"Lucas, remember what can affect a compass?"
"An-"
"Well, a few things. Sometimes the needle in the compass will get demagnetized over time, unable to detect an electromagnetic field." Joan interrupted out of habit, throwing a finger up and looking down at it with furrowed eyebrows, before throwing another finger up. "Some have a detachable or rotating angle ring which can move, this just needs to be rotated back into the correct place. One of the most dumb mistakes, honestly." Another finger. "The needle has been physically restrained in some manner, such as the spindle on which it swings has become jammed or stuck, or the ends of the needle have become trapped on something."
Joan paused, using her fingers to drum on her things before popping up a fourth finger and her eyes jumping up excitedly.
"-or the field you're trying to detect is too weak or there's another electromagnetic field deflecting the compass's true north. Like power lines or-"
"-a huge underground, secret government lab-" Dustin interrupted with excited eyes towards Joan, who nodded in agreement, one finger on her nose and the other hand pointing towards the boy and continuing his sentence, nostalgia rolling off her in waves.
"-or, some kind of other massive electromagnetic interference-"
"-like another gate!"
"...Oh my God, there's two of them." Steve grieved, but his suffering was neglected yet heard. "Just one is enough, b-but two?!"
"It would have to be smaller." Dustin articulated to the group with Joan beside him bobbing her head in verification, hands moving towards themselves to gesture a small portal. "Much, much smaller."
"Snack-size gate."
She couldn't help it.
"The snack that smiles back, gol'fish."
Robin and Joan was ignored even though Joan nodded appreciatively at the nickname, while Dustin continued his explanation. Mind racing, Joan had figured that Dustin had already explained the conclusion of the compass and followed her little brother/future dad down the path mindlessly, wanting to finish the adventure sooner than later.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey." Steve interrupted the two quickly, blinking at the matching dirty looks from the two Henderson and rubbed a hand through his hair apprehensively with a whisper of Christ, two of them... "Eddie's still a wanted man and Joan is suspected to be under his-his curse or whatever, we can't just go around in broad day light with the two!"
"D-do you guys have some kind of mind reading between each other or...?" Robin probed at the way Dustin and Joan seemed to be in sync with each other, down to the way they glanced at each other and shrugged their shoulders. "Some kind of Henderson superpower or-or curse?"
"Nah, the closest thing to a curse we have is the Henderson curse. Dad always said our superior intellect needed some kind of weakness which is why sometimes we can go on short rants about topics we're passionate to knowledgable about without pausing or breathing." Joan paused at smiled wild at the irony. "Haha."
"Super trippy, dude." Lucas replied with a shake of his head.
Dustin let out a sibilate, but looked over at Steve and held up the compass with urgency in his voice to convey the magnitude of the situation, gesturing to Max, Eddie, and apparently-his future-daughter next to him to highlight their specific curses, before looking over to the metalhead squatting on the ground in his own contemplation.
"What say you, Eddie the Banished?"
Eddie observed the various people around him, some he had no clue about, others he knew too well, and yet all of them knew way more about this situation than he did, even though it seemed to affect him the most. His eyes glanced at the red and he frowned, realizing that maybe he wasn't the most affected of the group.
"I say... your asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea." Steve nodded in agreement with Eddie, and the metalhead felt his heart lurched almost painfully as he peered at Joan because, fuck, his life would always be about wanting what he can't have and running from his problems wouldn't it? "But the shire... the shire is burning."
Joan smiled as she watched Eddie walk up to her and swallow his nerves down, a nervousness wavering through his eyes even though his voice was attempting to be laced with confidence. "To Mordor it is." She unconsciously took Eddie's hand, peering up at him with disgustingly hopeful eyes.
"And here he was, a little halfling from the Shire, a simple hobbit of the quiet countryside, expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go." She whispered to him with sad eyes and a dimple on one cheek. "It was an evil fate."
Eddie attempted a smile back, longing for a simpler chance at life with the brunette in front of him. He let out a breath and looked down at the suspicious looking Dustin and repeated himself once again, but with more confidence.
"To Mordor, my friend."
"What the hell is a More-door?" Steve questioned as everyone started to follow Dustin, looking over at Joan who rushed over to grab the items they were leaving behind. "We have another walkie-talkie, you can leave that mess behind."
"Steve, I'm allowing you to live for the simple reason that the pranks that my dad and I will put you through in the future is worth the wait." Steve shuddered at the glint in her eyes and hurried along the path to follow the group already walking, a cackling Joan falling into step beside him. "and yes, I take after my dad in nearly every single way except chromosomes."
"Two of them..." Steve once again whispered in horror.
Joan frowned as she stared at the unfortunate roll, the Arabic number 1 in purple writing mocking her from the table compared to the sinister red 20 that laid in front of her. It was still at the table as Kaleigh looked at the senior with wide eyes, knowing what that meant.
She checked her notes and then checked it twice, trying to see if there was anything she could do... for a second, she considered kicking the table to make the dice move to a swapped high/low roll, but it was too late.
Everyone knew that Khloa Bellowthread was going to die.
On her first campaign and as the first one too.
"I-it's okay." The blonde offered in a whisper with a kind smile, leaning over to the distressed DM and basically giving Joan permission to kill her character off. "I don't need to be protected all the time."
But, they all did.
They needed her to protect them.
Otherwise people would make fun of and try to steal Harry's glass eye that he wore after losing his in real one in first grade.
Otherwise she might find Brynnyn on her knees gripping a toilet with hateful words on her phone screen glaring menacingly next to her in the stall.
Otherwise Bryan would end up with a broken nose again after school or she'd find Ryans crying in the computer lab again from the never-ending bullying that followed him home virtually.
Otherwise she'd find Kaleigh staring blankly at the scars on her thighs.
Joan needed to save them otherwise, who was she?
"W-with a loud roar, the Treant slams down at the two intruders trying to steal from the forrest. They both d-dodge." Joan's eyes fell downcast at the expecting look from Kaleigh and slumped her shoulders forward in defeat. "But he sends a rock and in an act of heroism, Klola uses all of her energy to force Bol away from the attack and Kal- Khloa is critically hit. A-and since the previous battle took most of her energy and health, s-she sags into the ground unable to move any further."
Somehow, Joan was able to lead Bryan into defeating the Treant, picking the petal, and dragging the body out of the forrest for the rest of the party to mourn and listen to the last words of Khloa Bellowthread, the Kind Gnome of the Eastern lands. Kaleigh had paused for almost two minutes after Joan gave her permission to speak her last words as the light force slowly left her body.
"My final words are as follows:" She smiled around at her comrades as they all held an earnest sadness at the freshman's death. "Be kind to one another, be the hero, and ensure that the time you have isn't wasted, because isn't that the only precious, truly unrenewable resource we have? Time."
After that Joan quickly ended the game for the night making up some excuse about her brothers, unable to continue confidently. She cried in the car, mourning the loss of more than just Khloa the Kind.
While the rest of the party continued onto the short bank of Lover's Lake, Joan fumbled at the edge of the woods, holding onto the tree next to her for support as a wave of nausea overtook her. She closed her eyes and massaged her temple with her free hand trying to rid herself of the discomfort quickly.
"Tιɱҽ ιʂ αʅɱσʂƚ υρ"
Joan's eyes shot open to see Kaleigh standing in front of her, the blonde staring at her as blood slowly fell from her nose and Joan let out a gasp, trying to get away and tripping over a root behind her as the freshman reached for her with a sinister smirk beginning to form on her face.
"Sσσɳ ყσυ ƚσσ ɯιʅʅ ʝσιɳ υʂ, ʂɯҽҽƚ Jσαɳ."
"N-no, no, no no." Joan denied, scrambling on the floor of the forrest to get away from the pursuing blonde. "No, no, no."
"Joan?! Joan!" A sharp frantic voice resounded around her before hands found her shoulders and shook her pugnaciously. Within a few blinks, Joan gasped into the real world, grabbing onto Eddie's hands with real fear in her eyes that sent Eddie into a panic. "Please tell me its you a-and not the psychotic version of you, 'cause it'd be so cruel to have to actually hurt you."
Joan embraced the metalhead into a hug, looking over his shoulder to see a whole crew of equally panicked party-members with various emotions and stances ranging from worried to combat-ready to confused. But she closed her eyes and had to stiffen a sob while Eddie hugged her firmly.
"S-she was right here." Joan whispered out helplessly, trying to shake out the image from her memory.
"Who, Ags- Joan?" Steve correct himself, eyebrows pinched together as he crouched in front of her and Joan opened her eyes. "Who?"
"Kaleigh... Kaleigh Thompson." Joan sighed out, freeing Eddie reluctantly from her grip and standing up, both boys following her lead with frowns.
"As in, Tammy Thompson?" Robin inquired almost seemingly embarrassed, sharing a quick insider glance with Steve. "The Tammy who left for Nashville to become a singer?"
"Yeah, fun fact... it doesn't work out and she ends up with a drug addiction and five kids with different dads." Joan informed cynically, wiping her eyes and bracing herself back into the future. "Kaleigh is the youngest and the coolest of them. Took her in on the first day of school and now dates Harry Wheeler-"
"Wheeler?!" Nancy and Steve blurted out together and Joan rolled her eyes, ignoring the little glance between the once couple and continuing.
"Long story short, she's part of the reason I'm here... We were having Hellfire Club, I was just about to get into the campaign, when the lights started to flicker and the door slammed open. Kaleigh came through and threw the table without even touching it. Then her nose started bleed and she threw me against the wall with her mind I guess... and then I-I woke up here."
Joan paused and looked over at Eddie, because everyone else was just staring to a point that made her uncomfortable. "A-anyways, what did I miss?"
"Gate. Middle of the lake. Vecna." Dustin decided to interrupt, flashing the light over the boat that they had just uncovered before Joan had started her shocking episode. "Theory."
"Snack-size gate." Robin repeated with a nod.
"R-right." Joan hugged herself as her brain naturally caught up, unconsciously stepping closer to Eddie so that their shoulders were touching to give herself some comfort. Eddie paused, torn between wrapping her up in his arms and holding her tightly, and doing nothing. "Snack-size gate."