Ztrngrthngz - Tumblr Blog

don’t you, big boy?

you can get a print here: inprnt!

So this post pointed out that Steve is actually the one who has the resources, time, and lack of anyone keeping tabs on his whereabouts to be able to go explore the gay scene in the nearby city, and that kind of combined with some ideas i've been having into this subplot idea.

I talk about it more in this tik tok, but the basic premise also draws from the fact that Steve is a super strict compartmentalizer and also from the fact that he seems to channel a lot of what he's feeling into physical things, from basketball and dancing at parties to taking practice swings with the bat and even cleaning up the Byers' house at the end of season 2.

So what I picture is Steve, frustrated and lonely at the end of season 2 because there's nothing from the Upside Down to fight and hes been cut off from his social and physical outlets at school by Billy, just grabbing his keys one injury-and-anxiety-induced insomnia night and stumbling into a club with amazing music that he just loses himself in dancing to. And he just. compartmentalizes the fact that its clearly a gay club.

And over time, i see him getting more and more involved in all aspects of the scene, to the extent of becoming a full-on, painted-up glam performer with a stage persona at this club, getting an incredible amount of catharsis and expression from the way this alternate self gives him a physical and emotional outlet to explore these thoughts and feelings and ways of being that he can't or won't let himself engage with in Hawkins.

But also, because it's Steve, I just picture this split between what he can and can't do and be in these two different lives just torturing him, and him struggling with which one is the performance and which one is his authentic self, until he finally realizes he doesn't need to be so compartmentalized and split asunder but can instead embody these seemingly diametrical truths of who he is and what he wants in an integrated way.

And yeah, his stage name is SHINER, cuz he gets the shit kicked out of him for love, and he's got his heart on his sleeve and bleeding out on his cheek.

(And here's a Steve/SHINER playlist to go along with this!)

#he can’t keep getting away with it

girl help! the popular fanon interpretation of my favorite character is stupid as fuck

@steveharrington​ requested: lucas + go tigers 💚🧡

Superhero

Joseph “Don’t Be Suspicious” Quinn and Jamie Campbell Bower at Tokyo Comic Con

Joseph Quinn and Jamie Campbell Bowerat Tokyo Comic Con  

he’s just jealous. what are you talking about? […] he’s your best friend, right? yeah… i mean, i don’t know. it’s fine, i get it. i didn’t get here until the 4th grade, he had the advantage of living next door, but none of that matters. what matters is, he is your best friend.

his favorite thing is to tell people “no”

Jonathan holding his little brother 🥺

hot new batch of jargyle drawings I finally finished 😳💘

inspired by a jargyle tumblr text post compilation made by @emo-nerd-loser , scroll for close ups

THAT scene

mister stranger

#that’s her daughter

the loveliest lies of all

(a little autumnal heartbreak vibe from your pals @sparklyslug and @greenlikethesea, a moment in the Let us Dwell in Fair Ithilien and There Make a Garden universe)

“Leave me alone,” Eddie grumbles, shoving both hands in the pocket of his jacket. “All this seasonal wholesomeness is gonna have me breaking out in hives.”

“Awww, my poor Prince of Darkness,” Robin coos, linking an arm through Eddie’s elbow and yanking him in close to her side. “Are there not enough ghouls and goblins here for you?”

“Mmm. Not even one vampire,” Eddie says glumly, but can’t entirely fight back a small smile. Thank god he’s not here alone, at least. If he was third wheeling this little adventure without her, he wouldn’t be glaring around at all the cute Indianians enjoying a perfect fall day. He’d be too busy trying to find a pumpkin big and strong enough to bash his head against, seeking the sweet relief of a wholesome autumnal death.

Stranger_Things: you never know who you’re gonna bump into at #netflixatthegrove

post battle rituals

Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair The Monster and the Superhero, Stranger Things

“I want you to find something from your life. Something that angers you. Now channel it. Dig deeper. Your whole life you’ve been lied to, imprisoned. The bad men took away your home, your mother. They took everything from you. They stole your life, Jane.”

STRANGER THINGS 2 | OCTOBER 2017

Stranger Things 3.04 | Chapter Four: The Sauna Test

#the only thing steve remembers from back to the future is how good marty mcfly looked in his vest

Stranger things characters + survivor’s guilt (insp)

tbh i think it's So much funnier when steve is the one who's secretly an icon of gay culture. like, he's a rich kid who had no friends outside of middle schoolers for six months. it's entirely possible that he drove himself to Indianapolis (or a different city), were he could be surrounded by people who didn't look at him and immediately see the former king of high school who got dethroned by the new kid and then had his girlfriend dump him for the weird loner who beat him up the year before. and it's entirely possible that he could've stumbled across the indy queer scene on one of those trips

I'm gonna be honest, it's a little funny you sent this because I have a post sitting half written in my drafts about something very, very similar to this. My post was more of a focus on how I personally find it hard to really bite into the whole Eddie goes to Indy every weekend/every other, knows all the hidden safe joints, has lots of experience, and is well educated in gay culture concept that some people enjoy. It's not that it's bad, or wrong, or anything like that. It's just too hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of a canonically poor kid who A) is in a band that rehearses several times a week and plays every Tuesday night, B) runs a DnD club that also meets at least once a week, and C) is on his third senior year and attempting to succeed this time, has the time or the means to be doing all of that. Sure, it's fun... in theory, and if that's your jam, then by all means, go for it. I just personally can't get into it and think that the funny bit of it all is that between the two, Steve is in a place where he has so much more room to be that person.

We're talking about a kid who had parents that are routinely gone often enough he basically does whatever he wants without questions, including throwing parties, with booze, during the week. Who is known for being kind of rich and living comfortably above the norm of everyday Hawkins. Who was never in any way tied down or even weighted down by true responsibilities other than school and sports until after he graduated and was forced to get a job as punishment when he was cut off and being taught a lesson because he didn't get into college. Who, even after being cut off, doesn't seem to be doing that terribly and only really has the responsibility of holding down said job and occasionally looking after the kids when the world decides to try and end again. Who, even with the job, still has plenty of free time because he can't work 24/7 and his only age-appropriate friend is still in high school, also working, and in the school marching band, which has both weekly practices and game nights.

If you're going to sell me on anyone accidentally stumbling into the scene, it would be Steve, so you're 100% on to something, and I agree with you. I think my drafted post includes it happening after Steve runs into some old teammates who were down in Hawkins visiting for the week. They remember the peak days of King Steve and invite him to come up and visit one weekend at campus and party with them. Steve has nothing else to do, no parents around, no girlfriend, really no friends anymore, and longs to get out of Hawkins, so he agrees. His first takeaway from being on a college campus is how much different it is from high school. All of the bullshit they cared so much about before is suddenly out the window. The second takeaway is that some people are more open about their interests and what and who they do in the bedroom. It's confusing, it's new, it's overwhelming, but it's also kind of exhilarating. Give me Steve finding a weird, almost sad, and all too nostalgic-infused sense of belonging in hanging out at colleges he doesn't go to with people he barely knows. Give me Steve making it a bi-monthly thing when he has weekends off because it's nice to be able to just feel like a normal teenager for a few hours and hang out with people who don't know him or expect anything from him, and it's a hell of a lot better than remaining in an empty house, staring at the tv all day. Give me Steve, who eventually starts expanding on that, who checks out random bars on really lonely nights because he still has a fake-id that he paid way too much money for back in high school that's collecting dust. Give me Steve, who gets invited to a literal hole-in-the-wall bar and assumes it's going to be like all the others and then quickly finds it's not. Give me Steve, do doesn't even care because, for the first time in what feels like years, he feels comfortable somewhere. Give me Steve, who makes friends with an older bartender he comes to know by name and has his first boy kiss since his youth in the smoke-filled back booth. Give me Steve, who long time knew he liked that but is thrilled to find out just how much. Give me Steve, who is known to be impulsive at times, kinda reckless, and has no sense of self-preservation, who wants to love and be loved, who is kind of desperate and looking to fit in somewhere, who falls head first into bathroom stall handjobs and secluded car truck bend overs. Give me Steve, who got so sick of not having a place for himself, who got sick of not knowing who he was or where he belonged, that he went out and literally carved a hole for himself with nothing but a few dashed hopes and too much time on his hands.

Granted, even this wouldn't make him an expert in any means when it comes to queer culture, but I do think there is room to play around with what he does and doesn't know, and I kind of refuse to believe he's just absolutely ignorant when it comes to some of it. All in all, it is just so much more believable to me that he would be the one to go that far with it. The guy is literally a game for anything, so long as no one I care for is in danger type of guy. He's curious, kinda lonely, and filled with more emotions than he knows what to do with half the time. So him accidentally walking blindfolded and backward into a whole world he never really planned to? Yeah, kinda checks out, considering that's what he does with nearly. every. single. other. situation. he. gets. himself. into.