thisavrou_log | (no subject)

Who: Max Mayfield + You??
When: Sunday
Where: Here there and everywhere.
What: Arriving at the station and trying to figure out what's going on.
Warnings: Mentions of fighting and domestic violence. Spoilers for most of season two of Stranger Things!

[Her skateboard is clutched tightly in her arms as she makes her way down the various halls of the station. She has approximately 110 million questions burning in her mind, but she also doesn't know who to corner and demand answers from. As far as she understood, literally everyone got here the same way, which means no one's here because they chose to be.

She's still shaken up from the way Billy had charged into the Byers' house, first grabbing Lucas and then proceeding to beat the hell out of Steve as she'd stood by, paralyzed with fear. Way to go, Max, she thinks. It isn't the first time she's seen Billy in a rage like that, and it's never any less terrifying. He's so full of hate, of anger.

Her mind alternates between Hawkins and this new, foreign place as she wanders somewhat aimlessly, taking in the new scenery and thinking to herself that she's going to have to draw a map to figure out where everything is.

Because apparently there's no way back, and she's not sure how she feels about that.]

[Open to Roommates]

[In her wandering, she actually manages to find an empty room. With a bed. She sets her skateboard down carefully and then falls back onto it, closing her eyes and exhaling slowly. She's seconds away from passing out when she hears a weird noise. Opening one eye she turns her head in the direction the noise had come from. Definitely the wall.

Max sits up a little, eyebrows furrowing until she sees something bigger than a mouse scurry across the floor. Not a rat - it's - actually she's not sure what it is, but she quickly gets out of bed anyway. She hears another noise, this time from the adjoining common room, and she tenses, then makes her way out of the room, freezing when she sees another person standing there, looking back at her.]

Uh, hey.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Max watches Eleven's reaction to the information she just dumped on her, and feels a little bit guilty for overwhelming her. Still. She feels a surge of hope that maybe she hasn't entirely screwed up or repeated whatever mistake it is she'd made back home that made Eleven not like her right off the bat, when she says "we."

Twice.

Except now she has more she has to dump on the girl to assure her that part's already been taken care of. But Eleven looks so determined, Max almost believes she can figure out a way to get them out of there and back home.]

It's actually about to get weirder? Um...okay so there's some kind of strange time thing going on here but I don't really understand it. I think - no. I'm positive we were brought here from two different points in time.

Different... different points in time?

[She frowns, curious, not quite sure she's getting it. It doesn't sound right. It doesn't seem right. Nothing about this syncs up in her mind. Did she lose time somewhere along the line? Was Max the future?

It was a horrible feeling, blind panic at the idea of lagging in the past and being left behind, even if she was missed.]

How?

[She's at a total loss as for how to explain the time thing. She's pretty sure any one of the boys could probably explain this. She likes science well enough, but she's not quite as into it as they are.]

I don't know. It figures that getting dumped into a different dimension in outer space also includes time travel or whatever, but I met you once before, back home. You were a little older and -- I mean, you saved all of our asses from the demodogs. It was awesome. You were a total badass.

[She was from the past but she was in the future once, meeting Max and seeing Mike again? It was strange, she didn't expect the rush of positive feelings she got from that, the feeling of hope and wanting. To know that her future was going where she wanted it to go. To be with her friends, to protect them.]

Badass. [Eleven smiles, a rare sight, unable to help herself.] Everyone is safe?

[And Max can't help but smile when Eleven does.]

Yeah, thanks to you.

[Mostly true. They're safe from the demodogs. Billy, however...that's another story. But there's no need to make her worry about something neither of them can do anything about at this point.]

Oh. Um, I'm Max, by the way. [She hesitantly holds her hand out.] I really hope we can be friends.

Max.

[She notes the name away in her head and holds out her hand, taking the other girls and shaking it as she had been taught not so long ago. What an odd gesture people insisted on doing.

She pulls back, close enough now to see the thing in the girls had, tilting her head to the side curiously.]

What's that?

[She looks from Eleven's gaze down to the skateboard she's still clutching in her other hand.]

Oh this? This is a skateboard. You ride on it, sorta like a bike, but it's obviously a lot smaller and a little harder to get the hang of.

[Max sets her board down on the floor and then steps onto it, not going far, but enough for Eleven to get the idea of what it did.]

[Huh. She sort of expected Max to sit on it or something, not use her legs. It was kind of cool, actually. She studies it curiously, amused, wondering how someone kept their balance on moving wheels like that.]

Skateboard. [They were kind of cool, she had decided.] Do you ride with ... with Mike and his bike?

[There was another pang of jealous. Of Mike playing with another girl, of spending time with them like normal kids but she tries to swallow that down. To push forward.]

[She turns the board carefully without stepping off it, rolling back toward the other girl. She tucks some hair behind her ear, stopping just in front of her.]

No. I live way on the other side of town. The boys all bike together to school. My stepbrother drives me.

[She's quiet for a moment.]

I mostly hang out with Lucas.

[And if Eleven's paying attention, she'll notice the way Max's cheeks grow a little pink at that admission.]

Lucas?

[Not Mike. Good. She feels a protectiveness to him, like he was hers and shouldn't play with anyone else ... petty, yes, she knew that. She was trying not to be like that but Mike was special.

She didn't want to lose him.

Knowing that she seemed to have a preference for Lucas? It sort of ease all that worry inside her.]

What's a stepbrother?

[Her cheeks feel hot when Eleven echoes the name and she rolls her eyes at herself.]

Yeah, it's - [She's not sure what it is, really. But Lucas had trusted her enough to tell her everything that happened the year before and that meant something to her. That he trusted her, that he included her.] I like him.

[Besides. Mike pretty much hates her, and she's barely spent any time around Will, and then Dustin -- well, truthfully she doesn't really know what's going on with Dustin. One minute he's been nice to her, and the next he bites her head off. She pauses at the question about what a stepbrother is, though. Right. How the hell would Eleven know about that when she'd been locked away most of her life?]

Well, you know how Mike and Lucas both have sisters, and Will has an older brother? So a stepbrother happens when one of your parents marry someone else. Um, so my mom and dad broke up, and that's called divorce, and then my mom married someone else who already had a son and that's...my stepbrother.