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#sometimes my brain CAN be normal thank u for coming to my ted talk
woulddieforloki · 1 year
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This anon thinks loki hates thor in the avengers and u can't change my mind because i dont like the movie
damn O_O
no but actually? this is definitely controversial, especially on lokiblr, but I agree completely (about Loki hating Thor, not that The Avengers is bad. it's my fav and I'm offended that you don't like it).
I don't think that Loki ever disliked Thor before the events of the first movie. I don't think their relationship squabbles went beyond what a normal pair of siblings go through. It's just a difficult culture and they're royalty and sometimes instead of slapping your brother in the face like a normal person, you commit minor treason to ruin their coronation.
And then Loki's whole world is turned upside down and he realizes all those fears he's had that he's not good enough and that he doesn't belong are true (in his mind, at least; he's a monster, after all), and he's determined to prove to both himself and his father that he does belong in this family and he's every bit as worthy as Thor is. And in his confusion and his fear and his grief over losing his sense of self and the life he thought he had, he kinda loses his grip on reality a lil bit and does some... questionable things?
And in my mind, that's when he decides he hates Thor. And he really does decide it; it's a semi-conscious decision because he has to hate Thor if he's going to go through with this and if he's going to take him out of the game so there's only one son worthy (and living) enough to claim the throne. So the moment Loki had the Destroyer kill Thor, he'd decided he hated him. And it's a hard decision. You can see him hesitate. He doesn't want to kill Thor. He doesn't want to hate him. But he has to. Because that's the only way he can prove his worth to his father. No, it's not, you absolute idiot. You just need a hug.
But I don't think that's really cemented in his brain until The Avengers. There's still a part of him in Thor (2011) that doesn't want to hate him, and you can see that throughout their entire fight on the Bifrost, but by the time Loki shows up in The Avengers, he's a changed man. He's spent the last year going through god-only-knows-what in the depths of space, and he's had all that time to dwell on his hatred of his brother and his father's betrayal. He's had a year to solidify his newfound hatred of his so-called family, and by the time Thor shows up and throws him out of that jet, Loki absolutely does hate him.
tbh I don't really know when it changes. I think it might be when Thor breaks Loki out in The Dark World. At this point, it's been two and a half years that Loki's spent hating his brother, based entirely on his view of Thor (2011) and then, obviously, what happens in The Avengers, none of which was very nice. But now, for the first time in two and a half years, Loki's working with Thor. All of his most recent memories with his brother have been bad ones, but this little adventure reminds him of what he does like about spending time with Thor. He knows it's not going to last, obviously. Thor's only putting up with him because he has to. But for a brief moment there, Loki got to work with his brother as his partner, his equal, and it reminded him why he loves him so much in the first place.
Anyways, thank you for coming to my TED talk.
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slutabed · 3 years
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eatsbop · 2 years
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People normally have motivation, but inside my brain sometimes u can hear spongebob laughing. Thank u for coming to me ted talk arh
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bloody-wonder · 3 years
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Sorry if you've already said these before, what are the romantic tropes u find most problematic?
it’s not that i find some specific tropes problematic (which i do but that’s beside the point), it’s that at some point people started seeing them in absolute terms - as something that constitutes a romance and should apply to all romantic relationships, be it real or fictional. 
this is why i, a typical tumblr fangirl who loves shipping very much, can’t handle reading romance as a genre - bc the tropes will be there bc at this point the tropes have become the romance itself. like, i wanna read a book that focuses on a developing relationship between two people that may or may not include romantic love, sexual attraction, trust, commitment etc - sounds like the genre i need is romance, right? except it’s not bc nowadays romances are just getting together fanfics that swiftly move from trope a to trope b till the very end of the story. and i love getting together fanfics but whenever i want to read one of those i go to ao3. when i pick up a book i want something new, something that feels authentic and genuine, something that is unique to this characters and doesn’t follow a formula. 
this is why for a long time i didn’t like to call andreil a romance - bc what they have and how the story of their relationship is told is so vastly different from everything i’ve seen or read before. this is ofc bc of the “ace gaze”. but what they have is in fact a romantic relationship, it’s a romance, it’s just feels so awesome cause it doesn’t rely on any generic tropes. an aroace friendly romance - sounds like a contradiction but it isn’t. even though aspec/arospec characters that have relationships are few and far between, there are still some allo ships out there that are presented in a way that feels natural and fresh and doesn’t alienate me - i only wish i knew how to find them.
as for the specific tropes that i don’t like and find “problematic” here are some
the grand public love confession - first of all, why would you want everybody to know your private stuff? why the exhibitionism? secondly, there’s lots of pressure on the person who is being confessed to. idk why people find this romantic and something to imitate irl
drunk confessions - no thank you, i prefer the characters to be sane and sober while reaching new milestones in their relationship. i mean, as sane as they can be with love chemicals already affecting their brains ://
the obligatory happy ending on page - sometimes an open or a bittersweet ending fits the story more but the romance writers just have to make the ship unambiguously endgame
first kiss, first time, ily, marriage as a script to be followed at all costs - do i even need to explain? maybe they don’t say ily, maybe they don’t kiss or have sex or do any of the other stuff “normal” couples are supposed to do. amatonormativity much
opposites attract - no they don’t, thanks for coming to my ted talk
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clericbyers · 5 years
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The funny thing about RR!St3 (and yes I'm still talking about this) is that its technically your au so if u don't like stuff about season 3-and maybe that's like everything lmao- than you can change it for this au!!! so what're some things you could change to flex on the duffers with ur beautiful Galaxy brain?
oh ur so right….oh man OH MAN the power in my hands right now…this is super long but i got so into it okay thank u…
First off, my real vision for RR!ST3 would not be too close to how ST3 went down; the RR!ST3 I originally hashed out was me trying to stick close to ST3 but as I said then, it was hard bc many of the issues in ST3 wouldn’t happen if Mike wasn’t obsessed with El and if we actually address the fact that these kids are dealing with serious trauma from the events of ST2. In RR!ST2, Mike would be the one dealing with being possessed, Will would have been at his side the entire time, Nancy and Mike would be a lot tighter thanks to RR!ST1 (like she’d be very overprotective because she almost lost her brother and he’s annoying yeah but she can’t imagine not having him in her life anymore). So when RR!ST2 ends with the Snowball, I can see Mike still dancing with El when she returns because he needs to thank her, she saved his life after all, but I really. just cannot see his level of attachment being enough to try to date her. Because in ST1 and at the beginning of ST2, Mike is wracked with guilt about losing her, about bonding with her and ultimately her being a sacrifice to save them. He doesn’t have that in RR!ST1 and RR!ST2, at least not to the same degree as ST1 and ST2. He didn’t have the time to bond to El and while I think he might have fleeting feelings for his savior (like I said, nightingale effect) and have some guilt about how she seemingly gave up her life to save everyone, especially him, I also think RR!ST2 Mike would be very attached to Will though given how Will trusted him and stuck by him despite all the horrors. Mike takes loyalty very seriously and Will being with Nancy and Karen (as she would be the “crazy” mom who lost her son in RR!ST1, but she’d enlist Joyce’s help since Ted wouldn’t really care so it would be power duo Joyren trying to figure out where Mike is) in the RR!ST2 shed scene would mean a lot to him.
Now, we have those 8 months between ST2 and ST3 where basically Mike and El entered a relationship in ‘85. In that time frame in the RR au, I would focus more on how the Party is getting over the trauma they faced during RR!ST2. Firstly, Mike is definitely not okay after being possessed by a demonic godly shadow force. He’s in therapy again maybe, back on medications, IDK what exactly but he is broken inside but trying his best to act like everything is normal and he wasn’t just possessed. I think he would try to cling onto his childhood as Will did in ST3, because Mike didn’t get to grow up normal since he got kidnapped and possessed by monsters. Will and El would bond a lot in those 8 months though, definitely becoming closer siblings and El having a crush on Mike can still a thing. Mike might not feel that same way for her but he’d be down for dating if just to feel normal again. Part of that may be to continue dampening how he feels for Will because he just wants to be a regular kid again and what he feels for his best friend is not at all natural in his mind. I like the idea of Mike and El getting together in ST3 at the mall scene so I’d stick with that. But I also feel like Mike would definitely also be spending half the time subconsciously trying to stay away from El because she’s also a reminder of the horrors he faced in the UD and with the Mind Flayer.
There would be a lot of Will, El, Mike moments too! Will is her brother of sorts in the RR au and Hopper is only ever really comfortable with Mike coming to visit when Will is over, too, even before Mike agrees to date El.
So okay, Episode 1 of RR!ST3 deals with the fact that all the kids are still dealing with some sort of trauma. Mike wakes up from a nightmare, uses his walkie talkie to contact Will, and Will comes over and sits in his room with him and they chat for a bit until Mike can fall back asleep. Will sits at the foot of Mike’s bed watching him sleep before he sneaks back out the house. Nancy catches him and thanks him for stopping by and then he catches Lucas outside too while making his way back home. Lucas casually mentions that he couldn’t sleep and they chat about how weird things have been when no one in Hawkins knows what happened last fall. In the early afternoon the next day, Will bikes over to Hopper’s cabin to hang out with El, they listen to music and doodle together for hours, just being great friends. El casually mentions that she might have a bit of a crush on Mike (who comes with Dustin, Lucas, and El to visit sometimes because fuck ST3 and isolating El from the Party). This could be a moment for Will to be like, “Oh, me, too.” and they can bond over liking Mike together (that’d be cute af!! and it would help Will feel more comfortable about how he feels toward Mike when he’s able to talk about it without persecution). She asks him if Mike likes him back and Will kinda just stops doodling.
“I don’t know,” he murmurs hoarsely. “He’s never said anything.”
El hums and takes out a purple crayon to color in the grass. “Do you know if he likes me?”
Will says he doesn’t know but that he’ll figure it out for her. Hopper won’t let her come with Will to the movie that night so he promises one night he’ll help sneak her out and then bikes over to the theater. We have the ST3 theater scene but it’s reversed of course, so it’s Mike who feels the Mind Flayer and Will who asks him if he’s okay. Mike isn’t as shy and flustered as Will was in ST3 though, he tries to brush Will off petulantly (as RR!ST3 Mike tries his best to act like the events of RR!ST2 aren’t affecting him as much as it is) but Will takes his hand and says, “It’s okay to not be okay.” and Mike kinda fidgets but squeezes his hand in turn before they both go back to watching the movie.
The next day when Dustin comes back, we have the Party going up to Cerebro but there would not be any El and Mike leaving like in ST3. Instead, Will and El are whispering between themselves but it’s not really much about anything. El is too shy to ask Mike if he wants to sit with her as they listen to Dustin call his girlfriend and Will just wants her to feel comfortable near Mike and keeps pestering for her to just sit next to him. Mike is irritated because he wanted to hang with Will more today and he’s bonding with El. His powers activate from his irritation and he’s blocking the radio signal for Dustin and Suzie’s call. When it starts getting late, the Party splits up, Will and El leaving first because of curfew (a real one not the lie El told in ST3). Lucas and Max leave next and Mike is left solo with Dustin.
“I know that Will and El aren’t together, but god, I feel so childish being the single one out.” Mike complains as a chill breeze washes over the two of them.
Dustin hums distractedly, still trying to work out why Cerebro isn’t picking up Suzie’s channel. It takes a moment for Mike’s words to sink in and then he perks. “You know, El likes you.”
“She what?” Mike blurts, giving Dustin a look. “No, she doesn’t. She can’t.”
“Uh, but she can and she does.” Dustin turns a random knob to a different frequency. “It’s pretty obvious; she was sending you heart eyes this entire time if your oblivious ass would have realized.”
Mike isn’t sure how to feel about it. He’s always seen El as Will’s sister, especially with Hopper attempting (and kinda failing) at dating Joyce. Even when they danced at Snowball, it was a thing of gratitude, of joy, of acknowledging that she hadn’t died and he was happy about that. But, El actually liking him? “What am I supposed to do about that?”
“Do you like her?”
Mike scrunches his nose. He feels…something toward her but he’s not really sure what it is. It’s not the same way he feels toward Nancy but it’s not what he felt toward Max either. And it’s definitely not what he feels toward Will, but he doesn’t want to think about that right now. He wants to feel normal. “I’m not sure.”
“Well, if it’s not a solid no, then I’d say go for it.” Dustin adjusts his hat and leans back with a sigh. “She’s cute and I think this is the first time a cute girl has ever liked your nerdy ass.”
“Shut up,” laughs Mike and he nudges his friend who grins in turn. He looks up at the sky and sighs. “I should probably get back home before my mom goes nuts. Talk to you later, yeah?”
“I’m leaving, too,” he sighs as he stands up. “I don’t know why this isn’t working. Maybe the clouds are too overcast.”
Mike shrugs and flicks at the radio’s antenna. It buzzes erratically, static blasting through Dustin’s headphones and then suddenly there’s a voice coming through the noise. It’s a blend of things, like the receiver is caught between two frequencies. One is Suzie, the other is some spoken code (in English because the random inclusion of the Russians works for Red Scare era / anti-Russia 80′s America but like…it had no set up so I wouldn’t use it for RR!ST3) that neither Mike nor Dustin can understand. Dustin tries to fix the frequency channels to focus on Suzie, but he looses her and the input only focuses on the frequency the code is on. Mike touches the antenna again, holding on this time around, and he can literally feel the electric currents coursing through him, something sharper than a tickle but not as harsh as actual electrocution. The dials on the receiver interface start wavering about randomly and crazily until Mike lets go and then there’s only static again.
“What the,” Dustin mutters, bending down to check how Cerebro is working. “What did you do?”
Mike stares down at his hands, a panic attack on the edge of his senses because, seriously, what the hell was that? First having flashbacks in the theater and feeling that shocking tingling sensation on their way up the hill, now this? “I…I don’t know.”
Dustin taps at a dial and frowns. “Touch it again. Like hold onto it as you did earlier.” Mike does as told and the dials go nuts again. “Mike…do you…have you had any issues near electrical appliances recently?”
Mike scowls and tries to remember if anything odd has happened recently. “No? Not really. Sometimes the radio in my mom’s car doesn’t work and the TV gets a little staticy but that’s normal. Oh, and we had flickering lights out at the cabin when Will, Lucas, and I visited but it’s a cabin in the woods so what do you expect.”
Dustin bites at his bottom lip. “And this only happens when you’re around?”
“I, uh,” Mike grabs at his hair, “No, no, it doesn’t. It doesn’t. It can’t…I’m not, what…I thought that was the Upside Down only.”
“What do you mean?”
“I could touch the lights and the TV when I was in the Upside Down version of the basement. And when I touched them, everything glowed. Kind of like casting Daylight in D&D.” Mike struggles to find his breath; he never really talks about what it was like in the Upside Down. “And…and I knew, I knew where the demogorgon was before I should have. Like innate. And the dead people…”
“Detect Evil?” Dustin suggests, cocking his head to the side. “Mike, do you think any of that stuck with you here?”
[ So basically, the equivalent of “magic” in D&D is electricity in the real world / the Upside Down since electricity and tech is kinda like modern magic, and all of Mike’s powers in the Upside Down are, in theory, paladin spells. He couldn’t control which lights flickered on like Will did in ST1 but he can turn them on and he can create a beacon, along with talking to the dead and having an innate circle of protection around him (a magic circle as paladins can have!) ]
Mike goes back home totally freaked out and refusing to believe he has “powers” because his time in the UD felt like such a nightmare anyway. He just wanted to survive, he didn’t ask for this, he didn’t ask for the Mind Flayer to possess him and use his body to kill people, to almost destroy Hawkins in the process. And that night, Mike decides he absolutely cannot let these possible powers do anything or mean anything because he’s normal, he’s a normal 14-year-old boy who is absolutely not crushing on his very male best friend, no, he’s gonna get a girlfriend, and hang out at the mall like kids do over the summer, and everything is going to be fine.
The next day, Will doesn’t go over to El’s place to hang out, Mike picks up the phone and says a dumb lie about Will being busy to try to get out of it. (“Friends don’t lie,” says El afterwards. “But brothers do.” snorts Max, “All. The. Time.”) He’s frustrated by El wanting to spend time with Will one-on-one when he’s trying to get the og4 Party members together for some normal hangout time playing D&D because, again, Mike here is the one trying to cling onto his childhood, even more now that he might have “powers”. They play D&D with Mike as DM and it all goes well until Karen comes downstairs asking about magnets and Mike internally freaks out. He’s been feeling like someone is watching him for a while now (hint: El when spying on the boys in the Void) and now his mom is talking about something that could very well be his powers working. Dustin knows and can actually see it, so he suggests everyone should get some fresh air and hang out at the mall. The Party goes out shopping, they hang out at Scoops Ahoy and Mike and Dustin share their story about the radio last night but purposefully leave out details about what Mike did with the antenna. Will feels guilty for lying so he’s trying to find some new clothes so El isn’t always wearing Hopper’s hand-me-downs, and they run into Max and El outside.
“Well, well, well,” Max huffs as she crosses her arms. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”
Will is worried because El leaving the house and being at the mall of all places would definitely make Hopper upset. “Are you okay?” he asks her, careful not to sound too overbearing. “Does Hopper know you’re here?”
El shrugs. “I told him I was seeing Max. And I am.” She turns to Mike. “You said Will couldn’t come over yet you are shopping. Why did you lie?”
Mike, who has spent practically the whole time at the mall on pins and needles, is really not in the mood for being questioned like this. “It just came out. I wanted to hang with the boys, okay? Just us. Like old days.”
El frowns. “Do you not like me?”
“No! No, I really like you!” Mike softens up and gives her a smile. “Honest; friends don’t lie, right? I’m sorry I lied to you. Today’s been…weird.” Dustin huffs at that. “Don’t worry about it though, I genuinely like you.”
And Mike doesn’t mean it that way–he had just said ‘friends don’t lie’ because he really does see her as a friend–but El takes it that way, and she grins widely, blushing as she ducks her head. “I like you, too, Mike.”
Will didn’t even think Mike liked El that way but now that it’s spoken in front of him, he can feel his heart breaking just a bit because any chance he thought he had is gone in his mind. El steps into Mike’s space and he blinks a couple times. “I want to go out with you.”
Dustin gasps, Lucas covers his mouth, Will tries his best not to look dejected, and Max whoops at her side. Mike turns to Will, who is staring at his feet, and then looks back at El. (A parallel to Snowball when Will looked at Mike for approval before going to dance with Zombie Boy girl.) Mike told himself he was gonna get a girlfriend and be normal, right? Ignore whatever happens in his chest when Will smiles at him. Ignore all of that and his stupid powers and be normal. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. Let’s go out.”
So the Party stays at the mall a little longer and Mike and El hang out together and get ice cream at Scoops’ Ahoy, which is amusing to Steve and Robin both. At the end, they go back to the Wheelers and El has to go back to the cabin but Mike is kind of in a daze because wow, he just got a girlfriend for the first time and went on a date with her. Dustin keeps teasing him, Lucas is cackling and making kissing jokes, but Will…Will is oddly silent at first. They get back on the campaign but no one can really concentrate and Will starts getting concerned about El and how she was out and about without Hopper’s knowledge. Mike is even more frustrated now because he thought things were going to start getting normal now, but it just seems to be falling apart. Will won’t even concentrate on the campaign, Dustin is horrible at trying to be subtle about if Mike’s powers are activating, and Lucas is complaining with Will about how Max and El are hanging out.
Mike lashes out and storms outside, where Will goes after him. “Mike, I’m sorry, it’s a really good campaign,” Will starts with a hand to Mike’s shoulder, “but I’m worried about El and I just…I can’t concentrate right now. We can play it tomorrow, I promise.”
Mike yanks himself away from Will. “Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, it’s always tomorrow! I said ‘see you tomorrow’ before and then I never did! Tomorrow may never fucking come! But oh, that doesn’t matter, huh? Tomorrow always comes for you. Tomorrow is always gonna be better.”
“Mike,”
“No!” he yells and lightening crackles in the distance. “No, you don’t get to say anything! You keep spending time with El, forgetting about all of us! I’m her boyfriend now and I’m not even this obsessed with her whereabouts.” He waves at Will, who scowls. “She’s not even really your sister and you’re letting her just ruining the party like this? And for what? So you can have a fake younger sister to hole up in her room all day?”
Will’s nostrils flare. “El is my sister whether you like it or not!” He snaps back with irritation. “It’s not my fault you don’t like El!”
Mike pauses, eyes widening just a fraction as his breath visibly hitches. No one was supposed to know that he wasn’t even sure how he felt…Dustin himself had come to the conclusion that Mike knew he liked El all along. Will though wants to take it back immediately. Taking out his anger onto Mike isn’t fair at all and just because Mike suddenly has a girlfriend doesn’t mean he should try to accuse Mike of not liking her. But he can’t help but question either way because Mike barely alluded to seeing her that way anyway.
“Look, I’m…I’m sorry, that came out wrong. So wrong.” He steps toward Mike, who tenses up more. “I know you like El, okay? I know you care about her. I care about her, too, just differently. She helped save you and the Party, how can I not care? That type of care has been with me for months. I can’t shut that off. I’m sorry.”
Mike’s breathing is getting denser and his vision is getting blurry because now he knows. Now he knows how he feels and he really fucked up saying yes to dating El. He doesn’t like her like Nancy and he doesn’t like her like Max either. He especially doesn’t like her like a boyfriend. “I like El like how you like her.”
“Mike?” Will’s voice is soft and shaking a little and Mike feels like throwing up.
“El saved me,” he whispers, “She saved me and I like her for that. I do. But she’s not…”
“She’s not what?”
Mike is crying now, angry tears dripping down his face like the rain as his voice crackles like the thunder. “She’s not you! I thought she would be enough and maybe I was wrong for it but it hasn’t even been a full day and I already know! I already know I don’t like her like that because I like you!”
There’s nothing but the patter of rain and Mike’s heavy breathing, and Mike can already feel his heart breaking because he spent so long trying to deny this and now he blurted it out in the midst of an argument like a dumbass and now Will is going to hate him. Hate him for not being normal, hate Mike for being what Lonnie always said he was. He’s crying still, hands shaking at his side as the tears continue to spill.
Will looks up at him with widened eyes and Mike can’t take it any longer. He can’t face the inevitable rejection right now. “I need to go.”
“Mike, wait, no! Mike!” Will rushes toward him but Mike’s already on his bike and riding through the rain. “Mike! Mike, come back!”
When Mike doesn’t turn back, Will rushes downstairs, tears streaming down his face as well and he can barely get his words out. “We need to find Mike, we need to find him now!”
“Will, what happened?” Lucas asks but Will grabs his jacket instead of replying.
“We need to go, now.” the brunette is shaking and Dustin puts a hand on his shoulder.
“Seriously, Will, what happened? Is he okay? Is he hurt?”
“Yes, yes, oh my god,” Will collapses on the stairs before he can finish climbing them. “Oh my god, he confessed to me.”
“Confessed what? His powers?”
Will blinks a few times and looks up at Dustin as he rubs at his runny nose. “His what? Powers?”
Dustin freezes. “Oh. I, uh, I thought…oh…oh. Mike likes you?”
Will waves a passing hand. “Pause, what is this about Mike’s powers?”
Lucas speaks up with irritation. “I thought you said we need to go!”
So all the boys get on their bikes and ride toward the Byers house since that’s where Mike would go when his nightmares got bad enough and it’s a safe place for him outside of the basement. Dustin explains what Mike had done with Cerbero and how they caught this code that he had been sort of hashing out with Steve and Robin when they went to the mall. No one is home at the Byers residence (Joyce and Karen are out with Hopper doing their whole side storyline there) and Will starts to freak out more.
“Where would he be, where would he be?”
Lucas crosses his arms. “Maybe the cabin? That’s where his girlfriend is after all.”
And that’s not where Mike is, he’s actually with Steve and Robin at the mall given he feels he’d be better off with someone who understands the UD/MF mess (Steve) and someone who doesn’t know the Party dynamics (Robin). He’s just about to tell Robin about his confession to Will when he feels the Mind Flayer and knows that he’s back.
The rest of the season is kinda…the same ish but also not?? But so I don’t write out the whole damn thing now lmao here are the pointers:
El and Mike are still trying to be girlfriend and boyfriend when they reunite at the cabin (Scoops Troop is a thing but it’s not tied to the Russian bs so they aren’t at the mall the entire time) but Mike is also really uncomfortable with El’s advances though he tries not to act like it.
Mike avoids Will as best he can even though Will keeps trying to get one-on-one time with Mike to confess that he likes him back
Jonathan and Nancy team up at the cabin too with news about the exploding rats (the MF’s attempt to possess non humans that went wrong) and Mike speaks up about how he might have powers himself
El tries to teach him how to go into the Void (which would be like a prayer for him) but when he does so, he ends up running into the Mind Flayer and find out that it’s after him and is willing to kill all his friends to get to him
Mike and El both pull out of the Void together gasping and crying and Will is immediately at Mike’s side as Max rushes to El. “He’s going to kill us,” Mike sobs shakily, “He’s going to kill us all.”
El gets attacked by the Mind Flayer (not Meat Flayer) because it was coming for Mike and she intercepted the transmission using her mind
At the hospital Mike breaks up with El (instead of how in ST3 they became friends again), and she’s a little hurt but understanding when he confesses that he likes someone more than her and doesn’t want to hurt her by lying to her constantly when dating her
Will finally gets Mike to himself here and is about to confess but then Mike feels the Mind Flayer (his innate sense evil power) and it’s possessed someone. He confronts it, helps save Nancy from the shapeshifting demogorgon attacking her, and banishes it from this dimension, only to pass out from the effort
El takes over with her powers and with Mike’s help, accesses the radio to find the channel that Dustin and Mike had found before. She discovers that someone is trying to open the gate again under the mall
At the supermarket, Will and Mike finally get to talk and Will confesses that he likes Mike, too. “Blank makes you crazy, right?” Mike chuckles as he takes Will’s hand in his own. He’s not willing to say love yet even if he knows it’s true. He knows that Will understands him though. Will always does.
“Yeah,” the boy replies sweetly, “blank makes you crazy.”
Cue an almost kiss before Lucas and Dustin come around with the fireworks and they all get over to the mall
Big battle against the Mind Flayer and the people it possessed. Instead of a giant gory meat machine, it possesses people in Hawkins like it did Mike in RR!ST2 and uses them to shapeshift them into individual monsters. So the Party is attacked by a horde of demogorgons and demodogs!!
The fireworks help a lot as Lucas suggested, and Mike and El work together as superpowered besties to banish the Mind Flayer from all the neighbors. Some die in the process (because it’s just, brutal and violent and horrible) and Mike gets temporarily repossessed in the battle but he’s more leveled up now and understands how this works, so he can banish the MF from him (a level 4 paladin spell might I add!) as much as El used her powers to take out the piece of the meat machine in her leg in ST3
Hopper closes the gate but not in enough time (we need him in the Upside Down for RR!ST4) and then the Mind Flayer retreats, but it kills all the people it had possessed in the process, which only wrecks the kids with guilt for being unable to save everyone like they almost did
This also frightens Mike who has been possessed by the Mind Flayer because it means his connection is still strong enough that the Mind Flayer could kill him instantly too (but it won’t bc Mike and El’s powers are too strong and it could possibly kill itself trying to kill them through that connection)
At the end there’s no one really moving away. El has lost her powers, Mike’s are nearly depleted / he doesn’t know how to use them without El’s help. Everyone is mourning Hopper and with El and Mike unable to use their powers, they can’t go into the Void to see that Hopper’s actually alive.
uhhh the epilogue is the first day of high school and the Party are hopping off their bikes and chatting about something nonsensical. Lucas and Max are holding hands, Dustin is waving his arms about wildly as he explains his latest science project, and Mike and Will are standing close together, just enough to brush their fingers together. (El is homeschooled since she needs to catch up on her education)
“You okay?” Will asks quietly as they stand off to the side away from the bustling crowds. “It’s okay to not be okay.”
“I know,” Mike grins down at his boyfriend, which is still so blush inducing to think about, so he blushes. “But, I’m fine. I’ve got you right beside me so I’m definitely okay.”
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Text
The Now
Carry On Countdown: WLW
Summary: Trixie and Keris are huge canonical lesbians thank u for coming to my ted talk.
Dedicated to @slightlystalesushirolls ily💕
•••
Trixie laughs way too hard at Keris’ jokes and hates herself for it. Even though pixie laughs sound like tinkling bells, Trixie’s human mother ensures that hers is more akin to a braying donkey than delicate silver. But Trixie is trying so hard to be delicate. And pretty and sweet and soft. Because Keris seems like she might be into the whole femme thing. Most butch girls aren’t looking for a super androgynous mate, right?
So Trixie tries. Again and again. How can she be more perfect, more appealing? She tries to be more masc, adopting flannels and working out and ever-so-slightly changing the way she talks. It doesn’t work. She tries high femme, goes a solid month wearing only pastel shades, tries jewellery and flowers, spelling her hair rainbow colours to send a message. Nothing seems to work. Keris shows no interest at all, save sputtering at the table the first time she shows up to the breakfast table the first time with her newly-spelled hair, wearing a skirt shorter than dress code will allow and the lowest-cut blazer in all of England over a bralette. But Trixie’s pretty sure she was just laughing at the pathetic attempts to be attractive for once. Even her snobbish roommate notices her state of misery, and leaves her alone for a full two days after that one.
Despite botched romantic efforts, Trixie and Keris do become friends. Best friends, even. Their personalities are too compatible for them not to be, both so snarky and spontaneous that even their other friends tire of being around them. And this is part of the problem. Being best friends means that Trixie is in close proximity with the girl of her dreams all the fucking time. Which is great, in theory. But the longing and loneliness and stupid wishes to kiss Keris until both their lips turn blue put a strain on Trixie’s brain. It threatens to stay that way, for a whole half year, before more drama happens.
The chosen one runs off to slay dragon or whatever (Trixie personally didn’t think Simon had it in him, doesn’t he like to hang out with the nice goat lady and stuff? And she’s pretty sure dragons are an endangered species or something). Anyways, the school is plunged into chaos. Again. This time, though, there’s a slight difference. Keris is shivering, arms wrapped around Trixie, and they’re completely alone in the catacombs.
“Keris?” Trixie whispers, “Are you okay?”
Keris glares. “No! The school is under attack again, my face is fucking bleeding, and we’re hiding in what is probably the most structurally unsound place in this school! Why does Watford even have catacombs in the first place?”
Oh. Trixie’s embarrassed, which has been happening a lot lately. But also freaked out a little, because there’s a lot of blood coming from Keris’ forehead and how did she not notice that before?
“Your forehead is bleeding, like, a lot.”
Keris grimaces. “Thanks for pointing that out, genius.”
“Wait! That wasn’t what I meant! I just… There might be something I can do about that?” Trixie stutters her way through the sentence. Because this isn’t just a normal healing.
“What can you do? We haven’t gotten onto flesh mending spells yet, and I’m not in the mood to have you experiment on me.”
“No, not that. I mean, um. Pixies can heal things with kisses. And sometimes I can too. But it only works if—”
“Oh! I mean, if it’s alright with you…” This is awkward, and not least because Keris has cut Trixie off at a crucial rule of healing. To heal, you have to be in love with the person. Deeply in love. Which is why her father’s kisses can mend her mother’s broken bones, but do nothing for her. Not that her halfbreed magic is strong enough for healing bones. But superficial cuts and bruises she can do.
“It’s alright with me.” Trixie manages a nervous smile. It’s not like a kiss on the forehead means anything anyways. It’s not like her heart is pounding through her skull. It’s not like her mind is begging her to open her mouth and say something, tell Keris the truth. Instead, she gently, gently places a kiss directly over the open cut on Keris’ head, and watches it seal back up.
Keris grins, bright enough to blind Trixie (not that it doesn’t blind her every time already). “Thanks! I haven’t felt magic like that before! It got all hot and tingly and I felt my skin seal back together and—“
“Can I kiss you?” Trixie cuts her off.
“What?”
Trixie continues, panicking. “I mean. On the mouth. It’s totally okay if you don’t want me to, I mean I’m sure I wouldn’t want to kiss me either but it just seemed like the right moment and I’m panicking right now because I love our friendship but I can’t live like this anymore I’ve tried so hard to get you to notice me like that and you never seem to care which is cool but I figured you deserved to know, y’know? And I just, I mean. I just think that. I guess…”
“Trixie, I—“
“Keris, I love you, and if I have to go another day without saying something it might kill me.”
Trixie opens her mouth again, only to be cut off with the sensation of Keris smashing her lips to her mouth. It’s not entirely pleasant, but not unpleasant either. As first kisses go, it’s pretty good, actually. They make out for a good half hour against the walls of the catacombs, which is metal and romantic and weird and kind of perfect. Just like them. Later, Keris will tell Trixie everything she noticed. Later, Trixie will properly ask to be her girlfriend. But that’s the future. This is the now.
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