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sp0o0kylights · 8 months

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Part Six / Part Seven (YOU ARE HERE) / Part Eight

A03

If the odd, small sounding Steve had been a weird pill to swallow, then the loudly swearing, furious one might as well have been a different person.

Worse?

He wanted Gareth and Eddie to stay behind.

“You are not going to the lab by yourself.” Eddie deadpanned, blocking the door while Steve acted like an agitated snake in front of it.

“You don’t understand.” Steve hissed, weaving back and forth on his feet, like he was trying to find a way out without bowling Eddie over.

Or breaking a window.

“Then help us understand!” Eddie shot back, throwing his hands up.

Which was just the crux of the issue--because Steve seemed fine to talk about the lab being a horrible place, but kept refusing to answer why.

“You don’t have to tell us the full thing man, but give us something.” Gareth pleaded, hoping it didn’t come off as desperate as he felt.

Not his fault Steve was setting off his own anxiety.

The jock stepped back, running a hand through his hair and making a mess of it.

"I don't have the time." He stressed, anger, worry and pure fear mixing together in his tone.

In a mutter he added; "You wouldn't believe me anyways."

Tentatively, Gareth reached out, putting a hand on Steve’s shoulder.

For the first time since they’d known each other, Steve didn’t react to being touched.

"Eddie and I are gonna go no matter what. So you can either give us a heads up now, or you can be mad at us later when we just follow you anyway.” Gareth said, a hell of a lot calmer than he felt.

Steve had turned partly to glare at him, but seemed to at least let the words sink in. To get through that no, really, they were going, and all this arguing was just wasting time.

Not that Gareth trusted it.

"I don't want you guys getting hurt." Steve burst out, and it looked like it cost him to admit even that much.

Like it was inevitable and all this was a Hail Mary attempt to keep them from that future.

Eddie seemed to pick up on it too, because he caught Steve's gaze and held it. "You're a part of Hellfire now. If you were in that lab, we'd be all coming for you. Not one of us--all of us.”

He followed it up by invading Steve’s space, jamming a finger into the jock's chest.

“I don’t know why you think we’d be okay with you getting hurt." Eddie stared hard at him, voice as serious as Gareth had ever heard it. “You’re our friend, too Steve. We’re not abandoning Tiff and the rest of the Scooby Doo gang, and we're also not letting you do something that has you this freaked out, alone.”

Which is what this all seemed to keep coming down to. How Steve was willing to throw himself at problems, how he kept wanting to handle his own issues, while trying to manage everyone else so that he was the only target.

The only person in the know, the only one in the line of fire.

Like he was a burden instead of a person.

Gareth kept wondering how the hell that had happened. If this had been anyone else he would have written it off as some macho bullshit, but Steve wasn't like that. He'd didn't need to be the one white knight.

The fear he spoke with had always been too real, for that.

It wasn't like they--or at least, Eddie and himself, hadn't picked up that something was happening, either. Something big.

Given the weird, hushed conversations Steve kept have with Nancy, and Jonathan and even the kids sometimes…

Once, just once, Gareth had seen Steve talk to the Chief of Police. The asshole had looked awkward as hell, giving Steve a few pats to his shoulder, and Steve looking equally as awkward, leaning into it--but they looked like two people who'd gone through the same shit and now were stuck together. Not a police officer giving a warning to a teenager. Not even a family friend catching up.

Something was up in Hawkins and now wasn't the time to dog Steve about it, but Gareth still wished he'd give them a hint.

A tidbit, a morsel, of what the fuck had him so riled up.

“And if all this means our friends are in danger, then we're absolutely going too.” Eddie continued, nearly nose to nose with Steve.

Steve put his hands on his hips, frustration written all over his face--but he didn’t step away. "I don't think you'd be okay with it, it's just-- I'm just--already involved! This is how it’s been."

As if that wasn’t fucking alarming.

"And now, so are we.” Eddie threw back, pointing at the phone. "It’d help if you at least told us what to watch out for, but if not then we need to stop arguing so we can go help.”

That definitely got through.

Steve tapped a foot, blowing out a breath and overall acted as if Gareth and Eddie were the ones being unreasonable here.

(Or a pissed off single mother of six, not that Gareth was voicing that image.)

"Fine." He snapped finally, pinching the bridge of his nose and backing away from Eddie. “Fine! But you listen to me when we get out there, and if I tell you two to run, I need you to trust me and run.”

A grin tried to blast across Eddie’s face, the smug one he wore when he won and he knew it, but he covered it up before Steve saw.

Gareth doubted it’d take much to slide Steve right back into trying to keep them at the trailer, or straight up pull some dirty ass move to force it.

(He belatedly wondered if he should worry about Steve trying to stab one of Eddie’s tires out, but didn’t think the older teen would go that far.

Not yet, anyway.)

"I wasn't kidding when I said you wouldn't believe me." Steve spoke over his shoulder, blowing through the door the second Eddie got out of the way, marching down the steps to his Beemer. "But let’s just say that lab did a lot worse than create shit like rabid dogs, and a few of their creations might still be there. Grab a weapon!"

“I thought there wasn’t any rabid dogs!” Gareth protested at the same time Eddie said;

"So the cops can get us on felony charges? What is trespassing not enough for you?"

Eddie shook his head, following Steve down to the gravel. "No thanks, man!"

“I never said their weren't rabid dogs at all, I said--wait, who told you that?” Steve asked, trying to turn and face Gareth but Eddie simply pushed him forward, kept him moving.

“They’ve waited for us long enough.” He whispered lowly, as Gareth scrambled about for something to use.

Managed to fetch the fire poker he knew Wayne kept around to scare away coyotes, or rival drug dealers, or anything else wandering about.

If Steve said bring a weapon, he'd bring a damn weapon.

Felony charges or not.

"The cops won't charge us. Not as long as Hopper’s the one who gets there first.” Steve said and the desperation in his voice had faded a little, revealing something hard and self-assured underneath.

Not cocky, but with the strength Hellfire had when approaching a boss or baddie they had conquered once before and were familiar with.

"And if El's involved? He will get there first." Steve said firmly, whipping the backdoor of his car open and yanking a bag out.

A bag that had muffled squawking coming out of it.

Steve snatched a walkie talkie out from it, interrupting a stream of high pitched, upset nonsense coming out the tinny speakers.

Gareth caught someone half asking, half yelling if "-literally anyone could pick up!" before Steve hit the talk button.

"What's happening!?" He demanded, as he slammed the car door and stormed to the trunk.

"Steve!" Several voices yelled at once, the speakers shrieking in static feedback.

One beat out the others, as its owner screeched into the walkie in a tone that only children under fourteen and small dogs seemed to be capable of. "Where the hell have you been!? We called a code red an hour ago!"

"Bitch later Henderson, explain now." Steve commanded, picking out a bat with fucking house nails hammered into it.

Several of which were stained a rusted, blood-red.

Eddie stopped dead in his tracks, eyeing Steve with his mouth ajar as the nails gleamed lazily in his porchlights.

Gareth couldn't blame him; his own heart had just picked up speed.

Steve gave the bat two experimental twirls, flipping it easily in his hand, before he seemed satisfied. Both the weapon and the movement worked together, elevating Steve into something straight out of the fantasy novels Hellfire traded around.

Like a fucking paladin come to life.

Gareth felt his breath hitch at the way it highlighted the guy's biceps, already on display since Steve had shoved his sleeves up. The movement was so smooth and well practiced that it was clear this was his weapon of choice--and that he’d definitely used it before.

Gareth wasn't even attracted to Steve Harrington, but one couldn't be blamed for having eyes.

"Mike insisted he saw lights on at the lab, and Will thought he might have felt something--" Henderson started, before being abruptly interrupted by someone on his end.

"He did feel something, Dustin!"

"Shut up, I'm talking to Steve!”

"Stop arguing and give me the short version. You're all in the lab?" Steve cut in.

‘It should be illegal to sound that annoyed while moving like that.’ Gareth thought idly, as Steve dropped the bat to the ground, then propped it up against his car.

He waved Eddie and Gareth over, one hand going to cover the walkie talkie’s speakers as it spat static. ‘Pick one.’ He mouthed, in the exact same way Gareth’s mom did when she was trying to talk to him and someone on the phone at the same time.

With a short glance at each other, they went.

"--we got to the lab and El and Max were already here--" Dustin tried again, and once again was talked over, making the conversation extremely hard to follow.

Kids, God.

"-You told us to meet you here-"

"-and there were these older kids running around-'

"-excuse you, tiny bratling, we are not kids-"

"Was that Grant?" Gareth found himself asking, as Steve waved a hand above his open trunk distractedly, like a vendor showing off wares.

Except instead of trinkets, it held a gun, a knife and a fucking candlestick.

The latter of which sported another suspicious red stain.

There was a second explosion of noise, and what sounded like multiple walkie's being fought over before a young, female voice came on, its owner having apparently won the tug of war.

"The idiots thought they saw something but it turned out to just be some teenagers breaking into the lab for fun." She scoffed, and sounded suspiciously like a Tiff Jr.

It took a second, but Gareth finally placed the voice to the redheaded girl--the one who rolled her eyes a lot.

"The wall and part of the floor collapsed, some guy fell through a hole into a locked room and El thinks the collapse wasn't an accident." The words were spoken rapid fire, like a front line soldier relaying information. "She and Will both feel something."

Eddie picked up the knife while Gareth simply held up his fire poker.

Steve nodded to them, and closed the trunk.

"Can you all get out of there safely?" He asked.

"El thinks if we leave, the--thing here will attack the guy that's stuck."

'Thing' Gareth mouthed to himself.

Not a person.

Not a dog, or bear, or--anything else.

A thing.

"Fuck." Steve spat, taking his hand off the talk button so no one on the other side heard.

"She and Will aren't sure what it is yet but they're thinking it's from the Upside Down."

After a brief pause wherein someone could be heard shouting in the distance, she sarcastically added; "Honestly I'm happy to leave the guy that's stuck here, he's really annoying--"

"No sacrificing Stewart!" Steve snapped instantly, and despite all the swearing and dramatics, having contact with the kids seemed to ease something in him.

His movements were no longer frantic, back and shoulders looser.

Even the way he talked seemed to unclench, like he'd been told the worst had come and now that it was finally here, he could deal with it.

"If you're sure, because I'm pretty sure Billy is gonna start looking for me soon." Max argued.

Steve groaned. "I'll handle him if he shows up."

For the first time since Steve had picked up the walkie, silence descended.

Gareth wasn't exactly an expert in such things, but it felt judgmental.

"Are you gonna handle it like the last time you handled it? Cause we don't have anything to knock him out with and I don't know if your head can--"

"Thank you Max, but I can deal with him." Steve cut in immediately, face flaming and yeah, they were definitely out of whatever protective crazy mode Steve had started off in. "This time I have my bat and backup. So unless your brother has taken to carrying stacks of plates around, I think I'll be fine!"

"Step brother." Max corrected immediately, huffing.

Then in a slightly quieter voice, she added: "Hey Steve? Get here fast."

"I'm coming. Steve over and out." He said firmly, like an older brother reassuring a younger sibling.

How the hell the guy had ever managed to appear like a heartless asshole was beyond Gareth.

Apparently it was beyond Eddie too because the guy was practically drooling with heart eyes in Steve's direction.

The kids signed off, before quiet, blessedly descended.

"Can I ask one question?" Gareth asked, as Steve cursed at the finally silent walkie talkie.

Steve stopped, entire chest heaving in a sigh.

"Yeah, one." He said, as though even that cost him a lot.

Out of the corner of his eye Gareth watched Eddie shake himself to awareness, and then try to flip the knife with the same move Steve used on the bat's handle.

He fumbled it immediately, chasing the blade as it clattered to the ground.

"Why a candlestick?" Gareth asked quickly, before Steve turned and witnessed Eddie's awkward, scrambling retrieval.

"Jonathan tends to grab the weirdest shit as a weapon." Steve responded. "He's used a trophy, multiple chairs, a lamp," he made an etc. all gesture, as if any of that actually explained things instead of causing about ten more questions.

"The candlestick actually worked pretty well so I kept it." He finished.

"Jonathan Byers?" Eddie said, holding the knife once more and clearly pretending he'd never tried to copy Steve. "How very Cluedo of him."

Steve frowned, nose scrunching in confusion. "Cluedo?"

"He means the game Clue. It's called Cluedo in Europe, Eddie's just a tabletop snob." Gareth rambled anxiously, because throwing Jonathan Byers wielding a candlestick into the mix was just the icing on top of the weird cake.

Part of him wondered if it would be rude if he asked Steve to spin the bat again, while the other part vaguely wondered if any of this was actually happening.

Maybe Eddie had accidentally laced the pot with a hallucinogenic.

(Frankly he wasn't sure how he'd have missed the addition of extra drugs, but hey; you couldn't say that made any more sense than Steve Harrington, small town golden boy, parading around with a fucking bat with nails in it, using a walkie talkie to speak to children about how a thing might try to attack one of their friends.)

The kid’s involvement at least, made a little bit of sense.

They were young but they weren't that young--and they also weren't as quiet as they thought they were.

Particularly not when they were riled up at the arcade.

Gareth knew the lot of them thought one of the girls had superpowers. He also knew they often pretended Will Byers, the kid who'd gone missing, had spent some time acting as a "spy" for whatever evil they all pretended to be battling.

He'd mostly assumed it was a D&D-slash- LARP kind of thing, or even just traumatized kids playing pretend to cope with what had happened, but now?

"I might have lied about just having one question." Gareth admitted as Steve picked up his bat.

"I'll explain some of it later, after we get them out." Steve said, as if Gareth might actually trust him to do so after doing his damndest to dodge giving an explanation.

"Lead on, Sir Harrington." Eddie said before Gareth could say just that, like the lovestruck idiot he was. "We're going to need both cars to carry our wayward friends home, so Gareth and I will follow your lead."

Eddie spun his keys around his fingers, and given the smirk on his face, Gareth would bet money he was hoping it looked as cool as Steve's bat handling.

It didn't.

"Provided you promise to try not to lose us, because I've lived here all my life, I know where the lab is." He finished, and somehow managed to make the words sound fun and not the blatant warning it was.

Steve nodded once, hard. "Alright. Stay close to my car, and flash your high beams twice if you run into any problems--or see like, people in suites."

"People in suites?" Eddie asked, the knife still clutched awkwardly in his hand.

"Government agent kinda dudes, they're easy to spot." Steve said, like he was cautioning them to look out for deer darting across the road. "They usually look like they shouldn't be wherever they are."

"Alright." Gareth said, before his brain could come up with a list of questions regarding that.

Steve slung himself into the front seat of his car, Gareth claiming shotgun in Eddie's van shortly thereafter.

They waited to let Steve out first, and then stayed right on his tail as Steve promptly broke multiple laws to get to the lab.

"So this is all ominous as hell, right?" Eddie said, metal music pouring from the vans speakers and eyes on the taillights of the beamer.

"Oh dude, incredibly ominous. There was blood on that candlestick. " Gareth said, still in disbelief.

Whose candlestick had that even belonged to, originally? At what point in all this had Steve decided to hammer nails into a baseball bat?

Nevermind the weapon he was trying not to think about in the trunk of Steve’s car.

The gun.

Gareth knew instinctively why neither of them had gone for it. Eddie's father had drilled into him that the extra charge for carrying was never worth it and Gareth's own father had a firm "if you point it then you might as well have used it" mentality.

Steve didn't look like the kind of person to handle killing someone well himself, and yet the gun remained, locked up in the back of his trunk.

An option he'd offered to both Eddie and Gareth without bothering to fully fill them in.

"Blood on the bat too." Eddie said, dragging Gareth's attention back to the present.

Which at least, gave Gareth an opening for familiar ground. "I'm surprised you noticed that, given you looked like you lost all the blood in your head when he started swinging it around."

"Shut up." Eddie grumped, and though normally Gareth would tease him more, he found he just...couldn't.

Not right now.

"I'm more worried that they all kept calling whatever the thing was…well. A thing." He said, because God was it bothering him. “I mean I guess it could be an animal still but the way they were talking about it…” He trailed off, uncomfortable.

"Personally I'm hoping for monsters." Eddie said.

Gareth turned to shoot him a look. "Seriously Ed’s?"

"Mmm. Because if it's not monsters Gareth, it's humans," Eddie tapped the steering wheel in time with Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls. "and humans scare me more than anything."

Gareth leaned back, letting the seat absorb him, his own eyes sticking to the back of Steve's head. "I guess."

Not that he wanted to deal with either.

Best case scenario in all this?

Everyone got out safely, and they drilled Steve into what the hell had happened to him, later.

Not that life was ever that simple.

xXx

Tiff met them outside the lab.

The place was desolate. Abandoned with the kind of tell-tale signs that boldly stated something awful had happened there.

Papers and a chair were still left in the guard shack and a phone dangling off the hook completing the look. The lab itself was dotted with broken windows, the corresponding shattered glass glittering all over the ground.

All it was missing was some lightning and it would be a great location for a slasher film.

One set of odd, claw-like marks on the ground later, right near where they all parked, and Gareth abruptly decided he'd rather focus on Tiffany rather than follow that thought more.

Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, her expression annoyed, but the dead giveaway to her freaked out status was the way she couldn't seem to stop moving. Not even after they’d gotten out of their respective cars and started towards her.

Gareth hadn't seen her this bad since the day she temporarily lost her SAT guide.

It didn't bode well for the adventure ahead.

"Finally." She complained as the trio approached. "Did you three stop for milkshakes on the way!?"

"Traffic Tiff, you know how it is." Eddie said with an easy smile and a wave of his hand.

She simply gave a pointed look at her watch before glaring back at them.

"Steve!" Someone yelled, and Dustin promptly launched out of some corner at the older teen, babbling a mile a minute.

“Slow down, God!” Steve interrupted, doing a clear head to toe sweep of the kid. “You okay? Everyone good? Nobody dead?”

“Not yet!” Dustin said chipperly, which caused Steve to swat at his hat.

“Are you okay?” Gareth asked Tiff, as Steve and Dustin began talking rapid-fire, in the kind of way that spoke of past events and made little to no sense to anyone not in the loop.

"Yeah." Tiff nodded stiffly. “Would have been a lot happier if Stewart had listened to me for once, but.” She shrugged, her version of ‘it is what it is.’

Eddie reached out, squeezing her shoulder gently. “Is everyone else in the lab?” He asked, peering about.

He got another nod. “The room the idiot’s stuck in is just up the stairs and down the hall a bit. I’m amazed he didn’t get hurt, he fell through the ceiling.” She shook her head, clearly worried and trying her best not to show it. “Everyone’s kind of been wandering between there and here, but the random children who showed up are insisting we all walk around in groups.”

She turned to eye Dustin, before looking towards the entryway to the lab.

“Probably a good thing given the wall collapsed, but they all think there’s some,” She huffed, arms shrugging helplessly. “monster lurking about.”

Gareth stared at the lab entrance for a moment, once again taking in random stains and smears that were all around them. Spotted a few more of those weird, elongated claw marks raking down the stairs, spread more like fingers than anything else, and the group of them that surrounded a suspiciously large stain in the entryway.

“What made you guys want to explore the lab tonight anyway? It’s Thursday.” Eddie asked.

This earned him a more animated eye roll.

“Would you believe me if I told you I owed Jeff a favor, and he owed Grant a favor, and Grant got into it with Stewart over whether or not the lab had glowing goo hiding inside?"

“Glowing goo?” Eddie and Gareth echoed as one.

“Like what Mikey the bartender was saying last time he was drunk? The whole thing with that weird green goo that fell out of some truck?” Gareth asked, and it wasn’t the stupidest thing that had riled up Stewart and Grant but by God was it up there.

Tiff sighed a second time, sounding pained. “Yeah. That goo. Stewart kept insisting Mikey got a “hot tip” that some military guys knew it was here,” Her fingers came up to make the quotation marks, somehow managing to make the movement sarcastic. “and wanted it moved over to that new mall they’re building. Starcourt.”

“So Stewart had to come see it.” Eddie finished, as if he wouldn’t have also been dying to go get a look.

Frankly, Gareth himself was slightly annoyed he and Eddie hadn’t been called upon as it were.

“Mikey also apparently believes something else wants the goo and chased the military guys who were here out of the building. That part must be going around, because the kids here are pretty insistent there’s a monster inside.” Tiffany added, waving a hand towards Dustin.

Eddie made a move to slung his arm over her shoulder, giving her a full body squeeze before letting her go.

Tiff allowed it, and for the briefest of seconds, even seemed to lean in.

“Hello Steve, nice murder weapon.” She greeted loudly, entirely unphased by the nail bat in his hands as Hellfire’s jock and his favorite small annoyance stepped up to them. “Having met your children, I have to say, your parenting skills are utter shit.”

Dustin frowned up at her, instantly offended. “Steve’s our friend.” He corrected, angrily emphasizing ‘friend,’ right over the top of Steve’s loud protest of;

“It’s not a murder weapon, jeez!”

“If anyone is lacking in skills it’s your little group’s!” Dustin cut in, waving a hand around. “Not one of you was prepared for breaking into the lab! No weapons, no back up, you’re the only one who even had quarters and one of you isn’t even wearing a jacket. If we hadn’t shown up you guys would have been in some real shit!”

Tiff stared flatly down at Dustin, ignoring Steve entirely. “Sure, pipsqueak."

“What are you guys even doing here?” Steve asked, before Dustin could fuss more.

“Glowing goo, apparently.” Eddie answered, moving with him.

Tiffany took the hint, starting to walk towards the stairs as Dustin trotted forward next to her, clearly intending to “lead” just as much as she was.

Gareth watched from the corner of his eyes as Steve automatically stepped to Dustin’s right, making sure the kid was surrounded on all sides.

‘Fuckin’ softie.’ He thought fondly, even as he gripped the fire poker he held in his hand tighter.

Eddie had managed to stow the knife away, making it vanish somewhere among his jacket and Judas Priest shirt, so it was just him and Steve looking like lunatics.

Thankfully, Tiff had spared Gareth her opinion on the fire poker.

“Goo?” Steve asked, and unlike the rest of them, he sounded downright alarmed.

“So there’s this bartender at the Hideout.” Eddie started, launching into the story with a lot more pizzazz than Gareth thought it really required. He and Tiff traded glances, and Gareth got to see the exact moment Dustin’s eyes caught sight of Eddie and went dinner plate wide.

Gareth would have nudged Tiff, maybe made a joke about how Eddie was gaining a new sheep just by his terminal need to be the loudest person in a room, but a movement on the left caught his gaze.

Gareth stopped, as something unmistakably fleshy slunk back in the shadows, one weirdly shaped paw flashing as something caught the light.

Fear raked through him, freezing Gareth dead to the spot, hands tightening on his fire poker.

“Hey, guys? He asked, interrupting whatever story Eddie had inevitably gone off of (likely one of the many, many backstories involving Mikey the bartender’s belief in UFOs) “That monster the kids think they saw. What uh, what’s it supposed to look like?”

“Why?” Tiff asked, at the same time Eddie yelled at him to; “Keep up, Gary, god!”

Gareth didn’t answer, instead staring deep into the shadows.

Nothing moved.

‘You’re seeing things.’ He told himself finally. ‘Unless it went through solid fucking wall, you would still be able to see it. You're just stressing yourself out because Steve’s being weird.’

Fuck knows it wouldn’t be the first time he thought he saw something when his anxiety started acting up.

"So Gare, did you bring the fire poker along because of the monster?" Tiff asked, amused, as she briefly dropped back towards him.

Clearly, she'd just been waiting for an opening to tease him about it.

He flushed scarlet.

"No!" He spat, hugging the thing closer.

A grin unfurled on Tiff's face, Cheshire-esque.

"I'm serious, Steve told us to bring it!" Gareth insisted, trying to look manly with it.

He knew he failed as badly as Eddie had earlier.

"You know, I'm starting to think Eddie's not the only one gone on our human fighter…" Tiff trailed off, raising one eyebrow, and causing Gareth to flip her off.

Thankfully that train of conversation was interrupted by loud arguing.

“We’re not cats Steve, you can’t just put us outside!” One of the kids was bitching, the group having caught sight of Steve and hustling over.

Jeff was seated on the floor in the hallway, one hand holding up his chin while Grant leaned against the wall next to him, both looking incredibly bored.

Across from them was a door that had looked like it had survived a full-blown seige. Cracks ran throughout the wood, and with the entire center of it bowed inward it was clear why no one could manage to get Stewart out of the room.

It was completely wedged in the frame, with thick enough edges to make it impossible to just pop it out by hand.

The hoard of gremlins were harder to make out now that they were all clumped together, but Gareth quickly made out their very….unique outfits.

Only the girls had dressed normally, while the boys looking like they either were planning on robbing a train.

Bandana’s over their faces and all.

“Yes, I can actually.” Steve retorted in the exact same bitchy tone. "Tiffany can stay with you guys by the cars while the rest of us figure out how to get Stewart.”

"Thanks for volunteering me." Tiff said flatly, but alas, was ignored by the group at large.

“Really? So you don’t want El to, you know. Help.” The terminally loud one spat.

“El’s gonna dump your ass if you don’t stop talking for her, Mike.” Steve warned, making the girl puff up proudly while Mike immediately cut a fearful glance to his girlfriend.

“And if El could have helped before, why wait for me to get here?” Steve continued, one hand on his hip, the other resting the nail bat over his shoulder, cutting in before Mike's scrambled apology derailed the conversation.

“I cannot move the door.” El admitted in that sort of flat, blunt way she spoke. “There is something here that is making my powers unstable.”

Steve pointed to her, face morphing into a clear “see?” gesture.

“Now unless Dustin is going to science the door open somehow--and I’m not saying you couldn’t,” Steve spoke the second part quickly, as Dustin’s mouth popped open, “then all of you are going to wait outside. Where the demo-the thing, isn’t.”

Gareth really, really hated how he kept referring to it as a thing.

One of the kids rolled their eyes and muttered; “We literally said we don’t know if it’s a--” and promptly got elbowed in the stomach for it.

Right.

Not suspicious at all.

“But we can help!” Dustin protested furiously.

Gareth wasn't sure if it was because Dustin truly thought he could help, or if it was because he wasn't used to the pushback.

For all that he was an only child, Steve had clearly inherited an older brother's prerogative of letting kids do stupid shit so long as he supervised (and typically, laughed at the outcome.

Gareth still fondly recalled the time Mike declared himself man enough to smoke.

Steve had conned him into chainsmoking outside the arcade until the kid finally threw up in the bushes on his fourth cigarette and declared Steve's smoking habit disgusting.)

“El could help.” Steve countered calmly. “Max probably, if I gave her my bat, but the rest of you are just moving targets. So make like a drum, and beat it.”

"That was lame, Steve." Dustin sniffed, while the other kids groaned loudly. “A real low effort pun.”

Steve just flicked his hand out in a shoo motion before leaning his bat up against the wall.

Jeff stared it before making immediate eye contact with Gareth, every inch of him screaming ‘what the hell!’

With a sigh, and an unfortunate side glance at Tiff, Gareth explained; “It’s for the monster.”

That at least, was easier than explaining Steve knew what was here and was doing his damndest not to tell them what it was.

Even if it made Tiff grin manically in his direction.

His only relief was that Steve got her attention right after, calling "Heads up!" before tossing her his car keys.

Because her hand eye coordination was superior to Eddie’s, she caught them easily.

If there's an emergency, get them out." Steve warned, voice just over the edge of too serious, losing the banter he’d kept up since they’d arrived.

"If there's an emergency we're coming back on to save your ass." Dustin snapped back, arms crossed, because of course he was listening.

“No.” Steve told him simply.

“Yes.”

“No, no, no-!”

Tiff let out a sharp whistle, the sound piercing in the echoing hallway.

"Gremlins with me!" She commanded, before catching Steve's eyes over their heads . "You fucking owe me, Harrington."

He nodded, before dropping a glare to the kids. "Just don't let them drive my car."

“God I can’t believe he’s still upset about that, it’s not like we fucked up the Camaro.” Mike complained loudly, allowing himself to be herded back outdoors.

“Max did hit a mailbox.” Lucas retorted, and then yelped a loud; “Ow, Max!” as he was presumably punished for voicing the fact out loud.

Their voices faded slightly as they went down the stairs, and Gareth managed to drag his attention back to the problem at hand.

One very fucked up door.

"Do you think we could kick it down?” Steve asked, as Eddie bent down to examine the door.

Refusing to look anyone in the face, Jeff said; “We may have tried that already.”

“My darling lambs, you’re approaching this wrong.” Eddie cooed, and got several glares for it.

“The door might be fucked by the hinges here, are not. Looks like all I need is the right screwdriver and lucky for Stewart!--” He yelled his friend's name, banging on the door and no doubt hoping to spook him.

A muffled shout of “Screw you Munson!” was all he got for his efforts.

“--I have my toolbox in my car.”

“Do I want to know what you have a toolbox for, Ed's?” Steve asked.

“Perfectly legal avenues only, I assure you.” Eddie replied, batting his eyelashes up at Steve innocently.

Grant and Jeff both gagged.

“Would the two of you gentlemen be so kind as to fetch me my box?” Eddie said, pulling out his keys and offering them up to Jeff. “I want to try one more thing. I don’t think it’ll work, but I can test it while you boys are gone.”

“He’s going to try to kick it in himself.” Gareth tattled flatly.

“I am not!” Eddie immediately denied, eyes wide in feigned hurt.

It was fake as shit.

“Let him!” Jeff said over as he got up. “That way I won’t be the only one getting made fun of for doing it!”

A car suddenly honked from outside, startling them all.

“Check that the shitheads aren’t murdering Tiff while you’re out there!” Steve called as Jeff and Grant took off towards the entrance, before moving out of Eddie’s way as he surged upwards.

“It’s more likely she’d be murdering them.” Eddie replied, and sure enough he was backing up like he was going to try and kick the door.

“Do you see how thick that thing is? The indent, here?” Steve sassed, pointing towards the giant dent slightly off center, where the door bowed inwards. “I’m pretty sure Jeff wasn’t the one who did that. These things are built to hold, man.”

“Ah but you’ve seen Jeffery's legs. Our beloved new cleric should stick to punching things, he’s not made for kicking.” Eddie said, tongue peaking out of his mouth as he sized up the door.

An odd, low chittering caught Gareth’s attention, the noise like nails on a chalkboard as the older teens continued to argue.

“Have you seen yourself?” Steve asked point blank, hip cocked and bitch mode on. “You aren’t either.”

“Don’t be mean, Steven, just because I don’t have jock muscles--”

The chittering got louder, and Gareth found himself taking a few steps away from his friends, in the opposite direction of the stairs as he tried to figure out where the fuck it was coming from.

A light at the farthest end of the long hallway gave out, barely noticeable. unless one was looking for it. Gareth hadn't even internalized the hallway had lighting, he'd been too busying with everything else--but it did.

Likely the place had a backup generator, but that didn't explain why the lights in this hallway were on--and now, suddenly, giving out.

'Maybe the kids did it...?' He thought, still trying to figure out why the chittering sounded like it was getting closer.

“You’re going to break your leg.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you need to believe in people more Stevie? Have some faith?”

“I have faith that you’re face is about to hit the floor, does that count?”

Another light failed, giving the appearance of the hallway warping. Not all of it, just one weird wall, that seemed to stretch like something was trying to break out.

"Okay but if I kick the door and it busts in, you owe me ten bucks."

"If you kick the door down not only will I give you ten bucks, Eddie, I'll go see that stupid new movie you won't shut up about with you."

"Oh we'll be seeing Fright Night with or without my door busting talents--"

Another light, out, and now Gareth could see a shape taking form. Later he'd swear it had actually, crawled out from the wall.

(Later, he'd find out the Upside Down creatures had a habit of doing that.)

He thought it was a tiger at first.

It has the same overall shape--long body with muscular shoulders, head low as it prowled forward.

Except the tail curled up over its back, hanging like a scorpion’s and its face…

It took a second for Gareth to make sense of what he was seeing.

The huge, oddly shaped bulb, like a flower’s before it unfurled.

Thick liquid drooled out from red tinged edges, dripping onto the floor. It was too far away to hear, but Gareth imagined the little plinks of noise it made anyway.

"Guys." He said, voice pitched impossibly high.

The Not-Tiger stepped further into the light, revealing it to be hairless.

Its skin was flecked red and grotesquely gray, with odd, thick folds of flesh hanging off its sides. Those pieces moved in weird little jerks and flutters, almost like another appendage entirely.

Another step forward, the weird, folded pieces of skin moving out and out and out on either side of it, hitching up in a U shape and oh, God.

They were wings.

'Lion body, scorpion tail, dragon wings.' A far off part of Gareth identified. 'It's missing the human face, but otherwise that's pretty dead on for a--"

"Manticore!" Gareth screamed, right as the things head split open into five petals filled with rows of fangs.

It screamed right back, then lunged at him, claws and teeth and tail all extending to attack.

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whxre-snape · 3 years

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@snapewrld

The Answers to your wonderful questions😌💙💜

1) Would he ever settle down?

No, I don't think he'll ever settle down. He's pretty content with the life he's living.

2) Who would he end up settling down with?

If he ever did settle down with someone, he'd pick someone kind and sweet. Maybe he'll start an actual relationship with Xenophilius & Pandora.

3) Was he ever a stripper? (he could have definitely been the next Magic Mike💀 "Now welcoming to the stage The Half-blood Prince")

Severus has an account on one of those expensive live pxrn wedcam sites. There he strips and does other things, he doesn't wanna be around drunk people. He does what he can to stay safe.

4) Does he sleep with older men and women because he thinks that they would have more respect for him and his body or does Sev have a Daddy/Mommy kink?

Sort of, Severus doesn't really care about a person's age so long as they're of age. If they aren't then he won't spare you a second glance. He may be a whore but he has rules that he and anyone who wants to be with him have to follow, otherwise you're out of luck. He's very careful on who he sleeps with. Also he does infact have a daddy/mommy kink.

5) Does he do make-up designs?

Severus does do make-up designs. He learned how to use make up from some older girls back in cokeworth. He's been practicing how to create gorgeous designs ever since.

6) Does he make his own clothes/trends? (He's probably a thrift shopper huh?)

I like the idea that Severus was taught how to sew by his mother, so I would say that he does I'm fact make his own clothes but not all the time. The rest of his clothes is bought from small businesses. He does sell some of the clothes he makes for a very cheap price and does make custom clothing for also a cheap price.

7) How does he sleep? Naked, In Underwear, a Nightgown, Short-Shorts and a tank top maybe, or full Pajamas?

Severus sleeps in a large loose shirt and shorts. He use to sleep naked but Regulus once barged into his room after having another nightmare and asked to sleep in his bed that night. Since then he no longer sleeps naked seeing as Regulus still gets nightmares but not as much as before.

8) How does he like his coffee? Iced, Frozen, Hot, Creamed, or does he just eat coffee beans straight from the bag like a sleep deprived monster?

He's addicted to all types of coffee, mostly iced coffee.

9) Any Pets? Cats? Dogs?

He's has 2 cats, several fishes, 2 owls, 1 snake, and 3 dogs that are very well trained to attack intruders without making a single sound.

10) Babysitting? Does he babysit Draco on his days off?

Severus always baby-sits Draco and he baby-sits Luna as well. He loves them both and he treats them as if they're his own kids.

11) Does he scold Regulus for fighting other kids at school? (Kids are mean they probably make fun of Regulus because of Sev's profession)

You best believe that Severus scolds Regulus for getting into fights. Severus is upset but he understands why, so he does what he can to get Regulus to control his emotions and how to make snarky comebacks to burn his enemies

12) Alcohol, Cigarettes, or Weed?

Severus drinks the finest of wines, something his clients gift him. Sometimes on dates he'll drink whatever alcohol they offer him but only after he checks to see if it's safe. Severus doesn't smoke a lot but he does from time to time. Sometimes he, Regulus, and Barty smoke together up on the roof of their house. Severus only smokes weed whenever he has an extremely stressful day.

13) Would Sev rub it in Sirius' face that he slept with his mom/dad (maybe both lol), adopted his brother, and has an unlimited amount of money at his disposal?

He does, he really does. Severus seduced Orion and blackmailed him into giving him custody over Regulus. Eventually word got out and Walburga was furious about it but Regulus was all but thrilled cause hey he no longer has to live with them. Everytime Sirius insults Severus about being a whore, Sev would simply take out a few gold galleons toss them at Sirius and say "Here now you can afford to breathe in my direction" and then walk away like the bad bitch he is.

14) How would the Hogwarts Staff during the Marauders Era react to this new Severus?

They would be shocked as hell, and a little concerned but they wouldn't interfere.

15) Would Severus go back to Hogwarts for Regulus and Barty's career day? Would he get up and speak? Omg would he arrive late and with style or early and just observe?

Ah yes career day. The headmaster would ask Severus to come speak about his profession in potions. Severus of course agrees and once he sets foot on the stage people are confused. Why? Because of his appearance. He has ripped black skinny jeans, a black tank top along with a loose dark purple crop top with the word prince written on it in dark blue, combat boots, he has a double ringed overlap piercing on his lip, chained earrings and some ear piercings, his has a few tattoos on his body, and his hair is up in a bun which is being held by his wand.

He then proceeds to talk about his experience at Hogwarts and everything he does. He talks about being a Potions master, a crafter of clothing, a whore but he doesn't say much, and of being a care giver. He talks about his home life and how he became the very person he is now, he also speaks about how the school didn't do well in protecting him and why he took matters into his own hands. The Professors and Headmaster try to get him to stop, but it's of no use. He's an expert in wandless and wordless magic so all their attempts are useless and he speaks every word with pride. By the end of it everyone cheers and Severus simply stares at the Headmaster and gives him the finger before leaving.

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ducktracy · 4 years

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111. buddy the gee man (1935)

release date: august 24th, 1935

series: looney tunes

director: jack king

starring: billy bletcher (jail warden, prisoners, machine gun mike), jackie morrow (buddy)

23 cartoons. 5 dogs. 3 designs. 3 girlfriend designs. 3 years. 2 voice actors. buddy’s legacy comes to a close with buddy the gee man, and what an unmemorable ride it’s been. i don’t hate him as much as i thought i would have, but i don’t nearly like him as much as i would have liked to. some cartoons he’s more insufferable than others (though jackie morrow is cute and does a good voice performance for him, i find something about the voice very unfitting and annoying. maybe i just hate hearing buddy say stuff like “blow your nosey” or speaking in rhyme.) buddy bids us farewell as he works as an undercover detective, investigating happenings at the local sing song prison.

a shot of a door labeled department of justice. a man possesses a letter, which we see is addressed to buddy — “federal agent buddy, 000 1/2 cornbread ave., kansas city, MO” (we know where he lives, boys, let’s get ‘im!). the man deposits the letter into the mail chute, and sure enough buddy opens it up. he’s being sent to conduct a “secret investigation” on the warden at the local sing song prison, investigating the warden’s treatment towards the prisoners. buddy inconspicuously dons the perfect disguise—a mustache. genius! no one will ever know!

buddy dons his trademark captain’s hat as he prepares to embark on his journey. he pulls out a horseshoe in his pocket (which has a nail through one of the pegs, already a lucky sign) and tosses it for luck. luck is promising as the horseshoe shatters a mirror behind him. didn’t your mother ever tell you not to throw horseshoes in the house? flummoxed, buddy scratches his head and shrugs.

what’s an adventure without a faithful dog companion? buddy enlists in his dog gee-man (i’m just going to call him his dog LOL) for help, who’s conveniently donning a sherlock hat and pipe. buddy whispers in his ear, the dog perking up instantly.

a crowd congregates in town as a sea of voices clash against each other. buddy and his dog use a matryoshka of people lined together as stairs to hop straight into the crowd (reused from buddy the gob). elsewhere, a pig asks a hurried frog “what’s all the excitement?” the frog answers “they’re taking machine gun mike to sing song prison!” the voice acting is so bad it’s good. mel’s absence is sorely missed. 2 more years!

we then get a shot of machine gun mike, who’s getting hauled away by the police. aggravated by the attention, he yells at the crowd in an attempt to scare them off. buddy and his dog hitch a ride on the back of the police car, the car exploding a plume of exhaust on a man peeking out from a manhole.

at the prison, a guard is asleep in his lookout tower. he snaps awake once a motorcade of motorcycles escort the convict. buddy and his dog make it safely into the jail.

buddy’s dog sniffs the ground while buddy creeps around, the dynamic duo halting at a door. the door is emblazoned “OTTO B. KINDER — WARDEN”. curious, buddy pokes his head inside the office. the warden paces around his office, scowling. seems his name is prophetic.

some nice music making merriment as a gaggle of prisoners sing “lulu’s back in town” in harmony, because why not? the jail warden is infuriated, slamming his fist down on his desk. instead he sends a tray of papers flying onto his head. he then marches over to the prisoners, shouting at them to be quiet. a lovely billy bletcher bellow. seeing as the prison is literally called sing song prison... 🤔🤔🤔🤔. buddy and his faithful companion observe, buddy scribbling down some notes.

elsewhere, one of the prisoners gossips with machine gun mike, holding out a letter and sneering “get a load of this.” a love letter. machine gun mike grunts “not bad.” a prison guard marches towards the cells, carrying a harpoon gun. at the tip of the harpoon point is a letter, which he gingerly bestowed upon machine gun mike. mike snatches it up. it reads:

“in omitting top name, send that person ten cents (10¢) as a charity donation—is this worth a dime?”

the other jailbird laughs, while mike crumples the letter up and throws it to the ground. overhearing the obnoxious laugh of the prisoner, the warden stalks back to the cells and orders the prisoner to be quiet—billy bletcher shutting up billy bletcher. buddy dutifully jots down more notes. the warden hates singing AND laughing.

in the courtyard, a prisoner slacks off and dinkily taps a rock he’s supposed to be breaking. the warden chews him out, handing him a bigger mallet and demanding he get to work. dutifully, the prisoner swings the mallet behind his head, anticipating a great swing. the mallet smacks the warden in the head and his head sinks into his jacket, a lovely visual as his head pops out of his stomach area, yelling “what’s the idea?” buddy and his pal take more notes, gee-man writing the notes with his tail instead.

machine gun mike plans a not so subtle escape. he stuffs his ball and chain into a cannon, hoping the fire of the cannon will propel him out of the prison. he anticipates the ride... nothing. instead, the CANNON flies backwards. the warden busts mike and snarls “get to work!”

satisfied with his observations, buddy heads to the typewriter to transcribe his report. it reads:

24 pennsylvania ave.

washington, d.c.

dear chief:

inspection completed. recommend change in warden. have some new ideas how prison should be run.

buddy.

time marches on, and a newspaper headline zooms into view, declaring buddy as the new warden of the jail. “BUDDY MADE WARDEN! local boy makes good”

sure enough, buddy greets a receptive crowd of prisoners, asking “is everybody happy?” in the style of ted lewis. the prisoners cheer in unison. quite a turnaround in atmosphere! a shot of the happy go lucky jail—including a few prisoners whacking the old warden on the head with some mallets. corny as that is, i can’t help but love it. buddy even serves ICE CREAM to the prisoners. i suppose that’s what happens when you put a boy in charge of a prison unit, a very funny concept.

the happy prisoners sing while carrying their ice cream, one prisoner receives a shoe shine as buddy offers him a cigar. elsewhere, a man carrying a letter inquired for machine gun mike. he asks two happy prisoners—the sound of a machine gun answers the postman’s question as the prisoners answer “machine gun mike.”

a great, incongruous setup as the machine gun sound is actually revealed to be a jackhammer. machine gun mike blows a cloud of cigar smoke in the face of the hapless mailman, snatching his letter. the letter pardons machine gun mike from his parole, signed by hans cuff. i love my puns, but they definitely feel a bit TOO coy. there are many more clever puns in the looney tunes universe. funnily enough, mike lights the letter with his cigar and continues with his jackhammering.

one last shot of the sleeping jail guard in the lookout tower. he awakens as a crowd barrels through the gates. they all want a slice of buddy’s prison heaven. free ice cream, cigars, shoe shines... who wouldn’t want to be there? buddy pops up over the gate and displays a sign that says “NO VACANCIES”. we iris out one last time on our hero, who takes off his hat and waves it to the crowd.

another “second watch saved my opinion” short. first time i watched this, i found it incoherent and difficult to understand. i think i was so distracted thinking about how this was buddy’s last appearance that i didn’t focus much on the details. it wasn’t bad, though! i think there are definitely worse shorts buddy could have ended his career on. the prisoners were very entertaining and had much more personality than buddy did—the warden and machine gun mike were especially entertaining. nothing too funny, and the puns felt a bit overboard at times, but the animation was decent—i did like the gag of the warden popping his head out of his shirt buttons to yell at one of the prisoners. an above average cartoon that may be worth a watch, just for how absurdly silly it is.

and now, onto buddy. what to say about him? he was definitely as mediocre as i had expected, maybe even moreso. i think jack king had the best repertoire of buddy cartoons. it was interesting to see how buddy progressed, especially thinking of how far we’ve come since buddy’s day out and buddy’s beer garden. i liked buddy’s final design the best—at first i had really liked tom palmer’s design in buddy’s day out, but i think his final design is more suitable, especially for the adventurer persona he adopted later on. jack carr’s voice for buddy fit him better than jackie morrow’s. nothing against jackie, who was a literal child while voicing him. i love that! but i think jack carr’s voice was a good balance between youthful adult and child, like his appearance. buddy definitely came off as more of a child in his last handful of shorts, and was thusly more annoying. i never particularly liked buddy, and sometimes he annoyed me much more than other times, but... his cartoons all blend together. i can’t really discern a particular favorite, and the fact that he only has 23 cartoons amazes me. it felt like 230! however, if anything, he’s intriguing for historical purposes. i can say i’ve seen every buddy cartoon so you don’t have to! beans will take over for his 11 cartoons of fame, tex avery will come into play, and our favorite stuttering porcine will climb up the rungs and really make a splash as 1936 goes on.

that’s all, buddy!

link!

#lt #buddy the gee man #reviews #long post

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giveamadeuschohisownmovie · 7 years

Text

Hypothetical Stranger Things season 3 premiere plot outline

Just for fun, I thought I’d stretch out my writing muscles and write out my version of the season three premiere. Hopefully, this makes for an entertaining read!

Season 3 is set in 1985 but the opening scene will be a flashback to the moment Eleven opened the gate to the Upside Down. She escapes while most of the staff is killed by the Demogorgon. After the initial wreckage, a man walks through the gate. This is the Crooked Man, a new main character and one of the main antagonists of the season. He serves the Mind Flayer and his goal is to reopen the gate. The Crooked Man walks away from the building and into the night. In my head, I had Edward James Olmos portraying this character.

We then cut to present day.

Eleven, now going by the name “Jane Hopper”, is at her first day of school. She expects to be picked on for hanging out with Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, and Max. However, the complete opposite happens. Unintentionally, she makes friends with the popular crowd and Troy the bully develops a crush on her, much to Mike’s chagrin.

Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve are getting ready for their last year of high school, with Nancy getting an acceptance letter for UC Berkeley (chose that because I went there lol). Jonathan pursues professional photography while Steve is aimless, unsure of his future. We get some backstory and learn that Steve’s father died in the Vietnam War, which leads to him thinking about joining the military in order to honor his father’s name.

Hopper and Joyce have been regularly hanging out, mainly because Joyce feels that Jane needs a maternal figure in her life. Yes, this is the season where they get together.

Going back to the AV club, Mike and Jane are still going strong, as well as Lucas and Max. Dustin, having been rejected by every girl at the Snow Ball, is a bit down when we first see him mainly due to jealousy. He doesn’t hate Mike and Lucas but he wishes he was in a relationship. This leads to the introduction of one of our new main characters, Quinn Chen.

Quinn’s family moved to Hawkins from New York City. To contrast Jane and Max, Quinn is very much a “popular girl” type. Outgoing, easy to talk to, always has a group of people following and praising her, and always knows what the current trends are. Her family is wealthier than the typical Hawkins family, which is something that Will immediately notices. In my head, I had Lily Chee portraying this character (she played young Elektra in DD season two).

Quinn rejects Dustin at first due to his “nerd” status until two things happen. One, he makes her laugh, which she says she needed. Two, he discovers she’s secretly a huge nerd who has Star Wars and Doctor Who merchandise in her locker. Dustin invites her to join the group, which she accepts. Everyone is initially wary of Quinn since they view her as the “vapid rich popular girl” except for Jane since she’s just happy to make another female friend.

(This part is past the season premiere: If it’s not obvious, Quinn and Dustin are gonna get together in the season finale. The TWIST though is we find out that Quinn’s family is part of a larger cult that worships the Mind Flayer. Turns out, the Mind Flayer has been trying to reach Earth for centuries and has its own group of followers. Eleven opening the gate was the closest that the Mind Flayer got to succeeding in its goal. Quinn’s family moved to Hawkins when they find out about what happened in seasons one and two. Now, although Quinn’s family worships the monster, Quinn does NOT. In fact, she immediately turns on her family the moment she discovers the truth).

The action begins when we cut to Billy Hargrove, who has toned down his bullying after losing to his sister. Billy, while driving around, encounters the Crooked Man in the middle of the road. The Crooked Man destroys Billy’s car and asks him, “What happened to the gate?”

Billy says, “What the hell are you talking about?” which leads to the Crooked Man breaking one of Billy’s legs. Before the Crooked Man can finish the job, we’re introduced to another new main character, Adam. Adam whips a chain at the Crooked Man, hurting him. The Crooked Man disappears into a puff of smoke and Adam runs over to help Billy. In my head, Adam is portrayed by Steven Yeun.

Mad Max and the rest of the gang rush over to the hospital when they learn about what happened to Billy. Billy tells them about a strange man who destroyed his car with his mind. Mike pulls Jane to the side and says, “Guy with mind powers, you think he’s one of Brenner’s?”

Jane says, “Could be. I told you about Kali. There’s still nine others that we haven’t met and we’re not even sure I’m the last one!”

Meanwhile, Hopper confronts Adam. Before Hopper can ask any questions, Adam says, “I know what happened here. The gate to the other world was opened.”

Hopper, stunned, says, “How do you know?”

Adam then says, “Because it’s my job to make sure the portal stays shut.” Without going into too much detail, Adam explains that he’s one of many who oppose the Mind Flayer. The only reason why he didn’t know about what was happening in Hawkins is because Jane opened the gate accidentally. He’s only been focusing on actual attempts to breach the Mind Flayer’s world.

Adam threatens violence if Jane ever opens the gate again (“I’ll burn this town to the ground if she even attempts to open the gate again”). Before Hopper can say anything, Adam disappears. We’ll see more of him in the rest of the season.

As the day comes to an end, we cut to Steve Harrington’s home. He’s gotten over his breakup with Nancy and decides that he’ll enlist in the Marines in order to get away from Hawkins. Suddenly, his house is attacked by the Crooked Man! The Crooked Man holds Steve by the neck and demands that he tell him how “they” opened the gate. Steve says he doesn’t know and the Crooked Man tosses Steve out the window, knocking him out.

Jane is alerted to the commotion when Hopper gets an urgent call to respond to the situation. Hopper heads out but tells Jane to stay put. She disobeys and gets on her bike, following closely behind.

The police have cornered the Crooked Man. In one of the more violent scenes of the show, the Crooked Man proceeds to decimate the officers. Hopper arrives as this is happening and begins firing at the Crooked Man, doing no damage. El then arrives and she blasts the Crooked Man with her mind. The Crooked Man, remembering that El was the one who sealed the gate, grabs her and disappears. Hopper screams into the night when he realizes that El is nowhere to be found.

We then cut to the Byers family home. There is a knock on the door and Joyce answers it. The episode ends with Joyce meeting the last of our new main characters. He introduces himself as Seth Ives, Jane’s biological father, and that he wants his daughter back. In my head, I had David Tennant portraying Seth.

So for the rest of the season, our main arcs / subplots will be:

1) The whole gang versus the Crooked Man (Jane doesn’t stay kidnapped for too long. I actually pictured her escaping the Crooked Man in the next episode)

2) Dustin and Quinn romance, which will lead to Quinn’s family revealing themselves as followers of the Mind Flayer. Quinn’s family are the secondary main antagonists.

3) Adam reluctantly working with Team Hawkins when he realizes they have similar goals. Adam is a bit like the Punisher since despite having noble intentions, his attitude and methods make him a threat. Adam frequently butts heads with Hopper and Joyce, who think he is too extreme.

4) Seth Ives vs. Jim Hopper over guardianship of Jane / El. Seth is revealed to be one of Brenner’s former lab partners before they split due to Brenner’s lack of ethics. Seth had gone into hiding after Brenner threatened his life, that’s why he’s been MIA.

5) Billy recovering in the hospital and somewhat redeeming himself. His quest for vengeance against the Crooked Man leads to him forming a temporary alliance with Team Hawkins.

6) Steve wondering about his place in Hawkins and if he should stay or go

7) The AV club recruiting Kali and her gang in the fight against the Crooked Man.

8) Dr. Brenner’s return. He issues an order for the termination of all of his experiments, namely Kali and El. He also orders Seth’s assassination in order to tie up any remaining loose ends.

#stranger things #mike wheeler #eleven #Steve Harrington #jim hopper #joyce byers #Billy Hargrove #dustin henderson #will byers #lucas sinclair #jonathan byers #Nancy Wheeler #dr. martin brenner #kali #eight #jane hopper #stranger things 2 #st2 #mind flayer

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