Fuck the Trauma Bond
A Lucas and the Party version of this
…
Lucas was bouncing the ball on the pavement of the basketball court at the playground. It was surrounded by high chain-link fences and the hoops on either end were worn and rusted and the pavement itself was cracked worse than the Upside Down ground.
He had never looked happier.
Dustin and Will looked on from where they sat at the top of the slide on the playground. Lucas was tossing the ball around with a couple of other kids from school that neither of them knew.
But Lucas knew them, and that was all that mattered, apparently.
Max, El and Mike were a little farther back from Lucas, past the lame excuse of a basketball court and in the street, where Max was showing Mike how to skateboard while El loitered and watched.
It was absolutely sweltering. Ranging from 92 degrees to the Devils fucking asscrack, in Dustin totally correct opinion.
He was bored out of his mind but didn’t mind watching Lucas bounce the ball. He looked happier bouncing an orange sphere than he did playing DnD, which unsettled Dustin in a way that made him lightheaded.
“Hey, Will.”
Will hummed in acknowledgment but didn’t look up from his sketchpad.
“Does Lucas look happier?”
Will looked at Dustin with a raised eyebrow before focusing in on Lucas.
“Huh. I mean sure.” He shrugged. “But it’s cause it’s basketball. Lucas really likes basketball. And if he really likes it then why not be happy while doing it?”
Dustin flipped the thought a few times in his head.
It wasn’t that he was mad about Lucas playing basketball. He got over that a while ago after Lucas and Mike had a full-blown argument/mental breakdown that included Mike’s abandonment issues and Lucas’ FOMO (fear of missing out).
But Dustin also wasn’t outright vocally supportive. He didn’t go to the games, he didn’t hang around for Lucas’ practices. He would (probably), but even after Eddie’s name was cleared and he was painted a hero but the government goons, Mike and himself were still targeted heavily in school alongside the rest of Hellfire.
“I don’t really see the appeal, I guess.” He told Will, instead of voicing his inner thoughts.
Will shrugged. “You don’t have to. It’s Lucas’ interest. But simply showing you’re willing to listen to him about said interest can go a lot farther than you’d think.”
“Are you saying I don’t listen to him?”
“I’m saying you guys dismiss him.”
“Dismiss him?” Dustin watched Lucas more intently.
Will hummed. “Literally yesterday. He was talking about his encounter with Steve and how they’d made a really cool new play and you guys all so obviously tuned him out that when he stopped you guys just kept nodding because you hadn’t noticed.”
Huh.
That was really shitty.
“Did we really?”
“Yep.”
“Damn.”
“Damn indeed, Dusty-buns.”
Mike, Max and El joined them a couple minutes later.
“What’re you nerds talking about?” Max asked, sitting at the bottom of the slide with El while Mike climbed up to sit behind the boys and lean on Will’s back.
“How we’re apparently really shitty friends,” answered Dustin with his chin in his hand. He was still watching Lucas. One of the guys playing— a curly blond kid a head shorter than Lucas— pulled him into a weird hug thing where they slapped each other’s backs and immediately went back to playing.
“What?” asked Mike, muffled from where his head was shoved into Will’s shoulder.
“Lucas likes basketball.” Dustin confirmed.
Mike and Max looked at him.
“Yeah? We know that, Henderson.” Max snarked.
“And we know nothing about anything including him and basketball.”
They both seemed to pause.
“What do you mean?”
“Will says we’ve been dismissing him every time he brings it up.”
They both looked at Will, Mike peeling himself off of his back to do so.
Will shrugged and harshly erased something on his paper. “You do.”
“Which is why it’s stopping now.” Declared Dustin.
Mike blinked at him owlishly. “Um, dude? We can’t really go to him games or practices. You know we’ll both get mauled,” he muttered quietly.
The other three looked between Mike and Dustin.
“You’re both having problems still?” Will asked, looking stricken.
“I thought Jason dying would mean they’d fuck off.” Muttered Max.
Mike scoffed. “Just cause Carver’s dead doesn’t mean shit. They still think Eddie’s the Devil and that we’re his fucking worshipers or whatever. They chased me all the way to the back of the school on Wednesday.”
Will winced and Max glowered. Dustin felt the slide shake a little.
“El, relax. It’s not that bad.” Dustin watched El’s gaze soften slightly and the slide stopped rumbling. She looked at him sadly. They’d all heard about the bullying in Cali at some point. Dustin smiled back but it didn’t reach his eyes.
He turned back to address the whole group.
“Sure we can’t go to every game, but maybe we can get Steve to go with us to some. You guys know he wouldn’t let anything happen. And besides— Steve likes sports to.”
That struck a thought in his mind: how many times had he dismissed Steve?
He pushed it back for now.
“And even without going to games—“ he pressed on, “—we can still try and listen to him more.”
Mike and Max nodded slowly. Dustin takes it they hadn’t realized they hadn’t been listening before.
“And speaking of,” Will said, placing his sketch pad and pencils into his bag. “Here comes the man of the hour.”
Sure enough, Lucas was walking backward to them while waving to the guys who were leaving the park altogether. They were all waving back and laughing.
“Hey, guys!” Lucas jogged up to the slide.
“Hey, stalker,” Max greeted cheekily when Lucas bent to give her a kiss.
“Hi, Lucas!” El cheerily added. “Did you have fun?”
Lucas smiled. “Yeah! Daniel— the dude who was wearing the red hoodie like a damn maniac— was stupid fast and really cool! He showed me how he pushes off his feet for speed and when I—… never mind.” He tried for a smile but it didn’t reach his eyes.
Dustin frowned.
“Why’d you stop? Keep going, dimwit. When you what?” Mike prompted.
Dustin snickered when Will slapped his arm lightly.
Lucas looked stricken for a split second before his face broke out in a grin.
“Well—“
And the rest is history.
.
Bonus:
When the first game came up, only 3 months later, Steve took the whole Party— older teens included.
They took Eddie’s van, the kids piled in the back while the teens took the actual seats.
When they got to school it was hectic chaos of Steve taking a headcount and leading everyone in. They struggled to find seats where their whole group would fit and in the end they sat on the bottom line of the bleachers with half of the them on the floor.
It was actually fun, much to Dustin’s and Mike’s surprise. Even if the looks shot at them and Eddie from some of the players were downright hostile.
Steve went with them every time they got up to do anything. No one left without someone else there— so Mike wasn’t alone when Adrian Gonzales tried to corner him by the concessions. And Dustin wasn’t in as much trouble when Treyton Klink pulled him by the shirt into the bathrooms.
So yeah— it wasn’t the best. But that was ok, because the hug Lucas gave them afterwards was worth it. Dustin would go through hell (again) to get another hug like that.
Mike looked about ready to agree with the flush that now littered his face and shoulders.
Will laughed at him and poked fun at him about the blush the entire ride home. Max and Lucas himself eventually played in with it as well, only worsening the blush and making the teasing better.
Lucas was over the moon for the rest of the night.
They slept over at Casa Harrington (as the Party so lovingly called it), piling blankets and pillows and dragged mattresses and discarded cushions on the living room floor while Lucas went on and on and on with Steve for what felt like forever.
Dustin wouldn’t have it any other way.
Especially with the matching smiles on their faces.
Dustin’s never seen them so happy, and he caught Eddie staring at Steve the same way Max was staring at Lucas, so Dustin figured he agreed.
He’d endured literal hell for his friends; what’s so wrong about one interest?
Dustin’s dreams were filled with buzzers and cheering and scoreboards. But that was a problem to complain about tomorrow.
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TADC Theory...One of the Characters could be an NPC.
Even before episode 2 dropped people were theorizing that one of the main cast could be an NPC. With episode 2 having come out yesterday a very specific line said by Caine only fuels that theory....
"I know you guys love your NPCs but if I start losing track of who's a human and who's an NPC, who knows what could happen..."
I LOVE this idea for the drama. If the main goal is everyone escaping from the circus, there’s a lot of potential for a scene where everyone leaves but one of them physically can’t make it out because they aren’t a real person. (Very Wreck It Ralph like.)
Just based off what we know from two episodes I'm trying to decide who is most and least likely.
We know it probably isn't Pomni or Ragatha, they both glitched out in the pilot plus Pomni has outside game knowledge. She's been saying "collision" and "glitch" and "we're somewhere under the map", these are video game specific terms. And although NPCs can glitch as well (The Gloinks glitched in the pilot) Kinger remembers Ragathas arrival and how hard it was.
Jax can be ruled out in a similar way for the same reason as Pomni. He referenced Augustus Gloop, the child from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this episode. This is real world knowledge that would be a very specific reference for an NPC to know let alone make.
I can somewhat rule out Kinger just based on the fact that Queenie was a character who (presumably) abstracted. Based on naming conventions and design alone (weak defense but there's only two episodes out) they could have come to the digital circus together. With all the characters having such random designs it feels intentional for two characters look similar. If this is just a coincidence it would be cool for his erratic and paranoid personality to be a result of being an NPC. His spontaneity comes from the fact that he's in an area he isn't supposed to be in. Also he's been at he circus for so long and hasn't abstracted which is very very interesting.
My bets are on Zooble and Gangle. Although mainly because we don't know much about Zooble and the mask gimmick with Gangle is both something no other character has and feels like something from an actual game. Gangle is cheerful with the happy mask and more emotional and depressed with the tragedy mask while the other characters are more permitted to show emotion without something actively filtering them. Also my own bias thinks it would be cool for Gangle to snap, it'd be fun to watch the characters try to avoid getting grabbed by the ribbons while hiding around the circus.
HOWEVER we could look at what Caine said in a different way. Mainly the "who knows what could happen...". What if it was a warning about an actual event that happened? He actually couldn't tell the difference. What if him not being able to tell a human and an NPC apart led to the death of an actual character?
Gummigoo looked very distinct from all the other characters in the circus. He was more gelatinous, had an accent, and was very much from the candy world that Caine had created. It was easy to rule him out from the main group design-wise.
But Kinger and Queenie who look VERY similar...
It would be interesting if the real reason Queenie disappeared was because Caine mixed up the two because of similar designs and blasted the wrong one.
Probably more in tags but TL;DR someone in the main cast could be an NPC and Caine could have accidentally killed a human because he couldn't tell them apart from an NPC. RIP Gummigoo
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Saw au because Augh-
(Ignore the broken arm thing on the first pic that’s only supposed to be on the second.)
Skull means they die in the end
Plus post trap injuries
Elaboration under the cut!!
I should specify that they are not carbon copies of the characters they are based off kinda just. Parodies? You’ll get it.
Mischa-Adam. Young rapper in college just trying to get big. Photographs things he thinks would be cool album covers. Was put in the bathroom trap because he "wasted his time on a fruitless dream.". Head and neck scars are from when he hit his head on the toilet in that one scene. Yea. He also had a scar from getting shot by Noel. He got out alive tho after Noel came back for him.Doesn't work for jigsaw. Goes to Saint cassian college
ocean- strahm. Detective in the saw case. Grumpy and as stressed as strahm. Just graduated college recently. (Saint cassian college. In fact all the kids went to the same college.. Has the same hole in her throat from the water cube trap. Dies the same way as strahm does.
Constance- Perez. Ocean's partner in the saw case. A bit more anxious about jigsaw but not afraid to take action. Scars from when the doll exploded in her face. Was killed by Ricky I just haven't decided what happens yet <•_•>.
Noel- Lawrence. Majoring in law because his parents made him. Was put in the bathroom trap because he "always is a tool for other people and never does anything for himself" Got out after cutting off his leg. Karnak made him an apprentice and he helps Karnak not get caught since he knows the law so well.Went back to save Mischa but Mischa doesn't know he's an apprentice. Lives in the end to continue the jigsaw legacy.
Ricky- Hoffman. Shhh lemme explain. Ricky is a college student working on being a writer. He was very interested in the jigsaw killer. After being enraged by someone stealing and publishing all his work without giving him any kind of recognition he took things a bit to far. He put the person into a copycat trap. (What trap? Idk.). Of course Karnak was not please and tested Ricky the same way hoffman was tested (I’m still deciding if it’s the same or diff test). Ricky the starts working for Karnak by helping him set up blueprints, build, and write the tapes. He kills Constance and Virgil. Noel kills him in the end the same way lawrence did to hoffman. Watched over Ezra when penny disappeared.
penny/Jane doe.- Amanda. Went to college for some time while watching over her little brother, Ezra. She was put into the reverse bear trap (which also connected to her neck in the au) for supposedly not appreciating her life. After a severe head injury when getting out of the trap she lost pretty much all her memories. She doesn’t remember anything about herself including Ezra and her name. Karnak took her in and renamed her Jane. She works as an apprentice by helping with getting the victims and keeping the doll instance/setting it up.
Karnak- the jigsaw killer himself. Was a rollercoaster builder previously. After one of his coasters went awry and crashed, killing the passengers and injuring him. He was ridden with guilt and a new sense of life. He puts people into traps to make them appreciate what life they have left and to not destroy it like he did. Feels he has control over who lives and dies. Gets killed in the end similarly to John. (Haven’t decided the specifics of all that because he doesn’t have cancer but anyways-)
Virgil- Jill. No. Karnak does not marry the rat. I just wanted to include Virgil because I thought it was funny. Was just a rat in the warehouse before Karnak found him. Karnak became attached to him and personified him after being alone for so long in the warehouse. He knows all of jigsaws secrets and everything that happens. Dies in the end to Ricky’s hands because Ricky kinda began to lose it and blamed Virgil for everything that happened to him for some reason.
Ezra- Daniel. Teen who was living with his sister before she disappeared. Doesn’t know what Karnak did to her. Ricky takes care of him now that his sister is gone. Dedicated to finding out what happened to his sister and what the big deal with the jigsaw killer is. Mischa meets him later on and helps him try to figure it all out. He eventually finds out Penny is alive but she can’t take care of him anymore and barley even remembers him. He now lives with Mischa for the time being.
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