#stranger things rainbow theory

[fairyrona]

What's wrong? Rainbow.

Okay this post is a little of a brain vomit, because I've read so many smart posts lately and I have some thoughts that kinda tie into all of them or maybe provide some pieces.

So, let's add some maybe fresh thoughts. If somebody had already said all that, please step forth lmao

First, the Zombie Boy drawing and different/changing timelines. (and project rainbow) For For context, @willbyersabyss 's post.

S1 version mentioning the mind control experiments.

-> completely erasing that timeline/version of events by the said mind control. -> And now Will Byers has become the Zombie Boy

It's almost unbelivable how much timeline-wrongness/loops S2 hides under it's sleeve.

Trapped in an artificially created time loop / timeline.

What's wrong with Mama? Rainbow. Timeline's wrong.

Oh, what you say Nancy-in-Terry's overcoat/costume?

Murray's? But not yours?

Oh, then what if Murray's timeline?

Zombie Boy version. The one that says Will got lost in the woods. Our timeline. And then we get Lucas telling Max the truth. (Events of s1, that represent the Zombie Boy version.) But on this particular timeline-train of thoughts, he literally repeats after Nancy:

Will didn't get lost in the woods. The timeline's wrong.

And then it get's even more messy, because Max thinks this story feels derivative. This is literally us reading the s1 article. But then, why is she reacting to the s2 version like that?

And then she calls him out for lying. We get told multiple times, that Lucas is not telling the true version of events.

Friends don't lie. Never ever. No matter what. Is that right? Then how do you explain this?

Out of order. The timeline is wrong. Out of order.

Friends don't lie. Never ever. No matter what. Is that right? Then how do you explain this?

Now, lets go back a little. And add some MKUltra.

What's wrong with mama? Rainbow. Timeline's wrong. Out of order.

I don't think I've seen anyone mention the fact that we've got not 1, not 2, but at least 3 Rainbow Rooms.

terry ives' mind loop (with different colour-gradings)

Ray's, the lab ward's home in Chicagoproject nina tape-based memories project nina tape-based memories (with different colour-gradings)

While we're at HNL colour grading I wanna quickly add that Terry's sequences are a lot warmer, I'd even say the walls are different paint all together. But it could just visual clue of time passing, renovations and all.

However. It's a cool detail that while Terry's memories are warm-ish-> turn greenish just as it cuts to little Jane and Kali and then the lighting immediately becomes cold - like in Will's scenes. (And Ray's, ''true'' version is warm as well. Outside of the girls nightgowns, that are more cool-toned. and that's another mindfuckery detail, bc Ray's kids are dressed more like lab subjects than the lab subjects.) (out of order)

I wanna talk bout the middle Rainbow Room. And its possible connection to MK Ultra.

First. Light is important. Here are two posts about light's and rainbow's involvement in the experiments'.

For context, go to the two @conflictofthemind 's posts.

breathe. sunflower. rainbow. three to the right, four to the left. four-fifty. breathe.

breathe. (He isn't breathing!)

sunflower. (follows the light. Joyce to find Will, El to talk to Terry etc. Will's house being all lit up in the pilot. AND the shed. And the light bulb thing. followed the light? and went back?)

rainbow.

(electromagnetic spectrum gets separated. different wavelengths reflect at a different angle. but in the end it's still just an optical illusion. it doesn't exist in a specific point in the sky.)

Rainbows are actually full circles. The antisolar point is the center of the circle. Viewers in aircraft can sometimes see these circular rainbows. (The horizon obstructs our view. It's as if the second half was under. In the Upside down.)

three to the right, four to the left. 43. 1943?

four-fifty. (Turning up the dial on the machine. 450° degree angle? it loops.

breathe. it loops.

Also, the safety vault, the rainbow and the dial is all circle shaped, and it ends on the dial being turned, as if we're actually going round on it's axis. (But in Terry's memories, and Ray's flat, we're only seeing one half of the story. S4? we get too many versions. A half circle, the rainbow going around the room, turning upside down etc.)

In that scene they are in Ray's apartament. (another light reference)

And I have a few theories. This is the writers telling us that

there are multiple versions of the event

these memories from another timeline. which i'll touch upon in a different post, to keep things in order

the event is replicating itself in different manners

Okay, now a rundown of the scene:

-> The Kali Gang bursts in. The RAY-guy begs for his life. Says he's gonna help El find Brenner.

-> Nobody believes the guy, neither the audience nor the characters, but the thing is - he was telling the truth! Now, after s4, after being introduced to yet another, COMPLETELY different rainbow room, we know that.

What also interest me is that Ray said Brenner trusts him - thus he knows Brenner is alive. Was that a secret between the bad men as well? Is Brenner being alive something more than not succumbing to injury circa s1?

The things is!! El and Kali never entered Ray's rainbow room.

And Ray telling us the truth feels like a check mark - this! This is the one!

I think either:

a) there are different versions of the event: Where the girls in the room were not El and Kali, but some other two kids, possibly actual siblings.

a.1) this only happened once - and Jane is not El.

b) The original event that keeps weaving itself into the plot his hasn't happened to Terry specifically.

c) Or there was no ''original'' but it keep's repeating to trigger something, or replicate an effect. Somebody finding two ''kids'' in a rainbow room.

This really feels more like a visual and storytelling metafor.

Same with @erikiara80 post about colour green.

Especially with what happened st Ray's place.

El and Kali on different sides of conflict, Kali being the more blood-thirsty, revenge seeking one.

-> Kali and El want to kill Ray. But Kali want it to last, to make him suffer. -> For a moment El listens but then Kali-Gang find the girls in the rainbow room -> El notices a photo frame with Ray and his daughters and doesn't kill him in the end. -> This pisses off Kali, she want to kill him, but El stops her. And they evacuate without killing the guy.

vs. El showing 'empathy'.

But we know that NINA's memories are not entirely trust-worthy... (s4 Owens: how much did you skip?)

This might be a nod to the fact that El doesn't actually relate to the strong emotions Kali is feeling about this. (That El is not Jane, Ray didn't torture her mother.)(Or that they originate from different timelines.)

Oh and, let's not forget about the staring point. The Zombie Boy articles. And how Will-Joyce-Hopper are involved in that scene sequence.

Want it or not, in this color grading, this car looks like Joyce's green pinto.

And this, also, looks like Joyce's green pinto.

Now, why am I suddenly pulling Joyce and Hopper into all of this? Because Hop says a funny line in s2.

"You wanna take him back to Chicago?'' (about Will having episodes. They also mention Boston, where another comic takes place.)

All in all, Hopper discourages Joyce from looking for help anywhere else but HNL.

But take this car parked by Ray's place, take that one line, and take the fact that Ray was not bullshitting El?

And to that let's add that the Zombie Boy event having ''Chief Hopper'' literally written all over the page? Zombie Boy is encircling him for gods sake. (in green) Pointing fingers.

(Which Chief Hopper tho haha)

oh and

I really hope this makes sense. Might not. Hopefully it does.

[strawberrybyers]

OK SO I LOOKED UP INFO ABOUT WHALES IN THE 1980S AND LOOK WHAT I FOUND

OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH

MENTIONS OF THE SOVIET UNION AND RADIO TAGS… ALSO ONE OF THE WHALES DIED AND ONE MARINE BIOLOGIST SAID “THAT’S NATURAL MORTALITY. THE ONES THAT MAKE MISTAKES, THE ONES THAT ARE WEAKER, ARE THE FIRST THAT ARE GOING TO DIE. AND THERE IS A REASON FOR THAT. THAT’S WHAT KEEPS THE POPULATION STRONG” NOW WHY DOES THAT SOUND LIKE SOMETHING VECNA WOULD SAY???

OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH WAS ABOUT SAVING 3 WHALES THAT WERE TRAPPED. IS IT POSSIBLE 3 CHARACTERS GET STUCK IN THE UPSIDE DOWN AND ONE OF THEM DIES???

AND NOW TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT ONE OF GREENPEACE’S SHIPS WAS CALLED TO HELP SAVE THE WHALES: RAINBOW WARRIOR. THE RAINBOW WARRIOR ON JULY 10, 1985 WAS BOMBED BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO STOP THE PROTESTING AGAINST NUCLEAR TESTING. BUT THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT WAS TRYING TO COVER UP THE BOMBING. WELL GUESS WHAT ARTICLE CAME OUT IN HAWKINS AROUND JULY 10, 1985 SINCE THE STARCOURT MALL INCIDENT HAPPENED A FEW DAYS BEFORE THEN!! AN ARTICLE ABOUT GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION!!!

SO WHO IS OUR RAINBOW WARRIOR IN SEASON 5???

[will80sbyers]

No because I think I never noticed this before what the hell anyway I now declare that Barb was officially queer

Edit: guys I'm talking about the rainbow pattern in the lightning plus the little rainbow in Nancy's book in front of her

there is no yellow and blue pattern that I can see from here unless I'm missing something (?)

[pinkeoni]

So I lost the original draft, but I got an anon asking me what I thought rainbows represented in ST. My answer looked a little like this:

I put off answering this question because this is actually a rather tough question that I didn’t have a quick answer to and did have to do some thinking on.

I feel like it’s easy to say “Gay,” and yes this is part of it, but this answer might actually be reductive and innacurate to what is actually happening in the show.

I think when considering period-accurate clothing, you have to consider the context of that time period. Rainbows being on clothes in the 1980’s is a little different then say, rainbows on clothes in the 2020’s.

It is true that the rainbow pride flag did exist in the 80’s, and rainbow pride gear did exist, however this was pre-rainbow capitalism and before we had the overabundance of rainbow merchandising. Rainbows were a symbol of pride in the 80s, but it also existed well outside of that. Now, it’s almost impossible to find clothing with rainbows on it that isn’t associated with pride. (Or even if it’s not the manufacturer’s intention, that correlation will still be made.)

On the left is a bts photo of Robin Buckley, and on the right is Mindy Meeks from Scream VI. Both of these characters are lesbians, and both include clues in their costuming that point toward their sexualities. Robin has rainbow shapes and triangles on her shirt, while Mindy wear’s a shirt that says “Lavender Menace” on it and has a rainbow pride flag patch sewn onto her jacket.

Considering the personalities and context of these two characters is important when deciding their costumes. Robin is a closeted lesbian, living in a conservative small town in the 1980’s. Any indications towards her queerness are going to have to made incredibly subtly. Rainbow pride gear did exist in the 80’s, but it wouldn’t make sense for Robin to be wearing that openly.

Mindy, on the other hand, is out and proud and living in 2020’s NYC, so her wearing more overt pride gear makes sense for her character and the time that her character lives in. The rainbow patch serves as a reminder to the audience of her sexuality. When Mindy was first introduced Scream V, her sexuality was not explicitly stated, but the costume department instead gave her a rainbow pin as visual shorthand to communicate her identity.

So, with all that in mind, rainbows on clothes of a character in ST—

—may not in itself be indicative of their sexuality.

But then again, this is a show created in the modern day for the modern audience who would have that association with gay pride, so it shouldn’t be ruled out.

I don’t think that Lucas having rainbows on his shirt means that he’s queer, but then when we have this—

A rainbow being squarely placed behind Will, a character we know to be gay, who in a later season did a whole project on Alan Turing, the gay inventor of computers, it would be ignorant of me to say that rainbows in the show had no correlation with gay pride.

So then, I tried to approach the meaning of rainbows from a more broad sense. Maybe the meaning behind rainbows is something that could encapsulate gay pride while speaking to a larger meaning. So I decided to simplify it, and go back to rainbows in nature.

When do rainbows appear? After the rain.

Let’s go back to Lucas’ rainbow shirt that I pointed out before. Lucas wears this when he realizes that he’s in way over his head with his basketball crew and he returns to his friends. Lucas is getting out of the rainstorm and back into the light. He’s seeing the rainbow.

We can also apply this to his relationship with other characters, especially Max. Max has been in the dark for so long, but thanks to her friends, thanks to Lucas, she’s able to see some of that light again. Lucas is like her personal rainbow.

Max also wears rainbows in season 3 to the same affect, except here I believe she is meant to be El’s rainbow. El has been kept in the dark but Max is the one that shows her the light.

I think rainbows can also be misleading, though.

The Rainbow Room was the reward that Papa gave the kids for doing well in their lessons. “Whoever wins will win an extra hour in the rainbow room.” It was supposed to be their light after the dark, but really it was another symbol of their entrapment. No matter how much extra time you get in the Rainbow Room, you are still a prisoner.

I wanted to talk about the Rainbow Room in regards to when we see rainbows on El’s letter that she sent to Mike.

And yes, Mike reading a letter with rainbows on it in his Freddie Mercury tank while in front of his closet does seem like rainbows are being used as queercoding here, and that might be part of it, but considering that this scene comes right after we see the massacre in the Rainbow Room at the beginning of the episode, leading me to believe that the rainbows here are meant to correspond with the rainbows there.

Because Mike is like the Rainbow Room, he is supposed to be El’s light in the dark, he is supposed to be her reward after being in the rain for so long, but just like the Rainbow Room, it’s all false hope.

The Rainbow Room is where El has her showdown with One though, which represents another aspect of the light after the dark, clarity and truth.

El has learned the truth and she even gains a new power in this moment. In a way, One has also reached a light in this moment. He had Soteria removed, he is seeing new possibilities, but it’s twisted, it’s upside down, hence why his rainbow is flipped.

And now I bring it back to the screenshot I showed earlier of the rainbow behind Will, which yes lends itself to some queercoding, but this is also the same scene where Will reveals the truth to the gang about D’Art. He’s bringing new infortmation into the light, and thus there is a rainbow behind him.

So, when we talk about rainbows and costuming, I think it’s significant that Robin and Will, are two confirmed queer characters, do not wear rainbows on their clothes. And if they do, it’s only very subtly. Will’s most colorful outfit is probably the one he get’s taken in, and after that both Will and Robin wear pretty muted and monochromatic outfits. They are hiding in the dark, they aren’t able to show their truths, their rainbows, just yet.

So, to the nice anon whose ask I lost about what rainbows represent in ST, my answer is: Clarity, truth, and the light after the rainstorm.

[chirpsythismorning]

Something something rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds and there upon a rainbow is the answer to a never-ending story���

❤️💛💙🌈

[magic-of-camelot]

Different gates, different dimensions.

Is gategate already a thing? I dunno, so imma write about it anyway. I know that there is already speculation that Henry was not sent to the Upside Down, and I was rewatching season 1 when I noticed something, and then I noticed some more things and I have some comments...

First, let's look at the room the gate was opened in season 1:

As we know, this is when the gate was opened to the Upside Down. However, this is not the same room we see in Eleven's flashbacks in season 4, when she sent Henry through a gate into another dimension:

You could argue that they revamped the room after the massacre since they only had one kid now and don't need the big rainbow room. But the rooms are WAY too different from the size, to the shape, to the ceiling height, to the door placements.

Even the hallways leading up to both of these rooms are completely different:

Season 1 (above) ; Season 4 (below).

My point is different room = different gate = different dimension. Henry was not sent to the Upside Down.

I suspect Henry ended up in the Upside Down because Will took him there accidentally when Henry ooga booga'd him in 1x01. And, as Will likely has powers, he accidentally took them both into the Upside Down (cue the Upside Down is Will's mind theory). Henry is still able to access his dimension through his mind, but his physical body is stuck in the Upside Down.

Something else I want to address is the small gate in the tree that Nancy and Jonathan find in the woods.

I don't think this gate itself holds much significance, but I think I know how it ended up there. When El made contact with the demogorgan, the creature was doing….. something…. it's pretty hard to see because the demogorgan is covering whatever it's doing. But I think that whatever it was touching became the tree gate when Eleven made that physical connection. It was only a small gate, so it probably closed with the big gate at the end of season 2 since they were created at the same time - and everything is connected.

Or maybe it's still open and the gang use it to sneak into the Upside Down in S5...

[62percentmaplesyrup]

Dyke queeler and lil lyers

i don't know what to say i'll just leave it here

that's the post

[henrysglock]

A Word on DID Theory

The hot topic in the Stranger Things theory world lately is DID/systems. So lets put aside all my other theories for a moment, and let's talk about a blatant instance of dissociative amnesia and memory gatekeeping that we've already seen on screen.

Keep in mind that I'm not saying any of this is what actually happened, just that if we view things through the lens of "what if it's DID", this is what it looks like. Cool? Cool.

NINA.

El is a genuine dissociative amnesiac, textually speaking—whether it be that those memories aren't "hers" or that her mind buried them, she still has only snatches of recollection re: the Rainbow Room.

If we want to pursue a hypothetical DID lens, NINA-HNL could be considered El's headspace.

Many individuals with dissociative identity disorder (DID) have an internal world in which they or their alters can manifest as themselves and interact. These internal worlds, which are also known as inner worlds or headspaces, can range in size and complexity. A system with only a couple of alters might have an internal room in which alters that are internally active, awake, and aware might manifest. Others might expand this living room to include doors to bedrooms for groups of or individual alters. Others might have small towns that may even be filled with static "NPCs"...that can interact with alters but themselves are more similar to imaginary constructs than to actual alters or fragments. Even more expansive internal worlds can result when highly imaginative or dissociative systems use their inner world to retreat from the outside world and so play out entire stories within their mind. Different systems may have more or less control over their internal worlds. Some may be able to actively shape and add new aspects to their internal world while others may regulate this ability to a specific alter or groups of alters or find the task impossible. Some systems do not naturally have an internal world but may be able to create one with the help of therapy. (x)

(See also: The First Shadow as compared to NINA, with its objectively "fake" Hawkins, complete with partial sets and characters who mimic Henry in oddly specific ways)

NINA could be seen as a therapeutic method for helping El access her headspace and integrate her system. A key player in this process is Henry.

For El, Henry wears many hats.

Protector: Protectors are alters that protect the body, system, host, core, or other specific alters or groups of alters. Physical protectors might take or try to prevent physical abuse or become aggressive in an attempt to defend against physical abuse. Verbal protectors might take verbal abuse or lash back verbally in order to counter verbal abuse. Emotional protectors might take emotional abuse or comfort other alters to soften the effects of emotional abuse. Sexual protectors might take sexual abuse or attempt to instigate sexual abuse in an attempt to feel more in control of the situation. Caretaker alters are a unique type of protector that is focused specifically on taking care of younger, weaker, or more vulnerable alters or external children. Memory Holder: Memory holders are alters that hold memories that are usually traumatic in nature so that other alters do not have to be confronted by the memories. In some cases, memory holders might hold memories of childhood innocence or of being loved by the system’s otherwise abusive or neglectful family. In these latter cases, the memory holder might serve to preserve these memories untainted by memories of trauma or to avoid confronting the system with the pain of what the abuse has cost them. Memory holders are highly associated with abuse takers, alters that experience trauma so that other alters do not have to. Internal Self Helper: An internal self helper is an alter that holds vast amounts of knowledge about the system, alters, trauma, and/or internal workings. For those who believe in cores, internal self helpers are often viewed as the first alter to be created or as the normally pseudo-separate internal voice of logic and reason that all people possess. Within the theory of structural dissociation, internal self helpers are often viewed as observing parts or hidden observers, both less than distinct states. Internal self helpers may or may not also serve as a gatekeeper.

Obviously, Henry's main function would be that of a caretaker. He appears as an orderly, a literal caretaker:

And he's a source of protection, comfort, and support for El (at least, until she gets a little too close to the traumatic memories being withheld from her, but we'll talk about that later).

Henry also serves as a gatekeeper, a memory holder, an internal self helper, and various other types of protectors.

When Two is verbally bullying El, Henry reprimands him in response to protect El (This being distinct from the behavior of a persecutor, who may instead harm Two for his behavior. See: Brenner). When El "misbehaves" and uses Henry's advice/fuels her powers with emotion, Henry is punished instead while El is kept separate:

Henry, theoretically, serves as a verbal, physical, and emotional protector for El. El misbehaves, but she is not the one punished. El is bullied, but she is not the one who defends herself. In fact, as we see directly after Henry's punishment, El can't defend herself. She needs Henry to protect her. (Which is especially "fun" when her present-day memories bleed in, with Two and his buddies replicating Angela's bullying. El likely wished she had a protector then. Alas, she did not.)

Henry also holds memories for El, ones that Brenner himself claimed were temporarily inaccessible:

Lo and behold, there's Henry, telling El she needs to remember how to use her powers:

He also holds neutral-good memories bringing forward memories, and he brings them forward when he thinks they could help her achieve her goals:

Henry seems to hold immense amounts of knowledge about El (as a real-life caretaker/observer might), and he often serves as a strategist/logical planner for the things El wants to do.

However, if we want to really get into the weeds re: DID, then we must also consider One.

One could be the result of a polyfragmented system.

Polyfragmentation is when someone with DID has many subsystems and layers within their system.

Henry knows about One, and seems to be aware to some degree that One isn't "real", despite him technically existing. One serves all the same functions as Henry, save for one trait. One is a persecutor.

(Brenner serves many of the same functions as One, just to a different degree in terms of power, but I'll touch on that after I talk about One.)

Persecutor: Persecutors are alters that purposefully harm the body, system, host, core, or other alters, sabotage the system’s goals or healing, or work to assist the system’s abuser(s). Persecutors might hold self hatred or provide an outlet for internalized abusive and negative messages. They might believe that hurting the system or other alters is the only way to control them or teach them how to behave and so prevent further and more extreme abuse from outside abusers. They might be reenacting abuse or trying to ensure that future abuse isn’t more harmful due to being preceded by a period of relatively little abuse. Some persecutor alters are introjects of abusers and may or may not understand that they are not actually the abuser themselves. Gatekeeper: A gatekeeper is an alter that controls switching or access to front, access to an internal world or certain areas within it, or access to certain alters or memories. The existence of a gatekeeper is highly stabilizing for a system because gatekeepers can to some extent prevent unwanted switching, failure to switch when necessary, or failure to switch to the correct alter. They can help to prevent traumatic memories from bleeding from the alters who hold them to alters who could not yet handle them. Gatekeepers might police the boundaries between subsystems. Because gatekeepers have control over which alters have access to front, they themselves are often or always near front and so witness everything that happens to the system. They might experience vast amounts of abuse and might present as ageless, emotionless, and nonhuman as a way to process this and cope. Gatekeepers may or may not also serve as an internal self helper.

Both of them could be split from one alter—a Jekyll and Hyde split, almost. Where Henry helps El remember things in a cautious, supported way, One withholds memories and diverts El entirely to sabotage the healing process re: NINA, purportedly for El's safety. We could even theorize that the split between Henry and One lies solely in One's persecutorial nature, given that the other "jobs" double up between them.

One appears after Henry takes punishment for El.

We a distinct shift in goals and behaviors. One offers El unrestricted access to new areas of the inner world, something that Henry never made mention of wanting to do:

One quite literally gives her the key to enter new areas and experience new memories she could not access on her own. He does so after learning that Papa is planning to eliminate her after realizing she's powerful and uncontrollable.

Instead of facing this side-by-side with El and teaching her how to defend herself like Henry may have, One directs El to run and hide from it while he bears the burden of eliminating the "threats".

By eliminating fragments perceived as intra-system "threats", One acts as a persecutor in the name of being a protector.

It's essentially intrapsychosocial mutiny, attempting to release El from the Brenner-Alter's control and clear the rest of the fragments in the lab out of El's main accessible headspace altogether (as well as any memories of how she achieved that freedom).

Fragment: A fragment is an alter that is not fully differentiated or developed. Fragments may exist to carry out a single function or job, to hold a single memory or emotion, or to represent a single idea. Depending on the way that individual systems use the term, a fragment might be any alter that could not survive if left on its own or that could not pass for a fully developed individual without the help of other alters. Fragments usually have not been exposed to enough complex, different, or interactive experiences to incorporate more into their sense of self and so become more developed and differentiated.

(For all intents and purposes, the other lab kids, as well as the nurses and guards, would be fragments.)

This would leave just El/the "core" and Henry/One's little subsystem (into which he absorbed the remaining fragments of the system, save for the Brenner alter, who is too powerful):

This all ^ ^ could serve as a reason why El perceives One as having committed the massacre, despite her flashbacks showing something entirely different: her committing the massacre. It could also explain why the monologue physically could not have happened (it happened solely in El's headspace as a conversation between alters), and the overlap between Brenner's memories and El's pre-monologue memories.

This would make Vecna/One, then, a persecutor alter kicked out of El's headspace and given physical form by supernatural means during NINA—which could explain why he's so unwilling to hurt El in any meaningful way, his extensive female subtext, his obsession with finding/reconnecting with El in general, and his ability to open gates when El is the sole character to display that ability previously.

See also, pre-NINA:

See also:

If you have DID, you may find yourself doing things you wouldn't normally do, such as speeding, reckless driving, or stealing money from your employer or friend. But you feel compelled to do these things.

Nonetheless, taking control back from One during their little battle royale is what allowed El to get control of herself/her powers back—to a degree.

El still cannot handle being a "monster" in any way, shape or form. We see as much just before she enters the end of NINA:

Even before she went in, the only way it was going to end was by packing all her trauma into One and yeeting him out into a new dimension.

She still hasn't faced the real truth, which the real Brenner promises to show her. One has still, hypothetically speaking, managed to install false memories in El's mind, protecting her from the truth even as she banishes him from her mind along with her "real" memories of 1979.

She's not ready to face it.

Furthermore, we do see Vecna being directly compared to El, while the gang in Hawkins fights over what name they're meant to call him:

Even so far as Dustin going about fighting Vecna the same exact way he'd fight El:

For all intents and purposes, Henry/Vecna/One might as well be an "evil" duplicate of El—in terms of a DID theory, he could be a subsystem that El packed all her trauma into/blamed all of her childhood incidents on and kicked out of her head entirely.

Lastly, Brenner as a hypothetical persecutor, gatekeeper, and helper.

Brenner would be the lead/most powerful gatekeeper, since he's "Papa". He's the top-dog of the inner world, and he holds all the keys. He would be considered an introject of an abuser, one who repeatedly does harm to keep order within the system, one who holds all of El's past, and one who gatekeeps literally every single door in our hypothetical NINA "system".

This doubling of tasks between One and Brenner could account for One's "Brenner-isms", as El perceives them as serving similar functions despite the power differences between the two.

NINA Brenner is threatened by One, due to One's desire to take control of the total system away from him and share it between himself and El/the core. Whether that plot was for the better or worse, we'll never know. Brenner retains control, status quo resumes within the hypothetical system.

—————

P.S.— We've also seen in bts leaks of ST5, that Henry seems to have some kind of idyllic "normal" world. It wouldn't be a stretch to call it an inner world/headspace, especially if he himself is hiding or being gatekept from the rest of the hypothetical Henry/Vecna/One "system".

TFS, given its heavy similarities to NINA, could also be viewed through a system lens with Brenner as protector, persecutor, and memory holder—the Mindflayer being, in a hypothetical sense, an invading pseudo-alter.

[mistyresolve]

| One Thing You Love - Simon “Ghost” Riley x Reader

Word Count - 1.1k

Summary - Simon is no stranger to nightmares and the fear and panic that follows. He has a routine and has developed tricks to aid them. Especially when they plague you at night. 

Tags/Warnings - Fluff, Explicit Language, Depictions of Panic Attacks and Night Terrors, Mentions of Childhood Trauma, 

A/N - Imagine being loved by someone like him!!!

Masterlist  ❤︎  Tag List Form

An invisible hand reached into his sleep and pulled him from sleep just in time to see you bolt up from the sheets, clawing at the air. Hair sticking to your forehead and tears staining your face. You gasped out unintelligible words, reaching for someone, anyone to help you. Simon was already moving and was kneeling beside you immediately. 

The first time you had had an episode it was absolutely terrifying for him. He had been jolted awake from you thrashing against his arm, blubbering incoherently. At first, he thought he had accidentally done something to hurt you. Until you called out for your mom, begged her to “make it stop”. He felt completely useless, he didn't know what to do. Flicking on the lamp he had tried shaking you awake and calling out your name. 

When you finally woke up you were inconsolable. He stayed up till dawn with you as you cried. 

This time he knew what he had to do, he had done it so many times that he moved almost mindlessly. Cautiously, he moved to sit behind you, legs on either side of you and arms wrapping around you. He grasped your wrists gently and crossed them over your chest, applying just enough pressure to the embrace. He leaned back against the headboard slowly, pulling you back with him. 

You struggled against him, breaths coming in short uncontrollable bursts, "Wait. No. I'm - I'm sorry," You sputtered. 

Simon felt his shatter at the words. You've never and refused to tell him what your dreams were about but he had his theories. He would never asks you, he was waiting for you to tell him. He knew about what had happened in your childhood home. What would be said there, to you, done to you. What they would do to you when they caught you using you “out of line”. You'd told him about it, once. And only once did you speak freely about it. He’d felt sick to his stomach.  

"Shhh, it's only me. I'm here." He whispered into your ear as softly and calmly as he could. 

"Simon," he loosed a breath at the sound of your broken voice, you were awake. You stopped your struggling but you were still in panic in his arms. Eyes wild and unseeing. 

"Name five colours." His own voice quivered with anger. He had sworn to himself that if he ever saw your parents. He wouldn't hold back. He'd fucking kill them. He would burn them to ashes. He would pack the years of torture and pain you endured into one night. He’d become a nightmare for you.

When you didn't say anything he pulled you even closer, "Think of the rainbow, Darlin"

"Green."

"Good. Four more," 

"Orange. Red." Each word was a struggle between your gasps for breath. 

"Green." 

"You already said that one. Two more." 

"Yellow, and blue." 

"Now, tell me four weekdays." Simon stares off at the door to the hallway. He was ready to protect you against the world.  

"Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday." You said in one breath.

"Slower." He lowered his voice and you had to strain to hear him. You obeyed, slowly repeating the weekdays to him. 

"Three foods." He leaned his head down on your shoulder, the smell of his shampoo invading your senses. Breath by breath you returned to your body, to the hollowness in your chest, to the throbbing headache. Your fingers ached too, and when you look at them you realize your bone-crushing grip on his arms. Immediately you let go, leaving behind little angry red fingerprints. Your finger nimbly danced along the markings. He pressed a small kiss to your jaw as if to tell you "It's okay". 

"Grapes. Chicken. And..." You paused for a second, thinking. "Does chocolate count?"

He rubbed wide, slow circles into your shoulder, "Oh, of course. Two things you hate," His questions need increasingly more thought, effectivly distracting you. He had looked at how to deal with panic attacks and nightmares and how to help someone come down from one, and he was pulled every trick he knew for these moments. Took notes on his own nightmares and demons. On what helped soothe his panicked heart.  

"Mushrooms," you scrunch your nose. He chuckled softly, the sound rumbling in his chest and against your back. He loved them. 

"And being damp, not wet but not completely dry either,” you considered for a second, “Like when you get caught in the rain." 

He hummed in agreement, "And one thing you love." 

Your eyes dropped to the arms wrapped around you, the fingers rubbing slow circle on your skin. Warmth rolled from the man behind you and into your chilled lungs. His smokey bourbon scent. You thought of the shared whispers at nights before falling asleep, the early mornings and their lazy kisses. The chilly walks to the park, and the laughter. 

You pulled your arms free of his, "You," You leaned your head back on his shoulder, then half turned to face him, catching his face in your hands. He leaned into your touch, eyes falling shut. "I love you, Simon Riley." 

A rare boyish smile graced his lips and then those incredible dark eyes found yours. "I love you too," then he moved you so you'd be facing him entirely. “Do you wanna talk about it?" He offered his full attention. You shake your head, you never said yes. He always asked though. 

Leaning your head on his shoulder you savoured the silence for a minute, just feeling each other's presence. He ran his hand up and down your back.    

"I'm sorry I keep doing this to you," You admit sheepishly. A fat warm tear slipped down your cheek. He pulled away from you. 

"I am yours, and my purpose is to protect you. I would be fucking useless if I wasn't there for you. Don't ever be sorry. We all get nightmares." He tilted his head to the side as he wiped the tears from existence, then placed a warm kiss where it once was. Then another kiss for your nose, your cheek. He hovered over your lips. "I will always be here for you." He closed the distance. The kiss was sweet and tender, and your chest squeezed at your bleeding heart. His hand slid into your hair, tilting your head to the side to deepen the kiss. The remaining fear from my nightmare was pushed to the back of my mind. 

He pulled away, his thumb rubbing your bottom lip. He settled you back into the bed, you cuddled into his chest and him caging you in. He placed one final kiss to your temple. "Get some sleep, okay." 

You nodded your eyes already drifting shut, his warmth and steady breath lulling you back to sleep. Your last thoughts before falling way to sleep were of him. Of how you'd had gotten so lucky as to steal him for yourself. 

Masterlist  ❤︎  Tag List Form

A/N - for the fellow ghosties who get nightmares 🤍

Tag List -  @thychuvaluswife ❤︎ @shuttlelauncher81 ❤︎  @lostinsideourminds ❤︎ @v1naco ❤︎  @konig-breedme ❤︎ @wolfyland07 ❤︎ @dog55teeth ❤︎ @cumbersome-robes ❤︎ @meaganjean ❤︎ @purplefishingline​ ❤︎ @ddioriez

[iris-in-the-rain]

Alma drags Stede into Claire's because she needs stuff for a sleepover party. Stede has never been in there, but he's right in his element, suggesting stuff to Alma, trying on tiaras, and making silly faces, until his frustrated teenager tells him to just leave her be for a bit while she decides what she wants and he can look around himself. So he does. And his eye catches a guy just outside the window, looking in, kinda loitering even. Stede's paternal instincts kick in, but before he decides to do anything, he realises the guy is longingly looking at the cute hair clips and hairbands, rather than the kids, and he looks... sad. Wistful. Stede decides to take a chance (while still testing a theory, or maybe two)

He asks the guy if he's looking for anything for his kids, nephews, nieces, maybe? The guy (long greying hair, a long earring, purple top, leather jacket, leather trousers, calm down, Stede!) starts stuttering that No no, he's just looking, just waiting for a mate, so he's just waiting, nothing to it, sorry for freaking Stede out, and probably others, it's stupid, he's just gonna go...

'Wait!' Stede says. 'You have really nice hair, erm...?' (What! Shut up, Stede, what are you doing!)

'Ed. Is my name. Ed!' the stranger blurts out (Well done, Edward, cute guy is paying you a compliment, can you just be normal?!)

Suddenly Stede's words stick in his throat. 'I'm, I'm Stede. My daughter...', he turns around to see Alma looking at nail polish. 'She's getting things! Ff-for a sleepover!' he finishes proudly.

Ed nods, still somewhat confused, unconsciously twirling a strand of his hair and Stede suddenly feels more confident about his earlier suspicion.

'Alma will be a while', he sighs, somewhat theatrically. 'Did you maybe want to keep me company while you're waiting for your mate?'

Stede could swear he can hear Ed's breath hitch slightly.

'I mean, if-if you want, no pressure, sorry! Its just' he smiles conspiratorially. 'It's fun! And well, you look like you'd wear fine things well!'

Ed's eyes widen and Stede backtracks. Well, tries to.

'It's fine, fine! Ignore me, after all, you're just waiting fo...'

'Nah mate, it's cool. I'd. I'd love to' (You remembered how to speak, Teach, well done, don't mess it up!)

Stede's smile is brighter than the fake dimonds on the tiara that Ed has been side-eyeing. They go back into the store and after checking in with Alma, Stede starts chattering about everything and before he knows it, Ed feels like he's known him forever. And as Stede places a butterfly headband on his head, giggling, while himself wearing a rainbow one, Ed has never felt so seen or so safe and he knows he's gonna marry this guy. And he's gonna wear that headband while he pops the question.

[0aurelion-sol0]

What do you want or expect Will's arc to be?

Well, again I'm sorry but this is something I cannot go over too extensively as I will talk about it in future posts at some point but regardless I will try to give an answer to your ask.

I am going to elaborate on what I think The Duffers will do first and what I want/think should happen after that.

We know from that Variety article that released back in August 2023 that Will is going to take center stage again in season 5 and that I quote “This emotional arc for him is what we feel is going to hopefully tie the whole series together. Will is used to being the young one, the introverted one, the one that’s being protected. So part of his journey, it’s not just sexuality — it’s Will coming into his own as a young man.” says Ross Duffer.

Now what I think is important to take from that quote and that part of the article is the part where they say that they hope his emotional arc is what is going to tie the whole story together which means they value, in some way, that Will's story as a whole, not just his sexuality, is going to be what gives the conclusion to the story of Stranger Things. They did not say [one of the things], they said [the thing] *wink wink*. Now between what The Duffers say and what they actually do, there is a gap but I do think that is a bold statement when you're about to enter your final season.

Because sure, I do think Will is more important than the series has led us to think but at it's core, it remains an ensemble type of show and is what was really happening during Season 1 & Season 2. Yes, there are stronger characters driving the story (and become way too present over others as the story progresses) & was first sold as the Winona Ryder show and after that the El show but it remained at it's core an ensemble show.

So for the Duffers to use Will, the character with the most inconsistent spotlight of the entire show apart from his brother, as the thing that ties the whole series together, that is bold cause as I said theories and biases aside, this is going to be a challenge and it is still a show that relies heavily on it's cast & characters to tell it's story. Now the way they do it and how well they do it is definitely up for debate but still.

There are for me, 4 main important parts of Will's character that are essential to his arc and for it to conclude well.

His homosexuality, what happened to him on November 6th, 1983, his connection to the Upside Down and his past.

Out of the 4 that I see The Duffers be very focused on for this final season, it's the two that are connected, his disappearance & his spider-sense because they have become very plot-focused as the series went on; they are going to have to explore his homosexuality, I don't see them doing something surprising or extremely developped with it anymore but they have kept that around and they are probably going to give a conclusion to it that's going to benefit the first two.

His past isn't going to be that explored much apart things linked to the first two and homosexuality but even then probably more in terms of vague mentions than anything really concrete. And it's because The Duffers, unless they pull something magnificent, have as of now and after everything they showed for the past two seasons have other priorities for want they want to explore which I don't think is the best choice for again, an ensemble show but it is what it is, and we need to be prepared for it.

I AM EAGER to be proven absolutely wrong but so far nothing has changed my mind about it, nothing has really alarmed me either which there's that at least.

So now what I want or think should happen...

About his homosexuality, his gayness, his rainbow-colored-emotional-state, his reddit is always scared of this debate, it's been there forever, it's obvious, I think if you're still in doubt about it, you need to go take a media literacy class, that boy is gay, that boy loves Mike Wheeler, let's end the debate. I'm sick of this fandom always turning endlessly on this subject, let's move on.

Now what do with it now, well the coming out, it's on everybody's lips these days, obviously, it's going to go to Joyce, Jonathan and the Party (mostly Mike, Dustin and Lucas). We are not going to talk about Byler, that's not the subject of today's post. I think overall, I don't see, for me, anything about Will's relationship with his sexuality that stops him from being out, at least to his close ones if not the world. The events that he went through outside and because of it, already ostracizes him from everyone else, including the ones he loves, that is just a fact and I think Will knows this & I don't think it's him being gay that is problematic for him, it's his very strong feelings for Mike that will probably be understood now by everyone and that will change the "nature" of them now but also acknowledging the lost innocence and naivity he experienced very very young even before the Upside Down stuff.

Because when Will comes out, it is not just him being gay that will come out, it's everything he went through because of it & he's going to start, in a way, healing from all it & that is sometimes just as tough as going through the trauma. And in a way, he kinda already started that process back in Season 4 so I think it would make sense for him to continue that path. It's going to be emotional, it would make sense and needs to be that way but to me the coming out definitely needs to be Joyce, Jonathan and as I said, Mike, Dustin & Lucas.

And I would like to be very clear, though I don't think it will be that much because ST & The Duffers have lost that touch for me, but I would like it to be very clear for him & the others and us, that he is gay, he likes boys and doesn't like girls, don't have to say it that direct but in a similar way because that's what a lot of queer people have to go through I think & it's actually verbalizing the fact that they are queer. Because we are going to have too much dumbasses still telling us he is not & it's important again for the representation be properly done in a satisfying way.

Next, his past, I think it would be essential to explore Will's trauma again because of his sexuality but also other elements of his character like the love he has for the arts, D&D, relationship he has with Lonnie & also violence because that is also important but I'll discuss that in another post. Because it would help us understand more about he & The Byers function as a whole but give us more depth & element to feel a satisfying conclusion to characters that have been left on the bench for quite some time now because if you talk about Will's past and issues, you will need to talk about Joyce's and Jonathan's past & issues and all the abuse they went through, which has become quite an important element to the plot now that hasn't been that well developed for all the characters and it would be nice if it starts being well developed.

Plus it leads to one of the reasons why he was taken AND not killed in 1983 which leads us to what is his connection to the UD now... and before. 👀

Because if the emotional arc of Will is important to tie the whole series together, it's important for the supernatural arc too & that opens interesting threads that I can't get into this post now.

After that, I think the climate of Season 5 needs to show us a more hardened Will, one that'll force Will to get his hands dirty to survive and to protect the group as well, while also fighting against things from his past that may be quite important for him with how he perceives and react to violence or danger. I would like to see a Will that's not always and has wants & needs that don't align for everyone & goes against the bigger geopolitical groups that are fighting including the supernatural ones. OH YES! I am going there!

Him being a villain would not make sense and would be a no no for me, but sometimes falling on the grey sides of things would make sense and would be so enjoyable for me. Especially against the threat that's looming on everyone in Season 5.

Also possibly drawing a parallel to what he experienced in 1983, because he survived in some way and we're going to need to explore that in the present. Will might likely be the most useful person to have in a UD infested environment. And him realising that he is useful is going to force him to go back to what happened and why that happened to help the best way he can, because if there's anything that boy knows how to do better than anyone else on this, it's self-sabotaging for the greater good.

Again, it's a snowball effect, if you do one thing you're going to have to do and explore another, to me, they are linked. Are the Duffers going to do that ? I'm unsure. But that's what makes sense to me.

So here's your answer, sorry if it's a bit vague but I will be exploring this in many different posts in the future.

[strawberrybyers]

not the “tiger pride” sign continuing the “cats are symbolism of homosexuality” allegations (wrote a possible theory on what the cats could mean in this post here )

and coca-cola once again makes an appearance… interesting how there’s only one coke can and it’s on will’s tray but technically it’s also right in between mike and will. and it looks like dustin has a juice or milk carton and i’m assuming the drink lucas has is a dr. pepper

holly’s walls decorated in flowers, meanwhile mike gave el flowers that she’s actually disappointed about because it says “from:mike” and season 4 ends with el touching the same type of flowers but they’re dead. not to mention, in el’s letter to mike she mentions that she likes the flowers in california, but she returns to hawkins and now the flowers there are dead.

also flowers have been used as easter eggs before. look at how the flowers look like demogorgons from these stills

and as you see there’s a rainbow in erica’s room just like holly has rainbows in her room and in the still of lucas, mike, and el there’s a rainbow heart all the way to the far left on the wall lol… like do we even need to go into details about the symbolism of rainbows?? they’re EVERYWHERE in stranger things. i swear i wrote a post about the usage of rainbows and what they symbolize to el, but i can’t find it. but basically what i said in it was how it’s interesting el would put a rainbow on the letter to mike or have rainbows in her room when technically rainbows have a negative connotation for her because of the rainbow room at the lab. this is the only post of mine i can find where i talk about rainbows. but let’s look at the fact BOTH el and holly have multicolored hearts in their rooms. (also!! el has little pink flowers on her shirt)

anyways i fear the girls and the gays will be going through it in season 5!! but honestly being a stranger things fan is so funny because how do i explain to a normal person that cats, coca-cola, flowers, rainbows, and hearts basically have double entendres for representing homosexuality, the upside down, and/or the lab

[will80sbyers]

Masterpost:

How to make GIFs tutorials

General Byler slides from user beepboop358

My Bi Mike PowerPoint

Mike's POV through the seasons imo

Byler parallels masterpost (GIFs)

ST5 production masterpost

Bi Mike theories masterpost

Parallels masterpost

New byler proof ask

Breaking down Mlvn

Ecco perché Byler sarà endgame

How I interpret the S3 finale ask

Byler Fanfictions, Art and my writing

Byler Van Scene most recent analysis

Possible Byler scenarios for s5

My Stranger Things & Byler Podcast

Byler Playlists + analysis

Stranger Things & rainbows | one / two

Pinterest s5 outfits (WillelMike)

Stranger Things shitposts

Random theories masterpost (most of the links don't work anymore)

Stranger Things 5: production masterpost

My lip reading of the s5 scene of Mike and El on the roof ( It could be wrong! )

Old masterpost (most of the links don't work anymore)

Fanfics I'm currently reading

My analysis of the first teaser of St 5

ST5 outfits pictures for reference (spoilers!)

Byler & Stranger Things social media AU

Marauders sideblog: @jegulushq

You can find the stranger things GIFs I’ve made in the search gif space on Tumblr writing: will80sbyersgifs ( you can add the number of the episode you're looking for like 1x01 or words like byler etc to find specific ones )

other GIFs about movies or other TV shows are tagged: Will80sbyerstvgifs and Will80sbyersmoviegifs

Memes made by me tag -> st memes

other tags: St foreshadowing | St details | St5 production | St5 speculation

If you don’t want to see me talk about Jon possibly dying, filter out the tag: St5 Jon | Same thing but for Nancy: St5 nance

LINKS TO HELP A FAMILY IN GAZA

direct link

[nadia-zahra]

st5 ramblings plus more

I've been wondering if anyone was talking ab how plausible time travel is for st5, and the first and only post I've seen about it was this really well done post by @endgamebyler. I'm just gonna add on to the crazy-train lol.

The first lines El has in st4 are this:

"Dear Mike, today is day 185. Feels more like ten years. Joyce says time is funny like that. Emotions can make it speed up or slow down. We're all time travelers if you think about it..."

Emotions can make time speed up or slow down

It makes ya wonder if Will's emotions the night he disappeared were so strong that it caused time to completely halt in the Upside Down, and that's why it's stuck on November 6, 1983.

And like if ya really think about it, how the fuck was Will to know he'd been in there for a week? There is no sense of time in the Upside Down, so for all we know he could've thought he'd only been in there for the night. Him thinking he'd only been in there for the night could also explain why time didn't continue moving with the seven days he'd been there.

Plus the st writers' posted this:

It makes a fuck ton of sense for time travel to be involved in st5 if it's supposed to tie Will's disappearance in 1983 and Vecna together. Maybe it'll be able to answer the questions of how tf Will got there in the first place if he didn't use a gate, why tf was Vecna seeking out Will at all, and why was El able to point Will out in the photo when they'd never met.

All of these questions are major plot points that had never been touched on-- maybe with st5 being a combo of st1 and st4 we will finally get some answers.

To rope in the flea and the acrobat for a sec, maybe the way it worked for Will was that he was so fucking scared and desperate for a way out that he accidentally traveled to the Upside Down with unknown powers instead of with a gate.

That's right, I'm tyin in the Will has powers theory cause believe it or not it makes fucking sense for Will to have the power of time control!

To further back up the idea that emotions are tied into Will's Disappearance lore and to Will having powers, EVERYONE who has powers in stranger things uses strong emotions to harness them-- what if Will was just unconsciously using his powers to stop time and escape (aka go into the Upside Down)?

This has already been touched on, but Will having the ability to control time would explain why Henry wanted him so freaking badly. Like the only people Henry didn't want to kill, but instead team up with, were Will and El. El has the power of going into the mind and opening/closing gates, and Will (probably) has the power of time control. If Henry was capable of either getting these two on his side or gaining them for himself, he would be unstoppable.

And think about it-- Vecna only goes after people who are extremely emotional because he thrives off of people's fear and emotions. What if he killed all those poor kids in st4 and in 1979 because they couldn't harness their emotions into powers he deemed valuable like El and Will can?

Furthermore: How did El lose her powers and Vecna gain them?

Well, obviously El was emotionally drained after everything she'd gone through within the last six years (yeah I'm starting with the mf rainbow room massacre) and she had to regain her emotional strength to get her powers back, but before she lost them Henry definitely didn't have the ability to just magically go into people's minds like we see him do in st4. He practically jumped Billy and had to possess him to gain control over his mind, so why tf didn't he have to do that with the other kids?

This is a stretch, but what if Vecna got a lil bit of El's power when that slug thing was in her. Seriously, after she had to manually rip it out from within her body, she lost her powers. That lil peice of Vecna did get squished by Hop, but it was still in there for long enough to cause some serious damage. Enough damage to make El lose her powers and give Vecna a taste atleast.

So to bring this post back to st5 time travel, let's speculate on how it's gonna come into play. They can't just randomly have Dustin or Nancy be like, "Oh no Vecna's back, looks like the only reasonable thing to do is use a wormhole!"-- like no they need an explainable reason why time travel's even involved. Personally, I think it's gonna be with Will needing to go back into the Upside Down and change the past.

Like what if those phone calls Joyce was getting from Will were actually 1986 Will trying to tell Joyce to go to the library or something while in the Upside Down, but he couldn't get in touch? What if he was trying to warn himself and Mike by flickering the lights outside the garage?

Will and Mike have been HEAVILY hinted at being the ones to stop Vecna *cough 20 cough*, but my brain is a lil too fried to add Byler onto this rn.

Point is, time travel is most likely happening it's just a matter of how and when.

[copperskeleton001]

Theories about Jaiden Lore (Spoilers ahead!)

Okok so what I’m gathering hours after Jaidens stream is:

Jaiden got re-hired and she has “helped them years before”

There are two cucuruchos (which is a bit of a shock but expected but I’ll get into that soon.)

BlueBird AU is real?!?!? (And I have some evidence)

So pulling it all together here’s my intake on the whole thing: 

Jaiden was raised by the federation (just as the AU implied) and has done missions on different islands before. 

In the room with the two Cucuruchos it is a sort of play room. To be specific, a color enrichment room. There are book shelves, lunch tables, a television (for showing federation videos to children), and some toys. It's a place where you can observe the kids. (If anyone has seen Stranger Things, it's kind of like the rainbow room.) 

A purple tree, which represents Jaiden's tree house at Bobby Fields, stands out in that room. It makes me question if Jaiden chose that type of tree subconsciously while building the tree house because it was a happy memory from when she was younger.  

Showing this space for children can trigger memories for Jaiden while also hinting to the audience that she has been in that room previously. Also, the "offices" appear to be more like kid rooms, although that could be my imagination. 

The wall closing in on Jaiden and trapping her in the chair could possibly have been a test. They wanted to see how much she had recovered from her "training," but she fled and predicted the whole thing. What a silly thing they did.

Now, let's talk about the two Cucuruchos. #1 Cucurucho is the one we knew from the start. Jaiden's first encounter, and the one who began to soften toward her and certain Islanders. He was being excessively carefree and eccentric by playing games with them and dancing with them. He broke from the stereotype of a Cucurucho being cold and rude. So they caught him and dispatched Cucurucho #2. 

What I believe happened was that #1 Cucurucho went for a walk with Jaiden and was the actual him. But I believe that was a way for him to say farewell since he understood what was going to happen. He'd been comfortable for far too long, and all he wanted to do was spend his final moments with the person who had treated him with such kindness.  He stared back at Bobby Fields and knew that he wouldn’t return. 

(But here’s the part I’m stuck on so feel free to correct me) His final task for the federation was to give Jaiden the book that he didn’t write indicating that he was imperfect now. So when he left he was swapped out. 

Cucurucho #2 is exactly what a Cucurucho should be. They emerge unannounced, are remote and reserved, and are a force not to be reckoned with (as seen by their outstanding ability with the gun). They were teaching Jaiden what she shouldn't do by giving her the few books that explained #1's errors.  They could be preparing her to assume Cucurucho's place or to become a proper Federation employee in some ways. 

By showing Jaiden Cucurucho #1 it could be an intervention or a way to show her the consequences of breaking the Federations code of perfection. 

Also Cucurucho #1 being a parental figure is very possible and I will die on that grave. With Jaiden being the only one who can pick out the differences between the Cucurucho’s can stem from being around #1 for so long that it’s an instinct at that point.  

So, what about future theories? Without a doubt, Jaiden will work for the Fed. She will, however, most likely not be the same. I can't fathom her being locked away and not seen for two weeks. But I can see her becoming brainwashed. I'd like to believe that a Jaiden NPC will cruise the server and acquire information because, as I previously stated, Jaiden is told everything. So, while a copy and nonverbal version roam the server (since Cc!jaiden will not be online), Q!Jaiden could be re-educated on their federation tasks. 

Anyways that’s all! I love how much Jaiden was playing her character. She really was in lore mode and played the silly naive character very well.

[eddiemunson-reader-shame]

FUCKING FINALLY SHE IS DONE.

I finally got my design done for my Stranger Things OC: Allie Perea!

Name: Alejandra “Allie” Perea

Face claim: Ally Sheedy

Age: 18

Orientation: Bisexual (Leaning more towards men)

Love interest: Eddie Munson

Friends: Gareth, Jeff, Frank, Dustin Henderson, Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, Chrissy Cunningham, Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington, Nancy Wheeler

Occupation: Student (Senior) at Hawkins High School, Rhythm Keyboard, Keytar, and backup vocals for Corroded Coffin

Instrument: CasioTone 7000, Casio AZ-1 Keytar

Physical Appearance: 5’ 0”, mixed Hispanic and Latina, Medium warm tone skin, curly dark brown hair cut in layers and styled with a Gillette SuperMax Hair Dryer, brown eyes, thick black frame glasses, minimal to no makeup.

Style: Late 80’s grunge or 80s style metalhead (male version), dolphin shorts and oversized tees for loungewear, bishop sleeve blouses and jeans for D&D nights with Hellfire Club.

Likes: Dune Series, aliens, cryptids, science fiction, cats, rainbow patterns, Care Bears, music (all genre), Kewpie dolls, the color black, vinyl records, coffee, pinball, bowling, billiards, Galaxy Express 999, Candy Candy, books, turtles

Dislikes: Confrontation, change, disruption to routines or “rituals”, Jason Carver, religion in general, Hawkins, humidity, being belittled

Backstory: Allie Perea is an 18 year old high school student from New Mexico who transferred to Hawkins during her senior year. Her father disappeared in the summer of 1984 a week after taking Allie to see Van Halen’s 1984 “Tour of the World”. His disappearance sent Allie in a downward spiral of depression. She is a firm believer in conspiracy theories and will only tell those she trusts about the theories surrounding her father’s disappearance.

Personality: Quiet, shy, moody, prone to outbursts of anger or sadness, immature, anxious, paranoid

Favorite Bands: Oingo Boingo, Spandau Ballet, Huey Lewis and the News, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osborne, AC/DC, Billy Idol, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Depeche Mode, Prince, Elton John, Van Halen, KISS, DIO

Favorite Movie: Black Christmas (1974)

Songs that describe her: Darkness At The Heart of My Love (Ghost), Don’t Talk to Strangers (DIO), Love Walks In (Van Halen), Made in Heaven (Queen)