Theodore Wright

## Theodore Reuel Wright

Theodore "Theo" Wright, portrayed by Jonathan Godsk and scripted by Discord user "kingthorin", is a main character in Stranger Things: The Fall of Hawkins. He is introduced at the start of *The Apocalypse*.

## History

### Earlier

Theodore was born in the Hawkins National Laboratory as part of the experiments run by Dr. Martin Brenner. While he was considered promising as a test subject, once born, the baby's constant screaming and inconsistent brainwave patterns marked him as a failure and his number "003" was re-assigned before he was branded. Noting him as defective, it was decided that the baby would be disposed of. However, when the time came, the baby could not be found despite an extensive search.

Merrill Wright found the baby in the forest by his property after following the sounds of crying in the early morning. There, by a tree strangely split down the middle and bark frayed at the seam, he saw the baby wet with dew and deathly cold, bare from head to toe. The baby was taken immediately to Hawkins Memorial Hospital, and though they came close to losing him, he made it through the night, and the doctors declared that he would live.

A few months later, as Hawkins P.D. could not find any family for the baby, Merrill and his wife officially adopted him, naming him "Theodore Reuel".

Growing up as a withdrawn child who preferred the company of a book over people, Theodore did not make friends. He realized that he was different from others in ways he was only beginning to understand. His abilities, which manifested an aversion to touch, separated him from others. He could become overwhelmed by both his parents' affection and their concern. Playing with other children became tiring when they brushed against him. His growing strength resulted in broken toys and property, leading to frequent groundings from his parents who didn't understand why Theodore acted as he did. Bullying in school because of his quiet and often restrained demeanor led to him being called "Stone Face" by his peers.

Merrill taught Theodore how to do different chores around the farm, which Theodore found solace in, as planting did not have unasked emotions, and animals did not give off intense feelings like humans did. By age ten, Theodore could drive his father's old Ford truck around the property. Theodore spent most of his time at the farm, along with helping his father at the farmer's market or with the yearly pumpkin patch. It would be Theodore's job to help people carry the pumpkins to their car. It was during these times that, from a distance, Theodore would see many of the kids his age, brought there by their parents. Though he did secretly yearn to have friends, he never approached them, and they never approached him.

Theodore's mother passed when he was eleven. At the funeral, Theodore reached for her hand to hold it in the coffin, thinking that, with her dead, he could do so without being engulfed by the emotions that came from touching others. What washed over him instead was such emptiness that he passed out onto the floor. Never again did he touch anyone dead.

At Hawkins Middle School, during his seventh grade year, overcome by the feelings of his first crush and tentative first friendship with another boy, Theodore asked the boy if they could kiss. The boy refused him and spread the story around school, further ostracizing Theodore. Other students took to calling him "Forest Fairy", for they all knew the story of how he was found in the woods. While the story did not spread much outside of the middle school, it caused Theodore to retreat further, becoming uncomfortable with even his own feelings. As the years passed, he was even more determined to hide them as much as possible, pushing away anyone who approached him. It was to protect himself from them ... and protect them from him.

### 1983

When Will Byers goes missing, Theodore delivers a consolation basket of fresh produce from Merrill to Joyce Byers. Joyce asks him if he's ever seen anything strange in the woods, and Theodore admits that he has not, though one of the nearby farmers recently went missing as well. Though it drains him, Theodore returns the embrace that Joyce gives him. She says he is welcome anytime since his mother passed. Theodore, exhausted by Joyce's distress, only nods before he leaves.

Theodore is later seen being picked on by Tommy Hagan, who jumps at Theodore to startle him and make him jerk back, much to Carol Perkins' amusement. As Theodore hurries away, she jeers after him, telling him to "fly away to the forest".

### 1984

The day before Halloween, Theodore discovers that the pumpkins in the farm's pumpkin patch had somehow rotted overnight. Merrill reports to the Hawkins P.D. that his entire pumpkin patch was contaminated and accused his neighbor Eugene McCorkle as having poisoned his farm. When Hopper came to investigate, Merrill explained that Eugene originally started the argument regarding the "Pick Your Pumpkin" event they had both started years ago and suspected Eugene for sending one of his co-workers to destroy the competition. However, Hopper doubted its possibility, and Theodore shook his head at Hopper behind his father's back. Hopper asked Theodore if he had seen anything strange, and Theodore said no, not besides the abruptly rotting pumpkins. He does not tell Hopper that he had already met with Eugene and touched him to see if he was lying.

Merrill permitted scientists from Hawkins National Laboratory to take samples and run tests on his rotted pumpkins at the request of Hopper. Theodore's peers at school began to spread rumors about "the farmer's son", wondering if Theodore "Stone Face" had finally cracked and poisoned the pumpkin patches. Theodore overhears these rumors and misses a few classes driving around town instead, stressed over the possibility that some new abnormality in him had shown up.

Unaware of the hole being dug by Hopper in his pumpkin patch, Merrill and Theodore hear in the night the sounds of voices and other commotion. Rushing to the scene, they find that scientists from H.N.L. have already arrived and are setting the hole in the ground ablaze. Panic erupts as one of the persons there, Will Byers, collapses. All are rushed from the scene. Merrill is advised to take his son and find another place to stay for a few days. Merrill complies out of fear for his family's safety and goes to stay with his former competitor (and friend), Eugene.

Theodore, however, curious about the reason for the hole and the involvement of Hawkins residents, returns to find Billy Hargrove's parked camaro by the hole. Shouting from the hole keeps him from going down it, but he hides behind the camaro when Steve Harrington, Mike Wheeler, Max Mayfield, Dustin Henderson, and Lucas Sinclair emerge.

Once the bright lights dim (after Eleven closes the gate), Theodore steps forth, pretending to have just arrived, telling them to get off the property in his usual curt manner. The camaro is stuck in the dirt, and he helps Steve and Lucas push it back to the road, though it is really Theodore, with his unnatural strength, who easily pushes the car away.

### 1985

Merrill recounts to Theodore about the strange journalist woman (Nancy Wheeler) who called about diseased rats and other animals. Theodore remarks that the entire town is strange now (and adds quietly, "Including myself.").

Joyce Byers asks Theodore while he's making a delivery to the local grocery store if he's seen anything strange going on out by the farms, and though Theodore does not have anything to offer, he comments offhandedly about the land around them being bought off, and that his father refused to sell.

### 1986

The night the "earthquake" strikes and splits Hawkins, Theodore was out for a nightly drive. When he sees a bus full of people about to topple into the sizzling rupture, he has no choice but to risk himself and pull the bus away. Rumors spread amongst the refugees staying at Hawkins High School; just who is the farmer's son? How did he do what he did?

### The Apocalypse

Merrill has Theodore deliver relief supplies, including blankets and produce, to Hawkins High. Taxed already by the emotions rolling off of the traumatized Hawkins people, Theodore's tolerance is thinly stretched, as is his control. What he doesn't realize is that the rumors have him under suspicion by the characters for reasons Theodore will soon learn ...

### Current

The drop-off does not go as Theodore expects. While unloading the truck, one of the persons in charge enlists Tommy Hagan, Chrissy Cunningham, and Eddie Munson to help Theodore bring the crates of produce in. Theodore recognizes Chrissy and Eddie — he had seen both their faces on the news that Merrill had been keeping up with on their small kitchen television. Indifferent to Chrissy's friendliness and referring to Eddie as "Devil Guy", their introductions are curt at best. Theodore, unsettled by Tommy's presence as a former bully, remarks dryly to him as he is eating a carrot that they may be poisoned, causing Tommy to promptly spit out the food.

While Chrissy and Tommy decide together to treat Theodore with suspicion, Eddie's intent friendliness causes Theodore to become more flustered than he would like. Eddie, a long-time crush of Theodore's and a rare person who Theodore considers to be "cool" due to his role in the Hellfire Club, manages to throw the farmer's son off, as he is unaccustomed to anyone besides Steve treating him with any sort of familiarity. Bewildered at the nickname of "Teddy" and out of sorts from the butterflies in his stomach, Theodore gives him two cigarettes for carrying the crates in, careful to avoid touching Eddie's fingers. Glancing at Eddie and Chrissy together, those butterflies are replaced by a knowing twist that he could never be like her.

Theodore unexpectedly runs into Steve Harrington, who is also helping with the relief effort at Hawkins High School. With a tentative friendship between them, Steve implores to Theodore to give him a ride to Murray Bauman's place, which an overwhelmed and on-edge Theodore reluctantly agrees to as a way to get out of the school and away from all the people around him as the whispers start about his incident with the bus.

Eddie calls after him that they will see each other later, to which Theodore can only stare at him at disbelief.

During the drive, Theodore attempts to ask Steve how he is, feeling Steve's worry through his fingers. Steve shrugs it off, fiddling with the radio instead, much to Theodore's exasperation.

When they arrive at Murray's, Theodore is scared cold to see Billy Hargrove, someone who he thought was dead and a funeral he remembered mentioned briefly in the papers. Unable to refer to Billy as anything other than the "ghoul", Theodore almost doesn't follow Steve into the place, but despite his fear, he has a protectiveness over Steve's naïve tendencies (insisting as well that he "owes me gas money"), and out of sheer will makes himself follow. He immediately wishes he hadn't; Murray confronts Theodore with a pointed shotgun, and afterwards, Theodore is threatened by Kali Prasad while Steve and Billy disappear to the garage to talk and Max Mayfield retreats to her room.

When they touch, a strange flux of their powers happen, emotion-sensing merging with Kali's illusions, creating flashes of mixed feelings and glimpses of long-buried memories of the lab. The humming between them intensifies to a near unbearable point until they break off, and Theodore ends up with a black eye through Kali's shocked fist. Things rapidly devolve (including a brief sensation as Eleven, from the void, reaches out to the vision of Theodore, and the sizzle of their meeting powers pushes her out of it), and as Theodore's control lessens and he becomes more desperate, he shoves Kali hard, sending her into the back of the couch.

It is then that Billy and Steve return, and Kali, angered by Theodore's retaliation, threatens him with more illusions, and Theodore, confronted with so many unexplained things, begins to question his sanity, becoming more and more agitated as Kali will not let him leave. Billy then decides to throw Theodore out, dragging him from the living room and throwing him to the dirt outside. Steve follows in protest, demanding that Billy stop as Billy takes Theodore's keys, gets Steve's things out of the truck, and then goes back into Murray's. Theodore is left in the dust and the ash.

Weakened and heaving a few times from the physical and emotional strain of the whole ordeal, Theodore stumbles back up to his feet while ruminating in a moment of despondent fragility that perhaps he and Steve were not friends after all. It is then that Max emerges, having snuck out the window of her room in order to get a ride from Theodore to see Will Byers at the hospital. Though Theodore initially wants to say no, he remembers her from the pumpkin field during Halloween, and, too exhausted to resist, agrees to drive her there ...

## Personality and Traits

A blunt speaker (if he speaks at all) with a smart mouth, Theodore rarely says what anyone wants to hear, and doesn't go out of his way to spare the feelings of others, though this is because he is not spared others' feelings and feels the need to throw something back at them. His sullen face hides the intensity of what he feels inside, for no matter what Theodore would like people to believe (including himself), he does feel, and often doesn't know how to manage his feelings without pushing them — and everyone — away. With a cold countenance and a body that flinches from the slightest threat of a touch, it’s no wonder he doesn’t have any friends, nor tries to make any.

Theodore is often looking for means to escape from the real world, whether it be in his books, in the woods, or the repetition of farm chores. Numbing himself from it all can only go so far, and as withdrawn as Theodore is, he longs for some kind of connection, to no longer be different and alone from everyone else. Trees might make good listeners, but they don't speak back, and the overwhelming silence can bring Theodore to tears just as much as the overwhelming presence of people.

Observant but stubborn and deliberately unfriendly despite his longing, Theodore is a pessimist through and through. His smart remarks shield a shier core that he hides to protect himself. While he won't hesitate to help others if needed, don't expect him to be nice about it.

## Abilities

As an experiment, Theodore has abilities that no normal human has.

### Touch Empathic Sense

* Theodore knows what the person is currently feeling the moment he touches them. It can also manifest in him seeing glimpses of the other person’s memories depending on how long the touch is and how much he lets through. He embodies the emotions the other person is feeling, which temporarily alters his personality. He does not, at the moment, have any shields to prevent himself from feeling the other person’s emotions when touching. It’s an immediate sensation that can overwhelm and confuse his own sense of self. If someone's emotions are intense enough, he can feel them just by being in close proximity. Only certain types of fabric prevent this ability, such as leather. Touching someone who is dead can result in either him passing out or dying as well. Being in physical contact with someone for too long can result in nosebleeds and light-headedness as the two emotional states within him battle. Being touched by too many people at once can cause him to pass out. If given the chance to learn how to handle this sense, he could produce the shields needed to let him touch others without being taken over by their emotions. He could also learn to project his emotions onto someone.

### Unnatural Strength

* Theodore is at least three times stronger than the average person, if not more. He can break rocks with his bare hands and lift his truck if necessary. He has a fair amount of control over his strength, but can easily break people if he doesn’t remain aware of himself. Being strong does not affect his durability, and he can be harmed by others the same way that normal people can. His strength has limits and he does not become stronger than he already is. Pulling the bus out of the way the night of the "earthquake" is about at the limit of Theodore's strength.

## Relationships

### Familial

**Merrill Wright**

Theodore's adoptive father seems to always be concerned over his son, and for good reason. Their relationship has become more and more closed over the years as Theodore retreats both emotionally and physically. A warm man who is quick to form grudges but just as quick to forgive them, Merrill may not be the brightest candle of the bunch, but he cares deeply for his son, as his wife did before she died. He'll often ask Theodore about the books he's reading, which causes Theodore to open up. He's proud of his son's work on the farm and the deliveries, but often complains that his son has yet to "bulk up" like all the other farmers' sons. Theodore, though he struggles to express it, cares just as much for his father, and often bears the brunt of heavier tasks for him in secret.

### Non-Familial

**Joyce Byers**

Theodore and Joyce came to be familiar with each other over the years as Joyce took her children to the pumpkin patch as an affordable Halloween activity. She would often ask him which pumpkins he thought were best and tried to get him to play with her oldest son, Jonathan Byers, who Theodore shied away from reluctantly. Later, when Will disappears, Theodore brings a consolation basket full of produce to Joyce, attempting to comfort her with a rare hug. They often see each other in town and have casual conversations. As one of the few people Theodore spoke to regularly, he was depressed to hear that she left for California.

**Tommy Hagan**

Tommy, with his then girlfriend Carol, used to occasionally bully Theodore at school. Theodore secretly referred to him as "Ninny-Hagan", a play on the insult "Ninnyhammer". They have not interacted since high school.

**Jim Hopper**

Theodore used to sometimes deliver apples to the police station. He met Hopper officially when Hopper came to investigate the rotting pumpkins at the farm.

**Steve Harrington**

The Harringtons are one of the families that Merrill's Farm delivers fresh produce to several times a month. Theodore made most of these deliveries, often to Steve as his parents were usually not at home. Though separated by social statuses while they were at school, there's a certain civility between them during Theodore's deliveries. If anything, they at least remain polite. Through a few accidental brushes, Theodore is aware of Steve's loneliness. A tentative friendship is slowly forming.

## Trivia

* Though the discovery of a baby was written about in The Hawkins Post, Dr. Brenner dismissed the story, deciding it could not be the child they were looking for given that the adopted parents had no concerns. Undercover scientists from H.N.L visited the Wright residence but could not come to a conclusion. With more important and talented subjects to attend to, Dr. Brenner sealed away the file.
* One of the files that Billy steals is Theodore's closed file, a folder with a faded "**00-**".
* At age ten, Theodore could drive his father's old truck. He once broke the steering wheel off turning too suddenly.
* Theodore saw many characters who came to the pumpkin patch with their families when they were children, such as the Wheelers, the Harrington family, and the Byers.
* He does know how to play Dungeons and Dragons, but has never had anyone to play with.
* His Vecna song would be "Blue Lamp" by Stevie Nicks.
* His powers do not often cause him nosebleeds like other experiments. He occasionally gets nosebleeds at the end of the day from over-exposure to people's emotions or from prolonged contact. Using his strength does not make his nose bleed because it exists as it is and he cannot push it.
* Theodore will sometimes go into the forest to scream.
* He has a copy of *The Lord of the Rings* given to him by Jonathan at the encouragement of Joyce when they were both kids. It's a special item to him even though the two never ended up becoming friends as children.
* As much as he avoids relationships with others, Theodore enjoys reading romantic books like *The Princess Bride*. Buttercup's initial mistreatment of Westley before she realizes she loves him makes him wish for the same thing.
* Not easily susceptible to "The Blues", as if his early exposure to the elements gave him some protection. He can still be affected, just not as quickly.

## Quotes

* *One day, I know I'm going to break. It'll consume me, like ivy. Like vines.*
* *I'm fine. If you think I don't look fine, then don't look.*
* *I think I want out of whatever kind of fairy-tale this is supposed to be.*

## Gallery

Theodore's yearbook page.Theodore's old truck.Theodore in 1983.Theodore in 1984.Theodore in 1985.Theodore in 1986.Theodore is a smoker.Theodore in his truck.Theodore featured in the season two poster.Theodore's solo poster for season two.Theodore's Vecna song.