#for jonathan i was thinking when he's going through the forest with his camera

[fairysteve]

Steve has always had an affinity for water. The pool in the backyard was as much a gift to him as it was something for his parents to brag about; the heated waters welcomed him year-round, like the embrace his parents wouldn't give him. He sometimes thinks he has spent more time by the pool than he has done inside the house.

He never expected the water to respond to him.

-

Nancy has only viewed fire as a tool, something to light candles, and cook food. She's familiar with the warmth of her parents hugging her, the warmth in her chest when her younger siblings achieve something. And she can wield her pen with a passion only likened to how fire consumes.

She didn't think her fear and rage would ever burst into sparks.

-

Jonathan has tried to be a cliff for his mum, and for Will, for as long as he can remember. A steady presence to ground them when things are rough, with Lonnie, with school, with anything. He thinks things through unless his family is involved; then everything inside him rushes like an avalanche.

He barely notices the rocks tumbling alongside him in his single-mindedness.

-

Robin has always felt out of place, in her family, in school, in Hawkins. She wants to see the world, find somewhere she fits in, wants to find change instead of forcing herself into a mould. There's pressure in trying to melt in and adapt when the norm is the opposite of your truth.

She isn't all that surprised when the mud bursts like her words.

-

Eddie never shies away from being himself, from being loud, from being brash. He wants to be heard, with his words, with his movements, with his music. There's a rush to be found in doing what he wants. And he knows how to fill a room just with his presence, knows how to bring a sense of family to the people who need it. But he can appreciate the quiet too, the moments with his uncle, the moments with a new song. He doesn't have to be loud to be known.

He shapes the wind as easily as he plays the guitar.

[spicysix]

your sweater (up over your head) | 1/6

2.9k words | next | masterlist | ao3 warnings: period-typical homophobia, Steve's parents are their own trigger warnings, implied use of a word as a slur (word doesn't actually show up on text), canon-divergence author's note: happy Stonathan saturday, and happy pride! 🧡🏳️‍🌈 this first chapter is cute and fluffy, but don't let it fool you! *taps fic on top of its head* this baby can hold so much angst. happy reading! ♡ written for @steveharringtonbingo, square/prompt: A1 - "you just gotta be yourself".

Steve’s new house is nice. It has a heated pool, and he can look at it from his bedroom window. His dad has his own office, and he won’t be pissed to have to work in the living or dining room when Steve was there at the same time anymore. His mom has a lot more cabinets in the kitchen and that makes her happy for a reason that only moms understand.

There’s a weird creepy forest behind their backyard, but Steve is old enough and brave enough to not fear it. He ventures it, actually. Explores it. It isn’t as creepy in the daylight, Steve is more weary of it at night when he looks at it through his bedroom window, past the blue glow of the pool. There’s a huge facility in the middle of it, Steve finds it someday. A lot of guards with guns and people with white coats and suits and Steve doesn’t like the looks of it, so he steers away from it. Goes a little further east.

That’s when Steve first sees him.

He’s a scrawny kid, and his tee and bagged shorts are way too big for his body. He’s short, and tiny altogether but his bowl cut is voluminous, which Steve thinks is a funny view. He has a camera in his hands and is taking pictures of the trees when Steve steps on a twig, and the noise startles them both. The kid looks back and their eyes meet.

He has these tiny eyes, but Steve can see from afar the contrast of how dark brown they are against the boy’s pale skin. He narrows them at Steve, making them almost disappear. He has a sharp jaw and a chin dimple, an almost cartoonishly-drawn cupid bow, and exceedingly pink lips.

Steve only remembers thinking how weird it is, that a boy is so pretty.

He tucks that thought down way in the back of his mind archives.

“Who are you?” the other boy asks, and his voice has that funny husk of puberty to it.

“My name’s Steve. I just moved here, my house is that way through the woods.” Steve points at the general direction of his house, even though he isn’t so sure where it was anymore. “You?”

“I’m Jonathan. I also live nearby,” he says and only then Steve notices that it might have been kind of dumb of him to tell an unknown kid where he lives. Jonathan seems smarter, though, and doesn’t make the same mistake as Steve. “You moved from where?”

“Chicago.”

“Not far.”

“No.”

They keep staring at each other for a while. But Jonathan isn’t squinting at Steve anymore, his posture seems more at ease, and Steve takes that as a sign that he can come closer. He then notices Jonathan’s camera is one of those instant films.

“Those are nice.” Steve points at the revealed films Jonathan was holding. “You like taking pictures?” he asks, and Jonathan nods.

He hands the films over to Steve, and he doesn’t know much about pictures, but he likes Jonathan’s. It’s a clear summer day, no clouds on sight, and so the pictures are well-lit. Jonathan captured some funny-looking trees, a few beautiful flowers, even a squirrel going up on a trunk.

“They look good,” Steve compliments, and again thinks about Jonathan looking pretty once he blushes at the praise. And again Steve tucks that thought into a hidden mind spot.

Jonathan suddenly lifts his hands holding the camera and takes a picture of Steve. They both laugh when the film clears and Steve is captured looking startled, eyes huge and mouth half-open. Jonathan tucks the picture into his back pocket.

They wander through the woods together after that. Jonathan takes a few more pictures before putting away the films and letting the camera hang from a strap around his neck. They talk a lot too, getting to know each other. Steve had just turned fifteen late July, and Jonathan was going to turn fourteen in November. Steve was going to start High School in this new town, Jonathan was going to start his final year of Middle School. Steve is an only child, Jonathan has a younger brother. Steve likes sports, Jonathan doesn’t. Steve likes the poppy tunes on the radio, Jonathan likes weird European rock bands that Steve had never heard about. They had basically nothing in common, and yet Steve wants nothing more than to be Jonathan’s friend.

“I have a few of those films back home. My uncle gave me one of these cameras last year but I don’t use it at all. I could give them to you if you want them?” Steve doesn’t lie when he offers. He really doesn’t use the cameras, and Jonathan clearly will.

“Are you sure?” Jonathan asks, carefully excited.

Steve nods with enthusiasm. “Sure! They gotta be put to good use!”

And so they agree to meet at the woods again the next day, near that big facility Steve had seen earlier, and Steve will bring the films and see Jonathan once more. He barely sleeps that night thinking about it, not really understanding his weird reaction, but plays it off as excitement for his first new friend in the new town, even if they weren’t going to share classes or anything. He didn’t have many friends back in Chicago, and he wants to change that. Jonathan is a good start.

That was day one.

They spend every day after that together over the rest of the summer. Steve’s father doesn’t notice his absence, since he works all week at the office he opened downtown, and he works all weekend at the office in the house. His mother goes out some days too, but she doesn’t seem to mind Steve’s absence as well after he explains he met a nice neighbor his age, and doesn’t pry about it as well. Steve likes that she respects his privacy.

Steve and Jonathan talk about everything. Jonathan doesn’t like sports and especially hates baseball because it’s his father’s favorite, but doesn’t seem to mind when Steve talks about basketball. Steve understands why Jonathan likes those obscure European bands once he borrows a tape and actually gets to kinda liking them too. Jonathan takes other pictures of Steve and keeps them all, and Steve convinces Jonathan to take a picture of them together and Jonathan lets Steve keep that one.

Steve has had crushes before, he knows what they feel like. Kristine B. Williams was his first one, back in third grade, and he remembered the butterflies. Betty Turner, on fifth, and the way she smiled at him and his cheeks burned. Sarah Wells on seventh and the way it felt like his heart was going to beat right out of his chest. Laura O’Neil on eight and how he would sweat so much when she looked at him and he hated it, but she didn’t seem to care about his wet palms when she held his hands at the Winter Ball last year.

He never got to kiss any of them, always too nervous about it, but he remembers how much he wanted to.

His mom swooned when he told her about Laura O’Neil and their hand-holding and shared dance, and his father looked proud and said something about how Steve’s good looks would get him famous at High School before he found the perfect girl to marry.

Matty Boswell said he didn’t want to kiss Sharon Blake at her fourteenth birthday party and the rest of Steve’s classmates called him a weird word. When Steve asked his parents about it, his mom said that it was a bad word about bad people. Steve’s father said they were deprived, those men who liked men and women who liked women.

Steve feels dirty when he notices that through summer —  through all of their afternoons talking and listening to music and taking pictures and sometimes just laying in the grass together; he notices that the way he feels when thinking about Jonathan is the same as he felt with Kristine, Betty, Sarah, Laura. He remembers how his first thought when he saw Jonathan was how pretty he looked, how weird that was. He remembers the way his father spat out that word with so much hatred. And yet he can’t help the butterflies, the blushes, the fast-beating heart, the sweats. He can’t help how much he wants to kiss Jonathan every time they see each other.

“Have you ever kissed anyone?” he asks one day during the last week of summer, on impulse because the sun is hitting Jonathan’s face in a way that makes him look like something from a movie, the ones Steve’s mom likes to watch. Steve wants to take a picture, but he doesn’t have Jonathan’s talent for it. It wouldn’t look as good as the real sight.

“No, not really,” Jonathan answers.

“Never wanted to?” Steve asks again, toying with his shoelaces and not looking at his friend.

They had gone further south this time and ended up at a lake, Steve isn’t sure which one it is. They are sitting on a high rock with a privileged view of the water.

“No, not really,” Jonathan repeats, and Steve sees from his peripheral vision that Jonathan is already staring at him. “Not until recently.”

Steve’s heart is so beating so fast he’s afraid he’s going to pass out. He gathers  the courage to look back at Jonathan, and he has that pretty blush across his cheeks again. The sunbeams highlight some locks of his hair into a more golden shade, and Steve wants to tuck them behind Jonathan’s ear.

Steve remembers the disgust in his father’s voice.

Steve feels the butterflies throwing a party inside his stomach.

“Jonathan?” Steve simply calls his name, afraid to ask the actual question.

“Have you ever kissed someone?” Jonathan counters.

“No,” Steve answers.

“Never wanted to?”

“A few times, some girls back in Chicago,” his voice is faltering, and Jonathan’s voice is steady, and he looks much bigger than he is and Steve feels much smaller.

“Girls?” Jonathan asks, as if Steve is the weird one for wanting to kiss girls. “No one recently?”

Jonathan is asking the brave questions. Steve wants to be that brave.

When summer had just started and the Harringtons had just moved in, Steve had ventured and explored that weird creepy forest in his backyard and found a pretty boy there waiting for him. He had pink cheeks and lips, a chin dimple, a hideous bowl cut, and a puberty husk in his voice that sometimes made Steve laugh and sometimes gave Steve good goosebumps. He blossomed a weird creepy feeling in Steve’s chest, a forest full of butterflies inside his belly, and Steve wants to be brave enough to venture and explore those as well.

Summer is almost at its end and Steve drinks from Jonathan’s braveness.

“Recently, yes. There’s this boy,” his voice is still faltering and he still feels small, but he answers anyway.

The blush on Jonathan’s cheeks intensifies and it is worth it.

“A boy?” he asks and Steve nods, head bobbing up and down way more times than necessary.

He stops playing with his shoelaces and instead plants his palm right beside Jonathan’s on the rock they are sitting in. His pinky brushes Jonathan’s pinky, and he feels a wave of electric current through his body, like nothing he’d ever felt before.

“Do you think this boy wants to kiss me too?” Steve asks once again because that electric shock makes him even braver and Jonathan’s smile is worth it.

“I think he does.” And so he did.

They both surge forward and meet in the middle. Just a touch of lips, a chaste thing, but it is warm and it is soft and Steve has goosebumps and butterflies and he feels as if he could defy gravity and soar away. The only thing keeping him on the ground is Jonathan’s pinky intertwined with his and Jonathan’s soft, wet lips on his.

As they separate, Steve’s cheeks are burning and he sure looks just as pink as Jonathan does in front of him. They both smile, Steve wide and toothy, Jonathan with his shy little smirk. The sun is starting to set and it casts a golden light onto them and Steve wishes his eyes were a camera, capturing every moment.

That was kiss one.

Days keep coming and going, and they keep spending them together and Steve never wants the summer to end because he won’t be able to see Jonathan every day, not at school and not at their forest — Steve knows his parents will be more strict about school’s duties once he has them.

But Steve rejoices in the last days of summer anyways, and he admires Jonathan’s golden highlights under the sunbeams, and how he isn’t as pale as he was when they first met because the sun kisses his skin a little more golden too every day. And Steve kisses his lips a little more pink too every day.

They still venture and explore sometimes, but mostly they’d sit under a big old hickory tree (Jonathan tells Steve it’s a hickory tree, Steve knows nothing about trees), exchange cassettes and comic books, talk about their favorite movies — Jonathan likes horrors, Steve likes action — or just sit next to each other in silence.

And sometimes they just kiss all afternoon.

It never goes far, they don’t want to, don’t even think about it. They just caress each other’s faces, Jonathan’s cheeks always so pink and warm, and sometimes their tongues brush against each other’s and that electric wave goes up to a million watts, and Steve never felt happier. Whatever it is with Jonathan, and maybe it’s because he actually got to kiss him, but it’s much stronger than whatever he had ever felt for Kristine, Betty, Sarah or Laura.

Steve never wants the summer to end, but it’s ending anyway.

“I’m scared about High School. Moving cities was so weird, and I don’t know anyone in Hawkins besides you and you won’t even be there,” Steve murmurs on their last full day together before school starts. Their backs against the hickory tree, their pinkies intertwined just like after that first kiss and every kiss after that, and Jonathan squeezes his finger tighter.

“You’re a nice guy, Steve. You just gotta be yourself and you’ll find friends. And next year I’ll be there and we can hang out together too,” Jonathan assures him and Steve saves those words to repeat to himself later.

“You think I’m a nice guy?” he smirks at Jonathan and the other boy huffs. “I think you kinda like me…” he bumps their shoulders and that earns him an actual laugh. The butterflies are having a party. They always do, when Jonathan’s near.

“You’re a dork,” Jonathan says.

Sun is almost setting and that’s their cue. They share another chaste kiss, Steve’s butterflies go crazy again, and they part ways.

Steve walks a good bunch of steps before he looks back, as he always does. Jonathan is looking right back at him, as he always is.

“Don’t get some new friends and forget about me,” Jonathan yells and the trees carry the sound to Steve.

“I could never!” Steve yells back.

They wave at each other and follow their paths.

They don’t see each other much through September, because Steve has to study twice as hard to understand the subjects and keep his grades at a level his father can be proud of. He also joins basketball team and the practices take some space off his free time. On one of the only days they get to see each other, Jonathan explains that he’s having problems at home as well, his dad’s an asshole and his parents fight all the time.

They are only able to see each other once a week at most, and sometimes when there are too many tests and projects due, or an important game, Steve can’t meet Jonathan under their hickory tree. He always apologizes later when they finally see each other, and Jonathan always forgives him because he bets that High School is harder than Middle.

Steve doesn’t forget about Jonathan, though, he could never. He thinks about him every day, and he misses him every day, and when they meet up they make plans together.

They plan on going trick or treating together on Halloween at the fancy neighborhood — Loch Nora, Steve thinks that’s the name — but Steve’s father has no time to take him all the way across town and he says, “Steven, you’re too old for that children’s nonsense anyway.”

They plan on having their own Thanksgiving picnic — the day after the actual holiday, of course — but Steve’s mom doesn’t let him out and she says, “we are supposed to spend the whole weekend together as a family, Steven!”

They plan on meeting during winter break and maybe exchanging gifts — “It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, Steve, I know your folks are rich, it can be something handmade” — but Steve’s parents take him with them when they travel to Illinois to see their family.

Steve’s and Jonathan’s plans never go right and they never get to see each other after October. Steve even misses Jonathan’s birthday in November, and he cries silently in his room after his parents are asleep. Steve doesn’t forget about Jonathan, though, he could never. He thinks about him every day, and he misses him every day, and he can’t wait for the new year to come, bring a new wave of Freshmen into High School, Jonathan along with them. Steve’s butterflies have parties only thinking about it.

That was year one.

[purposefully-lost]

There was a gun in his hand. It felt right; the cold metal, the weight, the power it held. Alex had taken three lives in his life and he knew that should be enough for anyone, but he couldn't shake the thought that he might need it again one day. Someone would find his photos or his tapes, or they'd see right through his little story about being taken hostage on the night that Jonathan Stone died, and someone would come hunting. He thought about David Mckinney, the angry young man he'd met at the memorial that'd been held for the dead. His parents died in those woods, he'd said. He wished he could've killed the Jack Rabbit himself. He wished Alex had taken his time, let it be a slow death. He had a lot of fire and Alex couldn't imagine that his home wouldn't start burning if he was ever found out.

So he bought himself a gun. The weapon he'd taken Rabbit's life with had likely gotten wrapped up in evidence, but the pistol in his hands might as well have been the same exact one. The only difference was that the serial number hadn't been filed off. Alex turned it over in his hands, resting his finger lightly on the trigger, toying with the safety, peering down the barrel. For a moment he thought about Rabbit with a gun to his temple and his hands wanted to mirror the action- not to shoot, but to know what it had felt like. Slowly, he lifted it, closing his eyes when metal met skin. He sat with it for a long moment, wondering what would've been going through Rabbit's mind.

He'd asked Alex not to look. He tried to picture how that would've played out, if his eyes had squeezed shut moments before the gunshot sounded, if he'd looked up again to see Rabbit's brains scattered across the forest floor. He wondered if it would've looked anything like the officer he'd killed with an axe. He wondered if it would've hurt as badly as the shot in the chest. He wondered if Rabbit had hated him, just a little, for stealing his chance to go out by his own hand.

"Kinda wish I could do it," he said outloud, to no one. He was sitting criss-cross on the wooden floor of his new living room, still bare of furniture except for an end table he'd taken from the apartment and a number of boxes still being unpacked. There was a couch at the furniture store down the road he thought he was going to have delivered tomorrow, but maybe he didn't have to. It wouldn't be hard to let it go. The barrel was still pressed to his temple, his finger still on the trigger. He couldn't remember if the safety had been on or off the last time he switched it. He closed his eyes again. "You made it look so easy. Just point and shoot. Just like taking a picture." His lips quirked just slightly towards a smile. "You know, that's what I was thinking about? When I fired? I- I thought, it's like a camera, and I've got good aim, I won't miss... not only was it bullshit, it was.. dorky. Can you imagine? Knowing I was thinking shit like that when I killed you?"

For some reason, he never had trouble saying that part outloud, even though it made every bone in his body ache with something deep and weary. Maybe it was that it was almost funny. It would've been funny, if Rabbit had been here to laugh with him. Alex heard his own breath hitch.

"I was gonna tell you, you know?" He asked, his voice a little quieter and carrying a rough edge. "I wanted to wait until we'd left. I- I couldn't tell you just for it to get taken away again if we got caught. How stupid." Alex trembled. He could feel the gun shaking against him. "How fucking stupid! I should've just.."

His hands wanted to squeeze and he realized how dangerously close he was to just to pulling the trigger on accident. He held it there a moment longer, his heart in his throat, unsure even to himself as to whether or not he was considering it. And then he slowly lowered the gun down, checked the safety, and tucked it into its case. Pressing his face into his hands, his breath hitched again like he wanted to cry, but he couldn't get the tears to form. He made a frustrated, angry noise. There was more he had to say, but no one to say it to. He sat still for a long time and wished he could at least have cried about it instead.

[justsomeoneintoomanyfandoms]

hi! i was wondering if i could get romantic matchups for stranger things, narnia and lok?

i'm 6'0 and have amber eyes, long gold blond curly hair and hourglass figure

i'm enfp, leo

i'm demisexual panromantic

my pronouns are she/her

i'm positive and upbeat person, i try to see the bright side in most situations

i'm friendly, energetic, confident, sarcastic, responsible, maybe a bit chaotic, cheerful and bubbly

i care about my friends and family a lot, and go out of my way to show it

i enjoy having fun and living life to the fullest

i'm very competitive and passionate person

i really like puzzles, riddles and crosswords

i love making people smile

i have morbid, dark sense of humor

sometimes i randomly say a weird obscure fact in the middle of conversation

i can play on violin, cello, piano, guitar, saxophone, harp and drums, i'm currently learning how to play on trumpet

i like poetry and sometimes i write a poem or two, also i'm writing my book

i'm ballet dancer since i was a kid and i love performing

i'm working on my own cartoon

i never quite grew out of the fantasy phase, and i'm still enamored with tales of changelings and witches

i work as illustrator for fantasy books and books for kids

i'm kinda struggling with taking rest, doing nothing, because there is always something to do, something new to learn, etc.

i'm afraid of stagnation

i overuse this kind of emojis→(⁠ㆁ⁠ω⁠ㆁ⁠)

my style is something between whimsigothic and cryptidcore

i love: sunflowers, collecting things, colors yellow, maroon, blue and green, astronomy, tea, making and watching movies, photography, forests, making jewelry, cooking, baking, d&d, fantasy books, horrors, playing chess, animals, plants, dollmaking, dancing, gardening, traveling, drawing, painting, knitting, art, history, world mythologies, spirits, fantasy creatures, eldrich beings, folklore, sculpting, works of J.R.R Tolkien, linguistics, death, burial, beliefs about afterlife, learning new things, embroidery, cartoons, music, psychology, writing

sorry if it's too chaotic

thank you so much for even reading this!

Hi Anon! Thank you for your request! I hope you like your matchups!

In Stranger Things, I match you with...

Your artistic whimsical nature matches Jonathan's creative side well!

Photography dates are a must! You'll both take your cameras (or photography device of choice) and set out on a walk around the town.

When you get back, you'll either look over the photos or get to work on a related project. There's not usually much talking during this part of the date but the company more than makes up for it.

Jonathan would probably be a bit concerned about your sense of humour but as an artist himself, he can certainly appreciate it. You don't get into the arts without a bit of a morbid sense of humour.

Thinks your cartoon is the most amazing thing he's ever seen. He can't even begin to imagine how much work has already gone into it and how dedicated you are to the project. If there's anything he can do to help you with it, just ask; he's ready and willing to help in any way he can.

Jonathan also loves watching you dance. He might join in if he knows the song but for the most part, he just likes watching you. He will take pictures (assuming you're okay with that) and make a portfolio dedicated to your performances.

In Chronicles of Narnia, I match you with...

Lucy loves that she has someone else in her life who enjoys the more fantastical and whimsical side of things!

Long walks through Narnia exploring every path that looks interesting. When you return to Cair Paravel, there'll be questions regarding where you both were for the last few hours but you both enjoy those walks too much to give them up.

Lucy doesn't really get your sense of humour, but she's used to it since Edmund has the same style. You and Edmund are unstoppable when you get joking together.

Loves reading fantasy books with you. She'd especially like it if you take turns reading a chapter out loud while the other works on a creative project.

I see Lucy as someone who enjoys embroidery as well so she'd love making things for you. Whether it's as simple as a flower on a handkerchief or as complex as a portrait, she likes giving you projects that have her love and affection quite literally woven into them.

Listening to music is a must. Whether you're playing or someone else is, Lucy loves spending time with you while music's playing. If you're not the one playing, she'd pull you up to dance with you.

In Legend of Korra, I match you with...

Opal comes from a fairly creative family so she's used to being around people who see the potential art in everything. Her brother also has a fairly dark sense of humour so she'd used to that as well.

Opal's a very free person so life will never feel stagnant with her around. Not to mention, she's friends with the Avatar, so there's always something happening.

Loves listening to you play music. I see her as someone who knows how to play an instrument or two so if you're up for playing with someone else, she'd love to join in.

Admires your optimism. It's a trait that she tries her best to uphold as well. Having a positive attitude, even when things aren't going well, is sometimes the best thing.

Opal would love reading your poetry! She thinks you're very good at it and always has good feedback to give you. If you write a poem about her, she would keep it somewhere she can read it everyday.

[thequeenofshebasays]

There’s an Insider article claiming the show edited the scene with Jonathan taking pictures. Fans (particularly Steve and Stancy fans) are claiming Jonathan took pictures of Steve and Nancy hooking up but he only took inappropriate pictures of Nancy and it wasn’t sexual in his eyes at all. It was still wrong but he freaking apologized and was punished enough in the show and by fans. It just makes me so angry. Do these same fans not see how pushy Steve was to Nancy about sex or his bullying in S1

Insider is stupid tabloids so don’t listen to them lmao. Also anyone can write an article for anything these days. Steve Stan’s need to stop pretending to he objective and admit they worship they dude.

Anyway back to the point: I remember that scene perfectly upon first viewing of the series. And I’m going to be honest with y’all, I never personally had an issue with him taking the photos lmao. Not for any moral reasons just that I guess as a person that views media I’ve seen worst things and I also understand narratives and try to understand why a certain scene was put in the show. Jonathan Byers up to that point was my favorite character, and he was still my favorite during and after that scene lmao.

But I’ll tell you why: the scene had a LOT going on: Barb dying, Nancy being pushed into having sex for the first time by her pushy boyfriend, Jonathan taking the photos. It’s amazing how folks ignore all the other shit happening in those few minutes just to dredge up that Jonathan took photos.

Jonathan was taking photos of the whole party… AFTER he stumbled across it by mistake, he was looking at where Will’s bike was found, he was trying to be helpful and look for clues. He wasn’t looking for Steves house. He started to take photos of the group and it’s interesting because he captures Barbs last moments, he sees that she looks sad. And he draws his camera up and takes a photo through the window bc he’s human and then he stops. He realizes what he did. Nancy was in her bra yes but nothing beyond that… … Nancy and Steve were not having sex against the fucking window lmao. Like if you only listened to idiots online you’d think he was in the crawl space above Steve’s bed with a video camera… like holy crap.

And I’ll keep going: he stops and he legit visibly looks uneasy like he realized what he just did. It wasn’t sexual, Jonathan isn’t like that. He just got caught up in the moment, and he stops.

And only looks back when he hears Barb make a sound and he doesn’t see her anymore. And he shrugs and heads back to his car.

When I watched that scene the first time I was intrigued and confused, I was wondering where they were taking the Jonathan character, I was wondering why they had this scene, but mostly I kept thinking that Jonathan was going to get attacked by the monster right after Barb bc I’ve seen horror movies. My take away was how Nancy’s (horrible) first time was being cut with Barb being killed… like the scene was intense and also just like really telling… it wasn’t a pleasant scene for anyone involved… accept maybe Steve…

I honestly forgot about the photos until the scene where the girl sees Jonathan developing them, and again… this was ONLY done for the plot. He wasn’t developing the photos to do anything with them later. And honestly it was lazy writing on the duffers part. They included the photo taking scene because it happened in an 80’s movie they thought was cool where a peeping Tom accidentally witnessed a murder… sort of rear window if you will. Just call Jonathan “Jimmy Stewart”… kids these days act like Jonathan Byers was the first to do this and is oh so evil for it… oh no…

But I’ll get back to the plot: it was a lazy way to move the plot along, how else would Jonathan gotten a photo of the demogorgon? He wouldn’t just be taking photos of the forest at night lmao. And we had to have to him not believe his mom or that there was a monster for a bit. So he couldn’t have seen it himself.

It was a plot device and that’s it. Folks need to move on from it. They’ve moved on from:

Steve pressuring Nancy to be intimate on multiple occasions.

Steve spying on Nancy through her window

Steve having a horrifying temper and jealous tendency’s that’s result in him slut shaming her publicly.

They’ve moved on Steve forcing HIS future plans on Nancy, not listening to her and telling her to just move on in S2

They moved on from Steve once again behind a dick and this time leaving her blacked out drunk at a party… which is honestly evil and if this show wasn’t this show but a normal teen drama on like WB or something, there wouldn’t be a Jonathan to save her… it would be horrifying.

And they moved on from him yelling at her because HE is jealous. Because HE is insecure. HE takes his issues out on her (I want anyone that brings up the S3 Jancy fight to shut the fuck up)

Everyone is ready to forgive and forget for steve, because they love his stupid block head and his dumb hair… because let’s face it… he’s very bland. But Jonathan did ONE thing that he apologized for (steve never apologized to Nancy for all the shit he did) because they don’t think Jonathan is cute or he’s boring… we’ll boo fucking hoo.

Anyway. Yes: the fandom is very stupid and selfish and horrible and it feels like they only watch the Steve parts and ignore ANYTHING else.

Also I wanted to add, when we look at how unhappy Nancy was after being with Steve that night and how she was just not happy with anything and then how happy she was with Jonathan and he made her smile… and then in S2 how happy she was the morning after… yup….

But yeah. Idk where this went lol. I clearly had a lot to say, I did want to add that I don’t condone what Jonathan did, like of course it’s not, but in the context of the show and how like… they forgot when Will’s bday was. Y’all can forget that one scene and move on and stop being idiots.

Go worship Steve and leave Jonathan Byers alone.

[pluttskutt]

I wrote yaay

»part 2«

a vampire eddie drabble because i had to, be aware it's just a scene with steve and him meeting so yeah anyways:

Steve put the flashlight in his mouth. Unzipped his pants. Maybe he should drink less if he was to be stuck in the woods all night. Ugh. Damn kids. How could the others fall for this? They took it so seriously too. Nancy and her gun. Robin and her garlic. Jonathan and his camera to photograph and see if it truly had no reflection. Bunch of gullible idiots.

He rolled his eyes. Zipped up his pants.

A branch snapped behind him.

He took the flashlight out of his mouth. “Very funny.” He turned around. Saw nothing except the trees behind him. And the darkness of the deep forest. Probably an animal then. He aimed the flashlight the way he came from.

The light lit up a figure next to him. A figure that stood as tall as he did and hadn’t been there a second ago.

“Holy shit!” He swore and jumped back. Dropped the flashlight. “It’s not fucking funny! You know I hate the woods.” He expected Jonathan (or one of the girls really) to crack up at that. But no one said anything. And then he felt someone grab him by the throat and push him down on the ground bellow in one swoop.

Roots and stones poked him in the back. One of the two hit his thigh so hard he winched. His hand shot out for something-anything-and found a rock. He wrapped his fingers around it in a hold and smashed into whoever it was that sat atop of him.

The figure growled and let go, falling to the side.

Steve hurried to push himself up on his feet. His throat burnt from the touch. He had to get back to the clearing. Made it one step before he was pushed face down into the dirt. The creature sat on him. It stank decay like a rotten corpse. Shit. He was about to be eaten by a fucking vampire. After his whole speech about how they didn’t exist and this whole idea had been stupid. Shit.

He pushed his elbow up and tried to get a hit in as he spun around. Managed to get yet another hit in. Crawled backwards from the creature. Tried standing up but fell back on his ass. His leg hurt. Shit. His hands searched the ground frantically for a weapon to use. He grazed the flashlight. He tried to grab it but the figure grabbed his hand and tore him away from it.

The flashlight turned on.

The creature-monstrosity-sat on top of Steve and stared down at him wide eyed. Lips parted to show sharp fangs. The head moved side to side as if it was thinking. Considering how to best kill him. With the head followed a mess of brown hair framing the face. Leaves, grime, and dirt adorned it.

Steve stared at the face. Looked down at his throat. At his torso where a torn shirt prickled with blood dressed him. And at the fangs when the mouth opened in a horrifying grimace as he had decided what side of Steve’s neck to bite. “Eddie? Munson! Eddie!” Steve’s voice got louder when he got closer. The stench. Oh god, the stench of rot.

It stopped. The teeth lingered next to his throat. Cold hand wrapped around his neck to keep him down.

Steve inhaled through his mouth. Couldn’t see anything but the nightsky and the treetops covering the stars now. “Don’t do this. Man. Eddie!” He cried out when he felt the teeth on his skin. Raised his hands to push him away but it was like trying to move a boulder. Or a block of ice, given how cold he was.

But Eddie stopped. Moved his teeth-his mouth-away from Steve’s neck. Raised himself up again and looked down on his prey. Turned his head to one side, then the other. Watched him with great interest. Said nothing. Still hadn’t let go of his neck.

Steve grabbed the arm responsible for the hand and fingers around his throat. Tried to make it budge. His skin was cold to touch. No heat. Cold as a corpse. “Let go.” No indication he listened. And he went back down to Steve’s neck. “No. No! Eddie!”

He stopped again. Rose up to stare down at him. Tilted his head to the left. Watched him with a pair of big black eyes. Still hadn’t said a word.

Steve realised he was in for a very long night.

[slowlyandthenallatonce]

Aquatic

A/N: Hello all, this is a follow up to my fic The Night We Met, but it can be read as a stand alone fic. It's short, and sweet.

Aquatic

Rating: Mature, 17+

Pairing: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington

CW: Major Character Death, Swearing

Summary:

“Steve, it’s been a year.”

“I was having a good dream, Max.”

“You came from the trees.”

“Am I the fuckin lorax now or something?”

“No you ass! Just- shut up. I’m trying to say something beautiful and poetic about you.”

“Ok, Shakespeare, go on.”

“You came from the trees, everything about you was- are- are you taking pictures of me right now?”

“Yeah, just ignore me.”

“No, is that Jonathan’s camera?”

“Yeah, I asked if I could borrow it. Now, would you just- like fucking continue with what you were saying. Trees or something- come on the suspense is killing me-”

“What the fuck are you going to tell him when you give it back and there’s pictures of me naked in your bed, Steve?”

“Well, I’m gonna replace the film before I give it back, dumbass. Go back to reading- no wait- go back to calling me a tree.”

“When we met, the first time I ever saw you, what I see in you….you came from the trees. Everything about you is flora and fauna. Your eyes, your hair, your body. It’s like being in the middle of Hawkins forest, those haunted gray trees. Lost but not scared. 

“I could never be scared because you came from those trees. Your eyes, dark brown, and full. They say your pupils dilate when you look at something you love, and you always look….full. Your hair, shaggy as it may be, blown through the wind like free leaves. The same leaves, and the same wind that carried you to me. Your body, tall, slim, and strong willed. 

“My first time driving through Hawkins, I was met with the forest. This forest, which envelops us, surrounds us, holds us. And for the first time, I felt protected by your body. Everything about you is flora and fauna, filling me, freeing me, fortifying me….

“I love you Steve.”

“Billy, I….”

“Steve, kiss me.”

“Steve….”

“Steve.”

_______________________________

“Steve.”

His eyes blinked open. He found that his right arm dangled carelessly in the pool, while his other was awkwardly squished and tingly under his head like a bony pillow. “Dustin?”

Steve rolled over, the concrete around his pool bit into his shoulder blades, and sure enough it was Dustin. Dustin, Mike, Will, and….Max. Shit.

Dustin had nothing to say at the full sight of Steve laying there, so pathetically on the ground where he fell asleep. Max stepped forward, unfazed by his current state, and it hurt that Steve fully knew why she didn’t care.

“Steve, it’s been a year.”

“I was having a good dream, Max.”

“I told you it wouldn’t help-”

“Yeah, and it’s fucking summer again, ok! And obviously it did help because- because I had a really fucking good dream.”

Steve sat up, putting his hands over his eyes. He doubted the other kids knew what was really going on, probably chalking it up to seasonal PTSD from everything that happened at Starcourt last summer. If that were really the case he would be fucked up all year. 

“What happened?”

“It was his own fault anyway, and why do you care?!”

“He won’t tell me anything. Either he forgot or you actually made my dad embarrassed enough to be speechless.”

“I win a fucking fight for once, and he doesn’t even fucking remember it.” Steve muttered under his breath, standing and walking back to his house. “I had one beer ok, one. He came into the bar, already drunk, and started talking shit. I got- really pissed off.”

“What the hell were you thinking?! Look at you! I thought you were better now.” Dustin snapped.

“I’m fine it’s not as bad as it looks-”

Max huffed, a small smile on her face. “Yeah, that’s nothing. You should see my dad.”

“Hey, you don’t get to smile, you told me it wouldn’t help anything.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t make me feel great!”

An argument started bubbling between the three of them, and Mike found it somewhere in himself to be included. Before anything could get too bad, a gentle voice rang through the tension.

“Steve?” Will spoke.

“Yeah….”

“We’re worried- I’m worried about you.”

“Why? I’ll get over it eventually Will.”

“Well, because, you said it yourself. It’s summer again.”

“Ok, so?”

“Steve, trust me….you’re not gonna get over it.”

“Wow, thanks, that’s very reassuring Will-”

“Not unless you go and do what's really bothering you.”

_______________________________

He left the next night. He packed any summer shirt he thought he owned, a stack of cash from his parents, and every picture he took. Max and Will came by before he left, and Steve was convinced Will must have known something, however little it was. Will carried Max’s backpack for her, her hands full.

“Here,” She said, handing over a surfboard gingerly. “It was his, he didn’t have the heart to sell it before we moved. I think he always thought he’d be going back.”

“He might be there already.” Will smiled, and comforted Max when tears came to her eyes.

“I want to come with you.” She said, her voice tight knowing she couldn’t.

Steve put a hand on her shoulder. “I know, next time.”

“Oh, and um-” Max held her hand out to Will. He rummaged through her bag until his hands came up with a mixtape, passing it to Steve. “It’s for when you hit the water. He’d only ever play it while driving down the coast.” Max huffed a laugh. “You know, sometimes, when things were good. When things were ok between us, I’d ask if we could drive and listen to this tape. And he’d always say, ‘it’s not deep enough into summer yet’, whatever that meant to him, I didn’t know what he considered deep summer.” She took a deep breath. “He loved summer. And, lo-and-behold, there would always come those days when I guess it was ‘deep enough into summer’, he’d knock on my door, and we would go.”

It had the words The Eyes of California across it in blue marker. “What’s on it?”

“Um, a lot of weird stuff really. I think half of it is The Eagles.”

“Seriously? The Eagles? That’s- different.”

“I guess that’s what he thought belonged to California.”

“Ok, anything else?”

“You know where you’re going?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ll have to figure the specifics out when I get there but, yeah. I know where I’m going.”

“And you remember what I said about the board?”

“Yeah, it should be easy enough. At least it sounds easy enough.”

“It’s easier than it seems, trust me. It’s not like you’re trying to do tricks or something off it.”

“Yeah….” Steve shuffled on his feet, he argued, staying in his head one more time. 

He’d never been to the beach before.

“Goodbye Steve, call us once a day.” Will said, probably sensing his hesitance. 

“Bye Steve.”

He cleared his throat. “Bye guys.” He turned, getting in the car and rolling down the window.

“Steve-” Max came to the window. “Come back. He’d want you to come back.”

He said nothing. Words threatened tears, and promises were dangerous when he didn’t know if he could promise them. All he did was nod sternly.

_______________________________

Steve remembered. He’d tracked her down once, before they moved to Hawkins. He never went of course, wanted to but didn’t have the heart. Said she never could be too far from the beach. She moved north, and now lives in a small coastal town called Capitola. Steve had to knock around awkwardly a few times before he found anyone that knew who he was talking about.

She lived on the second floor of a building, above a quaint spiritual shop. It was a literal two minute walk from the sand, and therefore three minutes from the water. He was right, she never wanted to be far from the water. 

He hated that she looked like him, but remembered that if not for her, he would have looked like Neil. She had similar wavy blond hair, and bluish eyes, hers only tinted with green around her pupils. She was wearing a beach cover-up, and holding a book, lounging at the back side of her house near a jacuzzi, looking ready to go down to the water at any moment she pleased. 

It’s not like Steve looked any better. He was wearing a teal blue, flowery button up, it was light-weight and baggy, with it practically half open. He wore his sunglasses perched on the top of his head, and a pair of white shorts.

“Can I help you with something?” She asked after noticing his awkward hovering in the front of her house. She didn’t bother getting up.

“Uh, yeah. My name is Steve, and I uh, I just thought you would want to know….” He shoved his fists in his back pocket, fishing out a stack of photos and flipping through to find one half decent or mildly appropriate.

Steve paused on one, probably his favorite from that day. He laid in Steve’s bed, his back leaning up on the headboard. The sheets covered his nudity, with one leg in the white sheets and one leg out. In his right hand was Romeo and Juliet, his thumb holding the pages open. His left elbow was resting in a pile of pillows while he chewed on the knuckle of his index finger trying not to laugh, but not caring to hide the wide open smile on his face. The window was open behind the bed, leading to the trees. He’d just finished telling Steve about the forest.

“Excuse me? You were saying?”

Steve hadn’t noticed that his eyes had welled until a single drop hit his precious photo. “I thought you should know, your son is dead.”

There was silence. A stunned, staring, jaw slacked silence. “I’m sorry, wha-”

“Your son, William Hargrove. He died last summer. Here,” He came towards her, passing over the photo. “Sorry it’s kind of a- the picture is questionable but. Anyway that’s not the point, I just figured someone should tell you.”

She took the photo gingerly. “I-” then looked behind him. He turned as well, seeing a child, a little boy, and what was probably her new husband returning from the water. “Sweetie, can you hurry inside, I have to take care of something here.”

The two said nothing, giving Steve strange looks on their way past him. The boy said very quietly to him before going into the house ‘hi’, in the sweetest tone with a timid wave. 

Steve cleared his throat. “What’s his name?”

“Oh, uh, Joey.” Still looking at his photo. “You two were close then?”

“Very.”

“How did it happen?”

“He saved us.”

“I see.” She took a moment to look at Steve, passing the picture back to him; there was nothing more on her face than a hint of melancholy. Her eyes rested on the pendant at his chest, the corners of her mouth twitched up. “That’s mine, isn’t it?” Her fingers reached out. “Can I have it back?”

Steve frowned, his hand coming up to close around the necklace. “No. I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

“Please, it was the last thing he had to remember me by. Don’t you think it makes sense for me to have it back now, to remember him?”

“Like you remembered him when you left him with that fucking asshole!” Steve growled, and she only grew more irritated with him. “No, he left it to me! You don’t deserve it.”

“What? And you do?”

Steve paused at that. He promptly turned, stomping away and leaving her to yell after him all she wanted. He came and did what he meant to, there was no need to stay. 

So he stomped, down the stairs and to the shop under her house. Then he ran, he ran past people on the beach, the benches that lined the coast, past the breakfast diner, saltwater taffy shops and surf shops. He shoved past confused crowds of people and skaters for blocks, until he lost sight of sand and came to the rickety wooden pier. He didn’t stop there. He stumbled his way down the long pier, briefly catching the attention of fishermen and restaurant customers who wanted clam chowder. 

At the end of the pier Steve could finally breathe, but that also meant he could sob. People trying to watch the water stepped away from him, and he’d feel bad for disturbing them if he even had the ability to think about that right now. Steve thought about the year past, his barely existing, his ghost of a life. He might as well have been dead too. Even after he stopped drinking, stopped laying by the pool when it was too cold, and didn’t go on anymore midnight drives, he wasn’t alive, he was simply there in the absence of Billy’s love. 

Steve removed the necklace from around his neck, and held it over the open water. His hand shook, and he screamed at himself to let it go. Like depriving it of his neck would stop him from choking, and give him back his life. 

Did he want his life from before Billy?

He couldn’t drop the pendant, instead sinking to his knees at the end of the pier and resting his head against the wooden barrier.

The shadow of a child came over him, and he was met with the face of the little boy from before, Joey. The kid was holding a bundle of flowers. “Hi. You’re sad.”

“Uh, yeah….” He croaked.

“Do you need help?” The boy motioned to the necklace, and Steve nodded his head. He turned his neck, lifting the back of his long hair, and the little boy clipped it at the back for him. Steve stood, looking down, and the kid set the bundle of flowers, pink carnations, at the top of the rails. “These are for your friend. I like to leave flowers here sometimes, for people I don’t get to see anymore. Like my grandpa; he had to leave, so I bring him flowers. He always comes to pick them up eventually.”

“He does, does he?”

“Yeah, I mean, they're never here when I bring more. I leave them for him, so, yeah. I hope your friend likes them.”

“Thank you.”

_______________________________

Steve drove down to Santa Monica the next morning, listening to the tape from Max. It was perfect, and Steve concluded, deep enough into summer. It was hot, hotter than Capitola, and he thought Capitola was hot. Hell, Steve used to think Indiana was hot. 

His shirt stuck to his skin, and there were too many people. It was loud, crowded, it didn’t have the same kind of peace that the other beach had. But the food was good, and people were happy. He could picture Billy coming from a place like this. Most of all, he could see why he didn’t want to leave. 

Steve spent the day restless, and struggling to find ways to waste time before sunset. He couldn’t tell if it got busier as the day grew late, or if there was a calm coming over the beach. With twilight, the sky became gold and pink. 

Steve changed into a pair of swim trunks, stuffing a plastic bag in one of his pockets, and fastened a bottle of champagne around his waist with a belt. He knew it was a stupid idea really, and it would probably fall off, but it was the same brand of champagne they drank at Tina’s New Year Party so long ago. He tried best to remember what Max told him, and be careful with Billy’s board.

She said it was easy. All he had to do was swim out past where the waves broke, and sit on it. It’s not like he was actually surfing. With every coming wave, Steve lifted his body to let the water flow between himself and the surfboard. It was harder to do while balancing a bottle of champagne tied to his waist. 

But once he thought he had paddled, or more like struggled, far enough into the sea, Steve popped his champagne, and watched the sunset. His first beach sunset. He was just disappointed he couldn’t share it.

“When we met, or, when we didn’t hate each other. Or when I didn’t hate you- god I’m not as good at this as you are!

“The night we met, when I first saw you, the you that you really are, you came from the ocean. Everything about you was….aquatic. Your eyes, your hair, your body- and I know it sounds like I’m just copying what you said, but I’m stupid fucking Steve Harrington and I’m fucking trying ok.

“But you came from an ocean, just like this one. At any moment I could drown, but I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid. Your eyes were the deepest, most beautiful, blue I had ever seen, and I would sink if I could see them one more time. Your hair was heavy, waved, and sun soaked. Your body was dripping with gold, and your necklace didn’t even do you justice. 

“So, yeah, I wouldn’t be afraid to drown. Because you came from the ocean. Everything about you is aquatic. To drown would be to sink into your eyes, your soul, and as dark and blue as you might have thought yourself to be, I can’t find a better way to go. 

“Drowning would be like falling in love with you again. Love from you tasted like champagne and strawberry pop rocks, and the weird ass ice cream toppings you got. It was laying in bed and watching you re-read Romeo and Juliet because you longed for somebody to speak to you the way they spoke to each other. I’m sorry I never could. 

“Falling in love with you was- sweet. It was knowing you, how truly, perfectly, uncool you really were, and only I got to know what you really were. You liked cheesy romance movies, drawing hearts on my fucking windows, and you liked gentle sex. I mean- you liked all sex- but every time I fucked you like I loved you, you acted like nobody had ever fucked you like that before.

“Your love was just you- a deep ocean of your soul, chasing, blaringly loud, blindingly gold, the bluest of any blue, falling, sinking….drowning. 

“I loved you Billy. I hope you knew that. I hope I said it enough.

“I hope you can hear me….I love you.”

Steve took another long swig of his champagne. He reached into a pocket on his swim trunks and pulled out a small plastic bag. In it, a browning leaf from Hawkins forest.

There was also a photo of himself that Billy had taken after stealing the camera that day. He let out a choked laugh, that could be mistaken for a sob. In the photo, and at the time, Steve had taken a book off his dresser to hastily cover his genitals. There was a content, and somewhat surprised smile on his face. He could see the tops of Billy’s knees at the bottom of the photo from the angle he had taken the picture at. 

The last of his bag, a page that he tore out of Catcher in the Rye. “You said I wouldn’t find anything romantic about this book. Well I did, but, I guess it’s only romantic in the way that you found me in a forest, and I lost you to the sea.”

Taking another swig, looking towards the quickly setting sun, he gave a kiss to the photo and to the leaf, and he let them fall into the water.

But they didn’t sink, didn’t drown. They didn’t even really fall. They floated. They floated away.

And Steve read.

“This fall I think you’re riding for—it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn’t supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started.” -The Catcher in the Rye

▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽

A/N:

There you go guys, I hope you enjoyed. I really wanted to get this one out there. It was born out of my own depression. Pride month is supposed to be a celebration, but some things had just made me sad, and then came the idea to write this piece. (Sarcastic) wow, *Owen Wilson Voice*.

I really enjoyed writing it, and another thank you to my Snoop sis for reading it for me.

I really love this song, it's Aquatic by Son Lux.

[gloomyhearts]

That's life || Steve Harrington

Chapter six

November 8, 1983

Y/N's POV:

"Y/N" I was about to answer a question in my lesson as Hopper stepped into the doorframe.

"Miss Henderson could you come with me?" I nodded and followed him into a small and quiet room.

"Okay do you know anything about Barbara Holland?" He leaned against the door.

"No why?"

"Were you on Steve Harringtons party yesterday"

"Yeah I was but only one hour because Dustin was alone at home. I drove with my own car"

His elbows rested on his knees and he bend further to me, "so you want to tell me what's happened?"

"I arrived at Steve's house *how long has it been since I was here the last time* and Steve opened the door and let me in. We walked through the house to the backyard where everyone except Barb sat. Tommy and his girlfriend looked at me a bit irritated but I didn't cared that much.

After a while Steve came back with canned beer and gave everyone a cane but I passed but Barb took one I knew she would drive Nancy back home but Nancy kind of drilled her to drink it. Barb tried to opened the bottle like every other with a knife but it hadn't succeeded and she had cut herself. I went with her to the bathroom after we were finished I went back home and Barb stayed there." I buried my face in my hands, "I didn't even know she's missed. What happened?"

"Y/N we'll find her I promise" Hopper is kind of a good friend to my mother but it isn't like Joyce and his "relationship".

Sometimes all the families meet and Hopper is there too; he always looks like he wants to kill everyone but he's the nicest person on this earth.

"What has Nancy told you?"

"I haven't spoken to her yet."

"Talk to her yourself. And support her, please" I nodded and walked out of the room just to see Nancy walking around the floor.

"Nanc?"

"Y/N. Barb. I know what happened."

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

"Yeah mostly."

"Tell me what happened, please."

"After you went home Steve took me to his bedroom and Barb waited for me to finish "it". She sat at the pool and when I went to the backyard she wasn't there anymore. It's my fault." I embraced her; all her tears are falling on to my shoulder.

"We'll find her" I let go of her and wiped  her tears away.

"I think whoever took Barb wasn't a human. It was nobody who lives here." She whispered.

"What?"

"Yeah maybe a bear or something else but not a human trust me."

"You're serious?" She nodded.

"I heard clicks like a camera but Steve said I should brush it off. It was only in my head. I went back there Y/N and there was something it was big and it scared me."

"Okay Nancy I believe you but was someone else there? To support your sentence" she just shakes her head.

Hopper came out of the room and looked over to Nancy and me

"You're ready Nancy?" She walked over to him and turned to me when I gave her a small smile.

When I walked to my car which was in the near of Steve's. I heard how Steve and his friends threatened Jonathan. It looked like a picture what was torned into pieces. Steve has thrown those pieces onto the floor next to Jonathan camera. He did not; he's such an asshole. I opened my door and get in.

A few seconds later Jonathan sat next to me with tears forming in his eyes.

"Everything's good?"

"No Y/N. Steve is such an asshole how can he think that he's the king? He's just threading everybody like shit. How can Nancy be with him? She deserves so much better"

"I know Jonathan. But you know how Steve was in elementary school. And to be honest I have the feeling that Steve and Nancy aren't really in love."

"Really?" I nodded and started the car.

"But it doesn't bother me anymore they're allowed to do anything they want and if they want to pretending a relationship so they do."

Ten minutes after leaving the parking lot I was at Jonathan's house.

"Thank you Y/N. See you around." We all know that won't happen.

"Yeah. See you" I drove to my home when I was greeted by a nervous Dustin.

"Hey Dusti. What happened?"

"What? What happened?"

"Why are you acting so weird "

"Mm nothing. Really nothing."

"Dustin. You promised something."

"Okay so. Mike Lucas and me went searching for Will but we found a girl. Eleven. She said she would know where Will is."

"You did what?! You can be happy that mom or dad aren't here. You would get so much trouble."

"Yeah I know and I'm really sorry but this girl. She has powers" what?

"Yeah trust me. She has telecinese powers like"

"Yeah I understood but where did you guys found her?"

Dustin rubs his neck, "the forest"

"Next to Wills house?"

"Yeah"

"Where is she now?"

"At Mikes"

"you meet them tomorrow?"

"Yeah we meet at his."

"I'm coming with you"

"Y/N no that's no Jesus we're boys"

"Yeah and Mike has a girl in his basement. I'm coming with you" Dustin frowned because of me; because I'm embarrassing.

"I don't care what you think Dustin." I smiled and walked to my room.

I did my homework and was currently cuddling with meows on my bed.

"Y/N" I got called from downstairs.

"What?" I began to walk towards the stairs.

"What Dustin?" The frint door was opened.

"Steve? What the heck?" The second time? What's he doing here?

"Y/N" he hasn't spoken my name in years.

"You're friends with Nancy right ?" I nodded. "So she's kind of mad of me. Maybe you can talk to her."

"Mm maybe."

"What?! Why what's so difficult" he shouted

"you're asking me what's difficult to talk to her?! Why aren't you standing at her door right now and talk to her? Why the fuck are you here Steve Harrington"

"I actually thought we can talk to each other again," his graze trailer down.

he what? Oh I would love to but I can't not after all what he had done to me.

In middle school school Steve did everything to impress Tommy; he even cancelled our hang out session; he threw food in my face; he had pushed me off the swing; he took my food without asking, I mean he always did but that wasn't like the other times.

"You want to talk? About what?"

"We were best friends and now you aren't even looking to me in the breaks"

"Do you know why?! Because you're with Nancy, you're best friends with Tommy our enemy. You just left me" after those words I closed the door and slide it down until I sat on the floor.

"Y/N everything's okay?" Dustin walked over to me. He found me sobbing and searching after breath on the floor.

"Yeah everything is fine Dusti. It's just that Barb went missed too" he sat next to me and embraced me.

"Why was Steve here"

"he told me everything about Barb" he just nodded. He can't know it.

"Y/N?"

"Yes?"

"I know that you love Steve." Damn.

"Since when?"

"Don't know since the beginning? And I think you two would be the best couple in the world" he hugged me even tighter.

"Oh Dustin if that would be so easy"

"I know. Life sucks."

"Don't say that we'll find Will baby Dusti" we stayed in this position a few minutes until the phone rung.

"Henderson's."

"Y/N?"

"Nanc? What's wrong?" Nancy was in the other end; sobbing.

"Steve. He's just... Steve has thrown Jonathan's camera to the ground. He know Jonathan is my best friend. And now I know that I was right with the click sound. Jonathan was there and he has a picture. It isn't a human neither a bear. It's strange..."

"sorry Nancy wait a moment" I hold the phone a few inches away from me.

"Dustin Henderson where are you going?"

"Lucas and I wanna study something"

"it's already 6pm"

"yes but this can't wait. See you"

"wait Dustin. Call me when you arrived at Lucas'" he nodded and left.

"So it was not human or animal?"

"No it was as big as a bear but it hadn't a fur. It ate a deer and then when I wasn't around it took Barb..." she began to sob more.

"Nancy. Please calm down. Talk to Jonathan clear things up. Talk to Steve tell him what an asshole he is and that it can't go on like this."

Dustin pov:

Lucas, Mike, El and I were at the quarry. There were ambulances and police cars and officers everywhere. My friends and I looked at each other until Mike began to scream at Eleven for lying that Will is still alive.

Will is death.

I grabbed my bike and drove. My feet drove me to the only person who understands this.

Y/Ns POV:

The door rang what means I have to stand up; I was halfway sleeping.

As I opened the door I was kind of surprised.

"Dustin what are you doing here. I thought you'll sleep at Lucas'?" Without answering he took me in a tight hug.

What happened?

"Dustin what happened?" By now he was crying.

"Wi.. Will" he could barely answer in between his sobs. His teary blue eyes are looking at me

"What's with him?"

"He.. he... quarry"

"they found him in the quarry?" He nodded and by now more tears are streaming down.

"Oh Dustin. I'm so sorry." I'm not the best in emotional support..

"do you wanna cuddle with me?" He nodded again and I took him piggyback into my room. I set him on my bed down and walked out of my room.

"Where are you going?" He asked frightened.

"I'm going to pee"

After a few I was back and we laid down in my bed and he quickly fell asleep.

[curlymantis]

aaaa pls tell me stuff abt your ocs they're all so cool!! 🥺💚

Omg I finally finished answering this!!!!! 👀👀

Farcry 5: Zoë Seed!!

Omg that’s me 😏 she was an entomologist checking out the cool insects of Hope county and unfortunately for her she doesn’t believe in private property when it comes to discovering nature. One day chosen find her trespassing on John seeds property. They think she’s a spy for the resistance as she has a camera, binoculars etc. They take her to the main church (conveniently was a Sunday) once service is over shes handed over to the father and himself and John go through her camera. They only find insect pictures and omg wow she’s not a spy. She’s indoctrinated into the cult and ends up eventually becoming John’s right hand of god 😌🙏 sinners who happen to be an extra annoyance go to her where she makes them confess in whatever way possible. Or they die in the process, whoops 💅🏻 She’s polyamorous with all of the seed siblings including Faith cos like come on now let’s be real they all crave and need loving. However she’s married to John Seed because that baby boy is everything 😤❤️ She also likes to do cult posters and help write songs and sing them cos it’s fun as hell. She is closest with John and Faith Seed specifically out of the 4 Seeds. Other cultists are scared of her, or is it respect? Hmm who knows 😌 She also tortures sinners for fun and chases them around the forest making them as shit scared as possible. Oops 😏

The Magnus Archives: is my oc who is an Avatar of the eye and Rayn Porter is my oc who a avatar of the corruption. They both have the same last name as they are both the same person just if they had gone down different entity routes in their life. I’ll talk about Rose first! (I also have an avatar of the flesh and the vast but I haven’t worked on them yet or got them ‘fully fleshed out’ 😏

Rose Porter: avatar of the Eye, marked by the stranger, the spiral and the vast.

From an early age Rose always felt the need to watch people, to know, to understand. As she got older these feelings only became stronger and she begins to stalk people, not because she finds that person special for any particular reason they just happened to look to long at her and she saw them doing so. That just sets something off In her so now they must be followed, acknowledged, understood and scrutinised (me self projecting right into my ocs 😌). She found the Magnus institute one day as she started stalking Rosie. when she had seen the woman walking into a large glorious building she knew something was off, like the itching feeling you get, the feeling in your gut, the sensation of something important. She did not know what had over come her to walk in the building so quickly as that would ruin her chances of learning further about this person who dared make her feel so uncomfortable. But there she was. She was hired immediately of course as a librarian, then moving on the be an archival assistant, shocking to her. But obviously not to Elias Bouchard who knew just how useful her alignment to his almighty beholder. To say she had a crush on him would be an understatement. She can’t explain it. Some would call infatuation, some would call it chemistry, but smart ones say it’s because they are both devotees to the eye and she is in so much deeper than she has ever anticipated or even realises 👀

Rayn Porter: avatar of the corruption, marked by the flesh, the lonely and the stranger.

Rayn despises people (same queen 🙄) they put animals on a higher level of respect than humans. The corruption took ahold of them as a young child, they would always follow and play with cockroaches as a child. However their mother was to say the least an unempathetic, transphobic and cruel woman to say the least. Rayn was raised in a household full of scrutiny, hate and fear. Because of this had very little friends as the only social interaction they knew was their bitch ass mother they turned to the ‘pests’ of their home. Whether these were the slugs and snails in the basement of their home, or they were the cockroaches, house centipedes and rats that dwelled in their attic. They loved and appreciated them all, but their was still something deeper to it. A deep rot had started to form in Rayn and they hated their mother and family. They hated them for how they had cast them aside for not being female, they hated them for all the mistreatment they had faced as a child. The rot started small, a odd old smell that started to lurk around Rayn. Eventually others would notice the smell but would shrug it off as the smell would soon be covered by the smell of Rayns chain smoking. Then one day Rayn was staring in mirror poking at their face and squeezing. They found a sore on her face and squeezed it, pus comes out but something moves underneath. They squeeze harder and something wriggles forth, it’s a very small, juvenile cockroach, streaked slightly in something slimey. As you can imagine that fucked them up a bit, but they learnt to embrace it. Learnt to love that crawling away just underneath their skin are thousands of little legs connected to cockroach’s of many sizes. Sometimes if not managed roaches will find themselves sneaking out of nostrils, mouth and ears. Sometimes even out from behind her eyes. One way they feed the corruption is they set forth the filth at a selected location. All it takes is for them to place a cockroach down in a building and within a week there will be a infestation so strong causing the people in said building to be taken down with it. The Cockroaches will feed on those that they can over power and The Corruption always needs feeding... (Also just want to add cockroaches themselves aren’t actually dirty, they’re actually obsessive cleaners. the locations they live in are dirty)

Telltale Batman- Roz Traegers:

first encounter with John Doe (the eventually to be known Joker) was at the bar he frequented. They had never once seen him drink a drop of alcohol. He would order beer constantly for his alcoholic sure but never consume it himself. Aside from his alabaster white skin nothing about him seemed out of the ordinary to them. Well except the fact he liked to stare, a lot. You would constantly worry it’s because he was just judging you based on your appearance (a lot of people do) however John just likes to stare at people and found you interesting for some reason (cliches I know, but me and John Doe are basically the same person and I like to think he’d think I’m interesting). Roz has a great dislike towards the people John works with, they don’t appreciate how badly they treat him. Especially Harley. John is so obsessed with Harley and she treats him like absolute shit. Roz had a plan to get Harley arrested, however John found out and threatened to never speak to Roz again. Roz has a soft spot for Mr Freeze specifically from the gang also.

Vampyr: Rose Pine

works as an assistant to Camellia at the florist. Rose isn’t a very chatty person and has had quite a traumatic up bringing. Her mother, sister and father are all unfortunately deceased. Her father killed her mother, then sister, then Rose, then turned the knife on himself. Rose survived her injuries (hence the scar on her throat) and was put out into the adoption system. Roses father believed he had been doing his family a service by taking their lives before they could be claimed by Ekons. Roses father had been a vampire believer long before they had even breeched the city. Rose always waves hello to Jonathan Reid when she sees him galavanting around. He always waves back and occasionally they will exchange a conversation. One evening they exchange more than just brief chit chat when Jonathan is required to save her from a group of feral Skals. Rose is very badly injured from her encounter and Jonathan ends up having to change the sweet little florist he sees most evenings into a Ekon. Rose is also good friends with Charlotte Ashbury and Charlottes mother Elisabeth. I haven’t played Vampyr in a wee while, I want to get back into it soon so plan on adding more to her story.

Outlast: Rosie Porter

Rosie worked as a live in psychiatrist for those at mount massive asylum. She lives on the premises that way patient can be attended to at any time. Her experiences throughout life gives her empathy for those that are locked up, that the other guards and majority of other staff just don’t have. Rosie has always been able to empathise with those who would be considered ‘evil’ whether she empathised out of her own sick fascination or because of her heart hurting too much is another question. Rosies favourite patients are Eddie Gluskin and Chris Walker. She was hired after Jeremy Blaire forcibly admitted Chris Walker. Rosie is enamoured with Eddie and he knows it. Knows he has his little psychologist wrapped around his finger. However Eddie would be a hypocrite if he said he also wasn’t wrapped around her finger. Rosie is forcibly committed to the asylum by Jeremy Blaire they start Project Walrider on the patients. Rosie was against it and threatened to blow the whistle on the whole thing (dumb idea) and Jeremy uses her as the first female Walrider test subject. Rosie has engaged in an affair with her boss Jeremy Blaire when she first started working there. Due to their past ‘hands on’ relationship, Rosie is allowed more time with her patients and allowed to be alone with her patients. This has allowed for her to further her work with her patients, as they’re quite open when the know they aren’t being openly judged by the security staff.

Hannibal: Jessi Trees

is a forensic entomologist who works alongside Beverly, Jimmy and Brian analysing dead people n shit. Jessi first met Will Graham on the scene of a crime when they had both been called out. It was the mushroom killer from memory as the soil was packed with invertebrates filled with evidence. Will has just finished doing his whole ‘this is my design’ when Jessi walks up to him and stands quietly beside him, where they say: “These fuckers are filled with worms and I don’t know shit about worms” Will Graham turns and looks at them like what the fuck? Those are dead people. Jessi merely shrugs, smirks and walks off. Jessi can be described by a lot of people as ‘a cold person’ or ‘indifferent’ but passionate. They dehumanise the corpses they’re working with at that’s the only way they can get justice for them. If they get too caught up in all the sadness of it, they can’t move forward from it. Jessi has a crush on Will Graham and Beverly Katz. Jessi questions Will and Hannibals relationship quietly from the background but never really comments.

Bonus character!! Stardew Valley: Zoë

This bad ass came all the way from Zuzu city in need of a better and different life. They inherit their grandfathers old farm and get it up and running. The town is filled with wonderful, amazing people. But of course Zoë has to want to become close friends with the person who hates me everyone: Shane (they’re kindred spirits, Shane isn’t aware of this however because he seems to think he’s the only person who can suffer from substance abuse and sever depression haha.) Shane hates them of course until they keep harassing him and he reasilizes she’s a lot more screwed up than he was aware. Zoë is close friends with Shane (ends up marrying him one day), Linus (I would fucking die for him and anyone who’s cruel to him gets my foot in the butthole), Leah (they hang out frequently and like to paint in the forest together), Emily (I have a massive crush on Emily haha, she’s so similar to me it’s great), is also friends with Sam’s dad and Jodis husband Kent (Kent suffers from PTSD and I’ve developed a lot of my own techniques to help with my own PTSD so we help each other out. Also Jodi I’m stealing your husband, just kidding, unless). Zoë’s favourite animals on her farm are her blue chickens (raised by Shane) and her horse Aaron. Zoë’s favourite yearly event is the moonlight jellies festival!

[mst3kproject]

The River of the Giant Alligator

A bunch of Italians pretending they’re not Italian in a movie about a guy who chose the wrong place to build a hotel… it’s like Avalanche by way of Devil Fish, with an alligator.  And racism.  You can’t have a 70’s Italian jungle movie without the racism, and this one layers it on real thick.  I think The River of the Giant Alligator has its MST3K bases covered.

Rich Asshole Joshua has opened Paradise House, a resort in the middle of the ‘virgin jungle’.  He proudly tells visitors that not only has he left the surrounding ecosystem undamaged, but he’s helping the local people by giving them jobs and improving their standard of living.  Naturally it’s not as simple as that.  Trouble begins when Sheena, the model they brought for their advertising photographs (just for a dash of Killer Fish), vanishes overnight.  Photographer Daniel and hotel manager Ally go to the locals looking for her, and are told that the River God has awakened and intends to drive the white people away by assuming the form of a giant crocodile and eating them all.  Considering how mind-bogglingly stupid the tourists in this movie are, that should take all of twenty minutes.

The locals, who call themselves the Kuma, have a name for their River God but it’s pronounced five different ways and I won’t guess how to spell it.  Because of the deep breathing sounds that presage its first appearance, I shall call the creature Darth Gator.

Let’s get the basics out of the way first.  The whole movie is dubbed and the voice actors are bad. The Darth Gator prop is completely immobile but they mostly keep it in the dark or in really tight shots so we don’t notice… it’s only the occasional ill-advised wide shot where it’s obviously fake enough to be funny.  There’s a spiky fence that exists mostly so that people can get impaled on it and a cloying little kid for no reason whatsoever.  The ‘wildlife’ is a stock footage smorgasbord that includes orangutans and hippos on the same river.  The worst effect in the film is a terrible miniature shot of the hotel on fire, which would have looked just fine if the people involved hadn’t forgotten that flames don’t scale.

So all that sucks, but is fairly harmless.  Now let’s talk about the racism.

We’ll start with the movie’s treatment of its two ‘love stories’, and I use the floating commas because neither of them quite qualifies. Daniel and Ally are the main ‘couple’ of the movie.  The camera lingers on each of them to show that he thinks she’s beautiful and she thinks he’s rugged, and they spend the whole movie hanging out on balconies and boats together and discussing whether the resort is good or bad for the local people… but they never get so much as a kiss.  This is kind of nice, actually, because there’s very little time to stop and make out when you’re being chased by a large carnivorous reptile.  It does, however, make for a hell of a contrast between them and the other ‘couple’ we see.

This is the model, Sheena, and her Kuma boyfriend. I am unclear on where this movie is set (the closest we get to a clue is Ally referring to the area as ‘the Orient’, which could honestly mean anything) but it’s perfectly clear that the reason they hired a black woman for their publicity photos is to make the place look ‘exotic’.  There’s a weird moment when Joshua attempts to flirt with Sheena by telling her, “it occurs to me that Eve herself may have been black”, which… yes, that is how human evolution worked, what about it?  All that aside, at the end of the day, Sheena runs off for a romantic evening with one of the tribesmen.  We never see her talk to this guy or have any clue what made her pick him over any of the others.  They just go fuck on a beach and then get eaten by an alligator.

So… we have blonde, blue-eyed white people having a perfectly chaste, wait-for-marriage love affair in which they actually get to know each other… and black people who run off with a stranger and screw out in the open like animals.  Holy shit.�� I want to say I hope this wasn’t something the film-makers actively thought about, but it might be worse if they didn’t.  Naturally, this is also a version of the ‘people who have premarital sex must die’ trope from slasher movies, and the movie makes doubly sure we know this is Bad Behaviour by having Ally remark that the Kuma are forbidden from visiting ‘the Island of Love’ on the full moon.

The deaths of Sheena and Nameless Kuma Guy also begin a pattern that lasts almost the entire movie.  Even though we’re told, repeatedly, that Darth Gator wants to drive the white people out of his jungle, for the vast majority of the running time it’s the brown people who are getting chomped.  We’re told that twelve white missionaries came here years ago and Darth Gator ate all but one of them, who then became a crazy jungle man (not gonna lie, Father Jonathan was my favourite character and I wish we’d seen more of him).  We see Sheena, her boyfriend, and the boyfriend’s brother get eaten alive.  Furthermore, most of the white deaths in the movie are at the hands of the Kuma, who run in and kill the tourists with spears and fire arrows in the belief that they’re doing their god’s bidding, and much of this happens offscreen. Those hit by the arrows quickly fall into the water and vanish from sight.  The only time the camera lingers on a white person dying is Joshua, who I guess they think deserved it.  The impression one gets is that white death is a horror better implied than shown, while brown death is a spectacle.  Again… holy shit.

The River of the Giant Alligator can’t seem to decide what we’re supposed to think about the Kuma people.  Early in the film they’re portrayed as victims.  These foreigners have invaded their land and built this giant hotel, and claimed to be helping them by giving them ‘work’. Ally notes that they’ll be able to live longer, healthier lives, but Daniel wonders if it’s worth it when they’ve basically become Joshua’s slaves.  The movie leaves this question hanging there without exploring it any further. When Daniel and Ally come looking for information about the alligator attacks, the Kuma direct them to Father Jonathan, knowing they’re more likely to believe a white man, even one who’s obviously not quite all there.  The movie really wants to be about the exploitation of indigenous peoples, treated as decorations and curiosities by white tourists.

The problem is, it wants to eat that cake, too.  By the end of the story, the Kuma have devolved into stock savages.  They attack the hotel and kill everybody, and kidnap Ally so they can tie her to a horizontal King Kong contraption as a sacrifice. The ending just makes it all the more confusing, as they turn up to discover that their god has been blown to bloody chunks after biting into a van full of explosives, and they cheer and they just leave.  Is it really that easy to kill a god?  Won’t a dead god demand vengeance anyway?  Does this mean they actually like the white people after all, and were only angry because Darth Gator was eating them?

The ending also muddles the movie’s other point, about the nature of eco-tourism.  One of the selling points of Paradise House is that it’s in the middle of virgin jungle.  Joshua brags about how he’s left the surrounding ecosystem untouched – but then we cut straight to trees being cleared using dynamite, and later we see live piglets being thrown into the river to keep the crocodiles hanging around so people can gawk at them.  You can’t build a hotel in the middle of a place and then call it ‘virgin jungle’.  You’re the one who violated it!

The script is a little unclear on whether Darth Gator is a natural or supernatural threat.  Ally and Daniel insist that it’s no mere alligator (I don’t think this movie knows the difference between crocodiles and alligators any better than I do) and Father Jonathan seems to believe it’s the Devil Himself, but it certainly dies like a flesh-and-blood creature.  Whatever its nature, it’s clear enough that Darth Gator represents the jungle striking back at these intruders to drive them out.  The Kuma literally say as much.  So what are we to take from the fact that it dies at the end?  Have we won the right to destroy the forest by killing its guardian?  I don’t believe the people who make these movies think this stuff through.

I can tell that we’re supposed to hate the tourists, and we do, although not always for the reasons the movie wants us to. Minnow, the red-haired little girl who ‘only likes to play with boys’, tries so hard to be Adorable that you want to punt her across the room.  Her mother leaves her to wander around the hotel alone, because Mummy’s got a smarmy mustached boyfriend to bang (even this relationship gets more attention than Sheena and Unnamed Kuma Guy, by the way… we are told that Mummy and Mustache have met before, and are here mostly to see each other rather than the jungle).  Other notable annoyances include a lady who seems perfectly sane until she starts talking about the aliens, and a guy who loves to complain about Youth These Days and will seize any opportunity to do so.

I kinda wanna gripe about these obnoxious characters, but I don’t feel like I can.  You may recall that I spent a month stuck on a cruise ship earlier this year.  I can tell you definitively that these people do exist, and I hate them even more in real life.

Man, this could have been a fun monster movie.  I’ve seen movies about man-eating crocodiles (or alligators… does it honestly matter that much?) that I really enjoyed.  Primeval wasn’t even that bad – it was about how humans are more monstrous than anything nature can produce.  Lake Placid had that immortal bit where Betty White says if I had a dick, this is where I’d tell you to suck it.  The River of the Great Alligator is just boring bullshit and things that seem kinda racist on the surface but then you think about them a little longer and realize they’re incredibly racist.  I went into this one hoping to like it, but it absolutely pissed on the last shreds of my optimism... like a lot of other things in 2020.

[chasing-dreamers]

Close encounters

This is my entry for Patricia’s Halloween Challenge!

#12: “I paid $50.00 for this haunted house. I better die.”

#53: “There will be a lot of screaming tonight.”

Pairing: Billy Hargrove x Reader

Word Count: 5.6k 

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Billy Hargrove or Stranger Things. This is completely fiction and made up.

A/N: I totally finished this within the first couple weeks and have been waiting to post this, just so I wouldn’t post it too early! Then I started working again and completely forgot about it. This is also the first time I have done anything like this and shared it this publicly.

-

Halloween. It’s literally the BEST day in the entire year. Candy. Costumes. Scary movies. Parties. Oh, and a possible Demogorgon every now and again. You know, usual Hawkins Halloween celebrations.

Thankfully we hadn’t seen any Demogorgons in almost a week and everyone in the lab were getting closer to closing the gate. They we reminded us frequently to stay cautious, but we weren’t going to let the worry of it get in the way of having a good night.

“Okay. So, these shorts or these ones?” I held up two pairs of short jeans in front of myself.

“Hmmm...” Robin tilted her head and squinted her eyes. “I like the red ones, but you have to wear your AC/DC shirt with them.”

“Are you sure?” I grabbed the shirt out of my closet, went into my bathroom, and changed quickly. I went back into my room and stood in front of the mirror. “SO, like this?”

“Tuck your shirt in and please, for just once, keep your hair down.” Robin sighed.

“Do I have to?” I whined. My hair was a curly mess all the time and I hated it.

“Yes!” Robin said. “Who knows, maybe your knight in shining armor will show up?”

“What is up with you and Nancy always teasing me about him!” I glared at her. I turned back into the mirror and tried to get my hair to fall where I wanted it to, but there was no point.

“Because you're actually obsessed with him,” Robin teased. “and I didn't even have to say his name.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“Billy Hargrove.” Robin shook her head. “I don’t know what you see in him, Y/N.”

“I don’t know either.” Billy was literally everything I wanted. Well, mostly. The guy was probably the biggest asshole I had ever met, but he was so god damn gorgeous. “It’s just a crush. It’s not like I have a chance with him or anything.”

“If he doesn’t realize that you are literally the coolest girl in Hawkins.” Robin stated. “Then he is actually the dumbass everyone says he is.”

“Yeah, I guess your right.” I chuckled.

“Hey guys! Hurry up!” Nancy walked into my room and grinned when she saw me. “Ooooo, look at you. Someone got all fancy for Billy.”

“Shut up, Nancy!” I groaned and we all giggled. I grabbed my backpack, made sure the walkie and other things I needed were in it, then followed the girls downstairs. Steve and Jonathan were sitting in the living room with my parents. “Are we all ready to go?”

“Yes!” Steve exclaimed and threw his arms up dramatically. “We were just waiting on the princess!”

“I am not a princess.” I rolled my eyes. “I just couldn’t figure out what to wear.”

“Well, you just proved his point.” Jonathan laughed.

“Watch it Byers.” I shot him a look and chuckled. “Do we have everything we need?”

“Yupp. Here’s your bat.” Steve tossed me the nail covered bat and I threw it over my shoulder

“Alright. Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Hold on!” My mom grabbed her camera off the table.

“Mom!’ I whined.

“No, Y/N. You know the rules!” My dad scolded me.

“Alright. Fine!” I sighed. I grabbed the others and made them stand next to me.

“1, 2, 3, cheese!”

 -

Click. Click. Click.

“Mom! You have taken like a million pictures!” I groaned as my mom stood there snapping away with her camera.

“Okay! Okay! Okay!” My mom chuckled and began to shoo us out the door. “Go have fun! And no boys, Missy! And why do you have to take that ugly bat everywhere?”

“Bears, mom. Duh!” Steve opened the door and we started walking out.

Right before I left the house, my mom walked over to me and started messing with my hair. “We have to have something done about this hair of yours.”

“Mom come on. Stop!” I shook my hair away from her and huffed. “Robin already tried.”

“Stay safe, Y/N.” My mom started lecturing again. “And I’m serious, no running into the woods with any boys.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her, Mrs. Y/L/N!” Nancy waved behind us, as we quickly tried to walk out the door.

“Thank you, dear!” My mom stood on the porch and waved as we headed down the driveway.

We all piled into Jonathan’s car since it could seat all of us, pulled out of my driveway, and headed to the forest. The haunted trail was a new thing the mayor decided we had to do. Pretty sure it was just his way of getting more money in his pocket. I mean, why else would a haunted trail cost $50.00.

-

We got to the field where the beginning of the trail was set up. A few feet away were a few food stands and small carnival games. The boys had just arrived on their bikes and were wearing their signature Ghostbuster outfits. Jonathan parked the car and they put their bikes right next to it. We all started laughing as we could hear them singing the Ghostbuster’s theme song.

“Who you gonna call?”

“THE NERDS!” I laughed as I jumped out the back and the boys all shot me dirty looks.

“Really, Y/N? Really?” Dustin scolded.

“Oh. Come on. You guys are such nerds.” I chuckled. El and Max giggled as other boys rolled their eyes at me. We all grouped together at the front entrance of the forest.

We all got our walkies out and made sure we were all on the same channel. “Y/N and Nancy, you have the front entrance. We cut up the trail into different sections on what it is going on in that area. All of you have map and a list of where we will be inside. Everyone will stay inside the trail with everyone else. If ANYTHING happens, use your walkie, and if you have to run; Hopper said we can go straight to his cabin and hide out there.” Dustin directed.

“Got it, Dad!” Steve shouted as he ran into the forest first with Jonathan right behind him. The party went in after them. Then El, Max, and Robin went it. I sighed.

“This is lame.” I huffed and leaned against the tree next to me. “We have to just sit here all night, take tickets, and listen to people complaining because it’s $50.00 to walk through a forest.”

“Would you rather be in there with them?” Nancy shrugged.

“There is NO WAY I am going into that forest.” I shook my head. “Not even if you paid me.”

“But what if Mr. ‘He’s-So-Hot-I-Could-Die’ showed up?” Nancy smirked.

“I should have never told you too that.” I laughed. “Plus, he will be with them and they are the last people on the planet I would want anything to do with. I definitely wouldn’t go into a god damn forest with them.”

“You never know.” She grinned. Oh, I knew. No way. As much as I was obsessed with him, I never had a chance. Even though I would go with him, I’d die before I went with anyone else he hung out with.

“I just don’t have a chance.” I shook my head in defeat. “It’s 5 til 8. People should start lining up here soon.”

“He will show up.” Nancy said, putting in her last thought about it. “Just you wait.”

-

It had been about an hour after the haunted trail opened, and ticket sales were higher than I expected. Even though everyone complained when we first heard about it, it was the only thing for anyone over the age of 13 to do. Except getting shit faced and partying, which is what I thought everyone would have been doing.

“I SO told you so.” I was taking someone’s ticket as I felt Nancy’s fist connect with my arm.

“Those are actually the last people I want to see tonight.” I huffed. Tommy H, Carol, and Nicole. Literally the worst trio ever. Then I realized Nancy was right. Billy did show up. I stood there in awe as he shuffled his feet around. He was mindlessly crewing his nails and you could see the muscles in his jaw tighten. His hair was falling into his face perfectly and his eyes sparkled in the light. My heart leaped into my throat as I noticed his chest and torso were completely bare under his jacket. His was made by the gods and I could stare at him forever. I looked back up to his face and those blue eyes were staring right back at me. “Shit!”

“Were you staring hard enough, Y/N!” Nancy half shouted; half whispered at me.

“I’m sorry! Look at him!” I groaned. I went back to taking tickets for the kids that were standing in front of me. I looked back over to where they were standing. Tommy and Carol seemed very eager to get into the woods. Nicole was too busy trying to get to Billy’s attention, but he showed no interest in her.

“Billy is TOTALLY staring at you!” Nancy nodded and jabbed me in my side.

I shoved her back and hissed at her. “Nancy, shut up. He’s not even here to see me.”

“How can you be so sure about that, princess?” Excuse me? What is happening! Why is he standing right here!

“Because you came here with me, Billy. Come on.” Nicole explained as she stomped over to him and tried to wrap her arm around him.

Billy rolled his eyes and tightened his jaw. “No, Nicole. No, I didn’t. Now get in there before you have to go by yourself.”

Nicole shoved the ticket into my hand, then went back to where Tommy and Carol were.

Nancy winked at me and giggled as I shot her a dirty look. I turned back towards Billy and he was standing even closer to me.

“So, what do you say, Y/N? Care to join me?” Billy purred.

“Nah., I think I’ll pass.” I shrugged.

“Why not? It could be like a date.” He smiled even more, and I could hear Nancy squeal as she continued to keep the line moving.

“Date? Billy Hargrove, do you even know me?” I laughed.

“Yes, Y/N. I do.” There is no way he did. “You just decide to run off every time I get close to you.”

“Well, then this is me running off again.” I threw the tickets into the trash can next to me, grabbed my backpack, and then grabbed my bat. “I am going to go get some food, Nance. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay, fine. It’s not a date, but I still want you to come with me.” Billy insisted and grabbed my arm to keep me from walking away.

“Why Billy?” I pulled my arm out of his grip.

“Come on, princess! Live a little!” Billy shouted. “Nancy can handle this by herself.”

“Definitely.” Nancy grinned. She nodded toward my bat. “You were going to leave me anyway!”

“I do live, a little! That’s why I am just selling tickets!” I pointed him in his broad, bare chest. “Billy, your dates end up in a car or a bed or just where the hell ever, and usually with someone screaming. So, thanks but no thanks.”

“Oh, there will be a lot of screaming tonight.” Nancy chuckled.

“Nancy!” I yelled.

“Y/N, you are literally the biggest baby I know when it comes to this stuff.” She quickly shot back. “You’ll scream before anything even jumps out at you.”

“Well, then you definitely need me to go with you.” Billy laughed.

“Go on, Y/N. Have some fun for once.” Nancy took his ticket and tried to get me to walk into the trail.

“Nancy, you literally told my mom this was the last thing that would happen.” I didn’t budge.

“What’s the worst thing that could happen, princess?” Billy asked.

“Actually everything.” I huffed.

Nancy looked at me and rolled her eyes, then started pushing me into the woods. “Gotta keep the line going.”

“You are a traitor, Nancy Wheeler. A traitor!” I yelled. I tried to go back out, but Billy slinked an arm around my waist and walked into the trail.

“Is this trail even worth $50.00?” Billy asked as we finally started walking deeper into the forest.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t know.” I replied. “I have never been in here. Obviously.”

“Well, I paid $50.00 for this haunted house, so I better die.” Billy stated.

“If you died, it would definitely make it worth $50.00” I shrugged. “This is literal kidnapping and it’s just a trail, dumbass.”

“Ouch.” Billy gasped, putting is hand up to his chest. The first part was just a long tunnel made from cardboard boxes and with fake candles hanging from the top. We walked through it silently, but I couldn’t understand what I was doing.

“Billy, why am I in here?” I asked him.

“Because you can’t resist me.” He chuckled.

“But I said no.” I said. “I mean, why me and not Nicole? Actually, why me at all?”

“I think you’re cool and I have been trying to figure out how to get you to hang out with me for months.” He nervously rubbed his hands on his jeans.

“Who are you and what have to done to the Billy Hargrove I go to school what?” There was no way he had been trying to hang out with me. Absolutely no way.

“Very funny, princess.” Billy chuckled. He moved his arm around my shoulders and pulled me to where his lips were touching my ear. “And yes, I do.”

“I just can’t-AAAH!!” As we turned a corner, someone dressed up as a clown jumped down from the trees and yelled right in my face. I instantly swung the bat up, barely stopping myself from swinging.

Billy burst out in laughter. “Looks like Nancy was right.”

“Oh, shut up.” I growled.

Before I could answer him, something jumped out from behind us and I shrieked. I whipped around to another person dressed as a clown skipping back behind the wall and laughing manically. Then suddenly two arms were wrapped around me. I pulled away and, again, instinctively swung the bat above my head.

“Y/N! Holy hell!” Billy reached up and ripped the bat from my hands. “It was just me!”

“Fuck!” I stumbled back and put my hands over my mouth. Billy looked at how freaked out I was and let out a sigh. He grabbed the bat from me and took my hand with his free one.

“Is there a reason you get scared so easily?” He squeezed my hand reassuringly as I just shook my head.

“I’ve seen some shit, Billy.” I shuddered. “It would scare you too.”

“I can tell. From how jumpy you are, to how fast you react with this bat of yours.” He swung the bat down next to his leg. “But don't worry, princess. You have me now.”

“Well, that’s comforting.” If only he knew.

“So, what happened?” He asked. “What is there in Hawkins that could have you so freaked out all the time?”

“Okay. There are big, scary monsters, called Demogorgons coming into Hawkins from another dimension called The Upside Down. The Hawkins Lab is responsible for keeping the door open. Then your sister’s best friend has crazy powers that lets her control stuff with her mind. Oh, and there might be Russians somewhere too.” I explained as we walked through the third part of the trail.

“I know I’m an ass.” Billy growled. “But you don’t have to bullshit with me.”

“I’m not.” I shrugged. We turned a makeshift corner and I realized there was blood in pools on the ground. “Billy. Don’t move.”

“Why? Is some big, scary, whatever monster going to hurt me?” He grumbled and rolled him eyes.

“Billy. Shut up.”

“Come on, princess!” He sighed and pulled at my arm.

“Billy!” I grabbed his arm and pulled back as hard as I could. He stumbled back toward me and gave me a bewildered look. I slammed my hand over his mouth and ripped the bat out of his hand. “I said ‘Shut up.’”

He grumbled but nodded. “Now stay behind me and do exactly as I say.” He nodded again and turned back toward the blood on the ground. I slowly turned to look around the corner and felt my blood go cold. There was a Demogorgon dragging a deer through the trail. I grabbed my walkie from my backpack, ducking behind a tree and dragging Billy with me. He just stood there with a questioning look. Shit.

“Code Red. Repeat. I have a Code Red. Section 3. Code Red. This is a Code freaking Red.” I quickly said.

“Copy. On our way.” Nancy responded.

“Copy. We are in section 5. Give us two minutes.” Lucas also replied.

Billy sat there and tried to get me to walk back towards it. “It’s just part of the trail, princess. What kind of trick is this?”

“This isn’t a trick, Billy. Stay quiet.” I snapped.

“Stop messing with me, Y/N.” He growled.

“I’m not, Billy.”

“Then let’s go.” He pulled me and, in the process, stomped down on a tree branch and it snapped.

I froze. Billy pulled on my arm again. I ripped it out of his grip and whipped around. The Demogorgon had now turned around and was walking towards us.

“Seriously, Y/N? I’m not falling for this.” Billy yelled. The Demogorgon opened his face and screeched towards us. “What the- “

“Billy. Run.” I shoved Billy right as the Demogorgon started running towards us. We ran back towards where we had just come from, but we had to get off the trail. I couldn’t let this thing get to where everyone was. I pushed through a pumpkin set up and got away from the trail. I would NOT let this thing find anyone else. Billy stayed close beside me as we continued running through the forest. My first thought was to stay several feet outside the trail so the others could still find us...somehow. I just hope they could find us before we get killed. I tried to run towards the cabin, but I had lost track of where we were is the midst of my panicking.

“Umpf.” Billy tripped and smashed his face down onto a tree root. I dropped the bat and tried to pull him up, but the Demogorgon was already standing less than fifteen feet away from us.

“Y/N, What the hell is that?!” Billy screamed.

“A Demogorgon. I told you to shut up! Maybe if you had listened; he would be dead already!” I yelled back at him.

The Demogorgon opened his opened his face again and screeched at Billy. Billy scuffled back as far as he could, until his back was up against a tree, and I stood in front of him. “Y/N, what are you doing!”

“Shut up, Billy! Shut the HELL UP!” I tightened the grip I had on my bat and started swinging it down in front of my feet. For some reason, I wanted to keep this thing distracted. “Billy. Get out of here.”

“Y/N, there is no fucking way I am leaving you with this thing.�� He sounded completely terrified and I couldn’t blame him. I was fucking terrified.

“Billy, please.” The Demogorgon let out a long growl and was slowly getting closer.

“Come on, big guy. You know you want this.” I tried to remain calm as I began to shake violently.

As I taunted him, he leaped forward and I swung the bat as hard as I could. It made a loud squelching noise as it connected with the side of the Demogorgons head. The monster jumped back and crouched down. He shook his head, flinging blood everywhere. He tried to attack again, getting hit with the bat a second time.

We went back and forth for several minutes. He would swing, I would dodge it, then connect the bat to some part of his body. I kept my distance and tried to make sure I stayed between him and Billy. After another hit, the Demogorgon made it to where I could hear Billy breathing right behind me. I turned and at look at him. His face was covered in blood. He stared at the monster without even blinking. He looked at me and I could see tears starting to collect in his eyes.

Suddenly, everything went white. I had let my guard down. I now I could feel a sharp, agonizing pain it my side. I screamed and felt the Demogorgon’s claws catch my body and I fell into the dirt.

I sat there and watch the Demogorgon stand up and get ready to attack again. I ducked my head and felt the bat get ripped from my hand. Billy swung it over his head and smash it down onto the Demogorgon’s head. The monster backed up and screeched in pain, but Billy didn’t stop. He yelled as he continued swinging without giving him anytime to swing at him.

“GO. TO. HELL!” Billy spun the bat in his hand, swung it up, and caught the Demogorgon on the side of the head.

“Billy!” I tried to stand up but fell back down quickly. Small, black spots began to fill my vision and I felt my body wobbling around. “Billy!”

Right as Billy swung the bat at monster again, I heard someone else screaming and the Demogorgon was lifted into the air. Eleven stepped out past the trees, her hands stretched out in front of her, and blood pouring out from her nose. The Demogorgon screeched as he was thrown through the trees and make of cracking sound as him body connected with a tree.

“Billy!” Max was right behind Eleven and I could faintly see a few more shadows walking towards us. I tried to say anything, but I felt my body give away and my eyes get heavy. The smell of blood filled my nose.

“Y/N! Oh my god!” I heard Nancy yelling and I felt my body being picked up.

Then everything went black.

A few moments later, I felt my head bobbing and my body moving slightly. There was a sharp pain in my side that was more intense than anything I have ever felt. I could hear distorted talking and slowly tried to open my yes.

“Hey. Hey. Hey. Careful, princess.”

“Billy?” I blinked a few times and looked up to see Billy's face right above me. I turned my head and could see the trees flying past us as the car sped down the road.

“Billy. You seriously can never tell anyone what happened.” Nancy was rambling and freaking out.

“Nancy, seriously? I don't even want to try and figure out what the fuck happened back there.” Billy snapped at her. “Y/N is injured and all that matters to me is getting her to the damn hospital.”

“Why do you even care what happens to her, Hargrove?” Steve yelled at Billy.

“That’s none of your damn business, Harrington.” Billy snapped. As their voices continued to get louder, so did the pounding in my head. I groaned and tried to cover my ears. “Hey. Hey. Hey. Careful, Y/N. Careful. We’re almost there.”

-

“Beep. Beep. Beep.”

I woke up to a mild pain in my head and a numbing feeling in my torso. I felt extremely groggy. I groaned as I opened my eyes and a bright light flooded into my vision. “W-Where am I?”

“Woah. Woah. Woah. Be careful.” Someone said softly.

I tried to focus my eyes on who was talking, but everything was still too fuzzy. I brought my hand up to cover my eyes, hoping any part of my headache would go away. “What happened?”

“Honey, you got attacked by a bear.” Another voice said. “He messed you up pretty badly. Thankfully, your boyfriend here and your friends got you to us fast enough.”

“What?” My eyes focused and I looked at the nurse standing by my bed.

“Do you need anything, Hun?” She asked.

“J-Just water. Please.” Boyfriend? The nurse left and I turned to see who else was in the room.

“Hey there, princess.” His eyes were flooded with concern and he held my hand firmly. “How do you feel?”

“Hi, Billy.” I leaned my head into his hand that was holding my face. He was definitely a sight for sore eyes after what happened. I looked down and realized he had changed out of what he was wearing before. Instead he just had a light blue button up shirt on and had tucked in into a cleaner pair of jeans. “I just feel like I got run over by a truck.”

“Well,” he raised his eyebrows and chuckled. “considering what I saw, that doesn’t seem like it hurts too bad.”

“Here is your water, dear.” The nurse came back in and she had Billy help her sit me up more. I yelped out in pain when I tried to push up with my hands. “Careful, Hun. Here you go.”

“Thank you.” I said weakly. I took a few sips out of the straw and sighed. The cold water felt relieving going down my throat.

“Now that you are awake, my name is Anna. I will be the main nurse taking care of you while you are here.” She gave me a warm smile.

“Thank you, Anna.” I drank more water and Billy helped me hold the cup without spilling it. “Are my parents here?”

“Yes, dear. They were here as soon as they got called. Hopper had to have them go down to the station, but they should be back here very soon,” Anna explained. She asked if I needed anything else and I shook my head. She left the room and said she would let my parents know I woke up.

“I finally know where you get your little spark from.” Billy chuckled. “Your mom almost killed me when she saw all the blood all over me. Then yelled at me from almost twenty minutes about taking you into the woods.” “Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry.” I groaned.

“I don’t blame her. Her daughter leaves with her friends and then ends up in the hospital because Billy Hargrove took her into the woods.” He shrugged. The door to the room opened and I smiled as my parents came in.

“Y/N, oh honey, you’re okay.” My mom rushed over as soon as she saw me and hugged me. She pulled back, keeping her hands around my face, making my look at her. “Are you okay? Do you need anything? Have they been taking care of you?”

“Yes, Mom. I’ve only been awake for a few minutes. I’m fine.” She pulled her hands away, only to give my dad some room to hug me. “Hey, Dad.”

“Hey, kiddo. I’m glad you’re doing okay.” He said. He tried to sound firm, but I could hear him holding a choke back, trying to keep himself from crying.

“Me too.” I relaxed a little more. Having my parents here made me feel more comfortable.

“We came as soon as we got the call from Hopper.” My parents pulled up a chair and my mom started explaining what happened after they had gotten me to the hospital. “All of your friends were here, and Joyce and Hopper were here too. We all waited until after you went in to get your stitches done before going down to the station. The other kids tried to stay here, but their parents wanted them home where they knew where they were.”

“Billy here, he is the only one that hasn’t left yet.” My dad nodded toward Billy. He was nervously twirling his ring on his finger and I reached up to grab his hand. He took a deep breath and looked back up at us.

“But I do remember telling you not to go into the woods and especially not with any boys.” My mom scolded both of us. “You’re lucky he was there with you and was able to get you out of there.”

“I know, Mom.” I sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“We are just glad you are safe, kiddo.” My dad said.

“We will go get you some food and be right back, sweetheart.” My mom stood up and kissed my forehead.

“I love you too, mom.” They walked out and I turned back toward Billy. “You never left?”

He shook his head. “Hopper almost killed me because I made him bring the paperwork to file the report to me. I couldn’t leave your side, Y/N. You saved my life and I almost lost you.”

“Billy, you saved me too.” I reached up and wiped the tear that rolled down his cheek. I giggled lightly. “But for future reference, I told you a haunted trail was a horrible idea for a first date.”

“Y/N, I’m so sorry.” Billy stammered. “I should have... I should have listened to you. Plus, you went in there because of me. This is my fault.”

“Billy,” I said taking ahold of his hand. “there is no way you knew what was going to happen. You didn’t even know it was there. How could you?”

“I could have lost you.” This was a side of Billy Hargrove that I had never seen. He looked so vulnerable. Over me of all people.

“Trust me,” I laughed. “you can’t get rid of me that fast.”

“I hope not, princess.”

­-

It was finally time to go home. It was a still early in the day, so only my parents were there with me. We had finally convinced Billy to go back to school after a couple days and we only agreed so he could get my schoolwork for me. It was weird without him here

“Well, Miss Y/N. It looks like the doctors are finally ready to let you go home.” My nurse happily stated. “As much as I enjoyed having you here and getting to take care of you, I am very glad to see you finally going home.”

“You have been the best nurse ever, Anna.” I gave her a quick hug and she handed me all my paperwork. “If I ever come back, I will definitely ask for you.”

“Y/N, if you end up back in the hospital,” my dad shook his head. “your mother will kill you.”

“Yes, she will.” My mother laughed and sighed.

I chuckled. After three and a half long weeks, the doctors we finally allowed to give me the ‘Okay.’ Mostly, because Dr. Owens heard about the attack, knew what it was, and they made me stay longer. Thankfully, there were no severe infections and the wounds healed up relatively quickly.

“A list of all the ointments and antibiotics you will need are in here. You will just need to take that paper to Kathy down the hall.”

“Thank you so much for taking care of her, Anna.” My mom had tears in her eyes as she thanked her.

“Just make sure she isn’t running into the woods with anymore boys.” Anna smirked. “She’s definitely not one to mess around with.”

They all laughed, and I headed to get my medicine. Once I got that, it was finally time to go home.

-

Five years later.

“Hey, princess.”

“Billy!” I laughed loudly as he picked me up and spun my around. I kissed he deeply. He wrapped his arms around me tightly and slowly put me back down on the ground. I pulled back and staring into his still, memorizing blue eyes. “I missed you.”

“I told you I would be back from California for Halloween. I can’t miss this one.” He kissed me again, then took my hand as we headed toward the ticket booth.

“You would never hear the end of it.” I grinned. We walked to the back of the line and waited to get our tickets. “I’m kinda nervous. I’m surprised they decided to do this again.”

“Well, there haven’t been anymore ‘bear attacks,’ so I guess the mayor decided it was worth a shot again.” Billy shrugged. “It’s been made a lot shorter and Hopper said the police are even working it this year. Like, fully overseeing the whole thing.”

“That’s good to know.” I crossed my arms and could still feel the deep scars running across my side. Five years. That’s how long it took them to do another haunted trail. That’s how long it took me to even want to go back into the woods. That’s how long Billy and I had been together now. Five years.

“You okay, princess?” Billy’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts, and I realized he had gotten the tickets already. “Are you sure you’ll be ready?”

“Yes. I even made sure I brought this.” I laughed and shook my backpack. The handle of the nail covered bat stuck out the top. There was no way I wasn’t taking that thing with me.

“Of course, you did.” Billy slung his arm over my shoulders and kissed my head. “Let’s go, princess.”

We joined the line headed into the trail. There were two officers standing on both sides of the entrance, and then they had adults walking through with all the kids. The safety precautions were through the roof for this thing. I couldn’t blame them. We were lucky I was able to recover from the attack last time.

The officer took our tickets and we walked into the trail with a few other people that had been standing in front of us. Billy kept a tight grip on my hand, and I nodded whenever he looked at me with worry.

My skin crawled as we walked deeper into the trail. We were very lucky I was still alive. But there was something that nobody could have known.

We wouldn’t be so lucky this time.

[mattbrothersscriptwriter]

My Top 20 Films of 2019 - Part Two

I don’t think I’ve had a year where my top ten jostled and shifted as much as this one did - these really are the best of the best and my personal favourites of 2019.

10. Toy Story 4

I think we can all agree that Toy Story 3 was a pretty much perfect conclusion to a perfect trilogy right? About as close as is likely to get, I’m sure. I shared the same trepidation when part four was announced, especially after some underwhelming sequels like Finding Dory and Cars 3 (though I do have a lot of time for Monsters University and Incredibles 2). So maybe it’s because the odds were so stacked against this being good but I thought it was wonderful. A truly existential nightmare of an epilogue that does away with Andy (and mostly kids altogether) to focus on the dreams and desires of the toys themselves - separate from their ‘duties’ as playthings to biological Gods. What is their purpose in life without an owner? Can they be their own person and carve their own path? In the case of breakout new character Forky (Tony Hale), what IS life? Big big questions for a cash grab kids films huh?

The animation is somehow yet another huge leap forward (that opening rainstorm!), Bo Peep’s return is excellently pitched and the series tradition of being unnervingly horrifying is back as well thanks to those creepy ventriloquist dolls! Keanu Reeves continues his ‘Keanuassaince‘ as the hilarious Duke Caboom and this time, hopefully, the ending at least feels finite. This series means so much to me: I think the first movie is possibly the tightest, most perfect script ever written, the third is one of my favourites of the decade and growing up with the franchise (I was 9 when the first came out, 13 for part two, 24 for part three and now 32 for this one), these characters are like old friends so of course it was great to see them again. All this film had to do was be good enough to justify its existence and while there are certainly those out there that don’t believe this one managed it, I think the fact that it went as far as it did showed that Pixar are still capable of pushing boundaries and exploring infinity and beyond when they really put their minds to it.

9. The Nightingale

Hoo boy. Already controversial with talk of mass walkouts (I witnessed a few when this screened at Sundance London), it’s not hard to see why but easy to understand. Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) is a truly fearless filmmaker following up her acclaimed suburban horror movie come grief allegory with a period revenge tale set in the Tasmanian wilderness during British colonial rule in the early 1800s. It’s rare to see the British depicted with the monstrous brutality for which they were known in the distant colonies and this unflinching drama sorely needed an Australian voice behind the camera to do it justice.

The film is front loaded with some genuinely upsetting, nasty scenes of cruel violence but its uncensored brutality and the almost casual nature of its depiction is entirely the point - this was normalised behaviour over there and by treating it so matter of factly, it doesn’t slip into gratuitous ‘movie violence’. It is what it is. And what it is is hard to watch. If anything, as Kent has often stated, it’s still toned down from the actual atrocities that occurred so it’s a delicate balance that I think Kent more than understands. Quoting from an excellent Vanity Fair interview she did about how she directs, Kent said “I think audiences have become very anaesthetised to violence on screen and it’s something I find disturbing... People say ‘these scenes are so shocking and disturbing’. Of course they are. We need to feel that. When we become so removed from violence on screen, this is a very irresponsible thing. So I wanted to put us right within the frame with that person experiencing the loss of everything they hold dear”. 

Aisling Franciosi is next level here as a woman who has her whole life torn from her, leaving her as nothing but a raging husk out for vengeance. It would be so easy to fall into odd couple tropes once she teams up with reluctant native tracker Billy (an equally impressive newcomer, Baykali Ganambarr) but the film continues to stay true to the harsh racism of the era, unafraid to depict our heroine - our point of sympathy - as horrendously racist towards her own ally. Their partnership is not easily solidified but that makes it all the stronger when they star to trust each other. Sam Claflin is also career best here, weaponizing his usual charm into dangerous menace and even after cementing himself as the year’s most evil villain, he can still draw out the humanity in such a broken and corrupt man.

Gorgeously shot in the Academy ratio, the forest landscape here is oppressive and claustrophobic. Kent also steps back into her horror roots with some mesmerising, skin crawling dream scenes that amplify the woozy nightmarish tone and overbearing sense of dread. Once seen, never forgotten, this is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea (and that’s fine) but when cinema can affect you on such a visceral level and be this powerful, reflective and honest about our own past, it’s hard to ignore. Stunning.

8. The Irishman

Aka Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus, I did manage to see this one in a cinema before the Netflix drop and absolutely loved it. I’ve watched 85 minute long movies that felt longer than this - Marty’s mastery of pace, energy and knowing when to let things play out in agonising detail is second to none. This epic tale of  the life of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) really is the cinematic equivalent of having your cake and eating it too, allowing Scorsese to run through a greatest hits victory lap of mobster set pieces, alpha male arguments, a decades spanning life story and one (last?) truly great Joe Pesci performance before simply letting the story... continue... to a natural, depressing and tragic ending, reflecting the emptiness of a life built on violence and crime.

For a film this long, it’s impressive how much the smallest details make the biggest impacts. A stammering phone call from a man emotionally incapable of offering any sort of condolence. The cold refusal of forgiveness from a once loving daughter. A simple mirroring of a bowl of cereal or a door left slightly ajar. These are the parts of life that haunt us all and it’s what we notice the most in a deliberately lengthy biopic that shows how much these things matter when everything else is said and done. The violence explodes in sudden, sharp bursts, often capping off unbearably tense sequences filled with the everyday (a car ride, a conversation about fish, ice cream...) and this contrast between the whizz bang of classic Scorsese and the contemplative nature of Silence era Scorsese is what makes this film feel like such an accomplishment. De Niro is FINALLY back but it’s the memorably against type role for Pesci and an invigorated Al Pacino who steals this one, along with a roll call of fantastic cameos, with perhaps the most screentime given to the wonderfully petty Stephen Graham as Tony Pro, not to mention Anna Paquin’s near silent performance which says more than possibly anyone else. 

Yes, the CG de-aging is misguided at best, distracting at worst (I never really knew how old anyone was meant to be at any given time... which is kinda a problem) but like how you get used to it really quickly when it’s used well, here I kinda got past it being bad in an equally fast amount of time and just went with it. Would it have been a different beast had they cast younger actors to play them in the past? Undoubtedly. But if this gives us over three hours of Hollywood’s finest giving it their all for the last real time together, then that’s a compromise I can live with.

7. The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Wow. I was in love with this film from the moving first trailer but then the film itself surpassed all expectations. This is a true indie film success story, with lead actor Jimmie Fails developing the idea with director Joe Talbot for years before Kickstarting a proof of concept and eventually getting into Sundance with short film American Paradise, which led to the backing of this debut feature through Plan B and A24. The deeply personal and poetic drama follows a fictionalised version of Jimmie, trying to buy back an old Victorian town house he claims was built by his grandfather, in an act of rebellion against the increasingly gentrified San Francisco that both he and director Talbot call home.

The film is many things - a story of male friendship, of solidarity within our community, of how our cities can change right from underneath us - it moves to the beat of it’s own drum, with painterly cinematography full of gorgeous autumnal colours and my favourite score of the year from Emile Mosseri. The performances, mostly by newcomers or locals outside of brilliant turns from Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover and Thora Birch, are wonderful and the whole thing is such a beautiful love letter to the city that it makes you ache for a strong sense of place in your own home, even if your relationship with it is fractured or strained. As Jimmie says, “you’re not allowed to hate it unless you love it”.

For me, last year’s Blindspotting (my favourite film of the year) tackled gentrification within California more succinctly but this much more lyrical piece of work ebbs and flows through a number of themes like identity, family, memory and time. It’s a big film living inside a small, personal one and it is not to be overlooked.

6. Little Women

I had neither read the book nor seen any prior adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel so to me, this is by default the definitive telling of this story. If from what I hear, the non linear structure is Greta Gerwig’s addition, then it’s a total slam dunk. It works so well in breaking up the narrative and by jumping from past to present, her screenplay highlights certain moments and decisions with a palpable sense of irony, emotional weight or knowing wink. Getting to see a statement made with sincere conviction and then paid off within seconds, can be both a joy and a surefire recipe for tears. Whether it’s the devastating contrast between scenes centred around Beth’s illness or the juxtaposition of character’s attitudes to one another, it’s a massive triumph. Watching Amy angrily tell Laurie how she’s been in love with him all her life and then cutting back to her childishly making a plaster cast of her foot for him (’to remind him how small her feet are’) is so funny. 

Gerwig and her impeccable cast bring an electric energy to the period setting, capturing the big, messy realities of family life with a mix of overwhelming cross-chatter and the smallest of intimate gestures. It’s a testament to the film that every sister feels fully serviced and represented, from Beth’s quiet strength to Amy’s unforgivable sibling rivalry. Chris Cooper’s turn as a stoic man suffering almost imperceptible grief is a personal heartbreaking favourite. 

The book’s (I’m assuming) most sweeping romantic statements are wonderfully delivered, full of urgent passion and relatable heartache, from Marmie’s (Laura Dern) “I’m angry nearly every day of my life” moment to Jo’s (Saoirse Ronan) painful defiance of feminine attributes not being enough to cure her loneliness. The sheer amount of heart and warmth in this is just remarkable and I can easily see it being a film I return to again and again.

5. Booksmart

2019 has been a banner year for female directors, making their exclusion from some of the early awards conversations all the more damning. From this list alone, we have Lulu Wang, Jennifer Kent and Greta Gerwig. Not to mention Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe (Greener Grass), Sophie Hyde (Animals) and Rose Glass (Saint Maud - watch out for THIS one in 2020, it’s brilliant). Perhaps the most natural transition from in front of to behind the camera has been made by Olivia Wilde, who has created a borderline perfect teen comedy that can make you laugh till you cry, cry till you laugh and everything in-between.

Subverting the (usually male focused) ‘one last party before college’ tropes that fuel the likes of Superbad and it’s many inferior imitators, Booksmart follows two overachievers who, rather than go on a coming of age journey to get some booze or get laid, simply want to indulge in an insane night of teenage freedom after realising that all of the ‘cool kids’ who they assumed were dropouts, also managed to get a place in all of the big universities. It’s a subtly clever remix of an old favourite from the get go but the committed performances from Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein put you firmly in their shoes for the whole ride. 

It’s a genuine blast, with big laughs and a bigger heart, portraying a supportive female friendship that doesn’t rely on hokey contrivances to tear them apart, meaning that when certain repressed feelings do come to the surface, the fallout is heartbreaking. As I stated in a twitter rave after first seeing it back in May, every single character, no matter how much they might appear to be simply representing a stock role or genre trope, gets their moment to be humanised. This is an impeccably cast ensemble of young unknowns who constantly surprise and the script is a marvel - a watertight structure without a beat out of place, callbacks and payoffs to throwaway gags circle back to be hugely important and most of all, the approach taken to sexuality and representation feels so natural. I really think it is destined to be looked back on and represent 2019 the way Heathers does ‘88, Clueless ‘95 or Easy A 2010. A new high benchmark for crowd pleasing, indie comedy - teen or otherwise.

4. Ad Astra

Brad Pitt is one of my favourite actors and one who, despite still being a huge A-lister even after 30 years in the game, never seems to get enough credit for the choices he makes, the movies he stars in and also the range of stories he helps produce through his company, Plan B. 2019 was something of a comeback year for Pitt as an actor with the insanely measured and controlled lead performance seen here in Ad Astra and the more charismatic and chaotic supporting role in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.

I love space movies, especially those that are more about broken people blasting themselves into the unknown to search for answers within themselves... which manages to sum up a lot of recent output in this weirdly specific sub-genre. First Man was a devastating look at grief characterised by a man who would rather go to a desolate rock than have to confront what he lost, all while being packaged as a heroic biopic with a stunning score. Gravity and The Martian both find their protagonists forced to rely on their own cunning and ingenuity to survive and Interstellar looked at the lengths we go to for those we love left behind. Smaller, arty character studies like High Life or Moon are also astounding. All of this is to say that Ad Astra takes these concepts and runs with them, challenging Pitt to cross the solar system to talk some sense into his long thought dead father (Tommy Lee Jones). But within all the ‘sad dad’ stuff, there’s another film in here just daring you to try and second guess it - one that kicks things off with a terrifying free fall from space, gives us a Mad Max style buggy chase on the moon and sidesteps into horror for one particular set-piece involving a rabid baboon in zero G! It manages to feel so completely nuts, so episodic in structure, that I understand why a lot of people were turned off - feeling that the overall film was too scattershot to land the drama or too pondering to have any fun with. I get the criticisms but for me, both elements worked in tandem, propelling Pitt on this (assumed) one way journey at a crazy pace whilst sitting back and languishing in the ‘bigger themes’ more associated with a Malik or Kubrick film. Something that Pitt can sell me on in his sleep by this point.

I loved the visuals from cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar), loved the imagination and flair of the script from director James Gray and Ethan Gross and loved the score by Max Richter (with Lorne Balfe and Nils Frahm) but most of all, loved Pitt, proving that sometimes a lot less, is a lot more. The sting of hearing the one thing he surely knew (but hoped he wouldn’t) be destined to hear from his absent father, acted almost entirely in his eyes during a third act confrontation, summed up the movie’s brilliance for me - so much so that I can forgive some of the more outlandish ‘Mr Hyde’ moments of this thing’s alter ego... like, say, riding a piece of damaged hull like a surfboard through a meteor debris field! 

3. Avengers: Endgame

It’s no secret that I think Marvel, the MCU in particular, have been going from strength to strength in recent years, slowly but surely taking bigger risks with filmmakers (the bonkers Taika Waititi, the indie darlings of Ryan Coogler, Cate Shortland and Chloe Zhao) whilst also carefully crafting an entertaining, interconnected universe of characters and stories. But what is the point of building up any movie ‘universe’ if you’re not going to pay it off and Endgame is perhaps the strongest conclusion to eleven years of movie sequels that fans could have possibly hoped for.

Going into this thing, the hype was off the charts (and for good reason, with it now being the highest grossing film of all time) but I remember souring on the first entry of this two-parter, Infinity War, during the time between initial release and Endgame’s premiere. That film had a game-changing climax, killing off half the heroes (and indeed the universe’s population) and letting the credits role on the villain having achieved his ultimate goal. It was daring, especially for a mammoth summer blockbuster but obviously, we all knew the deaths would never be permanent, especially with so many already-announced sequels for now ‘dusted’ characters. However, it wasn’t just the feeling that everything would inevitably be alright in the end. For me, the characters themselves felt hugely under-serviced, with arguably the franchise’s main goody two shoes Captain America being little more than a beardy bloke who showed up to fight a little bit. Basically what I’m getting at is that I felt Endgame, perhaps emboldened by the giant runtime, managed to not only address these character slights but ALSO managed to deliver the most action packed, comic booky, ‘bashing your toys together’ final fight as well.

It’s a film of three parts, each pretty much broken up into one hour sections. There’s the genuinely new and interesting initial section following our heroes dealing with the fact that they lost... and it stuck. Thor angrily kills Thanos within the first fifteen minutes but it’s a meaningless action by this point - empty revenge. Cutting to five years later, we get to see how defeat has affected them, for better or worse, trying to come to terms with grief and acceptance. Cap tries to help the everyman, Black Widow is out leading an intergalactic mop up squad and Thor is wallowing in a depressive black hole. It’s a shocking and vibrantly compelling deconstruction of the whole superhero thing and it gives the actors some real meat to chew on, especially Robert Downy Jr here who goes from being utterly broken to fighting within himself to do the right thing despite now having a daughter he doesn’t want to lose too. Part two is the trip down memory lane, fan service-y time heist which is possibly the most fun section of any of these movies, paying tribute to the franchise’s past whilst teetering on a knife’s edge trying to pull off a genuine ‘mission impossible’. And then it explodes into the extended finale which pays everyone off, demonstrates some brilliantly imaginative action and sticks the landing better than it had any right to. In a year which saw the ending of a handful of massive geek properties, from Game of Thrones to Star Wars, it’s a miracle even one of them got it right at all. That Endgame managed to get it SO right is an extraordinary accomplishment and if anything, I think Marvel may have shot themselves in the foot as it’s hard to imagine anything they can give us in the future having the intense emotional weight and momentum of this huge finale.

2. Knives Out

Rian Johnson has been having a ball leaping into genre sandpits and stirring shit up, from his teen spin on noir in Brick to his quirky con man caper with The Brothers Bloom, his time travel thriller Looper and even his approach to the Star Wars mythos in The Last Jedi. Turning his attention to the relatively dead ‘whodunnit’ genre, Knives Out is a perfect example of how to celebrate everything that excites you about a genre whilst weaponizing it’s tropes against your audience’s baggage and preconceptions.

An impeccable cast have the time of their lives here, revelling in playing self obsessed narcissists who scramble to punt the blame around when the family’s patriarch, a successful crime novelist (Christopher Plummer), winds up dead. Of course there’s something fishy going on so Daniel Craig’s brilliantly dry southern detective Benoit Blanc is called in to investigate.There are plenty of standouts here, from Don Johnson’s ignorant alpha wannabe Richard to Michael Shannon’s ferocious eldest son Walt to Chris Evan’s sweater wearing jock Ransom, full of unchecked, white privilege swagger. But the surprise was the wholly sympathetic, meek, vomit prone Marta, played brilliantly by Ana de Armas, cast against her usual type of sultry bombshell (Knock Knock, Blade Runner 2049), to spearhead the biggest shake up of the genre conventions. To go into more detail would begin to tread into spoiler territory but by flipping the audience’s engagement with the detective, we’re suddenly on the receiving end of the scrutiny and the tension derived from this switcheroo is genius and opens up the second act of the story immensely.

The whole thing is so lovingly crafted and the script is one of the tightest I’ve seen in years. The amount of setup and payoff here is staggering and never not hugely satisfying, especially as it heads into it’s final stretch. It really gives you some hope that you could have such a dense, plotty, character driven idea for a story and that it could survive the transition from page to screen intact and for the finished product to work as well as it does. I really hope Johnson returns to tell another Benoit Blanc mystery and judging by the roaring box office success (currently over $200 million worldwide for a non IP original), I certainly believe he will.

1. Eighth Grade

My film of the year is another example of the power of cinema to put us in other people’s shoes and to discover the traits, fears, joys and insecurities that we all share irregardless. It may shock you to learn this but I have never been a 13 year old teenage girl trying to get by in the modern world of social media peer pressure and ‘influencer’ culture whilst crippled with personal anxiety. My school days almost literally could not have looked more different than this (less Instagram, more POGs) and yet, this is a film about struggling with oneself, with loneliness, with wanting more but not knowing how to get it without changing yourself and the careless way we treat those with our best interests at heart in our selfish attempt to impress peers and fit in. That is understandable. That is universal. And as I’m sure I’ve said a bunch of times in this list, movies that present the most specific worldview whilst tapping into universal themes are the ones that inevitably resonate the most.

Youtuber and comedian Bo Burnham has crafted an impeccable debut feature, somehow portraying a generation of teens at least a couple of generations below his own, with such laser focused insight and intimate detail. It’s no accident that this film has often been called a sort of social-horror, with cringe levels off the charts and recognisable trappings of anxiety and depression in every frame. The film’s style services this feeling at every turn, from it’s long takes and nauseous handheld camerawork to the sensory overload in it’s score (take a bow Anna Meredith) and the naturalistic performances from all involved. Burnham struck gold when he found Elsie Fisher, delivering the most painful and effortlessly real portrayal of a tweenager in crisis as Kayla. The way she glances around skittishly, the way she is completely lost in her phone, the way she talks, even the way she breathes all feeds into the illusion - the film is oftentimes less a studio style teen comedy and more a fly on the wall documentary. 

This is a film that could have coasted on being a distant, social media based cousin to more standard fare like Sex Drive or Superbad or even Easy A but it goes much deeper, unafraid to let you lower your guard and suddenly hit you with the most terrifying scene of casually attempted sexual aggression or let you watch this pure, kindhearted girl falter and question herself in ways she shouldn’t even have to worry about. And at it’s core, there is another beautiful father/daughter relationship, with Josh Hamilton stuck on the outside looking in, desperate to help Kayla with every fibre of his being but knowing there are certain things she has to figure out for herself. It absolutely had me and their scene around a backyard campfire is one of the year’s most touching.

This is a truly remarkable film that I think everyone should seek out but I’m especially excited for all the actual teenage girls who will get to watch this and feel seen. This isn’t about the popular kid, it isn’t about the dork who hangs out with his or her own band of misfits. This is about the true loner, that person trying everything to get noticed and still ending up invisible, that person trying to connect through the most disconnected means there is - the internet - and everything that comes with it. Learning that the version of yourself you ‘portray’ on a Youtube channel may act like they have all the answers but if you’re kidding yourself then how do you grow? 

When I saw this in the cinema, I watched a mother take her seat with her two daughters, aged probably at around nine and twelve. Possibly a touch young for this, I thought, and I admit I cringed a bit on their behalf during some very adult trailers but in the end, I’m glad their mum decided they were mature enough to see this because a) they had a total blast and b) life simply IS R rated for the most part, especially during our school years, and those girls being able to see someone like Kayla have her story told on the big screen felt like a huge win. I honestly can’t wait to see what Burnham or Fisher decide to do next. 2019 has absolutely been their year... and it’s been a hell of a year.

[glorious-spoon]

one of those new wave boys

Title: one of those new wave boys Link: On AO3 Fandom: Stranger Things Pairing: Gen; Steve & Robin friendship Warnings: None Other tags: Platonic cuddling, Bed-sharing, Nightmares, Insomnia, Mild hurt/comfort, Friendship Summary:  Steve and Robin go on a road-trip, drink, listen to music, and look after each other. And yeah, maybe there's some cuddling involved too. 

Written as part of the Fandom Supporting Migrants fic exchange for @alessandriana, who donated to Border Angels.

*

Steve lets the strap of his duffel bag slither through his hands to land with an ominous thud on the puke-green carpet.

“So, uh,” he says as brightly as he can. “This is nice.”

On the upside: there are in fact two beds. The broad wink the clerk tipped him when he asked for two queens instead of a king had him a little worried on that count. The bedspreads are the same puke-green as the carpet and bear ominous stains, like maybe they’ve been used at some point to roll up a body in the trunk of somebody’s car, but there are two of them. Robin ducks her head into the bathroom, makes a quietly horrified exclamation, then crosses the room to drop herself and her suitcase onto the bed closest to the window, then flops backward with a sigh.

“I don’t even care,” she mumbles. “Oh my god. Why are we doing this again?”

“Hey,” Steve says, tossing his duffel bag in the general direction of the other bed. The walkie-talkie clanks again when it hits the headboard, and he winces. If he breaks that, Dustin is going to actually murder him in his sleep. “This is your roadtrip of self-discovery. I’m just, like. The chauffeur, or whatever.”

“I regret everything, let’s just sleep in the car.”

“The room’s not that bad, come on.”

“I think someone died in this bed,” Robin says, pushing herself upright, shoving her hair behind her ears. A worn-down road-trip sleepiness around the corners of her eyes. She dozed most of the way through central Indiana, but it was around dawn when they headed out and exhaustion is settled into their bones. Steve can feel it dragging at him, a dull lassitude.

“I’m sure they clean them,” he yawns. “What time is your campus tour?”

“Three? Or, wait.” She flops forward to pull her bag to her and dig through it, finally coming up with a sheaf of papers bearing the University of Chicago logo. “Three-thirty.”

“That’s like two hours from now, plenty of time to nap,” Steve decides, kicking off his shoes and falling backward against the mattress. It creaks ominously beneath him, but the bedspread doesn't smell like anything worse than bleach and stale cigarettes. He shoves his hair out of his face, closes his eyes, hears Robin snort out loud. “Wake me up when it’s time to go.”

“You’re unbelievable,” Robin sighs, but it sounds amused. Possibly even fond.

Steve sticks his thumb up without opening his eyes. “I think you mean charming and generous, and oh, also, thank you, Steve, for giving me a ride at ass o’clock in the morning, something like that.”

“Thank you, Steve, you’re so charming and generous,” she parrots in the snidest tone possible, and he can’t help grinning. There’s a suspiciously giggly-sounding snort, and then the other mattress creaks as she stands up. “I’m going to go find something to eat. You want anything?”

“I’m good,” Steve yawns, and waves her off, listens to the sound of her footsteps on the carpet, the creak of the door. Peels his eyes open just long enough to make sure that it’s locked, then lets them slip shut.

He doesn’t actually mean to doze off, but sleep has been proving elusive in the past few months.

Oh, who the hell is he kidding? He hasn’t been able to sleep reliably or well since Christmas of 1983, when a horror from another dimension slithered out of Jonathan Byers’ ceiling and tried to eat his face. Nightmares are par for the course these days, and getting his face pounded in by Russian intelligence officers was really just the icing on that particular shit cake.

Anyway, no nightmares this time, or at least not any that he can remember. He comes awake, groggy and disoriented, when the door to the room creaks shut, and then there are footsteps on the floor and Robin leans down to press something cold to his belly where his shirt has ridden up. Steve yelps, flails, opens his eyes. His cheek is sticky with drool, the comforter beneath his face damp. He tugs a hand through his hair to find it flattened and disheveled.

It’s probably just as well that Robin was never going to consider sleeping with him no matter how appealing he is. Or isn’t. His mojo seems to have taken a permanent hike since high school.

Point is, one of the many nice things about Robin is that she doesn’t give a shit. It takes the pressure off. She waits for him to clamor upright, then holds out a can of Coke. “Time to go. I got you a pop.” She eyes him for a moment, then adds, “Pretty sure I could score some cocaine if that’d work better. You look like shit.”

“Very fucking funny,” Steve sighs, taking the can. It’s icy cold and beading condensation against his palm, and he cracks it open, chugs half of it in one go, burps. “Thanks.”

“It’s a complete mystery to me how you’ve ever gotten anybody to sleep with you,” Robin says. Steve thinks about pointing out that he’s still pretty sure he’s doing better on that count than she is, but that seems kinda mean, all things considered.

“I’m a man of many talents,” he says instead, raising his eyebrows significantly. She snorts and rolls her eyes, and he finishes the pop, slides off the bed, and goes to see about making himself more or less presentable.

*

He drops Robin off at the edge of campus near the admissions office, where all the wide-eyed future college students are congregating. Most of them have parents in tow, heavy backpacks slung over their shoulders, bright, hopeful expressions on their faces.

Robin offers to let him tag along for the tour to see if he can manage to pick up college girls who haven’t seen him slinging ice cream in a sailor suit, but he waves her off. Lately he’s been in a state of what Dustin likes to call persistent ennui—it’s like an exhaustion of the soul, Steve, stop laughing at me, I’m serious.

Anyway, tagging along with all the smart nerds like Robin who are heading into their bright new futures seems like a depressing way to spend an afternoon, and they passed by a record store on their way in. He has his boombox with him, and browsing for new tapes sounds infinitely more appealing. Especially with the prospect of the horrified faces Robin is probably going to make at whatever he ends up getting.

The shop is small and dusty and smells like patchouli and pot. Nothing seems to be organized in any particular kind of way, and Steve passes a pleasant couple of hours there, wandering under the tacked-up posters of Bob Marley blowing smoke at the camera and Bruce Springsteen’s denim-clad ass in front of the American flag, Aretha Franklin pinned up next to him as regal and elegant as a queen. Nobody else comes in while he’s there, and the wizened old hippie at the counter ignores him completely until he comes up to the counter with a stack of tapes, and for a while after that, too.

“Hey,” Steve says eventually. “Can I buy these?”

“Sure, I guess, if you want,” the guy says, rusty and so indifferent that Steve can’t even be offended. Just gawks at him, half-amused, while he rings it all up on an old-fashioned register and accepts the cash Steve hands him in knotted hands, nails yellowed with nicotine.

*

Robin does make an appalled face back at the hotel, sitting on the floor with their heads tilted back against the mattress and passing a bottle of illicitly-acquired vodka back and forth between them. “Oh, my god, you actually bought these?”

“What’s wrong with Mr. Mister?” Steve asks, not even bothering to hide his grin.

“I don’t have time to give that question the kind of answer it deserves,” she says, reaching for the next cassette. Then she pauses. “Okay, David Bowie, that’s surprising. You’re forgiven.”

“Thanks,” Steve says, digging a cigarette out of the crumpled pack at the bottom of his bag. He lights it aod offers it to Robin, who takes a drag and then hands it back. Smoke curls up in the yellow lamplight. “Why’s that surprising?”

Robin hesitates, pulling her bottom lip in between her teeth like she’s thinking, then she shrugs and pops the cassette into the tape deck. “No reason. I’m just always surprised when you have good taste. In anything.”

He kind of feels like that wasn’t everything she meant to say, but the speakers are crackling through the intro to It’s No Game, and instead of asking he tilts the bottle to his lips and passes it back to Robin, takes a slow drag on the cigarette and blows smoke out into the hazy dusk of the room.

Maybe, just maybe, he’ll actually be able to sleep tonight.

*

Lights flash above him and there’s the wet stink of rot all around, growling in the distance as his feet pound the forest floor, the nail bat slippery in his hands. Something catches at his ankle and he goes down hard, and the monster is springing onto him, slamming him to the ground, its face opening up like some sick toothy flower.

Someone screams his name. Dustin, Dustin is screaming his name, and it’s Billy Hargrove above him suddenly, straddling him and laughing and his fists are wet with blood, and Nancy says, “Bullshit, it’s all bullshit,” and the floor is falling away beneath him and he’s in freefall—

Hands on his shoulders, warmth and the sudden jolt of it, and the room is flooded with light. “Steve. Steve!”

He shoves himself away, scrambles backward, heart pounding and hands grasping for a weapon, and hits the headboard. It rattles with the impact of his shoulders, and he finally opens his eyes.

The lamp is on, the motel room filled with dusty yellow light. Robin is sitting on the edge of his bed in cut-off sweats and a baggy Hawkins Marching Band t-shirt, messy hair, wide eyes. Her hands are up, palm out.

Steve lets his head fall back against the headboard with a groan and closes his eyes. “Shit,” he sighs. And then, “Sorry.”

“Nightmare?” Robin asks cautiously.

“What gave you that idea?” he says, but it doesn’t come out as light as he means it to. His heart is speeding, and he can feel his hands start to shake as the adrenaline rush leaches out of him. His voice is shaky too.

So much for a quiet fucking night of sleep.

He opens his eyes in time to see Robin lift one shoulder. “You were yelling.”

Steve grimaces, scrubs a hand through his hair. “I uh. I don’t get them that often anymore. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“It’s fine,” Robin says. He opens his mouth, and she says, “Steve, it’s fine. You think I don’t get them? The Mind Flayer, or that fucking elevator, or—”

“Yeah, yeah, more than enough trauma to go around, I get it,” Steve grumbles, but he actually feels a little better. “Still. I’m sorry for waking you up.”

“Shut up,” Robin says gently. “Look, do you want to just—watch TV for a little while, or something?”

“Yeah,” Steve sighs, because there’s no way he’s going to sleep anytime soon and that sounds a hell of a lot better than talking about it. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

He expects her to go back to her own bed after turning the TV on, fiddling with the rabbit ears until a grainy rerun of M*A*S*H comes in, but she doesn’t. She drops onto the mattress next to him, flips the lamp off, and elbows him in the side. “Move over, dingus.”

“What?”

“Move over.” Robin’s chin is up, and there’s something challenging in her eyes, like she’s just daring him to say something. Steve knows better than to pick a fight with Robin when she looks like that, though, so he just shifts over until she has room to settle against the headboard next to him, the press of her body a comforting line of heat against his side. He can smell her drug-store shampoo and the lingering hint of menthol smoke and he breathes in as she settles her cheek against his shoulder, lets the scent fill his nose and drown out the memory of that tunnel, the rotting stink of animate vines. “Klinger was always my favorite.”

“Huh?”

“Klinger,” Robin repeats. Her breath is warm against his neck, and he can feel the shape of her jaw against his collarbone as it moves. It probably should feel weirder than it actually does. Like, yearning, or something, some kind of heartbroken synonym from Nancy’s thesaurus. It’s been months since he’s let himself think about Robin like that, though, and that crush seems to have died a quiet, peaceful death while he wasn’t paying attention. It’s just—nice, having someone here, a warm human point of contact. He can feel his muscles start to unwind, that shaky adrenaline feeling dissipating. “I always liked him.”

“Yeah,” Steve says. On the TV, Klinger is plopped down in front of Col. Blake’s desk in a tall hat and lacy gloves. The image warps for a moment, then settles as Blake says, ‘Uh, Klinger, the rifle makes me nervous. Actually, the purse does too’. “Yeah, me too.”

“I knew there was good taste buried in there somewhere,” Robin murmurs, and Steve laughs against her hair, finally allows himself to relax.

He dozes off to the sound of a staticky laugh track from the TV and wakes to the thin gray light of dawn coming in through the blinds and the sound of snoring. The TV is dark; Robin must have gotten up and turned it off at some point after he fell asleep, but she’s not back in her own bed. She’s pressed up against Steve’s side instead, curled in a ball with her knees digging into the outside of his thigh. Her hair is loose across her face, moving slightly with her soft snores.

It should probably be weird. Steve’s never slept with anybody that he wasn’t, well, sleeping with. It isn’t, though. He feels warm and comfortable, pleasantly drowsy in a way he hasn’t in a while, no lingering nightmares fading from his mind. He shifts slightly until Robin’s knee isn’t digging a hole in his leg, and she snorts, rolls away, and opens her eyes.

“Whazza?” she mumbles, and then, “Shit, sorry,” and starts to sit up.

“Go back to sleep,” Steve yawns, burying his face in the pillow. It’s early. If they’re going to be awkward about this, it can wait.

Robin makes a soft sound like a snort, or maybe a laugh, and then the mattress shifts as she lays back down. She pats him clumsily on the shoulder with one hand, then leaves it there, a warm point of contact as he slips back down into sleep.

[fanwarriorfictions]

One-

A Stranger Things Fanfic

Chapter Five- Part Two

   Once the Wheeler's got home, Nancy and Phina went to change into more conventional clothing. Phina put on some warm maroon leggings and a long sleeve black shirt, then threw on a grey zip up hoodie with her leather jacket over it. The weather had been getting colder and colder, if they were going to be out in the forest, at night, she wanted to be prepared.

   Phina looked around her room, looked for anything that could be used as a weapon. She thought of an obvious weapon that she possessed, but she couldn't let Nancy, or even Jonathan, see it. So she settled for a nice wooden baseball bat. She'd been in softball during her freshman and sophomore years, one of the best players on the team, but she had quit, because no one really cared for her to be there, mostly, they were afraid of her, due to her reputation.

   Phina had always been called the weirdo of Hawkins, and it was due to what happened when she was five. Hikers had found Phina, almost frozen to death in the middle of the forest. When they had gotten her to the hospital, and warmed up, they tried to figure out where she came from, where her family was, but she couldn't remember. The only thing she could was waking up to the sound of the hikers shouting.

   The Wheeler's had adopted Phina into there family, and they all loved her so much, that they sometimes forget she isn't actually related to them.

   The rumors about her started almost as soon as she began school, everyone either hated her or feared her, and no one hated her more then Carol. Phina never let it get to her, because she knew that she was loved, by her family and the Byers. Even though she had a wonderful family, and the Byers', the bullies still got to her, and one day, she snapped.

   Phina had always been a hothead, but she had always let people push her around, but when Carol pushed to far once in sixth grade, she stopped letting it happen. Carol had smacked Phina on the playground, the first time anyone had actually laid a hand on her, and Phina saw red. When Carol brought her hand down for a second hit, Phina's own hand had shot up and grabbed Carol's wrist, twisting it back so hard and fast that the bone in her arm snapped clean in two.

   Everyone that had witnessed it was to scared to say anything, so everyone had agreed that Carol fell, and Phina had done nothing. This event hadn't stopped Carol's bullying, but it had built Phina a reputation, and no one laid a hand on her, not unless they had a death wish.

   Phina shook her head, leaving her own thoughts and went downstairs to meet Nancy. Her sister was in the garage, taking practice swings with one of Mike's old baseball bats. To say she wasn't good at it was an understatement.

   "How's it goin' there sis," Phina asked her mockingly.

   "Fine," Nancy grunted as she swung again.

   "Don't let your body move so much, you'll fall forward," Phina told her, "get a good strong stance with your legs, only move your upper body enough to get your swing going."

   Nancy continues to practice her swing, improving a little bit from Phina's help. Phina hops onto the hood of her fathers car, and lays back.

   Phina listened to her sister swing, the whistle it made as it cut through the air. She also listened to the noise of nature, the last few birds singing in the trees, the winds accompaniment. Nature was soothing, if you truly took the time to enjoy it, you'd find yourself at home. Phina felt at home when she was surrounded by nature, more than anywhere else, even with the Byers.

   Phina hears Nancy swing again, and then Steve Harrington's voice shout, "woah woah woah, hey!"

   Phina jumps up, her head snapping towards Steve. He has his arms up and was looking at Nancy, but when he heard movement, looked over at her. Her steely glare was set on him, and, he wasn't going to lie, it burned. She was still unbelievably livid about what he did to Jonathan, he knew that she would be, but being under her harsh glare made him squirm.

   "What are you doing here," Nancy askes.

   Steve lookes back at her, "What are you doing?"

   "Nothing," Nancy lies, badly.

   "I hope that's not for me," Steve points at the bat.

   "Her's isn't, mine just might be," Phina grumbled, swing her bat up to her shoulder and hopping of the cars hood.

   Nancy glared at her sister, "no no. I was just thinking about joining softball. Phina was giving me pointers."

   "Oh. Well uh, listen, I'm very sorry. I mean, even before you threatened me with a baseball bat," Steve jokes, walking past Nancy to lean against the car.

   "Ok?"

   "I mean, I panicked. I was a total dick," Steve explains.

   Phina's glare deepens and she pushes away from the car to lean against the wall, "no shit?"

   Nancy ignores her and snorts, "yeah. You were."

   They look at each other for a moment, an awkward silence between them, that had Phina cringing.

   "Did you get in trouble with your parents," Nancy asks.

   "Totally but, you know, who cares. Screw  'em," he says, "any news about Barbra?"

   Nancy shakes her head, Steve continues, "parents heard from her, or?"

Like you care Harrington. Phina thinks to herself, her eyes still burning with fire. Her anger at him was still stoked high and she knew it would not go down for a long time.

   Nancy shakes her head again, Barb was still gone, but she was going to save her best friend.

   "Hey listen, why don't we, uh, why don't we catch a movie tonight, you know?" Steve pushes off the car and walks closer to Nancy. "Just kinda pretend that everything's normal for a few hours. All The Right Moves is still playing!"

   Phina rolls her eyes and Steve catches it. He realizes that he should probably apologize to her too, but he just knows she won't listen to a word that comes out of his mouth.

   "You know, the lover boy from risky business," Steve says to Nancy, pushing Phina away from his thoughts.

   Nancy laughs awkwardly, "yeah."

   Phina can't help it anymore, she can't listen to this. She pushes away from the wall harshly and exits the garage. Phina swings her bat around and takes a few swings, the movement swift and smooth. She faintly hears Steve start singing but she tunes him out. Did he have to be so outrageously annoying all the damn time?

   After being rejected, Steve leaves the garage, singing again. Phina heard him and grits her teeth, swinging ever so slightly harder. Steve looks at the girl and sighs.

   "I know you don't really care, but I am sorry for what I did to Jonathan and his camera. It was stupid," he apologizes weakly.

   Phina swings again and grunts, "yeah? Why don't you apologize to Jonathan, he'd probably actually forgive you."

   Steve's face falls even more, both the Wheeler girl's rejections hitting home, "I'm sorry."

   "Yeah! You said that already Harrington!" She turns to him furiously. "And you know what! I don't really care. You're right, you fucked up bad, really bad. Did you know I bought that camera for Jon on our ten year friendship anniversary? No, you didn't, because you have no care in the world for the people you hurt."

   She hadn't realized that she had stepped closer to him, she didn't care, she leaned in even closer to his face, "now why don't you just leave before I make do on that threat."

   She lifts her bat for emphasis, meaning it completely. He looks at the bat and pales, rasing his hands in surrender.

   "Ok," he nods, "I'll leave."

   Phina spins on her heal and storms back towards her sister. Steve watches as she goes, giving Nancy a little wave before leaving like promised. Nancy opens her mouth to say something, to reprimand her, but Phina gives her a look.

   "Don't start with me right now," she growls, and then sighs, "just don't."

-1381 words-

[tippitv]

Supernatural Recap: 14:01 “Stranger in a Strange Land”

The road so far... is thirteen years long. Thirteen years. If this show were a person, they would be dealing with acne and/or getting their period. We're on the fourth American presidential term since this show started. My dog Henry looked like this

And now he looks like this:

But back to the show's rock-n-roll montage to catch us up for this season. 

There was a nephilim boy named Jack, an alternate dimension accessible by an episiotomy in spacetime where bad angels ruled and dead characters were still alive, and a weird fight between Dean Winchester (with archangel Michael stuffed up in him like a heavenly turducken) and Lucifer that ended up looking like the video for Total Eclipse of the Heart.

At the end of it, Michael absconded with Dean's hot bod and made him wear a silly cap and break the fourth wall.

As the episode starts, Sam's full beard lets us know that some time has passed since the finale. He's driving through slick streets because it's always raining in the lush coastal rain forest of Kansas. .

But then we cut to some other bearded guy, asleep in a room somewhere that looks like a room they've used on this show a lot, but this time with a weirdly loud background soundtrack of ocean waves and seagulls. The guy gets up, puts his prayer mat down on the floor, and begins praying in what the CC tells me is Arabic.

He looks up to see Michael (in Dean) sitting there in his little cap. "Hello, Jamil," Michael says. Jamil looks surprised, as one should.

Michael quotes from what Google tells me is verse 2:98 of the Holy Quran in order to introduce himself: "Whoever is an enemy to Allah and His angels and His messengers Gabriel and Michael..." He still makes Jamil go through a guessing game. God? No. Gabriel? No. One of these guys in Newsies?

Also no. He says he's there to ask Jamil the same question he's spent weeks asking people all over the world. "Do you want your newspaper on your porch or in your mailbox?"

"What do you want exactly?" Michael asks him. Jamil says he wants peace and love. Michael says "you never would have ran" from Syria if that were true. Okay first of all, that's "would have run," Mister Archangel. Second of all... wait, where did the seagulls go? It's quiet now. As if they left to bother someone else.

Michael flings him around a bit with his angel powers. Like is that even fun? Super powerful beings always act like it is but it's just a normal part of his abilities like my being able to scratch my elbow or blow my nose is normal for me. Anyway, Michael says he wants a better world. Cut to the season's new title card!

Meanwhile, the bunker has been embraced by the resistance fighters from the alternate dimension. Is anybody feeling guilty about the fight they left behind? Are they assuming the fight over there is done because Michael is here now? Mary checks the aim of a new gun by pointing it at or very near these people's danged heads.

The girl already died once so maybe she's unflappable and the guy's too busy getting a monster tooth removed from a wound to notice. He says it happened in Phoenix... which Google tells me is at least a 16-hour drive away if you have a normal car.

Sam joins the bunker, letting us know that he's been in Atlanta checking up on a possible Michael-Dean sighting that turned out to be someone's drug-induced hallucination. It's the good thing the Impala travels a thousand mph or that would've been a lot of wasted time. He and Mary exposit about how it's been three weeks since the end of last season. That's only three weeks of beard growth? Does that seem like a lot just because I don't grow beards?

Sam has just enough time to yawn and be sad before some guy who looks like if maybe Jonathan Van Ness got halfway through getting ready to go chop fire wood tells him there are some "gypsy type" vampires heading east. Boo, Fake Jonathan. Even though he's exhausted, Sam starts delegating teams to go take care of the problem and sits down to hack into a traffic cam.

Then he remembers a cliffhanger from last season. "Hey how's Jack?"

Cut to Jack getting his ass handed to him by Bobby in a fight training session. Aw look at his cute lil sweats. Wait... what are those windows in the gym? They look look like they're streaked with rain. Isn't the whole bunker underground?

Also omg someone give that boy a face guard while he's sparring! He can't heal his cute little mug anymore!

Meanwhile in Detroit, Castiel is following up a lead at a BBQ joint called Motown Meats. And like I know "Motown" is also a nickname for the city and not just the name of a record label, but the country music playing in this joint is still annoying to me. Anyway some pink-cheeked fella who thinks burgundy brown shoes go with cornflower blue suits strides into the place all, "Castiel! Darling!" 

This fella, with his imperious little strut and vaguely Southern demeanor, simply demands I refer to him as Young Lindsey Graham. He orders sausage, brisket and "pork ribs, well done." What the fuck, Linds? All pork ribs are well done! If someone gives you underdone pork anything, you get right off your ass and call the health department!

"I didn't think you consorted with my kind," Linds says, revealing himself to be a demon and also someone who doesn't know his basic show history.

Castiel is loath to admit that he needs information. "Does any demon know where Dean Winchester is?" Young Lindsey is delighted and scandalized at the thought of Cas losing any Winchester, much less Dean. "I thought you two were joined at the... everything." He gets about as close to pointing/looking at Cas's dick as Mary got to pointing that gun at those people's heads.

Yes, I'm terrible at making gifs. Anyway, Linds goes, "What's in it for moi?" And Cas tells him, "Your life." So Linds is like, "Come again?" Honey, he ain't even come the first time yet, don't get ahead of yourself.

Castiel uses his graveliest voice on Young Lindsey, but to no avail. It turns out the whole place is full of demons. Wouldn't Cas have picked up on that? Is he that powerless? They all crowd around him and knock him to the floor.

A sign outside a church in Duluth welcomes "Sister Jo" and advertises its morning prayers at 8 in the morning. Does that seem ridiculously early to me just because I'm a heathen? Also it's clearly nighttime in this scene. Some parishioners thank Jo for saving their lives. It seems like she should be trying to fly under the radar, so to speak.

Oh now she's walking through a dark alley, counting her money. I'll give her a pass because she has angel powers, but people on this show are always being unwise in alleys. Michael approaches her. "You don't recognize me with this pretty face?" he asks. It's the hat! It! Is! The! Hat! He reveals his big seagull-lookin' wings.

Jo is naturally suspicious of Michael. "Why would Dean say yes to you when he turned you down like seven seasons ago?" she asks. "We needed a cliffhanger for the finale and he'd already been a demon," he says. I mean, that's not what they say but I'm sure they were thinking it.

He asks her what she wants, and she tries to be glib about it but he's not buying it. He says she wants love and a family and barfy stuff like that. He keeps asking people what they want and then just ends up telling them.

Back at the bunker, Sam has a chat with Jack.

"I know this must be so hard," Sam says, "without your grace, without your powers...It's a lot, I'm sure." I mean, Sam wasn't a nephilim but he used to be super juiced up on demon blood with telekinetic powers. If there were ever a time for Sam to bust out with "hey I went through a sort of similar thing," it'd be now. Mary interrupts this tender moment to say someone's awake. Way to talk-block, Mary.

Sam reluctantly leaves Jack to go see whoever this other person is. He opens the door as the soundtrack builds up tension. The camera finally swoops in and reveals...

NO.

NO! I REFUSE. I!!! REFUSE!!!! THERE IS NO WAY NICK'S CARCASS SHOULD STILL BE ALIVE. NONE. BEGONE YOU FOUL THING, BEGONE!!!

You know what this means, right? Either that whiny little baby Lucifer will come back somehow and need to possess him again, or when they inevitably get Dean back, Michael will use this empty toothpaste tube of a human as his vessel. OH FUCK HE'S TAKING HIS SHIRT OFF

Okay why does Sam need to be the one to clean his mostly healed wound? It's not like Nick's hands are broken. Nick has a big dramatic reaction. Calm the hell down, it's peroxide not alcohol. Then he just puts the same dirty old bandage back on. What. The. Fuck.

Sam is being very sympathetic, if rattled because this guy's got the same face as the fucker that tortured him for a hundred years. Nick doesn't remember much about what happened, but says Michael told Lucifer "he wanted to do things right this time." Sam goes outside to collect himself when his phone buzzes.

"Oh, hey, Cas," he answers. Young Lindsey Graham corrects him: "I'm the boy who's got your angel." Okay, when I said he was young, I meant compared to current day Lindsey Graham. He's clearly not a boy. He's also clearly not a very worthy foe.

The music goes "eeeeeEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!" to build up tension, but fourth-tier demons are like basically gnats compared to the other baddies the Bunker Bunch have fought. It's kinda silly that Cas even got captured by these twerps.

But everyone is taking it very seriously and packing up their weapons to head to Detroit. Maybe the Other Dimension people haven't fought demons before? I can't remember. Sam assigns teams. "Maggie, you're with Bobby. Mom, you're with me." 

Jack wants to come, too, but Bobby protests that he's not ready for a demon fight. And Maggie is? That poor child seems perpetually on the verge of jumping out of her own skin. But Sam's like, "He needs this, Bobby." 

Back in Detroit, a bloodied Cas sits magically cuffed to a chair. "You sure I can't get you anything hot... and black?" Young Lindsey asks him in a needlessly suggestive manner. I mean, he's talking about coffee, not Grindr. Wtf, my dude? Castiel's face right now is so relatable.

We launch into a good old-fashioned Sit-n-Chat! Linds blah blahs about coffee and using Cas as bait, then reveals, without naming names, that Michael recently approached him like he did the other guest characters in this episode. He was asked what he wanted. "I realized after 600 years as a demon walking the planet...I didn't know." But now he's realized he wants everything. Start with some shoes that look better with your suit.

Meanwhile, Sam and Mary are driving through the perpetual rain. Seriously, how do y'all in Kansacouver deal with this much rain?? I live in Houston and we get a lot of rain, but in like... big groupings and not just constantly. Anyway, seeing that Sam is fretting, Mary says, "It's gonna be fine." Sam isn't convinced. "You don't know that!"

Now, normally this 900-mile trip would take about an hour, but Sam and Bobby didn't carpool so the Impala had to slow way down. Lol when Sam walks through the door at the barbecue place it looks like he's wearing the doorbell as a tiny hat.

Sam gets frisked to make sure he's not packing heat, then Young Lindsey waxes impressed about his shoulders and hair. He makes a "mm MM!" sound like he's just been presented a bowl of delicious bread puddin' and hot caramel sauce.

Here we are nearly at the end of the episode and we finally find out Young Lindsey Graham's name is actually Kipling. "Kip, for short," he says, offering his hand for a shake. Sam leaves him hanging. Also: lol "Kip." Kip's goons drag Jack and Maggie inside. Sam's nostrils flare in consternation as one of the demons punches Jack.

God this guy talks a lot. To sum up: Kip wants to be king of Hell and he wants the Winchesters to treat him like they did Crowley. You know, keep him around past his expiry date and then still somehow manage to make his death too abrupt.

When Sam turns him down, Kip has a bit of a tantrum. "In life, I rode with Genghis Khan!" he rails, mispronouncing it. He pouts and stomps some more, but Sam stays chill because he knows Mary and Bobby are about to bust in with guns blazing.

Slo-mo fisticuffs ensue! Kip throws Sam across the room with his powers. He's a higher level demon who could kill every human with a swoosh of his hand, but then the show would be over. Also, didn't the Bunker Bunch all have devil's trap bullets and stuff? These demons are taking a long time to die.

Kip somehow gets hold of the demon knife during the melee and takes one second long to admire how cool it is. This gives Sam enough time to switch things around and stab him with it. Kip dies as he lived: admiring Sam's shoulders.

Sam calls an end to the fight. "There will be no new King of Hell!" All the remaining demons vacate their meat suits. Who's going to run the barbecue restaurant now? Also, Castiel has been sitting, still cuffed, to that chair this whole time.

Back at the bunker, everyone is beat to hell. Cas and Sam have a rueful talk about what they just went through. Cas is embarrassed he went to the demons, but Sam says he'd work with anyone if it meant finding Dean.

In the kitchen, Mary and Bobby do a little Chekhov's flirting.

Cas goes to find Jack and try to cheer him up. "You did well," he says. "All I did was get punched in the face," Jack says. Don't sell yourself short, kid. You also got punched in the stomach.

Jack feels frustrated and useless without his powers. Cas tells him they have each other and they're family. Aww. I feel like Cas could also say he relates here. "I used to burn the eyes out of demons and destroy buildings with my voice!"

Sam gets a call from Jo. "We have a problem," she says. Is she working for Michael? Maybe!

Cut to a grungy abandoned warehouse, where Michael is currently having a chat with a monster of some kind. Maybe it's one of the vampires mentioned earlier in the episode. "Your want is pure," Michael says. Monsters are soooo much easier to deal with than people or angels! "You just wanna eat," Michael says as the monster shows off some fangs.

Incidentally, "You just wanna eat" also describes me at a brunch buffet.

So that's the end of the season premier! The FOURTEENTH season premier. Holy hell right?

If you'd like me to recap the next episodes, let me know. Thanks for reading!

And now’s the self-promo time when I add my Ko-Fi link! (ko-fi.com/A4017DA)

These are some very desperate times for me, so if you have a few bucks to spare and you enjoyed this fic, I would very much appreciate any donation. I know it looks like I’ve received quite a few donations recently but those larger ones were me “donating” to myself with credit cards to pay bills that had to be paid from my bank.

I'm afraid of not making rent this month, thanks to several clients just refusing to pay me for my work.

Or my Paypal address is btippi@gmail.com and if you send it as a gift I think no fees are deducted from my end.

[harringrovecryptid]

The Party Looks for Mothman

This was requested by @dead-night-harringrove

Thank you for voting!

“This is so dumb.”

“Shh!”

“Henderson if you shush me one more time I swear to God I'm leaving you in the woods.”

“I just caught you threatening to abandon me, an innocent impressionable child, in the middle of nowhere on camera!” Dustin pointed his video camera in Billy's face.

“Good then you probably also recorded what an annoying ass you've been all day!”

Steve tried to tune out the sound of Billy and Dustin arguing. He had bigger things to worry about. Like keeping Dustin and all his dorky little friends alive the rest of the night.

“Fun camping trip my ass.” Steve mumbled to himself as he dug around inside his backpack.

They were supposed to spend a quiet weekend out of Hawkins to help the kids unwind. To forget the Upside Down and all the horror’s they’d experienced the past few years.

Steve knew he should have been more suspicious when Dustin was adamant about camping in West Virginia.

“Uh, Steve?” Will spoke softly as he stood patiently next to his would-be guardian. “We are okay though, right?”

Steve looked up to meet Will’s eyes and-- Oh god Will. He was the smallest in their group and therefore the easiest to lose. Hell, judging by Steve’s luck the kid’d probably get snatched up by an owl or something.

God he hated camping without an adult.

Steve smiled broadly, hoping Will wouldn’t notice the effort it took. “We’re fine. Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts about joining us.”

The kids had been divided on how they wanted to spend their summer. Dustin and Lucas wanted to go camping, while El and Max wanted to visit the coast. Apparently Max had been telling her all about the sand and the ocean.

So when a compromise (or as El liked to call it, a halfway happy answer) couldn’t be found, Hopper suggested they do both. Naturally Mike went with El, Max, and Hopper. Which left Steve to take the boys and whoever else wanted to join on a camping trip.

Will thought for a moment before shaking his head. “No, I’m good.”

Truth be told Steve was a little surprised Will chose the woods over a beach. The poor kid didn’t have a great track record when it came to this kind of setting.

Billy was also a surprise, albeit a welcome one. And Steve had a sneaking suspicion that he made Will feel safer somehow. That quiet, unspoken ‘I’m okay, so you’ll be okay’ understanding that Will didn’t seem to have with anyone else, even Jonathan.

“Both of you shut up!” Lucas snapped, jumping down from a tree. The action make Steve gasp in horror even as Lucas landed safely on the ground. It’s so dark and he could have twisted his ankle…

Lucas didn’t seem to notice the effect his action had on Steve. He was too busy arguing with Dustin. “Mothman uses both sound and thermo-vision. It doesn’t matter what noise you guys make if he can see us from a mile off.”

Dustin and Billy squinted at Lucas through the beams of their flashlights.

“You just made that up.” Dustin said, aligning himself closer to Billy, who in turn rolled his eyes.

“All of this is made up.”

Dustin was back at Lucas’ side again, glaring through his camera at Billy. “Oh so you can believe in monsters from an opposite dimension but you refuse to believe in Mothman?”

Billy shrugged. “You gotta draw the line somewhere.”

“Here we go!” Steve shouted triumphantly, pulling out a long line of rock-climbing rope.

“Now,” Steve began tying the rope around each boy’s waist, “none of us are getting separated tonight.”

Dustin looked around the woods. “But what if we find the Mothman and have to run away real fast?”

Steve paused on his way to attach the rope to Billy. Finally he turned to Dustin and shrugged. “If we find Mothman then we’ve got bigger problems than just rope.”

The three boys then began to quietly discuss their best course of action once they found the stupid cryptid. Steve shook his head and began wrapping the rope around Billy.

“I thought we were saving the kinky stuff for later.” Billy’s voice had a flirtatious tone to it even in the dark, and Steve was sure his lover’s tongue was sticking out of his mouth with a cheeky smile.

Reaching out to where Steve imagined Billy’s face was, he playfully shoved Billy’s mouth shut. “Can you please take this a little more seriously?”

“Babe, we’re in the middle of West Virginia. What could possibly go wrong?”

Three Hours Later

Steve knew Billy was strong. But not ‘dragging a daisy chain of teenage boys through a forest’ strong.

Apparently an adrenaline rush and strong will to live can be one hell of a motivator.

“Ohmygod Ohmygod Ohmygod!” Dustin kept screaming with each stride and leap they made through the forest.

It was a wonder they hadn't gotten tangled around a tree yet.

“Did anyone else see it's teeth?” Lucas called out.

No one had any extra oxygen to spare to discuss what they did or did not see. Steve was personally way too distracted by the creature's giant red eyes to consider looking at anything else.

Eventually their luck ran out, and Lucas ran left when Billy ran right, causing their party to clothesline around a tall pine.

If Steve hadn't just face planted into the forest floor, he would have complained about the bruises the rope definitely caused.

There was a long silence as everyone caught their breath. Billy and Steve kept looking between each other and the sky, afraid that whatever they were running from was still in pursuit.

“Is everyone okay?” Steve finally panted out. “Will?”

Will was hunched over on his hands and knees, fingers gripping fistfuls of damp earth. He hadn't spoken since they first started running, and it was dawning on Steve just now how traumatic this whole thing might have been.

He reached out and placed a hand on Will's back. “Will, are you okay?”

“That. Was. Awesome.” Will said between gasps for air.

“Really?” Steve stared in confusion at Billy before looking back to Will.

“Are you kidding? That was my first encounter with a monster that ended with me being okay.” Will sat up and winces, grappling at the rope that was still tightly pulled around his waist. “Almost okay.”

“Well I'm not okay.” Dustin whined. “The camera broke when we fell.”

He held up the flattened and cracked remains of his camcorder.

“Are you serious dude?” Lucas shoved Dustin. “We almost got eaten by the Mothman and you're complaining about your camera?”

“But now no one'll believe us! Besides, it wasn't going to eat us.”

Lucas threw up his hands. “Here we go again. What is it with you and thinking monsters are harmless?”

Lucas and Dustin began arguing about Dart and Dustin's completely “scientific” and “rational” need to collect weird animals, eventually dragging Will into the midst as a mediator.

While they were busy, Billy untied himself and crawled over to where Steve was sitting against a tree. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Steve whispered back, intertwining their hands together in his lap.

Billy squeezed Steve’s hand and leaned in closer to get a better look at his boyfriend. “You okay?”

Steve gave a breathless laugh before shaking his head. “We just saw a fucking Mothman Billy. How do you think I’m doing?”

Billy shrugged and gave his boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek when he was sure the kids weren’t looking.

They didn’t seem to mind their relationship after Steve convinced them to give Billy a second chance, but kids still get a little icky about romantic gestures regardless of gender.

“To be honest,” Billy whispered into Steve’s ear, “I’m not convinced it wasn’t just a big bird.”

Steve half-considered just tying Billy up against a tree and leaving his ass in the woods, but the drive back to Hawkins was a long one. And aside from the convenience of having a second driver, Steve was beginning to think he wanted Billy by his side for as long as life allowed.