#having lumax thoughts

[elekinetic]

lucas is ten years old, and he has made a mortal enemy. there is an owl living in the tree just outside his bedroom window and he freaking hates it, okay? it’s so loud and annoying and smug and it won’t stop “hoooing” all night long — or however you spell it. whatever. and look, lucas has never been one for violence, but there is a reason he asked his parents for a wrist rocket last christmas, and no, he hasn’t hit the stupid bird yet but one of these days he’s gonna get it, and he’s gonna take the fucker down, right between it’s freaky yellow eyes, and he’ll finally get a good night’s sleep. just you wait.

lucas is twelve years old, and he’s wide awake. and yeah, the owl is still freaking hooting even though he DEFINITELY hit its foot like, four weeks ago. but that’s not why he’s up. will’s missing, and mike’s mad at him, and that weird bald girl is messing everything up and…well. lucas isn’t crying, okay? lucas is fine, and if you tell erica anything otherwise he’s gonna hit you with his wrist rocket which is a serious threat because he’s gotten so much better. even if the owl hasn’t left yet. even if he asked his parents to call animal control because it’s been three years, you guys and it’s still yelling into his bedroom window. HOOT, HOOT, even right now. it’s fine. he’ll get it eventually, he just needs a plan. he’ll come up for a plan to get rid of the owl, just like he’ll come up with a plan to save will. if mike and dustin won’t help him, he’ll do it himself.

lucas is fourteen years old, and oh my god, he GOT IT. HE FINALLY FREAKING GOT IT. it took him half a decade, but he borrowed a teammate’s BB gun and managed to knock down its nest. and lucas doesn’t get why that was what got it to leave because it’s the most stubborn motherfucker he’s ever met, and he’s friends with dustin, but maybe it’s some kind of animal thing where you leave when your house gets wrecked and you’re too scared to build a new one. honestly, lucas doesn’t give a shit. the bird is gone, and that’s what matters. five freaking years of obnoxious hooting at 2am, over! peace at last! SILENCE at last! he wants to get up and jump on the bed, but maybe that’s immature of him. maybe he’s too excited about this. maybe he was right to tell his teammate it was to show off for a girl (which, he would’ve, gladly, if she’d come over or return any of his calls). maybe… maybe… maybe lucas should go to bed.

lucas is sixteen years old, and his bedroom is quiet. max is alive—thank god—and okay and healing and kind of happy, and vecna is dead and his friends and his family are safe and….god. they won. they won months ago, and it’s almost been a year, but lucas still has a hard time believing it. (his bedroom is quiet.) they tried so hard for so long and came so close to losing, and lucas hasn’t quite shaken that constant paranoia. “stay alert, stay alive,” is what they’d say when they went on patrols. (quiet.) he held max’s hand today and it was warm and she smiled at him, and it almost made him forget how cold her hands used to be. he remembers the hospital. he remembers the first days, when max had bloody bandages around her eyes. (quiet.) when she didn’t have the bandages, when it was just blood. he remembers holding her when she said she didn’t want to die (quiet.) and he said she wouldn’t and she needed to hold on cause the paramedics were almost there (quiet.) he remembers her dying and yeah she came back but she died. she died she died she died, and lucas’ room is so fucking quiet.

it’s ridiculous, really. the world ended, and they all lived. this is happily ever after. they saved the day.

he misses the stupid owl.

[delta-piscium]

anyways, them

[butterflysonnets]

yes i'm rooting for m*leven breakup because byler is neat but mostly? i'm rooting for m*leven breakup for the sake of el and mike.

to me, their romance was always a puppy love born out of a combination of social pressures, naïve curiosity, and a lack of true understanding regarding intimacy and romantic love and what it really is. it was real in that they do truly, deeply care about each other and they are close friends, maybe even shared an attraction, but a maturing romance is so much more than that. they've grown up and out of being boyfriend/girlfriend, and that's okay! i think television/film needs to show more often that most of us don't have definite "soulmates" or first childhood loves that we spend our whole lives with. it doesn't mean these relationships meant nothing and didn't impact us, it just means they've run their course and that something else is in the cards, and this is part of life!

i've always felt el was at her best and most confident self when broken up with mike, discovering who she was and what she liked alongside another girl her age instead of just relying on mike for mentorship on how to live in the real world. she deserves more of an opportunity to find herself, her autonomy, and her independence, and to love who she is, and she's made it clear she's felt insecure in the relationship with mike because she isn't being loved and understood the way she wants, needs, and deserves from someone who is her partner.

also, it's okay if mike doesn't love her in "the way he should". he is not obligated to love her romantically and stay in a relationship with her just because she's a girl, because she "needed someone", or because he cares about her a lot. he shouldn't be pressured into a romance if it's not truly coming from his heart. he deserves freedom to find out and honour who he is, too, instead of just staying in his non-functional first relationship — one he got into as a child, essentially — and defining himself that way because it's what's expected when a boy and a girl are close. he loves her in some way, yes, but it's okay if he doesn't feel comfortable or secure being her boyfriend anymore, for whatever reason that is. he's felt insecure too, and that's valid and it matters.

they are their own people and are steadily growing and changing every day. they need time to figure out who those people are, and it's become clear (at least in my opinion) that those people aren't meant to be a couple at this stage.

they deserve freedom. they deserve to grow up and be authentic to themselves and not feel like they need to lie for the sake of a relationship. they deserve to move on from this version of their relationship that isn't making them happy and rekindle the best part of their bond: their strong, beautiful friendship. they don't have to be a couple if it doesn't make them stronger and better and happier people.

i think it would be healthy and wonderful for a show, especially one consumed frequently by young adults, to show a relationship starting, progressing, and ending on good terms in this way. sometimes things don't work out, and that is okay.

[antisociallilbrat]

My problem is that I ship Lucas with literally all of the Party members.

[astrobei]

being mean and evil with @elekinetic and thinking about max getting vecna’d the second time trusting that lucas will be there to catch her and put the headphones on for her like they did the first time, like he promised he would do if it started getting bad. and the whole time she’s in there she’s realizing it is getting bad, and that maybe she’s already started to rise into the air like she did last time, and she isn’t able to break free like before, and she’s waiting and waiting for the music to start. but it never does

[lucassinclaer]

i've once again neglected my joyceposting

[will80sbyers]

thank god they are still in love more than ever and will have the happy ending they deserve.

[upsidedog]

truly not that deep, not that big of a deal, no ill will, but posts along the lines of “lumax is the most healthy couple in stranger things” are super common and i kind of really don’t like them.

more than anything it just feels like a blatant misread of their relationship. like they definitely aren’t toxic or anything, but they are literally broken up in season four, they objectively have things they need to work on. and that’s fine btw! that’s part of what makes them interesting! easily one of the my favorite parts of lucas on the line was lucas contentiously failing to understand max’s grief and feeling resentful towards her because he couldn’t. this was because despite his frustration he still loved max, he still tried to connect with her. he will never fully understand her grief, he will learn how to accommodate it eventually, but even by the end of season four they aren’t really there yet. and that’s special, that’s interesting, that’s a flaw in their relationship worth exploring. it’s kind of like by ignoring their flaws you’re saying there’s nothing to be discussed, when really they are like one of the relationships most worthy of discussion.

[ghostlynimbus]

Characters I'm currently trying to develop more for my gods and goddesses au:

- Jonathan Byers

- Max Mayfield

- Heather Holloway

[faithfulcat111]

I have also been thinking of a truly crackpot-level ST AU that I'll probably never write but is very tempting to edit to but it is one that I'd have to assign everyone to a character. Problem is I have to pick someone to be the character who gets 'along' with everyone else (even though most of them barely tolerate them) and I cheered when they died. My first instinct is Eddie but I feel like that might be a little harsh even for me.

[dxncingwithastrxnger]

Mike/El/Lucas/Max polyship where Max is all like [Boyfriend By Dove Cameron] but at both Mike AND El so she's just like, "Hey, El, I could be a better boyfriend than Mike" but then also just like, "Hey, Mike, I could be a better boyfriend than El" and then Lucas is just like, "I don't know, I just really love you both a lot, Max just wants to be dramatic about it"

[ghostywispe]

the copses bride but its byler

[donghuamuqing]

Its not wip wednesday but im working so hard on this rn and wanted to share

[elandfriends]

I really don't understand how you can hate Max Mayfield, like for real though. She's just like amazing and gorgeous and cute and...

Anyways... so I was looking at people's reasons to hate Max so may people are like "SHe hAs A diFFeRenT PeRsonAliTY EvERy sEAsOn" like no shit. She has character development. She's a teen with trauma and that shit manifests in different ways.

[elekinetic]

what’s your favorite thing about lumax and their story??

oh boy hmm. probably how real their love is? how despite how tumultuous their relationship has been, they keep choosing each other. how lucas is so incredibly mature, how he waits for max even when she doesn't know how to come back to him. how max still loves him (listening to game on radio) despite trying not to. how they're best friends first. how much they love each other. how much they love each other. how much they love each other.

[trobeds]

sorry for filling your dash with lumax i actually dont regret shit. feel emotions about them or suffer in silence