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volume 1 | episode 10 MORDOR ┌────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┐ 'sorry, are we still speaking english?' └────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┘
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"BOOM!" DUSTIN SCARED MAEVE, causing eddie to grab onto her hand. "bada, bada, boom. I was right. skull rock was north." "seriously, you're serious? this is skull rock! okay, you're totally, absolutely, 100% wrong. right now." steve practically freaked out at dustin. "yes. and no. this worked correctly when we left the wheelers. it was correct when we got in the car on curly. but it started to slip the further east we went. now it's way off. when I was leading us here, I wasn't wrong. the compass was." dustin explained. "so you're using faulty equipment, you're still wrong." steve struggled to see the point, getting angrier. "except, it isn't faulty. lucas, do you remember what can affect a compass?" "an electromagnetic field." lucas said as if he just hit a realisation. "i'm sorry, I must've skipped that class." robin spoke what half of us were thinking. "in the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power. so either there's some super big magnet around here, or..." maeve and eddie watched with confusion. "there's a gate." "but we're nowhere near the lab." nancy pointed out. "but what if, somehow, there's another gate? a gate that we don't know about. it'd have to be smaller. way less powerful." "snack-size gate." robin said. "how? why?" steve asked. "no idea. all I know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we've seen anything like it, it was a gate. and I hope it is because then we'd have a way to vecna and a shot of freeing maeve and max from this curse." at the mention of her name, eddie looked at her. she gave him a weak smile. "where are you going? hey, hey, hey, hey, eddie's still a wanted man, we can't just go for a hike in the woods." steve said. "this little steel capsule might be the key to saving max, maeve and eddie. what say you, eddie the banished?" dustin asked. eddie looked back at dustin as everyone looked at him. "I say you're asking me to follow you into mordor, which, if i'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea. but uh, the shire, the shire is burning." maeve frowned at eddie as dustin started bouncing. eddie stood up. "so mordor it is." he held out a hand to maeve and helped her up. "sorry, are we still speaking english?" maeve asked as they all followed dustin.
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THEY FOLLOWED THE COMPASS TO lover's lake, where patrick had died. they found the boat eddie had used to escape jason, and began pushing it onto the water. first robin got on, then nancy, followed by maeve, an attempt from dustin, eddie, and finally steve. they made it about halfway across the lake before nancy told them to stop. "guys, what's going on?" dustin asked through the walkie. "c'mon guys, talk to me, what's going on?" "uh, dustin your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital 'aah!'" robin explained. "steve what are you doing?" steve had started taking his socks off, causing everyone to question his next move. "somebody's gotta go down and check this thing out. unless one of you four can top being a hawkins high swim co-captain and a certified lifeguard for three years, then... it's gotta be me. no complaints, all right?" he said. maeve glared at the water. it was dark, and very very deep. "hey, i'm not complaining. I do not wanna go down there." eddie said as he pulled out a bag and covered a torch with it. maeve and robin noticed as steve removed his top and nancy couldn't avert her eyes. eddie gave steve the torch and wished him luck before he jumped in, making the boat rock. maeve grabbed onto the sides quickly and closed her eyes as they slowly stopped rocking. she breathed deeply a few times before opening her eyes again. "hey, you okay?" eddie asked. "yeah. fine, just, not the biggest fan of boats." she glared at the water again. "why didn't you wait with dustin then?" robin looked at her confused. "and become the next babysitter? no thanks." she joked, but her knuckles were becoming white from holding on. eddie didn't speak, he just slowly reached for her hand, and pulled her closer to him. "just breathe. you got this." he smiled.
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AFTER A COUPLE MINUTES OF breathing with eddie, robin moved over to nancy's side to give them more space and had started looking with nancy over the side of the boat. maeve was sat with her head leaning on eddie as he continued to hold her hand. it almost felt like it was just them two when the other two were looking the opposite direction. she saw his hand reach down and move a strand of hair behind her ear. "hey, ev." he basically whispered. she looked up at him. "thank you." "what for?" she whispered back. "for catching me looking at the answers." they both quietly laughed. "nah, i'm serious. if you hadn't, we wouldn't have met, and you would've thought I was some next serial killer." "no problem. once this is all over and done with, you're free, i'm back to not being cursed, that studying offer still stands. if you still want to see me after all this, that is." she smiled. eddie glanced to the bottom of the boat and back up at maeve multiple times. "I don't think I want to see you to just study after this." he admitted. "maeve, this might be all the wrong things to be saying at a time like this, but there might not be another time. I liked the look of you since that day in the classroom. I thought you looked interesting. different. and really pretty, but that's beside the point. then you started speaking. and, I never felt anything like it." "ed-" "it's probably so dumb, but you were the one person I thought would understand me in this world. and you did." "eddie, I-" "maeve, I just wanted to say-" eddie wouldn't stop talking. "oh my god, eddie shut up." maeve laughed as she pulled his hellfire shirt towards her and kissed him. it took him a couple of seconds to realise what was happening, but once he did, his hands pulled her waist closer, hers resting on his shoulders. "hey, how long is a human supposed to survive without breath- i'll ask later." robin said as she slowly turned back around after seeing eddie and maeve. they stopped and looked at each other, before laughing together. "was all that to stop me thinking from the boat?" she smiled, before jumping back into eddie's arms as steve emerged from the water.
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"OH CHRIST!" EDDIE YELLED AS STEVE returned. "I found it." steve gasped. "you found it?" nancy jumped to the side of the boat where steve was. "yeah, I found it." "dustin you are a goddamn einstein, steve found the gate." robin reported back through the walkie. "its pretty wild. it's more a snack-size gate than the mama gate, but still it's pretty damn big." steve explained, before dropping back down into the water. everyone yelled for steve as he came back up, confused. he looked at the water, before dropping back down again like something had grabbed him. everyone began yelling for him again before nancy stood up. "wait here." nancy said before jumping in. everyone stopped yelling for steve and yelled for nancy instead. this time it was robin's turn to sit on the side of the boat. "no, no, no. what are you doing? she said wait." eddie said. "yeah I heard her." robin had a look of determination on her face. "she's in charge." eddie tried again. "are you kidding me? I made that shit up." robin said as she threw herself overboard. "goddamn it! jesus h christ! jesus-" maeve stood up slowly to gain balance as she walked closer to the edge. "no. maeve, no. sit down." eddie said. "I can't. just- wait here or come with me." maeve said. eddie took a second before he decided. he grabbed onto maeve's hand, and they jumped in together.
