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.
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.”
sinclairss:
.
“did you know,” lucas said as he reached for the syrup and doused the leftover pancakes with it before taking another bite. he did have the manners to wait until he was done chewing to continue talking, so sue sinclair would be proud. or at least not pissed at him. “that guys can have growth spurts into their twenties? and our brains don’t stop developing ‘til we’re, like, twenty-five.” he tapped his temple as he took another bite. “brain food.”
he listened to robin talk and nodded along until holding up a hand and asking “cassie who?” he fell quiet for a few moments, picking at the rest of the pancakes and only settling back into the booth once he’d cleaned the plate. he’d dodged robin’s question before, but lucas found himself wanting to check in, make sure he was the only one having bizarre thoughts about that night. and if not…well, he was sure there was something they could do about it. there always was.
“so every time i walk through the gates it feels…cold. like it’s january not july.” he hesitated when the waitress walked over, flashing her a smile and offering her a thanks! before redirecting his attention back to robin. “and…okay, i’m not sure if i hit my head when i fell, too, but i saw this…vision? the other night, too, and it felt really real and every time i close my eyes i can see him.”
fuck. he hadn’t meant to say anything specific about the dream. or hallucination. or whatever it was. but he just kept talking, hoping to keep things moving. “did you…see anything like that?”
⚢
listening to lucas’ whole spiel about ‘brain food’, robin couldn’t help but feel amused. “guess that explains why steve’s brain seems way smaller than it should be by now.” she wasn’t sure just how legitimate the explanation was, but she would definitely look it up at the library or ask someone who was likely to know about it later.
“cassie, nancy’s friend from college?” robin welcomed the momentary silence, for she was starting to feel genuinely concerned about lucas. maybe that blow to his shoulder had done way more damage than first thought. “that doesn’t sound… normal.” she didn’t really know what else to say in this situation. if he was uncomfortable going into the graveyard again then he definitely shouldn’t. not alone, at least. but then again, strength in numbers had proved not to be the case last time. maybe they should just avoid it altogether.
lucas mentioning a him made robin question who he could possibly be referring to. just like her own vision, had he seen someone relevant to him in some way? “yeah, i think i might have seen something like that.” then before she could stop herself blurted out, “i saw barb. the real barb, except she wasn’t real because i saw her in my own mind. but she felt real.” he would understand what she meant if he had seen something similar so she didn’t elaborate any more than that.
𝐖𝐇𝐎: robin buckley + @stevehharringtcns ! 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: the hospital 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍: a couple days after steve wakes
last night had been the first time that robin slept at home since steve had initially arrived at the hospital. she wanted to stay but he had insisted that she go home to get a proper nights sleep and that he’d be okay, just for the night. and maybe he would be and while robin had agreed, she really didn’t want to be alone. she’d managed to avoid thinking too much about the house of mirrors by worrying about steve instead. but if she were alone, she knew it would only come rushing back.
luckily once she arrived home she’d been too exhausted for her mind to even bother replaying the events at the mirror maze for she fell asleep fairly quickly. and as soon as she woke that morning, robin changed probably faster than she ever had in her life so that she could hurry back. just to make sure he hadn’t gone back on his word or whatever.
walking to the hospital would admittedly be a little too far so she dug out her mom’s old bike (her own was way too busted!) from the garage and set off. but not before paying a visit to a grocery stores on the way to pick up some reese’s pieces — steve’s favorite. arriving at the hospital she signed in at the desk, security checked her backpack and she headed up to steve’s room.
“steve, can you believe i actually had to smuggle these in? it’s insane.” she entered the room with a quick glance at a sleeping cole, and pulled out the box of candy from the inside of her jacket, then gently placed it on steve’s lap. “how are you holding up?”
𝐖𝐇𝐎: robin buckley + @yousuzeyoulose ! 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: henderson residence
a knock on the door to the henderson household has robin feeling a little anxious. she doesn’t know why, maybe something to do with the reason why she was here. “hi mrs henderson.” she greeted politely when dustin’s mother opened the door and motioned for robin to come inside. claudia shut the front door behind her and mentioned that dustin was in his room, but that he might be catching up on some sleep.
of course she would know that both her son and robin would have banded together to support steve in his hour of need. “oh no, that’s fine. actually… i’m here to see suzie.” she’d hoped that the rumours were true, and that dustin’s girlfriend was camping out at the henderson house for the summer. thankfully mrs henderson showed her where suzie’s room was and robin thanked her.
giving herself a moment, she then knocked on the bedroom door, waited for yet another moment before calling out to the girl on the other side. “suzie? hi, it’s uh. robin! dustin’s friend. actually, i’m steve’s friend and dustin was also steve’s friend so we kind of bonded through that but-“ her mouth moved way too fast sometimes. “i was hoping we could… talk?”
stevehharringtcns:
after a few days in the hospital, while recovery was slow, steve could see some progress. he could actually sit up now without whining with pain and that was a victory for him. sure, he was a long way from actually make a full recovery, but he had to admit that it was getting better. it had to get better. plus, the company he had of his friends and eddie helped lift his spirits. the truth was that he wanted to get out of that hospital as soon as possible and go back to his normal life. the hospital life was way too slow for him.
for example, he was sitting up in his bed, looking up at the tv. he wasn’t necessarily paying attention to what he was watching, but it was a distraction. he had gotten another cup of jello from one of the nurses and was eating it, a bored look on his face until he heard robin walk in his room. now there was a better distraction than whatever was on tv. he smiled as he finished the cup of jello, placing it on the bedside table as robin placed the box of candy on his lap, letting out a laugh as she did so. “oh dude, i love reese’s pieces!” he said, his mouth still full of jello.
he didn’t waste any time as he grabbed a piece of candy, ripping the candy wrapper, steve smiled as he looked over at robin, shrugging his shoulders at the question. he was doing better. “i guess i’m good… you know, just bored out of my mind. i want to leave this hospital…” he said with a sigh as he took a bite out of the candy, nodding his head.
he looked over at his best friend, letting out a sigh. while steve and many others were in the hospital, he knew that things hadn’t been necessarily easy for anyone at the carnival. he reached for the remote to turn off the tv and looked over at robin, pursing his lips. “how are you? we haven’t really talked… about what happened. we don’t need to, but…” he said, shrugging his shoulders, showing himself available to talk about whatever had happened.
⚢
“ew steve gross. do you have to talk with your mouth full?” robin felt like they’d had this conversation at least a million times, and usually it was eye-roll inducing. but for whatever reason right now it felt nice… normal. because this was better than the other alternative, which she couldn’t bear to think about right now. steve was a pain in the ass and a total schmuck. but she didn’t know what she would do without him. robin didn’t want to admit it, but without steve around she most likely wouldn’t be able to function properly.
“you could always take up reading.” she shrugged her shoulders, flashing a small smile in his direction as she fell down into one of the chairs next to the bed. steve and books didn’t exactly go hand-in-hand. robin was pretty sure that he didn’t even read all that much when they were actually in high school and it was a basic requirement. then again, she had been much too busy staring between him, and gazing longingly at tammy.
“i’m just… trying to handle everything. it’s difficult.” a tentative answer, and she bit down on her lip to stop it from quivering. “this whole thing with you and the others just stuck in here, then vickie… and-“ did he have any idea? had max filled him in? if she hadn’t, robin guessed that it was a better time than any to drop the bombshell.
“steve i-“ where to even start? “max and i, we were taken the night of the carnival. right before we all boarded the boat in the tunnel of love. at least i think that’s where it happened.” a pause, her voice catching in her throat. “i saw some things. horrible and awful things that i just can’t forget, and i thought that i was going to die.” she probably wasn’t making much sense but robin couldn’t stop herself from the words just spilling out.
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.
❝ 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.
willthewize:
WHO: will byers + open
WHERE: you decide
His drawing skills have only improved since those childhood days scribbling with crayons and colored pencils, but it still requires practice, a constant honing of his abilities to stay sharp. And anatomy, realistic human portraiture, is one of the hardest things to get right, because when it’s just a little off…well, it can get creepy fast. People have always been one of Will’s favorite subjects to draw, probably stemming from his interest in visualizing his and the party’s childhood DnD characters. It would just be a lot easier if…
“Could you try not to move so much? Sorry, it just helps if you stay still.” He didn’t want to come across as impatient, but if his model was already fidgety, then sitting longer to finish the sketch wasn’t going to help matters.
⚢
when will had so kindly requested to draw her, robin admittedly had been completely taken aback. someone wanting to sketch another person was a detail that you saw in the pictures all the damn time and she had always thought that it was unrealistic, not to mention completely ridiculous and super unlikely. yet here they were, in the most unusual situation — well, to her at least. will was talented though, like really talented. he was probably just as good with his artistic ability as she was with band. so robin had decided to at least give it a shot.
“okay but i warned you before we started that sitting still is entirely not my forte. in fact, i don’t think i’ve ever sat completely still in my entire life. one of my limbs always has to be moving. can’t you just, i don’t know, look past it or something?” the request for limited movement, only made them more frantic, including accompanying hand motions along with this minuscule speech followed by gentle fluffing of short hair. “maybe we can take a break?” really, robin? they’d barely even started.