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His stomach churns as he somersaults in free fall. He can't tell up from down until his knees slam into solid stone and as abruptly as his fall started, it ends with him on his hands and knees. The stone beneath his fingers is cool and rough to the touch, and it's a grey so dark it's almost purple. It's certainly not the barracks floor, and stranger still is that he is not casting a shadow below him even though it is bright enough that he should be.

Steve lifts his head to take in his surroundings. He is on a slab of stone that is just floating in a darkness that is not dark. He can't make sense of it. His mind tell him he is surrounded by darkness, but he can see the stone, and further bits of stone that float out of reach. Light that isn't light makes him able to see these things. Looking around, he confirms can't find his shadow anywhere.

"What the fuck? Where am I?" Steve mutters as he pulls himself up from his knees to be standing.

"An interesting question with a complicated answer."

Steve gasps as a voice with no source speaks. He turns in a circle, searching for the source of the voice but he doesn't see anyone. He spins another circle once more, slower this time, and observes the distance. There isn't really anything to look at, though. A few more of the floating, grey-purple stones and an endless void of darkness that isn't dark.

The shriek Steve lets out when he completes his second spin and sees a figure, when previously there was not one, is far too high-pitched to be anything but embarrassing. "What the fuck! Who are you? Where did you come from?"

The stranger on the far end of the stone slab cocks his head to the side as he looks at Steve, hair of frazzled curls falling around his face, obscuring it slightly. The man is dressed... strange. In a simple trousers and tunic, both of dark colors, but made in a way Steve has never seen. He wears no shoes or stockings.

"I've been here the whole time," the stranger says, a slow smile spreading across his face in an expression Steve's very familiar with seeing. Not on this strangers face, but on everyone Steve knows thinks little of him. It's an expression that says 'I am amused, and it's at your expense'. "As for who I am, you know that. Everyone knows who I am. And knowing who I am means knowing where you are. More or less."

Steve furrows his brow, confused, but he takes in the sight of the man before him. He's looking for anything he'd recognize, to give the man away. It's not until the man straightens, hair moved from his face, and he looks directly at Steve that he makes the connection.

The man looking back at him has eyes that are fully black; as dark as the forest on a cloudy moonless night.

"The Outsider," Steve whispers, too afraid to say it louder, a panic slowly rising inside him. Steve's not a religious man, doesn't really follow the Abbey of the Everyman and their ways, but every man and their dog knows of The Outsider. He's the tale told to small children to keep them in line, the curse thrown when tempers rise, an oath and the hope of cultists and the downtrodden. He's a god and Steve isn't a follower, but he'd be an idiot to not be a believer.

The Outsider smiles at that, wide and a little sharp. It makes Steve feel like a prey animal. Then, instead of verbally answering, he bows to Steve at the waist and Steve's got no choice but to take that as confirmation.

"So, this is... the Void?" Steve asks because he's never been able to hold back any question that pops into his mind, even when he knows it'll make whoever he's talking to think he's stupid.

"Oh, fuck no. Could you imagine?" The Outsider cackles, like it's the funniest thing he's ever heard, his head thrown back. It's so human a thing to do that Steve is almost knocked out of his growing panic. "No, this is the Void but inside your dream. You're not really here. You're body is still safe and sound in your bed. For now."

"... What?" Steve whispers, though it is less a question and more a noise for his confusion.

"Never mind that," The Outsider says nonsensically, waving away Steve's question. "You're here for a reason. The reason being, of course, that I pulled you here. Summoned you. Forced your subconscious mind to bend to my will."

Steve takes a step back, horrified.

"Relax, I'm just kidding! I don't have the ability to bend your mind to my will. My life would be so different if I could do that. Better. Infinitely better," The Outsider says, sounding a bit wistful at the last bit before barreling on, "No, I did pull you here but rest assured that I did not want to. I am also here almost as involuntarily as you are.

"But it's that almost as that's important here. Because, unlike you, I did have a choice. I'm just at this weird crossroads where it didn't really feel like a choice, you see? I am in the habit of only giving my attention to people of interest. And you, Steve Harrington, are not particularly interesting."

Not particularly interesting.

Steve is many things at this moment, angry and hurt and, apparently, not interesting, but what he is not, in general, is stupid. So, despite the indignation running through him, he keeps his mouth shut about it.

"Maxine Mayfield, however, the future empress of Hawkins, a firecracker with a sour personality that doesn't truly endear her to her people? Now she's interesting. Dustin Henderson, a genius inventor of his own right. He's set to change the world forever with that new power source he's creating, isn't he? That's interesting. Nancy Wheeler, a firm denier of my very existence, despite all the evidence that lingers in the wake of my influence? She has an uncanny ability to pick up a trail gone cold; she's solved many a murder that the city watch floundered stupidly with. That's very interesting.

"But you? Son of a businessman, following the path laid out for you by other people with no original thought of your own? The most interesting thing about you is the people you have ended up surrounding yourself with. People who can -who should- shape the future of the Empire for the better.

"You aren't very interesting at all, but I have learned of plots that threaten all the interesting people around you. And I would very much like to avoid a future without them in it. Which brings me," a dramatic pause here as The Outsider draws his arms out wide and dips himself in the most sarcastic half-assed bow Steve's ever seen before ending with, "to you."

There's a lot that was just said. It's terrifying to learn just how much a god knows about you and your friends. Of course it's terrifying. But Steve is a prideful man. He'd spent his entire childhood being spoken down to, being told to shut up and obey, being told he was too stupid for business, but he might be able to make himself useful to his family by joining the city watch.

With each word spoken, he gets more angry. What the fuck does he truly know about Steve?

The Outsider isn't done, though. Steve's underlining fear kept him silent, and The Outsider takes that as a willingness to listen.

"I can't influence the world outside the Void. Not... directly," The Outsider says, "and I find for the first time that I am not satisfied with that. All your interesting friends are in danger, and you are their best hope. So, against all my better judgment and pride, I've come to offer you help. Accept my mark, and I can give you the power to save them all."

"No," Steve finds himself saying, firm and angry.

This baffles The Outsider, if the ridiculous look on his face is anything to go by. That makes something warm pool in Steve's chest, and his fear is melting away.

"No?" The Outsider parrots back.

"I don't need your fucking power," Steve spits back, that anger he tries so hard to hold back spilling out.

"You'd let your friends die for your pride?"

That pulls Steve up short. He's still angry, furious even, but the answer to The Outsider's question is an absolute and firm no. Steve's pride will never be as important as his friends.

"No, of course not. But I don't need your fucking power to keep them safe. I-" Steve growls, frustrated. He doesn't want The Outsiders help. He would very much like it if he would fuck off and go back to whatever it was he was doing before this dream. He certainly doesn't want whatever cursed power would be on offer. However, if his friends are truly in danger, if Steve is really the only hope they have, he has to give on something. "I don't need whatever power you think you can offer, but I'll take whatever information you can give."