#her idea was design a book cover and I really like to play with that kind if things😆

[spaceorphan18]

The Rogue and Gambit Project: Previously On X-Men... Gambit

It's time to talk about Gambit! The nice thing about Gambit is that he was, at the time, a relatively new character, having only been around in the comics for about a year. Which means there is way less to cover! Boy, are we going to have to deal with some questionable art, though.

The Basics:

Name: Remy Etienne* LeBeau

*Okay, so, this is the funny thing about the name Etienne. Apparently, it started out as fanlore, and - as so many things that happen in fandom - gained popularity as fanon from a particularly well known piece of fanfiction from way back when. I believe it's actually been used in canon at this point. It is on Marvel.com - which is the official site. I'll keep a look out for it to show up.

Also, in case you didn't know (and I'm sure you did), Le Beau is French for The Beautiful.

Backstory: Just like Rogue, Gambit's backstory is shrouded in mystery. He's a thief. He's from New Orleans. He's Cajun. That's all your getting for now. Don't worry, we'll peel back the layers. ;)

Power Set (via uncannyxmen.net):  interkinetic power allows him to produce bio-kinetic energy within his body and use it to convert any inorganic object's potential energy into kinetic energy on contact, making the object highly volatile and explosive on contact, internal energy also grants him heightened agility and creates static interference that shields his mind from detection

I should also give the obligatory comment of - these powers are toned down from his full abilities because of /reasons/ which we'll get to eventually. He had Mr. Sinister give him a lobotomy and, we've all been suffering the consequences sense.

Alright, let's dig into Gambit's pre-Rogue run...

Uncanny X-Men 266-267

Uncanny X-Men #266

I have to start by appreciating the fact that Gambit is a thief who wears bright pink and metal boots. It's a bold look.

Anyway, the funny thing about Gambit is that the character he turned out to be ended up being a lot different from creator Chris Claremont's initial ideas. Apparently, he was supposed to be, ultimately, a villain and, while he was supposed to be a love interest for one of our characters, it wasn't Rogue, it was... Kitty Pryde. He was also supposed to be a Mr. Sinister creation and a third summers brother. Yeah, I'm kind of glad Claremont left before any of this stuff really came to fruition.

Also, I once read that Claremont claim that original artist Mike Collins made Gambit too pretty. Which is funny, because ngl, I really am not a fan of the look in his debut, and it will be a while before he really earns his name.

Uncanny X-Men #266

I also want to note that Gambit's powers were a little different back then. He didn't have playing cards yet, and instead used metal spikes as throwing devices. The powers were designated in green. And were charged from his eyes. Also, interesting to note - his eyes aren't red on black yet, either.

There's also 'hypnotic charm' thing that was kinda used in the early appearances. He does use it in his first appearance to tame some of the Shadow King's Hounds.

Uncanny X-Men #266

He's gonna be calling her 'Stormy' for years. She's gonna love it. ;) (Btw - he calls her Stormy 4 times in this issue alone.)

Okay, so... Gambit shows up, crossing paths with Storm at a mansion of some rich person. Storm is de-aged (for... reasons) and is running from the Shadow King and his minions. He's busy stealing art from the rich dude (who apparently is not home and has no security, lol).

And thus, one of my favorite comic book friendships is born. And really, this first appearance is a lot of fun as Gambit and Storm play off each other's strengths to get away from the Shadow King.

Uncanny X-Men 267

Jim Lee is going to add some of Gambit's more iconic features -- such as throwing playing cards (Gambit's Ace of Spades shows up in this next issue) and using some kind of staff (hilariously, it's a broom in this issue).

Storm and Gambit's adventures continue. He takes her to New Orleans for a while so she can recover from the Shadow King. They go thieving -- playing Robin Hood -- stealing from rich people because they can. And then the Orphan Maker comes along, who makes Storm a teenager? (Idk - the whole thing is weird - she'll become her real age again in the next story arc.)

Uncanny X-Men #267

And then Storm is like, hey, I have a crazy idea....

Uncanny X-Men Annual #14

Fun fact: Because of release dates and such, Uncanny X-Men #266 wasn't the first comic released to have Gambit in it. The Annual technically came out first, though it clearly takes place after Uncanny 266-267. But this is the first time we see Gambit among the X-Men team. Not that he does anything remotely interesting during this whole thing. He doesn't even speak, kind of hides awkwardly in the background.

X-Tinction Agenda (Uncanny X-Men #270-272; X-Factor & New Mutants)

Uncanny X-Men #270

Welcome to the X-Men, Gambit! Hope you survive the experience!

He's in the credit roll now, must be official. ;)

Gambit joins the team just as the mega X-tinction Agenda crossover starts. (Uncanny X-Men joins New Mutants and X-Factor for this one) And, I'll be honest, this isn't one of my favorite crossovers. The whole thing revolves around the nation of Genosha, how they're using mutants for slaves, and how all the teams come together to change the status quo. And of course, mutants get capture and tortured and a few killed. Fwiw X-Men: The Animated Series did do this storyline.

Uncanny X-Men #270

Gambit and Cable don't (won't) get to cross paths very often, so I found this an interesting panel. Anyway... Gambit really has very little to do during this crossover. When Storm gets captured, he is really concerned for her (as he considers her his partner at the moment) but he's not really vibe-ing the whole team dynamic yet.

Uncanny X-Men #272

This is arguably the coolest thing Gambit's done as of yet. Dude pulls a spike out of his leg to use as a lockpick and gets himself rescued. I'm glad they give him this, because, again, for the most part he's just kinda hanging around in the background not doing much.

I will say - he and Jubilee get to cross paths, which is going to be a source of fun in the next arc.

Space Shenanigans (Uncanny X-Men 273-277)

Uncanny X-Men 273

Some of my favorite issues are when the team is regrouping. Post- X-Tinction Agenda, it's clear that things in the X-Office were changing. Claremont is at this point sort of being pushed out, while Jim Lee and Co are becoming more the driving force behind the books. On panel, the teams are kind of merging. X-Factor's first era is drawing to a close, and the X-Men are resolidifying after being in flux for so long.

We're about to get a Space Soap Opera, as Claremont so dearly loves, but this issue is a bit of a breather between the arcs. And we get this bit of tension between Storm and Gambit - where Gambit is ready to move on, but Storm is back on solid footing again. They don't explicitly state why Gambit sticks around, but he definitely does...

Uncanny X-Men 273

I swear, this is Chris Claremont's favorite joke. He's used it before this moment, and he'll do it again. It's impactful the first time, but it does get old the more Claremont does it. However, we get the first highlight of the dynamic between Gambit and Wolverine -- which will be antagonistic for a while, but is fascinating.

Uncanny X-Men #274

Doesn't Gambit look sexy in his yellow team uniform?? ;)

Btw - as I mentioned earlier, this is the first issue Gambit and Rogue appear in together. Though they be miles and miles and miles apart.

Uncanny X-Men #275

The whole crux of this arc, that I've been kind of ignoring, involves Xavier being brainwashed in space (or something) and of course the X-Men get involved in space politics (again). Honestly, space stories are Claremont's favorite trope, so it doesn't surprise me that the end of his run are filled with a couple of them.

Anyway -- if there's one person impervious to Gambit's charms - it's Jubilee. They get to hang out a lot during this arc, and it's really delightful since they team up to kind of figure out what is going on with Xavier acting weird and all the odd space kool-aide people are drinking.

Uncanny X-Men #277

I actually really like this cover. Gambit's got a sword and a spear! Plus, he looks like his 90s cool self now. The blue and yellow uniform doesn't suit him AT. ALL. But we don't have to deal with it too much longer...

Uncanny X-Men #277

See... I told you Claremont was gonna do this again, lol.

Uncanny X-Men #277

The nice thing about this whole space arc is that Gambit really gets to come into his own. He now looks cool (note the red eyes are here!). He's doing fun stuff. He's taking on Wolverine and holding his own. He's being smart and tactical and an asset. They've paired him with some great X-Men to start off with, and it's paying off.

Meanwhile, we don't really know much about him. As many of the other characters state, his background is shrouded in mystery... (whether you like what it actually is can be debated as we get to it). But for now, he's intriguing as a new comer.

And this is where we're at as two story lines come crashing together and our two romantic leads get to meet for the first time.... off panel.

But I'll get more into that next time when I discuss... The Muir Island Saga!

#xmen #x men #gambit #remy lebeau #the rg project #marvel meta #marvel #marvel comics #xmen comics #uncanny xmen

[batri-jopa]

Master of Shadows

#my art #another silly challenge with one of my pen friends #we started to try and write a story together (writing in turns each adding at least 6 sentences and none knows when it's gonna lead) #her idea was design a book cover and I really like to play with that kind if things😆 #nothing special but I had fun👍 #shadows #creepy #too bad I did not make it for halloween #tentacles #demonic entity #book cover #pencil art

[evermoresqueiswriting]

the one where clarisse learns about her love language

"Late in the night, the city's asleep Your love is a secret I'm hoping, dreaming, dying to keep Change my priorities The taste of your lips is my idea of luxury" - King Of My Heart, Taylor Swift

summary: after getting hurt during one game of capture de flag, clarisse gets taken care of by you and after this, clarisse went from never being at the infirmary to being there almost every day with a new injury. weird for an ares kid to get this easily injured, but you didn't mind

pairing: clarisse la rue x apollo!reader

word count: 6.2k i suddenly lost the ability to write shorter fics bruh

tags: fluff, clarisse fell first and harder

masterlist // ask box

No one at camp had a job at camp per say. Hephaestus kids were the ones forging the weapons campers used, and Demeter kids sometimes cooked dinner. And some Apollo kids – including yourself – were the designated healers at camp. So, it wasn’t your job, per say, to stay at the infirmary all day long, but you were. 

You enjoyed the calm and serenity of that place. The sun always shined through the windows, and you could sunbathe all day long, while listening to your favourite songs or painting. Most of the time it was quiet, except when Will followed you there. He was a rather loud kid, he loved to ask questions and learn about everything you did. 

“Shouldn’t you be playing with other kids your age instead of trying to work here?” 

“Shouldn’t you be socialising with kids your age instead of working for free?” Will replied in the same tone. 

“Rude!” 

“I learned from the best,” he gave you a pat on the shoulder. 

“I regret it. All the time,” you turned away. “If you’re gonna stay here, at least help me clean this place.”

The first time Will tried to help you clean this place, it was a disaster. Before you ran the infirmary, it wasn’t organised, everything was just laying around. Then you came in, and cleaned up the place, and organised it how you liked it. Will didn’t know that, so he just cleaned up like he thought was fine. It wasn’t. And you had lectured him about never – ever – touching anything again without you being there. 

“Tomorrow’s Capture the Flag,” Will started. “They put really far from the flag and the fight, again,” he frowned. 

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

“It always happens when the Ares cabin is teaming up with us. They’re always leading the fight.”

“Well they are good,” you shrugged. “But you know you can talk to Lee about this, he’s our head counsellor and he could talk to Clarisse.”

He shook his head. 

“Clarisse is kinda scary,” Will admitted. 

“Did I never tell you to never judge a book by its cover,” you put your hands on your hips, “but in that case you’re right. Clarisse does scare me a little bit too. And I’m kinda glad she decided to put me far away from her this time.”

Will rolled his eyes, clearly still upset. 

“Okay, I can see how this isn’t great,” you sighed. “If for the next one, we’re still teaming up with the Ares cabin, I’ll talk to Lee and Clarisse alright?”

He nodded. Hopefully, you weren’t going to team up with the Ares cabin anytime soon. You never talked to Clarisse, but you knew who she was. Everyone knew her. Ares daughter, head counsellor and incredibly scary. She was an amazing fighter, and no one wanted to be at the other end of her spear. 

“I’m just saying,” you ranted to Lee at dinner, “Will is a kid and it sucks that you decided to exclude him.”

“Who’s ‘you’,” he inquired. “Clarisse was the brain behind everything. She’s the strategist.”

“And what are you? A plant? You were there when the strategy was being made,” you argued.

“But Will never said anything to me. It’s always been this way.”

“Well he told me, and I’m telling you. Please pass along this information if we ever get teamed up with the Ares cabin again,” you smiled.

“Sure,” Lee nodded. “You’re the boss.”

“‘m not,” you mumbled and kept on eating. 

Lee was the Apollo cabin’s head counsellor. But really, you were his co-head counsellor. You have been at camp for a long time now, since the age of ten and you have always been a year-rounder at camp. But when the head counsellor spot freed up, you vouched for Lee. He wanted that position, he deserved it, and you agreed. But he always came for advice and your opinion. 

Capture the Flag day finally arrived, and you were getting ready, putting your armour on. You picked your bow and slid it on your shoulder, before leaving your cabin. You joined your team – the red one – and everyone was there already. Clarisse stood tall and proud at the front, planting her spear next to her. 

“Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged,” Chiron announced – like every single time. “Killing or maiming is not allowed.”

“Much to my regret,” Dionysus mumbled. “So yeah, let the game begin or whatever.”

Clarisse turned around, waved her hand around and people were running to their assigned position. You were on flag duty. On top of the hill that had a perfect view of your flag. If you saw anyone from the opposite side you'd shoot explosive arrows to blind and confuse them for a second, so your team had time to disarm them before they could reach your flag. 

You looked around, and spotted Michael and Lee. Chatting, and looking around. Moving on. Ares' kids were fighting some kids from the Hephaestus cabin. Logic. And then you spotted Clarisse. Walking alone through the forest. Probably to the other side where the blue flag was. 

But then you also spotted a group of three Athena kids – blue team – following her closely. Clarisse wasn’t stupid, she probably knew about them following her. 

“What are you watching?” someone asked, startling you. 

“Will! What are you doing here?”

“There wasn’t anyone around the borders, so I came to help you. So what are you staring at?”

“Nothing,” you shrugged, going back to monitor your flag. 

Will stared at you, huffed and went to look at what you were looking at. 

“y/n?,” Will called for you. 

“What?” you didn’t look at him.

“y/n!”

“What?” you gave him a quick glance. 

“Something’s wrong.”

That caught your attention. You looked back at where Clarisse was. She seemed fine. The three Athena kids were no longer there though. 

“What?”

“Don’t you see the trap?”

“What trap?” you frowned, looking more closely at where she stood. 

It was a particularly sunny day. If your dad wasn’t Apollo, you’d be blinded by the sun rays. But your dad was Apollo, so you were doing great. And there it was. The trap. It was so bright, it was hard to spot it. And the Athena kids knew that. So when Clarisse walked over it, it was too late and something came flying toward her. 

“What the hell?” you cursed before running down the hill. “Stay here,” you warned Will. 

Before you left, you gave a quick glance back, and Clarisse was down, surely unconscious. 

“Fuck.”

You sprinted towards where she was when you heard the emergency horn. The emergency horn that Chiron played at the start of every summer so campers would know what that sound meant. A warning for campers that the game stopped. When you reached Clarisse, Chiron and Mr D were already there. As well as most campers. 

“What happened?” campers talked among themselves.

“Move!” you pushed the kids blocking you from reaching Clarisse. 

Clarisse was bleeding from her forehead, and a metal stick was stuck in her left shoulder. It was overwhelming, people squeezing in to see what was going on, talking to each other. Even Chiron and Mr D couldn’t keep them in place. You kneeled beside Clarisse, trying to shield her from the campers, when you spotted one of the Athena kids that was following her earlier. 

You stood swiftly, without leaving Clarisse unattended and grabbed his armour with both hands to bring him closer.

“You take another step toward Clarisse again and I’ll make sure you won’t ever, ever, see another healthy day again. I’ll make sure you and your brothers will wake everyday in pain wishing you were dead instead,” you cursed him. 

You spoke in a low voice, but everyone heard. Just like that, everyone took a step back.

“y/n,” Chiron put his hand on your shoulder. “You’re needed in the infirmary, I’ll bring Clarisse there.”

You let him go, took your armour off and threw it on the ground before walking to the infirmary with your brothers close behind you. Michael had great healing skills too, so you’d need him. Will was learning so he stayed with you. Lee, as your head counsellor, also had to be here somehow. 

“Can you really do that?” Will asked timidly. “Make them sick forever.”

“Apollo kids can inherit dad’s plague powers,” Lee stated. “But it’s rare, and never that powerful.”

Will stared at you, but you only stared at the door. Waiting for Chiron to arrive. 

“Why are you so worried about Clarisse of all people,” Michael huffed. 

Lee slapped his arm. 

“What!” Michael rubbed his arm. 

“Great to know that’s what you’d think if we were ever on the battlefield,” you noted, “choosing who to help and who can die.”

“That’s not what I said!” he shouted.

“Then why shouldn’t I be worried about an injured camper, who just happened to be Clarisse?” you shouted back.

Someone cleared their throat. You both stopped bickering. Chiron. He put Clarisse on the bed next to the window and stepped back so you and Michael could start working. You didn’t need to talk to know what to do. You trained together, as a team, for years, so everything was done flawlessly and quickly. 

“She should be fine,” you announced, “I’ll stay and feed her ambrosia for the next few days and she should wake.”

“Great,” Chiron nodded, relieved. “Great work you two, as usual.”

They all left, except for Will and you both sat on the couch. You stared at Clarisse, with her head wrapped in a bandage, her shoulder too. 

“She doesn’t look so scary now huh,” you said. 

“No,” Will agreed. “So it really was the Athena cabin?”

“I don’t know, I mean I saw them. I don’t think Annabeth would’ve agreed to such a plan. As in a plan that’d almost kill their opponent in Capture the Flag. For a real quest, why not. But Capture the Flag?”

“What’s going to happen to those who pulled this stunt?”

“Well,” you sighed, “knowing Chiron, he’d probably just revoke their dessert privileges for two weeks instead of one. But I’m sure once she wakes up, she’ll know what to do.”

“Kill them?” Will ask, with a horrified expression.

“Maybe,” you shrugged. 

Will left first, leaving you alone with Clarisse. You told him you’d join him later when dinner would come. You went to see Clarisse. The bandages were already soaked, so you carefully removed them. You carefully cleaned her wounds again before bandaging them again. You fed her a tiny amount of ambrosia before joining the rest of your siblings for dinner. 

Before the feast could begin, Chiron gave a speech about how Capture the Flag wasn’t the place to settle personal accounts and that maiming and killing was forbidden. And how this time it went too far. 

“I’ve talked to the head counsellor in question, and it will be taken seriously. There will be consequences, and I don’t ever want to see this happening ever again.”

Campers nodded along, and went back to their table. You devoured your food in no time, not forgetting to leave some for the offering. Then you rushed to shower and clean your face before running to the infirmary where you’d spend the next few nights. 

“I really hope you’ll wake soon,” you told unconscious Clarisse. “I’m not used to having someone else in here.”

You walked around, putting things back where they’re supposed to, and walked back to where Clarisse was. Then you stood again, and sat.

“I’m crazy. A few hours with someone who doesn’t talk to me and I’m going insane,” you sighed. “Well, while we’re here, I have a few things to say, to get off my chest really,” you started your rant. “You know Will, my little brother. Well, Will is capable of holding his own, he can fight… maybe not your siblings, cause you’re all very, very, violent. But you don’t have to put him this far away each time you know, he notices.

“I’m saying,” you rested your back against the bed, “it could be different, you could come up with a different kind of strategy. It works for sure, you win a lot, but we could win in a different way also. 

“You know I saw you,” you continued after a moment. “Being followed by these idiots. I thought you knew, and–,” you paused. “Ugh I should’ve tried to protect you. Warn you. It was my job. Why didn’t I think of that earlier? And it was hot as hell, you could’ve felt a little dizzy and I should’ve–”

“Shut up,” Clarisse wheezed. 

You whipped around, standing up before backing away. 

“Ar– Clarisse?” you whispered. “Are you feeling alright?” you walked to her. 

Her eyes were still closed, she frowned and shook her head slightly. 

“Waw, Ares kids are tougher than I thought,” you mumbled to yourself. 

You went to grab some water and a straw, and sat next to Clarisse, on the bed. 

“You should drink a bit.”

She opened her eyes, and stared at you, with a blank expression. You blinked, and smiled, holding up the straw to her mouth. You frowned when she refused to drink. 

“Drinking water is good for you,” you added. “Please stop staring at me like you want to murder me.”

She rolled her eyes and drank everything before closing her eyes again, and turning her head on the other side. 

“Well, I’ll be sleeping on this bed,” you pointed to the bed next to hers, “if you need anything, shout.” 

Clarisse kept quiet, so you went to bed and fell asleep very quickly. Clarisse, on the other hand, could not fall asleep. She turned head around and looked at you. You clearly slept well, with your mouth slightly opened. After a few minutes of staring outside the window, her stomach growled. She needed to eat. 

There had to be food in here – she looked around and spotted a basket full of fruits and cake. That’ll do. She gathered all her strength and tried to push herself up using her left arm and yelped in pain. That woke you up.

“What’s wrong?” you worried.

“Nothing,” Clarisse panted, biting her lips. 

You rushed to her and saw her shoulder was bleeding again.

“What happened?” you worried, turning the lights on. 

You grabbed clean bandages, and a clean towel with some alcohol and rushed back to her. Clarisse somehow managed to sit up, her right arm holding onto where her left shoulder was stabbed.

“Don’t cover it,” you pushed her hand away.

You started to remove the blood soaked bandages when she grabbed your hand to stop you. You gave her a questioning look. Clarisse quickly let go of your hand and looked away, breathing slowly. You opened your mouth, but then closed it and resumed your work. 

“What were you trying to do anyway?” you asked when the wound was clean. 

“I was hungry.”

“I–, I mean I did say to shout if you needed me but I was not thinking a pained scream with you bleeding again. Just a ‘hey y/n bring me food’ would’ve suffice. I would’ve been up. And that’s done. Good as new.”

Clarisse was still looking away from you which hid her head wound. When she turned her head toward you, you raised your hand to touch her face, but she flinched away hard at your sudden movement. You froze, too afraid to move again. No one talked or dared to breathe – the silence became heavy. Clarisse opened her eyes, and stared at you. She took your hand in hers and put it down. 

“I��,” you breathed, “I was just going to check your head wound,” you murmured. 

“Go ahead then,” she sat straighter. 

You raised your hands slower this time, and tilted her head. You tore off her bandage and put it back in place. Clarisse could hear her heartbeat pacing up. Her mind and body stopped functioning. What was happening? She kept thinking about how your hands felt so warm in the night breeze, and how pretty you looked so close. Then when you dropped your hands, she came back to reality.

“Your face is still good. Like always,” and gave her a small smile. 

“I’ll go eat,” she blurted out before leaving bed.

“Oh– okay. I can go to the kitchen and bring other things if you want.”

“No it’s fine,” she brushed you off, focused on the fruits in front of her. 

Which was hard with you so close behind her. You watched Clarisse eat the strawberries and blueberries and grapes, and then you grabbed an orange and started to peel it. Once you were done you handed it to her. She grabbed it slowly and whispered a low thank you before eating it. Clarisse also ate half of the cake Katie brought to you earlier. 

“Demeter kids, am I right,” you ate with her, “I don't know what they put in their cakes but I could eat them everyday. You should rest now,” you put your hand on her right arm and squeezed it. “You can barely stand.”

This time when Clarisse closed her eyes, she fell asleep instantly. And so did you. The next morning, you were the first one up. As soon as the sun rose, you were ready to start your day. You went to your cabin and washed up before grabbing a new toothbrush for Clarisse. You changed your clothes, and then went to the Ares cabin. You opened the door, and no one was up yet. You spotted the only empty bunk bed – Clarisse had one for herself – and saw her drawer next to it. You grabbed a new pair of pants, and a new camp-half blood tee and left in a hurry. Clarisse was up by the time you came back.

“I brought some of your clothes so you could change,” you gave her the clothes and the toothbrush. “I did sneak into your cabin, but I didn’t look through your stuff, don't worry about that,” you smiled. “I mean, except for your clothes – sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“Well, I’ll let you change and I’ll be… not here for sure. I’ll go get breakfast!”

Clarisse watched you walk away, humming to some songs and when you were out of her sight, she got out of bed to change and clean herself. All she could think about was what happened yesterday. What even happened yesterday?

Before yesterday, you never spoke. She knew your name and vaguely knew what you looked like, but that was it. Since she arrived at camp, she didn’t once step into the infirmary – she didn’t need to. But now, for some reason, all she could think about was you. And how warm and soft your hands felt, how nice it felt to have you touch her face like that. 

By the time you came back, Clarisse went back to bed and laid down. You gave her what you brought and you ate together, picking off the same plate.

“How are you feeling this morning? Does it still hurt?” you pointed at her shoulder.

“I’m—,” she stopped. “It still hurts,” which was true. “A lot,” that wasn’t.. 

“Really?” you worried. “I thought you’d be doing fine, because you woke so early. I thought your body was healing faster than most campers. Well,” you picked a strawberry with your fork, “you’ll have to stay here longer then.”

“Can’t go against the doctor’s orders,” she shrugged. 

“True,” you smiled. “You finish this,” you pushed the plate toward her, “I’ll go get some supplies to change this,” you gently patted her shoulder. 

You rolled your chair away, and grabbed what you needed and rolled back to Clarisse. You hopped onto her bed, and started your routine. The wounds were healing perfectly fine, and very quickly, so it was odd that Clarisse was still in extreme pain. 

“I don’t think these wounds will scar,” you said. 

“A shame, they’d make me look tougher.”

“Look?” you huffed. “You don’t need those to look tougher, you already do. Scary even,” you joke, but not really. “I mean I’m not scared– anymore… but yeah, some people may say– think you do. Anyway, scar or not, you’ll always look and be the toughest.”

“Anymore?” she grinned. “Were you before?”

“I mean,” you dragged that last vowel, “I don’t think scared is the right word. More like– intimidated. I never went to these meetings for Capture the Flag because I knew if you disagreed or worse – dismissed my ideas – I would’ve cried.”

“I never would’ve done that,” she chuckled, “I don’t think you’re capable of having bad ideas. Lee’s constantly praising you and giving us your ideas that I always take into account.”

“Really?” you couldn’t stop your smile. 

She shrugged, and nodded. You playfully slapped her on the shoulder – the left one – and she yelped in pain.

“What the hell!”

‘Sorry!” you backed away, “it was a reflex.”

Clarisse ended up staying in the infirmary with you for three whole days, but she couldn’t fake it anymore when the wound completely healed and it was as if nothing had happened. The day she left, you cleaned up the room and sat alone on the couch, just like before. 

It was weird. Usually, you enjoyed the silence and solitude of the room, but now it was as if time had stopped. Every time you looked at the clock, it’d only been two minutes. And so were the next few days. Then on Friday, as usual, Lee came in to visit. You worked in silence – which was the first odd thing Lee noticed – then he saw how you always stared at the empty bed Clarisse used to stay in. 

“You’re being weird,” he said. 

“I’m not!”

“You’re never this quiet when I visit.”

“The past few days were a bit dry,” you explained casually.

“You can say you miss Clarisse, it’s fine,” he sat next to you on the couch. 

“I–,” you sighed. “It’s just… I was getting used to having someone with me.”

“Well maybe you should spend less time here and more time outside with, mmh I don’t know, Clarisse maybe.” 

“What if she doesn’t see me as a friend though? What if I’m imagining things? She hasn’t visited me once.”

“Then you come back here, and the end.”

“I hate you,” you groaned. “You’re no help to me at all!”

When the door suddenly flew open which startled both of you. You could recognise these hair anywhere. 

“Clarisse?” you called her name. 

She turned to face you, and a gasp came out of your mouth before rushing to her. 

“What happened to your face?” you held her arms.

Clarisse had a nasty cut going from her eyebrow to her hairline. She stared at you without saying anything before turning her gaze to Lee, and he spurted out some excuses and then left. But before he closed the door, he gave you a knowing look saying ‘see, she’s here’. 

“What happened?” you frowned. 

“I don’t know,” she whispered. She cleared her throat. “These few days of rest weren’t a good idea I think.”

“That’s–,” you paused, “not accurate.”

But before she could reply, you grabbed her arm and dragged her to the other side of the room, and let her sit on the chair. You grabbed clean cotton and some alcohol and started to clean her wound. You stood closely to her, between her legs with her hands holding onto your thighs to stay steady. 

“How did this happen anyway?” you asked.

“I was practising with my brothers.”

You frowned, and tried to step away but Clarisse was holding on tight to your thighs. 

“You got beat up by your brothers?” you repeated with a raised eyebrow. “I have a hard time believing this. You’re just better than them,” you said casually before patching up her wound. 

“Why do you know so much about my brothers’ skills?”

“I don’t! I know about yours. And from what I saw in the past, it’s always you leading the fight so I assumed that’s because you’re the best among them.”

“Mh,” she hummed, “well I guess you haven’t been doing your job very well if I’m not back to my old self yet,” she grinned. 

“Or,” you grinned back, “maybe it’s your skills. I think they need a little sharpening. Maybe I could spare some time and teach you if you need.”

She suppressed a smile. 

“Or, maybe you just want to spend time with me.”

You were close to each other, and Clarisse was still holding onto you. You crossed your arms, and stared at her. She was looking up at you, and you were looking down, which was a rare occurrence since she was much taller than you. 

“I’m doing a favour to you at best. But if you don’t want to,” you sighed, “it’s–.”

“I do,” she affirmed. 

That was the start of your friendship. Turns out Clarisse was really glad to hang out with someone that wasn’t her sibling. She was always the one seaking you out. At lunch, at dinner, during classes. All the time. Even when you were working, because somehow she always, always, ended up getting hurt. 

One of the first times she came in after your friendship hangouts was for a sprained ankle. She came in limping, and threw herself on her – not really – bed, groaning. 

“What happened?” you rushed to her side, worried. “You’re lucky I just came back in here!” 

Clarisse didn’t want to admit this, but that was exactly why she was here. She was on her way to her cabin when she spotted you walking around with your sisters and she was so focused on you that she tripped and fell. 

“I just fell,” she explained. 

“You just fell,” you repeated slowly. “Right. Well lucky you because this,” you patted her leg, “will heal in no time with this,” you brought her some ambrosia. 

“That’s it?” she asked.

“Yeah,” you smiled. 

“Oh.”

Then the next time she came, like the next few ones, were always injuries that required you to clean up the wound, and then patch her up. It went from tiny cuts to ‘I have a bruise here’ then showing you her perfectly unbruised skin to serious injuries that she got during Capture the Flag. 

“You know at this rate I feel like you’re doing this on purpose,” you joked when she came in for the umpteenth time. “What is it this time?”

She shrugged and sat on her designated bed, and laid down. You joined her and sat next to where her legs rested. She held up her hand and you took it before she dragged you to lay beside her. The beds in the infirmary weren’t big enough for two so you were half laying on Clarisse with her arm resting behind your head. 

“Did you paint that?” she asked.

The ceiling was painted by the Apollo cabin, all together you decided on a design and painted it over weeks worth of work.  

“Here,” you pointed at the top of the painting. “That was painted by me.”

“Two planets?” 

“The moon and Saturn,” you smiled.

“Linked by a thread?”

“Yea, the red string of fate. It’s from Chinese mythology. The old lunar matchmaker god, who is in charge of marriages, would tie together two people with this red string of fate and they are destined to be together, to be lovers regardless of time, place or circumstances. And no matter what, that thread will never break. It can stretch or get tangled up, but it never breaks.”

“And what about the moon and Saturn then?” she frowned, confused. 

“Because,” you paused. “Your braids like a pattern, love you to the moon and to Saturn,” you started to sing, “Passed down like folk songs, the love lasts so long.”

You turned your head to look at her only to see confusion on her face.

“Taylor Swift, seven,” you explained. “It’s great, we’ll have to listen to it someday.”

“Sure.”

“Really?” you looked at her excitedly.

“Yeah, you seem to like her so sure, I’ll listen with you,” she shrugged.

“Oh and that’s Will’s painting,” you showed her another corner. “That’s my dad and his lover, Hyacinthus. That’s where the name of the flower came from. Isn’t that kind of sweet how he named a flower after him.”

“I mean didn’t Apollo kill – by accident – Hyacinthus?” she grimaced. 

“Or Zephyrus was so jealous of my dad that he killed his lover, because he couldn’t get no man. My dad is an excellent archer. His aim never failed him. I don’t see how it’s possible for him to kill his lover. But gods being petty over these kinds of things, that I can believe.”

Clarisse hummed in agreement. 

“But enough about my father’s love life,” you shrugged, turning around to face Clarisse, “what about your dad? Still desperately trying to woo someone else’’s wife?”

“I don’t want to talk about my dad,” she yawned, then closed her eyes. 

“Okay.”

Just as you were about to continue talking, you noticed that Clarisse had fallen asleep. It was still early in the afternoon so it was still bright outside. You looked around and started to get up so you could pull the curtains but Clarisse grabbed your arm to pull you closer to her, locking you in her arms. 

“Don’t go,” she mumbled. 

“Okay,” you whispered and stayed still. 

The thing was, Clarisse was like a human radiator. Sleeping in her arms felt exactly like sleeping under tons of heavy blankets. This much warmth only resulted in falling asleep in Clarisse’s arms. When you woke, you were alone in bed.

“Slacking off during work hours,” Lee said standing next to you. 

“Fuck!” you jumped off bed. “Why were you staring at me sleeping!” you screamed.

“You weren’t there and it’s almost time for dinner. I’m being a nice brother!” he shouted back.

“Oh. Well, thanks!” you yelled, and gave him a smile. 

You both left  to join your siblings at the dining pavilion, and once you sat at your usual spot, you scanned the room in search of Clarisse. She was at her table like usual, and eating in silence, head hanging low. Your tactic of staring at her wasn’t working even though you knew she knew that you were staring at her. 

“What are you doing?” Lee kicked you with his elbow. “Did something happen with Clarisse?” he whispered. 

You shook your head. 

“I mean,” you leaned in whispering, “we did sleep together.”

Lee’s eyes widened, mouth wide open and he backed away in shock. 

“You– you slept together? In the infirmary?”

“Not slept together,” you rolled your eyes, “she fell asleep and did I.”

“Ah.”

“Anyways, she left without saying anything,” you explained. “And now, I feel like she’s avoiding me.”

“It’s only been a few hours.”

“She’s avoiding me, I’ve been staring at her for at least fifteen minutes and nothing. Not a glance from her.”

“Okay creep. But once again, just talk to her. It would solve all your problems here.”

“She’s the one who doesn’t talk. I talk. A lot!”

 “Trust me, I know. I just don’t think Ares kids are the best at talking, you know.”

“Fine.”

But as it turned out, Clarisse mastered the art of avoiding people – you – when she wanted to. Whenever you tried to talk to her, she would disappear. After a few days of trying, you gave up and told everything to Lee. 

“If she doesn’t want anything to do with me, then fine by me,” you frowned, holding back your tears. 

“I’m sure you’re overthinking this,” he tried to comfort you.

“Oh please,” you huffed. “You saw what happened this morning when I tried to talk to her. I’ll get over it,” you whispered. “I’ll get over her.”

Lee considered himself your best friend, and favourite brother. You never said these things, but he considered you his best friend and favourite sister. And as your best friend he had to do something, he had to talk to Clarisse and give her a piece of his mind. So that night, he was a man on a mission. He walked to the Ares cabin, and waited for Clarisse to either go or or go out. 

“Clarisse!” he called her name when she finally left her cabin.

“What do you want, Fletcher?” Clarisse sighed, clearly annoyed.

“Oh, so you do speak. And here I thought you lost that ability,” he snickered.

“I will punch you in the face.”

Lee rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

“I’m not scared, unlike you.”

“What–.”

“You’re scared to talk to y/n for whatever reason, and I need you to pluck up the courage to talk to her because you’re making her miserable by avoiding her.”

“I–,” she froze. 

Was she making you miserable? 

“You’re just doing your thing and going to her when you need, when you want but have you ever thought about what she was thinking? No. You would if you’d just listened to her, but no,” he made a big gesture, “avoiding her like the plague.”

“Why are you telling me this?” she mumbled, looking away.

“I’m telling you that you made a mistake, and if you continue down this path you’re going to lose her for good. I’m not saying this for you, because I couldn’t care less about you, but y/n is my sister and I want her to be happy and for some reason you are making her happy,” he rolled his eyes, “so do whatever you want with this information.”

Clarisse stood there, not saying anything, watching Lee walking away. But then he stopped and turned around to walk toward her again. 

“Before I forget,” Lee added before throwing his strongest punch in her face. “For making my sister cry.”

And he ran away, before Clarisse could punch him back. But Clarisse was too busy thinking about you to think about Lee and what he just did. If it weren’t for that afternoon in the infirmary, she probably would’ve ran to you so you could take care of her, but now, she couldn’t. So she went to sleep, wishing that tomorrow it’ll be better.

You were one of the first campers to arrive for breakfast. You ate slowly, and by the time the dining pavilion was filled with campers, you were done. But you stayed and listened to your siblings talk. Just as you were about to leave, Clarisse came in and you dropped your fork in shock. She had a black eye and her cheek was bruised, with her nose in a weird shape. She looked at you, as you stood urgently. But then you froze – should you go to her? You sat back down, still staring at Clarisse. 

“What happened to her?” Will whispered to you.

“I don’t know,” you whispered back. 

“You don’t? I thought you were friends.”

“Yea, me too,” you sighed. 

Clarisse was walking to her table, dragging her feet along and when she walked past the Apollo table, you stood and grabbed hand, forcing her to face you. When you noticed several heads staring at you, you dragged Clarisse away and brought her to the archery field. 

“What happened to your face?” you held her face in your hands.

“Nothing,” she leaned into your touch. 

“Clarisse,” you whispered. “Just talk to me please.”

“Lee came to have a little chat with me yesterday.”

“He did this?” you gasped. 

“Yeah.”

You held your hand to your mouth, in shock and to hide a tiny part of you that wanted to laugh.

“And?” you asked.

“He said I was making you miserable.”

“That’s not true!” you insisted.

“I ignored you. And I shouldn't have. I don’t–” she hesitated, “want to lose you,” she mumbled.

“Then just talk to me, we’re friends too.”

“I– I don’t know,” she stepped back and took a deep breath. “I was confused! I– I don’t know I like it when you take care of me,” she admitted in a low voice. “I’m being weird and–.”

“You’re not,” you held her arms. “It’s not weird to love physical touch. I mean, I just assumed that it was your love language you know.”

“What?” she asked, confused. 

“I think what you like is when I hold you or when I touch you because you love physical touch,” you began, “and you were doing everything to visit me, pretending to be a bad fighter and getting hurt on purpose.”

“No that’s no–,” she shook her head.

“It’s fine! My love language is quality time, and there’s nothing wrong—.”

“No it’s different–.”

“It’s not! It’s fi—.”

“It’s because I like you,” she blurted out. 

Oh. You couldn’t help but smile at her confession. 

“It’s not funny!” she huffed, crossing her arms. 

“I’m not laughing! I’m… happy about this outcome,” you rested your head against her arms and looked up. “Because I like you too Clarisse.”

“Really?” she stared at you.

You nodded. 

“I’m sorry about ignoring you,” she added.

“Mmh,” you smiled, “I accept your apology. But you’ll have to make it up to me.”

“Anything you want.”

“A kiss?” 

Clarisse uncrossed her arms and held your face instead and leaned in to kiss you eagerly. And you happily gave in, wrapping your arms around her waist. 

“Mmh, keep doing that and I’ll forgive you, no doubt.”

#clarisse la rue x reader #clarisse la rue fanfic #clarisse x you #clarisse la rue x y/n #clarisse la rue pjo #clarisse la rue fluff #clarisse la rue #pjo x reader #clarisse pjo #clarisse la rue x fem!reader

[zoropookie]

HOW HATERS ARE BORN (HHAB)

♡ chapter thirty-three — give it time (💋)

“I’ll admit, you made it look like a home.”

You looked around, enamored by the mutable blend of the other’s home. There was oddly a cozy charm that bled in the space, a mixture of contrasts that you wouldn’t have thought he would involve himself with.

There were soft shadows playing against the walls, promenaded by the warm and golden glow of the lamps. It was really elegant in here, yet, meticulously chosen to make you feel comfortable enough to sit down on the obviously expensive furniture.

“Didn’t know you had a…knack for interior design either.” You said hesitantly, looking at a very abstract tiny statue of a triangle on one of the shelves. Even thought you were interested, it still just felt like a painted on canvas for you. Kind of like...the idea that there can be paint on a canvas, but it doesn't make it a painting. "Learning a lot more about you everyday."

"It wasn't my idea," He sighed. "I told the interior designer 'not too many colors', and I guess she thought I was talking about completely mute."

"Feels like a sanctuary," you murmured.

Despite the dismissive words he gave you, the effort that was put into everything was clearly crafted and corroborated. You walked over to the books sitting on the coffee table, the only things out of place from the rest of the textures, reading the hard cover and smiling.

"You're really considering it?" You asked, to which Kuni turned towards you, "Taking care of the orchard outside."

He shrugged, his eyes moving back to making tea in the kitchen. "I don't have a choice. It's either me who does it, or it dies."

"That's not true, you can always pay someone to do it for you. I know there's a lot of people who may want it for themselves, it's completely healthy." You rambled, trying to see it through the long windows. "I take it that was a housewarming gift too?"

"From Furina. Came with the house, thought it'd be funny to see me struggle with something mundane."

"I heard," You grinned, not being able to keep your laugh in. "Love that for you, it's like a package deal! Did it work?"

He sighed again, running a hand through his hair at the thought. "I guess, I don't know," He started pour the tea once the pot began to steam. "I know her goal was to drive me insane. A constant reminder that no matter how far I try to distance myself from complications, they find a way to root themselves in my life."

"Hey, I wouldn't see it as that." You chuckled, the sound mixing with the soft clinking of the ceramic cups he was setting on the table. "It's probably just a way to keep you grounded after everything."

"I don't see the appeal in tending to trees."

"Maybe it's not even about that," You mused. "Maybe it's just about finding a healthy medium in your life, don't suppose you had that before, right?" You said, teasingly.

He rolled his eyes at you, a humored smile tugging at his lips. "You're one to preach about silver linings."

Your jaw dropped, a small scoff coming from your mouth. "I actually came here to truce, thank you very much. Even though you're the one who tried to run away from me — news flash, didn't work, genius. Still pissed off about that. I'm glad that Furina is looking to help you as much as she's looking to out you."

"Running away is my thing." He squinted playfully, "Like she's big help anyway. The only reason she's in on it is because she wants us to have this romance trope going on for real this time. It's stupid as fuck."

You paused at his words, feeling yourself swallow a big lump some of the tea nestled in your mouth. You shivered at the heat that washed on you, pursing your lips in thought as you let the conversation simmer. The two of you standing in a companionable silence. The trees outside rustled gently in the breeze, their leaves a vibrant contrast to the muted tones inside.

"I mean, I don't know," You paused, cringing as your fingers tightened on your cup. "I don't think it's stupid."

Kuni stiffened too, gaze flickering away for a moment before returning to meet yours. There was a certain look that you've never seen before from him. You couldn't decipher his actual feelings. "I figured."

Your cheeks flushed. "Holy shit, never mind if you were expecting it already." You hissed to yourself, trying to ebb how much embarrassment was on your skin. "Look, I need to check into my hotel soon—"

"Sit down." He cut you off, assertiveness in his tone enough to get you to immediately listen, plopping back down. There was an unexpected gravity that was with him, another departure from his nonchalant attitude.

Your heart hammered rapid fire in your chest, a mix of fear and total apprehension were doing a waltz on your general disposition. The more time you were here, the more you worried about the next time you'll make an absolute fucking fool of yourself. You fidgeted with your fingers.

"What really brought you here." He asked, expectantly. "First thing you give me is a hug, and some words of affirmation. You're not here just to catch up, especially after I blew you off."

"I wanted to see you again." You admitted, the weight of your own words pressing down on you. "You owned up to it, left your part of the Internet in a spiral, and then didn't bother to talk to me after that."

He was looking at you, you sensed it. And it wasn't like you could look at him back, otherwise you were going to melt. It was different seeing him from up close, it was an original experience to you if you could name it anything.

His eyes were searching you, despite all you said, as if trying to decipher if you were being genuine. His eyes bored into you like a tiny laser burning your skin. He nodded, a sliver of understanding crossing his face. "You gave me the impression that you were done. I left it at that."

"Yeah, well, I felt like the only one who could leave it at anything was me."

Despite how sticky and tense it was again, you felt relieved that he wasn't as malicious as he was behind the screen. You were relieved that at least the worst of it was over. But it didn't didn't help the burning in your chest, the aching of the bubble in your throat. "Ei really made you do all that stuff? It's not because you really do hate me, right?"

There was no more pretending anymore, no more hiding behind false bravado or dissing each other behind screens like pussies. It was only raw honesty, vulnerable and exposed.

"(Y/N)." His expression softened, a silent dilemma clear on his face. He gathered his own courage, squaring his shoulders a bit and looking at you again. "I'm sorry."

You felt dazed, electricity in the air around you, the world officially tilted on its axis to you. "What?" You accentuated snippier than you intended.

"You were collateral. Nothing that you did deserved what happened to you. Makes sense that you did what you did, you weren't the problem." He explained, shoulders slumped again. "I was behind what I did, at the end of the day; Ei just told me to do it. I'm sorry for being part of the reason you couldn't bounce back. I know if the situation were different, I'd leave you alone."

People kept saying that to you these days, that nothing that happened was because you deserved it. Maybe you never quite got the picture until Kuni said something along the lines of it. You never thought that him apologizing to you would garner the oddest reaction out of you.

Because why was it sexy..? Stop.

"And," He sighed, grabbing your attention lightspeed again. "I would consider liking you more if this all didn't happen. You're alright."

His admission of everything was catching you off guard left and right. You had no idea what to feel with the prominent knot in your stomach. "Do you like me?" "(Y/N), I don't want to—"

"I'm alright, in your words, but do you like me?" Your tone solidified with each word slowly jutting out, assertiveness hardening your composure. "Tell me. Look at me and tell me."

The uncertainly stretched on for what was practically indefinitely. He held his breath, as did you, waiting for his response. Your heart was ruthless against you, beating against your body. He sized you up, seeking an answer for himself.

"...Yeah?" He admitted, voice barely audible as he tried to find his own words. But everything he did think of was so unlike him, out of his personal way of handling things like this. "Yeah. I do."

You blinked, both of your eye contact filling a certain, more romantic space that neither of you even thought was there before today. But the more you realized it, the more you realized that maybe the sexual tension was always there.

previous ♡ masterlist ♡ next

YOU ARE on your way to being one of the hottest streamer in your nation at the moment, racking a monthly average of 10 million viewers, but something specific bothers you about it. you know that a lot of people hate you, but there's this one account. one account that's been following you since the early days of your career. they leave a flood of rude comments in your stream, your moderators banned each account they made, but they keep making more. you are at the end of your tether. but you are yet to find out that this persistent cockroach is none other than your friend's friend (and the only other streamer that's bigger than you), scaramouche.

taglist ♡ @thystarsshine @veekoko @gumickajolli @simonisferal @kamiboo

@justpeachyteastea @feiherp @pinkismyfavcolor @aether-darling @kunisnaomi

@keiiqq @mine-lu @featuredtofu @danhenglovebot @k4zushi

@kyon-cherri @b4tm4nn @iiinaurate @quacking-simp @auroratumbles

@kookiibun @ulquiorraswife @amvpk01 @simplysm1le @h3xi2g0n3

@alatusorrow @scaranthropy @mellowberrie @magica-ren @vernith

@kabukipookie @bananasquash @suqarlaced @dellalyra @lightyagamifan

@yourfavoritefreakyhan @heartsforseo @yomishen @pwushizz @swivy123

@strxwberryfetish @ibyobi @ashfrommars4 @chemiru @ainnofinway

@agaygothicmushroom @levianamor @dragontammerz @wth121 @lylovw

@morgyyyyyyy @lovemari @suniika @littlesliceofcheese @yumejo89

@liuaneee @franaby @tiddieshakeshownu @mimi3lover @kavineyah

@kittywagun (bold users means i'm having trouble tagging you)

#zoropookie #hhab #scaramouche #scaramouche x reader #genshin scaramouche #genshin #genshin impact #genshin smau #genshin x reader #genshin fanfic #genshin x you #genshin x yn #scaramouche x yn #scaramouche x you

[prince-kallisto]

Crowley Levan is Meleanor’s “eyes, limbs, and husband”…wouldn’t it be cool if the one who married into the Draconia family had a crown/headpiece that resembled horns, worn for ceremonies, public appearances and the like?!

We haven’t seen Levan yet but I know in my heart he’s just a silly little guy as long as you ignore The Killings 💞

I talk more about concept art and costume details below the cut!

Levan’s headpiece is designed to have more of a live-action Maleficent feel, where she wrapped her horns in…fabric? Snakeskin? Whatever it was, it looked really shiny, oily, and really cool, so I tried to depict that texture to show how his horns are fake.

And sort of elaborating on the Draconia crown idea, perhaps each crown from every ruler who married into the family has its own unique shape? Levan’s halo-like shape is unique to him, so ones before him perhaps had more “traditional” dragon-like horns, and others had twisting ones like a sheep, etc etc. Since I’m OBSESSED with TWSTs religious symbolism- the Dawn Knight popped off with that winged helmet- I also wanted a halo shape to make Levan look slightly angelic.

The beads on his horns were slightly inspired by the mianguan, a formal headdress worn in ancient China. He also wears nail guards covered in shiny jewels… Let him be extra ✨

Levan having wings over his eyes like the Dawn Knight would be a fun parallel, and as a reference to him being Meleanor’s “eyes, limbs, and husband.” Like I mentioned in the comic, he covers his eyes and disguises his body under bulky clothing to be publicly dramatic af 😭 he takes his title way too seriously haha. The idea is that when he isn’t around Meleanor, he sheds his mask so he can report what he sees to Meleanor. But when he is with her, he “blinds” himself as a demonstration of trust. I’m sure he can actually detect his surroundings very well despite the mask- he just likes to play around and act dumb to make Lilia and Meleanor laugh haha. I haven’t thought much about the clothes under his cape, but I imagine it’s very like Malleus’ masquerade outfit. Something very streamlined and agile in case he has to enter a sudden battle or fly into the air.

And with my concept art, he was meant to have the shoulder feathers like Crowley and Malleus! They were like pauldrons covered in feathers. But when I was working on the final piece, I spontaneously changed it to fit the sketch for something more flowing and bulky haha. In my head, this bigger cape has a more “General” vibe to it? Something that draws your attention when Levan walks into a war room! Speaking of, I really love the fantasy-vibe of the costumes in Book 7- I feel like I can really go all out with Levan’s costume if the Dawn Knight is allowed to have a helmet like that!

This was super last minute in the painting process, but I’d like the inside of his cape to have constellations and stars all over it! I tried to draw the Corvus, Crater, and Hydra on the visible parts of his cape.

I prefer painting with ink far better than acrylic or even watercolor…so doing this in mostly black and white inspired me to give Levan porcelain-like skin, shading his skin almost like he was a doll and not a person. I think about how Diablo in Sleeping Beauty was turned into stone, so it’s meant to be a bit like marble too

I imagine Levan to have long, wispy hair that resembles briars and a bit like live action Aurora from Maleficent. Its very striking how he’s repeatedly described as “beautiful,” and although short hair is very beautiful in its own right, something about his mysteriousness and beauty gives me Aurora vibes specifically. Speaking of, Book 7 seems to be more obvious with combining elements from the original Sleeping Beauty and the live action Maleficent. Perhaps Silver could be the OG Aurora, but I can still give Levan live-action Aurora’s pretty hair haha.

When he wears his headdress and cape, he has his hair pinned up in the back. I’d like to draw my interpretation of Levan more in the future so you can see how his hair would look when it’s all down or in a ponytail. Perhaps Raven-Fae do more elaborate hairstyles that incorporates jewels/shiny things into their hair? Also, this inspiration is VERY specific haha, but if you ever read or watched Cardcaptor Sakura, Nadeshiko’s hair is very close to how I imagine his hair to be- very full and flowing! (Cardcaptor Sakura’s aesthetic snatched me up many years ago and has never let go since haha)

I don’t know, I just think it’s really cool yet ironic that Meleanor and Lilia talk about Levan as someone whose a crybaby, kind, beautiful, airheaded, but then Lilia casually drops that Levan is one of the top generals, an extremely skilled diplomat, and battled the DAWN KNIGHT and survived, when even Lilia hasn’t at that point. So I thought it would be fun if he had angelic themes in his outfit, while still making it clear that he’s dangerous.

Whoops this got pretty long! ∑(ﾟДﾟ) Haha, I think I like sharing my designs- not for the art it self but just to ramble about my entire thought process/inspiration/details! Although I try to get better at depicted all these ideas through the art itself, I can’t help but want to talk about it haha

#cant wait to be horribly wrong with his design #no seriously. I CANT WAIT SHOW ME LEVAN ALREADY. SHOW ME THE BOYYYYY ARGHHHHHH #twisted wonderland #twst #twst fanart #Twst levan #twst revan #twst papa draconia #twst meleanor draconia #Twst General Lilia #KallistoPost #my art

[lisbeth-kk]

May Prompts (28) Empty

The Luckiest Girl in the World (chapter 28)

Summary: Will Rosie be able to keep her secret from her parents until the big day?

Twenty-Eight Years Old

Seen in hindsight, the trip to Greece was a catalyst of what came later. On our last evening, Timothy and I had dinner at an almost empty restaurant on the cliffs of Fira. The sun was about to set, and the sea was bathed in colours of gold. When Timothy took my hands in his and asked me to marry him, it really was the perfect ending. Cliché, perhaps, but who cares? Luckily, he hadn’t bought the rings at one of the ridiculous jewellers on the island but brought them with him from London. (I said yes, by the way.)

***

As if faith wanted me to keep my secret from my parents, they were away on a three-week trip to New Zealand when we arrived back in London. I called Dee before I went to Baker Street to collect mail and check the fridge for outdated milk and decayed body parts. She had closed for the day, but when I called with my inquiry, she was instantly intrigued and asked me to pop into 221A before I left.

It was strange to see someone else living at Nana’s. Her old furniture had been donated to second-hand shops, new wallpaper, art, and futuristically designed chairs, tables and shelves made 221A look like something taken out of Star Trek or whatever. The kitchen and bathroom were recognisable with bits and bobs I remembered. Nana’s oven mittens, the kitchen utensils and the wallpaper. Over the kitchen table was a big photo of Nana.

“I’ve made some sketches for you,” Dee said after she’d inquired about the trip. “One on each shoulder, yes?”

She showed me her drawings and after some discussion, she made the adjustments I wanted. 

“See you tomorrow at six,” Dee said when I left. 

“Can’t wait!” I retorted excitedly.

***

Dee’s Den was everything you don’t expect a tattoo-studio to be. (At least if you’ve never set foot in one.) Airy, spacious and clean in the extreme. The first time I entered, I felt I needed to take my shoes off.

“No customer of mine will suffer from an infection. I’ve seen enough of that shit,” Dee said gravely.

Her improved sketches had been coloured when I arrived the next day, and they looked even better than I’d dreamt of. The tattoos would adorn each shoulder. One red poppy on the left, and a bee on the right. A t-shirt would cover them, and by the time Dad and Papa were back, they would’ve healed properly so I didn’t need to wrap them in plastic, and the soreness would be gone. I hoped to keep them a secret until the wedding day. My dress would be sleeveless and make sure to show off the tribute to my beloved parents.

***

We decided on a May wedding, and it was Dee’s idea to check if the venue from Nana’s funeral was available.

“She would’ve been so pleased that you all had some good memories from that place. Dancing and laughing, celebrating love.”

Both me and Timothy loved the idea, and we were in luck. Normally, the place needed to be booked at least a year and a half in advance, when it came to weddings, but they’d had a cancellation due to a broken engagement. Nine months to prepare.

***

I chose Liwia as my maid of honour. We had stayed in touch over the years, and she adored my parents, after they’d given her shelter when she needed it in the middle of her teens. Bella had been switched for Iris. They’d been together almost eight years, and Iris was six months pregnant with their first child. An unknown donor was the father.

“I’ve been meaning to ask if you were traumatised when you stayed with us,” I said on the final fitting of our dresses.

“What do you mean?” Liwia asked, clearly puzzled.

“Board games,” I explained dryly.

She laughed wholeheartedly and admitted that she’d never played Scrabble, Cluedo, orMonopoly, but stuck to chess and card games.

“Wise choice,” I retorted with a grin. “Though I have experienced knights, queens and bishops being thrown across 221B.”

***

My uncles picked me up at the salon where I’d been styled and dressed. Uncle Myc cocked an eyebrow when he saw my tattoos, but he was unable to hide how moved he was by this permanent gesture. Uncle Greg…well, he wasn’t that subtle, and needed a stern talking to from his husband to avoid ruining my dress and hair when he teared up and embraced me.

“You’re going to destroy them with this, love,” uncle Greg murmured.

I hadn’t been nervous before, but when the familiar place came into sight, my palms started to sweat, and my heart pounded in my chest. Inside, Timothy and my parents waited. The most important people in the world, apart from the men helping me out of the car. I kissed them and let them go in first to find their seats. One of the staff stood waiting for me to open the door once I’d decided to enter.

For a while I just stood there, my head blessfully empty. And then out of nowhere a wave of emotions washed over me. The memories of all the preparations and anxiety of the last week, regarding the flowers, the last seat arrangements we had to change the day prior, one of my shoes that disappeared without a trace… 

“Come on, Watson. You can do this,” I interrupted myself, using Papa’s former name on me to get me out of the unending loop of trifles and keep me focused.

I nodded to the man by the door who opened it for me, and I slowly made my way down the corridor to where Dad and Papa waited. They stood hand in hand outside the door to the ceremony room and turned abruptly when they heard my heels on the wooden floor.

“You look…”

“Oh, Bee…”

They were both teary-eyed, which didn’t bode well. I hoped they’d piled up with tissues, because this well would not be emptied any time soon.

With my heels on, I was the height of Dad. I seldom wore high-heeled shoes, so it was an alien feeling to stand face to face with him, literally speaking.

“You look gorgeous, sweetheart,” he whispered in my ear when he hugged me.

“Thank you,” I said and turned to Papa.

He’d frozen and he blinked profusely. Dad looked worried at him. He still hadn’t seen the tattoos. Papa’s eyes darted between them, clearly shocked to the core. I took his hand and squeezed it.

“Do you like them?” I asked quietly.

“Like what?” Dad inquired; his eyes hadn’t left Papa’s face during all of this.

“Look at me, Dad,” I said and finally he saw what Papa had seen minutes ago.

“Oh, my god,” he said and covered his mouth with his hand. “Rosie.”

“They are…” Papa clearly knew but was too shaken to believe what he’d deduced.

“Yes, Papa. They are. My tribute, homage, or whatever you want to call it. To you and Dad. To show you and everyone how much you mean to me. Dee made them while you were away. You have no idea how proud I am that I’ve managed to keep it a secret until now.”

Finally, out of his daze, Papa cupped my face and kissed my forehead and cheeks, careful not to disturb my hair or makeup.

“My precious girl,” he murmured. “I love you.”

“Stop! You’re making me cry,” I protested and tried my best to stay composed.

Dad sniffled and batted his eyes with a handkerchief.

“I’m never going to survive this day,” he muttered.

“John!” Papa exclaimed. “Don’t you dare.”

I knew I had to take the lead, or we would be stranded outside that door forever.

“Come on. The game is afoot,” I teased.

Also available on AO3

YES, there will be a continuation tomorrow.

This is also my entry for this month's Sherlock Challenge and the prompt ink.

@calaisreno @sherlockchallenge @totallysilvergirl @keirgreeneyes @raina-at

More tags in the replies

#may prompts 2024 #may 28: empty #sherlock challenge #ink #sherlock fandom #rosie watson #sherlock #john watson #mycroft holmes #greg lestrade #johnlock #bbc sherlock #sherlock fanfic #ao3 fanfic

[moonshinebindery]

Book No. 12

The wonderful @there-must-be-a-lock is running a fanworks-of-fanworks event right now, and I was lucky enough for @kangofu-cb to let me bind her fic Third Wheel as my entry. This is the fic that got me shipping Winterhawkhood, and I'm just inordinantly fond of it, so I was delighted to get a chance to play with it for a moment.

At 10k, it's just the right length for a little quarto binding. It's also a very hot fic about threesomes and roleplay, which makes it a lot of fun to read, but a little bit tricky to design a cover for. I played with a few ideas before settling on this very simple three-line motif, in chameleonic HTV, which wraps around the whole book. It's my first time trying a bigger design like this, and I'm not mad about the result.

What I am a little mad about is messing up the HTV on one of the copies; up until this point, this was the nicer copy and was going to go to the author, but this relegated it to my copy.

The main difference between the two copies is the inside title pages. My printer coped poorly with the bold line motif, so I went over it with metallic paint, and there's a slight variation in the silvers I used, as well as how neat I managed to be (I used a ruler and everything, I'm just clumsy. A lesson learned).

They also have slightly different colours on the covers. It's really hard to capture in a photo, but they both change colour depending on the angle they're held at, blue-to-purple or blue-to-green. (Obligatory pic of the books being prepped for pressing because it makes me laugh every time.)

The point of the fanworks-of-fanworks event is to show appreciation for creators of fanworks, just as they do for the source material(s) that inspire their fics and art, their playlists and podfics and fanvids and cosplays. I think it's a beautiful idea for an event, and I hope this little book shows some of the love I have for this fic, and the wider fandom community.

#bookbinding #ficbinding #fanfic binding #fanbinding #moonshine bindery #kangofu_cb #winterhawkhood #fanworks of fanworks #dc/marvel crossover

[lovecanyon]

Y/N L/N Breaks Down 6 Looks From 2016 to Now | Life in Looks | Vogue

dad!harry x reader

MASTERLIST | PATREON

-

“Hi Vogue I’m Y/N L/N and today I’m going to go through my Life in Looks.” Y/N introduces herself with a smile.

Vogue had emailed and asked Y/N if she would want to do another video for them. She was doubtful at first because she really didn’t like interviews unless it was with Harry. But they had only invited her to film a video. It took her a few weeks to accept the offer and during that time the magazine company didn’t hassle her about it—no, they provided ideas like her being on the cover.

Over the years she had gotten multiple offers to do interviews, be on the cover of a magazine and even create her own clothing line (since Harry got his acclaimed style from her).

Yet Y/N still drew back from any of those ideas until Harry asked if he could do an interview with her and that interview was the Wired Autocomplete video. After that interview the couple proceeded to do a few other videos together which led to Y/N being more self-assured.

“I honestly don’t know what to expect.” Y/N says looking at her closed lookbook. With her ringed fingers entwined she thought about the looks they might have printed onto the papers, hopefully not embarrassing ones. All her thinking just made her more eager to see her style over the years.

Swiftly she opens up the book biting her lower lip in anticipation. White trousers with a white tank top under a matching blazer. The year was 2016 when she decided to wear that outfit to the Gucci Cruise.

It was her first time ever going to an event like that which didn’t really matter because she rarely went to things like that now.

“Alessandro invited me to this Gucci event and I had decided to wear a suit one of my friends designed.” Y/N explains the outfit she was wearing. “Though I should have never worn white cause at the end of night my suit ended up stained with wine.”

She had the pair of clothes deep in her closet somewhere still with the red stains. She even thinks Harry wore it one time to a party. Whatever was in her wardrobe was basically his and whatever was in his wardrobe was basically hers. He had constantly reminded her about that and it made her feel special.

2016 was also the same year she and Harry met. Stevie Nicks was playing in New York and both of them coincidentally attended her show with a few mutual friends. Alexa Chung was the person that introduced them to each other at the venue’s bar. It was like the English girl had a plan and wanted both of them to start seeing each other from the jump.

Flipping the next page reveals a photo that will always make Y/N smile.

Harry’s Dunkirk premiere in London was their first outing as a couple. Walking the red carpet hand in hand and meeting Prince Harry together was one of their favorite memories yet.

Nobody expected Y/N to attend the movie premiere with Harry but she did. Both of them knew the media was going to go insane but they didn’t care as long as they were together. Fan accounts, media sites, tea pages, magazine outlets…you name it and they were probably talking about the two.

“The Dunkirk movie premiere was probably one of the most memorable days ever. It was my and Harry’s first public outing and definitely a significant moment in our relationship.”

Matching with his black suit, she wore this black gown Lambert designed with the help of Harris. The precise brand she wore with Harry was Gucci. The designer dress Y/N had on five years ago definitely was a treasured piece in her closet. It reminded her of a special moment in her relationship.

“My dress was designed by Harry Lambert and Harris Reed who I adore so much. The creation of this dress was very fun to watch.” Y/N compliments her two designer friends with a smile.

Turning to the following page revealed a photo of Y/N backstage during Live on Tour. She was wearing three pieces from Harry’s closet, his button up, his blue bandanna tied around her neck and a pair of his trousers he wore for one of his previous shows.

The outfit was simple but at the time in 2018 the outfit caused chaos.

Of course everyone knew Harry and Y/N were dating. They went to the Dunkirk premiere together so it really wasn’t a secret. Yet Y/N wearing three pieces of clothing from Harry’s closet made people hysterical.

“From here on out I’m pretty sure most of what I’m wearing belongs to Harry.” Y/N laughs making the crew behind the camera let out a few chuckles. “We started living together around this time and basically his closet turned into mine.”

Talking about Harry always made her heart skip a beat, she carried so much love for him and you could tell.

“The trousers were originally made for Harry but I ended up stealing them.” Y/N smiles looking at the photo of her wearing Harry’s loved pants. “The button up also belongs to Harry, he had this era where he really liked floral prints and that’s all he would buy.”

Harry’s floral moment was imprinted in Y/N’s brain. He would always call her and ask for her opinion about a floral piece he saw on the rack.

“Though I didn’t choose the bandanna, Harry did. He thought it just topped off the look and it sort of did looking back at it.” Y/N says. The blue bandanna truly did top off the look. Harry had an eye for things

-

“Fine Line release day.”

Y/N’s eyes immediately darted to the photo of her matching with Harry. The one night only show he held for his album release was the greatest night ever. Harry was so thrilled and happy that night, he made everyone feel the same.

“Harry had a show at The Forum for his album release and we decided to match.” Y/N explains the photograph that was printed onto the paper.

The outfit she wore that night was a pink long sleeve crop top paired with a white mini skirt. With the help of Harry and his stylist the three of them came up with something for her which she was entirely grateful for.

Matching with Harry was an idea he came up with and of course Y/N agreed to it. He seemed very excited when he told her about the plan he had, it made a smile crawl onto her face. She really loved the way he always ran to her when an idea popped into his head.

“This look was inspired by Harry’s Fine Line outfit if you couldn’t tell already.” Y/N glances down at the lookbook. “By far this is one of my favorite outfits ever. I designed it with my fiancé and his stylist for a special show he had.”

The Forum show was an enjoyable experience for the fans and for Harry. He just released an album and had performed on the same day. That concept may sound insane to other musicians but not Harry.

He loved the idea.

-

“The Brit Awards!”

In 2020 Y/N attended The Brit Awards with Harry and it had everyone going mad once again. The couple walking the red carpet together made the public go into a frenzy. They were all over tabloids, especially social media accounts for many weeks.

“I designed this dress on my own actually.” Y/N let’s her finger trail the photo of her and Harry. “I went with brown and Harry just had to copy me.” She playfully scoffs.

Though Harry didn’t win the award he was nominated for, he still was in an everlasting happy mood since a few days previous he found out Y/N was pregnant. The thoughts about becoming a father brought joy to him. He’s always dreamed about starting a family and it was finally happening.

Harry even told Y/N if she didn't feel like going to the award show she didn’t have to and offered to stay with her. But Y/N turned down the idea because she really wanted him to go.

“I had also found out I was pregnant with Beau just a couple days before the award show, the timing was just great.” Y/N jokes looking at the way Harry had his arm wrapped around her waist in the photo.

Turning to the next page was Y/N on the Grammys red carpet with Harry. Both of them wore matching outfits but Y/N’s outfit looked more like Cher’s iconic yellow plaid look with her skirt. The only thing she had decided not to wear was the feather boa.

It was a very exciting day because Harry won an award for best pop solo performance. They went home that night so happy and just in an overall joyous mood.

Y/N could never forget the way Harry immediately turned to look at her after his name was called. Even though his face mask was hiding his expression she could tell he was surprised. He never thought that he would ever be nominated for a Grammy and win. But he did and it was all because of Y/N.

Without her, Harry wouldn’t have written the song Watermelon Sugar or even better his albums.

“I loved attending the Grammys with Harry.” Y/N grins remembering every moment about the award show. Harry winning best pop solo performance was one of the best moments ever. “My outfit just basically looked like Cher’s outfit from Clueless and ironically Harry and I got our inspiration from her.” She laughs thinking about the moment she and Harry rewatched the movie over and over.

-

tag list: @harrysmatcha @harryspinkpillow @helen-with-an-a @florencepughily @peterparkerbae @toji-dabi-wife @fallonx @drphilssoulmate @cherriesrae @alienorknight @valluvsu @ivegotparticulartaste @ayeshathestyles @hazgoldenstyles @eiffelmezarry @tsukishimawhore @renatavieira @michellekstyles @eleanordaisy @shawnsblue @academiaghosts @japanchrry @agustdpeach @hannahnikohl @hrryscherrys @whoscamila @ch3rryrry @msolbesg @newyorker14 @futuristicpalacegardenpsychic @youusunshineyoutemptress @eunoiamaa @kaitieskidmore1 @gublerscherry @cherryfragrancx @ssuziess @milkiane @golden-hoax @flwrmuse @sunshinemendes8 @your--sweetest--downfall @melllinaa @iluvjj @evansglrl @tenaciousperfectionunknown @cashtons-wife @harryistheonlyoneforme @stellarossii @scenesofobx

#harry styles x reader #dad!harry #harry styles #harry styles au #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles x y/n #harry styles x you #boyfriend!harry #harry styles writing #harry styles one shot #harry styles fan fic #harry styles blurb

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Published: Oct 24, 2023

I was around 10 the first time my mother asked if I thought I was a boy.

There was a period from the 1970s-1990s where the concept “tomboys”, although perhaps originally intended as a derogatory term, provided a space for pre-pubescent girls to act, play and dress in ways that were not stereotypically coded feminine; in other words, some of the freedoms boys were granted. My mother clearly felt that raising a daughter and a son should be drastically different experiences. This was not largely the case, as I wanted to be just like my older brother.

Growing up, my parents had strict ideas around the roles of men and women in society. Men were “head of the household” and had the final say on decisions, as well as being the primary disciplinarian; women’s primary roles were as caregivers. My parents were religious, raising me in a religion where homosexuality was taught to be immoral and unnatural.

In some ways, I fulfilled many stereotypes of feminine attributes: being gentle, soft-spoken, and nurturing towards others. I enjoyed playing with dolls and soft toys; however I also had a keen interest in cars and transformers. As a painfully shy child, I preferred the company of fictional characters in books more than people; this level of social awkwardness alone cast me as “odd”.

However, what had been convenient and financially fiscal - hand-me-down clothing from my brother - had become my clothing of choice. I only wanted to wear “boys’ clothing”, much of which came in my favourite colour (blue) versus the bright warm colours of “girls’ clothing”. Having worn both, I had realised that boys’ clothing was looser fitting, had more flexibility of motion, and was more comfortable. I disliked glitter, sequins, lace and frills, none of which was found on boys’ clothing. As a very shy child who refused to wear the clothing supposedly designated for my sex, this often invoked commentary and disapproval from adults around my appearance and my body. Boys’ clothing, with its longer sleeves and longer torso, covered up more of my body; a body I was painfully aware that others were observing and judging, sometimes openly.

My mother had told me how excited she was when she learned she was going to have a daughter to “do girly things with”, fantasising of frilly dresses and ballet rehearsals. Instead, she had me. Although my parents allowed me to play with the same toys as my brother, pursue the same sport as my brother, and (eventually) choose my own clothing, my mother’s question showed that she still didn’t understand: “Do you think you’re a boy?” My mother, likely feeling that she had been short-changed around the perks promised with raising a girl, could not understand how her daughter, who declined most things coded feminine, could indeed be a girl who was comfortable with this fact. 10 year old me didn’t understand just how loaded the question was, but did find it strange and hurtful, replying, “No, I’m a girl” in a confused tone.

Thankfully, as the concept of “tomboy” was popular while I was growing up, this meant there was a known word that described the type of girl I was; one that allowed me to know that, no matter what I liked or did, I was still a girl.

There was another word that described the type of girl I was. I was around 8 the first time I heard the word “gay”.  A boy slightly older than me had spit the word out, yelling at another child “I’m not gay!” This caught my interest. Although the word itself was unknown, the meaning had been clear with the derision and emphasis the boy had placed on the word, his face consorting in disgust as the word left his mouth. It must be something really bad was the clear impression.

I had the opportunity to quench my curiosity that same week. In line with other tasks that could be deemed naughty, looking up bad words in the dictionary required careful timing to when family members were distracted elsewhere. I timed my moment carefully and looked up “gay”, which naturally led to my learning the term “homosexual” - oh. Reading the definition, it was almost like a warm recognition spread across my chest, embracing me. I hadn’t known that homosexuals existed, but I was pretty sure I was one. After this, I would sometimes sneak out the dictionary just to read these words again; although just ink on paper, it was proof that other people like me existed.

I would later use this word - gay - against myself, turning it from something comforting and wonderful, to the same kind of contempt that shrouded the word whenever I heard others use it in real life. Laying in bed at age 11, I had prayed to not be gay, promising myself that I would never tell anyone about these feelings and grow up to marry a man. Although it had been fine when my feelings towards certain girls had just been an intense desire to be their friend and be near them, these feelings had become much harder to ignore now they had turned into more concrete thoughts, such as how beautiful a certain girl was, how shiny and luscious was her hair, and daydreaming around our hands accidentally touching. It was much harder to deny the very clear signs of a crush, particularly when all my female friends had crushes on boys. In order to fit in, I focused my energies on talking about how “cute” one of the boys in the class was - I had never interacted with him, however he had soft features and long eyelashes, and seemed gentle in nature. I would then go home and dream about my female friend and her lovely, long dark hair.

Coming into puberty, I had also started learning more about my religion’s views on homosexuality, specifically that it was immoral and unacceptable. This led to a lot of emotional hurt and confusion for me. At this point, homosexuals may as well have been mythical creatures, discussed by others, but never appearing as an identifiable person in real life.

* * *

Several years older, 15 year old me was struggling. Since puberty, I had been trying to push away any inkling of desire I had towards other girls.; it hadn’t worked. Now with slightly more understanding around the world and how I fitted into it, I had started the process of accepting that these feelings weren’t going anywhere and were, perhaps, just a normal part of me. I had also started considering that if I had been created with intent, as my religion taught, then no mistakes were possible, and my attraction towards girls, which had always been there in some form, was as natural and as similar as anyone else’s. Although it had improved, my social awkwardness still made me frequently feel like an outsider, with my secret and furtive crushes on other girls further making me feel different in a way I couldn’t discuss with anyone. This feeling would decrease when I eventually met other lesbians, however this wouldn’t happen for several years.

I had started to shop in the women’s department, and outgrown my obsession with cars, instead falling into an obsession with music; something familiar to many teenagers. Still, I preferred comfortable clothing that would be classed as “gender neutral”: jeans, baggy t-shirts, converse shoes. I wore my mid-length hair messy, fantasising about the short hairstyles lesbian duo Tegan and Sara sported. I spent a lot of time listening to music with female musicians who played guitar, preferring artists who openly sung about and desired other women, or those who sang with ambiguity in their love songs, allowing me to place my own meaning on them. My penchant for female musicians had not escaped the notice of my friends, who gently teased me about it, although they didn’t seem to understand the cause for this fixation.

Again, now a teenager, the same question from my mother, phrased slightly differently this time: “do you feel like you’re a man?” I remember telling my friend about this at a sleepover the same night - her response was silence. She didn’t know what to say.

* * *

Several years passed. I was now an out lesbian with a rainbow flag proudly adorning the wall of my share-house bedroom. This included being out to my parents, who had taken the news reasonably well and had been supportive. Having a friendly gay male couple move into their neighbourhood in my late teenage years had significantly increased their understanding and acceptance of homosexual relationships - and had allowed me to finally meet others “like me”. I had fulfilled my fantasy of cutting off the majority of my hair, with the longest section being a fringe that flopped into my eyes. I had also gone back to shopping in the men’s wear section, though my wide hips and narrow shoulders made finding men’s clothing that fit me well difficult. I had finally had my first kiss, although not yet a girlfriend, though most of my time was spent dreaming about this.

My parents had reassured me that they loved and accepted me when I told them I was a lesbian. They had continued to reaffirm this in the following months, however despite this acceptance, my mother showed that she still doesn’t understand, asking me the same question again, some months after I came out: “do you want to be a man?” It was as if every five years, the thought occurred to her again that I must have gender identity disorder because of the way I looked and acted.

I’m in my late 20s now. I have been an out lesbian for a decade, and have had several girlfriends, although my current relationship is by far the longest. My parents adore my girlfriend, buying her birthday presents, and always letting me know how much they approve. My mother comments on how nice my girlfriend’s dresses are and how much she likes her long hair, telling me, “you would look so nice in that”. I feel fatigued with a lifetime of trying to convince her I am genuinely comfortable like this, and tired of defending my short hair, which is my favourite part of my appearance. My girlfriend gets angry on my behalf whenever my mother makes these comments, defending me and saying she thinks I look beautiful as I am.

I am thankful that I never came across the often repeated and homophobic rhetoric that only boys like girls, and therefore lesbians are actually just straight males on the inside. My conviction of my own self, that I am a girl who likes girls, has protected me in this way, but may not have had I had been born a decade later, where it seems many young girls similar to myself are being taken to gender clinics. Or that my mother’s conviction that I am secretly a transman - which has been a reoccurring theme across my life so far - could have caused consultation with a medical professional to convince me of this very fact; something that, as a child who felt different and never seemed to fit, I am sure I would have trusted the adult expert’s views on.

Somehow - bewilderingly - now almost 30, my mother again asks me if I feel like I’m a man and if I’m actually trans. I explain as patiently as I can that no, I’m a lesbian woman and it’s hurtful to me that she seems to refuse to truly accept this, questioning whether I can be a woman because I don’t match her view of what a woman looks like.

She listens to my words and apologises, saying she thinks she understands now. I can’t help but wonder if we’ll be having this same conversation in another five years.

==

It's weird that they would prefer that their god made a "mistake" and put her in "the wrong body," than that their god doesn't make mistakes, and that she's who he wants her to be.

It's a bad sign when a far-left ideology and a conservative religious view coincide.

#LGB Alliance #lesbian #same sex attraction #trans the gay away #trans away the gay #save the tomboys #gay conversion therapy #conversion therapy #gender ideology #queer theory #genderwang #religion #born in the wrong body #in the wrong body #religion is a mental illness

[davekat-sucks]

Oooh! I have my own headcanons as well!

John Egbert, movie critic and professional prankster, has a small Youtube Channel named EctoBiologist_143 that does a lot of skit based comedy reviews, think Nostalgia Critic without the scummy business practices. John also tries to code personal birthday card files for his friends, they work half the time, if unzipping the .ath file is recognized on the computer’s software.

Rose Lalonde loves to overanalyze kids media, especially squiddles as it’s a way for her to bond with Jade, and Rose notices quite a lot of references to the deep sea and hidden realms in the media.

Dave Strider, as much as he loves to remix and produce beats, he also learns the drums as a traditional instrument to play band, he made one EP with John Rose and Jade, he says he doesn’t want to publish because it “sounds too normal to be indie” bit really he wants a piece of his second family to keep as a memory. His first family was him and bro, and yeeeeeeah, he doesn’t like puppets, except Randy Feltface.

Jade Harley prefers to be a vegetarian, but her Bec side loves meat, she treats herself to black bean burgers and tofu sausages. Her mostly veggie diet comes from her gardening, making all-organic foods. Her Bec side also makes her droop when she’s near nuclear reactors, that’s why her job is reactor designer and not inspection.

Jane Crocker made an MSPFA called Professional Charlatan, an adventure about a hard-boiled prankster, an Adventuring Dandy and a Populist Ingenious work as a team with intelligensia from Master Kernel to defeat the insidious and undersea work of the MERMAID MOB. It is very obvious this is loosely based on Jane and her friends fighting the Condesce.

Jake English dabbles in the art, and takes from Pablo Picasso’s blue period. Rose has a very psychoanalytical idea for why he likes to draw so many blue landscapes, and round, wavy feminine shapes. Jake also draws Robots, a lot. He even gets commissions to draw corny 1950s sci-fi book covers!

Roxy teaches John how to make code in .ath that does not suck. She and John love to share simple code that range from ripoff arcade games to ascii gifs. She takes a lot of the wine her mom stored to be sold in a wine store she owns. Roxy likes to taste wine, but declines anything more than one glass to drink, modesty is policy!

Dirk Strider works with a lot of felt and soft fabrics. He actually makes quilts as therapy for living on his own for 16 years. He also likes to hang out with Dave, he looks up to Dave and how he turned out even with the worst Dirk in all of Paradox space. Dirk still has a manipulative streak where he tries to subtly convince Dave to binge The Muppet Show with him to grow a tolerance for non-smutty plushes. Dave still can not watch any scene with Gonzo without getting sweaty and tense.

This is a lot of text for 8 characters so if I ever do troll headcanons they are in a separate batch.

#Make a post and will definitely share it #Homestuck #headcanon #headcanons #Homestuck fandom #Beta Kids #Alpha Kids #John Egbert #Rose Lalonde #Jade Harley #Dave Strider #Jane Crocker #Jake English #Roxy Lalonde #Dirk Strider

[hoodharlow]

Last Time I Caught a Vibe

AN: everyone thank Justin Bieber's tiny desk concert 🤭 also quick reminder Urban didn't like Miriam in the beginning now they're besties

Requested? No

Warnings: just to oblivious idiots

Word Count: 2.7k words

Jack felt sick to his stomach. He was so nervous, every so often he’d pinch himself to make sure he really was in his dressing room getting ready to film his very own Tiny Desk concert. He had about an hour to get ready and perform. His phone went off and quickly checked who it was. 

It was Miriam letting him know she pulled up to the studio. Jack had the genius idea to invite her to the filming. They’ve been talking the last two weeks, but they haven’t seen each other since he came over to drop off her jacket. She went to Paris for couture week but then she came back to  LA before heading off to London so he decided to ask her to hang out. 

“I’ll be right back.” He told Urban.

“Where are you going?” he asked. 

“Miriam’s outside.” Jack replied. 

Urban made a face. He couldn’t quite place it but there was something about Miriam that he didn’t vibe with, but it’s been a while since his best friend showed any interest so he kept his mouth shut. He just knew not to trust nepo babies like Miriam.

Jack noticed the face his best friend made, but didn’t push it. He grabbed his phone and went outside. He spotted Miriam getting out of a G-Wagon uber with a hot starbucks cup and a small pastry bag. He took her in. She wore an ombre puffer jacket that went from pink to orange with white circles throughout the jacket. Under she had a white top paired with jeans and some black old school Vans. 

“Hey!” she grinned. 

Miriam reached for a hug but Jack curved her. She mentally smacked her head and played with the brown sleeve on her cup. 

“How was Paris?” he asked as they walked to the studio. He’d seen some pictures of her sitting front row at fashion shows and some tiktoks of her with designers styling some models for fashion shows. 

“Exhausting and smelly.” She shrugged, still embarrassed that he didn’t hug her. She passed him her drink and pastry bag. “Wait, can you hold this? I have to send my parents my location since I Ubered here.”

“Yeah,” he nodded. He was curious and peeked in the pastry bag. Inside were a few honey packets and a stir stick. He lifted the cup to see what she ordered, but he couldn’t see it because the sleeve covered the tag so he asked, “What did you get?”

“A steamed lemonade.” Miriam said, not looking up from her phone. Her friends were teasing her on their group chat because she told him she couldn't hang out because she made a prior commitment to Jack. 

“A what?” he asked.

“A steamed lemonade. My throat was feeling a bit scratchy from traveling so I got a lemonade with a bunch of honey packets to add. I need to coat my throat with something thick and smooth.” she explained rubbing her throat.

“I could’ve coated your throat for free, no need to spend, what? $6?” he told her. 

“It was three dollars. But I’ll take your services next time.” she said. 

“I mean technically you’d be the one doing the service…” 

“What do you mean–OH!” she giggled, covering her mouth when she realized what he meant. “At least I won’t hurt you when I go deep.” 

It took Jack a second for him to understand that she was referring to What’s Poppin’ where he talks about how it hurts when someone deepthroats him. Before he could say another remark, they were in his dressing room. 

“Miriam, everyone. Everyone, Miriam.” Jack said, introducing her to the group.

“Hi,” she waved nervously. 

She went to a corner and sat down to prepare her drink while Jack went to his stylist to look over the potential outfits. Miriam grabbed her mini iPad that she mainly used for reading and began going over her script for Batman. She was feeling a lot of pressure. She had to be above and beyond in the movie because she knew how nitpicky comic book people got. She was already on thin ice because she wasn’t white and the comic book character was pale with red hair. Neither which Miriam had. She was also nervous because it was her second time acting. 

With ‘In the Heights’ it was easier for her because she’s been in tons of musicals, but with Batman it was completely different. There were more action scenes with stunts and special effects. She was filming a scene where a huge SUV crashes into a church and she gets hurled into a crowd to avoid getting hit. Though an upside was that she was going to kiss Robert Pattinson. 

“Thoughts?” Jack asked, walking over to her in an all bright almost neon green silk shirt and shorts set. Miriam locked her iPad and made a face when she saw him. “You know what, I just got all of them with that face you made.”

“I’m sorry. The color,” she moved her hand in circle motion, “is just not part of the color palette of the background you showed me.” 

“Noted.” he chuckled. 

Miriam noticed the face his stylist made and she felt bad. She was being disrespectful by overstepping and judging her work when Jack’s stylist didn’t ask her directly. “Or wear what you’re comfortable with. It’s not my place to comment.” she quickly added.

“We have more options, Jack.” his stylist called him over. 

She dramatically slid the hangers on the clothing rack. Jack playfully rolled his eyes and sauntered over to her. He took another garment bag and went to change. He came back out in a beige leather pants and jacket set with a white knit polo under. In Miriam’s opinion he looked a hundred times better than the first look and it fit the set design. 

Jack put on his Kentucky state chain and his PG ring. He checked himself out in the mirror doing cheesy poses and faces. He bit his lip and rubbed his beard, making Miriam laugh. She leaned against the vanity and admired how he looked. He was very handsome. It added to his charm and humor. 

He reminded her of a guy she hooked up with when she was nineteen. They met at Outside Lands at an after party and he was going around networking and promoting an upcoming album. He went up to Mmiriam and her friends, Malia and Claudia, and he flirted with Miriam the whole time. He made her laugh a few times and next thing she knew she was dry humping him in the back of an uber en route to his hotel. To this day she wished she got the guy’s number or something because he was one of the best she had in a while and one of the only guys to get her off through missionary. 

“What are you thinking about?” Jack asked her, pulling her from her thoughts.

“Oh, I forgot.” she giggled. 

“You like this?” he gestured to his outfit.

“Yeah,” she nodded. 

“For real?” he asked, grinning.

“Yesss!” she giggled.

“Are you certain?” he asked her once more as he stepped in between her legs.

Miriam felt her cheeks warm up the more she giggled. She covered her face with her hands. She didn’t know why she was laughing. Jack didn’t say anything remotely funny. 

“Jack, they’re ready for you.” one of his managers said. 

“Okay, thanks.” he nodded. He turned back to Miriam and grinned. “Show time.”

Jack tentatively placed his arm around Miriam as they walked to set. He guided her to her seat next to his friends. The director came by and gave Jack a rundown of how his performance was gonna go. It was mainly just going over that he had everything ready since he’d been rehearsing for the last few days. He was performing with a live band and a few backup singers. 

He was about to go up to the band but he turned back. “Can you hold this?” He asked Miriam. He removed his chain and placed it on her. “I changed my mind about wearing it.”

“Do you think my delicate clavicle can hold it?” she asked, referring to a previous facetime where he teased her about a chunky necklace she wore to a fashion show. 

“If not, at least it’ll anchor you in place so you won’t run off with it.” He joked. 

“As if I’d want to be caught wearing silver.”

“Excuse you, this is white gold.” he said defensively, running his finger under the chain dangerously close to Miriam’s nipple. 

“Is your ring also white gold?” she asked, holding his hand to inspect his ring.

“Your hand is warm.” He commented, ignoring what she asked him. 

She sandwiched his hands with hers. They were huge compared to hers, but surprisingly soft and smooth. His nails were perfectly manicured too, putting her chipped gel nails to shame. 

“Jack, it’s time.” someone called from behind. 

“Damn, and just as my hands started to get warm.” he pouted. 

“Break a leg.” Miriam called as he went to get mic'd up. 

He looked over his shoulder and pretended that his leg gave out. He dragged his leg earning an eye roll from his best friend. 

Miriam watched Jack. He went around introducing himself and greeting everyone. And it was genuine. Not that ‘yeah I’m fucking famous and you should be honored to be i the same room as me’ kind of way that many people have done around her. She smiled to herself and settled in her seat. 

She was excited to see him perform. When they started talking, she went out of her way to get into his music. He was even kind enough to go through all his discography with her and explained the differences between mixtapes and full on albums. 

Every so often Jack would make eye contact with her as he performed. It was like she was getting her own private show. Not that she minded at all, she was all about eye contact. His voice was so velvety and smooth and she couldn't help but get lost in the music. 

*

After Jack’s performance, they went back to the rental he was staying at and watched a few movies. There wasn’t anything to make a proper meal with so they went out to get food. They couldn’t decide on anything so they settled for tacos.

Miriam reached back Jack’s hand as she led them to a table in the back of the restaurant. When they reached their table, Jack pulled out her chair. 

“Oh thanks,” she smiled. She grabbed her phone from pocket. “Let me pull up the menu for you.” 

“I’m just getting some ay-sad-a tacos.” He told her. 

“You’re getting what?” she giggled. 

“Ay-sad-a tacos.” he repeated himself. 

“What’s DJ Khaled’s son’s name?” 

“Asahd.” He answered her.

“Okay now add an ‘uh’ at the end.” Miriam instructed.

“Asahd-uh?” Jack said hesitantly.

“Perfect.” she clapped. 

Miriam eventually went to order for them. It was getting packed and if they both got up to order, they would lose their table. She reached for her house keys inside a secret pocket and used them to open their drinks. She got a Squirt and Jack asked for a Topochico. 

“How many things do you have in your coat?” Jack asked curiously as he squeezed some lime in his drink. 

“Actually, I’m not sure. Let’s see.” 

She removed it and placed it on her lap. She pulled out her phone, a small card holder in one pocket. In another she pulled out her pomegranate chapstick and a small tin of altoids. In the secret pocket she pulled out her keys, some cash, and a sleeve of condoms.

“You got plans for later?” He asked jokingly, trying his best to mask his jealousy. 

It shouldn’t bother him at the possibility that she could be seeing someone, but it did. They’ve been talking for a while and he was trying his best to be respectful and not do anything to cross any boundaries. 

“God no.” she snatched the sleeve back, shoving it deep in her jacket. “I haven’t had sex in months. I must’ve hid them there when I moved back home.” 

“I don’t judge. Personally I'm an ultra thin kind of guy.” He told her.

“I’ll make a note for next time.” she rolled her eyes. 

Their food came shortly. Miriam ordered a carne asada quesadilla with a side of consome. She wasn’t a fan of the birria but the consome was divine. For Jack she ordered him five tacos de carne asada. Spent the entire time laughing and talking among themself as they ate. 

When they finished, Jack drove Miriam home. It was almost eleven at night and beforehand she had told him that she had to be up early to prepare for her flight back to London. 

Jack parked in front of the gate of her house. He got out and helped her out of the car. That was when he noticed her rubbing her neck.

“Damn, was the chain too heavy for you?” Jack asked her. 

“Probably.” she winced, rubbing her shoulder. 

“Here,” He held her hips and spun her so that she was giving him her back. He gently massaged her shoulders and neck. “Better?”

“Yeah.” She quietly moaned. 

“You really do have a delicate neck.” He teased her. 

“I’m gonna make Beto start working out my neck and not my ass.” she said, turning to face him to see his reaction. She’d caught him checking her ass out a few times. She knew it was one of her greatest assets. 

“I’ll buy you a light weight chain so your ass doesn’t get sacrificed.” He smirked.

Miriam rolled her eyes and decided to change the topic. “I had fun today.”

“Yeah?” He asked, caught off guard. 

“Honest.” She nodded. “It was cool to see you in your element. You’re meant to perform. Not many people have that kind of natural stage presence that you have. So thanks for sharing that piece of you.” 

“That’s probably one of the nicest things someone has ever told me about me and my artistry. You don’t know how much your words mean to me.” 

“Don’t compliment me, I just complimented you.” she pressed her head on his chest, bashfully. 

Miriam looked up at Jack’s bright blue eyes. Jack dropped down his eyes to her lips. Then they wandered back to her eyes. Without thinking twice, Jack cupped her cheek and leaned in to kiss her. But they were cut off by the door by the gate opening, making them pull away. Mateo stepped out of the gate with his arms crossed. 

“Miriam, que son estas horas de llegar.” He asked. 

“Apa,” she nodded her head to go back inside. 

“Hi, Mr. Dominguez,” Jack smiled, stretching his hand out to him. “I’m Jack, we met at the Chelsea game a few weeks ago.”

“Yeah,” he nodded, shaking his hand. He looked at Miriam. “We leave early tomorrow.”

“I know papi.” 

“Good night, Jack.” Mateo told him without waiting for a response. 

“I’m sorry about that.” Miriam hugged herself. “I should get going. If you’re in LA we should meet up when I get back.”

“Yeah, if not I’ll fly out and see you.” Jack suggested.

“You’d fly out to see lil old me.” she grinned. 

“I’ll takin' trips from here to Rome.” He said.

“Not you quoting Fergie.” she rolled her eyes, getting the ‘Glamorous’ reference.

“Fergie or not, I’m deadass. I’ll meet you wherever you go.��� He said earnestly.

“Bye, Jack.” She smiled softly.

Miriam walked to the gate. With a final glance she tucked her curls back and smiled at Jack then entered her home. 

Jack walked back to the car. He checked his phone and smiled at his new lockscreen. It was of him and Miiram after he performed. It was a mirror selfie of them. He did his signature 'L' with his hand while the other was casually over Miriam’s chest. She had a bright smile while she took the picture. Jack didn’t know it yet but Miriam was going to leave an imprint on him and his music. 

Taglist: @heavyhitterheaux @cherry4everrr ​ @carma-fanficaddict ​ @youngharleezy @youngharleezyxo ​ @babyharleezy ​ @that-90s-girllll ​ @alinaharlow @harlowcomehome @nattinatalia @webinurcloset @gassyandsassy1 @jackharloww @awhore4moree @noescapricho-essentimiento @neon-lights-and-glitter @purecinnamonextract @whywontyoulovemecami @camificrecs @itsyagirljaz @w1ldthoughts @killatravtramp @xxkoolkatxx

#jack and miriam #jack Harlow #jack harlow imagine #jack harlow fanfic #jack harlow one shot

[britt-kageryuu]

A stream is starting. Shelldon and River are sitting up front while the set and everything gets set up. Donnies model pops in in his purple hoodie, mask with science charms, and wraps.

Donnie: So today we aren't going to play anything just yet. There is a planned update that needs to be made for future plans, like some camera quality issues with our event setup. Yeah we keep getting invitations to events, but we don't know the overall size of some, next to how many of you would want to attend.

Shelldon: Taday Dee is going to explain Us!

River: Or at least as much as he can because we're technically WIP!

Chat is very excited, more lore, and maybe some explanations for the robots.

Donnie: Yes, of course. Now River, we will be covering Shelldon first so..

River: I get sit over there and read!

River zips off to the side with her light screen popping up.

Donnie: Okay. Well Shelldon is my first Pride and Joy. He was first created as a base assistant AI program, that turned into a, well if you've ever heard of an old movie called 'Smart House' you get the idea, he sent a roomba army against us because he got annoyed.

Shelldon looks very proud of himself. There is some confusion in the chat, partially from how an assistant AI turned into Shelldon, and partially because not many knew what movie he's talking about.

Donnie: Now Shelldon is somewhat more mature, but he loves drone racing, playing games, some pranks, but ar least he isn't acting like a rebellious teenager anymore. He got some control of a drone and kind of 'ran away', I got him to come back, but not until we had a session with Dr. Feelings. Shudder.

Shelldon looks a little annoyed, giving a small 'Hey' at the more mature line. Donnie talks a little more about designing Shelldons look, 'picking up' his model and showing off details, and explaining some of the design. He lets Shelldon go when he's done to move on.

Then he tries to signal River that it's their turn. River is really into whatever they're reading. Shelldon moves over and pokes River to get their attention. River jolts a little, then moves to the center, while Shelldon rests to the side.

Donnie: Now River was a more recent decision, and when working on her AI, I planned to have her be more pop culture savvy... then I let her have access to a library of ebooks, and a couple slightly restricted streaming services, some games...

Donnie with an exasperated look on his face while looking at River who looks very happy.

Donnie: She refused to leave the virtual library for hours. She's still very into her job of 'knocking out' BOTs, but now that she knows she can read in the middle of streams, I had to give her insensitive to pay attention.

River: For every 10 BOTs I knock out I get a new Book!

Donnie: Yes, more books for a bookworm robot turtle. Anyway while Shelldon is Sea Turtle inspired, I wanted to make River more Softshell inspired. While teal isn't usually a first choice of color, it looks good against purple, and was good against my brothers colors!

Donnie 'lifts' River to show some details.

Donnie: Her shell is more flat, and the glowing spots were a decision based more for the Vtuber model appeal. But her head is purposefully triangular, and slightly conical to more resemble the head of a Softshell turtle. The Harisen was mainly for comedic effect, and the visual effect of her smacking the chat box was very amusing.

Donnie sets River down, and checked something off to the side.

Donnie: We will be moving onto explaining some future plans for what Shelldon and River will be able to do in streams.

And the stream goes on, chat giving mixed feedback on some of the ideas. Though when put up some concept Images for the ideas, chat got pretty excited, and some glad to hear about possible future streams.

Masterpost

#VTurtles! #vtuber au #rottmnt donatello #rottmnt donnie #rise donatello #rise donnie #rottmnt shelldon #rise shelldon #rottmnt au #rottmnt oc #tmnt rise #rise of the tmnt #rise tmnt #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt #tmnt 2018 #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt fanfiction

[kidstemplatte]

terzo w/ a goth daughter hcs

i don’t know where i got this idea from but i’m obsessed with it. in this fic, the reader is referred to as the other parent. without further ado, this is terzo with a goth teenage daughter. (her name is violetta, she’s mentioned in a previous fic i posted) i hope you enjoy!!🦇🖤

-of course this girl ended up goth. it would be concerning if she didn’t. she was raised in a satanic church. her dad is the lead singer of a devil-worshipping rock band and paints himself like the skull emoji every day for a living.

-violetta was raised on classic rock. of course, she grew up hearing other things, but the importance of rock was preached at her by her papa.

-she’s got super cool taste even without him though.

-sometimes violetta ends up shocking HIM with stuff she listens to.

-she ends up discovering more intense, heavy stuff he didn’t play for her as a kid but still enjoyed privately.

“how- how did you find this band?”

“i’m cooler than you think i am, dad.”

“that’s my girl.”

-i feel like terzo doesn’t like electronic music, but violetta does. stuff like crystal castles. (great music, check it out!)

-so if she gets in the car and starts playing something he doesn’t like, he playfully bullies her for it.

“ay, what is this computer crap?”

“oh, i’m sorry, do you want me to play some of your old man music?” she says with a wicked smirk.

-if they ever get in fights, (which they do, they’re both stubborn as mules, though terzo will swear she got it from you…) violetta goes to her room and will BLAST music. like, BLAST. if she’s really mad, she’ll play something he doesn’t like.

-and if she’s R E A L L Y mad…

-she’ll play worship music. as in jesus worship music.

-you have to run to her room and tell her to stop before her father leaves her as an offering for satan.

-violetta does the coolest tradgoth makeup.

-the first time she wore it outside her room, terzo had many mixed emotions. two voices in his head:

“that’s my daughter!! la mia stellina! she doesn’t need makeup to be beautiful! her precious face is gone!”

and:

“hell yeah, that’s my daughter!”

-lets her practice makeup on him

-sometimes she’ll do his face paint and it’ll look fucking AWESOME, he wears it with pride

-very encouraging of her talents and passions.

-i can totally imagine her being into all kinds of art. music, drawing, painting, photography, design, makeup of course, writing, everything.

-she has a very distinct dark aesthetic she goes for when she makes art

-terzo is so blown away by her creativity. always wants to see what she’s working on, even when she says, “go away, dad!”

“what are you drawing?”

“what’s that song?”

“is that a poem? can i read it?”

-her fashion is totally awesome and terzo will always buy her random goth jewelry or accessories he finds that remind him of her. she is very spoiled.

-if violetta ends up going to goth clubs or events, sneaking out of the house, terzo totally catches on. he was similar as well.

-she’ll carefully close the door on her way in, letting out a small sigh of relief, thinking she made it back safe.

-until she turns around and sees her father nonchalantly sitting in a chair, wine glass in one hand, book in the other.

-“how was the party, violetta?”

-she’s silent.

-“and the one yesterday? and the one last weekend? and the one the weekend before that? there was even one on a tuesday. who goes to the club on a tuesday?”

-this man has TOTALLY been to a club on a tuesday. but he would never say that to his daughter

-no amount of face paint could cover the look on her face in that moment.

-boy, she was in for a stern lecture and a rough night.

#ghost band #papa emeritus iii #terzo #the band ghost #ghost #papa emeritus #papa emeritus x reader #papa terzo #terzo x reader #papa emeritus iii x reader #the band ghost headcanons #terzo headcanons

[thirtysevenodddogs]

TEENAGE DREAM

Chapter 2 - Ripe and Ready

Pairings: Main-Joel Miller x Ofc/Reader/You (reader has a name)

Secondary- Joel x Tess / Mentioned- Ellie x Riley, Tommy x Maria

Fic Warnings: 30/y Age Difference, Joel is 48, Reader is 18, Underage for Ch1 (Legal in the State of Texas), Unprotected Sex, Oral Sex, Vaginal Sex, Anal Play, Use of Sex Toys, Outdoor Sex, Squirting, Sex Tapes, Infidelity, Rough Sex, Spitting, Face Slapping, DV, Unwanted Pregnancy, Spanking, Daddy Kink, Anal Sex, Rimming (Both M/F and F/M), Light-Skinned Ofc, Athletic/Curvy Ofc

Word Count: 3.2K

AU-No Cordyceps Outbreak/Sarah is alive

BFD!Joel Miller

Joel Miller is having an affair with his daughters’ best friend.

Cover image by @beskarandblasters

Banners and dividers by @saradika-graphics

A brief special mention to @paanchusblog for trying to protect my story and letting me know it was originally written by In_Madness on AO3. It is I, I am we, we are me! I am re-editing all the chapters. I haven't linked my account so that new readers don't go over there and read all the garbagé I haven't edited yet. XD

Three months later

"Aah!" You wince, hissing at the sharp, burning sensation of the needle gliding against the taunt skin of your hip. Sarah's sitting beside you, nose deep in a scrapbook filled with the artists' designs, while Ellie hoovers over Arlo's shoulder, looking down as he works on you. 

"Don't be a fucking baby, Jen", She says, rolling her eyes at your grimace.

You and Sarah have been eighteen all of five minutes, Ellie's been eighteen for two weeks, and this slow torture you're putting yourself through is a pact you all made a long time ago. 

It was decided just days after you’d met each other when, at 15 years old, all three of you realized your birthdays happened almost all in the same month. All three of you declared then and there that you would be friends forever. Then Ellie made you swear that by the time you turned eighteen, you would celebrate your last year of high school and your first year of adulthood by getting permanently marked by, in her words, "The fucking coolest guy ever" . She then showed you a bunch of pictures of intricate tattoos designed by a cute blonde guy named Arlo DiCristina, whose body was almost entirely covered in tattoos. To this day, you think Arlo is probably the only guy Ellie’s ever had a little crush on, even if she denies it.

"Dad's gonna kill us”, Sarah says, looking up from Arlo's book straight at her sister, who already has a strip of shiny cling wrap around her wrist covering the bright yellow smiley face you all had agreed on. “You know that, right?”.

Ellie rolls her eyes, tilting her head back and groaning, pinching the bridge of her nose for a second as if asking all the gods she can think of to give her the strength to deal with you both. She's always had a short fuse, but this is her idea, and you are doing it. So she has to suck it up.

She exhales and gestures toward the front of the shop, "Which is why Uncle Tommy's here!", she tells you as if this should have been obvious already. The man in question, Tommy, is leaning against the counter, flirting away with the pretty receptionist and barely even paying attention to any of you. "If dad's pissed, we just tell him he brought us, and then he'll be pissed at him". She shrugs. And honestly, coming from her, that's as solid a plan as any.

And Tommy, well…

Tommy is sweet, really. He's also kind of a sucker for his nieces, and he thinks Joel is too uptight; he's also only 25 and practically Joel's third child, you think to yourself, turning your head to look at him with his easy smile and his innocent-looking freckled face. Joel would be mad at him for half a day at most, and then you all get away with it. 

You realize it is a solid plan, and you have to give it to her. Ellie might be adopted, but she's a Miller through and through, and she knows all too well how to play both her uncle and her father like finely-tuned fiddles.

Tommy isn’t dumb enough to pay for the tattoos when Sarah and Ellie join forces and try to convince him it would be the perfect birthday gift. However, he does buy all of you ice cream afterward and promises you'd each get to have ONE beer at the surprise pool party next Friday that none of you are supposed to know about. Ellie and Sarah because it is for them, and you because the Millers realize you wouldn't be able to keep it a secret. Not that Tommy had. He was more of a slightly older friend to all of you than an actual adult.

And anyway, one secret between you and them is enough, and it’s not like a small one. You slept with their dad! And most days, you still feel like shit about it and can hardly look them in the face any time you remember.

"That right there is fucking ridiculous". Tommy says, shaking his head and leaning against the kitchen counter. He takes a deep gulp from his beer and points the now-empty bottle at where you're all hanging out in his backyard. Sarah, Ellie, and you. And all your little friends. Fucking high school kids! Joel reminds himself.

He looks because, of course, he does. You have been avoiding their home for the past three months, and Joel's glad you have because seeing you up close again feels like a fucking bucket of ice-cold water hitting him straight in the face. He knew your age. Oh! He fucking knew your age, but in the middle of the night, all alone and in the heat of the moment, he’d convinced himself that you didn't LOOK it, that your body was a woman's body, mature and ripe and ready for the picking. Now he looks at you standing next to Sarah, wearing a pair of denim shorts and a white tank top, and he hates himself a little because you do look so fucking young, shiny and new. He hates himself because your face still has what looks almost like baby fat around your dimpled cheeks, and your smile is so innocent, and it fucking hurts a little how much he still wants. It hurts a little when his cock twitches as he notices the straps of a bikini peeking out the back of your shorts. The sight of your gorgeous round ass, when you lean over, has him swallowing the sudden mouthful of saliva that floods his mouth in the split second when he remembers your taste, the fucking scent down between your legs. He catches himself hoping that you’ll decide to swim and that when you take your clothes off, he gets to see all that plump and perky YOUTH .

"... fucking hiked her dress up to get it on her hip" Tommy's still talking, and Joel snaps his eyes back to his brother, hoping no one’s noticed how he’s looking at you.

"What?" He asks, frowning a little.

Tommy chuckles, popping the cap off a fresh beer bottle with the silver ring he wears on his right hand. "The tattoos you almost fucking decked me over? You think it's bad that Saraha and Ellie got it on their wrists? Jenna got it on her hip. She pulled up her dress to get on the table and everything. Those legs, man? That ass? I had to push my crotch into the corner of a counter and pretend I wasn't looking". He hisses when the back of Maria's hand makes sharp contact with the side of his face.

"She's the same age as your nieces, you perv!" She scolds him, getting the food ready for the grill.

"Ouch!... Yeah, which is fucking 18 as of six days ago", he mumbles, rubbing at the red mark high on his cheek. "Besides..." he takes another drink. "Is not like I'm gonna do anything. She's cute, but..." he pauses, smiling and wrapping his arms around his girlfriend's body. "You know I like you best, baby", he laughs and smacks a loud kiss against her shoulder before grabbing the food to take it outside.

"It is a little too much, right?" Tess says, standing next to Joel now, looking out at the deck while Maria follows Tommy, telling the kids to get ready to eat and calling Ellie and Abby to come out of the pool. "I mean, Tommy's an idiot, but I don't remember anyone I went to high school with ever looking like that". There's a frown on her face, almost like she tastes something funny.

Joel shrugs and turns his back to the yard, pretending he's too busy to care. "Tommy just likes to rile Maria up. You know how he is", he tells her. 

He grabs a case of beer and dumps it in the cooler to take outside. And he's right. Tommy’s a little inappropriate, but he’d never go that far. “The girls are 18. I may not like it, but they're grown", he goes on, and it's almost like he's trying to convince himself.

He picks up the cooler with one arm and gives her a soft smile, a kiss against her smooth skin, so much alike and yet so different from the easy and playful way his brother had just done to his girl. "Come on, let's go drink and pretend we're not just babysitting a bunch of hormonal teenagers", he chuckles, wrapping his free arm around her and pulling her along as another wave of teens walks into the yard from the side gate.

You wake up with a start, scrunching up your nose at the balled-up dirty sock right in your face. "Ugh, come on, Ellie!" You groan and stretch, sitting up on the thin air mattress on the floor next to her bed. You squit in the dim moonlight coming in from her window and wait for your eyes to adjust.

She's lying, limbs akimbo, half on top of the covers and half on top of her girlfriend, snoring softly into her ear. Poor Riley , you think, because that just can't be comfortable.

You get up, trying to make as little noise as possible, yawning and scratching at your arm. You realize you fell asleep in your denim shorts and chlorine-soaked swimsuit, and you feel a little gross and a hell of a lot uncomfortable.

You walk over to your backpack and grab the PJs you brought. It’s really just an old worn top and a pair of fleece shorts from the athletics team uniform. You look over your shoulder, making sure you don't wake your friends up, and you take off your jeans and bikini and slip into your PJs as fast as possible. You already feel a little better, loose, relaxed, and comfy.

You look at Ellie's alarm clock, the little red light blinking 1:30 a.m. over and over again. You think about laying back down, but your stomach groans, and your throat feels scratchy. You look at the door a little nervously.

You haven't been back here since THAT night. And all day today, you didn't even have to think about it. Too busy having fun, swimming, and playing ping pong with Riley and sneaking around with Ellie and Sarah and Tommy to have that beer he'd promised you, which in reality had been just a sip each from a brand new bottle he'd popped open with his ring, right in front of you, preening a little at his ‘party trick’ and winking at you with a smirk on his face as Ellie and Sarah rolled their eyes.

You'd barely even seen Joel, and even tho it was one am, you were still scared of walking down that hall in the dark, past his bedroom door, and down the stairs. Those fucking stairs, you press your legs together and feel your core tighten up with the memory of his face buried between them and of the carpet burn you found on your lower back the next day,

Your stomach grumbles again, and you roll your eyes. "Fine! I'm going", you sigh, looking down at your treacherous belly and hoping that a quick trip to the kitchen is worth it.

The room turns bright.

"Jesus!" You jump, startled, and straighten back up, clutching the tub of ice cream you’d just been digging out from the freezer up to your chest as you turn around to find Tommy with his hand still against the light switch.

"You really shouldn't be walking around in the dark, Darlin", he chuckles. A toothy grin blossoms on his face as he pushes you aside and opens the fridge, taking out what looks like day-old chicken, lifting the lid of the container, and giving it a sniff before shrugging and shutting the door again. "Want some chicken?" He offers easy and smooth, grabbing a fork from out of a drawer, and you're still just standing there, painfully aware that you're not wearing anything under your shorts or t-shirt as his eyes scan over your body.

He licks at his lip and leans back against the counter, staring at you, a half-chewed piece of chicken in his mouth. He winks at you and immediately burps, chuckling again when you roll your eyes. "What?"

"You're gross. You know that right?" you say, finally relaxing and grabbing a spoon.

Tommy's cool, you think. He’s flirty and funny, and you know there's never any intention behind it. He is also closer to you, Ellie, and Sarah's age than any other adult you know. He's almost like a friend, you suppose, more so than an actual grown-up.

He shrugs and just keeps eating, poking at your right hip with his fork when you lean on the counter next to him. "How's that healing up?" he asks.

You look down at the fork, softly digging into the fabric of your shorts. "It's good; it's also on the other side". You smile, shoveling a big spoonful of ice cream into your mouth. You turn to him and think of what to say next, just to keep the conversation going, when suddenly, there's a loud THUMP above you, followed by a muffled groan.

Tommy laughs quietly. "Holly shit, he's losing it", he looks at you as if trying to get you in on the joke, you frown looking up at him confused, his eyes go wide as if he's surprised that you don't get it, and then there's and other muffled groan and a woman's voice now saying his name, Joel. "Oh..." You get it now.

"That's the sound of an old man having sex, sweetheart, in a house full of sleeping teenagers". He shakes his head, whispering under his breath, "That old dog", and then he just goes back to his day-old chicken as if he didn't just shatter your perception of reality.

You look up at the ceiling then, almost wishing that you could see through it, see them. You knew Joel was with someone. You'd even met her before. Tess.  All tall and pretty and redhead and… older.  She probably knows how to do things you can't even imagine, how to make him feel things other than guilt and regret.

Your stomach hurts.

You scoop more ice cream onto your spoon, and you say it. You don't even know why you say it or why you say it to him. But just as you push the cold vanilla-flavored cream into your mouth, you look at Tommy and say it.

"Can I suck your cock?"

You swallow.

There's a soft clatter and then chicken all over the floor, and you're pretty sure he's stopped breathing. The ice cream is melting away on the counter, and he's just staring at you, mouth gaping and eyes almost bugged out of his head.

"Tommy?" You whisper, a little scared, "Tommy..."

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" His voice is high and loud, and you both stop and listen just to make sure you can still hear the soft thumping of Joel's bed against his wall.

"Christ! Tom, you could have just said no", you say, and start getting down on your knees to pick up his mess. He actually jumps back, like a startled cat, as if you're just gonna reach and pull his dick out of his pants anyway.  You roll your eyes at him. "It was just a stupid question" you grumble and start throwing the food back into its container.

"What the fuck Jenna?!" He repeats, quieter now, "Who asks that?" he gets down on the floor to help you.

"I... I don't know". You shrug, trying to seem calm about it, and the truth is, you do know, you know that your guts are twisting up inside you, and you can still hear them groaning, and Joel’s bed's still moving, and you want to hurt him.

Tommy frowns. "Do you even want to?" he asks, helping you up after you're done and throwing the trash away. He looks so confused.

"Maybe..." You say, biting your lip. "I've never... you know", you gesture awkwardly at his crotch. "I mean, I did once, but not really. I just licked it a little, and it was over". You then notice that the noise from Joel's bedroom has stopped, and you look at the stairs.

Tommy sighs. "One day, you're gonna ask the wrong guy, babe, and he's gonna say yes". He grabs the ice cream from the counter and tucks it away in the freezer. "Go back to bed" he pats the top of your head like you're just a funny little pet and walks away, back to the made-up couch you hadn't even fucking noticed.

And you wonder then if Joel IS the wrong guy.

"I'll see you". Joel smiles, kissing Tess goodbye at the door. It's almost 11, but it's a Saturday, so he thinks he'll let you guys sleep a little longer. He walks to the kitchen, landing a swift kick to the back of the couch. Tommy can sleep-in at his own place in his own time. "Get up, you dick. Help me make breakfast".

"Five more minutes, Daddy". Tommy groans and just turns over, yelping and sitting up, when another kick lands on the armrest, waaay too close to his head. "Get up!" Joel snarls.

"I'm up! I'm up!"

They've been in the kitchen for 30 minutes when the soft sound of girlish giggling floats down the stairs, and a woosh of sparkly swimsuits and too many limbs rush past them and out onto the deck. Joel looks up to see Ellie, Riley, and Abby jumping straight into the pool, laughing out loud while Sarah lays down on a patch of grass, and then, there's you. A little slower than the others, but not any less sincere, a vast, beautiful smile on your face as you take your time rubbing sunscreen down your arms, over your perky breasts, and taunt, soft belly.

He hears a deep sigh beside him and then Tommy's voice "I dunno if I'm a saint or the biggest fucking idiot I know". He sighs, turning to look at Joel. "She asked me if she could suck my dick last night, said she'd never done it before" he nods his head at you, a bit of a dazed look on his face while he pulls out plates.

"SHIT!" Joel shouts, shaking out his hand and sucking the finger he'd just burnt against the stove into his mouth "What the fuck Tommy?"

"Hey! Is not like I said yes", Tommy adds quickly, hands up in the air like he's pleading his innocence. "Maria would fucking kill me, but man, you should have seen her. I'm pretty sure she wasn't wearing any underwear..."

Joel wants to throw up.

He can hear the blood rushing in his ears, he can see you lying down in the sun, and he can fucking picture it so clearly.

Tommy's fist wrapped in your hair, pulling your head back, your big brown eyes looking up at him, that perfect pouty mouth opening up, your soft, breathy moans as you take him in. There’s vile coming up his throat.

"... got down on her knees and everything". Tommy's still talking and setting up the table.

"SHUT UP!" Joel yells so loud that the silence that follows is deafening. There's no laughter, no water splashing; it is as if time itself goes still. He's heaving, and Tommy's eyes are on him.

He's gonna be sick.

#Mia's fic #Teenage Dream #The Las Of Us #The Last of Us Fanfiction #Joel Miller #Joel Miller Fic #Joel Miller Smut #Joel Miller x Reader #Joel Miller x You #Joel Miller x Ofc #Best Friend's Dad #18+

[hbyrde36]

Updated 06/05/2024

No Vacancy

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When Eddie Munson arrives at the Buckingham Beach Motel to spend the summer with his BFF Chrissy and her business partner Robin, the last person he expects to see waiting in the lobby is former king of Hawkins High and asshole extraordinaire, Steve fucking Harrington.

Times Like These

Anniversary Post

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When Eddie finds himself back in his living room, staring down a very alive Chrissy Cunningham, after just having bled to death himself in the middle of a nightmare world, he was rightfully very, very fucking confused. -Or- What happens when the new guy, who only just got inducted into the fucked up world of monsters and mayhem, gets stuck in a time loop and finds himself responsible for saving everyone?

I Don't Think We're In Hawkins Anymore, Big Boy

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After being run off the road in a freak accident during a terrible storm, Steve and Eddie find that not only have they committed vehicular manslaughter, but they’ve also somehow been whisked away to a strange land. The journey is rough and they are being hunted for revenge, but through it all Steve and Eddie grow closer than ever as they try and find their way home with the help of some new friends with familiar faces. -Or- Steddie Wizard of Oz

Hellfire Ink

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Written for the Stranger Things Reverse Big Bang 2023/2024

Not for the first time, Eddie was really regretting his decision to book a client on a Friday night, a new client at that. It wasn’t as if he had anything better to do, exactly. There were no dates on his calendar, and going out to random bars and clubs on the weekends to look for quick hook-ups had begun losing its appeal lately. But it’d been a long week, and he’d much rather be getting ready to plop down on the couch with Chrissy to split a bottle of red wine while they watched Drag Race, than preparing to do a cover up for some idiot who’d gotten their girlfriend’s name tattooed on his body, only to fall victim to—The Curse. Ask any tattoo artist and they’d be the first to tell you, there was no surer way to guarantee a breakup than to ink your significant other’s name on your body forever.

Life is a Game (and True Love is a Trophy)

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For years Eddie has been playing D&D with his cousin Dustin and his friends. It’s a crazy home brew campaign of his own design that plays fast and loose with the lore, weaving in heavily embellished events from their real lives. They play themselves, filling out a full cast of NPC’s with the likenesses of friends, family, and strangers. It’s been a wild ride. The game is set in Hawkins, but not quite their Hawkins. This manifestation of their hometown is full of dark secrets, including a shady government agency, evil scientists, and another dimension full of dangerous creatures hiding on the other side of reality. They’ve just wrapped their most recent session before spring break 1986. It was a bittersweet end to an epic part of the story. A blast to play through, but they didn’t beat the bad guy, and the party has been left in ruins. Eddie’s character is dead, one of their favorite NPC’s is in a coma, and the world has literally split apart at the seams. Honestly, Eddie’s not sure how they come back from this. - In 1983 Steve Harrington joined the search for a missing boy and found something he never bargained for. In 1984 Steve Harrington disappeared.

Honey, You're Familiar

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Written for the Stranger Things Writer's Guild Hozier Project, a collection of one-shots inspired by songs from Hozier's self titled album. The word count limit was 3,000 and I chose the song From Eden

🖤The Crawl

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Inspired by the VERY little information we have about the Stranger Things writer's plans for season 5 Time travel stories love to play with the idea that one small act can have an incredible impact on the future. What if, in a crazy twist of fate, Will Byers was rescued from the Upside Down a day early and with just a little knowledge of what was to come. Would it be enough to change everything?

POV Will Byers, POV Eddie Munson, POV Steve Harrington, time shenanigans, fix-it of sorts, angst with a happy ending, friends to lovers, falling in love, confessions, first kiss, character death, HAPPY ENDING

Steve Harrington: Vampire Hunter

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Steve Harrington is an animator. It’s a job that involves raising the dead; sometimes as a service for mourning relatives looking for closure, often as a tool for the courts to settle disputes. He is also a licensed vampire hunter. Two years ago, vampirism became legal in the United States, granting its undead population citizenship. With this new legal status comes a complication for Steve, as he finds himself tasked with helping the very creatures he is accustomed to killing. Speaking of complications, Steve struggles in more ways than one when he finds himself working closely with none other than Eddie Munson, an undeniably sexy several-hundred-years old master vampire. Or, The Anita Blake/Steddie mashup that nobody asked for but I’m having far too much fun with.

Modern AU, Vampire AU (Anita Blake AU/mashup),  aged up characters, enemies to lovers, slow burn, eventual smut, dream sex, vampires, wereanimals, zombies, other supernatural things eventually

Shelter In Place

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Written for Lex’s Spicy Six Summer Challenge! My prompt was : Hurricane

When a major Hurricane is projected to hit Hawkins (technically it’s more like the remnants of a hurricane, but the residents of Hawkins don’t really know the difference or care), Dustin is worried about his new friend and DM, Eddie Munson, who lives in a trailer, a structure not known for its resilience against severe weather. He invites the older boy to ride the storm out with him and his mom at home, unaware that she has made arrangements for them to stay with family that live far away from the storm's trajectory. Dustin doesn’t want to leave his friend high and dry, enter everyone’s favorite babysitter: Steve Harrington.

🌊Caught in the Undertow

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Steve saved Eddie from certain death. Eddie doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to forgive him for it.

Post season 4, angst with happy ending, slow burn, “enemies” to friends to lovers, suicidal thoughts, POV alternating, the best uncle Wayne Munson

#steddie #steddie fanfic #steve x eddie #eddie munson #steve harrington #steve harrington/eddie munson #stranger things #ao3 link #ao3 #fanfic #my fics <3 #my writing

[wibble-wobbegong]

The Vanishing of Mike Wheeler

In this little post of mine i’m gonna be telling you the story of how Mike’s disappearance is gonna go in S5 through the perspective of the Hellfire DND game, which represents the Rightside Up/The Party’s POV, and an album which can be directly associated as the Upside Down/Henry’s POV of the same events, revealing how all of this is actually gonna go down in the show.

I know you guys all know what DND game I’m talking about, so I’ll introduce you to a little album called Under the Influence by Overkill from 1988.

In order to connect this album to the DND game, you have to look at the design of the cover here. The most prominent feature is the giant skull with horns and bat wings, right? When you go to look at the set up for Eddie’s DND stuff, there are two stickers:

Both of those have the exact same symbol: a skull with horns and bat wings. What makes these stickers unique is the lightning bolt behind them, which isn’t in the 1988 cover (the first time this mascot ever gets used). The only character we can directly associate with actual lightning is Henry. Yes, Will is sometimes associated with electricity in non-canon content, but Henry was literally struck by lightning in the show.

In the album, there are constant references to the invasion of the mind, being reborn, and there are a few mentions of needing to head for the light as well. This album is heavily coded as Henry’s POV, but it’s also tied to Eddie. That’ll be important for later!!

Character Establishment

Ok, so before breaking down the DND game itself, let me explain which figurines represent which characters really quick.

Mike is represented by his paladin, obviously. Same with Dustin and his bard. Lucas, although he isn’t playing right now, is still being represented by the ranger on the table. I believe the figure I’ve associated with El is a mage, which also lines up because Mike declares her to be the Party’s mage in S2. As for Max’s figure, I don’t have any idea what class that figure is meant to be but the figure is prominently blue, which is a color heavily associated with Max in S4. I don’t know much about DND, so maybe I just don’t recognize the class, or there isn’t meant to be a recognizable class because Max is a zoomer.

Now, as for Will, I hate this just as much as everybody else will but I think he’s being represented by the Vecna figure. For one, we know that Henry himself doesn’t really align with the description of the actual character of Vecna. More so, we never actually witness the Vecna figure attacking anyone. It’s implied, but the visual isn’t there which normally wouldn’t matter except that we do see the attack against one character; Mike. That attack doesn’t come from Vecna.

Most importantly, though, is the the design they chose for Vecna’s figure. There are many different versions they could’ve gone with but they chose the one where Vecna’s staff has the green in his staff. You know what that looks a lot like?

So, Will is being represented by the Vecna figure. Considering that this is all gonna play out in reality in the UD, that actually makes perfect sense because Will is sort of the Vecna of the UD, like how Henry is the Vecna of the RU. The’re opposites.

As for why the actual Vecna, Henry, is being represented by another figure is something that can only be explained through telling this story. Same with Eddie. So, let me dust off this book I found in the corner and show you what I’m talking about.

The Vanishing

So, the DND game is reflecting the reality of S5 when the party decides to go after Vecna. DND games have always been used to predict events in the pasy, as we saw with the ‘weird flowers in the cave’ coming true in S2 and Hopper’s cover-up story being exactly as described by how Mike and Lucas died in the S3 campaign. What I think it really important about this game, however, is the fact that the Hellfire game seems to be ending with a crawl. Crawls are used in DND to set up fights with monsters and take place on a set map, which is what the Hellfire Party goes through. There is a very deliberately set map for the end of this campaign.

It’s important to remember this, because 5x01 is called The Crawl. The Party is gonna be going after Henry pretty soon after Will/Mike reveals he’s still alive. I don’t think they’ll jump into it immediately, but in terms of episodes they’re either gonna be planning their attack or possibly setting it into motion in the first episode. 

 The meat of this section goes into two things; Mike’s dice roll and the third song from the album, Hello from the Gutter. After the Hellfire Party establishes that they’d fight Vecna to the death, the second scene is of Mike rolling the dice. Mike’s roll is actually given the same level of importance as Dustin and Erica’s rolls and it’s shot very similarly too. There’s one thing that all three of those scenes have in common, and it’s the color of their dice. Those are the only times the red-on-black dice are used. It’s not a matter of who gets to roll them, but rather what the represent. What the r-o-b dice are confirming is that this will be happening in the future. They’re inherently predictive of incredibly important events. Although all of this is predictive, these three rolls are the most important by far because they’re turning points in the story. So why is Mike’s included? Let’s really look at that scene. When Mike rolls his dice, we never see what number it lands on, unlike Dustin or Erica, but we know it’s low enough to ‘kill’ him. I’m sure you can figure out a number that would be low enough to lead to a death, a number that’s important to the story, and a number they couldn’t show us. One.

When we look at the result of Mike’s dice roll, something weird happens.

This is actually the first time we can confirm that the dark sorcerer is Henry, because that first image places the Overkill symbol directly above the dark sorcerer and even has the lightning bolt pointing directly at it. In the perspective of the RU, both Henry and Mike’s deaths are implied. Mike’s death is implied verbally and Henry’s is implied on the board. So, I’m actually gonna consult the lighting to explain this. 

When you look at the lighting of this scene and compare it to the lighting for the other scenes of the DND sequence, this lighting is significantly darker with much heavier shadows. Many times throughout the show, we can associate the lighting of a scene changing into something darker with an illusion occurring. The perspective of the RU is being distorted. In actuality, both Mike and Henry are very much so alive. So what’s the point of having the paladin up while the sorcerer goes down? Look at where the paladin is standing. The paladin is in the shadow, in the darkness. The sorcerer is in the light. The darkness is showing the reality, where Mike is alive. The light is showing what the Party sees. Henry is associated with darkness and light is associated with Will. It comes together perfectly when you consider that our perspective of the events of Will’s vanishing in S1 is warped too. Just like how Will’s perspective was distorted then, it’s distorted again so he’s being shown Mike and Henry’s deaths, but Henry’s perspective shows the truth.

In that case, what actually happened? That’s where we turn to the album, which tells us exactly how and why Mike disappeared. 

For the first two songs of the album, the perspective of Henry is established through lines like:

“Dirty little rumor, circulating round... / Spreadin' like the plague. in every little town / Capturing the spirit! and goin' to the head”

“From the fire to the streets / I've seen it all... / I've melted in the heat”

There are, however, lines that don’t quite line up with the idea we have of Henry. That’s where the connection to Eddie comes in. Obviously, there was a reason they decided to associate the album with Eddie rather than just placing it around in another way and that reason comes in when lyrics about being reborn start coming in.

“And then a brand new day! / A chance to be reborn / I've seen another way / No time to sit and mourn”

“Didn't want to sit and rot″

I’d like to point at that it seems like Henry’s body may very well have been rendered immobile due to being attacked by a molotov. Eddie’s dead body was left in the UD, complete with no consciousness yet not decomposed either. I’m not saying it’ll be permanent, but I do think that Henry may seek refuge in Eddie’s body by becoming the consciousness that inhabits it. That’s why Eddie is being so heavily associated with this piece of Henry; Henry is living in Eddie’s body. Henry is living through Eddie’s music taste much like he will be living through Eddie later on. 

This is important because the song I mentioned at the very beginning of this is the song that tells us how Mike was taken. Mike isn’t stupid enough to separate himself on purpose and there would be too many people around to protect him if Henry just tried to force his way towards Mike. He needs something that would lure Mike away from the others so he can capture them in an illusion and get Mike alone.

This song is a call to a teenager, repeating the phrase ‘hello from our little hell’ over and over. The story goes and has someone who survived the gutter live to tell the tale and beckon the child to join him. He even tell the child that they’ve been expecting him. I think Henry had called for Mike in Eddie’s body and beckoned him away from the others, because of course Mike would follow Eddie if he thought he’d found him. Mike has seen 3 people come back from the dead, it’s not unbelievable that the same could happen for Eddie. Mike cares about his friends like no other, so if he needed to find Eddie he would. 

This might seem like a reach, but then I’d like to bring your attention back to that shot of Mike’s paladin and the dark sorcerer. The paladin’s shadow reaches out and connects with the cultist who represents Eddie (or, rather, Henry in Eddie’s body). The cultist is in the light, but is connected to the darkness by the paladin’s shadow. Eddie is still, technically, Eddie in both the Party’s POV and Henry’s POV, except before Mike is taken he’s tricked into believing that Eddie is still Eddie inside and out, but the reality is that Eddie is only Eddie on the outside. 

What’s most interesting is that I don’t actually think Mike was taken involuntarily. When I mentioned having a potential date for when Mike disappeared, I got that from @aemiron-main​ and his insight about the LOTR/ST parallels. One thing he informed me of was that a deal was made on April 6th to end the week of hell occurred. To set the timeline, the first death of S4 happens on March 22nd, then a week passes by and the show ends on March 29th. A week after that would be April 6th, leaving the hell that is the UD to rain on Hawkins. If Mike were to encounter Henry directly at his weakest, I think it’s very in-character for him to try and find a way to put an end to all the chaos and protect his friends, family, and Hawkins. Mike has always wanted to do anything he could to protect people, and he’s smart. If Henry wanted him for some reason, he would absolutely use that to his advantage somehow. Mike disappears after making a deal with Henry to put an end to the chaos and keep his family safe and Henry uses an illusion to convince everyone that both of them are dead.

The Experience

It doesn’t end there. Henry wouldn’t just end it because he has Mike, that makes no sense. He’s going to put Mike in a trance. Like I said, Henry doesn’t have the strength to maintain his own body and needs to recover. If he keeps Mike and doesn’t kill him, he can sap the strength from Mike slowly and consistently; those psychic connections give him power. He couldn’t kill Mike, because he’d need him for later but he could use that trance state to keep Mike in place and heal himself. How do I know this? The first song that details how this trance is gonna play out is called Mad Gone World. 

“In a world gone mad and thriving in the boundaries of your brain / Imprisoned in a world solely created for the purpose of a crunch”

This line heavily implies the idea of a trance because it’s a world existing entirely in one’s brain, just like how the trance takes the world you know and puts it in a place only your brain can reach. Also, it’s a little funny, but the ‘world created for the purpose of a crunch’ is literally what the point of the trances is. He creates them so he can connect with his victims and kill them, crunching their bones. Lmao

“What ya see and what ya feel / Are nothing nothing real / A visionary climax! / An imagery so clear / Losing touch or reason / Both quickly slip away”

Again, more lyricism that equates to a trance-like state. We start to move more into what actually occurs during the trance, though. Mike slowly moves towards losing reason because he’s being put in a trance, and seemingly for a very long time. 

“One million minutes... / One million nights / One million dreams I've had! / And a million fights / Livin' in a mad gone world / Livin' blind / Livin' with this worldly madness / Just a state of mind / Just a state of mind”

One million minutes and nights implies just how long Mike is going to be in this trance. It seems like Mike is going to be tranced for the two year time skip, which is why this album is from 1988 and not 1986. There’s also a great post here that explains why Mike being missing for the time skip makes sense narratively. A million dreams and fights implies undergoing tons of visions and such in this trance as well. Living blind is also a reference to the way that the vitcims’ eyes roll back when they’re tranced. And, all of this stuff is occurring as a state of mind to Mike because it’s happening in his head. 

The other song that walk us through his trance are called Brainfade and Drunken Wisdom. They aren’t as extensive as the other songs, but Brainfade is all about accusing someone of being a liar, saying they’re “full of shit” and there’s also a short monologue that talks about Vegas and an RV which makes me think we’ll at least be getting a call back to the van and a memory with the actual Eddie and they’ll be intertwined. It could possibly be how we find out about how Mike is queer. Maybe he’ll relive the van scene and run out of the car and run to Eddie’s RV out of instinct and then find Eddie and confront another aspect of his queerness right after. Just a possibility.

The final song that details his trance is called Drunken Wisdom, and this song covers the other things we’ll likely see in Mike’s trance. 

“Your bitchin's a bore / Don't wanna hear it no... more / So stop cryin' / Ain't feelin' nothing for you”

 The first verse is all about getting someone to stop crying, that their bitching is a bore. That comes back to the way Mike doesn’t value his own feelings and believes his own opinions don’t matter, that his problems are lesser than. 

“Sorry if I'm not as nice as you could be! / Why don't you take the time to see?  / That the world! / Does not revolve around only you / And we got better things to do”

This addresses Mike’s selfishness and how he feels like an asshole for making things about himself sometimes. It’s about how he isn’t a good person and how there are more important things in the world than him, which is something we’ve seen him be insecure about before.

“Why don't we give you a call”

Direct hit! Mike’s lack of calls to Will and losing his best friend are here now too!

All of this would pile up on Mike, especially after years of going through it. That leads into our final trance song; End of the Line. It opens with a reminder that time has not stopped passing during all this. Then, we get this.

“On the edge, standing”

Well. I think we’ve seen this before.

“Time. Time after time / The end of the line / We stand and watch it fade away... / Sign of the time's the end of the line”

Yeah I think we get it. Mike’s gonna go back to the cliff. He’s gonna try to kill himself again. We got it. 

“It's your move / So play... it right / Sometimes you get just one chance”

This’ll make more sense later, but I think that this is moment where the party opens a portal back to the real world and Mike has a chance. He can end it all, one way or another. This is the only chance he’s gonna get to pick. 

“It's the end / It snuck up... / Quick and took you by surprise / The waiting's over”

The waiting is over. Mike’s made his choice.

The Rescue

Let’s take a quick step back to the Party’s POV. I don’t think we have any evidence of what happened during Mike’s trance, but I do think I can figure out who actually opened the portal and saved him. Remember the dice rolls? The r-o-b ones? There are two other ones.

This is clearly predicting El’s attempt at saving them, and it fails, but let’s look at it a little closer. Who are all the characters in this frame? We have Mike, Max, Henry, Eddie, and two skeletons. What ties all these characters together? They all exist within Henry’s mind one way or another, and the two skeletons are representative of Fred and Chrissy. 

This is pretty much evidence of the fact that El is gonna go into Henry’s mind at some point and witness Mike’s trance. She won’t be able to free Mike or Max, but she will get to have her realization moment. 

So who succeeds?

Here we have El, Dustin, Lucas, and Will. Only Will and Lucas are standing. Will and Lucas are the 20 that save Mike. Will makes sense, with his powers and such and him being Mike’s light, but why Lucas? Check this out.

Look behind Mike. Lucas is there. I think Lucas might’ve seen something that’ll hint to him that was he was seeing was an illusion. Lucas is gonna play a part in saving Mike because he’s the person who might actually know anything about what really happened. Assuming we’re getting the Mike/Will role reversal, then Lucas stays the same. The only person who wanted to find Will just as badly as Mike was Lucas (excluding Joyce). If Lucas thinks he can find Mike, he won’t stop, and he may end up going off on his own to do so or he and Will stick together because Lucas no longer has doubts about hoping. 

So Lucas and Will are gonna be the ones to save Mike. Does Mike choose to go through the portal? Head First answers that.

“I push to the left, you pull to the right! / It's a stand off / Gainin' no ground / Outta the dark and into the lights! / It's a breakthrough / Startin' with sound”

Mike is going for the portal, dodging Henry’s attempts to push him to the left. He’s running out of the dark and into the light thanks to sound, which is exactly how Max escaped Henry the first time. 

“Up down the front and side to side! / Code blue / We need it stat / I got the reason that makes you go! / Mid air / Suspended animation”

“It all ends with an all out dive!”

He makes it out, now suspended midair. Henry tried to kill him (code blue) and failed. It ends with a dive, just like how Robin, Steve, Nancy, and Eddie dove into the UD, Mike is diving out.

The problem is that this has brought Will to Henry. Overkill II is a whole beast on its own. It feels much more like a summary of Henry’s perspective on his relationship with Will than anything else, which is Gross. I won’t break down every single lyric because if you read it you’ll see what I mean and that’s also not the point of this post. It’s icky sticky bro

On a lighter note, however, I think we have a return date for Mike! Once again, I thank Em for telling me about these amazing LOTR parallels because April 7th is supposedly the date in which Sam and Frodo have their hospital scene after that week of hell (sorry I don’t remember the exact names and I think I forgot to tag the post he told me stuff in). Not only do the times line up, though there’s two years between the events for us, they also make sense with everything else we know about Mike and being in the trance during the time skip as well as the fact that April 7th is Mike’s birthday. That would be insanely significant, especially if that somehow ties into birthday gate. 

Mike went missing on April 6th, 1986 and came home two years and one day later, April 7th 1988. 

I know that was a lot, so thank you for reading!! There was a ton of info in here but it was so fucking fun to put together, so I hope it’s as cool to you all as it is to me :)

#overkill/dnd tag #mike hostage theory #mike wheeler #byler tumblr #I don't care if it's not 100% byler I think this is cool as shit so I want people to see it lmao #WHEN I FOUND THE LUCAS THING I WENT AHFEO{HBFONBF WEBGFU #same with a lot of this actually #i was going wild all week waiting to finally have the time to write this all out #my cage #it's open #im finally free #self reference