“ it’s right between ‘ouch’ & ‘boing.’ “ / @quietresistance
not bursting into chuckles felt out of the question. the word choice, so far-flung yet oddly specific, captured chrissy’s fascination in an instant. how obvious, in retrospect, that a reporter would have a grip on language so unrelenting that they could make words dance in patterns more complicated than any cheer or ballet routine. chrissy crushed her brows together, an image of pure concentration, already sensing herself slipping down a rabbit hole of wondering if she’d ever experienced something in parallel.
certainly chrissy’d had her fair share of ouch. perhaps the reporter’s wordsmithing magic had seeped into the stale hawkins general hospital air, because that simple sound, ouch, was beginning to take a thousand shapes inspired by eighteen short years of near constant physical activity. come to think of it, there was a surfeit of boings, too. before the events of a week and a half ago, chrissy hadn’t known the breadth of disasters it was possible to bounce back from, or that she could survive so many in a row, even just barely.
right... a week and a half ago. the upside down and the earthquake. likely the whole reason the reporter had come. and she was the whole reason chrissy had asked how it felt to be a woman with a pen in a business so full of men. somewhere in between painful and disorienting. bruising and frustrating. difficult, but so, so interesting.
❝ i haven’t read any newspapers or news stories that sounded half as creative as what you just said. hopefully when by the time you finish your hawkins story, everyone will take you twice as serious. ❞ a blush pink, chipped-polish painted fingernail found a snag in the rough hospital blanket. chrissy paused. ❝ but you still must be trusted a lot if you’re here, to try and make sense of....everything. ❞
they should never put this in the kitchen, chrissy thought through her hazy bubble cloud of wine cooler and winter break-fueled good mood. it was almost a languid sort of cheer that had hit her this late in the evening; she rarely stayed this late at parties but the smiles in every direction passively persuaded her to let the night drag on further and further until everyone would inevitably become a half-drunk and sleepy mess of laughter and jokes that never quite landed yet sounded hilarious regardless. but she’d forgotten about the trademark seasonal trap the party host had hung in a kitchen entryway, beyond which the siren song of a sofa crooned chrissy’s name. ....right - she’d been meaning to watch out for the mistletoe earlier. and missed her cue to glance up before nearly sliding past nancy right under it — until she noticed nancy’s movement grind to a halt, too. stupid little plant thing.
before her already alcohol-pinked cheeks could bloom any darker, chrissy giggled with all the air she had left in her lungs. oh, this would be easy, actually. no problems here.
❝ oops, i guess! merry christmas break, nancy. ❞ there was no needing to think her plan through twice before swinging an arm about nancy’s shoulders and giving her a smack square on the cheek. perfect. ❝ that counts, right? since we’re under here, i think we should make the rules. ❞
— a 🌿 for @rebelcliche
parent-child dynamics are soooo crazy. i love you i resent you i can't stand you i adore you i pity you. and still watching your hair get a little more grey every time i see you makes my stomach feel weird
( various non - halloween themed dialogue prompts for all your slashers, final girls, and other horrors beyond your comprehension. trigger warning for dark themes. feel free to edit as you seem fit. )
❛ it’s the silence that scares me. ❜
❛ i’m every nightmare you ever had. ❜
❛ i want to see your true face. ❜
❛ one way or another, you’re going to die tonight. ❜
❛ just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not already here. ❜
❛ by the time anyone finds your body, they won’t be able to identify it. ❜
❛ you’re playing a dangerous game here, girl. ❜
❛ i’m playing the villain, just like you wanted. ❜
❛ i won’t give up on you, i know you’re worth it! ❜
❛ scream all you want. no one will hear you. ❜
❛ what are you going to do to me? ❜
❛ there you are, my darling! ❜
❛ i knew you would come back to me. ❜
❛ don’t you want to be consumed by what loves you? ❜
❛ i’m going to send you back to hell where you came from! ❜
❛ you can’t keep me here forever! ❜
❛ how are you still alive? i killed you! ❜
❛ sometimes human spaces make inhuman monsters. ❜
❛ please. why don’t you just let me go? ❜
❛ this missing poster has your face on it. ❜
❛ that wasn’t so bad, was it? ❜
❛ what’s wrong, you don’t trust me? ❜
❛ i know a lot about you. more than you think. ❜
❛ you want me to shut him up for you? ❜
❛ we could have been beautiful together. ❜
❛ when you think you’re alone, someone watches. ❜
❛ rest while you can, because i will hunt you and eat you whole. ❜
❛ what you want is very wrong. ❜
❛ you look so pretty all tied up like this. ❜
❛ what, you like to watch? you goddamn sicko. ❜
❛ god isn’t here. god doesn’t even know about this place. ❜
❛ there is something at work in my soul which i do not understand. ❜
❛ i am the devil, and i am here to do the devil’s work. ❜
❛ you know what they say, an eye for an eye. ❜
❛ why don’t you scream for me? ❜
❛ are you… smelling me? ❜
❛ we’re going to die out here. ❜
❛ i’m not afraid of anything. not anymore. ❜
❛ we will be what everyone wants to be. perfect. ❜
❛ no offense, but i think you might be just a little too crazy for me. ❜
❛ we all go a little mad sometimes. ❜
❛ the harder i try to escape, the further i get into this awful place. ❜
❛ this was not how it was supposed to go! ❜
❛ this is the end of your little game. i win. ❜
❛ don’t leave me! i can’t be alone! ❜
❛ no one is coming for you. ❜
❛ you hide. and i’ll try to find you. sound fun? ❜
❛ fuck this place. seriously, just fuck this place. ❜
❛ what’s the matter, honey? you’ve barely touched your dinner. ❜
❛ don’t be afraid. dying is much easier than living. ❜
❛ i won’t let them kill you. i won’t let them even touch you. ❜
❛ let’s get you some clothes before i get too turned on. ❜
❛ you weren’t putting that tongue to use anyway. ❜
❛ shall i drink your blood fresh, or slice your neck and spill it out first? ❜
❛ dying keeps moving lower on the list of worst things that could happen to me. ❜
for everyone’s edification, turn on the bells. i just played “we wish you a merry christmas” three times and i’m NOT STOPPING, IT’S SO MUCH FUN.
💭 nancy chris headcanons
𝓗𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓬𝓪𝓷𝓸𝓷𝓼 — send 💭 + a topic to receive a headcanon about said topic.
nance and chris used to know each other before high school pulled them apart. not well, per se, but enough to be friendly. there was no great social catacylsm, really, just......being young pulling them every which way. chrissy knew barb from a distance, jonathan from a greater distance, and steve by virtue of....well, steve being steve. nancy had a sweet face and calm demeanor and the bubbly if still somehow quiet chrissy would have liked her quite a bit. and then everything got strange for a few years. life got more full and more complicated in equal measures. reputations got trickier and even though chrissy’s own wasn’t much of a prized trophy, high school drowned out faces more quickly than she would have liked. they could have been better friends if they had the time. at least ‘86 came along to rally everyone around the power of death. or resurrection. or both. they’d progressed nearly to strangers by ‘86 but spun quickly towards dear friendship after so much tragedy.
chrissy wants to have nancy over to her house so badly. so badly. chrissy pines for a normal family home where friends that she made because other people like her for her and she likes them and feels safe around them can come and feel safe, too. but no, her last sleepover in fifth grade was over before sleep. laura had gotten frustrated about the amount of noise three little girls generated and the snacks they seemed to require. it was abruptly cancelled mid game of twister and mothers were called before they were within two hours of “lights out”.
the cunningham house is a trap and it needs to spring on no one else. all it takes is a few weeks for chrissy to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that nancy would sniff out just what kind of house chrissy’s was. it’s not the shame of a friend knowing, it’s the shame of a friend having to feel how chrissy does, every day. she apologizes to nancy over and over and over for this. it might have been a small thing to anyone else, but with all that nancy does for chrissy, the gap feels huge. their happy medium likely ends up being long conversations in the cunningham’s driveway. or possibly nancy sneaking into chrissy’s room via climbing the trellis if nancy wants to. there’s mostly yellow and ruffles and pillows everywhere, but there are nice bookshelves and they can hide under a very large comforter and giggle if they feel so inclined.
chrissy promises to tell nancy absolutely everything if nancy will tell her what happened every year before, starting with discovering upside down. there might be a hundred things they can piece together with the shards of honesty. it’s a lot of work, but chrissy is tired of pretending.
chrissy brings mrs. wheeler a little potted plant whenever she comes over and nancy always gets a nice pen or a purse sized notebook. the two girls are also well documented hair accessory fiends and probably trade clips back and forth and experiment with clip formations.
their after school summer is full of mystery books and movies. i almost can’t see the two of them not forming some kind of mini book club and filling pages with theoretical notes. there are absolutely lists of worthwhile authors and too-predictable ones.
why am i getting the feeling they scrapbook?
the end of summer goodbye to nancy is one of the hardest to make, and likely the goodbye with the most tears. even an extended school year wasn’t enough time to make up for all that they’d missed.
chrissy writes to nancy while they’re both at college with aggressive dedication. future plans spiral out of control, but chrissy is beginning to feel a fraction of nancy’s drive and it propels her to want more out of life, so chrissy asks for more. and it finally feels good instead of greedy.
“being kind takes zero effort” Lies.
Being kind takes enormous effort. Being kind means humbling yourself- it means saying no to your pride- it means forgiving someone instantly- it means putting someone convenience over your own for some time- it means acting as if the universe doesn’t revolve around you. Being kind is hard. Being kind is not butterflies and sickly sweet, half-witted compliments. It’s work. It’s serving others. It’s being silent when you don’t want to. It’s being honest. It’s being gentle. It’s being true even if the other person disagrees. Being kind is one of the hardest things a person can do and we need more of it.
Guido Grünewald
Chessie, the mascot kitten of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway ,1933
etching
i need everyone to know that this is how chrissy reacts to hearing live metal for the first time.
one particular i adore about chrissy is that she’s so deeply not into profanity - not necessarily because she feels shame, but because the very sound of curse words is grating. it’s ugly to her 9/10 times spoken and heard.
there is a little baptist guilt in there thanks to a childhood of being dragged to church on sundays and her mother’s ever present televangelists on the tv, but it takes a back seat to the sound of curses.
yet with eddie or the party…..it’s still ugly, she still doesn’t like it, but with them it’s a sign of something honest and genuine. eddie especially. she gets the impression that the more he swears, the more he means what he says.
of course the freshman doing it so often is a little jarring, but she will make exceptions for them. they’re just so cute when they’re excited.
𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐘 𝐂𝐔𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐇𝐀𝐌 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬. 𝘢 𝘱𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.
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