+1 Babysitter

[farrahfawcetts]

WHO: Steve Harrington
WHERE: Wandering in town and at the diner
WHAT: A Babysitter named Steve enters the chat
WHEN: Post sports day. He'll be devastated he missed it
WARNINGS: S4 Stranger Things spoilers but nothing else.

[Welcome to Even Stranger Things]

Steve still wasn't entirely sure what had happened to him. One second he was asleep in the hellscape that was now Hawkins, and then he was in some sort of alien city? The floating orb thing had explained it to him, kind of, but he didn't know if he could trust that information. After all, why would a group of aliens looking to hurt them just outright say that? It would be stupid. So who fucking knew what this whole thing was about.

Not to mentioned they were all kidnapped. That didn't seem like great behavior, all considered. Definitely not a super first impression.

But it didn't seem like he had a lot of say on it. He was here now and it was up to him to make the best of it. At least he had his bat. Steve rested it against his shoulder as he walked around the area, just getting the layout. Not that he was absorbing all that much, of course. He kept stopping short, seeing some sort of weird animal or strange looking building. Finally though, after his wandering, he saw something that looked more familiar. Someone to talk to, maybe. Another hostage?

"Hey!  Wait up!" Steve runs to catch up. "Hey, I'm new here. Are you...uh. Kidnapped too?"


[Boy's Gotta Eat]

It's been a long few days of trying to get his bearings and settling in. Steve finally stopped bringing his nailbat with him but that didn't mean his guard is down. He'd had enough moments of thinking things were fine only to have a monster pop out of nowhere to ever be truly relaxed. Besides, he is still a hostage, nevermind that the aliens are pink and sort of adorable in an oblivious, Eleven sort of way. Have to stay on his toes.

And that means he really needs to get some food.

Steve saw the diner on the map and ventures out early in the morning. He isn't sure how he is going to pay or what sort of food will be in there, but he's finished the protein bars he'd gotten from the replicator and is starving. Beggars can't be choosers.

"Hello?" He walks inside and looks around. "Uh. Here for the food? As long as it's not like, alien worms or something like that?" Although he's hungry enough that it maybe wouldn't matter.

Comments

[crystalmaster]

Radley stares at him in horror. That sounds even worse than what had happened to Crash Town. At least it's still there and some of the people are alive to rebuild it....

"I'm really sorry," he says.

And he sighs and nods. "Yeah.... I tell myself that a lot."

[farrahfawcetts]

"Thanks," and he means it. The pain of the losses are still pretty acute for him but, like always, he doesn't like to dwell.

"We'll fix it, somehow. We always do."

[crystalmaster]

"... You can fix that?" Radley stares. Does he mean like reversing time so it doesn't get destroyed?

[farrahfawcetts]

"Well. No. Probably not?" He's not sure honestly. The more he thinks about it the more hopeless it seems so he just doesn't.

"I don't know. But gotta have hope, right?"

[crystalmaster]

Radley smiles wanly. "Yeah. I always tried to give hope to my friends, even when I'd pretty much lost it myself."

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve smiles fondly at him. "That's probably helping them more than you know. Keep it up."

[crystalmaster]

"I hope it helped. Things are over now and the town's rebuilding. That's what was happening when I got pulled here," Radley says.

[farrahfawcetts]

"Hopefully by the time you get back things are better." Is that how things worked here? Steve had heard conflicting stories at this point. No one really seemed to fully know.

[crystalmaster]

"It should be right where I left it," Radley muses. "I hope so, anyway, so my friends won't be worrying about me. Some people say we go back to the same point, but maybe it's not the same for everyone."

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve's mind goes immediately to Eddie, dead back home and to Max, in a coma and broken.

"I hope it's not the same for everyone. I'm not sure I'm a fan of how I left things..."

[crystalmaster]

"I get that," Radley says. "Maybe if there's any mercy, some people will be sent to other points if they ask?"

He isn't sure it's possible, but hopefully....

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve offers a wane smile. "Maybe that's what we're supposed to be doing here. Getting enough favor from the alien dudes so that they'll send us back someplace better than where we were scooped up." It was a hopeful thought.

[crystalmaster]

"I hope that's true," Radley says sincerely. "Meanwhile, figuring out what's going on with the planet and their enemies hasn't been easy. It seems like we've got mysteries stacked on mysteries."

[farrahfawcetts]

"Oh boy," Steve says already sounding exhausted. Just like home. "Luckily mysteries stacked on mysteries is pretty much the norm for me where I'm from. At least this time there's no Russian shit to translate. That was a pain."

[crystalmaster]

"Really? It sounds like you're a perfect choice then," Radley says. "Russian, huh? How did you manage that?" He has the impression Russian is not a language Steve knows well.

[farrahfawcetts]

"Heh. My best friend knows like a ton of languages, it turns out. She translated the stuff for us." God, he misses Robin. Even talking about her obliquely makes a pang open up inside of him. "It was a whole thing."

[crystalmaster]

"Wow. That's really cool. I know Spanish fluently, being Spanish-American, and I know a little Japanese, but that's it."

[farrahfawcetts]

"That's super cool. I uh. Know a few words of Spanish." They might not actually be Spanish, either. Is El Cool-o Spanish? "But mostly I'm still working on English. Not doing great either if you asked my teachers."

[crystalmaster]

Radley chuckles. "Some of my friends will say similar things about themselves."

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve smiles. "Maybe you can teach me some real Spanish sometime. I'm not a good student, I'll warn you now. But I don't know how much we have to do around here so might as well try?"

[crystalmaster]

Radley smiles too. "Sure, I'd be happy to. It's been a while since I've had a student. Not all of mine did so well, but they gave it their best try."

[farrahfawcetts]

"I'll do the same. Not that I am confident that it will do a lot of good, but I'll at least try." He was able to learn a few things in some classes. Surely he's not hopeless in the whole act of education.

[crystalmaster]

"That's a good start. When do you wanna have the first lesson?"

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve shrugs. "It's not like I have a whole lot of stuff going on. Whenever works for you."

[crystalmaster]

"I could show you a few things now," Radley offers.