bruisedviolette - Tumblr blog

bruisedviolette · 1 day ago

Text

Okay I haven’t seen anyone actually talk about this scene from S1E2 as Byler evidence but I think it’s so telling and honestly insane

In this scene, El asks the boys what a “friend” is and they explain it to her. They tell her and it’s wholesome. Then Lucas performs a spit swear with Dustin and it’s funny. This conversation was just leading up to a funny bit between the two! Right?

Wrong. Oh my god, WRONG.

I was like actually kicking myself when I realised I missed this detail not just on the first watch but on the second as well.

(I should have put a trigger warning in earlier but I didn’t so I’m editing it in now- TW for: homophobia, attempted suicide, bullying, reference to the AIDS crisis)

“Friend?”

“Yeah, friend: Will?”

El doesn’t understand what a friend is so Lucas gives the example of Will.

“What… is friend?”

“Is she serious?”

Dustin shrugs

“Um… A friend is someone—”

“—Is someone that you’d do anything for”

Lucas specifically referred to Will in his example of a friend. When El asks him to expand on their bond, he struggles to elaborate and seems exasperated with her questions. Dustin isn’t much better. He doesn’t seem to care much for answering her and they both chalk it up to the weirdo being weird.

Before Lucas can even begin his clumsy explanation, Mike jumps in with

“—Is someone that you’d do anything for”

Which is. Wow. He says it so simply, so bluntly, so instantly and he looks overjoyed at the opportunity to talk about his loyalty to not just Will specifically but also the rest of his friends.

And, bless him, he’s literally bouncing on the spot when he says it. This scene is adorable but it’s also kind of heartbreaking, especially when you take into account when Mike tried to end his life at Sattler Quarry to save Dustin’s baby teeth.

He would literally do anything for his friends. This isn’t hyperbole, this is Mike being excited to show El, his new friend, that he’s loyal and protective. He’s not exaggerating when he’s saying he would do anything because friends don’t lie.

And the rest of his friends know this. When Mike is about to jump, Dustin begs him not to because he knows Mike and he knows just how important loyalty and being a protector to his friends is to him.

But the way he says this:

“Someone you would do anything for” It’s like he’s beaming with pride for his friends. He’s ecstatic at the idea of calling them his friends and being able to be there for them, to protect them, and is proud of them for just being themselves.

Obviously, this could include the entire party, especially with how it relates to Dustin and Mike ‘protecting him’ at Sattler Quarry.

But the fact that Dustin immediately follows this up with:

“You lend them your cool stuff like comic books and trading cards”

Okay so maybe we are still talking specifically about Will. In the first episode, Will and Dustin race and Will, the snarky little shit (affectionate), declares that Dustin owes him a comic. This is. This is a pretty blatant reference to Will and Dustin’s friendship.

What he says is also a lot tamer than Mike’s declaration of undying loyalty which reflects Dustin and Will’s friendship vs Mike and Will’s status as besties for the resties. Quite literally.

Besties for the resties.

We should also take into account the fact that Mike most likely didn’t just jump off the cliff only to save Dustin’s baby teeth after seeing the person he would do anything for’s limp body being pulled out of the water. He would do anything for them both.

But the fact that in some sick alternate universe Will Byers was found dead in the quarry and 12-year-old Mike’s body was found there days later should be enough evidence to be honest.

And if El hadn’t have found Mike and Dustin when she did, this would have been their reality. And Mike knew this was an almost certainty, unaware that he would be saved, and he jumped anyways.

And how does that look? In a conservative small town where no major crime ever happens, the adults spread rumours of a 12-year-old Will Byers being hate crimed for being gay after going missing instead of having any compassion towards him or his family because of this child’s supposed sexuality. His body is found not long after he goes missing and within days, the boy he was rumoured to be so close with jumps in after him and dies.

And let’s be honest, Will most likely didn’t get this much shit for his alleged queerness because he liked art or was quieter than most. He may have gotten picked on at school but for his parents to pick up on this? Lonnie was a bastard which is standard I guess. Common knowledge. Like the quarry meaning certain death thing. We knew that. Maybe he just gave him a hard time because he didn’t like baseball (Insert coded heart-to-heart with Jonathan and Will destroying Castle Byers with a baseball bat because he thought his feelings towards Mike were childish).

But for Joyce to bring this up to Hop instead of omitting both slurs and just leaving it at “he’s a sensitive kid” or just her most relentless “find him”s? For her to avoid the question when Hop asks whether or not Will is gay? Huh.

Most probably, he was really- suspiciously- close with a male friend. A male best friend. A little too close and a little too affectionate and for a little longer than is normal for boys to be so close with each other. Maybe this best friend even thinks that befriending Will was “the best thing he’s ever done”.

Mike was willing to die. That’s not fucking normal.

His best friend went missing and bear in mind Mike had little to no evidence that Will was alive at this point. He was presumed dead. Mike was 12 years old when he tried to kill himself. You can’t just chalk this up to trying to save Dustin’s baby teeth.

“You make that jump from this height, that water turns into cement. Hits you like a ton of bricks, break every damn bone in your body.” -Hopper

Mike understood that he was going to die. Outside the fact that it’s common sense and probably common knowledge in a small town, where he’s probably been warned by parents and teachers not to play too close to the quarry, it’s basic physics. He’s a physics nerd. He knew that he would die and he still went through with it.

The fact that they emphasise just how brutal Mike’s end would have been by having Hopper stand there and explain in graphic detail what would happen if someone fell over the edge? And then they send the point home further by having Mike weigh his options for a good while before making the decision to ignore Dustin’s pleas and ,I don’t know, any will that he has left to live? Is insane. No pun intended.

I don’t think I will ever get over the quarry scene. Mike jumps off to ‘save’ Dustin and possibly to join Will, out of love and out of loyalty, but also out of lonliness. Fucking insane. Especially with how that would have looked in a conservative town during the AIDS crisis, if El hadn’t interfered. And how Dustin must have felt after he begged Mike to stay alive for him and saw Mike actively ignore him and try to sacrifice himself to save him.

So yeah. Mike would do anything for them both, to a concerning degree.

But back to S1E2, El asked what a friend was. Lucas hesitated. Mike excitedly said some deep shit. Dustin followed up with something more lighthearted but still painful (lowkey imagining how he must’ve felt after failing to get Will home safe, and then later get Mike not to jump) and—

“—And they never break a promise”

Mike when I catch you Mike.

What promise could Mike be referencing here? Friends don’t lie, perhaps? Yes. That. That’s like the only option at this point, I fear.

And we’re back to Mike specifically describing his relationship with Will. How do I figure this? It’s established right off the bat.

S1E1- Will chucks the die somewhere and he rolls lower than thirteen. Lucas tells him it doesn’t count if Mike doesn’t see it. Lucas is willing to lie. Lucas is willing to break the promise. Mike is specifically referring to his relationship to Will here.

“It was a seven.”

“Huh?”

“The roll: it was a seven. The Demogorgon. It got me. See you tomorrow.”

Will dgaf about winning the campaign if it means lying to Mike. He would never break his promise. (Do not bring up the Season 4 painting right now istg this is pre-the-puberty-amplifying-internalised-homophobia-thing (and also I could go on a whole rant about what Will meant by “ripping of the band aid” there so lmk if you guys would be interested in that))

Immediately, within the first eight minutes of the first episode of the first season of Stranger Things, it is established that Mike and Will do not fucking lie to each other no matter what and they have a bond much stronger with each other than with the other two boys.

What did Will say again?

✅ The roll was a seven.

✅ The demogorgon got him.

❌ He will see Mike the next day.

Oh. Okay. That’s not like. Blatant foreshadowing or anything. This might be a reach but I feel like the fact that Will never lies to Mike but told him that he would see him tomorrow, then went missing, may have amplified Mike’s desire to find him faster or at least served as a way to communicate to the audience that Mike and Will hold their promises dearly and if Will says he’ll see Mike tomorrow, Mike will do everything in his power to see him as soon as possible and this is made further tragic by his attempt to join him at the bottom of the quarry.

Maybe a reach. I’m confident about everything else though so who gaf. Let a girl have fun.

“—Especially when there’s spit.”

“Spit?”

“A spit swear means—Puh—you never break your word. Its a bond”

Comic relief for all the devastated re-watchers, classic. This scene definitely wasn’t intended to be sad but I’m a sap, I fear. Plus the absurdity of Lucas’ spit swear and how seriously he talks about it contrasts how bubbly Mike is when he talks about promises when he is the one who holds loyalty so dearly that he is willing to give up his life for it.

Oh my god, I’ve just had a thunker of a thought. It’s. Oh my god. I’ve had a revelation. But it’s 5 am and I’ve been trying to put my thoughts into words for like a good couple of hours now so. It’s to do with the spit swear thing and how it relates to Mike’s asexual treatment of El until Will’s disappearance. Oh my god. Stay with me. It sounds like such a reach and it may well be but I genuinely unironically think I’m onto something here. Especially with how comedically Lucas’ bits are played out compared to Mike’s. Holy shit. Aaand it’s nearly 6 am. Well. I’ll edit this for basic grammar mistakes later, it's fine.

Okay, I’m gonna end this part here so just let me know if you guys want a part 2 and I’ll tag some lucky individuals in it maybe.

Also let me know if colour coding the characters’ names was too jarring or something? I feel like it helped me get through writing this monstrosity but low-key idk how the rest of everyone will feel sooo just lmk :)

Edit: Drafting up Part 2 rn if you want a tag then just reblog this post

544 notes · View notes

bruisedviolette · 9 days ago

Text

modern party,,,,,,, if you even care,,,,, (hcs under the cut)

will -> does not go anywhere without his earbuds. either listening to his playlists which are meticulously crafted to represent his exact mood or listening to a podcast. probably has an ipod for the vibes. curates his instagram feed & spotify wrapped. big youtube watcher and video essay connoisseur. addicted to iced caps. he is the digital camera person of the group and after every hangout he is uploading the pics to a google drive as fast as he can. sneakerhead. vinyl collector. BIGGG horror buff, is always dragging the party to watch the grossest most disgusting horror films you can think of knowing damn well he is the only one who enjoys that shit. he capitalizes random words when he's texting Like This. whenever he goes out in public he makes sure he's playing the most niche song he can think of so that if someone asks him what he's listening to he can look cool.

mike -> in the emo scene if you can't tell. despite being chronically online he has no social media presence whatsoever. his profiles are completely blank and devoid of any personality.,,, he probably has a profile pic and that's it. this guy is playing mysterious like his life depends on it. MASSIVE cinephile and letterboxd warrior, extremely pretentious when it comes to films, his fav director is either tarantino or fincher. from his taste in music and movies he comes across as a Male Manipulator but he is not trust!! hardcore gamer, his favs are phasmophobia minecraft and the walking dead. probably has a secret youtube or twitch channel that he's been desperately trying to grow (it's failing miserably). has a tamagotchi. can play guitar but he's really, really bad at it. has a collection of saved anakin skywalker edits. scott pilgrim fan. wrote fanfiction for klance. has a tumblr account. owns a nintendo switch, his fav game is breath of the wild. his screen time is ridiculous. cd collector. annotates books.

el -> ticketmaster WARRIOR. she has survived the great war many times . loves story based video games such as life as strange (she picks bae over bay because she's emotionally attached to chloe) and lost records. LOVES minecraft. she forces everyone to get on the server whenever she plays, is the builder of the group. she's more of a tv person than a movie person. her favourite shows are gilmore girls, one tree hill, the oc, etc... has a bunch of hobbies, but she mostly likes to crochet and paint. has a lot of lego sets that she likes taking apart and redoing for fun. has penpals. pinterest user. was a phan girlie in her youth and defo was on ao3 for a hot minute. when she's not in her minecraft phase she's playing the sims. yogurt bowl lover and connoisseur, she has a tiktok dedicated to making yogurt bowls and is really committed to the presentation, she spends more time making it than actually eating it. sinjin drowning watcher. horrible texter. committed to scrapbooking and saves most of her receipts so she won't Forget anything.

max -> crazy curl routine that she gives up on half-way through (diffusing is not for the weak). she's probably the most chronically online after mike. will quote something she saw on tiktok only for no one to laugh because it hasn't reached their feed yet. her favourite show is probably yellowjackets. cd collector. loves gaming, her favourites are roblox arsenal, valorant, and tlou. owns a polaroid camera. in 2020 she had her alt indie kid phase and made videos with her skateboard with the saturation cranked up to max. stephen king fan, her favourite book is carrie. thrifts most of her clothes, music, and books. absolutely HATES fast fashion/consumerism trends with a passion. has a goodreads account, she convinced will and mike to join but they're not as active as her. WILL stalk your profile even if she's spoken to you once. loves victorious. in therapy.

lucas -> embodiment of if he wanted to he would. his entire feed is literally just of max. least chronically online out of the party because he actually has a life. best fashion sense out of all of them. he always has those tiktok interviewers coming up to him to ask what song he's listening to or where he got his clothes from. clairo boy. always sending max instagram reels of cute dogs and going "us ❤️" . he is not immune to those gym bro meal inspo videos and has stacks upon stacks of protein powder in his pantry. doesn't really have a music taste and thinks everything is good music, which will and max can't wrap their heads around. will occasionally indulge in anime . watches love island with max and erica. posts his aesthetic pictures on pinterest. finds brainrot genuinely amusing and will quote it all the time around the party to annoy the shit out of them, even though he doesn't understand what it means.

dustin -> cringe content enthusiast!! matcha and tea enjoyer. can play guitar and has a really lovely singing voice, he posts covers to youtube or soundcloud. he likes all these niche bands and attends local shows. cannot eat a meal by himself without watching good mythical morning, rhett is his favourite. watches markiplier, matpat, kurtis conner, etc... big time star wars nerd, he and mike love reenacting fight scenes with their lightsabers. had a vine account (rip). like el he also loves legos, he especially adores those 3 in 1 sets and has a whole ass city. plays the wii and has a 3ds, his favourite game is either donkey kong or tomodachi life or detective pikachu. on el's minecraft serve he is the designated miner and makes all these elaborate redstone contraptions. abuses the shit out of reddit, he is up to date on all the leaks on his fav marvel movies & shows and is a chronic tech user so he turns to reddit for all of his Information.

if you are interested in more modern party hcs I made a whole post with the party's music tastes ! (thanks for 2k followers btw!!! love you all 🫶 aly nation going strong)

2K notes · View notes