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[demogorgongotme]

[Leave notes at the new and improved Fort Byerson.]

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For asking about the Carnival!

[nocollarbones]

WILL
DO YOU WANNA GO ON A DOUBLE DATE!?
BECAUSE GUESS WHO I JUST SET UP!?

[ He's so proud of himself. ]

[demogorgongotme]

[He can hear that capslock, Dustin.]

A what now?
Who??

[nocollarbones]

A date to the carnival that's going to be around like the next town over?

Steve and...

drumroll please...

...

...

EDDIE MUNSON!

[demogorgongotme]

You set up Steve and Eddie?


We're going on a double date with Steve and Eddie?

[nocollarbones]

STEVE AND EDDIE
They both have been really weird about things and I was talking with Eddie
Aaaaand he admitted to having a thing for Steve so I
WITH EDDIE'S PERMISSION
Went and talked to Steve about if he'd be interested in dating a guy
Didn't say who until I was sure he wasn't going to freak out and possibly hurt Eddie
Not that I think Steve would, ya know?
Anyways, they both don't think they are the others type and it's incredibly dumb
But in like...a cute way?
Steve came up with the idea of going to a carnival that's coming up
It'll be perfect because no one will know any of us there
And no one will question Steve and Eddie hanging out!

[justtalktome]

[ Lucas spends a lot of his time - most of it, to his mother's dismay - during his quick trip home at the record store with Max. It's not that he doesn't want to spend time with his family, he has missed them, even Erica to an extent, but he made the early November trip home specifically for Max's birthday. And even if they'd called it quits before he left for college, it doesn't change the fact that he'd rather be balancing on a folding chair in the corner of the store arguing about music, or anything, with her than anywhere else.

When Will appears halfway through her shift Lucas is glad to see him, giving him a big smile and a wave. He tries not to overthink if he should get up and hug him, considering they haven't talked but maybe once or twice since he's left town, but easily gets to his feet and gives him a half hug and pat on the back in greeting. ] Hey, Will!

[ He had planned on seeing him at Max's birthday party and maybe swinging by to see if he was available to hang out if he overstayed his welcome at the record store, but now that he's here he belatedly thinks he should've told him he was coming. Max moves to answer the phone at the front counter and they're left alone. ] It's good to see you. You look good.

[demogorgongotme]

[Will spends maybe a little too much time here, if he's perfectly honest, but it's one of the few places he still has in town that he really feels like he belongs. He likes being with Max even when she's not able to talk, thanks to actually needing to do the 'work' part of having a job, and it's great more or less having first dibs on some of the harder to find records. She'd even managed to get him a discount on a new pair of over-ear headphones better than those that his brother had. His mother had been a little frustrated over that, considering how much time he spent wearing them when he was at home and painting with his music cranked up loud enough that she had to actually wave for his attention.

At least here he doesn't tend to deafen himself to his surroundings, even getting a little hypervigilant if he's been particularly stressed out. So he notices almost instantly when it's Lucas that stops by, and he barely hesitates before lighting up and immediately wrapping his arms fully around his friend. Unlike Mike, there's no weirdness here. Maybe a touch of disappointment in how distant they had become.]

Me? Look at you, you're a jock now? [He can't help but tease a little bit. Lucas had been as twiggy as him, at one point. Taller. Now it's Will that's standing at least a few inches taller than all of them save for Mike, having shot up like a weed in spring.]

[justtalktome]

Technically, though I've been on the bench all season.

[ Still, the basketball scholarship had helped pay for college and meant there was more money for Erica's college education. Which was a good thing, because he doesn't want to think about the schemes she'd get up to if she had to raise 50k for four years of college.

He is in the best shape of his life, though, thanks to never-ending practice and drills. Sometimes when he looks in the mirror, he doesn't recognize himself. ] How have you been?

[ It feels weird that he has to ask when they all used to be in constant contact, but he hasn't been as good as he should've been about calling or writing.]

[demogorgongotme]

[Even if he hadn't been subjected to Erica as much as the others had been, he'd heard the stories. Lucas was prone to exaggeration, sure, but that didn't mean that he wasn't right about how conniving and intelligent his little sister was.

At least Lucas is still recognizable after how much all of them have grown up. Will bears almost no resemblance to the tiny child he was even just four years ago. It makes him feel a little better when it comes to trying to reconnect and actually keep eachother abreast of the situation now that it wasn't all monsters and trauma.]

We're all moved back in now actually. Everything's put away and we actually have more space now. It's so much nicer. I was able to set up a turntable and everything.

[Something he's actually pretty stoked about, considering that in the old house there was never enough room and his space was cluttered enough as it was with everything from the rest of his hobbies.]

What about you, how long are you home for?

[justtalktome]

That's great, man. [ He's glad that Will is back in Hawkins, even if he knows that can't exactly be the easiest thing for him. Still, they're adults now and he figures if Will didn't want to be there he would go somewhere else. ] I hope Max is giving you the friends and family discount.

Just the weekend, this time. I came down for Max's birthday and then I'll be back in two weeks for Thanksgiving. [ It was tough to swing, but worth it for the look on Max's face when he'd walked into the record shop and actually managed to surprise her. ] I heard the parents are thinking about getting everyone together for one huge Thanksgiving. You and Jonathan going to be there?

[nocollarbones]

WILL
I need you to come to the fort ASAP
I have a surprise!

[demogorgongotme]

Why what happened
Are you ok?

[nocollarbones]

yeah I'm fine
I just have a surprise for you
It can't wait
Pleeaaaasssseeee

[demogorgongotme]

Dude
Everyone else ditched us
You're really not going to tell me what you're up to?

[nocollarbones]

If I told you it wouldn't be a surprised!
Just trust me!
It'll be just us and I promise you'll like it!

[fromhellfire]

[ Mike has learned a lot about romance and how it’s not just about big gestures, but also it’s Valentines Day, so he even risked ridicule asking for Max to help, she laughed at him but agreed and left after a weekend in Chicago (to see Andy and a gig in a bar, not him, she had insisted) with the handwritten card to drop in at the florist which means a decent sized (not huge because he has a feeling huge would just be embarrassing) bouquet of yellow and orange roses (red is overdone, also he forgot he might need to sort it out in January so they wouldn’t be out of stock), will be delivered to the Byers house in the morning of the 14th because if he can’t be a sap on Valentines Day then when?
The card itself reads; ]

Happy Valentines Day
Sorry I can’t be there until next week
I love you
Mike

[ He’ll call later, if Will doesn’t manage to first ]

[demogorgongotme]

He and Mike haven't talked much lately. They're both busy, Mike has school and Will has the funeral home, and things have been...kind of tense, even after they'd tried to make it up to one another, stepping all over each others' feelings every alternate turn. He's starting to think that maybe they were just quietly breaking up over an extended period of time and trying to keep himself occupied until they finally broke and actually had that talk as well.

The card sort of shocks him, but not nearly as much as the bouquet does. He had been about to make himself some breakfast before checking his schedule for the day, until he's been alerted to the flowers sitting on the kitchen counter after they'd been brought in by the first person to leave the house that day. He...hadn't actually realized the date until now.

He has complicated feelings about this, most of it manifesting as a heart-gripping sort of anxiety that makes him feel like he's somehow fucking up by not knowing how he should be responding. He sort of wants to call at least so that Mike knows that he got the roses. The flowers end up with their ends trimmed a bit and lightly sugared water to extend their lifetime in a heavy little secondhand vase sitting on top of his dresser next to his favorite minis.

So he does, though he fully expects to only get the answering machine, or perhaps Andy on the other end.

[fromhellfire]

Mike already decided sat in Max’s Fortress Of Solitude, which was actually just a blanket fort she’d built to sulk over her attempt at getting Lucas back blowing up in her face in, that if they were breaking up he wasn’t going to be the one who did it. He knows damn well the whole thing is on life support but he can’t fix it overnight and he’s not willing to pull the plug either. So he’d asked for Maxs advice, she’d told him through handfuls of M&Ms that she wasn’t the person he should be asking because she ruins everything she touches, then she cried, then they both agreed that maybe instead of fixing things by sticking bandaids all over them it was about time they fixed themselves instead.

It’s one of the reasons he’s been so busy, he thoroughly resented calling Owens at first, fumed over it even. But therapy is actually kinda helping, even if it does mean a lot of picking things open that are held together with glue rather than healed and then having to deal with them being open again. It’s hard is the point, really, really hard. And then he did the no alcohol January challenge with Andy and he can officially say he hasn’t been drunk since New Years Eve so there’s that. Because if this shit is what he has to haul himself through, the metaphorical hot coals he has to crawl over, to make things work out, then he’s going to at least try.

And all the school work he just… didn’t do has to be done. And he has until May to rectify it so he doesn’t have to redo first year, his parents will actually murder him if he fails. If they don’t murder each other first. Divorce seems to be looming harder than ever.

There are no less than six pens stuck in his messy bun and when he jumps to answer the phone all of his books that had been stacked precariously on the bed go crashing to the floor. Working at the desk would be smart but he’s not always smart.

“Hi,” he says when he picks up and then thinks about how Andy basically moved into his dorm following a post Christmas bust up with Diana. “Mike speaking.”

[demogorgongotme]

Will has been stuck for a long while in the impression that nothing that was wrong with him could be fixed. Therapy with Owens hadn't done as much as any of them hoped, and he's remained convinced every step of the way that everything was going to continue to be his fault. He entrenched himself in his work as much to earn everything back that he needed for college as to sequester himself away from the rest of them so that he couldn't hurt them and likewise nobody else would have to deal with him. Mike deserved better than him; the feelings he'd harbored for a decade would have to be shoved way down in a box and not acknowledged in any meaningful way ever again.

He hasn't actually admitted any of this to anyone else. Not even Dustin. Not even his brother. While Mike is making strides toward self-improvement, Will is tired of trying anymore.

It doesn't stop him from trying to at least keep some line of communication though, because in spite of it all he still values his friendship with Mike, and the gesture is lovely and thoughtful and he really likes the flowers themselves. The orange and yellow look really nice!

There's a second that he can't speak when Mike answers, sounding a little out of breath from launching himself at the phone. He manages after a moment, though he has to clear his throat to make his voice work again.

"Happy Valentine's day..."

[fromhellfire]

“Oh, hey,” Fuck. He’s been turning over what to say in his head for the last few hours and nothing seems good enough. Like when he wrote and rewrote what he was going to put in the card for so long Max got sick of waiting and roped Andy into pelting him with marshmallows because they wanted to go get dinner and not wait for him all night.

It might seem like strides on the outside but it feels like baby steps while he waits for it to all implode again. But that’s fatalism and he’s received a thorough dressing down for that from the therapist so he’s trying to learn to stop it before it overwhelms him and gives him an excuse to make stupid choices that he’s not proud of.

“I uh… I wasn’t really sure if I should do anything but…” but he’d been bullied into just taking the plunge. “I didn’t want you to think I was silently dumping you again or something.” And okay he’s not convinced Will hasn’t done just that to him instead but he’s trying to follow the request to stop assuming things if Will hasn’t actually said them. “And it’s Valentines Day, so yeah… happy that.”

It never used to be this awkward but he had never had to sit with two years of fear that he was about to lose the person who mattered most only to end up reflexively pushing him away to try and get rid of it then. He’s got making up to do and facing it for a third horrible time was a big enough push to decide to put in the work instead.

“Also I’m coming over on Friday, to Hawkins, not to drop in on you unannounced or something, but I’ll be staying with Eddie and Steve because my parents house is a fucking warzone.”

Russian Invasion ft @tretijrebenok

[demogorgongotme]

Will can barely hear the sound of the rain over the high-pitched whine in his ears. He hadn't stopped since leaving Mike's house, giving up on riding his bike and running it through Mirkwood as the downpour soaked him through. He could barely breathe around the wrenching sobs, and rather than going straight home to lock himself in his room to shut himself away and almost certainly scare his mother half to death, Will detours, headed straight to the fort that he and his brother had constructed when he'd desperately needed somewhere safe to be in the wake of everything happening with their father.

He's struck in the moment that he makes his way there that he doesn't want to be the person that he was now anymore. He wants to destroy everything that makes him what he is, that makes his friends not see him like a person anymore. He wants to tear it all down and disappear.

The first thick branches are hard to pull away from the structure. He yells hoarsely, still in tears as he yanks at the sodden wood, and at first, he doesn't notice anyone else around. He's too caught up in his own pain to register the slender shape between the dark tree trunks that watches him with wide yellow glass eyes under a curtain of tangled hair. After all, there are no footsteps to be heard to distract him.

The bat in Castle Byers is raised at the sign he and Jonathan had painted. It's on the upswing that Will finally spots the lurking figure. He yelps, and falls back on his ass in the drenched leaf litter. He hadn't gotten any sense of warning that he wasn't alone here...

[tretijrebenok]

Along with all their technology the Russians had something else hidden under Starcourt Mall. Something that no one would ever expect.

A child.

A child with powers even.

Granted this child's powers were not the same as what Brenner had managed to distill from Henry, instead they were powers that the young boy had been born with. Powers that he had used to escape his cell under Starcourt and proceeded to explore the small town. Small but not as small as his village...and there was so much. So much color, more than he was used to seeing at least.

He had been enjoying the lack of STRONG emotions trying to worm their way past his mask as he wandered the calm little American town. At least until he felt a strong emotion that hit him differently.

Pain.

And not the physical pain, though it still hurt in the same way...it wasn't the feeling of being in pain in the physical sense. It was a raw emotional pain that called to him, reminding him of flames and screaming. Of the fear. Fear of someone who was supposed to love him. Familiar.

When he stumbled across the other child at first Tretij is afraid, he hadn't interacted with another kid in so long. Not since he lived in his village with his father. Not since he watched all of it burn to the ground. But that fear is slowly melted by the familiar pain and sadness until instead he's curious. Only for that curiosity to be stabbed through with a sharp rage that burst from Will as he tries to rip the large branches off the fort. Rage that is gone as suddenly as it was there and replaced with....surprise and the barest inkling of fear. There's something else. Something that Tretij recognizes but can't quite pinpoint. Something that he had sensed in town as well.

Realizing that those big brown eyes were locked onto him Tretij went still before suddenly ducking behind the tree. He hadn't even realized he had allowed the other to see him. Not just allowed him to...it was like the Man on Fire....and the man with the spike in his head. It was a connection, but it felt different. He felt the weight some something new but....he still felt in control.

Peeking out from behind the tree Tretij raised a hand slowly before pulling it back close as he pressed himself nearer to the tree. Ready to brace himself to disappear at a moments notice.

[demogorgongotme]

Will, still heartbroken and angry, picked himself up off the ground and carefully gripped the handle of the bat as he watches the black-clad shape slink behind the nearest tree, and then it hits him: the other is small, like he is. Just another kid. His grip slackens almost immediately, and he not only lowers the bat, he puts it down entirely.

Do you wanna be my friend? his memory supplies, the gentle question from one small child to another echoing in Tretij's mind. Will doesn't even know he's sharing the memory.

"Hello?" He calls out tentatively, his voice still shaky and somewhat lost in the rain.

[tretijrebenok]

The memory is a flash but Tretij knows it immediately. He's had friends before, before and after the fire but not in a long time. Still he remembers what it was like.

He doesn't quite understand the word the boy says but feels the sentiment. He peeks out more, beginning to push away from the tree slowly.

[Privet?]

For Will it almost feels like his own thoughts...but they aren't in his voice. The voice is softer, timid, and it is most definitely not in English.

[demogorgongotme]

Will doesn't understand the word murmured into his mind, but his eyes grow even bigger as he watches the figure peeking further out from behind the tree. The mask is intimidating, sure, but nothing else about the boy is, at least to him. The sadness is still there, lurking under every other bewildered, curious thought, but nothing in him is pushing Tretij in any way.

There is, however, another question on his mind, a less easily verbalized are you a monster? accompanied by flashes of the terrible creatures from the Upside Down. He's slowly approaching, expression wary. It's clear that he's been through a lot, seen too much, but he's still kind. Still every bit his mother's son.