musical guest darren criss!

Big Brother Is Watching

Chapter 1: Mayday

Seven months after the "earthquake" that split Hawkins down the middle and killed countless citizens (including alleged murderers Jonathan Byers and Steve Harrington), the military quarantine has started to weigh down on the town. Those that remained in town before the walls went up are split between supporters and detractors of the increased government presence, and tensions are close to boiling over. The group that has taken up refuge underneath the radio station embark on what they hope to be their final crawl, sensing that the end is nigh for Henry Creel and his reign of terror. What they don't know is that the truth behind what has controlled the world below Hawkins is much more complex, ancient, and foul than any of them ever could have imagined. Will wants to prove his power. Dustin has a new attitude. Mike can't look at himself in the mirror. Lucas is sent spiraling. El wants to have normal problems. Max is no closer to waking up. Erica is lost in her own imagination. Jonathan is a dead man walking. Nancy is the nineteen year old leader of a war effort. Robin struggles to maintain order. Joyce must confront danger to learn the truth about herself.

To recover, you literally need to manually learn skills that most people learn as a toddler

You need to learn what makes your body uncomfortable, and what to do to fix it

If you are high-masking, that usually means that you have learned to ignore every distress signal your body sends unless it is a distress signal that a neurotypical person would recognize. People have likely been unintentionally gaslighting you about your lived experience your entire life

If you feel bad or panicked for no reason, stop and try to pay attention to your body. Are you tense? You are likely feeling physical pain somewhere. If you've been gaslit about your pain your entire life, you might not be able to identify it.

Go through a sensory checklist.

SIGHT: Try closing and covering your eyes. If this gives you relief, the lights are probably too bright. You may also need differently-colored lights

SOUND: Cover your ears. Does this give you relief? If so, you may need earplugs or noise canceling headphones. You may also benefit from a neutral or pleasant background noise, like soft music or brown noise.

TOUCH: Are your clothes uncomfortable? Your chair? Your body? Do you feel greasy, like you need a shower? Do you need softer, sensory-friendly clothing?

TASTE: Do you need to brush your teeth or tongue? Would chewing on something help?

SMELL: Is there a strong or unpleasant smell in the room? Do you need to clean or empty a trash can? Would an air purifier help? Would a pleasant smell like a candle help?

INTEROCEPTION: Are you hungry? Thirsty? Tired? How is your posture? Are any of your muscles tight or sore? Scan your body slowly from head to feet, tensing and loosening each group of muscles. Going for a walk or doing a series of quick stretches may help a lot.

Learning how to do this stuff is not intuitive, if you've had an entire lifetime of gaslighting telling you that everything hurting you isn't a big deal and you're being dramatic over nothing.

This takes time, it takes work, it's not intuitive, and it's hard. Most people forget how hard it is, because they learned this as toddlers.

My children are doing portraits of each other

Very big thank you to two of my favorites and very talented artists @dranktwocoffees and @willthespy for doing Nico's and hazel's painting.

Big Brother Is Watching

Chapter 1: Mayday

Seven months after the "earthquake" that split Hawkins down the middle and killed countless citizens (including alleged murderers Jonathan Byers and Steve Harrington), the military quarantine has started to weigh down on the town. Those that remained in town before the walls went up are split between supporters and detractors of the increased government presence, and tensions are close to boiling over. The group that has taken up refuge underneath the radio station embark on what they hope to be their final crawl, sensing that the end is nigh for Henry Creel and his reign of terror. What they don't know is that the truth behind what has controlled the world below Hawkins is much more complex, ancient, and foul than any of them ever could have imagined. Will wants to prove his power. Dustin has a new attitude. Mike can't look at himself in the mirror. Lucas is sent spiraling. El wants to have normal problems. Max is no closer to waking up. Erica is lost in her own imagination. Jonathan is a dead man walking. Nancy is the nineteen year old leader of a war effort. Robin struggles to maintain order. Joyce must confront danger to learn the truth about herself.

ROSEMONDE & MYRIAM

the woke left: young and fashionable. visible tattoos. often enjoys matcha, lavender flavoring, oat milk, and cold foam. pretty decent customers.

sweet old man: drinks very sweet iced lattes, pays in cash, puts all of his change in the tip jar. sometimes orders hot coffee and i get scared that his shaky old man hands will spill it and he'll get burned but that has not yet happened and god willing never shall.

evil old man: only wants drip coffee and declares it ridiculous that any other form of coffee exists. some variants only want americanos and these variants are even scarier. watch out.

sweet old woman: might need her daughter's help to order but is very bubbly and open to trying new things. compliments baristas freely and frequently.

evil old woman: does not want coffee and only wants sweet tea or soda. will not tip even if she spends three hours in the shop repeatedly asking baristas to fetch things for her.

errand husband: either stiltedly recites an order to you or shows you the order in their texts/notes app. needs to step out of line and make a phone call if you ask any follow-up questions.

grindset girlie: always wearing scrubs, an apron, and/or a name tag. orders the exact same thing every day and knows the exact change she'll need to pay for it. her regular order is both extremely caffeinated and extremely sweet.

#mamabear: is actively wrangling two to four children while ordering. order changes repeatedly because the children cannot decide if they want a muffin or a cookie or apple juice or chocolate milk etc. for some reason these women are always wearing an article of clothing or carrying some personalized item that says "mama" on it.

schoolchildren: band of two to eight adolescents hanging out after school. extremely indecisive but generally quite polite and tip well.

amnesiac in love: grown adult who needs their partner to tell them what they like. gets asked a question about their own preferences and turns to their partner to answer for them. generally acts like a shy child looking to their guardian for behavioral cues if you try to interact with them and only wants to talk to mommy i mean their wife.