Back On My Stranger Things Bullshit

that said, they do all fear the void, even if they don't acknowledge it directly. they saw their worst traumas in there. a lot of their ptsd was triggered and they have to deal with that. the idea of touching bob IS scary because of that. sometimes they flinch away from bob without even realizing it. bob notices. yelena is the first one to comfort him with soft touch. john is the first one to offer himself as a punching bag and later on, a dick to ride until he's tired himself out.

bob also has a pattern of refusing physical contact when he's in a low. he often denies that he's in a low or downplays how bad it is so this can be an indicator of it. john becomes the best at recognizing this after him and bob get together because john is very physical. he'll touch bob's waist and kiss his temple and run his hand through his hair just because he can. bob usually loves it but when things are bad, he leans out of the touch and doesn't let john make contact. more often than not, he finds that when he gives in and lets john hold him, the void does not come out like he expected it would.

the void actually rarely comes out. while the single shame room from physical contact part of it is more bob's depression leaking out, the void that took over his body and swallowed manhattan is really more of a defense mechanism than anything else. in the immediate aftermath of thunderbolts*, bob thinks it could just come out at any moment (and the rest of the team probably fears that it could any time he's upset too). but it can't. it's only triggered by extreme situations (like initially getting his powers and literally being killed).

that said, i do also really like the headcanon that when bob gets really distressed due to depression, it will start to come out. not fully but in pieces. his fingertips turning black, the floor fading around him. it doesn't happen often because he has to be really low but when it does, yelena (and later john) can always talk him down from it before it actually manages to consume more than his hands.

more walker-focused - even though bob does try not to make physical contact during really bad lows, i think once they're in an established relationship, it does happen sometimes. particularly when he's asleep. bob's fingers touch john's chest and suddenly john's dreams turn into a nightmare. maybe he doesn't even realize that it's the void the first few times. maybe he starts seeking it out when he realizes that it lets him see his loved ones again.

kind of just popped into my head but in the early days, what if the void did come out again? but not in a big way. more like just there. like bob is heavily dissociating and the depression is consuming him. i'm thinking like john gets up at like 4am because he can't fall back asleep and he finds the void basically sitting halfway out the window and he has to kind of talk bob/void down even though bob/void is very much out of it and really not even responding to him.

bob in the post-credits scene sounded very sure that he could not use sentry powers without the void too. maybe he assumed that but maybe he didn't. maybe the team tried to train with him and help him learn how to use his powers and every time, without fail, his attempts to use his sentry powers spiraled into the void coming out (at varying degrees of severity). bob tried three or four times before he had a complete breakdown and adamantly refused to use his powers again. great h/c potential here with walker if you have eyes to see it.

for the first few months after they move into the tower, the team can't leave bob alone. they learned that after they all went on a mission and came back to find bob had spiraled hard into the void. he needed more time and therapy to learn healthy coping mechanisms before they were able to leave him alone without the risk of the void consuming him. (him specifically - i don't think these spirals were bad enough that he took over manhattan or anything.)

during that time, someone had to stay behind to basically babysit bob. but he HATED it. he's 30 years old, he does NOT need a babysitter. so they all came up with different excuses. yelena wants "just them" time. ava is "having a flare up" and wants to have a movie marathon. bucky "has paperwork to do" which he conveniently does in the same room as bob. alexei "is tired" even though he does nothing but play games with bob. john doesn't make any excuses. he doesn't know what to say except "i want to be alone with you."