#all the links in the playlist link to spotify for the record

[nomaishuttle]

frankensweeney was very fun i enjoyed it and had a great time I dont think anybody else should ever do this

#i have a migraine which is unrelated to frankensweeney. but it probably didnt help #if anybody does want to do this tho... lmk ill post the link to the playlist i made ^_^ #for those unfamiliar frankensweeney is the sweeney playlist i made that has all 5 cast recordings of sweeney that r on spotify #arranged by song. so u can hear every version #i would nott recommend it if you dont already like sweeney tho 💀 for any of my muts who would like a cast 2 try out first. welll there r 3 #paths you cn take. the movie is how i got into it but its my worstie now... it cuts a ton of the songs and yk. but that might be good just #to learn the basic plot if u dont know it already #the new broadway cast is rly good (aside from. i wont get into it you all know) and has almost every song from the actual show so thatd #also be a good place 2 start if u dont mind looking at a plot summary to fill in some minor haps #its pretty easy to follow but there r some major events that happen in between songs saur #2012 is objectively a bsd place to start its missing some songs But its also the best cast and number one and if you just wanna hear some #rly rly rly good performances everybody stream 2012 london cast. #but yes. frankensweeney is perfect length for if you work a fulltime job where you r allowed 2 listen to music. #thats all ^_^

[naomihatake]

In search of freedom (Ch. 4)

4. One step forward

Chapter 3 ; Chapter 4 ; Chapter 5

⠀⠀⠀⠀She's been searching for freedom her entire life and everytime she thought it was laying right in front of her eyes, she was mistaken. She was running around the East Blue, seeking herself and her dreams, meeting people she never forgot. No matter how much she traveled, she could only catch a glimpse of peace before realizing everything would crumble at her feet.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Maybe it was destiny that brought her on that ship with three strangers — foolishly, that's what she tried to believe when the moon shined beautifully and hope settled in her chest, squeezed by the same ribcage where feelings were blooming.

Pairing: female!reader x OPLA Zoro Roronoa

Warnings for this chapter: fluff, some angst, alcohol

Word count: 3.8k

Theme song: fic spotify playlist (click on the link)

A/N: Tons of interactions between Zoro and reader. Not a long chapter, but I wanted to offer more insight about the reader's past and the relationship she has with her crewmates. I know they travel from Syrup village to Baratie in a day, but I wanted this exact scenario, so let's say it took a half a day longer ;) Not proofread yet.

The reader is referred to as "Witch" because I have no intentions of using "Y/N".

I'm open for comments and opinions! <3

They spent the rest of the day buying supplies for the journey. With no previous discussions, they all came to the conclusion that Nami would handle the berries, with some opinions from the witch who was used to always saving up money. 

The witch has loads of information and experience about the map of the stars above, so she decided to save Nami from a sleepless night. She already took a nap after they set sail a few hours before dawn, falling asleep after she laid down on the sofa in the cabin. She completely forgot about her wound, too tired to mind the pain at that time, as if she's got hit in the head again. 

Now, she was purposely ignoring the ache. She analyzed the stars for long enough to figure out where they were heading. From Zoro's perspective, the way she counted the stars and figured out the cardinal points was witchy. Realistically, he knew that Nami must've had the same way of figuring out how to sail during the night and not only her, but other sailors as well. 

The witch sat on the deck, her back resting against the mast, her head tilted back to gaze up at the stars. The wound stung and it was uncomfortable, but she didn't want to bother herself with cleaning it up. Also, she had no clue where some bandages might be, and she didn't have the energy to go around and ask about it. 

Meanwhile, Zoro knocked two times at Nami's door, opening it after receiving a sign he could enter. The navigator was sitting on one of the hanging beds in the room with some notes and maps in her lap. 

"Do you know where's some first aid kit?" Zoro asked. 

"Hm?" she raised her head at him, frowning. "Did you trip after drinking too much booze and got hurt?" 

He rolled his eyes with a sigh. 

"I didn't even drink today. Just tell me where it is." 

"Should note it down in the calendar," she scoffed with a smile. "There should be one in the chest over there," she pointed at it by tilting her head. 

In the corner of the room, under a small desk, was the chest she mentioned. He opened it and found what he was searching for. 

"Oh," he heard Nami whispering. 

When he looked at her from where he was crouching, she had a shit-eating grin on her face. 

"What?" 

He was absolutely clueless. The most oblivious man Nami has ever seen and, for the record, they were all oblivious as fuck. 

"Nothing," she smiled innocently. 

What is she up to? Zoro wondered. 

With the first aid kit box in his hand, he got out of the room and walked back to the deck, where the same woman stargazed. His hand was still resting on the hilt of his sword while he stomped on the wooden planks. She hasn't moved one inch, except for the gentle smile that tugged at her lips. 

The only source of light was a gas lamp on a barrel close to her and she glowed. He stopped in his tracks to gaze at her the same way she looked up at the sky and he realized quickly that his lungs stopped  functioning. 

I'll need some booze after this. 

He let the kit fall in her lap and he was surprised by the lack of discomfort she showed at his sudden appearance. Each time someone came from behind, he saw her step away or react in some kind of way, be it a grimace on her face or a sharp inhale. 

"What's this for?" 

"Take a guess," he shook his head. 

She was impossible. Did she do it intentionally? 

"Shit, I completely forgot about the bandana," her eyes widened in surprise. 

She undid the knot of said material as fast as she could, inhaling through her teeth at the sharp pain. 

Only then he noticed an unopened bottle of something — he hoped it would sting his throat — sitting to her other side. He sat cross legged and leaned in over her legs to wrap his fingers around the bottle, tugging with his teeth at the cork. 

"That was mine," he heard a faint voice complaining. 

"It was."

He hid the smirk threatening to show on his face by placing the bottle at his lips, taking some long gulps. The alcohol stung so pleasantly against his tongue and he anticipated a sense of calm once he'd drink enough. 

A restrained hiss got his attention. The witch's lips were knitted together and she tried to clean her wound with a wet cotton ball — it was alcohol, he guessed. After swallowing hard, she continued to tap the skin lightly. Her other hand was digging into her thigh, distracting her with another kind of ache. She was obviously concentrating, the reason why she didn't spit out smart remarks at him. 

Zoro sighed heavily and let the bottle down with a low thud. 

"Will you need stitches?"

"No," she muttered. 

If she wouldn't have been hurt, her face would've looked almost cute. 

Since when did he start thinking that way about people? It must be the booze. 

She seemed relieved when she finished. The next step was to apply some ointment, which was less troubling. 

Then, came the impossible task: wrapping her wound with one hand. Since her other upper arm was hurt, she couldn't do it any other way. The wheels before her eyes worked well enough — certainly, there were a few ways she could do that. 

It couldn't be that hard, right? 

The swordsman by her side achieved inhuman abilities, because telepathy wasn't something that happened naturally. She needed help dressing the wound. 

The real issue was will she ask for help? 

He didn't know exactly why he wanted to hear her say something. Anything. The smallest word leaving her lips would sound like a yes in his head and he would act accordingly with the alcohol swimming through his veins. 

It wasn't in his nature to be so calculated. Nonetheless, exceptions always existed. 

He didn't need to be proud about helping her. No, it was far from that. He had another kind of pride and it settled in the scabbards still holding his swords at his hip. Zoro wanted to see how far she'd go until she realized that asking for help wasn't a sin. 

"Um," her lips parted. 

"Give me the bandages."

He opened his hand for her to place the white material in it. 

"I wanted to say that you owe me a bottle of booze," she blinked up at him confused. 

He didn't wait for her to give him the bandages, instead, he took them by himself and positioned himself a bit closer. Suddenly, the alcohol seeping in his bones helped more than he guessed the first time he saw the bottle. 

Was he holding back his usual strength at that moment? There were no coherent thoughts in his head while he wrapped the white material around her upper arm as gentle as he was capable of. Zoro avoided grazing his fingertips over her skin, but it was impossible any other way, so he found himself in a weird stance: his hand would hold her arm still from time to time while he rolled the bandages. 

A cruel mistake was to look into her eyes, which he unfortunately did. The witch was also looking at him. Probably, he should be more grateful about the way her intense gaze didn't falter when it met his own, even if it made his stomach tingle. 

He drank too much. Or too little. 

There was one way to find out and that would be taking another bottle to drown down his throat. 

He was never the one to look away first, be it an enemy or a friendly staring contest. However, he failed that time. 

There must've been some potion in that bottle. Otherwise, there was no explanation. 

"Thank you." 

It was the second time she thanked him in a day. The swordsman didn't see much in these things, but he was genuinely intrigued about the nature of his own gestures. As someone used to actions, questions sounded pointless in between his thoughts. Then, why did he suddenly ask instead of straight up finding out the answer? 

Why did he do these things without being asked to? 

"Sure," he let out softer than it was meant to be. 

He got up and headed to the galley to grab two more bottles of alcohol. 

There was a different feeling than the usual duty he felt about people. She didn't need his protection or help, she could perfectly do it all on her own. She skillfully tossed knives through the air and was awfully proud about her abilities, a confident smile on her face. 

Zoro never asked, but he guessed she was part of that world long before they appeared in her life. It wasn't possible to follow the rules of the sea unless you sailed before and she conquered the power of water itself. 

And the strength of his heart on top of that. 

"Zoro!" Luffy's enthusiastic voice beamed. "Let's learn the stars."

"What?" 

Wasn't that the reason why Nami and the witch were on that ship? They already knew a lot. 

"It's fun! I didn't know there were bears in the night sky!" 

"Of course there aren't bears in the sky!" Usopp commented. 

"They're just constellations, Luffy," the woman chuckled. 

Both of them came to her like curious owls with big eyes, begging her to show them some stars; now, all of them sat on the deck. Of course their supposed captain would learn about anything only to forget half of it the next minute, but the intention mattered, right? 

She didn't expect the swordsman to accept Luffy's invitation, but he did so, sitting in the same place he did a minute ago. Only the booze would determine whether or not he'd have enough patience to concentrate. 

"Why is it called Ursa Major? Is there another one?" Usopp turned his head. 

"Yes: Ursa Minor," she pointed her index finger at the sky above. "The Ursa Major  is there, right? They look the same, but the other one is smaller."

The sky was filled with stars and there were so many of them, it was almost impossible to spot a specific one. They sparkled beautifully, as if they smiled back at the pirates eager to learn their names. 

"Where, where?" Luffy looked up, confused. 

The witch moved her hand to the side and pointed at another constellation. 

"Search for the same figure, but in smaller form."

"Fount it!" Luffy and Usopp exclaimed in unison. 

She let out another soft chuckle and the swordsman paid more attention to that lovely sound than the stars she mentioned. 

"See the tip of the bear's tail? That is its brightest star and it's called the North Star. Whenever you point towards the spot on the horizon directly below it, it means you're pointing north." 

Luffy's lips were opened in surprise while he looked at the sky. 

"So you're also a navigator!"

"Just because I'm better than Zoro at directions doesn't mean I'm a navigator," she joked lightly. 

"I think you're overdoing it," the swordsman huffed.

"That's why you were so late?!" 

Usopp was already cackling. 

"The mansion was in front of your eyes and you still decided to go the other way," she nudged at him. 

"I was just checking around," he muttered between gritted teeth. 

"You're so bad at lying, Zoro," Luffy teased him. 

Their captain and the sniper were laughing colorfully, until tears gathered on top of their lashes. The sound was accompanied by the same reaction coming from the witch, who was unaware of the palm she placed on Zoro's shoulder, while the other hand was holding onto her stomach. 

However, the swordsman was hyper aware about it. It warmed him up almost as pleasantly as the booze, but it was a foreign sensation settling into his stomach. Those gentle fingers that wielded knives and had been dirtied by blood touched him and he didn't have an ounce of will within to push her away. 

It's just a touch, what am I getting so worked up for? 

"We just need to find a musician and the crew is complete!" Luffy smiled brightly. 

The witch's hand dropped from Zoro's shoulder, gripping at one of the bottles he brought with him. 

"I can sing," she whispered as if it was meant to be only for herself. 

"I can dance!" Usopp grinned. "Guys, you have no idea how I was the star of countless parties! Captain, you have everyone you need right here." 

Before the Straw Hat could say anything, the witch opened her bottle. 

"With a guitar, Luffy, otherwise I won't start disturbing the fish in the sea," she let out a short sigh. 

"If we find a guitar at our next destination, do you promise to play the guitar?" 

The puppy eyes boring holes into her forehead couldn't be ignored so easily. Defeated, she nodded and took a long gulp from the bottle. 

"Great!" 

And with that, Luffy got to his feet, his chin tilted down to look at his friends. 

"Good luck with the night watch."

"I'll come to watch over you, Luffy," Usopp solemnly touched his heart. "Who knows when an enemy will sneak in. I need to be prepared and protect my friends!"

"So tonight we find out about your snoring habits," the swordsman arched his eyebrow. 

"I don't snore!" he frowned while he walked side by side with Luffy. 

"Good night, you two," the witch smiled in their direction. 

Zoro continued drinking from the bottle in his hand, the first one he picked up already empty, sitting by his side. The witch had far less resistance than him and none of them got some well deserved sleep in the last two days. He acknowledged the proximity between him and the woman sitting at his right, but annoyance crawled up his throat — why he wanted to be near her was beyond him. 

"For how long have you been on a ship?" he wondered out loud.

"Is it obvious it's not my first time?" 

They turned towards each other at the same time, locking gazes the same way they did when he bandaged her wound. At least that time there was a plausible and logical reason — one he created on the spot. The second time it happened, he was just pulled towards her like a magnet. 

And maybe they were not exactly opposites nor each other's mirror, but they always found themselves in the presence of the other. 

"This can't be your first journey on the sea," he shrugged. "You're not scared at all."

"Did you just imply that I'm scared of water?" she cocked an eyebrow at him. 

"Then are you scared of land? You were damn anxious back in Syrup Village." 

The witch crossed her arms under her chest in a defensive manner. 

"It was my intuition." 

"You were losing your shit."

His teasing comment received a wide-eyed stare from her. 

"That's not true." 

Her lips were pulled in a thin line right after and she averted her eyes, looking back at the stars. She was searching for the right words to tell him lame stories she was fond of. 

"I'm used to sailing, yeah. Was part of a crew for almost two years and then left because I couldn't find my place there. It was my father's crew."

"So it runs in the family."

"Kind of," a sour smile creeped on her lips. "My mother hated pirates. How come she married one? He didn't become a pirate until years later." 

After another long glance towards a constellation she just noticed, she brought the bottle to her lips and gulped down until half of the bottle was gone. The memories flowing back always left a bad taste in her mouth, a sensation she wanted to fight against with some more alcohol. 

"And you are a pirate."

The conclusion was obvious. 

"I don't think I have to say it out loud, do I?" 

The sad smile on her lips didn't falter. The spoken admission that her mother hated her guts for choosing the same life as her father would've hurt more than the silence that spoke for itself. Memories sucked her into the past like a water vortex in the middle of the sea. 

"What do you mean by 'I'm leaving in the morning?" her mother had furrowed her eyebrows at her. 

The tension could've been cut through with the knife resting against the young girl's hip. She resembled her father too well: they walked the same, they had the same gaze and far too similar weapons. 

Before her mother's eyes wasn't standing a daughter anymore, but a pirate, monsters she hated from the bottom of her heart. Cruel, ruthless, merciless monsters with no hearts. People with egos bigger than their bounties and strength that could wipe away entire islands. 

Demons. 

Her daughter has become a demon. 

"You're talking after your monster of a father," her mother spat out after slapping the table with her palm. 

"We both know he was more humane than you."

"Where did you learn such words from, girl?!"

"You."

The witch was still standing in front of the door with a bag hung over her right shoulder. A merely sixteen years old with fire burning in her irises. 

"He's a criminal and a thief on top of it! A liar! A betrayer!" the woman's voice rose higher, threatening to break glass. 

"Maybe you didn't agree with his living style, but he's never done anything to us! The sea is a battlefield, it's kill or get—"

"I've heard that excuse coming from him countless times, I don't need you to quote that man!"

"If he is just 'a man' for you, just know that he was always more of a father for me than you were a mother."

A sharp sound bounced off the walls and the young witch's cheek stung after the woman's hand flew across her face. Her head turned to the side, but no whimper left her lips. 

"I dare you to say that again. As if you didn't live under my rooftop ever since he became a pirate — a monster." 

The young girl used to be bold even at that time. Her left cheek ached painfully, but it didn't stop the fire from burning. No, it was like pouring gasoline over it, thinking it would stop. 

She turned her head towards her mother and rolled her shoulders back, eyes boring holes into her forehead. 

"He was a better father than you were a mother." 

A stable voice and clear words filled with venom to the brim. She didn't falter, nails digging into her palms as she tried to contain her anger — her hatred. 

"Is that what you wanted to hear? You lack self awareness, mom. You seem to forget about the times when you'd tell me I'll become a failure just like him. You intentionally brush aside the speeches you gave me about how no matter what I wish for, I have to just suck it up and accept the fact that all I will ever be is an obedient girl. I'm not obedient and I'm not a girl — I'm a pirate. No one on the sea cares whether or not I'm a woman."

"These are fairy tales for children! You won't be able to survive for longer than a day. You will come back crawling at me and I'll remind you who was right!" 

"See? Exactly what I was saying. You're just proving my points and yet you cease to realize. Everytime you hit me, everytime you degrade me, every single time when you want to show me you have power over me — all of these are pointless."

A reckless teenager grasping for the first time at the notion of freedom after mourning her deceased father for five days. A flame learning how to burn. 

She made one step closer, the furrow between her eyebrows deepening. 

"Kill me. You've always craved seeing my father dead, didn't you? Why don't you kill me too? Wouldn't that make you happy? I bet it would, since you always acted like it."

Words could hurt and she learnt it from her mother, it seemed like. She's never heard someone use words like she wielded knives better than that woman and that time it backfired. 

Before she even realized it, the bottle her fingers gripped at was almost empty, making it easier for tears to gather in the corners of her eyes. She's been silent for so long and Zoro glanced at her from his peripheral. 

"And him?"

"Been dead for three years. I became a part of his crew right after. It didn't make any sense to continue living in my hometown any longer. They're like a shadow ship — they refused to give the title of Captain to someone else, even if technically the one in command now is the Vice Captain. Whenever they need to make a decision, they think of what their deceased Captain would've done."

The swordsman by her side crossed his arm over his chest and grinned. 

"That's one hell of a loyal crew."

They were my family, even if they would drink late in the night and have awful cooking skills. They would laugh and offer me advice, they taught me what a pirate's pride is about. 

"You still seem regretful."

The witch turned her head towards Zoro and he swore he'd never seen so many emotions flowing in those beautiful eyes of hers. They glowed with golden sparkles hence the gas lamp. There laid honesty and fierceness, a human who turned against its nature and decided to go further. 

"I never regretted leaving. I don't regret any of it. Maybe there were things I shouldn't have said or done. I could've been kinder, less revengeful. If I am to be honest, despite being aware of the consequences and effects of my actions, I don't regret it. It can't be undone and there's no place for apologies when I meant what I said." 

"The crew scolded you."

It wasn't a question, but a statement. Obviously, the crew was formed by men and a few women past twenty. They had more life experience than her. 

"A little bit. They were, indeed, more mature than me," her head turned towards the horizon again. 

Vague and cryptic answers, harder to decipher than Poneglyphs. However, Zoro wasn't an archeologist and he didn't ask for more than she was able to share, which made her shoulder relax. The witch didn't even notice when she tensed up. 

He stretched out his legs from their crossed position and leaned better against the barrel. It seemed like the pirate hunter didn't have any intention of leaving the deck. 

Their shoulders remained close and none of them moved closer or farther away. Both of them were content with burning a little more before admitting the truth even to themselves. 

Tag list: @emelia07 @dimplewonie @tfamidoingwithmylife @murnsondock @the-skys-musical-echo @conspiracy-crows @hallow33nz @ramae17 @gaslysainz @bunntsu @katt58 @katiemrty @hopefulrascalstatesmantoad @freyademartel @boofy1998 @ponyboys-sunsets @melsunshine @loveyluv7 @waddlingwanderer

#naomiwrites #in search of freedom #zoro x reader #zoro x you #zoro x y/n #roronoa zoro x you #roronoa zoro x reader #opla zoro x reader #opla zoro x you #opla x reader #one piece #one piece live action #zoro roronoa #zoro #opla zoro #opla x you #op #opla #one piece x reader #one piece live action x reader #zoro imagines #one piece fanfic #opla fanfic

[comradekatara]

hi!! i'm sorry i don't go on tumblr a lot anymore but i was trying to look up sokka/yue playlists and i found a post of urs that said u might make one/have made one!! i was just wondering if u have it still since i'm not sure when that post was made? thank u so much for ur time!!

i definitely have one...... in my head......... but because spotify hates me, i lost access to my account shortly after i made my (extremely slept-on) katara playlist, so i never got around to making any more character playlists officially. but i can definitely make one for sokka and yue now! in no particular order...

my love, mine all mine – mitski (song, lyrics)*

fast car – tracy chapman (song, lyrics)*

57821 – janelle monáe (song, lyrics)

earth angel – the penguins (song, lyrics)

don't let me sleep – shana cleveland (song, lyrics)

cosmia – joanna newsom (song, lyrics)

watching you without me – kate bush (song, lyrics)

goodbye ghost – la luz (song, lyrics)

they can't take that away from me – ella fitzgerald & louis armstrong (song, lyrics)

happy – mitski (song, lyrics)

kokomo, indiana – japanese breakfast (song, lyrics)

fernando – abba (song, lyrics)*

northern lights – st. vincent (song, lyrics)

day dreaming – aretha franklin (song, lyrics)

don't judge me – janelle monáe (song, lyrics)

i want you – mitski (song, lyrics)*

i'll be seeing you – billie holiday (song, lyrics)

black roses – escondido (song, lyrics)*

starchild – ghost quarter (song, lyrics)*

slow like honey – fiona apple (song, lyrics)

dissolve me – alt-j (song, lyrics)

stars – grace potter & the nocturnals (song, lyrics)

timefighter – lucy dacus (song, lyrics)

tides – the xx (song, lyrics)

moon river – audrey hepburn (song, lyrics)

doused – diiv (song, lyrics)*

isle unto thyself – miracle musical (song, lyrics)

i bet on losing dogs – mitski (song, lyrics)

ready, able – grizzly bear (song, lyrics)*

have to go – esther rada (song)

responsible – sara bareilles (song, lyrics)

picture me better – weyes blood (song, lyrics)

also, some bonus sokka songs, just for fun

the motherlode – the staves (song, lyrics)*

only kid on the block – cherry glazerr (song, lyrics)

hater's anthem – infinity song (song, lyrics)*

my way – frank sinatra (song, lyrics)

heat lightning – mitski (song, lyrics)*

mouth log – sidney gish (song, lyrics)

creep – radiohead (yes) (song, lyrics)

under ice – kate bush (song, lyrics)

funeral – phoebe bridgers (song, lyrics)*

window – fiona apple (song, lyrics)

how could i – thao & the get down stay down (song, lyrics)

blue spotted tail – fleet foxes (song, lyrics)

P.S. asterisks (*) indicate that the link to the song provided is a music video or live performance and not just an official recording

#i couldve made this entire playlist with mitski songs EXCLUSIVELY. know that i bravely refrained #sokka #yue #sokkaxyue #asks #atlamusic #ihauntmyselfdaily #oh. of course someone w this url would ask me this kind of question. of course #why was this soooooo time consuming #(i already had a list written out on my phone. believe or not. but finding all the links was so tedious) #of course it's worth it tho. as a testament to my insanity #also if anyone DOES have spotify and wants to make this playlist for me (excluding some artists who arent on there like joanna newsom sadly #and then link it to me. that would make me very happy. btw <3 #my music taste must seem so sappy assuming this is as a standard sample........ it's noooottttttt #(but also. isn't it a little?)

[nonivittumitavittuataas]

Useful links to Learn Finnish

~ Learning resources ~

# Apps #

Duolingo, a classic, it teaches you vocabulary and basic sentence structure

Drops, a great app to learn vocabulary, and it’s organized by subjects

Clozemaster, makes you fill sentences, slightly advanced

Memrise, good to learn vocabulary, includes textbooks vocabulary too

Mondly, teaches vocabulary and basic sentence structure

WordDive, seems like a comprehensive course (I haven’t tested this one)

# Textbooks #

Suomen Mestari, the book most Finnish classes use, is in Finnish only

Oma Suomi, a book for self-learning English speakers

# Websites #

The Finnish Teacher, easily approachable grammar lessons

Verbix, to find verb conjugations

Sanakirja, very complete dictionary and translator

Urbaani sanakirja, Finnish equivalent to Urban dictionnary

Uusi kielemme, a good vocabulary list divided by themes and levels

Finnish swear words on Wikipedia, essential!

# Video & audio lessons #

Finnish Pod, numerous audio and video lessons

Supisuomea-videot by Yle, videos with simple Finnish and subtitles

FSI courses, recordings of conversational Finnish

# Complete beginner resources #

A Taste of Finnish, reading, listening and grammar points

Kielet by Yle, lessons in Finnish with videos

Venla, for vocabulary, structures and grammar

Digital Dialects, games to learn Finnish

~ Listening resources ~

# Podcasts #

Opi Suomea!, a podcast in simple Finnish

Yle uutiset selkosuomeksi, a news podcast in easy Finnish

Auta Antti!, a podcast where the host answers listeners questions

# Music & Radio #

Radio Suomi Pop, only Finnish songs & Finnish speakers

Tunein, to access more Finnish radios

#vainsuomihitit, Spotify playlist with all the new Finnish hits

Suomen musiikki, my Finnish spotify playlist

Mirka Karoliina, Disney songs with Finnish subtitles and translations

# Movies & TV shows #

My Finnish movies masterlist (needs to be updated)

Yle Arena, legal streaming of Finnish shows & others with Finnish subtitles

Some American streaming services (Netflix, Disney+ etc) have things dubbed in Finnish (mostly cartoons and kid’s shows), but most of those are only available if you’re in Finland (or use a VPN)

# Youtubers #

Papananaama

KAKSI ÄITIÄ

maiju

~ Reading & Writing resources ~

# Reading #

Yle uutiset selkosuomeksi, news articles in easy Finnish

Oppiminen by Yle, various articles in easy Finnish

Free Finnish books, for advanced level

# Writing #

LangCorrect, write diary entries and get corrected by native Finnish speakers

~ Communities ~

# Finnblrs #

Tags on Tumblr: Finnish / Finnish langblr / Finnblr / Finnish language

This is Finnish

Suomen Kieli

Fennophile

Tealingual

Finn in training (mine)

# Others #

LearnFinnish on Reddit

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#Finnish #Finnish language #Finnblr #finnish langblr #learning Finnish #learn Finnish

[snek-panini]

Very belated Binderary books, uh...I've lost track actually. I think they are #6 and #7. And it's another two-volume split! This is (Slow) Burn, Baby, Burn by orchidlocked, an extremely long Good Omens fic set in the 1970s. It's about our favorite angel/demon pair navigating the disco scene, and it's not an AU, which is sort of usual in a fic this long and with such a specific premise. There are a fair few real people featured here, some as major characters, and a lot of music history and an excellent playlist alongside all the fun and angsty relationship stuff that so many of us are here for. I learned a lot about disco reading this fic and it was fascinating and also way more queer than I ever realized.

For the cover up there we have a white Allure book cloth on the spine, and white HTV over homemade book cloth for the main cover. The cloth pieces both come from the same sheet but I oriented the stripes this way so they'd be coordinated-but-not-matched and I really love the effect. They're also cotton and really nice to hold. It's funny, I was thinking of binding this fic when I found the fabric while digging through the Joann's remnant bin, and as soon as I saw it this fic not only came to mind but moved up to the top of the to-bind list. It was fate, clearly.

More photos under the cut!

Both spines and a top view. That's orange HTV for the titles. This it the first time I've worked with matte HTV (I usually use metallic or foil) and I was surprised at how much thinner it is, and how easy it was to stick. And I like the color inverse here in counterpoint to the front cover. The top view shows off the handmade endbands and bookmark, and also the rounding job. I'm still working on rounded spines, and the turn-in over the spine didn't come out as smooth as I'd have liked, but I think it's a good result. The ribbon bookmark was supposed to be blue to match the endbands, but every blue ribbon I could find clashed horribly with the cover so it's this nice leafy sage green. Which actually works really well with...

The endpapers! I got these as Joann's too. All four are cut from the same print, but I shifted and rotated them when I trimmed them so the patterns wouldn't all be in the same place. I had desperately wanted this other paper I found on Etsy with little vinyl records all over it, but the pieces weren't the right shape and I'd have had to ship them from overseas ($$), but I like the mood these ones set. And they're thick and nicely textured and look awesome with the cover, so really I think things worked out very well.

Couple of pics of the interior. I kept it fairly simple but I feel like it fits the story.

The scene break line is orange, to match the covers. I usually use gray but wanted something more fun. I recently bought some off-white paper that I used for most of my binderary projects this year because I've heard it's easier on the eyes, and it is, but I used the older bright white for this so the color contrast would be sharper. No complaints; I think it looks amazing. The second image above is the appendix I put together for the volume. Being so centered in the music industry, this fic has a really long playlist that the author put together with their preferred recordings. It's linked in the story and I did include the link text in the book, but I had my mind on preservation and the challenges of digital archiving while I was making this one, so I also took all the title/artist/album info and just listed it here. It was too much to do all by hand, so I learned how to export a Spotify playlist into an Excel doc, then moved that into the Word doc to print. A lot of steps, but not nearly as hard as I'd thought, and way less tedious.

I have to say this book is aesthetically really different than all my previous ones. I ran into so many design hurdles but I honestly couldn't be more pleased with the end result. I'll have to push my comfort zone like this more often, I guess.

#bookbinding #fanbinding #snek makes books #good omens #it's disco so it needed to be appropriately funky #and i think i nailed it actually #look at them they're awesome

[shou-jpeg]

-Back on the Beat-

Part 3. 03

November 2nd, 10:30pm

Kim has been trying.

He's been trying really hard, but maybe he’s been approaching this wrong after all.

It doesn't seem like Porchay is all that impressed with him, because he keeps sending Kim songs about broken relationships no matter how many songs Kim sends him about how much he misses him.

Kim looks out at the city.

Maybe he's hoping for too much. Porchay didn't directly respond to the song Kim recorded for him, so why would things be different with these songs that aren't even personal? 

Or maybe he's been telling Kim this whole time that he still hasn't forgiven him, even now that they’re… friends?

Maybe Kim needs to be more direct.  

Kim wouldn’t admit it out loud if you threatened him, but the idea of approaching Porchay and being direct terrifies him. 

He doesn’t even know what he would say to him.

He did try, when they hung out last week after dinner, but the words kept getting stuck in his throat. Then Porchay would say something funny and Kim would let himself get distracted. 

After that night, Kim had thought that maybe Porchay didn’t want to talk about it anyway. Things started to feel like they used to between them, back before Kim fucked it all up. Maybe this tentative friendship they’ve built was enough to heal that wound without addressing it directly. 

Though… 

Porchay does keep sending Kim pretty pointed songs. 

So maybe not then. 

They have become friends, but Kim supposes that doesn’t mean that Porchay wants to date him again. 

Kim looks down at his phone and opens Spotify. 

He can admit it to himself now, but he spent a lot of their time together in the past terrified that Porchay would learn about the darker parts of his life and decide he didn't want anything to do with Kim after all.

Kim's family is dangerous. So fucking dangerous. And Kim is dangerous, ruthless and cruel. Kim didn't want Porchay anywhere near that.

And Kim supposes he probably panicked a little, when Porchay confronted him that day.

He just… he had been trying to distance himself from Porchay, but he kept finding himself drawn back in.

They were almost…

There was… is… something about Porchay that is magnetic. Kim wants to be around him all the time. With Porchay, it feels like all the shit in his life is less overwhelming. Like he can breathe for a moment and gather the energy to fight it all again the next day. 

He misses that feeling. He misses Porchay. He has barely stopped thinking about him since they met at the studio the first time. Kim doesn’t think he will ever stop thinking about him. 

He didn't want to leave that night after dinner. Kim was having so much fun, and he wanted to stay longer and talk to Porchay more about whatever the conversation led them to. He wants to help Porchay make stupid memes again, he wants to write music with him, and cook dinner for him and talk with him.

And other things too.

Porchay is in this life now, no matter how Kim personally feels about it. There's no point trying to keep him from it anymore. Porchay won't leave Porsche, and Porsche is now far too tangled up with the mafia to even be able to leave, even if he wanted to.

And as much as Kim would love Porchay to be far away from this life, Kim is also selfish.

He looks down at his phone, navigating through Spotify to bring one of the many songs that he’s been associating with Porchay and the way he feels about him. He sends him the link.

He’s going to keep trying.

If Porchay doesn’t want to date him, then Kim will respect that. But until Porchay refuses him outright, Kim is going to keep trying.

If these songs aren’t working, perhaps he should try a different angle. Porchay has been replying with break up songs, not refusal songs. That has to count for something, right?

He just needs to figure out what Porchay might accept from him.

< Prev - Next >

First

Playlist

#kimchay #kinnporsche #kim theerapanyakul #porchay kittisawasd #porchay pachara #back on the beat #i want you bach au #i want you bach au part 3 #this time on Kim massively overthinks and totally misreads the situation #he's heading in the right direction nonetheless though #slowly but surely #proud of him

[musicforants]

Happy new year! Here’s my favorite albums & songs in of 2023. Click here to listen to my full Best Songs playlist* (100+ tracks) via Spotify or Apple Music.

FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2023

Sufjan Stevens - Javelin

The National - First Two Pages of Frankenstein / Laugh Track

Lana Del Rey - Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

boygenius - The Record

Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World

JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring the Hoes

Caroline Rose - The Art of Forgetting

Blur - The Ballad of Darren

Ratboys - The Window

Blondshell - s/t

Youth Lagoon - Heaven is a Junkyard

Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

The Mountain Goats - Jenny From Thebes

Jeff Rosenstock - Hellmode

Wilco - Cousin

Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good!

Slowdive - everything is alive

Indigo De Souza - All of this will end

Wednesday - Rat Saw God

Romy - Mid Air

DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Destiny

Billy Woods & Kenny Sagan - Maps

The Japanese House - In the end it always does

Yves Tumor - Praise a Lord who chews but which does not consume

The Clientele - I Am Not There Anymore

Roison Murphy - Hit Parade

Bully - Lucky For You

M83 - Fantasy

Jess Williamson - Time Ain’t Hospitable

Sofia Kourtesis - Madres

FAVORITE SONGS OF 2023

Sufjan Stevens - Shit Talk

Lana Del Rey - A&W

The National - Tropic Morning News

Feist - Borrow Trouble

Blondshell - Joiner

Blur - The Narcissist

boygenius - Not Strong Enough

MGMT - Mother Nature

Wednesday - Chosen To Deserve

Yo La Tengo - Aselestine

Caroline Rose - Miami

Ratboys - The Window

Roison Murphy - The Universe

Oneohtrix Point Never - A Barely Lit Path

Indigo De Souza - Younger & Dumber

Jeff Rosenstock - 3 Summers

Caroline Polachek - Blood & Butter

Sun June - Get Enough

Yard Act - The Trench Coat Museum

DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ – Honey

Girl Scout - Weirdo

JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Lean Beef Patty

Sofia Kourtesis - Madres

Overmono - Good Lies

Bully - Days Move Slow

Youth Lagoon - Idaho Alien

Katy Kirby - Cubic Zirconia

Andy Shauf - Halloween Store

Romy - She's On My Mind

M83 - Oceans Niagara

Yves Tumor - Echolalia

Big Thief - Vampire Empire

Olivia Rodrigo - get him back!

Fever Ray - Kandy

Jessie Ware - Begin Again

The Japanese House - Boyhood

Kelela - Contact

Jess Williamson - Hunter

Mitski - My Love Mine All Mine

billy woods & Kenny Segal - Soft Landing

Tennis - Let's Make a Mistake Tonight

Slowdive - shanty

Beirut - Hadsel

NewJeans - Super Shy

The Clientele - Blue Over Blue

Nation of Language - Sole Obsession

ANOHNI - This Must Change

The Last Dinner Party - Nothing Matters

Slaughter Beach, Dog - Engine

The Beatles - Now and Then

Link to full 100+ track playlist on Spotify / Apple Music

*playlist subject to change

#lists #music #best of 2023 #sufjan stevens #lana del rey #boygenius #the national #blur #blondshell #yo la tengo #caroline rose #ratboys #jeff rosenstock #youth lagoon #feist #spotify #apple music #Indigo De Souza

[pluckysidekick]

It’s Wednesday, my fellow Drewds! Going into the holidays I can’t help thinking about how our favorite Crew are celebrating the holidays. Can’t wait for all of the @secretsleuthexchange fics, gifsets, and fanvids we’re going to get!

In the meantime, I was inspired by a poll from @burningblake about which classic “standard” song best represents Nace (all excellent choices). I wound up making a Season 4 playlist of standards from the Great American Songbook, and a few other classic tracks, that represent their Season 4 journey for me. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, here we go!

I’ll be linking the Spotify tracks, but you should be able to find them all on Apple Music or YouTube. If you want a link to the full playlist, just hit me up here or on Discord.

1. The Nearness of You - This Hoagy Carmichael classic brings to mind Nancy and Ace’s inability to stay apart every time they’re near each other in Episode 401 🥺. I love the Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong duet, but I picked Norah Jones’ version from her 2002 debut album because it’s just so perfectly wistful.

2. Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby - this so so cool track was written by Louis Jordan, but I first heard it on Tom and Jerry (that’s the fighting cat and mouse cartoon in case you’re too young to remember them). I immediately envision the back and forth argument Nancy and Ace have throughout Episode 402 in the lyrics of this song. Ace just wants to know! I adore Joe Jackson’s version, but I went with Dinah Washington and Quincy Jones from 1956 because it is absolutely perfect.

3. Night and Day - I like to imagine that Nancy and Ace stayed up all night talking at the end of 402. This song perfectly embodies their relationship at this stage 🥹. It was written by Cole Porter for Fred Astaire to sing in the original ‘The Gay Divorce’ Broadway musical (catch the film, a classic Fred and Ginger madcap musical romcom with such amazing dancing🕺🏼). But I had to go with Frank Sinatra from 1957’s ‘A Swingin Affair’ because it’s such a classic swing tune.

4. April in Paris - I’m not crying, you’re crying. Warning, there’s going to be a lot of crying in this playlist. Nancy telling Ace the story of her parents’ honeymoon in Paris in Episode 403, that shy smile when she tells him she always wanted to recreate it with someone, GAH. I had to pick the wonderful Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown on trumpet, simply exquisite. I’m going to have to take a break to sob quietly in the corner. “What have you done to my heart” indeed.

5. Fever - There was only one song, and only one version of this song, that matches the heat Nancy and Ace generated in the infamous Sigil scene. Peggy Lee burned the house down in 1958 with this track. “What a lovely way to burn” - Nancy can relate.

6. So in Love - Another genius Cole Porter song, written originally for Kiss Me Kate, but sung here by the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald (my personal hero). I had to pick it for THE KISS. They are just so in love 😭. A beautiful song and a beautiful rendition worthy of Nancy and Ace’s love. The fact that Kiss Me Kate is a musical about bickering exes who eventually find love again makes it even more perfect.

7. Crying - Roy Orbison, 1962. Need I say more? I may never recover from the final scene of 403. This song at least helps a little with the pain by naming it. Roy hits some insane notes in this song—the intensity matches both Nancy and Ace’s misery in that moment.

8. Good Morning, Heartache - More like Good Morning, Sorbet. In Episode 404, Nancy drowns her sorrows in her favorite frozen dessert to deal with the heartache of gaining and losing Ace. And no one does heartache like Billie Holiday, who recorded this song in 1946. Heartache haunts Nancy all throughout S4, and this track represents it perfectly.

9. I had two contenders for the Nace scenes in Episode 405, both from the early 60’s. I Fall to Pieces, released by Patsy Cline and The Jordanaires in 1961, was a country crossover and Patsy’s number one hit—an incredible track that embodies Nancy’s emotions on seeing Ace again. She can’t even look him the eye at the beginning of the episode. Which brings me to my other choice, Walk on By, written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, and famously sung by Dionne Warwick in 1964. Nancy puts up a brave front for most of this episode, but inside she wants to break down and cry.

10. Episode 405’s speed dating montage is one of my favorite scenes of Season 4. Again I have two contenders—why should I have to choose? Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s One For My Baby (and One More for the Road), as sung by Ella Fitzgerald (again ‘cause she’s the best), is an ideal soundtrack for Nancy’s increasingly desperate descent as she spends every would-be speed date talking about Ace and THAT KISS. Equally appropriate is Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life—velvet-voiced Johnny Hartman and saxophonist John Coltrane’s 1963 track positively drips with ennui, elegantly over cocktails, of course. If you’ve never heard this one, please give it a listen. There’s even a mention of a week in Paris 🥺.

11. Episode 406, with the infamous Spider Prom, is Ace’s episode IMO—we finally get to see how he’s dealing with the loss of the love of his life and his best friend. He so desperately wants to somehow get back to being friends with Nancy, he resorts to spending countless hours with the help of S4 MVP Nick trying to catch Chunky Velez for her. Can’t We Be Friends? is the perfect song for him in this episode, gorgeously sung by Ella and Louis. That is, until he spies Nancy and Tristan dancing, and realizes what he can never have. Etta James’ blistering track I’d Rather Go Blind captures Ace’s feelings in that moment. He may have been the one to halt their attempts to brake the curse, but he’s hurting just as much as Nancy is.

12. I’ve got two seminal songs to represent Episode 407. When Nancy realizes that Ace let Chunky go, and hears his admission that seeing her with Tristan hurt, it positively screams Cry Me a River. No, not the Justin Timberlake song 😅. This epic torch song was famously sung by Julie London in 1955, and expresses beautifully Nancy’s scorn at Ace’s hypocrisy even as she admits that he broke her heart.

Their fight, and Nancy’s subsequent dashed hopes that Ace would call her bluff and come back, makes me think of Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye. Another Cole Porter masterpiece sung by Ella. What can I say? You can’t top perfection:

Every time we say goodbye, I die a little Every time we say goodbye, I wonder why a little Why the gods above me, who must be in the know Think so little of me, they allow you to go

I dare you to listen to this track without weeping over the Nace of it all. Enjoy!

Well, Drewds, we’re just past the halfway mark of Season 4 and this post is already a novel, so I’m going to stop here for now. What did you think of my picks? Any you think I missed?

I’ll do a Part 2 as long as I get a few notes on this one 😂 . It will feature more classic songs that represent Nancy and Ace as they head into the back half of the season. I know it’s going to get rough ahead, but I promise the music will be sweet.

Update: Part 2 is here!

#nancy drew #nancy drew cw #nace #ndcw #cw nancy drew #ace hardy #jazz #great american songbook #kennedy mcmann #alex saxon #nacesource #ndcentral #ella fitzgerald #louis armstrong #billie holiday #julie london #norah jones #dinah washington #etta james #patsy cline #roy orbison #author: pluckysidekick

[carpooling-the-internet]

Friends!!! Sherlockians!!! To those on an ACD Sherlock Holmes kick rn who haven’t yet thought to explore the radio readings/dramatizations: I recommend!!! I’d been skeptical before but I am admittedly a convert now after only hearing one episode.

I’ve been working my way through the canon (via audiobook so I have something to look forward to when I do chores and walk the dog) and listened to every free audiobook I could find on Spotify by now except for a handful of stories in the Casebook. There are a few audiobooks of Casebook but I couldn’t find one with an English accent and for some reason it just doesn’t sound right if the accents are wrong?

But then today I stumbled on a recording of the BBC radio version on Libby (my local library app). And the Lions Mane episode did NOT disappoint! Sound effects! So many immersive sound effects and seemingly improvised lines/ vocalizations serve to make it seem like you’re standing right next to them as a fly on the wall rather than listening to Watson read his copy of the strand to you. It was the 1989 radio series by Bert Coules with Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. Here’s a link to a YouTube playlist hat has all the episodes. I can’t speak for all of them ofc bc I’ve only just listened to lions mane so far, but I was just so excited to share my little discovery that I wanted to post this anyway!

Has anyone else got any recommendations for radio dramatizations of the books? Let me know!

#Sherlock Holmes #radio dramatizations #bbc radio #the casebook of Sherlock Holmes #acd #acd holmes #acd johnlock

[roo-bastmoon]

BTS Tutorial: Pandora's Unlimited Looping

As Whoopi Goldberg once famously said in the movie Ghost: "You in danger, girl." Many chart accounts on Twitter are saying our streams have Jimin dropping out of the Top 20 already.

Looping on Pandora is a crucial strategy at a critical time when YouTube is deleting views, radio is reluctant, and our Spotify playlists must support several members. We must make use of all tools available.

Please read this post and share the link to this tutorial with all big accounts and your social media. We need all hands on deck.

Pandora is an old and trusted streaming service that counts for Billboard charts.

If you have a free 90-day premium trial, it lets you make your own playlist that you can loop for 24 straight hours without clicking around or signing in.

Here's why you don't want to just use the free version:

--the streams count three times LESS than premium streams

--Pandora will auto-play other songs in between the songs you want

--there are constant ads you have to sit through to get to a song

So just bite the bullet and use a free trial. It's good for months and they will remind you before you get charged!

Okay, so, let's assume you've been a good ARMY and you've made your free premium Pandora account.

You want to start straight away searching for songs to save into MY COLLECTION.

Today, we need to make a playlist to promote Face--specifically Like Crazy. (We can also use this strategy later to help all of BT'S songs. Our goal right now is to prevent freefall in Week 3 before D-Day is out. But this will be good practice for all our boys once we get it down pat, especially if YouTube doesn't get straightened out!)

My playlist looks like this:

Now look here. There are 1,440 minutes in a day. We know Like Crazy is 3:32 minutes long. In theory, you could loop this song 410+ times in a day and all those plays will count. We know that 150 premium streams is the equivalent of buying the song once, so looping like this is like buying the song twice that day.

THIS IS HOW WE BEAT THE DROP IN SALES AND CULLED VIEWS.

I am not saying you shouldn't buy. You should. In fact, both SHERRY and JIMIN FUNDS will be prioritizing Like Crazy digitals in Week 3, so please buy if you are US/PR ARMY and can make new accounts!

Either way, when you make a Pandora playlist of all of Jimin's Like Crazy versions, remember to click that loop button once on the bottom ribbon:

And then just sit back every day and let those streams pour in.

Puppykitties, I know you must be so tired. I have an eyestrain migraine a mile wide and am not supposed to be on the computer right now. I'm certain the last thing you want to do is delve into making new accounts when you're already working hard.

Word on the street is that using Pandora WORKS WONDERS:

We already know this is a tried and true technique for other K-pop fandoms whom I will not be mentioning here. I appreciate their hard work and respect the knowledge they've earned. Please leave them alone. ARMY needs to focus on BTS and make good use of the techniques they have learned.

For visual learners, here's an instructional video on setting up Pandora, but honestly, it's pretty intuitive.

PLEASE COPY THE LINK TO THIS TUTORIAL AND SEND IT TO EVERY MAJOR JIMIN-SUPPORTING ACCOUNT YOU KNOW ON TWITTER AND TUMBLR.

I know we have some very important conversations that need to be had, but I strongly feel we need to put shipping and solo discourse aside right now. We are losing precious time because ARMY is reluctant to use this app. But we cannot maintain buying records like we did for the first two weeks of Face.

We NEED to use Pandora--in addition to requesting radio play and using Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube, and Facebook-- and hope those streams supplement sales drops.

Please do not abandon any platform even if they frustrate you. I'm just saying I don't think I can over-emphasize how crucial Pandora is going to be for Week 3 for Jimin. And isn't Jimin what unites us all?

I really, really need your help to get all major Jimin accounts familiarized and on board with this, so Jimin fans can hop on Pandora early this week and go hard. It is the most effective use of our energy right now.

FIGHTING!

Love, Roo

P.S.

To my friends tagged below, any help spread the word is deeply appreciated. Thank you all!

@chikooritajjk

@stormblessed95

@shellbells-things

@ejassy

@mariajmajesty

@kanmom51

@kmgoogiemin

@sunandmoonjikook

@minggukieology

@dgtn

#jimin #park jimin #jikook #face by jimin #like crazy by jimin #BTS_Tutorial #Youtube

[urfavstargirl1]

Show Me What You've Got - Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

Part 3 to the series Chemistry, Part 2

stranger things masterlist | Spotify playlist link

summary: It's Y/N and Eddie's last night working on their assignment. After a bad day at school, the two end up studying at Eddie's place. By the end of the night, the two finish their assignment, guitar playing from Y/N and Eddie ensue, heart's are opened, and Y/N's gives Eddie a surprise goodbye.

cw: yearning, angst, fluff, era-appropriate racism/sexism (optional latina!reader insert w/ minor references), hurt/comfort, shy/nerdy!reader, pre-ST4, cocky!Eddie, romance, slow burn, mutual pining, swearing

a/n: theres many so here goes:

1. This was meant to be a filler chapter but ended up being the longest one I've ever written lmao so buckle up because a lot happens 2. I realize it's highly improbable a student like Eddie and a straight A student like Y/N would be in the same class or in a chemistry class for their senior year, but for the sake of this story, let’s ~pretend~. 3. Also for any of my astrology baddies, I'm big time convinced Eddie has a pisces placement. I’m thinking maybe sagittarius sun pisces moon and Y/N is very much influenced by me and my virgo moon so i feel like this chapter (this whole series) really exemplifies that opposition/synastry lol. 4. get ready for hella yearning, teasing, flirting, hurt, comfort, and just all the cuteness

On the way home from Y/N’s house, Eddie’s mind and heart are racing. Instead of focusing on the road before him, his mind wanders to the nervous look on Y/N’s face or the adorable quiver in her lip.

When he gets to the trailer, the lights are off and his uncle’s car is nowhere to be seen. He unlocks the door and enters the dark space. He flicks on the light and trudges to his room where he flops on the bed and looks up at the ceiling fan. 

He folds his hands behind his head and sighs. “Goddamn it Y/N, what are you doing to me,” he wonders aloud. 

He turns over to his bedside table and rummages through the drawer. He pulls out one of his premade joints and a lighter. He props himself up on his elbows and lights it. He takes a puff and draws a long inhale. He exhales a cloud of smoke and a tension in his shoulders dissipates. His heart, however, is still pounding loudly in his chest from the moment that just transpired: he had asked Y/N, sweet, innocent, beautiful Y/N, if she’d ever had sex before.

 Why did he even ask her that? Well, in the moment, it felt like the right thing to say, but now, he worries he might’ve taken things too far.

It’s not like it’s his responsibility to help her explore something as personal as her sensuality, but she just looked so lost and confused. Like she was completely in the dark and the only person who had ever shone a light on the subject was him. 

He wouldn’t be surprised if sex was another thing on the list of forbidden fruits her parents ordained on her, but he at least expected her to have some sort of girlish curiosity about it, not just avoid the subject completely.

Regardless, it was obvious she had never had sex before, but despite the fact that she was clearly embarrassed about it, she never denied it. He knows for a fact that anybody else would have and made up some story to pretend like they had, but she didn’t and that was refreshing to him.

By the end of the night, he comes to the conclusion that he doesn’t regret what happened, but he knows that he needs to be careful. He doesn’t want Y/N to think he’s more of a freak than he already is. They’ve only known each other for a matter of days and he’s already managed to screw things up: that’s a record. 

In a way, he’s grateful they won’t meet up tomorrow. The afforded time and space might grant him a shred of dignity back. And yet, he feels like it’ll be too long. As he takes another puff of his joint, he begins to count down the far too many hours before he’ll see her again. 

—- 

The next morning, Y/N wakes up with very little recollection of the night before.

Like any other life altering moment, it kept her up into the night just replaying it, thinking about it, and overthinking about it.

But in the morning, she’s not fully awake enough to remember it just yet. As she opens the blinds to her room and adjusts to the day ahead, she’s reminded of the to-do list full of assignments, activities, and tasks that’ll keep her brain occupied for a while. 

The thought of Eddie finally comes to her as she stands face to face with her closet. She forgot to prepare an outfit the night before and is tasked with choosing one now. It should be a simple enough task. There’s a few outfit combinations in her wardrobe that are tried and true, but a certain pesky thought stops her in her tracks before she can even select one.

What would Eddie think?

Y/N wonders what Eddie would think of any of the outfit choices she has. Would he think this outfit is too dorky? Would he think that outfit is cool? Would he think she looked pretty in whatever it is that she wears? 

Y/N shakes her head as if she could physically remove the thought that way. 

She convinces herself that it doesn’t even matter how she looks because she won’t even be spending time with him after school today. But then she realizes that it doesn’t mean she won’t see him at all.

During class, she’ll have to tell him that they’ll have to meet at 4:30 tomorrow instead because she has an appointment with her guidance counselor after school. 

It’ll only be a five minute conversation, so why base a whole outfit for the day based on a brief interaction, especially with a boy she has no business wanting to impress? 

And yet, she finds herself wanting to look good, for him. 

The realization makes her want to crawl out of her skin. She’s never been so boy crazy as to want to look good for a boy before. She sees that sort of hypnosis in her close friends who have boyfriends. From that moment forward, Y/N promised herself she wouldn’t succumb to that madness, yet here she is now. 

It’s silly to be worrying about this. She has college applications and exams and other, far more important, things to be worrying about. And besides, what's the point of a high school relationship? Not that she’s even imagining a relationship with Eddie, but while she’s on the subject, she reminds herself that they’re futile. 

This time next year, she’ll be away at college, many many miles away from Hawkins. And she can’t make permanent plans based on temporary people, so it’s futile to keep incorporating Eddie into her thoughts like this.

Eddie is just a boy that she has to work on an assignment with. It’s fun working with him, sure, but that’s all he is. Nothing more and nothing less… Right?

—

By the time Thursday rolls around Eddie’s been eagerly anticipating seeing Y/N again. 

If he had a quarter for every glance he stole at Y/N when he thought she wasn’t looking, he could probably buy another guitar by now. 

It’s not enough just to be able to see her in class, looking at her whenever she pushes up her glasses with her index finger or raises her hand and gives the correct answer to whatever problem the teacher presents them with. 

And it's definitely not enough to sneak glances of her at lunch where her friend group sits on the other side of the cafeteria. 

“Eddie,” Dustin waves a hand in his face.

“What?” Eddie snaps out of his daze.

“We’re voting on when to have the next campaign.” Dustin says with frustration.

“Yeah, yeah I’m down for whatever,” Eddie aloofly responds and shoos Dustin away.

Sometimes, if there’s not too many students walking past Y/N and her group of friends, Eddie will see her talking and laughing. And sometimes, he’ll blame it on his imagination, that when he sees Y/N crane her neck a few times, it’s because she too is searching for him across the sea of students. 

As he sees her laugh and smile, he wonders what she talks about. He also wonders what her friends are like. And he wishes he didn’t care, but a small part of him that he tries to bury wonders what they think of him. What would they think of him and Y/N spending so much time together? 

For the rest of the day, thoughts of Y/N consume Eddie’s head, and by the time school lets out, his blood is pumping rapidly in anticipation. 

Eddie lingers a bit with some of the Hellfire boys, but at 4:25 makes sure to promptly make his way to wait for Y/N by the counselor’s office. 

He almost wanted to bring her something. He thought about it a lot and considered bringing her a snack but he doesn’t know what her favorite candy or soda is. 

He also thought about bringing her some wildflowers from the field by the parking lot, but that would be too much. 

He even thought about bringing her one of his guitar picks, but worried she might think it was too weird or personal, or worse, not even care. 

Maybe it’s too soon to be doing any of those things, but he just wants to do something special for Y/N and make up for the weirdness of Tuesday night. 

He decides that maybe the best way to make it up to her would be to be on his best behavior and try his best to finish their assignment on a good note today.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t catch Y/N on quite a good note that afternoon. 

As he excitedly waits for her by the counselors office, he hopes she’ll appreciate his punctuality, but it proves pointless when it’s 4:35 and she’s still not there. 

He looks down the hall and checks the other side but it’s empty. He checks his watch again and frowns. Why is she taking so long? Did he somehow miss her?

Suddenly, the sound of a doorknob turning catches his attention and he sees Y/N sluggishly exiting the door of the guidance counselors office.

“Yeah, you too,” Y/N weakly mumbles over her shoulder before turning her head forward. 

She comes out in a daze, not even seeing Eddie and his wild mane of hair as she walks out the door like a zombie. 

“Y/N,” he wonders aloud in confusion. She walks slowly with her head hung low and doesn’t stop at the sound of his voice.

“Y/N wait up,” Eddie calls after her but she’s too lost in thought to hear. Eddie jogs to catch up to her and plants his feet in front of her. 

He sees a deep scowl on her face and teeth gnawing on her bottom lip. “Y/N are you okay?”

Y/N stops in her tracks and looks up at him, freed from her spiraling thoughts. She breathes deeply and holds herself steady. 

“Is something wrong?”

Y/N shakes her head and looks away. Eddie says her name in an unconvincing way. 

“Are you okay?” Eddie asks and Y/N looks up. She doesn’t say a word with her lips, but her eyes say it all.

Y/N’s chewing on her bottom lip as she contemplates what she should say or do. None of this concerns him and he probably wouldn’t care anyway. This is her problem and her problem alone to deal with.

“You know you can tell me right?” Eddie says reassuringly as he gently places his hand on her shoulder. Y/N slowly looks from his slender fingers gently gripping on the fabric of her shirt to his leather clad arm to the tattoos peeking out from his collar to the pale skin of his neck, the strong set of his jaw, the warmth of his lips, and the sincerity of his big brown eyes.

“I know we haven’t known each other long, but whatever it is, you can tell me.”

Y/N locks eyes with Eddie and she looks back and forth between his irises. A curtain of stone cold blankness crosses her face. She can’t let Eddie see her like this. It’s embarrassing enough what he’s learned about her, but to see her so weak and emotional like this is the last straw.

“Y/N, I get it if you don’t want to talk about it, but you don’t have to deal with this alone, you know? It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Y/N lightly gasps under her breath. Can he hear her thoughts? How does he know what she’s feeling, without her even having to say a word? If she weren’t so self-conscious about her composure, she could just cry at his words. 

She doesn’t want to drag this moment out even more than it already has been, so she tries to give him enough of an explanation that he won’t ask questions and they can just move on from this unspeakably uncomfortable and embarrassing moment.

Y/N shakes her head. “It’s nothing. I just had to speak with the counselor and–” she cuts herself off.

Eddie doesn’t say anything at first. He waits for Y/N to continue her sentence, but when she doesn’t, he asks, “Did something happen in there?”

Y/N hesitates, contemplating if she should even say it out loud, let alone to Eddie. The boy is starting to get too close for comfort.

She looks at him and his big brown eyes and feels her chest tighten. The way he looks at her is unlike the way any boy has ever looked at her. There’s a vulnerability in his gaze that she herself can’t even reciprocate. 

Normally, she would just keep something like this to herself, or better yet, pretend like it didn’t even happen, but the concern in his face and worry in his eyes begins to make her feel differently. 

Eddie removes his hand from her shoulder and lets it hang by his side, leaving her feeling cold. “I know you probably think I won’t understand, but… but I can try.” 

Y/N shakes her head. “It’s not that I think you wouldn’t understand Eddie,” Y/N responds, struggling but using every ounce of willpower in her body to maintain eye contact. “In fact, if I think about it, you might be the only one who would understand. I just… I… I don’t know. It feels weird to talk about.”

Eddie exhales and bites his lip as he looks away for a second before looking at Y/N. “Well, can you at least tell me how bad it was?”

“It was kind of bad.”

Eddie frowns. “Were you… hurt, in any way?”

“No, I didn’t get hurt,” Y/N exhales and the right corner of her lip turns up slightly, feeling somewhat relieved at having gotten a fraction of the most discouraging experience she’s ever had off her chest, even if it's to Eddie Munson.

Eddie exhales and a small smile slowly creeps onto his own face. “Good. I guess this means I don’t need to go around beating anybody up for you then, right?”

Y/N looks down and giggles. Eddie beams at her, feeling victorious at having brought a smile to her face.

“No. Not that I even believe violence is the answer, but no. And no offense, but you seem like your bark is much worse than your bite.” Y/N jokes as she starts walking. Eddie follows suit and the two make their way out of the building.

“Believe me, the Hellfire boys and I can do some real damage.”

“Yeah, like I’m entrusting a bunch of nerds to do my fighting. What’s a few matching t-shirts and dice gonna do?”

“Wow, so that’s how it is, huh? And calling us a bunch of nerds as if you yourself aren’t one,” Eddie teases and pinches Y/N’s cheek. Y/N nods with a small smirk and blush tinting her cheeks.

“You wound me, Y/N,” Eddie says and it comes off far more seductively in Y/N’s ears than the sarcasm Eddie likely intended.

When Y/N and Eddie make their way over to his van, Eddie walks Y/N to the passenger side and opens the door for her. Y/N raises a leg up to step into the van, then hesitates and brings it back down. She looks inside the van then back at Eddie who has one hand on the outside door handle and the other pressed flat against the back door. 

Y/N turns around and leans against the car. She exhales and shyly says Eddie’s name. The sound is sweeter than any song Eddie’s ever heard.

“Yeah?” Eddie asks gently. Their corner of the parking lot is empty, with the after school rush having died down which is a privacy Y/N welcomes. 

Seeing Y/N so guarded and unlike herself elicits an inexplicable need in Eddie to protect her. To take care of her. She’s strong on her own, but he wants her to know that she doesn’t always have to be. That she can be weak with him.  

“What happened back there,” Y/N says and jerks her head in the direction of the school building, “was because of something the counselor said to me.”

Eddie looks at her and doesn’t see a sense of fear in her face anymore. Despite this, he still wishes he could touch her. He wants to run his fingers along her arm or hold her in an embrace to comfort her, but he doesn’t want to be too forward or any more forward than he already has been. 

“What did she say?” He tilts his head and looks at her intensely.

“Something…weird… I just don’t understand.” Y/N shakes her head, trying to withstand the intensity of his gaze.

“What is it you don’t understand?”

“Well, she was weird about my college and major choice. I mean, the reason I even went to the guidance counselor today was to review my college application essays with her but we didn’t even get to do that. I sat down and handed them to her and before she even took a look at them, she asked where I was applying to and what I was majoring in. So I told her, you know, my dream school is the University of Chicago and I’m applying to their civil engineering program. I’ve wanted to go there for as long as I can remember.”

Y/N takes a deep breath in and out. Then, in a frustrated manner she rapidly and irritatedly explains the rest of her guidance counselor visit, “And it’s like I know what I like and what I’m good at and where I want to go and how I’m going to get there. All I needed was a second opinion on my essays. But she couldn’t even give me that. As soon as I told her my plan, she said I should set my sights on something a bit more realistic. But what do I need to be realistic about? I didn’t work my ass off to be ranked number three in our class, behind Randy and Lisa, do a million extracurriculars, and try to have stellar essays to be realstic.”

“Wow, she said that to you?”

“Yeah, and that’s not even the worst part. Then she goes on to say that she thinks I should look into the local community college or a state school here in Indiana because a person like me would be lucky to even get into one of those schools, let alone the University of Chicago.”

“A person like you? What does that even mean?” Eddie asks in disgust.

“I don’t know! But she said she wouldn’t even look over my application until I decided to apply to a state school and change my major to something a little bit easier and less intimidating.” 

“What? That’s fucking bullshit,” Eddie huffs angrily and slaps his hand against the car door several inches away from where Y/N’s leaning. The noise and proximity make her jump

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Eddie says as he lightly rubs his hand up and down her arm. “Anyway, what else did she say?” 

“That was it,” Y/N says and Eddie nods. “I just feel so stupid, you know? I mean, next time I’ll just ask my English teacher to look over my essays.”

“Y/N,” Eddie asks, daring to include the phrase, “are you serious?”.

“What?”

“What the counselor said to you was complete and utter bullshit, you have to know that.”

Y/N shrugs while pressing her lips together and holding her breath. If she doesn’t think about it too much, then maybe the tears will go away. 

“She’s wrong about you. You shouldn’t listen to the indoctrination crap she probably gives every other person in this school. You’re meant for more than Hawkins. And you’ll be a badass at engineering, I guarantee it.”

Y/N’s spirit lifts at Eddie’s words, but not as much as it should have. She smiles, but it fades before she whispers in a hurt voice, “But then why would she say that?”

“Because she’s a fucking idiot! An idiot who can’t see that you’re one of the smartest students in this school, hell this town.”

“But Eddie, she’s the guidance counselor.”

“It doesn’t make her right.” He spits.

“What? Why not?” Y/N’s voice cracks as she clutches the door for balance. If she can’t trust the elders in her life, then who can she trust?

“Look Y/N, not every adult in the world is smart or right. In fact, a lot of them are the opposite. Just look at the president, he’s both.” Eddie sneers.

Y/N wrinkles her eyebrows. 

“And they don’t always have your best interest at heart either. Sometimes you have to just take what they say with a grain of salt.”

Y/N nods, eyebrows still furrowed as she makes sense of her words, “I never thought of it like that.”

“Well, you get let down enough times and you start learning the rules of this little thing called life,” Eddie smiles.

“Eddie,” Y/N responds with concern, looking at his bangs lightly blowing in the wind.

“Don’t worry about me, Y/N. Just promise that you won’t listen to what she says.”

“I can, it’s just… How could she say that to a student?”

“ Because she’s just doing her Hawkins High School job of forcing conformity onto you. But you don’t have to do that, you know.” Eddie bends down to follow her downcast line of sight till she looks him in the eye. “You don’t have to be who people want you to be.” 

Y/N scrunches her eyebrows. The realizations are too intense for her. For as long as she could remember, she did what others expected of her.

“You can’t let your guidance counselors, or your teachers, or even your parents continue to tell you who you are or who you should be, Y/N. Only you get to decide who that is.”

Y/N looks away and blinks rapidly as she begins to feel tears form in her eyes. It’s too much too fast. She can only handle so many life altering realizations delivered by none other than Eddie Munson.

She opens her mouth to say something but nothing comes out. She looks up at Eddie. 

“Come here,” Eddie says as he rapidly wraps his arms around her and engulfs her in a hug. 

Y/N’s body is frozen in shock. She’s still processing the events of her guidance counselor’s visit and Eddie’s words, but the feeling of Eddie’s tightening arms around her and the tufts of his hair tickling the skin of her cheeks bring her back to reality.

Slowly, she slinks her arms around his middle and presses her cheek against his warm chest. She sniffles and pulls tighter. This kind of affection is foreign to her, but coming from Eddie, it’s more than welcome.

Eddie rests his chin atop her forehead and gently strokes the hair of her ponytail. She breathes him in. The scent of soap, cigarette smoke, and maybe even a bit of cologne fills her nostrils. He smells so good. Has a boy ever smelled this good before?

They hold each other like that for what feels like eternity but is only a few minutes. She almost doesn’t want to let go, but her body betrays her and she pulls away.

“Eddie,” she gently says with furrowed eyebrows.

Eddie looks at her and realizes he just made a big mistake. “I’m sorry, I thought it would help.”

“No, it’s not that. I just… can we get out of here,” Y/N gently asks. 

Eddie sighs in relief and smiles, “Let’s go.” 

When they climb in the car, Eddie looks at her and says, “If you want, you can listen to whatever radio station you like.”

Y/N meekly nods. It’s only car ride number three and he’s already defying his own rules for her. She knows how much it must mean for him to say that so she shyly thanks him and tunes in to her favorite station. 

“When we get to the diner we can get whatever you want and just forget about all the bullshit that is Hawkins High School. Sound good?” Eddie says as he starts the van and pulls out of the parking lot. “Actually,” Y/N responds, “I don’t really feel like going to the diner today.”

“Oh,” Eddie looks from the sides of his eyes, “Where do you want to go?”

“I kind of want to go somewhere quiet. I don’t really feel like being around a lot of people right now.”

Eddie looks at her again, not really sure what she’s asking for. “Did you have anywhere in mind?” 

Eddie’s already on the road, only a few minutes away from the diner, but he’d travel a hundred miles if it meant making Y/N happy.

“No, not really.”

“Uh, we could go back to my place, if that’s alright. My uncle has an early shift today so he should be gone by the time we get there.”

Y/N steps out of her emotions for a second and realizes the gravity of his invitation. She’s being invited to Eddie Munson’s home. She’ll be home alone, with a boy. Just her and Eddie. And Eddie’s room which might eventually enter the mix. Her and Eddie. Alone. In a room. His room. With his bed and-

“Does that sound okay?”

“Oh, uh, yeah that’s perfect,” Y/N’s lips answer, betraying her anxious thoughts.

“Okay,” Eddie says as he looks at his fuel gauge, noticing its dangerously close level to empty. “We might have to stop at a gas station real quick. I’m not gonna have enough to make it all the way to my trailer.”

Trailer? Y/N didn’t know Eddie lived in a trailer. It’s not a bad thing, but she’s more surprised than anything to learn this about him. Although, it makes sense if it’s just him and his uncle. She imagines how a house could get too big and too lonely that way.

“Sure thing,” Y/N nods. Somehow, the thought of stopping somewhere familiar like a gas station before delving into the unknown that is Eddie’s personal space feels slightly relieving to Y/N.

After a few minutes, Eddie pulls into the gas station and parks in front of the convenience store. 

“Eddie, I thought-”

“C’mon, let’s get some snacks,” Eddie says and gets out of the van before Y/N has a chance to say anything. 

Y/N follows suit, confused by his direction. She follows him and he opens the door for her to enter. A bell chimes and she walks through to find a landscape of chips, candies, and sodas galore. 

She slowly makes her way to the side and looks to Eddie to lead the way. He looks down at her and says a quick, “C’mon” before strolling to the candy aisle.

“What’s your favorite candy?” Eddie says as his eyes scan the rows of sweets.

“Um, I like Hershey’s chocolate, especially the kind with almonds,” Y/N says softly.

“Ok, Hershey’s chocolate with almonds for you and pop rocks for me,” Eddie reaches out and grabs one of each candy.

“Eddie, but-”

“C’mon, let’s go get some slurpees,” Eddie cheers as he makes his way over to the slurpee machine.

“Eddie,” Y/N calls after him. 

“Which one do you want, blue raspberry or cherry?”

“Um, I’m fine with just my candy,” Y/N shyly says.

“You sure,” Eddie cocks an eyebrow and Y/N nods. 

“If you say so,” he raises his hands in mock defense. 

He leans in and places a flat hand by his mouth and whispers, “But between you and me, if you want some later you can just have some of mine,” he winks.

Y/N blinks in confusion at Eddie. What has gotten into him?

“Think we’ll need anything else before we go?”

“Um, not really,” Y/N shrugs, not expecting him to go on this random massive snack scavenger hunt with her.

“Okay let’s hit the road then,” Eddie says as he skips over to checkout. Y/N and Eddie argue about him paying for her chocolate bar before ultimately just letting him do it.

They exit the store and get into the van. Eddie reparks the car at the closest available pump and gets out of the van. As he stands, waiting for the gas to pump into his van, Y/N sighs and looks out the window. 

A car with an unrecognizable boy driving and girl riding in the passenger seat, pull up to the pump in front of them. The boy says something to the girl before leaning over the console to give her a quick peck on the lips. He gets out of the car and starts pumping gas. The girl looks over and makes eye contact with Y/N. She smiles and Y/N instinctively gives her a shy smile back.

The girl turns to look in Eddie’s direction while Y/N looks in the direction of the girl's boyfriend. The two boys see each other and do a mutual head nod.

Y/N turns over her shoulder and sees Eddie leaned against the van. One arm is fully outstretched with a palm flat against the metal of the vehicle while the other is holding the pump. His brow is furrowed in concentration, eyes cast downward, but when he feels Y/N looking at him, his eyes flick upward and he smirks at her. 

Y/N’s eyes widen and cheeks redden as she rapidly swivels back in her seat. She breathes in through her nostrils, but it feels shallow.

She hears the clanking of the nozzle and shortly after, Eddie climbs back into the van.

“You ready,” he asks with a gleam in his eyes. Y/N sees the couple across from them getting ready to leave too.

“Um,” she looks over at him with a nervous smile, “Yeah.”

“Alright,” he cheerfully exclaims. He puts the gear into drive and backs out of the pumping area. Y/N resists the urge to admire how sinfully good looking he is when he drives or wonder if she and Eddie looked just as much like a couple to the boy and girl from the gas station as they did to her.

For the rest of the journey to Eddie’s trailer, Eddie makes mindless chatter, filling Y/N’s nervous silence beyond that of her favorite radio station. 

“Shh, I love this song,” Y/N interrupts Eddie and raises the volume as When Doves Cry by Prince comes on.

“Yeah?” Eddie asks.

“Yeah, it’s one of my favorite Prince songs.”

Eddie briefly looks over at her and asks incredulously, “Really?” 

“Yeah! Probably that and Purple Rain.”

“Hm,” Eddie nods contemplatively.

He hesitates a moment before adding “I know Prince is more of a pop star, but even I can admit, the man is an absolute beast on guitar,” Eddie comments in awe and Y/N giggles. 

“He is! Maybe you should learn how to play a Prince song. Expand your heavy metal horizons and what not.”

Eddie chuckles and looks over at Y/N. “Yeah, maybe I will.”

Y/N nods and notices they’re approaching the trailer park. Eddie drives past a few trailers before pulling up to his own. 

Y/N’s looks around, taking in her surroundings. The spaced out beige paneled trailers are different from the tightly packed red brick homes of her neighborhood. 

Here, many adults are outside hanging wet clothes to dry on a clothesline or sitting and having a beer with their loved ones. In her neighborhood, it’s usually children out on the streets playing or riding their bikes. It’s different, but comforting in the same way.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” Eddie greets as he opens the door to the trailer and lets Y/N walk through first. She takes a step in and Eddie follows behind her, turning on the yellow fluorescent light that hums above them. 

She takes in the sight of the kitchen, dining room and living room. The space isn’t big by any means, but it's somehow roomier than she thought it would be. 

She walks further and turns around, taking in the sight of dozens of trucker hats and coffee mugs on the walls and ceiling. 

She looks to the side and notes the worn brown couch in front of the tv with a collection of VHS tapes scattered nearby. She wonders which ones are Eddie’s favorites. What are his favorite movies or tv shows?

The clanking of dishes takes her out of her thoughts and she turns to see Eddie rummaging through the kitchen cupboards.

“Since you despise slurpees for some weird reason–”

“I don’t despise slurpees. They’re fine, just not really my treat of choice.”

“Whatever you say, smarty pants.”

Y/N rolls her eyes. 

“Could I interest you in a crisp refreshing coke,” he says in a jingle voice, “or maybe a cup of stale leftover coffee my uncle probably made before he left?”

Y/N follows Eddie’s voice to the kitchen. She approaches the counter and leans her arms against it. “Um, yes to the coke, no to the coffee.”  

She watches Eddie as he sets a glass on the counter, fills it with ice, and pours a can of Coca Cola over it. “One ice cold coke on the rocks,” Eddie proclaims as he slides the glass over the counter to Y/N as he looks into her eyes and wiggles his eyebrows.

Y/N blushes and looks down, but her hair is pulled back so there’s nothing to hide her embarrassed blush. 

“Thanks,” she gratefully mumbles before turning around and taking a seat at the table. As Eddie serves his own glass, Y/N starts taking out her papers and pencil. 

“Feeling better?” Eddie asks as he sits down across from her. She nods and meekly looks up from her paper to him. “Yeah, thanks for your help Eddie,” she says sweetly. 

Eddie nods. “Sure thing, smarty pants. Wanna get to work then?” Eddie asks as he pulls out his own papers.

“Oh, um, yeah.” Y/N responds, surprised at Eddie’s eagerness to actually focus on their assignment for once. 

She looks down at the papers scattered in front of her. They only have a few more questions to work on till they're done. She can get them done in no time. 

Except this time around, she finds herself more distracted than ever. She’s constantly looking around the trailer or getting lost in some thought completely unrelated to chemistry and 9 times out of 10 related to Eddie. 

At first, she lets her eyes wander to the mug collection she saw earlier and wonders if Eddie had chosen any. Does he even drink coffee? Or tea? He seems like someone who primarily lives on Jack and Coke and the thrill of a heavy metal song. Or maybe they all belong to his uncle. What is he like?

She tries to refocus her attention to the pencil in her hand and the paper in front of her, but the pencil feels too heavy and something inside her buzzes too loudly for her to properly focus on anything. 

She looks back up and sees Eddie deep in concentration. His slender, ring clad fingers wrapped around a pencil. She wonders where he got those rings from or why he even chose to wear them in the first place. They look good on him, no doubt, but it’s rather uncommon for guys to wear rings or things like that. Well, unless you’re Freddie Mercury or David Bowie that is. 

Her gaze trails up to his wild head of hair. His voluminous frizzy waves take over his head and shoulders. She wonders what he ever looked like with short hair. She also wonders what he would look like with his hair in a ponytail or even in braids. She imagines what it would feel like to run her fingers through his hair as she braided it. 

His hair is another one of those things that not many guys could pull off, but on Eddie, it’s totally and utterly attractive.

“Y/N,” Eddie says in a playfully scolding voice still looking down at his paper, “I know I’m looking sexy as hell today, but do you think we could maybe focus on the task at hand?” Eddie looks up at her with a shit eating grin and Y/N tenses up. 

“What? I’m not–I…I am focusing on the task at hand” Y/N scoffs, flustered and red-cheeked. 

“You sure about that sweetheart?” Eddie’s eyebrows raise as his gaze travels to Y/N’s blank paper.

Y/N’s breath gets caught in her throat as she looks down. “Y-yeah I am.”

“You don’t sound too sure,” Eddie replies, cockiness dripping with every word.

Y/N turns her head up and looks Eddie square in the eye, “Well, I am. So, one, tough shit if you don’t believe me, and two, for your information, you’re not even… sexy, so...”

“Oh, Y/N, you’re so cute when you curse.”

Y/N gasps and Eddie leans forward to seductively add, “Even more when you lie.”

“Eddie,” Y/N hisses, flames kissing every inch of her skin. “Stop distracting me so we can finish this assignment.”

“You seem distracted whether or not I say anything, smarty pants.”

“That’s… not true.” Y/N rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her watered down coke before pretending to focus on the question before her. 

She can feel her heart beating loudly in her chest. Can Eddie hear it too?

“Uh huh, sure,” Eddie says sarcastically before returning to his own work. Soon enough, the heat in Y/N’s chest and shame in her features dissipate till the two are silently engrossed in finishing the remainder of their assignment.

With the adrenaline from Eddie’s shameless teasing, Y/N finds the strength to finish the assignment with ease.

“Okay, I’m finished with my part. How are you on yours?” Y/N asks.

“Hold on. I’m almost done with this last question” Eddie says without looking away from the paper as he scribbles out his answer.

Eddie puts his pencil down and looks up at Y/N, “I’m done." 

“We did it!” Y/N cheers and raises her hand up for a high five. Eddie is confused at first, then claps his hand to hers. 

“Yeah,” he forces a smile. 

This isn’t good news. It should be, but it isn’t. This means he won’t have a reason to spend time with Y/N anymore. If he's honest with himself, why else would someone like Y/N hang out with a freak like him. 

He recalls the first day they spent together and the conversation they had after they left the library. He remembers promising Y/N that they would do something fun to celebrate their finished assignment. He doubts Y/N remembers it or actually meant it when she promised it back. 

Part of him wants to bring it up, but it’s a miracle that she’s even here with him now. Maybe he can just make the most of his time left with her now, before it’s over.

Y/N checks her watch, “And it’s only 5:45!”

Eddie looks over his shoulder before turning back to Y/N. “You don’t have to be home till 7:00 right?”

“Yeah!”

“C’mere. I wanna show you something?” Eddie says and gets out of his chair. “Oh, what is it?” Y/N asks innocently.

He leads the way to his room and Y/N cautiously follows. He enters casually while Y/N lingers in the doorway. Eddie begins moving things around and searching for something within his drawers while Y/N scans the room; there’s stuff everywhere. How can someone think or breathe in a room like this? The disorganization makes Y/N yearn for the clean corners and empty edges of her own bedroom.

She takes in the mixture of band and playboy posters hung on the walls. There’s empty cigarette cartons and crushed beer cans on the dresser. It smells faintly of weed and even a bit of aquanet. There’s clothes strewn about across every square inch of the room. 

She refrains from touching anything, feeling like the inside of a museum exhibit of a teenage boys room in 1985.

The chaos makes Y/N feel on edge, but she relaxes as her gaze settles on a weird looking, larger than life, bright red guitar hung on his mirror across from the doorway.

She slowly walks forward, almost entranced by the exquisite instrument. Its edges create a unique shape and the cherry red color is so vibrant. She stands before it and only looks, but her hands are itching to-

“Touch it,” Eddie says from behind and Y/N shrieks. She looks over her shoulder at Eddie standing inches away and clutches the part of her shirt over her chest.

“Holy shit, I didn’t mean to scare you there tiger,” Eddie chuckles and Y/N rolls her eyes. 

“You didn’t… I just could hear you.” Y/N mutters and looks at the hand he effortlessly places on her shoulder.

“You can touch the guitar if you want,” Eddie says and he’s so close Y/N can feel the vibration of his voice against her body. His warm breath lightly coats her exposed ear.

“Can I?”

“Go ahead.”

“Okay,” she says softly and reaches out to touch the base of the guitar. She lightly runs her fingers across the sleek material and shivers. She slowly strums her fingers along the chords and nearly jumps at the corresponding noise. 

“Wanna hold it?” Eddie asks and lifts his arms up to take the guitar off its mount. Y/N’s eyes are drawn to the tattoos on the taut skin of his muscled bicep. 

He offers the guitar to Y/N and she takes it, placing the strap over her head and onto her shoulder.

“Do you play on this often?”

“Yeah, we play at a dive bar a couple miles out of town.”

“What?” Y/N asks as she strums across the chords. She looks up at him in confusion.

Eddie looks around for a chord and connects the guitar to the amp on his dresser, “I play with my band, Corroded Coffin.”

“You’re in a band?” She asks with widened eyes.

“Yeah, you should come see us sometime,” he says confidently.

Y/N nods, speechless at the realization that Eddie is not only in a band but performs live. Her mind zeroes in on the vision of what Eddie would like playing guitar on stage. How his hair would stick to sweat on his skin and how the stage lights would reflect on his tattooed arms or dazzling eyes. 

“Here, try this,” Eddie turns on the amp and hands Y/N a guitar pick. Y/N takes it and nervously strums the guitar. She nearly flinches from the loud vibrations. 

“See, you’re a natural,” Eddie teases. Y/N glares at him.

“We’ll take it slow,” Eddie says as he leans forward and places her hands on a specific string and fret. Y/N looks up at his hooded eyes, lids half closed as he looks down at her hands. She’s almost mesmerized by his beautiful features till the electric touch of his fingers on hers brings her attention down to the instrument between them.

“Now strum” his command brings Y/N back to earth. She strums and hears the sound vibrate off the instrument. 

“Now put your right hand on the string below it and put your left hand here,” Eddie adjusts. She strums. 

“Okay, now put this hand here, on the D and G chords, and this hand here,” Eddie gives her another chord and she strums. They repeat the process for several more chords. 

“Now put it all together,” Eddie instructs. 

Y/N slowly strums, pausing to adjust between chords. When she forgets a chord, because why did Eddie have to make her memorize so many, she looks up to Eddie and he points out the next one. 

She plays the entire piece and it sounds crooked but somewhat familiar. She tries it again and again. The more she plays the more she recognizes the song he’s just taught her. 

“Wait,” Y/N looks back down in concentration and plays the chords faster. Duh duh duhhh duh duh duh duhhhh, duh duh duhhh duh duh. 

“Eddie,” Y/N exclaims. She looks at him with bright eyes and an even brighter smile. She looks down and plays the chords more fluidly, getting into a rhythm. 

She plays the song again and moves her body to the rhythm, leaning forward and back and bobbing her head along the way.

“Eddie! I’m…” Y/N trails off as she finishes the song one last time.

“A rockstar?” He quirks an eyebrow.

“No,” she rolls her eyes then peers up at him.

“That, smarty pants, is the legendary riff to Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple.”

Y/N stops playing and tightly clutches the guitar in her fingers. She scrunches her eyebrows and grins at the impending sense of pride she feels.

“That was… awesome! I loved every second of it. Do you feel like this every time you play?” She asks in breathless excitement. Her chest drastically rising and falling.

Eddie’s taken aback by Y/N’s reaction. He didn’t think she would be this excited or awestruck. He clears his throat and says, “Something like that.”

 Y/N takes the strap off and holds out the guitar to him.

“It’s your turn,” She smugly grins at him. 

“You want me to play?” Eddie smirks and grabs the guitar. 

Y/N sits back on the edge of his bed. “Yeah, show me what you’ve got.” She says with a challenging tone.

Eddie adjusts the guitar in his expert fingers. He holds his hand out for the guitar pick and flicks his wrist before he starts strumming. 

“You mean, a little something like this,” he winks before playing the chords to Iron Man by Black Sabbath. Y/N gasps at how much it sounds like the tape he played just the other day.

“Or maybe a little something like this,” he says and expertly plays the Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple chord he just taught her. 

“Surely you know that one,” he winks at her open mouthed and wide eyed face.

“Wanna hear something new I’ve added to my set list?” Eddie asks and Y/N nods with heat emanating from every inch of her skin. Eddie breathes in then exhales. He closes his eyes and strums the intro riff to When Doves Cry by Prince. 

“Eddie!” Y/N squeals as she rises to her feet, smile beaming wide from ear to ear. “You learned my favorite Prince song? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Y/N knows she must be imagining the pink tint beginning to coat Eddie’s cheeks. 

Eddie decided from the first time Y/N rode in his van that he would learn a song for her. He figured a Prince song would be the most natural option. After borrowing the Purple Rain tape from one of his bandmates and listening to it for hours on repeat, he not only fell in love with the album but wanted to learn how to play every single song. He really liked the intro riff to When Doves Cry but he never realized the song would draw him in the same way it did for Y/N.

“I wanted to surprise you,” he says bashfully. 

Truthfully, he didn’t expect he would ever get the chance to show her, but the look in her eyes let him know that the late nights spent practicing were well worth it.

Y/N looks at him smiling breathlessly at her. This is the nicest and most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for her. 

She turns her head to the side and covers her smile with her fingers. If she doesn’t get it together, she’s sure her heart will explode out of her chest.

Keeping her fingertips on her lips, she asks, “Do you sing, at all? For Corroded Coffin?”

Eddie presses his lips together, fighting the smile threatening to form on his face and does a one shoulder shrug.

“What does that mean?” 

“Sorta, kinda.” Eddie shortly grins. With most girls, he’ll never hesitate to let them know he’s the frontman of Corroded Coffin. He doesn’t know why, but girls always seem to like him more when they learn he’s a guitar player, especially when he tells them he’s the lead singer too. 

“So do you sing backup then?”

“Not exactly,” he grins at her like a Cheshire cat.

“Eddie,” Y/N whines, “Why are you being so weird about this? Just answer the question.”

Eddie leans back on his dresser and crosses his arms over his chest. He smiles and cockily says, “Just come to one of our shows. You’ll find out then.” 

“When’s your next show?”

“Friday.”

Y/N gulps. “Friday, as in tomorrow?”

“Yup,” Eddie replies, cockily popping the p-sound.

Y/N frowns, “I can’t. My friends and I made plans to go to Star Court after school.”

“That’s fine. We usually don’t go on till 11:00 anyway. You can come after. And bring your friends too.”

“Eddie, I can’t do that. On weekends my curfew is 10:00.”

Eddie looks down in disappointment, “Oh, come on, you can just sneak out. Your parents won’t know the difference.”

“Seriously, I can’t. And I just know they would find out somehow. Nothing gets past them.”

“Do you have any siblings?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Get one of them to cover for you.”

Y/N knows that if her sister could, that she would cover for her, and that she could potentially get away with it, but that’s way too big of an if she’s not ready to gamble on. 

“Eddie, even if I could get my sister to cover for me, I just don’t think it would work.”

“Sure they will. They’ll probably be asleep the whole time and not even notice you’re gone.”

Y/N tries to imagine it. Never mind the fact that she doesn’t even have a car to get her there. But, if somehow he gave her a ride and if her sister covered her and if everything worked out… What would happen then? Probably nothing because there’s no way that could ever happen.

“Look Eddie, while I’m under my parents roof, I can’t afford to get in trouble in any capacity. I just can’t. I hope you can understand,” Y/N looks at him pleadingly.

Eddie looks into her eyes and sees a scared child. It’s a sight he recognizes instantly because he used to have it too.

“Yeah, I understand,” he replies in a sense of respectful disappointment.

“Thanks,” Y/N whispers and Eddie nods. 

An awkward silence fills the room but is interrupted when Y/N gets an idea. “I would still like to see you play though.”

Eddie looks at her in confusion.

“Maybe you could give me a preview, tonight,” Y/N bats her eyes. 

Eddie raises his eyebrows.

“You could play one song. It could be like practice.” She says innocently with big doe eyes.

Eddie is tempted to give in, but he hasn’t fully let go of the hope that she could see him play live with Corroded Coffin someday. He knows it's a lot to ask for someone like her, and yet he wants it badly enough to ask for it anyway.  

But for all he knows, this might be the last night they ever spend together. If she were to never see him play live or even see him outside of the classroom, then he wants to give her something. He wants to give Y/N anything she asks and one last beautiful memory between them both.

“Okay,” he gives in.

“Really? You sure?” Y/N worries she might have pressured him. 

“Yeah, for you I will.”

Y/N smiles hopefully at him “Okay.”

Eddie turns over and moves items around on his dresser. He pulls out a microphone and plugs the chord attached to it to the amp beside him

He juts his chin in the direction of the back corner of the room “You mind passing me the mic stand over there?”

Y/N’s eyes widen and she silently follows his request. Is he really about to do this right now?

“You sure it won’t be too loud? Don’t want to disturb the neighbors.”

“Nah, they don’t care.”

“They don’t or you don’t care?”

“Y/N, I practice like this all the time and they’ve never said anything to me before.”

“Yet.”

“Y/N, do you want me to do this or not?” He chuckles. 

Y/N nods, “I do.”

“Just sit back,” He flicks his wrist in the direction of his bed, “Relax, and enjoy the show.”

Y/N slowly backs away and takes a seat on the edge of his bed. She looks up at him, palms sweating and nerves tingling.

Eddie breathes and takes a moment to think about which song he’ll play for her. Besides the short Prince riff he just learned for her, there’s nothing he can play that she’ll like or isn’t metal. He doesn’t have a lot of options, so he goes with a safe choice and hopes she’ll appreciate it anyway.

He kisses his guitar pick before strumming the chords to Paranoid by Black Sabbath. It’s his favorite song to perform and one he knows like the back of his hand. 

He begins strumming and shaking his head in rhythm with the song.

Finished with my woman 'cause

She couldn't help me with my mind

People think I'm insane because

I am frowning all the time

His voice echoes through the sound system and fills Y/N’s ears. Y/N looks at him and notices how his full lips curl closely to the head of the microphone. 

All day long I think of things

But nothing seems to satisfy

Think I'll lose my mind

If I don't find something to pacify

He looks from his fingers on the guitar to Y/N’s face. His eyes lock with hers and he smiles before wailing:

Can you help me

Occupy my brain?

Oh yeah

His fingers dance along the strings and up the neck of the cherry red electric guitar. He thrusts his shoulders and moves his pelvis along with the instrument. He shakes his head, letting his frizzy waves fly. 

I need someone to show me

The things in life that I can't find

I can't see the things that make

True happiness, I must be blind

He's lost in focus, trying to play it perfectly for her. He’s never looked more beautiful. Y/N’s dryly swallows the saliva in her poached throat. An unnerving sensation begins to grow in the pit of her stomach and her heart races to the beat of the song. In this moment, she realizes that she finally understands what it means when people say they’re turned on. 

In just a simple pair of black jeans, a hellfire club t shirt, a leather jacket, and jean vest, Y/N feels like she’s in the presence of an absolute sex god. 

Make a joke and I will sigh

And you will laugh and I will cry

Happiness I cannot feel

And love to me is so unreal

Y/N can feel the blood dancing in her veins. She almost wants to stand up and jump or dance around to the song, but one, there’s hardly any space, and two, how do you even dance to this kind of music? It’s so much easier to dance to music on the radio or the Spanish music her parents listen to.

She settles for nodding her head to the rhythm and grinning at Eddie. She even lets out a few whoops and hollers to cheer him on which he nervously smiles at before refocusing on the song.

And so as you hear these words

Telling you now of my state

I tell you to enjoy life

I wish I could but it's too late

Eddie strums the last chord and it slowly fades out. The buzz of the sound still reverberates around the room. His chest rises and falls and the hair at the back of his neck is damp. 

Eddie wakes up from his metal induced trance and sees Y/N standing on her feet and clapping. She’s grinning widely at him and he breathlessly smiles back at her.

“Eddie! That was so awesome! You’re literally a rockstar!”

Y/N could just hug him, but there’s a whole guitar between them. And despite the fact that Eddie already took them to a “good acquaintances that can hug under specific circumstances” level, Y/N feels too shy to initiate such contact.

“Nah,” Eddie breathlessly replies with a wave of  a hand.

“No seriously,” Y/N takes a step forward and places her hand an inch away from his holding the neck of the guitar, “You have a gift.”

They lock eyes for a moment. Y/N’s shine in admiration and Eddie’s gleam in pride.

Eddie breaks the contact to move over and unplug the chords.

As he puts the guitar back in its place, Y/N turns around and walks around the room with her back facing Eddie. It’s embarrassing how big he’s making her smile. 

“So how long have you been playing guitar?” She asks as she pretends to look at the other things in his room. 

“I don’t know. As long as I can remember.” Eddie says as his eyes follow her movement. 

“Is that what you want to do when you grow up?” Y/N asks. 

“I’m nineteen. Some would say I’m pretty grown already.” 

Y/N’s tenses. She doesn’t like when he throws his age around like that. It makes her feel intimidated knowing how much older and experienced in life he is. 

“You know what I mean Eddie.”

“I don’t know Y/N. Probably yeah. I want to keep playing for as long as I can.”

“What do you think you’ll do when you graduate?” Y/N asks as she walks over and sits at the corner of his bed. 

“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it,” Eddie replies from his place against the dresser.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he replies curtly.

“Why not?”

“I don’t know, just haven’t.” 

“Really?” Y/N asks incredulously. 

“Look, maybe I’ll get a job with my uncle. Maybe I’ll go and fix up old cars. Maybe I’ll work at the record store at Star Court. Is that what you want to hear?” Eddie says in frustration as he plops down next to Y/N.

Y/N holds her breath and waits for him to calm down. She didn’t mean to make him mad, but what she doesn’t realize is just how sensitive of a subject this is for Eddie.

“Point is, I’ll figure it out when the time comes.”

“You don’t… have a plan?” She asks quietly, barely above a whisper at the boy sitting next to her.

“No, I don’t have a plan Y/N,” he says in a controlled voice as he looks down at his hands folded in his lap. “Why should I make a plan when it’s probably just gonna change?”

She turns her head to face him. “Yeah, sometimes your plans can change, but they still give you something to work for, something to hope for.”

“The last thing I need is false hope.”

“It’s not false hope, Eddie.”

“Tell me how it’s not.”

“I mean, if you could make your tomorrow better than your today, wouldn’t you at least try?”

Eddie looks down at Y/N who’s already looking up at him. He scrunches his eyebrows and bites the inside of his lower lip. 

He looks back down at his lap and Y/N’s eyes trail to the tattoos on his arms. She wishes she could reach out and touch them, but that would be weird right? She’s in his room, leg to leg and arm to arm with him, but it would be too much if she reached out and placed her fingers over that delicate skin, right?

“Even if I did, what would it matter? Tomorrow isn’t promised, why should I act like it is?”

Y/N can’t deny that some of his words ring true, but it’s still not enough to convince her otherwise. Y/N sighs, “Are you happy, Eddie? With the way things are now.”

Eddie can’t find himself saying yes. Of course he isn’t happy he failed his senior year of high school twice. Of course he isn’t happy to be a burden on his uncle. But as long as he had his guitar and his D&D, it made life bearable.

“I mean for some things yeah, but I have a lot of other things to be happy about. I have my friends and I have my Uncle Wayne and I have music. To some, it may not look like a lot, but for me, that’s all I need.”

Y/N closes her eyes and breathes in. “Eddie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” Y/N twiddles her fingers in her lap. “You do have a lot to be happy about. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you can be grateful for everything your family’s done for you and you can still want more for yourself. I know I am.”

“You are?”

“Sure. I’m grateful for all the sacrifices my parents have made and all the things they’ve done for me, but at the same time, I know there’s more out there and I want it, even if it’s just a taste.”

Eddie muses over Y/N’s words. “Yeah I guess so.”

“In the same way, I’m grateful for everything Hawkins has given me, even if it includes shitty school counselors and hardly anything to do for miles, but I still want more than what this little town can offer, you know?”

Eddie nods slowly. “So what do you want?”

“Huh?”

“What do you want? That your parents or Hawkins can’t give you?”

Y/N takes a deep breath. There’s so many things that she wants in life. But she feels weird letting it all come out to Eddie. These are things she thinks about constantly but never tells anyone. She's excited but tries to contain it and instead lets out a simple, all encompassing answer. “Freedom.”

“Yeah?” Eddie smiles at her.

“Yeah. I can’t really do what I want or be who I want under my parent’s roof or in a place like Hawkins.”

“I feel the same way. I mean I can be who I want in here, but out there…” Eddie trails off and shakes his head.

“Is there anything you want?”

Eddie shrugs, “I don’t know. Never really thought about it.”

“Really?”

“I mean… no one’s ever asked me.”

“Well, I’m asking you. And I’m sure there’s something. For starters, do you ever want to leave Hawkins?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes I think about getting out of this god forsaken town, but then I think about my uncle Wayne and my parents and what any of them would think and I just… I’m not ready to leave this place just yet. Maybe in a couple of years, but for now, I’m not ready to leave my family, my uncle.”

Eddie hasn’t really brought up his parents before, so she knows how big of a deal it must be for him to have brought them up. 

She places a gentle hand on his forearm and slowly rubs her thumb along the skin. Afraid to look Eddie in the eyes and make a vulnerable moment even more uncomfortable, she watches as Eddie brings his other hand over hers and guides it to interlock their fingers.

“I’m so sorry Eddie.” Y/N squeezes his hand. 

“You don’t have to be.” Eddie says in a comforting voice as he sandwiches her hand between the both of his. 

The two are silent for a moment before Eddie adds, “I think I might want to get out of this trailer though, stop being such a burden on my uncle.”

“Eddie, I’m sure that’s not true.” “Eh, it kind of is though. I mean imagine barely making ends meet and still having another mouth to feed. He’s not even a parent but for the past several years he's had a kid to worry about. I don’t want to be that anymore. I just want to be like a normal nephew and uncle. I–” Eddie chokes and squeezes Y/N’s hand. 

He clears his throat and in a strong voice says, “I want to stop being a fuckup and finally make him proud.”

Y/N gasps and tightens her grip on his hand. “Eddie–”

“Shh.” Eddie shakes his head. He breathes in deeply. “I just need to graduate. And then, I’ll get a job and I can get my own place. Maybe even upgrade the busted old van outside, but not too soon though. She’s been with me through too much.”

“Your van is a she?” Y/N laughs.

“Yes, she is. She’s my old girl.”

Y/N rolls her eyes and Eddie chuckles. “Guys are so weird about their cars.”

“You’re just jealous.”

“I’m very much not.” 

“Whatever you say, smarty pants.”

Eddie squeezes Y/N’s hand and she looks at him. “So, what about your band?”

“What about my band?” Eddie smiles and cocks his head to the side in confusion.

“Is there anything you want for your band’s future?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? There’s gotta be something,” Y/N looks up at him, “You have a gift that needs to be shared with the world.”

Eddie shrugs, “I don’t know. I never thought of it like that before.”

“Eddie, you could perform in front of hundreds of adoring fans every night. Don’t you want to hear girls screaming, we love you Eddie, from the mosh pit of every arena across the country?”

“Only if you’re one of them,” Eddie pinches Y/N’s cheek. She giggles and swats his hand away. 

“Sure, if you ever have a gig in Chicago, let me know and I’ll be there.” 

“So tell me smarty pants, why Chicago?”

Y/N shrugs and giddily replies, “Oh, lots of reasons. We visit a lot because we have family there and every time I go I fall more and more in love with the city. The people there are so cool and at night the skyline lights twinkle like stars. It's beautiful. Everything about the city makes me feel alive. I feel like I can be myself there.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Y/N nods and smiles. “It doesn’t hurt to be too far from here either.”

“Oh so the big Chicago hot-shot is gonna come back and grace the presence of us Hawkins common folk?”

“Shut up Eddie, it’s not even like that.” Y/N leans to the side to shove Eddie.

“You’re gonna get into that school Y/N, I just know it. You’ll be the best thing to come out of this town.”

Y/N looks up into Eddie’s eyes, sparkling in the low light of the lamps in his room. “Thanks Eddie… You’re gonna make your uncle proud–you’ll make all of us proud too, I know it.”

Eddie smiles at Y/N. His lips pulled tight to create a dense dimple by the corner of his mouth. A comfortable silence falls between them.

All of a sudden, Y/N feels a tightening in her chest. She can’t breathe properly. He’s too close. Talking could distract her before, but now that there’s silence, all she can focus on is the feeling of his leg against hers. Of the warmth and weight of his hand in hers. 

He shuffles his torso slightly to face her and his arm rubs against her. She looks down at the newly created empty space between their arms.

“Y/N,” Eddie softly calls out. Y/N looks up and her breath hitches from how close his face is to hers.

“Yeah,” she replies barely above a whisper. She looks between his warm chocolate eyes. His eyes flicker from her lips and settle on her own bright eyes. 

Is this going to happen?

Y/N’s palms are sweating and her heart is pumping loudly and violently in her chest. 

A part of her is afraid and nervous and not yet ready for this to happen. But the other part of her is the opposite. 

She hadn’t realized it till this very moment. If anyone was going to be her first kiss, she would want it to be Eddie. But would he even want to kiss her? What is happening? If Eddie is going to do something, he needs to do it now and take Y/N out of her misery.

He opens his mouth and closes it. His eyes flash to the side and he gulps. “I should probably take you home now. Don’t want you to miss curfew.”

If Eddie’s not mistaken, a look of disappointment crosses Y/N’s features quickly before she covers it with a mask of neutrality.

“Oh, yeah, ok,” she nods and looks at her watch. It’s fifteen till 7:00. Of all times for Eddie to be more concerned about following the rules than Y/N, why now?

“Let’s go,” Eddie taps the back of her hand with his free one and unravels their intertwined fingers. Eddie rises and walks to the door. Y/N stays back for a second, not yet ready to leave this room, this trailer, or this surreal moment.

“Y/N,” Eddie smirks from the doorway. “You coming?”

“Yeah,” Y/N quietly nods and follows him. She silently grabs her things from the kitchen and follows Eddie out the door. She walks over to the van and hears the grass crunch beneath her feet. As she waits for Eddie to lock the trailer door and unlock the van, she looks around and sees the glare of the yellow street lights cast over the metal of the trailer.

The two climb into the van and Eddie starts the car. He puts a tape into the deck and pulls out of the trailer park. Y/N watches his slender fingers on the steering wheel as the shadows dance across them.

She feels solemn as he drives her back home. She doesn’t want to be going home and leaving Eddie just yet. She doesn’t want this to be the last time she ever rides in his van or hears his heavy metal blasting through the speakers. 

The trailer park is all the way in East Hawkins, so the drive to her house is long, but not long enough.

“That wasn’t too bad, right?”

“What wasn’t too bad?” Y/N turns to look at Eddie with a red glow cast on his skin by the stoplight.

“Having to work with the freak,” Eddie points to himself, “On a simple chemistry assignment.”

“Eddie, you shouldn’t call yourself that. You’re not a freak.”

“Yeah, well that’s the thing about nicknames, they’re given to you and they’re pretty hard to get rid of,” Eddie shrugs.

“Well I don’t care. You’re not a freak to me. Annoying? Sure. A deranged metal head? Maybe. But definitely not a freak.”

Eddie chuckles and the sight of his joy makes Y/N smile.

“Eddie,” Y/N says as he turns into her subdivision. “Today was fun.”

He looks at her. “Yeah?” 

“Yeah.” Y/N grins at him. “Maybe we can still do something fun… to celebrate a job well done on this assignment.”

“You want to?” Eddie looks at her from his peripheral vision.

“Yeah. If you do too.” Y/N smiles at her lap. She looks up and sees the houses leading up to her own. 

“Yeah, sure. You got anything in mind?”

As Eddie passes her house, she sees her fathers car in the driveway.

“My dad’s home,” Y/N says with alarm as Eddie parks in front of her house. “I think he’s inside already, but we don’t have a lot of time.”

“What?” Eddie shifts his body to face her and her frazzled state.

Y/N unbuckles her seatbelt and grabs her backpack. “Are you free on Saturday?”

Eddie had plans with some of the boys from Hellfire club but they could wait. “I can be.”

Y/N looks from her house to Eddie. “Good. We’ll pick back up on this tomorrow, before class, okay?”

Eddie nods. Y/N looks at the dashboard and the time reads 6:58. She looks over her shoulder and sees no one standing outside her house or peeking through the blinds of the living room windows. 

She turns back around to face Eddie. She looks at him for a moment, gathering the nerve to do something she might end up regretting. Eddie notices and looks at her in confusion.

Okay, it’s now or never.

She grabs the back of his seat for leverage and leans over. She lightly places a hand on his neck for stability and presses a chaste kiss to his cheek. 

“Goodnight Eddie,” she whispers inches away from his wide eyed and slack jawed face. 

She scrambles to get out of the van before he can even say anything. She shuts the door behind her and runs across the walkway to her front door. 

She opens the door and closes it behind her. To the right, her parents are loudly talking over some story on the news playing several feet from the left of her.

“I’m home,” Y/N shouts, “Gonna go to the restroom and I’ll be back down.” 

Her parents wave her off and Y/N excitedly pounces up the steps. She throws her backpack on the floor of her room and runs off to the bathroom across the hall.

She giggles at her reflection and brings her fingers to her lips. 

She doesn’t know what came over her, but it did. She kissed Eddie Munson, on the cheek though. But it’s the most she’s ever done in her life. 

She hopes he liked it but starts to worry he might not have. She shakes the worry out of her head and smiles. Little does she know, Eddie’s been dying to make a move but was 100% certain his advances would have been rejected. 

Y/N doesn’t know what any of this means for her and Eddie, but it thrills her nonetheless.

She keeps her composure throughout dinner, but once she excuses herself to go do homework in her room, she closes the door behind her, lays on her bed, and screams into her pillow with glee.

She climbs out of bed and turns on her portable radio. Head Over Heels by Tears for Fears plays and she begins dancing around her room. Her eyes land on a hairbrush on her dresser. She grabs it and uses it as a microphone while singing to herself in the mirror. 

When the chorus comes back on, she lies back on her bed and sings:

 Something happens and I'm head over heels

I never find out until I'm head over heels

Something happens and I'm head over heels

Ah, don't take my heart, don't break my heart

Don't, don't, don't throw it away

“Y/N,” Y/N’s sister yells as she opens the door. Y/N scrambles to sit up and looks at her in embarrassment. 

“Turn that crap down,” she says as she walks over and lowers the volume. “It’s annoying as hell.”

Y/N sticks her tongue out at her sister as she walks out of the room and leaves the door open. 

“Can you at least close the door?” Y/N yells over at her in the hallway. 

Moments like this are what make Y/N wish she had a walkman. 

Y/N spends the rest of her evening completing homework for other classes while intermittently replaying the time she just spent with Eddie. 

By the time she lays in bed, ready to go to sleep, visions of Eddie behind his guitar or his big brown eyes and bright smile flash across her mind. Her heart can’t wait to see him again tomorrow. She doesn’t know what they’ll do next time they hang out either, but all that matters is that she’s with him.

It’s weird, feeling the way she does. And a part of her almost feels silly. How did this boy just come into her life and already made this much of an impact? 

Y/N doesn’t understand her attraction to the deranged metalhead and in a similar way, Eddie doesn’t understand his attraction to the smartypants girl next door, but the both of them are eager to find out why.

#stranger things fanfic #stranger things #st4 #stranger things s4 #stranger things season 4 #stranger things x reader #stranger things fanfiction #eddie munson oneshot #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson st4 #eddie munson #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson smut #eddie munson angst #urfavstargirl1 #eddie stranger things #eddie the freak munson #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson stranger things

[elipheleh]

Music - Alex's Record Collection

As seen in various clips, Alex's room in the White House has 6 LPs framed on the wall above his record player. (pictured are 4.5 of them because they don't ever appear in one shot!)

As part of my series with music posts, it felt only right to add these on too. So I have found out all of the albums, and put them together in an image that replicates their layout on Alex's wall. I'll list below the image the album titles & artists, and link to the album on spotify.

Wonderful Wonderful - The Killers Rumors - Fleetwood Mac Full Moon Fever - Tom Petty good kid, m.A.A.d city - Kendrick Lamar Bigger Than Both of Us - Hall & Oates Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John

-----

I have collected them all together into a playlist for easy listening.

i found the kendrick lamar & tom petty albums from this twitter post, a relief as i was stumped on them.

-----

Link to the masterpost/contents page for the music posts

Link to the masterpost/contents for the whole series

#rwrb #red white and royal blue #rwrb movie #rwrb playlist #rwrb music #a series of learning about things that are referenced in the book #elio's #alex claremont diaz #music

[duncebento]

you have such wonderful taste in so many things and i'm so appreciative that you cultivate this space and share it ❤️ could you please recommend another lovely piece of orchestral music?

oh LOL i'm glad you liked it, thank you!!! i was just giving it as an example of a piece that's a bit more technically advanced.

orchestral hmm? well the piece i recommended before was a concerto, which is a solo-ish piece with accompaniment written in-- in that case, a violin concerto accompanied by an orchestra. i find that most of my favored orchestral pieces are concertos rather than pieces written just for orchestras, perhaps because you get the best of both worlds?

first i'll recommend this DOUBLE concerto by brahms; we're in vienna in 1887. i had actually only heard the third and final movement of this piece but the recording is of all three movements and it's fucking incredible. quite long, of course, since most concerto mvmts are between 7-15 minutes i'd say, but so very worth it.

like, just listen to the very first solo, when the cello takes the stage-- how much character development there is in the first minute. this cellist (who is "acting" in the same way that actors are given a written script but decide what to DO with it) makes it easy to imagine a whole narrative-- vengeful, sexy, the cheeky switch to pizzicato (plucking as opposed to bowing.) crazed.

next is a piece from cinderella. it should begin at 37:55. now we're more modern, the bolshoi theatre in 1945, and this orchestra would not be on the stage but in a pit at the foot of the stage, providing a backdrop for cinderella to waltz with the prince before running away. i adore the (very russian) character of this piece because prokofiev paints a whimsical, scary ball rather than choosing to focus on the sweeter romantic aspects of cinderella's meeting with the prince. (and i do think she would've been scared and completely out of her element!) the piece gets more and more frantic until the movement right afterwards, "midnight," where the waltz ends and all we hear is the doom of the foreboding clock.....

now back in time again to 1905! ravel, another impressionist, lived in paris but many of his pieces have obvious spanish influence. he wrote this as part of a 5-movement piece with each movement dedicated to a different member of his artist's collective, which i think is really cute. you can definitely hear that this is a more modern orchestral piece due to its rulebreaking-- this era definitely influenced the compositions for BOTW if you happen to be a fan of that soundtrack as many are.

i'm also gonna link the spotify playlist where i compile the vaguely classical pieces i like-- sorry; it's not curated in any sense, i just add them as i like them. i'd say they're mostly in minor keys because i'm edgy and like musical angst (even the major key ones i like often manage to be angsty...) furthermore there's a focus on cello because i'm a cellist, so pieces that i've played or would like to play (in my dreams...) make their way in often. maybe same with ballet cos i spent a decade and a half in a ballet troupe. otherwise i'd say it's well-rounded enough!

here u go!! and like with any music, if you find something you like, the easiest way to get more of it it by looking at the other movements of the piece/other works by that composer or their contemporaries.

#hiii #anonymous

[obiscribbles]

Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Quinlan Vos, Obi-Wan Kenobi/CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi ; Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Quinlan Vos, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody, Quinlan Vos, Qui-Gon Jinn, Ahsoka Tano, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Additional Tags: Fanart, Obi-Bun AU, Light Through Liquor AU, Setting Suns AU, bonded au, Breathing Below AU, Of Honor and Force AU

Summary: The art pieces and captions from my year of challenging myself to draw Obi-Wan Kenobi once a week every week. Each chapter will be a new week in the order of release, with special occasions in between, and will be named with the week/holiday. If the week features an intended ship it WILL ALSO be in the title. If there is no ship, then that was not how I intended the piece. The chapter notes will also contain the ship and the track, as every piece had a song to match (with playlists complied on Spotify and YouTube for you), and any AUs or fics that may be linked to the art :) As always, Enjoy!

Gonna begin moving the works over to AO3 along with any snippets/captions, for the quality, ease of finding, and just an overall better record of everything :3

And in the meantime maybe I will plan a new challenge, because this has honestly been so motivating and helpful through rougher patches. And I learned a lot despite how hard or last minute some of these were.

#hope the description makes sense #and the tags #I really do struggle to tag right #but I think I found a way for people to navigate it all #mind the chapter titles #ao3 #ao3 link #fanart #my art #still can't believe this is the end #feels like I just started #obi wan kenobi

[taekooktimeline]

September 8, 2023 (released) -

Tae’s Spotipoly interview is released! It’s so cute (I caught myself smiling a lot). I’ve left the raw link at the bottom to watch if you haven’t seen it already. In one task, Tae has to fish for his song “Love Me Again” by moving to designated spots and fishing for the letters. He has to answer fan questions as he does so. The first question asked is, “Which member would you take to a deserted island?”

Right away, Tae answers he’d take Jungkook, since he’s good at various things + when Tae asks him to do something he does (flashbacks to Tae cutely asking Jk to make him food during ITS 2):

Timestamp 8:53 or

https://x.com/_rapperjk/status/1700094576743039255?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg

https://x.com/dailyofjk_/status/1700099605684162897?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought of that ITS 2 moment, complete with pout! 😂🥰

https://x.com/_rapperjk/status/1700095118018035767?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg

Another question asked (when he has to start his task over) was, “While preparing your solo album, when we’re you thankful to the members?”

Tae answers by sharing that he recorded the guide song at “Jungkookie’s” house. Just like in You Quiz, Tae reiterates that Jk helped with the directing, providing suggestions by way of advising certain ways of singing that may work better for the song. It’s absolutely the sweetest to continuously see that, not only do they share their work with each other first, they’re so supportive of one another.

https://x.com/taekookalbum/status/1700090679068647596?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg

https://x.com/dailyofjk_/status/1700099241178182074?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg

https://x.com/thetkglobal/status/1700102879405862952?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg

For his final mission, Tae is tasked with marking each spot of a BINGO card with song recommendations. The exact Spotify question is, “What songs on the Kpop ON! playlist has V’s heart?”

Tae adds Jungkook’s “Seven” to his Spotify BINGO card, and he adds it first, before any other song, including his own. When he reveals the song, he says it’s by “our” (BTS) youngest.

Of course, this reminds all of us of Festa 2020, when Tae wrote the members’ names in rainbow color and put Jk’s name first. Priorities! ☺️

Recap - https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline2020/640123353662898176/taekooktimeline-also-on-april-9th-2020-filmed

Tae’s BINGO card in its entirety (note that Jk’s was the only one of the BTS members to be added) -

Timestamp

19:01 or

https://x.com/monpetitmoon7/status/1700118889856651378?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg.

Raw - https://youtu.be/31PcO3jISY4?si=mnmwB50Qu02xLcHX

#taekook #taekooktimeline #2023 #priorities #closeness #supportive #Spotify #interviews

[spade-riddles]

Submission: Kinda "talking shop"

About her current recording contract … do we know how many albums she is currently signed up for at universal? With the current topic of five stages of grief making the rounds and her albums since lover being linked with these five stages, I noticed: She is right now at the very moment she was in when things went sour with Big Machine, no?

Her fifth album since signing with universal is TTPD. I’m counting 1 lover, 2 folklore, 3 evermore, 4 midnights, 5 TTPD. The re-recordings are probably handled separately?

Back to it: She is about to release 1989, one more album on the contract with Big Machine after that and they start talking about re-sign up. Porchetta at the same time goes around and offers Big Machine up for sale with Taylor’s masters being the prize… Taylor wants a way to buy her masters … we kinda know what happened … Taylor knows she will leave and she goes on to make Reputation. (Adding here the messy fact that the news about the sale of Big Machine goes public the day we thought she would kinda come out in a rainbow dress at pride parade. That detail feels super bad in a way I can’t put into words.)

Right now, not counting the re-recordings, Taylor is on Album No. 5. If she has a six album record deal … that’s where she is right now, I think …

What irritated me when it came out, but has me thinking now … Scooby and that spotify deal with that shady Lucien guy, the boss from universal.

I just googled and Scooby and Lucien had business before but still, I think we all felt an intense ick when the news and the photo came out, right?

So yesterday I just realised, that Taylor is potentially at the re-signing point again? Possibly?

What do we actually know about her contract with universal? How many more? How many albums in total?

I thought, maybe a wild thought … she would try to go truly independent? She has the money for it … and she already created Taylor Swift Records I believe … and she openly suggested she thought about selling tickets for her concerts herself …

So … was that shady when the ten year (!!!) deal with lucien and scooby came out at this point in time?

Oh! What exactly are those “possibilities” about featuring a promotion on spotify for new album releases??? (Now for the next ten years apparently?)

Does Taylor use that? Whatever that is?

What she did do (and cause quite a bit of chaos with) is create those “five stages of grief” playlists on APPLE not spotify. That is interesting?

Or am I way off with this?

#submission #I am surprised how little attention the scooter Lucien deal got #there are only two articles I find #one a press release from UMG #the other on billboard magazine