#stobinatwork

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@genderthings Stobin at Work: custodians T | 771 | Hellcheer, Stobin, one-sided Steddie and Buckingham | Hellcheer's POV, pining, Stobin sharing a braincell, Humor, Everybody Lives AU, banter

Life is good. Everyone is alive and well, escaping Vecna with only minor injuries. And now Eddie and his best friend Chrissy, safe and sound, can focus on the mundane things in life once again. Like evading their gay crushes as they try to figure out their sexualities and not make a complete stuttering idiots out of themselves. 

It seems simple, at first--ask the boys of Corroded Coffin to rent movies for them so they can avoid Family Video, or just keep up to date with what's currently showing. 

It's at one of the latter instances when they first learn how difficult it could be to actually avoid them. 

They're at the late night screening of some hyped up thriller. On a weekday, there were barely any people at the cinema, and Eddie was taking advantage of it by having his legs thrown over the backrest in front of him. The lights are already back on and Chrissy is ready to leave, but she settles in to wait him out--he's a firm believer of having his money's worth and he's paid for the whole movie, end credits included. 

The employees usually hate him for it, but worst case scenario they'll start cleaning everywhere around and get to his seat last. But it's not like they come in vacuums blasting as soon as the lights are on. 

Well, unless it's a weekday and there are literally just two assholes between them and going home. 

"Hey man, could you put your feet down?"

Eddie almost falls on his ass in his haste to fix his position. Because he knows that voice. 

He cranes his neck to see down the row of seats, where an unimpressed figure stands with a broom in one hand, the other one resting on his hip. 

"Steve?" he asks, unwilling to believe his eyes. 

"Yeah, don't get so excited." Steve rolls his eyes in that bitchy ways of his. And then he's walking down the aisle towards them, so Eddie straightens himself up. Chrissy throws him a judgmental look, but is otherwise occupied looking for her own kryptonite, undoubtedly hiding nearby. 

Now that he can see him better, he can tell Steve is wearing a shirt in cinema's signature colors, thrown haphazardly over his civilian clothes. 

"Don't you work at Family Video?" he blurts out.

Steve shrugs, stopping next to them and leaning against one of the seats. He finally seems to spot Chrissy, giving her a small finger wave. 

"Hi, Chris. Robin is right behind, had an accident with a butter nozzle," he tells her, because her looking was not subtle in the slightest. Then he turns back to Eddie. "Well, they've cut our hours so we're looking for extra gigs."

Before Eddie can ask any extra questions, there's a clatter at the entrance, followed by a sound of distress. 

"Steve! Everything is buttery!" 

Steve sighs, turning around. 

"I told you to use the paper towels. And the dish soap. You said you had this!" 

"Well, I don't!" Robin pointedly waves her hands around, shiny with, presumably, butter residue. "I had to touch the doorknobs and the sink and the soap bottle and now everything--! Oh, hi, Chrissy!"

Chrissy waves at her, stunned.

"Well, sorry to interrupt your chit-chat but I really need Steve to be doing his job right now."

"I am!" he pointedly waves his broom around. "And what are you doing? Adding more job to our job!" 

"It was not my intention! Now come help me, it's an all hands on deck situation!" 

"It will be an all hands situation when we clean yours from grease!" He sighs, leaning the broom against the wall. "Sorry guys, we'll talk some other time." He smiles apologetically to their friends while trying to dodge the hands trying to oil up his face and hair. "You okay to see yourself out?"

That's a weird question. Eddie has been to the movies enough times to know his way around, and the doors stay open until the last screening is over. 

The credits are still rolling, but he nods his head. 

"Sure, don't worry about us Steve-o." Eddie hastily stands up, pulling Chrissy along. "We'll get out of your hair."

"Bye Chrissy, bye Eddie!" Robin yells as she's pulled into the dark depths of cinema corridors by her wrists. 

"Bye guys!"

"Bye Buckley!"

"Good luck with the butter!"

Once safely outside, they scream into the dark night sky. 

"Nowhere is safe," Eddie sighs, looking at the joke of a universe spreading above him.

"Not anymore," Chrissy sighs along.

Stobin at work

A Monday to Friday Labor Day event between April 28th and May 2nd. Put everyone's favorite duo through the work force grinder with 10 prompts: a job title and an industry to choose between for each day.

Guidelines:

Tag this blog and use #stobinatwork

Word count: maximum is 2000 words. You can expand on them later, but the submitted work must be a stand-alone read. 

Tag ships and rating of your work, and major warnings.

Your work can be more ship centered, as long as you capture Stobin interacting at work. Do they find their soulmates on a delivery run? An old ex? A shared enemy? 

Ao3 Collection will be up closer to the event.

Prompts:

Rating: T ⁕ Words: 1,999 ⁕ Tags: Platonic Stobin, Whole Upside Down party was dropped in a magical realm, Tavern owners, Pre-Steddie, Feelings realization, Stobin bickering, Stobin bonding ⁕ For @genderthings Stobin at Work: Fantasy Job Ao3

“Even with dragons flying around and guys with magic balls, we’re still working customer service,” Steve muttered, as he picked up a couple gold shillings from the bar top and wiped up a puddle of spilled ale.

He dropped the coins in their lockbox, writing down the amount on a piece of parchment. Ever since he and Robin took over the tavern, they’d implemented more professional standards, like keeping the money safe and writing down their profits.

As loathe as they were to admit it, all those years spent in retail and food industry hell were paying off; they’d been dropped into this magical realm with nothing and had built up a dinky tavern, barely a shed with alcohol, into their multistory bar and restaurant with live music, the likes of which these parts had never seen before.

Granted, it was good to have friends with magic that could speed along the building process, and if one of their friends happened to be a realm wide known bard, well they were just using the resources they had at hand.

“If only we weren’t so good at it, we could’ve done something else,” Robin quipped from her spot down the bar, totaling out a regular.

The night was coming to a close, the band had packed up and the last customers were paying their tabs. Steve needed to do last checks downstairs; the restaurant had closed an hour earlier, but he always did the last walk through. Steve walked backward toward the stairs, “You good here?”

“Yessss, Steve, I can close out on my own. I have done this before.” Robin rolled her eyes, tossing him a playful smirk.

“Yeah yeah, so you say.” Steve huffed a laugh. “I’ll meet you out front to lock up!”

“Sounds good!” Robin chirped as he went down the wide staircase into the dark dining area. He made his way around the smooth, wood tables, heading toward the kitchen.

For something they used to treat as not even real, they were so incredibly proud of this place. They built it up together, created from nothing but their shared experiences and loves.

Steve chuckled to himself; it still amazed him that people came from kingdoms around for their menu alone, like they were some five star Michelin rated fancy New York restaurant. Their menu that was made up of their favorite foods from back home: mac and cheese, chicken noodle soup, ice cream, and all of the fried potatoes. It took some workarounds, but they got them tasting pretty close to their real world versions.

In the kitchen, Steve made sure everything was clean and put away, grabbed a copy of their inventory sheet, and double checked the wards on the back door.

Everything looked good; The staff they hired were a bit confounded by certain protocols they had in place (apparently this magical realm did not have an OSHA to regulate safety standards in the work place), but they all seemed to catch on quick and had even come to appreciate their rules.

Steve could honestly say he’d never thought he and Robin would one day be the bearers of safety and health regulations, but, he supposed, those were the parts they were given to play and, by these lands’ gods, they were going to play them well.

He hadn’t heard Robin come down the main staircase to the front door, so he headed back up. He slowed at the landing halfway up, hearing hushed whispers coming from above, perhaps Robin’s milkmaid had come to walk her home.

Here's my contribution to the Stobin At Work event by @genderthings 💛💙😊

Day 1 : Custodians | Education / Day 2 : Wrestlers | Gastronomy / Day 3 : Radio Hosts | Tourism / Day 4 : Owners | Entertainment / Day 5 : Fantasy Job

YouTubers - Transwoman Stevie & Nonbinary Robin - Buzzfeed Unsolved AU - 02.05.2025

Of course I had to do that moment between Shane Madej and Ryan Bergara ! It's so Stobin coded to me :3 

Done using ink pens, gel pens, alcohol markers, colored pencils, acrylic paint pens and Photoshop for the dialogue, background and foreground elements

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@genderthings Stobin at work: Entertainment. Thanks @stevesjockstrap for the extra brain power 💚 T | CC has more talking parts here

"There's... a surprisingly big crowd today," Doug points out as he looks around The Hideout. From their dimly lit stage, they can't see the tables well, but the ambient chatter around tells them the small bar is packed with more people than would normally make sense on a Tuesday night. 

"Maybe there was football match?" Eddie suggests, scrunching his nose. It happened once before--overjoyed fans coming over for celebratory drinks. They had to play a few pop covers to appease them and avoid their tires getting slashed. Thankfully Gareth knows ABBA better than any respected metalhead should. 

"Not one I know about," Chrissy frown thoughtfully as she adjusts their microphones. She's been coming out with them for months now, helping with the set up and on a couple occasions even letting them persuade her into doing some back up vocals. 

"Hey, kids!" 

They turn their heads to find Bev jumping up the stage towards them.

"What's up, boss?" Eddie smiles to her his parent-pleasing smile. Well, adult-pleasing in general.

"Sorry for the late notice, but you're sharing the stage tonight," she says. 

"Oh?" Eddie raises his eyebrows and the rest of the bands comes closer to listen in.

"Yeah, these two radio hosts became popular recently and wanted to try some jokes out on stage. We thought today would be fine, since--"

"Since nobody comes in on Tuesdays," Eddie nods. 

"Well, the word spread so..." she pointedly motions towards the tables. "It's a good chance for you, so don't fuck it up."

"Uh huh." Eddie nods absentmindedly. "No pressure."

"Just play a few normal songs."

"Normal songs?!" Gareth splutters, like he isn't the one humming Madonna in the shower. 

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@genderthings Stobin at Work: fantasy job T | Platonic Hellcheer and Stobin, pre-steddie and buckingham | summer job time!

Finally, they have a little reprieve from the sadness that is Hawkins. Eddie didn't expect Chrissy to follow him, but once she learned more about renfaires there was no talking her out of it. Her parents still thought it was a summer camp job, which wasn't far from the truth is a summer camp was catering mostly to adult nerds. 

The pay was shit, but the real reason Eddie was there was being immersed in the small renfaire village, living there and eating for free. Money was secondary on his priority list. Once he found out he could attend for free in exchange for help, he called the organizers and got himself the best job imaginable right after being a successful musician. The boys had their summer mostly planned out but Chrissy decided to join him.

They park the van in the designated parking space out of view, where it won't ruin the medieval scenery. There's only a few other cars there, as the fair is still a couple of days from opening. Its mostly other vans and trucks, except a familiar Bimmer. But Eddie is probably just paranoid. There's no way Harrington was here, miles from Hawkins at a renfaire. 

"You the newbies?" a short woman greets them at the gate, already dressed in hobbit-like garbs. Eddie could start crying at the spot. 

"Yes, we're new. I'm Chrissy and this is Eddie," Chrissy has to introduce them, since her friend has gone speechless. 

"I'm Marge, nice to meet you!" the woman checks something off in her notepad. "The others are already here and waiting for the briefing." Marge motions for them to follow. "I'll show you to the staffs tent, it's where we hold meetings and have meals. Artem will tell you everything." She holds the flap of the tent open for them to walk through. 

Only, Chrissy stops in her tracks and Eddie runs into her back. 

"Chrissy?! Are you the other new hires? Oh my god!"

It's Robin Buckley's excited voice.

Eddie instinctively tries to hide behind Chrissy's tiny friend, because where's Robin...

"Eddie? Holy shit guys, we thought we would ran into you at this nerd festival, but as co-workers? Oh, this is gonna be great!" Steve grins at him, visible from under Chrissy's armpit. 

"You know each other?" Marge peers around them to look inside the tent. "That's sweet, most of the staff are friends." She smiles at them. "I'll go grab Artem." With a gentle pat on the back, she sends them stumbling inside. 

"What are you guys doing here?" Eddie croaks out when Steve lifts him in a tight hug. 

"We thought we could do something fun for a change," Steve shrugs, putting him down.

"Yeah, constant cleaning and waiting tables is a bummer." Robin sticks out her tongue. Her arm is looped around Chrissy's.

"And we get discounts, I thought I could treat Henderson to some nerd stuff when he's back from his other nerd camp."

"That's very nice of you," Eddie offers weakly. 

"Everyone here?" A new voice comes from the entrance, and a burly man with an impressive beard comes inside. "My name is Artem and I'll be your chief," he introduces himself. "Hope you're ready for three months of nerdy fun."

Chrissy and Eddie exchange panicked looks. More like three months of torturous pining. If they put Steve in a linen tunic, there better be a healer nearby.

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@genderthings Stobin at Work: Radio Hosts 413 | T | platonic Hellcheer and Stobin, pre Steddie and Buckingham | smoking weed, pining, wanted to give Steve another song to play but apparently metal wasn't a popular thing to air in the 80s huh, stobin is larry from gumball btw

Chrissy has dismissed every single tape from his glove box, determined to fiddle with the radio instead. Eddie doesn't mind because he gets to hog the joint for the time being, sprawled on the front seat.

"Told you you won't catch a station here," he says, puffing out a plume of smoke. "It's probably the trees."

They are parked as far as the van could go, opting for a lazy afternoon out. They have weed, snacks, swimsuits if the mood hits to take the short trip to lover's lake, and Eddie's guitar if the boys take their open invitation and want to jam.

"There's the local radio though, we should at least catch that," she protests, moving through static, stopping when she hears a song and then moving on again when she can't make it sound clear. 

"Hawkins has a radio?" Eddie raises his eyebrows. 

Chrissy throws him a look like he's stupid.

"What?! They probably play the most basic shit anyway," he waves his hand dismissively. "And small stations have even weaker signal, don't they?"

"Maybe." Chrissy shrugs, but focuses on her task again when a clearer sound comes from the speakers again. She adjusts the dials until Kate Bush can be heard in all her glory. She motions for the joint since her task is now done and Eddie passes it to her with an approving nod. At least it's not Duran Duran.

They sit and smoke until the end of the song and then look expectantly at the radio, awaiting the next track. 

"And that was "Running up that Hill" by Kate Bush for our dear friend Max. Hope you're having a great day!" the voice of the host comes on instead and Eddie inhales the smoke too abruptly. He starts to cough violently, his eyes watering. Chrissy grabs the joint away and pats him on the back.

"You're listening to Robin and Steve's lunch hour, where we air whatever we want!"

"Because it's our show!"

"And not yours!"

"What the fuck," Eddie wheezes out as they both stare at the radio in horror, the truth dawning on them. Their crushes are following them even through the radio waves.

"This song was super hard to get my hands on, so you better appreciate it. This is "Master of Puppets" by Metallica, for a good friend of mine," Steve announces.

As the song starts playing, Chrissy hands him the joint, but he raises his hand. 

"Keep it, I'm gonna light another."

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@genderthings Stobin at Work: Gastronomy 492 | T | Hellcheer, Stobin, pre-Steddie and Buckingham | Stobin waiters, CC, some sus groping

They're halfway through their pizzas so it's too late to run now. Well, they could ask to get them packed to go, but that would probably expose them even more to the new waiters. 

Eddie watches with pain as a middle aged woman slaps Steve Harrington's ass.

"Good luck on your shift, boy. Keep away from the wandering hands!"

Steve laughs. 

"I'll save the goods for you, Jess. Unless they tip well."

She waggles her finger at him as she back out, then waves to her other coworkers. 

"Ciao, have a quiet shift!" she blows a kiss to Robin standing behind the counter, and leaves. 

Robin materializes next to Steve immediately and swats at his butt like she's dusting it off of filth. 

"That was gross," she says, her nose wrinkled in distaste. 

"She's just like that," Steve dismisses it, pushing her hand away. 

Eddie should start slapping his friends' butts too. Until Steve deems he's just like that and lets him do it without a fuss.

"You didn't seem to mind," he teases, poking her reddened cheeks. 

Eddie elbows Chrissy pointedly. She elbows him back.

"Girls are like that!" Robin hisses at him, cheeks going even redder. "Besides, she didn't touch my butt."

"Oh, sorry, I'll get out of the way next time so you get a chance too."

They start an impressive slap fight that only stops when they send a container full of napkins onto the floor, sending the white squares flying everywhere. Some of them reach their table and with a resigned sigh, Chrissy leans down to pick them up.

"What happened to the cinema gig?" she asks as she hands them to Robin. 

"That's Wednesdays and Fridays. On weekends we're here," she explains, then looks over the table. The rest of Corroded Coffin sits uncharacteristically quiet, just enjoying the show. "Concert night?"

Gareth nods, holding his half eaten slice like it's a champagne flute. 

"Celebrating a double crowd tonight."

"So, ten drunks?" Steve grins as he approaches the table.

"Exactly," Eddie grins back while Chrissy holds his hand under the table so he won't start twirling his hair like a schoolgirl with a crush. 

"Well, congrats then! Holler if you need anything, we'll be, uh," he raises the handful of napkins he's holding, "trying not to pull this place apart."

"It was your big ass that pushed it down," Robin hisses as they walk away.

"Well, at least I have an ass!" He cocks his hip and slaps his own butt pointedly, to which Eddie whines, sliding down his seat. Steve motions at his friend's behind while they are trying to stuff the napkins back in the dispenser. "And what is that?"

Robin angles her butt away from him. 

"A perfectly reasonable amount of cushioning, thank you very much!"

Chrissy sighs. 

"Perfectly indeed."

Eddie weakly slaps her thigh, at this point barely visible above their table. 

"This is better than TV," Jeff says, chomping on his pizza.