Mostly Steddie...

"a plastic star wars mug from 1977 (+ matching bowl)"

"cleen ‘kiss that frog’ set (accordion gnome mug)"

"campbell’s soup mug, likely 70s"

"white mug with cable knit sweater sleeve/warmer (no brand)"

"“don’t bother me, I’m crabby” mug (potential maryland souvenir?)"

"mcdonald’s garfield mug (double sided)"

"canadian mcdonald’s travel cup (the lid is missing so they probably just use it as a normal cup now)"

"Garfield “It’s Not The Valleys” 1978 Enesco Beer Stein" (edit: originally identified by @bienmoreau - dumbprep on twitter, source)

"early 1980’s garfield head mug"

"1950’s “coffee and” mug"

"1970’s morton salt girl mug, featuring the 1921 morton salt girl"

"maxwell house mug" identified twitter user meilkii (source)

THOU ART CURRENTLY LISTENING TO

*Gregorian chanting*

13.21

*leper bell ringing*

HIGH MEDIAEVAL FM

*recording of John Lackland sobbing as he signs the Magna Carta*

WHENCE COMETH NAUGHT BUT LITURGIES

LITURGIES

AND MORE LITURGIES

*Templar knights praying out loud*

THIS ISN’T THY GRANDMOTHERES STATION

Its Robin who goes to the hospital. She's irritated and definitely not terrified because Steve had promised to call her and he hadn't. She is definitely normal and nightmare free and entirely unaffected by the fact that monsters are real.

But he never checked into the hospital. They say there's no Steve Harrington there, which doesnt make sense at all because Robin knows, better than anyone, that he NEEDED to go to the hospital. But he's not. There. Here.

He's gone.

Robin thinks of Starcourt and his Kids™️ and someone would know where he is. Thinks of the adults and who he'd go to since she knows his parents cut him off. The police chief is dead but there is the town crazy lady.

Byers who works at Melvalds.

So she goes and she's fine. Robin is totally great. Completely unbothered when Joyce immediately closes down the store and races home. She drives pretty crazy and runs over a stop sign but Robin thinks its small potatoes.

She is fine. Steve is fine. Everything is fine.

Accept Hopper is dead and Powell, the new chief, is useless and claims to have his hands full with his new job and all the people who died in the mall fire. Says he'll get to it.

Oh. And one of Steves kids has super powers. Or used to. Because as much as the girl tries, she apperantly cant find him.

Robin admits to being a little bit not fine.

And not that anyone really knows this; or not to this effect but Steve Harrington is definitely not fine.

Apperantly he's not even a Harrington. Not in Hawkins but in the middle of some desert in Nevada. Some asshole named Brenner (which raises some flags but Steve is pretty sure he's concussed via Russians for the nth time) says that he's glad that he was found. Made his way back home or something.

Which doesnt make any sense.

Owens, who Hopper had promised them all was one of the good guys as far as military douchebags went, recognized his name when they were getting their story straight about the mall.

Project MK Ultra, Steve is told/reminded, closed down. The lab shut down, he knew. But El wasn't the only experiment. There had to have been, at least, eleven.

Brenner also tells Steve that he was a very difficult child. Very emotional, which he claims makes sense because his powers were unlike the others. But the MK Ultra/US Government didn't have a need for empaths. So they gave him to one of the CIA lawyers for safe keeping/they found a use for him.

And Brenner, who tries to get him to call him Papa, apologizes for giving him away so carelessly. Says that he really wants to help Steve. Especially since he was given *something* by the Russians, according to Owen's.

It takes the tank for Steve to remember. And even then, its not much because apperantly even the group of creepy, human trafficking scientists gave up on him. He just barely remembers the Rainbow Room. He remembers his first day of 1st Grade, meeting Tommy and Carol, better than any of this.

But what he does remember is terrifying.

And the Russian drugs definitely did something because from what Brenner tells him he *should* be able to do is not what he's feeling. Or seeing.

They shave his hair which is somehow the worst part of all of it.

Its not until March- not until El comes in one day and Brenner tells Steve that Eleven would remember so much clearer, so much better and faster, if Steve helped push her in the right direction. And he doesnt want to but when he asks why they would want her to remember; Brenner tells them about Creel. One.

He tells them about what's going on in Hawkins and Steve-

Well Steve pulls at those colored strings he's seen since he was reminded that he was more property than person.

He kills Brenner.

And they get out. He and El get out. In fact, they get out about a day before Sullivan would have flown in via helicopter. They wander the desert and its a pizza truck that saves them.

They get to Hawkins and meet up with Nancy and Robin and Dustin and everyone as they're making molotovs and sawing off shotguns.

He hasn't laughed in a good while but when he finds out that people are trying to pin Eddie Munson for murder, Steve can't help it. The guys a total nerd and he's literally seen him apologize to his locker when he slammed it shut. Wouldnt go as far as to call him a teddy bear or anything but Munson is in no way a murderer. Between reunions and fighting and crying, Dustin tells him about Hellfire and starting high school.

Maybe both, back to back. Steve'd go pow! - to his ribs - and as he'd jerk awake and open his mouth he'd go splash! right in his stupid face.

That'd be the least he'd have coming for making Steve almost shit himself thinking Eddie was hurt. Or worse.

Steve got familiar with the image of Eddie impersonating a doll with its strings cut, lying lifeless in a pool of his own blood. Seeing it in every other nightmare sure left an impression.

So, sue him for getting pissed. They were supposed to meet at the trailer and smoke up, but when Wayne opened the door for him he'd said Eddie had left for the woods behind the trailer about an hour ago.

Steve had followed the direction of Wayne's finger and had been walking for maybe ten minutes before the little trail he was on opened into a clearing.

A body was lying motionless on the forest floor, each limb in it's own direction, dark red color under it. It was wearing a denim vest. Steve froze before moving his suddenly heavy legs and running the last few feet with his heart in his throat, dropping to his knees and hands already hovering over Eddie's pulse point before he noticed the rest of the scene.

What he first thought was blood was a threadbare red blanket. On it was, beside a soon to be dead metalhead, a crumpled waterbottle, a few candy wrappers, a lighter, a pack of cigarettes, Eddie's keys and a bong. A recently used bong.

Eddie twitched in his sleep and Steve sucked in a startled breath, hands flying off Eddie and into his own hair. Eddie then shifted to his side, wiggled into the blanket for a bit and smacked his lips to finish off his search for a cozy position. Steve stared unimpressed. He got off his knees and crossed his hands over his chest, glaring down.

Steve shouldn't kick him, his torso had just gotten better. Bong water it was.

Steve picked up the bong, raised his arm high and slowly tilted it over the sleeping idiot.

Eddie awoke with a gasp and Steve aimed the stream after his mouth, moving his arm as Eddie tried to scramble away but got tangled in the blanket and collapsed to his back. Steve continued to pour in silence and Eddie admitted defeat by closing his eyes and letting the water soak him.

When the drip stopped Eddie dared to open one eye and peek up behind his wet bangs.

"Hey, Steve."

"Hi, Eddie."

A bird chirped.

Eddie's eyes darted from Steve to the bong still held above him.

"Umm... Sorry for starting without you?"

Steve relaxed his fingers and Eddie scrambled to catch the sudden projectile aimed for his head.

"Woah, Steve, careful, what the fuck -"

"I thought you were dead."

"Wh-uh?"

"You looked dead, Eddie. I thought something or-or someone hurt you, but no, you got high - without me - and fell asleep in the most corpse like position you could possibly choose! In the middle of the woods!" Steve's voice got higher in pitch with each word, arms waving.

"I... I'm sorry?"

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep, slow breath.

"Refil the bong, please."

Eddie scrambled to listen, wet hair spraying the legs of Steve's jeans.

"I-I'm sorry, I know we said we'd meet at the trailer, but Wayne was home and I had to get the stuff out here without him seeing..." Steve knelt on the dry part of the blanket. "... and when I got here I figured I'd take a few puffs and go back to wait for you, but I guess I fell asleep and then this -" Steve slapped a hand over his mouth.

Eddie's eyes were huge above Steve's fingers. His lashes were wet from bong water.

"Eddie."

"Hmm?"

"Please don't scare me like that again."

Eddie's eyes softened and his shoulders dropped. He wrapped his fingers gently over the wrist keeping him silent and pulled it down to his own lap, his eyes dropping there, too.

Steve kept looking at him.

He felt Eddie's thumb trace small circles over the edge of his palm.

"I'm really sorry, Stevie."

Steve exhaled and lifted their cupped hands to bump Eddie's chin up and look at him. They stared at each other for a beat, unspoken care and forgiveness traveling the short distance between their eyes.

"Fill the bong, man."

Eddie smiled.

isn’t he beautiful

listen to the SOUND when he bites

He is NOT, however, either the largest crocodile ever captured in Australia OR the largest ever in captivity.

A slightly larger crocodile has been reported (though not yet comfirmed) to have been captured at 5.58 meters.

And while the famous Brutus of the Adelaide River was estimated to be just slightly larger than Cassius at 5.5m, he was driven out of his territory by a younger and even larger crocodile, who as a result has been given the name, The Dominator.  He is estimated to be just over 6m.

This is Brutus, with an appropriate caption:

It is believed that he lost that arm in a fight with a Bull Shark.  

The Bull Shark lost.

THIS is the crocodile who kicked him out.  The Dominator:

And that’s STILL not the biggest.  

The largest living crocodile ever reliably measured was Lolong, who for the 1.5 years between his capture and his death was the largest crocodile ever held in captivity, at a whopping 6.17 meters (20 feet 3 inches) and 1075 kg (2,370 lbs).  He had been feeding on both humans and very large livestock in the Bunawan creek in Agusan del Sur in the Philippines.  It took 100 people all night to drag him to shore during his capture.

And here’s why:

Since then Brutus developed a habit of hunting and eating Bull Sharks.

Here’s him with a prey.

And if you thought that you’ll be safe if you just stay out of Australia then think again!

Meet Gustave the Nile Croc.

This crocodile became almost legendary for both it’s size and the habit of hunting both livestock AND humans.

So how big is Gustave?

No one is sure. Since he was NEVER captured.

His estimated size is of at least 5,5m  but some give him over 6m.

The terrifying parts are:

1) He is still growing having only about 60 years.

2) Adult crocodiles often perform a gesture of submission to him - something usually done by young crocodiles toward adults - Gustave is just THAT BIG.

3) His sheer size makes it difficult for him to catch agile prey Nile crocs tend to feed on - hence why he developed a habit of hunting either larger prey like Hippopotamus or creatures which are not good at spotting danger in the first place like livestock and humans.

And this is NOT ALL.

Gustave actually has a noticeable scars on his body - he was shot at east 3 times and stabbed with a spear or something similar at one occasion.

He lived to tell the tale - my question is:

What happened to that one dude who attacked Gustave with a spear?

THIS is Gustave:

And he is the PERFECT CROCODILE.  He is the perfect example of what I mean when I talk about (as I do) how the morphology of extremely large crocodiles adapts to the changing physics of their bite.

This is a typical adult Nile Crocodile:

And THIS is a god among his kind:

This is it, folks.  The Final Form.  THIS is what peak performance looks like.

Crocodiles and physics have an interesting relationship.  Crocodiles have, by a CONSIDERABLE MARGIN, the strongest bite of any animal on Earth.  EVER.  Scaled up estimates (based on Nile and Saltwater crocodiles) give the extinct Deinosuchus an estimated bite force MORE THAN DOUBLE the recently updated Tyrannosaurus bite estimates.  Living crocodiles have bite forces measured in the range of 5000 pounds per square inch, for an individual around 15-16 feet.  It is estimated that modern crocodiles in the range of 18-20 feet would have bit forces around 7-8000 psi or more.

That’s a problem.

Because a crocodile’s skull is only designed to handle so much pressure.  Go beyond that limit and the force of impact when those jaws snap shut could literally shatter their own skulls.

But evolution has spent hundreds of millions of years perfecting crocodiles, so PHYSICS ISN’T GOING TO STOP THEM.  What ends up happening in the skulls of these extremely large crocodiles is they will increase dramatically in mass to compensate for the increased forces.  A crocodile’s skull is almost exclusively solid bone, with only minimal space for nasal passages, a surprisingly advanced brain, and some slightly porous looking framework that helps the bone distribute the force over a larger area.  The effect is by far the most pronounced in Nile crocodiles, which most regularly feed on larger prey and need to make use of all that power.

Compare, 26 inch skull:

vs 29 inch skull:

Both of those are Nile crocodile skulls (or rather, replicas thereof).

And just for fun, here are the skulls of completely different (and very extinct species), Deinosuchus:

and Purussaurus:

The bigger the crocodile (within a given species), the more massive the skull needs to be to compensate for that UNBELIEVABLE bit pressure.  This is one way to see from a distance whether you are looking at a normal sized crocodile:

and a truly extraordinary individual:

One of the things about Gustave that’s so impressive is how healthy his teeth look.  A lot of large crocodiles, in their old age, have very worn down and often missing teeth.  They do replace them many times over a lifetime, but when they get very old this slows down.  Gustave, at least in every picture taken of him, had teeth that were in very good condition.

Even crocodiles much smaller than Gustave’s reported size (probably similar in size to Dominator or Lolong) tend to have smaller or more worn teeth:

than the pinnacle of his kind:

- sneezed wrong

- turned your neck a little too fast

- slept weird

- took the trash out to the curb and stepped at a slightly different angle than usual

- breathed

- failed to breathe properly

- breathed in the wrong stuff. Allergy time

- looked too hard at something too far away

In the wild, researchers have found that most wolf packs are simply families, led by a breeding pair, and bloody duels for supremacy are rare.