#wiggly worm wednesday

[someforeignband]

🪱Wiggly Worm Wednesday!🪱

having thoughts about eddie and steve going to visit steve’s grandmother! (im spending the week with my nanna and am having thoughts)

It starts with this nebulous idea that Steve’s parents didn’t want to take care of Francesca’s mother after her husband died, so they moved Steve’s maternal grandmother to a 65+ community in Sun City, Arizona. Just like their son, they’d much rather ship off Franny’s mother instead of dealing with her needs. So, they leave sweet Cecilia in a massive 2,900 square foot condo in the Arizona desert, all by herself.

One afternoon in march, Steve gets a call from his Nonna. She explains she has had some plumbing issues and neither Franny, nor Richard is returning her calls. She complains that there’s palm fronds in her yard, and with the state of her back, she just can’t fix all of these things on her own.

“How do you feel about a trip to Arizona?” Steve would ask Eddie, after a two-and-a-half hour long conversation with his grandmother.

Thusly, a PanAm flight to Phoenix was booked. It was Eddie’s first time on a plane. Despite his nerves prior to getting on the flight, he has a marvelous time. Eddie discovers that he loves turbulence and puts his hands up and giggles the whole time.

Steve, to Eddie’s dismay, is the exact opposite. He squeezes the armrest the entire 3.5 hour flight. He can’t stand how relaxed Eddie is, not understanding how someone like Eddie could just be so calm.

Once they land, Steve tries to brief Eddie on his Nonna’s disposition. “She’s sort of a firecracker, Eddie. Very particular about pretty much everything. I’m sorry if she’s mean to you.”

Eddie tells him not to worry about it, assures him they’ll get through the weekend.

To Steve’s delight (and Eddie’s utter surprise), Nonna takes to Eddie like a fish to water. He can talk about the Bible with her. Wayne’s been pretty devout his whole life, so when Eddie makes a comment about her dish towel with Philippians 4:6-7 printed on it, Steve knows Eddie’s going to practically be family.

Cece is ecstatic to be able to show the boy pictures of Italia and tell him stories about her upbringing. She shows him pictures of Franny, pictures of her late husband, and her collection of photos of Steve’s baptism. It keeps Cece distracted, while Steve gets to work fixing her kitchen plumbing.

Steve can’t help but grin to himself like a madman as he tinkers with her pipes, listening to his Nonna and his boyfriend volley back and forth. Sharp as whips, the both of them, and god it was nice to watch Eddie get on with someone who was blood to him.

Steve didn’t have much family that bothered to be in his life.

It was nice.

And best of all— at least for Nonna— Eddie can eat her food. Eddie can seriously put it away. Steve stops after one helping of Parmigiana di Melanzane, but Eddie has two more servings, and saves room for dessert.

“Eat up, Edoardo,” Cece pats his cheek. “Too skinny, Stephano. You starving him?”

“Never, Nonna,” Steve laughs, shaking his head, watching Eddie shovel another spoonful into his mouth, grinning at Steve across the dining room table.

Despite the fact that they’ve been seeing each other for a few months, after dancing around each other for the better part of two years—Eddie’s feeling things about Steve fixing his grandmas plumbing, doing yard work, etc. The flush in Steve’s face, hands on his hips, complaining about the state of the yard: Eddie’s never felt more in love (and other tingly, warm sensations).

Further, Eddie watches Steve and Cece scream at each other in stilted Italian as she tries to pick up a scorpion and take it outside with her bare hands. Finally, after about forty-five seconds of screaming and the scorpion trying to wiggle away, Steve takes Eddie’s boot and smacks the thing with a scared squeal. It crunches under the sole and twitches a few times before dying on the salmon colored tile, guts splattered everywhere.

“You handled that well,” Eddie muses, once the whole ordeal is over, taking a dishcloth and floor cleaner, scrubbing at the thing’s guts.

“I couldn’t let her get stung. She’s seventy-nine!” Steve says, then shudders. “I never wanna do that again.”

Later that night, Eddie sips coffee out of a lumpy clay mug, a Stephano Original, while she and Steve play rummy. Catching eyes over the table, they smile at each other, knowingly. After a while, Eddie gets tired, slinking off to the office, where Cecilia had set him up with an air mattress.

Before Steve retires to the spare bedroom that night, his Nonna pulls him aside, wrapping him in a warm hug.

“Ti voglio,” She whispers, kissing his temple, smoothing his hair back.

“I love you too,” Steve answers quietly, thrown off by the unexpected display of affection.

“And,” She pauses, scrunching her dark eyebrows together, deciding exactly what to say. “I really like that boy, Stephano.”

Steve’s chest fills with warmth, not knowing exactly if she means what he hopes she means. But at that moment, he’ll take it.

“Me, too, Nonna.” He whispers, grinning at her. “Me, too.”

TAGGING ONLY @yours-etc!!!! WRITE SOMETHING I MISS YOUR WRITING

[augustjustice]

🪱Wiggly Worm Wednesday 🪱

Thank you so much for tagging me @formosusiniquis and @sidekick-hero 💛🖤It's been ages, but I finally have some down time and some thoughts to share!

Transcribed and expanded upon from an idea I discussed with @inkfowl on discord a while ago, this one is always kind of burning at the back of my brain:

Steddie soulmate AU where Steve and Eddie are not each other's soulmates.

Like, maybe Steve's romantic soulmate is Nancy (because of course Robin will always be his true platonic soulmate), but Nancy, being someone who goes against the grain and doesn't want the system to dictate to her who she is, will be, or will be with, already rejected Steve for Jonathan in the earlier seasons. She didn't want to end up trapped in a loveless soulmate marriage by her parents, and she felt called to Jonathan soulmate bond be damned.

Like in canon, Steve was deeply heartbroken at the time when it happened, always being a romantic who wanted to find the one true person he was destined to be with forever. But because he did truly care about Nancy, he let her go, didn't want to stand in the way of her true happiness. And by the time Season 4 rolls around, his own feelings have developed into a healthy friendship with Nancy, having truly moved on the way he told Robin he was in the bathroom confession, and at that point he honestly wouldn't want to go back to the way things were before. Even though he's sad it isn't destined to happen the way it does in all the rom-coms and fairytales, he still wants real romantic love (Robin and the kids more than fulfill the share of platonic and familial love he's looking for, in a way his parents never managed to) and hasn't given up on finding it.

So then the S4 shenanigans happen, Steve officially meets Eddie the DM the kids keep raving about, and falls for him pretty fast even while they're still trying to sort out all the carnage with Vecna.

At first, Eddie keeps pushing Steve in Nancy's direction, because from his perspective, they're soul mates, and it's so clear there's feelings still lingering there. Plus, they'd obviously be a badass perfect couple, just look at them. (And if that's the perfect excuse Eddie tells himself to keep from getting too tangled up in his own feelings, well that's a secret for him and no one else.)

But even in the aftermath of the Upside Down shenanigans, Steve and Nancy still don't get back together, and Steve is insistent that they're just friends, managing to convince Eddie that he's being sincere. So, something tentatively starts to build between them. Nothing officially romantic, yet, but they're slowly working their way up to it, flirting and feeling each other out.

And sure, they shouldn't make sense on paper--in the larger scheme of the universe, they don't, allegedly, given the lack of soulmate mark binding them together. But besides just genuine attraction, everything that happened has bonded them together, and they genuinely feel safe together, able to open in ways they can't even with some of their closest friends. They might not have many surface things in common like shared hobbies and interests, but when it comes to the things they both think actually matters, they have a lot in common--like their protectiveness over the kids, a shared inherent silliness, etc. They make each other laugh, they comfort each other on bad nights when the nightmares keep them up. It seems only a matter of time before the tension overwhelms them and they collide together, finally make it official the way Robin is impatiently waiting on them too.

...But then Eddie's own soulmate waltzes into the picture.

Steve finds himself heart-broken all over again, because he's always the second choice. And how the hell is he supposed to compete with Eddie's actual, honest-to-god soulmate? Especially when the guy is just perfect for him--completely into metal, a nonconformist, knows and likes all the songs that Eddie likes. The guy is even hot which pisses Steve the hell off. But he tries to hide it, do what he did for Nancy and push his feelings aside as he encourages Eddie to take his shot with the guy like a good friend would. Because if he really cares about Eddie, then he should just be happy for him, right? He's getting the shot Steve never did.

Robin insists, from the outside looking in, that Eddie seems a lot more conflicted than Steve is willing to see. Confused and hurt at first when Steve pulls away. Going on dates with the guy only after Steve seems so insistent that he give him a chance, telling him he should be excited because It's your honest to god soulmate, dude!

But even as he tries to be supportive, Steve's jealousy keeps bubbling up. Things eventually come to a head in an argument.

"I don't care why you care so much anyway, Harrington! Now's your perfect chance to swoop in--you've got Miss Perfect Nancy Wheeler out there just waiting for you to get your shit together, stop 'experimenting,' and finally go back to her!"

"Newsflash, Eddie! I already told you, I'm not in love with Nancy. And besides, it wouldn't matter even if I was, since I'm her second choice, just like with you, just like--with everybody!"

And then Steve presses an arm over his face to hide his tears, but Eddie catches his wrist and tugs it down.

“Yeah, except, that's where you're wrong, Stevie boy,” he says, cupping Steve’s face in his hands and brushing away his tears with his thumbs, “because you're not. My second choice. Some stupid ass birthmark can’t tell me shit. I don’t want him, I don’t want anyone else, Stevie. Just you."

And then they get an epic, tearful kiss, and Eddie makes some crack about how it's super conformist to end up with your soulmate, anyway, not a very metal thing to do, and Steve lets out a watery laugh in the crook of his neck and then kisses him to shut him up.

Eddie tells Steve all about how he misses his and Steve's silly arguments, and finds it boring that his soulmate and he always seem to agree on things, because where's the fun in that? There's no real spark. None of the push-and-pull he gets when exposing Steve to his interests and the times Steve actually gets into it. Or the delighted confusion when Steve tries to get him into something new and Eddie realizes he actually does like it, or even when he doesn't, seeing Steve enjoy it is enough to make him go from disgust to fond tolerance. And Steve admits he missed it all too, so much, even the metal songs Eddie forced him to listen to that Steve hates he's been playing on a loop while he wallows.

"I want this," Eddie tells him, kissing the tear tracks from Steve's face, "you're here, Stevie, and you're real, and this feels more right than anything else ever has. So, whaddya say, big boy? Will you have me?"

"You're my first pick, Eds," Steve admits, smiling softly, "there's nobody else I'd rather have on my team but you."

Then Eddie complains about Steve marring his love confession with a sports metaphor, and how it's not even true, anyway, because he knows Robin is actually Steve's first draft or whatever. Steve teases him about picking up sports lingo before shutting him up the best way he knows how--with his lips.

And they of course live happily ever after making their own love work, building it together. Even if it doesn't makes sense on paper, even if it's not predestined, they picked it and its theirs. At the end of the day, as far as they're concerned--that's all that really matters.

I'm no pressure tagging @tinytalkingtina @griefabyss69 @wheneverfeasible @thefreakandthehair @ataliagold and anyone else who sees this and would like to join in!

[starshideurfics]

Wiggly Worm Wednesday 🧠🪱

Thanks for tagging me @bilbosmom-belladonna!! It took me forever to remember to do this on a Wednesday, but my obsession with historical omegaverse continues, and I’ve got one that I’m excited to work on once my current WIPs are finished.

It’s based on a historical practice (I think mostly from the medieval German kingdoms) called a foot of the gallows marriage, where a condemned person could be saved if someone offered to marry them, no matter the crime. So, I thought it was ripe to Steddie-fy:

Eddie’s the son of the village drunk, and with poor church attendance and no trade he becomes an easy target when the Cunningham girl is found dead on the edge of the wood. The conviction is swift, no matter how much he protests his innocence.

All of Hawkins turns out for the hanging, hungry for vengeance, whipped to a fury by the girl’s betrothed. Which leaves them all dumbfounded when the prized omega son of the richest family in town offers to marry Eddie just before the noose is tightened around his neck.

They’re married immediately, in front of the gallows tree. Eddie is pardoned, the crowd filled with whispers over why such an upstanding omega would choose to tie himself for life to one such as Eddie. 

Eddie is just as confused. For how small Hawkins is, he’s rarely interacted with Steve, so all he can do is ask, “Why?” 

Steve simply takes his hand and whispers, “Not here.” Fearing a riot, the sheriff rushes them away, bringing the couple to his house first safekeeping. 

Once they’re alone, Steve says, “I don’t think you did it. Christine was my friend. She kept talking about wanting to leave Hawkins. To take holy vows. But no one would listen to her… Plenty of people had reasons to hurt her, but not you.”

No obligation tags for @hullosweetpea, @itcanbepalped, @mixsethaddams, and anyone else who wants in!

[wheneverfeasible]

🧠🪱Wiggly Wednesday🪱🧠

Thank you for the tags @scoops-aboy86 and @endlessmusings1801!

Okay so hear me out. This was a worm I’ve been thinking about lately, which is bizarre, because it isn’t inherently Steddie…

But we get all kinds of fics of if Eddie and/or Robin were pulled into things earlier than their seasons. But…

What if Tommy and Carol were pulled into things with Steve? Like, picture it…

Instead of ditching Steve after his fight with Jonathan, Steve and Tommy and Carol hash it out a bit more, get into a bigger argument maybe even, and maybe they do separate for a bit. But then they’re still friends, so maybe they huff and puff about it but they talk things out too. Maybe Steve even gets to somewhat convince them that they should all apologize, even if Tommy and Carol don’t really want to or care all that much.

So all three of them go to do so, and all three of them see the demogorgon, and all three of them have that life altering paradigm shift. Maybe Carol and Tommy don’t change completely, at least not immediately, but they’re forced to confront that there’s more than just high school popularity contests, and maybe they become just that little bit of better people.

Maybe Carol and Nancy have a genuine talk, genuinely open up to each other, and no one can ever replace Barb of course, but it’s nice to have another female friend, even if they’re pretty much polar opposites.

Tommy isn’t fond of Jonathan at all, because demogorgon aside, it was creep behavior taking photos of them like that. Tommy helps pitch in to get Jonathan his new camera though, because he egged on Steve’s insecurities (brought on by the fact that Steve’s dad has cheated on his mom so he’s really sensitive to potential cheating in partners) and he guesses he’s partly to blame. He rolls his eyes about it, but Steve is happy he has his friend beside him still.

Tommy and Carol don’t really take to the kids much, but Carol does secretly enjoy getting into bitching sessions with Mike, and later Erica.

When Billy shows up, maybe Tommy and Carol start backsliding. Maybe they have to have a big blowup. Maybe they aren’t there when Steve gets dragged in helping Dustin, at least not immediately, but maybe they hear about Steve dealing with that without them because they chose Billy and they just…they…

They can’t believe they left Steve to deal with that horror by himself. They feel guilty and terrible and they tell Billy off. They can’t believe they chose some stupid popularity that doesn’t even matter over the guy that literally went to bat for them. They’re at the end with him, apologizing for not being there before, and they become even better people.

They come around to lovingly tease Steve at his job at Scoops, wheedling free ice cream out of him. And who knows, maybe telling Billy off changes the third season, maybe them being there, better people and supportive of Steve changes things, maybe the three of them can even change Billy to an extent. Maybe, Steve and Tommy and Carol and Billy hashing it all out and coming to terms with the toxicity of high school and judgemental parents and a society that believes you need to be a certain way to matter…maybe it changes things for the better.

Idk. I’ve just always wondered how things would have gone if Tommy and Carol had been exposed to the truth the first season.

And then blah blah blah, Steve and Eddie eventually fuck about it. Because I am nothing if not a Steddie truther in everything. And who knows…maybe Robin and Carol fuck about it also 😏

-

Hostage tag: @derythcorvinus

Co-Hostage tag for this: @katyawriteswhump

No pressure participation tag: @stervrucht (I know you’ve been tagged already but lmao I’m tagging YOU first this time anyways lmaoooo) @fkinkindagauche @steddiecameraroll @henderdads @queenie-ofthe-void

[bilbosmom-belladonna]

Wiggly Worm Wednesday 🧠🪱

Thanks for the tag, @soaringornithopter! I’ve never played this game before, and I happen to have been recently attacked by gifted with a new story idea that I definitely don’t have time to write in the near future. So I’ll share it here!

It’s a Steddie omegaverse fic set after Season 2…

Steve Harrington is an omega without a pack. For most of high school he was in a pack with Tommy and Carol, but after things fell apart with them he and Nancy (an alpha) became a little pack of their own. But after they broke up she’d decided to end the pack as well; they’re still friends, but not packmates. Steve’s other friendships aren’t nearly deep enough to make a pack, and while the kids from The Party are great they’re too young to have presented yet, so they can’t be part of Steve’s pack.

And on the surface, that’s fine. Most people his age are still part of their family pack, and their pack of friends isn’t their primary one. Steve being packless at school shouldn’t be a big deal—except it is, because Steve’s parents are out of town so much these days that any pack benefits they once provided him are long gone.

Omegas have to be part of a pack to survive long-term, or go on medication to prevent isolation sickness. But that medication is tightly controlled because it has a euphoric effect on healthy omegas—thank you, Nancy Reagan. Steve’s parents won’t let him get a prescription (“It can’t be that bad, you have so many school friends, dear! What about your little friend Tommy?”) and Steve is too embarrassed to go crawling back to any of his former packs.

So, out of options, Steve goes to Eddie Munson, alpha and resident drug dealer, and pretends that he wants the isolation sickness drug just to get high. Eddie clocks the symptoms of an omega in distress right away, and he knows he doesn’t have a large enough supply to help for long, but he gets Steve the pills and keeps his mouth shut. After all, it’s none of his business what King Steve gets up to in his private life and Eddie has a policy of not getting too involved with his customers. It’s less messy that way.

But every time Steve comes back for more pills he looks worse and worse; they’re clearly not cutting it. One day he actually collapses in the middle of a deal, right there on the picnic table. Panicking, and with his alpha instincts clamoring, Eddie invites Steve to become a member of his pack with the Corroded Coffin boys. And Steve is just desperate enough to take him up on it.

Things are about to get pretty messy after all.

~~~~~~~~

There’s more, but I’ll leave it there for now. Maybe one day I’ll actually write it!

Who wants to share their own brainworms??? I’ll tag @starshideurfics @mojowitchcraft @loverboy-havocboy and @violentcheese. No pressure, of course.

[formosusiniquis]

It’s Wednesday have some worms I’m using as a warm-up.

So this is inspired by these style videos that I’ve seen a lot lately on youtube shorts cause i quit tiktok just to get stuck on the vape version. Where people go up to athletes and ask them to sign old pictures of themselves. And I’ve got two versions that have been playing in my head.

1. Chrissy and Eddie run a joint besties tiktok/social media thing where they show off their opposites attract platonic soulmate life by pushing each other out of their comfort zones, making them do things the other likes, and showing that it can be fun. Eddie takes Chrissy to a show and makes her get in the mosh pit, they jump out of a plane -- each claiming it was the other’s idea -- she makes Eddie try cheer; you get the picture.

So Chrissy drags Eddie to a sports game of your choosing, I’m going with baseball cause @thefreakandthehair ‘s latest fic with baseball steve is living in my head rent-free this week. Eddie decides that if he’s going and they’re going to do the sports equivalent of stage-dooring then he’s going to double up and get in on this trend he’s seen. The reactions are middling to bland, Tommy Hagan flips him off but does sign the photo of himself from what Eddie thinks is probably his junior prom and he and Chrissy are both pretty positive that'll be the best reaction they get for the video. But the next person they have planned to get is Steve and Eddie had to dig deep to find a picture of Steve that wasn’t a photo of him in a group shot at a party when he was in high school. It’s like the guy hit senior year and disappeared off the internet.

So Eddie walks up to the hottest guy he’s ever seen and asks for an autograph while handing Steve a photo of himself from grade school. He’s got the biggest smile on his face, one of his front teeth is missing and his hair is slipping forward onto his forehead from its picture-day perfect styling. Steve cuts off his by-rote agreement with a laugh and actually turns to look at Eddie (and Chrissy) now.

“Did everyone get one like this or am I special?”

Chrissy answers since Eddie lost the ability to speak the second Steve looked at him while smiling, “Yours is the littlest, but we did choose to ignore everyone’s professionally taken headshots.”

“You think this wasn’t done by a professional? Look at the lighting and the weird tree in the background.”

Chrissy laughs and does that thing where she kicks her leg out enough to knock Eddie back to planet earth. “You can make it out to Eddie, with an IE.” She tells Steve while Eddie massages his smarting ankle.

Steve takes the sharpie out of Eddie’s slack hand and looks down to sign. “I was always gonna sign, cause I like to think this little guy would be really excited about how far I got. But, this would be creepy if you weren’t so cute.”

Eddie is only able to answer because Steve still isn’t looking at him. “Her?”

Steve hands him the picture. “She didn’t ask for the autograph.”

They have to blur it for the video, but underneath his perfectly practiced signature, Steve sends Eddie home with his number.

Alternatively my take 2. The kids get full VIP experience tickets for Corroded Coffin and they have to go Steve. Claudia doesn’t want to cramp their style so she’s out, but if they can’t find a certified adult to take them then Ted has been volunteered. Ted, Steve. He agrees to go because even if he can’t stand the idea of spending the night fighting a migraine during the flashing lights of a heavy metal concert, he also isn’t going to let the Party suffer the social repercussions that would be Ted Wheeler going.

But he decides if he’s going to go he’s going to have fun with it. The kids let him know that it’s a small VIP (for plot reasons) and every group gets a set amount of time with the group. He’s listened to them talk about what they’re bringing to get signed, what they’re going to say to the band to sound both cool and mature. Meanwhile, he’s taking inspiration from his own feed to come up with a plan that’s going to hopefully only annoy everyone a ‘God Steve why do we take you anywhere, but yeah okay that was pretty funny’ amount and not actually ruin the kids' time.

He doesn’t actually know anyone in the band, but the internet exists and as he goes down his rabbit hole, trying to find pictures that are suitably dweeby but also cute in a wholesome way, he realizes that oops the lead guitarist is super hot and also vaguely familiar.

The night of the concert comes and Steve goes into the VIP line with five photos for the four members. Pictures from so far down the Instagram timeline that an accidental like would get him put on a watchlist. He’s got a sophomore Gareth trying his blue steel in a selfie, a photo of Jeff from the one year he did marching band to get out of his gym credit, Freak in the suit vest he got for Junior prom, and Eddie at his most dramatic ‘it’s not a phase Wayne’ stage in high school.

Eddie absolutely thinks they’re being made fun of for a minute, it’s Jeff who laughs and breaks the tension first. Which is good because Steve had waited to bring out the second picture he brought, turns out he finally figured out why the hot guitarist looked and sounded so familiar, and he shows Eddie a picture from the summer camp they went to together where they had been inseparable. That one Eddie signs gladly, his messy signature blocking out the camp counselor they had both hated. Steve won’t let the kids see, he tells them it’s weird to see your heavy metal heroes when they were eight and still waiting to get the gap between their front teeth fixed with braces. But he really just doesn’t want them to see the number Eddie wrote there and the vague promise to have Steve over to catch up and see if they can make kids as cute as they were.

[derythcorvinus]

🧠🪱 Wiggly Wednesday 🧠🪱

Okay so I finally had something take over my brain for one of these things. So, please hear me out. Thank you for the tag @wheneverfeasible!

Steve develops hip problems

Just walk with me here.

I don't know how accurate any of this would be, and it's based on my (very) limited knowledge of my own hip problems. But imagine with all the years of sports, and eventually getting shoved to the ground then being yanked to the bottom of the lake and slammed onto the ground of a dry lake bed; one of Steve's hips gets jostled enough times to start causing issues.

It doesn't start until a few years after everything, but when it does start Steve just thinks it's a one time thing. He's doing stretches or some shit and his hip started to hurt and feel like it's about to pop out of the socket. He adjusts his stance, having a mini panic attack until the pain is gone. He calms himself down and eventually forgets about it.

Until it happens again.

Now, Steve laughs it off, seeing as he's with the party at the time. He stood up from fiddling with the cables behind the entertainment center, trying to find the blasted cord for the record player. He stands to full height and his hip catches, making him falter and suck in a sharp breath. But when he sees all the concerned looks, he laughs it off and tells them he stood up too fast and got a little dizzy.

Of course, with this being Steve, he doesn't say anything to anyone about it until he absolutely needs to. Imagine he and Eddie are curled up on a couch watching a movie and with the position Steve's legs are in, his hip starts to ache with that sharp pain. The only issue is that Eddie has Steve's leg trapped between his. Steve doesn't mean to but he tenses, sucks in that sharp breath again and pushes at Eddie's leg. “Off. Oh my god oh my god off.”

Eddie of course moves and sits up, wondering why the hell Steve is laughing while also looking like he's about to panic. Steve's hands are pressing into his bad hip and Eddie blinks down at his boyfriend. Steve explains that his hip was starting to hurt and answers any questions that Eddie has about it.

His hip seems to age faster than Steve does. It gets to a point where Eddie and Steve both laugh about it, especially when it happens during their spicy alone time. They both know that Steve will have to have hip replacement surgery if it gets worse, but Eddie has already promised to get him the best custom cane to ever exist if that happens.

Yeah, that's it. Just needed to add some more physical trauma to Stevie boy. No other moots to tag, but hey, I like participating sometimes

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

Wiggly Wednesday 🧠🪱

Tagged by @medusapelagia (sort of), but mostly by @eriquin who sent me their post after I complained that no one tagged me the one time that I actually had one ready! Lol.

Anyway!!!! I wanted to do this, mostly so I wouldn't start a new WIP, but then I had such a specific vision of how this wiggly worm fic would start that I accidentally wrote 1k just now instead of just...explaining it. SO:

Robin can’t sleep. These days, she never can, and even when she does, it’s the dreams that get her. Sometimes, Steve’s there, sometimes he’s already gone, and the space where he should be rots the world straight through. 

Sometimes, it’s Steve alive, sitting by her side and laughing the same way they had in the stupid Starcourt bathroom, dirty sneakers knocking together.

Those are the worst.

She should be used to it, but the loss hits fresh each time she wakes; an open wound she can’t quite curl around. She can still feel his hand in hers, warm even as her sweat-damp body slowly dries and sends shivers racking through her. 

Steve Harrington is haunting her. 

So, when she wakes up from a dream and that hole opens up in her heart all over again, she does what she always does now: she propels down the side of her house, grabs the bike she’d strategically left leaning up against the toolshed, and peddled like the Mind Flayer was on her heels. 

Hawkins is dark around her. 

The shadows loom, stretching out to ensnare the wheels of her bike until she’s snatched up just like Will Byers has been. She’s not afraid; all her ghosts lay behind her. 

She’s got a system to it now. First, it’s the Wheeler and Sinclair residences, both with motion-sensored security lights that stop her from lingering. Then it’s the Henderson’s, always silent and dark by this time of night.

She’d used to ride by the Byers’ next, but it’s dark and vacant now, all its residents moved on to sunnier pastures, another hole carved straight into the group, just as deep as Hopper’s or—

The Harrington house looms, windows dark the way they are every time she rides past. As far as she can tell, the Harrington’s haven’t been back since the funeral, had barely stuck around long enough to sprinkle dirt on his coffin before jetting off to god knows where. 

She’s never even been inside. 

It’s a bit of a ride to the Mayfield’s trailer, now that her stepdad seems to have permanently split and left Max’s Mom scrambling to keep a roof over their head and food in the fridge. 

Robin doesn’t mind. The more her calf muscles burn, the less room she has in her head for thoughts. Maybe that’s why all the jocks enjoy their sports so much. Robin swallows the thought, lets it sink like led to the pit of her stomach never to be thought of again. 

She pedals faster, still. 

Even with how densely packed the trailer park is, no one’s ever out this late. It’s always just her and the dark slowly fading away, the glimmers of a gray dawn’s light filtering through the blanketing black of the night. Sometimes, a dog barks, or she can just barely hear the sound of a TV left on in the night. 

This time, she can hear someone laughing, so clear in the dead air that it must be coming from outside. Robin pedals past the Mayfield’s trailer, the sound of her tires turning loud against the trailer park’s gravel drive. 

There’s never anyone out here, but as she rounds the corner, she catches sight of Eddie Munson’s distinct messy mop of hair cascading down his back. He’s sitting on the edge of a picnic table, the porch light of a nearby trailer barely illuminating him. His rings glint in the light, and it’s cold enough that he’s got a jacket on. 

A very distinct green and gold letterman jacket with the white sleeves rolled up to his elbows, showing off a riot of black tattoos. Eddie Munson, third time senior, showing his school spirit. Will wonders never cease?

The guy throws his head back and laughs like someone’s said something funny. He even seems to jam his elbow into the space beside him, like he’s expecting it to meet flesh. 

But, there’s no one there.

Maybe he’s got one of the walkie-talkie’s the kids are always using and the rest had been a trick of the light? But, then she catches the skunky scent of marajuana, and the mystery gets a lot less mysterious. 

The dude’s just high. 

Robin’s in the middle of turning her bike around, hoping he doesn’t hear her tires past his own tomfoolery when a breeze hits, sending shivers through her, and sending Munson’s hair flying with the breeze. 

On his back, emblazoned in big, capital fuck-you letters, is the name HARRINGTON.

She slams on the brakes so hard that her tires skid out on the gravel, sending rocks ricocheting all around her as just barely manages to stay on her feet as her bike drops to the ground, forgotten. 

Eddie squeaks at the sound, leaping up from his perch on the picnic table to spin around, back to the wood, and hands raised, joint somehow still tucked between two knuckles. 

His hands drop as Robin storms up to him, something hot and viscous coursing through her. She wants to rip the jacket from his back, punch him in the eye, and leave him there, bruised and swollen to think about his fucking actions.

She stands there, shaking. 

“Buckley?” Eddie asks, squinting down at her like she’s a particularly bizarre new species of avian. “What are you wearing?” 

Only then does she remember she’s still in her pajamas, hair plastered to her face with sweat. She’s not even wearing socks, much less shoes. She doesn’t care.

“What am I wearing?” Robin asks, jamming her finger so hard into his chest that it hurts her knuckle. “What are you wearing?”

Eddie looks down at himself, brow furrowed like he doesn’t even know what he’s fucking done. “My pajamas?”

Robin screams deep in her throat. She pushes Eddie in the chest, and he goes sprawling awkwardly on the picnic table as Robin yanks at the sleeve of the jacket. He slaps her hands away, shrieking something that sounds strangely like, “your girlfriend’s crazy, dude!” as he scuttles backward until he’s on the other side of the picnic table. As if that will protect him. 

She’s faced down monsters. She’d face worse, for Steve, and a three-time super senior is nothing. 

“Look,” he says, empty hands raised in supplication. The joint must’ve fallen in their tussle. Good. “Did you take something? Because, I can–”

“Take?” she demands, fists clenched at her sides as Eddie flinches at the volume of her voice. Somewhere in the distance, that same dog starts barking. She doesn’t care. “You took his jacket.”

At the last word, her voice breaks. Horrifically, embarrassingly, she can feel tears pooling in her eyes, only moments away from cascading down her face. All dignity gone, Robin drops to the bench of the picnic table and buries her face in her hands. 

The silence between them is acute. Even the dog stops barking, like the entire trailer park is holding its breath. 

So, she knows she hears correctly when Eddie Munson says, “Uh, Stevie,” in a quiet voice, like he’s trying not to let her hear, even though she’s only three feet away. “Help me out here?

Okay, so picture this: Steve dies during the battle of starcourt, but after the bathroom scene. I'm thinking, a brain bleed because come on, did you see his face? So, they've bonded, Robin came out to the guy, they become starter platonic soulmates, and then he up and DIES.

And then here's Eddie, who's been literally haunted by Steve since that day. They've bonded. He wants to hold his hand so bad. Steve told him to steal his stuff to keep it from his parents. He collects the freshman after Steve talks them up.

So, things are pretty good! He's sharing a joint with a ghost, and here comes said ghosts platonic soulmate, left out of the loop, downright FURIOUS that a presumed hater of jokes would where her dingus's jacket.

My no pressure tags are: @eriquin @devondespresso @museumgiftshoperaser @queenie-ofthe-void @strangersteddierthings <3<3<3

[queenie-ofthe-void]

Wiggly-Worm Wednesday Thursday

Tagged by one of my faves @devondespresso

My worms this week are one thing I'm just tossing around and one fic I'm pouring my soul into.

The Brain Worm

For almost a year I've been tossing around a Moulin Rogue Steddie AU. I've had trouble feeling satisfied about casting, which is the main reason I've put it off. But earlier this week I was listening to my Steddie playlist at work, and picked out a bunch of songs to replace the originals, which got me all worked up again. So this is what I've got so far.

Steve is Satine and Eddie is Christian. Dustin is Tolouse and the boys are the rest of that group, with Lucas as the Argentinian (I want him and Max for the Roxanne dance -- but won't be violent in my fic, just strained). Billy is The Duke and Jason is his Bodyguard. Thought about making it Tommy, but The Bodyguard hunts Christian almost the whole time, hence Jason. I mostly just can't decide who's going to be Harold.

My main goal with the playlist is to still keep it 80s Steddie themed, with pop songs for Steve and metal songs for Eddie.

Eddie's intro to Dustin and The Party (The Sound of Music part) will Be Stairway to Heaven

Steve/Satine's intro will be an ABBA medley including: Dancing Queen, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, and Money, Money, Money

The dance sequence that follows will include a lot of Queen including Don't Stop Me Now and Good Ol Fashioned Loverboy

Steve's Solo ontop of the Elephant will be Dancing in the Dark

I'm still putting together the Elephant Medley because that's my absolute favorite, but it will be a back and forth between metal and pop songs

But most importantly, I'm switching out Roxanne for Tainted Love. I honestly considered just keeping it, but Tainted Love is one of my favorite songs so I'm doing it lol

My WIP what I've been working on

A Litany for Survival by @theheartofthekoko aka @carolperkinsexgirlfriend

Been pouring my whole soul into beta editing this past week for Koko's A Litany for Survival. I've been helping out since December and they've wrapped everything up and uploaded to Ao3 WHICH IS SO FUCKING EXCITING ahhhh!!!! Goddamn babes you did it, birthed a whole 180k AU and it's so fucking good. Honestly so proud you though fr.

Now that that's finished, I'll be helping with a few spin-off one-shots in the same universe.

As for my own stuff, I'm going to work up another fic for the July microfic prompt One, but I'll do the 1,111 option since I've done Moles for 111. I really want to get back to my A Desperate Fool series, and I'm going back to The Babysitter Chronicles. I swear I'll finish it one day.

[eddie4bat-president]

Wiggly Wednesday 🪱🪱🪱

Something I can't write but want out in the world. Go on, be free, little steddie au. Maybe you'll find a new home where someone will write you 🥲

It's a college au where Robin and Jeff go to the same college, share a class or two. Eddie moved close to keep the band going. Steve moved close for co-dependant reasons. Eddie has a one-sided vendetta against both Robin and Steve for stealing Jeff away for a life of sin (a ska band).

Argyle is there.

[after-the-end-times]

🪱 Wiggly Worm Wednesday 🪱

A scene in my head I keep thinking of fleshing out, but probably won't:

Steve and Eddie in the middle of a scene, Eddie's hands tied to the bedposts, and a hair keeps tickling his nose no matter how much he tries to subtly blow it away

And instead of stoplighting or safe wording out, he exasperatedly huffs out, "ok, time out!"

And Steve's just slightly confused and really endeared that that's what Eddie went with when he wanted to pause for a bothering hair

🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱🪱

Thanks @just-my-latest-hyperfixation for starting this! So much better than letting the ideas sit in my head with nowhere to go!

[someforeignband]

🪱Wiggly Worm Wednesday!🪱

more of a wip wednesday, but! heres a snippet from Tie Em In A Knot, which i've been working on for the past couple weeks! CW: implied parental abuse; steve's dad is a piece of work and this (when i eventually post it,,,) will be DD so heed this warning now i suppose

Steve stares at his mother’s lifeless form, the bandages around the front of her head, the various tubes and machines hooked up to her body. 

Eddie doesn’t answer, but Steve can hear the squeaking of his boots’ soles on the tile floor, approaching his chair. 

“Visiting hours are over,” Steve states, crossing his arms and leaning back in the chair. “So, you’d better get out of here.” 

The boy behind him reaches out a ringed finger to flick at the dead flowers. “Those need a drink.” 

“How’d you even get up here, anyway?” Steve asks, beginning to get irritated by Eddie’s seeming lack of ability to respond to his statements. 

“Who gets flowers and doesn’t even get a plastic cup to put them in?” Eddie asks, still completely ignoring Steve, finger running along the emaciated stem of the carnation nearest to where he stood. Steve’s father hadn’t even bothered to cut them out of their ugly plastic wrapping. 

“Munson,” Steve huffs, finally turning away from his mother to look at the guy. “Seriously?” 

Eddie rolls his eyes, all theatrics, and that smirk is back. He bounces a couple of times on the balls of his feet, shrugging. 

“Look, man,” Steve runs a hand over his face. 

“Not that I don’t appreciate you coming to… do whatever you’re here to do,” He motions over all of Eddie before continuing. “But, my dad’ll be back any second and he doesn’t want any vis—”

“Well, lucky for you…” Eddie’s tongue darts out and licks at his bottom lip. He’s looking at Steve with this glint in his eye that makes the hairs on the back of Steve’s neck stand up.

But then, he’s popping his hip out, grinning and whispering, “I don’t care.” 

The side of Eddie’s mouth twitches, dimple in his cheek threatening to make itself visible, and Steve’s stomach goes warm. 

Oh shit. 

In the quiet of the hallway, Steve can hear his father’s footfalls, his over-confident gait, and suddenly damn near every hair on his body was standing on end, shoulders pulling upward, spine going stiff. He sits up, taking a quick peek over his shoulder, trying to gauge how much time he and Eddie would have before—

“What the hell, Steve? Who is this—” 

“Mr. Harrington, hi,” Eddie holds out a hand for his dad to shake. “I’m Eddie.” 

His dad, naturally, completely ignores it, fiery gaze fixed on Steve. 

“Visiting hours are over.” He says, and Steve’s eyes flick down to where his dad’s hands rest comfortably on his hips, thumbs in the belt loops, right forefinger pressed against the gold belt buckle. “You know you’re not allowed to have friends up here.” 

“Steve and I were supposed to meet up, and he didn’t show up, so I figured maybe time got away from him.” Eddie supplies easily, coolly even. 

Steve watches in horror as Eddie mirrors his dad’s stance, spreading his feet, hooking his thumbs through his belt loops. He stretches his neck a couple of times before flashing Steve’s father a cocky grin. 

Steve closes his eyes for a moment, trying to get ahold of his breathing. He felt like he was going to be sick.  

“He knows he isn’t supposed to have people up here,” His father repeats, and Steve can feel his pulse in his toes. 

“My mistake,” Eddie concedes. “I just came up here looking for him.” 

Steve swallows, trying to will himself not to die right there. 

“Steve,” His father snaps. He immediately looks up at the man, uncrossing his arms, placing hands against the front of his jeans. 

“You know this boy?” 

“Yes, sir,” Steve nods. “He’s my friend. From school.” 

His dad makes a dissatisfied noise, then breaks eye contact with Steve, focusing in on Eddie, studying him. 

Steve, panicked, glances in Eddie’s direction, and he’s got this sick smile on his face. Like this is exactly what he wanted, like he couldn’t wait to get up here and do whatever he was doing right now. 

“Like I said earlier,” Eddie licks his lips again. “My name’s Eddie. You went to Hawkins High with my old man, I think.” 

That seems to catch Steve’s dad off guard, and something akin to hope that Steve might get out of this better than alive flickers in the center of his chest. If there’s one thing Steve’s dad likes to talk about, it’s those Hawkins High Glory Days. 

“Is that so?” He throws Eddie a tentative smile, studying him, trying to figure out just who Eddie could look like. 

Eddie maintains his easy demeanor, that blinding smile painted on his face like he’s none the wiser, like he doesn’t know he’s toe-to-fucking-toe with a Copperhead. 

But, Steve watches something behind his eyes flicker, like he’s taking some kind of pleasure in this, like there’s a sick sense of satisfaction building there. 

“It’s so,” Eddie nods, smile pulled tight. 

“I always thought Al and Maria only had a daughter,” His dad finally decides, before following up, “But, I guess I must be mistaken. You got that Munson nose, don’t ya?” 

God, does his dad look proud of himself. 

And for the first time since he’d set foot in that room, there’s a flash of something akin to fear across Eddie’s face. But, it’s gone in a split-second, and the shit-eating grin returns. 

“You’re good, Mr. Harrington.” Eddie laughs, and god he’s a good actor. "You're scary good."

All those years in drama class must’ve done him some kind of good. Steve supposes there are rare plusses to flunking senior year. 

“Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?” Eddie breathes out a small sigh, looking down at where Steve still sits, stock-still, in a chair at his mother’s bedside. “C’mon, Steve.” 

Steve scrambles to his feet, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. Eddie starts a leisurely stroll toward the door. 

“Give your old man my regards, won’t you?” His dad asks, and it feels oddly genuine for the man, like he really cared about that kind of thing. 

Eddie bleats out a surprised laugh, then his smile gets impossibly wider, and that look is back. Steve’s knees feel like jelly. 

“Oh, sure,” Eddie nods, licking that bottom lip again. “But, uh, you might see him before I do… that is, if you’re planning on sticking around town for a few more days.” 

“Well,” His dad nods towards his mother, who lays slumped against the rails of the hospital bed. 

“My mistake,” Eddie quickly offers, giving a sympathetic nod. “My sympathies.” 

And for some reason, his dad laughs. 

“Accidents,” His dad shrugs. “They’re a bitch.” 

Eddie hums, eyes on Steve’s mother. “So sorry to hear about something so unfortunate.” 

Steve’s heart is in his throat, but he’s breathing shallowly through his nose, attention rapidly alternating between his father and Eddie. 

“Let’s go, Eddie, come on,” Steve places a tentative, sweaty hand against Eddie’s arm. 

“So nice chatting,” Eddie practically sneers, turning over his shoulder and walking into the hallway. 

Tagging: @yours-etc and @pearynice and @sageclipse and @kaspurrcat because i allllllwayyyysss love to see what you guys are up to ! <3 <3 <3

anyways see u guys never bc this burst of inspiration will inevitably not last long

[lingeringmirth]

Wiggly Worm Wed-thursday!! 🧠🪱

Was tagged by @devondespresso!

-

I'm only just getting back to consistent writing after absconding to Scotland and then being sick (still sick, wear masks, children!), and am swamped with my bangs, but here's a brainworm anyway.

I keep thinking about movie-au's, or whatever they're called when you take the plot of a movie and use your blorbos. And, darlings, my fellow steddie-brainrot afflicted dears... I give you Romeo+Juliet, the Baz Luhrman movie, not the Shakespeare play. (I just wanted to specify, okay.)

It has EVERYTHING.

Eddie would, of course, be Romeo and Steve Juliet, although casting Stev as the hopeless romantic would be one's initial response, but no, the Capulet's ARE the Harrington's, especially Capulet senior (I forget his name, sorry!)

IDK who everyone else would be, maybe the Corroded Coffin boys are Eddie's posse, with Gareth being Mercutio (who has secretly been banging Tybalt, who is... dundundun, Billy.)

The priest would be Mr Clarke and Wayne would be both of Eddie-Romeo's parents.

Yeah. That's all I got. WIll likely never write this.

BONUS WORM!

You know that lovely old film, Some Like It Hot? Make it Stobin, is all I'm saying.

-

Sorry, too tired to tag anyone. Feel free to do this, if the mood strikes you!

[sevenmerrymagpies]

🪱Wiggly Worm Wednesday!🪱

@soaringornithopter tagged me back in July for one of these and I finally had something I want to share. If people are interested I would happily talk more about the alt season one I've imagined for this autistic Steve - all from Barb's POV.

I usually don't headcanon Steve as autistic. I like that idea for many other Stranger Things characters, and I have written Robin as explicitly autistic in a few of my fics, but for Steve, if I'm gonna make him neurodivergent, I usually don't pick autism. That doesn't mean I haven't read a lot of good fics where he is autistic, and of course, that got stuck in my head. How could Steve be autistic and be close to the character we see on screen?

Key canon characteristics that I think Steve has to have and would have to be addressed somehow would be: his popularity, his reputation with the ladies, his reputation as an asshole/bully, his athleticism, and his friendships with Tommy and Carol. 

His popularity could be explained by absent parents, good looks, and a lot of money at his disposal. To give an autistic flare, he could be naïve, a common trait. To the student body at large, that would make him either a lovable himbo or a usable idiot.

Steve was a weirdo in elementary school and probably a lot of middle school. My idea would be that he got hot early for a boy, so seventh or eighth grade. Carol probably realized he was impressionable and naïve, and she could use him as leverage on her own climb of the social ladder. Steve is not an idiot; he realizes that Carol is helping him not be a weirdo anymore. It also might explain why he is dismissive of Jonathan in the first few episodes. He was that kind of person, and he did not want to go back to that by any means necessary.

That would also explain his reputation as an asshole or even a bully. Even if he doesn't explicitly bully, if he is autistic, there's a good chance he misses a lot of the social cues of more subtle bullying done around him because he's either spacing out (thanks to the overstimulating school environment) or he is straight up missing the cue. It would also explain why he doesn't stop Tommy most of the time, but when Nancy complains, he does stop Tommy. She's giving him a cue he can understand that Tommy is overstepping. I also think hanging around Tommy and Carol would skew the cues that Steve has learned. He is meaner than he would otherwise be because he learned by watching them.

If I had to choose between hyper or hypo-sensitive to most stimuli, I would make Steve hypo-sensitive and sensory-seeking. That would potentially explain part of his love of athleticism because he's getting a lot of proprioceptive feedback through roughhousing, training, and playing in games. It also might be why he seeks out sex as much as he does in canon. Especially if you add handsome, naïve, and sensory seeking together, you get somebody who might seek out sex and get sex on the regular (caveat regular sex for a high schooler). I think someone who was hypersensitive to stimuli would not seek those experiences out as much.

Finally, I love making Steve's athleticism part of his special interests. I love that Steve was obsessed with baseball stats as a kid. That is almost cool and gets him a modicum of respect from his peers. He's not bad at sports in elementary school during PE, and maybe even talented at some things, but he doesn't have the attention span for it because he doesn't care about it at first. After he gets into the stats and they start playing baseball in PE, he discovers a love for the memorization and collection of statistics and the actual game itself. It also gets him a modicum of social approval, which he desperately desires. He got into more sports as time went on, and his special interest expanded because he learned that baseball was both fun to collect and fun to play. He expands his play as well. Because he is sensory-seeking, he also gets a lot of self-regulation from playing sports, and that helps reinforce his love for them.

In canon, he also has a reputation for being vain. I'd love to give him another special interest in his appearance. This is a guy who goes out of his way to buy fashion magazines when he goes to Chicago with his parents because that's the only place he can buy Vogue Men Italia.

I like the idea of those two special interests helping him pass.

Finally, I'd love to give him a big special interest that he keeps secret because he learned in elementary school that no one cared, and in fact, it made him weirder. Something benign but also that he could dive deep into. I kind of like astronomy, with a subsection of Greek mythology as a logical extension of learning astronomy when you are a child. He learned about the constellations and deep-dived into Greek mythology to learn what the constellations meant. But he doesn't even share this stuff with his parents because it's too weird.

Finally, it's very important to this version of Steve that he would not meet the criteria to be diagnosed as autistic in the late 60s and into the 70s. So he would have no idea why he was different, just that he was very different, and always had to keep it under wraps.

[mojowitchcraft]

Wiggly Worm Wednesday!! 🧠🪱

tagged by @someforeignband and @bilbosmom-belladonna 🩷

Full disclosure: my worms have been on strike lately!

I've bounced around working on different WIPs to try and get my writing mojo back, but nothing was really lighting that spark. I'm trying not to force things and just write when I feel like it. Also trying not to get too in my feels about it and hope that I'll be able to post things again.

Things I've got in the works and hope to finish one day:

Steddie Dads aka We Part To Meet Again Chapters 1 & 2 posted last year, I was working on Chapter 3 and need to finish outlining the overarching plot and figure out how long I actually want to make it (I originally projected 3 chapters)

Foot Fic Was an idea for sub eddie week where Eddie develops a foot kink that I didn't finish and need to get back to!

Underwear Fic Based on a tweet. I have a page or so written for it and would love to get back to it one day!

Frat Boy Steve aka Acta, Non Verba This one i've talked about lots, probably too much, and I'm grateful that I waited before posting any of it cause I've been back working on the doc the past couple weeks and I've changed some things and worked on the outline. I'm really excited about this one but I'm making myself wait to post any of it so I don't have another unfinished WIP looming over me

I have a bunch of other things I need to work on like finishing Bat Eddie aka Living In A Lunar Spell, and Part 10 of Night Drives but being burnt out and having writers block has been a challenge!

Sending my love to all the writers out there who are still trucking along and posting stuff, it's rough out there! Fingers crossed people still want to read my writing when I finally get back into posting again. 🤞

[bilbosmom-belladonna]

Wiggly Worm Wednesday 🧠🪱

Thank you for the tag, @endlessmusings1801! I am SO behind on tag games but this one comes with a deadline so I'm gonna roll with it.

Fall is coming to the northern hemisphere, and with it the inevitable arrival of All Things Halloween, which has got me thinking: if there was any kind of professional haunted house/forest/hayride/corn maze/whatever in Hawkins, Indiana, YOU KNOW Eddie Munson was working there every October.

I mean, it combines his three favorite things: theatrical performances, spooky shit, and terrifying normal people! You cannot tell me Eddie wasn't working late every night, jump-scaring assholes from high school or cackling maniacally at the suburban moms that sneer at him in the grocery store.

There's a LOT of fun ways this could go in my mind, both in the 80s and in a modern AU. I am stirring it around in my head like a big gooey cauldron of possibility.

With that in mind, here's a quick little modern AU meet-ugly, based off of a real interaction I saw at a haunted forest many years ago.

Steve scoffed, but didn't let go of his hand. "No, he didn't. You were the one who screamed!" They could see the lights of the parking lot up ahead of them, the wide mulched path leading them out of the trees and away from the haunted forest.

🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

"Okay but the mad scientist totally scared the shit out of you," Tommy said, laughing meanly.

"It was a manly scream," Tommy insisted, pouting. "Like, to let him know I meant business."

Steve laughed and rolled his eyes. He hadn't thought much of Tommy's choice for their first date, but he had had more fun than he thought. He had promised himself there would only be one date—Tommy had whined at him long enough to get that—but maybe he could be convinced to try another one. It hadn't been that bad, especially because they had spent most of it screaming and not actually talking. Not even in Steve's top five worst dates.

...maybe the top twenty though.

Tommy started describing the horrors of the werewolf den in detail, as if Steve hadn't been there too, when suddenly from behind them there came the rumbling sound of a chainsaw.

Steve looked over his shoulder and saw a man in a hockey mask barreling down on them, running full-speed with a chainsaw held in front of him, revving it menacingly. On instinct he started running, pelting along the path toward the parking lot.

Tommy was right beside him running until Steve tripped and went down, his ankle twisting painfully under him. Tommy instantly dropped his hand and kept running.

"Tommy!" Steve cried, but Tommy was already too far ahead, racing full-speed for the safety of the cars.

Steve grimaced and tried to stand, pushing up onto his knees but faltering when he tried to put weight on his ankle. Behind him, he heard the chainsaw revving. He turned to see the man in the hockey mask stalking toward him.

It was an actor, of course—Steve felt stupid for not realizing it, a last-minute scare when they thought they were finally safe. He looked back down and tried to get up again, but fell back with a cry when his ankle couldn't take it.

"Holy shit, dude," came a muffled voice. Steve looked up to see the man in the hockey mask—the actor, he supposed—standing above him, hand outstretched.

"You okay?" the man asked.

Steve made a face and grabbed his hand to pull himself up, managing to stand awkwardly on one foot and lean on the man's arm.

"Think I twisted it," he gritted out.

"Shit," Hockey Mask said. He clipped his chainsaw—his fake chainsaw—to his belt and pulled the mask up, revealing messy curls and big brown eyes. "You, uh, you want me to find your date?"

"Fuck him," Steve said immediately. "I'll call a rideshare."

Tommy had just landed himself in the number one spot of Steve's "worst dates" list.

"Yeah, what an asshole," Hockey Mask agreed. He wrapped an arm around Steve's shoulders. "Come on, I'll walk you over to where they pick up."

"Thanks," Steve said gratefully, leaning into his warm side and trying not to wince as he hobbled.

"I'm Eddie," Hockey Mask said with a smile as he walked slowly along. "Sorry about your ankle."

Steve huffed a laugh. "I'm Steve," he replied, "sorry for making you, uh, break character or whatever."

Eddie smiled, his bright eyes reflecting the flickering torches that lined the path. "Nah, don't worry about it. I got plenty of good scares in tonight. Though your boyfriend might take the cake."

"Not my boyfriend," Steve said emphatically. "And he's not even getting a second date."

They reached the edge of the parking lot, where a couple of benches were set up for people waiting for rides. Steve gratefully collapsed onto one. He gingerly tried putting some weight on his ankle and found it a little more stable. Eddie hovered awkwardly over him.

"Thanks," Steve said with a grateful smile. "I'll be okay here, don't want you to get in trouble for slacking off," he added reluctantly. Eddie, he thought, had a really nice smile.

"Look, um," Eddie stammered. "I—uh, I get off in about twenty minutes anyway. If you want I could, um. I could drive you home? Make sure you get there safe?" He twisted his hands in front of him, looking awkward and hopeful despite the fake blood spattered all over his shirt.

Cute, Steve thought.

"Hmmm, I dunno," Steve said slowly. "Wouldn't want to let an actual serial killer drive me home to my apartment." He smirked up at Eddie.

"The mask and the chainsaw are company property," Eddie said quickly. He spread his hands wide. "It would just be little ol' me."

"Okay, well, as long as you're not gonna murder me, I guess it's okay," Steve grinned. "I'll just wait here then."

Eddie's eyes went wide, then he grinned so far his cheeks stretched all the way out. "Okay!" he agreed. He dropped his hockey mask back over his face and picked up his chainsaw, revving it again. "Back to the grind," he growled from behind the mask. Then he was stalking back across the parking lot, terrorizing a group of girls who were huddled by the apple cider stand.

Steve shook his head and carefully lifted his leg up onto the bench. Maybe this first date was salvageable after all.

👑🎸🎃

I will tag @itcanbepalped @soaringornithopter @mojowitchcraft

Looking forward to whatever you've got cooking!