inspired by @flashyysins
Two days after Hawkins was almost split open, Robin saw a woman pacing in the hospital waiting room.
There were plenty of other people as well, sitting or standing or walking the length of the room in a similar pattern, but there was something about the woman that Robin noticed. It wasn't just that she was beautiful, which she was- it's that there was something familiar about her.
She was in blue jeans and an old-school Hawkins High Letterman jacket, light brown hair twisted up in a claw clip. Robin had never met her before, she'd remember that at the very least, but still.
Something about the angle of her nose or the gentle waves of her hair felt like something Robin had seen before, something she'd be able to find in a crowded room or across a street.
But Robin had somewhere to be, so she shook off the odd feeling, and followed the familiar path to Steve's room.
---
"Hey Stevie."
Steve's smile was tired, but he was looking more lively than when he'd passed out in the waiting room the other day, so she'd take it.
"Robbie, you left me hanging yesterday."
She snorted and dropped into one of the chairs by his bed, swinging her legs over the arm rest and cradling the bag she'd brought with her in her lap. "You're the one who fell asleep during visiting hours."
He rolled his eyes, and she happily noted the colour returning to his skin. "You should be exempt from visiting hours, you're like...essential to my recovery or something."
She laughed to hide the way those words curled soft and warm around her heart, eyes stinging until she blinked it away. The dumbass had almost over-worked himself to the point of no recovery. "'Exempt?' Someone's been reading a dictionary- did one of your children leave theirs behind?"
"Oh fuck you-"
They were interrupted by a knock on the door, and Robin was startled to see the woman from the waiting room hovering behind a nurse.
"You have a new visitor Mr Harrington."
Even knee-deep in confused intrigue, Robin couldn't help but dramatically mouth Mr Harrington over her own shoulder, pleased at the face he pulled in retaliation.
And then the door shut, and Steve looked up to find the woman-from-the-waiting room standing at the end of the bed.
Robin saw his brain grind to a halt at the sight of her.
It was silent (well, as much as it could be in a hospital room, what with all the beeping and whirring) as they took each other in, and Robin slowly brought her knees in closer to her chest like it would shield her from the vague awkwardness chewing at her.
And then-
"Fucking hell, Eve." The woman breathed out, white knuckling the bar at the end of his bed.
At the same time, Steve's face scrunched up as he demanded: "What are you doing here?"
"What do you mean 'what am I doing here'? You're in hospital!"
"I thought you were in New York!"
"Yeah and then I got a call from Hawkins General that my little brother was dying in a hospital bed! Thank you for keeping me as your emergency contact, by the way."
"Well-" Steve spluttered and then crossed his arms over his chest, wincing at the pressure on his injuries. "Obviously."
Several things clicked into place like undone locks. Steve had almost been too comfortable about "feminine" topics for as long as she'd been an active member of his life- and even slightly before.
(He'd once run out of Scoops to buy her pads when she'd started her period in the middle of a shift. At the time she'd figured he was just trying really hard to beat the still a douche-bag allegations.)
Then there were the sweaters that he wouldn't confess to the origin of, the jokes he'd make about Robin "not being the only woman in his life" that she'd thought were about Nancy Wheeler, the vehement denial that the rom-com collection in the theatre room were his.
And, while Robin hated to enforce gender stereotypes, he'd always had the kind of mean girl cattiness that was usually only forged in teenaged girls and merely rubbed off on others.
Of course Steve Harrington had a sister.
Now Robin understood why she'd seemed so familiar in the waiting room.
"What happened to you?"
Simultaneously, Robin and Steve shifted uncomfortably, meeting each others eyes and coming up blank on both ends.
Steve's sister swallowed, jaw clenched and lip quivering as she look back and forth between them. She seemed suddenly fragile, like Steve after a nightmare, or right before he'd collapsed in the waiting room after carrying Eddie inside.
Steve cracked first. "Lou-"
"Don't fucking lie to me, Stephen. This is the third time you've ended up in hospital since your senior year."
Steve blinked, startled. "How did you-"
"I'm your sister." She seethed, and Robin could see flickers of Steve with an axe in his hand in the arch of her shoulders. "You might have told the hospital not to call but I still have friends in this town. If that Hargrove asshole wasn't already dead-"
"Lou-"
"Don't-"
"It was a serial killer." Robin blurted, drawing Steve's sisters' attention to her. "I don't now if you heard about it, but someone was going around killing teenagers. It started with Chrissy Cunningham- she was a cheerleader? kind of cute in a preppy sort of way, but, um- she was killed in our friends living room and then he sort of got blamed for it because, I mean, it was pretty sketchy but he didn't do it! I promise, Eddie didn't- anyway, there was this whole witch hunt, and two more people died which just sort of made it worse for Eddie and a group of us were trying to, like, clear his name, you know? Because we knew he didn't do it and we didn't want him to get killed next, but then one of our other friends - this girl, Max, she's a riot - she was being targeted by the real killer so we came up with this...really stupid plan to catch the killer but everything went sort of tits up and Eddie and Steve both got, well-" She waved her hands at the bandage around Steve's throat and the bruising around his wrists from the vines. "And Max, she broke her elbow and her knee when she fell, and I think Dustin twisted his ankle? So now Max and Eddie and Steve are all in hospital and Dustin has these crutches that he doesn't want to use but, I mean, Steve always makes him because it's Steve, and we don't really know if Eddie's okay yet but no one's come to tell us he's not so we're still hopeful-"
"Robin."
Robin shut her mouth, and took a deep breath through her nose. Steve's sister was staring at her in the startled sort of awe that Robin was used to seeing when she got going. She had the lungs of a trumpet player, it wasn't hard for her to talk until she forgot where she'd started.
"You fought a serial killer?" Steve's sister - Lou? - asked, and Robin hysterically felt like she should offer up her seat.
Steve, bless him, only nodded. Lou stared, lips pressed into a thin line and nostrils flared slightly.
And then, quite abruptly, she was straightening her back and stepping around the bed to hold out a hand to Robin. "Louisa Harrington."
Robin blinked, and shook her hand. "Robin Buckley."
Louisa nodded, like that made sense, and smiled the same cupids-bow smile as her brother. "The best friend- it's good to meet the other half of my brothers brain. Clearly the better half, considering you aren't the one in the hospital bed."
Steve made an offended noise, and Robin grinned.
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I had a shower thought about Destined With You after seeing some behind the scenes footage where many of the actors described their characters as being lonely. That's a big unifying factor for these different characters. And isn't that ultimately just the overarching theme of the show? The messy and desperate things people do to alleviate their loneliness.
We have Hong Jo who lost both her parents at a young age, who was bullied at school and who had no one to eat lunch with until recently. She also (very unethically tried to) cast a love spell to finally experience romantic love for the first time in her life.
We have Shin Yu with his complicated relationship with his parents (or mainly father), and Shin Yu's depressed mother who feels lonely in her marriage to her neglectful husband.
We have Naeyon, who's done erratic and horrible things in pursuit of Shin Yu's love, and who clung to him for two years despite never hearing an "I love you" back from him.
We have Jaekyung, who like Hong Jo didn't seem to have any close family or friends until he moved into the same building with Hong Jo.
There are the two female coworkers who develop crushes on all the hot lawyers at the office, but who spend their holidays alone.
Even creepy flower guy longs for his deceased wife.
So while I'm not going to stop yelling at everyone to stop making bad choices (never!!!), it's a show about messed up and even a few traumatized/depressed individuals. It doesn't make for great escapism, but I suppose they're all very human characters in that sense.
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if you could swap a character from 69 to 96 and vice versa, who would it be? and how do you think dynamics would change? :3
(i know this is an odd ask but shh it's kinda interesting to think abt....)
Y’know this could be a fun idea. I’m not sure if you mean “what if X was put into the other fic making 17 participants” or “what if X and Y were swapped around”, but I’m going to assume the latter.
It took me a few minutes of talking to myself to cut down the options, but I’m going to go for Ashley and Ena.
Why? Well as you know I love giving Ashley more love and attention after what I bestowed upon her in DR69 chapter 2, but I’m also interested in the sorts of character interactions she could have with some of the DR96 cast. And for Ena… Well I just think they’d fit into the absurd cast of DR69 very easily to the point where no one would bat an eye.
Does this mean I’m going to also give them both their companions (aka Red and Moony)? Yes, yes I will 👍
So for Ena in DR69, I’m not sure if they’d be more or less confused being inside a school. I know their outfit is similar to a Peruvian school uniform but do we really think Ena ever went to school? Does Ena even have a school in their world?
I feel like they’d befriend a lot of the sweet characters such as Fluttershy, Miku (facade) and Parappa. However it would be interesting to see everyone react to them having an emotional outburst and switching to their depressed or drunk state. The Conductor could have probably tried casting them for his stage play, but I don’t think Ena would’ve been a very reliable actor.
As for Ashley in DR96, cue the obvious “hehe witch meets witch hunter”. Poor Brian (P.) is scratching his head at why this small girl keeps avoiding him constantly. It would either lead to some sort of one-sided rivalry on Ashley’s part, or the two have a sweet dynamic where they end up looking out for each other (oh no my heart be melting…)
Other than Brian, I could see Ashley being approached by Latte (teacher mode activated) and possibly Natsuki and Yuri (they see a part of themselves in her and her standoffish nature and want to try and befriend her).
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Some Cute/Silly Alastor and Rosie Thoughts
Just a random thought in my head but:
the book Bambi came out in 1923 (1928 in English)
the Disney film version of it came out in 1942
If Rosie is a Hello Dolly pastiche then she probably died in the 1890s/1900s but on the other hand we don't know if Hell gets Earth pop culture
(There probably is a thriving bootleg scene where Hellborn who can go to Earth bring back vhs tapes/dvds etc to sell to Sinners who want to keep up)
But we also know Rosie appears to be keeping up with the times more or less and the mental image of her calling Alastor 'Bambi' as a term of endearment in an auntie kind of way is too cute to pass up. And she's probably the only person who could get away with it
Alternatively Angel could call Alastor that to piss him off, which I would also find amusing as hell
But I love the idea of Rosie basically acting to Alastor the way my aunties acted towards me/my cousins growing up. Like she could probably futz with his hair in public or be like 'hey you have a bit of schmutz on your face, just a sec' *pulls out handkerchief and wipes it off* and he would not be thrilled by her doing it in public but he'd also let her (while glaring daggers at anyone who was watching this like 'you better not say ANYTHING')
This mental image is partially inspired by the fact that in the webcomic Skin Deep by Kory Bing (https://www.skindeepcomic.com/, awesome webcomic srsly go check it out) there is a deer shapeshifter whose mum (also a deer shapeshifter) calls him Bambi as a nickname and I could see Rosie doing that to Alastor. The idea amuses the heck out of me.
In my head this is pretty much Rosie's theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oa-3KAXD-w and also Rosie would look stunning in that outfit (Alastor would also look dapper as fuck in a masc version of that jacket too honestly)
I just really love these two and their relationship and I want a whole comic/episode/etc about them as besties and how they met/etc. They're just too dang cute together.
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