𝐖𝐇𝐎: Robin Buckley + @yousuzeyoulose​ ! 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: henderson Residence

𝐖𝐇𝐎: robin buckley + @jackforeman​ ! 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: outside of the foreman residence

initially, robin had been a little hesitant about going to see jack. the only thing that kept repeating in her mind was dustin talking about how the people from the tree commune had just snapped back at the carnival which resulted in hawkins being sent into total chaos. and it was no secret that jack was involved — was one of them.

but jack was also steve’s neighbour and his friend. robin had known him back in high school, and he had been different from the rest of his teammates. most of them had been jerks, they showed off and we’re just dicks in general. but jack, he was nice and he definitely wouldn’t hurt a fly even then. so what had happened to flip that switch? nothing good, that was for sure. “steve- he’s uh. he’s okay.” she’d agreed to update him on their mutual friends condition. “a little wiped out but mostly okay.”

melissaia​:

WHO: Melissa Armstrong + open WHERE: Outside City Hall WHAT: Community car wash

     There had never been a time when Melissa was so lost in her life. Waking up after her own death to find that three years had passed, head filled with foggy memories of the time between that felt false but with no way to prove it, she was just left…adrift. She had been accepted to university before she disappeared; now she was quite suddenly a twenty-one year old with no college credit, no career and no clue how to get back on track. Well, in all fairness it had only been a few days and she was bound to pull her shit back together soon enough, but in the meantime she clung to what was familiar, what came naturally. Community service. As long as she could be of use to her town, she wouldn’t be entirely unmoored.

     “It’s five dollars for a small to full-size car, ten for a truck or van,” she automatically listed the prices for the fund-raiser car wash as somebody approached their hopeful operation, looking up from her clipboard with a bright smile and squinting in the direct sunlight. “All proceeds go to rebuilding Benny’s Burgers. Or if you’re here to volunteer your time, we could always use more hands and we have plenty of sponges to go around.”

⚢

robin hadn’t initially intended to go to the community car wash down at city hall, but it just happened to be on the way home. don’t get her wrong it was for a great cause, but she didn’t have a car. though she had mentioned it to steve so he could take his down there, as compensation. that was, if he would even let anyone else touch his ‘precious baby’. and robin was just going to breeze on straight past, until the sound of a familiar voice drew robin’s attention, to which she walked directly through the commotion instead to locate the source. usually a familiar voice wouldn’t seem too odd, except- “…melissa?”

she would have said it was impossible, except there the other woman was. standing there, rallying the town together just like she had done back in high school. but she was supposed to be dead. “melissa, hi. it’s robin, we used to study together, we-“ kissed in the back of the library that one time right before you disappeared off the face of the earth, only to turn up dead not long after? oh, yeah. like she could say that. “what are you doing here?” voice barely above a whisper now, robin felt as if she could almost choke on thin air.

𝐖𝐇𝐎: robin buckley + @stevehharringtcns​​​​ ! 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: the hospital  𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍: a couple days after steve wakes

last night had been the first time that robin slept at home since steve had initially arrived at the hospital. she wanted to stay but he had insisted that she go home to get a proper nights sleep and that he’d be okay, just for the night. and maybe he would be and while robin had agreed, she really didn’t want to be alone. she’d managed to avoid thinking too much about the house of mirrors by worrying about steve instead. but if she were alone, she knew it would only come rushing back.

luckily once she arrived home she’d been too exhausted for her mind to even bother replaying the events at the mirror maze for she fell asleep fairly quickly. and as soon as she woke that morning, robin changed probably faster than she ever had in her life so that she could hurry back. just to make sure he hadn’t gone back on his word or whatever.

walking to the hospital would admittedly be a little too far so she dug out her mom’s old bike (her own was way too busted!) from the garage and set off. but not before paying a visit to a grocery stores on the way to pick up some reese’s pieces — steve’s favorite. arriving at the hospital she signed in at the desk, security checked her backpack and she headed up to steve’s room.

“steve, can you believe i actually had to smuggle these in? it’s insane.” she entered the room with a quick glance at a sleeping cole, and pulled out the box of candy from the inside of her jacket, then gently placed it on steve’s lap. “how are you holding up?”

willthewize​:

WHO: will byers + open

WHERE: you decide

     His drawing skills have only improved since those childhood days scribbling with crayons and colored pencils, but it still requires practice, a constant honing of his abilities to stay sharp. And anatomy, realistic human portraiture, is one of the hardest things to get right, because when it’s just a little off…well, it can get creepy fast. People have always been one of Will’s favorite subjects to draw, probably stemming from his interest in visualizing his and the party’s childhood DnD characters. It would just be a lot easier if…

     “Could you try not to move so much? Sorry, it just helps if you stay still.” He didn’t want to come across as impatient, but if his model was already fidgety, then sitting longer to finish the sketch wasn’t going to help matters.

⚢

when will had so kindly requested to draw her, robin admittedly had been completely taken aback. someone wanting to sketch another person was a detail that you saw in the pictures all the damn time and she had always thought that it was unrealistic, not to mention completely ridiculous and super unlikely. yet here they were, in the most unusual situation — well, to her at least. will was talented though, like really talented. he was probably just as good with his artistic ability as she was with band. so robin had decided to at least give it a shot.

“okay but i warned you before we started that sitting still is entirely not my forte. in fact, i don’t think i’ve ever sat completely still in my entire life. one of my limbs always has to be moving. can’t you just, i don’t know, look past it or something?” the request for limited movement, only made them more frantic, including accompanying hand motions along with this minuscule speech followed by gentle fluffing of short hair. “maybe we can take a break?” really, robin? they’d barely even started.

Tammy Thompson, everybody.

zccming​:

WHO: max mayfield & @rcbinbvckleys​ WHAT: a little trauma bond for the girls WHERE: buckley residence

morning or night, max was still functioning in survival mode. four hours of sleep was a good night, she ate her first meals around dinner time if she even remembered, she’d showered maybe once this week. between rounds at the hospital and going door to door for her other friends who hadn’t gotten hurt, there was hardly any time for those little things, let alone digesting what went down in the house of mirrors. but if there was anybody who would get it, it was robin. 

with no regard for the hour, she skated to robin’s house, collected some pinecones from the yard, then began pelting her window with them. there was no easily scalable way in, so this would have to do. she hoped robin wasn’t a heavy sleeper, because she was reaching a breaking point. she had to talk about it. when the other finally opened the window to find the source of this commotion, max looked sheepishly up at her, “hey.” she started, dropping her pine cones, “are you busy? do you think…i could maybe like, come in or whatever?”

⚢

laying flat on her back robin just stared at the ceiling blankly, just like she had done most nights since that evening. ever since, the events of which had just replayed over and over in her mind like a retrospective bad omen. hell, she couldn’t even walk past a mirror without averting her eyes which made brushing her teeth rather difficult. however she’d managed to come up with a few rather unconventional methods to combat that hurdle. 

in the times that she had managed to sleep, an ethereal version of vickie had appeared to robin in dream. the two of them embarked on the beginnings of their relationship, replaying their first conversation after the upside down, their first date, their first kiss… and that was where it always went wrong. after their lips separated, vickie reverted to nothing but a burning pile of ash. robin had awoken and cried and screamed into her pillow way too many times, so lying awake? yeah, that was better than sleep.

the tapping at the window made her jump with a start, disregarding any other thoughts and sitting bolt upright.  leaning over to peer out of the window, robin began to brace herself for who or what was waiting for her on the other side. and as her eyes gradually adjusted, was relieved to find that it was just max. the one person who would definitely understand what she was going through. 

opening the window, she leaned out slightly as max began to talk. “do you have any idea what time it is, mayfield?” she hissed, then began to contemplate the repercussions of allowing someone into their house this late. but what her parents didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. she slowly nodded her head before departing from the window. robin crept downstairs and opened the front door, ushering max in quickly. “follow me and just- don’t touch anything, okay?”

❝  𝗜  𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟  𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘  𝗠𝗬  𝗪𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗘  𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗘  𝗛𝗔𝗦  𝗕𝗘𝗘𝗡  𝗢𝗡𝗘  𝗕𝗜𝗚  𝗘𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗥.  ❞

𝗯𝗶𝗼 & 𝗺𝗶𝘅𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗲 & 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱

backtowheeler​:

— ✎ —

There was almost no time to waste when Hawkins was in imminent danger. At least, that’s what Nancy was suspecting. There was no way everything that happened was pure coincidence. Even if it wasn’t Upside Down related, there was something afoot. 

As they passed through her house, Nancy turned back to Robin, her hand resting on the stairwell. “I guess she doesn’t have much else to do,” Nancy commented. It wasn’t a jab to her mom, but it wasn’t like she was running after any kids anymore other than Holly. Then again, even when she was younger Nancy couldn’t picture a time that their house looked anything other than perfect, save for the few times she had stepped on Mike’s Legos or Holly’s Lite Brite glow pegs. 

“Oh!” Nancy jerked her hand off the stairwell, a small smile on her face. She lead the charge upstairs to her bedroom. Nancy pushed the door open, leaving the door open wide enough to let Robin in. Her room hadn’t changed much since high school. Going off to college, Nancy made it abundantly clear that all things Hawkins would be left in Hawkins save for a handful of photo keepsakes. “You can close the door, if you want,” she said, sitting down on the edge of her bed. “My mom only cares if it’s a boy and…” she peeked her head around the corner to see if Holly, her dad, or her mom were snooping around the corner. “It’s probably better if no one hears this.”

Nancy flipped herself upside down on her bed, looking under her bed. “There it is!” She exclaimed, snatching a pink hat box. She resituated on the bed and popped open the box, filled with newspaper clippings from the last couple of Hawkins Post. They never reported anything truly newsworthy, in her journalistic opinion, but she did keep them on hand to jot down her own personal notes. “Can you tell me what happened to you? The weird shit that happened?”

⚢

standing in the doorway to the bedroom, the invitation to shut the door behind her made her throat slightly tighten. it didn’t make sense — why was she so nervous about this? it wasn’t as if nancy would think robin was insane, since they’d both experienced way worse. “imagine if that’s how your parents found out that living the dream in hawkins isn’t all it’s cut out to be.” despite the anxious thoughts, she closed the door anyway. following the other over to the bed, robin took a seat but making sure to leave a good foot or so between them. watching nancy effortlessly flip upside down only to return a few seconds later with a box in tow, she uttered a quick “smooth.”.

cassie had also been at the cemetery that evening so perhaps she’d already told nancy everything, but she was here now. it was too late to just back out. “some of us were down at the cemetery the same night as benny’s.” the why was a little less important. “our fire went out, some people fell into literal open graves and steve was… there! but he keeps insisting that he was out of town that night.”

a pause, looking up from fidgeting hands to make eye contact with nancy, robin would be lying if she said she wasn’t a little scared. “but then the strangest thing happened — i think i blacked out and had some kind of… vision or something. it was weird and creepy — but it felt like i was there, really there. except i wasn’t, i just woke up in the forest like nothing ever happened.” 

only now did it truly strike robin that the contents of such a vision would upset nancy just as much if not more than they had done herself. because it concerned barb, someone they had both once called their best friend. and if robin had to elaborate on it, should she… bend the truth? then again, she really didn’t want to hurt nancy’s feelings. “i’m either losing my mind with a capital l, or-” the alternative was way too daunting to even speak.

elevcnhops​:

xx

Thinking back, the idea of favorites was still a wild concept. How could you choose just one? Especially when one had nothing to begin with? There were those instances of flipping through channels casually beside Hop ( as they sat on the same musty couch she would return home to shortly ). The titles weren’t specified so she couldn’t tell Robin even if she wanted to. Biting her lower lip, chewing softly while continuing to think. “ Ralph Macchio? “

  Aha, there was something! “ Max showed me a picture in a magazine. “ trying to remember the name of his movie, maybe the other would know? “ He’s a good kisser? “ reiterating the question Max once voiced. Concluding it must not be a big deal to mention, that was the only ’ fact ‘ she knew about the actor besides the title to his movie. “ Or yours? “ expectancy upon her question, El could fight off monsters sure, but Robin still had more ‘ real world ‘ knowledge. Finding that priceless. Her eyes widening, “ What is your favorite movie ever? “ echoing back with genuine interest.

⚢

“oh! give me just one minute.” now ralph macchio she could work with. the comment about him being a good kisser raised an eyebrow, it didn’t look anything special to her. not that she knew the slightest thing about what it was like to kiss a boy. but robin made a beeline straight for where she knew the video would be, for someone had just returned it a few days back. this she remembered specifically because they hadn’t rewound the damn thing and she’d had to do it herself.

returning back to el with it, robin handed it to her with a flourish. “i present to you, the karate kid.” then came the question and it was always a difficult one. there were a few niche ones that she doubted el would have heard of, so those were out of the question. robin did have a bit of a soft spot for back to the future owing to the summer of ‘85, then there was fast times at ridgemont high, but both of them felt too obvious. so instead she settled on, “escape from new york,” a pause, wondering if el had heard of it. “i actually do a great snake plissken impression.”

zccming​:

WHO: max mayfield && open.

WHERE: outside of melvald’s general store.

this wasn’t max’s most…well-thought-out plan, but she had ransacked the trailer for anything she could bring to the wheeler’s barbecue. and she was pretty sure cereal or swanson’s tv dinners wouldn’t cut it.  as she skated her way downtown in hopes of a miracle, she brainstormed what she could bring that wouldn’t be too complicated. she came up with the likes of doritos or boxed pasta salad. of course, when max pulled up to melvald’s and tugged at the doors, they were locked.  melvald’s, like the hawk, and every other godforsaken business in this town just had to be closed. “shit…” she breathed out, scanning her surroundings. not a car in sight…not a person … but there was a rock. maybe if she just…she could get away with it…

max scooped it up from the ground and raised her arm to chuck it through the window, but she felt these eyes on her.  turning around, max initially jumped at the sight of another person.  hadn’t she checked for people? in a swift recovery, max rolled her eyes and frowned, “asshole. you can’t just sneak up on people like that.” as if to explain herself, she stepped forward and gripped the handles once more, “it’s locked.”  after chucking the rock out into the road, max placed her hands on her hips, then eyed the other, “i need in, like now.” then as a hint to help or get lost she asked, “got any better ideas?” 

⚢

“hey! i wasn’t sneaking up on anyone! and besides, if anything you’re the one being sketchy and technically speaking, i could totally call the cops down here in like, two minutes tops.”

though she wouldn’t and they both knew it. in reality max was a good kid and robin liked that certain spark within her. the spontaneity reminded her a lot of her younger self back in high school. heck, hadn’t she literally clambered in the band room window when refused entry to prom? yeah, she really had done that. it seemed so long ago and so insignificant and yet at the time it had been the most important thing in the world. 

robin remembered the days of endlessly longing to be seventeen so she could escape out into the world. she had wanted to travel to foreign countries and just exist. but now she was twenty-one and the furthest she’d ever travelled out of hawkins was to a top secret russian base underneath the mall. she hoped that for max and the rest of the younger crew that they’d get out. actually get out. escape from the monster that hawkins now truly had become. and this, max resorting to breaking and entering, was certainly not the way to do it. “what is it makes you want in so bad that you’d almost consider breaking a window for anyway? totally not worth it, by the way,” she paused eyes flickering up to the store’s sign then back to the younger woman. “look, i’ll try to get you what you want. but only on the condition that we do it in a somewhat semi-conventional way? please?”