you can color my world with sunshine every day

[deadboywalking]

Featuring: Will Byers deadboywalking and you~
What's happening: General March catch-all business
Day/s: Throughout March (3/02-3/31)
Content warning: panic attacks, ptsd, mentions of self-harm, possession, death, suicidal ideation (all in prompt 3)

i. casa de wheeler-byer

[So Will and Mike have a house now, which is an excellent thing for two eighth-graders to have. It's small, just enough for the two of them, and Will is obsessed with it. He's barely left it since the first day it appeared, busy painting every single wall with the variety of art supplies he got from Eddie.

One wall is a forest, one is a lake, another is a field with the sun shining and the sky a brilliant blue (and a rainbow ofc), and another is a literal castle. Will's working on this last one now, in the living room, sitting cross-legged so he can work on the details of every single stone in the outer wall, the links in the chain of the drawbridge, the sprigs of bright green grass along the moat. He's got paint all over him, in his hair, smudged on his face, on his clothes.

He hasn't been this happy in weeks. Since before coming to Reims. Since before the Upside-Down. He's in a focused, intent trance, but he's calm and happy enough that any visitors would be welcomed.]

ii. do you take commissions?

[Now that Will has his art supplies back, he's on a roll. He's already helped Kara and Faith redecorate, as well as made a sign for Majima, so why not offer his services to more people who might need it?

Hence:] un: willthewise - if anyone needs anything drawn or painted or any signs or anything done, let me or mike know. it's really grey and sad here, so i wanna help it be a little more colorful, if i can. mike's usually at fight club, and i'm at castle wheeler-byers. it's got a sign, you can't miss it.

i'll also be doing illustrations for mike's book of monsters thing, so if you gave him anything for that and want to make sure i did it right, come by.

iii. because a vision softly creeping left it's seeds while i was sleeping; open to close CR

[Most days are good ones. Will has settled in to a routine here in Reims -- go to Fight Club with Mike, visit his friends, draw or paint or sketch late into the night. Try and stay out of trouble -- nothing stupid or risky, stay away from the monsters. Help out where-ever he can. It's not perfect, it's not home, but Will's sort of happy here.

On the good days.

But then there are the bad ones. Sometimes it's a nightmare, sometimes it's a smell or a sight or a barely-audible sound. Sometimes Will just wakes up and he knows already it's going to be one of the bad days. He'll try to go through his routine like normal, try to pretend that everything's okay, but then there'll be that one tiny thing that flips the switch in his brain and --

-- and he's back, he's riding home from mike's and something is chasing him, he's in the shed with the rifle, no he's in the shed tied to a chair, no he's not in the shed he's in castle byers and there's something growingfesteringliving in his lungs and his throat and his stomach, no he's in the field behind school and it's in his ears in his eyes in his mouth and arms and legs and mind and bones and it's walking for him talking for him killing for him, he's in the upside-down and he's so so cold, he's in the lab and there are needles in his arms, he's in the lab and bob is dying bleeding screaming and he's happy he's so happy it's exactly as he planned, he's in the shed and tapping out C L O S E G A T E C L O S E G A T E K I L L I T K I L L M E K I L L M E --

and in reality Will is sitting hunched over on the front steps of his house in Reims, doubled almost in half, absolutely still, absolutely silent, because he has his wrist shoved into his mouth and he's biting down as hard as he can to keep from screaming.

Because he has to be quiet.]

Comments

[beyourzoomer]

yeah he is.

[Max adores Teddy. She motions Will toward her room and then leads the way down the hall and inside, moving to sit on the edge of her bed.]

[deadboywalking]

[Will lugs along his bag of supplies, the pauses, hands on his hips, examining her walls with a serious artist's eye.]

do you have any tape? or paper?

[beyourzoomer]

[She moves to the corner of the room, picking up the blank journal she'd gotten in that box she'd found on the porch. She hands it to him with raised eyebrows. She's not sure if that's what he's hoping for or not, but it's the only paper she has.]

haven't found any tape so far but i bet the hospital has some still.

[deadboywalking]

[Will gives the journal a thoughtful look, then nods, flicking it open and starting to draw out the shape of the room.]

it's okay, we'll just be careful. the tape's so that the paint doesn't drip onto the floor or smudge on the ceiling. it'd be nice if we had a drop cloth too, to keep things cleaner...

[He shows her the drawing, the four blank walls carefully sketched out.] you wanna do yellow still? i brought a couple shades. i also brought some dark blue and gold, in case you wanted to do a night wall.

[beyourzoomer]

[She watches him for a moment as he sketches out the walls and then she looks around the room, knowing it's going to look a lot better once he's finished.]

i have a couple extra blankets we can use.

what's a night wall?

[deadboywalking]

[He's already moving into action, carefully picking up and moving furniture and whatnot away from the walls so he can reach every bit.]

blue-black background with golden stars. it looks really cool. one of the walls in my fort had one for a while.

[beyourzoomer]

[When she sees what he's doing, she quickly moves to help. There's not really much, but it'll definitely take both of them to move her bed.]

oh, that sounds awesome. yeah, definitely. if it's not too much trouble.

[deadboywalking]

[Good, because Will is a little noodle of a boy who can't lift at all. He's out of breath even from the little bit of moving, but he grins, pulling the can of blue-black paint and a couple brushes out of his backpack.]

okay, we've gotta outline the stars first in this, so we know where to paint around. just pick random spots.

[beyourzoomer]

[That's why teamwork makes the dream work. Or something. She can't help but smile back when he grins at her.]

Okay. Should I like, pencil the spots on the wall?

[deadboywalking]

[Will nods seriously, pulling out a couple of those nice soft-lead pencils and starting to sketch out the stars.]

gotta make them different sizes, so it looks cool.

[beyourzoomer]

[Max works silently, just putting tiny but visible dots on the wall, not about to attempt drawing them herself. She knows where her talents lie, and art? Not it.]

Thanks, Will.

[If he looks at her, he'll see a soft smile that she doesn't give to most people.]

[deadboywalking]

[Will just sort of beams at her -- he's living his best life, okay, he gets to do art! And be with friends! :D!]