#like ''stop being depressed'' it has to be one of mikes i just know it

[spotforme]

their little platinum song <3 this whole scene cracks me up

Joey is so so very deeply ashamed of what they created, Michael is having the time of his life and Malcom just stumbled onto this disaster like ?????

[kimarii-00]

Regrets and Punishments (2)

❥Summary: Armando knows he made a mistake. He knew when he decided that his mother was more important than his girlfriend. But he planned to return to her, he really did. He never could’ve anticipated being gone for as long as he was. Seeing her face again was like getting shot: You get that adrenaline rush, yet the pain ends up biting you in the ass later on. Especially when he discovers what, or dare I say, who he also left behind all that time ago.

❥Warnings: Slow burn, kidnapping, language, guns/shooting, blood, violence, suggestive scenes (?), eventual happy ending

❥Word Count: 4.8k (2k words more than the last one ;))

❥Part 2/2

PART 1

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AN: I did not expect all the support for the first part, thank you guys!! I hope this last part was worth all the hype! Enjoy!!

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“(Name),” Kelly begins, “I’m so sorry I–”

“What the hell do they even want with her? She’s a fucking child. Four! Four fucking years old,” As angry as you were right now, you couldn’t stop the tears from flowing, “I can’t… What if they hurt my baby?”

“They’re probably going to use her as some sort of backup in case their plan with Mike’s wife goes south…”

In all honesty, you think you had a hunch on why they took Demi. Because he’s her father… They must’ve done their research…

You’re surprised Armando hasn’t pressed you more by now about Demi. He must’ve had questions because last time he checked, you didn’t have a kid, so from his perspective, in the years he was gone you either must’ve hooked up with some guy and had his kid, or the passionate night you two shared before he left must’ve really paid off…

“(Name) I swear, we’re not going to let anything happen to Demi,” Kelly said in an attempt to sooth your motherly insticts. You felt nausious but you appreciated that you weren’t in this alone. Kelly had always been there for you, especially when the father of your child left and you found out you were pregnant with his kid a week later. She was there for you when nobody was. She had helped you through depressive episodes so you wouldn’t stress yourself and end up hurting the baby, she was there for you when you went into labor and had to be rushed to the hospital. She was there when the loud cries filled the room when the doctors popped Demi out of you.

Thinking of this only made you angrier, because it was wrong that you had to rely so much on your best friend instead of the man that was supposed to be Demi’s father, and now, because of his involvements with these people, your daughter has been taken. She has nothing to do with this.

You wipe your face, trying to get the tears to stop falling but they just wouldn’t. Out of the corner of your eye, you catch Armando looking at you with an expression that you can’t read but when he notices that you’ve seen his antics, he averts his attention elsewhere. You can’t help but think that he wants to say something to you, but you can’t bring yourself to care in this moment.

As much as you’d like to deny it, deep down you still have feelings for that man. But there are many reasons as to why you can’t just happily jump back into his arms and ask him to take you back.

Right now, you have more than yourself to worry about. You have Demi, and if you were going to get with a man, she deserves to have someone that will care and love her and right now, you aren’t sure that man could be Armando.

You aren’t paying much attention to the group as they talk about a plan to get the hostages back, you aren’t in your right mind and it seems everybody notices that. All you can think about is your little girl.

Mike looks at his son, and even though they don’t have the deepest relationship, he can tell that the boy is worried for you. He still isn’t entirely sure what you and him are to each other, but he can definitely tell that seeing you as broken as you are now is breaking something in Armando himself. He makes his way to Armando’s side and slightly nudges his side to get his attention.

“Go talk to her,” he says, gesturing to the grieving woman, “You two clearly have things to discuss, you better get it out of the way before we start making moves.”

“She doesn’t want to talk to me,” Armando grumbles, his eyes wandering to your person for what felt like the hundreth time in the last ten minutes.

“You never know until you try–”

“I did try, she told me to get the hell away from her.”

“Listen man, I don’t know what your relationship is with her, but what I do know is that if you don’t talk to her now, you might not get another chance to.”

Armando takes in his fathers words, contemplating his options and realizing that he really only has two: Not talk to you and then potentially die before he gets the chance to, or two, talk to you know and list the weight thats been on his chest ever since he saw you walk through that front door.

He decides that he would probably come to regret picking the latter, but his feet are gliding him toward where you sat with Kelly before he could find some excuse as to why he should wait until later to have this inevitable conversation.

You don’t seem to notice him until he’s standing before you, yet you don’t lift your head. Kelly does, however, and gives him a certain look that read, “If you hurt her more than she’s already hurting, I swear I’ll kill you”. He nodded to her, and she hesitantly nodded back. She rubbed your back in a comforting way one last time before standing up and walking toward the rest of the group. Armando took her place next to you.

He doesn’t say a word. Neither do you. It’s a mix of awkward and comfortable silence between you two before you break it by suddenly speaking up.

“She’s yours,” You say without warning. You decided that you’d rip the band-aid off and quell any thoughts about you hooking up with some other guy that he might’ve had, “Her name is Demi. She’s four… She’s yours.”

“...I had a feeling,” He starts, “I’m sorry.”

You don’t say anything and wait for him to expand. You wait for his to say anything to help you understand why he left you. Why he abandoned you and your unborn child. But he says nothing.

You sigh, “Why’d you do it?” You sounded tired. You didn’t want to argue. You just wanted him to help you understand his decision all those years ago.

“I got caught up in some shit. Fucked with the wrong people.”

“Yeah no shit,” You spit out.

Silence overtakes you both once again.

“You didn’t even leave a text,” You say quietly, “Y’know I waited for you. I waited, and waited, and waited, and then waited some more, yet you never came home. Never.”

Up until this point your head had been in your hands, trying to soothe your pounding headache, but now your gaze laid on his face, making direct eye contact. You let him see your stinging red eyes from all the crying you’ve been doing.

“I didn’t want to involve you in my shit. I didn’t want you to end up hurt because of me–” He begins, but you don’t take any of that bullshit.

“Yeah? Well I’m involved now, and guess who’s paying the fucking price? My– our child.”

This shuts him up. He doesn’t have anything to say to that, other than, “I’m sorry.”

You scoff. Is that all he can offer you? After all he’s put you through?

“Was it even real?” You ask on a whim.

“What?” He questions.

“Us. Was it real? Since you found it so easy to just up and leave some random day?”

“You think that shit was easy?” He snaps, “I loved you– I love you so much, so how the hell could you say that me leaving you was fuckin’ easy?”

You flinched at the correction from loved to love, “You sure as hell made it seem that way.”

He startled you by grabbing your shoulders tightly. He turned you so you looked at him fully, eye contact as intense as ever.

“I had to damn near fight myself to not turn back and run into your arms again after I left you. I thought about you every fuckin’ day that I wasn’t around you. If I could go back, I swear I would’ve told my mother to fuck off if it meant that I could stay with you… with our child. But at the time I was a fucking idiot and I thought–” He had to stop his rambling for a moment to take a breath. You stared at him with wide eyes, he was never one to go on tangents like this, and you made no effort to stop him. “I thought that leaving was the best decision for you, for us, at the time and I planned on coming back. I really did. But everytime I even thought it was okay to return more shit kept happening and I just– I didn’t want you involved.”

You let him trail on with his words as you found comfort in his somewhat desperate hold in your shoulders.

“I never meant to hurt you the way I did.” Armando concluded.

You avert your eyes down slightly, breaking the eye contact but he puts his finger under your chin to lift it back up. He doesn’t want you avoiding this conversation.

He isn’t sure what possessed him to lean down, shortening the distance between the two of you until there was nothing but a pocket of air seperating his lips from yours, but as he’s about to take the final step, you pull away slowly.

“I-I’m sorry, I just…” You begin, unsure of what excuse your about to pull, “I can’t.” You say, deciding not to beat around the bush.

He nods in understanding, yet you immediately recognize the hurt in his eyes.

You pull away from his hands on your shoulders and he makes no move to stop you. You take a deep breath in, like you want to say something else before you part ways, but ultimately decide against it.

You say nothing as you walk back to the group, leaving him standing motionless behind you.

“As far as they know, Lockwood is on his way with a plane to move the hostages to Cuba,” Mike spoke, going over the plan once more. Today was the day you took action to rescue the people that were kidnapped. Mike’s wife, the girl that was with her at the time– Callie, and…Demi. God… I swear if they did something to her… “The second they get close to the plane with the hostages, it’s quick kills. Neutralize all threats. These motherfuckers killed a lot of good cops. They have my wife, they have Callie, and they have (Name)’s daughter.” You lowered your eyes at the aknowledgement.

“They attacked our families. We not losing today.” He concludes, and everyone nods their head.

You were partnered with the tech team in the van, watching the situation from drone footage. You wanted to be on the front lines to get rid of every fucker who thought taking your daughter was a good idea, but you were stuck inside of the van until extra help was needed.

You hear the helicopter pilot through your comms device in your ear, “I got one looking out the front door, right side, I got one sniper on the roof of building two.”

“T those up,” Rita says, who ended up joining the cause after realizing the man she was dating was with the enemy. You quickly code in a few commands for the drone to follow and before long you have eyes on the two mentioned. “Everybody keep moving. What are those?”

She points to the objects presented in the live map of the area, and you answer, “Gaters.”

“I thought it was an abandoned theater park?”

“Abandoned by humans,” Kelly jumps in while loading her gun.

You manage to find the parks webpage from when it was open and discover that the main attraction was an albano aligator named “Duke”. It was sixteen feet long, and there are stories about him still being there to this day.

“Well fuck that…” You mutter.

You watch from the drone as the main team lands in the water as planned, getting into position.

“Armando’s at his QTH,” Dorn confirms, letting everyone know that he’s in position. You swallow the lump in your throat.

Lockwood steps out of the helicopter and walks on the dock, waiting for them to bring out the hostages. You hold your breath and watch closely.

“Hostages are coming out now,” Dorn says. Your eyes dart across the screen, looking for your daughter in particular before spotting her in the arms of a muscular man. They walked behind the other two that were kidnapped and you can barely contain yourself when you take in the terrified look on your four year olds’ face.

“Fuck…” You choke out under your breath. Kelly hears this and rubs circles into your back for comfort. You put your hands over your mouth in a prayer like position and keep watching through the drones.

“Everybody stay calm,” Rita says.

The plan was for Mike to take out their leader as soon as he had the chance to, which was why he was on the front lines, yet when you notice no movement from his end, you begin to become worried that something has gone wrong.

“Mike?” Rita blurts, “Mike do you have the shot?”

“Negative, I do not have a shot, I do not have a shot,” he says into the comms device. Your eyebrows furrow as you look from a perspective of a drone that flew near where the helicopter had landed, and you conclude that from where Mike was posted, he should’ve had a clear shot.

A moment goes by and the kidnappers walk with the hostages, but just a little ways before they reach Lockwood, they stop on the bridge.

“They stopped, why’d they stop?” Dorn hurridly says. The drone is able to catch the sight of something slowly moving through the water and you conclude that it’s what they are looking at as well, you watch as their leader follows whatever is moving and your heart sinks when you realize what the thing in the water is moving towards.

“Armando–” You start, but he seems to have noticed it as well.

“Shit.” He says.

One man signals for the soldiers around him to start a search, suddenly becoming suspicious of where the thing in the water was going, and who it may be targeting. “Armando they’re closing in on you.” Dorn states.

“Do they see him?” Rita asks.

“I don’t know.”

Rita takes the time that they are distracted to pressure Mike, surely he has a shot now, right? “Mike, now! Your chance is now, they can see him, they know we’re here!”

“I don’t have it, negative, negative.”

“You’ve got to take the fucking shot,” Armando mumbles out, keeping his eye on the thing slowly advancing toward him in the water, and the person that was getting dangerously close to his hiding spot above.

You watch as all hell breaks loose when Armando shoots the man who semed to have spotted him, and he falls into the water only to be finished off by the thing in the water, now identified to be the ledgendary sixteen foot long gator. You don’t think you’ve ever been as scared as you had been the moment you realize they know they’ve been set up, and they start taking the hostages back into the building. Your daughter begins to cry and it breaks your heart.

“Engage!” Rita shouts through the comms, “Kelly, get us there.”

You leave your chair and move to the front of the van along with Kelly as she steps on the gas. You take the time to reload your own gun, and slip a knife in your boot for emergencies.

By the time the four of you have arrived, the fight has moved inside. Rita orders you three to go inside and she states that she’ll go after Lockwood and you don’t have to be told twice before you’re rushing in there. You hear Kelly shouting your name behind you, trying to get you to slow down as you leave them in the dust, but all you can hear is the blood rushing in your ears, desperate to find your daughter. You arrive just in time to see the man who was holding onto your daughter walk up a flight of stairs and you waste no time following after, shooting whoever was in your way.

The path splits into three once you reach the top and you pick a random path, slowly walking into the room.

You make sure the room is clear, making sure there is no one in it before you turn around, only to be smacked in the face with the butt of a gun. You stumble and fall, and make eye contact with the man who took you by surprise. You see him aiming at you, but with no intention to die before you find your daughter, you regain your balance and sweep his leg and quickly make your way on top of him. You snatch the knife out of your boot and put it to his neck, “Where is the child?” You hiss out, “I swear I’ll fucking kill you, where is she?” You barked when he took too long to answer for your liking.

“I don’t know what your talking about–” You decide you don’t have time for this bullshit, and jab him in the stomach with the knife. He lets out a cry of pain and he finds the cool metal of the knife back on the skin of his neck with a noticable change of pressure this time around. He was sure it would cut into the skin at any moment, “Okay, okay! Last I heard she was on the top floor.”

“Fuck,” You say, realizing that there were more floors than you realized. You don’t say another word before puncturing the side of his neck, quickly ending him. You get up, ready to leave the room but you’re grabbed from behind and choked. You grip the arm that wraps around your neck and stab your already bloodied knife into it, releasing yourself from the headlock. Even though the man who’d attacked you had been stabbed he was relentless. He ran at you again, landing a punch into your stomach and you got a few hits in yourself. You smash his head against a wall which either kills or knocks him out, and you can’t bring yourself to care as you see more men rush into the room.

You dance around them, getting in hits and taking some as well and you whip out your gun. You wanted to preserve bullets but you were getting overwhelemed by the amount of people that were flowing into the room. You shoot a few with amazing accuracy.

You hear a grunt behind you and before you can turn around, you are hit in the head with the butt of another gun again. You groan, the pain of your injuries starting to show through the adrenaline and the man behind you grabs you by your hair and pulls you up before wraping his own arm around your neck. You close one eye in pain and watch as one man walks to you, aiming his gun.

Before he can shoot, there is another shot that interrupts their plan and it ends up hitting the man behind you. Now free from his hold, you make use of the distraction and kick the man in front of you in the gut, causing him to double over. You knee him in the face and snatch his gun, shooting him in the face.

You look at your savior, and your eyes widen as you realize who it was. Armando…

“You good?” He asks. You nod, and he joins you at your side to finish off the remaining of the enemy, but before any of you can make a move, a helicopter comes smashing through the window, instantly killing two of the guys. You’re right in the path of the helicopter, and you see out of the corner of your eye Armando running towards you. He grabs onto you and you both fly out of the way. He manuvers both of your bodies until he’s the one to take most of the impact once you land.

Once all the chaos settles, you both stand up. You look at him, his hands still embracing you protectively, “Are you okay?”

You don’t answer him and continue to stare into his eyes. Those eyes you’ve known for so long. You don’t know what could’ve possessed you to do this, but you feel as if it’s the only thing you could do in the moment. With haste, you push your lips against his.

You can feel his surprise in your sudden action. You bring your hands up and grip his vest for stability and you feel the moment where he begins to reciprocate. Your mouths move together in a practiced motion and you wonder how he’s still such a good kisser after all these years.

The kiss quickly becomes heated, hurried. He slips his tongue into your mouth and you let him, moving the muscles together, competing for dominance. You groan into his mouth.

He then begins to walk forward, and you walk backwards slowly until your back makes contact with the wall behind you and he cages you in, his lips never leaving yours. Tongue never unlocking with your own. One hand is connected to the wall and the other to your hip as he brings you impossibly closer. You bask in the moment.

You break the kiss first, needing air, and his lips search for yours again instantly when you do. Your mind begins to cloud, but you remember why you’re here in the first place. You need to find your daughter. Even knowing this, you find it hard to pull away from the sensation that is his lips against your own, but somehow you find it in you to put your hands on his chest and gently push him away. He looks down at you in question.

“Can…can we continue… after I find my daughter?” You breathe heavily, still breathless from the passionate moment you shared.

“Yeah… okay. I’m coming with you.” Your eyes shot up at him at the statement. You nod at him and he hesitantly releases you from his hold. Desperate to rid yourself of the tension left in your lower area due to the kiss, you walk away, recalling what the man said about another floor.

Armando follows closely behind you.

You eventually find the staircase that would lead you to the top floor, and of course, awaiting you were more of the enemy. With Armando by your side, you make quick work of them and once all that were left were bodies, you begin to search the room. It was the only room on the top floor, so unless that guy was lying to you, Demi must be here.

So where the hell is she?

There is no sign of her being here. You check behind boxes, inside cabinets, everywhere. Your breathing quickly grows rapid as you realize that your daughter is nowhere in sight. If she’s not here, then where the hell could she be? The rest of your team was in the lower areas on the building, and if one of them found her, surely they would’ve announced it over the comms, right? So where the hell is your daughter?

You feel a hand on your back, “Hey, hey, you’re fine. We’ll find her, okay?” Armando says.

You realize you can’t waste time, so you nod and recollect yourself. But that doesn’t change the fact that you have no clue where she could be if not here.

“Look,” Armando states once your breathing had slowed, he points to the left where there seemed to be a door to a balcony of sorts.

You take a deep breath and follow him, as he already started making his way toward it.

He kicks open the door, gun aimed at the figure that stood at the edge of the balcony and your heart dropped. In front of you stood your little girl, and a man that took his place on the ledge of what had to be a long ass drop. You feared the worst and your gun shoot in your hands.

“Put the guns down!” The man demanded, “Right now or I promise you I’ll jump, and take her ass with me!” He says. He emphasizes his words by gripping your daughter tighter and holding his gun to her head, then back at the two of you.

Your daughter is bawling her eyes out. You aren’t even sure if he noticed that you were there for her. She was scared out of your mind. “Demi–”

“Shut up, and put your fucking guns down!” The man demanded. You listen this time, which prompted Armando to do the same. You cursed to yourself, realizing what little power you have in this situation. “I want you two to slowly walk back out that door.”

“We can’t do that,” Armando states, his hands rising in the air after he dropped his gun to show he’s not a threat.

“Fucking do it!” The man boasted. You aren’t sure what your options are, if there were any. You look to Armando, and he seems to sense your eyes on the back of his head.

He then looks at you a certain way, and mouths to you, “Trust me.”

Your eyes widen and you let out a yelp in surprise when Armando takes off running toward the man and your daughter. This takes the man by surprise too, before he makes no effort to pull the trigger and only seems to panick at the incoming threat. He doesn’t get a chance to retaliate before Armando uses his shoulder and back to swiftly steal your daughter from the mans grip, all the while using force to push him off of the balcony.

You watch as Armando sinks to his knees with your daughter, gently combing her hair with his fingers and whispering in her ear words of comfort. She grips onto him tightly and cries into his police vest. It takes you a moment to realize that she is safe. Something about Armando holding your daughter in his arms and caring for her makes you realize and think about some things that you haven’t thought to think about before, but you put that all of the back burner in favor of finally holding Demi in your arms again.

“Baby…” You whisper, almost in disbelief that she really is safe and sound. Demi registers your voice in her little head and whips it around to face you.

“Mama!!” She cries, she leaves Armando’s hold and you drop to your knees to give her the biggest, tightest hug you can. You sniffle and pull her head into your neck.

“Are you okay Mimi? Let me look at you…” You say, pulling away from her to check her from any kind of injury. She shakes her head, you take in the sight of her red eyes from all the crying she’s been doing.

“Mama is hurt…” She mumbles. You move your hand to the various areas that Demi points at and notice that you are indeed hurt in many areas, but you don’t care. Not right now.

“I am… But it’s okay, mama’s strong, just like you baby. God, I love you so much,” You say, planting a long, wet kiss on her forehead and hug her again tightly.

“I love you too, mama,” Demi says into your neck. You look at Armando as you hug Demi, and you mouth a quick “Thank you.” He nods to you, watching the interaction.

The moment is interrupted by Mike on the comms, “Armando, come in Armando.”

“What’s up?” Armando replies.

“You need to get out of here, Judy’s here and is looking for you. Take the boat and get the hell out of here.”

Armando hesitates, looking at you and your daughter… his daughter. Whatever he’s contemplating seems like he’s making a hard decision in his mind, but luckily for him, you’ve already made up yours.

“We’ll come with you.” You state.

“What? No–”

“It wasn’t a question.”

Silence overtakes you, but you don’t let it linger for too long, “Don’t push us away again.”

This looks to have convinced him, as he takes a deep breath and nods. “Okay.”

You don’t know how the future will go for you three. You dread the predestined talk with your daughter that you’re going to have to have with her to tell her that this man is really her father, but all you know is that as your walking through that building, your daughter being carried by him and her hooked onto her neck for safety and comfort, you feel as if you have good things coming.

And so you let yourself crack a genuine smile, one that you felt hasn’t shown itself since the night that he left you.

And he reciprocates the same one. One you haven’t seen in years, and one you’re sure to see in many more to come.

TAGLIST: (if you didn’t get tagged, it’s probably due to settings!)

@dasaniswrlddd @thedarkworldofhananerea @taylormcguire282 @timebomb1101 @5arlan7 @desiiiisworld @babygurl030 @lovelyme22 @Leavemealing @lewispool @yeahnohoneybye @velocitynyoom @maybepersuasivetom @deadpool15

[sayyourprayers]

Why Will's resentment of El is not an in-show theme:

Diorama scene

Scene begins with El completely clueless about the school dynamics - eg. waving hi to someone who dgaf. She knows she isn't having a great time (hence lying to Mike) but at the same time she feels like THIS IS THE DAY when everything will change. Bruh if you haven't gotten the memo till a day before spring break maybe Hopper didn't call you stupid enough.

Talking about Hopper - presumed dead - presumed hawkins mall fire hero - subject of El's direyama, it wasn't Will's job to find a hero for El nor was it his responsibility to to suggest she make a projected presentation (his own project's a chart ffs). The shots of Will looking nervous and upset when El presents is for 2 reasons:

i) She followed Angela

ii) She followed Angela

It doesn't matter what your project is, your bullies aren't bullying you for quality control purposes. I guess people who think they can just intervene and stop bullying by their aura alone, truly have no idea how bullying works. Hopefully, for better understanding the material being analysed (to death), they do get to experience being at the receiving end of it, even if it's just a little.

As per El's own admission she chose the diorama as a visual aid - as she was allowed to. Idk if y'all expected Ms. My grammar's getting better also to do a verbose write-up or Ms. sheltered in the lab has got no one poor bby to just suddenly know and find heroic inspiration in famous personalities. What is it? Is she undersocialised and trapped or not? Analyse that.

2. Post presentation

Will tries to assuage El that her presentation wasn't that bad (not a lie that it was great but it truly wasn't the worst) But Ms. friends don't lie won't listen to him. (omg willel wonder twins friends). Sidenote: how was Will gonna tell her that her project was "not what she should have made"? I am guessing the lines would be similar to Angela's and El's response would be similar to El's. Anywho. I'm not spending more time analysing this scene that was clearly meant to establish that El's lying in her letter to Mike and she's not really having a great time in California - which isn't just about the school and bullying btw but also (moreso) about her father's death and the loss of her powers (shown by the scene of her walking away merging into a depressed max doing the emo walk to the chart topping kate bush song: nordic walking really fast up a cliff.) But let's forget all that on-screen text for fanfic hit pieces.

3. Die a rammer

Before El's homage to Hopper meets the wrath of Devila there's a small scene (bby scene tiny as hell uwu) of El receiving her maths tests results. And they were F-ing bad. Another scene to establish how much creative writing went into El's letters to Mike. Will should have tutored her though, I agree. The least he could have done for the girl that got him kidnapped and then saved him from the kidnapper - but was it really saving if he's forever changed? Not important: this is about establishing Will's guilt and El obviously has none.

Anyway, El is minding her business and California dreamin' but Angela and the minions trip her up and methodically destroy her diorama. It doesn't help that an enraged El tries to telekinekick Angela's ass, but as we all know (and now re-know) she has lost her powers and is sad and frustrated about it.

Now some brilliant scientific minds of our generation wanted Will to step into that shit show and (and what?) defend El? The guy that famously freezes? The guy who loaded up a gun in 3.5 seconds but froze up and didn't use it on a literal monster with a monsterface? The same guy who has NO POWERS (would be copying El) and has been bullied throughout his life, not only in school by his peers but even whole ass adults. They called him slurs, egged on by none other than his own Papa. So the great analysts with zero experience in bullying and less than basic level of empathy towards bullied people, wanted Will to shatter his little never seen before peaceful Cali existence to save El after the fact? Yes, Zombie boy go save your social pariah wonder woman channeling sister friend. The fact is, he NEVER abandoned her, but he also didn't have enough social standing at school to prevent El from getting bullied. (A point missed in all analyses.)

He was upset and worried and headed over to console El, not in secret no no, out in the open. He is not a fighter. He has never stood up to his own bullies. He's only "sassy" with his friends and family, people he's close to and feels safe with (a feeling he associates with El too, as seen in his "sassiness" with her, but that's for later.)

Poor El had to be rescued by the teacher herself. No other person in that entire school that was present did anything even remotely expressing sympathy - no they were all laughing at her. Only the teacher and Will were in her corner. So much for resentment.

4. Rink O Maniacs

Let's begin with the airport waiting area: Two happy Byers pookies (yes even I have to concede that El was a pookie here) waiting for their incelebrity crush/love - disappointed almost immediately by the scrotoid they fancy cuz they've not discovered feminism yet.

El has the whole day planned, Will is there around them cuz I guess he's too young to be hotboxing with (a concerned and all-knowing) Jonathan and my man Argyle. I mean they could've bonded over being stressed out over not their girlfriends.

Instead though, Angela and the aerobics class decided to eff up El's planned dayte. Angela on being called El--er--Jane's friend grabs her and heads over to the rink. Will knows El's lying, but was he supposed to idk just blurt it out with all that audience? What was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to pre-empt the attack (either) in a crowded place? He wasn't physically gonna stop anyone, let's be real. If Angela would have picked on him, he'd be the one on the rink dressed in milkshake. So let's not pretend it's a reaction unique to seeing El in distress. No that's his response to BEING DISTRESSED - which he was, seeing his sisterfriend whom he likes and doesn't resent (apart from her being the love of Mike's life) in trouble.

Mike goes "above and beyond" i.e. reacts the way y'all would've loved Will to react (but it's not his gene type). Will however is worried and the one that alerts Mike once he realises, things are no longer gonna go anywhere but down under. He finally, reluctantly, but for his sisterfriend El, tells Mike about her problems, or that she's having them. Mike also can hear what's being announced for all the rink (a dedication to Jane the snitch) and coupled with what Will's told him reacts fast and tries (the operative here, he failed too) to stop the show.

Acting prowess aside, Mike and Will are both shocked and worried by El's "wipeout" in a crowded rink where it seems nobody likes her. Mike calls out to El who runs away hurt and embarrassed n not in the mood to answer him.

Now, they BOTH look for El, and MIKE the cunt thinks it's a great time to have a one on one with Will, about him "sabotaging" the day. (I still don't know how he did that, since M11 were pretty much enjoying the date till Angela appeared). The stupid gay fight happens, whatever man, idgaf.

El straightening up in the staff closet hears Angela and the pussycats (and not stupid byler) laughing (most likely at her) and decides, powers or no powers, Angela's gonna feel it tonight. The iconic Angela facelift happens after El's appeals to salvage the day and protect her lies are dismissed. Mike and Will are both again there to give loud reactions and Mike manages to be a moid even in that situation and questions El's overreaction (he at least truly believes that, unlike Will who is ready to lie to the cops abt it being an accident, lol) (Also, a quick mention Mike doesn't remind her of Brenner, Mike's the final straw that takes her back to the lab, she's already feeling weirded out by the blood and the people surrounding her, but ya whatever.)

Commentary:

Will asking El about why she's lying to Mike, isn't just him caring about Mike being lied to over El's well-being. If one's to engage a third braincell, one would notice that Will, too, found out about El's lies that day itself. He realised cuz he lives with his sisterfriend and is with her at school and at not school and so knows whatever she's saying and Mike's recalling from the letters has more imagination put into it than his painting. Will is annoyed at El and Mike (El - cuz he says it, Mike - cuz Mike says it) for being made a third wheel and also being greeted awkwardly (let's not forget he literally didn't gift Mike the painting which he painstakingly made cuz of Mike's weirdo behaviour.) That's not resentment, that's plain annoyance - an emotion Will has shown multiple times over the course of 4 seasons. His emotions don't only exist in the context of El and Mike's existence - you may ask Jonathan and Joyce, if you don't believe me.

It's hard for some people to read Will's character as anything other than a lovesick fool or brother of the main character, and their analysis reeks of this. Let's not forget, unlike Mike Wheeler, Will actually has his OWN stake in the supernatural/sci-fi/horror/superhero plot. Mike is the romantic lead. Will and El have their own journeys and stories both including and completely independent of each other and Mike.

Will not showing El the painting, is more a testament to his enduring feelings for Mike and the post-puberty clarity of romantic/sexual attraction vs puppy love. El didn't show Will her letters to Mike either. (And I am not saying she should have.) Will is not in the text to serve El. In fact, Max herself got promoted from that job. Just slapping on Vecna preys on this juicy shit - doesn't make it true. I am not saying Will and El are perfect siblings, but they're close to it and the show wants us to believe that. (You may take this as a contribution to DBros/MissedOpporunities OTP fanwork)

Will's resentment of El is the jealousy from romantic (not even) rivalry, but it is a very small part of their relationship. He could and should have been more pissy about having the girl who (even accidentally) upended his life just being his new sister now (mike or no mike) but that's not what Will is as a person. Will's jealousy of El is also something he takes out on Mike and NEVER on El.

Maybe there's such a thing as re-watching the show too many times. Y'all jumbling up character names. Y'all need to be peer reviewed.

[hutchersonsgurl]

I only want you- Mike Schmidt

paring x fem reader and Mike Schmidt

Warnings: 18+ MNDI, smut, and some angst (NOT PROOFREAD)

Summary: you and Mike have been going through a rough patch

You and Mike have been together for just under two years. Mike has been struggling to keep a job and is obviously depressed, but he's too stubborn to admit it. Never mind talking about his feelings; it causes you to feel like you really don't know him at all, and it's hard because he hates having conversations about his feelings, and he always goes back to shutting you out.

You woke up to a slamming door. "Mike?" You said, peering out from the shared bedroom door and rubbing your eyes. Luckily, Abby didn't wake up from it, you thought to yourself.

You could hear loud banging and clattering from the kitchen. You dragged yourself to the sound mike, who was standing there in the process of making food, and you could see smashed glass on the floor.

"Mike What the fuck? How much have you had to drink?" You half-yelled at him, not being awake enough to process what was going on. "It's almost 5 in the morning, and you are going to wake Abby up, you scolded him.

"Can you just shut the fuck up and leave me alone for once? I swear all you do anymore is lecture me, and you're not my mother, so just stop," he slurred, walking towards you.

"Oh, I'm so sorry for carrying about you, Mike. I get it. You are going through shit, but you don't need to be an asshole towards me, and people loving you doesn't give you a reason to be one either," you spat at him. It was a little harsh, but you are so sick of his bullshit lately and don't know how much you can handle. You pushed past him to grab your keys off the coffee table and started to walk towards the door, but just as you were about to open the door, Mike grabbed you by your arm and pushed you against the door. The two of you look at each other for a second and then shove his lips onto yours. You state not wanting to give in, but you end up giving in. He was your everything. "I'm so sorry, baby. I know I can be an asshole, but I don't need anyone but you in Abby's and my life," he says as he pulls his face back, rubbing his thumb over your bottom lip.

But before you could process what to say next, Mike started kissing your neck, and you wrapped your arms and legs around him. He started carrying you to the bedroom. "Mike Abby is going to be up soon," you said.

"Then you just need to be quiet, baby," he says as he enters the shared bedroom and lays you on the bed on your back. He then goes over to the door and locks it.

He walks over to the bed, gets on top of you, pushes a piece of your hair aside, and starts kissing your neck again. He starts pushing your shirt up and slowly kisses from your chest to your stomach while unclipping your bra and discarding it on the floor.

"Please, Mike," you moan, pulling his face toward yours. He chuckled at the thought that you were so needy; you were just pissed at him a few minutes ago.

He took off his t-shirt and pants and admired your body for a few seconds. You placed your hand on his stomach, trying to regain his attention. His hands flew at the waistband of your shorts and started pulling them off. He gently kissed your inner thighs and scared some across your pussycat, causing you to let out a soft moan from your mouth.

"Shh, be quiet, baby," he says. You pulled on his curls, making him tighten his grip on your right thigh. The vibrations of his mouth edged you closer to your orgasm.

"Mike, please, I'm so close." You plead with this. He moves his hand, pushes his two fingers into your underwear, and shoves them into your pussy, moving them faster and deeper inside of you. He keeps up this speed to hit your orgasm and cum all over his fingers, and he pulls them out and licks them off.

As soon as he finished, you could hear Abby's alarm going off. "You go clean up and get dressed, but don't bother putting underwear on because I'm not done with you yet," he says as he kisses your nose, gets up, throws his clothes back on, and goes to make breakfast for all three of you.

part 2

NOT EDITED

[undeadenn]

The 5 seasons of TMA represent the 5 stages of grief

I realized how much the stages of grief line up with TMA, specifically Jon’s grief over the loss of his humanity.

Season one (Denial): “It feels like I’m being watched. I… I lose myself a bit. And then when I come back, it’s like… like if I admit there may be any truth to it, whatever’s watching will… know somehow.” Jon realizes something is wrong, but instead of facing it, he pretends that everything is normal. Nothing strange is going on, it’s just crazy people with crazy stories.

Season two (Anger): “I can’t forget it. Everyone in this place has so many goddamn secrets and I can’t trust a word you say. Not about this and not about Trevor!” Jon can no longer deny that something is deeply wrong with the Archives, he just doesn’t Know what. It frustrates and scares him. He then redirects his distrust and anger and confusion towards his coworkers.

Season three (Bargaining): “Okay. What do you want?” “Oh, nothing much. Just shake my hand.” Jon makes a lot of bargains in this season, all in the pursuit of knowledge about what’s happening to him. He makes a deal with Melanie to find out what’s going in the Archives. He made a deal with Jude Perry to find out where Mike Crew is. He makes a deal with Daisy to compel Elias to tell them what he knows. He convinces Julia and Trevor to let him talk to Gerry. His desperation in finding out what going on with him causes him to get into some truly dangerous situations that he wouldn’t have otherwise been in.

Season four (Depression): “You need to stop moping.” “I what?” “You need to stop swanning around acting all sad.” “I’m not-“ “Boo hoo, I’m so alone and a monster.” (This is unironically one of my favorite scenes of the whole podcast. S4 in general is my favorite season) This season is when Jon fully comprehends that he is no longer human, and let’s just say he isn’t very happy about it.

Season 5 (Acceptance): “I wish it was, Martin. I really wish it was. But it feels… right.” By S5, Jon has completely accepted the role of The Archivist. Sure, he’s far from happy about it, but he’s no longer trying to hold onto his humanity. He has let go of his grief over the loss of his humanity. Of Jonathan Sims.

[always-andromeda]

I am so hyped by all the little extended scenes in Until Dawn. Especially in the little prologue section. That bit always felt a little rushed to me in the original. But now, not only do we get to better see the bond between the Washington siblings but I think we also get to truly understand just how mortifying that prank on Hannah is?

We learn later that Josh already deals with depression even before his sisters are gone. We also get the vibe that their parents aren't the most present forces in their lives considering Bob Washington's career as a famous film director. So those pieces of information tell me that in the absence of their parents, Beth and Hannah most likely did a lot of the heavy lifting caring for Josh if his mental health got bad (that’s my assumption at least). We finally get to see that bond in action when Beth and Hannah move a drunken Josh from the counter over to the couch in front of the fire. And honestly, I think it just makes it all the more heartbreaking for Josh knowing that he may or may not even remember the last time he truly saw his sisters? And if he does...then he had to grapple with the fact that baby sisters were taking care of him until the end while he wasn't even sober enough to be awake and around to help them when they needed it most.

Now we gotta talk about the prank itself. In the original, the note that "Mike" leaves for Hannah is purely him saying she's hot and inviting her to have sex later. The note in the remaster is almost entirely different. The proposal to meet him later is the same but what precedes it has changed. It's "Mike" telling Hannah that no one gets him like she does. Not only is it way more subtle but I think it cuts so much deeper?

It communicates to Hannah that Mike genuinely reciprocates her feelings for him, not that he just wants to use her for a quick hook up. The anticipation, the excitement, and the anxiety are so palpable from her when she reads the note and gets ready for the meeting. She's had a crush on Mike for how long? A crush that she's been so firm on that she got a tattoo because a dumb teen magazine said it could catch his attention. And here he is in this note, seemingly opening up and showing her a softer side of himself; making her feel special.

So the fact that it's all just a trick? And that all of her supposed friends knew about it? Like yeah, the betrayal was obvious in the original, but I think the slight alterations of the remaster make the inciting incident that much more cruel.

I even noticed a difference in the reaction from Mike as well? In the original he starts to say, "Hell yeah..." and clearly gets excited when Hannah starts to unbutton her shirt before quickly apologizing once she realizes what's going on. In the remaster that "hell yeah" is gone and I would even venture to say that Mike looks a little uncomfortable and earnest when he apologizes?

And the fact that Sam sort of reveals the prank instead of Hannah figuring it out on her own is especially clever in my opinion. To be clear, I don't think Sam deserves nearly as much blame as Mike, Emily, Jessica, Ashley, and Matt do. But with the way this scene is framed, we better understand now that in Hannah's eyes her own best friend knew about the prank and did nothing to either stop them or warn her before it could happen. Everything she once believed about her entire friend group has just been shattered.

And honestly, if I were a teenager being tricked like that, I might impulsively run out into the snow in the middle of the night just to get away from it all as well.

[heyitspersephone]

Thinking about stranger things again now that the strikes are over and how, narratively, it would be way, WAY cooler to have Mike get Vecna’d instead of Will in s5

It’s just something about the way Mike’s trauma is never addressed or handled in any way?? Like, he hugs his mom twice and then when he was depressed in season 2 and 4 nobody did anything (his parents scolded him for his behavior in s2 ig but that’s not support). His best friend went missing leaving from his house, he watched his body get pulled from the quarry, watched El (in his eyes) kill herself stopping the demogorgon, watched Will be possessed, saw Bob die, was in Star Court when everything went down, saw Billy die, had his best friend move away, was SHOT AT (and really too few people talk about the shooting in Cali bc omg??), buried a body, and watched the apocalypse start. And that’s just off the top of my head.

(And yes I’m aware that the other characters (especially Will) are traumatized too but I will get to my point in a second just hold on)

The plot is geared towards this idea that Will and Henry have to have some big face off (and they should, in my opinion, but I don’t think it should be in a possession, or at least not the the Vecna kind of possession, yk?) but that makes it all the better, writing wise, to have mike be the one in danger. Will was helpless and hiding in s1, I think Will should get his big strong moments in s5 where he gets to be the hero of the story.

It would just be a lot more fun to work with Mike being Vecna’d than Will, because what are we going to bring up with Will’s visions? His dad? His sexuality? The events of s1 from his perspective? It would be cool to see, for sure, but we already know most of that. Mike, on the other hand, has a number of untapped things, like jumping off the quarry, why he’s so hesitant to tell El he loves her, how someone who was smart and kind enough to take El in in s1 and come up with the spy and sauna plans in s2 and s3 could turn into the oblivious asshole that he was in s3 and s4 (he needs therapy, ik, I still love his character but I want to explore the reasons he went from his s2 characterization to his s3 one)

It would be a very interesting parallel, I think, to explore Mike’s thought processes in this way, especially with all of Mike’s repression business (bc whether you ship byler or milkvan he is repressing his feelings HARD. Like, beyond his inability to say I love you there’s the fact that he doesn’t bring up the apparent many times he called pre-s4 during the Rink O Mania fight?? That literally would’ve absolved him of guilt in that argument since he WAS reaching out to Will the whole time? Hellooooo????).

Anyways, this all brings me to my main point: Vecna targets isolation as much as he targets trauma and guilt. The whole party was traumatized by the events in s1, s2, and s3, but Max was the one targeted. Plus, Henry went for Fred, Chrissy, and Patrick (I think his name was Patrick) instead of going for the perceivably easy targets that the mcs would make (ik narratively that would’ve made it more boring but shhh), so why Max and those three specifically? They were isolated. Lucas and Erica have each other, Dustin goes to Steve and Robin, Will and El have each other and Jonathan and Joyce, Nancy probably goes to Jonathan, and who does Mike go to?

No one. And don’t say Nancy because if those two have heart to hearts then I’m the next coming of Christ. Max separated herself from the Party in the aftermath of her grief and guilt over Billy, and it feels quite obvious that Mike was doing the same (like I said, he has repression issues). So Mike is traumatized, alone, and guilty (be it Will getting taken from Mike’s house, losing El in front of him multiple times, the many deaths he has witnessed, or the internalized homophobia angle), which makes him more of a target than Will, in my opinion (or at least an easier one, especially given his tendency to put himself on the line during fights (quarry, most of s2, s3 mindflayer fight), which would set him up on the suicidal ideation path)

Furthermore, as I’ve seen a few other people point out (and I can’t find the posts but one of them had eight screenshots of the various moments), Mike is always the one getting in the way, so it would be a strategic move for Henry to target him to get him out of the picture. Mike was the one that found El and got her involved in saving Will s1, he was the one who came up with the spy plan and called out the ambush in s2, he was the one to monologue Will out of his possession s2, he was the one with the sauna plan for Billy in s3, he was the one trying to help El get the strength to fight s4 (even if the monologue sucked ass it’s the intention that counts). As much as people like to hate on Mike, he is in the leader position most of the time when the party is grouped up (barring his mental health struggles slowing that down beginning of s3 and throughout s4, but he’s still capable of it). He’s the idea man, and he’s the one whose character’s foundations were built on the desire to keep his friends safe, so it would be a very fun plot line to watch him be the one targeted in s5. Like Will said, as lovestruck and cheesy as he was, Mike is the heart of the party when he’s on his A-game, so Henry should 100% be trying to keep him in the issues he’s been struggling with.

Obviously, Will and El are the Targets with a capital T for Henry since they’re the ones that got away or whatever, but I think Mike is a weakness of Will’s (and El’s tbh but also I think they need to have separate character arcs and I don’t exactly ship milkvan) that should be exploited.

TL;DR: Mike should get Vecna’d instead of Will in s5 because it would make sense in lore and be a very cool way to resolve his character arc

[steddiealltheway]

Part Nine of Not-So-Secret Secret Admirer!!!!!!!!! Part One. Part Eight. AO3 Link.

It’s been a week since Eddie has been to Family Video, and he isn’t any closer to figuring out how to live his life without Steve. Instead, he’s figuring out how to avoid Steve which also means trying to avoid Dustin and the other kids so no one tries to interfere with things. Wayne has been giving him space while also being persistent that he eats and gets out every once in a while. 

And Eddie... he’s actually written a few songs. Not for Corroded Coffin because they’re the slowest, most depressing music that he would never want another soul – and especially his bandmates – to hear, but they’re just for him to try to make something out of what he’s feeling. But this also means that he just kind of wallows. 

There’s a knock on the trailer door and Eddie waits a minute, hoping that they’ll just go away. But then the knocking gets really persistent, so Eddie gets out of bed and flings the door open. 

“Red?” 

Max stands on the other side of the door, walkie in hand. “We need a ride,” she says. 

Eddie crosses his arms. “Who?” 

“The whole party. We’re having a movie night tonight at Steve’s, but we need to get a movie from Family Video. You’re invited too by the way.” 

Eddie can feel a look of panic settle over his face that Max catches immediately. “What?” 

He takes a moment to debate how detrimental it would be to turn down the ride, but he knows that would only have Max trying to pry the truth out of him. If he accepts the ride, he can just make some lame excuse about not wanting to go inside, and maybe the kids won’t notice. 

“Nothing, I just have something to do so you guys need to be quick. And I won’t be able to make it tonight,” Eddie says, hoping that’s enough to keep Max from sensing something’s wrong.  

Max looks at him for a moment, and Eddie prepares to be interrogated until she holds up her walkie and says, “Eddie said yes.” 

“Any excuse to see Steve, I swear,” comes Dustin’s answering response. 

Eddie holds out his hand to Max who hands over the walkie. “You realize I can hear you, right?” Eddie asks. 

There’s no response which Eddie interprets as Dustin likely swearing in his room. Eddie grabs his keys off the counter and feels very thankful that he had decided to shower and put on clean clothes that morning as he climbs into his van. Time to make a few stops. 

Once everyone is in the van, Eddie tries to not participate at all in the conversation, hoping that they won’t bring up- 

“So, Eddie, how’s the admirer stuff going?” Mike of all people pipes up. 

Shit shit shit. Eddie sits in the anticipatory silence and decides he needs to come clean. “It’s not happening anymore.” 

The car erupts, but mainly everyone is asking, “So, you’re dating now?” 

Eddie scoffs, “No, actually, Steve isn’t really talking to me right now.” 

“That’s why Steve has been so upset because Mom and Dad are fighting,” Dustin jokes, but Lucas ends up hitting him on the arm and shaking his head. 

“More like Mom divorced Dad,” Eddie says. The car goes silent. 

Will ends up speaking up, “So, what happened?” 

Eddie figures that he might as well tell them. “Robin and I set him up with a random girl who pretended to be the admirer, and Steve found out it was all a lie and that everyone except him knew about it. So be careful today, he might be mad at you all, too.” 

In the rearview mirror, Eddie sees Max shaking her head before she starts whispering to El. Luckily, she doesn’t voice her thoughts out loud. 

The rest of the drive is short but filled with awkward fleeting silence as they try and fail to start a new conversation. Seems like everyone is anticipating their impending doom: a Steve Harrington lecture. 

Eddie pulls into the parking lot of Family Video which is strangely empty beside Steve’s car. One of these days, Eddie will show up on Steve’s day off. “Have fun,” Eddie says as they start climbing out of his van. 

When the final door closes, Eddie nearly slumps in relief before his driver-side door opens up. Max and El stand next to his door with matching intense looks of determination. “You’re coming with us, and if you don’t go willingly, El will make this very hard for you,” Max says with her arms crossed and eyebrows slightly raised. 

Being threatened with superpowers was definitely not something Eddie had factored in when bringing them there, but there's no way he's getting out of this. “Okay, okay,” Eddie says and climbs out of the van. His legs are shaking and his heart is already pounding. He hopes Steve is on his break. 

When he walks through the door and glances around, he nearly jumps for joy as he sees that Steve really might actually be on his break because he’s nowhere in sight. There’s only Robin who looks highly concerned. “What are you doing here?” she asks lowly then glances toward the backroom where Steve must be. 

“I’m being held here against my will,” Eddie says and cocks his head towards El. 

Robin crosses her arms and gives El a look. “Okay, you may think you’re helping, but Steve just started talking and even joking with me again and somewhat started to pretend things are normal between us. And I’ve been apologizing for weeks now. I have no idea what he’s going to do if he sees all of us here at once.” 

It’s a fair point. Eddie turns to El and nods, “I absolutely agree, and I’m pretty sure I’m the last person he wants to see. So, I’m going to head back to the van, and I’ll see you guys soon.” 

Eddie turns to leave, but his feet don’t move. What the hell? He tries to pick them up but it’s like he’s stuck in cement or something. He looks at El who has a thin trail of blood running down from her nose. “El, seriously let me go.” 

There’s a bit of commotion as Dustin, Lucas, Will, and Mike realize what’s happening and start telling her to cut it out. Max argues with them and tells them it’s for the best while Robin panickily tells them they need to lower their volume or Steve- 

"What the hell is going on?” Steve asks as the door to the breakroom flies open. He freezes as he makes eye contact with Eddie. 

Eddie’s heart seems to stop beating. This is the moment he’s been simultaneously dreading and looking forward to. 

Steve looks... rough. Well, nothing compared to his usual bright self that Eddie had gotten so accustomed to. The lines between his eyebrows are more creased than usual, there’s a tenseness to his whole body but it seems especially concentrated in his shoulders, and the weird thing that really gets Eddie is that his hair looks... flat. 

He’s still gorgeous, and no matter what he does, he always will be. But he also looks like he’s stopped taking care of himself as much as he used to. Eddie knows he doesn’t look any better – actually, he most definitely looks worse. 

“What are you doing here?” Steve asks more confused than accusatory. 

Eddie tilts his head to the right. “I wasn’t going to come in, I promise. They’re kind of holding me hostage.” 

Dustin, Lucas, Will, and Mike all start loudly explaining that it isn’t them, but Steve waves a hand through the air and they all go silent. “El, let Eddie go,” Steve says with his hands coming to his hips. 

Eddie feels a weight lifted off of him and he can’t help but let his gaze linger on Steve for a moment. Steve nods at him with his lips in a tight line. Eddie turns around and pushes the front door open. 

At least, he would push it open, but it won’t budge. He curses under his breath and tries the other one which also won’t budge. He turns back to El who looks away as if she didn’t do anything. 

“Okay, what do you want?” Eddie asks. 

“For this all to be over,” Max answers instead of El. 

Steve shakes his head and lets out a humorless laugh. 

“You know what,” Max says, “This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life. Sure, yes, everyone knew about the plan. But the thing is, we all knew that Eddie was in love with Steve, right?” 

The rest of the party and even Robin nod hesitantly. “And I don’t know about anyone else, but I thought it was all an elaborate way for Eddie to finally confess his feelings to Steve.” 

“Yeah, I mean, I thought that was pretty obvious,” Lucas comments and holds his hands up when Eddie shoots him a look. 

Steve crosses his arms and says, “No, it was a way to get me to shut up about my dating life. Plus, isn’t your whole thing ‘friends don’t lie?’”  

The Party all look at each other guiltily, but Will is the one who manages to say, “What about the whole thing with Dustin’s leg?” 

“The what?” Dustin asks. 

“Oh yeah,” Lucas says with a smile, “You were complaining about how horrible your broken leg was all the time. Then, when I hurt my ankle, we kind of played up how badly I had hurt it. And you suddenly got all brave and stopped complaining and even showed me some exercises to help it get better.” 

Dustin looks at everyone and points at them. “You all knew this?!” 

Eddie glances around as everyone, including Steve, starts to nod. Somehow, Eddie had missed this. 

“But, after that, you stopped complaining and your leg started to actually heal a lot faster. You even started to talk about things other than your leg for once, and it felt like we got the real Dustin back,” Mike says. “But sorry man, we were only trying to help.” 

Everyone chimes in to apologize, but Dustin cuts them off, “I’m going to be pissed for a while, but I will admit that it was nice to pretend to be better than Lucas for a bit. Plus... my leg did heal faster – even the doctor was surprised.” 

“Yeah, compare faking a love interest to healing a broken leg,” Eddie mutters. 

“If you think about it, it’s kind of the same,” El says. Eddie gives her a look before she continues, “Dustin broke his leg, and even though we faked the intensity of Lucas’s injury, the injury was still real. It even resulted in Dustin’s leg getting better. For Steve, he had a broken... heart or ego, and although the love interest was fake, Eddie’s love for Steve was not fake, and that’s why I don’t understand why Steve’s heart is not healed.”

“That was really good El,” Will whispers to her encouragingly, and she smiles back at him. 

“His heart isn’t healed because we all lied to him, and I didn’t start off this fake thing to win him over or whatever. I didn’t even have feelings for him when it started,” Eddie admits although the truth is painful. 

“Bullshit,” Dustin says. 

“Language,” Steve quietly warns him. 

“No, I also call bullshit,” Robin agrees. 

Then, several people speak up about how it’s all bullshit, and Eddie remembers what that word means to Steve and sees him quickly break. “It’s bullshit that I had feelings for him before the secret admirer bullshit, and then I fell in love with him when he was faking it all because you guys didn’t want to hear me rant to you. Did you not realize you could’ve just talked to me? You could have said, ‘Steve, we love you, but please shut up about your love life.’ And I would’ve listened. But instead, you went on an elaborate scheme to trick me, and I had to embarrass myself in the process because everyone knew. And then you set me up on a fake date with some stranger who I didn’t get along with at all because you thought I would be stupid enough to believe that I would think she was the admirer and for some reason I would instantly fall for her.” 

Fell in love? Feelings before? Eddie glances toward Steve who is flushed red, hands on his hips, looking at everyone except him. Without the stupid admirer plot, he could’ve ended up with Steve and never hurt him. If he would’ve just talked to him…If any of them would have just talked to him. 

A silence falls over the group, and Eddie takes a moment to sit in it. It really was always that simple. 

It feels like Eddie’s heart is breaking all over again as he mourns what could’ve been. 

“You could’ve just talked to me, too,” Dustin says and his friends glare at him. “What? While we’re all getting the truth out, I thought I’d mention it.” 

“Ok,” Max begins, with her eyebrows furrowed as if she’s making everything up as she goes, “We did a really bad thing. To both of you. And we’re all really sorry. Right?” 

Everyone mumbles apologies to Dustin and Steve, and Steve even says one to Dustin. Max continues, “But we’ve been through too much to have this be the thing that tears us apart. I mean, Eddie almost died. And I thought you barely knew him, Steve, but you were almost as much of a wreck as Dustin.” 

“It’s true,” Robin chimes in, “I had to make you eat and pry you out of that hospital room.” 

Steve shoots Robin a warning look which makes Eddie realize that they’re telling the truth. 

“And when Eddie woke up, the first thing he asked after he saw me and Wayne was where Steve was,” Dustin adds. 

Eddie racks his brain for the memory but comes up blank. “I don’t remember that. Why didn’t anyone tell me this?” 

“I asked them not to say anything about my pre-wake-up visits,” Steve admits looking right at Eddie. “But no one told me about what you said.” 

The kids glance around guiltily again, and El blurts out, “We took bets on when you two would figure it out.” 

The kids all groan and shriek while Max defends her and yells, “Friends don’t lie!” which shuts everyone up. 

Eddie takes a moment to sit in the feeling of everyone lying to him as well plus the sudden information that explains why he and Steve were all the sudden very buddy-buddy after his hospital stay – not that he minded of course. But somehow, they had both fallen for each other during their brief time together and Eddie’s short comatose state seemed to enhance that. But for some reason, Eddie had just refused to accept his growing crush on Steve until this admirer shit.

“Anything else anyone would like to admit?” Steve asks sounding like he’s holding back a fit of anger. Everyone looks around and then starts shaking their head, but Eddie’s gaze remains away from Steve. “Then let’s just move on from this like we always do,” Steve says and heads towards the back room. 

Eddie looks down at the ring he’s fidgeting with on his finger. Steve’s ring. He slides it off. “Wait.” 

Steve stops in his tracks and hesitantly turns around. 

Carefully, Eddie makes his way toward Steve and holds out the ring to him. 

“Holy shit, are you proposing?” Dustin yells. 

Eddie shoots him a look while Steve warns language. “No, it’s a peace offering,” Eddie admits then looks to Steve. “Doesn’t mean you’re suddenly not mad or that you’re forgiving me. Just lets me know that eventually, we might be okay.” 

Steve looks at the ring and then at Eddie. Slowly, he makes his way over, reaches out, and slips it on. 

Eddie takes a moment to look at the image of him still holding the ring which is now around Steve’s ring finger. It looks so distinctly right that it sends a shiver down his spine. He slowly glances up to Steve who stares back at him with what looks like a million things he’s trying to say in his gaze. Eddie’s about to apologize all over again and beg for a second chance when- 

“Thank god that’s over. Steve, can we have a movie night tonight at your place?” Dustin asks. Eddie shoots him another look of disbelief. That little shit.  

“You didn’t ask him already?” Mike shrieks while Lucas and Will simultaneously facepalm. 

Max and El start to lecture him when Steve reluctantly takes his hand back and whispers, "You should leave now before I give them all the worst talk they’ve ever received.” Eddie smiles at him and Steve gives him a small smile in return that makes it feel like a bit of weight has been lifted off of Eddie’s shoulders. 

He’s able to sneak out just as Steve says, “Alright, listen up...” 

Eddie waits in his van for a concerning amount of time, but he takes it to acknowledge that he isn’t yet forgiven but maybe he’s a few steps closer to not losing Steve for good. But mostly he hopes that maybe one day Steve won’t feel so hurt. 

The doors to Family Video open revealing the guiltiest group of teens that Eddie has ever seen. They all file into the car and Eddie can’t help but tease, “I’m guessing no movie tonight?” 

He gets a few glares in return, but El says, “He said maybe Friday,” which seems to bring some joy back to her. 

Eddie smiles. He knows that Steve will forever be a sucker to those kids, but maybe they’ve learned a few things for now. Only time will tell.

Part Ten

Tag List <3:

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[willothewispwisteriadawn]

Why the “Josh was misdiagnosed” theory is very likely incorrect. (Reworded)

Yeah, I know I did a post on this, but I liked my articulation of it better on Reddit, so I’m reposting.

Josh being misdiagnosed has been one of the most popular fan-canons since 2015, but way more indicates that the schizophrenic behavior was caused by Phenelzine withdrawal.

I think the misdiagnosis theory is popular because it’s so tragic and unfair (not that Josh’s story isn’t tragic already). It also allows us to feel more sympathy for Josh while placing some blame on outside characters (the failure of five doctors!)… But the misdiagnosis theory doesn’t have nearly as much supporting it as the withdrawal theory does. All the details we get are telling us that Josh has been depressed since childhood, but developed the schizophrenic symptoms much more recently.

Breakdown

The last drug Josh was on was Phenelzine. The story indicates, from Hill’s text messages (and from a line Chris says about Josh being off his meds) that Josh suddenly stopped taking this medication. Here are some relevant details:

1. BAD HISTORY WITH TAPERING— Josh has a bad history with drug tapering: (Referred on 11/29/2013 after patient's response to drugs tapered badly). The report also mentions that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was considered due to Josh’s history with tapering.

2. POSITIVE FINAL CONSULTATION— The end of Josh’s report shows that the Phenelzine worked. Josh said that he was doing better, and Hill decided Josh could be discharged. I think this detail is important because— unless Josh was lying— it indicates that the Phenelzine was affective for the condition he had. But it ALSO gives us a reason for Josh to have stopped taking his meds.

The report lists the Phenelzine‘s withdrawal symptoms.

Nightmares

Hallucinations

Catatonia

Shocks

Agitation

Aggression

Slurred speech

Ataxia

Paranoia

Insomnia

Many of these side effects are linked. Hallucinations and catatonia can go hand-in-hand, for example. The scene when Josh is dazed in front of Mike and Sam has some elements of both schizophrenia and catatonia in it. Slurred speech and ataxia are both on here, and Josh definitely shows odd, erratic, and slurred speech patterns. (I think ataxia is more about coordination? But it can affect speech). To be honest, you can point out moments in-game that are symptomatic of most of these.

Finally, we get dialogue that suggests that Josh’s really schizophrenic behavior is new. For example, Mike asks Chris if he’s ever seen Josh behave this way. Chris says he never has. Because Chris and Josh have known each other for around ten years, this question and answer stands out.

Conclusion (TL;DR)

I can’t speak to the accuracy of all the medical stuff in here; that’s a different can of worms. I am just saying the writers did all the following— A) gave a list of drug withdrawal symptoms, B) told us that Josh might have stopped taking his meds, C) made sure to show Josh exhibiting the withdrawal symptoms they already mentioned, D) explained that some of this behavior feels new. Conversely, there’s not much included to show that he was misdiagnosed. We have one doctor disagreeing with Josh on treatment. But we don’t have the same story-in-the-details that we do for the withdrawal theory.

Hill medicated correctly, for what Josh had at the time: depression. The schizophrenic-like behavior only started after the depression meds weren’t tapered correctly.

[livingfast04]

Monster Au? Part 3

Part one Part two II Part Four TW: (kind of) Disordered eating, mentions of vomit, Body Horror (kind of again, I’m not 100% if this is creeping into Body horror yet or not, but it probably will the more parts I add, as it like goes-), Depression and just general. Bad?  --- Something changes after Steve snaps at Eddie in the bathroom.

They start arriving at Steve’s house before he gets home from Work. Robin has a key, and she just leaves the door unlocked, they pile in, and Steve normally looks off centered when he arrives to everyone just there. It makes his skin itch. What makes it worse is that they all but ignore his existence. Mike tells him off for being in the kitchen once, and his stomach rolled, the smell of whatever takeout had been brought over made him want to vomit. After whatever fit that Steve couldn’t even hear over the ringing in his ears, he stopped going into the kitchen to see if there was anything salvageable that he could actually eat. He just made a beeline for his room, locked the door and didn’t come back out. He wants his Mom. That was the thought in May, and the feeling didn’t go away, she’d know what to do. And- and he can’t call her, because then he’d have to go down stairs and be around everyone else- 

Wants his Mama, wants to talk to her, ask her to please, please, please, please come home now. As mean, and angry as his Dad is- he wants him to. He wants the familiarity of his own skin. Even if his parents hate it when he sheds the extra shape- maybe, maybe they’d let him. So he’s not so exhausted, so he can keep what he eats down- maybe his Dad won’t scream at him, if he knows that Steve feels like he’s dying. Ultimately he wants the familiar space to feel like his again, wants to hear his parents move around in the house. Steve wants space when it’s night, when it’s not so wrong to be a shapeless creature. When he can creep into his parents bedroom, Nineteen or not, and they let him tuck himself tiny, small- in between them. When his father curls around him, calm and easy, his bones pressed against his skin, a pile of Harrington’s, all the freckles, and short statures, all bones and no hiding. Steve desperately wants his parents. Wants his Dad to make everyone go away, wants him to make Steve feel better, in a way that he hadn’t craved since early Elementary school. Since Steve could understand that he was a horrible thing that the world hates.  He hides in his bedroom until he can tell everyone's left. Robin had come up earlier and told him bye through his door. He’d quietly told her he’d see her tomorrow at work, before dipping into the bathroom to re-bandage his stomach. Blood soaking the white wraps. Tore another set of stitches early that morning, waking violently from another round of nightmares. Steve creeps downstairs, swallows the pain it causes and drags a chair across the room. Doesn’t dare shed his shape lest someone decide that they want to come back and sleep in his house again. His fingers shook as he plugged in the phone number for the house in New York, if, if they weren’t there he’d try the one in Washington.

It rang, and then rang again. He didn’t care that it was almost 12 at night, he wanted his Mama. Steve swallowed around nothing, curling his legs up to his chest and biting his lip as his sides and back protested the stretch. It goes to voicemail, and he hangs up, and calls the New York number one more time. Just, Just in case. On the 5th ring- “Harrington Residence, New York, New York. This is Josefina Harrington, in what right mind are you calling at 11:30 at night-”

Steve lets out a small sob, doesn’t jam his fist into his mouth fast enough to muffle the sound, he curls over himself holding the phone tight in his grip. His Mom goes quiet, it’s just Steve’s harsh breathing- and he realizes he hasn’t spoken to them since March- and he desperately wants- “Stephan?” There's a small pause, “Stephan baby what's wrong.”

Oh, oh, it’s far enough into the night that they are bound, pack, skin eaters- He sobs a little more openly now, “Oh baby talk to me.” He shakes his head, makes his vision spin and he just cries. 

There’s shuffling over the line, and a quiet hushed conversation that Steve knows is probably with his Father, and he tucks in on himself a little more. He takes a few shaky breaths, “Mama?”

“I’m right here baby,” Her tone is soft, and Steve can almost see her, she only uses that voice when his father is curled around her, when she can smile with all her sharp teeth. Cup his cheek and not be terrified of their existence.

He swallows, opens his mouth and closes his mouth a few times. “When, when are you coming back?” The words feel sloppy coming out of his mouth, detached, and needy. Steve curls a little more in on himself. Holds the phone a little tighter, waits for her to relay what he said to his Dad. 

“We weren’t planning on coming back until later this summer, do you need us to come back now?” He hiccups, humming down the line, “What’s the matter honey, we’ll come home, but you have to tell us what’s wrong.” Steve shakes his head.

“Hurts, hurts, hurts and won’t get better-” There’s shifting on the phone again, talking that's muffled as his ears rattle around in his skull. “I- Mama it hurts and I-” “Stephan,” Dad, Dad. Steve shifts, sitting up some, rests his head on his knees. Tears drip over his cheeks, down his chin, over his lips. “What hurts?” There’s an urgency in his voice that Steve’s not used to, a softness. Maybe this is just a dream, maybe- maybe-

Steve breaths in a heavy gulp of air. “The- the Earthquake, and then, I, I mentioned I got attacked by dogs right? Real dogs, not-” He swallows, “They- they won’t get better. And they hurt, and I can’t eat. And there’s people in our house- my friends, and I’m not supposed to be- I’m supposed to be human. It’s just, just a house, but it’s my- yours- and they are here all the time, and I can’t- Dad please.” 

His father takes a sharp enough intake of breath that Steve can hear it, and he hiccups a little harder. “Okay, Stephan, we have two weeks here, I have to finish up some business, but as soon as it’s finished we’ll head to Hawkins.” And it’s, it’s warm hands, big, tucked against a chest- and he’s tiny. Steve hums, bobs his head. All he can think is- come home, come home. Pack-

“You think you can survive another two weeks?” No, no, No Steve can’t, he can’t- “Your Mother, or I will call every other day. It’ll go by without you even having to think about it. Do you understand me?” Steve hiccups again, his lungs felt too small, not- not enough.

He shakes his head viciously, his vision spins- “no, no, no- please- Dad-“ There’s a soft sigh, on the other end very gentle, and Steve sobs listlessly. 

“Okay Bubba. Okay, breathe bubba.” Dad’s voice is, is soft. Its never soft- it’s never, never gentle anymore. Not for Steve, so it’s bad, it’s all bad. He’s sick, he doesn’t want to be sick. It has to be bad bad for him to be this sick- Steve hiccups, the motion rattling through his body- presses against all of his bones. His sides hurt- “you have to breathe Stephan.” 

He craves the gentleness of his father’s voice. Steve sucks in a rough breath, his chest heaving. His back pulling- stomach rolling at the movement.

“I’ll call and get us plane tickets first thing in the morning- we’ll come home.” Steve keens, the sound loud and volatile in the empty house. He sobs louder- a reminder it’s just a cold conversation over the phone. There’s no bound, no pack. Just him and a house that didn’t smell like his parents. His father made a coo’ing noise that Steve hadn’t heard since he was small, real little. “Giving you back to your Mama while I go pack.” He says it so- so, Steve sniffs. Tucks his chin to his chest and swallows, tears sliding heavily down his cheeks. ---

hi yes, this took a completely different turn than I wanted, but it’s fine, ultimately, it’s chill. This also isn’t the whole part that I wrote over the past few weeks. I thought 1k was, a lot for this format, so cutting it up a little more. It got away from me, and It’s much longer, so I’ll probably post a part 4 pretty soon. (That is, if I don’t completely forget. Because that’s totally liable to happen. ha) Also, Steve’s parents, aren’t bad, but in all honestly, they aren’t good either. But that’s their baby. So like, Bad Parents, but also Good Parents. It’s a very gray area. (They are still shitty parents, at least shitty parents when they are trying to be something they aren’t.)  Uh, people asked me to tag them? and I apologize if my dumbass can’t figure this out. @ledleaf @gezell-igg

[itsjustbyler]

Who is Mike Wheeler for you and his top 5 moments in your opinion?

Hiii!! This is going to be big because it's been a while since I posted anything focused on this guy.

For me, Mike Wheeler is a complex character. Like love him or hate him. Unfortunately, many hate him. I'm on the love him almost always, hate him sometimes team. He is a character with flaws, which makes him very human. But I love him despite all his flaws, even though sometimes he makes me want to pull out my hair.

Mike is loyal, kind, fair and not afraid to fight for the people he loves. He is extremely smart and has an impressive ability to connect facts. The best plans of the first seasons came from him and I'm sure that if he had been in Hawkins in season 4, he and Nancy would have made a strong team against Vecna. (looking forward to this duo in season 5).

His biggest flaws for me are not thinking before speaking and sometimes not owning up to his own mistakes, placing responsibility on other people. Of course, many of his actions come from trauma, depression, the pressure he suffers as a child in the middle of all the chaos in the Upside Down. But, you can't justify everything with trauma. Mike has flaws like all the other characters and that's normal.

Unfortunately, he has very low self-esteem. He believes he's just a random nerd while all his friends are special in some way. In the first season he associates the fact that Dustin can contort his arms as a form of super power. In the second season he believes that Will's connection to the UD makes him a super spy. And of course, he sees El, the person who actually has powers as superman a superhero.

What Mike fails to see, and thanks Will to actually point it to him, it's that Mike is especial. The heart, as Will says. The other members of the party needs him. He is a leader by nature. He is so smart and so important to everyone. especially Will hehe.

As the seasons go on, we notice Mike trying to conform. In the first seasons, Mike is a proud nerd. Despite being bullied, he continues to play DnD and continues to embrace the things he enjoys, like dressing up as Ghostbusters on Halloween. The change actually occurs in the third season.

It's clear that Mike associates growing up with putting his interests aside and finding a girlfriend. We see Mike pulling away from his friends, especially Will, because he wants to spend as much time as possible making out with El. He even lies to his friends, something that Mike from the first seasons would never (I'm talking about him saying that he needs to take El home because of the time and his friends themselves know that it's too early for that and even called him out on it).

I think season three is where Mike is trying to force conformity the most. He stops playing DnD, starts wearing the clothes his mother picks for him (confirmed by Eddie at the beginning of season 4) and starts focusing on the relationship with El in an exaggerated way. Looking at reddit a while ago, there were people saying that Mike was turning into his father and I think the third season is the one that gives that impression the most.. I mean...

In the fourth season we see that Mike is returning to who we knew. He joined Hellfire, started playing DnD again, he's dressing like Eddie. I think Eddie is very important to Mike because Mike sees him as a cool guy who is not afraid to show what he likes, who don't care about what people thinks of him and is proud do be a freak. That's all Mike was scared to show on S3. It's sad because Mike never had it at home.

While Will had Jonathan, Dustin had Mike himself and Lucas had his family to tell them that's okay to be different and that what makes people think they are freaks is actually what makes them special, Mike had no one. His father doesn't care, he can't connect with his mother and Nancy is focused on herself and her own things. While Eddie hadn't say that directly to him, he inspires Mike to try. He even voices to Lucas that they are nerds and freaks and they don't want to be popular.

But of course something happened when he was going to Cali. Suddenly he is wearing outfits that reminded us of S3, he has a huge change of behavior that wasn't there on episode one and clearly something is off. There is something wrong with his relationship with El and worse with his relationship with Will. He even made that comment to El about Angela at dinner and thats clearly a parallel to his father behavior. So yeah, it was a very S3 Mike, having both the rain fight from S3 and clothes to parallel with.

Again, we are seeing Mike pushing Will away to focus on El. Except... we are shown that Mike was actually hyper aware of Will... "You were moping, rolling your eyes, barely talking". That's the first change. We found out that Will and Mike only talked a couple of times during that six months (for some reason a whole year for both of them) and while we can assume why Will had not tried to contact, we don't know why Mike didn't try to, only finding out that he did try and whined about it all the time with Dustin later. Miscommunication trope. After the whole fiasco at Rink o Mania we see what's wrong with him and El too, El is lying to him and he can't say ily.

Now with the part that many will disagree with, but that's okay. Mike's sexuality. Mike does not have a confirmed sexuality and has been placed in the middle of a love triangle where he is the center.

Mike can't seem to balance his relationship with both of them at once. If he fights with El, he get closer to Will. If he gets closer to El, he leaves his friendship with Will aside. Since the first season we have NEVER seen the three of them together with Mike completely fine with both of them. At the end of the third season, when he finally resolves things with both of them, they both leave Hawkins and S4 starts with everything different.

People like to justify this with "Mike noticed Will's feelings or that he's gay and is uncomfortable around him" which isn't true. Both the duffers and Finn have already confirmed that Mike has no idea. He is oblivious. People also say that this is normal, that real teenagers act like this. The thing is... Mike isn't a real teenager. His motivations, actions, thoughts must be in accordance with that character's narrative and with the way the writers want us to see him.

I had said that one of Mike's flaws is that he sometimes blames others for his attitude. We see this clearly in his relationship with El and how different this is in his relationship with Will. Mike lies to El in the third season and when El gets angry (rightly so), he blames Hopper and Max as if she had corrupted El. Mike has a big fight with Will in the third season after him and Lucas made fun of Will and ends up saying things that made Will sad. He immediately goes to Will's house to apologize and his words are "I was being a total asshole, could you please step outside so we can talk?".

In the fourth season Mike fights with El because he can't tell her he loves her and his words are "Who said that I didn't?" and "You can't let this mouth breakers ruin this, ruin us". In his mind, the people who bullied El are to blame for El not feeling loved by him. Also in the fourth season he fights with Will about Will not telling with him that El was being bullied, to which Will responds that there would be no way for him to tell him since Mike didn't even try to talk to him, they argue and once again Mike goes to Will to apologize and when Will tries to take the blame, Mike says "No, you don't deserve anything. The truth is the last year has been weird. Max, Lucas and Dustin are great but it's Hawkins and it's not the same without YOU (not Will and El, just Will) and I was worrying so much about El and feel like I lost you". Again he takes the blame, even if it wasn't just his fault in this situation. I love Will, I understand why he didn't try to contact Mike, but he can't just blame Mike when he didn't try either.

When El leaves, Mike is stuck with Will. Everything goes to shit and they share a lot of heart to hearts. For some reason, Mike hides Will what the real issue is. His words are "I should had said something (?) and if I just said that thing (?) I think she would be here with us". Well, he knows damn well what he should have said. El cries to him for it and he didn't say it.

Another heart to heart with Will in the desert and here goes Mike "I should have explained myself because maybe she would have take me with her and things would be different, but I didn't know what to say". Well... What's there to explain, Mike? You could just have said that you love her. In fact, I think she would fell really loved without Mike even saying it if Mike said the same thing he said to Will to her instead.

And then before the van scene, Mike's words are "I'm scared that she doesn't need me anymore. The truth is: when I stumble her in the woods, it's not fate, it's not destiny, it's just simple dumb luck and one day she is going to realize that I'm just a random nerd that got lucky that superman landed on his doorstep".

That again shows Mike's low self esteem. He thinks that people around him are close to him because they need him. Also, Mike is moving backwards here. While on episode one he says he doesn't want to be popular and that he proudly is a nerd and freak, now he thinks that he is a just a random nerd that is lucky that people needed him and if they don't, he is going to be left behind. The way he says that breaks my heart, he really believes that.

Will gives Mike the painting and his speech about Mike being the heart and Mike absolutely melts into it. Mike is finally seeing how other people (Will) sees him. Except that Will is lying and everything he said are his feelings, not El's. El does not feel that way, in fact, we don't know how El feels. It's sad, but it's the truth, El never said anything to Mike about what she likes about him and we never see her saying it to other people too. When El is talking about Mike with Max we just find out that she doesn't know if Mike is a good kisser and that Mike is just her first boyfriend.

That's one of the reasons Mike is so insecure about his relationship. I've seen some people saying that Will's speech is how El feels even after the confirmation that it was Will's and his speech has nothing to do with her.

Well, this is not a byler analysis and I'm here to talk about Mike, but I need to say the last thing about it. It's such a interesting writing choice to instead of making Mike monologue to El on his own without hesitation, they decided to have Will telling Mike to do it and making not only Mike but us to remember of his van speech and Will's feelings for him.

We will have to wait and see where they are going with it and how Mike will react to this information, but Finn's word are "the duffers said it will pay off" and "I think there is going to be a mutual understanding and acceptance". So, I'm sorry for people who wants Mike to be homophobic toward Will and seriously, if you do believe that Mike would be something like that, even after he pushing Troy for being homophobic with Will, you don't know Mike at all.

My interpretation for it is: Mike is a gay boy trying to conform. He witnessed how Will was bullied bc of his sexuality and he knows how bad Lonnie was with Will because of it. His father watch the news everyday and he sees how the propaganda against queer people are. He is not purposeful using El and I hate when people says that. He is figuring out himself. He loves El, he loves her so much. What he is starting figure out is that the love he feels for her is platonic and that doesn't mean that this love is less strong as a romantic one. He is scared of losing her. He lost her once and he doesn't want to lose her again. And that's maybe what he wants to explain so much. That's maybe "the thing" he has to say that it's scary to him. If Mike thinks that El is dating him because she needs him, what is going to happen when she finds out he can't love her the way she wants to be loved? He is going to lose her. Mike is not ready for this conversation and that's why he agrees when Will said that's scary to open up to people you care about the most because they could not like the truth right after he said that he needs to explain himself.

I really really wish people would go read about internalized homophobia and how far it can go before calling us delusional for recognizing it on Mike's attitudes, not only going to Google and reading "internalized homophobia is when someone is gay and doesn't accept it" and closing it right after. He is starting to realize that the way he feels about Will is the way he is supposed to feel about El and this is scary as f*ck... I've been there... Mike is lost in the middle of what he really wants and what people wants for him and he doesn't know how to proceed. Everything being worse with him being in the middle of the supernatural shit happening and he watching over and over again both Will and El as a target of it. Just like Nancy on s1, Mike will have to chose if he stays in a loveless relationship like his parents because that's what people expects from him and it's "normal" or follow his own path and stop trying to conform.

Mike has depression and PTSD. His relationships are not the only part of his character. We can see that he barely eats anything in the fourth season, with shots of Will watching him messing with his food instead of eating it. There is also a shot of Will reacting concerned about Nancy's comment about the mess in Mike's basement because he knows that this is not normal, Max also comment on it so it's really something they want us to notice. We haven't been in Mike's POV for a while and it worries me a lot that the duffers decide to make Mike Vecna'd so that we can finally find out everything that's going on in his head.

Mike has the most overlooked trauma in the show imo. Everyone just act like he is just being difficult instead of actually pay attention to WHY Mike behaves like he does sometimes. Unfortunately, this happens with the audience too. People who hate him and write whole essays about how he is not the same just see the surface level of his actions and instead of trying to understand his reasons, they just hate on him.

He had to see El "dying" right in front of him. He had to witness his best friends body presumedly dead being pulled out the water. He witnessed everything that happened with Will throughout his possession. He had to fight the mind flayer, saw his friends struggling without knowing who would survive, saw someone (Billy) dying right in front of him, saw his sister almost dying because of the mind flayer too. He had already seen Will being targeted by the Mind Flayer and then had to see El being targeted by it too, without her powers. He had to come up with a lot of plans to save their friends that could have gone so much wrong and he would blame himself for everything. He has to deal with being queer in the 80s, were the AIDS was at its peak and associated exclusively with queer people.

I think this is to big already so I will just finish saying that I want to see more Mike in S5, not only related to that unresolved love triangle but also the Mike we love, that come up with crazy plans and the leader that he aways was, the one that is going to jump in on every change he has to protect his friends and will fight for what's right.

Now finally, my fav moments:

Mike and his reaction to Will's body being pulled out the water

From the moment Heroes starts playing, I see Hoppers reaction and Mike vocalizes "It's not Will, it can't be" to the moment he comes home and hugs his mom I'm destroyed. No matter how many times I watch this scene, if I'm rewatching the whole season or just watching it though a reel. I cry hard on this one. All the damn time.

Mike pushing Troy for being homophobic to Will

This shows how brave Mike Wheeler is and how he stands up for his friends. He was the target of Troy and his bullying for years. Still, he defended Will when Troy made homophobic comments about him and he doesn't even thought to much about it.

Mike's monologue to Will

It's one that also makes me cry a lot. He is being so genuine here, so vulnerable. It's like while he is talking he himself is realizing that asking Will to be his best friends is the best thing he was ever done.

Mike and his break down to Hopper when he found out he was hiding El

This is so sad. Mike had to see El "dying" right in front of him. He thought he lost her. He blamed himself, thought he was going crazy but them he finds out that Hopper knew where she was all the time. Mike breaks down not only because of this, but I feel like it was about everything that happened that season. It was too much for that kid.

Mike and his cute and flirty apologize to Will after their fight

I mean... this is so cute. Both of them were tearing up. Mike using his Will Voice TM. He apologizing for everything that happened between them and promising that whatever comes next, they will be a team no matter what. The interruption trope and the fact that if Jonathan hadn't entered the room, they would keep staring lovingly at each other 😭

honorable mentions to: Mike jumping off the quarry to protect Dustin, Mike and his sassy face to Steve at their movie date, Mike and his theatrical speech as a DM and Mike's reaction to Will's painting. but you told me to pick just 5 and this is already too long LOL

Ty for the ask!

[castlebyersafterdark]

how do you think byler would be drunk? what type of drunk do you think each of them would be? i feel like it's be a mix of a couple like i feel like will would be really affectionate and clingy but he can also be emotional sometimes as well?

Ooooh love this one. I think you're spot on for Will. Very clingy for sure. He wants to have a good time, I think that it loosens him up, makes him feel more relaxed, eases that poor boy's constant burdens. He doesn't drink very much when he's younger, not until college and the years of everything that happened are a little bit more behind. And he much prefers to drink with Mike around. It's hard for him to trust others in an altered state, when he's not completely under his normal functions. That never really goes away for him. There's fun in letting go, but I think it's tough for him to trust in general like that.

But he's giggly, he's super clingy. Always touching Mike, or looking for him if they drift apart at an event. He's clumsy, but in a very cute way. He's not tripping and falling over things, but sometimes those knees of his just buckle inward and he goes down in place, instantly cracking up, rolling over until someone helps him. Pretty pink flush on his cheeks, eyes bright and a little glazed over. Sassy and sarcastic, it's so much harder to hold back what he really thinks. Day to day / sober his biting remarks are harsh, but selective and pointed. Drunk? He's a mess. He's reading you for filth. He's giggling as he does it. He's draped over some chair and he's whining Miiiiike, come heeeeeere, I miiiiiissss you. He's tearing up at the slightest inconvenience. He is needy. He's a little bit of a slut.

He falls into bed easily when a bit inebriated - mostly because Mike has to drag or carry him there and drop him like a rag doll. They started the night sober and Will tells Mike he's planning on having a good time and this is his confirmation that he expects to get fucked at the end of the night so don't drink too much, Mike!! Fine by Mike. This state really exacerbates Will's love of being manhandled. He's useless when he's drunk. But he loves it. Totally under Mike's focus and command. The absolute best. He's so floaty and loose limbed and when Mike slowly fucks him at the end of a fun night and the only thing he can really feel is the point where their bodies are connected it's pretty much bliss. And Mike is there in the morning with water and painkillers and cuddles as Will recovers.

Mike? When he drinks it enhances whatever mood he's already in. Drinking does not change his emotional state, it only increases it. He's happy? He's drinking and he's much more confident at some party or event, he's more open to chatting with people he might not know instead of being mister anti social. If it's a night they're both drunk together, he and Will are a force. Just the goofiest, the sappiest, draped all over each other and having conversations that no one else on the planet can understand - the combination of their already ridiculous codependent thought sharing along with slurred words and giggles and so people just stop trying to figure it out.

I also see Mike as a beer / whiskey-adjacent guy while Will likes cocktails and wine. And also for Mike - broken out of his shell when he gets older, he has a group of friends he goes to the bar with just to chat and chill and kick back, but he's the more subdued of the bunch, until he has a few drinks in him, then he's chatty as fuck, passionate and hyper ramblings. On the flip side, those emotions, though. If he's angry or sad and he drinks, it brings him down further. Prone to depression, a bad mood made worse. He has that abrasive side. Life isn't always perfect, of course. He and Will aren't going to be sunshine and rainbows every second once they get together and as they grow older. Mike retreats into himself or he's extra bitchy if inebriated and unchecked when already in a bd spot. Will and him might argue a bit, Will throws out reminders of how he hated when his father drank when he was mad. That sobers up Mike, sleeps it off. Communication! Following the hard moments with the soft. Maturity comes with time. Don't go to bed angry and don't drink then, either. Didn't mean to end on a downer haha but I'm here for a little realism.

AND - have to shoutout and hype up one of my all time favorites: in the midnight hour by @wisehearts ft. THE perfect drunk Will. Oh, he is divine in this fic. This was the one where I read it and just smiled because it was so much how I envisioned their dynamic together as young adults. If it was the infamous orgy fic that made me switch to the spicy side of the fandom, this fic made me decide to write here. ❤️

[lxrd-ren]

OK but christ now that I've thought about it more, there is a lot of shit happening at the same time rn

● Maxo (The code infection on his leg + his nightmares about the codes. The fact that he hasn't shown up in a hot minute concerns me ngl)

● Luzu's computers (There's like 6 or 8 that's been discovered on the island as of now. Still don't know what their deal is but they've just been kind of sitting there for a week or two. But the fact that the code showed up when Fit and Aypierre tried to investigate I think is a kind of hint towards this being very important)

● Eggs (Both how they turned up cracked, dirty, tired and slight amnesia + how they all disappeared the next day and left their accessories on their beds + we still don't know ANYTHING about it) This one is probably taking the most toll on the islanders. (cough cough BBH literally fading away all whilst going through of 5 stages of grief cough cough Forever might have tried to destroy the whole island) Without their kids and no clue on how to get them back, the islands in a kind of depressive / hopeless state at the minute

● Missing Furniture (The hidden messages behind it were uncovered but we still don't know the full extent of it. For example, we don't know who / what did it)

● Waystones (As the audience, we know Aypierre did kinda do this. But, as far as the majority of the islanders know, its still a mystery. Fortunately, people like Cellbit and Antoine are catching on)

● 'Missing People' (It really wouldn't be Quesadilla Island without the weekly kidnapping /hj. As far as we know, both Mike and Baghera are M.I.A. Mike was 100% kidnapped and the islanders are somewhat aware of what happened. For Baghera, the last thing we know is that she uncovered her past alongside 'There's no escaping this time'. And then there are the long-term disappearances, such as Mr Mustard and Walter Bob. We're slowly but surely discovering clues about them two but who knows if they're even still alive)

● Code (As we saw yesterday, the code is still active and will still attack. Without the eggs, they are less of a threat atm. On the bright side, nothing major seems to have happened with them since Etoiles' fight with them)

● They're fucking drugging them (Forever disappeared for a day and came back with white clothes, a big ass all-might smile and meds from Cucurocho itself. As long as Forever takes the drugs, he seems happy-go-lucky and basicly is living in this warped reality of the island where everything is 'perfect' for him. That is until he hears the ticking; then he'll become violent and scream for the ticking to stop. He'll eventually take the meds again, and go back to that artificial happiness. The islanders have made the majority aware of the situation and are trying their best to investigate. However, it seems Forever wants everybody to be happy like him, which is really fucking bad. Already Pac is 'receiving treatment' in an attempt to try and make an antidote for the meds; we'll see the results of that today. Even more concerning, Forever has enlisted Tina to make a list of all those that want treatment. PLUS, Forever wants to talk to Jaiden specifically to give her something and they've already agreed to meet up today at some point. Considering the last couple times Forever wanted to 'talk' with someone it ended up either Forever pulling a gun on them or trying to kill them with mines, well, o7 Jaiden)

● The Whole Quackity Situation (We still are in the dark about what exactly happened but as far as we know, the federation messed with Quackitys memories. They fucked him up so bad the guy forgot how to read and write. Again, he hasn't been seen in a hot minute but is likely due to unrelated irl stuff)

● Jaiden (Recently we learnt about Jaidens ties to the federation and it is concerning to say the least. I haven't been fully caught up on it regarding the conversation last night, but she is definitely important in the grand scheme of things)

● And finally, something may or may not happen on the 16th, so just kinda bare that in mind

I still don't think that's everything 🤣 I freaking love this server

[hearts401]

Hai :3 do u have any wacky wild michael hcs

oh do i!

both adult and teen. loser has been on my mind again.

He gets super fucking cold for no reason and blamed it on ghosts until after fnaf 6 where he brought it up as a joke and the ghost kids were like "...none of us did that" and now he's convinced theres a whole extra ghost after him. (it was cc he didnt mean to initially but cassidy thought it was funny)

He talked to the animatronics all the fuckin time. like he just. chatted with them. especially the fnaf 2 ones. charlie had to sit there and watch him talk to actual robots thinking they were kids. they werent and she told him that in fnaf 6 because she found it so fucking funny

clumsy as HELL i know that man was banging his knee in the SL vents and swearing under his breath

teen mike was also clumsy. probably split his lip on concrete all the time as a kid.

he was also the kinda kid to say "nah, check this out!!" and wake up in the hospital

this is a gross one but. he dealt with bugs a lot post scoop (especially. flies. and what comes with them. iykyk). he'd come into work on mondays smelling like a can of bug repellant. you wont believe what he showers with instead of water.

He was williams least favorite but they had a weird relationship between him moving out and elizabeths death. like some days william despised him and michael just wanted to blow them both up with his mind and some days he comes home like "Hey mike whats up want some pizza for dinner tonight?" and michaels like "fuck yeah why not."

he's henrys favorite afton as a teen and he knows it. and he uses it. Henry fuckin loved that kid he had the man wrapped around his finger. William also notices it and he gets mad at henry over it.

in relation to that, henry was really gentle with michael which was. not helpful im sorry 😭

mike sleeps pretty casually. hes not a light sleeper but not a deep sleeper. unless hes tired. if he hasnt been getting enough sleep youll know because he sleeps like a ROCK.

he fucking loves italian food. for no reason. he just does

he unironically eats beans on toast. He tried it as a joke and then just. never stopped.

he still has his foxy mask it just doesnt fit him. he tries it on again and it hurts his head

cannot afford to go out to eat often and GOD does he complain about it. he is SO FUCKING LOUD when he complains about it. he wants his takeout man

Loves animals but they hate him. A crow tried to take a bite out of him post scoop once nad he had to fight for his life. bro saw his family for a moment there

he is so polite most of the time but if you talk to him after his shift he'll fuck you up. rudest bitch on the block and he was an asshole teen so he knows how to run his mouth

he plays solitaire.

does not know about the context but whenever hes depressed he says "tomorrow is another day" because time moves on anyways!!!! also idk i think its neat

he ate shit in the middle of his shift once and bashed his face on one of the counters and his coworker found the blood the next day and managed to start a rumor that someone died there until michael came in to work with his face bandaged up.

these are so rambly but funny so im gonna keep going

skateboards <3 totally tried to show off and ate shit until william told him if he went to the hospital again he'd take the skateboard. he still ate shit. just hid it better.

taught evan to do a lot. If he didnt feel like bullying him (for an array of reasons, but the biggest is just. boredom. or loneliness. or a mix) he'd teach him something just because he could. skipping rocks, flying a kite. michael doesnt remember it very well but evan does

cassidy kicked him in the knee so hard he was limping for an hour and so he found the golden freddy suit and kicked it too at one point. she didnt feel it tho. and jumpscared him out of spite.

he loves dogs and once brought evan to see one because his friends were busy and he hates being alone and the dog bit the shit out of evan. foreshadowing.

oh yeah i totally think he gets lonely btw. do not leave that guy alone he will get very sad and pathetic!!!

im capping myself here because jesus christ.

[daresplaining]

I was wondering if you could give me a recommended reading order for Daredevil stories with Karen specifically. The more important the role (not being dead please) the better! Yellow has been great and when I read born Again I'm sure I'll be asking for more! anything throughout all of daredevil's history is welcome, before miller, after, i'll be happy with anything. And for specifically karen's and matt's relationship history, knowing the starts, stops, restarts, and restops, etc would be great!

Absolutely! Karen is a neat character to me not just for who she is as a person, but also because she was around long enough to be present for many of the comic's stylistic and tonal shifts over the decades. Her character arc is also really compelling, even if it requires some digging. I was going to recommend Daredevil: Yellow, but since you've already read it, I'll just mention it anyway for anyone who might not have checked it out yet. Great comic, delightful depiction of Karen.

Now, let's get into it!

The first 70-or-so issues of Daredevil are a full-on soap opera, with Matt and Karen dancing around the prospect of a relationship, going through drama, dealing with fake twin brothers and secret identity shenanigans...to the degree that I'm tempted to just recommend that you check out that whole block of issues (as always, I'm obligated to recommend the Mike Murdock Saga). However, for the sake of brevity, I'll pull out some of the most significant Karen moments.

Daredevil vol. 1 #41: Karen has spent the past fifteen issues torn between Matt-- her true love, who doesn't seem to love her back-- and his "twin brother" Mike, who is equally attractive and actually seems to be into her. In this issue, Karen finally comes to grips with the fact that she likes Matt best.

Daredevil vol. 1 #48: Matt and Karen's first kiss! Karen had quit her job at the law office because the romantic tension was stressing her out, sending Matt into a depressive spiral. In this issue she returns, and they finally make their feelings fully known to each other.

Daredevil vol. 1 #56-58: The "Death's Head" arc! This is a great, creepy story that is also the first DD story to really center Karen. We learn more about her family, her backstory, she gets some nice heroic moments, and it is very, very significant for her relationship with Matt. It then leads directly into #58, in which things immediately begin to fall apart.

Daredevil vol. 1 #63-67: Karen, fed up with Matt's inability to keep his promises, breaks off their engagement and runs away to Hollywood to pursue her acting career. Matt runs after her. These issues cover their adventures together in California and Matt's inability to let go.

Daredevil vol. 1 #86: Karen and Matt give the engagement thing one more try (for now).

Ghost Rider vol. 1 #13-26: These issues cover Karen's Hollywood adventures alongside Johnny Blaze (Ghost Rider) and Stunt-Master! While she isn't a major presence and isn't in every issue, it is fun to see her in such a different context, in the hands of a different creative team, living her movie star dreams.

Daredevil vol. 1 #138 and Ghost Rider vol. 1 #20: In the midst of the above chunk of issues, Matt learns that Karen has gone missing and runs off to California to rescue her, giving us a fun little crossover with Ghost Rider.

Marvel Two-In-One vol. 1 #46: Karen isn't in this issue that much, but it's a really fun one. The Hulk gets angry about the new Hulk TV show, in which Karen is about to be cast. Also, Ben Grimm is there.

Daredevil vol. 1 #227-233: It sounds like "Born Again" is already on your radar but I'm including it here for completeness. Karen hits her lowest point, and reunites with Matt after more than a hundred issues of separation.

Daredevil vol. 1 #237: This is a really nice issue. Karen and Matt start a new life together in Hell's Kitchen.

Daredevil vol. 1 #242-244: Karen struggles to come to terms with Daredevil's violence in the context of her own abuse-related trauma.

Daredevil vol. 1 #248: Karen starts up her free clinic and drug hotline, offering support (and under-the-table legal services, via Matt) to those in the community suffering through the same things she went through. Karen's clinic is a key setting throughout this run and a key element of her character development during this period.

Daredevil vol. 1 #259: Partway through the Nocenti/JRJr run, Matt starts cheating on Karen with Mary Walker, Typhoid Mary's mild-mannered alter. As his affections waver between the two women, Matt teams up with Karen to take down a child trafficking operation.

Daredevil vol. 1 #261: Daredevil has gone missing. Karen teams up with Johnny Storm to look for him.

Daredevil vol. 1 #294: Karen and Matt reunite after a long absence (read: one of Matt's faked deaths, following the previously mentioned infidelity). Includes one of my all-time favorite Karen scenes.

Daredevil vol. 1 #297, 299, 302, 305, 312, 320, 325: Phew, that's a list. Each of these issues contains precisely one (1) lovely Karen scene as she and Matt work toward rebuilding the trust and love that they lost.

Daredevil vol. 1 327, 329-331, 338-342: While grieving Matt's latest faked death, Karen confronts ghosts from her past as she works to take down a child pornography operation. (Tragically, unless I'm missing a tie-in somewhere, this plotline just kind of abruptly ends, possibly due to the writer shuffling that was going on at the time. But it's a neat Karen solo adventure while it lasts.)

Daredevil vol. 1 #345-347: Someone who seems to be Matt is running around in the yellow Daredevil costume. Karen and Foggy try to get to the bottom of it.

Daredevil vol. 1 348-350: Matt has a mental breakdown. Foggy finds out that Matt is 1. alive and 2. Daredevil. Karen has to deal with all of it.

I humbly beseech you to read all of Daredevil vol. 1 #353-375. It's one of my favorite periods of Daredevil and is full of Karen goodness, since by this point she and Matt are living together again. However, here are a few particularly significant issues:

Daredevil vol. 1 #359: One of my all-time favorite issues, featuring a Daredevil-themed episode of the enigmatic Paige Angel's radio show...

Daredevil vol. 1 #371: Karen and Matt have had a major fight. Karen seeks emotional support from a questionable source. Matt clumsily tries to make amends.

Daredevil vol. 1 #375: Another one of my absolute favorite issues of Daredevil. Karen gets framed for murder, and this extra-long issue covers her trial.

Extras:

Daredevil: Predator's Smile and Daredevil: The Cutting Edge: These two prose novels are a little difficult to find these days, but they're very fun and heavily feature Karen. In fact, some of my favorite Karen scenes are from these books. Predator's Smile takes place between issues #233 and 234 (right after "Born Again"), and Cutting Edge takes place during Joe Kelly's run (#365-375).

Marvel Valentine Special, "Love Hurts": This short story takes place during the Kesel/Kelly era. Karen uses her radio show to help a woman get out of an abusive relationship.

Secret Wars: Secret Love, "Guilty Pleasure": Is this part of my stealth mission to get everyone on the planet to read "Misty and Danny Forever"? Maybe. But this anthology issue's Karen-focused story is very neat too.

Daredevil vol. 4 #15.1, "Chasing the Devil": Karen only appears briefly in this little Silver Age retrospective story, but even just this small glimpse of her as written and drawn by the great Chris Samnee and Matthew Wilson is a treat.

I hope this helps!

[uselessnbee]

okay i don't want to be THAT bitch but if El calls out Mike on his bullshit in s5 how the love confession was shit and untrue i do kinda want Mike to turn around and be like "okay well what do you love me for?" because let's be real girl would not have an answer for that 💀

and maybe it would be good to be the last thing that would make her go oh i've never loved him that way either

like yes she totally should throw everything in Mike's face cause she deserves so much better but let's not pretend like she's a good girlfriend to him and it's just Mike being the problem

this fucker has been depressed and struggling for months and like did she ever even ask how is he doing? not her fault but the fact that Mike has been struggling and never once thought about talking to El because he doesn't feel like he can be vulnerable with her? the fact that he pretends he's someone he's not because he feels like she wouldn't want him for who he is? seriously no hate to El i love her to bits and yes Mike is bigger asshole in this but we really need to stop acting like El is perfect and can do no wrong

and that one time in s4 when Mike actually tried to be vulnerable with her and let her know that he understands because he's been bullied his whole life and she just invalidates his feelings and completely dismisses him? i do understand her pov and what she meant but as someone who's also been bullied and have so many people invalidate my feelings and how it affected me and still affects me to this day all the time it really hurt to hear it. the way Mike's feelings are constantly being invalidated and dismissed by both the characters in the show and this fandom just because "others have it worse" really disgusts me

anyways i really just want to point out that this is a relationship. there are two people in this relationship and it all goes both ways. it's not just Mike being an asshole friend and a shitty boyfriend. El isn't really a great girlfriend either and when they were just hanging out together the whole summer it is on El too. they're both just kids trying to do their best and making mistakes we can acknowledge that both of them make some really questionable things so they both can grow and learn