#necromancer billy hargrove

[jellyfishloveletterghosts]

Was tagged by the talented  @neonponders thank you 💜

It's not Wednesday but what do I care. Here is lil thing from some future chapter of I'd Sell My Soul To A Devil starts in a flash back and then moves into the present.

Warning for attempted flesh eating

-

“Man do you ever shut up?” Steve huffs around the mouth of his beer, taking a big gulp from it before it spills across the ground as Billy throws himself onto him. “What’s your fucking problem?” Steve groans, head hitting the floor again as Billy shoves him down. His voice is low enough that even the folks occupying the front yard and the back cannot hear him over the pulsing music. They're in the shadows enough that it could almost pass for alone.

Billy is not sure, just wants to push down everything and forget about it for a while. Steve goes lax, giving up bucking him off with another groan from his pretty mouth. Billy will blame the weed and the beer he has not touched tonight if asked for a reason as to why he would do something so stupid as to make a move on a guy he fought a few short weeks ago. Who by all accounts cannot stand him.

Billy crashes their lips together, hands on Steve’s shoulders so he can feel when it is time to defend. He is not expecting the way Steve kisses him back just as hard, does not push away when arms snake around him dragging him down until Billy is laying on top of him. Billy gives into the heady urge to roll his hips down against Steve’s, rewarded with his mouth dropping open in a moan that he takes advantage of, tongue delving in.

The door slams open pulling Billy from the memory and right back to the kitchen where Steve’s teeth are making progress gnawing through his finger. Billy tries to rear back again but all that does is tear more flesh, and bruises his back as he hits the edge of the counter. He has panic soaring higher, sure he is going to lose that finger and resigned to it not wanting to hurt Steve.

“You can’t just let him eat you, idiot.” Eddie marches forward and grabs Steve by the throat, using the hold to shove him back so hard he knocks into the coffee table in the living room. 

“The fuck do you think you’re doing!” Billy snarls taking a swing at Eddie. How dare he hurt Steve.

“Saving your life, for fucks sake.” Eddie pushes him back as Steve climbs to his feet with a feral almost animalistic growl bubbling up. His eyes have gone darker, almost black as he shifts looking ready to pounce.

Billy’s heart is pounding, unsure of what to do. He does not want to have to hurt Steve but he does not look like himself right now, is not acting like himself. What did he bring back?

Tagging @edith-moonshadow @steviespanties @aeon-of-neon @dragonflylady77 or whoever else wants to do it.

This is the only harringrove fic I'm still actually working on at the moment since my desire to write for this ship has nose dived. Hopefully working on this will get me back into it 🤷‍♀️

[spaceofentropy]

It's Sunday afternoon here and chapter 2, "Cool in a creepy way" is up!

In which there's midnight 3AM spaghetti, explanations, and a very comfy couch.

Also, the circle of life is a bloody thing and magic isn't kind. *shrugs*

[raven-cl]

My second piece for the @bigbangharringrove event to go along with @spaceofentropy's necromancer fic along with my partner @bigolemantiddies who also did art so be sure to check those works as well !!

Summary: Billy Hargrove has been dead and buried for a month and a half when Steve sets up to steal his body from his grave. The goal: to use magic to bring him back to life. The only problem is that magic always has a price, and things are never as easy as they seem.

Read the fic here :3

[dame-zoom-a-lot]

Janus

Prompt fill for @metalsandwichbingo A2 - Remote Cabin Rating: General Word Count: 2.6k Major Tags: Hurt / No comfort, Canonical Child Abuse, Complicated Parent-child relationships, Dead Neil Hargrove, Abusive Neil Hargrove, Light Neil Hargrove character study, Lying by omission about familial abuse, The dove isn't dead but it's lightly beaten Summary:

Steve and Eddie hold Billy as they watch Neil get lowered into the ground from a distance. Six feet under, where he’ll never be able to hurt anyone again. Where he’ll never be able to apologize, explain himself, do anything to maybe mend the wounds he’d left. Billy creates a little gust of wind around the grave to throw some dirt on top. Neil is dead, and nothing will change.

- Or

Neil dies alone in a remote cabin. Billy struggles to figure out how he feels Ao3 Link

Please mind the tags

“Yeah, that’s him,” Billy says, trying to manage his nausea. The remote cabin where Neil died, all alone, still stinks. The mailman noticed the smell. He’d been dead for five days, according to the necromancer. Susan cries quietly next to him. Billy wonders if she noticed Neil was gone. He did that a lot, just fucked off out of nowhere to go fishing in this cabin. She probably thought, hell, he definitely thought, that Neil had a second family somewhere. But no, this place is empty. There’s nothing but Neil’s fishing and hunting gear.

The necromancer is talking, something about how he can’t get a warrant to perform rites to speak with Neil unfortunately, because there’s no sign of foul play , but he’s happy to give them a referral to some very skilled private necromancers. Billy nods as if he’s taking in a word of what he’s saying. Susan sobs and says she doesn’t know anyone that would want to hurt Neil. Billy would beg to differ. But ‘hey, I’d happily hurt Neil’ doesn’t seem like the best thing to say right now , especially because it’s not true.

Susan decides to stay in a nearby cabin to figure out what to do with it, and to plan out the funeral. Billy sits in the back, dazed, as Eddie and Steve take turns driving the hours back to their home. Billy wonders what about himself was so repugnant that Neil felt he had to get a cabin five hours away to get some alone time in. Steve and Eddie take turns cradling him in the backseat. Billy lets himself collapse into his boyfriends. He hates when he gets like this.

A week passes. Billy practices his surf routine, making the waves push him a little higher each time, and doesn’t talk about how the last thing Neil said to him was that his son wasn’t a faggot. Billy does his cardio and doesn’t talk about how small Neil was in that cabin, how bloated, how strange . Billy does his weight training and doesn’t talk about how Neil taught him his routine. Billy practices on the speed ball and doesn’t talk about how Neil taught him to punch, both normally, and by actually punching him . Eddie and Steve handle Susan, helps her figure out Neil’s assets, and helps her plan the funeral. Billy insists that Susan get everything. It’s all tainted anyway.

Susan shows up at their house, uninvited, hands shaking. Steve and Eddie let her in.

“Can we talk alone?” she whispers. Steve and Eddie look to Billy, uncertain.

“Yeah, sure,” Billy says, pulling on his mask, fake charm, confidence. It’s coming out shakier than usual. Eddie frowns. Steve steps forward. Billy shoos them away.

Susan takes a sit at their table.

“What did you want to talk about?” Billy asks. He feels like he’s breaking a script. He should be offering her tea or something. But it’s taking all he’s got to not given in to the roaring in his head.

“It’s about the funeral,” Susan says shakily.

“If you’re going to tell me that my boyfriends aren’t allowed to come,” Billy sits forward, heated. The anger feels good. Familiar.

“No!” Susan squeaks. “Of course they’re invited! If it weren’t for them we’d…” she shakes her head and looks down at the table for a long while. “I’m so sorry that I let you think I’d say that,” she finally whispers.

Billy’s not sure what to say. He shrugs.

“I… I just wanted to ask,” she says, “Max already said no, so you can say no as well, but I’d… it would be very nice of you to speak at the funeral.”

“Speak?”

“I… it would look odd. If… neither of his children were willing to speak,” Susan says. Her face is bright red.

“So you want me to get up there in front of… I don’t know, maybe the one funeral parlor worker who’ll be there at the service, and fucking lie about what a great hunky dory dad he was?” Billy laughs hysterically. Susan looks mortified and somehow that makes him laugh even harder. No more Neil to slap him around for being disrespectful now. “Or I could get up there and say hey, this fucker drove away my mother, my self-respect, my friends, everything I ever loved and I’m glad he’s dead. My only regret is that I didn’t think to do that myself.” Billy stands roughly, knocking his chair over. “Fuck off. I can’t believe you’re even throwing him a funeral.”

Susan nods weakly. She shakes as she stands, leaning heavily on the chair. Billy realizes that she smells a lot like whiskey. “I’m sorry for asking,” she mutters, “and…” she looks up at him, tears flowing down her face. Billy wonders again how this woman is Max’s mother. The only resemblance is the hair. But then she sets her mouth in a thin, determined line and he sees a hint of Max. “I’m sorry,” she says throatily.

“Yeah, I got that, it was a dick thing to ask me to do.”

“No, I already apologized for that,” Susan says, shaking her head. “I’m sorry I just stood there and let it all happen,” she says. “You don’t owe me anything, but… if you could check in with Max, I’d really appreciate that. She looks up to you.” Susan stares at the floor. “You’re a good son, a good partner, a good brother despite… everything. I’m so sorry.”

Billy stands there, gobsmacked. Susan leaves without waiting for a reply. *********

“Billy, you fucking asshole, do you have any fucking idea, how worried I was?” Steve rushes at him, face flaming, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking. Tears stream down his face. Billy stands there and lets it happen. Eddie pulls them apart.

“It would have been nice Billy, if you could have given us any kind of heads up,” Eddie says, putting a hand on Steve’s chest, and the other on Billy’s. He draws little circles with his palms. Steve backs down, stops hyperventilating. They all kind of crumple to the ground.

“How did you know I was here?” Billy asks, skipping a stone into the lake. He can see the outline of Neil’s remote cabin in the distance. Lake view. Must have cost him a fortune. He hopes Max can get a nice board out of it. Maybe even some regular practice slots at a really good skating rink.

“Process of elimination really,” Eddie says. “We checked your gym, your bars, Susan’s place… only option left was here.” Eddie raises his head and looks around the calm lake and forest. “That said, nice place really, but why here? It doesn’t seem like your scene.”

“I don’t know,” Billy says miserably.

“You know, Steve and I were talking about it,” Eddie says, putting a hand on Billy’s knees, “necromancers actually aren’t that expensive. We found one that only charges five thousand per question. If you want to talk to him…”

“Why would I want to talk to him?” Billy yells without meaning to. “Sorry,” he mutters.

Eddie shrugs. “Closure?”

“There’s no way in hell he’d ever say anything to any of my questions in a way that will give me any sense of closure,” Billy says breathing harshly. “It’s not like your parents—” he cuts himself off at the look on Eddie and Steve’s face. Shit.

“No, it’s alright,” Steve says quietly. “Mine wasn’t as bad. Just… never there.”

“And mine just, you know,” Eddie’s eyes momentarily turn jet black as he creates an illusion of thousands of gold coins out of the river rocks and throws them in the water, “always wanted to be the fun friend, the partner in crime, literally.”

“Yeah, and Neil used to tell me they hit kids for real down where he was from, that’s how everyone got so responsible and respectful. It’s not a competition to see who’s got the worst parents. That was a fucked up thing for me to say.” Billy apologizes.

Eddie nods. Steve murmurs nonsense and plays with Billy’s hair. They sit in comfortable silence for a while, looking at the water. There’s a fishing boat in the distance.

Billy breaks the silence by skipping a stone into the lake. It bounces seven times before sinking. He’s still got it unfortunately. “He taught me that.”

“What?” Steve asks.

“To skip rocks,” Billy mutters, skipping another rock. “Taught me to how to punch above my weight. Hated I surfed, but went to all my meets when I got good. Taught me to practice until I nailed it. Took time out to take me to boy scouts.” The rock sinks. Billy throws another. “Got in another dad’s face when he said I was a violent nobody from a broken home.” Billy throws another rock. Then another. Steve and Eddie watch as Billy keeps throwing river rocks, one after the other, dozens of them. Billy feels magic surge in him and he lets it out. A giant gust of wind blows across the lake. It rocks the fishing boat in the distance. The occupants cuss loud enough for their voice to carry.

“Guess there are things I’d want to ask,” Billy admits.

“Like?” Steve asks.

“When he punched a little kid for the crime of crying about his Mom leaving, did he truly get nothing out of it?” Billy takes a deep breath. “Why did he make me play catch with him every day for a week after that? Did he really think handing me some cash he broke my nose was enough to make up for anything? Why did he…” Billy digs his fingers into the ground. He feels the sand dig in between his nails, sharp enough to hurt. “Why did he… stay? Obligation? Responsibility? Did he… did he even like me?”

“We can—” Eddie starts, but Billy cuts him off.

“No, I’m not letting you cobble together tens of thousands of dollars so I can ask Neil if he ever liked me. Because I know he’ll say no. Because for all his efforts I grew up to be an irresponsible, surfing hobo nobody with no future, no money, no prospects, and that his only regret is that he didn’t hit me hard enough to really knock some sense into me.”

“And he would be wrong,” Steve says, leaning his head on his shoulder. Eddie gets behind Billy and wraps an arm around his waist. Billy hangs his head, and lets himself relax. ********************************

The funeral is surprisingly well-attended. Billy stands there and plasters on a charming smile as his dad’s old co-workers and fishing buddies come up to him to bluster about how big he’s gotten. Must be a lady-killer just like his dad. And wow, his performance during the Olympics was inspiring . Neil had been so proud. Didn’t shut up about it for weeks apparently.

Billy doesn’t mention that the Olympics was after Neil told him to either dump his boyfriends or never come back.

Susan stands there, smiling nervously, talking about how Max would have loved to be here, but unfortunately, she couldn’t make it. She stays close to Billy, ready to swoop in if he says anything, he’s sure. He winks at her and she manages to relax, starts to stray away. Billy looks at the smiling photos of Neil. Neil with his fishing buddies. Neil in his security guard uniform. He sucks in a breath at a picture he didn’t remember existed. It’s him and Neil on a fishing boat. Billy is nine, when Mom was still around. He’s holding up a big carp. Neil looks proudly, beaming. Mom is not in the shot, she was probably the one taking the picture. It’s all fake. The moment existed. But it’s fake. But it’s also not. Eddie and Steve lead him away, ignoring the odd looks from Neil’s friends.

“We can leave,” Eddie whispers.

“No, I want to do this,” Billy says.

“For what?” Steve asks, heated. “He doesn’t deserve this.”

“For Susan I guess,” Billy says.

“What the hell do you owe Susan?” Steve says, gesturing wildly. “This is sick! He was clearly capable of being nice to at least a dozen people. And he couldn’t extend that courtesy to you?! And you’re going to stand there and talk about what a good dad he was? For Susan?”

“Or are you not going to talk about what a good dad he was?” Eddie asks, smirking. “Gonna give his co-workers a little reveal? Show what was going on behind closed doors?”

“No spoilers,” Billy says. Eddie and Steve both frown but they know when Billy is done. It’s time to file into the pews anyway.

Susan thanks everyone for coming. She talks about how Neil was a devoted provider. How he never did anything by halves (including hitting Billy or Mom, though she doesn’t mention that little nugget), and how he will be missed. Billy hopes he’s not reading too much into how oddly phrased her speech is. Devoted provider, not husband or father. Never did anything by halves, but with no mention of what that anything was . How he would be missed, but not by whom .

Neil’s boss speaks next about how he was a dedicated employee who kept everyone in line, including himself. Billy doesn’t recognize the man in this speech, this respectful, responsible man who kept everything in tip-top shape without resorting to violence. Who threw himself in front of another co-worker when there was a suspected gunman. Who never shut up about his family, his son.

Neil’s hunting buddy goes next. Billy vaguely recognizes him, a college buddy, basically his uncle. He talks about how Neil could be a little prickly and stubborn, which was the best and worst part of him. He talks about how strong Neil was despite all the difficulties of losing his wife, being a single father, moving across the country. Billy wonders if he knew what went on behind closed doors. Had Neil justified it? Did he buy it? There’s almost no women here. Just Susan, some of her friends, and some of these guys’ wives.

It’s Billy’s turn to go up to speak. He watches his feet move, one in front of the other. He looks around at the audience. Susan looks at him, a worried pinch to her face. Billy smooths out his notes. It’s not much of a note. Just some disjointed questions and a lot of ‘fuck’s.

Billy locks eyes on Steve and Eddie, and remembers what they said by the lake. He’d given a eulogy then hadn’t he? This is just the edited round.

“Growing up, he was all I had,” Billy starts, “and he always tried his best, in his own way. I think that… trapped us both in a way, in our own perceived roles” He swallows, and notices the hunting buddy gazing at him carefully. Ah, he probably knows. “And I wish…” Billy takes a deep breath. It would give off the wrong impression if he cried now. “I wish we had had more time so I could have gotten to know him as more than just, all I had. I appreciate everyone here, for giving me glimpses of what I didn’t get to see.” His and Susan’s speeches were noticeably shorter than Neil’s boss’s or his hunting buddy’s. It takes the audience a beat to realize that Billy is done. The applause is sudden, hesitant, and short. *****************

Steve and Eddie hold Billy as they watch Neil get lowered into the ground from a distance. Six feet under, where he’ll never be able to hurt anyone again. Where he’ll never be able to apologize, explain himself, do anything to maybe mend the wounds he’d left. Billy creates a little gust of wind around the grave to throw some dirt on top. Neil is dead, and nothing will change .

[bigolemantiddies]

My art for the @bigbangharringrove event!!! Linked below is @spaceofentropy ‘s necromancer fic and please see @raven-cl for more art for this beautiful story!

This fic means a lot to me, it was more than just a harringrove fic it was healing to read and exciting to do art for! I love doing collaborative art!

Check out my instagram post for time lapses of my work! @steven_creates

Summary: Billy Hargrove has been dead and buried for a month and a half when Steve sets up to steal his body from his grave. The goal: to use magic to bring him back to life. The only problem is that magic always has a price, and things are never as easy as they seem.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53472553

[bigbangharringrove]

An affinity for dead things

Author: @spaceofentropy (Ao3: zeros83) Artist: @bigolemantiddies (Ao3: A_goodboy; IG: steven_creates) Artist: @raven-cl (Ao3: Raven_CL) Beta Reader: @kallisto-k (Ao3: DragonsIre)

Summary: Billy Hargrove has been dead and buried for a month and a half when Steve sets up to steal his body from his grave. The goal: to use magic to bring him back to life. The only problem is that magic always has a price, and things are never as easy as they seem. Rating: E Pairings: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington; background Nancy Wheeler/Jonathan Byers Content Tags: magic AU; post season 3; necromancer!Steve; grave robbing; Neil Hargrove; letters and postcards; Billy Hargrove is bad at feelings; platonic Stobin; sculptress Robin; speedrun through a different season 4 Content Warnings: neglectful parents; referenced child abuse; Neil Hargrove; blood and gore; dead animals; undead animals; skeletons and bones; knives; scars; homicide; canonical Upside Down/Vecna stuff

Excerpt & Art Previews:

Steve keeps on calling Hargrove back. Never stops pouring magic inside the cold body. He offers Billy life, shelter, warmth, another chance at building a future. The sun shining on his skin. The roar of the ocean. New and old music. Fast cars and deserted roads. Drinking beer while smoking a cigarette. Terrible food combinations when the munchies hit him at night. The perfect morsel of food, waiting for him somewhere around the world. The small things that make life worth living. The big things that make life scary. An explanation for what happened at Starcourt. The chance to experience what magic can do. The earthly pleasure of a living body, and those of the mind too. The magic flows with every syllable and Steve can feel more and more damage get undone while sweat beads on his skin and snakes down his back. He keeps on calling, keeps on offering, keeps on hoping. And then the ink on Billy's skin... it turns into dust. Raises in the air. Paints the currents of magic in the room grey and black. "The doors are open," Steve recites, holding Billy's hand even tighter, feeling like this, right here, right now, is the exact moment for the final invocation, "the road lies wide and free for you, Billy Hargrove. I've bribed it open for you with gifts of blood and water, I've prepared your body for your return, on a bed of anguish I've carved my prayers and laid my offerings. Listen to my call, beloved, and, if that pleases you, come back to the world of the living. Come listen to my voice in person. Come see the sun again, oh lost one, so that I can at least give you a proper goodbye before we're parted forever." Steve presses his lips to the tips of Billy's fingers and murmurs against his skin a soft, almost inaudible, please, Cali, come to me. The clamor of Billy's flesh knitting back together falls silent. Nothing happens. Not a fucking thing.

[nympippi]

Necromancer Finney AU: Do the revived Ghost Boys ever go home? Y’know to see their parents and/or siblings

Yes! They eventually after they get debriefed on what’s going to happen and how to get re-adjusted to normal life after being a literal corpse hours before.

How I imagine their parents finding out they’re alive is something to say the least. So this is my excuse to talk about it!

With Griffin: His parents were already negligent towards him, and combining this with his peers never really knowing who he is and being invisible I headcannon the only reason Griffin was ever reported missing is when his teachers took notice when he didn’t arrive to school those following mornings. In this au, after finding out their child was kidnapped and presumed dead they hitched it out of Denver, changing their names, numbers, just so they can’t be traced to their old lives. And when police found this out, flabbergasted, and didn’t know what to do honestly but Finney was insistent on Terrance fostering/ adopting Griffin because he really feels for him and he wants to make sure Griff doesn’t go into the system. The two detectives aren’t going to argue with a psychic and a necromancer, so they get that paperwork finished and boom! Griffin Blake is born. (Mm I might make a second post taking about Griffin’s dynamic with the Blake’s)

——————————————————————————

Vance: Vance’s parents are, and this is nothing against Vance, we love Vance; monstrously stupid sewer people. Vance’s homelife is toxic and borderline abusive with a shitty fucking dad and a negligent mother who didn’t give a damn about him. Like Beatrice Horseman from “Bojack Horseman” and Neil Hargrove from “Stranger Things”. His parents never cared before his death and they damn well never cared after it either, Vance doesn’t stay at his house often instead opting to either stay at one of the ghost boys houses mainly going to either Bruce or Finn. I just definitely see Vance’s homelife to be the saying, “A house wasn’t a home, and a home wasn’t a house”. All the ghost boys hate Vance’s parents…

——————————————————————————

Bruce: Very loving and supportive parents who know that something isn’t quite right with their son, they know he’s different now and they don’t exactly know what to do about it except to just act like everything is normal. Bruce’s sister, Amy, was so fricking happy her brother was back like she didn’t care if he wasn’t like she remembered all that mattered was that he was there, alive and breathing. Like they sobbed their eyes out finding Bruce alive and they hugged him so tight he had to let go to breathe. 10/10 family, they love their son.

——————————————————————————

Robin: Also like Bruce, his mother and uncle were very supportive and loving towards him when he came home. His mother also noticed something was off about him so she made sure to let him know that she will always be there for him, and that she loves him so much it physically hurts to even think about him leaving again. She’s very protective over Robin, always making sure he’s not alone when he goes out and tries to keep tabs on him, she’s already lost her husband and her son once, she will be damned if she loses him again. His uncle tries to make sure everything is normal and semi-familiar to Robin, by taking him to the movies, driving down dirtroads and doing stupid pranks or saying stupid dad jokes to make him laugh.

——————————————————————————

Billy Paperboy: His family before was very nuclear, and relatively normal. I’d like to think after he was presumed dead his parents got a divorce and after he came back they stayed friends and co-parent to keep something familiar for P.B.. He gives off only child vibes like Vance a little but if I had to give him siblings I think they would be very curious and worried about him since after returning home he’s been a little more snarky and snappy. It’s not what it once was but his family definitely tries their best for him, because they truly love their son. And his dog was like extra excited to see him return home, just he fucking loves his dog, Scooby because I think he and Griff are “Scooby Doo” fans!

But yeah! That’s my silly little ideas for how the parents would react after being reunited with their children! :D

[affcgato-archived]

New muses added & ready to rumble

Pepper Potts (Marvel multiverse variant, see carrd!)

Jocelyn Fairchild (Shadowhunter Chronicles)

Seraphine (Arcane/League of Legends)

Muses I'm still situating on the blog but coming soon

I am admittedly gunshy about the ST muses, but they're more on the blog than note. I am just a weenie rn.

Chrissy Cunningham (Stranger Things)

Eddie Munson (Stranger Things, low activity while I finish up the last few episodes of s4)

Billy Hargrove (Stranger Things, low activity while I fully get comfy with his voice)

Carol Danvers (Marvel Cinematic)

Jinx (Arcane/League of Legends)

The loudest of the bunch currently active

kate kane (batwoman)

pepper potts's main/variant verse (marvel cinematic)

ben solo's prince of alderaan verse (star wars)

kaz brekker's video game engineer verse (grishaverse)

norah price (underwater)

ersken pate (original necromancer)

evie piaf (original psychic)

[memes-saved-me]

I wonder if Vecna will have like an army of the dead in part 2. Maybe we'll see some familiar faces in said army🤔

[theladycarpathia]

She hates bug themed villains.

“Gross,” Chrissy complains, wiping a sticky green smear off her cheek. Robin looks up and grins.

“Maybe don’t punch them head on next time?” she suggests, neatly sidestepping what might have been an oversized thorax. The street is littered with bodies after their battle, and the constant thrum from overhead lets them know that they’re not done yet. Chrissy sighs. Seriously? She has homework to finish. Evil super-villain battles on a school night is just cheating

“That’s kind of my deal,” Chrissy says grumpily. The others have better options – Billy burns things, Steve sends them flying into walls, Nancy conjures weapons…all of which can be done at a distance.

“Well, you’re super strong,” Robin suggests, neatly sending a stream of water crashing into the nearest section of the swarm. They smash into the nearby building, buckling under the pressure of Robin’s wave. The fifth member of the team, she joined after working with Steve on a summer job. A power cut gave away her powers when all of their ice cream stayed perfectly frozen. “Maybe throw them?”

Chrissy nervously eyes the stinger that’s as long as her arm. She’s not so sure she likes that idea.

But before she can answer, her earpiece crackles.

“Sky Star, can you take a look?” Jonathan says, his voice fuzzy. He, Nancy and Argyle headed uptown, intent on dealing with a nest of super sized spiders. Divide and conquer had really been their best option, what with Moth Man deciding to branch out. Seriously though, Moth Man. Really scraping the bottom of the barrel with that name.

Also, he’d realized a few months back that giant moths weren’t all that lethal. He’d branched out instead, which is why there’s giant house spiders intent on webbing up the high school.

Chrissy is really glad that she didn’t pull that job.

“What am I looking for?” Chrissy says, gesturing to Robin that she has to go up. Robin easily salutes and then traps a giant centipede, encasing every one of its legs in a thin layer of ice. Chrissy pushes off from the ground, the wind whipping through her hair as she rises. It takes her only seconds to skim the top of the buildings, the whole of Hawkins spread out in front of her.

“Supposedly, Moth Man has come to join the party,” Jonathan continues, no doubt using his shadow powers to eavesdrop on the police scanners and news feeds. “We have intel that he might be making his way to town hall. Do you see anything?”

Chrissy hovers in mid-air, twisting to scan every possible inch of the landscape. The villains always have to show up, just to see their handiwork. Hubris at its finest.

There’s a flash a few streets over, Billy and Steve fighting their own battles. Chrissy winces at the fireball that arches into the air, the heat warming her skin even from here.

“Blaze, please watch your fire,” she says into her earpiece. Billy is responsible for more property damage than the rest of their team combined. And that includes the time that Magician used the mayor’s Porsche as a projectile.

Steve is one of the founding members of their group, along with Nancy and Jonathan. He’d hated being the third wheel to their couple, but it hadn’t lasted. Billy Hargrove – Blaze – had transferred to their school last year, promptly getting in Steve’s face, screeching into the parking lot in his camaro every morning, and generally being an asshole. They hadn’t realized he had powers until he appeared one day to save them from a necromancer intent on storming the city with an army of the undead.

Billy’s voice comes back indignant and shrill.

“Come and fight these giant ladybirds and then we’ll talk!” he hisses. Steve’s laughter echoes down the earpiece. As Billy’s boyfriend, it’s a move the rest of them couldn’t get away with.

“Ladybirds aren’t scary,” Robin says pragmatically, because honestly the ladybirds feel like the better option. Centipedes, wasps and spiders were not made to be six feet tall. Billy makes a sputtering noise.

“That one was as big as a car!” he protests. “I can promise you those little fuckers are less cute when they have eyeballs as big as my head!”

“Awww, babe, are you creeped out by the cute little insects?” Steve coos. Their resident telekinetic seems to be having more fun than the rest of them, judging by the way that a giant worm shot past them at fifty miles an hour earlier, confusion on its little worm face before it crashed into the river.

“You threw it at me!” Billy shouts hysterically. Huh. Big bad Billy Hargrove freaked out by bugs. Who knew. “You owe me!”

“I was helping,” Steve retorts, and Chrissy rolls her eyes. Their team has quite a few couples on it but no one else delights in bickering as much as Billy and Steve.

“Guys!” Nancy’s voice cuts through, tense and irritated. She hates spiders but as their leader, she wasn’t about to back down. “What have we said about chatter on comms?”

“Sorry!” they all chorus and Chrissy returns to her search. Normally Moth Man arrives on a giant moth so not too hard to miss. But aside from her teammates fighting their battles, there’s nothing too out of the ordinary.

“What am I looking for here, Vigilante?” she asks, spinning around slowly in the air, wishing she had super vision to go with her strength. “I’m not seeing our guest of honor anywhere.”

She never gets to hear Jonathan’s answer. The hit from above is so unexpected that she doesn’t have time to right herself before she plummets down to the cold, hard concrete below.

The breath is completely knocked out of her as she meets the unforgiving road below. The concrete gives way beneath her, splintering into rubble. For a moment she lies there, completely stunned, head spinning, as she struggles to breathe.

“Sky Star, report!” Nancy barks into the earpiece, her voice clear and commanding over the anxious chatter from the rest of their team. Billy is cursing loudly, Robin is calling her name and Argyle is just plain unintelligible.

“I’m okay,” Chrissy winces, peeling herself out of the indent she’s made in the road. Ugh, she can see the headlines tomorrow. Main Street closed due to a giant pothole caused by a teenage superhero. Great. “Something hit me.” 

The only reason that she’s not dead from a hit like that is because she’s invulnerable. Any of the others would have broken bones and a concussion, minimum. Chrissy can slam her way headfirst through three brick walls and barely feel a headache the next day.

The buzzing of giant wings behind her makes her twist her head round.

“Ahh, Sky Star,” Moth Man purrs, face immensely smug underneath that hideous mask. “Nice of you to drop in.”

Chrissy rolls her eyes. Different villain, same script. There must be a cliched monologue class that they all take.

“Is that a hornet?” she asks, incredulously. Their opponent is sitting aside a giant black and yellow wasp.

“You’d think you would have chosen a more intimidating bug as a moniker,” she comments, brushing flecks of tarmac off her clothing. She pulls herself up, pushing herself up to hover off the ground, just eye level with the hornet. “Captain Hornet is a bit scarier than Moth Man.”

She can practically hear his teeth grind.

“But then I guess you wouldn’t have that alliteration,” she comments. There are voices in her ear again, the careful layout of a plan. All she has to do is talk and draw his attention. She’s not quite as good at winding people up as Robin or Billy, but she can talk just long enough for Strummer and Aegis to get in position. And she doesn’t have to wait long.

When the order comes, she shoots up into the sky and drops into a roll down on the nearest building roof, covering her ears with her hands. The sound wave that shatters the street breaks every window in a two-block radius, contained only by one of Aegis’s shields. The brilliant green glow is visible even from six stories up and Chrissy waits for the shield to disengage before she pushes herself up to float back down to street level to meet her teammates.

She lands gracefully, toes skimming the ground before she steps down, admiring the chaos in front of her.

“Nicely done,” she says, watching one of Moth Man’s legs twitch. There’s a devastating amount of shattered glass in the street, and no doubt the insurance companies won’t be happy about paying out for this. All of the nearest trees are blown clear of leaves, the brilliant Fall colors a swirl around their feet.

Chrissy’s two teammates stand in the middle of the chaos, one tall and dark, the other petite with red hair underneath her mask.

Aegis – Vickie – plucks a stray twig out of her hair. Robin’s girlfriend, she joined the team only a few months ago. She can erect giant shields and project just about anything she can see in her mind. She’s usually the one to contain most of the destruction, or watch their backs while they charge up an attack.

“We’re going to be in so much trouble for this,” she sighs, ruefully nudging a large shard of someone’s front living room window with her toe.

“Legally, we can’t be held accountable for any damage caused to structures or the environment during a crisis,” Nancy’s voice trickles down the earpieces. Steve snorts.

“Yeah, the mayor had a different view on that when I used his car against that guy with the giant robot tiger,” Steve mutters bitterly. “Like how I was I supposed to know that his Porsche was parked in front of Family Video?”

“The custom license plate?” Robin quips.

“Also, I don’t think the dude was there for Family Video so much as he was for the adult section in the back,” Argyle comments. Nancy sighs heavily, the sound of a leader who still cannot enforce the ‘no chatter on comms’ mandate. 

“So long as they can’t sue us,” Strummer says, bending down to peer at the remains of someone’s suncatcher, the shattered glass reflecting rainbows in the sunlight. Also a recent addition to the team, Strummer…Eddie manipulates sound: the soothing sounds to lull a wild animal to sleep, a siren song to distract an angry mob, a devastating sonic attack that results in the kind of destruction they have now.

“Well, if you kill someone that’s a different matter,” Nancy says briskly. “Okay, we’re all clear over here. We’re heading back towards you guys. I’ll call in the clean up crews, let them know what they’re dealing with.”

“Your morning commute has been delayed by big bug guts,” Robin says, mimicking their morning news guy. “Please find an alternate route.”

“We’re on our way,” Steve informs them, he and Billy apparently having completed their section too. “All bugs are down. See you guys soon.”

“This guy should be in jail for a while,” Eddie muses, poking Moth Man’s fake antenna. Vickie screws up her tiny nose.

“Thank God,” she sighs. “I hate giant bugs. You know, when I’ve squished bugs before I don't hear that horrendous squelch sound, you know? And after this, I don’t think I’ll be able to kill a spider again.”

Sometimes Chrissy thinks that Robin and Vickie are a perfect match.

Something brushes her hand and she startles before she realizes that it’s just Eddie.

“Are you okay?” he asks gently. “That was a pretty bad hit you took.” He gestures to the crater in the ground, the indent of her body from where she’d landed. She shrugs, trying to ignore the tingles that ignite from where his skin had touched her’s.

“I’m fine,” she says, with a weak smile. “Indestructible, remember?” She taps her head for emphasis but his concerned frown doesn’t ease.

Alright, so teammates falling in love is a cliche. Just look at how many couples exist on Chrissy’s team alone. Nancy and Jonathan fell in love after they started fighting together and seeing Billy burn down an incoming army of zombies is what caused Steve to fall hard. Vickie and Robin are the exception, crushing on each other before Vickie joined their group. Even Argyle isn’t exempt, long distance dating a girl in Utah with the power to manipulate plant life.

It’s a risk, because it puts emotion out into the field. The day Steve was poisoned during a fight is the day that Billy became uncontrollable. When Nancy was kidnapped by Warlock, Jonathan stopped thinking like a leader. You stop thinking about the team as a whole and think only about the person who means most to you.

It’s a stupid idea and Chrissy vowed to never date another superhero.

But her heart wants something else entirely.

Robin slides along the street, ice glittering under her boots and she flings herself at Vickie, picking her up and twirling her around. Billy and Steve arrive next, Steve’s magic neatly dropping them into the street. 

“Dude,” Billy says, sounding impressed. He offers a bemused Eddie a fist-bump. 

“I can probably fix some of this?” Steve offers, inspecting the damage. His telekinetic abilities have come in handy before, to turn over cars and reform some torn down buildings. “Maybe undo some of the structural damage?” 

“Aww, babe,” Billy coos, pressing a kiss to Steve’s forehead. “Have you thought about wearing tights and a cape in your do-gooding activities?”

“You’re a fucking superhero, Billy,” Robin remarks, raising an eyebrow. She has an arm wrapped around Vickie, and there’s a large scratch across her face. 

“I’d like to see you in tights,” Steve suggests, with a smirk. Robin makes a horrified face as Billy sweeps her best friend into the kind of kiss that’s meant for the kind of films their mayor supposedly prefers.

“Okay, gross,” Argyle says, strolling up the street behind them. He’s followed by Nancy and Jonathan and all three of them are covered from head to toe in thick, white web. It clings to Nancy’s hair and there’s a large glob of it wrapped around Argyle’s foot. “When they’re done macking, can we get pizza?”

“Clean up first, then pizza,” Nancy says wearily. “We’re not the kind of superheroes who disappear into the sunset and leave others to clean up their mess.” Eddie looks sheepish. 

“Got a bit carried away,” he says, jabbing a thumb at the still unconscious Moth Man. “But pizza sounds good after. Sky Star?”

Her stomach doesn’t jolt as much as it does when he says her actual name but it’s enough when she looks up and finds his dark eyes staring at her from behind his mask. 

“Sure,” she says shyly. She catches Robin’s smirk before she turns away, burying her face in Vickie’s bright hair. 

Oh God, she’s being so obvious. 

She lets Nancy steer her towards righting cars and holding up beams while Steve moves the foundations back into place. Occasionally she twists her head around to see Eddie sweeping up stray glass, the rocker carefully working a broom. 

It’s stuff like that that makes her want to cave. The fighting alongside each other, the cleaning up debris, the slices of pizza shared while they pass around bandages and neosporin. As dangerous and reckless and stupid as it is to date another hero, a civilian just…wouldn’t understand.

But there’s a shiver down her spine as she watches Eddie throw back his head and laugh at Billy wiping bug guts off his foot. Eddie is unguarded, hopeful, sharp and exuberant. He’s every shimmering color of a rainbow, the clarity after a storm, the feeling as she rises above the clouds, the wind ice-cold and pure in her chest.

If she feels like this now, she can’t imagine how happy she’ll feel if she really falls in love with him.

But she already knows how badly it’ll destroy her to lose him.

@hellcheerweek

[jellyfishloveletterghosts]

Part 1 and 2 have been posted to Ao3 along with the brand new part 3. All new chapters will be posted in full on ao3 as they come out.

I'd Sell My Soul To A Devil (To Bad What He Wants Is You)

Max knocks on Billy's door an hour after he has gone quiet in there. There is no answer. She hesitates and pushes it open anyhow.

The room is a wreck. Barely anything made it out without some damage. Broken tapes and torn pages litter the floor, the mirror he uses as part of his vanity has spider web cracks and his bed is tilting to the left at the end where one of the metal legs has bent strangely.

Billy is laying on it anyway, under a hideous greenish brown blanket he showed up with late one night. The next morning there had been whispers going around school about who broke into the Harrington house. It had been really easy to put the pieces together.

Billy drags the blanket down and glowers at her through red rimmed eyes. "Go away Max."

"No." He is worn out, the hangover really starting to set in on top of the emotional out pour taking its toll. "You want me to leave, you can get up and kick me out."

Billy grumbles and rolls over to face the wall. She kicks a few things out of her way and plops down on the floor reading torn out pages as she waits Billy out.

Read the Rest on Ao3

[spaceofentropy]

An affinity for dead things

You can read chapter 1 HERE on ao3!

Rating: E (but we're not really earning it in chapter 1, sorry) Pairings: Harringrove; platonic Stobin; background Nancy Wheeler/Jonathan Byers Tags: magic AU; post season 3; necromancer!Steve; grave robbing; Neil Hargrove Content Warnings: neglectful parents; referenced child abuse; Neil Hargrove; blood and gore; dead animals; undead animals; skeletons and bones; knives; scars; homicide; canonical Upside Down/Vecna stuff

Summary: Billy Hargrove has been dead and buried for a month and a half when Steve sets up to steal his body from his grave. The goal: to use magic to bring him back to life. The only problem is that magic always has a price, and things are never as easy as they seem.

Life is shit right now, but this is one of the things that are keeping me up and going, so please show my little story some love! I've been keeping it in the virtual top drawer of my desk for AGES (read: since the fucking end of July!) and I'm so happy I can finally show it to the world. I hope you have fun with it. I hope you follow me wherever I'll lead you. I swear it's gonna be worth the wait!

I'll be posting every Friday, Sunday, and Wednesday, ending on the 21st of February.

"My" artists, @raven-cl and @bigolemantiddies, will post their works on their own and I'll add then to the fic as soon as possible.

Once again, thanks to @bigbangharringrove for organizing this! <3

[jellyfishloveletterghosts]

I'd Sell My Soul To A Devil (To Bad What He Wants Is You)

Nancy is sitting across from Robin in the lunchroom picking at her pea and carrot meddle. It is not an unusual occurrence these days when Robbin doesn’t have practice and Nancy is not chasing down stories for the paper or fighting a deadline. They are friends in the way two people who have seen the same horrors but knew nothing of each other before bond.

They mostly sit alone unless someone from the paper comes along and sits down while asking Nancy a million questions Robin tunes out. The boys tried sitting with them once at the very beginning of the school year but Nancy had scared them off and Mike had not wanted to be seen sitting with his sister at lunch anyhow. Max comes by from time to time but mostly she keeps to herself when she is not poking fun at the guy's or in the mood to canoodle with Lucas.

They do not exactly talk a lot, certainly not about what happened at Starcourt or the times before Robin got involved. Never a mention of it especially not while they are in school and yet Nancy asks about the one person directly related to that night that they just do not speak about even casually. "Do you think we should check up on Billy?"

The question is not only off the wall but out of the blue which is why Robin chokes on her meatloaf, beating at her own chest to dislodge it and grimacing as she spits it out in a napkin. "Billy? As in Billy Hargrove, that Billy?" She puts the napkin aside with a sour face as she grabs for her drink and guzzles it down to help sooth her throat.

Nancy scratches her fork against the tray putting temporary lines in her vegetables before setting the fork down, "yes."

Read the Rest on Ao3

[jellyfishloveletterghosts]

I'd Sell My Soul To A Devil (To Bad What He Wants Is You) 

The junkyard is the perfect place to take out aggression. No one comes by unless they are looking to do the same or illegally adding stuff to the piles of unwanted rubbish. Despite the place being unsanctioned even the school and town services use it as a dumping ground.

Billy swings one of the old wooden bats that live here, taking out his anger and aggression on some old car pretending the light he just knocked off is Eddie Munson's head. Max is somewhere close but out of sight, he can hear her laughing as she beats something with her own bat.

It helps. Destroying inanimate junk gives him a release for his pent up anger left from his meeting with Eddie. He is stewing over the offer. Over what Eddie wants in return for helping him get Steve back. It is bullshit he does not want to think about. Thinking about it makes Billy’s hands tighten on the bat, barely noticing the sting of a splinter embedding into his palm from the worn handle as he takes another swing.

Sweat builds on his skin, curls dampening as the sun slowly shifts overhead. Billy beats on the same car over and over again, aims for the same spot until the door is so cave in that even if it wasn't rusted shut it would not open. His shoulders ache and he has built up a thirst by the time he lets the bat drop from his hands. He is still angry but thirst wins out over continuing to try and shape that rusted car into something unrecognizable.

Max is waiting on the hood of a rusted out bus with waters resting to her right having grown bored of destroying stuff long before Billy. He is apprehensive as he approaches and her eyes bore into him as he lifts his shirt and uses it to mop sweat from his brow. She pulls a disgusted face, he can't blame her all he managed to do was push he sweat around a little, his shirt just as drenched. 

He knows she is going to start needling when she holds a water bottle out to him. He takes it cracking the top and downs half of it, still under her watchful gaze. He has to hand it to her, she did manage to resist for longer than the twenty minute minimum Billy gave her.

He leans against the bus she is sitting on and takes a breather in the shade it provides. Max gives him a few moments to catch his breath before barreling right in, “you going to tell me what's got you in a tissy, what’s got your panties in a bunch?”

Read the rest on Ao3

[jellyfishloveletterghosts]

I'd Sell My Soul To A Devil (To Bad What He Wants Is You)

Billy makes it home later than usual, eyes red rimmed but feeling better than he has since Steve died in his arms. Susan is already heading out the door when he heads up the rickety little steps. "You're late." She looks past him at the car searching for damage that might make her late for her shift.

"Got a little held up," Billy scrunches his nose and chews at his thumb nail. "Filled the tank, you should be good."

Susan gives him a tight tired smile, patting him on the shoulder as she walks by, "Thanks Billy."

"Max had dinner yet?" Billy asks as Susan hits the last stair and it creaks.

She pauses too long, like she is trying to remember. "Why don't you order a pizza for the both of you." She digs a twenty out of her purse and turns holding it up to Billy at the top of the stairs.

"Sure." Susan does not linger, the keys are waiting for her on the dash and Billy heads inside.

It makes Billy’s stomach churn. He decides to do better about being home in time for dinner, whether Susan has a shift or not. Least he can do after Max helped him pull his head out of his ass.

Read the Rest on Ao3

[jellyfishloveletterghosts]

I'd Sell My Soul To A Devil (To Bad What He Wants Is You)

Dustin puts most of the things from Steve’s box into what he feels are proper homes. Places they will not just be forgotten. He does hang the jacket up in the hall closet, right next to his own and the car makes its way onto his desk along with the little dungeons and dragons figure they made of Steve. Almost everything finds a home that feels natural save one. He doesn’t know what to do with the old cookie tin he finds at the bottom of the box that rattles when he shakes it. There are a few pieces of opaque tape across the top with Steve’s neat scrawl across them. Do Not Open! Private.

Dustin respects it for a few days but curiosity gets the better of him one afternoon after school. He cannot bear walking into his room one more day and seeing the innocent looking tin settled on the side of his desk, the curiosity gets too strong for him. He reasons that Steve does not need secrets now that he is dead.

Dustin dumps his bag haphazardly on the floor by his bed and grabs the tin up as he settles on the edge of the bed, barely sitting, one foot toes down to keep him from sliding off. Dustin pulls at the tin, annoyed when it does not immediately come up. It is really stuck on there and he cannot be sure if it is from months of disuse or because it was always like this, chosen for Steve’s private things because of its difficulty. 

He works up a sweat, his fingertips hurting as he keeps on pulling at the edge of it. When it finally pops off what feels like an eternity later Dustin nearly smacks himself in the face with the sudden give. He throws the lid away with an angry noise, feeling a little bad when it hits his turtle tank with a rattle. He should not treat Steve’s things like that. He is about to go pick it up and treat it a little more kindly when he is distracted by the contents of the tin.

There are folded notes with Steve’s name on them and little items that mostly look like junk to Dustin. A lighter and a broken ring, movie tickets and a napkin with a rather dirty set of stick figures drawn on them and what looks to be a ketchup stain on the corner. The key chain he finds might be the most confusing thing, a little welcome to California license plate that has back written over the welcome in bold scrawl. It makes more sense when he finds the polaroid buried at the bottom but he is too thrown by it to continue thinking of the key chain.

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