#left to his own devices Steve is like scrying disconsolately into a cup of beer

[aclockmaker]

just some quick raven cycle au thoughts Under the Cut

Nancy is hunting Welsh kings, pouring over maps of Indiana sketching ley lines. When she talks, people listen.

Steve sacrifices himself to the Upside Down (agrees to be its hands and eyes) to save Dustin and Erica. Let’s say Henry Creel is hunting ley lines too and he tries to perform some really dangerous ritual and that’s when Steve made his sacrifice. It’s not as sinister as the UD on the show, it’s more like a mirror-verse of their town but with the addition of a magic forest everywhere. But still—Steve is possessed by it, sometimes.

Robin comes from a family of psychics but she’s not one, she’s a mirror, she reflects back and increases the power of any psychic—or any magician, so she’ll sit with her back touching Steve’s while he reads tarot cards, or hold his hand while he looks into the depths of a cup of coffee and tries to see what the Upside Down is asking of him today.

Eddie who pulled his electric guitar out of a dream. A thief, just like his dad. He takes things for Steve: a new deck of cards, a pair of tennis shoes, salve for the scars Steve has around his neck, the perfect hair product.

There’s all this magical stuff happening in town, like cars turning up flipped over with no one in them and undamaged, and it’s clear that the ley line is troubled—eventually they learn that Tommy H is taking things from the Upside Down just like Eddie, except he’s draining its energy. Tommy has like a field full of tricked out cars that he’s stolen. He basically does all of it to get Steve’s attention, and he has this rivalry with Eddie because of it.