Chapter 15: The Turning
Disclaimer: I own nothing! Chapter title was inspired by Finn's movie, The Turning. This chapter has some Lumax since I haven't done it justice in this fic yet and season 3 gave us like almost nothing. Also some Jopper and Mileven because I can't just take a break from them after last chapter lol. (though I'm never on a break from Jopper in my mindset ).
Sjmax: Thank you for your kind words about my writing! I love your season 4 fan fiction and the way you write as well!
Enjoy!
The next morning, everyone's blissful break from reality was broken. They knew that now they had to focus on the task at hand. All the girls except Nancy, who had been with Jonathan, had stayed up talking despite claiming to be tired the night before, and the boys had slept until ten in the morning before all simultaneously waking up and groggily walking downstairs.
There was no denying that it felt odd sleeping in a stranger's house and then casually sitting in their living room discussing the plan that had been created the night before.
Max sat down between Erica and Steve as they all gathered together. She looked around at all the exhausted people in the room and it was remarkable to her how this ragtag group was a monster-battling, evil-Russian-fighting death machine when they wanted to be, for Dustin tripped over his own feet just trying to sit down.
Hopper and Joyce, being the only real adults, (Steve and Robin didn't really count), were the ones recounting to them what was going down that day. It was mainly Hopper doing the talking since he was the one who could be all business with kids without batting an eye.
"Alright, is everyone listening?" He asked and waited for people to nod. "Good. So here's what's happening. I'm going to call the military, and if they don't come within the next two days, we'll take matters into our own hands. I have a plan as to how we would do that, but I'm not sharing it until we know for certain whether they are coming. Those men down there don't know we're here, and I'd like to keep it that way, so all the rules still stand. If they come searching for us, turn off all the lights and hide. Make sure to grab one of the guns we took too."
"What if they go after El?" Nancy asked, worried about the young teen.
Mike wrapped a protective arm around El and pulled her close against him. "I won't let them," He said determinedly.
"We won't let them," Hopper corrected. "And you're damn right, Wheeler."
Stunned that Hopper pretty much just agreed with him, Mike just nodded slowly.
"Is it okay if..." Mike trailed off, gesturing to himself and El and how he was holding her.
Hopper surveyed them and finally sighed. "Yes, but only because I'm in a good mood. But let me make one thing clear, this is a one-time thing, got it? One time."
"Yes, sir," Mike agreed. He had developed a sense of respect for Hopper, both because of the fact that he was kind of, sort of, a little bit of a lot scared of him, and because, well, the dude was kind of awesome when you think about everything he'd done. Even so, what, besides El, put Hopper in a good mood? Russians getting killed?
"Anyways, the Russians won't be able to get El or any of you if you follow the rules. This isn't the full extent of the plan, and while you deserve to know, this isn't about not telling you, it's because I only want to give a little information just in case anyone is listening or is anything like that," Hopper continued. "Everyone got it?"
They all nodded. Hopper stood up and began to walk over to the phone, but Nancy stood up after him and said, "You should call Murray."
"As in Murray Bauman?" Lucas piped up from behind them, disbelieving.
"Why him?" Hopper asked, not understanding.
"Well, he speaks Russian, so he could be valuable if we needed to infiltrate the base of the military don't show, and he's helped us with solving problems like this before, hasn't he?"
She made a valid point. However, there was one problem.
"That's all well and good, but calling him could give away our location."
"This is Murray we're talking about," Nancy reminded him. "He's probably got some sort of measure in place or something."
"Alright, but I don't know how we'll get him over here," Hopper agreed reluctantly. "If this backfires, no one blame me."
He walked off to fulfill his job and Joyce got up and followed him, leaving all the kids alone.
Max couldn't help but notice how Mike and El held each other close, how Nancy and Jonathan grinned at each other, hands entwined, how Dustin told "never-ending stories" about Suzie all the time, and even how Joyce and Hopper interacted in their weird, in-denial-about-their-feelings way. (At least to her knowledge).
Looking around, she saw couples in love, holding hands, quietly whispering, "I love you's," nuzzling against each other's shoulders, and what were Lucas and her doing? They were sitting on opposite sides of the room, talking casually to their friends, giving no sign that they liked each other at all.
Max new this was partially her fault. Especially since she didn't really take their relationship very seriously most of the time.
And now, their exchanges were kind of awkward, like they didn't know what to say to each other anymore.
The stakes somehow seemed higher this time, though they barely knew anything about what was going down, and Hopper clearly wanted to keep them in the dark. Every time they faced a beast, the risks were worse. Lives were lost.
She would know all about that.
Stop it, she ordered herself. She imagined herself pushing thoughts of Billy into the corners of her mind, shoving them away.
Lucas could be next. She could lose him, too.
"L-Lucas!" She exclaimed suddenly.
Lucas turned, surprised and a little scared. "Whatever it is, I didn't do it! Or if I did...I can explain!"
"Can we talk?" She asked.
"Uh, sure, yeah. Where were you thinking?"
It was snowing hard outside that morning, something that made them all uneasy. Anyone could be lurking where the white-out blocked their view. The snow also eliminated the option of sitting outside, (which really wasn't an option anyways).
"Maybe in the girls' room upstairs?" Max offered.
Everyone else was absorbed in their conversations and didn't notice them head upstairs.
Lucas, growing concerned, started grilling her with questions as soon as they reached the room and shut the door.
"What's going on? Is everything okay? Do you want to break up? Do you want to get back together? Were we separated in the first place? What-"
"Lucas!" She said sharply. "Chill. Let me explain."
"Okay...?" Still a little nervous, he fidgeted.
"I feel like we need to work on our relationship," Max began slowly. "Not like breaking up or anything, but we need to get better as a couple. I feel like we don't take this relationship seriously, and that's not good for either of us. I want us to be like El and Mike, where we can rely on each other and trust each other. Where we don't feel weird hugging or kissing in public, where..." she trailed off, glancing at him.
Lucas, having listened to his girlfriend pour her heart out to him, felt more than a little moved. He put an arm around her and said gently, "Go on. If you feel like sharing, I mean."
"I want us to be able to say, 'I love you,' and mean it," She admitted quietly. "I want us to not get mad and distant at the slightest little things, I want...I want for us to feel safe with each other."
Lucas nodded slowly and tucked a strand of Max's flaming red hair behind her ear.
"I think we can do that," he said with a small smile. "I want that, too."
"You do?"
"Of course!" He told her firmly. "Just one thing. Don't lose your fiery attitude, it's one of the things I like about you."
Max grinned, "Thanks, Stalker."
"Anytime, Zoomer," Lucas joked. "And for the record, I totally think a Zoomer can be a real thing."
Max found herself blushing. She put a hand on Lucas's cheek and leaned in and kissed him softly.
When she pulled away, they were both smiling.
"I like talking with you, MadMax," Lucas said slyly, quoting one of both of their favorite memories.
"I like talking with you, too, Stalker," she replied.
Then they didn't have to talk for a while.
ooOoo
Downstairs, Joyce and Hopper were still trying to decide who was going to do the talking on the phone.
Hopper thought it should be him, but Joyce argued that, since he was...well...dead, it wasn't the best idea to have him talk to the government.
"Well, at least let me talk to Murray," he tried.
"Yeah, sure, let the dead man talk to the conspiracy theorist," she replied dryly.
"Well, I've got to say something," he argued. "I mean, it's clear you can't do the talking."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means we really don't need another Joyce-Byers-Monologue right now," he answered.
"Well we don't need the entire government chasing us down because you're mysteriously back from the dead and calling from New York in some random person's house about Evil Russians in the ground!"
They both made valid points, but there was only one phone.
"How about this?" Joyce started to offer. "I do all the talking-and before you say no, let me finish-but you tell me what to say beforehand. There. Simple. Easy. And I get to talk."
Hopper almost laughed. "Fine. That's fine. You know, you're really stubborn sometimes."
"I know," she said. "It's very helpful in situations like this."
Hopper began to call the number, and she leaned into his side, wrapping an arm around his middle.
He smiled to himself as he handed her the phone, and he couldn't help thinking, finally.
Back in the living room, everyone else left, a.k.a., Dustin, Erica, Robin, Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, Mike, and El, were discussing what they knew.
"Alright, so we now know about the alternate dimensions," Jonathan began. "We know about how my mom and your dad-" he gestured to El. "-saw a part of the Upside Down trying to enter this dimension. But what we can't explain very well is how Hopper came back. El, you said you didn't really understand how it happened either, since you thought he had died after the darkness Kali made left the plane, and we don't know the full extent of the plan the Russians and Brenner have for the Upside Down."
Even the name alone of her former "father," was enough to send shivers down El's spine. Mike felt her tremble in his arms and he kissed the top of her head and squeezed her hand reassuringly.
"We also know that Brenner created a type of weird serum that can control El," Dustin piped up. "Which is...pretty freaking scary."
Everyone nodded sombrely.
"El, do you remember anything about what the serum did?" Nancy asked.
El looked at her. Her body was present in the room, but her mind was elsewhere, remembering.
"Yes," She said quietly. "I remember."
Mike held her tightly. "It's okay, El. I'm right here. It's okay."
This calmed her a little bit, and she began to talk. "It was a red serum. Right before I went into The Void, he stabbed me with it. It didn't take effect immediately. I think he thought it did, though. He was giving me orders like he expected me to obey them, telling me that Mike was a trap when I saw him and to go back. When I was in there, vines grabbed me, but they let go. I don't know why."
Mike shuddered at the thought of El being held by those horrible plant-like things from the Upside Down.
El continued on, "It started working while...while Kali was talking to me. She said Brenner was just trying to help, and that was when it clicked. It was like I could only hear what he said, it was like a horrible ringing. My arms and legs felt like lead and I couldn't move or see at all, it was just white light. But then I heard you guys and I realised what was happening."
Everyone sat in horror of what Brenner had done and pity for the poor girl he had tortured for twelve years of her life.
"One question," Erica spoke up. "So, I heard the last time El did that shit to the guards and that Doctor dude with the blood coming out of his eyes and all that, the people died. Why were they still breathing?"
"I didn't kill them," El stated the obvious. "Last time, I sort of...squeezed their brains. This time, I just made some of their blood come to the surface. I dunno how I did it without popping blood vessels, but I managed not to kill them. I think it was just because I didn't have the strength to."
They all nodded.
"Do you still have your powers now?" Mike asked.
El shook her head. "I won't for a while. I used too much energy."
"Oh, well that's just great," Dustin said sarcastically. El blinked.
"Are you mad?" She asked, taking his sarcasm the wrong way.
"No, of course not! It's just that you're always the one to save us with something super badass and now that your powers are gone, we might be a little bit doomed," Dustin confessed.
No one could argue.
"Wait a minute..." Steve muttered. "When the Russians gave Robin and I the truth serum last summer, after a while, we piled it all up. If El hasn't so much as burped in the past couple days...that means-"
"It means it's still in her system!" Interrupted Mike, beginning to panic.
"But she overcame it, didn't she?" Robin asked, looking toward El.
"That doesn't mean it won't work again," El replied, her eyes slightly out of focus.
Max and Lucas suddenly bounded down the stairs, running so fast that Max tripped and Lucas caught her. The moment would've been very romantic if it weren't for the fact that they looked super flustered.
"We heard panicked voices!" Max panted. "We thought something happened!"
"That serum Brenner gave El," Nancy spoke to them in a calm voice, trying to keep things level. "It's still inside her. And so far, it hasn't come out."
Max and Lucas took a seat on one of the couches in the living room.
"That's...That has to be bad," Lucas realised.
"It is!" Mike nearly shouted. "It means that asshole could take control of her again!"
"Mike," El put a calming hand on his arm and he instantly relaxed. "It'll be fine. Chill out," she said, trying out an expression she'd heard from Max.
But El didn't look okay. When Mike turned to argue halfheartedly, he saw that her eyes were bloodshot and they weren't focusing the way they were supposed to. Her skin was white as a sheet and she was shaking rapidly.
"El!" He exclaimed. "Are you okay?!"
But she didn't seem to hear him.
Everyone, now noticing that El was extremely sickly, tried to call her name, too. Mike helped her stand, hoping that maybe it would get her blood flowing, though he knew nothing about the subject, giving her one of his crutches as she staggered.
"El? El, what's going on?" Max asked frantically.
Suddenly, El's eyes snapped back into focus. Liquid drizzled out of the corners of her mouth.
Red.
Bright red.
Just like the serum.
She stared at them all, terror etched upon her face, and opened her mouth as the serum poured out in a huge amount.
"Help..." she choked.
Then she collapsed.
"MOM! HOPPER!" Will all but screamed.
El was writhing on the ground like she was having a seizure, and Nancy was smart enough to turn her on her side so she didn't choke on the liquid that was still tumbling down her chin.
Joyce and Hopper burst into the room, immediately seeing El and rushing over.
"El! What's happening?!" Hopper demanded to no one as he scooped his daughter up into his arms.
El's eyes rolled back into her head and she slumped over, one last bit of serum dripping from her mouth.
ooOoo
Hopper paced outside the guest room of the house, where El was unconscious on the bed. He couldn't bring himself to sit with her. She looked so much like Sara, lying there, unmoving on the bed like that.
They had figured it was the best room for her, so that if-no, when she woke up, she wouldn't be overwhelmed by color, as that room was a light blue color with white bedding. They had also agreed that going to the hospital was not an option. They would need an alibi, and if they found traces of the serum in her bloodstream, the doctors would want answers. They couldn't even do blood tests, period. There was always a chance they'd find out about El's powers.
Mike was sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands, unmoving.
Joyce was inside the room with El, gripping the girl's hand and murmuring in soothing tones to try and revive her.
Everyone else was sitting in the living room in dead silence, gripping each other like they were each other's lifelines.
El may have looked still, but inside, she was screaming.
Hateful, sharp darkness, like shards of black glass swarmed around her, ripping her skin apart hungrily, shredding her, slicing her, ravaging her. She screamed for help, her throat burning, and when she opened her mouth, the darkness entered.
El choked as it made her way through her mouth and throat, slipping into her cells and spreading through her internal layers.
She collapsed onto gritty dirt that burrowed into the cuts on her hands and stung worse than salt would. Red tears streamed down her face, and she realised that they were also blood.
"D-Dad," She gasped.
Her vision was clouded with red, but she could make out the figure of Hopper lying on the black dirt, unconscious in a pool of blood.
El retched as the dark shadows inside her moved and she threw up a black ooze that splashed across her hands.
She collapsed in a bloody heap on the painful ground, eyes darting around rapidly. She heard a woman's scream and she stood up, sending a wave of stinging through her body. She ran toward the noise and found Joyce, deathly pale and fading fast, slumped against a horrible looking tree that was covered in goo and dark vines.
Her shirt was soaked with blood, blood that originated from her heart.
El grabbed her hand. "H-hold on, we're gonna get help!"
Joyce met her eyes and gave a weak smile.
"El..." she said gently. "You have to go..."
Her breathing slowed and she closed her eyes, her smile fading.
She went limp and El, realising what had happened, screamed and stood up, trying to find whoever did this to her.
It felt like her insides were on fire and her blood had turned to sludge.
She started to run, sprinting through the decayed forest. She tripped over a jagged rock and crashed-right into Mike.
"M-Mike!" She coughed, relieved. "Y-you're alive!"
But Mike's dark eyes showed no recognition. He steadied her and stared at her, blank-faced.
"M-Mike?"
All of a sudden, Mike's face flooded with emotion.
"El! It's you!" He began to cry. "El, please! You have to help us, please! You're the only one who can help us, ple-"
Mike stopped dead and blood poured from his mouth. He fell to his knees and El saw a knife protruding from his back. He fell onto his face and El felt four, cold, clammy hands grasp her arms and yank her backwards.
She fell on her back and her head pounded as she saw the grotesquely distorted faces of Max, Lucas, Dustin, Nancy, and Jonathan leaning over her.
She thrust her hands out uselessly, she still didn't have her powers. Still, they shrank back, dissolving into shadows.
When El got to her feet, she heard muttering. When she turned, she saw Will rocking on the ground, mumbling things to himself, completely catatonic.
"They're all dead, aren't they?" laughed a voice behind her. Another voice joined in the laughter.
El spun around, feeling her own consciousness slipping from her.
Steve, Erica, and Robin were being choked by black, slimy vines on the ground, and the lack of oxygen was making them loopy.
"They sure are!" Steve gasped for air. "Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead!"
They all cackled and El stumbled back, shaking.
Dead.
They were all dead.
All of a sudden, she heard a gunshot. She felt the bullet shatter her skull, piercing her skin as she cried out.
Instead of blood, out poured shadows.
In the guest room, El whimpered in her "sleep."
Outside it, Mike was silently crying.
Suddenly, the door to the room opened sharply, nearly hitting Hopper. Joyce burst out and practically fell into his arms.
"I can't do it anymore, Hop!" she sobbed. "I can't!"
Alarmed, Hopper hugged her tightly. "What do you mean?"
"I can't..." she said again, burying her face in his shirt.
Instantly, Hopper knew what she meant. She didn't just mean one thing. She meant everything.
She couldn't lose another person to the horrible mess they were trapped in.
She couldn't watch as another person was taken from them.
"You won't have to," Hopper promised. "El's strong. She'll pull through. And if anything tries to hurt anyone here, even Mike, I'll smack the shit out of them. I swear to God I will."
Joyce just clung to him tighter.
"I don't want you getting hurt, either," she whispered.
"And I won't," he said firmly. "I won't ever leave again. I promise you."
Just those simple words calmed her down.
I won't leave.
The thing she'd been needing to hear all her life.
Too many people had left her, had come into her life and had been ripped from her, sometimes quite literally, sometimes they left on their own.
Too many people.
But to have one, just one, who promised he wouldn't...just one who swore he'd stay, it gave her hope.
"El will want someone with her when she wakes up," Joyce said, separating herself from Hopper's embrace, though she would've happily stayed there.
Joyce's sudden confidence gave Hopper a dose of his own. "I'll come, too."
They had barely closed the door to the room when El's eyes sprang open. Upon seeing them, especially when she saw Joyce, she tore herself from the bed and threw her arms around them.
"Mom..." she whispered, crying silently.
Joyce's eyes widened at the new title and she squeezed El tightly.
"Thank God you're okay," she said to the girl.
El practically jumped into Hopper's arms.
"Please don't die again," She half-cried. Hopper's brow furrowed, *what had she seen while unconscious?*
El wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at them both.
"Is Mike okay?" She asked, amber eyes wide.
"Aside from a fu-messed up leg, yeah," Hopper told her, a little puzzled.
"Where is he?" A smile spread across her face.
"Uh, I think he's in the kitchen...?"
El bolted off and Joyce and Hopper watched her go, half-relieved, half-confused.
The group of teens in the living room saw El sprint from the room and got up to follow her and express their relief, but Will stopped them.
"Let her have a moment alone with Mike," she advised. "He's been beside himself."
They all nodded and sat down.
Indeed, Mike had been beside himself, he had been crying with his head in his hands for the past two hours of El being unconscious. When he heard her footsteps enter the kitchen, he raised his head curiously and irritably, to order whoever was interrupting his sulk to go away, but when he saw El, he jumped to his feet, nearly forgetting his crutches, and hobbled toward her as fast as he could.
"El, you're okay?" He asked her, overjoyed.
"I'm okay," she seemed a little shaken.
In an instant, she was kissing him hard. He felt his cheeks flush. She had never kissed him this intensely before, not even the night before. It was like she thought he was gonna die or something and this was their goodbye kiss.
"I love you, Mike," she said slowly.
"I love you, too, El. And I'm not afraid to admit it anymore."
She kissed him again, and put a careful hand on his cheek, her fingertips on his burst of freckles.
Mike wished he could hold her, but those stupid crutches were getting in the way.
He broke away from her and motioned to the seat he had been sitting in at the kitchen countertop. "Over here," he instructed.
El helped him sit and he threw his crutches to the ground with a clatter.
"Everything okay, Mike?" Nancy called.
"Mmhmm," Mike responded absentmindedly, pushing El's hair behind her ear, feeling the smooth brown strands between his fingers.
He kissed her again and she wrapped her arms around his waist. He pulled her against him as much as he could with the chair between them, being careful of his leg even with the cast. El smiled against his lips and said, "I think I've gotta say 'hi' to the others now."
Mike whined as she pulled away, but only teasingly.
She flashed a grin at him and all but skipped into the living room with Mike trailing behind her.
Everyone barrelled her with a giant hug and she nearly toppled over.
"Guys," She panted. "I need to breath!"
"Sorry," Steve said sheepishly.
"We just didn't know if you were gonna..." Dustin trailed off.
El nodded solemnly.
El glanced at Joyce and Hopper and saw that they had retaken their position by the phone since they got interrupted a few hours ago.
"I hope the military gets here on time," Robin said wistfully.
Everyone burst into laughter. "You have no idea how this works, do you?" Dustin asked, wiping a tear from his eye.
"Well...not really," Robin confessed.
"We always try and call the military, they don't come on time and the monster ends up going all pow-pow-whoosh, we end up mentally scarred and then they come in and take us all to the hospital," Dustin explained, as if talking to a class of kindergarteners about how to do homework.
"Well that's fun," Robin groaned and flopped onto the couch.
El flinched. Robin looked so much like she did when she was being choked by those vines on the ground.
*But that wasn't real,* she reminded herself.
And she wasn't going to tell anyone about it.
Around twenty minutes later, Joyce and Hopper reentered the living room.
"The military claims they're 'coming,'" Hopper made air quotes. "And we had forty seconds to tell Murray everything without being traced, so he's a little confused, but he said he's buying a plane ticket out right now."
"How will he get here?" Jonathan inquired.
"Someone will have to pick him up."
"Well, not you," Robin said. "You're dead. And not me or Steve, either. The Russians know us. They know all of us because of Brenner. And the airport people know us."
"Not all of us," Nancy spoke up. "He's never met me or Jonathan face-to-face until yesterday."
"Murray's flying into the Syracuse airport, not the Albany," Hopper added. "You guys crashed in the Albany airport."
"But they still know you," Will said pointedly. "We were on the news."
"Yes, but we're not the ones Brenner wants," Nancy pressed. "And no one pays attention to the news in airports anyway. We'll just be pulling up our front."
"He could still use you as persuasion!"
"And we don't even know if Brenner's still recovering from that total ass-kick El gave him," Dustin piped up, grinning at El.
El smiled sheepishly.
"He makes a good point," Joyce said reluctantly. "They're probably going to be on the down-low since their leader is injured."
"Maybe Brenner isn't their leader," said Hopper slowly. "He mentioned a man named General Burko. Maybe Burko is the real man of the hour and Brenner's just a distraction."
"If that's true, why haven't we ever heard of him before?" Steve asked.
"Usually people making secret underground murder weapons and portals to other dimensions like to keep their identities a secret, Steven," Robin drawled.
Steve shrugged. "I was just asking."
"Guys..." Dustin tapped Steve on the shoulder.
Everyone kept talking.
"Guys!"
"Guys!"
Everyone turned to him.
"What?!"
"Look outside..." he raised a trembling finger and pointed. They all looked through the big window and Nancy screamed.
"What the hell is that?!" Lucas screeched.
A giant crack had opened up in the ground, vines and blue gas spewing out of it.
Just like at Hopper's cabin
They ran outside, being careful to avoid the pit, and looked down the gash.
It was so deep you couldn't see the bottom and they all immidietely started coughing, but not as much as the dumbfounded Russians they saw below them.
The crack had cut through their building and reformed above it.
When the guards spotted them they yelled something.
"Shit!" Dustin swore.
"Run! Go!" Hopper yanked up Mike and tossed Steve his crutches, who carried them as he ran. They bolted to the car. Hopper dashed inside and grabbed the keys after placing Mike somewhere. Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, and Robin all squeezed into the back uncomfortably. The back only was supposed to seat two. Hopper and Joyce jumped into the front. The car's trunk was separated from the main area of the car only by the backseats, and Lucas, Dustin, Mike, El, and Erica all huddled up, especially squished since Mike had to stretch out his leg and hold his crutches in his lap.
Hopper slammed on the gas and they sped away.
They swerved from the ice on the roads, but Hopper kept going at the same speed, jerking to avoid more, not considering the possibility of black ice.
"Where do we go?" Jonathan asked.
"Is there a school nearby?" Nancy asked. "Because it would be good to go there since they've probably got some sort of food and water and it's pretty big and easy to get away."
"Say that again after you've been chased by Brenner and his men through one," Mike commented from the trunk.
Nancy rolled her eyes and said, "We can still try."
Hopper went to grab the map he left in the car when he drove Mike to the hospital, but Joyce was one step ahead of him.
"There's an elementary and a junior/senior high school about ten miles from here," she informed them.
"Then lets go."
A/N: I'm so sorry for the lack of updates! I got writer's block for the longest time, and then I got preoccupied with my Jopper fic, but now updates will be normal, I promise!