After Max snuck off one day, Steve brings her home right before Neil and Susan return.
Billy gives her and Steve shit about it on the porch, freezing up when Neil's car pulls into the driveway.
He notices the way Neil's normally hard and intimidating stare softens upon seeing Harrington in front of their house.
He greets him, shakes his hand, makes polite small talk with him and invites him in for dinner.
Steve glances over at Billy, noticing how he rolled his eyes and he politely declines.
"I really shouldn't—"
"I insist." Neil goads him, gently pushing him inside and leading him to the table. "Susan's cooking is divine."
Billy groaned. Of course, Steve was the golden boy everyone adored, even his own father. What was so perfect about him anyway?
Billy is imagining he can shoot lasers from his eyes at Steve, and Steve can feel the intention coming from Billy's glares.
He plans to leave early, but Neil offers him dessert, offers him a beer, asks if he wants to stay and watch the game.
Why the fuck's this guy being so nice to Steve?
Because the Harrington name holds so much prestige in Hawkins? Because it can help him get a promotion? What? What the fuck is it? It can't just be because of Steve.
Billy notices that Steve feels really awkward, but he's always been taught to be polite, so he does what any golden boy would do. He stays, he accepts Neil's kindness, he answers questions when asked.
Of course, Neil brings up Mr. Harrington, asking about his company and how it's doing.
His question seems really motivated and Billy's pissed off to the point of no return. He stands, politely excusing himself to his room.
"Don't you wanna watch the game, son?"
Son...?
Who in god's name was he talking to? Not me, Billy assumed.
Why was his voice so soft and his eyes so warm? That wasn't Neil. That wasn't Sir. Billy was afraid of this version of Neil and that warm smile that showed the crow's feet beside his beady, lying eyes.
Billy slowly sat back down next to Steve.
"Billy used to love baseball."
No I didn't.
"He lost interest. He's much better at basketball. Aren't you boys on the same team?"
"Yes, sir, we are." Steve nodded. "He's really good."
Neil laughed. "That's my boy."
What?! Am I in an alternate universe?
When the fever dream of a night ended, Neil told Billy to walk Steve to his car.
"Uh...See you at school?" Steve said uncertainly.
"Yeah." He watched Steve get into his car and walked back into his house.
Neil's warm, fake smile was gone, along with that soft welcoming voice.
It was all a facade, just as he'd assumed.
Neil ordered him to do the dishes, including Steve's. Nothing disgusted him more than cleaning up after Steve.
To make matters worse, this became a constant. Neil was letting Max's nerdy friends come over and Steve would pick them up, then circle back for dinner or a beer with Neil.
Neil would insist on including Billy, bragging about how strong, or how bright Billy was, bringing up the days in California, the very few good ones.
It pissed Billy off, but the nights Steve would come over, there was no shouting, no beatings and Neil was...nice.
Billy started passing notes to Steve at school, inviting him over, especially on Sundays so he didn't have to deal with Neil's bullshit on his day off.
At first, Steve would keep Neil out of Billy's hair, but then, Steve stopped by Billy's room to ask him why he always invited him over if he didn't wanna hang out.
"I thought maybe Neil'd like hanging out with you."
"So you invited me over to keep your dad company? Why don't you just hang out with him?"
"Because we don't get along. He's...he's not always like that." Billy quietly mumbled, hoping Neil didn't suddenly develop super hearing.
"Oh." Steve slowly shut the door. "So that's why you keep inviting me over?"
Billy shrugged.
"Well, Max told Dustin, and Dustin told me that your dad beats the hell out of you, that true?"
Billy's body tightened up and he went dead silent. "The fuck do you care?" He snapped.
"It's not cool." Steve sat on the floor across from Billy. "I don't wanna come here and keep hanging out with your dad. I kinda thought we were hanging out. That's why I would stay."
"You...wanted to hang out with me?" He skeptically narrowed his eyes.
"Yeah. I've been hoping we could get along for a change. I didn't know you were just using me to keep your dad out of your hair."
"I—I didn't think you'd wanna hang out with me. I thought you liked hanging out with Neil."
Steve laughed. "I don't hang out with old people."
"Yeah, you hang out with little kids instead."
"Shut up, I'm their babysitter. Those little shits are always getting into some kind of trouble."
"Whatever. So...d'you wanna like...hang...now?"
Steve nodded without hesitation. "Yeah. That's why I come here in the first place."
"You like Metallica?"
"No."
"Mötley Crüe?"
"Not really."
"Surfing?"
"Eh. Not really any beaches around."
Billy scoffed, shaking his head in disapproval. "The hell do you like?"
Steve pointed to a deck of cards on Billy's dresser. "Know how to play War?"
"Vaguely." Billy shrugged before grabbing the deck and handing it to Steve.
They played a few rounds of cards before they were laughing and shit-talking into the late hours of the night.
Neil didn't disturb them at all.
Dedicating this to @mangywayway since you're always being so kind when I'm feeling down. Tysm ❤️
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might have said this before. sorry for repeating myself. but catra definitely contributes to adora's suicidal thoughts.
catra makes it pretty clear that adora's whole existence ruined catra. that adora wasn't enough to protect her. that adora only hurts all her other friends and won't ever be a good hero, and every time adora feels happy, it's because she's selfish. most of this catra says in the s3 finale, but she makes them pretty clear in the entire show.
adora in s1 (iirc) is convinced that she ruined her friends' lives and that she shouldn't be near them anymore - and perhaps never come back at all. swift wind shows her that glimmer and bow love her and will stick for her, they will never abandon adora to die. and even after catra did leave her to die, adora blames herself for "pushing catra further to the side of evil".
then in s3, adora has to sacrifice herself to save the world. angella sees through her and hugs her. adora cries and still tries to argue that it's the only way to fix things. thankfully, angella proved her that isn't true.
s5 comes along, and adora behaves the same way, too. adora doesn't want to die but she doesn't value her own life or happiness. she's forced to do this again. and yet catra only guilt-trips her more, and what does that do? obviously, that only convinces adora further that she has to go to the heart of etheria alone. and i hate that catra suddenly acts like adora always abandons ppl.
but WHY does adora do that? yes, her being raised to be a soldier has to do with it. shadow weaver's influence onto her as well. but catra is the one who keeps feeding all of this. catra manipulates adora and abuses her to make her feel worthless. that way, adora ends up isolating herself from her loved ones and she is convinced that she should die so everyone else gets to live happily.
while a lot of ppl know this, in the end none of them want to accept that catra has a crucial influence on adora's self-sacrificial behavior.
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When I was a kid, I regularly lost reading privileges for "having an attitude" and "acting out".
It wasn't as simple as being told not to read during other activities- one of the first times it happened, I remember being six years old, watching my stepfather pull fistfuls of books off my bookshelf and throw them to the floor in a heaping mess while I cried and asked him to stop.
It was weird. Every other adult I knew described me as exceptionally well-behaved, but at home, it was the opposite, and it was blamed on "learning bad habits from that shit you're reading".
Because I couldn't read at home, I spent all my free time at school in the library, reading with my friends.
When I grew up and moved away, I realized that my family life was toxic and abusive, and the "attitudes" I was being punished for were standing up for myself, standing up for my younger siblings, and resisting actual, real-life psychological abuse. Because I'd learned from what I'd read that my family wasn't normal, not like my parents said it was, and in my stories, the heroes were the people who spoke out when it was hard to.
It is insane to me that there are students right now who can't access books. It is insane that books are being outlawed. It is perverse that we are stealing away an entire generation's ability to contextualize their lives, to learn about the world around them, to develop critical thinking skills and express themselves and feel connected to the world or escape from it, whatever and whenever and however they need.
That is not how you raise a compassionate, thoughtful, powerful society.
That's how you process cattle.
It's fucking disgusting.
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While Tim was setting up the final touches to rig Ra's base to blow, he finds someone that could be his carbon copy in the dungeons.
The guy is unconscious, chained to the wall with multiple chains, and branded.
Tim, obviously, grabs Pru for a last minute extraction and gets the prisoner the hell out of there.
He knows this isn't a clone, because the earlobes are different, as is the brow shape and hair thickness. This is just...someone that apparently looked enough like Tim that Ra's, unconfirmed but APPARENTLY, decided to use to take out his aggression. Probably whenever Tim didn't listen.
They get the doppleganger out, get him treated, and he still isn't waking up. Tim takes him back to Gotham. The dude doesn't wake up. Gets him secured in the Bunker with Alfred. Alfred reports that the under-fed teen isn't waking up.
They get Bruce back.
Bruce goes to take a look at the ex-prisoner once he's recovered. Bruce gets Zatanna.
Zatanna tells them that the brand is acting as a seal, and the only way to get the kid to wake up is to disrupt the seal. But warns them that said seal only works on Beings from the Realm between Realms, and that to unleash one that had been abused would surely lead to the destruction of their own.
Tim calls bullshit.
Or; Danny was tricked and trapped by Ra's, who was siphoning blood out of him to add to the Pits and increase their efficacy. Tim finds Danny, misreads the situation, and rescues him.
Now, even though Danny would probably just roll over and go back to sleep, JLD is telling the Bats that if they break the seal then he'll destroy the world.
Tim disagrees.
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