[read with black background for the best experience :) ]
and the stone walls of harmony hall bear witness
The walls were stark white, the only decorations being the simple crosses hanging in the center of almost every wall and the cameras peppered in corners, showing that they are always watching. He is always watching. She can feel their eyes boring into her even though she's not the one in the spotlight. She can hear the pops and rips of the old, worn straitjacket tearing at the edges and the buckles being pulled from cloth as muscles strain and flex. There was a fierce, angry energy around them, left hand curling into a ball as she approached the closest camera. Her voice lowered as she felt her knees bend, eyes trained upward. She leapt, now free hands wrapping around the electronic, the lens shrinking and growing to focus on her narrowed eyes.
"Gotcha."
Ophelia Castro was quick to integrate back into society once she had moved in with her aunt and cousin in Hawkins, Indiana. She was often told she no longer had anything left to fear, she was safe now, and she believed it. By far, she seemed to be the strangest occurrence in the history of the town other than whispers of laboratory experiments in the 'hippie days'. With a job at the town's arcade and her psychiatrist deeming it fit for her to return to school in the fall, her life seemed fit to take a normal turn and stay on that path.
But, when a regular of the arcade that she had become quite fond of goes missing unexpectedly, it raises red flags with the voices in her mind.
anger wants a voice
liv tyler ophelia astro
joe kerry steve harrington
matt dillon dallas castro
marisa tomei abigail castro
tashi rodriguez talia alvarez
adam horovitz samuel bradbury
stranger things cast themselves
and . . .
christian bale father elijah haynes
willem dafoe dr. jacob ledger
helena bonham carter elizabeth johnson (196)
willow smith lucia springs (248)
rami malek seth elony (124)
jamie foxx barry whitaker (304)
george segal charles edwards (334)
voices wanna sing
┏━━━━━━━━━┓
c a s s e t t e 1
i. comfortably numb pink floyd ii. while my guitar gently weeps - anthology 3 version the beatles iii. standing on the moon grateful dead iv. everybody wants to rule the world tears for fears v. the boxer simon & garfunkel vi. waiting around to die townes van zandt vii. talking to the wall michael nesmith viii. the story in your eyes the moody blues
c a s s e t t e 2
i. flume bon iver ii. implicit demand for proof twenty one pilots iii. ilomilo billie eilish iv. i gave you all mumford and sons v. arsonist's lullaby hozier vi. salt and the sea the lumineers vii. nails for breakfast, tacks for snacks panic! at the disco viii. cold cold cold cage the elephant ix. haze amber run
c a s s e t t e 3
i. althea grateful dead ii. radio ga ga queen iii. she's a rainbow the rolling stones iv. brand new key melanie v. storms fleetwood mac vi. hells bells ac/dc vii. little queen heart viii. burn deep purple
c a s s e t t e 4
i. harmony hall vampire weekend ii. dog days are over florence + the machine iii. e-pro beck iv. kids with guns gorillaz v. maybe half•alive vi. love is all the tallest man on earth vii. a thousand bad times post malone viii. looking down the barrel of a gun beastie boys
┗━━━━━━━━━┛
singers harmonize
DISCLAIMER!
I do not own Stranger Things or it's characters, I only own my characters and their story and contributions to the plot. The rest belongs to the Duffer Brothers and Netflix!
I also want to say that I have done a lot of research for this story, but I mean absolutely no disrespect or offence to people with any mental illnesses I may represent in this work. This work is not by any means meant to stigmatize mental health! For some, I'm going by my own experiences, but others are purely from deeper research, so if they are incorrect please tell me! If I make any mistakes, feel free to call me out! I'm very happy to learn and do not want anyone to feel judged wrongly or misrepresented <3
VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!
Ophelia shows a disorder similar to someone who may have DID or Dissociative Identity Disorder. I want to be very clear that that is NOT what she has. It is a completely different disorder that I have created to show paths that Ophelia could've taken in her life. These 'versions', as I refer to them as, are each a different person that she could've become in order to deal with the hardships she has faced in her life.
One shows someone who has been hardened and is quick to anger or distrust in order to protect herself. She has walls that are thick and tough, in order to keep everyone at arms length in case something were to go wrong. She is stoic, and hates to be vulnerable.
Another shows someone who is open and carefree on the outside. Anything that she wants, she'll strive to get, whether that be friends or something material. She is honest to a fault, words coming from her mouth faster than she can register exactly what she is saying. She is chipper and childish in a way, but hides many spiralling thoughts and overthinking tendencies. She moves quickly, thoughts or feelings out of the question. She is good at being too overbearing and pushing people away quickly if she doesn't like them, wearing a mask of, for lack of a better word, insanity.
The last one isn't explored in the story very much, but it is essentially a husk of her former self. Just empty, hollow. Numb to the world.
Ophelia herself uses these versions to make her the best she can be. They protect her, help her choose what paths she wants to follow, help her articulate. They are able to enter the 'spotlight', as I refer to it, of their own will, for she has learned how to better control it, but sometimes, when she is tired, scared, doesn't know who would best be able to deal with the situation, etc, they can switch with a will that isn't their own, or have moments where they are all in the spotlight. I may refer to that as co-consciousness or refer to some things as negative or positive triggers, but I mean that in the loosest meaning of those terms.
They are each separate entities, but at their core, they are all Ophelia. They can share memories from when one of them was away from the spotlight, or they can keep memories just for themselves, but it doesn't always work. It's faulty, but they're learning how to control it.
One day, Ophelia may just be herself, but for now, she has versions that will slowly integrate their way back into just one mind.
From what I have learned, DID can be a very distressing for those living with it. DID does not in any way correlate with violent or immoral behaviour. People living with DID deserve compassion and understanding, yet often experience mistrust and vilification from a misunderstanding of the mental illness or from inaccurate portrayals in the media. It is a heavily stigmatized disorder, and the people that live with it are not 'evil' and they do not have alters that are 'killers' or 'psychopaths'. They are real people and systems, not just a trope.
Ophelia later shows 'abilities' of sorts, which I won't go into much detail here, but, these are in no way shape or form from the fact that she does have these 'versions'. They are all from outside factors from her past and others that will be explored in the story.
This story is in no way meant to represent the DID community or to be used as a source of information. None of this is factual, as I myself do not have DID, so I can't write as someone who does have it. There is going to be discrepancies and similarities, but please, do not take what I write as any sort of fact or data. It is fully separate and completely fictional.
For more information on DID and other complex PTSD disorders from survivors, I strongly urge you to check the resources below :)
https://www.beautyafterbruises.org
and, on youtube,
DissociaDID
MultiplicityAndMe
The Entropy System
and many more.
They are helping to promote information free from the stigma and are ensuring that people can access scientifically accurate information for people that are looking for a better understanding, whether it be for themselves or others.
'til they can't hear anything
WARNING!
This work contains mature content such as profanity, descriptions of gore, scenes of domestic and institutional abuse, mental illness, death, strong (mostly negative) opinions of religion, and other mature themes. I will be putting more specific warnings on certain chapters but please do not proceed if you are uncomfortable or triggered by any of these things! Stay safe :)
Also, slow burn ahead, so strap in kiddos!
HELLO!! hi welcome! i've been working on this story for a couple of years now and i'm so excited to finally get it out! i'm excited for this story since it's one of my first really big, full fledged kind of fanfictions and it's super nice to finally feel like i have enough written to publish the beginning. i rlly hope you enjoy it. please let me know what you think and if i could improve anything! i'm also still kinda rough with dialogue and some things but pls b nice 2 me i'm sensitive :(
and just a warning, for the first bit of this story, there's going to be quite a few flashbacks to give a look into ophelia's past! i'm sorry if it might get a bit repetitive, but i want to be able to flesh her out more towards the beginning so more things make sense later on. the beginning of season 2 will be the same, but i hope it doesn't break the flow of the story too much :)
thank u for reading!
max <3