#S2 (Doomsday Ending)
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my library hold on the Series 2 DVD of Doctor Who was finally fulfilled (there was a line)
this is probably my sign to bite the bullet and finally watch Army of Ghosts and Doomsday...
Once again sending a plea for any fix-it fic set right after series 2 by ppl who can't be spoiled, i'd love you forever
#i've been warned the end of S2 is agony#which is why i've put off finishing s2 for so long#id look myself but i know i'd be spoiled#i already know there's a tentoo and a metacrisis doctor and i wish i didn't know those things#i'm glad i dont know what they are but i can make assumptions#mah life#doctor who#army of ghosts#doomsday#tenth doctor#10th doctor#tenrose#rose tyler#doctor who s2#doctor who series 2#continuing the#david tennant#filmography
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accidentally started writing some ninerose smut while working on my tentoorose smut.
#there is a link between tentoorose and ninerose that i really find fascinating#not just that tentoo is canonically more ninelike in some ways#but that once things slow down a little i think they'd talk more about when they first met#s2 it bridges so easily but i feel like even at the end nine didn't fully grasp how into him she was#(don't say that's an improvement)#as much as i LOVE ten/tentoo being made for her. she loved nine the way he was too#which is why idg why people get upset abt that's me when we first met etc#because are you misrememebring nine/ninerose or do u not think they were soft and good too?#bc if it's the latter why u even here#all he was saying is he's been thru a lot of trauma since doomsday#that's the pain of 10. he heals and then gets cracked all the way back to the beginning#but tentoo has a chance to heal again. because rose makes him better#just like he does her
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"Oh, so we DO love Steve..." | Part IX (FULL)
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ SERIES MASTERLIST ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆
Steve Harrington x Bauman!fem!reader
enemies to lovers, heavy angst, hurt/comfort, upside down mayhem, S2-S4, post S4 universe hot-take, end-of-the-world / dystopian setting, ugly fights turned smut (...but with hella plot). 18+
CHAPTER IX WARNINGS/NOTES: t.w.'s - language, innuendo / sexual undertones, mention of dr*gs and abuse and childhood trauma, Max in a coma, talks about death, difficult confrontations. 18+
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the 9th chapter, written in full. Not action packed, but vital to the plot. Lots of beautiful moments in here that I really took my time with writing because at this point, I am just so in love with this concept. We learn more about Bauman's past. Steve and Jonathan finally have that talk. Murray is a proud uncle. The kids are adorable. Steve's dream isn't only his. And everyone prepares for doomsday.
Bonus: If you love the song "This Little Life," well then you are in for a treat. It heavily inspired this chapter, and it will be back...
PROOFREAD UNTIL MY EYES BLED.
IF THERE ARE STILL TYPOS, SORRY BOUT IT. 18+
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Steve Harrington was no stranger to nightmares.
He’d learned how to endure them. Over the years, he made friends with his demons. So much so, it got to a point where he got too used to having them around. He just nodded at them as they lurked in the darkest corners of his sunshine mind, letting them exist as lonely, miserable wallflowers who were never noticed in the daylight when he was awake…waiting for their fleeting moment of popularity after dark, when his eyes were shut. He didn’t address them when he was awake. Because if he addressed them, that would mean they were real. But if he let them have their way at night, forgetting them the next day and acting like they did not exist, that meant they had no power over him. They didn’t mean anything. They were nothing.
They meant nothing.
At least, that’s what Steve told himself.
Every night before shutting his eyes, he steels himself for whatever hell he was going to face. From the ripe age of four, he learned to simply expect the unexpected when it came to sleeping. Sleep was never going to be his friend — whether he was sleeping alone, or with a friend, or holding naked girl in his arms. Steve was made to suffer in his sleep. His subconscious was a world that was built upon a foundation ruled by the reality of absent parents, being an only child, high school flings that left him longing and the endless search for love. It consisted of repeated dialogues — sometimes the incessant arguing between his parents, or the jabbering of Tommy H. and Carol, or hearing Nancy chanting bullshit, along with all the other voices of people who filtered in and out of his life. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
Sometimes, Steve was running away from his own voice in his head. There were nights when, within his own nightmares, he himself was the nightmare. That really came into effect during his last year of high school and the summer after he lost Nancy. Adding the entire element of the upside down into his life only fed his nightmares. They were bad before, they were bad then, and they were worse now.
Trauma after trauma, loss after loss, fight after fight, bloodshed upon bloodshed.
Every punch to his eye. Every word slapped across his face. Every other worldly creature he was made to battle. Every moment he was paralyzed with fear of losing one of his kids.
Nightmares loved Steve. And they knew exactly where to find him, every single night.
But right now, sleeping next to you, it wasn’t nighttime. It was still day. Daylight shown through the windows of your assigned guest room in the Harrington house — curtains drawn, and the gloomy afternoon sky filtering the space around you both.
And here he was, fast asleep with his cheek resting on top of your chest, as your heartbeat thumped against his ear. One of his toned arms was looped around your waist, having closed his eyes and letting the steady rise and fall of your chest lull him to sleep. Steve had been fighting sleep for the last two nights. Especially the night after you died in his arms. He had just barely brought you back to life, and he knew that as bad as his nightmares had been before…all of them amounted to nothing compared to the nightmares that would undoubtedly follow him after that. Steve wanted nothing to do with sleep. He was damned for all eternity when it came to sleep, and it was sure to bring him a life of insomnia after the real life nightmare that he was made to face when wide awake.
That’s the beauty of being asleep: you have to wake up.
Steve told himself that every night before he went to bed. He told himself that no matter how bad it got, he would still wake up. And once he woke up, it would be over.
He learned to do that after he went to the county fair one year with his friends, back in middle school. He’d gotten on a ride, peer pressured by Tommy H. and not wanting to look like a chicken.
Every second of the ride, Steve was petrified.
He wanted off, he wanted off, goddammit let me off he shouted.
Then he remembered having been told by the county fair worker that the ride lasted four minutes. Steve took a deep breath, realizing he’d likely been on it for already half that time. So he counted to himself. Counting down the last half of the ride, he told himself over and over: eventually, this ride has an end.
Sure enough, when it did finally come to an end — and when everyone was let off the hellish escapade — Steve realized that he had found the glitch in the matrix. The warp in time. The secret superpower to conquering fear. Suddenly, he wasn’t so afraid anymore. Which is why now, whatever nightmare he was made to face, he would endure it — knowing that the sweet relief of waking up was just right around the corner.
And after all: stranger things had been proven real in Steve’s real life, far more than in his wildest dreams.
Loving you had turned out to be the strangest thing of all.
Even more so, the lack of nightmares that came with that was also strange…
Because right now, as Steve finally succumbed to sleep instead of fighting it, lying next to you…he was not trapped in a nightmare. His subconscious did not have him roaming the unpredictable pathways that led to the darkest corners of his mind. His demons had ceased their dance. Vecna, and all his other worldly monsters, were not the stars of this particular show. Steve was not trapped in the midst of jabbering chants coming from the voices of all the people that he loved, all the people who had betrayed him, or even the voice belonging to himself.
For the first time in years, Steve Harrington was dreaming.
It wasn’t anything drastic. Nothing that could exhaust him, to where any hours of sleep hadn’t felt like any sort of sleep at all. In fact, his subconscious state was…serene. Quiet, peaceful. It was almost unsettling in a way.
Little bursts of yellow — pastel and sunshine and lemon — colored the dark walls inside his mind. A light breeze gently wooshed in the distance, coming seemingly from nowhere but still fanning his face and the flop of his perfect hair. Somewhere, someone was humming. Almost like a bird, or the sound of a foghorn super far off in the distance. Maybe even the distant drums of a far away land. The rhythm came and went, but it kept him company. As if it were some little song made up in his head as he went along, saying, “Hey, I’m right here. We are in this together.”
On the other side of Steve’s closed eyelids, you laid beneath him in his yellow crewneck. The air you breathed softly, in and out of your nose, fanned across his forehead and his perfect hair. And while your heartbeat was not even, it was there — beneath his ear, drumming in a makeshift pattern, inventing its own rhythm as it went.
In the real world, your uneven heartbeat reminded you both that you yourself were not in the clear. Not yet.
But currently, in this new world that Steve’s subconscious had just discovered, it reminded him that he was no longer alone. Not with you.
In the real world, Hawkins is in trouble. Cursed.
And while none of you had figured out how to break that curse just yet, along with Vecna’s…one curse had been broken.
You’d broken the curse to Steve’s endless nightmares.
But would this world even allow for you both to explore a future together, in which you had broken this dark spell cast over Steve Harrington’s life…?
***
Seeing Nancy shuffling out of Argyle’s room is the last thing Jonathan ever could have expected. And he’d seen a lot of shit that prepared him for the unexpected.
The perplexed look in her eyes. The determination in her step to get the hell out of there, despite clearly having been given some sort of useful information after sharing God-knows-what conversation with his Cali best friend.
The two lovers at war made eye contact. It was quick, fleeting. But tense.
Eddie and Robin watched as Jonathan turned to stare at Nancy over his shoulder, and how she froze for a moment to stare back at him through her glassy, wide blue eyes. Her gaze, fixed on him, went from longing to hardened. Nancy walked away, and Jonathan letting her without a word only motivated her to keep walking.
And now, Jonathan had been in Argyle’s room for a good long while. Eddie and Robin had left behind their own little comforting conference of sorts to join the adults downstairs, while the kids had set off in other directions of the Harrington house.
But before that, during all the upstairs drama, Joyce and Murray had been having some drama of their own in the basement.
“You did what?!”
By now, Murray had recounted every single part of his story and how he’d played a huge role — along with you — in how her son had ended up with Nancy Wheeler. Murray’s once upon a time had rendered her speechless.
Even Hopper — who’d heard them go downstairs and immediately followed when he heard Joyce start rocking the boat as she pressed Murray for information — now stood there beside Joyce, having just listened to everything – stunned.
Because when in the world did you all have time to fall in love, fall out of love then fall back in love / new love like this? How the fuck were you all managing that on top of the upside down mayhem?
“May I remind you both how you two lovebirds have spent the last few years developing your own slowburn of a story arc?”
Murray’s question was dripping in condescension. But it was valid. It also came from the heart. He loved these two humans to death. And they loved him back.
While Joyce felt an enormous amount of joy that her son had ended up with the girl he loved…her heart ached for Steve. She’d grown to love him like her own over the years, especially these last several months as she lived under his roof. She had no idea just how broken up he’d been about Nancy. Joyce couldn’t help but feel…almost guilty.
But Hopper was shaking his head with a sort of proud grin, noting how as much as Murray had been the one to rock the boat — you had been its captain at the wheel. He pointed out how you had steered that wheel without even trying.
“Were they even friends in high school?” Hopper asked curiously. “Harrington and Bauman — I can’t see your niece even having time for him back then when he was a punk.”
Murray went on to proudly confirm that assessment, along with explaining how you’d simply participated in your Uncle Murray’s meddling because you happened to be there that night and it’s just a sort of family tradition that you both had formed over the years. And when Joyce asked him how someone like you had not been swept up already by some guy, Murray had scoffed. He looked bitter — in the way that a protective parent is on behalf of their own kid.
“My niece deserves the world. Not one stupid guy at that high school could give her a mere city, let alone a globe’s worth. Doesn’t mean she didn’t…try. I know she was into one guy for a good while at one point. Some friend she’d made with one of the athletes who shared A.P. classes with her. She helped him study. Something she never did, unless it was with the girls and guys from her class that had weekly study group nights. But this kid she liked…he was smart, and he liked her back. She more than liked him…and he let her. Then, as all the petty high school boys do, he ditched her and all her efforts and hours spent studying and helping him pass his classes with flying colors…for a bimbo. A blonde, hip shaking, Pom-pom waving babydoll who’s all body, no brains.”
Joyce frowned. “Bauman is beautiful. She’s body, beauty and brains.”
“Yeah well,” Hopper mumbled, shaking his head disdainfully. “In high school, if you’ve got a dick, we’re letting it do the talking for us.”
“Point is,” Murray continued. “It hurt her. Big time. But that’s the thing about my niece. Given our Bauman blood, we don’t easily succumb to our sentimental feelings. We just let it broaden our dark comedic chops and cynical worldview. My niece doesn’t have mommy or daddy to run home to and cry. She’s an only child, so no siblings to help care for and bond with. Yeah, she’s got friends. But mainly at school. She’s got herself…and she’s got me.” Murray smiled at that. “Between me and her grandmother, we’ve been the ones that raise her. But to be perfectly honest, my niece pretty much raised herself.”
Hopper’s heart clenched. For both you and your uncle.
“She’s great, Mur,” Hopper murmured. “You’ve been there for her and it shows.”
Murray was quiet at that. He hated compliments. But he didn’t flinch or get snippy. He actually looked humbled, silently appreciating this observation.
Joyce sighed. “Murray…you really have been an incredible uncle to her. I know that I’ve…given you a hard time about things, but…really. You’ve never missed with her.”
Murray was still quiet. He looked everywhere but at his two best friends for several beats. Finally, he gave a curt nod. But it was grateful, and full of love. Mainly for you.
“That’s my kid.”
Murray’s voice cracked a bit. It was the most unusual sound in the barren basement of the Harrington house, bouncing off the walls despite its soft decimal in volume. The tight lipped grin on his face as he finally made eye contact with Joyce and Hopper said it all. He loved the shit outta you, like any good parent loves their kid.
“I didn’t get the white picket fence life. Or a lifelong love story with some gal. I got dealt a crazy family of addicts and narcissists and loons. Had a brother who married a gal from rehab, got her pregnant while they relapsed and went forward with having a kid that didn’t stand a damn chance at surviving it.”
Murray pursed his lips before he continued. “That’s the first goddamn miracle I’ve ever witnessed. That little fetus somehow made it, all of 5 pounds at 9 ounces. Ready to get the fuck out of the womb and live. It made for an early arrival and the risk of being premature, on top of being a crack baby.”
Murray’s eyes shone with a certain kind of fondness. It held both sadness and joy. And his voice was the gentlest it had ever been as he spoke about you.
“She didn’t have one thing wrong with her. Not one thing. Perfect lungs. Perfect heart. Perfect brain activity. Not cursed from the drugs that coursed through her mother’s veins and doomed her life from the start. That kid’s been outsmarting everyone in her life since she was a seed.”
Joyce and Hopper couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Their eyes shone with Murray’s, having been parents themselves and unable to fathom being so reckless when bringing life into this world.
“I didn’t get my own kid,” Murray continued. He looked at Hopper. “I didn’t get a Sarah.” Then to Joyce, “Or a Jonathan, or Will. A kid who’s my own flesh and blood that I’d fight for to the bitter end.”
Murray stood there, resolute in what he was getting at. “But I got her. I got a niece who loves me. After she was born, I got my dad’s mom to take her in while I traveled and worked. She’s the only family member I’ve bothered keeping in touch with. She’s an odd one. But she had a home and money and willingness to take in a stray. She never thought she’d ever get a granddaughter. Don’t even think she really wanted one much till she was handed one to take in. Between the two of us, we raised her. She got thrown at whoever would take her and that was fine with me. Meant she still had a damn shot at a life. That’s what we gave her. The rest? She’s done herself.”
Murray sniffed. Then, smirking at himself —
“I’d like to think my being an unorthodox parental figure of sorts is why she’s built for the war.”
Hopper grinned at that, swallowing back tears of his own. He squeezed Murray’s shoulder. “Yeah, she is. Kid could survive the damn streets of New York on her own.”
Murray laughed at that, and so did Joyce — she finally shook her head and wiped away a couple motherly tears. She took a deep breath, looking up and shifting gears with the topic.
“You know,” she started. “Call me a hopeless romantic… But I’m pretty sure that Steve Harrington has hopelessly fallen for your niece.”
Hopper snorted. “God, I haven’t ever liked the idea of two youngins together the way I like them.”
Murray grinned big. “Yeah that’s a plot twist even I wasn’t expecting.”
The cynical gent’s expression suddenly went from warm to grave. “…don’t ever repeat that.”
The adults all shared a heart laugh at that, making their own comments on how the two mortal enemies turned out to be lovers. Hopper cringed at the word, along with Murray — and Joyce gave your uncle hell for that, given he’s the self-acclaimed mastermind at love.
“My witch doctor hours are limited when it comes to my niece’s love life,” he argued, but it was all with humor and fondness. “I already orchestrated the basics.”
“Which were…?”
“Calling her out.”
Joyce smiled. “What do you think of them?”
Murray’s expression softened. He contemplated that for several sincere moments.
“Surprises me to say it…but I think she’s got someone who loves her fully. Will love her fully. There’s actual years there, backing them up. Years of real life shit. Abnormal shit. Valid tension, deeply rooted hatred that turned out to be love. She saw Harrington for who he was, and sees him for who he is. I mean — Jesus, she was there for all of it. Steve Harrington’s redemption arc was witnessed by her just as much as those kids that he’s taken on as a babysitter. Well, and the Robin girl. But that’s…not the same thing as what he’s got with my niece. No threat there.”
Hopper’s eyes narrowed at that, curious. But Joyce gave Murray an all-knowing grin, knowing what he was getting at.
“I don’t think she’s on the same field,” she winked.
Murray winked back. “Exactly.”
Hopper blinked. “…alright, you guys lost me.”
Joyce waved him off, continuing. “So you like him with her. Maybe even…approve?”
Murray slowly nodded. “Didn’t think there’d be a guy who stood a chance at that. But given the whole…letting us all stay here and saving her life thing…yeah. I’d say I’m very good with those two being together.”
Joyce nudged him with her elbow. “Maybe you should tell him that. Y’know…given you’re at fault for ‘ruining his life,’ too.”
Murray rolled his eyes. “Oh come on, those two never stood a chance with your broody son standing in the way of that.”
“Yeah well…that broody son of mine isn’t making much sense right now,” Joyce shook her head. She sighed, worried. Hopper stroked her back. “I need to talk to him.”
“Lover’s quarrel,” Murray pointed out. “Best let that be up to him and Wheeler.”
“Yeahhh, well,” Hopper sighed. “Emotions are high right now. Maybe a little adult intervention would be good for them.”
Murray patted them both on the shoulders, back to his usual self. “WELP! You two have a large time with that. Meanwhile, I’ve got a date with a second drink calling my name.”
***
You watched Steve sleep on top of your chest, thinking about the words he’d spoken to you before dozing off.
“What about France? Or Switzerland, somewhere with a bunch of acres and nature and a lake nearby or something?”
You’d smiled at Steve’s question. “How would we get the Winnebago over there?”
He’d stared at you for a moment, eyes sparkling as your words landed. A deep grin formed on his face.
“You really liked my little dream on wheels, huh?”
You grinned back. “Yeah. It’s not little. It’s big.”
He shrugged sweetly. “I mean, it’s not a mansion. Or a house. It’s a home on wheels. Honestly, a really small home on wheels, but…I dunno, I just — wanna travel. With my family. Not leave them behind at some big house while I go off and explore god knows where without ‘em.”
You played with his fingers, listening to his every word. He wasn’t used to this. Having someone who was happy to just…listen to him ramble. Was he even one to ramble at all? Or is that something you just brought out in him?
“I just dream of this…this little life of sorts,” he continued, speaking to you and also to himself.
You smiled at his words. “I think I like this little life.”
Steve could sing at your response. Something about that one sentence after he’d just further divulged into what a bright future looked like in his mind made him feel on top of the world. The lovesick joy in his eyes, and in his heart, made you melt.
“I only want that little life with you,” he whispered to you, cupping your neck as he bent down to press his forehead to yours. You loved when he did that. Too much, way too much.
You nuzzled your nose to his. Steve loved when you did that. Too much, way too much.
“And the nuggets,” you whispered back with the cutest grin. Then, daring to say it — “Our nuggets…”
Steve’s heart soared at that. Ours…
The happy little laugh Steve breathed against you was the prettiest sound in the entire fucking universe. He caught your lips in a kiss, sweet and soft and firm.
“Your heart needs to get its shit together,” he breathed before kissing you again.
“I know, I know,” you breathed back with that playful attitude he had come to love, gliding your lips against his. “Such a pain in the ass. I know you wanna rail me, Harrington.”
He deepened the kissing, his fingers sliding up from your neck into your hair. “Yeah, god forbid I actually just want you to be okay. I only wanna fuck you senseless.”
You sighed into his mouth, clutching his hips with one of your hands and a fistful of his shirt with the other. “Yeah, you dirty, filthy asshole…”
He sucked on your tongue, cutting you off. “Be nice, princess.”
The two of you had eventually pulled back, knowing that you needed to wait on Dr. Owen’s to bring you whatever goddamn medicine was supposed to help even out your heart arrhythmia. Steve had moved in your arms to rest his head over your heart, cheek pressed to your chest with your heartbeat in his eardrum. You could feel him shaking. So, you made up a little tune as you felt fatigue taking over you.
“I think I like this little life…
This little life…
I think I like this little life…
This silly little life.”
You could tell it made Steve smile as he held you closer. He murmured something sweet to you about liking the improvised melody, to which you murmured something back about it becoming a hit one day. Steve let your soft spoken singing play in his mind, giving him the sweetest of dreams as your voice trailed off.
And now, you were awake — humming it again. Steve was still fast asleep on your chest, which brought you tremendous relief. You dared to think it might be the only medicine your heart really needed.
There was a soft knock at the door. You craned your neck towards the source of the sound, curious. Steve didn’t move a bit. He was out. It made you grin. You sighed lightly, planting a soft kiss on top of Steve’s perfect hair. Slowly, gently — you found a way of standing up without waking him. Little did you know, the sleep he found in your arms couldn’t be bothered easily. He slept harder with you than he ever had in his life.
You padded over quietly to the door, opening it slowly and only enough to show you. Your uneven heart was flooded with warmth as you stared back at 5 familiar faces.
Dustin, Mike, Lucas, Will and Eleven all stood there. They held random things. Board games, snacks, and pillows with blankets.
“We are inviting ourselves for a sleepover,” El said.
“A very unexciting one,” Lucas clarified.
“Yes, no excitement,” Dustin agreed.
“Just some good ole fashioned card games that don’t hit pique anxiety,” Mike added.
“Annnnd drawing,” Will threw in, lifting his bag. “Art is always therapeutic. Good for the soul. And the heart.”
You felt yourself getting teared up, looking at their faces with pure love and joy. You chuckled wetly, your chest clenching as you so sorely wished that the sixth nugget was awake to add her sarcasm and unwavering love to the mix.
“Plus it really sucks about the mandate coming soon,” Lucas added sadly.
“Yeah,” Mike nodded. “Before we know it, we’ll all be cramped downstairs in the basement or out there in the middle of nowhere.”
You gave them a sad smile.
“A not-exciting sleepover sounds like a grand plan,” you nodded with a wink. Then, cocking an eyebrow, “So I’m hosting then, huh?”
“Yeah, your room’s bigger than ours,” Dustin said.
“True,” you winked. “Orrrr, we could go over to Max’s room and have her join us?”
All of them nodded excitedly. You smiled, turning back to look at Steve sleeping peacefully in the bed.
“Gimme a few minutes to wake up mom and tell him that Max needs some attending to first, so that we can successfully host a sleepover in her room.”
They all quietly cheered, carefully moving to set down their array of stuff inside of your room. They caught sight of Steve sleeping, snickering to themselves like they were all 8 years old again. You shook your head at them with the biggest grin on your face, adoring how Lucas and Dustin were just so tickled with Steve being in your room. Will and El were giggling into their palms, with Mike shushing them but snorting himself. That made everyone fight back even worse laughter, and you ushered them out quickly before closing the door behind you. Man, you loved these kids so much.
You went into the bathroom, freshening up a bit and turning on the shower to let some hot steam hit your aching shoulder for a bit.
he sound of Steve murmuring your name made you hold off on that.
You walked out, beaming at him as he stared in your direction while sitting up. You were back in his arms in seconds, mumbling into his neck.
“Hey, sleepyhead.”
“Jesus, how long was I out?”
“A good chunk of hours.”
Steve groaned, pulling you impossibly closer to him — still mindful of your bad shoulder. You giggled in his grasp. His ears perked up, craning his head up towards the bathroom door as he heard the stream of water running.
“How dare you think of showering without me?” he scoffs incredulously in your arms.
You continued giggling harder as Steve nuzzled his face into your neck, pretending to attack you as he smothered you with groggy affection.
“Just needed to relieve my handicap a bit,” you sighed contentedly.
With that, Steve rose to stand. He was scooping you up into his arms before you could blink, carrying you into the bathroom. He lifted your shirt off, then his. As you stripped your pants, be took the hair tie from your wrist and ran his fingers through your locks, tying it up with ease. With a kiss pressed to your neck, he took your hand and escorted you into the hot stream of water. You watched Steve wistfully as he shed his pants and joined you.
As Steve gingerly massaged the soap into your shoulder blade, you remembered you needed to tell him about the plans that had been made for you both that evening.
“Baby?”
He hummed in response, loving when you called him that.
“The kids have the evening cut out for us tonight,” you started.
Even with your back to him, you knew his eyebrows were raised. “Oh yeah? What, am I making some crazy dinner feast out of canned goods now?”
You sniffed a laugh, turning to kiss his jaw. “No, we’re on for a sleepover in Max’s room.”
“S’that so?” he mulled, a grin in his voice.
“‘Tis so. That, or in here. But I don’t know if we can move her. Plus, I really want her to hear us all talking as much as possible.”
He exhaled, a kiss pressed to your shoulder. “Alright well, I’ll need to go ahead and get her taken care of before we all take over the room.”
“Sounds good,” you sighed contentedly.
You both finished up, and as you got changed into fresh comfy clothes Steve was eyeing the pile of stuff that the kids had unloaded into your bedroom.
“Damn, they just decided to dump the haul here?” he asked.
You snorted. “Yeahhh, they like to make themselves at home here.”
Steve rolled his eyes, but the fondness behind them said it all. He loved it.
Noticing you struggle with your shirt, he quickly moved to help you pull it over your bad shoulder carefully.
“Need to get better at asking for help, angel,” he winked at you, pulling your arm carefully through the sleeve.
You blushed at that, playfully rolling your eyes. “Noted.”
Steve shook his head as he made sure that your shirt was straight, lost in thought for a moment. “Guess we all won’t be able to hang out up here soon,” he murmured. “Outside of the basement.”
Your heart sank, knowing he was referring to the impending doom that loomed around the corner with the whole mandate going into effect next week. “Yeah,” you mused. “Might as well make the most of tonight with them before we have to go back to doomsday mode.”
He nodded sadly, planting a kiss to your hair before grabbing your discarded clothes along with his to start a fresh load of laundry.
“I’m gonna go start a load,” he said. “Check with Hopper on when Dr. Owen’s is getting back here with your meds.”
You sighed. “Yeah, those…”
Steve looked at you solemnly. “Hey.”
You gnawed at your lip, looking up at him.
“You will be okay,” he told you. His tone was firm yet soft. Confident, despite the worried undertone laced around his voice.
You gave him a light smile and nod.
“I’m serious, Bauman,” Steve continued, his brown eyes boring into yours. “We’re getting you on these meds and if they don’t work, then we…do the next thing that does.”
You knew he was stressed. Too stressed. You hated seeing just how fearful he’d been when he lost you before, and how much the fear of losing you again was eating away at him. Of course, Steve being Steve, he now insisted it would be fine. He’d broken down in front of you when it all happened, unable to stop it. Normally, he’d never let that happen. But given the dark reality of things, and just how much everything else had caught up to him, he wasn’t able to be his usual positive, nonchalant self with you over the last 24 hours.
With a mischievous look in your eye, you patted your chest. You gave it a little knocking rhythm, beatboxing under your breath so that he’d laugh. After a moment of Steve glaring at you, the corner of his lips finally twitched up into a grin. He tried to hide it, but you’d already seen it before he could turn away.
“Don’t worry, Harrington,” you told him. “I’m not even close to being done bothering you.”
He turned to look back at you longingly, a smile ghosting behind the way he bit his lip. He nodded.
“Don’t think that ever really had an expiration date, did it?” he asks, teasing you in his husky voice that you loved whenever he was getting coy with you.
You smirked. “Never.”
He took a moment to soak you in with his eyes. “Good,” he said. “I’m keeping it that way.”
You knew what he meant. Don’t you dare fucking leave me again.
And you had every intention of keeping your word. I’m here as long as you’ll have me.
Steve intended to keep you forever.
“Now,” you said, moving towards him. “Let’s go have a big ole sleepover with these six nuggets so that we can stop the end of the world and have another six later on down the road, yeah?”
Steve glowed. He stuttered a bit, unable to breathe. “Y-you really want that? S-six of ‘em…?”
You shook your head, smiling up at him as you stood toe to toe. “Hell yeah, I want that.”
You kissed his jaw. Then, moving to scoop up a bag of the kids snacks — “That’s more buckets of Halloween candy for us down the line.”
Steve smiled and blushed unabashedly, shaking his head with the happiest eye roll you’d ever seen.
“So we’re gonna be that family, huh?” he asked, moving to grab a sour gummy from the bag you’d just opened.
“We will win every costume contest, Harrington,” you said seriously, that signature dry humor of yours coursing through your Bauman blood at full speed. “I’m very competitive. Don't worry, the kids will be too busy having a great time to know that their mom is secretly a little psycho.”
Steve tugged at the gummy worm between his teeth with the most mischievous, flirty glint in his eye. You could smell his perfect skin mixed with the scent of the raspberry candy. “Ahh, so you are mom. Thought I was mom.”
You leaned up on your toes, inching your lips towards his where he still dangled the gummy worm. “In this era? You’re mom. I’m dad. Next one, I’ll be Mommy.”
You bit at the end of the gummy worm, going full lady and the tramp with it like a loose spaghetti noodle. Steve’s lips and teeth stretched into a wide grin, eyes swimming in sex and lust as they looked down at you. You both bit and sucked the gummy worm till your teeth and tongues met. In the lowest, sexiest of husky tones, Steve told you…
“Well in this one? I’m daddy.”
His tongue lapped your mouth, tasting like sugar sweet candy. “Your daddy.”
Before you could completely dissolve into a hot mess of a puddle, familiar voices from the other side of the door sounded off.
“EEEEWWWWWWW!!!!!!”
“STEEEEEEVE!”
“Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god —”
The sound of all your kids gagging and losing their shit were making for an orchestra of triggered teens, and you both jumped at the noise. After gasping, Steve threw his head back and huffed incredulously.
“Seriously??” he snapped.
You buried your face in your hands, unable to keep yourself from laughing in pure humiliation — but also in adoration.
“You shitheads are listening in, seriously — Jesus.”
Steve huffed and puffed, but it was clear as day he loved it. You did, too. He moved to open it while you stood back, snickering into your palms with flaming hot flushed cheeks.
“Hello,” he said, voice flat.
“You’re disgusting,” Dustin scoffed.
“And you’re an eavesdropping ass hat.”
“Why do you smell like gummy worms?” Mike asked suspiciously.
“Because you left them in my room, Wheeler,” Steve said wryly.
“Yeah, for tonight!!! For all of us!” Lucas scolded.
“Well Sinclair? Maybe don’t leave your candy unattended in my room.”
“It’s Bauman’s room!” Mike said.
Steve opened his mouth, then shut it. “Right yeah, well. My house, but yeah.”
“Lord, I can’t unhear this,” Will grimaced, but even he was grinning.
“You weren’t supposed to hear it at all,” Steve pointed out defensively.
“If you’re gonna fuck around, you’re gonna find out.”
Eddie’s sing-songy voice was new to the mix as he walked past them all, carrying a bunch of things as he made his way downstairs. “Howdy folks, don’t mind me.”
Steve snapped his fingers, pointing at him as he looked back at his kids. “That. What he said.”
El looked at everyone curiously. “What does being daddy mean if Steve is that for Bauman —”
Everyone cut her off with sounds of disdain.
“Noooope! Nope, nope nope nope.”
“Nothing, absolutely nothing.”
“La la la la la la la la not talking about this la la la la.”
“Alright, enough,” Mama Steve silenced the kiddos. “Move along.”
“No, we’ve been waiting for 30 minutes,” Mike griped.
“It’s okay,” came your voice as you emerged from the room, standing next to Steve. “Why don’t you kids come on inside while Steve gets Max’s room ready?”
They all took you up on that offer, shuffling past you both and making their way inside. Steve shook his head as you grinned, pinching his side.
“Don’t worry, they’ll be grown up and outta the house before you know it.”
You winked at him before making your way into the room with them. Steve watched you fondly, hands on his hips in true Mom Steve Harrington fashion. He had that signature sexy-sassy look on his face that everyone had come to love over the years — you especially. Despite being annoyed, Steve felt his heart fill to the brim as he watched the kids scatter the bags of candy and show you the card game selections. You were hugging El closely while Dustin pointed out that he had plenty more candy hidden in his backpack. Will was telling you about his newest art collection ideas, and you excitedly listened to him while Mike and Lucas bickered about which games were better for everyone.
“Steve, you’re joining us, right?” Dustin asked.
Steve scrunched his face in confusion, doubling back with his shoulders. “Yeah, wasn’t that already happening?”
Dustin shrugged. “Just making sure you’re not gonna be lame.”
Steve shook his head. You looked over at him as you smiled.
“F’course he’s joining,” you winked. “It’s not a party without mom.”
Steve narrowed his eyes at you playfully, making your shoulders shake with a chuckle.
He felt more at home in his own house than he ever had in 19 years.
__________________________
Jonathan watched Steve make his way into Max’s room, knee bouncing.
He was seated in the living room, next to Joyce. She’d cornered him earlier, after watching Nancy move to sit on the porch alone and stare at nothing as she sat on the steps. Robin had moved to join her eventually, giving her company and offering to lend an ear.
That sprang Joyce into action, and she found Jonathan standing outside of Argyle’s room with Will. She’d found them both talking, happy to see her boys were in deep conversation and bonding. She could tell they’d been doing that for a little while now, and when they both looked up at her the three Byers all shared warm, solemn smiles. The boys looked a bit sheepish. Mostly the oldest.
Jonathan knew his mom wasn’t gonna let him off the hook. And if he was being honest, a good honest talk with his mother about something not having to do with the upside down was something he’d needed for a long time.
So they talked. Joyce listened while Jonathan spoke, and he listened while she responded. It was the perfect blend of expressed empathy, disappointment and motherly advice shared on her end. He admitted to the fight with Steve in the alleyway, back when Will was missing. And he admitted to making a move on Nancy while she was still in a relationship with Steve. She brought up Murray telling her about him getting drunk at the Henderson’s house, 2 years back…and he shamefully ducked his head as he wrung his hands. But Joyce just rubbed his back, reminding him she wasn’t here to berate him and only to talk through things the way they always have: as mother and son.
“You know, Jonathan…” Joyce spoke softly, her heart heavy. “I don’t think I ever really thanked you for everything that you did in helping me find Will.”
Jonathan did a double take, brow furrowed. “What’re you talking about, of course you did —”
“No,” Joyce shook her head. “No, we talked about it, sure. I verbally thanked you.”
“Many times, mom,” Jonathan assured her.
“Just listen,” she cut him off gently, clutching his hand. “I lost a son…but you’d lost a brother. We both lost him. Twice. God, twice… and each time was a brand new hell. We didn’t even have time to process the first round.”
Jonathan chuckled darkly. “Would we ever have processed that? I mean really…”
Joyce grinned at that. “Psh, yeah. Doubt it.” Looking back at him with a softened expression, she continued. “Point is…in the midst of all that stress, and searching, and worrying…you were still going through so much. Not just with Will missing…but everything else, too.”
Jonathan listened to his mother as she looked deeply into his eyes, clutching both his hands. She went on to tell her eldest son every validating thing a mother could tell her child. She recounted every single thing that Jonathan had been dealing with outside of Will going missing, and it hurt her to relive it all just as much as it hurt Jonathan to hear it all over again. When Joyce got to the part where she’d had to make them all move, Jonathan’s eyes watered up.
“You and Nancy were just beginning to dive into things deeply,” she was saying. “Really, you’d both gone through so much together and finally you both got to just…start being a couple, and then it all went wrong again, so that — that forced you both back into the upside down bullshit…”
“Mom,” Jonathan said, a bit shocked.
“I’m serious,” Joyce said back, eyes fierce and full of love. “Jonathan, you’ve had to be an adult since you were just a kid. Since you were Will’s age. And then you finally get into a relationship with a beautiful girl, and immediately you’re thrown into war. Not even able to enjoy your teens going into adulthood. Even Nancy, she…she’s been through so much with you. And now…”
Joyce’s voice trailed off. She sighed, exasperated with herself. She re-centered, turning back to her son.
“I love you,” she told him, eyes full of love. “So much, you just don’t know. You are just…a good person. And the fact you feel overcome with guilt as though you’re not —“
“I haven’t been a good person, mom,” Jonathan murmured, voice wobbly.
“Jonathan,” Joyce whispered, squeezing his hands. “Just because you’ve not acted right in certain ways…that does not make you a bad person. Do you understand that? Because if not — then whoever’s telling you that…whether it’s someone you love, or a stranger, or yourself…stop listening. Seek within. Listen to your heart, because it’s never going to steer you wrong. And no, that’s not just some dumb cliche saying, it’s true. Your mind will confuse you, and your soul will get shaken. But your heart? It will always lead you back.”
Jonathan’s lip trembled, and Joyce held him tight as he shook him her arms. He clung to his mother, overwhelmed.
“I’m afraid I’ll never say enough, mom,” he wept into her shoulder. “To Steve, or to Nancy… I’m actually more sure about what I need to say to him instead of her.”
Joyce chuckled early, squeezing him tighter. “Aw, baby… Don’t overthink. Say whatever is going to give your heart peace. You’ll regret anything you never said far more than anything that you did.”
***
“Trust me kid, I’m in the doghouse now for the hell I raised on the phone with him.”
Hopper stood in front of Steve, along with Murray. They’d just spoken with Dr. Owens on the phone, who’d told Murray that he wouldn’t be able to bring them the medication until tomorrow morning. Murray had managed to remain calmer than Hopper, to both their surprise. Now, they stood in the kitchen with Steve – filling him in.
Steve took a deep breath through his nose, exhaling just as deeply out his mouth like a puff of air he’d been holding while running a hand through his hair. Murray looked at him with a somber, empathic expression.
“Doesn’t mean I’m not just as furious about it,” Murray pointed out. “But given the whole…having a target on his back thing…I’m trying to have some sort of grace about it, mostly for her sake. And yours.”
That made Steve look over at him gratefully. He couldn’t imagine the stress your uncle was experiencing, knowing your heart — literally — was on the line.
“Says he’ll be here with it as early as he can be,” Murray added. “Just keep doing what you’re already doing. Which is the most.” His lips turned upwards at one of the corners. “The most, and then some.”
Steve allowed himself to give your uncle a sad smile back, appreciating being seen by him. He’s all that you had as far as family goes. With a nod, Steve let that news settle into his brain. He reached out to shake Murray’s hand, who shook it back firmly and dared to pat his shoulder. Physical affection was so not his thing. But he’d make an effort for the guy his niece was in love with, and who not only saved her life — but was still doing everything he could to keep it intact.
“Kids sleepover, huh?”
Hopper changed the subject, grinning at Harrington — who chuckled lightly.
“You guys know about this?”
Hopper shrugged. “We might’ve told them to allow themselves some fun for one night, before we all go into lockdown…” His expression turned grim, a thought pushing its way to the forefront of his brain. “And whatever plan needs to go into action.”
Steve knew what he meant. Getting back out there. He swallowed hard, giving him a quick nod. No one was ready for this. But were they ever really “ready” for any of this?
Murray and Hopper told Steve to not give any thought whatsoever to anything relating to doomsday until the next morning. They insisted that they just take the focus on laughing and soaking up the night with you and the kids. Steve was surprised at how certain they both were about it, but despite it being out of character for them in an endearing way…it scared him. It meant that they knew just how much everyone here was at risk. It made a sharp chill run up Steve’s spine.
Eventually, Steve had made his way up to Max’s room. He was sorting through it, making room for you all to camp out there. El had already turned her little cot bed into a floor couch of sorts, which made Steve grin.
He talked to Max out loud as he checked her vitals. Lucas already had, along with Joyce and Hopper. Still, he always wanted to make sure.
“Not sure if this is gonna be one of those nights where I’ve gotta make Dustin cut the attitude during games,” Steve was telling her with a smirk as he straightened her pillows. “Honestly, it’s probably an excuse for Mike and El to be able to cuddle at night. So I’ll likely be chaperoning the entire night. Good thing I got mad good sleep with Bauman today.”
Steve moved to close the curtains, watching the sun begin to set behind the trees in the distance. It looked dull, given all the debris and toxic air.
“You know what’s crazy?” he asked her. “Ever since I started sleeping with her — like actually sleeping, head outta the gutter Max — it’s…I haven’t had a single nightmare. I always have those.”
He moved to discard some of the kids’ loose candy wrapped and one of Dustin’s empty pudding containers, glancing over at her sleeping form.
“Seriously, it’s weird. It’s like she just…makes them all disappear.” Steve scoffed a laugh at that. “Who’d have thought… She’s been a nightmare to me, and now I can’t…can’t even stand to think back on the times I never saw her like I do now.”
Steve looked around the room, seeing it was good for the night. It would be a tight squeeze — but having shuffled Max’s bed over enough so that they all had room to play games and draw on the floor with snacks, it would do. He sighed, taking a second to sit on the edge of the bed near her feet.
“Maybe this is a good thing,” he murmured. “Tonight. Hearing all our voices at once. Arguing and bickering and laughing the way you all do together.”
Steve poked her knee. “Think that’ll kick start you again, red? Wake you back up so that you can give us all shit?”
Her silence isn’t as long as he expects it to be whenever he hears a knock. Steve looks over to the open doorway, finding Jonathan standing there. He looks…wary. Rough, and timid. Standing awkwardly with his hands buried deeply in his pockets, he shoots Steve a very quick, uncomfortable right-lipped grin.
“Hey.”
Steve blinks. “Hey.”
Jonathan rocks on his feet for a moment. Finally, he clears his throat. “Can I come in?”
Steve blinks again, but eventually nods. “Yeah. Yeah, sure, yeah.”
Jonathan moves to lean against the wall, next to the doorway. Steve would laugh at the fact that this is Byers’ way of “coming in,” if it weren’t for the fact that he was so clearly nervous about something. Steve had a few guesses as to why he was here. He knew this had been coming, and he wishes he’d been the one to initiate it. Because they really needed to talk.
They’d needed to talk for 3 years.
“Look, Byers,” Steve started after waiting for what felt like a century for Jonathan to say something. “I owe you an apology…”
“No,” Jonathan cut him off.
It made Steve look at him in surprise. But Jonathan continued before he could say anything else.
“No, it’s me who owes you an apology.”
Steve stared. “…what?”
Jonathan sighed, scratching his neck and praying the words could find him as he finally dove into what he needed to let off his chest.
“Look I’m not good at this,” Jonathan said. “Talking, I mean. You know I’m weird.”
He gnawed at his lip, pensive and twitchy. He looked down at his feet a lot, feeling tense under Harrington’s gaze. But he sucked in a deep breath, going for it.
“Back in 1982, you had every right to break my camera.”
Steve froze. “No, I didn’t.”
“Yeah. Yeah you did. I shouldn’t have been spying on you guys like that. ‘Cause even though I was looking for my brother, it…it turned into me just…following the sound of you all partying and watching from afar. So I mean, technically…” Jonathan chuckled under his breath darkly. “Technically, I was being a stalker.”
He looked up at Steve finally, finding him looking at him in pure shock.
“You were dating Nancy,” Jonathan continued. “And I took…really inappropriate pictures of her. In a moment when you both were having…or well, thought you were having a private moment together. That wasn’t alright. And if…if someone had done that to me and my girlfriend, I would’ve…probably done the same thing. And honestly, you getting mad at me in the alleyway that morning —”
“Dude, no,” Steve shook his head. “Don’t take the blame for that. That was all me. It was shitty, what I did to Nancy. And what I said to you.”
“Yeah it was, but you found me in your girlfriend’s room, Steve,” Jonathan told him. “I was in there with her, in her bed, sleeping next to her when she told you that she was with her family. It looked…fucked up.”
Steve was just staring again. How in the hell was this happening right now? And why had he himself never made it happen sooner?
“So you chewed me out,” Jonathan shrugged. “And no, you shouldn’t have publicly humiliated Nancy like that at all…”
“I kick myself for it every day,” Steve murmured. “Trust me…”
“I know,” Jonathan told him, voice softer. “I know that now. I’ve…known you have for a long time. Nancy told me. I know you apologized over and over.” He took a moment, going back. “But what you said to me was just…your way of saying fuck you. You felt used, tricked and stupid. After you’d protected Nancy from a guy who’d proven himself to be a creepy stalker, and it looked like she slept with him. So you lashed out. Like any teen guy would.”
“I called you a queer,” Steve says incredulously, cringing at the memory. “I even went as far as saying you were the reason for Will going missing, along with your mom. It was low, Jonathan. What I said and did was just — flat out low. No excuses. None. I’m the one in the wrong.”
“Steve, we both were.”
Jonathan’s voice finally finds confidence. It makes Steve look at him in another light, as if he’s truly seeing Byers for the strong-willed young man that he is. It occurs to him now that maybe Jonathan has been going through some soul searching of his own, just as he had over the last few years. Clearly, he still was. Both of them were.
“We were barely 17 years old, and stupid,” Jonathan kept going. “We — we didn’t know how the hell to deal with anything. Much less a missing kid, or a guy related to that kid who’d taken creepy photos. We both were idiots.”
Steve let that land. And it actually made him laugh, sheepishly.
“Yeah,” he nodded slowly, scratching his neck. “Yeah, I guess we were.”
Jonathan laughed too. It was still tense, a bit awkward. But it was becoming lighter. For both of them.
“Shit, Byers,” Steve shook his head. “Have we both been feeling awful about this for years and just… not saying something about it until now?”
Jonathan sighed. “Sounds like it.”
They were both quiet for a moment, letting this newfound revelation settle into existence.
“Thanks for the new camera, by the way,” Jonathan added. “I know that was you.”
Steve looked back up at him, finding kindness and sincere gratitude in Jonathan’s eyes. It made him feel shy. Worse, yet better at the same time.
“Least I could do,” Steve shrugged.
Jonathan sniffed a laugh, shaking his head. “Yeah, well… You didn’t take the credit for it. You let Nancy do that.”
Jonathan pursed his lips, brow pinching as he shifted against the wall and stared down at his feet again. Steve waited as he watched him curiously.
“You extended way more kindness to me than I did you,” Jonathan said softly. So softly, it made Steve wonder if it was actually what he said.
“I shouldn’t have pined after Nancy,” Jonathan said. “I should’ve asked her out. Like actually asked her out, while she was single again. Before you two got back together.”
Steve felt his stomach jump. This was…a lot. So much was being covered right now in this conversation.
“But instead, I just sulked and pretended I still wasn’t in her thoughts at all. Even though I knew that…that she liked me. But I also knew that she liked you. So I just… I convinced myself it wasn’t ever gonna happen. Because that was safer. And hating you made it easier to do that.”
Jonathan looked ashamed of everything that he was saying now, but certain about it. Steve just listened, not daring to interrupt him.
“I might not have cheated with Nancy the first time you both dated…but I did the second time. And that’s not… that’s not right.” Jonathan sighed, taking a breath. “But I was a coward. Maybe not when it came to the upside down and finding Will, but up here? In regular real life? I am. I’m a coward. I don’t say whatever it is that I’m actually feeling or thinking, or wanna say. I just…wait for circumstances to make it happen for me. You don’t do that. You just…go for it.”
Steve scoffed. “Trust me, I’m…I’ve been a coward for years. In many ways, many times, for many reasons.”
“Yeah, well…you still didn’t steal someone else’s girlfriend instead of actually making a move. And I’m really…really sorry about that, Steve. I’m sorry I swooped in like that, and then…drunkenly bragged about it to Bauman Squared while you were in earshot. It made you take it out on her, when she didn’t deserve that. I did. All she did was call me out on it with Murray. They both had no idea it would turn into this.”
That made Steve squirm. He thought about how he’d been pining after Nancy still, even when she was with Jonathan. He took a deep breath, knowing he needed to let that off his chest too.
“Look,” Steve started warily. “Honestly, I really appreciate everything you’re saying. And really — apology accepted. Completely.”
Jonathan could tell that Steve meant it, and he visibly relaxed some once he let that settle into his bones. He released a breath of air that he hadn’t even realized he had been holding.
Meanwhile, Steve was holding his own.
“And you’re right,” Steve continued. “What I did to Bauman? Taking it out on her like that was…well it was projection. Cowardly projection. Instead of taking it out on you and Nancy, I took it out on someone else. Because that was easier. Because it meant that I still got to be the unsung hero in Nancy’s life, and a bigger person than you.”
Jonathan stared at him now, surprised to hear this. He wasn’t expecting his confessed guilt to lead to Steve admitting guilt of his own.
“I’ll probably be telling Bauman I’m sorry for as long as I live,” Steve continued, voice solemn. Honestly I feel…shitty beyond belief, knowing that I could’ve been kinder to her all this time…maybe even spared myself way more heartbreak...if I’d just gotten mad at you guys instead of her. Because then, I might’ve gotten close with her and discovered feelings for her before this all went down.”
“Maybe,” Jonathan pondered, nodding. “Then again… I don’t think you’d have fallen for her nearly as hard if it hadn’t been for you giving her shit for it.”
They both awkwardly chuckle at that. But it makes them both sad to think about it. How you’d taken the brunt of it all.
“Fuck, she didn’t deserve that,” Jonathan huffs. “And I’m — I’m the one who caused it.”
“No,” Steve shook his head, eyes sad and dark as they swam in regret. “No, that was all me. I was an asshole. And truthfully, I was still so hung up on Nance that I didn’t know how to even remotely look at another girl. Let alone one I convinced myself was responsible for taking that away from me, knowing damn well that it wasn’t. Nance wanted you, and you wanted her. Plain and simple.”
Jonathan looked ashamed all over again, but Steve held up a hand.
“Trust me,” Steve assured him. “She wasn’t mine to keep. I get that now.”
Jonathan slowly smiled at that. “You love her, don’t you?”
Steve knew who he meant. You.
“Yeah,” Steve whispered. “Yeah, I…don’t even know what to do with it.”
Steve stared into thin air, lost in thought. Jonathan didn’t push him, just watching him and waiting for him to go on.
“I just…look back on it all and wonder how. How did I not see her in high school, or…see during the summer of ‘84 that she was clearly perfect?”
“It takes time,” Jonathan said softly. “Shit doesn’t always hit you right away. I know that better than you’d think.”
Steve pursed his lips. “Yeah. Yeah no, you’re not wrong. I just… I dunno. I guess I’m just…”
He took a deep breath, knowing he needed to get this over with.
“I was still hung up on Nance while you were in California,” he continued, making eye contact with Jonathan again. “So much so that…I told her I was. And I’d…hoped to get her back. I wanted to steal her back from you.”
Jonathan sighed, giving him a small smile.
“I know,” he said. “She told me.”
Steve stared. Oh.
“Believe it or not,” Jonathan continued. “I’m not…mad about that at all.”
Steve blinked. “…why…?”
Jonathan chuckled. “Steve, I actually stole your girlfriend. I had it coming.”
After several more blinks, Steve coughed out a laugh. Was he serious? As Jonathan laughed with him, he realized that he truly meant it. He wasn’t mad.
“Sorry man, but I won that round,” Jonathan chuckled.
“Fair,” Steve chuckled back. “Good game, man.”
Jonathan nodded awkwardly, shuffling his feet. “Yeahhh, good game…”
They took a few moments of silence, letting the tension wear off some more. It was…nice. This weird sort of talk was nice.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is,” Steve continued. “I’m sorry, too. For going after Nance again, and not just… facing you both sooner.”
“S'alright,” Jonathan told him. “I’ve honestly been a really shitty boyfriend these last several months.”
Steve’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Long story,” Jonathan waved a hand. “That’s my own wrong that I gotta make right with Nancy.”
Steve contemplated that. Had whatever was going south between Jonathan and Nancy, unbeknownst to him, been the reason she’d seemed to be interested in him again? Or was that just the tipping point for her, and her buried lingering feelings for Steve?
Regardless, it didn’t matter now. Steve was so in love with you, he couldn’t see straight. But it did make him wonder.
“And honestly, I don’t blame you,” Jonathan said, smiling. “Nancy, she’s…perfect.”
Steve smiled at him. “She’s pretty wonderful,” Steve agreed. “I’ll always adore her. But…”
“…but you found your person,” Jonathan finished for him. “Your ‘perfect’ person.”
Steve grinned. “Yeah. She makes everything make sense for me, and I just…god, I love her.”
Jonathan nodded, still smiling. “I know how you feel.”
Steve fiddled his thumbs in his lap, staring down at them and feeling his stomach knot up. There was another thing he needed to own up to…
“Jonathan, what I said to you…” Steve murmured, eyes still downcast. “Yesterday, back at the fence…when Bauman…” Steve winced, skipping that part. “...it wasn’t at all —”
“I deserved it.”
“Okay, you’ve got to stop doing that, will you let me feel bad for at least one thing I’m saying?”
“No, and especially not this one.”
Steve sighed, perplexed. “…and why is that?”
“Because I deserved it.”
Jonathan watched as Steve just gaped at him, biting back amusement. He let the sincerity of the serious topic ground him again.
“You all searched and fought relentlessly for me and my mom when this all started,” Jonathan went on to say.
“...I so did not do anything from the start.”
“Maybe you don’t think you did? But you did.”
“…I so did not.”
“You got there. And besides…like we both said earlier…lots of misdirected projection. And lots of long overdue confrontation. On both our parts.”
Steve couldn’t argue that. Byers was right, at least in this case.
“You were still mad at me,” Jonathan continued, “and I was just mad at myself but convinced that everything and everyone else — you included — were the problem. Not me.”
Jonathan gnawed at his lip for several moments, clearing his throat. “You basically unleashed years of deeply buried resentment onto me in one foul swoop. I gotta say, your words…shit hit me hard.”
Steve frowned, ducking his head a bit. “I honestly don’t even remember some of it. I just…saw red.”
Jonathan snorted. “Blind rage will do that. Shit, I don’t even remember swinging on you back in ‘82. Apparently, I did a pretty nasty job.”
“I was positive you’d done permanent damage to my nose.”
“Yeah, and then you took an even worse beating from that Hargrove kid and the Russians,” Jonathan said, nose scrunched with a laugh. Steve laughed, too. They had to laugh about it all at this point.
“Christ, man,” Steve groaned. “It’s a wonder my face isn’t the prime subject for plastic surgery…”
Jonathan shrugged. “And you wonder why we all hate you so much. You’ve gotten your ass beat so many times, and still look good.”
Steve smirked. “Thanks.”
Jonathan winked. “I’m sure Bauman Squared digs it. All the battle wounds.”
That actually made Steve blush. “Psh. Compared to the fall she took? My experiences look like a walk in the park.”
“So Dr. Owens is bringing her meds tomorrow, yeah?” Jonathan asked, brow pinched with worry.
Steve sighed, raking a hand through his hair before crouching over his knees, elbows pressing into them. “Yeah. Yeah, that can’t come soon enough.”
Jonathan looked at Steve with a somber expression. He hated that he was going through this. Seriously, when was Harrington going to catch a damn break?
“She’ll be alright, man,” Jonathan told him kindly. “She’s got you. Got all of us.”
Steve nodded. “Yeah, she’s gonna have to be. I’ll lose my goddamn mind if she — yeah, she has to be.”
“She will,” Jonathan nodded, speaking firmly. Assuringly. “She’s not going anywhere.”
Steve bit his lip, staring at his hands.
Jonathan shuffled his feet, feeling shy again before asking… “So hey…are we cool? Like actually really, finally cool?”
Steve looked up at that, eyes shining with relief and kindness. He stood up, extending a hand out for a firm handshake. “Yeah man. We’re cool. For good.”
Jonathan felt relief wash over him entirely as he shook Steve’s hand, pulling him in for a tight hug. And Steve felt like he had just made so much peace with his old self in a multitude of ways, over one honest conversation with Byers. While he wished it had happened sooner, he realized…maybe if it had, it wouldn’t have led to this. This true sense of peace that came with newfound mature understanding that both of them had grown into individually.
Byers and Harrington could be friends now. They both had peace to find with Nancy Wheeler, but if they were being brutally honest with themselves — that wasn’t going to be possible until the two of them had hashed it out, once and for all. And now that they had, Steve could let Nancy know that he had finally moved on…once and for all...and so could she.
And Jonathan could go make things right with her — whether that led to them deciding to take time apart, or getting his girl back.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆
TAGLIST (ILYSM)
If I forgot you or you wanna be added, lmk :)
@aloneinthehellfire @xprloki @erastourvip @get0ut0fmyr00m @Eddiemuns0nl0ver @marrowfrog00 @poppet05 @wiltedflowersundertowers Originalthingparadise Pleuviors pumpkinonice Ihaveproblemsihaveproblems Brinleighsstuff Definitelynotherr sucker-4-angst bookkeeperlove notlilyyyy @goosy-goose
#steve harrington#steve harrington x reader#steve harrington angst#steve harrington imagine#steve harrington x you#mishas masterlists#steve harrington fanfic#steve harrington smut#steve harrington stranger things#stranger things fanfiction#oh so we do love steve#Steve and bauman#steve harrington fluff#stranger things au#SoundCloud
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timepetals thoughts i keep having:
i know that the assumption is “she is my s-” means soulmate but i always think he just thinks of rose as his soul. less that she completes him or is his other half and more that she just is his conscience and any goodness he may have is hers. he was born out of love for her, she is such an integral part of him, she is his soul itself.
i know everyone has taken permanent damage from the “how long are you going to stay with me” and why the general focus is on the doctor’s reaction but the way rose says forever gets to me. she’s not giddy or girlish when she says it, in some ways she almost sounds resigned to it, which has wonderfully angsty connotations in the timeline of s2. but it’s why it really works for me, she is so dead serious and committed when she says it, because she understands everything it means (and therefore part of her feels solemn about it). it has a lot of weight to it. even the first time donna says she’s going to travel with the doctor forever to martha at the end of the doctor’s daughter she sounds a lot more fanciful.
every time i hear the doctor scream when rose loses her grip in doomsday i just think that he would absolutely not have survived her actually being sucked into the void.
i always think the vocals in doomsday are similar to the doctor’s theme so to me the angry rock music is rose’s side and the vocals are his, rather than the howling wolf idea i’ve heard some people compare it to. how the doctor’s theme is lonely and mournful with its sparse instruments but calm, everything the ninth doctor was, while doomsday is heartbroken and angry and an entire orchestra because it’s two people overcome with grief together. how doomsday becomes such a motif for both characters individually, even when they're separated.
i still struggle to comprehend that the doctor wearing floral ties in s3 is canon and NOT a fanfic trope like you're telling the doctor said "i need a floral motif as close to my two hearts as possible" and you're describing him as something other than a grieving widower???
the doctor really could not go anywhere in s3 without running into some kind of couple but i never see people talk about the parallels in 42. “we chose this ship together / he keeps me honest so i don’t want false hope” and the way the doctor literally gives mcdonnell his condolences through gritted teeth?? the fact that she would rather die with korwin than be without him and have it be her fault
that the doctor, king of self-loathing, saw rose dressed as his ninth self and carrying a giant weapon and he not only RAN to her but then deliberately protected her from the trauma of seeing him change again. and then tentoo immediately picks a blue suit to be like now i’m matchey matchey with rose 🥰 the universe was ending and he’d seen rose again for two actual minutes but the doctor was so utterly focused on her.
how tentoo truly is rose's doctor, especially as he's got that little bit of nine in him. he's born out of the same love and protection of his previous incarnations but he loses a heart and the curse of the timelords and goes oh, this is rose's heart. and then he wears the blue mourning suit and yes, there is still mourning, but there is also the start of the rest of their lives together.
how the doctor’s hair most noticeably changed after school reunion to become spikier and less boyish. how that coincides with him using mickey to put distance between himself and rose now that he’s been reminded of rose’s mortality.
how wild the doctor and jack’s conversation in utopia is. the way the doctor says “rose” like it’s an entire explanation in itself because even before she absorbed the time vortex she fundamentally changed the life of everyone she met. the way he says “everything she did was so human” and the way he accepts jack’s sorry to him because there’s no trying to deny his feelings from jack, not when he saw his ninth self. the way jack has BARELY finished his sentence about watching rose grow up when the doctor casually asks him if he wants to die, the almost playful way he says it. one semi suicidal immortal who spent half of the season trying to get himself killed to another, both of them still kind of toying with the idea. both of them trying to have hope even though they've lost so much.
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Happy finishing Dr Who!
I saw you've been watching other David Tennant things - have you seen his and Catherine Tate's version of much ado about nothing? Very good chaotic vibes and I highly reccomend. It's on the internet archive.
Do you have any favourite dr who eps?
Thank you so much!! 🥰 We have and we love it! So far from his filmography we have watched: Taking Over the Asylum, Blackpool, Casanova, Einstein and Eddington, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard II, Decoy Bride, The Escape Artist, Broadchurch, Mad to be Normal, Around the World in 80 Days, Inside Man, Good Omens and Doctor Who of course 😊
As for favourite DW episodes ooohhh there are so so many, let me pull up a list so I can go in season order 😆
S1: Father's day, The empty child/The doctor dances, Bad wolf/The parting of the ways
S2: The Christmas Invasion, New Earth, The Girl in the Fireplace, The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
S3: Gridlock, 42, Human Nature/The Family of Blood, Blink, Utopia/The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords
S4: Voyage of the Damned, Fires of Pompeii, The Doctor's Daughter, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, Midnight, Turn left
Specials 2008: The Next Doctor, The Waters of Mars, The End of Time I and II
S5: The Beast Below, Vincent and the Doctor, The Lodger, The Big Bang
S6: A Christmas Carol, The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon, The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People, The Girl Who Waited, The Wedding of River Song
S7: The Rings of Akhaten, Hide, The Name of the Doctor, The Day of the Doctor
S8: Deep Breath, Listen, Mummy on the Orient Express
S9: Last Christmas, Under the Lake, The Zygon Inversion, Heaven Sent, The Husbands of River Song
S10: The Pilot, Oxygen, The Pyramid at the End of the World, World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, Twice Upon a Time
S11: It Takes You Away
S12: Spyfall part I, Fugitive of the Judoon, The Haunting of Villa Diodati
S13: The Halloween Apocalypse, Eve of the Daleks, The Power of the Doctor
Specials 2023: Wild Blue Yonder
and if I had to pick my most favourites I think they would beeee The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, Doomsday, The Family of Blood, Blink, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, Midnight, The waters of Mars, The End of time I and II, The day of the Doctor, Heaven Sent, The doctor falls and Wild Blue Yonder 🥰
This ended up being so long I'm so sorry 😭 AHH we are already rewatching and loving it even more the second time so this list will just get longer over time lmao
Thank you for the message!! I had so much fun answering this 😊❤️
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you can put the word fuck once in every season of nuwho. Where is it going?
what a great question!
s1: i wanted to choose something funny, but i think nine screaming FUCKING KILL YOURSELF at that dalek would go hard af. but also…… nine and rose have the kind of relationship where i’m sure she’d jokingly say “oh fuck you” every time the doctor takes a cheap shot at humans
s2: i already posted tonight about wanting ten to be allowed to say “fuck you, mickey” (specifically in rise of the cybermen when mickey gets mad at him for favouring rose). but right now i kind of love the image of rose in doomsday throwing herself at that wall and screaming FUCK!!!!!!
s3: the tensimm fan in me wants to replace “are you asking me out on a date?” with “are you trying to fuck?”. but i think it would be more gratifying if, in the same episode, we got to see martha say “fuck you, i’ll do what i like” to the doctor when he tells her not to call home
s4: this is DONNA we’re talking about. you expect me to choose just one? well. alright. “i was asleep, in my clothes, like a fucking kid!”. imagine how much it would hurt if all this time she’s been censoring herself and then, with her memory wiped, she’s suddenly back to cussing the hell out of everyone she meets
2009/2010 specials (yes im cheating shhh): in the end of time: “i had fucking estates”.
s5: river: ooh, i’m going to be a professor someday? doctor: (softly) fuuuuuuuck….
s6: instead of that amazing “the doctor is very dear to me. but you know what else he is? not here” speech that amy gives, she should just say “fuck you madame kovarian” and murder her in cold blood. genuinely like, amy was exhibiting insane restraint for a mother who’d had her child taken from her.
s7: “i didn’t know when i was well off. all fucking twelve of them.” “no sir — all fucking thirteen!”
s8: again, this is TWELVE. almost every line feels like a pg malcolm tucker. but i’m going to go with dark water’s “can you hurry up please or i’m going to hit you with my fucking shoe”
s9: easiest one yet: “get up, off your fucking arse, and win”.
s10: missy and the master: “hold me” “fuck me” “make me” (this scene made me queasy but those two are horribly fucked up and would 100% say this)
s11: i have only seen this season in snippets but i think someone in ‘rosa’ has got to tell a racist to go fuck themselves
s12: during the master’s whole pathetic “wahhh kneel call me master” spiel i think the doctor should have just told him to fuck off. when i saw that scene i was yelling at the screen for him to fuck off so i think she should be allowed to tell him to as well. or maybe spray him with a water pistol like a bad cat
s13: for some reason the first thing that comes to mind is evil dan but tbh he doesn’t need to say fuck. he’s already powerful enough. instead in that opening scene when thirteen is trying to get the voice activated handcuffs to open: “RELEASE!!! oh, maybe i was scottish when i set them up…….. fucking RRRRRELEASE!!!!!!!!”
s13 specials (cheating again shh): tegan: and yes, i WOULD like to go in the fucking tardis!!! (alternatively: “i know these teeth… what… WHAT… WHAT THE FUCK????”)
#this was so much fun thank you anon#please send any and all doctor who asks my way#doctor who#hob.txt#ask#anon#ninth doctor#tenth doctor#eleventh doctor#twelfth doctor#thirteenth doctor
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So I was rewatching WOY again, and I realized something during The Ball episode (S1 Ep13b).
There’s probably a post somewhere years ago pointing this out, but idc—I want to, "put that passion on the paper!"
Spoilers btw!
We all know why Wander helps, “The helper seeks to help because he knows what it is like to be helpless” (The Wanders, S2 Ep4a). He went through something so life-changing—most likely traumatic—that it ironically helped him become the Wander we know and love.
Now during The Ball episode (S1 Ep13b) after Beeza explains how this doomsday is basically routine at this point and before they all board the ship, Wander gives a speech:
“Y'all have put so much work into this pretty little planet. Don't you want to try and save it? I know you're scared of Buster, but if you keep running, that's all you're ever gonna be doing! You have a chance to change that. You just have to turn and face your problems head-on!”
“…but if you keep running, that's all you're ever gonna be doing! You have a chance to change that.”
He says that while looking at his hat longingly as if this situation reminded him of a bad memory.
I genuinely believe Wander started out as fearful.
I believe he ran away and hid at the first sign of danger when he was much younger, immature and inexperienced because he didn’t have a chance to save or defend what he had. He lost something very dear and precious to him—whether that be his family or his home-planet (or both), we may never know.
However, how he reacted to those bouncing phantom mimes in The Heebie Jeebies episode (S2 Ep19b) proves my point. Wander’s first instinct when encountering danger or something scary is to scream, run away and/or hide—and at times freeze in place.
Usually he’s able to override that stress response throughout the show if there’s someone needing help, “When I see someone who’s a-needin’, I just gotta help!” (The Fugitives, S1 Ep2b). Take the episode The Pet (S1 Ep4) as an example of this.
Wander nervously searches the ship for anyone alive only to encounter an arachnomorph he lovingly christened Captain Tim. His first reaction is to scream, and it doesn’t sound like an excited scream either.
Only after he gets tackled does he collect himself and switches gears from being afraid to being ready to help because he changed how he looked at the creature.
At first, he saw Captain Tim as this terrifying monster (he even admits to Sylvia that he knew Captain Tim is dangerous later in the episode, twice) before almost immediately doing a 180 degree and choosing to see Captain Tim as an abandoned pet that needs tender love and care.
It's not just this episode either. The Greatest (S1 Ep1a) shows how scared he is of Lord Hater when they first officially meet until he chooses to—not only help the planet's residences—but to also learn more about Hater so he can help him later down the line.
The Search for Captain Tim (S2 Ep19a) is another example when he shows up with a wanted flyer knowing full well that the creature is carnivorous and remembering what Captain Tim tried to do to him.
It’s even more apparent during the last episode of season 2, The End of the Galaxy, where Wander is terrified of Lord Dominator yet tries to continue befriending her despite his fear and despite what she says and does.
He's able to get through his fear if it means helping someone in the process.
We also know that Wander seems obsessed with the idea of helping others to an alarming and unhealthy degree. Being unable to not help someone in need gives him anxiety that builds up over a short amount of time until he can’t take it anymore and gives into his immense desire to help (The Fugitives, S1 Ep2b).
Even when he was sick during The Sick Day (S2 Ep20a), he still tries to help when it impedes on his own health and well-being.
Since he’s over 1000 years old, he most likely lost that chance to rewrite or make amends with what he originally went through that made him feel helpless in the first place—and I wouldn’t doubt it if he regrets it deep down or thinks bringing up his past is unimportant since nothing can be done anymore.
Heck, Sylvia calls him, “a man of mystery,” in The Waste of Time (S2 Ep17b) which later when they both successfully end the time loop it erases that interaction from existence. Wander doesn't disclose what exactly happened to him to be helpless in The Wanders (S2 Ep4a).
He chooses not to go into detail about his past.
Going back to The Ball (S1 13b) episode, he doesn’t just give a speech and tries to help because that's the right thing to do. He tries to help because he sees how the Ballzarians were choosing to lose their chance by willfully fleeing from their home-planets because of Buster, and Wander could not accept that.
"Whew! I wouldn't want someone else to go through what I went through" (The Wanders, S2 Ep4a).
He needed to help them because he himself was not helped.
Having to watch someone else go through the same experience was devastating for him. That's why he took control of the ship and crashed landed it on Buster.
Unlike the Ballzarians, I believe he did not have anyone in his life to help him when he was helpless, nor provide the opportunity to make a change in his circumstances.
He had to become his own helper.
In The Wanders episode (S2 Ep4a) when Sylvia finds the last Wander to complete himself again, the little Wander is terrified and cowering in the corner. He doesn't trust her until she reassures him, "It's okay, I won't hurt you." This reaction from Wander only makes sense if he was used to not receiving help.
Now, I’m sure as Wander helped others, they helped him back (some probably didn’t and took advantage of him). However, Sylvia was the first person who—not only reciprocated that same love and care he tends to show towards everyone—but also the first person to stay by his side afterwards. She became his new home.
We know how the two met in The Waste of Time (S2 Ep17b), but we don’t know how they became enemies to best friends. But, I genuinely believe Wander’s kindness played a part in softening Sylvia’s heart.
With all this said, I believe he started out as a coward, then became a stereotypical hero, until finally being transformed into the wandering helpy helperson we know and love today.
Or I'm reading waaaaaaay too much into a silly little cartoon about helping others and self-improvement from a decade ago idk tHat’S jUst a tHeoRY lmao
Anyways, thank y’all for coming to my TedTalk—expect more WOY art in the near future! 👋🧡
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[CN] Shaw's Upcoming S2 Ch 53-54 karma's + R&S Blurbs
—"For this doomsday performance, I'll accompany you to enjoy it to the fullest."
"The boundary? I decide where it is."
_
[R&S - If Tomorrow Goes Backward]
"Even if the Earth explodes, it's still a firework."
Outside the window, the rain is drizzling down, and the yellow-gray is all blown to the ground. The world seems to return to normal in the misty rain.
For a moment, Shaw felt that this moment was like their first encounter before the end of the world.
It seems that the world will be recorded by dragonfly eyes, and their interesting lives will be remembered by themselves.
—"If every memory is of such drama, it wouldn't be too cliché."
_
#THIS NEW CG OF SHAW&MC IS SO LOVELY🤩#their smug looks watching the whole world turns to ruin#definetly a gangster couple😎#mlqc spoilers#mlqc cn#mlqc shaw#mlqc ling xiao#mlqc translations#mr love queen's choice#mlqc#love and producer
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Chinese LoTM Gen Fic Recs (I)
| ★☆★☆★ | Part II >>>
(Last updated Apr. 11. 2024)
this is mostly to organize fics for myself, but after The Lofter Incident of Feb. 2024, i needed a place to link all the chapters instead of the first ones. theres probably gonna be multiple parts
(btw i recommend translating the whole page on google. safari mtl kinda sucks…)
compilation of compilation of fics
leoklein fic rec compilation
Klein-Centered:
What Is It Like to Be an Ancient Scholar by ninewater: 1, 2 (Last Updated: Dec. 05. 2019)
The World Wants a Hug by k70296
A Strange Dream by mhbdzty
(humor??? horror??) tbh im not sure what to make of this
A Miracle Invoker Falls From the Sky by jingjiangbushirousi: 1, 2 (END)
Angst, s2 Klein meets s9 Klein
Cats Have Nine Lives by kapuayi: 1, 2, 3 (Last Updated: Nov. 27. 2019)
Zhou Mingrui's Trial in the Brain by 2333567
When Gehrman Lost His Memories by jinyirendexiaojuchang
Nowhere to Escape in the World by ailikesitudou
Angst and minor leoklein (but can be interpreted as platonic tbh), Klein is suffering from the side effects of the death knell but he doesn't know what he's afraid of :)
Tarot Club:
He Will Sing in the Fire by juanao397: 1, 2, 3, 4 (END)
Klein is on the verge of losing control during his s1 promotion, the tarot club has to find Zhou Mingrui and wake him up
Mr. Fool Wants to Join the Chat by shanyoumuximuyouzhi798: 1, 2, 3, 4 (END)
Team building in the Hall of Truth
Does Mr. Fool Also Ask for Red Envelopes? by benguodeniunai: 1, 2 (END)
There is Such a Person by shasiajiplanbban
About Mr. Fool Losing Control of His Abilities After Waking Up by langduzhe023
The Meeting Before God Was Renamed as a Tea Party by hanpeiwen
Everyone Wants to Take Off My Vest by nenesis17
Tarot Club tries to wake up mr fool
I Know Mr. World's Secret by burklend160
Tarot Club boys (except for little sun) misunderstand some things about Mr. World
On the Way the Narrator Kills the Protagonist by fengbujuedai
Minor LeoKlein (but its mostly at the end if thats not your cup of tea), the Tarot Club's black history is exposed and Klein and Leonard's thoughts are read out loud
Everyone is Responsible for Persecuting Amon by oldsaltyfish
“So, Amon is the 'Angel of Time' who rings the bell of heaven for Mr. Fool?"
"No, He is the bell that is struck."
"?!!"
Welcome to the Doomsday Game by dblyb: 1, 2, (Last Updated: Mar. 16. 2024)
In order to ensure that earth wont be bombed in the doomsday war, the outer gods and the gods have initially reached a consensus to conduct a proxy war
Mr. Fool Said I Never Want to Celebrate My Birthday Again by irelan0706: 1, (Last Updated: Mar. 04. 2024)
Mr. Fool's Private Meeting by yangmiemie47136
Truth or dare in the Hall of Truth
Moretti Family:
A Small Piece of Lemon Cake by steelknote17
Sweet Dreams are as Good as Ever by dblyb
When Melissa Has a Boyfriend by zizaifeihuaqingsimeng37251
Heaven Goes to the Left, Moretti Goes to the Right by xinjinjumin7785283
Dinners and the Morettis are not allowed to enter the kingdom of god
Returning Home by kapuayi: 1, 2, 3 (END)
Benson and Melissa meet a Klein who has lost his memories
Summer of Tingen by abyss734
Melissa center with OG Klein
Their Brother by aizhuangkudexiaocainiao: 1, 2, (Last Updated: Mar. 08. 2024)
Benson becomes a beyonder and Gehrman moves in next door
If Benson is a Cultist by dblyb: 1, (Last Updated: Mar. 17. 2024)
Blackthorn-Security Company:
I Saw Ghosts After Becoming a Miracle Invoker by dblyb: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (END)
Extra 1, 2, 3, 4 (END)
Klein meets the ghosts of the Tingen nighthawks
Seeka's Tea Party by forgetmenot
Seal Artifact 3-904 Observation Report by jingjiangbushirousi
Klein meets his future selves
About the Future, Future Klein by xinjinjumin4545033: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, (Last Updated: Mar. 20. 2024)
Tingen nighthawks meet future Klein; chapter 5 is LeoKlein but I'm not sure if it will be present for the rest of the fic (i'll move it to another post later if it is)
Maritime Group:
The Tip of the Iceberg Emerges by wangyouwushang86832: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 (Last Updated: Jan. 20. 2024)
Gehrman loses his memories after Groselle's Travels
Let's Swap Sequences with the "Sea Team" by xiegui54376: 1 (Last Updated: Feb. 13. 2024)
Klein and Danitz swap pathways due to an artifact (s5 hunter Klein, s6 seer Danitz)
Homecoming Group (kinda ig):
The Oracle Prohibits Illegal Outsourcing by langduzhe023
Organizing the Church of the Fool's sealed artifacts with Roselle and Amanises
3 Protagonists Gather Together by nenesis17
Leonard's portable grandpa is Roselle not Pallez
Others:
Hall of Truth Trio | The World has Nothing to Do With You by treebirdturn
Angst, post-apocalypse, everyone forgets Klein
Amon | The Great Philanthropist Mr. Amon by dblyb
"Adam gave me humanity" - Amon
Dunn | Dunn Swore to the Goddess that He Wasn't Cheating by langduzhe023: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Last Updated: Apr. 11. 2022)
A resurrected Dunn meets Gehrman
Azik | God and Their Afternoon Tea Activities by mhbdzty
Post-apocalypse, naptime with Klein and Amanises
Danitz & Gehrman | How Long Does It Take to Become Gehrman by 2333567
Gehrman loses his memories for a day
Amanises | Suppose the Cat Disappears From the World by nenesis17
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Ninjago sister AU, pt. 4 Lloyd's turn hehehe 😈
This is gonna be a longer one, so enjoy
Heads up there's probably some typos lurking around in there
Also sorry this took ages heh
(For this AU's sake: Chamille, the master of Form, doesn't exist! <3)
Maeve Montgomery Garmadon
Two years younger than Lloyd
When Misako discovered that her son was the Green ninja, she was determined to leave and find answers
So she left Lloyd at Darkly's, and left Maeve in the care of an old friend
This old friend happened to be Mystake 🤭
Misako did however leave a letter for the both of them when they were old enough to read
It basically just told them that they have a sibling, and when they were old enough they would be able to meet each other
Lloyd and Maeve met at Ninjago Doomsday Comix, this was Lloyd's first time running away from his school
He initially decided to run away to find his sister bc he thought he could find her by himself
But then he got sidetracked by comics lol
They both ended up at the Starfarer section, and they were both about to grab the same issue lol
Lloyd introduced himself as the Mighty Lloyd Garmadon
Maeve was a little confused and told him that they had the same last name, then she asked if he had been told that he had a sister
He said yes obviously and that's when they realised they were actually related
So for the whole day they sat in the comic store just telling each other all about themselves
Yes Wu is aware of Maeve's existence
He would go to Mystake's shop every now and then for tea, as well as to visit his neice
Lloyd would run away from Darkly's often, so he could see his little sis
But then around the start of s1 his visits stopped abruptly and Maeve was worried sick
Around this time, whenever she showed strong emotions, she would randomly morph into someone else
Mystake already knew about her Oni heritage, but never told Wu the reason why Maeve could shapeshift
Wu just assumed she was the current elemental master of Form because he didn't know any better
Ofc he knew about the possibility of it being because she was part Oni, but the chances were so slim that he never even considered it
Eventually Lloyd started to write Maeve letters, and she always wrote back (their handwriting was terrible and was barely readable)
Lloyd told her all about his training to be the green ninja, and that didn't sit right with her
I mean, fighting their dad and possibly dying? Nah she wasn't happy abt that
Lloyd's next visit was in s2, in the Child's Play episode
Maeve was at the comic store at the same time Lloyd and the ninja were
So she introduced herself obviously but didn't know what tf was going on at first, because Lloyd had always described the ninja as teenagers, not kids
When Lloyd gets a hold of the Tomorrow's Tea,, Maeve jumps in and grabs it
She knew that if he was aged up, the final battle would end up being sooner than she wanted
They both fought over it and it ended up getting smashed, aging them both up
Lloyd wasn't very happy about his sister getting roped into all of this
Maeve on the other hand was over the moon
Because she thought that since she was older, she could protect her brother
But we love an overprotective younger sis hehe
Then they reunite with Misako....
Lloyd wasn't having it at first but warmed up to her soon enough
It took Maeve a little longer, because she was kinda pissed at the fact that this woman had been gone "searching for a way to stop the Final Battle" and found little to nothing
When the ninja have to leave for the Dark Island, Maeve is devastated and begged Mystake to let her sneak onto the Bounty, after she had previously asked Wu, who upright refused.
Mystake was confident her ability to shapeshift and they devised an ingenious plan to get Maeve on board heheh
Maeve shifted into Jay as the Ninja were saying their goodbyes and snuck into a crate on the Bounty, meanwhile Lloyd was a little upset that she hadn't come to say goodbye to him
And yes dw she bought loads of snacks for the journey
Lots and lots and lots of Ninja chips
She went undercover as a Stone Warrior for a bit and that's when she finally met her dad
Poor thing was scared out of her mind and she got even more terrified once she heard of his plans to turn Ninjago into his own image
So she went running back to the others lmao
Lloyd initially started to attack her when she met up with the others but she morphed back into herself
The two had a massive argument because Lloyd thought that it was too dangerous for his sis to be there
But Maeve wasn't having any of it
So after that, the two weren't on speaking terms until Lloyd was going up the steps to the Garmatron Fortress
Everyone else had already been hit with Dark Matter and it was only them left
Poor Lloyd started to cry because of how scared he was, and for luck, Maeve gave him the watch she always wore on her wrist
After Lloyd had won, he returned it obviously and their family was whole again 🥰
She then became a student at Sensei Wu's academy and trained under Garmadaddy at his monastery
She was the oldest one there but he didn't mind bc it's his kid ofc
But she still went to New Ninjago City often, to visit Mystake
Lloyd was always busy being the Golden Ninja so they didn't see each other much, but they did write to each other a lot
Maeve went on the school trip to Borg Industries along with the ninja, and she vented to Nya about how Lloyd and her mom always assume that she can't look after herself because she wasn't a ninja like her bro
The only other person who actually believed in her was Garmadon
And ofc Nya knew how she felt so she quickly became the older sister she never had
Then the Overlord came back and all the machines lost control blah blah
Wu demanded that Maeve stay with Mystake. She did but this girl did NOT go quietly
So for s3 she stayed behind with Mystake, who taught her how to propperly use shapeshifting power to her advantage
Then Zane died, and the ninja split up
At this point, Maeve was still living with Mystake, and her family came to visit often
But both her and Mystake were pretty confused as to why she wasn't being taken back to live with them
Then one day, Mystake is delivered an invitation to the ToE for Maeve
She goes ofc, because she sees this as an opportunity to prove herself to her brother and mom
Garmadon had a feeling that she would show up, so he, unlike the others, wasn't suprised when during the first hunt for the jadeblades, she was there waititng for them
Lloyd blew up at her asking why tf she thought this was a good idea
To which she replied that this is what happens when you don't have faith in your own family
Everyone was a little stressed out that they had to "protect her" now-- apart from Kai, who had actually them to lay off her a bit
From that moment on Kai was her favourite
She vowed that she would win this tournament no matter what, and the two weren't on speaking terms up until they had to face off in the roller skate battle
Both of them are stubborn af though so they still decided to fight each other and didn't make up before the fight, much like Cole and Jay
But Maeve broke first, and when Chen rigged the scores so that she won, she immediately defended Lloyd, followed by the rest of the elemental masters
So she lost and fell through the floor, Lloyd tried to jump after her but was held back by the others
Maeve and Lloyd cried together when Garmadon sacrificed himself
When s5 rolls around, Maeve was helping Misako and Nya unpack the new Tea shop
She was an expert bc of helping Mystake out at her own tea shop 🤭
Kai also tells Lloyd and Maeve that he'll look out for them because of Garmadaddy being gone
So anyways her big bro gets possessed by arguably the best villain in the entire show-
She stays with Mystake yet again after Misako demanded she get in the car with her and the customers
She was PISSED at this and even more angry at the fact that no one even tried to reason with her, even though they didn't rly have time to
She continues to stay with Mystake right up to SoG
During that time, Lloyd and Misako visited, she continued helping Mystake at the shop and missed her dad ALOT
There was a period of time where she was just crying every day because he was the only one who really believed in her
During SoG, Lloyd actually sent her a text just venting about his feelings for Harumi, but Maeve got a weird vibe off her
When she hears that the ninja are going to go as far as possible from Ninjago and also to find the Oni Mask, she yet again decides to sneak of as Jay ehehe
At this point Lloyd couldn't give a shit what Maeve was doing anymore so ofc he didn't tell her to leave
So she stayed, which she was very happy about
Then she met Harumi....
She did NOT like this girl
Also she met baby Wu, before she knew he was Wu ofc
Wu kept on following her and Lloyd around until she decided to pick him up and shove him into Cole's arms, telling him to keep him away from her
So then Harumi reveals herself as the quiet one and Maeve is like I TOLD YOU SO
She is then taken prisoner by the SoG and is used in the ceremony to bring Garmadaddy back
But obviously her plan "fails"
Then Garmadon our beloved returns
The ninja are split up and the og four go to the First Realm
Maeve joins the resistance along with her mom
This poor girl is scared out of her mind of what her dad has become
Nya comforted her as much as possible though bc shes an angel
So it gets kinda sad here:
When Harumi is on that building that collapses, Maeve saw her and, even though she didn't like her, knew that she was only a girl who's judgement was clouded by anger
So she did her best to try and save her
But the building ended up collapsing on both of them
Obviously Harumi survives ofc since we see her in Crystalized
Maeve doesn't unfortunately...
Yes guys, Maeve died trying to save Harumi
Now, NO ONE knew that Maeve had died, apart from Nya, until the end of the fight
Nya was absolutely heartbroken and she didn't want to ruin how happy everyone was but when she started to cry, that was when Jay asked what was wrong
Then she said that the building had collapsed while Maeve was in it
Everyone was so shocked at Maeve's passing, because she was so headstrong and confident, and by that point everyone believed that she could look after herself
Which she could, but fate had decided differently that day
Lloyd instantly blamed himself and cried into Kai's shoulder when he found out
Kai was fucking ANGRY and this guy was gonna go to Garmadon himself and kill him right there, if it weren't for Cole convincing him to stay
Needles to say, everyone felt as if a part of their lives was gone after Maeve died
Lloyd was not ready to accept the fact that his sister was gone, and searched the collapsed building not just for her, but for Harumi too
He found nothing apart from the wristwatch that Maeve has owned for years
The same one she gave him for luck during the Final Battle with the Overlord
It was broken and slightly battered but he didn't care
He hasn't taken that watch off ever since
Zane turned off his emotions for about a week before Pixal turned it back on, and once she did Zane just stayed in bed for like another week
He hadn't experienced loss since his father and it was still kinda new to him
Cole stopped eating vanilla sponge cakes, because those were her favourite
Nya sometimes liked to scroll through the selfies they took together, but then Jay would always tell her to stop bc it usually ended in her crying
Kai was probably the angriest out of everyone, he was just so pissed off at Garmadon, who didn't rlly seem to care that his kid was dead
Lloyd did not leave his room for weeks, only when the monastery was rebuilt was when he decided to drag himself out
His eyes had lost their brightness and he just looked so tired
Nya had to stop herself from crying just from looking at how broken he was without his little sis
In March of the Oni, Garmadon revealed that Maeve's power wasn't an elemental one, but one that came from her Oni blood
Lloyd and Kai both get really pissed that Garmadon was just so nonchalantly talking about his daughter (who btw was dead) and Kai was about to pounce on him
Zane and Cole had to hold him back
After MotO, Lloyd was on the couch one night just staring and the blank TV when Kai came in
He asked him what was wrong and Lloyd just told him all bout how he still wasn't over Maeve's death, and how he can't live with himself knowing he could've saved her
In truth, the poor boy blamed himself
He once again cried in Kai's shoulder and eventually fell asleep
He was so exhausted
A photo of her and Lloyd together was hung up by Wu and Misako in the monastery, but whenever Misako visited, she avoided there at all costs, because she didn't want to cry every time she saw her daughter's face
During s11, Lloyd told Akita all about Maeve and how they lost her
He shed a few tears and even though Akita was kinda annoyed at the fact he was just telling her his whole life story, she felt for him because she knew what it was like to be without a sibling
When Lloyd first reunited with Harumi in Crystalized, he had to hold himself back from just smashing her head in
She laughed when she heard that Maeve died while trying to save her
Later on she feels really guilty ofc
While Garmadon was in his little apartment with Christofern, she had time to think abt his daughter's death
He was kinda confused about how he felt, but when he told Vinny, he explained it was grief
Garmadon refused to believe he was upset over it but was he thought more on it, he did realise he felt a tinge of, what was it....regret??
After the merge, in the monastery, the photo of Lloyd and Maeve was damaged, but Lloyd immediately replaced the frame and placed it beside Wu's photo
Kinda sad ikkk
I'm kinda emotional rn lmao but here are a few Maeve facts
Maeve and Lloyd are identical apart from the fact that her hair was longer, and her eyes weren't as bright as Lloyd's
Maeve died not knowing if Mystake was alive of not, and that's saying a lot considering the fact that she raised her and was like a second mother to her
The watch that Maeve used to wear used to belong to Misako, it was a gift from Garmadon
She used to sometimes use her shapeshifting power to prank people and steal stuff
She always wore mismatched socks
Her hair was always in a braid like her mother's
In the time between Rebooted and ToE, her and Garmadon would sometimes go fishing together, Lloyd and Misako would join in on occasion
The last thing she thought about before she died was how Lloyd and her mom were going to feel once she was gone
She had a passion for baking, whenever Lloyd would visit, she'd make white chocolate cookies-- those are his favourite
On her keys, she had a green ninja keychain
She loved to borrow the ninja's stuff: Cole's hoodies, Nya's hairpins, Kai's hair gel, Jay's 3DS and Zane's cooking/baking books
Maeve never found out the true origin of her powers, since no on ever told her; not even Mystake did.
That is all !! Sorry if you come across any typos ! Once again I'm sorry this took so long to get out, and last, but definitely not least, is Zane, coming next !! <33
#lego ninjago#lloyd garmadon#ninjago#ninjago fanart#ninjago fandom#ninjago fic#ninjago headcanons#cole brookstone#nya jiang#zane julien#lloyd x reader#ninjago lloyd#ninjago au#ninjago angst#ninjago x reader#ninjago llorumi#lloyd ninjago#lloyd needs therapy#lord garmadon#ninjago garmadon#misako montgomery garmadon#sensei garmadon#sons of garmadon#march of the oni#tournament of elements#ninjago possession#angst#angst no happy ending#ninjago zane#ninjago jay
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i'm thinking abt the doctor and rose again...
specifically a parallel between s1 and s2.
s1- end of it, the doctor sends rose away in the tardis: she fights her way back, forces it
s2- doomsday, the doctor sends rose to pete's world: she fights her way back because everyone else there doesn't want her to go back to the original universe
both of these show the doctor making a choice for her to keep her safe- and both of them show rose defying his choice for her and making her own. one of them ends up with them together, the other ends up with them separated.
#doctor who#dr who#rose tyler#the doctor#ninth doctor#new who#nuwho#tenth doctor#doctorrose#i'm having thoughts
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upon rereading rtd's book i finally FINALLY understand why i feel so strongly in my opinion about the fact that ten and rose did not have sex in season two. there is a part where he is talking about doomsday, and how that scene is so good because it's akin to "two virginal teenagers crying in their seperate rooms" or something of that matter and by that what he meant is that the reason that scene is so viscerally painful is because it's about missed opportunities.
it's about things you should have said but were too afraid to, it's about running out of time. that scene is about i should have kissed you, it's about we should have had sex, it's about i should have said it when i had the chance. and it's about how if doomsday those things might have happened but they didn't and how that haunts the doctor for the next two seasons.
and since there's this large chunk of the audience who misinterpreted their relationship (sorry, but he literally says they were not having sex) then they also misinterpret what he was saying with tentoorose.
at the end of the day it doesn't matter how tentoo came to exist. it doesn't matter if you call him a duplicate or a double or a clone (which he objectively isn't but whatever) what matters is what his character represents in the story and how that relates to the human experience.
of course in real life we don't get two versions of the person we love, but what tentoorose is about is about how the choices we make ("does it need saying?" vs the whisper) and how those choices are shaped by the opportunities handed to us (tentoo only being free to say it because he is mortal and therefore, his most true & honest self) it's about physically SEEING what you could have had, what you DO have and even if you cannot experience it, you make peace with it in order to move on from it.
tentoorose are the fulfillment of all the things that tenrose were not able to do in s2: say i love you, kiss without abandon, have sex, have a child together, spend Forever together because their forevers are the same now - which is why tentoo being TRULY the doctor and them being happy also matters.
it's not a "hollow" ending if you understand what it's trying to say symbollically. it's about not in this life, but in another. it's if i could stay i would.
#dw#girl.... the way reading that book as an adult made me ���️#and how it mattered SO DEEPLY to russell that the ending was earned and said smth about the human experience
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tentoorose & the gift of domestic life
in my personal opinion it's kind of deeply simplistic to say that tentoorose wouldn't settle down bc they "need" to travel when both of these things are refuted in the narrative multiple times.
i'm gonna go over this under the cut.
to start this conversation somewhere let's start with how tip/tsp is all about them not needing the tardis and travel as long as they're together, and how losing it would be hard - but they'd still be happy on any random planet because being stuck together isn't so bad - the foundation to their life in pete's world is laid here. this is really massively important because you can see that rose saying this touches the doctor, because it's him realizing that it's him that she loves and not what he offers her. if you take the doctor avoiding the subject as him dismissing it instead of him wanting something he thinks he cannot have, then you are misunderstanding the intention behind it.
it's a beautiful culmination when he literally and metaphorically allows himself to fall later in these episodes. he's asked if he has faith and he says he believes he hasn't seen everything, which is why he keeps traveling. this is left in the air until he faces the devil, without his tardis, so small and seemingly unimportant and the only thing that matters to him is the love between himself and rose. and that love translates into his belief in her; in not only his faith in her ability to also beat the devil, but also in saying that he has seen a lot of the universe and believes in one thing: her, he is saying that he has found all he has ever looked for with rose and if this is his final test; the end of it all-that is fine because he is finished searching even if there is more out there.
that's why him saying "here you are, living a life day after day, the one adventure i can never have." in doomsday is so painful, because it's a vocal confirmation of the reasoning behind his avoidant behavior throughout season two. the depth of feeling he has for rose paralyzes him because he has already lost everything, and now he knows he has found a home with her that he will also lose.
but it goes even farther than all of that. it goes all the way back to nine in father's day, "street corner, two in the morning, getting a taxi home. i've never had a life like that." that bit of yearning to slow down and just be with rose in one place is already seeping into his being then, and it becomes completely central to his character when he regenerates into ten.
the fact that he wants to settle down to a certain extent, to have a human life with rose, and cannot have it is why he represses his feelings for her after seeing sarah jane - and it's only in the later half of s2 after, poetically, visiting pete's world that he allows himself to start to open up to her a bit despite knowing he will lose this new family he has found someday. even in late season two there is a barrier they cannot cross because of his immortality, not because he doesn't want the things rose does. it's because their life spans do not match and never will, and he would never want her to be immortal because he sees his own immortality as a curse, which we see him state in the lazarus experiment.
people claim rose wouldn't want to settle down either, but it takes a lot of ignoring things rose says in order to make this true, quite frankly. rose loves adventure and travel, but what she really loves is the sense of purpose the doctor has brought to her life by showing her what she is capable of outside the constraints of estate life, as she says "it was a better life. and i don't mean all the travelling and aliens and spaceships and things, that don't matter. the doctor showed me a better way of living your life." this is something she does not lose in doomsday and it's still not something she loses in journey's end.
and the thing is, we see multiple times that rose wants to settle down with the doctor and pushes it away because she has decided to spend her life at his side. since she knows he cannot do this, partly out of his duty to the univese and partly because he isn't human, she accepts that she never will either. in army of ghosts when jackie asks if she'll ever settle down she looks so sad when she says, "the doctor never will so i can't. i'll just keep travelling." this is such a heavy moment because it shows that this is something rose has considered, something that she does want because if she didn't she would just say so, and something she herself has begun to repress to support him.
not every relationship has to end with a house and kids, but the doctor and rose are a relationship where the foundation to where they got in the end is dangled in front of them, almost cruelly, the entire time. so the idea that them having it would be too boring or something they would feel isn't enough for a fulfilled life is misunderstanding what their relationship was about in the first place.
do i think they still do alien things? of course. do i think they travel? of course! do they still have a home to come back to? a family to have christmas with? a life to live side by side until they're old and grey? of course. those things do not go against each other. settling down doesn't mean they don't have fun, they don't explore, they don't break rules or grow their own tardis. it just means that they get to have an equal and shared life together with a safe place to always come back to for the rest of their lives, which is what they both always wanted.
without understanding all of these things, it dims the tenth doctor's sacrifice in journey's end and leads to people not fully grasping his descent into madness when he is denied this life that he so desperately wants but is denied in this life. in the confidential for journey's end david tennant says, "by gifting rose this other doctor he is not allowing himself to go back." because if tentoo did not exist he would tear apart reality to get her back as the timelord victorious and the only ONLY thing that stops him from doing so is that her happiness is what matters to him, and he knows that tentoo will make her happy because they are the same man with different opportunities who made different choices because the universe showed him the kindness of mortality.
tldr: the doctor and rose love travelling, but they don't need to travel to have fulfilled lives and they never did. that's part of what makes their relationship special and this is part of the canon narrative so much so that there is a song on the season two soundtrack about it.
#tentoorosemonth2023#tentoorose#tenrose#dw#tenth doctor#doctor who#rambles#tentoo#rose tyler#doctor x rose#tentoo x rose#timepetals
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The EarthSpark Expedition game came out, and since no one is really talking about it, I’ll toss around my two cents. Spoilers naturally.
So first things first, the game’s placement in the story. I think most of us were going to write it off as an adventure in a micro-continuity that didn’t fit with the show. Well that is thrown out the window. The game takes place after S1, with a small recap in the form of a charming RP game by the kids and Terrans.
The story feels like an epilogue, documenting the aftermath of what happened to Mandroid after his Doomsday Project went kaput. Well, he seemingly survived, though we don’t see him in person until the end of the game, and he’s giving the Doomsday Project another crack with the Energon Activator. This time he requires three relics to power the contraption, so naturally Bee is sent on a mission by Optimus to collect them, with Alex as Bee’s wingman.
The twist however is Mandroid has upgraded his mind control chips, having reprogrammed Skullcruncher, Skywarp, Nova Storm and Grimlock again, but also Optimus Prime, meaning Mandroid was playing 4D Chess to get Bee to essentially do his dirty work for him. It is kind of interesting Manny had to reprogram the jets since they willingly served him before, but then again after trying to obliterate (TERMINATE!) all Cybertronic life it makes sense the femjets wouldn’t want to anymore lol. Poor Grim can’t catch a break, but this time he seems to shrug off the experience, mostly calling it unpleasant. To my surprise, Skullcruncher can talk here. I wonder why he’s largely mute in the show (besides what I assume is budget).
Optimus being mind controlled is interesting. I know EarthSpark sorta dabbled previously, but it’s been fairly rare for Prime to be “charged with Evil” ala Attack of the Autobots. The Last Knight did it too, but well we all know how that went down financially. The point being after years of Prime being sort of rigid and untouchable, in what feels like heavy mandates from Hasbro, it’s refreshing to see some experimental stuff with Optimus again. EarthSpark’s strength with Optimus was returning to the well meaning, dorky sweater vest father figure from G1, and going farther with a AotAutobots/Dark Awakening vibe with Expedition is especially fun. Especially since it was a big defining moment for Bumblebee and Rodimus, so it’s fun to see it homaged here.
I also like the designs of the various henchbots Bee fights in the game. They appear to be generic Transformers, but I forget what their context was in game, but could we get toys of them, Hasbro.
As for Mandroid, when he finally appears in person, the truth is revealed. The Mandroid we’ve been following is an AI backup of his personality made before Doomsday MK1. The original officially died. His current body is a giant misshapen Arachnimech with tv screens bolted to its body to show off his original human face. Inevitably, Mandroid looses and finishing him off, Bumblebee blows a hole in his body with a MegaMan style charged shot. Hashtag says Mandroid likely can’t revive again as the ruins of GHOST HQ, now overgrown with plant life curiously and looking like ancient ruins in a shot amount of time, has really cruddy Wi-Fi, so the AI couldn’t escape into another body. Bee nevertheless seems determined in case Manny DOES return, implying we COULD see him again in S2 in some capacity.
That being said, the vibe I get also feels like Bertram from Family Guy. How he died in show following a botched attempt at killing Stewie via time manipulation, only to return in a Family Guy video game as the main villain picking up where he left off, only to die again with a nonchalant joke about how we’ll never see Bertram again after this.
So 50/50 at Mandroid’s return methinks. For all we know, as of typing, the villains of S2 are COBRA as part of Energon Universe synergy.
Still the story was fun. Definitely very Furman, and kinda nostalgic as a result. The Terrans are all perfectly in character of course. The only thing kinda holding it back is the voice acting, as none of the actors from the show are reprising their roles. Though the actor who played Bee in Netflix WFC reprised the role here, and he’s definitely one of the better actors, when otherwise the acting is a little… subpar. Way better than WFC and Prime Wars, but having that amateurish feeling from Cyberverse… They give it their all though and they still feel like their characters so that’s good.
As said it feels like an epilogue, though while fun to see Mandroid back at it, it DOES feel a tad repetitive using the same Doomsday weapon but slightly different, and using mostly the same Transformers being “Robo-Smashed”. I feel like you could’ve gotten some cool gameplay using Shockwave, Soundwave (& the Cassettes), Bombshell, Starscream and Hardtop. Personally I’d have liked including some new Transformers, like how the TFP game was built around the Decepticons rebuilding the Unicronian Thunderwing, with him as the final boss. Something like that maybe, only Mandroid has unearthed a Combiner, a friend recommended the Masterforce versions of the Seacons, with the final boss being a Mandroid controlled King Poseidon. Ah well maybe for the sequel then.
#blueike productions#blueike#transformers#autobots#decepticons#terrans#earthspark#transformers earthspark
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I said I’d elaborate on this later so here goes
WHY TENTOO X ROSE IS THE PERFECT ENDING
A lot of people think tentoo x rose is a happy ending only within the scope of the show—as in, it’s the best possible outcome considering that it’s a tv show and that David and Billie couldn’t have stayed on forever.
I fundamentally disagree.
(disclaimer that this is just my opinion and I think people can and should write whatever makes them happy!!)
Let’s imagine David and Billie were immortal and were willing to stay on the show forever—tentoo x rose is still the happiest ending they could’ve had.
Why? Here’s a few things we need to understand—
1) Doomsday would’ve happened even if Billie didn’t leave the show in s2
Doomsday, or a doomsday-equivalent, would’ve happened anyway. The Doctor and Rose would’ve been split up somehow simply because a relationship between an immortal and mortal is inherently doomed. Even if their separation wasn’t sudden and accidental, it would happen. The Doctor and Rose were doomed from the start, and this is a huge part of why the Doctor never actually acts on his feelings (he was only going to confess his feelings on BWB the first time because he genuinely thought he would never see Rose again.) I do believe that if Doomsday hadn’t happened, they would’ve eventually gotten into some sort of relationship, simply due to the intensity of their feelings, but it would never be carefree! The Doctor would be constantly burdened by the fact that he’s going to have to live for centuries after this human, and he’d never let himself be 100% open and vulnerable with the woman he loves. Because it’s going to really, really hurt soon enough.
2) Being immortal is NOT A GOOD THING
Now you might say, the earlier problem could be solved simply by making Rose immortal—she’d stay with the Doctor forever and she’d never have to leave him, but a constant theme throughout seasons 1-4 is that immortality is not desirable. There is a constant motif of “living too long”, whether it be from Jack, the Face of Boe (cough), or the Doctor himself. Things are only precious and meaningful because they end—the human way of doing things? Fast, and bright, and temporary? It’s the right way. One of the many reasons the Doctor loves Rose is because she’s human—it’s a big part of why he’s attracted to her in the first place. Besides, an immortal Rose would mean having to outlive her family, her friends, everyone she’s ever known—who else has experienced that? Oh, yeah. The Doctor. And I can’t imagine him wanting her to go through the same thing under any circumstances.
3) The Doctor wanted to be human.
The Doctor, and the Tenth Doctor in particular, wants to be human. It’s peppered here and there throughout the first four seasons, but there’s this underlying current of wistfulness in him (“I’ve never had a life like that”; “The one adventure I can never have”), not to mention the entirety of the Human Nature two parter, and I think to some extent Rose makes him feel human, and it’s his alienness that’s the big barrier in their relationship. She makes him want to be human, to be loved and to be free to love her as he wants to.
4) Rose constantly has to choose between her mum and the Doctor.
Now to be clear, there is no doubt in my mind that Rose would choose the Doctor over her mum. She has, several times, and I believe it’s totally in character.
But she shouldn’t have to! She shouldn’t have to choose between the Doctor and everything else that’s important to her, that makes her human. She shouldn’t have to be forced to never settle down because “the doctor never would” or to eventually become someone that isn’t Rose anymore, centuries and planets away from everything that made her her.
The Doctor doesn’t want this for her either.
Every time she has to make this particular choice, it breaks her heart, and it sure as hell doesn’t make the Doctor happy either. Tentoo gives her the chance to keep them both!❤️
5) The “happy” ending.
I know that ending up together and eventually having a kid is a very cliche happy ending, and I don’t think they’d be unhappy without a kid, but isn’t the sheer possibility a good thing?
It never would’ve been possible with the Time Lord Doctor, be it the differing physiology or the fact that he wouldn’t allow it to go so far. It would be something he could never give her, as his original self.
But tentoo could.
As has been pointed out in the discourse several times by @metacrisisdoctor (who you should totally follow btw!) so much of Ten and Rose’s season 2 arc is centred around domestics and settling down. They were always headed for this!
For a character as lonely as the Doctor to have someone to call his own, to not be the last of his species any more—that’s powerful stuff! He finally gets to have the full human experience, with all its ups and downs, and sure, it’s a very ordinary adventure but it is no less important 🥺
To conclude, Journey’s End is bittersweet, but it’s no roughshod, hastily put together ending because the cast wanted to leave. There was a LOT of thought put into it, and I will be forever grateful that a pairing as doomed as tenrose, somehow, MIRACULOUSLY, got a happy ending❤️
#*mine#meta#super messy but yeah this is the wavelength I’m on rn#rose tyler#tentoo#tentoo x rose#tentoorose
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i still stand by my opinion that rose tyler outgrew the ninth doctor and regressed with the tenth.
all of her worst traits were exacerbated in s2, and despite the fact that a lot of this would have been the doctor inspiring her, it is not lost to me that in most of rose's best moments, the doctor isn't physically there, the end of the satan pit for example.
anyway, i would have thought it would be interesting for rose to defeat the daleks at the end of the first series, and return to the powell estate with the reassurance that she did it. she saved her doctor. she didn't sit back but did something. something extraordinary and that the estate didn't have to be doom and gloom for her. have her go back to school, call a favour from harriet and start working at unit or something.
because i never liked how her take away from the bad wolf situation was that she was useless without the doctor. because she wasn't. rose tyler saves the day at the end of s1, not the doctor. and at the very least, if she had to stay with him, at least have her say it was because she wanted too plain and simple. her explanation to jackie in 'doomsday' was painful. boiled down to 'he needs me.' but what about YOU rose?
i don't like how rose and the doctor dynamic went from equals to rose being the doctor's soother. that's not even touching the meta crisis doctor.
#doctor who#rose tyler#character analysis#tenth doctor#ninth doctor#the satan pit#doomsday#harriet jones#he's a big man yanno#there's better ways to write how someone brings someone else comfort#add in romance and it just gets weird#10th doctor
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