❝  𝗜  𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟  𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘  𝗠𝗬  𝗪𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗘  𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗘 

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.

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?” 

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.

cassieconrads​:

If there was one thing that Robin was right about, it was no one being able to predict that the shit storm that followed going to the graveyard was going to happen. Cassie had been hoping to get to know some of the people her age in Hawkins a bit better, maybe make a few friends for when Nancy was too busy, but she had gotten far more than she bargained for with showing up to the cemetery.

Cassie nodded at Robin’s suggestion, waiting by the counter as she clocked off her shift. Maybe getting a few movies to watch at night would make her insomnia a little less painful. She followed Robin out of the video store and into the strip mall where the two had met in the first place. “No, it’s definitely not your fault, either. Everything was just so … strange. We had gone out to the woods together, right? I feel like that’s the last thing I can remember before …” she started seeing things, she wanted to say, but it was too soon for that. “How have you been since then?”

⚢

putting it quite plainly, robin liked cassie. when they had met outside the video store, she thought nothing of it — just helping someone out. but they hit it off and that’s why she had invited cassie along to the cemetery. yet now it was just another thing on her conscience. everyone had been there because of her, no other reason. and look how that had turned out.

“i think you grabbed my arm. then we walked into the trees and i can’t remember why.” robin hoped that cassie would be able to fill in some of the gaps, though in all honesty she didn’t hold out much hope because so far, no one else has been able to either. “i’ve been fine, i just think maybe we all got a little too carried away.” not true, but it wasn’t like robin could just outright say what she suspected was actually going on. cassie would likely run in the opposite direction and she didn’t want that. “what about you?”

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?”

# eddie is fed up with their lack of music culture

STRANGER THINGS | Papa (4.08)

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.

eddiemcnson​:

+++

“huh? what was that?”, he called out, even louder, a wide, toothy, teasing grin on his face. he’d turned up his stereo real loud, not loud enough to cause any of the neigbours to call the cops on him but loud enough so that the muffled sounds of the latest ‘ratt’ record were audible in the living room.

eddie grimaced as she mentioned the mattress, resisted the urge to pull his hair over his face to hide behind it, seeing as he wasn’t particularly keen on having it go up in flames. “oh my god, robin, just let it go. please. i give you plenty enough material for your mediocre jokes as is, let the fucking mattress go.”, he muttered around puffs, brows drawn together. 

but he loved it, their dynamic. hanging out with robin was always easy and comfortable, didn’t feel forced at all. their vibes just .. matched, it was hard to explain. after vecna, after everything had happened and they’d gotten closer, started to hang out more, eddie had often wondered why they hadn’t been friends in high school.

kicking his feet up on the coffee table, he passed the joint to her, eyed her with a frown. “bullshit.”, he said, crossed his arms over his chest. “what’s the matter, what’s going on?”

⚢

all robin seemed to be able to do when eddie spoke even louder was laugh. “you are so annoying.” she shook her head fondly, paying no real mind to the loud music coming from the bedroom. this was eddie they were talking about, and if there was one thing besides hellfire that he was known for, it was his love of music. which is why robin wasn’t fazed, and she was pretty used to it by now. it was just something that came with their friendship.

 “i will never forget that mattress in my life. the image is still carved into my eyelids.” robin hoped that somewhere along the line, eddie or at least his uncle had replaced the old thing. but until she received explicit confirmation, it was pretty likely that she would purposely stay well away from sitting on eddie’s bed. 

 taking the joint from eddie’s hand, robin took a long drag from it. “where do i even start?” another drag, just for good measure before passing it back to him. “do you ever feel like, something’s going on but you just can’t be too sure about it?”

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.

❝  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.