaking you into movies

he also gave you (and only you) free ice cream but only bc he knew you wouldn’t tell anyone else

robin and you talking while you hid in the break room to eat your ice cream

“so...what do you do for fun”

“kill monsters”

“oh...okay”

kinda sick of the party’s shit for a while, so dustin and you were off scheming with the scoops employees

bad ideaaaa!! the russians!! you were almost killed!!

rescue mission for steve and robin

“they’re high as shit”

“nO YOu aRe”

“wonderful, we’re screwed”

losing them fhdhdhsh

“y/n?!”

“what? i’m not a babysitter!”

being chased by russians but also the rest of the party showing up and updating you but also adults finally making an appearance and you wanting to cry because like what the fuck is happening

being chased by the mind flayer

“GUYS IF WE DONT MAKE IT I WANT YOU ALL TO KNOW I LOVE YOU”

“Y/N. STOP SAYING THINGS THAT MAKE US THINK WE’RE GOING TO DIE”

eek that night sucked

you also almost fell down the hill that cerebro was placed on

and then uhhh hopper died so that was really bad and will ended up moving away with el and everyone was very sad

your mom cried when joyce left :(

you cried way too much

might i add going over to lucas’s to hang out with erica bc now you guys are friends lmaooo

“why are you here, y/n?”

“erica wanted me to come over”

“you two are impossible”

and to end this on a high note, the remaining party members in town were finally working through their differences as you all grew up and knew that it’d be impossible to separate for good

also pizza nights every week (sometimes accompanied by an older teen bc why not)

“if you guys eat all the damn pizza we’re gonna have a problem”

“we can’t help it! we’re growing!”

taglist: @locke-writes // @queenofthehairharrington // @praellee // @bonniesbabybunnie // @lotsoffandomrecs //

[chickensarentcheap]

Never Gonna Be Alone- Chapter 11

Title: Old Wounds

Warnings: none. But there’s always profanity, just an FYI

Tagging: @alievans007​, @innerpaperexpertcloud​, @c-a-v-a-l-r-y​, @tragiclyhip​

“Well I’ve got good news and bad news,” Tyler announces, as he descends the stairs later in the evening, pausing at the front entrance to switch off the foyer light and lock the door and set the alarm before joining his wife in the living room. “Which do you want first?”

Esme glances up from the mountains of clean laundry that takes up residence at her feet and on the already cluttered coffee table. Laundry baskets of differing colours are scattered around the room. A larger one that consists of their clothing and smaller containers labelled with each of the kids’ names; the latter eventually being placed in intervals on the stairs in hopes they’ll be carried up to the corresponding rooms. For the most part, the kids are good at getting their assigned chores done. The littles enjoying a ‘sticker chart’ that signifies a treat or toy of their choosing when full, and the older ones satisfied with decent sized allowances. Despite an extremely healthy bank account and money constantly flowing in, they’re still expected to ‘tow the line’; being taught responsibility and learning skills that will help them become self reliant and well functioning adults.

She wrinkles her nose and scowls. “Depends. On a scale of one to ten, how bad IS the bad news?”

“Considering it’s our kids we’re talking about?” He drops heavily onto the couch, wincing at the stiffness in his right knee when he stretches his leg out and places his foot on the edge of the coffee table. The cold weather is aggravating it; causing the arthritis to flare up and bringing with it an incessant ache that seems to have burrowed into the bone. Two reconstructive surgeries and a host of complications later, it’s as good as that leg is going to get. Already told to be prepared for a third surgery before he hits sixty. If he makes it that far. “I don’t know. I guess a four? Five at the most?”

“So that means no broken bones, knocked out teeth, and no one is unconscious or bleeding. In other words, it’s a relatively tame night for our house. Still…” she tosses a pair of mismatched socks into Tanner’s basket. He’s particular; socks always scrunched into a ball, never matching, and his other clothes separated by colour yet not folded, preferring to do it himself once he takes the basket upstairs. “...tell me the good news first. It’s been a weird day.”

“The good news is that all the little ones are already asleep. Tanner’s on his way out but he’s sleeping in the tub in the boys’ bathroom again because TJ and Declan are being too loud. Not even the headphones and locking himself in his happy place were doing the trick. I tried.”

“Well, at least he finds ways to cope and make himself happy, I guess. The bad news?”

“Millie and Alannah are showing no signs of slowing down. So if you’re wanting to actually get some shut eye, you might want to camp out down here. It’s going to be a long ass night.”

“Maybe I’ll borrow Tanner’s headphones,” she says, then grins at him over her shoulder. “That should help fend off your snoring too.”

“It can’t be THAT bad. You’ve been sharing a bed with me for twelve and a half years. I notice you don’t ever head for the couch. You put up with it.”

“Do you know many times in the past twelve and a half years I’ve been tempted to smother you with a pillow? Many. Many. MANY times.”

“Yet I’m still here.”

“Mostly because I wouldn’t do well in jail. I’d never survive in there. And prison jumpsuit orange is NOT my colour.”

“And here I was thinking maybe I’ve survived because you just love me THAT much.”

“It plays a small part in it. But just a small one. Just so you know.”

“You’d miss me. If I wasn’t around.”

“Like a migraine,” she teases, and yelps when he lands a playful yet solid backhand on one of the cheeks of her ass. “That’s not nice. That’s not friends.”

“Is that what we are? Friends? That’s as far as we’ve come in twelve and a half years?”

“Friends with the best benefits,” she chides, and snags an unfolded towel from the pile of laundry on the floor and smacks him upside the head with it. “I wouldn’t complain if I were you. You wouldn’t suddenly want to find yourself facing an extremely long dry spell.”

“I’d be alright. I have three wank files on my phone now.”

“Three? What do you need three for? And how do you even have that many pictures of me in the first place? Are you sneaking them while I’m asleep? Because that’s just...creepy...if you are.”

“Bold of you to assume that it’s just pictures of you.”

She drops her chin to her chest and stares at him pointedly.

“I’m kidding. I only need pictures of you. No one else. Well, there’s a couple of videos too, but…”

“I swear to God, if anyone ever goes into your phone and finds those? I will kill you. In the most brutal and painful way possible. Why do you need videos anyway?”

“Homemade porn. Best you can get.”

“You can’t watch regular porn like regular people?”

“I mean, I COULD. But I don’t want to. I want to watch you. Unleashing your inner porn star. Getting all freaky and kinky and shit. You should watch them with me. Be kind of hot, don’t think? Watch them and make a new one?”

“You’ve got issues. Serious issues.”

“I can’t help it. I can’t help that my wife is a total MILF. That she looks all tiny and cute and innocent but is a freak in bed. You shouldn’t have been so eager and willing if you didn’t want me scooping you up at that quick.”

She smirks. “I thought you said I was a B plus?”

“You were. Until I got a hold of you. Now? Solid A plus, plus, PLUS.”

“So you’re finally admitting that you DID corrupt me. After twelve and a half years denying it.”

“I merely helped you build on your skills. Improve them. I was more than willing to let you experiment on me.”

“Mmmhmm. You know, I was a good girl until you got a hold of me.”

“Like fuck you were. Good girls do NOT bang a guy...for five days straight...that they barely know. Unprotected.”

“I admit, that was not one of my finer judgement calls. But I trusted you. You didn’t seem like the type that didn’t take precautions. I mean, looking like you do and having women in different ports all over the world? That was a given. But you didn’t strike me as the type that wanted kids all over the world. Or STD’s. I trusted you. For some reason.”

“You just wanted the dick. Admit it. You were willing to sacrifice all your morals and standards for it.”

“I will admit to no such things. You were just as into it as I was. You didn’t exactly turn sex down. You didn’t seem too concerned about the whole protection thing. How did you know I wasn’t some hoe crawling with Lord knows what? How’d you know you weren’t going to get the burn?”

“I trusted you. Against my better judgement.”

Smirking, she cocks her head to the side and regards him with a mixture of disdain and amusement.

“You were all cute and tiny and innocent looking. Boy did I learn. Quick.”

“Something tells me you wouldn’t have kept me around if I was TOO cute and innocent. I knew just enough to make you want it, yet still gave you a pretty clean slate to work with. You must be so proud of yourself. Corrupting me like you have. Moulding me into some freak in bed.”

“Babe, you had a freak inside of you, just took good dick to bring it out. You are some of my best work though. You didn’t turn out too bad.”

She gives a derisive snort.

“Aren’t you glad you went along with Nik’s fucked up idea? Was it not the best decision of your life?”

“I don’t know about the best,” she teases, and drops a load of clean wash in his lap. “But you’re on my top five list.”

“Well for what it’s worth, it’s definitely the best decision I ever made. And you have to admit, the whole lack of protection thing? It didn’t turn out too bad.”

“I don’t know about that. She’s turning into quite the hell beast. You know those hellhounds on Supernatural? Millie could be their ruler. In fact, they’d be scared of HER. Although I have figured it out. Why she’s been extra bitchy lately.”

“Please tell me it’s not boys. Bad enough we had one phone here. I don’t want to find out there’s more.”

“It’s not boys. Although…” she drops down onto the couch beside him. “...that will come soon enough. Puberty. It’s puberty.”

“Excuse me?”

“It hasn’t happened yet. The big event. She hasn’t gotten her period.”

“We are NOT having this conversation.”

“As uncomfortable as it makes you, we have to have it. Because it’s going to happen. Soon.”

“She’s eleven.”

“She’ll be twelve in March. I was just shy of twelve when I got mine.”

He turns his attention to the pile of laundry in his lap. “I do NOT want to hear this.”

“I’m just trying to prepare you. The mood swings? The skin breakouts? The fact she’s starting to develop and has already asked me to take her shopping for bras…”

“Don’t. Please don’t. I’m not listening to you. I refuse to listen to you.”

“...means that things are going to happen. Soon. And we need to be prepared. Especially you.”

“Why me? Why do I need to be more prepared than you?”

“Because I’ve had my period for almost thirty years. I’m obviously experienced in these things.”

“And I’ve lived with you for twelve of those thirty years. Who is the one that bears the brunt of the shit storm when you get all mean and moody and shit? Who’s the one that’s been bringing your bitchy ass chocolate and ice cream? Who’s the one that will massage your back and bring you a heating pad when the cramps are bad? Never mind that, who’s had to go to the store and buy you woman stuff?”

“You’ve been very good about it. But in all fairness, if you really think about it? I haven’t had my period that much since we’ve been together. You may have done all those very sweet and amazing things, but you’ve also gotten me pregnant with seven kids. In twelve years.”

“That is a very good point, actually.”

“All I’m saying is that things are going to happen. Soon. And I just want you to be prepared for it. I know it bothers you to think about it. Your baby girl growing up. But she is. Growing up. And she’s doing it very quickly. You need to step up your game and be ready for anything.”

“I really hate you right now.”

“Do you, Tyler? Do you REALLY?”

Leaning into her, he presses a kiss to her temple. “No. Not in the slightest.”

“I just want you to be prepared. In case it happens when I’m not home. So you know what to do.”

“You’re not leaving the house from here on out. Until she DOES get it.”

“You’ll be fine. I’ll make sure everything is in the house that you’ll need in case it does happen. I remember when Riley was going through puberty. My mom was totally useless. It was a disaster when I started mine. She would have been more than willing to just let me bleed all over the place. I had to stuff toilet paper in my underwear and steal money out of her purse so I could go to the store and get necessities.”

He grins. “My wife the felon.”

“So I made sure Riley would never have to go through that kind of humiliation. I made up this basket for her. Pads, tampons, a heating pad, chocolate bars, some pain killers. Everything she’d need. I’ll do that for Millie too. And I’ll put it somewhere where you can find it. So you’re ready if it happens and I’m not home.”

“Do we really have to keep talking about this?”

“Stick your head in the sand all you want, husband. It’s going to happen. Whether you like it or not. I know she’s your little girl. Your miracle baby. But she’s growing up. And it’s happening very fast and there’s nothing we can do to stop it, I’m not exactly happy about it either. This is all happening way too quick for my liking. Where the hell has the last twelve years gone? We’re going to have a teenager. Very soon.”

“Not to make things worse, but we’re going to have three in the house in just over two years.”

“You’re not helping. Seriously though. Where has that time gone? Some days it feels like we just met, don’t you think?”

“Now that I think about it, there are days you drive me as fucking nuts as you did that that first day in Dhaka.”

“Fuck you! I was cute and charming.”

“You were a pain in my ass.”

“But I was a CUTE pain in your ass. You can’t deny that.”

“You were something alright.”

“Look, just because you were having the feels for me and didn’t know how to handle it, that’s not my fault. And for the record, I would have been able to handle myself. In the market. If things went south.”

“Sure you would have. You would have been just fine. All five foot nothing and a hundred pounds of you.”

“Good things come in small packages. You didn’t need to watch me that closely.”

“Yes. I did. I very much did. You know what would have happened if Asif’s thugs got a hold of you? The end result would not have been pretty.”

“I think you use that as an excuse. I think you just wanted me that close because you WERE having feels for me.”

“I am neither going to admit OR deny that.”

“You don’t have to. I’ve caught on to you. You can keep lying to yourself about your motives back then, but I know what you were up to. And it’s very sweet. That you wanted to keep me safe and sound because you had feels for me.”

“Do you want me to be totally honest?”

“Always.”

“I really just wanted to keep you close so I could look at your ass. And because I was hoping to get laid. I needed you to be safe and in one piece for that to happen.”

She stares at him pointedly.

“I’m just saying. You want honesty? There’s your honesty. You were cute and had a wicked body and I was horny as fuck and wanted you to fix that. And boy, did you ever fix it.”

“And I'm still fixing it. Twelve and a half years later. You lucky bastard.”

“I am lucky.” A slow smile spreads across his face. “Very lucky.”

“It’s weird.” She turns her attention back to folding the laundry at her feet. “Sometimes it DOES seem like it was just yesterday. Where DID the time go? How did we end up old enough to have a pre-teen? I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel old enough for that.”

“The way my body is? I feel old enough to have a kid in college, never mind becoming a teenager. Which leads me to the other bad news.”

“Oh God…” Esme groans. “...there’s more?”

“These?” He reaches into the pocket of his sweats and pulls out a pair of reading glasses. “Don’t do shit anymore. I can see up close, but I can’t see fuck all far away. You know what that means?”

“Your eyesight is shit. Which I’ve been telling you for the last three years. Is it just your right eye?”

“That one’s worse.” It’s a mixture of things. The knife that Nathan had dug into his face -the sharp blade cutting deep and causing problems with the surrounding nerves- and the multitude of concussions suffered over the years. The last one five years ago had been the tipping point; causing permanent and extensive damage to the optic nerve. “ But they’re both shit.”

“When we get home you’ll have to call and schedule an eye appointment. And while you’re at it, you should call and get that hearing test done.”

“I don’t need one done. I know my hearing is fucked.”

“Fucked or not, you need one. So you know what you’re dealing with. You might need a hearing aid.”

“That’s a huge ‘fuck no’ from me.”

“I know it makes you feel old; glasses and hearing aids and arthritis and all the aches and pains. But you ARE getting close to fifty. And you’ve had a hard life. There’s been a lot of damage done. Isn’t it better to get on top of those things? So they don’t get worse? I just want you to have a good life. I want you to be around for a long while. And if that means you have to wear glasses on a permanent basis and get a hearing aid…”

“I’m sorry. Are you talking? I couldn’t hear you. It’s my old age.”

“It’s not old age. You’re just an asshole. Always have been, always will be. But you’re my asshole and I want to keep you around. And I know YOU want to stick around. Especially for your kids. So do it for them? Get your eyes and your hearing tested. Please? Because we love you, you insufferable, stubborn pain in my ass. And us loving you? That’s not going to change because you need help hearing and seeing.”

“I’ll be ugly as fuck. If I have to wear glasses all the time.”

“It’s impossible for you to be ugly. In fact…” she plucks the glasses from his hand and slips them onto his face. “...I think you’re quite sexy in them.”

“You know, you’re not half bad looking when I can actually see.”

She laughs and shoves him back against the couch. “You’re a total dick.”

“Fuck you, you love me.”

“I do. Despite my better judgement and the warnings from friends and family.”

Smirking, he lays a hand on the back of her head and pulls her into him; speaking with the tips of their noses pressed together and lips mere inches apart. “Why are you so mean to me? You’re always so mean.”

“I know. You have it so rough. I am the worst wife EVER. I’m horrible. Just horrible. How you put up with me defies all logic.”

“It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it. It’s my cross to bear.”

“You poor bastard,” she laughs, a palm coming to rest on the side of his face when he kisses her. Long and slow and sweet, followed by a series of small pecks and then concluded with the press of his lips against her forehead; her eyes fluttering closed and a soft smile playing at the corners of her mouth. It’s always been one of her favorite things; those feathery kisses placed on her brow and the weight of his hand on the back of her neck and the warmth of his body so close to hers. It’s sweet and it’s pure; intimacy at its most basic and innocent of levels. And her smile widens when a calloused fingertip softly traces the slope of her nose and his lips press against the tip. “You and your freckles.”

“Well technically, they’re YOUR freckles.”

“You’re staring at them aren’t you.”

“Not staring. Admiring.”

“Admiring what? They’re ugly.”

“They’re adorable. And you’re beautiful.” He presses a kiss to each corner of her mouth, hand smoothing wayward strands of hair away from the sides of her face and neck.

Her eyes flutter open. “Why do you look at me like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like THAT. How you’re looking at me right now. Just so...I don’t know...I don’t know how to describe it. But you always do it. Your face changes. So does the colour of your eyes. It’s like you’re looking at me for the very first time all over again. Even though you’ve seen me nearly every day for the last twelve and a half years. Yet you still do it. Look at me like that. Like I’m the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen.”

“Maybe you are. Maybe to me you’re the most beautiful woman in the world. Maybe all I see is you. Maybe because everything that is amazing and perfect in my life is because of you. All this? A place like this? My kids? Us? None of that would exist if it wasn’t for you. If you hadn’t stuck around on that bridge…”

“But I did. I DID stick around. And if it happened a thousand times, I would make the exact same decision. No hesitations. I did the right thing. No one can ever tell me different.”

“For what it’s worth, I’m glad you put your ass on the line for a guy that was a complete and utter fucking mess.”

“Well I guess I just saw the potential,” she chides, and then kisses him; fingernails lightly scraping along the bottom of his hairline “You know what I really want right now?”

“I’m hoping you’re going to say sex, but I have a sneaky feeling that’s not it.”

“Leftover Chinese food. And my last chocolate croissant.”

“And then sex?”

Laying a hand on the side of his head, she pulls him closer; placing a series of feathery kisses along his jaw and then grinning against his ear. “Maybe.”

*****

An hour later they sit in the sunroom; the remnants of a late night meal on the coffee table, the area illuminated by strings of multi-colored Christmas lights lining each pane of glass and the soft glow given off by the space heater. It’s the kind of quiet and relaxation that is extremely rare to find especially during the holiday season; one that comes only when everything on your ‘to do list’ has been checked off. It’s a relief to have it all done; every last minute gift snagged, almost all the wrapping relegated to a very accommodating and willing Desi, fridges and freezers stocked and the house fully decorated both inside and out.

It had been a learning process; getting comfortable with celebrating the season while still harbouring painful childhood trauma and the memories of six Christmases with his first child. But Esme had made it easier; never pushing him to ‘get into the spirit’ and knowing what lines shouldn’t be crossing and learning to step back when the trauma of the past would begin to fester. Seeing her enjoyment of the holiday had helped; the excitement she shows over something as simple as a walk or a drive to look at other peoples’ lights, the joy she gets in buying things for the kids and keeping the magic alive and seeing their faces light up on Christmas morning. And he’d come around a little bit at a time; a distaste for the holiday becoming more bearable as the years went on and eventually being replaced with actual enjoyment and appreciation. And now that the hard work is done, it’s time to relish in accomplishment; a quiet house and the ambiance and the press of her head against his chest and the feel of her hair as it slowly slips through his fingers. He’d gladly stay there all the night; away from the giggles and chatter that drift down from their daughter’s room, lulled to sleep by the familiar weight of his wife’s body against his and the warmth that radiates from her. Nothing sexual about it; just quiet, soft intimacy in its purest form.

His eyes flicker open when he feels her move away; head lifting from the back of the couch and as her hair slips from between his fingers. “You okay?”

She gives a sheepish, almost nervous smile. “We need to talk.”

“So no, you’re not.”

“There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m okay.”

“Babe, nothing good ever comes after ‘we need to talk’.”

“Everything’s fine. The kids are good, I’m good, we’re good. Just something has been eating at me all day and I wasn’t even going to bring it up but I just know it’s going to keep me up all night if I don’t get it out.”

“How bad is this thing that’s been eating at you? Because the way you said ‘we need to talk’...”

“It’s not bad. On a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst, it’s maybe a three. A four. At the most.”

“Okay. What is it? What’s going on?”

“Before I tell you…” she turns her body to face him. “.... there’s some other things I need to say. First, I want you to promise you won’t get upset.”

“It’s obviously worse than a four if you think it’s going to upset me. It takes a lot; for you to piss me off.”

“I wouldn’t call it ‘pissing you off’. Just I can totally see why you might take it the wrong way and get defensive. And there’s no reason for you to be. Defensive.”

“It’s not about the job is it? Because we already talked about that and I already said I would stay home. Or at least if I did have to go somewhere, I’d stay completely behind the scenes. So if it’s about that…”

“It’s not about the job. That’s water under the bridge. We dealt with it. And may I add, we dealt with that very well. EXTREMELY well. You didn’t get worked up and we didn’t fight and that’s a big thing for us. A huge thing. And that’s a REALLY nice change; it shows we’re a lot stronger now.”

“So if it’s not about the job…”

“I need you to promise. That you won’t get upset. That you won’t get defensive even though it might seem like you need to be.”

“I promise. I’ll keep my shit together.”

“Second, I need you to know that I love you. More than I ever thought I could love someone. And you ARE the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Hands down. You’re an amazing husband and an even more amazing father and I couldn’t have asked for a better dad for my kids. And I appreciate you so much. Everything you do for us. For our family. How you care for us and provide for us and…”

“As nice as it is to hear all this, you’re rambling. And while I normally find that cute, it’s actually really unnerving right now. So maybe just spit it out? What’s going on? Why are you so edge? What’s got you all worked up?”

“Okay. I’m just going to ask and hope for the best. Just remember, there’s no reason to get defensive and I’m NOT accusing you of anything. It might seem like I am, but I’m not. I promise.”

“Are you going to get it out sometime today or…?”

“How friendly were you? To that neighbour the other day?”

“What neighbour?”

“The new one. The single mom. At the park. Natalie. The tall blond who looks like Sephora threw up on her face? Remember her?”

“What about her?”

“How friendly WERE you with her?”

He can’t help but laugh. “What?”

“You said you talked to her. What did you talk about?”

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“There’s a reason I’m asking. I’m not just asking to ask. I knew you met her and I know you talked to her and…”

“And what? What ARE you trying to ask? Because you said I shouldn’t get defensive and it seems like maybe I should. ARE you accusing me of something?”

“No. I’m not. I am not accusing of anything. I know you, Tyler. I know your heart. I know you love me and that you’d never, EVER cheat on me. So I am not accusing you of that. I never would.”

“So then what the fuck? What do you mean how friendly was I? When have you known me to be friendly with ANYONE? Especially people I don’t know. Are you suggesting I did something? Because that is totally it, Esme. I fucked her...in the dead of winter...in public...with my son twenty feet away. Is that what you WANT to hear?”

“No! God no. And that’s not what I’m suggesting at all. I just want to know. What you talked to her about. That’s it.”

“Why? What the hell does it matter? You’re always on my ass about how I should be more social and make an effort to meet people. Now all of a sudden you’re changing your mind? ‘Cause you’re worried about some neighbour? What the hell…?”

“Hear me out, please,” she begs, and takes both of his hands in hers. “This isn’t about me being neurotic and my self esteem issues and my weirdness about other women.”

“Seriously? Because that’s EXACTLY what this is about. This happens every fucking time we go somewhere. You get all worked up because you think women are paying attention to me. Because you think all these housewives and mothers are so thirsty they’d actually give a fuck about me. You think way too highly of me.”

“Okay, first off, no I don’t. You happen to be incredibly attractive. The blue eyes? The smile? The body? The whole vibe you’ve got going on? The resting bitch face? The tattoos and the scars and the whole intimidation factor? It’s very sexy. Whether you realize it or not. And I know you can’t help it. You’re just naturally beautiful. I’m not blaming you for that. But I do have a reason. For being the way I am. For having the issues I do.”

“Yeah, your brain is fucked up. Just as much as mine is.”

“You may not see it...all the women that check you out and thirst over you...but I do. All the time. But we’re not talking about the soccer park or the school yard. We’re talking about the park. And Natalie. The pretty single mom.”

“She’s not pretty. I don’t think she’s pretty.”

“Are you blind? You must be. Your eyes must be worse than my thought.”

“She’s not pretty. Not to me. She’s not my type.”

“You don’t have a type. In fact, your type used to be anything that walked with a wiggle.”

“I’ve had a type for the last twelve and a half years. If you want to call it having a ‘type’. You. You’re the only one that matters to me. You’re the only woman that I give a shit about. You might as well be the only one that exists on the entire fucking planet. All I want is you. That’s it. So what the fuck…?”

“She showed up here today. Asking for you.”

“Who did?”

Esme sighs in exasperation. “Natalie. The neighbour.”

“She came here?”

“And asked for you. She came calling on another woman’s husband. You don’t find that at least a little bit strange? That she would do that? That she would show up on our doorstep looking for you? You don’t find that even a little weird?”

“I find it a lot weird. I don’t know why she’d come here. I wasn’t THAT nice. It was small talk. Nothing more than that. I was my usual pleasant self.”

“Well, you certainly made an impression on her. Enough that she felt comfortable coming here. And talking to your daughter AND your wife. Let me just say, her social etiquette needs some work. She’s not as charming and witty as she thinks she is. Her people skills are a tad rusty.”

“What did she want?”

“To talk to you. To give you her cookie.”

He chuckles. “Is that a code language for…?”

“No. She literally brought you cookies. That she made for you.”

“What kind of cookies?”

Esme’s eyes narrow.

“I’m kidding. That was a joke. Probably not the best time to make one, mind you.”

“Oatmeal raisin if you need to know ALL the details.”

“Worst cookie EVER. You don’t know betrayal until you bite into one thinking it’s chocolate chip and you find out it’s THAT.”

“I’m pretty sure she was also offering up HER cookie. On a silver platter.”

“And if she was? Who the fuck cares? I don’t want anything from her. I talked to her at the park. Welcomed her to the neighbourhood. That was it. Everything else is on her. If she read too much into it, that’s her problem. Not mine. I made small talk and that was it. And you know how much I hate small talk.”

“I know YOU didn’t do anything. I know you. I know who you are and what you’re like. I wasn’t suggesting that you made a move on her or led her on or anything like that. You know that, right? That I’m not accusing you of anything?”

“I know you’re not. But it does seem like you are.”

“I know. And I don’t mean for it to sound that way. It just upset me. Her showing up here. Asking for you. That is so many shades of wrong. Why would someone do that?”

“Why would a man follow someone’s wife home from the post office? Someone’s noticeably pregnant wife.”

“That’s NOT the same thing.”

“You’re right. It’s not. It’s worse. You were pregnant with my kid. You told him you were married. And he still followed you home.”

“And you took care of it. You scared the shit out of him. Knocked him on his ass. All’s well that ends well.”

“Doesn’t mean I liked it. The fact some fucking asshole followed my wife home. You say I don’t notice things? How come you never notice all the men that pay attention to you? I notice it. Why don’t you?”

“It doesn’t happen that often.”

“It happens all the fucking time. And some of them are actually brave enough to be right out there with it. That takes a lot of balls; being that bold in front of someone’s husband. You think I like THAT? When men check you out?”

“You never say anything. You never act like it’s bothering you. If it does, why don’t you just say something?”

“Because I trust you. Because I’m secure. When it comes to knowing how you feel about me. I don’t see these guys as competition. A pain in the ass. But not competition.”

“That’s because they’re not. I don’t give a shit about any of them. I don’t want anyone else. I want you. I am perfectly happy with you. I love the way things are. With you. None of them matter to me.”

“Then why does it bother you what other women do? Why does it bother you so much? You don’t trust me?”

“What? No. I do. I DO trust you. You are not the problem. They are.”

“That doesn’t make ANY sense. How can they be a problem when I won’t let them be? I don’t give a fuck about any of them. How can they cause issues if I won’t let them? What do you think they’re going to do, Me? You can’t steal someone away unless they WANT to be. And you know what? As much as you drive me fucking insane, I am perfectly happy where I am. With who I have.”

“You don’t know what it’s like. Being around that. Those women. You don’t…”

“I DO know what it’s like. Guys check you out all the time. Do you see me going all neurotic about it?”

“Well, being neurotic IS my thing,” she sheepishly admits.

“This needs to stop. You being like this. It has been twelve and a half years of this, Me. And it’s tiring. I love you. And I have to tell you until my very last breath that I love you and I don’t want anyone else, I’ll do it. But it doesn’t mean it it doesn’t grate on my fucking nerves.”

“You knew I was like this. You knew my issues. Going into things. If they pissed you off THAT bad…”

“They don’t piss me off. Is it annoying, yes? Can I live with it? Also a yes. I will put up with it. Until my dying day. Because I love you. But I would give anything to put an end to it.”

“I can’t help it. Being like this. I’m not you, Tyler. You’re secure and you’re confident and you’re able to just ignore other men.”

“Because I trust you.”

“And I trust YOU. You are NOT the problem. And I know it doesn’t make any sense to you. Me worrying about other women when I know for a fact you’d never cheat on me. But I do. Worry about them.”

“Why? Tell me why you worry about them? What do you think they’re going to do, Esme? Tell me. What do you think is going to happen?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“That is NOT an acceptable answer for anyone over six. Try again.”

“I honestly don’t know. I don’t know what I’m thinking. But you don’t hear what they say. The women at the soccer park on the school yard. I do. I hear it. I hear them talking about how ugly and plain and boring looking I am and how they can’t understand why someone like you would be with someone like me,” she struggles to hold back a threatening flood of tears. “They don’t hide it, Tyler. They don’t talk about these things in secret. They make sure I hear it. And you know what? It hurts. A lot. And if I tell you something hurts me, you don’t have the right to tell me it doesn’t.”

“I’m not doing that, babe. I’m not saying it shouldn’t hurt you. And I’m sorry. That it does. That you hear stuff like that.”

“Why are you sorry? It’s not your fault. You can’t help what they say.”

“Do you want me to say something? To them? The next time I pick the kids up? Because I will. I’m not shy when it comes to telling people off. You know that. And when it comes to protecting you…”

“It would just make things worse. I can just hear them now. Talking about what a cry baby I am and how you deserve a real woman. Don’t say anything. It’ll just set them off. Things are bad enough as they are.”

“Why don’t you tell them to fuck off? You usually don’t back away from shit like that.”

“Because that’s our kids’ school and we’ve been on the principal’s shit list before and I don’t want to make things hard on our kids. But it does bother me. Hearing that stuff. And it DOES hurt.”

“But it shouldn’t. That’s what I’m saying. Just let go in one ear and out the other. Who gives a fuck what they think? What does it matter? I love you. I have always loved you. I always WILL love you. You’re the most beautiful woman in the world to me. Isn’t that enough? What I think? Why isn’t that enough?”

“I don’t know. I want it to be. And I know it should be. I know you love me. I’ve never doubted that. Not even during those six months. Even then, I knew you did. You just needed to get your shit together. I don’t know why it bothers me so much. I don’t why I’m like this. Why I can’t get past it. I think I’m getting better and then something happens and it’s back to square one.”

“Your mom fucked you up. So did Mark. You went through a lot of shit. Especially with him. But I’m not Mark, Esme.”

“I know. I know you’re not.”

“Do you? Because sometimes I’m not sure you do.”

The tears come freely now; body trembling with the force of the emotions that accompany them. And he places a hand on the back of her neck and pulls her into him; a forearm across the small of her back as her body presses tightly against his and her arms immediately circle his neck.

“I’m sorry,” she sobs against his shoulder. “I never meant to make you feel that way. Like I was comparing you to him.”

“I know.” One hand repeatedly strokes his hair, the other settling at the small of her back. “I know you didn’t.”

“Because you’re NOT him. You’re nothing like him. And I’ve never thought you are. I’m sorry, Tyler. For making you that feel that way. I never meant it.”

“I know you didn’t. It’s okay, Me. He fucked you up. Badly. I’m just the guy that came after. The one that has to try and clean up his mess. And if it takes the rest of my life to do that? Then I’ll deal with it. I can’t make it better. I can’t take it all away; make it like it never happened. I wish I could.”

“I don’t want to be this way. I don’t want to be crazy and neurotic and a freaking mess.”

“Well if it’s any consolation, you’re a beautiful mess.”

She manages a small laugh. “I don’t know what to do. To make this better. To make ME better. And it’s not fair to you. To have to deal with this shit.”

“I’ve brought more shit to the table than you have. And you’ve always dealt with it. I figure it’s the least I can do. Put up with your crap.”

“I don’t want to be like this. I can’t live like this for the rest of my life. I just can’t. But I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t know how to fix me. And it shouldn’t be up to you to do it.”

“You’re my wife. You’re the mother of my kids. I love you. It’s what we do. Help each other. Fix one another. You’re not in this by yourself.” He presses a kiss to her temple and tightens his hold on her. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure it out. We’ll get you past all this.”

“What if we can’t? What if it CAN’T be fixed?”

“Then we live it. I spent the rest of my life constantly reassuring you that I’m not going anywhere. That I love you and think you’re the most beautiful in the world. If that’s what it takes, I’ll do it. I’ll take one for the team.”

“You’re so generous,” she chides. “Always so willing to sacrifice yourself.”

“Well, we do crazy shit for love. When we get home, you should go and talk to Doctor Klein. Tell him what’s going on. How you’ve been feeling. If anyone can figure shit out, it’s him.”

“You’ll come with me, right? I think you should. Come with me.”

“You know I will. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

She pulls away to look at him, sitting back at her heels. “Nothing?”

“Nothing,” he declares, and lays his hands on the sides of her face and uses his thumbs to wipe away the lingering tears.

“I know all snotty nose and puffy eyed isn’t my best look, but maybe we could have sex now?”

He grins. “Maybe. Would it make you feel better?”

She nods. “Being worshipped ALWAYS makes me feel better.”

“What can I say? I’m always willing to cheer you up. Besides, your body’s a temple, babe. It deserves to be worshipped.”

“It’s a temple, alright. Ancient and crumbling. Probably haunted.”

“It’s beautiful,” his hands move to the front of the plaid shirt she wears; enormous and baggy on her tiny frame. “And sexy.”

“Even after seven kids?”

His fingers tend to opening the buttons on the shirt. “ESPECIALLY after seven kids.”

“You always have the right thing to say. Your sweet talking is improving.”

“I thought you preferred dirty talk?”

“I do. Dirty talk is my favourite. Especially YOUR dirty talk. That voice? That accent? I’m wet just thinking about it.”

“Yeah?” With a playful smirk, he forcibly shoves her onto her back; a palm on either side of her head as outstretched arms brace his much heavier and bulkier frame. “In that case, shut up and let me fuck you.”

[i-need-entertainment]

Dreams Can Come True: Chapter 4 Prettiest Dude Around

Chapter 3-Chapter 5

“Y/n, meet the Eight Precepts of death.” Y/n stepped fully into the living room to be met with 10 individuals. “Well, Eight Precepts of Death and Company more like it. Guys, this is Y/n,” Chrono gestured to Y/n to introduce herself. “Hello, I’m Y/n L/n, but please, call me Y/n.” They all said some sort of ‘Hi’ or ‘nice to meet you’ and also heard a few whistles, which elicited a glare from Chrono, and snickers to be heard. 

The first to step forward was a fairly tall male wearing a black cape looking thing, a black bowlers hat and a black plague mask. “It’s nice to see you again Y/n,  I’m Shin Nemoto, Nemoto is fine.” Y/n nodded, she remembered seeing him at the ‘interview’ with Overhaul. Next was a younger, slightly shorter looking male with blond hair that went over his right eye. “Toya Setsuno, nice to meet you. This quiet guy here with me is Soramitsu Tabe, I’d let him introduce himself but he’s not really a talker.” Tabe then let out a string of ‘I’m hungry’ and ‘eat’. “Next to step up was three big looking guys, like tall and muscular, pretty scary looking actually… “I’m Yu Hojo.” “Rikiya Katsukame” “Hey there pretty lady! I’m Kendo Rappa! But you can call me da-“, Before he could finish his…statement a middle aged appearing individual slapped him upside the head. “I sincerely apologize for this boys’ actions” The one named Rappa seemed to whine from the hit, and growl at being called boy. “I’m Hekiji Tengai, it’s nice to meet you Mistress Y/n.” Y/n nodded polite fully and smiled. “HEY! HEY YOU!” Y/n looked around confused for a second, until Chrono tapped her shoulder and pointed to the floor, where she saw a…stuffed bird? Said stuffed bird then jumped over to the floor in front of Y/n and Chrono “I’m mimic, Manager of the Eight Precepts. AND I DEMAND RESP-“ This time it was Chrono who interrupted, by softly, but firmly kicking Mimic across the room. “That angry plushie is mimic, he talks a big talk but he really won’t do anything.” Chrono shrugged “YOU COME OVER HERE AND SAY IT TO MY FACE CLOCKSWORTH!” Chrono just rolled his eyes, “Whatever you say shrimpy.” Next, a drunken man stumbled over “AAaaannd I’m D-deeiidorio Sssakakii. Niiicee to meeeet ya shweett stuff.” The strange man somehow managed to slur out before collapsing back onto the couch. “Hello dear, I’m pops, retired leader of the Shie Hassaikai. I’m also Eri’s grandfather, thank you for taking care of her.” A very nice older male introduced him self. “Its no problem! Really, Eri is an absolute sweetheart, and Kurono has been a really good dad to her. I’ll do my best to be a good mom.” Pop’s face seemed to light up at the mention of Y/n being Eri’s mom. Meanwhile, Chrono’s face was slowly going red, afraid of what his adopted father would spill about him. “Mom eh?” “Well, Eri asked if she could call me that, and I really don’t mind. I always wanted to be one anyways.” “Well, that’s very kind of you. The girl needs a positive mother figure. I’m sure you’ll do a fine job. Who knows, maybe you’ll help this hopeless idiot grow up some.” The elder said as he ‘lovingly’ whapped chrono upside the head. Chrono just pouted, rubbing the spot he was just assaulted. “Hey! I’ve been doing pretty good! Right Eri?!” The little girl made her way over and hopped into her grandfather’s arms. “Of course daddy!” “See” “Buuut it is good to have mommy around. Especially since mommy can draw, and cook and do my hair. Oh! And-“ “Okay that’s enough outta you pumpkin.” Chrono said while Eri giggled and made her way back to her play room. Y/n just giggled. “Kids these days…” He complained crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. “I don’t know, she might have a point.” “Who’s side are you on anyways!? I thought you were here to help me!” “I was, but now, I’m not so sure.” The Eight Precepts and pops and mimic were sitting back, watching and enjoying the scene that was unfolding. Especially since it was painfully obvious their dear old pal Chrono had a ‘little’ crush on the young caretaker. The two playfully went back and forth for awhile, before accepting defeat. Y/n was then dragged by Eri back to her room to play dress up, while poor Chrono was mercilessly interrogated by his ‘friends’. “SOOOO Chrono. What is your relationship with Y/n?” Setsuno asked, while stalking over to Chrono, ready to attack. Chrono was carefully trying to sneak out of the room, but was unsuccessful when Katsukame blocked his way, and sat him down at the table across from Pops, who had Nemoto by his side. The rest of the bullets gathered around the table, and blocked off the exits. Conveniently Overhaul walked in, and joined the group around the table, and after asking what was going on curiously sat down next to Pops. “So, son. Are you going to tell us?” “I’ll never tell…” “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.” Chrono dangerously glared, “Shin, you wouldn’t dare..” “Oh I would, Chrono, or as Y/n would say Kurono.” Chrono’s face went a slight shade of pink, causing the members to break out in laughter and shouts. While those seated at the table just smirked. “Son, I’ll ask you once more, what is your relationship to Y/n?” The room went silent. “We’re just friends…” “With or without benefits?” One of the precepts muttered, causing Chrono to die inside, pops to break out in laughter, and Overhaul and Nemoto to snicker. “I’m gonna take that as without!” Rappa shouted, falling to the floor in pain from laughter. “Do you like her?” “Yes.” Chrono immediately glared at Nemoto. “Ohoho? Really? That’s interesting, Kurono,” Overhaul smirked, smirk more noticeable since he was only wearing the surgical mask. “That doesn’t mean anything! I could just like her as a friend!” Nemoto sighed and rolled his eyes under his mask. “Do you like her, romantically?” The room went silent again. “Yes.” Chrono slammed his head down onto the table as the room erupted into more noise. Pops came over to Chrono and patted his back. “Now now son. No need to be upset. You merely have a crush! It’s nothing to be embarrassed about! Besides, Eri has taken a liking to her, and I could use more grandchildren!” Chrono shot up at that. He had avoided that topic enough times with Eri, no need for his adoptive father to get in on it as well. Deciding to spare his friend (For now anyways) Overhaul sent the others back to work, or to at least stop being loud. Chrono sighed, sinking into the couch. Now what was he gonna do? Everyone except Y/n and Eri knew, and he doubted the others would keep their mouths shut for long. Or at all for that matter. Nice going Hari. You’ve liked the girl for a whole two days and everyone already knows…the heck am I gonna do? I can’t just tell her, she doesn’t feel the same way I do. She can’t. I’m dangerous, a killer, and she’s sweet, kind, innocent. *internal sigh* Chrono then stood up and made his way to Eri’s room to check on her. When he got there, he noticed the door was open. In the room, Eri was dressed up in one of her princess play dresses, while Y/n was wearing a fake feather boa and Tiara. Y/n was currently styling Eri’s hair into an intricate updo, finishing the look off with a plastic tiara. “Look at you Eri! The prettiest princess around!” Y/n said while spinning Eri around the room. Eri giggled. “You’re a pretty princess too mommy!” “I think you both are pretty princesses.” Chrono said, entering the room, hands in his pockets. “Daddy! Come play with us!” “Okay, what are you guys playing?” “Dress up!” He internally sighed again. Knowing against his daughter and crush he was no match, and instead of putting up a fight, let go of whatever he had left of his dignity and sat down, letting the two females have at it. When they were done, he was covered in glitter, strawberry lip gloss, and stickers. “You look so pretty daddy!” Eri said in awe. “Just the look I was going for. Thanks sweetie!” Eri giggled as her dad gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Aren’t you going to give one to Y/n too? She helped!!” “Ee-ri! You don’t have to Kuron-“ He cut Y/n off by giving her a kiss on the cheek. Y/n’s cheeks went pink, and she got lost in wonderland for a few seconds before snapping out of it and smiling, letting out a sweet giggle. “Well, it’s not finished yet.” Y/n the put a purple boa on Chrono’s shoulders. “There we go. Now it’s finished.” Y/n and Chrono looked into each others eyes, each adult smiling at the other. “Hey Uncle Nemoto! Hi Uncle Setsuno! Do you want to join us!” Y/n stifled a laugh when Chrono grimaced as he heard his two friends names being called. “*snicker* No. No that’s okay Eri, just came to-to see your dad *wheeze*” Setsuno barely got out, as he and Nemoto broke into more laughter. “I don’t know why you two are laughing. Daddy looks awesome and pretty!” Eri put her hands on her hips as she scolded the two men. “Oh yeah, no doubt he’s the prettiest *cackle* prettiest dude around!” Nemoto got out, before being chased out by Eri, for laughing at her ‘masterpiece’. “*Huff* Those two are so immature.” Eri pouted while crossing her arms over her chest. “They sure are Eri.” Y/n said, while starting to take off Eri’s make up. “Mmmhmmm. Boys are so weird.” “Yup!” Y/n said. “Hey!” Chrono said, looking over to the two females. “Sorry Kurono, but it’s just the truth.” He sighed, knowing this argument was also going nowhere. “Alright Eri, why don’t you go to the kitchen and start eating dinner, Uncle Hojo is cooking tonight so go ahead sweetie.” Eri nodded and ran to the kitchen. Y/n then finished taking her makeup off and started on Chrono’s. “Sorry about the glitter…you’re going to be finding it for weeks.” Y/n nervously laughed. “It’s alright, raising a little girl I got pretty used to it I guess.” He laughed. “Take off your jacket, I’ll wash it for you. I have to wash my clothes anyways. I’m going to try to stop the glitter before it spreads.” Chrono nodded and took off his rain coat, while Y/n admired how fit Chrono was. Under the raincoat, Chrono wore a simple fitted white t-shirt with white pants, tucked into black boots. She had to admit he looked good. Sure he was lean, but the man was no stick. He had some muscles. “Here, thanks by the way.” “O-oh don’t mention it. I should thank you for putting up with that!” Chrono smiled, “It was my pleasure.” Unbeknownst to both adults, they both felt the soft, warm fuzzy feelings for the other. Unfortunately for them (and the reader lol) neither one believed the other felt the same.  “Alright, we should probably head to dinner.” “Good idea” With that the two made their way to the dining room. Where they were met with snickers and whistles.

[moonmoon2102]

This... us... everything. MoonSun [Post-apocalyptic AU]

Holy Dduk! This is one of the things I don’t even know where it came from and how it sneaked into my mind. It wouldn’t leave until I typed it down. It may have come out as a little... weird but... I’m weird too so that’s alright, I guess

A quick heads-up: There will be mentions of Yong and Byulyi being... adults so if you’re uncomfortable reading that kind of stuff, I advise you to not read this one. If you don’t mind... go right ahead. It’s nothing too explicit though. Also, I apologize for possible grammar mistakes and typos.

With that said: Happy reading :)

"I haven't seen you and Yongsun sticking together recently," Wheein remarked, taking a sip of water. 

Byulyi froze at the mention of her name. She cleared her throat, picking up a piece of fruit from the plate Wheein had brought, immediately shoving the sweet treat into her mouth to avoid having to answer. 

"Are you guys... not fond of each other?" 

"She's a... nice person if that's what you wanna hear." 

"Oh, trust me, I heard how nice she is but especially how nice you were to her... you've been so nice your name echoed all over the camp a few nights ago."

 Byulyi nearly choked on the fruit, her face turned several shades of red, followed by a pleasant shudder she couldn't stop running down her spine as she thought back to that night. 

She remembered shushing Yong as soon as her moans picked up on volume, which Byulyi had to admit had just added fuel to the fire. Yongsun sounded incredibly hot and maybe she had drawn a little too much pleasure from the fact that she's been the one eliciting these sounds from the other woman. While it was easy to quiet her moans with kisses at first, the screams she couldn't stop from escaping Yongsun's throat. How could she with her head buried between her legs, Yongsun's fingers tangled in her hair, hips bucking and pressing her closer, urging her on to not stop.

 Byulyi shivered and clamped her thighs together, taking a quivering breath. 

"You're thinking about it, don't you?" 

"Why are we even having this conversation?" 

"Because I know you." 

"What is there to know about me, Wheein-ah? Yes, we had sex! It was amazing and that's it." 

The sniper shook her head and leaned closer, lowering her voice. "I said... I know you, Byulyi." 

"Yeah, I heard that. What are you trying to say?!" "I know it meant something to you, am I right?"

 "I..." Byulyi's voice trailed off as she laid eyes upon the woman that she had tried to avoid the past days. She watched her talk to Hyejin, admiring the way she ran her hand through her ashblond mane and the smile she flashed at Wheein's girlfriend as they talked about something she couldn't make out.

 A heavy yet frustrated sigh escaped Byulyi's lips. 

"Why are you avoiding her?" 

"Isn't it obvious? It probably... didn't mean as much to her as it did to me. I'm trying to... act normal around her." 

Wheein cocked an eyebrow, looking over at the woman that had turned her friend's world upside down. 

"You're doing the complete opposite. You're running from her." 

"I don't---" 

"Yes you do. Even a blind person would be able to see that," Wheein said, directing her gaze back towards the dark haired woman sitting across from her, "you fell for her, huh?" 

"Can we not... talk about my feelings right now?" 

"That's the problem, Byul. You never talk about your feelings. And I can see you have a lot, especially for Yongsun unnie."

 "You do know I hate it whenever you put your Sherlock Holmes mode on..." 

"Pfff, no one needs to be Sherlock Holmes to see there's feelings involved. You basically got this giant illuminated sign above your head that says I fell in love with Kim Yongsun." Wheein said and chuckled. 

"Good to know you find amusement in that," Byulyi growled, popping a grape into her mouth, "she obviously doesn't see said imaginary sign or she doesn't want to see it." 

"Oh my god, Byulyi unnie! You might be an excellent leader but you're a fucking mess when it comes to yourself! How should she know if you don't tell her?! What is she supposed to think if you avoid her like the plague after you two spent the night with each other?! I don't depict her as a person who just sleeps around with random people. She's obviously attracted to you!" 

"And you know that how?! Look... I was horny, Yong was horny... we slept with each other. It's as simple as that." 

"Are you even listening to me?!" 

"Yes I do but that doesn't mean she doesn't have needs too!" 

"You really don't want to accept it, huh?" 

"Accept what?!" 

"That there is a person who has an interest in you!"

Just as Byulyi was about to respond, Wheein jumped up from her seat. 

"I suddenly remembered... I promised Hyejin to... uh... join her on her patrol. You better work this mess out and... listen to your heart for once! I'll see you later!" 

"But Hyejin doesn't have---" she watched Wheein rush off, "patrol duty."

 Byulyi froze as she could feel hands on her shoulders, gently squeezing. All of a sudden she felt a lump form in her throat, her heart rate accelerated as soon as she heard Yongsun's soft voice.

"Hey." 

"H-hey..." 

Yongsun moved around to take the seat Wheein had been using before. “What were you guys talking about?" the ashblond woman curiously asked, picking up some cherries. 

"We uh... w-we talked about... a route." 

"A route? Which one?" 

Byulyi didn't reply, she couldn't help but stare. Never in her life she's seen anyone being this breathtakingly beautiful. She allowed herself to let her eyes wander, a surge of warmth rushed through her as she let her gaze linger on the already fading marks on Yongsun's neck. 

She watched the other woman's tongue dart out briefly to lick off the juice from the fruits she ate. Her heart skipped a beat once their eyes met, causing Byulyi to gulp. Yongsun's eyes were one of the things Byulyi liked about her; those wonderful, soft yet expressive brown orbs she had lost herself in one time too many. Even now they captivated the dark haired woman, especially since the sunlight falling into them made them seem a lot brighter; it reminded her of sweet, molten chocolate. 

"What are you smiling at?" 

Yongsun's voice broke Byulyi out of her trance like state. 

"H-huh?" 

"You're smiling." 

"A-am I?" 

"Yeah, you do." 

"S-sorry..." 

"Don't be. I like it when you smile," Yongsun softly said, her lips curved into a smile of her own.

 Byulyi inhaled deeply and cleared her throat, trying to remain composed. 

"So... about the route?" 

"O-oh yeah... uh... it's about..." the dark haired woman trailed off, thinking about Wheein's words, "it's about a route that I should take..." 

With that Byulyi got up from her seat, holding her hand out towards the ashblond woman who looked at her with a slight hint of confusion in her eyes. Just as discouragement was about to take over, Byulyi felt Yongsun's hand slip into hers, fingers intertwining. 

“Come on. Let’s take a ride,” Byulyi said, holding Yongsun’s hand tightly as they made their way to the camp’s garage where she had her bike parked at.

 ~

 Byulyi didn't expect that to happen. She thought they'd just ride out to the river, the place she remembered Yongsun saying it was her favorite as it was quiet and a place nature had remained untouched, evident by the lush grass, tall trees and patches of reed around them. Her original plan was to get out of the camp so they could talk in private. 

Yet here they were, both panting and drenched in sweat, their naked bodies pressed onto one another with their limbs tangled and Yongsun pressing soft kisses along Byulyi's jawline. The dark haired woman could still feel the tremors of her orgasm ripple through her system and according to the way Yong's body trembled, along with the soft whimpers she released, she experienced just the same. Both of them took a moment to come down from the high clouding their senses, allowing their heart beats to slow down to a normal pace.

 There was a comfortable silence between them while they listened to the river purl. Byulyi felt Yongsun's hand on her cheek, gently caressing it with her thumb before she slowly turned her head towards her to capture the black haired woman's lips to a soft, sensual kiss. Byulyi allowed herself to sink further into the kiss, granting access to Yongsun's begging tongue. 

A quiet moan escaped both their throats as Yong slightly tilted her head, deepening their liplock. Byulyi's body tensed as she noticed the ashblond woman's hand traveling south once again, a clear destination in mind. 

"Yong," Byulyi breathed, breaking the kiss in the process, hand shooting down to grasp the other woman's wrist, "w-wait..." 

"Still sensitive?" Yongsun huskily whispered, placing a kiss just below her ear, teeth sinking into the skin of her neck. 

"T-that too... but..." another soft moan stumbled upon the dark haired woman’s lips at the feeling of Yongsun’s tongue swiping across the mark she just had left, "w-we need to... talk..." 

"Mmm... now?" 

"Y-yeah... please... so if you could... just..."

 Yongsun pressed one more kiss onto Byulyi's neck before she moved back a bit, resting her head on her arm while she gazed into the other woman's eyes. Her free hand came up to brush a few strands out of Byulyi's flushed face, gently combing her fingers through the silky hair a few times before she let her palm rest upon the dark haired woman's cheek. It was such a simple touch, yet it made Byulyi's heart thump eagerly in her chest. 

"What is it?" 

As much as Byulyi enjoyed the feeling of Yongsun's skin against hers, it was too much of a distraction, a temptation even, making it hard to gather a clear thought. 

"I think we should... get dressed."

 It was only a little while later when the two women sat next to the river with Yongsun snuggled into Byulyi's arms as they silently watched the clear water flow. A soft smile appeared on the dark haired woman's lips as Yongsun scooted closer, arms circling around her waist while her head came to rest on her chest. Byulyi didn't think much of it. She figured Yong must be someone who needed physical contact after she had sex, snuggling with the one she had shared the experience with.

 Byulyi certainly didn't mind being this close to her. She too had always been the type to snuggle afterwards, maintaining the intimacy between both parties. She remembered that one ex-girlfriend who got up instantly after her needs were satisfied, making Byulyi feel like a toy being tossed aside once it had fulfilled its use. Needless to say, the relationship didn't last for too long.

 For a moment Byulyi allowed herself to relish the connection between them, absentmindedly running her hand up and down Yongsun's back, eliciting a soft, content sigh from her. Byulyi glanced down at the other woman, gently brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. She could feel her heartbeat quicken when Yong's lips curved into a smile, a smile she had grown so fond of.

 "You okay?" the ashblond woman asked, gently caressing Byulyi's stomach through her t-shirt. 

"H-huh?" 

"Your heart is pounding." 

"I... uh..." 

"Is there anything on your mind?" 

The black haired woman took a deep breath, deciding it was better to just be straightforward rather than beating around the bush. 

"Yong..." she began, gulping as she gathered all the courage she had, "does this... mean anything to you?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"This... us... everything."

 Byulyi would lie if she said Yongsun's silence didn't make her nervous. All of a sudden she regretted her decision to voice her thoughts, to have felt the urge for clarity. Yet at the same she didn't want to keep stumbling around in the dark regarding this particular matter. She couldn't deny it, she had fallen in love with Yongsun and needed to know if they were on the same page. Yes, the sex was mind-blowing, to a point Byulyi found the high Yongsun brought to her addictive. No one else has ever made her feel this way. But she wanted Yongsun for more than only that reason.

 The black haired woman's speeding train of thoughts came to a screeching halt as she noticed Yongsun move, wriggling out of her embrace, straightening herself to look at her. Her eyes were different, the intensity made the hairs on the back of Byulyi's neck stand up yet it caused the nervousness inside of her to amplify. The fact she couldn't read the older woman's expression made the feeling even worse. 

"Byul..." Yongsun's voice was low, "I... I'm sorry..."

 Byulyi felt a lump form in her throat as soon as the words had left the ashblond woman's mouth. She slightly lowered her head to avoid Yongsun's eyes, afraid she might be able to read the myriad of emotions running through her right in that moment. 

"Byul..." Yongsun softly said, gently cupping her face in her hands "hey... look at me." Byulyi followed the small nudge the ashblond woman gave her, her heart nearly jumped out of her chest once she realized how close their faces were to each other. Yongsun leaned in further, lips brushing against Byulyi's, capturing them in a slow kiss. 

"I'm sorry, Byulyi..." Yongsun whispered against her lips, both kept their eyes closed "I'm sorry... for not trying harder."

 "W-what?" Byulyi moved back a bit, meeting the other woman's eyes, noticing a slight blush on her cheeks. 

"I... I wanted to tell you but I didn't... I didn't know how. Whenever I tried you just... ran from me, putting me off with some kind of silly excuse. It lead me to believe you had regrets about..." Yongsun took a quivering breath, her voice became small "us sleeping with each other. I thought you avoided me on purpose because... it didn't mean anything to you."

 Byulyi was dumbfounded. All this time she had avoided to pick up this conversation, afraid she might be rejected, afraid she had fallen in love with someone who didn't feel the same and just slept with her to let off some steam. The fact Yongsun actually has had the same thing on her mind all along, made Byulyi's thoughts run wild though not for too long.

 Once again Yong's lips found hers, wrapping her arms around the younger woman's neck. Byulyi responded, hands came to rest upon the ashblond woman's hips, gently pulling her closer until Yongsun was on her lap, straddling her in the process. No space was left in between them, one kiss chased the other, both utterly lost in the moment. Almost reluctantly their lips parted as their bodies reminded them they needed oxygen. With their foreheads pressed onto one another, they panted, trying to catch their breaths

 "I love you, Moon Byulyi."

 Byulyi's heart soared, a warm sensation spread through her body and her stomach felt like as if a thousand butterflies had been released with Yongsun's whispered confession.

 "I love you too, Yong."

 The kiss that followed was deep and meaningful, a silent confirmation of their feelings for each other connecting their racing hearts. 

"Can we... stay a little longer?" Yongsun breathed against Byulyi's lips, tightening her grip on her. 

"We can stay as long as we want... it’s not like anybody is gonna tell us to leave..." 

So they stayed; whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears as they made love once more; twice and even a third time. That night they declared the spot near the river as their safe haven while they both basked in the afterglow, relishing the feeling of intimate togetherness with the stars being the only witnesses in the black and blue sky.

And this concludes "This... us... everything" In case it still left anyone wondering: The reason Byulyi never read the obvious signals Yongsun sent out to her right is her being an absolute mess! Sometimes people tend to not read too much into an action or a gesture in order to prevent themselves from getting their hopes up or even worse, get hurt. So Byulyi saw these things as friendly interactions. Yes, even after they’ve crossed the line by sleeping with each other. That’s how much of a mess Moon Byulyi is in this AU; at least when it comes to Yong

Again, to whoever read this: Thank you for taking the time to read :)

[karihigada]

assassin AU

*me talking to my friend*

Shizaya Redesign!

and !!!! that shizaya redesign! ACTUALLY! look here: initial AU prompt

assassin!shizuo taking care of brat!izaya ! :D

let me tell you in detail

assassin!shizuo send to kill this upstart tech wizz kid izaya who founded his own company and got really succesful and now his adult business partners want to get rid of him. and shizuo does mean to kill him but instead shizuo ends up running away with him through a series of circumstances which make it seem like shizuo betrayed the people who hired him so he ends up fleeing with izaya cause they are now both hunted by other assassins

and izaya totally hates being wih shizuo at first. and shizuo wonders why he bothers with this brat but izayas skills (hacking and tech wiz stuff) prove to be invaliable so its an unlikely partnership based on nessessity. at first. but after killing so much for a living, shizuo thinks for once protecting somehing is nice

okay sorry i wish i could give you more for assassin shizuo taking care of a little shit and slowly coming to enjoy it but i actually never came up with more or concrete scenes

or you know maybe, imagine this. they are staying at some hotel and shizuo was out shopping and comes back and finds izaya lying on his stomach on the bed, playing videogames or you know actually, he lies on his back, his head hanging upside down the edge, and he plays like that and shizuo comes back to such a /childish/ scene that he cant even comment. izaya gives him a welcome back without looking at him and when shizuo walks past him and the tv in order to get to the kitchen he just gets an Hey (for being in izayas field of view haha) izaya then asks if shizuo got the stuff and shizuo just sighs and throws a bag of cheese chips at him which izaya gleefully tears open and starts munching

izaya in this is such a hypocritical contradiction of health cause he will happily stuff himself with all kinds of snacks but draws the line at junk food and instead demands his proper meals are healthy

so shizuo goes to cook dinner while izaya keeps stuffing his face and shizuo tells him to stop or he wont have an apetite later but jokes on him izaya still wolfs down the dinner shizuo makes (and says its delicious) cause izaya is a growing boy.

what the fuck this is way too wholesome with shizuo taking care of like 16 year old genius izaya, there is no way i can put fucking into this later with shizuo way too much of a guardian hahahaha

well i guess not every AU needs them to get together. instead shizuo becomes his bodyguard (izaya later also pays handsomly once the whole plot with the betrayal and framing and other assassins and corporate takeover is over) and they become good friends.

and maybe a few years later when izaya is older (between 18 and 20) and laments (like full on imagine him lying on a bed or couch with his hand dramatically raised to his forehead like hes about to faint like a victorian virgin and just overdramatically ranting. he is such a drama queen bottom bitch) that he could never find an interesing partner cause people are only interested in his looks and money and that shizuo is the only one who sees him for who he is and unaffraid to tell izaya off

so at first izaya jokingly comes onto shizuo or like fullon suggests they should try hooking up (i imagine shizuo is like, mh, 29 when he meets izaya? has been an assassin for a while. so he is like 13 years older.) and shizuo is just like What The Fuck Brat and says if izaya really wants to get laid that bad he could just pay anyone he wants.

izaya says he doesnt trust anyone, "remember that time my businesspartners send an assasin after me?! that was scary!" he says in mock fright. shizuo just grunts.

izaya then drapes himself around shizuos neck, shizuo going stiff, and whispers in his ear "common shizu-chan, its just sex"

shiziuo untangles izayas arms from his shoulders and gets up, leaving. not cause he is afraid he will give in but cause he is afraid izaya will push this too far and then get pissy when shizuo keeps refusing him and it will destroy the trust and friendship they build up. cause shizuo does enjoy this life at izayas side way more than his previous occupation

more from before the timeskip: imagine shizuo carrying izaya under one arm to get away in dangerous situation and the first time it happens izaya hates it, the second time he is completely nonchallant about it and types on his phone while shizuo is carrying him also since izaya is tech wiz hacker he gets them like access to security footage so that shizuo can sneak up on their pursuers

also, i imagine it a bit like Dishonoured videogame? like its a stealth assassin game and the plot is neat but anyway for every 'major' assassin mission for the plot you have the option of just killing the target or finding a noneleathal way of getting rid of them

some of these may include selling them into slavery but hey, at leas theyre alive xD yay morality.

anyway. imagine like this situation shizuo finds himself in, protecting a kid and multiple other strong assassins on his tail. he COULD, and would normally just kill all persuers to ger rid of them but with izayas tech wiz skills (cause iazya doesnt want to kill people) they find other ways to take them down.

like maybe one gets held up in the airport and then arrested and izaya conveniently reveals their identity as a hitman so the police just made a goldcatch. or another gets into a traffic accident and will be out of commission in a hospital for a while first (while izaya reveals their identity to the police...

okay the only way to take down hitmen with technology is to have them caught by the police but still xD nonleathal means xD

and shizuo is really impressed by izayas abilities (and izaya also gets them fake IDs and passports and creditcards and makes reservations in hotels under fake names so he keeps them afloat while they are on the run while shizuo protects them from physical danger. which is also nessesary since some hitmen do catch up with them and shizuo has to take them down. some with lethal force sadly since it was a dangerous situation and it shakes izaya up pretty bad and izaya flinches away from shizuo before he gets  a hold of hismelf again and and tries to laugh it off and say that he is okay but shizuo can see the strain in his eyes and how tense he is. maybe thats towards the begining and thats when shizuo decides that they should try to work out other means of taking down their pursuers

also imagine shizuo teaching izaya his knive skils :3

okay moving to post time skip. like izaya keeps making moves maybe and shizo puts up with it for a while but it gets to a boiling point where shizuo looses his temper and yells at izaya to cut it out (he normally never yelled at izaya) and izaya actually gets scared cause he didnt want to chase shizuo away.

like. izaya had a weird sort of imprinting on shizuo. he does like him as a friend and mentor and guardian but some part of him is scared shizuo will leave? so he tried being more to shizu than just some kid he once protected

so maybe if they talk about it openly they can resolve this and izaya doesnt have to fear shizuo leaving. and shizuo says that izaya can look for a partner his age and shizuo wont get jealous and will instead protect them too and maybe a kid. but izaya also says he meant it serious that noone he meets could ever look past the money he has (and also people are boring). "but shizuchan. shizuchan was never boring. he understands me."

so they do spend their life together in a fullfilling mutually supportive realtionship but it does stay platonic and both are satisfied with that :)

or maybe like 5 more years later when izaya is finally no longer a kid (mentally. that brat) and still says he wants to sleep with shizuo at least once but that it wouldnt change anything between them that they do end up fracking and start a sorta weird mix of platonic and sexual relationship that maybe evolves into romantic so all in all good end (other than that they are totally codependant haha)

or, alternate not good ending: 19 year old izaya pressures shizuo into sleeping with him and shizuo feels horrible about it but satisfies him sexually to appease his temper in order to keep his peaceful life

...

okay more domestic assassin shizaya things: izaya in in charge of their money, ne? and they need to lay low , ne? izaya orders them new clothes online. and shizuo has to wear what izaya buys xD cue them dressing like in the pic above with iazya in the pinks shades and shizuo in the suit. cause that brat wouldnt know subtle if it bit him in the ass

im trying to come up with more scenarios. but i explicitly said izaya DOESNT order copius amounts of take out food. unless its healthy take out food. expensive healthy take out food.

also. imagine. later in life. shizuo teaching izaya some light hand to hand combat self defense. them together standing barefoot on gym mats and izaya is sweating and panting and wiping the sweat off his forehead, his hair sticking in all directions cause he tried attacking and taking down shizuo for the dozends time and shizuo is totally collected and unaffected, blocking and sending izaya to the mat with ease. and izaya gets this really competitive streak. wants to /take him down/.

it actually becomes a sorta game, for a long time. izaya trying to catch shizuo unaware. he only once succeeded, a long while later, after they resolved their problems and fears and live a fullfilling life togehter and shizuo is completely relaxed and at peace and happy.

[nilim]

How would someone start to get into LARPing? I've always thought it sounded interesting but I have no idea where to start.

Oh boy, both a very easy and a very complicated question, because it depends on where you live and what you want. Also I haven’t been to that many different LARPs, so I will keep this mostly general…. This got long, so tips under the cut:

I’m very much a ‘jumped in the deep end without any preparation and see where I end up’ kinda person. I first started LARPing when I was 18. It was a ‘smaller’ LARP and it was at a place where my brother also LARPed at, although I didn’t see him for the entire weekend so I was pretty much alone. It was also an ‘adult’ LARP, so 16+ only. It was also the most I laughed in a 3-day stretch of time and absolutely delightful.

Basically, anyone can get into LARPing, you just have to keep an open mind when going into these things. Here’s a disclaimer though: I’m an easy person, I don’t have any disabilities, was in a mentally healthy state and I’m very used to camping outdoors, so I could put up with a lot - there was nothing that really ‘scared’ me about going except the whole ‘oh no strangers’ and mild social anxiety thing. Therefore, I didn’t do a lot of research beforehand about which LARP I wanted to attend - I attended my first LARP because it was relatively close to where my parents lived and I knew my brother LARPed there. That’s it.

However, that was more than 10 years ago and I’ve since grown a little more socially anxious and also a little more socially aware, so I would advise you to scout out different LARPs in your area. Almost all LARP events I know of have an online presence, through twitter or facebook groups, websites, etc. Just have a look what players are saying on those pages - you can usually judge the general feel of a LARP by the type of discussions players are having. 

Also, ask questions if you’re unsure about something. In general I’ve found that LARPers are very eager to bring people into their hobby, and are very helpful and honest when answering questions. Check whether there is a code of conduct. Check whether there are confidential counselors present if anything were to happen. Check whether there are rules about harassment etc. If you’re unsure about something, ask the players on those social media pages what their experiences have been. Usually they will be honest, because they are ‘customers’ of the LARP much like you will be. Treat it like you’re shopping around for a hotel or holiday! Weigh the pros and cons.

As for the LARPs themselves, there are many different kinds of LARPs. I’ve only done high fantasy LARPs so far, and pretty large ones as well. Conquest of Mythodea is the largest LARP in the world, and it can be overwhelming for some people. But I also find them very calming in a way? When there’s so many people around there is almost no direct pressure on me to do anything. The story will continue regardless of what I do. With small LARPS or ‘parlor’ LARPs, which usually consist of a very limited group in a much smaller area, there can be more pressure on you to ‘perform’ your role. However, the upside of these LARPs is that you get some very deep RP and your character is important to the story. The game leaders will make sure to focus on you, and that can be very exciting! 

I’ve also only attended LARPs where I would stay overnight. My first LARP lasted 3 days (Friday-Sunday), and Conquest of Mythodea lasts 5 (Wednesday -Sunday night). If you’re unsure about immediately going for such a commitment, maybe try out shorter or smaller LARPs first to see if you like it? Also, almost all LARPs have out-of-character areas, so if things get too overwhelming you can retreat from the game and just chill. Usually there are dedicated areas in the game, as well as your personal areas (e.g. people’s personal tents are completely off limits in Conquest, and nobody may enter them except for you. They may also not demand that you come out, etc). 

Once you’ve settled on a LARP you want to attend, but don’t want to do it alone, you can ask around to see if there are any groups that might interest you in joining. Most LARPs have many different factions that you could join, and a lot of larger LARPs also have newbie groups that are specifically designed to teach you the ropes of the game. We joined the banner of explorers in Conquest of Mythodea and people were very friendly with explaining rules and such to us. However, they also usually let you go off and do your own thing if you’re not interested in participating or being forced into performing faction-related things. It was real nice. Again, ask around, see which groups of people can take you under their wing - usually there’s a lot of people willing to help you! A lot of this asking around you can do online before you even attend the LARP.

Once you’ve chosen a LARP and/or even a faction, make sure to read up on the rules of the LARP. Sometimes there’s a lot. Nobody is expecting you to know everything by heart, but it’s appreciated to take a little bit of effort so you know the general rules, especially around OOC vs IC gameplay, and the concept to roleplay with other people. LARPing is very much a “Yes and…” kind of experience, much like D&D. Prevent shutting down other people’s RP moments just because you want to do something cooler. (Note: Absolutely shut down somebody’s RP moment if it is making you uncomfortable. You are more important than RP!). Read up on combat rules, if you’re planning on taking part in combat. Make sure never to just hit people on the head, never carry sharp objects on you, make sure to know the rules about touching and grabbing other people, some LARPs don’t allow it.

Now you just need a character. Many LARPs have you build a character much in the same way like you would build a D&D character; you have a number of skill points that you can assign to different skills, such as thievery, magic or hitpoints. Read up on the rules and do whatever you think would be fun. In my general experience, these skill points are way less important than you think. 99% of LARP is just hanging around and talking to people, and you don’t need skill points for that. Additionally, realize that nobody actually knows your character (unless you’re playing a small parlor LARP), so you can usually tweak your character while you’re playing. So far I’ve always tried to play shady thief characters or dumb fighter characters, but I always instantly get sucked in when there’s puzzles and mysteries to solve, so I often let the ‘stoic person who doesn’t care about books’ thing go as soon as the game presents me with secret puzzles and coded texts. And that’s fine. Just make sure that once you’ve settled as a character after some time IC, and people know you as that character, you roleplay somewhat consistently or otherwise it gets confusing.

As for preparation for going to an actual LARP: There’s a lot of good resources out there on the internet! Just google things like ‘essential items for a LARP’ or ‘packing list LARP’, especially if you’re planning on camping. There’s also a huge amount of online stores that cater to LARP outfits, LARP weapons, and adjacent fantasy setting camping items. If you’re on a budget, don’t worry about it - nobody is going to be snobby about your outfit if you don’t look as cool as the next guy. However, please do try to keep it setting-compliant. Don’t show up in jeans and a t-shirt to a fantasy LARP. Even on a budget, it’s relatively easy to find some second-hand clothes at a thrift store or flea market (that’s where I get half my LARP clothes). Much like many hobbies, this one too requires a little bit of investment on your part before you go. Please don’t splurge on equipment before you’ve even attended a LARP though – maybe you won’t like it, and then you’ve invested all that effort already. Just take it easy and test out the waters a little bit.

And in-game? What if you’re unsure about how to get into the game? First you have to realize that everything is game. Even just sitting around the campfire enjoying some bard songs is game. There’s no right or wrong way to play in a LARP. But if you want to get into more plot-related stuff: Talk to others. Ask questions, about everything. During our 5 days at Mythodea this summer we did literally nothing but walk up to random places or events, tapping random people on the shoulder and going ‘what’s happening here?’. And people will do it a lot with you too, we’ve had so many people asking us who someone was, or what was going on, even though we didn’t know. Be not afraid to ask questions. It’s the quickest way to make new connections and get new friends and to get involved in the plot. Usually there’s NPCs around that you can ask for quests. Try to find out where stuff is happening. Or make your own quests, if you enjoy making that kind of character. It can be a lot of fun to send out other players to do things for you. Player characters come in all kinds of flavours. Maybe you just want a character that hangs out in the camp and cooks for people. That’s fine too! Like I said before, there’s no right or wrong to play. 

If you want to fight undead and smash people with a foam sword, there’s LARPs for that. If you want to solve a murder mystery in a haunted mansion, there’s LARPs for that. If you want to be a wizard and attend magic school, there’s LARPs for that. If you want to sneak around and steal people’s valuables, there’s LARPs for that. It’s great! Just look around and see what kind of LARP and what kind of character suits your style. And it’s also fine to have your first LARP be a run-of-the-mill fantasy setting where you just walk around and observe other people and don’t get involved in the plot at all, which is mostly what I did during my first LARP. 

Anyway, this got very long, sorry. But I hope these tips help you out!

[igottoomuchwriting]

We’re A Million Worlds Apart

Series: Part One/Previous Part/Next Part

Zoe shut the front door behind her, dropping her backpack in relief. Junior year was giving her a run for her money. Upperclassmen had always warned her that junior year of high school was the hardest year of high school, especially Connor on the rare occasions he decided to share information about his life, but she never believed them. She just thought Connor was lying or just not trying hard enough.

Now that she was actually a Junior, she realizes that she should’ve listened. She is trying to get as many credits as she can, she’s constantly preparing for standardized tests, and on top of that her parents are already making her look at colleges that she wants to apply to. The added stress of trying to convince them that a music school would be best for her is not helping either, just adding useless anxiety to her everyday life. 

With the week over, she just wanted to lay in bed all weekend and watch her shows. She never really gets a chance to relax over the weekend and she wants to use the most of the time that she can.

“Mom?” she yelled into the house. When she received no answer, she tried again. “Dad?” Again, no answer.

Zoe rolled her eyes. Of course they weren’t home. At this point, it’s not even the fact that they aren’t home that’s the issue, it’s just Zoe would like to know that she would have this giant house to herself before they got home. Phones were invented for a reason.

She made her way up her stairs, instrument in hand, already craving the snacks that she kept hidden in her room. No matter what diet her Mom decided that they should go on, there is no way that they can take her away from her mint Oreos. She needs her comfort food no matter what.

As Zoe got closer to the top of the stairs, she heard a voice laughing. She paused at the stop, staring at the hall in confusion. She swore that she was the only one home, but the voice suggests otherwise.

She quietly makes her way down the hall towards the sound. She sees light coming from Connor’s door and that’s when it clicks. Connor must be high and watching some dumb videos on YouTube.

“Wouldn’t be the first time..” Zoe mumbles. She walks past the door, ready to get on with her evening, when she hears Connor laugh again.

“Alright you dumbass, I get it!” he laughs. Zoe stares at the door, deeply confused. There was no way that her brother was dumb enough to try and sneak someone into the house.

Then again, who would he have to sneak in? As far as Zoe knows, the only friend that he has would be Evan, but Evan doesn’t seem like the kind of kid that would sneak into a friend’s house to get high.

“I can’t believe you are comparing me to a Koala, Evan. That’s such a dick move.” Koalas? “I don’t care if you think that I would adapt out of spite and I don’t give a shit if you have enough evidence. I don’t wanna hear that you compare me to a fucking koala.”

What...would even prompt that kind of conversation? Why is Evan comparing her brother to a koala? Koalas are soft and sweet and slow and her brother is...not.

There was a pause on the other line, almost for a full minute, and Zoe was about to leave her brother to his weird conversaton when she heard him go ‘hm?’. She leaned in closer when she heard her brother let out a heavy sigh.

“You want me to do what?”

That is a great question. What does Evan want him to do?

“She hates me Evan. There is no amount of talking that is ever going to fix that or any aspect of our relationship.” 

For once, Zoe also agrees with Connor. Evan most likely told Connor about the conversation that they had in the hallway. While Zoe hasn’t talked to Evan a lot, she gets the feeling that he would be the kind of person that would want everything to work out between everyone. As sad as it is, that will never happen between Connor and Zoe. Zoe doesn’t think that she can even try to become closer to someone that has threatened to kill her. 

“Okay. Let’s say that for some fucking reason Zoe and I decide to talk about our feelings like some normal ass siblings, what would I even say to her?”

There’s nothing that he could say that would make Zoe listen. They would end up fighting two minutes into the conversation and it would just worsen their relationship. Any kind of communication between the two just seemed pointless.

“What do I want to say to her?” Connor continued. There was a long pause. She guesses that he was trying to think of something.

Probably not anything nice, that fucking druggie Zoe thought.

“I’d want to tell her that I still see her. Even if I’m high and angry all the fucking time, I still notice things she does.”

Wait...what?

“I...She does this thing when she gets antsy, and I remember her doing stuff like it while growing up. She’ll start drawing on her jeans when she gets bored. Like, you know how she cuffs her jeans?” A pause. “Yeah, the bottom of her jeans. If you look closely you can see tiny ass stars just covering her jeans. Once I saw her draw a moon, and I wanna say Saturn or some shit?”

He...notices that? Zoe glanced down at her jeans and sure enough, it was the jeans that she was doodled on the most. Saturn was at the very bottom of the cuff and she had gone up from there so to her it looked rightside up but to someone else it was upside down.

“God, and you know those teen magazines? Those stupid ass ones that have dumb news about celebrtiies no one cares about? Well, my mom still has subscriptions to them for Zoe since she’s a teen. Zoe now pretends that she doesn’t read them, that she is more educated, but I have seen her taking the quizzes in there.”

He what.

Connor let out a laugh. “Really! I’m not fucking kidding! She’s such a fucking nerd about it too! I’ve watched her bookmark quizzes that she wants to take on their websites, and there are times that I walk by her room when the door is open and I see those shitty magazines with bookmarks in them!”

Zoe’s face was burning red with embarrassment. She tried hiding those quizzes for a reason! She didn’t want anyone thinking that she actually believed what they say.

Which she doesn’t. She just...really wants to see what the quizzes say. Which is normal! She’s a Junior in high school, where she is constantly stressed about standardized tests as well as the impending doom of graduating, choosing a college, and becoming an adult.

“She’s just...she’s perfect, Evan. Compared to me? She’s everyone’s ideal child. She’s just…. I don’t know how to say it without being weird.” There was a moment of silence before Connor let out another heavy sigh. “Okay, fine. It’s just… She’s gorgeous. And not in a weird way. She just… she has this way of drawing people in and welcoming them in, and I think it’s all in her smile.”

“No one talks to me—which I’m not too upset about, don’t get me wrong—but they don’t talk to me because I look angry all the time. Even when Zoe is upset, she tries to give people a bright smile so that they aren’t afraid of her. It’s all in her smile and it’s just… amazing how beautiful it is. How gorgeous and amazing she is.”

Zoe was going to cry. Here she thought that Connor hated her—and maybe he still does, who knows at this point—but here he is, saying all of these lovely things when Zoe has said nothing but mean things about her brother. Hell, she said all these mean things to her brother’s friend, who is probably his only friend.

Should she let what she is hearing change her opinion on him? He still did get angry a lot, break stuff in the house, yell, get high, and was in and out of the hospital. Zoe truly did think that he was a danger to himself, and sometimes her. He has threatened her life before.

...Right? She wasn’t imagining that?

Oh god what if she was imagining that. That pushed the tears over the edge. She just imagines her brother threatening to kill her from time to time while he is here actually trying to learn things about his sister by watching because she would never actually let him hold a normal conversation with her. 

She doesn’t know what to think anymore.

“That’s the thing, Evan. I don’t fucking know how to tell her these things. It’s like there is a giant canyon in between the two of us and there is no way around it or over it. Evening attempting to cross the rift would end in my death.”

“Affection isn’t one of my strong suits, so I can’t just… look her in the eyes and say ‘I love you’. I do, I really do, I just...can’t say it.”

That was the last straw. Tears started streaming down Zoe’s face at an alarming rate as she tried to hold back her sobs.

She doesn’t know what to feel. Part of her is angry because Connor has the audacity to talk about this behind her back, not even try to talk to her and let her know what he feels and that he doesn’t hate her. That same part is also angry at herself for making her brother feel that he can’t come talk to her, that they can’t tell each other what they feel like normal people.

But she knows why he can’t, and that’s why she is crying. He is right—the rift between them is too wide to cross. If Connor did try to approach her, she would immediately think something is up. They would get in a fight before Connor could even get anything positive out of his mouth because Zoe wouldn’t believe him. He wouldn’t even be able to say before Zoe got up and walked away because that is what she is used to.

They were not raised like normal siblings, and they are not normal. They have a lot of fights and problems that at this point, fixing it would be useless. Her and Connor just...can’t get along. 

But part of her wonders if they would have been able to fix this. If she and Connor had put aside their issues, or if they listened to each other for even five minutes, would things be different?

Zoe slid down the wall, hand held over her mouth as she cried. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t let Connor know that she heard this conversation with his friend, but she couldn’t go about her life as if she didn’t hear. Would Connor be suspicious if she started being kinder to him? Would he eventually figure it out? Would he get mad? 

Her first thought is of course he would get mad and that doesn’t help the tears stop flowing. Her mind is flooded with nothing but guilt, anger, sadness, and confusion and she doesn’t know what she should do. 

She hears movement next to her. It only takes a split second to realize that Connor is walking towards the door.

The door opens and Zoe snaps her head up, making direct eye contact with her.

Connor froze, staring down at his sister—who probably looks like a mess with mascara running down her face—shocked. He quickly masks whatever he is feeling with a defensive glare.

“...I’ll call you back later, Evan.”

[ottorocket808]

Chapter Seven: The Bathtub

This baby needs a shower, a hug, and a warm meal. Damn Dustin you out here breaking up the sweet moment. He asked a yes or no question did you hire somebody or not? Why are asking if you need to hire somebody? My child telling me that if anybody asks he’s left the country would send up alarms.

Run guys! Ruuuunnnnn!!! This van flip/ET moment is the coolest thing ever imagine seeing this go down outside your house.

This was the moment I knew Lucas believed El the moment he could admit she was cool because he wasn’t being defensive the moment he accepted her into The Party. The Party is reunited and it feels so good 😊.

Assaulting an Officer feels like they’re playing it up it was an accident he didn’t know who he elbowed when he elbowed Glasses. Am I the only one who wants Powell to just give it up and go bald the George Jefferson is not working for him.

These government people are irritating and I really don’t like this lady and Brenner gives me the creeps in a serious way when he tries to use his soothing voice which is really just his attempt at manipulation.

How does Joyce manage to look stressed out and disappointed at the same time? Jonathan you can apologize for calling your mom crazy at anytime now

If I threatened to cut out a child’s teeth and forced another one to jump off a cliff causing their friend to break my arm I would’ve told my mom anything other than the partial truth he told I jumped off the roof and landed wrong I was skateboarding and landed wrong anything else, but no this big ass mamas boy wannabe tough guy went cryin to his mommy about how the mean girl broke his arm like he’s completely blameless in why his arm was broken. The way he says freak makes me want to deck him.

It’s a damn shame it took Steve this long to realize that his ‘friends’ are assholes but better late than never.

The feds pretty much emptied the entire basement they even took Mike’s D&D and I have no idea why. Bruh Nancy freaking out about the potential that Mike is across the street being interrogated feels weird she hasn’t spoken to him once in the past couple of days why do you care now? And the ‘we haven’t talked a lot lately’ bit you mean at all? Meanwhile telling your ex boyfriend who was your boyfriend at the time how you need to be there for your little brother. Maybe I don’t get it because I don’t have siblings.

It was incredibly smart of Mike to be suspicious of the communication hard rule if we haven’t been through the crazy together you gotta prove I can trust you. Ted don’t know his own kids worth a damn and his blind faith in whatever ‘govt official’ is in his face is nauseating. I bet he has a cushy government job.

Mike’s little ‘hey that’s my sister’ arm raise and facial expression is adorable. Lmao little kids yelling at each other is forever funny. From now on when every I sense a setup I’m yelling out Lando! They all have guns out like they aren’t looking for children I couldn’t be one of those assholes hunting down children that’d be the day I quit.

Bitch you weren’t thinking about him at all until a few hours ago save your after thought worry for Barb.

The kids filling everyone in on all that they know is kind of adorable but the adults and the teens should’ve been sharing too like how Nancy climbed into the Upside Down through a tree in the woods there’s a lack of full disclosure which is a handicap. Sidenote I don’t appreciate the way Hop is staring at El. He’s looking at her like she’s a creature instead of a child and I sincerely dislike it. Nancy’s impatience pisses me off like damn wait a minute give the girl some time to recharge it stops feeling like concern over Barb and just overwhelming guilt again she should’ve taken her ass to Steve’s by herself or stayed her ass at home.

Mr. Clarke with his crazy extensive knowledge to the rescue again seriously who knows how to make a sensory deprivation tank just off the top of their heads?

Wait pause what’s the difference between a sensory deprivation tank and an isolation tank?

Watching Lucas and Dustin try to get the pool to stand up has me rollin I’d be in the same boat.

The baby Demo-Dog crawling outta Barbs mouth is disgusting but quick question how does the Demogorgon eat? It didn’t look like there were pieces missing how did she die? Maybe it’s like a vampire it doesn’t have molars so it can’t chew how does this work? It stresses El the hell out when stuff disappears in The Void.

Awww look at Lucas tryna make sure El gets warm their relationship has really done a full 180.

Hops ‘I’m the man and I’m gonna save everyone on my own’ attitude gets on my nerves in a major way tryna solo mission things that should be shared like in all honesty he could die and then what? While everybody waits for him to comeback victorious Will could die because he has his chest puffed out. So way to go Joyce for standing up for what you believe in. The teens concern me though neither Jonathan nor Nancy will be getting big sibling of the year right now just leaving the kids behind while they go lookin for the Demogorgon and they didn’t even tell them before they took off just negatives on negatives.

Nobody should be able to sneak in and out of the police station that easily also why did Hop think that he’d be able to sneak in again? He didn’t think they would’ve bumped up security after he broke in last time?

If a building is destroyed in the Upside Down what happens to it in the regular world?

[gciltyascharged]

verѕe: AU | DBD .✵. ғαce тнe eɴтιтy αɴd wαlĸ вαcĸwαrdѕ ιɴтo нell!

MITCH YOUNG

LORE:

Ever since he was a kid, Mitch has been nothing but trouble to those around him. From his dad, to the neighbors, to the principal of his old school, this kid could make even the most sane person drop in a matter of minutes. Nobody at his school really liked him, his neighbors absolutely detested him, and his reputation among them might as well have been ZERO ; they just didn’t like his face, so he didn’t like theirs either. With BOMBS on his mind nearly 24/7 and a knack for blowing up everything he could with them or firecrackers he stole from the store, this eight year old brat made life around him a challenge. 

His life changed when he chose to pick a fight with the wrong kid and was forcibly transferred to Ericson’s Boarding School for the Troubled Youth. Other kids around him started to break under his shell ; not only did he gain friends and a younger brother figure, but he learned how to actually coexist with others. 

All good things come to an end, though, and when the apocalypse broke out, every adult he knew turned tail and ran -- all except one. Bitter and cold from constantly being thrown aside, he developed a knack for falling into routines of speaking before he thinks and beating down every walker he could. Those around him mattered more than life itself, and he’d die trying to protect them every step of the way ; life would come with great losses and eight years of strife, but his world was filled with normality that he could handle...

Until a new girl showed up and turned his entire world upside down.

No romance or comedy in this one, no, but she and the kid she brought with her exposed a year long deception their leader had been hiding from them: he traded two of their friends to a group of raiders to fight in a war. THEN, when the guy stepped down and promised to leave, the little kid shot him in the head. No more normality ; no more happiness ; no more Mister Nice Guy. 

He made the group vote and they kicked them out ; however, she returned less than a day later -- much to his initial chagrin -- with terrible news...

Despite reconciling with the girl over what happened, there still laid a threat that was impending upon them: a group of raiders who were the same ones that took their friends from before. This time, they planned to kidnap all the kids, so he and the rest of the boarding school -- and this new girl -- began to work on fighting back against them: barbed wire around their walls, walker heads on sticks, and Mitch’s specialty: making a bomb to explode on them.

Mitch only needed to sneak around to the back of them, place the bomb down, and light it up ; when the bomb went off, they’d all fall back if needed.

Their plan was fool proof -- or that’s what they thought... One of their own jumped out of cover when the thought of finding out about the two girls traded to them came to light. The leader of the group smiled at him at first, but, then when he didn’t come to her like she’d coaxed, she grabbed him and placed a knife to his throat to threaten the others to come out...

When the bomb went off, he threw himself forward at the leader to try to save his friend and, for his trouble, received a knife to the throat. The last thing he remembered before waking up in this new nightmare was the pain of choking on his own blood and the leader, straddling him with her knife poised to strike him...dead in the eye.

Even in this damn new world full of people he doesn’t really care about, he’s still willing to put up a damn good fight if there’s a way to break out of here and get him back to his friends -- alive. Nobody’s stopping Mitch from his goals, not even a bunch of bloodthirsty killers and their little entity, too.

MITCH’S PERKS:

Flip up Some Monsters

Sensing a chance to save another survivor, you spring into action...

If a survivor is being carried by the killer and the killer strikes you, you will drop firecrackers that will stun the killer to drop the other survivor. If you are held by killer and another survivor is hit, a chance to stab the killer is given in a skill check.

“Straight into a fiery explosion of death. Assholes won’t know what hit ‘em.” - Mitch Young 

Cool down: 60/45/30 seconds

Unique to Mitch Young until Level 30, at which point it’s teachable version can then be learned and taught to the other Survivors.

Majority Decides

You have a better chance of surviving if you work together, even if you want to have some words with these people, let’s survive first.

When working on a generator with another survivor, the success rate for a GREAT skill check goes up by 10%/15%/20%.  When working on a hook with the Saboteur perk, there is no skill check. 

“Fuck me, huh? Sounds about right. Fuckin’ things up seems to be your specialty.” - Mitch Young 

Unique to Mitch Young until Level 35, at which point it’s teachable version can then be learned and taught to the other Survivors.

Expect the Unexpected

It’s the kind of stuff you used to make back home.

The player can plant a bomb anywhere on the map. When the bomb goes off, it alerts the killer as if a skill check on a generator has been missed.

“It’ll work, I promise.” - Mitch Young

Cool down: 60/45/30 seconds

Unique to Mitch Young until Level 40, at which point it’s teachable version can then be learned and taught to the other Survivors.

Best Perks to use with: Saboteur, decisive strike, borrowed time, technician...

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

COSMIC - S1:E2; Chapter Two, The Weirdo On Maple Street - [Pt. 4 - FINAL]

A Will Byers x Gender Neutral!Reader Series

𝘠/𝘯, 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘴, 𝘋𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯.

||𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

The three of us were invited to stay for dinner. Since there weren't enough chairs, they were kind enough to pull out an extra chair for me, so Dustin and I shared the end of the table, opposite Mrs. Wheeler. Nancy and I seemed to be the only kids who were eating.

"Thank you so much for letting us stay Mrs. Wheeler. The food is amazing!" I said, followed by another bite of mashed potatoes.

"You're very welcome, Y/n. And thank you." She said, with a kind smile.

She looked around and noticed the boys were just playing with their meatloaf.

"Something wrong with the meatloaf?" She asked.

"Oh, no, I had two bologna sandwiches for lunch," Dustin said a goofy smile on his face. There's a noticeable pause before he speaks again. "I don't know why." I breathe out a light chuckle and take another bite of mashed potatoes.

Lucas chuckles nervously. "Me, too."

"It's delicious, Mommy." Nancy bats her eyelashes and a quizzical look flashed across my face. I know that tactic. Hell, every kid knows that tactic, she wants something and she is trying to butter up her mom. But to see a Nancy of all people do that is almost laughable.

"Thank you, sweetie."

I look to Mike to gauge his reaction to his teenage sister's odd behavior towards their mom. I fight back a laugh when his actions closely resemble that of an adult in a movie who takes a drink of beer with a thousand-yard stare, trying to forget something said at that moment in time; only this time it's a glass of milk.

"So, there's this... special assembly thing tonight... for Will at the school field."

I furrow my brow in confusion and shock. 'Nancy is nice and all, but since when does she care about Will?' Then it dawned on me. I remember Mike complaining to us earlier about that "douchebag Steve Harrington" and how he and Nancy have been dating. And how he's been sneaking in and out of Nancy's room.

"Barb's driving."

My jaw clenches.

"Why am I just now hearing about this?"

'Because she wants to use my best friend's disappearance as an excuse to leave the house and suck face with her stupid boyfriend.'

"I thought you knew." She said, playing innocent. Mike and I look to each other knowingly and then at Nancy. Well, glaring was a better term for what I was doing.

"I told you, I don't want you out after dark until Will is found."

"I know, I know, but it'd be super weird if I'm not there."

CLANG

I half drop, have threw my silverware on the table in a mix of shock and frustration. When everyone turns and looks at me silently, I quickly play it off with a chuckle.

"Heh, sorry about that. Lost my grip. I'm just thirsty." I say with an innocent smile as I hold up my water, gesturing to it before taking a large gulp.

Everyone but the boys seem to buy it.

Nancy continued and I had to bite my lip so as to not say anything.

"As I was saying, everyone is going."

Mrs. Wheeler sighs and looks to us, then back at Nancy.

"Just... be back by 10:00."

Nancy nods, happy with herself.

"Why don't you take Mike and his friends, too?" She suggested. We all panicked and spoke at the same time.

"No!"

"Mmm-mmm."

"I have a headache" I finished weakly.

"Don't you think you should be there? For Will?"

The four of us all spot Eleven walking down the stairs behind Mrs. Wheeler.

Mike nearly chokes on his milk while I accidentally inhale my water and I begin to choke for real. Mrs. Wheeler turns to see what provoked us so much but the mix of Dustin randomly slamming his fists against the table a few times and me going into a coughing fit was enough to grab her attention.

She looked between the two of us in shock. During my horrendous coughing fit, I was relieved to see El had gotten out of sight.

"Sorry. Spasm." Dustin says sheepishly.

However, it was still incredibly awkward seeing as it was quiet as and everyone just stared at me while I coughed obnoxiously. The coughs got less violent to a point where I could speak.

"Ahh..." cough. "I'm okay... really, I" cough. I hold up a finger and cough for a few seconds. I look up, a painful and sheepish look on my face as I awkwardly try and diffuse the tension. "Don't you hate that. Like, what can you do, wash it down with water?" I look around laughing weakly, but not for long because my awkward chuckles turn into more coughing and I groan. "Haha, ahawww god." I put hands on my knees and take a breather.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"El?" Mike called down the stairs. Mike and I had were able to sneak some food downstairs for her. Thankfully we found her down here, she was in the fort that Mike had made for her, fiddling with Mike's Supercomm.

"Hi, El," I say with a smile as I walk over and kneel down next to her. Mike does the same and sets down the tray of food. Dustin and Lucas remain standing.

"We brought you some dinner,"

"Yep. No adults. Just us and some meatloaf." Mike replies.

She looks to me, then warily to Dustin and Lucas.

"Don't worry. They won't tell anyone about you. They promise." I assure her in a gentle voice. I turn for them and give them a look. "Right guys?"

Dustin gives her a goofy smile. "We never would've upset you if we knew you had superpowers." I roll my eyes and Mike turns around and swats Dustin in the shin.

I look back to El.

"What my brother meant to say was, they were just scared... earlier. That's all."

Lucas speaks up. "We just wanted to find our friend." I turn around and smile warmly at Lucas, mouthing a 'thank you'. He's a great person, he's just skeptical is all. And protective. He nods his head at me. I look back at El to see her face riddled with confusion.

"'Friend'?" She asks.

"Yeah, friend. Will?"

"What is 'friend'?" She asks.

Lucas starts to say something but cuts himself off, thinking better of it.

"Um, a friend—" He begins.

"Is someone that you'd do anything for." Mike finished for him.

"You lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards," Dustin said, wistfully.

"And they never break a promise," Mike adds.

"Especially when there's spit."

"Spit?" She asked, looking concerned.

"A spit swear means..." Lucas spits into his palm and shakes Dustin's hand. "you never break your word. It's a bond."

I cringed, while Dustin looked at his hand in disgust. I turn back to El and smile.

"That's super important, because friends... they tell each other things. Things that parents don't know. A friend is someone you can trust completely."

She seems to be soaking up the information, then she looks at me and smiles.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

We had all convinced El to come out of her fort. The three boys were huddled together whispering and I joined El at the D&D table. In fact, she sat where Mike sat during the campaign and I subconsciously sat where Will did on that night.

Although I was a little surprised to see how focused she became. She gently spread her hands along the table, her fingers touching the board.

The three boys walk over. "What's the weirdo doing?" Lucas questions. I give him a glare, to warn him. He clears his throat and corrects himself. "Sorry. Eleven."

I smile, silently thanking him.

"El?" Mike asks. She had her eyes closed for a short while and suddenly she opens them. She grabs Will's signature miniature, the cleric. I hold my breath in anticipation.

"Will." She says.

"Superpowers." Dustin whispered. Lucas rolled his eyes and Mike sat down between me and El, and started asking the questions that were on all our minds.

"Did you see him? On Mirkwood? Do you know where he is?"

She set aside the cleric as I spoke up, my voice barely above a whisper.

"El?" She looks up at me. "Is there... is there anything, anything at all that you could tell us? Anything that you know about our friend?" I ask, my voice breaking. She gives me a sympathetic smile and clears the board by swiping her arm across the table. We all watch intently as she reaches forward and flips the board upside down.

We all stare at the board and then look to El as she grabs the cleric and slams it down in the center of the board. My stomach seems to drop in perfect sync with the miniature.

"I don't understand." Mike croaks.

The room is silent for a few moments as we stare at El, waiting for her response. "Hiding." Her voice came out in a whisper.

"W-Will is hiding?" I stammer.

She nods her head 'yes'.

My fingers subconsciously begin wringing together as I try and swallow all of this information.

"From the bad men?" Mike clarifies.

Her brows furrow ever so slightly as she shakes her 'no'. I take a deep breath.

"Then from who?"

She looks to her side and grabs another miniature, and places it next to the cleric. I let out a breath of air I didn't even know I was holding when I recognized the dreaded piece. We all look around to each other, a look of horror on our faces. Dustin puts his hands behind his head and I put my head in my hands as I try not to panic.

It was the Demogorgon.

[angstytieflingbard]

Slight Magnus x One-sided!Demigod!Reader

Request: “Thank you for the fic!! Could I request a trickster Demigod reader who's the raven queens kid(created not born) They take the form of a young adult and just mess around with the main three(they don't know what the person is, just that they like to take their stuff)until one day they are messing with them, kravitz appears and like "please go back home-" which blows the demigods cover? A bit of romance with Magnus if possible( the reader being a lovesick puppy around him). Thank you for your time!” -Taz anon

Summary: You, (Y/N), are the child of the Raven Queen, created from the very fabric of the astral plane shortly after the woman first attained godhood. You sneaked away from your home realm to experience the mortal world for yourself, meeting a strange group of adventurers on the way. You, of course, immediately decide to mess with them. 

Warnings: None, besides a one-sided crush the reader has on Magnus, which I understand some might not be interested in. 

A/N: I’ve been busy the past few days, my friend is moving to France in a little over a week and some other friends of mine have started a little horror gaming group so I’ve been hanging out with them a bunch. But here it is, and I hope you enjoy! I’m going to try to be quicker with requests in the future, I feel bad making people wait (particularly Taz anon, who’s an angel honestly), though I may have to make shorter works. We’ll see! Anyway, please enjoy, and know my asks are pretty much always open for requests (my fandoms/rules are in my bio) or just to say hi, or tell me what you think of something I’ve written! 

~~~~

The first time you met the boys was on the road to Phandalin. You’d taken up residence a little less than a day out from the small mining village, in a little camp on a hill by the road where you could watch the travelers as they passed. You were new to Faerun, having only recently left the astral plane where you were created (despite your mother, the Raven Queen, having forbid your leaving), and you’d never actually interacted with still-living mortals yourself, so you’d taken to people watching for much of the early days of your stay in the mortal plane. 

They’d stopped for the night in the area of road your camp bordered, and ended up making their camp nearly on top of yours. They introduced themselves, and you watched in interest for the evening at their actions, glad to get a chance to watch the mortals up close for once. You’d also had your first experience eating and sleeping that night, not wanting to seem too suspicious by declining their offer to join them for dinner, nor for keeping them up by moving around and reading and practicing whatever new craft you were attempting as you usually did at night. 

In the morning, you’d felt confident enough to throw some of your own teasing into the mix of their conversation, and their laughter and friendliness to you made for an easy fascination with them. You had an odd luck in finding them on your own travels, often ending up in the places they had to go for “missions” from some mysterious benefactor, though you’d never pried despite your growing interest, getting the feeling that any question about their jobs would be particularly unwelcome. Your respect for their privacy did not extend to their belongings, however, and you took to snooping through the trinkets they found over their missions whenever you met them, to their chagrin. Magnus was the most forgiving of your sticky fingers, though he was quick to take his things back from you after he’d let you inspect them. You’d taken a liking to Magnus for that fact alone, though his general optimism was also enjoyable. 

Your interactions with the group only increased over the months, and eventually you started actively seeking them out, curious to a fault regarding the strange group of adventurers. 

~~~

You sat perched upon a tree branch which overhanged the road, waiting for the three adventurers you’d come to be friends with over the course of your stay in Faerun. Well, friend might be a strong word, considering how Merle groans the second he catches sight of you in the tree. 

“Hail and well met, strangers!” You grinned playfully at them, swinging your legs back and forth in the air as they stop just a short distance away. 

“(Y/N).” Magnus greeted you. “Causing trouble as usual?” He asked, and you laughed, jumping down from the tree branch and landing in a crouch. 

“Only for you, of course! You know you guys are my favorite to mess with.” You said as you straightened out again. Magnus sighed. 

“We’re on a… mission, right now. We need to get to Goldcliff.” He told you, and you stepped to the side, waving them past you. There was a moment of hesitation, but the party moved forwards, and you fell into step beside the fighter at the head of the group. 

“So, Magnus, what’s this mission about? You wouldn’t happen to be after the Raven, would you?” You hounded him, and he looked at you in surprise. 

“How do you know about the Raven?” Taako interjected from behind you, and you threw a glance at him over your shoulder. You’d been around the city for the past couple weeks, leaving now due to the increased militia and Raven activity, though you were somewhat sad you wouldn’t be able to watch the races anymore. 

“Well, she’s been wreaking havoc all over the city for days now. You can barely take two steps without running over someone in the militia.” You tell them airily, and all three are silent for a moment as they process the information. In that time, you catch sight of a small water-filled glass orb attached to Magnus’ belt with a leather strips woven together in a way reminiscent of fishnet. A fish swam contentedly inside the ball, and you looked at it curiously, reaching over and plucking the orb from its harness and holding it up to your face. 

“Hey! Give Steven back!” Magnus protests, and you quickly step back out of his reach, holding the glass orb carefully in your palms. 

“Steven? That’s a pretty name! How do you feed him?” You ask, glancing at the fish as it swam mostly unperturbed. 

“We- huh.” Taako paused, thinking. “I don’t think we’ve ever had to. It’s pretty happy inside the ball, actually.” Merle snickers. 

“Are you sure? It’s not floating upside down is it?” 

“Hey! Steven isn’t dead, he’s still swimming around!” Magnus exclaimed, taking the orb back from you. You let him, laughing along with the cleric as Magnus tucked the orb back into its harness. 

“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” Taako asked you as you and Merle’s laughter faded. 

“Wait, don’t we?” Merle asked, and the elf sighed. 

“No, but I get it, you’re busy. I’ll leave you to… whatever it is that you do.” You told them, feigning disappointment. “Bye, boys! See you around?” You asked, already starting to head down the road in the opposite direction as them, away from Goldcliff. 

“See ya!” Magnus called after you with a wave, and you grinned, saluting playfully as the three turned away from you, continuing their own journey. 

~~~

You were a month into your stay at Moon Base Alpha, having been made an official regulator on the recommendation of Magnus, Taako, and Merle. Well, mostly Magnus, as the director had told you, a fact which had only sent you further into your admittedly ill-advised, but slowly blossoming crush on the man. 

Today, you and Magnus were hanging out in the courtyard, people-watching and talking about the events of Refuge, something which you were glad you weren’t present for. Apparently Kraavitz had shown up right before they came back to base, ready to collect on both their deaths and the many deaths of the people of Refuge, though Taako had stopped him. 

You were familiar with Kraavitz of course, your mother’s favorite reaper. You knew deep in your bones that if you’d been there he would have brought you straight back home. 

Unfortunately, fate was not on your side either way, as you felt the presence of a reaper appear nearby. You tensed almost imperceptibly. Reapers were distinct, even more so than spirits or undead of any kind, even liches. For example, the lich in Taako’s umbrella, so quiet you didn’t notice until several meetings after the first, and even then so soft you could almost ignore its presence, though it felt dead it was also still alive in some inexplicable way, crackling with magical energy. Reapers on the other hand, were like a void amidst the aura of life around them, a side effect of the abilities granted to them by your mother. You knew you must feel similar to those who knew how to sense it.

It took an hour for the reaper to show up, in full spectral form as he did, though you could still recognize him almost immediately. You could see Taako over his shoulder, watching in confusion and a little concern. Magnus looked between you and the reaper, taking note of your almost irritated expression. 

“(Y/N).” He said simply.

“Kraavitz.” You replied, already getting to your feet. 

“Wait, wait, I’m missing something. How exactly do you know each other?” Magnus interjected, standing up and stepping almost in between you. Kraavitz spared him only a glance before his attention focused back on you. 

“Your mother has been looking for you for ages, (Y/N). You know how she gets.” He told you, exasperation leaking slightly into his tone, and you sighed, looking at Magnus. 

“My mother is the Raven Queen.” You started, ignoring how his expression turned to one of shock. “I… may have essentially ran away from home to come hang out in the mortal world.” You winced, and he couldn’t help but let out a short laugh.

“So now she wants you to come home or she’s gonna’, like, ground you or something?” He asked, and you nodded. 

“Basically, and since I don’t particularly want to get what constitutes as a timeout in the astral plane…” You trailed off, and he nodded understandingly. He was taking the news surprisingly well, certainly better than most would. You turned back to Kraavitz, waiting increasingly impatiently with his scythe in hand. 

“I’m ready to go. If I wait much longer I’ll probably chicken out.” Kraavitz chuckled. 

“I understand. I still have to convince her not to reap Refuge.” He shuddered, turning and starting to open a portal. 

“You’ll be alright without me, yeah?” You asked Magnus, and he snorted. 

“I don’t know, you showing up and stealing our stuff really was the highlight of my day. I don’t know how I’ll manage without it.” He said teasingly. 

“Well, you’re smart, I’m sure you’ll find a way.” You told him with a wink. He laughed, giving you a nudge towards Kraavitz as the portal opened. 

“I’ll see you around.” He hesitated for a moment. “And hey, as a favor, do you think you could say hi to Julia for me? She’s… was, my wife.” You felt your heart sink in your chest, but you smiled and nodded, stepping back towards the portal, Kraavitz already on the other side. 

“Of course. I’ll see you around.” You told him. He smiled gratefully at you, and you turned away, jumping through the portal and feeling the unique aura of the living you’d grown used to disappear as Kraavitz closed the portal behind you. 

You were disappointed, knowing nothing could come of your crush. But you were determined to be a good friend regardless, and thus you let yourself sink into the water at your feet, seeking out Julia’s soul to give her your friend’s message.

[save-the-spiral]

InkWizTober Day Thirty-One: Ripe + Celebration

Welcome to day thirty-one of inktober! Final day! Wrote something cute- a costume party event. It quickly became a more fun and magical version of what the elementary/middle school I went to would throw, with a significant decrease in dead inside high schoolers. No warnings, besides a bit of internal social awkwardness.

(link to prompt lists) (link to inktober tag)

There were a lot of ridiculous rumors about necromancers- especially around October, considering how often these rumors are treated as practical jokes or ghost stories. None of the rumors were right, of course, but the ones about how death wizards observed Halloween were definitely wrong.

Ianthe glanced around the brightly lit library, emptied of books for tonight, and instead full of excited young wizards in costumes and munching on sweets. This was about as far from a ghost hunt, or a seance, or a demonic Earth ritual, or some weird serial killer antics as one could get.

She grinned, bearing her glow-in-the-dark plastic vampire fangs. With a dramatic swish of her violet cloak, she welcomed another guest, playing up the fanged lisp to the amusement of a young student dressed as a tree. At her side, Leo laughed, his plastic fangs on display as well, but he made a fake-serious face at her nudging elbow, only causing the new guest to laugh more.

The boy introduced himself as Elijah, and excitedly watched the magical decorations moved as he entered the library.

“There’s already so many people.” Leo remarked dryly. To others this would seem sarcastic or annoyed, but Ianthe knew it was worry.

“No one will go looking for books to vandalize. They won’t harm the animals either- Irisi seemed fairly confident she could take control of the petting zoo.” Ianthe replied, nudging her partner. “You can go look over the place to make sure- it’s six thirty, I can handle any stragglers coming in.”

Leo held one of her hands, likely from instinct, he hated public displays of affection, and as he left the welcome desk, she overplayed the dramatics again, reaching out, quoting Titanic, all to see him snicker again, even if it was quickly replaced by a blank face.

Leo was worried. His books, his animals, they were like his babies, defenseless. 

Well, some of the animals could bite back.

And some of the books too, for that matter.

Either way, he was sure his friends and other volunteers would be doing fine- great, really!- but it wasn’t the same as keeping tabs on things, making sure it was all going well.

The event had been his idea at first, stemming from ridiculous ideas for his partner’s mothers’ bakery, a joke really. But it quickly spiraled out of control, and now he was standing in the middle of his library full of students (most of which he has never seen in his entire life) and there was even a full catered buffet of sweets. 

Morae was so excited to bake for the event, she even created a tall wedding cake creation straight out of a cartoon- it swayed on five tiers, all of them odd shapes, decorated in black, purple, orange, and lime green. Hundreds of cookies and cupcakes were all around the room as well, courtesy of Morae’s two employees.

Leo stopped by Morae’s table first- listening to her instruct parents and kids alike on how to frost their pumpkin or ghost shaped sugar cookies was so fun- she always treated everyone like an adult, a fellow professional baker, which often left the kids confident and wanting to come back for more cookies. When he caught her eye and raised his eyebrows, she just grinned and gave a thumbs up, so he moved on.

Noah and Haley were taking turns reading from a piece of paper, dramatically reenacting a story with ad-libbed words. Leo sat down on a chair near the back of the group, hoping Noah’s awkwardness wouldn’t lead to self doubt. Haley’s idea for the game seemed to be working, though, because of course the random, and usually juvenile words led to everyone laughing. 

“But be careful! On this spooky night, wizards are known to lose their- okay who wrote bananas again?” Noah turned to the crowd, exaggeratedly frowning, only for all the children to giggle when his top hat fell off his head from the sudden movement.

The next booth was face painting, and even if he didn’t personally know them, Irisi’s recommendation to put Julia and Adrien on the job seemed perfect, even if their flirting distracted them a bit. Julia was very serious as she painted a flower onto a young girl’s face, talking to her about the fairy wings they both wore.

Entranced by it, Leo bumped into someone. “Sorry!” He instantly snapped out, backing away-

Only for one Caleb Deathleague to be looking at him, confused. “Hey, you alright? You look tense.” 

Leo sighed, still on guard. Caleb was once an overbearing, rude kid, though rumor had it the boy had changed. “...Yeah, ‘Mfine.” 

“Hey! You organized this, right?” Caleb’s eyes brightened up, any intimidation Leo felt completely gone when he realized the other necromancer was dressed like a... mouse? His costume was made of paper and tape as well.

“...Yes?”

“Great!” It was then that Caleb lightly tugged on whatever was behind him- a child, by the looks of it. “Fledge here hasn’t ever gotten to have a Halloween before- what do you recommend for a more quiet activity?” 

Leo looked at the kid, recognizing the prodigy fire wizard by their beaded dreadlocks and intense eyes, though their feathered cloak’s hood was pulled up now. “Uh... You could probably grab some of the cookie decorating stuff and take it to a side table- Morae wouldn’t mind. I think some ice wizard- Alamina?- is taking care of a kinda quiet time and reading area- pretty sure she’s just napping in a ghost sheet costume. But Artur and Susie have some puzzles, word searches and jigsaws and stuff. And Penny 'n’ Marla are probably having too much fun DJ-ing the cake walk, you don’t have to actually talk to other people for that one.” 

Leo stopped himself, trying not to ramble and overwhelm them. 

“Thanks.” Caleb smiled at him, genuine. “Happy Halloween.” 

With a nod, the two passed him, and Leo could almost sigh with relief. Social interactions with people who weren’t Ianthe or her moms was hard. 

“Leo!” 

Leo had to take a whole second trying to contain his instinctive gasp or flinch, instead turning towards a nearby booth and smiling. “Hi Ceren.” 

“I wanted to show the kids why it’s better to cut the bottom instead of around the stem of their pumpkins- can you help?” The gentle life wizard was out of place in this usually dark library, his face painted to look like a bright green zombie. 

“...Sure?” Leo walked around to Ceren’s side of the table.

“So, this is how we grow our pumpkins, everyone watching?” Ceren nodded at the chorus of ‘yes’s that replied. He pulled out a rather simple wand, bright green magic glowing and the life emblem imprinting onto the plain pot of soil on the table, the rest of the surface crowded by in-progress jack-o-lanterns. Then, a bright green sprout shot up to every child’s awe, and a vine burst forth.

A kid yelled something about Cinderella, and the rest agreed, watching the sped up growth of two pumpkins- the bright yellow blooms, then the growing gourds that settled heavily on the cleared space of the table. Once it stopped, everyone clapped, even some kids who were drawn from other booths.

“Now, see I’ve got this knife- make sure an adult handles the knives, everyone- and I’m going to cut these pumpkins with the same amount of stem. Here, Leo, cut the top of this one the ‘usual way’ for me? Okay, so Leo’s is the normal way, but mine is upside down, cut from the bottom. Everyone see that? Okay! Now, Leo, could you use some death magic to speed up the rotting?”

Leo nodded, putting the knife down and grabbing his own wand- a gnarled branch from Mortis’ tree, a rare gift- and began to cast a general spell, careful to limit it to plants. The pumpkins began to lose their bright orange-ness, now both upright and in clear sight on the table.

The one he had cut began to sag much quicker than the other, which was only slightly discolored, and it continued. The kids cheered as the one he cut finally collapsed in on itself, quickly thrown into a garbage bag upon the loud sounds of childish disgust.

“Thanks Leo!” Ceren grinned at him. “So, that’s why we’re cutting from the bottom, so our pumpkins stay pretty and orange for longer!”

With that, Leo escaped, waving at some of his friends- looks like Mari had a wardrobe malfunction, if her loose hay and scarecrow hat were anything to go by, and Irisi was trying to make sure his few younger animals stopped playing tug-of-war with her mummy bandages. Emrys was silently watching people play his dart toss game, snorting every time an older kid claimed it was rigged, and giving the younger kids candy even if they missed.

Yeah, yeah everything was fine- he was not going to get himself dragged into another kindergarten class on temporary tattoos or something, nope!

When he finally made it back to the welcome desk, Ianthe was grinning at him, plastic fangs left on a candy wrapper while she ate a lollipop.

“I think my mom’s trying to sneak in with as many different costumes as possible in one night.” Ianthe finally said when he flopped down in his desk chair, slightly panting.

Leo glanced at the doorway. “Hi Morelle.” 

The masked person began to shout incredulously and leave, long black hair obviously revealing them as Morelle.

With one shared look, Ianthe and Leo broke into laughter.

And the night had just begun.