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Another kind of WIP

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"Let me help you out."

Bon appétit, hungry beasts.

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No, but stay with me for four minutes, yeah? Indulge me, please. Good. Thanks.

Steve is lost. He is so lost after the whole Vecna creep thing, because everything is falling apart. Hawkins is torn into pieces, people are leaving town, and his friends? Max is in a comma, the kids are barely holding up, keeping themselves busy, Nancy doesn't speak to him, Robin is forced by her parents to leave town for college, Jonathan is back in town with his weirdo friend, and so is Hopper, coming back from the fucking dead. Eddie didn't come back from the dead, though. That might have helped with the fact that Dustin is unreachable, he's miles away. Steve knows his heart is in that other fucked up dimension and he can't reach it, he can't fix this problem with his bat, and he can do little more than just to show up, though he's not sure it's doing any good, because the kid ends up crying every time.

Steve doesn't know what his role is anymore. He goes here and there, helping with what he can, but he's fucking lost. He doesn't know how to help. He found his platonic soulmate and she's not there anymore, she left in June. He is not the babysitter because the kids don't need him. He is not the king, hasn't been for a while. He's not a serial dater. He's not a business man like his father.

He is no one, and if he's someone he doesn't know who he is.

In a desperate attempt to make Dustin smile, he takes him to Salt Lake City to see Suzie, to spend a few days with her. He pays for gas, and food and the few nights they stay there, at a nearby hotel. He refuses to take a penny from Claudia.

The worst part is that Dustin is trying to smile, forcing himself to show happy and glad, Steve can see. But those big dorky smiles that always made his eyes shrink? Those smiles don't go anywhere, and it breaks Steve's heart, because the kid is trying, for him.

He sees Suzie for the first time and she's quick, and bright, and funny and pretty much how Dustin described her. Steve likes her immediately, so he chaperones them, and takes them out so they can have a proper date. Suzie's sister is also chaperoning. Eden. He trusts her right away, for some reason. She's nice. She is snarky, witty, always with that vague cloud of annoyance around her. She's pretty, and the whole witch schtick really suits her.

She's not as mysterious or mean as she think she is, though, because he sees how Eden looks at Suzie and there is fondness there. Steve's thinking that he relates to her and that's why he can see the love behind her foul mouthed comments.

They let the kids wander around the mall, they let them being kids, and meanwhile Steve and Eden talk about nothing, and a bit of everything. It is when she mentions how much she wants to get the hell out of Salt Lake City when Steve suddenly realizes that Eden reminds him of Eddie. They look so alike, and Steve's heart skips a beat because the resemblance is uncanny, in every aspect.

God even the name is similar.

Something has switched and Eden has noticed it, and asks Steve what's wrong. And Steve tells her.

Steve tells Eden about Eddie, minus the Upside Down shit, he tells her everything.

What was Eddie like, what he meant to the kids, to Dustin specifically, he talks about his anarchy inclinations, that he was a guitarist and was part of a metal band. He tells her about how he was unfairly treated by his hometown, how he was accused of things he didn't do, and he's both sad and surprised to learn that Eden has heard about him in the news.

When Eden asks how he died, he only tells her that Eddie was protecting Dustin.

Dustin and Suzie are in a tech store comparing and about weird discussing items, Steve and Eden are outside the store, when she comments that it is a very metal way to go. He agrees with a wet whisper, because he's doing everything in his hand to not cry.

Steve is so concentrated that he feels that Eden is putting something in his hand a bit too late. It's a stone. It's pretty, warm. He doesn't know what it means when she says that it'll help him. He doesn't ask, just smiles at her.

And Eden switches the topic and they end up talking about worst times babysitting these fucking kids because they love to get in trouble. They bond. Steve and Eden, he is comfortable with her, and she seems to be, too.

Steve can't take Eddie of his thoughts now, and wonders if their could have had this kind of thing, too, where they bitch about the kids being kids and they cleaning up their messes and swearing not to do it again, but they do it again, and again, and again. He wonders if he's finding Eden pretty just because she somehow feels like Eddie, and that is so unfair to her, but he can't help it.

By the last date they chaperone before Steve and Dustin have to go back to Hawkins, Steve already knows about Eden being a wicca. She practices rituals, and can make tarot readings, and all. Steve always thought that it was nonsense that he couldn't fully understand, he was never into it. But then Eden offers to make a tarot reading for him, and Steve sees Dustin and Suzie cuddling in their picnic blanket, stargazing, and he thinks why not.

He doesn't know anything anymore. He feels open to new things, and he trusts Eden. It's a fact that he doesn't need to understand shit for it to happen, anyways.

Steve fidgets with the stone in his pocket when he agrees, and Eden asks Steve to ask the deck for an answer, and he wonders about himself, about who he is, and then Eden puts some cards in front of him and talks about his past, his present and his future, according to the cards. And the thing is, that it is pretty accurate when it talks about the past, he relates to what she says. He can see it, know what she's talking about. Things she couldn't possibly know, they are not that close.

He is intrigued, and invested, and asks her more things about the deck, how it works, how she knows what they say. She tells her what she knows, which is not really enough, but he's happy to hear her talk, so convinced. Talks about a manual she learnt everything from and she can't possibly place where it is now. She's in her element and then Steve realizes he's going to miss her, and thinks that next time he's bringing Robin because they might get along well.

They part ways that night, and they hug tight, and he hugs Suzie, too. She has the audacity to apologize for having to spend so much time with his meanest sister. Eden calls her little shit, and he sees Eddie in her again, and he laughs.

Yeah, he's definitely going to miss her.

Dustin is in a very much better mood now. He even smiles that way it reaches to his eyes.

They go back home, and they take a break in a service area. There are books and toys and souvenirs there.

He buys a tarot deck and brings it home. He sets it in his night stand, and over it, it rests Eden's stone.

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MOOD

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Woah.. your redraw post on trusting the process is STUNNING!

Oh my goodness! Could stare at it for ages!

Oh my GOD. Thank you so so SO MUCH.

I'm very happy with the result, and honestly with what it means to me.

You're very welcome to stare at it for ever, they're enjoying it.

You can also hang this art in your wall, if you like 😉😉😉

Oh! And also mentioning that you can see different versions of this art and its process here, it's available for all members!

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One year trusting the process

Here, a little redraw of the very first steddie piece I ever did.

When I say "trust the process", this is what I mean. It's not only through a piece, from idea, to sketch, to final version. It's trusting the process over and over again. It's trusting yourself. It's stop focusing on what other people do, for better or for worse, and just keep doing your thing. Keep doing what makes you happy.

Don't compare to other people's work. There's no growth in that. But compare to your past self. That's where growth and love resides.

I hope it's clear that when I say "trust the process" it's me begging you to love and celebrate yourself.

I did that with all of you and it's been an amazing fucking journey.

Thank you so, so much, to all of you.

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This is where it began.

One year ago.

This is where I learned to trust the process.

Thank you.

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Now I'm down bad crying at the gym

Here you can find the most fun version ✨✨✨

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Now I'm down bad crying at the gym

Here you can find the most fun version ✨✨✨

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Hi lovelies,

A friendly reminder that plenty of my steddie art is available on INPRNT, in case you ever wanted a print of it!

Here's some of what you can find on my gallery ✨

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girls night!!

(close up under the cut)

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a cherished headcanon I keep coming back to is that Eddie is very much invested in the school basketball team right up until the graduating class of ‘85 leaves. By an incredible series of mental gymnastics, he tries to convince himself that this has nothing to do with Steve Harrington’s presence on the team.

(And maybe Eddie avoiding the championship game of ‘86 in the near future will have more to do with Jason Carver being on the team, but that’s a sadder story for another time.)

The thing Eddie can easily admit he loves about the bigger games is the fleeting anonymity: while he’s got notoriety in Hawkins High, as soon as there’s a rival school involved he can blend into the crowd for a couple hours, lost in the roar of support.

It’s nearing the end of just such a tournament game when the ball accidentally goes flying into the crowd. Eddie’s reflexes kick in and he manages to catch it before it can take out the back row of the marching band.

The clock’s been stopped for a timeout—a kid on the rival team is injured—so more eyes are drawn to Eddie than normal as they find where the ball ended up. He feels acutely like a spotlight’s on him—holds the ball to his chest almost like he’s a part of the game himself.

A whistle cuts across the court. Steve Harrington.

He’s looking right at Eddie, raising his hands for the ball.

He has more than enough time to say something, some jeer that would well and truly break the spell of anonymity. But Eddie knows underneath the knee jerk worry that it’s not Steve’s style; it’s more the kind of thing Billy Hargrove and his ilk would do, and he’d thankfully been benched at halftime.

Eddie inhales then throws the bell, praying that he doesn’t end up smacking Steve in the face.

He doesn’t, thank God; Steve catches the ball smoothly, manages a thumbs up in thanks before the spotlight shifts back onto the game.

Eddie quietly sighs in relief, loses himself in cheering again.

They don’t win, but it’s still a good game. It’s like Eddie’s reasoning for campaigns: not everything needs to be an all-out victory for it to be entertaining.

The parking lot is a nightmare so he contents himself with waiting it out by his van while the worst of the crowds clear. It’s only when he hears a car door opening and closing nearby that he realises Steve is parked right next to him. Of course, of course he—

“Good catch back there, Munson,” Steve says, tossing his gym bag into his car. He notices something on one of the seats—Eddie can’t tell what it is, but he hears Steve mutter under his breath in benign exasperation, something about, “Dickheads, I keep telling them not to…”

“Yeah, thanks. All my years of training finally paid off.”

Steve makes a face at the build up of cars, chatting parents leaning out of their windows. “You could’ve been on the sub-team.”

“Kinda resent that you didn’t think I’m star player material, Harrington.”

There’s the beginnings of a grin on Steve’s face. He has no right looking that smug for someone who’s just lost a game, Eddie thinks.

“Dude, I can hear you. You’re loud.”

Eddie wills his face not to flush. “You’ve got no proof.”

“Nah, just firsthand experience.”

“What, do you have ears like a bat?”

“Nope. Don’t need that to pick you out.” Steve chuckles to himself as he gets in the car, sits side-on to face Eddie as he speaks. “You’re worse than Tammy Thompson’s singing.”

“Uncalled for,” Eddie says, firmly locking away the part of his brain that’s screaming in embarrassment, because if he’s unable to fire off a comeback, he’ll actually never recover; he might as well go and tell Higgins that next year is already a wash, because he has to go and live in the woods—

“Hey, c’mon Munson, I didn’t say it was bad.”

“You implied it,” Eddie says, totally overselling the entire thing, like he’s been greviously wounded.

It works; Steve laughs, shakes his head.

“I didn’t,” he insists as he reverses out of his space. “I just meant it’s… distinctive.”

“Wow. Thank you.”

“That’s your whole shtick, man, don’t act like that wasn’t a compliment.”

“Sure. Eddie ‘Distinctive’ Munson, that’s me.”

And post-game sentiment must be in the air, because as Steve leaves the parking lot, he calls out the car window, bright and teasing, “Hey, maybe I’ll miss the cheering!”

But Eddie can’t be sure. Unlike Steve, he might be mishearing things.

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Hi lovelies,

A friendly reminder that plenty of my steddie art is available on INPRNT, in case you ever wanted a print of it!

Here's some of what you can find on my gallery ✨

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Please do not give the Demogorgon lemons.

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"I don't see how anyone can like stranger things after (insert thing from show)" baby I am in love with a version of stranger things that is so gay, so horny, and so far detached from canon that you wouldn't even be able to comprehend it.