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art credit

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a little mock postage stamp i did a while ago. free to download (X) and print as stickers, posters or whatever you like.

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There are ghosts in Hawkins...

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this article is behind a paywall but i'm obsessed with the headline + photo combo

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My babies!!!! 😭💖

I saw this cute pic and just had to draw them

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Source

Source

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I maybe started working on something to go with my proposed “what if Steve met Wayne first” scenario.

Disclaimer: I know nothing about plant jobs.

CW: smoking, brief mention of weight loss, but I think that’s it?

No tag list.

———————

Most of the guys who have been there a while hate training the seasonal workers the plant brings in each summer. But demand goes up, more hands are needed, and some sucker’s got to show them the ropes. More often than not, that sucker is Wayne. He’s got a soft spot for the kids that come through, sees his nephew in each of them, hopes that any job Eddie gets, there’s someone there to take him under their wing.

But the latest new guy to join the second shift crew—Harrington Steve—Wayne’s not too sure about him. He was brought on at the end of the hiring surge, filling the spot of a guy who’d gotten the axe for falling asleep at his station twice in a row, so he’s got Wayne mostly to himself as they run through safety protocols and other job basics. Doesn’t say much, but he pays attention. Watches intently and steps in quickly when Wayne indicates it’s his turn to lift and pull and set. He takes Wayne’s soft corrections and suggestions with a nod, and doesn’t need to be told something more than once. As far as Wayne’s concerned, the kid does a fine job and he’s happy to have him.

The other guys don’t take to him. At all. They respect Wayne enough not to antagonize the kid to his face, but Wayne overhears them in the break room sometimes, talking about his hair and his clothes and the fancy car he refuses to park near anyone else’s in the parking lot, too precious about it getting dinged. It doesn’t help that the kid spends his breaks God knows where. He never eats in the break room, but the couple of times Wayne’s been curious enough to check, he hasn’t seen him sitting in his car either. He’s got no idea where the kid holes up.

Steve also never joins them for a bite at the 24-hour diner they go to at least two to three times a week at shift change. The guys don’t bother inviting him, but Wayne asked a couple of times at the beginning. Hard to catch him, because as soon as the shift’s over, he bolts for the tiny shower room that Wayne didn’t even know the place had until he’d stumbled across Steve leaving it one night. It’s dark and moldy and Wayne wouldn’t be caught dead with his bare ass anywhere near those tiles, but every night Steve ends his shift with a shower—every third night with a shower and a hair wash—then he’s out the door.

One night, a few weeks after Wayne stopped asking about the diner, he decides to try once more. Kid’s been looking too skinny. Not unusual to lose weight when you first start a physical job, but something about how fast he’s losing it doesn’t sit right with Wayne.

He smokes a cigarette at the edge of the parking lot waiting for Steve to emerge from his shower. It’s not a hair washing night, thank God. Kid actually brings a blow dryer in on those nights. The other guys usually book it out too fast to notice, otherwise they’d be ragging on him even more.

Wayne’s about half done with his second cigarette and starting to sweat in the June heat even at 1 am, when the door finally opens and Steve steps out. Illuminated by the single light mounted on the brick wall of the building, he looks tired, drawn. But even as dark as it is where Wayne’s standing, Steve clocks him immediately and tenses, holding the door open as if ready to dart back inside like a spooked animal. Wayne holds a placating hand up.

“It’s just me, kid.” His body immediately sags.

“Oh, hey, Wayne. What are you still doing here?”

He steps out, pulling his own pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He looks inside, grimaces, and slides the pack back in.

“Want one?” Wayne asks, reaching for his own pack, but Steve waves him off.

“Nah, I’m trying to quit. My coworker hates the smell, swears she can smell it on me even when I’m not wearing clothes I smoked in.”

Wayne’s brow furrows. “Ain’t never seen you talking to someone here long enough for all that.”

Steve laughs and it’s not quite bitter. “Yeah, definitely not someone from here. I work at the mall during the day. My coworker Robin likes me about as much as everyone here does, but it’s just the two of us most of the time, so she’s forced to talk to me.”

Steve’s mouth twists as he’s done saying the most Wayne’s ever heard him say. The exhausted heaviness he carries around with him makes a little more sense now, if he’s working two jobs. Wayne takes a final puff of his cigarette and stubs it out.

“I was gonna ask if you wanted to come to the diner with us, but if you’ve gotta get up for work in the morning, I guess you better get home to sleep.”

That laugh, not quite bitter, comes out again. “Home, yeah.”

They fall in step beside each other as they make their way down a row of empty spaces. They reach Wayne’s car first and Steve gives him a stiff nod as he walks on to his car.

“Hey, kid,” Wayne calls after him. Doesn’t know why. Doesn’t know what he’s going to say. But he thinks of the heaviness, the exhaustion that he’s too skinny to carry, the edges of bitterness. And he thinks of Eddie, who looked exactly the same all those years ago when he’d come to live with Wayne. Wayne had wiped all that away from his kid, and it’s the thing he’s most proud of in his life. He’s older now but he thinks he’s got it in him to do that again. Somehow. He’ll figure it out. To Steve, he says, “Take care of yourself, ya hear?”

The light doesn’t reach far enough for Wayne to see the expression Steve makes as he replies, “I always do.”

————————————

This will likely be updated about as often as the sad steddie scenario is, so, terribly sorry about that 🫣😬 but I hope you like the beginning all the same! Reblogs/tag comments appreciated! Thank you for reading!

[rollerskate2theface]

to survive on tumblr you must either; not go to the club, experience long term celibacy (wanted or unwanted) or be unemployed.

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My TikTok accomplishments

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YES I'M GAY:

faGgot

dykAe (the a is silent)

trannY

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Free Palestine seen during a protest at the Boeing delivery center earlier today in Tukwila Washington

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So I started working again today, and me and my coworker had to squeeze lemons which usually is a really un fun job but TODAY. We had the mostly lovely batch of lemons to work with. So we rated how smoothly they cut and how nice the insides of them looked for about an hour. An absolutely marvelous time I gotta say

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CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS

CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS 

CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS 

CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS

[rollerskate2theface]

the only true ally