#okay i could go through the entire trilogy
Text
May the Fourth Be with You
Casey Novak x fem!reader
Warnings: explicit language (maybe?), implied sex (maybe?), fluffy times, Star Wars V spoilers (I guess?), idk let me know if I've missed anything
Word count: 1.7k
Summary: You and Casey are watching the twins so your parents can go on vacation and, unbeknownst to Casey, you fully plan on celebrating Star Wars day. But you end up celebrating something else entirely.
Casey jerked awake as the Star Wars theme song blared to life around her.
“What the hell?!” she muttered, stretching and blinking to find you, Winnie, and Eli standing at the foot of the bed with lightsabers. Winnie had on a Darth Vader mask.
You grinned, giggling, and counted your siblings off. “Okay, guys, one… two… three… May the Fourth be with you!”
Casey groaned and tried to put on a good face for Eli and Winnie as she sat up. “Oh, wow. Happy… what are we celebrating?”
“The breakfast tray, young padawans,” you prompted, bowing slightly. Eli and Winnie grabbed either side of a tray and set it over Casey’s lap. Of course, she thought as she looked over the hash brown patty decorated as Chewbacca, with little bacon arms and legs. The avocado toast that somehow had the face of Yoda. Star Wars day. May the Fourth be with you. She shook her head. This is what she got for dating a huge nerd. Even the orange juice was in a little Star Wars glass that looked like it had come straight out of the ‘70s. For all she knew, it might have. Your dad was a huge nerd, too.
“Okay, guys,” you said, giving them a small salute. “You can go eat your breakfasts. Casey and I will come down in a little bit and we can start A New Hope.”
The kids cheered and thundered downstairs, leaving just you in your Han Solo t-shirt sitting at the edge of the bed. “Sorry to wake you,” you apologized, running a hand through her messy morning hair. “I put them off as long as I could.”
“I don’t know how your parents do this all the time.” Casey yawned, making a squished sandwich of the avocado toast, the hash brown and the bacon. She bit into and moaned. “God, it’s worth it for your breakfast, though.”
You smiled and leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead. You and Casey were watching your siblings, Winnie and Eli–who were both sixteen and both had Down syndrome–for two weeks, so your parents could go on vacation. They were great kids. You loved them with your whole heart. And you loved that Casey loved them, too. That she was willing to use her vacation time to help you take care of them.
“I think we’re gonna start with A New Hope,” you told her. “It’s the only one they’ve seen besides the kid shows, and the original trilogy’s the best anyway.”
“I’ve never seen Star Wars,” Casey mused, taking another bite of her mishmashed sandwich.
Your jaw dropped. “Casey, what!? None of them!?”
She shook her head, wiping crumbs off the corner of her mouth.
“How come I didn’t know this?! You never told me…”
Casey looked almost guilty as she shrugged. “I don’t really have any desire to see Star Wars…”
You gasped. “And this from the love of my life!?” You clutched your hands to your chest dramatically.
“Calm down,” she scoffed, ruffling your hair as she finished the breakfast sandwich and drained the juice, setting the tray aside so she could wrap her arms around you. “I love that you love Star Wars. I love it when you talk nerdy to me.” She placed a kiss on your neck.
“Oh, yeah?” You smirked, raising your eyebrows.
“Mmhm,” Casey confirmed, pressing her lips to yours. She tasted citrusy from the orange juice, and your brain momentarily blacked out.
You smiled into her, lips brushing against hers. “Did you know the Millennium Falcon is a YT-1300 Corellian light freighter?”
Casey kissed you again, placing both hands on the sides of your face to deepen it.
“And it made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs?”
“You’re such a nerd,” she chuckled, pushing you back into the headboard and straddling your lap.
You moaned slightly, your hands slipping under her t-shirt, as she slid her tongue into your mouth.
“Hey!” a voice called, and you and Casey shot apart as if you were teenagers caught by your parents. It was Winnie, in all her 4’10” glory, standing arms crossed, Darth Vader mask on, in the doorway. “You two,” she ranted, pointing at you, “need to stop all this kissing. Get your butts downstairs. It’s May the Fourth Be with You! Not Kissing Be with You!”
“Get out of here, Winnie!” you yelled playfully, throwing a pillow out of her. “We’ll be down in a second.”
She crossed her arms. “You know you’re not allowed to have girlfriends or boyfriends upstairs. That’s what mom says to you and Chase.”
“I’m a full-grown adult, Winnie! I have a job! And an apartment!” you protested. “I can do whatever I want!” You launched yourself out of bed, flushed, straightening your clothes. “And Chase is married!”
Casey’s shoulders shook with laughter, her face red. You rolled your eyes, taking her hand in yours to pull her up from the bed. You followed Winnie downstairs, slapping Casey’s hand away as she squeezed your ass.
“The children, Casey!” you hissed. She smirked and kissed the side of your head.
You had more fun watching Star Wars that day than you’d had in a long time. But you loved watching Casey with your siblings more. It meant so much to you, so much more than you could ever say–and you’d said a lot–that she was so good with them, that she cared about them, even loved them. It made your heart soar when Eli asked for his daily smoothie and wanted Casey to make it, not you. It was a task reserved for whoever was his favorite at the time. You loved that these days, his favorite was Casey.
Even more exciting was getting to watch perhaps the only three people in the world who didn’t know Darth Vader was Luke’s father see the reveal.
“What!?” Casey yelled, into it despite herself, mostly because it was fun to be into something with the people around you. The kids screamed, throwing things around the room. You grinned all the way to your ears, pressing a quick kiss to the corner of Casey’s mouth. You just couldn’t help yourself. She slipped a sneaky hand underneath your shirt to caress your bare skin, making you shiver, and you shot her a look that said, “This is fine, but you’re pushing it.”
And at your favorite part–when Han Solo and Princess Leia are reunited once more at Jabba the Hutt’s lair–you cheesed and smiled and couldn’t help cooing and awwing. They were your favorite. They’d always been your favorite. When you were young, you’d convinced yourself that you had a crush on Han Solo, but really you’d wanted to be Han Solo. The crush, so obvious in hindsight, had been on Princess Leia.
“Ugh, she’s so pretty!” you squealed, and Casey smiled at you, pinching your dimpled cheek.
“Ooohhh,” Winnie teased. “You should be married with her.”
“What?!”
“You should be married with Princess Leia because you said you like her.”
You shrugged. “I mean, I do like her. She’s very pretty. But you know who’s prettier?” You leaned in toward Winnie and Eli, as if you were going to tell them a secret. “Casey.”
Winnie and Eli shrieked, scandalized.
You wrapped an arm around Casey’s waist, pulling her to you, and she giggled, blushing. You kissed her cheek. “Casey is the prettiest. I like her so, so much. I’m gonna be married with Casey.”
After the kids’ laughter had died down and they were distracted by the ewoks, Casey looked at you thoughtfully, running a hand through your hair. “Do you mean it?” she asked quietly.
“Mean what?”
She played with her fingers. “That you want to get married?”
Your heart melted a bit as you watched her. She was nervous to ask. And Casey was never nervous.
You cupped her face. “Of course I am! We talked about this at Chase’s wedding, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, but…” she avoided your eyes. “You didn’t bring it up again.”
“Oh, Case,” you breathed, rubbing her cheek. You laughed a little bit, and she looked at you as you pulled a small plastic bag out of the pocket of your basketball shorts. Casey gasped quietly as she realized what it was, as you held out the ring. “I was gonna make it more romantic, but...”
“Y/N,” she squealed, and planted a quick kiss on your lips, as quiet and chaste as she could manage, so as not to interrupt the kids–or prompt them to interrupt you.
You waited for her nod, then slipped the ring on her finger, smiling.
“How long have you had it,” she asked, whispering, as she turned it around and around.
You grinned at her. “I ordered it after you went to sleep the night of Chase’s wedding.”
“You didn’t,” she said, swatting your arm, sniffing aggressively and trying to avoid crying.
“I did.” And when she turned to you, you knew you’d never, ever get tired of her. Her face, her laugh, the way she kept you on your toes. You loved every single bit of her, so much it almost ached. You’d decided that very night, that very conversation at Chase's wedding reception, that If Casey wanted it, you’d do it. It would be your absolute privilege, your joy, your honor to marry her.
She kissed you a few more times, soft and quick, then leaned her body into yours, resting her head on your chest.
“We’ll celebrate more later,” she whispered, winking up at you and squeezing your hand.
“Hey,” you prompted when she turned her head back to the movie. She looked up at you, and you traced her eyebrows, her cheekbones, all the way down to her chin. “I love you.”
She grabbed your hand and kissed it. “I love you, too.” She smirked and giggled, then added. “Nerd.”
You rolled your eyes and smiled, happier than you’d ever been in your life.
#casey novak#casey novak x reader#casey novak x fem!reader#casey novak fanfic#casey novak fluff#law and order#law and order svu#law and order svu fanfic#svu fanfic
37 notes
·
View notes
Text
at the request of absolutely nobody, i present my vaguely fleshed out steddie mummy au
sources: i still own the mummy on vhs
there’s a possibility that the whole story of hamunaptra could be tweaked a bit to fit the story of henry creel/vecna/one into imhotep’s story, but the actual nitty gritty doesn’t matter as much as the actual dynamics and relationships between stobin and eddie. the important part is that a man is cursed to be buried alive, immortal but destined to awaken only to take vengeance.
fast forward and eddie munson ends up drafted into the military. (rick is apart of the french foreign legion stationed in egypt, and i’m not entirely sure how he manages it but eddie munson is apparently a colonel). things happen and eddie finds himself running away from the battlefield, only to stumble upon the ruins of hamunaptra. except they aren’t really ruins and hamunaptra is a myth. so he runs, but when he gets back to the city, alone and half dead, eddie finds that in his rush to leave, he’s grabbed some sort of puzzle box.
at the same time, one robin buckley has dedicated her life to learning more about ancient egypt. her passion for languages led her down a rabbit hole, and she drags her brother steve to egypt with her for further study.
robin is set up with a job at a small museum, working as an archivist. unfortunately, it’s a lot more tedious than she anticipated. it would be a lot better if she could work with steve, but forgetting his glasses at home nearly everyday isn’t super helpful when it comes to trying to sort books.
so what is steve doing in egypt, you may ask? evie’s brother jonathan in the movie literally schlepped around egypt fucking around with his sister and figuring out his next get rich scheme. steve isn’t really the type to open up his own nightclub in shanghai (a la the mummy: tomb of the dragon emperor), but just like jonathan, steve happens to stumble across a cryptex containing a map of the lost city of hamunaptra.
as an aside: i see steve doing the same minimum wage jobs he did in hawkins, just in egypt. i think it would be funny and makes so much more sense to me than him kind of skulking around for news of possible treasure. (bonus: the party in egypt, and dustin coming up to steve with a “brand new discovery” and it’s eddie’s puzzle box that he’s swiped. (THOUGH NOTE: evie and jonathan’s family is Rich. Rich Loaded. Rich Loaded British. So honestly, he doesn’t even have to work)
either way, when robin opens the cryptex and finds the map, she’s astonished. this is what she’s dreamed of her whole life—being an explorer and discovering lost civilizations. so she gets steve to find out where the puzzle box came from. his search leads them to the prison, where eddie munson is destined for execution.
the two of them talk to eddie, and eddie tells robin he’s seen hamunaptra in person. he’s been there. he’s walked the same sand that pharaohs had and seen the ruins that no other have laid their hands on. but eddie refuses to tell them the location, but steve convinces (bribes) the warden to let him go.
so the three of them set off to the city of the dead.
the details of the trip would make this post way too long, but i’m thinking about dynamics rn…
eddie is a little standoffish at first, sure that these rich kids won’t be able to handle themselves, and he’ll be stuck carting around two spoiled brats. and robin and steve don’t necessarily trust him. robin is wide eyed and blinded by eddie’s knowledge of hamunaptra, but steve keeps trying to keep her in check.
at first, eddie thinks steve is cold to him because of some upstairs/downstairs prejudice or big brother protectiveness. and eddie flirts even harder with robin, delighted every time he sees a scowl on steve’s face. even if robin keeps rolling her eyes and ignoring him, he isn’t looking at her anyways. he’s too busy searching steve’s eyes for some spark of disapproval. he doesn’t see that though. he sees worry and concern and fear. and that’s when eddie starts warming up to them.
#steddie#steve harrington#stobin#eddie munson#robin buckley#the mummy au#okay i could go through the entire trilogy#or i could take the bare bones concept and run with it#tbh i have so many different plotlines for a potential mummy au/crossover with stobin#NOTE the stobin is SO important in this#tbh in terms of plot lines robin is jonathan and steve is evie#but in terms of Character backstory robin is evie and steve is jonathan#bc steve is so much more honed in in canon#while robin IS a bit of comic relief#and sorry but eddie munson rick parallels are insane....#guy with good intentions and morals gets imprisoned only to be saved by someone he considers the antithesis of himself#falling in love with someone unexpected while on a life threatening mission
27 notes
·
View notes
Text
*no rest for the wicked*
my teensy contribution to @thefreakandthehair's spicy six summer collection 💖 | word count: 3k | rating: T | ao3 link | also, this wouldn't exist if @chocoarts didn't send me a sketch that immediately set off sparklers in my brain so bless youuu ✨
Twenty-six hours. That’s how long Eddie has been up. Twenty-six hours and twelve minutes. The heaviness hanging in his eyes is medieval-level torturous, and the cramp in his left calf is probably permanent by now.
A sane person who enjoys sleeping might be asking, ‘Why? Why put yourself through this when there’s a perfectly decent bed down the hall?’ And Eddie would be forced to reply back with two, simple words:
Concert. Tickets.
That’s right, Eddie is actively murdering his own brain cells to win two vip tickets on the radio. Twenty-seven hours ago, it seemed like a grand idea. Genius, even. It’s free and minimal effort - he just has to call the station every hour on the dot. No biggie, right?
Ha, sure. Tell that to the muscles in his eyelids.
“How much longer do you have?” Chrissy asks, snagging a magazine from the stack on the couch.
Eddie checks his watch. Huffs out a laugh. “Let’s just say, I could watch the entire Star Wars trilogy including the credits for each one.”
“Translating to...?”
“Seven-ish hours.” Robin quickly chimes. She pops out of her bedroom and joins Chrissy’s side, instantly threading their hands together. They share a look, one that makes Eddie believe in nice things, even in his state of misery. It’s their superpower, injecting their optimistic outlook into the atmosphere. Infectious in the best way.
“I always forget that you speak fluent nerd.” Chrissy snorts.
“Ouch.” Robin gasps and pulls away, stomping off to their room. Too dramatic to be believable. “Get back to bed before I actually feel offended by that.”
Normally, Eddie is charmed by how hopelessly in love his roommates are with each other. But right now, they are his mortal enemies (well, tied with The Clock), because they get to sleep and he gets to stare at the lightbulb in the ceiling fan. Every now and then, it flickers, which never fails to startle him.
Good. He desperately needs the extra alertness.
Another forty-five minutes go by before anything noteworthy happens. Eddie’s other roommate gets off his night shift around one in the morning. The front door squeals as it opens, crackling all the adrenaline leftover in Eddie’s body.
“Scared the shit out of me, man.” Which could’ve been a literal statement if Eddie hadn’t just taken a bathroom break.
“Gotta get this door fixed.” Steve says. That’s what he always says when it creaks. The reaction never changes, always skating his fingers over the door hinges, mouth twisting to the side. Hands on his hips in disapproval. Eddie has to look away before Steve breaks out his insufferably cute ‘foot tap’ routine. “Hey - why are you still up?”
Ah, yes. Just what Eddie needed. A reminder that it’s fucking late. He finds the energy (or common decency, who knows) to point at the phone. Then to the radio.
“You’re still doing that, huh?”
Eddie nods twice.
“Damn, I’ve never heard you this quiet.” Steve sounds genuinely surprised. A little too smug for Eddie’s liking. “Didn’t know your mouth could stay in a straight line for this long.”
There it is. The rich boy smartassery that will never die. Always lurking in the depths of his genetic makeup.
Eddie claps, total deadpan.
The conversation lulls while Steve messes around in the kitchen for a bit. He’s noisily opening cabinets and clanking dishes around in the sink. Eventually, he walks back into the living room with two beers.
Both for him apparently. “Well, listen,” he starts out. Kicks his feet up on the coffee table. “I’m pretty wired after work, so if you need some company-”
“Six… hours… left.” Eddie musters out.
“Okay well, I doubt I’ll last that long. But I can give it a shot.”
Eddie smirks, raises both eyebrows. “There’s a dirty joke somewhere in there. Too tired to find it though.”
“Good to know the horny part of your mind is still awake.” Steve gives Eddie a small pat on the head.
“Oh? That’s a good thing?”
“Depends on who you ask.”
“I’m asking you.” It’s too direct, Eddie hears it. And now it’s just Out There - his inability to flirt in a subtle way. And yeah, he could blame it on sleep deprivation, but he’s never been known for his mastery of ambiguity so…
The pause goes on long enough for the light to flicker again, the room growing darker with it. Steve takes a swig of his drink and smiles. “It’s good to know, Ed.”
The light flickers even darker.
Eddie is fully awake after that. Which could’ve been part of Steve’s plan - stimulate his brain with flirty comments and keep him up with those melty smiles. It’s no secret that Eddie turns into a hair-twirling loser around this guy.
Even after living together for a year and seeing one another’s most disgusting habits, he still feels this way. Tight throat, stomach flips. Purely smitten in a way that would nauseate deadbeat poets.
In this moment, however, it’s a wonderful remedy to staying awake throughout the rest of the night. Much more effective than energy drinks and Tootsie Rolls.
Steve ends up on the floor, leaning against the edge of the couch. He sips another beer, recounting some bullshit that happened during his shift at the hotel. Eddie does his best impression of Listening to Steve’s stories, but the words are just buzzing around the glow of Steve’s hair and the shine on his lips. Nodding at seemingly appropriate times is all Eddie currently can offer.
“Sleeping with your eyes open, Munson?”
Eddie blinks hard. “Huh?”
“Creepy, but impressive.” Steve laughs, tapping his hand against Eddie’s leg. “You should add that to the Special Skills column on your resumé.”
“Bold of you to assume I have a resumé.”
They spend the next hour doing just that - adding useless skills to Eddie’s nonexistent resumé. It keeps them busy. Content. Steve smacks Eddie’s knee anytime he laughs, leaves his hand longer every time. Maybe that’s all in Eddie’s semi-dormant mind, especially since Steve shows casual affection to all of his friends. But the warmth of his palm is real enough to have Eddie fully committed to making Steve laugh as much as possible.
“What about… Expert Paper Clip Chain-Maker?” Steve suggests.
Eddie stares at the chain in his hand, the one he was oblivious to creating. He whips it around like a lasso and then shrugs. “A bit wordy.”
“So you’re saying length matters?”
“Christ on toast, Harrington. You’re awfully quick to jump to that conclusion, aren’t you?”
Steve doesn’t answer, just starts laughing again. Eddie didn’t even need to tell a shitty joke this time.
And when Steve’s hand hits his knee, sliding slightly up his thigh, Eddie laughs along with him. It’s the only way to cover up the heat rushing to his face.
Eddie enters the realm of delirium with three hours left in his challenge. He slumps onto the floor next to Steve, nudging his shoulder, staring into his sleep-heavy eyes. It’s four in the morning, inhibitions be damned.
“Do you think if you ever visit Europe, they’d call you Harring-metric-ton?” Eddie picks a piece of lint off Steve’s sleeve. Perfect excuse to reach out, move in closer.
Steve groans. “Yikes. But yes, that question keeps me up at night.”
“So that’s why you’re still awake. See, I knew it wasn’t because of my silly little concert tickets.”
As soon as the words leave his lips, Eddie convinces himself that it’s the truth. Which is so dumb, so stupid. But this seed of insecurity keeps him going, fully projecting his assumptions onto Steve’s harmless comment. Somewhere deep down, buried underneath his exhaustion, Eddie knows it was a joke. But he can’t seem to shut up anymore.
“The riddle has been solved, folks! We finally know why Stevie here is still awake.” Eddie exclaims, flinging his arms out to the side. “Alert Scooby and the gang at once! Mystery Incorporated can finally pack up their magnifying glasses and pursue careers with better health insurance. Ones that covers vision costs this time. It’s what dear, ol' Velma deser-”
“Eddie.” Steve places a hand on Eddie’s arm, holding him still. Was he moving? Oh god, was he shaking?
Fucking mortifying.
Steve’s thumb swipes across Eddie’s skin, tracing diagonal lines back and forth. “You’re rambling.”
“And you’re…” Eddie loses focus. He looks down at the hypnotic patterns that Steve is making. “There. Doing that.”
Steve stops briefly to flip Eddie’s hand over, starts tracing the lines in his palm instead. The pressure makes Eddie’s heart lurch up into his throat. He can feel it thumping in his neck, faster with every stroke of Steve’s fingers. All he wants to do is close his hand around them, keep Steve there for the rest of the night. Longer if he’d let him.
“I can stop if it’s weird.” Steve’s voice is so much quieter than it was earlier.
Don’t stop. Eddie thinks. Can’t say it like that because gross. Humiliating and gross. “It’s not weird.”
Steve keeps his focus on the motion, Eddie does the same. They stay like this for a while, just watching. Intently staring over the invisible lines like pages in a novel. Eddie is pretty sure he’s breathing too loud, can hear it above the whistle in the air conditioner. Wonders if Steve can hear it too.
Probably.
“That’s not why I’m staying awake.” Steve says, never breaking the pattern.
“No?”
“It’s who I’m staying awake for.”
Steve finally stops, right in the center of Eddie’s hand. The air in the room goes dense, weighted with acknowledgment. Something has changed and Eddie can feel it everywhere.
He tilts forward, pulling his gaze away from his hand and up at Steve’s lips. If he weren’t stuck between half-awake and total-delirium, Eddie would just do it. Kiss Steve the way he’s always wanted to. Syrupy slow and deep. Savoring every second.
He could do it right now, right this second. But his focus starts drifting as he closes his eyes. “Did Chrissy tell you?” Eddie grumbles, almost unintelligible.
“Tell me what?”
Eddie’s head falls, landing somewhere on Steve’s chest. He inhales the scent of laundry detergent (because Steve and Chrissy are the only avid laundry-doers in the apartment). It’s so soothing, drawing him further into a dreamlike place.
“Tell me what, Ed?”
“That I…” Eddie is nearly asleep before he can finish the thought. The confession:
‘That I’m crazy about you.’
Sunlight hits Eddie first, startles him so much that he jolts upward. Fully awake. It takes a few seconds of furiously rubbing his eyes before the dread kicks in.
Morning.
It’s morning.
“Shit.”
Eddie fell asleep.
Steve fell asleep.
“Shitshitshit. So many shits!” He fumbles through the labyrinth of blankets and pillows around him, snatching his watch from the coffee table:
10:24 a.m.
“Goddamnit!”
Eddie sinks back down to the floor, clutching the phone that serves him no purpose anymore. All of those hours of waiting and calling for nothing. Even if general admission wasn’t already sold out, it’s not like Eddie could afford tickets on his own. He can barely keep up with his share of the rent. Chrissy had to cover for his grocery run last week and he still hasn’t paid her back.
It’s just so expected too - for him to fuck up like this. Always letting opportunities slip through the cracks, making careless mistakes. No one will be surprised that he failed at such a simple task like calling a fucking radio station.
Eddie sets the phone back on the table and cleans up the living room in a daze. Every now and then, he mutters under his breath about being a total moron. He stays relatively quiet for the most part though. No use in throwing a bitchfest while Steve is blissfully conked out three feet away.
Of course he looks good sleeping too, even in the midst of Eddie’s breakdown. Unfair.
Just before heading back to his room, Eddie hears that familiar door creak. Same one that always sets off Steve’s inner handyman tendencies.
He looks back to see Chrissy padding towards him with a blanket wrapped around her. For someone who hasn’t had their mood-altering cup of coffee yet, she looks extremely pleased to see him. Maybe she knows about the fate of the concert tickets. Maybe this is an early-risers pity party.
Fucking yay.
“Chris, please don’t try to-”
His words are muffled by Chrissy throwing her arms (and blanket cape) around him. She’s so bouncy, the way she always gets with Robin whenever their favorite song comes on at the karaoke bar. He pats her on the back and clears his throat, still trying to piece together what this exchange could be about. However, Eddie is functioning on a few hours of sleep, so his cognitive skills are groggy at best.
She gives him one more squeeze and then looks up, positively gleaming. “I knew it! I knew it would finally happen!”
“That I’d screw up for the umpteenth time in my life? Gee thanks, Chris.” Eddie says.
“What are you talking about?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about you and Steve!” She whisper-yells back.
Was she snooping on them last night? He wouldn’t put it past her, snoopiness is the foundation of their friendship. Well, whatever Chrissy thought she saw, she’s wrong. Sure, Steve and Eddie flirted, both letting some potentially mutual feelings slip out.
But it was all cut short by Eddie passing out mid-flirt. God knows how Steve took that reaction. Probably assumed Eddie was so bored that he would rather sleep than makeout with him. Or worse, that Eddie was pretending to sleep to let him down easy.
Christ, he doesn’t wanna think about that right now. Not while he’s still mourning the loss of his precious tickets.
“Hate to break it to you, honeyjam, but nothing happened.” Eddie shakes his head, gesturing to Steve who hasn’t budged from the recliner. “It’s just me over here and Steve over there. No conjunction connecting us together in that way.”
He can already tell Chrissy isn’t buying it. She’s getting that little forehead wrinkle right above her eyebrows, just like an angry cartoon character. Her best attempt at intimidation. “You didn’t see what I saw.”
“Gay desperation?”
“No, you jackass. Come here!”
Chrissy yanks Eddie into his bedroom, demanding for him to lock the door. He listens, mainly because the intimidation is starting to work a little. They sit at the edge of the bed and she begins to explain everything she saw:
Steve constructing a wall of blankets and pillows around Eddie to ensure he slept comfortably. Steve waiting by the phone, tapping his foot in that insufferably cute way that Eddie loves so much. Steve scoring the tickets, celebrating quietly to himself.
“How long were you standing at the door, weirdo?” Eddie teases her to avoid the way his stomach is twisting around her words.
Chrissy shushes him and squeals. “And he kissed your cheek!”
“Liar.”
“He did, I swear! He kissed you on the cheek or the chin or the nose. I don't know which one for sure because my view was obstructed by all of your hair.”
Eddie instinctively combs his fingers through a few strands, undoing the knotted pieces. Not all of them, but enough to keep his hands busy while he thinks through this. Processing. “And you’re sure it wasn’t a dream?”
“Positive.”
“What about a hallucination? Didn’t Byers make a batch of those infamous brownies again?”
Chrissy gives a deep sigh. “Whatever. You’re hopeless.” She shrugs the blanket back over her arms and heads toward the door. More than a fair assessment, Eddie can’t argue even if he wanted to (he always does).
He stares at the line of posters along his wall, letting Chrissy’s words replay over and over. Imagining what it might have felt like. If Steve’s breath was warm or if his lips were soft. Eddie wonders how it looked to have Steve dipping down to his level. Staying so quiet, so careful not to disturb him. The visuals swarm his head until there’s nothing left but Steve.
Him and Steve. Connecting them together in that way after all.
So, Eddie gets up and walks back into the living room. He takes in the view of Steve curled up in the recliner, mouth slightly parted open. Chest falling with every sniffle, not quite a snore.
There’s so many emotions while looking at him. Eddie can’t just pin one down to fully comprehend what's going on. All he can do is repeat the scene that’s occupying his mind, settling in his bones.
“Here,” he whispers, placing another blanket across Steve’s lap. It’s feathery gentle, more than he intends for it to be. So gentle that Steve doesn’t shift or stir.
Eddie takes a deep breath and bends down, close enough to notice all the little details. The ones he’s been too sheepish to indulge in before last night.
The tiny hairs on Steve’s forearm. The creases in his t-shirt. The bit of dried toothpaste on his chin. None of it should make his cheeks feel this flushed, but they do.
He lets the rush of bravery wash through him as he kisses Steve on the tip of his nose. Just the way Steve must’ve done to him. It’s swift, lighter than he means for it to be. Barely touching. But it’s enough to switch his heart rate up a few notches, pulsing jumping in his wrist.
Eddie steps away, waiting to see if Steve wakes up. Not entirely sure if he wants that or if he’d rather keep this memory to himself.
“Thanks… by the way.” Eddie adds, brushing the tips of his fingers over Steve’s hand. Wishing he could trace the lines in his palm. Rewind back to last night and pause it there indefinitely. “I’ll tell you again when you’re up, but yeah.”
“Thank you, Steve Harrington.”
#steddie#steddie fic#steve harrington#eddie munson#slight buckingham because I said so#lexssummerfanworkschallenge#biggest of shoutouts to lex for giving us this space to create and share together!!!#is the sleep depravation making Eddie good at flirting???#or is it all in his overactive imagination???#the world may never know#also Eddie is wearing one of Robin's shirts bc he never does laundry#that's not relevant - it's just a brainworm that he ironically wears her marching band tees#okay okay pls enjoy 💖#(and pretend I'm in a timezone where it's still August pls)
715 notes
·
View notes
Text
okay so I’m having a lot of feelings about the parallels between Anakin and Bode’s fall to the dark side and I need a place to scream about it so here it is
putting the rest under a cut because I already KNOW I’m about to go off
alright and before I go any further, I want to clarify that I don’t imagine the writers for Survivor sat down and went “hmm what kind of character can we make to rival the tragedy of Anakin? I know! we’ll just make the same character… but different…” I just think that the general path to the Dark Side tends to be similar for a lot of people. there just happens to be a lot of overlap for these two characters specifically. and if the similarities WERE intentional. well. honestly that would be very Star Wars-core of the writers. the overlapping rings and parallels between trilogies has been important to the storytelling of Star Wars from the beginning.
moving right along tho. I think it’s impossible to say when their actual journey to the Dark Side TRULY begins (I imagine Anakin growing up a slave and Bode living through the Purge might have been the whisper of wind that eventually blew over the first domino) but I think it’s safe to say that the Big Moment for Anakin was when his mother died in his arms. and his heart was so filled with grief and anger that he was driven to revenge. not just the men… but the women and children too. we all know the story.
and it’s harder to know for sure with Bode, since we don’t actually see his reaction, but I’d wager losing his wife had a similar effect on him. even Kata herself says that losing her mother changed her father. and we know from the post-game Force echoes that, aside from protecting Kata, Bode’s work for Denvik was also to learn the identity of the Inquisitor who killed his wife. he’s been living with this burning seed of rage in his heart, this desire for vengeance even though revenge is not the Jedi way.
so then you just have these two people, living with the GUILT of not making it in time to save the one they loved. these two people who have been so traumatized by their loss, that the thought of losing anyone else is unbearable. the love that these two hold for those still living that are closest to them— for Anakin it’s Padme, for Bode it’s Kata— is corrupted by fear and turns into attachment. slowly but surely, they are consumed by one impossible goal: protect Padme/Kata AT ALL COSTS.
enter The Cost. at a certain point, Anakin becomes convinced that Palpatine is the only one who can help him save Padme. he’s willing to throw away EVERYTHING ELSE for that one chance. he’s willing to kill younglings, he’s willing to execute the entire Jedi order for it. he’s willing to break Padme’s heart. meanwhile, Bode becomes convinced that Tanalorr is his one salvation for Kata and he’ll do whatever he has to in order to get her there. he’s willing to kill Cordova, he’s willing to lead the entire Hidden Path to their doom for it. he’s willing to trap Kata in a life of isolation— as long as she’s still ALIVE.
and all throughout this, these two have formed this brotherhood with a certain someone. a bond formed through the hell of fighting a seemingly endless war. for Anakin, it’s Obi Wan. for Bode, it’s Cal. it’s so interesting to me to think about the last interaction these two pairs had with each other before Everything Happened. Anakin seeing Obi Wan off before he takes on Grievous. Dooku was already dead. after all this fighting, the war was SO CLOSE to being over. Obi Wan tells Anakin he’s grown to be a greater Jedi than he could ever hope to be. and then contrasting Bode’s last night with Cal. after all this fighting, they’re so close to finally being SAFE. the guilt of what Bode’s about to do weighs so heavily on him, yet Cal can only see a brighter future. he tells Bode that they couldn’t have done it without him. these quiet moments of connection before they lose everything.
then everything just comes to a head when these brother figures finally confront Anakin/Bode. Anakin flies off to a fiery hellscape. Bode flies off to a lush paradise. they both believe they’ve left their brother behind for good. and then Padme unintentionally brings Obi Wan to Anakin. Kata very deliberately takes Cal to Bode. I think it’s at this moment where both Anakin and Bode go from agitated to full on enraged. there’s such a clear moment where the both of them snap and it’s no longer about “protecting” their loved one, it’s about destroying this one person who stands in their way. Anakin Force chokes Padme. Bode lashes out with the Force at Kata TWICE. (At one point, Kata may have even fallen to her death if Merrin hadn’t been there to save her.)
the tragic ending to both Anakin and Bode’s story happens when they lose themselves and fight to kill their brother. the tragic ending to their story happens when they become the very danger they fought so hard to protect their loved one from.
I think there are two main differences between Bode and Anakin’s story. the first is from an audience perspective. I mentioned before that we don’t actually SEE a lot of Bode’s story leading up to his fall. Anakin, however, we see from the very beginning. except we KNOW he’s doomed. we KNOW he’s going to end up as Darth Vader. we just don’t know HOW. and it’s heartbreaking in its own way to see Anakin be so fundamentally GOOD knowing how he’s going to end up. Bode on the other hand…
from the beginning, Bode is just a guy. he’s Cal’s new friend. he’s a great fighter and he immediately fits right in with Cal’s family of strays. you have no idea what’s coming. personally, when I first played, my only suspicion of him was that he was beginning to doubt Cal’s vision of Tanalorr. and I thought maybe he’s right? a running theme of the game is that Cal just doesn’t know how to STOP FIGHTING. perhaps Bode just thinks this supposed safe haven from the Empire isn’t the place to… continue the fight against the Empire. and even after Bode blatantly betrays everyone, the extent of his motivation wasn’t clear to me until the confrontation on Nova Garon. before then, I was doubting everything he’d ever said. did he actually have a daughter named Kata? was his name even really Bode? these kinds of questions never come up in Anakin’s story. we know everything about him and WHY he’s doing it. but I think this unknown factor around Bode is what makes his betrayal just… sting more. it makes US want to shout, “you were Cal’s brother, Bode! he loved you!”
and finally the second difference which is from a narrative perspective. and it’s the fact that, at the very end, Anakin DID return to the light. Bode never got that. and I think it mostly hinged on the fact that people still BELIEVED in the good in Anakin. it was one of Padme’s dying words. there’s still good in him. Luke was ready to DIE for that belief. Luke absolutely REFUSED to give into fear, to strike down the Emperor or his father in anger. at the most critical moment, Luke resisted the Dark Side. he chose love and THAT’s what saved Anakin and brought him back to the light.
for Bode… he didn’t have that. I’m not sure if anyone really believed in him by the end. which is… understandable. as I said earlier, I myself was questioning everything about Bode after his betrayal. I can’t imagine how Cal, who trusted Bode with HIS LIFE, would feel. Merrin herself told Cal it was kill or be killed. Cal even admitted that he has so much hatred for Bode. hell, he even straight up “embraces the darkness” to win his fight against Bode. Cal gave Bode multiple chances to surrender, but his motivation to give those chances were all about Kata. it was all about how Cal and Merrin know what it’s like to lose their whole family and don’t want Kata to go through that. not once does Cal say “I know this isn’t you, Bode. I know there’s still good inside you.”
this isn’t a criticism on Cal, by the way. he’s walked a very different path than Luke. he’s at a very different point in his journey than Luke was when he confronted Vader. Cal was (understandably) in the middle of battling the Dark Side in HIMSELF at the time. he wasn’t in a place where he could pull someone ELSE from that path. and honestly, I think it just makes this story that much more heartbreaking. maybe there WAS a chance for Bode, but the stars just, very tragically, weren’t aligned for him.
I don’t really have a conclusion for all these thoughts, just that it’s so fascinating that their stories are so similar despite such different circumstances. it’s so fascinating that they still somehow ended the same yet so differently. I’m really going to be thinking about Bode’s story for a long time. I haven’t felt this way about a character’s arc in… awhile. it’s such peak Star Wars to me, to be honest, and it’s really disappointing knowing that the audience for this story is limited to just gamers and people who enjoy watching gaming videos. it really deserves the attention of a mainstream movie, in my opinion.
#star wars#jedi survivor#bode akuna#anakin skywalker#cal kestis#star wars meta#oops sorry for standing on a soapbox for a hot second there at the end#it’s fine#kata akuna
62 notes
·
View notes
Text
before sunset
Pairing: Leon Kennedy x reader
synopsis: When Leon gets injured during one of your assignments and there's no way to call for help, all he has is you.
warnings: mentions of death, injuries, blood, and a lot of drama. nothing explicit at all. no use of y/n, second person (you)
author's note: this is a three-part story and has the same name as the before trilogy by richard linklater, although there's nothing related to the film. this first part is inspired by episode eight of the last of us
word count: 4423k
before: part two | part three
You could hear the sound of your steps hitting the dirt filled with snow.
The sun was fading away, indicating the end of the day and the start of the night. Time was something you guys didn't have at that moment; you could say you both were running against the clock. A few more steps before reaching a safe place, an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, protected by the woods and the dark. It was perfect for you to hide.
You could feel his weight on your shoulders as you helped him run somewhere safe. You passed his arm above your shoulders, preventing him from falling on the ground. And you could hear him groaning in pain.
Your hands were holding him tight, you knew if you let him go, you both would fall to the ground. And at the moment, it was something you couldn't even consider. That's why you hold him with every strength you had in your body and kept walking. You had to make sure he was alright. When you both entered the empty house, you laid him down carefully on the old couch and started to use the furniture to block the door.
Then you realized your hands were filled with his blood.
It was enough to feel the panic running through your body like lightning. You glanced at Leon, he was barely conscious; his breath was poor and you knew he was starting to faint. And you couldn't let that happen.
"Leon, look at me," you say, kneeling closer to him. "I need you to stay awake, alright?"
"I'm trying" his voice is low and weak.
"I know, but I need you to try harder... You can't fall asleep" your voice trembles a little. "I'm gonna look at your wound, alright? I promise it'll be okay."
He nods, his face slowly turning into an expression of someone who was in deep pain. During the escape, Leon told you to run, but how could you leave him behind? And it was because of your stubbornness that he got that injury. He tried to keep you safe, using his own body to prevent you from being hurt. Now, he was bleeding and there was nothing you could do to stop that wound.
"How it looks?" his voice is weaker than before and you can tell he's trying hard to stay awake.
"Horrible" you replied, trying to make a joke.
"I guess you'll turn me into Iron Man" he laughs but then groans when you touch his skin.
"I can try" you smiled at him.
You knew at that moment that he was close enough to die from blood loss. And you needed to stop that bleeding. Your hands were shaking, you searched the entire place to find something that could help, since herbs were unavailable and there was no one around besides those who wanted to kill you both. Desperation was the only thing set on your mind when you noticed the house was empty. Your eyes were tearing up, you knew you were failing with him.
When you throw a drawer on the floor, the silver needle shone, and you didn't think twice before grabbing it along with the sewing thread. He was there, in the same way you left him. You could see the sweat on his forehead, you knew he had a fever. His skin was like fire, he was so hot by now that the only thing you thought was throwing cold water on him.
"Hey, I found something... But this is gonna hurt" you say, removing his brown jacket.
"Do it..." he whispers, slowly closing his eyes.
"Don't fall asleep, Leon... I promise I'll let you rest when I finish stitching you" Your voice is soft, but you know it was a desperate try to comfort him.
He nods in response, keeping his words to himself, tired to the bones and unable to say anything at all. He wanted to sleep so badly, all he wanted was close his eyes and fall into darkness. Unfortunately, Leon knew you wouldn't let him sleep until you were sure he was safe.
"This is gonna hurt, I'm so sorry" you whispered, trying harder to keep the tears in your eyes. You needed to be strong for both of your sakes.
He didn't respond, you knew he was still bleeding and you needed to stop that. Without thinking twice, you started to stitch his open wound. His groans of pain made your stomach twist, he tried to push you away, stop that pain he was feeling, but you were faster and held his arms with your knees. You saw when he started to cry, begging you to stop because he couldn't take that anymore.
Leon was suffering, and you knew that. He tried harder to escape, but you wouldn't allow him, you needed to stop his bleeding. You fought harder against your tears, your hands were shaking and filled with his blood. When you finished, you cut off the sewing thread and looked at him.
"I'm so sorry..." your voice trembled.
He was too weak to talk. You could see him sweating from the fever, you knew he needed to rest. Thinking about that, you searched the entire place again to find something to clean his blood, to prevent any possible infections. It was crucial and you were running out of time. Luckily, you found some old clothes and the fabric of those shirts would serve well. You checked the windows again to make sure no one was around and at no sign of danger, you finally permitted yourself to breathe.
When you returned to the living room, you saw him sleeping peacefully. His breath was weak, you thought he would die at any moment, despite your efforts to keep him alive. And then, at that moment, there was nothing else you could do for him. You cleaned his injury and covered him with the old blankets you found upstairs. Then, you tried to fix the comms, since it got damaged during the escape.
It was going to take a while to fix the comms and keep Leon alive, but you knew you could do that, you made him a promise, and you owed him one. With that promise in your mind, you wiped the tears away and started to work harder to get you both home.
By the beginning of the night, feeling completely exhausted, you tried your best to stay awake. You weren't used to loneliness, you always had Leon around to chat about anything, to hear his dad's jokes, and to complain about the weather. You started to feel alone and you hated being like that. You missed him more than ever, especially now, when you knew he would probably tease you to make you blush or laugh. You took a deep breath and checked on your gun, making sure it was fully loaded and without the safety lock on. You put it back on your holster, grab your knife, and your jacket, wearing it properly because of the cold weather outside. You checked on Leon again before leaving.
You were always a good hunter. Your grandfather taught you well when you were just a kid. You grew up hunting in the forests with your grandfather until he died. When he passed away, you just stopped hunting. You just couldn't imagine that one day your life would depend on your hunting skills.
Thinking about your life, you started to ask yourself about your job. Sure, it wasn't the first time you risked your neck to prevent the end of the world, but it was the first time that your choices led your partner to almost die at your hands. How selfish you were. Now, you had two different tasks: keep him alive and fix your comms so you could call for help. But first, you needed to find food.
You were walking, making sure it wasn't far from the home where you left Leon hidden. You looked around, hoping to find anything to eat. Maybe luck was on your side, maybe it wasn't. In the worst scenario, Leon would die and you would be found again and tortured until they decided to kill you. At least, you would be dead, and Leon could probably curse you for eternity.
"No, stop that. He won't die. We will survive" you said to yourself, angry with that thought.
And truth be told, you were lying to yourself. You knew Leon could die at any moment, he was so weak, and you couldn't understand why he was still holding on to his life so bravely. If that were you, well, you wouldn't be around much longer. Then, you hear a noise, and by pure intuition, you grabbed your gun from the holster. It was quick and the noise of the shot was muffled by the silencer on the end of your gun and the bird fell along with three others you shot.
When you were training to become an agent of the government, you were left all alone in the woods. They wanted to see how far you would go to survive, and see how willing you were to do sacrifices. Of course, you succeeded by hunting animals in the forest; when you returned, you noticed how skinny you were. Time couldn't change the survivor you were, no matter how hard it would be, how dangerous or deadly it was.
You would do whatever was necessary to survive.
With that in mind, you took the three dead birds and returned to the house you were using to hide. Leon was exactly where you left him. Your hands touched his sweaty skin, he was hot, burning skin like he was fire. You took snow from the outside and used it to lower his fever; it worked for a while. Then, you started to remove the feathers to clean the birds. You searched for water and decided to go downstairs to the basement and risk lighting up a small fire to cook the meat. Sure, Leon was completely knocked out, he couldn't eat anything solid, but you knew from experience what was like being outside in the cold with nothing to eat but birds meat. He couldn't complain.
You started to prepare the soup, and you knew it wasn't the best you ever did since there was no type of seasoning to be used. It was only water and meat. You went upstairs again, feeling your heartache. At least, your hands finally stopped trembling and you were feeling much more relaxed than before. That feeling was caused by the hunting, you had no idea how much you missed that and the adrenaline you felt hunting those birds made you realize you could protect him. You could keep him alive until rescue arrives.
Those guys who wanted to harm him had no idea about the animal inside you.
The type of animal who could slip them in half just to protect Leon. Of course, it was your fault that he got that wound in the first place, but you definitely would cross the limits of what was wrong and right to keep him safe. If it was necessary to kill them, you would without hesitation. Now you weren't scared of them anymore.
They should be scared of you.
You were a hunter. You were a survivor. And at this time, they were nothing but prey. God help those who decide to cross your path because you wouldn't have mercy.
The smell of cooked meat began to waft through the cellar, filling the air with a somewhat comforting fragrance. You took an empty bowl and started to prepare a small meal for Leon, mixing the bird meat with some broth and canned vegetables that you found while searching the house.
When you approached Leon with the bowl in hand, you noticed that he was awake, although his eyes were vacant and his expression tired. You sat down next to him, holding the bowl carefully so he could eat, then helping him sit comfortably.
"Leon," you whispered. "I made you some food. It will help you get better"
He looked at you with gratitude in his tired eyes and just shook his head, his consciousness wavering every few moments. With slow and careful movements, you started giving him generous spoonfuls of the soup you prepared, as Leon looked much weaker than you could imagine. With each spoonful, a small spark of hope seemed to light up in his eyes. You continued to watch his fever, feeling relieved to see him eating.
"Tomorrow morning I'll go see if I can find anything to fix our comms," you said when you finished giving him the soup. "Plus, I'm gonna see if I can find any medicine"
"Be careful, please" his voice is soft, but you know he's been doing a lot of effort to stay awake.
"You need to rest, alright? I'll make sure to watch over you tonight" you said gently, cleaning his mouth.
"No, I'm fine" he protested, chuckling a little.
"You can't even stand up, Leon. Don't be stubborn, just do what I'm telling you to do and I'll take care of the rest" you sighed heavily.
You glance at him, waiting for some other stubborn commentary or some joke he has on his mind, but there's nothing.
"Thank you" he whispered, catching you by surprise.
"For what?" you ask, raising an eyebrow completely confused.
"You saved me," he said, his eyes shining as he speaks.
"Yes, but I'm responsible for that wound you got. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be hurt like this" you said, trying to not feel guilty.
"I was protecting you. We always have each other's back, I couldn't let you get hurt. I'm glad it was me, not you" Leon said seriously, sitting properly on the mattress.
"It was my fault, Leon. Don't try to convince me otherwise" you insisted, sighing again.
"Look, it wasn't. And I would do that again without thinking twice. You know I care a lot about you and I would never let anything happen to you, even if that means I'm getting injured, do you understand?" he looks at you very seriously. You hated that look.
"You're so stubborn" you laugh.
"And you love me for that" he winks at you.
And there he was, the same Leon that you loved. The same Leon that would always put you first, and the same Leon that would make you laugh during the worse times of your lives. Suddenly, you weren't alone anymore and all that feeling of emptiness slowly faded away, since you had him awake again.
"How's your wound?" you ask after a moment of silence.
"It hurts like hell, but I'm not bleeding, I'm just tired," he said, his voice so soft.
"Well, I did my best to stitch you up, although there was nothing I could do, I'm not a doctor and you know, you were bleeding a lot" you explained calmly to him.
"I'm not complaining, I know you did your best" he smiles, a comforting gesture you knew so well.
"It could've been worse, trust me" you laugh, seeing the way he was looking at you.
"I know" he smiled again, his hand reaching yours.
Leon was like fire. He could burn you inside and out, and he could make you see the stars with his touch. He was, indeed, something else. That was one of the reasons you felt responsible for his wound, that's why you needed to protect him. You couldn't lose the only person you truly cared about. The entire world could burn, as long as he stays with you.
"Go rest, Leon. I'm gonna go outside and prepare some traps" you said, standing up and grabbing your gun.
"Do you need help?" he asks, trying to follow you outside.
"It's fine, I can do it on my own" You smiled gently at him. "I need you to go rest. You need to recover soon so we can get out of here, alright?"
You didn't have to say twice. Leon was still burning with the fever and his face was pale from his blood loss. He sat down on the mattress, groaning in pain and nodding to you. He was so stubborn, but he always obeyed your orders. He instantly fell asleep due to his high fever, it was a miracle he was awake for a long time. After checking on him again, you sighed and left the house, walking the perimeter to prepare traps for the guys who were certainly trying to track you both. The snow was in your favor, it was covering your footsteps and making sure no one could find you. At least, you both were safe.
It was a basic hunter thing.
You always made traps when you went hunting with your grandfather, this wasn't so much different from these days. They were only animals, and you were the smarter one. Stalking was always your favorite strategy when you hunted, you never missed when you stalked your prey, your grandfather used to say you were better than him, probably that was why you were an excellent agent; your stealth skill was one of the best the agency ever saw and you were praised for that. You decided then to know your perimeter to take advantage of your enemies, taking precautions to not be noticed. Having practiced this skill for almost your entire life, you were a pro.
After checking the perimeter you established, you made the traps and prepared again your weapons. It was time for hunting. And you were gonna have fun hunting your enemies.
The forest lay hidden beneath a thick blanket of snow, the icy flakes swirling in the frigid air. You moved swiftly through the trees, your senses keen and your heart beating normally inside your chest. You had to remain calm, although you knew your enemies were close, lurking somewhere in the vast wilderness. With each step, your boots left deep imprints in the fresh snow. The silence of the forest was broken only by the soft crunch of your footfalls and the distant howl of the wind. You pulled your fur-lined hood tighter around your face, shielding yourself from the biting cold. Your breath escaped in white puffs, adding to the eerie atmosphere. It was very cold outside.
You were determined to keep your enemies at bay, to protect Leon, and to ensure his safety. You knew they would stop at nothing to find him, to exploit his vulnerability and use him against you. You had to remain one step ahead and outsmart them in this treacherous winter landscape.
Your keen eyes scanned the surroundings, looking for any sign of movement or disturbance. You had trained yourself to be a predator, to adapt to any situation. You moved with the grace of a hunter, navigating the dense forest as if it were an extension of yourself.
Suddenly, you caught a glimpse of movement in your periphery. You smiled when you noticed what it was. Then very carefully, you crouched behind a snow-covered boulder, using it as a shield. Your hand instinctively reached for the dagger at your side, ready to slice them. Through the veil of snowflakes, you saw two figures cautiously making their way through the forest. Your enemies. They were armed and dangerous, their breath visible in the frosty air. You knew they were searching for you, determined to find Leon and probably kill him.
Your mind raced as you plotted your next move. You couldn't allow them to discover the abandoned house where Leon lay vulnerable. You had to divert their attention and lured them away from their target. You glanced around, searching for any signs of a distraction. Then, you saw it.
A nearby grove of trees, their branches heavy with snow. It was the perfect opportunity. You silently moved towards the grove, careful to remain hidden in the shadows. With a swift motion, you grabbed a low-hanging branch and shook it vigorously. The snow cascaded down, falling in a glorious shower that caught the attention of your enemies. Their heads turned towards the disturbance, their focus momentarily diverted. You seized the opportunity, darting deeper into the forest, your agile form disappearing amidst the trees. You moved swiftly, your senses sharp, your knowledge of the forest guiding your steps. You left a trail of false footprints in the snow, leading your enemies further away from Leon, straight to a trap. You knew you had to stay one step ahead, to protect him at all costs.
When your enemies parted ways, you took one from behind and used the dagger to slip through his throat, his blood falling into the snow. One was down. You disguised in the dark, and turned around, trying to find the other one. You heard his voice screaming in anger when he found his friend's dead body; you knew he was right behind you. And when you saw him, you did the same.
The dagger found his skin. His blood fell as he did the same, but not before trying to hurt you. And so he did.
You felt his sharp knife on your arm, opening your skin and making you bleed. It was nothing compared to what you did to him. He was there, lifeless. His eyes were shining with fear of the animal you were at that moment. You were the last thing he saw before his death. And you weren't feeling sad.
You made your way back to the old house. Leon was there, still sleeping. And, unfortunately, he was still burning with the fever. You sighed again, removing your jacket and going straight to the kitchen to get some towels, so you could leave the wet towels to put on his forehead to bring down the fever. Although you didn't want to express how concerned you were, it was starting to make you nervous again. He needed medical attention as fast as you could call for help.
"Hey," he called you, his voice weaker. "You're back"
"Yeah, I had to deal with something," you said, trying your best to not show him how concerned you were. He tried hard to open his eyes.
"What happened?" Leon asks, his eyes heavy shut.
"I took two of them down" Your voice sounded confident for a moment. You weren't exactly proud, but you didn't have a choice. It was you or them.
"They were close to us?" he looks at you, now his eyes slowly opening. "What happened? Are you hurt?"
"One of them cut me with his knife, but it's nothing. Don't worry about it" you said, looking at your bleeding arm. Indeed, it was nothing, you even forgot it was there.
"You're bleeding" his voice is filled with concern now he's fully awake again, as he reaches your arm to look better at the cut.
"I'm fine, Leon" You didn't want to sound so harsh, but you couldn't help it. He sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to speak like that"
"I know you're under stress, I know I can't help you..." Leon started, trying his best to sit properly, his hand reaching his wound where you stitched before.
"Leon, that's okay, you need to rest. I'm taking care of you, and to do that, I can't have you worrying about me" you sighed, trying to convince him to lie down again. He was very stubborn sometimes.
"Then who's gonna take care of you?" he asks, his blue eyes mining yours, full of concern.
"I can do both" Your answer wasn't so convincing, but you had to try. You couldn't allow yourself to worry about something else. He was your only priority.
"Don't be so stubborn, I'm the only one allowed to do that" he smirks, trying to make you feel better. And he was so good at that.
You laughed at him. You touched his forehead again, then you noticed how hot he was. Then, you gently put the wet towel to lower his fever, he closed his eyes and you knew he was trying harder to stay awake, although you said a few times he needed to rest. You needed to find supplies, whatever you could find. You gave him soup again before you glanced outside. It was night and you had the time in your favor. It was now or never.
"I'm going outside again, I'll search for medicines to lower your fever," you said, grabbing your jacket and knife. "And with some luck, I'll finish fixing our comms"
"I'll be here" he nods, slowly closing his eyes.
You left the old house again, walking in the middle of the snow to see if you could find anything. You were starting to lose hope. His fever was higher than before, and you were starting to fear he wouldn't make it. You didn't notice when you reached an old village, although it looked abandoned, just like the house you were hiding him. You searched the entire village to find medicine or any other thing you could take to help him, or even fix your comms.
Luck was, indeed, at your side.
You were able to find medications and gladly, one of the old houses had an old phone. You made sure it had the energy to call for help and you thanked all gods all there when you were able to call Hunnigan. She was worried, it was almost two weeks without news from you both.
"Condor One is heavily injured. He needs medical attention right now" you said to Hunnigan. "We're in an old house not far from where I'm calling"
"Understood, Condor Two. We're sending the extraction team to your coordinates" Hunnigan replied, authorizing the rescue team to leave.
"There are civilians in the area, they're fully armed and they're dangerous," you told next, glancing outside the window. "They're closer to our location"
"Alright, Condor Two. The rescue will be there in one hour, can you hold them?" Hunnigan asks, tracking the source of the call.
"I will. Thanks, Hunnigan. Condor Two out" you said before ending the call.
You made your way back to the old house you were with Leon. You were running, you had to tell him you both were going home, and he was going to be alright. He would receive the medical attention he needed and he was going to recover. You were relieved, you could keep your promise. He was going home.
But Leon wasn't breathing anymore when you found him.
#leon re2#leon resident evil#leon s kennedy#leon s kennedy x reader#re4 leon#resident evil 4#resident evil#leon scott kennedy#leon re4#re4 remake#infinite darkness#leon kennedy#leon kennedy infinite darkness
214 notes
·
View notes
Text
How You Get the Girl
Masterlist
Summary: Eddie's had a crush on Reader forever but doesn't know where to start when talking to her. Luckily for him, she has the perfect advice and he's in just the right place to overhear it!
Word Count: 3.8K ish
Warnings: none really. Spoilers for Star Wars original trilogy and my maybe controversial Star Wars opinions.
A/N: This isn't based on the Taylor Swift song of the same name, but I've recently listened to 1989 for the first time and it's my entire personality now! Listened to it a lot while writing and it's too good of a title not to steal for this! I had lots of fun with this idea, I hope you enjoy reading!
Please don't copy my work
'I just don't get it!'
It was a quiet afternoon in the middle of Autumn. A few solitary customers meandered between the shelves, but Family Video was almost deserted. You stood behind the counter, arms folded, while you endeavoured to solve the enigma of why you best friend couldn’t get a girl.
‘Is your hair not cool enough or something?’
Steve scoffed. ‘Look, it’s not about the hair!’ He mirrored your stance.
Despite your friendship, you couldn’t help but laugh at the irony. In high school, girls would have given anything just to be seen with him. Maybe he’d lost his touch? Maybe high school just didn’t matter after all? Either way, King Steve had lost his crown.
‘What’s it about then?’ you relented, seeing his face drop in defeat, ‘How’d you get the girl?’
He stuttered, struggling to condense his elaborate, and frankly shoddy, wooing methods into coherent sentences while you watched him flounder.
In truth, he was different now. Steve wasn’t looking for some meaningless hook-up anymore. He wanted something deeper. Something built to last,
And that was a whole different ballgame.
Unseen between the shelves, Eddie Munson smirked. He wasn’t pretending to browse the selection of tapes he told himself, he just couldn’t help but listen to the two of you go back and forth.
Especially you!
Your voice was music to his ears. He could hardly decipher the words so it wasn’t technically eavesdropping! The melody alone was enough to overpower him.
Eddie had been crushing on you hard for almost three years now. You’d been friends of friends for a while, hanging out in the same group with Steve, Nancy, Robin, and usually Dustin Henderson.
He’d almost asked you out a thousand times but something always make him chicken out. It was ridiculous really; flirting was something that had always come easy to him. Poetry and showmanship were his weapons of choice but something short-circuited in his brain whenever he tried to talk to you. The words stuck in his throat.
You scared him, okay? You were classy and confident, so sure of yourself. You were never ever afraid to speak your mind and you didn’t care what anyone thought of you!
Kind of like him, he thought. Except he did care. Eddie really cared what you thought of him!
‘You’ve got to be joking!’ your disbelieving tone cut through the clouds of his thoughts.
‘What?’ Steve retorted.
You shook your head hopelessly, ‘Act like you don’t care?’ you mimicked, adding sarcastic air quotes, ‘Wait for the… ‘electricity’? No wonder you aren’t getting any girls!’
He threw his hands up in surrender, ‘Well you’re a girl!’
‘Yes, well spotted Harrington!’
‘Go on then, tell me what to do!’ he contested, leaning back on the counter, ‘What makes you see a future with someone? What makes you want to go out with someone, and stay with them?’
Eddie’s ears pricked up. He couldn’t help it.
You agonised, ‘You’ve got to care Steve! You’ve gotta make her feel wanted! Remember the little things about her, compliment her! Not just quietly but when other people can hear!’
Eddie rummaged in his bag for a pen and paper. He couldn’t believe his luck! After years of not knowing where to start to show you how much you meant to him, here you were, unknowingly giving him a step-by-step guide! Tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth, he started scrawling madly across the page as you spoke.
‘Ask her about her interests and listen to her! I mean really listen!’
Easy!
‘Get her flowers! Show that you’re thinking about her!’
Eddie never stopped thinking about you.
‘Invite her to spend time together doing things you both enjoy!’
Piece of cake! (Ignoring all the times he’s failed to do just that!)
‘Be honest about your feelings for her!’
Now hold up. His pen froze, hovering in mid-air. If talking was an Olympic sport, Eddie would win gold but he’s never been great at talking about how he felt. Not that he didn’t have feelings, he supposed he just had too many.
‘That’s so much work!’ Steve whined and you laughed. The sound refocussed Eddie’s despondent mind.
‘True love takes work, Harrington! You’re not some fairytale princess!’
The conversation went on in the background but he didn’t hear the rest. You were right. If he wanted this, wanted you, he was going to have to work for it! No more backing down! No more shying away! No more running!
‘You okay over there, Munson?’
Eddie snapped out of his trance, nearly knocking the shelves over. ‘Yeah!’ he choked, resolve shattering. He stuffed his paper and pen away and grabbed the nearest movie, stumbling over to the desk and your smiling face. Incapable of looking you in the eye, he shoved the tape onto the counter. ‘Please don’t be anything weird!’ he prayed to no one in particular as you turned it over.
Your customer service smile split into a real one, ‘Oh no way! I love Star Wars!’
‘I-uh-,’
‘Say something Eddie!’ he thought furiously, shifting his feet and wishing the ground would swallow him whole, ‘Yeah… I thought it was about time I got round to watching them!’ he managed.
‘You’ve never seen them?’ your face morphed into shock then mock offence, ‘But they’re the best!’
His mouth moved but nothing came out. ‘Ask about things she’s passionate about!’ a small voice whispered in his mind.
‘Which… one’s your favourite?’
‘Oh, I don’t know!’ you rested your elbows on the counter, head in hands and thinking hard. Eddie stuck his hands in his pockets so you wouldn’t see them shaking. You really were breath taking. The way you frowned slightly, the way your eyes narrowed and lips pressed together like this was the most important decision in the world. It made him giddy.
‘Everyone says Empire’s the best,’ you said slowly, ‘But I think Jedi’s my favourite! You just can’t beat the ending!’
‘Is that the one with the teddy bears?’ Steve chimed from the back room, giving Eddie time to pick his gaping jaw off the floor.
You rolled your eyes good-naturedly turning over your shoulder, ‘Yes, well done Steve! For the last time, they’re called Ewoks!’
Eddie couldn’t help laughing. You shook your head with a smile, ‘You’ll have to tell me what you think of them!’
‘Yeah!’ he choked, ‘Absolutely!’ His head was reeling from what must be the longest conversation he’d ever had with you.
‘Well, I’ll see you round, Munson!’
‘Yeah… yeah!’ he grabbed the tape from between you, turned heel and hurried out of the store grinning like an idiot. Step one complete! Gone, were the days of wistfully hoping you’d take notice of him! Now he had a battle plan and this film was his way in!
If he’d turned around, he’d have seen the small smile spread its way over your mouth. Steve poked his head out of the back room and wiggled his eyebrows. You moved to shove him and he ducked out of the way, a grin of his own stretching his face.
***
Sharp Autumn wind made you hug your cardigan closer. Leaves crunched and puddles splashed underfoot as you trekked the familiar streets to work, your favourite song blaring in your headphone
‘Hey! Hey, wait up!’
Fumbling with your headphones, you twisted round. Barrelling toward you was Eddie, his tongue poking out as he tried to balance two takeaway cups in his hands while running at breakneck speed.
You couldn’t help but smile.
He skidded to a halt in front of you panting wildly. ‘Here!’ he thrust one of them out at you and you took it. The cup warmed your cold fingers and your name was scribbled on the lid in black sharpie.
‘What’s this?’ you asked as he slurped his own.
‘Hot Chocolate,’ he answered, ‘You like that, right?’
‘Yeah…’ a sigh of laughter passed your lips, ‘I meant what for?’
Eddie just shrugged, ‘You mind if I walk with you?’
‘I’m on the way to work.’
‘I know, I’m headed there too!’
You started walking and he fell into step beside you. After a long sip of hot chocolate that warmed you right down to your toes you spoke. ‘Did you watch the movie?’ He nodded excitedly. ‘And?’
Eddie pretended to think for a second, ‘Uh and it’s amazing!’ He meant it too! The movie had blown him away, had him on the edge of his seat the whole time. He couldn’t believe it had taken him this long to see it!
But even if that wasn’t true, even if it had been the most boring movie he’d ever experienced, he’d watch it over and over just to see the light that shone in your eyes when you talked about it.
‘Sorry, I’m probably being really annoying!’ You caught yourself in the middle of a tangent.
‘No!’ He couldn’t reply fast enough, ‘I love hearing you talk!’
‘Really?’ the words made your heart skip a beat. Privately, you’d never been sure about Eddie. Sure, you’d hung out before in groups but whenever you’d tried to talk to him, he always seemed to shrug you off. From his short, usually monosyllabic answers, you’d just assumed he found you irritating. Disappointing, because you might have harboured a bit of a crush but there was no point pursuing someone who clearly wasn’t interested.
Yet all of that seemed to have changed. Now, he was trailing after you to work, listening to you babble on about some sci-fi movie and hanging onto your every word. It was nice. Really nice!
From there you talked about everything. He asked about your music taste and hesitantly shared his own. You found out he played guitar in a band and made him promise to tell you when his next gig was so you could come and see.
The video store approached. He stepped in front, opening the door then letting you go first.
‘You after Empire then?’ you asked, taking off your hat and scarf and hanging them in the backroom.
Eddie nodded, ‘This is the one that everyone says is the best, right?’
‘Yeah,’ ducking under the counter, you searched for the tape, ‘It is really awesome! There’s lots of surprises!’ He noted the knowing look in your eye. At last, you found it, holding it out with a smile, ‘Enjoy!’
Your hands touched a bit more than maybe they needed to as he took the video.
‘I’ll be back!’ he promised, tucking it in his bag and scooping up your empty cup for the bin.
***
First thing the next morning, Eddie crashed through the doors yelling at the top of his lungs. ‘What the hell?’
You jumped out of your skin and so did the customer you were serving. Your face split into a smile. You hurried the transaction but Eddie was still hollering, gesturing wildly with both hands. ‘You never told me Darth Vader is Luke’s fa-! ‘
‘Eddie!’ you cut him off, barely able to control your laughter, ‘Spoilers!’
The rest of the store suddenly solidified. Everyone was staring, some shaking their heads in disapproval.
‘Sorry!’ he winced. Tiptoeing up to the desk he leant in, comically close, ‘You didn’t tell me he was Luke’s father!’ he repeated in a stage-whisper.
‘I know!’ you giggled, matching his theatrical tone, ‘What did you think?’
‘It was amazing! I honestly don’t know how anything’s gonna top that!’
You grinned, ‘Well you’ll have to wait and see! You want the next one right away? I put it aside for you!’
‘You did?’
‘Course I did!’ Without waiting for an answer, you slipped away into the back to find it. Eddie took a shaky breath, missing the closeness. Anxiety twisted in his stomach.
‘Come on, Munson!’ he chided himself. ‘It’s now or never!’ He fiddled with his rings, wrists resting on the counter.
It didn’t take you long to come back, holding the video case aloft in ceremonial fashion. ‘Here ya go! The thrilling conclusion!’ setting it down. He managed a grim smile. ‘You gotta come by tomorrow and tell me what you thought!’
A lump stuck in his throat and he grimaced, ‘Oh well… I uh… I was wondering-,’
‘You okay?’
‘Yeah!’ he chuckled awkwardly. This was going great! ‘I was just wondering if… if you maybe wanted to watch it… with me?’
That was it! The words were out in the open now, he had no way to recall them!
The invitation took you by surprise, eyes widened and a small ‘Oh.’ Was all you could manage before he rambled on. Words, previously impossible, now wouldn’t stop.
‘I mean just because you said it’s your favourite! I was thinking we could get pizza or something! I dunno. We don’t have to, I know we haven’t really talked much before but I just thought-,’
‘I’d love to!’
‘-it would be really cool to maybe-!’ he stopped, it took a second to hear that you’d spoken and longer still to process your response. ‘Wait what?’
You smiled and repeated yourself.
He was gobsmacked. Was this real? He never thought he’d get this far!
‘Right! Yeah, cool!’ the words stuck again, ‘I’ll uh… I’ll see you at six, right? …At mine.’
‘Sounds great!’
Somehow, he made it out of the store, clutching the video in both hands. He waited ‘til he was out of sight behind his van before punching the air. Finally! After years of failed attempts, he did it! The drive home was a haze; it was a miracle he made it back in one piece.
At some point he must have ordered pizza because some kid in a yellow shirt showed up at his door at a few minutes to six. All afternoon he’d been floating on air. Now he was freaking out.
What if he messed something up? What if he said something weird? What if you changed your mind and didn’t show?
What if? What if? What if?
***
You arrived a few minutes before he’d said to, giving yourself time to figure out where to park and glance at yourself in the rear-view mirror.
Steve and Robin had teased you relentlessly for dressing up. Claims you categorically denied, of course!
Sure, you’d made an effort. A light dusting of makeup made it look less like you’d worked the late shift for the third night in a row the day before and you just liked the way your favourite sweater made your eye colour a bit more vibrant. That didn’t mean anything! Besides, it wasn’t like he meant anything by it! It was just a movie! Pizza and a movie!
So why were you nervous?
He opened the door almost immediately after you knocked, ushering you inside from the fast-falling dusk. His trailer was cosy and inviting; from all reports, you guessed he must have tidied up significantly. The lamplight enveloped you in a warm glow and the intoxicating smell of pizza made your tummy rumble.
‘You still like pepperoni, right?’ he asked, opening the box, releasing a plume of steam into the air.
‘Yeah,’ you breathed in the scent, ‘How did you know that?’
He looked at the floor suddenly embarrassed, ‘I uh… remember that one time in eighth grade when we had that pizza party? I remembered you were sad because they didn’t have pepperoni.’ He looked up, assessing your response before backtracking hastily, ‘I’m sorry that’s so weird!’
‘No, no, it’s amazing!’ shaking your head and picking out a particularly cheesy slice, ‘The only thing I remember from middle school are those crazy outfits you and your band wore for the talent show!’
‘You remember that?’ He grinned at the memory, ‘Super metal, right?’
After loading a plate each with pizza slices, he slipped the movie into the player and settled next to you on the couch. For a while you didn’t speak much, eating and absorbed by the movie. That was until Obi-Wan’s ghost revealed that-
‘Leia is Luke’s sister?’ Eddie shot up, knocking his empty plate to the floor.
You giggled at his outburst, ‘I know!’
‘How many more reveals are there going to be? Hey! And they-,’ he wrinkled his nose in disgust. You could see a specific scene from the last movie replaying in his mind.
‘I know! It’s so gross!’
‘I don’t believe this!’ he sat back down, ‘I’m never going to recover! Never!’
You elbowed him, ‘Watch the damn move, Munson!’
Was it your imagination, or did his breathing hitch. You’d scooched much closer than before, practically laying your head on his shoulder. Was he uncomfortable? Were you too forward? Your worries were put to rest when he draped his arm around you, slow and tentative, as if giving you a chance to pull away.
You didn’t.
The rest of the movie passed by in comfortable quiet, interspersed with Eddie asking excited questions and you berating him to be patient! You couldn’t stop yourself giving the odd bit of trivia or behind the scenes insight and to your delight, he actually seemed to care!
Eventually the credits rolled. He didn’t move right away so you wriggled to look up at him. He was starstruck, open mouthed, and more than a little misty eyed.
‘So?’ you asked cautiously.
His eyes switched from the screen to yours, forming a breathless smile. ‘That was amazing!’ You laughed. ‘I mean it!’ he said, ‘It was so epic! That final duel on the Death Star was just… and Anakin’s death? Wow! And the ghosts at the end? You were totally right about the ending being the coolest thing ever!’
You laughed with him. The mile wide grin on his face lit up his eyes like a thousand stars, sending butterflies whirling in your stomach. He felt like a different person. Secretly, you’d worried he wouldn’t enjoy it, that he’d think it was silly or it just wouldn’t be his thing but he gave you no doubt! His enthusiasm was the most genuine of anybody’s you’d ever seen and you realised then, you’d give anything to see it again and again.
Eddie started to clear away the plates and pizza box. While you helped, a question kept gnawing at you. A question you were almost afraid of the answer to.
‘Why are you doing this?’ you asked, stopping before you stooped put your shoes back on. He froze like you’d caught him doing something wrong.
‘Doing what?’ his voice failed to imitate nonchalance.
‘Being… nice to me all of a sudden.’ It was the only way you could describe it. He really seemed to care, to actually want to hear your opinions, share your joy.
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ he continued clearing up but he hid his face behind his hair.
‘You’re a terrible liar!’ you moved closer and saw his shoulders tense, ‘Tell the truth!’
He didn’t speak. All the light from before extinguished, something closed him off again. Maybe you’d crossed a line? Said something wrong?
‘You know, you aren’t as mean and scary as I thought you were,’ you tried gently, anxious to get the other Eddie back. He smiled a bit, though still not looking at you.
‘Neither are you!’
‘You thought I was mean and scary?’
‘Not mean!’ he clarified, ‘But scary as hell!’
You couldn’t help but laugh and a small chuckle escaped his chest. ‘Why?’
‘Because!’ he gestured at nothing in particular, ‘Because you’re you and you’re so sure of yourself and you don’t care what anyone thinks! And…’ he stopped.
‘And?’ you asked when he didn’t continue. He didn’t want to tell you, not yet. He was only just getting started! There were still so many things he had left to do before…
‘Be honest with her about your feelings!’ wheedled his brain. It was a struggle but he forced himself to meet your eye. Looking like a man about to risk it all, he wet his lips and took a steady breath.
‘And…’ he continued, voice low, ‘I’ve had a massive crush on you since… forever!’
Oh!
The words hung in the silence between you. They echoed in your head and in your heart.
Before you could respond, he tore on, ‘And I never knew how to talk to you before because I was scared that you’d… I don’t know… laugh at me or something? Because I know, I’m a colossal disaster and I don’t know how to say romantic things or anything when I’m around you!’ He stopped to draw breath.
‘What changed?’ you cut in, still trying to process his confession. All this time you’d worried he didn’t like you and now he told you he felt all that?
Eddie hung his head. He raised a hand to his neck, rubbing furiously as a flush rose in his cheeks. ‘Um… You remember like a month ago? You were talking to Harrington about why he couldn’t make a relationship work?’
‘Yeah?’ the interaction seemed so small, so inconsequential.
‘Well… I might have been listening and I wrote down all your advice and planned to use it on you!’
His nose scrunched; shoulders tensed. At last, everything was laid out on the line. All he could do was wait for your response.
Worst case scenarios, none of them remotely in character, fired through his mind. You being super weirded out and never wanting to talk to him again. Laughing in his face and telling everyone you knew that the big scary metalhead was a hopeless romantic sap in disguise.
To his surprise, you reached up and cupped his face in your hand, rose on your tiptoes, and kissed his cheek.
He looked down at you, eyes wide. You held his gaze. He hardly dared hope.
‘I guess I give really good dating advice!’ you murmured.
He breathed out slowly, and a bright shining smile graced your lips. ‘Yeah?’
You nodded. ‘You should tell Steve it worked! Maybe then he’ll listen to me!’ Eddie let out a laugh, relief washing over him.
Your eyes found each other’s again. For a moment you just stood there, admiring his features up close. The faint brush of freckles over his nose, his slow, steady breath that moved his chest up and down, the way his eyes widened when he looked at you. Like they were seeing the whole world at once. You noticed them flicker to your lips and your heart fluttered.
‘Do you want to kiss me?’ your voice was quiet but earnest.
He blushed at the question, then, almost imperceptibly nodded. You smiled, moving ever closer, until you were practically nose to nose.
‘Go on then!’
***
Thank you so much for reading! Feedback and reblogs are so incredibly appreciated! It makes me all warm and fuzzy when I hear that you enjoyed a story I wrote! Let me know if you want to be tagged in anything else I write!
Tags: @sadbitchfangirl
Masterlist
#eddie munson x reader fluff#eddie munson#eddie munson x reader#eddie munson fanfiction#eddie munson fanfic#eddie munson imagine#eddie munson fluff#eddie x reader#eddie munson x you#eddie munson x female reader#amber writes#stranger things 4#steve harrington#eddie my beloved
1K notes
·
View notes
Note
Can I get Penis Panic part 3- Revenge of the Dicks? Featuring the demon triplets, the garden inhabitants, Shags, and Stitches?
-Corkscrew Cock Anon
[Adding the aquarium peeps too, because I don't have a name planned for a part 4 if anyone asks.]
TW: Noncon.
(THE TRILOGY)
Ludwig sighs. The first thing that graces his mind is disappointment, the blatant display of terror turning him off a little, but then he genuinely gets worried. In fact, if you don't wake up very soon, he's going to rush you to a hospital. He's not even thinking about why you fainted, he's just worried half to death.
Obie snorts. Hahah, real funny! Oh shit, you actually passed out. HUH. He's shaking you immediately. Is it the piercings?? Do you think they'll hurt? Dude don't scare him like that! You'll wake up to Obie clutching you and sighing loudly in relief.
Mervin rolls his eyes. You're overreacting! Geez, what are you, a baby? Come now. It's a little flattering. Okay, he's basically high on it- But it's definitely an unusual reaction and he's mildly concerned. You'll wake up to him seated on the edge of the bed, demanding an explanation.
Shags stares at your limp form for a few moments. Curious. Well then, he's nothing if not an opportunist. You're posed in different ways, Shags starts sketching you when he's sure you're not in real danger, relieving himself to the rough sketches and your lovely slumbering visage. Even in terror-induced sleep, you're a work of unspeakable art.
Stitches laughs mutely for so long he probably sits out one of his atrophied lungs. THIS IS TOO GOOD. He fucks you anyway. After all, you're being silly. Stitches is sure your panic will fade to pleasure when you wake up getting fucked as deep and fast as be can. Gonna faint again? Patches will seethe about this later.
Colmei panics. The Queen fainted?! The Queen fainted!! She's ill! She's sick! HURRY. The entire hive surrounds you, buzzing in preoccupation. Colmei carries you to a bed of the best flowers he can find, pacing back and forth as he wonders about what could have made you ill enough to fall unconscious. It doesn't cross his mind that you fainted from the sight of his cock. After all, he's part of your loyal colony, why would you fear him?
Hellion recoils. Wow, you fell like dead weight. Are you actually dead?? He pokes you just to be sure, resting that flat face on your chest and neck to make sure you're actually breathing. That was weird... He's not sure what you expected. Is it because he doesn't have visible balls like some of the others? No really, he's puzzled. Hellion lays on your legs and waits for you to wake up.
Pebble is inconsolable. He thinks he frightened you to death, somehow. The gargoyle screams and carries you to someone he trusts, horrified at himself. It's his fault!! He's too hideous and even his cock is all wrong! That's why you don't want him. He's sobbing and garbling incoherently through the paper bags, having a massive tantrum, throwing shit around while you're attended to.
Magus catches you before you can sink like an anchor. Did the glowing frighten you? Why would you fear your mate? He wasn't going to stick all of it in, you did know that, right? You know he's not stupid enough to kill you, right?? He's almost offended. The huge mermonster sighs and keeps you afloat on his front, swimming aimlessly until you wake up again, his odd cock coiled around your leg.
Glauk is whining. What kind of game is this? No one's ever done that before! He sits there like a dork looking at his own cock, moving it around in hopes of finding what scared you so much. His scent is fine, he's not discolored, it works just fine- What got you so worked up?? Incapable of conceiving you might not want to bed him anymore, Glauk fondles and ruts sporadically at you until you're awake again.
#Ludwig oc#Obie oc#Mervin oc#Pebble oc#Beekeeper boie#Hellion oc#Glauk oc#Magus oc#Stitches oc#Shags oc
145 notes
·
View notes
Text
lucky people // mick schumacher
summary: the adventures of bookworm-youtuber y/n and her adorable f1 driver boyfriend mick
(shameless little plug for my own underused and somewhat forgotten about book-blr @/ cheerful-chamomile-pages)
dedicated to @flannel-cures and @paddockbunny who helped me make the final decision on whether this would be about mick or charles : )
i can see them meeting through gina (best friends brother trope anybody)
she was already decently popular on the bookworm side of youtube without mick, but once she was spotted attending a few events on the german's arm, she instantly became more interesting to a whole different crowd
obviously she's trying to keep her hobby (and almost possibly maybe side hustle) and her love life apart, but they truly are the cutest couple on the internet
she's sitting in her cute little library corner , streaming her new video live for some of her subscribers before she edits it and posts it properly to youtube.
"so i hate calling it a tbr because that just adds so much pressure and the way college is going for me right now guys, i genuinely have no idea if i will make it through all of these."
"so the first one is 'as good as dead' by holly jackson. i've been working my way through this series for a while and i finally bought this one a few months ago but life got busy and i just didn't get around to it but im really excited. this one is the grand conclusion to the good girls guide to murder trilogy and i can't wait to read about pip and ravi one last time."
and cue angie bounding into the room, cutting in front of the camera and knocking the book out of her hands as she pounces on y/n
mick is laughing in the background, super self conscious about appearing on the camera.
the chat goes MENTAL
"is that angie? does this mean mick is home?" "show mick!"
"mick," she says with a laugh, scratching angie behind the ears and looking up at the driver. "the fans want to see you."
"is that okay?" mick asks before moving further into the room, passing her the mug of hot chocolate that he had been planning on just leaving on the IKEA end table
"of course." she moves over on the carpet to make more room. "you can hold my stack of books."
"oh, great." he jokes as she passes him the stack, pressing a kiss to his cheek
"this is my boyfriend, mick. he's an angel on earth and he's going to help me film the rest of this."
cue mick shyly waving at the camera as y/n grabs one of the books from the top of the stack
"you already know that i will read anything that lauren asher writes. i have one book left in the dirty air series that i still need to finish, and this one is all about santiago, who was introduced as noah's teammate and mayas brother in the beginning of the series. i truly don't want this series to end, but this book includes grumpy x sunshine and fake dating, so im very excited to see what santi and chloe bring to the dirty air universe."
and mick is just watching her with this completely lovestruck expression
the chat goes MENTAL talking about how cute the couple is and how they all wish they had a mick (me too besties)
he's definitely present in the next video, entitled "my boyfriend and i go book shopping"
which is more like y/n just dragging mick around barnes and noble while she prepares to buy more books than she could afford (especially since she already has so many books at home)
mick is helping her look, trying to pick up books he thinks she'd like or has heard her talk about before
"babe, this book is basically porn. there's literally a half dressed cop on the front cover."
"i would have thought that the fact that it's called 'frisk me' would have given it away. the second one is worse, it's called 'cuff me'."
"i worry for your mental state sometimes, schatzi."
"what else am i supposed to do while you're gone, baby?"
that line was edited out of the final version
like the gentleman that he is, mick pays for all of the books
*cue the entire comment section swooning*
they do one video called "my boyfriend guesses the plot of my books based solely on the contents of the front cover"
"uhm im gonna take a wild guess and say that one's about death of some kind. maybe a murder?"
"that one's porn. one hundred percent. there's a fully shirtless man with a smolder and bad tattoos on the front cover. wait, there's a formula one car as well? oh dear god, this isn't what your version looks like!"
"because i bought the special editions with the pretty covers, baby. and this one does have a plot. this one made me cry, and you had to hold me for like an hour and a half while i recovered."
he definitely bought her a copy of her favorite romance book for their anniversary and went through and annotated it
paying special attention to all of the smutty parts that he wants to recreate
buddy reads with mick where they read the same book and then film a video where they both review it
the cutest couple on bookstagram
BONUS MATERIAL:
#mick schumacher x reader#mick schumacher#f1 headcanons#f1 x reader#formula one x reader#mick schumacher headcanons#f1 x you#lucky people
503 notes
·
View notes
Text
Aite, Jay's thoughts on Restoration now that the emotional dust has settled.
My non-spoiler thoughts are... it's okay, a love letter to the series? No. A love letter to fans? For the most part.
No shade to RT, Burnie or anyone who worked on this, they did what they could, and had time for. This is going to be loooooong as its my full summary of the movie as a long-time fan, RvB is my special hyperfixation/interest. Spoilers below the cut.
Alright, to start. I personally will believe that s14-17 are cannon, and that Restoration is a simulation/Jax movie/AU/Alternate ending./what have you. I believe this for many reasons, but let's get the Big 3 out of the way first.
1. Sarge's death. I understand it's inclusion, and I understand that with the anvil and steel boot of WB it was hard to produce something of immense quality. Sarge had been a consistent key player and many of us expected this.
But his death was... wrong. It didn't feel impactful, he didn't die a Sarge death. While the reasoning was good (saving Caboose) the execution and runtime made it feel sloppy and just a plot driver(barely). He deserved a much more heroic send-off, and this comes from a avid Red Team supporter, so this should have impacted me. If Sarge had a proper heros death (and the movie had more time), set in a similar vein as Church (or even like he would have died to Meta in s8) then I think I would have had a lot more feelings, and I think it would have also allowed me to accept it much easier, I'm not insanely upset at Sarge dying(however I still would prefer them all to be happy), im upset at how it was handled.
2. Doc's death. Alright, this one peeves me a bit. I LOVE the idea at play, I personally even think it works with Wash given their history in S8, it is a really good reveal. But this also means Doc, an integral character who's been there since Season 2. Doc, who had been the most mistreated and abused character--and JUST got over being overshadowed by O'Malley in universe(S17)... died off screen. And that alone makes me not want to take this as cannon.
It was a moment of "WHAT??-wait." I like Doc, I like all the characters of RvB, but Doc dying off screen after the battle is not it. The Matt Hullum double kill is arguably funny, but I won't stand for Doc dying like this. Sorry.
And 3. The one that bit me the most, hold your sighs/tears; Grimmons. I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe that Grif would leave Simmons, or that Simmons wouldn't go with him. These two characters have been joint at the hip since episode one, they have been through EVERYTHING together. There is a LOT of subtext behind these two, Grimmons barely felt like a fan ship, if they revealed the two were married the entire time I wouldn't have batted an eye.
I don't like their ending. They should have either both went to earth, or both stayed in Blood Gulch. I understand Grif's entire thing was hating the military, but he loved his friends, he cared so much (saving Sarge MULTIPLE times despite Sarge still always bullying him, agreeing to go with Sarge and Caboose to fight the Meta even though he didn't have to, him throughout all of the Chorus Trilogy, and this is just the stuff that is cannon no matter what.), and I don't believe him simply being dismissed would have him leave, he stopped being apart of a proper military when Project Freelancer shut down, and while he was apart of Chorus they'd clearly been demoted/let go since they were ranked down to Privates in Restoration. (I also believe S15 handled the idea of them being moved after S13's ending far better)
And while I don't mind Simmons coming into his own as a leader, he dosent... have a team? They abandoned Lopez, Sarge is dead, Donut is an Admiral (likely for the UNSC), and Grif left. The Blues only have Caboose and Tucker. Carolina and Wash are likely going to go back to the hospital to let Wash heal (which is another thing). So its just Simmons, Caboose and Tucker alone in Blood Gulch? Doing... what exactly? Fighting? This is not a good ending for any of them and it barely makes sense. Id honestly have preferred a "where are they now" segment to this ending.
With those out of the way, lets go over a small lighting round of stuff i didn't like;
Wash felt like he was just there to tell us Doc died, and to get Carolina to the final fight. If you removed him entirely and just said "Carolina has been tracking Meta" nothing would change.
Carolina's inclusion felt like someone threw a cyan bolder into the script, her entrance being a homage to Maine's entrance in S10 was cool but she appeared out of nowhere.
I refuse to believe that after all of this none of them would be checking in on Wash, that man has been the glue of the Reds and Blues since he joined the team and I REFUSE to believe they would just dump him at an institution, however this is especially insane for Carolina. She would be with him every second.
Tucker was INSANELY underused, his moments of breaking through Sigma's control were good, but Tucker felt like he wasn't important. He should be, he should have been the main character of the story, he is the main character of Red vs Blue to me (after Church).
The way Lopez and Sheila were just abandoned is disrespectful. Its in character, and the whole gag but for a final season I dont want a gag like that in a finale. I wanted to see Lopez at that campfire scene imagining him not talking but enjoying the reminiscing. That would have been so sweet and nice. This also applies to Sheila.
The lack of Donut outside of a mention of him being an Admiral and the silly memory of him from Simmons is outrageous. He is a main character, we established this in S17 and retcon or not, he earned that development and it should have remained.
Grif was was insanely angry in the beginning, I imagine this more as Geoff because his performance throughout was probably the best of the movie. He's taken RTs closure hard and I completely understand him being upset, so this is barely a complaint.
Alright... with the negative out of the way, lets talk positive! i wish I could say my positives outweighed the negatives, but unfortunately that isn't the case, however I do have two big standouts.
1. The campfire scene. This, this scene alone is what adds a chunk to the positive section of my feelings. It was the scene that really gut punched me, the moment I heard Ed Robertson's voice I crumpled into tears (I am a HUGE Barenaked Ladies fan). The pure bittersweetness of watching these characters who have been through so much together finally taking a serious moment to reminisce is all I ever wanted from RvB. I wished with all my heart that Tucker, Church, Sarge, Donut, Doc, Lopez, and Sheila could share in it, who knows maybe Sarge and Docs ghosts popped by to listen. But, this is to me, what I wanted.
2. Agent Texas. This was good, this was REALLY good. The bait and swap to have Caboose bringing Tex back and not Church was good, and especially nice development from Caboose despite how rushed it feels. The kicker of this though? this Tex was not the same Tex as before. That reveal that this Tex was not based on the Directors memories of Allison's failure, but instead based on the Reds and Blues memories of her beating their asses is ACTUALLY insane, and a genius twist. And her getting her black armour plus the playing of Round One/Bullfight got me more hype then I was ever expecting to get from Restoration. I also believe that Tex finally being remembered properly and being able to move on with Church was heartwarming and very much deserved.
My negatives far outweigh the positives, but the positives are so good, and with it being the finale of 21 years worth of content I cant in the right mind say I dislike Restoration. I don't like it as the ending to Red vs Blue, call me bias (my favourite season is 15) but the trade off of development for the characters between Restoration and Shisno is just not worth it for me. Say what you will about the Shisno Trilogy but you cannot ignore that it gave us the much needed development for many characters, Grif and Donut standing out the most. While the "god"-plot is far fetched and out there, and I've heard that Tucker was character regressed in s16 (which I do not believe and will die on that hill but thats a topic for another day), or the inclusion of the Blues and Reds putting a wrench in some lore I still don't think it was all bad enough to warrant a retcon entirely. Who knows, maybe this was all planned from the start, or it was just because of WB. But this ending is not satisfying to me. I won't say its a bad ending, if I didn't like Shisno so much and never bothered to watch it I'm sure as a direct continuation from S13 I would have a much more positive look on it.
I also do believe that Burnie wrote it in such a way that you can decide for yourself if S14-17(and 18 if you enjoyed it) or Restoration is the cannon ending and to that I respect it.
So in short, my review of the final piece of official Red vs Blue content, is that its okay. A lot felt OOC, and plot was rushed and messy, things felt like they were all predetermined and not driven by the characters as is RvB's biggest strength. It was far too short and even still I generally don't like retcons. But for what it is, and the positive moments it brings I still think its good. Not cannon to me, but I will definitely be taking points from it into my personal cannon post-s17 (Admiral Donut my beloved, you would be so cool if you actually showed up).
18 notes
·
View notes
Text
I love you (you don't have to say it back, though)
Also posted on AO3!
My last work this year. Happy New Year to those who celebrate it! Still hope you have a great day today :)
--
Tony was usually not allowed to go to his father’s workshop. When he was very small, he was able to sneak inside, but the more he grew up, the less frequent it became. Not with Howard becoming increasingly angrier at him.
By the time Tony went to boarding school, he knew better than to bother Howard.
Except, occasionally, his father would take him to the workshop without saying much. He just expected Tony to follow him without protest.
But don’t be mistaken. Tony couldn’t tell Howard about school or his day overall. He couldn’t ask for help with his homework (after all, Tony was supposed to be smart on his own). Their time was strictly professional, not some father and son bonding.
The boy had to be stiff and silent like a rock the entire time, unless Howard asked him to build something while bearing a judgmental glare, already expecting Tony to fail. Either the man would say nothing, or he would straight up say Tony was doing it completely wrong. Regardless, that always meant their lab time was over and Tony would be kicked out of the workshop.
Nowadays, Tony had his own workshop where he allowed anyone to come in, bots or not. Someone in particular has been coming here a lot more.
It’s so different from the past. Tony and Peter are not even working on the latter’s suit anymore. They’ve abandoned their tools and Peter’s homework has been put to a stop. What for?
Peter has been ranting about Star Wars and how unfair it is the way people have been treating some of the new characters from the most recent trilogy.
Arguably, Tony has only seen the original trilogy years ago, but he was never a fanboy. He might not understand everything to the lore, but he’s not at all bored or annoyed by Peter’s long ramble. He’s listening all the way through, never looking away.
Peter seems to have not noticed Tony staring at him with all the attention in the world, because suddenly… The kid gradually quiets down and stops talking, his cheeks turning red in embarrassment.
“... what?” Tony asks, confused. “Why did you stop?”
“Do you think I’m annoying?”
Tony sits closer to him. “No, of course not.”
“Why? I talk too much and- gosh, I’ve been ranting for half an hour about Star Wars…”
“Hey, I don’t mind.”
“But it’s so stupid, Mr. Stark.”
“Kid, it’s not stupid. It matters to you. Besides, you could talk about literally anything and I would listen all the way through.”
“Why?” Peter doesn’t believe him. “Are you just saying that to be nice?”
It hurts Tony hearing the kid’s insecurity.
He squeezes one of Peter’s shoulders.
“Oh, kid… I mean what I say. I like listening to you. I…”
… that word.
Love.
Is he going to say it?
“... I like having you here.”
Ah, dang it.
Still, the light in Peter’s puppy eyes returns. They look like the clean starry sky they can see from upstate. It does sting Tony’s heart how surprised Peter is to hear those words. He feels regret for not letting the kid know how much he likes his company. Tony will make sure to correct that from now on.
He pulls the kid in a half hug, squeezing him. Peter is very stiff at first, but he eventually relaxes and lies against Tony’s shoulder like a cat. If Tony isn’t seeing things, the teen is probably about to cry.
After this, they go back to work. Peter asks for help and Tony guides him. When the kid solves it, Tony praises him.
Then, the two leave the workshop together to eat ice cream and watch a dumb sitcom.
Tony eventually notices Peter has been staring at him with the same stars in his eyes.
But not in a mere fanboyish way.
After that, Peter lies against Tony again.
“I like being here, too,” he says simply.
It shouldn’t be surprising, right?
Still, Tony’s eyes blur.
Nothing rolls down, but truly, he’s not made of iron.
And that’s more than okay.
Tony smiles and lies his head on top of Peter’s, wrapping an arm around the kid.
Maybe he didn’t say what he meant just yet… but maybe Peter knows it.
Still, Tony will say it. He promises that.
29 notes
·
View notes
Note
Since you’ve been doing a fair amount of Batman posting, mind if you list your favorite members of the Gotham Rouges?
Okay. I’ll list about 10 of my faves, though we’ll be counting backwards here.
Also I'll be listing the variations of my faves whom I like the most to make things clearer.
Number 10. Poison Ivy (B:TAS) - If we're talking about character alone, this is the blueprint for literally every present day version of Poison Ivy, however this specific incarnation of the character has aged pretty well. She's every bit the dangerous eco-warrior that she makes herself out to be and will gladly turn someone into a tree for bulldozing a forest, but there is still a level of humanity to her character much like half the villains in the show.
Number 9. Mr. Freeze (B:TAS & Batman Beyond) - I feel like this is a "to the surprise of absolutely nobody" moment, but come on! Mr. Freeze here not only was made into a more tragic character compared to his early comic counterpart, but he actually had a whole arc across the entirety of B:TAS which ended at Batman Beyond. Victor Fries was a scientist trying to save his wife, Nora, from a rare disease, so he put her into a cryopod to preserve her until he found a cure. Then he and Nora were almost killed, but Nora was still kept on ice, while Victor got turned into a literal cold hearted monster. Even after Nora was finally cured, Victor was forever unable to be with her due to his own condition worsening to the point where he was just a head in a jar, angry with the world. A couple of decades later, and he is given a new body by the Wayne Powers CEO, Derek Powers, and while things were finally going well at first and Victor was reforming as soon as he had the chance, things went horribly wrong again, resulting in Victor dying as Mr. Freeze. I may have missed some details here, but yeah that's a summary of this sad ice man.
Number 8. Dr. Crane/Scarecrow (Nolan Trilogy) - Crane wasn't a big villain in the grand scheme of the trilogy, but my god Cillian Murphy does a great job with the character. Like I wish that his supervillain outfit wasn't just a bag over his face, but Scarecrow manages to be quite the dangerous loon with a mask of sanity in Batman Begins, an active member of the underworld in The Dark Knight, and the guy actively sending folks to their deaths in The Dark Knight Rises. Could we have had more of him? Yes. Did he use up his screen time well? Absolutely. Though his fear toxin could've been infinitely wilder.
Number 7. The Phantasm (B:TAS but movie) - The Phantasm is the literal best darker counterpart to Batman a lot of levels.
Number 6. Harley Quinn (B:TAS yet again) - The minor side villainess turned breakout character of the show. If anyone has seen B:TAS and then seen the rest of the media she's in, then you know why this is the best version of her. A good amount of things about the character being based around her actress (R.I.P Arleen Sorkin), her interactions with half the cast, Peak HarIvy content, the best representation of how bad her situation with her abusive ex was, and the perfect mixture between being a not-so-great-person and a precious lil' thing who deserves better.
Number 5. Harvey Dent, Two-Face, & The Judge (B:TAS) - The first well developed Two-Face, and the definitive. I mean he was never a bad villain, but the character was never utilized to the fullest like he was in B:TAS. Harvey Dent was a good guy with an other half that was the literal manifestation of his bottled up anger, an anger that turned into something else entirely after the left side of his face got blown off. Now Harvey and his other half start their own crusade to eradicate organized crime by taking it over from within. In other words, Two-Face here wanted to originally wanted to achieve something good through something bad, and yes a lot of it is due to a fair coin flip. However Harvey began to disagree with some of the shit his other half was getting up to, and as a result developed a third personality that was so separate from both himself and Two-Face that it tried killing both of them and, by extension, himself. This third entity would end up being The Judge, a ruthless, wraith-like vigilante with a judge's attire. So after being detained in Arkham for good, all three Harvey's are literally stuck with each other, and in a spin-off comic set directly after that whole situation with The Judge, Two-Face was given another double headed coin that would constantly come up on the "good side," and spent a lot of time dismantling his criminal enterprise, before doing (another) suicide attempt. This take on Two-Face was something else.
Number 4. Oswald Cobblepot (Gotham) - If I were to list everything that this smug snake has done, along with some of the shit that happened to him, we'd be here all day. However, this is the most well characterized iteration of The Penguin that we've ever had, in my humble opinion.
Number 3. Catwoman (Batman Returns) - I'm dying on this hill gentlemen. Despite not being... anything like her comic counterpart, outside of name, confidence, etc, Michelle Pfeiffer's Selina is something great in her own right.
Number 2. The Riddler (The Batman 2022) - Turning the Riddler into a a catholic, terrorist, cult leader that looked up to a young and angry Year-Two Batman, while also keeping the core elements of his character the same is something I'll never stop praising. He's still intelligent, he's still creative, he's still on the verge of breakdowns when his ego is badly damaged, etc.
Number 1. The Joker (B:TAS & Batman Beyond) - This is a "to the surprise to absolutely nobody" moment, though in this case I cannot be blamed. B:TAS understood the assignment and provided the definitive iteration of The Joker, completely inspired by his early comic appearances and some elements from Jack Nicholson's take on the character. An ex-mafiosi turned Clown Prince of Crime that lives to only spread misery across Gotham in the most creative way possible with a smile on his face. That was the idea that Paul Dini and Bruce Timm ran with when conceptualizing this bastard, and they just explored the concept for all its worth. Not only that, but this was the first time that Mark Hamill ever voiced this bastard, and it was just perfect casting. Overall, nostalgia got me to re-examine this take on the character, and I can easily say that without a doubt, this is the best Joker.
#the joker#the riddler#edward nygma#edward nashton#catwoman#selina kyle#oswald cobblepot#harley quinn#harleen quinzel#andrea beaumont#the phantasm#two-face#harvey dent#jonathan crane#the scarecrow#mr freeze#victor fries#poison ivy#pamela isley#batman#dc#dc comics#ranking#(one behind the mask) Mun Izunia
34 notes
·
View notes
Note
How do you think Davy Jones and Calypso met? What do you think about their relationship ?
HWOAGGHH okay so let's get right into it
Supplemental POTC sources talk about Davy Jones basically being this incredibly skilled sailor likely from wealth and means who was able to impress Calypso and gain her favor through his seafaring abilities
It's a cool origin story and I've played around with it in fic, but I've always wondered what SPECIFICALLY about him caught her eye, because he wasn't the only great sailor of his time---like, he'd have to have done something absolutely bonkers in order for the goddess of the sea to take notice
I love hearing headcanons about this, but the flavor of origin story I've ascribed to him in most of my fics is "humble beginnings" / tragic war history / desertion / escape to sea
In my stories, what Davy Jones brings to seafaring and captaining his own ship that is interesting to Calypso is both a humility about his place in life and an obsessive devotion to the sea as the one thing worth living for / keeping him alive
He's not in it for profit, he's in it for survival and ends up aiding others---I have the Flying Dutchman (visually of Dutch design, 16th century, built like a slave trading ship) taken from Dutch slave traders at the height of their operations and the captives freed, both as a practicality on Jones' end (incredibly useful type of ship that balances speed and firepower) but more importantly as a compassionate act. There has to be a reason why Calypso chose him for the most compassionate role in the world, the most essential job in easing the dead into the next life.
I don't think that it's a coincidence that Calypso appears in the mortal form that she does, I think that witnessing men's greed as the soul of the sea has made her particularly sympathetic to the atrocities of the stealing and transport of West Africans to other parts of the world, countless of whom drowned and chose to throw themselves into the sea rather than face a life of subjugation. THIS resonates with her, this makes sense to her, her entire story is about having her freedom taken from her, and for that I deeply appreciate the casting and characterization choices they went with canonically, because it lends itself to such rich meta analysis. A lot of fan characterizations of Calypso paint her as completely discompassionate, uninvolved, and uncaring about the world of men, but I do not agree with this, I see her interest in humanity being much more complex, with hate, reverence, love, and disdain all mingled together
And that's ultimately why Jones stands out to her first, because he is one of the few/only people at sea not for profit, his freedom is wrapped up in the sea, and he has enough of a broken past that makes any kind of devotion he displays deeply and overwhelmingly all-or-nothing
It's this that lends itself to the imbalance of power and lack of compromise between them, which then leads to the betrayal, etc etc. But they are at the core of their relationship the two people who understand each other more than anyone else in the world could, but they are still mired in misunderstandings because they are a human and a god, because those relationships are doomed by nature of what they are, because you can never fully understand someone whose concepts of time, devotion, and reality are so fundamentally different to your own.
I love thinking about how terrible they are for each other and how no one else in the world fits better together than them. Their story is the most pivotal and interesting piece of lore to the trilogy, and ultimately the reason why I think P4 and P5 fell flat---because the writers kept scrabbling for something mystical and fantastical to try and replicate this, but nothing came anywhere close to reproducing that same love and meaning of the Jones/Calypso Elizabeth/Will contrast. Which I could also go on and on about but I'll stop here!
65 notes
·
View notes
Text
i present a highlights collection of The Sequel Trilogy But Better (Or Maybe Worse) by my kid sister
here's a few fun facts:
Okay, so, the highlight of the ENTIRE fic is that the Knights of Ren are a squad of. like. really hot beefy women. and Kylo is their bratty kid brother figure. They bully him constantly. One of them is named Izmai and she's, like, the OG Katka / Zhaya character. I'm fairly certain her adopted sister Shyla (also a KoR) was supposed to be Ahsoka Tano's daughter, but Makenna has refused to confirm this, and she never wrote the whole fic so we'll never know.
The stormtrooper who died in the beginning of TFA & left the bloody handprint on Finn's helmet is given a full character here. She was constantly dragging Finn into trouble and her death is a big part of HIS character motivation. And before you think "oh, this might actually be a decent, fleshed-out character," she was also Captain Phasma's secret daughter and Poe's eventual love interest (because she didn't actually die in the beginning).
Kylo/Ben got redeemed halfway through part 3 (there were four parts) and spent the rest of the time getting nonstop roasted by Poe.
It was written in first person in size 12 comic sans. Sometimes the POV jumped halfway through a scene with no warning and you just had to figure it out. And the grammar was either perfect or there was no punctuation whatsoever.
There were actually like three really good plot points that she said I could use in my MandaloREYan AU since she was never going to finish writing this one.
And some of the (in my opinion) funny snippets beneath the cut:
36 notes
·
View notes
Note
hello!! I was redirected here by bronzetomatoes after inquiring about kylo ren hate (I think the hitting him with a car post is so funny and also i know so little about star wars. it adds to the comedy tbh) and i was told if i want the funny/thorough answer that you’re the place to go. so if you’d like to, go absolutely off the walls about it :)
My friend have you come to the right place.
SO BASICALLY Star Wars is a story about how 3 good movies collectively altered the course of human history by making just like, stupid amounts of money right?
So obviously, Disney was like “I need to get in on that” and bought Star Wars and then started working on their own trilogy. If you’re a Star Wars fan, this is pretty cool! New planets, new character, new lore! It was pretty awesome. The trailer for the first movie in this new trilogy came out and everyone loved it! So much interesting things!!! A female protagonist?!?!? Wow this is so awesome!!!
The problem was the movie isn’t very good.
Don’t get me wrong the force awakens is fine, definitely the best movie in the trilogy, the problem is that it wasn’t good enough, not for most audiences, and especially not for Disney. So they fired JJ Abrams, who directed the force awakens, and hired Ryan Johnson to direct the second movie: the last Jedi.
I fucking hate the last Jedi.
And so did like half the world, and what followed the release of the film was probably the worst fucking time in the history of life on earth to be a Star Wars fan, as basically the entire fanbase devolved into a civil war between last jedi haters and last jedi defenders.
But amongst all the fighting, another group was beginning to form, one that had began in the shadows of the Force Awakens, but was now bolstered by the release of the last Jedi, a shadowy and secretive threat that was about to rear it’s ugly head:
Reylo.
Now, Reylo, as a ship is like, fine? It’s literally just the most barebones enemies to lovers ship you can imagine.
But Reylo as a fanbase? That’s where things start to get interesting. Because what Reylo lacked in character and writing, it made up for in hot fucking actors (I mean it’s fucking Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver what did you expect). this in turn led to a vicious cycle where Reylo fans were extremely uh… motivated… and also had basically blank canvases to build off of. This lead to the Reylo fandom becoming almost a separate entity to the Star Wars fandom, which only further boosted their forces.
But what made Reylo infamous was the scale. These guys were loud, and were prepared to rip anyone to shreds for even the smallest injustices. It was a dog eat dog world, and one that maintained itself through a constant state of war.
But setting Reylo fans aside for a second, you may be wondering “Okay but what does any of that have to do with Kylo Ren?” Which, sure fair question. But to answer that, we have to look at Reylo not as a ship, but as characters.
Now, Rey, as far as protagonists go, is… fine? She’s definitely screwed majorly by being in a completely unplanned trilogy of movies that wasn’t interest in making her a compelling and likable character, but like even then I’d be lying if I said that she wasn’t at the very least interesting. And again like I’ll take any excuse to see Daisy Ridl- sorry what, anyways point is Rey Palpatine skywalker kenobi whatever is a perfectly mediocre protagonist and thus, while sexist assholes may try to convince you that she burned the world’s crops and poisoned the town water supply, truth be told I and many others fans became at worst indifferent, and best charmed by her.
But Kylo Ren? Kylo Motherfucking Ren? Ben SWOLO himself?
This man makes me violent.
And it’s not because he’s more well written then Rey, or even because his writing is particularly worse, as far as I’m concerned they’re both hand in unlovable in in terms of writing quality.
The problem with Kylo is that he could of been so much better, so easily, and yet people still fawned over him.
Like, this guy is Darth Vader’s Fucking Grandson, Luke Skywalker’s Nephew, Son of Han Solo and Leia Skywalker, 1 hot actor removed from self insert character, and yet these writers fucking struggle, each and every time, to figure out what to do with him. Like they are fucking racking their brains trying to make a guy with one of the sickest lightsaber designs ever and a badass outfit all being acted by ADAM FUCKING DRIVER “interesting.”
And PEOPLE FUCKING FELL FOR IT. Like if you go into almost any even slightly sad tag in ao3 I guarantee there will be at least one kylo fic. Like I can not stress to you enough how many people fucking lost their MINDS!!!
FOR HIM
And remember, this is all ON TOP of the fawning that Reylo stans had already been doing. Which only made things worse, if you can even believe that.
And so ever since Rise of Skywalker managed to drag the sequel trilogy’s tired, burning, mangled corpse over the finish line, and all the buzz over it died down, and every YouTube video essayist/movie analyzer saw dollar signs in their eyes, we’re left here, with Adam Driver’s tits swaying in the wind. And for what? The most stock Sad Boy Villaintm of all time and his British gf? A marginally cool lightsaber design? Maybe like, 1 cool fight scene at the end of the first movie?
Like… I’m just left to stare… Stare at this man’s hot topic shopper ass hair cut and Zuko wannabe facial scar, left with nothing better to do than seethe, quietly and angrily, at a character who could have been so much, who could have done so much, but yet was doomed to only ever be himself.
In the end, I suppose I am like Sisyphus, rolling my anger up a hill, knowing that it’ll only roll back down again anyway, and yet not an ounce less motivated to continue my toil. Because Kylo Ren is my enemy, my one true opposite in this great narrative we call reality.
And at least, on some nights, I can rest easy knowing that he fucking died at the end.
#so so so so sorry for ranting at you.#I may have uh#gone a bit insane while writing this#but uh#hey you asked for#it#asks#Star Wars#reylo neg#<- for tag blocking purposes
45 notes
·
View notes
Text
COLE CASH READING LIST
cole's backstory is kind of a nightmare to wade through as he has been subject to so many retcons and reboots and general fuckery, but here is a list of issues i consider to be essential in understanding his character and/or key points in his backstory, with some explanation/extrapolation added.
bolded is essentials, italicized is personal favorites. links included.
wildc.a.t.s: covert action teams: this is the og comic. not too cole-centric, but there are some important bits and pieces. wildcats trilogy and grifter (1995) are included for chronological reasons.
issue 1, issue 5, issue 8, wildcats trilogy 1, wildcats trilogy 2, wildcats trilogy 3, issue 20, grifter (1995) issue 1, issue 25, issue 31, issue 32, issue 50
grifter (1996): cole solo series. has some important things related to his past and his psyche. i really like this series. it should be noted that (SPOILERS!) cole's dad being alive is literally never acknowledged in any other cole media ever, so it's fair to say that that is not canon and jacob is still extremely dead.
issue 1, issue 2, issue 3, issue 4, issue 5. i think the rest of the comic is pretty good too but you don't have to read it.
wildcats (1999): i really, genuinely recommend reading this entire series. it is an excellent examination of the horrors of war and what it means to be a good person. it is also a buddy cop comedy about three guys trying desperately to run a company. it is very, very good, and i couldn't bring myself to narrow it down.
issue 1 is here. start with that and then read the whole comic. please also read the annual, because Holy God.
team 7 (1994): this miniseries is very short, and the whole thing is pretty essential to cole's character.
start here.
team 7: dead reckoning: see above.
start here.
point blank: takes place after/during wildcats 1999. again, a short miniseries essential to cole's character.
start here.
wildcats 3.0: god, i hate wildcats 3.0. there's some relevant cole stuff, though. tw for rape in regards to everything that wax (blue suit spooky eyes guy) has going on in issue 8.
issue 1, issue 2, issue 3, issue 4, issue 5, issue 8, issue 9
wildcats (2006): lots could be said about grant morrison and jim lee's failed one-issue venture into wildcats, but i actually think the single issue they put out is really good when it comes to characterizing cole. it is not canon even a little bit, though.
read it here.
wildcats (2008), more commonly known as wildcats: worlds end: it's... okay. it's an apocalypse narrative. we get some fun tidbits about cole and he does one important thing.
issue 1, issue 18
grifter (2011): kind of a weird take on the classic daemonite thing, but the discussion between cole and his brother is important, so i'm putting it here.
issue 3, issue 8
batman: urban legends: i think his stories in this are cute, if a little apocryphal (saying max is his older brother? for shame!). also, it is an anthology series, so you'll have to skim to find his stories.
issue 1, issue 2, issue 3, issue 4, issue 5
61 notes
·
View notes
Text
About Canon Events:
I have some things to say about the Canon Events in Across the Spider-Verse:
(Edited because this got flagged as mature for some reason)
1. How on every Earth was Peter B. Parker on Miguel’s side regarding Miles at any point? Like… the dude said that the reason he stopped being a pizza hobo, got back together with MJ, and had Mayday is an anomaly who shouldn’t have been Spider-Man. And if Miles wasn’t Spider-Man, Peter and him don’t meet (or at least don’t stay together long) and Peter just stays his loser self. Or… desurvivalizes. And doesn’t have a family. I’d get it if Peter was like “look, I’ve personally seen screwed up stuff when Canon breaks, but I’m just trying to figure stuff out for myself since my world apparently broke Canon when we met and is still fine, so something’s a miss”, but he doesn’t do that.
2. The model Christopher Miller put on twitter makes even less sense.
If this model of the multiverse as a web with lines representing realities intersecting at nodes representing Canon Events is to be taken as correct, then…
1. Only a finite number of realities must go through each Canon Event, not every reality as Miguel claims.
2. Each reality must go through exactly two Canon Events, not all of them as Miguel claims.
This “Web” doesn’t even align with Miguel’s claim that all Spiders must go through all Canon Events. That’s not even a Web, that’s a bundle of cables.
3. The morality of the Spider-Verse trilogy is dictated ENTIRELY by how the rules of the multiverse work.
Look, every Spider is a hero, even Miguel. The reason the Spider-Society is against Miles trying to save his father is because they think it will wreck his universe and the entire multiverse, and the only reason Miles thinks it won’t is because he thinks he can “do both”. You’d want to root for Miles, but you need to know what happens if Miles saves his father to see who’s right in this. If nothing bad happens, Miles is right and the right thing to do is save his father and the multiverse. If something bad happens (that can’t be fixed), Miguel is right, Miles can’t and shouldn’t save his father, the Spider-Verse trilogy and it��s hypetrain end with a confirmation that Miles shouldn’t be Spider-Man, and Miles probably has like 3 months tops before he gets fridged/retconned in comics. And just for the record, if the choice is ABSOLUTELY between saving one person and an entire world, Spider-Man will save the entire world. Just ask Insomniac Spider-Man, who let his Aunt May… desurvivalize… so they could work out the antiserum to Devil’s Breath. Once we know how canon works for real, the moral dilemma becomes resolved immediately, and this feels like it could be a weak point.
4. We don’t know enough to confirm or debunk Canon yet.
Okay, yes, we know that Earths 65, 616, 1610, and 42 are all intact despite their Canon being broken in a number of ways, and that’s enough to motivate people into taking action against Miguel, but…
On Earth-50101, after Miles saves Inspector Singh and the quantum hole opens up, the Spider-Society IMMEDIATELY moves to contain it, knowing exactly what it is. And back on Earth-928, Miguel confirms that, if nothing else, THIS is something the Society has dealt with before to varying degrees of success, and Miguel correlates the quantum holes with Canon violations. This indicates that, if nothing else, there is some correlation between the Canon, quantum holes, and perhaps the Spot, since you can see a darkness encroaching upon Earth-50101’s Alchemax before Miles saves Singh and maybe even before Spot gets his power boost (I only saw it once in the theaters). This lead to:
5. What IS the case with Canon?
No idea. You could say that it can only be people within a specific reality who can affect that reality, but that doesn’t explain how Dr. Ohnn stopped Miles Morales of Earth-42 from being but without repercussion. It’s possible that Spot caused Canon retroactively (as in, somehow overheard talk of it, realized it was BS, but decided “Hey, why not try to make this true to be a jerk to Spider-Men”), but time travel is a can of worms, tense trouble, and Internet fights BTSV may want to steer clear front. They might even go with the comics’ Spider-Totem route for all anyone knows.
6. For that matter, how can Miguel predict anything to any degree of accuracy? There are thousands of realities with equally many variables. Being able to predict ANY Canon Event shouldn’t be possible by the mathematical laws of probability.
I may add onto this later, but my point is that Across the Spider-Verse makes its audience ask a LOT of questions that Beyond the Spider-Verse needs to answer to be satisfying.
#marvel#atsv#spider man across the spider verse#spiderman across the spiderverse#spiderman into the spiderverse#spiderverse#across the spiderverse#into the spider verse#beyond the spiderverse#spiderman btsv#spider verse#spiderman#across the spider verse#into the spiderverse
21 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
monogrammedmommies
Monogrammed Mommies
stevos-stuff
Stevo's Stuff
betelgeuse-supernova
aut inveniam viam aut faciam
princesspxddin-blog
⡊ *harley quinn, here!
alecraisa
Lost My Gender To The Void