*perm hiatus

PERMANENT HIATUS. MOVED TO RPG.

A SOUTHERN BOY — evan beckett .

this is an independent, private & selective STRANGER THINGS OC written by v .

— a study in patience, unanswered questions, longing, a missing sister, southern charm, shyness, researching, libraries, road trips, country music, peach cobbler, God, slow and deliberate, secrets, devotion, adventure, earned and genuine trust .​

All of this had been impossible for Julieta to wrap her mind around, so she’d choose not to as often as she could. Trying to find some sense of normalcy again in the weeks following her return home — it proved to be an impossible task. Nothing could have prepared her for what was happening. She had the advantage of knowing quite a bit more than what the rest of the town knew, only because she’d gotten Eddie to explain, but the more information she collected from the group the more overwhelmed she felt … and once more, it’s something that was so far out of her control, yet she couldn’t help but feel guilty about it. About leaving. It seemed that all the worst things started happening as soon she’d left town — how could she not feel that way? Thinking too much about it, it makes her spiral : so, yeah, she’ll choose not to try wrapping her mind around it whenever she can. Right now included.

It seems almost rude that she’d just been staring vacantly down at her own coffee cup, brows knit with concern — an expression she seemed to be sporting constantly as of late. He does have her attention, though. She just tends to get lost in her mind simultaneously to that, an expert multitasker. ‘A whole new timeline.’ What a theory. She’s not sure yet that she can just … go around telling people about the Upside Down, so she’s holding back now for just a touch longer. His final teasing comment does prompt her to break her staring contest with the liquid as she shifts her head to look up towards him, a smirk replacing her previous expression with a soft breath out of her nose. Boy is she grateful he’d chosen to lighten the mood. “Yeah, a little.” Now she rests her elbows on the table, followed by propping her head up in the palms of her hands. “These horrors are a little more unique than uh, having to deal with a flat tire. Peeero … I have seen a few motel rooms just a liiittle scarier than what I’ve been seeing here. I think it makes a good balance, no?”

                     ‘ Like the clown motel ? ‘ 

Evan had grinned at her words because yes, aren’t those run-down, side-of-the-freeway motels something out of nightmares? Norman Bates could have fit right into any of them.

                    ‘ Do you like it ? Touring, I mean. I guess it’s got to be better than being stuck in a small town, and while I certainly can’t compare my experience, I’m grateful when I get the chance to travel for my journalism. Nice to have something to come back to, though. ‘

for @pushdaisies​ | verse: post season 4

            ‘ So we’re living in a whole new timeline. At least that’s the extent of how I’m processing it. ‘

Evan had been out in the town when the ash started to fall. He, like everyone else, had assumed it was snow, that for this time of year a strange cloud must have formed in the atmosphere to cause it. The longer he walked, the dusting became obvious. He recognized ash from the many fire pits he sat around as a teenager and knew that something was wrong, that this was more than a house fire, or even a forest fire, for that matter.

What struck him the most was the ways everyone congregated together. It unsettled Evan as he made his way to the town center where whispers of the ‘ epicentre ‘ rang out around him. There were groups whispering together, some hugging, others trying to change the channel of TVs sitting inside coffee shops to the news. The ash was so silent and seemed so perfectly natural that Evan wondered, for a brief moment, if this was normal for the mid-west.

Hawai’i, perhaps, or any volcanic island that was used to ash storms during certain months ― but a semi land-locked state in the heart of America wasn’t fitting that bill.

He sat now, weeks later, with Julieta, a coffee warm in his hands. The burning and the ash and the ‘ volcanic opening of Indiana ‘ had calmed down, but the fear in everyone’s eyes hadn’t gone. He, too, felt unsettled and unsure of whether he believed the news story that a rare, but possible fault line had opened and with that came an underground river of lava. Well ― that had been ONE news story among many he heard, and happened to be the one that stuck in his memory of that day.

THE KISS you typically wait until the last second to believe the truth ― because it would destroy you to believe it, and then find out it was a lie. you are someone who has never wanted to want, but has rarely been able to do anything else. the idea that you might have to break down your walls for the sake of someone else, someone who could easily decide they don't like what is on the other side, is harrowing. why let people get close enough to be rejected ? you are enough for yourself. and you will tell yourself that every time you catch yourself staring at their mouth, smirking at their joke, finding a reason to flick their shoulder. until the kiss. that's when the flood of want, want, want bowls over you and you realize that you are torn between two ways of living. Oh, you think. because despite how complicated you have made it, the moment you kiss, somehow, things seem incredibly simple. they won't be once you start thinking again, but for now, for this moment, you live in the quiet peace of revelation. Oh.

tagged by : @pushdaisies !!

If you thought Sarah Kline had been able to focus the remainder of the day, you would be WRONG. There was no way she’d be able to do her job in any proper way. Not when the cutest boy in town had asked her if he could buy her a milkshake after work. That counted as a DATE, right? Gosh, how excited she was. Had she been able to make a stop at home, she’d dress up into something more pretty. LESS FORMAL. But she had already agreed on him picking her up after work and she was not gonna ruin the opportunity by suggesting anything otherwise. She had tried different hairstyles, though and sighed in frustration when someone called and she had to pause to pick up the phone. Eventually, she settled on ditching the bun and letting her curls hang loose. 

She hurried to get her coat when her shift was over. Heels click-clacked happily against the floor as she skipped her way towards the exit. The brunette quickly composed herself, however, when her eyes caught his, forcing herself to be more CASUAL and cool. But she couldn’t completely help the skip in her step and once she reached him, she decided she must’ve looked a bit FOOLISH in her giddiness. 

“I hope you didn’t have to wait for too long.” she smiled. Should she give him a HUG? Would that be weird? She had to decide now otherwise it would be weird. Doe browns looked up at him to catch his gaze and she realized how TALL he was. Would tip-toeing even be enough to wrap her arms around his shoulders? A chuckle got stuck in her throat and the hue of a blush crept upon her cheeks. “—I was just considering giving you a hug but I really have to climb up there to achieve that, huh?” she admitted before even realizing it, followed by a sweet laugh.   

@carolinakncws ( ;; the first date )

Evan, too, was giddy and nervous, having barely managed to finish his errands that afternoon. When he suggested that he and Sarah have a milkshake together, little did he know how nervous that would make him, and how LONG it had been since he’d been on a first date. DATE ? Gosh, was he assuming a lot here, a hopeless romantic that merely asking a beautiful girl out for a milkshake was implication enough ? Perhaps, but if he played it right, maybe he could ask her again, more formally, more — directly.

That, however, required confidence, and not to imply Evan wasn’t a confident man, but around Sarah, he seemed to go a little numb.

              ‘ I wasn’t waiting long, no, ‘ he smiled, deceptively so, because he had shown up early to get the ‘ arrival ‘ jitters out of him, that anticipatory anxiety that spiked when he knew something was about to START. ‘ We’ll get you a step stool,’ he teased back at her, leaning in because he, too, had been wondering if a hug was appropriate. His arms found her waist and a soft, gentle tug meant they were hugging now, Sarah up on her tip toes by the strength of him holding her. 

Was it common to feel butterflies this early on ? 

your dying heart

your heart aches at the thought of leaving them behind. all you've ever wanted was for them to be safe; for them to be happy. your purpose is to be there, to protect them, to keep them safe from this cruel world. they will be okay. your need to be needed is keeping you from being free. you love so deeply, you care so much, but who is there to do the same for you? you cant always be there; it's a fact you can't accept, but in order to leave this realm, you need to make peace with it. you deserve freedom. you deserve to be free.

@tommywllliams​ asked: ‘ i wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, or anything, but the door was wide open. ‘

            ‘ No, no, that’s alright Tommy. Sorry for the, uh — ‘

Evan wasn’t sure how to finish his sentence. He was, and would be, standing in the evidence of his incapability for a long time to come, and the embarrassment over that was a shock to Evan’s system. Tommy had caught him in a rare moment when Evan’s confidence was low and hope even lower, as he’d been dealt one dead end after another when it came to the mysterious medical clinic his sister had been sent to. Really, had it not been for his father’s records, Evan wouldn’t have believed his own childhood memories of her. She was a ghost and could easily be manipulated into a figment of his young imagination, of a boy looking to find companionship so he made up not only an invisible friend, but an invisible sister.

Normally the young man would have whisked himself off to some church and tried to find answers through God, telling himself that dead ends were just a good a sign as answers, but who was he kidding. The days of blind faith were long behind him and Hawkins continued to provide the real-world evidence that perhaps God had given up, or that He wasn’t as pure and kind as the churchgoers in South Carolina made Him out to be.

sweet supporting character

i wanna be your grandma so bad, please let me pinch your face and knit you a sweater. you're most likely the best friend of the protagonist, and there's some possible overlap between you and the narrator. you're sweet and try very hard to be selfless. you watch the ones you love descend into darkness, and make every effort to help them through it all. it's not enough. you keep trying to make it enough. you provide comic relief, a listening ear, a hug, advice── any method of support you can think of. your own personal tragedy isn't documented. sometimes you wish it was, even though you're the one who ensures it is not. you want people to care for you the way you do for others. but you refuse to ask for it, so you wait for others to read between the lines. they usually don't. at least you're the one who gets to survive the tragedy. no matter how many times you beg to trade places, it is always you at the end, sitting at someone else's grave.