#interim obligatory explanation part

[rogueddie]

Part one

Steve has so many questions, especially once they get in Eddies van. Everything is different- from the shops to the people. Even the trees look different. He wants to know why.

"We already told you," Dustin sighs. "Time has passed, fashion has changed, whatever."

"But why?" He leans forward, jabbing his finger at one of the shops. "Why did they change the colors?"

"I don't know!"

Dustin doesn't yell, not like his father would. He doesn't do anything other than groan too, encouraging Steve to keep asking questions. He even dares to stick his tongue out when he finally starts complaining, asking Steve to shut up.

By the time they pull up outside a small, wooden cabin, Dustin looks ready to strangle him.

It's kind of funny.

"Alright," Eddie finally speaks up. "Let's go."

He quickly jumps out, jogging around to catch Steve as he steps out, throwing him over his shoulder. He laughs when Steve yells, trying to kick him.

"Don't be a brat, Harrington!" He cackles.

"This is why you aren't cool like Robin!" He yells back, twisting around so he can tug at his hair. "You're a meanie."

"Ow, dude, not the hair!"

Someone clears their throat, making Eddie stop walking. Steve tries to wriggle around, trying to see who it is, but Eddies jacket blocks his view no matter what.

Someone snaps their fingers, after a moment, and Eddie gently lowers him back onto his feet.

The man standing in front of the cabin door looks stunned, when Steve turns around. He blinks at the group for a second, before silently pointing to Steve.

"We don't know," Robin answers. "He's been like this for a while."

"Let me guess; parents aren't home. Again."

"They're busy!" Steve defends.

The man snorts, shaking his head. "That's what you always say, kid." He steps aside, nodding towards the cabin. "Come on, she knew you were coming."

Before Steve can step inside, following the group, the man stops him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Kid," the man clears his throat as he crouches down. His hand is gentle on his shoulder. "You doing ok?"

"I'm fine."

"Steve. This is probably very confusing and scary, I know, but you need to trust us. We want to help you."

Steve scuffs his feet on the floor, grumbling, "yeah, I know."

"So if you're not ok, you can tell us."

"Yeah, I know."

The man stares at him for a moment, before nodding. "If that changes, let us know, ok?"

"Ok."

"Good. Come on."

The inside of the cabin is cozy. Cluttered. Lived in.

"Hello Steve!" A young woman greets. Her hair is shorter than his, Steve notes. And she has a nice smile.

"Hello."

"I am Jane, but you can call me El." She offers her hand.

He shakes it automatically, a little surprised when she doesn't let go. "El?"

"That is what my friends call me." She gestures towards the two pillows set out on the floor, in front of the TV. "I am going to find out what has happened to you. It won't hurt."

"Uh, right. What- uh..." He looks to Robin, who nods encouragingly. "What do I do?"

"Sit with me."

She gently tugs him over, sitting on one of the pillows. She smiles at him when he hesitates, waiting, patient.

He keeps quiet, looking to the others when she pulls out a blindfold.

"It helps her think," the man explains.

Steve nods, even though he doesn't understand what that means.

For a moment, nothing happens. They sit there, almost silent- the static from the TV starts to grate his ears, especially with how close they're sat. But the others look tense, impatient, so Steve tries to stay where he is. He tries to behave.

Until he spots blood.

"She's bleeding!" He points out.

He goes to jump to his feet, but a hand quickly lands on his shoulder, pushing him back down.

It's Robin.

"It's ok, she's ok, it's just a nosebleed," she says. "It's harmless, really. She knows what she's doing."

Robin stays next to him. She even lets him hold her hand when he reaches out for her.

It's not long, after that, until El lifts the blindfold off. She looks confused.

"Well?" Dustin snaps. "What is it? Is he ok? Did someone do-"

"Hey," Eddie gently interrupts, leaning over to bump their shoulders together.

"He is ok," El says, once Dustin relaxes a little. "But I... don't know how this happened."

"How do we change him back?" Eddie asks.

"I can't, I'm sorry. But it is taking too much power to sustain itself."

"Wait, wait, wait," Robin rubs at her forehead. "So, you can't change him back but, what, eventually he will on his own?"

"Yes."

"How long will that take?" Dustin asks.

"I am not sure. Maybe a week? Two?"

"And until then he's just stuck like this?"

"I am sorry, Steve," El says, turning to him. "When it is weaker, I might be able to help?"

"That's ok," Steve quickly reassures her. "I will be ok. I know how to take care of myself."

"What?" El tilts her head, confused.

"Kid, you're staying here," the man says.

"No, Hopper," Robin cuts in, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "I'm gonna take care of him. He's, like, my soulmate! And he likes me!"

"Woah, hold on," Dustin says. "That's not fair! He's my family!"

They continue to argue for an hour. It's mostly playful, but Steve kind of likes it. He's never had anyone fight over him before.

"He is staying here," Eddie finally speaks up, when it looks like the man- Hopper- is about to explode. "Neither of you two have thought of a single excuse for your parents. And you can't leave him in that big house on his own. He's safer here."

"Oh, fuck," Robin suddenly jerks upright. "What the hell do I tell Keith?"

Part Three

tag list for those who asked; @songbird-garden @str4wb3rry-guy @badcaseofcasey @lioniheart @irethsune @starry-eyedlune @newtstabber @messrs-weasley @vesme @penny00dreadful

[thetravelling1]

T+8: The Lord was busy.

It was always part of the plan that I buy a car once I arrived, to greater facilitate touring - both to get to interviews, and to explore the country. This last week on foot (and with public transport) has been fine, but I’ve been overly dependent on the kindness of strangers (3/3 meetups I managed to cadge a lift back home) and the weather not being shit. Spoiler: It’s winter here.

So, when at the first meetup on Monday, Marty volunteered that he had a car or two available, it felt like fate. I had great success buying my last car off a friend (Thanks Khaleda - Nemo was awesome), and repeating that process would be great. The price was right - $1800 - and it seemed to do everything I wanted. The milometer was a bit high (241000) until I realised that that was kilometers!

The problem was that today when I did the online Vehicle Inspection Report, there was a claim of outstanding debt secured against the car. This created a flurry of activity between Marty and I - and to his credit, it all looks like it’s an administrative error on the part of an ex-owner’s finance company; by the end of the day, it looks like it’s going to get cleared.

However, in the interim period I had done some googling, based on the recommendation of my Landlady - she had used Turners Car Auctions before, and vouched for the process. The whole thing makes my spider sense twitch - there seemed like lots of ways it could theoretically bite me on the ass - but it piqued my curiosity sufficiently that I felt like I had to go, to see what was up.

I’d used their search engine to determine the 24 cars available for under $4k (not a hard limit for me, but I’d want to see a real stonker of a car to push above this!). Then I went through each of their Vehicle Condition Guides to determine the cars with actual faults. I’m no good with cars, so was happy to forsake a real potential bargain to instead see a car with nothing obviously wrong with it.

As I walked into the auction hall, nobody seemed to be that actively selling anything - the cars available for auction were dotted around a warehouse of cars not available for auction! It took a good 20 minutes before anybody pointed out that the Lot Numbers coincided with Parking Spaces only Some Of The Time, and I needed the Prospectus to determine where the cars actually were - and then another 20 minutes before anybody drew me a map detailing how the cars outside were parked (nobody was going to show me on account of the rain).

I did manage to look at all the cars available, cross off a few that looked manky and for the rest, work out my maximum price. I got up to the auction lounge early and strategically placed myself in the back corner of the room, to ensure minimum chance that me scratching my obligatory itch wasn’t taken as a bid. The room of 80 seats filled up with maybe a dozen people. And the auction began.

The cars I was seriously interested in weren’t until the second half of the auction, which gave me a good opportunity to compare predicted prices to actual sale prices. And I noticed a trend - they had trouble getting bids on anything, there wasn’t a lot of competition when bidding, and the final bids were just under 90% of the estimated low bid!

Now’s when a tricky set of thoughts come into my head:

I hadn’t really done enough research - not even looked inside the cars, let alone taken a test drive or had someone qualified look at it

There would be another auction the following week, and I could maybe invite an expert on car buying and do some proper legwork in

They are a professional auction house and had completed a basic checkup of the car - it wouldn’t be legit to sell me a car with “no faults” that I couldn’t drive off the lot

It’s very unlikely that the next auction would suddenly break this pattern, but if it did happen I’d kick myself

Two of the cars I’ve had a bit of an eye on have already been and gone, and sold for significantly less than my maximum price. I didn’t bid on those because they weren’t top of my list (mental note: next time, work out what is!)

They add a fee on to auctions, which tiers based on bid value. If I can win with a bid of less than $2k, I only pay $280 fee instead of $400. Every little helps

I promised myself that I wouldn’t get a rustbucket with an ominous creak again - my next car would be for the long haul. That’s part of commitment. What kind of car is one you can be proud of, and also less than $2k?

So yeah, when the Mercedes Benz A160 (a hatchback) came up and it was predicted to sell at $1500-$2500, I watched with interest. Nobody bid at $1500. The auctioneer started at $1200. I bit. I got outbid at $1400. I could have walked away. I didn’t. I bid $1500, and it stood.

I had just bought a car.

Then the weirdest thought popped into my head. Whenever you see a house on the market for significantly less than you expect, there’s only really one explanation. I wonder if it applied to cars too.

I wonder if there had ever been a murder in my car. 

I mean, probably not, right? That doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that happens often. But still... if there had been... how would I know?

I fill in the paperwork and walk home (I hadn’t been told that the car came with 3 days of free insurance; that would have been useful!). I pop into an Irish pub that we’d visited before, and had the same beer and burger deal as we had had the last time. I grin inwardly as I sing Janis Joplin to myself, and find myself unsure whether Mercs are good because they never break or bad because replacement parts are expensive. I remind myself that if it were to break in a month, I’d have change from my original budget to try something else.

Then I get home and check out the cost for insurance. Y’see, I had a small prang (my fault entirely) back in the UK, and was not looking forwards to finding out what that did to my insurance. So I enter my details, and the total cost is... $146. For the year. That’s crazy cheap in UK terms. I may as well throw in a year’s breakdown cover for an extra $30, throw caution to the wind!

I’m still going to take it to a garage tomorrow, once it’s registered in my name and paid for. I’ve still got one eye on the worst case scenario. I just... don’t know where I could find a car exorcist, if that comes to pass.