( MADISON BAILEY | CISWOMAN | SHE/HER | TWENTY-ONE ) — — — it's just been another long week in boring - ass hawkins. isn't that right, MAXINE ‘MAX’ MAYFIELD ? shit, i guess they can't hear me over THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT by THE SMITHS playing through the headphones of their walkman. it looks like they're gonna be late for WORK as an ATTENDANT AT PALACE ARCADE. did you know MADMAX has been in hawkins for EIGHT YEARS ? yeah, their family and friends describe them as INTREPID, but i've seen them be INTRANSIGENT too ! i would also say they remind me of red liquorice wrappers crushed into jacket pockets, cassette tapes chewed up and rewound by pencil, dirt underneath bitten nails, sun-bleached wristbands fraying at the edges, but is that weird ? i guess nothing's too weird for this little town, huh ?
—— 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 + 𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒂 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐 : mentions of divorce, mentions of abuse, mentions of death, mentions of ptsd
after her parents’ divorce, max kept running away in hopes of finding her dad. clinging to the belief that he was the only person that might still want her. eventually, her mother moved them to hawkins, determined to play happy families with her stepfather, neil and his cruel, often unpredictable son, billy. max was thirteen, furious, and alone.
living with neil hargrove meant walking on eggshells. max feared her stepfather’s temper. the slamming doors, the raised voices and quickly learned to stay small and unnoticed. billy, too, scared her in his own way. his hostility was constant, violent, and unprovoked, and for a long time no one saw it but her.
when billy died, something in max cracked. she didn’t know how to grieve someone who had hurt her so badly and yet, in the end had tried to protect her. the guilt clings to her like smoke. it’s hard to breathe some days. though undiagnosed, max wrestles with ptsd symptoms: numbness, nightmares, emotional shutdowns etc.
her confrontation with vecna was the closest she’s ever come to dying. pulled into a waking nightmare built from her own grief and guilt, max only escaped by the skin of her teeth. the memory of floating, of her bones freezing mid-air, of her mind unravelling… still haunts her. sometimes she wonders if part of her never really made it back.
after graduating, max took up a job at palace arcade as an attendant. it’s loud, chaotic, and full of regulars who accept her for who she is. the noise helps drown things out. she’s good at it — managing scores, smack talk, and busted machines, but mostly she likes that it’s a world that she can control.
( NATALIA DYER | CISWOMAN | SHE/HER | TWENTY-FOUR ) — — — it's just been another long week in boring - ass hawkins. isn't that right, NANCY WHEELER ? shit, i guess they can't hear me over MY GIRL by THE TEMPTATIONS playing through the headphones of their walkman. it looks like they're gonna be late for WORK as a FREELANCE JOURNALIST. did you know NANCE has been in hawkins for JUST OVER A YEAR AFTER LEAVING FOR COLLEGE ? yeah, their family and friends describe them as SAGACIOUS, but i've seen them be OBSTINATE too ! i would also say they remind me of gunpowder residue sticking to slim fingers, lipstick smudged on a half-torn notepad names underlined twice in red ink, polaroids curled at the edges pinned beside bullet casings on a bedroom wall, but is that weird ? i guess nothing's too weird for this little town, huh ?
ted and karen nearly lost newborn baby nancy. she came out of the womb partially blue with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck and wasn't making any sounds. karen was frantic and screamed "what’s wrong with my baby?!" a fast thinking nurse grabbed the tiny baby girl who still had some pink color in her legs and feet, cut the cord immediately and ran her over to the warming bassinet. the nurse then gently did infant cpr. after a few puffs of air in her mouth, baby nancy coughed then opened her mouth and wailed, allowing her lungs to fill with air.
from the time she was five, she read the morning newspaper with ted. inspiring her love for the written word and journalism. it wasn’t until she joined the newspaper club in her sophomore year of high school that she considered journalism for her career, however.
nancy has always had a complicated, often confusing view of relationships. especially intimate relationships. while her parents individually were pretty attentive growing up, as the oldest child she was able to see the cracks in her parents marriage. which ultimately made her much more reserved when it came to exploring romantic relationships herself. she was strict with herself on crushes, dating and relationships until societal pressure dictated she was ready to start exploring that side of herself.
after her best friend, barb’s death, nancy began to deal with intense panic attacks. the only way she has found to ground herself is by gripping something cold — ice packs, sinks, cold drinks etc.
her internship at the hawkins post provided insight into the sexism that surrounded the field she was so passionate about. while she wasn’t deterred from pursuing it as a career — still adamant to go to college and study journalism, now that she’s back in hawkins, she refuses to work for them. choosing to find freelance work that she’s truly passionate about instead.
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