still insane that jonathan instinctively checked lonnie’s trunk in s1

And he was supposed to have a redemption arc while they killed off Steve originally.

Thank God the duffer bros got a hard no one that one

the idea of lonnie getting a redemption arc is so foreign to me I thought you meant jonathan needed on bc of checking the trunk and christ alive, i am so damn tired

Title: Momento Mori

Author: Skepsis_Ree Artist: @the-aphelion-archives Beta: knormalizeknitting Characters:Steve Harrington, Wayne Munson, Eddie Munson, Chrissy Cunningham, Eleven | Jane Hopper Relationship(s): Steve Harrington & Wayne Munson, Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Warnings: Mention of death, mention of suggested homophobia Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Additional Tags: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Fluff and Angst, back from the dead, Eventual Romance, Drama & Romance, Ghosts, Love Confessions, Supernatural Elements, Post Season 4, Bisexual Eddie Munson, Bisexual Steve Harrington, Fluffy, Fluffy Ending Wordcount: 24,914 Summary:

Momento Mori by Skepsis-Ree

art masterpost by the-aphelion-archives

I wasn't allowed to talk about it or promote it before, but please check out this fic I wrote!!

I worked really hard on it, and I think I wrote a really good Wayne and I'd love for y'all to read how much Steve and Wayne LOVE Eddie 💗💞

This fic has a criminally low amount of hits for the amount of work I put in, so please give it a go 🙏

Do you ever have a juicy idea for a steddie fic but none of the energy to write it so you wanna hand the idea over to another writer so it can exsist but you struggle to make friends, have no mutuals and know no other steddie writers enough to be 'hey you should totally write this' ???

Cause like yeah I'm feeling that

Reblog to let OP and all other Steddie fans know that they can message you to talk about fics, ships, ideas, and whatever else no matter if you’re mutuals, one-way followers, or complete strangers who have never interacted before even once!

I promise, we’re all weirdos here.

Not only that but spinning up others fics is super fun, or offshooting one of your own with someone's idea about it

It's like tumblrs version of talking around a bonfire

Darlings if you ever want a fic idea I have so many, and they’re all starving to death while I’m at work. Please. Save them.

I think that more fanfiction should be written with the aim to tackle the original meaning of hanahaki. Because when the concept of hanahaki disease was originally created, it was intended to be a metaphor for suppressing one’s feelings.

Your feelings are this beautiful garden of flora inside of your chest. When you express how you feel honestly, you allow for it to grow freely. But when you hide how you feel out of fear of rejection, and try to make it smaller and smaller, the flowers become cramped inside of you, until you choke on your own feelings. Every flower you cough up is something you’ve felt, but refused to say.

The whole “dying” thing is intended to be more symbolic especially. You’re killing off bits and pieces of yourself and how you feel, because you’re afraid to express yourself.

It’s not really supposed to be, “The one I love doesn’t love me back, and I’m dying from it.” Rather, it’s more along the lines of, “Repressing your emotions is bad for you, and it’s better and healthier to express them freely, even when it’s scary.”

Which is to say that, one, the cure for the disease should be telling the person that you are in love with how you feel. How the other person feels about the person afflicted should have nothing to do with it, as the trope is meant to be about feeling your emotions unapologetically.

And that, two, it’s not an inherently romantic trope. Obviously, it has romantic applications, but it can be written for any situation where a character is hiding how they truly feel. This can include a refusal to address a specific trauma, a desire to indulge in something that they’re ashamed of, and even really practical things, like wanting to ask one’s boss for a higher position.

Although (as an aromantic person myself) I don’t agree with this conclusion about the trope, this application would also avoid people calling it arophobic. When the thing killing the character is a refusal to be honest with themselves, rather than an unrequited love, it’s on nobody’s hands but their own to save their life.

There are a ton of ways that this interpretation of the hanahaki disease could be applied in new and interesting ways in fanfiction, and I’d love to read what things people could come up with!

Gut Instinct: Chapter 3 - Friday

[Art] [Ao3] [Prologue] [Chapter One] [Chapter Two] [Interlude] [Chapter Three]

As suspected, Dustin and Robin are loitering near the gym doors, awaiting their rides. "What would you two have done if I'd kept my date instead, huh?"

"Like that would stop me from getting a ride," Robin says.

"Nancy would have taken me home," Dustin says with a grin and a shrug of his shoulders.

Steve rolls his eyes and does his best to look annoyed even when all he feels is fond. "Alright, let's go. Dustin gets shotgun."

"Yes!"

"What!? Why?"

"I ruined Dustin's game tonight. This is me groveling," Steve answers as he leads them to where he parked earlier that afternoon. They're arguing behind him as they follow, but he's not listening. Now that all the excitement of the night has ended, and the rolling of his insides has settled, he remembers the weird waking nightmare thing.

Once at his car, he unlocks the passenger side door, opening it for Dustin who gives him a suspicious look before climbing in. Steve reaches down, presses the unlock button for the rest of the doors, then shuts Dustin in.

"Robbie, can you stay the night?"

"I have to! I have so many questions. Like, what happened to Heidi-"

"Brenda"

"-why you came into the gym with a herd of nerds, and why you chased Eddie down," Robin finishes as if he hadn't even corrected the name of his date. Not date? Whatever.

I have absolutely no idea what this was going to be.

WAIT I REMEMBERED

I was going to write something extended for the thing about Steve freaking out and making Eddie think he molested Steve.

clearly, it did not succeed.

Steddie Amnesia Ficlet: Part Two

-> Part 1

Steve hears Eddie call after him, but he doesn’t stop—he can’t face it. Not right now, anyway. Not when his eyes are stinging and his heart is pounding in his ears, each pulse more painful than the last. His legs take him to the building he’s supposed to go into, fueled purely by muscle memory. Not brain memory, of course, because nothing up there works properly anymore, apparently.

The Brain Injury Recovery Center.

It’s where Eddie expects him to go. He’ll catch Steve if he goes in, or he’ll wait for Steve by the doors until he comes back out—both options involve facing Eddie after Steve had made a total idiot of himself. Both feel utterly mortifying.

So he ducks into the alleyway beside the familiar brick building instead, just to catch his breath. It takes Steve longer than the average bear to sort out his feelings now, after all. Jesus, who’s he kidding? Everything seems to take him longer.

Steve feels hot tears streak down his cheeks before he angrily scrubs a sleeve over them. Of course Eddie isn’t his boyfriend. Eddie’s funny and cool and he’s in a band and he lights up every damn room he walks into—and Steve… well, maybe Steve was something a few years ago when he was in high school, and maybe he was even something before his accident, but now…

Pros of re-reading your own fic

Cons of re-reading your own fic:

pros of the cons:

Another con

Post S2, at some random party, Steve and Eddie hook up, not full naked sex, but undeniably gay activity. And they’re teenagers and they were both a little intoxicated, so they didn’t stop for a conversation on the topic. In the aftermath, Eddie isn’t sure if Steve actually started it, or if Eddie was too turned on by his crush, and imagined it.

Aftermath is the right word. This is a Steve who hasn’t met Robin yet. He’s grown since S1, but in the morning, seeing a hickey on his neck from a guy, he spirals in a bad way. Tries to convince himself he didn’t want it, then spirals harder because he absolutely did want it.

Eddie likes to pretend he’s a cynic, but he’s a romantic and an optimist, and when he approaches Steve after school the next week - carefully, hidden, no one knows they’re talking at all because Eddie knows this is a dangerous place to be like them - he doesn’t get as far as asking if Steve maybe wants to come hang out. Steve is still spiraling, and Eddie is undeniable proof that he should be spiraling.

Steve says a lot of stuff in the next few minutes. All of it is true and all of it’s a lie. There’s one thing that sticks with Eddie and festers. Steve says that he didn’t want it, didn’t want Eddie to kiss him, to touch him. Says he didn’t want to touch Eddie but he had to. Sure, a lot of that is the same as every other closeted guy would say. The part that makes it stick in Eddie’s gut, churning and painful, is that no matter how hard he tries, Eddie can’t be sure if Steve was leaning in, or if he was imagining what he wanted to see

this has the potential to be so juicy!

This is about the way that Eddie would hear, constantly, about how gay men do that, and he's always thought that was bs, and then he spends a year not sure if did exactly that. About the way that he'd probably not even look for another hookup. About how he'd want to apologize, but how does a person even start. And. About how he'd feel sick and scared when the kids eventually mention Steve Harrington, and how Steve always protects them.

Thanks for reminding me that this exists. I extracted from the replies for your amusement, but got stuck wondering if this story is better alternating pov, or tight to Steve, or tight to Eddie:

--

acowardsinmordor: capitalism is a heavy burden on us both. Also. Invert the convo in the woods in the UD. Steve awkwardly trying to tell Eddie he’s actually a good dude, unaware how Eddie is going to interpret that

gloomysoup: oh god. steve taking a chance and trying to backtrack everything he said after that night and find the right words to tell eddie how he really feels, not knowing how it's going to be received. now imagine eddie taking that convo in and spiraling even further bc he doesn't want to make steve feel like he HAS to forgive him or say he's a good dude just bc it's the end of the world and they may never make it out of the upside down alive, and he doesn't actually mean it

acim: “I guess I was surprised to find out that Eddie Munson is actually a good dude” and Steve thinks he’s referencing Eddie being a drug dealer and triple senior. Thinks that now that he’s braver, he can maybe flirt again. Maybe have more than that again. Meanwhile Eddie hears a reference to the night he molested Steve and the shock that Eddie is anything more than that

gs: eddie trying so hard to act like everything is fine bc he doesn't want to make things worse w steve. attempting to mentally distance himself to save steve from whatever inner turmoil is bubbling up bc of all this end of the world bullshit. and then, AND THEN. the bats. eddie realizing that the bats are getting in. dustin is hurt. he has a split second before he makes the decision to go, to give everyone else more time. and he's distracted bc he keeps thinking ab steve, ab how fucked up he is for ever thinking he was different from what everyone said he was. and then he's laying there, bleeding out, and he thinks: this is it. this is my fate. this is what i deserve for what i did to steve.

acim: even if Steve gets a vague sense that Eddie is more tense than he should be, if he tries to help, it would be things like thanking Eddie for protecting the boys in school and taking care of them, and how great it is that he keeps them safe, and Eddie would hear all of it as a veiled threat

oh my god i forgot this existed god bless whoever made this post relevant again

I have a potential escape hatch to make this fixable, but I gotta retcon and add a thing.

Steve wasn't the only one with hickies that night.

So Eddie has spent the past year yoyoing between convinced that he's a rapist, and convinced that Steve was enjoying it at the time. Not in the exculpatory way. But it means he isn't always in a downward spiral. He has a bit of confidence, and feels sure it was just a bad decision on both their parts. Then that collapses under him when he sees Steve flinch as Eddie walked into Family Video.

If we get him to a more unsettled opinion of himself this is easier. Sure he gets thrown into the despair deepend thanks to them actually talking, and the apocalypse going on, but that way he's not locked in.

Post S2, at some random party, Steve and Eddie hook up, not full naked sex, but undeniably gay activity. And they’re teenagers and they were both a little intoxicated, so they didn’t stop for a conversation on the topic. In the aftermath, Eddie isn’t sure if Steve actually started it, or if Eddie was too turned on by his crush, and imagined it.

Aftermath is the right word. This is a Steve who hasn’t met Robin yet. He’s grown since S1, but in the morning, seeing a hickey on his neck from a guy, he spirals in a bad way. Tries to convince himself he didn’t want it, then spirals harder because he absolutely did want it.

Eddie likes to pretend he’s a cynic, but he’s a romantic and an optimist, and when he approaches Steve after school the next week - carefully, hidden, no one knows they’re talking at all because Eddie knows this is a dangerous place to be like them - he doesn’t get as far as asking if Steve maybe wants to come hang out. Steve is still spiraling, and Eddie is undeniable proof that he should be spiraling.

Steve says a lot of stuff in the next few minutes. All of it is true and all of it’s a lie. There’s one thing that sticks with Eddie and festers. Steve says that he didn’t want it, didn’t want Eddie to kiss him, to touch him. Says he didn’t want to touch Eddie but he had to. Sure, a lot of that is the same as every other closeted guy would say. The part that makes it stick in Eddie’s gut, churning and painful, is that no matter how hard he tries, Eddie can’t be sure if Steve was leaning in, or if he was imagining what he wanted to see

this has the potential to be so juicy!

This is about the way that Eddie would hear, constantly, about how gay men do that, and he's always thought that was bs, and then he spends a year not sure if did exactly that. About the way that he'd probably not even look for another hookup. About how he'd want to apologize, but how does a person even start. And. About how he'd feel sick and scared when the kids eventually mention Steve Harrington, and how Steve always protects them.

Thanks for reminding me that this exists. I extracted from the replies for your amusement, but got stuck wondering if this story is better alternating pov, or tight to Steve, or tight to Eddie:

--

acowardsinmordor: capitalism is a heavy burden on us both. Also. Invert the convo in the woods in the UD. Steve awkwardly trying to tell Eddie he’s actually a good dude, unaware how Eddie is going to interpret that

gloomysoup: oh god. steve taking a chance and trying to backtrack everything he said after that night and find the right words to tell eddie how he really feels, not knowing how it's going to be received. now imagine eddie taking that convo in and spiraling even further bc he doesn't want to make steve feel like he HAS to forgive him or say he's a good dude just bc it's the end of the world and they may never make it out of the upside down alive, and he doesn't actually mean it

acim: “I guess I was surprised to find out that Eddie Munson is actually a good dude” and Steve thinks he’s referencing Eddie being a drug dealer and triple senior. Thinks that now that he’s braver, he can maybe flirt again. Maybe have more than that again. Meanwhile Eddie hears a reference to the night he molested Steve and the shock that Eddie is anything more than that

gs: eddie trying so hard to act like everything is fine bc he doesn't want to make things worse w steve. attempting to mentally distance himself to save steve from whatever inner turmoil is bubbling up bc of all this end of the world bullshit. and then, AND THEN. the bats. eddie realizing that the bats are getting in. dustin is hurt. he has a split second before he makes the decision to go, to give everyone else more time. and he's distracted bc he keeps thinking ab steve, ab how fucked up he is for ever thinking he was different from what everyone said he was. and then he's laying there, bleeding out, and he thinks: this is it. this is my fate. this is what i deserve for what i did to steve.

acim: even if Steve gets a vague sense that Eddie is more tense than he should be, if he tries to help, it would be things like thanking Eddie for protecting the boys in school and taking care of them, and how great it is that he keeps them safe, and Eddie would hear all of it as a veiled threat

I'd submit this to an anon poll page, but I lack both shame and patience.

Fanfic sure does love to write about sex, and things get telephone-gamed into universal truths. I know that there is a wide variety of experience in the world, and I'm not judging, but 123dick has become the norm, even in het fic, and I'm losing my mind because either all my friends are atypically slutty, or the telephone game has failed.

gimme a sec and I'll add an anal poll bc seriously, I have no shame at this point in my life.

Dear christ. fucked this up three times in a row now. Add 'ability to proof read' to my list of lacks