#they probably even forgot the things Mike said to Will in the shed

[weirdo09]

algo tan dulce como tu

a prowler! miles x baker! reader oneshot

requested by anonymous

y/n decided to make a special treat for miles since he’d be home late anyways. they’d gotten a few pointers from rio on miles’ favorite dessert, tres leches. this would be their first time attempting something like this but they were confident they’d get it right, rio had sent them a copy of her recipe so they were positive.

the ingredients were easy to find since they were everywhere. once y/n started preparing, they were certain they were forgetting something but couldn’t remember what. ‘probably just my gut playing tricks on me.’ y/n thought as they began cracking 5 eggs. little did they know, they forgot the most important thing specifically written on the recipe.

as the cake was cooking, y/n thought to take a little break. they decided to watch their favorite telenovela and chill on the couch. y/n changed into some more comfortable clothes and got the party started. after about 30 minutes or so, they decided to take the cake out and let it sit. after even more waiting, y/n got the cake ready as they heard keys jingling, a sign that miles was already back. ‘damn, how much time went by?’ y/n thought, putting on some finishing touches.

“hey, mami, estas haciendo?” miles asked, placing kisses on y/n’s cheeks. they smiled, “it’s a surprise.” y/n said, miles frowned. “really, ma?” miles said, wrapping a arm around their waist. “yes, now go take a shower, you smell.” y/n said, shooing miles away. “ok, ok!” miles exclaimed, leaving the kitchen. y/n chuckled, admiring their handiwork.

“ok, now you have to tell me what you made.” miles insisted, y/n scoffed playfully. “yeah? why don’t you try it and tell me what you think it is, papi.” y/n said playfully, offering miles a piece of tres leches. miles stood there stiff for a minute before rolling his eyes, he got a fork and dug in. “so, do you like it?” y/n asked, dragging out the o in so. miles keep chewing, it tasted ok but it could’ve been better. besides, one little lie couldn’t hurt them, right?

“this is delicious, mami, gracias.” miles said, stealing a kiss off y/n’s lips. “you don’t like it, do you?” y/n said, suspicious. ‘damn, i forgot she could read me like a book.’ mikes cursed at himself. “no, no, baby, i do serious.” he said quickly, getting a second piece. “miles…” y/n said, miles gulped. unknowingly, y/n shed a few tears. miles frowned deeply.

‘damn it, damn it.’ he thought on repeat. “hey, mami, esta bien me gusto mucho!” miles tried to comfort them by squeezing them. y/n wetly laughed, “i don’t even know why i’m crying,” y/n confessed under a whisper, “you must think i’m pretty pathetic.” y/n whispered in miles’ neck. miles got an idea, he picked y/n up by the legs and waddled over to the couch.

“no more moping, ‘k, ma?” miles said, y/n sighed. “i wanna hear you say it.” miles said, staring into their eyes. “ok, ok, i’ll stop moping.” y/n said stubbornly. miles smiled softly, “good, now you wanna cuddle?” he asked, y/n nodded their head.

turns out the surprise was bad but it was made up with a cuddle session.

translations -

estas haciendo? - what are you making?

gracias - thank you

mami - mommy

tres leches - sponge cake soaked in three types of milks

algo tan dulce como tu - something as sweet as you

hope you enjoyed it!

[raventhompson]

Some thoughts while rewatching ST s1 (analysis):

This is quite long so I apologize in advance :/ 

A while ago I started re-watching Stranger things again. And for some time before that I’ve been really into the whole theory that Vecna kidnapped Will personally. But while I was watching I noticed a few things: 

When we see Will biking on Mirkwood he notices a demogorgon and we know that because we can its mishappen limbs and its arms are the same length (which we know isn’t the case with Henry who has longer left arm). 

When Will swerves off the road he runs through the forest directly home which leads us to believe that he know that environment well and knows where he’s going even while under stress. That’s in my opinion also one of the reasons why he could run away from the demogorgon when it saw him in the shed. He also had a rifle I think and could protect himself by using it. None of the other people that we’ve seen die due to a demogorgon had anything to defend themselves with (in the first season). The demogorgon probably took him to the Upside down because it knew he had less chances of surviving in the dimension it lived in (not to mention it continued to pursue him there while he was using electricity that I think Henry can sense people using in the UD).

But like remember when 001 mentioned that he never forgot when he killed somebody. I think it’s worth a mention that he didn’t kill Barb himself but through a demogorgon because as we later hear him say: The mind flayer is something that would change everything and in s2 we heard Mike say that mf is inside everything. And I really doubt the demogorgon has superpowers that could unlock doors. But we see El unlock the doors in the same fashion in s2 later on while coming to visit her mom and her aunt and while coming back home in the last ep after killing a demodog. I also think I should mention the fact when 001 came into the ud he told Eleven that he saw something that would change everything. So could it be, that could control all the animals like puppets through the hive mind? We know he shaped the mf so why not use it as well? 

When Henry killed all those children if we think about it, he didn’t have a reason. Now remember when the Duffers said they don’t unnecessarily kill characters off? My theory is: he took their powers out of them and kept them to himself just like he did at the end of s3. But also the way he took El’s powers was through the mf. So why couldn’t he, put some of those powers into the demogorgon chasing Will that night? It would explain why the door unlocked by using powers, or more specifically, powers by those kids from the lab.

I also think that Henry is using the vines to control the hive mind/the mind flayer.

That’s just some things I’ve been thinking about recently :)

[blueberri3s]

tbh after the duffers literally FORGOT Will‘s birthday i wouldnt be surprised if they forgot that Will went missing the day Mike met El

[td-scenarios]

How they react to seeing their S/O crying

First scenarios are a go!

Cody

Will most definitely start panicking at your status and start asking you various questions.

“Are you okay? Did I do something? Do you need space? Should I hug you? Do I need to punch someone?” And you better believe he’ll do that last one based off that one scene of him and Duncan in World Tour.

Goes and brings his stash of candy to you for you to enjoy

If you don’t need space at the moment but instead comfort, you better believe this boy will turn into the biggest cuddlebug. His arms just wrapping around your entire body and him resting his head into the crook of your neck. Would totally start kissing you all over the face until you smiled and were laughing as you told him to stop in a lighthearted manner

Trust me, Cody is not leaving until there’s a smile on your face. Even if you ask for some space he’ll be sending you memes or stupid little drawings.

Also would totally do the really cheesy thing of wiping away your tears and resting the palm of his hand on your cheek so that you can lean into it.

Scott

Doesn’t really understand what’s going on at first. He’s clever, but he ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed at times.

“Why are you crying? It better not be somethin’ stupid, cuz, ya know, back on the farm-” cue you punching him in the face or on the shoulder

That’s when he’s like ‘Oh fuck, something is ACTUALLY wrong. Oh no this is a time where  I have to step up as a boyfriend oh no oh no’

Him awkwardly being all “So....um....what’s wrong?”

His face absolutely breaking upon seeing your shattered expression. Protective boyfriend mode = activated.

“Did someone hurt you? Babe, you better believe that I’ll go and make their life a living hell, trust me.” And then you just slowly shaking your head no and leaning your head onto his chest, which just makes this big softie melt.

Y’all cuddling for a long time until you eventually fall asleep on him and he’s just brooding on the fact that if someone did cause it, he really was gonna go and  beat them up, He doesn’t make idle threats, but for now, it’s just calm between the two of you.

Brick

He gets back from running one of his bi-hourly jogs with Jo to see your form shaking from under a blanket in the cabin. Since you’re under the blanket, he can only assume you’re not cold and immediately comes to the conclusion that you are upset

“Y/N! What has got you feeling so blue right now?” He would try to lower his voice for you, but his same tone only wavers a bit. Habits and all that.

You already know that this sweet boy will drop whatever other plans he had for today to stay in the cabin and comfort you until you were better.

He’d try to suggest going outside and getting some fresh air, but you two would go out for a bit and you’d either see the person who upset you or get reminded of your homesickness or whatever else made you sad, so you two would just go back inside.

Brick being Brick would probably find a way of accidentally making you laugh and he’ll just continue with that until you forgot why you were sad in the first place. 

Mike

Taking a break from the others, Mike finds you sitting on a rock near the beach with your head buried into your folded arms. He instantly comes jogging up to your side and sits across from you, gently saying your name which gets you to look up. When you ask for alone time, he softly shakes his head.

“I can’t leave you until I make sure you’re okay, Y/N. You know me, it’s good knowing that the people I care about are good.” Those words kind of put a smile on your face as you look at the gap toothed boy.

Mike counts this as the start of working your mood back up. He wouldn’t want to make you more sad by making you talk about what upset you, so instead he decides to start telling you funny stories of shenanigans his alters have caused.

“They’re quite the cast! I remember when Manitoba was really proud of himself for digging up some new material, but the guy was already a little bit tired so instead he was just holding some dried cow patty! Vito wouldn’t let him live it down for weeks!” More and more stories of that caliber, all of which would make you giggle in some way or another.

At some point, Mike ends up wrapping an arm around your shoulders and it’s become night time so you’re both just looking up into the stars. A nice serene way to forget about what was plaguing your mind earlier

Dakota

“O M G, babe, are you okay? Your skin is getting a little blotchy.” You would wince a little bit at that prompting her to apologize as you wipe one side of your face with your hand.

The blonde would sit next to you on the cabin bed and ask that you “spill the tea, sugar.

After telling her what’s wrong, she insists on taking care of you for the rest of the day. Bringing you any food she can scour off the island, asking the other teens of the cast to leave the two of you alone, and once your crying dies down a bit she starts doing your makeup.

“I like doing your makeup so much because it gives me a great view of your gorgeous face.”

This comment of Dakota’s immediately gets the waterworks started up again.

She starts panicking, thinking she said something wrong while carefully putting her makeup brushes down. You just shake your head and hug her tightly, to which she’s confused about, but reciprocates anyways.

Leshawna

This girl immediately hugs you as soon as she sees how distressed you are. She gives the best hugs ever, I would know, Fresh TV told me.

“Alright baby, tell me what’s got your feathers in a bunch! Leshawna will make all the problems go away.” Her voice is so calming at that point that you break down even more and choke out what’s been bothering you.

If it is someone, she would definitely start making threats, but wouldn’t dare to leave you alone in this state, so whoever did this to you would definitely get some knuckle sandwiches later.

The girl would take you back to her cabin and lay both of y’all down on her bed and softly sing to you (even if it’s not the best, it’s endearing.) Until you fall asleep in eachother’s arms.

Leshawna would be the first to wake up and would smile upon seeing your face, now with a soft smile instead of the heartbreaking expression it carried mere hours before. You were definitely her everything.

Heather

She really wants to keep up her mean façade like she does in front of everyone and say “ew, you’re showing emotions right now?” or something like that, but she decides that she could never do that to you. Even if anyone else was watching her at the moment.

Heather would take a seat next to you and put a hand on your shoulder. “Tell me what’s up.” And before you could say anything she interrupts, “and no, I won’t tell anyone what you tell me. I would never.” She made sure to keep both her hands up so you could see that she wasn’t crossing her fingers.

You let out a sigh and then hesitantly began telling her what’s up.

“Are you kidding? Hun, you need to put your game face on! Come with me.” She then grabs your hand and takes you around to do calming activities all around the island. Being bitchier to everyone else, but the most soft, kind, caring person in the world for you. She doesn’t let go of your hand at all just to let you know she’s there.

At the end of your day together, your tears long forgotten, both of you sat on a blanket watching the sunset, she looks over at you. “You ready to go kick some loser butt?” She says with a smirk, you sniffle a bit and nod yes. “Cool, lets go.” Her hand finally leaves yours, which saddens you, but she waits for you so you can head back to camp together. Who knew you could go a whole day with your girlfriend without her being TOO focused on the million?

Dawn

You thought you had found a quiet spot to let your feelings free under a shaded tree that may be capable of eating you any second, but how wrong you were. You nearly jump out of your skin when you hear a familiar soft voice speak, “your aura is stained with anguish. What is plaguing you so?”

Dawn’s statement startled you out of your tears for a bit until you began to explain to her what had happened with a shaky voice and it all became too much so you stopped talking.

The look on her face gave away that she knew more than she let on.

“Here Y/N breathe with me.” You would give her a confused look but go along with it since your girlfriend was weirdly knowledgeable in some areas.

“Very good. You’re shaky, but there’s nothing your position won’t fix. Here follow what I do.” Dawn got into a position perfect for breathing exercises and you followed suit. “Your chakras will align in the median in your body and your mind will be freed of its chains, do not be afraid.” She repeated the affirmations in a hushed tone as you two breathed with one another.

It was actually pretty calming. The sounds of the toxic island along with Dawn’s hushed voice made for the perfect aura around you two and you can’t remember a time when you have felt so at peace.

“I can sense that your aura is back to its normal state. Are you feeling any better?” The different words took you out of your zen and you looked up at her and nodded, which made her smile.

“That is nice to hear. Would you like to go look at the flowers with me?

[beepboop358]

My Byler theories/predictions for S4

Since s4 is already confirmed to not be the last season, I don’t think Byler will officially get together in s4. I do think that we are definitely going to get a large amount of Byler’s development in s4 though, we just aren’t at the finish line yet. Since Byler has been being developed all through each of the seasons, I think the writers are playing the long game with Mike and Will. I really appreciate a queer romance that is so well developped, especially in something so popular! I think the season will end on a note where it’s understood what Mike has been struggling with, It’s made known that Will is gay, and that Mike has feelings for Will, and Will has feelings for Mike.

My predictions/theories for Byler in s4:

Mike might be acting a little off at school and Dustin is going to notice his odd behavior and ask what’s up

I think Mike will be getting in trouble at school and at home (based on whenever he doesn’t have Will/El around he does stupid things - like graffitti the bathroom wall, plagiarize essays, curse at adults, etc.) I don’t know if Mike knows about Eddie dealing drugs, but he might and he might get drugs from Eddie and do them to cope with everything he is struggling with. His parents might ground him for doing drugs, and forbid him from going to visit the Byers, and then we could get our runaway smalltown boy montage! LOL

Lonnie might come to visit the Byers in California for Will’s birthday. He will probably show up because he thinks they have money now, or he wants to sue Starcourt like he wanted to sue the quarry in s1. Mike will also be there visiting for Will’s birthday. Lonnie will mock Will and make fun of him like he always did, but he will also hate Mike. Lonnie will definitely notice Will and Mike’s dynamics and he will definitely comment about it. He might even call them homophobic slurs like we know he used to do with Will when he was younger. Lonnie will probably make Will cry and Mike upset. Lonnie might possibly “out” him and Mike before they are out and confirm it themselves. Some of the movies on the stranger writers twitter for s4 also hint at this, as well as having the baseball references. There are also hints to Will’s birthday throughout the show: The rainbow happy birthday mug seen in the crazy together scene, the “sorry i forgot your birthday card” in Will’s room from Lonnie, and Joyce’s speech in the shed discussing Will’s 8th birthday and his “rainbow ship”. Jonathan also mentions how Lonnie made him kill a rabbit on his 10th birthday and he cried for a week after, just more hints that if Lonnie shows up for Will’s bday, it’s gonna be bad.

Mike might get Will a watch for his birthday. This would reference the clocks being central to the s4 plot, and “not wanting things to change/turning back the clock” in Hopper’s letter

Will is being homophobically bullied at his new school again, possibly references to Will having HIV/AIDS because the height of the epidemic was in the 80’s and it was very stigmatized

Mike will call Will more than he will call El. Will might be slightly surprised by this, El’s frequent calling will annoy Mike and he might turn off his walkie talkie. (basically the reverse of what Mike said would happen in the s3 ending mileven scene)

Mike and Will will be in the same location for most of the season, like s2. They will not leave each other’s sides for the majority of the time they are together.

S4 Group Predictions:

- El, Will, Mike trio together with Jonathan and Argyle. (we will get some obvious tension between El, Will, and Mike, and Mike will hate Argyle at first)

- Robin, Steve, Erica, Max, Dustin, Lucas, Vickie, Eddie, Nancy

- Joyce, Murray, etc?

- Hopper and the other Russians (Dimitri, etc)

The rift between Mike and El will continue to grow.

When Mike comes to visit, she will notice he seems much more interested in Will.

El will ask why the bullies call Will those things (queer/fairy/gay/homo, probably f slurs too), what it means and if he really is “a queer”.

I don’t know if Will is going to come out to El. They have never interacted before, and I doubt Will trusts her or really likes her much mainly, because of Mike. Unless they get super close during the time not portrayed on screen between s3 and s4, or by being all each other has in California, I don’t know if  he will come out to El. I could see this going either way depending on how their friendship develops. I definitely do not think Will is going to tell El he likes Mike, even if he does confide in her he is gay. I think she will find out eventually but in some other way, probably just from Mike’s behavior towards Will.

El will eventually realize she doesn’t actually love Mike and let go of the ‘romance’ aspect of their bond, but still highly value him as a friend.

Mike might be called homophobic slurs at school as well. Mike will definitely be teased (regardless of his sexuality) because he is in the hellfire club and since satanic panic is sweeping the town, people look at D&D as if it is a satanic game, and he will be teased because of that.

Based on the leaked bts pics, I have a theory a cheerleader, or someone else, might show interest in Mike.  Mike will not reciprocate and she will call him out for it asking why he doesn't like her because “any other guy at this school would” or something like that, maybe even ask “what are you gay or something”. It would certainly be good for Mike’s narrative but idk if it will happen.

Will may confide in Jonathan about his feelings for Mike and the things the bullies say to him at school. Jonathan will be supportive of Will, as will Joyce. I think he will also try to protect Will from Lonnie and they will both defend Will to Lonnie.

I think we need a scene of Mike with his Mom telling him to follow his heart, like who you like, etc. because life is too short to waste it being miserable or something like that. This could be inspired by Mike’s parents seperating, but idk. This could also encourage Mike to initiate more romantic things with Will.

I would love to get a scene of Will confronting Mike for “Joining another party”, after Will said he wouldn’t.

Will and Mike need to discuss what was said in their fight.

I think since Mike's been holding in a lot of turmoil and struggling with his sexuality for so long we might get a small breakdown scene from him, of him telling Will he’s really sorry for how he treated him last summer, and for all the things he said to Will. Mike will profusely apologize and also hint at how he’s confused and been dealing with a lot.

I think Mike will be the first one to break down and confess he has feelings for Will and has been struggling with coming to terms with his sexuality.

Once Will has confirmation Mike is also struggling with his sexuality, Will might come out to him. I would love for him to reference the fight being like “You were right. I don’t like girls.” (from @itsonlystrange ‘s 4x07 byler script it’s so good!) I don't know if Will will confess he likes Mike to his face or not. I don't think it's likely given how shy Will is and how afraid he is of Mike not reciprocating, but who knows.

Mike may initiate a kiss between him and Will - towards the end of the season probably (eyewitness parallel - explained in my byler proof google slides)

I think Mike and Will might write letters to each other, with some love-y connotations. There is a lot of evidence for this in the canon comics of them writing notes to each other, and that cryptic tweet from stranger writers twitter with a blocked out message and the date Will went missing saying it wasn’t about a couple or hopper. Maybe byler related? This tweet may not be a letter but it might be. The most popular theories are that the message is to Will, “love mike”, which I love. https://twitter.com/strangerwriters/status/1184945905973153792?lang=en

Will has a new haircut (bts pics) and Mike will gush over it. Maybe some gay-panicking too hopefully

I think El will be either physically or at least emotionally distant the entire season from the other kids (again following the pattern of even and odd seasons) El needs some personal development this season, since she didn’t get any in s3.

El might confront Mike and ask if he is gay and if he likes Will, which could be El’s motivation to go off on a journey of her own to learn more about her own life. I don’t think it will be a huge fight, but El might make some references to him always lying to her. I think Mike might just kind of try to talk his way out of it at first, but he will eventually break. This might be a two part discussion and Mike doesn’t admit she is right until later. I don’t think it makes sense for El to be heartbroken (explained in my byler proof slides), just slightly annoyed. This is based off of the movie Tootsie which they borrowed the “gift” idea from in s3 already. In the movie, the girlfriend then after receiving the gift asks “Michael” if he is gay.

I really think eventually El will realize it’s okay because she doesn’t love him romantically either, and once she realizes that her own personal development can really begin.

I think we will see a noticeable change in Mike’s demeanor. I think Mike will mainly just be trying to hide that he is gay now. He joined the hellfire club so we know he’s playing d&d again meaning he is reverting back to his true self, not the weird act he put on in s3 trying to be straight and change himself. He is still struggling, but he knows he likes Will. Regardless that doesn’t mean he is going to be super clear about how he feels. He is going to be extremely afraid of opening up and then getting hurt by Will. He will probably do some of his usual ‘lead Will on and then shut it down’ thing. And I really want Will to call him out on this. This could also lead to Mike breaking down in front of Will and confessing. I think we are going to get a lot of 'Mike gay panicking' moments, he's going to be extremely afraid of being found out/suspected.

Byler things I really want to happen that we may get because they would have narrative significance:

I really want flashbacks to those 3 months of summer between the starcourt explosion and the Byers moving, of moments between Mike and Will when they hang out alone together, with some obvious romantic tension. Like where they are super playful and almost kiss, or they are kind of touchy, or something in the realm of that. I think we need a flashback of something that explains Will’s flirty nature at the very end of s3 with Mike, because he doesn't normally act like that. I want noticeable “is something going on with them?” vibes. This could also happen during the thanksgiving/christmas flashbacks.

I hope we get flashbacks of Mike going to the Byers for Thanksgiving, and the Byers coming back to Hawkins for Christmas. Preferably of some Mike and Will moments that hint at Mike’s confusion or how he feels “so alone” without Will, maybe with some “crazy together” references too! I’d also love some tension between the 3 of them, maybe this is when El starts to get suspicious of Mike liking Will.

Hopefully we get some shots of Mike biking past the byers old house and going to look at castle byers and reminiscing.

I’d love to get a flashback of Mike the day the Byers moved away, of him crying or being upset, alone in his room/basement while looking at Will’s drawings or pictures of Will and him together. Mainly to confirm for people that Mike was upset about Will moving, not as much El.

This one does not seem super probable, but it is a very popular theory. Idk if it’s possible because of location logistics, but if they spend enough time together, I’d love for Mike to get to know Robin better, and Will too. Maybe once everyone comes together at the end of the season, she will notice their dynamics and could help guide and inspire them to be themselves. Hey maybe thats for s5 :) But I do think it’s a possibility that Mike may work at the video store with Steve and Robin, and she will pick up on Mike’s behavior and understand, whether she communicates that to him or not.

[darkeninganon]

Heyo! Back at it again with Ghost Dream (Gream). He has a little weirdness happen in this chapter, mostly because my brain just yeeted off to Pluto. I don’t think I need any Trigger warnings, I mean... Tommy gets a little shaken up emotionally, but beyond that, this is a pretty safe chapter.

Gream smiled, setting up the final blocks to complete the diorama on the table. It had taken many days, but finally Gream had completed it, with the help of Tubbo, Ranboo, and Tommy. It was an exact replica of the server. Well, with a few changes. Some places had no walls, and the building in place of the prison was nothing more than an obsidian box surrounded by red and orange string. There were also the dolls, almost exact replicas of the people of the SMP.

Almost.

Tomothy had a blue sweater on, instead of whatever the real Tommy was wearing. William was grey-skinned, had no white streak, and was wearing a yellow sweater. Prezbo was wearing a classy suit, reflecting his position of power. Lethe was wearing a cloak and bandages over his eyes. Gream even made one like himself, naming it "Nightmare", it lacked a mask though. He was not about to try and figure out how to make a doll-sized mask. There were so many more as well: A centaur-like creature named "The Warden" sat on top of the prison box, a tall cloaked figure standing in a sandy area along with many other smaller ones, including a fox man; most notably was a figure in a bloody suit with crooked eyes, a pink scar slashing vertically through one, a beanie, a gold tooth, and a square smile. "Fangs", "Raev", "Sir"....

Gream shook his head, fear and dread creeping up his spine and making his stomach roll. He sighed, setting the dolls down after inspecting them. Raev was his favorite in the group; Gream had given him bright orange hair and a smile, plus a cute green-black suit. It clashed with the hair and fur, but Gream didn't mind, it was kind of cute in a way.

Gream continued to just stare at the little scene, sitting cross-legged as he took it all in. All of these characters were related, their stories tied together in some way. Gream reached over, pulling Nightmare from the little brick house he stood on and placing the doll in the cell The Warden stood on. That was where Nightmare belonged.

Gream spun to look at the door as the floor creaked, Tommy looming in the doorway, staring at the ghost.

"Hey there. Your table is finally done?" The teen asked, stepping into the room and over to the table. He wouldn't deny, it made him nervous; it was a replica of the SMP with New L'Manburg, the oldest version of the Community House, and the maximum security cell of the prison, plus Snowchester and Las Nevadas. It was like the server had been spliced between several time periods. "Looks good."

Gream looked back at the table, nodding. "Thanks. I also made the dolls." Gream motioned to them. He noticed Tommy tense, specifically when looking at the one in the prison. "That's Nightmare. He belongs in jail."

Tommy knew Dream was... quiet, to put it lightly, but he had never seen Gream do the same. "Yeah, and why's that?" he asked, sitting next to the ghost.

"He did a lot of bad things." Gream grabbed the doll, pulling it from the "jail" to look at it more.

"Well... sometimes people do bad things for a good reason-"

"That doesn't make it okay. Nightmare did a lot of bad things. He wanted to have a family... He wanted Tomothy to be his little brother, but Tomothy chose William, and William was a megalomaniacle dick to everyone, even Nightmare. But then William died and things got better." Gream placed Nightmare back in the cell. "But... William managed to convince Tomothy that Nightmare was evil, and Nightmare saw people drifting apart because he gave Prezbo a test, and Prezbo failed it." He grabbed the two dolls, holding them close. He then placed Prezbo back in the town he had built, placing Tomothy in a bare plains-like area with wooden fort-like walls around him. "Prezbo kicked Tomothy out of their home because Nightmare got mad and threatened the town. Then, Nightmare tried to... twist? Corrupt? No, neither of those words work..."

Tommy's breath hitched, and it took a moment for him to speak; "Manipulate?" His voice pitched up. Fuck, he really had to get that under control. It was such a tell.

Gream looked to Tommy, nodding solemnly. "Yeah. Nightmare tried to manipulate Tomothy into liking him. Like William had done when alive. Instead, Tomothy just hated him more." Gream picked up another doll, rolling it around. "Then, Nightmare asked for Lethe's help. A favor. Lethe needed to protect the server, but he had to forget everything unless there was actual danger. A True threat. They cast some... spell or something, and Lethe forgot." Gream placed the doll in the area that looked like Snowchester, and now Tommy could see who it looked like: Ranboo. "there is a way to reverse it, but... I don't know if Lethe knows it."

Tommy watched, listened. It was so obvious who was meant to be who. It was like Gream... Wait... "Hey, so... you said Nightmare wanted a family, right?"

"Yeah."

"So... he made everyone think he was evil... and now he's in jail, yeah?"

"That's right. Mostly. He is in jail."

"Well... did... I mean, how did he get in there?"

Tommy watched as Gream seemed to think, staying silent and still before grabbing "Nightmare" from his cell. "Well... everyone teamed up against him. But... even though he'd never see anyone again, he was happy."

"Why?"

"Because, they were finally a family." Gream placed the little doll back in the cell. His voice was soft, wistful.

Tommy nodded. "Pardon me." He stood and left, Gream nodding to show he had heard. Tommy barely made it to the stairs, clinging to the railing as he finally broke. Gream was... He wasn't just playing out his memories, he was sharing what he felt and his thoughts at the time. Dream was... Jealous? No, that didn't excuse his actions, at all! He was still worse than... But... No, he wasn't. Dream was just more physical, less mental.

Tommy took out his communicator, sending a message to Tubbo and Ranboo: We need to talk. Meet me at Snowchester. Bring the others Ranboo. Tommy grit his teeth. He couldn't let Wilbur near Gream. Wilbur would see Gream as an easy mark, and likely a way into Las Nevadas. Sure, seeing Dream's version of everyone on the SMP was unnerving, but it was even more unnerving that he has so perfectly replicated Quackity and Las Nevadas. Quackity who was likely the reason Gream even existed in the first place, and also someplace Dream had never seen. Gream probably didn't even know he had done that.

Tommy swung open the front door, hoping to meet the others right at the tunnel; nearly smacking right into Wilbur. Fuck.

"Tommy! There you are! Now, look, I know me and Quackity were a bit intense-"

"Not now Wilbur."

"Okay, but hear me out! We need so much more stone, and more importantly, we need to team up with-"

"I have more important things to worry about here."

"It'll just take a moment! We team up with Tubbo and Ranboo and let them expand into our land right by Las Nevadas, and-"

"I'll talk to you about it later, alright?"

"Alright, but real quick, We also need to come up with a plan to get Dream out of Prison-" Tommy tensed, unseen by Wilbur; "Because, you know, he has that book that brought me back. God, imagine how useful that'll be! No more death ever! We can fight for eternity and no one can stop-"

Wilbur's head was snapped to the side. Tommy had punched him. "He's not a fucking tool you can just lock up once you're done using him! What the fuck man?!" Wilbur groaned, rubbing his jaw as he slowly turned to look at Tommy, clearly wanting to say something, but too shocked to do so. "You will... never get the revive book, or the power it holds... Dream is... I hope Sam kills you again." Tommy turned away from Wilbur, storming over to the tunnel. He knew Wilbur was following silently behind, confused and desperate to say something, to get to the bottom of why Tommy just punched him.

Tommy stood by the tunnel, furious. Sure, Dream was a dick, and everything would have been solved if Dream had just talked to Tommy, but at the same time... Asking Gream more about Nightmare would shed some light. But he needed everyone else to show up first, to see what Gream was doing. Tommy tapped his foot, staring at the sky as they waited for everyone else.

Ranboo burst from the tunnel, trident in hand, panicked expression, netherite on. "What's going on?!" Someone crashed into the poor half enderman, causing him to make that distinct noise of an enderman in pain as they crashed to the ground.

"Shit! Sorry-" Phil couldn't complete his apology as the rest on the Syndicate tumbled out of the hyper tunnel, crashing into each other.

Tommy snorted, trying his hardest not to laugh as the four people untangled themselves. Ah yes, the most fearsome group on the server, couldn't navigate a hyper tunnel. Tommy lost it as Tubbo came speeding out of the tunnel with a scream, crashing into his platonic husband and causing Ranboo to let out another pained enderman noise. Something about Ranboo yelling like an enderman was just so funny to Tommy, surely he was cursing in the language of the End.

"What did you want to talk to us about, Tommy?" Niki cut in, her usually calm voice cold, snapping Tommy out of his laughing fit.

"Right, uh... Let’s walk and talk, yeah? It's a little tough to explain." Tommy lead the group to the mansion, casting a quick glare at Wilbur. "So, you all know about Gream, yeah? Of course you do, anyways, he was building and working on a table to play games with when it comes to spending time with Big Mike, since neither are really allowed to leave due to safety." Tommy glanced back, making sure everyone was following along; Techno and Wilbur looked completely lost, while Niki looked confused but was clearly listening. "So, the thing about this table, more importantly the dolls he made for the table, is that they're... well... This is going to sound really weird, but it’s everyone and everywhere on the server. You’ll see." Tommy pointed to the door, and everyone crowded around to peer into the room.

Gream sat by the table, looming over it. Even with the cursed mask on, it was clear he was concentrating hard on something. The table and dolls had his full attention. Tommy motioned for everyone to linger back, hiding just outside the door-frame; before he walked in, he let out a quiet cough to not startle Gream. The ghost looked up at the noise, spotting Tommy and nodding at the teen.

"Hey Gream. I... actually had a question for you about that uh... Nightmare character." Tommy carefully walked up to the table, pulling the doll from the cell.

"Well, ask then."

Tommy smiled nervously, fidgeting with the toy. "Well... You said he did bad things because he was angry... jealous, actually. Um, why didn't he just talk it out?" It was such a huge risk, and for all Tommy knew, this could make Gream angry and have the ghost snap like he did back at his house.

Gream was silent, perking up as if thinking about something. Finally, he sighed. "Nightmare... Nightmare can't figure out his emotions... and he doesn't like talking about them... Someone... Hurt him once, someone he loved. It’s something I understand, but... you prefer talking about things, right?"

Tommy was quiet, frozen. "What?"

"I..." Gream pulled on the edges of his mask, a puddle of acid began to form under him. "Ever since the incident with Jack and Puffy I... Tommy, you're not telling me the truth, are you? No one is!"

Tommy flinched. He could hear netherite armor being thrown on behind him, but he took a breath, relaxing as he placed the doll back in the cell. "You're right. I haven't been honest. But-" Tommy held his hand up as Gream glared at him; "But I have my reasons. Nightmare... He did bad things for a good reason... He knew he'd go into jail for it, didn't he?"

Gream was silent, thinking again before nodding.

"That's why he asked Lethe for a favor. Well... People do bad things for good reasons all the time. I'm... withholding information from you for some very good reasons. It's not just for your safety, it's also for me. The things I'm keeping from you... they're things I don't like talking about, ever." Tommy sighed, running a hand through his hair. It sucked having to try to explain it, but now... Now they'll get to see things from Dream's view... something that no one was interested in before-

"Dream died?!"

Tommy cringed as he was reminded that Wilbur was there. "Yes, Dream died. Congradu-"

Wilbur shoved Tommy out of the way, grabbing Gream's hand and shaking it vigorously. "It's amazing to meet you! You and I were such- Oh man, we had so much fun together! I was... What was the word again? Oh yeah! I was your vassal! You helped me blow-"

Tommy shoved Wilbur away. "Alright, enough! Leave the poor guy alone!" Tommy stood between Wilbur and the ghost, Gream didn't need to know that he helped destroy L’Manburg or was a traitor or anything like that. Wait... Tommy shook his head. Dream was never really on their side.

"You... I don't like you."

"I'm.... What? What do you-"

"You're a megalomaniac aren't you?" Gream crossed his arms, glaring at Wilbur from behind his mask. "You... You were... Why do I hate you?" Gream turned away, pacing around until he looked to the table. He grabbed Nightmare and William, setting them up along with Tomothy on a hill. He stared at them, gently fiddling with Nightmare as he stayed quiet.

Wilbur went to go say something, but Tommy stopped him, staring intently at the ghost.

"You could have been a good leader... But I don't want to be a good leader. I hate you so much, I'm going to be worse than ram man... I will tear this place apart because I hate you... Tomothy gave up everything and you gave up nothing, you are going to get him killed..."

Gream removed Tomothy, setting him up with Prezbo on top of an obsidian wall. "Can't we all just be a family... No, you're the bad guy... but why?" Gream stopped, picking up Nightmare and holding him close. "But why?"

[troop-scoop]

Mistakes & Regrets XX

Summary: When a trip to your Dad’s hometown of Hawkins goes wrong, you end up in the year 1983, and have to learn how to cope with being stuck in the past.

Pairing: Steve Harrington / Future!Reader (like, a really slow burn)

Warnings: Swearing probably,

• • •

The sounds of crickets and the distant sound of an owl somewhere in the woods was pretty much the only things you could hear from your position by the control box. Other than the occasional very soft sound of someone’s clothing moving as they moved or shifted their weight. 

Lucas was next to you, leaning against the box. Everyone had remained silent after Jonathan and Nancy got into the car and drove up to the lab. 

“Is Will your dad?” He asked in a hushed voice.

Looking down at Lucas, his arms were crossed, and he was looking up at you with a mixed look of frustration and sadness. 

“What makes you think that?” Your voice was equally as quiet.

“You fell through a hole, ended up in the Upside Down and then crawled out in a different time period, that is, if you’re telling the truth. And you just said that you and Jonathan are family. “

Looking down at the pavement you sighed a bit, lifting up your backpack that was mostly empty. But, Steve forgot to empty out the smallest pocket in the bag, where you usually kept your school ID, and some extra cash in a wallet. It was the same one you’d had from home. 

Taking the pale faux yellow wallet out, you zipped it open, hesitating for a second, looking at the middle compartment you always refused to open. 

But, by all rights except blood, Lucas was your uncle. He’d sneak you cash at theme parks whenever all of you got together for the summer. You still remembered your fathers telling him he didn’t need to, and yet, he persisted. 

Opening the center compartment of the wallet you pulled out a small photo taken from an instax camera, of you and your dad. Often you forgot you had it. 

You didn’t look at it, but you just handed it to him. You’d been in sixth grade at some place for a field trip that he volunteered to chaperone. 

Lucas took it from you and looked at the photo. Your hair had been cut short, and you were clearly younger in the photo. And your dad had a smile on his face, an arm around your shoulders in a protective manner, his hair loosely styled, so a strand was in his face. 

And ever since this young version of your uncle Lucas met you, he thought you actually looked truly happy. Unbothered, like a normal kid with normal dreams and oblivious to the future or past she’d have to endure.

“This is Will?” It was obvious, but he still asked anyway, feeling the need to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. 

“Yeah. That’s my dad.” 

“Who’s your mom?”

Shaking your head a bit you closed your wallet, not taking the photo back. “Her name’s Anne.” 

“Don’t you want this?” He asked, holding the photo out to you. Looking at it for a split second you could almost hear the clanging of a baking sheet while your dad placed it on the stove to make those halloween cookies every year. And you could see the burnt edges creeping towards the pumpkin in the center. It was no secret that Will was a good cook, but terrible at baking and trying to put premade things in the oven. 

“Not really.” 

“But he’s your dad-”

“And I don’t know him anymore.” It was dramatic, but it was true. It had been over a year since you last saw him as you wanted to remember him. If you’d known that being in that restaurant would be the last time you’d see him, you wouldn’t have yelled at Pa, you would’ve taken it all in, you would have said your goodbyes, and tried to remember how your fathers and little brother looked in the moment. 

You went over to Steve who was leaning against the yellow post at the other side of the box, hitting the butt of the flashlight on his palm. “Hey,” You breathed out.

Looking up at you, he smiled a bit. “Hi,” 

“Guys?”

Max was staring at the drive that lead up to the lab, and you could hear the sound of tires against the pavement. Looking over you saw Jonathan’s car and Hopper’s truck speeding towards them. 

Reaching over you grabbed Max as Steve grabbed Lucas and Dustin, pulling them out of the way. Jonathan sped past you, but Hopper stopped, looking at you five through the open passenger window. 

“Let’s go!”

Steve opened the door, rushing you and the middle schoolers into the back, with the three of them behind you, and you, leaning between the two front seats, as Steve got into the passenger side.

“What the fuck’s going on?”

“The gate, it’s wide open, and letting things through.” 

“Jesus.”

• • •

Sitting on the edge of the bathtub you had your head in your hands, only seeing your knees, the tile, and a few strands of hair that fell around your face in a type of curtain. 

You were convinced that from the day you were born, you’d admired and looked up to your dad. He was one of many male figures in your life. He gave you good morals, and taught you to be strong, how to be you, and not to let anyone control you. 

His biggest fear when you were growing up was that a man would try and control you, or that anyone who had a power dynamic with you, would try and manipulate you. But he was always paranoid. 

You had another thing to admire him for- bringing two kids into a world that he knew was fucked. Being confident enough in himself and Pa that they could protect you and Daniel. That you wouldn’t get hurt. 

Closing your eyes you concentrated, lowering yourself onto the floor, hugging yourself and grasping onto Steve’s jacket. You wanted to know how he’d done it. Gotten through such a fucked up time in his life at such a young age. How any of them did. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Max. You were older, and all you wanted to do was close your eyes and disappear. 

Opening your eyes, everything around you was black, with about an inch of water around your feet. But ahead of you, you could see a familiar looking table, with familiar looking cookies, and a few pieces of cloth on the table. 

You saw your uncle Dustin sitting at the table, while your uncle Lucas sat across from him. 

“Should we tell them?” Lucas asked, looking down at something beside him. Slowly walking over, you could see a stroller next to him, an older baby in the seat, dressed in yellow and pink, with a blue sippy cup gripped tightly in their hands. They were maybe a year old. 

“You’re insane.” Dustin responded.  

Finally you placed it. It was one of the tables at the coffee shop you’d always gone to on Fridays with your dad. And the cloth on the table was a set of dirty baby clothes that had been neatly folded. 

“What?”

“We can’t. You know that. Will’s already terrified enough as it is, you don’t want him turning their condo into a baby friendly prison, do you?” 

Lucas’ face changed a bit as he looked down at the baby again. You could hear a muffled voice call out an order, and watched as Dustin got up, leaving Lucas sitting with an infant who was half asleep. 

He leaned over to the baby, unbuckling them from the seat and pulling them into his arms. “Hey, princess.” He greeted her with a sad smile. He stayed quiet, letting the baby lean against his shoulder, the sippy cup still in a death grip, almost empty, and you assumed that the infant was just a little too happy about having been given what looked like apple juice

But when you looked at her arm, you saw the birthmark you once had, the one that, after you burnt your arm, disappeared. 

It was you. 

You were a chubby baby.

Who wouldn’t let go of her juice even though Lucas tried to put it on the table. 

“Okay, I won’t take it.” He relented, pushing her messy hair back, watching as she began to drink from the bottle. “You’re gonna be strong one day, you know that?” He was quiet about it. “One of the strongest women I ever met. And brave.”

The baby looked up at him, done drinking.

“You remain kind, somehow. You’re going to be so loving and compassionate that sometimes, it’s annoying. You’re gonna save a lot of people, so don’t hold onto the guilt, don’t let it hurt you, or hold you back. You’re gonna go-”

“Y/n?” Opening your eyes, Steve was kneeling down in front of you. “Do you know what the hell a Mind Flayer is?” 

Furrowing your eyebrows, you nodded. You played DnD so often before that you knew plenty of the creatures, and the bosses you could fight, not to mention your dad talked about them all the time when helping you plan DnD games with the four friends you would hang out with. “Yeah, it takes over people’s brains. Wants to conquer shit like It's a British empire, why does that matter?” 

Looking over to the doorway you saw almost everyone peaking into the bathroom, staring at the two of you. 

“Steve? What’s going on?” 

Looking back at Steve, you saw that he was looking at them too, a hand holding your arm before he focused on you. “Did you have episodes? Like Will’s?” 

You nodded, slowly. Sitting up a bit more, your hand grabbing the one on your arm. How did he know about those? Did somebody tell him?

“When did they stop?” 

“A day or two, after Halloween.”

“Did you have one on Halloween?” Mike asked, suddenly pushing past Dustin and into the room, next to Steve. 

The memory of sitting in your shower, sobbing before it ended and you found Steve in your living room.

“Yeah. . . Why?”

“This Mind Flayer. . . you said it felt like it wanted to kill you?” Hopper asked.

“Wait, are we calling that weird cloud thingy Will and I saw a Mind Flayer?” You inquired. 

Everyone looked at each other, exchanging looks. But then you realized what Hopper said about Will. And the day he started acting weird. The same day you had your last episode. 

“It’s in Will, isn’t it? So. . . if it spies on us, through Will. . . is he gonna try and kill me?” 

“That’s the leading theory.” 

Within a few minutes, you were tucked away in a corner of the kitchen, looking out the window as the shed was basically torn apart, with everything pulled out, so they could take Will in there. 

You didn’t know why the Mind Flayer wanted to hurt you, if it even did. But you were scared, and as usual, you wanted your dad. 

Watching as Steve and Nancy helped Hopper take everything out, you climbed onto the kitchen counter, basically sitting in the empty sink and taking in the backyard that would be a pain to clean up. 

What was El up to? Last you saw her, you told her to ‘call’ you if Hopper agreed to trick or treating. And by call, you meant manipulating your radio in the Volkswagen. But that never happened and so you didn’t get to take her trick or treating like she wanted to. 

“Steve compared the Mind Flayer to Germans.” Jonathan spoke up, walking over to you , handing you a glass of water. 

“You mean. . . Arian Nazies?” You furrowed your brows, looking up at your uncle who shook his head. 

“No, I mean Germans. He said Germans. Dustin called him on it.” Smiling a bit you nodded, looking down at the ice water. Steve could have stupid moments. Especially when he hadn’t gotten sleep since the night before, when you’d gone to Dustin’s cellar. 

A comfortable silence took over, except for the rustling outside where they were setting the shed up to hold Will in. But you knew something was on Jonathan’s mind. You were family after all. 

“What’s wrong?” You asked, looking over to him. 

He shrugged, shaking his head a bit. He fought with himself for a split second before finally talking. “You’ve been here for over a year, and it’s kinda obvious to everyone.” 

“What’s obvious?” You asked, an amused smile on your face while you tilted your head. 

He gave a look, reaching out to your arm and tugging a bit at the sleeve of the jacket. “It’s like 50 degrees outside, and he still let you keep the jacket, even though the radiator’s on.”

You shrugged, “Steve’s forgetful, and when he’s tired he doesn’t seem to remember what kind of weather it is outside.” excusing it you looked at the window, not quite knowing what Jonathan was trying to get at. 

“You know that about him. According to Nancy he knows you usually get from the gas station, and that your favorite movie is Red Dawn after he took you to see it-”

“Nancy wouldn’t have gone, it’s a war movie-”

“Y/n,” he started in a firm, yet affectionate tone as he took the glass from you, setting it on the counter. “You’ve been friends since last year, and he cares about you. A lot.” You were going to say that it was because you were friends, but you knew he would have stopped you. 

“You’re both oblivious.” he scoffed in an amused tone, handing you the water again, before walking out into the backyard. 

Hopping out of the sink, you followed after him, leaving the glass. 

Zipping up the jacket you caught up with Jonathan, grabbing onto his arm and following him to the clothes line where Joyce was taking clothes down so they could use the rope. 

“Jonathan, what are you talking about?” 

You were confused, and frankly? A bit worried. Everything that was going on, and Jonathan was being cryptic and ominous about your friendship with Steve. Talking about the way you guys treated each other and knew things and trusted each other in ways that plenty of other people didn’t. 

Like how you knew that when he cried, it sounded like his entire heart was shattering, and that he wouldn’t be able to put it back together. And how you trusted him to get you home when you were drunk off your ass on New Years eve. How he trusted you enough to share things he usually didn’t, so much to the point where he’d cry in front of you and go to you for comfort, just like you would with him, if everything ever made you cry didn’t revolve around your biggest mistake. 

Oh.

Oh.

Oh no.

Stopping dead in your tracks, you were sure you looked like a deer caught in headlights, clinging onto the hem of the jacket, and staring at the wet grass. 

Was it obvious to everyone else? That you’d trust Steve with your life more than your grandma? More than Hopper? Was it obvious because you didn’t hesitate to punch him when he was being homophobic with Jonathan after committing a hate crime? A hate crime that you tried to make him go fix, that he eventually did after running from the cops. 

Was it obvious because you forgave him so quickly right afterwards? 

You didn’t know where it started or where it ended. 

Was Jonathan implying that you had feelings for your best friend who, time wise, was almost forty years older than you, but biologically only two? 

Or were you making that up in your head? Drawing assumptions of what other people thought without reason? 

But if that was what Jonathan thought, then did you have feelings for Steve? 

No, no of course not, he was just a friend. Right?

• • • 

@disneyprincessbuffyannesummers​ @nxncywheeler​ @yllwtaxi​ @songofcosplay​ @potatopooper05​ @cheesecakeisapie @robinsdolan​ @yall-wildin-like-siriusly​  @bisexualpears​ @ilovebucketbarnes​ @random-thoughts-003​ @mochminnie  @abbyg217​​ @stevexscoops​​ @cashmereandtears​​ @iris-suoh​​  @supred12​

[simplemoonk]

Nightmares and Labors Ch 2

Read Chapter 1 and also read it on Ao3

Summary:  In which Mike broke his arm and had to stay back in the headquarters with a very pregnant Mikasa Ackerman.

Rivamika Fic

AOT belongs to Hajime Isayama of course. 

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Levi’s swords cut through Eren’s titan form from the nape, careful not to hurt the boy inside. He got used to doing this by now. As soon as the boy was freed from the titan Armin pulled him out immediately. 

They landed on the ground as the titan body began evaporating. It was nothing but a crust now. Levi’s eyes surveyed the area, focusing on Erwin for a second who was listening to the report of the mission. Hange was running around with Moblit trying to get the other man to draw things she found interesting and wanted to collect as data. Their mission was ended a while ago as Levi cut the last titan’s nape on the area. Unfortunately, they had causalities but it was relatively few even though they still had lots of soldiers with injuries. He noticed Erwin walking towards him. 

“Levi! Your squad is alright?”

“They are alive.” He said indifferently yet still there was a crippling tone of relief in his voice for the ones that listened closely. Erwin did not seem phased. 

“Good. Gather them, we are living in ten minutes.” 

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Indeed, ten minutes later they were on their horses riding toward the safe protection of the Wall Rose. Eren was going on the cart, unconscious and exhausted due to the amount of effort he had to put in this mission. There was another cart following them behind, carrying the two dead soldiers they had lost that day. 

They came in contact with three titans on their way back, in which one of them happened to be abnormal. He saw Nanaba and her team took down the two of them as he handled the abnormal – much to Hange’s distaste and continuing whining. 

Near to the gates, they saw the elevators started descended down to pull the soldiers, and their horses, back into the walls since the gate was long closed by the giant bolder Eren had placed years ago. Levi heard the bell ringed to announce the return of the Survey Corps. That’s the part he used to hate the most since the crowd gathered near the gates gave them nothing but condemnation. Nowadays, however, it only meant that he was seconds away from seeing his wife, he could easily take a little reprimand in return.

Today the crowd was surprisingly quiet and calm as they walked past them. Maybe because they also knew that two causalities could be count as a victory when it came to the Survey Corps statistics. A sad reality but the reality nevertheless. His eyes wandered around the crowd quickly, trying to catch a glimpse of his wife since she wouldn’t listen what he got to say for her to not come to greet him, and their squad and waited for them in the HQ instead. It seemed like today was a day for many firsts as she seemed to listen to him and didn’t come. He couldn’t help but feel the anticipation of seeing her bubbled in his stomach even though they were married for two years at this stage. 

He chose to stay close to Erwin as he broke the tragic news to the lost soldiers’ families, the whole corps waiting behind them, showing their supports and sympathies to the parents as well as paying their respects to the fallen soldiers. They arrived at the headquarters quickly after that, each feeling drained as they always did whenever they returned back to the Walls, fewer in number every time. Erwin was walking ahead of him as they entered the gates of the HQ, talking to Hange quietly. Something in the corner of his eyes caught his attention. A soldier that he forgot the name of was running toward them in a frantic manner. He saluted Erwin and send a few quick glances toward Levi’s way which made him narrow his eyes in anticipation. 

“Commander Erwin! Sir!” he greeted and then returned to Levi.

“Captain Levi! Y-your wife is in labor!” he sputtered, face shining with sweat as if he was the one gone into labor.  

Levi was aware of the stares of Erwin and Hange, eyes wide and mouth gaping like it was the first time they heard Mikasa was pregnant and pregnant women supposed to give birth at some point. He could sense the eyes of his team burning to his back. They were all silent as each of them expected him to react as if waiting for him to set the tone of their own reactions. 

The problem wasn’t that Levi didn’t hear what the soldier had said since he had heard him perfectly fine. It was just that he was having a hard time grasping what those words meant. 

His horse neighed, feeling the tension filled the air, and that was the thing that broke the spell upon him. He threw the reins of his horse to Jean without losing any more time with trying to calm the startled animal and started making his way into the headquarters at a slightly quicker pace. From the outside he seemed like he always had, cool and collected yet on the inside he was absolutely running off the rails. He heard footsteps coming behind him yet his mind had other things to prioritize so the sounds gone unnoticed to him. The soldier that had brought the news pacing alongside, telling him that she was brought back to their quarters (they had decided for Mikasa to stay in the HQ while he was away in a case for things exactly like that might happened) since she was trying to get to the barracks when the labor had begun. 

“What the hell she was planning to do on the barracks?” the soldier just gave a pathetic shrug as an answer. 

“May I watch, Levi?” Hange’s excited voice came from behind. 

“No!” 

“For scientific reasons!” 

“My wife isn’t a science project shitty four-eyes!” 

“B- “ 

“Hange.” He heard Erwin’s warning voice next and that was the time he finally noticed the footsteps following him, and by the sound of it, there were more than those two trailing behind him. Great.

Even though he tried to convince himself that he was annoyed, he was actually feeling grateful to them, well at least to Hange and Erwin since his team was probably seconds away from causing a ruckus, for being with him while he was absolutely losing it inside. 

“NNNnnnnnngghhh!!” they heard the agitated-load moan as soon as they turned the corner of the corridor his quarters were in. Levi who was trying to keep the speed of his steps under control until that time dashed for the room, giving up on all his efforts to contain the little self-control he had left behind.

Never in his life, ever, he heard Mikasa made such a painful noise before. He reached the door of their room in no time, pushing the door open harshly, only to see that Mikasa who was laying on her back on the bed with a doctor between her legs and –

Mike? 

“NNNNaaAAaaa!!” Mike cried out again as Mikasa squeezed Mike’s hand so hard that he was sure it would break if his wife continued doing that. She wasn’t making any sound expect little pained moans she allowed to get out from her lips as she gritted her teeth together with enough force to almost breaking them. Mike, on the other hand, was screaming like a banshee whenever Mikasa squeezed his hand with every contraction she had. 

As the current contraction came to an end Levi saw the hold his wife had in Mike’s hand loosened and Mike gave out a long breath with relief that almost sound like sobbing. He raised his head and his eyes met with Levi’s, his pained face brightened and Levi was sure he had never seen Mike this happy to see him before.  

“Levi!!” he exclaimed happily, making Mikasa follow his gaze and found his husband present in the room. 

“Levi!” she breathed out his name as if she couldn’t believe he was actually there and raised her hand toward him, ushering him to her side. He quickly obeyed her wishes as Mike, finally was set free, and shaking his hand to get the circulation back quickly made his way toward the door where Erwin and Hange were waiting. Levi took his place and hold his wife’s sweaty hand instead immediately. 

“Hey.” He greeted her softly and watched as a few tears made their way down her cheeks. 

“I thought you were dead.” She whispered as a response, the relief she felt was so immense that it helped her fight against the tears she wanted to shed till this morning as well as making her wanted to sob against Levi’s chest. 

“Hey, I’m here.” He reassured her with a gentle voice that she had never heard coming from him before, swiping the tears and sweat from her face. 

“I was trying to come and rescue you.” She told him and watched as his eyebrows draw together. 

“Mikasa – “ his reprimand was cut by her.  

“I saw a nightmare.” She said shuddering as she remembered the nightmare and how lost she felt until she saw him standing by the door, alive and healthy. Surprisingly, he smiled.

“Sometimes that is just it Mikasa. A nightmare is just a nightmare and nothing more.” 

She looked at him, looked at his beautiful blue eyes, and felt the relief washed over her once again as the words penetrated her mind. She was about the smile back as another contraction hit her. Bad. 

“Umh – That is a stronghold,” Levi grunted as she squeezed his hand, reflecting the pain she had into her hold. Levi bore it all, with only mild grunts here and there, at some point the tore his cape of as he got as sweaty as she was. The sun outside started to set. Nurses came and went brought hot water and clean towels as well as candles to illuminate the room. And at her breaking point, she finally felt herself relaxed after a particularly painful push. The room lapsed into an eerie silence as she and Levi looked into each other’s wide tired eyes, and a second later they heard the most beautiful melody there was to hear for the first time. 

Their baby’s earth-shattering cry. 

[wanderleave]

My contribution for @jancyweek2019, which is, fair warning: absolute nonsense. Entirely inspired by this post made by @metropoliskid, which is based on this tweet.

Once again, I know my blog text is tiny, so go find this guy on AO3 if you wish.

Nancy Wheeler was twelve years old when she started dating Jonathan Byers.

She thinks.

She isn’t sure. (Not about Jonathan Byers, she’s sure about him; she’d always found him endlessly intriguing, even in elementary school, when he sat at the picnic tables with Barb while Nancy played horses at recess, surrounded by girls who had names like hers—Stacy, Ally. Long e sounds. Names that rhymed.)

What she isn’t sure about is if they ever really started dating.

And if they did, they certainly never stopped.

If it did happen, it is, technically, the longest relationship she’s ever been in. If she’s counting.

She doesn’t know what that says about her.

She was twelve years old, sitting on a bench inside Hawkins Middle, reading A Tree Grows In Brooklyn for English, waiting for her mother to pick her up and bring her to ballet. (Nancy never considered it, in her youth, how much of her mother’s life revolved around ferrying her and her siblings across Hawkins, from one activity to another. She must have been so grateful when Mike declared his independence from the automobile and insisted on riding his bike everywhere.)

She’d glanced up to see the Wheeler family station wagon coasting to a stop just outside the front doors, just as Jonathan Byers coasted to a stop in front of her.

“Nancy,” he’d said, breathless.

And that’s when it got complicated.

In the rush of juggling her school bag, her dance bag, and the blare of her mother’s horn, she didn’t quite catch the words that followed her name.

Her eyes had flicked to the car outside, then back to him. She’d thought about asking him to repeat himself, but his face had been open, expectant, nervous. Hopeful.

She couldn’t deny that face.

“Oh, um. Yes,” she’d said, in response to what she’d been pretty sure was a question.

He’d grinned at her. Held up his hand.

She’d high fived him, and rushed out to her waiting mother.

It was only as the car door slammed shut that she processed the question he’d asked her.

“Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

It’s only later—years later—that Nancy realizes that she’d have said yes even if she had heard him clearly.

As it was, she only got to enjoy their relationship—if it was a relationship (if seventh grade high fives could even be called a relationship)—for one day. Less than a day, even.

She’d glanced over at him shyly all through class, counting the minutes until lunch, when she would confirm if she’d heard him right. He’d returned her glances with equally shy smiles, putting her anxious mind slightly at ease.

And then the loudspeaker buzzed, Jonathan Byers was called to the office—and he was gone.

His whole family was.

Mike had pouted for weeks, his best friend vanished in an instant. “It’s not fair,” he’d moaned at dinner. “Why do they have to move just because of his stupid dad.”

The moaning continued over the phone, short long-distance calls that Nancy only ever worked up the nerve to intrude on once, picking up the receiver to mutter a quick “Tell-Jonathan-I-said-hi,” before hanging up with a clatter.

But the frequency of the phone calls trickled away as the school year went on, and by the time summer arrived, Mike had stopped insisting on being allowed to visit Will, and Nancy lost her only chance to confirm her relationship status.

She knows she could have called him herself. But that was, for her twelve year old self, too much to bear.

And plus, he’d never called her.

She misheard him, she told herself.

(She didn’t.)

He’d asked her another question, not girlfriend-related at all.

(He hadn’t.)

She’d told all her rhyming friends, giggles down the phone line later that night, and they’d waited alongside her with heavy anticipation for one of them to finally have a boyfriend, only to have their hopes dashed when it ended up being over before it really began. In the end she just felt foolish, for making such a thing over a boy.

“You know, you two never actually broke up,” Barb pointed out one day, once Nancy was able to think about it without wanting to bury her face in her hands, a matter of years later. As time goes on, it became almost a joke to her friends, a Schrödinger’s relationship that Nancy is both in and not in at the same time.

“Oh you can’t,” they said to James C, who asked her to prom as Nancy sat, blushing furiously, at her lunch table freshman year. “She’s dating Jonathan Byers.” (He’d been a senior, convinced she couldn’t turn him down, staggering away at Nancy’s faux-regretful confirmation of her relationship status.)

“So what’s this about you and some long distance guy?” Steve had asked, the first night she’d allowed herself to be inveigled into his back seat.

“Oh,” Nancy had said, already pulling her shirt over her head. “That’s . . . nothing. Middle school stuff.”

“Good,” Steve said, and Nancy forgot all about Jonathan Byers for the moment.

But she never truly forgets, not really.

Nancy moves to the city in one fell swoop.

She loads the U-Haul herself, only takes three wrong turns, and crams her entire life into the tiny studio that somehow costs more than the two-bedroom apartment she’d left Steve standing in, bereft.

She locates the nearest bodega, maps out her work commute on the subway, and prepares to begin her life anew.

It doesn’t quite work out like she plans.

She does manage to navigate the subway with relative ease, and she stops by the bodega almost every day, grabbing yet another item she’s realized she doesn’t own and cannot seem to live without.

The life anew part, however, eludes her.

She has a life, of course—drinks with college friends, lunches out with work colleagues. She tries new things, meets new people, goes on an endless parade of first dates. She even makes it to second and third dates for a few. But in the end, her days start to end up feeling enough like the inevitability she’d tried to escape that she wonders if it might make sense to head back to Indiana, see if Steve is still standing right where she left him.

It’s then that her thoughts turn to Jonathan.

Not in any kind of concrete sort of way—when she thinks of him it always feels hazy, somehow—but more idealistic; she imagines him living the life she wishes she could lead. He’d escaped Hawkins, in a way she somehow cannot, like the town is clinging to her, holding onto her fast even across state lines.

As a coping mechanism, it’s pretty fucked up, as Steve used to say, having the ghosts of her past haunt her present, but she’s working on it. She took the first step, at least.

She left.

“I wish you’d just come back,” her mother pleads, on the nights Nancy finds herself longing for the comforts of home, fingers grasped tight around the phone. What her mother doesn’t know is that she doesn’t call to be convinced to return.

She calls because it’s the one thing that strengthens her resolve to stay.

She only knows one person at the party.

Alice waves to her from across the apartment as Nancy navigates through the crowd, holding a six-pack in front of her like a peace offering, losing four along the way as she edges through and around clumps of people.

Nancy offers up the spare, taking the last beer for herself, and proceeds to endure the interminable agony that is entering a story halfway through and not knowing the teller well enough for them to recount the beginning. She likes Alice, she does, finding her Midwest sensibilities comfortingly refreshing after her months in the city, but theirs is a friendship of convenience, nothing deeper. Nancy wonders what Barb would say, if she were here.

Stop thinking about your dead friend and make some new ones, probably.

Nancy laughs to herself at the thought, and then starts at the unfortunate realization that someone is saying her name, and has been, for some time now.

“Sorry.” Her eyebrows raise, her eyes open wide, trying to make it seem like she was mostly listening this whole time. “I didn’t catch that.”

Alice gives her a look, but she’s smiling. “Sam was asking if you know the host.”

Sam ends up being a girl with black hair and even blacker eyeliner, who seems to be nursing Nancy’s other beer.

She shakes her head, shrugging a little. “Just Alice—”

“The only person that matters,” Alice interjects.

Nancy rolls her eyes a little. “I just moved here from Indiana,” she continues. “Alice is taking pity on me because I know no one in the city.”

Sam makes an ah yes face of benign interest, but then her eyebrows crinkle together. “Actually, my boyfriend grew up in Indiana, I think.” She turns her head, calls into the kitchen, but the actual name gets lost in the buzz of the crowd.

Sean, maybe.

Sam goes off in search of Sean (or was it John?) and Nancy takes a swig of beer as the conversation turns to the subway, as it is wont to do among people with only tenuous connections to each other but all with a singular hatred for their shared means of transportation.

Nancy’s just happy she has her own story—getting caught underground for half an hour, the windows steaming up as people shed clothes around her—and manages to coast on that contribution for the next twenty minutes, sipping the dregs of her bottle as the group grows and shrinks, and the stories go on and on.

She’s about to go in search of another drink (or if she’s being honest, maybe an Irish goodbye) when Alice begins recounting the story of her last date, a story Nancy knows from lunch last week, and realizes that she has one more story to contribute.

“—and when I told him I had to be up early the next morning, he rolls over, gives me a high five, says nothing else and strolls out the door. Haven’t seen him since.”

“I’ve got that beat,” says Nancy, and knocks back the rest of her beer. She takes a deep breath. “So I’m in seventh grade, and I’m waiting for my mom to pick me up after school. When—”

And then she sees him.

Coasting up to her just like he had eleven years ago.

“Oh my god,” she breathes.

She sees his hand reaching toward her, and for one absurd, heart-stopping moment, Nancy thinks he’s going to give her a high five. But the hand keeps going up, pulling her into a hug, and she actually cannot believe this is happening.

“Nancy Wheeler,” Jonathan Byers says, and she can feel her name vibrating through her, he’s holding her so tight. She wonders if that’s why she can’t catch her breath, but even after he releases her, she’s still got that feeling—like she’s missed a step, like the universe has been thrown out of alignment.

“Oh my god,” she says again, because that’s all she can do.

“I’m guessing you two know each other,” Alice remarks dryly.

He’s grinning, and his hair is shorter than it used to be (of course it would be, he’s not in seventh grade anymore), but he’s unmistakably Jonathan Byers, eleven years older. He spins to the side, wrapping his arm around Nancy, and she wonders if she’s dreaming, because this cannot actually be happening.

“Um, yeah,” she begins, but Jonathan cuts her off.

“Oh, we go way back,” he declares, and smiles fondly down at her. “Nancy’s my girlfriend.”

Nancy chokes on nothing, and changes her mind. She isn’t dreaming.

She has actually died.

It’s the only explanation. One last gasp of reality, chiding her for spending so much time thinking about a boy that she was never supposed to see again.

Death is cruel, though, because instead of the sweet bliss of nothingness, instead she has Jonathan Byers grinning at her, Alice looking at her, dumbstruck, and from behind her, a vaguely familiar voice saying, “I thought I was your girlfriend.”

Nancy turns to find Sam staring at her, a look of amused concern on her face.

“Um,” Nancy says.

[stwolfhardimaginez]

award shows. f.w imagine.

this is so long omg

^^ you and finns outfits.

today was the award shows, i was never good with awards or interviewing or anything like that just cause i always kept to myself and wasn’t that type of person, but being on a show i had to do all the side things that came with it.

“y/n come get ready with me and millie!” i heard sadie say as she entered into my room, as i nodded and smiled.

i got up and looked at my dress falling in love with it, each and everyone i would see it.

it was a long black dress that i paired with black heels.

i hurried down the stairs to see sadie and millie dancing and singing r.e.m to each other.

“i could buy you anything but i cannot buy you.” i sang as they looked at me I’m surprise.

“who knew you could sing?” millie said - “ you don’t know a lot about me.” i said winking at the two girls smiling ear to ear.

i started putting my makeup on as i was dancing to my my my! by troye sivan that i didn’t even notice that sadie was recording me dancing

she posted the video and caption it as ‘ someone is excited for the awards.’ as i watched the video i looked back at the two girls smiling at me.

“what the hell?! i can’t have finn see me half ready.” i said, the first thought being of my boyfriend.

“you look fine.” millie replied coming up beside me and putting her hands on my shoulder to comfort me in a way.

ive been dating finn for a while and at the award show we planned to announce our relationship while taking pictures by posing together as a couple.

as i got back in my room to start getting ready, my phone made the message tone telling me i had a message.

it was finn.

he sent me the video of me dancing and in a blue text bubble it said, ‘you’re a cutie.. also noah says hi.’ the message made me laugh out loud then i quickly wrote a response and finished getting ready.

i looked at sadie and millie and they looked great.

“you guys look so pretty.” i responded as i saw them waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.

“so do you!” they said at the same time which made us all laugh, couple minutes later we got in the limo and headed to the awards, the whole way there we sang songs and talked about how happy we were for season three.

but all i could think about was finn, seeing him and making our relationship public, i remember when we had a fight because we were live streaming and the fans kept asking if him and millie were dating.

flashback——-

“ask us questions!” finn said as i sat beside him, but not to close for the fans to suspect anything.

i leaned in and looked into the comment section where all the comments looked the same.

fillieshipper29292: where’s millie? are you guys dating?

filliebraincells: YOU AND MILLIE ARE GOALS

filliesmileven: please come out with millie already.

a spark of jealousy broke through my body and i didn’t wanna live stream with him anymore.

“im gonna go call my mom.” i said, finn looked at me with a confused look knowing my mom was working right now.

“is everything okay?” he asked me and i nodded.

“everything is terrific. im fine. bye guys.” i said waving to his phone and stormed out of the room and went into my own room.

i had my face in the pillow and just laid there wanting to leave the world, i wanted so badly to smash my lips against finn’s to show the people commenting i was dating him, but it wasn’t that easy.

as i stopped thinking, i felt the bed dipped knowing someone else was in the bed with me.

“y/n/n” i heard finn’s voice and i sighed.

“go away.” i protested, “y/n/n” he said again, and this time i turned over to look at him.

“what?” i said waiting for his protest,

“what’s wrong?” he asked me coming closer to me.

“nothing.” i said avoiding eye contact with him.

“so you just call your mom when she’s working all the time?” he asked me and i gave him a death glare.

“okay. it’s just, ive liked you for so long and seeing those comments just makes me- i don’t know finn-“ I was saying but finn interrupted me.

“jealous?” he said and i smiled from embarrassment and laid back down not wanting to be faced with looking at him.

he was then right in front of me, inches away from me actually. “ y/n. i like you. i chose you. if i wanted to date one of them then i would but i don’t cause i want you.” he said and i grabbed his face and smashed my lips against his.

flashback over.

“y/n we’re here.” sadie said to me breaking me out of my thoughts, i got out seeing the red carpet, the paparazzi and the fans waiting behind the barricades but no finn, or any of the boys here.

“y/n! go talk to the fans.” my security guard said as i walked over signing things and taking pictures with fans and walking along.

i got to the red carpet and started posing by myself even though i wish finn was beside me, i tried to forget that he wasn’t there and just posed and laughed with the paparazzi.

as i was posing someone grabbed onto my arm, shocked i looked over and saw finn as i smiled and hugged him.

“you look so beautiful ” he whispered in my ear as i blushed at him.

“finn!, y/n! smile over here”

“you guys are so cute!”

“smile this way.”- “come on. you aren’t giving me anything.”

was all i heard and from all the flashes it was hard for my eyes to adjust after getting my picture taken so many times.

i then felt finn grab my hand, “ come on.” he said as we moved along the carpet to the interviewing section, as finn was ahead of me i finally got to see what he was wearing and he looked great.

“y/n! finn!” an interviewer called us over as we walked over to the tall man with a short camera man.

“you guys look so great for tonight!” he said and i smiled and thanked the interviewer.

“any spoilers you can tell us for season three for me.... at least.” he asked, i laughed before responding.

“i would... but the duffer brothers would probably send the demogorgon from season one and the demo- dogs from season two after me-“ i was saying but then finn interrupted me.

“i want her here and safe so we cannot do that.” finn said as i looked at him with heart eyes.

“are you guys dating?” the interviewer asked me as finn interlocked his fingers with mine.

“uh- yes.. yes we are.” i said stuttering from how nervous i was, “so is he the mike to your eleven?” the interviewer asked as i smiled at looked up at finn.

“she is. she makes me really happy.” he replied which made me blush.

after few more questions, we walked to the building where the award show was actually being held and found our seats rather quickly.

“you nervous?” finn asked me, i looked at him being so confused, “for what?” i responded.

“you’re up for an award baby.” he said as i totally forgot, “ i probably won’t win, i don’t even have a speech planned out.” i said as he laughed at me then the lights went down.

“now up for the last and final award of the night.” the announcer anounced and i grabbed onto finn’s hand for comfort.

“and the winner is.... y/n l/n.” as i heard my name, i felt like i was dreaming but instead i connected my lips with finn and hugged sadie, millie, gaten and caleb who were beside them.

“uhh.. hi.” i said into the microphone. “i don’t have a speech, but i would just like to thank the duffer brothers and Shawn Levy for giving me the privilege to even be on this show.. and wow ok im crying.” i said taking a moment as i turned my back to the audience and heard them clap and cheer for me.

“okay and finally id like to thank my boyfriend and also cast member, finn wolfhard for existing and always helping me with lines and pushing me to be the best actress i can possibly be. thank you i love you baby.” i finished shedding some tears as the announcers brought me backstage.

this is one award show no one will forget.

[5hfanfiction]

Untitled (8/10)

Ever Since New York

Must this hurt you just before you go?

July 2018

I’ve been praying, though I never did before.

< 

Lauren and Camila kept up with their meetings. Being in a relationship without labelling it as such.

Without confessing anything, other than Lauren’s admissions of I love you whenever they’d make love.

-

The closest Camila got to telling Lauren that she loved her was on the phone, the brunette rushing late for her class.

‘Okay I’ve seriously got to go. Bye, love you.’

-

They made love on the night of Camila’s slip up, but they didn’t speak about it.

-

Summer came and Lauren found herself wishing that the next year of college comes fast. She missed Camila and it was hard to not be with her.

-

Lauren found herself wishing on a star every night, hoping that Camila would tell her she loved again. The newfound hope settled against her heart like snow.

-

‘Hey.’

Lauren smiles at her laptop screen, the love of her life flashing her a grin through it (Lauren likes calling Camila that).

‘Hey you, I thought you forgot all about me.’

‘Oh, I did, it wasn’t until Sofi mentioned you that I remembered.’

‘Very funny Camz.’ Lauren rolled her eyes, though she couldn’t stop the smile forming on her lips.

‘Hm, I like seeing your face.’ Camila mused, and Lauren accepted that as the closest thing she could get to a ‘I miss you’.

-

Lauren misses New York, and she never thought she would.

-

Camila 4:02am: I miss New York

Lauren 9:03am: Me too

-

Lauren wouldn’t admit it, but she sinks deeper every day that Camila doesn’t say the three words, though she stays hoping.

-

‘Camz, why don’t you guys come over to Miami?’ Lauren says, not actually paying attention to Camila’s face through her screen, instead her eyes are trained on her phone.

‘Why?’

Lauren looked up at that, her mind silently debating on whether she should say her real reasons.

‘I miss Sofi.’ she says instead, and it’s not completely a lie.

‘Right.’

-

Camila 5:09pm: My parents said yes, the ball is in Mike’s court

-

‘Papa? Can I ask you something?’

‘Of course, what’s up mija?’

‘Well er I-, I was wondering if Camila and her family could come over, for like a week or something?’ Lauren says, nervous because she’s never asked to have a friend over, not since her mother passed away.

‘Of course, I’d love to see them. Camila especially, it would be nice to have her around again.’

‘Thanks papa.’

-

Lauren 6:09pm: Coast is clear, you guys are free to come

Camila 6:11pm: Cool

-

‘Hi.’ Lauren breathes out, finally getting a moment alone with Camila after the families were introduced.

‘Hi.’ Camila answered, before attaching her lips to Lauren’s, something Lauren desperately craved, but would never say.

-

‘No silly! That’s not how it goes.’

‘So humpty dumpty didn’t paint the wall?’

Lauren laughed at the exasperated expression painted on the youngest Cabello, so she couldn’t stop herself when leant forward and kissed Sofi’s cheek.

‘It’s humpty dumpty fell off the wall.’ Sofi replied, a toothy grin on her face.

‘Oh my god! I’ve been saying it wrong all my life.’

Sofi giggled at that, and Lauren was too happy to acknowledge Camila’s mumbled ‘dork’.

-

‘You wanna go to the beach later?’

‘Mhm, sounds good.’

-

Lauren and Camila walked along the beach, shoulder to shoulder.

There weren’t many words exchanged, not much had to be said really.

They were fine with just each other’s presence.

Though in the back of her head, Lauren still wished that the three words would fall from Camila’s lips.

-

‘Someone could hear us.’

‘Stay quiet then.’

‘Laur-, fuck that feels good.’

‘So I thought.’ Lauren mumbled, her hand working Camila up.

-

‘It was really nice of you to call us over Lauren.’

‘Of course Mrs Cabello, it’s nice to have you guys around.’

Lauren didn’t receive a verbal response, instead felt Sinu’s arms around her, something motherly in the gesture. The hug lasted a while, and it was like Lauren was five again, in her mother’s arms, and with that, she let her few tears shed.

‘It’s going to be okay mija, you’re going to make it out just fine.’ Sinu whispered, finishing her thought with a kiss to Lauren’s head.

‘Oh and please, I’d like it if you call me Sinu.’

-

‘Of course Mrs Cabello, it’s nice to have you guys around.’ Camila mocked a blushing Lauren.

‘Fuck sake would you rather me be cold to her?’

‘You couldn’t even if you tried, softie.’

‘Fuck you.’

‘Please do.’

-

‘My mom was right you know?’

‘Hm?’

‘You’re going to make it out just fine.’ Camila repeated her mother’s words, soon after drifting off to sleep, leaving a smiling Lauren behind.

> 

‘So…’ Camila spoke first, her hands in her back pockets, and her feet gently rocking her back and forth.

‘So…’ I echoed, not sure how to say goodbye.

‘I guess I’ll be seeing you around then.’

‘Yeah, I guess you will.’

A few seconds passed of silence, both of us just staring the other down. Her mouth opened, but closed before she could say anything.

‘Urm, I should… they’re probably getting impatient.’

‘Yeah, of course.’

‘Right.’ Camila said, turning her back to me, and a moment of realisation flashed before my eyes, my brain only now registering that I wouldn’t see her again for a while.

‘Wait.’ I grabbed onto her arm, not giving her a chance to reply, instead pressing my lips against hers.

‘Take care of yourself Camz.’ I whispered, my fingers brushing against her jaw.

‘Yeah.’ she replied, seemingly in some sort of daze, ‘Yeah, you too Laur.’ and with that, the girl who’s been the course of both my rest and my restlessness walked away, tearing my heart with every step.

Disappointment hugged my bones, the thirst for the three words seemingly unquenchable.

I’ve been praying ever since New York.

[tiniest-hands-in-all-the-land]

Can you tell us about your Until Dawn au?

Gladly! It’s not anything spectacular, but it’s a fun idea totinker around with, anyways ^^

So it’s basically just Until Dawn with all the UD charactersreplaced with the Pokemon characters and a few changes to the storyto fit around the world of pokeani, with the character roles going asfollows:

Ash - Josh

Misty - Sam

Brock - Mike

May - Ashley/Chris (interchangeably, ‘cause in some instances I want her to be in Ashley’s position, and in others, Chris’s, for reasons I’ll get into in a bit)

Dawn - Jessica

Jessie - Emily

James - Matt

Meowth - Chris/Ashley (same thing as May)

Pikachu - technically serving both the positions of Hannah and Beth, but namely Hannah

and then the old flamethrower man dude can be like an older, rugged Officer Jenny who’s long since retired lol

Oh, I should probably mention that everyone is in their 20′s orolder at the time of this au. Also, since I came up with this aubefore I watched XY (and I never bothered with BW whoops),unfortunately those travel companions will not be there. So let’sjust say, for the convenience of the story, that they had otherarrangements and couldn’t make it

From here on out, this is gonna get super LONG, and super SPOILERYFOR UNTIL DAWN. So if you don’t know jack diddly about UD, and youdon’t want to be spoiled, I’d recommend holding off on reading thisfor now. So I’m gonna put the rest under a read more so I ain’tclogging up anyone’s dash with my dumb au

So basically, instead of a bunch of rowdy college kids staying upat a cabin to party and sex each other all day and all night, it’sgonna basically be like this:

Ash won a pokemon league and became a pokemon master (finally),and won a cabin on top of Mount Silver…? I think was the place Iwanted him at…?

ANYWAYS, he’s celebrating, all his friends are there (at leastthe ones I mentioned above), they’re all having a fun dandy time,and eventually Ash conks out from exhaustion. During this time, whoelse but Team Rocket decides to stick their noses where they don’tbelong in hopes of ‘congratulating’ Ash by means of stirringup trouble and capturing Pikachu. (they do mean well, and they areactually super happy for him, butchaknow–they’re kinda the mastersat fucking things up royally)

As they’re trying to make their epic getaway, though, thesnowstorm outside blows them way off course, and they end up droppingPikachu just before they crash into the trees. They’re all fine,Pikachu included, but Pikachu’s a far ways away from the cabin now,and has to try and make it back on his own, cause the others sure asfuck ain’t gonna find him in this weather

On the way, though, some monstrosity catches sight of him andchases him to the edge of a cliff. Pikachu ends up falling off (Withthe old Officer Jenny trying to save him and failing), but hesurvives the fall. Unfortunately, he has no way of letting the othersknow of his location, since he’s so far out and so far down intothe depths of the mountain, so he’s deemed missing by theauthorities

Fast forward a year, and suddenly Ash is inviting everyone (TeamRocket included) back up to the cabin to celebrate the memory of hismissing/probably dead best friend. Everyone is a bit unsettled goingback, but go anyways, if only just to try and help out Ash in any waythey can. 

A couple problems they notice through the night, though, are 1.Their pokeballs don’t seem to work (Ash claims that cell towersrecently put up on the mountain are messing with the technology) and2. There seems to be a certain bloodthirsty killer up on the mountainwith them :o

Throughout the night, the eight are eventually split up intopairs, partly because of their own volition, and partly because ofTeam Rocket being there and causing suspicion. For instance, Dawn haslike zero sympathy for the Trio and doesn’t want anything to dowith them, so Brock takes her up to the guest cabin. Jessie and Jamesgo out on their own (either exploring or James forgot a bag orsomething, I haven’t decided). Meowth doesn’t deem it necessaryto accompany them (the trip there wore him out, he claims–inreality, he’s just fucking lazy), so he sticks around with May,Misty, and Ash.

AND THAT’S WHEN SHIT GOES DOWN

Dawn and Brock are the first to be attacked, unbeknownst to theothers, and Dawn is presumed to be dead by Brock (shes fine tho) bythe time he reaches her. He then goes on a quest to find theperson(?) who hurt his friend to bring the great fist of JUSTICE downon them. The quest leads him through an abandoned pokemon hospitalwith a very shady past (which, admittedly, I haven’t put too muchthought into), and also delves into the mysterious transformation ofpokemon who have died into a very vicious and hostile ghost-typepokemon that has only ever been spotted on the mountain (and you cansee where this is going for a certain mouse pokemon who has beenmissing for over a year)

Back at the cabin, Misty takes a bath, and Ash, May, and Meowthplay with the spooky spirit board that tells them that Pikachu’sdisappearance was no accident, but was actually planned (which makesMeowth suuuuper uncomfortable and guilty). So Ash has anunderstandable reaction to this thing that he believes the other twohave made up in some attempt to make him feel better (?), and May andMeowth eventually get knocked the fuck out by Mr. Spooky Clown Man.

May wakes up a little later and finds that Ash and Meowth are bothmissing. After some searching, she finds them in a shed outside, bothtied to a wall with a buzzsaw aimed right at them. Mr. Spooky ClownMan comes over the intercom and tells May that she can only save oneof them from being ripped in two. So she’s sobbing cause shedoesn’t want to have to make this decision, Meowth’s sobbingbecause he knows that he ain’t the one she’s gonna choose, andAsh is sobbing because LOLL WHOOPS EVEN THOUGH MAY CHOOSES TO SAVEASH, SHE ENDS UP SAVING MEOWTH BECAUSE THE BUZZSAW SAYS SO

So uh. May’s super traumatized and heartbroken about watchingone of her best friends getting killed. But. She’s also growing ateensy bit suspicious of Meowth, seeing as how she distinctly choseto save Ash instead of him, and how Jessie and Jamesare conveniently away from the area during theattack and show up conveniently after said attack.So in her mind, she comes up with this elaborate hypothetical schemethat she believes the Rockets are planning, and tries to take theinitiative in stopping said plans by keeping Meowth along with herwhile she tells Jessie and James to go find help (under the guisethat she’s keeping Meowth with her as insurance that they don’tgo ditching everyone).

Jessie and James go on a little adventure over the mountains afterdiscovering that their balloon has mysteriously been torn to shredsand all the fuel has been mysteriously emptied out. After discoveringthat the cable car house leading up to the cabin is in shambles, thetwo come across a radio tower. They manage to get a hold of somehelp, but that’s when the tower decides to suddenly keel over andtrap them in the mines, oh fun!! In the mines, Jessie is holding onfor dear life to the rail of the tower, and James tries to pull herup, but can’t reach her. He asks if she trusts him, and that hebelieves he will have a better chance at reaching her from the ledgebehind her. She hesitantly says yes, and allows him to jump, but thejump is the last bit of force needed to send the tower tumbling tothe abyss, Jessie along with it. YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW FUCKINGDISTRAUGHT JAMES IS.

Jessie’s fine tho. Turns out she got caught in the wires duringthe fall, and manages to make it to safety afterwards. Then she goeson a spectacular, fun filled adventure through the mines discovering bits and pieces asto what happened to Pikachu after he went missing, and also runninginto Rugged Ol’ Jenny.

May keeps her suspicions to herself until the very end of the Mr.Spooky Clown Man escapades, where they’re both put into anotherdeath trap, and Meowth ends up being the one with the gun. Then itall comes out, and you can imagine how pleased Meowth is to hear thatthe only reason May separated him from his friends and quite possiblygot both of his friends killed during this horrific night was becausethat she thought they devised this whole thing.

THEEENN THE TRUTH COMES OUT, AND MR.SPOOKY CLOWN MAN IS ACTUALLY ASH, WHO’S APPARENTLY LOST HIS SHITAFTER LOSING PIKACHU. SO UM. HE’S FUCKING PISSED AT TEAM ROCKET FORTAKING PIKACHU AND PROBABLY GETTING HIM KILLED. AND HE’S ALSO FUCKINGPISSED THAT HIS FRIENDS DID PRETTY MUCH NOTHING TO HELP PIKACHU.

IT’S DURING THIS TIME THAT MISTY ANDBROCK MEET UP WITH EACH OTHER, THEN MEET UP WITH THOSE THREE.

YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW FINE AND DANDYEVERYONE IS TO HEAR THAT THEY’VE JUST BEEN THROUGH THE WORST NIGHT OFTHEIR LIVES JUST FOR A STUPID PRANK THAT ASH DECIDES TO PULL ON THEMIN A SICK FORM OF REVENGE.

Anyhoo, Brock breaks the news thatDawn’s fucking dead (supposedly), he and Misty decide that Ash is notallowed to be on his two feet for the rest of the night until helparrives, and Meowth decides, ‘fuck you guys, you’re all awful, immago find my friends’

During which time, Jessie manages tomake it back to the cabin after being attacked by the Hostile GhostPokemon, and Rugged Ol’ Jenny is not far behind, quite literallycarrying Meowth back with her, cause 'nah you’re not allowed to beout on your own at this time of night—dontcha know there bemonsters?’

Annnnnnnnnnd the rest of the storybasically pans out just like how Until Dawn pans out.

SORRY THIS WAS SO LONG. I JUST NEEDEDTO PUT IN MY CHANGES IN ORDER FOR EVERYTHING TO MAKE SENSE. BUT YEAH.THAT’S MY DUMB UNTIL DAWN AU.

I partly reallllllly wanna write itout, but also—that would require writing out and reworking thebackstory  of the penitentiary/mines. And also somehow incorporatinga sense of choice in the story. Which I don’t think I have the skillto do lol

I have some ideas about possibleoutcomes, such as what it’s like if a character dies, if some die butnot others, if no one dies, or the emotional and eventual impact ofsaid deaths (for example, if Brock shoots Jessie after discoveringthat she has been bitten by Hostile Ghost Pokemon, Meowth will be soovercome with shock and grief and anger that he’ll lose allsensibility and rational thought, which will eventually lead to hisown demise at the hands of a Hostile Ghost Pokemon mimicking James’svoice; versus if Brock doesn’t shoot her, and both Rockets are justsuper livid and untrusting of the twerps for the rest of the nightand Meowth has enough sense to make good decisions about suspiciousJames-sounding monstrosities), but I won’t put y'all through any moreof that lol

While I don’t plan on having this beingsuper shippy, I plan to have mentions/small discussions ofPokeshipping pining (possibly, haven’t decided whether I want thisone or not), Lustshipping, Contestshipping, Appealshipping,Rocketshipping pining, and Krazyshipping pining (lol whoops)

I also have a couple other au’s withinthe au, one of which Meowth takes the position of Beth and fallsalong with Pikachu at the beginning, and another where Pikachu iswith the group and someone completely different falls. But both ofthose au’s are very underdeveloped; this is the only one I’ve put any real thought into lol

but yeah. I think I’ve said all I cansay about this. It’s a dumb idea, but I think putting charactersthrough horrible situations is a great way to explore their psycheand toy around with what kind of decisions they might make instrenuous situations. Or at least I like to tell myself that in orderto justify myself for putting my favorite characters through absolutehell and back.

[inkshares]

A Q&A with cover designer M. S. Corley

Last July we brought book production in house. As part of that, we knew that we needed to hire and work with the best editors and designers around. Over the next few months we’ll be introducing you to some of these amazing people. We want to kick that set of introductions off today with Mike S. Corley.

Mike is known for his powerful, evocative covers. He’s done work for bestselling authors like Hugh Howey and Paolo Bacigalupi, and he’s worked on everything from novels to comic books to concept art for videogames. He’s designed covers for some of the biggest publishers, like Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin, and Random House.

Currently, he’s designing Matt Harry’s Sorcery for Beginners (publishing this October from Inkshares with the official cover reveal on Wednesday). He’s also the mastermind behind the gorgeous covers for other Inkshares titles like A God in the Shed and Rune of the Apprentice.

Mike recently spoke with us about reinventing Harry Potter covers, the pleasures of reading Murakami in the summertime, and his thoughts on what makes a great book cover.

Mike, we’ve heard you have a really interesting story about how you broke into the business. Can you tell the Inkshares community a bit about it?

Back in 2008, I was working at a merchandising agency and wasn’t really enjoying the work I was doing. It was easy and comfortable but not very fulfilling. So one night after work when I would normally work on my own personal projects, I was thinking about what I would do if I could have any art job. I’ve always been a bibliophile, so I figured if I could do anything, it would be designing book covers.

There was a trend at the time of redesigning things in old-fashioned, minimalist art styles. People were doing movies as books and videogames as books and posting them on the internet. So I thought, well I don’t wanna just copy them and try to make more movies or video game covers: why not just do books as books, go back and apply the same design aesthetic?

The first ones I tried my hand at were the Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I worked it out in the old Penguin Marber Grid style of covers they had in the 60s.

I worked on Harry Potter next and started posting the covers online. I struck a chord with a lot of folks on the internet when I put my HP covers up and things escalated quickly with those covers specifically. I was going to make prints because there was a huge demand at the time, but then Warner Bros. lawyers came flying outta nowhere and shut me down quick. It was surreal that I would be contacted by a HP lawyer saying, “you can’t make this art and sell it” as they slowly cracked their knuckles into the phone quite menacingly. So of course I stopped any progress on producing those covers. Luckily they were already out in the wild and about a week later I got my first cover job from someone who saw them and wanted me to do something similar for them.

From then on I got about one book cover request a month for the rest of the year and it slowly increased. I would do my normal job during the day and work on covers at night when the jobs came in.  In 2009 I quit my corporate job and went full time on covers because the timing seemed to be right, and I was young and stupid enough to take the risk without much damage to my current life. I figured I’d give it a go for a couple of months and if it didn’t work I could always go back to a design firm and get a “grown up” job again. Luckily that never happened.  

Wow, that’s a hell of a story. You should publish that as a book on Inkshares, and we’ll make the cover. Kidding. What were your favorite books of 2016? And which books are currently on your nightstand?  

I read a lot less last year than I would have liked, but a few standouts for me were:

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. I have a tradition to read a couple of his books every summer during the months of May-August.This year my Murakami summer read will be 1Q84. He is the best. Makes me feel super melancholy and nostalgic for things I don’t even know.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I love the Frankenstein monster and the old Universal monster movies in particular, but I’ve never read the original novel, so I made that a goal for last year. I read an oversized version illustrated by Bernie Wrightson which really added to the story.

The Valancourt Book of Christmas Ghost Stories from Valancourt Books. I love reading ghost-story collections around Christmas time. There is something fantastic about sitting by the fire, drinking some Winter Cheer (look it up) on a cold winter night. I’ve read so many collections it seems that everyone just repeats the same ‘greatest hits’ in the ghost-story genre, but this book was all new to me.

On my nightstand I currently have The Vile Village, Book 7 in the Series of Unfortunate Events. I started re-reading them in January because of the new Netflix show coming out. I wanted a refresher, and they still are fantastic. I also just started The Pilgrim's Progress. I’ve read abridged versions before, but this is the first time I’ll read the original text which I’m looking forward to.

What was your favorite cover of last year? No choosing your own covers!

Hah, I wouldn’t choose my own covers. I’m one of those artists that never enjoys looking at work after it’s done, I’ve seen how the sausage got made so I’ve no interest in ogling at it beyond the creation itself.

I don’t know the designer off hand but one cover I really enjoyed was I Am for You by Mieko Ouchi. Beautiful and simple. I love images that are one thing at quick glance and then on closer inspection they reveal another.

Another would be Onibi, a French graphic novel by Atelier Sento. I really love the art style and the book, which I own but can’t read because I don’t know French beyond fries.

If you could live a day in the life of a character from any book who would it be?

Thomas Carnacki from William Hope Hodgson’s short stories on the character. He is the epitome of what I would like to do as a life job (besides art) and just has the perfect amount of confidence and scaredy-pants-ness as a guy I can relate the most to, who can still be cool.

What is your favorite part of the job? What’s the hardest?

Getting paid! Har har. No my favorite part is doing the concepts. I read pitches then I go through a little routine of prepping for a new book. I’ll gather some reference images that feel like a style I think matches the book, and I go for a run or have a long shower (that’s where my ideas come to me for whatever reason). Then I sit down for a day or a few and just work out every angle I can take the book with a number of concepts until I either think I hit the right one, run out of ideas, or run out of time. Sometimes I get art blocks during the concept phase and mope to my wife about how I’m a terrible designer and maybe I used up all my ideas on the last book. Then I’ll start the process over, run more, shower more, a literal rinse and repeat.

You forgot the “lather” part! What was the most challenging book you’ve ever worked on? What made it challenging?

There was this one indie-author book that I got a few years into doing freelance. They found me because of the Harry Potter covers. They detailed the book idea they had, even had a rough sketch and said “just make this in your style,” so I made just that in my style. They said “this is good, but was it too good?” They asked if I could make it look worse, of course not that specifically but very nearly. I went through round after round breaking it down till it was literally (not figuratively) their sketch in the end, and then they weren’t happy and said “okay how about you do it the way you’d like it.” And then I put my hands up in the air and said I’m probably not the right guy for the job. That was a playful retelling and this was drawn out over many months. It was very surreal, sad, and frustrating. It’s over though, so I can look back and laugh a bit about it.

*cries softly*

It felt a bit like McSweeney’s “Client Feedback on the Creation of the Earth.”

In your opinion, what makes a great book cover? Are there rules that for you across genre?

I don’t think that can be pinned down in words exactly. It’s very easy to see a terrible book cover and point out why it’s bad. Wrong font, bad images, weird layout, etc. But often a good cover, for me at least, is more of just a gut feeling. You know it when you see it, and you can try to break down why this part works or that part works but sometimes it doesn’t make sense at all. Sometimes rules are broken that shouldn’t be broken in design and it just works. Sometimes it’s how the title plays with the images. Sometimes it’s just the colors, or just the images. Sometimes it’s just great because art is relative and you think it’s a great cover when it actually isn’t...  

I see a lot of publishers point to other comp covers out there and say “That cover is great, make that cover, but not..” and I can do the exact same thing that we see on the referenced cover but it won’t work for this other book for various reasons. Sometimes things just work with one book and don’t with another.

So for me, I have a certain taste in covers, and I realize my likes on art in general don’t match everyone’s tastes, but if I can be paired up with people where we mesh, then we are able to create great things. Or maybe they’re not! Depends on who’s looking at it.

Unless it’s our mothers looking at it, then of course it’s great.

You’ve had a lot of success, but you’re still young. Who are your favorite covers designers from the older generation?

Oh gosh, I don’t even have an answer there. The older generation? I may only be in my 30s, but I feel like the old generation already. Often times, and criminally, I don’t know who most cover designers are. It isn’t prominently posted anywhere especially with books from the olden days. There are lots of vintage books I own with just beautiful hardcover designs and I haven’t a clue who created them. Things are changing a bit now which is good, with social media artists are posting their own covers and often even publishers will link to the artist so it’s becoming a lot more known who did what. But I don’t have any good names to give. Saul Bass?  

What was your favorite cover as a child?

Calvin and Hobbes collection covers. Those were the best.

If you could go back in time and design any book’s cover, what would it be and what would it look like?  

I would love love love to go back and design the Harry P—just kidding. I would actually love to have been able to design the Lemony Snicket series. I’m not sure I could have done better than the original covers— Brett Helquist’s art is Lemony in my mind. But that series means so much to me and changed my view on books as a whole in a lot of ways, so getting to design them if only to take part in that series in a more concrete form than just being a fan would have really buttered my bread.

[everyonesastar]

Heart Without A Beat //Sing Fanfic//

This story is very long, also very sad in this matter. if you want to continue...be my guest!

It all went crashing down. Literally. The building was falling apart slowly, He could see it and tried to find a way to get Nana out of there. “This way!” He yelled running out of the box and running as fast as he could, thank fully through the all of the dust, they made it out, right before it had collapsed. Then he remembered “Oh god, Buster’s in there! I have to go get him, please! Before he gets-“ Water came flooding out of the theater, as so did the theater gang. But no Buster. He searched frantically for him, he looked everywhere around the theater and was about to run into the theater before being pushed away. “G-Guys, I think it’s going to-“ Johnny said before being interrupted by a loud noise. And that’s when it all happened, everything fell down right before them all. They began to cough from the dust that suddenly spreaded everywhere from the collapsed building. After a moment or two, the others began to realize Buster wasn’t out of the building with them, they all began to search frantically through what was left of the theater.   “Guys…I think…I found B-Buster..” Gunter said softly from shock. They all walked towards where Gunter was and gasped. “….Is he ok?” Ash asked, she was awfully concerned. Meena noticed Eddie hadn’t seen…it… yet but saw him walking towards them. “E-Eddie…I don’t think you want to see this…” She mumbled. “Why?” He asked while shooting a look at all of them. He grew impatient and pushed them away to get to what they were looking at. He froze at the sight, blood stained on the concrete, and a lifeless body. His friend, just laying there, “No….” He couldn’t think, he couldn’t think of what he had done wrong in order for this to happen. “Buster, no…buster…you’ve gotta wake up…please just…wake up…” He mumbled, not noticing the tears streaming down his cheeks. He felt his knees grow weak and knelt down to his friend. He knew he should’ve saved him. Or helped him out of the building, “This would’ve never happened….if I had helped him….he would be here right now! Standing with all of us and alive!” Eddie yelled.

His frustration towards himself burned, like a ball of fire. “Eddie….it’s not your fault….it could’ve been anyone….it could’ve been you who got hurt…” Rosita mumbled. “It would’ve been better that way! I should be the one laying there! Not him! N-Not….not my best friend……not Buster……” There was a moment of silence before Nana had interrupted “C-Come on…..lets go now….please…” “No- I need to-“ “It’s time to go Eddie, now.” She said with a more strict tone. She stood there, waiting for her grandson to come along with her, she couldn’t bare this sight any longer than the others could. They all decided to handle this in a civil way, they couldn’t leave him there… An ambulance came along and talked to all of them while picking up Buster, even reporters came to the sight and interview them, well only Mike actually. He was the only one who wanted to talk to them, it was either to get on TV or for them to stop asking the same questions repeatedly. Once everyone had finally left, they all got to go home with just one horrible memory replaying again and again as if it were just some movie they’d seen. God had they wished it was that way, but it couldn’t ever be that way. Weeks later it was announced that the funeral will be held soon, which they all in tribute planned. It was odd that Eddie didn’t show up to plan it as well. “Eddie should be doing this, he’s this guys best friend after all….” Mike mumbled, he meant in a nicer way than it sounded but by the look of it everyone agreed. “Well, you need to understand that he’s probably known Buster for a long time….and it’s going to effect the poor guy a lot…I dunno how much but…it will…..so lets just see if he’ll show up….” Johnny mumbled, he was looking over at Ash and saw she was helping on rearranging the tables and decided to help as well, to distract himself from the current subject. “Yeah, like Johnny said…he’s needs his time to grief over this important loss…we all need time to grief….” Meena whispered quietly before the room went silent. Rosita and Gunter quietly walked in with many arrangements of flowers and decorations, “Hi Rosita and Gunter” Johnny mumbled with a quick grin. “Hey Johnny, how are things going?” “Just…..this…that’s all…anyways, what do you got there?” He asked in a polite manner. “Oh just….something to brighten up the mood in here….I just….its unbelievable how….it all happened and now we’re doing this…..I mean yes it’s the right thing but….” She paused and shook her head. The others could clearly understand, they were still in shock that this was Buster’s funeral and that it had happened to him. They all thought he was going to make it, and they really wished he had. “Anyways….I stopped by Eddie’s house….” Rosita mumbled “And how was he?” Meena asked. She seemed to be the only one concerned for his sake, she had seen him around before and noticed how isolated he was. “He’s…..he didn’t sound like he was in…...good shape…we weren’t a loud to go inside…..and going in there probably wouldn’t have been the best decision…” Rosita said while hanging up stars that were attached to a string along the wall. They all continued their business before leaving the room, “Man, I can’t believe we’ll have to go back in there…..tomorrow….” Mike said with slight shivers down his back. “Me either…” Ash said agreeing with him. “Well, guess its time to head home…..see you all tomorrow…” Meena mumbled. They all hugged and nodded before going their separate ways towards home. Meena walked on the sidewalk examining all around her while she listened to the music coming from her head phones. That was when she stopped, it was all still there. The remains of everything, why hadn’t they cleaned it up by now? The bank seemed to want it gone within seconds if there was no money, but now, it just stood there. Reminding everyone of what had happened, She sighed. She couldn’t stand being close to it unless she really wanted to cry in public, which was embarrassing towards her. She walked by it, and tried to never look back at it. Everything in the room was a mess, it had been for the past few weeks. He didn’t care if his parents were going to run in and complain about it, it didn’t matter anymore. Nothing really mattered. He had been weeping for the past couple of hours until he had no more tears to shed, he would tomorrow though. He had been getting constant voice mails from Rosita or Meena, asking if he was alright. The other day one of them even came while he was having a breakdown, they probably thought he was unstable.

But Eddie was, he had lost faith in everything. He had lost the only thing he really believed in, even if he said negative things towards them. It was his best friend he had lost, the friend who had stuck with him for many years, the friend who had helped him emotionally, the friend who shouldn’t be d- He had wrapped himself in blankets, he hadn’t been eating for days. He was shaking from the cold weather from outside that had been coming through the door and into his room. He jumped at the slight noise of the phone in his room ringing, he didn’t answer, but not because he didn’t want to, he just no longer had the strength to get up. “Hey Eddie, you’re probably asleep but….I just wanted to ask if…..you’re considering on coming to the funeral tomorrow….I understand if you don’t want to but…we’re just really worried Eddie…please. Answer when you can” The voice mail ended, he couldn’t tell on if it was Rosita or Meena this time, the voice seemed low but soft. It wasn’t Ash, it couldn’t have been. He shook it off and still laid in the floor, he had been staring at the suit he was going to wear, his Nana had sent it to him. He sat up very slowly while gripping at his sides, the suit seemed to be faded a bit, he didn’t mind though. The suit was just plain, which was good. He didn’t want something too fancy for something like this, he shook again from the cold breeze that sat in his room. It reminded him of the cold nights Eddie and Buster would spend together, doing whatever was in the moment. It especially reminded him of the time they’d gone to visit Buster’s family in the fall for a family reunion, he didn’t know why Buster bothered to even invite him to something that didn’t involve him whatsoever. “Ok Buster, just explain to me one thing. Why on earth do you want me going to your family reunion?” He had asked. “Well, I know how busy your family is, to the point where you guys don’t really have family reunions. Plus, you’ve known me for as long as I could remember! You’re practically my family as well!” Buster had exclaimed. That moment had made him smile, Buster had made him so happy. He made him laugh when he didn’t even want to, he had made him feel important. He had made him feel warm and comforted. The tears were back again, he was already crying, just because of some breeze. “Pull it together” He mumbled while whipping away more tears. As he did, he slowly noticed the dark sky, probably the reason why he was growing tired. He laid back down on the ground slowly and tried to doze off, but he couldn’t. The constant memories flooding back to his head, then his constant tears that would flood the place. Eventually, he had fallen asleep. “Nice job…”friend” “ A very, very familiar voice said, he was somewhere else. A room with only one source of light, the flickering light wouldn’t last longer though. “What?” He asked “Oh? I never thought you’d forget your own best friend.” Buster walked out from the shadows, which had made Eddie jump. “Buster?!” He yelped “That’s the name, well atleast you remember me” Buster replied “What?! How could I forget you? W-We’re best friends…” Eddie said softly. “Oh yeah? Well it looks like even my own best friend forgot to even try and save me! How could you?!” Buster yelled back. Eddie stood silent for a moment “Buster…this isn’t you….please know I’m sorry…I wanted to save you….I just-“ “You didn’t even try! You didn’t even do one thing to get me out of there! You abandoned me!” Buster said, he looked very angry and hurt. “No! No! I didn’t! I-I……I wanted to save you but I couldn’t!” “Yes you could’ve! If you saved your Nana, you could’ve saved me, but you didn’t…..” There was more moments of silence. “Buster……don’t do this please….” “I’m sorry but you’ve left me no choice Eddie…..I wont save you from this just like you did for me.” Buster mumbled. Eddie wanted to ask about what he was talking about, but feared on doing so. “See you soon~” Buster said while waving before creaking was heard above. Eddie looked up to find the golden moon that had hung in Buster theater, there wasn’t enough time to move and before he knew it, he had fallen on the floor, crushed by it. He jolted awake from a voice mail “Hey Eddie, Just wondering if you’re going to be here still….um…hopefully we’ll all see you around 11….because..um that’s when it starts after all…” Meena sounded nervous, he could tell by how she was pausing randomly. “A-Anyways….I’ll let you go now….see you soon?” She said before the beep. That last line reminded him of what Buster said in the dream or more likely a nightmare. He shook his head “No, you’re going to this and you’re going to be there for him.” He whispered to himself, he looked towards the suit that was hung up for him. He stood up quickly and put it on, he examined himself in the mirror. The suit wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be, in fact Buster would probably love to see him like this. He took a deep breathe before heading outside, the light almost blinded him, he wasn’t used to it since he had been sulking in his room for weeks. He walked on the sidewalk for awhile until- “Need a ride?” A voice said, Eddie looked around until he found a tiny mouse in the front seat “Mike, isn’t it?” “Yep, now get in, shouldn’t let a nice suit like that get worn out by walking these streets, especially if there’s…bears near by….” Mike paused for awhile, looking back on the event he had had with the bears before. “What?” Eddie asked. “Nothin’…now get in before I change my mind.” Mike said, being a little more aggressive with him. They both drove off to the church of where it would take place. They both got out of the car not saying one word to each other. “Eddie…you’re here….” Rosita said with a soft expression. “We all thought you weren’t goin’ to make it…” Johnny said adding to Rosita’s comment. “Well so did I….anyways….lets go..” Eddie mumbled. They all walked into the room, the colors from the stained glass had made the room a little brighter. Everything looked so bright with the decorations, he didn’t mind, it was just a little surprising to him. They sat down in the second pew, not too far from the casket. All they could do was stare and try to not cry or disturb anyone with loud sobs, everyone in that room must’ve felt awful. How couldn’t they feel bad about something like this? The priest began to go on, saying how Buster would being going to a better place, but also mentioning how devastating it was for him to leave this world so soon. It was. It was so devastating to know that he had passed away, he was somewhere better where he wouldn’t have to worry about paying back the bank or bills or even having to worry his friends. They all stood up and went row by row to go say their farewell’s before they’d have to bring him out onto the cemetery. Buster’s remaining family went first, they stood silent and kissed his head softly, it was so quiet. He didn’t know how they couldn’t have cried then and there just seeing one of their own just laying there, he sighed. He knew they cared, they always did, it was just unbelievable to him. Now it was his turn to walk up there, alone, without his family around him to see this themselves. That didn’t bother him that much, they didn’t show up for loads of events before. He took one look at Buster, the suit he wore was nice, the flower he had held in his cold hands was a white calla lilly. The one thing that had made Eddie weep was Buster’s face, he had been telling himself “don’t look at his face just-“ but he did anyways. Buster’s face was so calm, but looked so sad. “God Buster I’m so s-so-sorry…” Eddie whispered. Rosita had walked up to him, as so did the others and pushed him away softly, almost as if he hadn’t noticed he was moving away from the casket. “Eddie, its going to be ok….just take some deep breaths honey.” Rosita whispered. She left Diana, who had also came to the funeral, to watch over Eddie and try to calm him a little while Rosita and her family said their farewells. Once everyone had finished, they were all walking outside. They passed a few gravestones on the way, Ash looked at a few and noticed one had a similar last name to Buster’s. She shrugged it off and continued walking along with the group who was almost at the burial ground. They all stood while they listened to the priest- “We now commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust: in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life…” Eddie felt a slight tap on his shoulder, He turned his head slightly but did not remove his eyes from the casket. “Hello…” Nana said in a sheepish tone. “You’re here…” Eddie mumbled “Of course, why wouldn’t I come here? I….I know how much he had meant to you….and…im sorry I hadn’t come any sooner..” She said while also keeping her eyes on the casket. “Its ok Nana…don’t worry about it…” Eddie whispered before it had went silent again. That was until Ash seemed to be talking to someone. “What? What are you doing here?” She said almost gritting her teeth. “I-I..I just-“ “Oh wait let me guess you brought Becky along as well didn’t you?” He shook from her words and how she said them. “No! She- We broke up Ash…I wanted to come here to respect the dead first of all, and second, to tell you how much I lo-“ “No! I understand the first reason but no, we cant do this…we just can’t. We can remain friends as long as you don’t lie to me….but even that I cant trust you with.” “Ash come on I’m sorry!” “I said no Lance, don’t you get it? We’re only going to remain friends and its your fault!” “Ash-“ Lance was then interrupted by an unfamiliar face. “She said back off, now back off before I’ll make ya” Johnny said in a grim tone. Lance slowly backed away “Ok, ok man…fine….I’ll l-leave her alone.” “Good, now beat it-“ Lance had slowly walked away from the two and stood next to Diana and Mike who he had almost crushed if Mike hadn’t yelled at him. Ash felt slightly happy by the fact that Johnny had stood him up, even though they both knew Johnny couldn’t hurt anyone unless it came to it. “Thanks Johnny…” “No problem..just what friends do ya know..” He smiled slightly before they both faced their attention to what was more serious. The casket began to go lower and lower into the ground, which meant it was time for people to leave. However Eddie and the big theatre gang stayed, they waited until Buster was successfully buried into the dirt. “Well…I guess it’s time to go…” Rosita mumbled everyone nodded in agreement, “Wait-Are we all ever gonna meet again? It would be…lonely without you all..” “Ya! It would!” Gunter said agreeing with what Johnny had said. “Well, I suppose we can meet sometime, just, I don’t think now would be the best…” Rosita mumbled while looking towards Eddie who was standing there at Buster’s grave, “I’ll go check on him Rosita, you guys can go along and I’ll join you all later…” Meena said softly while walking up to Eddie. “Hey…” She said. “Hey…I noticed you and Rosita have been leaving voice mails….” Eddie mumbled “Y-Yeah…sorry if we’re bothering you…..but we’re just worried Eddie…you don’t look good….” “Well why wouldn’t I look good Meena? My best friend is right here, dead! And now I have nobody here who actually gives a sh-“ Eddie paused when he noticed the hurt expression on Meena’s face. “How dare you go on and say that no one cares for you? I care for you! Rosita does! Everyone does! If no one cared we wouldn’t have even bothered to invite you here or send you phone calls! Don’t you just go on and feel sorry for yourself Eddie! I understand you’re in grief now but still, don’t ever tell me that I didn’t come by and give you a cake or calling you through your three weeks of isolation. Don’t ever tell me that I do not care about you Eddie, because I do. Everyone else does as well.” “Meena just go-“ Eddie said trying to not yell at her. “No, just stop…Buster wouldn’t want this-“ Meena and Eddie were shocked by her own words, “Meena….i’m sorry…” Eddie said after a long pause. “Its ok...” There was a pause “Anyways um….me and the others are planning on meeting sometime later on…that way we can all stay in touch….wanna join in?” She asked with a soft smile. He looked back down at the small tomb, he still had that lingering feeling. “Sure…why not?” Eddie mumbled. He and Meena began walking off until he had almost forgotten to do something “Wait here for a second…” Eddie told Meena before running back to the tomb. He quietly put down something, a small red bowtie. “You ok?” Meena yelled while standing, waiting for Eddie to finish whatever he was doing. “Yep…let’s go…” Eddie said while they both walked away from the site.

---

End...

[leagueofawesomedudes]

Week 5 Preview

LOAD Week 5 Preview

Fellow Germans, welcome to your LOAD Week 5 preview. We’re a quarter of the way through the season and your three time reigning champion has reclaimed his rightful spot at the top of the standings. Bow down peasants. Thinking about winning a fourth straight championship gets me harder than seeing Jared without a shirt on. Dom came into the league swinging and looks like a formidable challenger to take me down, but until someone else reclaims the title I’m going to keep swinging my monster hog around any chance I get. Deal with it. In other news... the Browns are still fucking awful, Chad did anal with a random on Sunday, and Tj said he’s going to quit fantasy after this year. If I remember correctly, I’m pretty sure Tj had similar complaints last year as well about the “fantasy gods” being against him. Sounds to me like a guy that can’t take the heat when the going gets tough. Everyone deals with injuries, so let’s all cue up our tiny violins and shed a few tears for Tony. The Squad is going to be splitting up this weekend with half of us heading back to Homecoming and the other non-fun half staying back in Cleveland to watch the Browns lose to the fucking Jets in person. I really hope we win but jesus fuck last week was brutal. Meanwhile Dom is going rogue and staying in Columbus to try and fuck some female he’s in love with (dude wants to have sex with a girl, what a fag). Alright enough bullshit let’s get into the matchups.

2 Gurleys 1 Cup vs. G-reg 3rd Leg

I’ll go ahead and get my own matchup out of the way first. Bennett congrats on getting your first win two weeks ago, but those may be few and far between the rest of the season, and don’t expect win number two to be coming this week either. Bennett has a lot of confidence in his team now with his savior, Doug Martin, coming back from suspension. I hate to break it to ya pal but he’s not that fucking good. I will admit, his white power duo of Rodgers and Jordy has been paying off in a big way this year, but that’s about all he’s had going for him thus far. I expect that to continue with the Packers playing a weak Cowboys defense that just got wrecked by the Jared Goff and the Rams. I’m sure those two will connect for some major points and even Cooks is bound to go off against Tampa Bay’s league worst pass defense, but those three aren’t going to be enough. My receivers leave a lot to be desired, but my three headed monster at RB should have another huge week to pick up the slack. Bell has a great matchup against the Jags, Hyde gets the Colts who are giving up the most points per game in the league, and Gurley is going up against a Seattle defense that’s giving up 5 yards a carry this season. Last but not least, Famous Jameis is going up against the Patriots defense that has been absolutely shredded by quarterbacks so far, so expect a shootout. Bennett is going to hate seeing that big dumb nig scoring tuddies all over his starting defense. Side note, it also wouldn’t surprise me if Bennett benched Rodgers and started his man crush Mitch this week. Seriously man you should do it, that’s what a real friend would do. This one might be a little closer than I’m making it sound, but I still take the W this week.

2 Gurleys 1 Cup > G-reg 3rd Leg

Hollas Heavy Hitters vs. Ain’t EZ Bein Breesy

Due to the first round of bye weeks there are a few shitty matchups this week and this is one of them. Two early season bottom dwellers are going at it as Holla takes on Solden. If Solden put as much thought and effort into fantasy that he does trying to get laid every single night he might actually be a pretty decent manager. Just kidding Solden, but seriously though if you showed as much enthusiasm for your fantasy lineup as you did last Friday night at Dom’s when you wanted to go out at 9:45 pm and not “stay in all night and not get laid”, you could really make some noise. Holla loses Matty Ice and Freeman to the bye week. Dak is a solid backup but has a mediocre matchup against the Packers. What’s really going to hurt him is not having a respectable RB to plug in this week for Freeman. Paul Perkins and Jeremy Hill are trash options so Holla’s going to need a lot out of Shady in a good matchup against the Bengals to make up for it. On the other side, Solden loses his Brees, Pryor, and Ingram so he’s getting hit harder by this bye week than Janay Rice in an elevator. On the plus side, his receivers all have some pretty decent matchups and Gronk is going up against the worst pass defense in the league. It may come down to whether or not Alex Smith has another big game which would also hurt Holla’s defense on the other side. Also important to remember, Holla is going to be bouncing around in Athens this weekend so there’s a good chance he blacks out and forgets to set his lineup while he’s balls deep in some freshman. This one could really go either way (kind of like all of us on the weekends) but I’m going to give the edge to Holla with the bye week being too much to overcome for Solden’s team.

Hollas Heavy Hitters > Aint EZ Bein’ Breesy

Jon SnOBJs vs. The Brady Bunch

Our own El Presidente finds himself in last place after a two game losing skid, and it hasn’t been pretty. After swindling AB away from Solden to pair with OBJ, it looked like Chad was going to be the team to beat going forward. Needless to say that hasn’t been the case. Chad might be killing one too many brain cells with his excessive Titos intake, because he’s had some trouble getting his lineups right and benching the wrong guys. That being said, Chad is too good of a manager and I think he starts to turn things around this week. *Insert standard “boring Doug joke” here*. QB advantage goes to Doug, Brady is going up against the worst pass defense in the league...no further explanation needed. That particular matchup could get uglier than the blood bath Chad left behind in the room at the Double Tree last year. I’m going to give the WR advantage to Chad. All three of his receivers have plus matchups, especially Randall Cobb against Dallas. Devante Adams is more than likely out this week (fuck me right) so Cobb is going to see more targets against a bad secondary. If AB and OBJ both go off like they should, that’ll give Chad a big cushion. On the other end, Doug gets the advantage at RB with Kareem and Bennett’s favorite color of RB, Christian McCaffrey. I like Chad’s TE matchup with Brate going up against the Pat’s awful pass defense, whereas old man Jason Witten has to go against a Packers D that has shut down opposing TE’s, advantage Chad. This one comes down to the flex position and Bilal Powell coming off a big week going up against our perennial playoff contending Browns makes it an easy choice, Doug wins a close one.

The Brady Bunch > Jon SnOBJs

Crows before Hoes vs. Little Diggs

Pot Stirrin’ Paul faces off against LOAD rookie Dom this week. Paul’s pot stirring tendencies continue to go unchecked as he continuously tries to tear our friendships apart and no one says anything. Ever since he became official with Bean his pot stirring antics have been nonstop, it’s almost as if he doesn’t need us anymore and could care less about the consequences. It’s funny how these two are matching up this week because Dom also knows a thing or two about stirring the pot among a friend group, right Solden? Let’s pull a quick tequila shot and take a look at this matchup. Dom is putting a lot of faith into Mariota playing this week, otherwise he’s going to be scrambling on the free agent market for a QB last minute. It’ll be interesting to see what Dom’s RBs can produce with both Montgomery and Gordon banged up. At full strength Dom’s lineup has the advantage across the board but it looks like this one will be close with the injuries in play. Mike Evans and Larry Fitz have perfect matchups for Paul this week. Paul’s hoping that Watson can continue his hot streak but that may come to an end against the undefeated Chiefs. Paul can make things interesting if Ajayi finally produces this week but Dom has a huge advantage with Kelce and Diggs in the TE and flex spots. This one will be close, but in a phrase he’s all too familiar with, Paul is going to come up a little short.

Little Diggs > Crows before Hoes

*MATCHUP OF THE WEEK*

The Injured Reserve vs. Julio Tones

On paper, this matchup looks to be the most competitive going into the week, earning Matchup of the Week status. More importantly, the two roomies square off in matchup with both hoping to go to 4-1 and remain atop the standings. Earlier in the article I mentioned how Tj has had some injuries to deal with, and to his credit he had a brutal week. Losing Carr for a few weeks and Dalvin for the year would piss anyone off, but I doubt any of us would be pussy enough to want to quit after that. Just kidding Tj, we all know you just want to “enjoy the games” and not have to worry about fantasy. But I think I speak for all of us when I say none of us feel bad for you. You got lucky with the Zeke situation and it was your decision to draft a quarterback that was going to be questionable for the entire season. Moving on, I almost forgot to even mention Cholly. That’s probably because he doesn’t come around very often I sometimes forget he’s even our friend. I’ve seen more of Bennett in the past month and he lives four hours away. But looking at the matchup this is going to be a good one. Tj did a good job plugging in guys in place of Carr, Julio, and Dalvin and has a sneaky nice lineup this week. Casey’s biggest advantage is his receivers, and this one is going to come down to Tj’s running backs. Zeke should have a huge game against the Packers, but unless Blount and White can find the endzone once or twice, it may not be enough. Cholly should get consistent production across the board. With Ertz going up against a stingy Cardinals defense and the lack of production from T.Y. without Luck, I don’t see enough big scores to overcome Cholly’s squad.

The Injured Reserve > Julio Tones

Alright fellas that’s all for this week. Hopefully none of you are too offended and I’m sure none of my picks will be correct but as long as I get the win this week I don’t give a shit. Solden, Tj, Paul, Chad have fun soaking with each other this weekend and bring a few W’s home for the Tribe and Brownies. Dom, good luck with your dream girl, hopefully she lets you eat her ass. I’ll do my best to make sure Holla doesn’t end up in the Hocking River again but I can’t make any promises. Love you all and I’m glad we’re all friends......yes even Doug.