#to help

he’d only ever heard the song of spiders prior to this. and it had been magnetic. but now he realises, it wasn’t what he needed. the song of the web enticed him. gave him a little, but not enoguh, never enough, so that he’d follow into the path they lay out for him. the hive is different. it sings to him. directly. pouring all of its love and want into its beautiful, beautiful song. it buries him in affection and need and he wonders how he ever lived without this all consuming love inside him.

the web never loved him like this. it always retained its distance to ensure it kept its options open. it reminded him of himself, before the hive, spinning his lies to get through life and because of that never understanding true closeness, always keeping others at arms length so he isn’t discovered for his fraud.

but he let the hive in. in, deep into his flesh, into the centre of his being. where they have access to all of him.

Aaand here she is, our leading lady!!! She's just barely 25 when the story starts, which marks the first time I've written a character older than me. Although at this rate we might be the same age by the time I start querying lol.

Azrea is a flirty sassy badass and knows it. She has had some casual hookups and one sort-of girlfriend but has never really been in love, is incredibly devoted to her little sister to the point of dying or killing for her, and very screw-the-system as far as sociopolitical leanings.

Azrea also has a drinking problem which she's actively working on, and PTSD that she's hoping will just go away if she ignores it hard enough.

She’s the main character of the series and is internally freaking out a lot about what the hell is going on with her, how she's maybe not even human now, and how in the universe is she going to keep her sister and her friends safe while all the plot shit is going on.

Az is average height, stocky and curvy, and has a big sunflower mandala tattoo on one shoulder. She's a spaceship mechanic, and often wears her coveralls outside of work too.

She hasn’t had a lot of formal training or education but she’s very street smart, mechanically minded and loves inventing and fixing stuff, she has whole shelves of homemade drones and robots at home that she’s built out of spare parts. She’s also good with animals and kind of a magnet for them, like to the point where strays often follow her around until she finds them new homes. She enjoys pirating and collecting old movies, the older the better, she’s got a whole digital library of them on her tablet.

Here's Azrea's character inspo board:

Taglist (ask to be added or removed): @sarandipitywrites @mundanemoongirl @real-fragments @rayne143

More goodies under the cut!!!

https://www.archiveofourown.org/works/63308104/chapters/162180733

That scene? Where he wraps up the flashlight? That's not just a flashlight and that's not just a one-off. Yes, Eddie protected a beacon of guiding light to send with Steve into the dark, but that's not random. That's a purposeful narrative act!!

In 4.05, at 38 minutes in, the party almost in full enters the darkened Creel house, the den of the beast. Lucas tries to turn on the light, and it fails. Dustin pulls out a flashlight and clicks it on- and here's the parallel. Steve asks him where everyone got them, and Dustin (Dustin, who point-blank told Steve "you die, I die" last season, Dustin who is closest to Steve next to Robin, Dustin who is closest to Eddie, the bridge between the two) gives him a reproachful look and asks him if he needs to be told everything, reminds him that he is not a child, and... tells him where to find a flashlight. Doesn't give him the light, doesn't turn it on. Expects Steve to be taking care of himself.

Which is fine, it's fine, he's a kid, a teenage boy. This isn't to speak on Dustin's character.

But it is to draw the parallel line right up alongside Eddie, who (in 4.06 on the lake) doesn't wait for Steve to ask. He doesn't ask if it's needed. He pulls out a plastic bag from within his clothing, dumps his own belongings on the floor, and uses the bag to wrap up the flashlight, to prepare a beacon for Steve. Eddie solemnly hands it to Steve, something I'm not sure it would have even occurred to him to ask for (they are all so used to the darkness by now). The light is already on, shining bright, when Eddie passes it off with the soft, mundane protection of a good luck.

THIS is what they need. In every war, there are medics. There are healers. There are the helpers, the support. There are those who are the home to come back to, the reasons worth fighting. The ones waiting with clean water and a hot meal and a soft blanket. Even in the midst of the worst days of his entire life, Eddie looks at the warriors around him and says "I can give them light, I can give them a home, I can give them protection."

He can wrap up a flashlight, he can steal a vehicle that is most like a home, he can build shields. He can buy them time.

And perhaps most importantly? Dustin, early on, didn't hand Steve the light. But... by the end, he is building a shield alongside of Eddie, learning how to protect others.

I don’t know what to do, so I just sit here, hoping they can make it out alive. I want to help.