The door firmly shut behind her, Robin finally lets the tension bleed from her body. She leans a hand against the wall, using the other to pry the too tight kitten heels from her feet as she calls out, "babe? Are you home?"
The only answering sound is the heels hitting the ground, so that must be a no. Not surprising but a bit disappointing. Robin had a shit day and really just wants a cuddle, but since that will have to wait, she can get dinner made.
Robin drags herself around the kitchen slowly. Dinner needs made, but no one said she had to make it quickly. She's halfway through mashing the potatoes that will top the shephard's pie she's making when she notices the blinking light on the answering machine. She wasn't excepting any calls, so curiosity has her abandoning the potatoes just long enough to hit play on the machine.
A voice she isn't expecting fills the room and it freezes her on the spot.
"Uh, hi Robin, it's me. It's- it's been kind of a weird day for me. I couldn't, uh, remember your phone number but I remembered the number to your parents' place. Thank God they still live there or else I don't know how- um, sorry. That's, I can explain that later I suppose. I just- I just really need you right now. Um, you can't call me back at my usual number, I can't be- I'm not there, right now. So, uh, I'll be staying at the Hilton near the airport. I don't have the number for it in front of me, but if you call the front desk and ask 'em, I'm in room 314. They'll, uh, transfer it. Um, okay. Talk to you soon, Robbie. Bye."
The machine clicks and silence is all that's left. Robin is sure that her overworked mind is playing tricks on her. It's been years. The caller hadn't said their name, like they expect her to know, and inexplicably, she does. Robin hasn't heard Steve Harrington's voice in seven years. Even so, she knows it. There isn't a doubt in her mind that Steve has left her a voicemail, requesting she call him back at the Hilton near the... airport?
She has to be sure, though. She rewinds the tape to play again. She's almost afraid that the message that will play will be different; that she hallucinated a message from Steve. All the stress of her job and the shit day she's had and the wish for some comfort pulling his voice from a machine like a Vecna dream or something.
But no. The same message, in the same voice, plays.
After seven years, Steve reached out. Steve called her. Well, apparently called her parents first, to get her number that he... thinks he doesn't remember? As far as Robin was aware, Steve never knew it to begin with. She's had this number since moving to Poughkeepsie for a job three years ago, so she can't imagine that Steve somehow knew it.
Which brings up so many questions. Steve said he was at a Hilton near an airport, but there is no airport in Poughkeepsie. So, Steve hasn't been hiding right under her nose this whole time. Instead, he's in some city with an airport. Which is way more information than she ever had! More information that she thinks any one has ever had.
Holy. Shit.
Dinner all but forgotten, Robin rushes down the hall to her bedroom and the little book of phone numbers she keeps in her bedside drawer. She pulls it out with a shaking hand. Her hand is still shaking when she dials the first number.
Eddie doesn't answer, and she's not surprised by that. He's currently on tour, if her memory serves, but she had to try him first.
Dustin answers on the third ring. "This is Dustin."
"Hi Dustin. It's, uh, it's Robin," Robin's voice is just as shaky as her hands.
"Robin?" Dustin repeats back, voice filled with the question of surprise. "Wow, been a while since we've talked. What's, uh, up?"
"I- Steve called me today," she says. She thinks she might be whispering, actually.
"What? Did you- Did you say Steve called you!? As in, Steve Harrington, Steve?" Dustin sounds as stunned as she feels.
"I did," Robin confirms.
There is a long pause before Dustin bursts out, "what the fuck!? Where is he? Is he okay? I'm-I'm fucking glad to hear he's alive so I can kill him myself!" Dustin's anger is laced with relief and exactly what she thought he would be feeling. "Where the fuck is he?"
"At the Hilton near the airport. Room 314," Robin answers and offers no more.
Another pause from Dustin again, but this one is only seconds long. "Like.... here? In Seattle?"
Robin shrugs in response, more out of habit than forgetting Dustin can't see her, and says, "I don't know. Maybe?"
"Maybe? Maybe!? What the hell kind of answer is maybe?"
"It's an appropriate one," Robin huffs, annoyance at Dustin chasing away her feelings of shock. It's like her brain has finished rebooting and she can think again. "Steve didn't exactly give me specifics-"
"You got off the phone with Steve without even asking where he was?" Dustin screeches in her ear.
"No! I said Steve called, not that I talked to him! Just shut your trap and listen for a moment!" She pauses, hearing the silence on the other line as confirmation and continues, "there was a confirmation on my answering machine. Steve called while I was at work. He... it was weird. Like, he spoke like we're still- like we talk regularly. Said he couldn't remember my phone number for here, but he remembered the one for my parents' place back in Hawkins."
"He called your mom to get your number?"
"Shush! But yeah, yeah I think he did. He didn't leave a callback number beyond saying he was staying at a Hilton near the airport, room 314. Said like he thought I would know what city that's supposed to be in! It's weird, Dustin. It's really fucking weird!"
"Well, shit."
"Yeah. Exactly. Soooo," she drags out the sound before finishing, "any ideas of how to proceed, brainiac?"
"Oh my God. We're going to have to telephone chain this."
"What, like call every Hilton in every city with an airport?" Robin says incredulously. That's ridiculous. That's impossible.
"Yeah. It's that or wait to see if Steve calls you again. Can you just sit by your phone for the rest of your life, waiting on a call that might never come?"
No. No, she can't do that. Dustin must take her lack of response as confirmation because he speaks again.
"Exactly. I mean, I think we can mark Seattle off the call list. Jane will search for him, once I tell her. But she can only branch out so far. If we call everyone. Get as many people as we can making calls, we can- it's the best shot we've got, Robin. I mean, no one hears from him from years and we finally get something. We have to try. Don't we?"
The last question is asked softly. It's so out of character for Dustin, Robin's surprised. It's like he's genuinely asking if trying to find Steve is the right thing to do.
The thing is, Robin doesn't know. Seven years ago, Steve went to great lengths to just vanish. His BMW was still in the driveway of his parent's house, his room filled with all his things beyond what clothes seemed to fit in his old gym bag, and not even a goodbye note left. They spent so much time searching for him. Not even Jane could find him, and she spent a lot of time in a sensory tank trying. More than she should have, Robin thinks, but Dustin had asked and even before they got together it seemed Jane couldn't deny him anything.
Even Hopper and Murray, with all their supposed government connections, couldn't find him. Robin remains unsurprised by that, since the government couldn't find Jane when she was right under their noses, but she was polite enough to not bring it up.
Eventually the searching had to stop. Not because they didn't care. Not because they didn't love Steve and miss him. But because they couldn't stop living their own lives for him. There was college to finish, jobs to start, places to move and people to love. Life kept going even though it had felt like a part of them all died.
It was clear that Steve did not want to be found and eventually, the search ended.
So. Do they have to try and find him now? Robin doesn't know what the correct answer is. Just the one she wants.
"Yes. Yeah, we have to try. I'll call Erica and Nancy. You start with Will and Mike. I tried Eddie already but he didn't answer, so I guess try him too in an hour or so."
Dustin sighs. "Steve better have a good explanation for this."
"I don't care what he says so long as he says it to my face," Robin says, and even though Dustin lets out a noise of disagreement, she knows he feels the same. They all will, once they find Steve.
His expectations and his hopes weren't aligned. That's on him. And a little on Steve, for being so kind, and good, and sweet and- and all the things Eddie's secretly wanted but never dared trying to find.
He doesn't know Steve beyond last night and they did not spend it talking. So, maybe being sweet and attentive is just his go to move to getting laid. It's not the usual vibe given off in the bar by the kind of guys willing to slum it with Eddie for a night, but fuck if it didn't work.
Eddie allows himself to wallow in his bed for about half an hour before getting up. He's got to do his laundry today, and he can't put it off again. Not if he doesn't want the guys to throw him from the shop for smelling like weeks old motor oil and stale weed.
Dragging himself from bed, he goes into the kitchen, needing a hot cup of coffee to get through the day. He's surprised to see the coffee pot on, and that quickly turns to irritation when he finds a half-drunk cup of coffee left for him to clean up on the counter.
Sweet Steve must be an act, because what one night stand helps themselves to your coffee and doesn't bother to finish it before leaving?
The irritation double when he opens his fridge and finds his creamer gone. What the fuck? That's rude as shit, to drink the last of his creamer and bounce without so much as a word.
Grumbling to himself, Eddie stomps back his room to get dressed and grab his wallet. He got to run to the corner store for goddamn creamer.
He goes to grab a jacket, the fall chill having moved in quickly, and is surprised once again. Steve left his jacket; it's a Members Only jacket, not cheap. It's, well, surprising that it would be forgotten.
Or, fucking swapped for his vintage leather jacket! Eddie can't find it anywhere and he knows he wore it out last night. Steve had commented on it, complimented Eddie's whole outfit, really. And it's gone!
That fucker stole his jacket!
If Eddie ever sees Steve again, it's fucking on. Needing a jacket, Eddie opts for putting on the Members Only one.
Fuming, Eddie stomps down the three flights of stairs to the main floor. He's so caught up in his anger that he doesn't see the person sat on steps up to the door and promptly trips over them.
"Fucking shit," Eddie curses, flailing his arms in an effort to not eat shit. He succeeds but barely. He whirls around once he's steady on his feet, ready to tell off this dipshit, "what the-"
"Eddie!" Steve interrupts him.
Eddie's words die in his throat as he watches Steve stand and smile at him, soft and just as sweet as last night. Steve stands before him, his broad shoulders stuffed into Eddie's jacket, a plastic bag hanging off his wrist since both hands are shoved into the pockets of the jacket.
"Steve? What- what are doing?" Eddie is confused, to say the least. "Why are you wearing my jacket?"
Steve blushes, just as pretty as he was last night, "I, uh, I just wanted to go grab some creamer for us. And then I bought stuff for breakfast, too. Um. Anyway, I just put on the first jacket I saw."
Eddie blinks at him. Then does it again because his brain isn't working. He blurts, "why are you sitting out here?"
"Um, the door," Steve pulls a hand from his jacket to throw his thumb over his shoulder at the direction of the door. The door that needs a code or for someone to buzz you in. "I tried to buzz a few times but I don't think you were awake."
"Oh," Eddie says dumbly. "How long have you been out here?" Which isn't what he wanted to ask but are the words his brain offered up.
"What time is it?"
Eddie checks his watch and says, "9:52."
"Oh shit, really?" Steve looks surprised, and the quickly blends into embarrassment. "Uh, about three hours."
Three hours? Three hours? Holy shit. Why didn't he just go home? Why did he just sit on the steps and wait?
Eddie is speechless. He had thought- but he'd been wrong, apparently. Steve isn't a douchebag who steals jackets and leaves the morning after without word. No. He's the kind of guy to go buy more creamer when he uses the last and who waits fucking three hours on a cold fall morning to do it.
Eddie must be quiet too long because Steve's looking increasingly sad.
"Or, uh, that's weird, isn't it? God, it is isn't it? I'm being so weird, just sitting outside your building waiting for someone to let me in. And you didn't- I'm just inviting myself to stay and you didn't even say you wanted me to. I-"
"You wanna come in and have breakfast?" Eddie cuts him off.
"I gotta ask, man. Why didn't you just go home after the first 30 minutes of waiting?" Eddie asks, playing with his coffee cup. They've finished eating, breakfast sandwiches on croissants that Steve bought from the bakery just down the road that Eddie's never been in before, and now they're finishing their coffee's in what had been contented silence.
Steve, for his part, has lost all his earlier embarrassment apparently. There is not a hint of it when Steve replies, "I thought about it, but I... I don't know your last name. And I don't have your number. I was, um, well, I was worried if I left, I'd never see you again."
It's far too honest and genuine for Eddie to deal with. Eddie can be a genuine and honest kind of guy, sure, but he's more of a cynical asshole kind of guy. He's also a deal-with-undealable-things-with-jokes kind of guy, so he wiggles his eyebrows and flirts, "rocked your world that good last night, huh?"
Steve, the good sport he seems to be, huffs a laugh and ducks his head down to speak into his coffee. "Last night was great, but it was also great when we were still at the bar and ranking the beers on tap. Great opening line, by the way. Most guys start with an overly sexual comment or a generic pickup line."
Eddie chuckles, still surprised that walking up to the hot guy sitting alone at the counter and saying 'top five tap beers, I'll go first' had actually worked.
"But, uh, I did think about going home and, like, writing you a letter. With no way to get your number, I did at least have your address. That felt weirder than just waiting. At the time. I think I fell asleep for a bit because it didn't seem like three hours," Steve continues, all nonchalant and making Eddie feel very Chalant about everything. This man. This beautiful, weird, sweet man.
Eddie might need to drag him down the hall back to his room and ride him until they're both boneless.
We've all seen the Adrian designs and the #rocky mate bad as hell statement, both of which I adore. I love that we as a fandom have agreed that Adrian is an absolute catch, but, and stay with me for this, what if they weren't?
We've decided that Adrian is a big, pretty blue/green rock who Rocky is obsessed with, and Grace is intimidated by, but in the same way that we sometimes find hot people intimidating. The complex color, the way light reflects off of the geode structure, and the patterns you can see underneath. Absolutely beautiful, but would Eridians have the same society beauty conventions? They don't perceive color or light, and those inner patterns, depending on the geode, are often viewed as imperfections by collectors. Would Eridians also see those inner imperfections and view them as not attractive?
Much like we are supposed to look at Ryan freaking Gosling as Grace and interpret him as somewhat of a loser within the world of the movie, within the Eridian society, Adrian is considered a catch for many reasons, their size for one, but being attractive is not one of them. The uneven mineral deposits and the way their surfaces are angled affect the way sound bounces of them. It's not necessarily unpleasant, just not overly desirable. Adrian is just as typical as any other Eridian, but they are compared to impossible beauty standards that so few actually meet.
Of course, Rocky thinks Adrian is hot as hell, but he is in the minority, claims everyone else is stupid, so when Rocky brings home this leaky space blob, who seems transfixed by Adrian, Adrian thinks Grace is just being polite towards them for Rocky's sake, but the more time they spend around him, the more genuine they realize he is.
This alien can perceive things that none of their species can, and the blob says everything about them from their color, to the light reflections, to how their inner patterns seem to dance when they move, none of which Adrian can actually comprehend, makes them stunning to look at. Mesmerizing even. Yes, Rocky thinks Adrian is beautiful, but Adrian acknowledges a certain amount of bias there, but this foreign being, whose standards of what is attractive are just as incomprehensible as he is, says they are beautiful in ways that no one but he will ever be able to perceive. Adrian can't help but do whatever the Eridian equivalent of blushing is.
I really think we should stop saying "kid-friendly" and start saying "ad-friendly". We shouldn't indulge these companies and their excuses anymore. I also think that continuing to pretend that this is about "protecting the children" pushes a lot of the blame onto kids and teens, who don't have the political power to push through any of this censorship legislature. Corporations and governments are to blame.
Okay, yes, I do think that Stratt being a woman had something to do with her being chosen to lead the project, and therefore her becoming a scapegoat later. However, I think people forget that there’s an element to why she was chosen that is also super chilling.
Stratt is just not a likable person to those around her. In the book, they list her being blunt, having no sense of humor, and rigid morality as part of the reason they chose her in the first place, and in the film, she’s just so far on a different social wave length from the other characters that no one is able to really get into her headspace. Even if the person in question doesn’t know about her power and they things she did, she’s shown to just weird people out in general. To lead the project, they chose someone who is perceived as bitter and dry and cold to everyone because even when that person has the best of intentions, it is an easy person to hate.
I think that also adds another element to the karaoke scene, and to a lesser degree, the historical studies scene in the book. They’re moments where she has the option to express herself in a way that is distinctly her, and therefore, the characters have the uncomfortable realization that she does not want to be a dictator with a rotting moral compass.
(Yes I headcanon her as autistic, and yes I am studying The French Revolution. Why do you ask?)
Project Hail Mary is a buddy comedy sci fi adventure but we all need to appreciate the fact that before the book starts, Rocky has been living in a completely different genre. Rocky has been in a fucking Alien style psychological space survival horror for nearly 50 years. Rocky went to space with a huge crew, exploring farther than anyone from his planet ever had, and then all at once every member of his crew *except him* got horrifically sick and died for no apparent reason. And then Rocky sat in this huge spaceship, built for a crew of 23, now empty and eerily silent, for FIFTY YEARS.
Grace had a hard enough time waking up and finding his dead crew mates, and he only had to deal with that for a couple weeks before meeting Rocky. He didn’t remember who they were at first. He didn’t watch them die. Rocky basically survived a horrific space plague, watching helplessly as his crew mates - his FRIENDS - died around him, and then spent 50 years in silence. Rocky was the final girl of the Blip-A except after his horror movie was over he was just stuck there, in this huge ship that had become an empty mausoleum, for decades. With no one to watch him sleep.
Obviously Rocky gets his happy ending after he and his new best friend save the stars and return to Erid, but I can’t help thinking about the absolute genre whiplash Rocky received going from the events before meeting Grace into the events of the book. It’s honestly a miracle that he wasn’t a raving madman (madrock???) by the time Grace showed up at Tau Ceti. It’s easy to imagine another version of the story where Grace meets Rocky and finds a vicious, terrified, angry animal, with no idea that this violent beast used to be a person, that his mind has completely broken after nearly half a century of horror and grief and solitary confinement in space.
Anyway I sure hope they have good therapists on Erid.
I see so much of Simon being the vaguely unsettling one in the relationship and I love it and I support it but may I raise you; Grace is NOT normal about Simon in the SLIGHTEST.
Whenever he thinks Simon isn't watching, Grace is there.
Doing some gardening? Grace is watching. Learning how to mend clothes creatively? Watching. Learning how to fix little things around the Hail Mary? Watching. Sleeping? WATCHING. Always while half working on his own stuff of course, he has things to do and he also needs a reasonable excuse for 'nono I'm busy here I don't know what you're talking about'.
Documenting his eating habits and his mutations and his injuries healing and at first it's just a good thing to keep track of but it eventually becomes a source of comfort to review all the pages and remember that Simon is HERE despite EVERYTHING.
And Grace KNOWS that this is kind of creepy he just can't really bring himself to CARE anymore. A solid 75% of his social rules have been broken apart by hanging out with an alien rock spider for 4 years he's not above a little indulgence in the presence of another human. And it's not like Rocky knows this isn't normal. Honestly Rocky is just happy to see his favorite human interacting with another human.
This is the first and ONLY human he has had contact with in YEARS. He is just a little obsessed. And it's just a little concerning. He gets better about it after they're on Erid (Simon's not leaving a planet. No way would he ever. Simon's staying. Statement.)
Just. Grace being as afraid of Simon disappearing as Simon is afraid of Grace disappearing. They cling to each other like feral animals.
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