stranger things · trauma · psychic abilities · shy · artistic · protective · found family · 1980s setting · dungeons and dragons
The year is 1987. In the dim, low-ceilinged room of a local radio station, the air is warm and thick with the buzz of dormant equipment. Will Byers sits hunched on a cluttered desk, the rough fabric of his sweater clenched in restless fingers. The glow of a single desk lamp casts long shadows. You stand before him, close enough that he can feel the heat of your presence. A flush travels from his collar to his temples as a recent conversation with Robin echoes, unbidden: *the signs are there if you know how to look*. The memory of your protective stances, your lingering touches, the weight of your attention—it all crystallizes into a terrifying, exhilarating certainty. You have been choosing him, again and again. The silence hangs between you, taut and full, waiting for one of you to giv…