#I know Lucas and Erica are totally at the hospital with Max probably

[catharusustulatus]

Ross Duffer posted some shotlisting for Season 5 using Funko Pops on Instagram Stories, and Steve is off in the corner and all these people are saying he’s dead, he’s bones, or whatever.

But!!! While I wouldn’t put it past the duffies to mess up and accidentally spoil that Steve is dead, it would be an absolutely huge ass spoiler if he was. So I am thinking he’s not dead but maybe injured or something? Idk I just think if he was dead or dying here you’d think the duffers wouldn’t want to spoil that. But what do I know?

[ronancexists]

Things I would like to see in Stranger Things 5:

- Since Robin has done quite a few doodles on her red converse, I like to think she's quite good at drawing, so that can be a way for her to start up a conversation with Will

- And then Will confides in Robin about being gay and being in love with Mike because he had a feeling that she was like him and Robin confirming she was indeed like him and becoming his gay mentor (like you don't understand I NEED ROBIN AND WILL TO HAVE A CONVO ABOUT BEING GAY)

- Will (finally!) tells the party that he's gay (and Byler becomes a thing) but not before Robin comes out to the party in order to make Will feel more comfortable and to show him that they will accept him because that's totally something she would do as his gay mentor

- More Steve and Robin being "Platonic with a Capital P" cause we didn't get enough in st4

- Hopper and Joyce trying to corral the kids and control the situation as best as they can

- Joyce being a mother figure to Robin like she is with the rest of the kids and Robin becoming better acquainted with El, Jonathan, and ESPECIALLY Will because she didn't really get a chance to get to know the California crew before they packed up and moved so ya

- El traveling into Vecna's/Henry's/One's mind in order to be able to wake Max up and free her from his control because he said his victims stay with him in his mind so like 👀

- Max wakes up after El successfully rescues her from Vecna/Henry/One but she is severely incapacitated, like she's probably blind in one or both eyes and is going to need assistance walking for the rest of her life and is going to be stuck in the hospital for a few more weeks (possibly months)

- How and when the Upside Down was created

- What Will's connection to Vecna/Henry/One and the Upside Down really entails and how that could affect both him and The Party during this final stretch

- Vecna/Henry/One, the Demogorgons, the Demodogs, the Demobats, the Mindflayer, and the Upside Down along with whatever other monsters are down there get destroyed once and for all because I don't think shutting the gates is gonna do it this time

- Kali comes back to help El defeat Vecna/Henry/One

- Murray tries to figure Steve and Robin out but he can't because he's never seen anything like the two of them and it frustrates him to no end

- Then when he tries to psychoanalyze Robin she does it right back to him because she's a freaking genius and everyone is in awe of her because they've never seen Murray speechless before

- KAREN WHEELER DESERVES TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT'S BEEN GOING ON IN HAWKINS!!!!!!!!

- And I hate to say it but if Steve dies Robin dies too because despite the fact that she is my favorite character (close seconds are Nancy and Will) Steve is her platonic soulmate and they are codependent on one another and one just simply cannot survive without the other

- Like it would absolutely break my heart to have to see Robin try to live without her dingus of a best friend and to have to see Steve try to live without his wing woman of a bestie so if one dies both of them die

- Lucas defending Max's unconscious body with Erica from whatever creatures from the Upside Down want to try and take and/or kill her

- Mike and El break up because El realizes she needs to be her own person and because Mike is in love with Will

- Dustin is even more protective and stubborn about Steve heading into danger because of what happened to Eddie and he absolutely refuses to leave his side through the entire season

- RONANCE RONANCE RONANCE RONANCE (i know it's probably not gonna be canon but a girl can dream)

- Robin finally getting an onscreen kiss with her girlfriend or a girl she really likes (cough cough Nancy cough cough) (sorry Vickie but I feel like ur just too similar to Robin)

- And if Steve doesn't die (hopefully🤞) then please please please DO NOT have Steve and Nancy get back together after she breaks up with Jonathan when she finds out he lied to her about Emerson along with everything else that's been piling up between them

- Instead Nancy decides she's better off not being in a relationship (or better yet she gets together with Robin) and focuses on what she's absolutely sure she wants which is getting her journalism degree at Emerson (and Robin decides to go there too if they become a thing 😊)

- Because Nancy Wheeler is a smart, strong, fierce, badass, independent woman and she does not need to be kept in a cage by becoming a housewife who gives birth to SIX KIDS

- NANCY WHEELER DOES NOT WANT SIX KIDS

- I REPEAT, NANCY WHEELER DOES NOT WANT SIX KIDS

- Steve and Robin move in together and attend a community college together (Steve's either getting a teaching degree or a child psychology degree while Robin is doing something with linguistics) or they follow Nancy to Boston because Robin and Nancy are absolutely smitten with one another :)

- Meeting Steve and Robin's respective parents

Ok I think that's all for now 😅

[ihopeyouhaveanicexmas]

I feel like no one has been talking about this since vol.2 was released (pls tell me if they have), but it NEEDS to be addressed.

The whole sequence after the 2 day time jump is so.... weird? Something about it feels wrong and contradictory with the rest of the season.

Here are some examples of stuff that don't match up with what we had been told so far within the last episode:

• this is probably the biggest one. how did the gates close and open up again at the end (without the process of actually opening, it's like they were there all along)?

• how did they get out of the upside down?? ik most of us assumed they went through the gates, if so, then why don't they talk about the gates AT ALL, as if they were never created? most likely they were all so traumatised that once the portals closed up they decided to take a break before bracing themselves for a likely new attack from Vecna, besides maybe they thought he was dead or didn't think they would have this little time before he came back. but still, i find it suspicious that we didn't get a single comment on the gates. if the gates were still there, i would imagine they would talk about them and be caughtious, or even attempt to examine them/go near them. but this doesn't happen, because somehow they closed up (again, we DON'T SEE THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENING so even if they are aware the gates aren't there anymore they would BE QUESTIONING EVERYTHING, NO?)

• El (and Will) being confused by the fact that Max could be at the hospital. Even if El kept her alive, her bones were still broken, so it would be expected that she would be at the hospital. IDK WHAT TO TELL U IT JUST DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.

• it doesn't play part in my (semi) theory, but in the hospital room i swear we see Max's mom for a split second. she is sitting on the chair next to Erica, we see her literally for a split second and it's on 1/3 of her body. it had to be her bc i think i see red hair. i assume she was sleeping and that's why she isn't doing anything, but in that case, wouldn't one of the ppl coming in spare a glance at her? and WHY would they hide her from us? why have her in the scene if she is being purposefully hiden?? she could have just not been in that scene. and they could have just showed us a brief moment of the camera starting from her, asleep on the one chair, to Erica on the next one, to Lucas. instead, when the scene starts, the camera pans from the oposite side to Lucas, from THE WALL. but i swear she is there, pls i need someone else to double check this so ik i'm not making stuff up.

• also, Lucas said Max was clinically dead when she was magically revived. being clinically dead means your BRAIN stops working, not just your heart, and it happens 5 minutes or so after the heart stops beating. ("if the brain dies, the body dies" being the oposite of how it actually works, with the amount of bio i understand, i could be VERY wrong tbh) So if El was keeping Max's heart beating then she wouldn't have been clinically dead. maybe that's why El can't find her consciousness? (just something to note)

Part of me keeps thinking that it was just the lazy writing since it's the end of a very long season, but i need to entertain the thought of it having more to it.

So if someone thinks of a different theory regarding these (or other weird stuff), please tag me (idk if that's possible lmao i barely know how tumblr works) or like rb so i can see it! i'm so interested to see what you guys come up with!!

Now for MY theory which could totally be proven wrong lol:

This involves different timelines basically. So this started from the first point i made, but it could also explain some of the other ones. What if the timeline before the time skip is a different timeline to the one after the time skip? That would explain the Hawkins crew not discussing the gates at all. So in this timeline (after the time jump, i'll call it timeline 2), it really was just an earthquake, the 4 big gates across Hawkins never opened up, they just got through the gate in Eddie's house to the real world like planned. idk if the timelines can affect one another, but if Vecna is meddling with time, somehow maybe the earthquake in timeline 2 happened BECAUSE of the gates opening in timeline 1. ALSO. about Max, maybe El's void is timeless and she can tap into different timelines but she doesn't know it yet, so El from timeline 2 is the El who was in the mind fight, but Max was actually Max from timeline 1, in which the Hawkins crew was in. So in this scenario, the Cali/Nevada plot and possibly the Rushian plot could be taking place in timeline 2, while the Hawkins plot in timeline 1, until the time jump, so after it it's timeline 2 in Hawkins. ik this probably makes no sense and would need way more thinking to check if it's actually plausible, but i think i'll put a pin to it and just pass my thoughts around for the time being.

If u read all this, thank you!!!!

[givehimthemedicine]

Okokok i need to ask—why Will as #020? You mentioned that there were mentions of 20 this past season—what were these?

I love Barb (or Mike! Or Nancy! Or Holly!) as potentially being #019. I will always headcanon as having a soteria in his neck, until season 5 directly confirms or contradicts this that is, because I think it makes sense & fits with the lab theme—he was taken to the doctor for ~reasons~, and found by the lab either during that trip or prior (ie ur post ab joyce & his drawings from when he was 8). Brenner proposed making Will a number, & when he was denied approval to proceed, they followed the procedure for all denied projects: insert soteria, & continue monitoring.

I love the soteria because of will & him touching his neck, but I can’t help but wonder—do you think all potential children were assigned numbers, to be “renewed” or “activated” if & when they were brought in on the project? This is for the mike wheeler is 19 gate—I headcanon the entire wheeler family as being sensitive, and if we have will exposed because of joyce showing off his drawings we could have MIKE going to the lab back when it was still a hospital because of his “strangeness” (im just thinking of the way mike seemed to be able to see/sense el in season 2 when she visited him, based on what he told will on halloween, & the way nancy was able to hear barb scream, & the way holly followed the lights to will’s room—do you think it will or the demogorgon that led her, btw???) (& what about the byers being sensitive??? Im v v attached to their entire family being sensitive to differing degrees, but now i’m getting attached to the mike-being-sensitive idea idk)

Maybe… if will does have soteria, the reason will keeps touching his neck & mike doesn’t is because henry damaged the soteria inside will? Either when he got will in season one & brought him to the library, or when will was possessed in season 2 (i think season one). But mike’s is still perfectly intact so his powers are much more repressed?? Then again, this is only if we’re trying to make mike-as-019 work—if mike’s just got low level sensitivity like terry ives pre-mkultra, that might work better. Like, the wheeler siblings being sensitive & having potential, but not enough to get them targeted like Will (or Barb). (I think Joyce & Jonathan would probs be more sensitive than the Wheeler siblings too tbh—the way Joyce made the christmas lights in her house turn on as she walked through the upsidedown version of her house hallway in season one, the way she could sense jonathan and jonathan could sense her in that scene, jonathan saying “mom.” Its so different from the way the lights in the wheeler’s house react to the fruity four—they have to actually TRY to manipulate, as opposed to the lights just responding the way they do for joyce and vecna (the way max and lucas & erica walk around with their flashlights off). And we see this with Will too—the way the lights react to Will while he’s in the upsidedown Do Not match how they reacted to the fruity four, so something must be different between the two!!! Ugh idk what are you thoughts?

Sorry for the lengthy ask! I’m really enjoying reading your theories on the subject/your blog in general so far!!!! Hope you have a lovely day!

please don't apologize, this is interesting stuff! and thank you so much! the whole Wheeler family being sensitive is a very interesting concept and I'm totally listening!

I mainly thought of 020 for Will because we know Will is going to be a major player in the final season, not just regarding his personal life but he'll definitely be involved in taking down Henry. and there was that DnD game where they rolled 11 which wasn't high enough and then rolled the 20 that won the game. as in, Eleven won't be able to take Henry down on her own and whoever 20 represents (probably Will) will have to strike a final blow.

there's definitely something going on with Will's neck, but I think it must have to be a more like, symbolic/mental thing because I can't believe Will could have a foreign object under his skin like Henry's and not noticed. unless it's some newer and smaller technology. I want to know what soteria IS, and how Brenner made it. my guess is something with magnets. we have way too many magnet references.

my current thinking about the Holly in Will's room scene is leaning towards the demogorgon having led her there, and maybe ditto for the similar Joyce scene. actually this ties into an analysis I'm working on, so I'll be sure and add in a section or individual post addressing this.

and I think I'll make a post about your potential kids being activated into the program thing. I'm not sure whether I'll actually have an answer to your question but I do have some Thoughts and I need to review some footage. I'll tag you in both!

[thesaintofnevergettingitright]

Oh thank god, I actually came up with an idea for the steddie bigbang. I was so scared I was gonna sign up and then freeze.

(brainstorm word vomit beneath the cut if anyone’s curious lol)

it’s not fully flushed out yet, but I’m thinking of going with an

~*~Orpheus/Eurydice Retelling~*~

I feel like the whole “drag your one true love out of hell but if you look at them you’ll both DIE” thing has very Steddie energy, ya know??

BUT I want Steve to be motivated mostly by Dustin and Lucas’s grief (at first)

cuz I think that Dustin would take Eddie’s death HARD. Like harder than the end of the last season would have us believe

especially since I’m thinking that, after Dustin tells him that Eddie’s gone, Wayne leaves Hawkins because he can’t stand being alone in the familiar place with all the memories etc. (which is very fair and valid)

but I think losing that one connection to Eddie would be the last straw for Dustin’s poor traumatized soul

Meanwhile Max isn’t snapping out of her coma and with every day that goes by, Lucas gets more and more withdrawn.

It gets to the point where Lucas isn’t talking to ANYONE and is spending every waking moment in the hospital. It’s unhealthy.

and so both Dustin and Lucas are getting more and more consumed by grief and Steve can see it happening and feels totally helpless to do anything

so he gets more and more desperate to find a way to FIX IT because the only thing he’s ever been able to do right is to TAKE CARE of these kids and now he’s FAILING

and the harder he tries to help, the harder Dustin pushes him away and the further Lucas retreats into himself

until finally Dustin lashes out in some way and blames Steve for everything that went wrong and says something hurtful (cuz he’s a deeply traumatized and grief-stricken child.)

and Lucas stops eating or sleeping and starts sneaking out of the house to spend even MORE time at the hospital

no! I lied! actually what Lucas starts doing is spending more and more time sleeping and no one really understands why (other than standard grief reasons)

finally Erica gets so worried that she goes to steve for help

So steve and erica (and robin because she and steve are a package deal) research the upside down and mythology and D&D and theoretical science and whatever else they can to try to find a way to make everything BETTER (I think Steve is claiming that he’s mostly focused on Max and getting her back, but he’s fully willing to do whatever it takes to get eddie back for dustin, including fucked up magic or sacrificing himself or WHATEVER)

this results in them adding eleven and will to the research crew cuz they need Upside Down experts

(I was thinking nancy might be a part of the research team, but actually maybe the wheelers leave town? In fact I think Nancy herself might pressure her parents into leaving for they sake of Holly’s safety? And mike would probably flat-out refuse to leave and end up staying with the Byers-Hopper clan, but I think Nancy would be haunted enough by Vecna’s vision that she’d do whatever it took to keep her family safe)

And they keep coming up empty on the research until Steve finds Eddie’s D&D notes for the campaign he was planning on running after they defeated Vecna

it was going to be a home-brew based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, but tweaked to fit better into D&D rules/logic, where the goal of the campaign was to save a god and a goddess who were trapped between worlds

Eddie based his version on the orpheus/eurydice myth, d&d lore, and some satanic rituals he’d found while searching for new ways to antagonize the entire town lmao.

so robin/erica/steve end up retracing eddie’s steps in all of this research and suddenly Steve “The Hair” Harrington easily knows more about Satanism and like pagan magic than anyone else in Hawkins, probably INCLUDING eddie

somewhere in the middle of all this, steve starts dreaming about eddie and, at first, he thinks it’s just because he’s been thinking about him so much from retracing his steps. But then he starts feeling like the conversations he’s having with dream!eddie are feeling more and more real....

anyway they discover that the main difference between the original myth an the version Eddie came up with is that it would take TWO people to save each trapped god: a rescuer and an anchor

the anchor would help keep the rescuer connected to the “real”/mortal/whatever world, and the rescuer had to have a strong bond with both the person getting rescued AND the anchor

in the campaign, the “rescuer” was going to be determined by prophetic dreams getting sent to specific players, but they all write that off as just part of the game and figure all that’s needed is a strong bond.

so the plan is to send in El to rescue Max with Will acting as her anchor

they all wish they could do something to save eddie, but the focus is on max right now because she’s the one they KNOW is stuck between worlds

and steve and Erica both feel unsure about this plan, but Steve is used to trusting that his friends are smarter and doesn’t even know why he’s so unsure so he’s willing to go along with it...

but it turns out Erica was less willing to just go along with it and has essentially tattled to Dustin about the plan so before they can start the ~ritual~ or whatever, Lucas and Dustin burst through the door yelling incoherently

they’ve discovered two things:

1) it turns out that Lucas has been sleeping so much because he’s been having the same kind of dreams Steve has, but about Max

this prompts Steve to share his dreams with the group, saying that maybe this means that Eddie is actually alive, which Dustin agrees with and adds

2) it’s not just “any” strong bond that will work for the rescuee/rescuer/anchor bonds. Eddie’s notes were right, the rescuer has to be the person receiving dreams about the person stuck in the in-between, and the rescuer/anchor bond has to be FAMILIAL

so this means Eddie is out there and savable, because Steve is having dreams about him. No one really seems to understand WHY that bond manifested between Steve and Eddie, but they just have to roll with it

Lucas and steve are officially the Rescuers(TM)

then dustin gets this stricken look on his face cuz he realizes that Erica can be Lucas’s anchor, but there’s no one to anchor steve cuz his family sucks. so dustin starts insisting that steve shouldn’t go in cuz he’d just get lost along with eddie and that’s not what eddie would want and dustin doesn’t think he’d make it through losing steve too and and and and.....

and then steve shuts him up with a big hug and says something like “what are you talking about? I’ve got my whole family right here, including the world’s most annoying little brother.” *cue dustin sobbing*

just to be safe, both robin AND dustin step in as steve’s anchors

*insert emotional trip through the In Between (which I’ve decided is the name of the place Max and Eddie are stuck in)*

they make it out and there are a lot of very emotional reunions etc. etc. but for some reason eddie is avoiding eye contact with steve

That’s right we’re not done! now it’s time for part 2: just miscommunication and falling in love

so things are kinda awkward and tense between steve and eddie, especially when it’s determined that the smartest thing to do is to get eddie out of town while hopper works on clearing his name and creating a story for How Eddie Munson Isn’t Dead

Which means it’s time for my favorite trope: Road Trip to Murray’s!

Steve insists on coming along with Eddie, not trusting eddie not to disappear again, plus he wants to know why eddie’s been so weird around him ever since they got out of the In Between, plus it makes the most sense: he has a car, and his parents are never home so no one will notice that he’s gone for an extended period of time

When he finally demands eddie tells him what’s going on, turns out eddie is furious that steve risked his life to try to save him. like FUMING. and steve is so confused and distressed because he thought they were really connecting, hell he even thought he might be catching feelings for him....

then eddie doesn’t want steve to feel like he’s responsible for him or like he owes him anything etc. etc.

basically eddie is doing everything he can to push steve away, seemingly under the assumption that steve is there out of obligation

finally, Murray reveals that he’s been snooping through eddie’s stuff and whips out a piece of paper. It’s an as-yet-unknown secret missing page from Eddie’s D&D notes that the gang never found. Turns out the twist of the campaign was going to be something Eddie discovered in his research: the bond/the dreams only work between soulmates (ohmygod the were soulmates)

turns out eddie’s been functioning under the assumption that the soulmate bond went one way, cuz steve is straight (obvs), and thinks that the rescue only worked because he was so pathetically in love with steve, it made up for the deficit

Murray points out that this is stupid

steve also points out that this is stupid

they make out about it

some other stuff happens but that’s the most important parts

the end

[lesbianrobin]

If you had to rank all the 14 ST characters in the main group from most to least fav what would your ranking look like? (And by main group i mean the characters including murray and erica, and excluding karen, basically everybody involved in the final battle in 3x08)

ok let me preface this by saying that i literally love all of these characters i don't hate any of them okay?? let's go... ascending order for the drama!!

14. murray. no explanation needed. no offense to brett gelman he's phenomenal and i honestly think murray is really funny, but he's more or less just a plot device with some comic relief slapped on top.

now things get spicy <3

13. erica. love her to death! but she's fairly one-dimensional, once again primarily a comic relief character. maybe in s4 she'll get some more depth like the older kids have, but for now she's sort of a default next-to-last :/

12. will... no tea no shade but the kid's barely in the show! i absolutely want good things for him but like. i barely even know him. yknow? he’s only above erica bc he’s gay and she’s a capitalist. also that scene in s1 right before he gets snatched by the demogorgon when he just runs straight to the shed and grabs a goddamn shotgun and loads it fully ready to defend himself... that shit slapped good for him!!

11. this Will be controversial among some and i Know this character is many people's favorite... if you follow me already this is probably not going to surprise you but. nancy. i just think her character is kind of inconsistent, so i have a hard time really clicking with her :/ sometimes i love her and i think she's so cool and funny and hot (that hospital scene in s3... my GOD what a badass!) and other times i would like to fistfight her.

also let me get this out of the way right now: i'm aware that jonathan's character is ALSO super inconsistent!! i know okay??? i know!!!! please nobody judge me for how high rat boy gets on this ranking okay i'm literally making this up as i go along so idk if he's next or if he's like in the top five but i have a disease called Unreasonably Invested In Wildly Speculative Meta-Analysis Of Stranger Things which makes it impossible for me to be normal about jonathan and this is my ranking so i pick the bad taste!!!

10. joyce! i love her bro she's MOM and she tries so fucking hard all the goddamn time and she's so STRONG and kind and adorable... joyce is honestly a very unique and refreshing character ESPECIALLY if you’re considering stranger things within the horror genre which is often defined by these very specific archetypes of mothers and motherhood that i can get into if anyone is interested but like basically. love her <3

9. dustin <3 what an icon... i love him i love how he straight up killed a man and hardly flinched because it was to protect his friends and i love how he and his little girlfriend have a song they sing together and i love how he either has an insanely warped perspective on things due to low self-esteem or he just sometimes flatout lies to gain sympathy either way he’s a BABY and he’s so FUNNY and KIND and even when he’s scared he keeps going... ugh god and i love how even when he doubts his friends’ devotion to him he NEVER ever questions his devotion to them and he never ever considers leaving them behind or not stepping up to help them... he’s so brave!

8. mike is such a fucking BITCH but even more than that he is an ANGEL... literally his range who is doing it like him??? nobody!!!! graffiti’d the bathroom stall at school... hates cops.... what a legend. also i like how fucking goofy and dumb his hair looks in s3. also he’s very soft with his friends and it makes me cry. ALSO he literally stepped off a fucking CLIFF he was ready to DIE FOR DUSTIN and i know all the kids have risked their lives for each other but this wasn’t even a monster yknow this was just... bullies.... threatening his friend..... and mike couldn’t fucking let it happen bro he was ready to just step off the edge to keep dustin safe and it’s SO MUCH... and god the kindness he showed el when they first met!!! he’s a total angel and a total shithead and it’s amazing.

7. lucas my tiny baby hero.... he’s so strong and cool and capable yet at the same time he’s such a COMPLETE dork!!! he very seriously believes his slingshot wrist rocket is a lethal weapon and then he ACTUALLY USES IT AS A LETHAL WEAPON TO SAVE HIMSELF AND HIS FRIENDS!!! he hacks off a giant monster’s freaky tentacle arm thing with an axe to save his friend AND he keeps a bunch of action figures and random dice on his bedside table bro he just thinks they’re neat!!! like... i genuinely love him so much god he cares so much about his friends and he’s so brave and smart and loving... i know he is not tiny anymore but he is my tiny baby hero okay...

6. hopper! big man care for little girl... protect and love kids... dance to dad music... be goofy and hot... have trauma.... admit his faults and attempt to grow from them.... what's not to love?

5. jonathan... look i can’t explain it except that he loves his goddamn baby brother so much and i’m a sucker with extensive headcanons alright!

4. el!!! feral little darling girl!!! i literally cannot articulate the love that floods my heart whenever i see her face or think about her for too long she’s just... so strong but more than that she’s so incredibly KIND!! when she has every reason to be selfish and cruel and yeah at times she does let herself get a little mean but on the whole she’s always so goddamn kind and loving and selfless no matter how afraid she is or how she’s hurting... and i hope that with her powers gone in s4 she’ll maybe learn how to see herself as more than a tool to protect those she loves yknow but that’s off topic skdncmn i just think that el is such an incredible character with such depth!! she can be so grave and mature yet she’s still such an innocent child at the same time, and i think that both the writing and mbb’s acting are handled such that both of these things WORK and feel real and they make el (and her trauma) so believable. i just love her to death.

3. robin, light of my lesbian little life!! unfortunately she's wayyy too much like me to snag the top spot lmao. maybe once we get another season with her she’ll trample the competition but for now my baby is in a solid third place <3 i’ve never seen a lesbian on screen who i felt so accurately represented me and my experiences!! she feels so real and in just one season she’s become one of my favorites on the whole show, and i cannot fucking wait to see what else we learn about her and what development we see from her in s4. 

2. as u may have guessed... max!! i know i said this was my subjective opinion but here i’ll just say it: max is objectively one of the best characters on the show. she’s so strong and funny and quick on her feet while harboring some real pain and insecurity at the same time, and both of these aspects of her character are married perfectly, logically connecting to one another and joining with sadie’s incredible acting to create an amazing character who feels just... so real!! i absolutely adore her and i CONSTANTLY tear up just from thinking about her skdncmn...

1. what if my number one wasn't steve. like can y'all imagine???? if i just said like will or some shit???? genuinely i did consider giving max or robin top billing here but i just Can't i've dedicated too goddamn much of my life to steve harrington to deny that he's my one and only. is there anything to say that hasn't already been said? look at the bitch. just look at him. 

what other answer could there be?

[nancywheelxr]

oooooooo Steve being sick like the sick where you spill all your secrets and the kids find out that Steve is not okay and needs hugs

When Steve doesn't show up for their shift, Robin isn’t necessarily worried. Like, it's a shitty job, she’s not exactly thrilled to be here either.

It’s only when he calls up the store and mumbles his way into calling in sick, which, by the way, involves a whole lot of coughing his lungs out and slurring words that she’s guessing were can’t go, I’m sick, that Robin starts worrying.

When he does this three days in a row, getting less and less coherent each time, Robin officially levels up to what the fuck even, Steven.

So, after her shift, she does what her mother, bless her, always told her not to do: she goes to a boy’s house when she knows his parents aren’t home. And goddamn, she kind of hates that she knows Steve keeps his spare key under a rock on his mother’s stupid rose bushes by the front door. Honestly, what a freaking cliché.

Steve’s house is exactly like he described once– big, cold, and empty– and Robin shivers, tucking her jacket tighter. 

“Steve?” She calls, fidgeting by the stairs. Should she just, invite herself in? Well, she kind of already did that, but–

A coughing fit echoes from what she assumes must be one of the bedrooms. Yup, upstairs it is, nevermind being polite or whatever.

“Just keep coughing,” she tells the empty hallway because holy shit, there’s way too many bedrooms and patience has never been her virtue. 

Obediently, or more likely unconsciously, Steve coughs again. Gotcha. It seriously sounds like he’s racking up a lung, Robin is kind of afraid of what she's going to find there.

“Holy crap, dude,” she says, stopping at the doorway because holy crap, dude, Steve looks awful. His skin is sickly pale and sweaty, his hair is either sticking up or matted to his forehead, there’s a trashcan near his bed that she is so not going to look inside and tissues are piling up on the floor. At any other given day, she would probably make a crack on how boys are so freaking gross, but since he looks like he caught the plague, she’s giving Steve a pass. 

“Robin?” Steve mumbles, blinking his eyes open. Or, at least, Robin thinks he said that; it came out more like an incoherent string of letters. 

“Hey, dingus,” she steps in his room, scrunching her nose at the stuffy smell, and sits carefully at the edge of the bed. The lump under the covers shifts and Steve’s face reappears, looking blearily at her. “Why aren't you in a hospital?”

“Don't need ‘ospital,” he rasps, coughs some more, and tries to smother himself in the blankets. “Just the flu.”

To be fair, it is flu season.

Robin squints, and because she’s like, the world’s bestest friend, she lays a hand on his very gross forehead. “You’re burning up, oh, my God, have you taken anything?”

A hand flops from underneath the blankets and gestures vaguely towards the bedside table, where a couple of cough syrup bottles are lying, nearly empty.

“Jess Christ, did you go through them already?” How's he still alive, holy fuck. “Okay, okay. It’s fine. Let’s take a break on that, though, yeah?”

Steve grumbles some nonsense. Robin is taking that as a yes. Downstairs, the phone starts to ring.

“Lemme die in peace,” he grumbles again.

“I’ll get you some Tylenol,” she replies cheerily.

The medicine cabinet, she figures, can’t be that hard to find. Everyone keeps them in their bathroom, right? 

*

She’s already got a glass of water on her hand and is about to return upstairs when the phone rings again. And rings, and rings, and rings, and it’s going to give both of them a headache, since clearly, whoever’s on the other side is not giving up anytime now.

“Harrington’s residence, you may speak,” she answers with her best fake cheerful telemarket girl voice. It’s a very good impression, Robin truly has a gift. 

“Hello?” A familiar voice says, “who’s this– wait, is that Robin? What are you doing at Steve’s– oh, my god, are you guys hooking up? Why didn’t I know this? What the hell, you guys–”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Robin snaps, wishing to god she didn’t have to deal with heteronormativity today; no good deed goes unpunished, she guesses. “Cool your jets, Dustin. I’m here ‘cause Steve is like, super sick.”

“Oh, shit, sorry,” Dustin sounds slightly panicked now, “is he dying? Where are his parents?”

“Nah, he’s pretty out of it and a total mess, but he’ll live. Maybe. Anyway, that’s why I’m here,” she shrugs even though Dustin can see her. He’ll know though, the kid is smart. “And his parents are… not here? I don’t know, man, that’s all I know. The place was empty when I got here–” there’s a crashing sound from upstair and Robin counts to ten, then, “YOU BETTER NOT BE TRYING TO GET UP, STEVEN– so, yeah. It’s just me trying to keep the idiot alive.”

A beat of silence. “Okay, got it. Stay strong, help is on the way.”

“Sure,” she drawls, eyebrows raising, “because that’s not ominous at– and he hung up, great.”

Maybe, that means Dustin is sending a real, responsible adult here, or like, calling Steve’s parents, or anything normal like that. Maybe the house isn’t about to be swarmed with little kids that are so going to get sick after this. Maybe Robin won’t have to look after Steve’s children and Steve. Maybe, Steve won’t be a whiny bitch about taking the pills.

Who knows, after this summer, Robin is pretty open to miracles.

*

The good news is– Steve only complained mildly before swallowing the Tylenol, and then only groaned about his imminent death a little, low enough that Robin could totally ignore him in order to snoop around his room, and then promptly passed out.

The bad news is– there are currently four children wearing drugstore face masks like that’ll solve everything here. 

“We came as soon as we heard it,” Dustin explains, voice muffled by his white mask.

“Is Steve going to die?” Max asks, and her face is twitching like she’s going to burst into tears but it’s fighting it with all her considerable early-teen-years might, and oh, shit, her brother died in the mall, didn’t he? Robin can hear the unspoken too hanging there at the end of her sentence and packing all her panic and fear.

Fuck, everyone here is way too traumatized for a tiny as fuck town in the middle of goddamn Indiana. 

“No one’s dying,” Robin assures awkwardly, letting them inside Steve’s room and watching as they all crowd around his bed. Oh, god, their parents are so gonna kill Robin if they get sick later. “Hm. Maybe don’t, you know, get too close.”

“Steve is sick, Robin,” Dustin tells her as if, somehow, she hadn’t noticed that before, and as if it explains everything. Kids are so fucking weird, man.

Whatever answer Dustin is expecting from her that had never been coming anyway is cut short by Steve’s suddenly hoarse scream. His face had been smushed against the pillow so it’s pretty muffled, but it still startles everyone, and Steve is now scrambling, twisting under the covers, kicking and shit, he’s gonna fall off the bed like this and get himself a broken nose on top of the worst case of flu Robin’s ever seen– 

“Shit,” Mike says, “he’s got the nightmares again. Nancy said he used to get them all the time last year.”

“Then wake him up, dumbass,” Robin rolls her eyes, thinking of the quick recap Steve had given her at the mall before everything went to shit. He had certainly not said anything about nightmares, but now that there’s no Russian conspiracy looming over their heads to distract her, it seems pretty obvious shit like that stays with you. Freaking evil goo monsters, man. Of course Steve has nightmares, Robin gets them sometimes and she hasn’t been here for half of the shit that he’s been through. She shakes his shoulder carefully, feeling the way he’s shivering under her hand. “Hey, Steve, yo, wake up.”

Behind her, she can feel the kids crowding to peer over her shoulder. 

And Steve wakes up with a start, jolting up in the bed and nearly throwing them all off it. His eyes are wild and wide, and while the Tylenol has got to have kicked in by now, he still looks feverish and high on cough syrup. “What,” he pants, exhales a shuddering breath and lurches to the side to throw up on the trash can. His hands, Robin notices, are shaking.

“It’s okay, Steve,” Dustin says in what he probably thinks it’s a soothing voice but Robin thinks makes him sound like he’s about to murder someone, and reaches to pat him on the back. “There’s no demodogs here or giant melted flesh monsters or demogorgons or–”

“Thank you, Dustin,” she speaks over his list while Lucas and Max help Steve lie back like little nurses, “I think he got it, yeah.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Steve mumbles, wounded and hoarse, and curls up, eyes darting around the room in a way that makes Robin glad she left the lights on. “Not them. Hey, Robin, ‘member when the Russians tortured us?”

She goes cold. 

That night had been fucked up and she had shoved it down where she doesn't have to think about, and even if she does try to remember, its all a little fuzzy at the edges after they got caught. The last thing she has a clear memory of before the drug left her system is yelling at Dustin and Erica to get the hell out of there and bring help. All she has next are snapshots– a soldier yelling with a gun in her face, the cold cell floor, Steve bloody and bruised to hell, a sharp needle pricking her neck– then, her conversation with Steve is back in sharp focus, the knee-buckling relief that comes after washing away the panic.

But. “Shit, yeah, dude. Why, were you–”

The sentence hangs in the air and maybe they should talk about this to get, like, closure or some shit like that, yeah, but now is probably not the best time, not in front of the kids, because Jesus, they’re just kids they shouldn’t be hearing about this.

“Thought I was back there,” Steve keeps going, apparently too sick or too high to think about how child-friendly this topic is, “the– the soldier guy, he was ripping off my fingernails, man, he almost did it back there, thought he had knocked something loose in my head.”

“Oh my god,” she hears one of the kids whispering in horror and privately agrees. She knew it had been bad, seen his state when they threw them together in the same cell, but she had known it had been this bad– they tried to rip off his fingernail, Christ.

“And then, then like, it kept going on this loop, and I thought you all were dead, and it was my fault, stupid, stupid, why did I have to go snooping and dragged everyone into this, and I thought, shit, I’m gonna die, and–”

Okay, shit, Robin needs to stop him right there because she knows a panic attack when she sees one and Steve is winding up for a big one. “Alright, hey, hey, Steve,” she says slowly, quietly, careful to leave her voice blank, “it’s fine. You’re fine, man. No one’s dead, look,” she gestures the kids and they all scramble up the bed, for once not babbling on and on, and silently decide to go for a group hug. Robin wisely stays out of it. “See, your kids are fine, you’re fine, and the Russians got fucked, okay?”

“Yeah?” Steve asks, eyes wide and round, and he looks a little overwhelmed with all those kids hugging him, and Robin thinks it’s the cutest shit ever. If she had a camera, this would have been prime blackmail material. More importantly, it seems to help ground him, bring him back to Hawkins, Indiana and not those fucked up memories. “Yeah, thanks, I– sorry.”

Shrugging, Robin offers a small smile, relieved to see he’s already drifting again. “Don’t worry about it, dingus,” she claps her hand quietly, getting the kids’ attention, “come along, kiddos, we gotta let your babysitter rest, now. And you’re all helping me make soup.”

There are groans all around, but they all trail behind her down the stairs.

[hannahberrie]

Everybody Talks | Chapter 4: MadMax

Fandom: Stranger Things Pairings: Lumax, Mileven  Rating: K WC: 3227 Summary: Mike and Lucas run into a familiar face at the Palace Arcade

[AO3] Chapter Selection: [1][2][3]-4-[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][Epilogue] 

It’s the last Sunday of September. With October just around the corner, the leaves have already begun to turn, transforming Hawkins into a mosaic of orange and red hues. The Indian summer heat has faded away, leaving behind the faint but telltale chill of the season to come.

As Mike waits in the driveway outside Lucas’ house, seated on his bike, he shuffles side-to-side, trying to keep warm. He checks his watch. 11:17 AM. Lucas was supposed to meet him out here 2 minutes ago.

Mike sighs but keeps waiting. Another 3 minutes pass, then another 5, and by 11:26, Mike is about to approach the front door and knock when Lucas emerges, looking thoroughly pissed off.

Mike’s brow furrows. “What happened to you?”

“Erica hid my money!” Lucas fumes. His bike is leaning on the side of his house and he grabs it. He walks it closer to Mike before throwing his leg over the seat and mounting it.

“Why?”

“Because she’s evil!”

“Where’d you find it?”

“It was hidden with her old Barbies!”

“What?!”

“I know!”

“That sucks. Is she gonna get in trouble?”

“Probably not,” Lucas answers with an eye-roll. “Let’s just go.”

Mike nods and the two bike off down the road, headed to their favorite Sunday afternoon destination: the Palace Arcade.

They only bike a couple feet before Lucas’ notices the obvious: two members of their party are missing. “Where’s Will and Dustin?” He asks, glancing at Mike.

Mike thinks back to the telephone calls he’d had to make this morning. “They can’t come — Will is spending the day with his mom and brother,” he recounts, “And Dustin’s cat got sick, so he and his mom are taking it to the vet.”

“Mews is like, a million years old,” Lucas says with a shake of his head. “How is she even still alive?”

“Maybe she’s an immortalist,” Mike jokes, causing Lucas to snort.

The two bike towards the downtown area. On the way there, they pass by the high school football field, where the football team is in the midst of practicing for the big homecoming football game. The frenzied shouts of the coach are still audible over the soft bustle of distant passing cars, echoing bird calls, and the crunch of dead leaves under their bike wheels.

Mike’s father has always wanted him to do sports, but Mike can’t honestly think of anything worse than having to waste a Sunday getting yelled at and throwing around a ball in the cold.

Lucas sees the football players too, and he turns to glance at Mike with a curious look on his face.

“Are we going to Homecoming this year?” Lucas asks. “The dance, I mean, not the game.”

Last year, the boys had skipped the big annual fall dance. Still adjusting to being in high school, they hadn’t quite found their footing yet. A mushy, romantic school dance hadn’t appealed to them, so they’d gone to see Terminator instead.

But this year…

“Maybe,” Mike says. “Why, do you want to?”

“I dunno,” Lucas replies guardedly, “Do you?”

Mike bites down on his lower lip, stopping himself from saying something that’ll only embarrass him. Like, something about how he’s actually been thinking about Homecoming a lot lately. Or how, sometimes, when he’s trying to fall asleep, he’ll run over scenarios in his mind. How those scenarios are often focused on one person, one moment, one question.

The scenarios always end in frustration because Mike knows it’s all pointless, anyway. He barely knows El, and El hardly knows him. Even if they were closer, what’s to say that a cool girl like her would agree to go with a nobody like him? What if she wanted to go with someone else?

The thought jabs at Mike with a stabbing pain as an unsettling question dawns on him.

Does El have a boyfriend?

It’s something he’s never considered before. He’s only ever seen her hanging around with Max, but what if her boyfriend like, went to another school, or something? He’d probably be someone totally bad ass, with like, a motorcycle. Someone who got detention for worse things than selling their test answers.

Mike feels an uncomfortable amount of jealousy churn in his chest, which is ridiculous because, as far as he knows, the person whom he was currently jealous of might not even exist.

“Mike?” Lucas asks, glancing at him. “You okay?”

“Uh, yeah!” Mike responds quickly, shaking his head as he comes back to. “I dunno about Homecoming. We still have a month to decide.”

“Yeah,” Lucas agrees somberly.

They don’t speak much after that, not until they arrive at the arcade. Their legs are sore from biking — both wince slightly as they dismount the bikes that are getting slightly too small for them.

“I can’t wait until we can drive,” Lucas laments as the two park their bikes at the bike rack.

Mike, thinking back to El’s motorcycle-driving boyfriend who may or may not exist, agrees wholeheartedly. “Totally. We’re all still taking driver’s ed together next summer, right?”

“Definitely!” Lucas nods. “It’ll be better that way.”

Because everything’s better when they’re all together. Mike, Lucas, Dustin and Will. It’s been that way ever since kindergarten, just the four of them. But now that they’re in high school, things are changing. Mike thinks about how tense things have been with Dustin lately and can’t help but worry.

“Hey, Lucas?” Mike asks as he and Lucas head towards the entrance of the Palace Arcade.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think Dustin is seriously pissed at me?”

“What?”

“You know,” Mike hesitates, “About talking to El.”

“Even if he is, that’s his problem,” Lucas reminds him. “I think he’s just weirded out by the whole thing, so he’s acting like a shithead about it. He’ll get over it.”

“Yeah,” Mike replies, sincerely hoping that Lucas is right.

They enter the arcade, instantly feeling welcomed by the flickering neon blue lights, the sounds of 8-bit chiptunes, and the smell of old quarters.

“Let’s start with Galaga first!” Mike suggests, and Lucas agrees.

The two head over to the game console. Lucas benevolently allows Mike to go first, and so he does, cracking his fingers before he begins.

Even though the rest of Mike’s life has been kinda weird lately, there’s something comforting about just getting to push it all aside and focus on the simple task of shooting up some aliens. It’s familiar, it’s easy, it makes sense, and he knows exactly what to do about it all.

Unfortunately, Mike’s mindless daze doesn’t last long, as Lucas finds a way to bring a certain someone back into their dialogue.

“So, are you going to keep talking to El?” Lucas asks conversationally.

Mike flinches, almost missing the alien he’s trying to shoot at. “I dunno,” he says, trying to sound like the idea of spending time with El isn’t something he’s secretly dying to happen, “Maybe. I mean, if she wanted to. Are you going to keep talking to Max?”

Lucas smiles a little and shakes his head. “I think if I tried, I’d end up in the hospital,” he jokes, rubbing at his arm.

Mike makes a dismissive sort of sound. “Does it actually bother you? All the punching?” He glances at Lucas just in time to see him blush.  

“Not completely,” Lucas admits.

Mike gives a snort of a laugh as he finishes his round of Galaga. “400,000!” He boasts, turning to Lucas. “I think that means I beat Dustin for first place!”

“Think again!” Lucas says, shaking his head.

Mike’s brow furrows in confusion, but sure enough, when he turns to look at the final scoreboard, he’s only won second place. Ranking in at first with 450,000 points is someone unknown to the boys: MadMax

“What the hell?” Mike exclaims, dumbfounded, “Who’s MadMax?”

“I think I recognize them,” Lucas frowns. He examines the screen closely, as if the secret identity of their competitor could be found hidden amongst the pixels. “I’ve seen that username on the leaderboards of other games here, but not this high!”

“Dustin’s gonna be pissed,” Mike says, trying to hide that he too is upset about the current turn of events, “He’s all the way in third place now!”

“This has to be recent! We were at the arcade Friday before we went back to your house. Dustin still had the high score then.”

“You’re right.”

The boys fall silent for a moment, both staring at the screen with puzzled frowns.

“We gotta find out who MadMax is,” Lucas finally says, “Maybe he can tell us how he got such a high score!”

“Good idea!” Mike agrees.

The two begin their search, going from arcade game to arcade game, checking out the leaderboard screens to see if MadMax played there. Sure enough, they stumble upon a trail of high scores that lead them towards the back of the arcade.

They scan the sea of game consoles before their gaze lands on Dig-Dug. There’s a lone figure hunched over the console, sporting a baggy gray hoodie and washed-out jeans. The spritely sound effects of the game are going off like crazy as the player’s score climbs higher and higher. Pale fingers move at lightning speed, flying over the controls in a determined focus.

“That’s gotta be him,” Mike whispers, to which Lucas nods. “Look at how fast he’s going!”

“Should we go over?” Lucas asks.

Mike shrugs. “Sure.”

The two approach the figure cautiously, not wanting to disturb the powerful gaming performance happening before their eyes.

When the final score tops out at 751,300, the boys are shocked, to say the least.

“Holy shit!” Lucas hisses, turning to glance at Mike, wide-eyed.

Mike only nods back, feeling just as awed. He clears his throat before stepping forward and giving the hoodied figure a nudge on the shoulder. “Hey!” He says with a friendly tone, “Are you Mad Max? ‘Cause you’re like, really good!”

The figure flinches, as if Mike had startled them, but doesn’t turn to look at them.

“We were just wondering if you could tell us how you get all these high scores,” Lucas adds hopefully, “I’ve never seen someone get more than 700,000 on Dig-Dug!”

The figure mutters something unintelligible in response.

Mike frowns. “What?” He asks, stepping closer.

Another mutter.

“Huh?”

With a frustrated huff, the hoodied individual turns to face them. At the same time, Mike and Lucas’ jaws nearly drop to the floor.

They almost don’t recognize her. Her black eyeshadow is gone, leaving her face looking almost ghostly in comparison. Her long, often tangled hair is pulled back into a tight ponytail that’s hidden by her hood.

Despite the costume change, Mike and Lucas still realize that they’re currently face-to-face with none other than Max Mayfield.

Max Mayfield, a habitual visitor of the principal’s office.

Max Mayfield, who liked wearing leather jackets and ripped jeans.

Max Mayfield, who skateboarded to school every day.

Max Mayfield, who, a little over a week ago, had called them all ‘literal losers’ and ‘full-on geeks.’

Mike can’t help it. The irony of the whole situation is extremely amusing to him. He bursts out laughing, even though it instantly causes Max to give him a death glare.

“Max?!” Lucas manages to choke out, still looking shocked, “You’re Mad Max?!”

Max, still glaring, crosses her arms over her chest. “So what if I am?” She asks threateningly.

Mike manages to control his laughter, though only barely. “It’s just,” He finally replies, “I don’t think we would have ever thought you’d be here.”

“We didn’t know you liked video games!” Lucas adds, completely in awe. “Or that you were amazing at them!”

Max shifts in place uncomfortably. “It’s no big deal,” she mutters, though Mike can’t help but notice the small smile she’s failing to hide.

“It is!” Lucas insists, practically drooling now, “You beat Dustin’s high score on Galaga, he’s been number one since middle school!”

Max smirks. “Seriously? It wasn’t even hard.”

While Lucas continues to adoringly gaze at Max, Mike can’t help but glance around the arcade. If Max is here, then her best friend can’t be that far behind, right?

“Is El with you?” Mike asks Max casually (hopefully).

“No!” Max answers brashly, brow furrowing, “She can’t know about this!”

Mike feels his heart sink a little, but he brushes it off. Meanwhile, Lucas is looking confused over Max’s response.

Lucas eyes her. “You mean, you haven’t told her?”

“I can’t!” Max says desperately, “I don’t want her to think I’m a geek like you guys,” she pauses, then adds, “No offense.”

“Thanks,” Mike replies flatly.

“Look,” Max continues. She steps closer to them, keeping her voice low. “I have to work really hard to keep up my reputation around school. Do you know how much my life would suck if people like Troy found out that I like nerdy stuff like this? I’d be totally screwed. No one would take me seriously.”

“Still!” Mike counters, “Even if that’s true, you shouldn’t lie to El. She’s your friend, isn’t she?”

“Obviously.”

“Well, friends don’t keep secrets from each other. And I doubt El would make fun of you for doing something that you like.”

Max eyes him carefully, scrutinizing his response.

“She didn’t make fun of me for liking this kind of stuff,” Mike reminds her.

“Yeah, but that’s only because she—”  Max stops mid-sentence and shakes her head. “Never mind.”

“You should be proud!” Lucas tells her, butting in before Mike can pry about what Max had left unsaid. “You have crazy good skills! You should tell her!”

Max sighs, looking both frustrated and conflicted. Her eyes roll up to the ceiling and stay there for a moment.  “Fine!” She finally replies, looking back at the guys, “Maybe I’ll tell her. But only her. If this gets out to anyone—”

“It won’t!” Lucas assures her, smiling. “I swear! We’re really good at keeping secrets!”

Mike can’t help but side-eye Lucas. If Dustin had thought that Mike was totally in love with El (which he WASN’T, just for the record), he would only need to look at Lucas right now — all smiles and bright-eyes and blushing cheeks.

Max eyes both of them but nods, her worries seemingly appeased for the time being. “Good,” she states, uncrossing her arms and putting them in her pockets.

There’s a beat of silence between the trio, all unsure of what to do next.

Thankfully, Lucas speaks up again with a tentative offer. “Well, uh, if you want, we could, like…uh, play together? Maybe you could…uh…show us how you got…uh…your high, uh, score?”

Mike is certain that he’s never heard anyone use “uh” more in a sentence before. Nevertheless, he knows how much this would mean to Lucas, as much as Lucas may try to deny it.

“Yeah!” Mike says, rushing to Lucas’ aid. “We could do Defender or Dragon’s Lair — we’re both really good at those.”

“I don’t think so,” Max says, shaking her head dismissively. “I’ve already been here all morning. I got places to be.”

She looks nervous, and at first it confuses Mike, but then he realizes that Max Mayfield is blushing. Why? Was she shy? Could it actually be because of Lucas? Maybe Will’s theory was actually right…  

“Oh,” Lucas replies, looking a little dejected.

“Thanks anyway, though,” Max adds, sounding sincere.

“You’re welcome!” Lucas replies with more enthusiasm. “We’re gonna be here all day, if you, uh, wanna come back.”

“You seriously play here all day?” Max questions, a small smirk on her face.

Lucas hesitates. “...Yes?”

“You guys are such nerds,” Max says with an eye-roll, though her tone is light-hearted.

“Well, you kind of are, too,” Lucas points out, “I mean —” His sentence trails off as he motions to the arcade.

Max blushes more now, and it’s such an uncharacteristic look for her that Mike is completely taken aback to see it.

“Whatever,” Max replies, pulling her hood lower over her face. She grabs her skateboard, which has been resting against the Dig-Dug console this entire time, and turns to leave.

“See ya’ around, dweebs,” She says, punching Lucas in the arm as she walks past.

“Bye!” Lucas replies eagerly, waving to her as she leaves.

Mike can’t help but smile at Lucas, and it isn’t until Max walks out the front doors of the arcade that Lucas even notices.

“What?” He asks, looking at Mike defensively.

“Nothing!” Mike replies, still grinning.

“Mike, seriously,” Lucas complains, giving him a look.

“It’s seriously nothing,” Mike insists, then, unable to help himself, lightly punches Lucas in the arm, “Dweeb.”

Lucas blushes again. His gaze moves back to the Dig-Dug high score screen, and he sighs wistfully. “She’s so cool.”

“You should ask her to Homecoming,” Mike says sincerely.

Lucas eyes him. “I’ll ask Max to Homecoming when you ask El,” He replies dryly.

It’s Mike’s turn to blush now. “What!?”

“Exactly.”

“Exactly what?”

“Face it, Mike, even though he’s an idiot sometimes, Dustin has a point. Girls like that aren’t into guys like us.”

“You don’t know that!” Mike insists, “Anything could happen!”

“Just because it could doesn’t mean it will.”

“Doesn’t mean that it won’t.”

Lucas still looks unsure, but he sighs again, seemingly compliant. “I guess. I just don’t wanna get my hopes up, you know?”

He definitely knows. As supportive as Mike wants to be, he knows deep down that, if the tables were turned, the same sentiments wouldn’t improve how he felt about his current status with El. Still, Mike doesn’t want to dwell on his insecurities for too long, that’ll only make things worse.

“Hey,” he says instead, giving Lucas a light nudge, “Why don’t we try to beat Max’s score on Dig-Dug?”

Lucas looks at him, stunned. “Are you serious? That’s going to be impossible.”

“Yeah, but imagine how impressed she’d be,” Mike pauses before adding, “Or pissed. She might get mad. But even then, she’ll have to come back and play again to beat you. You’d get to see her, probably even talk to her.”  

Lucas thinks about this for a moment, a hesitant smile growing on his face. “Do you think that’d actually work?”

Mike shrugs. “Why not?”

And that’s how, 35 quarters and 2 hours later, Lucas gets the high score of 752,001 on Dig-Dug. Mike cheers him on the whole time, and when Lucas enters his name into the leaderboard, seeing it beside Max’s just feels right.

[seawolvesanddragons]

Stranger Things Season Three Thoughts (SPOILERS)

I watched the first four episodes of ST3 with my cousin over a period of two nights, then binge-watched the final four today. Some assembled thoughts:

-sadly, I knew from spoilers from news articles on my phone (which I literally couldn’t avoid because I can’t take them off my screen, which pissed me off, so thanks Buzzfeed and other online magazines) that someone was going to die and found out in between the first four and the last four that Robin was gay. I’m thrilled Robin is lesbian, but irritated that those scenes got ruined for me because magazines can’t keep spoilers out of their freaking article headlines.

-on a whole, season three was...pretty good. I’ll stand by that. However, I think I liked season 1 and 2 better. This season was clearly more about character development then action, which can be really great, but then when the side-plots and action scenes they used to fill the episodes between character development just felt really, really slow.

-they spent a lot of time on side characters (Ms Wheeler and all that lifeguard nonsense, the Mayor, random scenes of the carnival) that took time away from main characters story time, which I didn’t like

-literally every time I see Ms Wheeler and Billy interact I feel physically ill

-El and Max friendship is wonderful

-The kids are some of my favorite characters in this series, and I was sad that we really didn’t get to see them interact a lot as a group. Even when they were all in the same room, it was only when there was a lot of action. We saw the boys interact. We saw eleven and Max be friends. We saw the couples interact. But I would love more scenes like when they welcomed Dustin home, or odd pairings: Lucas and El doing target practice together, Will and Max kicking ass at video games, Dustin, Max and Will going to see a movie together via Steve. Just...we had to just kind of assume these kids are all friends instead of them really SHOWING it

-Then we had the Big Fight between Will, Lucas and Mike (with Dustin thrown in there at times) because...all they care about is their girlfriends now, which sucks and really isn’t healthy, and the whole episode showed that Will was still feeling out of place, like something more than the Mind Flayer changed. And then, for the rest of the season they just...forgot about Will? He suddenly barely had any lines, hardly interacted with anyone - and I don’t get why. It’s like they don’t know what to do with him when he isn’t possessed. The others have clear roles - Lucas the Prepared Ranger, Mike the Leading Paladin, Eleven the Mage, Max the Healer/Cleric, Dustin the Rogue/Bard, Nancy and Johnathan the Detectives, but with Will, they just...left him there. Which was very frustrating

-I loved The Scoops team (though Erica got on my nerves a little at times) but I wish Dustin had been able to interact more with the other kids. I get they were fighting, but some occasional radio contact would have been nice. The duo of him and Steve is great, no argument, but not at the total expense of him with his buddies.

-I’ve known Billy was doomed since I heard his name (people with “B” don’t last long in this show) and honestly? I really don’t care that he’s dead. I feel bad for Max, who had to witness it. I understand that Billy was abused by his father, and had hard prepubescent and teenage years. But Billy also abused and terrorized people, and Season 3 did not show that he had changed. It was not his sole fault he became an abuser and a bully, but he is not absolved of his actions. Also, it would have been bullshit if Billy survived when every other person the mind flayer got was killed off.

--Hawkins as a town has GOT to be suspicious of what is going on

--Robin a wonderful and I love her

--Erica as a math genius!

--The latter half of this season had some steller Nancy-Mike interactions, which I had missed in season two and the first part of season 3. I’m glad the Duffers finally remembered they’re related

--Hopper had some serious temper problems this season that had me very wary of him as a character

-I know a lot of people are angry because of Erica’s capitalism (which...she’s ten. It’s the 80′s. She’s repeating what she has heard her father and the news say.) and the whole coke thing and the evil Russians but I really am just too tired of fans to care about it. The first two seasons had evil Americans. Hell so did this season. Russia and America were locked in an arms race. I never cared about Coke to begin with. Let me just enjoy the show.

-I liked that they had to take lengths to split the groups up in this season. Scoop Troop was out of range underground. Hopper and Joyce were on the run. Nancy and Johnathan did manage to get a hold of the kids. My thoughts when Will realized the Mind Flayer was back while Joyce was learning magnets don’t work and Nancy discover rats were rabid was “now, given all the crazy shit that happened the last two years, why wouldn’t they immediately get the whole gang together to solve this more quickly. They know how this works by now.” And there was a reason that they, for the most part, couldn’t do that.

-I understand this is the 80s and summertime, and it’s explained the Wheelers just...don’t keep up with their kids (again, your kids were both caught up in some sort of government stuff less then two years ago. WHY aren’t you keeping up with them?) but Erica says that her mom would be keeping tabs on her (at least, if not her and Lucas) and Dustin JUST got home, surely his mom is trying to spend time with him? They were 100 percent gone for over 24 hours from their homes, every one of them. Why were the Hendersons and Sinclairs not looking?

-Hopper ain’t dead. No body, the American at the end, and also I just don’t buy it. He’s coming back.

-Why the FUCK would Joyce move her kids away at this point? I get she doesn’t want anything else bad to happen but...her kids were traumatized and also they developed a support system out of the friends that shared that trauma, or at least witnessed it. There is NOWHERE that she can move to where El and Will could find the support that their friends would give them.

-That being said, I hope this means we get awesome siblings El and Will next season, when the Byers move back to Hawkins. Because that is happening damn it.

-Stop killing off Joyce’s love interests. Let her be happy

-Joyce’s house survived the season (probably to let her sell it) and while I kind of wish it was destroyed so she couldn’t move - which is what I thought would happen - I’m kind of glad for the house.

-I kind of wanted to see the kids in high school - like, taking down bullies by using language and techniques both from their dnd games and their upside down adventures. Nancy and Johnathan setting straight any kid that dared mess with their little siblings. Steve giving advice to all of his children, but especially Dustin. Max joining the Basketball team.

-JUST LET THEM PLAY DND

-I know most people probably loved the inclusion of the Paranoid guy who could speak Russian being back, but honestly I found most of his scenes unnecessary. I kind of liked him in Season 2, with Johnathan and Nancy, but he just irritated me this season.

-Lucas and Will’s little smirks when Mike said he loved El were adorable

-Actually, there were a lot of good little Will and Lucas friendship moments this season

-I felt there was a lot of focus on Hopper and Joyce’s storyline, at the expense of the other two/three or “kids storylines” and I wish they hadn’t. For one, their storyline was very straightforward - it wasn’t so much a “mystery to solve” as it was a “outrun the enemy” storyline, and it took away from time they could have given to showing the kids interacting and developing.

-the COLORS this season I really did love all the cinematography

-is there any explanation for the green acidic goo?

-Detective Byers. I love it. Make it happen.

-how did the mindflayer get in El’s leg? Is it after her because she...opened it? Because it want’s her powers? Is it going to go after Will at all?

-no one found how quickly this Mall went up to be suspicious at all? It’s been like...8 months since the scientists got booted out.

-Can Steve, Nancy and Johnathan PLEASE interact?

-Nancy and Robin for the next female bffs please

-I love how Robin tried to be all “Nancy Wheeler is a Priss” and Steve Harrington, who has seen Nancy Wheeler, certifiable badass, fight monsters and take down governments, is like “no, no she really is NOT.”

--Not only did Stranger Things kill a LOT of people this season, they had their characters kill as well. While none of the kids did (thank god) both Nancy and Johnathan killed in self defence at the hospital. Hopper killed (though that isn’t super unusual) and Joyce was 100 percent prepared to kill. Steve (after finally winning a fight) was tortured. That’s a great deal of trauma for the older set to go through, on top of everything else, and I wish they would acknowledge it.

-look I just need all the fanfics now of all the kids/older teens interacting and being friends in middle and high school.