#faithfulcat111

[leslie057]

17a and 3b?

hii, thank you for the prompt!

prompt game posted here

17a + 3b = the semantics are totally outdated + but they can’t talk

word count: 3.4k | pairing: jonathan x nancy

but i can't live by those stakes, the semantics are totally outdated -sam fender, last to make it home

Her summer, china shop. Lowe and Holloway…two biggest, most aggressive bulls a matador could wish for.

And even that is such an undeserved accreditation, that semblance of animal majesty and dominance and punch, since her china’s literally in mint condition. She’s doing just fine, the guys don’t scare her. They’re not capable.

Her issue isn’t fear, it’s rage. More rage than Jonathan knows what to do with at times. The flush of red on her face, the urge to choke in her hands, the hair-pulling (his hair, not hers) and the pacing, all too wayward in his pen, burning up each of the four corners at once. Not that he’s much of a firefighter—pretty clear that he likes for a girl to take everything out on him, as long as her methods are nonverbal. He’s not gonna smother a flame when he could just let the flame smother him. He loves a good path of least resistance.

Things are different between them, inside the Hawkins Post. She can see him struggling with that, with meanings lost and rules rewritten, her amendments unfairly implicit as she switches up on him, forcing her sweet mariner into the Atlantic with his map of the Pacific. No, his map of the Wabash River. She doesn’t mean to respond differently to him, it’s just that she has to be careful with the way she carries herself here because no one wants to take her seriously. There aren’t many wins to be had by a teenage girl in this building, and there really aren’t many wins to be had by a teenage girl who lets her boyfriend dote on her in this building. The pep talk thing, the passive pity, the hey come here you’re okay after any negative reaction she has…he’s making it worse without realizing.

She’s making it worse, too, though. In her own way.

Keeps getting them in trouble, for example.

Today they're in trouble because of what she convinced him to do yesterday. Apparently, leaving work ten minutes early is really a no-no. Her bad. (She needed out, Lover’s Lake was calling to her. They don’t go much, but when it’s raining? When it’s raining that lake belongs to them. No other couple in town is weird enough to go in thunder and lightning, it is their thing, they own it. Privacy is a guarantee. Never mind that inducing the feeling of drowning has been a secret placation of her survivor's guilt lately, a quiet way to exhaust herself and surrender to nature's embrace for a while, to let it take her over, knocking her down a peg as it comes down in heavy sheets. It should have been her on that diving board two years ago, it really should have.) She never said their date habits were healthy. Oh, except the splashing, the splishing. That’s a normal couple thing. Very healthy.

They’ve been given different punishments for slipping out; he’s meant to be folding all the newspapers, she’s supposed to be stapling reports. It’s 4:45, and they just started. They usually use this time to clean up, but whatever doesn’t get done before five is unpaid work.

So that’s fun.

In the main room they serve their silent sentence, each stationed at opposite ends, less than consumed by their tasks. There’s an early golden hour effect outside; she can tell with the warm glow that’s seeping in between the window blinds, teasing her, testing her, tempting her to just walk out again. Despite her best efforts to focus on work and keep her distance from Jonathan, she does think about him a lot under this roof. And other roofs. And every roof. Like now, she’s thinking about how he’s staring at her and how strange it is that she knows he’s staring at her even with her eyes cast down.

I can feel that.

She combats the softness of the sentiment with a hard press on the stapler. Loud click is overly loud. Obnoxious. Swiping the heavy thing across the desk, she lets it clunk against the lamp’s square base. If he wants to daydream about her, he’ll have to romanticize her inclination towards inanimate object abuse. (Imagine the emotional release in banging that ashtray on this typewriter. Personally, she’s imagining it.)

She tips her head up to check on him. Okay, he is romanticizing how pissed off she is. Blinks at her like she’s some unusual celestial something at the end of a telescope, pretty and rare. He brightens up over there as he realizes that he got her attention, making a small posture adjustment, leaning her way. Still slouchy, of course. She wants to glare, she does, but the edges of her gaze are being anonymously softened and all that’s left behind is a tender, conflicted expression. What do you want from me, it says. This is intern detention after all. Not social hour.

With a gentle glance he offers her some support, devoid of any pressure or demands. Nothing, Nancy.

She ducks her head and goes back to her report stack. But as quickly as she dives back into the task, she comes out again. He has something to tell her—she can feel it. When she looks up, he's tapping his thumb at the base of his throat, which is kind of weird even for him. His hand hovers near his collar before he motions to her, a silent prompt. She takes the signal and touches the same spot on her neck, brows knit together. Your necklace, he’s trying to say, miming the action of spinning it around, repositioning the clasp and extender so that they’re at the back and hidden away. Your necklace is backwards. She fixes it accordingly, embarrassed by nothing in particular it’s just…yeah, Bruce Lowe definitely doesn’t need to be provided with any joke bait below her neckline.

Bonus points for the ever attentive boyfriend. Just this once, his tendency to space out and stare at her has gotten them somewhere. Good boy.

She busies herself with the stapler, determined to get them out of this place sooner rather than later. Count, separate, slide, straighten. Staple, stack, repeat. Repeat repeat repeat. She wishes she had someone to compete with, to race against. Her brother, maybe, because Jonathan isn’t competitive. Then this would go faster. In the warm office, heat sprawls on top of her, slowing her movements. Sweat has already pooled at the small of her back, gathered behind her ears, formed a light sheen along her jaw. So much for box fans.

Her mind strays away from the chatter around her, a few abrupt fantasies now steering her thoughts. Hormonal thoughts. She’d ignore the love rush if she could, but it’s on her, on her like a sticky lotion in June weather, soaking slowly into her skin. Being seventeen is—yeah. Difficult.

Crazy difficult, once you factor in the need to be a professional mini-adult and not associate with the person you take to bed.

There’s just…it’s her, and Jonathan, and the necklace, and she’s taken off the necklace, held it taut against his neck, not choking him per se, no, but softly sawing at him with the chain until there are faint red lines impressed in sensitive flesh. Who knows where this came from; she’s never done anything like it. Doesn’t typically play so rough with him that there’s physical evidence more severe than your average hickeys or scratch marks. This job is turning her into a hazard.

She indulges for a couple seconds longer in the dumb image that had momentarily eclipsed her reality. He’s not looking at her when she looks up at him, but somehow it feels like their telepathic dialogue is still going, born from shared frustrations.

I want to be done here.

I know, we’ll be done soon. We’re fine, keep stapling.

And maybe she wouldn’t have to take off the necklace. Because he has his tie, his not-so-nice tie. Okay, without sugarcoating, it’s ugly. The one that’s currently loose, gray with diagonal brown stripes, pencil-thin stripes; it would be way more fun to pull across his throat compared to her necklace. Of course, she wouldn’t lead with that, she’d be counteracting with the super soft services of a needy mouth, settling on the kindest way to release her anger and affection in one fell swoop. (Why is it that the uglier the tie design, the bigger her heart? She’s wanting him bad this afternoon.)

In a moment of distracted clumsiness, she knocks over her box of staples, several of the refill strips breaking apart on the ground, their clatter piercing through whatever awful discussion was being had by these overpaid husbands and fathers.

“Wuh-oh,” Bruce interjects before carrying his conversation on. Not as big of a deal as when she fumbles a lunch order, but bad nonetheless; she’s on her knees in a dress, catching everyone’s double takes. A sideshow act to glance at intermittently between unrelated one-offs and cigarette drags.

Jonathan’s soon kneeling by her, ready to lend his assistance. Yeah, absolutely not.

The more he helps her, the more of a girl she is. Her eyes plead with him, begging him to remember that any perceived dependence on him will undermine the tiny shred of social authority she has here.

I love you, but get away from me.

Pouting, he backs off, an achy longing lingering between them. He chooses instead to go tend to the coffee grounds she’d yet to throw out.

Despite the distance enforced by circumstance, and her annoyance, she remains fixated on him, finding some solace in that mental landscape. When they leave this place within the hour, everything will go back to the way it was, and she can go back to speaking in a language they both understand.

She scoops up the staples and tidies the desk. Resumes her work without a second thought, waiting for the embarrassment to bleed out of her.

--

By five after five, they’ve almost finished up their punishment tasks. The office is more peaceful than before, hushed and dreamy, as their older colleagues file out, letting paper cups and gum wrappers fall into trash cans whose bags she and her boyfriend replaced an hour ago.

Tom switches off a couple lamps, touches his watch (with that bizarre air of supremacy and boredom). On his way out, he claps her chair on the back. “Keep up the good work,” he says. “No more sneaking out early.”

At least she’s getting credit for something. For leading the rebellion.

She watches Fallon, the receptionist, push in her desk chair and begin to pull at the hem of her skirt. As she passes by Jonathan, she carelessly drops a keyring into his lap, instructing him to lock up when they go. She also calls him Jordan. Not a thought in her head.

“Yes ma’am,” he mumbles, “have a good night.”

They’re left all alone when the last footsteps fade away, and she shifts in her spinny chair. For possibly the first time today, she takes a deep breath in, a deep breath out. This is good. This is better.

It’s sort of warm and sweet and spongy—cakelike, she’d say—the growing sense of comfort she has in the privacy that’s been laid upon them. That, or she’s hungry. They should pick up a cupcake from the bakery downtown. Key lime, lemon, one of their seasonal flavors. No, wait, the bakery closed a few minutes ago. Not that they get much business anymore. (If they shut down and the mall ruins her and Jonathan’s cupcake sharing thing, she might choke someone. She might kill.)

Though her gaze is locked on him, he keeps his head slanted down, not acknowledging her or their privacy.

She taps the desk, slides her tongue behind her teeth, resentment creeping in amid neglect. This is the part where their tension falls away, right? The part where he apologizes for overdoing the boyfriend thing, and then gives her his undivided attention until one or two in the morning, thus overdoing the boyfriend thing, but in the right place at the right time. Trying to make up for the shittiness of their internship, trying to help her bubble wrap all the china in her china shop before morning comes around again.

He’s slumped down over there, sleeves cuffed, collar half-popped, movements slow as he calmly creases his final papers. The box fan’s soft currents delicately ruffle through his hair, and at first glance, he doesn’t have a care in the world. At second, though, he’s wearing a bit of a frown, moodily refusing to acknowledge anything but himself and his newspapers.

And yet. She can’t deny the magnetic pull drawing her that way. With a defiant flip of her hair, she sets out to close the big gap between them and put an end to the ridiculousness. They shouldn’t be ignoring each other upon being given total privacy, not even for a second. Reaching his space, she stops in front of his chair, leaning back on the edge of the desk. She’s the wall between him and his paper stack.

He sighs, eyes cast up to her. “Hi.”

“Hi,” she parrots.

“You’re done?”

“Pretty much.”

“Me too.”

He’s still in that place of self-minimization, that corrective headspace following the staple incident. He’s stuck on being quiet and invisible and adult and the absolute opposite of lovey and dovey. It’s no longer necessary.

She fidgets with her ring blindly, an anticipatory energy working itself up inside her, right under her ribcage. He opens his mouth to speak. Closes it quickly. Guarded, he averts his gaze.

“You’re allowed to correct her, you know.”

“Huh?”

“Fallon. You don’t have to let your name be whatever she decides.”

The silence stretches between them, a tight wire, trembling faintly, a few touches away from snapping. She’s unsure if he’s playing a game here or if he simply doesn’t feel like talking. You never know with him (but she does).

“We’re allowed to talk now, you know,” she adds.

A beat.

“Your dress is messed up,” he says, to himself more than her.

“What?”

“The hooks on your dress. You accidentally skipped the first one.”

“I—” she starts. Her jaw hangs. Curious, she feels for the mismatched hook and eye clasps below the frilly collar of her dress, and she finds that the bottom one did get skipped over. This is what happens when you don’t get enough sleep, wake up late, and have to dress yourself in sixty seconds. She huffs. “Well come fix it?"

Because he has to want to. He likes this dress a lot, he’s never said anything, but he does. It’s white and yellow, not any yellow, but like a buttercup yellow, semi-sheer with an open ruffly collar and wide sleeves. He would want the excuse to touch it. He would want that sense of purpose, that delegation of mess-fixing. She’s so rarely a mess when there are no monsters to slaughter. He’s usually the one with the inside out shirt, the smudge of lipstick on his face. This is his one chance.

His bottom lip curls, and his shoulders shrug. “Thought you wanted to pretend like we don’t know each other.”

“Jonathan…please come fix it.”

She reaches out, and without a word he holds her hand, standing up. He bites down on his tongue, presses it against the side of his mouth, looking like he knows how cliché this is but is too sad to complain. He moves closer, his hands gentle as he begins unfastening those top four hooks so he can fasten that fifth one, the one she’d skipped before she also skipped breakfast. Her eyelids sink, wispy bangs brushing the tops of her eyes as the fan’s whisper of a breeze plays over her.

He’s still working with the clasps when her hands find his neck, tickling their way to the ends of his hair, curled by humidity.

To her surprise, he doesn’t flinch when she sneak attacks him, stealing a kiss off his mouth. Just makes a huffy sound afterward, all judgy eyes and short breaths and pinked skin. “Does that mean you like me again—”

She guides the slipping of their lips, a soft sensation of stickiness lingering in the inbetween. “Shut up,” she murmurs, “I never stopped.”

“Yes, you did.”

Plush lip tissue gives way between her careful teeth as she nibbles, trying to draw out a whimper or a groan or some other noise of desperate compliance. She thinks she hears an ow, and if she did, that’s good. His ow isn’t code for hey that hurts, his ow is like a regular boy’s don’t stop, I need more.

“I did not,” she argues.

“You did, you said so.”

“When?”

“With your face.”

She tightens her grip on the back of his collar and pulls. Seeking a diversion, she peppers his mouth, the tip of her tongue relaxed, impressively subtle. A muffled squeak leaves him as the collar tightens around his throat, and she lets go, releasing him. Maybe she does feel a little bad. “Don’t be so sensitive,” she says, but her words lack conviction, and her heart’s not in the dig. “I know I’ve been acting weird. It’s not about you.”

He rests his forehead on hers. “It’s only about them?”

“Duh, it’s about them.”

They put the conversation on hold among their shared prioritization of making this into more of a makeout than just a way to argue. Kissing mainly because it feels good to kiss, and bad to not. Their age demands this, pushes them. (They’ll grow out of the phase someday…she assumes. If she ever learns how to control herself. Perhaps.) She noses her way to his jaw while getting wrapped up in a hug, the gleam of sweat under her lips pleasantly salty. “So sweaty,” she teases (though she’s burning up, too). His breath hitches, and he doesn’t start the banter back up, doesn’t say what’s on his mind which is probably: I didn’t ask you to come over here and lick me like a cat.

Eventually they do separate a few inches, significantly more satisfied than before, significantly more pink in the face. Her head tips, and her tired eyes follow the path of daylight pouring in through the window, casting long shadows across the office floor as he distractedly massages her shoulder.

“Not that I’m complaining…” he begins, and her lashes flutter, her ears tune in, “but you are sending me mixed signals here.”

He’s right. Her professionalism has come at the price of his trust and certainty. She’s still adjusting to the job, getting used to the fact that she’s not particularly needed, wanted, or respected here. Jonathan doesn’t get it, and a Jordan wouldn’t get it, or a Josh, or anyone else who has never been on the receiving end of that coffee maker too tricky for you, sweetheart?

His concern is being obedient, being good, getting paid, keeping to himself, not making a fuss. It makes sense that he’d want to pep talk her out of her anguish, but it’s not healthy for her reputation. She thinks he owes it to her to roll with the punches for a little while.

“I know. I’m still figuring all this out. You’re gonna have to buckle up and settle in for now.”

“Do you think I could have a…handbook, or something?”

“A handbook?”

“I want the dos and don’ts. I want to know what you think makes you look bad and what doesn’t.”

She laughs softly. “That could be arranged. I’ve always wanted to write a book.”

--

After they’ve hesitantly split up and attended to closing tasks, she takes pride in the fact that they’ve only had to do twenty minutes of unpaid work this evening.

The remaining lights get switched off, and they gather their things, ambling to a door whose glass promises the return to a nicer world, a return to wide prospects—night drives and music, dinner and shared showers, lakeside commitments and homemade cupcakes.

“Hey,” she murmurs, hand curling around a few of his fingers, “just so you know, about that handbook: I haven’t forgotten about the darkroom.”

“What about it?”

“Nothing, I just mean that I don’t think any of the rules would have to apply to the darkroom. It’s private, it’s safe, it’s…rule-free, isn’t it?”

“Umm…”

"You can pick up as many staples for me as you want in there."

--

creds to @musicalchaos07 for helping me come up with this idea, and creds to @wanderleave for picking his tie color for me

[heavencasteel420]

12, 24, 29

12. a trope you're really into right now

I'm really into letters/diaries/other in-character writings within a story. I love figuring out a writing style for a character and having there be discrepancies between what they're saying in writing and what they're thinking in the narration. This is a small thing, but, in Tonight, Tonight, when it's Jonathan's POV, he almost always thinks of Lonnie as "Lonnie," not "Dad" or "his dad." That man is not a parent to him, but an encumbrance and a threat. But, in letters to Nancy, he's initially saying "my dad" because, while he's being honest with her about some things, he doesn't want to reveal the extent of how dysfunctional their relationship is. But, in the most recent letter to Nancy, he sometimes writes "Lonnie." The gap between what he tells her and what he's thinking is getting smaller.

24. how do you recharge when you're not feeling creative?

I like to watch movies, especially movies I've seen before but not in a while. I don't sit down and watch a whole movie as much as I used to so it's refreshing.

29. how easy is it for you to come up with titles?

Pretty easy! They're mostly song lyrics and I usually have at least a serviceable idea. That being said:

Sometimes a title feels less apt once I've started posting a WIP. Tonight, Tonight, the Highway's Bright (from Bruce Springsteen's "Racing in the Street") was a title I originally came up with when there was going to be more stuff about cars in the story and Jonathan's half was set in New Jersey. At certain points I have wished that I had gone with The Devil's Right Hand instead of Drive All Night, although right now I don't feel that way at all.

I have way more trouble with chapter titles, because I usually feel like they have to be themed, and some chapters are easier to title than others.

[karadanverss]

Siren's Refrain ??? 👀👀👀

I can't share much b/c it is for an event but I can provide a nondescript snippet 🙈

The next day wasn’t much better.  He was used to attention.  He just hoped that some of the excitement would have been over by that point.  He was wrong.  If anything, the attention was almost more overwhelming than the day before.  He was stopped by his locker, in the hall, even once as he was going into the bathroom. It was benign mostly.  People just wanted to talk to him for the most part.  The problem was, it was like they didn’t know what to say to him.  It was like they just wanted to be… near him. 

[sapphicstevents]

2024 Master List

Bambi (One Really Great Summer)

Chrissy Cunningham x Carol Perkins 5k words Written by @azrielgreen Art by @hawkinsleather (twitter)

Mary Jane's Last Dance

Eden Bingham x Chrissy Cunningham 12k words Written by Dee Podfic by @deepestbluesky

Out of Place; In a World I Don't Belong

Robin Buckley x Chrissy Cunningham 16k words Written by ainsalaco Art by @donttellunclesam (twitter)

The Universe Must Have Divined This

Chrissy Cunningham x Carol Perkins 15k words Written by Jordan Art by @i-watch-the-beees (twitter)

but at least I got you in my head

Robin Buckley x Nancy Wheeler 9k words Written by Rachel Art by @maggierosestudio (twitter)

Trigger Happy

Robin Buckley x Nancy Wheeler 5k words Written by @karadanverss Art by @femmeetart

Because the night belongs to...

Robin Buckley x Carol Perkins 30k words Written by @biffbang Art By @raven-cl (twitter) & @itcanbepalped (twitter)

Set your heart free

Chrissy Cunningham x Heather Holloway 15k words Written by @medusapelagia (twitter) Art by @silliestguys (twitter)

Answers on the Back of a Postcard

Robin Buckley x Barbara Holland 5k words Written by @kaizenkhaos Art by @itcanbepalped

i want an icee and a nice girl to date

Robin Buckley x Nancy Wheeler 5k words Written by @roomwithanopenfire Art by @ddoonnccnn

Wonderful You Came By

Robin Buckley x Heather Holloway 13k words Written by @itcanbepalped Art by @arimakes (twitter)

You Crawled Inside My Head and Lit a Fire There, Instead

Chrissy Cunningham x Nancy Wheeler 8k words Written by @pterawaters Art by @williamprattz

Take me Down to the River

Robin Buckley x Chrissy Cunningham 8k words Written by @emchant3d Art by @inflomora-art (twitter) & @silliestguys

letters that i can never send

Chrissy Cunningham x Tina 25k words Written by @thatgirlwithasquid Podfic by @hullomoon

Give Me Your Hand

Barbara Holland x Nancy Wheeler 38k words Written by @yourfellowuselessgay (twitter) Art by @karadanverss

first to fall

Robin Buckley x Chrissy Cunningham 23k words Written by @super-cosmic-library Art by @slime-hoe

Falling in Love in an Unlikely Place

Chrissy Cunningham x Heather Holloway 14k words Written by @kallisto-k Art by @alicetallula

You're the Best of Things

Robin Buckley x Chrissy Cunningham 14k words Written by Maria Art by Jen

Making Out While the World Collapses

Robin Buckley x Vickie 17k words Written by @salamandergoo Art by @faithfulcat111

like a lamb to the

Robin Buckley x Chrissy Cunningham 7k words Written by Cyd Art by @danadaria (Twitter)

before the world ends

Robin Buckley x Vickie 11k words Written by @stregoniconiconii Art by @deepestbluesky

kintsugi

Robin Buckley x Chrissy Cunningham 8k words Written by @lingeringmirth Art by @grimweathers

scraped up off the pavement

Robin Buckley x Carol Perkins 8k words Written by @mirandaranda (Twitter) Art by @becomingfoxes (Twitter)

Plastic Flowers

Chrissy Cunningham x Carol Perkins 7k words Written by Bird Art by @glitterghast (Twitter)

Knot in Her Stomach

Chrissy Cunningham x Carol Perkins 7k words Written by @lemonhoarddragoness Art by @hawkinsleather

like flour and blue skies

Robin Buckley x Chrissy Cunningham 14k words Written by @veronica-soy Art by @femmetart

the entire history of human desire

Robin Buckley x Carol Perkins 11k words Written by @ruthofrhythm Art by @danadaria

Cool for the Summer

Robin Buckley x Heather Holloway 6k words Written by @beni-o2 Art by @raven-cl

Just Look At Me The Same

Robin Buckley x Nancy Wheeler 8k words Written by Bellandora Art by Cas

Thank you so much to all of our talented writers and artists for a fantastic event! You've given us so much sapphic fiction to enjoy, and we hope everyone else will too. See you next year! 💖

[jonathanbyersphd]

10 characters from 10 fandoms! (in no particular order except for #1)

Thanks @lunar-years for the tag!

Jonathan Byers (Stranger Things)

Penelope Featherington (Bridgerton)

Ace [REDACTED] (Nancy Drew)

Nick Nelson (Heartstopper)

Tohru Honda (Fruits Basket)

Percy Jackson (PJO)

Shauna Shipman (Yellowjackets)

Nathan Scott (One Tree Hill)

Lydia Martin (Teen Wolf)

Kitty Covey (XO Kitty)

No pressure Tagging @faintedloves @faithfulcat111 @maddie-grove @leslie057 @emily-mooon & Anyone else who wants to play

[strangerthingsbigbang]

The 2024 Stranger Things Big Bang is now over!

We've got 32 completed stories and 32 collections of art this year, a STBB record! If you missed this year's big bang, you can sign up for our mailing list here to be notified when we set the schedule for 2025. You can also check out our sister event, @st-rarepairbang, for which we'll be setting the schedule soon.

Now don't forget to leave kudos and comments for all our participants, listed below:

Hidden Treasure by Medusapelagia Art by Mothellie and Arbed’s Ghost Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Rating: E, 64k words, Warnings and Tags

just one time maybe the stars align by DotyTakeThisDown Art by kaspurrcat Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Rating: E, 14k words, No Warnings. Tags

I Got Your Love Letters by genesisofrhythm Art by katimanki Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler Rating: T, 12k words, No Warnings, Tags

Sight: Now I See You by berenwrites Art by Alduade Pre-Steddie, Platonic stobin Rating: T, 26k words, No Warnings, Tags

Wonderstruck by Buckysgrace Art by floredaqueen Billy Hargrove/Original Female Character Rating: E, 25k, Warnings and Tags

No Parents, Big House by Alduade Art by Medusapelagia Eddie Munson & Steve Harrington Rating: M, 17k words, Warnings and Tags

Extracurriculars by pterawaters Art by Mayalean Steve/Nancy, Steve/Eddie Rating: E, 12k words, no warnings, Tags

King of Hearts by Paintedwithaknife Billy Hargrove/Max Mayfield Rating: E, 39k words, Warnings and Tags

Hell and Back by kaizenkhaos art by keziahrain Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington Rating: M, 40k words, Warnings and Tags

your needs, my needs by starryeyedjanai Art by Romeren Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Rating: E, 18k words, Warnings and Tags

Find Me Here by SlippySlip Art by im-not-batman Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Rating: E, 34k words, Warnings and Tags

the pull in his chest by dragonflylady77 Art by bottombillyapologist Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington Rating: E, 14k words, Warnings and Tags

Bad Moon Rising by Nebula Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley/Vickie, etc. Rating: M, 22k words, Warnings and Tags

Momento Mori by Skepsis-Ree art by the-aphelion-archives Steve Harrington & Wayne Munson, Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Rating: T, 25k words, Warnings and Tags

When we first met, I was out of my head (and so were you) by clownrosary art by karadanverss Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington Rating: T, 36k, Warnings and Tags

Kindred Spirits by Lorifragolina Art by janie-bean Gen/platonic Rating: G, 29k words, No warnings, Tags

Creature Comforts Come in Fours by Dragonsire art by fuctacles Billy Hargrove/Chrissy Cunningham/Eddie Munson/Steve Harrington Rating: M, 16k words, Warnings and Tags

You Showed Me Colors (you know I can’t see with anyone else) by NomadicWolf Art by faithfulcat111 Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington Rating: E, 46k words, No warnings, Tags

Buttons by Misfitsbabe Art masterpost by Safk_Art Steve/Billy/Eddie, Steve/Billy, Steve/Henry Rating: E, 30k, Warnings and Tags

Twice Broken, Hope for Third by Laniahava Art by Lokisghost Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington Rating: T, 28k words, Warnings and Tags

Flesh for Fantasy by spaceofentropy Art masterpost by lemonhitsu Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington Rating: E, 32k words, Warnings and Tags

Murray Bauman’s Fantastic Freakstravaganza by fuctacles Art by blasvemous Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Chrissy Cunningham & Eddie Munson Rating: E, 26k words, Warnings and Tags

Where The Flowers Bloom and The Song Birds Sing by Little_Annie Art masterpost by doomcheese Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley/Chrissy Cunningham Rating: M, 28k words, Warnings and Tags

The Notebook by Romeren Art masterpost by camaro-and-smokes Billy Hargrove/Eddie Munson/Steve Harrington Rating: M, 36k words, Warnings and Tags

Hellcheer art by camaro-and-smokes

From the Corner of My Eye by saraste Art masterpost by Janie Bean Wayne Munson & Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Rating: M, 21k words, Warnings and Tags

there are voices in my head (the loudest one is mine)by KittyPhoenix12_xx Art by Pterawaters Argyle/Jonathan Byers Rating: T, 25k words, Warnings and Tags

We’re A Miracle, But Baby, There Are So Many Hands To Hold by Gala_apples Art masterpost by Tallula03 Steve/Eddie/Robin/Nancy/Jonathan/Argyle Rating: E, 59k words, Warnings and Tags

Branded by Destiny by kayleeofcamelot Art masterpost by lemonhitsu Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington Rating: M, 36k words, Warnings and Tags

Just Three Less Than Hetero Guys, You See by Gala_apples Art by alicetallula (1) (2) Eddie/Gareth, Eddie/Gareth/Steve Rating: E, 18k words, Warnings and Tags

He Looks So Pretty, Like A Devil by Jad3w1ngs art masterpost by Vecnass Billy Hargrove/Eddie Munson Rating: E, 16k words, No warnings, Tags

the gnashing of teeth by t3mp3rtantrum Art by alduade-art Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Rating: T, 15k words, Warnings and Tags

InCONsistencies by mayalaen Art masterpost by alicetallula Eddie/Billy, Steve/Chrissy, Eddie/Billy/Steve/Chrissy Rating: E, 61k words, Warnings and Tags

Art for this town will carve you up by hawkinsleather

[salamandergoo]

Making Out While the World Collapses

Rating: M

Relationships: Robin Buckley/Vickie, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington, Background Argyle/Eden Bingham, Background Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler

Characters: Vickie, Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington, Argyle, Jonathan Byers, Eddie Munson, Nancy Wheeler

Major Content Warnings:  Graphic Depictions of Violence

Additional Tags: Blood and Injury, Making Out, Bisexual Vickie, Transfem Argyle, First Aid as a Love Language

Summary: All Vickie wanted to do was get to the end of her senior year.  But then the town went and split into pieces.  While running downtown for supplies, she learns that things in Hawkins aren't as they seem, there's nothing natural about the earthquake, and the town is crawling with monsters out for blood.  More pressingly, her hopeless crush on Robin Buckley might not be so hopeless.

My fic for @sapphicstevents is complete and posted! It was so much fun to be part of this event and I got to work with @faithfulcat111 who totally rocks! Please please please go check out the accompanying edit they made here!

[st-rarepairbang]

Stranger Things Rare Pair Big Bang 2023 Round Up

Our thanks to all this year's participants for their hard work! Please take some time to read the fics, enjoy the art, and make sure to leave comments and kudos for both.

If you’d like to be notified about next year’s big bang, please sign up for our mailing list. We’ll let you know when the 2024 schedule is set and when sign ups begin!

2023 Works

All the Right Reasons (All the Wrong Places) by @hilarychuff Podfic by @reena-jenkins 20k, Teen, Robin/Chrissy, Robin & Steve, No warnings

Monsters, Time Travel Conspiracy, and More! by Snowbutterfly Digital art by @peachypurr 49k, Mature, Argyle/Jonathan, Warnings here

Ashes Will See the Sea story and art by @faithfulcat111 10k, Mature, Max/Lucas, Warnings here

the princess and the pub by @mcplestreet Digital art by @im-not-batman 16k, Teen, Nancy/Eddie, No warnings

City Full Of Suffering, Take Me To The Promised Land by Gala_apples 27k, Explicit, Steve/Eddie/Robin/Nancy, Warnings here

Hot for Teacher by @lorifragolina Art by @alicetallula 13k, Explicit, Billy/Tommy, No warnings

the sea calls to me (with salt on her lips) by brakers91 Digital art by @im-not-batman 11k, Explicit, Robin/Chrissy, No warnings

Ceramic Hearts by @thatgirlwithasquid Art by @alicetallula 64k, Mature, Chrissy/Heather, No warnings

Back in the Saddle by @violetkaos Art by @whataboutthefish 48k, Explicit, Steve/Eddie/Dmitri, Warnings here

Take Me Away (A Secret Place) by @jordyn-undead Art by @whataboutthefish 49k, Explicit, Steve/Dmitri, No warnings

the stars look down and know by kittyphoenix12-xx Traditional art by @thatgirlwithasquid 25k, Teen, Argyle/Billy, No warnings

A Siren's Refrain by @karadanverss Playlist by @pterawaters 98k, Explicit, Jonathan/Steve, Steve/Tommy/Carol, Warnings here

A Tale of Ranching and Fossils by @it-gets-worse-at-night Art by Slythay 17k, Mature, Wayne Munson/Scott Clarke, No warnings

you've got a smile that could light up this whole town by @hullomoon Moodboard by @freedom-in-darkness 10k, Explicit, Robin/Chrissy, Warnings here

It's Snowing by star_madison and Xirayn Podfic by @cactusboyband 10k, Teen, Jonathan/Steve, Robin/Kali, Warnings here

A Kiss That Feels Like... Finally by @mrs-steve-harrington Digital art by @stevethehousewife 10k, Teen, Chrissy/Steve/Nancy, No warnings

Before I Bury You by @astorytotellyourfriends Digital art by @starboygrove 44k, Explicit, Chrissy/Eddie, Warnings here

Dry Bones and Bleeding Hearts by BriarLily Art by RoxyMoronDraws 16k, Explicit, Chrissy/Eddie, Warnings here

Beguiled by @ectocoolerkeg Moodboard by nomadicwolf 76k, Teen, Eddie/Jason, No warnings

Perfection by @pterawaters Digital art by @stevethehousewife 19k, Mature, Jonathan/Chrissy/Steve/Nancy, Warnings here

Reuniting, Reconnecting, and Renewing Relationships by SalamanderGoo Podfic by @reena-jenkins 20k, Mature, Dustin/Max/Lucas, Warnings here

We also want to thank our team of beta readers. Thank you for making our works so readable! We appreciate you!

[strangerthingsreversebigbang]

In case you missed them, here are the next ten works posted from the Stranger Things Reverse Big Bang!

---

A Chance to Fly by @karadanverss | Art by @madwomanwithawarehouse

Rating: Teens and Up

Warning(s): No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters(s):

Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers, Nancy Wheeler, Will Byers, Eleven | Jane Hopper, Martin Brenner, Bob Newby (Stranger Things), Lonnie Byers, Jim "Chief" Hopper

Relationship(s): Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler

Summary: Jonathan Byers has never been like his peers. In addition to being socially awkward, and odd, he was born green. If that wasn't enough, he had power like no one in the town of Ozkins has ever seen before. When he goes off to school to keep an eye on his brother and sister he makes some unlikely friends, and despite what he's expecting, he starts to see a real future for himself in Ozkins. Unfortunately, nothing is quite what it seems and it isn't long before Jonathan isn't quite sure what he's gotten himself into. -- Wicked AU.

Simple As That by @fuctacles | Art by DragonChris

Rating: General Audiences

Warning(s): No Archive Warnings Apply

Character(s): Eleven | Jane Hopper, Lucas Sinclair, Max Mayfield, Erica Sinclair

Relationship(s):

Relationship(s): Eleven | Jane Hopper/Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair, Eleven | Jane Hopper & Maxine "Max" Mayfield & Lucas Sinclair, Erica Sinclair & Lucas Sinclair

Summary: Sometimes, home is a girl, her boyfriend, and the freeloader on their couch.

or

Erica, the bestest sister ever, visits her brother for the weekend and makes Lucas question what exactly is happening between him, Max, and El.

Unseen Connections by @klausinamarink | Art by @yellowsweater-bluevest

Rating: Teens and Up

Warning(s): Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Character(s): Will Byers, Eleven | Jane Hopper, Mike Wheeler, The Party (Stranger Things), Joyce Byers, Jonathan Byers

Pairing(s): Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, Will Byers & Eleven

Summary: It's a miracle that Will Byers was found alive after a week of being missing. But Will doesn't feel like a miracle. Some days when it gets too much, he retreats into the void where he speaks to a girl with superpowers.

Only You (Until It Is Done) by @rajumat | Art by @alduade-art

Rating: Mature

Warnings(s): Graphic Depictions of Violence

Character(s): Steve Harrington, D'artagnan "Dart" (Stranger Things), Dustin Henderson, Robin Buckley, Eddie Munson, Billy Hargrove

Relationship(s): Steve Harrington & Dart the Demodog

Summary:

Trapped in the Upside Down after the night in the tunnels went horribly wrong, Steve is doing his best to pick himself up and keep going. Sure, his only company is Dustin’s ill-advised “pet demodog” Dart. And sure, they’re being hunted by the largest demogorgon that Steve has ever seen.

But it could be worse!

It’s not like the Russians are running their own experiments in the Upside Down or anything.

Fic 008 in 2024’s Reverse Big Bang!

Still The One by @faithfulcat111 | Art by @karadanverss

Rating: Teens and Up

Warning(s): Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings 

Character(s): Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers

Relationship(s): Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington

Summary: Sometimes things fall apart. But sometimes they can come together again.

In the Library There Lived a Hobbit by @formosusiniquis | Art by @thefreakandthehair

Rating: Teens and Up

Warning(s): No Archive Warnings Apply

Character(s): Steve Harrington; Eddie Munson; Robin Buckley; The Party; Wayne Munson; Original Child Character

Relationship(s): Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson; Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington

Summary: Steve Harrington has always been a romantic. He spends his time in his head imagining possible futures with strangers, but one in particular has really caught his attention: the mysterious son of Wayne who comes to Baby and Me every week with his granddaughter Lucy. When opportunity knocks, Steve is quick to suggest that this mysterious dad starts volunteering at the library. Enter Eddie Munson, a high school crush, and now Steve has to deal with the fantasy single dad he'd been imagining being real, in the library, and reading fantasy books to kids twice a week.

I'm just gonna swim (until you love me) by @just-my-latest-hyperfixation | Art by @hereforanepilogue

Rating: General Audiences

Warning(s): Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings

Character(s): steve harrington, eddie munson

Relationship(s): Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper (mentioned)

Summary: He came here to distract himself from his thoughts about Hawkins and all the things he left behind. Most of them horrible; most of them things he hopes he’ll never have to experience ever again. The horrors that still haunt his nightmares. The hatred and the bigotry of the fine townspeople. But also … But also. Also the only people he’s ever called friends. The ones who stuck with him and defended him, even when everyone else called him a freak and a murderer. Who not only dragged him out of literal hell, but stuck around after. When the mobs and the torches and pitchforks were gone, and the wounds were scarred over, and his name had been cleared, but the rumors and the looks and the goddamn whispers remained. He’s been trying to forget about the past for two years. And now it’s standing in front of him in skinny jeans and a striped polo, pretty and perfect and kissable as ever, measuring him with an expectant look. — Or: The one in which Eddie goes to the aquarium and finds his past (and maybe his future) in the shark tank.

Let's Leave Nothing Unsaid by @salamandergoo | Art by @alduade-art

Rating: Mature

Warning(s): Graphic Depictions of Violence

Character(s): Robin Arellano, Finney Blake, Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley, Gwen Blake, Dustin Henderson, Jeff, Gareth, Eddie Munson

Relationship(s): Robin Arellano & Finney Blake, Robin Arellano & Steve Harrington, Robin Arellano & Eddie Munson, Robin Arellano & Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington & Robin Buckley

Summary: Robin Arellano thought that if they could just get out of the basement of their kidnapper, he and Finney would be okay. They’d return to their normal lives. But normal was different, and years later he finds himself in Hawkins, Indiana on a desperate search to find his best friend. And then two days later, he’s searching again. Why can they not catch a break?

Worth the World by @lemonlimelights | Art by @anaccidentwaitingtohappen

Rating: Teens and Up

Warnings(s): No Archive Warnings Apply 

Character(s): Mike Wheeler, Steve Harrington, Will Byers, Eleven | Jane Hopper

Relationship(s): Steve Harrington & Mike Wheeler, Mike Wheeler & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, (Minor) Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson

Summary: Steve and Mike give each other pep-talks in their own unique ways, and it works! The almost end of the world is rough but they can figure it out together.

Don't Stop Burning by @whataboutthefish | Art by @yellowsweater-bluevest

Rating: Teens and Up

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Character(s): Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley, Nancy Wheeler, Jim Hopper, Eleven, The Party

Relationship(s): Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington & Robin Buckley

Summary: Escaping from Hawkin’s Laboratory had been hard, prying Papa’s phantom claws out of his mind took every strength he had. Seven thought that would be the hard part, but when he finally got free, running through unknown land with no direction to go he realized it had only been the beginning of this nightmare he was running from.

---

Stay tuned for more incredible works from the Stranger Things Reverse Big Bang!

Schedule | Sign Up | Info | FAQ | Rules | Ask the Mods

[faithfulcat111]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler Characters: Jonathan Byers, Nancy Wheeler Additional Tags: Pre-Relationship, Drabble, Jancy Weekend 2024, POV Jonathan Byers, Jonathan Byers Has a Crush, on Nancy, he just doesn't know how to deal with it right now, Pre-Season/Series 02, Drabble Collection Series: Part 1 of Jancy Weekend 2024 Summary:

Jonathan doesn't understand what his heart is doing everytime he sees Nancy Wheeler

@jancyweekend​ - Day 1 - Sparks or Stars

Stranger Things Bingo Fill - Lover’s Lake

July Break Bingo - 

Tongue-tied or Stage Fright Secret Revealed or Secret Hidden 'Being in love' isn't something they're familiar with

[leslie057]

For the ask game, 🍄♻️❤️

hello!

mushroom: describe your wip/one of your wips in the format of ___ + ___ = ___

soulmate science + japanese mythology = jonathan all over nancy

recycle: a scrapped idea for a current wip?

the first textbook mike gets from the hawkins high library in his freshman year ends up being one that has “nancy wheeler is a cheating slut” etched on the side

(im not scrapping it completely, i might use this for smth else or make it its own fic)

red heart: not a question, just a second kudos to send

aww sweet, thank you!

pick one to send

[heavencasteel420]

Definitely director's commentary that you would have for Tonight, tonight the highways bright

Thank you for your ask! I figure I'll talk about how I introduce Nancy and Jonathan in the first few paragraphs of their respective first chapters.

Under the cut: discussion of the first couple of chapters of the story, including of a sexual relationship between a seventeen-year-old and a thirty-seven-year-old who's also his boss.

Nancy

Before Nancy had started dating Steve, she’d assumed that all parties were like in the movies: wild and free and full of possibilities. Barb had laughed at her when she’d talked like that. Even the most popular kids, she’d said, seemed to do nothing but drink cheap beer and screw in the backseats of cars. Not exactly glamorous.

Of course, Barb had been right. Nancy had been to a handful of parties like that—pretty much all of them thrown by Tina Cline, who planned them like battle campaigns—but most of the time you were lucky if the beer was cold, you had a dry place to sit, and nobody there actively hated you.

Nancy's chapter, of course, begins with Barb, and an early-high-school memory of thinking that there had to be an amazing party happening somewhere, if only they could be invited. Her disappointment at the reality isn't a big deal by itself--plenty of parties are just kind of whatever--but Barb's opinion hangs over everything, and Nancy is dismissive even of the parties that are objectively enjoyable. She's just not in a place where she can see the good in things.

Case in point: tonight, she and Steve and Carol and Tommy were driving out to the old Byers place to get loaded and see if the Ouija board was still painted on the wall. On a Saturday night. And three out of four of them were seniors. They were supposed to be having more fun than anyone in this dead town, and this was the best they could come up with.

Nancy is also so angry and so brittle that, even though she knows how gross this activity is, it doesn't occur to her to suggest something else or beg off. I also wanted to establish very quickly that nobody is living at the Byers house and make the reader wonder where they all are.

To make matters worse, Steve’s parents had, in a rare gesture at discipline, taken his BMW away for the weekend because he’d flunked a chemistry test. Which was bullshit, because they ignored Steve doing worse stuff all the time, and she knew for a fact that Steve had at least tried to study, but more to the point, they were all stuck cruising around Hawkins in Tommy’s pickup. Which meant that Tommy and Carol and Steve were all crammed into the bench seat up front, and she was folded up in the jump seat.

My vision of Steve and Nancy's relationship for this fic kind of came from the horror movie Midsomar, where the grief-stricken heroine clings to her disinterested boyfriend because she's too numb and depressed to move on. Steve is just canonically not as much of a dick as the boyfriend in that movie, so he's really trying to be a good boyfriend to Nancy, but he's still way in over his head and internally a little uneasy about their relationship. Nancy, for her part, does care about Steve. She notices that the academic part of school is genuinely pretty miserable for him, and she feels indignant on his behalf that his parents are being unfair and unhelpful. Yet, emotionally, she can't truly connect with him.

“You okay back there, Wheeler?” Tommy asked, grinning broadly in the rearview mirror. He was obviously embarrassed by the truck, a rusted veteran of actual farm labor belonging to his grandfather, and he’d been needling her all night to compensate. “Got enough room to stretch out those looong legs?”

I see the Hagans as being farther down the social scale than the Harringtons (who are high society by Hawkins standards) or Carol's family (I headcanon that her dad is a doctor, so not as flashy as Steve's folks but very respectable). They're not poor or struggling, but they're more working-class and things are less fancy. Because Steve, Tommy, and Carol are the kinds of friends who make fun of each other, Tommy knows it's possible they'll go in on the truck. He likes Nancy a little bit more than she believes--they have some overlapping defense mechanisms and he has an appreciation of her more unhinged moments--but they're in the habit of picking at each other and he does think she's kind of a bummer a lot of the time.

Nancy had come prepared for this, of course. “This” meaning both Tommy’s dumb jokes, and the shitty twelve-pack of Miller stowed inches from her feet on the floorboard. She drank from her flask: a birthday present from Steve, filled with bourbon from her parents’ liquor cabinet. Her dad was a Scotch man, and fell asleep after very little of it, and her mom preferred wine. They wouldn’t miss it until Christmas, which was about six weeks away.

Steve got her that flask and was kind of like "is my girlfriend a sophisticated party girl, or does she have a problem?" But he didn't know what to do with the second possibility, so he ignored it.

“I’m doing great,” she said, completely deadpan. “This is a great truck, Tommy. So comfortable.”

Nancy's not afraid to be a Mean Girl among Mean Girls! Part of this is just a way of adapting to her clique, but this kind of sarcasm is also more comfortable for her than more sincere forms of interaction.

Jonathan

Gloria’s side of the bed was empty when Jonathan bolted awake from a dream about the old house, almost an hour before his alarm was set to go off. The room looked unfamiliar for his first few seconds of consciousness: the blue roses climbing up the wallpaper, the white wicker rocking chair piled high with discarded blouses and slacks, the gold-framed Sears portrait of Gloria’s daughter Sherry in her Easter dress on the vanity. He’d woken up to the same view for the past six months, but on mornings like these it still felt like waking into another dream.

I wanted to establish a few things here.

First, Jonathan is living with a girlfriend, not his dad, and she is way, way too old for him. She has a name that peaked in popularity in the late 1940s; she wears blouses and slacks; and she has a daughter. This isn't just a case of him, say, meeting a twenty-year-old at work and connecting over common interests; this woman is old enough to be his mother, she has way more life experience than he does, and they don't actually have much in common.

Second, the apartment is a pleasant space. It's not super-fancy, but Gloria has chosen a soothing color scheme and has obtained some basic working-class luxuries. This a relief to Jonathan, who is coming off of months of sleeping in Lonnie's dirty house, a hospital bed, or his own deteriorating home with Joyce.

Third, the apartment cannot be trusted. It feels unreal to Jonathan at first and, although that's caused by his nightmare, he's also not really safe there. Gloria is exploiting him emotionally, sexually, and financially, and she won't even keep Lonnie out.

Fourth, he's having repeated nightmares about the house back in Hawkins. He's doing better than he was a few months ago, but he's still not doing great.

He felt the sheets where Gloria had slept, soft and still warm, until his heartbeat slowed and the room began to look real again in the gray morning light. Then he rose from the bed and padded into the kitchen, where Gloria stood at the counter, drinking a cup of coffee. She was already dressed, in an orange blouse and pleated brown slacks, with her flossy yellow curls held back with a tortoiseshell clip.

“Do you like it?” she asked, turning to smile at him. She fluffed her hair. “I was trying to copy Princess Diana.”

Princess Diana would have given birth to Prince Harry a couple months before this chapter takes place, so she would have been very present in magazines at the time. Gloria's imitating one of her longer-haired moments, post-shag but pre-High-1980s-Big-Hair.

“You look nicer,” Jonathan said sincerely.

Gloria didn’t look much like Princess Diana, any more than he resembled Michael J. Fox. She was thirty-seven to Diana’s twenty-three, and short and sturdy where Diana was tall and angular. Even her blonde hair clearly came from a bottle. But he preferred her sunny, laugh-lined face, the kindest he’d known in Indianapolis. Diana looked so bored and uncomfortable in photographs, anyway; Jonathan always thought of “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” when he saw her face in the magazines that covered the coffee table. Maybe she’d like the Smiths if she heard them.

Jonathan doesn't kid himself that the age difference isn't significant, but he is not very clear-eyed at all about other aspects of the situation. He feels like the oldest seventeen-year-old in the world after his experiences, not someone who needs protection, even though his grief and trauma and unstable material circumstances make him more vulnerable, not less. The good news is that he's feeling better enough to take an interest in music again, which is a fairly new development for him.

Gloria giggled and reached out for him, catching him around the waist and pulling him close enough to smell her orange-blossom perfume. He leaned down and kissed her scarlet-lipsticked mouth.

“You’re way too sweet,” she told him, as he pulled away. “Are you hungry?”

“Not yet,” he said. He went over to the kitchen table and took a seat. “I’ll eat something at school.”

“Oatmeal Creme Pies are not a breakfast food just because they have oatmeal in them,” she teased.

This is supposed to be really uncomfortable because (kissing aside) it's reminiscent of Jonathan and Joyce's breakfast interaction early in S3. Not that caring whether someone eats breakfast is the exclusive province of mothers, but she is old enough to be his mother and he almost certainly wouldn't be living with her if he had even one parent looking out for him.

[karadanverss]

Tagged by @faithfulcat111

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Stoncy Parents

Jargyle One Shot

A Siren's Refrain

Tagging: @oh-stars, @wendydarlingfics, @lady-lostmind

[tua-masked-author]

🌺📻 The guessing period is upon us!! 📻🌺

Submissions to TUA Summer Remix are closed, and now it is time to guess the masqueraders!

The guessing period will run through Thursday, June 27th. The ballot to submit your guesses is here, and to assist in your detective work, we have for you the MASQUERADERS LIST, everyone who submitted a work to the TUA Summer Remix collection. Who made what? That's for you to deduce!

We have a total of 17 works this round, and 15 masqueraders! You will have a week to guess who made what, and all will be revealed Saturday, June 29th, along with statistics like who fooled the most people and who was the most identifiable under the mask. Anyone can guess, whether or not you submitted anything, have participated before, or have an AO3!

🎭 And now, the list of masqueraders:

acearcanum

coldramenn

DarbyDoo22

destinyandcoins

faithfulcat111

frogonalilypad

in-a-slanted-outhouse (the_t_stands_for_tall)

Kaufmann

KawaiiCommunism

LittleRit

Melivian

Mokolat

Rockinlibrarian

StardustInYourEyes

Undercamel_of_Pluto

And you can find all the works submitted to the masquerade at the event collection here!

[strangerthingsbigbang]

Title: You Showed Me Colors (you know I can't see with anyone else)

Author: NomadicWolf (AO3), @karadanverss Artist: @faithfulcat111 Beta: Melsmalone (Tumblr) Characters: Jonathan Byers, Steve Harrington, Joyce Byers, Nancy Wheeler, Will Byers, Jim "Chief" Hopper Relationship(s): Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington, Implied Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper, minor Joyce Byers/Bob Newby Warnings: None Rating: Explicit Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Color Blindness, until you meet soulmate Wordcount: 45,513 Summary:

Jonathan Byers didn’t believe in soulmates. Not in the sense that they didn’t exist. He knew they were out there– in theory. He wasn’t naive enough to think that he’d actually find his. He also didn’t buy into the belief that you couldn’t live a happy life without finding your soulmate. He didn’t know anyone who had found their soulmate and they all lived perfectly happy and normal lives. There was just one benefit of finding a soulmate. Colors. The moment a person and their soulmate touch, their worlds are flooded with vibrant, beautiful colors. Without that person, you were stuck in a world of black and white. When Will goes missing, finding his soulmate is the last thing on Jonathan’s mind that is until he punches Steve Harrington in the face and his world is flooded with color. -- Soulmate AU where you cannot see colors until you touch your soulmate!

You Showed Me Colors (you know I can't see with anyone else) by NomadicWolf

Art masterpost by faithfulcat111

[foreverautumn89]

@faithfulcat111 Thank you so much for always liking my posts and supporting me. It always cheers me up. 😊 Just wanted you to know I appreciate you. I love your background of Alison and Ray btw. In my headcanons, the ST group and Umbrella Academy group are friends. 🥰