In the Vecna aftermath, the find themselves more touchy with each other - as if physically holding on to each other is their reminder that theyâre both still alive.
Steve goes on less and less dates until they eventually stop. And along with the end of them comes with the end of Steveâs complaints.
One night, Eddie wakes up from a nightmare and finds Steve holding him close to his chest, stroking his hair and keeping his breathing even so Eddie can match it. When his heart rate returns to a normal tempo, he looks up at Steve and smiles at him.
Steve kisses him.
He doesnât know if itâs because Steveâs likely half asleep or if heâs still trying to distract him from the nightmare, but Eddie kisses back.
And that really seals the deal that theyâre dating although⊠they never really talk about it or acknowledge it. They just become a bit more touchy and kiss often.
A little while after this first kiss, Steve and Eddie find themselves cuddling at the Wheelerâs house in the basement. All the other kids are doing some random shit, but then Eleven looks at the two of them and asks, âAre you two⊠dating?â
All the boys and Max mumble to her that sheâs not allowed to say that because no one really talks about it.
Steve calmly says, âNo, weâre just⊠close friends.â
Eddie heart breaks in that moment. He watches as all the kids look between the two confusedly, but they eventually nod and accept Steveâs answer.
Eddie doesnât. He shrugs off the arm Steve has around him and excuses himself. He casually makes his way up the Wheelerâs steps, but as soon as heâs through the door, heâs practically sprinting away.
He tries as hard as he can to stop the tears from falling, but then he remembers that Steve had driven him there - kissing him sweetly before going inside.
Eddie breaks down. He has his hand over his mouth in a fist, trying to hide his quivering lip and fight himself from choking out sobs.
He starts on his long walk back to his trailer when he hears footsteps racing behind him. Before he knows it, Steve has a hand on his shoulder and is turning to face him. âEddieâŠâ he says sounding as if the weight of the world is in that one name.
Eddie brushes his hand off and keeps walking. Heâs not even angry at Steve. Heâs angry at himself for thinking it was possible. That Steve Harrington would want someone like him.
âEddie!â Steve calls out, sounding anguished.
Eddie stops in his tracks and turns around. Steve rushes up to him and cups his face with both hands, thumbs swiping at the tears on his cheeks. Steve rests his forehead against Eddieâs and says, âIâm an idiot, okay? Iâm such a goddamn idiot.â
Eddie nearly laughs at the words. The confirmation that he and Steve are just friends. Nothing more. That it was all in his head. Steve Harrington had just accidentally led him on.
âI thought⊠if I never talked about it then I could never lose you, you know?â Steve says, hands trailing down to Eddieâs shoulders and squeezing. âSo I panicked back there, and I said the first excuse that came to mind before you could. I just⊠thought if we labeled it as anything more you would realize what you were getting into. Dating Steve Harrington, former asshole and now just a loser babysitter. I mean, who would want him?â
Eddie pulls back and says, âI would want him. More than anything. Because heâs so much more than that. Sweetheart, youâre the most selfless person Iâve ever met. And youâre the sole reason Iâve been able to cope with all this shit.â Eddie waves his hands around to emphasize the point. âAnd you,â Eddie says poking a finger into Steveâs chest, âhave some nerve thinking that I didnât want anything more. Hell, I didnât say anything because I thought we were already dating.â
Steve looks at Eddie and breaks out in a wide smile. âWe kind of are, arenât we?â
âHell yeah we are.â
Steve pulls Eddie in and wraps his arms around him. He squeezes him tightly and says, âIâm so sorry for being such an idiot back there, baby.â
Eddie pulls Steve away with his eyes wide. âCall me âbabyâ again, and youâll be completely forgiven,â he half jokes.
Steve laughs and says, âWell, baby, thereâs one thing I must ask you.â
âOh, youâre one hundred percent forgiven,â Eddie says with a wide smile. âWhatâs your question?â
Steve grabs Eddieâs hands and squeezes them. He asks, âWill you be my boyfriend?â
Eddie looks at him for a moment then replies, âWell, I donât know. I just never thought about you like thatâŠâ
Steve rolls his eyes and gently shoves Eddieâs shoulder.
Eddie beams and pulls Steve in, kissing him deeply. âYes, I will,â Eddie says against his lips before kissing him again.
Inside all the kids watch through the window. Mike says, âWell, it certainly looks like theyâre dating.â
âNo, Mike, all âclose friendsâ make out,â Max sarcastically states rolling her eyes.
âWell, we certainly donât do that,â Dustin says.
Lucas lightly hits him on the back of the head. âItâs called sarcasm, man.â
âWait, so theyâre actually dating?â Dustin asks.
Everyone in the group nods at him.
âEw ew ew ew ew, I need to wash my eyes with soap or something!â Dustin yells running back to the basement.
âI think itâs sweet,â Eleven says to Will with a smile.
âMe too,â Will agrees with Eleven and glances back outside.
After a few moments, Lucas speaks up, âOkay, we need to stop watching them make out, letâs go.â
The rest of the kids agree quickly and make their way back to the basement, giving the couple some privacy for once. Max may linger for a few seconds longer than everyone else, but she leaves when they break away to just hug each other tightly.
âClose friends, my ass,â Max says with a wide grin, racing back down the stairs.
Just gonna go off topic and mention how many times I, a cisgender woman, shave my upper lip because facial hair feels out of sync with my gender identity. I donât understand why cis people fail to see all the little ways we affirm our gender every day and fail to extrapolate how much more intense it is for trans people.
In this sonification of Perseus. the sound waves astronomers previously identified were extracted and made audible for the first time. The sound waves were extracted outward from the center. (source)
the thing about steddie that gets me is that itâs just these two characters that have so much love for other people, but so little for themselves.
we see eddie with the kids, giving his all to make them feel like they belong to hellfire, we see him with chrissy, putting on a little show so she doesnât feel threatened by him, we see him with dustin, roughhousing and telling him to never change (and that he loves him), we hear wayne talk about eddie lovingly, we see him DIE for a town that hates him. and then we see the eddie who talks down on himself, talking about how he always runs, âhunt the freak, right?â, and him blaming himself for chrissyâs death. we see him being shunned and hunted by the whole town for who he is and for something that he was a victim of.
we see steve with the kids, always the babysitter and yet so serious about his role, we see him with robin, accepting her with open arms and driving her to school probably every morning, we see him with nancy, his ex, who he still tries to protect with all he has. and then we see steve who calls himself stupid, who talks about how weird he was as a child, who says how horrible he is as a boyfriend, who blames himself for not being better at school. we see him being ostracized by his old friends for becoming a better person, getting beat up multiple times and no one ever properly acknowledging it, and we know his parents are basically never there.
just the thought of them finally giving each other the love they deserve is so beautiful to me.
not to be a nerd but itâs so crazy how he (Bernini) really did that from cold hard stoneâŠâŠ. truly a spectacle, truly breathtaking, an honor to behold
this is the one art form I genuinely just cannot get my brain to accept as real. Iâve watched sped-up videos of it being done, read about it, seen in-progress marble statues and I still just canât get it to sink in or stick. My mind doesnât want to believe that any person has ever been able to start with a big block and break little bits off of it until it looks like a finely detailed person. At some point it has no recognizable shape and they still know where and how deep they should take a chip out of it thatâll still be the right decision 50,000 fucking chips later?!?
This is actually really good advice so let me elaborate a bit: if you notice the tide is retreating very quickly at a very odd time of day, get as far away from water and as high up as you can. I live along the ocean and a long time ago we had a small tsunami and a relative of mine tells me how her father saw the tides retreating so he just picked her up and just ran, which probably saved their lives.
So yeah DONT LOOK FOR THE MISSING OCEAN just run away
Gentrification creates a stifling homogeneity in urban areas that makes it less suited for the everyday lives of the lower class and more suited towards the leisure and tourism of those with expendable income.
An old, decrepit laundromat gets replaced by an upscale bakery? And people are mad? Itâs not that the poor hate organic vegan cupcakes, itâs that most of us donât have a way to do laundry in our own home.
Run-down corner stores replaced by hand-made designer clothing boutiques? We donât hate your eco-fabric shawl, but I canât eat that for dinner after work like I could have a can of beans I grabbed from that corner store when I donât have time to take the bus to the real grocery store after work.
What gentrification brings in and of itself is not typically bad, itâs that gentrification brings institutions of leisure and pleasure and makes it so that the poor have to go farther out of their way for basic necessities. It turns low-income living spaces into local tourist attractions. It can even create food deserts by putting restaurants, grocery stores, etc. in that the majority of the lower class cannot afford.
Imagine if someone totally renovated your house and turned it into a mini theme park - they took away your sleeping space, where you prepare food, where you clean yourself and get ready for your day, and replaced it with things that will please people who are visiting, who have their own homes they can go back to, who are here not for their entire life but just as a distraction from their otherwise mundane existence. Itâs not that you hate theme parks, itâs not like youâve never been to a theme park and vow to never visit one again. Itâs just that you need to live! To survive! And the leisure of those who have more than you should not invalidate your existence.
I am glad this has made the rounds. Some people feel a dense misunderstanding or misinterpretation concerning gentrification, and I think it helps to hear a description/explanation of what gentrification is from those who are both affected by it and educated by the culture from which it hails. I and many others enjoy some of the delights of gentrification while simultaneously having their livelihoods threatened by it.Â
I think about this a lot as I bike home. I donât really need ANOTHER bougie (but wonderful!) coffee shop or gourmet candied nuts store - I need to buy a quart of milk or band-aids or scotch tape.
Every time I see a video of a cat that's just meowing constantly, I think about how they developed meowing exclusively as a way to communicate with humans.
Past kittenhood, I mean. Kittens meow for the same reason human babies cry; to tell their mom "I have needs and wants and I'm so so small and I hardly even know it!" But adult cats have other ways to communicate with each other. They only continue to meow because they realize it's the only part of their language that gets have anything close to the correct response from humans.
Anyway. Whenever I see videos like this where a human and cat are doing that sort of call-and-response routine, like-
*human talks at the cat like its a person*
meow
*human talks at cat like its a person*
meow
-so on and so forth, like I dunno, it just hits different somehow. Like it's not the same as dogs barking at humans, dogs barking is a "natural" dog instinct (to my knowledge), but adult meowing is a specifically domestic behavior. They developed it for us. They know we can't really understand them, the same way the mom in this video knows the cat can't understand her, but they meow at us anyway. And this cat's plaintive meows are it begging to be set free of the grooming torture, obviously, but sometimes it seems like it's just a call and response.
Like you'll see a video of a human talking at a cat, and the cat meows back between sentences, and the cat is like lying with its eyes half closed or sitting with its back turned to the human and it's meowing back anyway and you stop and think about it and realize that they're doing the same thing.
The cat and the human talking at each other when they don't need anything from each other, that's- that's just conversation. It's literally cross-species small talk, because both the cat and the human are engaging in it just for the sake of hearing a response back.
They can't understand each other at all, but they continue to communicate purely for the sake of communication. For the pleasure of each other's company. For the sake of socializing with each other. We don't even understand each other, and it's still small talk.
And you think about that and you remember again that adult cats without humans don't meow and it's just their human company comfort language and you cry.
