That's exactly what it was. And the fact that Santa Murray scrounged all this up in a single afternoon and smuggled it into what is likely the most heavily secured location outside of the White House, Fort Knox and Area 51 is a goddamn Christmas miracle. So, count your blessings, hang some mistletoe, pucker up, and kiss my jolly ass!
There we go. That's what this has all been about, really, is Eddie. All your bullshit, pushing everyone away? It's because no one could ever be as perfect as he was.
Dustin
Well, he wasn't perfect, but at least he knew that, unlike you! He was never fake! He didn't care what other people thought about him. He was just himself. And you know what? He was the smartest, kindest person I have ever met! And he would've solved this in thirty seconds flat.
You can keep telling yourself that, Henderson. But deep down, the reason you're so goddamn pissed is because you know the truth! Eddie wanted to play hero and he made a dumb call and he got himself killed!
After you left, I found a journal. Brenner’s journal. The key to destroying that wall is in this lab, but it is not a shield generator. It isn’t dark magic. Vecna didn’t make it. Science did. Theoretical physicists call it exotic matter. A single source of energy that is holding that giant wall together, and I think Nancy just shot it.
I'm not being an asshole! I'm trying to get to them, man!
Dustin
You're always trying to get yourself killed and I can't let it happen again! [sobbing] Stop being so selfish, please, if you go on there, you're gonna die, and I can't deal with it again. You can't die cause I can't deal with it again. Don't let it happen again. Please. Please don't let it happen again. [hugs him] Not you. [still sobbing into Steve's chest] I'm sorry.
I… I… I haven’t told any of you this because… Because I… I don’t… I don’t want you to see me differently. But the truth is… The… The truth is I am. I am different. I just… I just pretended like I wasn’t because… because I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be like everyone else. I wanted to be like my friends and… And I am like you. I’m like you in… in almost every way. We… We like playing D&D late into the night. And we like that old-person smell in Mike’s basement. And we… we like biking to Melvald’s for malted milkshakes. And we like getting lost in the woods, and getting lost in Family Video and arguing about what to rent and settling on Holy Grail for the millionth time. And… And we like Milk Duds in our popcorn with extra butter. And we like drinking Coke with Pop Rocks. And we like bike races and trading comics and NASA and Steve Martin and Lucky Charms and… Literally all the same things. I just… I just… I… I just… I… I… I… I don’t like girls. I mean… I mean I do. Just… Just not like you guys do. And I, uh, I had this… this crush on someone, even though I know… I know they’re not like me. But… But then I realized he’s just my Tammy. And by Tammy, I mean it was never about him. It was… It was about me. And I thought I was finally okay with myself, but… but then today… Today Vecna showed me what would happen if I did this, if I told you guys the truth. He showed me a future, and in this future, some of you are just… are just worried for me. Worried that things will be harder for me. And it just makes me feel like something’s wrong with me. So I… So I push you away. And for the rest of us, we just drift apart more and more and more and more and more until I’m alone. And I know none of that has happened, and Vecna can’t see into the future. But he can see into our minds, and he knows things. And it just felt so real. It felt so real.
Okay. [lets go of hug] El. I know you’re strong enough to defeat Vecna. But he can retreat to the physical world, and we need to be ready to fight him there too. We have bullets and fire, but none of that helped those soldiers. I need to be there. And I’m ready. I’m ready to show him I’m not afraid anymore.
I just wanted a normal childhood. But that childhood was stolen from me. It was stolen from us. And this past year, if you wanna know the truth, I've been pretty pissed off about it.
TTed
Language.
Dustin
But then I thought back to the past six years, and I realized that, even though there was a lot of bad, there was so much good too. There's this game I like to play. It's called Dungeons & Dragons.
And in this game, there are two types of chaos classes, chaotic good and chaotic bad. Now, bad chaos brings anarchy, destruction, war. But good chaos can bring innovation, change. And this school... frankly, it needed to change. Because we were so divided into the jocks, the nerds, freaks. And in the chaos, all those walls broke down, and I made new friends. I made friends who were never even supposed to be my friends. And this wasn't just me; I saw this happen with so many others. When you get to know people who are different from you, you begin to learn more about yourself. You change. You grow. I'm a better person now. I'm a better person because of them. Because of my friends. So, I'm not pissed off anymore. But I am worried. Worried, because now that the chaos is over, Principal Higgins and every square like him is gonna do their damnedest to put everything back in order, and I don't want order. Which is why it's hypocritical that I'm wearing this thing. I mean, we look ridiculous. What is this? We look like Roman senators. I mean, it's not who I am. I don't think it's who any of us are. So, honestly, just screw it.
HHiggins
Henderson!
Dustin
Screw the school. Screw the system. Screw conformity.
CHClaudia Henderson
Yes!
Dustin
Screw everyone and everything trying to hold you back and tear us apart, because this -- this is our year!
Stranger Things · 156 quotes
Dustin
