I think part of the problem today is that we, as writers, are so focused on writing for what the audience will like and not simply writing for the sake of telling a story.
"I can't write 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person, use these vocabulary words, or make these two characters kiss, because someone who picks up my story might not like it."
Or if someone wrote a spin-off or continuation of my fic, or they linked my fic as an inspiration for their fic
To know that one of my creative works touched someone so deeply that it compelled them to be creative themselves would honestly be one of the greatest honors in the world
let’s be real the pressure to use AI as an adult is exactly what they said the pressure the do drugs as a teenager would be like but the people that told us that caved immediately for the AI and definitely did not just say no
we have to thank our brave soldiers in fandom who write gen fics. we have to thank our brave soldiers in fandom who write character studies and stories with no focus on romance or sex. we have to get on our knees and thank the brave soldiers in fandom who write about minor characters and friendship and family with no focus on romance or sex. i know it’s hard to care about characters in a world that seems to only revolve around ships but i see you. and i love you
Posting excerpts from my ST Mer AU in MerMay until I reach my target audience- The Demorays
From Song of Storge, Chapter 7 by BeyondGoneHairGoals on AO3
Steve panted, “Those demorays took like a pound of flesh.”
Nancy blinked. “Demorays?”
“Well, we’ve got Demogorgons and demodogs. Why not demorays?”
Robin squirmed and asked, “Do you think he has rabies? Because I am absolutely terrified of rabies. Once you start showing symptoms, it is too late. You are practically dead.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “No, Robin, I do not have rabies.”
“What if you have some weird, I don’t know, Upside Down variant? Do we even know what to look out for?”
“Robin, he doesn’t have rabies,” Nancy insisted.
Eddie asked, “You could just heal yourself, though, right?” He paused and realized that the merman had yet to heal himself from his wounds at all. “You can heal those too, right?”
Steve coughed. He answered, “Doesn’t work like that. It has to be other people, and those people have to be feeling hope.”
Eddie swallowed. Another tidbit of merfolk lore was added to his arsenal but at the cost of someone who was quickly becoming one of his friends. He wondered, What else is there about you that we don’t know?
Posting excerpts from my ST Mer AU in MerMay until I reach my target audience- My AU's Upside Down
From Song of Storge, Chapter 7 by BeyondGoneHairGoals on AO3
Eddie could hear the creatures behind him, whatever they were, settle. It gnawed at him that they were going in the direction that those fiendish things wanted. Unfortunately, as they went further, his flashlight started to flicker.
“Come on,” he grumbled. He hit the side of it with the base of his palm, but it faded out and died.
As soon as his light extinguished, the walls around them lit up in bioluminescence. The vines had round blotches of blue, and the walls shimmered with specks of gold and green. As the water brushed up against the vines, the closest bits of blue would darken into a violet. Their vibrant glow shone even underwater before the light was overpowered by its murkiness. Eddie peered down the tunnel from which they came. If he squinted his eyes, he could make out tiny glowing deep red blobs that scuttled around one another like busy worker bees.
His mouth hung agape as he marveled at the sight around him. The light from the glowing parts of the tunnel was equivalent to the light outside at dusk. He could see his watch on his wrist, but the time kept glitching to different numbers. Eddie sighed. It probably got wet during his ride down there or the fight.
Robin looked around her with childlike wonder. She said in awe, “It’s… beautiful.”
Posting excerpts from my ST Mer AU in MerMay until I reach my target audience
From Song of Storge, Chapter 6 by BeyondGoneHairGoals on AO3
Eddie wracked his brain for anything he could ask, anything he could say, that could lighten the mood. He wanted to ask how many other merfolk there were, how their magic worked with healing others and transforming into humans, or how they were able to speak even though they had gills instead of lungs. He stroked his chin like it had an imaginary beard. He thought, Speak… words… How does he even know English? An idea popped into his head.
He said, “Alright, how about this: tell me how a magical creature from the sea has a name like Steve.”
Eddie leaned back and was proud of his question, especially because it sort of rhymed.
Steve lifted up his head as a light returned to his face. He replied through a crooked smile, “That’s actually a funny story.”
Dustin bobbed around in his seat and said, “Oh, he’s gonna love this.”
“What?” Eddie asked.
Steve told him, “I didn’t know how to communicate with you guys at first. We aren’t taught the languages of the landwalkers. However, I can understand tone pretty well, and I picked up on what you’re saying pretty quickly. Besides, Nancy was a good teacher. Anyways, how we speak is much more like how dolphins speak.”
“Dolphins?”
“Yeah, Eddie, dolphins. So, my merfolk name is this…”
Steve proceeded to produce a noise that was somewhere between a click and a buzz followed by a two-note whistle.
The three laughed. There was no earthly way a human, without loads of practice, could recreate such a sound. Eddie was completely engulfed in the idea of such a unique language. His Dungeon Master mind already searched for ways to weave it into a new homebrew campaign.
Eddie asked, still in disbelief, “That’s your name?”
“That’s one of them, yeah, but I prefer Steve. That’s who I am now. Mike named me after Steven Avenue, which is where I am told the arcade is.”
Eddie took another drag of his cigarette. He knew right where Steven Avenue was. Not only was it the street where the arcade and the video rental store sat, but it was also conveniently located next to a secluded beach with massive smooth rocks that jut out of the water. It was the perfect place to rendezvous in secret with a legendary sea creature. A creature named Steve by Mike Wheeler, of all people.
Posting excerpts from my ST Mer AU in MerMay until I reach my target audience
From Song of Storge, Chapter 6 by BeyondGoneHairGoals on AO3
“Anyways, stuff was already going on that summer. In the ocean, that is. I used to not be the only mer in Hawkins. My parents, my pod used to be here too.”
“Well, sometimes,” Dustin clarified. “They actually migrate a lot like whales.”
Eddie’s face made an ‘oh.’ He added migration to his growing log of merfolk lore.
Steve continued, “Not long after we met and started seeing each other more often, they sensed something was wrong. But this wasn’t just me being with Nancy, a human.” Steve inched closer. “It was something else. They could feel that the walls between worlds were thinning.”
Dustin said, “El called it the Call, like the Call of Ktulu.”
Eddie gulped. While he loved horror novels, he lost sleep after diving headfirst into the Lovecraftian mythos. Reading books about terrifying sea monster gods from outer space late at night was not the best move ninth grade Eddie made, especially when he lives right by a beach. Even though it was in the middle of the summer at the time, he refused to dip even his toe into the water for a whole month.
Steve went on, “It was like the warning shakes before the first gate opened. They wanted me to come with them, but I said no. I wanted to stay behind, to be with Nancy. I was always more like a prop to them anyways.” He rested his chin on the dock and his expression distanced. “There’s a way for merfolk like me to go on land. I was hoping that would happen by now, but…” and he trailed off.
Steve? On land? Eddie wondered. Like what? In a fish tank? He blew out smoke in a thin line.
“I’m just ready to get it over with. I am ready to leave my tail behind. Everyone I really care for is on land.”
Eddie raised his eyebrows. He would become human. The metalhead questioned, “How?”
Steve licked his lips. Dustin leaned forward and reached out his hand on the deck in encouragement.
The merman revealed, “A true love’s kiss.”
Eddie’s mouth hung agape in shock.
It seemed absurd and stupid like it came out of a Disney movie, but Steve and Dustin’s serious demeanor confirmed its truth. Steve’s face filled with heaviness, his brown eyes growing more and more doleful by the second.
Then, it hit Eddie just how lonely Steve must feel. He was the last merman in Hawkins, and likely the entirety of Southern California and beyond. His only companions were his species’s land counterparts, the humans. Alas, he could never be truly with them because not only did he not have a pair of legs but his existence was also a secret to the rest of the world.
Steve clarified, “I didn’t fall in love with Nancy to get on land. That would have just been the natural consequence. I’ve always wanted a family of my own with a whole school of kids, like six of them. I want to have that relationship with somebody— that family love that I never really had with my own. I figured I could make it.”
“You have, Steve,” Dustin said.
Steve shrugged. The fins on top of his head twitched and glistened in the lowering sun. He looked up at Eddie with his chin still planted on his arms and asked, “Is there anything else you want to know?”
Posting excerpts from my ST Mer AU in MerMay until I reach my target audience
From Song of Storge, Chapter 6 by BeyondGoneHairGoals on AO3
“Eddie!” Mrs. Henderson exclaimed. “What are you doing here? Is Dusty here?”
“Hey, Mrs. Henderson,” Eddie greeted. “He’s down putting more gas in the dinghy.”
Eddie continued on through the house to the kitchen. He grabbed himself a glass of water and fetched some ice out of the freezer. He chugged it down within seconds and refilled his glass.
“What were you guys doing out there?” Mrs. Henderson’s voice asked from the living room.
“Just going for a ride,” he lied. Dustin’s mom was the last person in Hawkins that could handle the truth. Eddie figured she’d spontaneously combust from anxiety if she knew.
“Did you get in with your clothes on?”
Eddie took another swing of the water before replying, “No. Why?”
“It’s just, you’re soaking wet, dear.”
Eddie looked down at his feet. While he was not actively dripping water, he could trace his wet footsteps over the kitchen tiles and back to the carpeted living room. He grimaced.
“Yeah, sorry,” he said. “We got splashed.”
“Do you mind grabbing a towel to dry off?”
Eddie scanned the kitchen and his eyes landed on a neatly folded yellow dish towel on the countertop by the sink. He narrowed his eyes and snatched it.
In the middle of rubbing it on his face, the back door swung open and closed with a clink. Tews let out a delighted trill.
Eddie heard Dustin say behind him, “Hey, buddy. Hey, mom.”
“Dusty!” Mrs. Henderson cooed. “Eddie said you and he went for a ride on the boat?”
“Yeah, we did. Lots of fun. Super relaxing. Nothing big happened,” Dustin said, his voice pressed.
“Oh, Dusty. Did you drop your hat in the water?”
Eddie froze. The top of his hat was still wet from him using it to summon Steve.
Dustin awkwardly laughed, “Yeah, silly me.”
“Silly you,” his mom teased.
Eddie gave the rest of his body a quick wipe down and put the cloth back on the counter by the sink. His shoes squeaked as he made his way into the living room, and he found Dustin giving his mom a hug and a kiss on the top of her head. Eddie awkwardly leaned in the doorway.
Dustin hovered around Mrs. Henderson and put his hand on her shoulder. He asked, “Mom, can I order some pizza? Eddie’s gonna stay the night. We’ll stay out of your hair.”
She patted Dustin’s hand. “Yes, but make sure you get Surfer Boy’s so I can get some of the Hawaiian.”
Dustin visibly cringed. “Yes, mom.”
While Eddie took a leak, Dustin called the pizza place. He heard his friend complain to his mom from the kitchen, “I swear each time I call them they’re high.”
When Eddie emerged after washing his hands, he said, “Can’t blame them for trying to keep up the morale.”
Mrs. Henderson gave him a concerned look.
“But they shouldn’t,” he hastily corrected himself, “Because all drugs are bad, even marijuana. Did you know that, Dustin?”
Dustin rolled his eyes and fanned him away. He spoke into the phone, “Yes, that will be to 109 South Lee Street in Hawkins.”
Eddie stifled a laugh. He stepped closer to his friend to find another way to bug him, but Dustin shot him an intense glare. His friend snapped his fingers and pointed down at the dock. Eddie nodded.
Before heading out the back door and down to the canal, Eddie said, “It was nice seeing you, Mrs. Henderson.”
Dustin’s mom offered him a weak smile and turned back to watching the television.
Eddie trailed around to the front of the house and grabbed a pack of smokes and his lighter from his van. When he made his way back to the other side of the house, he saw that Steve was right where they left him on the warm wooden planks of the dock. The merman was sprawled out in pure bliss like a four-pointed starfish. Most notably, his eyes were closed. A roguish idea popped into Eddie’s head, and he shoved his stuff in his pockets.
He carefully sneaked his way down the stairs crunched over like a sly fox. His footsteps were silent, a skill he learned in his early youth from sneaking cookies from the kitchen and perfected when his dad started bringing him on jobs.
He held his hands out in front of him. The western sun cast long shadows through his fingers. A devilish smile spread across his lips. He gently placed his feet on the dock. Steve continued to lie peacefully. Eddie’s pupils dilated. His body shook with excitement.
He leaped forward just a foot away from Steve’s head with a thud. “Boo!”
Steve jerked with a yelp and started to flop around like a literal fish out of water until he inelegantly fell off the side into the canal with a splash.
Eddie doubled over with his hands on his knees and cackled like a madman. The water became cloudy from Steve’s body hitting the murky floor. Before he had a chance to strike back, Eddie stepped away from the edge of the dock. His efforts proved futile when he was hit with a jet of water in his face that Steve launched by squeezing his palms.
Eddie waved his hands. “I yield! I yield!”
He checked his pockets. Still dry, he found. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
Steve glared daggers at him from below. Eddie inhaled his cigarette and quipped, “Now you know how it feels.”
Steve snorted. He slowly shook his head and said, “I admit, you got me good.”
The back door of the Hendersons’ house slammed shut. Dustin announced from the top of the steps, “Pizza’ll be here in a little under an hour!”
“I hope he got the kind with the fruit on it,” Steve said.
Eddie was taken aback. “The pineapple?”
“Yeah! That’s what it’s called. Pineapple.”
Eddie rubbed his forehead. He thought, I’m surrounded by barbarians. However, his stomach started to growl, and any food started to sound inviting.
Dustin settled on the dock a few steps upwind from Eddie. Steve swam so he was in between them from the water. Dustin grinned so big as he looked between his two friends that Eddie was sure he just saw a dimple he never knew was there.
“What?” Eddie asked as he took another drag of his cigarette.
“I still can’t believe both of you guys are here,” Dustin answered. “It’s just, I don’t know, cool, I guess.”
Steve cocked an eyebrow.
Dustin told him, “I know you sometimes got jealous of my other older male friend–”
“I never said I was jealous!” Steve interrupted. He turned to Eddie and stressed, “Never said that.”
Eddie felt vaguely uncomfortable by Dustin’s phrasing, but something inside him loosened.
He admitted, “You know, I was pretty jealous too. I mean, how could some guy I’ve never met before be friends with my friends and yet be ever so elusive with his company, some guy that they say is always getting into fights he cannot finish, and who managed to fumble Nancy Wheeler ended up being a pretty decent dude.”
Posting excerpts from my ST Mer AU in MerMay until I reach my target audience
From Song of Storge, Chapter 6 by BeyondGoneHairGoals on AO3
Steve asked, “Have you heard anything from Nancy and the rest of them?”
Dustin shook his head.
Eddie leaned back in his seat. Nancy’s tone when greeting just Steve over the walkie-talkie and now Steve asking about her by name made the wheels inside his head turn. It was a strange intimacy that shone through when Nancy shed her shell of seriousness. After all, it was she who rescued him from a tangled net. Maybe they did have something going on that was more than what meets the eye.
Taking a gamble, Eddie asked, “What’s the deal with you and Nancy?”
Steve’s face turned red and he looked over at Dustin for help.
“Don’t look at me!” Dustin protested. “Answer him.”
Steve took a deep breath and said, “It’s stupid, I know. When Nancy rescued me from the net, I fell. I fell hard. Merfolk are not supposed to be seen by humans, let alone interact with them. My parents were furious— I realize now that they were terrified. It wasn’t long after they decided to leave. Nancy and I tried to make it work for a while, but it didn’t pan out.”
Eddie scooched closer to the edge. He said, “So, Nancy left and got with Jonathan. Why don’t you go after Robin? She seems like a nice girl.”
Dustin cut in, “That’s what I’ve been saying!”
Steve waved his arms in front of him in an x formation. “Absolutely not! Our relationship is strictly platonic,” he insisted. “She’s like the little sister I never wanted.”
Eddie nodded in understanding. Since he and Ronnie became friends, it was like everyone and their mother were hell-bent on trying to warp them into a couple. Of course, Eddie and Ronnie saw each other more like cousins than romantic prospects. He could puke at just the thought of flirting with her.
Eddie told Steve, “Well, man, then I wish you the best of luck.”
Posting excerpts from my ST Mer AU in MerMay until I reach my target audience
From Song of Storge, Chapter 6 by BeyondGoneHairGoals on AO3
“Do Dustin, Mike, and Lucas come down here often?” Eddie asked.
A light woke up in Steve’s eyes. He replied, “They do, but they have been busier since starting high school. They used to have another friend in their group, a boy named Will Byers. He’d come down a lot.”
“Jonathan’s little brother? He had a bowl cut, right?”
Steve confirmed with a nod and said, “That’s the one. He’s a cool kid, been through a lot. Quiet, but creative and resourceful. First to call out Mike on his bullshit.”
“You know, I think I ran into him one time about a year after he went missing,” Eddie said. If he remembered correctly, that was right after the whole fiasco with a potential record deal in Los Angeles imploded and his dad left him behind his burned down childhood home. Will was ‘Zombie Boy,’ a little survivor who just so happened to share Eddie’s interest in Dungeons and Dragons.
Eddie asked, “How did you meet all of them, anyways?”
Steve tensed like the question was a hot coal that was thrown at his head. “It’s a long story,”
“I’ve got the time,” Eddie encouraged, his interest piqued by Steve’s reluctance. “Everyone else is on their way here. I’m not going anywhere.”
The merman took a deep breath and his gills rippled. He said, “In the summer of ‘83, I got caught in an abandoned fishnet. Nancy was out snorkeling with her friend Barb and found me.”
The name ‘Barb’ rang a bell in Eddie’s brain. He knew she went missing around the same time as Will and that her disappearance ended up being pinned on Hawkins Lab. However, he could not remember them ever interacting and had no idea what she looked like. A wad of guilt sat in his stomach. Knowing what he knows now, she probably faced a similar fate to Chrissy. He shuddered.
Posting excerpts from my ST Mer AU in MerMay until I reach my target audience
From Song of Storge, Chapter 6 by BeyondGoneHairGoals on AO3
Without warning, Eddie sprung to his feet and searched around the room for something to preoccupy himself for the next few hours. His guitar glowed on his wall like the holy grail. With a mischievous smile, he strode over to his most prized possession. Eddie took his guitar off the wall and pulled the strap over his head.
“I’ll get you tuned up, honey, and we’ll be ready to go,” he cooed. Just as he predicted, the G string had gone flat since the last time he played it. He tutted as he tightened it to the right pitch.
Naughty girl, he thought.
He plugged in his guitar and a pair of headphones into his amp. It was one of Uncle Wayne’s only rules that while he was at the house, Eddie had to use headphones or face the breaker shutting off electricity to his room.
He at first warmed up with some scales and picking patterns before he dove into playing through songs. The calluses on his fingertips had started to weaken from excess water exposure, so the strings felt uncomfortable when he pressed down. He let out a frustrated grunt and took to bending as many notes as possible to force them back into their former glory.
Music, especially playing guitar, often felt like his only escape from his hellhole. The melodies melted away his misery like how a sunny spring day melts away seasonal depression. While it took him away from his woes, his guitar was also his shield to hide behind. He felt free to express his anger, frustration, fear, longing, and love when he had it in his grasp. When he performed on stage with his band, it was his faceless mask. His guitar was the bridge between Eddie the Freak and Eddie the Almost Rockstar. It kept him grounded while taking him on flights he could only imagine.
Posting excerpts from my ST Mer AU in MerMay until I reach my target audience
From Song of Storge, Chapter 5 by BeyondGoneHairGoals on AO3
The group gathered in a semi-circle on the dock facing the water. Eddie hung in the back with a suspicious stance.
He crossed his arms over his chest and asked, “Okay, Henderson. Now what?”
Dustin, almost ceremonially, took off his ball cap and squatted down on the edge of the dock. Without warning, he smacked the top of his hat on the surface of the water. Eddie stared at him in utter bewilderment.
A shimmer of movement caught the attention of everyone aboard the dock. Eddie watched in shock as someone’s head appeared out of the water just feet away. Of course, this was no normal human head. Eddie’s body froze like a deer in headlights as recognition sunk in. No freaking way, he thought.
It was none other than the merfolk creature who rescued him during the storm.
The creature smiled wide when it saw Dustin, but a moment of pause came over its face when its gaze fell upon Eddie. It swam forward and rose its body out of the water. Just like it was a normal human being, it hung onto the dock by folding its arms on the edge.
Eddie’s heart felt like it could not take much more. He was sure that if anyone looked close enough they could see his arteries pulsing on his temples. The creature’s scales glistened in the sunlight and its forearm fins flexed under its weight. The mop of appendages on its head unnervingly twitched and moved in the breeze.
Like a proud student presenting something he brought for show-and-tell, Dustin introduced, “Eddie, this is Steve. Steve, this is Eddie.”
“This is Steve?” Eddie questioned. There was no way the person who had helped Dustin prepare for the winter dance, helped Lucas ask out his first girlfriend, and saved them and Mike from a pack of rabid dogs— which may or may not have been monsters from an alternate dimension— was the creature who saved him. Hell, didn’t the kids say Steve had a thing for Nancy a few years ago?
Lucas asked, “He’s the one who rescued you during the storm and brought you back, right?”
Eddie could only muster a curt nod. He wanted desperately to run away screaming, but his feet were cemented in place.
The creature, Steve, tilted his head, nonchalantly pointed his finger at Eddie, and in a completely human voice reminiscent of a young man asked, “This is Eddie?”
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