This week’s writer spotlight feature is: @thesecynicaldoeeyes! oatmilkandfangs has 4 fics posted to AO3 in the Stranger Things fandom and 3 of them are in the Steddie tag!
@dame-zoom-a-latte recommends the following works by oatmilkandfangs:
We Hear the Engines Cry
To Summon the Divine
Restless and Wild
"They come up with such good premises for their fic, then make them even better with incredible pacing. Every chapter moves forward in a way that keeps me completely hooked, while ALSO managing to squeeze in smaller, more domestic moments that makes the characters feel so much more real. It's a hard balance, and Ash manages to strike it every time." -- @dame-zoom-a-latte
Below the cut, oatmilkandfangs answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!
Why do you write Steddie?
The ship hit me like a brick when the duo blasted onto screen in 2022. I really, really love their dynamic. Grumpy and Sunshine, but the Sunshine character isn't who you'd expect. Or should I say Bitchy and Sunshine? Actually, they can both be bitchy mean girls. But there's something about the former popular jock turned monster fighter/babysitter and the nerdy little metalhead that's just so perfect. This is a long answer, but a more direct answer would be I write them because I think they have a lot of chemistry and their scenes in S4 are honestly my favorite (but I'm biased). And despite not having a lot of screentime, there's so much to explore with the characters. Putting them in new and different situations or keeping it as close to canon as possible, just… there's so much potential for them!
What’s your favorite trope to READ?
I think, based on my ao3 history at least, it must be Alternate Universes. There's so much to explore with an alternate universe! And I particularly like ones that are almost exactly the same, just a little to the left. Just one thing that's different, but it can change so much!
What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?
Wow, that's a tough one! I think my answer is probably the same, Alternate Universes. I love a good AU. I love picking up my Barbie dolls (the characters) and putting them in an entirely different dollhouse and then just setting them loose, see what they'll do. Will they freak out? Will they break? Will they love it? Guess we'll find out.
What’s your favorite Steddie fic?
God, another hard one! If I have to choose just one, it has to be the lathe by palmviolet. It was the first Steddie fic I ever read, shared with me by a friend. It's angsty AF, it's a slowburn, there's wibbly wobbly timey wimey… stuff. There's parts of it that just… live in my brain, seared there for eternity, and I think it really affected the way I view Steddie. Altered my brain chemistry in the best way. It's beautifully written and the character exploration is so good; I really admire palmviolet's writing style.
Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?
Ooooo! That's a fun question. Hmmm. Writing something in a Medieval/Fantasy setting is something I'd really like to explore. I'm actually surprised I haven't yet considering that's all I read growing up; YA fantasy novels. Time Travel is another… they have so much potential for angst! You could fix everything… or make everything horribly worse. Do werewolves count as a trope? Because that's another one. Who doesn't love werewolf Steve?
Are there any memorable Steddie collaborations (art, writing, podfic, etc.) you've done or would like to do?
During the 2025 Steddie Big Bang, @monologichno collaborated with me to design art for my bang project, We Hear the Engines Cry! We talked about a specific scene in the fic and honestly, the final piece blew me away!!! It's so perfect, captures the atmosphere so beautifully and is just a stunning piece. I would love to co-write a Steddie fic someday, with the right person, where we each write for one side of the ship (dibs on Eddie). And it'd be super cool to do a podfic! I wouldn't know where to start with the making/producing side, but I think it'd be fun to lend my voice to one.
What is your writing process like?
When starting a new fic, the first thing I do is make an outline. I used to be more of a "write by the seat of my pants" type of writer, but I ended up not finishing many stories that way, so having the structure of an outline really helps me stay on track. After I have my outline and I know how I want to take the story, I'll start writing. I've got more energy in the mornings, so my writing days usually look like: get up, take a walk, have breakfast, grab coffee (the coffee is important), sit down and start writing as early as possible. I write in the order of my outline; no jumping around from scene to scene for me.. My brain's not built like that! I have to write it out chronologically, that's the only way that makes sense.
What writing tools do you use, if any? For example, do you participate in community writing events like sprints or prompts, or have a favorite writing program aid like Scrivener?
My favorite writing program is Ellipsus. I was using Google Docs until I discovered how evil they are. Shouldn't have surprised me, to be honest. Ellipsus is so easy to use and I love the different themes they have which makes everything look prettier (currently using Orchid Noir). Other writing tools, let's see, my trusty wrist brace for those long typing days! And I do participate in community sprints. Shoutout to Moth's Madness! We're sprinting in there all the time. I find it motivating to write while others are writing at the same time, so we can cheer each other on and ask each other things like "what's a good word to describe XYZ"? or “what color are a coyote’s eyes”? (A legitimate question I asked recently.)
Do you have any writing quirks?
Writing quirks… hmmm… my use of… ellipses… maybe, hahaha. Or parentheses. I think I tend to over-describe things, usually in the same sentence. Like "his tone was hushed and quiet" and those kind of mean the same thing. I also tend to use one line sentences to punctuate a moment or a thought in a scene, break them away from the rest of the paragraph for emphasis. (See, I just did the over-describing thing. And the parenthesis thing.) And there I go ending this answer on an ellipsis…
Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?
I prefer posting on a schedule after the fic is completely finished. I think I'd feel too much pressure on myself otherwise. With chaptered fics, I really enjoy drawing it out, ya know like how TV used to be? One episode airing a week instead of binging it all in one go. With single chapter stories, they get posted as soon as they're complete and have been edited.
Which fic are you most proud of?
Aww, jeez, asking me to choose between my children. I'm proud of them all for different reasons! To give a concrete answer, I think I am most proud of We Hear the Engines Cry. To date, it is the longest thing I have ever written (which was after my completely incorrect assumption that it would somehow only be 50k). It is the first fic I ever posted publicly, so it's very special to me for that reason. I wrote it for the 2025 Steddie Big Bang, which I joined on a whim because I'd always wanted to participate ever since its inception. I'd also always wanted to post a fic publicly, but never had largely due to fear that nobody would like it. We Hear the Engines Cry really got me motivated to not only participate in a big event, but to also take a leap and share something I made with the rest of the world. I am very proud of everything I put into that fic (the blood, the sweat, the motor oil). I've never written anything at all like that before; it's my baby.
What's a funny or interesting or completely wild research topic you've dug into as a result of writing Steddie?
So, I wrote a car fic. I just mentioned it. It's called We Hear the Engines Cry. It's uh, got some human on car action going on there. I researched how sex with a car could possibly work in real life and my findings opened up a whole new world for me that I didn't even know existed. Modified beer koozies in tailpipes… that's all I'm going to say! But I didn’t know that much about cars to begin with and I wrote a whole fic starring a car character, so some interesting things did crop up for me. Like, just… noticing cars more. How they look, how they sound. How they work! Now, I still don’t really know anything about how cars work, but I did get a hands-on lesson on how to change a headlight from all this.
How did you get the idea for Restless and Wild?
Oh, good question! I was trying to come up with an idea for the @strangerthingskinktober event I co-mod and I was like, "what if I just make Eddie have the most terribly frustrating day ever?" You know it's so fun to torture him. So, the whole idea was based around Eddie's desperate attempts to get off, but something always interrupting him before he could. I picked some prompts from our list, stuff that I hadn't written about, but prompts I thought would be fun to write! And then I just set the boys loose.
When writing Restless and Wild, what was something you didn’t expect?
I thought it would be a lot shorter, if I'm being totally honest. It went on quite a bit longer than intended, but I'm not mad about it. Even though I was trying to write something a lot shorter. But no, I cannot help being wordsy, apparently. Even during a Q&A.
What inspired To Summon the Divine?
Ohhhhhhhh, this is something I think only one person other than me knows. This reveal is so funny, OMG. The short answer is: KPop Demon Hunters. It's a fantastic movie, we all agree, yes? Catchy tunes. Badass ladies. Demon boy band. 10/10, no notes. I was listening to the soundtrack a lot after I first watched it (as one does). And during the song Takedown, I started envisioning this fight between a demon and a priest and those characters turned into Eddie and Steve. The whole fic idea manifested from there. But in the movie itself, I thought it was interesting that they touched on the fact that demons aren't solely evil (Jinu proves that) but they didn't really explore it more than just the one single demon that isn't entirely "bad". So, I thought it would be interesting to explore that concept in a fic. Steve is raised to believe that all demons are evil; it's their nature. But what if things aren't as black and white as he believes?
What was your favorite part to write from We Hear the Engines Cry?
I think my favorite part to write was the final fight scene. I can see it in my mind so clearly and I did my best to get it on the page exactly as I imagined it. I wanted it to feel like a scene from a movie, if that makes sense. Everything is heightened, the stakes are so high, will everyone make it out alive? Writing those really tension filled scenes is a lot of fun for me. But also… the car wash scene. That was really fun to write too. I remember messaging a friend "I think I found a way to include a gratuitous car wash scene!" and damn, I did. Quite pleased with how that scene turned out.
How do/did you feel writing To Summon the Divine?
Excited! I think overall excited. It's also the first fic I've written that wasn't for an event. I just wrote it because I wanted to, so it was nice not to have a deadline or anything. It's also been really cathartic for me too, coming from a former religious upbringing. So, it's really personal to me as well. A lot of stuff that comes up for Steve is stuff that I felt/thought/experienced once upon a time. He gets to confront his demons (literally and figuratively) in a way I never got to, so it feels very gratifying to be able to tell a story like this and see that people are enjoying it.
What was the most difficult part of writing We Hear the Engines Cry?
I think the most difficult part for me was writing from Steve's POV. I am far more used to writing from Eddie's POV. He lives in my brain rent free. So, I really struggled with finding Steve's voice, constantly asking myself "Does this sound like Steve?" "Would Steve say/do that?" etc. I think I managed, even if I'm still not as confident writing Steve's POV as I am Eddie's. Eddie's voice comes pretty naturally to me, but Steve's I have to think about.
Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?
Aaaahhhhhhhh another tough one! There is a moment in To Summon the Divine (in an as of right now unreleased chapter) where Steve and Eddie kiss for the first time. There's a lot of thoughts going through Steve's head, a lot of conflicting emotions. He stops Eddie from kissing him, says that it's a sin. Eddie tells him "Then sin with me" and honestly, I love that line. There's also a line in Restless and Wild that just makes me chuckle. Claudia Henderson invites the boys to come over and Eddie says "I'd love to come. Nothing would please me more than coming right now." And yes, it's a double entendre.
Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?
I've begun posting my latest fic, To Summon the Divine, on a weekly schedule. Chapter One is out now with Chapter Two dropping on April 14th! There will be some amazing beautiful art by @thelovelyleviathan in a later chapter too, so look out for that. I can't share anything about my Steddie Big Bang or Upside Down Mega Bang projects, but I'm participating in both events this year. That's where all my attention is focused right now, so I don’t have any other projects going at the moment. But I just published a 5k Nancy Wheeler monsterfucker fic that I never planned on writing, so you never know!
Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?
I'd like to say thank you to the people that run this blog! I think it's a lovely thing y'all do, to promote Steddie works that don't get as much attention as they deserve! And thank you for the nomination! Other than that, I love the Steddie community. I love our two boys. I love this ship. I am nowhere near done writing for them and if you made it this far (because gods, I yapped a lot), thanks for reading!
Thank you to our author, @thesecynicaldoeeyes, and our nominator, @dame-zoom-a-latte! See more of oatmilkandfangs' works featured on our page throughout the day!
Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!
