charity case.

indie paranormal investigator & conspiracy believer set in the stranger things universe.

Steph snaps her fingers and shakes her index finger in acknowledgement. "Right, right." A tiny smile tugs at her lips. It was kind of hard to forget one of the few athletes, at the time, who had treated her and her friends like human beings instead of well, whatever the hell they wanted to call it. The treatment got worse too after things got nasty during the last half of her senior year, so any bare minimum decency was clung to, even if she hated to admit it. And not to mention, the art had been simply gorgeous. She pushes the thoughts away outside of the art being gorgeous before she speaks again.

An artist being recognized for their work rather than their attractive facial features sparked a kind of pride Mars couldn't explain. He'd made the requested works from Hellfire a labor of love; they'd been so exact in what they wanted and were excited enough about it that he'd have hated disappointing them. Glad to see all that passion had made an impact. His pieces are living on instead of being shoved away in a drawer somewhere, choking to death.

"Uh, lotta risk for a lotta reward," Dottie corrects him, "I'm getting a teddy bear hug before I die, I think that's worth quite a lot." She says it with a decisive nod, and a grin like she's pretty pleased with herself and her assessment. Which she is. Just to be clear. She thinks he's the weird one, not wanting to hug a teddy bear, even if it is a dangerous teddy bear. All bears could eat you, right?

“Do... do you think that I'd go in for a hug from a legitimate bear? Is that the impression I've given you in this time we've spent together?” Smokey the Bear had been cute when he was a child, but his love for bears did not extend to risking his life. Now, if they were talking about him getting a hug from a cool alien, even though he knew he'd be abducted? A lot more his speed. Given it wasn't an Ewok.

" really? " the last person to be judging, and still the words slipped out, indifferent. kimberly noticed how people admired steve and his willingness to change for the better. in fact, everyone she spoke to about him had nothing but positive things to say, while she was stuck in the past. " i don't know much about you, but you do seem like the type who doesn't really take any shit. harrington's lucky to have your loyalty, i wouldn't want to be on your bad side--you look, " her finger sized him up, lips curving into a smile. " like you could kick some serious ass. "

“still don't like him, huh?” the question was spoken casually, with a heavy dose of humor. doubted that being nice to one guy was going to be enough to change everybody's minds about steve harrington. somehow he didn't think telling all the girls he's been with that "hey this guy became my best friend!" would suddenly make them happy to be one of his conquests. “bet my boxing coach and the guys who have been punched in the jaw by me in the past would agree with you that i can kick serious ass.”

Nancy glanced sideways at him as they walked, one brow arching with faint amusement. “Though, honestly, you looked like you were about three seconds away from climbing out a window to escape her.”

Actually turning her down would happen someday in the future, he was sure, but for now, he'd settle for escape. Felt nicer, somehow. “Spared her feelings for now, though, something tells me she'll be making another move, and I'll have to really shut her down.”

there's something more full about the laugh that escapes his lips this time. he loosens noticeably at the lighter tone between them, easing back into the familiarity of camaraderie that he often overlooks with mars. he rolls his eyes lightly, tossing his hands up in defense. ❛ my bad, man. just telling it like it is. ❜ he pushes off the car to stand a bit straighter, carrying an exaggerated seriousness that gives away the bit. ❛ allow me to try again – mars, you look incredibly rugged right now. so mysterious, dangerous even– ❜ his voice pitches higher, mocking the tone of a female classmate or interested lover. his eyes rise to consider more things to say after he pauses, and his nose wrinkles in thought. ❛ so charming... ❜

the mention of seriously dating makes steve wince, and he shakes his head to wave it off before the look falters into a grin. this comes to him a lot easier than the previous concern, and he steals another fry while he listens to his friend. steve watches him pull out the rest of the burger and shrugs. ❛ there's probably something decent buried in the garage fridge. ❜ he knows tommy h always grabs the cheap cans first, so it's possible that if they dig around they might find something suitable for mars' taste.

steve nudges his hand lightly after a beat. ❛ c'mon– we'll stop by the corner store first. grab stuff for burgers. there's a girl who works the counter nearly every saturday. she won't card me– ❜ steve winks and tosses the fry in his mouth. he masks this as a casual offer yet again, as if this is just a weekend plan they'd already established rather than him acting out of concern.

genuine laughter somehow felt too foreign a sensation, regardless of how stupid that seemed. mentally, he set a reminder to go over the definition of the word subtle with steve at a later time, because if these fairly aggressive compliments were his way of subtlety, he clearly needed to update his internal dictionary. ❝ literally everything you said is objectively true. ❞ facts were facts, he wasn't going to ignore that his friend had surprisingly good tastes. ❝ i'm betting you were only serious about the beginning part. ❞

for the time being, he was opting to ignore the obvious way the other winced, positive it would come up in the future. presumably following a quick shower at the harrington place and over some crappy beer while they grilled burgers, not a terrible way to spend the day. ❝ eh, it's not a deal breaker, i'm used to trash alcohol from the house parties anyway. ❞ practically shoving the remainder of the burger into his mouth, he balled up the wrapper while whipping his head around for one of those well-placed trash cans the town set to lower chances of littering. spotting one, he took their trash, trotted over to toss it, and made it back over.

jamming a thumb over to his car. ❝ i'll follow you in the beamer, would hate to leave this here and the cops run across it. betting they'd impound it merely to make a point to me about running off and causing them trouble. ❞ would do nothing but annoy the hell out of the easily frustrated young man, and take a chunk out of his savings paying to get it out. ❝ lets move. ❞

“I don't have a list really, I just...” Well, she was a flight risk, but that's not the type of thing that Ally would ever say out loud, especially about herself. After all, Ally likes to think a little more highly of herself, but she's still trying to figure out what her future looks like too after the entire mess that the Flayer left behind. She still kind of feels like perhaps things are hard now because of karma.

Ally takes a deep breath and gives his hand a little squeeze as she chews on her lip. “I just don't want to act like this can't be something, so I think we should just go slow and figure it out as we do. Especially because...well, we should probably talk about Nathan...” She doesn't really want to, but he's going to be every single elephant in every single room that they open a door into and she knows it. The problem is, she's not really sure where to start, or how Mars will take any of it.

The prospect of messing this up for himself wasn't sitting well with him, which was why he clung to this list of guidelines. But, as he thought about it, having some stupid list of dos and don'ts wasn't really giving them a fair shot. Even the non-serious physical relationships entailed some risk of fucking up. All things come with risks.

More so when that thing came after so much trauma. “Nathan?” Dealing with the ghost of Billy was tough enough, and he knew she was working through some self-blame about Nathan's death, but she made it seem like it would be deeper. “Okay, you gave me enough time to get ready. Lay it on me, what about Nathan?”

🎤🎶 —— Oh, the smile stayed intact. Just accompanied with a roll of her eyes as she sat back in her seat. "Still not hearing a no, so it stands." Crossing her arms, her smile softened at the blatant attempt to make her not feel as pathetic as she very much was feeling about herself. But now, a little bit less. The smile even growing more than before, she nodded. "Yup. It's a real gig. With real money and... It'll be at a cheap hotel, and yes, only a step above a dive bar, but... Better than begging for an hour from Clive at work when it's dead, so..." She nodded, "Yeah. Not a big break or anything, but worth it. So... What do you say?"

Mars did a frog blink, where one eye blinks before the other, as he mentally wrestled with the surging desire to say no out of pure spite. Because the odds were that he would tell her yes. Then she was going to be smug about it for however long during their trip to one of the big cities for her gig. Did he want to put himself through that? Was the slight annoyance a bigger deal than letting her go there alone? No, it wasn't. “Maybe not a big break, but you've gotta start somewhere, right? I'd say your first real gig is a sign you're going places.” And, well. “One I'll be there for.”

indie paranormal investigator & conspiracy believer set in the stranger things universe.

Yeah, that's not exactly the way that the saying goes, and Dottie gives him one raised eyebrow as a response, and rolls her eyes at him with a little tsk sound of her tongue before looking back down at his hand and trying to assess if she's gotten it cleaned well enough. She thinks so, and takes a wad of gauze pads to press gently on his knuckles to stop the bleeding. She can't say that she's particularly experienced with wound cleaning. Splinting sprained ankles and wrists from cheer stunts gone wrong, yes. But there aren't usually a lot of scraped knees or bloody hands from practicing in the gym. She thinks she's managing okay, though.

She hears what he's saying. And she sees his perspective. He isn't wrong, exactly. Maybe it doesn't bother her as much as him because she's used to it; not necessarily at school, but at home. Or maybe she just pretends it doesn't bother her because she likes it when people think she doesn't care what anyone says.

“I didn't change how you handled it, only decided how I did.” His voice had become softer now. Zero pride hung in his tone; he was rarely proud of his violent actions. When all was said and done, the rage had come faster and burned white hot. Now that it had dissipated, he was regretful to an extent. “Had I gotten into trouble, there would be no one to blame but myself, Dottie.”

“I do think that boundaries are important,” she agrees, giving him a little nod as she thinks that over. Too much could go wrong if there was no foundation of rules, and while she preferred to wing most things, she and Nathan had a good thing going when they had an outline of what was and wasn't acceptable to do. Considering what was going on here, she felt like rules would make her feel more comfortable. “I think perhaps we start with what we expect? What we're looking for?”

After all, Ally knew that she was the flight risk here between the two of them. He had already told her how she felt and she had been the one that had rejected him. She was sure that he probably had a million thoughts running through his mind right now and she couldn't blame him. This was brand new territory. That, and Ally wasn't sure yet might set her off at the end of the day. She still missed Billy something awful, and having to watch him die had been traumatizing.

“Personally, I don't really have a list for you.” Whatever he had imagined, they were already doing with the single exception of the physical component, and quite honestly, that wasn't a necessity. Would be nice. Admittedly, he was very curious about what she enjoyed, what she was good at. But he'd had plenty of purely physical relationships by now to know they were hollow and that, if he had to be patient to work towards something real, he was more than willing. “What I really need is to know your limits, what I shouldn't do until you tell me you're ready.”

Would have been bad if he had started feeling her up when she wasn't comfortable enough. Some found sexual contact to be a decent coping mechanism, which Mars did understand. Did she want to explore that? This was why they needed guidelines.

repost of a meme by moonpiehelps: mentions of panic attacks , vomiting , trauma , self harm , and distressing situations . Feel free to adjust as needed ! ♡ 

( 𝐑𝐔𝐁 ) ; one muse rubs the other’s back to comfort them while in a moment of distress.

( 𝐁𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐓 ) ; one muse grabs a bucket for the other who’s about to throw up. 

( 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐄 ) ; our muses share a bed so the other doesn’t have to be alone. 

( 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐑 ) ; one muse calls the other a term of endearment to comfort them. 

( 𝐇𝐔𝐆 ) ; one muse holds the other close while they open up / cry.

( 𝐀𝐈𝐃 ) ; one muse runs to the others aid after they were violently hurt. 

( 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 ) ; one muse calls sender late at night in tears and the other comes over to comfort them. 

( 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 ) ; one muse reaches out to the other after they’ve withdrawn from everyone. 

( 𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐂 ) ; one muse discovers the other during a panic attack. 

( 𝐍𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄 ) ; one muse takes care of the other while they’re sick.

( 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐃 ) ; one muse holds the other’s hand while they’re in pain or panicking. 

( 𝐂𝐔𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄 ) ; one muse offers to cuddle with the other to help them sleep.

( 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐅𝐈𝐃𝐄 ) ; one muse opens up to the other about a traumatic experience. 

( 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄 ) ; one muse guides the other through a breathing technique.

( 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 ) ; one muse comes to the other with an injury they’ve been trying to hide that’s beginning to worry them.

( 𝐊𝐈𝐒𝐒 ) ; one muse gently kisses the other while they’re crying.

( 𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄 ) ; one muse helps the other into a bath/shower after a traumatic event. or they bathe together.

( 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐁 ) ; our muses instinctively grab each other while they’re scared.

( 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐄 ) ; one muse gives the other a shoulder rub.

( 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃 ) ; one muse wipes blood off of the other.

( 𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐓 ) ; one muse shows up at the other’s doorstep in tears.

( 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 ) ; one muse has been missing and finally shows up, dirty and traumatized. the other helps clean them up and tries to get them to talk.

( 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐄 ) ; one muse wakes up the other after having a horrific nightmare.

( 𝐌𝐄𝐀𝐋 ) ; one muse makes the other a warm meal to make them feel better.

( 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐄 ) ; one muse has been slowly deteriorating mentally/physically, the other takes it upon themselves to make sure they’re taken care of.

( 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄 ) ; one muse takes the other’s face ( cheeks , chin ) when trying to comfort them. 

( 𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄 ) ; one muse lets the other stay over when their house gets too stressful.

( 𝐃𝐎𝐎𝐑 ) ; one muse sits outside the door to comfort the other who won’t let them in.

( 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 ) ; one muse stays over to make sure the other doesn’t hurt themselves.

( 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐊𝐄 ) ; one muse strokes the others hair.

( 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐔𝐌𝐀 ) ; our muses sit together after a traumatic experience. 

( 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 ) ; one muse helps ground the other ( bonus if you specify how ) 

( 𝐈𝐂𝐄 ) ; one muse holds an ice pack to the other’s injury.

( 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐏 ) ; our muses cry and hold each other after a traumatic experience. 

( 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 ) ; one muse strides up to the other and suddenly embraces them tightly after experiencing something distressing. 

( 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑 ) ; one muse calms the terrified other.