side blog for all my stranger things. so old I'm dead in fandom years (follows back from pezilla cause I don't understand tumblr even after 10000years on this hellsite)
Super exited to bring my project #32 @steddiebbang fic for 2026 from it's super secret potting shed.
In true me style I'm drawing inspiration from a childhood favourite, the wonderful 1986 musical extravaganza The Little Shop of Horrors.
The lovely @al-at-once picked my idea to create art for and wants to help it grow and I can't wait to see what they do with it!
And I get to work with the amazing @artsadvocatetrashcan again as my poor unsuspecting lab experiment / beta... i promised i wasn't going to write 180k words on this one and they better make sure I don't!
🪴 🌱 🌿 🌾 🌵 🏵 🪴 🌱 🌿 🌾 🌵 🏵 🪴 🌱 🌿
Get a teaser below the cut !
On the twenty-third day of September, in an early year of a decade not too long before our own, the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence... This terrifying enemy surfaced,as such enemies often do, in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places.
A dying suburb on the edge of the big city. Hawkins was not the thriving metropolis it had once been.
The money upped and left years before, leaving little behind in its rush to kick up dust and go. The shadow of wealth still clung to the buildings, looming structures that once held finery and grandeur now housed thrift stores and discount wear houses. Laundromats and repair shops filled the spaces where coffee shops and bakeries had used to fill the street with sweetness and life.
Eddie Munson lived here. In this suburb of the forgotten, the ones that couldn't or wouldn't escape, the ones who were left behind. But he dreamed big.
He wanted to get out; he wanted to escape the shit hand that the world had dealt him. Eddie had come to the city looking for his big break, and he stayed because going back to his Uncle Wayne out in the boons would mean admitting he had failed.
He was alone. The rest of his band had called it a day, and now he lived in the tiny one-room apartment below the flower shop that had offered him work because he knew how to use a hose and could tell a weed from a rhododendron.
He didn't know much, but he knew plants, and that had saved him from returning to bumfuck nowhere with his tail between his legs.
Creel Flower Shop was exactly what you would expect from a plant shop in a built-up city suburb where most people only had a window box, or if they were lucky, a balcony to grow. Nothing new or exciting sat on the shelves; no, this was not a place for that, as much as Eddie would like to put his self-taught talents to better use.
Mostly, the owner, Henry Creel, left him to his own devices, and he filled his days with pottering around the shop, filling orders for the contract clients. The only thing that kept the shops' heads above water was that the Henderson's at the funeral home kept them in business. And when he wasn't fashioning wreaths for the dearly departed, the proximity to the subway meant occasional businessmen passing through from whatever whore house they had frequented, buying a bunch of perfectly cut roses to appease some of their guilt when they got home.
Eddie had a lot of time to think and curate his own little slice of paradise up on the roof.
You wouldn't think it if you were looking at him. The ripped jeans, the tattoos, the long hair, and the rings didn't exactly scream green fingers. But Eddie loved plants, the weirder the better.
Vriesea, Flaming swords, and Hemerocallis grew side by side, blooming under his careful care. He filled his spare time hunting for something new, something exciting, something that would make him famous. Eddie Munson, botanist to the president. Admittedly, it wasn't as cool as metal god. But at least he wouldn't have to rely on anyone else for his success.
On this day, it was a day just like any other.
Until it wasn't.
Eddie often bought plants from other local vendors, people who also liked the strange and unusual. Bauman Botanics and Exotic Goods sold everything from houseplants to bootlegged Russian vodka; the inventory varied depending on how much the owner, Murray, liked you, or how much, and what you could do for him in return.
Eddie had several exotic plants that he would never have seen in real life if it weren't for Murray's eccentric nature. So he didn't even bat an eyelid when the man in question flounced out of his shop, adorned in bright blue underpants and a housecoat looking like a bargain basement pimp.
He greeted Eddie by gesturing towards the table along the storefront. Showing off his new saplings, fully grown succulents, and sweeping vines that Eddie inspected with curiosity, even if he was not looking to buy.
Out of the stock before him, Eddie already had cuttings and mature plants in his collection, so nothing had caught his eye. Nothing piqued his interest, not even the creeping vine that seemed determined to snuff out the death's head clematis that bordered the shop door.
He was just about to say as much when the bright sunshine around them suddenly faded, darkness fell, and the street became quiet and subdued.
A total eclipse of the sun.
It lasted a second, if that, and Murray looked just as confused as Eddie felt. Nobody had mentioned they were due for a solar eclipse, yet there was no mistaking the astrological phenomenon currently taking place.
And just like that…
It was over. And when Eddie turned to ask Murray if he had any idea what that was all about, he noticed it.
A plant unlike anything he had seen before, nestling into a coffee can and leaning towards the returning sun.
Eddie reached to grab it, sure that the plant trembling was entirely in his mind.
It didn’t look like any of Murray's other plants, but he sold it to him anyway.
dont mind me, just catching up on the backlog of monthly fic recs 👋
i know i said i was gonna lump january to april all together in one big post with no screenshots but i changed my mind lol (came up with a slightly more efficient way of doing it so it’s not so bad)
beat switch
by @griesly
steddie | explicit | 8,052 words
(new years eve, getting together, d&d)
Anatomy of a Misunderstanding
by L_hyuga
byler | explicit | 53,105 words
long haired freaks plz apply
by @griefabyss69
steddie | explicit | 7,538 words
all this time (how could you not know?)
by @astrobei
byler | teen & up | 27,550 words
"You ever been in love?"
by @hairmetal666
steddie | teen & up | 12,484 words
no end to this want
by @astrobei
byler | teen & up | 21,472 words
naming the stars in the sky after you
by @rosynov
steddie | explicit | 51,664 words
(second chance romance, divorced dad!steve)
Service Disruptions
by @hellfireloserclub
steddie | explicit | 16,034 words
philly is for lovers
by backtotheoldhouse (knightedheart)
stonathan | teen & up | 2,865 words
Triad
by @hullosweetpea
mr clarke/benny/wayne munson | teen & up | 1,405 words
(a niche omegaverse discord exchange gift especially for me & my special interests!)
the boy who loved (the boy who survived)
by I_Will_Survive
byler | mature | 127,809 words
liquidize
by @greatunironic
steddie | explicit | 10,228 words
(modern au, rockstar!eddie, transfem!stevie)
FEBRUARY
love in slow motion
by @astrobei
byler | teen & up | 29,011 words
Between Furballs and Heavy Metal
by @pedroschka
steddie | general audiences | 20,001 words
(cat sitter!eddie, communicating through notes, cats! cats! cats!)
Like Everybody Else Does
by peachstatic
byler | teen & up | 48,479 words
Last Hurrah
by peachstatic
byler | teen & up | 6,324 words
parts 1-3 of something you can fix
something you can fix by some1_around
hollanov | mature | 26,824 words
something you can build by some1_around
hollanov | mature | 96,881 words
(Sequel to “something you can fix,” set post-Heated Rivalry, pre-The Long Game)
it felt like we were something by some1_around
hollanov | unrated | 10,992 words
(Companion piece! You will need to have read the rest of the series for this to make any sense—here be spoilers!)
The Amos Brude Scholarship for Married Artists
by hesjustlikemefr
steddie | teen & up | 12,325 words
(fake marriage college au slice of life)
remember me, love (when i am reborn)
by @eredmes
byler | general audiences | 7,500 words
punch in the nose (don’t overreact)
by goldenpigboy
byler | teen & up | 52,737 words
Smalltown Queer
by @indybaggins
byler | explicit | 65,523 words
briar & bone
by @griesly
steddie | explicit | 44,590 words
(beauty and the beast au)
Authors! You have a bit over 48 hours to submit your fic for art claims! Submissions will be closing at 11:59 pm PDT on May 17th. If you plan on participating in the bang, please submit your fics. Links for submission can be found in your email or in the bang discord
Every single fic update there is an author trying frantically to find the right balance between a nonchalant aside of "leave a comment if you enjoyed =)" and clinging desperately to the coat tails of a random stranger, dragging along behind them on the street wailing "Please, please! I have to know what you thought! I'm desperate to talk to people about this! Ask me about the alliterative repetition! Ask me about the symbolism!"
Credit card companies will TRY to saddle you with this kind of debt by the way - if ever a loved one dies and you are not co-signed on their credit card, do NOT agree to pay their debt unless you ask a lawyer first if you truly have to.
They will say “don’t you want them to go to the grave without debt”, they will try to guilt you, they will take advantage of your vulnerability.
Source: when my father died, he had some credit cards that my mom wasn’t on that she had no access to. The companies contacted her while she was sorting through the bills and getting a handle on how to run the house alone, badgering her with his credit card debt.
She wasn’t liable for any of it, but if she had ever agreed to pay before finding out that she didn’t need to, she would have been considered to have taken on his debt and would have HAD to pay it. It’s slimy, it’s predatory, and it’s entirely legal for them to do this.
Never accept the credit card company’s word about your obligation to pay anyone else’s debt, if you don’t have access to the card, ask a lawyer before agreeing to anything.
shut up i know this is late and i'm super duper behing on my fic recs. but better late than never — allegedly — so here you are.
(ps. jsyk i'm probably gonna lump january—april/may? recs into one post with no screenshots though cos it would be too much to take & add that many screenshots or make that many posts.)
✂️ ✂️ 24 STRANGER THINGS FANFIC RECOMMENDATIONS UNDER THE CUT (mostly steddie but also a couple of bylers) ✂️ ✂️
Cream For Your Coffee
by @steddiehands86
steddie | explicit | 46,889 words
(omegaverse coffee shop au with actor!steve and much misunderstanding)
(yeah i drew art for this)
Crawling Back To You (Cause I Always Do)
by @lexirosewrites
steddie | explicit | 9,230 words
(omegaverse s5 rewrite with kas!eddie in the upside down and mpreg)
A quiet I keep on keeping
by ethereal_queer
steddie | teen & up | 22,133 words
(robin & eddie fake date and steve has realisations)
wild, wild horses (couldn't drag me away)
by @ro15in
steddie | explicit | 27,425 words
(rockstar eddie x florist steve)
You are the best thing that’s ever been mine
by @psychotic-fangirl369
byler | teen & up | 3,832 words
(mike has a sexuality crisis cos will keeps complimenting him)
[podfic] Shipwrecked in the '80s (Still Adrift in the '90s)
by @hullomoon
steddie | explicit | 2:56:59
Shipwrecked in the '80s (Still Adrift in the '90s)
by @thisapplepielife
steddie | explicit | 27,250 words
(second chance romance 10 years after they broke up)
I'll Keep the King
by @kikidoesfanfic
steddie | teen & up | 35,766 words
(hellfire adopts steve)
you haven't got a prayer
by @emchant3d, @inflomora-art
steddie | explicit | 3,012 words
(omegaverse, cnc stuck in a wall roleplay)
Dirty Decaf Chai
by @loudsnapdragon
steddie | teen & up | 36,729 words
(annoying orders coffeeshop au)
Pirin Tablets at The Ruby Slipper
by @tedewitt
steddie | explicit | 30,900 words
(birdcage au with drag queen!eddie)
(i was the steddie bang artist for this one)
How Will You Know If You Found Me At Last?
by DiscoSuperFly
steddie | explicit | 38,823 words
(tattoo artist!steve x professor eddie romcom)
you took my heart (i was sleeping)
by lameparties
byler | teen & up | 52,625 words
(power outage bed sharing)
Baby It's Cold Outside
by @hbyrde36
steddie | explicit | 9,380 words
(eddie saves steve in a snowstorm meetcute)
downpour by djo_slut
eddie x gareth | explicit | 3,590 words
Please don’t hate me by djo_slut
eddie x gareth | explicit | 4,024 words
(trans gareth, underage, dubious consent)
either on or off the drugs
by @greatunironic
steddie | explicit | 9,660 words
Do I Look As Hungry As I Feel
by thoroughlycomposed
steddie | teen & up | 20,727 words
(BETA STEVE — i needed this for beta representation)
To Save A Metalhead
by @novacorpsrecruit
steddie | teen & up | 13,717 words
(time travel kid fic)
Black Gloves and A Tank Top
by @eddywoww
steddie | explicit | 8,248 words
(omegaverse, tattoo artist!eddie)
These Boots Are Gonna Walk All Over You
by @itcanbepalped
steddie | mature | 2,626 words
(crocs saga, foot fetish)
Christmas Magic (Grown Your Own Boyfriend)
by @machtaholic
steddie | general audiences | 981 words
(grow your own boyfriend!steve)
Salt and Sweet: Halotherapy
by Anaxarete
steddie | explicit | 77,840 words
(recent widower baker!steve x author!eddie, grief, ptsd)
and i'm gonna keep on loving you
by @ataliagold
steddie | teen & up | 3,906 words
(kas!eddie stuck in the upside down at WSQK station)
will byers’ guide to advanced concepts in painting
by falloutboi
byler | mature | 18,435 words
(college au, mike models for art student!will)
Here’s my first drawing for both the @corrodedcoffinfest’s Decades Bingo 1980s card and the @steddiebingo’s Hop Into Spring Mini Event 😊💕
Corroded Coffin Fest 2026 Decades Bingo - 1980s : A1 - Bruce Springsteen / A2 - Duran Duran / A3 - Whitney Houston / A4 - Metallica - Unforgiven - Eddie / A5 - N.W.A // B1 - George Michael / B2 - Boy George / B3 - George Harrison / B4 - The Georgia Satellites / B5 - George Strait // C1 - Dwight Yoakam / C2 - Prince / C3 - Free Space / C4 - Huey Lewis & The News / C5 - Madonna - Love Profusion - DrumCheer // D1 - Blondie / D2 - Michael Jackson / D3 - Iron Maiden / D4 - Lionel Richie / D5 - Ozzy Osbourne // E1 - Daryl Hall & John Oates / E2 - Traveling Wilburys / E3 - The Cure / E4 - Kate Bush / E5 - Guns'n'Roses
Steddie Bingo 2025 - Hop Into Spring Mini Event : A1 - Sweet // B1 - "Promise you won't forget me ?" // D1 - Hate Sex // E1 - Proxy Fucking
"There's something in the air in Hollywood" - Sapphic Steddie - 07.05.2026
I was immediately hit by the memory of the kiss between Madonna and Britney Spears during the MTV Music Awards from 2003 and of course I had to make it Steddie with Popstar Stevie and Rockstar Eddie 😉:3
Done using ink pens, colored pencils, gel pens, alcohol markers, graphite pencils and Photoshop for the background, bokeh effect, the jewelry and belt, the bow in Stevie's hair, the musicians gear, the leather texture on Eddie's pants and harness, the glitter pattern on Stevie's outfit, for Eddie's tattoos, the light and shadows effect, and for the prompt title
AO3 post 1 / AO3 post 2 / Bluesky post / DeviantArt post / Instagram post / Pillowfort post / Twitter post
Done using ink pens, colored pencils, gel pens, alcohol markers, graphite pencils and Photoshop for the background, bokeh effect, the jewelry and belt, the bow in Stevie's hair, the musicians gear, the leather texture on Eddie's pants and harness, the glitter pattern on Stevie's outfit, for Eddie's tattoos and for the light and shadows effect
AO3 post 1 / AO3 post 2 / Bluesky post / DeviantArt post / Instagram post / Pillowfort post / Twitter post
Steve and Eddie are what most people would call “polar opposites”
This is mostly because they run in different crowds, like different things, listen to different music, dress differently, and are just overall on opposite ends of the social spectrum. To literally every other person on the planet, they are polar opposites who will never, ever get along.
Polar opposites who look at each other from across every room they’re in, polar opposites who somehow end up paired together for every project, polar opposites who bump shoulders as they pass each other in the hall.
Polar opposites who take separate vehicles but always end up at the same place. The same trailer park, same trailer, same dinner table, same couch, same lazy Saturday mornings in the same bed.
Steve and Eddie are what most people would call polar opposites, but Wayne Munson would call them head over heels in love.
So @stevesjockstrap I hope you like this for your @steddieexchange
( i would check the link for a better resolution cause Tumblr will have nuked it from orbit.)
Went with the good old supernatural prompt from the list, but in a change from vampire kas Eddie, I'm hitting you with star crossed werewolf Eddie and his handsome Vampire lover Steve, who are forbidden from being together cause... well they are sworn enemy's from birth.
Obviously, they meet up every full moon at the graveyard where Steve likes to hang out. Right in between the wild garlic and the wolfsbane, that have grown over the hundreds of years they have been doing this, cause of course they would NEVER, get up to anything somewhere that could kill them would they?
Kas!Eddie AU where Kas and Eddie are two different consciousnesses trapped in Eddie's body, one which Vecna planted and the other which is still a clinging mind attached to the brain inside the body which is only half-awake at the best of times.
Kas starts off exactly as the other creatures of the Upside Down, but he's smarter. He stalks the military and the strange car that carries an unfamiliar (familiar?) man who's attempting to map out his dimension. Kas chuckles as the man runs from his swarms of bats, his underlings who follow his beckoning call. (Eddie shrieks from inside, as much as he and Hopper don't get along he still knows the chief, knows that the others had mentioned him in their nightmare realm stories. He hates watching him scramble away from Kas's musings. Hates submitting to Vecna.)
It's only during a patrol around the strange radio building that something inside Kas twists, feels something detangle from his mess of self control and ability to freely think. There's a signal that relays through his mind - where his Master's call should reside - that sounds comforting. It's a warm voice, faintly audible beyond static. Then it plays this overwhelmingly wonderful music straight into his head and Eddie twists to grasp some control over his own body as large wings flutter gently to have them land within the radio station. The sounds get louder and they sit there for a good hour just listening to Metallica in their mind. (Kas purrs at the warm voice that breaks in between songs, so much friendlier than his Master's demands. Eddie gags and has half the mind to think some awful retort about the name of Vecna right back at Kas. Kas finds this confusing.)
Later, Kas gets to meet the source of that voice. Steve smells of a beautiful thrumming iron beneath his skin and flesh, and there's a strangely safe aura that surrounds the human who set foot into his realm. Eddie beams happily at the familiar face (and the others, too. Despite how horrified Dustin looks at what they've become. Despite the lack of control and the blinding press of Vecna into their skull which wants them to killkillkill). They can only spend a few fleeting moments before skittering off, Kas taking to the skies and pulling his winged army away with him. Theres a sadness that aches in unison with the hurt looks on the groups' faces, but they can't stay with them. Not yet.
Eddie wakes up more as they talk. Kas isn't much for human words but their thoughts can still be mutually understood inside their mind. Eddie tells him about how awful it is what Vecna (not a "master" of anything, who has no control over Kas) is trying to do to everyone, to Steve. (Something hisses possessively in his chest, and Eddie nods in a disdained agreement. How strange it is, to fall so fast.)
((How strange it is, as well, to find something like that in each other. Familiarity and protectiveness, even if they only exist within the other's head. It's them, after all, they will always have each other at the end of the day. Kas sometimes wishes he could curl around Eddie and hold him safely beneath his wings like he might be able to do with anyone else, but he can't, so instead he curls up in his nest around the body they share while Eddies assures him that they'll figure something out.))
Kas figures out how to let Eddie have control the second time they come across the group, letting his body go loose as the other conscious makes decisions instead. It feels weird, but Kas doesn't mind it. It feels less demanding than Vecna's orders, more like taking a rest back in his nest after a long patrol. Eddie catches up with the others and explains their situation, Dustin in particular lighting up with curiosity about their body-mind situation. Begrudgingly, as Vecna begins to press at the corners of their mind, they hug and say their parting words before heading separate ways. (The party no longer has to be concerned with the bats, They agree. If They can help with anything, it's that.)
There's planning, lots of it. And stolen kisses, as Kas possessively curls around Steve and drags him away from the others where They have the chance. He turns to goo with the human's affection, and Eddie seems equally happy with Their arrangement. Kas thinks them something like the mates he sees amongst his bats, but Eddie chokes out something about phrasing with the term and requests They use the term "partners" instead. Kas accepts this term, as long as it means They both get to protect and love the human as much as They like.
They manage to help defeat Vecna, Kas's trusted right hand position letting Them give the others a head start. (Eddie muses something about Kas the Betrayer in their mind as They take out an eye and an arm. Kas doesn't understand, but he preens under the praise from the party when everyone regroups.)
Kas is afraid he'll disappear in the after, scared he'll vanish with the rest of his realm. Everyone comforts him in the moments it takes for El to close the gate and seal away his world (and potentially him) for forever. He doesn't, though, instead opening Their squeezed shut eyes to the same image that met Them before. There is both celebration and sadness that he feels from Eddie, and Kas understands. This isn't his body, this is Eddie's body where Vecna put him. But Eddie reassures him that it would most likely be even more weird if Kas vanished, so they make do. (The wings get smaller, as do the claws and tails. More manageable, slightly more human. They can no longer fly, wingspan too weak. But that's okay. They're still here, that's all that matters.)
Steve happily accepts both of Them. Loves Them equally. He falls harder every day for Eddie's fun charms and they share their human affections. The human also indulges Kas, lets him curl up around him and kiss him till neither of them can breathe and shadows them in the darkness of Their wings. He says that there are subtle ways to tell the difference between Them before any real confirmation is made. Kas's eyes constrict differently to create a slight murky red, pupils always dilated and facial expressions more subtle. The way Kas holds Their body is apparently different too, more loose and fluid, less fidgety. ("Animalistic, but not in a bad way." Steve says to him one night. Kas understands, and then wraps himself around Steve so he can bury his face in the other's neck. It earns him a chuckle and a delicate hand in his hair.)
All the kids are a hard adjustment. At first, some of them poke and prod and question now that the fighting is over. But then it settles, and they settle into a flow of accommodation for Kas's slightly different needs and Eddie's lack of constance presence around them. (Sometimes, They slip during one of the kid's games, and it causes a funny moment between them all.) At one point, Mike tries to make the connection that Kas is something like a pet, but that word gets Eddie, Steve, and Dustin all equally riled up about his intelligence. Kas doesn't understand what it means, but Eddie and Steve assure him later on that they think of him just as equally as they do of each other. He preens with that notion, loving them both the same.
So @stevesjockstrap I hope you like this for your @steddieexchange
( i would check the link for a better resolution cause Tumblr will have nuked it from orbit.)
Went with the good old supernatural prompt from the list, but in a change from vampire kas Eddie, I'm hitting you with star crossed werewolf Eddie and his handsome Vampire lover Steve, who are forbidden from being together cause... well they are sworn enemy's from birth.
Obviously, they meet up every full moon at the graveyard where Steve likes to hang out. Right in between the wild garlic and the wolfsbane, that have grown over the hundreds of years they have been doing this, cause of course they would NEVER, get up to anything somewhere that could kill them would they?
My writer is still working hard on the fic that goes with this for the @strangerthingsreversebigbang so think of this as a teaser for when @tedewitt manages to get across the finish line ! I know you can do it lovely!
So watch this space for more art and the story link when it goes live !
