i'll kiss her even

robin and nancy epilogue gfs canon

[dyermenace]

hi guys

just a little update. i'll be more active on here after july 2nd. that's the last day of work (i've been working an 8 am - 4:30 pm every weekday) and i'll actually have time to write and be active on here

xx

[dyermenace]

henry survives inside the psychic network of the upside down. he has no real body anymore. he's reduced to a voice, almost like a memory. He can't attack people directly, so he starts influencing people through dreams, grief, and trauma.

he's not “back” right away. he's weak, furious, and incomplete.

that makes his return scarier because he has to manipulate others instead of just simply showing up again. like the group, now older, would expect.

dustin's part of the reason how it all opens up. he kept the journal of brenner's that he found in the upside down and has focused and obsessed over the dark matter and so on. and an experiment he does opens the tiniest tear, not a full one, not big enough to notice until it's too late.

and when nancy and robin move back to hawkins in 2015, with their 11 year-old daughter, nancy's nightmares begin again due to vecna having already entered her mind to use her as a "messenger" years before.

"no. i am... what's left"

(or the apocalyptic vibes the duffers never gave us in season 5)

[foilballoon]

"I'll kiss her, even"

[grisempereur]

Maya talks about Ronance and hanging out with Natalia

thank you for your service queen

[dyermenace]

"don't take me away from my friend"

"i'll do anything"

"i'll kiss her even"

oh my god???????????

[dyermenace]

come back to me, robin

synopsis ➜ the world is falling apart and hawkins is at the center of it, again. and nancy has to try and bring her robin back from the consuming grip of the mind flayer

(and a look into my stranger things/ronance kidverse)

INT. WHEELER HOME ➜ 6 NOVEMBER 2015

The whole town felt as if it had been left out too long in the cold and then brought too close to a fire. Damp at the edges, warped through the middle, and carrying that faint, ugly smell of something beginning to burn. Even the dark looked wrong. It was too thick, too watchful. The roads around the edges of town lay under a skin of old frost and dead leaves, the trees standing bare and close together like a jury. The streetlamps buzzed weakly. Porch lights blinked on and off for no reason. Dogs had been barking for hours in distant neighborhoods and then, all at once, gone silent.

Inside the old house on the outskirts of Hawkins, the silence was worse.

Nancy stood in the front room with a gun in both hands and blood drying tacky along one side of her jaw, and across from her Robin smiled with someone else’s mouth.

Though it wasn't really a smile, Nancy knew, because smiling belonged to Robin. Smiling belonged to quick, crooked amusement and breathless sarcasm and a laugh that came out too loud in libraries and funerals and every place it shouldn’t. This was only an arrangement of teeth. A shape the thing inside her had learned from observation and was now using, badly.

“Nance,” Robin said.

Her voice was almost right.

That was the worst part. The Mind Flayer hadn't taken Robin’s face and made it monstrous. It had taken Robin whole and worn her with terrifying care. Robin’s clothes were still Robin’s. Her hair, always a little wild no matter what she did with it, hung into her eyes. Her cheek was bruised darkening purple from where Nancy had shoved her into a doorframe minutes ago. There was blood on Robin’s sleeve that Nancy knew belonged partly to her own body and partly to Robin and partly to neither of them anymore because the whole room had become a blur of struggle and panic and overturned furniture and terror.

Robin tilted her head, the movement almost birdlike and wrong.

“You know,” she said softly, “you always were the easier one to break. Even when you didn't show it."

Nancy’s grip tightened on the gun so hard her hands began to ache. “Stop talking.”

Robin took one lazy step forward.

"Why? You know it’s me.”

Nancy’s breath caught, sharp and painful. That was deliberate. The thing inside Robin knew exactly where to cut. It knew Robin knew her. It knew Nancy had memorized the tiny roughness in Robin’s voice when she was tired, the slight catch on certain words when she was angry or scared. It knew what would make Nancy hesitate.

From upstairs, somewhere in the old house, came a low groan of stressed wood settling. Wind scraped a branch against the siding. The lamp in the corner flickered once. Then again.

Nancy tried to steady her breathing. She could hear her own pulse inside her skull.

There had been a plan. They’d had one, hours ago, before everything went to hell in the span of seconds the way it always seemed to in Hawkins.

Keep the group split in pairs.

Do not go anywhere alone.

If anyone started acting wrong, if anyone heard a voice from nowhere, if any lights began to pulse in that awful slow rhythm they’d all learned to dread, get out and regroup.

No heroics.

No improvising.

No one leaves until everyone leaves.

Then Vecna had started in with Natalia.

Even now, even here, Nancy could see her daughter as she had looked when she dropped.

One second Natalia had been standing in Joyce and Hopper's cabin, dark hair pulled back, expression set in that stubbornly brave way that always wrecked Nancy because it was like staring at herself at eleven years old. The next second the color had drained from her face. Her eyes had gone glassy and far away, fixed on something none of them could see. She had whispered, so faint Nancy almost hadn’t heard it.

“Mom?”

Then she collapsed.

Everything after that had detonated.

Joyce had gotten Natalia to the couch. Hopper had started barking orders. Jonathan had tried to find the music, any music, while Steve and Robin and Nancy had moved for the truck because they thought they had maybe twenty minutes, maybe less, before whatever Vecna was doing got worse. They were supposed to get supplies, regroup with the others, come back fast.

Instead the road had closed around them like a trap.

Something had struck from the tree line. Not an animal. Not human. A demogorgon, all speed and teeth and wet sound. There had been screaming, braking, Steve swearing, Robin grabbing for the tire iron, Nancy firing once through the windshield because instinct had outrun thought. They’d made it to the house only because it had been the nearest shelter with walls still standing.

Steve hadn't made it inside.

Nancy still didn't know if he was alive.

The memory flashed so hard it nearly folded her to her knees.

Robin saw it happen and the smile widened.

“You can’t save all of them,” she said.

Nancy aimed center mass. “I said stop talking.”

Robin laughed, and the thing inhabiting her made the laugh too flat, too even, like it had studied the sound but not the feeling beneath it.

“You’d shoot me?”

Nancy didn't answer.

Because yes, if she had to. Because no, she didn't know if she could. Because Robin was her wife and standing there inside her own skin like a hostage behind her own eyes. Because if Nancy lowered the gun, Robin would kill her. She'd already nearly done it. Because there was blood on the floor where Robin had smashed her head into the mantel and Nancy still couldn't remember how she’d gotten away from the second chokehold except that she had, barely, and the room had gone black at the edges.

Robin took another step.

Nancy backed one.

The front room had become a battlefield in miniature. A lamp layed shattered beneath the window. The coffee table was on its side. One curtain had been ripped half down, leaving the glass exposed to the dark outside where the trees crowded close. A kitchen chair had broken under somebody’s weight. Mud tracked through the hall in smeared prints. The air smelled of gun oil, old wood, coppery blood, and that faint rotting sweetness that always came with the Upside Down, as if a grave had been opened somewhere nearby.

“Nancy,” Robin said again, and for one terrible instant it sounded like Robin was truly speaking.

Nancy’s eyes stung.

Robin’s mouth softened. “Please.”

Nancy’s hands shook.

That was enough. Robin lunged.

And Nancy fired.

The shot cracked through the room with deafening force. Plaster burst from the wall just behind Robin’s shoulder. Robin twisted at the last second with inhuman speed and the bullet missed flesh by inches. And then Robin was on her.

The gun slammed sideways. Nancy hit the floor hard enough to bite her tongue. Robin drove into her with all her weight, stronger than she should have been, stronger than anything wearing a human body had a right to be. Nancy smelled sweat and blood and cold air in Robin’s hair. Saw the blackness threading beneath the whites of Robin’s eyes, like veins of ink.

Robin’s hand clamped around Nancy’s wrist.

The gun skidded away across the floorboards.

Nancy drove her knee upward and Robin grunted but didn't let go. The next second Robin had Nancy’s forearm pinned over her head and her other hand fisted in the front of Nancy’s jacket, hauling her half off the floor just to slam her back down.

The impact exploded through Nancy’s spine.

Robin leaned close enough that their foreheads nearly touched.

“You should've ran,” she hissed.

Nancy could see the strain under Robin’s skin now. The thing inside her moving wrong beneath the surface. Not visible exactly, but suggested, like watching a shadow swim under thin ice.

Robin’s fingers tightened at Nancy’s throat.

Air vanished from her lungs.

Nancy clawed at Robin’s wrist. Kicked. Twisted. Robin held her effortlessly, eyes huge and black-rimmed and terrible.

The room narrowed.

Somewhere far away, Nancy thought of Natalia unconscious at Joyce and Hopper’s cabin. Thought of the eleven year-old, slight as a reed, with Nancy’s face and Nancy’s temper and Robin’s quicksilver mouth. Thought of the first time Natalia had reached up sleepily and touched Nancy’s cheek and asked, with total certainty, “Mama, are monsters real or pretend?” and Nancy, who had seen more than any person should ever know existed, had lied and said, “Pretend, baby. Go to sleep.”

She thought of Robin at the kitchen sink two mornings ago, stealing toast and rolling her eyes at Nancy’s lecture about something stupid. Thought of Robin laughing so hard over coffee she’d nearly choked on. Thought of the wedding ring glinting on Robin’s hand, now at Nancy’s throat.

No.

Nancy stopped trying to pry Robin’s fingers loose and instead went for the wound.

Earlier, in the first stage of the fight, Nancy had managed to slash Robin’s side with the broken edge of a ceramic bowl when Robin had driven her into the kitchen. It hadn't gone deep, but it had gone deep enough.

Nancy jammed her thumb hard into the cut now.

Robin screamed.

The sound was Robin’s. Pure Robin. Startled, furious, hurt.

Her grip spasmed open.

Nancy sucked in air like she was drowning and finally surfacing and shoved with both hands. Robin stumbled back a step and Nancy rolled, scrambled, snatched for anything. Her fingers closed around the fireplace poker.

Robin came again before Nancy could fully rise

But still, Nancy swung.

The poker connected with Robin’s shoulder in a brutal metallic thud. Robin reeled sideways into the mantel. Framed photos went over and shattered. One of them, absurdly, was a picture of the old house’s long-dead owners grinning on a fishing trip. Glass sprayed across the floor.

Robin straightened slowly.

Blood ran from a split on her lip now.

“Nancy,” she said, voice layered suddenly, Robin under something vast and cold. “Do you know what she’s dreaming?”

Nancy went still.

The thing inside Robin smiled.

“Your daughter.”

Nancy’s vision tunneled.

"No."

“At the cabin,” it went on pleasantly. “While you're here playing house with a corpse.”

Nancy swung again, but Robin ducked and caught the poker. They struggled over it, faces inches apart, shoes slipping in broken glass.

“You don’t get to say her name,” Nancy spat.

Robin laughed through blood. “I’ve been inside your head. I know every name.”

With a savage twist Robin tore the poker free and hurled it aside. It clanged against the wall. Nancy went for the knife in her boot, but Robin was faster. A fist crashed into Nancy’s ribs. Something gave with a hot white snap that sent pain lancing through her whole side. Nancy made a sound she didn’t recognize as human.

Robin seized her by the back of the neck and marched her three brutal steps before slamming her face-first into the wall.

And the drywall cracked.

Stars burst behind Nancy’s eyes.

Robin pressed her there, one forearm across Nancy’s shoulders, one hand fisting in her hair. Her mouth was by Nancy’s ear now.

“She’s calling for you in there,” Robin whispered. “She knows you won’t get there in time.”

Nancy tried to wrench free and Robin shoved harder. Nancy’s cheek ground against broken plaster. Warm blood ran down from her scalp into her collar.

“Maybe she sees you dead already,” Robin murmured. “Maybe that comforts her.”

Nancy’s whole body went cold.

Then, very clearly, she heard Robin underneath it.

Not aloud. Not with ears. More like memory forced into shape.

"Nance."

Nancy went rigid.

There it was again, thinner this time, buried deep.

"Nance."

Her Robin.

The pressure at Nancy’s back shifted, just for a second. The forearm eased a fraction. Like someone inside a locked room had thrown themselves against the door.

Nancy acted instantly. She stomped backward on Robin’s foot and drove her elbow hard into Robin’s ribs, once, twice, again. Robin snarled and lost control for half a heartbeat. Nancy spun, slammed both hands against Robin’s shoulders, and sent them both crashing sideways through the doorway into the kitchen.

They hit the table and it broke under them with a splintering crack.

For a second neither moved.

Nancy rolled off first, gasping. Every breath sliced her ribs. Her right eye was swelling. One arm had gone half numb. Across from her Robin pushed up on shaking hands, hair hanging in her face.

And then Nancy saw it.

Not with her eyes exactly, but there all the same, Robin was fighting.

Something in Robin’s expression kept stuttering. Not changing fully, not enough to free her, but flickering between that dead, taunting stillness and flashes of terrible effort. Her fingers clawed at the floorboards hard enough to leave crescents. Her jaw was clenched so tightly the muscles stood out. One eye squeezed shut as if against blinding pain.

“Robin,” Nancy said hoarsely.

Robin’s head jerked toward her.

For one second her own voice came through, ragged and distorted. “Don’t—”

Then the blackness surged back.

Robin screamed, not at Nancy this time but at whatever inhabited her, and convulsed so violently she knocked over one of the kitchen chairs without touching it. The overhead light burst from the rapidness of the flickering and glass rained down.

The room plunged into shadow lit only by the weak spill from the front room lamp and the moonless gray beyond the window.

Nancy stared.

The possession was destabilizing.

That had happened before. She'd witnessed it years ago. It was usually only under specific strains. Heat, trauma, emotional interference, enough damage to the body to force the thing controlling it to divert itself. They had learned fragments over the years, half in research and half in blood. The Mind Flayer could dominate, but not perfectly, not always, not if the host fought hard enough and the body’s limits turned against the invader.

Heat.

Nancy’s gaze flicked to the stove.

It was an old gas range. Pilot light long dead. But if the line still worked...

Robin launched herself off the ruined table with a cry that was almost animal-like.

Nancy barely got her arms up before Robin hit her. They crashed into the counter. A drawer flew open and cutlery scattered everywhere.

Robin was faster now but sloppier. The thing inside her was furious, but losing precision.

Good.

Nancy let herself fold under the momentum, grabbed Robin’s jacket, and twisted. They went down together. Robin’s hand closed on Nancy’s throat again. Nancy drove two fingers at Robin’s eyes on reflex and Robin flinched. Nancy grabbed the nearest thing at hand, a heavy cast-iron skillet that had fallen from a hanging hook, and swung it up into Robin’s side.

Robin yelped.

Nancy shoved free and crawled toward the stove on her elbows and knees because standing took too long now. Behind her Robin made a wet choking sound, then a laugh.

“You still think there’s a cure,” she said.

Nancy reached the stove, yanked the nearest knob open, and smelled the hiss of gas instantly.

Robin froze.

There.

Nancy turned slowly, one hand braced on the oven door to hold herself upright. “Get out of her.”

Robin’s head tilted. “Or what?”

Nancy reached into her pocket and found the lighter she kept there because Hawkins had trained her to carry ridiculous things for practical reasons, even though she tried to forget. Her thumb rolled the wheel once. Sparks flashed, but there was no flame yet.

Robin’s expression changed.

“You’ll burn her.”

Nancy’s eyes filled but her hand stayed steady. “I know.”

Robin took one cautious step.

Nancy clicked the lighter again, and this time a thin yellow flame jumped up.

The room changed. Gas hissed softly in the shadows. Robin’s pupils blew wide. The thing inside her knew fire. Knew heat. Feared it in a way that was old.

“Don’t,” Robin said.

And this time it was Robin. Entirely Robin. Cracked open by terror and pain and pleading. “Nancy, please don’t.”

Nancy almost broke.

She saw a dozen years of marriage in one sickening rush. Robin asleep with one arm flung over her waist. Robin teaching Natalia how to ride a bike, running bent over in the street, yelling contradictory instructions. Robin in the passenger seat singing off-key on purpose to annoy her. Robin kneeling in their kitchen with a ring in her shaking hand because neither of them had ever thought they’d get to live long enough for normal milestones and yet there they were, stealing one anyway.

“Nance,” Robin whispered. Tears stood in her eyes now, real ones. “I’m trying.”

Nancy swallowed hard enough it hurt. “Then help me.”

Robin’s whole body trembled. The thing wearing her fought visibly now, jerks passing through her limbs, her fingers straightening and then curling again. Her mouth pulled into a grin that wasn’t hers. Then into a grimace. Then into nothing.

Nancy took one step toward her. Then another.

Gas filled the kitchen. The smell was overwhelming. Dangerous.

Robin backed into the sink as if retreating from the flame in Nancy’s hand. Or from Nancy herself. Her breathing came fast and ragged.

“Natalia,” Nancy said.

Robin’s face twisted.

“Think about her,” Nancy said. “Think about our daughter.”

Robin squeezed her eyes shut.

Nancy pressed on, voice shaking now, desperate and relentless. “Think about the first day of school when she wouldn’t let go of your coat. Think about her in those yellow rain boots. Think about her asking why the moon follows the car. Think about the time she hid that frog in your purse and you screamed so loud my mom came outside to make sure nobody was dying. Think about her last birthday cake, the terrible one you made that I said tasted fine when it tasted like drywall. Think about Natalia, Robin. Think about me.”

Robin made a sound like something being torn in half.

The blackness in her eyes rippled.

Nancy came close enough to feel the heat of Robin’s body, the cold sweat on her skin, the trembling she was trying to control.

“That’s it,” Nancy whispered, flame between them. “Come back to me. Come back.”

Robin’s eyes snapped open.

For one breathtaking second, they were wholly Robin’s. Blue, dazed, terrified, alive.

Then the thing lashed out in panic.

Robin’s hand shot forward and seized Nancy’s wrist. The flame wavered. They both gasped. Nancy tried to wrench away but Robin, the thing inside Robin, slammed her arm into the wall once, twice. The lighter flew from her fingers and hit the floor, skidding under the broken table.

Gas still hissed, but there was still no flame.

And Robin shoved Nancy backward.

Nancy crashed into the refrigerator, the impact slamming a cry out of her. Robin came in hard, fist driving into Nancy’s damaged ribs. White agony flared. Nancy nearly blacked out standing and Robin's hands caught her shoulders and drove her down to her knees.

“You had one chance,” the thing snarled through Robin’s teeth.

Nancy blinked through tears.

Then she saw the extension cord.

It trailed from the counter, where an old radio had been knocked into the sink. Water ran in a thin steady stream from the bent faucet. The cord’s plastic casing had split when everything went over. Tiny bright threads glimmered through the tear.

An electrical spark.

Gas.

A terrible idea.

But it was the only kind Hawkins ever gave any of them.

Robin followed Nancy’s gaze and understood at the same time.

For the first time, the thing looked afraid.

Nancy moved.

Robin tackled her before she could reach the cord and they went down in the spreading water. Nancy’s hand slapped across the tile, inches from the radio. Robin’s nails raked her arm bloody trying to drag her back. Nancy twisted, got a palm on the radio casing, and shoved it deeper into the sink basin with all the strength she had left.

The exposed wire kissed metal.

And there was a spark.

Then chaos.

The gas ignited in a violent rush that punched the air from the room. Fire rolled across the ceiling in a blue-orange sheet. Heat slammed into them. Robin screamed, a sound layered with something vast and furious and inhuman. Nancy threw an arm over her face as shattered glass burst inward from a window.

The blast wasn't large enough to level the house, but it was enough.

Enough to flood the kitchen with searing heat.

Enough to knock both of them apart.

Enough to force the Mind Flayer to choose between holding Robin and escaping fire.

Robin convulsed on the floor.

Nancy dragged herself backward through broken glass and burning debris, coughing hard enough to retch. Her hair singed at the ends. The curtains had caught, flames crawled up them in greedy bright lines. Smoke thickened fast.

Robin arched so violently her heels almost drummed the tile.

Then black smoke poured out of her mouth.

Not smoke exactly. It was like a writhing tendril of dark matter that tore free from Robin in a furious stream and slammed against the ceiling like a trapped thing seeking cracks. It hissed with a sound like distant screaming. Nancy had seen it before, once, years ago, only never on this scale.

Then Robin collapsed bonelessly.

The shadow whipped toward the broken window and vanished into the night.

Silence hit in its wake like a dropped curtain.

For a heartbeat Nancy couldn't move.

Then the room roared back. Flames snapping, wood popping, smoke alarms shrieking somewhere deeper in the house. Nancy crawled to Robin on shaking hands and knees.

“Robin.”

She got no response.

Nancy grabbed Robin’s face with both hands. Soot blackened her fingers instantly. Robin’s skin was hot, too hot. There was a burn along one side of her neck where the blast had kissed her. Blood ran from her hairline. Her lips were bluish.

“Robin.”

Nancy pressed trembling fingers to Robin’s throat.

There was a pulse. Weak, but there.

Nancy let out a broken sob that barely made sound.

“Hey. Hey, hey, hey, come on. Robin, open your eyes.”

Robin didn't move.

The fire was catching faster now. The cabinets above the stove had gone up. Smoke pressed low and ugly into the room. Nancy coughed until her chest seized. Every instinct screamed that they had seconds, not minutes.

She had to move.

Nancy rose once and nearly dropped with the pain in her side. But she still managed to hook both hands under Robin’s arms and drag.

Robin was taller than Nancy was by enough to matter when dead weight entered the equation. Nancy’s boots slid on wet tile and blood and broken glass. Her damaged ribs shrieked. Her shoulder threatened to tear free at the socket. But she dragged anyway, inch by inch, Robin’s heels bumping over the threshold from kitchen to hall.

Halfway down the hall Robin coughed violently and twisted, waking all at once and in agony.

“Nance?"

Nancy almost collapsed from relief.

Robin tried to push up and failed. Her eyes were unfocused. “Wha... what happened?”

“Fire happened,” Nancy coughed. “I need you to move.”

Robin blinked at her, then at the burning kitchen behind them, then at Nancy’s face again. Understanding came in jagged pieces. Horror followed close behind.

“Oh God,” Robin whispered. “Did I... did I hurt you?"

Nancy laughed once, helplessly, because of course that was the first thing Robin asked. “Yeah."

Robin looked stricken.

“But you’re fixing it by helping me not die in a house fire,” Nancy said. “Can you stand?”

Robin tried. Her whole body shook with the effort. One leg nearly buckled. Nancy hauled her up by the elbow and instantly regretted it when pain tore through her ribs so hard she saw sparks. Robin saw it too.

Nancy knew the exact second Robin properly focused on her injuries.

Robin went white under all the soot.

“Nance."

“It’s fine.”

“It is absolutely not fine.”

“Robin—”

Robin slid an arm around her waist before Nancy could protest, careful even through her own shaking. “Lean on me.”

“You were unconscious ten seconds ago.”

“And now I’m not," Robin said. "Lean."

The command in Robin’s voice left no room, so Nancy leaned.

Together they staggered toward the front door as smoke filled the hallway behind them. Robin limped badly. Whatever the possession had done to her muscles was taking its toll now that adrenaline alone couldn't hide it. Nancy’s vision blurred in and out. The gun still laid somewhere in the front room, impossible to retrieve safely. The entire house groaned around them.

When they reached the front room, Robin stopped dead.

“Nancy,"

On the floor by the overturned coffee table lay the wedding photo Nancy had knocked off the mantel during the fight. The glass had shattered, but the picture itself remained mostly intact: Nancy in white, Robin in a suit because she had flatly refused lace on principle, both of them laughing at something outside the frame. So young-looking it had embarrassed them both at the time. The ring on Robin’s hand had been sliding crooked because her fingers were too cold. Natalia hadn't existed yet except as a hope too fragile to say aloud.

Nancy followed Robin’s gaze and then looked at Robin.

“Leave it.”

Robin swallowed

“Robin,"

Robin tore her eyes away. “Right.”

They made it to the porch just as the front room windows burst behind them in a shower of sparks. Cold night air hit Nancy’s face like a slap. She nearly went to her knees from the shock of it after the furnace heat inside. Robin half-carried, half-dragged her down the porch steps and away from the house.

The yard was dead grass, mud, and leaf rot. Beyond the tree line the road waited in darkness. No headlights. No help. Just the distant faint glow of Hawkins somewhere miles off and the ugly orange pulse of fire behind them.

Nancy managed three more steps before her legs quit.

Robin got her down as gently as she could.

“Nancy! Nancy, stay with me.”

Nancy blinked up at her. Robin’s face hovered above her, streaked with soot, lip split, hair singed, eyes wild.

She was alive.

Her Robin was alive.

That fact alone felt too enormous to hold.

“You’re bleeding a lot,” Robin said, voice shaking now. “Okay. Okay. No, don’t close your eyes. Don’t do that.”

“I’m thinking,” Nancy murmured.

“You can think at the hospital.”

Robin patted frantically at her own pockets, then Nancy’s, looking for keys, for anything useful, for an answer. Her hands were trembling so hard she almost dropped the truck keys when she found them in Nancy’s jacket.

“The truck,” Robin said. “Okay. We can get to the truck.”

Nancy tried to sit up. The world tilted and nearly threw her off. Robin caught her.

“Easy.”

“Steve,” Nancy croaked.

Robin’s face crumpled for one awful second. “I know.”

“We have to go back—”

“We are not going back into the woods blind and half-dead.”

“Natalia.”

At that, Robin went utterly still.

Everything in her sharpened around that name.

Their eleven year-old was still unconscious at Joyce and Hopper’s cabin with Vecna pressing at the walls of her mind. The whole reason they'd been out here in the first place.

Robin looked from the burning house to Nancy’s barely coherent face to the dark road.

But she made the hard decision.

“We get you to the hospital first,” she said, but there was no conviction in it.

Nancy gave her a stare that would have been murderous if she’d had more strength. “No.”

“Nancy, your ribs are—”

“No.”

“You might have internal bleeding.”

“And Natalia might be dying.”

Robin shut her eyes. Her whole face tightened with pain far deeper than the burns or bruises. Because Nancy was right. Because they both knew exactly what time meant when Vecna had hold of somebody. Because there was no such thing as taking care of one crisis at a time in Hawkins. They only ever chose which person they could bear to fail first.

But Robin also knew the other truth.

"I can't help her," Robin said. "Not if you die."

Nancy gave in then. Maybe because her body was too weak to do anything else, or maybe because she knew, stubbornly, Robin was right. She couldn't help Natalia. Not like this.

Robin got Nancy to her feet with monumental effort. Nancy managed one arm over Robin’s shoulders. Robin’s own side was soaked through now where the earlier cut had reopened, and Nancy realized dimly that Robin was bleeding much more than she had let on.

But Robin wasn't even concerned about that.

Not now.

[dyermenace]

hiiiiiii

long time since i've been on here but i've decided to reboot this account because i finally have ideas!!!

(plus lowkey, everything went downhill after i logged out of here and i'm superstitious lol)

[dyermenace]

a case study on epilogue ronance (and why they’re canon no matter what the duffers now say)

starting with the implied breakup of robin and vickie pre-epilogue. this was shown by robin’s “overbearing girlfriends” comment on the wsqk roof and how vickie was both nowhere to be seen or directly mentioned.

i do have a theory that vickie told dr. kay and the military what was happening (yes, they saw the plans, i know), because while everyone else was getting shoved up against the truck, essentially manhandled by soldiers, she was just standing there with her arms crossed, looking annoyed??? there wasn’t even an ounce of panic or any real emotion on her face. yet, proving the annoyance wasn’t at what was happening around her. robin had told her earlier to shut up over the radio. i think just all those pieces really did a number on them. i don’t believe enzo’s happened and i genuinely think that moment was the end for them. especially since vickie never understood what robin was going through and then you add on the fact that robin’s been ditching her so nancy’s plans wouldn’t fail… yeah, it didn’t last much longer. and it’s very clear in the epilogue that robin has her eyes set on nancy (again)

now, i know this wasn’t in the epilogue, but it very much connects to it. when nancy and jonathan broke up, nancy said something very interesting

nancy didn’t know what she wanted. and whenever this was vaguely brought up pre-volume two release. natalia always phrased it as “nancy trying new things”. well, jonathan and steve aren’t new things. and with how nancy looked in the epilogue, she’s gotten comfortable with herself and her sexuality (nancy wheeler finally free from her comphet storyline) and openly exchanging looks with robin while being with jonathan and steve

now moving on to the the finale episode, just before the epilogue because i have to bring this up again. it’s one of my favorite moments

after robin asks who’s going to be the bait, nancy gives herself up and robin looks absolutely devastated. then, after nancy starts firing at the mind flayer’s physical form and tells the group to go, twice, robin’s face, when they showed her a second time, is even more heartbreaking. she was on the verge of tears. and after going back and rewatching the scene, i noticed that when robin asked the question, she hesitated and her voice even broke a little bit. almost like she knew nancy was going to be the one to step forward. like she wished she could’ve taken the words back instantly after she started saying them

moments later, when jonathan almost runs back towards nancy, who was actively running towards the mind flayer, robin’s the one to grab him and tell him there’s nothing they could do. her voice was so broken. and then the “please” left her lips. desperation. she trusted nancy and her plan enough to not going running after her, but she also needed to rush up to their place because robin couldn’t even handle the mere thought of losing nancy. and it’s much deeper than a fear of losing a friend (i’ll also take this time to point out that when nancy gave herself up as bait, the camera pointed to jonathan, dustin and robin. and robin, is technically the outlier in that situation)

now finally, to the epilogue!!! there was SO MUCH here. i was so shocked and on a high

getting into the details, we know how robin asked nancy “how are the babes at emerson?”. when robin says the word “babes” she always means women. and i, truthfully, have never heard the term “babes” be used for men in the context the term was used. and when nancy used that as a gateway to reveal she dropped out of emerson and took a trainee job at the boston herald, robin just looked… so proud. even teased her about how she knew nancy would become a navy seal. then came the “nancy wheeler, still full of surprises”. these were all extremely flirty dialogues, especially when you add in all the looks and eye-fucking that was going on even without spoken words between them

(i mean look at the receipts)

i have a theory (one of my favorites) that nancy and robin have been dating for at least a few months before the epilogue (which is june 1989 in case anyone didn’t notice). there’s no true backing to this but all their shared looks and robin asking about the “babes at emerson” felt like there was a lot of implications that ran deeper rather than them just flirting with each other. this isn’t out of the realm of possibility as robin goes to smith college in northampton, massachusetts and nancy is still in boston working. that is a little under a two hour drive from one another

but even without my theory of them getting together pre-epilogue and being in a secret relationship, whichever way you want to take it, wether nancy and robin have been together prior to the rooftop scene or they’re flirting and clearly have active feelings for each other, jonathan absolutely clocked their shit (just like the rest of us). and it’s also fitting, because if you read one way or another, you know jonathan also clocked robin and vickie

ronance was VERY HEAVILY IMPLIED CANON with all the epilogue and even the finale as a whole provided, as the open endings lead to and support the canon. it’s really brought a sense of peace (especially amidst this stupid conformity gate bs). and with the duffers not knowing how to respond to anything now and trying to satisfy everyone else who wasn’t happy when their ships didn’t remain or go canon… it’ll stay this way no matter what they say at this point.

and on that note, a quick reminder: if they truly wanted the epilogue to be perceived another way they should’ve written it another way

[dyermenace]

i never want to see anybody say it was ever one-sided again… this is pure devastation

[dyermenace]

st5 finale and epilogue spoilers below!!!

okay, this is a very emotional breakdown of the finale and epilogue for ronance

there wasn’t a whole lot before the epilogue, which the duffers could’ve definitely fit in, but i wasn’t expecting as the duffers hate them for some reason. that being said, there were a lot of placement and unspoken moments that were enough in terms of this season pre-epilogue

starting off with when jonathan says they should split up when going up the tower. robin folds into the line with nancy almost instantly and at this point i was taking any crumb given, i was genuinely just excited they were staying close together

EDIT: we did get a ronance hug! mike was there too but it’s okay because that’s his sister-in-law now lol

same goes for when they were walking in the area where vecna’s physical body was. robin stayed close to nancy or was in step with her most of the way

when the mind flayer (that’s what i presumed it was) began attacking them and they came up with a plan against it, robin asked who was going to be the bait… and her face after nancy volunteered herself to do so was so fucking heartbreaking

you could tell she was hoping somebody else was going to jump in so nancy wouldn’t be the one to do so

and then when nancy started shooting at the mind flayer and told them to go, the duffers showed robin again and it was so much more devastating. she was BREAKING

(there was no need for it but here we are and i will be thinking about it FOREVER)

fast forward to the epilogue, robin’s at smith college (which is in northampton, massachusetts btw) but she’s back at wsqk as a “guest” to do the opening epilogue monologue

(for those who want to know for fic purposes, smith college is a little less than a two hour drive to boston)

(not really related to ronance but they played “landslide” by fleetwood mac and i start SOBBING and the tears did not stop until it all ended)

they made nancy look so fucking gay it’s not even funny

nancy, robin, jonathan and steve, after the younger kids’ graduation, were all sitting on the roof of wsqk drinking beer and for a little one way or another reference, nancy and robin were drinking out of red solo cups

they’re all implied to be single except steve, of course. there is a mention of a crystal, which i have to admit, was cute

“what about you, nance? how are the babes at emerson?”

there’s a lot going on in this sequence. robin calling nancy “nance” again meant so much to me. the question itself implies queer nancy. and nancy’s little look at robin when she says it and how robin says it… a little flirty shall i say

nancy reveals she actually dropped out of emerson and robin goes straight into teasing saying “i knew it! you became a navy seal”

nancy also reveals she took a job at the boston herald and robin had the most… endearing look on her face. like she was proud and maybe something more

“nancy wheeler, still full of surprises”

GODDDDDDD

robin said this with the same exact look on her face. it never changed within that little exchange, though it somehow got softer. and what robin said got that little shy smile nancy always has for robin out

just the looks and eye contact were killing me in the epilogue

and when robin start to say “but it’s—“ nancy jumps in and finishes with “it’s not the same”… IT DID ME IN

they all plan to meet at robin’s weird uncle’s house in philadelphia starting the next month

THIS COULD’VE SET UP THE PERFECT SPIN-OFF I’M SO SERIOUS

(also not ronance related but mike saying eleven found the three waterfalls and found peace and them actually showing it… i was already sobbing but i absolutely lost it at that)

i also feel the “this is just a theory right?” and “how do we know it’s true” leading into “but i choose to believe it is” is so IMPORTANT for all of us…

because now? the story is up to us and what we choose to believe. that’s what makes it real

(though we did kinda win. it’s heavily implied. i have to say that)

[dyermenace]

my personal ronance thoughts going into the finale and why everything seems to be pointing to ronance endgame/canon

i’m going to start this out by saying i really don’t think robin and vickie will be together through the epilogue. i still do think vickie’s not fully safe, even though she stayed behind with max. but going off of her staying behind, we finally have nancy, who’s no longer in any relationship with the boys (wooooo), and robin is finally in the same space as nancy and is without vickie around

also, i tried to like vickie and her and robin together. i really did but god, there is just so much that’s just… wrong. all they’ve really done together is lie, argue and get annoyed at one another. robin even explained it all to her, and yes, i know it sounds like a made-up fantasy story, but things had openly been happening for a little over a year, the ground split open and there was spores in the air, they all saw, so i find it insane that she couldn’t even entertain the fact that robin was telling the truth until after the demodog appeared.

this brings me to vickie insisting that robin was a drug addict and robin denying it several times, only for vickie to just keep going with that insane theory of hers (despite robin having had explained why she took the drugs). and then vickie saying it in front of the military while robin was being pulled away???? that was insane. robin was so openly annoyed by it all. the flopping on the bed because vickie just didn’t listen to her and also the throwing her head back when vickie was like “she’s in recovery!” robin was just about done with her and i feel bad for robin because vickie just doesn’t listen to her. in a way, it paralleled jonathan and nancy (though jonathan and nancy were at least less chaotic about it most of the time)

(robin and nancy actually listen to and try to understand each other and that is so so important)

and then when they’re all together, who does robin sit by on the couch, instead of standing with or sitting by her girlfriend??? the girl she’s been eye-fucking with since s4

i do also think nancy might be vecna’d if they’re truly bringing back barb’s body. and robin definitely knows nancy’s favorite song. like she knew holly’s favorite song without needing any details. and we know from one way or another that nancy and robin hang out a lot. my thought is robin will be the one to pull her out of the curse and they’ll have some heart to heart after that (as it usually goes with them and nancy almost dying). and i do think they’ll bond and comfort each other, especially if nancy tells robin about barb and robin finally reveals she used to be friends with barb as well

jonathan, we now know, HATES pink (so much so that he just gave her sweater to goodwill instead of giving it back to her??? that’s a whole other thing though). and robin is the only other character in the show who chooses to wear pink, like nancy (vickie doesn’t count because it’s the uniform) and she and nancy wear the same/similar shades of pink at the same time nancy and vickie parallel each other in the candy stripper dresses

nancy had such a lack of reaction to will coming out, but she looked like she was thinking hard about something. i really do think that’s not just placement and stuff, i think that was purposeful. especially with her being near robin in that moment

natalia and maya have been moving extremely interesting lately. maya always says to not take what she says completely seriously, and they’re under strict nda’s, so they literally can’t spoil anything in interviews, which means they’re probably to some extent lying because it does make the interviews more interesting to hypothetically talk about what you wanted rather than the love triangle talk. plus, they never even fully deny it either

this event last week, which i think is when the cast got to watch the finale episode together, outside the duffer brothers and the group pictures, the only two who paired to get photos together were natalia and maya. it makes it funnier knowing maya was busy and didn’t do interviews and then came back and only ever paired with nat

natalia has been saying nancy’s “trying new things” is also heavily queercoded in it’s context. even when the duffers say it when they confirm the breakup. she needs to figure things out and try new things

and then there’s natalia’s post from last night

not only did nat give maya photo credits but she also tagged her in the actual photo. now, when it’s charlie, nat tags him 99% of the time and i honestly don’t think that is charlie. it just doesn’t look like him. and i do find it interesting that she both have maya credits and then tagged her in the actual photo and then nobody else

i still think it’s either ronance endgame or they’re both bones, those are really the only two options, especially seeing as neither of them have epilogue photos at all. charlie has at least seen bts

if they go the ronance bones root i see it like this. if nancy dies first it’s to protect robin and if robin dies first, nancy is fighting tooth and nail to stop it and fails and then gets herself killed recklessly trying to avenge it

but i genuinely hope and believe it’ll end and they’ll be in boston or exploring some new place together as a couple or just platonically (that’s a win for us ronancers either way)

EDIT: when nancy and jonathan are having their moment and admitting things and nancy admits she needed space. jonathan then says “space to be with someone else”. and who was she paired with most of s4??? robin

[dyermenace]

st5 volume two spoilers below!!!

god where do i even begin with this one???

jonathan was so fucking childish??? still on the same insecure bullshit as volume one but then also fighting with nancy, airing out all their relationship problems IN THE UPSIDE DOWN and then he fucking pulled a manipulative tactic and tried to make it seem like she was the bad guy in that like she wasn’t understanding him??? while he’s the one still failing to understand her

robin’s whole dialog about telling steve was adorable but i still hate that they’re using her to push along will being comfortable with his queerness. i get it, but i’m still sick of girls being used to help men’s developments

steve failing to understand nancy’s grief in s2 and now dustin’s in s5 is so fucking wild. canon steve is really so different than fanon steve

(also rich of dustin to call out steve for chasing nancy like he wasn’t one of the sole reasons he began chasing after her again in s4)

shoutout to robin’s “it is hitting me like a whitney houston high note”. also screw everyone who acts like she isn’t one of the smartest people in the group, she’s a fucking genius

vickie pulling robin away from lucas??? and then despite robin explaining it all, she’s so insistent that robin’s a drug addict??? (i mean, i get it, it seems like a made up story but weird shit has been happening in that town openly for a year-ish so why would you maybe not believe her)

even though she apologized and they kinda made up i still don’t like her character or the ship (i’m so sorry i tried i swear. they’re just so mediocre and we shouldn’t have to settle for sapphic ships like that)

max woke up and i bawled my eyes out, genuinely

the duffers using jonathan and nancy almost dying to spew all the things they lied about to each other/didn’t know about one another was so???? that’s just such god awful writing i don’t even know how to dive into it properly. the only thing i even remotely enjoyed in the slightest was the un-proposal, but after that i’m just confused so if anyone wants to discuss feel free (lol)

robin sitting on the arm of the damn couch while nancy sits beside her AGAIN. insane lol

and just so i’m clear… robin’s with nancy and everyone in the upside down while vickie stayed back with max??? so in that one blurry ass photo of robin and others in the upside down it possibly is nancy beside her like i originally thought (i remember seeing this picture months ago)

also i’m really confused/intrigued by natalia’s recent post on instagram. her, maya and charlie being together during their last shoot. it scares me because it fits with them having no epilogue photos… this is what really gets me

update to one of my points: duffers confirmed nancy and jonathan broke up (THANK GOD). now i’m praying she and robin can head off to boston together

[dyermenace]

robin is so in love with nancy that she'll stand vickie up, she'll leave her shift at wsqk, drop anything she is doing. for her

nancy’s in love with robin and robin’s in love with nancy

this is not one-sided

(side note: i really wish we could’ve seen this on screen. this fight is so important)

[sweetronancer]

tumblr doesnt have a gc option because @dyermenace @whiteshoespinklaces @rockinrobin67 and i would be too powerful 🥹

[eskawrites]

thought:

what happened between the events of one way or another and season 5 to make Nancy go from “Robin is my preferred investigation partner, I know she has my back now and I trust her” to “Robin is in the station during crawls and not gonna be in the van or hunting demogorgons or going anywhere else that might run into trouble”

and how frustrated does Robin get because of it

[dyermenace]

i noticed this too after reading one way or another

my personal headcanon for this is nancy keeps robin at the station with her to try and protect her because if she loses robin that will push her fully over the edge

[anime97-99]

Nancy self-discovery journy

You can see it here: https://x.com/badpostnatalia/status/2001835451540213838/mediaViewer?currentTweet=2001835451540213838¤tTweetUser=badpostnatalia

Either is about not needing either Jonathan or Steve or that she is lesbian or bi (I believe she is more lesbian than bi).

But, Natalia literally says “trying new things” is so…

[dyermenace]

having no epilogue pics of nancy or robin and now the volume 2 trailer… they’re really gonna be bones

[dyermenace]

the duffers genuinely could’ve created one of the most beautiful and natural love stories in the show… i’m sick to my stomach.

this and the cut scene of robin admitting she’s falling in love with nancy. this and nancy saying “i got you” instead of “you got this”