#Nancy: NO I DONT LIKE YOU. You were a dick back in highschool! You only got cool when you almost got ran over and had to barricade yourself

[ziracona]

So after the last reread of ILM, I realized that Kate outright referenced Stranger Things at one point. Which got me wondering how the Demogorgon showing up would go. I don't know which is better - the show being based on a 'true story' and the gang learning about it from Steve and Nancy, or the Entity just MAKING a demogorgon like it did the crows and everyone freaks the fuck out because O MY GOD ITS REAL???

Hadjskdksnek yeah I know I know, I should probably go back and change that. 🤣

When I wrote that chapter, it was before the Stranger Things chapter was announced, and it did not occur to me in a million years they’d make one. I don’t even think of Stranger Things as horror—it’s more like Mystery-Adventure than horror by far, and even if it had been, the other horror they adapted were all much older. ST is /still/ ongoing. So uh, I thought I was being careful with my name drops (like the only Horror I directly have a character reference is Friday the 13th, becuae since it already has its own DbD-esque game, it seemed pretty safe from property rights being sold), but uh, they still got me.

Didn’t occur to me that it’d be possible to not retcon that if I’d gone through to Nancy & Steve. I guess it’s always possible in the ILM world, Stranger Things could just be based on a true story/named after the IRL humans involved—though probably more like “urban legend,” since no way most people think the supernatural exists. That’s a fun thought though! I’ll think about that. It would be funny to have Nancy meet like, Dwight & Adam & be like “Oh. Sorry—I’m Nancy Wheeler.”

Dwight: “Nancy Wheeler...that...that’s weirdly familiar...”

Adam: “I think it’s the same name as the lead girl from Stranger Things.”

Nancy: “What?”

Adam: “Uh, sorry—it’s a tv show, based on those urban legends from the 80s about Hawkins Indi...” *sees the look of confusion & shock on her face*

Dwight: “Oh! Right. I didn’t see the show, but Kate’s mentioned—“ *sees too. Swallows hard* “Uh.” *vocie squeaks* “You wouldn’t...happen to be from the 1980s?”

Nancy, who didn’t know this was a mutiple choice answer question, about to cry: “Yes?”

Adam: “You didn’t... —there wasn’t really a lab of abominations from some—“

*Demogorgan shriek from the distance. Dwight & Adam freeze.*

Adam: “Oh no.”

Inner Dwight: please say ‘sike’

Dwight: :’-]