End of the World as We Know It...

[farrahfawcetts]

WHO: Steve Harrington, Chrissy Cunningham, Eddie Munson, and YOU!
WHERE: Upside Down Temba, Temba, and Personal Hell
WHAT: Steve finding an old friend, loving his boyfriend, and having lots of PTSD
WHEN: Start and middle of the storm
WARNINGS: Blood, death, trauma... That's about it.

Steve had been so sure he left this shit behind. He'd been so fucking sure. Robin had asked him if there was any of the Upside Down shit here and he'd told her no. He'd told her she would be safe. But that wasn't in the fucking cards for them, it seems. No, the Hawkins kids were tainted. And now it had come to Agra 10 to hunt for them.

Steve wanted to offer his services on the network but it was down. The best he could do was what he did now: patrolling. Sometimes with the new mace he had, sometimes with the tried and true bat that felt so at home in his hand. He had practice with these fuckers. He knew how to take them out. So he patrolled around the gates, through the forests, wherever he could. No one here was going to get hurt on his watch. No one was going to get taken by this fucking Hell dimension ever again.

He walks as quiet as he can, listening for movement or screams. Finally, he hears what he thinks is a growl and takes off at a run. It's bat day, today, and he's got it ready to strike as he leaps on the source of the noise.

"Eat nails, fucker!"


He knew the storm would come eventually. Everyone has told him of the infamous storms with the ghosts and the loss of powers. The minute the temperature starts to change and there is lightning in the air, Steve knows what's coming. His first thought, of course, is to find Eddie and go hole up somewhere; they both have ghosts enough that would come calling for them.

He doesn't get far in his search until he sees what must be one of those apparitions. For a second, he swears that it is Max and even knowing better, he takes off after it to check for sure. Steve loses it after a moment or it fades away and, confused (and a bit embarrassed to have fallen for that), he heads back the way he came. Only to see another apparition. And this one? Well. This one is confusing. He never knew Chrissy that well. Why would the storm pick her?

"Nice try," he tells the ghost as he walks to pass her. "Next time try for Robin or Dustin. But it's a good attempt..."


Steve hates this. He fucking hates this. Not just because he was actually enjoying being away from this but because he was really happy Eddie was away from it. And now? Well, his boyfriend didn't run away anymore even though he should. And if he wasn't running then neither was Steve. Steve would season himself with salt and pepper for those bats before letting Eddie get hurt by them again. And wherever Eddie was going? Yeah. He had a Steve-shaped shadow with his fancy new mace.

Even when it was in the Upside Down. God, he fucking hates this place.

Steve is walking as carefully as he can, not wanting to see if Vecna is here for a Round 2. But the rest of his attention is on Eddie. Eddie and anything that can come within a fucking mile of him. No hero shit, this time.

"We should head back soon," Steve offers. He has no idea how long they've been here but more than a minute is too long as far as he sees it. There's no sign of Hawkins here or anything familiar to them. Only more things that want to chow down on their body.

He tightens his grip on the mace.

"Jesus H. Christ. Fucking hate seeing this place again. I really thought we were safe..."

Comments

[ephemerios]

The ghosts, or visions, or whatever they are are frustrating her. Hasn't she hallucinated enough shit recently? No? Okay then!! Thanks, alien planet, thanks. But, a person that this time seems real? Or at least more real than others she's seen. And someone from Hawkins. She can work with that. “Understandable mistake for a couple of reasons, but nope, I'm not one of those weird ... ghost-visions out there, actually.” She offers a quick half smile before reaching out to poke his arm gently, because if she were not real, he wouldn't feel that, right? Right? Right. She assumes.

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve almost jumps back in surprise. Okay. That is new. Which means...

"Jesus Christ... Chrissy?!" She was a year behind him and they didn't hang out with the same people once he fell from grace with Hargrove's entrance, but he knew her. Both pre and post Vecna. And, God, it's good to see another person from home.

"Holy shit, when did you get here?" He moves in to give her a one-armed hug. "Have you seen Eddie yet? Shit, he's going to lose his mind when he sees you!"

[ephemerios]

“Not even a month. It's been a very exciting time of questioning reality and thinking about monsters from HP Lovecraft works.” If you don't make some sarcastic - at bare minimum - comment about your trauma, are you even from Hawkins? Also, the HP Lovecraft is because what the rest of you all call Vecna, she has decided is 'Cthulhu with his skin turned inside out', since she was too busy being dead while everyone else was naming creepy things and going all Upside Down. (This will be funny later as the days here go by. And by funny: not at all.) But she does return the hug, because he is the person from Hawkins she's most familiar with since it is true they'd spent the most time in the same circles than she had with anyone else here so far. There's a lot of faces from Hawkins she's glad aren't here, but his was a welcome one.

“Honestly, I haven't had super lengthy conversations with anyone here who came from Hawkins; Robin may actually hold the current record for longest conversation.” A pause. “No, she definitely wins for that one. Because, well: see the recap of my last few weeks here.” It's a lot of work questioning reality and thinking about Lovecraftian horrors, ok. Take her word for it. “And also, I have no idea how long it's been for the rest of you since Cthulhu with his skin turned inside out killed me in a hallucination.” That's just awkward, Steve, please. And he kind of proved her weird point when he thought she was a ghost just now so, yeah.

[farrahfawcetts]

Right. Chrissy died. Horribly. Shit.

"Oh...yeah, that..." He has the grace to look sort of uncomfortable and guilty, even though it was 100% not his fault. "That was pretty horrible. I'm sorry you had to go through it. I heard what it was like from Max and...yeah."

Part of him wants to know what Chrissy remembers and where she was yanked from in order to be here and not be cracked in half. But really, he has the answer. Close enough to her own death to remember how it happened but distant enough that her bones aren't playing twister.

"I'm glad the alien things saved you, then. You, Eddie, and Billy so far have all been pretty much saved thanks to them. Makes me sort of believe they have to be good..."

[ephemerios]

"It wasn't the best time I've ever had." Understatement, yes, very much so.

They really don't have the kind of time they need or that she'd want to get into some stuff he said there, implying that two other people crossed paths with the same thing she had. Billy of course died in what she thinks was just a mall fire, but now it sounds like that same creepy monster killing two other people after her? That thought makes her feel really sick all of the sudden, and she gets really quiet for several long seconds.

"Someone stopped it, right? Eventually? Sooner rather than later?" She eventually asks that much. But she does have to admit he has a point about the aliens here.

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve is pulled up short by the question. Not because he isn't sure of the answer, but because he's not sure if the truth is worth the pain it would cause her. At this point there are too many people from Hawkins running around to think she won't find out sooner or later what is really going on at home. Steve figures it would be better to rip the band-aid off now than have the sucker punch land from someone like Billy.

"It...We're working on it. We gave it a pretty solid hit, but taking it all the way down is hard. But we're not giving up. It's just a matter of time..."

[ephemerios]

What she hears is, short answer — not yet. Yep, she hates that a lot. At this point, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference who says it or how they say it, she'll still not like the answers. Because it's not like there's any good part about it.

“So, in summary, every advertisement talking about things to do in the area just says: ‘Hawkins, Indiana: Come for the small town midwestern feel, stay for the murderous cosmic horrors’ now.”

She's 100% serious there, too. And it's probably one of the most accurate things said about the place.

Famous last words

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve can't help but laugh. "Yeah, you know what? That is preeeetty accurate. I can't believe there isn't a single person who looks at the big increase of deaths and didn't start asking questions. But then again, the government and Russia is involved so. Who fucking knows."

Yeah, that is probably too much info.

"But... Hey! At least it's mostly been better here?"

Y E P

[ephemerios]

You know what, sure, why not, throw in a couple of governments. It's not like it can get even weirder. And now she can't help laughing either. “No, that's cheating. You can't set the bar of standards so low that not only are they that low to begin with, but also that it's indistinguishable from the ground and then say ‘hey great job everyone, we cleared it, everything's mostly better!’.”

Nails, Really?

[ziedrich_bearer]

Well, at least the person Steve's rushing off to defend doesn't need it as much. Because there's Gladio, his sword in hand. He swings, easily cutting through the demodogs jumping toward him with a simple move. He makes it seem so effortless. Meanwhile his massive shield was in his off hand, protecting him from the strike of a demobat.

Really, he wasn't worried at himself at all.

"Don't shout until you're into the fight," he chides when Steve crashes forward, his voice raised. "Takes away your element of surprise."

[farrahfawcetts]

"Trust me, with these assholes, surprise isn't happening..."

Steve spins his bat for some momentum and cracks a demobat as it comes toward his face. It swings back around, wounded and weaving with a friend coming in from the other side. Steve uses the bat on the hale one and grabs the wounded bat by the tail to swing to the ground and step on so he can rip it in two. From there he puts his back to Gladio's waiting for more.

"Any tall ones? They need fire."

[ziedrich_bearer]

Well damn. Gladio grins at the kid. He's not that bad.

"This is definitely why I train you," he says with a laugh. He had seen the potential, and the kid was more than living up to it. He just needs to get Billy up to that level too.

"Not yet, but I'll figure it out."

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve definitely grins at the compliment, basking in the praise. "Yeah, I have done this once or twice. These assholes are from my neck of the universe..."

He swipes his hair away from his face and takes a second to catch his breath. More could come at any point. He looks over himself and then starts inspecting Gladio. "Are you bleeding? They can smell it. They're like sharks."

[ziedrich_bearer]

They are? That means... Gladio frowns.

"Then these are the nightmares," he says, voice soft. "Your demons."

Fuck. Well, now he can't let the guy down.

"Not bleeding," he promises, waving any concern away. "Am wishing I had some of Noct's potions, but we'll do what we can. Come on. We're hunting."

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve looks at the corpses on the ground and feels his stomach roil. "Yeah. Yeah, these are... These," he kicks a bat, "are what killed Eddie back home. Lots of people have died to these monsters..."

So yeah. He sets his face into something more firm and determined.

"No one else is gonna on our watch. Let's flush 'em out." And with that he shoulders the bat and starts walking the way he'd been going before.

[ziedrich_bearer]

Killed Eddie? Gladio frowns.

"They're what killed Billy as well then?" he asks, because he'd carried Billy to the hospital at his arrival. He had seen how bad it was.

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve frowns and shakes his head. "Not...quite. I mean, yeah. But... Look, it's sort of complicated. Basically all of these animal things are connected to this bigger thing of shadow. And that thing I think is controlled by a big creepy looking motherfucker. But whatever. Bats killed Eddie, big shadow thing killed Billy, creepy motherfucker killed Chrissy. Same thing but kind of different."

Sorry for delay, still sick <3

[the_freak]

Chest tight, Eddie grips his own makeshift weapons and tries to keep himself calm as they walk. It's weirdly familiar despite the changes, and he glances at Steve.

"I know, Man," Eddie sighs, bumping his shoulder against his with a wary smile. "Least we know what we're dealing with."

How dare you

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve smiles at Eddie's bump and bumps him right back. "Yeah." Still...the memories are oppressive here. The misery. The worry. Steve tries to push it away with a soft laugh.

"Last time we were in a place like this, you were trying to get me back with Nancy. Shit changes, huh?"

[the_freak]

"Heh," Eddie's tongue darts out in amusement, and he can't help but grin. "Shit changes," he agrees, "I was feeling jealous as hell," he admits with a laugh, flinching back at the sound of wings above and growing still.

"...fuck, Man," he breaths.

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve goes completely still as he hears the wings. He waits, hand gripping his mace tight until it seems like they moved on. He doesn't relax all that much. Not here. Still, he turns to Eddie and strokes a hand up and down his arm.

"You're okay, babe. Those assholes are gonna get torn apart before they even get close to you. I promise."

[the_freak]

Steve's touch helps steady Eddie's breath, and he nods, cheeks red.

"Hot as that is-" he starts with a pointed look, "- I wanna take a few out myself too. I owe the bastards."

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve wants to refuse him. He wants to grab Eddie and drag him back to safety, preferably wrapped in kevlar. But he's not the only one here with trauma and unsettled scores. Steve nods slightly, a mirror of so long ago when he promised to make Vecna pay. Except this time he also leans in to kiss Eddie softly.

"I'll let you have first crack at any we see. Promise."

[the_freak]

It's strange, how much of this feels like their time in the Hawkins Upside Down, and how much is different... He turns his head to steal another kiss and reaches to squeeze Steve's hand.

"We've got this."

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve keeps hold of Eddie's hand, twining their fingers together. It's nice to be able to touch and feel him in the midst of all this horror. Distantly he can hear wings again. More than before but not nearly enough to have him more than wary. Still, his hand tightens.

"You know... I ran the first time I came in contact with all this shit. I never told you with all the...you know. Crap going on. But whenever you gave yourself shit for running, I wanted to tell you. I totally ran, too."