Rhaena Targaryen (not the Black Bride yet) and Aegon the Uncrowned

✨A series of book portraits of all the marriages of the Targaryen family✨

Random Stancy thoughts I have to put somewhere so I stop getting distracted from my writing >_<

Ok this is just a list of various thoughts and ideas I have had running around in my head that I need to write out so I stop trying to add the into fics or god forbid starting any MORE new fics before I work on the ones I already have! (which is already too many lol) I may come back to some of these ideas later/eventually or if anyone else is looking for ideas feel free to take them and run with them!!!

In no particular order- (See below)

The very common idea, in fan fiction and fan discussions of Pride & Prejudice, that Mr. Collins would not take possession of Longbourn and would instead stay in Kent and keep sucking up to Lady Catherine, is frankly batshit insane

Aenys Targaryen & Alyssa Velaryon 💖

✨A series of book portraits of all the marriages of the Targaryen family✨

demonizing steve for being caring, compassionate, and empathetic under the guise of “all he cares about is giving her flowers” is the dumbest shit i’ve seen in a while. god forbid a friend try to offer support for their friend who is going through a hard time. NEWSFLASH: these kinds of things are what you do for someone you care about who is experiencing hardship!

but j*n is who she should really be with, right? the guy who couldn’t even call her while they were long distance? the guy who still isn’t communicating with her even after a year and a half? the guy who is too busy projecting his relationship insecurities onto steve as opposed to talking things out with his gf. the list goes on.

steve is maintaining a respectful boundary, despite his feelings, and his first thought upon hearing what happened to nancy’s family was to go and check on her and give her support and comfort as any friend would. i don’t see how a person could be demonized for that. and anyone who sees it as steve having ulterior motives clearly doesn’t understand his character.

idk what it’ll take to make people see that j*n is not a good bf for nancy, bc if i were dating someone who couldn’t even be bothered to come and check on me while i’m dealing with my sibling being abducted and my parents barely clinging to life, i would not be dating that person anymore.

i understand having a job to do, but you can make time for loved ones.

Attn: People With Cervixes!

When was your last Pap smear?

Because I am tired of seeing young people (think 40 year olds!) die horribly of an almost completely preventable disease, and I haven't seen the obligatory Tumblr PSA about it, so I'm making my own.

1. CERVICAL CANCER IS REALLY BAD

Cancers that have a good prognosis are usually cancers that can be caught early--like skin cancer, which is easily seen, and therefore usually treated very early. Cervical cancer does not give you symptoms until you have very advanced disease, which means unless someone is regularly testing your cervix, you will likely not be diagnosed early. More than half of people diagnosed with cervical cancer present with advanced disease. 75% of them will be dead within 5 years. For comparison, when caught in the earliest stage, there is a 90% 5 year survival rate. Treatment for those diagnosed is chemo and radiation, and believe me, those are not fun. If you do happen to be in the lucky 25% of survivors, if your cancer comes back, you have an 85% chance of dying within a year. Also! We think of cancer as something that happens to old people, but the average age of diagnosis for cervical cancer is 50.

2. WHO GETS CERVICAL CANCER?

Cervical cancer used to be the most common cause of cancer-related death in women in America, but at this point it's basically a disease of People Without Pap Smears--developing countries, immigrants, low socioeconomic status, BIPOC, rural communities, LGBTQ, etc.

3. HOW DO PAP SMEARS SAVE YOUR LIFE?

A Pap smear is a screening test for two things: HPV, and your cervical cells. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world. Literally half of the people in America have some strain of HPV on their body. Most HPV infections go away on their own (in people with healthy immune systems), but some strains are Very Bad, and some people are just Very Unlucky, and the HPV starts causing your cervical cells to turn cancerous. 91% of all cervical cancers are caused by HPV. So a Pap smear looks to see if your have HPV, and if so, is it one of the bad ones? And also, do you have any cancerous cells hanging about in your cervix? And! It takes 10-30 years for HPV to turn those cells into cancer, which means you have a really really long time to catch it before it becomes cancer and cut those pre-cancer cells out!

4. WHAT ABOUT THAT VACCINE?

The thing my dad said I shouldn't get because it might make me a slut. Yes! There is an HPV vaccine! You should get it! It protects you against the nine most common cancer-causing types of HPV. It's recommended starting at age 11, and you can get it up to age 45 now! (It used to be 26, but as of 2020, it's now extended.)You can get it from most primary care doctors, or from Planned Parenthood, CVS, Walgreens, etc. If you get the vaccine you still need Pap smears.

5. I HEARD YOU CAN ONLY GET THE VACCINE IF YOU'RE A VIRGIN

Fake news. While the vaccine does not treat old infections of HPV, it does prevent new ones, so while the benefits are theoretically decreased in those who have already been sexually active, it does not mean you will not benefit from having it!

6. WHO GETS PAP SMEARS?

Everyone with a cervix starting at age 21, until you lose your cervix or until you're 65. You should get them every 3-5 years (depending on your exact age and what test your doctor does).

7. BUT I GOT THE VACCINE

Nice! You still need Pap smears.

8. I HAD ONE AND IT WAS HORRIBLE/I'M SCARED OF THE EXAM

Talk to your doctor about this in advance! Good gynecologists (and other providers) will work with you to minimize discomfort as much as possible. They can use a small speculum and lots of gel, prescribe anti-anxiety medications to take in advance, and some people will even use numbing creams and/or laughing gas.

9. BUT I DON'T HAVE/CAN'T SEE A GYN

Most primary care physicians can do them! So do a lot of urgent care centers!

10. BUT I'M A LESBIAN

HPV can be transmitted through oral/genital contact, hand/genital, and even hand-to-hand-then-genital, so you still need Pap smears.

11. BUT I'M A VIRGIN/ASEXUAL

You still need Pap smears. HPV can be transmitted not just through penetrative sex, but also through oral/genital, hand/genital, and hand-to-hand-then-genital, and also 9% of cervical cancers are not caused by HPV.

12. BUT I'M A TRANSGENDER MAN

If your cervix was removed, then congrats! You do not need Pap smears. Otherwise, unfortunately, you are still at risk for cervical cancer and need to be screened.

13. BUT I'M A TRANSGENDER WOMAN

Neovaginas do not need Pap smears! Congrats! Consider getting the vaccine, though, to prevent spreading HPV to others.

14. BUT I'M A CIS-GENDERED MAN

Congrats! You do not need Pap smears! You should still consider the vaccine though, not only to prevent the spread of HPV to others, but also because HPV causes 50% of all penile cancers as well.

In summary: please please please go get your pap smear. Go get vaccinated. The spread of HPV can be prevented, and cervical cancer can be caught and treated before it even becomes cancer.

DON'T FEAR THE SMEAR

it's cervical cancer awareness month y'all

Also, pap smears need to start at age 21 OR when you start being sexually active, whichever comes first.

Please get regular paps. I had cervical cancer, and had multiple surgeries and led to a hysterectomy. I am alive because I got regular paps, and monitored this over a decade until, alas, I needed surgery. If I was just la de dah not getting regular screenings? I dont want to think about what could have happened. I had HPV (I am older than the vaccine was available, and it was not made available to my age group until it was too late for me). Get Gardasil, get regular paps. Save your life. 

hey uk people who remember her: cervical cancer is what jade goody died of. very publicly. get your cervix prodded.

[ID: a medical diagram indicating a cervix, the small canal at the bottom of the uterus which connects to the vagina.]

Anne Elliot is not frail

So I've encountered an idea that some people think Anne Elliot is frail, delicate, or even sickly, and no, I think it's pretty clear she's healthy and strong to a normal degree.

As far as I recall, there's no suggestion that her health is poor or even iffy, only that her appearance is meh and she's skinny.

She gets tired on the walk where Wentworth sticks her on the carriage, but IMO that's presented as just someone being tired in a normal manner, not someone being unfit. After all, she's been nursing her injured nephew for a few days at this point and is probably unusually sleep deprived, plus stressed about Wentworth and the unpleasant conversation she overheard, so she's drained and not at her best, nor even at her normal. Before that walk, the Musgrove sisters suggest that only Mary is too unhealthy to come on the walk, not Anne, which, granted, is just an excuse because they don't want Mary, but it's an excuse that would be impossible for them to use if Anne was also sick and weak like Mary claims to be.

Anne walks to Lady Russell's house from Kellynch Hall "almost daily" we are told. She also goes on multiple walks around Lyme without trouble, and in fact looks so vivacious doing it that Mr. Elliot is like "damn she's hot" and then Wentworth is like "hey you know what, yes, damn she is hot!" She's not huffing and puffing and stumbling and looking miserable. She's fine.

In fact, no one raises any concern about her handling the trip to Lyme to begin with. Anne is treated by the Musgroves as a person in normal health, hearty enough to travel, go on long walks, help around the house, nurse her nephew, nurse Louisa, etc. And Lady Russell would have made objections about Anne going out so much if she truly was delicate—she genuinely loves Anne and is very solicitous over her well-being (arguably too much so).

And Wentworth too! He doesn't like seeing Anne tired or attacked by a toddler, but he doesn't ask after her health like he does other things about her, and he's not concerned about her going out in the rain with only an umbrella. He would rather she take a carriage, but he's not stressed about it, and that is normal gallantry that any gentleman would make to any lady so they don't get rained on, and even more so if he's in love with said lady, which he is. Mr. Elliot, who is desperately trying to make Anne fall for him by being The Perfect Boyfriend, doesn't even suggest she not walk, which I'm certain he would do in a heartbeat if there was the slightest suggestion Anne is delicate.

By the way, the thing with the toddler? It's not that she was too weak to get him off; the narrator says she is positioned in such a way with her hands occupied nursing the other kid that would make it awkward to remove him, and she's too nice to just chuck him off, and she in fact does get him off once all by herself, it's just that he gets back on again.

As my final piece of evidence that Anne is generally healthy, not frail, I give you this, after she's just read The Letter and is freaking out:

(Emphasis added by me)

Anne looks ill, which shocks everyone because A) they love her but B) she doesn't normally look like this. "Seeming like herself" means looking healthy and calm. No one acts like this happens to her a lot. No one even suggests she go home until she suggests it. Mrs. Musgrove thinks she will be perfectly fine again by that same evening if she rests for a bit. She doesn’t expect Anne to be knocked down for an extended period of time, as she might if she was known to frequently have "episodes" or periods of exhaustion.

I'm not saying Anne is an Olympic athlete or anything. There's no reason to think she's notably strong. She's just average, normal, healthy.

Austen tells us directly when a character has poor health (Fanny Price, Anne de Bourgh, etc.). She would have with Anne Elliot. She doesn't. Because she's perfectly fine. As all the evidence in the text shows.

In conclusion, there is no one so capable as Anne and this includes no one so capable at being healthy 💪

To begin, I hate generative AI. I do not touch it. I hate that it is ruining spellcheck. I do not use it for writing.

Understandably, fan fiction readers are concerned about AI. I totally get it. They don't want to read things that weren't written by a human. They want to read writing from someone who is a fan like themselves. They are worried about spending time and possibly money (in fandoms like Jane Austen that are public domain), on AI slop. I totally get that. Lots of people avoid self-published works with very obvious AI covers, fearing what is within.

Unfortunately, the AI discussion online has devolved into witch hunting. Many authors I follow have been accused of using AI and they cannot defend themselves. Unless a story was posted online years prior, what evidence do they have that they wrote it themselves? It's nearly impossible. AI was trained on fan fiction, it is becoming harder and harder to determine "tells," because AI imitates human writing. Unless someone writes something right in front of you, there is no proof.

I don't have a solution to detecting AI. I wish I could stop AI, but this witch hunting isn't helping anyone. There is no definitive proof, unless someone is stupid enough to leave a prompt in the text or something. Especially on fan fiction sites, many writers are amateurs. They're writing may be really bad, or seem computer generated, just because they are novices.

For now, if I don't like a fan fic, I just leave and don't comment, same as before AI invaded.

I state on all my fics that I do not use generative AI.

As for people who claim they can 100% tell if something written is AI, I treat them like any other charlatan or zealot. Block and move on.

If someone tells me they use generative AI for almost anything, I tell them they can't trust it and probably shouldn't use it.

I hate this reality, but at least I can not let it turn me into a shitty person. Do not use "this seems like it was written by AI" as an insult, especially on free, armature fan fiction sites. The very worst fan fiction written by a human who can hardly string two words together is still infinity more valuable than anything spat out by a machine.

The Christmas gifts Renesmee got are just so funny to me. Like, I know she's not a normal baby, but all the same, she's been on earth for 3.5 months and already has an iPod and a fancy French locket and a "promise bracelet." I also get that Bella thinks she and Edward are going to die soon and so giving her sentimental things to remember them by is important. I do. But again, imagine a baby with an iPod (well, MP3 player I guess). It's just a funny image.

I get that iPod is supposed to be sweet; a way for Edward to share the music he loves with his daughter, but again, she's months old and even with her fast development, still looks like a 1 or 2 year old.

And the French locket . . . the sentiment, again, is lovely, but the fact that the inscription is in French always felt rather random to me? Almost try-hard? The French language has until this moment not been relevant in this story at all. I guess Renesmee's name is technically French? Being a combo of French names Esme and Renee, but the characters aren't French. I always thought the inscription, if not in English, would make a little more sense in Italian. The vampires in Twilight, via the Volturi, have cultural ties to Italy, not France.

And the bracelet. Why couldn't have just been a nice bracelet? Why did SM have to call it "The Quileute version of a promise ring"? Again, this is a BABY.

Anyway, I hope Rosalie, Esme, and Charlie got this kid some toys or crayons or something. Something FUN to open and play with rather than just super sentimental things.

You are Edmund Bertram from Mansfield Park. Your elder brother, the heir to the baronetcy and most of the family's wealth, is very ill. If he dies, you will instantly attain the girl of your dreams.

Edit: Probably worth mentioning that Tom gambled away half of your far smaller inheritance and then didn't even feel badly about it.

I think, based on the timeline, this would also prevent the affair.

(I will begrudgingly admit that Edmund is a good person for never considering this)

Edit: I wonder what the mourning period was for an elder brother because Mary and Edmund waiting out that time would be interesting too...

#would I actually do this? no. i can't even be mean in video games#i would never be able to live with myself#do i think a second son actually considering this would make for an interesting story?#yes

Lol @guinevere-of-smiths! I am the same. I tried to play an evil character in D&D once and I just couldn't bring myself to do anything more dark than stealing (I was a tiefling rogue for those who play, I think I just really liked the picture of a female tiefling in the monster guide)

Thinking about an au where the young core four show up at the radio station when they’re planning the turn now trap

Young mike keeps judging old mike and he point blank refuses to believe that Nancy is Nancy she’s too badass to be his sister. Old Mike also gets a true taste of his own medicine and everyone laugh at his expense

Young Lucas thinks that old Lucas is the coolest thing in existence and old Lucas keeps staring down at him thrown off at how tiny his young self was he was so different to how he imagined. Young Lucas refuses to believe that the upside down exists and he slowly gets more suspicious of the group and thinks they’ve gone nuts until he sees a demodog for himself

Young will on the other hand immediately believes them not cause they’re convincing at all but because he thinks the idea of an alternative dimension is so cool. Joyce holds him for so long that his feet haven’t touched the ground since he got there but Jonathon keeps smiling sadly at Jim’s and he doesn’t know why. He thinks his older self is cool but he doesn’t have any opinions of him further than that.

Older Dustin left the room the second his younger self appeared he avoids him at all costs and when the younger Dustin try’s to interact with him he looks at him with anger, disgust but mostly fear (he changed so much of himself so he wouldn’t have to see him when he looked in the mirror so seeing a version of himself which will eventually make a decision which leads to eddies death is unbearable to him). This really upsets young dustin since he thinks his older self is the coolest person to ever exist. Steve adores him though, this was his chance to make things better but he keeps crying whenever he shows joy it kills him to see him happy again and nancy knows she would feel the same way older Dustin does if her younger self showed up so she’s the one to check in on him.

I love aus where it’s truly apparent how much each character has changed especially with stranger things cause I adore how competent the kids have gotten over time

Its all fun and games (with the exception of Dustin) until Max shows up and they don’t know how to explain it to her.

I’d like to think the main four sit down and have a discussion on what they’re going to tell the kids (like about what happened. Will realizes really quickly he will never in his good conscience tell little Will what happened to him, Dustin is obviously on board with keeping everything a secret, Lucas is struggling between the two, and Mike is both not thinking and being completely rational as he pleads the others to tell the kids what’s going on).

Lucas can’t stop himself from staring at little Max because that’s the love of his life young and happy and exactly the same as when he fell in love with her first and Awake, but little Max notices and goes “why are you staring at me like that? What are you a stalker?” And he just totally and completely breaks down.

And you’re absolutely right Dustin would completely shut out little him right until little Max shows and he has to interact with the kids because they’re the best bet at understanding what’s going on and he just glares at little Dustin and goes “right, no questions, in fact, don’t talk to me at all, no I wont tell you anything, and yes you look like this now be fucking happy.” And the old four are just looking at Dustin with the most heartbroken faces.

Will isn’t faring better when he realizes little Will hasn’t been kidnapped yet, and he’s just kinda staring at himself with those sad eyes. Little Will isn’t quite as perceptive as old Will but he notices and it dawns on him really quick that something went wrong somewhere along the way. Little Will is having the time of his life investigating old Mike though because “look Mike you have cheekbones!!”

Little Mike is the one who is pressing the hardest to understand what’s going on, and he rightfully targets Old Mike for this because he can just tell that old Mike wants to spill. He is however also fascinated by Old Will and goes “look Will you have muscles!! But still that damn bowl cut!!” And everyone can’t help but laugh.

Little Max is 12 and has just moved to Hawkins and she is having an aneurysm. Lucas keeps crying every time she talks and the mini him keeps trying to talk to her like incessantly and it’s honestly kinda endearing if it wasn’t annoying as hell. She can tell that there’s a reason Older her isn’t with the four boys other than just happenstance, and she’s both morbidly curious and absolutely terrified of what is going on because all the olds keep looking at her both like she’s a ghost and like they would kill for her at any moment.

When the real four lock themselves in a room and discuss what to do, Mike is pacing, Will and Lucas are sitting vacant eyed on a bed, and Dustin has his back to the door and he’s curled up with a perpetual scowl. Mike is the one who is really keeping his composure, and it pisses the others off because “fuck you Mike sure youve had shit happen but not to you.” When Mike proposes telling the kids Will finally snaps at him saying that he has no fucking clue what it’s like to realize the kid in front of him has a chance to be normal and Mike shuts the hell up. They talk about how to get the kids back to their timeline and Will and Dustin look at each other and go “what if we just keep them here” and that spurs another argument. Eventually Lucas (who has been very quiet) narrows his eyes at the door and goes “guys, when we were eleven what would we be doing right now?” And immediately everyone goes “eavesdropping” and they panic. Then, and it finally dawns on Will, if little Max showed up, when what about little El? And that ensues another panic episode.

Op you have to understand I’m going crazy over this and I just keep replaying Lucus’ face when he sees a 12 year old Max and so I simply need (to write maybe) the au and (if I do write it I’ll 100% give you credit) I’m actually going insane. I keep imagining them playing Dnd and Will’s character casts like Time Jump or something and then the world just slowly shifts into the future and the Older Four find them down there. It’s obviously something to do with Will having powers or something but like I’m trying to make the plot work and there would really have to be some cannon shenanigans happening (like they know old Will has powers but it’s still in the 18 month time skip or something like that?? Idk). And obviously finding a 11 year old El would be insane especially to El herself. Old Mike watches little Mike force himself to like her again and painfully realizes he can’t stop it (or maybe realizes he wants to stop it, depending on if Mileven are a thing, if Byler is a thing, or it they’re all separate). God this would be so fun to explore the trip and a half the party would be going through THANK YOU OP

Helll yeahhhh! I didn’t even THINK about adding max that would completely destroy Lucas (I’ve been trying to campaign for more time travel fics on the st fandom for agesss so please send me the link if you do!!!

Some stranger things mini concepts for a time travel au (mostly outsider pov cause I’m a sucker for those)

Randomly one day these kids just start flinching at flickering lights, one time the power cuts to the middle school and the four of them just bolt out of the classroom most of the class assume it’s a joke until it’s the end of the day and no one can find them. The next morning when they re enter they keep mumbling about a false alarm but someone swears they saw a tazer in wheeler’s bag.

Mikes parents are delighted when he regularly starts volunteering to babysit Holly until they find him one day curled up in a closet sobbing with her in his arms and Nancy standing just outside of it like a guard dog with her hand halfway under her bed as if ready to reach for something. They don’t quite know what to make of it after that

No one knows what happened to the Henderson kid just one day the light went from his eyes he keeps eyeing the high school and nervously thumbing over the walkie-talkie that never leaves his hand. His workspace in the A.V club is covered in parts that Mr.Clark has no clue what to do with and he always shoves whatever he was working on into his bag whenever anyone except the rest of the group enters the room. No one knows what he’s doing but the word ‘explode’ is muttered a few too many times for his liking

Nancy wheeler was a weird case her fingers always twitch in front of her at loud noises like something should be in them but she never looks afraid just a fierce kind of determination like she’s daring whatever spooked her to try something. At lunch she sits with the odd assortment of the Byers loner, her old best friend who seems frankly confused, some random band geek who tackle hugged her on the first day all this weird behaviour started and Steve the hair Harrington who doesn’t even appear to be dating her any more.

Steve’s also gone odd. One day he just stopped talking to any of his goons he gave some thinly veiled threats and just left and on top of that him and some weird 12 year old can be seen bickering at almost any landmark in the town the kids always latched onto him though in some way either by tugging him along by the sleeve or by steve ruffling his hair. Harrington looks a bit at a loss when the kid isn’t there and keeps anxiously staring in the vague direction of the middle school with his hand over the walkie talkie that has been clipped to his belt since the weirdness started. Someone swears they saw a nail bat in the trunk of his car.

Some weird red head shows up one day at the middle school and acts like she’s always been there a few kids try to make friends with her but get met with pure sarcasm. She’s attached to Sinclair by the hip and the whole party changed around their seats when she arrived so him and max wouldn’t have to stop holding hands during class , it would be cute if the teachers weren’t worried about how isolated and codependent the group seemed sometimes the five would share a look or sometimes one of their expressions would flash with something too old and without verbal cue the others would just stand up and leave.

There’s now always someone at the chiefs office wether it’s ms Byers who’s pulled up a chair right next to him leaned onto his shoulder, her kids doing homework in comfortable silence to the side of his desk or one of an assortment of strange characters watching his TV or making notes on a map of the town, it’s a near guarantee he won’t be alone. Some poor bastard once burst in unannounced and got a 4 guns pulled on him he was in shock for an hour after (seeing Nancy wheeler pull a shotgun on you with a group of strangely menacing 12 year olds huddled behind her each holding what appeared to be a makeshift bomb will do that to you)

That’s all the rants for today lol

Will doesn’t bike to school anymore and he’s absolutely terrified of the dark, but no one knows why. Not only did the light die in his eyes, but so did his trust. It was like his innocence was stolen in a matter of days, and Mr. Clarke can’t find it in himself to ask. Suddenly his art changed from happy scenes to monsters no one could recognize. There’s someone at his side 24/7 (typically wheeler) and they keep looking around as if they’ll get jumped at any moment. For a minute, the kid was always trying to lift something way heavier than he could actually carry as if he expected himself to be something other than a twig.

Speaking of byers and wheeler, something has changed between them that no one can put their finger on, but they seem much more comfortable. Someone swears they were holding hands, but they don’t talk about it (about a dozen people threatened them to hell and back, and they also said that they’d been to hell and it wasn’t a place of just torture, but the slowest most horrible death imaginable, and the kid shut up)

The bullies learn these nerds aren’t scared of them anymore (in fact, they seem bored, or with some bittersweet humor as if bullies were a remnant of sometime happier). These bullies also learn that these five kids can whoop their ass in a second, and if they hesitate even for a minute, many high schoolers and adults will be there with weapons (as if the party doesn’t also have weapons).

Erica seems to have aged ten years in a few days. Suddenly she knows things. Suddenly she hates her friends, the ones that sneer at intelligence. Suddenly she’s reading like her life depends on it, or writing, or drawing, or some other hobby. She seems desperate for something her parents can’t remember her ever wanting, but they cant even figure out what that is.

Eddie is alive. They don’t know what to do about it. Steve keeps trying to talk to him and then chickening out, as if becoming friends will get him killed again. Dustin can’t even think about it. Dustin, every time he remembers, goes into self-destruct mode and the others have to pull him out by his ear. He isn’t happy about it. Steve and him keep repeating that Eddie doesn’t know them and will never know them because it was them who got him killed.

Speaking of events reoccurring, everyone is terrified Will is going to go missing again and kick off the series of events. They watch him like a hawk, and Nancy practically never leaves Barb alone anymore. Barb is learning to accept the new norm (she honestly kinda likes it. She feels like no matter what happens she finally has a group that will stick with her no matter what).

None of them will go near Lovers lake or Mirkwood. They keep getting antsy and jumpy in random places, or maybe they’re just like that now. Whats really weird is that occasionally someone will turn to their side with a name no one in Hawkins has (“El”) on their lips before they look like they got hit by a train. No one understands who this El is, but they chalk it up to a weird family friend.

Nosebleeds and headaches are treated with such severity that it freaks everyone around them out. Byers started getting nosebleeds all the time, and the five kids miss so much school because, for some reason, every time it happens they all leave.

Same with the new girl. Every time she gets a nosebleed they pull out a jukebox in the middle of class, play something by Kate Bush, and all leave. She’s always terrified, but that’s the trend with these kids now. She’s always moving, or awake, or clutching some sort of caffeine or sugar like her life depends on it. Like if she misses a single moment she’ll never have another one.

Nightmares wake the neighbors every other night, and it terrifies Karen and Ted. Nancy and Mike keep looking at them like they’re already gone, and that terrifies them too. Their kids don’t sleep alone anymore. Someone is always over (or multiple people) to spend the night, or they’re at someone else’s. Will is with Mike constantly, Jonathan won’t leave Nancy’s side. When they can’t make it work with other people, Mike and Nancy curl up in Holly’s room as if they can’t physically fall asleep alone. Their elder kids also keep side eyeing every comment and sigh and eye roll as if there’s going to be a breaking point between their parents soon. They start to wonder if their kids know something they don’t.

Its not uncommon that people are never alone. Its almost like a cult how closely they follow one another. People ignore it as much they can. People move on. Something changed, something happened, something cursed. They learn that the group of people who are never apart will never be apart again, they learn that that feeling of unease and sadness that follows them is simply something that will stain Hawkins. A bleeding wound with no sign of the knife. They learn that they don’t know what happened to these kids, but they learn that something did, and it’s terrifying.

YES these are so good I love the concept of max refusing to go to sleep afraid she will never wake up again plus i adore your will concepts i kinda forgot to add some of him in my original post cause it was 1am lol

Some more stranger things time travel mini concepts cause I can’t get enough of these.

one day during class when the residents bully, Troy tries to scare the party off but the second he calls Dustin a freak he gets socked in the face by Lucas (he stuck by bullies who’d talk that way about his friends once and he refuses to stand by again). Their parents get brought in because he broke the kids nose but Lucas just refuses to say he’s sorry.

Eddie Munson has no clue what’s going on he kept catching some random middle schooler staring at him. Until one day the kid physically rams into him on the sidewalk and when his D&D stuff scatters, the kid starts chatting up a storm, stuttering all the way and asks him to teach him how to be a dm for his own party. They hang out for a while but one day he has a bad cough and the kid just goes into a full blown panic attack with all of eddies horse comforts only making it worse. Eventually Steve Harrington show up to drive the kid home and before Eddie can block him he darts through the door and actually gets through to the kid. Eddie has no clue what’s happened.

People start swearing up and down that the Byers house is haunted as whenever anyone got close to try to vandalise it or even just walking around the area things start flying around like it’s a hurricane. No one believes this of course but people stop venturing in that area for fear of getting knocked out by an old can of beans like Tommy Hagar when he went to spray paint jonathons car.

The kids teachers are mildly disturbed when these twelve year olds start spouting and debating in genuine and well researched scientific earnest about wormhole theory during a physics lesson. No one has any clue how they understand any of it but at one point they all crowd around wheelers desk and start editing and complaining about each other’s slightly differing diagrams.

The Byers, Mayfield and Henderson kids seem to be dealing with chronic pain. There are days where max walks so stiffly that others swear she’s broken her limbs, though Sinclair often offers to carry her she insists on trying by herself until she inevitably gives up and leans on him. Will holds his head in his arms often though he has a migraine but he never seems to mind the noise of his friends chatting around him. Dustin keeps flexing his hands, prodding his eyelids and the bridge of his nose as though he’s constantly rechecking himself for injuries in the back of his mind. Like he is used to those sorts of wounds

Jason is walking to school one day when he notices this tiny kid death glaring him like he’s the scum of this earth he holds the hand of a red headed girl who doesn’t seem to pay his odd behaviour any mind.

When Billy shows up he hears tales of the previous king of Hawkins high and tries to challenge him to prove his worth but the precise moment he gets his first phrase out insulting his odd company a fist flies at him like Harrington had decided to fight him at the first sight of him.His lunch friends sneer at him with true disgust like they’re waiting for their turn to try kick his ass. When they’re done wheeler threatens him to stay away from his step sister who he had no clue how they knew about.

When the party goes to the wheeler house for their weekendly game of D&D, Kate is truly shocked to find that they have been joined by 3 17 year olds who report to be nancys friends despite Karen having never seen them in her life. But when Nancy does come down to greet them she lights up like she hasn’t seen her do in weeks and they head to the basement where she can hear the kids cheering at their arrival. In the morning she checks on them to find all 10 of them curled up on the floor in a distinctly intimate moment of comfort. She leaves them there

Steve and Dustin time travel au prompt but it happens while they are fighting in the lab. Like they are full on tackling eachother then bam back to 1983

They rally the group starting with the young party searching for will. They don’t believe that older Dustin is Dustin. He doesn’t look at all like their nerdy friend who he keeps starring at with fear and disgust. The only reason that the duo are able to convince them is because Mike knows what steve looks like. But they have no clue what to make of the duo. One second they’re fighting looking ready to throw the other off of a cliff based on shared history that none of the kids understand but then the next second when they seem to forget themselves they cheer and joke with eachother like it was what they were born doing

The only party member convinced by Dustin’s older apearence , not steve is Joyce. She knows what growing up looks like from Jonathon and recognises the way the two fight (like how will and Jonathon used to when will would try to defend Lonnie and excuse his actions against himself).

Hopper just about goes into shock seeing how mature steve has become, he’s used to dealing with a spoiled brat who’s probably got a good heart in there somewhere but has never been told no. Not a soldier who implicitly trusts his comrade not someone with the same eyes he had watching his daughter fade away. It’s spooks the hell out of him.

Then they meet the younger steve to try to convince him. And he’s mad about Nancy believing this group with an obvious pretender weirdo so he says some unsavoury things about Dustin because he’s the easiest target to anger but it isn’t him to defend himself. He doesn’t seem to even really notice until he mentions his hair and rings making him look like a freak. He gets jumped

Over the course of the story the two piss eachother off more and more until the two are fighting the demogorgan and it lunges for Dustin and he doesn’t move or flinch, he closes his eyes and stands there knowing that if he died here then they’ve already done all they can to fix this timeline and feeling he’s finally pushed steve enough to not care about him anymore, he doesn’t think anyone will morn him either. Steve saves his ass and they fight like cannon but it’s more open about Dustin’s guilt and Steve’s jealousy and fear of how he thinks he’s slowly loosing Dustin and then they make up and go home.

Some more stranger things Dustin and Steve time travel concepts because I’m back on my propaganda again

Something is wrong with Dustin. No one has any clue what’s up but one day he just loses his spark with no reason except some half assed excuses about being tired. He steals things from the av classroom parts that are only used in mechanics way to advanced for a 12 year old so at first Mr Clarke thinks his family has fallen on hard times but then he sees him in the back of science class almost blended into the wall with how discrete he is working on something that even he can’t divine. (To be fair to him this version of the tracker hadn’t even been invented yet and some of those makeshift bombs we’re a Dustin original)

His friends are concerned because he talks different his voice seems hopeless and he keeps surveying the rooms around him looking at exits and threats like it was what he was trained to do (will only notices because he did the same thing at home for the first few weeks after Lonnie left).

One day in gym they all play rounders and Henderson who has never been sporty for once in his life gets all the way around every time he’s up to bat. He tells them some excuse about having his brother teach him and Mike who overheard this goes into a spiral convinced that he’s been replaced by a body snatching alien until he answers all of their interrogation questions perfectly. He promises to tell them what’s going on at some point but they all call bullshit.

Something is wrong with Steve ‘the hair’ Harrington one day he showed up with his hair done in a slightly different, if better, style blowing off and ignoring ever single one of his friends and when Tommy inevitably took out his anger on Jonathon Byers he looked just about ready to murder him on the spot and gave him some of the most colourful threats the school had ever seen. (All he could see in that moment was Dustin getting beat up by Andy and seeing his so called friends do the same to someone he knew nearly made him throw up)

He has a different aura to him, whereas before he was cocky and egoistic, now he’s reserved and intimidating. When he walks into a classroom he looks like he’s prepared himself to fight whoever lies inside he has the look of a soldier ready to follow orders. He’s gained a new accessory though, a modified walkie talkie that’s always clipped onto his belt with a hand over it ready to answer

Nancy is confused one day Steve was acting so above it all now he’s got a new gadget of the likes that she’s sure the party would freak out over and he walks through the halls like the personal guardian angel to those bullied by his former friends who refuse to try anything while he’s around. She thinks she likes it but it’s so different to the guy shes seen before that she worry’s for him even though she doesn’t know him yet

A few days later while Nancy and Mike are on an errand for their mother they both see it. Steve and dustin, at the arcade Steve has a hand in the kids hair as he cheers him on in the most familiar action that he’s done in months and Dustin in clearly loving it they jibe at eachother and laugh but never go more than a few meters apart. They both look so relaxed that it almost makes Nancy cry at how close they are it’s adorable like seeing two puppies play fight until someone shoulder checks the kid and says something to Harrington. The air feels sucked out in a vacuum as they suddenly both look so old that it startles her the Dustin looks ready to fight this man twice his size and Steve’s glare is like ice as he shoves the kid behind him gently and leers over the man in a way that makes him bolt. Then they just return to what they were doing but there’s a persistent shake in their hands.

When Steve first sees Dustin he instantly knows that this is his version of the kid but still that look on his face scares him, not because little Dustin looks like he could hurt a fly even with an expression like that but because it’s a reminder that he failed to protect the kid a constant one. Every scar that he barely even registered as more than just another change in the time they weren’t talking has vanished and the guilt of not seeing how hurry he was consumes him. No one can understand how terrified he is to leave the kid alone he completely forgets to even attempt to fake his old personality the constant anxiety just rushes through him until the day is over and he can check over Dustin for injuries so he can be certain he’s protecting him right.

Dustin barely recognises Steve from behind wearing a posh polo but it’s his stance that gives it away that readiness that could only come from experience, he barely thinks before wrapping his arms around him and feeling whole again. When he’s away from him his mind is a constant stream of what ifs that make him tense and unreceptive. He does his best but as they prepare for November 6th he has to get his hands dirty and steal. They needed weapons and for the first time and they are starting from scratch they train and get ready for a fight they’re already won.