#back in my fuck the duffers era

[devondespresso]

realizing they probably didn't make eddies death bad so they could revive him but because for sone reason they think making deaths really stupid and nonsensical in-universe is the same as a death being sad and gut-punching because they did the same god damn thing to bob

like. bobs death was supposed to make us sad and feel like he was taken from us unfairly because thats the impact it has on joyce. but to do that they decided he should make it through the entire god-damned lab unscathed so he can stand there gawking at joyce like a dumbass just waiting around to get attacked by a demodog. he stands there with the only thing between him and the dogs is one flimsy ass door and he just loiters around taking his sweet time, living it up as a sitting duck.

want people to feel like a character was taken from them suddenly and unfairly? make the death smart. make something happen from the environment or the timing or something completely out if their control that fucking sucks but you know theres no way out. characters making stupid choices for the sole purpose of making the scripted thing happen is the worst possible option.

and its not like they don't know how to write good deaths. barb and chrissys deaths (as much as i miss my girls) were well written. i felt their absence and i missed them with the characters in universe but i never felt like their deaths were cheap. and i still desperately wish chrissy lived because i love her but i still appreciate her death scene because it was really well handled.

[thestobingirlie]

re: that compromise ask (diff anon but heyyy right there with u) i was literally JUST thinking abt smth similar, about how esp in future/reunion fics, it’s always steve crawling on his knees for forgiveness for how he used to be, and eddie like. heaving a big sigh and “going back on his principles” or whatever to forgive steve. and steve like having to prove he’s better now or whatever which like. fine sure yeah steve was a high school bully. he threw slurs around and he definitely objectified women (although come on it’s high school social strata everyone was objectifying everyone, ain’t none of those babies had enough brain cells yet to see other people as people, that’s just being fucking 16) and he was a bitch, not arguing there.

but like 1) he was fully a child, he was literally a teenager, mike is an asshole too and no one is arguing he can’t possibly grow up or be redeemed, or that he needs to repent to earn love? like it’s one thing in canon era fics where they’re all still growing up, but i haaaaate in future fics when steve is a whole grown ass adult man still expected to grovel for the sins of being 17,

and 2) canonically eddie is the judgmental one??? i mean steve literally apologized and made amends on screen but if that’s not enough look at just purely going off the way the kids interact with them! they’re completely comfortable with steve. yeah he rolls his eyes and huffs and complains about their “nerd shit” but he still drives them to dnd nights! he still does that lame ass handshake with dustin! he still listens to all the stuff they ramble about, and you know he does it every time even when we don’t see it on screen, because they’re totally comfortable doing it! no doubt, no question steve will listen and support them, even when he doesn’t understand. dustin comes to scoops knowing without a doubt that steve will drop everything to listen to him talk about camp, and be excited about it! steve doesn’t give a shit about science camp, but dustin does, and that’s enough for him! yeah dustin is excited to talk about suzie, because girls are common ground with steve, but steve doesn’t know he met suzie when he takes his break, he just wants to hear about how dustin’s nerd stuff was going! he doesn’t have to understand or relate, he just wants them to do the stuff that makes them happy, and they know that. they trust him to listen even if he doesn’t get it

but the way mike and dustin were so nervous to ask eddie to postpone hellfire, even after months of knowing him, shows that they don’t trust him to let them have interests outside of his understanding. and they shouldn’t! he’s proven that he veered so hard into “nonconformity” he just reinforced the same social boundaries he claims to hate. everything with eddie is “us v them,” and like! i get it! i think it’s a complicated dichotomy and makes for an interesting character! i’m an eddie stan first and a person second ok listen i love the man. but if anyone needs to beg on their knees for forgiveness for being a dick in high school, it’s the guy who ruined BOTH of lucas’ favorite activities in one fell swoop by projecting his own insecurities and fake social rivalry onto a literal child. (i’m still so mad he managed to force lucas to miss the campaign finale he’d worked so hard for AND made sure that none of his friends or family were there to watch him play basketball all at once i’m never over it. i’m frothing at the mouth. apologize to lucas or meet my blade)

but there’s this trend where people are like “oh man eddie’s such a good person for looking past king steve and loving steve anyway! he’s rehabbing the jock! he’s fixing him!” fuck you. fix your damn self. the duffers’ childish ass hatred of “non nerds” is sooooo pervasive in this fandom it’s so gross.

oh my god, this is just beautiful. i literally couldn’t put it any better.

i wish we had gotten to see eddie repent for what he did to lucas, because honestly, i still hold it against him.

what’s especially funny to me about it is that steve’s sins (in s4) were over two years ago, eddie’s were last week lmao. like, one of them needs to go around apologising and it’s not steve.

but yeah! the kids have an ease around steve that they don’t around eddie. classic example: all the kids go to steve in s3, not even pretending to be polite or actually ask, and just pound on the bell until he comes to let them through the back of scoops to watch a movie. they don’t worry about his reaction. steve could literally get fired doing this, but they know he’s going to do it, and feel so comfortable that he won’t have a bad reaction, that there isn’t any hesitation.

when asking eddie to postpone a game, mike and dustin are shaking in their little boots. they’re flinching and looking away, and trying not to actually ask. those aren’t kids in the presence of someone comforting!! this isn’t a guy they would think deserves steve begging on his knees. if eddie was being a prick about steve’s past for no reason other than to hold some moral superiority over him, the kids would get pissed off.

if anyone is getting rehabilitated in their relationship, it’s eddie, not steve!! because being a jock isn’t inherently bad, and being a nerd isn’t inherently good, no matter what the duffers may be trying to tell you.

[staceymcgillicuddy]

6 and 7 for writer asks please!

Yaaay thank you, I am loving these questions!

6. Are there any fics from others you reread all the time?

I'm not a big fic re-reader, outside of a few staples that I've returned to approximately one billion times. I tend to read once, preserve the moment in crystal in my mind, and then try to find something else that gives me that same exact feeling, only to end up realizing that no, that fic was its own brand of special uniqueness.

Since I'm currently balls deep in writing Hellcheer, I haven't been reading a lot of it, but there are a lot of fics on my TBR list for once I wrap Soul.

(I am also, truly, the worst at bookmarking, so I find myself semi-regularly asking, "oh, God, what WAS that fic?!")

That said, there are a few fics from back in the day that I have saved on my Dropbox because they don't even exist online anymore. A lot of Destiel (I know, I know), some Mulder/Scully stuff, some LOTR stuff, and some early Marvel stuff.

7. How many ideas for fics do you have right now?

Outside of the WIPs I've already posted about, I have a vague idea for a Hellcheer fix-it fic, but I also feel like there are so many good fix-its, I wouldn't be adding anything new to the conversation. I've thought about a role reversal as well, but not sure exactly how I'd want to approach it.

I have like ~10 ideas for adult reunion fics, mostly expanding on some of the holiday/Valentine's Day one-shots I wrote.

Oh, and there's still a Robin fic in me somewhere, but I know canon will fuck with whatever I do so I look forward to finding out how the Duffers will kill off whatever girlfriend she gets so I can write a world in which that girl doesn't die.

I have also had a Jopper-era high school fic rattling around my brain for years, but I don't know how to do it without altering canon so Jonathan and Will don't exist, which I cannot do.

AND I have a Chrissy/Eddie/Steve fic percolating, which will probably get as far as the Steve/Jonathan/Nancy fic I tried writing a few years back. I just love a solid OT3, dammit.

(Maybe if I could do some of them as one-shots instead of wanting to write 80k about them, life would be easier. Couldn't be me, tho.)

Fic Asks, Baybee

[geminimoonbeamx]

She’s Got Bette Davis Eyes

A/N: I'm going to be real; I miss Steve’s loser in a sailor uniform era. I’m not sure how I feel about the return of King Steve but well. Don't even get me started how much I hated the forced throat fucking that is the Duffers trying to make Stancy a thing again. Despite all that, I’m happy to have our baby boy back. 

Warnings: Smut. Road Head. Steve getting his shit verbally rocked. 

Pairings: Steve Harrington x Plus Size Reader

Summary: Steve Harrington has been on like, a hundred shitty dates this month alone. He really doesn't expect his date with you to be any different. 

The movie the two of you had gone to see was garbage. Zombiethon. Literally as horrible as it sounds, you’d pushed for that new Demi Moore flick but Steve had become a bit of a movie connoisseur since working at the Family Video.

A bit of a douche too, but then like. Hadn't he always been one?  You’re contemplating why you’d accepted the date at all while he pokes at his coke float with a straw. The diner is in full rage, loud enough that it drowns out any chance of conversation- 

Steve’s corny pick up lines are lost to the hustle and bustle, drowned out by the jukebox and old team mates coming up to pay homage to the former King of Hawkins High himself. 

You’d gotten ready for this. Like, really. Taken hours primping and priming. Your hair fell, practiced and shiny. Your lip gloss gleamed in the light. The denim skirt you wore was just on the right side of slutty. This worked for you, with guys- always. And still, it seemed like Steve wanted to be anywhere but sitting across the table from you- 

And you? Yeah, you’re taking that pretty personally. 

If he thinks he’s going to get a kiss at the door and a second date after this he’s dead wrong. 

You let him ramble, about his dumb job and his dumb hair and his weekend trip to Indianapolis a month ago. All the while smiling, nodding, giving a quip and taking the cues. 

You're more than happy when the check comes in the form of the older woman with a smokers cough. You're pulling out your purse before she’s even dropped it on the table. 

“No, no, no. I invited you out, It’s my treat-” he pats at his pockets. 

You ignore him, pulling the crisp twenty out of your wallet and handing it to the woman. Nora, her name tag reads. “Here you go, keep the change” 

She smiles at you, before turning sharp eyes to Steve, muttering about how all the real men died in Nam’.  

Your pounding pavement towards his car. Funny, all throughout high school you’d yearned to ride passenger in the maroon BMW, and now you weren't too sure you wanted to get in it at all. It wasn't that much of a walk, back you your house- why had you chosen these tall ass wedges?

“I had that tab, back there. You didn’t have to-” Steve starts the engine, sounding uneasy and unsure for the first time tonight and hah. Good. Misery loves company, and you’re the petty bitch that will enforce the fact. 

“You snooze you lose” 

“Uh-” He makes a face, confused as you play with his radio. If he wants to be a dick fine, but you refuse to do another awkward car ride filled with his shitty taste in music. Megadeth it is. 

Your house is just outside of town, at least a thirty minute ride. 

At five minutes in you decide what the hell. You turn the knob, metal fading  “Quick quesh, why did you ask me out if you’re obviously not interested in dating anyone?”

“What? That’s not true. I date, all the time-” 

“Ah, so just not interested in dating me. Like in particular” 

“No, I wouldn't have asked you out if I wasnt interested in you. Dating you. Dating anyone” 

“Can I share my theory with you? I mean I did let you explain the entire synopsis of Casablanca back there so like, my turn” You get comfortable in the leather seat, wiggling so that you're leaning bag against the door, directly facing him. He’s cute, that dumb little look on his face. The confused nod. 

“So you haven't really been with anyone since Nancy Wheeler- 

“Not true” 

“Yeah you’ve dated like half the girls in this town. But boyfriend, girlfriend? Not since Wheeler. Suspicious? Kind of” 

“It’s not suspicious, I just haven't been with anyone that I wanted to take that next step with” Steve defends himself, bristling a little bit. Fuck if your going to let this go. Who cares if he’s uncomfortable? This is the most fun you’ve had all night. 

“Sure. It’s okay, I’ve done the hung up on the ex thing too- like for years. I just wish you would’ve told me” you shrug 

“Told you what exactly?” 

“That you weren't on the market for anything other than…physical relationships” you pick your brain for the right words. 

His mouth gapes, open, snaps closed. Nose scrunches and well. “That's not something I really go around just advertising. Girls aren't into that” 

“Aren't they?”’

“Are you?” He rebuts, doubtful. Hopeful, but mostly doubtful.  

Bingo. Right on the money.

You bite your cheek, trying to contain your grin as you reach over the console, your hand on Steves denim clad thigh “I think as human beings, it’s kind of fucked up to deprive ourselves of touch. It’s one of the five main senses and all that. I mean, so you don't want to get married...that doesn't mean you can't get your dick wet” 

Steve hisses as your fingers drag, right over his fly. “Y/N”-

“Shh, just keep driving. Don't you wanna have a little fun?” you massage his bulge and reach over, because fuck it. You're in this deep already. Rejection would sting but this date had already been horrible. 

You aim for his stubbled cheek, but he turns his head last minute, his plump lips meeting yours. Fuck, this is the good stuff. The legendary stuff. High School mythology etched on the walls of the girls bathroom, whispered in reverence between friends. Steve tastes like mint, feels like sunshine. Uses the perfect amount of tongue. 

You pull away after a moment. “Eyes on the road, hot stuff”

Now why did he take you to the worst movie of all time, when the two of you could’ve been doing this all night? Boys are so stupid. Even pretty rich ones with good hair. 

You nose behind his ear, drag your lips down his throat as your fingers begin to work on his zipper, giggling when he swallows roughly. 

“All this fun’s gonna get us killed” 

“Come on, you're a great driver. Just focus, okay” you pull away, and his head leans, following without his permission. “Or do you want me to stop?” 

You spear your bottom lip between your teeth, staring at him with big bright eyes. The shadows of your eyelashes dancing in the passing streetlights. 

“That's killer, you know that? Not fair at all. If we end up in a ditch, it’s all your fault” He sighs, concedes, reaches down to lean his seat back. 

“You worry too much. But wouldn't that be kind of rad? Death by road head. We’d have the coolest gravestones ever” You whisper wetly into his ear, tugging on the lobe with your lips. 

He just shakes his head. 

Turns out a thirty minute drive is more then enough to make Steve Harrington turn into a puddle of goo. His chest heaves and he white knuckles the steering wheel as you work him over. 

It’s sloppy and crude, the squelching and gagging echoing around the car. His thighs shake and it takes everything to keep his eyes from crossing. He sneaks a peak, down at your bobbing head, at the way that your’e putting your all into it. Those little hurt sounds you keep making when the fat head catches the back of your throat, just right. He snaps his hips up, cruel. Needing to hear it just a little bit louder as you struggle. 

He can’t do this. 

“Y/N- fuck. Ease up-” 

You double down. 

Elm Drive 

He makes a wide swerve of a turn before stomping on the breaks. Your house is just down at the end of the block. 

When he comes , with a shout and his fistful of your hair, it's blinding. He feels like he’s been sucker punched in the gut, before his spine turns to liquid. 

He’s wrecked. 

And you? You’re fine. Just peachy as you pull off with a pop. Spit and cum smeared across the bottom of your face. He accepts the little peck you give him eagerly. 

You’re wiping your face clean, reapplying your lip gloss and dabbing at the corners of your teary, mascara smudged eyes as Steve tries to come back down to earth, his chest still heaving embarrassingly when you seem so…composed. 

He inches down the street, feeling a little high. He probably shouldn't be driving right now- 

When he pulls in front of your house, porch light on and quaint, you instantly grab your bag. Ready to go. 

“So I’ll um- call you? We should hang out again. Soon? Preferably” 

You throw your head back and laugh, almost meanly “That’s going to be a no from me. This was the worst date I’ve ever been on. Like ever. Lose my number, Harrington” 

You’re out of the car before he can wrap his head fully around what you’d said. No? What? The passenger door slams. 

He’s pretty sure you’re going to leave him high and dry- take the steps up to the porch and call it a night. Instead, you freeze, contemplating for a moment. Your eyes scan the street, peeled for any sign of your neighbors before your wiggling your thick thighs, reaching up under your skirt. 

“Something to think about. If you ever decide that you want to…take that next step” You grin leaning into his driver side window. Handing him the pair of baby blue panties. Still warm. Very much wet. 

Steve poor dick jumps. “I’ll take it into consideration” 

He can’t help but grin. That stupid look on his face the entire time he watches you walk the path, shut your front door behind you. 

Steve had taken out no less than a dozen girls in the last few months, everyone leaving him feeling more unsatisfied than the last. He looks at the blue lacy fabric in his hands, and thinks yeah. 

He’s pretty sure he owes you a second date. 

Welp. This was filthy. If you're interested in reading a part two of this, let me know! I think these two could be really fun. Also, food for thought. My ask box is open. 

[digestionsack]

Okay, so I’ve said this before (in Mike’s playlist analysis) and I will say it again and probably many times in the future:

The Duffers were ABSOLUTELY FUCKING CRAZY for putting “Breakdown” by Tom Petty on Will’s playlist. Like actually insane. I mean…those of you who have heard the song can back me up on this, right? The insanity? For those of you who haven’t heard the song (first of all, go listen to it, it’s an absolute banger and a classic), here are the lyrics:

“It's alright if you love me

It's alright if you don't

I'm not afraid of you running away

Honey, I get the feeling, you won't

There is no sense in pretending

Your eyes give you away

Something inside you is feeling like I do

We've said all there is to say

Baby

Breakdown, go ahead, give it to me

Breakdown, honey take me through the night

Breakdown, now I'm standing here, can you see?

Breakdown, it's alright

It's alright

It's alright

Breakdown, go ahead, give it to me

Breakdown, honey take me through the night

Breakdown, now I'm standing here, can you see?

Breakdown, it's alright

It's alright

It's alright”

Bro? BRO??????? Okay this was supposed to be a short post because I’m going to analyze Will’s playlist like I did with Mike’s but this song is so goddamn unhinged that I will probably end up analyzing it three times total (there was a short one in Mike’s playlist, one here, and one when I analyze Will’s playlist).

Time to break down the lyrics (lmao I seriously did not intend that pun):

“It's alright if you love me/It's alright if you don't/I'm not afraid of you running away/Honey, I get the feeling, you won't”—Damn, we jump right into the craziness. Right away I’m noticing “running away” in these lyrics and tying that back into Mike’s “running away” motif in his playlist. If you haven’t read my analysis on Mike’s Spotify playlist, the “running away” motif is something I noticed since there are so many songs on that playlist referencing running away (which I interpreted to mean a). Mike is getting hella Vecna’d next season and b). Mike is running away metaphorically—from feelings and societal pressures, most likely). Anyway, back to this song. Tom Petty sings about how he is not afraid of his love interest running away, which is pretty interesting in the context of S4 Byler, since Will thinks he has “ripped off the bandaid.” I wonder if S5 will provide us with a Melvan breakup and more Byler moments, which will make Will more confident about his feelings being returned. And having the feeling that the love interest will not be running away…this works not just physically (Smalltown Boy era revival when) but metaphorically as well.

“There is no sense in pretending/Your eyes give you away/Something inside you is feeling like I do/We've said all there is to say”—THE PLOT THICKENS, MY FRIENDS. THE PLOT FUCKING THICKENS. My eyes immediately go to the word “pretending,” which makes me think of all the times Mike has had his walls up this season, pretending to be someone he isn’t (the cool, straight, perfect boyfriend). And that line strings into “there’s no sense in pretending…that you don’t feel the way that you feel.” And there is yet MORE content in the next line—“your eyes give you away.” This season has placed symbolic meaning on eyes—“the windows of the soul.” Vecna’s last act of torture against his victims is destroying their eyes, so at that point we know to look for eye-centered metaphors. And, as many Bylers before me have pointed out, Mike is always covering or averting his eyes in his “happy couple” scenes with El—goofing around with the sensory deprivation goggles in the Surfer Boy Pizza scene being a prime example, as well as the airport scene where he kissed her while wearing sunglasses (umm???? You just got off a fucking plane Michael??? The fuck did you need sunglasses for???). However, with his scenes with Will and the heart-to-hearts, Mike’s eyes are completely uncovered (the only exception I can think of was during Will’s monologue when feelings were being disguised, and even then Mike spent most of that scene gazing at Will like he hung the stars. Observe):

And the third line…goddamn. If that isn’t basically confirmation, I don’t know what is. Now, I don’t actually think that Will is going to call Mike out directly on his romantic feelings (I think Will is definitely going to call out Mike for the nature of their relationship since he has done it in the past but not explicit romantic feelings), but these lines are so telling. And…the last line. I really like this line. It emphasizes that they have just that sort of relationship where they can communicate without speaking. But I also think that foreshadows that there will not be an emphasis on words with their relationship, rather on actions, emotions, and feelings. I especially like this because a). It parallels all the other canon couples who don’t need words to express love (especially Lumax, who expressed love through pictures in a scene where they literally didn’t talk), and b). The relationships that don’t quite work out as well are always centered around definitive words of love (St*ncy, Melvan).

“Baby/Breakdown, go ahead, give it to me/Breakdown, honey take me through the night/Breakdown, now I'm standing here, can you see?/Breakdown, it's alright”—100% supporting the “Mike has an emotional breakdown in S5 because he’s overwhelmed by societal pressures and his own mental health” agenda. This is furthered by the fact that “Make No Mistake” by Psyche is on Mike’s playlist, which is basically all about wanting to be free of emotional pressures and breaking down (the first lines are literally “got to drop this pressure”). So if songs like these are on Will’s and Mike’s playlists…Mike breaks down in front of Will? Maybe, given the context in which it’s used in “Breakdown,” about his romantic feelings? “Take me through the night” is really interesting to me, because I’ve seen a slight “night” motif in Mike’s playlist (ex: “Running in the Night”)—not as big a motif as the “running away” motif, but still. Could “night” be a metaphor for the Upside Down? Societal stigmas and pressures? Either way, it works here. Sort of like a “let’s do this together” thing—cute! “It’s alright” is saying to me that Will is going to end up understanding where Mike is coming from and being supportive (but of course he would be), and it’s reminding me of the song right after “Breakdown” on Will’s playlist: “Just What I Needed” by The Cars. In it, you see the lyrics “it doesn’t matter where you’ve been/as long as it was deep, yeah.” So hopefully, this means that Mike will explain to Will why he’s been acting so out of wack in S3-4 when in S2 he was basically glued to Will’s side and apologize and Will is going to understand and forgive him.

No more lyrics (it’s a song that’s decently sparse with lyrics), but I just want to point out something…this is the second to last song on Will’s playlist. I would say that has pretty big S5 implications. And the song after this…the last song…is “Just What I Needed” by The Cars. And the last song on El’s playlist…is “Jolene” by Dolly Parton (several Bylers have pointed this out already, so thank you to them!). If you haven’t heard those songs, go look at the lyrics and read them side-by-side. Make of that what you will.

Whew…that was a lot longer then I intended it to be—but I had a blast writing it. This might be one of my favorite songs on Will’s playlist given the lyrical implications for season 5 (that, and I just really love Tom Petty’s music)—and I haven’t even done a full analysis yet. Can’t wait to see what other crumbs are scattered around these playlists…

Until next time, folks!

[willbyersapologist]

st4 vol2 byler spoilers

Duffers I am on your walls for making my son Will the sad gay kid. this shit hurts me all the way down to my core. the fuck is wrong with you. anyway, Will main character era is BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER YALL IM SO FUCKING EXCITED.

[freyaswolf]

Ok, I need someone with knowledge of both the Stephen King Dark Tower world and Stranger Things to hear me out.

At the end of the last episode of ST, Lucas is reading from the book The Talisman, which is closely related to the Dark Tower Universe. There is a character death in that book that was a wretched tragedy, when I read it as a teenager I sobbed over that death. The character was sweet and wonderful, and I will never be over Wolf. Then my brain made the leap to Eddie Dean from the Dark Tower series, and how that one devastated me also. I couldn't read the words on the page I was crying so hard, pretty sure that book has water damage. That was how I felt about Eddie Munson from ST. And I wonder if that's why the Duffers did that, if it was a direct parallel to Eddie Dean. And if it was, it makes me want to punch them in their stupid faces even more. I still wasn't over Eddie Dean, and then they had to give me Eddie Munson and then yank him away as brutally? I fucking hate them. It's really not fair that those brats were born in 1984, and they continue to leverage my childhood against me for shock value in their precious little show. When it first came out, I loved it, the nostalgia stick hit me upside the head hard! It was cool being able to pick out all of the references both visually and the lines that were directly stolen from other shows and movies of that era. But for the love of God and all that's holy, give me back Eddie Munson. Haven't we suffered enough? No? Ok.

If you've stuck with me this far, thanks for listening to me ramble. Let me know if you have thoughts on this.

[drbobbimorse]

“Eddie has a black bandana, that means he’s gay!!!” I mean, he absolutely could be but that’s not what the bandana itself actually means ??? 

Handkerchief/hanky code was used predominantly by queer people — not just gay men, but bi people and lesbians too — in the BDSM and leather community for years to cruise and sexually advertise discreetly during the 70s and 80s. The different colors meant different things: orgies, shower sex, fist fucking, blow jobs, golden showers, etc. You name it, there’s a related color coded hanky for it. There is also the added indication of advertising if one is a top/dom or bottom/sub depending if the hanky is worn on the left or right side respectively. Black, specifically, back in the 70s and early 80s was code that one was into whipping or being whipped. In the modern era, to my knowledge, it changed to mean one is into S&M.

So, yes, just the presence of a hanky in Eddie’s left pocket could be an indication that he is a queer top/dom whose into whipping and/or S&M. The problem is that the hanky code was used for cruising, not as a constant identifying marker. Y’all really think Eddie is cruising in bumfuck Indiana where he’s already called a freak for liking metal? Nah. Ultimately, we just won’t know until the Duffers state it outright. Frankly, I'm not sure I'd trust them considering Noah Schapp has said that the Duffer’s intentionally “never really address it or blatantly say how Will is.” They prefer to leave it up to the audiences interpretation instead, which is so bizarre considering they had no problem with Robin coming out to Steve. And I'm just gonna say it: I don’t think the Duffers are clever enough to even know what the hanky code is. I think they’re too straight to know it. Eddie having one is just a part of his costume to them, since metalheads wore them part of their own aesthetic so he’s probably just emulating his heroes, and it likely means nothing more beyond that.

[clericbyers]

The funny thing about RR!St3 (and yes I'm still talking about this) is that its technically your au so if u don't like stuff about season 3-and maybe that's like everything lmao- than you can change it for this au!!! so what're some things you could change to flex on the duffers with ur beautiful Galaxy brain?

oh ur so right….oh man OH MAN the power in my hands right now…this is super long but i got so into it okay thank u…

First off, my real vision for RR!ST3 would not be too close to how ST3 went down; the RR!ST3 I originally hashed out was me trying to stick close to ST3 but as I said then, it was hard bc many of the issues in ST3 wouldn’t happen if Mike wasn’t obsessed with El and if we actually address the fact that these kids are dealing with serious trauma from the events of ST2. In RR!ST2, Mike would be the one dealing with being possessed, Will would have been at his side the entire time, Nancy and Mike would be a lot tighter thanks to RR!ST1 (like she’d be very overprotective because she almost lost her brother and he’s annoying yeah but she can’t imagine not having him in her life anymore). So when RR!ST2 ends with the Snowball, I can see Mike still dancing with El when she returns because he needs to thank her, she saved his life after all, but I really. just cannot see his level of attachment being enough to try to date her. Because in ST1 and at the beginning of ST2, Mike is wracked with guilt about losing her, about bonding with her and ultimately her being a sacrifice to save them. He doesn’t have that in RR!ST1 and RR!ST2, at least not to the same degree as ST1 and ST2. He didn’t have the time to bond to El and while I think he might have fleeting feelings for his savior (like I said, nightingale effect) and have some guilt about how she seemingly gave up her life to save everyone, especially him, I also think RR!ST2 Mike would be very attached to Will though given how Will trusted him and stuck by him despite all the horrors. Mike takes loyalty very seriously and Will being with Nancy and Karen (as she would be the “crazy” mom who lost her son in RR!ST1, but she’d enlist Joyce’s help since Ted wouldn’t really care so it would be power duo Joyren trying to figure out where Mike is) in the RR!ST2 shed scene would mean a lot to him.

Now, we have those 8 months between ST2 and ST3 where basically Mike and El entered a relationship in ‘85. In that time frame in the RR au, I would focus more on how the Party is getting over the trauma they faced during RR!ST2. Firstly, Mike is definitely not okay after being possessed by a demonic godly shadow force. He’s in therapy again maybe, back on medications, IDK what exactly but he is broken inside but trying his best to act like everything is normal and he wasn’t just possessed. I think he would try to cling onto his childhood as Will did in ST3, because Mike didn’t get to grow up normal since he got kidnapped and possessed by monsters. Will and El would bond a lot in those 8 months though, definitely becoming closer siblings and El having a crush on Mike can still a thing. Mike might not feel that same way for her but he’d be down for dating if just to feel normal again. Part of that may be to continue dampening how he feels for Will because he just wants to be a regular kid again and what he feels for his best friend is not at all natural in his mind. I like the idea of Mike and El getting together in ST3 at the mall scene so I’d stick with that. But I also feel like Mike would definitely also be spending half the time subconsciously trying to stay away from El because she’s also a reminder of the horrors he faced in the UD and with the Mind Flayer.

There would be a lot of Will, El, Mike moments too! Will is her brother of sorts in the RR au and Hopper is only ever really comfortable with Mike coming to visit when Will is over, too, even before Mike agrees to date El.

So okay, Episode 1 of RR!ST3 deals with the fact that all the kids are still dealing with some sort of trauma. Mike wakes up from a nightmare, uses his walkie talkie to contact Will, and Will comes over and sits in his room with him and they chat for a bit until Mike can fall back asleep. Will sits at the foot of Mike’s bed watching him sleep before he sneaks back out the house. Nancy catches him and thanks him for stopping by and then he catches Lucas outside too while making his way back home. Lucas casually mentions that he couldn’t sleep and they chat about how weird things have been when no one in Hawkins knows what happened last fall. In the early afternoon the next day, Will bikes over to Hopper’s cabin to hang out with El, they listen to music and doodle together for hours, just being great friends. El casually mentions that she might have a bit of a crush on Mike (who comes with Dustin, Lucas, and El to visit sometimes because fuck ST3 and isolating El from the Party). This could be a moment for Will to be like, “Oh, me, too.” and they can bond over liking Mike together (that’d be cute af!! and it would help Will feel more comfortable about how he feels toward Mike when he’s able to talk about it without persecution). She asks him if Mike likes him back and Will kinda just stops doodling.

“I don’t know,” he murmurs hoarsely. “He’s never said anything.”

El hums and takes out a purple crayon to color in the grass. “Do you know if he likes me?”

Will says he doesn’t know but that he’ll figure it out for her. Hopper won’t let her come with Will to the movie that night so he promises one night he’ll help sneak her out and then bikes over to the theater. We have the ST3 theater scene but it’s reversed of course, so it’s Mike who feels the Mind Flayer and Will who asks him if he’s okay. Mike isn’t as shy and flustered as Will was in ST3 though, he tries to brush Will off petulantly (as RR!ST3 Mike tries his best to act like the events of RR!ST2 aren’t affecting him as much as it is) but Will takes his hand and says, “It’s okay to not be okay.” and Mike kinda fidgets but squeezes his hand in turn before they both go back to watching the movie.

The next day when Dustin comes back, we have the Party going up to Cerebro but there would not be any El and Mike leaving like in ST3. Instead, Will and El are whispering between themselves but it’s not really much about anything. El is too shy to ask Mike if he wants to sit with her as they listen to Dustin call his girlfriend and Will just wants her to feel comfortable near Mike and keeps pestering for her to just sit next to him. Mike is irritated because he wanted to hang with Will more today and he’s bonding with El. His powers activate from his irritation and he’s blocking the radio signal for Dustin and Suzie’s call. When it starts getting late, the Party splits up, Will and El leaving first because of curfew (a real one not the lie El told in ST3). Lucas and Max leave next and Mike is left solo with Dustin.

“I know that Will and El aren’t together, but god, I feel so childish being the single one out.” Mike complains as a chill breeze washes over the two of them.

Dustin hums distractedly, still trying to work out why Cerebro isn’t picking up Suzie’s channel. It takes a moment for Mike’s words to sink in and then he perks. “You know, El likes you.”

“She what?” Mike blurts, giving Dustin a look. “No, she doesn’t. She can’t.”

“Uh, but she can and she does.” Dustin turns a random knob to a different frequency. “It’s pretty obvious; she was sending you heart eyes this entire time if your oblivious ass would have realized.”

Mike isn’t sure how to feel about it. He’s always seen El as Will’s sister, especially with Hopper attempting (and kinda failing) at dating Joyce. Even when they danced at Snowball, it was a thing of gratitude, of joy, of acknowledging that she hadn’t died and he was happy about that. But, El actually liking him? “What am I supposed to do about that?”

“Do you like her?”

Mike scrunches his nose. He feels…something toward her but he’s not really sure what it is. It’s not the same way he feels toward Nancy but it’s not what he felt toward Max either. And it’s definitely not what he feels toward Will, but he doesn’t want to think about that right now. He wants to feel normal. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, if it’s not a solid no, then I’d say go for it.” Dustin adjusts his hat and leans back with a sigh. “She’s cute and I think this is the first time a cute girl has ever liked your nerdy ass.”

“Shut up,” laughs Mike and he nudges his friend who grins in turn. He looks up at the sky and sighs. “I should probably get back home before my mom goes nuts. Talk to you later, yeah?”

“I’m leaving, too,” he sighs as he stands up. “I don’t know why this isn’t working. Maybe the clouds are too overcast.”

Mike shrugs and flicks at the radio’s antenna. It buzzes erratically, static blasting through Dustin’s headphones and then suddenly there’s a voice coming through the noise. It’s a blend of things, like the receiver is caught between two frequencies. One is Suzie, the other is some spoken code (in English because the random inclusion of the Russians works for Red Scare era / anti-Russia 80′s America but like…it had no set up so I wouldn’t use it for RR!ST3) that neither Mike nor Dustin can understand. Dustin tries to fix the frequency channels to focus on Suzie, but he looses her and the input only focuses on the frequency the code is on. Mike touches the antenna again, holding on this time around, and he can literally feel the electric currents coursing through him, something sharper than a tickle but not as harsh as actual electrocution. The dials on the receiver interface start wavering about randomly and crazily until Mike lets go and then there’s only static again.

“What the,” Dustin mutters, bending down to check how Cerebro is working. “What did you do?”

Mike stares down at his hands, a panic attack on the edge of his senses because, seriously, what the hell was that? First having flashbacks in the theater and feeling that shocking tingling sensation on their way up the hill, now this? “I…I don’t know.”

Dustin taps at a dial and frowns. “Touch it again. Like hold onto it as you did earlier.” Mike does as told and the dials go nuts again. “Mike…do you…have you had any issues near electrical appliances recently?”

Mike scowls and tries to remember if anything odd has happened recently. “No? Not really. Sometimes the radio in my mom’s car doesn’t work and the TV gets a little staticy but that’s normal. Oh, and we had flickering lights out at the cabin when Will, Lucas, and I visited but it’s a cabin in the woods so what do you expect.”

Dustin bites at his bottom lip. “And this only happens when you’re around?”

“I, uh,” Mike grabs at his hair, “No, no, it doesn’t. It doesn’t. It can’t…I’m not, what…I thought that was the Upside Down only.”

“What do you mean?”

“I could touch the lights and the TV when I was in the Upside Down version of the basement. And when I touched them, everything glowed. Kind of like casting Daylight in D&D.” Mike struggles to find his breath; he never really talks about what it was like in the Upside Down. “And…and I knew, I knew where the demogorgon was before I should have. Like innate. And the dead people…”

“Detect Evil?” Dustin suggests, cocking his head to the side. “Mike, do you think any of that stuck with you here?”

[ So basically, the equivalent of “magic” in D&D is electricity in the real world / the Upside Down since electricity and tech is kinda like modern magic, and all of Mike’s powers in the Upside Down are, in theory, paladin spells. He couldn’t control which lights flickered on like Will did in ST1 but he can turn them on and he can create a beacon, along with talking to the dead and having an innate circle of protection around him (a magic circle as paladins can have!) ]

Mike goes back home totally freaked out and refusing to believe he has “powers” because his time in the UD felt like such a nightmare anyway. He just wanted to survive, he didn’t ask for this, he didn’t ask for the Mind Flayer to possess him and use his body to kill people, to almost destroy Hawkins in the process. And that night, Mike decides he absolutely cannot let these possible powers do anything or mean anything because he’s normal, he’s a normal 14-year-old boy who is absolutely not crushing on his very male best friend, no, he’s gonna get a girlfriend, and hang out at the mall like kids do over the summer, and everything is going to be fine.

The next day, Will doesn’t go over to El’s place to hang out, Mike picks up the phone and says a dumb lie about Will being busy to try to get out of it. (“Friends don’t lie,” says El afterwards. “But brothers do.” snorts Max, “All. The. Time.”) He’s frustrated by El wanting to spend time with Will one-on-one when he’s trying to get the og4 Party members together for some normal hangout time playing D&D because, again, Mike here is the one trying to cling onto his childhood, even more now that he might have “powers”. They play D&D with Mike as DM and it all goes well until Karen comes downstairs asking about magnets and Mike internally freaks out. He’s been feeling like someone is watching him for a while now (hint: El when spying on the boys in the Void) and now his mom is talking about something that could very well be his powers working. Dustin knows and can actually see it, so he suggests everyone should get some fresh air and hang out at the mall. The Party goes out shopping, they hang out at Scoops Ahoy and Mike and Dustin share their story about the radio last night but purposefully leave out details about what Mike did with the antenna. Will feels guilty for lying so he’s trying to find some new clothes so El isn’t always wearing Hopper’s hand-me-downs, and they run into Max and El outside.

“Well, well, well,” Max huffs as she crosses her arms. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

Will is worried because El leaving the house and being at the mall of all places would definitely make Hopper upset. “Are you okay?” he asks her, careful not to sound too overbearing. “Does Hopper know you’re here?”

El shrugs. “I told him I was seeing Max. And I am.” She turns to Mike. “You said Will couldn’t come over yet you are shopping. Why did you lie?”

Mike, who has spent practically the whole time at the mall on pins and needles, is really not in the mood for being questioned like this. “It just came out. I wanted to hang with the boys, okay? Just us. Like old days.”

El frowns. “Do you not like me?”

“No! No, I really like you!” Mike softens up and gives her a smile. “Honest; friends don’t lie, right? I’m sorry I lied to you. Today’s been…weird.” Dustin huffs at that. “Don’t worry about it though, I genuinely like you.”

And Mike doesn’t mean it that way–he had just said ‘friends don’t lie’ because he really does see her as a friend–but El takes it that way, and she grins widely, blushing as she ducks her head. “I like you, too, Mike.”

Will didn’t even think Mike liked El that way but now that it’s spoken in front of him, he can feel his heart breaking just a bit because any chance he thought he had is gone in his mind. El steps into Mike’s space and he blinks a couple times. “I want to go out with you.”

Dustin gasps, Lucas covers his mouth, Will tries his best not to look dejected, and Max whoops at her side. Mike turns to Will, who is staring at his feet, and then looks back at El. (A parallel to Snowball when Will looked at Mike for approval before going to dance with Zombie Boy girl.) Mike told himself he was gonna get a girlfriend and be normal, right? Ignore whatever happens in his chest when Will smiles at him. Ignore all of that and his stupid powers and be normal. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. Let’s go out.”

So the Party stays at the mall a little longer and Mike and El hang out together and get ice cream at Scoops’ Ahoy, which is amusing to Steve and Robin both. At the end, they go back to the Wheelers and El has to go back to the cabin but Mike is kind of in a daze because wow, he just got a girlfriend for the first time and went on a date with her. Dustin keeps teasing him, Lucas is cackling and making kissing jokes, but Will…Will is oddly silent at first. They get back on the campaign but no one can really concentrate and Will starts getting concerned about El and how she was out and about without Hopper’s knowledge. Mike is even more frustrated now because he thought things were going to start getting normal now, but it just seems to be falling apart. Will won’t even concentrate on the campaign, Dustin is horrible at trying to be subtle about if Mike’s powers are activating, and Lucas is complaining with Will about how Max and El are hanging out.

Mike lashes out and storms outside, where Will goes after him. “Mike, I’m sorry, it’s a really good campaign,” Will starts with a hand to Mike’s shoulder, “but I’m worried about El and I just…I can’t concentrate right now. We can play it tomorrow, I promise.”

Mike yanks himself away from Will. “Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, it’s always tomorrow! I said ‘see you tomorrow’ before and then I never did! Tomorrow may never fucking come! But oh, that doesn’t matter, huh? Tomorrow always comes for you. Tomorrow is always gonna be better.”

“Mike,”

“No!” he yells and lightening crackles in the distance. “No, you don’t get to say anything! You keep spending time with El, forgetting about all of us! I’m her boyfriend now and I’m not even this obsessed with her whereabouts.” He waves at Will, who scowls. “She’s not even really your sister and you’re letting her just ruining the party like this? And for what? So you can have a fake younger sister to hole up in her room all day?”

Will’s nostrils flare. “El is my sister whether you like it or not!” He snaps back with irritation. “It’s not my fault you don’t like El!”

Mike pauses, eyes widening just a fraction as his breath visibly hitches. No one was supposed to know that he wasn’t even sure how he felt…Dustin himself had come to the conclusion that Mike knew he liked El all along. Will though wants to take it back immediately. Taking out his anger onto Mike isn’t fair at all and just because Mike suddenly has a girlfriend doesn’t mean he should try to accuse Mike of not liking her. But he can’t help but question either way because Mike barely alluded to seeing her that way anyway.

“Look, I’m…I’m sorry, that came out wrong. So wrong.” He steps toward Mike, who tenses up more. “I know you like El, okay? I know you care about her. I care about her, too, just differently. She helped save you and the Party, how can I not care? That type of care has been with me for months. I can’t shut that off. I’m sorry.”

Mike’s breathing is getting denser and his vision is getting blurry because now he knows. Now he knows how he feels and he really fucked up saying yes to dating El. He doesn’t like her like Nancy and he doesn’t like her like Max either. He especially doesn’t like her like a boyfriend. “I like El like how you like her.”

“Mike?” Will’s voice is soft and shaking a little and Mike feels like throwing up.

“El saved me,” he whispers, “She saved me and I like her for that. I do. But she’s not…”

“She’s not what?”

Mike is crying now, angry tears dripping down his face like the rain as his voice crackles like the thunder. “She’s not you! I thought she would be enough and maybe I was wrong for it but it hasn’t even been a full day and I already know! I already know I don’t like her like that because I like you!”

There’s nothing but the patter of rain and Mike’s heavy breathing, and Mike can already feel his heart breaking because he spent so long trying to deny this and now he blurted it out in the midst of an argument like a dumbass and now Will is going to hate him. Hate him for not being normal, hate Mike for being what Lonnie always said he was. He’s crying still, hands shaking at his side as the tears continue to spill.

Will looks up at him with widened eyes and Mike can’t take it any longer. He can’t face the inevitable rejection right now. “I need to go.”

“Mike, wait, no! Mike!” Will rushes toward him but Mike’s already on his bike and riding through the rain. “Mike! Mike, come back!”

When Mike doesn’t turn back, Will rushes downstairs, tears streaming down his face as well and he can barely get his words out. “We need to find Mike, we need to find him now!”

“Will, what happened?” Lucas asks but Will grabs his jacket instead of replying.

“We need to go, now.” the brunette is shaking and Dustin puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Seriously, Will, what happened? Is he okay? Is he hurt?”

“Yes, yes, oh my god,” Will collapses on the stairs before he can finish climbing them. “Oh my god, he confessed to me.”

“Confessed what? His powers?”

Will blinks a few times and looks up at Dustin as he rubs at his runny nose. “His what? Powers?”

Dustin freezes. “Oh. I, uh, I thought…oh…oh. Mike likes you?”

Will waves a passing hand. “Pause, what is this about Mike’s powers?”

Lucas speaks up with irritation. “I thought you said we need to go!”

So all the boys get on their bikes and ride toward the Byers house since that’s where Mike would go when his nightmares got bad enough and it’s a safe place for him outside of the basement. Dustin explains what Mike had done with Cerbero and how they caught this code that he had been sort of hashing out with Steve and Robin when they went to the mall. No one is home at the Byers residence (Joyce and Karen are out with Hopper doing their whole side storyline there) and Will starts to freak out more.

“Where would he be, where would he be?”

Lucas crosses his arms. “Maybe the cabin? That’s where his girlfriend is after all.”

And that’s not where Mike is, he’s actually with Steve and Robin at the mall given he feels he’d be better off with someone who understands the UD/MF mess (Steve) and someone who doesn’t know the Party dynamics (Robin). He’s just about to tell Robin about his confession to Will when he feels the Mind Flayer and knows that he’s back.

The rest of the season is kinda…the same ish but also not?? But so I don’t write out the whole damn thing now lmao here are the pointers:

El and Mike are still trying to be girlfriend and boyfriend when they reunite at the cabin (Scoops Troop is a thing but it’s not tied to the Russian bs so they aren’t at the mall the entire time) but Mike is also really uncomfortable with El’s advances though he tries not to act like it.

Mike avoids Will as best he can even though Will keeps trying to get one-on-one time with Mike to confess that he likes him back

Jonathan and Nancy team up at the cabin too with news about the exploding rats (the MF’s attempt to possess non humans that went wrong) and Mike speaks up about how he might have powers himself

El tries to teach him how to go into the Void (which would be like a prayer for him) but when he does so, he ends up running into the Mind Flayer and find out that it’s after him and is willing to kill all his friends to get to him

Mike and El both pull out of the Void together gasping and crying and Will is immediately at Mike’s side as Max rushes to El. “He’s going to kill us,” Mike sobs shakily, “He’s going to kill us all.”

El gets attacked by the Mind Flayer (not Meat Flayer) because it was coming for Mike and she intercepted the transmission using her mind

At the hospital Mike breaks up with El (instead of how in ST3 they became friends again), and she’s a little hurt but understanding when he confesses that he likes someone more than her and doesn’t want to hurt her by lying to her constantly when dating her

Will finally gets Mike to himself here and is about to confess but then Mike feels the Mind Flayer (his innate sense evil power) and it’s possessed someone. He confronts it, helps save Nancy from the shapeshifting demogorgon attacking her, and banishes it from this dimension, only to pass out from the effort

El takes over with her powers and with Mike’s help, accesses the radio to find the channel that Dustin and Mike had found before. She discovers that someone is trying to open the gate again under the mall

At the supermarket, Will and Mike finally get to talk and Will confesses that he likes Mike, too. “Blank makes you crazy, right?” Mike chuckles as he takes Will’s hand in his own. He’s not willing to say love yet even if he knows it’s true. He knows that Will understands him though. Will always does.

“Yeah,” the boy replies sweetly, “blank makes you crazy.”

Cue an almost kiss before Lucas and Dustin come around with the fireworks and they all get over to the mall

Big battle against the Mind Flayer and the people it possessed. Instead of a giant gory meat machine, it possesses people in Hawkins like it did Mike in RR!ST2 and uses them to shapeshift them into individual monsters. So the Party is attacked by a horde of demogorgons and demodogs!!

The fireworks help a lot as Lucas suggested, and Mike and El work together as superpowered besties to banish the Mind Flayer from all the neighbors. Some die in the process (because it’s just, brutal and violent and horrible) and Mike gets temporarily repossessed in the battle but he’s more leveled up now and understands how this works, so he can banish the MF from him (a level 4 paladin spell might I add!) as much as El used her powers to take out the piece of the meat machine in her leg in ST3

Hopper closes the gate but not in enough time (we need him in the Upside Down for RR!ST4) and then the Mind Flayer retreats, but it kills all the people it had possessed in the process, which only wrecks the kids with guilt for being unable to save everyone like they almost did

This also frightens Mike who has been possessed by the Mind Flayer because it means his connection is still strong enough that the Mind Flayer could kill him instantly too (but it won’t bc Mike and El’s powers are too strong and it could possibly kill itself trying to kill them through that connection)

At the end there’s no one really moving away. El has lost her powers, Mike’s are nearly depleted / he doesn’t know how to use them without El’s help. Everyone is mourning Hopper and with El and Mike unable to use their powers, they can’t go into the Void to see that Hopper’s actually alive.

uhhh the epilogue is the first day of high school and the Party are hopping off their bikes and chatting about something nonsensical. Lucas and Max are holding hands, Dustin is waving his arms about wildly as he explains his latest science project, and Mike and Will are standing close together, just enough to brush their fingers together. (El is homeschooled since she needs to catch up on her education)

“You okay?” Will asks quietly as they stand off to the side away from the bustling crowds. “It’s okay to not be okay.”

“I know,” Mike grins down at his boyfriend, which is still so blush inducing to think about, so he blushes. “But, I’m fine. I’ve got you right beside me so I’m definitely okay.”

[roseate7]

(just know that this isn't me at all saying 'calm down' or how to feel because holy shit, everyone deserves to feel some kind of fuckin way right now)

So there's a reason why I'll start off with this, I promise:

One of my concerns right now is that Gudbranson not bring any dirty ugly hits to a team that has taken care to try and clean that from the team since Matt Cooke. Sidney Crosby fights his own fights. Evgeni Malkin fights his own fights. Modern enforcers - and they hardly deserve the term - cause nothing but chaos and far too much damage.

The Pens don't need big hulking guys who punch hard and take penalties harder. They need defense that is quick with great vision. Which they have, but this season (and honestly last season as well) has seen all of them out injured too long to enjoy them. In their place there's been a rotating door of Rutherford choices who he only ends up shipping right back out again. The only choice he's held hard on is his worst one.

And that's where I'm going with this: the greatest enemy to the Pens is Jim Rutherford and there is absolutely no hiding or 'don't be dramatic' hand-waiving to be done anymore. Every failure this team has experienced since last season is sat squarely at his front door. The Pens as a team are not perfect but they are resilient and resourceful and have a core that's won multiple Cups together. Losses of course happen to this team sometimes but not the outright failures. The failures are in management.

But Jim is a rich old white hockey duffer, the most dangerous breed in the modern NHL. They control just about everything, they belong to a club that look out for each other above all else and they will honestly die without ever having to face consequences for their actions. You know how much I big up what Brendan Shanahan has been doing for hockey? He's considered a greenhorn. He's fifty years old, has a winning legacy that stretches throughout his entire playing career, and he's a  modern guy who can speak the language of the ancients. Yet he's still considered the young buck threatening the good old ways of hockey. We've literally got to fucking wait out the natural working-lives of guys like Rutherford to see them gone and proceed with a modern hockey that is more about playing hockey than the goonery seen from Philly last weekend that squeaked them a "win". A team like the Pens whose current dynasty has worked so hard to be more about skill and play than goons and enforcers are hamstrung by management that doesn't have the modern hockey sensibility to understand that approach and effectively keeps working against it with his trades.

As far as what this season still holds for the Pens, I'm not being remotely overly-optimistic when I say it ain't over til it's over.

- this season has been fucking chaotic across the league - every time a team (besides TBL) thinks they're up and in the clear, either a humiliating loss to a low-ranked team or a losing streak has them sliding face-first on concrete

- the superstars throughout the league are not all having their best seasons, so slumps for guys like Evgeni Malkin are far from isolated to the Pens and not all of the other guys come out of it ready to save entire games like Malkin has

- on the one hand that chaos is all a great sign of cap salary era truly coming into it's own by spreading talent more evenly across teams, but on the other it's made for extremely fraught fans on every team (except TBL)

- TBL are a juggernaut to be sure, but nip out a couple key players with injuries at this stage and honestly? shit could fall apart even for them - dented confidence was their achilles heel last year and this year's losses have proven that issue remains (which isn't unusual for consistently strong teams since getting used to wins makes losses sting all the more)

- the Pens have kept TBL on the run the three times they've met! and with no lucky breaks! quite the damn opposite considering that Jon Cooper cited how few errors TBL made to cost them their confidence in the Pens-winning game and the other two Pens losses to TBL were tight scores and solid games of hockey

- the stadium series farce (both the weather and the appalling play from the Flyers is in fact the Pens number one proof of quality: the refs were too chicken shit about Philly fans to make any calls against the home team, the Flyers saw that they were losing the entire game by the first and decided to crush the head and neck of the Pens' top two defensemen respectively, begged for time out and pulled their goalie in and out like a demented children's toy, and STILL had to rely on the fucking weather turning awful to squeak in one OT goal

So Pens' fans? Rest fully assured in the fact - bitter as it may taste - that the team is incredible. They've got management whose choices are actively working against theirs stability, their needs and their interests and they have been keeping the playoffs alive. This is without a doubt the worst hand they've been dealt in years - possibly a decade? - and the team is finding Ws and staying on the board regardless.

And trust me, while some teams flail around trying to point fingers but with no amount of changes making any lasting difference, Pens fans can point to one man and say 'this is your fault'. If he'd had his hands tied behind his back at multiple points along the way last season and this season, this team would be better off and that is salient fact-based truth that absolutely no one but Rutherford and Sullivan are trying to hide from anymore. I don't care if they're nice guys. Rutherford has a golden once-in-a-modern-hockey-lifetime dynasty held in his hands and he's mangling it for no reason. Take a fuckin tip from coach Scotty Midas Bowman: sometimes when you have more, you should do less.

Anyway, this playoffs are not ready to be called at this moment in time for the Pens (or indeed for most anyone) so for those who want to carry hope to the very end you're totally fair in doing so. The hope is absolutely still there. Equally if anyone wants to just put their playoffs hopes away in self-preservation, have a good old cry and channel their rage at Rutherford to at least get some enjoyment out of the coming games then go for it.

Everybody deals with this kind of sports insanity their own way. Use the X-Kit Mute functions, use blacklists, temporarily unfollow, vent like all hell or do what you need to cope with the madness.

He’s got a contract til 2022 and a delusion of his own superiority and a complete lack of ability to admit he’s wrong (which he’s done before but apparently not anymore) so his intent definitely isn’t to intentionally tank them. 

The Pens have never been in the position for anyone to think management would pull a “Lose for Hughes” so no, this really is just a case of an old man valuing his own pride over all else. His petulant reaction to routine media questioning following JJ’s signing was a big sign and his reactions to criticisms - even sometimes too quickly for anyone to have yet formed any! - is consistent proof. He’s lashed out at everyone except the few players he knows he can’t possibly survive without but he’s never once criticized his biggest mistake. That says it all.

The one and only thing the Pens need to turn around is him. He is not Jason Botterill. All contracts can change and he is not worth wasting the latter years of the Crosby-Malkin era on.

[lucerne-saccharum]

dont scalp me but i think the purposefully bad writing in volume two is bc the duffers are planning two resolve it in s5. it’s all an elaborate setup like i feel insane rn i feel like im back in post sherlock s4 conspiracy tumblr era but this show actually!!!! has another fuckin season to resolve itself

why was mike so weird this season he was such an asshole why didn’t will come out this season it’s bc the duffers have been planting seeds in the earlier season and s4 is just the point before it comes to fruition yall!!!! 

the fucking weirdness of mike’s character

is just so easily resolved

if it was revealed he was gay!!!! (or just queer rlly)

and not to be an enormous conspiracy theorist but i truly do believe that aside from making endgame super slow, it also makes it so their straight audience doesn’t boycott the final season where they reveal shit bc let’s fucking face it, money talks. as queer as the internet seems we’re still kind of a minority and theyd rather prioritize a greater part of their audience than make us vocal minorities get our endgame faster!!!

anyways im bad at getting my thoughts straight so lemme just bullet point some stuff from v2 thru some crazy byler conspiracy theory lens*:

*please note that these points are all under the theory that Mike Wheeler Is Gay/Has Internalized Homophobia/Has Feelings For His Best Friend

VAN SCENE (u know the one)

- will brought el up first and mike just went along with it. they kind of do this a lot. mike was weirdly dismissive abt it imo like he wasnt rlly thinking abt her but i guess since will brought it up here’s some worries ive got abt el yanno

- mike’s fuckin smile when will talks abt playing dnd and nintendo for the rest of their lives bro ngl that was kinda weird-fruity of will and if my bro just told me they just wanted to hang w me for the rest of our lives id be like “aye dude chill idk abt that” esp with the fact that mike’s supposed to have a gf like???? idk bad point prolly reading too much into this lmfao soz

- will’s entire confession speech???? i feel like it didn’t reach that much thru mike bc will framed it w/ el in the picture instead of him and like. it deserves SO MUCH more of a reaction what the FUCK i feel like it didnt get that from mike bc he cares for el and yes, he loves her, but not in the way will described (which is rlly romantic and dramatic and UGH)

- mike not noticing will crying in the van? yea idk abt that one either lmfao. he literally looked at will’s direction while will was silent crying. no theories on that one lmfao soz pt 2

REUNION SCENE

- screamed at the framing during el and mike’s reunion hug imma be real

- like why the fuck would u direct that shit so that will’s behind the couple while they reunite what????? what the fuck are you implying????

- then the shot switches, mike notices the others again and his smile drops when he sees will. why does it drop??????? why did it drop, mike wheeler??????????????? and specifically when he looks at william byers too

- mike triple take on will pt. 2

- we see will’s face and he isn’t even jealous or unhappy. we just see him genuinely glad that el’s safe and sound.

- like the juxtaposition of will and el’s genuine joyful reunion and mike’s sudden mood change after seeing will i just????

- the face of internalized homophobia right there fellas. he should be glad his girlfriend’s back but mayhaps he feels guilty bc he let himself slip while she was away idk reading too much into this pt 2 but it’s still such a weird reaction

PIZZA PARLOUR SCENE(s)

- lmfao argyle coming in to save the day while mike tries to explain his feelings for el. my bet? that was not an almost i love you scene. felt kind of like he was exploring what he felt for her and what she means to him but he just couldnt force out the words i love you yanno

- oh boy and the infamous i love you scene afterwards.

- once again, will was the one who pushed mike to say the damn words. every damn time it feels like he just looks towards will for assurance on how he should act towards el. he doesn’t love her and the jig was up during volume 1 but he doesn’t know how to confront the reason as to WHY he doesnt like her (which is under the Theory of Mike Wheeler is Gay/Has Internalized Homophobia issssss........ *ba dum tss*) so he just ends up getting reassurance from his closest friend whomst he trusts completely

- i feel like the i love you scene could be read in a different, non-romantic way yanno. the language may sound romantic but it feels so cliche and almost impersonal that mike may be saying it just bc that’s what he thinks *works* yanno

- lmao the day i met you was the time i felt my life change or felt alive idfk some cheesy shit like that. idek how to explain this one. i could reach and say “it’s bc he finally realized how important will was to him at that time since he was taken away/i found someone who could help me save my best friend who i realized was bla bla important bla” but honestly prolly easier to chalk it up to the theory of dumb cliche stuff to say to ur gf in ur relationship where u think ur purpose is just to help and support her.

- even EL didn’t seem that moved by it LMFAO like was that just me?????? it did NOT feel romantic lmfao i did not feel romance on her end it just sounded like her good ol pal mike wheeler out to help her again like he always does

ENDING SCENE

- just a quick dot dot doo dah bc the ending focused more on hinting at will as a character moving forward than byler and their relationship (AS HE DESERVES) but the foreshadowing in the field w byler framed by two couples holding hands???? ALSO UNRELATED BUT SCREAMING BC EL IS ON THE DYING HALF ON THE FIELD WHILE THE REST ARENT AND I JUST *KNOW* THIS IS A DEATH FLAG FOR HER NEXT SEASON AND IM JUST :((((((((

- also thought the couples could be representing smth idk???? a couple abt to break up, a couple who hasnt gotten together yet, and an actual functioning loving couple???? idfk lmao

also also unrelated but no man deserves nancy i hope she doesnt get back together w steve next season but UGH it’s been hinted at already so whatever

ANYWAYS THAT’S IT FOR MY INSANE VOL 2 CONSPIRACY BULLSHIT IDK I READ THE BYLER MASTERDOC AND FELT INSANE AFTER AND NOW I JUST SEE EVERYTHING THRU THE MASTERDOC LENS

[queer-coded-camaro-driver]

Also, huge glaring fact, Billy is 17 during the events of Season 2. Do you know who sucks the worst when it comes to understanding nuance? Teenagers. Know whose brains aren’t fully formed enough to un-indoctrinate themselves from their parents’ opinions? Teenagers. Know who’s full of hormones, ready to fight at any given moment, and not super great at holding back their impulses? Teenagers.

Especially 15-18 year olds.

I was raised in a highly conservative Evangelical Christian household. I didn’t even cuss until I turned 18 and moved away to college, where I finally came out of the closet and started unlearning the nasty, hateful shit my Mom’s family instilled in me growing up (YES that includes so much internalized homophobia, misogyny... surprisingly not so much on the racism but I’m still amazed by that years later).

And I was lucky enough to be born in the modern era, where I have access to queer-friendly therapists, medication, and an education. I’m just finishing my English MA in the field of close-reading text. I have so many advantages that Billy never got the chance to even think about accessing as a (potentially, if I’m working on textual evidence alone) queer teenager in 1984.

In conclusion: Did Billy do a racist thing? Yeah, depending on how you understand and read his interaction with Lucas during that scene.

Is Billy himself inherently racist? We really never get the chance to see him grow up enough or have enough autonomy to form his own opinions so ???

Based on S3 and his general “I really just hate all these fucking kids“ attitude, I’d like to say no. Or hope that he’d get better with time. But who’s to say because the Duffers fucking suck and killed him well before his narrative should have ended.

(This is not an EXCUSE for Billy being an asshole, this is simply an analyzation of his behavior based on my own experience/reading of the visual text)

Okay so I know antis love to throw around “why do you like Billy he’s a racist!!” But has anyone considered the fact that he just relays his fathers opinions when it comes to Max. He is Max’s keeper and that’s established the moment we see Neil threaten Billy and tell him to find her while Susan does nothing to find her daughter herself due to fear.

You think abusive, hyper masculine 80s dad who’s already pushing his homophobia onto his son isn’t gonna also pushing a little racism too? After S2 we literally hear nothing from Billy about Lucas or Lucas and Max’s relationship. Because as long as Max doesn’t bring it home it’s not Billy’s problem, and he doesn’t know Max well enough in the beginning to establish she won’t cause problems for him (which she does, multiple times tbh, even if she had her reasons he didn’t know them ever after he got punched and drugged by her at the Byers house).

I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s looser with Max in S3 because she literally proved her authority over him when she overpowered him. Billy always bends to the strongest fist when he can’t fight back.

Do I think Billy probably has a few prejudices? Sure. But I do I believe if he wasn’t under his dads thumb he’d give a shit about Lucas himself or Lucas and Max dating outside “oh god my not-sister is dating”? No. I really don’t.

[still-g00denough]

Stranger Things theory

Okay, this is a crazy one with little evidence but I think it’s gonna be funny if it actually happens and I’m gonna enjoy thinking about this one for awhile.

Starting off, we still don’t know exactly what the upside down is. Is it another dimension, maybe a different time (future or past)? We don’t have a clear answer. A lot of people speculate that it is the future of Hawkins if the Mind Flayer wins; but some have pointed out that it could be the past based on the cars that are in the background (x)... but for the sake on my theory we are going to say that this is the future!

The Duffer brothers said in an interview that the kids would have to “get the fuck outta that town” (x) and that something bad can’t happen to them every year. Which I agree with... #protectWillByers

So going along with these details: upside down is the future, the kids are gonna leave, and that they aren’t going to be in danger... these things brought me to a very interesting conclusion: the kids are going into the future!

Yeah, me too.

So just think about it this way. The kids discover another portal (maybe one of them gets trapped in there and the rest of them follow to help) and the gate closes behind them. They escape the upside down thru a new portal that they find, and as they exit the upside down they find themselves in modern day (or like early 2000s) in LA or New York, modern day Hawkins? (anywhere in America really). So it’s just the party wondering around this world that is totally bizarre to them but not dangerous. They have to learn how to blend in and discover new technology and stuff like that. Just imagine the party discovering iPhones (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ

Now I know what you’re going to say “why would the portal take them to the future?” Well I got that covered too! Every portal someone has gone thru has been entered from Hawkins. Nancy went into the portal in the tree and went back thru it, Hopper and Joyce when thru the gate. Eleven went thru the portal that the Demogorgon made at the school the night she killed it. My theory is that there are more portals in the world, that they are concentrated around areas of “supernatural” activity regarding the upside down, which is why there were so many in Hawkins. Because they go thru the same portals, they return to the same time. 

So if the kids get out of the upside down and went into a new time era, then they wouldn’t be in any real danger, but obviously they would need to find a way back to their Hawkins. But on the way they get to live in the future and discover some new stuff and maybe they find out something important that helps them defeat the mind flayer (maybe from a future version of D&D?) 

Other things that could happen in this theory include:

- The kids getting caught and are forced to go to school

- They find old newspaper articles about what happened in Hawkins in the 80s 

- They have to find new clothes to help blend in

- El becomes obsessed with Avril Lavigne 

- Mike automatically watches all the star wars movies

- Dustin is in love with all the new technology and wants to learn how to use it

- Will loves avatar the last airbender 

- Will also wants to get a digital camera for Jonathan

- Lucas and Sadie learn how to ride ripsticks 

- They are all confused muffins trying to figure out how to get back to their Hawkins with the help of the Hawkins Chief of Police: Steve Harrington