#flayed robin au

[eskawrites]

omgomg i loved your flayed robin au so much (literally found it like yesterday)

i am. so excited to see that ngl because ive been thinking about a flayed-ish robin thing for a while as well!! started out as like a “haha oh vecna kinda cursing someone to take their energy to get stronger” and turned into “uh oh robins getting full on possessed”

found something really funny actually and it’s that i started plotting out that idea as a fic like. maybe last week. and then i find ANOTHER flayed robin fic??? i have never seen any other ones im so excited???

anyways!!! have a good day!!!!

ahhh thank you so much! flayed!robin my beloved! there aren't thattt many of them (that i know of) but there are definitely a few incredible flayed!robin things floating around

like UnholyHelbig's 'We're Going to End You' which i think might be the original flayed robin fic? it's a short lil thing based entirely around the traditional fire poker scene but it's so good and the description of the heat and the intensity and everything is so insane

also @snowangeldotmp3 has some flayed!robin stuff as part of her rebel robin: surviving the upside down universe that is so insanely good (linking the whole tag because every piece of it still lives in my mind rent free)

oh and there's the latest chapter of Unlikely, But Likely by @pocket-sand-fic that's a lil flayed!robin one-shot!

hopefully there's something in there you haven't seen yet because it's all so good! flayed!robin is so fun to explore (as is nancy's reaction, we love our feral protective gun-wielding girl)

(also i have to shout out the art @sweepy-stringbean made for my flayed!robin au, it's insanely good and sometimes i go find it again and just sigh happily because look at them!)

your fic idea sounds awesome and i'd love to see it! the world deserves more ronance flayed!robin stuff

[jumpedthenfell-13]

Basically every ronance sleepover that takes place before my flayed!Robin au fic:

Nancy: oh wow I’m in love with Robin. I can’t tell her though, I refuse to lose this friendship to something as controllable as some feelings. I can handle being friends with her. Nothing has to change.

Robin: oh my god oh my god oh my god she’s so pretty oh god oh god shut up I can’t say anything oh my GOD

[forever-eternal]

Could you possibly write a story about Adam’s childhood? Kinda like what you did with Robin but for him

Of course, Lovely! It’s not very good, motivation is dead rn, sorry about that!

Prim and Proper

Adam Jones had appeared in his father’s living room when he was still just a small child. A child with a partner, his best friend, Robin.

Adam Jones had a simple first few weeks, learning how to appear human, growing relations with his parents and the Cities that were his siblings. They got him a dog he named Todd, because he was young and they couldn’t always be around. They were older personifications, and while they tried-- they couldn’t stay at home without a reason the humans would accept.

But it was upon their return from their most recent meeting that they discover the nature of young Governments.

Todd barking and pushing frantically against their legs, the frantic tugging of the Call from young Robin, demanding they hurry up and check before she shows up and checks herself.

The house is full of yelling when they open the door, from the cities they know had arrived mere hours before and themselves at the scene they had stumbled in on.

Adam, the child they took in as their own, on the floor- shaking and convulsing as he coughes and gags on his own blood and sick.

Their Government is new and young, full of flaws and not yet something solid or unyielding.

Their child, as it’s Personficiation, is new and young. He’s sick and frail and it shows in his feverish state that wanes, but never fully disappears.

It doesn’t stop Adam from sneaking out to cause mischief with Robin, merely gives his parents and uncles a good reason not to believe anything someone says about him being a menace.

Todd was a spectacular help for Adam’s situation, the foxhound always seeming to know when the boy would fall into another feverish fit and alerting the Personifications nearby.

It gets better as Adam gets older, though his body’s reaction towards any illness forcing him into a bedridden fever never changes. One parent always with him on his bad nights, keeping watch of the rackety rise and fall of their child’s chest as he breathes.

But even so, their son had always been prim and proper-- even if he had to learn how to eat and chew his food. Always knowing what to say, always with the childish smile on his face as he talks the overzealous law enforcement in circles, always gleefully showing off the hats he nabbed from the passing British Soldiers with Robin.

Adam Jones is always prim, always proper, no matter what happens.

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

can you see the stars in your dreams (and do they have a lot to say about me) - Part 14

Or: a secret Admirer AU

TW: homophic language used due to internalized homophobia

PART 1 || PART 2 || PART 3 || PART 4 || PART 5 || PART 6 || PART 7 || PART 8 || PART 9 || PART 10 || PART 11 || PART 1 || PART 13

Steve doesn’t know what’s worse, not being able to see the expression on Eddie’s face, or the moment he turns around and he can see it. He looks like Steve just shot his dog. But, wouldn’t Chrissy be the dog in that metaphor? Steve drops it before Robin can somehow sense his train of thought and burst into the room with the sole purpose of punching him.

“So, what?” Eddie asks, voice sharp and angry. “This was all just some joke? Pick on the freak? Make him think a pretty girl actually likes him?”

Any sadness he’d been feeling is wiped off his face now, masked over with a tired sort of rage. It’s tempting to go along with Eddie’s assumptions. Yes, it was all just a joke. Yes, they’d all been laughing behind his back for weeks on end. After all, Eddie doesn’t look hurt, he looks pissed.

But, it’s too late. Steve had already seen the anguish in Eddie’s eyes before he’d banked it.

“No,” Steve murmurs, only noticing that Eddie’s mid-tirade when he stops talking. His head’s buzzing too loud to hear much else. “It wasn’t a joke.”

Eddie scoffs, waiting in pointed silence until Steve raises his head and meets his eyes. “Then how do you explain all this?” He gyrates his hand around the room, encompassing all four of their bodies with jerky movements. “Huh, Harrington?”

Steve swallows. He hopes it’s not as audible to everyone else as it is in his own ears, but by the way Eddie’s gaze snaps down to it before pulling back up to meet his eyes again, that hope is futile.

“I just—” Steve starts, forcing himself to keep looking at Eddie, even as his eyes flay him open. “It wasn’t supposed to get this complicated.”

“What does that mean?” Eddie asks, gritting out every word, body leaning toward Steve like he wants to reach across the distance between them and strangle him.

“I just like you, okay?” Steve snaps. Eddie jerks back like he’d just taken a blow. “I liked you, and I thought this would be a good way to, I don’t know, work through it?”

“You like me?” Eddie asks, almost laughing, just like that day in the cafeteria when he was singling out the jocks, just like he always does when something’s not funny but he’s pretending it is.

It hurts anyway.

“I’m sorry,” Steve mutters, staring down at his own lap, unable to look at anyone in the room. “I didn’t mean to make it your problem.”

“Didn’t mean to—” Eddie snaps, and Steve sees an abrupt enough movement that Steve’s afraid Eddie’s going to hit him. Steve jerks back into the couch, heartbeat rabbiting in his chest, but all Eddie’s done is stand, hands clenched, mouth snarling. “How the hell is tricking me into thinking Chrissy Cunningham liked me not making it my problem?”

“Eddie—“ Jeff cuts in, tone a warning, but Eddie doesn’t even seem to notice.

“You really think that’s ‘not making it my problem?’” Eddie asks, throwing finger quotations around it mockingly as he glares down at Steve. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Steve feels small, wishes he was smaller—he wants to sink into the cracks of the Munson’s ratty couch and never be seen again. This moment is too much for him.

He’s known ever since that moment in the cafeteria when Eddie’d pressed his lips to Chrissy’s hand that they’d end up here. He knew, but he’d kept writing the letters, kept Chrissy embroiled into his mess. Chrissy who’s standing silent and shocked behind Eddie, hand pressed to her mouth as Steve’s mess implodes around him.

“I’m sorry,” Steve replies, voice small. He’s not sure if he’s talking to Eddie, or Chrissy, or hell, even Jeff. He just knows that he really, truly is sorry.

“You’re sorry?” Eddie demands, and he’s pacing now, hands fisted into his own hair. “You’re sorry for what? For derailing my life? For making me think someone might actually like me? For what?”

Steve doesn’t say anything as he watches Eddie’s movements become more frenetic. He’s pulling his hair hard now, and all Steve wants to do is reach out and grab Eddie’s hands, make him stop hurting himself. But, it’s not his place, so he clenches his hands into fists atop his own thighs and looks up at the boy he likes unraveling at the seams. Because of him.

“The first time a girl actually likes me and it’s you.” It lands like venom, leaching through all the sinew and bone of Steve’s body and turning his beating heart into a pulpy mess. “What, you thought just because everyone calls me a freak that I’d be a quee—”

“Eddie!” It’s Chrissy and Jeff, both shouting out at the same time, clearly trying to get Eddie to stop talking before he says something irreversible.

It’s too late: Steve’s already heard him.

He doesn’t know what his own face is doing, but when Eddie finally looks at him, his face goes white, then turns sort of green like he’s going to be sick. When he takes a halting step forward, Steve can’t help the way he presses further into the couch, hands shaking where they’re still clenching in his lap.

He wants to scream, or cry, or die so he doesn’t have to do this anymore. But, Eddie’s right, this is all his fault, so the least he can do is offer up an explanation.

“It’s not Chrissy’s fault,” Steve says, looking down at his own shaking hands, willing them to lie still. “Or Jeff’s. I dragged them into this, so don’t be mad at them, okay?”

“Steve—” Chrissy says, voice choking with emotion.

“I was afraid.” Steve talks right over her, doesn’t even look her way. He can’t, or he’ll break. “But, that’s no excuse for making you have to deal with my bullshit.”

“Steve,” Chrissy tries again.

“I’m sorry.” Steve finally looks up from his lap, meeting Eddie’s fathomless eyes. “I’ll leave you alone now.”

Steve gets up on shaky legs and walks to the trailer’s front door, giving Eddie a wide berth. No one says anything as he makes his way through the small living room, or when he opens the door and steps through.

It’s only as the door’s shutting closed behind him that he hears Eddie say, “Shit Harrington, wait.”

Steve doesn’t. He walks down the Munson’s drive and straight out of the trailer park.

No one follows him.

***

The silence hangs like a noose in the trailer after the click of the door closing quietly behind Harrington’s drooping frame. Eddie stares into nothing, entirely blank.

“That was cruel.” It’s Chrissy who says it. Chrissy, who pretended to like him, who led him on, who…was just trying to protect her friend.

“Not any crueler than he was to me,” Eddie mutters, still staring at the closed door feeling inexplicably like he should run after him.

Instead, he turns his back on the door and tries to forget the slope of Harrington’s shoulders as he’d walked out on him.

His brain’s full of fog, emotions swirling around too quickly for him to catch any of them. He can’t make sense of any of this. Not Chrissy who pretended to like him or Steve Harrington, who actually did, not—

“You—” Eddie starts, eyes focusing as something else takes over his brain as he sets his sights on Jeff. “You knew?”

Jeff grimaces, but straightens his spine and tilts his chin up like Eddie’s the enemy now. “Yeah,” he says, all flippant, as if Eddie’s world isn’t shattering around his feet. “I knew.”

Eddie laughs, can’t help it with the way anger’s pooling in his gut. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“It was Steve’s secret to te—”

“Screw Steve!” Eddie shouts, suddenly enough that Chrissy takes a startled step back. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”

Jeff scoffs, stepping in front of Chrissy. “Your friend?” he demands with an incredulous laugh that makes Eddie want to strangle him. “You didn’t even tell me about the letters in the first fucking place!”

He stomps forward, coming at Eddie like he’s going to do—something, Eddie will never know what because Chrissy wraps her arm around his waist and pulls him back with a chiding, worried, “Jeff.”

Eddie stares at the way her fingers curl proprietarily into the fabric of his t-shirt, the way he steadies under her touch and takes a step back, the way he stands in the cradle of her hold like it’s his birthright.

“Hold—hold on,” Eddie says, holding his hand out like that’ll stop the dots from connecting in his own mind. “Are you two—”

He doesn’t finish the thought, can’t put words to what he’s accusing them of, not right now. But, as he flails his fingers between them, they both look at the floor, in goddamn sync, even with their own guilt. “Are you fucking serious right now?”

Anger’s always been Eddie’s worst enemy; he’s pretty sure it’s an inherited trait from his pa, the way rage makes his blood boil, makes him take things too far, makes him react like verbal words are a physical threat. Just like his pa, no matter how much he doesn’t want to be.

“So, you what?” he asks, whole body shaking with the force of his anger. “Decided to lead me on while fucking my best friend?”

He laughs, sharp and mean when Chrissy jerks like he slapped her. He clenches his fist against the desire to do just that.

“You don’t get to talk to her like that,” Jeff replies quietly, like that’ll make him the reasonable one.

“Fuck o—“

“You don’t own her,” Jeff interrupts him, Eddie screams in his throat, wild with the fire burning through him.

Jeff sighs, low and disappointed, just like Uncle Wayne does if Hop picks Eddie up for some trumped-up charges, or he fails another pop quiz, or he brings in more money he can’t explain to his Uncle. 

The thought of Wayne is what does him in. Even in absentia, that old man brings him back to himself. Eddie shudders, takes a step back and stares at the carpet beneath his toes, trying to bank his anger back beneath his ribs where it can’t hurt anyone else.

“I’m sorry we hurt you,” Jeff continues, voice soft, soft soft. “And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what was going on. But Eddie?”

It takes a long moment for Eddie to drag gaze away from his own feet and up to Jeff’s face. Jeff waits, silent, until Eddie meets his eyes.

“You need to figure your own shit out, too,” he says gently. “Because if you don’t? You’re going to hurt everyone around you, not just Steve.”

Eddie looks back at the door Harrington—Steve—had walked through, feelings twisting around on themselves until they’re choking him.

“Harrington,” Eddie starts, throat catching on the consonants of his name like it’d been years since he last spoke. “Did he really—?”

He can’t finish this thought either, hopes Jeff or Chrissy will pluck it from his mind and answer it for him.

“Like you?” Jeff asks, waiting for Eddie to nod his assent before answering. “Yeah, man. He does.”

The present tense is what does him in. Does. Steve Harrington, king of the jocks, liar, boy, likes him. Enough to write letters to him. He doesn’t know what to do with this, where to put it in the reality of his life.

“Oh.”

“You can’t tell anyone, Eddie,” Chrissy says, taking a step around Jeff to look up at Eddie with pleading eyes. “They’ll kill him.”

It’s only then, staring at the terror on Chrissy’s face, that the magnitude of the secret he’s just learned sinks in. Harrington, lady-killer, probable prom king, jock extraordinaire, is queer.

The vindictive part of Eddie he tries to keep caged wants to sling this around— Harrington’s just comeuppance for every time he’s made the rest of them feel less than, feel like a freak. But, even with his anger barely banked, Eddie knows the punishment wouldn’t fit the crime.

Harrington had, what? Laughed snidely behind Hagan after standing by while he’d seen a nerd get his books knocked out of his hands? Had been born with a perfect face and perfect hair in a castle of a house, so he’d been idolized for it.

Telling wouldn’t take that all away—it’d leave Harrington dead.

Even Hagan doesn’t deserve that.

So, all Eddie says is, “I won’t,” quietly, hoping she believes him.

She sighs, slumping into Jeff, trusting him to hold her up. Eddie doesn’t want to see it anymore; he can’t be in the same room as those two and not let the fire in his blood bleed through to his words.

He stands, stiff, unsure, and asks, “can you guys just go?”

“Eddie—“

“Jeff, please,” Eddie asks, voice breaking on the last word.

“Okay.”

Jeff ushers Chrissy out of his trailer and, just before the door shuts behind him, Eddie calls out, “Jeff?”

“Yeah, buddy?” Jeff calls back, not turning back around, not closing the door.

“I’ll call you,” he says, hoping it’s loud enough for his friend to hear. “Okay?”

Jeff doesn’t point out the lack of time frame or the way Eddie’s voice shakes. He’s good like that, always has been, no matter how mad they get at each other. “You call, and I’ll pick up.”

Without another word, Jeff lets the door close. Eddie stands there stationary until he hears the sound of a car starting, kicking up gravel all the way out of the trailer park. Only then, does he collapse onto the couch and bury his head in his hands.

It’s a mistake—the pressure of his hand making pain bloom hard and fast on the bruise on his eyes. Eddie groans, tired, in pain, and completely done. He wants Uncle Wayne to brush his hair out of his face, wants Jeff to sit at his side, or Gareth to light a joint for him, or Chrissy to bump their shoulders together. 

He wants—

The bag of frozen peas Harrington had handed him have gone mushy and warm.

The trailer’s quiet, and Eddie’s all alone.

PART 15

[steviewashere]

here's some modern au/no upside down au/no supernatural elements au head canons of mine that are kind of stupid Stobin Edition (this is all to get in the minds of their characters in my text fics lol) a list:

Steve and Robin are sending each other selfies while on the toilet. They are having in-depth conversations about their bathroom breaks. They are having a phone, speaker on, conversation while using the toilet. One of them's already in the bathroom? The other is barging into that unlocked bathroom to continue a conversation. "Hey, Steve, hand me that new roll of tp?" Steve tosses it with a quick shout of, "Alley-oop!"

They are watching Chopped while eating dinner (a frozen meal they added garlic seasoning to). They are criticizing every last little detail.

Robin helps Steve with his frosted highlights. He touches up her roots. They are gossiping about their neighbors and their on-again, off-again marriage.

Robin is constantly criticizing Steve for using an Elf bar. They will, however, throw back enough shots to consider themselves hazards.

They are karaoke partners. Even when they're in relationships with their respective partners (Eddie and Chrissy in this AU), they always perform with each other. Robin makes Steve sing some Chappell Roan, he knows none of the lyrics, he ends up just being her hype-man.

Steve is a big Stardew Valley and The Sims 4 fan. Robin indulges in Animal Crossing. Eventually, Steve forces Robin to play Stardew with him and Robin does the same with Animal Crossing. (They both enjoy their games).

They have matching build-a-bear stuffies that they dressed up to look like each other. Each with a sound button that plays out an "I love you" from the other + them breaking down into giggles in the background (they were there with each other when they recorded the voice boxes, they simply couldn't stop snickering each time they tried to get the messages recorded).

When they're drunk at home, they are curling up on the couch to watch reruns of Friends and to eat straight out of a tub of butterscotch ice cream. They fall asleep curled into each other and their respective partners (Eddie and Chrissy again) take care of them; Chrissy covers them with a blanket and Eddie takes a photo that will eventually be printed and go up on the wall (to sit with the other ones already pristinely framed).

Steve sometimes goes into Robin's room and just face plants into her bedding and screams. Robin comforts him by petting his hair and prompting, "Another stupid customer?" And Steve just goes off. Robin does the same to him from time to time, but she does it significantly less so.

They go to the zoo/aquarium and point at all the paired animals and say, "That's us." Their favorite pairing is a platonic set of sea otters that are constantly holding hands or helping the other retrieve food. (Sometimes they leave crying).

They go on plenty of 3am drives when the other can't sleep. Blasting music and laughing the entire time. Stopping at a gas station to get slurpees. Going home when the sun is up and then falling asleep in one of their beds.

Constantly giving each other the weirdest nicknames possible. At one point, Robin was just Bobby Flay for two weeks straight.

They buy a whole cheesecake from Wal-Mart and then go drive around town, while eating slices the entire time. (Totally not based on experience lol)

Robin always throws Steve a little birthday party because it's the one thing he never really got with his parents and he never knows what he actually wants to do on his birthday.

Steve takes Robin out for birthday pancakes and fro-yo. And then always finds an antique mall to let her loose in (she spends an hour inside just the first three booths).

On that last note, Robin is an antique mall girly, always looking for mugs, sweaters, vinyls, and horror novellas. Steve likes going into collector's shops for three things: baseball cards, Funko Pops, and Amazing Spider-Man comics.

Robin drags Steve to the local soccer/football team's games. Steve takes her to hockey games.

They paint each other's nails and gossip. Steve picks out a pale orange and Robin goes for a dark purple.

Matching costumes on Halloween (even if they've got their partners). Ketchup and mustard. Scarecrow and Tin Man. Batman and Robin (you know who's who). Their best ones were Peter Pan and Tinerbell (guess who was Tinkerbell)

Instead of how they met in the show, they met in high school. In detention of all places. Robin was tardy for the third time that week to her third period class. And Steve was caught trying to leave campus to get lunch. They still have that very emotional bathroom scene, just in a public high school men's bathroom (disgusting, I know).

Steve doesn't come out to Robin until he's like twenty-one/twenty-two. It takes him being on his own for three/four years at that point to finally feel safe enough to come out. His parents are very conservative. (Also, for extra angst on this one, his family eventually finds out at Thanksgiving—where he is then told to leave and then he's shunned. He becomes a Buckley that same day when he goes to Robin's parents' house to seek her out. It's the first Thanksgiving where he's allowed to be himself.) Also...Steve is gay. Comphet Steve Harrington...yeah. Yeah.

Brunch at a Mexican restaurant: margarita pitcher, sizzling fajitas, and people watching. The perfect best friend date to them.

Still work at Scoops Ahoy! just after they meet in school.

Instead of Family Video, they end up working at a local music shop. That's where Steve meets Eddie, browsing through the Metallica tapes for his refurbished Walkman. Chrissy is hanging out with Eddie the next time he comes in. Robin then meets Chrissy, who is searching for a girl in red vinyl (she gets so excited to lead Chrissy over there. and to then recommend her a bunch of artists. she nearly faints when she gets Chrissy's number)

Okay. That's all I've got for now. Maybe more later.

[tendafoot]

some random things about the werewolf au in case people are curious 🥺

in no particular order...

max, billy, susan, neil, and max's dad/billy's mom are all born werewolves. as some people already guessed in their tags, born wolves are much better at controlling their transformations and keeping their emotions in check than people who are turned later in life, which is why steve is experiencing a lot of power incontinence.

more experienced wolves can control the level of their transformations as well. so they can either be slightly transformed, like eyes, teeth, claws-- basically just the teen wolf transformation-- or full on furry, where they're the classic wolf-headed, anthropomorphic monster movie werewolf. they're not fully animalistic in this form but are close enough to comfortably run on all fours/switch from a bipedal to a quadruped gait. steve will get to the point where he can fully control his transformations eventually.

max --and susan's to a lesser extent--wolf forms resemble the extremely endangered red wolf. max has no idea, but there's a blurry photo of her on the local nature conservancy's billboard all 'RED WOLF SPOTTED IN HAWKINS?? how can we protect and preserve this rare specimen'. she is WOLF famous.

billy was a total creep and pretty skeevy about trying to get steve into bed with him, so he maaaay have used a tried and true werewolf aphrodisiac to grease the wheels. that, combined with the fact that billy did some love 'em and leave 'em shit which gave steve a taste of his own medicine cough cough is why steve is so pissed off at him and confused about his feelings-- and that's all before he starts growing hair in weirder places than usual

because steve is now his responsibility (and also because max didn't want to do it) billy is in charge of showing steve the werewolf ropes. and even though he's negging steve the whole time and being a fucking dickhead about it, he's a pretty good teacher and wins steve over bit by bit, which is how they begin to actually bond.

billy and steve are kind of an item by the resolution of season 2. things play out basically the same, minus their fistfight, with billy accompanying steve on most of the demodog related misadventures. although billy should and probably does get the shit beaten out of him a few times because the little bastard still has to unlearn all that bigotry neil taught him.

due to being with steve and not going to 'teach' karen, billy does not crash his car and get possessed by the mindflayer in season 3, and in fact, werewolves are perhaps not immune but at least more resistant to getting flayed due to their extreme healing factor. however, there are a few close calls. billy still stands up to the mindflayer in the climax and ALMOST dies but thanks to said super healing he's mostly just confined to bed for a week while an annoyed steve has to nurse him back to health.

robin's coming out scene goes a little differently, too. steve gets to have a little addendum where he's like 'so, uh. about that.' and proceeds to blow robin's mind. oh and he also tells her he's a werewolf. which is easier to prove but unfortunately makes her faint.

billy has a much better and closer relationship with susan in this AU. seeing him almost murder her ex to defend her daughter influenced her to basically say, 'fuck it, he's my kid now' while simultaneously not being afraid to stand up to him anymore because the cat's out of the bag-- she knows he cares about max and her deeply even if he does a shit job of showing it. he's also a little more accepting of her step mothering/has lowered his walls around her because he recognizes she's the one who finally got him the hell away from neil. so she's a bigger, more positive presence in his life, curbing his shittier behavior and helping his character development along. however, she's still got some outdated views on gender roles AND werewolf stuff, much to max's chagrin. also she's the one coming around steve's house all the time to drag billy away and force him to attend to his duties as pack leader.

[the-lark-ascending69]

i’m begging please make the flayed robin a fic it would be so good

Hii anon I'd love to!! However I am unable to write fanfic in this moment of my life. Ever since 2022 my life can only be summarized in college stuff, college stuff, a little bit of work and more college stuff. I am falling behind on my reading schedule as we speak lol 🙃 i expect to be free to write some time after... 2028, maybe (big maybe). I CAN draw though, which is not such a long-term compromise. Maybe I'll manage to draw something one of these days.

For the time being I would like to redirect you to two GREAT flayed!Robin fanfics that I adore, the devil's after both of us by @eskawrites and We're Going to End You by UnholyHelbig. Both featuring ronance. These are the only ones I know. Sadly, looking up "flayed Robin" on ao3 hasn't turned out to be a very fruitful search, but that doesn't mean there aren't more out there! I'll have to keep searching. If anyone reading this knows of more flayed!Robin fanfics please lmk!! Of course there's also @snowangeldotmp3 's rebel robin: surviving the upside down AU, which I'm still trying to catch up with, but it sounds like they're working on some cool flayed!Robin stuff!

While I can't give you a fanfic I CAN share with you some flayed!Robin ideas I have:

Vecna/the Mind Flayer is incredibly subtle this time, choosing to corrupt Robin rather than completely taking over her body and replacing her. He preys on her darkest thoughts, which are generally, jealousy, resentment, shame, self-deprecation hopelessness and loneliness. They both open the door for him, and act as weapons he uses to slowly torture her and turn her against her loved ones.

It begins with Robin feeling irritable, out of place, especially with Steve. Steve suddenly stops feeling like home and more like someone she shares a loving bond with but who can never really understand her, because he's a heterosexual man, because he has money, because he's high on the social pyramid and she spent her whole teenage years fighting to not fall to the bottom, because he can allow himself liberties not permitted to her. She begins to resent him. When she begins to isolate herself from him, it becomes incredibly easy for Vecna to make her spiral further and further down.

Almost nothing Robin says while possessed is 100% untrue. It tends to come from something she really feels. In normal circumstances, Robin would feel a bit sad knowing Steve can never fully understand her experience. Flayed!Robin resents him over it and wants to hurt him. But the pain is there. There ARE exceptions though, and they're interesting because the others are so used to hearing her say evil half-truths that when she says something so horriffic the real Robin couldn't possibly believe it, they think she means it deep down.

Flayed!Robin isn't physically violent - another reflection of the real Robin's nature. He uses her silver tongue to attack the others.

There's a lot of confusion from the rest of the group, even once they figure out she IS possesed, because its like she keeps coming back before being pulled under again. One moment she's acting normal and the next she's telling Nancy she always ruins everything. It's hard to tell what is true and what is a lie

Flayed!Robin targets Nancy specifically, not because it's particularly useful to Vecna - I mean, it is, but there's more to that - it comes from Robin's shameful love for Nancy, the source of so much pain. Flayed!Robin takes her anger out on her.

Flayed!Robin particularly enjoys making Nancy cry. Her favorite method is reminding her of Barb, blaming her for everything that goes wrong and telling her everyone would be better of if she were dead. Otherwise, she'll get them all killed until she's the last one standing. At the beginning though, she's just mean. She acts irritable and angry and rolls her eyes at her and doesn't take her seriously and casually insults her intelligence. She does it sparingly enough that Nancy actually wonders if she heard that right, if Robin is being serious, if it's just an instance of her "not understanding social cues" or if she really thinks she's "losing her spark" or "keeps talking nonsense lately", or whatever Vecna makes her say. This is one of the cases in which Robin doesn't mean what she says in the slightest.

Another way in which flayed Robin likes to taunt Nancy is by publicly accusing her of homosexuality. Everyone awkwardly ignores that most of the time (though sometimes Hopper sideyes her, Joyce closes her eyes and inhales deeply, and Mike snaps and loudly declares his sister isn't gay), and they ignore Nancy's sharp breath and tight fists when Robin says anything on the matter ("Aaw, Wheeler, are you in love with me? You know, I did take you for a queer but I didn't think you'd be after me. Thought you were still hung up on that Barb girl").

At the beginning of Robin's possesion, Nancy was incredibly kind to her, saying sweet, loving things to her even if unsure if she could hear her or not. She promised she would take care of her and that she'll be okay. Robin would usually roll her eyes and tell her, voice full of scorn, that if Nanch Wheeler is promising to "take care of her" then her odds aren't very promising. It hurts Nancy so much to hear that. She thinks there's a little bit of the real Robin behind those words.

Nancy becomes exhausted after some time. Exhausted and angry. She convinces herself it's only Vecna in there, and she refuses to offer him any kindness. He will pay for what he did to the girl she loved.

When they get her and tie her up so they can think of a plan, they leave her alone for a moment, and for the first time, Vecna retreats entirely, to let her fully feel the bite of ropes around her wrists, keeping her immobilized, tied to the chair. He wants her to fully feel the terror of her trauma without any numbing effect. Bonus points if she's not fully alone - Nancy is keeping watch, and Robin is scared and confused as to why she looks at her with such cold eyes, why she won't help her, why she won't comfort her when she sees her panicking and crying and begging. It's the worst torture so far, and when Nancy steps forward, and looks at her with so much hate, and says "Shut. Up", Robin feels her heart break all over again (Nancy had told her she loved her once and she never knew what she meant by that. She supposes the love is gone now). She has no idea Vecna has played with Nancy in this way a million times before.

Whenever they drug her to keep her unconcious, Nancy gives her as much physical affection as she can - stroking her cheek, brushing her hair, cuddling her. She wonders if, in this way, Robin will feel something Vecna doesn't.

When she comes back, Robin remembers everything she said while possessed and won't stop apologizing, refusing any comfort Nancy tries to offer her because she thinks she doesn't deserve it, but Nancy won't hear any of that. She stays by Robin's side no matter what, even if it means skipping school or not sleeping. The girl she loves is back and she's not wasting a single second more away from her.

[theshippirate22]

i know not a single one of y’all cares about my Eddie In Wonderland au but it’s all I ever think about so you get to hear more about it anyway

So the premise is that Eddie finds himself falling and he doesn’t really know how he got there, he thinks maybe he’s found a gate to the Upside Down but when he finally lands he finds himself in. Wonderland. Stereotypical, mystical wonderland.

There’s a bit of a struggle with the Eat Me/Drink Me bit, but once he gets it figured out and gets through the door, he starts out through this weird ass forest, looking for some sort of sense in what must be a really, really bad trip

Instead, he finds Argyle in a blue and green tracksuit on a giant mushroom with a hookah, the entirety of the younger party at a massive table playing TnT (tea and treacle, obviously) lead by a perfectly nonsensical Dustin who traded in his ballcap for a top hat, and eventually, the towering and ominous Castle belonging to the King of Broken Hearts, one Steve Harrington.

In Steve’s court, he quickly learns that the Deck kingdom is in a cold war with the Chess kingdom. Apparently a few months earlier, King Steve was meant to marry the Queen of Hearts, Miss Nancy Wheeler, but the night before the wedding she told him she didn’t love him and the whole thing was bullshit.

Furious and heartbroken, Steve banished her from Deck, saying she could seek refuge in Chess or go beyond the Wonderland forest. She made it to Chess and was taken in, and Steve, the once lovely and gracious ruler, was left coldhearted and cruel.

Robin and Chrissy, the red and white queens of Chess respectively, fled shortly after this whole affair, because they were locked into marriages of benefit but were actually in love with each other, and sought asylum in Steve’s court. However, they did not tell him of their affections in fear that his unhappiness would lead him to deny them of their own. Instead they act usually as like his second in commands, and they’re the ones that fill Eddie in on everything that’s happening

Anyway so Deck and Chess really don’t like each other because Chess thinks Steve stole their heirs and because Steve thinks Chess has Nancy and he’s pissed about it.

But there have been all these prophecies about the coming of the Jabberwocky (ahem kind of mind flayed shaped) and Wonderland needs to be preparing for it to come because the fated White Knight hasn’t been seen in years and everyone is like 98% sure he’s dead so he’s not coming to save them, and the signs of its arrival are all happening and everyone is begging Steve to offer a truce to Chess because there’s no way Deck alone can defeat the Jabberwocky but he has no interest in doing that.

Until of course, Eddie shows up and knocks his whole life on its head because he’s… well, he’s falling in love with him and it’s making him realize maybe him and Nancy weren’t the best pairing and maybe it’s good they never got married actually? and Eddie is realizing that Steve is just so…. sad. and that’s what makes him so angry. but when they’re together, Steve is so much less of a tyrant and so much more of a man that just wants to be important to somebody.

And he’s important to Eddie.

[eskawrites]

11, 19 Vecna'd/mindflayed Robin fic with feral Nancy ?

11. Was there a scene that you hadn't originally planned to include? Why did you decide to fit it in?

you know, I really don't think there is? I think because this is one of the fastest fics I've ever written, so there wasn't really a lot of time for the outline to change that much. I did cut quite a few things, but I think all the main story beats I had planned stayed the way they were

oh, except i think the scene with joyce patching up robin and comforting her was unplanned? it was originally going to be different because the epilogue of that fic was originally a lot longer. but joyce came in and took over, which is basically how she makes an appearance in all my fics lol

19. Is this one of your personal favorite fics? Why or why not?

it's interesting because i did not like this as much when i was writing it. it felt rushed and out of nowhere, because it really was, like, inspiration took hold and shook me around for a bit until it was ready to post. but it got so much more positive attention than i ever fathomed it would get, and it kinda became one of my favorites because of that?

i also love nancy in this. i love her grating against literally everyone else in the fic (except for robin of course)

ask me fic things why not

[jumpedthenfell-13]

Oh the angst is just writing itself atp

[penny00dreadful]

Spies AU - Part 8

Part 1 Part 9 AO3

27th October 2015

In all honesty, Steve had planned to try to go about his life as normal in the week after his conversation with Hopper. 

He was going to finish up his own mountain of paperwork from the Fred affair at Robin’s desk with her, without spilling his personal secrets and quite possibly the secrets of the whole fucking company like he’d been on the verge of doing every time he looked at her, end his day as normal, go home, eat, veg on the couch and then go to bed. 

Standard boring stuff.

He was going to continue to keep his mouth shut.

Keeping his mouth shut was literally his job.

He was a spy.

Keeping secrets was, like, the main thing he needed to be able to do. 

He’d always been good at it.

From his parents dirty little secrets that would have been eaten up at the monthly Homeowners Association meetings, to his own sexuality.

And when it came to the job, Robin knew that there were some things he just couldn’t tell her otherwise people might die.

But the problem with that was in all of those previous circumstances, Steve had been a consummate professional. Even when he had to keep his mouth shut about the kids he was protecting, Robin knew very little and understood. She was good with that. She knew it was a job thing.

This was so clearly not a job thing anymore.

Not even because Steve found the guy so stupid fucking attractive it made him feel like he dropped IQ points whenever he saw him, his brain filled with fuzzy static of prettyprettypretty. But also because he fucking cared. 

Steve cared so fucking much about Eddie and wasn’t that just a terribly dangerous game to be playing?

He wanted to know what side of the bed he slept on, he wanted to know what his favourite food was, he wanted to know how he watched movies, if he had to pay attention to every second or if he talked the whole way through. He wanted to know how he tied his shoes or if he stayed in his pyjamas for as long as possible every day or if he had to be dressed to feel awake or how many sugars he had in his coffee or if he ate dairy or had any allergies or what the stupidest thing he ever did as a kid was.

Steve wanted to know everything about him. 

And Robin could fucking tell.

She was staring at him from across her desk like she wanted to drill into his brain with her eyes and dig through the mess in there to figure out what was going on.

Because Steve would have told her immediately if it wasn’t job related, they both knew that. 

So the fact that he hadn’t and the fact that he so clearly wanted to but still wouldn’t meant it was something got to do with work and Steve just hoped she thought he was hooking up with a coworker or something. 

He couldn’t ignore her as he stared down at the papers in front of him, shuffling them around and flipping through them back to front and front to back, trying to distract himself, trying to avoid her eye and just hoping, somewhat hysterically, that if he didn’t pay attention to it then the problem would go away.

But of course it wouldn’t be that simple and he was fit to fucking explode.

He had to talk to her.

Not because he felt obligated to, not because a soulmate bond was an immediate right to all of his deepest darkest secrets, which it wasn't, but because he needed to.

He needed a sounding board, someone to bounce his brain off of. Someone to help him work through his messy thoughts and sort them all out. Someone to tell him he was insane and he needed to stop thinking like this. 

Or alternatively someone to tell him to go for it, go get his man and sweep him away from everything dangerous, skipping off into the sunset.

He made it a whole week, stewing at Robin’s desk before he cracked, practically feeling the fissure running down his body, cutting him in half.

“I need to talk to you.” He muttered, head in his hands, hair clenched between his fingers and feeling like he was flayed open, bearing the softest most delicate parts of him in those words alone. Just waiting for her to wrap him back up warm and safe or take a vicious bite, though he knew in his heart of hearts which one she’d do.

He could hear Robin shift where she was sitting, his own gaze still trained on the desk below him while Robin was probably staring a hole through his skull again.

“Okay.” She said eventually, ignoring how Steve’s shoulders slumped in relief. “The local?”

“Yeah.” Steve’s whole body unwound, the tension practically bouncing from his back at the thought of finally, finally being able to get this all off his chest.

He had expected Robin to give him a little more flack for it, for giving in and clearly going against protocol, but she was his guy.

And he knew, he knew that she would always be on his side, no matter what.

“Do you want to go now?” She asked, already cramming her paperwork back into her drawers.

Steve started to follow suit, sorting his own papers out into neat little stacks. “But don’t you need to finish-”

“I can finish it tomorrow, this is more important.”

Steve’s heart swelled, glowing bright and warm. Robin took her job very seriously, but she was also serious about him and Steve loved her for it.

Maybe Steve hadn’t completely thought this one through. He was boxed into a booth with Robin who was acting surprisingly nonchalant about the whole thing, but that could be because she wasn’t quite aware of the gravity of the situation yet.

But he was a spy, right? Part of the job description was to get out of tight spots, literally and figuratively. So if he needed to vault the table and race out of the bar doors before Robin was able to catch him by the scruff of the neck, then he could do it easily, right?

However the way she was looking at him now with slightly raised eyebrows, just daring him to try while she drained her glass told him she would be expecting it.

And she always played dirty.

She went for the hair.

“Okay.” Robin snatched his glass out of his grip, the one he’d been swirling between his hands, trying to find the answers to all his questions amongst the amber and floating foam. She downed the dregs of his drink with a grimace. “I need you to talk to- ugh. I don’t know how you drink that shit. I need you to talk to me, stop talking to the booze.”

Steve shrugged. 

He hadn’t even fought her on the robbery of his drink, just stared passively as she did it.

“It’s nice.”

She raised her eyebrows at him. “Talking to the booze?”

“No, the beer.” He slumped lower in his seat. “It’s nice.”

“No, it’s not.”

It was a well worn argument. One they had nearly every time they came here together and Steve knew he was acting strangely. He was usually a lot more defensive of his tastes.

“Evie. C’mon, talk to me.” She threw her arm over the back of their booth and turned towards him, knocking their knees together and bringing them closer. “That’s why we came here, isn't it? Something’s bothering you and you’re ruminating and you’re going to start catastrophizing soon if you don’t let your conscience in.”

Steve huffed, smiling. “You’re my conscience in this scenario, Jiminy?”

“Yes, I am.”

“You’re awful at it.”

“Eh.” She shrugged. “I do okay for myself. You’re still alive aren’t you?”

“Somehow. Despite the drinks you mixed me during Dustin’s 21st.”

“Hey,” she gave him a light punch to the shoulder, “I was trying my best!��

“I didn’t even make it to my bedroom that night. I slept in my bathtub.”

“Steven.” Robin rapped him lightly on the shoulder again. “Don’t disparage that tub. It’s the comfiest tub I have ever slept in.”

“When did you sleep in it?” He sputtered.

“The night of my 25th.”

Steve blinked at her, confused. “But you were in bed with me that night?”

“I started out in bed with you, yeah. Then everything got really spinny. Then many things happened in your bathroom that I’d rather not talk about but I cleaned up after myself so it’s fine-”

“Is it?!” It had been over a year but now Steve was wondering if he needed to nuke everything all over again.

“-yes, it’s fine. Then I fell asleep in the bathtub and I woke up at some point in the morning and wandered back into bed.” Robin shook her head. “But we’re not talking about my 25th and we’re not talking about the horrors your bathroom has seen. We’re talking about your spiralling brain.”

Steve looked down, the smile slipping off his face. 

With a deep breath he took her hand in his, sitting on top of the table and began to twist her rings around her fingers, like he could untwist his own thoughts with them.

Robin let him, waiting him out patiently while he tried to think of what to say.

“Do you think people can be good but be stuck doing less than good things because of their circumstances?”

“Yes.” She answered without hesitation, barely having to think about it, it seemed.

“I don’t… I don’t mean like stealing food from the grocery store so they can eat or- fucking forging prescriptions so they can get the meds they need or whatever.”

“I know. You wouldn’t be spiralling if it was as simple as that. You’d be helping.”

Steve couldn’t stop the tick up at the corner of his mouth. She had such faith in him.

“Like that guy in the alleyway?”

“The guy..?” She blinked at him, thinking. “Oh, the hot drug dealer?”

He bit his lip. “Yeah.”

“Then, yeah. Like him.” Robin’s words were soft but her eyes were bright, like everything was becoming so much clearer to her now. “Whatever happened with him, by the way?”

Steve tore his eyes away, looking back down at their hands.

“What if this good person has done some really fucked up shit?”

She scoffed. “More fucked up than what we do?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s in the ‘more fucked up’ category in my head because we’re the good guys and he’s-”

Steve swallowed and Robin gave his fingers a gentle squeeze, reassuring him that she was there. 

“So, he wasn’t just a hot drug dealer?” She prodded, gently.

She truly was his conscience, his soulmate, the other half of his brain.

“No.” Steve shook his head and squeezed her fingers back. “He’s not.”

“Then who is he?”

Steve looked up at her again, darting his eyes in between hers, searching for any reason he couldn’t tell her. Anything. The slightest bit of hesitation or wariness or anything beyond soft curiosity. But there was nothing. She was just filled with concern for him and wanted him to get whatever this was off his chest. She just wanted to help. 

If he could trust anyone with this information, it would be her.

“He's my informant. He’s Kas.”

Robin swallowed but otherwise didn’t move. She continued to stare at him, her face impassive and Steve could almost see the buffering symbol circling on her forehead. 

She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and began to chew on it, still thinking, still processing.

Steve held tight to her hand throughout, almost unwilling to give her the option to pull back, even if he knew she wouldn’t.

“Kas is real? He’s not just a myth to scare baby spies and Creel’s enemies?” She asked, her voice even and calm in a way Steve knew she was still working things out in her head.

“Yeah, he’s real.”

“And you think he’s a good person? Kas? The Bloodyhanded? That Kas?”

“I do.”

She looked at him, watching every move incredibly closely and Steve felt like he was going through the most important quiz of his life. 

“Why?”

Her question wasn’t accusatory and Steve knew that. It was just fact finding.

“I… I don’t know, honestly. He’s never hurt me. Even when I was quite literally at his mercy in what I’m pretty sure was his torture room, he never hurt me. And then again in Zagreb, with the goons.” He looked up at her. “I didn’t kill them, Rob. I didn’t take them out. He did. I was tied to a chair with a dislocated shoulder. I was finished. And he- I don’t know, I think he took issue with how they were treating me.”

“How they were kicking the shit out of you?”

Steve smiled a little, his mind repeating mine. 

“Yeah, I guess. Maybe that was all it was, things weren’t being done his way but… he killed them. For me. I know it was for me. Because they hurt me.”

“Do you think he might have been doing it because he just thinks you’re pretty?”

“How do you know he thinks I’m pretty?”

“Everyone thinks you’re pretty.”

Steve tipped over until his forehead was resting on her shoulder, rolling his head to look up at her. “You’re right, it’s a curse.”

Robin smiled down at him, a gentle comforting thing. 

Steve shrugged, an inexplicable shiver crawling down his spine. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he straightened up, glancing around, expecting to feel eyes on him, but there was no one paying them any attention.

Most were too focused on the game playing out on the big screens around the bar and the streets outside the windows were empty. 

He turned back to face Robin. “I don’t think it’s just because I’m pretty. I mean I haven’t seen him out saving orphans from fires or pulling kittens from trees but… I don’t know. He just doesn’t feel bad.”

They stared at each other in silence, Steve slumped and fidgeting through his nerves and Robin so still and all-seeing it was like she was some statue on top of a church.

“Okay.” She said simply.

“Okay?”

“Yeah, okay. If you don’t think he feels bad then I think he’s probably not bad.”

“Oh. That was… easy?”

“Evie.” Robin brushed her thumb over his knuckles. “You’re the best judge of character I know. I trust you.”

“Risky thing to do.”

“I don’t think so.” She smiled at him again, bringing his hand up to place a kiss along his knuckles. “What brought this conversation on?”

“I don’t know. I-” he shrugged. “I’m worried about him.”

“Why?”

“I think I might have gotten him in trouble with his higher ups. Or his higher up, singular.”

She grimaced. “Creel?”

“Yeah, he was the guy who I stopped from killing Fred-”

“You stopped Kas?” She nearly shrieked, but remembered to keep her volume low at the last second.

“Yeah, I know. But I think on some level he might have let me. Like the guy is much faster than me, not as strong but very quick and I was able to disarm him and get him up against a wall? It just doesn’t add up. And I think that has put him in danger. I don’t know, just something he said.”

“What was it?”

“He-” Steve sighed, curling himself up as much as he could, leaning against Robin who put an arm around him. “He asked if I would be worried. And that was kind of all he asked, he didn’t elaborate but it sounded like he was asking would I be worried if he went missing or got hurt or something.” He pressed his forehead into her neck. “I haven’t heard from him since.”

“Is that unusual? It's only been a few days.”

“No, but it feels different this time.”

Robin nodded. “And no one else knows? Hopper or-”

“Hopper knows.” He muttered, tensing and feeling her whip her head around to try to look at him, her hair catching him in the eye.

“Ow.”

“Hopper- Evie, do you really think that’s a good idea? He could… He could strap him down for interrogation or hide him away at the other end of the world under lock and key so he doesn’t-”

“He won’t.” Steve said, his voice firm and sure.

“You can’t know that-”

“I do know that. Because I won’t let him.”

Robin’s arm stopped its up and down soothing motion over his bicep.

“You really mean that, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I do.”

She cursed under her breath, flicking him in the forehead. “Fuck, okay. I guess we’re doing this then. This fucking guy better be worth it.”

“You don’t have to-”

“Yes I do, Steven.” She sighed, squeezing him tighter. “You think if this all goes tits up and you have to go against The Agency, I’m gonna let you flounder around on your own? You’d be fucking lost without me.”

“I would. I’d be so lost, Bobbin.”

“So what did this Kas guy say when you asked him to run away with you.”

It was Steve’s turn to freeze now.

“Uh…”

“Oh my god, Evie. You haven’t even asked him?”

“I did! Kind of… I-”

“He said no?”

“Not in so many words. He refused… but he said ‘I can’t’.”

“That’s not straw clutchy at all.”

“Let me clutch my straws in peace.”

“Fine, fine. Are you gonna continue to do that here or at home? You need your space to think?”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “Yeah. I need to figure out how to… I don’t know. Convince him to exit the employment of one of the most dangerous men in the world.”

“Want me to come with you? We could continue to drink about it?”

Steve gave her a little chuckle. “No, not that’s okay. I need to brainstorm some crazy scenarios and have you talk me down from them and I can’t do that if you’re there when I’m coming up with them.”

“Ah.” She nodded. “The old Scoops Ahoy way.”

“Yeah.”

Robin pushed herself to her feet and continued to hold onto his hand as he sidled out of the booth and they made their way out of the bar. 

Just before they parted ways, Robin pulled him into a tight hug, squeezing him as fiercely as she could.

“You know I’m with you no matter what, right? No matter what happens. If you cause an international incident… again or-”

“Almost caused an international incident.”

“Sure, sure whatever.” She waved her hand dismissively in front of her. “But like… no matter what I’m in your corner.”

“I know, Rob. I know. I’m with you too.”

He pressed a quick kiss against her forehead and when they’d finally said their goodbyes, he headed home, his mind swirling with thoughts on what the fuck he was going to do about the whole situation. 

How he would even find Eddie again to be able to convince him to leave. 

Could he? Could he convince him? 

What was even holding him down to Creel’s service at this stage?

The whole way back to his apartment, and into the elevator, he was thinking about it, staring off into space.

It was only when something started to niggle in the back of his mind to look around, he saw it.

Hidden in the groove on the button to his floor was a smudge of blood.

It was so small, barely visible, practically invisible to everyone else but not to him.

Okay.

Hopefully someone had just gotten a nosebleed or something and the cleaners hadn’t come through yet.

What were the chances he would be so lucky?

Pretty fucking low.

He had a weapon or two concealed on his person. He almost always did unless he was sleeping or showering, so he dropped into a crouch, pulling one of his smaller guns from his ankle holster.

Most of the field agents didn’t carry one. The men didn’t anyway. Because apparently having a small gun was an affront to their masculinity. 

Like a bullet ripping through the air gave a fuck about how dainty the gun it came from was.

When he straightened back up, he pulled his small dagger from his belt, mostly handle with a little triangle of sharpened metal at the end but it would take less than that to sever a carotid. 

Bracing his dagger hand under his gun, he kept the barrel pointed towards the ground as the elevator doors opened upon a blissfully empty hallway.

There were no more hints that anything was wrong.

No more blood, no bullet holes in the walls, no mud streaked footprints on the carpet, nothing out of place.

That didn’t stop his heartbeat slowly climbing as he approached his apartment door.

He’d have loved to hover for a few moments, listening in to see if he could hear anything but of course the thing was soundproofed. 

Well, there was nothing left for it, he had to go in.

He’d been stuck in a safehouse for long enough before, he’d be damned if he put himself back in one willingly.

Plus, it’s not like he knew someone was in his apartment.

It could be nothing after all. 

Yeah, right.

All doubts left his mind when he lowered his hand to unlock his front door, palming his dagger and tightening his fingers around his door handle to activate the unlocking mechanism through his biometric security.

But only one lock clicked open. 

Just one sound.

Not the multiple quiet whirrs and clicks that should be audible.

Which meant someone else had opened his door while he was out.

So someone was inside. 

Or had been inside and since left.

“Fuck.” Steve cursed to himself under his breath.

He fucking hated sweeping his apartment for bombs or poisons spread onto surfaces.

It was so fucking tedious.

He just wanted to collapse on his couch and continue to drink his problems away, at least for a little bit.

Well no chance of that now. 

Steve let go of the handle, allowing the door to swing open and gripping his dagger again under his gun, wrists locked across one another as he pointed the barrel around every corner before stepping through. 

Immediately his eyes zoned in on the difference. 

His lovingly reupholstered couch had an unmoving and silent shadow of a body spilled over the cushions. 

Almost as if they could be asleep.

He couldn’t tell who it was in the darkness.

Panic gripped him, crawling up his throat as he went through the mental checklist of who it could be, who could have been left there as a message to him, a warning to stop pursuing.

Could it be any of the kids, any of his fellow agents?

Robin?

But he’d only just seen her, they wouldn’t have had time, right?

Plus, they used code names. Anyone who had overheard them talking would only know her as Birdie and outside of work they just looked like any two friends?

How could they know she was his guy in the chair?

They couldn't, right?

He’d only just seen her, it couldn’t be her?

Steve was just about to take another step forward to get a better look when the shadow moved.

A pained, wheezing voice called out to him.

“Hello, sweetheart.”

Part 1 Part 9 AO3

Schedule Update Post

Divider by firefly-graphics

@geekymagicalpotato @estrellami-1

Big thanks as always to @hbyrde36 for the magnificent beta work and to the STWG for their motivation

[katyawriteswhump]

The Highwayman, the Stableboy & the Christmas Bride (Stobin/Minor Steddie)

Written for @steddieholidaydrabbles Day 17--Platonic Stobin Day. When Robin is forced into an arranged marriage, she and Steve take drastic action...

WC: 939. Rating: T.

CW: none really. Tags: Historical AU. Minor Steddie. Crossdressing. A bit silly.

***

Lady Roberta burst into the stable-block, petticoats trailing in the muck. She flung her arms around Steve: “It’s horrible enough that I’m marrying a man three times my age—and that he’s a man! Why does it have to be at Christmas?”

“I suppose Lady Buckley was trying to soften the blow.” Steve rested his cheek on her hair, rubbed circles on her back. In all their years of friendship, he’d never seen her so distraught. “Surely Lord Hootenanny’s fortune cheers you?”

“I couldn’t care less.” Robin sniffed hard, in her wonderfully un-ladylike manner. “Maybe you can become his stableboy and leave with me?”

“I suppose you’ll still require a snot-rag, but… uh…” The tremble in his voice betrayed him. She peeped up, wiped her eyes—pushed his hair from his brow and gasped. 

Damn. He’d wished to conceal his latest bruise.

“What happened?”

“Your fiancé’s boot collided with my face. Apparently, his stirrups weren’t shiny enough. I don’t think he’s going to want me.”

The determined jut of her chin was as distressing to Steve as her tears. “We must run away. There’s no other choice.”

“You say that every week. We’ll be caught, and you’ll have to marry him anyway.”

 And I’ll be flogged to within an inch of my life. Or, just as likely, hanged.

“If we don’t run, we’ll never see each other again. I’ll miss everything about you—even the stink of the horses. You’re my best and only friend.” Her head sank to his shoulder again. “But I don’t want you getting hurt.”

I can’t stand the thought of you getting hurt. Or of you living in the power of that violent bastard.

He groaned softly. She was right. They had no choice.

***

After midnight struck, he scaled a rope to her window. She threw up the sash, and he scrambled through. He thrust at her the bundle he carried, which had made climbing harder than usual: “These riding britches should fit you fine. You got the gown for me?”

She gestured to some crinolines on her four-poster bed. “There you go—one of my maid’s. I adjusted it myself.”

While she changed in her closet, he slid the gown on. It slipped straight down and puddled around his boots. “I see your legendary needlework has not improved,” he grumbled. She emerged, looking delighted and dashing in her britches.

As she pinned the gown about him, however, her hands trembled, and terror gripped him too. Lady Roberta would hopefully pass for her twin brother under the shadows of night. Her rogue of a brother was often seen sloping around with serving wenches—hence Steve’s heinous disguise. The plan after that, nevertheless, was fraught with even greater danger. 

Riding together on her brother’s horse, they made it through the village. Steve cursed the skirts that forced him to sit before her, side-saddle, with the pommel gouging his thigh. Once into the forest, a full moon lit their path, ensuring they remained vulnerable prey to pursuers from Buckley Towers, or…

Robin gasped, hastened their trot. 

“What is it?” asked Steve.

“Pursuers. Only one, mayhap. We can out-speed them.”

His heart lurched miserably. “Are you insane? On a steed carrying two? Sweet Jesus, I feel my neck stretching already.”

“If we die, Steve, I vow we die together.” 

He clung, white-knuckled, to the saddle. Robin pushed into a gallop. Their pursuer proved not only faster, but knew the terrain better and overtook them. Soon, a vast stallion and its rider blocked the track, silhouetted against the moonshine. Could this be a henchman of Lord Hootenanny, who would flay Steve alive on the spot?

“Get out of our way, or I’ll blow your brains out!”  That was Robin, who’d whipped out… “I stole one of Papa’s duelling pistols,” she whispered.

“Maybe you should first ask if I be friend or foe?” came a reply that set Steve’s heart hammering more excitedly than ever.

“This is your last chance!” Robin sounded desperate, out of her mind. “Let us pass, or—”

“Robin, no!” He grabbed her arm. Her shot flew wide. The blast and recoil sent them tumbling from the saddle of the spooked horse in a cloud of choking gunpowder. They landed in the mud, in a tangle of his petticoats. Ow, ow, ow! My ribs! The whalebone corset had been a terrible idea. His ears rang with the crack of the pistol, and the sound of a familiar laugh.

“Eddie?”

“Stevie, my lad, I thought it be you. Why are ye banged up like a doxy?”

“You know him?” asked Robin; damn, he was glad she was alright. “What’s a doxy and why are they banged up?”

“He wants to know why I’m dressed like a whore.” Steve took Eddie’s hand, who dragged him to his feet. Steve offered Robin the same assistance but found her scrambling up, unaided. “Meet my lover, Robin. Hellfire Eddie.”

“The infamous highwayman?”

“One and the same.” Steve turned to Eddie. “I didn’t think you’d get my message so soon.”

“My spies act fast,” said Eddie, slapping Steve’s padded derriere.

“Not in front of a lady!” seethed Steve.

Lady Roberta, however, looked pleased as punch. “Can we join your gang? Oh my goodness, I can become a notorious highwaywoman!” She flung her arms around Steve and smacked a kiss on his cheek. “Steve, this is singularly fortuitous. Our lives can start over.”

“Till we ALL get hanged,” mumbled Steve.

Eddie insisted Steve rode with him, rather than Robin, for the journey back to his thieves’ lair. 

“Then out of that ridiculous finery,” husked Eddie. “You know I like to wear the petticoats when I plow ye.”

***

Thank you for reading :)

[bearsinpotatosacks]

AU idea where Billy's mum takes Billy with her and Max's dad Sam gets custody of her. Billy's mum and Sam get married and, when Neil finds out where they are, they move to Hawkins (maybe I could add in those old theories from s2/s3 about Billy being an experiment too by making his mum one of the MK Ultra test subjects, hence why she thinks of Hawkins as Neil never approved of her being in the program). Billy's not horrible, he and Max have a nicer version of their back and forth, with Billy being a general dickish older brother.

He's more of a surfer dude in this, still likes metal and cars but smiles more, he's more chilled out. He joins the swim team, and some club with Robin (maybe Spanish or another language club) and makes friends with Eddie too.

There's less of a plot to this and more sad vibes about who he could've been. This version of Max probably trusts Billy a lot more, so when Billy arrives at the Byers looking for her (his mum and her dad are also looking for her), he gets involved in the upside down stuff too.

Max and Billy maybe go to California with Mike to visit the Byers in 1986, maybe it becomes a whole Party team up? That would change a lot, would S4 even happen if Billy doesn't get possessed? Because he's probably not meeting up with Karen Wheeler and isn't traumatised enough to be a good general host (because Billy's boatload of trauma, daddy AND mummy issues have got to be the reason why he wasn't made into a pile of goo to make the Meat Flayer, similar to why Will was a more active host in s2 due to them both being traumatised, or both being Wills).

I could combine S3, S4 and what we can theorise about S5 together? Maybe the plot happens at the end of the summer. Vecna makes his plan to set an army of Hawkins but uses the mall as a hub, maybe he uses the remnants of the mind flayer to control people? He still flays people, maybe Billy’s also friends with Chrissy, she was hanging out with them one night when she dies and Billy, Robin and Eddie are accused and go on the run? He uses the mind flayer to create an army then flays the 4 victims, maybe El is one of the last victims because Vecna wants revenge on her, so we the end of s4 still happens with gates open (remember this is still s3 for this timeline) and the end of the plot is them having to save and get through to Eleven?

This went off track. This was mainly just to get the ideas of what Billy and Max would be like in this timeline.

[lavenderstobins]

ik it’s a couple days later since the post but i wanna hear about “murder suspect nancy au” and trans nancy reuniting parents au pls <3

so sorry anon i saw this and then immediately got distracted so this is mega late. BUT. i will HAPPILY talk abt both aus.

murder suspect nancy

this is an au where nancy's the murder suspect in s4 instead of eddie! tommy goes missing instead of barb in s1 so carol and steve team up with jonathan to find him and will. steve helps out jonathan in s2 and they get murray'd, robin gets roped into helping dustin and later ends up defending the kids against billy with carol. a bunch more things get altered in s3 since there'd be more changes, nancy's uninvolved in the upside down stuff at all until s4, when she gets blamed for fred's murder. i haven't figured out barb yet but i think maybe she'd be one of the flayed in s3? anyway nancy ends up hiding out at the boathouse and attacks robin with a broken bottle when they go looking for her (dustin's request, since nancy's mike's sister). etc etc it's essentially nancy having eddie's plotline and how the overall story would have to change to incorporate everything it's very fun.

trans nancy reuniting parents au

this one's a lot simpler! nancy's a trans woman and she and robin have a one night stand while robin's in college and nancy's visiting jonathan in his college. they don't exchange contact details, or anything besides their first names (and both secretly regret it). then robin finds out she's pregnant and realises it's nancy's, but there's no way for her to find nancy again to tell her. she keeps the baby, has a son she names daniel, and goes on with her life... until mike and nancy move back to hawkins and mike joins eddie's dnd group, where robin comes to pick up daniel after running late while eddie babysat and nearly falls over when she sees mike sitting there (since he looks so similar to nancy). eddie connects the dots and "subtly" tries to investigate whether mike has an older sister so mike ends up telling nancy his weird interaction at dnd and nancy realises he might've met robin, and then learns she has a son, and it's about nancy and robin trying to manage coparenting and getting to know each other (and falling in love <3)

[ronanceautistic]

In the Nancy Truman Show AU, what would Nancy's reaction be to find out people ship her with Robin?

HAHA I don’t think she would find out. Bear with me because it’s 3:42am and I’m making this all up on the spot. but in this weird world, Nancy has no access to our world, the writers, the audience etc etc. All she knows is Hawkins, she doesn’t know what this world is like, who we are, what we’re watching, she is just aware we exist.

I think it would be fun, though, if the writers always wanted a Jancy or Stancy endgame and Nancy uses that sort of inkling as another way of breaking free. I think, whatever they write her to do, she feels very compelled to do it. Like kind of a being flayed scenario where her whole body and mind wants to do This Thing but she knows that it’s the writers. Once she’s aware of it all, she can start breaking free and figuring out what she really wants. And maybe what she really wants is Robin. The more the show is derailed, the more control she has over herself and Hawkins.

Nancys desire and motivation has always been to protect her family from the Upside Down. Stick around and fight. So what does aware Nancy do? She bounces. Takes Robin, drives to the airport, gets a ticket to Paris. And then freezes at the airport. What if this isn’t enough? What if they just kill her off and continue without her? What if she’s leaving her family stuck in this show? What she needs is to unravel the story and set everyone in this world free, she just has to make a big enough swerve from the plot to do so.

I have no ending to that idea, i’m just throwing shit at the wall. I haven’t even seen the Truman Show LMAO

[the-lark-ascending69]

This Robin with this Nancy

Comphet baby who tries so hard to be normal, femenine, and a good heterosexual girlfriend, unaware of the horrors in the woods and in her own heart x exhausted lesbian monster hunter who sees no point in denying herself after denial killed the girl with whom she had an homoerotic best friendship with.

They kind of fear each other and hate each other at the same time. This AU is very incomplete rn but I imagine Robin might have been cursed by Vecna - this eldritch spirit from a secret world in the woods - and Nancy and Jonathan are tracking down his victims to keep an eye on them, since Vecna tends to use them to create monsters, control monster or open gates to find more victims. Their job kinda consists on checking on her every two or so days to track the progress of the curse and figure out if there's a cure. If there's no cure, they'll need to kill her, since fully flayed or vecna'd victims are incredibly dangerous, and they need them out of the game before Vecna can kill them himself.

Nancy has kinda hated Robin ever since she began dating Steve, suspecting that Steve might have been cheating on her considering how quickly he moved on. Okay, that's not true. She hates Robin because she sees a little bit of her past self in her: the one who killed Barb. There's this teenage girl silliness and softness and stupidity that reminds Nancy of how different she's become from other girls in her class, and she resents... not them, but the distance, the difference, she can't afford to be frivolous and happy anymore when frivolousness and happiness killed the girl she loves, but Robin seems to fit in so seamlessly into this perfect picture of the teenage girl, when Nancy had to pay for even a shot at it with someone else's blood. Oh, if only she knew!

She grows more and more exasperated the more Robin refuses to tell her and Jonathan about what Vecna shows her. Vecna's curse can last months, even years, so for months Nancy knocks on Robin's window at 4 am to ask her how she's doing, and all Robin offers is a "fine". Jonathan tells her to be patient, but Robin is making their job really, really hard.