#let those girls bond by hitting balls real hard!!!! el i think gets real into tackling people

[stevieharringtonwifeguy]

give it up for @stevieweek day 3- girls' night! using the sports prompt to spread my sporty stevie agenda like let that woman put her ponytail through her baseball cap!!!!!

wc: 812 | rating: G

Today, Stevie Harrington is a woman on a mission. She’s gonna revolutionise girls’ night.

Before her transition, she spent most of her time with the boys of the party (and also Robin), and while she’s still pretty close with them and has maintained her hybrid sibling-chauffeur relationship, the girls have started muscling in on her time a lot more under the pretense of ‘showing her the ropes’ of femininity. Which mainly seems to entail Erica dragging her through stores in the mall a few towns over and El practising her new nail painting skills on Stevie’s hands.

And don’t get her wrong, Stevie loves it. There’s a certain sense of joy that warms her heart every time the girls make a point to involve her in anything, especially something overtly feminine. Her hair, skin, and nails have literally never looked better thanks to their new weekly girls nights.

But recently, Stevie’s had something of a revelation. She’s always been a sporty gal, but with the exception of Lucas, none of the boys have shown any interest in joining her in her hobbies. In fact, they’ve repeatedly shown an interest in doing anything but her hobbies. She’d pretty much given up on getting to play any kind of sports with the kids a long time ago, beyond the occasional one-on-one with Lucas.

At least, until she realised that while the boys had banned all mention of sports, she’d received no such ultimatum from the girls.

The more she thinks about it, the more perfect her plan seems. Max is already kind of sporty- she’d taken Stevie out skateboarding once and that shit was hard, involving a lot of muscles and balance skills that Stevie wasn’t really used to. Erica and Nancy aren't specifically big sports fans, but they have a lot of rage within them that Steph thinks could really be put to use in, say, swinging a bat around or throwing a ball real hard. If anything the only real concern Stevie has there is that they might become too powerful. El tends to just be happy being part of a group, and Robin is dedicated in her role of Stevie’s Best Friend Slash Twin Sister, so while she’ll probably complain the entire time about how she’s too uncoordinated for sports, she’ll still do it as if not doing it wasn’t even an option.

So now she’s sitting in her living room, the designated venue for girls’ night, surrounded by various sports equipment while the other girls stare at her.

“It could be fun! Like a bonding thing!” she says, eyes big and pleading.

Erica squints at her. “You look like a dog begging for food right now.”

Before Stevie can even begin to get offended by that, El pipes up from where she’s inspecting a tennis racket. “I saw a pretty dog the other day that was playing with some children. I think you would be that kind of dog.”

Max nods sagely. “Golden retriever. You have golden retriever energy.” She picks up a baseball. “Explains why you want to play ball so much.”

The one-two punch of almost compliment and harsh critique is frankly kind of devastating. Luckily Robin seems to sense Stevie’s distress. “I think it’ll be fun! And, like, this could be a girl power thing, right? Like, look at us go- bam, baseball bat.”

“Bam, baseball bat?” Nancy says, failing to hide a smile behind her hands.

Erica picks up a baseball bat, swinging it a little too vigorously a little too close to one of Stevie’s lamps, but she guesses she had to have seen that coming when possibly handing something that could do damage to Erica Sinclair. “I guess I could see the value of bam, baseball bat.”

“I have never played a sport before. I would like to learn,” El states in her matter-of-fact way. Max visibly softens at that, so Stevie knows she’s got both of them on board.

“That’s great!” Stevie pops out of her seat, excitedly walking over to her supplies. “What do you think you’d like to play? I have a couple different things-”

“We better be playing something competitive, you people need some humbling,” Erica mutters, but the small smile on her face shows she’s in.

Nancy smiles at Erica, one of those sharp smiles that reminds Stevie how much the two girls have in common. “Anything’s competitive if you try hard enough.”

Five for five. A grin overtakes Stevie’s face, and she quickly gathers up a basically random selection of balls and bats and rackets, excitedly running into the yard. “This is gonna be great! Best girls’ night ever!”

She’s so thrilled with a plan well executed that she even graciously decides to ignore the whispered remarks of “yeah, definitely a golden retriever,” coming from behind her.

Retribution will just have to come in the form of sports.

[losersclubasshole]

stranger things thoughts n spoilers under the cut! i really enjoyed this season. 

-one of my favorite things about st has always been the aesthetic of the show. the eighties-inspired visuals are always so strong and this season looked especially stunning— that mall?? holy shit. i love seeing vintage logos and the fashion (el’s look this season was so kickass) and the color palette this season was so beautiful. it felt like summer (and fireworks were popping outside of my house when i watched the finale it was very atmospheric)

-the transitions between scenes really worked for me, especially the comedic ones (“it’s impossible to break in!!1!!”) they built tension and felt very cheesy eighties scifi. the whole evil russians thing also felt very period

the adults

-i’ve never been super huge on jopper but this season won me over. besides all the fighting, they did make a really good team.

-murray and alexei were hilarious and i loved their duo, especially juxtaposed with joyce and hopper. the scene in the car was so funny and then the emotional whiplash of the woodpecker scene man :(

-like everyone else with a pulse i am in love with winona ryder, and she really shined this season. joyce grew so much as a character without disregarding her trauma, she’s a badass and man after that finale she deserves a goddamn break

scoops troop

-god erica was so good. all of her lines were gold and i love that her and dustin kind of bonded by the end (THE MY LITTLE PONY THESIS!!!). i think someone needs to make a gifset of nancy giving dustin a pep talk at the snow ball and then erica insulting him

-the erica/steve/robin/dustin dynamic was just overall really good.

-i esp liked dustin taking care of robin and steve when they were drugged— that was really good.

-so let’s talk about robin. i was so ready for her to be one dimensional and just like? steve’s girlfriend or whatever. and after the first couple episodes i was already impressed— robin was fucking awesome!! she’s a badass!! translating the russian code, she was so funny, maya hawke did an amazing job with her character. and when she came out??? man i fucking lost it. i paused the show and called someone and just said STRANGER THINGS SAID GAY RIGHTS and she said she didn’t want spoilers so i hung up. i did not expect them to go there with robin, but i’m so glad they did.

the party

-i think mike and eleven are very cute but watching them make out at the beginning made me a little uncomfortable? people sexualizing these kids (esp mbb) has been a problem so it just felt a little icky. but mike serenading el was great and very much relatable and his love speech (the thing old people say to each other) was precious.

-i loved seeing them just!! be teenagers!!

-max and el going to the mall and madonna playing and el starting to find herself was so cathartic

-the kids had some really iconic moments but “I DUMP YOUR ASS” was one of the best, and max+el’s moment on the bus after was very very good

-so, will. i’m upset that he didn’t have much to do this season after those first couple episodes. but the fight with mike and him destroying castle byers really hit me. noah schnapp is so damn talented— he captured so perfectly that feeling of alienation from your friends, that feeling of realizing childhood is really over now. as a queer person that hit me especially hard

jancy

-i felt for nancy this season, and watching her deal with misogynist pigs in the workplace made me respect her on a new level. everyone on this show deserves a goddamn break but i want to see nancy succeed.

-i wasn’t sure if i would enjoy the whole gang being separated for this season but i ended up enjoying all of the storylines and it made the payoff at the end when they were all reunited really cool.

-i was in a play my junior year and the main character was always referencing his girlfriend— SUSIE BABY— and she didn’t show up until the very end of the show. so when dustin started talking about his girlfriend suzie from camp i immediately thought of that play, and the ending had me floored. i really love that gaten got to sing and i loved everyone’s reactions and i esp loved how campy that duet was

-a lot of people are upset with billy’s death, but i think that’s what had to happen. it felt real. or at least, as real as heroic death by otherworldly monster can get. honestly i was kind of indifferent to the whole billy thing this season despite it being a main plot point, but dacre’s acting was very very good

-the hopper voiceover at the end really had me crying in my camp know where shirt from target. man,

going forward:

-i really don’t think hopper is dead. they didn't actually show him die?? and the post credits scene.. i feel like it would have been a bigger deal if they weren’t planning on coming back to this next season

-s4 nancy in a blazer a la working girls. shoulder pads baby!!

-will is going to have to talk to mike about the fight that was never addressed.

-i want more of robin! robin coming out and robin maybe getting a girlfriend and robin and steve being friends (thank god steve has a friend his own age god).

-those goodbyes felt really short— i bet fall or christmas 2020/1986 the byers are going to be back in town visiting or something and shit is going to go down.

i probably could come up with more to say but i want to go get sonic before happy hour is over