Some headcanons for post-neutral ending Stranger!

Stranger's appearance changes a lot after Sunny moves away, both to protect his Headspace and to conserve his memory of Basil. It no longer represents Basil; neither Sunny nor Omori want it to represent Basil, so they turn it into something that isn't Basil.

Initially, the Dreamer deformed Stranger. If this devil that stalked him is the cause of Basil's suicide, then a devil it shall become. Long fleshy limbs, giant claws, a beastly tail, a stature that towers far above anything good, famished flesh—an appearance as inhuman as the Dreamer can make it. Stripped of the clothes that once belonged to Basil because those are not for Stranger to wear. Robbed of a mouth, it can no longer speak. And as a punishment for its sins, the flower crown was replaced with a crown of thorns.

So that now, whenever it's seen in Headspace, it will suffer by the intrinsic nature of its form.

However, as the reality of Sunny's hand in Basil's death starts to break through, Stranger changes. Those wild locks of hair the Dreamer couldn't get rid of resemble Basil's more with each day. The freckles that would flare up on Basil's skin each summer stand dotted on Stranger's shadows like stars in the night sky. Wherever it walks, dark flowers flourish and strangle the colourful whimsy of Headspace with shadows. And on its stomach, that deep, dark wound that took Basil oozes and pulses with tendrils that string it up like dark wings.

Sometimes, eyes blink inside that dark void that sprawls over its abdominal cavity. The Dreamer ignores them at all costs. Nothing good lies within. It does not merit investigation.

Little did the Dreamer know that when he chose to demonise and punish, he was creating a martyr.

Alternate design

10 Movies From The 2000s To Consider For October/Halloween

Horror movies of 2008

Eddie wants her, but he knows he can't have her. She's like the forbidden fruit and he's the fucking snake of Eden, passing her around and watching everyone else take a bite out of her and not being able to even touch her. Kiss her, fuck her, love her. She isn't his, she never will be he made damn sure of that. Stupid! He'll forever be the snake offering her up and bearing the consequences of his own broken heart.

Don't Dream It's Over

Back at it again with the angst! I hope you guys like it and please leave your thoughts in the comments. (FYI Kleenex are recommended).

~*~*~*~

Steve had given a lot of thought into how he’d die. He had a lot of time alone that he could put towards thinking about the worst outcomes and circumstances. Usually, he would envision passing away in the empty house devoid of love and affections. He would imagine his house filling with dangerous levels of carbon monoxide that would take him out in his sleep. Or maybe a passerby convict would choose to rob his house and murder him, smother him in his sleep or something. His mind would whir over the plentiful possibilities that would result in a world with him no longer in it. 

On the bad days, his thoughts would get a little darker. He’d think about stepping off the quarry or getting too close to the edge and falling to his death. He’d think about drinking too much to experience alcohol poisoning and overdosing on pain medication. Sometimes, he would stare into the chlorinated water of the pool and consider sticking his head in the water until water filled his lungs. Morbidly, he wondered how long it would take for anyone to find him afterwards. With friends who didn’t care about him and parents that never came home, he wouldn’t be surprised if no one found him at all. 

After he found out about the Upside Down, he could only picture himself dying to save the kids. He’d get chomped on by a demogorgon or ripped apart by demo dogs while they ran away in the other direction. He would do anything to protect those brats, especially at risk of losing his own life. 

Every year he got closer to his thoughts becoming reality. Billy, the Russians, the demobats, with every fight he got closer to the end. It was like the entire universe was pitted against him, like he was just created to be a means to an end. As long as the kids survived though, he was fine with it. 

He hadn’t considered that he would die for a stranger. That he would put his life on the line in an effort to save someone other than the kids. But when he jumped in front of Eddie in the whirlwind of bats, he couldn’t bring himself to regret it. He could feel Eddie fighting at his back but Steve continued to use himself as a human shield against the barrage of mutated creatures.

He wouldn’t change the skin that the bats were sinking their teeth into, wouldn’t exchange Eddie’s neck for his when the tail wrapped around the marks on his throat and started to suffocate him once again. Even as he screamed hoarsely when the bats dug further into the wounds in his sides, he wouldn’t change his decision to give his life for Eddie’s. 

Steve Harrington had thought a lot about his death throughout his life. He could only ever dream that he would go out in a blaze of glory, recognized and cherished by his friends. As he saw Eddie’s crying face above his and heard Dustin’s screams of desperation, he knew that his dreams had come true. His life was ending but at least it meant something, at least people noticed and would remember him. 

As his eyes slipped shut and the sounds faded from around him, he felt a flash of regret for thinking so much about his death. It would’ve been nice to focus on his life while he still had it. 

(He appreciates his life a lot more once he wakes up to realize he still has it… and a lot of explaining to do to his friends.)

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I just know Argyle clocks Robin as a lesbian immediately. He compliments her pins, her nail polish, winks at her. She pulls him aside, confronts him. He says “chill, little bird. I’m from California. We’ve got all types out there my man” or something similar. Argyle for president.

know that your Steve/barb s1 au is haunting me it's SO GOOD

it haunts me too i think they could be so good and interesting together as a couple. also. the angst potential is like x10 if barb DOESN'T make it out of the upside down.

like. Nancy in canon blames both herself and Steve for Barb's death, but in this...Nancy went home. She left Barb with Steve and then Barb went missing and died and Steve didn't and is alive. Steve was the one who should have walked Barb to her car (even though she said she was fine) or convinced her to stay the night (despite that not being a reasonable thing on a school night nor did Barb want to) and Steve's the one who invited Barb over... and even though Nancy encouraged Barb to go for it, I think some of her guilt wouldn't be there because of the different situations but a lot of her blaming Steve would be.

And Steve's here, with the only people his age that know about the evil Hawkins underneath them either being a kinda creepy weirdo (Jon) or hates his guts (Nancy), and his almost-kinda-mostly girlfriend is dead and he blames himself too. They weren't together long enough for him to love her, but he thinks he could have. Could feel himself falling hard and fast and now all that potential of could have beens is gone, dead with Barb in the Upside Down. And he has no one to talk to about it.

this bubbles and festers until Nancy accuses him of being bullshit, of not having any right to mourn Barb when he barely knew her, how it was his fault anyway. And he agrees to all of it because he thinks she's right. Barb's parents had talked about her to him, told him about little Barbara and her microscope, and her button collection, and her ballet slippers. He knows things about Barb, not he doesn't know Barb. And that hurts, because he wanted to, he wanted to know her in those weeks before, when they flirted and kissed, and he wanted to know her when all he knew was that she was missing and he was worried, and he wanted to know her when he attended her funeral. But he didn't, and now he never would.

when Robin asks if he's ever been in love on the nasty Starcourt bathroom floor, he says no. but he could have been. was halfway there, but never got the chance to actually fall. That it was his fault anyways.

And isn't that a goddamn shame?

fine, fine !! since none of you cowards are willing to take one for the team, i guess i’ll bite the bullet and date joe keery 🙄

fiveverse: a decision is made in the tunnels

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐍𝐎𝐖 

♡ note: first stranger things fic (≧∇≦)/ i hope you enjoy !

♡ pairing: steve harrington x gn reader

♡ word count: 2.4k

♡ tags: pre-relationship, occurs during the summer of 1985 when steve and robin are working at scoops ahoy, fluff

You don’t know what to make of Steve Harrington.

You didn’t know him very well in high school. You barely interacted with one another while you attended Hawkins High, despite the fact you were in the same year as each other. You just ran in different social circles, which was highly unsurprising. Steve was popular, as popular as somebody could be in high school, especially among the female population. He was treated as a king among men hence his title of “King Steve.”

He was an athlete, a member of the basketball team, and a supposed “sports star.” You didn’t attend many sports games in high school, so you’re unable to verify the validity of that statement, but from what you heard, Harrington was pretty damn good at basketball.

He was a notorious flirt, charming any sweet thing that looked his way (or didn’t). You heard the rumors that ran rampant around school. The number of people that Harrington supposedly hooked up was mind boggling.

And from what you observed, it seemed like he had a new fling every week at least. You couldn’t wrap your head around how so many people could fall for Steve Harrington’s charms when they had to know they would get left in the dust this time next week. You guess that they thought and hoped they would be different.

In addition to all of that, he was also a dick. Never to you- you’re quite sure he didn’t even know you existed- but you saw enough to form an opinion. You would see him in the hallways snickering and whispering with Tommy Hagan and Carol Perkins, obviously picking on someone who they thought were so below them. It left a bad taste in your mouth, but you kept quiet, not exactly eager to get involved and make yourself a target.

To sum it up, you thought Steve Harrington was a terrible person who you would never want to waste the time of day on.

But the Steve Harrington you remember from high school doesn’t match up too well with the Steve Harrington from now.

Working across the way from Scoops Ahoy at a little tiny kiosk at the mall that sells miscellaneous items that range from children’s toys to snacks has granted you a bit of insight into the untouchable king of Hawkins High.

He’s not quite the suave Casanova that your memories paint him as. You’ve observed him many times try his hand at flirting with an unsuspecting individual who’ve entered the ice cream shop looking for a cold treat on a hot summer’s day. more often than not, they’re unresponsive to his flirtations, leaving Steve defeated when he strikes out for the nth time, and the object of his attention leaves with nothing but their ice cream in hand. Robin seems to take great joy in the fact that her coworker is not very successful in securing dates.

That’s another thing that surprises you. You would have never guessed in a million years that Steve Harrington would befriend the likes of Robin Buckley.

You don’t have anything against Robin, not at all. You were friendly acquaintances with her back when you were in high school. You’re still friendly to this day, greeting each other with warm hellos and how are yous whenever you come across each other. But Robin Buckley is in band- deemed a “band geek.” so it was rather unexpected for you to see “King Steve” interacting with her, even if the two are coworkers. He could ignore her or even treat her terribly if he wanted to, you wouldn’t be surprised by that considering how he treated people in high school, but Steve doesn’t. In fact, the two actually seem like friends, good friends. Often, you’ve seen them playfully bickering and messing with each other when no one is around their store.

How interesting.

The young boy who hangs around Scoops Ahoy also has not escaped your notice. If you’d hazard a guess, you’d say that he’s a middle schooler, but then again, you’re positively terrible with guessing people’s ages. He seems to be familiar with Steve, always walking into the shop in search for the older male. He makes idle talk with Robin as he waits for Steve to exit the back room. As soon as Steve lays his eyes on the boy (Henderson you’ve heard him referred to as), Steve brightens, a large grin nearly threatening to split his face in half before he engages in excited chatter with the curly-headed boy. It’s sweet, you think, their relationship. It’s apparent that Steve is fond of the kid, almost as much as the kid is fond of him.

After many shifts spent working at the mall kiosk and quietly observing Scoops Ahoy in between checking out customers, you’ve deduced that Steve Harrington is different.

He’s different than that arrogant boy you recall from high school, the one who used to walk around the halls of Hawkins High as if he owned them, the boy who behaved as if he was a king far above the rest of the student body.

He’s different, and it’s hard to wrap your head around.

But you’re intrigued. You didn’t care much for Steve Harrington in high school, but he’s fully captured your attention within the recent months. You wonder just how much Steve Harrington has changed, how much he’s grown as a person.

Well, there’s no use in sitting around and wondering when you can just find out for yourself.

The next day while you’re at work and there’s a lull in activity during your shift, you take out the “Closed” sign that rests in a drawer and display it on your kiosk. You’re not worried about getting in trouble with your boss for closing up temporarily. They’re pretty laid back, and as long as you’re not gone for a considerable amount of time, they don’t mind if you step away from the kiosk for a little bit. 

As soon as you’re sure that everything’s good, you walk off in the direction of Scoops Ahoy. 

The place is pretty empty, save for a group of younger kids accompanied by a parent chaperone happily munching on their ice cream in a booth to your right. Robin and Steve are behind the counter, conversating about who knows what until you walk in.

Robin’s blue eyes light up in recognition, and she gives you a wide smile and pushes herself up and off of the stool by the cash register as you come near the counter.

“Hey,” Robin greets you. “How you’ve been?” she amiably says. Her attention is solely on you at the moment, so she misses how a shocked look crosses Steve’s face when his brown eyes land on you. You, however, do not. You ignore it for the time being.

“Hey, Rob. It’s good to see you! I’ve been good! Just’ve been working while taking a few summer classes, you know how it is. Also, I’m sorry I haven’t stopped by to say hi earlier,” you sheepishly say, rubbing the back of your neck with your palm. You do feel a little guilty for not swinging by earlier to say hello, especially since you work so close to one another, but hey, you’re here now.

Robin waves you off, casting aside your apology. “Don’t worry about it,” she reassuringly says as she slides over to the side, bumping Steve with her hip to move out of her way. “You want some ice cream?”

“I can help them, Robin,” Steve speaks for the first time, not so smoothly interjecting himself into the conversation. Robin gives Steve a look that only reads of “Really?” which greatly amuses you. They silently communicate, only using their eyes to convey their thoughts before Robin tosses her hands up in their and shrugs.

“Alright then, Harrington. Go for it,” Robin says as she backs away from the front counter and the display case of ice cream to make room for him to take her place. She leans her back against the counter behind her, loosely folding her arms over her chest and rolling her eyes with no real malice. Steve’s back is turned to Robin so the action goes unseen by him, but not by you. The corner of your lips quirks up, entertained by Robin and Steve’s interesting dynamic.

You divert your attention from Robin to Steve, the latter of which already has his eyes on you. 

“Harrington,” you give him a friendly smile. 

Mild surprise crosses his face, but he quickly recovers.

Steve copies you and says your last name in greeting, and now it’s your turn to be surprised. Who would have thought Steve Harrington knew who you were? (Most likely, Robin may have dropped your name in conversation, but still. Although you’re no longer in high school, you’re shocked that Steve “King Steve” Harrington has any idea of who you are.)

“What would you like today?”

You quietly hum to yourself as you glance over the different flavors that are behind the case, reading the little placards that accompany each tub. Your eyes settle back onto Steve’s face after you’re finished scanning the many tubs of ice cream.

“Hm, what would you recommend?”

“Oh, uh,” Steve sputters, caught off guard by your sudden question. Behind him, Robin poorly muffles her laughter with a fist, which draws an amused smile from you. Steve twists his head around and glares back at her before turning back around to face you. He makes a show of looking around the ice cream parlor before he leans forward, and in a loud whisper says, “Personally, I really like the cookie dough.”

You giggle, and Steve widely smiles at your reaction. He’s much dorkier than you would have assumed. You lean closer, and raise a hand to your mouth as if you’re about to let Steve in on a secret. In a stage whisper that matches Steve’s, you say, “Then, I would like a single scoop of cookie dough. In a cone, please.”

The corners of Steve’s lips curl up as he grins. With two hands, he pushes himself away from the counter and slides down towards the area where Scoops Ahoy keeps their supply of cones and cups.

“A single scoop of cookie dough in a cone, coming right up!” 

You watch as Steve moves around behind the counter, taking the opportunity to look at him, really look at him. 

He’s handsome. It’s something you’ve known since high school, but you’ve never had a chance to admire him so closely before. 

His hair has grown out quite a bit, flowing a little more freely with loose brown strands framing his face, but still as well-styled as ever. It suits him nicely, you think. 

A smattering of moles dot his skin, something that you’ve never noticed before. With your eyes, you follow the trail of them from his face to his neck until they disappear beneath the collar of his uniform, out of your sight. Speaking of his uniform, it looks a bit of ridiculous on him. You would have never guessed that Steve Harrington would ever willingly wear a cartoonish sailor uniform, but you guess that anything is possible.

“Here’s your ice cream.”

You blink, snapping out of your daydreaming. You quickly paste a smile on your face, hoping that Steve didn’t notice you zoning out while you were checking him out. 

“Thanks, Harrington.” You take the cone from his outstretched hand, your fingers brushing against his in the process. You resist the urge to laugh when he quickly withdraws his hand and clears his throat. “How much do I owe you?”

With your free hand, you reach into the back pocket of your work pants, digging out your wallet to get ready to pay for your ice cream.

“It’s on the house,” Steve says before you can fully pull out your wallet.

Your eyes widen- surprised by this turn of events. Surprised, but not displeased.

“That’s really nice of you, Harrington.” You narrow your eyes at him, suspicious. “Is there something you want in return?”

Steve raises both arms in the air in a surrendering motion, calloused palms facing you before he drops his arms back down and places his hands on the edge of the counter top. His fingers drum against its squeaky clean white surface.

His pink lips stretch into a charming smile, one that you’ve seen before when you happened across Steve flirting with people, but one that you’ve never have been or would have thought you’d be on the receiving end of.

“How about you let me take you out sometime? Say, this Friday?” He proposes, tone hopeful and smile still in place. 

Genuinely, you’re taken aback for a brief moment. Although you came over to Scoops Ahoy with the intention of talking to Steve to get to know him better and see for yourself how he’s changed, which maybe meant flirting a little with him and seeing where it got you, you didn’t actually think anything would come of it.

Without you realizing it, silence has fallen over you two as you stand there, quiet as you try to wrap your brain around the fact that Steve Harrington is asking you out on a date. The sound of his fingers quickly tapping against the white counter tap at a faster pace is amplified, and it dawns on you that Steve Harrington is nervous. You’re making him nervous.

You shake your head slightly, breaking yourself out of your whirlwind of thoughts.

“Pick me up at seven, Harrington,” you say with a cheeky grin. Steve’s shoulders noticeably sag in defeat before he suddenly perks up as your positive answer registers in his brain. 

“Yeah,” he says, a little breathlessly. He drags a quick hand through his hair. “Yeah, I’ll be there. Seven sharp.”

“I’ll see you then, Harrington.” You look past Steve, looking over his shoulder and lifting the hand that’s holding your ice cream cone at Robin. “It was good seeing you, Rob! Let’s catch up soon.”

“I’ll see you around,” she promises, giving you a little wave goodbye before you begin to walk off back towards the mall kiosk you work out.

You pretend that you do not hear Steve cheer “Yes” in a not-so-silent exclamation as you walk out of Scoops Ahoy, but a silly, giddy smile spreads across your lips.

It looks like you have a date this Friday.

Ahh also as an addendum to my previous ask about the age swap (which I might’ve accidentally labeled as the body swap fic due to the foibles of being awake unexpectedly early ), I was curious what your criticisms are regarding Robin and Will’s treatments by the Duffers? I know you’ve alluded to being bothered by both but I’d be curious to hear more ( if you have the time/hankering!)

Hooboy. Okay. Buckle in. 

Obviously this is going to be a combination of actual literary analysis and Big Feelings That I Have, so like, please don’t take this as any kind of moral dictum on what to or not to watch, or how to or how not to interpret what you watch. Also, a lot of what makes me uneasy and unhappy about how canon deliberately handles queerness (as opposed to when it does queer things apparently by accident, which as you may have noticed, I have considerable amounts of fun with) has to do with behind-the-scenes context I’ve read about, so there’s a certain degree of Telephone involved. And I’m still only halfway through season four. There’s just so fucking much of it. 

With all that said. 

The behind-the-scenes context I’m most specifically concerned with are the season-one pitch bible(? I think that’s what it’s called) (which, it should be noted, ended up diverging in some quite significant ways from what ended up in the show) where the Duffers first raised the possibility that Will might be gay, and the anecdote that Joe Keery and Maya Hawke were the ones who decided Robin should be queer and had to really push for it and wrote and choreographed that scene in the bathroom. Put the two together, and it tells you that the Duffers planned that there would be One (potentially) Gay Character in their show. 

And that character was the one they spent an entire season directing violent, vicious, eventually outright murderous homophobic hatred at through the mouthpiece of a couple of bullies. You can say what you want about revenge narratives and those characters ultimately getting their comeuppance, but for Me Personally, it sucks all the fun and escapism out of season one to watch it thinking that those bullies only got punished when they aimed that vitriol at someone to whom it didn’t literally apply. Also I still have to sit through however many episodes of that vicious homophobia onscreen regardless, so, like, that’s a walk in the park anyway. /sarcasm 

And then there’s that whole bad business in season three, where it’s never been quite clear to me if we’re supposed to see Mike as having been in any way in the wrong. Kind of scuppers the argument, to me, that we’re supposed to be on Will’s side. And season four, which so far has had Will tagging along after people who are supposed to be his best friends but mostly don’t seem to give a single damn about him, doing absolutely nothing but looking morose and sullen and tragic and *coughcough* Artistic, and causing Problems for the nice straight couple. 

(Tangential to the point I’m coming to, but also, my son deserves better than to be reduced to a soggy cardboard standee with ‘GAY’ scrawled across it in magic marker the way season four seems to be angling toward. All the Byers, but especially the Byers boys, deserve better than season four seems interested in giving them. But I digress.) 

Also. I love Robin. If you follow me, you probably know that. I’m a hardcore, ride-or-die Robin girl. But. With Robin, from what I’ve heard of the context, the Duffers never intended for her to be queer. They wrote a girl who was smart and funny and sharp and talented and a little bit mean and a little bit insecure and a little bit weird but in an interesting, endearing way - as a love interest for Steve. 

And then, as soon as season four rolled around, once they’d been pushed into making her canonically, on-screen queer (in a beautiful, tender, heartfelt, true-feeling scene that they didn’t fucking write), suddenly she’s had a complete personality transplant. Suddenly, she’s an awkward, bumbling, annoying loser who’s only funny when she’s the butt of the joke, who’s no good at anything and who nobody really likes except maybe for Steve, an outcast even amongst the freaks. When she does do something smart or competent, everyone around her reacts with shock, like it’s wildly out of character instead of how her character was originally written. One of these versions of Robin was written with ‘gay person’ in mind, and it unfortunately wasn’t the one we were obviously supposed to like. 

In both cases, I get the feeling that the storytelling issues stem from this like...assumption that queerness equals isolation and misery and tragedy, and that there’s nothing to queerness outside of that. That there’s something inherent to queerness, something pitiable but repulsive, that causes the isolation and misery and tragedy (not that those things are imposed from outside, by, say, violent homophobia). That it would be absurd to imagine that queerness could ever be joyful, or playful, or that someone might ever, given the chance to choose, not choose to be straight instead. Or that there could be enormous friendship and community and heart and pride in queerness, or even that queer people might find friendship and community and strength in each other. Or even fucking talk to each other, ever. 

Which is especially infuriating, because the whole central theme of season one (besides surface appearances being deceiving) is that community and care between people who are very different but discover they have more in common than there is that separates them is what saves the day! That love comes in all kinds of forms, and they’re all important, and that love can be stronger than fear! 

But apparently, according to the Duffers, queer love doesn’t count and queer community doesn’t exist. It’s just isolation, misery, and tragedy, and I guess we the watchers are supposed to sit outside of it and pity Them for it (and be quietly, sneakily, a little bit nastily grateful that it’s not happening to Us). Because of course nobody watching the show is queer. Of course. This show is made for normal people. 

It’s part of the same attitude I’ve also seen play out with the Duffers’ inability to just let a white dude be bad. Oh, they want to talk a big game about how they’re on the side of the freaks, and bullies are bad, and everybody should be respected and appreciated for who they are. But when it cuts down to the bone, when applying that precept to a girl or a person of colour or a queer person makes a straight white guy come off as a monster, they keep trying to dodge it. 

The more antagonists they try desperately to rehab without ever acknowledging why they were antagonists in the first place, the more it starts to look like they simply don’t really believe that the people those antagonists hurt really matter. That, somewhere deep down where the assumptions that are so baked in you don’t even realise they’re assumptions live, they don’t really believe that girls, or Black kids, or queer people are as fundamentally human and deserving of respect and compassion as their beloved awful straight white men are. That what they really think about bullies is that bullies are bad because the bullies picked on them, instead of the kinds of people who deserved it.

(See also: that time a twelve- or thirteen-year-old Sadie Sink didn’t want to have to do a kiss in the Snow Ball scene, so the Duffers, who had just been joking about having her do it, actually made her do it. For multiple takes. Specifically because she didn’t want to. And then later related that anecdote to the press. Because they thought it was funny.)

Anyway. Personally, I’d prefer canon just never say anything definitive on the matter of Will’s sexuality and stop trying to push the narrative in that direction, so I don’t have to watch the Duffers spectacularly fumble yet another attempt at Writing About Marginalised Groups. 

(Also, this is absolutely not me saying Watch A Different Show - I’m here writing fanfic for this stupid show, it’d be pretty fucking rich of me to try to tell people to stop watching it. But I’d really love for many of its fans to get some more exposure to less-mainstream, more deliberately queer literature and film, so y’all can see what it really feels like to be seen and acknowledged and loved by a story, on purpose. I get it! I do! I too have wanted very badly to feel like something I loved, loved me back. 

But you don’t have to content yourselves with scraps. And you definitely don’t have to be so concerned with those scraps that you blame your friends, cousins, siblings, brothers in arms for ‘stealing’ some kind of ‘representation’ from you by asking to be seen and acknowledged and loved as well. The bastards who’ve been withholding that recognition from all of us would love nothing more than to watch with amusement, gorging themselves on a banquet, while we tear each other apart over a couple of discarded bones. Don’t give them the satisfaction. We don’t have to be isolated, pitiable, pathetic, miserable tragedies. Put the hollow promises of exclusionism and respectability down. There is queer art and literature and film and community and joy and love in abundance that you don’t have to beg anyone for, and you are invited to participate. This is me inviting you to participate. 

And cordially inviting the Duffers to meet me in the woods behind the 7-Eleven.)

...

tl;dr the way the Duffers treat queerness when they do it on purpose feels like a combination of othering, contempt, and misery porn, and I hate it. And that, in a nutshell, is the rant I’ve been sitting on for the last two-and-a-bit years. I’m getting down off the cafeteria table now. 

Martyr!Stranger experiences the effects of original sin and learns to be careful what he wishes for

Stripped of the clothes that once belonged to Basil because those are not for Stranger to wear.

For my neutral ending Stranger

Live Omori reaction to this (he endlessly torments Stranger and loves to see him suffer)

Alternative design

when ethel cain said "i always knew that in the end, no one was coming to save me, so i just prayed and i keep praying and praying" & "god loves you but not enough to save you" & "so, baby girl, good luck taking care of yourself" & "god doesn't love you, not like i do" & "you and me against the world [...] we had nothing but each other, you were my whole world" & "your mama calls me sometimes to see if i'm doing well and i'd lie to her and say that i'm doing fine when, really, i'd kill myself to hold you one more time, and it hurts to miss you but it's worse to know that i'm the reason you won't come home" & "you know, i still wait at the edge of town, praying straight to god that maybe you'll come back around, i cry everyday and the bottles make it worse 'cause you were the only one i was never scared to tell i hurt [...] and you might never come back home, and i may never sleep at night, but god, i hope you're doing fine out there, i just pray that you're alright, and i feel so alone, and i feel so alone out here [...] and i feel so alone without you, i'm so alone" & "i'd hold the gun if you asked me to, but if you love me like you say you do, would you ask me to?" & "i tried to be good, am i no good, am i no good, am i no good?" & "i just wanted to be yours, can i be yours, can i be yours, can i be yours?" & "but in these motel rooms, i started to see you differently, 'cause for the first time since i was a child, i could see a man who wasn't angry" & "i thought good guys get to be happy, i'm not happy, i am poison in the water and unhappy" & then "preacher's saying god will save me, if god is real, he's a fucking bitch" & "i didn't ask to be this crazy but since we're here, i'll give them a show" & "if you try to hurt me, i won't stop you, but there's something you should know, it's that my daddy's fucking crazy and always ready to blow" & "the first boy i ever loved was a brother i never had, i thought, with him, maybe i'd make it, maybe it'd be half as bad, spent my night under the covers just wishing he was there, draw his portrait in my diary just to hold when i got scared, now i'm fucked up and i'm nasty, but they say i make it look good" & "what's gonna scare me when i've seen it all? [...] if i can't live, can i just fucking die?" & "am i not good enough for you? is there something wrong with me? baby, don't you lie to me, am i just not what you want? am i just not what you need? is there someone in your heart that keeps you gone away from me? is she prettier than me? is her skin softer than mine? can she give you what i can't? the thing i cry for every night?" & "i think about you everyday, 'cause i love you more than i thought i could [...] 'cause i don't hate you like i know i should, was i not good enough for you? was there something wrong with me? i just cry by myself at night but you'll never know and you'll never see" & "sometimes you make me wanna put my fucking head through the wall, sometimes i wonder if i ever even knew you at all" & "and we've been cursed since the start, jesus didn't want us [...] and fuck the cops and fuck god and fuck this town for ruining us" & "in the corner, on my birthday, you watched me dancing right there in the grass, i was too young to know that some types of love could be bad" & "you poor thing, sweet mourning lamb, there's nothing you can do, it's already been done" & "bless the children, each and every one come to know their god through some senseless act of violence" & "stop, stop, stop, make it stop, stop, make it stop, make it stop, i've had enough" & "i am the face of love's rage" & "and i spend my life watching it go by from the sidelines, and, god, i've tried, but i think it's about time i put up a fight" & "i forgive it all as it comes back to me" & "dancing with the windows open, i can't let go when something's broken, it's all i know, and it's all i want now" i& just. okayokayokayokay okay yeah alright hahahaha lmaoooo im& totally fine i& just

Tantrum... about what exactly?

About feeling feelings! And being sad! And how actually Alina forced his hand bc if she’d just listened to him and done exactly what he’d wanted then none of this would’ve happened and he never would’ve been put into a position where he has to kill her to regain his own power. So actually it’s allll her own fault, and why must he suffer so?

now that i'm thinking, the worst part about Eddie's death wasnt even the death itself.

It is the fact that everyone still thinks he's a mass muderer.

It is the fact that his name never got cleared.

It is the fucking fact that no one will ever know how amazing of a person he was and that hurts so goddamn bad.

like i literally have nothing to say except it was a BIG dick move to kill him off.

He was the best addition to the cast ever since robin and they just fkin killed him and that does not sit right with me.