#and not expect me to go oh hawkins is a little fucked up isnt it

[wheelercore]

It's really interesting how we get 3 versions of the creel plotline:

1. The creel trailer, which has alice and henry running up the stairs excitedly together and alice finding the dead rabbit, not in the playground, but what I assume is either the front yard or the backyard. Also henry and alice are noticeably younger, but children grow quickly so I don't know if that was intentional.

2. The show itself, which has the difference in the beginning entry way scene and alice in the playground.

3. The First Shadow, in which alice strikingly missing, despite the fact that the play still takes place when the creels just moved to Hawkins, supposedly. I believe the first promo refers to henry as the new kid in school, emphasizing that henry may be an only child in this play... somehow.

So either something happened to alice before the creels arrived to hawkins (doubtful, this show places a lot of emphasis on hawkins as a setting and I doubt the it would make its central 'cursed town' irrelevant to its plot twist)-

Alice never existed (?? Lol) -

Or something happened to alice after the creels moved to hawkins and what we see in the show is not what it seems.

The third option isn't exactly out of this world. The show, since the beginning, put a lot of emphasis on PTSD, flashbacks, and repressed memories. It's all the more obvious with El recovering memories of Henry and the massacre, but s2 was filled to the brim with allegories and mentions to flashbacks, starting with Phineas "totally not used in the show as an allegory for the psychological effects of trauma" Gage and how will's supernatural experiences were compared to PTSD.

Vecna's curse was intentionally made to be subtle to the victim. None of them knew they were in a hallucination until it was made obvious to them. And... there are just some very interesting word choices going on here:

Hopper corrects Joyce in this scene but the association of flashbacks and nightmares continue. Victor describing his own vecna vision, reminiscent of his own traumatic memories:

Him describing waking up from his later vision, describing both that vision and his "reality" as nightmares:

We don't see Alice dying. Not even in Henry's pov- it's intentionally obfuscated from us.

In the beginning of s4 nightmares are also framed as a sign of the vecna curse, we see specifically Max's nightmare being more so a flashback, or a memory, to Billy's death. Nightmares are also a core symptom of PTSD so it fits the bill with season 2.

Funnily, enough we see Alice also experiences nightmares- which we know what that's associated with:

What exactly were in Alice's nightmares?

In the beginning we also got these very sus lines by Alice of all people, saying how the home looks like a "fairytale" and a "dream", which you know is what people say when they mean something is too good to be true, the opposite of nightmare, used to mean something that is so dreadful its hard to believe.

These lines arent in the creel trailor, which is... interesting.

Also I wonder if there is a hint to this when Henry gains his abilities in the first place. Weirdly enough this is symbolized by Henry forcing a clock to go backwards, metaphorically into the past (and I am obligated to mention this, but the parallel to fred):

Where others saw order, I saw a straitjacket. A cruel, oppressive world dictated by made-up rules. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades. Each life a faded, lesser copy of the one before. Wake up, eat, work, sleep, reproduce, and die. Everyone is just waiting. Waiting for it all to be over. All while performing in a silly, terrible play, day after day. I could not do that. I could not close off my mind and join in the madness. I could not pretend. And I realized I didn't have to. I could make my own rules. I could restore balance to a broken world.

Also makes me so curious about the rainbows on the clock during this monologue/scene... a reference to the rainbow room? Makes sense because it seems like the lab kids were killed in a similar fashion to Alice- their jaws weren't broken unlike virginia and the vecna victims. Why?

It's interesting how directly after this scene it cuts to the rabbit being killed- and with the predator/prey theme often represented by animals and a rabbit is definitely a prey animal- and that rabbits body being left for alice, who would later be killed in a similar way.

Why is Henry forecasting Alice's own death to her? For funsies? We see he repeatedly that he used tactics against his parents to hold the mirror up because they've done "terrible things" (still unknown what Virginia's terrible thing is yet). For vecna victims its slightly different, while fred and max fit that bill, patrick and chrissy don't. Their visions were more along the lines of showing them the darkness in their lives that they hide. So it seems to me that vecna shows not just sources of guilt, but the harsh unbridled truth of their lives. So what business did Henry have with Alice?

I'm not saying that there is possibly some weird fucky altered reality/time loss stuff happening in hawkins but. I am.

#i love f-ed up little weird towns being f-ed up little weird towns #anyways could you feel me shaking trying not to bring up fred miketed benson. i was shaking. #alice creel #henry creel #virginia creel #victor creel #look they cant introduce literal mind control/hallucination shit with time stuff added to it (time loss and how its related to memory) #and not expect me to go oh hawkins is a little fucked up isnt it

[xmalereader]

Billy Hargrove X Male Reader

|| FOUR ||

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|| Masterlist ||

|| ONE — TWO — THREE — FOUR

-

Summary: Reader is new to Hawkins, his parents had just moved into the new house and are trying to start over from there old lives. But what if reader can’t? He’s still a messed up kid who’s tired of pretending to be happy...and that damn mullet head of a ghost won’t stop following him around!!

Warnings: Langauge, angst, fluff, dark humor, Steve Harrington, soft billy for reader, children don’t appear just yet!

—

—

It was 7:30 am when his parents were up and ready to leave for work. He was locked upstairs in his room, he’s been there all day and night, ever since he returned back from the mall he couldn’t help but think about those visions that he had. They all mentioned so many things that didn’t make sense, but today he was going to look for answers and that time was now!

“Alright y/n!! We��re heading out so don’t burn down the place!!” He hears his mother shout as she grabs her purse and car keys, his father following her out as they head towards and car and get inside.

Y/n can head the engine start as he listens carefully, hearing the car backing up and it’s wheels rubbing up against the dark road as he hears them drive down the street. Once the car was out of sight he stays lying in bed a little longer, In the quietness.

“We’re clear.”

Y/n jolts out of bed once those words spill out of Billy’s mouth. Tossing the blankets aside as he rushes out of his room and upstairs to his parents. “Remember, keep an eye out in case they comeback.” He orders billy as he slams his parents door open, actually he kicked it open.

Rushing inside as he’s quick to dig through there belongings.

“You sure this is a good idea? Once they come back they’ll notice the mess and freak out, thinking that you got an episode or something.” He hears billy say as he stands by the window, staring at the front yard, keeping a look out in case y/n’s parents decide to come back home.

“Who cares, I’m already crazy thanks to them.” He continues to dig through drawers, tossing them out as he sighs deeply and checks the closet next, throwing there clothes around the room as he searches for any information about his medical health.

“Sounds about right.” Billy looks over his shoulder to see y/n trashing up the place, sighing deeply he rolls his eyes and pushes himself off the wall, walking around the room as he decides to help him out with the search instead, he tries to check for the most obvious places where a parent would hide such important information.

He walks around the room and hums to himself, eyeing the large bad that was palaced in the center of the room. His eyes narrow as he thinks before bending down and getting on his knees, he looks under the bed and notices a box. “Hey y/n, there’s something over here.” He calls out as y/n quickly rushes to his side, looking under the bed as well as he notices the strange box and grins.

He crawls under and grabs the box, crawling back out with it in his hands as he sets it on the bed.” Think this could be it?” He asks billy as he’s quick to pry it open, a few folders drop out as he bites his lip nervously and notices his name printed all over them. “Guess so.” He hears billy sigh from his side as y/n grabs one of the files and flips it open. It held all of his school records; showing the classes his took and his grades.

“how many schools were you suspended from?” Oh and that was in there too.

“Many schools actually which is why I was forced into home schooling after the seventh time of getting suspend.” He tells billy with a proud smirk on his face which billy only rolled his eyes too.

“But this isnt the important one!” He tosses the folder across the room and grabs the next one. “Ah! Here it is!” He flips the folder open to see all of his medical records including his personal information. “Okay, so here we have the information for the hospital I was in and the asylum as well.” He spreads out the papers on the bed as he tries to read through everything, wanting to see if he can find any information about his visions or episodes.

The two sat on the bed cross legged as they read through the files. Y/n was too ingrossed with the reading that he didn’t even notice the third file that sat on the bed.

Billy was the first to mention it as he nudges y/n’s shoulder. “What’s that one about?” He points over to the folder. Y/n looks up from his reading and frowns, “probably nothing important.” He leans over to pick it up and sighs, falling back into his seating position was he flips the folder open.

The first thing he sees was an envelope, it was still sealed and it held an unknown address, instead of opening it first he sets it down on the side and turns back to the folder to see what else he can find. He checks out the other pages and he froze in spot as he stares down at one of the papers that read:

Adoption Agenceny for California

It was printed on with big bright red letters.

“What the hell—“

He turns the pages and finds his birth certificate but this one was different, he noticed the different birth dates and names. He’s quick to scramble for the other birth certificate that was organized with his medical records. He sets the two side to side as he reads them off quickly, noticing the change between the two as his eyes widen in realization.

“I’m adopted.”

“Shit.” He hears billy breath out as y/n stares at the certificates, he chuckles softly as he shakes his head. “I’m not only adopted but everything about me was changed too—“ he shakes his head in anger. “My name, birthday, the place—FUCK!” He shouts in anger, he can’t believe that this whole time his parents weren’t actually his parents but people who only adopted him because they either felt pity for him or becuase they were messing with him. All this time he was lied too, for his whole life.

He tosses the certifications away and huffs in anger, he sees the court paper and the adoption papers as well but what catches his eye the most was the envelope that was still sitting there, sealed away and never read.

Curiosity hits him as he takes the envelope and rips it open, pulling out a long letter of a few pages long. He unfolds the paper and a necklace with a small vile drops out. He picks up the necklace and inspects the veil that contained a strange blue liquid. Ignoring what it contained he pockets it in his pants and turns back to the letter.

“Can you even read that?” Billy asks as he stares at the letters that were all written in russian.

“Surprisingly yes.” Y/n whispers back as he begins to read the letter.

The first two pages only talked about the adoption which was boring since he didn’t even care anymore so instead of finishing up he tosses those pages out and finally gets reading to the good stuff.

His eyes scanned the words in front of him.

“—This child is now in your care and we expect you to keep a close eye on him, he is one of our most valuable expirments and we can’t risk losing him again. So, to make things easier for you both we have erased his past memories, giving him new ones and making him think that he’s a normal young boy that grew up to be different, we sugggest that you keep this information hidden and stored away from the child’s eyes and we will pay you as promised if you follow these rules.

Once the time is right we will come back for the boy—not to take him but to continue running test, keeping important data about his improvement throughout the age. Please, make sure that he is sent here once he reaches the age of ten—“

Y/n reads the address and he stutters out. “Ravencroft.”

“Ravencroft?” Y/n nods as he sets the letter down and searches through the pile of papers, tossing them out of the way as he finds what he was looking for which was a piece of paper that contained the information about his activities back in the asylum.

“Y/n.” Billy is able to pull him out of his thoughts as he pants. “What does the letter say?”

Y/n shakes his head. “I—this whole time I was just a test subject, they knew and they were getting paid for it. Paid to keep me from getting exposed and from causing trouble, this whole time I was nothing but an animal to be tested on!” He shouts out. “My life was planned from the very beginning! I was adopted only to keep my identity hidden from these people who only want to use me for there disgusting expierments! And I—“ He turns to billy. “Billy I was ten years old when they sent me to that damn hospital! I was just a kid!!”

He was yelling in anger, letting it all out as he throws things around the room. This whole time he thought that he was just a weird freaky kid who could see the dead only to find out that he was more than that and that he doesn’t remember anything for his previous life. “This is bullshit!”

“What the hell?!”

Y/n gasps in surpise as he turns around to see his father standing by the doorway, a nasty glare on his face as his eyes widen once he notices the hidden information revealed too y/n.

Guess the cat is out of the bag.

His father throws himself to him, trying to take the letters away but Y/n is quick to react as he collects the letters and jumps off the bed, quickly going around as he leaves the room. “Get back here you little shit!!” He hears the older man yell out as y/n pants and runs to his room, slamming the door closed and locked it. He hears his father slam against the door, causing him to gasp and step away from the door. Hearing his father shout as he bangs on the door, trying to get inside.

“Y/n we have to get out of here!” Billy grabs his hand and drags him towards the window. “Wait I don’t have shoes!”

“We don’t have time for that!”

“My ass is not going out there without shoes!” The two shout back in forth to each other.

“God your such a princess!”

Y/n grins at billy. “Am I a pretty princess?” He says in a flirty tone which only riles him up in anger, before he can yell at him to move his ass the bedroom door is suddenly being kicked down. Catching the two off guard as y/n quickly slips his shoes on and chuckels nervously. “Get on the roof, get on the roof, the roof!!” He repeats to himself as he slides the window open and steps outside.

Once he’s on the roof his bedroom door is finally kicked open, an angry man stands at the entrance as he runs towards the window, getting ready to grab y/n but he’s quick to slam the window shut on his fathers fingers.

He hear him scream in agony which causes y/n to grin in satisfaction. He applies more pressure to the closed window, hearing a small crunch. “Take that you bastard!”

“Y/n that’s enough!” Billy grabs him by the hoodie and drags him away from the window.

Y/n gives his father one last glance before smirking evilly and jumping off the roof, grunting as his body tumbles against the grass. “Shit that was awesome but I’m never doing that again.” He groans out in pain as he holds his side. “Yeah but right now we need to go unless you want your father to come after you!”

“Right, right.” Y/n agrees with billy as the two bolted towards the woods.

Y/n has been running for awhile now that he finally stops to breath and to take a break. “How far out are we?” He pants out between breaths, placing his hands on his knees as he was bent over a near tree.

“We’re still in Hawkins but far away from home, maybe we can find a place to crash?” Billy suggested as y/n groans deeply and coughs from dehydration. “F-fuck I’m so tired and I just need water.” He gasps out as he moves his legs, walking further into the woods as he looks around for a place to crash.

His eyes land on a nice house which causes a smirk to appear on his lips. “How about there?” He points over and turns to face billy with a smile. Billy looks over at the house and shakes his head, “we aren’t breaking inside a random house to get sleep.” Y/n frowns at him and hums, “OH RIGHT! I just remembered, you can’t do anything because your dead!!” He shouts out and sprints away, running towards the house ahead of him while billy chases after him. “Dammit y/n!”

Y/n continue to laugh as he runs towards the house, humming to himself a spy theme song he hides behind walls and jumps over chairs, pressing himself against a wall as he looks both left and right before moving one. Billy rolls his eyes and groans in embarrassment, “believe me if I was alive I would’ve wanted to kill myself right here right now.” He says out loud for y/n to hear as the other continues to do weird parkour around the backyard. Finding a tree be begins to climb it, smiling to himself as he gets onto the roof top and sees a slight opened window. “Over here.” He whispers to billy as he moves quietly on the roof and towards the open window.

He slips his hands under and slowly pushes the window open, he quietly gets through and makes sure to close the window behind him. “See.” He sighs in relief. “We weren’t caught.” He says until the dark room is suddenly lit up.

His eyes widen as he looks over to his left to see a guy sitting up on his bed with wide eyes as well. Y/n bites his lip and gives off a forced smile. “Hi?” He waves awkwardly.

The guy opens his mouth, getting ready to scream but y/n it quick to jump on the bed and cover his mouth, putting full force on the guys mouth. “Shhh!! Be quiet!” He hisses out and turns towards the doorway to make sure that he doesn’t hear anyone coming upstairs. “Listen we need a place to hide so your going to be quiet and listen.” He adds in a harsh whisper as he hears billy shuffle next to him. “Harrington?”

Y/n raises a brow and looks over his shoulder to look at billy. “You know this guy?”

“We used to go to school together.”

“Oh.” Y/n is quick to put the puzzle piece together before being pulled away from his thoughts as Harrington tries to push him off. “Hey! I said quiet!” He growls out and Straddles him. “Are you going to fuck him or something?” Billy asks as he tilts his head to the side with a smirk on his face but y/n can only glare at him. “I need him to quiet down!” He hisses back as he keeps his hand over Harringtons mouth. “Look—!” He shouts this time, causing the other to freeze in place. “Listen just—“ he sighs. “I am going to uncover your mouth and once I do that I need you to stay quiet or else I’ll grab that pencil by your desk and jab your eye.” He warns.

Billy whistles behind him. “I don’t threating will help.”

Y/n ignores billy as he stares down at the other and slowly uncovers his mouth. “No screaming.” He repeats himself.

Once Harrington’s mouth is uncovered he glares at him. “Who the hell are you and why are you in my room? No, why did you break into my room?!” Y/n covers his mouth again from all the shouting. “Shut up!” He groans deeply. “I didn’t break in, I simply slipped inside becuase I need a hiding spot. You see, my parents are searching for me and want to send me away and my ass is not going back there until I find out where I am really from and from what I know, I have no memory of my previous past so I am stuck here and the only person that I trust is this room is myself and billy!” He rants out as Harrington raises a brow and muffled against his hand.

Y/n tilts his head and removes his hand again to allow him to talk. “Billy? Your alone in this room with me.”

“Oh, right...” y/n breaths out through his nose as he turns to see billy leaning against the wall, waiting fo him to come up with another plan. “Billy as in for Billy Hargrove, he died about a year ago and I can see dead people and the two of us have created some sort of bond and now he’s stuck with me until who knows how long.” He explains quickly which only earns hima horrified look from the other. “Your crazy!” He struggles to get out of y/n’s grip but he keeps him pinned down.

“Your name is Steve right?” He asks.

Steve eyes him and glares. “How do you know that?”

“Like I said, billy knows you.” He responds back as he feels billy place his hand on his shoulder and pull him back. “Let him go and maybe he will talk.” Said billy as y/n does as he’s told by letting go of Steve and moving away from him, he sits at the foot of the bed as Steve sits up and leans against the wall. “So, your saying tha Billy Hargrove is in this room right now?”

Y/n nods. “Yep, he’s been following me around since day one and he’s been a little annoying but so far he’s gettting better. He’s just lonely and needs someone and I seem to be the only one who can see him.” He explains, smiling over at billy who sat next to him. “Stop trying to charm me.” Y/n laughs at the comment.

Steve can only stare at the freak in fright. “Okay, tell me something that I will only know.”

Y/n thinks and turns to billy. “Anything?”

“tell him that I beat him up a year ago thinking that he was messing around with my little sister until she knocked me out with a sleeping dose.” Y/n stares at billy with an open mouth, shocked. “You never told me this!”

“Why should I?” Billy raises a brow as y/n pouts. “I feel very offended not knowing this.” He crosses his arms over his chest and turns to Steve, still wearing his pout as he says. “Billy says that he beat you up last year becuase he thought that you were messing around with his sister and that she put him to sleep with a sleeping dose.”

Steves eyes widen. “Holy shit.”

Turns out that the three spent the whole night explaining the situation that y/n was in, it was strange telling this weird guy that he just meet a few hours ago about his whole life story but something inside of him is telling him that he should trust him. “Okay listen, I really need some sleep or else my brain will explode from all of the questions.” Said y/n as he crawl over to the closet and slides it open, crawling through the small space as Steve stares at him weirdly. “What are you doing?”

“Getting comfortable and hiding, who knows how your parents will react if they were to see me—as stranger—sleeping in your room.” Once he’s inside the closet he closes is behind him and gets comfortable. “Night night!” He says before lying on his side and faces the wall. He hears Steve shuffling behind him and hears him crawl back onto his bed and turns off the lights, not really saying anything back as y/n sighs through his nose.

“Were do you plan on going once the sun rises?” Asked billy as he sat next to him, sitting and leaning against the wall as y/n shrugs. “I don’t know, I just figured about that my life was a lie and that I was a freak this whole time but also that I don’t belong here or—I dont know where I even belong.” He mumbles out. He didn’t know what to do, once he found out the truth he couldn’t help but feel anger and betrayal, knowing that he was alone in this.

This whole time he was being used and he had no idea and now he has no idea where to start looking. He lies on his back and reaches inside his pocket to take out the letters, flipping through the pages as he narrows his eyes, trying to adjusts his eyes to the dark. “What if we go back to the hospital?”

Billy whips his head over with a glare. “No, you aren’t going to that hell hole.”

“But what if I’m looking for, is there? What if the answers are there billy?” He sits up slowly and sets the letters in front of him. “My memories have been taken from me and I don’t remember anything, i need to find answers as to why I am here, to why I can see you and to why I can see things once I touch an object.” He murmurs out, quiet enough for Steve not to hear.

Billy moves closer to y/n and places a hand on his cheek. “Hey, nothing will get better and we will find answers but going to that asylum is a huge no from me, for all we know those people could be there just waiting for you to fall in to there trap. We have to take this easy and slow, we start off simple and try to find small pieces of the puzzle.” He reassures him as y/n leans into him. “If you want to recover your memories then lets start off with what you already know.” He shrugs. “Think of it as chess, they already made their move. Now its your turn.”

Y/n lifts his head up to face billy and smiles with a firm nod. “Just like chess.”

#male reader #darce montgomery #billy hargove x reader #billy hargrove x male reader #stranger things x male reader #stranger things #crossovers #reader