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#just so proud of themselves

puppetmaster13u · 4 months

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Prompt 158

Klarion is on a mission. A very important mission of the utmost importance!

He, as the oldest of the family (at least sibling-wise) has been given the sacred task of bringing his baby siblings to find their own familiars! And nothing is going to stop him from seeing this task through! He’s not going to get distracted playing with the Justice League’s Baby Team, nor is he going to try and kick Stupid-Helmet-Head-The-Despised.

He’s going to help Jordan and Ellie find their own familiars, and Phantom-Dad will be so proud of him! Tucker-Dad will be proud too, and his Moms would as well! He’s going to absolutely rock this older-sibling thing!

#dcxdp #dpxdc #prompts #Eternal Quartet #They’re married & their timeline is older than DCs #The 4 saw small baby Chaos Lord and went “Is Anyone going to adopt that”#And didn’t wait for an answer #Dan & Ellie are delighted in having a sibling who is just as chaotic as them #Normally they’d be older than Klarion but Halfas can’t reform from their core into adult forms #They have to fully regrow their bodies from scratch so they emerge as babies again #Halfas are pretty much the Realms versions of phoenixes lmao #Klarion: I have never had parents before and I’m going to make them so proud :)#He’s bringing his new little siblings to so many zoos & animal shelters & YJ keeps *Just* missing them #Hilarious enough it’s either Damian or Billy or both who run into the trio #Either one would join in his mission as chaotic gremlins themselves

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baldursghaik · 1 month

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Reading the reaction to Larian's decision to fully step back from wotc/d&d/etc has been interesting

a lot of mourning of the loss of "content"

"we could have had years and years of content" "this is heart breaking to never see these characters again" etc etc

is that what you really want? content? is this what modern media production has come to, that people aren't sated with anything less than milking a property until it's a barren husk of anything it once was?

Why can't we be happy with what we have? I don't think it's unfair to be sad about this news, especially given that it felt like some things were being teased or hinted at, and now they most likely will not come to fruition (at least at larian's hands), but is that really so bad? If you're so dissatisfied with a character's ending or arc, write a fanfiction, draw fanart, boot up the game again and just imagine your way into what you DO want

is that not the fundamental nature of d&d?

#again #I cannot iterate enough that it's okay to be bummed out about this #but I'm proud of larian for doing right by their employees #they have more respect for themselves as well as the source material than wotc/hasbro does #I just wish that people could be happy at all that we have so much already #the only thing I truly wish larian would add is more material for wyll because he was done so dirty in comparison to everyone else #but aside from that the game is a great playground and sandbox for a million other stories or ideas #and wotc/hasbro or even larian themselves cannot rip that out of your hands #you can make more of what you love about this game this series this entire universe

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starry-bi-sky · 8 months

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okay so i was thinking of a joke earlier about how in DPDC Amity Park's slogan "a great place to live" is not only city propaganda but also the city lording it over the rest of America for being normal. But then I remembered that, despite how many DCU Cities with heroes in it there are, the amount of cities in America without heroes still far outnumber the amount of cities in America WITH heroes.

So I did a little digging so the joke would still land. Something most heroes have in common is that they operate in major cities. What makes a major city? I found that the general consensus is that the population is roughly over or around a million. THEN I looked up the populations of cities in the DCU that I thought of off the top of my head. So Gotham, Metropolis, Starling City, Central City, Jump City. All of them ranked up to millions in population (most of them were in the tens of millions).

Amity Park's wikipedia describes it as being similar to specifically Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco.

Philadelphia's Population: 1.576 million as of 2021 Chicago's Population: 2.697 million as of 2021 San Francisco: 815,201 as of 2021

Whiiich means that Amity Park if we take that from canon, is probably a major city. There are approximately 19,000 cities in America with probably less than a hundred that are major cities. Adding the DCU major cities wouldn't skew the data too much.

Which MEANS that I can make the joke that Amity Park's "great place to live" is not only just typical city propaganda, but also its Amity Park lording it over the other major cities for being one of the only major cities that doesn't have problems bad enough to warrant a superhero or a vigilante. Cue stage left the Fentons and Phantom :)

Amity Parkers were probably SO proud that they didn't need a superhero. They didn't have to worry about things like 'world ending threats' and 'super-powered individuals' and 'staggering property damage'. And then enter Fentons.

It also could be used as an excuse for why nobody took notice to Amity Park getting ghosts if folks like me aren't huge fans of the notion of a media blackout via Tucker, Technus, or the US Government. Or if you want to keep Amity Park as its urban city self. Amity Park's news on ghosts gets drowned out in a week because there's news on more popular, well-known cities going on every other day. The shit going on in Amity Park is every other major city's regular Tuesday and it gets filtered as such.

#dp x dc #dp x dc crossover #dpxdc #dpdc #plus amity suddenly going 'we have ghosts' could be seen as a case of city-wide FOMO finally hitting so nobody believes them #and thats if the belief of ghosts not being real is as strong as it is in dp canon #the media blackout could also be /city-induced/ too #where amity parkers are so proud of being 'normal' and 'not having superheros' that many of them try and deny the existence of Phantom #and the mayor and news sources themselves just. stubbornly refuse to let news of ghosts get out to the other cities #do you know how much shit they'll get?? they'll be a laughingstock!#gothamites would never leave them alone. neither would central city or the metropolitans or starling city or--#the other big cities will make fun of them :(#my new favorite hc that stemmed from this is that every major city in the dcu is rivaling with each other #there's a lot you can experiment with this idea imo lmao #this whole post sums up my writing and thinking process pr well tbh #this stemmed because im making a childhood friends au short story doc and wanted to avoid the typical tropes about how AP went undetected #from the rest of the US. bc. im not a fan of the media blackout idea via tucker/technus/gov and i wanted to keep AP an urban city #so i had to come up with something else #hence me looking into DCU cities and how many there are and realizing that there is a decent amount of other cities other than the main #popular ones and being DELIGHTED because then i could use that as an excuse for why amity went overlooked. bc there are many cities with #heroes in it. so its not surprising if another city gets a hero TOO. plus the news also focusing on more popular heroes and cities so again #the news of amity getting a hero gets drowned out by whatever new thing the JL or someone from the JL did that week

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nelkcats · 1 year

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Cyrus & Boreas

Spirits of the elements

The earth has been in a very delicate balance for a couple of years now, despite constant reminders of extinction, only magic users know what is really going on with temperatures, sometimes too hot or too cold.

It had been years since Amity Park ceased to exist, years since the land where the old town was located was inhabited, now it was just a wasteland, the city practically moved into the Infinite Realms, it turns out that its inhabitants were so exposed to ectoplasm that when they died almost everyone became a ghost.

For years Vlad and Danny had come to an agreement, just watching the earth, seeing new heroes come and go, but they were both getting bored of it, missing their old rivalry, the thrill of chasing each other, they also missed visiting their dimension. It was, after all, half of their home.

Seeing the problem of global warming and how damaged the earth was, Clockwork presented them a solution. It turns out that when you were properly connected to your core you could take an animal form, and expand your element where you stepped, or around you. Frostbite and the yetis taught Danny more about it, Pandora and the greeks ended up teaching Vlad.

It was the beginning of their competition, apparently Acropolis of Athens and Far Frozen had an old rivalry too, so they were more than happy to teach them how to deal in a friendly way (still a dangerous fighting but apparently that was the most friendly possible without killing each other)

This power wasn't something ghosts would practice very often, because it would expend too much energy and ectoplasm, it wasn't like Dora's amulet or Amorpho special talent at all, ¿the good part? The halfas were characterized by having energy to spare.

With that resolved, Clockwork tasked them with taking care of the earth's temperatures, so a few times a year (mostly on winter and summer solstice days), Vlad and Danny would choose a specific animal and run across the earth, the places where Vlad stepped warmed up in an instant, the places Danny walked were filled with snowflakes and cold.

The animal forms they liked to take the most were extinct or mythological creatures, sometimes they changed to be opposite species, at other times they were the same.

The magic users named it "The Cyrus & Boreas Phenomenon", when Danny heard about it he was excited by his name being so similar to the Northern Lights, while Vlad sulked for having a Persian name while being trained by Greeks.

This continued without being a problem, until Danny found the Wachtower station in space, immediately he changed his path and ran towards it; Vlad, knowing this could become a problem, followed him from afar.

The Justice League and Justice League Dark were having a meeting when the temperature dropped, Constantine cursed as the rest of the league tensed "Bats, what day is it?"

"December 21" upon hearing his response, Constantine cursed again as he ranted about the winter solstice.

"Damn it, damn it ¿why did he deviate from his route? He doesn't go of his way, especially not in this time of the year, ¡this is a disaster!" Constantine paced back and forth "Look, I know you guys like to poke your nose into everything that happens, but this is strictly magical, so no matter what's about to come, keep quiet, do absolutely nothing ¿Do you understand?" The hellbazer's hands trembled as he speaked.

"You can't just say that, ¡we have a right to know! This is nonsense" Diana frowned, she didn't much like the wizard's attitude right now.

"Sorry Wonder Woman, but this is strictly tied to the Justice League Dark, trust us for now, it's for your safety" Fate spoke, he knew nothing bad would happen if the league just kept quiet.

As soon as the lord of order stopped speaking, the entire room began to freeze, pieces of ice hanging on the walls as a Giant wolf ran through the wall.

In the first instance, the wolf looked dangerous, the places where its paws were placed had frozen, pure pieces of ice, the wolf turned its attention to the League, approaching curiously.

"Boreas" Zatanna exhaled in amazement, the entire magical community knew how the animal's presence felt no matter how much it changed its shape, it was the closest thing to a myth that existed, leveling the planet's temperatures, staying a few days and disappearing, impossible to find, record or locate no matter how hard you tried.

"However, where is Cyrus?" Constantine murmured to his partner, if Boreas was near his counterpart shouldn't be far away.

Danny looked at the wizards, interested in the names they had given him, he was about to ask about it when a ball of fire hit him in the shoulder.

He growled in complete frustration as he turned to look at his assailant, behind him the League tensed at the sound as Fate signaled for them to keep quiet.

Behind the animal appeared a Tasmanian tiger the same size as the Giant wolf, Barry was about to question if they weren't supposed to be extinct when the wolf snarled and lunged at the tiger, who ran back to earth.

The entire league watched as the ice brought by the wolf was extinguished by the appearance of the tiger, returning to normal as both creatures moved away.

"Constantine, situation report" Batman was clearly the first to snap out of the trance he had been left in.

"Look Bats, I know how much you want your precious information but this is out of your league, ¿those guys? Cyrus & Boreas, they are as close to benign Gods as you can find, they keep the earth's temperature stable with their games" Constantine lit his cigarette, trying to ignore the surreal situation.

"¿Games?" Superman was next to speak, a concerned note in his voice.

"Games" Fate confirmed "We theorize they are opposing elements, maybe spirits, we think they pursue each other as some kind of challenge, and the balance on earth is just a lucky accident, we don't know where they live or where they come from, but they're not someone you want to play with." Fate commented, remembering the fact that most of the time the creatures try to hurt each other but never give the final hit, always waiting for the other to heal.

"Are you telling me that if these beings decide to stop coming here, will we simply ¿disappear? ¿Because they just decided to stop playing?"

"Something similar, but far more complicated than that" Zatanna entered the conversation "they keep the consequences of global warming stable, if they stop coming, well...the earth will definitely go extinct quickly, I'd give it a couple of years" is not like humanity was taking proper care of earth, these "gods" were basically a miracle for humans to correct their own errors.

"¿Why were we not informed?" Batman was at a crossroad, these beings were definitely dangerous, but if they faced them it could cause catastrophic consequences.

"The same reason you are struggling Bats" Constantine snorted "You want to solve all the problems, but you don't understand that magic is not meant to be solved or a problem, some things are better left as they are, without interfering, or it could happen something worse" and they are far older than all of us he didn't mention out loud.

"Then ¿what do you suggest? ¿We stand here doing nothing while two would-be Gods use our planet as a playground?" Oliver frowned, disgusted.

"Yes" for the first time Shazam spoke in the conversation "because if we don't let them we will become extinct" Billy knew much more than the magicians, books on the rock of eternity that detailed human spirits, about the infinite Realms and the deities that inhabited them. The delicate balance existing in life and death, but he was not allowed to divulge it.

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

Back on earth, in Paris, Vlad and Danny were enjoying a cup of coffee and hot chocolate respectively.

"So, ¿did you want to meet the heroes or see their cool station in space?" Vlad questioned in amusement as Danny choked on his chocolate "The station ¿huh?" Vlad spoke again while Danny looked at him with a frown "It's okay Daniel, I know you can't help it"

"Yeah, I know, it was a bit stupid to change the route, and reveal myself to sorcerers, but the heroes, the aliens, the space, I needed to see it" the boy grimaced, feeling guilty "thanks for getting me out of there, I was about to do something stupid"

"¿Something stupid like speak?" Vlad questioned knowingly, he was aware that humanity now considered them myths or even gods, they shouldn't be revealing themselves freely, their games were mostly harmless but they had a purpose.

"Yeah, sorry" Danny sighed "although I love the new name, Boreas commands a lot more respect than Danny, ¿right? I do miss when they called me Phantom though..."

Seeing that the boy was lost in his memories again, Vlad sighed, he also missed the old times, their battles, Phantom and Plasmius fighting to the death, but their grudges were resolved long ago, they had no reason to fight, Boreas & Cyrus was an escape from boredom and a reunion with the old days more than anything else.

"It's okay little badger, we can stop by their space station next year, I don't think the fledgling heroes will care" Vlad took a sip from his mug, considering, obviously they would care, but he really didn't care about their feelings, let them freak out a little more.

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skeilig · 1 year

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since it's dimple day, just wanna say it's very very funny how dimple has been hanging around this middle schooler for months, protecting him both physically and emotionally when he gets the chance, and in his mind, he's like "yes i'm just biding my time... until i can USE him for my own ends.. yes i'm so evil.. so sick and twisted"

#mp100 #the reigen parallel too.. wahh #see how i almost made a post that wasnt about reigen #but they both think so lowly of themselves/their own motives #even though their actions are often very selfless and good #but whereas reigen thinks that he's selfish/harming mob bc he hates himself #dimple clings onto thinking his motives are evil out of PRIDE AND EGO SKJDGHK #he's too proud to admit he just cares about shigeo :/#it's so funny... anyway have to laugh while i still can right :') gonna be crying soon enough

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tortureandtickles · 5 months

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okay but how cute is it when you’re holding in your laughter and the tickling becomes too much so you finally start laughing and the ler gets that little look on their face like “ugh yes, i’ve got them to laugh!! i did that!!”

#i just find it so cute when lers are so proud of themselves for making lees laugh!!!#like YES #you deserve all the credit in the WORLD #you’re amazing at what you do!!!!!

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cheese-water · 3 months

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Leo and Sunny together gives me tons of feelings because at surface level, it’s just two very similar girls fighting over very childish things like who copied who and who likes Pepito more. But looking deeper made me realize just how similar they are.

It’s a funny coincidence that both Sunny and Leo have pivotal character moments when they interact. One right before and one right after.

Sunny’s is the mermaid family meeting with Tubbo before she was told about Leo’s prank, and it’s hard to watch. This little girl so desperately wants to be loved by others. She so desperately wants her other parents to meet her and take care of her that she’ll take any semblance of them and love it to moon and back. It’s too bad the remaining shards she has are horror stories and a body by the dock.

Leo’s happens right after saying “hola” and a few other words to Sunny and running away up the hill. When Foolish catches up to her, she’s already sitting in a chair and partway through watching a video. The video was an ai Foolish cover of Gary come home in spanish but replaced Gary with Vegetta (Vegetta vuelve a mí). Leo continues watching and it becomes apparent just how much she is affected by her other father’s disappearance. The depressing scene only darken when discovering that the ai cover was made a month before she disappeared. Two and a half months is a dangerously long time to hold out hope. Especially when it can all come crashing down on you in an instant.

Leo and Sunny are deeply lonely and crave the love and attention from their other parents that their single dads just can’t provide. They’re just a couple of girls god damnit let them live :(

#qsmp #qsmp eggs #qsmp leonarda #qsmp sunny #qsmp sunnysideup #disclaimer idk too too much about leo’s past pre-purg so this might not be as pivotal to others compared to her other rp #However I accidentally caught this moment live and have been thinking about it ever since #So leo enjoyers I hope I did you proud #Sunny enjoyers too ofc I just have more confidence in interpreting her than leo lmao #Anyway I’ve been thinking about this for a few days then prison happened and displayed tubbo and foolish’s single dadness #(them being one of if not the first to notice the other’s kid was by themselves and immediately inviting them to hang)#Like wow #Also love how whenever the other’s parent isn’t around Leo and Sunny just tolerate each other #Contributes to their mutual loneliness that this is a unspoken agreement but I may just be chatting #who knows

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panzershrike-pretz · 7 months

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Spoilers for the end of The Desolations of Devil's Acre ahead!!

I just think its so sweet of Miss Peregrine to remake the loop a day earlier so the kids can have peace without bombs falling from the sky every single night

And also, the trees in the form of Miss Avocet welcoming the kids with open arms is extremely kind

She didn't have to do it, she could very well kept the loop being on September 3rd, 1943

But she moved it so they could finaly be at peace after all the war and stuff against the Wights and the stress of being on the run and I just can't get over how much she loves the kids

#idk i just love Miss P #she is the best and i won't take any criticism #mphfpc #miss peregrines home for peculiar children #🥨🪶#alma lefay peregrine #the end means so much to me because she finaly trusts them enough to let them come and go as they please #they proved themselves and saved the world #shes a proud mama bird

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metalhoops · 10 months

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Like a lesser hero in a fantasy tale, the night was cut clean in two by the dull glow of a flashlight beam, flanked by two boys. It was an odd pastime but a familiar one to them. They had grown at home in the strange dark places of the town, aware of what might be lurking in the shadows between the pines.

Eddie, the first boy, with his hair and clothes as black as the forest floor, shook the silent woods with the intermittent clatter of his stainless-steel rings on the metal shaft of the light, his makeshift weapon. Each ring was a treasured yet well-worn possession. The ear of the pig ring and the temple of the skull were permanently scratched from the repeated action.

Steve, the other boy, was more prepared. He came brandishing a baseball bat, its wooden body a sister to the surrounding trees with a halo of gnarled nails, hinting at the more sinister air of their surroundings.

Unlike Eddie’s fantasy games, the backstory didn’t matter. It was the reason the boys were there, of course, but it was also the imminent threat they didn’t wish to speak of. In their shared pasts, there had been portals to other worlds, monsters beyond human comprehension and near-death experiences that’d brought on the winter of Eddie’s life, and the spring of Steve’s.

Eddie had spent the past month jumping at shadows in the corner of his new bedroom or in the woods beyond the trailer park. Steve, on the other hand, had bloomed beautifully and brutally before Eddie’s eyes. Before the Upside Down, he would look at Steve and all he’d feel was ire, righteous indignation and a small yet frustrating, pang of lust.

When he looked at Steve in the yellow glow of the torchlight, he saw a man who’d come when Eddie called, in the middle of the night, with haste and a plan. He saw someone who believed in him or at least, cared enough about him to go willingly into the night when Eddie had reported seeing sinister shapes shift past his window.

It was enough to get Steve to leave the confines of his isolated mansion and slum it with the poor folk down in the proverbial trenches. Eddie now saw a man he very well might be in love with. Jagged shadows cast by stray branches sliced across his face, resembling the snaking vines of the Upside Down. The boys had barely escaped the place and every moment after felt as though they were living on borrowed time.

“What’d you say we do one more loop past the old train tracks and call it a night?” Steve asked, at last, his body sticking close to Eddie’s side. He felt a pang of guilt for dragging Steve out of bed, again, just to find nothing.

“We can head back now, I’m probably going crazy, man.”

“No, I wanna check. Otherwise, it’ll bug the hell outta me. We’ve all been a little crazy after everything we’ve been through. I mean, I’ve almost died like ten times. Think the eleventh time might be the one that sticks- you know?”

It reminded them of another night, in another world. It had been a quick yet intimate conversation with a stranger. If we get out of this, Eddie had thought at the time, I might actually want to get to know this guy. Months had passed. He still felt like he didn’t know Steve enough to say what he wanted to say, but Steve needed to hear it.

“That’d be a real bummer, you know? If you died. I wouldn’t have anyone to go on long walks in the moonlight with.”

The two boys had fallen out of step with one another. Steve had charged forward in the semi-darkness leaving Eddie a few paces behind.

“Nancy would come with you. After the first time, when Will and Nancy’s friend went missing, she’d swing by my house, and we’d sit on the deck chairs watching the pool. Honestly, you might be better off with her. She’d bring a gun,” Steve spoke, tossing the jagged bat from hand to hand, with the skill of an ex-high school sports star.

“Why is it you and I always end up in the woods trying to set each other up with Nancy goddamn Wheeler?” Eddie spoke disbelievingly as he jogged to catch up with Steve. He laughed, his hand bumping Eddie’s side as the two fell back into step.

“She’s not my type, Stevie. You can have her,” Eddie tacked on, trying to defuse some of the tension that had arisen between them, skimming his light amongst the trees.

“I don’t think she’s my type either. Well— not anymore. We tried it. It didn’t work out. We wanted different things,” Steve admitted.

Once they reached the train tracks, Steve surveyed the old wood and rusted metal. The place also had history. He could smell freezer burn and rotten meat on the breeze. When looking at Eddie’s profile he felt a sudden charge to the air like the calm before a thunderstorm.

He thought of a conversation he’d had years before with Dustin on those very tracks. He knew with sudden certainty why he’d hauled himself out of bed in the middle of the night, once again to chase Eddie’s hunches. He and Dustin had been talking about love. He gave himself the same advice he’d given the kid all those years before.

Don’t fall in love. It’ll only break your heart.

“Right, you wanted that whole hoard of kids and an R.V. vacation thing? Three girls, three boys. A whole brood of Harringtons,” Eddie breathed, kicking up dirt and leaves with his shoes. Steve shot Eddie a perplexed glance, surprised he’d been listening and shocked he’d remembered the statement word for word.

“Right, yeah. I know, make fun all you want, dude. It’s crazy I know.” Once more, they fell out of step.

Eddie stopped while Steve kept walking, playing the role of a funambulist, his hands outstretched as though standing at a great height as he walked foot over foot across the thin metal.

“This might surprise you Steve but for once I wasn’t going to give you shit,” Eddie replied, walking beside Steve, jumping from wooden beam to wooden beam.

The metal track gave Steve a good half inch of height, making it so that for once the two weren’t eye to eye. Eddie kept flicking the light between the vast track ahead of them and the empty woods behind. He still felt as though any moment something could burst through the cracks in the earth left in the wake of the quake and drag them back down into Eddie’s personal version of hell. He couldn’t help but think of Steve’s words. The eleventh time would stick. Eddie didn’t know what he’d do without him.

“So, what do you want?” Steve asked, shaking Eddie from his thoughts. When his answer didn��t immediately present itself, Steve continued.

“I mean, you know what I want. Six nuggets, touring the country. What do you want?”

The question startled a scoff out of Eddie. It wasn’t as though anyone had bothered to ask him that before. He didn’t know.

“I’ve got no clue. I’m not like you. I don’t sit around thinking about the future. I’m just trying to get through today,” Eddie confessed, speaking more candidly than he’d intended.

“Alright. You don’t know what you want to do with the rest of your life. That’s pretty normal, but having nothing? Dude. You’ve gotta have something. Let’s start small. What do you want to do tomorrow?”

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t mind having breakfast with my uncle and spending some time with the kids and the band. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get to see you, hopefully under some better circumstances,” Eddie explained as Steve misstepped, almost falling from his perch.

He corrected himself, placing an outstretched hand on Eddie’s shoulder for balance. Eddie tried not to preen beneath the other boy’s touch.

“I like the sound of that,” Steve confirmed, daring a glance at Eddie.

The storm within him continued to brew. Eddie’s plans for whatever small future stretched out before them involved Steve, which was more than he’d gotten from anyone else.

Nancy wanted a career in investigative journalism. She wanted to change the world for the better. It was a noble goal. One Steve had admired endlessly but he couldn’t help but feel like a small child asking for a seat at the grown-up table when trying to compete with the hopes and dreams of Nancy Wheeler. For her, he would’ve changed his dreams to play a small part in her life, but he’d come to realise that wasn’t a good way to love.

Every relationship Steve had went to hell eventually. He didn’t want the same fate with Eddie. He wanted to continue walking the fine line between friendship and whatever awaited them on the other side of the electric storm. Steve didn’t know if he was ready for all the complications being in love with Eddie would entail. It’d wreak havoc on his sense of self and take a hatchet to his dreams of white picket fences. That was on the slim chance Eddie felt the same way about him.

When Steve looked at Eddie he felt as though he were back at the bottom of Lovers Lake. To love Eddie was to drown beneath the crushing weight of possibilities.

“You okay?” Eddie asked, a hint of concern in his tone.

It was only then that Steve realised he’d stopped walking, his knuckles turning white as his fingers dug into the fabric of Eddie’s jacket.

No. Steve was far from okay, but he couldn’t voice it without ruining everything.

“I need a minute,” Steve muttered, stumbling back from Eddie, removing his hand as though he’d grabbed the wrong end of a hot poker.

He’d moved on instinct, forgetting where he stood on his precarious perch. He tumbled ass backwards off the train tracks, trying to save whatever sense of dignity he had left by scrambling to his feet quickly. He heard his bat clatter to the forest floor as he headed off into the woods, unsure of his direction. He needed space to sort his head out.

There were only two ways Steve knew how to face a crisis; two base and primal instincts, fight or run. Eddie wasn’t a wayward creature that devoured cats or a schoolyard bully. He couldn’t punch himself loveless and doing anything to hurt Eddie was worse than torture.

Steve wanted Eddie to hit him. It’d shake loose some of the tension in his chest at the sight of the boy’s brown eyes; the eyes that reminded Steve of the deep warm wood that was fashionable in homes during his childhood. The familiar floorboards of the entryway where he’d lay with Tommy after hours of swimming, drip-drying on the wood, warping it to the shape of their bodies.

Eddie’s eyes reminded him of home. Not the place he’d grown up in, but the sensation one felt when they recalled a fond memory, years removed from context and complications. Steve couldn’t imagine a future where Eddie would hurt him, even if that’s what he wanted.

He did what he did best. He ran away.

Without Eddie’s flashlight, the woods were a gaping maw of some unseen creature. Even the breeze on the back of his neck felt warm. Steve collapsed at the base of a tree and searched his pockets for a lighter. He didn’t bring his cigarettes but there was something soothing about the weight of the object in his hand and the repeated action of sparking the flint and extinguishing the fire with a twist of his wrist.

Steve heard approaching footsteps signalled by the crunch of leaves underfoot. He prayed Eddie wouldn’t ask why he’d run. If he asked, Steve knew he’d tell him. Then they’d both be screwed.

Steve tried to spark the lighter again, but no flame would ignite. It was out of lighter fluid. Just his goddamn luck.

“Steve?” Eddie’s voice echoed through the trees.

The direction was all wrong. Eddie’s call came from a distance. The footsteps were close. Right goddamn on top of him. Fuck.

Steve acted fast, fumbling in the underbrush, trying to find a weapon. He grabbed a stray branch with enough heft to wield. He was good at making use of what he had. He held the wood aloft, scrambled to his feet and fumbled with the lighter, desperate to get one last spark out of it. He knew how much the creatures hated fire. In a way, he was thankful that he knew what he was dealing with for once.

The swiftness of the footfalls and the length of the shadows cutting through the blackness let him know within seconds he would be face to face with a full-sized Demogorgon.

Steve felt the creature before he saw it. A sudden force collided into his body knocking him from his feet. He had just enough time to get the jagged end of the stick between himself and the creature. He felt the branch wade into the creature’s soft flesh.

Eddie called his name once more, drawing the creature's attention away from him. Steve had an opening.

His trembling hands flicked the lighter again. This time, for a brief and brilliant moment, it sparked. He shoved the naked flame against the creature's wound. He wasn’t sure if he’d hurt it or just made it mad. It thrashed and writhed, grabbing at Steve’s body, and pounding him into the damp earth. Now Steve had its attention.

He tried to strike out but this time the monster was too quick, its body bared down on Steve and before he knew it, he was face to face with the monster's strange unfurling flesh mouth and razor-sharp teeth. So, this was how he’d die.

“Mother fucker,” Eddie muttered as two shifting figures caught his attention.

Steve was pinned to the ground by something that looked fresh out of his nightmares. The others had told him there were more things out there than the bats and demonic, skinless hell-wizard they’d faced but Eddie’s mind had never been able to conjure a creature that would match the true beast before him.

Steve was doing his best to keep the creature at arms-length. A rotted wooden branch cut at the palm of Steve’s hands and had gone straight through the thing’s body. Eddie scoured his brain, trying to remember everything he’d been told about the creature. Heat. They hated heat.

Eddie had grabbed Steve’s bat as he followed him. He’d wanted to be the kind of person who could give Steve space but every fibre of his being had told him to chase after the boy so he had.

He dropped the flashlight to free up a hand and searched the pockets of his jacket, thankful he always had his lighter handy. He knew Steve would be pissed if Eddie torched his favourite weapon, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He’d rather have Steve pissed than not have him at all.

He set fire to the bat, throwing more hellish shadows over the wicked tableau of the snarling beast and the desperate boy pinned beneath its grasp. The smell of burning wood and flesh hung heavy in the air. He had the element of surprise on his side.

The flaming bat collided with the creature’s skull sending it reeling. It let out an inhuman whaling that scattered the nightbirds. Eddie readied the bat to swing again, expecting the beast to charge. Instead, it ran off into the blackness of the night. It’d finally happened. What they all knew had been inevitable. The Upside Down, and in turn Vecna was back. Though for now, he and Steve had brought themselves time.

Eddie watched as Steve sat wide-eyed but seemingly unharmed. He guessed Steve Harrington had more lives left in him yet. Thank Christ.

“Please tell me that looked as badass as it felt,” Eddie breathed trying to alleviate some of the tension between them.

He dropped the bat, snuffing out what was left of the flame and moved unthinkingly to pat down Steve’s body, checking for wounds. He had a gash on his forehead and a split lip, but he’d live.

“It looked pretty badass,” Steve confirmed and froze as Eddie’s hands raked through his hair.

“You’ve got something in your...” Eddie’s voice trailed off as he pulled a leaf out of Steve’s hair, holding it aloft in front of his face.

Steve’s eyes glanced from the leaf to Eddie before tentatively reaching out, his hands searching the planes of his body, dancing cautiously over the barely healed wounds that’d once littered his side. Steve was checking him over.

“I’m okay. You okay?” Eddie assured holding up a hand before reaching into the back pocket of his jeans.

He pulled out his bandana and inched forward to wrap it around the gash on Steve’s head. The boy cringed beneath his touch. Eddie muttered an apology.

“I’ll live,” Steve confirmed leaning back, trying to get some space between them.

Eddie hadn’t realised how close they were. He shifted back, remembering with sudden clarity that Steve had practically begged Eddie to give him a second alone. He wasn’t willing to do that, given they’d already run into one hell beast that night. There could be others. He did something uncharacteristic. Eddie Munson sat with Steve in silence.

They sat in stillness for so long that the birds and insects returned to the woods around them.

“I’m sorry,” Eddie spoke when the silence was too loud. He didn’t know what he was apologising for, but he couldn’t think of anything better to say.

Steve looked up at the boy with alarm.

“What’re you sorry for?” He asked, feeling as though he was caught in another echo of the past.

He remembered a seemingly endless car ride to Nancy’s house, trying to find ways to apologise for some transgression he wasn’t sure he’d committed. He’d wanted to apologise because he’d loved Nancy and he’d been scared of losing her.

He wondered what motivations were behind Eddie’s apology. He worried that The Upside Down’s strange relationship with time had leaked into Hawkins, that some pasts were destined to repeat.

“I don’t know,” Eddie admitted after a breath, letting out a nervous laugh.

“I’m sorry for doing whatever I did to make you go all space cadet on me. Tell me what I did, and I can tell you I’m sorry,” he continued.

Steve was certain at that moment, Eddie loved him too. It was already too late to change things. They were trains on a track, their futures seemingly already locked in place.

“You know if you want someone to talk to about whatever’s going on in that head of yours, I’m here Steve,” Eddie kept pushing, unable to take Steve’s silence as an answer.

His tone was so soft, sincere and unlike anything that Steve expected from the boy that he couldn’t help but speak the words out loud, despite his better judgment.

“I love you.”

Eddie had thought he’d been prepared for anything, but he hadn’t been prepared for that. It was then that Steve let out a strangled sound between a scoff and a groan.

“And it's screwed now. I always mess it up.”

Eddie could hardly hear the boy’s voice over the rush of blood in his ears. His heart was a high-strung choir, singing the same repeated tune, ‘Steve loves me’. When his common sense kicked into gear, he noted the panic in Steve’s eyes and knew he needed to say something.

“I love you too,” Eddie managed, feeling both heavier and lighter.

He’d never said it before. He sure as hell hadn’t pictured a world where he’d admit he loved a boy before they’d started dating. Steve was moving at a breakneck speed and Eddie was desperately trying to catch up. To his surprise, Steve hardly stirred at the confession.

“I know,” Steve admitted sounding broken as his eyes met Eddie’s. He gave the boy a tight-lipped grimace. All of Eddie’s momentary joy fell just as it’d begun to soar.

“Please tell me that was a Star Wars reference,” Eddie whispered, earning a real smile from Steve. It was soft and fleeting as freshly felled snow on a warm palm. He knew despite all of Steve’s posturing, he was a huge nerd when it came to science fiction.

“Eds, my track record...” Steve’s voice trailed off.

Eddie realised the thing Steve had been dancing around. They were still talking about Nancy goddamn Wheeler in the woods.

“Stevie,” he breathed, for once at a loss for words.

He was a storyteller, but he didn’t want to give Steve a story. He couldn’t promise him a world where everything was perfect. They lived in a land of blight and monsters, a time of trouble. The town was still after Eddie’s head on a pike and Steve was running out of goodwill with those that’d once called him king. He wanted to show Steve what they were.

Damn the past. Kill all possible futures. All they had was the brief and infinite present.

Eddie wanted to show Steve what they could be at that moment.

He crossed the space between them, pausing for a breath, leaving room for Steve to push him away. When no such protest arose, he placed one hand on Steve’s cheek, the other cupping the nape of his neck.

“I’m not good at this either,” Eddie admitted tentatively.

He’d kissed guys before. It’d always been desperate and sloppy. He didn’t want loving Steve to feel like an afterthought as it had with the other men.

“But I think it’s worth a shot,” Eddie concluded.

He’d laid everything out on the table, all that was left was for Steve to pick it up or turn it down.

Steve didn’t surge forward. Instead, he moved achingly slow. One hand landed on Eddie’s thigh, the other tangled in his hair. He gave a gentle tug to pull him that last inch closer.

Eddie’s lips were wind-chaffed and cool, melting ice on bare skin, shocking and a good kind of painful. Steve’s face had the faintest hint of stubble, it was rough as the rocks, and forest foliage beneath their bodies. He smelled of wet earth, blood, and faded cologne. Their hands traced each other’s topography with fingers, lips and tongues, toppling over in the process.

When they pulled apart the whole world seemed to hold its breath. The wind was still. The night was silent. An invisible audience waited with bated breath for a conclusion.

“Christ,” Eddie choked, hand fluttering dramatically to his heart. It was a kick drum in his chest.

Steve’s hand followed, sliding beneath Eddie’s shirt.

“Christ,” Steve echoed with a goofy grin. Eddie loved him. The thought came easily. It was the only thought populating his mind.

“We should probably, you know, shelve this and try to stop the world ending... again,” Eddie proposed, trying to think straight.

“Only if you promise to take me on a date after,” Steve countered. He pulled himself to his feet and extended a hand to Eddie.

“Me take you? You’re meant to be the ladies' man with the killer dates,” Eddie argued, falling into step with Steve easily.

“Exactly. It’d be nice to be the one getting the flowers for a change. Technically you’re the one who wanted to give this a shot. I’ll get the second date.”

Eddie scoffed disbelievingly. The cocky bastard. He’d never picked Steve as someone who liked flowers. He’d give Steve a garden, a forest, a kingdom.

“Alright, save the world. Buy you flowers. Go on a first date. Go on a second date. Seems like I might actually have a plan for the next few days down pact.”

“And after that?” Steve prompted.

“If you want me to say six nuggets and a Winnebago you’ve gotta buy me dinner first.”