𝐖𝐇𝐎: Robin Buckley + @dvstybuns​​​​ ! 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: The Hospital 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍:

zccming​:

.

“next time.” max nodded, signaling that at this point, robin had little say in the matter. her mind was set on the idea of teaching robin to skate, and she intended on following through on that come hell or high water. truthfully, at this point, the only thing robin could do was avoid showing up, but even then, max was likely to track her down. she stood at the ready, prepared to soothe any and all reservations robin might still be having. “i’m great at patching up.” she insisted, implying that this instance had been an outlier in her track record. “i had to do it to myself all the time when i was learning, it’s like, battle scars, and you get to show all the other skaters how tough and seasoned you are. doesn’t that sound fun?” max enthused, getting carried away with the idea of being able to spend time at the skate park with another girl and not just cole. 

max pulled her words and eager demeanor back in then sucked on her teeth. robin’s attempt had been pretty pathetic, but, “yeah, guess you did.” she had a hunch that robin wasn’t the type to learn well under tough love. she proceeded to nod, “of course i do, i mean, you’re kinda cool now and whatever…” robin definitely wasn’t the epitome of cool in the traditional sense, but max had always thought so, her words were genuine. “but think about how much cooler you’ll be when you can zip around town all effortlessly, like, vicki vickers or something!” 

⚢

“fine. but if you even think about telling anyone how bad i am, the deals off.” maybe it wouldn’t turn out to be so bad. after all, max was talented with a board — literally everyone and their mom knew that. in fact, a couple weeks back her own mother had gone grocery shopping and returned talking about the girl on the skateboard doing tricks and hanging around down there.

while she wasn’t the only girl that skated in hawkins, straight away robin knew it had to have been max and proudly said as much, and that she also happened to be her friend. so yeah, she was good. it was just relying on the fact now that max would be able to effortlessly pull off teaching someone who had trouble walking straight, let alone travelling on a physical moving object.

“do other skaters really care about that?” if they did robin would definitely end up being the toughest and most seasoned skater around. in that, she would probably be covered in hundreds of cuts and bruises way before that point. “you think i’m cool or whatever?” at this, she smiled widely. no one had ever called her cool before, being in band solidified being anything but cool. yet this felt sincere, and coming from literally the coolest kid robin knew too! “let’s not get ahead of ourselves, one step at a time please.”

sinclairss​:

who: lucas & @rcbinbvckleys​ what: lucas sinclair invented uber in the 1980s where: lucas’ car

lucas had spent some time at the hospital since the shit show that had been the mayor’s 4th of july carnival, but he’d also been respectful that there were actual family members who needed to spend time with their loved ones…and people who were basically family. so, he’d spent a decent amount of time since then driving people to and from the hospital because…there was a real lack of working vehicles among their group. and if lucas’ shitty little honda could help make sure people got safely to and from the hospital? well, that was the least he could do.

on this evening, he was parked in the fire lane waiting for robin to emerge from the hospital, assuring the security guard for the fifth time that “i’m sure she’s on her way. oh! there she is.” with a winning smile and a cheery wave, lucas rolled up the driver’s side window and leaned across the center console to manually unlock the passenger door for robin so that she’d be able to climb in. “hey.” he turned down the radio as she climbed inside. “how’s steve?” a pause. “nancy? you?” there were a lot of people to keep track of.

⚢

lucas offering to drive her from the hospital was something that robin was extremely grateful for. she’d been home and back a few times in the last few days, opting to make the journey either on bike or on foot. to be honest it was beginning to get a little tiring, especially when somewhere deep down inside she just wanted to hide herself away. and yet, she still wanted to be there for steve. robin hadn’t even gone back to work yet, not just because she had her own shit going on but it wouldn’t be the same without him there. even if he was a dingus and annoyed her to no end sometimes.

calling a quick sorry to the security guard, robin clambered into the vehicle and pulled the door shut behind her. “thanks for doing this lucas, really.” she meant it, lucas really didn’t have to go out of his way like this but here he was. “steve and nancy are both okay, and i think the rest of them are too. but me? i’m absolutely awful.” a mirthless laugh, knowing that she was being unbelievably selfish about her feelings. how could she even feel this way when her own best friend had almost died? when vickie and scott clarke and other beloved townsfolk actually had?

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?”

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.

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.

STRANGER THINGS — 4.04, Dear Billy

loverboymontgomery​:

xx.

“Thanks,” he said, weak smile not quite meeting his eyes. The worst part, he thought, was that it felt like a fantasy first; he and Adam laying in bed, talking about the future, and then out of nowhere… Adam’s eyes changing, his body ablaze. It wasn’t a memory, so what was it? “I don’t think I made it up? But I don’t know.”

Cole let a breath go, shaking his head and watching Robin’s eyes. When her voice cracked, he put a hand on her knee, trying to reassure her. “I’m sorry, too. That’s… fucked,” he shook his head. 

He’d thought his ‘vision’ was bad enough, but he couldn’t imagine someone trying to pull him down– kill him, presumably. If Robin was anything like him, she was hearing Barb’s cry for help over and over again in her mind. “I don’t know what happened to Barb, but… I’m sure there was nothing you could do,” he said. Cole paused, searching his hands for something to say. “Why do you think… we saw that?” 

⚢

“i don’t think we made it up either. when i usually make up or think out scenarios in my brain they’re always just a little bit fuzzy and out of reach. but this was totally different. because i was there, and i felt everything. did you- have that?” robin had considered that maybe she’d just been thrown back into a memory from long ago which went completely haywire.

but herself and barb had only gone swimming when they were kids, and in this ‘vision’, barb had looked older. as in, the same age as when she first went missing. and it had been night time. and then there was the pool… “i just wish we’d still been friends. i wish i could have helped her.” although robin logically knew that there wasn’t much that she could have done. the two of them had still been friendly, but they had drifted apart. it wasn’t anyone’s fault, sometimes that just happened, right?

“i don’t know.” the only real running theory was one that she didn’t believe cole could possibly know — that the upside down stuff was happening again. “i think — we might have disturbed barb’s grave.” it was what robin had initially believed too, before realising everything had been far too much of a coincidence.

jackforeman​:

Jack hadn’t really spoken to Robin Buckley much at all in his life before being at the Wheelers’ family barbecue. It was there that he learned she’d become friends with Steve, his coworker, even, and it was just another reminder of what he’d missed while he was now known to be dead, not just gone in a cult. He would have considered her presence on his front porch a threat, that she was here to chew him out about attacking their mutual friend at the carnival, even if it was something that Jack had no recollection of. 

Instead, it seemed that she was here in peace. It was nice to know that Steve’s condition had remained stable since he’d gone to visit, when he’d gotten the strength to face his friend to apologize for what he’d done. “Oh, that’s … great, actually. That’s good. I went by yesterday, just to say hi, and, well, I figured I owed him an apology.” He shifted, uncomfortable and embarrassed by what he’d done that he couldn’t even remember. “Do you want to come in?”

⚢

“oh, i uh, didn’t know you’d been by.” she felt a little sheepish now. suppose she’d been too caught up in her own thoughts to pay any real attention to whether steve had told her about jack visiting or not. the previous evening she’d paid a visit to vickie’s mom, to pay her respects and to apologise. the apology held way more weight than it should have done, but it felt necessary under the circumstances.

“anyway, they think he might be able to go come home soon.” and honestly, thank fucking god for that. while steve was definitely doing a whole lot better, it was still painful to see him in that hospital room. jack asking whether she wanted to come in admittedly caught her a little off guard, but she nodded her head anyway and followed him inside. “actually, there was something else i wanted to ask you. i don’t know how well you know steve’s parents but… have you seen them much? recently, i mean.” steve had said they’d been by the hospital once, maybe twice. robin thought that was insane, but knowing the harringtons, she wasn’t really all too surprised.

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.

elevcnhops​:

xx

Thinking back, the idea of favorites was still a wild concept. How could you choose just one? Especially when one had nothing to begin with? There were those instances of flipping through channels casually beside Hop ( as they sat on the same musty couch she would return home to shortly ). The titles weren’t specified so she couldn’t tell Robin even if she wanted to. Biting her lower lip, chewing softly while continuing to think. “ Ralph Macchio? “

  Aha, there was something! “ Max showed me a picture in a magazine. “ trying to remember the name of his movie, maybe the other would know? “ He’s a good kisser? “ reiterating the question Max once voiced. Concluding it must not be a big deal to mention, that was the only ’ fact ‘ she knew about the actor besides the title to his movie. “ Or yours? “ expectancy upon her question, El could fight off monsters sure, but Robin still had more ‘ real world ‘ knowledge. Finding that priceless. Her eyes widening, “ What is your favorite movie ever? “ echoing back with genuine interest.

⚢

“oh! give me just one minute.” now ralph macchio she could work with. the comment about him being a good kisser raised an eyebrow, it didn’t look anything special to her. not that she knew the slightest thing about what it was like to kiss a boy. but robin made a beeline straight for where she knew the video would be, for someone had just returned it a few days back. this she remembered specifically because they hadn’t rewound the damn thing and she’d had to do it herself.

returning back to el with it, robin handed it to her with a flourish. “i present to you, the karate kid.” then came the question and it was always a difficult one. there were a few niche ones that she doubted el would have heard of, so those were out of the question. robin did have a bit of a soft spot for back to the future owing to the summer of ‘85, then there was fast times at ridgemont high, but both of them felt too obvious. so instead she settled on, “escape from new york,” a pause, wondering if el had heard of it. “i actually do a great snake plissken impression.”