#like..... the mirror....Vecna etc etc

[will80sbyers]

a sad cookie :(

[crappymixtape]

baby let me in

REQUEST → @thecreelhouse , SUMMER BLURB PARTY ❝ 🌘 because of you prompt – angsty in-between at steve’s house post-upside down –* steve drives you home after vecna and cleans you up, but who’s gonna help him? | ( 1.2k – TW: blood, wounds, etc // steve harrington x reader, lovesick and a lil fluffy )

B A B Y L E T M E I N 🎶 even if the world don’t understand you, aquilo

Everything was a little hazy around the edges, soft in the low light of Steve’s parents’ room, your bare figures swimming in navy shadows and slivers of gold from the lamp on the nightstand. In any other circumstance this would feel different, charged, skin to skin on the bed and close enough to see the steady rising and falling of Steve’s breaths, but it wasn’t.

It felt like something between grieving and falling onto your knees in relief. Felt like gasping for air after being under water too long. Like you’d both lost something out there in the Upside Down and were leading each other through the dark, finding and feeling your way together.

Bent low over a box of medical supplies, Steve sorted through band-aids and rubbing alcohol, gauze and thread and needles – a first aid kit for monsters. He’d just finished cleaning and covering up the last cut on your back, hands sure and steady as he taped you up before carefully tucking the antibiotic ointment back into place.

The rush of adrenaline was long gone now, exhaustion creeping in around the edges of the bed as you sat knee to knee and cross-legged next to each other on the duvet. Steve had given you an old, oversized Journey tee to wear, the hem dancing just above your knees, but was shirtless himself. Wearing only a pair of old basketball shorts that hung low on his hips and you couldn’t help letting your eyes trail lazily over him.

Damp hair stuck messy across his forehead, a mark to match yours squeezing around his neck, his jaw half-cast in shadow – so stoic, so calm. His lashes were a long sweep over his cheek bones, gaze low in his lap, his lips twisted in concentration.

Pretty. So pretty. Even like this.

The muscles in his arm flexed as he spun the lid closed on the rubbing alcohol, his bare chest warm in the low light, like his skin held summer underneath it. You traced the bob of his Adam’s apple, the small tick of concentration in his jaw, soft slope of his shoulders, down, down, down, until your eyes caught on his shoulder blade.

Bright red.

An angry looking cut courtesy of a demobat or maybe the tangled vines that crept through the Creel house and it made your stomach knot with worry.

“Steve–” you started and it pulled his gaze up from his lap.

“Hm?” came out tired, but when he met your eyes and saw the furrow of your brow his own pinched together. “Oh–what is it? Your bandage?”

“No. It’s your shoulder blade,” you said softly, hand lifting to ghost over his back before pulling it back quickly.

He suddenly glanced away, nerves buzzing under his skin and shrugged it off, too casual for how bad it looked, “Oh, I’m okay.”

“Steve, it’s bleeding–”

“I’ll get it after I finish your stitches. Done it plenty of times.”

“But how can you reach–”

“Ah, I just turn around in the mirror and patch it up, it’s really no big deal. Don’t worry about me, Princess. I’ve had worse, it’s not impor–”

You grabbed his hand in yours, stopped him from digging out anymore supplies and he froze, the feeling of his fingers flexing against your palm making your heart stutter in your chest.

“Not important?” you finished his sentence for him, shaking your head, “Yes it is.”

Steve cleared his throat and tried to go back to finding a needle and thread, but you stopped him again and he listened this time.

“Let me help you…please?” you asked, meeting his gaze and his expression melted – soft, defeated.

“I just–it’s–it’s my job to take care of people, I gotta put them first because if I don't who's gonna make sure they're–”

“Steve,” you squeezed his hand, “It’s okay.”

And taking the box from him you let go of his hand and slowly moved around behind him, careful of your thigh, making sure to not bump the tape and gauze he'd pressed to it. Your eyes didn’t leave him, watching how his shoulders tensed, his pulse fluttering against his neck, the way he squeezed his eyes shut and tongue jammed into his cheek.

“It’s okay,” you said again and he nodded, eyes still closed.

“Okay,” he murmured.

Pulling a cotton ball from the supply box you uncapped the alcohol and wetted it, still watching. “This is probably gonna hurt,” you warned, eyes catching the way his hands balled into fists as he nodded quietly. Just get it over with. And when you pressed the cotton to his skin he sucked in a sharp breath through gritted teeth, a low rumble groaning in his chest.

“Sorry,” you worried, but he looped his hand around his back and pushed it to your waist.

“I’m alright, keep going,” he said, eyes still squeezed shut.

And so you cleaned it, slow, easy, gentle, as he winced and tensed and groaned, gripped your waist like a life line as you washed the blood from his back, red turning pink until you could see the cut clearly.

It wasn’t as bad underneath it all and when you placed the last piece of tape over the corner of gauze you let your hand linger on his back, your fingers resting on the ridge of his shoulder blade.

“Thanks,” he murmured, finally turning on the bed to face you.

A tiny smile flickered at the corner of your lips, but it faded the longer you looked at him. “Why don’t you think you’re important too?” fell out before you could bite it back and your cheeks warmed when his eyes widened.

“Well, I guess I just…I’m the oldest and those kids need me and as long as they’re safe then…” he drifted off at the end, hand moving to rub at the back of his neck and you took his hand again.

“Who’s making sure you’re safe?”

And it quickly pulled his eyes back up to meet yours. Warm honey and burnt caramel, a muddied mixture of surprise and bewilderment and deep gratitude.

“I…” he started, but couldn’t finish and you reached up to tuck a lock of hair out of his face.

“You’re important too, Steve,” you said softly.

And your words struck him heavy, his throat squeezing around everything he wanted to say to you, blinking rapidly against the stinging in the corners of his eyes. He tried to will it away but knew it was no use and closed them tight, tears slipping between his lashes and down his cheeks.

“Okay,” he said, voice thick as he let you pull him close to settle into the crook of your neck, his arms wrapping wide and warm around your waist.

And you sat like that there in the dark of the room, in the strange little bubble you’d created for yourselves out of vulnerability and trust, peeling back your layers and letting each other in. Seeing each other for the first time. Learning each other for who you really were.

A new start. A fresh start.

I’ll make sure you’re safe.

crappymixtape™ • steve harrington masterlist // stranger things masterlist ♥️ reblogs and comments keep me going, friends! ily! ♥️

[ijustwanttoreadfanfiction]

Friendly Sex - Chapter 1 - The Party

Eddie Munson X AFAB!Reader

Your 6 year long unrequited crush on Steve Harrington is starting to wear thin, and after discovering Eddie Munson feels the same way about Chrissy Cunningham you decide to make a pact. After all, what's the harm in a little casual sex between friends?

  A/N: Story opens April 1986. Slight AU, all the events of seasons 1, 2 and 3 happened, except Hopper didn't get transported to Russia, the gate was closed and Joyce, Hopper, Jonathan, Will and Jane all move to California as one big happy family. Jonathan and Nancy break up (necessary for plot, apologies to any shippers). Nancy and Steve are together. Reader is 18 and in final year at Hawkin's High School, alongside Robin and Eddie etc. Reader works at Family Video with Robin & Steve. Vecna storyline is not a thing, strange things will not be happening. This has been festering in my brain and I don't know what to do with it, so, tada!

Warnings: NSFW. SMUT, (MDI) 18+ only, drugs, sex, alcohol, underage drinking, public sex, dirty talk, name calling in sex (consensual), explicit language, adult themes, there will be angst, it will get messy.

More warnings to be added.

Revised edition.

************************************************************************

  It was Robin’s idea to go to the party, one of those let’s have a party for the sake of having a party, parties, the all American standard, under-age keg fest.

It was an unwelcome change from your regularly scheduled Saturday night plans of doing nothing.

But argue as you might, Robin had made it clear you were going, even if she had to drag you.

"I'm tired of watching your ass wallow in self-pity." She said in true blunt Robin fashion, pulling outfit after outfit out of your closet, throwing them haphazardly in your general direction.

"I thought you loved watching my ass." You bite back, holding up a rust-coloured corduroy mini skirt to your hips.

"Ha, ha. I'm serious though dude, this whole moping Minnie routine is getting old, you just need to get out there and get yourself laid." She groans, pushing past you, flopping face first onto your bed in frustration.

"The skirt looks good, you should wear it with your tan knee highs." She adds, laying on her front to look at you.

"I'm working on it Rob." You grumble, fishing your boots out from under a pile of clothes. "It's not easy to let go of a 6 year crush you know."

"Well maybe if you had made a move 6 years ago, we wouldn't be in this mess." She huffs in exaggeration.

"Gee, you're right, let me just hop in my time machine, go back and tell my 12-year-old self to man up and ask out Steve Harrington. Huzzah!" You quip dryly, yanking the zipper of your boots up none too gently.

  "Honestly Harrington has a lot to answer for, it's like the women of Hawkin's see him and suddenly all rational thought disappears." Robin laughs.

"It's the hair." You agree, fluffing up your own in the mirror. "And only the great Robin Buckley, lesbian superheroine, is immune to its hypnotic powers."

"Then I must use my powers for good!" She declares in a manly tone, hauling herself off the bed to wrap her arms around your shoulders. "My mission, gentle citizen, is to break the spell cast over you." She places a wet kiss on your cheek casting an appraising eye over your finished ensemble. "Very hot."

  ***

  It's not that you disliked parties, after all it was a time honoured tradition to go to some random person's house whilst their parents where out of town and get absolutely wasted, chintzy picture perfect living rooms suddenly overrun with overactive hormones, sweaty bodies and dubious punch bowls, however after the initial buzz wore off you usually found yourself longing for the quiet solitude of your bedroom. Of course, when you express this to Robin, after half an hour of being there, she merely rolls her eyes in disgust, thrusting another cup of mystery alcohol in your hand, ushering you back into the throng of young adults.

"Would you stop?" She implores, holding your left shoulder with her free hand. "Your problem is you think too much. So, give those little grey cells a break by killing some of them off." She lifts her own drink in a mock toast, nodding at you to do the same.

"You are a terrible friend." You relent with a laugh, toasting quickly and taking a gulp, face scrunched up in distaste as the alcohol burns your throat.

"The very worst." She says with an evil grin, which fades somewhat as she focuses on something behind you. You turn towards the source, and despite knowing what you would see, your stomach still swoops uncomfortably at the sight of Steve or more precisely Steve with his arm wrapped around Nancy Wheeler looking incredibly loved up. "Shit." Robin declares.

"Shit." You agree flatly. 

  You move to go back towards the kitchen, but Robin takes your hand, holding you in place, Steve having already spotted you both, his own hand thrown up in greeting, weaving through the crowd with Nancy in tow.

"Fancy seeing you fine ladies here." Steve grins broadly, leaning in to give each of you a one-armed hug, your skin burning from his touch.

"Fancy that." Robin agrees sheepishly, you get a grim sense of satisfaction at the uncomfortable look on her face.

Nancy, who had been hanging off of Steve's free arm for the majority, leans forward to speak to you over the pounding music. "I love your skirt Y/n." She smiles sweetly; and you feel the rather irrational urge to stick pins in her bright blue eyes.

"Thanks Nancy." You call back, trying to return her smile. "I- uh -I like your bracelet." You say, noticing a golden glimmer on her wrist, plastering on the enthusiasm.

Nancy, being an actual angel, flushes with pleasure at your compliment. "Steve bought it for me." She sighs, toying with the gold bangle,

and you try not to urge as they share a sickening saccharine look.

"Of course he did." You mutter grudgingly to yourself, desperately wanting to escape.

"What did you say Y/n?" Steve asks absent-mindedly, still gazing at Nancy.

"I'm gonna grab another drink." You say in a clearer voice, not that it mattered, because at that moment Steve seemed to find a very interesting spot on Nancy's neck that required the immediate attention of his mouth. Grimacing you slip past them, purposely ignoring Robin's pleading calls for a top up and/or a sick bucket.

  Reaching the kitchen, you chug a cup of punch straight off, before refilling it to the brim, whilst you knew alcohol wouldn't solve your problems it could certainly try and soothe the jealous beast currently roaring in your head at the human octopus that was Stancy.

Deciding the garden was the best place to avoid a front row seat to the lovefest, you steer your body around bumping and grinding couples, careful not to spill a drop of your precious emotional medicine. The backyard to your pleasant surprise is empty, the party having not yet spilled out, and the chilly night air was a welcome contrast to the stale humidity inside. You wander out onto the pristine lawn, and find yourself releasing a breath you didn't realize you had been holding, ears ringing slightly as they adjusted to the now muffled thumping bass.

"Well, well, well what brings you out here Sweetheart?"

You groan heavily at the teasing drawl behind you.

"I was trying to get some peace and quiet, but that's not likely to happen with you around, is it Munson?" You sigh, turning to face Eddie Munson who was perched on a swing set to the far right, slightly obscured in semi-darkness, but a Cheshire cat grin clearly plastered on his face.

"Ouch, you wound me." He says, placing a dramatic hand over his heart, still grinning away like an idiot. "Seriously though, I wouldn't have pegged you for this kinda gig." He gestures with his head back towards the party.

"It was Robin's idea." You mutter darkly, glaring towards the shut French doors.

"Well, if looks could kill, I'm guessing you'll have a best friend vacancy by this time tomorrow." He laughs again, which irritates you further. 

  "What are you doing here?" You deflect back, hiccupping slightly as you drink some more punch. "Place is like jock city in there, hardly your regular stomping ground either."

He nudges a battered black tin lunch-box with his foot, slightly tucked under the swing. "You know me sweetheart, got a business to run, empires to build, horizons to expand." He says with the usual Eddie flair.

"Dealing drugs to inebriated teens, I should've guessed." You say wryly, rolling your eyes.

"You make it sound so dirty." He mocks you, irritating smirk still fixed.  "And you've never complained before." He reminds you pointedly.

Whilst far from being a hardcore user, you were a semi- frequent customer of Eddie's when it came to weed, finding him to be discreet, reliable and most importantly for your minimum wage ass, cheap.

"Well maybe I'm in the mood to complain tonight," You mutter suddenly feeling bitter about the way the night had gone downhill so quickly, scuffing your boot into the neatly trimmed grass.

Eddie leans down to extract something from his tin.

"Joint for your thoughts?" He offers, holding out a perfectly rolled spliff, quickly adding. "No charge." You mull it over for all of 2 seconds, concluding your jealous inner demon will not be calmed by alcohol alone. 

  "'Atta girl!" He calls happily as you stomp over to squeeze beside him, he pats your knee in encouragement, then lights up, graciously passing you the joint for the first drag which you take gratefully.

You both sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes, offering the smoke back and forth. You could tell straight away that the weed was a much higher quality than you could ever normally afford and therefore hoped its soothing effects would kick in a lot quicker.

"Soooo," Eddie gently ventures after a few more minutes, "you wanna walk about it?" 

"What's there to talk about, I'm in love with a guy who is in love with someone else." You shrug on a heavy exhale.

Eddie whistles between his teeth, regarding you carefully as you take another hit.

"Ah, that old cliche huh?" He nudges you lightly, taking the joint back for his turn.

Now Eddie had said it, you couldn't help but laugh in agreement.

"I guess it is pretty clichéd." 

"Yup no points for originality this time princess. So, who's Captain Oblivious?" He asks, offering you another hit, shaking your head you opt to take a swig of alcohol, mentally bracing yourself for Eddie's inevitable teasing.

"Steve Harrington." You sigh glumly into your cup.

Eddie let out a muttered "Damn." 

"The former King of Hawkin's High himself. I don't envy you there babe."

  You snatch the joint back from his ringed fingertips, fed up with his teasing. "Don't take the piss Eddie, I'm not in the mood." You mumble defensively, leaning forward so as not to see the smirk on his face.

"Hey." He says in a surprisingly genuine tone, his hand rubbing your back, making you turn to look at him. "I'm not ragging on you sweetheart. Harrington is a nice enough guy now he's not hanging out with the douchebag brigade. I can see why you'd like him."

You lean back and Eddie slips his arm around your shoulders. 

"Well, I'm glad you can see it, he doesn't even know I exist, at least not in the way I want him to." You sigh, resting your head on his arm, seeing off the last of your drink and feeling distinctly sorry for yourself. 

You both lapse into silence again, the swing swaying gently beneath you as you burn through more of the joint , somewhere inside the house voices were shouting "Keg! Keg! Keg!"

  After a few moments, Eddie shifts slightly, arm wrapping more securely around you.

"Can I tell you something?" He asks, sounding nervous.

"I mean I just bared my soul to you, so I guess it's only fair." You murmur, glancing up at him.

He breathes a heavy sigh, right leg jiggling.

"I have been head over heels in love with Chrissy Cunningham since middle school." He confesses with a wince.

You wanted to say something encouraging, maybe even profound, or at the very least offer some words of comfort, so you felt a little guilty when you couldn't suppress the giggle that passed your lips.

"Chrissy Cunningham?!" You exclaim, staring at him wide-eyed "Cheerleader extraordinaire, Chrissy Cunningham?"

He looks at you, lips pressed tight as though he was trying to hold back his own laughter. 

"Yep." Letting the 'p' pop. "Ever since she shook her pom-poms in the talent show."

You were barely holding it together, attempting to keep your voice level as you spoke. 

"Wait, wait. So not only are we both in love with two very attractive people who are waaaay out of our league, these people are also in long term committed relationships with two other very attractive people." 

Your statement hung in the air for a second, both of you then erupting into fits of laughter at the ridiculousness of the situation.

  Eddie chuckled throatily around the stub of the joint, almost burnt out. "Oh man, we are pathetic." Shaking his head.

You jam your elbow lightly into his ribs. "Hey, speak for yourself!" You jokingly admonish. 

"What, you think you have a chance?" He snorts incredulously.

You pretend to weigh up your options.

"If Nancy Wheeler gets hit by a bus, sure I'll shoot my shot… after an extended mourning period of course." You say.

"Of course." Eddie agrees, both of you collapsing into fits of uncontrollable giggles once more, fuelled on by excessive alcohol and weed.

  "So, what do you think you need to do to get over little old Stevie?" Eddie asks you somewhat more seriously, stamping the remainder of the joint out under his sneakers, leaning back against the swing, taking you under his arm again.

You shrug, settling comfortably against him, staring up at the night sky, your own arm wrapping lightly about his waist. "Robin says I just need to get laid." You sigh flatly.

"I mean it's not the worst suggestion in the world." He says reasonably. 

"Yeah, but c'mon Munson, guys aren't exactly queued around the block waiting to give me a service." You say, gesturing to the empty garden, Eddie pulling a face at your phrasing.

"Maybe that's because you've spent the past however many years with your Harrington blinkers on." He suggests, and it hits a nerve within you, quite often you wondered if you had missed opportunities with other guys because of your Harrington fixation. Your first and thus far only proper relationship, at 16 ,was doomed to fail from the start as Bobby Cooper just couldn't live up to the standards you had set in your daydreams of Steve.

"Well, what about you and your Chrissy conundrum? Your on-tap supply of groupies not helping to ease the pain?" You bite back, on the defensive.

Rather than get shitty with you, Eddie just gives you the classic Munson smirk.  

"You think I’m good enough to have groupies?" He teases, squeezing your side, with a saucy eyebrow raise.

You pinch him back playfully. "I've seen you play Eddie; you know you're good." You admit with a smile.

He heaves a dramatic sigh, hand to his brow like some wretchedly poor southern belle.

"And yet, the tour bus-"

"Your van?" You chip in snidely.

"-my van" He ruefully concedes "is decidedly empty, even with the new air freshener."

"It's a crying shame, Eds." You laugh, patting his cheek.

  He places an affectionate kiss on your head, cuddling you closer against the chilly breeze, it feels nice to be held, and even nicer to talk to someone so openly, other than Robin of course.

You lapse into comfortable silence once more, the strains of some Blondie song thumping from inside, the party was kicking up a gear but you found yourself lost in thought.

You had always had a soft spot for Eddie, conversation flowed easily enough, and you appreciated his dry sense of humour, both of you were regular outcasts in comparison to rest of the high school cliques, and you had found yourselves in detention together more times than you cared to count; you had a bad habit of disagreeing with your English teacher. And if you were being honest, he was actually really kind of pretty when you took the time to really look at him, chocolate brown eyes, full lips, awesome hair.

You hadn't realised you had been staring at him until he cleared his throat, you pulled away from his arms sheepishly, cheeks aflame from the embarrassment of being caught out, but feeling sure Eddie had been staring at you for the same amount of time.

"Uh- sweetheart, and by all means please let me know if I have completely misread some signals here, but I think I may have found the solution to both our problems." It surprised you to hear a note of uncertainty in his voice, particularly as Eddie was normally shockingly cavalier to a fault, it made you turn back to face him.

"Go on…" You encouraged him, finding your mouth oddly dry.

  He took a deep breath, leaning closer, his arm snaking about your waist, warm fingertips tracing absentmindedly across the inch of exposed skin between your skirt and top, goose pimples erupting that made a shiver run up your spine.

"You need to get laid." He stated. "I need to get laid. We both have stuff we need to get out of our systems. You're a stand-up girl," he gave you a courteous nod. "...and I think I'm correct in saying you find me tolerable at the very least." The uncertainty was back, steeling yourself you placed a hand on his denim clad knee giving him a squeeze. 

"More than tolerable Eds." You offer a smile.

"Thanks sweetheart." He mutters blushing. "So, uh anyway, what I'm trying to say here is… in a pretty roundabout way and you can of course say no-"

"Eddie"

"Sorry, rambling, what I'm trying to say is we could… help each other out?" He was staring at you, pleading with you to chime in.

"You mean sex?" You ask slowly, noticing his blush creep up to his ears.

"Uh, y-yeah that thing." He stammers. "If you wanted to, with me, we could have sex as friends every now and then, friendly sex."

  You glanced at your wristwatch, 26 minutes ago you came out into the garden of some unknown person seeking a quiet place to drown your Steve induced sorrows, and now you were sitting next to Eddie Munson, seriously considering his offer of 'friendly sex'. Maybe Robin's kiss from earlier really had broken a spell, you laughed aloud at the thought, mirth quickly turning to frantic apologies at the look of horror on Eddie's face, forgetting that he was not privy to your inner monologue.

"Oh my god Eddie, no I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you!' You cried, cringing at your own social ineptitude.

"Hey, it's ok honey, I told you, it's cool if you don't want to-" His tone was calm, patting your side, making to stand and walk away with what little dignity he had left.

"NO! Don't go, I do want to!" You let out a shout, grasping his arm to pull him back down, your face burning in mortification that you essentially just begged Eddie to fuck you. 

"Alright sweetheart, calm down I'm not going anywhere, no need to shout." He soothed; devil- may-care smirk back in place, holding you firmly about the waist again. You tried to turn away at his teasing, but Eddie cupped your cheek, the numerous rings on his fingers cool against your prickling skin.

"I'm going to kiss you now." His voice low and surprisingly authoritative. "Ok?" He asks, inching closer to your lips. Unsure if you had the nerve to speak, you merely nod. "Use your words princess, I need you to tell me that it's ok for me to kiss you." He teased; lips just shy of brushing against yours.

"I-it's ok, kiss me, please." You whisper, hands fisted in his jacket, pulling him in to close the final gap.

Eddie surged forward with an urgency that made you gasp, kissing you hard, your teeth clacking together painfully but you didn't care, adrenaline coursing through your veins like rocket fuel. You quickly found the right rhythm for each other kissing back with equal enthusiasm, his grip tightened moving you to straddle his lap, with you kneeling. He kneaded your ass, grinding you down, you gasped feeling the hard outline of his dick, taking full advantage of your open mouth, his tongue slipping in to meet with yours. Releasing his jacket, you tangled your fingers in his hair, tugging harder than intended as Eddie nipped at your bottom lip, but he hardly seemed to care judging by the groan that escaped his throat. You smirked, tucking the knowledge away for later use, Eddie also appeared to be mentally cataloguing your reactions, like the way your hips rocked involuntarily as he sucked your neck just below your right ear, and how your breath hitched whilst he felt you up under your shirt, brushing the underside of your breast.

So lost in each other you didn't notice the sudden increase in noise coming from the party, signalling that someone had opened the screen door, it was the violent retching sound of vomiting that had you jumping apart as though you had been electrocuted, scrambling off Eddie's lap. You grimaced in disgust, Chance from the High School basketball team spewing chunks over the once pristine lawn, to the jeers of others inside.

  "Hey…" Eddie spoke breathlessly, pulling your attention back to him, his lips kiss bitten, pupils blown wide. "You uh, want to get out of here?"

Grinning you snatched up his hand pulling him none too gently in the direction of the back gate, the sound of Chance's digestive pyrotechnics mercifully fading away, Eddie now pulling you along in the opposite direction to the house.

My van is this way."

Your heels clacked against the concrete, the pair of you moving at a light jog, keen to pick where you left off, both breathless as you came up on Eddie's van.

"Your chariot milady." He gestured proudly to the beat up vehicle like it was Cinderella's magical pumpkin carriage.

"Eddie, calling me milady is a total turn off." You teased, nose wrinkling.

  He pulled you to him, spinning you so your back was pressed against the passenger side door, 

"Oh well in that case, I best stick to sweetheart, huh sweetheart?" Caging you, his smile almost predatory as he set to work sucking what would no doubt be a prize-winning hickey just above your throat.

You grabbed the scruff of his neck when the skin got too sensitive, pulling his lips back to yours, both of you fighting for dominance in the kiss, thoroughly making out. Eddie palmed your tits, as you reached down trailing a teasing hand along the bulge in his jeans, he broke the kiss huffing out a low "Shit…."

Feeling bold, you flashed him a mischievous grin, unbuckling his belt, your hand slipping inside the tight denim stroking his cock properly, he was fully hard, your thumb swiping a thick bead of pre-cum around the mushroomy head.

"You keep doing that sweetheart and I’ll have no choice but to fuck you right here in the street." Eddie panted against your neck, his words going straight to your cunt.  

"Promises, promises." You said with a purr, jerking him slowly.

He laughed breathlessly. "Fucking tease." His hands quickly hitching up your skirt, hips pressing you closer to the van, slipping your panties to the side, you gasped as he trailed a finger through your wetness up to your clit and back down again.

  "Jesus baby, you're soaked. All this for me?" He asks incredulously, kissing you deeply again, two fingers moving slowly pumping in and out of your cunt as his thumb plays with your clit. The pair of you working each other, quiet moans slipping past swollen lips 

"Eddie." You whined softly, there was a tiny voice in the back of your mind which was terrified about getting caught in such a compromising position, but a much louder voice was screaming, begging to let Eddie have his way with you in the street where anyone could see.

"What is it princess?" He murmured, biting at your lower lip.

"I want -" You hiccupped on a moan, all four of his fingers now working over your swollen clit, spreading the slick from your cunt, you could only hold his cock, brain not functioning enough under his ministrations.

Grinning, taunting you openly he nipped at the sweet spot under your ear, whispering "Use your words baby."

"Oh my god." You whimpered. The screaming in your brain reaching a fever pitch; you wanted him to fuck you, right now, you didn't care if you got caught. "Eddie, do it, fuck me, fuck me right here." You say frantically, his movements stilling in shock. 

"You sure sweetheart? I-I can wait, we don't have to do anything you don't wanna-" He cut off, watching as though in a trance, you turned yourself around, pushing your ass out toward him, in the dim streetlight your pussy glistened with wetness all swollen and pretty.

  "Ho-ly fuck." He breathed out in awe, fishing hurriedly for a condom in his jacket pocket. You were breathing hard against the passenger window, watching Eddie's reflection, staring, cheeks flushed with excitement and lust as he yanked his jeans and boxers down enough to free his length, panting as he rolled the condom on. Coming up behind you, he crowded you against the van once again, his body covering your back, feeling his cock line up with your entrance; shivering at the slow press and delicious stinging sensation as he worked his way in.

"Christ you're so fucking tight baby." He hissed, balls flush to your ass as he bottomed out, one hand coming up to play with your tits, the other bracing against the van as he started to thrust.

"Eddie…fuck." You choked out, rubbing at your sopping clit, you were already so close, bouncing your hips back against him as he thrust harder.

"Oh my fucking god, you're perfect, so fucking tight and perfect. I can feel you dripping on my balls." He groaned, grabbing your hair, turning your head to capture your lips in a frantic kiss, you keened into his mouth. He was pulling your top up, freeing your breasts, pinching at your puckered nipples, his other arm wrapping tight  around your middle, holding you steady, pounding deeper.

  It was lewd, it was indecent, it was sinful and you had never felt so alive.

  "Eds, Eddie, I'm - fuck I'm fucking close, please." You begged, pleading, hovering over the edge, heat swimming deep in your belly.

"Oh shit, yes, such a good girl." You could hear he was close, the words passing through gritted teeth. "Taking this cock so well. You wanna cum baby?"

"Yes." You whined desperately, the coil within you tightening. "Please, I wanna cum so bad, fuck me harder." 

You didn't know where the words were coming from, had never felt this pent up, never craved sex this way before.

Eddie's balls were slapping against you in a faster rhythm, the sound penetrating the otherwise still night air.

"Fucking hell baby, yes take it, so fucking good - shit - that's it fucking cum for me sweetheart. Cum-on-my-cock-you-little-fucking-slut." He punctuated each word with brutal thrusts and at the word slut you felt the dam break, wave after wave of throbbing pleasure seized your body, head thrown back in a wordless cry, spasming around his dick.

"Shit,shit,shit,fuck,fuck." Eddie was chanting in a low whine, hips stilling against you, even with the condom on you could feel the pulse of him cumming.

  You both stayed perfectly still for a moment, your shared heavy breathing the only sound now.

"That was… holy fuck that was…" Eddie muttered leaning heavily against your shoulder, you clung onto the side mirror for support, legs feeling like jelly.

"Uh huh." You agreed breathlessly, you felt his hand on your back rubbing soothingly, unable to stop yourself from hissing as he pulled out, gently righting your panties for you and pressing a fleeting kiss to the back of your neck.

It was a remarkably sweet gesture, particularly in stark contrast to your position moments before, you tugged your top down, and skirt back up leaning against the van with a heavy exhale. Eddie had tucked himself away, and was now busy tying the condom off, stepping into the road to drop it unceremoniously down a gap in a drain cover, your face scrunched in distaste at the action.

"Giving the swimmers a new lease of life." He said winking impishly.

"I'm sure the sewer rats will be ever so pleased." You deadpanned.

  You were unsure what the plan was now, should you go your separate ways, you back to the party, him to - well wherever Eddie spent Saturday nights?

Returning to the party felt like a hellish idea, not just because you probably looked like you had just had sex, which you had, but you'd also have to face Steve and Nancy and whilst you now seemingly had the option of sex on tap, emotionally your heart still very much belonged to Harrington. Also you had the beginnings of a headache no doubt from the toxic punch.

"Uh- sweetheart you in there?" Eddie asked you, waving his hand in front of you, evidently you had zoned out.

"Huh?"

"I was talking about milkshakes." 

'Milkshakes?" You repeatedly blankly.

"Yeah, ya know, you take the milk, you take the shake you take them both and then you have the facts of life." He said moving past you, opening the passenger door.

You just stared vacantly.

"Oh my god I fucked the intelligence out of you." He giggled, ducking to one side as you tried to punch him in the arm, catching your hand he pulled you to him.

"Sweetheart I would very much like it if you would accompany me to a diner where we can have milkshakes and discuss the intimate details of our little arrangement." He clarified, gesturing for you to get into the van.

"Details?" You ask cluelessly, clambering into the seat, maybe he had fucked you dumb.

"Details." Eddie cooed, tapping you on the nose and strapping you in like a child, before handing you his drug box and slamming the door.

You were unsure whether to be amused or concerned at how he skipped to his own driver's side, lighting a cigarette. 

"Eddie, what exactly are we doing?" You ask, completely exasperated. He revved the engine, jamming the play button on the car radio, head banging along to Ace of Spades - Motorhead for a few moments.

"EDDIE!" You yell over the music impatiently.

"You and I are making a pact princess" Flashing you a huge grin before peeling down the street.

[redshoes-blues]

From a Screenrant article posted three days ago, this is what David Harbour had to say about the finale of Stranger Things:

The article speculated a little bit about the finale being emotional because of a main character dying, which could very well be the case, but I also think it’s important to remember how David Harbour has consistently referred to the ending as “beautiful.”

He did so in the lead up to season 4, and he’s doing so again, now that he’s actually read the finale script. I’ve always said that Stranger Things will have a happy and hopeful ending, even if a character dies. At its core, ST is a life-affirming show with strong themes of found family.

Why will the finale be beautiful? Because this group of outcasts will come together to finally defeat Vecna and possibly sever the link between Hawkins and the Upside Down permanently. Vecna and the UD represent trauma, mental illness, social isolation, repressed emotions, etc. The horror in the show holds up a mirror to real life horrors that often went unrecognized in 80s media.

So, in order to defeat the monster, the characters must also defeat the monster within themselves by working through their trauma, opening up to those around them, being open and authentic about who they are, and finding hope and a will to carry on, especially when times are hard. We see this with Max, who was able to weaken Vecna by using positive memories of those she loves to remind her that life is worth living. And we’ll see it with Will, whose time in the UD (representative of his childhood trauma and all that is wrong in Hawkins) left a scar on him. That scar will be healed. He won’t feel like a mistake; he will be accepted and loved. And the same goes for all of the characters who survive the end of the show. They’ll get their happy endings.

[sterlingarcher23]

The power of subtle imagery...

Haven't noticed this until recently, so in regard to other moments, they are mirroring each other.

Ice cream in color code hands - El, left hand, blue hair tie/bracelet and Max right hand, yellow watch respectively

Swapping ice-cream in the opposite hands (heart hands) - crossing blue and yellow while doing this.

Ice-cream again in the color code hands, now high five with heart hands (same moment gives Max the ability to fight back in the mind lair)

You may not even notice it consciously, yet you have seen it nonetheless. It's put in your brain so that one day you go back and be like "Why haven't I seen it?" as the Duffers would say.

And I call them heart hands because on the right side of El's shirt, there's a "blood" stain in shape of a heart - and she places her right hand on Max's chest on the left side.

Again mirroring each other.

Like it happens in this scene - interesting wouldn't you say?

Well, they have their arms up for different reasons, but the idea is to create a reflection point I'd argue since we have these reflections, these mirrors again and again.

The power of mirroring. And you may also heard the phrase: As above so below. Max's reflection and the walkie talkie nearby basically means that her mirror image is El. (like in the poster artwork for the stage plax of Henry that shows Vecna as his shadow but similar to Max's reflection in this scene)

El's heartbeat is reflected by Max's heart monitor - the window in the "This is Max" moment gives us a window from our perspective and a mirror image from El's perspective (we see El through Max and she sees the drawing of Max as her own "reflection") it's like a one way mirror.

And especially the heart connection is made just as subtle as possible yet for all to hear how they meld El's heart beat and the beeping of Max's heart monitor - this is El's heart that is monitored there. Figuratively and literally.

Reflections and mirrors are used many times, the context is what matters.

I mentioned it before - Kubrick did the same, he used shiny objects (polished doors, reflective metall, mirror glass, shiny walls) to mirror the characters and have conversations with themselves (like Jack is actually talking to himself - he looks in the mirror and then Grady is in exactly that spot).

Danny touching is own reflection aka Tony when he touches the door knob. Followed by a brief image of the twins even though they have nothing to do with the room 237 - it's his "twin", his other half Kubrick points to - This is even underlined by the hotel's boss, Ullman, who doesn't describes the Grady girls as twins but says they are 8 and 10 in the film. Kubrick kept the description but he shows something different in what Danny sees. The twins are not the Grady girls. Ullman also says "Charles Grady" but Grady calls himself Delbert (who might be just Jack's shadow/mirror as Jack looks in the mirror and Grady is then placed in front of the mirror)

In the bathroom Danny even has a conversation with Tony. He's talking to his mirror image. Tony is so to speak another personality of Danny and he probably talks to him again in the kitchen with Halloran representing Tony ( he's probably not even "real") - Note how they mirror their gestures.

Just saying that this is not new in the visual language of cinema or TV. - And we have it in the Rainbow Room, we have it with the literal inversions of numbers like 00I - 0II on one side (holding their arms to actually mirroring the numbers) and 011 and 110 on the other, how Max and Vecna mirror each other, and Max and Will having those parallels AND mirrors etc etc etc (putting everything into one post is impossible)

Bonus: the TV screen used as a window. But while they look at us and we at them through our technological looking glass, they do look at what from their perspective?

So, magic mirror on the wall who is fairest One of all?

....oh. 11, I see.

This turned out to be longer than I wanted - it was actually just about the ice-cream swapping moment and how they purposely mirror each other. And that it's so subtle yet directly in front of us, so blatant and yet we also get distracted with stuff - like literally using characters (just saying Will's arm) to distract so that the focus of the audience is somewhere else. At the same time you need litter your clues to subtly and so obviously that you say "They can't mean it literally, can they?" over a show

[bookshelf-dust]

something like that.

eddie munson x fem!henderson!reader

word count: 3,795

warnings: swearing, smoking (tobacco usage), mentions of anxiety and insecurities, reader doesn’t have a friend group :(( sexual innuendos, teeny bit of angst, mostly fluff

a/n: in case of any confusion, in my head, this is a world where Vecna will not be happening, so the kids start high school like normal, and Eddie joins the gang, etc. etc., chaos and teenagedom ensue. also, reader and will talk about boys!! eek!! anyways, i wanted to write more for eddie, and just went ham and this is what happened. and i love sleepovers!! and dusty bun!! i hope you like it! <333 also!!! i have a little over a hundred followers?? that's crazy to me!! i am thankful for every last one of you little squishies (even though i still need to check for bots). <333

————

Hellfire had ended about half an hour ago and from what it sounded like now, only Eddie was left, helping Dustin clean up out in the living room. It was getting late, after midnight.

The school was actually putting on a theater production for once, so they’d been temporarily kicked out of the drama room, Dustin’s house being the decided place of meeting until they could go back.

You grabbed for the towel sitting next to the sink on the counter whilst trying to blink the water off of your eyelashes. Patting your face dry, you straightened, hearing footsteps outside of the bathroom door.

They weren’t Dustin’s, who’s were always heavy—like a stomp—but were just a bit lighter, the strides further apart. Eddie. It wasn’t like you were hiding, seeing as you’d left the bathroom door open to begin with.

The steps stopped, the sound of knuckles on a doorframe. You peeked over the top of your now-wet towel. Eddie’s hands were behind his back, a kind sort of grin on his face. “How can I help you this evening, Mr. Munson?” You asked, drawing a snort from the boy.

You lowered the towel, drying off your arms where the water had run down.

“I have been instructed by the younger Henderson that I should ‘just stay the night’ due to the current time. Wanted to let you know. Do you know where my toothbrush is?”

His statement didn’t shock you, nor bother you. It wasn’t the first time Eddie had stayed after a long night of vigorous D&D playing. That was why Dustin had a trundle bed, after all. For sleepovers. Now the lower mattress just had a twenty year old amongst the Star Wars sheets as opposed to a fifteen year old Will or Lucas.

You tossed the towel back on the counter, crouching to dig around under the sink, looking for the red travel container belonging to Eddie’s Henderson-Household-toothbrush. Finding purchase, you stood, holding it out to him.

“For your dental hygiene, my liege.”

“Thank you.”

You returned to putting moisturizer on your face, passing Eddie the toothpaste from where you’d left it moments ago. You smirked at him in the mirror where he had foam all over his mouth, and he bumped your shoulder with his.

Spitting and rinsing his mouth clean, he turned to you. “May I use some of that, M’lady? My skin has been shit lately.”

“Sure thing.” You held the container of lotion aloft, allowing him to dip his finger into the contents a few times, dabbing the cream onto his face.

“Thank you,” he said, watching you screw the lid closed. You observed him as he rubbed it in, fingers swiping over the circles under his eyes, his tongue poking out in concentration. You tried to not stare, not to think about how it would feel to do it yourself.

“Better?”

“Much.” You patted him on the shoulder, heading off to bed.

Flopping down on your mattress, you took the chance to breathe.

You had feelings for Eddie. They’d been almost instantaneous after you got to know him through Dustin. After you saw the way he welcomed your younger brother, how excited he got to have new members in his club. The way he was always sweet to you, always thanked you for putting up with them when Hellfire met at your home.

And there were those times that he’d smile at you, his gaze lingering for just a little too long. The time you’d come home late after spending too long at the bookstore, and thought you had interrupted Dustin hanging out with his friends. Max had come over to see what you’d bought, like always, and Eddie had asked you to watch a movie with them.

And one day you’d smacked into him in the hall at school, and he’d taken one look at you and known. Known you were stressed. He could feel your hands shake as he steadied you, see the worry in your eyes. He’d asked you to sit with him at lunch, and no one had asked any questions. He’d told you he’d always be around if you wanted to talk.

Things like this made you wonder. Wonder whether he was just being nice to Dustin’s older sister, or if he maybe in some way cared about you a little more.

Because he was so sweet. Maybe he was like this with everyone, even if he could be a little intimidating sometimes.

You just didn’t know. But really, when you thought about it, and you did, you weren’t his type. You were quiet, lacking a friend group. He was the opposite of you. There was no way.

————

You pattered down the hall, pulling a sweatshirt over your head, in search of sustenance. Dustin had slept with the door cracked, and you peeked in, seeing both him and his older friend passed out. You pretended like the skin of Eddie’s back that you could see where his shirt had ridden up didn’t affect you.

You dug around in the freezer, in search of the Eggo’s you knew were hidden in the back. Scrambling for purchase, you latched on to the chilly box, and went to shut the door.

“Fuck!” You jumped at the figure that had materialized during your search.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.” Eddie chuckled, reaching to tie up his sleep matted hair.

“You’re fine. I just thought everyone else was still sleeping.” You opened the box, ripping at the plastic wrap separating you and waffles. “You hungry?”

“Yeah, actually.” Eddie leaned against the counter, watching you struggle with the packaging.

“We have waffles, clearly. There’s cereal, or I can make you something. Like toast, or…” you paused, thinking. “That’s it actually.” Eddie smiled at you and you swear your heart felt like it was going to fly out of your chest and onto the floor in front of you, gory as that may seem.

“Waffles are fine. You don’t have to make them, though. I do know how to use a toaster.”

“You’re the guest, Munson. And technically, I’m in charge, so I can’t have you setting the kitchen aflame this early in the morning.” He was smiling at you again, those big brown eyes seemingly putting you in a trance. “How many do you want?”

Eddie tapped his finger thoughtfully against his chin. “Four.”

You took four waffles out of the box and popped all of them in the toaster, thankful your mom had bought one with that many spots. “Do you want them burnt? How done do you like them?” You asked, fingers waiting above the dial before pressing the lever.

“However you do yours is just fine.” You rolled your eyes at him, moving to get the syrup out of the fridge.

Eddie watched you move around the kitchen. He liked watching you, seeing your mind work as you pulled out plates and forks and butter. He didn’t think anyone had the right to be this gorgeous this early in the day, eyes still puffy from sleep, sheet marks on your cheek.

You spun around aimlessly in the kitchen, waiting for his waffles to finish, trying not to think about how pretty he looked. How he had on these sweatpants he’d left over and his ass looked fucking exquisite. Stop. “Sleep okay?”you inquired, trying to quit your middle-school-crushing.

Eddie laughed. It was gravely and deep and comforting. “Yeah. I know that mattress is a twin, but it’s much better than my one at home. Dustin does snore though, you know that?”

“It’s horrendous. Always has been.”

The waffles popped up at that exact moment, making you jump and then turn around to retrieve them. You put them on a plate, then popped your three in while you opened the butter for Eddie and handed him a knife.

By the time he finished buttering and syruping, your waffles were done and he passed the accoutrements off to you. You picked up your finished plate and realized he was waiting on you. “I’m going to eat these in my room, unless you want to sit out here. But I got in trouble for getting syrup on the couch and the dining chairs hurt my ass.” He laughed again.

“Can I join you?”

“That was the point, Munson.”

You plopped down on your bed, spreading a napkin over your lap. Eddie sat leaning against the wall, long legs crisscrossed, his knee almost touching yours.

“Are your Eggo’s up to par?”

He nodded enthusiastically at you. “Yep.”

The both of you sat in comfortable silence for a while, munching away. But then you looked up at him, and Eddie reached out, wiping syrup off of your cheek where it had apparently taken refuge. That was all fine and dandy. But then he raised his thumb to his mouth, and sucked the substance off of his skin, keeping eye contact with you. Suddenly it was very hot. You felt like you needed to take your sweatshirt off.

“You like the syrup that much?” What else were you going to say? Shit, you had to be fucking beet red.

“Something like that.”

————

Ever since The Waffle Incident, as you’d creatively named it, you’d been trying to avoid Eddie, for the most part, or at least not bother him. It wasn’t so much avoiding as it was just not crossing his path as often.

There was no possible way he could have feelings for you. You were his best buddies older sister, for fucks sake. You were probably a nuisance.

Always taking Dustin places, hanging around the house when they played. Eddie probably thought you were fucking obnoxious.

You just didn’t want to bug him. He was trying to finish school, plan campaigns, spend time with his friends before things changed. You were just some girl who’d come along with her sibling.

Shit, Dustin was your only friend. Best to not think about your feelings anymore.

But you couldn’t stop replaying that moment in your head. “Something like that.”

Today though, your mom had asked you to pick up Dusty from Hellfire because she had book club. So here you were, parked a little outside the doors where they usually let out, the school play finally done and the drama room available to them once again.

Dustin practically leapt out to the car, dying to tell you that he'd won the campaign, beat the shit out of the ogre that was meant to have killed him. He related all of this once you berated him for not yet having his seatbelt latched, going on about dice numbers—stuff you still didn’t entirely comprehend. You’d played with him a couple times, but lately he’d abandoned teaching you.

"I invited everyone over for a sleepover on Friday. So if you could make yourself scarce, that'd be great. I'd tell you to go out with your friends or something, but..." He cocked his head, screwing his face up in pity.

"Damn." You tried not to feel hurt, considering he was right about your failures in the friend department. “Who’s everyone? Also, didn’t you just have a sleepover with Eddie?”

“Jealous, are we? Max and Lucas. Mike.” He held up his hands, counting off with his fingers. “Gareth and Eddie. Jeff has to babysit.”

“Thrilling,” you trailed off. “Wait, what about—”

“Will? Yes, your favorite shall also be in attendance.” You laughed in triumph.

Maybe you shouldn’t have favorites of your brother’s friends, but Will was too good for this world.

————

It was just after dinner when Will had made his way down the hall to your bedroom. He was now sat next to you while you talked to Joyce, who Will had promised to call like always--at least twice--with an update of his activities and assurance that everything was okay.

You told Joyce that he was doing really, really good. This was one of the first few "normal" experiences he was trying to get back in the hang of, considering starting high school had been so tough on him.

It was hard to tell when it really started, maybe when Dustin brought him to the park one day forever ago. Will and you were the quiet ones, but the ones that could get oh so excited about things you were probably to old to be getting excited about.

He was just a really, really sweet kid. And he'd been through more than enough trauma for a lifetime.

You handed the phone off to Will, who answered his mom's questions begrudgingly, albeit with a smile on his face. "I know mom, I promise I'm having fun and I swear I will call you if I need something. But--y--yeah, Y/N is here. I know. I love you, too mom." He leaned over to set the receiver back in its place.

"What movie are you guys watching tonight?"

"Weird Science. You know, the one with your boyfriend in it."

"Robert Downey Jr. or Anthony Michael Hall? You're gonna have to be more specific." Will looked at you in shock.

"Anthony? Really? I thought we were bonding over brown eyes, I didn't even know you liked him."

Will had told you about his feelings more than anyone else besides Jonathan. He was working on Joyce. Not everyone knew yet. Specifically that he liked boys and he was more than happy to gush over them with you.

A knock at the door. "Yeah? You can come in. He's super cute, Will."

Eddie appeared, curls bouncing, propped against the door frame. "Who's 'super cute'?"

“Me.” You said, feigning confidence.

“That is true.” What the fuck was wrong with him?

Eddie turned to look at Will, a smirk on his face, pretending he hadn’t just said that. “I was asked to see if you were ready to watch the movie.” Will told him he was and smiled at you before stealing your blanket and fleeing the room.

“You comin’?” Eddie asked you and you shook your head.

“I was told to remain scarce. Besides, I’ve seen it loads.” Eddie pushed off the wall, walking to your bed and perching where Will had been.

“So you’re just gonna sit in here all night?”

“No. I’m gonna read. This isn’t the first sleepover I’ve had to stay out of, Eddie.” You sounded kind of annoyed, without really meaning to.

He put a hand on your knee. “Did I piss you off? I feel like I haven’t really seen you lately.”

“No, of course you didn’t piss me off. We just run in different circles, Eddie.”

To him, you sounded tired.

Something clicked in Eddie’s mind at that comment. You didn’t think that he could possibly give a shit about you. Maybe you thought he shouldn’t give a shit about you.

But Eddie knew how he felt. He liked you. He liked you a whole-fucking-lot, and seeing you clearly upset over something, maybe him, really hurt him.

“Go watch the movie, Eddie. Hang out with your pubescent friends.” You smiled at him, but you were still rubbing your head, trying to prevent a stress headache from forming.

Eddie sighed, but left anyways, and you immediately wished he hadn’t.

————

There was another knock on your door. You glanced at the red numbers on your side table, it was after midnight. Again. Dustin was quite the snooze, and you didn’t know who would be up. “Yeah?”

Your door opened, slowly, slowly. Curls. Eddie. Eddie in plaid pajama pants and a Black Sabbath shirt. “You’re awake.”

“It’s only midnight.” He snorted at your statement moving into your room and shutting the door behind him.

“Come with me,” he said, making you close your book.

“Where are we going?”

“Outside. Everyone else is asleep. Every last one of those little shits.” He dug around in his pocket, pulling free a pack of Marlboros, and then holding out his hand, beckoning you. “Come on, man. Let’s go.”

You led the way down the hall and through the living room, tiptoeing around the mattresses Dustin had drug out from his room, the blanket piles, the pillows. Although you couldn’t help but notice how closely Will and Mike were sleeping next to each other. How Dustin was definitely drooling on Gareth. How Lucas held Max on the couch.

You unlocked the door, holding it open just so to prevent creaking, and Eddie slipped out before you.

The both of you plopped on the porch steps. “Is this okay?” Eddie held his lighter aloft. You told him it was fine.

Eddie was careful to blow the smoke away from you, but he kept a knee touching you the whole time.

“You gonna tell me what’s going on with you?”

Yeah, actually. You were. You didn’t have the energy to keep dragging it on any longer. What good was it going to do keeping it in?

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s that I have feelings for you.” Eddie’s head swung towards you from where it had been watching the ash fall for his cigarette.

“But maybe it’s that you’re friends with my brother. You’re his friend, not mine, and you don’t have to keep pretending to be. Because you being nice to me is a little too much lately. You don’t have to act like you care because I’m related to Dustin. You don’t have to pretend your friends with me too.”

“Because I know you don’t like me like that. I’m not your type, Eddie. And I’m not entirely sure that I should even be telling you this. I’m half sure you think I’m a nuisance.”

Eddie rose, stepped away from the stairs, moved to stand in front of you. His eyebrows were pinched together, and he looked frustrated.

“Listen to me, yeah?” Another drag, turn of the head to blow the smoke out into the night air. “I don’t really think you get to tell me who I like. And it’s killin’ me that you think I couldn’t like you because I’m friends with your brother. That you’re, what, just his sister and what you feel doesn’t matter?”

He dropped the cigarette, snubbed it out with his shoe, and then picked the butt up and tossed into the outside trash bin.

Eddie crouched in front of you, setting his hands on the brick on either side of you. “Is that what you think?”

“Eddie—”

“Don’t. Tell me.”

“Dustin got to high school and found you guys. He’s happy. He’s doing well, for the first time in a long time. I haven’t had any of that. I’m not going to take that away from him. You’re his friend, Eddie. And you’re so sweet to everyone, so maybe you’ve just been being sweet to me. I just—I’m not like you. I wouldn’t expect you to feel anything for me.”

Eddie felt like he’d been shoved to the ground. He could practically feel the cold of concrete beneath his fingertips as if he had. Feel the sting of shallow scrapes and dirt in the cuts.

“I do, though. I feel a lot for you.” He swept his thumb across your cheek. “I don’t know, maybe it’s your laugh. The way you went red when I got the syrup off your face.” Another swipe. “That you knew where my toothbrush was. The way you move around. How much you love Dustin and how I can see it. How you are with Will the Wise."

“I might have shepherded your little lost sheepie of a brother, but I’m not just putting up with you because I have to. I’m not just being nice to you. And you’re not a nuisance. Not in the slightest. What if I wanted you, huh?”

“‘Cause I do. And I don’t wanna hear shit about you ‘not being my type,’” he used air quotes for emphasis, and you took a moment to look at his bare hands, Sharpie marks along his fingers. When he put them down again, rather than land on the steps, they landed on your knees.

“I don’t know what you think my type is. But it’s you.”

Eddie looked at you with watery brown eyes. You reached out and tapped your index finger on his nose, and his face split in a grin, smile lines forming around his mouth.

“What was that for?”

“You’re just really sweet. I love your nose.”

“Yeah?” He nuzzled his nose against your cheek, making you laugh.

“Yeah. Come inside with me.” You reached for his hand, pulling him up with you.

You turned to the door, opening it carefully and sneaking back in. You peeked in, thinking everyone was still asleep.

What you didn’t know was that Will had woken up, and caught the two of you walking down the hall. But he knew about your thing for brown eyes, and found himself going right back to sleep. Since you were so good at keeping his secret, he was perfectly capable of minding his own business about this.

————

“Do you wanna sleep in here with me? I know my bed is a twin, but we could make it work. Unless you want to go back out in the living room.”

Eddie kicked his shoes off and then pulled off his socks.

“A sleepover? You want me to sleep in your bed? I love sleepovers.” You laughed at his enthusiasm, despite the sleep seeping into his features.

You climbed into bed, patting the space next to you and the wall, waiting for him to join you. Eddie bounded over, leaping across you and settling under the covers.

You reached up, separating your usual stack of two pillows and spreading them out a little so that Eddie would have some support. His arm lifted, but he stopped himself. “Is this okay?”

“Yep.” Eddie wrapped his arm around your waist, tugging you closer. He tucked his other hand under his cheek, and smiled as you did the same, your opposite hand rubbing his back.

"What about this?" He leaned in, nose almost brushing yours.

"Yeah, I think I'll let it slide." Eddie snorted again, that sweet little breath of a laugh.

He moved until his lips touched yours, and kissed you short and sweet. His lips were soft, and he was grinning for the entirety of its short life span. You kissed him back, and then he pulled away, smooching your forehead with an audible and overexaggerated sound that made you laugh.

“You’re gonna have to go back out there in the mornin,’ you know.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He pushed your hair away from your shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “I’ll make my escape at some point. But I can’t promise you’ll want to give me up that easily.” He’d been smiling like an idiot before he even finished that one.

————

please let me know if you liked this! feedback is always appreciated!! comments and reblogs mean more than you know. <33

[sp0o0kylights]

Steve/Eddie Soulmark AU Worth and Worthy

Warnings: Mentions of a burn scar, a prior attack via bully’s, Nancy cheating, Steve handling it ah, poorly, his TERRIBLE parents, etc.  Steve was a romantic.

It had been a well known fact about him even in his king days, one of the many facets of his charms that made the ladies do their best to catch his attention. He was a roses and chocolates kind of guy, even for a woman that he just had one night stands with. 

Sure, he might sleep with another girl the next night, but between the care he showed in bed and the charm he showed after, Steve didn’t catch the flak many other teenage boys did for his sexcapades. And if any was mentioned well, all it took was dropping some line about how he was trying to find his soulmate and things were right as rain. 

Then he met Nancy.

Steve knew of course that she wasn’t his soulmate.

He hadn’t cared. 

In a refreshing bout of sanity, neither had Nancy.  

She went off on all these cute little tirades about how soulmates was an outdated concept, that the marks they all bore could mean any number of things, that the word soulmate itself might not mean it was a romantic relationship, and if it was, how you shouldn’t waste your life looking for someone who could be anywhere in the world. 

Hawkins Indiana was so small, the chance of the person who represented your mark being there was slim, and wasn’t a romantic relationship something you should work at anyway? Be present for every single day?

Steve bought the whole thing, hook, line and sinker. Believed it with all his heart and soul. 

Distanced himself from his asshole friends, charged back to face down a demon with a baseball bat, laid bare his soul for the fiery woman who had stolen his heart.

Loved her long after she broke it, on the floor of some stupid party, drunk words searing him like a burn. 

When he found out she’d cheated on him with Jonathan Byers, on grounds that he was her soulmate…

It was the kind of crushing blow that had remade him as a person. 

Throughout it, the lonely days that followed, Steve woke up and stared in the mirror every morning at the mark that sat on his hip.

Fuck Nancy. 

Fuck Jonathan, fuck Tommy, fuck Billy-fuck everyone. 

His parents might not love him, his friends might have been fake and his own love bullshit but at least he had one person out there who was meant for him. 

A person who would accept him, for who he was (and wasn’t a sassy middle schooler using him for rides, even if Steve was secretly thankful for Dustin’s sudden presence in his life.) 

Throwing his crown away was easy. Being a better person, a person who wasn’t an asshole, was hard. 

It would be worth it in the end though, because he would be worthy of his soulmate's love.

                                                         xXx

Too bad life seems to be just as tired of Steve as he is of it, because he finds his soulmate in Hawkins trailer park of all places, hanging out with Eddie Munson, a person Steve found he enjoyed far more than he’d ever thought. 

It had barely been two weeks since Vecna had been defeated, the Upside Down destroyed, with the group of survivors still clinging tight to each other.

He was over at Eddie’s to help him sort all his shit into boxes in preparation for his move. The older man had just been given his shiny new government alibi, cleared of all charges, but it was obvious he wasn’t comfortable walking around by himself yet.

For reasons Steve had long had his own freakout over, he wasn’t comfortable with the idea either. 

It had been going fine. Eddie and Steve were trading off cassettes and mocking the others choices as they packed, things easy between them in a way only surviving a supernatural catastrophe could create in such a short amount of time.

He knew. Had known, since Eddie pulled out his guitar, that the metalhead was his. 

It made sense in a way. Steve had been so easy around him once they had gotten over their mutual jealousy regarding the kids. He hadn’t thought they had much in common at first, but the more he hung out with him, the more Steve realized it wasn’t the little things they shared but the big ones.

The love for the kids. Their humor and personalities. The way they fit together, bounced off each other, looked at life in general. 

Steve was happy to learn about all the things Eddie liked, had tolerated D&D and nerd shit for years long enough to have picked out various pieces he himself enjoyed. 

Now it was simply a matter of when to tell him. 

Then Eddie decided to change shirts. 

He was moving slowly,  jeans slung low on his hips. It gave Steve a nice long look at his hip (and briefly the treasure trail of dark hair that he was determined not to stare at.). 

For a second Steve almost mistakes the long healed wound there for one of Eddie’s demobat bites; but those were covered in bandages still and this was too far down for where they had struck.

This wasn’t even one of the guy’s scratcher tattoos, that ink faded while this one casually pulsed with yellow against the crumpled skin surrounding it. 

It takes a minute for it all to sink in. The color, the mark, the way the damaged skin was long healed in a close pattern over it.  

Anger floods his face with heat.

 Steve's body goes hot with it, his vision swimming and sound dropping out as his entire being pinpricks down to the soul mark on Eddie's hip.

He recognizes the cause of the destroyed skin around it. Burn scar, the kind that made your skin change color and crumble in on itself once healed.

Munson had tried to burn his soul mark off. 

It would be a crazy thing to see on anyone, the most unhinged act of rejection Steve can personally think of.

It wouldn't be a big deal, not to him, not when he still didn't know Eddie that well, except the stupid image staring back at him in the midst of all the shiny, scarred skin is a fucking baseball bat with nails.

As in, Steve's weapon of choice. His baby, the bat he carried with him in the trunk of his car and carted into his house everyday, hidden in a carrying case for golf clubs. 

"What the fuck?" Steve spits. He's intimate with the taste of betrayal already. His parents have a house in Burbank they stay in half the year. The word 'bullshit' still makes him wince. He has PTSD from being tortured by the Russians and likely a budding anxiety disorder from all the Upside Down nonsense and yet this-

This hurts more than anything life has put him through.

"What?" Eddie asks, confused, before following Steve's eyes down to his own hips. "Oh."

He brushes a hand almost subconsciously against the nail-bat, and they both watch it pulse a light yellow.

The tell tale sign of a soul mark, the way it could light up like a neon sign. 

"You tried to burn off your soul mark?" 

Steve's voice must come out far more angry than he had meant it to be, because Eddie's head whips up to him. 

"You a romantic, Harrington? Think you'll run into your soulmate one day?" Eddie teases, but his own voice is taking on a defense edge.  

"I already have." Steve says flatly. Part of him wants to withhold, not say, not admit that hes the one Eddie's tried to burn out of his life, but another part of him wants his soulmate (fuck) to explain why. 

Why try to cut him out. 

"If Nancy-"

"It's not her." Steve cut him off. "Stop dodging the question."

Eddie crosses his arms, gives him a look with those dark bambi eyes that Steve’s seen a million times. It’s a stubborn, “come hell or high water” expression, complete with a grin smug enough to make you want to hit him. 

He used it primarily against jocks being assholes, which just pissed Steve off further. 

“I don’t think I’m dodging enough, seeing as it’s none of your business.” 

"Munson." Steve says sinking everything he has into the word. "Why did you try to burn off your mark?" 

Eddie stares at him, eyes searching. He’s definitely on the defensive now, likely confused as to why Steve’s flipped from joking to furious. 

Steve can’t find it in himself to care. 

Eddie cocks crossed his arms over his chest. "Why the hell do you care so much? What's it to you?"

And right, right Eddie doesn't know. That it's him. Can't. 

So Steve decides to explain it to him. 

Untucks his polo with a few hard pulls. Yanks the fabric up. Reveals the Warlock that hangs low on his left hip, some nerdy dice making up the tip of it. 

"Wow, you got some popstar, hey Harrington?" Eddie says, practically before he even sees Steve’s mark. 

Definitely hasn’t had the time to really look at it.

Steve wants to strangle him. "You're an idiot, Munson." 

Then; “Look closer.”

Eddie does. 

A savage feeling of glee runs through him the second he sees Eddie registers the dice, the same black and red one Steve knew he used. Makes the connection that it isn’t just a guitar, not even his physical Warlock, but instead the stupid thing he draws on everything he seems to own.

Notebooks, textbooks, post it notes, his fucking pants. 

All things Steve has gotten an up close and personal look at considering how much time he’s spent in Eddies trailer the last few weeks. 

Saucer wide eyes jerk back up to Steve’s face. 

“Shit.” Eddie says almost breathlessly, shooting to stand straight, hands frantically pulling at his hair. “Steve-”

“Give me an answer, Munson. You owe me that.” Steve interrupts him, because he is done. 

With life, the universe, everything. 

“Why did you try and burn my bat?” 

“I-I didn’t-” Of all fucking things tears are springing up in Eddie’s eyes.

Steve kind of wants to cry himself, but can’t seem to find any emotion other than fury and a growing sense of numbness. 

Eddie takes a step forward, and flinches hard when Steve jerks back. 

“Steve-” He’s begging, Eddie Munson is actually begging, and he kind of wants to laugh at how much life clearly fucking hates him. 

“It wasn’t me. I didn’t burn it, Steve please-!” 

Tears are now openly tracking down Eddie’s face, his arms going from crossed to hugging himself. “Fuck! I had a whole story planned for this, I never thought-”He looks up at the ceiling, like he can’t bear to look at his own soulmate. 

Steve is rapidly flipping through emotions, the numbness coming in to save him, making words impossible to get out. 

Eddie is still speaking. “Jordan P, middle school. He eventually got expelled but before he did he and his asshole buddies caught me after school. Held me down.” 

He bites his lip so hard it bleeds and that cuts through to Steve. 

“I fought, I fought them so hard Steve. I tried, but there were too many,” He chokes on a breath and Steve finds himself moving forward without thinking. 

“They told me I didn’t deserve you.” He whispers, finally bringing his head back down, just in time to realize Steve was wrapping him up in a hug. 

Eddie freezes in his hold, but Steve just hugs him tightly, resting his cheek against Eddie’s curls.

“I'm sorry.” He says quietly. “I just reacted, Eddie. I’m sorry.”

The older boy fell into him, arms wrapping back around Steve as he tucks his face. 

“I’ve got you.” Steve whispers to him, rocking them gently. “I’ve got you.” 

And he did--for the rest of their lives. 

[wheelercore]

Mike, Victor, Fred, and Ted: weird murder/killing & PTSD subtext

Now that I have been thinking Too Much about Fred, I am interested in the "holding the mirror up" aspect of it.

We see them intentionally show Fred's reflection on the grandfather clock

Which the camera angle in which this was done reminds me SO MUCH of how they reflected Victor in the bathwater where the spiders were.

Also notice when Victor was arrested it was against the same wall the grandfather clock stands against-it actually might be there within frame on the right but that also might be a doorway- I'm not sure. Looks like its probably a doorway but the clock is somewhere around there.

You also have the fire similarity between Fred's vision and Victors:

The similarity being: murderer

They both feel and intense amount of guilt for what they have done- however both was an accident. Victor, I think, pretty obviously has PTSD and Fred might have also. We'll get to this later.

They also do the same reflection into the grandfather clock with Henry- right as he uses his powers for the first and it immediately cuts to him killing a rabbit.

Also the rainbow being ~~gay~~ but also may I say it might also be a reference to Henrys future killings in the Rainbow Room.

The thing that interests me is why the grandfather clock is associated with 'murderer'? In fact it's what is associated with Henry's powers, which is what he then uses to kill his family and the kids in the rainbow room. We also see the clock presents most of the time as jutting out of trees (Chrissy- reference to Nancy in s1) and walls (Patrick and Max)- which are places we've seen be associated with a breach in the barrier between the UD and RSU. As if the clock is forcing it's way from the UD to the RSU- like we see repeatedly UD beasts do.

So in a sense the symbolism works like this:

Clock -> breaching the barrier between the UD and RSU -> akin to UD monsters -> the UD monsters being a mirror/reflection of humanity's predatory nature -> predator defined as "preys on the weak" -> mentions of various famous killers (Freddy Krueger, Michael Meyers, and Ted Bundy- all in the same episode by the way).

Its especially interesting that Fred is a mix of Mike and Ted:

(Mikes s3 scar and Ted's glasses. Again, all in the same episode.)

Mind you, they make a whole circle of character-murderer references: Victor is compared to Michael Meyers, Eddie (not a murderer but was witness to one and is later accused) is compared to Ted Bundy (both names are short of Edward also), and I believe Vecna/Henry is compared to Freddy Krueger at some point also.

To add to this, the topic of PTSD is also something shared, I believe, between Fred, Victor, Mike, and Ted (and also most likely Henry but I haven't really looked into any specific uses of symbolism, name games, etc etc im lazy).

I believe I saw @aemiron-main mention previously about how it seemed that Victor had gained weight over the course of the Creel sequences given to us. While neither Victor nor Henry, I believe, are inclined to mention how much Victor had been eating once he was triggered by the Vecna visions so we don't necessary see any explicit confirmation of it, to me in a round-about way its supported by Ted's eating habits particularly in s2 and how that ties back to Victor since they're paralleled in this sense.

(Em, you're the resident expert on Victor so feel free to add anything on here related to this if you would like to. I'm sure you have much more coherent things/proof to say about this than I do when it comes to Victor haha).

In Henry's monologue (which is literally just the writers "spelling it out to us" as promised), he mentions eating as one of the distractions, ie just another way of describing coping mechanisms (heavy themes of mental illness/trauma all over the place in s4 as it relates to conformity and the metaphor behind Vecna).

In season 2 we hardly see Ted not eating/drinking (dinner scenes- obviously, doorbell scene with Dustin where he was holding a mug in his hand). Even in the opening scene he's the only person eating pringles (?) in the kitchen with Karen and Holly:

Even in the end of s1 he's apparently fallen asleep while eating out of a large bowl of popcorn.

Multiple times overeating is brought up with Karen angrily commenting that she hopes he's enjoying his chicken after we see her observe twice Ted not backing her up at the dinner table but rather just drinking/chewing (mind you this is all happening while discussion wills disappearance is going on, with the general consensus in the town being that Will was taken by a child abductor/murder- with Ted's See what happens? line being particularly interesting):

and Dustin jokingly putting an excessive amount of pancakes on his plate after Ted sarcastically tells him to "take us for all we're worth".

Hell, even the scene were Ted is holding a random donut in the church in s4- it's overeating/eating when its inappropriate, particularly doing a stressful moment, and again, this was related to the serial killings of Chrissy, Fred, and Patrick and how Eddie was scapegoated for it. Or Ted being the only person eating at Will's funeral, very obvious because he's the only one holding a plate. And these are only instances I remember off the top of my head.

Victor, while, again, we don't see as much of an association with food we do see him repeatedly get triggered over the course of the events shown to us. Victor describes his vecna visions as "living nightmares" which is a callback to Hopper and Joyce's conversation, again, in season 2:

Victors visions, unlike Virginia's, were intentionally very reminiscent of PTSD flashbacks. Victor was being repeatedly triggered all throughout the time of being "haunted" by this "demon".

Switching back around to Mike for a bit, we get the parallel in s4 to the s1 dinner scene, this time with Mike, who, unlike his father, is not eating very much. And Will, from the same vantage point as Karen in the s1 scene and like Karen, notices subtly:

Takes a similar sip of his drink when El storms off, similar to how Ted takes a sip of his drink both times when Nancy and Mike storm off. Honestly it would have been funny if Murray had made chicken risotto.

Regardless to get to my point, these can be signs of traumatic events happening in the past:

(x)

While again, it's hard to tell with Victor, because comparatively we don't see much of him, there are some subtle hints. Talking about being "moody":

Dr. Owens explicitly mentions "changes in personality" as a sign of PTSD to look out for.

There's the clothing parallel between Mike and Ted related to this in again, you guessed it, season 2:

Both are scenes in which they are acting pretty irritable and standoff-ish to someone. Mike being this way towards Max due to the trauma and guilt of watching El "die" at the end of s1, related to death- again like Victor and Fred, however Mike was not culpable although I suppose he may have felt that he had not done enough to save El.

We don't know what's up with Ted, but he was actually strangely in this scene- not hearing the incessant ringing of the doorbell or even noticing Karen out loud ask him to get the door judging from the fact that he says "I'll get it" as if he hadn't heard her. Karen seemed annoyed by this as if this has become a common occurrence in the last year or so. He seemed to have been intensely concentrated or more so distracted, obviously with a drink in his hand.

stranger things writers dot twitter are sooo correct s2 is underrated we love the PTSD season

Notice how both are all dressed up- projecting an image of having yourself together, "perfection", when you're really not. Reminds me of that scene of s1 where Mike is complains the tie is choking him, and Ted tells him that that's how its supposed to be. Symbolizing an excessive amount of control over oneself and ones emotions (choking oneself as symbolized by clothing), which is seen through various habits, e.g. overeating/lack of eating.

Now, last thing that's a bit of a tangent, but going all the way back to this theme of murderers and killing- e.g. Mike's survivor's guilt, the interesting parallel between Holly and Henry catch my attention. Both are described as "explorers". Henry after he looks into the grandfather clock and 'gains' his abilities:

I saw my parents as they truly were. They presented themselves as good, normal people. But like everything else in this world, it was a lie. A terrible lie. They had done terrible things, Eleven. Such awful things.

(Sorry I ran out of image space >.<)

After Holly witnesses the Demogorgon ("predator") almost come out of the wall, again like we see with the grandfather clock which is reflected on Fred (Ted+Mike), Karen describes her as an explorer- which is referenced back to Henry seeing his parents for who they truly were. Holly then also notices the flesh monster from the ferries wheel (UD "predator") but Karen and Ted tell her to ignore it and look at the pretty fireworks. We know Holly was at the pool when Karen was flirting with Billy there, however what "terrible", "awful" thing Ted had done in the past is still unknown.

Shortly after this in s3- Karen, Ted, and Holly become the family unit which is then indirectly described in the church scene as "a lie designed to hide a truth", with Karen and Ted's clothing paralleling Mike and El's from early s3 when they were being an annoyingly fake couple.

While Victors fate is almost obviously reminiscent of Oedipus (the whole eye gouging and all- falling into a fate that was one of his own doing when he accidentally murdered that family during the war)- Mike does also get two moments were he technically "blinds" himself all throughout s4: the sun glasses in the airport and the sensory deprivation glasses at that pizza place- a fate that more closely follows Oedipus: kill your father, become your father, and then marry your mother.

(the last one being a whole nother long post)

Anyways... what exactly happened in 1959?

[dukeofdelirium]

thinking more on the “Will manifested everything” theory and it rlly makes too much sense. I didn’t consider that he might have manifested Eddie and a Billy but now that it’s been mentioned, it’s like all the puzzle pieces have fit together lol. it makes complete sense if Will’s power is manifestation/creation because this is exactly why Vecna would want him. and we know Vecna obv wants Will, bc he chased him all the way home and went through all this trouble to basically kidnap him in s1. it also makes complete sense in regards to El and why her memories don’t add up, especially the Terry Ives shit, the other numbers etc. it also explains why the upside down looks like a mirror of Hawkins, because Will created it to look like something familiar to him

[will80sbyers]

did you see that byrhop just said Will wasn’t targeted? looks like a mileven sent in the ask (naturally). why does everybody minimize his importance

Everyone is entitled to their opinion tbh I'm in the middle as always, I think he was taken by Vecna but for me it's 50/50 on if it was for a precise important reason or not exactly (?)

but even if he wasn't targeted for a mind-blowing reason that wouldn't make him a less important character, that would make him the survivor and he would still have developed superpowers from the UD vines and maybe have a way to defeat Vecna in the finale (with all the others too) thanks to him being able to see into Henry's mind... Find his weaknesses/blind spot!

he could be targeted for a precise motive like Vecna seeing the future and knowing he has superpowers to reshape the world which is something Henry wanted to do... (Kinda hope this because it would be super cool)

Or he could just being targeted because he's Joyce's son

or because Vecna spied in his mind and found him being depressed and miserable and ashamed about being gay and Vecna targets people that have those types of suicidal thoughts and he was the closest in that moment

Or a mix of all of these?

What makes me think he was targeted by Vecna specifically though is the fact that somehow this Demogorgon that takes Will has psychic powers like Vecna and opens the door (if that's not someone time travelling lol or maybe a vecna vision?) and also the fact that Will was still alive when they find him and Vecna decided to let them all go...

also Henry's connection to Joyce and the people saying they talk in the end of the play and Henry saying to her that she will understand in the future makes me think Vecna can see the future and saw Will being his victim or doing something that he needs and took him because of that

Like I think the idea that Vecna can see the future makes sense because of a few things he says like saying to El they lost or showing Nancy the vision of the future in ep. 7 and his connection to clocks etc

But I also think he only sees fragments of the future not the whole thing and that's why he doesn't win

And this also connects back to the shadow theory because what if this whole thing is a time loop and Vecna after he dies becomes the black particles as a disembodied consciousness that takes over the mind of the mindflayer (that is either himself as particles or an alien with powers that he controls with this second split consciousness of himself after his death) and then he gets sent back to the dimension X by Eleven in the finale but he gets sent back in time to BEFORE he can possess himself when he was little and "guide" himself towards that future with fragments of visions

Basically he's trying to escape the time loop but he fails if that's what's happening !!

Anyway sorry I just started rambling about theories lol but Will is going to be important because he will be the one that will defeat Vecna or like the key to his defeat and I think he will be his mirror 🪞 showing him that he has become exactly like the people he despised when he was little and has become the abuser and he will break the mirror of Henry's idea of himself that he wants to portray to others as if he's above them and his victims deserved to die because they were "weak" as he calls them... I really believe no matter what he's going to be the hero next season and his journey will be central like Max was in season 4 and that's also why they have so many parallels... And also I think they have foreshadowed this with the end of S1 in the dnd game at the end he's the one that wins!!!

[livv-watkins]

Mike gets vecna’d and it’s that one concept where vecna shows him what his future with Jane would look like vs Will etc etc. Enjoy!!

All of a sudden he’s in this life that he promised himself he’d never be in, mirroring his parents with a sad and loveless relationship. The dying flower field gone from his vision in a blink, replaced by the buzz of a small tv in front of him.

Mike rubbed his eyes tiredly, he was wide awake a second ago, watching Hawkins fall, but now he was sitting on a familiar la-z-boy with a newspaper article long forgotten in his lap and a knot in the back of his neck from sleeping up right.

The sound of food sizzling came from where he assumed the kitchen was, followed by the distinct sound of breakfast sibling rivalry. It reminded him of when he would dump syrup on Nancy’s eggs.

Nancy…

He sprung up quickly, only to immediately regret it. His back ached and he dizzied slightly, as if he had aged 30 years in the span of a second.

What had happened? Where were the others? Will, El, Nancy, Jonathan, Joyce and Hopper and Will. Where had they gone?

“Sweetie! Get up, breakfast has been ready for almost 10 minutes.”

Sweetie? Was that El?

He moved towards the sound quickly, the house he was in resembled his own, but was not quite the same. Walls were filled with photos of unfamiliar children and cheap plastic trophies obviously won from kids sports.

As he entered the room he immediately froze, El stood by the stove before moving to place more food on the table. She looked much older, with the long curls that she had so recently lost flowing from her head and a tacky apron around her waist.

“You fell asleep in the living room, again.”

She sounded disappointed, a tone he commonly heard his mother use on his father when he did the same as he just had. There wasn’t even a hint of the stiltedness in her voice, gone from years of real world experience.

“El, whats going on?”

She looked at him confused.

“El? You haven’t called me that in years, Mike. Are you alright?”

This was creepy, so so creepy. What would he call her other than El? Why was he here? Who were these kids? What is happening?

“El, don’t mess with me. What’s going on? Where’s Will?”

Her expression saddened, quickly glancing over at the children at the table.

“Our Will or your best friend Will?”

“My best friend Will is our Will! El, what’s going on? We were just on the Hill not even two minutes ago and—“

Somewhere in his small monologue the youngest of the children had already started crying, obviously worried by the man’s behaviour. The eldest was already half out of her seat, and who he assumed was the middle child sat visibly confused by the ordeal.

“Mike, what are you talking about? That was 20 years ago.”

“20 years?!! No way, El, where is Will?”

El sent him an incredibly worried glance, before shooting away to shush the girl that kept crying. 20 years was too long, way too long. This had to be something to do with One, but Will said he was still resting. Will. Where was Will?

With the child in one arm, bouncing her up and down as a way of comfort, El placed a steady hand on the side of the spiraling boy’s shoulder. She asked him over and over if he was okay, if something was wrong and reassuring him that it was over, but he couldn’t believe it. He kept asking where Will and the others were, he asked and asked, but El wasn’t giving him a straight answer and—

“He’s dead, Mike. He died saving us.”

…what?

“what? El, what do you mean—“

He could feel the tears starting to well up in his eyes, but he blinked them away as quick as he could. He couldn’t cry, not here, not like this.

“Damn, I didn’t know dad had emotions until now.” The middle child exclaimed.

“Will!” Both the eldest and El scolded at the same time.

Will? That was not Will. Will would never say something like that, especially not to his family. Will was kind, and selfless and amazing and —

and dead.

Will was dead.

He couldn’t do this anymore, he had to escape. So he just blocked his ears and closes and eyes and prayed. He prayed that this would end, that he could go back and make sure everyone was okay. He prayed that Will was okay.

Then all the muffled noise stops, there’s no more children crying and El wasn’t grabbing his arm and begging him to tell her why he was acting like this. Instead, the family’s panic is replaced by a familiar voice.

“Mike? You okay, babe?”

Immediately he opened his eyes again. Though he was still freaked out and terrified and confused because the boy in front of him was much older than he was 5 minutes ago, Will was there and he was safe. Will was safe and okay and he just called him babe and—

wait what?

“Mike. What’s up?

He was still in a kitchen, just not the same one as before. It was smaller and cozier and over the counter there was a large window that stared down at the surrounding city.

The space was open, just in front of the window sat a yellow sofa with a small stained coffee table. It faced a slim tv, much slimmer and modern than the one he had at home. The tv was perched on a light yellow shelf that matched a decent amount of furniture in the house.

He kept staring off at the apartment, noting things like how there was an accent wall that was almost the same blue as his room and how books and papers were sprawled over the table and how —

“Mike, say something. You’re being extra spacey today and it’s worrying me.”

Mike quickly snapped out of his haze and stared at Will, with an older face and stubble marking his jawline, he looked good.

‘you okay, babe?’

Will opened his arms toward Mike, inviting him in to hug, and who was Mike to say no? This was okay, he and Will were okay. He could live like this a little longer.

So he walked towards Will and slumped his head into his shoulder, before putting his arms around Will and snuggling his face into the crook of his neck. Will’s hands wrapped around his torso, the coldness slightly seeping through his shirt to his bare skin. He paid no mind to the faint sound of music he heard, too immersed in what was Will Byers to care.

“You scared me, y’know. It’s like you teleported into the room.”

Mike only mumbled in response, taking Will’s presence and practically eating it whole. Will pulled him back a bit, before putting an unexpected soft kiss on his lips.

Though Will’s lips were almost freezing, Mike burned up like a flame. Will just kissed him and it was really nice. It was really nice, so he ducked down to return the favour, but Will’s hand wrapped around his face to stop him from going any further.

To your soul

To your soul

“How disappointing.” Will spoke, but it was not his voice. His eyes practically glowed white as he stared Mike in the eyes and gripped onto his face tighter and tighter.

Mike tried to run, but he was stuck in place. His feet glued to the floor and forcing him to watch the man in front of him slowly mold himself into a monster as he shook in fear. The distant music from before was louder, the lyrics slowly starting to blare in his ears.

He could see something out of the corner of his eye, through the large window across the room. A portal floating a foot away from the building. Through his tears he could see his body slowly start to rise as vecna’s claws latched onto his face, and he could see someone’s hand desperately grip onto his ankles as he flew up.

“MIKE!”

“I will take away your suffering, Michael. You won’t have to live the life you never wanted to live longing for the one I just showed you.”

…The love that you need will never be found at home

run away, turn away…

“MIKE PLEASE”

“It is time.”

“MIKE, ITS ME. PLEASE, I-I LOVE YOU, OKAY?? DON’T LEAVE ME, I CANT LOSE YOU.”

…run away, turn away…

“No.” He spoke, before reaching to the side and grabbing a kitchen knife on the counter, cutting a vine clean off of his body.

He didn’t dare look back, running towards the window and unlocking it as quick as he could.

No, you never cried to them, just to your soul

Vecna glared at him as he slid the window open, but he paid the monster no mind. On the other side of that portal there was Will, begging him to come back and telling him he loved him. On the other side of that portal there was the boy he loved telling him that he loved him back.

Run away, turn away, run away, turn away…

No vine could stop him as he leaped towards the opening with no hesitation, only a second away from falling 30 floors down.

Instead, he fell into the arms of the boy on the swings. He fell into the arms of the boy he went crazy with. He fell into the arms of the boy he had loved before he even knew what loving was, and he was okay.

Sitting in the dying flower field, surrounded by the people he loved and cared for the most. He was okay.

[madelynraemunson]

stranger things x charmed crossover

mini series

witch!robin, witch!nancy, whitelighter!steve, whitelighter!eddie, demon!hyde!henry aka vecna etc.

disclaimers ✨ — ONE SHOTS, consistent timeline, non-linear plot. series can be read out of order (kinda like the episodes of black mirror); for all my non-smut readers ♥️ i see you guys too!

COMING SOON! tag list is open 🫴🏼✨

𝐂𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 ‘𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲. 𝐕𝐚𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐠-𝐭𝐚𝐠 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 & 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞-𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫-𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐭��𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐢𝐥𝐥-𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧 — 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧 — 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡.

VAMPIRES: The Rise of Kas 🧛🏼 (COMING SOON) | a powerful vampire crawls his way into hawkins and wastes no time tormenting his victims. and according to the composite sketches released by hawkins pd, he looks JUST LIKE eddie, which puts him in grave danger.

THE HYDE: Hail, Lord Vecna (COMING SOON)

[floggingink]

these TV guide are going to kill me I know it. can you tell us about vampire slayer pls 🙏

ohohoho I like this one...Hawkins is the Hellmouth, the Hideout is the Bronze, and Chrissy is the Slayer

Eddie's a grimy, grungy, demobat-scarred vamp working for Vecna (ie. the Master) in the vein as it were of Spike. Due to the laws of super-nature and his personality Eddie grosses Chrissy out but also holds an undeniable allure, kind of like you might still find the mangled corpse of a motorcycle accident victim hot if his dying words were like "Show me your tits"

Due to the convoluted lore of the only weapon that could kill him or the Slayer, Vecna needs Eddie to determine whether Jason, the Slayer's jock-prep bf, truly loves her...

At some point due to plot Chrissy needs something from Eddie and the only thing he says he'll trade her for is for her to let him suck some of her blood. (He is by now fatally in love with her but can reveal nothing.) And she's like no you're vile. And he's like then sayonara sweet cheeks, etc., until it is determined she'll let him eat her out bc she's on her period. She ties him to the headboard and rides his face in her cheerleader uniform. Soon she's on her back and he's going to such town on her as has never been performed

A Whedonesque ending, eventually...

Here's a bit of him being like haha no I'm cool after he eats her blood out of her pussy:

Beneath the mirror in which he didn’t appear the sink was the shape of a seashell and pale pink. On either side of the tap was a cup holding her toothbrush and a soap pump scented with warm vanilla sugar. He sat crossed-legged on the fluffy blue rug at its base, splayed his shaking fingers, and licked straight up his palm. The blood was dry and tacky. He had to drag his tongue up the same path four or five times until it made a track. Then the same stripe to the left of the first and then to the right and then ninety degrees sideways the same pattern against the grain. He put his thumb in his mouth and sucked it clean, then his index finger. He had to curl his tongue hard around his fingertips to get the blood out of his cuticles. To get it out of the webbing between his four fingers he had to rub it off with his other thumb and then had to suck it off that one. He lapped it off the back of his hand like a horrifying mimicry of a tomcat and sucked it off the notch of bone at his wrist. When it was all gone some microscopic film of it was still there, he could smell it, so he got up on his knees, vibrating, and batted for the little thing to pull to stop up the drain, then put his hand under a stream of warm water and rinsed it off. He turned off the faucet and rubbed his face clean from the basin until it no longer felt shrink-wrapped with blood then with his hands on the edge of the sink he bent at a jagged angle and drank the water. When the pool was gone he refilled it, rubbed the edges of the porcelain until the faint stain was gone and drank that, and when that was gone he craned his head into the depths and licked the sink. Beneath the warm wash of water and dregs of toothpaste mint and sugar soap and rusted metal stopper were atoms of it still: her blood her blood her blood.

[sterlingarcher23]

Hide in the light....

... hiding in darkness.

And Max even says it: opposite direction.

Darkness and Light.

Besides Max occasionally looks directly into the sunlight.

These images speak a similar but different language.

Note the walkie talkie next to Max's mirror image (It's a transmitter to speak to God. - El = Ugaritic deity later Hebrew for God)

Their dialogs...

... seem to tell the same tale yet they are not.

"As if the world would be different here" - "As if he was the problem"

"It was all a lie" - "It's never true"

"I could make my own rules" - "We make our own rules"

I'm not an English native speaker but the semantic differences between lies and "never true" are pretty obvious even to me:

He blames the world/his parents, she says her father wasn't to blame ; lies are deceptive, something that's not/never true can just be a misunderstanding (all lies are untrue but not everything that's untrue is a lie) ; he "could" make his own rules but alone = I (001} ; they just make their own rules together like in two Ones=0II).

Especially the last part is where we have mirrored shots, "Henry" looks at El from the left, Max from the right:

Could = used to talk about what someone or something was able or allowed to do or to express possibility and past tense.

Max's sentence is definite. (present tense, can be read as: always "We make our own rules" in past, present & future). Besides Max first says "almost" in regards to "never true". And it's to date the last sentence of her in the show.

These two are on the same level but on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Like in this image darkness and light are in the same shot, split into two sides of the frame and you have El & Max on one side and Vecna on the other.

Note that Brenner says Henry but in his explanation he says One. (Plus pronoun games between El and Owens.)

The lamp light creates like a halo or corona around Max's head in this promo shot (for S4 there's a god ray pointed at El... And I think at Will)

In the Phineas Gage scene we see her having like a beam of light or God ray directly on her head (it's a reflection of the glass behind her, a mirroring effect)

(again a male pronoun overlayed in the exact moment the camera changes focus to Max with Clarke saying his line - that is clearly connected to the scene in which El draws Max's face with her own it saying "This is Max", El being 5'6, Max living in No. 56 etc)

Btw...

I have a hunch what the green and red is alluding to. You may need special glasses. 😅

[henrysglock]

Salem's lot possible by king inspo for tfs? Was watching a vid about it and it has random things (very similar 1980s poster, Ralph/Danny brother dies at 12, becomes vampire, Father Callahan/Father Newby, Marsten House/Creel House, "original evil" haunting of house tied to csa) that just remind me of the creels, was curious if you had any thought abt the show or book

So sorry for taking a few weeks to get to this, Nonnie!! This time I actually have a reason for the wait, though: cross referencing.

(This is going to be a long post...)

I definitely think 'Salem's Lot is an inspo for The First Shadow for a few different reasons.

First things first, a lot of 'Salem's Lot is giving ST3 and the flayed, with One as a (supposed) Barlow figure and Will as a Danny type figure carrying on from ST1/2. However, as we know, Will and Henry exist as something of a repetition, and the Creel house does seem to function similarly to the Marsten house at first glance, as you said, with Henry being that era's Danny figure. (I'm going to come back to this later).

We also have some cool visual connections.

First off, like you said, we have the poster (and the book cover for good measure, since there's similarity there too):

Then we have iconic shots from the movie itself being replicated:

A third one comes, however, from a third source: Midnight Mass

As I've talked about before, the church in The First Shadow promo art is a near carbon-copy of the church from Midnight Mass:

There are also a fair number of other similarities. For one, the window silhouettes:

For another, the birds and cats:

(Added context: The TFS leaked audition tapes talk about cats being killed in Hawkins with no known suspect, much the same as the cats being killed on Crockett Island by the "angel" vampire in Midnight Mass.)

Further, the setup of the Midnight Mass rec. center as compared to set pieces for The First Shadow...as compared to the Rainbow Room in NINA:

And, while not strictly related to The First Shadow, there is an interesting detail to note across all three sources. The eyes:

(This also comes through in Annihilation (on the ST4 movie board) when altered Lena and the alien doppelgänger of her husband Kane reunite. Both of their eyes shimmer and glow, much the same way as the monster-fied humans pictured above.)

I bring all this up now in relation to 'Salem's Lot because 'Salem's Lot was a clear inspiration for Midnight Mass, to the point where Flanagan easter-eggs it into the show:

We also have other overlapping references, such as Se7en, which appears both in Midnight Mass and on the ST4 movie board:

So the question we're all asking is "why the tangent about Midnight Mass? How does that tie in, besides being a 6-degrees-of-separation thing."

Here, I'd like to posit a connection between the three: Barlow, Brenner, and Pruitt's Angel.

In Midnight Mass, Father Paul Hill (Msgr. John Pruitt), is a "newcomer" who brings a vampire (read: Angel) to Crockett Island. In truth, he's the missing Msgr. John Pruitt, who was restored to youth by the vampire's blood after an ill-fated trek to Jerusalem (much like 'Salem's Lot's Father Callahan). It is he who does most of the dealing on the vampire's behalf, feeding its blood to his concentration and convincing the people that becoming a vampire is a miracle...all while transforming into a vampire himself.

In 'Salem's Lot, Kurt Barlow is the vampire responsible for Danny's death and turning. He's the newcomer to the Lot who buys the Marsten house and hides within it. He does most of his dealing via Richard Straker, his human familiar.

In The First Shadow, Martin Brenner is a newcomer to Hawkins, establishing his spot in basement of Hawkins National Laboratory. We don't know much about him, but we do know that his later self has a fair amount of vampire coding (not appearing in mirrors, a habit of not dying from things that ought to kill him, etc), as does Vecna, a supposed byproduct of his experimentation. He's also got people who deal on his behalf, such as Connie Frazier and Sam Owens.

I'm not so much saying that Brenner exists as a physical vampire, but perhaps a more figurative one. As you mentioned, Nonnie, vampirism is often used as symbolism of non-consenual acts (see: SA in Bram Stoker's Dracula, CSA in 'Salem's Lot, and grooming in fanatical/fundamentalist church circles in Midnight Mass). They're also used to represent the spread of ideas and practices that are generally thought of as evil or unclean.

Brenner is no different, and his story is far more heavy-handed in this regard.

He may not physically drink blood, but he farms children to to be the figurative (and eventually literal) lifeblood of his scientific endeavors, all of which is possible via abuse of and a fundamental lack of consent from Henry and the children. Brenner may not be feeding on them, but he is feeding on them, if you catch my meaning. And, as we know, Brenner has a penchant for lying and manipulation. He spreads stories that aren't true, that turn people against his victims.

He comes to deliver messages regarding the reliability of the government and the dark underbelly of control and abuse that spreads under the patriot-acclaimed shining goal of "progress", much like Pruitt's fanatical church and its "miracles" that can only end in slaughter, or the blind eye being turned to a predator on the loose in the town of Jerusalem's Lot, in which the steady spread of vampirism denotes the fact that each blind eye becomes complicit in the spread of abuse.

Brenner, then, seems to be both the Barlow and the Pruitt of The First Shadow: A newcomer who does horrific things in pursuit of a selfishly "selfless" goal: scientific progress.

As such, I'd like to alter a conclusion slightly: Both the Creel House and Hawkins National Lab seem to be the Marsten house of Stranger Things, no?

And on that note...

Vecna/One and Brenner seem to exist as two sides of a coin: While Vecna/One literally sucks the life force from his victims, Brenner does so in a more figurative sense. Vecna/One doesn't literally spread lies the way Brenner does (in fact, any lies he might tell are very much contained between himself and his victim), but the way the UD spreads under his control is very much the metaphorical flip-side to that pattern of behavior.

In this respect, they both seem to be Barlows. While Brenner isn't the physical source of the magical terror in Hawkins, he did kidnap a child and through that act corrupt a neutral magical source into what it is today. In this he acts as half of Barlow, with Vecna/One acting as that literal magical source/other half.

Do with that what you will.

[bugsbenefit]

ST is much more inspired by Stephen King than we tend to acknowledge and i mean MUCH more

Warning: Major spoilers for Firestarter by Stephen King (also Carrie, IT and the Talisman but only teeny tiny one's)

some parallels on the show get talked about a lot, especially with how the writers are very vocal about them/them getting verbally mentioned in the show:

IT, by Stephen King, for example, gets constantly referenced in ST. it's an aesthetic inspiration: small town, townsfolk doesn't know about the HorrorsTM, kids riding around on bikes taking it into their own hands etc. they also took massive inspiration for Vecna and his visions -> classic Pennywise move. but even more specific things, like the balloons at the snowball exploding in blood, or the painting plot of receiving a love confession that gets attributed to the wrong person, are IT plot points

also easy to catch is, the Talisman, by Stephen King, since it gets read out loud by the end of s4. it will for sure somehow play into s5. even just with it's main premise being two worlds that are identical mirrors of each other and having to defeat the evil on the other side to save your own

those two parallels are obvious. but as someone who read Way too much Stephen King growing up, those two are not the only two works that were referenced heavily in the writer's room

for example: Carrie has crazy parallels to ST, especially El and Henry and the concept of powers as a whole. a really quick rundown of themes that get reflected in ST or even incorporated to some degree: (short, because i'll make an actual in depth post on this when i finally find the time to reread it properly)

the religious imagery and fanatic religious followers, the way powers seem to work to begin with (with negative vs. positive emotion as their source playing a big role), the way people respond to the powers (fear, attributing them to a demonic source, isolation as both punishment And a breaking point for Carrie) her relationship with her mother (an abusive parent), bullying tying into powers, and of course, Carrie's main rampage the book is famous

BUT. what i think is one of the biggest parallels on the show for how obvious it is -> the lab and El as a whole are 1000% inspired by Firestarter. i'm so serious it's not even a small reference. it's literally the exact same in large parts

the parallels of ST to Firestarter are absolutely Insane so to show how OH it is, here's the general plot summary of Firestarter (spoilers):

a couple takes part in an experiment while in college because they need the money. (can't remember if it was MKultra explicitly or just implied but yeah, it's MKultra) as a side effect of the substances and hallucinogenics (LSD) they were given the mother develops minor telekinetic powers and the dad has some form of mind persuasion abilities afterwards. they go home with the money, however, get continuously observed by the organization to monitor any additional effects but then they have a daughter who has Big psychic powers because of the tests done on them. the organization who did the original experiment finds out and tries to take the girl. (the mom dies as the husband and child manage to flee) long story short, after being on the run for a while, the daughter gets taken by the men and locked up in a lab facility. where she's confined to a room, has guards that keep her from leaving, and has to participate in "tests" where scientists try to figure her powers out. especially intense though is the director of the organization, who becomes obsessed with her and her powers while at the lab, the man, who was hired to kidnap her in the first place, now takes interest in her and assumes the identity of a worker in the facility, a janitor, to appear more harmless and get access to her. he manages to gain her trust with this disguise and convinces her to actually demonstrate her powers, which have become incredibly powerful and destructive after some HorrorsTM she witnessed prior later she manages to escape the facility when her dad shows up to get her back. however the "janitor" claiming to be her friend kills her father which causes her to express powers on a level never seen before with which she kills both the "janitor" in disguise and the obsessed organization leader (while also having almost everyone present in the building die as a result of her exploding it and any military vehicle approaching as she escapes) PS: she and her dad hide out from the organization in an old abandoned cabin of his in the woods for an extended period of time PSS: the book ends with her going to a newspaper and planning to reveal what has been going on at the lab to blow their cover and get them to finally stop hunting her down

it's LITERALLY THE LAB. IT IS. it's one of THE most obvious parallels in ST imo and i'm shocked i've never seen Anyone bring it up (also need to reread the book soon and make a longer post about it because there's SO much there) but this is literally the conception and later downfall of the lab in s1-2. and now with s4 it even covers some of the general conditions there with the tests and guards and Henry and. just. hhh. it's the SAME. Brenner, Henry, Hopper, Terry, and El are all in this book

also fun fact: the book is called Firestarter bc the girl is able to, duh, start fires. but it later turns out that her powers actually Aren't just pyrokinesis. she has general powers (very similar to Carrie). the fires only happen because of the insane energy levels she's able to channel, they're just the Side product. she can also just use normal telekinesis -> even robs an airport coin telephone at one point (El stealing is fun Hopper and Will let's commit fraud Byers would be proud of her)

Stephen King books like IT and Carrie seem like obvious inspirations for some elements of ST. but Firestarter especially is such an obvious inspiration and for Sure the blueprint of Hawkins lab it's not even funny. Stephen King in general seems to be a BIG influence on ST as a whole which makes sense with the way the Duffers talked about him before...

but i'm so serious, when i say Stephen King is probably the place where you'll consistently find The Most ST references and spoilers for future plot points, i MEAN it