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hawkinsschoolcounselor · 5 years

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Were we Gay-Baited? The Issue of Will and Byler/Byeler, a Discussion of Apophenia, Identification, and Empathy

I’ve been struggling with my own feelings since finishing Stranger Things 3. Curiously, I find myself being overcome with rage and disappointment, which isn’t how one is usually meant to feel about a TV show. It wasn’t a bad season by any means, though I do think it was the weakest of the three so far. The one biggest point I find myself stuck on is the treatment of Will Byers, not just as a character, but as a reflection of my own experiences and feelings. Identification happens all the time when we engage with fiction. Sometimes we are meant to do so, while other times it is due to how we interpret otherwise ambiguous aspects of a character or story. It’s an aspect of empathy, as we’re feeling the emotions (or at least what we believe to be the emotions) of a character. I identified with Will back in Season 1. It looked like they were building, slowly, but surely, towards Will being gay, and I let myself build this idea that his struggles with the Upside Down and the Mindflayer were a metaphor for him coming to terms with these feelings he had for his best friend. I saw the Upside Down as an allegory for being in the closet. A dark, lonely, scary version of the real world. I don’t know if Barb was meant to be seen as a lesbian, but I latched onto that as support for my theory. It was after being left alone by Nancy that she is captured and killed by the Demogorgon. She felt alone and rejected, and subsequently was consumed by the despair that comes with hiding. Will, however, was able to get out due to the overwhelming love and support of his friends and family. Was I wrong to make this assumption? Possibly. Then Season 2 happened, and I don’t know what else we were meant to think.

For reasons we never really find out, at least in the show itself, Will finds himself being stalked by the Mindflayer roughly a year after escaping the Upside Down. This creature wants Will, and apparently only Will. The simple explanation, I suppose, is that it wants what it sees to be his. Will got away, the Mindflayer isn’t ok with that, and this all ensures that our main cast are at the center of the story. I read into it deeper though, which was probably a mistake. This happens during an election year, and Reagan signs are prominently displayed. The AIDS crisis was in full swing, and still mainly seen as a gay disease. Will still doesn’t feel safe, and doesn’t even fully understand how he feels. He flashes back into the Upside Down, feeling targeted and watched. Mike is generally able to pull him back out, and Will seems to seek out the safety of his best friend. Mike is the only one he trusts. Mike is safety, comfort, and unconditional love. He’s special, at least to Will.

It is again love that saves Will. Joyce, Johnathan, and Mike get through to Will by sharing stories meant to express how they feel about Will. Joyce loves her son, and is proud of his rainbow ship. This was unnecessarily specific if it wasn’t meant to be gay coding. Johnathan shares the building of Castle Byers, Will’s safe haven, after their dad left, The same dad who would call Will a fag. We see Will start to waver, ever so slightly, as they start to reach him, but the kicker is when Mike starts. Mike shares the story of when they first met. He remembers it in surprising detail, and it’s the oldest memory out of the three so far mentioned. Mike is barely keeping himself together as he relates walking up to Will on the first day of kindergarten. He’s so overwhelmed by the memory himself, repeating that Will said yes to being his friend, as if he cherished it immeasurably, and goes on to say it was the best thing he’s ever done. Despite the Mindflayer’s control, Will himself is barely holding back tears at this moment and we see emotion on his face for the first time since being fully possessed. He’s able to start with the morse code. Mike is the one who ultimately broke through. I read this as him being the single most important person in Will’s life, but was it that, or was it simply that he was the last to speak? It’s hard to tell the intent here, especially as Mike’s attention leaves Will as soon as Eleven returns shortly thereafter. All we’re left with is a look at Mike when Will is asked to dance, and his fake smile faltering as he glances at Mike dancing with Eleven. More curious decisions that could be something, or may be nothing.

This brings us to Season 3, where my confusion, annoyance, and anger boil over more with each episode. We start with scenes that I felt did a good job showing an emotional conflict set up by the end of Season 2: how does Mike find room for both Will and Eleven? Mike is shown obsessively attached to Eleven, which is reasonable given his age and his fear of losing her again, and we also see him going to the movies with Will, Lucas, and Max. The latter scene is oddly double-date like, to the point where they don’t sit together, putting Mike and Will separate from Lucas and Max as if to highlight the two separate couples. Lucas and Max get some playful banter in (pretty much the last we see of their relationship this season), and Mike is shown still harboring concern for Will. I found it odd when Mike asked if Will was ok, as Will hadn’t really done anything unusual. The suggestion, at least to me, was that Mike is still paying close attention to Will, and this made sense, as he would have a fear of losing Will the same as he does with Eleven. After this we see Will mope over the amount of time Mike spends with Eleven, but he has no complaints about his other friends. His obsession over D&D is over the top and jarring, and very much out of character. He’s a fully fleshed out character with multiple interests, but all he wants to do is D&D, why? I don’t really have a great answer for that beyond it being bad writing just to set up a later scene. That brings us to their fight, which fully ignited my hopes that they’d continue this build-up.

Will loses it when Mike and Lucas seem to mock his campaign. They don’t really dislike it, they just aren’t engaged due to girl troubles. His anger, though, seems focused on Mike. Will feels betrayed, and laments his loss of the Party due to girls, but he never blames anyone but Mike, even though Lucas and Dustin are similarly focused on girls. He calls El a “stupid girl”, and that wouldn’t be unusual given the situation had we been shown any interactions between El and Will or given exposition to inform us that the two of them get along. Indeed, I got the impression that Will still hasn’t had any meaningful interactions with her, since it’s implied she’s constantly with Mike and only Mike. The only time we see her out with the Party, before the crisis begins anyway, Mike bails with her very quickly. Will resents El. She’s stealing Mike away from him. That’s how I saw it anyway, and I remember feeling that way many a time at that age. At this point, you might still be able to argue it was just Will mad he’s losing his best friend, but then that one line comes. “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”

This line could have been done in any number of other ways if the implication was anything other than Will is gay and has feelings for Mike (any maybe thought Mike might like him as well). Mike could have told Will he needs to grow up or that it’s not his fault Will doesn’t have a girlfriend. But, no, Will simply doesn’t like girls. Will’s reaction speaks volumes, despite him not being able to talk. Up to that point, Will had been jabbing Mike with accusations, but as soon as Mike says this he’s stone silent. Lips quivering and eyes watering, he stares at Mike in disbelief and fear. To his credit, Mike immediately realizes he crossed a line and softens his approach, something we never see him do when he fights with anyone else. The damage is done, however, and Will’s final words “I guess I did. I really did.” screamed of a breakup to me. Will thought it’d be him and Mike forever. He destroys Castle Byers in a rage, berating himself for being stupid. It’s no longer a safe haven for him, as it is filled with memories of his childhood. A childhood spent with Mike.

This whole scene is never addressed again by the two of them. Lucas is shut down in an attempted apology, and I saw this as Will not wanting an apology from him and not willing to discuss the situation. It still felt very aborted, as if that quick scene with Will and Lucas was meant to tell the audience that, nope, we’re not getting into that. He and Mike have no real significant interactions throughout the rest of the season, though Will is shown reacting negatively anytime Mike expresses his feelings for Eleven. Our attention is never really drawn to it, but it’s there. This takes us to the finale, where Mike’s goodbye to Will is oddly quick for friends as close as they were supposed to be. Mike expresses worry that Will would move on and replace him, and Will reassures him that such a thing would never happen. I like how they had Mike smile perhaps his most genuine smile of the season here, but it still felt odd. When they hug outside right before the end, it’s again quick and not indicative of the emotion that should be there. Will seems to linger in the hug a bit, but Mike staggers away to Eleven. Mike’s attention seems to be solely on Eleven as the Byers leave, though he glances back at the house that he shouldn’t really associate with her. The final scene is a near perfect mirror of Season 1 when he thought Will was dead. It was confusing, possibly intentionally so, but why?

Mr. Clark brings up apophenia when speaking with Joyce. It’s the tendency for humans to spot patterns where there are none. As humans, we like for there to be explanations for everything. There are no coincidences, we just haven’t figured out how things fit together. Part of me wonders if this whole line of conversation was targeted at fans, such as myself, who read too deeply into Mike and Will’s relationship, and possibly Will’s possibly homosexuality. I could understand how it could be used to cast doubt on Joyce’s fears. However, it ends up having no real bearing on the plot, as Joyce is relatively quickly shown to be correct in her suspicions.

In the end, I’m left to wonder if this whole idea of Will being gay, and possibly Mike and Will being subtextually written as a couple, was simply a case of apophenia. My empathy for Will and identification with him could have caused me to misinterpret things to fit my own personal experiences and unfulfilled adolescent wishes. The dissonance caused by what I thought and what I’m now seeing is what is causing my anger and disappointment. It’s having me relive what I felt so long ago where all I wanted was to see a boy like me happy on TV or in movies. I thought this was going to be what I never had, but, though we still have Season 4 yet to come, it looks like it was simply a case of seeing what we wanted to see. Still, the way they did it reeks of gay-baiting, and I feel used.

#stranger things #stranger things 3 #stranger things 4 #will byers #mike wheeler #byeler #byler

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kaypeace21 · 5 years

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Important things we learned from the ST prequel novel “Suspicious Minds”

What we learned about powers

The ‘potential’ to have powers is (generally) hereditary, however only under certain conditions will these powers manifest (psychological trauma, drugs, or certain psychological conditioning/experimentation is usually how it’s done). If this isn’t done, generally, if any powers still develop they are very weak. An example being Ken who was born with powers along with some of his other family members.

-“I am psychic, always have been ... My family always believed in this stuff... “

-“ He got feelings. Certainty would lodge itself in his chest. He had dreams with snatches of reality mixed in. Flashes of intuition. These came unpredictably—which he always thought was funny—and so he was never surprised if an inkling showed up. Or if it didn’t.”

-“ I get feelings, sometimes fully formed thoughts, that I have a deep sense are true.”

( Hmm...this intuition-thing sounds very similar to how Joyce insisted she knew Will was alive despite seeing his fake-body.)

The younger the child is when experimented or tortured, the more likely they are to yield stronger powers. Even if the same trauma was done on an adult the results would be weaker and would be dependent on that particular stimulus. Alice could only see visions of the future with lsd and electroshock therapy, Terry had what’d you’d call “perfect recall” (which only happened with lsd)- diving into her memories and remembering them perfectly. While El can channel her powers without such things.

-“Rare enough these days, especially in adult subjects...potential”

-“His theory had always been that exceptional abilities could be encouraged under the right conditions. But he’d always had to work with available subjects, none of them clean slates. This child—he could start encouraging the development of this child’s abilities now. In utero. Every day of her life. He’d make sure she was special”

There is a high correlation between above average intelligence and having “potential” (i.e capability to develop powers). In the book, Brenner almost used the terms interchangeably”.

- “genius IQ, potential…limitless.” (El’s ‘potential’ was described as ‘extreme’)

-Terri is described as “above average intelligence”, and “brimming with potential” by Brenner.

-One of Brenner’s nicknames for Kali is “smart girl”.

-Terry’s questioned her roommate Stacy (who got out of the experiment) saying “How she’d fooled anyone into thinking she had average intelligence was beyond Terry—Stacey was obviously the smartest of all.”

-also in other outside cannon material Will is said to be the smartest of all the boys... hmmm...

How the void works

Terry after getting pregnant (temporarily) gains her baby Jane’s/El’s power to tap into the ‘void’. In relation to seeing normal people in the void, Terry learned they will not notice you observing and eavesdropping on them, and they cannot hear or see you (according to the book) ... so we can probably assume they also cannot touch other psychics without fading away, as well (like in the show).

But the void is different if you try this on another psychic, she accidentally summons Kali- and finds out it’s a way for other psychics and only other psychics to have a private place to talk to one another- without anyone realizing. So yep, Will is psychic- the fact Will could touch, see, hear, and talk to El in the void wasn’t a coincidence! Debate over! XD”

More Proof Will has powers

He can communicate with other psychics using the void (in s1) . If powers are genetic (Joyce probably has Clairvoyance like Ken). And in the show, Joyce’s and Terry’s aunts were both described as “crazy” -which is probably not a coincidence. Also he’s the smartest of all the boys and described by Mr Clarke as “great student.”

In relation to the adults (with powers) both the Xmen and Lord of the Rings were used in reference to them, multiple times. Will’s password for Castle Byers is “Rhadagast”, a character in Lord of the Rings. And in the 1st ep of the series, before Will goes missing , he asks Dustin for his X-men comic- later in reference to El ,Dustin asks “Do you think El was born with her powers like the X-men?” And when Mike says El is “channeling him (Will)”. Dustin says “like professor x”. clearly hinting that they were both born with powers, like the X-men.

Dr Brenner says there are very few people in the world with ‘potential’- ie the ability to develop powers under certain conditions. He encouraged the numbered-children to draw since it would increase the chances of developing powers. This is why we see a picture that El drew on her bedroom wall in s1. And who else really likes to draw- Will?

-“Art the psychologist here claimed, was vitally important for the creative children. Eight was definitely creative.” (Eight at this time, was the most powerful psychic ever, since El wasn’t born yet.)

when experimenting on the adults, they would take monthly blood tests and monitor their blood pressures. In s2 ep 1 they did the same thing to Will. They drew Will’s blood and put it in a vial ,monitored his blood pressure, and like El, recorded his brainwaves.

Ken who was born with powers, is not heterosexual. And since many believe Will is queer it’s probably not a coincidence. Plus Will is referenced to as a “cleric” and a “wizard”. And as a joke his friend says about him, “what wizardry is this?”

Dr Brenner tells a story about an experiment that involves killing rabbits. In the show “Papa” tries to force El to kill a cat. While Lonnie, Will’s dad, forced Jonathan to kill a rabbit, the first time he learned to shoot a gun. And since Will knows how to shoot a gun in s1e1, we can infer he was also forced to kill a rabbit/animal by a father figure-so it’s probably a parallel.

Both Alice and Terry when using their powers had hallucinations of a rainbow, Kali also formed a visual-allusion of sunflowers and a rainbow (implying all 3 have seen this rainbow, as well, when using their powers). And when Will was very young- he drew that ‘rainbow ship’.

-Terri: “Spots bloomed behind her eyelids. Every color ... as the sunlight turned to rainbows” ( p44-45), “The rainbow stayed with Terry for a long while, but eventually it faded and in its place: darkness. A pit.”(p. 48). “streaks of rainbow appeared (p47)”, “Wavy rainbows seemed to radiate from her hand even once she stilled it. (p. 88). “Her eyelids drifted shut, rainbows and sparks flying behind them. (p. 89).

-Alice (who sees visions of the future) : “Snarling, snapping monsters, rainbow lights playing in the air around them (p. 121).

-Kali: “field of yellow sunflowers grew up around them. A rainbow arcing over the golden tops.” (p. 139). “He noticed she’d drawn up there, a rainbow with her colored pencils. Maybe he’d suggest that for the playroom” (the rainbow room we see in s2) (p. 298)

Interesting things we learned about Kali

- Kali at 5 years old, was the strongest of all 10 numbers- who were called the Indigo children (who are in a separate experiment than the adults, like Terry).

- Brenner purposely isolated her from other people. “Eight wasn’t allowed to know there were other children here. They were all ordinary so far. He worried they’d infect her.” (what a sicko- he did that to El too). He says about Kali “Child shows gifts that require isolation from those who might weaken her…Constantly asks for family and to be called by given name…Has stopped asking for her mother…”

- Brenner put her through sleep deprivation, for 13 hours, when she tried to keep a secret from him.

- In another scene after Kali reveals another secret to Brenner, Terry finds her on the bed “bathed in sweat, soaked through her gown” and “sobbing” “tightly gripping the sheets”. What did Brenner do here... am I reading too much into this? I feel like I missed a page or... y’know maybe he’s even more of a monster than I thought. They never explain this? And I’m still not sure how to interpret it 0-0

-Kali loved Terry (El’s mom) and the other adults even saying “I love you”, and referring to them as “family”. And Kali makes a hallucination in order to help them escape, they promise to come back and free her. So in s2 ep7 the “family” that Kali referred to that Dr. Brenner/the government killed was them.

Dr Brenner probably has powers

- Ken who was born with powers describes it as a gut feeling of something that will occur or a belief he knows is true.

-Brenner can simply look at a person and his gut feeling tells him whether or not they have ‘potential’ to develop powers or not. It isn’t always correct but the vast majority of the time it is. He does this throughout the whole novel to everyone he meets.

“male, 5′8″, 180 pounds, white, average intelligence, potential…fulfilled by sitting in a guard booth checking IDs”

“Rare enough these days, especially in adult subjects. The way she’d sensed an opportunity and shown up suggested potential...Potential. She was bursting with it.” (about Terri)

“Such lost potential is always sad. There’s so little of it in the world.”(about Alice)

“Funny that his ID contained some of the information Brenner would have wanted if he were looking at himself: male, 6′1″, 195 pounds, white. The rest: genius IQ, potential…limitless.”

What we learned about the Mindflayer

-Well, I was right about the mindflayer having fire powers -so Will will probably get electro-pyrokinesis (along with other powers) like the comic and show hinted at, link here and here.

Alice who sees visions of the future describes the mindflayer as “A monstrous vortex of fire and energy and darkness, tentacles reaching and growing. Growing so big they could eat the sky. Its mouth had a glowing fire of destruction inside it… (p. 243).

#will byers #stranger things #stranger things theory #el hopper #kali prasad

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valyrfia · 5 years

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More Opinions on the Stranger Things 3 Soundtrack that No One Asked for

Woven in with some theories that may or may not be true. Proceed with caution

Quick disclaimer: I prefer this soundtrack to season 2. It feels a lot more vibrant and a lot more mature (I guess reflecting on the kids growing up). Also bearing in mind that the tracklist isn’t necessarily in chronological order (it isn’t for season 1), so I’m not going to try and figure out any plot points with what tracks are next to each other.

Boys and Girls A remix of ‘Kids’, albeit a slightly more matured version, this is definitely what starts out the season and makes me smile. It’ll be great to see the party reunited again. I love the track title as well. At the end of the day, no matter how grown up they want to pretend to be, they all are still kids (or at least, at the beginning of the season).

I Like Presents Too Definitely a Mileven track, it’s sweet and perfectly encapsulates a childhood romance, nothing much else to say about it.

Starcourt We already know some SHIT goes down at the mall, this is probably the introductory shot to the mall, generic upbeat music.

I Need You to Trust Me From the trailer we know this is another Mileven track, it sounds slightly bittersweet, so I’m slightly worried.

You’re A Fighter Hopper 100% says this to El. It’s beautiful, and I’m sure I’ll be tearing up at this moment. There’s a new musical element we haven’t heard before in the background with the high bell-like synth. One of the highlights for me.

The Ceiling is Beautiful It sounds like the ceiling starts out beautiful but quickly goes downhill, this might be a parallel shot to the upside down or something similar.

The First I Love You The First Lie was my favourite track from season 2, so it makes me so happy hearing the continuation of that theme. This is definitely between Nancy and Jonathan and is going to be such a sweet scene. The soundtrack alone makes me smile, so I really can’t wait for the entire scene.

Rats Nope. I can’t do it. I have listened to this track a grand total of one time, I tried again for this post and really can’t do it. It’s way too creepy, especially with whatever that flesh-like sound is. Definitely the monster’s theme and I am scared.

Heather’s We know Heather is the missing lifeguard, so this makes me genuinely sad/terrified for whatever happened to her. I hate to say it, but she’s almost definitely dead.

Find the Source This will be finding the source of the infection, whatever it is. It’s not a particularly scary theme, so maybe its a planning session among the party, or the Hawkins lab officials freaking out.

What Did You Do to Him? In my mind, this plays during whatever goes down with whoever is infected at the hospital (people are saying this is ep 3/4-ish?). The real question is, what DID they do to him?

The Silver Cat Feeds This was one of the phrases from the promos. I have to admit, I have zero clues about where this storyline could go. It could have something to do with the Russians, or the government, but quite honestly, I have no idea.

William This either pertains to Billy or Will, because unfortunately both are called William. In my mind, it’s either Billy being possesed, or keeping with the theory that Will will develop powers this season, I can totally see this as Will’s powers finally coming to the fore, something about the middle and end sound too...uplifting, for lack of a better word, to be the Mindflayer, not to mention it isn’t the Mindflayer’s theme. I’m leaning more towards this track being about Will, but we’ll see.

Destroying the Castle This will definitely be about Will destroying Castle Byers, and I’m sure we will all cry ugly tears when it happens. For me, apart from Aftermath this is the most beautiful track of the entire OST. It’s nostalgic, but at the same time has the bitterness of a lost childhood. It’s very very good, and I’m going to cry. An interesting thing about this track however is the fast paced synth in the background behind the main long notes, usually the composers only use this technique if there’s a lot of action happening on screen (this ensure the soundtrack isn’t drowned out by the action). There is a theory going around that if Will does develop powers, he’ll destroy Castle Byers with said powers, and I can totally see this happening with this soundtrack.

In The Void We already know that El is going back to the void from the trailers, but it does make one wonder why she feels the need to go there. Maybe she’s checking up on the Mindflayer, who knows.

Tammy Who is Tammy? In my opinion she could be another number, like El and Kali. This’ll be interesting to watch.

Mirkwood SCARY. I don’t want to know what’s lurking in Mirkwood.

Portal Drill Ah Hawkins Lab back at it again with things they should really leave alone. I think this track is quite self-explanatory

The Door is Opening Undoubtedly the Portal Drill worked but this track seems a little lowkey for such a big moment. I reckon this is the scene from the trailer with Will and El talking about the Mindflayer.

Planck’s Constant *Ahem* So in physics Planck’s Constant is a number that relates the energy a photon can carry to its frequency. In simpler terms, it’s the smallest unit of measurement in the universe. This reminds me of ‘Theoretically’ from season 1, so we could be seeing the reappearence of Mr. Clarke, and this almost definitely has something to do with more worldbuilding surrounding the mechanics of the upside down/mindflayer.

Sauna Test This one is interesting, we already know that there’s an episode called ‘The Sauna Test’ so whatever it is, this is a major plot point. I’m intrigued with how it starts out sounding like your typical monster track but changes into something a little more triumphant, maybe it’s El or someone coming in to save the day, we’ll see.

The Trees Are Moving/On Their Tracks: The monster is chasing them and I’m not happy about it.

Not Chinese Food Someone said this sounds like someone discovering a dead body and I 100% agree, no more to be said.

Land Deeds When the tracklist came out, people thought this had to do with the Byers family moving, but I’m glad to report that this is almost definitely an action song. Probably relates to Nancy’s investigative journalism work, she finds something fishy in the land deeds, most likely relating to the Starcourt Mall.

Not Kids Anymore While I don’t think this plays during the already infamous Mike/Will exchange, I do think that this is Mike’s line to Will coming back to bite them in the ass. Whatever they’re facing this year seems to involve their families and endanger more people than ever before, the responsibility facing them is immense.

Scoops Troop Erica/Steve/Robin/Dustin carrying out whatever mission they have to carry out in the finale. Also ‘Scoops Troop’ is hilarious and I better see everyone referring to the four of them as that from now on.

We Don’t Understand Each Other Definitely some emotional angst. People have been saying this is a break-up song, but I’m not too sure.

Aftermath It sounds like a lullaby, and is definitely closing out the season. This could totally be a post-death soundtrack, but I also see it being the background of a montage a month later, or someone else suggested it plays in the background as there are slow-mo shots of Will and El being taken away by the government (which would make sense to me, the final shot would then be the party looking up at helicopters flying away from the Mall, carrying Will and El with them, it fits with the final synth note of the track). Whichever way this goes, I know I’m going to be sobbing ugly tears when this track plays.

Round-Up:

This has heightened my excitement for season 3 more than you can believe. All the tracks have more layers to them than in previous seasons and definitely fits with the progressing storyline and maturing kids. I am beyond hyped, and can’t wait for July 4th.

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screensirenfic · 4 years

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Black Leather - Chapter 33

We all arrived at Joyce’s house around the same time; Jonathan rushing in first to place an unconscious Will on the couch, and I was beginning to wonder what exactly happened in that lab.

They were meant to be helping the kid; not hurting him, but something about staring at his limp body just lying there made me feel sick.

Maybe it was too much of a reminder of Sara.

I tried not to think of her too much; her cute little pigtails and bright blue eyes painful to picture, even now.

The memories of the hospital were worse; her pale sunken cheeks, her head void of hair; looking more like a Holocaust victim than the bouncing, smiling little girl she used to be.

That’s one of the reasons we’d been so eager for Eleven to grow her hair out; the short stubble still too close a trigger of long evenings in the hospital, faking smiles and holding back tears because she couldn’t know the truth.

Dad had been on the phone for the last half hour, yelling down the line at what I guessed was was army, though clearly not getting anywhere.

They didn’t believe him.

Fuck; who would?!

This shit was crazy and I was the one living it! It didn’t matter if you were a cop, or a scientist, or the fucking president himself; nobody listened when you started with crazy talk.

“Hey.” Steve pulled me from my thoughts as he propped himself against the wall next to me.

Funny how he always seemed to know the right moment to cut in, just before I dragged myself too deep into my thoughts and risked drowning in them.

“Hey.” I replied; not really feeling up for conversation, but grateful for the distraction anyway.

“You feeling alright?” He asked; that soft concern in his voice overly familiar by now.

“Yeah; I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?” I tried to fake a smile, but it fell flat.

Probably didn’t matter anyway; Steve could always see through those.

“You seem a bit quiet...” Steve continued with his angle; turning his body so he could face me and look at me with those deep thoughtful brown eyes.

“I’ve got a lot on my mind...” I admitted with a harsh laugh, because it was true as of late. Between El and dad and Billy and now all this shit, my mind was fit to burst.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” He asked; always to lend a sympathetic ear to me, no matter what the problem.

“I’d... rather not.” I brushed him off, though the slightly downtrodden look on his face hurt me more than it should.

He was only trying to help, and God knows I could really use someone to talk to about all this bullshit, but that couldn’t be Steve.

He was too close to the centre, and I couldn’t afford to get him hurt.

He meant too much to me for that to happen.

“Let’s just go wait with the kids...” I offered, pushing up from the wall and walking into the kitchen, because all the sullen faces in here were beginning to get to me.

———————————————

The kids were gathered at Joyce’s kitchen table, looking more like depressed pensioners, than what had previously been overexcited children.

It was almost sad; really. What had started out as one of their fantasy adventures made real, had turned into another grown up nightmare that they just wanted to wake up from.

The tallest kid; Mike, Nancy’s brother I think, got up from his seat, walking over to a cardboard box of what looked like junk.

“Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?” The kid asked as if it was common trivia, and not the total out-of-the-blue question it seemed to me.

“Really?” Lucas responded, taking his eyes off the kitchen table to watch Mike pick up a weird cube off the top of the box.

“He petitioned the school to start it and everything. And then he had a fundraiser for equipment.” Mike replied with newfound enthusiasm as he turned back towards us.

“Mr Clark learnt everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?”

The kids all nodded in halfhearted agreement, like me; clearly not on the same page as the lanky tween.

“We can’t let him die in vain.” Mike stated, launching into what I already knew through experience was a hero speech to rock the ages.

“Well; what do you wanna do Mike?” Dustin snapped; for once being the one to offer sense in all this.

“Alright; the Chief’s right on this. We can’t stop those Demodogs on our own.”

“Demodogs?” Max repeated, expressing the confusion we all shared.

“Demogorgon - - Dogs - - Demodogs. It’s like a compound. A play on words—“ Dustin clarified as if its the most obvious thing in the world.

“I mean; when it was just Dart, maybe…”

“But there’s an army now.” Supported Lucas, and I began to wonder when middle schoolers became such nihilists.

“Precisely.” Agreed Dustin; these two back to being best buds again.

“His army...” Mike stated; a dark sense of realisation crossing his face.

“What do you mean?” I asked, picking up that the tween leader just had one of those rare lightbulb moments.

“His army.” Mike repeated with weighted words, despite the confusion of the rest of the party.

“Maybe if we stopped him; we can stop his army too...” Mike suggested perhaps the simplest of solutions.

So simple; a child had actually come up with it.

So simple; it might actually work.

———————————————-

For two fully grown responsible adults, and four less easily defined teenagers to be following the plan of a bunch of thirteen year olds; we must be desperate.

I mean; it wasn’t like it was a bad plan. We use Will to get to the Mind Flamer... Flayer... thing. If I thought of it in a military sense; it was actually half decent.

A round of interrogation with a good helping of good cop, bad cop; it all seemed pretty solid.

Dad had to work out the kinks, but for the first time tonight; I could breath a sigh of relief, because for once; the whole world was resting on somebody else’s shoulders.

We’d prepped the shed as a impromptu interrogation chamber; the small dark space surprisingly indistinct beneath a layer of newspaper and duck tape.

Of course; I wasn’t to sit in on the interrogation.

That privilege went to family and close friends; with the exception of my dad, because someone here had to know what they’re doing.

Instead I was sat in the house with Nancy, Steve and the kids, trying not to feel like sitting ducks whilst the looming threat of possible annihilation hung over us.

Steve was working on his baseball swing, sweeping his nailbat in wide arcs as if fending off some invisible enemy.

“You alright there? You look a little tense?” I asked; noticing the tight rise of his shoulders as he made each swing.

“I’ll feel better once I know those things are dead.” Steve replied without a hint of his usual humour, and if Steve was somber; we must really be in trouble.

“If he finds out where we are; will he send those things after us?” Max asked, sounding genuinely nervous for the first time tonight.

“He won’t find us.” Lucas assured her with far more conviction than he had any right to, and I was reminded why young love was so foolish; always making promises you can’t keep.

“Yeah; but if he does...” Max continued her train of thought; fear clouding her mind from all reassurances.

“Judgement day.” Lucas stated ominously, and I tried not to dwell on the truth in the statement, knowing all too well the odds we were up against here.

—————————————————-

Twenty minutes of thumb twiddling later; I was really starting to believe this whole plan had been a dud and it was time to start packing our bags and moving to Nebraska.

Then dad walked in with that steely look of determination in his eye, Joyce and Jonathan following close behind, and I knew they’d managed to crack the kid.

“What happened?” Dustin asked as dad snatched a sheet of paper off the wall, before taking a seat at the kitchen table.

“I think he’s talking. Just not with words.” Dad replied, scribbling a series of dots and dashes on the paper.

“Hey; what is that?” Steve asked; reaffirming he was the slowest in the group.

“Morse code.” We all stated, silencing him as my dad began to translate the code into English.

“H - E - R - E...” Dad stated as he wrote down each letter; the red crayon nearly bending with the force he held it with.

“Here.” Mike read; triggering a series of looks between Joyce and Jonathan.

“Will’s still in there. He’s talking to us.” Dad clarified; the meaning of that sentence finally striking home.

It worked!

The kids’ fucking shitpile of a plan worked!

And with it; we were gonna kill this monster for good this time.

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thecomicsnexus · 5 years

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Wake the devil

HELLBOY: WAKE THE DEVIL JUNE - OCTOBER 1996 BY MIKE MIGNOLA, JAMES SINCLAIR AND DAVE STEWART

SYNOPSIS (FROM HELLBOY WIKIA)

Part One The comic opens on the northern coast of Norway, inside the Arctic Circle, where a Zinco helicopter is landing in front of the castle that was seen as the end of Seed of Destruction. The head of the company, Roderick Zinco, breaks into the castle and is confronted by Karl Kroenen, Ilsa Haupstein and Leopold Kurtz but Zinco explains that he saw Grigori Rasputin, and promises them use everything he has.

One year later, in SoHo, New York City the Nazis kill the curator of a wax museum, Howard Steinman, otherwise known as Hans Ubler. At the B.P.R.D. Headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut, Tom Manning and Kate Corrigan brief the agents about the life of Vladimir Giurescu and the fact that he could never die because when the full moon shines down on him at Castle Giurescu he heals himself. In 1944, Heinrich Himmler proposed project Vampir Sturm and a Nazi delegation, led by Ilsa Haupstein was sent to recruit Giurescu. After meeting with Giurescu, Hitler ordered the arrest, execution and destruction of the Giurescu family. However, it is possible that reveal the museum curator, could have smuggled Giurescu's body out of Germany before his corpse was burnt. The B.P.R.D. is concerned that someone might try to re-animate Giurescu in his Castle. However, there are three possibilities as to where Castle Giurescu is, so Tom Manning splits the agents into three groups; Hellboy on his own, Abe Sapien with Mr. Clark, and Liz Sherman with Bud Waller and Sidney Leach.

In Romania, Ilsa Haupstein opens the stolen box with Giurescu's corpse and orders the soldiers to take it to a specific room. Meanwile, in Norway, Kurtz and Kroenen watch Ilsa and it is revealed that they are manufacturing their own army. Back in Romania, The agents are all on a plane where Abe Sapien talks to Hellboy about the involvement of Project Ragna Rok because he thinks it's worrying Hellboy. Hellboy jumps out of the plane and his jetpack explodes, crashing Hellboy into Castle Giurescu.

Part Two Ilsa orders Unmensch, a cyborg Nazi, to kill Hellboy and they fight until they both fall through the floor. A flashback to Tarmagant Island, 1944 shows Rasputin ordering Ilsa, Kroenen and Kurtz to go to Norway. In the present, Rasputin appears and tells her to leave the castle and that the next time she sees Giurescu that he will be young again. In the castle, Hellboy wakes up with the Nazi gone, leaving behind only his metal arm.

In a near-by village, an old man tells his daughter to leave with her children and to never come back and that it is "too late" for him to leave.

Hellboy follows a trace of blood and finds a man eating the Nazi's leg, who reveals that he is Vladimir Giurescu's father, and that it is the goddess Hecate who brings Giurescu back to life. When Hellboy asks where Giurescu is, the man refuses to tell him and Hellboy burns him to death. When Hellboy leaves the room he remembers the old man said something about a moon door and sees a door with a moon shape on it, and inside is the box with the corpse and the three soldier's heads in front. But he is surrounded by ravens who turn into the Women of Thessaly and start attacking him.

Part Three At Castle Giurescu, Hellboy shoots the Women of Thessaly until Giurescu comes out of his box. When Hellboy tries to kill him, Giurescu turns into a raven and Hellboy stabs him. Giurescu falls into a stone coffin and ends up underground. When Hellboy gets there Giurescu is on the floor with the knife in his chest but then he turns into snakes and gets away. After Hellboy leaves the tomb, Hecate brings Giurescu back to life. Rasputin tells Isla about his life and offers Ilsa Haupstein to be reborn, like he was.

In the ruins of Czege Castle, Romania, Liz Sherman, Bud Waller and Sidney Leach find a door which leads to a huge room with a lifeless homunculus inside. Liz touches a hole in his chest but she can't let go and the homunculus comes to life as Liz is transferring her energy into him. Bud shoots her arm to get her free. The homunculus panics, snaps Bud Wallers neck and escapes.

In Norway, Roderick Zinco brings Kroenen the head of Professor Herman von Klempt, so that Kroenen can include von Klempt in their plans. In Romania, at The Monastery of St. Bartholomew, Stephen, the old man from part 2 tells his brother, a priest, that the town will go back to its "old ways" because he can sense Giurescu but his brother doesn't believe him. Back at Castle Giurescu, Hellboy finds a room full of explosives and sets a timer for them to go off in one hour.

Part Four As Hellboy leaves the castle, he is confronted by Hecate in snake form, who tries to get Hellboy to go back to his "old kind" and tells him that he lost himself in humanity. Hellboy and Hecate start fighting as she tells him that he will bring the end of the world and that he cannot escape his own destiny. Hellboy spears her and they both smash through the wall and her skin and flesh burn in the daylight just as the explosives go off and the Castle blows up with Hellboy just outside.

Abe Sapien and Clark report back to B.P.R.D. HQ, from the ruins of Szentes Castle. They found nothing but see a pillar of smoke from Hellboy's location, and are told to go and find Hellboy.

In Romania, the Baba Yaga's servant, Koku, brings Rasputin an Iron Maiden to initiate Ilsa Hapustein's rebirth, she goes into it and is immediately killed. Rasputin tells Koku that he will be back to see Baba Yaga.

Stephen and two other men find Hellboy's body outside the ruins of Castle Giurescu to drive him to the crossroads.

In Norway, von Klempt tempts Kroenen to join him instead of going along with Rasputin's plans but Kurtz gets angry and tries to kill Von Klempt. Kroenen tries to stop Kurtz and ends up stabbing and killing him.

In Romania, Hellboy is chained to a thick wooden pole. Rasputin tells him that he is there to rot.

Part Five Abe Sapien and Clark land in the Romanian village where everyone's house is boarded up, with crosses painted on the doors and windows. They enter the church and see Stephen's brother standing with Hellboy's signal belt in hand. He is unresponsive and when Cark touches his shoulder, the priest's head falls off and the pair fall through the floor. Clark is impaled on a spike, but Abe survives the fall. Rasputin confronts Abe, and threatens that just as Abe once speared him (in Seed of Destruction) so too would he one day spear Abe. The Priest's decapitated head says "Abraham Sapien. Do you hear... sunken bells are tolling for thee. Out of caverns of Num-Yabisc, dark and terrible deep, the ocean is calling her children home."

At the crossroads, Hellboy is still chained to a thick wooden pole and is confronted by a fully re-animated Vladimir Giurescu on horseback. Hellboy cracks the pole and hits the horse with it, the horse and Giurescu instantly turn into bones. The Iron Maiden turns into snake-like like Hecate and tells Hellboy that he cannot escape his destiny. She swollows him, his horns fully re-grow and he sees the Ogdru-Jahad before he refuses to help end the world and snaps off his horns. He appears back at the crossroads where Kate Corrigan finds him.

In Norway, Rasputin confronts von Klempt, Kroenen and Zinco and temporarily blinds Zinco who accidentally presses a button that blows up the whole castle. In a helicopter above Romania, Hellboy is told that there was no sign of the iron maiden. At the end of the issue, it is revealed that the skeleton of Vladimir Giurescu was in the process of being moved to [B.P.R.D.] HQ, but while it was temporarily placed in storage at the Bucharest airport it disappeared and has never been recovered. It is also revealed that the head of Father Nicholas Budenz never spoke again but continued to be the focus of poltergeist activities, including sudden temperature drops and the levitation of objects, for weeks.

Epilogue At the World Tree, Yggdrasil, the Baba Yaga tells Rasputin that he cannot be a god and that he has failed. She asks Rasputin to stay with her but he decides to go on trying to make himself a god.

REVIEW

This story is the natural continuation of Seed of Destruction. Seems like we never saw Hellboy cut his horns until this moment (kind of spoiled by years of Hellboy in the movies).

The horror element is the strongest one in this story, but you have to appreciate how grounded Hellboy sounds. His dialogues make a lot of sense wherever he is, no matter the circumstance. He is not prone to melodramatic expositions.

Mignola is playing a very long game about Hellboy’s purpose and origins. I think it works for Hellboy because it’s his creation and being an indie product, has its own following that will read everything to stay updated. It’s not that you cannot enjoy this story by itself, but there are too many references and characters from previous stories that are not properly re-introduced.

I give this story a score of 8

#hellboy #mike mignola #wake the devil #dark horse comics #indie #comics #review #1996 #modern age

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thosekidswhohuntmonsters · 6 years

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The King of Hawkins Goes Soft

Summary: The reader helps chaperone the winter formal, which leads to a very eventful night involving the King of Hawkins.

Word Count: 2648

Song Pairing: Talking in your Sleep- the romantics https://youtu.be/PtxiZItyYh8

authors note: kinda spoilers for season two? This also doesn’t 100% follow the plot! I had SO much fun writing this!! Let me know what you think!! (single mom Steve is the best Steve)

You smiled to yourself watching the event unfold. Steve was giving some version of a pep talk to Dustin before the winter formal, and you laughed as you saw the deal sealed with a handshake.

Dustin walked by you with a huge grin, “Hey (y/n)!”. He saluted you, and you saluted back matching his grin. You winked, “Good luck tonight soldier”.

By now Steve had parked his car, and was resting against the hood. You walked over to him, “What are you doing here? Hate to break it to ya but you’re a little too old-”.

Steve crossed his arms over his chest, laughing while shaking his head. He smiled, “I gotta keep an eye on the little shits”.

You raised an eyebrow, there always seemed to be more to Steve than he let on. You stood next to him, “Don’t tell me the king of Hawkins has gone soft on me”.

He rolled his eyes, but a smile soon formed upon his lips. Steve ran a hand through his hair, “That’s rich coming from you (y/n), you’re like an AV god to them”.

It was true, you’d grown a soft spot for the little gang after the numerous hours you’d spent with them in the AV club. Laughing you said, “Don’t tell me you’re jealous of some middle schoolers Steve”.

You couldn’t explain it, but for some reason you felt brave tonight. You just had a feeling that it was now or never for everything. You’d been close with Steve, and harboured a huge crush for him, but you’d never done something about it before.

Steve smirked, he liked this new side of you that you were showing. He nodded his head, “Jealous of the little dipshits? They are pretty fucking badass huh”.

You heard you name being called remembering you were on duty, “Shit”. Steve laughed softly hearing you swear, normally you’d keep it together. You smiled, “I’m uh monitoring the dance”.

Steve held out his arm, “Need a date? They are pretty fond of me…”. Your heart raced, but you tried to push your doubts away. Holding onto this new confidence you linked your arm with his, “Softie”.

Once again Steve found himself smiling as he walked into the dance with you. His smile faded when he saw Nancy, but he tried to brush it off. He was distracted when the gang ran over to you guys.

Lucas smiled, “You didn’t tell us you were helping out (y/n)!”. You shrugged your shoulders, “And miss my favorite kids killing it? Ya right”.

Steve’s thoughts became happy again as he watched you joke around with all of the kids. They really looked up to you, and seemed so comfortable with you.

He was pulled from his thoughts, “I thought the hair looked familiar”. Dustin winked to Steve, holding a finger over his lips hinting at their little secret. Steve laughed, “Killer right?”.

You laughed too, “Sure thing, I’ll be right back guys”. You left the group and went to go get something to drink. The second you walked away Dustin let it all out.

He raised his eyebrows, “So (y/n) huh?”. Steve was taken back, and tried to deny his feelings. Lucas held up a finger, “Don’t even dude, it’s pretty obvious”. Steve ran a hand through his hair, trying to deflect things.

Mike laughed, “You’ve got it back Harrington”. Steve looked over his shoulder and saw you coming back. He moved his hands so the kids knew to lower their voices, “If any of you dickheads say one thing you’re all dead, got it?”.

They all looked to each other, smirks plastered across their faces. You laughed when you saw everyone’s expressions, “What did I miss?”. They all tried their best not to giggle.

Dustin patted Steve’s shoulder, “Nothing really, right Steve?”. Steve blinked, and then licked his lips. He put his hands in his pockets, “Yeah nothing”.

You raised an eyebrow, “You guys are getting weirder by the minute, go pretend to be normal boring kids for at least one second”.

They all nodded their heads smirking, muttering yes and okay and of course. Laughing you turned to Steve, “I swear, why do I get this feeling that I never know what’s really going on around here”.

Steve was unsure of what to say, almost feeling guilty about everything you’d been left out of. Things got worse when Nancy walked over to you both, “Hey (y/n) I was-”. When she noticed Steve her train of thought stopped.

You tried to fill in the gap, “Were you looking for the attendance sheet? I gave it to Mr. Clarke”. She faked a smile and nodded her head, “Yeah, exactly”. She walked back over to the photo booth where Jonathan was.

Turning to Steve you said, “Look if you want to talk about whatever that just was with someone, I’m here”. You could clearly tell that something was up, you’d heard rumors about a possible breakup but something deeper was going on.

Steve nodded his head, becoming more sure by the second, “You know what? That’s exactly what I want”. You raised an eyebrow, not expecting him to actually agree.

Once again he extended his hand, “Let’s ditch, besides the little shits will be fine and who cares about everyone else?”. You giggled, and nodded your head. Together you walked back out to his car.

You both got into the car, and Steve automatically turned on the radio. He tapped his thumbs against the steering wheel, “You know me and Nanc aren’t as perfect as we seem”.

When you close your eyes and go to sleep, And it’s down to the sound of a heartbeat

I can hear the things that you’re dreaming about, When you open up your heart and the truth comes out

He shook his head, “Far fucking from it actually”. You felt bad, it was clear how hurt he was. Lowering your head to look at him you said, “What happened?”.

Steve laughed dryly, “Bullshit…that’s what happened b-u-l-l-s-h-i-t”. Biting your lip you tried to think of what to say next. He shook his head, “You know the halloween party the other day?”.

You tell me that you want me, You tell me that you need me

You tell me that you love me

You nodded your head, “Yeah I mean I didn’t go but….yeah”. You cursed yourself for sounding so lame. Steve continued, “Well Nancy got super wasted and-”. He stopped for a moment.

He looked out the window, “She said she doesn’t love me anymore”. Your heart sank seeing how beaten up this was all making him. Steve shook his head again, “And her loverboy Jonathan took her home”.

And I know that I’m right, Cuz I hear it in the night

I hear the secrets that you keep, When you’re talking in your sleep

Before you knew what you were doing, you rested a hand on his knee. Steve’s eyes darted towards yours, and you took your hand away.

While trying to hide your blush you said, “Well maybe she’s going through something and-”. You didn’t want to just bash Nancy, because at the end of the day despite your own feelings for Steve, you knew he cared for her.

Steve cut you off, “we all are…what gives her an excuse?”. Nodding your head you continued, “Okay Steve I’m going to be honest with you”. He nodded his head, knowing he desperately needed to hear whatever you’d say.

You sighed, “I know I sound like a damn fortune cookie, but everyone is put into our lives for a reason. Maybe Nancy was supposed to help you grow, help you see things in yourself that you couldn’t before-”.

When I hold you in my arms at night,

Don’t you know you’re sleeping in a spotlight

Smiling you continued, “I mean you’ve changed Steve…I know you like to pretend you don’t care but seeing the way you act with Dustin…I mean…you’re such a good role model for him”.

Steve needed this, god he needed this. He was pretending to be fine with everything, but he was so unsure. Steve might have seemed okay on the outside but on the inside there was a little voice telling him he wasn’t good enough.

So Steve was silent, he let you keep talking because your voice was so happy, your eyes so bright, you believed in him…you cared. Steve marveled in the fact that for once, someone was showing concern for him.

“Just because Nancy doesn’t love you anymore doesn’t mean everything good about you is suddenly gone Steve” it was like you knew exactly what he needed to hear.

And all your dreams that you keep inside

You’re telling me the secrets that you just can’t hide

You rested a hand on his knee again, “I know there’s a lot you don’t tell me, and hey that’s fine. But I want you to know that you don’t have to act all brave around me okay? A lot of people put pressure on you Steve, but I want you to feel safe with me”.

Steve felt it, the electricity. As he watched all of the emotion you put into your words, he felt it too. The entire time it felt like the both of you were just building up, and now Steve wanted to let it all explode.

So he crashed his lips against yours, and god damn it the electricity only got stronger. To his surprise your hand moved up his leg, but then the kiss was over as quickly as it had started.

You pulled back, “Steve..I don’t want to be a rebound for you”. As he looked into your eyes he saw how nervous you looked, as if it one second this was all going to come crashing down on you.

His voice was soft, “You’re right about me (y/n). I pretend everything is fine, I pretend that I don’t care….but I do.”. It was your turn to remain silent and hear what you so desperately needed to.

Steve continued, “I’m not going to lie to you, Nanc hurt me-”. Your heart sank a little, afraid that he was going to give you the “just friends” speech. He now smiled, “But like you said, I gotta move on…she’s not right for me anymore…but you are”.

He moved closer to you, “Can’t you feel it (y/n)?”. His face was inches from yours, and you could see the glimmer in his eyes. Biting your lip you said, “I do Steve”.

You weren’t lying, from the moment you’d sat down in the car with him you’d felt it. It was like every nerve in your body tingled with anticipation. From the moment you’d first saw him tonight, you felt it.

Steve’s eyes were practically begging you to just let go and roll with it. Your face was inches from his, and you decided once again now or never.

So you were as daring as you could be, and jumped into the driver’s seat, straddling Steve. Instantly he smirked, “Damn (y/n)”. Looking down at him you rolled your eyes, but you couldn’t even stay remotely annoyed with him.

You found yourself smiling before kissing him deeply. His hands slowly slid up your legs before gripping your hips. Breathlessly you said his name, your voice much needier than you’d planned.

Steve started to kiss your neck, leaving marks all over your skin. He moved his lips to graze your ear as he whispered, “You are so damn beautiful baby”. You swallowed hard, melting into his touch.

Softly he whispered again, “I can’t even control myself..I want you so badly”. A whole new side of him was showing, a side that was going to be the death of you. Licking your lips you moved his head to look at you.

You were cupping his face, “Then take what you want”. Steve swallowed hard, not expecting something like that to come out of your mouth. It was like the more he got to know you, the more he realized how badly he needed you.

Steve had always been drawn to you, but he’d never thought he could feel this way. He knew that you were making yourself just as vulnerable as he was, and that made him feel safe.

No matter how much he’d loved Nancy, he’d always felt like he was waiting to make some mistake that she just couldn’t forgive. That with one wrong move, no matter what it was, suddenly she wouldn’t want him.

But within ten minutes of truly getting to know you, every insecurity he’d ever had melted away. And contrary to popular belief, Steve Harrington had a lot.

Steve smiled and as he opened his mouth to speak, but there was rapid knocking on the car window. He groaned throwing his head back, “Come on!”. While still sitting on his lap, you rolled the window down.

There stood a very worked up Dustin, who was closing his eyes, “Do you guys have clothes on? Can I look–if you don’t-”. You found yourself shaking your head laughing, but Steve wasn’t as amused.

Steve moved to roll up the window, “Look dickhead, now is not the time I-”. Dustin put his hands on the glass, stopping Steve from rolling it up further. Suddenly the rest of the gang ran up to the car.

You watched Steve’s eyes widen as you sat there confused. Mike spoke up, “Look it’s Will, he and dart-”. Steve’s whole demeanour changed, and you felt the need to take action. You got up off of him, getting out of the car.

Taking a step forward you asked, “What can we do?”. Steve not so gracefully got out of the car, and now stood next to you. The kids looked to each other, and then back at you.

You spoke up again, “Guys if Will is in danger then I want to help!”. To your surprise they formed a small huddle and started whispered to themselves. You sat there with your arms crossed, “Guys come on!”.

The huddle broke as Lucas said, “We don’t have time”. You’d had no idea what they were talking about, but you mentally prepared yourself to be ready for whatever.

Dustin pointed at Steve, “Grab you bat and follow us to the back lot”. You raised an eyebrow, and Steve put his hands up. His voice was stern, “Yeah no way guys, it’s not safe for (y/n)”.

Will repeated, “We don’t have time for this Steve!”. You were becoming more curious by the second. Steve pointed at Will, “I said no, not gonna happen”.

Dustin shook his head, “Son of a bitch, just get the bat!”. As the boys went back and forth for another minute you took it upon yourself to look for the bat.

You smirked to yourself as you pulled the baseball bat from the back seat, shaking your head at the fact it was covered in nails. As you returned to the group you saw they were still fighting, “Listen dipshits, is this really necessary”.

You played around with the bat, getting a good feel for it. Clearing your throat you got their attention, “this bat?”. The boys had smirks plastered across their faces as Steve looked at you with shock.

Dustin smirked, “Yeah that bat, let’s go come on!”. You started to walk away with them, until Steve pulled you back. He pressed you against the car, “I’ll be damned if I let anything bad happen to you, don’t leave my side okay?”.

Playfully you whispered, “Softie” before kissing him one last time. As you joined the group Steve stood there smiling to himself for a minute. While watching you walk away he thought, “Those dipshits are right..fuck I have it bad..”.

#stranger things #steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #steve Harrington smut

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weekendwarriorblog · 5 years

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WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND April 5, 2019 - SHAZAM, PET SEMATARY, THE BEST OF ENEMIES, PETERLOO

Sadly, this is yet another weekend where I wasn’t able to see two of the three new movies, but that’s because I’m in Las Vegas covering CinemaConfor The Beat, but I do want to write a little more about a movie coming out this weekend that I want to put a little added focus on. Back in the day, I used to include a “Chosen One” in each week’s column, and I’m getting to the point where I’d like to try to do something like that again… and so, after the jump, you will get my review of one such film.

That movie is PETERLOO (Amazon), the new movie from director Mike Leigh, an eight-time Oscar nominee whose work has garnered him much respect and whose work I’ve especially enjoyed, particularly Vera Drake and Happy-Go-Lucky. The first of these is significant because it’s one of Leigh’s rare historic pieces but his last movie Mr. Turner went one further by telling the story of a real person, in that case, painter J.M.W. Turner, as played by Tim Spall.

Peterloo is somewhat of a departure for Mr. Leigh, since it isn’t focused on a small group of two to four characters, instead telling a massively complex storyline about a peaceful rally in Manchester that was racked by violence when politicians decided to disperse the crowd.

I have to admit that as Peterloo began on the battlefield of Waterloo, I wasn’t sure to expect, thinking it might be Leigh’s attempt at a war film, but the story follows a young bugler, Joseph, whom we see on the battlefield before he returns home to Manchester with a case of PTSD. His family, and in fact, the whole town, is suffering from poverty and hunger, and there’s a growing desire to be represented in the Parliament in London so that things might improve. The city’s grew white hope is one Henry Hunt, played by Rory Kinnear, and he’s going to travel up to Manchester to talk to the people who will presumably vote for him.

Once it gets going, Peterloo is such a fascinating film. I’m really curious to see how Americans will react to it, because while it’s just as typically British as Leigh’s previous work, it’s a movie that’s more about British history and British politics, and I’m just not sure if that’s the sort of thing that will connect with Americans.

I can completely understand why some might be frustrated with Leigh’s latest, because it is very long, it does take some time to get going, and a lot of time you might not know exactly what is going on or what is being discussed. I certainly wasn’t exactly sure what was going on or who some of the characters were as they flew through the vast ensemble cast moving from one character and location to another. Eventually, you get used to this pace and start seeing familiar faces that makes things much clearer. Leigh also uses this tactic to create layers that build and build to the climactic last half hour of the film where violence disrupts an otherwise peaceful day. It’s quite the counterpoint to the war scene that opens the film, but don’t worry. Joseph doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, as you might suspect, because it really follows his journey despite often focusing on others.

One of the things I especially liked about Leigh’s latest is that while it does often get somber and serious, there’s still a wit to it, especially in the way it deals with the stupidity of the politicians and magistrates who seem to have little care for the people they’re supposed to be representing.

Oddly, two days after seeing Peterloo, I saw the Broadway musical Hamilton, a historical piece that takes place in America earlier than the events of Leigh’s film, but it offered a similar resonance to me, even though it did so with musical numbers rather than talking.

Leigh’s screenplay is another masterpiece, but I was equally impressed by the casting of such a large ensemble, many with British actors whom few on these shores will have ever seen or heard of. I’m really curious to know where he found them, because he’s become so known for working with the same small group of actors over the years, and almost everyone in this movie is new to the Leigh camp.

Personally, I think this is Leigh’s best film in many, many years, possibly on par with some of his best work even though I know it deals with a far more difficult (and localized) subject. Regardless, it’s also a film I will gladly see a second time just to catch some of the nuances I may have missed the first time around.

Rating: 8.5/10

Now, back to your regularly scheduled preview column…

As far as the wide releases, I’ve only seen one of them and that was SHAZAM! (New Line/WB), the latest DC Comics character to be brought to the big screen, in this case by Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg (Lights Out). I already reviewedthe movie for The Beat, so I don’t have much more to say about it (other than my Box Office Preview, which is ALSO at The Beat), but I did enjoy this quite a bit, maybe not as much as Aquaman but definitely as much as Wonder Woman. It’s a good movie that shows you can do something different with supereheroes and still make a movie work on its own merits (rather than connecting to future movies)

The other movie I’m really looking forward to seeing (when I get back from Vegas) is the new version of Stephen King’s PET SEMATARY (Paramount), directed by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, who found some fans in the horror crowd with their earlier film Starry Eyes. I guess the cast could be more interesting, although I do love John Lithgow and Amy Seimetz has been a favorite of mine from the indie work she’s done. And I don’t hate Jason Clarke either, although some of his choices in films (other than last year’s Chappaquidick, in which he was great) sometimes leaves me scratching my head.

Robin Bissell’s THE BEST OF ENEMIES (STXfilms) is a civil rights drama that one would normally see during Oscar season, since it stars Oscar winner Sam Rockwell and nominee Taraji P. Henson. This story is interesting to me as someone who loved last year’s Green Book, mainly because there are stories like this (and that) from the ‘60s that deserve to be told. Unfortunately, I’m missing this due to CinemaCon as well, so hopefully I’ll have a chance to see it when I’m back in New York.

LIMITED RELEASES

Besides Peterloo, reviewed above, there’s a few other films I recommend seeking out, and hopefully the first three of these will expand into other places than big cities after this weekend:

Correction: Oops!! It looks like I missed the fact that Teen Spirit will not open in select cities until April 12, so I’ll rerun my write-up on it next week

Seemingly a lost project/movie, the late filmmaker Sydney Pollack was commissioned by Warner Bros. Records to capture a concert by Aretha Franklin singing gospel songs for a movie, but it was shelved due to technical difficulties. More than 45 years later, that concert is presented in AMAZING GRACE (NEON), and if there ever was any doubt in your mind about what an amazing singer Franklin was, this movie will certainly change that. It opens in select cities.

Opening in New York, L.A. and other cities is Emma Tammi’s Western werewolf movie THE WIND (IFC Midnight), which played at TIFF and Fantastic Fest last year and the more-recent What the Fest in New York. It stars Caitlin Gerard from Insidious: The Last Key as a rugged woman who has moved into a cabin on the American frontier in the early 19thCentury, where she immediately starts feeling as if there’s a sinister presence, possibly tied to the only other couple who lives out there. Her husband (Ashley Zukerman) doesn’t believe her. If you like Westerns and want to see one with a dominant female presence (both in front and behind the camera) then you’ll want to check this out.

I guess this is as good a place as any to mention that one of my favorite filmmaker Terry Gilliam’s new movie The Man Who Killed Don Quixote will be available to see nationwide on Tuesday via Fathom Events. The movie, starring Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce and a number of amazing European actors who I was unfamiliar with, is one that Gilliam has been trying to make for over 20 years and no surprise, it harks back to his great films like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and The Fisher King, which came out during the filmmaker’s heyday. I’m just so happy Gilliam was finally able to make this movie, and it actually turned out quite well.. maybe a little weird for some tastes, but not too weird for lifelong Gilliam fans like myself.

Hilary Duff stars in the title role of Daniel Ferrands’ THE HAUNTING OF SHARON TATE (Saban Films) about the murder of the 26-year-old actress who was pregnant with Roman Polanski’s baby when she was murdered by Charles Manson and his cult.It opens in theaters and will be available On Demand starting Friday.

Jordan Downey’s The Head Hunter (Vertical) involves a medieval warrior who is protecting the kingdom from monsters, collecting their heads as he slays them. The one monster he hasn’t killed yet is the one that killed his daughter, so he travels on horseback to try to get revenge. It opens in select cities and On Demand.

Jai Courtney stars in Shawn Seet’s adaptation of Colin Thiele’s Storm Boy (Good Deed Entertainment), an Australian drama in which the retired businessman Michael Kingley reflects back on his past life. Some of these memories including a story about how as a boy, he rescued an orphaned pelican and named it Mr. Percival.

Filmmaker Emilio Estevez’s latest film, the political drama The Public (Greenwich), will also open Friday after playing TIFF and a few other festivals. It stars Alec Baldwin with Estevez, Jena Malone, Taylor Schilling, Christian Slater, Gabrielle Union, Michael K. Williams and Jeffrey Wright, and with a cast like that, do you really need to know what the movie is about? Okay, fine. It takes place in a public library in Cincinnati where a number of homeless patrons take it over during an Arctic blast, seeking shelter from the cold but also staging an act of civil disobedience, in the process.

Showing FREE OF CHARGE at New York’s Film Forum (as part of their annual Free Movie Week) starting Wednesday is Cam Christiansen’s animated doc Wall, which looks at the decision by Israel to build the 435-mile long wall to separate the Palestinian West Bank from the rest of Israel. Building that $4 billion wall meant the confiscation of 4,000 acres of Palestinian land and the destruction of 1,000 trees…and that area is still in disarray. So yeah… building walls is a bad idea.

Stephanie Wang-Breal’s documentary Blowin’ Up (Once in a Blue) deals with the first-ever court created to deal with prostitution in Queens, New York, the Queens Human Intervention Trafficking Court led by the Honorable Toko Serita. The purpose is to help deal with the women and girls arrested for prostitution who are illegal Asian immigrants or are black, Latina or trans, so they get shuffled through the system without it ever dealing with the complex reasons why they turn to prostitution. The doc opens at the Quad in New York Friday and then in L.A. on April 12.

Opening at the Metrograph in New York City is Qiu Sheng’s feature debut Suburban Birds (Cinema Guild) involving two narrative strands, one involving land surveyors who are laying subway tracks, the other involving pre-adolescents who rove the streets of the town unsupervised. It sounds…um… interesting?

Josh Stewart from Criminal Minds writes, directs and stars in Back Fork (Uncork’d) as family man Waylon who is struggling to keep his life together after tragedy, becoming more dependent on pills. Also starring Agnes Bruckner, the film will open in select cities and be available On Demand starting April 9.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

First up, on Tuesday began the 11th Annual ReelAbilities Film Festival at the JCC Manhattan, celebrating those who have fought past what would normally be considered “disabilities” to greatness. It kicked off with the Opening Night Gala and Screening of Irene Taylor Brodsky’s Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements, a documentary about a boy with genetic deafness who grew up with cochlear implants whose grandfather is adverse against using such technology in his old age. The festival runs through April 9 where the Closing Night film is Nick Kelly’s The Drummer and the Keeper about a drummer dealing with a bipolar diagnosis. In between is a full line-up of narratives and documentaries exploring different disabilities from blindness to mental disorders, and it’s quite an amazing array of films, many which might not ever get distribution, sadly. Screenings take place all over the city including Bellevue Hospital, Lincoln Center and the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens.

Although the 22nd Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival takes place in Durham, North Carolina – home of Duke University -- starting Thursday, I do have a love for the documentary genre that makes me want to mention the amazing programming, which will include a thematic program called “Some Other Lives of Time,” curated by Oscar nominee RaMell Ross (Hale County This Morning, This Evening). Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s American Factory is the opening night film while the Aretha Franklin concert doc Amazing Grace (released this weekend in other cities) closes this year’s festival. There’s an amazing line-up of docs in between, some that have played other festivals like David Modigliani’s Running with Beto and Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, and others that are premiering at Full Frame. American Factory directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert are getting a tribute with all of their earlier features and shorts shown, as well as their new film about a General Motors plant in Dayton, Ohio that closed, forcing 2,500 people into unemployment. This is a festival I’ve wanted to attend for so long and I do have friends in the Durham area that would make this worth a visit, but it’s only four days from Thursday through Sunday, so can’t do it this year.

Also, the Havana Film Festival New York begins at the Museum of the Moving Image on Sunday.

STREAMING AND CABLE

This week’s big Netflix release is Brie Larson’s directorial debut UNICORN STORE, in which she plays a 20-something artist named Kit, who is kicked out of art school, forcing her to move back home with her parents. Just as Kit decides to finally grow up, a salesman, played by Larson’s Captain Marvel co-star Samuel L. Jackson, shows up to offer Kit her heart’s desire. Based on a script by Samantha McIntyre, the film also stars Joan Cusack as Kit’s mother.

Netflix also has a number of new series starting on Friday including Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (from Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa) and the eight-part nature series Our Planet, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

I didn’t go to Sundance so I haven’t had a chance to see Rashid Johnson’s Native Son, starring Margaret Qualley, Nick Robinson, Kiki Layne, Ashton Sanders, Sanaa Lathan and Elizabeth Marvel, but that will premiere on HBO this Saturday night.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

On Friday, Metrograph will open a restoration of King Hu’s little-seen 1973 martial arts film The Fate of Lee Khan (Film Movement Classics) but the real winner this weekend is the Playtime: Family Matinees screenings of one of my childhood faves, Ken Hughes’ Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), starring Dick Van Dyke. Late Nites at Metrograph will show Sion Sono’s 2016 film Anti-Porno, which I may have seen before or maybe I just saw the trailer at Metrograph when it screened there a couple years back. I can’t remember! Also, the Total Kaurismäki Show continues through the weekend with Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989) on Thursday, more esoteric films like Juha (1999) and Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (1994) on Saturday, Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (1994) on Sunday and then his recent The Other Side of Hopeon Monday. That series continues through next Wednesday. Thursday also continues the Academy at Metrograph series with a screening of the 1959 rom-com Pillow Talk.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Weds and Thursday are double features of Jack Nicholson’s 1971 film Drive, He Said with the 1972 John Wayne movie The Cowboys. Friday and Saturday, the New Bev does a sci-double feature of Silent Running (1972) and The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971). This weekend’s KIDDEE MATINEE is Tom Hanks and Joe Dante’s The Burbs (1989), the Friday midnight screening is Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight (Multiplex version) while the Saturday night midnight offering is John Landis’ 1978 comedy classic Animal House. A 4-track mag print (whatever that is) of Carl Foreman’s war movie The Victors (1963) will screen on Sunday and Monday. Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (1999) will also screen on Monday afternoon.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Besides debuting an uncut (220 mins. With intermission) version of Franesco Rosi’s 1979 epic Christ Stopped at Eboli (Rialto Pictures), the Film Forum is screening the 1968 war film Where Eagles Dare introduced by British author Geoff Dyer (who wrote a book about the movie) on Saturday, and then John Boorman’s 1967 film Point Blank on Sunday, also introduced by Dyer.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Noir City: Hollywood – The 21stAnnual Los Angeles Festival of Film Noir continues through the weekend with chronological double features of 1955 films The Big Combo and Bad Day at Black Rock on Weds, the 1956 films A Kiss Before Dying and The Harder They Fall on Thurs, and then 1957′s The Midnight Story and Monkey on my Back Friday, Clara Bow’s Call Her Savage from 1932 with a Forbidden Hollywood presentation on Saturday, along with Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil and Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows, both from 1958. The series ends on Sunday with I Want to Live (1958) and Cry Tough (1959).

AERO (LA):

I wish I lived in L.A. right now because the Aero is launching a Mike Leigh retrospective called “Bleak, But Never Boring: Life According to Mike Leigh” starting Friday with a double feature of Naked (1993)and Meantime (1984), Saturday is Secrets & Lies (1996)and Vera Drake (2004), then Sunday is Life is Sweet (1990)and High Hopes (1988). On Thursday, the Aero is ALSO showing Animal House… but with guests!

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

Strange Desire: The Films of Claire Deniscontinues through the weekend with Bastards and The Breidjing Camp on Thursday, Towards Mathilde (2005) with the 2002 short Vers Nancy and US Go Home (1994) & the doc Claire Denis, The Vagabondon Saturday. Denis’ fairly recent film Let the Sunshine Inwill screen again on Sunday, as will Denis’ 1994 film I Can’t Sleep.

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: B is for Bacall continues with 1966’s Harper Weds, Woman’s World (1954) Thursday and Robert Altman’s Pret-A-Porter (Ready to Wear) (1994) on Friday.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

Besides taking apart in a few film festivals mentioned above, MOMI will also screen Antonio Tibaldi’s On My Own (1991) with Tibaldi in person.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

Bertrand Blier’s Get Out Your Handkerchiefscontinues…

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART (LA):

Friday’s midnight screening is the anime classic Akira.

The IFC CENTER in New York seems to be in-between repertory programs, while FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER is still focused on New Directors/New Films through Sunday.

Next week, Lionsgate revives Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, this time played by David Harbour, Tina Gordon’s comedy Littlestarring Regina Hall and Issa Rae, and LAIKA Studios returns with their latest stop-motion animated film Missing Link.

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