August!!! @atheneum-of-ardour Thank you so much for the ask!!! I'm not sure why it won't let me answer the actual ask but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
first she's got all this going on
storyline rambling below!
Pre series!
Alice is born in Hawkins but moves to NYC with Jim and Diane when she's 3 and Sara is born the next year. The whole family is happy and gets along pretty well! While Sara and Jim were very close, Alice felt equally close to both parents. Alice and Sara were very close— they loved reading together (Sara liked science while Alice liked history), making string bracelets, and playing.
Once Sara is diagnosed with cancer, Alice shuts down a bit— she doesn't understand why something like this would happen to her family and gets angry that there isn't anything that she can do to help (mind you, she's only 11 years old). After Sara's passing it all kinda goes downhill from there— her parents get divorced, her relationship with both Jim and Diane became incredibly strained, Jim starts to abuse alcohol and prescription meds, all that jazz. And then Jim moves back to Hawkins with Alice, who now spends summers and every other Christmas with her mom in NYC. Alice is pissed. Her life in is New York and now she's back in this middle of nowhere town and has to start a new school! Her relationship strains even more with her parents :) (She refers to going from Hawkins to NYC as “from a neglectful parent [Jim] to a berating one [Diane]")
Alice begins to act out in Hawkins in hopes to get her father's attention (she doesn't). Eventually her ass gets sent to detention and there's one other person there: Steve "The Hair" Harrington. Instantly she wants to die. Steve's friends have started to make fun of her for being poor/living in a trailer. …Wait… Steve is actually kinda funny? And nice when his friends aren't around? Hmmm…
Season 1!
Alice doesn't do much in the start of the season tbh, she sees Jonthan hanging up missing posters for Will and (poorly) attempts to comfort him, saying she knows what it's like to lose a sibling. Steve invites her to his party but she doesn't go (probably), stating she doesn't want to fifth wheel, and spends the night helping the search party look for Will. After Will's "body" is found, Alice attends the funeral but when she gets home she finds her dad tearing the place apart, looking for the bug the lab had placed in the trailer. Assuming he's drunk or high, Alice doesn't believe him and gets upset but quickly changes her mind when Jim finds the bug.
In this season, Alice works at Hunting & Camping (the store Nancy and Jonathan get their Demogorgon hunting items from and, when told their using the stuff to "hunt monsters", she kinda just goes with it— basically sticking with them for the rest of the season.
Alice and Jim's relationship gets better ever so slightly, but Alice has to leave to go spend Christmas with her mom.
Season 2!
Alice returns to Hawkins and eventually discovers Jim has been hiding El in the cabin, she originally upset with her dad for keeping the secret from her, she does understand why he did what he did. Jim and Alice's relationship begins to repair and Alice quickly becomes like a sister to El.
Steve invites Alice to Tina's Halloween party and she agrees to go as Carrie White. However, when she realizes the Jim hasn't come home yet, Alice skips the party, breaks Jim's "no leaving the cabin rule", and takes El trick or treating for the first time in her life. A few days later, Alice gets caught between Jim and El's fight, after Jim storms out, Alice helps El fix the cabin and tells her about Sara.
After Jim goes missing in the tunnels, Alice goes to the Byers' house to see if Joyce knows where he is— only to find the house covered in Will's drawings. Alice goes to the hospital with Will, Joyce, Mike, Bob, and Jim. The demodogs attack the hospital and Alice watches Bob die :(
They go back to the cabin and Alice translates Will's morse code, then they all split up again, leaving Alice with Steve and the kids. Yay! The Mind Flayer is defeated! Steve drops Dustin off at the school dance and Alice drops Jane off. Steve asks Alice out and the two begin to date.
Season 3!
Life is good! Jim is happy! Jane is happy! Alice is happy! She's got a boyfriend she really likes and his ice cream slinging coworker is pretty cute, too! … huh? What do you mean there are Russians under the mall? That's okay… just so long as she doesn't get kidnapped and tortured by them- huh? She did? Okay, well at least her dad is alive- what?
Life is bad :( Steve tells Alice that she should move in with him but she turns him down, saying she can't leave Jane alone.
Season 4!
(Dear god, Joyce gave her the Byers' bangs)
The Hopper-Byers family is still adjusting— Alice doesn't like California, she misses her friends back in Hawkins, she's going to some random community college she didn't want to go to. She did join the school’s roller derby team and takes her anger out on others tho! But it's spring break! While Mike visits Jane and Will in California, Alice heads back to Hawkins to see everyone else! Oops! She caught up with Steve, Robin, and Nancy trying to protect this random metal head she kinda remembers buying weed from six years ago? And now there's this weird guy possessing/killing people with guilt/unresolved trauma? Good thing she doesn't have any of that surrounding her dad's death… FUCK! Oh shit, actually we're all good and dad isn't dead anymore! Yay!
Season 5!
God, honestly? I have no clue but hey! Alice and Robin are dating now
Epilogue!
Also not sure what Alice is doing! When season 3 first came out, I toyed with the idea of Alice working in child services to help children have better lives! And she probably fosters kids when she gets older.
Thank you so much for the ask! You can probably tell where my old notes got deleted from my computer (rip) but it was a lot of fun talking about Alice!!
Ship(s): Enver Gortash x Tavtari (Mention of Astarion x Tav)
Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3
Summary: Tav confronts her weird ex-situationship after discovering the uncomfortable truth of her past
A/N: A snippet from a MUCH larger piece! Takes place during Act 3, the night after Gortash's coronation. Posting because my friends really liked it
(Divider by @saradika-graphics)
Gortash awakes with a familiar feeling of cool metal at his throat. The human’s eyes try to adapt to the darkness as he realizes the candles in the room had been snuffed out. But he doesn’t need to see to know who holds the dagger to his throat.
“Tavtari.”
“Gortash.”
“I take it your band of misfits don’t know you’re here?”
Had it not been for the blade on his neck, Gortash would have assumed Tavtari left as quietly as she came in. “They don’t.”
“I surmise you’re here to kill me? He feels the tip of the blade scratch his Adam's apple as he speaks.
“That privilege goes to Karlach.”
“Oh?” Gortash muses, “She’s forgiven you? Her and her bleeding heart— well… how much can her heart bleed if she doesn’t have one?”
Tav flicks her wrist and Gortash feels warm blood trickle down his neck, the cut isn’t big— no longer than his pinky and no deeper than a parchment cut. “Don’t.” Tavtari hisses.
“There’s that Urge.” Gortash grins, heart in his throat. There it is again, the lord hanging knowledge over Tav’s head yet again. She feels the dagger tremor in her hand for one moment, he knows her enough to know about her Urge. “Well if you’re not here to kill me, there are only so many reasons for one to sneak into another’s bedchambers at moondark.”
“Talk.” Tavtari grunts out the word, “I’m here to talk, Gortash.”
“You used to call me Enver.” He says it so quietly that the druid almost misses it. How desperately she wants to jump for that knowledge he holds, how desperately she wants— no how desperately she needs to know her past. But no Bhaalist would jump for a Banite.
“How am I supposed to find Orin if she can change her form so easily?” Tav asks.
Gortash hesitates before he speaks. “Sheath your blade and let us talk like the partners we once were.” There’s another moment of hesitation before Gortash feels pressure of the blade leave his neck. He says nothing as he moves from his bed to relight the candles Tav had blown out. The tiefling eyes the human cautiously as he reaches for his robe and wraps it around himself. Strange— how Tav can stand in full armor with a weapon in hand, while Gortash walks around in an evening robe and the latter feels less threatened. Tav wonders if their dynamic had always been like this.
She begrudgingly follows him into a study attached to his room.
“Come,” Gortash gestures to a plush chair across from the one he has claimed, “Sit and we’ll ‘talk’.”
Gortash looks at Tav and mentally notes the differences that occurred in the time he’d seen her last: her copper hair is longer and less wild. She’s thinner too, their cheeks somewhat hollowed. Gortash wonders if her toned muscles are still there under her leather armor. The spattering of freckles across her face are more pronounced, as if she had spent tendays in the sun before returning to Baldur’s Gate. But the most noticeable change is their eyes. Tav’s left eye hasn’t changed, the deep blue eye is like many tiefling eyes he had seen before— lacking a pupil but having a pitch black sclerae. It’s her right eye that has changed completely, most noticeably is the white sclera and black pupil. This new eye is blue as well, but it is a light blue, Gortash resists the urge to lean in closer to her and take a proper look, he can swear there's a bit of gold in the center. He desperately wants to ask what had happened to her, why she abandoned their plan… why she abandoned him. They both have questions for the other, but only one has answers.
Tav sits across from Gortash. “Orin.” Tav repeats, knife still in hand. She glances at the new cut on his neck and bites back a smile.
“Even horror has a home. Find her nest, slay her there. The Bhaal Temple, your old haunt, now reeks of her ichors. Hm. Do you even remember how to find it?” He teases.
The lie comes as quick and easy as a kill. “Yes.”
He knows it’s not the truth. “It’s a secret even to me. You’re resourceful— I trust you’ll sniff it out. If the trail goes cold, follow the bodies.”
“Surely your Steel Watch can handle Orin. Why do you need me?”
“Orin is… elusive, shall we say. The grip of the Steel Watch may be tight, but sand still slips through its fingers. Some conflicts are best resolved quietly.” After a moment he adds, “You’ve slipped past not only my Steel Watch but my personal guards completely unnoticed to get in here, that is, of course, you’ve left your signature carnage behind, hm?”
“I haven’t killed anyone… tonight.” Tav needs more answers, “Why is the crown failing?”
“It’s not.” Gortash huffs, “But it will not follow new orders until the Netherstones are united to give the command. When it finishes executing its current orders, it will be free to do as it wishes. That would be bad for everyone. Once it is freed from its shackles, I doubt we’ll be able to bring it under control again, Tavtari.”
“Tav.” The druid corrects. “It’s just Tav.”
“Is it now?” The artificer asks, “Interesting…”
Tav tries to ignore the bait but can’t. “How did we meet?” She regrets the question as soon as it slips out of her mouth.
Gortash raises an eyebrow, a smirk tugs at his own mouth, “Our Lords.” He answers simply, “Bane and Bhaal each came to us in our dreams and named us their chosen, as I said, we alone hatched and executed our plan. Here,” Gortash leans forward and pushes a book that is sitting on the desk towards her, on top of the book also rests a single sending stone, “Maybe some of this will refresh your memory on the specifics of our old—” his dark eyes glance to their blue lips “—relationship.” He stands up suddenly and Tav tightens her grip on her dagger. “Now,” He makes his way to a wine cabinet, his back to her, “‘Tav’, has your taste in wine gotten any better? Or do you still prefer that dreadful Syl-Pashan Sup?” He turns back around, in one hand he holds two wine glasses by their stems and in the other he holds a bottle of Daggerford clarry and a bottle of Syl-Pashan Sup by their necks, the latter had been untouched since Tavtari’s disappearance. He is met with an empty room. Just as quickly and quietly as Tav had broken in, they made their escape. Annoyance flares within Gortash for a moment until he notices Tavtari had taken the book on the table, along with the sending stone.
The newly appointed Archduke places the wine back in the cabinet and opts for a half empty bottle of Mermaid Whiskey instead, he pours himself two fingers worth of the alcohol and drinks. His eyes flicker to the door to his bedchamber, he pours himself another shot as he remembers the times the two spent together. He pours himself yet another shot as he remembers how Tavtari looked at that pale elf that was with her— how he had never seen that look on their face before, never mind be on the receiving end of that look. She looked at the elf with Urgeless love in her eyes. She only ever looked at Gortash with lust— whether it be carnal or blood or something else, but never love. Are those burdened by Urges able to even feel love? He pours himself another shot as he thinks about exactly how much Tavtari had changed. He pours himself another shot as he wonders how long Tavtari waited before she moved on to someone else. He pours himself another shot as he— the decorative blue bottle is empty.
Just a little gift for @frecklystars because she deserves it! (like I mentioned, sorry if something isn't lore accurate- I haven't seen the movie)
Ship: Keri/Officer K (Blade Runner 2049)
Word Count: ~900
K sighed as he walked through the door of his apartment and shrugged off his coat, it was raining… again. The third time it rained in the past week alone. Another day another Nexus-8 replicant to retire. Today had taken K all the way out to Lone Pine and back so it was an understatement to say K was tired. He kicked his shoes off and made his way to the kitchen and grabbed a glass from the cupboard, K’s eyes lingered on his girlfriend’s rainbow mug for a moment. K shook the frown off his face as he grabbed the open bottle of scotch, Keri would be back soon.
The Nexus-9 poured himself a glass, plopped two ice cubes, took a long sip, and sighed with relief as the alcohol burned the back of his throat. He replenished the missing sip before capping the scotch and made his way into the living room. K placed his glass on the coffee table, making sure to put in on the coaster Keri had gotten him. She had said the water rings on the table were ‘just as disastrous as Ken’s mojo dojo casa house’… whatever that meant. K walked over to his vintage record player and flipped through his extensive vinyl collection before deciding to play ‘Jazz’s Greatest Hits Vol. 4’. He sat on the couch with his glass in hand and his eyes closed as Nat King Cole’s voice crackled to life from the record player. K was content like that for a while, just relaxing on his couch as his mind drifted elsewhere.
He wasn’t sure how long he sat there for as the jazz filled his empty apartment before a new sound echoed through the air. K felt like he knew that sound better than his own voice, it was a magical sound- like the sound of glass wind chimes. The sound of his Keri. K jumped to his feet as a bright pink light formed in his room, the light shifted into the form of a star and then into his girlfriend.
“Keri!” K smiled for the first time that day.
“K!” Keri beamed, shaking glitter from her hair- a little unknown side effect of dimension hopping. “I missed you!” She held out her arms.
“I missed you so much.” K wrapped his arms around her and spun her, his smile growing as the brunette laughed. K placed Keri back on the ground and pulled her in for a kiss. “Are you hungry?” He asked after pulling away, “I have some ice cream in the freezer?”
“In a bit,” Keri pulled K in for another hug, “Wanna spend time with you.” Her voice was somewhat muffled from being pressed into K’s chest.
K smiled and kissed the top of her head, “Of course, baby. Get comfy, let me grab you some water, yeah?” Keri nodded and flopped down on the couch as K came back with a glass of water, again making sure to put it on the coaster. “How have you been, love?” K asked, sitting down next to his girlfriend.
Keri launched into tales of her inter dimensional travels since she had last seen K, she fiddled with the frills of her baby blue dress as she spoke. K listened happily, a love struck expression plastered across his face. As Keri eventually finished her stories, the record began to play its last song ‘Cheek To Cheek’ by Ella Fitzgerald. K stood up from the couch and held his hand out.
“Dance with me?” He asked.
Keri stood and took his hand, “Always.”
The pair grabbed opposite sides of the coffee table and moved it off to the side to give the couple a bigger dancing space. K took Keri’s hand again and twirled her into his arms, she giggled as she spun. The song was a bit faster than what they usually danced to and Keri couldn’t help but laugh as they tried to do a fake swing routine as Ella’s honey-sweet voice filled the air.
Eventually the trumpets playing came to an abrupt end as the song finished, the vinyl finally ending. Keri continued to laugh, her cheeks flushed pink, as she made her way over to the record player to pick out the next vinyl. She didn’t have to flip through very far, K always made sure to keep Keri’s favorite records at the front. She slipped the vinyl out of the sleeve and placed it down before ever so gently resting the needle on top. The girl made her way back over to K as a familiar tune surrounded the pair.
“When no-one else can understand me…” Elvis Presley’s singing floated in the apartment, “When everything I do is wrong… You give me hope and consolation…”
Keri draped her arms up over K’s shoulders and he instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist. He leaned down and kissed her again, he loved how the two fit together- like he was made for her and not made for retiring replicants. The two swayed back and forth to the music.
“I love you, Keri.” K murmured, resting his chin on her head.
Keri rested her head on his chest again, listening to the sound of the rain outside hitting the window, the song, and most importantly- the beating of K’s mechanical heart. “I love you too.”
