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klausinamarink · 9 months

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One Kid Gone, Another Up and Vanished (part 13)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 next: Part 14 | ao3

since Christmas is around the corner, I’ll be busy for the next few days so new chapter as a special treat!

It’s an endless cycle of pain. From every heavy breath to the tiniest movement, his leg just pulses in a way that it shoots the numbness through his body and Eddie would see black and white stars. His brain turns into static for what feels like hours. Then once it fades away, the adrenaline comes back, taunting him to get up. But he can’t because he registers his fucked up leg, starting the process over again.

Eddie hates lying on the floor with all of these creepy vines around, knowing that one can slither to life and grab his ankle, but it’s the best he can do right now. He’s too tired and weak from the fight to bother attempting to sit up. He does thank any god listening for keeping the strength he had for running downstairs to save Will after the demogorgon chomped on his ankle.

He can hear the commotions in the house, both from the Wheeler family trying to restore power and from Will’s scavenging for healing items.

Healing items. Why did he say it like that? This isn’t D&D anymore, Eddie!

Though at this point and not for the first time, he wishes this is just a very bad dream that he’s gonna wake up from.

Footsteps loudly clamber down the stairs. Eddie lifts his head up to see Will running towards him with arms full of a thick first aid kit, bottles of questionable liquid, some towels, and tons of bandages that could rewrap a mummy.

“Mrs. Wheeler is always prepared for everything.” Will says hurriedly in lieu of an explanation. He drops next down to Eddie with the supplies. He quickly opens the kit and starts pulling a bunch of things out that Eddie can’t keep track of. But then Will freezes, staring between at the items in hand and Eddie’s wounded leg.

“Hey, Doctor Will,” Eddie heaves out a chuckle, “don’t leave your patient hanging.”

It’s a weak joke but emotional distractions are necessary. At least until Eddie sees the absolute panic in Will’s eyes.

“I don’t know how to fix this.” Will says quietly.

Eddie sucks in another breath through his teeth. Looks at the ceiling and makes a quick prayer. He snaps his fingers, catching Will’s attention. “Do- shit, fuck- we have any water left?”

Will stares at him. Then he’s quickly unzipping his backpack, pulling what Eddie’s positive is their last water bottle. It remains uncracked despite how much Will had ran around earlier. There’s about half of precious water left.

”Okay,” Eddie balls the collar of his tee and pulls it to his mouth, “open it and pour it on the wound.”

Will gives him a fearful look, but Eddie’s already biting into his shitty cloth, chest heaving in anticipation. Will looks away, opens the bottle, and pours the water.

It’s not as horrible as Eddie expects, but it intensifies the pain anyways and he screams through his makeshift gag. Fuck, now he can feel the water soaking into the bloody gashes.

“Towel…” He gasps out and Will is quick to delicately dab it on his leg.

It goes on like this for a long time. Eddie quickly pointing to the rubbing alcohol and the bandages while Will follows, his panic ebbing away to tired determination. In the end, half of his leg throbs under the various bandages. His ankle feels much more raw. His jaw hurts from clenching so tight.

But they’re not staying here. Will doesn’t say it, but Eddie knows from his campaigns that spilled blood guarantees monsters. And even though they killed the demogorgon, who the fuck knows if there’s another lurking nearby?

It’s an agonizingly slow process. Every step on his bad leg sends up painful jolts. He’s certain that he can feel the blood draining out of the wound and, boy, doesn’t that make his stomach lurch.

Despite the fragile support of their remaining spear and Will’s own helping hand, Eddie makes it out of the Wheeler house and onto the street. But the strain on his body and the instant awareness of being vulnerable out in the open is making him sweat.

One house down and Eddie falls to the ground. He’s shaking so bad he can’t even hold himself.

“Eddie, no!” Will starts pulling at his arm. “Get up! You can make it!”

Eddie weakly laughs, “N-No-” He stops, feeling his stomach seize and racing up to his mouth. This time, he can’t swallow down the nausea. So he rolls over slightly and throws up. It’s a gross puddle of liquid and uncooked soup, his main diet since he ended up here. He feels a few bits stuck in his throat so he tries to spit, but his mouth is so gross and dry that it makes him gag again. Then it sends him into a coughing fit, rough enough to hack out his lungs.

“Eddie!”

He rolls on his back, staring up at the starless sky while he catches his breath again. A couple of ashy spores kiss the corner of his eyes as if they’re trying to make him cry. Eddie’s certain he can’t cry anymore.

He’s so tired.

“Eddie!” Will leans over him, his bowl cut and tear-streamed eyes blocking his vision. His hands grab underneath Eddie’s shoulders and surprisingly manages to drag and lift him up, though half of his back is still on the ground. “You stupidhead! Move or you’ll die!”

Eddie shudders out another breath, “I really- I can’t get up.”

Will makes a frustrated noise before he punches Eddie’s back and then runs around to his side. He hoists Eddie’s arm over his tiny shoulders and starts pulling him again. This time, Eddie pushes himself through the burning of his body and forces himself up, trying not to lean completely onto Will, given how small and weaker the kid is.

Instead of continuing down the sidewalk, they turn straight to the house right next to them. Eddie makes no complaint to the change of plans, though he struggles to keep his weight from crushing Will.

After too many steps, they finally get through the front door. Once inside, they both collapse right on the spot. Eddie’s chest feels like ice at this point.

He hears Will dropping his things down before getting up and dashing through the hallway. A moment later, he comes back with a bedsheet and some stiff looking pillows. Eddie almost moans with relief as Will places the pillows under his leg and head. Then he diligently throws the bedsheet over Eddie, also covering the space they’re occupying on the cold floor.

Despite the thin bedsheet, Eddie already feels hot under it. He’s not risking in moving his leg again so he keeps perfectly still as Will’s trembling body lies down, pressing close to his side, nestling his face against the crook of Eddie’s neck.

There’s a moment when an array of low barking starts just nearby, making the two of them freeze and hold their breaths. Eddie thinks, Oh fuck, don’t tell me we got wild dogs. Then after what feels like hours, the new pack goes silent. Eddie hopefully assumes the whatever they were, the creatures have left.

Before Eddie can submit to the exhaustion at last, Will suddenly pleads quietly and tearfully, “Please don’t die when I wake up.”

Eddie stops. He stops breathing, moving, thinking. He doesn’t dare to look at Will. This sweet, creative, badass kid who is his only friend in the hell they’re in. This kid who’s hugging him like the demogorgon will appear again and wouldn’t let go anyways.

Will doesn’t deserve him. Neither does Eddie but goddamn, it hurts trying to convince himself that.

He finally moves, but only his right hand as he fiercely rubs up and down Will’s back. Eddie whispers, “I won’t die, Will. Neither are you.”

Will’s voice cracks, “You promise?”

“Yep. Because we’re the strongest and luckiest sons of bitches in this realm.”

Will makes a weak laugh before it shifts into a cough. Soon after, his breathing slows to a soft whistling out of his nose. With a small sigh, Eddie closes his eyes and finally sleeps.

It’s a restless one, mostly dreams of being eleven at knocking at Wayne’s closed front door while petal-shaped maws rip his skin to shreds.

Taglist: @unclewaynemunson @hellion-child @steves-strapcollection @sidekick-hero @penny00dreadful @hbyrde36 @mmmmwaffles94 @princessstevemunson @sirsnacksalot @tartarusknight @lyriclight @kodaik97 @plsdontdrinkmylavalamp @bookbinderbitch @gutterflower77 @soaringorinthopher @angeldreamsoffanfic @panicatthediaz @renaissan-vvitch @manda-panda-monium @newtstabber @little-trash-ghost @niniel-karenine @tinyplanet95

#the boys are very tired #not to worry because tomorrow will be their last day in the upside down! :D #ik the neverending story movie didn’t come out till a year later but I swear that reference to THAT SCENE was unintentional #eddie and will in the upside down au #eddie munson #will byers #stranger things #klaus writes

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chirpsythismorning · 2 years

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Rick Conroy's Recent Rentals:

Teen Wolf (1/2/3)

As a refresher, this is a shot from 4x02: Vecna's Curse. Robin, Max, Dustin and Steve are using the video store's database to look through the most recent rentals of all the Ricks in town as hints for which one Reefer Rick is, so that they can get his address and track down Eddie.

Unfortunately for them, this selection here from Rick Conroy didn't give off 'reefer' vibes and so they moved on to the next one.

However, luckily for us, this could very well have been hinting at events that are either already happening in s4, or are perhaps still yet to fully come to fruition in s5.

2. Teen Wolf (1985)

This is easy/hard because although it could be fairly simple, it could also be complex, to the point where it may very well go even further than this film. So I guess I'll just humor the implications, both simple and complex, because why not.

The entire plot of Teen Wolf revolves around a protagonist who is tired of being average, only to find out that he's actually the opposite of average: a frickin' werewolf.

There are a lot of possibilities for where elements of this film could align with certain concepts in the show. I even feel like it could be related to a specific arc on the most basic level (ie. Sixteen Candles = Birthdaygate).

Ironically, something I also noticed related to this, is that in the same episode we get the Rick selection with Teen Wolf, we also see the poster for it in the exact same spot as the Sixteen Candles poster was at the end of s3. We even see the letters ARC(ADE) in the right corner of the frame for both (probably just a coincidence, but a cool one at that).

Notice the pole going straight through the Teen Wolf poster here? More on that later...

Initially, I was going to just associate this film with the storyline related to the basketball team, because we do see a prominent arc related to basketball in s4, and so that felt like an easy way to pinpoint that reference?

However, I did feel sort of inclined to dig deeper, and this is because the other two films from this specific Rick selection connects to Will's character more than any of the other characters arguably.

Basically, after being stumped with the Teen Wolf mention, and intending to just stick with the simplicity of how the reference could apply to s4, I moved on to Romancing the Stone, only to find out it screamed Will, and so a part of me began wondering if it could be more complex than it seems when it comes to this reference.

And so, what exactly would Teen Wolf (1985) have to do with Will and his present/future arc, assuming that these three movies are indeed related to his character?...

Well, Twelvegate.

Just take a look at the film's slogan at the top of the movie poster:

He always wanted to be special. But he never expected this!

Upon rewatching this scene I also noticed there are twelve Ricks total...

As many of you probably know, there has been a decent amount of imagery with Will's blocking being obstructed by rods/poles/stakes, etc. (ie. Phineas Gage). So the fact that a pole interferes with the poster for TW could also be intentional in its attempt to give it some association to Will.

Here are the several other shots we get of the TW poster in this same episode:

I remember so much discourse about how this shot above was foreshadowing Max's confrontation with Vecna, which I do still fully believe to be the case. However, now I'm also rethinking about how that claw representing Venca looks just a little too aligned with the TW poster to not at least be a little bit intentional...

Look at Dustin and Max's bikes! They're blue/yellow directly in front of the poster!

And that's that on that!!

Though, if I’m being honest, this all still felt a little too simple to me.

The poster with Michael J. Fox opening up his shirt to reveal the title Teen Wolf also reminded me of the official reveal that Vecna was 001? Where the UD vines sort of scatter to reveal the number on his wrist...?

While it could be relevant as a potential hint for Will only now discovering as a teen that he has powers/is connected to the lab, similar to the protagonist of Teen Wolf only now discovering as a teen that he is a werewolf, I still want to try to take it another step further.

Now, going back to the basketball plot in s4, because I do think there still could be some connections between the show and the basketball theme in the film, is that there's actually a really layered connection to Teen Wolf going on here. And it has very me intrigued.

Although, this connection can be easily overlooked, as it's not related to the 1985 version, but actually the 2011 drama series, loosely based on the 1985 version, which goes by the same name...

As it turns out, Mason Dye’s most notable role before he was cast as Jason Carver in s4 of Stranger Things, was his role as Garrett in s4 of Teen Wolf.

So I guess the casting department decided to typecast tf out of Mason, by giving him the role of a character in a storyline potentially inspired by elements from the movie Teen Wolf? A role which also happens to be almost identical to his role in the series Teen Wolf?

Jason Carver character description in Stranger Things: popular basketball player ends up hunting down Hellfire Club (ALSO peep his #12 jersey... yep.)

Garrett character description in Teen Wolf: popular lacrosse player ends up hunting down Scott's pack

This also reminded me of the Duffer's talking about the casting of Amybeth McNulty. For those who don't know, Amybeth starred in Anne with an E (2017-2019), which is a drama series based on the book Anne of Green Gables (1908). There's also a well known TV mini-series based on said book which came out in 1985. After casting for Vickie was announced, the Duffers revealed that they were fans of the AOGG book and the mini series as kids (which is why the book was referenced in the show a few times), but also made a point to add that they were big fans of AWAE.

This is interesting to me because I feel like TW and AWAE are the kind of shows that have a bad rep (mostly deserved for TW atp), but specifically because of how they present themselves on the surface?

Werewolf teens and a talkative red-haired girl in braids don't exactly scream quality TV to most people? Which like, fair enough. Not to mention, both adaptations were based on stories that were very popular in the 80's, being modernized for future audiences. And so a lot of people hated them for that reason alone, without even giving them a second glance.

However, within the context of the Duffers, who are well known film nerds, who literally watch anything and everything under the sun, I think it's possible (and even likely) they watched Teen Wolf the series.

Arguably, TW's most impressive narrative moments come from season 3b. Which interestingly enough brings us back to the main focus I had for this post, which is how exactly this could all relate to Will.

Answer?

Will being possessed by the Mind Flayer is EXTREMELY void-Stiles coded:

Void-Stiles is easily recognized as one of the strongest arcs in the entire series, and for good reason. S3b season truly tested the limits of Dylan O'Brien's talent, along with a lot of other elements in the show just really hitting the mark that season. The story-building, the vibes, and the acting from the cast overall was pretty good, making it well regarded as a fan favorite (sound familiar?).

At first it starts with Stiles sacrificing himself, essentially dying for a short period of time, only to come back to life, but to have also left a door open in his mind. This door (ajar) makes Stiles vulnerable to the Nogitsune (an evil spirit that feeds off of chaos, strife and pain), who of course takes advantage and attaches to Stiles.

Slowly, Stiles starts experiencing an inability to focus, sleepwalking, vivid dreams during the day, while also not being able to tell the difference between dreams and reality. Eventually this leads to the Nogitsune gaining control, who then starts to have more influence on Stiles' behavior, leading him to trick his loved ones around him into believing that it's him by acting like Stiles at times, when really it's the Nogitsune. He uses Stiles' body as a vessel to wreak havoc on the town of Beacon Hills, but also specifically Stiles friends/family.

He even goes as far as to make Stiles do things like twist a sword into his best friends chest, then finally detaches himself from Stiles' body only to in that very same moment kidnap Lydia (his love interest), and ending in a battle with him orchestrating the attempted murder of an entire floor of a hospital, along with successfully killing a beloved main character.

While I do think it's possible we could see some similarities between these storylines here (we arguably already have), something I realized a while back when researching for birthdaygate, was that it did remind me a great deal of Stiles' arc in s6a of TW.

What makes this arc kind of ironic in the context of this post, is that there are some parallels to Back to the Future...

Basically everyone forgets Stiles existed, to the point where he's completely erased from reality, including photographs (Back to the Future reference). Other details about him, like his name and his connection to the people around him, is what plays a big part in his return (including radios being used between realms to communicate with him... yep).

As it's happening, Stiles starts going up to everyone he knows, first casual friends, and slowly down the line to people that mean the most to him. Suddenly his best friend doesn't know him, then his dad, finally the only person left who remembers him is Lydia, only for him to be taken and for everyone to forget (including Lydia). And this was basically the big cliffhanger that closed off the first episode of the season, with it being a guiding force to them getting Stiles back in the following episodes.

Now, I just want to make it clear that I do NOT think that this is how s5 is going to play out, like barely, if at all.

My main purpose for this post was to look at the simple and complex in relation to this reference and how it could relate to what is to come, in any shape/form.

Like, we know they draw a lot of inspiration from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (along with 100+ films and more). And yet still, that doesn't mean we're expecting the show to play out exactly like it does in those stories.

What we're expecting is some inspiration & parallels.

S5 is said to be drawing a lot of inspiration from s1-2, which are two seasons most tied to Wills disappearance and possession.

Clearly in the case of this reference, there are A LOT of possibilities for what this could be hinting at related to Will's arc in particular.

I'm excited, but also terrified to find out what...!

#byler #stranger things #movie inspo #twelvegate #teen wolf (1985)#teen wolf (2011)#ALSO I love how Michael J Fox is just chilling in all these layered references going on here related to Will #just wait until we get to romancing the stone...#also I have a theory that the duffers were big tw stans pre-downfall #that it plays a small part in why they insist on not going past 5 seasonns... bc they don't want their show to go downhill either #they've seen tw and dozens of other shows go from impressive to unwatchable #TW has gotta be the biggest example of this in recent years #i'm not even talking unliked endings #i'm talking UNWATCHABLE endings #i feel like the duffers set themselves apart bc as time went on they actually clued their cast in on the overall series arcs/plans/ending #which made it easier for the cast to stay as opposed to leaving around s3/4 #with the creator of teen wolf he kind of is just allowing the show to go on forever and ever #and so he's sort of been forced to work around the casts desire to even continue participating #and so ever since they lost the bulk of their cast but especially dylan obrien (the heart of the show)#it just become unwatchable #like imagine ST losing gaten but just continuing to roll out new seasons???#i don't want to imagine it. it would suck. it simply wouldn't be stranger things anymore #and that's also why i think the duffers refuse to kill of their mains for shock value #bc everyone knows the less og characters you have as the seasons go on #the more the show becomes a shell of its former self and what used to make it so good in the first place:#it's fucking characters #i can guarantee you after s5 that this is the end of these characters story forever...#and i'll be fine with that!

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