Sinclairss​:

colemontgomeryx​:

xx.

At Robin’s bidding, Cole sat next to her on her bed. It was comfy, he noted absentmindedly. Adjusting his position so he could face Robin, Cole tried (and failed) to read her expression. At her vague response, Cole’s face fell. Maybe he really had imagined what he’d seen– head trauma to blame, or something. Taking another sip of the soda, Cole weighed his options: tell her what he saw and risk being institutionalized, or not tell her and have to deal with it alone.

He chose the former. “Yeah… I did.” Cole tried to smile, though it probably looked more like a grimace. “My best friend died in the mall fire, and… I saw him, like, on fire.” Then, since he was already telling her the truth: “It felt really real. Like I was actually there.” He met her eyes again, visibly uncomfortable. “What did you see? If you don’t mind saying.”

⚢

the best friend… that had to be the jock she’d seen cole with once upon a time. robin was all too aware of the fact that the jock in question had been one of the flayed, it only made logical sense. which somehow made cole’s vision feel a lot worse than it already was. “holy shit, that sounds horrible. i’m really sorry.” in that moment, robin felt worse than ever considering what actually happened at the mall that night.

cole being honest only gave her the incentive to do the same in return. “do you um- remember barbara holland? it’s not an important detail but she was kind of my best friend in middle school.” a pause, willing herself to continue and explain what she saw. “i saw her, that night. i was standing by someone’s pool, and barb, she-“ voice breaking, robin stopped and took a deep breath. “she was in the water and she just… grabbed on to my leg and started begging for me to help her! like something was trying to pull her down and there was no escape.”

blue eyes met cole’s own, attempting to gauge his reaction and hoping that she hadn’t over shared. “then she was sucked back under and pulled me right in with her.” robin gave a shudder, all of the details still clear in her mind — it was just everything else that was foggy. “and like you said, it felt so real. i seriously haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.”

stevehharringtcns​:

.

robin seemed mad, to say the least. and this time around, steve didn’t know why she was mad, but it seemed like he had done something. which was weird, because he hadn’t seen robin in a week now, so there wasn’t necessarily a reason for her to be angry at him. at least he thought so. “o…kay.” steve said slowly as he processed what robin said, staring at the outside for a few moments as she made her way inside of his house, before he finally shut the door and turned to look at robin. she also seemed nervous with what she was about to say. “what do you want to talk about?” he asked, as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at his friend - he was a bit tired, but he figured out he could sleep once robin left.

and that’s when robin started talking and steve was sure that he had never been more confused in his life. what was she talking about? steve had just come back from being out with his parents and now he was being blamed for something he was sure he hadn’t done. shaking his head slowly, steve looked at robin with a confused look on his face, but he didn’t interrupt her until she was done. “robin, what the hell are you talking about? what do you mean last night? i’ve been gone for a week, i haven’t seen you all week.” he said, shaking his head in confusion. he had no idea what the other was talking about, he couldn’t even come up with a theory - it was too early. “how did i hurt your feelings?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.

steve couldn’t help to notice that robin really seemed nervous about this. he knew her, he knew when she was nervous about something, so it wasn’t hard to recognize it. “do you need to go outside? i’ll go with you.” he said, as he started moving towards the door that lead to his pool.

⚢

steve harrington. robin felt as if she knew him better than anyone. she knew his strengths and his weaknesses, what he liked and disliked and could almost predict how he would react to most things. though she did have a tendency to be incorrect, like right now for example. robin had assumed he’d just make excuses about last night. but instead steve appeared to be pretty clueless — with the key word being ‘appeared’ since she already knew that he was faking. but most importantly, they communicated stuff. like her telling him when she couldn’t handle things, or steve confiding in her about his sexuality. and robin knew that he was going to be out of town, she recalled steve mentioning it but he had also said it would just be for a couple of days.

so him claiming to have been gone for a whole week… yeah, right. this excuse made robin visibly roll her eyes, did he think that she was stupid? that he could just pull the wool over her eyes? well never mind that, there had been plenty of other people there who had also witnessed steve being at the cemetery last night.

so she concluded that steve was pulling her leg — didn’t want to confront his actions just yet so kept going along with the joke. this infuriated her even more. “what the hell are you talking about? seriously, this isn’t the time for goofing around. i saw you last night and so did everyone else!” if this was the hill that he was willing to die on, then it was a pretty silly one. the thought didn’t occur to robin that steve wasn’t exactly a great actor.

“hello, earth to steve? you implied that i drugged everyone, remember? total asshole move, by the way.” then she felt a little guilty for calling him that, so muttered a quick apology. at the suggestion, robin stood from the bottom of the steps and followed him to the door. “fine, let’s go outside.” some fresh air would probably do her some good.

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.

byersphotography​:

WHO: Jonathan + Open

WHERE: The Strip Mall, SpinCity Laundromat.

——————————————————————————

Jonathan never really knows how to spend his weekends. On Saturday afternoons, he’s generally stuck jamming quarters into the dented machines at SpinCity Laundromat – this weekend was no exception. Sitting on a vinyl chair, he watched his clothes mush through grey water and found himself thinking about whether Chinese or Pizza would be on the menu tonight. He was exhausted after a week of dealing with cranky customers at Melvin’s and it showed in the purple bags resting under his eyes. Hawkins has never been a major tourist attraction but the town always doubled in size over the summer as voyagers (with fat wallets) stopped in town while completing their trips to bigger and brighter places.

Jonathan crossed his arms and rested his head on the wall behind him, closing his eyes for a while before jolting awake to the beep of his dry cycle ending. He peeled himself from his chair and crouched to shove clothes in his laundry bag. The bell at the storefront went off as he closed the drawstring and turned towards the entry. His tired eyes widen when he sees [them]. Caught off guard, he opens his mouth but nothing comes out. “H-Hey” It takes him a second to figure out what to say and he glances back at Tara - the laundromat manager and only other person in the store - who is now looking up from their magazine to eavesdrop. One hand goes up to scratch the back of his neck. “I- uh, I guess you also do laundry on Saturdays?”

⚢

a literal disaster had struck the previous day within the buckley household. their good old washing machine had finally given up on showing any signs of life, which wasn’t all that surprising given that it was a good ten or so years old. her parents had suggested that they just revert back to washing all of their clothing in the bathtub with some detergent, but robin had managed to convince them that this wasn’t the sixties and that they weren’t living like actual hippies anymore.

luckily they had given in quite quickly, and the next morning her mother sent robin off down to the laundromat with a bag full of laundry and a pocket jammed full of quarters. walking in, the aroma of fresh laundry hit her straight in the face and she sighed in content. it had always been one of her favorite scents. eyes flickered around the premises, only to land on jonathan byers who greeted her with a simple hey.

robin walked over to an empty machine nearby and started loading the laundry in. “oh uh, my mom kinda sent me down here. our machine gave out.” she didn’t really have much of an opinion concerning jonathan. suppose she just didn’t know him that well, even if they did run in similar circles. or used to, given that he was no longer dating nancy. the two of them had faced the same danger together though, which at least gave them a common ground. “you work at the grocery store with your mom, right? i think i’ve seen you round there stacking some of the shelves.” an odd observation, but she would have said almost anything to fill the awkward silence.

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.”

𝐖𝐇𝐎: robin buckley + @dvstybuns​​​​ ! 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: the hospital 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍: somewhere between 2-3 am

robin’s eyes felt both heavy and extremely puffy, a result of crying on and off as well as a lack of sleep. herself, max and dustin all sat at steve’s bedside and by this point, the hospital staff had pretty much given up on trying to move all of them out. especially given that max had decided to use a few… choice words which made even robin cringe. 

the three of them had forged some kind of unspoken agreement that they each had to sleep, but that they would take it in shifts. just in the instance that steve woke up while they were out cold. she’d offered for her two companions to sleep first but max had excused herself in search of a vending machine for all their stomachs were rumbling, and robin only thought that dustin had actually took her up on her offer. 

but now that she really looked at him, he was hunched over in his chair doing a very bad job at pretending to be asleep. robin supposed she couldn’t really blame him, steve had always been an important person in dustin’s life and none of them really wanted to sleep right now.  “i can see you breathing heavily, dingus.” she spoke softly, the nickname rolling off her tongue with ease. it almost felt right calling dustin that — a sort of passing down the torch from steve to dustin type deal.

jackforeman​:

Jack hadn’t really spoken to Robin Buckley much at all in his life before being at the Wheelers’ family barbecue. It was there that he learned she’d become friends with Steve, his coworker, even, and it was just another reminder of what he’d missed while he was now known to be dead, not just gone in a cult. He would have considered her presence on his front porch a threat, that she was here to chew him out about attacking their mutual friend at the carnival, even if it was something that Jack had no recollection of. 

Instead, it seemed that she was here in peace. It was nice to know that Steve’s condition had remained stable since he’d gone to visit, when he’d gotten the strength to face his friend to apologize for what he’d done. “Oh, that’s … great, actually. That’s good. I went by yesterday, just to say hi, and, well, I figured I owed him an apology.” He shifted, uncomfortable and embarrassed by what he’d done that he couldn’t even remember. “Do you want to come in?”

⚢

“oh, i uh, didn’t know you’d been by.” she felt a little sheepish now. suppose she’d been too caught up in her own thoughts to pay any real attention to whether steve had told her about jack visiting or not. the previous evening she’d paid a visit to vickie’s mom, to pay her respects and to apologise. the apology held way more weight than it should have done, but it felt necessary under the circumstances.

“anyway, they think he might be able to go come home soon.” and honestly, thank fucking god for that. while steve was definitely doing a whole lot better, it was still painful to see him in that hospital room. jack asking whether she wanted to come in admittedly caught her a little off guard, but she nodded her head anyway and followed him inside. “actually, there was something else i wanted to ask you. i don’t know how well you know steve’s parents but… have you seen them much? recently, i mean.” steve had said they’d been by the hospital once, maybe twice. robin thought that was insane, but knowing the harringtons, she wasn’t really all too surprised.

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

[maya hawke, cis female, she / her] who’s that? oh it’s [robin buckley]. i hear they’re [twenty] and are known as [the inquisitive] around [the video store]. they’re also a [junior] at [college] & [clerk] at [family video]. they’re known to be [witty + resolute] and [impetuous + cynical]. some people say they remind them of [ink drawings on canvas sneakers, a reliance on sarcastic humour, mind that works a mile a minute].

ＢＡＳＩＣＳ

𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬: robin arlo buckley. 𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 / 𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬: rob, buckley, tweedledee. 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 & 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐬: cis woman, she / her. 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡: march 10th. 𝐳𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐜 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧: pisces. 𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: clerk @ family video, junior at hawkins community college. 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: homosexual ( closeted ), the only person currently knowledgeable of this information is steve harrington.

ＨＥＡＤＣＡＮＯＮＳ

* fresh-man year of high school, robin practically begged her parents to buy her a handheld tape player. not to listen to the latest top hits or new rock album by so-and-so, but so she could listen to language tapes on the go. spanish, italian, and even french — she became fluent rather quickly.

* robin is a certifiable geek. a band geek. even after the torture of high school came to a poetic end, and the freedom of college started hurtling towards her like a meteorite waiting to strike. and college band is way different than high school band since for once, her talents are actually appreciated.

* robin often shows traits of both autism and add. neither have been officially diagnosed because… it’s the eighties. but social settings are sometimes a struggle. 

ＢＩＯ

tba. 

stevehharringtcns​:

who: steve harrington & open

where: middle of the road

what was he doing? was he really about to go to a barbecue that was being thrown at the wheeler’s house? he had been invited, of course, but something didn’t feel right on just showing up there. how was he going to react when he saw nancy? and worst of all, how was she going to react? all of these thoughts were going through his mind as he drove - he should have been paying the attention to the road, but luckily he snapped out of his own head just in time to spot someone crossing the road right in front of his car. without even thinking, steve hit the brakes as hard as he could, his body leaning forward with the abrupt stop and before he knew it, he was honking the horn in protest, before sticking his head out of the window to get a better look at the person who was standing in front of his car.

“what the hell are you doing, dingus? you can’t just… walk in front of my car like that, you could have damaged it! i mean, you could have gotten hurt.” steve said, shaking his head as he ran a hand through his hair - both of them had been lucky, he thought to himself as he took a deep breath. “you going to the wheeler barbecue or what?” he asked, once it got awkward enough - they couldn’t just be there forever and the person didn’t seem to move, and steve definitely couldn’t run over them.

⚢

a worn-converse clad foot poked gingerly at an old bike, as if willing it to jump to life. her dad had refused to drive her today and steve was currently m.i.a so, she’d been left with no other option. unfortunately this decision came up fruitless, as the bike in question was completely and utterly busted. a sigh, gathering her belongings from the sidewalk and setting off for a lone shift at the video store. pulling walkman headphones over her head, fingers covered with chipped black nail polish manoeuvred their way to the the play button. hallo, wo is die toilette?  — german, her latest choice of language to learn. she repeated the phrase out loud in near enough perfection. obviously way too invested to notice the car speeding towards her as she crossed the street.

“woah… steve, you can’t just steal my insult. somewhere in that huge — yet equally limited — brain of yours you must have something at least the tiniest bit original knocking around back there.” of course that was the thing robin decided to acknowledge and not the fact that hypothetically a mere second later, she potentially could have been unconscious if not completely deceased on the ground. and hit by her best friend, no less.

if they were in much closer proximity, she would have definitely given him a gentle knock or two on top of his head to accompany the comment on his brain. but alas, he was in the drivers seat and she, the sidewalk. yes, she’d hopped back onto the curb side. just incase his foot accidentally slipped on the accelerator or something. “don’t tell me you zoned out at the wheel again. we talked about this!” once asked about the barbecue, she raised an eyebrow then shook her head quickly. “what? no, why would i-“ oh. that whole deal with steve and nancy. of course he was going. “actually, i’m going to work, dingus. maybe, just maybe, you should try it sometime. or are you still too caught up on nancy wheeler to stack videos nowadays?” 

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?”