Stevehharringtcns·:

scribblcs·:

WHO: gabe diaz & @eddiemcnson· WHAT: gabe spots a familiar face WHERE: downtown hawkins

gabe was settling into hawkins nicely. sure, it was vastly different from chicago, but this small town quiet was something he might be able to get used to. he’d seen a few patients already, but he still had a lot of downtime. on an ideal day, he walked to downtown in the morning, tried some coffee, read the paper, then went to work. following sessions, he liked to walk the town again, try some more coffee, then return home. gabe was really making an effort to immerse himself with the civilians. he’d gotten tangled up in a deep conversation with an elderly gentleman inside of melvald’s late in the afternoon, and they strolled about town together for a while before they parted ways, leaving gabe to finish out his walk alone at dusk. 

at least, he’d thought it would be alone. a couple feet ahead of him, an unmistakable mound of hair veered around the corner and gabe curiously squinted. that bandana certainly looked familiar…tailing the other for a while, he remained inconspicuous until he stole a glimpse of the other and got confirmation that he was in fact, eddie munson, a client from back in chicago. laughing in disbelief, gabe cupped his hands together and warmly called, “eddie!” last he’d heard from eddie, he was taking another trip back to his hometown, how was he to know that it was hawkins? despite how in depth they had gone about how horrible it was for him there, they’d never gotten on a first name basis with the place. gabe knew he made frequent visits, but typically, they weren’t this long, and when gabe left town to take up this new job, he worried about how eddie might react upon his return to find out his therapist had up and left him. luckily, those worries were quickly erased as soon as gabe saw how well eddie seemed to be faring. approaching him, beaming, gabe went in for a hug. oftentimes his heart seemed to get in the way from successfully preventing professional bleeding into personal and such was the case with eddie. he was one of many clients that gabe took a personal liking too, worried a little more about, and hoped extra harder they’d have an emotionally rich future. pulling back from the hug, gabe laughed in disbelief, “i have to admit, i’m quite surprised to see you here. i’m sure you could say the same.” 

while this was all well and good, it gave gabe second thoughts about hawkins. if this was the town that was such a source of hurt for one eddie munson, maybe it wasn’t as nice as he was starting to believe. 

+++

today was ... weird, to say the least. having previously ridden the high of managing to make steve all flustered and blushed when he’d stopped by family video, eddie’s modd had been dampened significantly by his run in with mayor spencer, leaving with a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach as he turned the corner, made his way back to his car. maybe he should park closer to family video next. re-route his evening walks to go through the woods instead of downtown hawkins. lost in thought, he’d barely even taken notice of the figure that had started to follow him, jumping slightly, hand on his heart as he ehard someone call his name.

turning around, prepared to lock eyes with someone who was definitely not fond of seeing him around town, eddie found he was pleasantly surprised as his former therapist came into view. slowly, he lowered his hand, squinted. “.... dr. diaz ? what - what are you- “ doing here, he thought as he was interrupted by gabe’s arms puilling him into a tight hug. one that eddie eagerly returned, wide smile on his face. “yeah... well, my boss is travelling the states for the summer, gave everyone an advance and closed up shop. thought i’d stop by here, pay my uncle a visit, you know.” he shrugged, non-chalantly, as if he hadn’t described hawkins as ‘hell on earth’ to gabe during therapy sessions for the last, like, three years. “and you? what brings you to hicksville, indiana?”

cassieconrads·:

Cassie let out a half-snorted laugh at the mention of Thad, who she could tell without even hearing about his conversation with Eddie how it must’ve gone. Thad was probably the most judgmental person she’d ever met, which was saying a lot, given the current state of her sorority life. Eddie was made for somewhere like Hawkins, Indiana, while Thad, quite simply was not. “He sucks, and I cannot express how sorry I am that you had the misfortune of meeting him. I could literally go on forever about how horrible I think that man is, and I’ve tried to very subtly bring it up to Nancy many times, but she won’t budge. I don’t know why, but maybe someone here can help her see the light more than I can.”

Though they’d only really driven through Chicago, Cassie couldn’t imagine what could have possibly brought someone back to Hawkins from a big city like that. “And you came back?” she asked, raising a brow. 

She gave a theatrical curtsy in response to his bow, unable to hide a smile. “You as well. I might have to start stealing all of Nancy’s friends for myself, if you’re all this cool.” Cassie didn’t want to bring up the cemetery or her vision to someone she’d literally met on the street, but maybe he knew something about the girl she’d been. “Right, well, I was looking through Nancy’s yearbook, and there was this whole page memorial kind of thing that sparked my interest. Some cheerleader girl, did something happen to her or something? I was just looking for anything that might be in the archives, I was … just curious.”

+++

he scrunched up his nose in disgust. so that was wheeler's infamous boyfriend. truly, eddie could not imagine how she'd moved on from steve to... whatever the hell this guy's deal was. "can't imagine that she'd value herself so little to  willingly be with this guy. you sure he's not, like, blackmailing her or something?"

just as cassie had said, eddie, too, hoped that someone would help nancy back onto the right path. not - not that that someone had to necessarily be steve, mind you. no, eddie really wasn't keen on a repeat of the 'upside down flirting with your ex while trying to fight vecna' debacle. he valued both steve and nancy's company greatly, but the thought of the two of them shamelessly flirting made him want to gag.

he shrugged, nodded. "yup, sure did. my boss is traveling the states for the summer, gave me a couple months off. thought I'd check back in with the crew." namely the people he'd spent spring break of '86 fighting an evil monster from a hell version of hawkins with. and the teenagers he used to play dnd with. " my uncle still lives here, too. only family i got."

eddie's smile slowly but surely faded as cassie continued talking. as if someone had punched the air out of him, he felt nauseous all of a sudden, hands cold and clammy. eyes darting around nervously. cheerleader. dead cheerleader. dead cheerleader in nancy wheeler's graduating class.

"chrissy cunningham.", he blurted out, voice meek and close to breaking. "what do you... why do you wanna know what happened to her? what is this, some kind of - are you trying to mess with me? is that what this is?"

dvstybuns·:

WHO: Dustin Henderson & @eddiemcnson·

WHAT: Just a lil check-in after they both got ouchies <3

WHERE: Eddie’s trailer 

The most horrible thing about the Upside Down was that no matter how hard Dustin tried, he could never know everything about it. Just when it seemed like they’d figured shit out and defeated evil for good, some brand new horror would escape and they’d start this horrifying cycle all over again. Honestly, after Vecna, Dustin had thought that they might be done for good this time; it had been quiet for two years, after all. But that was clearly not the case. 

Once the adrenaline had begun to wane after the night of their encounter with the creature, Dustin wanted to check on everyone. Especially Eddie, considering that he’d really only faced off against the Upside Down once, and they had barely lived to tell the tale. He’d gotten to get out of Hawkins, away from all this shit. He probably wasn’t thrilled that it was all starting back up again now that he was back. 

“This is so fucked, dude,” Dustin announced once he’d sat down on Eddie’s couch. His feet went up onto the coffee table reflexively; when had Dustin ever cared about manners? “I mean, seriously. You’re never going to guess what happened to me, Max, Will, Mike, Joyce and Murray at the border. Some seriously fucked up shit.” He ran a hand through his messy hair and sighed. “Can I have a beer?” It was worth an ask, and after the last few days, Dustin felt like he deserved it. 

“How have you been, by the way? I’m sorry I haven’t come by sooner or anything. Just been busy with work and now being chased by a creature from another dimension. The fucking usual.” 

+++

albeit horribly and riddled with nightmares, eddie had slept after the disaster at benny’s. in fact, he’d passed out the minute he’d gotten back to the trailer, probably due to the adrenaline wearing off and the many injuries he’d sustained that night. which were still aching, a dull sort of pain, when he woke up.

he glanced at his radio alarm clock - it was noon, he realized, shit, he’d slept through most of the day. and now he’d woken up to the sound of pounding ont the front door. with a groan, eddie forced himself to get up, pulled a shirt over his head, pulling on a pair of shorts on his way to the door. 

“dude, what the hell?”, he’d said, all bed-head, rubbing sleep out of his eyes and blinking, in confusion, when he ‘d realized that it was dustin who’d knocked, not wayne who had forgotten his key or something. exchanging lazy yet excited greetings, he’d stepped away from the door, closing it behind dustin with a yawn.

fixing himself a cup of coffee, eddie concentrated hard on taking in dustin’s rambling. the kid’s chatter was a welcome noise, though. he’d missed him, of course he had. “what the hell are you on about?”, he mumbled, making his way to the couch to sit beside dustin.

“yo! get your damn feet of the coffee table, you heathen.”, he said with a scoff and a shake of his head. the shake of his head also indicating that dustin getting a beer wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. eddie dragged a hand down his face. “hold up  - wait - can you just, like, walk me through what happened and where? slowly, henderson ? “

mmuscles·:

.

thad didn’t take kindly to when people didn’t take kindly to him. in hawkins, it was happening at what felt like every turn, but with this guy? it was different. not only did it bug him that he wasn’t wagging his tail to help him find a bouquet for nancy, but he totally gave thad the creeps. he countered for that by continuing to huff and puff and blow everyone in hawkins down with his ‘charm’ and ‘status’. it probably would have been wise at this point for thad to exit the conversation, and yet, he couldn’t stand to surrender first. “yeah man, ‘cause you’re like, the first person i saw?” thad furrowed his brows, shaking his head slightly as he explained where he was coming from, frustrated. “it has nothing to do with you specifically, in fact, it would’ve been killer if i could have avoided talking to someone like you.” he continued to rant and rave about totally irrelevant information, but the desire to let the other know how much he didn’t care for him was too strong to stop. 

“mike brady? really?” he scoffed, “do you think you’re like, funny or something?” thad narrowed his eyes, taking a step closer, “i don’t like jokes.” he informed. that wasn’t really true, he just didn’t like that joke. still, these directions were the closest thing thad had gotten to help. so he might just have to swallow his pride and take them. “of course i can manage that.” he answered promptly, “you think i can’t?” he asked foolishly, clearly now just looking for a fight. thad tried to reign it in though, he couldn’t show up at nancy’s with a fat lip. “watch your back.” he threatened, with no intention of following up on that. in a final power play, thad spit at eddie’s feet and continued towards this melvald’s.

+++

eddie simply stood there and watched with his brows drawn together, nose scrunched up in what could only be described as digust. “someone like me.”, he echoed, nodded to himself. noted how eerily similar this felt to just about any interaction he’d had with jason carver back in high school. noted how all he ever really got in chicago was a shove to the shoulder on the street, a couple of dirty looks. not someone so clearly unapproving of his life choices that he was looking for a fight.

he’d presses the play button on his walkman before the head of the brady bunch had stopped talking, could hear the music faintly playing over the headphones hanging around his neck. he gave him another look up and down, then shrugged. “back your watch.”, eddie called after him before he slipped his headphones back on and stomped off in the opposite direction, a little faster than before.

Season 4: Chapter Six — The Dive

STRANGER THINGS 4.01 The Hellfire Club

#eddie realising that not only is steve terrified but that he also cares about his life too (and then trying to reassure him 😭)

who : eddie munson + open !

where : the shore of lovers lake

Sometimes when he comes home he just likes to do .... this. Sit on a bench near a busy place- near, not, like, in the middle of it, ‘cause in Hawkins he’s still Eddie ‘the freak’ Munson - and people watch. Thinking about how he has miraculously made it out of this shithole, alive. Not made it all too far but he’s managed to get out of Hawkins, Indiana at all, and that amounts to something. To him it does.

So he sits there, closes his eyes for a moment and inhales deeply and - oh, yep, that’s definitely cow shit, isn’t it - just listens to the sounds that surround him. Families having picnics, teenagers sneaking away, people bathing in the sun, birds singing, twigs cracking - hold on. Eddie jolts upright. Oh, fuck this, he’s getting outta here, he’s not in the mood to get roughed up by some high school freshmen who still think he’s put some satanic DnD spell on those students that died two years ago. 

Eddie grabs his Van Halen lunchbox, jumps up, ready to make his escape as he bumps into someone - he grabs onto the backrest of the bench for balance, watches the contents of his metal box spill out onto the floor. Well, at least there’s no drugs this time. “Shit”, he curses under his breath, crouches down to collect all the little figurines he’s fucking hand-crafted for the next Hellfire campaing, “Shit, jesus, fuck.” Why did he have to make them this small? “Shit ,ah, sorry. Sorry, my bad. You - you good?”

where: the harrington residence

what: panik ! ( u ok ? )

who: @stevehharringtcns​ + eddie. 

see, eddie had tried really really hard to just... go home, go to bed, fall asleep after whatever the fuck had happened at benny’s diner. the night it happened had been relatively easy to sleep through, seeing as he was absolutely knackered and bruised from bumping into random objects all night. but the night afterwards... eddie was laying awake, staring holes into his bedroom ceiling. shifting in his bed, trying to find a comfortable position to sleep but well, how could he when he himself was uncomfortable all over, after what they’d seen the day before. he looked to the sight, the digits of his radio alarm clock telling him that it was nearly 12. he should just shut his eyes, think of some nice little scenario and get some fucking sleep.

but he couldn’t. so, with a whine and a groan, eddie got up. got dressed and, without thinking, really, he climbed into his van, turned the keys in the ignition and started driving. without a set destination, really. or so he’d thought - for, about a quarter of an hour later, he found himself in steve harrington’s driveway.

god fucking damn it. why had his brain subconciously lead him here? perhaps it had something to do with the fact that, in every little scenario eddie thought of to help drift off into dreamland, steve was there, occupying some sort of role.

well. he was pretty much always part of the main cast but eddie pushed the thought away, that was something to figure out another day. again, without thinking, eddie hopped out of his van and sprinted towards the front door, furiously ringing the door bell, knocking, pressing his face against the little opal glass plane. praying to god that harrington’s parents were yet again on one of their infamous work trips.

“steve? steve, are you up?” eddie started knocking, pounding rather, on the door, too. “harrington! please!”

cassieconrads·:

Cassie gave a nod at Eddie’s question, noticing his demeanor shift as she mentioned the Wheelers. As he described how he was friends with Mike, things started to make sense: maybe her new companion wasn’t that much of a stranger, after all. “Yeah, I came back with Nancy from the summer from college,” she explained, “we’re in the same sorority there, and they kind of all suck, so we bonded over it. Mike, though? I’m trying to get him to like me better than Nancy’s boyfriend, who somehow managed to follow us across the country to try and win her back, or some shit.” Cassie shrugged.

She let out a laugh, supposing he was right: Eddie certainly wasn’t the kind of guy she saw on the streets of Boston or San Francisco. “Shit, I’m sorry. I mean, I’m from California, and we had nothing like that going on there. Honestly, more has happened in the past few weeks that I’ve been here than my whole life there.” Including, but not limited to, a weird night at the graveyard and an entire diner burning down. “I’m Cassie. I appreciate the personal escort.”

+++

see, any friend of nancy’s that nancy trusted and liked enough to invite to stay with her over break surely wouldn’t mean no harm and eddie immediately relaxed. the...unfortunate encounter with ‘unnamed asshole slash jason carver carbon copy’ still had him somewhat shaken, looking over his shoulder more often than usual. and, at the mention of a dubious boyfriend that had followed them across the country, he slowly began to connect the dots. hoped to god that he had connected them all wrong. “that, uh, that boyfriend of hers - does he, like, have a little temper problem? and, like...does he sort of look like a ken doll right out of the box? “

he chuckled at her statement, shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “yeah, hawkins sort of does that to a person. lived here all my life before i moved to chicago, twenty years of, like, constant mayhem. and not, like, the good kind of mayhem, either.” 

but he spared her the gory details, the story of how, two years ago, he had nearly died while being attacked by vampire demon bats in the literal hell version of hawkins underneath the town. “well, pleased to make your acquaintance, cassie.”, he said with a grin and gave an over-exaggerated bow. “may i inquire what brings you to the library on such a fine day?”