A couple entries ago I said I was burned out when it came to Stranger Things fic; since then I've written two new ST fics because...it's only when I completely give up on something that I find the inspiration to go at it again? Anyway, here's the latest, which involves a friendship I'd really, really love to see become canon in s3:

Title: i fought the law (and the law won)
Fandom: Stranger Things
Rating: General Audiences 
Relationships: Max Mayfield & Jim Hopper
Summary: “Hey, I’m not the one who said I had to be here.”(Or, Max and Hopper bond over one of the chief's favorite books.)


Seeing as they're two of my favorite characters--and the only two ST Funko Pop!s I own--it took me a ridiculously long time to come up with a story where Max and Hopper get to know each other a little better, or at least one that I liked. I think it mostly came down to me being a little nervous to write from either of their POVs; they both have pretty distinctive voices, and I didn't want to screw those voices up. 

But I do think these two could develop a FANTASTIC friendship; they both have similar styles of sarcastic, deadpan humor, and a love of reading (technically, we only really know of that being true in Hopper's case so far, but come on--you can't tell me that Max, who uses words like "presumptuous" in her everyday life, isn't a bookworm). Maybe s2 just spoiled me for unexpectedly awesome friendships and team-ups; Steve and Dustin was never one I would have predicted and loved to bits. And this would be a nice one to see come s3. 

(In other writing news, there's a reason I try not to reread most of my old fics, and the reason is I always stumble across some tiny-but-widespread "mistake" that bugs the heck out of me but that I'm also too lazy to go through and fix [and, in the case of some of my older stuff that's not getting much traffic anymore, there's no real reason to fix it, anyway]. This time around I was looking at one of my stories and noticed that I used the character's first name in a bunch of places where I could have just as easily substituted it for "he" and the whole thing wouldn't have sounded quite as repetitive. Which is something I'm sure someone reading the story for the first time wouldn't notice or care about, but it's still niggling at me. Ugh. Why is my brain like this?)

This evening I turned in the new hire paperwork for my summer job, so hopefully that will be starting up soon. I'm also (*goes to check*) exactly 431 pages into The Stand, and I think I've found one of my favorite characters. I was spoiled for the basic plot of the book quite a while before I started reading, so I know basically nothing ends up turning out well for Nadine Cross, but boy, do I love her already. The whole tragic destiny bit is probably part of it, but  so far she's both very compassionate and very calculating; tragic destiny aside, she's one of the survivors I'd most like to team up with, and feel safest with. Larry Underwood's a close second, even if I have a sneaking suspicion that that might have more to do with the fact that Stephen King fancasts him as Bruce Springsteen...