#do i think joyce loves her children?

[solarsunshine]

i actively don’t like jonathan byers, (that photo and the way he talked about it is fucking unreal) but then i remember the fact that joyce stayed with lonnie for his whole childhood, but when he finally started going at will was when she decided enough was enough and left. like i wouldn’t be a fucking voyeur, but i would be fucked up by that too ngl.

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Just askin questions

[mysterious circle of robed figures] JK Rowling: hello children Rowling: i'm back from my advissory role in the transs genocide Rowling: Obergruppenführer ssstarmer thought i had sssome real interessting new ideasss Rowling: well, real interessting old ideass actually Rowling: ssome real classsicss

Rowling: now back to busssinessss Rowling: my busssinesss being yelling at the transs on twitter Rowling: and bussssinesss iss good! Helen Joyce: dark lord! dark lord! Joyce: terrible news! Rowling: ssilence! let me do my dark bidding on twitter! Rowling: huh Rowling: it'ss quieter than ussual here

Joyce: the trans! they've fled twitter! Rowling: preposssterosss! they would never! Rowling: how will they get their daily dosse of disscoursse? Rowling: they can't ssurvive without it! Joyce: dark lord, i don't know! Joyce: they must be getting it... Joyce: somewhere else Rowling: imposssible!

Rowling: check everywhere! find them! Rowling: check the threadss about how transgender vs transssexual Joyce: they're not there! Rowling: check the threadss about how nonbinarys people are kaposs! Joyce: they're not there! Rowling: check the warhammer threadss! Joyce: they're not there!

Joyce: you know what this means, dark lord? Joyce: we did it! they've been eradicated! Joyce: not a single trans remains on twitter! Joyce: you'll never have to see or interact with a trans again! Rowling: Joyce: isn't this joyous, dark lord? Rowling: Joyce: isn't this Joyce: uh Joyce: dark lord?

Rowling: confound it! they flee twitter? they don't want to sssuffer my consstant abuses? Rowling: they deny me my ssport? Rowling: really, it's just another example of their inherent missogyny if you think about it

Rowling: wormtongue! wormtongue, come before me! Jesse Singal: yes mommy? Rowling: i charge you with a ssacred task, wormtongue Singal: mommy mommy yes i can do it mommy! Rowling: you must go unto bluessky and bring me some transs Rowling: mother hungersss

[on bluesky] Singal: hello? excuse me? Singal: isn't there anyone here who wants to have a civil debate? Singal: isn't there anyone here who wants to talk like rational adults? Singal: Singal: hello? Singal: Singal: Singal: Singal: isn't there anyone here who wants to answer my questions?

Singal: c'mon! Singal: come one! Singal: i'm just asking questions! Singal: doesn't anyone want to hear my reasonable concerns? Singal: doesn't anyone want to have a polite discussion? Singal: Singal: look i'll give you freaks until the count of three Singal: but then i'm going to talk to a manager!

Singal: c'mon! talk to me! Singal: yell at me! Singal: call me a worm! Singal: you love calling me a worm! Singal: YOU LOVE IT! Singal: please! Singal: [crying] i can't go back to mommy without screencaps! Singal: [crying] mommy needs her screencaps!

Singal: [hitching up belt] ok time to get tough Singal: no more mr nice contrarian! Singal: listen up you freaks and weirdos! Singal: you gross inhuman monsters! Singal: you second class citizens! Singal: you vile disgusting degenerate scum! Singal: Singal: Singal: Singal: i'm the victim here!

Singal: why won't you even hear my reasonable questions? Singal: i've got so many! Singal: i've been asking them for a decade and i come up with more every year! Singal: it's easy when you never intend to find answers

[will80sbyers]

I don't spend enough time talking about how much I love her she's so lovely and sweet and so freaking smart and kind and strong and the most determined woman ever created and such a good mom that just wants her children to be happy and feel safe and is doing her best in her situation after being abused emotionally by Lonnie for years and being trapped in Hawkins she worked in a town where people thought she was crazy just to make them have a house and food and education and she was hit by all the upside down stuff and losing Bob and then Hopper... she took in El without thinking about it once even if she was grieving herself and then went on to stage a freaking prison break to get the man she loves back!!!! Joyce the force of nature you are !!!!

[oh-stars]

Eddie's Quest

Love is going out of your way to do something you know will make them happy.

a @steddielovemonth prompt | 916 words | CW: implied bad Harrington parents, rec drug use | Rating: T

--

There isn’t much from Steve’s childhood that Eddie knows about and what he does know, hasn’t always been good. Steve just doesn’t share a lot in general though. He’s content in living in the present, which isn’t something Eddie really knows how to do. So when Steve does share something positive, something that he holds dear from his childhood, Eddie latches on.

Their anniversary is coming up, only a few weeks away, and Steve mentioned he misses the way a babysitter made this specific kind of cake. Black something. Steve couldn’t remember the name of it so now Eddie’s on a mission to try and figure it out. 

Eddie finds himself at Claudia Henderson’s doorstep on a Tuesday morning with flowers in his hand. When she opens the door, Eddie doesn’t even let her say hello before he’s giving them to her with a, “I need your help finding this really obscure recipe to make Steve happy and I have a feeling it’s going to be a nightmare because I can’t bake for shit. Will you please help?” 

Claudia coos at him. “Oh you’re the sweetest, Eddie! Of course, I’ll help! Come in, come in.” 

They end up pouring over all her cookbooks, and then Claudia starts a phone tree with Karen, Sue, and Joyce for their recipes. All five of them converge at the library, their personal cookbooks in hand, to take over one of the study rooms the library offers. “If we don’t have it,” Claudia told him as they settled in, “then the library will.” 

Eddie can’t even argue as they get to work. 

“Did he say what it tasted like?” Karen asks as she starts flipping through a book. Joyce had the brilliant idea of marking where all the dessert sections started in each book, so each woman was currently flipping away while Eddie tried to remember every detail Steve had mentioned. 

“He mentioned cherries,” Eddie groans, scrubbing at his face. “And it’s a cake.” 

“Could be topped with cherries,” Sue hums as she sorts through her books. 

“Or a cherry filling,” Claudia points out. 

“Steve has a sweet tooth,” Joyce adds after a while. “He likes rich flavors, so it’s probably on the sweeter side than a refreshing dessert.” 

Eddie shrugs. “I guess?” 

“You know,” Karen says as she taps her fingers against her book. “I think I remember a few of Steve’s nannies over the years. They were always at the school for pick up. Do you know which one has the recipe?” 

“Does she still live here?” Sue asks. “It would save us some time to just ask.” 

“No, no,” Eddie says, shaking his head. “He said his parents didn’t let him keep in touch and she moved away. He doesn’t know where.” 

The women share a knowing, quiet look amongst them. Eddie’s not sure he’s fluent in their silent mom language, but he knows a judgy look when he sees one. 

Eddie jumps up and paces the room, retracing every line of thinking that particular conversation followed. The problem is, they were high as fuck when Steve brought it up, sharing tidbits between big bites of the ice cream they’d found in their freezer. 

“You would have loved her,” Steve had said with a mouthful. He was laying on Eddie, legs hanging off the arm of the couch and propped against Eddie’s side so they could share the pint. “She liked to read a lot, always had books for me.”

“What kind of books?” Eddie asked. 

“Think ones.” Steve shrugged, eyes glazed over. “Fairy Tales, but the real gross stuff. So my dad wouldn’t get mad,” he added quickly. 

Gross fairy tales, Eddie thinks. He knows what Steve’s talking about, the original dark shit that they used to scare children into behaving from the grim–

“German!” Eddie screeches as he slams his hands on the table. To their credit, none of the mothers jump except for Joyce. “She was German!” 

Karen looks up at the ceiling, eyes narrowed in concentration. Claudia taps her fingers against her temple. Sue hums as she checks a few of the spines on the other stacks. Joyce leans back, crossing her arms as she stares off into space. 

“That has to help,” Eddie tries, quieter, “right?” 

“Maybe,” Karen says as she blinks back at the cookbook. She trades it for another. “And you’re sure it had cherries?” 

“Oh!” Joyce jumps up, hands flailing as she grabs for a book off Claudia’s stack. “I know it!” 

They all crowd around the book, heads tucked together as Joyce flies through the sections and slaps a finger against a chocolate cake. “Black Forest Cake,” she says, panting a little. 

Eddie moves the book to read the description. “This is it!” 

Their cheering gets them kicked out, but none of them seem to mind as they tote their cookbook stacks back to their cars. Claudia and Sue are already talking about commandeering Karen’s kitchen to bake it in a few days, since her kitchen is bigger, and they can all help – make a day of it with wine and gossip. He doesn’t care how it gets made, just that he can take it to Steve, to show him he listens and cares and loves him so much. He can’t wait to share this cake with him, to make it for him every year just because. His quest will be complete and he’ll get to live happily ever after with a very happy, well-fed prince. Best quest yet.

--

Thank you @lady-lostmind for beta reading!

Ao3 Link

[luveline]

Hi id love to send u a request but I just can't match your genius mind, id looooveee more zombie!au Steve!!! 🥺🥺🥺🫶🏻🫶🏻 maybe smth about r or Steve almost being bitten by a geek?

hi!! thank you angel!! zombie au steve x fem!reader, 3k

"Sneaking around with your boyfriend would've been considered sort of scandalous a few years ago," you think aloud, eyes skipping over medication labels slowly. "Now it's the norm."

"We are the opposite of scandalous," Steve says. 

You push pill bottles aside to meet his eyes through the gap in the shelves. He narrows his gaze. "You know how you saw me naked, like, a week after we met?" 

Steve's glare turns playfully salacious. "Yeah?" 

"Did that make it less, uh, important? Not important. Was it less intimate for you when I was naked on purpose?" 

Steve returns his eyes to the pill bottles. "No." 

"Is that weird for me to ask you?" 

"No, that's not weird, why would that be weird?" He looks up again. His expression softens. "Don't worry, it's not weird. It's a normal question. You're wondering if I was… desensitised." 

"Yeah, exactly. Were you desensitised?" 

Trust Steve to say something snippy and then feel bad enough afterwards to immediately backtrack. There's no need for him to feel guilty because you'd known he was joking, and if he weren't it wouldn't matter to you —you know being outside of camp makes him nervous, and tightly strung. You aren't expecting him to be all smiles, especially when you're asking peculiar questions. 

"If anything," he says, his voice a murmur that evidences shy affection, "it was way more special. I knew you back to front already, but the first time you showed me you, on purpose, it was different." 

You grin at him. "Like a look don't touch scenario where you finally get to touch?" 

"I'm trying to be sweet on you." 

"What was it like?" you ask. Your smile is audible. 

"Like fucking relief." He reaches through the shelves to squeeze your hand. "You're being slow." 

You take your hand back and return to the task. You're looking for anti-seizure medication for one of the children at camp. It's an important mission and neither of you had hesitated when Joyce asked you to go, but you can't say you enjoy being out here. Talking to Steve makes things better. Easier to cope. Talking to Steve about loving him and being loved by him could make you forget a pike through the chest. 

You move to the next shelf below. 

There aren't many drugs for epilepsy. You aren't sure the child even has epilepsy, but no one has the knowledge to identify anything else. Sarah (Robin's fast friend from camp) read in her field medic journal that a seizure can be caused by lots of things, and she also said that sometimes what looks like a seizure isn't a seizure at all. What is it, then? you'd asked. 

The page was missing. 

You're working through a mental list of four drugs methodically, scanning and rescanning the labels on the bottles in the back of a pharmacy. This is the raw stuff, the kind that sometimes needs to be ground and poured into capsules with filler, so if you do find the right meds you'll also need to find a pestle and some other equipment. It's a hassle, but it's worth it completely if it helps. 

"Clonazepam," you read. You lift your head. "Steve, that's the right one, right? Clonazepam?" 

Steve's head snaps up. "Yeah, that's the last resort one. Where's that?" 

He rounds the shelves to be on the same side as you, seemingly hoping for similar medications to be in the same place. His hand drops casually to your shoulder as he bends, reading each label with a determined brow. 

"Valproate," he says, relieved, hand closing around another bottle. "Okay, two options. Thank god." 

"Do they have the side effects on the bottle?" you ask. 

Steve turns the bottle but there's no second label.

"The side effects are usually worse than the original problem," he says, frowning, "remember those migraine pills we found, the leaflet?" That's how bored you and Steve had become at one point in your isolation, you'd started reading medical pamphlets. "I'd rather have a headache than lose my sense of smell." 

"Depends on how bad the headache is. You keep looking for the, uh, the carba-Tegre one. I'll go scout the equipment." 

"Tegretol," he corrects lightly. "Carbamazepine, brand name Tegretol." 

You're impressed by his memory. He sees that, and he lifts his hand to you. Palm your way, you can see he's written the names of the medication as you'd been advised to find by one of the camp members, a retired carer who worked bedside for a lady who suffered from epilepsy. 

"Your spelling is terrible," you say. 

"Whatever," he says flippantly. You're barely ten paces away when he adds, "I love you." 

"I love you too," you say. There's no need to call. The building, this entire town, is silent. You'll hear a geek a mile away. 

You poke at dusty equipment sceptically. You don't need filler, you don't think, but it affects absorption, maybe? You're not a pharmacist nor a chemist, whoever's watching knows you didn't have time to become much of anything, you're just doing as the retired carer advised. There's a press contraption with what feels like hundreds of caplet sized holes toward the front. You put it in your bag and lament its weight as you search for a pestle. 

"I've found the filler," Steve says. "There's a huge container of it. Lactose. And another of starch."

"Starch, like potatoes? We could put her medicine in mash potato."

"I think we just need a pestle and a weighing scale now. And some hand sanitiser." 

"I'll have the scales and the sanitiser, what about Robin's deodorant?" you ask. 

"At the front. I'll get it. You'll have another one?" 

"Please tell me they have that Carribean Crush one again, it was lovely." 

"You're lovely. I'll find it." 

The weighing scale must get its name from how ridiculously heavy it is. That along with the pestle has your bag feeling like a boulder attached to your neck. Maybe Steve will be willing to share the load with you. Actually, there's no need for maybe. If you tell him, he'll carry it with you happily. 

You scan the room for useful things. Batteries, food, things you've trained your eye to pick out of a bomb site if necessary. You pocket a pen for Steve and leave the rest where it lays, stepping out into the slightly bigger medications room before rounding a plexiglass wall to the pharmacy counter. Steve crouches down the aisleway, rejected roll-on deodorant on the floor beside him. 

You're about ten feet away from him when the geek lunges for him. 

You can't even tell it's a geek at first, it moves quickly, quietly, smooth as a living human. They've become diverse as the infection thrives, and you should've been thinking about that fact. You should've been standing at the front of the room. 

You freeze. You freeze and you waste time. 

"Steve!" you shriek. 

Steve's flat on his side, kicking with the entire force of his body. The geek actually bounces back with the force of each kick, but he's persistent, and stronger than he should be, a mottled hand on Steve's shoulder and decaying teeth snapping with a sound like cracking marble near his face. Steve tries to scramble from under the geek and its face falls down by Steve's ribs and upper arm. He yanks his arm away, and there's an odd ripping sound. 

You run so fast down the aisle to protect him that you can't slow, the entire weight of your body and the heavy bag you carry throttling the geek with a horrid slap against the glass door. It flies open and you topple out onto asphalt, sliding across the geek's body and taking the brunt of your rolling in your hands and the top of your face. Steve shouts a war cry and barrels after you. You go on knees, hands trembling and rushing as you grab for the knife in your belt. Steve lands on top of the geek and drives the blade of his pen knife straight into the crease between its brows, grunting as he goes, his breath coming too fast. 

You've clipped your head on the floor, the warmth of blood trickling down your brow. It doesn't concern you. 

What concerns you is the sizable tear in Steve's coat. 

He almost cuts you with his knife as you run at him, yanking the sleeves of his coat and jacket down. 

"What– what are you doing?" he asks. You tug at his sleeve like you've been possessed, panic a coil that won't loosen in your throat. "What–?" 

If he's been bitten, you'll have to saw his arm off. It's the most horrible thing you can think of, hurting someone you love, hurting the one person you love most. Your breath is half sob as you finally get his outerwear off of his arm. You don't know how to do that to somebody and especially Steve, how could you ever sever a limb? But if it will stop the infection, if it would save him—

You push the long sleeve of his t-shirt up his arm and stare down at his arm. Bruised near the wrist, pale, threaded with dark-green veins, his skin is unbroken. He hasn't been bitten. 

You pull his arm to your chest and almost break down there in the street. Steve stands with his coat hanging off of his one shoulder and doesn't respond to your actions for a long, heavy second. 

"You thought it bit me," he says. 

Your breath catches. 

"It didn't bite you." 

"No," he says, "it didn't bite me." 

"Your coat." 

Steve pulls you back inside of the store. He looks around the room twice, and then leads you to an empty corner to hug you. 

You're frenetic and frantic at once, hands sliding up and down his arm, eyes tracing his light skin like an injury might materialise. 

"It didn't bite me," Steve says, "but you're bleeding." 

You hiss as his fingertip locates your cut forehead. It must be a very small cut considering how little it bled. You've had head injuries that wept for hours, leaving you dizzy and disorientated from the subsequent lack of blood. This one's a wimp. 

You've also seriously hurt your shoulder from the backpack's weight and your small skirmish. You're not going to tell him that, not now, not when you've been dropped face first into the horror of potentially losing him forever. 

Steve eases out of his jacket. He takes your hand from his arm and pushes both sleeves up, bearing both arms in front of you. 

"It didn't get me, honey. Try to calm down." 

He says it softly, with no judgement or condescension. Only concern. 

"I'm fine," you say. 

It's strangled, you'll admit. Steve turns his arms to show you both sides before he tilts your head up and toward the meagre filtering sunlight, analysing your head injury in detail. 

"Did you hurt yourself? When you fell, did it feel like you hit it hard, or was it something sharp?" You don't answer, and he gets snippy. "Y/N, tell me. Did it hurt?" 

"Steve, you're the one who almost got bit." 

"And you're the one who almost died of a fucking concussion not that long ago, in case you forgot. Sit down. I'm not kidding, sit down." 

You blink, mildly startled by his hissing, and sit on the ground. He's being snappy because he's panicking, that's all it is. You hold back an unhelpful comment that your concussion had been months and months ago, so it kind of was long ago. 

He lets his coat and jacket fall to the floor and jogs back up the aisle to the bandages and gauze. He takes a detour for antiseptic, and then he sets himself down in front of you. 

"Did you hit it hard?" he asks. 

You shake your head. 

He doused a piece of gauze in antiseptic. "Sting," he warns, washing the length of your forehead with his makeshift wipe. He quickly swaps the bloodied one for a clean one. "Hold this." 

You hold it. He gets back up, scouring the shelves by the bandages until he plucks out a small box. He crushes it with his hand and the medical tape inside falls into his waiting palm. He sits again, tears two strips, and lines the edges of your gauze with them. It would all be much easier if they had big band-aids. 

"Show me your pupils, baby," he says. 

Steve, for his street smarts and survival skills, used to freak out about injuries. But Steve freaking out freaks you out and he guessed that soon enough, so every cut and bruise these days is met with a silent approach. It's the opposite of your reaction. Embarrassment starts to creep in. 

You widen your eyes and let Steve check your pupils. 

"Same size," he says. 

"It's just a cut." 

Steve shuffles across the floor so his thigh is pressed to yours, rather than having his back to the store. He breathes out slowly, breathes in quick, and then forces the bottom of his palm into his thigh cruelly. 

"How the fuck did that happen?" he asks. If he weren't being hyper vigilant, he'd be scrubbing his eyes in a tell tale nervous tic. "We haven't had something like that in months. We swept this whole place when we came in, where the fuck was he hiding? I feel sick." 

"You do?" you ask, terrified. 

"It didn't bite me," he assures you again. Thankfully without any annoyance. 

"It ripped a chunk out of your coat with its teeth. Forgive me for thinking your skin was less hardy than pressed plastic." 

Your acidity shocks you both. 

Things are awkward for a split second, 'cos it's difficult to feel awkward around someone who you've spent every second of the day with since you met. You feel for a moment that you could just take him by the shoulders and shake him. You love him, you could never hurt him, but he has to see sense: he doesn't understand how much you need him. Not to keep you alive, but to give you a reason to do it yourself. If he got bit, you'd die. Plain and simple. Internally first, but surely the heartbreak would murder you in the end. 

"I didn't know you were so disagreeable," Steve says. 

"I didn't know you knew a word that long."

Steve laughs, startled. You want to be mad, but you're so thankful that he's not dying and so suddenly wiped you can only laugh with him.

"I forgot how quick you are when we fight," Steve says. 

"We don't fight anymore." 

"That could be amended. Especially if you're going to get fresh with me."

"You started it." 

"I always start it." Steve flicks your shoulder."Let me see your head," he says. You turn your neck so he can see the outermost side of your head. "You swelled up like a helium balloon when you fell through that floor. It was right at the back of your head and I could tell something was wrong… This is fine. It bulged out last time." 

"It what?" you demand, pulling another rare laugh from him.

He winds down, clasping your knee. You cover his hand, and only then do you realise it's shaking.

"Steve, you almost died." 

"But I didn't die, I'm fine, and you need to stop freaking out because high blood pressure is definitely bad for a concussion. You could die yourself if you don't relax, seriously." Steve clears his throat. "Sorry, for getting heated. And thanks for knocking that guy clean off of me, what was that? You holding out on me when we wrestle? That was clean." 

"That was like, a mom's adrenaline thing. No, not 'cos I'm your mom, idiot. Loved one's adrenaline. I thought you were gonna die and suddenly I could've run for fucking gold in the Tokyo Olympics." 

"How did I get some of that? Whenever you're hurt I just feel like crying." 

"I think the crying bit comes after. Maybe if you tried getting to me quicker you'd have enough adrenaline to save me." 

He smiles before he talks, so you know it's going to be bad, "If a geek eats me during an adrenaline rush, am I a human Red Bull?"

"Okay, you have to keep an eye on the store because I need to be hugging you," you say, giving him little time to disagree as you climb on top of his lap. 

It's not comfortable nor sexy, but for once you don't care how heavy you are. You wrap your hands around the back of his neck and cradle his head, his face hooked over your shoulder so that he can still see your surroundings. He slides his hands underneath your coat and hugs you in turn. Your heart's still racing, and his hands are still shaking, but you lived. He lived. You've defeated danger for the hundredth time. 

"This really doesn't get any easier, does it?" you ask, petting his hair.  

He pats your back. "No, I don't think so. S'why I need you with me." 

"That's why I need you." 

Steve dots a quick kiss against the column of your throat. When he puts his chin back atop your shoulder, it's with a heaving sigh. 

"I can't believe you almost got bit," you say. 

"Yeah, well. Nobody has any manners anymore." 

[jollyformaldehyde]

i keep seeing milkvan shippers argue that mike cant show his love for eleven because of his parents less than romantic relationship, but i cant help but think how strange that is.

love isnt something you learn. mike shows love for all his friends, including el. its not like he grew up in a loveless household where no one cared about each other. its shown many times that mikes mother loves him and nancy very much and actively cares for all her children.

now, im not saying that platonic love and romantic love are the same thing. im just pointing out that mike isnt just someone whos never even heard the word love before.

you could also argue that el was never shown love in her childhood. if thats the case, then how can she love mike? she never had anyone who cared about her when she was in the lab, yet she knew in season 2+ that she loved mike.

nancy was another person used in the argument that the wheeler family cant show love. they use the example of her not being able to tell steve that she loves him to backup what they have to say about mike.

but its clearly shown that nancy loves jonathan!!!! like did they forget about that? even through their struggles she can still say that she loves him in s4. you can’t say the same for mike.

the reason mike can’t tell eleven that he loves her isnt because hes from some broken home. mike and els relationship is the only one that relies on the words “i love you.” most of the other relationships in st are based around actions and not words. ex: joyce saving hopper in russia, lucas sticking by maxs side while shes cursed and doing everything he can to save her, jonathan and nancy saving each other in the hospital

there are many more examples that dont include saving each other, but my point is that mike and els relationship is no longer portrayed in the same way as all the other canon ships are.

thanks for listening, your argument is trash 🤗

[novashelby]

Evie: The Nativity Disaster

Summary: Tommy Shelby is excited his little baby girl is the star of the play. Unfortunately for everyone, it doesn't go too well...

This was the first ever Evie thing I wrote and posted. Until now, it was only available on Ao3 and Wattpad. To start off the Christmas spirit, I am posting it on here! Please enjoy. :) Thank you strangergraphics, again for the divider.

Evie was an oddity. Everyone knew it, but just sort of accepted it. If attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder was a thing in the early 1900's, doctors would have slapped that label right on her forehead. But unfortunately, she was just a “rowdy kid”. Despite that, she’d been the only light in Tommy’s heart since the war. Despite just nine being abandoned by her mother, it was her who always happened to take care of him. In the oddest of ways, honestly. “Evie,” Tommy said, climbing down the stairs for breakfast. “Can you tell me why my window is open in my office? And bird feed is just…glued with honey on my desk?” He thumbed back up the stairs. If it was anyone else, he’d be a bit miffed. But with Evie, he needed to keep an even, calm tone. 

With a mouth full of porridge, “you said you liked the birds, daddy.”

“Yes, Evie, but not in the fuc-not in the house,” he sighed. Polly poked her head out of the kitchen, eyes bewildered. Tommy caught a glance, sighing, “I got it out, Pol.” He cupped the girl’s chin, tsking as he wiped the porridge from her mouth. “You need to think a little better, hmm? Now, have you got your costume for the play?” 

It was 1920 Christmas Eve. Evie had just turned ten years old two months prior. Lucky for her, Mother Superior had chosen Evie for such a big role. Mary. The Mother Mary. Mary of Nazareth. Such a commitment for a small girl. And lucky for Finn, Polly volunteered him for the role of Joseph of Nazareth. It was in effort to get more involved in the church and Evie’s school activities. 

And lucky for all the babies in the world, Mother Superior decided on a doll to play little baby Jesus. But not so lucky for everyone sitting in the Saint Anne’s children’s theater that Evie’s best friend, Martha O’Connell, was playing an angel holding a candle. A real candle with a flame. But we can’t put all the blame on poor Martha who was doing the job she was not being paid for. 

And how lucky for Grace, who for the first time, was joining a real family function that had nothing to do with business. 

It was a beautiful evening, really. Christmas Eve, when everyone could have been home, shoving their faces with whatever it was, were graced with such a show. Evie awkwardly walked out, looking stiff as ever. “Oh for fucks sake, Esme,” John hissed, opening the back door and pushing her and the four children in. “I told you we had to leave at six. Next time, start your bloody hair at noon.”

Tommy didn’t even need to look back to know who was making the ruckus. “Always my fuckin’ family, eh?” he cursed, annoyed as he gave a lengthy lecture the night before on how no one better ruin his baby girl’s performance. It’s her eighth function this year, Tommy, Arthur groaned, but agreed…unwillingly…to go. Poor little Evie, up there with stage fright, joined all the glances looking at John. Polly hissed for him to sit his bloody arse down. 

Nervously, poor Evie sat on a stool, listening to Jennie Joyce say, “ A long time ago in a town called Nazareth there lived a young woman called Mary and a young carpenter called Joseph. They loved each other very much and they also loved God very much. Mary of Nazareth was very special because God had chosen her to be the Mother of His Only Son. God sent the angel Gabriel to ask Mary if she would be the Mother of God.” That’s when Martha entered, a candle shaking in her hand. 

“ Mary, you are the chosen one. Soon you will have a baby boy. He will be very special. He will be the Son of God and you must call him Jesus,” Martha said, wincing as she tried very hard not to burn the place down. She slowly exits and pauses, giving Evie a look. “Exit,” she mouthed. Finn sighed, and waved to her. Poor Evie, not being able to read lips, squinted. “Exit the stage!” 

“She forgot to exit,” Tommy sighed, trying to catch her attention. Evie looked at the audience. “ EXIT!” he mouthed, trying to be discreet, pointing to the right stage exit. Huh? She mouthed. “Oh bloody fuckin’ ‘ell,” he rubbed his temple. Grace winced trying to help him, standing and pointing with both fingers. That is when Finn walked on stage and grabbed her arm.

“ Come on, wife ,” he said, hooking his arm with hers. “ We must leave now . ”

Evie whined, pulling her arm back. “That isn’t the line,” she whispered.

“Yeah, well you forgot to exit,” he grumbled.

She panicked and gasped, “oh, shit!” When she realized she said it far too loud, she covered her mouth and said, “sorry!” The audience started to laugh. She ran off and Finn quickly followed, his fake beard falling from his face. The play went on, but not any smoother. The church was lended a donkey for the show under the conditions the children didn’t feed it. It was on a special diet. Let’s feed it! Was what they all said when Mother Superior left backstage. 

“ Mary rode to Bethlehem on a donkey, with Joseph walking by her side. Remember, Mary was about to have a baby, so it was a very long dangerous journey. Mary and Joseph were very grateful to their faithful donkey who carried Mary so bravely and so carefully ,” Jennie went on. 

Arthur, half dozing off, squinted and looked at his flask then back on stage. “Fuckin ‘ell, is that a real jack arse up there?” 

“Evie,” Finn whined. “Your lines…your lines.”

“Oh, right,” she nodded. “Thank you, Donkey….” She slid off, her blue scarf getting disheveled. As she slid off, she got a whiff close to its behind. “Jesus….Too many cheese cubes for you, Arnold.” 

From the back, one of the other children shouted, “no problem!”

“Oh my god….” Finn was about to blow a gasket! “Does anyone here actually remember their bloody lines, but me? No problem. No problem!? You’re supposed to say ‘you’re welcome!’ No one in bloody Bethlehem said no problem, Duncan!” he shouted and poor Aunty Polly was mortified. 

“No one spoke English in Bethlehem, Shelby!” he shouted back. 

Finn threw up his fist, but Evie grabbed him, “Finn, your beard…Arnold’s eating your beard.”

John tapped on Tommy’s shoulder, “and what were you saying last night? About us ruining your baby girl’s performance?”

As life, it went on and on and on. “ During the night Mary gave birth to Jesus. She wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger full of hay. ” 

Before putting the doll on the hay bed, Evie with her fumbling hands, dropped the doll. “Oh, no!” she cried, as it fell and everyone gasped as baby Jesus lost his head and it rolled down and off the stage. Mother Superior nearly died! She cried and held her chest. How could her performance go so wrong?! Evie quickly scrambled and grabbed the doll's head, shoving its mangled body in the bed. That’s when Martha entered again with that damn candle. Candles and hay don’t mix very well, and so when she dropped the candle and hay lit up like everyone’s tree, people started to panic. 

“Right,” Tommy said, smacking his hands on his knees and getting up. “I’m going to get the car, I’d appreciate it if everyone just followed.” 

Finn was done. He was completely done. Rage quitting, he took off his cloak and half eaten beard, and threw it on the ground. “I quit!” 

“Finn, my linens!” Polly cried. He stormed off stage while the other boys poured water on the hay bed. Poor Martha was never allowed to hold a candle again, and Evie? She would best serve not as a lead character. Evie followed after Finn. In one car, six people were shoved. 

“I think it went rather well,” Arthur said.

“Yeah, Arthur,” Tommy said. “Things tend to go rather well when you’re drunk, don’t they, eh?”

“Things go better when certain people can remember their lines,” Finn grumbled. He glared at Evie who just pouted. 

“Don’t listen to him, baby girl,” Tommy said, smiling at her through the mirror. “You were the best one up there.”

Giggling, she stuck her tongue out and said, “thank you, daddy.” Her eyes traveled down to Finn’s shoes, and pinched her nose. “You stepped in Arnold’s shit.” Out of everyone, poor Finn had the roughest night. That was for certain.

[lillie98]

How to Save the World—Stranger Things 5

I’ve had some time to sleep on the episode titles and think about them, read theories, etc. and I now believe they might be real.

Hear me out: Stranger Things is all about cycles, parallels, tropes happening over and over again. The Duffers love taking a moment and repeating it in slightly different ways to prove a point. The story started with “The Vanishing of Will Byers” because we needed to place a small, innocent child in the center of our story, something to bring our character together and drive them to action. Well, that child is no longer in danger and our team is ripping apart at the seams. It’s almost like we need something similar to reunite everyone and drive them to action again.

Remember: The Duffers love parallels. Will’s disappearance brought his deeply fractured family together, uniting them for a common cause. It also brought Nancy and Jon together when their families needed them most. Now, the Byers are a united front, ready to tackle any monster that comes their way. They are the glorification of the avant-gard family. Now which family is struggling? The Wheelers. The perfect, All-American Nuclear Family: Mom, Dad, 3 kids, and a picket fence. They look perfect to the outside world, but behind closed doors, they are deeply struggling. They don’t communicate, the parents have no idea what’s happening in their children’s lives, and if they’re not careful, if they don’t come together and form a united front—they’re going to lose everything, potentially causing the end of the world. (Why? I haven’t gotten that far yet!)

Now, how do we inspire them to action? Maybe by taking the child who was born to save their crumbling marriage—the one has seen everything but, up until this point, been too young to contribute. Now, she’ll be the same age Will was when he disappeared and Mike and Will are the same age as Jon and Nancy. The Duffers are trying to illustrate the idea of “The Next Generation.” This evil, this Upside Down dimension is NEVER going to stop until someone from the Wheeler and Byers families breaks the cycle. Children will continue to vanish, the world will continue to crumble, until someone steps up and says ENOUGH. The Wheelers and Byers (parents and children) must step up and face their pasts in order to move forward.

The “Stranger Things” are not only LGBTQ+ matters, they are the skeletons we hide in the closet that literally eat us alive. They are the dark, festering parts of ourselves we don’t let anyone else see. The invisible cancers that slowly and silently kill us. Until we face them head on, until we bring them to the light, they will NEVER die. Stranger Things is about owning your past, facing your fears, and finding the light again.

So yes, Stranger Things will end with Will Byers making it home from Mike Wheeler’s house on November 6, 1983, but not in a time traveling way, in a finally letting go of that scared, pained little boy who thought the world was better off without him. It’s Mike accepting his sexuality and place in his family. His role as a leader. It’s Joyce accepting love from Hopper, who must accept that he is not actually cursed, but that sometimes, bad things happen to good people, even when they think they’re doing the right thing (Vietnam). it’s Karen and Ted falling in love again and fighting to save their family. It’s Eleven discovering that love, not anger, should fuel her powers. It’s mourning your stolen childhood while stepping into the version of yourself that child never got to be. It’s stopping the cycle and creating a better world for the Will Byers and Mike Wheelers and Jane Hoppers of tomorrow. THAT’S how you become a Hero.

[munsonfamilyband]

I love nothing more than all the adults just deciding to adopt Steve - add to that the moms all adoring Eddie and you have my favorite shit. (TW mentions of child abuse)

You would think Claudia Henderson was the first mother to fall for Steve Harrington’s charm but it isn’t. It isn’t even Karen Wheeler, who met him while he was dating Nancy. No, it’s Joyce Byers. She met Steve when he was young, still in elementary school, and he had come into Melvald’s to get groceries when his parents had left him home alone. After seeing him come in multiple times without a parent in sight she started slowly taking care of him; she knew that she couldn’t push herself into his life, he was clearly uncomfortable with talking about his home life. Over time she was able to sneak food into his bags of purchases and then she would gift him “hand-me-downs” from “Jonathan” in the winter so he wouldn’t freeze.

Hopper was next. Steve was in 8th grade by the time they met. Steve had been friends with Tommy Hagan for a few years by then, but Tommy had finally convinced him to throw a party and the party very quickly got out of hand. Hop was called to the Harrington house for a noise complaint and he broke up the party. He did notice that Steve got visibly uncomfortable when he said he had to call his parents but procedure was procedure. He threw out procedure when a few days later he saw Steve in town with a black eye and a bruise around his wrist. From then on out he would always answer calls to the Harrington’s and he never called his parents again, he would stick around and make sure Steve was okay and had medicine for the hangover he was sure to have. He couldn’t do much, wouldn’t do much with the pain of Sarah still so raw, but he did what he could.

Karen Wheeler came next, endlessly endeared to Steve when he showed up to take Nancy on a date. Ted hated him, and she could agree that Steve appears self centered but she witnessed small moments that made her realize he wasn’t completely who he tried to appear to be. She would notice him flinch minutely when Ted snapped at the kids, or the well covered bruises when she heard his parents were in town. He was also kind and doting to Nancy which made her like him more. Karen was sad when she heard they broke up but Steve never stopped coming around, just this time he was there for Mike instead.

Claudia Henderson was suspicious of Steve at first. Her Dusty was different than other kids, she never had the money to get him seen by a professional and get a name for what was so different in his brain, but she knew that children were mean to him for it - she hated that he was bullied because he was such a wonderful kid with so much brain it made her head spin. Steve was 5 years older and had a reputation around town but the first time Dustin invited him over for dinner was the day she decided that she had two sons. Steve was polite and kind, he brought flowers to thank her for letting him stay and eat her food, and he and Dustin bickered but Steve so clearly cared about her son. Then Steve showed up at her house with a bloody nose and a split lip and a distinctly hand shaped mark on his cheek and asked to spend the night and he was solidified as one of her kids forever, even if he and Dustin stop being as close as they are.

The Sinclair’s don’t know Steve as well, but they hear about him constantly, first from Lucas and then from Lucas AND Erica. They figure if Erica likes him then he’s an okay kid, and he’s never been anything but kind when they have met him.

Wayne Munson is the last to meet Steve, and it takes him the longest to warm up to Steve. He had spent years listening to Eddie complain about people like Steve, and even Steve himself, so when he started showing up at his trailer all the time, Wayne was suspicious to say the least. Eddie kept telling him that he wasn’t who he was in high school, he even went on a tangent at one point about how Steve was just trying to survive the only way he knew how, but Wayne didn’t buy it; he knew Steve’s parents, and he figured that Steve had to be like them. Even when he saw how kind Steve was to Eddie, to the kids, to that Robin girl he’s always with, he still didn’t trust him. Funny enough, the moment that changed that for him wasn’t in his trailer, where Steve practically lived by then. No, it was at Family Video. Wayne had stopped by to get a movie for he and Eddie while Eddie was at work, and he didn’t see anyone at the desk when he walked in but he heard voices in the back room that he recognized as the Robin girl and Steve. She was clearly upset with him for something but it took him a moment to gather what.

“You can’t hide this stuff from us- from me! You and me, Steve, we do not hide things.”

“I know, Rob, I just- I didn’t want to burden anyone, okay? You weren’t supposed to find out, especially like this- ow, be gentle! My nose was broken a week ago, you could clean it softly, you know.”

“I am so mad at you right now, Steve, do not push me. You’ve been living out of your car for the past week-“ Wayne was definitely surprised at this point because he knows that the Harrington’s have a big house, “-and your dad gave you a concussion. What is this, number 5?”

“Okay, fine, yeah that part was stupid. I should have said something about the concussion. But what was I supposed to do? I don’t even know who told them about me and Eddie-“ He and Eddie? What about them, that they’re friends? It made sense in some way, to Wayne at least, that the Harrington’s would be upset about their son hanging out with Eddie but living in his car seems extreme. “-and the things he was saying…. I couldn’t listen to it, I had to say something. Even if it meant that I got kicked out and disowned.”

“Have you even told Eddie?”

“Absolutely not, he would blame himself and then offer to let me stay and I know Wayne barely tolerates me - not that I blame him, but it still sucks, I want him to like me. Me and Eddie… I feel like forever with him and if Wayne doesn’t even like me now, how would he respond to finding out the rest of it?” Everything seemed to click together for Wayne and he heard a sniff from the backroom like someone was trying not to cry. He himself felt like crying, because this boy had clearly been through a lot and someone had apparently outed him to his parents who beat him and kicked him out. Before Wayne could even recover from that bombshell the backroom door was swinging open and he was making eye contact with Steve Harrington. “Wayne-! I didn’t-Hi, uh, how long have you been in the store?”

“Long enough. Come by the trailer tonight and we’ll figure out where your stuff can go. You should probably call Ed though and let him know.” Wayne nodded his head and started to leave, very uncomfortable with the tension in the store, but he stopped to say one last thing as he was leaving. “As long as you and my boy take care of each other, you and I are gonna get along fine.”

Steve ended up moving into the trailer that night and Wayne gained a new perspective on him. They began watching sports together and he got to see the love his nephew had for Steve and vice versa clearly.

For Eddie, Joyce was also the first (she seemed to just collect sad kids). He had moved to Hawkins to live with Wayne only a few weeks before and he wandered into Melvald’s for some snacks. His hair was just starting to grow again and it was all sitting awkwardly on top of his head, his curls making strange shapes. Joyce took one look at him and was brought back to how Steve had looked all those years ago, how she and her kids were before Lonnie left, and she decided to step in again. She started by giving him some tips for his hair and then, just like with Steve, she started sneaking him little things over time. When she came back from California after Vecna they met again and she was so glad to see him, so happy that he seemed to fit in his own skin.

Claudia came next, unsurprisingly. The loud music and the distinct skunk-like odor that stuck to him (Claudia wasn’t stupid, she knew what that was) made her nervous. But after having known Steve for a couple years by then, she knew better than to judge from appearances and she was correct. Eddie was like another brother for Dustin, but while Steve complimented Dustin’s quirks and nerdy interests, Eddie shared them all and they seemed to feed off of each other’s energy. He was energetic and kind to her Dusty, and that is all she could ask for him to have in life.

The Sinclairs came to like Eddie after that, mostly for the same reasons that they liked Steve, but also because they had been told that Eddie nearly died to protect their kids.

Karen Wheeler always struggled being around Eddie despite how nice he was to her and to her kids - he reminded her of a mistake she once almost made with another boy who liked his music loud and angry. She did appreciate how Eddie managed to calm Mike’s angry outbursts, he pushed Nancy out of her comfort zone, he even let Holly braid his hair a couple times. Her favorite thing about him was how happy he made Steve (her soft spot for Steve hadn’t faded with time and seeing him so happy was a joy).

Hopper was the last to warm up to Eddie, not for lack of trying. Hopper knew that he should be more understanding, but since he had become a father again his paternal instincts had gotten worse. He hadn’t even realized that he saw Steve like that until Joyce made a comment about Steve and Eddie being close and he felt something oddly similar to what he experienced with Mike and El. He knew about Steve’s history with abandonment and alcohol and drugs, he also knew about Eddie’s tendency to run and his “job” in the woods. Hopper tried to remember that Joyce knew the kid, had said that he wouldn’t hurt a fly, but his instincts were telling him that Eddie was a bad influence. That didn’t change completely until he found out that Steve had apparently been kicked out because someone told his parents that he was dating Eddie and he had been living in his car for a week. He then found out that as soon as they found out, the Munsons had taken Steve in without hesitation - and Eddie had even slashed a couple tires at the Harrington house (Hopper pretended that he didn’t know that because he refused to press charges on the Harrington’s behalf). Hearing that Eddie had taken care of Steve when Hop hadn’t even known he needed it settled his nerves and put Eddie into his heart.

[raisedbythetv89]

To me, I don’t think Buffy or the audience can ever truly know if she’s in love with angel or just in attachment with him. I believe she is just in attachment and especially before innocence and after his encounter with the first, just full on enmeshment with him. No boundaries whatsoever, his pain is her pain (which is extremely common in parentified children who feel they have to protect their parents from their pain like what buffy does with joyce), just like how she describes her feelings towards riley later which is NOT a good thing, empathy is good, taking on others pain as if it’s your own is extremely unhealthy. (Yes I’m pulling on my psych degree for a tumblr post, human behavior and buffy are two of my special interests)

What I mean by “in attachment” is that she has all of the same anxieties and insecurities about angel that she does with her father. Angel’s erratic and unpredictable behavior plays on her anxious avoidant attachment style SO AGGRESSIVELY. He keeps showing up, giving her little information at all and even less about himself and then vanishing leaving her hanging, and anxiously wondering about him which can mimic thinking you’re romantically interested when really it’s just an unresolved problem you desperately want to solve. She has a lot of valid criticisms about him before they’re officially together about his inconsistencies, him treating her like a child, him being too old for her and then all of a sudden she’s saying she wants to die when they kiss and that she loves him (after he forces her to say she loves him before he’ll tell the truth about drusilla). That is exactly how falling into attachment goes. Once you’re hooked all your feelings that are caused by a bad relationship with a parent are projected onto the partner who you are unknowingly recreating that dynamic with which is why such intense and strong feelings can happen so quickly and suddenly you’re ignoring all concerns you had before forming this attachment with someone.

He’s not her soulmate, he’s just the first guy to treat her like her father did and if you don’t address that cycle the relationship is recreating it can be impossible to move on because they will ALWAYS feel like something is unresolved and if you don’t know why you feel that way you can misinterpret it as true love or destiny because why all would you suffer so much and still love them if it wasn’t? It’s a mistake SO MANY of us make in our romantic relationships and these portrayals of unhealthy attachments being sold to us a soul mates doesn’t help us at all.

She does it with Riley also but she walls herself off so she doesn’t get AS attached to him as she did angel but their relationship is still her trying to fix the relationship with her father by changing herself so maybe this time he’ll stay. It’s why his opinion still matters so much to her when he comes back in season 6 despite him being a truly awful person to her who has done nothing but make mistakes and whose opinion should not matter to her at all after everything he put her through. He is another pseudo father figure she craves approval from.

It’s why I love her relationship with Spike so much despite all the bad they go through before season 7. We know her feelings are real because Spike doesn’t play on her anxious-avoidant attachment at all because he is ALWAYS there even when she’s mean and claims she doesn’t want him there. And to me everything they do to each other makes perfect sense, their relationship is exactly what two people with severe trauma and one with anxious-avoidant and one with just anxious-attachment going into a relationship together looks like. You hurt each other A LOT because you’re working out all your issues with each other and they don’t have ANY help from a therapist or someone who can help minimize the hurt so they both just use their worst coping mechanisms and the fact that they go through all that and still get to be together and happy and healthy on the other side is just everything to me because that so rarely happens in the real world, where you get to be with the person who was also a catalyst for healing and having to go through all that suffering together only to have to start over -hopefully from a much better place - but still with someone else BLOWS. So Spike and Buffy to me are about hope and healing (including the unpleasant and very ugly, dark parts of healing people rarely talk about) and getting to do each phase of that with someone AND enjoy being happy and whole together is just UGHHHH I love it so much.

[space-invading-pigeon]

One Two Three

Vecna is incensed when Pelor returns, and not because he'd been on his own. "You left them alive!" Vecna snarls, the exposed muscles of his face and neck pulled taut in his frustration. "The were right there! You could have finished them!" "They are children, Vecna, perhaps we could-" "They are a threat!" "Children!" "You need to get rid of them-" "Mind your tone, Vecna, I am not to be disrespected," Pelor growls; he can feel his eyes flashing dangerously, can feel the air grow hot with his anger. Vecna falls silent, his eyes sharp with displeasure. "I don't think we need to kill them. We can convince them to turn, they're children." "... How do you propose we do that, lord?" Vecna's response is strained, tight. Steve- er, Pelor- relaxes a bit. "They seem to be reminded of a fallen comrade when they speak to me," he announces. "I think I can show them the truth. Fighting will be futile, they'll see that if I just speak to them."

*****

"Dustin, he's gone, there's no way that he's still Steve in there, he attacked Jonathan," Mike argued, smacking his fist against the table. They'd reconvened at the Byers' home, as always; Robin and Eddie stayed with the kids, while Nancy, Hop, and Joyce took Jonathan to the hospital.

"That's not fair, Mike, you never gave up on Eddie!" Dustin shouted, shoving himself back to stand from the table.

"Eddie never tried to kill one of us!"

"Actually, I did," Eddie interrupted softly. "Twice." Mike wilted a little, leaning closer to Will.

"Well- well you never hurt us!" He tried to argue, but Eddie shook his head.

"I did, Mike. Remember? I broke Lucas's wrist, and I almost killed Dustin. If it hadn't been for Steve and El, neither of them would be here." Eddie tugged on one of his curls, expression absent. El nodded from the couch, holding up the 'rock on' gesture that Eddie had recently taught her.

"But-"

"Dude, can you chill? We know you don't like Steve, but he's one of us," Lucas admonished, making Mike blush.

"He hurt Jonathan!"

"No, Vecna hurt Steve. Steve doesn't know that he knows us, remember? When Dustin and Eddie tried his song, he stopped fighting. He ran away," Will piped up, voice soft but firm. "And when he attacked us before, he ran away as soon as he saw Jonathan. He was hurt, and Steve freaked out. He's still in there, Mike."

Mike didn't say anything for a moment, floundering for an argument. It was possibly the closest they'd seen Mike to tears since 1984. "Well- well he's still a piece of shit!" He finally snapped, storming out of the dining room and down the hall.

Silence reigned for a few minutes after Mike's departure. This time, Robin was the one to break it.

"So... I still can't tell if Mike hates Steve or has a crush on him," she noted quietly, making the kids snort (not laugh- they were all much too jaded to laugh at the moment.).

"Crush, definitely," Max decided immediately.

******

Will, Max, Lucas, Mike, and El had fallen asleep sometime during the movie Robin put on. Robin stayed in with them, waiting by the phone for any update on Jonathan.

Dustin and Eddie stepped out around midnight. They didn't go anywhere, just on the porch, while Eddie smoked a cigarette. Gods, he needed it; two Steve sightings in a week after almost a year of nothing, and both times Steve hadn't really come home. Dustin was just as exhausted, leaning forward on his knees as he watched the sky.

"We'll get him back, right, Eddie?" Dustin asked weakly. Eddie had to nod, despite his own growing doubts.

"He can't leave us, Henderson," he consoled. "He's- he's lost. Vecna's got him all turned around, but we can get him back. His song, remember?"

"His stupid, thirty-year-old Elvis song," Dustin snorted, wiping his nose on his sleeve. Eddie chuckled softly, using his whole body to nudge Dustin.

"Don't talk shit about the King, Henderson, this is the only thing we can't make fun of Steve for."

"It's a love song, Eddie."

"It's a good song, Dustin!" Eddie smiled a little wider when Dustin made a noise that could almost be called a laugh, proud to have brought Dustin out of his melancholic mood.

As Dustin calmed, his mood sank a little more. "Eddie... If he's not- not Steve, right now, than who is he?"

"Is that some kind of riddle I'm supposed to solve?"

"No, numbnuts, I mean, like, when you weren't you, you were Kas. Vecna's general. But Steve's not like you were, it's almost like- almost like he's being influenced, but not controlled." Eddie hummed at this, nodding slowly. "So who is he?"

"Just looking at him, he looks more like a general than I ever did-"

"Eddie, whatever they did to you, you still have fangs-"

"-but he's also not as... dark. Not as cold either; have you noticed he glows?" Eddie shook his head. "Anyway. The glowing, the warmth, the way that things grow around him, which is way different than them dying like things usually do from the Upside Down.... I'd say he's Pelor."

"Pelor? But Pelor is benign, what's he doing fighting us?"

"That's where Vecna's influence must come in. He tried to-to corrupt Steve, and he couldn't, so he just... confused him." Eddie drummed his fingers together, thinking hard. "It's like- like Vecna's cast Confusion on him. We just have to break the spell."

"But if he's never here long enough for us to use the song- he ran away last time, if we can't keep him around, how can we break the curse?" Dustin asked, face furrowed in thought. "How do we get him back if every time we try, he disappears?"

"We make it so he can't disappear," Eddie supplied. "We need to convince him that he's safe with us, like a feral cat- yeah, exactly like a cat! Baby steps, we make sure he knows he's safe with us, and we can get him back."

∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆

I think maybe one or two more parts and this will be over???

Tags: @amoris-no-smut-allowed @swimmingbirdrunningrock

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: The One Joke

[mysterious circle of robed figures] JK Rowling: hello children Rowling: today i am going to tell Rowling: the one joke Allison Bailey: the joke! the one joke! Helen Joyce: dark master is going to tell the one joke! Jesse Singal: masterful gambit, mommy!

Rowling: Happy Birthing Parent Day to all whosse large gametes were fertilissed resulting in ssmall humanss whose ssex was asssigned by doctorss making mostly lucky guesssess Joyce: she did it! she told the one joke! Bailey: the absolute madwoman!!

Joyce: haha i could hear that one joke a million times -- and i have -- and it never gets any less funny! Joyce: you should take that act on the road! Rowling: you think? Joyce: oh yeah definitely, people need to hear that one joke

JK Rowling: [at open mic] hello ladiesss and germsss Rowling: i'm "Just Kidding" Rowling and thisss Rowling: iss the anti-woke "you can't ssay that on televisssion anymore due to woke" comedy tour Rowling: sso Rowling: are there any jewss in the audience tonight

Rowling: but ssserioussly ladiess and germss Rowling: there'sss a lot of wokiesss out there Rowling: and i think they might Rowling: ssound a little like thisss Rowling: "Happy Birthing Parent Day to all whose large gametessss..."

Rowling: "Happy Birthing Parent Day to all whose large gametess were fertilissed resulting in ssmall humanss whose ssex was asssigned by doctorss" Ben Shapiro: SIR!! Shapiro: SIR how dare you SIR that joke SIR is my one joke!! Rowling: ya sssnooze ya lossse, shapiro!

Shapiro: i have a paper trail SIR going back decades proving ownership, i have told that joke SIR every year at mothers day SIR and fathers day SIR Shapiro: which by the way SIR today is NEITHER Shapiro: so that joke doesn't even make sense SIR Shapiro: owned with facts and logic

Rowling: ha ha get a load of this heckler Shapiro: SIR!!! Rowling: kid don't tell me how to do comedy, i don't come down to the sssissster fucking factory and tell you how to do your job [rimshot] Shapiro: SIR!!!

Shapiro: SIR!! Rowling: look i'm not saying ben sshapiro is sshort but when he liess around the housse he really liess around the housse [rimshot] Shapiro: SIR!!!!   Shapiro: SIR!!!! you have the boorish manners of a yalie!

Rowling: [reading newspaper] the reviews are in! Rowling: "rowling killss in new one joke comedy sspecial" Rowling: "no sseat left dry asss comedy-loving public pissss their pants in ssusstained debilitating laughter" Rowling: "you are legally mandated to enjoy it"

Rowling: "we look forward to hearing jk rowling tell her very hilariouss joke for yearss to come" Rowling: "jk rowling is the kindesst, bravest, warmesst, mosst wonderful human being we've ever known in our life"

[piratefishmama]

Forgiven Not Forgotten | Part 8

The mirror wasn’t weird anymore. But Eddie still found it sort of unnerving to look into it. To see scars on his face. Scars that told the story of time having passed. Time he didn’t remember passing, and knowing that, from context clues and behaviours of the people around him…

He should remember it passing.

They weren’t telling him something. Keeping truths from him for his own good and while yes, nice, lovely, they were protecting him from something undoubtedly harsh, the urge of wanting to know was more of a pain in the ass than it’d ever been before.

Curiosity killed the cat and all that jazz.

Unfortunately he wasn’t a cat, he didn’t have nine lives, he had one, and that’d already been taken from him, so he was really pushing his luck. Especially considering he wound up on that little trip out into town, partnered up with team super girl. Or team Byers-Hopper. He’d wanted to be with the people he knew, Steve, Robin, Nancy… but no, Eleven, the actual superhero had linked her arm with his, and that was that.

She basically adopted him. Pulled him into the direction of team Byers-Hopper.

“She’s comfortable with you” Joyce explained from left field, they’d wound up in a music store after several clothes stores, and Eddie, while mindlessly flicking through the metal vinyl’s, had been watching the psychokinetic teen perusing bins with Will for tapes, Hopper somewhere down the aisles looking for an album to replace one he’d lost in the chaos.

“Can’t imagine why, I don’t know her.” He knew of her, but only through the brief ‘there’s this girl, she has superpowers’ run down during the great Eddie Munson manhunt of ’86. She was the girl. He didn’t know what he expected, but… it wasn’t her.

She looked so fragile. Her hair at her chin, styled in a way that Eddie recognised as someone who also didn’t quite know how to handle natural curls. With a brush and nothing else.

Too young to have been through what she’d been through. She should be in a mall somewhere, trying on clothes, gossiping about boys, or girls, or anything not related to fighting for her life.

She shouldn’t have been through what she had. But then, none of them should have been.

“We find it best not to question it when El takes a shine to someone, it means good things, that’s what we’ve found so far. It means there’s something good in you.”

“Well… if anyone were going to see it… m’glad it’s the superhero.” Joyce smiled, gave him a gentle pat on the back that shouldn’t have been as comforting as it was, probably the overwhelming amount of mom energy she seemed to just radiate, “…do you know what they’re hiding from me?” Just as out of left field as her appearance beside him was, and it had at least some of the desired effect.

She looked surprised. She looked uncomfortable, she looked… like she knew.

“It’s nothing that you did, Eddie, I promise you. I think… I think they’re keeping it quiet because… if you did wind up remembering… the government would likely try and blame you, they’d have an excuse to blame you, the fact that you don’t, well I think that is what’s keeping you out of a lot of trouble.” It was keeping him safe. Keeping him out of the line of fire. Even if it was also keeping the people he’d tentatively begun thinking of as friends… out of reach. “They’re probably trying to avoid jogging that memory of yours for your own safety.”

“So there should be memories…” finally, some kind of clarity. While they’d all been nice to him, while they’d all been glad he was okay, nobody acting like he didn’t belong there, nobody being mean to him… Steve wouldn’t even help him unpack! He and Steve had been fine during the whole Vecna thing, they’d been okay, they’d laughed and joked, they’d gotten along, and now— “did I hurt Steve?”

“Not that I know of, he wouldn’t have told anyone if you did though, knowing him he’d be keeping it to himself to stop you from receiving the fury of The Children. So if you did, you’d have to pry that from him yourself.” Right… pry the knowledge from Steve. Okay, he could do that… if he could get Steve alone then maybe, just maybe, he could talk to him.

Steve was the only one who knew about his void, right? He was safe with Steve, he could talk to Steve. “I suppose I’ll speak to Steve then, thanks Mrs Byers”

“It’s Joyce, Eddie… you can call me Joyce.” He nodded, his smile small, but there.

“Eddie!” And there was the Supergirl, having left the bin to join them, taking his arm to pull him back with her toward Will “there are tapes you will like here. Will says you like Metal, I think I have found some, the name says Iron something, and I am certain that that is a metal.” Joyce offered him a smile, before releasing him from their conversation with a gentle shoo motion.

His attention switched to El as she pulled him along, and with a much bigger smile, he confirmed that “yeah, that’s a metal, Ellie, why don’t we find something for Max too, since I’m sure she could do with something other than Kate Bush by now” and gosh couldn’t that smile of hers just light up a whole goddamn room and make all those negative thoughts just disappear into the wind?

“Yes, I think so too.”

They dropped off the new tapes at the hospital on the way back to home base, the car fully loaded with clothes,it was intended to be a quick visit, Max was still asleep, so they didn’t plan to stay long, but Lucas was there beside her as usual, reading wonder woman comics to her as she slept. She’d wake up soon. The doctors said she would, and he’d be there when she did.

El added a new little woollen friendship bracelet to Max’s wrist, alongside the three others she’d already placed there through the week and whispered something to her, nobody caught what it was, nobody tried to. If El wanted everyone to know what she said, she’d have said it out loud.

It was Lucas who made him feel less like a piece of the background, just by smiling at him and asking him “you doin okay, Eddie?” Checking in with him.

“Feels like I need a montage to catch me up on what I’m missing but… yeah m’good man. Red likes Wonder Woman?”

“Mhm, big on the girl power, y’know? As if anyone could be tougher than her” as if anyone could be braver.

El was pretty damn special but… El could throw things with her mind, could snap all the bones in a human body with a thought, Max was just… Max, impossibly brave, but so very human.

“Princess Diana would bow at her feet, I have zero doubts. What about you though? You’ve barely left this place, can’t be good for you…”

“I’ll rest when she’s awake, she’d do the same for me. And before you say it don’t worry, I’m fully prepared to endure her attitude when she finds out how long I’ve been here. She can be mad at me all she wants, I’ll be here when she wakes up.”

“Good…. m’glad y-you’re… you’re prepared, stalker…”

Part 10

[morganbritton132]

hey! firstly wanted to thank you for this whole eddie munson tik tok saga, it’s seriously brilliant and hilarious and always something i look forward to. i know you’ve said that you weren’t really going to go into detail on the specifics of the world (ie other characters careers and lives etc.) but do you have any vague ideas on where exactly the others ended up? like i saw that you jonathan’s a photographer in a different state, and i know dustin lives close by, and i think you said something about max and lucas still together, but have you got any other information or little headcanons you can share? (like who ended up with who?) feel free to ignore this btw ik it doesn’t exactly fit into the stuff you normally post so no worries if you don’t want to acknowledge it 😂 again, i love this series so much thank you for putting so much time and effort into it!

I actually have talked a bit about what jobs that I think everybody would have in this post!

I left Mike and El out because I haven’t really come across a job that feels right for those two. Someone did suggest once that they thought that a good career for El would be working with child protective services, and I think that’s fitting. I think it makes complete sense that she’d want to help children out of bad situations. My only problem with it is that working for CPS is a very noble profession, but it’s gotta be depressing as hell.

And also, I don’t think that El should have to work.

She saved the world multiple times. I don’t think she should have to participate in the capitalist hellscape that is having a job.

As for where everybody lives and who they’re with:

I don’t know if I’ve ever stated it outright, but Steve and Eddie live in the suburbs outside of Chicago. Everybody lives in or around the Chicago area, except for Jonathan and Argyle who live in California and Erica who lives in Washington DC. People have moved in and out of the state, but currently almost everybody is within driving distance.

Hopper and Joyce still live in Hawkins. Wayne lives in Florida now and stresses the fuck out of Eddie when he refuses to evacuate for hurricanes. Also, Karen divorced Ted and she remarried a wonderful man that loves her and pays attention to her, and supported her when she wanted to go to college.

I take some hard stances on who is together in this, but every other relationship will probably stay vague enough that if disagree, it can ignore it. Definite relationships in the Eddie Munson TikTok Saga: (1) Nancy and Robin are technically married but still refer to each other as their girlfriend or partner, (2) Max and Lucas are married, (3) Jonathan and Argyle are together but not married, (4) Dustin is in an on/off relationship with Suzie that is currently off, and (5) Jeff has a wife and she’s wonderful even though she has never been mentioned.

That leaves Mike, Will, and El up for interpretation (Again).

I pair Mike and Will up as a couple, but I’m honestly not very invested in the relationships of the younger kids (except Max and Lucas) and doubt that I’ll ever explicitly talk about them as a couple in this AU. SO, if you think that Mike and El should be together, I think you can probably interpret any Mike/Will things as them being friends.

Also Erica and Tina are a couple.

[arcadiabaytornado]

If you don’t mind sharing, I’m interested in hearing what your thoughts on Karen are. You do such a good job at analyzing Joyce so I’m curious to hear what you have to say about her.

Karen Reynold's is such an interesting character for me because I can never form a consistent opinion on her. At the end of the day I really like her character, and I really love all the nuance she has, but I think a lot of the decision's she made in life were poor.

On one hand: As a women who was born in the bible belt, I can super sympathize with Karen's story about being raised to think that the only real option for happiness she had was to get married and have kids, despite the fact that wasn't what she wanted. I can easily see how her parents, and society, contributed to the decision's she made, and I think Karen is a good character study of what happens when you try to force someone in a role they aren't meant to play because of "Well. That's what you're supposed to do."

On the other hand: Children are real people. They aren't toys that you can throw away when you decide that you don't want to play house with them anymore. I do sympathize with a Karen a LOT but like...at the end the day, the people who were punished most for her choice to have children were her children. And it's not Sean and Daniel's fault they were born.

I do think it was selfish for her to get up one morning and leave with no contact because like...Sean and Daniel were already alive. It really sucks that she had kids and then decided that wasn't the life she wanted for herself, but that was the life she made. To be clear: I don't think she owed anyone the role of wife and mother. If she wanted to divorce and then let the Esteban take the kid's most of the time then I think she had the right to do that. HOWEVER, it's like...she could have sent a birthday card.

In fact, She could have sent texts. She could have called or facetime every once in a while. She could have swung by on birthday's and/or holiday's. The point is, she had more options than just "Be a caged housewife or completely abandon your kid's with no explanation." There was a middle ground with more nuanced options and she had no interest in taking it.

So that's where I am I guess. I understand Karen's motivations, and I LOVE the LIS franchise for showing a deadbeat Mom who's nuanced, because most series would portray a women who didn't want to be a wife/mother as the devil incarnate. But I do think it was wrong of her to abandon her kid's like that, and I'd say very quickly that about a man as well.