( BENJAMIN WADSWORTH | CIS-MAN | HE/HIM | TWENTY-TWO ) — — — it's just been another long week in boring - ass hawkins. isn't that right, GARETH EMERSON ? shit, i guess they can't hear me over LOVE BITES by JUDAS PRIEST playing through the headphones of their walkman. it looks like they're gonna be late for WORK at RADIO SHACK. did you know GRIZZ has been in hawkins for SEVENTEEN YEARS ? yeah, their family and friends describe them as CREATIVE, but i've seen them be SELF-DESTRUCTIVE too ! i would also say they remind me of neon gas station lights on wet asphalt, liquorice rolling papers, skinned knees, sweat running into your eyes during a drum solo, leaning tight into corners astride a motorbike, briefly defying gravity. but is that weird ? i guess nothing's too weird for this little town, huh ? — — —
pinterest
name : gareth jason emerson
nicknames : grizz, gar, gar-bear, grizzly-adams
age : twenty-two
pronouns : he/him
sexuality : bisexual
birthday : august 30th
birthplace : hawkins, indiana
family : jolene emerson (mother), graham emerson (father), whitney emerson (y. sister), archie emerson † (y. brother)
tattoos & piercings : septum and tongue pierced though mostly hides these unless he’s partying in indianapolis or chicago or with the freaks. inner bicep piece of a black dragon curled around a great sword, roman numerals of archie & whitney’s birthdays on his left wrist, a tiny banana between his pointer finger on the right hand for monkey, his dog. a few ugly stick and pokes and some newer ones that are way less ugly.
aesthetics : room temperature pizza, spending half your pay check on polaroid film, a wave of good aftershave, headbanging until your neck feels like it’ll snap, letting your little sister paint your nails, engine oil in denim, love bites by judas priest playing faintly from a pair of headphones, dappled sunlight through forest leaves, sweat in your eyes, broken drumsticks, slinging your arm round the neck of your friend who can’t stop laughing, purple red bruises blooming like a valentines bouquet across your ribs, lovingly restoring old vinyl in the garage, the cold brush of a chain dangling from your lover’s neck against your racing pulse, smashing your fist into concrete until the knuckles split, the scent of old paper, cracked spines and well loved books.
never worn a matching pair of socks in his life, gareth liked garage sale paperbacks, pizza rolls and not much else. back in the day, the first five or six years of gareth’s miserable existence, the family had had a nice ranch style place by the woods but then his dad lost his job and they lost the house. from then on the family were usually too on top of one another, grizz always seeming to end up underfoot.
rock and roll’s the devil’s work, obviously. has soundproofed part of their small basement to practice drumming without getting yelled at.
[family death cw] though he never talks about it at all any more, about twelve years ago grizz’s five year old little brother drowned in lake tippecanoe when his dad briefly took his eyes off them. this kind of tore the family up. his mom left when grizz was fourteen, leaving a wad of cash in an envelope in his dresser and asking him to promise to be a ‘good boy’ until she came back. still waiting.
got a job the second he could during high school and has stayed employed ever since, though bounced around a fair bit.
[child abuse cw] his dad rarely goes a couple weeks without spiralling into a rage and physically attacking grizz which has been the same since his sophomore year, he’s just about to try and move out and find his own place after saving for a few years out of high school but he doesn’t want to leave his sixteen year old sister in the house.
used to be on the track team, a very fast runner.
held average grades at the start of high school, got some special attention from his english teacher who believed sincerely that he could do better if he just focused. managed to do pretty well by graduation but lost confidence in himself and his ability to adapt to living anywhere but hawkins because of his inability to pick a college. feels kind of cursed and stuck in roane county.
corroded coffin is his outlet, along with the ice hockey league he sometimes plays in a town over. has a notebook full of polaroids, quotes or lyric ideas scrawled on diner napkins, drive-in theatre tickets, the stamp from clubs in indianapolis and anything else you can think of, that is usually stuffed in the small of his back.
wears a lot of flannel and his extremely battered leather jacket basically every day of the year.
spends tooooons of time carefully painting the miniatures with tiny brushes for eddie’s d&d campaigns. usually plays a monk or a druid.
has a dog that is a mongrel of too many breeds to count named monkey, he has a neckerchief.
drums on every surface. all. the. time.
built a tree house and dugout in the middle of the forest for his friends from fifth to eighth grade, grizz’s dad is a carpenter by trade so he knows his way around.
makes a meaannnnn mac & cheese, is pretty much always down to clown.
pretty handy at fixing most types of motorbike, has been the only person to touch his own bike for about three years.
( 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.
pour myself a cup of ambition : lavender beckett-solace, county fair princess
( ZOE COLLETTI | CIS FEMALE | SHE / HER | TWENTY FOUR ) — — — it's just been another long week in boring - ass hawkins. isn't that right, LAVENDER BECKETT-SOLACE ? shit, i guess they can't hear me over 9 TO 5 by DOLLY PARTON playing through the headphones of their walkman. it looks like they're gonna be late for WORK as a BAKER AT ROLLING ACRES BAKERY. did you know VINNIE has been in hawkins for TEN YEARS ? yeah, their family and friends describe them as UPBEAT, but i've seen them be RECKLESS too ! i would also say they remind me of old dirty mud caked cowgirl boots, lonely horseback rides at the break of dawn, wearing flour like it’s a fashion accessory, and good ol’ sweet southern drawl, but is that weird ? i guess nothing's too weird for this little town, huh ?
the basics
full name: lavender daphne beckett-solace
alias(es), if any: vinnie, and indy
age: 24
date of birth: 27 november 1968
hometown: kalispell, montana
current location: hawkins, indiana
gender: cis female
pronouns: she/her
romantic orientation: questioning
sexual orientation: questioning
occupation(s): baker / owner of rolling acres bakery, and a volunteer for the search and rescue team
the physical appearance
faceclaim: zoe colletti
hair type: wavy
hair color: brown
eye color: brown
height: 5′0″
top five on her personal playlist
9 to 5 by dolly parton
jolene by dolly parton
song of the south by alabama
i told you so by randy travis
meet me in montana by dan seals and marine osmond
the story behind her
born in texas, lavender spent most of her upbringing in montana on the family's ranch. at a young age, she learned how to ride horses and care for the many animals that were under the family's care. she was easily the kind of person who could move through most social groups with ease, generally liked by most, but her overzealousness can definitely not make her everyone's favorite person to be around. she grew up going to the county fair, showing animals, and participating in the rodeo, making her a bit of rough and tumble. bull riding is still by far one of her favorite activities to take part in. by age eleven, she had a corkboard full of the ribbons that she had received from competitions at the fair and would continue to add ribbons to this board.
the family purchased several hundred acres of land outside of hawkins when lavender was fourteen, the purchased land was given to her eldest sister, sawyer. craving a new sense of adventure, she moved with her sister to indiana, helped get the animals settled, and went to auctions to get more to grow how many they had on the ranch. it was hard for her to be so far away from her parents in the beginning, but she eventually adjusted once she began making friends in middle school.
county fair princess and sunshine incarnate, lavender became a member of the ffa in high school and even joined the cheer team, becoming one of the fliers. she was happy and deeply satisified with her life. though, she always suspected that something was amiss in hawkins, but it was never something she was able to place her finger on. throughout high school, she held a job at a local bakery, which would eventually become her own.
she went back to montana and studied at montana state university, though she never states what she got her degree in. upon completing university, she came back to hawkins and took over owning the bakery and named it after the ranch that she lives on with her sister.
i don't wanna swim the ocean: william 'will' byers, the party's cleric
( SEBASTIAN CROFT | CIS MALE | HE / HIM | TWENTY ONE ) — — — it's just been another long week in boring - ass hawkins. isn't that right, WILLIAM BYERS ? shit, i guess they can't hear me over SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO by THE CLASH playing through the headphones of their walkman. it looks like they're gonna be late for STUDIO ART as a UNIVERSITY STUDENT AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY BLOOMINGTON. did you know WILL has been in hawkins for TWENTY ONE YEARS ? yeah, their family and friends describe them as EMPATHETIC, but i've seen them be WITHDRAWN too ! i would also say they remind me of paint / charcoal stained hands and clothing, d&d dice slowly collecting dust, hairs standing up on the back of the neck, and passions that have been abandoned, but is that weird ? i guess nothing's too weird for this little town, huh ?
the basics
full name: william jacob byers
alias(es), if any: will the wise, the boy who came back to life, zombie boy, the spy, cleric
age: 21
date of birth: 22 march 1971
hometown: hawkins, indiana
current location: hawkins, indiana
gender: cis male
pronouns: he/him
romantic orientation: homoromantic
sexual orientation: homosexual
occupation(s): art student at indiana university bloomington, and part time worker at radio shack
the physical appearance
faceclaim: sebastian croft
hair type: wavy
hair color: brown
eye color: hazel
height: 5′8″
top five on his personal playlist
should i stay or should i go by the clash
when it's cold i'd like to die by moby
under pressure by david bowie and queen
space oddity by david bowie
let down by radiohead
the story behind him
(information subject to change, kind of lazy rn so lmao, i apologize)
born march 22, 1971, will was the son of joyce and lonnie byers, and the younger brother of jonathan byers. as a child, will was quite compassionate of others, giving a crying little girl in the sandbox at the playground his tonka truck, despite him knowing his mother couldn't afford to buy another one for him. he was also very sensitive, having nightmares from scary movies and his mother's impersonation of a witch when he was five. will was extremely close to his mother and brother, but not to his father. lonnie would say that he was queer due to will's sensitivity and interests, while also calling him slurs. because of this, jonathan became a much larger role model for him than their father. around this time, jonathan introduced will to "real music", bestowing a mixtape that included the clash song "should i stay or should i go", a song will became quite fond of. ultimately, joyce and lonnie divorced, resulting in lonnie moving out. joyce, jonathan, and will remained at their home in hawkins, indiana, along with the family dog, chester.
the day their father left, jonathan and will spend the rest of the day building a fort for will called "castle byers". they followed will's drawing of it as their blueprint. it took a long time to build due to will's incapability to hammer the nails, missing every time. despite rain beginning to fall, the brothers didn't care and proceeded to build the fort. they later had gotten sick for a week afterward.
around 1976, will started kindergarten, attending the same class with mike wheeler. mike didn't know anyone and was lonely until he noticed will alone on the swings. mike walked up to him and asked if he wanted to be his friend, to which will agreed. he eventually met lucas sinclair, due to him living close to mike.
in march of 1979 was also when will celebrated his 8th birthday. though he received many star wars toys from his friends, he was especially happy to be given a 120 crayon set by his mother. he used every crayon in the box and eventually drew a large, original spaceship he called a "rainbow ship". joyce took it with her to her job at melvald's, proudly proclaiming that her son drew it to everyone who came into the store, much to will's embarrassment. in fourth grade, around 1980, dustin moved into the neighborhood and soon joined the friend group.
will and his friends would often gather at mike's house to play dungeons & dragons; this hobby was developed as early as 1979. on one occasion while playing the game, the party had escaped into the sewers, where there were insects. the group was still on level one. will cast fog cloud and saved the whole party. the four boys had a great relationship with their science teacher mr. clarke, and they were members of the av club he ran. they would take part in the annual science fair, winning first place almost every year. on one occasion when the boys biked together, will fell off his bike and broke his finger and cried. in 1982, joyce brought him tickets to see the horror film poltergeist after changing her mind to let him see it.
' LYING IN MY BED . I HEAR THE CLOCK TICK AND I THINK OF YOU. '
( HAVANA ROSE LIU | CISWOMAN | SHE / HER | TWENTY FIVE ) — — — it's just been another long week in boring - ass hawkins. isn't that right, CHRISSY CUNNINGHAM ? shit, i guess they can't hear me over TIME AFTER TIME by CYNDI LAUPER playing through the headphones of their walkman. it looks like they're gonna be late for NURSE as at HAWKINS HOSPITAL. did you know CHRIS has been in hawkins for ALL THEIR LIFE ? yeah, their family and friends describe them as FRIENDLY, but i've seen them be PARANOID too ! i would also say they remind me of sway of tennis skirts , haunted by a traumatic past , high expectations and forced image , but is that weird ? i guess nothing's too weird for this little town, huh ? — — —
christina ' chrissy ' cunningham. born to the prominent and rich family of the cunninghams. her father ; a big shot lawyer from new york -- her mother , a country club mom. a little brother who she'd give the world to and became the golden child after he was born.... big expectations were thrown on her since childhood. small - pretty - successful.... popular like her mother. but she never wanted the ' queen ' image -- never wanted the expectation of a rich husband , a nice house , a white picket fence , and little feet running through the house as she stayed home and became the perfect 50's image housewife.
she just wanted to be herself.
after her best friend's death ( blaming herself... it should have been her.... she should be the one in the graveyard right now... ) - she broke up with jason. it had been a long time since she loved him anyway.... they were just an image now... she left home right after highschool , getting her own small apartment and going to school to be a nurse.
she wasn't going to let anyone dictate how she was going to live her life.
( MAYA HAWKE | CIS WOMAN | SHE/HER | 24 ) — — — it's just been another long week in boring - ass hawkins. isn't that right, ROBIN BUCKLEY ? shit, i guess they can't hear me over PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER by PATTI SMITH playing through the headphones of their walkman. it looks like they're gonna be late for WORK as a/at LIBRARY ASSISTANT AT THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. did you know ROBIN has been in hawkins for THEIR WHOLE LIFE ? yeah, their family and friends describe them as INQUISITIVE, but i've seen them be HYPER too ! i would also say they remind me of disorganized bookshelf cluttered with knick knacks, chipped black nail polish, daydreaming about faraway places while language tapes blast through headphones around her neck, the unsettling feeling of sticking out despite every effort to blend in, beaten up red converse covered in doodles, but is that weird ? i guess nothing's too weird for this little town, huh ?
happy to be here! I'll be sticking to canon, but also using the rebel robin podcast to form the bulk of robin's backstory, drive, and character prior to show antics.
tl;dr: closeted disaster lesbian who only recently started feeling comfortable in her own skin. loves her friends but desperately wants out of hawkins. just returned from a 3-month trip backpacking across Europe & has started a new job as a library assistant.
name: robin buckley
age: 24
gender: cis woman (she/her)
hometown: hawkins, indiana
current residence: hawkins, indiana
education level: high school graduate
sexuality: lesbian (has only come out to a handful of people)
born to domesticated hippies Richard and Melissa Buckley. their former lifestyle and permissive parenting meant robin had experimental, open-minded parents who often didn't give her the attention they should have. the disappearance of will byers changed things for a bit, but they struggled to maintain anything that resembled a firm grip or a nuclear household for long, and that was perfectly fine for robin.
domesticated hippies also = poor af. savings were nonexistent when they spent their youth backpacking and staying in hostels or couch surfing. melissa's pregnancy forced the couple to settle, and they used the scraps of money they had to buy a tiny, shitty house not all that unlike or far away from the byers residence.
growing up, robin has always recognized that there was something... different about her. something off. but she was never certain on what exactly it was. when the quirks of her personality brought on some early childhood bullying, she quickly learned that whatever it was, she had to do everything she could to keep it hidden and to stay out of sight.
as she went through school, she mastered the art of social camouflage, fitting herself easily into certain social categories and being just social enough and just distinct enough to be utterly uninteresting to the regular hawkinite. the movie ticket girl. the band geek. during that time, she saw the loss of multiple different friendships for a variety of reason: her childhood friend barbra holland "dropping" her for nancy in middle school, her fellow odd squad members kate and milton dropping her because of shitty boyfriends or new girlfriends. while she later reconciled the latter relationships, the sting of rejection did nothing to help robin's growing sense of unease and the belief that something was wrong with her, that she was the broken one causing everyone to leave her.
she found solace in the adventures her parents talked about experiencing in their youth: the different people they met, the risks they took, the communities they were apart of, the annual christmas party with old hippie friends from all walks of life, impossibly pouring into hawkins and their tiny house, a colorful oasis in the middle of monstrous town. it all sparked an interest in knowing more about the world around her.
her need for camouflage kept her from exploring her curiosity in school and excelling (less she lose her average B student status by being an overachieving teacher's pet), so she instead funneled that need into exploring literature and learning languages. the books exposed her to interesting philosophical and moral dilemmas, points of views, and (later much-needed) representations of life not found in hawkins. the languages made the possibility of exploring those parts of life feel more like a possibility.
operation croissant bloomed from there: a dream to spend a summer backpacking across europe, venturing on a life like her parents did when they were younger, meeting people who are maybe like her. at her core, robin longs for acceptance and community. she wants to exist as herself, fully as herself, with people who know every aspect of her and love her for it. more than that, she wants to be around people like her, to not be the odd one out. she wants to be surrounded by a community who sees people who are different and their first reaction isn't to judge. as her feelings for tammy were realized for the crush that it was (in large part due to the insights gained from her friendship with mr. hauser) and she began to recognize why she was different, her dreams adapted to include wanting to be a pillar for change, to fight back against the Hawkins monster and to somehow make things a little bit better for the people like her who come after her.
her teenage years never saw operation croissant come to fruition, but she somehow stumbled upon a tiny community with reformed douchebags and prisses and a gaggle of children and she's never been happier (or more traumatized, but alas, a worthy trade off to her).
post-canon
following the defeat of vecna, robin continued to work at family video.
she came out to her parents not long after - their reaction was probably the best she could have hoped for from them: they accepted it in their eccentric way of theirs, regaling her with stories of other lgbtqia+ friends they've met in passing (along with uncomfortable tmi stories of their own sexual explorations from their youth). the whole thing has brought the buckley family a bit closer together, as her parents have made more of an effort to be present and invested in her life in a long-term way.
she's chosen to stay at home partially for this reason, but also because she's too broke to get her own place, and partially still resistant to the idea of investing money in roots in hawkins.
with the money she saved, advice from her parents, and a full year of planning, she finally made operation croissant a reality. she spent the first three months of this year in europe, and it was a lot. amazing and overstimulating and eye-opening and terrifying and beautiful and ugly and bustling and lonely and affirming and a lot. she was relieved to return to the warmth of her loved ones when her trip concluded, but also both comforted and left-wanting in a way she'd never experienced before.
and thus, her dilemma.
she loves her community, can't even imagine a life without her friends, or picture how she can find anyone who'd understand her the way her people do in hawkins. but the idea of being stuck in hawkins and becoming a Hawkinslifer itches at her skin in a way she can't help, can't soothe, can't stop.
she doesn't actually know what to do to solve this problem, so she doesn't really voice it (a rarity), especially now that weird shit is maybe staring up again so leaving is not even an option to consider. but in the back of her mind, operation chicago has started sprouting just the tiniest of bit.
anyways, she's always been kind of aimless, unsure of what she wants to do with life since she can't picture an actual future in hawkins. but, after returning from europe at the start of april, she decided a good first step would be to do something that actually interested her for work, so she left family video to take on a job as a library assistant at the public library.
misc/headcanons
prior to working at scoops ahoy, robin worked at the hawkins theater (season 1 timeline). she was fired when she accidently melted a movie.
has maintained a good relationship with her former english teacher mr. hauser since graduation. he was the first person she came out to, and she has always valued his caring presence in her life as an older gay. his gift of a russian-version of anna karenina is the most worn book on her bookshelf (frankenstein remains her favorite though).
she's picked up a few more languages since her high school years. she's fluent in French, Italian, Spanish, Pig Latin, Russian, Portuguese, and Dutch. She's currently trying to learn ASL, but her hand coordination is fucked so it's a slow go.
( NATALIA DYER | FEMALE | 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 CALL ME by BLONDIE playing through the headphones of their walkman. it looks like they're gonna be late for WORK as a JOURNALIST AT THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR. did you know NANCY has been in hawkins for THEIR WHOLE LIFE ? yeah, their family and friends describe them as DETERMINED, but i've seen them be INDECISIVE too ! i would also say they remind me of pink skies, handwritten letters, & saving everyone but yourself, but is that weird ? i guess nothing's too weird for this little town, huh ?
BASICS
Name: Nancy Elizabeth Wheeler
Nickname(s): Nance
Birthday: December 3rd (24)
Occupation: Journalist at the Indianapolis Star
Gender: Female
Pronouns: She/Her
Sexuality: Bi-curious, but way too stuck in the "expectations" put on her by her parents to do much about it.
As soon as she could, Nancy left Hawkins for Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. Being away helped her tremendously when it came to her independence and figuring herself out. Unfortunately, despite running, her guilt from everything back home still caught up to her. It was hard to stay away from it all when things with the upside down kept popping up every trip home.
While at school, she tried finding a new normal and joined a sorority. Even though she liked the friendship and philanthropy aspects of Greek life, she couldn't help but feel like it was all fake.
She got through the four years and graduated summa cum laude with her degree in Journalism.
After graduating, she began working at the Boston Chronicle where she met Christopher Anderson. The two were together for two years before he proposed and she accepted due to the pressure from society and her parents. The engagement ended just a few months ago when Nancy realized that that wasn't what she wanted and she needed the time to focus on her career.
Nancy had never planned to move back to Hawkins, but the Chronicle crumbled and she got a job offer from the Star. Knowing it'd be crazy to turn it down, and having her mom telling her 'just come home, Nance,' for weeks after the failed engagement, she packed her bags and moved into her own apartment on the outskirts of Hawkins.
Now she's back, hearing the whispers of familiar strangers on the street as they gossip about her involvement with the lab when she was younger and offer pity on her fiancé leaving (even if it was her choice!)
