#i'm sorry to people who are sick of this but i dunno i still find it wildly entertaining

[magicalmysteries777]

"You're clueless, you know that?" - Reader x Eddie Munson & Reader x Steve Harrington (fake)

Summary: You agree to accompany Steve to Enzo's for Valentine's Day with only one shared goal in mind - to make Eddie so jealous he has no choice but to have the one conversation he's being avoiding.

Pairings: F!Reader x Steve Harrington & F!Reader x Eddie Munson.

Chapter: 1 of 1.

W/C: 2314.

A/N: Happy Valentines Day, besties! This trope paired with Steve and Eddie has had me in a chokehold for a while now and I'm so happy that the lil ADHD gremlin in my brain has finally let me write the damn thing. <3

This one-shot can also be found on AO3 here.

“You really think that’ll work? Pretending to go on a date with you?” you asked, leaning against the counter at Family Video.

“It better work. Personally, I’m sick of hearing you pine over him. He’s had a thing for you ever since you joined Hellfire but he’s completely clueless when it comes to all the hints you’ve dropped,” Robin chimed in without looking up from the ‘returns’ pile of videotapes she was sorting through.

Clueless didn’t even begin to cut it.

You’d known about Eddie’s crush on you for months now, ever since Dustin slipped up and spilled the beans at lunch one day. The poor kid made you swear on your own life that you wouldn’t tell Eddie you knew.

True to your word, you kept the secret and began dropping hints instead. Eddie couldn’t read the room to save his life.

Any time you caught him staring, he’d break eye contact before you could smile back at him. Any time your hands accidentally touched, he’d move his hand away and play it off if you didn’t keep your hand perfectly still.

“I think it’s perfect,” Steve smiled. “There’s nothing like a bit of jealously to make you realise what you want.”

“I dunno,” you mumbled, chewing your cheek while you weighed up your options.

“When he sees you all dolled up, thinking it’s for me, the dots will connect. Trust me.”

“Fine, I’ll find out when he’s working.”

-

Steve’s plan had been in the back of your mind the whole time you’d been sitting around the table with your fellow Hellfire members. It was a long game of highs and lows all night. Despite the distraction, you’d manage to come out of the battle victorious with a mere five health points left. The party, albeit a little bruised and battered, was one step closer to defeating Myrkul and Eddie was in a good mood.

It took the usual fifteen minutes to pack up Eddie’s maps, dice, tokens, and other various game pieces before you climbed into the passenger side of his van. “Sorry for the mess,” Eddie apologised.

“You say that every week and yet you never clean it.”

“I do, it just gets messy again,” he smirked.

You were halfway home when you glanced over at Eddie. His hair was frizzy, sticking up in places from all the near misses in battle where he’d had his hands running through it. The rings on his left hand were glowing gently from the reflection of his lit cigarette as he used it to control the steering wheel. His right hand was methodically fiddling with the busted cassette player that he’d been meaning to fix for months. As always when Eddie was concentrating, his tongue was sticking out and resting against his top lip.

“Got it!” he exclaimed as Rainbow in the Dark started blasting from the speaker, a huge grin spread across his face.

“When are you going to buy a new one?” you chuckled, prodding at the battered box.

“Stop touching it,” he slapped your hand away. “It’ll start crackling again. I’ve picked up some overtime next weekend, I’m hoping the gents will be tipping big to impress their dates.”

“No Valentine’s plan with anyone special then?”

“Nope, just work. Doubt there’s anyone out there who would want to spend their Valentine’s Day with the ‘Freak of Hawkins’ anyway.”

“You’d be surprised, some people like their men a little freaky.”

“What about you? Any plans?” he asked, the change in tone rather subtle.

For a moment, you weren’t sure if you were going to go through with the plan. Steve’s words echoed through your mind listed the pros and cons. ‘Trust me.’

“Yeah, I’ve got a date at Enzo's. At least I don’t have to worry about it going bad now if you’re working, you can come over and scare him off for me.”

“That’s great. Wow, a date. Um, yeah, I’ll fend him off for you if things go pear-shaped. Do I, uh, know the guy?” he stuttered.

“I don’t want to jinx it,” you answered, remembering Robin's claims that a little bit of mystery would be the key to the whole plan working.

“Of course,” Eddie agreed, a sarcastically dumb look plastered on his face. You couldn’t help but notice that this was exactly how he used to act when Dustin mentioned Steve. “Would you look at that? Here we are. Once again, dropped off in one piece, as requested.”

“You okay, Ed?” you ask, one eyebrow raised.

“Yep. Fine. Tired,” he mumbled through an unconvincing yawn. “Long game. I’m gonna go and, uh, get some sleep. Night.”

-

“And he said it exactly like that?” Steve asked.

“Yes, Steve, how many times do I have to go through it? He basically kicked me out of the van,” you answered.

“It’s definitely working.”

“Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent. Wait until he finds out it’s me, he’s gonna freak.”

“He might not react at all. Believe it or not, he is professional at work.”

“Bet on it?”

“Shut up.”

-

Eddie had been an asshole all week.

Jeff and Gareth got the worst of it. You, however, had been getting the silent treatment. It was Thursday lunchtime when Eddie finally acknowledged you again.

“So, what are your plans this weekend?” Dustin asked Mike.

“Movies with El then dinner, you?”

“Arcade with Will. What about you, Eddie?”

“Work and band, why?”

“It’s called small talk,” Dustin answered. “What is with you this week?”

“Nothing, I’m fine,” he snapped.

“Tell your face that, man,” added Jeff.

“Lay off it. Why don’t you ask her what she’s doing this weekend instead and leave me alone?” Eddie prompted, gesturing in your direction. He did not stick around to hear the answer, walking away dramatically.

“Well, what are you doing?” asked Dustin.

“I’ve got a date,” you answered quickly and quietly, sinking into your seat as a sense of guilt began to creep up on you.

“You what?!” asked Gareth.

“I said I’ve got a date.”

“Yeah, I heard you. The fuck do you mean you’ve got a date? With who?”

“Does it matter?” you ask asked.

“Evidently it does. I’ve been taking the brunt of his crap all week and you’re telling me it’s because you’re going on a date?”

“How was I supposed to know he’d react like this?” you quickly try to defend yourself.

“Are you blind?” Jeff asks.

“No, but he is. I’ve dropped hints. Lots of them. If he doesn’t want to acknowledge it then that’s on him.”

-

“Wow,” smiled Steve, looking you up and down. He took your hand, albeit rather dramatically, and began leading you to the car.

“Save it for the restaurant, you dingus. Does this look okay then?” you ask.

“The dress alone might kill him, never mind the heels and hair.”

Ten minutes later, Steve parked up outside Enzo's.

“When we get in there, sit with your back to the bar. You’re about to get the full Harrington charm, okay?” he asked.

“Got it.”

“Hi there, table for two under Harrington,” Steve told the hostess.

“Follow me.”

“Here we are,” the hostess said as she gestured to a small table. “Here are your menus, the waiter will be over to take your order shortly.”

“Thank you,” you replied, taking the seat that Steve had pulled out for you.

“So,” you began.

“So,” Steve replied with a grin.

“I’m not going to lie, Steve, I feel really awkward.”

“I can tell,” he responded. “Relax. We’re just two friends, dressed up, and having a nice meal. Loosen up a little and have fun, or this isn’t going to work.”

You tried to relax, really, you did. But you couldn’t help shake the feeling that Eddie was burning holes into the back of your head with his staring.

“Welcome to Enzo's, my name is Ruben and I’ll be your server this evening. Any drinks to start?”

“Sparkling water for me, and…” Steve prompted.

“Lemonade, please.”

“Awesome, I’ll get that put in at the bar for you. Any starters today?”

“Do you-” Steve began, turning his attention back to you.

“More of a dessert person,” you answer.

“Me too,” smiled Ruben. “What mains would you like?”

“Lasagne for me, please,” answered Steve.

“Chicken Alfredo, please.”

“Awesome. I’ll get all that put in for you, enjoy your evening.”

“Thank you, ‘preciate that,” Steve told him before he left the table.

After a couple of minutes of the usual “how was work?” and “how was school?” small talk, Steve’s gaze quickly shot behind you as he sat up a little bit straighter.

“Here’s your lemonade,” Eddie announced, placing the glass down in front of you.

“Thanks, Eddie. How’s your shift?” you asked with a smile.

“So-so. Started going downhill about twenty minutes ago,” he answered.

“Nothing worse than a shitty Friday shift,” Steve chimed in.

“Evening rush,” Eddie responded, unwilling to meet Steve’s gaze. “Everything okay over here?”

“Great, thank you,” you respond.

“Harrington,” Eddie muttered, placing Steve’s water in front of him with a little bit more force than he did the lemonade, before heading back to the bar.

“He won’t even look at me, this is working even better than I thought,” Steve chuckled.

-

One hour and one chicken alfredo later, Ruben returned.

“Well you two are looking cosy over here,” he told you. Steve had been giving you cues on how to sit and when to laugh all evening. “How about that dessert? I highly recommend the ‘brownie and ice cream for two.’ Chef special tonight.”

“Sounds perfect,” answered Steve.

“Alrighty, that’ll be about ten to fifteen minutes. Any more drinks?”

“The same again, please,” you answer.

A couple of minutes later, Steve gave another instruction.

“Rest your left arm on the table.”

“What?”

“Now.”

Steve let out a sudden laugh and adjusted himself in his seat. He placed his arm on the table, his fingertips slightly brushing against your own.

A loud crashing noise from behind you had heads rolling to see what was going on. Every pair of eyes in the restaurant landed on Eddie.

“Sorry folks,” he announced. Eddie quickly began picking up the larger shards of glass whilst another bartender brought over cloths and a broom.

“Hook, line, and sinker,” Steve whispered, loud enough for only you to hear.

-

You really were getting the full Harrington charm, as promised. Steve had been feeding you brownie on and off for ten minutes, his glancing over to Eddie quickly now and again.

“It’s almost time,” Steve whispered.

“Time for what?”

“The grand finale.”

Steve leaned in slightly and wiped the side of your mouth gently with his thumb. “Ice cream,” he smirked.

“Is that really necessary?”

“One hundred percent. On my cue, you’re going to excuse yourself to go to the bathroom,” he began.

“But-”

“If this whole fake date has gone to plan, which by the way has been lovely, then I do believe Munson won’t let you make it that far. Go now.”

As instructed, you excused yourself from the table and made your way towards the bathroom. Just as you got to the door you felt a hand close softly around your wrist.

“Hey, can we talk?” Eddie asked.

“Everything okay?”

“No, actually, it’s not,” he answered. Eddie glanced around before pulling you through a door labelled ‘staff only’.

“Eddie, wha-”

“You can’t date Steve.”

“I can date whoever I like Eddie,” you respond.

“Why him?” he asked, his hand still wrapped lightly around your wrist.

“Why not?”

“Because,” he began, pausing in thought. “Because he’s… he’s got a reputation. Surely you’ve heard all the rumours?”

“And we both know him well enough to know he’s not that person anymore,” you answer, your gaze locking with Eddie’s who, surprisingly, held it.

“You just can’t, please,” he pleaded.

“Give me a good enough reason as to why I shouldn’t go back out there and I won’t.”

Eddie stayed silent for a few moments, his big, brown eyes locked on yours. The small staff room became stuffy all of a sudden, the air so thick it felt like you could barely breathe. You held your ground, waiting for him to speak, but he didn’t. You stared back at Eddie, your eyes pleading with him to just say something. Anything.

You broke your gaze from Eddie’s and turned towards the door, ready to give up and go home. Eddie’s grip on your wrist tightened and he pulled you back towards him, using his free hand to cup your face as his lips met yours.

You weren’t sure how long you’d been there, Eddie kissing you, but it felt like forever. The tension in the air vanished, leaving you with a cozy feeling deep in your stomach, where the butterflies used to live. 

“You can do better than him. You deserve better than him. You deserve someone who knows that you take extra sugar in your coffee when you’re studying. Someone who knows that you’re a completely evil genius in the best way possible when it comes to D&D. Someone who knows you’d rather be in bed with a book at-” he glanced at his watch, “nine o’clock at night. Someone who apparently isn’t very good at making the first move.”

“You’re clueless, you know that?”

“I am?”

“Yeah,” you replied, leaning in to kiss him again.

If it wasn’t for Ruben who knows how long you would have stood there, entwined together, lost in the moment.

“Hey man, you heading home?” Eddie asked casually, placing a little distance between the two of you.

“I was, but turns out I’m staying late. Guy with the hair on table twelve tipped me a hundred bucks to finish your bar shift and fetch a fresh brownie out. Said you ‘owe him one’ and you can ‘square it up later’. Brownie will be out in five. Enjoy.”

#eddie munson #eddie munson fanfic #steve harrington #steve harrington fanfic #fluff #fake date #fake dating #eddie munson x reader #eddie x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie x you #steve harrington x reader #steve x reader #steve harrington x you #stranger things #stranger things fanfic #eddies a big baby #smart steve #platonic steve harrington

[boydepartment]

Okay 🧈 anon back again with another riki request 😘

Consider this, a fair date with riki. But like your not sure if it's a date date yk? (I think I'm stuck on the friends to lovers trope atm) And you're not sure where you stand with riki. Neither of you have brought it up but friends definitely don't cuddle up on the couch like you guys do when you watch movies and friends don't spoon you the way riki likes to when he spends the night. And when you get to the fair there's a lot of people of course and riki insists on holding hands 'so you don't get separated'.

Maybe he plays a bunch of games and gives you the prizes. Or there's a ride you're scared to go on but fearless riki convinces you and holds your hand tight and sure he teases you for being scared of a kid ride but he also gives you a hug afterward and tells you you're brave. Maybe maybe you ride the ferris wheel once it gets dark and all the lights are on and it's all twinkly and pretty and riki still holds your hand despite there being absolutely no chance of you two being separated in the confined space of the gondola and he brushes back your hair and tells you you're pretty and kisses you 😖😖😖😖😖😖

Sorry that was kind of long 😅...of course you can pick and chose what you want from this. I just would like something along these lines pls 💕

I LOVED WRITING THIS! IM SORRY BUTTER THAT IT TOOK A BIT :< I GOT A LIL SICK AS YOU KNOW! I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS!!! I TRIED MY BEST! <3 ILY!

The View- Nishimura Riki x Reader

MASTERLIST warnings- none wc- 1.2k

Your relationship with Riki was very interesting. You both have known each other forever. You both have spent late nights on the couch playing video games, watching movies, and watching random YouTube videos. You would be lying to yourself if you didn’t find yourself staring at his lips a little too long. He would tease you saying something stupid like, “ohhhh you wanna kiss me so bad.” You would deny it and call him a loser. But, in reality, you wanted to kiss him. Part of you felt like you needed to for your mental health. But that was just you being overdramatic.

For your graduation Riki wanted to take you to a fair, it was a big accomplishment and he said he wanted to show you how proud he was of you. The night before you offered to have him sleep over, which he very much agreed to. You both ended up cuddling for the millionth time that night. What was different is that you noticed Riki would trace little shapes on your hands as his breath slowed and he relaxed. You leaned into him, and you heard a small chuckle escape his lips. It made your stomach churn like a ton of wild rats trying to escape you. You knew you were head over heels in love with him. You were in love with Nishimura Riki- your best friend, someone your parents trusted enough to let him sleep over, someone who you trust with everything, someone who you didn’t want to lose.

The next day when you guys got to the fair, Riki noticed there was a ton of people.

“Busy day today huh?” You laughed nervously; you weren’t big on crowds. Riki looked down at you.

“Everyone graduates around the same time, so it makes sense.” He said and smiled down at you, he patted your head. When you guys got into the fair, he started to REALLY notice that it was crowded. If you got lost, you could probably easily find him, but there is no way he could find you.

“Here.” Riki said and grabbed your hand, your heart skipped a beat, and you looked up at him.

“So, you don’t get lost.” Riki said and smirked down at you, you found yourself rolling your eyes, you were not going to complain though.

“What do you wanna do first?” You asked looking up at him, he looked down at you.

“Y/n this is YOUR day!” He grinned at you, “you choose.”

You looked around and led him to the prizes, “can you win me something?”

Riki looked at you and contemplated, “I dunno can I? Hmmmm lemme see!” He put money in the machine in exchange for coins. Then he found the basketball game. He was a little nervous because if he lost then he would lose the chance to impress you. Fair games were also KNOWN to be rigged, so this was WAY more nerve-racking, than he was letting on.

“I believe in you Riki!” You said, your heart was full as you cheered him on. You meant to help, but this just made him more nervous.

He shot a couple of baskets and missed. He had one more chance to win you something, he glanced down at you and saw your eyes practically sparkling at him- for him. He took a deep breath. You were watching him, he looked so focused, you thought it was adorable how hard Riki was trying to win you something.

Riki took his last shot and actually got it in, you cheered and jumped on his arm, “you did it Riki!”

He ended up winning you the small prize, but it didn’t matter to you, what made you happy is that Riki got you something. It didn’t matter how big or expensive said gift was.

“The stuffed animal kinda looks like you.” Riki teased you, he kept his hand on your small backpack, you felt the weight of it, and it made your heart happy.

“Riki this is literally a snail.” You looked up at him, laughing.

“And?” He teased again and nudged you. You rolled your eyes and put the stuffed animal in his face.

“You’re the worst.”

As you guys walked around more, you both got some crazy fair foods, like the deep-fried Oreos and different odd drinks. You laughed when Riki accidentally spilled on himself, little did you know, he spilled because he kept looking at how your eyes lit up when you saw the different attractions in the distance. After your drinks you guys continued on your walk.

“Holy shit I haven’t been on the swings in years.” Riki looked up at the attraction. Your stomach twisted, this time in a bad way. It may be a kids ride however; you didn’t like being high up at all. You actually despised it. He turned to you, “can we go on it? Please?”

You swallowed hard, not wanting to be a buzzkill you nodded. You were nervous in line, fidgeting and looking around.

“Y/n?” Riki said, you looked up at him and hummed.

“Are you scared?” He asked, you shook your head no. Riki gave you a look.

“You haven’t let go of my hand since we got in line, and I don’t think you can get lost in line.” He said smugly and lifted your intertwined hands.

“I’m… I’m just not good with heights.” You looked away nervously.

“You’ll be fiiiine, I promise.” Riki said, you nodded and looked down, “here.” He lifted your hands again and kissed the back of your hands, “I wouldn’t go on a ride with you that would put you in danger.”

THAT DID NOT HELP YOUR NERVES AT ALL.

Needless to say, the ride was fun, and you felt embarrassed for being so scared to go on it. You laughed as your hair would get in your face and Riki would be making jokes left and right. When you got off Riki was right next to you.

“Yooou are so braaaave!” Riki said and hugged you from behind, he lifted you up slightly and shook you. You yelped and started giggling.

“Riki stoppp!” You laughed.

You guys’ continued walking, Riki letting you lead so you could pick the next ride. He kept your hand in his. In his other hand he was changing his wallpaper to you on the swings. He thought you looked really pretty even with your hair in your face. Riki could still see his favorite smile in the picture and that is what's important to him.

Getting brave, and the fact you have never been on a ferris wheel, you got in line to try it.

When Riki saw where you had led him, he smiled, “not scared anymore?”

“Shut up.” You nudged him. He chuckled and threw his head back.

When you guys got in the ferris wheel it was dark, it would make the high up view a little less scary for you. You were thankful for that.

Riki kept his hand on yours and you looked at them.

“Oh, are you scared now?” You teased him, Riki looked down at your hands.

“Nah, I just don’t want to let go of you.” He spoke, your jaw dropped, and you looked away from him quickly. Teasing him BACKFIRED. You tried to calm your heart rate down looking out at the city lights. It truly was a beautiful view, you still felt his hand in yours. Your hands were probably sweaty too….

Riki also looked away and he started beating himself up for saying something as stupid as that. You probably thought he was weird now! And his hands are SO SWEATY RIGHT NOW!

He took a deep breath and looked at you, your eyes focused on the lights around you. The city was always beautiful to you, he knew you loved the view. He loved his view too.

Feeling his eyes on you, you turned to look at him.

“Do I have a bug in my hair?” You asked, he shook his head no.

“You’re just so pretty.”

Your jaw opened slightly again, being surprised at how bold he is being with you at the moment. He put his free hand on your cheek.

“Tell me right now if you don’t want me to kiss you.”

Your breath hitched, “you can kiss me.”

Riki grinned, “do you want me to though?”

You nodded, “yeah I do…”

Riki bit back his smile as he leaned in and finally kissed you.

#enha #enhypen #enha x reader #enhypen x reader #enha imagines #enhypen imagines #enha fluff #enhypen fluff #enha x reader fluff #enhypen x reader fluff #nishimura riki #nishimura riki imagines #enhypen nishimura riki #riki enhypen #enha riki #riki nishimura #enhypen riki #niki #niki nishimura #nishimura niki #enha niki #enhypen nishimura riki x reader

[elionwriter]

Sherlock Holmes the Awakened: a Review

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

Sorry, sorry, sorry, but I just NEED to talk about this game! I have been a Frogwares Holmes fan since the very beginning and 'The Awakened' was always among my favourite titles. Not to mention one of the games that had scared the wits out of me. So I have to speak about the Remake now.

First and foremost, I think it needs to be reiterated that this game was made DURING THE FU****G INVASION OF UKRAINE! During such dark times, the team kept working on this. I would have supported this game even just for this reason alone.

Now, let's be honest: Frogwares never had the most marvelous graphics nor the most polished of gameplays and this entry is not an exception. I still feel the map system is a bit difficult to navigate (I may be an idiot, but I had the same issue with Chapter 1) but I really appreciated the added help the game gives you when you're recreating a scene, letting you know which passage you got wrong. Last game I found myself changing everything trying to hit the right combination so I really liked this fix.

This needs to be said: the game doesn't feel under any shape or form a product for a new fan. Everything from dialogues to game mechanics sort of take for granted that you've at least played 'chapter one'. Honestly? I'm ok with this, I hate having to always go through nearly identical tutorial stages for games I know inside out (like Pokémon) and I believe that most of not all people who are going to get this game ARE old fans!

I wasn't originally a big fan of the new Holmes and Watson models when the last game came out but....I dunno, they have grown on me. I find myself liking them now for, I suppose, no other reason than 'they are very expressive' and 'I've gotten used to them'. I think it's gotten to the point that these might be my favourite models of the two to date. Please ignore how fickle I am! (In honesty, just to draw a similar parallel, when Roger Craig Smith was first announced as Sonic's voice I hated it and now he's my fav Sonic v. actor)

This game has something.....compared to its predecessor, that makes it less scary. I can't really put my finger on it, but I distinctly remember the feeling of claustrophobia building in me when I was in the Black Edelweiss. Or the sheer jumpscare I got when the sacrificed American detective on the altar had tentacles coming out of it and severing his head making it roll to the ground. I remember almost not wanting to paddle the rowboat under the tree of hanging men in the Bayou. I remember how viscerally sick I felt at the lighthouse by all the gore and blood depicted. This time round.....I just didn't. I'm honestly not sure why this didn't hit me nearly as hard as its 2006 predecessor did!

And talking about comparisons, one thing I'm a bit disappointed they didn't grab the chance to do in this remake was fix the loose ends that were left hanging in the 2006 version. I mean....they still abandoned completely the search for that one Maori servant, what happened to all the people they managed to rescue? Who hired the private American detective that was killed? Why give out the cheap pendants? I know I'm a bit dumb and need extra explaining than what is necessarily needed but...I can't be the only one right? Sometimes you want to be told just a bit more.

Now, getting into the really good bits, that make all of it worth it!

'Chapter One' acted as a 'de facto' reboot of the Frogwares Holmes series, and I honestly think that was for the best. I don't really see where they could have gone with things after 'Devil's Daughter' and their Holmes had changed too much to be the same guy from 'The Silver Earring'...let alone Watson. But like this? They have a fresh, clean slate to start off from and they can rebuild the two mains' relashionship and lore from the ground up in a more strictly consequential manner. And the way they are doing it? I think it's state of the art!

The fact that they poke fun at themselves on certain points like Watson stating: "What about when you used to roll up only one of your sleeves? Did you get bored halfway through?!" I think the Devs themselves realized this was a cringe design choice and I like that they said so out loud.

The meta-conversation they wrote in towards the end, 'because yes, this HAS Happened before and the story still has the same outcome', is brilliant. I don't think I've ever seen another remake that acknowledges that it is a remake, and in the general madness that is mounting in the narrative this makes perfect sense! It adds one more layer of horror and inexplicable to the tale. The villain's warning 'that the Final Problem is coming and Sherlock will fall in the abyss too' is such a powerful way to use Canon. The prophecy is only made more real and dreadful by the fact that this person is aware of what has already happen in a similar but different scenario!

Also, not them using that one quote from 'The Valley of Fear' novel which happens to be one of my all time favourites!

I say, Watson,’ he whispered, ‘would you be afraid to sleep in the same room as a lunatic, a man with softening of the brain, an idiot whose mind has lost its grip?’ ‘Not in the least,’ I answered in astonishment. 'Ah, that’s lucky,’ he said, and not another word would he utter.

I think the thing that has most benefited from the Remake is Watson's character. Compared to the 2006 version, this Watson is a truly compelling character in his own right and this time round he's not just along for the ride. In this version, you simply cannot imagine how Holmes would have done it on his own. Watson was in every way a key component to the solution of the problem and the reason why Holmes didn't drown in madness. That point is driven home by Rochester asking 'How did you defeat me?' and Holmes answering 'I made a friend!'

Much of the narrative in the game was focused on Holmes truly learning to accept Watson's friendship and him as a person when he was still clinging so much to his old imaginary friend. You can see how, at first, Holmes refuses to be honest with the Doctor about what he thinks and feels and it's only as they move forward in the adventure that they both open up to each other. You can see as the adventure progresses that Holmes shifts his desperate cries from 'Jon' to 'Watson' to 'John' and the Doctor goes more and more often from 'Holmes' to 'Sherlock'. Mycroft also points this out when he says that Sherlock 'went from one Jon to another'. But this one, John Watson, is real and there to stay. In the context of a story that happens mostly in the detective's mind, Watson's friendship is really what turns the situation around!

I could add of little tid bits which were so random and on the nose that somehow worked, like the possessed 'Heidi' doll or the fact that you had to actually 'Kill Holmes' with the booby traps instead of avoiding them.

Also, "The director Guygax was randomly killed.....by a doll?!????!?!?! Yeah, let's just walk out of here no questions asked. That's too deep a wormhole even for this f***d up Adventure to go down. I'm sure nobody is gonna ask us questions, suspect or stop us as we go out the main doors!" 😃 -Holmes, probably.

So, yeah, I loved this game despite it not being perfect and my love and support goes to Frogwares more that ever!

#sherlock Holmes the awakened #sherlock holmes chapter one #sherlock holmes #john watson #frogwares holmes #sherlock holmes devil's daughter #holmes x watson #sherlock x john #sherlock and jon #jon #mycroft holmes #chtulhu #eldrich horror #lovecrafian

[panandinpain0]

Hellooooooo could I request a stranger things where it’s Robin x Male Reader, but platonically, where they bond over ice cream, being gay (or whatever for the reader), and the trauma of existing in the hell that is Hawkins?? I just stan robin

"Let Me Finish My Cone!"

This request slays and I'm excited to write it! Honestly I wish I got more platonic requests- I don't mind the romantic ones (I really like writing them) but some balance would be nice, yk?

Also- I keep misspelling Robin as Robing for some reason- so sorry if I accidentally missed a typo and that's in there 😭

We all stan Robin (Maya Hawke <333)

Headcanon of mine: Robin bites her ice cream. At first she did it to freak Steve out but now she can't eat ice cream any other way.

@@@

Requested by: Anon

Robin Buckley with Male!Reader

---

Sitting on a bench at the mall, two teenagers held melting ice cream cones in their hands. Robin sat criss-cross with her legs under her, and (Y/N) with his ankle resting on his other knee.

Robin was on break from work, still in her uniform minus the hat, which she'd forced (Y/N) to wear. It sat crooked on his head, almost falling off.

"There's no one to date here," (Y/N) sighed out as a hot guy walked past them. He licked his ice cream with a grumpy look on his face.

"If anyone knows how it is, I do," Robin snorted, biting her ice cream.

"Like- none of the guys look at me, and if they do it's only in a friend way. I don't know any other gay guys in Hawkins!" (Y/N) whisper-shouted to his best friend.

She side-eyed him, "What about Steve? He's bi, you know."

"Someone who's out, I mean. Not that I have anything against Steve or the fact that he isn't publicly out- it's just that I wanna be able to be seen with my boyfriend! And romantically, too. I don't want my relationship to be a secret."

"In this town it kind of has to be," Robin sighed out this time, thinking of her own experiences with it. "And if you don't treat it like a secret, other people will."

"This town is so fucked up. I would be in a rush to get out of here except for the fact that everywhere else would be just as bad."

"What about Los Angeles?" Robin looked over to her friend, taking another bite of her ice cream, almost down to the cone part.

"LA? I dunno, man... maybe. Wanna come with me and find out?" He smirked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Once I get enough money to leave this place, hell yeah!"

"You and me both." (Y/N) still wore his uniform from the arcade upstairs in the mall. He was sick of the snotty kids there and seconds away from quitting his job.

"How is Steve doing with that, by the way?"

"Ahh, fine. He's been getting more confident- saw him flirting with some guy at the counter earlier."

"Yeah? And how'd that go?"

"Horribly, but at least he's getting out there!" Robin tried to be positive as (Y/N) laughed.

"I remember when I started flirting with guys. But then again I never was very good at flirting."

"No you are not- I remember when you tried to flirt with me," Robin remembered, smiling with amusement. (Y/N)'s face turned red from embarrassment as he, too, remembered.

"Must we bring it up?" He hid his face in his free hand.

"You were trying so hard to be straight!"

"And failing horribly," (Y/N) finished for her, the two sharing a laugh. "Oh- there's the man of the hour!"

Steve was waving at Robin to come back. Seems her break was over.

"Robin!" He shouted, his face going red as (Y/N) winked at him.

"Let me finish my cone, asshole!" Robin shouted back. Steve flipped her the bird and she stuck her tongue out at him, making him roll his eyes. Both ignored the looks they got from the interaction.

"You sure you don't like him?" Robin teased as she leaned back again.

"I'm not sure about anything. I just don't think he's willing to commit, you know?" (Y/N) speculated, lazily licking his cone.

"Well, you can't be sure until you try!" Robin popped the end of the cone into her mouth and swiped her hat from (Y/N)'s head, patting it as she walked away.

(Y/N) groaned as his watch went off, signaling the end of his own break.

---

Short but sweet- I love Robin (and Steve).

-Author Max <3

#fanfiction #x reader #x he/him reader #x male!reader #stranger things #stranger things x reader #robin buckley platonic #robin x reader platonic #platonic #PLATONIC #robin x male!reader platonic #stranger things x male reader #stranger things x male!reader

[ethereal-bumble-bee]

John My Beloved Songfic- Sprace

(Trigger warning for death, illness, and grief. Enjoy some Sprace angst!)

    Race could only watch from his perch on the rooftop as the love of his life dissolved into tears just a few feet before him, and it was then more than ever that he wished he could reach out and say something, anything, to let him know that he was still there, that he didn’t move on and wouldn’t until he knew that it was going to be alright when he left.

    God, Spot, I’m so sorry.

Are we to speak, first day of the week Stumbling words at the bar

    Tears of his own springing to his eyes, Race tried in vain to set a hand on his shaking shoulders, words slipping out of his mouth in a useless attempt to break the deafening silence.

    “Sorry I left you,” he said. “I never wanted to get sick, and I sure as hell didn’t want to die without sayin’ goodbye first, but the world was dead set on takin’ me early, I guess.”

Beauty blue eyes, my order of fries Long Island kindness and wine

    “It hurts like hell to die, y’know. There was all this noise and all these voices, all these people yelling and begging at once, then a flash of light and blinding pain and… nothing.” He took a deep breath. “It was like I’d been thrown off of a cliff and I’d just hit the water, so sudden and so damn painful that if I could, I woulda cried my little heart out. If I could speak to anyone right now, I’d beg for a way back onto that cliff, even if it means I’m teetering over the edge for the rest of my life.” Glancing away, Race added, “It sucks.”

    Spot didn’t answer- of course he didn’t. He was crying still, but the tears had calmed, and it was now Race’s turn to choke up as he continued.   

Beloved of John, I get it all wrong I read you for some kind of poem

   “I have always wondered what my last words were. I don’t remember them- I don’t think I’d even remember my name if not for the way your face crumples when they repeat it. All I really know is that they weren’t enough, that I’ll never get to say to you what I really want to say.“ His voice dropped to a whisper. “God, I’ll miss you.”

Covered in lines, the fossils I find Have they no life of their own?

    “I’ll miss all of them. Jack, Crutchie, Albert- every single person who I won’t see again until they come to join me. I’ll miss you the most, though, I think. You were the only reason I kept goin’ most days.” Race smiled, which seemed so out of place there that he couldn’t keep it on his face, and his expression crumpled.

    “M’sorry, Spottie.” Spot hadn’t moved this entire time, hadn’t said a word, and Race began to fear that he might have lost all resolve to get up. “I know how awful this must be, but I guess it’s different when you’re the one dyin’.” 

So can we pretend sweetly Before the mystery ends? I am a man with a heart that offends With its lonely and greedy demands

    His heart aching now, Race continued to speak, the smallest, most naive part of him hoping that somehow Spot would hear him. “I’m gettin’ weaker lately, like it’s harder to stay where all the livin’ people are the longer I’m dead.” He looked up at the sky. “I’ll be gone soon, wherever souls go when they die.”

    Silence. Spot didn’t move to lift his head or do anything but shudder, a small, helpless sob of grief escaping him. “Why did you have to leave?” He whispered, almost inaudibly, a small child’s cry. “What did you ever do?”

There's only a shadow of me, in a matter of speaking, I'm dead.

     “I dunno,” Race mumbled back, more of an answer to himself than anything else. “Maybe my time was up. Maybe, with the strike, I did all that the universe needed me for, and now it’s time to make room for the next kiddo that’ll change the world.” Pausing, he reached up to swipe some of his own hair out of his face, sighing. “Who knows, maybe I’m comin’ back some time soon.”

Such a waste, your beautiful face Stumbling carpet arise

    “I just don’t understand.” Spot shifted his weight, and Race jumped, startled, as he looked him directly in the eyes. “If it was time for you to go, why are you here?”

    “I…” Race’s voice faltered, and he looked down at his shoes. “I don’t know that either. Did- did you hear everything that I said?”

    “I did.” Spot let out a breath, a sad smile coming to his face. “I’m gonna miss you, too.”

Go follow your gem, your white-feathered friend Icarus, point to the sun If history speaks of two baby teeth I'm painting the hills blue and red They said beware, Lord hear my prayer I've wasted my throes on your head

    His mind was full of questions and thoughts, but Spot couldn’t muster another sentence. He simply stared at the boy before him, wondering if he was dreaming or perhaps even hallucinating, praying that this was real and he really had a chance to say goodbye. “I wasn’t there to see you,” he whispered, “when you was sick. I was too scared that you were dying.”

So can we be friends, sweetly Before the mystery ends?

    Race nodded softly, his eyes swimming in sadness yet his lips turned up into a smile. “Well, you’s seein’ me now, aren’t ya?” When Spot didn’t answer, he glanced away again, wishing there was something he could do. 

I love you more than the world can contain

    “I know why you’re here.” Spot’s voice cracked slightly, but he wasn’t whispering anymore- the streets had gone quiet, leaving only his voice to fill the empty. “You’re saying goodbye.”

In its lonely and ramshackle head There's only a shadow of me, in a matter of speaking I'm dead

    “Yeah.” Another grin, this one slightly more pained than the last. “I’m sorry, Spot, but it’s getting too hard to stay here.” He glanced out at the night sky before them. “There’s somethin’ out there, and it’s callin’ my name.” He turned back to Spot, placing a single, nearly translucent hand over Spot’s. “I’m sure you understand.”

I'm holding my breath My tongue on your chest What can be said of my heart?

    “I do.” Spot inhaled, the cold air of the night stinging in his lungs, his face dry from tears but the ache in his heart refusing to subside. “Just… be careful, okay?” 

If history speaks, the kiss on my cheek Where there remains but a mark

    “I will.” Silence filled the air for one more second, and then Race stepped away with one final smile. “Hey, you be careful too, okay? I don’t wanna deal with ya again any earlier than I have to.”

Beloved my John, so I'll carry on Counting my cards down to one

    “Yeah, sure, idiot,” Spot retorted, his tone of voice the same as when they used to bicker endlessly, before they fell in love, when Race was still alive. 

And when I am dead, come visit my bed My fossil is bright in the sun

    “I need to go.” Race’s eyes flickered, for just one moment, somewhere in the distance, and then he focused back on Spot. “I love you. Don’t forget that.” His voice choked. “I love you, Spot.”

    And then he was gone.

So can we contend, peacefully Before my history ends?

    Spot sat alone, his eyes closed, placing a hand on his heart as the emptiness surrounded him once more. “Bye, Racer,” he muttered into the dark, hearing his voice echo as if his words had never been heard by another soul. “I love you too.”

Jesus, I need you, be near me, come shield me From fossils that fall on my head There's only a shadow of me, in a matter of speaking I'm dead.

#sprace #newsies #spot conlon #racetrack higgins #newsies musical #writing #fanfiction #basically Race got sick and died and visits Spot one last time before he moves on #Grief #illness #I also wrote a prologue to this

[quackle]

If there’s a third season in the future, what do you hope to see?

Mine are:

1. More Mkulia. And they somehow find a way to gain control of their team.

2. Raj and Wayne got separated into two teams, I want to see how they deal with their own team and their thoughts of compete against each other.

3. Add two more characters and make it 3 teams with 6 person.

4. An unexpected villain arc for a originally good character and let them win. (I kinda want to see Damien got one after he knows Total Drama well enough.)

gonna ramble about my s3 wishes under cut. i'll probably come up with more as the days go by:

i just think we deserve a girl vs girl finale. too many missed opportunities for one. i need to see girl success.

i love julia, but let's give the main antagonist role to someone like, oh i dunno, the contestant who has sworn vengeance on this cast during both of her eliminations maybe? (i'm looking at you scary girl. keep your word! make it to the dang merge and make their lives hell! i've written an analysis for you and everything!)

i don't even care if nichelle wins anymore (and that's saying a lot coming from me), but can we PLEASE just PLEASE get her to the merge at least? i am so sick of people calling her niche-L like STOP 😭 can we TRY with her character instead of making it into a gag? just a little attempt?? for me??? (as you can see, i am staring hard at the only two contestants from this gen who didn't make the merge in both seasons)

give us a challenge at night. give us a swimming challenge. give us alt outfits. give us new settings. give us some creativity and fun. we deserve it. the island is cool but imagine if we were quite literally anywhere else. your ratings will peak.

i would also like to see the hockey bros on separate teams, especially after wayne has seemingly gotten over his fear of being on a different (hockey) team than raj. it would be interesting for their characters imo!

no central romance plot i BEG. put that big binder AWAY. not saying we can't have a romance plot (i think they can be cute and nice!), but let's just make sure it isn't the central plot or i'll lose my mind <3

make mkulia canon you cowards. i know i just said no central romance plot but like. we can still make this a subplot if we try hard enough.

i need more drama in total drama. like. let's make the drama STICK instead of having it rushed and solved in the span of an episode. long lasting tension leaves the audience gagged and wanting more. if we gotta make longer seasons then so be it! (oh how i miss the longer seasons...)

if y'all don't make emma and bowie talk next season like........... do not separate the besties like this! bring them back!

and speaking of my fav white girly—we need her to get some plot. i do not ever want to see her eliminated the way she was ever again. that was heartbreaking!

if we can't make a world tour/musical season happen again, first of all, BOOOOO THAT SUCKS, and second of all, can we at least squeeze in a musical episode? i gotta hear them sing, i'm sorry... my musical phase is never-ending i fear

you know that one intern? the one with the really good design? it would be soooooo cool if they made her a contestant to fill in a contestant quota or something. it would be sooooo cool 😇 don't you guys think it would be sooooo cool?

#screw it we main tag #total drama #td spoilers #total drama spoilers #ask quackle #hhytheking #i wouldn't be me if i didn't ramble 💪🏾

[knockout-stan]

TFP Dreadwing x sick!gn!reader

tw: vomiting and nausea. And very sappy dialogue.

word count: 1,365

Your head pounded, causing dizziness to swirl your body to the side. You gripped the wall near you and breathed slowly, recalibrating yourself to keep walking. Dehydration, you thought. After all, keeping a steady flow of fluids on the Nemesis was a bit of a challenge, even with the water system Soundwave had been nice enough to install for you. You walked to Dreadwing's habsuite where your stuff was in. Some water was definitely needed. Maybe a vitamin gummy too.

Then the nausea hit you like a freight train. Definitely a vitamin gummy now. The habsuite was empty when you arrived. You used this opportunity to drink water, eat that gummy, and even take a shower. Your room was a quick staircase up, with a balcony and your door in the wall. You were drying your hair on said balcony when Dreadwing had walked in.

"I thought I would find you here." Dreadwing spoke once his eyes found you. "I was... saddened to not see your face to greet me when I came back." He continued, his voice was soft and tender as he usually was when he was with you.

"Oh I'm sorry, I wasn't feeling well so I came back to get some water. And wash up since I think I might be getting sick." You explained to him.

"With what illness? Is it a fatal disease?" Dreadwing asked slowly as to not alarm you but there was still an urgency to his voice. Humans were either fragile, or very resilient, this much he knew. He hoped you were the latter.

"I dunno. I know last time I was at the store some people were talking about how there's a stomach bug going around." You answered, wringing out the last drips out water out of your hair.

"A parasite then?" He was much closer to you now. Even though your balcony was elevated, Dreadwing still had to bend down a bit to meet your gaze.

"It's a virus, actually. Stomach bug is what people call the stomach flu." You began to stand up. "I just need to rest, stay hydrated and be careful of what I-" Dizziness fell over you like a wave, sending you falling backwards. Dreadwing was quick to react, catching you with a single digit. "Careful of what I eat. Ugh," You held your head as it pounded with the aftershock of dizziness. Your body was a blender of sickness, mixing and swirling as nausea set in. You leaned your full body weight on Dreadwing's hand, unable to trust your own feet to keep you upright.

"_____? Is it the stomach bug?" Dreadwing questioned. "Do you need anything from me?"

"I'll be good in a sec I just-" Your stomach sent red alarms throughout your body. You were gonna hurl, and it was coming no matter what. You dashed away from Dreadwing's hand in an instant, grabbing the small trash bin near your door and emptied out your stomach in a gross concotion of your last meal while on your knees. You had half a mind to face away from Dreadwing to hide some of your shame.

You groaned deeply afterwards, pushing the nasty trash bin away from you and into your room.

"Are you alright?" You heard Dreadwing behind you, concern obvious in his voice. You sniffled and shuddered, feeling pathetic and weak like... like a human.

"No... Not at all." You uttered out.

"I shall get..." He almost mentioned Knockout, but Knockout wasn't a medic for humans. Nor did he show any interest in learning 'fleshy medicine' as he would state it. He was unsure who to call for to help you. His hesitation must've been apparent by the way you interrupted his pause.

"Love," A petname you use for him on occasion, usually to soothe or reassure him. Everytime you use it though, he hums in embarassment, "It's a stomach bug, so I'll be able to get better on my own. I'll just need help retrieving the things I need to get better. Stuff like medicine, and water. Some crackers too. I'll be stuck in bed for the next few days though." Your voice was hoarse, and your throat was beginning to get sore. Explaining what you needed to was more important, is what you told yourself. But you also knew that you didn't want to look like a fragile helpless human, the way every cybertronian saw you. Toughing this illness out was a way to prove that.

"Do not strain yourself further. You will rest and I shall collect what you need." He was a commander, but gentle in the way he spoke to you.

"Okay..." You whimpered out. Dreadwing offered one of his digits to help you up, which you took. You grabbed a bucket, a water bottle, and headed to your bed.

-

In a few short hours Dreadwing had somehow retrieved all the necessary items you listed out before. Normally, you would've asked about it but that could wait. For now, you were focused on keeping the medicine down.

"Is there anything else you may need?" Dreadwing asked outside your door with a knock.

You shuffled your way to the door with a blanket wrapped around you to answer, and apologize too maybe.

"I think I have everything." Your voice was thick with illness. "Um... Sorry for puking in front of you. That must've been really gross to see. I'm... a little embarassed you have to see me like this actually."

Dreadwing seemed perplexed by your apology. "You are so considerate of my feelings that you're...apologizing for getting ill?" He scoffed endearingly, a rarity to witness.

"Sweetspark, at your lowest I want to be there for you. At your highest I want to cherish you. I want to be beside you, loving you...for as long as I can. I want to witness all of you. Including the parts of you that you deem 'gross'." Dreadwing had graced a digit on your head, a small slow motion. He may not have said it out loud, but he was worried that your final moments alive were upon him. That his time with you had ran out so quickly. He was well aware of this dramatization in his thoughts, but nonetheless it was a small reminder that you must be treasured in every single moment he has with you.

So many of your defenses shouted in your head. What if this, what if that. You realized that all your defense mechanisms to keep yourself safe from pain, were keeping you from loving and feeling loved so closely. You decided that enough was enough. You were going to break through these defense mechanisms and let yourself be vulnerable, and be okay with whatever may come with it.

Dreadwing's digit was still on your head, so you reached up, letting your blanket fall, and hugged his hand as tight as you could. Your eyes screwed shut as you tightened your grip, but you could feel Dreadwing's hand escape you and you heard the sound of metal shifting and transforming. You opened your eyes to see Dreadwing's arms wrap around you. Mass shifting inside the Nemesis was rare for him, but for you he'd do just about anything.

Being held so closely almost made you forget you were even sick. Maybe the power of love was healing you. You scoffed at the thought.

"What's so funny?" He asked.

"The power of love, that's what." You chuckled.

"...No matter how much I believe I'm close to knowing everything about you, you always find a way to surprise me."

"Let me rephrase. I'm so glad I have you. I appreciate you taking care of me." You smiled up at Dreadwing. His eyes reflected your loving gaze.

"There is nothing I would not do for you." His voice was barely above a whisper, even in the close proximity. One of his digits held your chin up as his face got closer, merely centimeters apart before you realized something.

"Wait I'm still sick!" You exclaimed.

"With a human illness, sweetspark." He gently corrected.

"Oh, right right." You stood on your tippy toes to capture the kiss from Dreadwing to which he happily obliged.

#transformers prime #tranformers prime x reader #transformers x reader #Dreadwing x reader #tfp #tfp dreadwing #my writing

[lemmilemura]

You want some academic rivals to lovers? With a lil bit of spice at the end? You want that? I KNOW YOU DO SO HERE YOU GOOOOOOO For the fic, reader's last name is used, and instead of just putting (Y/L/N), I'm gonna use my O.C.s name, which is Evans. If you really don't like that I will go in and change it just lemme know <3

All kept gender-neutral Based on the show

"I'm really dreading the new seating charts, I know I'll be next to someone I can't stand in atleast one, I guarantee it." Bronwyn complained next to me. "Saaaaame. I can already see it..." Said Maeve. I just kept quiet. All of the teachers spontaneously got together and decided to change every single seating chart for every class. Nobody was happy with it, especially those who understood how the teachers liked to arrange things. Luckily they weren't the type of people to put asshole class clowns next to the quiet ones, that would have made this all even worse.

The thing is, they put those with similar levels of success and intelligence together, and in my class there was only one other person who matched me; we were the top two of our class, always really closely matched, and I hated it. "I feel really bad for you, (Y/N). I mean, you'll probably be put next to Si-" "Don't. Even. Think about it." I cut her off. "Even just the thought makes me wanna jump out of the window." Everyone in Bayview knew that putting Simon Kelleher and me in the same class was one of, if not the biggest mistakes the school system could have made.

"Sorry, forgot you two had beef that's been going on for centuries." She joked, but in part it was true. Ever since elementary we've been trying to out-do eachother 24/7, eventhough our families were actually friends. You can imagine how basically every thanksgiving and family-holiday ended up. In High School atleast we didn't have every class together, but the ones where teachers did the 'quality match-ups' we did of course. "You didn't forget, Maeve. Stop making it worse." Bronwyn lightly pushed her sister's shoulder. "It's... fine." I said, shrugging, trying to get to other thoughts.

The ring of the first bell of the day smashed me back down to reality though. I had 3 classes without him, then 3 with. (I dunno american school hours just go with it k fanks xD), I just had to survive 3 hours until lunch, then 3 more and I'd be free. "Praying to whatever god will listen that I'm spared." I did prayer hands and looked over at Bronwyn and Maeve. "Good luck." They said, and left. I checked my schedule on the way to my first calss, and, of course, there was a change. One of our teachers suddenly got sick, and since the first class was 2 hours of their class, they got changed. The last two basically got pushed to the front. 2 hours, 1 hour of freedom, and then 1 again.

"Well looky here. How fun. We get to go home early." I almost broke my phone in half with how tightly I was gripping it. I don't have time for this right now. I just ignored him and walked past, in the direction of our first class. "Not even a hello? You really are an asshole, huh Evans?" "Says you, Kelleher." I still refused to look at him. "Oh, so you haven't gone mute! Fantastic." He always seemed endlessly entertained by those one-sided conversations, I mean he had no friends so of course he appreciated any form of human contact.

"Who do you think they put us with?" He kept talking, and I kept walking. "Wouldn't it be fun if they at us next to eachother? I think it'd be hilarious." He greatly exatterated a smile. "Fuck off, Kelleher." I eventually managed to tune him out for the rest of the way to class. I was endlessly relieved when the door came into view. I just let it fall closed behind me, not giving a single fuck about if it may crush Simon. Kind of wanted it to. The teacher wasn't there yet, well their stuff was, they probably went to go get something.

On the whiteboard was written "Find the seat with your name on it" Simple enough. Some people were already at their seats, so I just maneuvred around those to look for mine. Mine was at the far side, at the window. Everyone knows the window seats are the best place to sit. Main character moment. I quickly set my stuff down and got to getting settled in. "I must be psychic, huh?" All my movement freezes. No. No. I beg you, whatever god is listening, NO. It takes a lot of courage to turn around and face him.

"Hello, neighbour" He said, with that shit-eating grin on his face. What being did I upset to deserve being stuck next to Simon Kelleher for almost 6 hours a week for the forseeable future? Which one? I'll apologize, AFTER BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF YOU. Luckily before anything could happen, the teacher got in, accompanied by one of the school staff who like take care of the building or something, not really sure. They were each carrying a giant box that seemed pretty heavy.

"Alright class, seems everyone found their seats, perfect. Now, in these boxes is a very important item for this class. To help teach you all about life and all that, we have decided to, for part of your final grade this year, set up a group project." The teacher explained, and immediately people started looking around the room and partner up with people, from anywhere in the room. "Now before you get too ahead of yourselves, the groups have already been decided." Fuck fuck fuck. I know where this is gonna go. Please no. I closed my eyes and put my hands infront of my face.

"The groups are groups of two." My life flashed before my eyes. "Your partner is the person you’re seated with. Simple as that. And no, there will be no changes to the groups." I’m ready to jump out the window, salute the teacher and just die. "Well, whatever this’ll be, I have to admit we’re probably gonna do good since, and this is in no way a compliment, we are the two smartest people in this room right now. Teacher included." I hated the fact that I agreed with Simon. The two of us often got complimented on our intelligence, and teachers have, in the past, suggested we partner on group projects. The "NO"s they received were faster than lightning.

"I wasn’t taking it as a compliment, so don’t worry. The day you compliment me is the day you have been replaced by an alien. Can’t wait." I force a very condesending smile. "Aww, so you want me to compliment you? You could’a just said so sooner." He smirked at me. This bitch- "The project is..." the teacher began handing out the thing in the box. "Taking care of a fake baby together!"

.-.

-_-

>:(

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ANYTHING BUT THIS I COULD HAVE DONE PERFECTLY FINE BUT A BABY? A FAKE BABY? WITH SIMON KELLEHER? WHY??

The teacher came round to us, set the baby on our table, and continued on. "That has got to be the ugliest baby I have ever seen. Definitely got that from you." He pushed it towards me. "Why would it look like you, you’re not even the father." I responded. He was right though, the baby was in this weird uncanny-valley, right between cartoonish and waaaaay too realistic. "I know. There’s no way I would ever get it on with you." "Feeling’s mutual."

The school helper person then came around and set a bottle, some clothes and a small selection of toys onto the tables. "You will have to feed, put to sleep and basically take care of this baby for a month. At the end of that one month period, a qr-code on the back of the baby’s head will be scanned, revealing if you properly took care of your baby. So no just leaving it in a corner for a month, that will be an automatic fail. You will also need to write a short paper about what you kearned during that time, as a collaborative effort."

I turned it around and there was indeed a qr-code. "Hitman baby" I whispered to myself. "Hitman is a barcode. Wait, you know Hitman?" He asked, seemingly very surprised. "Yes, I know Hitman. Watched a man kill a bunch of people with only cupcakes, with only a fish I think, stuff em all in a freezer, all that stuff." (RTGame supremacy)

The other students around us were already playing around with their babies, giving them names, throwing them into the air and whatnot. "Now if you may, can of person of each group please scan the qr-code and enter the people in the group and the name you have chosen for your baby." I had my phone in my pocket, so I grabbed it and scanned the code. "What’ll we name it?" I looked over at Simon. "Hitman?" He suggested, bordering on joking and an actual suggestion. "No, dumbass. But... does Hitman have a name?" I then got to googling. "We’re not actually going to name this uncanny-valley nightmare after a literal assassin, are we?"

"It’s a literal fake baby, it’s not going to matter what we name it, I can hear some people name it 'Pope mobile' and 'Mr.Worldwide Mr.305' so why not?" He let out a breath at the names, almost a laugh, but not quite. "He’s just referred to as 'Agent 47'. Ideas?" I went back to the tab with the name box. "Well, what about Agent?" "Agent? I mean, it’s not terrible, not great, but I feel like it’s gonna be the best thing we’ll come up with. Agent it is!" And so, the baby is named Agent.

The rest of the class went on with the teacher explaning how to take care of the baby, why they organized this, etc etc. Since the 'introduction' to the babies took almost the whole first hour, the second was used for us to arrange how we were going to co-parent our babies. Very accurate, since if me and Simon by some evil force ever would have children, they would be co-parented to hell and back.

"Let’s just do a daily thing. Every day after school we’ll swap. Easy enough, right?" I suggested. We agreed, then the day went on with minimal annoyance. Turns out almost everyone was doing the baby project. It was kind of funny seeing hundreds of high-schoolers carrying around hundreds of fake babies, some already crying. The only time me and Simon ended up talking was when we 'exchanged babies'. Time sort of flew and soon enough, it was the last week of the project. We decided to get together at Simon’s place to write our paper. I was of course hesitant, but agreed since I wasn’t going to sit in a library for hours.

There was music playing from his computer as both of us worked on our halves of the paper on the document we’d been given. It was pretty peaceful, neither of us said a word. Then, of course, Agent decided to start crying. "Oh come on kid, now? Really?" Simon complained, and eventhough I was sitting closer to it and it was literally in arms reach, he got up and scooped Agent out of his position on his bed. He started softly rocking him side to side, whispering things I couldn’t quite understand while trying to figure out what was wrong. "Could you hand me his bottle, please?" He asked, only briefly looking in my direction before focusing back on Agent.

I went and got the bottle from my bag, but as I looked back up, something about the scene made me stop in my tracks. I don’t know if it was the lighting, music in the background, the visual of Simon and Agent but something did something to me.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

This was not good. In no way was it good. Maybe it was the fact that in all this time I had never seen just how Simon treated Agent, since we had never previously been together in a room, all 3 of us, when he acted up. I don’t know why but I never expected to see him so... soft? Nurturing? I don’t know what it is, but it was making me feel things and I didn’t want it to. I catch myself quick enough and bring him the bottle, which seems to solve the issue. "Look at you, bein’ a dad. Almost like you’ve done this before... you haven’t done this before, have you?" I asked, only somewhat joking. "What? No, of course not. Shoulda seen the first week, I was about ready to throw him across the room the second he started crying."

For a moment we just stood there, looking at this fake child we had been 'raising' for a month now. "I must admit... I think I’m gonna miss this ’lil guy once this is over." He spoke so uncharafteristically softly. "You can buy one. Pretty sure kids toys these days are like this already." I suggested, then sat down on his bed again. "Yeah but, that’s not the same." He sat down too, still holding Agent in his arms. "You really got attached to a fake robo baby, huh?" I teased him. "Oh shut up" He pushed me to the side, but misjudged his strength and my position and ended up causing me to fall off his bed antirely. "Ah fuck!" I cursed. Good thing he isn’t an actual baby who can hear us.

"Oh shit, are you okay?" He set Agent down and came to help me up. "Jeez, Kelleher, when’d you get so nice? It’s starting to freak me out." He sort of glanced me over to make sure I hadn’t hurt myself, but when he got to my face and we made eyecontact, he seemed to freeze. There was something going on, but I couldn’t quite tell what, I never could.

In a flash, my back is pressed up against the wall next to his bed, my hands firmly on his chest and his lips on mine. He was kissing me. I was kissing him. And the worst part was that I was enjoying it. Eventhough I did, there was a part of my brain telling me it was wrong. So, I started pushing him away a little. He seemed to immediately get the memo and stopped, looking into my eyes. We both took a moment to breathe, he seemed just as surprised by the situation as I was. "I don't think we should be doing this." I said. "Do you want to stop?" He asked.

Instead of answering, I pulled him back into another kiss. Fuck 'should', I need this. I thought. If you'd have told me just a month earlier that I'd be in Simon Kelleher's room and willingly making out with him, I'd have called you crazy. How it took me this long to realize the 'hate' and 'dislike' I had for Simon was actually just a shit ton sexual tension all along I still don't know. It wasn't until this moment that I fully realized that I had wanted this for what felt like an eternity, that want crashing down on me all at once and making me never want to stop kissing him.

Simon then put his hands under my thighs and lifted me up, pressing me further against the wall and I wrapped my legs around him. Eventually though we had to pull apart and breathe, both of our faces obviously red and flushed. "Are we really about to do this with a baby in the room?" I sarcastically asked. "It's fake anyway." He then moved his head to my neck and started peppering kisses on it. "Do you want to though?" He asked.

"You really think I can say no now?" I respond. I can feel him smirk against my neck.

:)

It’s currently 2am when I finished this and omg this has been in my drafts for so long and it’s finally seeing the light of day, or should I say night. Some parts are kind of rushed and not as food but I just really wanted to finish it tonight. Hope you still enjoy it <3

#one of us is lying #oouil #oouil tv show #simon kelleher

[cru5h-cascades]

and now... the moment y'all have been waiting for...

A Tears of the Kingdom trailer breakdown!

Heeeey everyone! For once I'm actually gonna make a trailer breakdown for Tears of the Kingdom! When I saw the trailer, I just couldn't ignore all the details in it! Anyways, with that being said, let's hop to it!

While Link is skydiving (40 sec mark), we can see crop circle-like markings on the ground in the top left and top right corners of the screen. Top left looks like a dragon and top right looks like a teardrop. Perhaps these are mazes like the ones in BotW. Or maybe they're something greater than those labybrinths...

A few seconds later, we see some pillars of light on the ground with a tower of sorts in the middle of the light source. Maybe these are supposed to be the replacement for Sheika towers.

Looks like Hateno Village got a bit of a glow up! I wonder what new stores will be introduced...

And it looks like after BotW all the malice surrounding Hyrule Castle dissapeared and it's safe for people to go over there again! But... one question: why would they go back when Hyrule Castle is gone and Ganon's back? Whatever. It's good to see life coming back to Hyrule.

At the minute and two seconds mark we get our first look at what appears to be the Zonai shrines! If that's the case, they look awesome!

Hyrule Castle has been relocated to what looks like the Gerudo Desert. Maybe the castle relocates whenever you move to an importaint location in the story (on the surface).

New Death Mountain areas! Finally, an actual reson to go there besides for the shrines and Goron Town (I'm so sorry!)

We get a shot of a mysterious flying ship at the minute and a half mark. Dunno what else to say about this other than that the ship looks sick as hell.

Shots of what appear to be either full blown dungeons or just shrines (and it looks we can get a skydiving suit, too! I wonder how...)

At the minute and forty second mark we get a shot of a new character that may be of importaint significance in the story. Suprisingly, this being is the same one that we see in the mural from a few trailers ago! Perhaps this is Hylia herself?

Around the minute fifty second mark we see the throne room of Hyrule Castle back to normal... or so it looks like...

5 seconds later we get the big reveal: Zelda's still alive after that big ass fall we've seen in the past few trailers!

Some unknown character talks about Link being the final hope of Hyrule (or something like that). Who this character might be? I'll leave that to your imagination.

Some Death Star-lookin' object can be seen on screen. Dunno what else to say besides that.

We see Link with some of the decendants of the Champions (Yunobo and Teba's child?) (this isn't the only time the Champion decendants are shown!)

Two minutes and thirty four seconds in we see what looks like the second most amazing thing in the trailer (besides lore): mech battles are real! Woooo baby!

Eldritch demon looking spider/crab thing. Most likely a boss.

Looks like Zelda's holding a Nayru Tear from Skyward Sword... funny... goddess tears in TotK *flashbacks to silent realm Lanayru Desert intensify*

Three minutes in we see malice take over Link's arm. I have nothing else to say about that exept that.

3 seconds later we see Ganon back in the flesh and not looking like a demon spawn from hell or a husky boi from the past few trailers!

6 seconds after that last point I made we see some lady that has almost the same outfit Zelda wears in TotK. She might be of some importance in the story. As for her identity, it remails a mystery.

Riju makes a comeback!!!

Some battle-ready villagers standing alongside Link. Nothing more, nothing less.

Sidon makes a comeback!!!

Speaking of that scene in particular...

Potential multiplayer reveal???

Anyways, moving on.

The Champion decendants help Link fight a hydra-lookin' dragon

And finally, looks like Zelda's in some different area of Hyrule. Or somewhere else...

And that's all I have! If y'all find something else, feel free to add on in the notes (comment or reply, I don't care)!

#tears of the kingdom #loz #trailer analysis #god this took me a while to make #but seriously tho. multiplayer? plz?

[jaydangan]

i saw someone call him narcissistic for trying to kill teruko and betray her

OKAY, OKAY! I GOTTA CLEAR ONE THING UP!

I'm seeing this A LOT in the fandom, and I am SO SO SICK of people trying to paint David as a worst person than he really is. Maybe I'll eat my own words in the future, but I can promise you honey, David is NOT a purely evil person! (at least from what is already public)

Is it a two-faced liar? Yes, yes he is. I mean.....if my job was to constantly tell ppl that things will be okay, I guess that would also make me a liar as well (as optimistic as a person can be, the most ideal way is not always a reality). Did he tell Xander to kill Teruko? We do not know that yet! I see lots of people saying that "Xander trusted David right off the bat, of course he would trust whatever David said!" but honestly? I don't suspect David as much as anyone else (maybe except Ace, Arei, or Arturo). Xander is genuinely someone that wanted to be friends with everyone, and yes, he looked up to David. But we do not know for sure if David told him to kill Teruko. And even so, like......Teruko is kinda sus, ngl. It's very briefly touched upon in chapter 1's trial, but THE SIGNS ARE THERE, in chapter 2. I even saw a comment in one of chapter's 2 episodes where someone said "No wonder Xander tried to kill you Teruko, you sus!"

Chapter 1, I admit, David is pretty sus. But after watching the screentime he had (so far) in chapter 2, he's not......he's not horrible! He was someone that constantly needed to be perfect, put up a happy go lucky persona, and try to maintain a positive attitude, even if he was depressed himself. He couldn't be sad, he needed to be the 'happy' one. Xander, who fell for David's on stage persona, became what David genuinely wanted to be. Which is why David said "technically *YOU* are my rolemodel, Xander". His friendship with Xander seems 100% geunine

I see people even going as far as saying "David was secretly rude to Xander and was glad that he died cause David hated his fans" and I was like ".......Did you watch drdt with your eyes closed?!"

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, and sorry for the spam, but TDLR: David Chiem is best boy

Again, I may eat my own words in the future, but so far, he's.....not evil. Just a guy that's secretly depressed, but has to be happy cause it's his job

Okay, i have to say chiem was looking pretty sus to me. I was suspecting him to be the Mastermind even. But honestly, finishing chapter 1, i think not. I think david is just... A tired guy. Hes tired of being optimistic, and i understand him! I truly believe he is a optimistic and loving guy but- he reached his limit yknow? His sanity is slowlyng getting lower. I truly believe chiem is a cool dude, he's just... Tired.

And also, i think david telling xander that xander is his "rolemodel" is a genuine feeling towards matthews.

Well, i didnt get to chapter 2 but i got kinda.... Mad at teruko... As both a paranoid and a overly- betrayed-person the scene of min hugging teruko hit me HARD in the heart. Cause i understand both of them.

I like teruko, but sometimes she makes me... Sad? I dunno- like- all her hatred towards matthews was absolutly comprehenseble, but at the same time- it made me so... Sad?

I was really dissapointed with xander. I been backstabbed and that shit HURTS. I definetly got really mad at xander for what he did to teruko but-

THATS THE PROBLEM! WHY DO I UNDERSTAND TERUKO BUT- i still find her kinda... Harsh...? I dunno....

But back to chiem, hes cool, i like him, and im hoping to see more of him in the future!

(lets hope he dont turn out to be the Mastermind, that works for xander too, if matthews is revealed as the Mastermind (fake death) i'll be so PISSED)

And btw, please spam my inbox, i love it :)/gen/nf

[iloveimaginarypeople]

Making A Murderer

Okay the title is another instance of me thinking I'm clever and probably being wrong but the story is a comedic bit about the canon gang plus my s/is deciding where to go from here in my 'Eddie Lives' au. Canon-typical shit ensues. Enjoy!

The silence that settled over the van after the endless minutes of panic was deafening. Not even Robin had words. Teddy stared out the windshield, gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles and wide eyes. Steve sat in the passenger seat, tense and clearly thinking nothing but this is fucking crazy.

"What's gonna happen to Eddie and Max?" Lucas asked. He was still holding Max as though the minute he let go she'd start floating again.

"I dunno," Dan said. She had moved to let Ruth hold Eddie and was now crammed between Ruth and Robin.

"They still think he's a murderer," Dustin said. "This town still fucking hates him."

"At least Jason can't do anything to him," Ruth said. "We've got a chance at clearing his name now that psycho's out of our way."

"Yeah," she said. "So... what if we use him to clear Eddie's name? He was there when Max died, the cops questioned him about Chrissy's death first... the only victim we can't connect him to is Fred and they can't connect him to Eddie either."

Jason was out of the way... Teddy felt an idea forming. What was it she'd joked about with Steve? It was always the "normal" ones who turned out fucked up enough to kill people.

"That wouldn't work," Lucas said. "Patrick-"

"It was just the three of them out there," Ruth said. "The other one stayed behind for some reason. We could say it was Jason, it's our word against his."

"And he's dead so it's really just our word," Dan said.

"Hang on hang on, why would Jason-" Nancy started. Why would Eddie? Bernie thought

"Let's say Eddie and Chrissy were hanging out. Let's say Jason heard they were at Eddie's place and-"

"Snapped," Lucas said.

"And Eddie ran to get help but Jason got to him first," Ruth added. "Maybe he realized he had to get himself an alibi so he went back to the party and locked Eddie at the boathouse."

"Exactly," Teddy said.

"Okay, why-"

"He's crazy, Nancy, he just killed someone," Dan said. "He's freaked out and he doesn't want to get caught."

"And in the morning he realizes he has to blame this on someone so he blames Eddie."

"But Fred-"

"Was in the wrong place at the wrong time, right?" Teddy asked. "He found something, or saw something, I dunno, none of us were there but of course Jason would kill again to cover up the first one."

"I'm- I'm sorry, are we mad-libbing a cover story to frame a guy for murder?" Steve asked.

"Yes," Teddy answered quickly. "Now back to the point."

"He went back to the boathouse to finish what he started and get rid of Eddie," Lucas said. "But Patrick showed up."

"Another wrong place, wrong time killing, but this time his own teammate," Teddy said. "Ya gotta admit from a narrative perspective it kinda works, Nance." Nancy looked stunned and sick.

"Okay, but-"

"And by now who knows, maybe he does think this is all Munson's fault," Teddy said. "And he's hunting Eddie because now Eddie's out and he could ruin everything. And he finds Max and Lucas' group- and Lucas could also ruin everything because Lucas isn't buying it anymore." Lucas nodded.

"Max and I were trying to find Eddie because we were starting to think he was innocent," Lucas said. "And we tried to make Jason tell us the truth... and he snapped again."

"Okay so where were the rest of us?" Dustin asked.

"You were looking for Eddie too," Dan said. "With me, at Eddie's trailer."

"And we were trying to find you guys," Teddy said. "And you drag an injured Eddie onto the side of the road, you found him hiding in the woods when the earthquake hit and injured you both."

"Can I keep the killing-Jason-in-self-defense thing or does he have to die in the earthquake?" Ruth asked.

"Yeah you guys keep the same story but it was you interrogating him instead of the other way around," Teddy said. "So we get Eddie and you guys in here. He tells us this whole thing before falling unconscious, and we realize Max's group is in danger and go to her, by which time she's almost dead but Jason is real-dead. Sound good?"

"Sounds messy," Nancy said.

"Okay, so remember the bit that relates to you and if the cops ask about the others just say 'that sounds like a question for them doesn't it?' and we're in the clear," Teddy said.

"What about them?" Dustin asked. "How do we give two unconscious people this plan?"

"I'm not leaving Eddie's bedside until he's up so I can fill him in while I'm at it," Ruth said. "Lucas can do the same for Max." Lucas nodded.

"Really is your year, isn't it Eds?" Teddy asked. There was a weak laugh around the van.

"Y’know, before I knew you guys I didn't lie nearly as much," Erica said. "My whole house is on fire."

"We tried to stop you from coming along," Lucas said.

"Wait your house is on fire?" Steve asked.

"It's that 'liar liar pants on fire' thing," Teddy said. Steve nodded.

"Oh..."

"Seriously, do you need to be told everything?" Dustin asked.

So glad that we're all talking again but like... how do I make them shut up?

•

Hope you enjoyed!

#pointless selfships #ship: the kids aren't all right 1980s remaster #ship: turn my world upside down #ship: dan and the girl she pulled by being autistic #turn my world upside down fic #dan and the girl she pulled by being autistic fic #the kids aren't alright: 1980s remaster fic #pointless writing #pointless s/is

[casspurrjoybell-29]

Healing Ties - Chapter 26

*Warning: Adult Content*  

Fanner hovered in the doorway for a moment after Yore had left and then took a tentative step outside.

If he didn't leave the cabin now, he would probably just hide himself away and drown in his worries until Yore returned.

Yore's cabin was on the outer edge of the settlement, set away from everything else, so there was nobody around immediately outside.

Besides, it was still quite early in the morning.

Were werewolves typically early risers?

Wolves were usually most active at night, weren't they?

When Fanner had come by, Slone had been awake but Yore had been sleeping.

Fanner could hear the sound of a running river, so he headed down a slope, through some trees towards it.

He eyed the water suspiciously when he reached it and made sure to keep a couple of steps back from the bank.

He didn't think he would ever trust a body of water again after that thing had tried to drown him.

Were there a finite number of known threats or did the people who lived out here just have to hold a certain level of suspicion towards their surroundings at all times?

Yore had said he'd never seen anything like Cookie before.

He'd taken it in stride, too, like seeing a new type of creature wasn't a rare occurrence for him.

Maybe if you were as big and powerful as a werewolf you didn't have to worry about it too much or perhaps this area was just much safer than some of the other ones they'd passed through.

From what Yore had said, it sounded like the latter was the case.

Fanner was pulled out of his thoughts when he rounded a corner and saw a man sitting on a wooden dock, hefting a netful of still flopping fish out of the water.

Fanner hurried towards him.

"Um, hi. My name is Fanner. Can I help you with anything?"

The man was large enough that he was clearly a werewolf and edging towards middle age.

He levelled Fanner with a dispassionate gaze.

"Do you know how to clean out a fish?"

Fanner shook his head.

"How to cut it up for drying? How to hang it?"

Fanner shook his head again.

"Then I guess you can't help me."

Fanner stood there awkwardly, his hand twisting in the hem of his shirt.

Should he just walk away now?

"You're a fuckin' bully, Morren," a voice said from behind them, and Fanner jumped.

He turned around to find Slone, Yore's brother, heading down the path to the dock towards them.

The man, Morren, shook his head.

"How's it bullying to tell him I don't need his help?"

"You coulda found something he could help with or fuck, I dunno, coulda taught him a new skill."

"We have plenty of kids of our own around here to teach."

"Yeah, 'cause you're so busy with that. Where's your kid? Want me to go find her so you can teach her howta dry a fish?"

"Why don't you teach him, then?"

Slone waved a dismissive hand.

"Oh, I dunno how. Hardly know how to cook one, honestly."

"How do you manage to spend so much of your time on your own and not die?"

"Well, I'm pretty fuckin' decent at catchin' fish. Don't see any need to cook 'em."

Morren made a face.

"Do werewolves..." Fanner startled to say, then faltered when both men turned to look at him.

Somehow, he hadn't expected to actually draw their attention.

"Sorry, um. Do werewolves eat prepared foods, like humans? Is eating raw fish unusual?"

"Eh..?"

Morren shrugged.

"Won't make us sick. It's a bit like growing a nice vegetable garden, then when all your vegetables are ready you sit down and eat three whole, raw carrots. You could munch on a raw one here and there and nobody would find it strange but if you only ever ate them raw because you don't fucking know how to cook then people might think it's fucking weird and you should maybe learn to cook."

Slone yawned, unconcerned by Morren's animosity.

"I could prob'ly manage to fry one but it always seemed like a lotta work. I'll butcher a bigger animal that I can't eat on my own but why bother with a fish?"

"Oh, um, Slone," Fanner said. "Is Cookie still around?"

"She stuck around and ate my unwanted deer bits but she didn't seem too interested in comin' near the village. I packed the meat up and left it in your cabin, by the way, Morren."

Morren nodded.

"I'll get to it after I'm done here. Who or what is Cookie?"

"Somethin' that crawled outta the swamp. Ain't pretty to look at but she's a sweetheart. There was this lizard hangin' 'round while she ate everything she could fit down her throat and when we were done she picked the thing up. I was sure she was about to eat it but she just put it on her head like a fuckin' hat an' wandered off."

"She's strange but... I like her," Fanner murmured.

"I like anything that comes outta that swamp, 'cause usually it means some animal fell in there and the Fae took the opportunity to mash it together with one of the corpses in there and give it its life back. One less fucking corpse in that soup is fine by me."

Fanner watched as Morren slammed his knife down against the neck of a fish, severing its neck.

He didn't like the sound it made.

"There are corpses in the swamp? Don't they rot away?"

"Living corpses," Slone clarified. "That's what put an end to the war. An army of the dead. Kinda takes the fun outta killing each other when the dead rise right back up and try to kill ya all over again. When the fighting finally stopped, the dead marched off into the swamp and buried themselves in the mud. They've been there ever since, grabbin' at anyone who gets too close."

"But they don't come out?"

"Nah, nah. Some reckon the Fae leave them there as a warning or like a backup plan in case things get too rowdy again but I think that taking life away just ain't something the Fae can do. Like, they'll warn us about vampires or whatever, tryta get us to help deal with that shit but I ain't never heard of them just making one be dead on their own when they wanted it to be, y'know? I don't think they can."

That was the swamp he and Yore had passed by.

It wasn't that far from here.

"That's unsettling. That the dead are still there, I mean."

"I don't fuckin' love it," Slone agree. "Had nightmares about them when I was a kid. Still do, sometimes. When I was younger, like a teenager, I found this rusty old spear and I went out there and I would stab 'em through the heads. That kills them, if you do it right. I figured I could make a project of it. If I killed ten, twenty here and there, one day there wouldn't be any left, right?"

Fanner nodded. That made sense.

"Fuckin' dangerous game for a kid to play, I'll tell you that. Did it for years, though. Killed hundreds of the fuckers. They definitely died and stayed dead 'cause I could see 'em rotting where I left 'em but there never seemed to be any less. Then one day I got too close to a spot where the mud seemed a bit deeper and one of the fuckers grabbed my ankle and it pulled me down... and down..."

Fanner gasped.

"Wasn't so much mud there as muddy water. And it was fuckin' deep. Couldn't see shit but I could feel 'em grabbin' at me. Never felt the bottom, just a writhing mass of bodies. Kicked my way free somehow, got out of the water and I gave up on killin' 'em for good. Too dangerous and too many of 'em for what I was doing to make a damn bit of difference."

"That seems wise. I'm glad you survived. That sounds like an awful way to die."

Slone grinned.

"Aw, thanks. I'm glad I survived, too. So, didya get a look at that rock golem?"

Fanner nodded, his mind flashing back to the monstrous thing.

"It was huge and it had the form of a man but it was made entirely out of stone. I thought it was nothing more than a pile of boulders when it was laying down."

"And twice as tall as me at least, right?"

"I'd say so. You're quite tall but it was massive."

"We didn't know what to do about the thing. They're hard to kill because well... I'm not sure how much they're even living things. They're stone all the way down. No organs. Not even a brain. Just rocks and enough magic to keep 'em moving. The only way to put 'em down for good is with explosives or heavy projectiles. Not exactly things we keep handy."

Fanner tensed.

"So it's still wandering around out there?"

"Nah, nah. See, I came up with a plan. I know those swamps. Lured the thing over to that deep spot I got dragged into that one time and it stumbled right on in. Lotta people I told that story to over the years doubted it was as deep as I said but there were four other people with me and they all saw that thing sink and not come back up."

"Did it... did it drown?"

Slone shook his head.

"Ain't got lungs. I sat there for an hour, though and I'm pretty sure it can't get out again. Banks are too steep, water is too deep and it's too heavy to swim. I'm hopin' it flails around down there for a bit, killin' all the dead it comes into contact with, then slowly sinks into the mud and never escapes."

Fanner let out a slow breath.

"I hope so."

"Don't let that shit scare you. We get weird shit showing up from time to time but territory like the swamplands that don't belong to anybody is way more dangerous than places like here or the mage camp."

"Something tried to drown me, too," Fanner said. "It was like a child, only... watery?"

"Ah, those fuckers," Morren said. "Stupid little things. They wash through sometimes. Not too often but maybe don't go swimming alone."

"It thought I was a human."

"They think anything vaguely human shaped is human. Like I said, stupid. They'll let go of us if we shift because that's a bit too not-human even for them but I always keep an eye on my kid when she's in the water even though she can swim just fine because I'm worried she'll panic and forget."

"There was one that hung around for a couple months when I was a kid," Slone said. "Damn thing would realise we weren't human and let us go when we shifted, then forget and do the same thing all over again five minutes later. My mum tried to keep me out of the water at first but I just thought the whole thing was funny."

Morren beheaded another fish.

"You have a bad sense of humour."

Slone shrugged.

"Either that or don't swim for two months. Lots of folks did that. Everyone got all worked up and wanted to find some way to kill the thing but it washed away with the next heavy rain and that was the problem solved."

"Do you think they can be killed?" Fanner asked.

"Might be a way," Slone said. "They were gonna try catchin' it in a tub an' then boiling the water. Mighta worked. I reckon they're like the rock golems. Not alive, so you can't kill 'em but there are ways to destroy 'em."

"The thing in the water talked to us, though. How can it not be alive?"

"Guess it depends what you mean by alive, right? Gets kinda complicated this side of the border an' I ain't sure there's any clear line."

Perhaps, for Fanner, whether something was alive would depend on whether he could and could not heal it.

He could heal both Yore and Cookie, two very different beings and they were clearly alive.

He doubted he would have been able to heal the rock golem or the watery child.

He didn't think they were even able to sustain injuries.

At least not in the traditional sense.

Fanner realised his attention had wandered, and while he was thinking his eyes had locked onto a fraying rope in Morren's net.

"Um... I could fix that. If you like."

"Huh?" Morren asked.

"The frayed rope. I...I could fix it before it snaps and the whole thing comes apart."

"Huh. Sure. You can watch me clean out and cut up these fish for drying while you're at it. Learn something new."

Fanner nodded and kneeled to get started on the net.

"Okay."

Fanner was bad at focussing on one thing but he was actually slightly less bad at focussing on two at once.

Well, depending on what they were.

What Morren was showing him seemed simple enough.

Fanner had never gone through the whole process of cutting up a whole, fresh fish before but he had a decent amount of cooking experience that he figured should translate at least a little bit.

He kept getting distracted and forgetting to work on fixing the net but he did that whether or not there was more than one thing he was supposed to be focussing on at a time.

"Um, here," Fanner said when he was done with the net, holding it out to Morren. "It's fixed."

Morren took the net from Fanner and examined the rope.

"Huh? Now that bit looks better than the rest of the net."

"Sorry it doesn't match," Fanner murmured, though he wasn't sure whether that had been the point Morren had been trying to make.

"I can clean and fix the rest of it if you like or if you have anything else that needs to be done..."

"Hmm, might do."

Morren looked the net over one more time and then set it aside.

"For now, I want you to have a go at this. Here, take this knife and cut this fish's head off."

Fanner laid the fish out on the wooden board Morren had been using to cut them, held it steady by the tail well out of the way of where he would be cutting and brought the knife down against the fish's neck.

It only made it halfway through.

"Sorry. Maybe... maybe I'm not strong enough?"

"A lot of strength is up here."

Morren tapped his head.

"That's why you'll find you're suddenly a lot stronger when you really need to be. Some of that's your body protecting you, making sure you don't hurt yourself but in your case I bet you've been taught you're not meant to be physically strong."

"Well, compared to you..."

"You don't need to compare yourself to me."

Fanner ducked his head.

"Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Try again."

Fanner held the fish down, swung the knife and... missed entirely.

The knife lodged in the board and Slone had to help him pull it free.

Fanner offered Morren the knife back.

"Maybe this just isn't for me."

"You've tried twice and already you want to give up? How do you think people get good at things? Try again."

Fanner nodded.

He held the fish down, swung the knife and it lodged deep into the fish's neck.

"Good," Morren said. "Now rock the knife to cut the rest of the way through."

Fanner obeyed.

He could hear the crunch of tiny bones, the sensation of the knife slicing through the soft flesh... he yanked his hands away and hid them under his armpits.

He remembered being tied down, remembered the knife coming down against his finger.

Remembered Whelan rocking the knife back and forth to fully sever the digit while Fanner screamed and begged him to stop.

There had been blood everywhere.

Fanner had been able to see the splintered bone through the top of the wound.

He'd bandaged it securely so that it wouldn't brush against things.

He didn't know whether it would regrow.

He only hoped, at the very least, that the skin would grow back to cover the exposed bone.

He couldn't live with that sticking out of his finger.

It looked completely normal now, like nothing had ever happened but Fanner could still feel it.

That slight numbness, the tingling sensation that ran through it when he bent it sometimes.

"What happened?" Morren asked. "Did you hurt yourself?"

Fanner shook his head but he kept his hands hidden in his armpits, kept hugging himself.

"Sorry. I... I don't think I'm very good with knives. Can I fix something instead?"

Morren studied Fanner for a long moment and then shook his head.

"Don't you worry about that. Come on. We'll take a break and I'll fry you up a nice fish."

[oldmanbayou]

2022 survey

I have updated my Livejournal every single year around this time of year with this same exact survey for the past 20 years. I don't keep an active livejournal anymore, but my memory for things sucks when I don't write them down. So the documentation is of personal value to me and something I like to shuffle through and look back on every so often. Hence why I make it a point to continue my tradition and make that one update every year.

Now that I've freed myself from the shackles of 140 characters, I suppose I can just leave it here!

1. How did you ring in the new year for 2022? I couldn't remember anything about it so checked my twitter and this is what it has revealed: "I missed new years because I was too busy trying to get a damn hard drive that’s been dead for 10+ years to work. I WILL GET THIS THING TO WORK BY 2023 AND FIND OUT WHAT’S ON IT STOP TELLING ME TO GO TO BED."

(note: I spent the bulk of January on this thing and never got the hard drive to work.)

2. Who did you kiss at midnight/your first kiss in 2022? Ames probably.

3. What did you do in 2022 that you'd never done before?: Managed to successfully grow winter squash from seed to harvest for the first time. I've tried growing winter squash every single year I've had a garden and they always had a good start, but they take so long to mature that much can go wrong and I never actually made it to the end! Until THIS year.

4. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn't make any. My resolution for next year is to opt out of sibling/in-laws birthdays, not out of dislike for my siblings, but because having to take the time to shop for someone's birthday every single month has become a point of stress for me. It was fine when there were 4 birthdays to worry about in my family, but with all the marriages and births, now there's 12 to consider and I can't keep up and then I just feel like an asshole. So yeah, no more birthdays. Sorry, guys.

5. Did anyone close to you give birth?: Honestly, I have been remarkably checked out this year and haven't been paying any attention whatsoever to anyone's personal news and it's been absolutely grand. I have a vague memory of receiving an invitation to someone's baby shower some time this year but I never RSVP'd and now I can't remember for the life of me who it was for. Do I care? Nope!

6. Did anyone close to you die?: hmmmm I should probably check on that one.

7. What places did you visit?: Disney World, Indianapolis, Erie Pennsylvania

8. What would you like to have in 2023 that you lacked in 2022?: Organizational skills.

9. What dates from 2022 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?: Fuck if I know, I haven't known what the date is since January 1st.

10. What was your biggest achievement of the year?: The garden.

11. What was your biggest failure?: I can't keep my house tidy.

12. Did you suffer illness or injury?: I have caught every single motherfucking virus ever known to man this year and feel like I've spent more days getting over another goddamn cold than I've spent feeling well and healthy. Whether I'm diligently masking with an N95 or not, whether I've been around a crowd of people or 1 nonsick friend outdoors nowhere even near anyone else, I seem to get sick almost every time I dare leave the house. Various people have asked me "are you immunocompromised?" so many times in the past year that I'm starting to wonder if I should get tested for something? I dunno. On top of catching just about everything under the sun like a toddler new at life, I have been testing positive on the covid rapid tests made by Roche, and ONLY Roche, consistently since June 30th. It's totally a joke now and I test every month on the 30th just to check on the status and make sure I still have my supernatural powers, but when it was new news, it super fucked up my summer and I wasted most of July feeling anxious and isolating just in case I'm diseased and putting a hold on house projects requiring help and continued to miss out on summertime outings just like the last two pandemic years because even after multiple PCR tests to confirm the test is bullshit, like, pretty much no one was willing to be around me, the weird ass diseased freak with chronic covid. Not that I blame them, I wouldn't want to be around me either knowing my track record! (Ames, if you're reading this, thank you so muchly for so bravely going to the beach with me. That was the highlight of my whole summer and makes it feel like it wasn't a TOTAL wash). Also I got my bivalent booster the day it came out, it wiped me the fuck out for 3 days, and then I caught real covid anyway a week later, my second breakthrough infection in less than a year lmao (for the record, NO, I'm NOT counting roche covid). Also got my flu shot and what do you know, I got the flu a month later. Whee. (I am not at all implying vaccines don't work, just that my immune system's a garbage idiot.) So please forgive me that I've been enormously fed up and after all of my "will people please just wear a MF mask" campaigning, I too have recently given up on wearing a mask in most circumstances. You all want personal responsibility? This is a two-way street and if you don't care about killing me with your gross plagues, then I sure as hell don't care about killing you.

13. What was the best thing you bought?: I am so torn between overalls from Duluth and the rabbitruck! The overalls have been lifechanging, but the rabbitruck is COOL.

14. Whose events required celebration?: Grimey performed with John Hodgman on stage.

15. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?: it's between the supreme court and the new dark lord of twitter and I'm ashamed that I'm putting them on the same level.

16. Where did most of your money go?: probably house projects

17. What did you get really, really, really excited about?: fried paneer at Epcot and pea blossoms

18. What song will always remind you of 2022?: my 2022 music craze has been space age tiki lounge music.

Compared to this time last year, are you: a) Happier or sadder?: happier

b) Thinner or fatter?: Fatter I guess? I honestly don't know, I haven't weighed myself in like a year. I think I was probably anorexic last year though.

c) Richer or poorer?: richer

19. What do you wish you'd done more of?: engaging in summer and fall traditions, seeing my siblings/niece/nephew

20. What do you wish you'd done less of?: roche covid isolating

21. Did you fall in love in 2022?: no

22. How many one-night stands?: No.

23. How many people did you kiss? No.

24. What was your favourite TV program?: I watched and half-paid attention to the plant series David Attenborodid and enjoyed it, whatever it was called.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?: I've been so unaware of the happenings of others that no, not really. The certain hypocrites in the media who have been a particular outrage this year I very much hated before, so I can't really consider them.

26. What was the best book you read?: I can barely get through a tweet without feeling bored and wanting to move on, nevermind an entire book.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?: Kate Bush

28. What did you want and get?: rabbitruck and a cricut maker

29. What did you want and not get?: brussel sprouts

30. What was your favorite film of this year?: I watched one film, I don't remember what it was, I quickly regretted it, it was long and miserably boring like almost every other movie made after 1997 is, I will never attempt to watch anything ever again, I am extremely elderly.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?: I turned 38. We went to the Brimfield Antiques Faire and I bought a bunch of old stuff.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?: having civil rights, not having manmade climate change

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2020?: overalls

34. What kept you sane?: psych meds

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?: Link

36. What political issue stirred you the most?: Roe

37. Who do you miss?: my niece and nephew

38. Who was the best new person you met?: have I met any new people.....hmm...hmm....no, no I have not.

39. Who were your closest friends in 2022? Ames, Erin, Justus, Kelly, Jessie

40. What are you doing to ring in 2023? Grimey's not going to be home so probably getting into shenanigans that he'd get all stressed and worked up about like a skittish cat if I did it while he's home like tearing down the ugly stained drop ceiling in the dining room that I know under all the tiles is piles and piles of mouse shit and ripped up bags of insulation, and the knowledge peeves me every time I go in there. OR I might just fuck it all and play Zelda until 4:00 AM.

41. Who do you plan on kissing to ring in 2023? Ames

42. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2022: If other people are ok with spreading death and disease, then they must also be ok with receiving it, so let them have at it.

[koitrash]

The Dress

‘You burned so bright your flames engulfed me, your fire so hot I wanted it to annihilate me, along with everything you touched. And I thought, maybe a little selfishly, you couldn't possibly destroy the same heart you mended.

Could you?’

Pairing: Ellie Williams x reader

Summary: You and Ellie break up and find each other again LMFAOOO THATS IT BUT ITS SO CUTE I SWEAR TRUST ME

Warnings: Angst, fluff, cursing, basically same as the game, jumping around chronologically

Word count: 8.2k (sorry lol)

A/N: Okay maybe im just really emotional after writing this but i actually love it so much i kinda didn't want to share it??? Idk it took weeks to write because i dunno it needed to be PERFECT. I tried a different way of storytelling here, kinda wanted the flashbacks to roll into the present time parts idk if i did it any justice but that was the thought behind it. This fic is very angsty and very fluffy and im emotional so listen to some sad break up songs and some cute falling in love songs :)

edit: okay yall totally have to listen to 'Elliot's song' by Dominic Fike and Zendaya during the first kiss scene i'm BEGGING YOU TO ITS SO CUTE

Also this was def inspired by Saintrvckwell and Thelastoflesbians bc i adore their writing so much it FUELED me and obviously 'the dress' by dijon started all of this so everyone should def listen to it cos it's an amazing song

The gravel crushed under Ellie’s battered and clearly loved converses as she stared at the old house at the end of the street, some flowers scattered on the porch with the sunset falling under the roof, painting the clouds hues of orange and pink. She couldn’t pinpoint her feelings at the time but she knew how she was supposed to feel. Acceptance, forgiveness, maybe even some hope. Sure, she was still working on feeling that way about Joel but there was still something back in Jackson. Something she left here long ago. Someone she couldn't muster up the courage to talk to in almost 2 years. A feeling of guilt she couldn't shake, no matter who she killed, who she avenged, who she forgave.

She fiddled with her hands and for a split second she thought about leaving. To go find the next adventure waiting for her while she left open cuts unhealed and words left unsaid. She thought about how time heals

all wounds. About how this person probably moved on, living life just like when Ellie was never in it. But she spent a lot of time thinking about this, too much time. So much time that before she knew it her feet led her right back here. Standing in front of Joel’s old house, the ghost of her two favorite people talking on the porch faded into a stale memory. So she listened to that deafening voice in her head, turning on her heels to leave until she caught sight of that painfully familiar fabric dancing in the wind, connected to a painfully familiar body. One she knew all too well.

Ellie’s fingers roamed over the soft fabric of a dress and she thought about how much you would like it. How pretty it would look on you. So she picked it up and stuffed it in her bag before Jesse called her to show something he found. What it was, she still didn't know because all she could think about was how beautiful you would look in that dress. You two had been dating for a couple of months and she thought the gesture would be completely too sappy but she was so head over heels for you she didn't care.

She was practically strumming with excitement as she sat on her couch, a box resting beside her, waiting for you to finally knock on the door. To which she would wait three seconds before opening because she didn't want to seem like she was actually waiting at the door like a love sick puppy. Not that you would have noticed because that was the day you held a cassette tape behind your back, eager to show Ellie your find. She swung the door open to see you beaming back at her.

“The Sick Habit.” You smiled, waiting for Ellie to question your seemingly random statement.

“Why do you and Dina keep calling it that? It's The Slick Habit.” She grinned back at you, stepping aside to let you in.

“Well it doesn't matter because I finally found a tape so you could listen to it.” The small box almost flew out of your hands from how fast you whipped it out. Ellie’s jaw immediately dropped as she walked closer, grabbing the plastic from your hands.

“No fucking way.”

“Yes fucking way because I’m the best girlfriend ever and fucking awesome.” You pointed your fingers in the air in a ‘matter of fact’ kind of way with a shit eating grin plastered on your face.

“Where the hell did you find this?”

“There’s a music store over by the old ski resort, Joel took me by it today on patrol.” You didn't miss the falter in the girl's smile at the mention of her father figure. Ellie moved to the cassette player on the dresser as you sat on the couch, a ribbon tied box tucked in the corner caught your attention before Ellie sat beside you. She distracted you quickly, handing you an ear bud, silly grin of excitement back on her face. You listened but you couldn't say you were paying too much attention because Ellie was sitting so close to you her warm breath danced on your cheek and you were getting hotter and hotter every second. Sure, you guys were dating for sometime now but the butterflies in your stomach everytime you two were close never went away. She glanced over to you, smile still on her face as her head bopped slightly to the music.

“Do you like it?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Your voice wavered, a tad bit breathless but you couldn't help it.

“Okay then why are you looking at me like that?” Her shoulder nudged you.

“You're just… so pretty.” The words left your mouth barely over a whisper, like it was a secret between just you two. Her brows shot up, surprised at the sudden compliment.

“Pretty?” She questioned, hand moving to pull the headphone out her ear as her eyes glossed over your features.

“Yeah pretty.” You leaned forward, elbow resting on your knee as your head laid in your hand now getting a better look at your beautiful girlfriend. “Sorry, does adorable sound better to you?” This earned a laugh from Ellie. “How bout’ cute? Angelic?”

“Angelic - oof, yeah I totally see that.” Sarcasm oozed from her voice and this time it was your turn to laugh.

“Ya’ know when I first saw you I almost asked if it hurt when you fell from heaven.”

“Y/n, If you said that I would have told Maria to kick you out of Jackson.”

You threw your head back, throat bubbling with laughter before your hand flew to your mouth in an attempt to quiet yourself.

“Why do you do that?” Your girlfriend watched you, brows creased like you were some puzzle she couldn't solve.

“Do what?” Her sudden concern made you anxious. Did you do something she didn't like unknowingly? Did it upset her?

“Cover your mouth when you laugh.”

You sputtered a bit, unsure how to answer.

“Stop that.”

“What?”

“Covering your smile. It's cute.” She turned away and you almost missed the soft pink flush of her cheeks.

“What are you so sappy about?”

“Shut up.” She scoffed, a dimple poking out slightly and you adored her soft, smug smile. You decided to joke it off because although you loved telling your girlfriend every single thing you loved about her she wasn't always as verbally lovey dovey with you. Ellie liked to touch you more than she liked to say how she wanted to. She liked pet names. She liked cuddling in the morning. She liked to help you with things you were stressed with. She liked to play the guitar for you. She liked that you enjoyed just sitting next to her sometimes. So what she didn't say she showed and that was your favorite thing about her.

And now she was showing you a box. The same red ribboned wrapped box that was sitting in the corner of the couch before. You were so consumed in your thoughts of admiration of Ellie you didn't even notice her grab it.

“What's this?” You asked and she just pushed the box to you, a small smile on her features. You grabbed it, pulling the strings to let you open it, revealing a piece of clothing. Your eyebrows lifted as your fingers glided across the soft fabric. It was a beautiful dress, one that you would see on the mannequins of seemingly fancy stores. None of them were held together well enough to withstand the harsh conditions of the new world so you never got to wear one but you dreamed of it. And here it was, clamped between your hands, waiting for you to show it off.

“I found it a while ago but I wasn't sure how to give it-'' Ellie stuttered in front of you, fiddling with her fingers like she always does when she's nervous. You immediately soothed her thoughts, wrapping your arms around her neck to pull her in close. Her arms hugged your waist, just like they always do and you wanted to stay here forever.

“Thank you El. It's beautiful.”

The dress fit you perfectly, complimenting your curves in all the right ways even years after wearing it for the first time. Ellie loved that dress on you, the way she looked at you in it gave you a euphoric high. Every single time. And this time was no exception. She stared at you down the street and you were more shocked it was actually her in the flesh. You hadn't seen her in years since the Seattle trip and last you heard about her, she was headed on a suicide mission to Santa Barbara.

You were heading to the church for the spring dance when you saw a glimpse of her familiar frame standing in the middle of the road. You'd been helping Maria set up for the annual dance since her and Tommy broke things off you kinda became her right hand man. Dina came back to Jackson after Ellie left since taking care of an entire farm and raising a baby was understandably too much for one person to handle. Ellie stayed with her after Jesse’s passing to help out but you never could bring yourself to visit them at the farm, still unable to see her again. But you loved Dina so you were more than happy when she decided to come back, eager to help out in any way you could.

The Seattle aftermath was the most painful experience you ever faced. Ellie couldn't stomach coming back to Jackson so after the break up you were more happy than you'd care to admit that she wouldn't step foot here anymore. Her blind rage put more of a mental strain on you than you'd expect but Ellie changed a lot after Joel's death. She wasn't the girlfriend you once had and although you would follow her to the end of the earth you still had boundaries, morals you wouldn't cross and that line blurred for her.

Dina’s face was twisted, full of anger, maybe even disappointment when she told you Ellie left to finish what she couldn't in Seattle. You were angry too but you knew your ex girlfriend well. You knew this wasn't your decision to make, there was no convincing her to rethink and you had no faith she would even listen to you. The only thing you wanted to do - could do was distract yourself. Become completely engulfed in helping other people. Maybe it helped satisfy the need to take the weight off a random person's back since you couldn't do it for the one person who needed it the most. You tried not to think about how Ellie was probably dead, gone for good. You didn't let your mind wander to what you would have said to her if you saw her again. You didn't cry yourself to sleep in your cold bed wishing she was still next to you. Because Ellie wasn't coming back and it took you almost two years to finally come to terms with it.

So to see her staring at you with the same utter admiration sparking in her beautiful green eyes was jarring to say the least. Your head felt like it just got knocked off and screwed on backwards because your thoughts were confusing, feeling happy, relieved, angry, maybe even a little sad but your legs moved on their own. Your body naturally gravitated to her, telling your limbs to wrap their arms around her neck and feel her arms hug your waist like they used to but your brain still felt betrayal, an unsettling feeling to stay far away from her.

“Ellie.” Fell from your lips like you were speaking to a ghost. And she only stared back and you knew she was scared, like any word she muttered was going to have you reeling back so you actually walked this time. Because your body knew that's what it's supposed to do when she made that face. Your body wanted to hold her, make that face go away, replaced with a warm smile. The smile she always gave you.

Ellie watched you step closer, hesitating for a second before taking another step but she was frozen in place. The one person she couldn't forgive herself for for years was standing a couple of yards away from her and she had to catch her breath because for a second there she almost forgot how beautiful you were. You took another step and she watched your dress, the one she gifted you all those years ago, flow in the wind so angelically she actually thought there was a heaven for a second. Another step and she felt a pull to you. A familiar pull because her body naturally wanted to hold you, just like always. And it wasn't until she finally moved her leg, just a little bit and you were running towards her, like that movement was confirmation she was real. She opened her arms and your warm body pressed against her, arms wrapping around her neck and she melted. Everything melted in your hold. Her anxiety, fears, regrets, guilt. All of it disappeared like it was never there to begin with.

And all she could do was mutter “I'm sorry.” as she buried her face in your neck, consumed by your scent.

And all you could do was hold her like she was going to turn into dust if you let go because for the first time in almost two years breathing came easy again.

But your anger didn't just fizzle out the way you thought. You weren't completely healed like you wanted. You couldn't look at the love of your life and say you didn't feel anything. Any hate, any betrayal, any longing or love.

“I couldn’t do it.” You felt her warm tears roll down your nape as she curled into your neck, trembling slightly as you held her and you couldn't hold the lump in your throat down anymore. This Ellie, that was now cradled in your arms, was who you fell in love with. She was soft, felt empathy for the lives she took but more importantly this Ellie here with you now was tired. She was tired of the constant fight with herself. With her past actions, her rage and fury. “It's okay.” Was the only thing you got to muster up the words to say. You didn't know how to comfort her, she'd been through so much shit you felt words didn't penetrate the way they used to. “Joel wouldn't have wanted you to Ellie, it's okay.”

“Yeah.” She muttered between soft sobs, “I know.” Ellie didn't cry much. She was always one to shed tears in private, never to show she wasn't as strong as she tried to be, wanted to be. You felt her grip on you loosen, signaling it was time to let go so you did, pulling back to see her red rimmed eyes and pink nose. God, you missed Ellie so much it almost hurt to see her again as your ex. Her hair was shorter now, cut at weird angles that you figured she did herself and somehow still managed to look amazing. She sent you a ghost of a smile and you noted all the new scars her face wore now. And before either one of you guys could say another word someone called out to you.

You couldn't ignore the way your heart sank as reality came crashing back down, hearing your girlfriend call your name somewhere behind you. It's been almost two years and you didn't want to be alone forever. There was nothing wrong with your current partner. You two communicated well. She was sweet at times. The sex was … good.. enough… okay, closer to below satisfactory. But deep down you knew she was only there to fill in the gaping hole Ellie left in your heart. And you knew no one could ever replace, or replicate the pure love you two had for each other.

But you couldn't just throw what you have now away for someone who left you already.

So you turned to your girlfriend, sniffing and forcing a smile as you raised your arm, welcoming her to the conversation. She stood beside you like she normally does but it felt so wrong. But you wrapped your arm around her like you normally do, and she smiled at you like she always does, like Ellie used to always do.

“This is Lana, my girlfriend.” You swallowed thickly, turning back to see Ellie’s crushed expression. “Lana, meet Ellie.” You chose not to state your relationship status to her. Your partner greeted her with a warm smile, completely oblivious to her past relations with you since she was fairly new to Jackson. “Maria needs you to help finish the prep for the dance.” Lana stated clearly. There was nothing wrong with Lana, she was sweet to you but she was rather strict, maybe a little boring. You nodded before she pulled away promptly, like her loving gesture was a part of a script.

“Have you seen anyone else?” You asked Ellie, who was now fiddling with her fingers again.

“No, I just got here.” She answered. Her voice was soft, barely there, like if she spoke too loud the words would fall apart.

“Dina and Maria are inside.” You threw a hand back towards the general direction of the church. “If you want to talk to them you can come with me. We can catch up after I finish helping.” A small, forced smile played on Ellie’s face at your last words. You wanted to talk to Ellie so bad. There were so many things you wanted to say, things you wanted to know, but the only questioned that blared in your head was;

Why did she leave when she promised she never would?

You gripped Ellie’s freezing hand as the cold white snow crushed underneath your steps and she sent you a worried look before you pushed the church doors open. You two had been dating for the past two weeks and almost no one knew about it. Not that you needed everyone to know but Ellie had just confessed to feeling uneasy to be seen with you in public, unsure on how people would take it, or maybe how a certain person would take it. To which you replied ‘They have bigger fish to fry than two girls kissing.’

But here you were, walking into the winter dance, hand in hand with the love of your life and you couldn't be more proud. You smiled brightly enough for the both of you as the live music filled your ears and the warm string lights lit your face. You turned to Ellie, who’s look of doubt melted into a smile before turning back to see Dina and Jesse standing at the bar which you two made a beeline for.

“If it isn’t Jackson's new love birds.” Jesse joked, already passing Ellie a cup filled with whiskey, just how she likes it.

“Please, I had to give her a pep talk before we even held hands here.” You scoffed, waving your intertwined fingers in the air and earning a laugh from Dina.

“You guys are so cute. I like you way better than that Cat chick.” Dina half joked.

“I knew you didn't like her!” Ellie finally spoke.

“I'm taking that as a compliment.” You threw your free hand up.

“Trust me it is.” Dina leaned in close, a beautiful smile playing on her face and you couldn't help smiling brighter yourself.

“No it's not.” Ellie started again.

“Don't defend your ex. Learned that the hard way.” Jesse, thankfully, cut her off before she could dig herself a hole. You laughed watching her mouth drop and her face twist defensively before she sighed in defeat, taking a swig of her drink.

The only time you let go of her hand was when Dina invited you to dance, which you gladly took now that you had some alcohol in your system making your body feel loose. Ellie was too busy talking to Jesse about some new video game he found on patrol so you slipped away from her with a reassuring smile.

Dina always danced like no one was watching. She always moved so freely it was honestly relieving to be around her. And it helped that she was so supportive of you and Ellie's relationship. You laughed and twirled with her until your sides hurt and her face was red from laughing so hard. And maybe because you two were so rowdy the band played a slow song next and everyone around broke off into cuddled up couples.

So now here you were, standing in front of Ellie again as she leaned on the bar, smiling to you and you smiled back, reaching for her hand. She watched you, pure admiration on her face as you asked an empty question. “Wanna’ dance?” But you dragged her to the dance floor before she could answer, moving her arm to wrap around your waist and draping yours over her shoulders.

“Okay, which couple do you think is gonna’ last to the next dance?” Your smile grew as the question fell from your lips and Ellie scoffed.

“Definitely not Robbie and Caitlyn.” She nodded her head to the couple swaying awkwardly together, like their parents forced them to dance and you giggled.

“What? I can't see that at all.” Your voice oozed with sarcasm as you glanced around the room, searching for your next suspect. “I think Margot and Keith won't make it.”

“Aren't they married with a kid?”

“Well sure.” You laughed and she chuckled a bit. “I had a dream a while ago that he was gay and in love with Seth.”

“That sounds like a nightmare.” A belly laugh erupted from your lips, making you double over, pressing your forehead on Ellie's shoulder as you giggled and she joined in.

You couldn't describe the feeling you felt at that moment. Excited to be so in love with your fairly new girlfriend so quickly. Sure you guys were super close before but to now be together. It was a completely different feeling altogether. To be overwhelmed with the urge to protect and care for her. But to also be scared. So scared you'd lose her. Scared the world might steal her from you. Scared you wouldn't be enough to care for her, fulfill all her needs that you wanted more than anything to satisfy. Because being with Ellie gave you a whole new meaning to life. A new meaning that you never wanted to let go of.

And she was here holding you like she'd never let go. Your eyes met hers as her face melted into a look of longing but appreciative and you fell into the trance of her big mesmerizing green eyes. Your heart felt like it was going to crawl up your throat when she made the move to slightly lean into you. You knew what was coming, it was about damn time honestly. You and Ellie had been best friends for so long, secretly pining for each other so the sexual tension was enough to clear the room but both of you guys were too shy, too timid, too afraid to fuck up to make the first move. But you were tired of waiting.

Your hand cupped her jaw, guiding her lips to yours as you swallowed down the nervous jitters that were about to hurl out your mouth. Ellie didn't waste any time either, pulling your hips close to hers as she closed the distance, lips meeting yours in the most delightful way possible. It felt like the entire room went silent; the only sound was your heartbeat matching hers. If you were honest, you wish you could have paid more attention to how soft her lips were or how her hand ran up your spine as she tilted her head to deepen the kiss. The only thing you could think about was how perfect she was. How perfect you two were together. How she would forever bear your soul as she was now forever engraved in your heart. And you wanted nothing more than to stay by her side, no matter how painful it may be.

You pulled back, the sound of your lips smacking apart filling your ears as you stared back at her, smile tugging at the ends of her mouth.

One look at her and you could feel it, so passionate and full of fire it could burn the entire room down.

It's us against the world.

Ellie fingers grazed the bare skin of your lower back, the parts that your dress exposed. She watched you, studying your expression, trying her hardest to figure out what you were thinking in a moment like this.

You had finished the prep for the dance some time ago and Ellie had talked to both Maria and Dina before retreating to the bar to have a drink. You didn't know what her intentions were for coming back to Jackson but you decided to just enjoy her company while she was here and resume your normal life once she inevitably left.

Ellie's eyes trailed to you, watching as you spoke to your girlfriend, which pained her to acknowledge but she couldn't stop you from living your life however you wished. Sure, it was a little surprising but she shouldn't be feeling the twing of betrayal that was festering in her gut. Not after what she put you through, betrayal was the last thing she should be feeling right now. Her eyes darted to watch the brown liquid swirl in the cup cradled in her hand before taking another gulp, desperate to take her mind off the guilty feeling.

Across the room your girlfriend was telling you some shit that you could care less about. The relationship was so stale you could honestly break up with her right now. But you knew that'd be reckless. With Ellie in town your heart tugged to who it knew best, who it longed for but your mind knew you liked to remember the good parts. Forget the things you didn't want to acknowledge. The painful subjects that tarnished the relationship.

It still puzzled you; how you could be so madly in love with someone and become a stranger with them again. How your everything could say the things they said, act the way they acted, be unable to fix things because she was the glue that put you back together so you couldn't wrap your head around how the two of you couldn't fix this.

And it burned a hole in Ellie’s head ever since it happened. The scene playing over and over again that shattered the one thing she still had in life. You. She regretted the words she said more than anything but as she watched you now, mending yourself back together from knives she threw, it crossed her mind that maybe you guys weren't supposed to be together. Because you were so perfect to her, she felt her rage and grief ridden anger pour into your soul. And she wanted nothing more than to stop it, get away from you to keep you the pure angel she always knew, untainted by her past.

Maybe that's why she left that night to Seattle with Dina without telling you.

But now you were back in her arms. Because you dragged her to the dance floor, hand in hand like lovers at the winter dance, getting ready to share their first kiss. And you wrapped her arms around your waist as you leaned in close, and Ellie finally felt like she was home again. In almost two years she finally felt at peace in your arms.

“Guess who lasted?” You smiled at her, knowing she'd remember your running joke.

“Don't tell me Keith and Seth made it work out.” Her smile reflected yours, which was growing in size by the second. And as much as you didn't want to admit it, being back in Ellie’s arms was the most safe you'd felt in a really long time.

Your mouth dropped like Ellie had just told the most shocking secret of all time. “Ellie! Keith is happily married to Caitlyn! With kids! Get your mind out of the gutter!” You giggled, swaying to the music of the band and she also joined in, just like she used it. But her smile didn't quite reach her eyes, like she was holding on to something that wouldn't let her be happy. You studied her face again, wanting to burn it in your mind because after you two broke up you spent so much time trying to get rid of her face you forgot how beautiful it was.

“I really missed you, Y/n.” Ellie spoke softly but the words still felt like daggers. And she knew that she shouldn't be saying that but she really did miss you. So much.

“Ellie, what are you doing here?” You asked, ignoring the painful statement she just made and the swaying of your hips together slowed.

“I uh,” She paused, eyes darting around the room as she chewed the inside of her lip for a second. “I forgot something here. Something really important.”

“How important can it be if you left it for so long?” You questioned taking a guess on what she could have possibly left for almost two years.

“More important than she probably thinks she is.”

“Ellie,” You sighed now that she confirmed exactly what you were thinking and your heart sunk to your gut, swimming in the pool of emotions. “What do you want from me? I'm not going to leave all of this behind just because you missed me. That's not even fair.” You felt the anger bubbling in your throat, the painful memories of your breakup flooding your mind.

“I-” Ellie sputtered for a moment, desperately trying to search for the right words. “I'm not asking you to leave with me, Y/n. I just wanted to see you again.” Your arms fell from her shoulders, hands resting on her biceps that you could tell were more toned than you remembered.

“You don't get to do this Ellie. You can't just waltz back here saying ‘I miss you’ n’ shit when it's been years.” You tried to keep your voice hushed so the other couples swaying to the slow music around you couldn't hear but it was getting harder and harder by the second. Her hands fell from your waist and you took a step back. You glanced back at your girlfriend to see her bored, stale, unamused look on her face that never seems to leave and you felt absolutely no sense of comfort from it. It wasn't like looking at Ellie, you always felt an overwhelming sense of home when you looked at her but with your girlfriend you never felt that.

So you let your legs lead you. You walked, heart pounding out of your chest as your mind ran a million miles a minute. And you kept walking, feeling the wind brush your exposed legs, as gravel crushed under your heels.

Leave it up to Ellie to casually stroll back into your life after you finally mended your broken heart, like she just went out for a morning jog. Casually letting her arms wrap around your waist as she whispered sweet nothings into your ear like you two were lovers again. Knowing that you were always weak for her and you'd always be. You'd always be wrapped around her finger and her wrapped on yours. Because you two were soulmates, spirits wandering the earth waiting to finally meet each other and being inseparable ever since.

Up until Joel’s passing.

And your legs stopped, planting you at the cold, hard grave of Joel Miller, Jesse’s grave only a couple spots down. You sighed, hearing the tale tell footsteps of Ellie behind you.

Your lungs crushed as you frantically looked around for an exit as you walked close to the edge of the bombed store in the mall, overrun with WLFs. You glanced back to see Ellie, wide eyed and dripping with water before you pointed.

“Okay it's this way. We can get to the marina through here.”

“What? No, we're taking their boat.” Ellie shook her head before pointing back at the direction you assumed their boat was.

“You heard them right? They were talking about Tommy.”

She paused for a moment, eyes flickering between yours as she tried to rationalize her train of thought. “We don't know that.”

“Who else is it going to be?” Your voice dipped to speak in hushed tones as your brows furrowed.

“If it is him, he'd be gone by the time we get there. Abby is where he's headed so if we just-”

“Ellie, what if he's in trouble? We came here to get him.”

“He can take care of himself.”

“Jesus christ.”

“If you want to split up fine but if you do this, I'm not saving your ass again.”

“Are you serious right now? You would let me die over a fuckinh boat? You've got to be kidding me.” At the time you didn't know those words would sting as bad as they did, burning themselves into your memories. And you waited, hoping, praying Ellie would take it back. She'd say 'That's not what I meant.’ or ‘I didn't mean it like that.’ but they ever came. She only shrugged, face twisted like you was just supposed to be okay with that, almost baffled that you weren't.

“What the fuck.” You walked back, pacing for a second before she finally spoke up.

“Y/n, we should be going for Abby and you know it.”

“Dina is fucking pregnant Ellie! We have to go back to Jackson and you know it.”

She groaned, irritation growing quickly with the time ticking and opportunities going down the drain. “I don't have time for this.”

“You just said you'd let me die for a fucking boat.” You said breathlessly because there was no way she didn't deny it. You almost refused to believe she didn't take it back.

“You're just going to let her get away with it?” You looked up at Ellie, her expression grim. “She fucking killed Joel.”

“I want her dead as much as you do Ellie but you have to prioritize.” You walked up to her, your cold hands reaching out to grip her arms, hoping that might ground her. “You know I would follow you everywhere you go, to the moon and back, but are you going to put your friends life at risk - shit, your fucking girlfriend’s life at risk for revenge? Think about everyone you've hurt so far. The people we've killed already. If you keep going-”

“I don't care.”

Ellie’s sanity was slipping faster and faster, replaced by the pure fury of revenge. You knew why she wanted, so badly, to avenge Joel's death. You knew, but that didn't mean you could toss aside your morals and you honestly didn't think Ellie would either. The fact was; it was eating her alive and you could tell. Ellie would never put getting to Abby over your life. It was always you and her against the world and before this you thought you'd do anything for her and she was testing those limits. Part of you felt guilty, like you weren't doing enough but Ellie was on a path of fire, burning down everything she touched in her rage and you've never seen that side of her. You've never seen this side of her.

It was kinda hot for a while, watching her kill ruthlessly added fuel to your fire once you and Jesse caught up to them on the second day. Then it dipped into just being attractive to watch her, till she wasn't doing it to protect you anymore. The times where she would get so wrapped up in killing as many WLFs as possible, releasing her anger and paying no mind to where you were, then it started to get concerning. She was losing her purpose and right now proved it.

It was sad to watch honestly. It pained you knowing there was nothing you could say to get her to open her eyes to what she's doing. Nothing. You sighed, looking back at the boat and knowing how many people she’d have to kill to get it and you couldn't do it anymore. The last three WLFs begged for their life as you slit their throat and you watched one of them on their knees, crying, pleading, over and over and over, for Ellie to let them go. And she did it anyway.

You sighed, letting your hands cup her cheeks, hers met your wrists and you both knew what had just happened. Her cold eyes met yours as they melted, tears rimming her big round eyes but not enough to fall. You swallowed down the lump in your throat before you spoke again.

“Okay.” Your voice came out soft, trembling slightly. “I really hope you make it.” On the surface it seemed like you were wishing her well, hoping she was coming back to you alive and safe but you both knew she was losing herself. You hoped Ellie would make it through whatever hell she was bound to be faced with.

But Ellie never came back to you after Seattle. She was never really herself again, no matter how much you two tried to work it out she was just a shell of her former self. But you truly believed she was your soulmate and you'd still do anything for her, so you two tried. You tried so hard to let go of what happened in Seattle but it always felt like the relationship was strained, like a ticking time bomb.

A couple of days after Seattle, after you buried Jesse’s body, you and Ellie finally talked. And maybe it wasn't exactly the right time for a talk since she was too busy harboring all the guilt for the Seattle trip and you were mourning the loss of one of your best friends, survivor's guilt lingering in the shadows of your mind. But you two hadn’t spoken to each other since you got back and the air was always tense when you guys were together. Ellie didn't sleep at your place like she did when Joel died, because that was the only place she could actually get some rest for the first couple nights. Instead she stayed at Dina’s house, nursing her back to health and helping out with the pregnancy. You visited a couple of times but the aura around you two changed, now off-putting and uncomfortable, so you only came when she wasn't there.

Ellie had showed up to your house exactly four days after you guys got back, her face grim and lifeless, all the color drained from her cheeks and you could tell she hadn't been sleeping, not that you had much luck either.

“Me and Dina are leaving Jackson.” She announced to you and all you could do was blink at her.

“Do you want me to come?” You settled on asking, secretly hoping the answer you were anticipating didn't come.

“I think we need some time to ourselves.” She answered slowly like that was going to make the we-are-officially-breaking-up blow any softer. “I just can't think straight here. It's too painful.”

“Painful around me?” You rolled your tongue inside your cheek, avoiding eye contact with her.

“Painful - around everything.”

“Okay.” Your eyes burned from the tears that were threatening to roll down your face but you were tired of crying. You were tired of feeling so awful all the time.

“I love you Y/n.” Ellie started and you glanced to the floor, sniffing hard and biting down on the inside of your lip because for whatever reason that made it feel like you still had control of something. “Yeah,” The word fell from your lips and you swore they weren't even yours. “I know.” Your voice shaky as you finally made eye contact with her red rimmed ones. She wasn't crying so you swallowed back your tears, blinking them away.

“I hope you find what you're looking for Ellie.” Was the last thing you said to her and you thought maybe it's for the best. Maybe you were wrong and she wasn't your soulmate. Maybe she was just put in your life to teach you what love really was and if that was the case she did her job, and she did it extremely well.

Because you loved her so much you almost hated her.

So maybe that's why you felt so confused when you saw her again. Maybe that's why your thoughts were a whirlpool of emotions that left you feeling everything all at once, after not having to put much thought into everything else, helping people, doing what Maria asked of you, dating the most bland woman on planet earth. It was all easy, so simple you didn't have to think anymore. Ellie coming back into your life made you think. It made all of those wonderful, exhilarating moments where you felt the most alive you've ever felt rush back into your mind. But right now you didn't want to think. You wanted to know.

“Did you ever find it?” You asked, seemingly to the open air around you as your fingers grazed the cold concrete of the grave labeled ‘Joel Miller’.

“Yeah.” Ellie's voice called back and you turned around to finally meet her pained eyes again. She truly had the most mesmerizing face you've ever seen, even when it's twisted so joylessly.

“Was it worth it? Are you happy?” The questions came rushing out your mouth like a broken dam, releasing all the blood from the open wounds she left.

“No.” She stepped closer, “I should of never left you Y/n, I'm sorry. I just couldn't do it, I couldn't face you after Seattle.” You chewed on the inside of your cheek as you pondered if you really wanted to ask your next question.

“Do you still love me?” You couldn't look at her. You couldn't look at the face of who you longed for, for years, and ask if they loved you because you really couldn't tell if you wanted to know that answer. You didn't know how you'd react if she said no. Truthfully, you knew fully how much it would shatter your soul but the question was already in the air and the seconds that passed felt like hours before she responded.

“There wasn't a day that passed that I didn't think of you. I love you so much, you can't even understand.” Ellie spoke and her voice faltered a bit.

“You know what's crazy? I would toss everything I've built, the things I love, to be by your side again.” This time tears really did start running down your cheeks and you remembered, strangely enough, how warm they are. How warm tears hold enough comfort to make you unravel, feeling bare and vulnerable by a simple stream of water on your cheek.

“You shouldn't do that. I shouldn't of come here. You have a life. It was selfish of me to-”

“But I want to. I want to leave with you. I would want nothing more than to leave with you right here, right now Ellie.” You spoke but emotions are such a strange thing, your tears started rolling faster, so fast you had to take a second to catch your breath. “I spent so much time trying to forget about you, get your face outta’ my head, stop having those stupid words repeat over and over. And for some reason as soon as I saw you again it was like my body just knew.”

Ellie’s warm, familiar hand rested on your shoulder and you turned back to her, letting your body step close. Her arms wrapped around you, like they always do, and you melted in her hold, like you always do. She sniffed against you and you thought about how this world is cruel and unfair but you would run around it twice to just stay here in Ellie’s arms.

“Where are you planning on going?” Your voice was muffled into her shoulder.

“I don't know. Anywhere but here.” She let out a tight, airy laugh.

“So we're just gonna roam the earth together?”

“I don't really care where we go as long as you're with me.”

“Did Santa Barbara make you more sappy or something?” You laughed, leaning away from her to see her pink flushed cheeks which only made you laugh even more. You'd think after you travel all this way to see your lover again you wouldn't get flustered so easily but that was Ellie. It's always been Ellie.

“Oh come on, it's been like two years since I've seen you!” Her smooth, soft laughter filled the air along with yours. “So uh, what about Lana?”

“I doubt she'd even noticed I ran off with you.” Your stomach twisted thinking about the aftermath of the reckless stunt you were about to pull with Ellie but at this point you didn't even care.

“Really? She seems a little - uh-,”

“Strict? Boring? Stickler for the rules?” You cheesed, already knowing Ellie’s thoughts, not that it was that hard to figure out.

“How did you even end up with her?” She chuckled, letting her arms fall from your back as she turned back to the graveyard.

“I dunno, a distraction maybe? She’s got nothing on you though.”

“Well I could of told you that.”

“So what stopped you? In Santa Barbara, I mean. With Abby.” You asked and she sighed, visibly slouching as she looked over Joel's grave again.

“I thought if I killed her I could finally forgive myself. I mean- she was hanging on a fucking pillar and I was still thinking about how if I do this, I can finally come back to Jackson, finally sleep, or talk about Joel again. Or get to see you.” A soft, nostalgic smile rested on her lips before she frowned again. “I dunno’. Back in Seattle you looked at me, like you didn't even recognize me and on the beach I thought about Joel. He used to tell me,” She started waving her hands around. “Things happen and we move on.’ and I would think about how stupid that was.”

You wanted to make a comment about how impulsive she was for not listening to the wise old man's words, or how you wanted to murder Tommy when you were told he went to tell Ellie where Abby was, but you sat quietly instead, nodding your head to encourage her to keep talking. “But he was right. Things happen and we move on because if you don't, you'll never recognize yourself again. Would of been nice for him to add that part on, maybe I would of listened.” She scoffed.

“No you wouldn't.” You smiled, a short chuckle falling from your lips.

“I said maybe.” Her smile reflected yours.

“You still haven't learned your lesson of wearing canvas sneakers in the snow.’

“It happened like, twice.”

“El, it happened like five times. I know because I was a little impressed your toes didn't have frostbite. “

“Well, be prepared to be even more impressed because I lost my boots a while ago.”

“Oh my god. We are finding you another pair.”

“I think I've been doing pretty well so far.”

“What is wrong with you?” Your cheeks hurt from how hard you were smiling and you watched, under the soft light of the lamp post, Ellie’s unforgettable dimple pop out for the first time in forever.

You honestly couldn't understand love. You couldn't understand how someone could be so perfect for you in all the right ways and still leave them because of the small things. You couldn't understand how for some reason, some strange, bizarre, stupid reason it was all worth it. Everything you and Ellie went through, the aftermath, the experiences, the tears, the adrenaline rush, the fall, the arguments, the makeups, the makeouts, it all had this way of twisting the dark, cruel world around you and turning it into the most beautiful, breathtaking place. Because that's what love did. It confused you. It made you think. It changed you, in ways you couldn't imagine.

And there was a girl feeling the same exact way you were, although she would never say it but you knew her like the back of your hand. Which was weird because humans are supposed to be unpredictable, but for whatever reason you always knew Ellie. You always understood her. You always wanted to stay by her side.

“Promise to stay by my side?” Your hand met hers, fingers curling in between hers and she smiled back at you.

“Always.” Her other hand reached for your cheek as she placed a quick, sweet kiss to your forehead because she knew you always loved those.

“I’ll never leave you again.”

I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as i did, truly one of my favorites lol. Also i feel like Ellie really isn't one of much words, hence why she journals all the time so with that being said i didn't know how much she would really say about her thought process in SB???? Bc i could fully go into a essay about that chapter but i doubt she would actually tell ppl about it? Idk just an observation. Sorry theres no smut in this one, kinda wasn't the right time lol but im working on a couple :))

#ellie williams x reader #ellie tlou #ellie williams #ellie tlou2 #the last of us #the last of us x reader #tlou #tlou2 #tlou fanfic

[tommyspeakycap]

biggest mistake

mason made a mistake months ago. he's determined as ever to make things right.

At first, you thought avoiding the places that he might be was doing what was best for both of you to save hurt on either side. You never ever wanted to hurt him, but it became apparent that he wasn't struggling enough with the break up to feel any pain upon seeing you. When you walk into a bar with his friends who were once yours friends and he’s sitting there, laughing with his arm around a long legged brunette, head tipped back at whatever had been said. Instead of letting him see you, you just turned and walked back out the door.

Now it was fully your benefit, hiding from him. You didn't want to see him with another woman, arms tight around her or pressing kisses to her cheek like he used to do with you. You didn't want to see him, completely fine from something that was tearing you apart more each and every day.

People kept telling you she was just a fling to help him get over you, but he certainly seemed a lot more than happy to crack on with his life without you in it while you struggle to even find your footing without him by your side. A lot of your heart had been debating going home, finding somewhere to live back in home so you wouldn't have to be faced with him everywhere you felt like you did living in the city that he brought you to.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

Your head snaps around in surprise, eyes landing on the concerned face of your best friend. Unaware of how long you had been spaced out, you shrug your shoulders and shake you head to try to bring you back to reality a little bit. "Yeah," you mumble, "I'm fine."

John frowns despite your answer. "You don't look fine." He counters, a little harshly in the way that only best friends can really manage to get spot on. "In fact you look awful, no offence. You look really ill. Have you been sleeping? Eating?"

His concern is evident, intensified only by the way that you avoid his eyes at the question and seem to drift off back into your own mind. The brunette isn't sure what you're thinking about and honestly if he asked, you wouldn't know what to say because you don't ever really know what it is that is occupying so much of your mind. "Been feeling quite sick," you mutter, shrugging the question off as you try to turn back to the uni work on your laptop.

"What kind of sick?" He presses, making you furrow your brows and shrug once again. "I dunno Stones?" You grumble, "Like I don't have any appetite, everything I eat seems to come back up because I'm so sad and anxious because I thought I was going to be with that man for the rest of my life and he cheated on me, left me and moved on already, kind of sick." You bleat, tears wetting your eyes despite your desire to sound harsh.

“I’m sorry love,” he comforts, patting your knee gently, “I really wish there was something i could do to help you. Please?”

You just shake your head. “Just need some time to myself, if that’s okay?” You mumble. Your best friend nods, unable to think of anything else to say or any way to comfort you. You’ve been in absolute pieces since you found out about Mason with that other girl and now to see that he’s still with her is just all the more painful. It’s clear she was the one he loved and it was actually you who was the one who never mattered to him.

He does leave your little apartment - albeit begrudgingly. That little apartment that’s completely bare because you only moved in two weeks ago after living with John in Manchester for two months post finding a woman in the bed you shared at home with your boyfriend of the past three years. But poor John leaves feeling almost as hurt as you are, chest aching at the thought of you laying in bed distraught.

Part of you wanted to know if Mason had told any of them the truth. You wanted to know if his mother and sister knew that you had caught him cheating or if they still thought of him as their perfect Mason. Would he have lied? Did they hate you? You couldn't know, you got rid of your phone that night and took up a new number a week later, so you never got any of those old texts and Mason had no way to reach you. You wonder what those friends think, the ones you met through him and thought had really actually been your friends as opposed to only people who put up with you because you were his girlfriend. Maybe he told them you cheated on him or maybe he asked they not to. Maybe they never liked you.

It was pure personal torture every minute of your waking hours.

~~~~~

"Up and at 'em!"

Your eyes peel open quickly, leaving you startled and discombobulated as you attempt to tug your duvet back up your body only to find its being pulled in the opposite direction. "It's final day, (y/n). Up!" Someone chants, pulling open your curtains and letting the light stream in much to your very dismay.

"What the fuck," you mumble groggily, sleep coating your voice as you sling your arm over your face to make an attempt at replicating the darkness provided by your blackout curtains. The crease of your elbow creates mild cover, but nothing like what you had before and now without your duvet, you know there’s no way you’re getting back to sleep. “Leave me be.” You grumble tiredly.

“Not a chance,” the voice chides, “It’s final day and we are going.” At that, you finally actually open your eyes, craning your neck to see who had infiltrated your home. Lauren is standing at the foot of your bed with her hands on her hips, one holding onto what looks like a white England shirt. “Aha!” You snort, rolling back over onto your front. “Never in a million years.”

The sound of another pair of shoes approaching makes your eyebrows furrow against your pillow. “My brothers an idiot, but this is one of the biggest games of his career and I know you don’t actually to miss this.” Mason’s sisters voice comes, making you shoot up to a seated position in your bed. “No, but i really do.” You lament. “And how did you two even get in here?” You cock an eyebrow as you swing your legs over the side of your bed and plant your feet into your slippers to shuffle out your room with Lauren and Jas behind you.

“You left a spare key under the mat (y/n), you’re as predictable as they come.” Lauren shrugs, but you know for a fact John would have told Declan that and Declan would have told her about where you keep your spare key in the event that you accidentally lock yourself (which you often do) while going to take your rubbish down.

Mason’s sister had gotten back in touch with you recently, hoping she had left you an alright amount of time to calm down after the breakup to get back in contact and while you were thankful for the support she had given to you, she couldn’t be any more wrong about you wanting to go to this game. “Now come on, we bought you a shirt. Dec offered to send one but figured you’d prefer this.” Lauren offers, holding out the shirt to you. “Shower and get dressed. We can have lunch and then-”

“No.” You deadpan, offering a false, snippy smile while you throw closed the door of your fridge. “Come on (y/n).” Jas tries, picking the shirt up off the chair you’d discarded it over. “No.” You repeat. “I don’t want to see him at all, he won’t want to see me either. It’s really not worth it. And i won’t wear that either, we’re not together. I really appreciate you guys for thinking of me but i really don’t want this and i’m not just being bashful.” You sigh, feeling their eyes burning into you as you pour out your orange juice into a glass.

“Fine.” Jas says, “Don’t come for Mason, but come and wear that shirt.” She tries, her voice as convincing as she can get it. “I already-“

“Just look it it will you!”

You whip around finally, looking at her holding out the white shirt. It wasn’t Mason’s England number and it wasn’t his surname that was decorated in red across the back. It was Stones and it was the number 5 branded across there.

“He’s been like your brother since you were five.” Jas says, “And he won’t say it because he knows that you’re still in agony about Mason, but he really really wants you there. Mason said he hasn’t stopped talking about you all week, he’s constantly on Mason’s back about what he did to you and i know you don’t want to hear it but he really wants to talk to you about it. If you’d give him the chance?” She begs. Her eyes that look so much like Mason’s are genuinely pleading with you, and somewhere deep in your heart you feel a warmth just thinking about John defending you and standing up for you even and especially when you aren’t there. It’s just John.

John who put you up in his house, made sure you were eating properly and held you through that first two months of the absolute worst heartbreak you had ever known. John who had helped you move in all day. John who had driven to London at every opportunity to make sure you are alright.

You owed nothing to Mason, but you owe the absolute world to John.

That’s exactly how you ended up the stands with that England shirt on, hugging all those people you haven’t seen in so long and sending John a text with a picture of your view to surprise him with that fact you actually came. His happiness even through text was confirmation that you had made the right decision. John really was like your older brother.

It was when you spotted Mason that you were contemplating the decision. You don’t know if he saw you, but the second he was no longer hidden by the tunnel, he was all that you could see in an arena full of tens of thousands of people. It was like everything else around you had become a blur and your eyes could solely and only focus on him for the entire game.

And then they lost and if your heart wasn’t broken before (and it most certainly was), then broken didn’t cover the feeling you had. Because despite it all, despite the woman he fucked in your bed and and the stupidity he had in not chasing after you when you left him; you still belonged wholly and fully to him. That’s why you’ve never recovered. It’s why you still sleep half the day and refuse fo see anyone who was once in that part of your life. Everybody knows exactly how you still feel about him, everybody. You knew this very thing would happen when you laid eyes on him again and that’s why you were intent to stay away from him as long as possible.

Life is truly never really in your favour, though.

“Thought i might find you here.”

Your heart suddenly lurches up, slamming into your ribcage and making you lose your breath for the moment simply at the sound of his voice. It was so familiar yet so, so different.

So welcomed.

You turn to look at him, eventually patting the red seat next to you. “Finally got past bodyguard Stonesy, then?” You joke awkwardly, fiddling with your fingers the way Mason knows you do when you’re nervous. He wants so desperately to reach out and cup your hands in his to stop them from shaking the way they do right now. He wishes he was still the one able to soothe you. “Not easy,” Mason jests back, that same level of static nervousness ever present in his tone as it was yours. “But i don’t think he could stand up right now even if he wanted to, legs are dead.” He tries to lighten the mood, but neither of you actually laugh, just two empty people with two empty grins.

Silence falls between the two empty hearts, lips pressed in firm lines with neither wanting to take the chance of the next words. They dance on the tip of your tongue, your heart wanting you to spill every little detail of the pain he caused you while simultaneously begging for him to take it away as your mind battled with rational thought to keep quiet, keep reserved, give him nothing. Let him talk to you first.

“I’m so sorry for what i did to you, (y/n).”

His voice is full of emotions that you can’t even begin to pick out. He says it like a confession, like one he’s been holding onto for a very long time desperate to get off his chest to relieve the weight that’s been suffocating him since the day you walked out the door. His second worst mistake was kissing that girl, taking her back to the home he shared with you and kissing her on the bed you shared and then his biggest mistake, but the worst one he ever made was not chasing after you. Not running out into the street, not persisting and forcing the two of you to work this out.

He’d had an earful from John, over and over and over again. About how stupid he had been, but how he never lost his chance if he just goes after you. John knows you better than anyone, so the fact that he actually did allow Mason to come out here and be within five feet of you after how he broke you meant that he really had to try. Mason is still so in love with you and the reason he did what he did was pure stupidity, pure egotistical level stupidity that he can’t even believe he achieved.

“I have no words for it,” he admits, shaking his head. “What i did was disgusting, i hurt you in a way i never ever wanted to do. And i know-” he hangs his head, shaking it shame as he takes a deep breath to collect himself. “I’m still in love with you. I’ve been in love with you since the day i met you and i’ve been in love with you every day since. I love you every second of every minute of every day. I love you when i wake up in the morning and i love you when i go to sleep. I love you so much i almost don’t even want you to take me back because i did the worst thing to you that a person could ever do. But i’m here, begging you and i will get down on my knees, but i am begging you to please give me another chance. I will do whatever it takes, every day for the rest of my life to prove myself to you. Please.”

His eyes are full of tears when they finally look back to you. Your heart thunders in your chest in tears slip down over your cheeks. Those shaky hands ride up, cupping his face and smoothing your thumbs over his cheeks to swipe off the tears.

Your voice is shaky, but your words are sure when you say, “Mason, I still love you too.” And your lips crash onto his. The moment spent holding onto each other for dear life is one that only lasts a few moments before the bubble is popped by the voice of a loud Barnsley boy with one eyebrow cocked and his strong arms crossed over his chest.

“Happy for you mate!” He calls down, words aimed at Mason. “But if you ever hurt her again, I’ll come after you.”

Mason will certainly heed that warning, but he never intends to do anything but made you happy ever, ever again in his life.

#mason mount x reader #mason mount imagine #mason mount imagines #mason mount fic #footie fics #football fics #footballer fics #football imagines #footballer imagines #england national team imagines

[aedan-mills]

CONGRATS ON 700 BESTIE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE TO THE CHAMERON FANS 🎉✨for the chameron drabble requests: “i don’t know okay! maybe i just like your stupid face. and your stupid laugh… maybe i just… like you… moron.”

(you can totally change it up a little if you find something that works better :D)

aksldjlaskjd I miss answering your asks bestie lkajsdlkjasd hmmm how do i keep this short tho hahah

Moron (Chameron Ficlet)

Charlie was insufferable, an annoying pain in the ass (to be redundant), and incredibly intrusive when it came to being a roommate. Richard Cameron is unfortunately the one who had to share a room with him this year. He should've anticipated it especially since Charlie and Neil's reign of being the noisiest room had to come to an end. But never did Cameron think he'd be stuck rooming with someone like Charlie.

Charlie's been incessantly bugging Cameron, every damn night. Be it his music, his personally intrusive questions, times he doesn't understand what personal space was, Cameron was getting really sick of it. He wasn't sure if this was some type of powerplay, or just a pastime for him, but Cameron did not have time for someone to treat him this way.

One late night, when Cameron decided to study in their room alone, Charlie chose to stick around again. Cameron wanted to contest his roommate's choice but the other Poets have gone ahead to the cave and it'd been long past lights out. Cameron was studious, that's why he stayed behind. But whatever reason Charlie had to stay behind was beyond Cameron's understanding.

"Hey, Cam. Why dontcha give it a rest? It's late. Maybe we can still catch up with the others."

"No, Charlie. Unlike some people, I actually want to get good grades without any help from others."

"Geez, for a smartass, you could be a real moron sometimes..." Charlie muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Cameron glared at him.

"What? I didn't say anything! Dumbass..."

"That's IT-- CHARLIE, CAN YOU NOT BE A JERK RIGHT NOW?"

"Woah, Cam, I-I'm sorry-" Charlie's taken aback by Cameron's snarl.

"No, Charlie, because I'm sick of you always picking on me, messing with me, and especially bugging me while I'm trying to study!"

"Wait Cam--"

"Why the hell do you insist on staying behind? Is it to torture me? Is this funny to you Dalton?!"

"No! I--" Charlie stood up, his shoulders up like he was on guard as he backed away from Cameron.

"What is it, Charlie? You hate me? Am I your favorite victim to berate? To annoy? Why are you like this to me, Charlie?! Why do you keep--"

"I don't know, okay?! M-maybe I just like your stupid face when you're angry... and your stupid laugh when I make a bad joke… maybe... Maybe I just… like you… moron." Charlie looked away for a second, the embarrassment seeping into his cheeks. He looked back at Cameron, whose face was also burning and red.

"Y-you... You like me?"

"Y-yeah? You have a problem with that?"

"But.. you're always so mean and--"

"I dunno what to do, okay?! I've never really had a huge crush on anyone before-- Y'know, this felt like a playground crush situation-"

"So your solution was to piss me off every chance you got?!"

"I didn't know what else to do, Cam-- You make me so damn dumb all the time-- It's like when you're around, my brain stops working and my heart goes apeshit when it's near you. Cam-- I dunno, okay?!"

Cameron looks up at him, still sitting from his desk chair. Charlie covered his eyes like he was on the verge of tears, uncharacteristically nervous and confused.

"I- I really like you Cam, and I don't know what to do with this information."

Cameron pries Charlie's hands away from his face, now standing close to him.

"Charlie... Y'know... You could have just been nice to me."

"Yeah, I-- I mean I thought I was being nice... I asked you questions about your life, tried to get your attention with my sweet, sweet musical skills, I even tried you poke you a couple of times as a way to flirt! I-- I guess you took it the wrong way."

Cameron recalled all those "moments" he was bothered by Charlie and came to the realization that he perceived them in a completely different point of view.

"I mean... If I knew that you liked me sooner, I wouldn't have yelled at you... I'm sorry."

"Yeah... I'm sorry too. Sorry I called you a moron."

Cameron chuckles, brushing Charlie's fringe away. "No no, you're right. I was a moron."

"Huh? No you're not. You're really smart and handsome and responsible and--"

"I meant-- I was a moron because I didn't realize you liked me."

"Well I wasn't being very obvious, was I?"

"... Would you like to be obvious now?" Cameron smiled, cupping Charlie's face between his hands.

The brunette smiled, his eyes became softer and his brain turned off when his heart reappeared.

Without saying a word, Charlie guides their faces closer, tilting Cameron's head by his jaw. As they kissed, Cameron now realized that, despite having Charlie as an insufferable, annoying moron of a roommate, he was his insufferable, annoying, moron of a roommate.

#chameron #chameron ficlet #chameron fic #dps fic #700followerchameronaskspecial #700 followers celeb #700 followers