And In This Episode...

And in this episode...

I am, to a first approximation, the same age as the main group of characters in Stranger Things. Dustin, Lucas, Max, El, Mike, Will, and Erica as our younger sister/sidekick/conscience/troublemaker! are so close to my main D&D/friend group of that time that it's more than occasionally painful to watch.

This season's intro of the D&D/Satanic panic brought back even more painful memories. I've been wondering if/when they would tackle the subject. Whatever else, what that time taught me, more than anything, was that there were lines beyond which I couldn't trust some folks. One of my cousins doesn't visit that side, except for a couple of funerals.

Me, I'm reminded of how they behaved when they found us playing a game. Epic shitfit is the least of it. I'd be surprised if they didn't think they "saved" us from a dark path. There have been occasions since where I poke up against the edges, the boundaries of where trust ends, and then I step back and go, "Oh, right."

My wife thinks I'm overly traumatized and paranoid as a result. I try not to say "I told you so" when red flag-raising moments occur.

It was more than a bit odd. It was, for this particular group of folks, the first time I ran into something that I couldn't reason my way around. Or talk my way out of, depending on how you looked at it, I guess. Reason didn't have anything to do with it.

At least I could go home to my mom, and didn't have to put up with it if I didn't want to. Just stay away from the subject on weekends and holidays, pretend the books that had been stolen from me, the ones my mom had paid for and didn't have anything to do with them, never existed.

Don't tell them anything about important parts of my life. There would be other examples of this.

Not that mom's place didn't have its own issues. Abusive stepfathers only being part of that story. But that was a different level, in some ways: baked in from early enough that I just always assumed the next one was a bastard to be avoided. It's just a different impact, I guess, when you're actually cognizant of the trust breach in real time.

Mostly, I like to tell myself this is just poking old scars, running your fingers over them as a reminder. Not a big deal, right? Yes, no.

Maybe so. I could add a few thousand words about current events here. Tying in threads of the world. I won't, though.

I'd rather just bleed a little bit, acknowledge the moment and what it brought to me, then go on and enjoy the rest of the season.

Then, try and remember that horror has more dimensions for the audience than one might ever be able to anticipate.