Ayo shout-out to Lucas Sinclair for being literally the only member of the party to not have massive boulder sized daddy issues, and therefore is the only one out of all six of them that is capable of consistently owning up to his own actions with more than just one specific person if anyone at all 🫡
yeah yeah Mike and Will in apocalypse fits but what about LUCAS in an apocalypse fit?? he was already fine as hell in season 4 I fear him slaying a bloody apocalypse look would un-lesbian me
Warnings: the girls being teeth-rottingly sweet to newcomer, Lester being an excited rambling cutie, Bo being Bo, and jealous!Vincent
A/N: When I have all the parts ready, I'll be putting links on each post. I'm just really excited and wanted to post this. Also the title has no business being that threatening since I took it from a Byrds song...
Featuring the Sinclairs, Jason Vorhees, RZ Michael Myers and the ocs of @rottent33th (Ellie) @slaasherslut (Ava) @kalid-raven (Alia) @the-pinstriped-hood (Percy) @cries-in-latino (Red) and @angxlslasher (Merry). I hope y'all don't mind!
Sunlight woke Darrell the next morning. There was a dull pain in his neck where his backpack had been the night before. Stirring, he groaned and opened his eyes.
He was greeted by the sight of a large, dark snout. A moment of panic arrested him, until he remembered where he was. In a field. By the highway. The curious quadruped before him was not a razorback, but a cow. She chewed noisily as she inspected him.
"Down, Bessie." Darrell patted her head. She flicked her floppy ears and grazed on the grass right by him.
Darrell sat up from his makeshift bed. He used a liberal amount of water from his canteen to rinse his mouth and wash his face. Reaching deeper into his pack, he pulled out a scrupulously rationed breakfast of potato chips and a chicken sandwich.
Funny. He tried so hard to shake off the Marine in him, but here he was - acting like one again.
Well, minus the potato chips, he thought.
Bessie snuffled at the little ziploc bag, eager to have a taste. Darrell reached in, crushed a handful of chips, and fed it to her. Once he was done, he bid farewell to his new friend and straddled his bike.
"On my way now," he told his non-cattle friends through text.
Do a wheelie.
Darrell smiled involuntarily and asked Red, "Got bail money? 🤨"
Wheelie you fucking coward.
He did two on the empty highway. Just for fun.
The way to Ambrose was long and winding. Too long, he remarked, eyeing the fuel gauge. He cursed inwardly and, with the same breath, begged heaven to let him have enough to get there.
"Ack! Where's God when you need 'im?" he grumbled as his dirt bike stuttered.
He set the bike on its stand and scratched his head. No soul for miles. No help in sight. Guess he was going to have to push his defeated steed along. He went on for about thirty minutes or so, with the punishing Louisiana sun and the 40-ish pounds on his back bearing down on him.
Panting now, he turned from the Interstate to the byroad Ellie had told him to take. Trees hedged him from either side. The ground was a mixture of silt and dust. It made his throat scratchy.
Darrell became aware of an approaching vehicle from the thrum of an engine and the clatter of tools behind him.
"You need a hand, man?" asked the driver as he let his truck go idle.
Darrell looked through the open driver's side window and regarded the stranger politely. He was grimy and slightly flushed, no doubt from the exertion of a day's early work.
Darrell cleared his throat. "No... I need gas, actually."
The stranger cracked a pleased smile. "Well it's your lucky day! I got some gas right here."
He giddily rummaged about in the cab and retrieved a beat up looking gallon jug. The stranger stepped out and wordlessly urged Darrell to bring his bike forward.
"Please, if it ain't too much. I just need enough to get to Ambrose."
For a moment, the stranger, almost miserly, held back the jug. "Why're ya goin' to Ambrose?" he asked, face cloudy with suspicion.
"Visitin' some friends. M'overdue, s'matter o' fact. Was supposed to get there last night."
Realization twinkled dimly in the stranger's brown eyes. "Say… ya name ain't Darrell by any chance, is it?"
"Yessir, it is."
The stranger eased and flashed him a toothy grin. "Now, ain't it a small world," he cried. "I've heard loads about you from the girls."
Darrell rubbed the nape of his neck. He smiled. "Did ya?"
"Yeah! Boy, you've got everybody standing watch. Tell ya what," said the stranger, "Help me haul your bike into the back. I'll give you a lift."
"Aw, shucks… I-"
The stranger waved him quiet. The gas sloshed in the jug. "No ifs. No buts. No coconuts." He gestured to his truck. "Get."
Darrell stammered thanks and apologies for the trouble. The stranger moved the litter of animal carcasses.They loaded the bike onto the truck, shut the tailgate, and carried on.
"Sorry. What cha say your name was?"
The stranger chuckled. "Lester."
They shook hands as the truck went on its jittery way. Lester was kind to offer Darrell a rag to mop his sweat with. Darrell dragged the cloth over himself and wiped each of his fingers clean.
A strong feeling of liking for the traveler stirred in Lester. That rag was filthy. He had hesitated to hand it over, but Darrell had grabbed it without question.
"You can get gas at the station in Ambrose. Bo, m'brother, runs it."
Darrell shamefully looked at his boots. "Sorry 'bout the dust."
Lester gave another chuckle, his glance straying to Darrell's feet. "S'alright," he assured him, "Truck's had worse than that, f'ya know what I mean." He jerked his head toward the window behind them.
"Good I picked ya up or else you'd be trudging in that for 15 miles more."
"Preciate it, really." Darrell smiled. He was brushing dust off his pants. "Been walkin' for about half o' that 'fore ya found me."
Darrell was quite remarkable to look at, Lester decided.
His hair was the first thing you'd notice: Teal blue and long. The way it tumbled down his shoulders in wisps reminded him of paint, pulled out by water in bright, rippling clouds when you dip your brush into the glass.
There was a silver ring that pierced his plump, pale pink lower lip, and he seemed to have a habit of nibbling on it. He was also very tall. Taller than Bo or Vincent. Almost as tall as Michael. (Really, he didn't think there was anyone taller than that fella.)
His broad chest stretched the fabric of his shirt. His thighs were doing the same to his jeans.
He was handsome, Lester would give him that.
He was also sporting a knife on his right shoe.
Two kinds of bells rang in Lester's mind; An alarm to beware of this stranger, as he wasn't sure of his intentions, and another that told him to hurry and show him his own knife. After all, he had been polite. Hadn't been mean or fussy.
Lester was itching to pull out the bowie when Darrell cheerfully turned the conversation toward matters that concerned him - How had his day been? His work, the weather, the town, the girls? - things he was glad to talk about.
Before he knew it, he saw the wash-out up ahead.
"Think you'll make it?" inquired Darrell, his hand on the dash.
"Just have to flip the hubs into four-wheel."
He didn't have to ask. Darrell hopped out and got to work on the wheels on his side. The beat up truck rattled over the stones, the men inside shared a laugh. "Felt m'brain rattle in m'skull like a bean in a can!" Lester cried as he tried to shake himself right.
Gravel gave way to asphalt and they entered the town. Lester pointed out the gas station just at the end of Main Street. When Darrell asked for the grocer's, he did some quick thinking and said, "There's Flannery's back where we came, but don't cha go in there. F'Joe Flannery sees ya and gabs, you'd be in there all day. If ya need anythin', I'm sure Ellie would be happy to get it for ya. She's an amazing cook. There's Bo!"
His older brother gave the truck a cursory glance, and, with practiced charm, greeted their guest.
"You shoulda called in," said Bo, obligingly filling the dirt bike's tank with gas from the pump."Would've picked you up myself."
Lester had wandered off and was now coming back with the hose. He was aiming it at the bike. He turned the nozzle and a sudden jet of water blasted out of the end, splashing Bo and Darrell's shoes.
Noticing the scathing glare Bo gave him, Lester lowered the hose and apologized. "I got blood and gunk all over your wheels," he told Darrell.
"No! It's fine. It'll wash off." Turning to Bo, he declared, "Wouldn't have made it without him. He's a lifesaver." He extended one large hand and patted Lester's shoulder.
It prompted Lester to step in and swing his arm over Darrell's shoulders. He was awful pleased with himself. It didn't matter that he had to stand on his tippy-toes.
"Sure." Bo said dismissively. "You came down here all the way from where? Devil's Prick?"
"Yessir."
"How's it there? Heard it's haunted."
Darrell laughed. "By hicks like me."
While they spoke, they were blithely unaware of Ava and Percy scuttling from the Sinclair house, down Main Street, to Ellie's house. They had heard Lester's truck and spotted the tall man at the station.
They came running back, now with Ellie in tow, one hand hiking up her dress skirt and the other clutching a lime green frog.
When she screamed "DARRELL!", the three men leapt clean off the ground. Lester's fingers instinctively tightened on Darrell's jacket, and he had to clutch his chest to make sure his heart wasn't going to give.
Ellie shoved the frog into Lester's hands and braced her arms around Darrell's torso. "You made it! I was so worried when you didn't arrive last night!"
"I-I know, Ellie… I'm sorry."
She gave him a light squeeze. "Shh! No! Don't apologize. Now, I want you to meet my sisters."
She passed Darrell around for the girls to fawn over, which they did despite his shyness. "I'm covered in God knows what. I probably smell like a dog in the sun."
"That's two of us, then. I've been out in the garden."
"Alia and Michael are back there too," Percy said. "They'll be delighted to meet you!"
Ava looped her arm with Darrell's and started to lead him to the house Ellie shared with Vincent. "Come on! Jason and Merry are set up not far from there."
All three women began to chatter, making Darrell throw his head from side to side.
"That boy's gonna end up like a bruised fruit by sundown!" Bo chided. His warning fell on deaf ears.
He saw his twin in the distance - shoulders tense and visibly uneasy. Bo knew that look. He was sizing Darrell up, suddenly unhappy about the attention he was getting from Ellie.
Psst!
Vincent snapped out of it and met Bo's gaze. With a frown, Bo wordlessly told him to be nice. Try to get along for godsake.
Vincent, hunching as if to get away from a whip, buried his hands in his pockets and trailed after the girls.
"Here. Hold this."
Lester was holding out the frog.
"No," Bo said flatly - body poised to bolt.
"Ok."
Lester set the frog down on the ground and trotted after the girls. It stayed put, locked in a standoff with Bo.
He picked up the hose. Aimed and blasted the frog away. Then, he wheeled Darrell's bike into the garage.
let’s analyze how the last of us and stranger things uses their mall scenes to tell audiences the sexuality of their characters
the last of us and stranger things capturing what it’s like to be a queer teen seeing a lingerie store is a moment in our youth we didn’t ask to be represented, but is so relatable!!
riley being uncomfortable and confused about the lingerie because it is clothing to make women attractive and she’s attracted to girls so this shows a moment of her confusion and suppression to her sexuality. then we have ellie analyzing riley’s reaction to the lingerie, what she says about her wearing it, and it seems to me ellie wasn’t exactly sure what reaction to have to what was right in front of her. it just seems like she was mesmerized, confused, amused, but most of all trying to figure out what riley’s true thoughts of the lingerie were. she’s trying to see if it’s possible riley feels the same way about girls like she does.
then we have the camera angle making sure to have ellie = lesbian, the lingerie mannequin = the focal point of the conversation and the representative of wlw attraction/sexuality, and the model = beauty and whose job is to advertise sexuality and desirability in the shot as ellie is looking at her appearance and trying to freshen up which cues us to know she wants to appear a certain way in order to be desirable/attractive/appealing or however you want to put it FOR RILEY.
i just think this scene is extremely relatable because when i was younger i would feel kind of weird about seeing victoria secret at the mall because it was an external factor in confronting my sexuality!!
⬇️
now let’s move on to stranger things. here we have lucas, will, and mike approach a lingerie store as to which they all have different reactions to entering this store.
mike looks shocked, confused, and slightly horrified?? he reminds me of riley here, except he’s confused because he isn’t attracted to girls. he’s shocked and confused because he’s thinking “who is attracted to this because i’m not?? do i have to be attracted to this??”. it’s a confrontation with his sexuality which based on other scenes in the show we know he struggles with internalized homophobia. hell, the “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls!!” argument happened on the same day where all mike did was be confronted by things that made him think about girls!! if you don’t like girls, and you’re made to spend all day thinking about them, and at the end of the day you still aren’t attracted to them, then you’re going to feel a bit frustrated with yourself as to why you can’t conform to heterosexuality especially when you have your girlfriend break up with you on the same day you are constantly being reminded you’re not straight 😵💫. therefore, we can conclude that what he said to will is projection. mike was basically saying “it’s not MY fault you I don’t like girls!”. he would say that in response to himself of having any shame about being attracted to boys, or not wanting to continue his relationship with el, or just a retaliated response to any homophobic idea that he is at fault or wrong for being gay.
but anyways let’s continue with the store scene. so yes, the store is for adults and mike’s a teen boy, but his reaction does NOT fit the “well, he’s a young teenage boy so that’s why he reacted that way. it has nothing to do with his sexuality!!” excuse like it does for lucas’ reaction and let me explain why.
lucas’ reaction tells us he’s thinking “uhh how did we end up here??”. him looking around realizing this is a lingerie store and there’s not going to be anything for el in there explains why he’s ready to leave. literally his facial expression just seems to be of a teen boy who is like “yeah we need to get out of here because this store is for women and there’s nothing here that we need”. he doesn’t seem shocked or horrified. his energy just seems to be of someone who is not at the right store.
now, will’s reaction kills me because he seems absolutely horrified lmfao. and that would make sense if this scene is meant to represent the sexuality of these characters!! he is gay. he’s not attracted to girls. there’s nothing about a lingerie store that would have any interest to him, so he’s going to be like “wtf is this place??”.
so why would mike have a very similar reaction to will?? why not have a similar reaction to lucas?? like ok yes you understand what this store is for, but there’s nothing here you need at this time so let’s move on. but nope! he seems shocked and is ready to bolt out of there like he’s in trouble. why would he react like that to a store?? what could be said about mike in this scene for him to have that reaction?? well, if you guessed that it’s because this scene represents his real identity and that he is not in fact attracted to girls, but to boys, then you are a winner!! we could even say the idea of him conforming to heterosexuality for the rest of his life scares him and this store is a reminder of what being attracted to women entails, especially as you get older.
and i know lucas somewhat quickly walks away from the store as well, but his body language doesn’t read as “we have to get out of here because i don’t like this!”, his body language is “this store doesn’t have what we need, we’re 14 year old boys, let’s get out here before someone catches us” which makes perfect sense because i remember being a teen and going into spencer’s *if you don’t know what spencer’s is, it’s a store that has mature rated shirts, hats, and other items in there and anyone can go in, but there’s one aisle/section that is 18+* with friends and us quickly walking away from a certain area to make sure the workers didn’t see and kick us out lmao. also, will bolts tf out of there too and we know he isn’t attracted to girls. this scene was included for comedic effect, but the zoom in on the different reactions?? yeah, they wanted that to tell us something individually about each of them. they could’ve easily made this scene not be as long by having them approach the store and say “nope not what we need!” and move on, but instead they made sure to spend time giving each reaction.
anyways i wasn’t sure if i should do an analysis on this, but i figured since tlou and stranger things included these scenes and people have already somewhat talked about them, then it would be fine to analyze. i didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable as the shows use a bit of a mature theme here, but these directors, writers, and editors included these scenes for a reason to tell us about these characters, so ultimately there’s nothing wrong with discussing what these scenes mean.
Nikola!!!! Nikola my beloved!!! We All Ignore the Pit is, for ranking purposes, an honorary avatar statement giver episode. Also that pit was kinda fucked up. Nikola’s first on-screen appearance is against Recluse, which received 154 votes in Round One.
MAG - 097 - We All Ignore the Pit | Spotify - Acast - YT | Wiki | Transcript
Statement of Jackson Ellis, regarding the geographical oddities in the town of Bucoda, Washington.