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[Eddie would have preferred the theatrics of the drama room, but he did his best to set up an imposing angle for his message. ]

I’m thinking a lot of us could use a chance to blow off some steam, hmm? Lots of work to do around here, and weird ass monsters to fight, but not a whole lot in the way of recreation.

Back home I ran a group called Hellfire Club. Led us in some of the most epic D&D campaigns Hawkins Indiana ever saw. And I was thinking…I could offer my services as Dungeon Master here if people were interested.

Beggars can’t be choosers and I know we have a lot of people who’ve never played, so- lucky you- I’ve decided to open up admission to first timers. Little bonus- anyone who joins gets a Hellfire Mk2 shirt of their very own.

[He shifts to show off the new design he’s printed, a proud smirk on his face.]

I’ll be at the diner this week for people to sell me on their characters. If it’s your first go, I’ll have sheets prepared and can help you fill them out.

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He grins happily, backing off but still staying as close as that elbow will let him, enjoying his teasing until it's suddenly turned on him.

He laughs in surprise and gives Steve another shove of his own. "Not the first time I've heard that, shockingly."

"Yeah, I bet. And still just stupidly likeable. I bet that's why people think you're like, Satan's best friend. Not the clothes or music. Nope. It's all that weird attraction."

Steve realizes what he said a second after he does and blushes just a bit. "Like a magnet, you know?" He makes his hands into two U-shapes and demonstrates magnetism complete with buzzing noises.

God, why's Harrington got to be so cute when he blushes? And why does Eddie have to enjoy provoking that blush so much when he knows Steve's strictly into the ladies?

"I could totally seduce Satan," Eddie agrees with a smirk and a teasing wink.

"I bet you could," Steve says in a voice that's just a shade lower and a shade more playful than normal. Which is fucking bizarre because that would be the voice he has when he's flirting. Which he's not, of course. And yet...

He leans back a little, surprised at himself and blushing just a little pinker. Maybe the conversation just felt like one he should flirt in? Maybe it was just muscle memory?

He clears his throat and pushes his hair back, out of his face.

"So. Uh. That's it? Character made?"

It really does sound like the voice Harrington uses with the girl. But obviously he's just playing along. They're both just playing...

Eddie likewise coughs and nods, rubbing at the bridge of his nose why he tries to will away the heat from his cheeks.

"Uh- yeah, pretty much. You can work up a backstory for him if you want, but you're pretty much set."

"A background..." Steve thinks but he's not as good at that sort of creativity. All he can come up with is an orphan who was a jerk and then decided not to be and protects people instead. Saying that outloud would be just inviting more teasing. It has to be something else.

"Your bard has one?"

Eddie nods, not that he gets to trot it out very often since he mostly plays Dungeon Master these days.

"He was part of this trope of entertainers who rob their customers- run cons, pickpocket, seduction- that sort of thing. But he falls in love with one of their marks. He warns them, and there's this big fight. People die on both sides, including his girl. The trope banished him, and now he travels alone, cynical and jaded, swearing he'll never love again. But then he falls in love in basically every campaign ever," he adds with a smirk.

"That's...really sad."

Steve likes the image of the cynic falling in love, but still. Poor bard.

"You should give the bard a new love at some point. It's gotta suck for him to fall in love with every campaign and then to leave them over and over again." Steve might just be taking this too seriously, but whatever. That was the point, right? "Sounds lonely."

"It's supposed to be. He's like a super tragic Shakespearian dude," Eddie defends.

"...Maybe some day," he allows with a small smirk, doubtful the bard will ever see action again to find said love, but maybe Steve was right. "You like a happily ever after, don't you? Not a tragedy guy?"

Edited 2023-05-11 21:49 (UTC)

"Real life is sad enough, isn't it?" Steve leans back in his seat, looking up at the ceiling. "Like, seriously. People are always breaking up or leaving or whatever. Why would you want to make the stuff you make up sad like that? Everyone needs a break."

Steve looks back at his character and his mouth twists a little.

"If you have the choice, sure. Happily ever after is the best. Unrealistic, but the best."

Ah. Eddie purses his lips for a moment. Steve's probably thinking about Wheeler...

He offers a sympathetic hum, and tries to coax a smile back out of Harrington by giving him a playful nudge. "...well who do you think the bard should end up with then? Help me craft his ultimate love story."

Steve glances over at Eddie and the corner of his lip turns up. He does think about Wheeler then, just not in the way Eddie might imagine.

"So...uh. Maybe the bard dude falls in love with this new girl in a town he comes to. And she seems great and all and he's ready to like, leave the group and settle down. But then she, like, decides she wants to go off and have adventures. Right? So she ups and leaves and he's all devastated, again. But then he gets a job at the tavern in town and meets some other cool people. And maybe he finds a new group to run around with. And on the adventures they find someone he falls for instead, right? Someone who doesn't want to leave and...you know."

Steve's cheeks go pink as he realizes he doesn't really know how to end this terrible story. He doesn't have an imagination for this sort of plotting and he hasn't experienced the happy ending he wants to write. The path ahead is covered in fog and all he can see is what he hopes is the light at the end.

Hopefully that's the sun and not an oncoming truck.

"Yeah. So. Happy ending, I guess. I don't know. I'm not good at this."

Expression softening part way through, Eddie thinks he understands where Steve draws all his inspiration from. The later half though...he tilts his head in consideration.

"No, it's good," he decides after a moment, "Very modern," he adds with a teasing smile, "Gotta lesson in there. That touch of heartbreak, but also uh...you know...maybe finding something that suits what he wants better. He's happy. The girl got her adventures..."

It is missing an ending...

Steve glances at Eddie, the snap to not patronize him on the tip of his tongue. But then Eddie keeps talking and he's not patronizing. He's teasing, sure, which is familiar and almost kind right now. Something to take the edge off of it all. And then he's re-framing it in a way that's way less pathetic.

Steve smiles and pushes Eddie's shoulder lightly. Just enough to maybe make him sway but nothing more.

"Knowing the Bard, he's gonna have someone else wrapped around his finger super fast." He puts his hands into the magnet U's again and buzzes as they clink together. "So everyone's gonna win."

"Oh totally," Eddie agrees with an easy grin, "Honestly, he more I think about it, he deserves a totally sappy romantic ending."

He fiddles idly with his papers, a bit shy.

"You know uh...it may come as a shock, but I've never really done the whole...serious relationship thing myself." He makes a self depreciating faux-shocked face and laughs, "Seriously though, uh...you know...it takes guts to put yourself out there like that. Guts my non fictional self tends to lack so..." He shrugs a shoulder, hoping his point is clear.

Steve smiles at that. A sappy, romantic ending? Yeah. That is pretty much the best outcome.

When Eddie confesses his secret though, his smile turns to open shock. "Wait. Wait, seriously?" Steve's whole body turns toward Eddie as though looking at him better would let him see where the lie undoubtedly was. "I'm not gonna go and start in on how you're a whole lot braver than you seem to think you are, but like. Really?"

Steve can't actually remember any girls on Eddie's arm at school. No memories of a date or anything he'd seen. No one even talked about someone dating the Freak. But Steve had just...assumed. There had to be someone, right?

"So like. You have had non-serious relationships, right? You're not..." He gestures vaguely with his hands. What he's trying to convey is anyone's guess.

"Seriously." Eddie doesn't look ashamed exactly, but does get a little bashful with Harrington looking at him like that.

"No-" he interrupts quickly, shaking his head, "No, I'm not- I've...I've been with people or whatever, just..."

"Just...never a real relationship."

Steve nods, quiet a moment. He looks down at his character and starts just fiddling with the corner of it.

"I didn't have many before Nancy. Not real ones. I dated around. Slept around. It was fun...but then Nancy came into the picture and..." Steve shrugs. "And then she left the picture. And I was trying to find someone else that made me feel like that, but Hawkins kinda sucks, it turns out. I don't know that you've been missing out on any winners."

"...You end up going after her again?" Eddie asks, remembering their talk in the woods. That was what love was supposed to look like. It doesn't occur to Eddie that maybe it's a different sort of love they share now than what he's thinking.

"Yeah, I kinda noticed," Eddie shares a grin with Steve, ducking his head, "I used to meet people in Indy sometimes. I'd drive out there for the weekend, get stupidly high and make some...not so safe choices, if I'm being totally honest. So maybe it's good I didn't really get many bites in Hawkins."

Steve just shakes his head. "Her and Jonathan are having trouble but... Me and her? Our ship sunk." That's the saying, right? "We weren't right for each other. I mean, I'll always love her. I think she was the first girl I ever really did love. But we want different things out of life. And, honestly..."

'Bullshit'.

"I don't think she ever really loved me. So. Yeah, no."

He stops fiddling with the paper and looks back at Eddie with a frown. "Wait. Wait, what do you mean 'not so safe choices'? Are there little Munsons running around Indy?"

Clearly, Eddie's not the person to try and lecture anyone else about love, and everything Steve says sounds reasonable enough, at least until he tries to say Wheeler never loved him. Admittedly, Eddie was a complete outsider to their relationship, but he's still damn sure Nancy loves him. Maybe they're not right for each other, but he knows what he saw on that boat.

He pales a little and laughs, shaking his head, "Christ, I hope not," he mutters, despite the chances of that being an absolute zero. At least any Munson's that are his. "Just uh...I dunno. Maybe not the safest people? Or the safest places?"

Steve has no idea what Eddie could possibly mean by that. "Are you messing around with like...biker gang girls? What do you mean 'not the safest people'? And were you hooking up on train tracks? What are you talking about?"

Steve looks like he's a second away from Mom Mode with hands on hips and all. If only he wasn't sitting down.

"If you mean you weren't using condoms, that's fucking stupid and I hope you know that."

Fuck. Eddie's backed himself into a bit of a corner without realizing, and he blinks as he tries to craft some kind of answer, cheeks hot as he nods. "...Something like that, yeah," he mumbles.

He does look properly ashamed there at least, and he sigh, "I know man. I know it was stupid." He wants to blame the drugs, but he knows he was just...impatient and dumb.

Steve feels honestly sick to his stomach at the idea of Eddie out there and being so reckless. He's spent a week with the guy being dead and having him alive again has been incredible. To know however the risks he'd taken? Steve watches the news. It's one of the stupidest gambles to take.

Steve pokes him hard in the side.

"I am finding that magic Billy dude and I am having him check you out head to toe to make sure you haven't got like Super Herpes or worse." He pokes him again, face stern. "Brain could be rotting away with syphilis right now. Actually would explain some things."

"Ow, hey," Eddie tries to swat him away with a pout.

"The doctor lady tested me for some stuff all ready," he mutters in his defense. More related to his tattoos than reckless sex acts, but still

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steve :(

He's fine

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