#Eddie munson meta

[chopper-witch]

I stand by my prior statement that Mr.Clarke would have loved Eddie and vice versa

[munsons-maiden]

it always makes me sad when eddie scares the one girl in the cafeteria and is nice to the cheerleaders walking passed it seems he's only a gentlemen to pretty girls :/

This is not true, though! I'm not sure whether this ask was meant to be passive-aggressive or not, but since it's sometimes difficult to tell with a text message, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and reply.

First of all, I don't like comparing people's looks but I'll do it here because it's neccessary to analyze the scene. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, if the message of that scene had been meant to be "Eddie is only nice to pretty girls", they'd have picked actresses whose "prettiness" is varying more. That being said, look at the scene again:

When Eddie approaches the end of the table, the cheerleaders are in the background, still a few feet away while the only person walking by in that moment is the blonde girl.

Eddie picks her for the jump-scare because she's literally the only person walking past right then - and he smiles friendly at her (and blinks. Blinking is a subtle way of telling someone you're not a threat. It's what many people do when joking good-naturedly: blinking to indicate 'I don't mean it in a mean way'.)

Everything in his expression and body language screams that he's just joking and it's good-natured. He keeps his distance, doesn't invade her personal space, keeps his hands locked behind his back instead of stretching out his arms like you usually do when you want to startle/jump-scare someone. And he gives her a genuine smile. The Duffers went to extreme lengths to make sure we wouldn't think Eddie's a prick in this first cafeteria scene (they said so themselves) and even without everything that happens after, we already know in that moment that he's good-naturedly teasing and playing with the label "freak" he's been given, and if you don't agree with me you can agree with Dustin, who's absolutely delighted and laughing and definitely not uncomfortable (and Dustin would definitely be uncomfortable if Eddie's joke hadn't been good-natured). He wasn't rude, or unkind, or mean to the girl he jump-scared.

But everything in the scene is a character-establishing moment for Eddie, and him letting the cheerleaders pass with that little bow (hands still behind his back, making sure not to seem threatening) fulfils a purpose in establishing this new character Eddie Munson (as someone we're supposed to like, I might add). The purpose of this little moment is to prove further that Eddie is not rude or mean; it's meant to show us that he's a gentleman and not some prick, that he was only joking in the moment prior. Because the alternatives would have been to a) not have other girls trying to pass and let him walk back to his chair straight away or b) not let the girls pass but go to his chair first (which would have been rude). Letting those cheerleaders pass was a subtle, well-written way to smoothe out the situation and tell us how it was meant to be read.

And the fact that the girls he's letting pass are cheerleaders is important because cheerleaders are symbols of the popular crowd he dislikes (and just offended a minute ago). I said it in my other reblog, the one which I feel sparked this ask in the first place: they already openly show their disgust/disdain for Eddie, pulling that "ew, freak" face at each other while passing him by, and still he smiles and bows and acts genuinely like a gentleman even though he knows the kindness and smile won't be reciprocated.

This scene isn't meant to be read as "he's nice to the cheerleaders because he's only nice to pretty girls" but as "he's revved up and joking and parading around playing with the name Freak that the bullies gave him because if he owns it, they lose, but he's a kind, sweet guy letting ladies pass with a dorky little bow".

If you still doubt that Eddie's a genuine gentleman, not "only to pretty girls", take a look at all the other scenes:

with Chrissy in the woods, he keeps his distance, tries to set her at ease even though he's intimidated by her and clearly defensive/has his hackles raised at the start because he thinks she'll be mean and scary to him until it's clear she's not and he relaxed and lets his guards drop

at Eddie's trailer, while Chrissy is in her trance and he's alone with her, he respects her boundaries and personal space. He keeps his distance and doesn't touch her at first, doing everything he can to wake her until he realizes it's not working and only then, when it's evident everything else is futile and she needs to wake up because she's in danger, does he tocuh her shoulders and as a last resort pat her cheeks

during the earthquake in the Upside Down, Robin falls into him and Eddie, while tumbling to the ground himself, angles his hands away from Robin so he won't accidentally grope her (in a moment where the natural reaction would have been to hold on to the nearest thing, i.e. Robin's boobies)

So, Eddie's a genuine gentleman, not only to pretty girls. And if you still have doubts, look at everything Eddie embodies, the way he himself is judged for his appearance/looks and the way he cares for the lost little sheepies. Only being nice to others when they're pretty doesn't even remotely fit his character. He's fictional, he's written and acted in a way to show us he's one of the good guys. And while he has flaws and is complex, he's still a Good Guy TM, meaning it would neither fit nor serve the narrative if any of the writers had went "oh yeah he's that dorky outcast who's soft and caring to the point of dedicating his last breaths to making Dustin promise he'd help the outcasts now that Eddie can't do it anymore...but he's only nice to pretty people muahahaha."

[every-dayiwakeup]

On the ST fandom making up "angsty" headcanons for characters like Steve and Eddie:

Steve's parents being abusive is a headcanon. It does not exist in canon, so therefore it is not canon.

There are other angsty headcanons you can create for Steve that are backed by canon, like for example: nightmares about the creatures he's fought. Why not explore him always grabbing the object closest to him and wielding it as a weapon when it's dark and he hears a bump in the night or something. You could say that he can't sleep at night so he falls asleep during class. But no, y'all chose to give him abusive parents.

You've done that to Eddie, too. There are abusive parents in the show like Lonnie Byers and Neil Hargrove. You just don't want to acknowledge Neil because you don't want to acknowledge that Billy is an abuse* victim. Wayne Munson is not an abuser. You've made a privileged white boy and a dude who lives in a trailer park into abuse victims but they are not. That is a headcanon.

Eddie watched two people die horrific deaths in front of him. He has guilt about running away. That is canon. But y'all have to give him Billy's trauma. It's really weird that you hate Billy so much but your version of Eddie is morphing into Billy Hargrove. So which one is it? You want the ✨️aesthetic✨️ of trauma for your "favorites". The Duffers have a fandom that fits their victim blaming ideology like a glove. You want to play Build a Victim rather than accepting a canon victim, which is extremely fucked up.

[ghosttownwherenoonegoes]

something won't leave me alone for days now and i need to ask, i hope i'm npt bothering 🙈🙈🙈🙈 i saw the discussion abt eddie being kinder to the cheerleaders than the girl he startled (over on @munson-maidens blog but you rebloged it too) and keep wondering. i think he was really kinder to the cheers than the other girl cause he found the cheers pretty but he wasn't mean or rude to the other girl? like yeah he was kinder to the cheers but he wasn't unkind to the other girl he was still a gentleman like munson-maiden says with not getting to close and hands behind his back and smiling and he def would've let her pass too and he didn't jump at her cause he found her unattractive but cause she was there and he wasn't unkind or a prick to her. i just see two sides with the eddie is only nice to pretty cheers and that makes him a prick stance or people who say he wasn't nicer to the cheerleaders. but can he be a bit nicer to girls he finds pretty and still be a true gentlemen? he wouldn't treat anyone with less kindness cause of their looks so, honest: would it make him a prick if it is like i said that he was nicer to the cheers cause he found them prettier?

Hey anon!

You’re never a bother! I’m happy to hear from you and I adore answering asks (though I haven’t done so for a while and I need to be better about my time management so I don’t keep people waiting for too long💀).

I actually reached out to @munsons-maiden about this because she hadn’t said anything about this overall topic which I didn’t agree with (I have yet to disagree with Kiki on anything Eddie Munson related, she GETS him so well it hurts🤧🤧🤧), and I thought she could sum all of this up better than I can!

So here’s what Kiki said:

There are two types of men: those who respect women, ALL women regardless of their appearance, and those who don't respect women (the latter treats pretty women kinder but that's never genuine, that's because they want something from them and they'll stop being kind if they got or don't get what they want).

The question isn't whether he's especially kind to girls he finds pretty, but whether he'd treat any girl he doesn't deem pretty with LESS kindness, and the answer is no he wouldn't, because he genuinely respects women. Imagine the girls would have been "not pretty", and imagine him just not letting them pass. Feels so much ooc that I can't even imagine it. He would have let any girl pass, the fact that it were cheerleaders just shows that he's a gentleman to women even if they're rude to HIM. He wouldn't have jump-scared the cheerleaders because he thinks Chrissy (and by extension all cheerleaders, because pretty and popular) were mean and scary, but that doesn't have anything to do with being a gentleman or not. The jump-scaring itself isn't unkind or rude or pokes fun of that girl's appearance, if anything, Eddie is endorsing the freak label and playing himself a fool.

Plus, he treats Robin gentlemanly despite Robin not being the classical cheerleader beauty type as well, and his "Chrissy, this is for you" line was, according to Joe himself, not meant in a romantic way despite his crush, but to avenge her as a person. No man who lacks genuine respect for women would do that because Chrissy is dead, and he doesn't gain anything by dedicating the song to her.

In the end, everything can be interpreted ambiguously, and people tend to see what they want to see. How a scene is intended to be interpreted is determined by the rest of what we know about a character and the situation, and we get to know Eddie well enough to exclude the option that he's not a genuine gentleman.

I was very kindly given permission to copy and paste this into this answer, and I hope it gives you more food for thought!💖

[fromaliminalspace]

Got thinking about something during my guitar practice today and now it's haunting me so gonna get it out. As a person who's kinda on the autistic/ADHD spectrum I've been noticing how this daily (well, almost daily) practice is working for me in ways that confirm the message of posts like this. How getting my hands on the instrument gives me enough happy brain chemicals to at least try to do sth about my to do lists, how my feasible progress (no matter how far I still am from where I wanna be skill-wise) helps me not just carry on with my day but sometimes even pull me out of my head and give a little bit of motivation to work on stuff I wanna work on. From just spending a couple of hours tormenting my poor old acoustic with music that is meant to be played on sth capable of emitting way heavier sound than just that.

And I can't help but think how the same thing would explain (not that it needs much explanation) so much about Eddie Munson's excellent guitar skills and his passion about music, especially in context of him also displaying quite a few ADHD traits and having failed to graduate high school twice. And the odds are that he's self-taught so he had the freedom to engage in this hobby and learn this skill in ways that make sense for his own brain, instead of having to conform to how disciplines are taught in ways often colliding with how neurodivergent minds work, instead of having to deal with someone else who'd pressure him into living up to expectations at the expense of himself and scold in case of failure or missed deadline.

No, this is something Eddie learned entirely on his own volition, something he can easily pour entire hours of concentrated effort into, something that reminds him that he's not as much of a failure as everyone else says he is. So naturally it's endlessly interesting to me how exactly him regularly playing music works with regards to his brain chemistry, and alas it's not something I've ever seen explored in fics yet, though it's always fascinating to read how other people write him as having ADHD even without making it intersect with music. Which shouldn't probably be surprising, given how much this niche kind of thing might be tricky to actually write unless informed by experience, but still. It may be niche, yeah, but it has quite a lot of potential for offering some insight for what makes Eddie tick and what exactly this admittedly large part of his life means to him. And this is, again, endlessly interesting to me

[lazylittledragon]

just realised i never posted any of the stuff i did for the alternative steddie dads au

[otteranha]

Steve’s always been told that the string of pearls from his grandmother would one day belong to his girl of his dreams, perfect accessory to compliment a wedding dress. When he’s getting his birth certificate and passport out of his father’s safe on the day he leaves for good the pearls in their velvet case catch his eye and on a whim, he takes them along. Leaves a note explaining that it won’t be a white wedding but they’ll be going to the person he loves most in the world.

It may seem incongruous on paper, but when Corroded Coffin plays their first big gig, everyone remarks about the total badassery of frontman Eddie Munson’s look, pairing black mesh shirt, frayed black jeans and combat boots with a string of flawless white pearls.

[steddielations]

once again thinking about how Eddie’s realization that Steve’s actually a good dude probably has to do with how Steve kept making sure he was in the loop (girl with superpowers) and placating his worries without making it seem silly (Dustin’s not cursed, just mental) and never once making Eddie feel dumb for trying to keep up and going blank under stress (not saying ‘you should already know’ when explaining the hive mind) I know we love how Eddie doesn’t make Steve feel dumb about the Ozzy reference, but Steve was also doing that for Eddie too for most of the season

Just thinking, with Eddie having failed grades and clearly struggled in school and not being seen as “traditionally” smart, he’s definitely been treated like he’s stupid before. Both him and Steve know what it’s like to feel dumb and they made such a point not to treat each other that way and it’s so!!!

[flowercrowngods]

who did this to you. part 3

🤍🌷 read part 1 here | read part 2 here pre-s4, steve whump, protective (but scared) eddie. now with robin!

The number rings in his head, echoing off the inside of his skull and sinking lower and lower until his heart strings join the symphony that leaves him shaking as the memory of Harrington’s slurred voice is drowned out by the dial tone that feels harrowingly like a flatline right now. 

Said I’ll go blind. Or deaf. Or just… die.

Eddie doesn’t really feel like his body belongs to him anymore, or like there’s anything left inside him other than panic and fear and that stupid, stupid shaking that he can’t suppress even as he bites his knuckles. Hard. 

The pain helps a little not to startle too much when the dial tone stops and a female voice begins speaking to him. Still he almost drops the phone, cursing under his breath as he pulls his hair to collect himself and get his voice to work. 

“H— Hi, hello, Mrs Buckley? This is, uh. I. I’m. A friend of Robin’s, could you, uh—“ 

“Oh, of course, dear,” the woman says, and Eddie feels his eyes beginning to prick with how nice she sounds even through the phone. 

Does she know Steve, too? Would she worry if she knew? Would she curse Eddie for not taking him to the hospital right away? Would she blame him if anything happened? 

“I’m sorry? What did you say your name was?” she asks, repeating herself by the sound of it. 

He blanks, for a whole five seconds, before he spots a note stuck to the fridge saying Don’t forget to eat, Eddie :-)

“Eddie,” he croaks. “Uh, Eddie Munson.”

“Alright, Eddie Munson, I’ll see if I can grab Robin for you. You have a good day, dear, yes?” 

No. “Thanks.” 

The hand clenched in his hair pulls tighter and tighter until the tears fall and he can pretend it’s from pain and not from— whatever the fuck is happening. 

He waits, phone pressed to his ear with a kind of desperation he’s never really felt, and never wants to feel again. He doesn’t even know what to tell Robin; what to say. It’s not like they ever hang out or have anything to say to each other, so why would she— 

“Munson?” Robin’s voice appears on the other end, a little too loud for Eddie’s certain state, and he does drop the phone this time, scrambling to catch it and only making the situation worse as it dangles by his knees. 

He drops to the floor, pulling his knees to his chest and reaching for the phone again. 

“Hi.” 

“What do you want? How’d you even get this number? I swear, if you—“ 

“It’s Blue. I mean, Steve. Harrington.” 

That shuts her right up, and Eddie clenches his eyes shut for a moment, hoping to keep the tremor out of his voice if only he takes a moment to breathe. 

The moment stretches. And Robin’s voice is wary and quiet when she speaks again. 

“What about Steve.” 

Eddie rubs his face, leaving more dirt and grime to fill the tear tracks, and clenches his fist before his mouth. 

“Eddie,” Robin demands, dangerous now. Nothing left of the rambling, bubbling mess he knows her to be on the school hallways. “What. About. Steve.” 

“He… He’s hurt.” 

There’s a bit of a commotion on the other end, before Robin declares, “I’m coming over. You tell me everything.” 

“You— I mean, he’s in the hospital with my uncle, so—“ 

“I am. Coming. Over,” she says, enunciating every word as though she were making a threat. Maybe she is. But the certainty in her voice helps a little, anchors him the same way that Wayne’s calmness did. “And you tell me everything.” 

Eddie finds himself nodding along, knowing intuitively that there is nothing that could stop her now. Knowing that he doesn’t want to stop her. 

“‘Kay.” It’s a pathetic little sound, all choked up and tiny. She doesn’t comment on it. 

One second he hears her determined exhale, the next she’s hung up on him and Eddie is greeted by the flatline again. He lets out a shuddering breath and leans his head back against the wall. 

Breathing is hard again, but it’s all he has to do now, all that’s left to do, so he focuses. Inhale. Hold. Exhale. Hold. His lungs are burning and there’s something wrong about the way he pulls in air and keeps it there, desperately latching onto it until the very last second, his exhales more of a gasping cough than calm and controlled. 

It takes a while. Longer than it should. But with Harrington’s blood still on his hands, with his heartbeat in his ears so loud he can’t even hear the words Wayne used to say about breathing in through the mouth or the nose or… or something, he— 

He’s fine. He’s home. Wayne’s got Blue, and Buckley is on her way, and… He’s fine. 

People don’t just die. 

They don’t. 

He’s fine. 

Eventually, Eddie manages to breathe steadily, the air no longer shuddering and his hands no longer shaking. It’s stupid, really, being so worked up over someone he doesn’t even really know. Sure, everyone knows Steve fucking Harrington, and everyone sees Steve fucking Harrington — whether they want it or not. He has a way of drawing eyes toward him even if all he does is walk the halls with his dorky smile and that stupidly charming swagger he’s got going on. Always matching his shoes to his outfit.

Eddie can relate.

Always reaching out to touch the person he’s talking to; clapping their back or shoulder, lightly shoving them in jest, ruffling their hair or chasing them through the halls, moving and holding himself like teenage angst can’t reach him. Like he belongs wherever he goes. Like he’s so, so comfortable in his own skin. Like the clothes he wears aren’t armour but just a part of him; a means of self-expression. 

Again, Eddie can relate. He can relate to all of this. 

It’s almost like the two of them aren’t so different after all. Just going about it differently. 

And now he’s… Bleeding. Slurring his speech. Wheezing his breath. And Eddie feels protective. Eddie feels responsible. Like he should be there, like he should get to know more about him. About Steve. About Blue. 

But he can’t. And he won’t. So he gets up with a groan that expresses his frustration and the need to make a sound, to fight the oppressive silence that only encourages his thoughts to run in obsessive little circles, and he hangs up the phone that’s been dangling beside him all this time. 

He needs a smoke. 

He needs a smoke and a blunt and a drink and for this day to be over and for time to revert and to leave him out of whatever business he stumbled into by opening the door to the boathouse and, apparently, Steve Harrington’s life. 

But unfortunately, the universe doesn’t seem to care about what he needs, because just as he steps outside and goes to light his cig, he catches sight of a harried looking Robin Buckley, standing on the pedals of her bike as she kicks them, her hair blowing in the wind to reveal a frown between her brows. A wave of unease overcomes Eddie, an unease he can’t really place. Maybe it’s the set of her jaw, or the tension in her shoulders, or maybe it’s the worry and anger she exudes. 

It never occurred to him before that Robin Buckley might not be a person you’d want to set off. And not because of her uncontrollable rambles. 

“Munson!” she calls over, carelessly dropping her bike in the driveway and stalking toward him. 

Almost as if summoning a shield, Eddie does light the cigarette. Pretends like the smoke can protect him. 

She doesn’t stop at the foot of the steps, though, climbs them in two leaps and gets all up in his space with that unwavering look of determination — so unwavering, in fact, that it almost looks like wrath. Cold. Eddie wants to shrink away from it, not at all daring to wonder what could make her look like that upon hearing that Steve’s hurt. 

I don’t wanna die, Munson. I never… I didn’t. With the monsters or the torture.

But those are the words of a semi-conscious teenage boy beat to a pulp, they can’t— There’s no way. Eddie misheard him, or Steve was talking about some kind of inside joke, using the wrong terminology with the wrong guy. It happens. It happens when you’re out of it, really! The shit he’s said when he was shot up, canned up, all strung out and high as a kite… He’d be talking of monsters, too, and mean some benign shit. 

But the way Harrington looked, none of that was benign. The bruising all over his face, the blood still dripping from the wound by his temple or his nose, the way he held himself, breath rattling in his lungs, or— 

“Hey!” Buckley demands his attention, giving him a light shove; just enough to catch his attention, really, and just what he needed to snap out of it. Still the smoke hits his lungs wrong and he coughs up a lung, further cementing his role of the pathetic little guy today. 

“Hey,” he says lamely, his voice still croaking as he crushes the half-smoked cigarette under his boot. “Sorry.” He doesn’t know for what. But it feels appropriate. 

She shakes her head, rolling her eyes at him as she crosses her arms in front of her chest. 

“Tell me,” she says at last, and even though there is a tremor in her voice, she sounds nothing short of demanding. “I want the whole story, and I want it now.” 

And so he does. He tells her everything, bidding her inside because he needs the relative safety of the trailer even though the air in here is stuffy and still faintly smells blue. He pours them both some coffee and some tea, because asking what she wants doesn’t feel right in the middle of telling her how he found her supposed best friend beat to shit in the boathouse he went to to forget about the world for a while. 

She stills as she listens to him, staring ahead into the middle distance somewhere beneath the floor and the walls, her hands wrapped around the steaming mug of coffee. Eddie stumbles over his words a lot, unsettled by her stillness, her lack of reaction. She doesn’t even react to his fuck-ups. People usually do.

He wants to ask. Where are you right now? What have you seen? What’s on your mind? What the fuck is happening?

But he doesn’t ask, instead he tells her more about Steve. About how he seemed to forget where he was. About the pain he was in. About the smiles nonetheless. The way he reassured Eddie. 

That one finally gets a choked little huff from her, somewhere between a sob and a laugh. 

“Yeah, that sounds like him alright. He’s such a dingus.” 

There is so much affection in her voice as she says it that Eddie can’t help but smile into his mug. 

“Dingus?” he asks, hoping for some lightness, hoping to keep it. 

But the light fades, and her eyes get distant again. Eddie wants to kick himself. 

“Just a stupid little nickname. An insult, really.”

“Oh.” He doesn’t know what to do with that. If he should ask more or if he should say that he has a feeling Steve might appreciate stupid little nicknames. Especially if they’re unique. Especially if they’re for him. But what right does he have to say that now? What knowledge does he have about Steve Harrington that Robin doesn’t? 

So he bites his tongue and drinks his coffee, cursing the silence that falls over them as Robin mirrors him, albeit slow and stilted, like she doesn’t know what to do either. Or where to put her limbs. 

“Wayne’s got him now. I took him here, after the boathouse, because I didn’t know what to do. He said he didn’t want the hospital, said there’s…” He trails off. 

Robin looks at him, her eyes wary but alert. “Said there’s what?” 

It’s stupid. Don’t say it. 

“Eddie?” 

With a sigh, he puts his mug on the counter and stuffs his hands into his pockets. “He said there’s monsters. In the hospital, I mean. He said that.”

Instead of scoffing or at least frowning, Robin clenches her jaw and nods imperceptibly, her eyes going distant again. Eddie blinks, the urge to just fucking ask overcoming him again, but with every passing second he realises that he doesn’t actually want to ask. He doesn’t want to know, let alone find out. 

He just… He just wants to go to bed. Forget any of this ever happened. But he can’t do that, so he continues. 

“Brought him here and Wayne took one look at him and convinced him he needed a doctor. And, Jesus H Christ, he was right. I’ve never… I mean, those things don’t happen,” he urges, balling his hands into fists even in the confined space of his pockets. “Right? I mean… Shit, man.” He bumps his shoe into the kitchen counter; gently, so as not to startle Buckley out of her fugue like state. 

“You’d be surprised,” she rasps, staring into the middle distance again and slowly sinking to the floor. There is a tremor in her shoulders now, barely noticeable, but Eddie knows where to look. Without really thinking about it, he grabs two of his hoodies he’d haphazardly thrown over the kitchen chairs this morning while deciding on his outfit and realising that it was altogether too warm for long sleeves today. But now, right here in this kitchen, the air tinged with blue, they’re both freezing. 

Because fear and worry will take all the warmth right from inside of you and leave you freezing even on the hottest day of the year. 

She barely looks at him when he holds out his all-black Iron Maiden hoodie to her, freshly washed and all that, but she takes it nonetheless, immediately pulling it on. It’s way too large on her, her hands not showing through the sleeves, her balled fists safe and warm inside the fabric. It would make him smile if only it didn’t highlight her stillness, her faraway stare, and the years he has on her. She’s, what, two years younger than him? Three? 

It seems surreal. Everything, everything does. 

Robin Buckley in his home, sitting on his kitchen floor, swallowed by a hoodie that is a size too large even for him, but it was the last one they had in the store and he doesn’t mind oversized clothes, can just cut them shorter when the need arises or layer them or declare them comfort sweaters for when he wants to just have his hands not slip through the sleeves on some days. And now Robin is wearing his comfort hoodie because her best friend was bleeding in his car earlier and then on his couch and now in his uncle’s car, and they never even talk, but he knows that Robin’s favourite colour is blue, but not morning hour blue because that makes her sad; only deep, dark blues. 

Her favourite colour. Her favourite person. 

It’s so fucking surreal. 

He drops down beside her, leaving enough space between them so neither of them feels caged, and mirrors her position: knees to his chest, chin on his forearms. Staring ahead. 

And silence reigns. 

“Your uncle,” she says at last, finally breaking the silence that’s been grating on Eddie’s nerves and looking at him, really looking as she rests her cheek on her forearms crossed over her knees. “Tell me about him.” 

There is a gentleness to her voice now despite how hoarse it is. Maybe she’s just tired, too. And scared. At least the shivering has stopped. 

Still Eddie frowns, confused as to why she should be breaking the silence to ask about Wayne when everything today has been about Harrington. About Steve. About deep and dark blues. 

“Uncle Wayne?” he asks. “Why?”

“Because,” she begins, and sighs deeply, works to get the air back in her lungs. Eddie wants to reach out, but instead he just clenches his fingers a little deeper into the fabric of his hoodie. “My best friend is hurt very badly and the only person with him is your uncle, and I need to know that he’s in good hands. Or I swear to whatever god you may or may not believe in, and granted, it’s probably the latter, but still I swear I’ll give into my arsonist tendencies and burn down this city, starting with your trailer if you don’t tell me that your uncle is a good man who will do anything in his power to make sure that boy gets the help and care he needs. And deserves.” 

Her jaw is set and her bottom lip trembles, but it doesn’t take away from the absolute sincerity in her threat. 

“So, please,” she continues, her voice breaking just a little bit. “Tell me. Tell me about your uncle.” 

Tell me about your favourite person. 

Eddie swallows, and mirrors her position once more, so she can see his eyes and know he’s sincere. Because he’s learned something about eyes today, about how much in the world can change if only you have a pair of eyes to look into. 

And he nods, looking for somewhere to start. “He’s the best man I know. He’s the best man you’ll ever meet.”

She clings to his eyes. Searches them for the truth, beseeching them not to lie. He lets her. 

“Took me in when I was ten, because my dad’s a fuck-up and my mom’s a goner. Took me in again when I was twelve after I ran away. Makes me breakfast and I pretends the dinner I make him is more than edible.” He smiles a little, because how could he not? “He’s my uncle, but still he’s the best parent anyone could wish for. Writes those little notes that he sticks to the fridge, y’know, the one with the smiley face? Tells me to eat, because I forget sometimes. I tell him to drink water, because he forgets. First few years, he’d read to me. And the man’s a shit reader, has some kind of disability I think, and at some point I learned that he wasn’t reading at all. He was telling me stories all the time, conning me into thinking that the books were magic, and that every time I’d try to read the book for myself, the story would change.” 

There’s a lump in his throat now, and his eyes sting again. But Robin doesn’t seem to fare any better than him if her wavering smile is any indication. 

“There’s no one,” Eddie continues, “who will make you believe in magic quite like uncle Wayne. Or in good things. And d’you wanna know what he told Blue when he said he was scared of going to the hospital?” 

Sniffling, Robin shakes her head. 

“He said, Okay. Then we do it scared. And all of that after he just… with that patience he has, told him everything that was gonna happen. And that he’d be there with him through it all. That he knew the doc and wouldn’t let anyone else near him, and that there’s no need to be scared at all.” 

He sighs, breathes, stills. Swallows, before looking back at Robin. 

“So, if there’s one person who’ll make sure that boy gets the help and care he needs and deserves…” 

“It’s uncle Wayne,” Robin finishes his sentence, her voice still hoarse, but Eddie likes to think it’s for a different reason now. 

“It’s uncle Wayne,” Eddie says, nodding along as he does. 

There is something like understanding in Robin’s eyes now, and Eddie hopes it’s enough. Enough to calm the spiking of her nerves, enough to settle the coil of freezing nausea that must reside in the pit of her stomach, enough to let the next breath she takes feel a little more like it’s supposed to be there. 

He wants to say something more, wants to reach out and reassure her that everything will be okay, but he can’t know that. He doesn’t feel like it’s entirely true, let alone appropriate right now. 

There’s something in Robin’s eyes, in the way she holds herself, like she’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like she accepts his words at face value but doesn’t really believe them. Like she’ll only rest when she’s got her best friend back in her arms and hears the story — the whole story — from him. 

And Eddie doesn’t fault her, because the thing is, he doesn’t know what happened. Steve said that Hagan came at him, but that’s really all he got out of him before he started talking about death and shit, and Eddie really didn’t want to ask any more questions then. 

So they sit there for a while, the silence oppressive and unwelcome, clumsy and awkward; Robin’s mouth opening and closing a lot, like she wants to ask questions but doesn’t dare to ask them — and Eddie doesn’t know if he’s glad about it or not. Doesn’t know if he wants to hear the kind of questions asked with that kind of stare. 

It is only after a long while, when Robin’s shoulders start shaking again and she buries deeper into the hoodie and her own spiralling thoughts, that Eddie breaks the silence again, replaying in his head the last moment between him and Steve. 

“He’s not gonna break,” he tells her, aiming for gentle and reassuring. 

What he doesn’t expect is the minute flinch, the jolt shooting through her body and the pained expression it leaves her with. What he doesn’t expect is what she says next. 

“You know,” she begins, her voice as far away as her eyes, and it’s like she doesn’t even know she’s speaking. “Sometimes I wish he would.” 

What?

Eddie blinks, swallowing hard.

“Just for, just for a break. Just so he can rest. Let the rest take over for a while.” 

That… He doesn’t— What the hell does that even mean? 

“Like maybe then the world would… snap back.” She snaps her fingers, just once. This time it’s Eddie who flinches. “And everything bad would disappear. But it won’t. And he won’t.” She swallows. Then quietly, almost inaudible, “He won’t break.” 

And the way she says it… It was reassuring before. And now it feels like a burden. A curse. 

Who the fuck are you, Steve Harrington? And you, Robin Buckley. 

Eddie shudders, knowing he doesn’t want the answer to that anymore. He doesn’t want the questions either. So he buries his face in his hands, closes his eyes, and breathes. The adrenaline has worn off by now, the repeated panicking that added fuse to the fire has ceased now, leaving him worn out and strung out, tired and exhausted. He pulls up the hood, burrowing into the warmth. 

And then he stills. His usually twitching, fumbling, fiddling body falling entirely still beside Buckley. 

It’s like time stops for a while there, even though Eddie knows that it’s dragging ever on and on. He’s inclined to let it, though. He’s too tired, too exhausted to really care about what time may or may not be doing. 

“Why’d you call me?” 

It takes a while for Eddie to realise that Robin’s spoken again, asked him a question out loud, the cadence of it different to the endless circles of questions Eddie’s got stuck in his head since the early afternoon tinged in blue against crimson. 

He lifts his head, tucking his hands underneath his chin, and looks over at Buckley. Her hair is dishevelled now, her mascara smudged and crusty. Her lipstick is almost all gone, with the way he sees her biting and chewing on her lips. 

“I… It seemed like the right thing to do, y’know? He kept repeating your number. In the car, it was like… Sounds dramatic, but it was like his lifeline, almost. Repeated it so often it kinda got stuck.” He shrugs. “Seemed important, too.”

Robin frowns; a careful little thing. “How’d you know it was me?”

“Well, he just talked about you. Y’know. Tell me about your favourite person, I told him, because that’s the thing you gotta do to keep people, like, talking to you. Not shit about what day it is, or what. Just, y’know. Let them talk about things they like. Things they’ll wanna tell you about. ’N’ he talked about you.” 

She’s quiet for a while, letting his words sink in. And Eddie wonders if she knew. That she’s his favourite person. If he ever told her. If maybe he took that from him now. It’s a stupid thing to worry about, really; the boy was bloodied and bruised on his couch just an hour ago, there are worse things at hand for Eddie to worry about. But now he wonders if he just spilled some sort of secret. Some sort of love confession. 

“Did you, I mean… Are you guys, like, dating? Did I just steal his moment?” 

Robin huffs, but it’s more like a smile that needs a little more space in the room, a little more air to really bloom. It’s fond. She shakes her head, her eyes far away again, but closer somehow. 

“Nah,” she says, and the smile is in her voice, too. Eddie kind of likes her voice like that. “We’re platonic. Which is something I’d never thought I’d say. Not about Steve Harrington, y’know?” 

And the way she drags out his name… Eddie can relate. Like it means something, but like what it means is nowhere close to reality. Nowhere close to what it really means. Nowhere close to Blue. 

Robin sighs, the sound more gentle than it should be, and leans her head against the cabinet behind her. “We worked together over summer break. Scoops Ahoy.” Her voice does a funny thing, and her eyes glaze over as she pauses. Eddie waits, his lips tipped up into a little smile, too; to match hers. 

“What, the ice cream parlour?” 

Robin hums, her smile widening at what Eddie guesses must be memories of chaos and ridiculousness. “I wanted to hate him,” she continues. “But try as I might, he wouldn’t let me. Or, he did. He did let me. Just, it turns out, there’s no use hating Steve Harrington, not when he’s so… So endlessly genuine. There’s nothing to hate, y’know? And then he…” 

She stops, her mouth clicking shut as her eyes tear up a little. The Starcourt fire. Eddie remembers the news, remembers the self-satisfied smirk when he’d heard about it, remembers sticking it to the Man and to capitalism and to the idea of malls over supporting your friendly neighbourhood businesses. 

Guilt and shame overcome him as he realises that they must have been in there when it happened. 

“He saved your life?” 

Robin’s eyes snap toward him, wide and caught, and Eddie raises his hands in placation. 

“In the fire? Were you there?” 

“Y—yeah.” She swallows hard, avoiding his eyes. “The fire. He saved me. Yeah.” 

Eddie nods, deciding to drop that topic right there; to lay it on the ground as gently as he can and cover it with bright red colours so he never steps on it ever again. 

“He must be your favourite person, too, then, hm?” he steers the conversation back away into safer waters. 

“He is,” she says, sure and genuine and true. “It’s just. I don’t think I’ve ever been anyone’s favourite. He has a lot of people who care about him, you know? A lot of people he cares about. Even more numbers memorised in that stupidly smart head of his.” She huffs again, burrowing deeper into Eddie’s hoodie, pulling the sleeves over her hands some more. “It’s stupid, to be so hung up on this. Is it stupid?” 

“I don’t think it is,” Eddie says, scooting a little closer to Robin. “Like, I don’t even know that boy, right? But even I know that he’s got some ways to shift your focus or something. Give you a silver lining, or something to take the pain away even when he’s the one who… I don’t know, that’s probably stupid, too.” 

“Nah,” Robin says, scooting closer to him, too, until their sides are pressed together and she can lay her head on his shoulder. “It’s not stupid. You’re right; that’s Steve for you. ’S just who he is.” 

It is, isn’t it? 

You’re so blue, Stevie. 

She’ll say something corny when, when you ask her, jus’ to fuck with you. Sunset gold or rose, jus’ to mess with… But is blue.

Blue. ‘S nice. 

Yeah. Yeah, he is. 

Eddie lets his thoughts roam the endless possibilities and realities that is Steve Harrington, the depths he hides — or won’t hide, maybe, if you know how to ask. Where to look. 

Maybe he’ll find out, one of these days. Not about the terrible things that leave him scared of the hospital, not about the horrible things that have him speaking of death and dying like he’s accepted them as a possibility a long time ago. 

He swallows hard and shakes off these thoughts, because things like that just. They don’t happen. They don’t happen to blue-smiled boys who trust you to be kind even when they’re beaten straight to hell. And they sure as hell don’t happen when uncle Wayne’s around. 

Nothing bad has ever happened when uncle Wayne was around. 

And he wants to tell Robin, wants to make that promise. But part of him can’t bear the thought of being wrong. So he keeps his mouth shut and just sits with her, their heads as heavy as their hearts as they wait. 

The sun is long gone when the phone above him rings again, spooking and startling them out of their timeless existence. 

“Yeah?” he answers, his heart hammering in his chest. “Wayne?” 

“Hey, Ed,” Wayne’s voice comes through the phone like a melody. Calm and steady. Robin is scooting closer, and Eddie shifts the phone to accommodate her so they can both listen. Somehow, they ended up holding hands — and holding on hard. “We’re coming home now.” 

🤍🌷 tagging:

@theshippirate22 @mentallyundone @ledleaf @imfinereallyy @itsall-taken @simply-shin @romanticdestruction @temptingfatetakingnames @stevesbipanic @steddie-island @estrellami-1 @jackiemonroe5512 @emofratboy @writing-kiki @steviesummer @devondespresso @swimmingbirdrunningrock @dodger-chan @tellatoast @inkjette @weirdandabsurd42 @annabanannabeth @deany-baby @mc-i-r @mugloversonly @viridianphtalo @nightmareglitter @jamieweasley13 @copingmechanizm @marklee-blackmore @sirsnacksalot @justrandomfandomstm @hairdryerducks @silenzioperso @newtstabber @fantrash @zaddipax @cometsandstardust @rowanshadow26 @limpingpenguin @finntheehumaneater @extra-transitional (sorry if i missed anyone! lmk if you don't wanna be tagged for part 4 🫶)

[munsons-maiden]

Why do you think Eddie SMILES when they’re stealing that RV and the lady and banging against the door, and then HEADBANGS as they’re getting away? It’s obviously kinda funny but he was also so disgruntled and not happy about having to Hotwire the rv? Kinda a random q but you have such good insights on him and wanna know what U think.

I LOVE these kinds of questions!

As you said, he's unhappy and very possibly disappointed in himself because he swore to himself he wouldn't wind up like his dad did and hotwiring a car is exactly what his dad did and wanted Eddie to do - it's a symbol of the life Eddie actively rejected. Yes, he might be selling weed and the occasional pill/ketamine but selling low-key drugs, even though illegal, is a very different type of crime than stealing cars/ stealing stuff in general because apart from it being illegal, it's..."honest" work (in lack of a better definition); we see Eddie mainly deals weed and he doesn't push weed or anything else on anyone so each deal is informed and consentual, in a way like selling ice cream at Scoop's. Just with weed and without the little sailor's costume. Eddie despises the fact that he has to hotwire that camper - but it's neccessary. There's no other choice because that camper is the only way to get to the War Zone fast enough to get weapons and save the world, so while a crime, the reason this crime is rooted in is a noble and heroic one. Eddie knows that, which is why he manages to push back the disappointment and the memories pretty quick, and the fact that he knows it's wrong but neccessary in the long run takes off the edge of the situation.

Now, we know Eddie's not a mean or malicious person, he's not delighted in other people's misfortune, so we can exclude those as reasons for his grin in that situation.

Which means there are only a few options left which would be true to Eddie's character:

adrenaline. Eddie, someone who admits to being so scared most of the time that all he does is running, has stopped running and is about to face Evil - true Evil, monsters, a whole other dimensions full of things that want to kill him (and already tried to) but he has no choice because somebody has to stop Vecna and save the world.

gallows humor (because of the above)

he's scared senseless but he's still starting to feel proud of his decision to stay and help, that he'll be a hero alongside the others and stop running, finally do something to get himself out of the horrible situation he's been stuck in for the past few days, which brings a certain boisterousness

these two neighbors are painted as...well, not as mean people but the way one would imagine very typical, small-minded hicks. Not a poor single mom or a sweet old couple but they're painted as rather disagreeable which leads me to the final point which is more of a personal headcanon/assumption than proven by canon: it's personal. The choice to steal exactly this camper was a personal one. There's a story. These two either butted heads with Wayne, or with Eddie, or both. Maybe called the police on him for practicing the guitar too loud or blasting his music too loud, idk, but I'd bet my left arm Eddie picked that camper for a reason and I'd bet my right arm that we'd all agree with his reason 😂

as for the headbanging...it was metal so headbanging was absolutely fitting for the situation

One a sidenote: Robin and Dustin show a similar reaction to Eddie's - Dustin comments, very bemusedly, "Shit, they look pissed" to which Robin replies sardonically, "It's not every day that you lose your house and car in one swoop" so Eddie's definitely not the only one who's having fun here and I love it 😂

(Idk if it's okay to tag you but @kedreeva , I think I'd love to hear your take on that scene 😁)

[queenie-ofthe-void]

🪱🧠Wiggly Wednesday 🧠🪱

Tagged by @wheneverfeasible 💜 I'm a week late but I got there. This is also me tagging you back!

~~~

I'm thinking about Steve Harrington growing up hating everyone.

His dad is cruel, so he hates him.

His mom tells him men are dogs. Men are pigs. Men will do or say anything to get what they want. So he hates her.

The boys at school are cruel like his dad, just like his mom warned him, so he hates them.

He starts high school. He's tall, with big eyes, thick hair, and cute lips. Girls were nice to him, he thought they were friends. But they only did what they did and said what they said to crawl under him and wield him like a trophy. So he hates them.

Hates them less when he's buried inside them. Hates them more when they leave the same night.

He's a man now, just like his dad. So he hates himself.

Carol's the same as other girls, but different. She leaves but comes back sometimes. Hangs around. She meets Tommy, and Steve likes Tommy. But they're mean to Nancy, and Nancy's the only thing Steve loves. So he hates them too.

He hates Billy. Hates him as much as he hates his father. Billy's easy to hate.

Nancy thinks he's bullshit. He tries to hate her, but it's hard.

The kids... he can't find a reason to hate them. They're loud and obnoxious and snappy, but they like him. They always come around. They call him out when he's bitchy, and he likes that. He chases after them, drives them around. Shoots hoops with Lucas, let's Max teach him how to skateboard, does most of the heavy lifting for Dustin's experiments.

There's no way he can hate them.

And that's when he realizes how fucking draining it is to hate that many people. He's exhausted. So he decides to stop.

Robin wants him to hate her. She's desperate for it because that would make everything so much easier. He doesn't hate her. And she finds she can't hate him in return.

Eddie's the first person he meets who likes him. Doesn't want anything from him, isn't using him, doesn't hate him, doesn't just see him as a protector or babysitter or a good fuck or a failure or an idiot. Eddie likes him for him, exactly the way he is.

It's easy to love Eddie.

@runninriot @carolperkinsexgirlfriend @sadisticaltarts @devondespresso @just-my-latest-hyperfixation

@strangersteddierthings

[qprstobin]

I'm gonna be frank, Eddie just does not give me the impression that he was bullied all that much in high school to me. Especially as he got older, like he was the school drug dealer, he was not getting beat up by the same jocks who were going to be buying from him later that week. It just doesn't make sense to me!

I'm not saying he was never bullied at all (personally I think he was probably bullied by the people in his grade in like middle school, but leant more into the satanic image by the time he got to high school (which is when the satanic panic wouldve been starting) and people became more afraid to mess with him or it stopped when BS started dealing) or that people can't headcanon and project onto pm. It's fandom, do what you want lol. I've just gotten to the point where fics lose me whenever they claim Tommy/Steve/Jason was going around beating the shit out of him or shoving him in the halls every week or the like. Eddie just does not give the impression that he is scared of the jocks normally. He looks down on them and thinks he's better than them! He taunts them openly in front of everyone and pontificates on table tops.

I think if you take it in that context too, it makes the town turning on him more sinister? Like obviously, satanic panic was only growing at that point, and it was within the last year or two they started pointing at metal and D&D as recruiting centers for satanic cults. (Eddie also like an asshole is walking around with a satanic symbol on his jacket - peak edgy teen in the middle of a moral outcry.) But while people might've been afraid of him, and most definitely talked about him behind his back, that's worlds away from mob violence. The change was startling, even if Eddie might be able to see it on the horizon.

Idk to me that's more of what the hunt the freak line was about. The knowledge that they could turn on you and would if you gave them a reason (or if you want to go with the Eddie is closeted interpretation - if he got outed). I think he probably has been called the freak for a while but honestly I think he's proud of it at this point.

Obviously all of this is up to interpretation, I guess I've just gotten to the point where a lot of the popular fanon interpretation doesn't feel like Eddie to me anymore

[kedreeva]

hello, tonight I've decided to be emotional about the blood still staining Eddie's guitar pick necklace chain. There's no chance that Dustin didn't notice it, so he purposely didn't clean it off. He doesn't look like he expected to see Wayne or maybe he would have. As it stands, this is all Dustin has to give to Eddie's only family: the blood he shed trying to be a hero when all Dustin and Wayne both wanted was for him to come home safely.

[corrodedbisexual]

The way Eddie can't even accept at first that they truly believe his story. Because not knowing about the Upside Down, it does sound insane. Who knows what Eddie had been thinking the entire time on the run. Shocked, terrified, alone and helpless. Must have turned that memory over in his head a thousand times, and it did not make sense, it could not make sense, it was impossible. If the party hadn't found him, I imagine he could have actually ended up convincing himself that he did somehow kill Chrissy, and the rest was some hallucination from drugs he didn't remember taking.

[steddielations]

gotta talk about how Eddie didn’t understand the hive mind until Steve explained it for him, and he didn’t question Steve or doubt him at all, he just trusted Steve’s word. that must’ve been validating for Steve, who’s usually the one getting things explained to him or having to argue his point so people listen

something about, Steve knows what it’s like to be out of the loop and he kept trying to make sure Eddie was keeping up, to the point of over-explaining and Eddie’s like “yes you mentioned the superpower girl thank you now please tell me our son isn’t cursed”

and yeah maybe Eddie should’ve known what a hive mind is since he’s super into fantasy sci-fi, but he was under a ton of stress and instead of Steve being like “you of all people should know” he just broke it down for him and i love that actually

so when Steve doesn’t get the Ozzy reference later, maybe Eddie was just giving Steve the same understanding that Steve gave to him, explaining it and not making him feel dumb for not knowing

[otteranha]

Whomst must I beg or bribe for Eddie being the one to find Steve and Robin wandering around Starcourt high off their asses?

Like, he knows Robin from band and they’re friendly, and he’s not going to leave someone so obviously under the influence unsupervised, especially a teenage girl who is definitely unfamiliar with hard drugs.

And he’d absolutely assume that Steve is to blame for the whole situation except that Steve looks like he just lost a fight with a cement truck, but he’s still threatening to throw hands with Eddie if Eddie messses with Robin, and they’re both babbling about Russians and secret elevators and alternate dimensions and goddamit Eddie just wanted to smoke some weed and watch Back to the Future.