“Fuck ‘till death do we part,” Steve presses their foreheads together hard enough to feel the wrinkle in between Steve’s brow, “we’re long past that, baby.”
Eddie laughs a watery, startled sound from deep inside of him, stale around the edges but true in nature just like the rest of it.
“‘Till afterdeath,” he grins, the slip of tears down his cheeks transferring onto Steve’s when he kisses the corner of his mouth, nuzzling in so, impossibly close.
» sequel fic to METAMORPHOSES
» rated E | 7.9k words | steddie
Thanks @likes-words-and-shrimp and @yami268!!! Since there was some overlap, I decided to put them together here:
1: Summarize your WIP in 10 words or less.
“Major Character Undeath: good for drama, bad for the heart.”
3: Does your WIP have a title? If so, explain its significance. If not, what are you calling it for now?
Originally the title was “Echolocation,” as in divining surroundings using echoes (of the past), but I didn’t like the hard divide between past and present when the whole theme is about the meeting/comparison of the two. “Metamorphoses” is a better reflection of the way the past blends into present while still noting the differences between the two.
Plus, it gives me a chapter structure (15 “books” like Ovid’s Metamorphoses) and is a good excuse to use this perfect quote:
The raven once in snowy plumes was dressed,
White as the whitest dove's unsullied breast,
Fair as the guardian of the Capitol,
Soft as the swan; a large and lovely fowl;
His tongue, his prating tongue had changed him quite
To sooty blackness, from the purest white.
-Ovid, Metamorphoses
8: What is your biggest challenge?
I think the biggest challenge I’m having is defining the intentions of the “antagonist.” She just sort of goes along with the protagonists, and while that works to keep the focus on their relationships with each other, it makes the overall conflict a little... lackluster? I’m wondering if I should revisit an earlier draft where she was genuinely malicious, but I don’t want to rewrite a lot of the story. It’s a pain.
19: Post a picture or gif that describes your WIP.
btw did you guys know that the lovely and immensely talented @amanita-fierce has been creating a podfic of METAMORPHOSES and it's officially halfway done? because it is very very cool and good and wonderful and I want to make sure you know that MWAH🐍💚
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Hi hi!! I just recently finished Metamorphoses and have been thinking about it for a week solid. Just. Incredible. I’m talking about it with irls, that’s how much I’ve been THINKING.
I had a question relating to the epilogue; Eddie mentions that he and Steve broke up at one point but eventually came back together. What do you think was the cause for that official break? And what precipitated their getting together again? (I’m assuming the pauses that Eddie and Steve take in the fic are not the “official” breakup)
Thank you so much for sharing your work with us, and for putting so much love into what you do. ❤️
hi hello!!! I'm honored it's hung around in your brain that long thank you so much for your kind words😭but honestly what a coincidence because I am actually ALWAYS thinking about that universe 🥹💚
I would love to answer your question because the only reason I didn't include any of that in the actual epilogue is it would've screwed with the pacing So Much to go on a tangent like that (in an admittedly already too-long epilogue), but I've definitely thought about it!
Under the cut because it's me 🐍
The thing about where they're at by the end of the post-S4 timeline in that fic is they've grown and changed and matured a lot during that year and a half, right? They've learned so much about themselves and each other and where they fit, but they're also still so fucking young.
They're young enough that there's still just so much space for growing and changing to keep happening, and that's not an easy thing to always stick together through even when you're not prone to mental health relapses like these guys are.
They started working towards a proper Relationship with the capital R while they were still on kind of rocky ground healing wise, and no matter how solid they feel by chapter 10, someday they're going to be 25 and things will be changing again, they'll be changing again.
All of a sudden they're moving to a new city for each other and leaving behind the only place they've ever known each other and trying to find their footing all over again.
All of a sudden Eddie's changing career paths and making plans for a future he never thought he'd have and Steve is leaving behind all his repair-work clients in Indy and having to start fresh in Chicago.
All of a sudden there's a great big world outside of their door that's bigger than just them, and sure, that's always been the case, but maybe they got so comfortable in their bubble that going outside of it is as exciting as it is difficult.
There's so much still to learn about themselves, and they're both deeply imperfect, right? For Eddie there's the anxiety of losing his sense of self again and the ungrounded nature of that; for Steve there's maybe some lingering fear or even resentment for what it had felt like the last time Eddie decided to get up and go.
It's not just one thing, it's bigger than them just like the world, and it's Steve, ultimately, who decides he's scared enough of all the big upheavals that he can't be attached to Eddie like that right now, trapped in a tiny apartment together with nowhere for all the complexity to go.
Steve says he can't take care of himself while he's waiting for the other shoe to drop on Eddie's end of things, and so he walks away before Eddie can.
It's a break in the maturity, a taking over of old fears, but it makes sense, and even if it lasts less than 3 months in total, maybe it's good for them too.
Good to realize that they do exist outside of one another, that they don't need each other the way they once thought they did, but that they want each other all the same.
That it's no longer about not being able to stand without one another, and instead it's about standing by his side, holding his hand, even though he's got steady footing on his own two feet.
Steve is the one to walk away, and this time? It's Eddie who comes to him.
It's Eddie who says, I don't think I ever really grasped what it was like for you when I ran. I don't think I ever really apologized. I'm sorry.
It's Eddie who lays it all out on the table and makes it clear, I don't need you to fix me anymore, I just like holding your hand.
They still have so much space to grow and change, but the thing is, three months apart helps them realize maybe they're capable of doing it together.
Maybe it doesn't have to be earth-shattering every time.
Maybe it can last, as long as they keep working for it, wanting it, choosing it.
Just because they survived the end of the world doesn't mean they'll automatically be able to survive all the small stuff too, they know now, but they have the fight in them. The want.
twirling my hair around my finger, heyyyyyy. so how can i bribe you into sharing all the thought and comments you say you have about meta?
i don't really have any specific questions because ideally i'd want to open up your brain like a book and browse through absolutely everything, so i'm not sure where i should 'aim' so to speak?
is there smg in particular you'd like to share about? an area you want to expand on, because there's more than that's on the page that you'd like to explicitly discuss or just because it's your favorite to talk about?
i'm chin hands, and would be thrilled at every crumb you felt like sending our way queen
oh my GOD the can of worms here you don't know what you're doing I want to talk about METAMORPHOSES all the time always 😭
it's the fic I'm proudest for having said exactly what I wanted it to say without going on tangents the way my other longfic did and it's the fic I'm proudest for having completed both at all and the way I did narratively and I just!!
thanks for humoring me I know my rambling about this fic can get longwinded and annoying but it means the world to get to ramble at all tbh I am also twirling my hair kicking my feet etc super grateful for you, anon 💚💚💚
I've been sitting with this ask all day thinking about what little thing I could go on a self-indulgence about, but instead I just keep adding to the list of topics and giving you nothing so! if you would be so patient as to indulge me, a list in no particular order of things I worked hard on in the writing of that story:
(under the cut because, surprise surprise, I got longwinded again)
a motorcycle as a symbol of independence, meaning it's the thing that carries him to acts of joy but also acts of self-destruction, but also ultimately being something he gets to keep in the long run because relearning he does not have to earn independence and freedom by being good is kind of his whole deal during his healing process. he's human and he's allowed to fuck up and that doesn't mean he gets stripped of the right to potentially fuck up again in the future!
ourboros and cycles and the destruction/recreation-isms of recovery in the way Eddie has to rebuild all but from scratch post-Kas, and that when he relapses and falters the cycle starts over, only this time "from scratch" has a slightly stronger foundation
El. Just El in general and the reasons what she does in this fic is the most in-character thing I've ever written for her I LOVE HER SO MUCH AND I LOVED WRITING HER IN THIS FIC
the collective theme of our young adults as people who don't "turn out" the way they're expected to, who end up following paths that make sense entirely even if they don't look like they do on the surface, particularly for both Steve and Nancy who shirk careers that everyone on the outside perceives as being perfect for them in favor of ones that feel right, even accomplish the same things but in a way that's more natural to them (and also the way this aligns with Eddie's own journey of not being what he looks like on the surface)
MEDUSA. just. yeah. seeing being seen the danger in both the necessity of both the difference between a gift and punishment and so on and so forth
control over one's own physical appearance as grappling with control over literally anything else for both Eddie and El, and the ways they both go from that as a desperate sort of coping mechanism to a calmer and more joyful one
honestly just the formatting of the openings to each chapter and whose voices get bolded versus italicized (specifically later on in the fic) and why because it does change and it is on purpose fjadskl
Steve's pov of when Eddie runs away!!! I almost wrote a whole chapter of this but knew it would fuck up the pacing too much so I held myself back, but I think about his utter panic all the time when he realizes that Eddie is just gone and the last thing Steve did was say something bitchy and slam the door on his way out
Nancy and Eddie's dance lessons as a goofy bit of light-heartedness but also so much more than that
AND I'M GONNA STOP SORRY BUT YOU OPENED THE FLOOD GATES AND I CARE ABOUT THIS UNIVERSE TOO MUCH HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY AND THANK YOU DEARLY FOR ASKING I OWE YOU MY LIFE 💚🐍
@flowerfan2 the read more in your ask didn't show up for me, but I'm putting it here because I have been WAITING for someone to mention this THANK U
(METAMORHPOSES spoilers and ramblings under the cut 💚)
first things first thank you for all your kind words about this story, I appreciate it so much and I appreciate you giving me the chance to ramble on about it now too💚💚💚
SECOND THINGS SECOND.
this is a multilayered answer and apologies in advance for that, but I think what Eddie experiences in those moments versus what's actually happening are two different things so.
From Eddie's perspective, it is one hundred percent just memory and flashbacks and this extra thing that makes him feel like he's losing his mind in the immediate aftermath. There is zero question to him that it's not actually real and he never once questions it because he is so entrenched in his own dissociation from his self, which is also the only reason none of the red flags that a more level-headed Eddie might have picked up on fly under the radar for so long.
He is actively trying to separate himself from his body, choosing to ignore how it feels a lot because how it feels on many an occasion is just straight up bad. So when Eddie catches a flash of snakes or fangs in the TV reflection or the mirror or whatever, to him it's just the same as the echoing memories of what Kas's voice sounded like inside of his head.
Now for the reality of the situation which I never got to really dive into because it was in Eddie's perspective and our boy was an unreliable narrator when it came to what was going on with his body-- there are degrees to which he was shifting on accident depending on the moment and the context, and there were degrees to which the snakes were just trying to make themselves known in any way they could when he had a tight hold on keeping them physically in.
Which is a complicated way of saying-- that moment on the morning after Thanksgiving when he wakes up frozen and catches sight of snakes in the TV reflection after Steve leaves the room? Real snakes that he really forced back inside without ever realizing it because he was in a moment between wakefulness and sleep, thus, at a vulnerable enough moment for control to slip.
(It's also the first time he's shared a bed with someone and allowed for that trust and vulnerability which is hey maybe where his snakes saw an opening, even if they only managed it for a handful of seconds in the long run)
(also take two- I just really liked the fact that Steve got so close to seeing it in this moment but didn't)
But seeing himself in the mirror when he was fighting with Steve and packing to leave for Hawkins? Just a trick of the mind caused by the thing that wants to protect him from how scared he is in that moment, but can't because of how tense a hold he has on himself, how little he is allowing for anything remotely outside his control to happen.
Is that too complicated for something that never ended up having an impact on anything other than my own delight at dropping hints?? MAYBE BUT WHO CARES I HAD FUN.
thank you again and again and again for letting me talk about this can you tell I was hoping someone would ask one of these days fjadklfj
"What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm drawing illustrations for the first two chapters of my fic."
"Yes, but shouldn't you write the fic fir-"
"I'VE WRITTEN THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS; LEAVE ME ALONE!!"
Anyway. I hope you’ll read Metamorphoses when I finish it in, like, a year.
re that ask you answered about meta, when you lay down so many of the moving parts like that suddenly it's very obvious to me that i never stood a chance, i was always going to be obsessed with the masterpiece that it is.
one of my favorite literary tricks is when story is told -> detour to seemingly unrelated story -> detour's conclusion is gasp the overarching story's conclusion and makes them both land harder. and like, meta is this x1000, at all times you're juggling with 15 different things and they're all so unique and different but all the paths lead rome anyway, something like
1- you have to experiment to confront and learn who you are ( the physical appearance thing for el and eddie, nancy taking a break from college, eddie's unexpected love story with…a motorcycle lol, and oh yea that one little kas thing too) 2- then and only then you can start figuring out what's the best enrichment for your enclosure 3- there is no end in sight you just gotta keep working at it forever and ever. but dw it gets easier / you get better
this - and the medusa thing, but i'm touching on that, i'd have to write an actual entire essay. which, eventually i will, sorry. - is why i said i think your specialty is You Know What You're About btw
and the other thing is i tend to be Bad at getting symbolism if it's not broken down for me, and meta's such a smart fic it never dumbs itself down and it has so much going on, but it's like so sharply dileanated, or as you better put it, it says exactly what you want it to say, so even to me it managed to get all its messages across very loudly and clearly
so i'm reading that ask like YEA YEA i know exactly what you're talking about i did see all of those things, and you're right to talk about them they're all extremely exciting things!!!
well except maybe for the openings of chapter thing, considering that the first chapter's "ARE YOU LISTENING" succeeded in, i kid you not, scaring the ever loving shit out of me. i mean, that was still a kind of exciting, certainly. congratulation in making me spontaneously develop an existential fear @ big fonts i guess?
love this for me. anyway you did amazing with this as with everything else, tyvm
hum, sorry for having lost my mind quite so hard in your inbox there. but please never stop talking about meta, i love everything about it and i could talk about it forever so PLEASE let me know when i get annoying lol
first of all don't EVER apologize for something like this I mean I can't speak for everyone (although I doubt any writers are gonna disagree with me on this) but for someone to not only engage with a fic in their head this much but to take the time to say it out loud in my direction??? I owe you my LIFE I'm BESIDE MYSELF.
this is so so so cool all around, and especially because I get to see you picking up on all the little things I'm never sure people are picking up on because I'm never sure if I'm being concise enough to get them across in my writing, so I am unbelievably grateful to hear that you think all my silly little symbolism actually plays
also I too am obsessed with stories that seem to go off the rails only for the rails to converge again later on into the same set of rails, it is so fun for me to attempt and it is just as fun to hear this!! in this fic especially it was such a joy to just light a bunch of shit on fire and learn to juggle it as I went because that's kinda what Eddie was doing too the poor guy, but we got through it together
basically you are entirely too kind and I'll never forget this and I am so grateful that you guys give me chances to talk about the stuff I'm proud of having created so thank you for all of it 💚🐍
