#catholic billy hargrove

[thediktatortot]

“The Death Of Billy Hargrove”

(I’ve put my whole ussy into this piece and the hardest part was attempting how to color it and I’m still not satisfied 😔 oh well, it looks good regardless.)

#stranger things #billy hargrove #maxine mayfield #neil hargrove #Susan mayfield #catholic billy hargrove #religious themes #catholiscism #Billy is a Jesus reference #there is symbolism here #but also some things are just filler #illustration

[shieldofiron]

And he kissed the prettiest boy he could find.

#ShieldofIron #Billy Hargrove #mine #walking OSHA violation Billy Hargrove #Catholic Billy Hargrove

[weboglez]

hi here are some billy and steve sketches (mostly billy) ! im still learning how to draw them 😰

#billy hargrove #billy hargrove fanart #harringrove #my art #webosart #catholic billy hargrove #LMAO #steve harrington #steve harrington fanart #stranger things fanart #artists on tumblr

[writerwhowritesao3]

Disclaimer: I am not Catholic. Everything I know about Catholicism is from friends and internet searches. Let me know if I got anything egregiously wrong!

Every few weeks or so, Neil would decide that the family would be going to church on Sunday. 

Billy hates it. It isn’t even just the fact that mass is boring as shit and Billy doesn’t even believe in god. It’s the fact that his dad makes the decision for all of them—him, Susan, and Max—that they would be going. 

Susan was raised Catholic, but she doesn’t personally identify that way anymore. She hadn’t in a long time. And Billy knows, from snippets of conversations between Susan and her sister Deirdre that he overheard, that Susan fucking hates the Catholic Church. Even so, Susan had taken Max to church a few times before marrying Neil. Pretty much just for holidays though, and only for the community aspect of it all. To her credit, Susan always made sure that Max knew that the Bible was not to be taken literally and that most of the religion was bullshit. 

Neil was raised Catholic. His father had been Catholic. His mother, on the other hand, had been part of the Eastern Orthodox minority in Hungary. Neil’s father had forced her to convert to Catholicism when they got married even though he wasn’t a particularly religious man. He had also all but forced her to speak only English in their home. So. Neil had been raised in the Catholic faith and only learning bits and scraps of Hungarian. 

Anyway. 

The Hargrove-Mayfield family rolls into St. Vitus one Sunday. The night before, Billy had missed curfew and Neil hadn’t believed him when he said that he had been studying with Nancy and lost track of time. To be fair, that story had been a total, blatant lie. The truth was that Billy had been at Steve’s house getting railed on top of his pool table, but obviously Billy couldn’t tell his dad that.

The logical thing to do when you know your teenage son is lying to your face is to make your family go to church and make your son go to confession. At least according to the Neil Hargrove Guide to Parenthood.

Neil walks Billy to the little alcove where the confessional is to make sure he gets in line. 

“We’re sitting three rows from the back,” Neil says. “If you and Max behave yourselves, we can go to Waffle House after.”

The night before, Neil slammed Billy against a wall while he was demanding to know why he had missed his curfew. He probably would have beaten him, but he got distracted enough to snap out of his rage when Susan “accidentally” knocked a glass off of the counter. 

Billy knows that sometimes, rarely but still sometimes, his dad feels guilty about getting physical with him. Guilty enough that his dad tries to make up for it with things like buying a pint of Billy’s favorite flavor of ice cream at the supermarket or taking the family out to get breakfast after church. 

(Sometimes when his dad hurts him badly enough, he “makes up for it” by doing things like helping Billy pay for his car or taking the family to the animal shelter to adopt a dog)

Before Billy walks into the confessional, he watches Neil walk over to where Susan and Max are sitting. There have been times where his dad would stay in line with him, waiting for his own turn or just making sure that Billy actually went in.

He walks in the booth. It’s one of those that’s divided by a screen. When Billy had his first Communion, the confessions were done face-to-face. It had been awful having to tell a grown-up man—that he had to call “Father”—how he had pushed Lance Shepherd off the jungle gym at recess because he had put a wad of gum in his friend Amy’s hair. 

Billy kneels and makes the sign of the cross. 

“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned,” Billy says rolling his eyes. “It’s been, like, three months since my last confession. I think.”

“Unburden yourself.”

Billy blinks—he’s never heard a priest say “unburden yourself.” He’s only ever heard the standard “tell me your sins.” Billy recognizes the voice from the other side of the screen as Father Peter. There are two priests who preside over St. Vitus: Father Thomas, who’s old as fuck and rarely cracks a smile, and Father Peter, who is in his 40s and always greets people by their names.

“I let my friend cheat off my quiz in History class,” Billy begins. in his defense, it was a pop quiz and Jonathan’s grade in that class needed all the help it could get.

“I picked a fight with my sister,” he continues. That little spat with Max had been so fucking stupid; it was over whose turn it was to clean the bathroom. The fight had only lasted about seven minutes and they had both gotten over it quickly. 

“I talked back to my parents...um...a fair amount,” he says. He stops speaking for a moment, wondering if he should just end his confession there to save everyone a whole bunch of time.

“Anything else?” Father Peter asks. 

This was stupid. Church was stupid. Confession was fucking stupid. Catholicism was a nasty, fucking system invented to make people feel bad about shit like having sex and being gay.

“Yeah actually,” Billy snarks. “I missed curfew last night and lied to my dad about where I was. I told him I was studying with my friend, but I was really having sex with my boyfriend. Pre-marital, gay sex. ‘Cause I’m gay.”

Billy has no idea what Father Peter’s response to that is going to be. In a million years, he never would have predicted that Father Peter would say: 

“Do you think that’s a sin?”

“I mean, isn’t it?” he asks, thrown off. “Like from a Catholic perspective?”

“Some people interpret Scripture that way,” Father Peter says. “But when you read the Bible, it’s important to consider the historical context. And important to remember that it’s been translated and revised many times over the centuries.”

“Do you think it’s a sin?” Billy asks. Even though he really couldn’t give a rat’s ass about what a priest thinks.

“No, I do not,” Father Peter says. “As long as it’s done with love and respect and not with malice, I don’t believe that any expression of sexuality is a sin.”

“Oh,” Billy says. “Um, cool.”

“God does not hate gay people, Billy,” Father Peter says softly. 

Billy digs his fingernails into his palm. He didn’t think that Father Peter would recognize his voice.

“For your penance—”

“Wait, you just said it wasn’t a sin.”

“The sex is not a sin,” Father Peter clarifies. “But helping your friend cheat on their test is. And so is disrespecting your family.”

“I guess.”

Billy swears he hears Father Peter chuckle at that.

“For your penance, say three Hail Marys,” Father Peter continues. “Help your parents out around the house. Do an activity with your sister that she chooses. And help your friend study so that they’re prepared for the next test.”

“Okay,” Billy nods. 

He listens as Father Peter intones a prayer of absolution and leaves the confessional to join his family in the pews. 

Nothing’s really changed. Billy still doesn’t believe in any sort of god. He still thinks religion is bogus. He’s only going to say those Hail Marys because his dad is there and the promised trade-off of Waffle House for good behavior is too good to pass up.

But he does make a mental note to share his class notes with Jonathan and study with him. And also to take Max to the arcade and maybe let her win a game or two.

#billy hargrove #max mayfield #susan hargrove #neil hargrove #harringrove #(like in the background) #catholic billy hargrove

[ickypuppi3]

hey can i say something about accidental christ figure and human puppet billy hargrove real quick

#billy hargrove #catholic billy #i haven’t used that in so long it’s like coming home it’s like an icy glass of water on a humid day

[imsodishy]

Basically; No Carver, you will not be seeing us on Sunday.

#dishy edits #catholic Billy #protestant Jason #a hill i will die on #billy hargrove #jason carver

[hgrve]

#for the catholic billy lovers :* #billy hargrove #billy's mom #*mine

[every-dayiwakeup]

Why Billy grew his hair out in the first place:

#catholic billy #billy hargrove #st text posts #shit post #late night posting #did billy get inspired by JC #or did JC get inspired by billy

[stranger-rants]

Fun fact, Billy’s birthday was three days after Easter in 1967. In 1970, his birthday was on Easter. There were also several dates between 1967 and 1985 when his birthday was the day before Easter. Max was in a coma by March 30th, which was in fact Easter in 1986. (Also the day after Billy’s birthday). Do with this information what you will!

#billy hargrove #this popped into my head b/c i was born on palm sunday #so i was curious and checked the dates #catholic billy #i guess ??? #his mom taking a picture of baby billy in an easter basket 🤧

[busterrrhymes]

from as early as he can remember billy always prayed every morning and night. on his knees beside his bed hands clasped to his forehead.

when he was young he would pray for big waves and new toys. as he got older he would pray for his mom to come back, for his dad to stop hitting him, to stop liking other men.

the divinity of worship soured until he stopped all together. instead he would curse at god for making his life so foul and hard.

he retaliated, made his life worse before god could. he drank and smoked, got tattoos, had so much sex and then would sit in the wooden pews every sunday and wallow in his misery next to his father who beat him and his kid sister that hated him.

then billy met steve harrington. and for the first time in years he thanked god instead of screaming. every time steve glanced in the blondes way he would thank god again and again.

the first time they kissed billy could have sworn he’d seen god. every touch he’d give steve felt like worship, like he was back on his knees in front of his bed. billy would press short prayers across the expanse of steve body.

over time steve would become his temple, the thing he could worship and praise. steve’s essence was divine and pure.

billy stopped praying to god and instead prayed to steve. now if he did something he deemed a sin he didn’t feel the oppressive guilt of god looking down on him, he felt the warmth of steve surrounding him.

#harringrove #billy hargrove #steve harrington #steve x billy #religious guilt #religious billy hargrove #steve harrington is god #i’ve been reading so much stuff abt catholic billy so idk

[bowiebond]

Billy was brought up catholic. Attended church with his mother until he was eight. His father was lax on his attendance after she left. Only holidays really.

After a while, Billy stopped wanting to believe. He felt abandoned by God, after everything he had been through. His mothers absence, the beatings from his father, the sexual advances from older women, the bullies and being the bully. He stopped going to church all together by 14. Got a beating when he put his foot down at Christmas. It didn’t make him leave his room that night to attend the nearby church service. Neil didn’t go either. Drank his fucking Christmas away. It was the closest thing to a nice Christmas Billy had had since his mom left. Because drunk Neil was nice Neil (as nice as he could get at least, acting almost like a jovial father), and even if he learnt not to trust it, he preferred it.

The closest feeling to God’s light that Billy received was surfing. God made the ocean during those seven days, and Billy could at least thank the asshole for that.

He reluctantly thanks God for his surfing buddy too. Argyle Molina. He’s a good guy. Listens when he needs him too but fills the silence when he needs that even more. He’s a bit strange, in a profound way, the way you don’t expect from a guy like him. He’s the kind of guy you dismiss at first until you really listen to what he’s saying.

Billy thinks he might be God. Oh maybe an angel. Quietly wonders it when he’s high, off in the clouds even as he lays his head in Argyles lap. He’s high too, but his smile is serene, and it fills Billy with the same feeling he used to get when he prayed in church, sitting beside his mother, their hands clasped together like their combined willpower would make their prayers louder than the rest.

It’s a peaceful feeling, cool and trickling through him like water. He missed it. But he doesn’t anymore.

Because Argyle’s hand touches his face and it feels like that. True peace, a certain clarity that was similar to looking through crystal clear waters towards the sun above him. Like seven foot waves and the screech of seabirds in the distance.

“You still with me, little dude?” Billy’s eyes flutter open, and Argyle is ethereal even from this angle, even when he’s not haloed by the summer sun.

“…Yeah.” He’s still with Argyle. Can’t seem to part from him, honestly. He clings to the man like a shadow, and he wasn’t proud of it, but he couldn’t stop.

“Alright, little dude.” Argyle’s thumb brushes over his cheek as he nods his head along to the music in the background, long dark hair slipping over his shoulder to tickle Billy’s neck.

Billy turns into his touch without a second thought, and Argyle doesn’t pull away. Embraces his desire to be closer with a soft smile and closed eyes, still bobbing.

Billy’s pretty sure Argyle is God. Or a guardian angel. And for the first time in years, Billy wants to believe God is finally giving him peace after years at war, trapped in the life given to him.

He wants to worship again. To feel that sense of peace. That deep feeling of belonging that had escaped him for years.

It’s not God though that he wishes to gain that inner peace from. That sense of home and warmth and love.

It’s Argyle.

He wants to worship Argyle, above all idols that may cross his path.

#billy hargrove #argyle #argyle molina #argilly #catholic billy :) #tw neil hargrove #tw corneilus hargrove #Billy finding worship in his partner yep that’s it that’s the post

[thediktatortot]

Catholic Billy Hargrove who says "So let it be written, so let it be done." every time someone says something stupid or funny.

#billy Hargrove #i wasnt even raised Catholic #and the amount of religious sayings i still use to this day is hilariously numerous

[shieldofiron]

Say no more.

#text post #harringrove #harringrove memes #mine #billy x steve #billy hargrove #Steve Harrington #catholic billy hargrove #is something that can be so personal #honestly walking hr violation steve harrington

[junkyardcamaro]

I really really really hope that we're at the beginning of some kind of Catholic!Billy renaissance, I just love that hc so much!

#please please please #🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 #billy hargrove #there was a poll somewhere that had Catholic Billy as an option and I've never hit to vote so hard in my LIFE

[merryhaze]

Catholic-raised, gay Billy Hargrove, and his ever-complicated relationship with God

#billy hargrove #that necklace to me says ‘raised Catholic’ #gay billy hargrove

[ickypuppi3]

#catholic billy is so real #‘there was literally no chance of me ever not being gay’ - him probably #billy hargrove #steve harrington #harringrove #steve: wait what was that thing you said after father #catholic billy #ickyposts