Mundus sine caesaribus
we are not a free people until all people are free! highly political / human rights mixed with fandom (particularly stranger things) all pronouns
First things first... FUCK ICE. FUCK TRUMP. FUCK MAGA. FUCK TRANSPHOBES. FUCK HOMOPHOBES. FUCK PEOPLE THAT DON'T AGREE WITH THE INHERENT RIGHT TO SHELTER, FOOD, HEALTHCARE, AND THE RIGHT TO LIVE. Hit the fucking block button if you don't agree with any of those things because this is not the place for you and I want nothing to do with you. This isn't a 'oh, but I agree with everything but one' kind of statement either. If you don't agree with all of that, get away from me.
Now:
If you could have sworn you'd been here before... I deleted my account in 2024 and have had been operating on the DL since (liking a lot, reblogging like crazy, and occasionally leaving comments but otherwise I've been hiding in my little hobbit hole). Now apparently I'm posting shit people like again.
I lost a lot of my tumblr short writings, HCs, and mutuals. Some days I don't feel like I am ready to be back here but that doesn't matter. My page is where I post my own works, I vent, and I share (maybe too much) political things.
Do NOT share any of my shit with AI, I will find you and it won't be pleasant for any of us (I cried when I hit a squirrel with my car, it will likely be more unpleasant for me). Fuck AI.
A note for ANY fandom: here and here
Here's a list of my works (I'm building it back up with new works as well as reposting old works).
You can also find me on AO3 here.
Mental health links (or random links) here!
WORKS IN PROGRESS:
what if instead: master list | ao3 temporarily on hiatus
you sound like i know you: part 4 in the Trapped with You series that I will one day finish - not on tumblr yet | it's on ao3
Hunger Games AU: it's only here on tumblr and it may not be continued extra sad version here.
Smash: AO3 | Part 1 Absolutely Smash | Part 2 Famous My ASS | Part 3 Drip Trip
COMPLETED WORKS:
The Ghost of You: coming to tumblr sometime | ao3
Silence: not here yet | here on ao3
i wouldn't be caught with you: part 1 | part 2 (coming sooon!) | ao3
light in my darkness: apparently, I like to title my works in lower case - soon to be on tumblr | ao3 has it!
Don't Stop Me Now: Another fun one slotted to join tumblr soon | ao3
HOLD THE BUS: Look, this one is all caps and not here yet | A-OH-3
Can You Handle It?: Well, can you handle waiting??? | AO# (jk AO3)
All I Need: is for this to be here already! COME ON TUMBLR! | a03
One Penny: Ouch... Maybe? | ao3
Every Inch: is it done yet? Omg.. more?! | AO3
Trapped With You: it's about to get real... cozy when this gets here | ao3
Stuck with the Thought of You: PART TWO TO TRAPPED WITH YOU WAITTTT - Read that first. (still not on tumblr???) | AO3
Darling Angel: Part 3 of Trapped with you (read 1 first!) (then read 2, obviously) | AO3
Did I have too much fun with that? Yes. Does it matter? Ye-! No, not really. :D
Tumblr Only Works:
Hot Steve
🎵There's something about me that is so poisonous, it's dangerous. I can't be enough.🎵
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Tumblr is stuffed to the brim with 18-25 year olds who talk endlessly about being a hole for old men and have a heart attack the second a consenting adult is in a relationship with an old man
Hey all! We are back! And it's a bit of time jump, but we are moving toward Eddie and Steve meeting up again.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 |
~
The song persisted in his mind over the next couple of years. He had managed to get everything down but the lyrics. It was the words that eluded him for the longest time.
Then someone said the words.
“Holy shit!” Gareth said from his corner on of the tour bus. “They want us to be on the cover of ‘Metal Magazine’!”
“We’ve really made it now!” Brian cried. “First the Grammy last year, our records going platinum, and now this!”
Then it all clicked. It was time to write Steve his song. He immediately pulled out a pen and his notebook and started scribbling away. The words just flowed from his brain the paper.
“Uh oh,” Jeff said with a chuckle. “It’s seem you activated ‘creative beast mode’ in our songwriter, Bri-guy.”
Brian huffed and shook his head. “It was bound to be something. Remember last week when that squirrel stole his sandwich and went on that bender and came out with three songs and an idea for a concept album?”
Gareth grimaced. “Oof, yeah. Can’t wait to see the results of this one, though.”
The topic moved off Eddie’s furious writing, but he kept at until he was done. It just needed a title. He tapped his pen against his lips for a moment or two before he scribbled down something.
He nodded thoughtfully and then passed it off to Jeff who would be the one singing it.
Jeff pulled out his Delilah, a black Les Paul with a pearl splash guard and sat down with the song.
“Top of the world, gilded in green and gold,” Jeff sang, ‘who would have known your world was so cold...”
He frowned for a moment and then adjusted his fingering on the fret board, trying again. He got through the song about two and half times before he handed Eddie the guitar.
“I want you to sing it,” he said, cocking his head to the side. “You show me what you think it should sound like.”
Eddie furrowed his brow. “Come on, man. You know my singing is shit.”
“Not for this.”
He frowned and took the guitar from Jeff and began playing. “You sat in your executioner’s chair, and did the one thing no one dared, ooohh, lover you’re a truth teller...”
He went through the whole song and then looked up at Jeff, who had tears in his eyes. “What?”
Jeff pressed play on his mini-recorder he used for just this sort of thing and Eddie’s voice came through the speaker with startling clarity. With every note phone Eddie hit, real Eddie’s jaw dropped further until he was sure it was on the floor.
“That can’t be me...” he breathed.
“Oh no, it is,” Jeff confirmed. “And that’s why you’ve got to be the one who sings it. Because it’s your song.”
Eddie snorted and set the guitar down, flopping against the back of the sofa. “You’ve sung songs about me and my life before, dude. What makes this one so special?”
“Because it’s the first song about Steve.”
Eddie’s head snapped Jeff’s direction. “How did you know?”
Jeff let out a shuddering breath and sat forward. “Because I know you, Ed. Better than my own family most days and if there had been a song about Steve before now, I would have clocked it, but there hasn’t. Plus while you haven’t talked about it much, we do know it was Steve who came forward and said he trashed the drama room. And the line about destroying a legacy that was never theirs? That had to be about that incident.”
“You’re right,” Eddie said, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Fuck. I promised him that day that when we made it big I’d write a song about him.”
“And your strongest memory of him is when he gave up the life he could have had, for you,” Jeff reasoned. “Which fair enough. But this is bigger than you and him and telling the truth, because it feels like a love letter.”
He opened his mouth to protest but he knew anything that he said to the contrary would be a lie, so he closed it and just nodded.
“Which is why I’m guess you left out the pronouns,” Jeff concluded. “And I am absolutely comfortable with you telling people you’re gay or not. No skin off my teeth, dude. And if you coming out crashes us, then it was one hell of a run.”
Eddie turned a bright red. “I’m not ready to come out yet, which is one of the reasons for the pronoun obscurity, but not the only reason.”
“Oh?” he asked raising an eyebrow.
“It’s also to protect Steve,” Eddie replied with a grimace. “Maybe he has a job that if it came out what he did might force them to fire him. I don’t want to accidentally fuck up the guy’s life further than that shit already did and singing it to millions and millions of people would not just could, but absolutely would make his life a nightmare.”
“I’ll agree to that,” Jeff nodded sagely. “Let’s not make him desperate. He did a fucked up thing and paid the price as far as I’m concerned. Spreading that around now would be like dog-piling the guys and I’m with you, let’s not do that.”
Eddie scrubbed his face. “But what do you think, you think the label will go for it?”
Jeff sat back and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I think they would be pretty stupid if they didn’t. It’s straight up, solid gold, man.”
“Okay,” Eddie breathed. “You think it needs anything else. More drums, harder on the bass...”
“We’ll have to all play it together and see for sure,” Jeff conceded, “but it shouldn’t need too much tweaking to get it right.”
“Then let’s do this,” Eddie said cocking his head. “I’m going to sing a song on our album...”
Jeff burst out laughing. “Hell yeah you are. So let’s get this to Gare and Bri and see what they think, k?”
Eddie nodded.
What they thought was that it was about time Eddie finished the damn song and of course it was going on their next album. In fact they were going to build the entire album around the song because it was just that good.
~
Steve had moved away from campus dorms and straight into an apartment with Vince. They were in their final year of college, Robin having graduated the year before. She had a separate apartment was sharing with her girlfriend, Vickie. So they still hung out all the time.
Steve had really grown attached to Vince over the years. Not only were they in a lot of the same classes, they did a lot of the same extracurriculars as well.
And while Vince was more of a baseball guy, he would still watch swimming on ESPN with him every time.
Billy had remained a thorn in Steve’s side, but kept it to snide comments and sneering glances. Because the records spoke for themselves, Steve was by far the better swimmer. Which of course Billy chalked up to all the fancy private lessons.
Something that he refused to ever let go of. But whatever, Steve got his revenge by befriending his step-sister Max.
The dorm mother Claudia Henderson had a son about her age, Dustin and the two were on relatively friendly terms, (she was dating a good friend of his and so they were often in the same circles) so he had met her at the dorm when she came over to pick Lucas up from the dorm where he and Dustin were hanging out.
Actually Steve had befriended the entire gaggle of teenagers. Lucas, Dustin, Max, and Ellie. Steve had been quietly nudging Dustin to ask Ellie out, but he was being shy about it.
Vince’s family had come around the first Christmas he didn’t go home for, Steve and Charles inviting him out to stay with them over the holidays. They had shown the day after Christmas full of apologies and presents to make up for the fact that they had been awful.
They had patched things up and came to the agreement that he would stay at school for the breaks like Christmas and Spring Break, but would come home for the summer.
During their last Christmas break their senior year, Vince was whining.
“I’m not whining, Steve!” Vince protested. “I’m complaining. There’s a difference!”
“There is nothing wrong with my music taste!” Steve cried. “Just because I don’t go in for that screaming, guitar shrieking garbage, doesn’t mean it’s bad!”
Vince buried his head in his hands. “It’s not garbage, Steve!”
“It gives me literal migraines, dude,” Steve reminded him. “Like if you had metal music that didn’t involve screaming throughout the whole the thing, I might be more open to the genre. But until then, I will listen to my Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, and Tears for Fears.”
“That’s pop trash, man,” Vince informed him. “You call mine garbage but that is trash.”
“It’s not pop!” Steve defended, waving his arms around. “It’s alt rock and electronica, but it is not pop!”
Vince waved his hand dismissively. “It’s all the same if it’s not metal.”
“And you say I’m particular about music,” Steve said a with huff of laughter. “You’re a music snob, Vincent Harlow and it is an ugly look.”
Vince burst out laughing. “All right, maybe I am and I will convert you to metal even if I can’t convert you to my faith.”
“Vince, Lord love you and so do I,” he snarked, “but there is no way in your hell that I am giving up smoking and alcohol for replacement swears and stupid ass underwear.”
Vince pretended to be offended but it wasn’t serious. They both respected each other too much to try and convert the other to their way of life.
“Isn’t metal against your religion, anyway?” Steve huffed, throwing his pillow at his roommate. “All that Satanic stuff?”
“It’s my little rebellion,” Vince admitted, catching the pillow before it hit his face. “It’s like caffeinated drinks. Not technically against the Word of Wisdom, but modern times call for modern inspiration. But like Hades am I going to give up my Dr. Pepper up, same with my metal music.”
“Whatever you say, man,” Steve said shaking his head.
Vince threw the pillow back and it hit square in the face. “Where are your reflexes, dude? Like you didn’t even attempt to dodge that.”
“I’m so exhausted...” Steve whined and buried his head into the pillow to let out a little scream. He lifted his head back up and sighed. “I am six months away from a teaching degree and it feels closer to six years. My blood has been replaced by Cherry Coke and coffee, every bone in my body aches, and my dad is still telling me it’s not too late to change my major.”
“Your dad is like an old English Bulldog my gran gran had when I was twelve,” Vince said with a wince, “once he had his teeth on something, it took a lot to get that dumb thing to let go.”
Steve snorted. “I think I’d take that over the yappy thing my grandmother had. It was a peach toy poodle who was blind and deaf and only ever bit, yapped, or peed all over everything. I saw my dad kick it once for it trying to bit three year old me, best day ever.”
Vince laughed. “Regardless, you dad needs to back up and get off your back and let you live your life.”
“I know, right?” he huffed, rolling his eyes. “But he’s been supportive in other ways, so I mostly just let it slide...”
“But you’ve reached exhaustion levels and would like him to back off so you could get on with graduating?”
“Yes please,” Steve begged.
“I’ll tell you what,” Vince said cocking his head. “Take the weekend, make me a mix tape of all your favorite songs, and I’ll do the same and we’ll see if we can’t find a common ground in our music somewhere. No homework, no parents, no stress, just you, a record player and a half dozen recording cassette tapes.”
Steve thought about it for a moment. “My dad is going out with friends this weekend. Rhys and Ria are in town visiting their son and they were bringing a friend of theirs with them. So yeah, that sounds like a fun way to take over the house.”
“We can even have it be our Christmas presents to each other!” Vince enthused. “I mean in addition to what I’ve already got you, of course.”
Steve grinned back at his friend. “Of course.”
Just then the door swung open and Dustin yelled out, “Vince, Vince! Corroded Coffin is releasing a new album in March!!”
~
Where are Mike and Will? Being gay back in Hawkins. Also Steve's dad means well, but is stressing out about Steve's future.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Short Haul
Author: Nevertheless_5
Explicit
No Archive Warnings Apply
M/M
Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson
Tags: College/UniversityJealousy, Angst, Voyeurism, Eddie’s slutty shorts, fireman carry, Feelings Realization, Love Confessions, The boys do have sex with other people first, Idiots in Love, Oblivious Steve Harrington, Emotionally Hurt Eddie Munson, Friends to Lovers, Roommates, Steve’s first time with a man, guess who the lucky guy is, Protective Steve Harrington, Steve Harrington's King Steve Persona, Gay Eddie Munson, Bisexual Steve Harrington, Top Steve Harrington, Bottom Eddie Munson, Inspired by Fanart, Steve Harrington Has a Bisexual Awakening
Summary
Steve is straight, always has been. So maybe he doesn’t realize how jealous he is of Eddie’s one night stands with half the guys at their college. Not until he has to watch Eddie in the hottest outfit he’s ever seen, flirting with some douchebag at a party, and finds himself hauling Eddie over his shoulder and carrying him away. It's for Eddie’s own good, and maybe Steve’s too.
Hey, guys. Um... this is where most of the deaths happen. There are going to be a lot of them that will hurt. But just trust me and I'll see you through.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 |
~
As the debris hit Vecna Kas rose like a phoenix from the ashes. His wings were longer, his claws were sharper, and he towered over the battlefield like god.
Kas picked up a demogorgon and tore it in two, cackling with glee.
Dustin skidded to a stop and turned to Steve. “Shit, is he–”
“Don’t focus on him!” Steve bit out. “Let me handle it!”
The Party looked at him as if he was crazy.
“I swear to god, Harrington,” Dustin growled. “If you die, I will find you in hell and drag you back out by your precious hair!”
Steve tapped Dustin’s chest with the back of his hand. “I’ll be fine. You guys just keep the monsters off me so I can get your DM back!”
Mike growled. “Argh! This is so fucking stupid!” But he lit flamethrower and cranked it up as high as it would go.
Then he let it rip. Sending a stream of flame toward the vines, pushing them back away from El and Steve as much as he could.
Steve did the one thing he had warned Eddie of all those years ago not to do. He stomped on the vines.
He cut, yanked, slashed, and beat them, sending shock wave after shock wave to Vecna.
“Pest!” Vecna sneered as he rose from the debris unharmed. “You’ll pay for that. GET HIM!”
Kas snarled and leapt for Steve.
“Steve! Behind you!” Dustin called out.
And just like in the junkyard all those years ago, Steve’s reflexes kicked in and hit Kas right in the face with the nail bat, sending the vampire sprawling.
Kas tumbled in the air and landed down on one knee. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. When he spotted the blood, he cocked his head. “Heh.”
“Hey, Eds,” Steve said, licking the corner of his mouth and cocking his head to the side. “You in there, ole pal?”
“Stevie,” Kas said eyeing him up. “There is no one in here but me.”
Then Steve grinned. “Oh, oh, oh. You made the biggest mistake, Creel. This is one isn’t yours. It’s mine.”
Kas frowned in confusing before he was suddenly being knocked to the ground. They rolled around trading punches and kicks as they fought for dominance.
Steve managed to come up on top but barely. He’s straddled over Kas’s hips axe in hand.
Kas licked his fangs and smirked. “So you’ve got me, big boy. Wha’cha gonna do?”
“This!” And he leaned down and kissed Eddie on the mouth.
Time slowed around them, the battle raged on around them as deep and as dark as the battle within Kas. Or rather: Eddie.
~
Get the fuck out of my head you fleshy anatomical model! Eddie shrieked.
Vecna cackled. I made you, Eddie. All this I did for you. Look at how powerful you are now. How small and petty they all are. Running around beneath us like ants to be crushed under our heel.
Eddie struggled against the bonds that Vecna had on his mind. You’re wrong! I’m not like you. I never stepped on an ant on purpose and I certainly don’t think they’re small. They’re beating you dumbass. They’ll win!
Before Vecna could open his mouth to refute that, the ground began to shake and white cracks like lightning began to appear in the Void.
Vecna let out a scream. A scream that tore through the Void to the Upside Down as every creature with hearing flinched.
Eddie opened his eyes to see Steve straddling him. “That was one hell of a mental re-calibration there, Stevie boy.”
“Shut up, asshole,” Steve muttered, clambering off of him. “We have bigger problems to deal with.”
Eddie sat up and saw what he meant. The scream had caused all the debris that El had thrown at him to go flying. El and Will managed to shield their friends in time, but it was a near thing.
Vecna began to raise off the tower of vines that held him aloft, the vines writhing and twisting as he commanded them with his outstretched hands.
Ollie rushed forward, her hands aflame as she ran through the debris, lighting up as many as the vines as she could.
She jumped off a bit of broken wall and straight into the air to set Vecna on fire. Her body began to glow with the effort to keep the vines centered on her and her fire.
She would never make it to Vecna. Mid-arch a pair of demogorgons hit her head on. Will fought to get them off of her, but it was too late. Her fire and life were cut short with a single scream of pain.
But her death was not in vain. The earth around Vecna smoldered and burned, leaving him without his vines.
Vecna cocked his head to the side and rolled his shoulders. “Fine, if that’s how you want it to be, then have at thee,” he snarled and all the monsters left landed next to him.
There was still a formidable army in front of them. It was just Will and El as their magic users and there wasn’t a single one of the remaining fighters that wasn’t hurt in someway. There cuts and bruises littering them all.
Mike primed the remaining flamethrower as Lucas and Robin stood with their torches ready to light up and fling whatever projectile they had on hand.
They couldn’t let him win.
Steve helped Eddie stand. “Let’s make that bastard play. Together.”
“Together,” Eddie agreed with a nod.
Vecna continued to rise from the smoke and ashes until he could no longer feel the heat against his skin. “Attack.”
It wasn’t a yell or a cry. It was a whisper. The barest breath and that was all it took. The monsters descended like a plague.
Mike let loose an arc of flame from the last working flamethrower, causing the first wave to leap back in fear and pain.
Will blew the second wave back and El snapped a demogorgon literally in two. But the masses still kept coming.
Those without fire to aid them hacked and slashed. Joyce and Hopper took on a demogorgon together, while Steve and Derek worked to keep the demodogs from getting to Robin and Lucas, who were pelting the monsters with Molotov cocktails and cherry bombs.
Lucas focused on the demogorgons, getting the bombs down their maw to hurt them from the inside.
Shrieking began above them, and they looked up in terror as the air filled with the remaining demobats.
But Eddie leapt into the air. “Not this time! Not again! Not ever!” he screamed as he met the beasts head on.
They tried to swarm him, take out his wings, but he was faster now. Stronger.
She looked down and saw that she was out of ammo. “Shit.”
A demodog leapt at Robin and she cowered, covering her head with her arms fearing the worst.
But there was a snarl and sound of bodies hitting each other. She looked up to see D’art wrestling with demodog that had attacked.
“Good boy, D’art!” she cried.
Steve saw her standing there and tossed his axe at her. “Take this!”
Robin ducked, as the axe sailed over her head. “What the fuck, Steve! I can’t catch that!”
Steve just answered by slamming his nail bat directly into the face of a demodog.
She rolled out of the way and scrambled for the axe. She managed to get it up in time to come face to face with another demodog.
She closed her eyes, slashing wildly and feared the worse.
Suddenly there was scream of rage and the demodog fell in a heap at her feet. She opened on eye and then the other.
Erica had shoved her spear straight through the spine of creature. It was still twitching, so Robin got up and with a mighty swing brought her axe down removing its head.
The two girls high fived and then dived right back into the fray.
Lucas felt his belt for the next cherry bomb, but the fanny pack was empty. He dug into his pocket and pulled out the other ammo he had on him. The actual ammo for the sling shot. Rocks. Hell, if it worked for Daniel, it sure the hell was going to work for him.
Hopper cut down a demogorgon only for it to shimmer and fade away like it was nothing.
“Son of a bitch!” he hissed. “Not all of them are real!”
Joyce turned and looked down at the ground at his feet. “Shit!”
She turned to look for her boys. She spotted Jonathan and Will fighting back to back against a circling pack of demodogs.
Will began to shake, his eyes curled up in the back of his head as he lifted his hands.
Joyce instantly knew what he was doing or at least trying to. She began to run to him. All around her, the battle raged on as darted around allies, avoided enemies, and dodged falling debris that El and Vecna kept tossing at each other.
It didn’t matter. She had to get to her boys.
The ground shook beneath her, but she remained undeterred.
“Will!” she screamed. “No!”
But it was too late.
Will let out a cry no more than a whimper, but suddenly the battlefield changed. There were far less monsters, but blood was pouring from Will’s eyes, nose, and ears.
His eyes found hers and then crumpled to the ground.
Jonathan looked behind him and in that split second a demodog charged at him. Joyce threw her spear and got it dead center straight in its gullet.
It twitched and gargled as it died.
Joyce skidded to a halt on her knees in front of her boys and lifted Will up.
He looked up at her and started coughing up blood. “I got him...”
“No, Will,” she whimpered. “Stay with me, baby. Stay with me.”
His hand reached up to touch her cheek, but it would never get there as he died her arms.
“No!” she cried.
Her cry distracted El as everyone turned to the source of such anguish.
El began to rise up, clawing and kicking at the air as Vecna looked her in the eye. “In what world could you have ever beaten me?”
Tears rolled down her face as she let herself go limp. There was no fighting it, he was stronger. But there was something she could do.
She let out a scream as her right arm broke, then her left.
Come on you bastard! she screamed into his mind. Finish it!
Her legs were next but before he could gouge out her eyes and finish the sacrifice that would combine the two worlds for good she sent out a massive wave with her mind focusing it all on him. Not his monsters, not the debris.
Him and his mind.
Suddenly Vecna, no Henry began to clutch his head and screamed. The red flesh peeled away, leaving behind the true monster, the man called Henry Creel.
El fell to the ground as Henry continued screaming.
~
‘No!’ Henry cried scrambling back as his mother and sister towered over him. Then the hunters, the missing boys. Barb Holland, Billy Hargrove, Heather Holloway. The numbered experiments.
Everyone one of his victims appeared around him. He began to swing his arms around wildly, trying to get his powers to work.
Will leaned over him. ‘This is how you fail, Henry. All alone.’
‘NOOOOOOO!’
‘This the end of all your scarlet lies, you won’t be able to hurt another person ever again,’ Will promised. ‘Goodbye, Henry.”
~
Joyce picked up a spear that someone had dropped. Maybe it was Jonathan. It didn’t matter. She stood up and walked over to where Vecna was standing. And then with massive strike, she stabbed him in the back. “Take that you son of a bitch! That’s for Will, you asshole.”
He arched his back as it went through his chest. He looked down in shock, the red blood staining the perfect white of his clothes.
Erika spotted the sword that Hopper had brought back from that Russian prison and knew what she had to do. She picked it up and went running straight for Henry.
“That’s a nat twenty, bitch!” she screamed, swinging the blade hard through his neck.
Suddenly there was a shockwave that blasted everyone off their feet and in that blast the monsters vanished into the air like ash.
Eddie grabbed ahold of D’art as they too were caught in the blast.
Hopper rushed over to El and lifted her head. “No, sweetheart,” he cried. “Don’t leave me, baby. Please.”
Tears continued to run down her face. “I really should keep a handkerchief on hand.”
Hopper let out a watery chuckle as he wiped her face of blood and tears. “I love you so much,” he whispered pulling her to his chest and kissing the top of her head.
“I love you, Dad.”
And then she closed her eyes for good.
Hopper began to sob, clutching her to his chest.
Suddenly the ground beneath their feet began to rumble. The sky began to crack and suddenly the Mind Flayer was there.
But not as Will had seen him, not as he appeared at Starcourt Mall.
Instead of a towering monster with too many legs and no face, there was a swirling form of stars and lightning.
“It is time for you to go,” it rumbled. “Your presence here is causing this world to tear itself apart.”
“Not without my babies,” Joyce wailed. “Not without them.”
“I know,” it said not unkindly. “I will send them with you, I promise.”
~
These made me cry. I'm sorry. But I'm not done yet with the deaths, I still have two more coming. But I have a reason for everyone of them and if you want to know what they are (provided they aren't answered in the last chapter or the epilogue) I'll be happy to tell you why.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Just one more chapter to go and then this lovely fairy tale will have it's happily ever after!
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |
~
Dustin watched the last house for a couple of weeks before deciding to approach the boy instead of the woman.
This was the Wheelers house. There were three inhabitants. Nancy the weaver, Michael the shepherd, who tended the flock, and Holly took the wool and turned it into yarn, dying it the most beautiful of colors.
He knew that Nancy wouldn’t hurt him, per se, as she was clearly a lover animals, but she was practical and stoic. Holly was also out because she was too young and neither of her older siblings would take her seriously.
So Michael it was.
All around the boy was a flock of sheep, in his hand was the shepherd’s crook, as he lounged on a rock, whittling a new reed for his pipe.
“So you must be the Master Cat Will told me about,” Michael murmured, not bothering to even look up.
Dustin chuckled and bowed deep. “My reputation precedes me. Yes, I am the Master Cat, but you may call me Dustin.”
“She won’t listen to you, you know?” Michael said, shaking his head. “Vecna takes very good care of us.”
Dustin examined his claws. “Does he now? How does he treat the animals? Does he take care of your friend, Will? Or the other people in this county?”
Michael frowned. “No.”
“And what does he offer you, really?” Dustin asked, smug.
Michael’s frown deepened as he thought. “His protection. He protects us and in exchange we provide him the fairest garments. He imports silk threads for Nancy to work with.”
Dustin cocked his head to the side. “Protect you from what, exactly?”
Around them sheep bleeted and munched on the grass as Michael thought deeply about the question. He raised his head.
“From him,” he muttered darkly. “He protects us from himself. There aren’t ogres within spitting distance much less marching distance. He depends on us because they’re too far away.”
“And there is your answer,” Dustin said, bowing his head solemnly. “You will have actual freedom if you help me overthrow Vecna.”
Michael looked back at the house he shared with his two sisters. “Come back tomorrow,” he murmured. “I’ll see if I can bring them around to the idea.”
Dustin doffed his hat and bid him farewell. The talk had gone better than he had hoped and now he had a foothold where he hadn’t before.
He raced back to Eddie and their cozy cottage, feeling a little smug.
He submitted to the tasty fish and roasted potatoes that the farmer down the way traded them a jar of their honey and pettings all night in front of the fire. It was a good life to be sure, but he was out to get Eddie his best life.
~
Dustin arrived at the Wheeler house as soon as he could the next morning, Eddie nearly doubling over with laughter seeing the black and white curly haired cat, hat and boots high tail it through the window, not even bothering to wait until Eddie opened the door.
He was going so fast that he managed to avoid the burlap bag that Nancy had in waiting. Dustin turned on a dime and pounced on her head, claws out.
“Nancy!” Michael cried as Holly and he ran out of their cottage. “What are you doing?!”
“Ow! Ouch!” Nancy cried, trying to remove the angry cat from her hair. “He’s a magical talking cat! Just think of what he would be worth!”
Dustin bunny kicked at her head before flinging himself off of her and landing on the rock he had used to watch them, hissing.
“He’s magic, Nancy!” Holly huffed, putting her hands on her hips. “If captured he probably reverts back to being a house cat! All the fairy tales tell you that.”
“Fairy tales aren’t real, Hols,” Nancy snapped as she felt her head looking for scratches.
Holly just waved her hand at Dustin, who stood there on the rock on his back legs, hat on his head and boots on his feet. His back was arched and his fur was fluffed out in anger but there was very little doubt that this was no ordinary cat. “And yet…”
Nancy side-eyed Dustin a moment and then back at her two very angry siblings. She let out a sigh. “Fine… if ogres and talking cats are real then maybe there is more to the tales then meets the eye.”
“Thank you,” Michael said with a sigh. “Now apologize so he can help us get rid of said ogre.”
Nancy stopped fixing her hair and turned to side-eye Dustin. “And how do you plan to do that?”
“That’s what you are going to tell me,” Dustin said, glaring at her. He sat down and began to lick his paws.
Nancy and Michael looked at each other and then back at the cat. “What do you want to know?” Michael asked.
Dustin grinned and his tail swished in pleasure. “Oh, so, so much.”
The Wheeler siblings sat down on the ground at Dustin’s feet as they answered question after question and Dustin soaked it all in.
“These are very unusual questions, Mister Cat,” Holly asked when they were done. “How does any of this help you get rid of Vecna?”
“More then you will ever know,” Dustin said smugly. “More then you could ever guess.”
~
One morning a few weeks later, Dustin came up to Eddie first thing. “It’s time to make all your dreams come true.”
Eddie looked down at him in confusion. “I have everything I could possibly want here. What more to life is there?”
Dustin sat down and sighed. “Only the truest of love.”
Eddie looked at him for a moment and let out a shuddering breath. “Yeah. Okay.”
Dustin told him of the plan and Eddie blinked at him in shock.
“I’m sorry,” Eddie huffed, “I believe you just told me that you want me to lie about being a marquess.”
“I most certainly did not!” Dustin protested hotly. “It is just telling the truth a little early is all.”
“You’re going to make me a noble?” Eddie squeaked. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. A noble? Him?
Dustin came over and headbutted him gently. “I would make you king if I had my way, but one step at a time. Just do as I say and we’ll get you there.”
Eddie just nodded.
They walked down to the river and Eddie started stripping. He handed Dustin his clothes and stepped into the water.
“Are you sure this is going to work?”
Dustin shushed him. “I’m a magical cat, Eddie. Of course it’s going to work. Now get in there.”
Eddie did as he was told and waded out into the middle of the river.
“It’s freezing!” he cried, rubbing his arms to keep himself warm.
“It won’t be for long,” Dustin said dismissively and then turned around, dashing off into the forest.
~
King Richard was touring his kingdom with Prince Steven and his best friend and personal body guard, Lady Robin. They had been staying in their nobles’ castles and enjoying their hospitality. They had a horse-drawn cart dedicated to just their wardrobes and another for the gifts they had received from their hosts.
They had twelve guards, two drivers, two footmen, and of course Lady Robin who was worth at least all of them. To Prince Steven at the very least.
They were nearing the end of their journey when Dustin came out of the woods in a dead heat, screaming, “My master the Marquess of Hawkins is drowning! Come help!”
“Lead on, Master Cat!” King Richard cried.
The procession followed the cat into the forest where there was a young man off in the water, splashing about and making quite a ruckus.
Before anyone could utter a single word, the prince was out of the carriage in an instant, striping of his boots and coat to leap into the water.
~
Eddie wasn’t sure what was going on, only that that he was being pulled from the river by the most beautiful man he’d ever seen.
The god wearing white only furthered to highlight the man’s form as it clung to every inch of him.
As Eddie was naked he was forced to thinking very pure thoughts to keep his lust and his dick down.
“There you are,” the god murmured as he carried him to the shore. “You’re safe now.”
Eddie wasn’t sure what that meant, but he was told by Dustin to just play along. “You have my thanks,” he said breathlessly.
“Where are your clothes?!” a woman in men’s garb hissed when the god gently placed him down.
“My master was swimming in the lake in front of his castle when a strong current ripped him out to the rivers,” Dustin explained, while Eddie struggled for breath. “His clothes were left on a rock while he swam. They must be gone by now.”
The woman narrowed her eyes, but wisely said nothing.
“My lord, this is King Richard, Prince Steven, and the Lady Robin,” Dustin said with a bow. “And this is my master, Edward, Marquess of Hawkins.”
Eddie did his best to bow, but he was a tad unsteady on his feet, the prince holding on tightly so he didn’t fall.
“Come,” Prince Steven murmured in his ear, sending a shiver down his spine. “I have clothes that will fit you as we are of a similar build.”
Eddie looked up and down this god among men and scoffed. “I would drown in your trousers your majesty as your thighs are twice mine at least!”
The king laughed. “We’ll provide a belt have no fear!”
Eddie blushed, but followed Prince Steven to the first cart and they found clothes to change into. Thankfully it was all pale pinks and whites, that there were some dark reds in there that he could put on.
He came out from behind the cart, tugging at the sleeves of his shirt as he tried to get it to sit right. He came to an abrupt stop.
“Hey, where did Dustin go?” he asked, noticing that the Master Cat was not among those waiting for them.
“He went ahead to tell the people of Hawkins county that the Marquess is on his way home,” Lady Robin said, raising an eyebrow.
“We are are to take you home,” King Richard said, rubbing his hands together. “So that you may show us your beautiful estate.”
Eddie pursed his lips and nodded. He hadn’t even seen this estate. He had no idea who these people were that had been supplying his food and drink for months. But he was going to meet them.
God help him.
~
Dustin rushed ahead to the Byers first. “I call on you to honor your word and grant me the boon in which you owe me.”
Jonathan and Will looked at each other in surprise.
“What would you have us do?” Will asked, his eyes alight with excitement.
“When asked whose fishery this all belongs to,” Dustin said with a smile, “you tell them the Marquess of Hawkins.”
Jonathan’s head reared back in confusion. “Wait, that’s it? That’s all you ask of us when you’ve already done so much for us?”
Dustin licked his paw smug. “Yes. The man in question has long dark curly hair and big brown eyes. Agree that he is the Marquess and our bargain will continue.”
“Done,” Will and Jonathan said together.
Dustin bowed to them and then rushed off to the rest of the people he had recruited to his cause. The Sinclairs, the Wheelers, and the Hoppers. All of them agreeing to his demands.
I think people sometimes have differing opinions about what “shipping” entails… like if I ship characters it’s not that I necessarily think they should have been canon or in a relationship or anything, it’s just that I think their dynamic is interesting to explore and I also want to see them kiss a lil
Fandom culture veering into this incessant need to have every little delusion and fantasy confirmed by canon is really what's made "shipping culture" so insufferable. The whole point of shipping is you can literally do whatever you want and explore the dynamics outside of canon. That's the point! You don't need the source material to breastfeed you anything confirming your theories and headcanons. You just need an imagination and an ability to enjoy shit without becoming an insufferable, mushbrained pissbaby when canon doesn't tell you all your delusions are real.
Prompt: Plan or Coast | Word Count: 1000 | Rating: T | POV: Eddie | CW: None | Tags: Post S4, Eddie Munson Lives, And Is Doing So Far, Far From The Court of Public Opinion
Written for @steddieholidaydrabbles.
The water is lapping at the shore, and Eddie digs his toes into the wet sand. He looks down, and can hardly believe his legs are his own. He didn't even know he could tan like this.
It's warm, and it's peaceful here on the beach. With the sounds of the ocean, and yeah, there's a few birds to grate on his nerves, but it's mostly nice. He's got all the fresh tropical fruit he could ever want to eat. He's got a hammock, his guitar, and his freedom.
So, why does he still feel caged? He hangs his head, resting his forehead on his knees.
Steve's late.
Two days late.
And with no way to contact him, or anyone from the outside world, all Eddie can do is worry.
On day four, he catastrophizes:
Steve's lost at sea.
Steve's been hurt.
Steve's been killed because the Upside Down has flared up again.
Steve's fine, but isn't coming, because he doesn't care anymore.
Eddie takes a deep breath. He knows none of those things are likely, and even if they were, he can manage on his own for a while. He's got fruit, and he's honestly gotten pretty good at fishing. Plus, it's not like he's used all of his stockpile from Steve's last drop.
The sun goes down, and he stands, brushing the sand off his shorts. Trudging back up into the bungalow.
On day six, he climbs a tree and just as he's about to climb down, he finally spots the familiar sailboat on the horizon, and breathes a sigh of relief.
Steve's coming.
It'll still be a couple hours, but he's almost here.
"Sorry it took so long," Steve says, stepping down off the deck.
Eddie's standing ankle-deep in the water, ready to help guide the boat in and get it anchored.
Once they do, Eddie knows he's vibrating with excitement.
He's here.
"Get lost?" Eddie asks, shoving his hands in his pockets, trying to not smother Steve before his feet are even in the sand.
"Not hardly," Steve says in a snit, and Eddie feels so much affection for this bitchy man.
Eddie smiles.
Steve will unload his supplies, stay a week or so, and then disappear for six months. Eddie's already dreading his departure, and the feeling that will overwhelm him as the sailboat gets further from the coast, smaller and smaller on the horizon, until he can't see it at all.
"Will you take me out on the boat?" Eddie asks.
Steve smiles, and if he resents having to step foot back onto the boat again so soon after dropping anchor, he sure doesn't say so. Just nods, and hops back up on the deck, reaching his hand down to help Eddie up.
"Permission to come aboard?" Eddie asks, his hand already in Steve's.
"Permission granted," Steve says, tugging him upwards.
Eddie loves to watch him sail, even if he'd deny it to his dying breath. Finding out Steve Harrington is a boat man was a shock. Though, it shouldn't have been. Prying out of him that he was a contender in many regattas on the Great Lakes amused Eddie to no end. He didn't even know what a regatta was until meeting Steve.
After watching him running rigging, then attaching the tiller, Steve finally hoists the sails.
They unload the boxes from below deck, Steve going up and down, and handing them to Eddie on the beach. Eddie runs them up to the bungalow, and then they do it all over again.
Only, this time it doesn't stop. Eddie's not sure how much shit Steve's brought him this time.
It's a lot.
He's not sure he has room for all this.
Then, his stomach swoops low with the realization that if Steve's stocking him up this good, that he's not coming back anytime soon.
And the dread sets in.
Steve's shirtless and shoeless, looking very at home on the beach. Soaking up the addictive warmth.
He's dripping after swimming in the crystal clear water, where he'd floated easily on his back before resurfacing, his chest hair damp and clinging to his skin, even darker than ever.
Now, Steve shakes out his hair, and it's the best pornography Eddie's seen, well, ever.
There's a stash of skin mags Steve's brought him in his nightstand. The bottom of the pile, women.
More recently? Men.
Eddie never said a word, but Steve got to know him better, obviously, even in these short visits, and adapted.
Steve Harrington is observant. That much Eddie knows.
Steve stretches his hands over his head, and it's obscene.
Eddie's only got so much self-control. So, he sits on his hands, pressing his lips firmly together.
He's only a man.
A week becomes two, and they sail around the island. Steve standing at the helm, in his tiny swim trunks and boat shoes. He looks like a Kennedy on Hyannis Port and Eddie definitely shouldn't find it as attractive as he does.
Steve's never looked richer than he does on a boat.
Dropping anchor, they jump in to swim.
It would be winter in Hawkins right now, so this must be a nice change of pace. A little break. A vacation.
Eddie's bun comes loose, and he shakes out his wet hair. It's long, even for him.
Treading water, he tries to put it back up again. Steve crowds close, and Eddie uses him for stability.
He's the only stability Eddie's had for years, honestly.
Bun fixed, he realizes how close he is to Steve's face, and swallows.
Steve moves in, the kiss telegraphed from a mile away.
Eddie doesn't meet him in the middle. Instead, he squeezes Steve's shoulders.
"I can't," Eddie chokes out, "When you leave, it'll kill me."
Steve smiles.
"What do you think all that extra shit was? I don't plan to go anywhere anytime soon."
The words register, and a second later he's being kissed. Hands clutching, holding him tight, like Steve plans to never let go.
If you want to write your own, or go see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @steddieholidaydrabbles and follow along with the fun!
Notes: True Love will always be a boy on his sailboat. First there was Pacey Witter. Now, Steve Harrington. The bar is set high, folks. ⛵
They put Steve in boat shoes in the epilogue. What else was I supposed to do about that? LOL.
Hey all. We're back! And things are starting to ramp up. This just has two more chapters left.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |
~
“Can you trust Callahan not shoot Steve if he surrenders?” Dr. Owens asked.
Hopper rubbed his face and let out a deep sigh. “Yeah, but it’s not him I’m worried about. If this is as planned as it appears to be, they would have paid someone else off to do the deed.”
Just then a man ran past the police line, officers on his tail. He was a man in his late forties, the lean and scruffy appearance of someone who worked hard for barely a living.
“My nephew!” the man cried, “My nephew is in there! Eddie!”
Hopper blocked the man with his body. “Hey, hey. He’s okay. I’ve spoken to him several times. Eddie is fine.”
The man barreled into him and struggled to get past. “I don’t believe you! You cops are all the same! That’s my nephew!” He crumpled to the ground and began to sob.
Dr. Owens knelt down next to him. “I’m Dr. Owens and I’m helping the police with this situation and I assure you your nephew is fine.”
The man looked up at him, tears running down his face. “You promise?”
“Of course,” Dr. Owens soothed. He looked up at Hopper. “Would be all right if...”
“Wayne, Wayne Munson,” the man huffed.
“Would be all right if our friend Wayne here called his nephew to make sure he was safe?”
Hopper looked down at the man and let out a pained sigh. “Yeah, come on.” He held out his hand and helped Wayne stand.
“I think it’s time we called Steve anyway,” Hopper said, pained. “We need to know what was in that security box.”
“Steve, as in Steve Harrington, the one that did those two kids in?” Wayne growled. “He’s in there with Steve and you’re trying to tell me my boy is fine?”
This time Dr. Owens put his hand on Wayne’s chest. “Steve did not murder those kids, I will stake not only my reputation on that fact, but my life.”
“Let me speak to Eddie,” Wayne said with a scowl. “Then we’ll see.”
~
“Hey, Steve,” Hopper said gently. “How are things going in there? Is there any chance of wrapping this up? With Eddie still in there the mayor is getting a little trigger happy and it would be a damn shame if this ended like that.”
Steve let out a huff of breath. “We have a lot things that point to the culprits but no solid evidence. And if I don’t have that, my death will be for nothing.”
“Son, there is no need for that kind of talk,” Hopper said gruffly. “We can still get you out of there. I’ve got people working on it and taking you into my custody could save your life.”
“They’re going to ‘John Wilkes Booth’ me and you fucking know it,” Steve snapped.
Hopper sighed. He had thought about that possibility, yes. “We’ve just got to do our best, Steve. How’s Eddie?”
“Madder then a wet cat about the shit we found in the security box,” he huffed. “He’s like you, he thinks he can get me out of this alive.”
“Sounds like Munson,” Hopper said with a snort. “Always the optimist. There is someone here who wants to talk to him, can you put him on?”
“I guess,” Steve muttered and then a muffled cry of, “Hey, Eds there is someone who wants to talk to you!” came through the line.
There was some shuffling and then Eddie’s voice came through loud and clear. “Hey, Chief, what’s up?”
Hopper handed the phone to Wayne. “Works just like your phone at home.”
Wayne gingerly took the phone with a shaking hand. “Ed, is that you?”
“Uncle Wayne?” Eddie murmured. “Holy shit. Are you okay? Why are you with the police? They aren’t blaming you for anything are they? Because I will kick their asses I swear it.”
“You asshole,” Wayne huffed. “You’re in there as a hostage and you’re worried about me?!”
There was silence on the line for a moment before Eddie burst out laughing. “Oh right, I’m supposed to be a hostage. But can you be a hostage if you volunteered?”
“Yes!” Hopper and Wayne cried together.
“God damn it, boy,” Wayne said dryly. “You and your bleeding heart is gonna get you killed one day and I would really rather it not be today.”
“Roger that, boss!” Eddie chirped cheerfully. “You just need to make sure that we both make it out alive. Because someone called Steve and threatened him. As in here in the bank.”
Wayne turned to Hopper with wide eyes. “Do you know who it was?”
“We have a pretty good idea, yeah,” Eddie confirmed. “Steve recognized the number when I called the operator to get it.”
“Holy fucking shit,” Hopper breathed. “If it’s a number Steve recognized after all these years then it’s one of only three numbers.” He counted them off on his fingers. “His own, Tommy Hagan’s, or Carol Perkins.”
“You better take this back, Hop,” Wayne said handing him the mobile phone.
Hopper sighed but took the phone anyway. “Hey, Munson, it’s Hopper again. That’s some pretty fucked up information there, kiddo.”
“Yeah, it gets worse, Chief,” Eddie said dryly and then explained what Steve had in the security box and what they found in it.
“Well, fuck,” Wayne swore. Just what had his boy gotten himself into?
“So it was a setup from the beginning,” Hopper growled. “It wasn’t an accident that Steve found his friends murdered like that, that was the plan from the beginning.”
“I don’t think they expected Steve to go catatonic and not remember what happened,” Dr. Owens interjected. “But I think they took full advantage of it when it occurred.”
“Those sick sons of bitches,” Hopper growled.
“So what do we do, Chief?” Eddie whimpered on the phone. “They have too many ties to make this a clean exit.”
“I’m coming in,” Hopper growled and hung up the phone. “Callahan,” he said into his walkie talkie. “Cover me, I’m going in.”
“Is that wise, Chief?” Callahan answered back. “I can’t cover you if you go in, over.”
“You think they’ll try to take me out?” Hopper huffed as he started pulling out his tactical gear and strapping it on.
“I wouldn’t put it pas–” Callahan cut off. “One moment, Chief. I think I have a boggie. Permission to fire.”
“Permission granted.”
A shot rang out and everyone ducked for cover. All but Hopper. He was too busy loading his shot gun.
“I’ll leave it up to you, Doc,” he growled. “But I think Steve has better chances of coming out alive if you come with me.” He picked up a second bullet proof vest and held it out to him.
Dr. Owens snatched it out of his hand and started strapping it on. “I think I would have been more insulted if you hadn’t invited me, Chief Hopper.”
Hopper nodded and then switched the frequency on his walkie talkie back to the main channel. “Donahue, Miller head up to the top of the Kline building, check out the results of Callahan’s shot. Powell, I’m going in. I’m taking Dr. Sam Owens with me, to resolve this nice and easy. You’re in command until I get out. Over and out.”
Then he switched back to the other frequency. “You only take orders from me. I don’t care what the hell Powell says. Just me.”
He got a chorus of affirmative replies and then motioned for Dr. Owens to follow him. They crossed in front of the police car, leaving Wayne behind as Powell walked up to take up command.
Hopper pulled up his shotgun and made his way across the street and opened the door to the bank slowly.
~
“Well fuck,” Eddie hissed looking at the phone receiver in his hand. “Hopper says he’s coming in.”
Steve snorted. “I don’t know what he thinks he’s going to be able to do.”
“Oh I have a plan,” Eddie said cocking his head. “Because digging into the files I found out the bank manager, not Karen but the big boss is a sick son of bitch, but in a way that will work for us.”
Steve blinked at him for a moment. “I hope you know what you are doing.”
“I guess we’re gonna find out, sweetheart,” he said cockily.
Just then the doors burst open and Steve and Eddie jumped at least three feet in the air.
“Jesus H. Christ!” Eddie cried putting his hand on his heart. “Are you trying to kill me, Hop? I lost at least ten years off my life. Haven’t you heard of just walking in?”
Hopper waited until the doors closed. “And haven’t you heard of a ruse? If I went in like a walk in the park they would suspect something. And I have no desire to get shot in the head today.”
Steve scoffed. “I don’t think they’ll be gunning for you the way they’ll be gunning for me, Chief.”
“Steve,” Dr. Owens reprimanded, “what did we say about your fatalistic tenancies?”
Steve looked over at him and tilted his had to the side like a puppy. “Hello, Dr. Owens. It’s not fatalism, it’s pragmatism. I’m gonna get shot. Whether or not I survive it is something else.”
“Show me what you two found,” Hopper growled.
So they did. As Hopper flipped through the files, the other three stood in stony silence.
He looked up and handed Steve a picture. “This proves that you couldn’t have killed your friends.”
Steve took the picture with trembling hands and looked down at it. “It’s my jail intake picture. What about it?”
Hopper tapped the picture. “Look at where the blood stains are. Your hands and knees only.”
Steve shook his head. He still didn’t understand.
“Take it from a drama geek,” Eddie huffed shaking his head. “If you were close enough to fire those shots, you’d have blood splatter everywhere. But there isn’t even so much as a drop on your clothes. The only blood is where you would have knelt to do CPR.”
“I concur,” Dr. Owens said, nodding firmly. “You didn’t kill your friends, Steven. You tried to save them.”
Steve looked down at the picture and then back up at the three of them.
“Oh.”
He looked up at Dr. Owens and with a trembling upper lip he said, “So my memories were real? I–I always believed I didn’t kill them, but to have proof?”
Eddie hugged him tight. “You bet your ass, Stevie.”
“Is there any indication any of this was handed over to Steven’s lawyers?” Dr. Owens asked, peering over Hopper’s shoulders.
“Ah hell, Doc,” Hopper huffed, “what makes you think that anyone saw this shit?”
Eddie cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean, Chief?”
“I don’t think anyone at the DA’s office even sniffed in this shit’s direction,” Hopper growled slamming the folder down on Karen’s desk.
They all stewed in that information for awhile before Dr. Owens raised his head. “How deep do you think this conspiracy went?”
“Look,” Eddie huffed, putting both hands on his hips, “I might be trailer trash or whatever, but my dad always said that there was only one way to keep a secret between three men...”
“Is to kill two of them,” Hopper finished, nodding. “Sounds about right. But we also know that they have deep pockets to pay off new people so it’s hard to know who to trust.”
“I think that it’s a small handful of conspirators ,” Steve said running his fingers through his hair. “The old chief of police, the detective in charge of the case, the deputy mayor, and the two killers.”
Just then Hopper’s walkie talkie crackled to life. “Holy shit! What is Cruise doing up here?! He was supposed to be in Spokane this week!”
The other three looked at Hopper in confusion.
“Son of a bitch!” Hopper snarled back into the walkie talkie. “Any sign of a gun or anything?”
“It’s a Remington M24, Chief,” Donahue said dryly. “That’s not police issue.”
“No it fucking isn’t,” Hopper agreed. “I want you to tag and bag everything. I want so many pictures you have to use up several packs of film.”
“On it, Chief!” Miller said. “Over and out.”
“Why would Cruise be their go to gunman?” Hopper growled. “He’s fairly new. I’d say in the last couple of years. He’s not a rookie or nothing. He transferred from Kerley County Sheriff Department, I believe.”
Dr. Owens picked up a folder and began flipping through the notes. “I think I have an answer for you, Chief Hopper.” He turned the folder and handed it over to him. “Kerley county is where Pennhurst is located. I believe he took the job out here to establish himself in the department before Steve’s release. If it didn’t happen, he could choose to stay or go back to be near his mother.”
Steve and Eddie shared a confused glance.
“Wait, how do you know all that?” Steve asked, tilting his head to the side.
“Because Gwyneth Cruise was a patient of mine at the hospital,” Dr. Owens said gravely. “You’ll remember her, Steve. She was the older woman with the delusions of being a famous actress.”
He frowned for a moment and then nodded. “Now I remember, yeah. It was really sad.”
“Are you allowed to be telling us this shit?” Hopper grumbled. “Because that sounds like pretty sensitive information to me.”
“She died,” Dr. Owens huffed. “Suicide. Just last year, and it’s not as though I’m telling you every diagnosis she ever had. Only that she was being treated at Pennhurst.”
“So you’re saying they paid this cop off using his sick mama?” Eddie asked, disgusted. “Those sick sons of bitches.”
“Especially since I firmly believe his removal to Hawkins only further damaged her mental health,” Dr. Owens agreed.
“Well, shit.” Hopper licked his lips and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “What the fuck are we supposed to do if we don’t know who else they paid off?”
“I’ve got a plan,” Eddie said raising his hand. “It’s pretty ballsy but it’ll give you more time to catch the real killers.”
“Wha’cha got, Munson?” he said, crossing his arms, tucking the folder under one of them.
Eddie grinned and told him the plan. It was ballsy but better yet it would be the last thing they suspected.
Hello! We are back with the this fun tale. And in this one we are having Eddie with some introspection with Wayne, and Steve trauma dumping on asshole Billy Hargrove
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 |
~
Eddie was riding that high, having just come off a really successful American tour. Their next album was going to be their first solo tour and Eddie couldn’t wait.
But at the same time there was this nagging guilt underneath it all. Like that he was here only because Steve had sacrificed himself for him.
They had passed through Indiana on their way across America with Frozen Requiem and Blood Fiend Ritual so the boys were able to stop in their old hometown of Hawkins and spend time with family and friends.
And of course Eddie couldn’t help but poke the bear and asked around about Steve. What he learned was troubling to say the least.
Apparently Charles and Steve had packed up the day after graduation and left town. Steve had written his friends explaining why, but Eddie didn’t need to ask that question, not when he knew the answer.
Steve had left town because he was tired of the piteous glances about his mom dying if they were out of the loop or about him being left out her will for those who were.
Eddie was gutted. So he went to the one person he could talk to when he felt over his head. Wayne.
“I feel so bad about him cutting town,” Eddie told Wayne in the brand new house that Eddie had bought him once it was sure that Eddie would be doing the whole music thing for a living.
Wayne snorted. “Why? It wasn’t on you that his mom turned out to be a grade A cunt. Because that’s the real cause of all this. If she had given him a single photo or mentioned him at all in the will he wouldn’t have gotten so angry.”
Eddie ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t think I’ve told anyone this, but I was the last one out of the drama room that day. I was the reason the door was unlocked. It’s supposed to lock automatically behind you when you close it, but I guess I slammed the door a little too hard and it didn’t latch. I’m the reason Steve was able to get into the place at all.”
“Ed...” Wayne said pained. “You can’t go thinking like that. None of it is your fault. Sure maybe you should have made sure the door closed behind you, but Steve chose to go in there and wreck the place. I’m not saying Steve shouldn’t be granted some grace, but it was something he chose to do.”
Eddie let out a shuddering breath and then another. “I know. It’s just hard knowing that everything that happened pushed him and his dad out of town. That’s not fair either.”
“No, it’s not,” Wayne agreed. “But this is hand that he dealt himself. He took responsibility for his actions and so you’ve got let it go or it’ll eat you up inside.”
Eddie closed his eyes. “It was a brave thing to do. Even if it took him a couple of days to speak up.”
Wayne rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I’ve got a theory about that.”
Eddie raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side. “Oh?”
“This may be slightly cynical of me,” Wayne prefaced, “but I think Daddy Harrington was concocting a defense to keep his boy out of jail. Because in the eyes of the law seventeen is close enough.”
Eddie grimaced. He hadn’t thought of that. That actually made a lot of sense. “Would also explain moving out of town in the dead of night too. A small town police force like in Hawkins wouldn’t have the resources to bring Steve back even if they wanted to.”
Wayne nodded. “I just hope wherever the two of them landed, it’s good for Steve. That boy needs a bit of good in his life.”
“You know,” Eddie said cocking his head to the side. “If you had asked me which of the senior Harringtons was the better parent to Steve prior to all this, I would picked the misses every time. But, knowing what I know now, I can see the cracks in the facade they had carefully built. Instead of having a reasonable suspicion of Mr. Harrington cheating, there was just paranoia. Instead of Mr. Harrington being abusive, he was just concerned that Steve was wasting his potential. She wasn’t at the school all the time because she was invested in the life of her son, but rather children not her own. And isn’t that a kick in the head.”
Wayne huffed in agreement. “How easily we can be fooled.” He paused for a moment. “Still part of me wonders if maybe Charlie wanted it that way. That if maybe he was trying to protect his son from the worst parts of his mother’s nature. Put all the blame on him instead of the mother to lessen the pain Steve would inevitably feel.”
Eddie cocked his head to the side. “Charlie? Steve’s dad’s name is Charlie?”
Wayne burst out laughing. “At least that’s what he was calling himself back in high school anyway.”
“You? You went to school with Charles Harrington?” Eddie scoffed. “There’s no way, you’re a Kentucky boy through and though.”
“That’s certainly true,” Wayne said with a fond smile. “But your grandpappy got work out here on the plant and we were out here for about three or four years. Long enough for both your daddy and me to do through high school right here in Hawkins. It’s why I came back here when I got custody of you. Though, I did run from this place as soon as I graduated. It was a major improvement the second time around.”
Eddie blinked at him for a moment. “Huh. I would have never known, but I guess it makes sense, us living in Indiana when Munsons are country folk.”
“But, yes. I went to school with Charlie,” Wayne concluded. “Not his mama though. From what I understand she came from old money and was going to the same college as he was when they met.”
“You think she resented the small town life, living here?” Eddie asked softly. “Is that why she hated Steve so bad because he tied her here?”
“Could be,” Wayne acknowledged. “But the only ones who know that for sure is his mom and God. And she’s dead, and He ain’t talking.”
Eddie snorted. “That’s certainly true.”
“Don’t go worrying your pretty head over things in the past,” Wayne said, propping his chin on his fist, “you can’t change it, you can only live with the consequences.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
~
Steve wasn’t sure what he was doing at Frat party. He wanted to avoid those things at all cost, but somehow Vince and Robin had convinced him to come, that it would be a good time.
Considering that Steve had been struggling to make friends even on the swim team, he figured what the hell.
Only the minute he walked in, he should have walked right back out. Because one of the new members of said fraternity was Billy Hargrove. He was another member of the swim team, thinking that because he had learn to swim in the fucking ocean he was Poseidon’s gift to Stanford.
Steve didn’t give a fuck, and the guy was a tool without being too much of dick, it was fine. Until Steve let it slip that he had been privately trained since he was eight until he was in high school. Then it was pure malice on Billy’s side.
But Vince had convinced him to stay, saying that it was a big enough party, Billy probably wouldn’t have even noticed that Steve was even there.
So Steve grabbed a Solo cup of something that bright red and so alcoholic that it would kill a horse and nursed it as he wandered around.
He saw a couple of people trying to drink as much from the keg of beer for as long as possible. He snorted, catching the attention of one of the frat boys.
“What’s your damage?” he huffed, jutting his chin at Steve.
“I’ve seen better keg stands at raves I threw myself in high school,” Steve said with a shrug. He took a sip of the punch, never taking his eyes off the frat boy.
The second frat boy snorted. “Prove it. Put your money where your mouth is, pretty boy. Ten bucks says you can’t do it for longer than thirty seconds.”
Steve smirked. “Thirty seconds, you say?”
He shoved his drink into the chest of the first frat boy. “Hold that for me and if you spit in it, you will be wearing it.”
The guy scoffed, but both him and his buddy laid down ten bucks as did Steve. He got under the keg and turned it on.
He continued to chug for god knows how long, but when he came up for air, the two frat bros were pissed.
“Fucking hell,” the second frat boy hissed. “He beat Hargrove’s pledge record!”
Billy was over there in two seconds flat. “There’s no way some rich upstart from the middle of no where beat my record!”
Steve got to his feet and instantly felt the booze hit his system. He had cut down since his mom died and now his tolerance had gone to shit. He was about two minutes away from being a very, very weepy drunk.
“That’s dumb,” he scoffed. “As a rich toff or whatever you want to call me I’ve had better access to kegs then you have, asshole.”
“Bullshit,” Billy growled. “You think that you can just waltz into my frat and deliberately go after my record? You might have Coach kissing your ass, but you’ll get no such favors here.”
Steve really needed to get away before he entered the tipsy stage.
“Ooh,” he said instead, his filter obliterated by the beer, “I didn’t realize you were into that, Hargrove. Personally I’m against Teacher/Student dynamics as a whole, but you are technically an adult.”
The way Billy went from red to purple was almost impressive, had Steve been sober enough to recognize it.
“You vile piece of shit!” Bill roared, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. “You’re only here because Daddy’s money. Your technique is shit, your form even worse, standing there in your little designer Speedo, thinking that all you have to do is look fucking cute to win meets! You fucking disgust me! I came from nothing to be here. I worked my ass off to get this scholarship so I could go into marine biology! You better get your ass out of here and if you were smart and not some dumbass hick from the middle of nowhere you’d go back, do you hear me?”
Oops. Steve had hit the weepy stage now and it was straight up water works. Tears and snot started streaming down his face so much that Billy actually leapt back to get away from it.
“But I’m here on scholarship, too!” he wailed. “I worked so hard to get here so I wouldn’t have to follow in my father’s footsteps. My mom died this year and it turned out that she hated me so much that she would have have me go without then to even mention me in her will! I’m struggling to keep up my grades and if I so much as toe the line, my dad is going to swoop in and make me be a lawyer! I don’t wanna be a lawyer!”
“Jesus Christ, Harrington!” Billy snarled. “What the honest fuck?”
Suddenly Robin and Vince were coming between the two boys and Robin whisked Steve away as Vince held Billy in place to make sure he didn’t go after Steve.
“I was always taught that before you judge a life, walk a mile in their shoes,” Vince growled. “You don’t know what he had to do to be here, but he got in, same as you, so back the freak off.”
Billy shrugged him off and stormed away. Vince saw the two frat boys try and take the money they had bet against Steve back.
“Oh heck no!” he growled snatching the money from their hands. “My friend earned that money, so I’ll be taking that! Thank you!”
The two boys protested but Vince stalked off in the direction he had seen Robin lead Steve away. And then from there he followed the sounds of the hiccuping sobs.
He leaned against the door frame and huffed, “Frats parties have been wildly overstated in films and TV. This place blows.”
Steve hiccuped a laugh, his sobbing cut short. “I did warn you.”
Vince walked into the room. “That you did. Did you know beer is gross?”
“Wait,” Robin said, tilting her head to the side. “Isn’t drinking alcohol against your religion?”
“That’s between me and my god,” he said wisely. “And maybe my bishop...” The he waved his hand. “It’s fine. My parents haven’t spoken to me in months and I only get letters from my older sibs, sooo... if my parents gave a darn about my mortal soul, they would have been more supportive of my choices.”
“You’re an odd duck, Vince Harlow,” Robin said solemnly. “I like that about you.”
“I think that’s why we’re friends,” Steve said scrubbing his face with the heels of his palms, “we’re all odd in our own way.”
“I’d drink to that,” Vince said with a grimace, “but I don’t think there is anything non-alcoholic in this god forsaken hell hole that is a frat house.”
Steve snorted. “Probably not. But I think the diner down the way has burgers and milkshakes this late at night.”
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All those "spend just 35 minutes doing a bunch of really hard exercises and you'll feel great forever!" videos are really discouraging. I usually end up doing like, 2 minutes of some of his while waiting for my shower to heat up, and ykw?
That's 2 minutes more than I would have done otherwise.
oh hey I have a thing like that last one that I like to do sometimes, but I do it lying down in bed. it's a very satisfying pop/shift in my hips/lower back, but doesn't always work. maybe I will try his version and see if it is more effective for me
Modern AU fic idea titled “I Want Your Video” where Eddie Munson deals with bullies who harass him, his friends, or his sheepies by seducing them, taking videos of the sex, and blackmailing them into fucking off. So far it has a hundred percent success rate.
Enter Steve Harrington. He’s the most popular guy in school. Girls love him, teachers love him. Eddie doesn’t think about him much at all beyond selling at the parties he throws in his big house (no parents). But Steve has been watching Eddie, curious and eventually knowing once Tommy starts suddenly leaving the freaks and nerds of Hawkins High alone. When it comes to Steve, Tommy has no poker face; they’ve known each other for too long, and vice versa.
“Don’t,” Tommy warns when he catches Steve eyeing Eddie in the hallway. “He’ll only—It’s not worth it, man.”
But Tommy’s worst fear is being outed, and Steve isn’t sure he cares. Not now that he’s noticed Eddie’s dimpled grin, or the way he talks faster and faster and with his hands when he’s excited about something. Do you know how long it’s been since Steve’s been around someone who let themselves get properly excited about anything beyond who’s dating who or what happened on the court? Which, fine, he gets into that stuff too, but that’s not all he wants to feel engaged in.
He starts getting Eddie’s attention with mild jabs in the hallway—the verbal equivalent of pulling the guy’s pigtails. Nothing particularly cutting, but Eddie’s made his way through most of the popular guys at this point so he zeros in on it like a shark tasting blood in the water. (Maybe he’s bored. Maybe he wants a challenge—Steve likes to think of himself as a challenge. All the girls vying for his attention seem to have the same idea too, judging by how they stop returning his calls after a couple of dates.)
Eddie does his thing: drive-by flirting in the halls, taunting with just enough innuendo to titillate while still retaining plausible deniability. He’s fishing, seeing if Steve will take the bait. And Steve, feeling the thrill of the game in a way he hasn’t in a long time, takes it.
They hook up, and (because Steve knows what to look for) Eddie isn’t even that slick about setting his phone up to record it. He sucks Steve’s soul out through his dick, then looks comically shocked when Steve sits up, says “I’ve never done this before, so feel free to call out any pointers you might have,” and inexpertly but enthusiastically returns the favor.
The next time Steve taunts Eddie in the hallway, Eddie tugs him into the bathroom despite the ring of the tardy bell and lays out his usual terms: cut it out, or the video goes all over social media. But Steve interrupts his spiel to ask, “Did you watch it?”
Eddie’s cheeks start to color. “Well. I mean. To make sure it was obviously you, yeah.”
Steve hums in faux sympathy. “So sometimes you have to do this more than once for it to work? If they’re not recognizable in the video.” Eddie’s jaw drops, and Steve laughs. “Hey man, don’t worry about it. It’s pretty funny, actually. And I had a really good time. Actually, could you send it to me? Or come over again sometime, whatever you’re comfortable with. My parents really aren’t around much, as long as the front porch light is off the coast is clear.”
“… You’re bluffing,” Eddie tries, flustered. Trying for but not really achieving his usual bad boy bravado.
Steve responds by locking the bathroom door, snagging Eddie’s phone from his jacket pocket (the obligatory “I already backed up the file” goes duly ignored), and setting it up to record before putting it back in Eddie’s hand. Then he gets on his knees with a wink and a cheeky “Be sure to get my good side,” before making surprisingly quick work of Eddie’s complicated belt and going gloriously to town.
By lunchtime, Eddie plops down in his usual spot in the cafeteria still feeling shaken to his very core. After blowing him, Steve had persuaded him to unlock his phone so the dude could send himself both videos, and saved his own contact info as “Steve 🍆😜.” In the middle of second period, Steve had texted him an “Eddplant” joke. After third, it had been, “Hey, do you want to hang out sometime? Maybe a movie. Let me know what you like.”
Eddie can’t tell if the game has been turned around on him or if Steve is for real. He doesn’t know if Steve is asking about his preference in movies, associated snacks, or sex. Part of him hopes it’s sex, because Steve is a real quick study. Maybe he should start carrying condoms and lube around, just in case—no, that’s just his horny brain talking.
Or is it?
(It’s not, and Steve thinks it was a genius idea when it pays off later in the week.)
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“You call us livestock, but you don’t treat us like livestock. You don’t make sure each of us has been fed, you don’t protect us from predators in the night, you don’t help deliver our young or tend to our ills. You’re not a farmer, you’re a parasite, and we will deal with you accordingly.”
Welp. I actually finished it last night. It's finally done. There'll be 25 chapters and an epilogue.
Another death in this one and they're not going to stop coming. Sorry.
Also cliffhanger warning.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 |
~
Suddenly Vecna was all surrounded by all of the teams. El had managed to bring them all to her except the three protecting the kids. They needed to be where they were.
Erica turned to Derek. “This is your last chance. I’m sure if you asked, El could transport you to the bus with the other kids.”
Derek looked at her as if she was stupid. “Vecna can suck my big fat one, I’m not walking away from this, no way in hell.”
“Then let’s do this,” Erica said with a grin.
They were all kitted out in combat gear and homemade weapons mixed in with things that could be set on fire. Molotov cocktails, cherry bombs, flares, and the two flame throwers.
Robin had handed the flamethrower to Mike so she could be freed up to the throw the Molotov cocktails.
Vecna’s smile never wavered as they circled around him, so sure was he in his victory.
Lucas raised his sling shot, getting ready to fire his first cherry bomb. Max stood at his side, an axe in one hand and Molotov cocktail in the other.
“At least we’re better armed then we were at the junkyard,” she snarked, with a grin.
Lucas shuddered. Back then they were just a bunch of scared kids who had never faced off against so many foes at once. Forced to watch Steve and hope the dude survived.
Now they were seasoned warriors.
Nearby Robin stabbed a stick with a cloth soaked in lighter fluid into the ground and then another. Lucas lit them both and stood back.
Mike looked at Lucas and Dustin and then let out a shuddering breath. “We’ve got this.” He paused and his voice cracked. “Right?”
Dustin clapped his shoulder. “For El.”
Mike nodded resolutely. “For El.”
Hopper looked out on this army of children and civilians. It shouldn’t have been like this. It shouldn’t have been down to a girl who never got to live her life. His El. He would fight with every ounce of will in his body to make sure she got that. Fuck what Max said.
He felt a warm hand in his, but when he looked down there was no hand in his. So he looked up, El was on the hill with the other experiment kids. She caught his look and winked at him.
He closed his eyes and let out a shuddering breath. He hefted the flame thrower and lit it up. It was time to take this bastard down for good.
Suddenly the air was filled with shrieks of the flock of demobats as they began to dive. Then a pair of demogorgons crashed into the ground at the base of El’s feet. They crouched down and shrieked, the petals of their maw shaking with fury.
Two more landed on the roof of the jeep, Jonathan and Dr. Owens scrambling out of it to get away.
Jonathan closed his eyes, sure that this was it. Then a shriek turned into a scream and then howling as one demogorgon hit the other.
He opened one eye and saw that El had sent her demogorgons crashing into his. He scooted back and then scampered on all fours to get away. Dr. Owens took off in the opposite direction.
D’art hunkered close to Dustin’s side as it growled. Dustin turned to the pile of rubble in time to see it explode as a pack of demodogs erupted from its fissure.
“Robin three o’clock!” he screamed, readying his spear.
Robin grabbed a Molotov cocktail and lit it. She threw it toward the mass of demodogs, it arching in the sky like a comet before it crashed into the middle causing the demodogs to yelp in pain as the fire licked their forms.
Steve took a swipe at one with his spear, the blade running down the creature’s side. It turned to snap at him before it could get there, Eddie was landing between them.
The demodog leapt back out of Eddie’s reach. It shrieked at them, and then Eddie screamed back.
The demodog stood stock still for a moment before deciding on easier prey and turning tail.
Eddie leapt after it, wings unfurling behind him to give him the lift and then pounced on it like a wolf and its prey. He grabbed the face of the creature and grabbed the inside, tearing the monster clean in two.
El knew the only way to really stop the monsters was to go for the source.
One.
She leapt straight in the air as Will steadied her, Ollie and Kali fought to keep Venca’s attention on them.
Ollie let out a spray of fire as Kali made El disappear. Then she created dozens of herself and the other Numbers.
Vines tore through her doppelgangers as she created new ones constantly replacing what she lost.
Ollie’s flame seared the vines on Vecna’s right, causing them to burn away.
Vecna wobbled briefly as his attention turned to keeping himself upright.
As soon as he attention wavered, El sent a blast of energy, sending him out of his vine based platform and back several feet.
The vines turned to ash as Ollie pressed forward, her flames paving the way for El to get close. Every time she got within ten feet, Vecna would throw up more vines, pushing her back and Ollie would torch them, letting El gain again.
Hopper punched a demobat out of the sky that went for straight for Joyce. Who turned around stabbed the dazed monster, black ooze staining her spear.
“Regroup!” he hollered. “We’re spread too th–”
His battle orders were lost in the roar of two demogorgons as they landed right in front of him.
Jonathan finally reached the Mind Flayer group and grabbed Will, ducking as a bunch of demobats dive bombed them.
Will turned and threw up his hand, freezing the flock. Mike and Steve leapt to action spearing the now frozen demobats.
Jonathan grinned at Will. “Nice one!”
He pulled out two pistols and slid back to back with his brother. Will looked over his shoulder and winced.
“I hope you know how to use those things,” he said with a grimace.
Jonathan snorted. “I might not be Nancy Wheeler, but I’m no slouch.”
Will nodded gravely.
Three demogorgons landed in front of the brothers and Mike and Steve rushed over to them, but there was a FWOOOSH! and suddenly they were scrambling back away from the wall of flame that erupted in front of them.
Click! Click!
“God damn it!” Hopper screamed. “The thing jammed!”
He tore the tanks off his back and threw on at the trio of demogorgons. Then he drew the sword that had been his souvenir from the Russian prison.
He was forced to use it far too soon, when suddenly Derek set out a cry of fear.
A vine had wrapped around his ankle and began dragging him to Vecna.
“The children are out of my reach for now...” he growled. “But I have you and all these souls to reap. They will be mine, but I will end the world, starting with you!”
Derek clawed at the ground, scrambling for purchase, his own makeshift spear far behind him, having fallen when he did.
Max and Erica clambered over vines, cutting and slashing as they fought their way to him. They each managed to grab a hand and tried to dig in their feet.
But it was no use, Vecna ripped them off their feet as well, bringing them closer to their doom.
Hopper dashed over and leapt into the air, coming down on the vines with the sword with as much weight as he could muster.
The blade went through and Vecna screamed in pain and outrage as the vines snapped, shriveling up.
Another cloud of demobats descended on them.
“Where are they all coming from?!” Max roared in rage.
Eddie landed in front of them, blocking them from a a couple of stray demodogs that had split from the pack.
He clawed one in the face and it shrieked in pain. “He makes them in dark places like tunnels and abandoned houses. These are from a few days ago!”
Max and Erica shared a glance. “Does that mean that he can have more coming?!” Erica roared, her spear swinging at the other demodog.
He grinned at them both. “Nope!”
The two girls shared another glance and then were forced back to fighting the monsters.
“You sound awfully certain of that!” Erica snapped. “How would you know?”
Eddie took flight and flew behind the demodogs to grab their tails, yanking their faces away from them.
“I destroyed all the pods!” he said gleefully.
That apparently was the wrong thing to say as Vecna had overheard them. He bellowed with such ferocity that the very ground shook.
Everything was thrown off their feet and to the ground, including the monsters.
~
Kali smiled as the whole battlefield shifted to what she wanted him to see. That the good guys were still on their feet while the monsters struggled to stand.
Suddenly the vines shot straight out, shooting off in a dozen different directions as he flailed wildly, trying to hit something, anything.
“Miss!” she cackled gleefully.
But he hadn’t. Not entirely.
She refused to look down or even touch the side a vine had managed to slash clean through.
Kali shifted the battlefield again causing all her allies to disappear.
The monsters stood stock still as Vecna shot out vine after vine, wordlessly screaming in rage.
She kept shifting who was visible and who wasn’t as more and more vines were being stopped by El and Will with Ollie gleefully setting things on fire.
Too late did she realize what he had done.
It wasn’t as random or as wild as she thought. He had been building a grid.
And like a spider at the center of its web he plucked the string.
Kali created as many versions of herself as she could, setting them up in a circle around Vecna.
But it was no good.
With hands shaking she threw up one more illusion. All the kids that Vecna had killed. All of them. Billy, Heather, Chrissy, Fred, Barb, the Numbered Experiments. All of them.
“ENOUGH!” Vecna screamed.
Then all the illusions shattered.
“Kali!” El cried.
Kali sank to her knees, a vine had shot right through her. Blood bubbled out her mouth. She knew she was dying. She could feel her life’s blood flood the gaping hole in her chest.
She looked him square in the eye. “Fuck you.”
And then she was gone.
Then like with the fury of an avenging goddess, El threw up her hands as the debris that had once been the Upside Down version of Hawkins, shook and stuttered. Cars, fallen walls, lamp posts all lifted off the ground.
Mike looked up at her in fear.
Not of her.
Never of her.
But for her. She was using up so much of her power.
Then it flew straight for Vecna.
~
Eddie gleefully ripped through the frozen monsters as Vecna sent out vine after vine. Their group was carefully keeping back as the vines only seemed to be shooting out a certain distance.
“Edward.”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Like all of these monsters, I created you,” the voice said, warm like honey. “I can make you powerful. Think of all those people who hunted you. So easily swayed by the golden boy. The jock. The cult leader.”
Eddie tried to shake his head again, but he was transfixed.
“But Steve...” he said through clenched teeth.
“Is so jealous of you. At how easily you integrated with group of rebels. Nancy liked you better, Robin liked you better, Dustin liked you better. Because you are better, Edward. So much better.”
“I’m better?” His mind was beginning to whiteout. He looked down at his claws, back at his wings, the beast.
Hi! Would you be willing to make some lilac dividers? I tried to make some for a fic (initially to show passage of time/their short flowering time) but I was not in love with my attempts.
I love how you lavender dividers and red spider lilies dividers turned out! If you could do anything like those that would be amazing! (Lilac color doesn't matter!)
(I'm really not picky at all - Lilacs are my favorite flowers and I'm just excited to see what you come up with if you take my request! Thank you!!!)
ahh I love lilacs 💖 I would love to make some, I hope you like these!!
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Hi im a librarian amd that's not now this works. If a library allows you to have a digital card and not live in the area, you are NOT taking away resources from other people, that's not how anything works. Please keep doing it!!! The more people that use our services, the more money we can get from funding sources!!! Please use us!!! We are not utilized enough, by people in or out of our community. Thanks.
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