Moved to @firstcurse

[firstcurse-tbd]

❝  𝑵𝑶𝑾  𝑻𝑯𝑨𝑻  𝒀𝑶𝑼’𝑽𝑬  𝑺𝑬𝑬𝑵  𝑾𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑬  𝑰’𝑽𝑬  𝑩𝑬𝑬𝑵,  𝑰’𝑫  𝑳𝑰𝑲𝑬  𝑽𝑬𝑹𝒀  𝑴𝑼𝑪𝑯  𝑻𝑶  𝑺𝑯𝑶𝑾  𝒀𝑶𝑼  𝑾𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑬  𝑰  𝑨𝑴  𝑮𝑶𝑰𝑵𝑮.  ❞

Indie,  private  &  selective  portrayal  of  Henry  Creel,  aka  Vecnaof  Stranger  Things. Both  canon  compliant  &  headcanon  based  with  heavy  focus  on  AU  settings.  Freed  by  Ire.  18+  Only.  Please  make  sure  to  read  my  rules  before  interaction.

𝑪 𝑨 𝑹 𝑹 𝑫  ️

[firstcurse-a]

OH,  yeah,  I  FORGOT  to  mention  I’ve  remade  Henry’s  blog.  SAME URL  &  everything,  I  just  cleaned  things  up  &  changed  some  of  the  aesthetic  &  I’m  changing  some  tags. 

@firstcurse​

[firstcurse-a]

It's Sunday! Which means it's time for some love from Lulu!! Did you know that the person reading this is awesome? You didn't?? Well, buckle up because I'm about to drop some love on you! Not only are you awesome, but you're talented, creative and an all round wonderful jelly bean! Remember to take care of yourself and that it's okay to take a break, self care is important and so are you! Now go out there and smash it because you're a super star!!

Uno reverse, I love you ! 😭 ❤️

[firstcurse-a]

i am so so so sososososo glad that you picked up henry and hold him so carefully and so well. he is his whole character spectrum in your hands and it’s mesmerizing to watch you pry his elements apart and put them back together. you’re just so damn good at what you do, ire. keep up the amazing and thoroughly impressive work 💛

MFW  

[emmaduerrewatson]

JAMIE CAMPBELL BOWER as Peter/001 — Stranger Things (2016 - 2022), ‘‘The Massacre at Hawkins Lab’’

[firstcurse-a]

shy admirer here. your portrayal of vecna and henry is perfect and i love how much thought and insight put into him. i really enjoy reading your headcanons and i admire that you dont shy away from writing vecna as he is at all. your blog and your writing is beautiful and i love seeing you on my dash ♥️

Illegal  for  this  to  be  on  anon  but  thank  you  sm,  this  is  REALLY  nice  to  hear  all  things  considered  &  I  REALLY  wasn’t  expecting  this. I  appreciate  it  lots  &  lots. 

[bpdamn]

i have died a thousand deaths, cut me open and you‘ll find nothing but rotten remains of the child i used to be

[firstcurse-a]

                         @cleryc​​   SENT :   ❛ why don’t you just kill me ? ❜

Why  indeed.  It  was  surely  a  good  question.  One  that  remained  even  as  all  the  others  fell  away,  just  as  light  dissolved  shadow.  &  just  like  light  &  shadow,  the  answer  to  this  question  takes  refuge  from  the  light  underneath  an  obstruction  that  it  seems  even  Henry  himself  lacks  the  vision  to  see  through.  

So  why  didn't  he  kill  him ?  Why  was  he  alive ?  Through  the  dimensions  &  the  valleys  of  time,  they  had  become  bonded,  similar  souls,  melding  together  as  if  one  though  not  by  choice,  instead  by  some  dark  tether  of  fate  —  a  higher  power.  He's  drawn  toward  him,  step  by  ominous  step.  This  is  the  first  time  he's  seen  him  face  to  face.  Man  to  man.  Boy  to  monster.  

❝  Because  we  are  the  same,  you  and  I.  Once,  not  so  long  ago,  I  was  a  boy  —  I  was  a  boy  just  like  you. ❞   He  explains,  though  the  thought  may  have  been  hard  to  comprehend.  His  childhood  remains  in  memories,  lined  paper  scattered  across  the  floor,  smeared  in  pencil  &  crayon,  depicting  the  most  fantastical  things.  Robots,  aliens  &  dragons,  spiders  &  their  intricate  webs.  Innocence  &  wonder.  Humanity  now  in  ruins.  

❝  You  have  helped  me.  Don't  you  remember ?  We  see  with  the  same  eyes.  ❞

[firstcurse-a]

Heres  the  post  for  some  extra  verse  info. Will  be  added  to  the  carrd  for  extra  reference.  I  wanted  to  do  this  sooner  but  honestly  since  Henry’s  a  new  muse  to  me &  I’ve  been  kinda  just  getting  him  down  in  my  brain  & getting  the  courage  to  interact  with  more  people  I’ve  been  a  little  laggy  with  this  but  here  it  is  !  ALONG  CAME  A  SPIDER:  ESCAPE  AU This  is  my  main  AU  verse  in  which  Henry  is  able  to  escape  from  the  Lab.  Currently  it  comes  in  two  to  three  different  forms  due  to  different  plots  /  concepts  falling  under  the  one  Umbrella. Version  one:  Henry  escapes  from  the  lab  with  Eleven,  following  the  canon  of  the  past  with  the  exception  of  the  fact  that  Eleven  doesn’t  leave  the  storeroom  to  find  Henry  in  the  rainbow  room,  meaning  there  is  no  confrontation  between  them &  Henry  is  never  banished  to  the  upside  down.  After  killing & absorbing  002,  Henry  returns  to  the  storeroom  to  collect  Eleven  &  the  two  of  them  escape  into  Hawkins.  In  the  meantime,  a  gate  opens  in  the  lab  a  few  days  after  the  escape  of  Henry  &  Eleven,  possibly  due  Henry’s  massacre  of  the  other  subjects,  unknowingly  weaking  the  barrier  between  Hawkins  & the  UD. Typically  Henry  takes  Eleven  to  his  childhood  home  to  hide  out & makes  plans  to  contact  Kali,  008,  who  escaped  years  earlier.  Henry  plans  to  take  Eleven  &  meet  up  with  Kali  so  they  can  all  be  angry  experiments  ready  to  make  Anarchy &  get  revenge  on  the  people  who  hurt  them  together.  Eleven  ends  up  bumping  into  Mike  &  the  party,  & things  kind  of  work  the  same  way  as  season  1  canon  with  obvious  little  tweaks  added  to  account  for  Henry  being  on  the  loose  with  Eleven, &  Henry  kind  of  acting  like  her  older  brother  figure.  Instead  of  Eleven  ending  up  in  the  upside  down  she  decides  she  wants  to  remain  in  Hawkins  with  Mike.  While  Henry  isn’t  a  fan  of  this  he  ends  up  entrusting  her  to  Hopper,  giving  her  a  freedom  that  he  never  had  for  himself.  Henry  leaves  Hawkins  to  meet  up  with  Kali. S2  goes  the  same  way  as  canon,  with  El  finding  Kali  & her  group  which  now  includes  Henry.  He’s  glad  to  see  her  again  but  becomes  alarmed  to  discover  that  there's  something  going  on  in  Hawkins.  None  the  less,  he &  Kali  attempt  to  get  Eleven  to  stay  with  them  but  as  with  canon  Eleven  decides  she  has  a  duty  to  her  friends  &  leaves. As  for  where  Henry’s  at  during  s3,  I  leave  it  a  little  vague,  he  doesn’t  necessarily  have  to  have  a  part  in  s3,  but  I  do  have  ideas  that  could  tie  into  where  Henry  is  in  s4.   SO  FOR  S4 I  mentioned  earlier  I’ve  been  toying  with  the  idea  of  someone  else  being  in  the  place  of  “Vecna”  but  I’m  also  toying  with  the  idea  of  Henry  remaining  “Vecna”  just  not  exactly   as  he’s  known  in  the  canon,  which  is  probably  what  I’ll  go  with  bc  frankly  I  love  Vecna & I  don’t  love  the  idea  of  discarding  him  entirely.

As  far  as  my  headcanons  go  Henry’s  always  been  connected  to  the  upside  down,  he’s  avoided  it  per  this  canon  but  he  knows  he  has  a  link &  the  reappearance  of  the  mind-flayer  entity  has  made  him  deeply  curious,  given  he  has  known  that  thing  as  a  child.  Henry  leaves  Kali  to  go  after  Eleven  in  S3  the  moment  they  manage  to  escape  the    police,  returning  to  Hawkins  but  instead  of  being  able  to  meet  up  with  Eleven,  Henry  is  lured  into  the  upside  down.  He  is  ultimately  trapped  there  with  the  closing  of  the  gate. Henry  remains  in  the  upside  down  similar  to  canon  &  he  finds  the  mind-flayer’s  full  form.  In  this  verse  obviously  Henry  doesn’t  give  it  its  shape  but  rather  its  always  kind  of  had  that  spider-like  shape,  which  it  communicated  to  Henry  over  20  years  prior.  Instantly,  Henry  becomes  invested  in  this  thing  that  he  has  always  known & the  link-up  between  the  two  of  them  occurs,  similarly  to  how  Billy  was  “infected”  in  s3  but  despite  being  “infected’  Henry  isn’t  exactly  a  mindless  slave  to  the  mind-flayer,  like  in  canon,  his  relationship  with  it  is  more  symbiotic,  due  to  Henry’s  powers.  

Henry  resumes  his  role  very  similar  to  s4′s  canon  as  a  frightening  force  that  is  allied  with  the  mind-flayer  & is  targeting  people  in  Hawkins,  killing  them  with  the  purpose  of  opening  the  gate  to  release  the  mind-flayer &  reign  hell  on  the  world,  convinced  that  this  is  what  he  has  to  do  & this  is  key  to  changing  the  world  for  the  better  as  he  has  been  aspiring  to  do  for  a  long  time  now.  So  events  of  S4  can  still  be  canon  here  but  Henry  is  more  recognizable  as  “”himself””  & there's  less  mystery  surrounding  who  he  is,  but  perhaps  more  STICKY  FEELINGS  of  “”betrayal””  between  him  & Eleven,  or  perhaps  similar  feelings  but  from  a  different  angle  if  we  stick  with  the  idea  of  Henry  still  becoming  “Vecna.”

Version  Two:  This  version  is  very  similar  but  Henry  escapes  on  his  own,  rather  than  with  Eleven,  meaning  he  has  no  part  in  most  of  the  early  goings  on  in  Hawkins.  He  can  still  become  Vecna  in  a  similar  manner  to  the  ideas  I  have  for  version  one,  but  thats  kinda  plot  dependent.  This  version  of  the  verse  exists  just  in  case  so  people  don’t  have  to  get  all  tangled  up  in  all  the  other  nonsense  I  wrote  +  we   don't  really  have  to  do   much  plotting  or  like  deciding  on  previous  dynamics,  again  not  wanting  to  force  anyone  into  anything.  So  Henry  can  turn  up  as  another  escaped  subject  like  Eleven  or  he  can  still  turn  up  as  the scary  guy  helping  the  mind-flayer  break  into  the  human  dimension & a  former  Hawkins  test  subject,   as  is  the  case  with  season  4′s  canon.   To  explain  the  death  of  the  other  test-subjects  for  version  two:  After  Henry  escaped  Brenner  used  the  other  test  subjects  to  try  &  locate  him.  However,  instead  of  finding  Henry  they  found  something  else.  Brenner  decided  to  harness  the  powers  of  his  most  promising  subject,  002,  to  attempt  to  “contact”  the  thing  he  found.  002  is  able  to  make  contact  but  is  traumatized  by  whatever  he  sees.  However,  before  Brenner  is  able  to  force  him  to  try  again  or  get  any  decent  info  out  of  him,  a  gate  opens  in  the  lab  &  SOMETHING  proceeds  to  massacre  the  other  subjects,  with  Eleven  being  the  soul  survivor,  who  fought  off  the  unseen  force  &  closed  the  gate,  though  she  doesn’t  remember  what  happened.  Benner,  being  the  thick  bitch  he  is,  proceeds  to  lie  to  Eleven,  making  her  think  she  murdered  the  other  subjects,  &  tries  to use  Eleven  to  make  contact  AGAIN  but  this  time  as  with  canon  the  Demogorgon  comes  though.   All  that  will  probably  be  left  vague  though  but  THOSE  ARE  THE  IDEAS  if  anyone  wants  to  go  into  it. CURRENTLY  I’m  writing  a  thread  in  this  verse  with  @/strcngergirls  that has  Henry  escape  with  Francine  ( 006 )   rather  than  on  his  own,  which  I  might   put  under  the  version  two  umbrella  or  treat  it  as  a  third  version,  because  I’m  not  sure  where  its  going  yet !

[unfollowfriday]

if you ever feel stupid or weak or powerless, just remember that I, am not. And I am out there, very dangerous and I am looking for you. Good luck

[stream]

Stranger Things S04E04 “Dear Billy”

[firstcurse-a]

you offer an interesting perspective on henry and eleven that I didn't notice before. you might be right that he wasn't really lying to her.

[  Cont.  from  this  ask  ]

Thanks  anon !  Being  fr,  I  seriously  don’t  think  he  lied  to  her  about  anything  &  I  think  the  “You  tricked  me”  scene  could  possibly  be  misinterpreted   because  the  more  I  think  about  it  the  more  I  wonder  if  Eleven  wasn’t  actually  referring  to  “helping”  Henry  in  the  first  place  as  it  seems  the  fandom  has  assumed  &  rather  she  meant  it  more  as  he  told  her  to  stay  in  the  store-room  while  he  found  a  way  out  only  to  instead  go  on  an  unhinged  murderous  rampage.  

Because  before  that  point  Henry  doesn’t  seem  to  have  lied  or  manipulated  at  all.  He  really  tried  to  get  her  out,  he  didn’t  seem  to  have  initially  intended  to  escape  himself.  Leaving  her  in  the  store room  while  he  “searches  for  an  exit”  is  the  ONE  thing  that  it  seems  Henry  was  a  little  untruthful  about,  but  in  saying  that  there  seems  to  be  fair  time  skip  between  Henry  leaving  Eleven  in  the  store room  &  Eleven  finding  him  in  the  rainbow  room  so  we  have  no  idea  what  happened  in-between.   ( &  it  really  feels  like  something  did  to  set  Henry  off  like  that.  Maybe  some  of  the  other  orderlies  &  guards  tried  to  apprehend  him,  given  there  is  so  many  more  dead  when  Eleven  leaves  the  store room  but  thats  another  thing...  Henry’s  killed  at  LEAST  20  by  the  time  she  leaves  the  store-room.  Didn’t  she  hear  the  commotion ?  It  feels  odd  she  wouldn’t  know  something  was  going  down.  Maybe  she  did  but  as  a  nine  year  old  girl  she  was  afraid  &  just  thought  he  was  handling  it.  Which  he  sure  fucking  was  but  she  didn’t  think  he  would  hurt  Papa  &  the  other  test  subjects.  Not  sure  what  I  think  about  this  but  I’ve  mentioned  before  Henry  did  have  a  reason  for  the  massacre  that  does  make  sense,  regardless.  I’m  not  saying  this  to  excuse  him  but  just  to  explain  that  from  his  POV  it  works  &  doesn’t  come  from  a  place  of  “I’m  just  pure  evil  &  I  wanna  kill  some  kids”  or  anything  ) 

Tbh,  Henry  doesn’t  seem  to  lie,  or  at  least  its  not  something  he  has  a  habit  of  -  he  hates  lies,  actually.  It  might  be  hard  for  some  people  to  come  at  but  truly  it  seems  to  me  that  everything  he’s  said,  even  as  Vecna,  rings  completely  true. 

A  good  example  is  when  Eleven  tells  him  he’s  not  the  monster  &  that  Brenner  turned  him  into  “Vecna”,  so  to  speak,  &  he  tells  her  no  SHE  did.  Like  its  a  punch  in  the  gut  to  hear  &  not  entirely  fair  to  her  feelings  but  this  is  technically  true  &  he’s  not  out  to  spare  anyone's  feelings,  he’s  out  to  take  ass  &  kick  names. 🤷  (  I  also  think  he’d  prefer  the  “honor”  of  “shaping”  him  to  have  gone  to  someone  like  Eleven  who  he  actually  likes  as  opposed  to  Brenner  who  did  in  fact  use  &  abuse  him  almost  all  his  life  but  thats  another  discussion  lol ) 

[firstcurse-a]

Wasn't it implied in s2 that Terry was assaulted by Brenner himself or another scientist who was present in the facility? It's implausible and illogical that she was pregnant when she entered the program, and she couldn't have gotten pregnant via an outside boyfriend if she was in the facility when eleven was conceived. I also read Henry as far more of a groomer influence than any kind of father.

[  Cont.  from  this  ask  ] TBH,  I  don’t  remember  a  lot  of  the  earlier  seasons  super  clearly  but  that  would  not  surprise  me  honestly.  It  could  lend  to  the  theory  that  Terry  was  taken  advantage  of  during  her  time  in  the  project  which  is  just  skin  crawlie,  but  again,  wouldn’t  be  something  I’d  put  past  the  canon  because  it  just  fits  with  everything  else.  I  think  the  part  of  the  theory  that  makes  it  most  believable  to  me  is  Eleven’s  powers.  Like,  as  far  as  canon  goes  it  seems  Eleven’s  powers  are  “explained”  by  Terry’s  participation  in  the  experimentation  from  Brenner  -  but  since  Eleven’s  powers  seem  to  be  so  much  stronger  &  natural  it  would  also  make  sense  if  they  weren't  actually  “artificially”  induced.  Like  there  is  no  reason  for  Eleven’s  potential  to  have  been  so  great,  equal  to Henry’s,  if  they  were  artificially  induced  just  like  what  seems  to  be  the  case  with  the  other  subjects  who  were  very  much  shown  as  “inferior”.  She  wouldn’t  be  a  stand-out  as  she  was.  It  feels  like  there  should  be  a  “reason”  for  why  Henry  &  Eleven  stand  apart  from  the  others.  As  for  Henry,  I’m  not  sure  I  understand  father-ness  the  same  way  as  others  if  that's  the  case.  A  father  can  be  a  lot  of  things  &  to  be  fair  if  we  define  a  father  as  an  older  person  who  teaches,  protects  &  cares  about  someone  else  then  Henry  actually  did  hit  those  marks  to  me.  He  wouldn’t  have  known  it  &  I  don’t  think  Eleven  ever  actually  being  his  daughter  crossed  his  mind  once,  but  he  did  empathize  with  her  deeply  as  a  child  who  he  could  see  himself  in. 

I  guess  it  really  comes  down  to  whether  or  not  you  believe  Henry  was  just  trying  to  manipulate  her.  I  personally  don’t  believe  he  was  &  as  far  as  canon  goes,  I  think  it  makes  more  sense  that  he  wasn’t  -  or  at  least  his  moments  of  manipulation  were  not  as  self  serving  as  people  think.  I  think  there's  a  lot  of  evidence  for  this  but  particularly  here  are  some  key  moments  for  me:  when  we  see  Henry  is  “punished”  for  stepping  in  &  trying  to  help  Eleven,  Henry’s  reaction  to  the  punishment  of  Two,  Henry’s  reaction  to  Eleven  offering  to  help  him  in  return  &  the  scenes  with  Eleven  &  Brenner  in  “Papa.”  

Like,  for  me,  there  had  to  be  a  trigger  for  Henry  suddenly  escalating  in  his  efforts  to  help  Eleven.  If  you  think  about  it  he’s  been  there  for  twenty  years,  he’s  presumably  had  casual  contact  with  Eleven  for  about  nine  of  them  (  her  whole  life )  &  while  he  might  have  always  felt  a  sense  of  kinship  with  her  he  only  started  going  out  of  his  way  to  help  her  to  the  point  of  risking  his  own  safety  at  a  specific  point  in  time.  Henry  claims  the  trigger  was  that  he  over-heard  Brenner  &  his  associates  planning  to  “allow”  the  other  children  to  attack  Eleven  &  potentially  kill  her.  Whether  this  was  because  Brenner  saw  potential  in  Eleven  during  their  1  on  1  sessions  or  because  he  thought  she  was  falling  behind  isn’t  clear,  it  could  have  been  either. 

But  we  see  this  did  actually  happen.  Henry  can’t  have  been  lying  about  that.  Its  noted  the  cameras  were  mysteriously  turned  off  during  the  time  Eleven  was  being  attacked. 

 ( side  note,  I  also  think  the  cameras  being  off  had  to  do  with  Henry’s  own  assault.  He  was  taken  into  one  of  the  test  rooms  &  had  the  hell  beat  out  of  him  while  Brenner  watched.  Why ?  What  where  they  doing  that  for,  it  couldn’t  have  been  ethical  or  something  you  want  to  record  for  everyone  to  see.  But  what  did  Henry  say  or  do  that  made  Brenner  decide  he  needed  a  pummeling ?  Obviously  he  interfered  in  a  way  Brenner  didn’t  like.  He  might  have  even  spoke  against  Brenner’s  plan  to  let  the  other  subjects  ambush  her.  They  may  have  been  beating  him  so  he  couldn’t  intervene.  It  adds  up. ) Like  while  Henry  was  going  through  this,  Eleven  suddenly  gets  jumped  by  the  other  test  subjects  who  were  let  out  of  their  rooms  for  some  reason.  Henry  can’t  be  lying  because  all  of  that  is  suspicious  &  wrong  on  so  many  levels.   Again,  it  adds  up  completely  with  what  he  says.  Eleven  didn’t  fight  back  and  survived  the  initial  attack,  &  Brenner  “punished”  Two,  further  exasperating  Two’s  hate  for  &  competition  with  Eleven  which  could  easily  escalate  things  further.  Henry  mentions  Brenner  was  manipulating  the  other  subjects  so  its  likely  Two  was  receiving  signals  to  encourage  him  to  hurt  Eleven  outside  of  just  being  shown  up  by  her.  I  completely  believe  Eleven  was  at  risk  of  being  attacked  again  &  possibly  killed.  

The  canon  seems  to  show  that  Henry  tried  to  guide  her  toward  success  because  he  empathized  with  her  as  a  lonely  child  who  was  mocked  &  isolated  from  others  which  we  saw.  He  straight  up  tells  her  she  reminds  him  of  himself.  We  know  Eleven  is  mostly  on  her  own.  She’s  shy  &  she  lacks  confidence.  The  other  children  make  fun  of  her.  We  saw  all  that.   Henry  empathized  with  this  &  wanted  to  help  her  with  her  powers  but  he  realized  this  was  a  mistake  because  Brenner  saw  the  test  subjects  as  lab-rats  first  &  humans  never.  No  one  was  exempt  to  this,  no  matter  how  talented  they  were.  Showing  talent  didn’t  mean  safety  &  Brenner  makes  a  point  of  emphasizing  this  in  the  scene  where  he  “punishes”  Two.  You  can  see  Henry’s  reaction  to  this  is  one  of  fear,  discomfort  &  concern.  This  resonates  badly  with  Henry,  probably  for  a  lot  of  reasons  but  we  def  get  to  see  that  reaction  out  of  him  for  a  reason.  It  backs  up  a  lot  of  things,  particularly  what  he  said  about  wanting  to  help  Eleven  but  only  making  it  worse.  

Test  scenes  previous  to  this  we  DID  see  Henry  helping  Eleven  &  if  you  pay  attention  to  Brenner  whenever  he  is  in  the  room  with  Henry,  Brenner  is  noticing  Henry’s  “friendship”  with  Eleven  as  well  &  as  a  result  he  starts  taking  an  interest  in  Eleven  himself.  

So  to  me  this  means  Brenner  saw  the  potential  in  Eleven  thanks  to  Henry  &  his  approach  was  to  force  more  out  of  her  so  he  could  study  it  further.  This  doesn’t  seem  off  to  me  with  all  of  Brenner’s  other  behaviors  &  the  characters  general  MO.  

&  as  a  side  note  I  think  its  interesting  that  in  the  scene  where  the  children  are  undergoing  testing  Brenner  gives  conflicting  advice  to  what  Henry  gives  when  it  comes  to  harnessing  their  powers.  Henry  tells  Eleven  to  use  emotion,  Brenner  advises  against  it  but  off  tangent  a  little,  I  plan  to  kinda  go  over  that  bc  I  think  it  links  a  little  to  my  theory  about  the  mind-flayer  but  for  now  I  think  it  empathizes  how  Brenner’s  approach  to  guiding  the  children  with  their  powers  was  very  clinical,  meaning  he’d  see  nothing  wrong  with  creating  a  stressful / high  pressure  environment  to  force  a  subject  to  react  in  a  way  that  might  draw  those  power’s  out  further  for  his  own  goals.  He  was  a  psychiatrist  &  a  scientist  after  all.  That  was  ahead  of  everything  else.  

But  anyway,  Henry  literally  risked  his  life  &  wellbeing  to  help  Eleven.  He  escalated  from  just  reassuring  her  &  giving  her  tips  &  standing  up  for  her,  to  full-blown  trying  to  break  her  out  of  the  facility.  Which  are  the  other  key  parts  in  figuring  out  whether  Henry  was  always  just  manipulating  her  or  he  was  genuinely  trying  to  save  her  like  he  says,  imo. 

I  mean  aside  from  Henry’s  own  reaction  of  hurt  &  confusion  when  Eleven  accuses  him  of  tricking  her  which  I  think  is  also  something  to  consider  and  that  seems  to  be  overlooked  to  me.  Like  why  did  he  react  with  such  hurt / confusion  if  he’s  an  emotionless  monster  who  planned  all  of  that ?  Wouldn’t  his  reaction  to  this  accusation  be  more  of  a  “lol  u  got  me”  instead  if  that  were  the  case ?    

Henry  literally  takes  Eleven  to  a  place  she  could  escape  &  sends  her  on  her  way.  He  doesn’t  try  to  stop  her,  he  reassures  her  that  she  would  be  okay  &  not  to  be  afraid.  If  Eleven  never  offered  to  help  him  return  what  would  he  have  done ?  Stopped  her  &  told  her  not  to  go ?  Literally  all  Eleven  had  to  do  was  say  “thanks”  &  crawl  into  the  tunnel  as  Henry  instructed.  That  seems  to  be  a  huge  gamble  to  take  if  this  was  all  a  super  carefully  planned  manipulation  &  all  he  planned  to  do  was  use  her  to  facilitate  his  own  escape.

Eleven  has  a  good  heart  &  she  assumed  Henry  had  to  leave  with  her  because  he  was  in  extreme  danger  himself,  which  is  the  other  thing.  Henry  had  no  way  to  know  Eleven  saw  him  being  tortured  which  is  what  ultimately  swayed  her  decision  to  help  him  back.  He  doesn’t  make  it  about  him  though,  he  makes  it  about  helping  her,  its  Eleven’s  idea  based  on  what  she  saw  to  help  him  in  return,  something  Henry  didn’t  know  about  until  he  had  already  put  HER  escape  plan  in  motion.  

&  of  course  he  takes  her  offer  to  help  him  because  why  wouldn’t  he ?  Theres  no  reason  he  wouldn’t  jump  at  the  offer  when  given  to  him  but  there's  also  no  way  he  would  know  how  she  would  react. 

 Like  I  said  all  she  had  to  do  was  say  thanks  &  crawl  into  the  tunnel.  Its  an  insane  gamble  to  take  if  it  was  all  just  for  his  own  means  imo.  Further,  his  reaction  to  the  offer  came  off  to  me  as  one  of  surprise  but  also  an  extreme  giddy  sense  of  elation  to  finally  be  presented  with  a  way  out  of  that  nightmare  for  himself.  Something  I  really  think  he  had  probably  given  up  hope  of  until  that  moment.  

For  me,  almost  every  single  thing  Henry  said  to  Eleven  rings  true.  From  his  monologue  about  how  she  was  nothing  but  a  animal  to  Brenner  &  that  he  had  saved  her  by  doing  what  he  did,  to  him  telling  her  he  was  glad  she  was  born  &  that  he  believes  in  her.  It  really  seems  to  me  that  everything  Henry  did  he  did  to  help  her  just  like  he  said.  Any  manipulations  in  Henry’s  actions  seems  quite  minor  &  well  meaning  in  the  grand  scheme  of  things.  

Honestly,  in  a  lot  of  ways  Henry  parallels  Brenner.  They  are  extremely  similar  in  their  behaviors  but  I  think  Henry  becomes  an  inverted  parallel  of  Brenner  as  a  twist  here  due  to  his  intentions  being  much  more  genuine  &  benevolent  than  Brenner's  actually  were.  

&  I  think  the  scenes  in  the  ep  “Papa”  emphasize  this. Initially,  Eleven  believes  Henry  is  the  monster.  She  was  so  young  &  at  the  time  of  their  confrontation  Brenner  &  the  other  test  subjects  were  the  only  family  she  knew.  She  rejected  the  truth  Henry  told  her  about  Brenner  not  really  caring  about  her  but  in  every  experience  she’s  had  since  then  she  starts  to  realize  maybe  this  was  true  even  if  she  doesn’t  want  to  at  first.  In  the  episode  she  initially  accuses  Henry  of  being  the  monster,  she’s  even  angry  &  confused  as  to  why  Brenner  would  allow  someone  like  Henry  to  be  around  the  children  in  the  first  place,  but  throughout  the  ep  this  thought  process  breaks  down  &  she  begins  to  see  through  all  Brenner’s  gaslighting  &  lies  &  excuses,  &  starts  to  believe  that  no,  Henry  wasn’t  “the  monster,”  at  all,  Brenner  was.  Brenner  was  the  only  “monster”. 

Henry  was  ultimately  right  about  everything  like  it  or  not.  &  Eleven  directly  tells  Henry  that  he  isn't  the  monster  in  the  piggyback  episode.  The  big  tragedy  is  this  realization  &  validation  has  come  far  too  late  to  reach  Henry  now  because  overall  Henry’s  now  a  supernatural  terror  whose  on  an  absolute  mission  &  Eleven’s  still  a  confused  child  who  has  stepped  up  from  being  a  lab-rat  to  a  super-hero  &  it  turns  out  that's  not  the  upgrade  everyone  wants  to  think  it  is.

[firstcurse-a]

wait whats the theory for henry being 11s dad?

Read-more  &  trigger  warning because  its  dark  &  fucked  up.

Oof  anon  this  has  cursed  my  life,   but  like  yeah  theres  a  pretty  popular  &  scarily  convincing  theory  in  the  fandom  that  Henry  could  be  El’s  biological  father.  You  could  probably  find  it  if  you  google  it  but  VERY  BASCIALLY:  El’s  dad  is  kinda  missing  from  the  picture.  He’s  suppose  to  be  some  random  guy  Terry  was  dating  beforehand  &  who  died  during  the  Vietnam  war.  

Terry  was  undergoing  a  lot  of  experiments  with  Dr  Brenner  for  the  whole  MK-ultra  thing  &  at  some  point  during  these  experiments  or  after,  she  comes  to  find  out  she’s  pregnant  which  she  had  no  idea  about  before  going  into  the  experiments.  The  theory  goes  to  explain  Eleven’s  innate  psychic  powers  by  basically  saying  that  Eleven  is  Henry’s  daughter  &  some  really  gross  shit  happened  at  the  hands  of  Brenner’s  facility  to  Henry  &  Terry  which  both  are  unaware  of. Terry  being  artificially  inseminated  against  her  will  /  knowledge  &  obviously  Henry  being  a  donor  also  against  his  will  &  likely  against  his  knowledge,  hence  creating  Eleven  &  Terry  just  assuming  she  must  have  fallen  pregnant  to  Andrew  Rich.  the  guy  who  she  was  dating  before  he  was  drafted  to  ‘Nam.  Dr  Brenner  swoops  in  &  literally  kidnaps  El  the  moment  she  is  born.  Terry  wakes  up  to  find  that  its  been  officially  reported  that  she  had  a  miscarriage  but  this  isn’t  true  so Terry  spends  the  next  few  years  trying  to  call  out  the  coverup  of  her  child’s  kidnapping  &  sue  Brenner  but  to  no  avail  before  she  hunts  Brenner  down  &  attempts  to  get  El  back  by  force  but  she’s  caught  &  Brenner  effectively  renders  her  permanently  catatonic  by  putting  her  through  intense  electroshock  therapy  as  punishment.  There's  also  an  alternative  version  that  says  Terry  &  Henry  could  have  had  a  relationship  during  her  time  as  one  of  Brenner’s  “patients”  /  test  subjects  but  thats  very,  very  unlikely,  given  Henry  only  knows  of  her  as  “the  strange  woman.”  SO  WHILE  HE  KNEW  OF  HER  &  he  KNEW  she  was  El’s  actual  mother,  its  unlikely  he  had  any  actual  relationship  with  her,  particularly  an  intimate  one.  ( &  also  if  that  were  the  case  Terry  probably  wouldn’t  have  been  so  quick  to  think  the  baby  was  Andrews ) 

The  theory  basically  talks  about  &  explains  the  “inconsistencies”  with  El’s  birth  in  “canon,”  the  fact  she  was  born  with  VERY  strong  psychic  powers  just  like  Henry  which  is  actually  not  common,  the  fact  Eleven  was  always  set  apart  from  the  other  child  test  subjects,  Brenner  taking  particular  interest  in  El  in  a  way  that  seems  unlike  all  the  others  outside  of  Henry  himself,  HENRY  also  taking   personal  interest  in  El  because  he  thought  they  were  kindred  somehow  &  he  could  see  so  much  of  himself  in  her,  etc,  &  a  ton  of  other  similarities  in  the  two  of  them  &  some  little  other  things  that  could  indicate  this  is  canon  like  when  Hopper  talks  about  how  “We’re  hardwired  to  reject  our  fathers.”  etc.  THERES  A  LOT  &  its  so  fucked  up  but  it  actually  makes  so  much  sense  &  would  not  be  outside  of  the  realms  of  possibility  for  the  canon  &  instead  sort  of  fits  right  in. 

[100493503004422]

I could be better but I'm considering becoming worse

[pennywises]

Jamie Campbell Bower as 001 → Stranger Things S4E7: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab.  

[firstcurse-a]

? ? ? : / / Strcngergirls

Nancy couldn’t seem to remember how she had gotten here. She remembers being around a campfire, the smell of smoke and burning embers filling her nose as the night air nipped at her skin. She remembers sitting with Steve and two girls named Claudette and Kate, and talking about.. Something. The memories get hazy from there and she’s left with a sense of deja vu. The small pistol she had strapped to her waist was gone, so were her car keys, and instead she was left with a rusty key that she had never seen before. The key was surprisingly light for its size, almost ghostly, and around its base was what looked like an antique wedding ring of some sort. Everything felt so.. strange. So off-putting.

Wherever she was, wherever she had managed to end up, it didn’t look like anywhere she had been before. She had seen the terrifying underside of Hawkins and knew all too well what that looked like. That much she seemed to remember, but this place held an entirely different type of eeriness. A heavy feeling of dread pressed into her, seeping into her bones and settling in her marrow like a deep chill. Steve was nowhere to be found and neither were the guitarist nor the botanist she remembers meeting. She was alone and painfully aware of her surroundings, despite the heavy fog that enveloped the landscape. Every hair stood up straight and her skin prickled with the sense of impending doom.

The gloom was dense, and she could hardly make out the shapes only a few feet in front of her. Trees and rocks scattered about, but no sign of her friends. But amidst the tenebrosity and stillness, she could make out the low mechanical humming of what she only assumed was a vehicle. Nancy imagined a nice couple with an RV camping out in the wilderness– a rescue, she thinks– and it sparks hope in her mind, so she moves towards it. If she can find someone who knows where she is or what happened, maybe she can find Steve and find a way home. 

Her footsteps echo loudly in her ears, each crackling of a twig and crunching of autumn leaves seemed deafening in the void of blackness. A murder of crows screeched and flapped their wings in a frenzy as she slowly crept closer and closer to the sound. 

Through the trees, however, she sees a faint light. Its glow is muffled by the haze but she can tell that it’s definitely there. This is no mirage. And as she inches closer, she realizes that it’s some sort of generator— not a car not camper; no signs of life. Her heart sinks for a moment. She’s alone again, but there’s still a glimmer of hope in her heart. The generator provided light and it was better than being in the darkness. 

Nancy stepped into the light, expecting a warm glow to ease her nerves, but instead of feeling safe she felt more like an animal on display. She had a spotlight on her and she felt far too vulnerable. Being stationary wasn’t good anyway, she tells herself and continues forward until her eyes make out the figure of something, someone. She stops abruptly but does not call out, instead she watches and waits for movement. 

No  matter  how  dark,  cold  or  lonely,  it  could  never  be  worse  than  where  he  had  just  come  from.  He  tells  himself  this  as  he's  spurned  forward  toward  the  sound  of  what  he  would  believe  to  be  footfalls  in  this  strange  misty  terrain.  The  chill  in  the  air  should  have  disquieted  him,  &  made  his  blood  run  cold,  but  instead,  it  seems  to  have  had  the  opposite  effect.  Like  an  exhilarating  slash  of  cool  water  on  a  hot  summer's  day,  he  couldn't  help  but  feel  excited,  refreshed  &  somehow  optimistic  about  what  he  couldn't  say.    

His  surroundings,  for  a  moment,  made  him  think  of  the  woods  surrounding  his  childhood  home;  the  rustling  of  the  bushes  &  the  crunching  of  the  leaves  signalling  the  approach  of  a  woodland  creature,  followed  by  the  creek  of  the  old  chair  his  father  used  to  sit  in  night  after  night,  rifle  in  hand.  He  found  it  amusing  that  his  father  thought  there  to  be  a  demon  hiding  out  in  the  darkness  &  brandished  a  gun  against  it  as  if  mere  bullets  would  bring  it  to  its  end.  

Unbeknownst  to  Victor,  his  son  was  the  "demon"  he  feared.  The  one  who  lurked  in  the  wilderness  &  mutilated  the  animals.  

Animals  that  his  father  would  no  doubt  shoot  or  bludgeon  when  they  turned  up  in  the  various  traps  set  around  the  perimeters  of  the  yard.  He  remembers  his  family  in  pieces,  their  hypocrisies,  their  fallacies  &  their  secrets.  When  his  father  killed  the  animals,  they  were  nothing  more  than  "pests",  but  when  they  turned  up  dead  by  any  other  means,  they  were  hapless  woodland  animals  tragically  butchered  by  an  "evil"  force.    

Heading  toward  the  movements,  he  wondered  what  he  would  find.  A  rabbit ?  A  squirrel ?  Or  maybe  a  deer ?  He's  almost  surprised  to  find  none  of  the  above;  instead,  he  sets  sights  on  a  girl  standing  out  in  the  darkness,  though,  by  the  look  on  her  face,  she  could  pass  for  any  startled  prey.    

❝  Hm,  you're  no  rabbit.  ❞  He  spoke  aloud  against  the  dark  silence,  sounding  almost  apologetic  &  maybe  even  slightly  disappointed;  then  again,  he  wasn't  sure  what  he  would  do  with  a  rabbit.  The  whole  situation  suddenly  felt  a  little  silly  &  suddenly  he  wondered  what  a  girl  was  doing  out  here ?  &  once  again  where  here  was.  Something  tells  him  to  edge  closer,  just  as  if  she  really  were  a  rabbit  &  he  was  not  a  man  but  a  hungry  fox.  But  he  wills  the  sudden  thought  from  his  mind  for  now.