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Will’s voice shakes, “When Vecna attacks, he weakens you by turning your own mind against you, by bringing our everything inside you that hurts. So I fought back by focusing on happy memories, memories from when I was a kid, and when I wasn't scared, and when I felt most happy. That's how I took control in the MAC-Z, and how I killed the Demogorgons. And I thought the same would work on Vecna, too, but he found a way past. And he showed me things, Mom. He showed me the most awful things.” Joyce sees Will, the look of desperation on his face no mother wants to see on their child.
Joyce speaks, determined to protect her son from a threat they don’t truly understand, “No, listen. Whatever he showed you, it's not real. He plays tricks, and he lies, Will!”
Will can’t help but tear up, “No, he didn't. Mom, he used my own mind against me. He rooted up all of my memories, fears, and secrets, and now I'm worried he'll use “it” against me when we face him again. I think... I think you need to know the truth-”
The door slams open, Michael Wheeler, completely oblivious, goes on, “We just heard from Hop. He's fifteen minutes out, so we should probably leave in five.” Noticing the tension, he asks, “Everything ok?”
Joyce, bewildered by his insensitiveness, speaks up, “Yeah, we'll be out in a minute.”
“Yeah, Mike, give us a sec,” Will says.
“Oh, ok. Be out in about five minutes.”
Will smiles at him, with a love Mike never notices, “Thanks, Mike.”
When Mike finally walks out, and when Will gathers the courage, he speaks softly, “Mom, uh. You should know... God, this is harder to admit to than I thought it would be. I'm... Um, Dad wasn't that wrong when I was younger. He was insulting, but he was right. Maybe I am the queer fairy he used to say I am, but... I'm still your son.” Frantically, his voice begins to pick up speed and volume, “I still love DnD, and biking to Melvalds for malted milkshakes, and I like getting lost in the woods, and going to Family Video just to always end up getting Holy Grail for the millionth time… Mom, it’s not like wanted to be this way, I never wanted to be gay.”
Joyce looks at her son, her whole world, who was now facing an unloving and uncaring world, a world bound to hate her sweet, caring boy, “Oh, honey…”
With tears dripping down his face, “I've been this way my entire life... Just... But just because I don't like girls doesn't mean I'm someone to be hated?! Mom, I'm still me?” He ends up being engulfed in her arms. His mother, embracing him just as she did the day he was born.
Joyce can’t help but smile at her son, with tears in her eyes, she starts, “Oh, honey, you being gay doesn't change anything. You're still my beloved son, gosh, you have superpowers! We are fighting literal monsters! Liking boys isn't that strange! I mean, I like boys too!” She chuckles, tears in her eyes
“Oh, mom…” Will finally breaks down in her arms, with a years old secret being relinquished from his worries.
Joyce pulls back, taking her son's face into her hands, “I love you so much. I hope you know that. I will do anything and everything to protect you, always have, always will. I hope one day I can see you love yourself as much as I love you. I hope one day you'll find your person, someone to love and protect you way after I am gone. We are going to survive this, no matter if Vecna uses this against you, because guess what? Vecna… No, Henry is an old man who kidnaps children, his opinions don’t matter.”
“But what about everyone else? What will they think once this is over?”
“Oh fuck everyone else if they care!” Joyce smiles.
“Mom!” yelps Will, surprised by her carelessness.
Joyce giggles and stumbles while saying, “ If they care more about what an old book of mythology says after everything we’ve been through? They must be an idiot!”
“I guess you’re right…”
Joyce eyes her son, “Of course I am, I’m your mom. That’s never going to change.”
Breaking the sweet moment, Michael Wheeler barges in. Mike huffs in annoyance, “It’s been like ten minutes, we need to get going!”
“Mike..” with tears in his eyes.
Noticing Will's disheveled appearance and red, teary eyes. Mike hesitates, “Oh.. Are you ok, Will?”
“Yes, there’s just something I need to tell you…”