#anti-tommy hagan

[emchant3d]

I think about runaway bride Stevie so often. She lives in my heart and I love her. I will fight Tommy in this AU tho

lots of interest about the love of our lives stevie harrington (AS THERE SHOULD BE!!!) 🥰 also absolutely, everyone please throw down with tommy hagan. hope everyone enjoys the little snip of part 2!

"So who was the lucky guy?" Eddie asks before he can stop himself, and the glare Stevie gives him could cut glass.

He probably sounds like a jealous asshole, but he can't help it. He's the getaway driver for his one that got away on her fucking wedding day, and he feels like he deserves to ask a few questions.

His hands tighten on the steering wheel as the silence lingers, but eventually, Stevie just groans, letting her head fall back against the headrest dramatically.

"Don't laugh," she demands, and Eddie shakes his head.

"Scout's honor," he promises, and he swears he sees a wry little grin tease at her lips.

"...Tommy," she says, and he almost swerves into oncoming traffic.

"HAGAN?" he says, louder than he means to, and her hand flies up to grab the oh-shit bar.

“Eddie, Jesus!” she says, glaring at him, and he shakes his head, focusing back on the road.

“Sorry, sorry,” he says, but fucking - really? “Really?” He can’t help himself. “Tommy Hagan?”

“Yes, really, Tommy Hagan,” she says hotly, like she’s defensive, like she didn’t just leave the schmuck at the fucking altar. 

“Well that explains the ring, at least.” She reaches over, smacking at his arm, which, thanks to the aforementioned ring, is probably going to bruise. “Hey, ow!” He glares at her, taking a hand off the wheel to rub his bicep. “Watch it, that thing’s a weapon.”

[thestobingirlie]

st teens pt. 5 <3

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

Just so no one gets confused. I 100% think that Tommy only befriended Billy to make Steve jealous. I'm pretty sure he hated the guy because he chose someone so completely the opposite of Steve to not seem like he was pining after Steve because even in his King Steve days, he was nowhere near Billy's level of anything. Steve wasn't even a bully, despite what some people thought. Steve had nothing to apologize for except for the theater and what he said to Jonathan, which he already apologized for. I'm pretty sure the only things that Steve, Tommy, and Carol did were act a little bitchy towards each other. They were just normal asshole teenagers who lacked a filter, and Steve was pretty much there to be their filter. You could see in Steve in season one in the background telling Tommy to knock it off. Does that mean he didn't feel sad when he died? No, but I definitely think that Tommy was only using Billy. I mean, at Tina's Halloween party, Tommy was definitely trying too hard.

[nerdylovetastemaker]

oat milk

"What all these people are doing is not  aggressive;  they are inventing new possibilities of pleasure  with strange parts of their body - through  the eroticization of the body."  

Steve was kneeling in the bathtub, a towel under his knees and another under his hands, his head turned as he craned his neck to watch Tommy working. The younger boy swirled the spoon around in the over-large bowl before tapping it against the rim and laying it on the counter. "You know it'll cool down a little once I get it in the bag, but is that good?" Tommy bent over next to the tub so Steve could slowly dip two fingers into the bowl, nodding once.

"It's fine."

Tommy nodded again, reaching out to stroke Steve's hair before standing back up and returning to the sink, where all of the equipment was spread out. The hook was already hanging from the shower curtain so Tommy could hang the bag as soon as it was full. "Go ahead and take the plug out, baby." His voice was soft, gentle. "And start with your fingers."

It was the gentlest of their "darker" interludes. No name-calling or hair pulling or punishments for noises of pain. It hurt enough on it's own, was degrading enough on it's own, Tommy didn't need to add anything to that.

Tommy felt a small tremor run through his body as he heard the soft moan coming from the bathtub, knew the other boy had just extracted the plug. He glanced up at the mirror, watching the boy set the glass plug on the edge of the tub next to the bottle of lubricant. Steve picked up the bottle, desperate to fill himself as he opened it, dripping some of the lubricant onto his fingers and rubbing them. It was cold to the initial touch, but warmed up as his fingers moved.

"You're so fucking hot like that, baby," Tommy purred, from the sink where the bag was nearly half full. "Now, go ahead."

Steve flushed warm from the compliment, his wrist sliding down along his waist, hipbone, the curve of his ass. And then his fingers were poised, resting against his entrance before pressing in. He was already loose from the plug so it was an easy intrusion. He didn't even bother with more lubricant before pressing a third finger in, moaning outright at the stretch. He started as he heard the click from Tommy hanging the bag. "Already?"

"Don't sound so disappointed," the boy chided softly. "You can keep your fingers in for a second." He almost added a soft 'slut', but stopped himself. Tommy leaned down, reaching for the bottle of lubricant, letting himself hover over Steve for a moment, his breath tickling the back of the boy's neck. "Just think about everything I'll do after," he whispered before straightening back up and slicking lube across the tip of the nozzle and his own fingers. "Okay."

Steve whined, but slowly pulled his fingers out anyway. He wasn't empty for longer than a few seconds, Tommy's fingers immediately sliding over his opening before pressing in, then pulling out to press in the tip of the nozzle. "Breathe," he murmured, fingers running down the boy's spine. "I'm going to now, okay?"

"Wait," Steve choked out.

"I'm going to now," Tommy repeated, voice a little harder this time. "You're fine." He kept his fingers running along the boy's spine as he loosened the clamp.

Steve bit his bottom lip, moaning as he felt the first rush of the warm oat milk sliding into his body. The beginning of the enema was always like Tommy's fingers were now, smooth and soft almost. The cramps would come soon enough, but Tommy's fingers would still be the same.

When they started, one of Steve's hands flew up to his stomach and Tommy stopped the flow without a word, letting the other boy massage his abdomen to ease the pain. "Just tell me."

"Okay," Steve whispered, his hand still on his stomach. Tommy loosed the clamp again and Steve felt the warmth continuing to enter his body. He continued to try to massage away the dull ache of the cramps as he felt his stomach slowly begin to expand from the amount of liquid he'd taken. "Stop," he choked out again. He wasn't supposed to ask how much, but he was desperate to know. He'd felt like he'd taken half already, but he knew it was probably more like a quarter of the bag. "Bren?" he asked, voice close to cracking. "I-I . . . Tommy." His voice was weak.

"You're doing great, baby." The boy leaned down, letting soft kisses feather along Steve's lower back. "So good."

The tears were starting to build up. Steve could feel them in his chest, waiting there, another ache in his body. "I don't . . . I . . ." He let his head fall forward, trying to slow his breathing, trying to focus on Tommy's fingers instead of the liquid inside him. "Okay," he whispered,voice cracking as the first tears slid down his cheeks.

The flow continued and Tommy slowed the flow without a say so after five minutes or so. "You're taking it so well, Stevie," he cooed. "You've got half." He usually didn't tell Steve how much he'd taken, but it had been awhile since they'd done this and he didn't want the boy to break before he managed to get both quarts in.

"Half?" Steve asked, voice timid, as if he wasn't sure if he should be relieved or disconcerted.

"Mhmmm." Tommy leaned forward, letting his lips kiss the back of Steve's neck, then between the boy's shoulder blades. "Are you ready for more?" When Steve hesitated, Tommy squeezed his hip. "You can take it, baby. You've done this before."

Steve's head nodded a fraction of an inch, his breathing already labored. He gave a small squeak as the oat milk started slipping into his body again. "Please, please, I can't." He shook his head, the tears coming out for real now. Tommy clamped the nozzle again. "I can't, Bren, please. I . . . I need to . . . please."

The younger boy reached his hand down to Steve's stomach, the curve of a belly that wasn't there usually. "I know you can take this," he said, voice low but not angry or disappointed. "I know you can, Stevie." He let their fingertips brush. "But I won't make you," he added. "It's up to you."

Steve hated that. It would have been so much easier to go along with it if Tommy hadn't give him the choice. Now it was up to him to decide if he wanted to be selfish and disappoint his boyfriend and not get rewarded or just go along with it and deal with the pain. "I'll try," he mumbled weakly, squeezing his eyes shit and biting his bottom lip between his teeth as he felt the flow again.

Tommy slipped his hand down Steve's stomach to wrap around his cock, gently stroking, trying to turn the whimpers that the older boy was now making into moans. "So good, baby," he kept whispering over and over. "You're taking it so good."

"H-Hurts," Steve choked out. "Break?"

Tommy locked the clamp again, letting Steve rub at his stomach and try to catch his breath. "It's almost all in," he said gently, still stroking the other boy's erection. "Just a little bit more. I know you can take it, Stevie."

"How much?"

The question hung heavy in the air for a moment. Steve wasn't supposed to ask and he knew it, but he also knew Tommy never spanked him or punished him during an enema, so the worst possibility was simply that the other boy wouldn't tell him.

"Probably four ounces," Tommy answered finally. "I'm going to start it again, okay? You can take this all in one go."

Steve nodded, gritting his teeth and counting silently in his head, hoping it wouldn't take longer than a minute to finish. He was only a few seconds over when the flow stop and Tommy planted a kiss to the small of Steve's back. "I'm going to switch it out for the plug, okay? Keep it in."

Steve tightened his muscles, his toes curling as he did so. It hurt, tensing up along with the dull ache in his abdomen. Even with all his tightening, a little bit of the oat milk/water mixture escaped, sliding down the inside of his thigh. Then the plug was in and he could relax his muscles, but only somewhat. Tommy picked up a washcloth and wiped at the liquid that had slid down Steve's skin.

It wouldn't be too long, Steve knew, but it always seemed an eternity. Five minutes or ten minutes could feel like hours. Tommy's fingers slid up Steve's back until they were twisted, gently, in his hair. "I can't wait to get you on the bed," he said thickly, voice low and gravely. "Gonna shove my tongue in you so deep, baby."

Steve moaned outright, despite the dull pain in his muscles and stomach. It was a low moan, soft, but a moan nonetheless, and Tommy smiled at the sound. "Is that what you want?" the younger boy continued in the same tone. "You want my tongue in you, want me fucking your ass with my mouth? You're going to taste so fucking good, baby." His fingers tightened slightly in Steve's hair. Not enough to cause any pain, just enough to make the boy gasp, then moan again. "Then I'll fuck you. So hard, baby, so God damn hard. So deep inside you. And then you'll take my come in your pretty mouth."

Steve was whimpering, his hips moving ever so slightly, squirming. "P-Please?" he choked out. "Please?" He was begging for release. He knew it hadn't been long enough, but if Tommy kept it up, he knew he wouldn't be able to hold it in.

"I think you can hold it for another couple of minutes." But Tommy let go of Steve's hair and sat back slightly, just letting his hands run slowly up the boy's sides. The older boy was quiet, just a few whimpers leaving his mouth, but still squirming. Tommy let his hands slip lower until he was firmly squeezing Steve's ass in both hands. "Almost, baby. Almost."

There was another minute or so, Tommy's fingers skimming over the curve of Steve's cheeks and the older boy trying not to lose anything, trying to keep his muscles tensed just enough. "Okay." Tommy stood up, slowly, kissing Steve on the back of the neck before stepping out of the tub. "Slowly," he warned the boy. "Don't lose anything, okay?" He held his hands out, letting Steve take them as he stood and gingerly climbed out of the tub.

Tommy lifted up the lid of the toilet seat and helped Steve to sit. This was always when Steve started to cry again. He hated it, hated how Tommy was there for the release. So humiliating, worse than threats of letting Spencer watch or having Pete fuck him that one time while Tommy took Polaroids. "Please, just . . . I can," Steve said. "I'm fine. I can."

Tommy looked stern, frowning, shaking his head slightly. "Stop."

Steve cried harder, bringing his hands up to push at Tommy when the boy moved closer, but too submissive to actually to do it as the boy reached between his legs, fingers closing around the end of the plug. "Please," Steve whispered again. "Please, Bren."

The boy ignored him. "Don't let it go until I tell you to." He let Steve's face fall into his shoulder. The boy was shaking from his choked sobs as Tommy slowly pulled the plug out. He set it on the counter next to the bowl he had mixed the oat milk and water in. One arm came up around Steve. Despite his tears, the boy was still clenching, tighter than probably necessary. "Okay, go ahead."

Steve shook his head. "No." He cried harder when Tommy pressed his lips against the boy's temple. "Please."

"Steve. Now."

The boy was still crying, clinging desperately to Tommy as the first drops of the mixture began to slip out. And then, like always, he realized he really had no choice and just let go, sobbing harder as he heard the liquid falling into the toilet. For Tommy's part, he just held the boy, fingers running down his back, cooing soft sentiments to him. "Good boy, good job, Stevie."

Finally the noises slowed and Tommy took a step back, letting Steve wipe and flush the toilet. They both washed their hands in the sink and Steve blew his nose. "I'm sorry," he whispered, refusing to look at Tommy. "I . . . I didn't mean to . . . I know you won't hurt me."

Tommy's cool fingers, still slightly wet from the water, slid under Steve's chin, tilting the boy's face up to meet his eyes. "Thank you," he returned, leaning in and kissing him, soft at first, then harder, tongue slipping in. "Bed now," he added, unable to contain his smile as he felt Steve's lips curve upward against his.

They walked out to the hotel bedroom area and Tommy nodded silently, indicating Steve should assume the position on the bed. "Back or . . . or knees?"

"Knees if they're not too sore."

Steve would take a lot more than sore knees for a rimjob, as he'd clearly demonstrated, so Tommy nodded his approval as the boy got on all fours on the bed. Steve kept his head facing forward, resisting the urge to look over his shoulder and watch Tommy. The younger boy loved that, how he didn't have to order the boy do it. Steve obeyed the unspoken command of his own accord.

The bed sunk down as Tommy knelt behind Steve, hands squeezing the boy's hips. Tommy leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to Steve's entrance, smiling when he heard the moan. His mouth opened, tongue slipping out, licking in broad, even strokes, knowing it would do nothing but tease Steve, torturing him. And, truthfully, it was all Steve could do to keep from pressing his ass back on Tommy's face while begging 'more more more'.

Tommy sat up and leaned forward, pressing two fingers to Steve's lips. The boy sucked them into his mouth without a word, his tongue sliding around the digits, trying not to get overeager, trying not to just beg Tommy to fuck him and start grinding his hips into the bed. When Tommy pulled his fingers from the boy's mouth, he leaned in for the kiss, smiling as he swallowed the moan from the intrusion of his fingers entering Steve's hole while they were still kissing.

Then his mouth was gone and Steve's fingers twisted in the bed sheets knowing what was coming, the muscles in his body tensing in anticipation. Tommy's fingers pulled slowly, evenly, opening Steve up just enough to slip his tongue in, licking around the edge of Steve's entrance. He licked over his own fingers as he slowly added another digit from each hand, pulling Steve more open, exposing him more. His tongue slipped in deeper and Steve tried so hard not to push his ass back on Tommy's face.

The younger boy's tongue started dipping in and out, slow and first, then quicker. Steve was moaning, head thrown back, hips barely rocking. Tommy pulled his tongue out and his fingers, letting his lips press against the hole that was still open to the air. He began to suck and Steve let out a stream of expletives that Tommy had never heard before. He let up on the pressure, his tongue slipping back inside once more, teasing, pulling out to trace around the inside.

"Fuck me?" Steve asked, voice high-pitched and uncertain.

Tommy pulled off almost immediately, but didn't straighten up yet, pressing two fingers into Steve abruptly, smirking at the boy's gasp. He slowly twisted them. "You want me to fuck you?" he asked as if he hadn't heard, voice casual.

"Please, Tommy," the older boy returned desperately, pressing back against the fingers, his head falling into the pillows as he collapsed on his arms, support following to his elbows.

The fingers slipped out and Tommy helped turned Steve to his back, kissing him softly on the mouth, enjoying Steve's tongue probing his mouth curiously, searching for the taste. He pulled away after a moment and the older boy gave an airy sort of sigh. Then he was between Steve's legs, bending them at the knee and separating them, settling between the thighs before he pushed in, no lubricant and no warning.

Steve made a low noise in the back of his throat at the burn, the stretch. He'd been waiting for this. Tommy hadn't fucked him for a week, not properly. Toys and fingers and a fist, but not this. So simple, just them. Nothing artificial. He wrapped his arms around his boyfriend's neck, leaning up to kiss his neck. They looked like any other couple just then, he mused. No one would have been able to look at this scene and guess that Steve had just been given a two quart enema or that the other day he'd been made to stand in the corner for an hour after Tommy had spanked him fifty times with a hairbrush.

Tommy could tell Steve was thinking and he angled his hips, shoving in roughly. When Steve's eyes popped open even wider and he let out the tiny squeak, he knew he'd found the spot. All semblance of thought seemed to evaporate from Steve's features as he just gave in and starting rocking against Tommy's hips, moaning. He reached for his boyfriend's hand, pressing the palm against his throat. "Please," he whispered.

Tommy didn't need to be told twice, squeezing down on Steve's neck, releasing after a moment to let him gasp for breath. Then his hand tightened again and they repeated the pattern until his boyfriend started shaking his head, not wanting to use the safe word, but wanting Tommy to know he'd had enough. His hand fisted in Steve's hair then, squeezing tight enough to hurt, but not hard enough to pull the hair out. "Touch yourself," Tommy breathed.

Steve obeyed immediately, one of his hands falling from Tommy's neck to slip between them, wrapping around the base of his cock, stroking in a slow rhythm that contrasted with the thrusts. He didn't want to come yet, but he knew he didn't have a choice anyway. He'd come when Tommy told him. That was the rule.

"Faster," Tommy growled, shifting his weight so he could press in deeper. "I want you close, Stevie. Tell me when you're close."

The boy nodded, quickening the speed of wrist obediently, letting his eyes shut for a moment before he opened them back up. Tommy liked to watch him, said he could see Steve melt through his eyes when they were in bed. He felt the hand tighten in his hair slightly and he stopped moving. "Close," he choked out.

Tommy smiled, letting Steve wonder if he was going to have to hold it, have to wait, have to worry if he could. But it was late and they had to be up in six hours. "When you feel me come, you can," he said, nipping Steve's bottom lip between his teeth. The thrusts got impossibly harder after that, but only for a moment.

Tommy bit the inside of his cheek to keep from yelling as he felt himself explode and then Steve's wrist was flying as he moaned, low and whorish. Tommy could feel Steve's come hit his stomach as the older boy started swearing, his ass clenching down on Tommy's cock as his orgasm tore through him, leaving him breathless and gasping for air.

Steve collapsed prematurely, still feeling his orgasm rocking through him, but unable to move, unable to breathe, unable to think. And then he felt Tommy pull out, leaving him empty and loose. He whimpered at the loss, turning and pressing his face into the boy's chest as he laid down beside Steve in the bed.

Tommy's arms came up, feeling Steve's body trembling. "Baby, baby," he murmured. "Shhh. It's all right." He kissed the boy's temple, fingertips gently massaging feeling back into Steve's muscles. "We're going to sleep now, okay? Early morning."

Steve whimpered, nodding, wondering if he'd be able to walk properly the next day. "Brenny?"

"Yeah, baby?"

"I love you."

"I love you, too, Ry." Tommy waited until he'd stopped shaking before he got up to turn out the lights and set the alarm on his phone. Then he crawled back into bed and held Stuntil he fall asleep before he got up to clean the bathroom and put the equipment back in their suitcase. He was only going to be running on two hours of sleep the next day, but it had been worth it.

ao3 link

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things Flight of Icarus Review

If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out my other Stranger Things Reviews. Like, Reblog, and let me know what your thoughts are regarding the show or the upcoming season! :)

Stranger Things Comics/Graphic Novels:

Stranger Things Six

Stranger Things Halloween Special

Stranger Things The Other Side

Stranger Things Zombie Boys

Stranger Things The Bully

Stranger Things Winter Special

Stranger Things Tomb of Ybwen

Stranger Things Into The Fire

Stranger Things Science Camp

Stranger Things “The Game Master” and “Erica’s Quest”

Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons

Stranger Things Kamchatka

Stranger Things Erica The Great

Stranger Things “Creature Feature” and “Summer Special”

Stranger Things Tie-In Books:

Stranger Things Suspicious Minds

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 1 of 3)

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 2 of 3)

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 3 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 1 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 2 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 3 of 3)

Stranger Things Rebel Robin Book and Podcast (Part 1 of 2)

Stranger Things Rebel Robin Book and Podcast (Part 2 of 2)

Stranger Things Hawkins Horrors Review

Stranger Things Episode Reviews:

The Vanishing of Will Byers (Part 1 of 2)

The Vanishing of Will Byers (Part 2 of 2)

Synopsis: Hawkins, Indiana: For most, it’s simply another idyllic, manicured all-American town. But for Eddie Munson, it’s like living in a perpetual Tomb of Horrors. Luckily, he has only a few more months to survive at Hawkins High. And what is senior year, really, but killing time between Dungeons & Dragons sessions with the Hellfire Club and gigs with his band, Corroded Coffin? At the worst dive bar in town, Eddie meets Paige, someone who has pulled off a freaking miracle. She escaped Hawkins and built a wickedly cool life for herself working for a record producer in Los Angeles. Not only is she the definition of a badass—with killer taste in music—but she might also be the only person who actually appreciates Eddie as the bard he is instead of as the devil incarnate. But the best thing? She’s offering him a chance to make something of himself, and all he needs to do is get her a demo tape of Corroded Coffin’s best songs. Just one problem: Recording costs money. Money Eddie doesn’t have. But he’s willing to do whatever it takes, even if that means relying on his dad. Al Munson has just stumbled back into Eddie’s life with another dubious scheme up his sleeve, and yet Eddie knows this is his only option to make enough dough in enough time. It’s a risk, but if it pays off he will finally have a one-way ticket out of Hawkins. Eddie can feel it: 1984 is going to be his year.

Observations:

Ordinarily, when I do these reviews, I sum up the synopsis in my own words to convey my experience reading it. This time, I took the synopsis word-for-word from the book cover because I found it unintentionally hilarious and teeth-grinding that the publishers at Random House Worlds would try to bait Stranger Things fans like this. They had to have known most people who bought this book already saw the fourth season and were aware of Eddie's eventual fate. Even if they hadn't seen it, a.) It's pretty much an open spoiler at this point, and b.) You can figure out real quickly from the title (Flight of Icarus) and your basic knowledge of Greek Mythology exactly how this story is going to go. Giving both the audience and Eddie a Hope Spot in thinking things might improve for him was a cruel joke.

I know that prior to this books release, there were fans accusing Netflix of trying to milk Eddie's popularity with the audience despite his eventual fate in season 4. Having finally read the book myself.................it's a little more complicated than that.

Yes, the book does bait the audience with the idea of things getting better for Eddie when we already know that's not going to happen. At the same time though, it wasn't a book devoid of substance. There were themes and character interactions that left a lot to chew on, and might even play an upcoming role in season 5. Just like with Rebel Robin, there were aspects of the book that struck a personal nerve with me because of how they related to what's gone on in my life and what's currently going on in the world right now.

I'll discuss the book in detail here (Spoilers Ahead!) and let you decide for yourselves if this is a book you want to read.

Part 1: Eddie's relationships to other characters

The synopsis covers the majority of the plot. Eddie's in senior year, failing school, and coasting by on the Hellfire Club, his band, and his dead-end job at a bar. Unlike his friend Ronnie, he has no future prospects ahead of him until he encounters a girl from Los Angeles named Paige, who overhears Eddie playing one night and invites him (and Corroded Coffin) to record their music for a studio called WR Records. The hopes are that her boss, Davey, will be impressed enough that he'll invite Eddie and the band to later fly out to Los Angeles for an audition with the executives. Following them recording for Davey, Paige reveals to Eddie that Davey's more impressed with him than his band and only wants him to come out to LA to become a rockstar. However, Eddie still needs the money to make this dream a reality. So when his dad shows up with an illegal job that involves stealing weed from a Kingpin's truck so they can sell it for money, he reluctantly agrees despite knowing things could go wrong.

And just based on where Eddie is by the time season 4 starts, you already know how this is going to turn out.

Eddie on the show was already established as being an outcast who gets blamed for the murders committed by Vecna, but this book further explores that he was the town scapegoat way before any of this happened. Part of it has to do with his low socioeconomic status, part of it has to do with the bad reputation the Munson family has in Hawkins as crooks and lowlifes thanks to the behavior of Eddie's father (who is a loser and a sorry excuse for a dad), part of it has to do with the Hellfire Club and all the pearl-clutching parents did in the 80s about D&D being linked to Satanism (which, as Erica puts it in season 4, was bullshit), and the rest are people in Hawkins projecting their issues onto Eddie. They want to believe the worst in Eddie, and don't care about creating a self-fulfilling prophecy with they way they treat him.

Wayne Munson also gets fleshed-out more in this book, which I appreciate because he's one of the few adult characters on the show that I like. Unlike Al, who is constantly absent from Eddie's life unless he needs something from him, Wayne is a parental figure to Eddie who made sure he was being fed and taken care of when he needed it.

He's also one of the only people who treats Eddie like a person and believes in him when no one else does.

On top of that, Wayne is shrewd and able to put the pieces together just by reading a situation. He's the kind of person who can look at someone and figure out if they're being honest or not. When Al comes back into Eddie's life, he knows Al is up to no good, and he puts together pretty quickly that Eddie is going along with Al's con to get money. He allows Eddie to make his own choices, but he also warns Eddie that he's lying to himself if he thinks this is going to go well for him.

On a semi-related note, the way Wayne is depicted here gives more context behind why he was willing to let Nancy interview him when Eddie went missing after Chrissy's death: Unlike other reporters , who were either gearing up to paint Eddie as the villain before anything was confirmed, or else were trying to get their big break with this story, Wayne could tell Nancy wasn't just there to advance her career. She genuinely had an interest in what happened, and Wayne likely suspected something else (i.e. the death of Barb) was motivating Nancy to look into this case.

Another relationship that gets more context as well is the one between Jason and Eddie. There were hints in the fourth season that these two had a history with one another before Jason wrongly suspected Eddie of killing Chrissy and led the basketball team in hunting him down. This book confirms that history. I will admit I had a headcanon for a while that Jason and Eddie used to be friends before falling out (which is also something Mason Dye joked about), but this book blows that out of the water by revealing they've been enemies since they knew each other. Jason was a part of a jock group led by Tommy Hagan (Steve's former best friend) who bullied students like Gareth who were either outcasts or part of the Hellfire Club. But because Tommy and Jason were valued basketball players at the high school, they were able to get away with their behavior whereas Eddie would get punished simply for trying to help out his friends.

This puts the cafeteria scene between Eddie and Jason in a whole different light: Eddie's disdain for Jason in that moment wasn't because Jason did basketball, but because he knew Jason as a bully and had nothing but contempt for him:

Just like with Lucas on the Line, this book doesn't paint Jason in a good light. Not only is he associating with Tommy (who is just as loathsome as he was in season 1), but the book also hints at the darker, zealot side of his personality that's going to be on display in two years following the events of this book:

Chrissy also makes an appearance, and she's just as nice of a person as she was on the show. She actually intervenes (unsuccessfully) on Gareth's behalf to stop Tommy and Jason from bullying him, and we get to witness the flashback to the talent show when Eddie first encountered Chrissy and she showed him empathy and compassion in a moment when Eddie was feeling vulnerable after his dad didn't show up to watch him perform.

While I'm not an Edissy/Hellcheer shipper, I understand the appeal of that relationship, as well as why the Duffer Brothers later regretted killing off Chrissy when there was more that could have been explored with her character. I'm also deeply sorry Grace Van Dien was harassed by immature Stranger Things fans because she liked the Eddie/Chrissy ship (to the point Joseph Quinn had to speak up in her defense). No actor or actress should ever have to put up with disgusting behavior like that. I wish people in this fandom would grow the hell up already, and stop treating the actors as if they're props to project themselves onto. 😒

We also get to know more about Eddie's parents in this book. Eddie's mom is dead by this point (though her love for music is a big reason why Eddie was inspired to take up guitar) and Eddie's dad is a contender for one of the worst fathers in the series. He isn't as awful as Neil Hargrove, but he makes little to no effort to raise Eddie (to the point Eddie is often fending for himself), is constantly engaging in illegal activities and ending up in trouble with the law, only comes back for Eddie when he needs something from him (something that Eddie is painfully aware of), and straight-up abandons his son to the cops the moment his heist plan lands both of them in trouble and results in a police officer getting shot. He's a selfish man who's good at lying to everyone around him, and even to himself. The sad thing is, because Eddie is so desperate to get out of Hawkins, he willingly believes his dad's plan to get them rich so they can move to LA and fulfill his dream, which makes it more of a gut punch when everything eventually goes downhill.

Given Eddie's death in season 4, I seriously question if his dad is going to show up at all if he ever hears about what happened to his son. Somehow, I doubt it.

The final character with any real significance is Gareth. In this book, he's a freshman who's up-and-coming in the Hellfire Club, and there's a whole subplot dedicated to Eddie helping him to craft a perfect D&D character that resembles who Gareth is rather than having him borrow someone else's character. Also, as noted before, Eddie is one of the few people who defends Gareth from high school bullies, which is why Gareth has a lot of loyalty towards Eddie. I know Gareth became an Ensemble Dark Horse for many fans when Season 4 premiered, and I would be thrilled if he, along with the rest of the Hellfire Club and Corroded Coffin, got significant roles in season 5. Maybe they could team up with the Party to defeat Vecna.

The rest of the new characters are by-the-numbers. Ronnie is Eddie's lifelong friend who has a future at NYU, and they both have a falling out due to disagreements with Eddie's choices. Paige gets into a romantic relationship with Eddie for a while (which also falls apart later), but she isn't really memorable and doesn't stick out the same way that other characters from tie-in materials do (i.e. Mr Hauser from Rebel Robin, Joey Kim from Zombie Boys, etc). Mr. Higgins, the principal who has it out for Eddie, is the embodiment of Mr. Vernon from The Breakfast Club, and his interactions with Eddie are pretty similar to the ones Vernon has with Judd Nelson's character (John Benson) in the movie. Officer Moore is a stereotypical asshole cop who harasses Eddie because he sees him as a future criminal who will grow up to be just like his dad.

There are a few brief cameo's from the main characters: Hopper appears towards the end when Eddie is arrested, and is one of the few people sympathetic to Eddie's plight. Will and Jonathan also make an appearance when Eddie defends Will from jocks who make fun of Will for being "Zombie Boy," gives Will some encouragement about being who he is and embracing his love for D&D, and even offers to sell Jonathan some weed (which is cheeky foreshadowing for Jonathan's drug habit that develops in season 4).

Out of all the interactions with the main characters, the one between Will and Eddie was my favorite. Even though Will never joined Hellfire Club due to moving to Lenora, it's nice seeing these two get to interact and bond over something they love.

So that sums it up for the characters and main story. Let's talk about the main themes:

Part 2: Eddie and "Forced Conformity"

Just like with El in season 4, and even Steve, there's always been this stigma that because Eddie did badly in school, it meant he was dumb. However, unlike El, who struggles to catch up with her peers because of the way Brenner raised her (but is keenly aware of concepts even if she doesn't have the words for them at the time), or Steve who was more interested in chasing popularity at the expense of his grades (but has demonstrated his intelligence and ability to make connections that other people miss), Eddie doesn't put effort into school because he doesn't care to. School and homework doesn't interest him. D&D, Corroded Coffin, playing songs on his guitar, and even the works of J.R.R Tolkien do, which is why he invests more time into those things:

There was a GIF set last year with bits of trivia about Eddie, and something that was noted in it is that Metallica's album Master of Puppets was released on March 3, 1986. Given the night Eddie performs their song "Master of Puppets" in the Upside Down was on March 27, 1986, this means he had less than 3 weeks to learn how to master the song on his guitar. Some fans will probably dismiss this as "lazy writing" (which I notice gets thrown around a lot these days when people don't want to think critically), but I beg to differ. Eddie is invested in music. It speaks to him. That investment, combined with doing something he loves, means he's going to put time and effort into learning the song. I can buy he learned "Master of Puppets" in less than 3 weeks because he's that good of a guitarist, and he was passionate about the song in the same way he's passionate about D&D and Tolkien.

The problem though is those kind of interests aren't considered "acceptable" by the school system, which is more interested in churning out "productive members of society" and punishing those who don't get on board with the program (This is a theme that's also explored in both Rebel Robin and Lucas on the Line). It doesn't help that Hellfire Club, D&D, and the music Eddie loves to play constantly come under fire due to the Satanic Panic at the time, which only causes Eddie's resentment towards Hawkins and his school to fester.

You'd think things would have changed in the 4 decades since this series took place, but given how we're still living in an era of "concerned parents" wanting to ban specific books from being read by kids, or else enforce a conservative viewpoint in schools that prevents any kind of critical thinking, it's fair to say we haven't. In fact, there's an argument that things have gotten worse in recent years.

We can talk all day about the problems with the education system and school curriculum in the United States until the cows come home, but the point is Eddie is aware of the "forced conformity" schools impose on students, and is having none of it. As a result, he's punished for rebelling against the system.

It doesn't help that none of the teachers, nor Mr. Higgins, are remotely interested in trying to reach out to Eddie. They have decided in their minds that Eddie is a waste of space, and are either condescending or dismissive towards him. Even Robin, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Will had teachers like Mr. Clarke or Mr. Hauser who were interested in bringing the best out of their students. Eddie has been written off as a lost cause, and aside from his uncle Wayne (who's limited in what he can do for Eddie), no other adults believe in him. That just makes his eventual death later on harder to stomach.

I hate teachers and school authorities like Mr. Higgins. I get they have to put up with a lot of crap, both from kids and from the stress their jobs can bring, but I have no respect for teachers who either go to the lengths of bullying their students, or come up with preconceived notions about a student and then unfairly project that onto them so they can feel justified in treating them with contempt.

I had two teachers like this when I was growing up: One of them was from fifth grade. The second was my English Teacher from my senior year of High School.

The former was a straight-up bully who had a reputation for making kids cry (I was one of them) and was a Bitch in every sense of the word. I do not have good memories of her class, and I know several students who had their lives impacted by her for the worst: One of them was someone I went to the same church with whose mom later pulled him out to be home-schooled because he was frequently targeted by that teacher. The second was a former friend who had a rough time in her class, and later forfeited going to college entirely (and now works in retail) because of the impact she left on her. I make no secret that I DON'T miss her, and I hope she's no longer teaching.

As for my English Teacher, she was a condescending twat. She presented herself as an expert in literature, but I later found out that A LOT of her so-called "discussions" and "lessons" were taken straight from SparkNotes. I remember her going out of her way to publicly humiliate me in front of the class because I did a presentation that she didn't like, and then she later got patronizing with me over a different assignment several months later, saying she could see how I was struggling and then said "Allow me to give you some advice: Try harder." This was when I was also juggling 4 other AP classes and a Spanish class, along with my extracurricular activities, so this wasn't like I was half-assing my work. Once again, I was not the only person she treated like is. Multiple students despised her, and there was even a rumor for a while that she was a misandrist, which is why she treated the girls better than the boys. I can't confirm if this was true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. My brother (who's one of the smartest people I know) was fully aware of her reputation prior to his senior year, and specifically took a different English class just to avoid her. I still maintain that was the best decision he ever made.

I should briefly mention that, despite the two examples I just listed, I had some wonderful teachers growing up. Ones that not only encouraged me, but made their classes engaging to the point that I took an interest in topics I hadn't before. The entire reason I later pursued a degree in History is BECAUSE of my teachers in High School.

Regardless of whether people want to admit it, teachers are some of the most important people next to parents in a kid's life. They can either be the ones to elevate a student and set them on a good path, or they can be the ones to tear them down and dismiss them as a lost cause. It's a big reason I feel strongly about who teaches in schools and how our education system is structured, and why I get angry whenever teachers or school authorities either abuse their power, are apathetic about their jobs and their students, or else project their issues onto kids. I'm not saying there aren't kids out there without major behavioral problems that need to be dealt with (I literally had one such kid yell "Fuck You" at me two weeks ago from a speeding truck for no discernible reason, so I'm not advocating that all kids are sweet angels), but it infuriates me to see characters like Mr. Higgins who are smug in their belief that they have teens like Eddie figured out, and don't want to hear anything that contradicts that. People like that shouldn't be teaching in schools, period.

Part 3: The Evils of Society

Back in 2005, there was a horror movie called Chaos that was released, which got negative reviews and a scathing response from film critic Roger Ebert, who proceeded to call the movie "ugly, nihilistic, and cruel." The film's writer and director didn't take this well, and posted a letter to the Chicago-Sun Times where he condescendingly told Ebert that the movie was supposed to be ugly, nihilistic, and cruel as a way of conveying what evil was like in the 21st century, and smugly asked Ebert if he preferred the movie was sanitized of violence. Ebert later responded in a very classy and intelligent manner, where he not only called out the director for his sanctimoniousness, but also deconstructed his whole argument of depicting evil in a movie with no meaningful point or catharsis:

"I believe evil can win in fiction, as it often does in real life. But I prefer that the artist express an attitude toward that evil. It is not enough to record it; what do you think and feel about it? Your attitude is as detached as your hero's."

"Your real purpose in making "Chaos," I suspect, was not to educate, but to create a scandal that would draw an audience. There's always money to be made by going further and being more shocking. Sometimes there is also art to be found in that direction, but not this time. That's because your film creates a closed system in which any alternative outcome is excluded; it is like a movie of a man falling to his death, which can have no developments except that he continues to fall, and no ending except that he dies. Pre-destination may be useful in theology, but as a narrative strategy, it is self-defeating."

I've seen fans who've complained about the direction season 4 took in its tone and it's depiction of bullying and the Satanic Panic, with people complaining about it being "trauma/torture porn," which............I strongly disagree with. Trauma/Torture porn is (as Ebert points out) the kind of thing that has no point beyond indulging in meaningless suffering. Season 4 was dark (probably the darkest season they've done so far), but there was a message the Duffer Brothers were making with it; Not just in depicting how and why bullying becomes a pervasive problem, or how Vecna acts as a metaphor for depression and trauma driving people into despair, but also how the current social systems and attempts to force people to be "normal" cause long-term problems.

Bullies like Angela and Jason didn't suddenly decide to become awful overnight. Their behavior was enabled, not just by their peers, but by the adults around them who did little to nothing to stop the way they acted. Look at when El gets publicly humiliated at Rink-O-Mania by Angela and her friends, and how the adults there either participated with the other bystanders in it, or did absolutely nothing to stop what was happening to El (yet were conveniently available for Angela's benefit when El smashed Angela's face in with a roller-skate). Look at how Jason was able to turn a room of adults into a lynch mob to go after kids who were a part of the Hellfire Club by appealing to their fear of the Satanic Panic, as well as their fear of all the terrible things that had been happening in Hawkins.

Adults play a major role in whether kids become spoiled, entitled brats, and that was absolutely the case with Angela. As for Jason, he was a star basketball player who made Hawkins High look good, which is why Mr. Higgins and other teachers always looked the other way at his behavior (as depicted in both this book and Lucas on the Line). It's also why both Angela and Jason felt justified in their awful behavior: Angela was able to convince herself that El had snitched when she hadn't, and therefore deserved to be punished for it. And when El finally had enough and lashed out, Angela twisted the narrative in her head to make it out like she was the innocent victim and El was the bully. Same thing with Jason in regards to how he treats Eddie: Jason sees himself as the perfect "All American Boy" and Eddie as the freak who may one day become a criminal and gives Hawkins a bad name. And while the deaths of Chrissy and Patrick (combined with witnessing how Patrick died which he chalked up to Eddie being in league with Satan) played a major role in Jason's actions, he already had preconceived notions about Eddie without truly getting to know him first. There's an argument to be had that, even without Chrissy's death, he would have looked for any reason to go after Eddie if he felt justified in doing so.

Even isolated areas like Hawkins Lab weren't exempt from this: Dr. Brenner specifically fostered a culture among the special kids where he would put them at odds with one another to fight for his approval, and allowed El to be viciously bullied by Two and the others in the hopes it would unlock her potential and get him the results he wanted. Brenner established the institution where El grew up in, and was the main person who benefited from it. Two was a vicious bully similar to Angela, but the reason he became that is because Brenner and his cronies enabled his behavior (only punishing him as a means of building up resentment among the other kids towards El and making her more of an outcast as part of his plans).

Likewise, there's an interesting parallel between Eddie and Vecna: Both are "outcasts" whom society tried to force to be "normal." However, while Eddie still maintained compassion and empathy for others, as well as making it his mission to look out for other outcasts like Mike, Dustin, and Lucas so their lives wouldn't be miserable, Vecna internalized the rage and resentment of "performing in a silly terrible play, day after day" until it consumed him and turned him into the monster everyone feared. Now he intends to destroy everything and everyone so he can create the world he wants.

It's the Harvey Dent quote from The Dark Knight:

Eddie, despite being treated badly for most of his life, died as a hero, protecting those he cared about. Vecna lived to become the villain, and has abandoned his humanity in pursuit of his goals.

Tying this all back to Roger Ebert's letter: While Season 4 may have been dark, there was meaning to be found in the darkness: The season hit on the theme that, in spite of how Hawkins looks like a perfect suburban neighborhood, there's a lot of rot underneath, and NOT just from the Upside Down. There's an inherent bigotry in the town (and others like it, such as Lenora), of institutions trying to mold students and teachers into "productive members of society" at the cost of their happiness and well being, of punishing anything that's considered abnormal or against the status quo, of how ostracizing "outcasts" can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy where the person either becomes the monster (Vecna) or is scapegoated and can never escape those stigmas no matter how hard they try (Eddie).

The Duffer Brothers aren't apathetic in their attitude about how they depict characters and themes on the show. If anything, they care deeply. It's why they wrote the character of Eddie in the first place, and based him off of Damien Echols, one of the West Memphis Three who was wrongfully convicted in 1994 of the murder of three boys in Arkansas, with a lot of bias directed at them due to the three of them being "delinquents" (as well as how the police pressured them into giving false confessions), which resulted in their lives getting ruined. Likewise on the show, Eddie is accused of killing Chrissy when he didn't (simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time), and his life got destroyed because of it. Even if he was a delinquent with his own personal issues, he didn't deserve what happened to him. Neither did Damien Echols. Society failed both of them, and allowed the true killers to go unpunished.

There are a lot of problems in our society today that have carried over from the 80s: From cultures that enable bullies and punish their victims, to attempts to control what kids learn in schools and how they should act, to bigotry and biases that aren't just rooted in people but in the institutions and laws that uphold the social structure, to people like Jason who take the law into their own hands regardless of the collateral damage it will cause, to government corruption, to people dehumanizing others because it's more important for them to be right over being nice, and so on. Stranger Things may be a love letter to the 80s, but it does not shy away from deconstructing the uglier aspects of that decade, and conveying how some of those issues had carried over into today's culture.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, this book is a mixed bag. It gives interesting details about Eddie and his life, and provides better context for certain scenes in season 4. Given that Caitlin Schneiderhan (the author of the book) had talks with the Duffer Brothers and other Stranger Things writers prior to penning this, it's likely this book can be considered canon. It's also a book that inspires discussion (as you can tell from what I've written), which is always a plus.

However, if you're a fan of Eddie, and you were upset over his death, this book isn't going to give you any catharsis. Unlike others, I'm not going to claim it's milking off of Eddie's popularity. At the same time though, it is hard to read when it teases that things might get better for Eddie and you already know what Eddie's fate is going to be.

In other words, you have to decide for yourself if this is a book you want to read. I hope my synopsis and this review gives some idea of what to expect.

[ilovetwig]

Made myself sad thinking about how Stancy was always doomed by the narrative and never got a fair chance at being together. Their peers were so against them dating. Barb was really trying to talk Nancy out of going to Steve's party and warning her to be careful of him. Jonathan was gaslighting Nancy for dating a "one-time jock" because he thought she wasn't like all the other girls 🙄 Tommy and Carol were making fun of Steve for wanting to date a girl like Nancy and teasing him for catching feelings for her. Karen and Ted were very anxious about Nancy's choice to date Steve. Mike found Steve to be annoying and Lucas even considered him to be a douchebag. Literally not one person was on their side. And then we add the Upside Down to that, and they even had freaking Vecna against them! Honestly, I feel bad that Steve and Nancy weren't allowed the grace to just be silly teens together who had a crush on each other and wanted to take a chance on one other. They had so many outside forces trying to control them and their feelings for one another *cough* creepy Murray included *cough* and yet, somehow they always find their way back to each other in every season. They really had all these obstacles thrown at them, and still can't be kept apart.

[londondziban]

My Roman Empire will forever be Steve and Tommy's friendship. They're so tragic. The fact they were likely childhood best friends and yet Steve started to grow while Tommy hadn't–resulting in the loss of years-long friendship. Tragic yet so realistic; it hurts.

Also, I'm sorry but there's nothing straight about the way Tommy constantly ridiculed Stancy in season 1 and how he taunted Steve in season 2. I wouldn't consider myself a Stommy shipper but–

Anyways, I kinda want to see more of Tommy. We have one more season so anything is possible, but we'll see. I'll just be sad if he just never shows up again tbh

[zeezanezoo]

Hey all. I've recently fell back into the Stranger Things grasp because of rewatching the show but mostly because of all these delicious Tumblr posts feeding my obsession LMFAO.

I'm looking for more rp partners, I'm in my 20s, my time zone is CDT (approx 9:30am by the time this is posted) and I'm looking for something Billy related lmao. Although I'm not picky. I normally use Billy, Steve, Eddie, original characters, and of course side characters. Spicy is fine I would just like a plot. Descriptive is most appreciated. I'll be at work until late tonight so if you message me I may not get the memo at first, sorry! Dm me for my discord if you'd like! ❤️

[hersterical]

(For Billy this is before he’s possessed by the mindflayer AND before we see the beginnings of what could have been a redemption arc)

(For Jason this is before his girlfriend was murdered and he watched one of his best friends die a very gruesome and clearly supernatural death)

I couldn’t think of any bullies who aren’t also douche bags and/or jerks

Honorable mentions for this chart include but are not limited to: Robin, Eddie, Steve in the other 3 seasons, Nancy when she’s in a bad mood or stressed, Mike, and Max

[queer-here-loud-proud]

this is based off of this so yeah also this is my first time actually writing a fanfic so be nice and if it suck’s sorry or whatever. btw there will be no punctuation unless I feel like it so sorry about that.

Steve had a hard time eating even when he was a kid he would always forget, or he just was never hunger he really never eat he some days he never eat but then he started hanging around tommy. tommy always made sure he was eating a breakfast, lunch, and dinner even if that meant he would force feed steve to get him to eat. in the morning’s steve would pick tommy up and before school they would go to a diner and get breakfast together and tommy made sure steve got the right amount of food then at lunch they would sit together and tommy again made sure steve was eating even something’s hand feeding him to get him to eat. at the beginning steve was super embarrassed that his friend had to hand feed him but after a shit ton of talking they figured out if steve didn’t struggle and tommy did it discreetly that they could both get what they wanted(tommy to have steve eat and steve to not be embarrassed in front of everyone) and for dinner tommy would call steve and they would have dinner together on the phone but that only happened when tommy’s parent’s were not having family dinners but steve never had to worry about his parent’s caring they weren’t even home most the time  and when they were they didn’t ever care where or what steve was doing.

That didn’t change when tommy started dating carol, she would just join in on breakfast and lunch, but dinners were still only tommy and steve, and occasionally they would meet up in person for their dinner’s that didn’t even change when steve dated nancy they would still meet up for every meal. sometimes they had to not call or meet up for dinner because one of them was on a date, but they would call after and tommy made sure steve ate. tommy would always made sure steve ate. 

but that all changed when they stopped being friend’s, steve started almost never eating again and his heath started to take hit’s because and his sport’s started to get effected from it too billy(author’s note this is a billy hate account this is not meant to show any good light on that racist abuser) could push him over with almost no effort and then he lost the fight to billy so fast he did use a plate and all bust he was getting seriously weak and no one seemed to care that he started looking sickly not the kid’s not anyone 

then one day(this is in between season 2 and 3) when steve was just walking around the store buying food when he bumped into tommy, steve said “oh sorry um but how have you been?” tommy looked him up and down and then replied with “I’ve been good, but steve when was the last time you ate a real meal?” his voice laced with concern steve hesitated before he gave his answer “I don’t really remember to be honest.” tommy just sighed and grabbed steve’s hand and dragged him out of the store and into his car. tommy started ranting “ steve you need to start eating and i get it you forget but just look at you man you look sick you need to take better care of yourself or else you’ll end up six feet under” steve just looked sad before saying “look I’m sorry but I really hadn’t thought about it until now.” tommy just sighed as they pulled up to the old diner that they used to go to and they both got out of the car and walked inside the waiters and waitresses already know their order’s and just started to get them their order’s they both sat down at the booth that they used to always sit at and steve eat his first real meal in over a month. 

is he trying to hand feed steve asdfgfdsa

[lexirosewrites]

O!Steve & B!Robin as childhood friends!! Not Nancy Wheeler Friendly bc this is from a protective Robin POV & I needed drama & No Upside Down AU

They meet when Robin skips 4th grade & become friends when they're paired together for a project. Steve is a Henderson bc his mom divorced his sire Richard Harrington & Steve didn't want to b a Harrington anymore he wanted to have his mom's maiden name. He & his mom moved to Hawkins the week before school started.

Steve is chubby & a boy omega (which is rare especially in Hawkins Elementary where only two other boys in the grades below r omegas) which makes him different & he's not very good at reading aloud but he still gets some of the best scores on their social studies or history lessons & his scent is still muted like the kids younger than them. So he isn't popular but he isn't overtly bullied but he is largely ignored by the kids w more social capital.

So he & Robin bond abt being treated as outcasts. They quickly become best friends & spend as much time together outside of school as they can except every other Sunday bc Steve's mom drives a few towns away in Roane County to the nearest Episcopal church.

Robin was raised Buddhist bc her mom is a child of Vietnamese immigrants & her dad was an anti-war protester (especially after he gets drafted into Vietnam, causing him to lose his left leg). The Buckleys celebrate a vague Christmas tht they treat more like Yule with Father Winter instead of Santa, presents still happen but Robin is expected to choose a few of her gifts to give to a nearby domestic violence shelter where some kids stay.

Then high school starts. Steve has his first heat the summer before & so his scent matures to smell like baked apples w honey. He loses a bit of the baby fat, his face gets clearer of acne he'd developed in 7th grade, & his hair is noticeably more shiny. This means Steve is suddenly the subject of new attention by some of the beta boys & alphas of Hawkins High. It all makes Steve uncomfortable so Robin stops trimming her nails & even files them sharper when at home. She shows off her newly sharp nails when she scratches up the arms of an alpha senior who wasn't taking Steve's polite refusals as an answer, tearing up their jacket sleeves, & even ripping a big hole in the bottom of their backpack so all their things tumbled out.

After tht word spread quickly tht Steve Henderson had a guard, Robin Buckley. So the attention turned from a rush to a trickle.

A!Tommy Hagan tries harassing Steve in their sophomore year & calling it courting but Robin tells B!Carol Perkins tht Tommy is trying to cheat on her & together they scratch Tommy so deeply he gets scars. Sophomore year is also when Steve begins babysitting for extra cash. He starts w his little cousin Dustin, then the Sinclairs hire him every other Saturday night, & the list grows till Steve is having Robin help him keep a planner just to keep track of his babysitting gigs.

Then junior year brings abt a Steve who is the uncontested prettiest omega in school & the attention gets worse. Except now ppl know to try to get Robin's approval. She doesn't make it easy & this weeds out the ppl who only wanted a chance to say they'd popped Steve's cherry.

This works till A!Nancy Wheeler sets her sights on Steve. Nancy does practically every task Robin gives her w minimal complaints, so Robin gives Nancy the chance to actually court Steve. Except it quickly becomes clear to Robin tht Nancy didn't seem all tht interested in learning more abt steve outside of who he was in the schools social ladder. Robin would watch how Nancy flaunted their relationship to others to establish a growing social status but would then make eyes at B!Jonathan Byers, The Creep as others called him.

When O!Will Byers goes missing (later being found kidnapped by his father) & B!Barb runs away while the town is focused on tht, Nancy becomes more & more disinterested in Steve. Apparently insisting to Steve tht Barb was her best friend & tht she would've told Nancy if she was going to run away. Robin snorts when Steve tells her this bc it was obvious to Robin their friendship was a one way street of Nancy getting what she wanted.

So of course Nancy embarrasses herself & Steve at Tina's Halloween party the next year, after a year of growing colder towards Steve & leading him on & insisting to them both tht Jonathan is just a friend. Of course Nancy runs off w Byers after the whisper of a lead on where Barb had gone reaches her ears, of course she comes back smelling like Byers in a way tht made it clear she'd had sex w him & only then breaking up w Steve & worst of all is how Steve doesn't get angry with Nancy or Jonathan.

It all gets more annoying when Steve is newly single & knot headed A!Billy Hargrove tries approaching Steve when no one else is around. He never offers to exclusively court Steve & he never approaches Robin abt it either. He just follows Steve to secluded corners of the school or town & makes comments when no one is around to hear him.

Eventually they graduate, Robin decides to put off going away for college opting instead to take classes part time at the Roane County Community College w Steve. Billy Hargrove races out of town after he beats his father in the Hargroves front lawn, Mr Hargrove leaves town soon after but his wife & step daughter the Mayfields stay in Hawkins. Robin only learns most of this thanks to Steve being Max's babysitter now

for two weeks of the summer Nancy tries to court Steve again, claiming she'd changed but this is after Jonathan Byers learns tht Nancy hadn't broken up w Steve till after their fruitless attempt to convince Barb to come home led to them sleeping together & so he breaks up w her unable to believe she'd hurt Steve in the way his own father had hurt his mom

They get jobs at the mall in the food court. Then the larger parent company of their employer Scoops Ahoy gets shut down by the government for tax evasion & tax fraud & a whole list of illegal labor practices so they find new jobs at the Cinema-plex in the same mall. Then the mall burns down bc the construction was cheap & several safety regulations were blatantly ignored. So they find another job they can work together. This time at Family Video, after an interview w Keith (whose parents own the small strip mall where the laundromat & the arcade & video store r located) wherein Robin said her favorite movie was a German silent film she knew Keith would know nothing abt & Steve equally stumped Keith w a samurai movie tht Robin knew didn't circulate in the US, Ms Henderson had gotten the VHS of the movie shipped to Hawkins through friends in the UK.

Time went on, they took their classes at the small community college, Steve still babysat here & there, & the platonic soulmates were even apartment hunting in their free time. Settling on the relatively affordable rent of a 2 bed trailer in Forest Hills.

That's where Eddie Munson pops into their lives. Apparently he'd met Steve once or twice when Steve had come by to babysit Max. Now tht the pair lived so close by Munson he took to being a welcome committee. A couple of months of living in the trailer park, hanging out w Eddie who had begun working at the local mechanics instead of racing out of town like Hargrove, & buying the odd joint from the alpha at an obviously reduced price. Munson made his move & approached Robin on a day tht she was working without Steve.

The alpha was visibly nervous but determined & he didn't even shrink away when Robin glared him down for 5 minutes in silence. So she sighed & gave him a random task tht she knew Steve would like to see. This went on & on, Eddie growing closer w Steve & when Steve told Robin he wanted to b courted by their neighbor she delivered the news to Eddie w her best friend right behind her.

The pair courted for 2 years before Steve sat her down & told her he was pregnant just abt 2 months along & tht he & Eddie were going to exchange bites before the due date & tht they wanted to move in together. Robin was silent bc they were supposed to leave for Portland tht spring, so tht she could attend college & Steve could get a cosmetology license, they were supposed to remain together into their old age. She didn't even realize tht she'd nearly gone into a srs beta drop till it was the next morning & she was being held by Steve in his nest.

Over breakfast sandwiches in bed Steve explained tht she had dropped before Steve could tell her tht if she approved Eddie was going to drive to Portland two weeks before they planned to leave & get a 3 bedroom apartment set up. If she didnt approve Eddie was still going to drive there early but just find an apartment for stobin & another apartment for himself. They talked for hours abt how Steve didn't want to b best friends w anyone except Robin & his alpha, how Robin had been scared for awhile abt Steve leaving her, & it ended w them having a movie night where they ordered Eddie to pick up a pizza & sodas & the biggest order of chicken tenders possible

7 months later after a home birth in Portland Oregon, Robin cried when she got to meet her best friends twin babies & learned tht they'd named the youngest of the baby girls Janis Robin Munson while the older twin was Joan Cathy Munson (Cathy was Eddie's mom's name & coincidentally grandma Henderson's name)

& Aunty Robin became the Munson pups favorite babysitter 🥰

Robin being protective of omega Steve is always so lovely💕💕💕

[heavencasteel420]

I was feeling a bit stuck on my main WIPs, so for fun I wrote a couple of lines/paragraphs for each of my other story ideas (the proper ones where I have a general sense of the story's shape, not the shitpost ideas like "Chrissy turns into a car?"). Here are the ones for my Dysfunctional/Dark/Super-Dark story ideas--they are generally grodier so proceed with caution):

Dysfunctional

Chiaroscuro (teen noir story)

Although he'd already known her peripherally, as Will's friend's older sister, Jonathan had learned plenty of new things about editor-in-chief Nancy Wheeler since he'd started taking photographs for the school paper. She was ambitious, always fighting to include articles that weren't just summaries of various basketball games and dances. She wouldn't back down from a fight, as a contingent of the PTA had learned when they'd pitched a fit over an anti-nukes editiorial. She'd make her displeasure known if one of the staff turned in late or sloppy work, a trait that had earned the dislike of the sillier girls and the guys who resented that she'd gotten the position in the first place. She preferred nonfiction to fiction, drank medically concerning amounts of Tab, and always asked after Mom and Will.

But, for the purposes of this conversation, two facts were particularly important: that she didn't gossip, and that she'd almost certainly had sex.

How Well I Remember (Jonathan/Jason, post-S1)

If it were just a crazy mom and her not-missing-anymore kid, Jason would round up a bunch of the guys to help fix up the house, but he can't exactly do that when Tommy Hagan, a junior, runs his mouth about psycho-perv Jonathan Byers every time Steve Harrington turns his back. Besides, Jason wouldn't want to embarrass him by bringing people from the same school to see his messed-up house and weird family. Most important, though, charity vaunteth not itself. It's better--more Christian--for Jason to do the right thing without an audience.

The Sin Eater's Prom Date (Jonathan/Chrissy, context is that Jonathan's the one who got taken to the UD in S1 and it made his weird reputation even weirder)

"You could ask Mrs. Sullivan to let you switch lab partners," Jason says. "No one would blame you." Chrissy pulls her imagination away from Jonathan's long, nimble fingers, meticulously dissecting the formaldehyde frog while she took notes. She has to admit that Jason's right. Mrs. Sullivan might protest, but only because making other arrangements for Jonathan could require dealing with him directly. Although she never says anything, her foundation-caked face goes all tight whenever she looks at him. "What if no one wants to switch?" she asks, fiddling with the drawstring of her jacket. "I'd feel awful." "There are probably some burnouts who wouldn't mind," he assures her. Before Chrissy can point out that there aren't many burnouts because it's an honors class, he frowns. "Mrs. Sullivan probably picked you because you're too nice. It's not appropriate."

Silver Threads and Golden Needles (garbage fire Stoncy, post-S1, alcohol mention)

In the dead week between Christmas and New Year's, Steve shows up on his doorstep with a bottle of vodka. It's been three weeks since he and Nancy got back together (a development that Jonathan noted with dismay but no real surprise) and almost two months since the last time he came knocking. He's quieter this time and, thank God, because it's ten-thirty and Mom and Will are both asleep. "You wanna go for a ride?" Steve asks. Jonathan weighs the possibility that Steve has decided to murder him (or, at least, arrange a less-fair rematch of their alley fight) against the awkwardness of having the do-you-want-to-kill-me conversation. "Okay," he says with a shrug. "Let me grab my jacket."

The Teeth of the Hydra upon You (Nancy/Chrissy, AU S2 where Jonathan moved to Maine, alcohol and vomiting)

Suddenly Steve is gone, and in his place is a pink-cheeked, strawberry blonde angel. "You look like Holly Hobby," Nancy informs her woozily. "My sister's name is Holly." Then she retches, and the angel guides her over to the toilets and smooths her hair back while he pukes. Her hands are cool and soft on Nancy's skin.

Dark

I Need Noise (Billy/Jonathan, S2 albeit with slightly different timeline just for logistical purposes, tw for Billy being gross and sexist and fatphobic below)

Billy's been in Hawkins for a couple of weeks, and he's so fucking bored. He knows exactly which girls are going to put out and, of those girls, he knows who's going to be content with screwing and who's angling to be his girlfriend. The pussy pool is shallow whether or not he's willing to publicly hold hands in exchange for a regular fuck, and he can see himself drifting into some depressing situation with Misty Carpenter, the one girl he's managed to finger so far. She's already maneuvered him into taking her to KFC once--not that she needs it, with her porky thighs--so a part of him thinks he might as well give up and focus his efforts on getting her to blow him. Another part of him, though, is almost glad that Neil made him play chauffeur for Max tonight. He'd rather be hanging out in the arcade parking lot, smoking a cigarette while the ungrateful bitch keeps him waiting, than have to make nice with Misty's friends at some dumb hick party at the quarry.

Catch Me When You Can (Eddie/Jonathan, sad AU--kind of a Tonight, Tonight redux/remix--where no one finds out about the UD, Will appears to be dead, Joyce has a mental breakdown and is institutionalized, Lonnie returns to Hawkins to stay with Jonathan, and Jonathan copes with the situation by abusing black-market painkillers that he buys from Eddie and also hooking up with Eddie--the context is a near-fatal, mostly accidental overdose):

For once, Eddie feels lucky to be poor. If he or Wayne had anything of value, Lonnie Byers would take them for all they were worth. Instead, he shows up at the trailer and reams Wayne out while Eddie hides in his bedroom and pretends not to be home. Wayne is mild, even gracious. He doesn't call Lonnie a hypocrite or a shitty excuse for a father, like Eddie longs to do. Instead, he agrees that Lonnie has every reason to be upset. He expresses his regrets (in a non-specific way that won't give Lonnie ammunitions) and asks after Jonathan. Eventually, Lonnie runs out of steam and sighs. "I should press charges," he says. "Hawkins PD is already gunning for your boy. He needs to watch his step." "Thank you," Wayne says, as though Lonnie has provided him with new and valuable information. He lets a few seconds pass before adding, "Probably easier for your boy, too, the sooner this all gets settled." If Lonnie hears this as a threat--if he understands that Wayne really means it'll be easier on Lonnie--his voice doesn't show it. "Yeah," he says. "Jesus. What a mess."

Super-Dark

Everybody Loves Me But You (post-S1 AU where Steve becomes more evil instead of reforming, tw for his gross/violent thoughts)

After the fight, Steve makes two promises to himself. First, that he'll never take Nancy Wheeler back, not even if she falls on her knees and begs him to let her make it up to him. Second, that he'll smash Byers's head into the concrete if he ever catches him creeping around his backyard again. These promises turn out to be easy to keep. Nancy doesn't even look at him at school on Monday, let alone plead with him for a second chance. And, no matter how often Steve checks the woods behind his house, armed with a Louisville Slugger, Byers never shows. He's glad, of course. Despite the fantasy he's built up in his head, he knows that rejecting Nancy, however publicly, would leave him feeling flat. No matter how many people saw her name on the theater marquee, it can't undo the image of Byers embracing her on her bed. Steve's always going to be the idiot who worried about her while she was out humiliating him. And of course he doesn't want Byers anywhere near him.

In the Night, but There's No One (this one's such a bummer that I'm not even getting into it)

"Look, you've told me a lot about Nancy, and she sounds great," Argyle says. His big hand comes to rest between Jonathan's shoulder blades, an island of warmth in a sea of cold dread. "But I don't actually know her. You're my best friend, man. I'm on your side." You wouldn't be, if you knew, Jonathan thinks, although the truth is that he has no reference for what anyone would think. He can't speak, anyway, around the block of ice in his throat. "I just don't get when it would've happened," Argyle continues. "No offense, dude, but you don't really hang out with anyone but me."

[thestobingirlie]

It always startles me how ok Jonathan's photos of Nancy in season 1 are interpreted by some parts of fandom. It's like yes, he took incredibly violating photos of Nancy but it has information about Barb, so it's good! Like there were a thousand and one ways the Duffer's could have written that scene so we didn't get violating photos of Nancy but still got the information we needed.

I try not to let that color my view of Jonathan's character too much but I can never like him too much for that. Like yes he apologizes, but he tries to justify his action with he was taking photos of someone being their true self. If I was in Nancy's position, I would have fought him.

i hate those fucking photos so much, i honestly think it was one of the worst writing choices the duffers brothers have ever made, and continues to be one of the reasons that i could never really get into j*ncy.

interestingly, season 1 jonathan is my favourite version of him, as long as you ignore the photos. i find he’s just been kind of diluted as seasons go by because the duffers seem to care less and less about him.

anyway, you can just tell that plot line was created by men because the fact that nancy barely cares, jonathan kind of apologises and then kind of takes it back later and insults nancy is so fucking weird.

honestly, it’s just kinda tragic because i love jonathan! and the duffer brothers just had to ruin it.

also, this may just be me, but i think carol, tommy and steve had every right to feel violated by those pictures. yes they may not be naked, but they were in their friends back garden, talking and messing around, with no idea someone was hiding in the bushes listening and watching and taking photos. that’s bad enough, even without considering the topless pic.

[tommy-h-bff]

hi.

my name is candy aka liam. he/him. 29.

scorpio. infp-t. nd. artist. writer. roleplayer. thomas hagan's finest lawyer.

welcome to my blog. 🤡🔥 pls read before you follow me. thanks.

❗ byf ❗

🚫 no minors, no antis, no hate period or i'll block you if i catch any drama or harassment. i am anti-anti and don't believe in censorship when it comes to fiction.

this is a safe space for multishippers and proshippers. block me if you don't like it idc.

main fandoms:

stranger things

silent hill (mainly the room)

dead by daylight

spree

the quarry

resident evil

misc. horror survival ps2 titles

interests:

🎶music:

machine girl

alex g

the garden

childish gambino

tyler the creator

steve lacey

neon indian

tame impala

toro y moi

capsule

ships i adore: stommy, tomgrove, keg boys, harringrove, teddie, stonathan, munver, harringsmith, henry townshend x walter sullivan, cleve, nick furcillo x jacob custos

characters i love: tommy hagan, billy hargrove, steve harrington, carol perkins, heather holloway, jason carver, kurt kunkle, walter sullivan, henry townshend, heather mason, steve burnside, piers nivans, kevin ryman, leon s. kennedy, quentin smith, nick furcillo, negan smith, daryl dixon, simon (dinner in america), william birkin

cool real people: matt stephenson, fletcher shears, chester rushing, donald glover, joe keery, dacre montgomery, norman reedus, kyle gallner, river phoenix, chaz bear, lil nas x, tyler the creator, steve lacey

video games:

(i will add to this if i think of it or get into anything new.)

other handles:

twitter 🔞

ao3

discord: dm me (moots only)

[thehiveroleplay]

STRANGER THINGS GROUP RP

THE HIVE

18+ APOCALYPTIC STRANGER THINGS ROLEPLAY SERVER

From the ground splitting open beneath your very shoes to once blue skies forming dark clouds and horrifying red lightning to supernatural mind-linked monsters seeping out from the newly formed cracks across Hawkins, destroying everything in its path and leaving nothing but havoc and wreckage in its wake to encountering yourself from a parallel dimension; this story offers a poisonous dose of angst, dark, mature themes, horrors and more! Does this pique your interest? Read below!

Set in 1986, shortly after the unfortunate events of Season 4 where the main antagonist Vecna was successful in creating a split between dimensions, the other universe corrupting our own. The Flayed have returned alongside the unexpected company in the form of new creatures and formerly dead characters and it’s up to The Party and what’s left of the living who may be humanity’s last hope to be able to put a stop to this catastrophe before our universe ends up like the one before it. Our protagonists will be forced to endure brutal circumstances in this post-apocalyptic setting. WHAT OUR SERVER CAN OFFER YOU, - LITERATE / MATURE ROLEPLAY ENVIRONMENT, - RICH SERVER LORE, MONSTER ENCOUNTERS, AND EVENTS, - ALL CHARACTERS ARE WELCOME, NO ANTIS - LIST OF CANON CHARACTERS FROM TWO UNIVERSES, - ORIGINAL CHARACTERS WELCOME, - ORGANIZED DISCORD SERVER, TUPPERBOT - LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY MEMBERS AND STAFF, - CHILL PLACE TO WRITE AND MEET FELLOW WRITERS, - ANGST, REUNIONS, AND SO MUCH MORE!

We are mainly looking for 'Main Universe' characters right now, especially characters like Jim Hopper, Joyce Byers, Jane Hopper (Eleven), Lucas Sinclair, Erica Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Robin Buckley, Jonathan Byers, Murray Bauman, Tommy Hagan, and Officer Powell

You can check the live roster here.

If this is something that interests you, then give us a visit today! DISCORD SERVER: https://discord.gg/AXPEXwWH8Y Characters can be applied for after you've completed the verification process and read the docs containing the server's background/lore.

[thagantm]

@harringtontm ; ❛ i’m not leaving you. ❜ ( x )

THAT  DAMNED  MULE  AND  HIS  STUBBORN  RIGHTEOUSNESS ; Tommy  fights  the  initial  need  to  rake  his  fingers  down  his  face  and , instead , huffs  an  exasperated  sigh  into  the  night  air . it  stretches  the  skin  of  his  abdomen  uncomfortably , reminding  him  of  the  nasty  injury  that’s  still  largely  untreated  (  bandages  and  some  anti – septic  lotion  don’t  count  and  the  rational  part  of  his  brain  knows  it , too  )  and  tries  hard  to  hide  the  brief  scrunch  of  his  freckled  nose  from  Steve . the  man’s  pale  enough  as  is  ;  almost  as  if  he’s  the  one  who  lost  a  ton  of  blood  instead  of  Tommy . granted , he’s  glad  to  be  sitting , even  if  it’s  on  some  dingy  playground  next  to  the  house  of  an  alleged  psychopath . the  Creel  House  looms  somewhere  in  the  back  of  them , and  Tommy  still  tries  to  wrap  his  head  around  the  fact  that , in  some  parallel  dimension  to  this  one , there’s  a  lunatic  murderer  only  a  few  yards  away  from  them , killing  kids  for  shits  and  giggles . it’s  one  of  the  last  moments  of  quiet  and  he’s  sure  both  him  and  Steve  are  painfully  aware  of  that . once  the  preparations  are  done  and  the  plan’s  been  repeated  until  it  bleeds  out  of  their  ears  a  few  more  times , there’s  no  turning  back .

he  hates  being  left  behind  like  that . too  scratched  up  to  go  back  to  the  Upside  Down , but  still  fine  enough  to  hiss  and  spit  at  Nancy  for  suggesting  he  should  go  back  home . it’s  one  thing  to  drag  him  into  this  mess , but  to  then  suggest  he  should  fold  and  give  up  is  nothing  short  of  an  insult  to  Tommy  Hagan . even  bleeding , he  brings  more  to  the  table  than  most  in  this  party  -  at  least  in  terms  of  muscle . Steve  knows . Steve  knows  everything  about  him  after  all . or  almost  everything  at  least .

“  yeah , you  will . ” his  voice  is  a  little  rough  and  he  really  craves  a  cigarette  right  now . “ you’ll  go  back  in  there  and  kill  that  asshole  and  I’ll  be  right  here , looking  after  Little  Miss  Sunshine . ‘s  easy . ” Little  Miss  Sunshine  being  Erica , who , funnily  enough , hadn’t  been  all  to  reluctant  to  agree  to  a  security  detail  out  here  on  the  playground , just  in  case  shit  hit  the  fan . again . he’s  keeping  the  second  shotgun  after  successfully  convincing  Wheeler  to  saw  off  her’s  (  yes , it’s  a  felony , cry  me  a  river ) along  with  another  nail – emblazoned  baseball bat , and  by  now  he's  quite  convinced  that  even  if  Vecna  came  for  them  and  made  it  past  whatever  weapons  they’d  hurl  at  him , Sinclair  would  find  that  one  insecurity , that  one  childhood  trauma  keeping  him  up  at  night  in .2  seconds  flat  and  then  proceed  to  pound  on  that  until  he’d  beg  her  to  stop  before  turning  suicidal  .  .  .

he  leans  forward  just  enough  to  reach  out , clap  a  hand  to  the  side  of  Steve’s  neck , and  casually  rest  their  foreheads  together .  frankly , he’s  not  sure  whether  he’s  doing  it  to  soothe  Steve’s  nerves , or  his  own , but  in  any  case , it  feels  good  -  familiar . a  touch  that  chases  his  heart  up  into  his  throat  and  that  he’s  already  reluctant  to  end  even  though  it’s  only  just  begun . Tommy  chases  the  what  ifs  and  will – I – ever – see – him – agains  to  the  back  of  his  mind  and  briefly  closes  those  green  eyes . inhales  the  sticky  scent  of  hairspray  and  Steve , and  decides  that  he’s  glad  to  have  been  dragged  into  this  shit , so  long  as  he’s  gotten  Steve  back  in  the  process . “ I’ll  be  fine , Harrington . you  got  your  own  shit  to  worry  about . ”