[ nancy sits up a bit, turning to face him properly instead of sitting with her back against the wall, legs curled up to one side as she puts her weight on one of her hands. it's- it's wild. she knows steve's changed a lot over the last year or so, after ..everything. they might not have been dating anymore, but he was still a part of her life, because he was a part of mike's life, in a way. so she watched him walk at graduation, would see him at the mall. and then of course, what landed them here. the russians, the flayer. when it all came down to it, the change, the biggest change, is that he started to give a shit. not about his reputation or how the world saw him, but everything else. other people, mostly. but there's also just an accountability there that she only saw glimpses of when they were dating.

she knows that she's grown too ( that it's maybe part of why they didn't work out, that first time ), but that she also has a lot to learn herself. she knows she does. she gets so caught up in her own plan, her own personal missions, that she tends to get too single-minded to question whether or not she's selfish to ask for help. but- all that being said, it's wild, yeah. her dropping a thought, just this idea that she's so sure is another one of nancy's insane ideas, and he's really considering it. okay. okay. ]

The plan would be to not get killed, actually, if we're working with the assumption we're not actually dead. [ obviously teasing him is the right thing to do here ] But we shouldn't try to do this on our own. Even if this place isn't what they say it is, there are still other people here that are trapped with us. I'm sure they want answers just as bad as we do. [ huff ] But a lot of them aren't from Hawkins. They're not even from the same year we are. But- Maybe that's a part of it. I don't know. [ she shakes her head and shrugs, but not in a defeatist way like a moment ago ] We'll have to look into it.

[ a b e a t ]

You really want to do this?